. . . and it is. I'm just going to rip off this story from The Forward, I don't think they'll mind.
By Jacob Kornbluh
A group of Democratic officials and Jewish leaders on Thursday condemned Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for Pennsylvania governor, for his association with Gab, a social media platform for far-right extremists and an echo chamber for antisemitic tropes.
Mastriano, a Christian nationalist running against Pennsylvania’s Jewish attorney general, Josh Shapiro, paid Gab a $5,000 consulting fee in April, according to recent FEC filings. The platform’s founder, Andrew Torba, endorsed Mastriano days after the transaction, writing on Gab that he hoped the candidate would “help pioneer a grass-roots movement of Christians in PA to help take it back for the glory of God.”
In a news conference held outside the City-County Building in Pittsburgh, State Rep. Dan Frankel said that Mastriano is “mining this racist, antisemitic haven for votes because he believes that the hatred on those message boards will translate into an election victory for him on November 8.” Frankel, who is Jewish, was joined by Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, State Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa and Jeffrey Letwin, an attorney and past chair of the Holocaust Center of Greater Pittsburgh.
Mastriano, a state representative and leader of the “Stop the Steal” movement aiming to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, attended the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and won the Republican nomination for governor in May following a last-minute endorsement by former President Donald Trump.
He has repeatedly promoted QAnon conspiracies and has compared the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol to the 1933 Reichstag fire and Democratic gun-control proposals to Nazi policies. His campaign aide Jenna Ellis, a Trump attorney, has likened vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.
A recent poll showed Shapiro running 3 points ahead of Mastriano, a gap within the poll’s 4% margin of error – and the two are locked in a dead heat among voters 50 and older. . . .
Gab, launched in 2016 after Torba was banned from Twitter, has long been a home for hate speech and blatant antisemitism. Robert Bowers, the man who killed 11 Jews at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, was previously a verified user of the site, where he posted neo-Nazi propaganda and calls for violence against Jews, describing them as the “children of Satan.” . . .
We're talking about the Republican nominee for Governor of Pennsylvania, who retains the full support of the Republican party and, at this time, of Republican voters.
2 comments:
It all reminds me of an old Twilight Zone episode, in which Serling makes it clear that the hatred of the twisted Hitler and his minions is always, unfortunately, alive in this world. It was alive at the beginning of FDR's tenure as president, when acoup attempt on the part of malignant haters early on was headed off by cooler heads of the business world.
This is terrifying. Yes, it is happening HERE.
Up until recently, Caucasians in the U.S. in positions of political power have mostly been interested in fucking over Brown people and women (and Native Americans, always). Now, they're really starting to turn on other Caucasians.
Ignorant haters tried this in the 1930s when FDR was in power —— Father Coughlin et al. —— and now it's Shitler, Fucker Carlson, Tush Limbaugh (dead, thank god) and other horrible, cynical opportunists looking to get rich off of hate speech.
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"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out —— because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out —— because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out —— because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me —— and there was no one left to speak for me."
—— Martin Niemöller
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/martin-niemoeller-first-they-came-for-the-socialists?parent=en%2F10764&gclid=Cj0KCQjwof6WBhD4ARIsAOi65ahlVk5Q15wa2xG0xEISr-KCO5eMxYaCW1k-u_laxVxLQYvvtTJ32NEaAuDAEALw_wcB
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