This tweet in 2012 (screenshot) sharing the link is unfortunately prescient in its simply vile views that have split the Democratic Party electoral base in subsequent election cycles. The vile nature of the views unite Democratic and Republican party voter bases by isolating anti-war individuals and nonprofit activist groups with the equally vile 'horseshoe theory' false equivalence. The added money spent on military and 'intelligence' (mass surveillance) spending leads to cuts in domestic spending to improve equity and slowly reduce prejudice based on racial and gender identity and expression (hate crimes).
The false equivalence drawn by the "Vegas Jessie" starts in this paragraph by projection of inflexibility and unwillingness to listen to opposing views of so-called 'pragmatic progressives' or 'problem solvers' like 'Vegas Jessie' by turning progressive into a slur 'puritopian' or 'emo-progressives' (shortened to emo-prog).
These people are not the Conservative GOP Teabaggers that infest our legislative branch of government, these are the Puritopians or emo-progressives. These are slightly pejorative terms that essentially define a liberal purist who believes a Democratic president should overstep his powers and push through a far left agenda, regardless of protocol, because Bush basically acted like this with his neocon agenda. They are far more critical of a Democratic President than they ever were of a Republican. They are against compromise at all costs. It’s nose holding, childishly obstinate politics at its worst. They feel as if President Obama’s election simply wiped out the terrorist threats ten years of war and occupation have exacerbated. Perhaps these types of sentiments seen below aren’t real?
The photo above is from 2007 at a rally to protest ex President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad of Iran when he spoke at Columbia University during his visit to the opening of the UN general assembly session in September 2007. Vegas Jessie took the meaning of one 'extreme' sign out of context to misrepresent the views on how to bring about a final status peace with justice in the Middle East region between Palestine and Israel as well as between Sunni and Shia Muslims. Iran as a Shia Muslim majority country while a minority to Sunni Muslims was using support for Palestinian human rights and the urgent need for a final status peace between Israel and Palestine at a faster pace than Israel and its Sunni Muslim allies wish to happen.
The context of the 2007 photo that Vegas Jessie distorted in 2012 was found here
I soon found myself in the middle of the street adjacent to campus. There, I, Yousef and Tarek Mehenna (who would go on to be convicted of material support for Al-Qaeda) mocked the scene in front of us. On one side, progressives and socialists held placards and beat drums. "Hands off Iran," they read. "No Blood for Oil." On the other, pro-Israeli protestors were barricaded but stood vociferously opposing Ahmadinejad’s presence and Columbia for hosting him. Both sides were shouting back and forth at each other. We reveled in it. I remember commenting, “Divide and conquer – fight them overseas and make them fight each other here at home.”
Soon Yousef and I embedded in the sea of Pro-Israeli protestors. Yousef held the sign, "May Allah Make a Mushroom Cloud over Israel," while mine read, "Mr. Ahmadinejad – Work for Peace in the MidEast, Eliminate the Enemy Jewish Entity." We were instantaneously assaulted, but not before several attendees and media outlets photographed us. We soon learned that polarizing the American ambit assisted the ultimate goals in Al-Qaeda’s war of attrition.
That evening, a picture of Yousef holding the sign appeared on a website called "Little Green Footballs," one of the first pro-War on Terror anti-jihadist websites in America. The next day, an editorial in the NY Post discussed the sign as well, suggesting it was indicative of mounting support for Salafi Jihadi terrorism in the West. Videos of us fleeing the scene made it onto YouTube. The online chatter was prolific.
Yousef and I were a bit bewildered. As “terrorism is theater,” we could perform for the cameras, invoke irrationality and play off public emotion. Evoking images of nuclear war against Israel grant us asymmetrical authority. It took minutes to engender overblown and exaggerated notions of Al-Qaeda’s presence in the United States. Because we were converts, it was even more alarming. As if Al-Qaeda could point to us and say, “We’ve got some of your own.”
The people who held the sign were being ironically humorous in 2007 while Vegas Jessie took the sign literally in 2012. One of the people holding the sign was still in prison despite calls for his release here in 2011.
Vegas Jessie proceeded from her misrepresentation of a 2007 photo in 2012 by denying her Republican partisanship.
Can’t we save the fantasy belief in unicorns for our toddlers at home Glenn [Greenwald], Jane Hamsher, Jeremy Scahill, Cenk Uygur and Michael Moore? I like you guys, most of the time. I think you’re bright and knowledgable about many issues. However, I disagree with the idealistic world you live in where there aren’t a few REAL threats to our security. And, no, saying this does not make me a Republican.
VegasJessie is in fact in agreement with Republicans on this issue of military spending branded as domestic and international counterterrorism spending (the DOD and Intelligence Community annual budgets). Those budgets are spent in cooperation with regional law enforcement fusion centers and the federal homeland security department. And that’s just the type of agreement that the Republican Jewish Coalition has been messaging since 2007 and again in this Washington Jewish week offline article
dated April 4, 2013 with the headline "GOP looks to emulate Jewish model" by David Holzel.
Folks attacked by Vegas Jessie like Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, Cenk Uygur and Jane Hamsher did attack ex-President George W Bush for his policies and demanded legal accountability like impeachment and prosecution that didn’t happen. The same folks like Vegas Jessie called for and won multiple investigations, indictments and convictions for people who helped subsequent President Don Trump steal the presidency as George W Bush did. Both Trump and W Bush 'won' as popular vote losers because of state level voter suppression and inadequately fast and equitable paces of change from incremental, rather than radical, paces of change of the policies of Al Gore, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton. The only difference was the crimes of George W Bush involved foreign and military policy enforced by partnering with local police departments through fusion centers in the USA and Interpol globally. W. Bush administration war crimes didn’t involve domestic election law once in power after state-level voter suppression.
Vegas Jessie showed she was a Republican-light Democratic voter in agreement with the RJC by her singling out and demonizing, without checking her photo source, an apparent individual aberration. Vegas Jessie showed herself to be a liberal cooperating with neoconservative state repression of Palestinian rights by Israel.
Calling the contradictory views on civil rights and military and security spending complexity that one must be an ‘adult’ to embrace is disingenuous. Calling oneself an adult and shaming others for believing in unicorns better saved for toddlers is psychological projection of Vegas Jessie of her own inflexibility and inability to embrace complexity onto others she disagreed with. Vegas Jessie would have been at home at this "Israel’s Jewish Defamers" 2007 conference if she had known of it to attend.
Vegas Jessie died on November 3, 2018. May her memory be a blessing. 5 years is a long enough time after death to reassess and rebut her ideas.
