Mere days after reports surfaced that Rep. Mike Nearman had assisted far-right agitators at the violent 12/21 Patriot Prayer rally at the OR capitol, he spoke at an event in Seaside OR with at least one of those same agitators, as well as infamous alt-right & neo-Nazi organizers.
Ryan Lyles, a member of the violent "Sons Of Liberty" Proud Boys splinter group who was arrested in Salem on 12/21, was in attendance at the Seaside event with Nearman two days ago. katu.com/news/local/man…
Violent Patriot Prayer neo-Nazi David Willis, who was arrested after assaulting people at the OR capitol on 1/6, was also present to hear Rep. Mike Nearman speak on 1/10 in Seaside. rosecityantifa.org/articles/a22/#…
Patriot Prayer & Proud Boys associate Reggie Axtell, who publicly threatened to murder PDX mayor Ted Wheeler in 2019, also participated in the far-right rally with Rep. Mike Nearman on 1/10. splcenter.org/hatewatch/2019…twitter.com/search?q=from%…
Fascist Patriot Prayer grifter Haley Adams (twitter.com/search?q=from%…) carried the flag of the white nationalist, holocaust-denying American First "groyper" movement when she spoke at the 1/10 Seaside, OR rally with Rep. Mike Nearman. rosecityantifa.org/articles/a22/#…
Proud Boys hate group member Philip Anderson, who was present at the 1/6 fascist coup in Washington DC, also spoke at the 1/10 event with Rep. Mike Nearman.
Warrenton, OR resident Miles Rudduck is also a member of the violent fascist "Sons Of Liberty" Proud Boys splinter group (twitter.com/search?q=from%…) and also spoke at the 1/10 Seaside event with Rep. Mike Nearman.
As people grapple with the reality of a violent authoritarian coup attempt directly instigated by US president Donald Trump and his allies, it's important to reflect on the depth to which alt-right & neo-Nazi movements are networked with the GOP.
Cody Melby, who opened fire at the federal courthouse in downtown PDX on Friday, is an adherent of the antisemitic, pro-Trump Qanon conspiracy theory. Fantasies about mass extermination of political enemies are central to this belief system.
Melby's twitter account was suspended some months ago, but while it was active he used it to disseminate alt-right memes which appear to have originated in racist 4chan threads.
On twitter, Melby also echoed the anti-antifa smears of far-right propagandists mainstreamed under the auspices of the MAGA movement, and called for violent state suppression of activists who work to oppose neo-Nazis.
Based on a tip, it does appear from our comparisons that one of the fascists rallying with Proud Boys in Salem this last Wednesday was Kyle Brewster, a former East Side White Pride affiliate who was one of the men convicted of the murder of Mulugeta Seraw in PDX in 1988.
We are still working to flesh out this information and the exact nature of his involvement on 1/6 in Salem. We always welcome tips from the community sent to our email (which is in our bio).
A brief look at his current social media shows that Kyle Brewster has had a l o t of thoughts on political developments over the past year or two, so please stay tuned for more updates from us!
Far right ideologies thrive on unfounded claims. Despite countless recordings of fascists boasting about committing crimes and tweets from the President, fascists continue to spread conspiracy theories that antifascists are responsible for the lives threatened on January 6th.
This, intentionally or not, serves several purposes. The first is to displace blame for their violence so that they are not held responsible for their actions.
The second is to further demonize antifascists and point the blame on their political enemies.
Plz indulge our little Cassandra moment here in a *THREAD* discussing some dynamics in the pre-Trump years, the rebirth of the right in the Obama era, & how at that time antifa was a tiny handful of folks largely unsupported by the wider left.
This is to stress the importance of preventative antifa.
As the end of Trump‘s term is imminent, there will likely be many who move on from antifa work. It is v important that at least some ppl continue doing this even if the Far Right does recede (a big “if” ofc).
Many leftists recognize Trump as a symptom, but usually of general American cultural/political pathology (which, fair enough). But also Trumpism is more specifically the product of v intentional, multi-level Far Right organizing turbocharged by the election of a black man.