Some time before August 23, Patriot Front polluted downtown Lakeland, FL with their usual racist and fascist posters. They didn’t last long. Anti-Fascists activists tore down and burned what was still visible on Aug 23, but the City of Lakeland’s graffiti removal teams and/or local citizens had already taken care of much of the problem. The remnants found on Aug 23 were turned into Patriot Front fondue with fire and a steel pot.

On the 23ed of August, pro-choice protesters showed up in front of the White House with a single demand: that US President Joe Biden follow through with his earlier remarks about declaring a state of Public Heath Emergency over abortion access.

Biden or his advisers have previously floated the idea of declaring a federal state of emergency (similar to what was done for covid) to block anti-choice states from interfering with the mail or the right to travel across state lines for abortion. There has been pressure on Biden to go further and have the Federal government itself provide abortion services off of Federal land.

Many of the anti-abortion states have huge amounts of land controlled by the Bureau of Land Management or the US Park Service as well as sprawling military bases and downtown Federal buildings. All of these are places doctors employed by the Federal government could provide abortion services with likely immunity against state prosecution. States would instead have to attempt to prosecute the Federal government itself and would be “Trumped” so to speak by sovereign immunity.

Photo by Mel

Photo by Mel

Photo by Mel

On the 21st of August, Florida’s religious extremist governor Ron DaSantis held a campaign rally at of all places Metro-Dade Firefighters Local 1403. The rally was for his far-right agenda in the schools and school board candidates he supports. Two protesters managed to get inside and disrupt the event while Proud Boys tried and failed stop more protests from being held outside.

Every time Proud Boys and Fascists attempted to close on the protesters, the cops realized the resulting battle would go poorly for the Proud Boys and the press would be awful for DeSantis. This resulting in cops doing the jobs of anti-fascists themselves, pushing their fellow fascists away from the protesters. Cops made threats of “trespass” events against the protesters, only to have the media “engage with large caliber video cameras” which caused the cops to back off.

Memmbers of the Vice City and Broward County chapters of the Proud Boys and so-called “Moms for Liberty” were spotted outside the event.

Special thanks to Thomas Kennedy for the close-up clip of the disruption inside, nearly in the Governor’s face!

The protest against DeSantis (Photo by Jonathan DeCamps)

We Say Gay!(Photo by Jonathan DeCamps)

Anarchists push into the street(Photo by Jonathan DeCamps)

Proud Boy and J6 defendent Gabriel Garcia poses with the protest against DeSantis in the background. Two middle fingers, zero follow-through

This is the pro-DeSantis counterprotest by Proud Boys and other Fascists. Short man waving ID’d as Alexander Thomas, Chris Barcenasis in the white shirt to the left of him, Chris Nelson (also on the video) in the cowboy hat. On right, older man holding flagis Herbert Silver.

The drenching thunderstorms of Aug 10 cut power, flooded roads, and even forced high/swift water rescues. None of that stopped a hard core of pro-choice protesters from getting past all the obstacles to protest at the home of Supreme Court “Justice” Kavanaugh at the usual time and day.

Interestingly, Kavanaugh’s house down payment may have been made possible by a (legal to not report) gift from his father. His father Ed Kavanaugh retired from the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association with a $13 million severence package.
www(dot)motherjones.com/politics/2021/09/heres-the-truth-about-brett-kavanaughs-finances/
Note that one of the things that association tried to do was hold off demands from animal rights protesters that cosmetics not be tested on animals. Many cosmetic companies threw in the towel on vivisection.
www(dot)nytimes.com/1989/08/02/business/cosmetics-companies-quietly-ending-animal-tests.html
There are good reasons for this: Vivisection shares with the government taking control of women’s lives a tendency to attract protesters to the homes of those responsible for it. Anything and everything related to vivisection has quite often been targetted

In other words, Kavanaugh kills women (by denying them healthcare) and his father may have paid for his house by killing puppies (by enabling cosmetic testing at companies like HLS or Huntingdon Life Sciences).

In external links other than the video the . is replaced with (dot) to prevent the sites and potentially their trackers from autoloading. Video is on archive.org w no trackers and no IP address logs retained.

On the 5th of August, the Florida Board of Medicine held a “public hearing” on a proposal by FL Governor DeSantis (AKA DeSatan) to deny all gender affirming healthcare to transgender youth under 18-and bring back so-called “conversion therapy” it it’s place. Outside, transgender protesters and allies staged a press conference and die-in to condemn this deadly proposal. Suicides and deaths from denial of care are going to soar in Florida, and entire families may have to move to gender fugitive sanctuary states (like California will soon be) to escape the governor’s version of “Child Protective Services.”

The hearing itself was eerily reminescent of 2015-era FERC hearings on oil/gas pipeline eminent domain or the MD Inter-County Connector highway hearings. The hearing was a farce, a total dog and pony show with the public shunted off to an overflow room. Public input was duly noted and ignored, and the proposal was passed as no doubt intended from when the hearing was scheduled. This is an extremely common governmental approach in the US: a decision is made, then a fake public hearing with input ignored is held to legalize the predetermined outcome.

As many of the protesters entered the building to attend this so-called hearing, Anarchist and militant Queer activists were blocked from following them inside. Police then became aggressive with them (not on video) and pursued them for several blocks before illegally arresting three activists. The Governor’s “Wizards of Oz” inside no doubt wanted to avoid having the curtain ripped off the true nature of this false hearing.

Although a few DeSatan supporters in hypocritical “let kids be kids” buttons that disregard letting trans kids be ANYTHING showed up outside, the Proud Boys and Nazi flag wavers seen at recent events in Orlando and Tampa were thankfully either nowhere to be found or hiding out of sight. Possibly associating the Governor’s proposal with Nazi flags and Trump’s Proud Boys “SA” thugs was seen as simply generating too much blowback. With the high death rate now forecast for transgender kids, things are about to get very ugly and no doubt violent incidents will ensure as transgender teens and in some cases their parents defend themselves from DeSantis’s gender police. Passage of this proposal is tantamount to a declaration of war on transgender families by the Governor.

In addition to scenes.noblogs.org https://twitter.com/mphproject and https://twitter.com/defendATLforest are also covering the intense fight to defend the Atlanta Forest and stop the Cop City/Black Hall sound studio project. On the 3ed of August they reported an intense confrontation, with flaming barricades set but possibly breached, one arrest, but after a day of battle the cops had gained very little ground. They were able to clear only a tiny area of forest adding to the existing powerline cut possibly near an existing entrance to the forest.
No attempt was made to remove the heavily defended treesits.

It appears this is part of an attempt to install a natural gas pipeline, presumably the distribution line so the police training facility and Black Hall’s sound stages can have gas heat in the winter.

Some on Twitter have invoked fears that this could end up like MOVE, but MOVE was defending a single fortified rowhouse from the Philadelphia cops when the cops dropped a single improvised bomb (an IED) from a helicopter. While many indeed fear this situation too could end in extreme police violence, the air power available to the Dekalb County cops etc is insufficient for a bombing campaign against a large forested area. There would be no way to cover up an attempt,and the response from activists coast to coast would be withering and cost the government many,many times the value of this dispute. In the current, near-civil war political environment such violence by police anywhere could set off a hurricane of fighting everywhere. The Trump-loving MAGAts and open Fascists would probably scream, and from there matters could escalate completely out of control.

Here is the burning barricade, looks like burning tires from the smoke and configuration:

twitter(dot)com/MPHProject/status/1554837639924105222 photo (note that the ? and everything after it in the twitter URL has been removed to blind Twitter’s tracker, link broken to prevent Twitter and its TRACKERS from loading with this page, replace (dot) with . to use the link)

THIS is all they got:

(new cut is the path on top left of the powerline cut

Another view of the same cut, both from
twitter(dot)com/defendATLforest/status/1554979418023542786

(links broken to prevent Twitter and its TRACKERS from loading with this page, replace (dot) with . to use the links)

This cut may be related to this gas pipeline work:

The tow truck in flames after the final counterattack finished it off

Updated 8-3-2022 with new information from https://scenes.noblogs.org/post/2022/08/02/report-back-on-the-fight-between-milsap-dozer-cops-and-forest-defenders/

On the 29th of July, the governmental and corporate bodies associated with the “Cop City” police training range project and Black Hall’s sound stage project tried again. This time they got ugly, sending a tow truck both to bring in a mini-excavator and to commit grand theft auto against forest defenders whose cars were believed to be the cars parked in Welaunee People’s Park.

Forest defenders found a man named Anthony Wayne James sitting (and FUMING) in the excavator. He attemtpted to destroy “the gazebo, porta potties,paved trails, and to re-close the barriers at the front of the park.” He had two Dekalb County cops backing him up. The defenders at the scene blocked the excavator with their bodies until reinforcements could arrive. When they did, the defenders opened up with a hail of rocks and “other projectiles” and Anthony Wayne James was forced to retreat with his machine.

The attack did not go well for the Ryan Milsap and his tow truck either: a heavy counterattack badly damaged the tow truck, to the point it now has to be recovered by tow truck itself. Multiple groups attacked the tow truck at intervals and finally it was set on fire. Due to tire damage common in vehicle fires, recovery will now require a flatbed or dollies. The truck is probably a total loss, a few tons of scrap steel and aluminum. The excavator attack failed as well, the machine being driven off under a hail of rocks by the defenders of the forest.

Tow truck after first counterattack

Tow truck after second counterattack

As for the proposed use of heavy machinery to demolish a structure or anything else while people are still in it, this has happened before (notably in DC) and the defenders of the forest were not having it. The Washington DC incident was an Oct 4, 2021 police and trash truck assault on unhoused camps at the L and M st underpasses. During that attack, one of “Bowser’s Panzers” (her mini-dozers) picked up an occupied tend and injured its defender. The resulting public fury delayed further attacks on unhoused camps in DC for over a month. From this incident it can be concluded that here like in Israel, cops or their agents who bring demolition equipment up to an occupied tent or structure intend to demolish it with people inside, without regard for their safety.

The communiques received and source of the photos:

https://scenes.noblogs.org/post/2022/08/02/report-back-on-the-fight-between-milsap-dozer-cops-and-forest-defender

On the final day of the fourth week of action, forest defenders awoke to shouts about police activity in the recently reopened Intrenchment Creek/ Weelaunee People’s Park parking lot.

We arrived to find an angry man named Anthony Wayne James sitting in an excavator and threatening to destroy the gazebo, porta potties,paved trails, and to re-close the barriers at the front of the park, effectively re-closing the public infrastructure. A small number of forest defenders blocked the excavator with only their bodies, including a few who remained under the gazebo while it was struck by the excavator bucket.

More forest defenders soon arrived and began to drive back the excavator with rocks and other projectiles. The irate operator had two Dekalb County police officers to back him up, as well as two other men waiting on the street. It was soon revealed that one of those was Ryan Millsap himself. Millsap believes he is the owner of the land in question, after a controversial land-swap agreement between the Dekalb County government and Blackhall Studios sought to give the land over to the film company so that they could develop it into the largest soudnstage complex on Earth. Millsap has since sold much of his holdings in the company in a fashion that nullifies the agreements with the County government and gives, he believes, Millsap personal ownership of the land with few or no obligations to the public.

After a brief interlude, in which forest defenders oriented themselves, the crowd of a few dozen advanced on the attackers. Masked defenders threw rocks at the County police and broke windows out of the truck that was used to carry the excavator in on a flatbed trailer. With the excavator outside the park, a barricade was erected to keep it from re-entering, and volleys of rocks and canned sparkling water kept the police and workers back. Ryan Millsap fled in another vehicle after he was called out by name. When the windows of the excavator were broken, Anthony Wayne James reappeared and repeatedly threatened to shoot all the forest defenders and motioned as if he had a gun several times. Millsap appeared to oversea all of this from a distance. Undeterred by his threats, defenders held the barricades and drove the attackers all the way to the end of the block.

With the immediate threat gone, a search through the truck left in the parking lot revealed a number of contracts for Blackhall Studios, Blackhall Rental Company, Anthony Wayne James drivers license and numerous credit cards. The registration for the vehicle revealed that it was owned personally by Ryan Millsap himself. A great cheer of delight went up after this news was spread, and the mechanic crew stripped the car completely, damaging each and every component of the Ram 5500 that was purchased for $62,500 by Millsap in 2020. The crowd dispersed, having assured the safety of park attendees, and the sanctity of the land. A few hours later, some anonymous individuals burned the truck.

After being held through the morning to ensure no reentry for the police or Millsap and his goons, the barricade was dismantled and the park was open again to the public. By evening, hundreds of people arrived to the forest for the final night of an autonomously organized music festival, passing through the barriers and past the burned-out vehicle, which became something of a public installation and photographic back-drop.

https://scenes.noblogs.org/post/2022/07/31/tow-truck-set-on-fire-in-south-atlanta-forest-mini-excavator-scared-off/

Early Friday July.29th, a tow truck was sent to tow various community members & forest defenders vehicles from the Welaunee People’s Park… Several different autonomous groups took action to stop tow truck, one by slashing tires, smashing windows, graffiti, & generally fucking it up, & a mini excavator was also subsequently ushered out of parking lot near woods & cops kept at bay.
Later, another group came through & set that evil thing (tow truck) on fire.
The tow truck is no more, & we hope this serves as a warning to other tow trucks & various machines thinking about entering the forest to evict or destroy the woods, that you will inevitably suffer the same fate.
DEFEND THE FOREST! No cop city! No Black Hall sound stage everrrrrrr!

https://scenes.noblogs.org/post/2022/07/30/ryan-milsaps-tow-truck-destroyed-in-weelaunee-peoples-park/

Tow truck smashed in ICP lot. Contents redistributed for better use.

In Florida, fascist and theocratic governor DeSantis (AKA DeSatan) is pushing a proposal before the FL Board of Medicine to replace all gender-affirming care for anyone under 18 with “conversion therapy” and limit access for those over 18. Activists held an emergency protest in Orlando ahead of the major Fri Aug 5 protest at the Board meeting in Ft Lauderdale. Proud Boys and fascist media showed up but were unable to significantly interfere with this protest.

While the Proud Boys cheered at speaking passages about Fascism, genocide etc, the cheers for the most part could not be heard over the reaction from protest participants. Lacking the numbers to assault the rally without ending up in the hospital, and lacking the audio power to disrupt the rally with sound, they were rendered completely ineffective. They even left shortly before the rally dispersed, yielding posession of the field to LGBTQ activists.

Confirmed Fascists present were Proud Boy Luke Rohlfing, Infowars “media” fool Benjamin Frisby aka “Databattlesz,” Roger Stone acolyte Jacob Engels and two unidentified as of yet Proud Boys who no doubt will soon be indentified. This is a total of 5 fascists, and they were outnumbered 10 to one or more by rally participants. Somehow the Orlando cops correctly identified the public safety hazard, standing facing the Fascists instead of the nonviolent protest. Had the Fascists assaulted the rally with cops “standing down and standing by,” they would have done quite poorly against ten times their numbers of tough, street-hardened transgender activists and other LGBTQ allies.

Resistance!

The well-defended speaking stage

The two unidentifed Proud Boys/Nazis. Black and gold are the Proud Boys colors, it is considered CONFIRMED that these two are Proud Boys unless they are wannabes

Benjamin Frisby on L, Jacob Engels in the center, and one of the unidentified Proud Boys on the right

from
https://scenes.noblogs.org/post/2022/07/29/orlando-usa-banner-drop-in-solidarity-with-forest-defenders/

Orlando USA Banner Drop In Solidarity With Forest Defenders

In solidarity with forest defenders <3
From Orlando with love and rage! We will carry the spirit of defiance
seen these past months in defense of the wild to the placated streets of
our city. A wild rage has been released, we carry it in our hearts.
The flame burns on!
-1312
ORL to ATL
-Received Anonymously Over Email

As this is written, reports have come in of Federal thugs raiding Umoja Party leader Omali Yeshtela’s home. The supposed target of the investigation is “Russian Influence” but unless Putin is paying reparations for European assaults on Africa while invading Ukraine himself such influence seems highly unlikely.

If Biden’s FBI wants to target a major Russian influence operation in Florida, Trump’s compound in Mar-a-Lago would be a good place to start. It has been proven over and over again that Trump and Putin (BOTH of whom are Fascists) worked together to disrupt and take control of the 2016 US Presidential election.

By comparison, the Umoja Party promotes Black self-sufficiency and payment of reparations by white people for the damage their ancestors inflicted on Black people through slavery, Jim Crow, and so much more. There are outright fortunes built on the backs of slave labor still in existance today,notably Georgetown University in Washington DC, the US Capitol there as well, insurance companies still in business today that wrote policies for slaveowners, and so much more. Removal from the US economic past of the labor stolen from enslaved people would cause the current economy to collapse like the house of cards it is.

Thus, the goals of the Umoja Party (Black liberation) are not compatable with the goals of Putin (conquest of Europe and domination of a continent by one country). This in turn suggests that the real motivations for the raid have nothing to do with Russia and sure as hell have nothing to do with Putin or his invasion and bombardment of Ukraine. Instead, “Russian Influence” is probably being used as a fig leaf to cover continuing and ongoing FBI harassment of anyone who dares to step out of line and challenge white supremacy. After all, the FBI was founded to attack anarchists and other enemies of capitalism, racism and the US government at that time.