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Jason Kessler, an organizer for the Unite the Right Rally, was interrupted by counterprotesters on Aug. 13 as he tried to give a news conference. (Elyse Samuels,Whitney Leaming/The Washington Post)

On the day after a white nationalist rally rocked Charlottesville,Jason Kessler stood behind a bank of microphonesand introduced himself as the organizer of the Unite the Right protest that had sparked the violence in the city.

Screams and boos drowned out Kesslers voice as he tried to addressthe deadlyunrest that had engulfed the Aug. 12 rally. The news conference was ultimately shut down; police officers, whom Kessler accused of not doing enough to stop theviolence, rushed him to safety as angry counterprotesters chased himaway.

Now, Kessler is scorned not only by those who screamed at him outside Charlottesville City Hall on the day after the death of counterprotester Heather Heyer.

Far-rightfigures have since distanced themselves from Kessler, as well, an indication that his fairly new allegiance with the loosely organized alt-right abruptly endedafter a broadside against Heyer was tweeted from Kesslers account nearly a week after she died.

[Watch: Charlottesville counterprotesters shut down a white nationalists news conference]

Kessler, meanwhile, seemsto have disappeared from public view.

Im not talking to reporters right now, he said Monday when reached by The Washington Post, before hanging up.

His Twitter account appears to have been deleted. His blogand that ofUnity and Security for America, a conservative group he founded, are also gone; so is that groupsFacebook page.

Last week,Kessler told Fox Newsthat he was in hiding because he was hit with a stream of death threats after the bloodshed in Charlottesville.

Condemnation poured in over the weekend after Kesslers account tweetedinflammatory remarks about Heyer, the 32-year-old woman who was killed when a car allegedly driven by a Nazi sympathizer plowed into a group of counterprotesters.The disavowals suggested that the alt-right, a movement that blossomed on social media and the Internet, may besplintering online after the disaster in Charlottesville.

[The road to hate: For six young men, Charlottesville is only the beginning]

Heather Heyer was a fat, disgusting Communist. Communists have killed 94 million. Looks like it was payback time, read the tweet, which linked to a Daily Stormer article that disparaged Heyer.

Richard Spencer,a leader of the alt-right, which seeks a whites-only state, slammed Kessler, saying attacking Heyerwasmorally dubious and beyond reckless.

Its just the exact wrong thing that anyone should be saying at this point, from a moral perspective and from a strategic perspective, Spencer told The Post on Monday. This woman did nothing wrong. She might very well have disagreed with the rally, but she did absolutely nothing wrong.

Spencer added: I oppose communism as much as anyone, but historical payback is ridiculous. I dont know what he was thinking.

On Twitter, Spencer urged othersto stop associating with Kessler.

It was a sentiment shared by otherswho took to social media to slam the Unite the Right organizer.

Assuming this is a real tweet and his account was not hacked, I will no longer attend or cover events put on by Jason Kessler. Very gross,tweetedJames Allsup, a budding alt-right figure who resigned as head of Washington State Universitys student GOP group after participating in the Charlottesville rally.

Tim Gionet, another prominent alt-right figure who is known online as Baked Alaska,said that insulting Heyer is terribly wrong and vile,tweeting:We should not rejoice at the people who died in Charlottesville just because we disagree with them.

Before going underground, Kessler acknowledged that the tweet sent from his account was offensive, though he did not say that he had written it.

I repudiate the heinous tweet that was sent from my account last night. I have been under a crushing amount of stress & death threats, Kessler wrote Saturday on social media,according to the Los Angeles Times. Im taking ambien, xanax and I had been drinking last night. I sometimes wake up having done strange things I dont remember.

[Lets party like its 1933: Inside the alt-right world of Richard Spencer]

The Times reported that a self-proclaimed hacker and Internet trollsaid on the social media service Gab that he had hacked Kesslers Twitter account.The Post has notconfirmed the veracity of that claim.

The alt-right movement grew through blogs, online message boards and social media accountscreated by followers who believe that white identity is under attack by multiculturalism and political correctness,according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Spencer reserves the National Press Club in Washington at least twice a year for a gathering of alt-right followers, noted the SPLC, whichdescribesthe alt-rights self-proclaimed leader as a suit-and-tie version of the white supremacists of old, a kind of professional racist in khakis.

Kessler, like Spencer, attended the University of Virginia. According to the SPLC, he organized the Unite the Right rallyafter Spencer made headlines in May by leading a torch-bearing eventin Charlottesville.

The SPLC describedKessler as a newcomer to the white nationalist scene.Known in Charlottesville as a local conservative blogger, hepublished an articleon Nov. 24 calling the citys vice mayor, Wes Bellamy, a blatant black supremacist and led anunsuccessful petitiontoremove Bellamy from office.Kessler said he hadunearthed offensive and homophobic tweets written several years ago byBellamy.

[Charlottesville violence prompts black U-Va. athletes to reflect on their experience]

Hefounded the nonprofit Unity and Security for America, whichcalls fordefending Western Civilization. He also sought to establish himself as the lone dissenter in the capital of the resistance that is Charlottesville,as declared by the citys mayorshortly after President Trumps inauguration.

Kessler found an ally in U.S. Senate candidate Corey A. Stewart, a darling of the alt-right who made several public appearances with the local blogger. In February, Stewart, then a GOP gubernatorial candidate in Virginia, attended Kesslersnews conferenceabout an effort tooust Bellamy from office.

A few days ahead of the Charlottesville rally, Kesslertold The Post, The genesis of this entire event is this Robert E. Lee statue that the city is trying to move, which is symbolic of a lot of other issues that deal with the tearing down of white peoples history and our demographic replacement.

White nationalists were met by counterprotesters in Charlottesville on Aug. 12, leading Gov. Terry McAuliffe to declare a state emergency. A car plowed into crowds, killing one person and injuring 19 others. (Zoeann Murphy/The Washington Post)

But shortly after the rally turned violent, Kessler came under scrutiny from right-wing websites. Rumors about his political leanings and loyalty to far-right ideologies have since circulated online.

[A neo-Nazis rage-fueled journey to Charlottesville]

Some, including DC Whispers, pointed to suspicions that Kessler was involved in the Occupy movement and was a supporter of President Barack Obama. The website also said Kessler did not become a white nationalist until after Trump was elected.

Who is this guy? Is this a mistake or is he indeed a liberal gone racist? Is he a plant and this whole thing a set up to pit Americans against each other? Lots of questions and very, very few answers, wrote a bloggerfor Rightwing News.

Kesslertold Snopesthat he supported and voted for Obama in 2008 but became disenchantedwiththe administration andDemocrats. He said that hehad attended an Occupy rallyin Charlottesville in 2011 but found that his views didnt align with those of the protesters.

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Kessler tweeted in November that many alt-right followers used to be liberals. He also said that he voted for Trump in the primary and general elections.I like Trump more than I did Obama, he wrote on Nov. 6. My Trump enthusiasm is through the roof. I like people who push the edge.

Spencer said that he met Kessler briefly several months ago. Kessler really jumped on the bandwagon after the success of the Charlottesville torch rally in May, Spencer said.

He also criticized Kesslers handling of the Unite the Right rally. Law enforcement officers canceledthe event afterthe clash between rally attendees and counterprotesters.Hes not a very good organizer. Its haphazard, Spencer said. I was skeptical of the whole thing. It took on a life of its own.

Nevertheless, Spencer attended the rally. Aflierlisted him as one of the featured speakers, along withKessler, Gionet (a.k.a. Baked Alaska) and Michael Hill, president of the Southern pro-secession group League of the South. Spencertold The Post days before the eventthat he was concerned about violence, but he said he worried it would come from antifascists, or antifa, activists.

In terms of organization maybe theres some incompetence, Spencer said Monday of Unite the Right. Everyone has to make mistakes, and we learn from them.But disparaging Heyer and rejoicing in her death should not be condoned,he said.

Eli Mosley, an organizer for the white separatist group Identity Evropa, said in aTwitter threadabout Kessler that in the future, event organizers will face extreme vetting like never before to ensure this doesnt happen.How, exactly, such vetting would occur for a movement with no formal membership, no formal leadership structure and mostly online followers, is unclear.

After Charlottesville, Spencersaid, future demonstrations should be tightly focused and organized by people he trusts.This is a serious movement, hesaid of the alt-right,a term he coined. And we need serious people leading them.

Kessler has maintained that he did nothing wrong in Charlottesville.

He told Fox Newslast week that he had never metJames Alex Fields Jr., 20, who was charged with second-degree murderin the deadly crash. Kesslersaid he met with police before the rally and went over safety plans. He also said he had not received calls or visits from police or federal investigators.

Asked by Fox about Heyers death, Kessler said, simply: No comment.

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The man who organized the Charlottesville rally is in hiding and too toxic for the alt-right - Washington Post

When hundreds of white supremacists took to the streets of Charlottesville with lit tiki torches and swastikas, chanting "Jews will not replace us," they drew the ire of countless left-leaning groups, civil rights activists, politicians from both sides of the aisleand also of Stormfront, the decades-old internet watering hole for David Duke-style white supremacists and neo-Nazis.

Many of Stormfront's users viewed the actions of the Unite the Right rally-goers (most of whom fall under the self-selected moniker of " alt-right ," although "Nazis who like memes" also works) as outrageous, shameful, and counterproductive to their shared goals of securing a future for the white race. Stormfront posters complained that the ragtag collection of groups brandishing homemade shields and screaming openly about Jews gave other neo-Nazis a bad name. They viewed the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer almost exclusively as bad PR.

The rifts between Stormfront's white supremacists and the younger, more internet-savvy generation that cut its teeth on 4chan have shown before . In fact, Stormfront's frustration with the Charlottesville rally-goers reflects the same ideological disagreements that have divided white supremacist groups since the early days of the Ku Klux Klan. New racists, same fights.

Stormfront's present-day concerns coalesce around recruiting best-practices. The alt-right's flamboyance, they say, could alienate potential enlistees to their movement of hate.

"Some were carrying swastikas and that isn't good for our image, because of the propogabda [sic] embedded into everyone's minds," wrote user pontypool , although he later added that he was "glad for any whites uniting, even, the morons."

This is still a propaganda battle," another user wrote . "How does this help us win a propaganda battle? Someone died and around twenty people went to the hospital."

Screenshot via Stormfront.

Beyond shields and swastikas presenting a bad look, the two sides also disagree on long-term strategy. "The factions, in my view, generally reflect differences of opinion that hinge on the normative role of the state in securing or legitimizing white supremacy," says Christopher Petrella, a lecturer in American cultural studies at Bates College.

Where the alt-right sees the establishment as effectively useless, Petrella says, members of Stormfront believe that white nationalists can best further their causewhich, again, is turning the US into a white ethnostateby insidiously working their way into the mainstream. Torches and Nazi chants aren't exactly the best foot forward.

By contrast, the forum postings argue, if you can make yourself sound even moderately reasonable to people who'd rather not think of themselves as racist, then you've already won.

Screenshot via Stormfront.

Stromfront's white supremacists rolled their eyes even at the branding around Charlottesville. "Calling it 'Unite the Right' was a huge tactical error, one Stormfront user wrote. "If they really wanted to accomplish their goal of protecting confederate monuments, they would not have alienated the many many left-wing historic preservationists who have actual power and who would otherwise greatly sympathize with such a cause.

I've yet to see any common White man or woman jump off the fence and join the ranks," wrote VikingSong . "The only folk angry about what's been going on are us who are WNs [white nationalists] anyway! But maybe it's because I'm a 'normie,' who hasn't been 'red pilled' enough? Maybe I need a 'woke' twenty something, with a whole vocabulary of infantile buzzwords at their command, to explain their strategy to me because I sure as hell can't understand it?

They even disagree on President Donald Trump. While the alt-right sees a powerful ally in the Oval Office, Stormfront user Danger2443 believes the group has been worse for the president's image than his more traditional Nazi supporters. To his mind, Stormfront's version of white nationalism has already succeeded, because "when a Presidential candidate retweets White Genocide, refuses to disavow its author Bob Whitaker and still gets elected, that means WN is on the way to public acceptance. As for the alt-right, Danger2443 believes that their undisciplined clowning embarrassed [Trump] in front of the country.

Ashley Feinberg

The Alt-Right Can't Disown Charlottesville

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Experts see echoes of a decades-old divide in the alt-right and Stormfront infighting. In 1954, southerners created White Citizens Councils to protest desegregation. A 1956 article described the Citizens Councils this way: "They shun both the Klans reputation for violence, and their haberdashery; their members are respectable citizens of the community, the quintessence of the civic luncheon club. At their meetings there is emphasis on speakers from the ministry and the universities. ... The White Citizens Council movement today has had to throw off the Klans stigma and repudiate its legacy."

That division "spoke to the continuing power of white supremacy in marshaling both violence and politics to prevent equal justice for all people," says Walter Greason, a historian at Monmouth University. "Even within these two main branches, there were hundreds of local derivations that focused on specific approaches to punish civil rights organizations. In fact, it took almost 30 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act for the social stigma attached to supporters of racial equality to decline."

In the same way the White Citizens Councils avoided signifiers like white hoods, Stormfront founder Don Black has tried to ban the use of racial slurs entirely. And its not just explicit obscenities Black wants his users to avoid; he also wants to give off an air of general respectability, asking that people make an effort to use proper spelling, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization (no ALL-CAPS posts).

Of course, Stormfront's veneer of propriety is only that. According to a 2014 report from the Southern Poverty Law Center , Stormfront users committed 100 murders between 2009 and 2014. "Investigators find that most offenders openly advocated their ideology online for lengthy periods while sucking up the hatred around them," the SPLC wrote. "Yet Stormfronts founder, former Alabama Klan leader Stephen Donald 'Don' Black, shrugs off responsibility for what he has wrought."

And despite their differences with the alt-right, not everyone on Stormfront thought that the Charlottesville rally was a net negative. The event was the first time in decades that a large number of whites stood up at a demonstration, for that alone it is a huge success, wrote KevinCannon . Another noted that , The pictures of the torchlight march in particular were beautiful and evocative. Made me wish I was there. The fact that Trump won't join the left media hate wagon condemning the rally as Nazi violence is another huge plus.

Stormfront may condemn the alt-right's actions and see them as incompetent fools, but they share the same endgame of a white nationalist state. The more the factions overcome those differences, the greater the risk. "We are on the edge of very volatile tipping point," says Greason, "where the nation could reject white supremacy at its roots, or where we could go backwards into an acceptance of racial injustice that hasn't prevailed in a generation."

In fact, if white supremacists have grown enough in number to splinter and repeat the infighting of the 1950s, the US may sit closer to rolling back those societal gains than many assume. "The outright rejection of Klan ideology is largely a 21st-century phenomenon," Greason says. The challenge now is keeping it that way. Stormfront and the alt-right may disagree on tactics, but they're both pushing toward the same cliff.

Read more:
Stormfront Nazis Think the 'Alt-Right' Is Full of Idiots - WIRED

The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll found that most Americans (56 percent) disapproved of President Trumps response to Charlottesville. The poll also delved deeper into issues that were discussed because of the violence in Charlottesville. It's findings suggest that Americans are widely unfamiliar with the term alt-right.

Ten percent of those surveyed said they support the alt-right movement, 50 percent opposed it, and 41 percent had no opinion of it, indicating, as ABC noted, wide unfamiliarity.

Thirty-nine percent of those surveyed said the alt-right holds neo-Nazi or white supremacist views, 21 percent said it did not, and 39 percent had no opinion.

Theyre not the only ones struggling to understand what the term alt-right, commonly thrown around by the media, means.

During Trumps remarks on Charlottesville, a reporter said, Sen. McCain said that the alt-right is behind these attacks, and he linked that same group to those who perpetrated the attack in Charlottesville

Well, I don't know -- I can't tell you, Trump interrupted, I'm sure Sen. McCain must know what he's talking about. But when you say the alt- right, define alt-right to me. You define it, go ahead.

Well, I think that the reporter began hesitantly.

No, define it for me, come on, Trump insisted. Let's go. Define it for me.

What about the alt-left that came charging at the -- as you say, the alt-right? Do they have any semblance of guilt? Trump asked.

While some neo-Nazis and white supremacists have been labeled alt-right, so have more mainstream figures, including CNNs Jake Tapper.

The Anti-Defamation League calls it a vague term that actually encompasses a range of people on the extreme right who reject mainstream conservatism in favor of forms of conservatism that embrace implicit or explicit racism or white supremacy.

The New York Times defines it as a racist, far-right movement based on an ideology of white nationalism and anti-Semitism, acknowledging, many news organizations do not use the term, preferring terms like white nationalism and far right.

It is also anti-immigrant, anti-feminist and opposed to homosexuality and gay and transgender rights. It is highly decentralized but has a wide online presence, where its ideology is spread via racist or sexist memes with a satirical edge, they add.

An interestingly broad definition given that, just days before that definition was given, another New York Times writer referenced Milo Yiannopoulos as an alt-right provocateur, despite Yiannopoulos being openly gay.

Maybe the alt-right is not opposed to homosexuality? Or maybe just some of it is?

The poll also found that 35 percent of Americans reject the idea that Trump has been equating neo-Nazis and white supremacists with the counter protestors at the Charlottesville rally. Forty-two percent say he has been equating them, and 23 percent have no opinion.

The poll also asked participants, Do you yourself think its acceptable or unacceptable to hold neo-Nazi or white supremacist views?

Nine percent overall called it acceptable to hold neo-Nazi or white supremacist views, and 83 percent called this unacceptable, while 8 percent had no opinion.

Excerpt from:
New Poll on Charlottesville Shows Many Americans Confused by the Term 'Alt-Right' - Townhall

A permit has yet to be issued by the National Parks Department for the proposed Patriot Prayer rally at San Franciscos Crissy Field this Saturday, but even if the event is cancelled, dozens of counter protests are expected all over the Bay Area. Sam Brock reports. (Published 3 hours ago)

A permit has yet to be issued by the National Parks Department for the proposed Patriot Prayer rally at San Franciscos Crissy Field this Saturday, but even if the event is cancelled, dozens of counter protests are expected all over the Bay Area.

Congresswoman Jackie Speier believes the reason a permit has not been issued is because officials havent determined if the event could pose a threat to the local community.

Im certain that theyll make a decision within the next 24 hours that will make it convenient for those who want to protest and those who want to participate, said Speier after a Womens Equality Day press conference.

Until the National Parks Department determines whether or not to grant a permit, the Human Rights Commission has already begun to schedule a series of community events to help inspire a conversation on the issues of equality.

The events focus on educating participants on the historical context of movements against white supremacy in the Bay Area as well as the local impact of racism.

Were really hoping that folks will stay united, come together in love and avoid putting themselves in a situation where they may be provoked, said executive director of the Human Rights Commission, Sheryl Evans Davis.

Here are the upcoming events hosted by the Human Rights Commision:

Much like the Boston protests last weekend, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, hopes that Bay Area counter protesters will behave with the same.

I would hope that if people turn out, we have followed the example of Boston, said Pelosi after a Womens Equality Day press conference. Where the silence was deafening, it spoke louder than any of the comments that any of us could make.

Golden Gate Park headquarters have yet to respond to requests for more information on the issue.

The Patriots Prayer rally is billed as "a day of freedom, spirituality, unity, peace, and patriotism." Organizer Joey Gibson promises a diverse group of speakers and condemns the recent violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Check out this list of upcoming events:

Published 5 hours ago | Updated 4 minutes ago

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Counter 'Alt-Right' Protests Expected in San Francisco - NBC Bay Area

Sixty-seven planned rallies in 36 states that were meant to attract members of the so-called alt-right and other racist groups are moving online after a free speech rally on Saturday in Boston attended by white supremacists was drowned out by demonstrators.

ACT for America is deeply saddened that in todays divisive climate, citizens cannot peacefully express their opinion without risk of physical harm from terror groups domestic and international, reads a statement from the anti-Islamic group behind the rallies, which were meant to begin September 9.

Instead, a Day of ACTion will be conducted through online and other media, ACT said, but it did not detail what shape that would take.

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A demonstrator holds a U.S. flag in front of white supremacy flags and banners as self-proclaimed white nationalists and members of the "alt-right" gather for what they called a Freedom of Speech rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., June 25. Jim Bourg/Reuters

The group accuses extremist individuals and groups inspired by the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) as well as anti-fascists, neo-Nazis and the KKK of creating security issues at similar free speech events this month.

In recent weeks, extremist and radical organizations in the United States and abroad have overrun peaceful events in order to advance their own agendas, and in many cases, violence has been the result, the group said. Protests against neo-Nazis were held in Germany last week.

Tens of thousands of anti-racist demonstrators also marched in Boston Saturday, dwarfing the number of alt-right members who gathered to express their views in Boston Common. The alt-right label was coined by white nationalist Richard Spencer and acts as an umbrella term for white supremacists, conspiracy theorists and misogynists.

The counterprotest was largely peaceful and followed a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that turned violent the week before. In Charlottesville, one counterprotester was killed and 19 others injured when police said a right-wing activist drove his car into a group of pedestrians. Anti-fascist groups in Charlottesville also pepper-sprayed and beat white supremacists.

Related: U.S. authorities consider shutting down hard-right rallies after Charlottesville

The ACT for America statement was first given to the hard-right website Breitbart. The sites executive chairman, former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, has called the outlet a platform for the alt-right.

Two hate group watchdogs, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and Anti-Defamation League (ADL), identify ACT for America as the largest anti-Muslim group in the U.S. ACT propagates the hateful conspiracy theory that Muslims are infiltrating U.S. institutions in order to impose Sharia law, according to the ADL.

In June, ACT organized simultaneous March Against Shariah events throughout the U.S. that attracted armed militia groups, white nationalists and other members of the alt-right, including the Blood and soil fascist group Vanguard America and white nationalists Identity Evropa.

Shariah law in Europe and North America refers mainly to an Islamic family law court system set up for religious adherents that can be used to mediate and settle disputes. Many hard-right Americans see the system as encroaching on the traditional European court systems jurisdiction. Since 2010, 15 anti-Sharia bills have been passed in various states. A total of 42 have been tabled across the U.S.

ACT for Americas membership is patriotic citizens whose only goal is to celebrate Americas values and peacefully express their views regarding national security, according to group, which claims to have 750,000 members.

In 2007, the groups founder,Brigitte Gabriel, saidat the Department of Defenses Joint Forces Staff College that any practicing Muslim who believes the word of the Koran to be the word of Allah...who goes to mosque and prays every Friday, who prays five times a daythis practicing Muslim, who believes in the teachings of the Koran, cannot be a loyal citizen of the United States. She has made a number of other anti-Islamic statements.

Despite these statements, ACT says that any organizations or individuals advocating violence or hatred towardanyone based on race, religion, or affiliation are not welcome at ACT for America events, or in the organization.

The groups online day of action is planned for September 9.

View post:
Alt-Right 'America First' Rallies Move Online After Boston 'Free Speech' Protest Is Overrun - Newsweek