Wednesday, September 29, 2021

This Week in Fascism #120: Neo-Nazis No Shows in Texas; J6 Rallies Flop, Neo-Nazis Build Coalition with Proud Boys; Epik Leaks

photo: @EFJBGC

Welcome fellow antifascists!

We have so much to cover this week. In Texas, neo-Nazis and KKK groups were a no show, while in DC, a much hyped pro-J6 rally was a total dud. Despite this, Proud Boys activity across the US has been steady, as the far-Right has maintained a constant presence within anti-vaxx, anti-mask, and anti-lockdown currents. At the same time, the far-Right took a huge blow with the release of massive amounts of info from Epik, a far-Right internet hosting service, while trolls like Andy Ngo are starting to actually lose advertisers.

We’ve got a lot to talk about: from action reports, news updates, and doxxes – so let’s dive in!

Action Report

Neo-Nazis and KKK No Shows to Their Own Rally; Antifascists Hold Successful Event

Members of the so-called “Aryan Freedom Network,” the same tired collection of Ku-Klux-Klan groups and remnants of the National Socialist Movement (NSM), failed to show up to their own rally after spending lots of money getting around a dozen members out to Longview, Texas. Despite the city putting up barricades across the downtown and playing up fears of counter-protesters, antifascist groups still held a counter-event, holding space and collecting donations for a local women’s shelter.

Antifascists Rally in DC as Pro-J6 Protest Fails to Draw Crowd

Antifascist and anti-racist groups held a small counter-rally in DC, along with mutual aid groups providing support for people on the ground, while a large scale neo-fascist rally in support of those arrested during the J6 attempted pro-Trump coup failed to draw the large crowd that had been hyped-up in the media.

Daryle Lamont Jenkins from One People’s Project filed this report:

Last weekend’s “Justice for J6” rally in Washington, DC planned for 700 attendees demanding that the insurrectionists that stormed the U.S. Capitol just over nine months earlier be released. Instead, most of the 400 that came out were either those opposed to them or media outlets with the few that turned out for the rally itself most likely not even half that number. If the numbers were disappointing last week for Look Ahead America, the group that organized the event, they were absolutely abysmal this weekend as rallies they sponsored across the country turned out paltry numbers at many of them.

Other rallies across the US in support of those arrested on the 6th were also small, with crowds of only a few dozen gathering in most cities:

The rally held in Trenton, New Jersey was only able to muster just under twenty persons, but they were met by counter-demonstrators who were there early on. Despite how rally organizers have repeatedly stressed that they were defending non-violent protesters, the placards on display featured violent Proud Boy members as “political prisoners”, and the organizer of the rally read letters from those in prison for their roles in the insurrection, including that of Alan Byerly of Pennsylvania who was arrested for assaulting Capitol police officers with a taser. There were some acts of aggression, particularly from men participating in the event who tried to snatch phones away from the women recording them. Eventually police moved those countering the rally away from the event.

Local movement journalists Chuck Modi and Black House News were both on the streets for the counter-rally which DC Food Not Bombs reported went off without any major problems.

News

Epik Leak Fallout is Delicious and Insightful

The fallout from the #EPIKFAIL leaks has been, in a word, epic. Names, addresses, passwords, credit card information and other interesting details about the people behind some of the internet’s most heinous websites have come to light. Suffice to say, it’s a rough time to be an Epik client.

Since the leaks dropped, everyone from CNN to the Washington Post to techcrunch and arstechnica have reported on the incident. The leaks show that everyone from self-described “patriots,” Trump supporters, QAnon believers, neo-Nazis and serial harassers of journalists, antifascists, and left-wing activists used Epik’s services as a way to avoid losing domains due to hate speech, targeted harassment, and the spreading of disinformation. The Washington Post spoke to an Epik spokesperson who stated:

Our long-held policy of content neutrality has made our platform appealing to some in an increasingly polarized landscape,” the spokesperson said. “We do not endorse or condone any one particular ideology, and we feel uncomfortable with calls to censor those who use our services.

Epik’s notorious CEO, Rob Monster, got on a three and a half hour “prayer meeting” video call where he invited journalists and Epik customers to have a conversation about Epik’s policies and the leaked data. Notable moments during the call were when Rob took down far-Right troll Joey Camp’s website, after Camp doxxed Steve Monacelli for reporting on the leak. Another surprise was the presence of infamous hacker and neo-Nazi, Andrew Auernheimer aka weev. He made sure to flash his giant swastika tattoo before dropping anti-Semitic messaging in the chat box.

The Washington Post also reports:

The data includes internal memos describing apparent subpoenas from law-enforcement agencies for information about Epik-registered websites, including two domains, Thedonald.win and Maga.host, in the weeks after the Capitol riot on Jan. 6. The notes do not include details of the subpoenas’ targets, the investigating agencies or any alleged crimes.

One of the internal notes, which appeared to have been written by an Epik employee, mentions a grand jury subpoena, a request to preserve records for 90 days and a nondisclosure order — a court-approved document that law enforcement can secure to prohibit tech companies from telling customers what information they’d shared as part of an investigation. “DO NOT tell Registrant,” read the note, which did not include further details of the investigation.

As researchers continue to comb through the data, there are likely many more consequences coming down the pipeline for those Epik clients who have used Epik’s services to host their dangerous, violent ideology while leading double lives.

Rise Above Movement Founder Robert Rundo is Coalition Building with Proud Boys and American Neo-Nazi Groups

American neo-Nazi Robert Rundo, co-founder of the MMA-centered Rise Above Movement, has been busy networking from eastern Europe, according to a new VICE article. Rundo, who was expelled from Serbia several months ago and who’s current whereabouts are unknown, has been building coalitions between his new project Will2Rise, and other American neo-Nazi and white nationalist formations such as Patriot Front and sections of the Proud Boys.

Combining slick graphic design with somewhat vague appeals to hyper-masculine, nationalist, MMA-styled fighting, Rundo has been able to continue building new brands even after the destruction of the Rise Above Movement. As VICE reports:

Through his new organization, Will2Rise, Rundo has sought alliances with more-established outfits like the Proud Boys and Patriot Front by appealing to their glorification of masculinity, youth, white nationalism, and violence.

Two centralized Telegram channels for Will2Rise and  “Active Club” gives Rundo and other leaders in the movement the platform to tout their highly-stylized, neo-fascist aesthetic through propaganda videos and images, many of which are generated through their own “media outlet” Media2Rise.

The main “active club” channel cross-pollinates propaganda from nationalist fight clubs around the world, such as images of muscled white men with their faces covered, doing pull-ups, boxing, or graffitiing white nationalist slogans or symbols. The channel also helps direct subscribers toward smaller, locally-focused channels that facilitate real-world meet-ups.

Previously, Rundo used stickering, flyering, graffiti, and flag/banner dropping as a way of recruiting for various groups; tactics inspired largely from European neo-Nazi groups, which have since been adopted by the American far-Right and are currently being used by Proud Boys, Patriot Front, and NSC-131:

For years, Mixed Martial Arts, or MMA, has been a mainstay of the far-right in Europe, and Rundo’s made no secret of his admiration for key players in that scene. He’s close friends with Russian neo-Nazi football hooligan Denis Niktin, who co-runs Media2Rise and owns a neo-Nazi lifestyle brand “White Rex”. The two men record a podcast, broadcasted via their outlet, in which they cover “the highs and the lows, from underground MMA events to FBI house raids.” (When authorities searched Rundo’s home in 2018, they found a large framed portrait of Adolf Hitler.)

Experts say there’s reason to be concerned about Rundo’s new strategy. He appears to have learned from some of the mistakes made through the Rise Above Movement (RAM), a white supremacist street-fighting gang that he founded in 2016 in Southern California. Like “Active Clubs,” RAM was building on the European far-right’s emphasis on physical fitness and hyper-masculinity. Members of the group traveled at least once to train with the neo-Nazi–aligned Azov Battalion in Ukraine.

In a blog posted to Rundo’s site, he explains that his intent is to create a “brush-fire effect,” by encouraging his followers to create their own Active Clubs and white power coalitions in their respective communities. With the Rise Above Movement still holding a lot of influence within what remains of the post-Charlottesville white nationalist movement, we expect to see Rundo’s reach continue to grow within the formations that exist outside of the pro-GOP Groyper scene.

As VICE writes:

For example, Rundo has been playing to the punch-happy, explicitly white supremacist wing of the Proud Boys [the Proud Goys, led by Kyle “Based Stickman” Chapman] who seem to be growing increasingly frustrated with their leaders’ obsession with optics and hunger for political legitimacy. Though, on the face of things, the Proud Boys have remained very active by inserting themselves into local politics, one large Telegram hub that’s linked to the Proud Boys, “Western Chauvinist,” has been promoting “Active Club” content and meet-ups.

For those of us who have been following Rundo, this move to bridge gaps between himself and other violent far-Right and white nationalist groups is deeply concerning and a situation worth paying very close attention to. Check out the VICE article for more information.

Trans Person Getting Lunch Attacked At Proud Boys Rally Outside of Portland, Oregon

A trans person stopping for lunch in a parking lot where a ‘flag-wave’ rally of about 30 Proud Boys was happening was brutally attacked after that took photos and yelled, “Fuck you, fascists, go home.”

According to the Los Angeles Blade:

[Juniper] Simonis says they survived a gang assault of about 30 perpetrators in Gresham, Ore., a suburb outside of Portland. The Oregon resident encountered the group for only minutes but suffered a concussion, sprained jaw, extensive car damage and verbal assaults, they said.

“They nearly killed me,” they said.

Simonis said they turned into a parking lot to pick up lunch in Gresham, Ore., and stumbled upon a rally that included several members of the Proud Boys — a far-right, ultra-nationalist organization known for its anti-LGBTQ, anti-feminism and neo-fascist ideologies.

There was a “Flag Ride” right-wing rally in a parking lot earlier that day. Simonis was under the impression the event had ended after checking reports on Twitter. After pulling into the lot, originally to look for lunch options, Simonis saw a large gathering still in the lot.

Simonis decided to take pictures of what was happening to post online to warn others and was intentional in keeping their distance, they said. As Simonis was preparing to leave the area, they yelled from inside the car, “Fuck you, fascists, go home.”

“I did not expect this to escalate into violence,” they said.

The attack itself only lasted about three minutes, Simonis said. Simonis was quickly surrounded by several people and physically blocked from leaving the lot. People stepped in front of the parking lot exit, then a car was moved to barricade Simonis. People began to shout homophobic slurs at Simonis, they said.

“I’m in serious trouble now and I know it,” they said.

Simonis was then punched while inside their vehicle and was briefly knocked out. They regained consciousness a few seconds later, and a cinder block was thrown at the car and shattered the back window of their car inches away from their service dog, Wallace.

New Memo Show Trump’s Outline for Coup on J6

A new memo written by John Eastman, formally a Trump lawyer, has been exposed by CNN. According to Mother Jones:

In six concise bullet-points, the memo outlined a process by which Vice President Mike Pence could use his powers on January 6 to throw out the electors from seven states that President Joe Biden won in the 2020 election. The plan counted on Republicans in those states to submit competing sets of electors, based on the false and fabricated premise that Trump had somehow won those states.

The memo’s author, John Eastman, is a lawyer—at the time, he was even a tenured professor at Chapman University School of Law—but what he created is not a legal document. It is by its nature extra-legal: It is a blueprint for a coup.

Eastman anticipated the possibility that some people would be mad. “Howls, of course, from the Democrats,” he predicted in bullet-point four, immediately following the line, “Pence then gavels President Trump as re-elected.”

The memo shows the degree in which Trump loyal Republicans were clued into the attempts by Trump to launch a coup; an effort that was coupled with Trump calling on the far-Right to storm the capitol on January 6th.

Bay Area Sheriffs Leave Force After Connections to Three Percenters Exposed

According to the Vallejo Sun:

Solano County Sheriff Tom Ferrara withdrew from a security contract with the Solano Community College District after the college president raised concerns about some of his deputies apparently showing support for the Three Percenter anti-government militia group, according to email records obtained through a public records request.

College President Celia Esposito-Noy raised the concerns following an investigative report in February that revealed that two sergeants and a deputy had openly displayed support for the Three Percenter movement on social media. Ferrara has declined to investigate those deputies, saying they told him they only intended to show support for the Second Amendment.

The college is currently working on developing its own campus security. Withdrawing will cost the sheriff’s office budget nearly $1 million per year when the contract expires at the end of 2021. Ferrara and Esposito-Noy did not respond to interview requests.

Oath Keeper Linked to Popular Qanon App that Pushed for J6

The Daily Dot reports that a founding member of the Florida Oath Keepers, a far-Right militia that promotes conspiracy theories and calls for a civil war every five minutes, Kenneth Rucker, is responsible for the QAlerts app. According to the #EPIKFAIL leaked data, it was discovered that Rucker is the owner of the QAlerts domain.

According to Daily Dot:

On Dec. 21, 2020, QAlerts, an aggregator of drops from the anonymous poster known as Q, called on his tens of thousands of followers on Gab to head to Washington, D.C. to protest the 2020 election.

On that fateful day in January, both the QAnon and the militia movement in this country converged in a massive spectacle, breaching the U.S. Capitol as far-right forces across the country merged in an attempt to overthrow the election.

What people watching couldn’t see though, was that the movements had crossed over long before. QAlerts, which helped spread the gospel of QAnon far and wide as the conspiracy was being purged from the internet, is connected to a founding member of the Florida chapter of Oath Keepers.

Proud Boys “Afghan Refugee Hunting Permits” Stickers Found at University of Michigan

Students at the University of Michigan discovered that the West Hall of their campus had been covered in Proud Boys stickers that read “Afghan Refugee Hunting Permits” on September 12th. The stickers, featuring the far-Right, pro-Trump gang’s signature black and yellow branding, appeared on light poles around campus. Newsweek reports that Alex Williams, a University of Michigan student, discovered and took down around a dozen stickers and notified campus security. The stickers are a reference to the recent departure of the U.S. military and subsequent Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

As Newsweek wrote:

The sticker lists the permit number as 09/11/01, an apparent reference to the September 11 terror attacks, along with the words “no bag limit—Tagging Taliban not required. May hunt day or night with or without dogs.”

The stickers were apparently advocating for the murder of Afghans as tens of thousands of refugees are to set to be housed in the U.S. after they were evacuated from Kabul in August, prior to the Taliban retaking the country.”

The SPLC-designated hate group is known for their virulent Islamophobia and reactionary violence toward immigrants. Many members of the Proud Boys have openly embraced neo-Nazism, white nationalism, and open anti-Semitism, and the group has a long history of open collaboration with white nationalists. Other stickers found on campus use language about reclaiming America and “RWDS,” or “Right Wing Death Squads,” a popular acronym used among members of the far-Right. Stickering is a familiar tactic of branding and recruitment that has been adopted by Alt-Right, neo-Nazi groups like Patriot Front, NSC-131, Identity Evropa/American Identity Movement, and the Rise Above Movement (RAM).

Proud Boy Whisperer and Far-Right Disinfo Troll Andy Ngo is Losing Advertisers

Far-Right conspiracy theorist and disinformation troll Andy Ngo is losing advertisers for his far-Right publication, The Post-Millennial – and crying about it to his followers.

According to The Daily Dot:

[S]ome of his critics have begun a pressure campaign to convince companies to stop advertising on the Post Millennial. It’s working. Over the last several weeks, five companies have stopped doing business with the Post Millennial, according to tweets and interviews.

Neither Ngo nor the Post Millennial responded to request for comment sent Wednesday afternoon.

In some cases, convincing a company to stop advertising on an arguably objectionable website is as simple as informing it that its ads are there. Companies often outsource ad purchases to intermediaries and thus don’t always know where their ads are displayed.

Nandini Jammi told the Daily Dot via Twitter message that she’s convinced several advertising tech companies to stop running ads on the Post Millennial.

“I got Kargo (an SSP), Next Millennium Media (a sales house) and now OpenWeb (an ad platform) to drop the Post Millennial,” said Jammi, an activist and co-founder of Check My Ads, which helps brands avoid association with “fake news, disinformation, and hate speech.”

Proud Boy News Roundup

  • Proud Boy associate Aaron Simmons was arrested by the LAPD for hitting a reporter across the head with a bludgeon earlier this summer at a counter-protest to a far-Right, anti-trans rally in Los Angeles. After the attack, Simmons ran into a waiting van which was driven by Sarah Stephens, a far-Right Republican who ran for Governor of California during the failed recall attempt against Gavin Newsom.
  • A Proud Boy from a midwest chapter who turned informant to the FBI back in 2020 was texting his handler in real-time about the movements of the group and the pro-Trump mob as they entered into the capitol, new reports show.
  • Proud Boys in Newberg, Oregon showed up in opposition to protesters waving Black Lives Matter and Pride flags. According to Raw Story, “The protest came after an education assistant showed up to Mabel Rush Elementary earlier this week in blackface to protest the “segregation” of workplace vaccination mandates. Lauren Pefferle was fired from the Newburg school system soon after.” Pefferle told a radio host, “I feel segregated because I am unvaccinated,” and likened himself to Rosa Parks.

Doxxes

Adam Stelmack, NSC131 member from Bangor Maine  

Adam Stemmack is a neo-Nazi superfan of Christopher Polhaus. Polhaus is a propagandist who has been trying to get his Nazi brethren to move to Maine en masse to turn it into a white enthno-state. Adam is one of the dumbfucks who actually bought into this plan and recently relocated from Florida. He began working at JS Woodhouse in Fairfield Maine. Contact information is available in the linked thread!

Matthew Cole Noorda, Desert Nationalist from Salt Lake City, Utah

Matthew is the individual behind the DezNat “MorMonger” account. DezNat, short for, “Desret Nationalist” is a Mormon movement that seeks to establish a theocracy in Utah. Noorda used his platform to post extremely homophobic and transphobic propaganda and advocate for racist DezNat policies. He was reportedly followed by Mitt Romney’s sock account. Cole works at Podium. Consider contacting them to let them know a fascist propagandist is in their midst

Roy Moore (not that one) Proud Boy from Boise, Idaho

New crew Redoubt AFA come to us with intel regarding the Boise area Proud Boys and their president Roy Moore. The group seems to have a minor presence in Meridian, ID and has recently harassed healthcare workers. Check out Redoubt AFA’s blog here.

Support Our Prisoners

  • Support those arrested during the ongoing rebellion! Check the In Contempt column on It’s Going Down for a list of prisoners.
  • Support Gage Halupowski! Currently serving a six year sentence. There is currently an outbreak at his prison, so please step up and support! More info here.
  • Support Dan Baker! Currently facing federal charges for posts online in response to armed far-Right rally at the capitol building in Florida. More info here.
  • Support Eric King! Anarchist and antifascist prisoner who has been targeted by the State and neo-Nazi inmates for being ‘ANTIFA.’ More info here. Donate here.
  • Support J.W. and TC! Antifascists arrested in San Diego following rally against far-Right and white supremacists. Donate here and here.
  • Support Scottie! Facing charges steaming from altercation with far-Right Trump supporters in LA. More info here.

by This Week in Fascism via It's Going Down
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