#Texas domestic terrorists

[socialjusticeinamerica]

Just another day in the “Fascist Republic of Tex-ass.” Deranged MAGAts cause mayhem and ordinary innocent people end up in the hospital or grave. Do a great job Greg Abbott!

Remember that this happened in Texas so most of the victims will have little to no health insurance. Further it is a “right to work state” so they’re likely to not get paid for sick days due to this and may even be fired for not being able to report to work.

This is the result of three decades of Republican rule. A Democrat has not won state office there since Bob Bullock won the lieutenant governor’s race in 1994.

[i-am-aprl]

A brave Palestinian American woman in Houston, Texas, interrupted a local political event where Texas Governor Greg Abbott was speaking, demanding that he call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Disheartening to see the audience members trying to shut her up, but not all surprising from a Republican audience in Texas.

[thedepressedjuggalette]

Texas' Abortion Ban has been killing women.

[sideaccount512]

Republican non-Profits “challenging” Democratic Voters

Fr, Republicans are insane with absolutely zero self-awareness..

[captainpirateface]

[vague-humanoid]

In the months since Oct. 7, students, organizers, and community members have decried the ongoing genocide in Gaza and called for a free Palestine. There has also been a corresponding increase in Islamophobia and brutal suppression of Palestinian organizing, including intimidation, police brutality, and violence waged against college students who protested Israel’s genocide of Palestinians.

The backlash will only continue—and this time, it will impact people nationwide. 

Legislators, acting in lockstep with school officials’ efforts to suppress free speech, have spent the last several months introducing bills intended to target pro-Palestine protests. It is no coincidence that many of these bills have been introduced in the South. As W.E.B. Du Bois famously said, “As the South goes, so goes the nation.” Project South has always recognized the U.S. South as an important lever for both oppression and liberation within the U.S., and we know many harmful bills are piloted in Southern states before spreading nationwide.

In response to outpourings of public support for Palestine, state governments have resorted to introducing legislation and enacting policies that target and suppress pro-Palestine advocacy. As one example, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed House Bill 30 into law. The bill incorporates the heavily criticized International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism that conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism. Although there were previous attempts to pass similar versions of the bill in Georgia, this year’s hearing testimony invoked pro-Palestine advocacy to justify the bill, which then passed quickly with bipartisan support. Kemp even invoked Oct. 7 during the bill’s signing, referring to “horrific terrorist attacks” that “claimed the lives of over 1,200 Israelis.” 

State legislatures also invoked Oct. 7 as justification to introduce or amend state antiterrorism laws. The use of domestic terrorism laws to target Palestine and pro-Palestine advocacy is not new, as evidenced by a February report highlighting the anti-Palestine animus that underpins a great deal of U.S. antiterrorism law. This year, numerous bills were introduced that reinforce anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant trends. These bills purposefully conflate terrorism with support for Palestine by making unsupported claims about pro-Palestine protests being backed by or representing support for terrorist groups.

[lookingforhappy]

credit to prop maker Mikela Barnes. transcript:

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA INFINITUM STANDARD REFERENCE K KENNEDY SIX THE KENNEDY SIX THE KENNEDY SIX is a group of communists said to have orchestrated the assassination of John F. Kennedy, 35th President of The United States, on November 22nd, 1963. HARGREEVES, VANYA: A Soviet spy and founding member of the The Kennedy Six, a group of Communist said to have orchestrated the assignation of John F. Kennedy, 35th President of The United States, on November 22nd, 1963. Though no date of birth is known, education and medical records place Vanya Hargreeves in Saint Petersburg, Russia, as early as 1947. Official reports released by the CIA, FBI, and U.S. Department of Defense provide evidence of Ms. Hargreeves' involvement in the establishment of Sovier Satellite Stats, during which time she is said to have contact with American Double Agent and member of The Kennedy Six, Luther Hargreeves. The extent of their familial relationship remains unconfirmed.

HARGREEVES, DIEGO: A known Communist sympathiser with ties to the Cuban government and a founding member of The Kennedy Six, a group of terrorists believed to be responsible for the assassination of John F. Kennedy, 35th President of The United States, on November 22nd, 1963. Once thought to be a sleeper agent for the Cuban government who was smuggled into the country as a baby and raised to become radicalized against U.S. democracy from an early age, his true origin remains unknown due to a lack of official records of his birth or origin. The FBI can only officially place him in the United States as [picture of Allison protesting in the 60s] Allison Hargreeves, a Communist Sympathiser who infiltrated the American Civil Rights Movement. Infinitm Archive 230 [picture of Viktor and Diego's mugshots from the 60s, Diego is edited to have an eyepatch on his left eye] Vanya Hargreeves (left) and Diego Hargreeves (right) were previously arrested for suspicious activity. Infinitum Archive early as 1963. According to official reports from the CIA, he is believe to have been an expert in covert radio communication and a disgraced former high-ranking intelligence officer for the Cuban government. It is rumoured that he lost an eye in Cuba in a cigar attack as punishment for compromising an intelligence operation. His association with The Kennedy Six is believed to be on behalf of the Cuban government and their interest in removing Kennedy from office by whatever means necessary. While the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies have been unable to prove this connects, unofficial reports place him in Cuba shortly before his arrival in Dallas and eventual rendezvous with his co-conspirators. His whereabouts to this day are unknown, though he is widely believed to be in hiding in Cuba. HARGREEVES, ALLISON: as an American born civil agitator recruited by radical terror groups to infiltrate the American Civil Rights Movement in an attempt to disrupt and discredit the country's Federal Government. A hairdresser by trade, Allison Hargreeves sought to use her position in local politics to lure John F. Kennedy to Texas, setting up the 35th President for assasssination on November 22nd, 1963. Though any direct involvement with The Kennedy Six remains unsubstantiated, photos and letters exchanged between Hargreeves and prominent African-American militant groups have been used by Federal Authorities to establish a teritary connection to several known domestic terror cells that had been operating within The United States between 1961 and 1963. Allison Hargreeves is believed to have been captured by the CIA in 1979, after serving only one year of her 45-year prison sentence she was released for unknown reasons. To this day, her whereabouts remain unknown.

KENNEDY SIX NUMBER FIVE: Known only by his KGB Code name, Number Five is assumed to be the youngest member of the Kennedy Six, a group of Communist said to have orchestrated the assassination of John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States, on November 22nd, 1963. Though existing records remain seal uner the US Espionage Act, Number Five is widelt known to have been hand-picked by First Secretary of The USSR, Nikia Khrushchev, to recruit American citizens in the effort to collect sensitive political and military information as relating to the United States policy of Communist Containment. A Federal Grand Jury issued and indictment for Number Five's arrest in December 1963. The indictment remains open.

HARGREEVES, KLAUS: A prominent religious leader of an influential cult movement and believed to be a member of The Kennedy Six, which is said to have orchestrated the assassination of John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States, on November 22nd, 1963. Initially beleived to be a recruitment camo and training facility for potential radicals, his religious movements was investigated by federal authroities, and while no evidence of the latter was ever obtained, the organistation was levied with heavy fines amidst numerous charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Despite being an enigmatic public figure, very little is known about Hargreeves beyond the eccentrics peculiatrites of his public life. At one point, he was believed to be in possession of the largest private collection of Cadillacs in the world. According to FBI reports, his vast amount of resources and influence made him a prime candidate to recruit, radicalise and mobilise potential enemires of the state. It is not known at what point or how he first began working with The Kennedy Six, and his whereabouts remain unknown to this day. HARGREEVES, LUTHER: An American double agent and former boxer with connections to several mafia crime families, and a member of the Kennedy Six, a group of terrorists believed to be responsible for the assassination of John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States, on November 22nd, 1963. According to reports from the FBI, CIA and U.S. Department of Defense, Luther Hargreeves was an agent and known associate of Jack Ruby, and his involvement in the Kennedy Six is believed to be on behalf [picture of Five, edited to be dressed in military uniform] One of the only known images of KGB codename "Number Five", the youngest member of the Kennedy Sic. Infinitum Archive. of organised crime interests, which at the time stood in stark contrast to Kennedy's priorities. Pictured here with his signature firearm, he was known as a brutal killer with a penchant for violence. He spent several years on the FBI's most wanted list and is believed by the CIA to have worked with Soviet spies. While his motives remain a mystery to this day, his connection to known Soviet spy, Vanya Hargreeves, has lead historians to a consensus on the prevailing theory surrounding his involvement of the Kennedy assassination: A coordination of mutual interests shared between Soviers and the American mafia. Authorities remain in pursuit of him to this day, though he was rumoured to have perished in a robbery near his Argentinian hideout sometime in the mid 1980's. [picture of Luther and Klaus' mugshots, likely edited] Luther Hargreeves (left) an American double agent and Klaus Hargreeves (right) a prominent religous leader. Infinitum Archive 231

KENOSHA COOPER, SISSY: A known associate of The Kennedy Six. Believed to have been recruited by Soviet spy, Vanya Hargreeves, in the effort to assassinate John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States, on November 22nd, 1963. While her exact role in the assassination plot remains unknown, she is suspected of becoming radicalised through manipulation or coercian by Vanya Hargreeves and her terrorist co-conspirators. Having lived a relatively normal suburban life before the assassination, Cooper's life took a dramatic turn around the time Kennedy was killed, Cooper appeared on the FBI's most wanted list for the murder of her husband, Carl Cooper, in 1963 and her alleged connection to the Kennedy assassination. Sissy Cooprt died in Oakland, California under a false name. -- KENOSHA, Wisconsin (pop. 62,899, met. area 100,615; alt. 610ft) is a manufactoring center on the western shore of LAke Michigan. Kenosha lies about 8 miles north of the Wisconsin-Illinois boundary line. The city is about 35 miles south of Milwaukee, and about 55 miles north of Chicago. For location, see WISCONSIN (politcal map). KENSICO DAM stores water for the water-supply system of New York City. It is cheifly an emergency resevoir, The dam extends across the Bronx River about 20 miles north of New York city. It is a concrete gravity-type structure, standing 307 feet high, 233 feer thick at the base, and 1,843 feet long, Kensico Dam can hold 93,905 acre-feet of water. A highway across the top of the dam leads to the aeration (ventilation) plant, which has 3,00 fountains. The dam was built on 1915 by the New York City Department of Water Supply. KENSINGTON RUNE STONE is a slab of stone bearing an inscription in Scandinacion runic letters (see RUNE). Olof Ohman, a Swedish farmer, found the stone on his farm near Kensington, Minn, in 1898, this inscription tells of a party of Swedish and Norweigan vikings who ser out from their settlements in Vinland (America) on an exploration journey westward. The inscription is dated 1362, or 130 years before Columbus discovered America. Some scholars have regarded the stone as a forgery, while others have defended it as genuine. The rune stone is still a 232 [picture of Sissy from 1963] Sissy Cooper manged to evade the law until her death in Oakland, California. Infinitum Archive subject of controversy. It is in the possession of the Alexandria (Minn.) Chamber of Commerce. A replica appears on exhibit in the National Museum in Washington, D.C. KENTUCKY is one of the border states that lie between the North and the South. Its long northern border is formed by the Ohio River, on of the traditional boundaries between the Northern States and the Southern States. Kentucky also forms a link between two of the great land features of the United STates, its eastern border touches the Appalachian Mountains. About 350 miles to the west, Kentucky touches the Mississippi Ricer, Kentucky was admitted into the UUnion as the 19th state on June 1, 1792, splitting from Virginia in the process. It is known as the "Bluegrass State", a nickname based on Kentucky bluegrass, a species of grass found in many of its pastures, which has supported the thoroughbred horse industry in the center of the state. It is home to the world's longest cave syste,: Mammoth Cave National Park, as well as the greatest length of navigable waterways and streams in the contiguous United States and the two largest man-made lakes east of th Mississippi River, located within the southeastern interior portion of Nother America, Kentucky has a slimate that is best described as a humid subtropical climate, only small higher areas

[happilylovingchaos]

911 Lone Star Countdown - Disasters Week Questions

Hello and thank you for including me @lonestar-s5countdown! This is a little trickier for me to answer tbh. I think 9-1-1 might stand to have longer-lasting consequences from their natural disasters (no need to skip past tsunami wreckage recovery or months-long rebuilding of the highway collapse, those would make some meaty dramatic narrative arcs), but otherwise it so far edges out Lone Star when it comes to order of experience (like, which state got which disaster first).

1) My favorite disaster… okay, gonna have to divvy btwn the 9-1-1s for this!

The plane crash in 9-1-1 (OG) would probably be my underrated favorite in terms of narrative developments for Buck, Bobby and Abby.

Season 4’s heat wave was more glossed over for plot setup, but I didn’t mind this natural disaster precisely because it was a little smaller in scale and because the plot setups (even the Iris arc tho that definitely needed fine tuning in hindsight) hooked me in already. (I also didn’t mind Brianna and Caleb in this one b/c this time Caleb’s situation was not his own fault.)

2) Since they’ve already done tornadoes (though, there’s always a chance they’ll do those again), a volcanic eruption, wildfires and a winter storm, I would think the only disasters LS hasn’t gotten down yet are freeway collapses, floods (barring how the cast would look while soaking wet, don’t ignore areas like Galveston, writers! There’s WAY more to the state than farmland, Dallas, Austin and El Paso yk! Let’s just say before I digress I kinda wish the showrunners were able to film in actual Texas), a border skirmish (just out of genuine interest— not getting any more political and no Owen’s refugee rescue doesn’t count) or droughts/ water shortages (no, heat waves also don’t count). I also just realized that the domestic terrorist arc could have waited for a later season too! O’Brien and Owen had chaotic good vibes much akin to him and Billy Tyson (if the three of them worked together tho? The 126 should probably move their whole firefighter team out of Travis County b/c they ain’t gonna go through the second-hand pain again).

3) They had and lost me at meteor/ asteroid, so I’m not sure I’d say looking forward to it. It all depends on execution, I suppose? (Sorry for the question mark, I’m just baffled since that usually needs film-length amount of time— I’ve seen the film Deep Impact. Scientific nitpicks aside the investigations, action and future implications in that film were well-paced enough.)

4) My top 3? Judd b/c he’s a great all-around leader whenever shit hits the fan— honest (sometimes to a fault but I can kinda relate), strong integrity and conscientiousness, and so dad-like even before he became a dad. Mateo b/c he’d be like the underrated badass youngest brother of any group— speaking as an only child tho. Third… boy, I can’t break this tie. It’s a draw between Tommy (she’s very composed and professional even during the times she isn’t) and Paul (I’d like to learn memorization-observational skills from him, and he fits the “cool Zen mode” temperament a little better than Carlos, don’t @ me).

5) This is painful… okay I’m so sorry. I don’t think I can answer this one as of now.

Tagging next: @lutavero @reyesstrand @toomanycupsoftea @fitzherbertssmolder @marjansmarwani @trkstrnd

[cynicalclassicist]

The best of luck for Colin Allred. Though most people would be a better Senator than Ted Cruz.

[tomorrowusa]

Another January 6th terrorists gets sent to prison for a very long time. 👍🏼😀

This time it's 37-year-old David Dempsey who was sentenced to 240 months in prison for his violent attacks on police officers.

David Nicholas Dempsey’s sentence is among the longest among hundreds of Capitol riot prosecutions. Prosecutors described him as one of the most violent members of the mob of Donald Trump supporters that attacked the Capitol as lawmakers met to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory. Dempsey, who is from Van Nuys, stomped on police officers’ heads. He swung poles at officers defending a tunnel, struck an officer in the head with a metal crutch and attacked police with pepper spray and broken pieces of furniture, prosecutors said. He climbed atop other rioters, using them like “human scaffolding” to reach officers guarding a tunnel entrance. He injured at least two police officers, prosecutors said. “Your conduct on January 6th was exceptionally egregious,” U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth told Dempsey. “You did not get carried away in the moment.”

FYI: Judge Lamberth, who imposed the stiff sentence on Dempsey, is a Texas-born Ronald Reagan appointee. Just sayin'.

Dempsey was wearing a tactical vest, a helmet and an American flag gaiter covering his face when he attacked police at a tunnel leading to the Lower West Terrace doors. He shot pepper spray at Metropolitan Police Department Detective Phuson Nguyen just as another rioter yanked at the officer’s gas mask, prosecutors wrote. “The searing spray burned Detective Nguyen’s lungs, throat, eyes, and face and left him gasping for breath, fearing he might lose consciousness and be overwhelmed by the mob,” they wrote. Dempsey then struck MPD Sgt. Jason Mastony in the head with a metal crutch, cracking the shield on his gas mask and cutting his head. “I collapsed and caught myself against the wall as my ears rang. I was able to stand again and hold the line for a few more minutes until another assault by rioters pushed the police line back away from the threshold of the tunnel,” Mastony said in a statement submitted to the court.

Dempsey is a violent terrorist. Like many Nazi Brown Shirts of the 1930s, he has an extensive criminal record.

This is from Sedition Hunters, an online group dedicated to identifying and tracking down January 6th terrorists.

This is one of the terrorists who Weird Donald Trump refers to as "patriots" and "hostages". Trump has promised a pardon for all the January 6th terrorists if he's returned to office. Let Trump win and he will not be the only criminal who walks the streets freely as a result. A vote for Harris-Walz is a vote against domestic terrorism.

[beardedmrbean]

A Texas doctor who was dubbed a "medical terrorist," was found guilty of injecting heart-stopping poison into IVs at his former medical clinic in North Dallas.

FOX 4 in Dallas reported that a 12-person jury found Dr. Raynaldo Ortiz guilty on all 10 counts after nearly seven hours of deliberation.

When the verdict was read, Ortiz was reportedly wearing a mask and showed no emotion.

As a result of Ortiz’s action, several patients suffered cardiac emergencies and Dr. Melanie Kaspar died after using one of the IV bags, prosecutors said.

TEXAS DOCTOR ACCUSED OF POISONING PATIENTS BEGS FOR BAIL, GIVES NEW DETAILS ABOUT DOG SHOOTING

Federal prosecutors said the anesthesiologist committed the shocking crimes at Baylor Scott and White Surgicare North Dallas in retaliation for a medical misconduct probe. 

A criminal complaint accused Ortiz of injecting nerve blocking and bronchodilation drugs into patient IV bags.

Surveillance video showed the doctor placing an IV bag in a stainless steel warmer outside an operating room on Aug. 19, 2022. Minutes later, another staffer took the bag, and a patient soon after reportedly suffered a heart attack. 

DALLAS DOCTOR DUBBED ‘MEDICAL TERRORIST’ AFTER CAUGHT TAMPERING WITH IV BAGS

Ortiz’s colleague, beloved anesthesiologist Melanie Kaspar, took a contaminated IV bag home on June 21 to rehydrate due to an illness. Almost immediately after inserting the IV into her vein, she suffered a serious cardiac event and died. An autopsy showed she was fatally poisoned by bupivacaine — a numbing agent that the Justice Department said "is rarely abused" but used to alleviate pain during surgery.

"There’s no closure. My best friend is gone," John Kaspar, Dr. Melanie Kaspar’s widower reportedly said shortly after the verdict. "I don’t think he ever looked me in the eye… It’s almost like you have so many emotions you can’t sift them out. You get flooded."

The station reported that the witnesses called to the stand during the trial included the anesthesiologist who discovered the bags were tainted, John Kaspar, and a teen who suffered cardiac arrest during nose surgery.

The incidents first began two days after Oritz was notified of a disciplinary inquiry against him over his handling of a medical emergency. Other doctors noted he complained the center was trying to "crucify" him.

FOX 4 reported that there were 13 patients between May and August 2022 who experienced similar cardiac emergencies, though prosecutors only charged the doctor with causing bodily injury to four of the patients in August.

A judge had ordered Ortiz be held before trial after prosecutors argued that he was a danger to the community by citing, in part, a 2015 incident in which he shot his neighbor's dog in retaliation for the woman helping his then-girlfriend obtain a restraining order against him after a domestic violence incident.

Ortiz was convicted of four counts of tampering with consumer products resulting in serious bodily injury, one count of tampering with a consumer product and five counts of intentional adulteration of a drug, prosecutors said.

Ortiz is expected to be sentenced in two to three months. He faces up to life in prison.

[thedepressedjuggalette]

Crockett SHREDS Racist "Anti-DEI" Republican in Ruthless Fashion.

[ahaura]

the u.s. (along with england, canada, australia, france, etc.) is entirely complicit in the apartheid state, through directly funding and aiding israel and also enforcing anti-palestinian sentiments and legislation domestically. as of 2021, it is illegal in 35 states to participate in a BDS movement. if you want to be a teacher in texas it is illegal for you to advocate for palestine. from the canary project - an organization whose goal is to doxx pro-palestinian advocates - to telling jewish people they're "self-hating" and "terrorist loving" for saying palestinians are human beings and occupation is wrong - and most recently, france making pro-palestine protests illegal - the entire western media and imperialist apparatus is by design to support and enforce other colonial powers. this is not by accident.

[haggishlyhagging]

The link in this chapter between misogyny and public acts of slaughter is astonishing. Two of the men, Adam Lanza and Kevin Neal, murdered close female relatives before embarking on massacres. Another, Devin Kelley, was hoping to kill his mother-in-law when he started firing in a church in Texas. Nikolas Cruz subjected his adoptive mother to a decade of abuse and stalked an ex-girlfriend before he is alleged to have carried out a school shooting. Two other stalkers - Jarrod Ramos and Seung-Hui Cho - used modern technology to harass women they knew from school and college. Elliot Rodger, a pathologically insecure and self-obsessed misogynist, has become a hero for some angry young men who don't have instant access to sex whenever they want it.

At least two of the killers in this chapter had sadomasochistic fantasies about women. Stephen Paddock was wealthy enough to pay vulnerable women to allow him to act them out, avoiding unwanted attention from the law. Robert Dear Jnr looked for ‘discreet’ partners - presumably he meant women who wouldn't report him for beating them up - on dating sites and was arrested on suspicion of rape, although the case was dropped. Dear's history is remarkable both for the number of women he abused and as an example of the dire consequences of failing to prosecute men for domestic and sexual violence.

The same failure comes up time and time again, suggesting that police and prosecutors lack the will or the competence to get convictions - and don't understand that violence in the home may be an early warning sign of violent intentions towards strangers. It is bad enough that this happens in countries like the UK where many women feel they can't rely on the police to protect them against angry and unstable family members, let alone sexual predators. But it is nothing short of catastrophic in the US, where convictions for rape and some - though by no means all - forms of domestic violence are among the few obstacles to the easy purchase of semi-automatic weapons. There are significant gaps in the legislation: federal law designed to prevent domestic abusers buying firearms applies only to men who beat up wives or women with whom they have a child. Some of the most common types of abuse - stalking, for example, or violence against a mother - aren't covered by federal law, leaving it to individual states to prevent access to guns by convicted stalkers.

Even when a man has a relevant conviction, the information isn't always recorded or shared in the proper manner, a point demonstrated by the failure of the USAF to inform the federal authorities about Devin Kelley's convictions for brutal assaults on his first wife and stepson. The fact remains that, had Kelley's history been shared with the federal database, he wouldn't have been allowed to purchase the weapons he used in the Sutherland Springs shooting - and twenty-six people, including the fourteen-year-old daughter of the church pastor, might still be alive today. Likewise, had Dear been convicted of rape or beating up his ex-wives, he wouldn't have been able to amass the arsenal of firearms he used in the Colorado Springs attack, potentially saving the lives of the three strangers he murdered.

-Joan Smith, Home Grown: How Domestic Violence Turns Men Into Terrorists

[reynita9]

The hypervigalence of my brain makes me think like.: 3 train derailments in 1 week. It’s MORE than OHIO. Which is fucked. (Texas & South Carolina) mixed with this “ufo” (psyop) they’re about to be like, “domestic terrorists” “threat to national security” and further oppress people within the US borders. at the same time say it’s for our safety and further suppress freedom of speech/thought/movement and build up support for going to war with China. There was a military general who said we’d be at war with China by 2025. So now when I think of, my position, I know I’d be considered redacted. And that scares me. And I domt think war will be fought body to body. Militaries all around the globe are investing lots and lots of money into bio weapons and subversion through mixed information and creating deep insecurity. Every day my grandma tells me she’s ready to die and this current world is too scary for her. She’s healthy and 79 but is losing the will to live because she doesn’t know who she can trust and it eats away at her. I think many people can relate. It’s just. Insane. U know? …. “Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.” Somehow humans always persevere. I can’t tell if we are still in weak men create hard times or hard times create strong men. I really love so many of you and wish peace and health and security for you and your loved ones in these times. We are young still and we are going to see a lot being alive in this time specifically.

[mariacallous]

In June 2023, a group of Finland’s most notorious neo-Nazis and a few of their international friends ventured to a lakeside cabin resort set against picturesque woodlands some 120 kilometres north of Helsinki.

They called the gathering ‘White Boy Summer Fest’ after an internet meme co-opted by far-right extremists.  Bellingcat first investigated the phenomenon in 2021. Run by a far-right cultural collective and combat sports group, the event was first held last year, and organisers have indicated plans to make White Boy Summer Fest (WBS) an annual affair.

Over two days, attendees watched far-right bands perform, participated in combat sports, and mingled with other hate group members in hot tubs. Observers warn that neo-Nazi networks — including international ones like the Hammerskins, whose members attended WBS — use events like these to network, radicalise each other, recruit new members and raise money. 

Organisers have successfully kept the locations of the 2022 and 2023 WBS events hidden from the public — until now. Thanks to Bellingcat’s Global Authentication Project (GAP) and burgeoning Discord community, we geolocated both events to rural accommodations belonging to Evo Nature Ltd, a hospitality company in southern Finland. According to its website, Evo has properties in 15 locations between Helsinki and Tampere and received approximately 30,000 customers in 2019.

When asked about the booking, Evo owner Kaj Järvinen told Bellingcat he had no knowledge of the events held by WBS and emphasised that his properties receive a large number of bookings each year.

“I have no clue whatsoever about these type of events. We have around 20 large rental properties. We receive more than 5,000 offer requests and around 1,000 group bookings on a yearly basis, and we do not ‘screen’ our customers if there are no obvious reasons visible.”

There is no suggestion that Evo broke any laws in renting out the property. Neo-Nazi groups in Finland have previously rented for-hire venues without the owner’s knowledge: for example a concert earlier this year was organised by the Jyväskylä branch of far-right network Blood and Honor at a leftist social club near the centre of the city.

In-person venues are nevertheless crucial to the neo-Nazi scene and related subcultures: Europol, the European Union (EU) law enforcement agency, noted they “place high value on physical meetings and group activities” in a report earlier this year.

The 2023 edition of WBS kicked off the evening of Friday, June 16. As photos posted by organisers on social media make clear, the spectacle was anything but subtle. Four Finnish neo-Nazi bands performed sets on a stage in a log cabin while flanked by two swastika banners. Some band members sported Nazi patches and symbols on their clothes and instruments.

In a video taken inside the cabin and posted by organisers, a flag of the international neo-Nazi network Blood & Honour hangs on a wall by the stage. As Bellingcat discussed in our investigation of European Fight Night in Hungary, Blood and Honour is banned in several European countries, including Germany and Spain. They were also listed as a terrorist organisation by the Canadian government in 2019.

Meanwhile, members of the domestic neo-Nazi group Crew 38 Finland attended WBS, according to their Telegram channel. 

According to a report earlier this year by Finland’s public broadcaster, police documents suggest five men arrested in 2021 over suspicion of planning terrorist attacks were significantly influenced by Crew 38 Finland, and met frequently with some of its members. 

Crew 38 Finland are also an affiliate of the international Hammerskins network. Founded in the late 1980s in Dallas, Texas, the Hammerskins are described as “the most violent and best-organised neo-Nazi skinhead group in the United States,” by the US-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

Nicolas Potter, a researcher at the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, a German NGO which works to combat racism and far-right extremism, warned EU policymakers in an address to the Council of Europe earlier this year that “classic neo-Nazi networks from the Hammerskins to Blood & Honour continue to forge international alliances,” adding “far-right rock festivals and Mixed Martial Arts tournaments serve as spaces of radicalisation, recruitment and fundraising.”

The weekend of events was about more than just music; participants could sit in the sauna, get a tattoo and buy clothes from extremist brands (some of which feature in our 2022 investigation of far-right fashion).

They could also watch a series of combat sports fights put on by Veren Laki (‘Law of Blood’), one of the event’s co-organisers. According to Tommi Kotonen, an expert on far-right extremism in Finland, Veren Laki is linked to the Finnish branch of the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement (Finnish acronym PVL). The country’s highest court issued a temporary ban against the group in 2019 due to its spreading of hate speech and use of violence.

Veren Laki is linked to other similar groups internationally that focus on combat sports and training for physical confrontation. According to the organisation’s Telegram channel, a fighter from Veren Laki fought at the far-right combat sports event European Fight Night in Hungary in May 2023. At WBS 2023, photos show several fighters wearing equipment from Pride France, a brand run by French neo-Nazi Tomasz Szkatulski. Currently based in Sofia, Bulgaria, Szkatulski posted on his Telegram channel that he was banned from entering Germany for ten years in July 2023.

The fights outside were followed by another indoor concert. Four bands, including two from Italy, took to the now swastika-free stage to play. Green Arrows, an Italian band popular across Europe’s far-right extremist music scenes, headlined. Green Arrows has publicly declared their support for Italy’s neo-fascist CasaPound movement — the movement’s flag adorned the stage during their set.

But where exactly did all of this take place? Upon seeing photos and video of the event, one of Bellingcat’s volunteers who is based in Finland thought the location looked familiar and began to investigate.

Suspecting it was one of a series of rentable rural cottages in the southern Finnish Lakeland, he soon found a possible venue location on Google Maps.

Open source techniques confirmed his suspicion. He later realised he had been to the location as part of a routine work retreat. A comparison of photos and a video shared by WBS organisers with images of the property posted on Evo’s website confirmed the location of WBS 2023 — a log cabin in the Hämeenlinna region described as an “atmospheric event space” with a small stage and room for 100 people. The barn is part of a seven-acre rental complex with villa apartments, three hot tubs and a lakeside sauna. The site, which is advertised for corporate retreats and family holidays, is approximately a two-hour drive from Finland’s capital, Helsinki, and 90 minutes from Tampere, Finland’s second-largest urban area. Photos of the venue from the owner’s website showed a room whose wooden beams match those seen in photos of a musical performance during WBS 2023.

Furthermore, the pattern observed on a wooden beam as well as the gaps in the wood of the log cabin matches photos of the cabin on the accommodation website with those in a photo posted by WBS participants.

But what about the previous year’s “festivities” at WBS 2022?

One of the organisers’  Telegram channels outlined to attendees that the 2023 location wasn’t the same as in 2022, but “about a 15-minute drive from last year’s location.” 

Searching for similar rentable rural venues in the vicinity of the 2023 event, Bellingcat found the location of the 2022 event — a small villa of red-sided cabins owned by the same hospitality company.

While WBS organisers have announced plans for a 2024 edition, it is unclear if a venue has been chosen. One thing is clear: the value of gatherings like these to the far-right organisations.

Not only do they provide groups a chance to share and promote their ideology, the Financial Action Task Force, the Paris-based global money-laundering watchdog, said in a 2021 report that “most of the funding for extreme right-wing groups appears to come from licit sources” including concert organising and merchandise sales.