MAGA GIRL ORGANIZATION SET TO HOLD ANTI-LGBT EVENT ON A HIGHWAY OVERPASS

"Anti-Pedo" t-shirt designed by Denise Ruiz.

By ABNER HAUGE|LEFT COAST RIGHT WATCH

“Are you sick and tired of watching perverted mentally ill pedophiles brainwash our youth and society with their idiologies [sic]? They have abused the rainbow for the last time!!!" reads the description of MAGA Girl founder Denise Ruiz’s latest rally, the “The Rainbow Event.”

Ruiz, who organized the Las Vegas “Alpha March” counter to the Womens’ March last month, announced “The Rainbow Event” last August. According to her posts on the discussion section of the event page, the event is “"an online Campaign and will be ended with a huge rally on Feb. 16^th" at noon to 3pm. The rally will take place in Yucaipa, just east of San Bernardino, on the Wabash Exit Bridge. Accounting for the main and backup pages of fellow far-right activist Lexi Davis both saying they’re going, there are 20 people set to appear at the event.

"No we are not trying to literally take the rainbow flag out of the hands of gays... it's just a metaphor," Ruiz’s description says.

On the same day the event went up, she posted a meme in the Facebook page’s discussion with the caption “Pedophelia [sic] is always the end game of gay marriage; we Christians tried to warn you.”

Equating LGBT+ people with pedophiles is a common trope for homophobes and transphobes.

The day after the anti-gay marriage meme, Ruiz posted a photo of an “Anti-Pedo” t-shirt she designed depicting a hanged stick figure with the word “solution” written under it.

After this post, Ruiz claimed one of her daughters is gay and said that anyone who disagrees with the event is pro-pedophilia.

Among those who plan on attending the event is Arthur Schaper of MassResistance, a Massachusetts-based organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as “an Anti-LGBT hate-group.”

“This is the kind of uprising we need to see in California against sexual perversion and the LGBT Movement as a whole,” Schaper posted on the event discussion with a link to his TownHall.com column titled “Americans, learn from the Yellow Jackets: Stop running and start fighting back.”

In August, the SPLC published a report detailing how Schaper’s California chapter of MassResistance included white nationalist Kenny Strawn. Strawn, according to UK-based anti-hate group Hope Not Hate, tried to start an American branch of the European white nationalist organization Generation Identity last year. Schaper was present at Patriot Prayer’s failed August 2017 post-Charlottesville rally in Berkeley. He’s also written for the Red Elephants, a far-right media group that promoted the neo-Nazi Rise Above Movement gang.

Schaper and MassResistance recently gained attention for disrupting “Drag Queen Story Time” events at libraries around the country, claiming they were part of the same plot to indoctrinate young people.

Ruiz’s connection to the recent trend of harassing Drag Queen Storytime events goes further. On January 28^th she posted a defense of a “close friend” who was banned from a library in Houston for protesting one of these events. She doesn’t mention the man’s name but key details from her account match the Houston Chronice’s report of the event and identify him as James “Doc” Green Sr, the host of conservative “Raging Elephant Radio.”

Green, according to HPD spokesperson Jodi Silva, was previously banned from the Freed-Montrose Library for “filming children at the library.” He allegedly trespassed on January 26^th to protest a Drag Queen Storytime event, refusing to leave. Multiple officers had to escort him out. The police confiscated a concealed handgun that Green brought into the library.

“We have a bunch of homosexuals who are molesting children,” Green says in a livestreamed YouTube video titled “Arrested for being a Christian,” adding “and they’re doing it with your help!”

Green was taken to a hospital after complaining of chest pains that Ruiz's post describes as a panic attack. He was release from the hospital the same day without charges. Ruiz’s description of the event doesn’t mention the fact that Green brought a gun into the library.

“He is a patriot. He doesn't want this exposed to children. I agree. I do not want my taxes going towards the promotion of this kind of sexuality in public libraries to children,” Ruiz said in the post.

Another notable attendee of “The Rainbow Event” is Lexi Davis, a prominent far-right organizer and partner of open fascist activist Jourdin Davis. Jourdin Davis is frequently suspended from Facebook over extreme statements. Last October he posted a video rant to Facebook about the migrant caravan, saying that if the caravan reaches the U.S. border, “I think it’s time for us now to start shooting on sight.” Davis, who claims he went to Berkeley High School, was at numerous bloody 2017 Berkeley protests.

On August 11^th in a 25-minute video with over 3600 views posted to his Facebook page, Jourdin and Lexi Davis spoke at length about how the famous rainbow pride flag was appropriated from Christianity and their objections to educating children about non-heteronormative gender and sexuality.

“What the LGBT community did with the rainbow flag just went way too fucking far,” Jourdin Davis said, continuing, “They should have made something that references their own community instead of a biblical story.”

The couple both agreed on camera that pedophilia is distinct from being LGBT+, Jourdin calling pedophilia “a disease with no cure.”

“Except maybe lead behind the ear,” Lexi added.

Jourdin also called helping a child with gender dysphoria to transition “a work in progress for Satan.”

Antonio Foreman, who was alt-right internet celebrity Baked Alaska’s bodyguard during the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, listed himself as going to the event as well. Foreman has appeared recently at conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer’s stunts at the Governor’s Mansion in Sacramento and Nancy Pelosi’s home in Napa Valley.

Denise Ruiz herself is a self-identified member of the III% Militia movement, whose members have been linked to numerous hate crimes against Muslims, including the firebombing of a mosque in 2018. "III%ers" acted as perimeter guard during Unite the Right and distanced themselves publicly from white nationalism in its aftermath.

The most recent post on the Facebook page for the event is an article about New Jersey schools teaching LGBTQ history. As of this writing, six people responded to it with the “angry face” emoji.

This story was updated on February 4th at 11:23PM to include details about the January 26^th incident in Houston and Ruiz’s connection to it as well as newly discovered statements from Jourdin and Lexi Davis.

LAURA LOOMER DRESSES UP AS RACIST CARICATURE AND GETS ARRESTED FOR TRESPASSING AT GOVERNOR’S MANSION

Screencap of Frontline America video showing Laura Loomer and Ben Berquam getting arrested for trespassing.

By ABNER HAUGE|LEFT COAST RIGHT WATCH

“How many people do we have on the livestream so far?” Laura Loomer asks, standing on the sidewalk by the Governor’s Mansion in Sacramento. It’s Wednesday January 30^th.

Ben Bergquam grins in the foreground. “I have to do my botox smile.” He says.

They’re both dressed as racist caricatures of Mexican people, wearing ponchos and oversized sombreros. Bergquam has a fake mustache on. They do bits and say hello to their followers on the livestream in a voice like the Frito Bandito. Loomer has a tent set up with photos of people she describes as “victims of illegal immigrants.”

“No hate! No Fear! Rapists are welcome here! No hate! No fear! Drug dealers are welcome here!” Loomer and her supporters chant.

She and Bergquam, who hosts the 1680 AM Radio program “Frontline America,” will soon step on the mansion’s lawn and get arrested for trespassing.

A crowd of around twelve, some of whom are livestreaming the event, stand around the three-foot-high fence. Antonio Foreman, Baked Alaska’s bodyguard during Unite the Right, is there apparently acting as security for Loomer.

At about 1:22PM, an officer tells Berquam and Loomer they’re trespassing and gives them a chance to leave before they risk arrest.

“What’s trespassing? I thought this was open borders in California?” Loomer says to the officer.

“Why would [Governor] Gavin [Newsom] invite us to California and then say we can’t go into his house?” Bergquam asks as part of his bit. At this point in the video he’s given up on the accent.

Loomer’s latest stunt is similar to the one she pulled at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Napa Valley home about two weeks ago, where she hired three undocumented laborers to trespass on her property. Loomer wanted to confront Pelosi about having a wall around her home while opposing Trump’s border wall. According to the Daily Beast, these undocumented men may not have understood who she was or that they were committing a crime. Representatives for Pelosi declined to press charges on the men. Loomer’s group, which included Foreman, complained that the men weren’t deported.

“This feels like a bigoted action,” Bergquam says as he and Loomer are being handcuffed at around 1:30PM.

Loomer has a history of publicity stunts and tirades. She claimed survivors of the 2018 Parkland shooting were “being fed lines” while working for InfoWars. She was recently kicked off Twitter for using common Islamophobic tropes in a rant against newly elected Representative Ilhan Omar.

Bergquam is a self-identified Proud Boy who frequently attends far-right rallies to livestream them for his show. He was at the bloody April 15^th, 2017 rally in Berkeley attended by white nationalist groups like Rise Above Movement and Identity Evropa as well as militias like the Oath Keepers and the III%ers. On Bergquam’s website he says he “believes that abortion is murder, homosexuality is sin, and transgenderism is insane.” He also claims “[w]e are in the midst of a cultural civil war” whose enemies include the Council on American-Islamic Relations and Black Lives Matter.

Officers allow live-streamers and supporters to get right next to Loomer and Bergquam as they’re put in the back of squad cars. The officer holding Loomer’s handcuffs waits so she can make a statement to the livestreamers. She repeats far-right talking points about politicians like Pelosi and Newsom letting rapists and cop-killers into the country and giving them benefits like free housing.

“You have a journalist being arrested in Gavin Newsom’s yard but then illegal aliens last week were not arrested. They’re here illegally!” Loomer says as she’s being lead into a squad car.

While waiting to pick up Loomer and Bergquam from jail, one of Bergquam’s assistants took to Frontline America’s livestream to complain to nearby police officers that a restaurant was refusing to serve them because of their pro-Trump gear.

“Guys, call this place. Go ahead and Yelp ‘em,” he said on livestream as someone from the restaurant attempted to explain the group was making other patrons uncomfortable.

“Call ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] they probably have illegals working for them and they’re afraid,” commenter Julian Kruger said on the livestream. Multiple posters implored those watching the stream to report the restaurant to ICE on the baseless assumption there were “illegals” in the restaurant. The phone number of the restaurant was posted multiple times in the comments.

Loomer and Bergquam were booked at 4:33PM and 4:14PM respectively according to the Sacramento Sheriff’s office and released some time between 8 and 9PM. They’re both due at Gordon D. Schaber Courthouse, Department 3 at 8:30 AM today.

Bergquam posted a video update at 11:33PM in character as “Poncho Benny,” fake moustache, sombrero and all. He broke character after repeating his bit about Gavin Newsom apparently personally not letting him on the Governor’s Mansion property despite what Bergquam describes as an open border policy. He breaks character to complain about the smell of “bums that literally crapped themselves” in his holding cell while he was in jail.

“It was worth every second of it to have Gavin Newsom have to watch us get kicked off his lawn. He said everyone is welcome and we tested him on that and it’s not true,” Bergquam said, returning to his bit character voice. “Today I identified as an illegal and you kicked me off your property and that’s not cool.”

One commenter on the video posted a picture of the Frito Bandito.

CANCELLED YELLOW VEST PROTESTS IN SACRAMENTO HIGHLIGHTS CONTEST OVER THE MOVEMENT’S MEANING

By ABNER HAUGE|LEFT COAST RIGHT WATCH

 

Left-leaning Yellow Vest Sac's flyer warning about far-right groups attending a now-cancelled Yellow Vest protest at the State Capitol building in Sacramento.

There’s a fight in the United States over what exactly the Yellow Vests stand for.

A Facebook group called Yellow Vest Protest Sacramento planned a demonstration in front of the State Capitol building for tomorrow morning. The Facebook event and the Yellow Vest Protest Sacramento page have since been deleted for unknown reasons. The event is still viewable on the website carpe-diem.events. The description says it’s a “forum to gather public opinion on a peaceful protest of unconstitutional gun laws and excessive taxation.”

A left-leaning group called Yellow Vest Sac created an event in opposition slated for the same time and place. It’s since been cancelled due to bad weather.

A flyer posted on their Facebook page on January 1st reads “SHOW UP JAN 7. “Yellow Vest Protest Sac” is organizing a rally at the Sacramento Capital building. In attendance will be members of the State of Jefferson, New California, III% Militia, and other groups affiliated with right wing violence and a history of committing hate crimes. SACRAMENTO IS PROGRESSIVE!”

Numerous members of the III% Militia have been charged with hate crimes, including the firebombing of a mosque.

The State of Jefferson is a project to split parts of northern California and southern Oregon off into a new state with more right-libertarian laws. The Oath Keepers militia is listed among its supporters, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The New California movement is a similar effort to split the more right-leaning rural parts of the state into a new state

The left-leaning Yellow Vest Sac group says their demands are for healthcare, education, “workers rights over corporate profit,” housing, ending police violence, and an “end [to] enforced austerity.”

James Lee Clark, an activism coordinator at the Sacramento Green Party, shared the flyer on January 2^nd. He urged people to come and go in groups “as there is a possibility that there may be some far right individuals in attendance.”

Two years ago, a rally at the State Capitol by the white nationalist Traditionalist Workers Party ended in a brawl with counter-protesters and multiple stabbings by neo-Nazi gang members.

In the top Facebook photo results for “Yellow Vest Sacramento,” there’s a picture of a bungee chord tied in a noose in front of a Confederate flag.

Dixon's photo of a noose in front of a Confederate flag captioned "Monday Justice comes the the [sic] Sacramento Capitol. Yellow Vest March. Demand Democrats hang."

“Monday Justice comes the the [sic] Sacramento Capitol. Yellow Vest March. Demand Democrats hang,” writes the photo’s author, Claude E Dixon.

The photo was posted yesterday, but it was repurposed from an earlier post that Dixon captioned “Democrats should fear what is coming. Americans all we need to do is wake up. I saw it at the MAGA rallies. Time to come together as a country. Voting didn't work, and if they are not stopped we lose in 2020. How much more do we tolerate? TIME FOR ACTION.”

Clark said in his Facebook post that “[m]any who have signed up for the right wing version [of the event] are regular conservatives who can be brought into the working class struggle.”

The Yellow Vest movement started in France as a popular reaction to austerity measures–policies by the government meant to balance the budget by raising taxes and lowering spending on social services. Because the Yellow Vests aren’t a strictly left/right movement, many on the far-right have been trying to hijack it in the United States.

Resist Marxism in Boston tried to co-opt a Yellow Vests event on December 22^nd. People at that event waved III% Militia flags.

Haley Adams, an activist associated with Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys in the Pacific Northwest, adopted the Yellow Vest imagery in December for her own livestream protests.

The New California movement donned yellow vests to make an announcement against “globalism” and “socialism” on December 8^th. In the statement, New California movement founder Paul Preston said they stood in solidarity with the French Yellow Vests. Preston claimed the French protests were caused by the United Nations Agenda 21 initiative. Conspiracy theorists think Agenda 21, a 1992 non-binding sustainable development project, is a blueprint for a malign, totalitarian global government.

For many, “globalist” can be interchanged with terms like “the 1%.” For far-right conspiracy theorists “globalists” are a cabal of specific wealthy and powerful people who want complete control of the world. Anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists, particularly white nationalists, often use the term to mask their discourse about supposed Jewish control of the world and push for greater acceptance of their beliefs.

The Yellow Vest Sac protest cancelled the event as of 4:42pm, saying “Due to the nature of risk and the nature of the weather, you should show up at your own risk or not at all.”

ALL WEST COAST “ALPHA MARCHES” CANCELLED EXCEPT FOR LAS VEGAS

Screenshot of III% militia supporter and MAGA Girl member Erin Gooch's Facebook post announcing Alpha Marches "on the west coast is now in Las Vegas only!"

 By ABNER HAUGE|LEFT COAST RIGHT WATCH

Denise Ruiz, self-identified III% member and official MAGA Girl store owner, announced a change of plans recently.

In the description of a livestream interview Sunday, fellow III% supporter Erin A. Gooch said that the only west coast rally for the nationwide “Alpha March” on January 19th would be in Las Vegas. In the livestream, Ruiz said the march will meet at 11AM at Circus Circus and plans to march to the Trump hotel about a mile away. There will be a brunch beforehand at Ameribrunch and a “networking and cocktail hour celebration” sponsored by the Las Vegas Proud Boys and Nevada MAGA Girls chapter.
 

Flyer for Las Vegas Alpha March pre- and post-events sponsored in part by the local Proud Boys chapter. Found on organizer Alexis Davis's "Patriot Lexi of the Wild West" page.

Other West Coast rallies were previously scheduled in Portland and Fresno.

The “Alpha March,” according to Ruiz, is an “ongoing” counter-protest to the national Womens’ March.

“MAGA Girls will be making it a permanent thorn in the pussy hats back!” Ruiz said, referring to the pink hats protestors wore at the Womens’ March in response to President Trump’s now-infamous “grab them by the pussy” comment.

Ruiz did not give a reason for cancelling the other west coast marches.

Gooch said the interview was about how the “MAGA Girls” organization was “evolving” and asked Ruiz about its “new vision.”

Ruiz said the group was started as a pro-Trump “women’s support system” that particularly encouraged activists. She said it’s now expanding by adding a “MAGA Men” branch. Both organizations will be under the umbrella of what she called “American Alphas.”

Ruiz contrasted the “Alphas” in her organization with “beta males” with “man buns” and “skinny jeans.” She has a history of ranting about deviations from traditional gender roles online and making transphobic remarks. One meme she posted on the Alpha March event page read “The bulge in the pants of a conservative woman is a pistol. The bulge in a liberal woman’s pants is a dick!”

Beyond the restructuring and new men’s wing of the group, Ruiz and others in the video imply the “new vision” involves changing tactics. A recurring theme in the almost 45-minute video was going beyond left/right politics. It seems the group is pivoting towards organizing non-partisan charity events as well as right-wing rallies.

“The idea is if you love God the way you say you do, it’s time to make a difference. It shouldn’t matter if you’re left, right, blue, brown, green, caca-color” Ruiz’s husband, Geo, said.

“I’d rather get a positive answer than get a label from people across the street,” he added.

Ruiz and her husband said they participated in such charity events for years before the Trump presidency, but a toy drive they organized for the Ronald McDonald foundation last year went poorly because of their political affiliations.

“A lot of people didn’t show up because they found out we were Trump supporters,” Ruiz said.

Ruiz and her husband said they’re organizing five events for 2019. One will be April 27th and will fund work with autistic children. Another will be the Las Vegas Alpha March on the 19th next month.

Ruiz and the other activists spent much of the video rambling about putting “God back into schools” and other talking points common with the Christian far-right.

“Our college professors, they’re so liberal, they don’t want God in anything. But they’ll gladly teach Islam, Satanism, Atheism,” MAGA Girl activist Rosanna Gonzales said.

“They're trying to make it we actually have a Muslim president majority House and Senate Muslim,” a viewer named Ronnie Gilmore wrote in the comments.

“What sets us apart from the other religions is that Christians will live peaceably among you, where other religions will not. They will rape, they will kidnap, they will torture. They bend all the rules and they twist the rules and try to say ‘oh but according to our religion, this is okay,’” Gonzales said.

Numerous members of the III% militia, which Ruiz and Gooch both identify with, have been charged with hate crimes against Muslims, including firebombing a mosque.

One of the organizers of the Las Vegas march is Lexi Davis, whose partner Jourdin Davis is a regular at far-right protests in the Bay Area and beyond. Jourdin Davis has gone on multiple anti-immigrant rants. In a video on his since-deleted Facebook account Jourdin Davis said that American citizens might have to gun down any who came across the border.

Ruiz, during the conclusion of the video, said “Make America Christian again.”

UPDATE–THE YELLOW VESTS AND FAR-RIGHT INFILTRATION

By ABNER HAUGE|LEFT COAST RIGHT WATCH

Screencap of the first post by @yellow_vest_america on Instagram. The post rants about New World Order conspiracies and "droves of Arabs."

This is an updated version of an article that ran on December 21^st. It includes comment from a Maine-based organizer with American Yellow Vests (AYV) who did not give a name.

For over a month now, the gilets jaunes or Yellow Vests, a popular uprising in France that started in response to a gas tax, has captured international attention. Protests have been violent, with police often firing less-lethal munitions at demonstrators. Like the Arab Spring and Occupy movements before it, the Yellow Vests have spread across the globe. Yellow Vests protesting high unemployment in Iraq and high living costs in Israel while Egypt has banned the sale of hi-vis safety vests out of fear of an uprising.

And now it’s come to the United States.

Saturday, a nationwide “YellowVest Movement American Action” took place. The event seems to be coordinated in part by the same people who organized the May Day Anonymous March, though an American Yellow Vests (AYV) page also organized the event.

The AYV Facebook page says they are a “nonpolitical peoples movement” who “aim to remove corruption in all areas and maintain and perfect our system of governance so it operates for the people and not the interests of the 1%.”

During a Facebook livestream by AYV activist Adam Rice the account commented “End neoliberalism and its wars! We demand self-governance through the right to referendum and healthcare for all! No more precariat class!”

The spokesperson for the group said it is against destruction of public and private property and that “[a]nyone committing violence immediately disassociates themselves from AYV by doing so.”

One of the AYV Facebook page’s former moderators, according to the representative that spoke to LCRW, was linked to the Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) movement. The AYV page is full of MMT memes. The movement is based around the ideas of University of Newcastle, New South Wales Economics professor Bill Mitchell. MMT economics are premised on the idea that governments spend money into existence and destroy it through taxes. MMT activists argue for policies like the federal job guarantee. They often try to frame their arguments outside of left versus right political dynamics.

The gilets jaunes protests in France and abroad aren’t organized strictly along left/right lines. They’re broad working class responses to dissatisfaction with the way centrist governments like Emmanuel Macron’s craft policies. The yellow vests in France demand less taxes, more subsidies for hiring young people, and ending austerity politics–the style of governing associated with neo-Liberalism and the Washington Consensus. Under austerity, government spending is reduced and taxes are hiked so government budget deficits can be reduced. Social welfare programs are typically cut first.

One event in Sacramento organized by AYV started at 10am didn’t give a meeting point. The other two events were in San Diego at an unspecified location and at the Consulate General of France in Los Angeles.

According to an Instagram account called @Yellow_vest_america, the protest was to take place at Sacramento City Hall.

Boston area-based Resist Marxism, an organization started by Kyle “Based Stickman” Chapman of Proud Boys and Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights fame, posted a list of Yellow Vest protests happening last Saturday on its Facebook page.

“We're co-opting the Boston protest, wouldn't be surprised if we're the only ones there,” the group’s account commented on the post.

The Maine-based Yellow Vests spokesperson said before the event that they were aware of the Resist Marxism’s planned attendance.

AYV’s account asked a viewer of the Boston livestream to refer to the group specifically as ‘American Yellow Vests’ or AYV.

“We are trying to identify ourselves as one and stay away from right-wing fascist groups who are/may be trying to usurp our movement,” AYV’s account said in the comment.

The livestream shows Resist Marxism holding its banner on the top of a staircase. A Resist Marxism member said over a microphone that “We need to end the War on Terror” to whistles of approval from Rice. The Resist Marxism speaker called the war “an excuse to stick our fighting youth in places it does not belong to perpetuate the failing system.”

A common talking point shared by the pro-Trump right and the alt-right is objection to U.S. wars abroad on the basis that American troops being needlessly killed to fight others’ wars for them. Leftists tend to argue against U.S. wars abroad because they kill civilians abroad, not just U.S. soldiers.

The other prominent speaker ranted vaguely about globalists before the livestream ended.

The term globalist is shorthand for global elites such as politicians, bankers and heads of industry. The term was popularized by far-right talk show host Alex Jones. While some use the term interchangeably with terms like “the 1%” that just mean the wealthy and powerful, it’s often a dog-whistle for fringe groups. In different far-right and conspiracy circles ‘globalists’ are secretive people or groups who control the world from the shadows. ‘Globalist’ also serves as a dog-whistle for Jews in white nationalist and other anti-Semitic circles. Anti-Semitic conspiracies are typically premised on replacing malign elites’ influence over the world with Jewish influence.

Rice’s Facebook photos of the event show people wearing III% militia gear and waving III% flags. Members of the III% Militia have been tied to multiple hate crimes including firebombing a mosque.

Protestors with III% militia gear from Yellow Vests America activist Adam Rice's publicly viewable Facebook page.

“Witness before your eyes the Left and the Right sharing a megaphone to publicly condemn globalism as part of the yellow vest peoples movement. we all shook hands at the end, so glad we went! You won't catch this on msm!” Rice said when he posted the livestream to his personal Facebook page. MSM is shorthand for “mainstream media.”

This isn’t the first time far-right organizers have tried to use yellow vests for their own causes. Haley Adams, an associate of the Pacific Northwest’s Patriot Prayer, began wearing a high-visibility vest to her events this month. One of the Saturday YVA events was slated for Portland City Hall.

It’s unclear who runs the Instagram account that Resist Marxism and AYV both sourced the image from. The AYV spokesperson said the group is “not linked” to the Instagram account.

The AYV spokesperson said they’re linked to Maine Yellow Vests on Twitter, the Facebook page, an AYV Facebook group, and the Yellow Vest Dank Meme Stash Facebook group.

The Instagram account is clearly run by someone who gives credence to far-right conspiracies. The first post on the account was five days ago. It depicts the back of a yellow vest with a pair of scissors stabbing an Eye of Providence. The caption on the picture rants about how global warming is a “fraudulent narrative” and claims the protests in France are “anti-New World Order” and against “open borders and droves of Arabs being brought into their country by their traitorous leaders.”

Another picture of the French protests is captioned “Guess who doesn’t fluoridate their water? France,” referring to fluoride-in-the-water conspiracies made popular in part by Alex Jones.

Number 15 in the ‘Demands’ section on the Instagram page says “Award the right of vaccine exception to every American citizen, period.”

A future rally in Sacramento is being planned for January 7^th by a group called Yellow Vest Protest Sacramento. The group also seems to be linked to the broader Anonymous movement.

LCRW will continue to follow far-right involvement in the United States Yellow Vest Movement as it develops.

THE YELLOW VESTS ARE COMING TOMORROW–AND FAR-RIGHT ACTIVISTS ARE LOOKING TO JOIN

Screenshot of @yellow_vest_america account's first post on Instagram. The Facebook group apparently organizing the protest hasn't posted a date for the Sacramento rally, but this Instagram account is claiming they're meeting in front of City Hall tomorrow.

By ABNER HAUGE|LEFT COAST RIGHT WATCH

  

For over a month now, the gilets jaunes or Yellow Vests, a popular uprising in France that started in response to a gas tax, has captured international attention. Protests have been violent, with police often firing less-lethal munitions at demonstrators. Like the Arab Spring and Occupy movements before it, the Yellow Vests have spread across the globe. Examples include Yellow Vests protesting high unemployment in Iraq, high living costs in Israel, and Egypt has banned the sale of hi-vis safety vests out of fear of an uprising.

And now it’s coming to the United States.

Tomorrow, a nationwide “YellowVest Movement American Action” is taking place. The event seems to be coordinated in part by the same people who organized the May Day Anonymous March, though an American Yellow Vests (AYV) page seems to also be organizing.

The AYV Facebook page says they are a “nonpolitical peoples movement” who “aim to remove corruption in all areas and maintain and perfect our system of governance so it operates for the people and not the interests of the 1%.” They claim they have “strict adherence to nonviolence.”

The AYV Facebook group appears to be linked to the Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) movement based around the ideas of University of Newcastle, New South Wales Economics professor Bill Mitchell. Many of the AYV posts promote MMT ideas. MMT economics are premised on the idea that governments spend money into existence and destroy it through taxes. MMT activists argue for policies like the federal job guarantee. They often try to frame their arguments outside of left versus right political dynamics.

The gilets jaunes protests in France and abroad aren’t organized strictly along left/right lines. They’re broad working class responses to dissatisfaction with the way centrist governments like Emmanuel Macron’s craft policies. The yellow vests in France demand less taxes, more subsidies for hiring young people, and ending austerity politics–the style of governing associated with neo-Liberalism and the Washington Consensus. Under austerity, government spending, usually first on social welfare programs, is reduced and taxes are hiked so government budget deficits can be reduced.

One event in Sacramento for tomorrow organized by AYV starts at 10am but doesn’t give a meeting point. The other two events  are in San Diego at an unspecified location and at the Consulate General of France in Los Angeles.

According to an Instagram account called @Yellow_vest_america, the protest tomorrow may be at Sacramento City Hall.

Boston area-based Resist Marxism, an organization started by Kyle “Based Stickman” Chapman of Proud Boys and Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights fame, posted a list of Yellow Vest protests happening tomorrow on its Facebook page.

“We're co-opting the Boston protest, wouldn't be surprised if we're the only ones there,” the group’s account commented on the post.

This isn’t the first time far right organizers have tried to adopt the yellow vest for their own causes. Haley Adams, an associate of the Pacific Northwest’s Patriot Prayer, began wearing a high-visibility vest to her events this month. One of the YVA events tomorrow is slated for Portland City Hall.

It’s unclear who runs the Instagram account that Resist Marxism sourced the image from or if they’re tied to the AYV Facebook page. Today, the AYV Facebook page linked to the same image as Resist Marxism. The Instagram account is clearly run by someone who gives credence to far-right conspiracies.

The first post on the account was five days ago. It depicts the back of a yellow vest with a pair of scissors stabbing an Eye of Providence. The caption on the picture rants about how global warming is a “fraudulent narrative” and claims the protests in France are “anti-New World Order” and against “open borders and droves of Arabs being brought into their country by their traitorous leaders.”

Another picture of the French protests is captioned “Guess who doesn’t fluoridate their water? France,” referring to fluoride-in-the-water conspiracies made popular in part by Alex Jones.

Number 15 in the ‘Demands’ section on the Instagram page says “Award the right of vaccine exception to every American citizen, period.”

A future rally in Sacramento is being planned for January 7^th by a group called Yellow Vest Protest Sacramento. The group also seems to be linked to the broader Anonymous movement.

This story will be updated.

FAR-RIGHT ACTIVISTS ANNOUNCE PLANS FOR WOMENS’ MARCH COUNTER PROTEST IN FRESNO

BY ABNER HAUGE|LEFT COAST RIGHT WATCH

   

On January 19^th the “Alpha March” is set to counter what its organizers call the “Anti-American haters” of the nation-wide Womens’ March.

“They might be a women's organization that is paid & funded by leftist foundations but we have the man power to march along side our real women's National Community of Alpha's who know how to respect our American Constitution & do not need to indoctrinate our youth to get our point across!” the description of the event reads.

“If they’re doing it nationwide–great. We’ve yet to hear to much about it,” said Kim Slavan, lead organizer of the Fresno Womens’ March.

The march is being planned by San Bernardino-based “Official MAGA Girl Store” owner Denise Ruiz. MAGA is an acronym for President Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.”

Ruiz, in her Facebook post, said she intends to make the event “ongoing,” saying “MAGA Girls will be making it a permanent thorn in the pussy hats back!”

Ruiz claims to be part of the III% militia movement. III% members have been linked to numerous hate crimes against Muslims, including the firebombing of a mosque. Members of the militia were the perimeter guard for the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, although they publicly distanced themselves from white nationalism in its aftermath.

Ruiz’s MAGA Girl organization also previously rallied with the Oath Keepers militia in Los Angeles in July. The Southern Poverty Law Center calls the Oath Keepers “one of the largest radical antigovernment organizations in the United States” and claims they have over 30,000 members. The Oath Keepers acted as security on April 15^th, 2017 in Berkeley for a rally that quickly turned bloody. During that rally their leader, Stuart Rhodes, denounced the white nationalists of Rise Above Movement (RAM) and Identity Evropa (IE) who brawled in the streets with counter-protestors. After the event, however, Rhodes continued to voice support for Kyle Chapman of the Proud Boys’ now-defunct paramilitary wing, the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights, who fought alongside RAM and IE members that day.

On Thursday the 6^th, Ruiz announced on the Facebook page that Ben Bergquam would be a co-organizer of California’s Alpha March.

Bergquam is the host of AM 1680’s “Frontline America.” His show airs at 4pm-5pm, right after Alex Jones. According to the Sacramento Bee, he is a “self-identified Proud Boy.” Bergquam says on his ‘about’ page bio that he “believes that abortion is murder, homosexuality is sin, and transgenderism is insane.” He also claims “[w]e are in the midst of a cultural civil war” whose enemies are Black Lives Matter, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Antifa, La Raza, the Democratic Party and “godless cowards on the right.” Bergquam claims these groups are part of a “force for evil” that is attempting to “destroy America from within.” Bergquam is a frequent attendee of far-right rallies across California, including the bloody April 15^th, 2017 event in Berkeley.

“Ben makes his presence known at every event in Fresno,” Slavan said.

Bergquam isn’t the only one attending to express transphobic and homophobic views. Ruiz herself posted derogatory memes on the event’s Facebook page, including one which read “The bulge in the pants of a conservative woman is a pistol. The bulge in a liberal woman’s pants is a dick!”

In a December 7^th livestream, Ruiz said the “whole reason behind” the Alpha March was as a way to bring men into the fold of far-right womens’ organizations like hers.

“We MAGA girls are the backbone to America, and we are the backbone to our men” she said, adding “Men, M-E-N.” as emphasis.

Ruiz in the video said her “main focus” for the march is the perceived deterioration of traditional gender roles–a long-time hobby-horse on the right. She complained, among other things, about parents allowing their children to express doubts about their gender identity. Ruiz said one of her daughters claims to be gay, but “she’s gonna dress like a girl, because she’s a girl.”

“We have these men that are confusing everybody–they confuse the hell out of me,” she said.

“We are going to take that rib that God has made us from and we are going to be after all you betas,” Ruiz continued.

The “Alpha” in “Alpha March” refers to the online-right term “alpha male.” It means traditional dominant, muscular definitions of masculinity. “Beta males,” the foil to this in online right lingo, are deemed as effeminate or otherwise not performing traditional masculinity.

In the video Ruiz also decried “the indoctrination” in schools, saying she took her third grade daughter out of school after “they were talking about the whole immigration thing.”

Ruiz’s daughter made a brief appearance in the livestream, saying “I hate you. I hate being homeschooled. I hate this.” Ruiz said her daughter is still adjusting to homeschooling, adding that her other two daughters were homeschooled and they “turned out fine.”

Lindsay Grathwohl, a prominent figure in Bay Area far-right activism, announced plans to attend and help organize the event on her Facebook page.

“Excited to help Magagirls with this march!!” she wrote on her public figure page on Facebook.

Notable Bay Area organizers Amber Cummings and Jourdin Davis also marked themselves as “going.”

Other prominent far-right figures attending the march nationwide include Haley Adams of Patriot Prayer and the #HimToo movement. Adams said she’d attend the Texas march.

Patriot Prayer is a Proud Boys-linked far-right organization based in the Pacific Northwest. Patriot Prayer members and rally attendees have repeatedly engaged in violent confrontations during protests, particularly in Portland and Berkeley. While its leader, Joey Gibson, publicly disavows white nationalism, its rallies often attract white supremacists. One white supremacist who attended Patriot Prayer events, Jeremy Christian, murdered two men and wounded another with a knife on a Portland train. The three men had intervened after Christian launched a hateful tirade against two women of color.

“I will be at this event to show OFF my ALPHA FEMALE. I challenge Anyone to mutual combat. Ha,” Adams wrote on the page.

In reaction to national outrage and protest over the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, Adams organized the #HimToo Movementto combat a “war on men” in which men are “being falsely accused, slandered, attacked and harassed at their homes." Anti-fascist activists often accuse Adams of being a “rape apologist."

“Yes, we support the #HimToo movement,” Ruiz said in the December 7th livestream, also praising Adams multiple times.

False accusations of sexual assault and harassment against men have long been a hobby-horse for the online Mens' Rights Activism (MRA) movement­. MRA was one of the major political tendencies that went into the alt-right and current online far-right. False rape allegations are difficult to track but are widely believed to make up a small percentage of total allegations. A 2010 study concluded between 2 and 10 percent of total rape allegations are false.

The Alpha March in Fresno will convene at Woodward Park at 10am. The Fresno Womens’ March, with 229 listed as ‘going’ on Facebook as of this writing, will convene at 234 East Nees Avenue, about a mile away from the park.

The national Womens' March organization was founded in response to Donald Trump's presidential victory. The first annual Womens' March was set for the day after his inauguration and subsequent marches commemorate the date annually. Slavan said that the Womens’ March “organizes to hold our politicians accountable” and that the organization is for free speech.

“Their attendance at our event is actually supported as their First Amendment right,” she said.

According to the Facebook event page, Alpha Marches are also set for Buffalo, Las Vegas and Houston.

It is unclear how many plan to attend the Alpha March. 25 people as of this writing said they were going on the nation-wide event’s Facebook page while 77 people said they were interested.

Much of the organizing information will not be posted publicly “due to security purposes.” Security breaches have happened at past events. In the leadup to August 18^th’s nation-wide “March Against Far-Left Violence,” a fake website promising free t-shirts doxxed people who gave the site their addresses.

The Alpha March’s description includes a link to an email form to RSVP and then join state-based closed groups for coordination. The Official MAGA Girls organization has groups set up for California, Kansas, Utah, Texas, Oregon, New York, Arkansas, Minnesota, Ohio, Florida, Alabama, Maryland, Virginia, Oaklahoma, South Carolina, Nevada, Arizona, Tennessee, and Pennyslvania. Some groups have as few as four members while the most populous, Arkansas, has 175 members as of this report. The California group has 71 members at press time. Some groups’ posts are hidden while others are publicly viewable as of this writing.

Membership in the MAGA Girls groups, according to Ruiz, is open to men.