Tagged with Michael James Holt

antifa notes (april 5, 2017) : trolls & goons & masks & moar

The last few months has witnessed the emergence of a number of fake antifa accounts on Facebook and Twitter. Most are fairly obviously fake, some less so. In any event, blogger b9AcE has compiled a list of fake antifa accounts, around 40 or so, and notes that:

After those and other fake antifa-accounts were made well known, they and other newly created ones now use extremely obvious sarcasm, whereas many previously even copied the entire content of genuine antifa-accounts to seem legitimate.
In the cases of accounts that clearly pretended to be legitimate, they seem to now in many cases have deleted the content that was obviously meant to mislead.
Considering this change, the purpose of the original post has been fulfilled… by them.
On those grounds, it does not seem beneficial to post further updates to the previous list here.
If the behavior changes again, that stance might change and this revision’s notification be replaced by other content.

Note also that a silly ‘Antifa Australia’ Facebook page has popped up here, ‘Boston Antifa’ have been revealed as two right-wing nerds called Alexis Esteb and Brandon Krebs, while snopes ponders a fake antifa flyer here. My personal favourite fake is the Antifa Squad YouTube channel and this comment (posted on or about November, 2013):

Elsewhere, Lucy Battersby (Government suspends its YouTube advertising, amid concerns about where revenue goes, The Age, April 1, 2017) writes of some problems Google has in adhering to the corporate commandment ‘Don’t Be Evil’:

The global Google boycott keeps on rolling, with the Australian government the latest big spender to suspend advertising on Google’s YouTube platform.

The move comes at the end of a week when several advertisers have pulled out of the platform causing massive brand damage to Google …

Some YouTubers like Millennial Woes – a Scotland-based video blogger who posts bigoted monologues – claim to be able to make a living from their posts, according to one expert on far right groups.

And in Australia groups like the far-right United Patriots Front use social media to reach out to supporters.

“Blair Cottrell and the United Patriots Front use Facebook as their main platform, not YouTube. And while they have a real large audience and some of their Facebook videos reach millions, these are not monetised by them but rather by Facebook,” another expert said.

The UPF has tried to use crowd funding to raise money, but these are usually shut down by appeals to the platform for breaches of terms of service, he added.

Otherwise:

• Shermon Burgess and Neil Erikson have re-badged their Facebook page. Previously known as ARSE (Australian Settlers Rebellion), it’s now known as ‘Nationalist Uprising’. By my count, the boys have now burned through: 1) Aussie Patriot Army; 2) Australian Defence League; 3) Australian Settlers Rebellion; 4) Ban Islam Party; 5) European Australian Civil Rights League; 6) Generation Identity Australia; 7) Nationalist Alternative; 8) Nationalist Republican Guard; 9) Neil Erikson Media; 10) NRG Media; 11) OzConspiracy; 12) Pauline Hanson’s Guardian Angels; 13) Reclaim Australia; 14) United Patriots Front; 15) United Patriots Front — Originals and who knows, maybe more. In other words, the pair have had more Facebook pages than they have friends.

• Speaking of Neil Erikson’s (former) friends: ‘Michael James Holt, 26, has pleaded guilty to a string of firearm manufacture and possession charges, including manufacturing a gun without a licence, after police found a large stash of guns and weapons across three properties in 2015 … [Holt] remains in custody and is due to be sentenced on April 12.’ Previously, Erikson had enthusiastically agreed with Holt about the desirability of arranging for the mass execution of ‘mudbloods’ at Federation Square — while selling fairy floss, popcorn and showbags.

Top Blokes.

• Another Top Bloke to have attached himself to the neo-Nazis in the UPF is Canberra’s most impressive cement renderer, Nathan Davidson. Davidson, who while the subject of a suspended sentence for a conviction of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in 2013 and on bail for traffic matters, got busted in early 2016 with drugs and guns and stuff. Word on the street is that the naughty naziboy got a slap on the wrist and is currently serving a community order.

• Not serving a community order — but very much wanting to serve the white community of Manly — is Australia First Party (AFP) member Victor Waterson, who’ll be losing the Manly by-election on April 8. Waterson had fifteen seconds of fame back in October 2014 when he played dress-ups with Nick Folkes (Party For Freedom) and Sergio Redegalli. Previously, Waterson was the losing One Nation candidate for Bennelong at the 2010 Federal election (0.8%), the losing ‘independent’ candidate for Epping at the 2011 state election (2.6%), and the losing AFP candidate for Bennelong in 2013 (0.6%). He was also the losing AFP candidate for McMahon at the 2016 Federal election (2.1%) and for Penrith at the 2015 NSW election (0.7%).

• The Victorian state government has introduced legislation — the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Public Order) Bill 2017 — intended to provide Victorian police with greater powers to control and repress public protest. These powers include, inter alia, greater scope to influence local council’s capacity to grant permits for public protests and to prevent persons from shielding themselves from the effects of chemical weapons (capsicum spray) or to conceal their face at public events. The Bill also re-defines and increases criminal penalties for ‘riotous’ behavior. See : Anti-mask laws proposed in Victoria, Melbourne Activist Legal Support, March 14, 2017.

• Josh Dukes, the antifa who got shot by a Milo Y fan in Seattle in January, has been interviewed by Teh Grauniad: ‘I refuse to be like them’: why the man shot while protesting Milo Yiannopoulos doesn’t want revenge (Julia Carrie Wong, April 4, 2017).

• Finally, ABC’s 4 Corners has profiled Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party. In a mildly amusing episode (Please Explain), PHONy is revealed as a political plaything for Our Pauline, her gormless followers rich pickings for the chancers that assemble under her banner, and otherwise rather similar to PHONy of the 1990s, with Muslims now replacing Asians as the boogeyman of choice — and the Tories much happier to play along. (Of passing interest is the financial support given the party by multi-millionaire property developer Bill McNee, who has also donated fat sums to the Tories.) See also : antifa notes (march 14, 2017) : One Nation Party too sophisticated for WA; UPF Go To Court; boneheads; ‘Alt-wrong: The Australian right is startling for its incoherence’, Richard Cooke, The Monthly, April 2017:

There is a pat explanation available, where Pauline Hanson is simply the antipodean franchise of a global movement of right-wing populism. Like Nigel Farage in the United Kingdom, or Marine Le Pen in France, or Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, she has been a chronic presence. Like them she has undergone decades of gestation, from a larval stage on the fringes of discourse to a resplendent full expression in the mainstream of politics. But, so far, this rise of the right has proved abortive for Hanson. Unlike them, she is unlikely to contest anything as monumental as Brexit, or challenge for the leadership of her country. Unlike them, she is also one of the least coherent politicians of her era.

antifa notes (january 30, 2017) : Reclaim Australia, Michael Holt, Richard Spencer

Reclaim Australia is still a thing, but only just.

On Australia/Invasion/Survival Day, Dennis Huts (above) of the United Patriots Front (UPF) organised a small gathering of meatheads to protest the fact that Fremantle council had re-scheduled its nationalist celebrations for January 28. It attracted around 40-50 whingers.

Sad!

On Sunday, January 29, a group of perhaps as many as 80 or 90 bigots gathered at Martin Place in Sydney in order to rail ‘against everything from Muslims to “leftard Marxists”, “fake news” and “feminazis”.’ MC at the event — organised by Liz Shepherd (AKA ‘Catherine Brennan’) — was Casey councillor, Rise Up Australia Party (RUAP) candidate, and fundamentalist Christian Rosalie Crestani (below, with neo-Nazi Sammy Binz of Right Wing Resistance Australia); speakers included failed Australian Liberty Alliance candidate and Adelaide resident John Bolton, Canberran Daniel Evans, Sydney local Nick Folkes (PFF), Brisbane boy and ex-RUAP candidate Scott Moerland (UPF) and Peter Vassiliou (RUAP). Valour thief and serial pest Ralph Cerminara (above, with Shepherd) was present, as was UPF fuehrer Blair Cottrell, a few dozen PFF members and supporters, some Christian fundamentalists, a handful of neo-Nazis, a lone Soldier of Odin, and various other whiny racists: basically, the dregs of the patriotik movement, with not much else to their name than a shitty flag to wave and a overwhelming sense of ressentiment.

Apart from garnering a small amount of media attention, the Reclaimers also gave police and Sydney council an excuse to evict Sydney’s 24-hour ‘safe space’ for rough sleepers (Homeless ‘safe space’ evicted as anti-Islam protestors take to Martin Place, John Janson-Moore, January 29, 2017). Otherwise, Shepherd has declared that the next stop on the Reclaim failboat will be Melbourne.

See also : The anti-Muslim rally by far-right group Reclaim Australia was a fizzer, with more police and media turning up than protesters, news.com.au, January 29, 2017.

Michael Holt

Huh. According to Rachel Olding (White supremacist threatened to shoot up Central Coast shopping centre, The Sydney Morning Herald, January 29, 2017):

A radicalised white supremacist who was stockpiling homemade guns and weapons across Sydney had expressed an intention to commit a mass shooting at a popular Westfield shopping centre.

The disturbing case, uncovered by the Sun Herald, has highlighted the evolving threat posed by violent, right-wing extremism in Australia with experts warning against public complacency.

Holt is one of hundreds of right-wing extremists who talk shit online, crave RaHoWa, draw up lists of enemies, use their meagre resources to accumulate whatever weaponry they can, and phantasise about White revolution. He was also mates with local neo-Nazi Neil Erikson, with whom he shared both a political perspective and an hilarious sense of humour:


Hurr hurr.

Richard Spencer

The #althug given #altright figure Richard Spencer Last Thursday has prompted a MEME FRENZY: Richard Spencer Getting Punched dot com has collected many, while The Washington Post provides A step-by-step guide to a meme about punching a Nazi in the face (Abby Ohlheiser, January 23, 2017), Mother Jones documents The Long History of “Nazi Punching” (Wes Enzinna, January 26, 2017), Thoughts On The Dead blog writes inre On The Propriety Of Punching Nazis, An FAQ (January 20, 2017), The Nation reckons Neo-Nazi Richard Spencer Got Punched—You Can Thank the Black Bloc (Natasha Lennard, January 22, 2017) and Andrew Norcross has published a quick helper to determine if you can punch a nazi.

One person who reckons punching Spencer was wrogn is philosopher Slavoj Žižek (Taylor Wofford, Quartz, January 27, 2017):

Quartz: So, is it OK to punch a Nazi?

Žižek: No! If there is violence needed, I’m more for Gandhian, passive violence.

I once made a statement, maybe you know it, which cost me dearly. I said the problem with Hitler was that he wasn’t violent enough. Then I said, in the same statement, that Gandhi was more violent than Hitler. All Hitler’s violence was reactive violence. He killed millions, but the ultimate goal was basically to keep the system the way it was—German capitalism and so on—while Gandhi really wanted to bring down the British state. But his violence was symbolic: peaceful demonstrations, general strikes and so on.

If a guy talks like that jerk [Richard Spencer], you should just ignore him. If he hits you, turn around. Don’t even acknowledge him as a person. That’s the type of violence I would call for. Not physical violence. Because, you know, people say symbolic violence can be even worse, but don’t underestimate physical violence. Something happens when you move to physical violence. I’m not saying we should greet everyone, embrace them. Be brutal at a different level. When you encounter a guy like the one who was punched, act in such a way that even hitting him, even slapping him is too much of a recognition. You should treat him or her or whoever as a nonperson, literally.

‘Ignore them’ is an interesting line for a communist philosopher to take, but so too is describing Hitler’s ‘ultimate goal’ as preserving German capitalism rather than, say, annihilating European Jewry.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

For a more serious account of the origins and development of ‘the far right movement that embraced Donald Trump’, see : Ctrl-Alt-Delete: The origins and ideology of the Alternative Right, Matthew N. Lyons, Political Research Associates, January 20, 2017.

Finally, the Campaign Against Racism & Fascism has organised a protest at The Q Society’s fundraiser on February 10. Joining the unelected right-wing cranks of Q will be elected right-wing cranks Cory Bernardi and George Christensen.

Fun times.