#republished — Public Fediverse posts

James Gandolfini Had A Lot In His Bag

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://defector.com/james-gandolfini-had-a-lot-in-his-bag

James Gandolfini Had A Lot In His Bag

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://defector.com/james-gandolfini-had-a-lot-in-his-bag

NJ ICE Agent “El Gordo” Identified as Michael Smith of Bucks County PA

Republished From The Toto Report

Last Fall a South Jersey ICE agent, nicknamed “El Gordo”, gained infamy for repeatedly harassing, kidnapping, and terrorizing immigrant communities in and around Lakewood, NJ.

El Gordo has now been verified to be Warrington PA (Bucks County) resident Michael “Mike” Smith.

Just as his namesake implies, Smith lives an unremarkable and boring life when he is not breaking apart families and traumatizing NJ residents. Currently, Smith lives in Warrington, PA with his last known address being located on Palomino Drive. He is 41 years, is married, is a homeowner, has two children, and is a Disney Adult.

Previously, Smith lived in Camden County, NJ and still maintains ties to that area of South Jersey.

Smith has several identifying features including a dark closely trimmed beard, dark unkempt hair, wide set hips, and several poorly done tattoos on his upper arms and chest.

Smith was employed as a U.S. Marshal for some time, however, it is not clear at the time of publishing if he is operating solely as an ICE agent or doing double duty while maintaining a position within the U.S. Marshals.

Mike Smith, you no longer have the protection of anonymity. Any sense of safety you had before is now over. The entire tri-state region is now aware of your identity and what you are.

NJ ICE Agent “El Gordo” Identified as Michael Smith of Bucks County PA

Republished From The Toto Report

Last Fall a South Jersey ICE agent, nicknamed “El Gordo”, gained infamy for repeatedly harassing, kidnapping, and terrorizing immigrant communities in and around Lakewood, NJ.

El Gordo has now been verified to be Warrington PA (Bucks County) resident Michael “Mike” Smith.

Just as his namesake implies, Smith lives an unremarkable and boring life when he is not breaking apart families and traumatizing NJ residents. Currently, Smith lives in Warrington, PA with his last known address being located on Palomino Drive. He is 41 years, is married, is a homeowner, has two children, and is a Disney Adult.

Previously, Smith lived in Camden County, NJ and still maintains ties to that area of South Jersey.

Smith has several identifying features including a dark closely trimmed beard, dark unkempt hair, wide set hips, and several poorly done tattoos on his upper arms and chest.

Smith was employed as a U.S. Marshal for some time, however, it is not clear at the time of publishing if he is operating solely as an ICE agent or doing double duty while maintaining a position within the U.S. Marshals.

Mike Smith, you no longer have the protection of anonymity. Any sense of safety you had before is now over. The entire tri-state region is now aware of your identity and what you are.

What It’s Like To Watch The World Cup From Gaza

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://defector.com/what-its-like-to-watch-the-world-cup-from-gaza

What It’s Like To Watch The World Cup From Gaza

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://defector.com/what-its-like-to-watch-the-world-cup-from-gaza

Left In The Dungeon

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://defector.com/left-in-the-dungeon

“These free human beings of planet Earth need to be liberated”: An Interview with a Delaney Hall Frontliner

Republished From Perilous Chronicle

In response to a hunger strike and labor strike inside an immigrant detention center in Newark, New Jersey called Delaney Hall, hundreds have gathered outside the facility, providing material support to the resistance within by blocking ICE vehicles coming in and out of the jail. Rebels outside have showed remarkable courage in facing down lines of ICE agents, taking blows and faces full of pepper spray and coming right back to hold the line. 

A similar event took place at Delaney Hall almost exactly one year ago. Together, these events stand out in the historical record as extremely rare, and perhaps even unprecedented in the contemporary era, instances of resistance inside being met with simultaneous insurgency outside the facility. They reveal an immediately actionable abolitionist praxis in the face of ascendent fascism.

We were lucky enough to get to talk to someone fresh off the front lines at Delaney Hall as they were heading home still exhausted from the battle with flailing ICE agents desperate to maintain their fragile order. The following interview was a collaboration between Perilous Chronicle and Living & Fighting.

Perilous Chronicle: What is Delaney Hall and what’s been going on there this week?

Anonymous: Delaney Hall is down an the industrial area of Newark, New Jersey. It’s part of an ongoing federal plan to build a network of concentration camps for mass deportation efforts and civil disobedience control.

This particular facility, Delaney, is privately run by Geo Group and they are directly profiting from the immiseration and suffering of these people under torturous conditions where there has been fetid, maggoty food, there have been regular beatings and violence beyond the initial incarceration, beyond the abductions. There has been no medical care for those with chronic illness and people, especially children and elderly people, have fallen ill as a result of the horrid conditions inside. Bathrooms that are unfit for human use, fluorescent lighting and insufficient bedding, people sleeping on hard floors. And so the people incarcerated in this concentration camp have come together to hunger strike and labor strike for their freedom and for the basic human dignity that is the birthright of every person.

And then the people outside are standing in solidarity with the folks inside. It’s very clear to those of us in the struggle that the mass incarceration of human beings is unacceptable. It’s a crime against humanity. It’s an affront to everything humane and upright.

Perilous: What your involvement’s been like?

A: I learned about the hunger strike slash labor strike through the kind of decentralized web of activists and anarchists and learned about the context for what was happening and decided that I needed to be there in solidarity. I think that if you’ve got clear moral vision for the world and some human compassion, you can’t help but come to the side of anyone standing against the empire and standing for human dignity.

And so my involvement up to this point has been entirely on the ground, showing up to protect comrades through de-arrest and through medical support and standing on front lines linked other comrades ready to hold the line against ICE as they try to get vehicles through. They were trying to transfer the hunger strikers from Delaney to another facility nearby to quash the resistance and to demoralize those who were participating. But that seems to have failed and the numbers have grown each night as more and more people become aware. We have succeeded in temporarily halting the movement in and out of the facility. People were able to block the road with debris and cause traffic jams. Comrades were able to directly put their bodies in front of the line of ICE Gestapo and in front of their vehicles to stop them from coming in and out.

But ultimately the fact that the state has sent so many well-armed, well-equipped thugs to put down this peaceful protest means that when they make the call and when they charge the line, there’s very little that we as unarmed people can do to resist that. I mean, other than just hold up our shields and hold the line and stay linked and push back. But they’ve been deploying less lethal munitions. They’ve been tasing people pepper spraying, pepper balling, beating people with batons and their fists and their boots, even pushing people under vehicles. So far there have been a few arrests and a couple of major injuries.

Perilous: When did you first become aware that people were gathering outside the facility?

A: I first became aware over the weekend. I believe it was Sunday [May 24, 2026] during the afternoon. And I knew that there was gonna be a need for more people and that as someone of a political consciousness for resisting empire and for bringing about the society of the children through the revolution of the heart, we have to go there and be there in numbers to actually fight and not just allow the liberal peace police to show up and essentially co-opt the efforts and momentum of the movement toward some milquetoast electoral reform policy.

When Andy Kim was there and the liberal mainstream were there, they’re talking about things like, “oh, we need to have meetings with elected officials. We need to have not-fetid food and not unusable, inhumane bathrooms.” Those are less than the minimum of what is acceptable. These free human beings of planet Earth need to be liberated.

Perilous: Can you tell us more about the barricades? Where specifically are people building them? What are they building out of them out of? How long have they been up? Are they getting torn down and then rebuilt?

A: Yeah, so they are being built up and then torn down. The big barricade was put up, I believe, on Monday or Tuesday. And then by the time I got out there last night, it had been bulldozed. It was composed of all kinds of things: wooden palettes, plastic traffic barriers, and a lot of 25-pound paver stones taken from the ICE facility front lawn, the retaining wall for their yard. Which I thought was cool, fuck their landscape.

Perilous: And so people have this barricade and then they’re positioning themselves behind the barricade, is that correct?

A: Yeah, so there have been some more temporary, minimalist barricades, just of debris, so as to stop vehicle traffic on the street that the concentration camp is on. And then there was a more semi-permanent barricade a couple of days ago that was composed of things that I mentioned, that people were able to stand behind. But in the days since that that’s been cleared, there have been direct, violent confrontations between the stormtroopers and the people standing in solidarity.

Just kind of as a note for the historical record is that while the people have done an extraordinarily fine job and disciplined job and resisting the state thugs directly, there is an ongoing working out of how to deal with press that want to be right on the front line and in the way. We’re trying to hold a line and prevent the movement of vehicles and the press is totally disorganized. They’re standing between protesters and ICE and they’re creating a more dangerous situation for everyone involved. Just by being undisciplined and not allowing us to do what we need to.

Perilous: About how many people would you say are out there or have been out there?

A: It’s been up and down numbers wise. It seems to have been increasing over the last few days. I would say that the highest number that I saw last night [Wednesday, May 27, 2026] seemed to peak at around 100 with maybe half or 60% of those people having shown up with personal protective equipment and shields, ready to throw down.

Perilous: And so in addition to blocking the driveway of the facility, people are also blocking the road in front of the facility?

A: That’s correct. I believe that was a new development as of Wednesday night: an attempt to cause a traffic jam so that even if the ICE thugs could break our line, they still couldn’t get their vehicles out in a timely fashion. Strategically, tactically, a lot of it is delay and impede rather than stop entirely. With the numbers that we have and with the munitions available to both sides, it’s not feasible to have a direct full force confrontation. So we’re picking strategic battles and doing the utmost to delay.

Perilous: You’re describing that some of the people who have shown up appear to be already skilled in confrontations like this. Maybe some of this is learned organically or in the moment, but others seem to show up with shields, ready to go. Do you have any idea where this learning process has occurred or if this movement is being fed from the history of other recent movements? Any lineages you can draw that you sense happening there?

A: Oh, absolutely. I mean, just within my very narrow and short period of political consciousness, you can see major influences and learnings and teachings from those involved in the Black Lives Matter struggles, those from the Atlanta Stop Cop City struggle, those from Standing Rock. There were Indigenous folks out there, those from the Palestine Solidarity/anti-zionist movement who have a lot of experience fighting and taking on cops directly. So yeah, I mean, the empire has been violently repressing social movements for hundreds of years. And I think that the consciousness that has developed around what must be done to resist the empire and to build something in its place has only grown, especially over the last 60 years since the Civil Rights movements and the Black Power movement. Yeah, these young people in the hundreds of thousands see themselves as directly opposed to the empire. They have no allegiance to any flag and they’re willing to fight on those grounds with what they’ve learned from forest defense and land defense and water defense and anti-carceral and anti-police struggle. It’s really cool to see.

Perilous: Do we know anything about what’s going on inside the facility right now?

A: I think as of today, I saw on Democracy Now! that one of the individuals who first started the hunger strike has been moved to a facility in Elizabeth [New Jersey]. And we know that the labor strike and the hunger strike are ongoing. Every night, the people detained there have been flashing their lights and appearing as silhouettes in front of the windows, letting the people outside know that they’re there and that they can perceive that something is happening outside. And so the people outside then can get real loud and hopefully reach the ears of the people inside. But yeah, just more of the same abuses and crimes against humanity that have been going on for quite some time are still happening as we speak.

Perilous: What do you foresee happening moving forward? Does anyone have a sense of where this standoff is going to lead?

A: Well, I think my hope is that, as the days go on, a critical mass will be reached such that it becomes impossible for the number of ICE that they have at the facility to break the line and to get vehicles in and out. Ideally, the facility is stormed and the people are liberated, but what’s likely to happen, I won’t speak into existence, you know?

For every facility that joins the effort, for every population that comes out to fight and to resist the fascists, the better our odds grow, because as we’ve seen from protest movements internationally, especially in Hong Kong, we know that having decentralized pockets of resistance is more effective and that it’s impossible then to mobilize sufficient forces at each of the requisite battlefields or scenes of engagement. So I would just want readers to know that even if it feels like your small community can’t field a full-on on resistance, perhaps you can distract or draw forces from a major conflict that’s happening elsewhere.

Perilous: Are there any other stories you wanna tell about what you saw?

A: I will say that the overwhelming feeling of love and solidarity between the people that have shown up is just such a beautiful thing to witness. Everyone there is dedicated to keeping one another safe in the face of such violence and repression. Folks have thrown their own bodies between the fascists and their comrades to protect them. Folks have jumped in with shields to protect or to de-arrest their comrades. And what’s more, when I witnessed the kind of tactics that the people are using versus the tactics that ICE is using, it’s so clear that they don’t have the same kind of stick-to-it-iveness, stick-togetherness that we do. They aren’t looking out for one another in the same way. They’re breaking their lines to pursue individual personal vendettas and rage. They’re wild-eyed. They’re clearly very fearful and the people have remained stalwart and disciplined in the face of that.

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Andres Kudacki

“These free human beings of planet Earth need to be liberated”: An Interview with a Delaney Hall Frontliner

Republished From Perilous Chronicle

In response to a hunger strike and labor strike inside an immigrant detention center in Newark, New Jersey called Delaney Hall, hundreds have gathered outside the facility, providing material support to the resistance within by blocking ICE vehicles coming in and out of the jail. Rebels outside have showed remarkable courage in facing down lines of ICE agents, taking blows and faces full of pepper spray and coming right back to hold the line. 

A similar event took place at Delaney Hall almost exactly one year ago. Together, these events stand out in the historical record as extremely rare, and perhaps even unprecedented in the contemporary era, instances of resistance inside being met with simultaneous insurgency outside the facility. They reveal an immediately actionable abolitionist praxis in the face of ascendent fascism.

We were lucky enough to get to talk to someone fresh off the front lines at Delaney Hall as they were heading home still exhausted from the battle with flailing ICE agents desperate to maintain their fragile order. The following interview was a collaboration between Perilous Chronicle and Living & Fighting.

Perilous Chronicle: What is Delaney Hall and what’s been going on there this week?

Anonymous: Delaney Hall is down an the industrial area of Newark, New Jersey. It’s part of an ongoing federal plan to build a network of concentration camps for mass deportation efforts and civil disobedience control.

This particular facility, Delaney, is privately run by Geo Group and they are directly profiting from the immiseration and suffering of these people under torturous conditions where there has been fetid, maggoty food, there have been regular beatings and violence beyond the initial incarceration, beyond the abductions. There has been no medical care for those with chronic illness and people, especially children and elderly people, have fallen ill as a result of the horrid conditions inside. Bathrooms that are unfit for human use, fluorescent lighting and insufficient bedding, people sleeping on hard floors. And so the people incarcerated in this concentration camp have come together to hunger strike and labor strike for their freedom and for the basic human dignity that is the birthright of every person.

And then the people outside are standing in solidarity with the folks inside. It’s very clear to those of us in the struggle that the mass incarceration of human beings is unacceptable. It’s a crime against humanity. It’s an affront to everything humane and upright.

Perilous: What your involvement’s been like?

A: I learned about the hunger strike slash labor strike through the kind of decentralized web of activists and anarchists and learned about the context for what was happening and decided that I needed to be there in solidarity. I think that if you’ve got clear moral vision for the world and some human compassion, you can’t help but come to the side of anyone standing against the empire and standing for human dignity.

And so my involvement up to this point has been entirely on the ground, showing up to protect comrades through de-arrest and through medical support and standing on front lines linked other comrades ready to hold the line against ICE as they try to get vehicles through. They were trying to transfer the hunger strikers from Delaney to another facility nearby to quash the resistance and to demoralize those who were participating. But that seems to have failed and the numbers have grown each night as more and more people become aware. We have succeeded in temporarily halting the movement in and out of the facility. People were able to block the road with debris and cause traffic jams. Comrades were able to directly put their bodies in front of the line of ICE Gestapo and in front of their vehicles to stop them from coming in and out.

But ultimately the fact that the state has sent so many well-armed, well-equipped thugs to put down this peaceful protest means that when they make the call and when they charge the line, there’s very little that we as unarmed people can do to resist that. I mean, other than just hold up our shields and hold the line and stay linked and push back. But they’ve been deploying less lethal munitions. They’ve been tasing people pepper spraying, pepper balling, beating people with batons and their fists and their boots, even pushing people under vehicles. So far there have been a few arrests and a couple of major injuries.

Perilous: When did you first become aware that people were gathering outside the facility?

A: I first became aware over the weekend. I believe it was Sunday [May 24, 2026] during the afternoon. And I knew that there was gonna be a need for more people and that as someone of a political consciousness for resisting empire and for bringing about the society of the children through the revolution of the heart, we have to go there and be there in numbers to actually fight and not just allow the liberal peace police to show up and essentially co-opt the efforts and momentum of the movement toward some milquetoast electoral reform policy.

When Andy Kim was there and the liberal mainstream were there, they’re talking about things like, “oh, we need to have meetings with elected officials. We need to have not-fetid food and not unusable, inhumane bathrooms.” Those are less than the minimum of what is acceptable. These free human beings of planet Earth need to be liberated.

Perilous: Can you tell us more about the barricades? Where specifically are people building them? What are they building out of them out of? How long have they been up? Are they getting torn down and then rebuilt?

A: Yeah, so they are being built up and then torn down. The big barricade was put up, I believe, on Monday or Tuesday. And then by the time I got out there last night, it had been bulldozed. It was composed of all kinds of things: wooden palettes, plastic traffic barriers, and a lot of 25-pound paver stones taken from the ICE facility front lawn, the retaining wall for their yard. Which I thought was cool, fuck their landscape.

Perilous: And so people have this barricade and then they’re positioning themselves behind the barricade, is that correct?

A: Yeah, so there have been some more temporary, minimalist barricades, just of debris, so as to stop vehicle traffic on the street that the concentration camp is on. And then there was a more semi-permanent barricade a couple of days ago that was composed of things that I mentioned, that people were able to stand behind. But in the days since that that’s been cleared, there have been direct, violent confrontations between the stormtroopers and the people standing in solidarity.

Just kind of as a note for the historical record is that while the people have done an extraordinarily fine job and disciplined job and resisting the state thugs directly, there is an ongoing working out of how to deal with press that want to be right on the front line and in the way. We’re trying to hold a line and prevent the movement of vehicles and the press is totally disorganized. They’re standing between protesters and ICE and they’re creating a more dangerous situation for everyone involved. Just by being undisciplined and not allowing us to do what we need to.

Perilous: About how many people would you say are out there or have been out there?

A: It’s been up and down numbers wise. It seems to have been increasing over the last few days. I would say that the highest number that I saw last night [Wednesday, May 27, 2026] seemed to peak at around 100 with maybe half or 60% of those people having shown up with personal protective equipment and shields, ready to throw down.

Perilous: And so in addition to blocking the driveway of the facility, people are also blocking the road in front of the facility?

A: That’s correct. I believe that was a new development as of Wednesday night: an attempt to cause a traffic jam so that even if the ICE thugs could break our line, they still couldn’t get their vehicles out in a timely fashion. Strategically, tactically, a lot of it is delay and impede rather than stop entirely. With the numbers that we have and with the munitions available to both sides, it’s not feasible to have a direct full force confrontation. So we’re picking strategic battles and doing the utmost to delay.

Perilous: You’re describing that some of the people who have shown up appear to be already skilled in confrontations like this. Maybe some of this is learned organically or in the moment, but others seem to show up with shields, ready to go. Do you have any idea where this learning process has occurred or if this movement is being fed from the history of other recent movements? Any lineages you can draw that you sense happening there?

A: Oh, absolutely. I mean, just within my very narrow and short period of political consciousness, you can see major influences and learnings and teachings from those involved in the Black Lives Matter struggles, those from the Atlanta Stop Cop City struggle, those from Standing Rock. There were Indigenous folks out there, those from the Palestine Solidarity/anti-zionist movement who have a lot of experience fighting and taking on cops directly. So yeah, I mean, the empire has been violently repressing social movements for hundreds of years. And I think that the consciousness that has developed around what must be done to resist the empire and to build something in its place has only grown, especially over the last 60 years since the Civil Rights movements and the Black Power movement. Yeah, these young people in the hundreds of thousands see themselves as directly opposed to the empire. They have no allegiance to any flag and they’re willing to fight on those grounds with what they’ve learned from forest defense and land defense and water defense and anti-carceral and anti-police struggle. It’s really cool to see.

Perilous: Do we know anything about what’s going on inside the facility right now?

A: I think as of today, I saw on Democracy Now! that one of the individuals who first started the hunger strike has been moved to a facility in Elizabeth [New Jersey]. And we know that the labor strike and the hunger strike are ongoing. Every night, the people detained there have been flashing their lights and appearing as silhouettes in front of the windows, letting the people outside know that they’re there and that they can perceive that something is happening outside. And so the people outside then can get real loud and hopefully reach the ears of the people inside. But yeah, just more of the same abuses and crimes against humanity that have been going on for quite some time are still happening as we speak.

Perilous: What do you foresee happening moving forward? Does anyone have a sense of where this standoff is going to lead?

A: Well, I think my hope is that, as the days go on, a critical mass will be reached such that it becomes impossible for the number of ICE that they have at the facility to break the line and to get vehicles in and out. Ideally, the facility is stormed and the people are liberated, but what’s likely to happen, I won’t speak into existence, you know?

For every facility that joins the effort, for every population that comes out to fight and to resist the fascists, the better our odds grow, because as we’ve seen from protest movements internationally, especially in Hong Kong, we know that having decentralized pockets of resistance is more effective and that it’s impossible then to mobilize sufficient forces at each of the requisite battlefields or scenes of engagement. So I would just want readers to know that even if it feels like your small community can’t field a full-on on resistance, perhaps you can distract or draw forces from a major conflict that’s happening elsewhere.

Perilous: Are there any other stories you wanna tell about what you saw?

A: I will say that the overwhelming feeling of love and solidarity between the people that have shown up is just such a beautiful thing to witness. Everyone there is dedicated to keeping one another safe in the face of such violence and repression. Folks have thrown their own bodies between the fascists and their comrades to protect them. Folks have jumped in with shields to protect or to de-arrest their comrades. And what’s more, when I witnessed the kind of tactics that the people are using versus the tactics that ICE is using, it’s so clear that they don’t have the same kind of stick-to-it-iveness, stick-togetherness that we do. They aren’t looking out for one another in the same way. They’re breaking their lines to pursue individual personal vendettas and rage. They’re wild-eyed. They’re clearly very fearful and the people have remained stalwart and disciplined in the face of that.

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Andres Kudacki

“Awfulness For Decades”: A Short History Of Trump And Doonesbury

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://defector.com/awfulness-for-decades-a-short-history-of-trump-and-doonesbury

“Awfulness For Decades”: A Short History Of Trump And Doonesbury

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://defector.com/awfulness-for-decades-a-short-history-of-trump-and-doonesbury

How One Ohio High School Built An Unlikely Gymnastics Dynasty

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://defector.com/how-one-ohio-high-school-built-an-unlikely-gymnastics-dynasty

How One Ohio High School Built An Unlikely Gymnastics Dynasty

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://defector.com/how-one-ohio-high-school-built-an-unlikely-gymnastics-dynasty

Lesbians And Legalized Gambling Are Vying To Save The American Sports Bar

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://defector.com/lesbians-and-legalized-gambling-are-vying-to-save-the-american-sports-bar

Lesbians And Legalized Gambling Are Vying To Save The American Sports Bar

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://defector.com/lesbians-and-legalized-gambling-are-vying-to-save-the-american-sports-bar

Go Ahead And Use AI. It Will Only Help Me Dominate You.

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://defector.com/go-ahead-and-use-ai-it-will-only-help-me-dominate-you

Go Ahead And Use AI. It Will Only Help Me Dominate You.

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://defector.com/go-ahead-and-use-ai-it-will-only-help-me-dominate-you

Hugh Cook's excellent: Chronicles of an Age of Darkness, finally have new editions after languishing in copyright limbo for decades.

Cook plays with genre tropes, mixing adventure, satire and humor, elements that help these books transcend the limits that make so many other works of the 80s and 90s feel so dated.

The fan group that published them have made the effort to offer them at venues other than Amazon.

You can get them DRM free while supporting local book shops at BookShop.org:

https://bookshop.org/beta-search?keywords=Chronicles+of+an+Age+of+Darkness%2C

@bookstodon #BookShop #amReading #SFF #fantasy #eBook #HughCook #BooksTodon #independent #copyright #republished

Hugh Cook's excellent: Chronicles of an Age of Darkness, finally have new editions after languishing in copyright limbo for decades.

Cook plays with genre tropes, mixing adventure, satire and humor, elements that help these books transcend the limits that make so many other works of the 80s and 90s feel so dated.

The fan group that published them have made the effort to offer them at venues other than Amazon.

You can get them DRM free while supporting local book shops at BookShop.org:

https://bookshop.org/beta-search?keywords=Chronicles+of+an+Age+of+Darkness%2C

@bookstodon #BookShop #amReading #SFF #fantasy #eBook #HughCook #BooksTodon #independent #copyright #republished

Local Streamer Frank Scales Exposed For Lying By Police Scanner

Republished From Philly Fash Watch

Philly has a new entry in the right wing rage bait streamer category, 23 year old Frank Scales. This is a very brief introduction to Frank; something more comprehensive will come soon from this blog. For now we’ll just expose Frank Scales lying about a recent incident. On Saturday January 10th Frank posted a video from his Surge Philly accounts spread across social media platforms of himself in an ambulance. Doing his best Andy Ngo impersonation, Frank Scales states “we don’t know if there’s bleach in it. We don’t know what they put in the solution that they sprayed at me”.

After Franks video was posted an anonymous source sent us a recording of police scanner communications regarding the incident. The scene commander from the Philadelphia Police Department is acknowledging that Frank was sprayed by his own side!

We can go even further and state that it wasn’t just random assholes from Franks side using pepperspray in the peaceful crowd, it was Franks cameraman who sprayed his face. More to come on that individual.

Francis J. Scales, 23, of South Philly on Front Street is a Temu version of people like Jack Posobiec and Nick Shirley. There is nothing good that can come from Frank being in protest spaces. Remove him immediately so you don’t become content for his social media rage bait. We protect us.

Local Streamer Frank Scales Exposed For Lying By Police Scanner

Republished From Philly Fash Watch

Philly has a new entry in the right wing rage bait streamer category, 23 year old Frank Scales. This is a very brief introduction to Frank; something more comprehensive will come soon from this blog. For now we’ll just expose Frank Scales lying about a recent incident. On Saturday January 10th Frank posted a video from his Surge Philly accounts spread across social media platforms of himself in an ambulance. Doing his best Andy Ngo impersonation, Frank Scales states “we don’t know if there’s bleach in it. We don’t know what they put in the solution that they sprayed at me”.

After Franks video was posted an anonymous source sent us a recording of police scanner communications regarding the incident. The scene commander from the Philadelphia Police Department is acknowledging that Frank was sprayed by his own side!

We can go even further and state that it wasn’t just random assholes from Franks side using pepperspray in the peaceful crowd, it was Franks cameraman who sprayed his face. More to come on that individual.

Francis J. Scales, 23, of South Philly on Front Street is a Temu version of people like Jack Posobiec and Nick Shirley. There is nothing good that can come from Frank being in protest spaces. Remove him immediately so you don’t become content for his social media rage bait. We protect us.

Co-Leader of Philly Area Nazi group, S14, Dies: Her Newborn Struggling On Life Support

Republished From Idavox

In June, neo-Nazi Storm Division (S14) founders Mark Kauffman and Sara Sheaffer tried to get married. Their wedding celebrations were interrupted because Mark, 32, was picked up at the venue by law enforcement. He had an outstanding warrant in Massachusetts for drug trafficking and weapons charges from six years ago. Kauffman managed to post bail and the couple  wed, though in a much smaller ceremony. Six months later, Sara, 29, was dead.

Sara Kauffman’s death was  announced on Jan. 12 on a GoFundMe campaign set up for her and her baby. She was 32 weeks pregnant Sept. 12 when she suffered a heart attack while driving Mark to work in South Philadelphia. After Mark flagged down a Black police officer, who immediately began CPR, Sara was transported to the University of Pennsylvania hospital. She then had a second massive heart attack, while the doctors performed an emergency c-section. Sara suffered massive brain damage, never woke up, and died on Jan. 6. Their baby has been in the hospital since the birth and intubated as doctors are working to save her life.

According to a July article, Sara and Mark were co-leaders of S14. This group is active on the social platform Telegram, encouraging pop-up style protests – surprise rallies –  to avoid opposition, and vandalizing neighborhoods with Nazi stickers, spray paint and flyers. Sara can be seen in many photos participating in these events. S14 works closely and shares members with White Lives Matter PA, New Jersey European Heritage Association and the now defunct Embrace Struggle Active Club. Sara and Mark attended flash mob style demonstrations with all of these groups. They promoted their groups’ hate activities alongside these other groups. They recruited members such as convicted sex offender Ben Ryder, for demonstrations.

Both Mark, an Army veteran, and Sara were using hard drugs in 2018 and living in Massachusetts when there was an arrest warrant issued for him, after a shotgun, rocket launcher and methamphetamine were found in a storage unit in Hadley, Mass., that was connected to him. The couple fled to Philadelphia before he was arrested, after evading his legal troubles for years. In June 2024, wedding announcements and websites led authorities to finally catch up with him. Mark was arrested on the night before their wedding in the Airbnb they had rented for the occasion. The couple married in July 2024, after Mark posted bail.

Mark Kauffman is still out on bail. No further information about his case has been released.

#Antifascist #general #HateWatch #news #NJEHA #Republished #S14

Republished From Philly Fash Watch

As antifascists reviewed footage from the WLM action on June 15 it was discovered that there was footage of her with her mask off. The individual has now been identified as Scotlyn Elyse Schmitt of York, PA.

The photograph from Love Park revealed a connection to none other than Benjamin Ryder. In closed WLM chats, Ryder mentioned having a girlfriend several times, discussing her telegram usernames and her many “accomplishments”. Ryder provided additional context about his girlfriend and how he actually rejected her from WLM-PA previously when they first met over a year ago.

18 months ago, Lynn reached out to WLM-PA and wanted to be vetted and become a member. At the time Ryder was the admin for the state chapter. Ryder was in the middle of rocky patch with a different girlfriend at the time, and suspected Lynn of being this girlfriend’s sock account. Lynn was using her @RileyCat and @RileyPilled2.0 telegram accounts at the time. While Lynn was living in Pittsburgh, she attended the Pennsylvania Gunsmith School where she met members of WLM-OH and became friends. WLM-OH members were able to provide her with a vouch to join WLM-PA. Despite their vouch, Ryder was too paranoid to let her join the PA chapter. Ryder’s relationship issues eventually led to his ex-girlfriend revealing his paranoia, leading to his removal from WLM-PA for a time. Ryder was soon allowed back in the organization by the admin and defacto leader, Evan Plumlee. With this, Ryder was officially back in WLM-PA (telegram profile NAME- Max).

In the spring of 2024, Ryder and Scotlyn Schmitt officially met in person for the vetting process to begin. He informed her that her YouTube channel where she also used the “RileyPilled” username showed her face and could be traced back to her telegram account. In response, Lynn removed the matching telegram account as well as her YouTube channel which contained personal content like her school details.

With Lynn as a full WLM-PA member, Ryder gave membership details on her background. He informed them how Lynn was a member of Injekt Division, admins a few BTC channels on terrorgram, and admins a channel with the “the dildo saleswoman” Dallas Humber. Antifascists were able to confirm most of this information, largely from Lynn herself. Lynn posted a video of herself drunk sharing her telegram handles and posts she made in the WhiteNeighborhoodWatch channel. Screenshots from these videos have been provided as evidence. The videos have not been provided as Lynn does not deserve a platform.

Injekt Division and Terrorgram, the groups and virtual space that Lynn is a part of, are well known for their accelerationist ideology and patriarchal structure. Typically to join Injekt Division one has to be a white male, but notably, they made an exception to the rule for Lynn. This marks Lynn as a unique addition and how much Injekt Division values the reach she has to people like BTC and Brandon Russell and Dallas Humber. Lynn can be can found under her current Telegram profile @massrapist.

Another member of WLM-PA Mathew Bair, is also a self-confirmed member of Injekt Division. Matt Bair was recruited to Injekt after very publicly joining any group he could in the past two years . Although he failed many times (kicked from Blood Tribe soon after touching Pohlhaus’s stick, crashed his Harrisburg Proud Boy chapter, member of the defunct Embrace Struggle Active Club, part of the split between 2119- yes he was in a group with mostly minors), Matt has stayed consistent in his fedposting. Bair is the only known Injekt Division member openly showing his face in terrorgram spaces. There soon will be an update on what he’s been doing recently.

Recently arrested Andrew Takhistov, member of NJEHA and Atlantic Nationalist Club (wannabe NSC131 types who formed from WLM-NJ by Claudino Petrucelli ) was in some Injekt Division chats and channels using his @cossack18 telegram account. Although not a member of Injekt, he is someone who agreed with their worldview. As listed in the DOJ release, he wanted to take down power stations in New Brunswick. This is the type of worldview people like Lynn, Cossack, Bair and many others in the terrorgram spaces share.

Lynn and Ryder have been up to typical dumbass nazi activities, spray-painting a swastikas and posting Injekt Division stickers around Philadelphia. Not long after connecting in person, Lynn moved in with Ryder and their nazi activities escalated. Due to Ryder and Lynn’s escalations antifascists discovered their presence in PA and Ryder’s neighborhood was flyered exposing him as a registered sex offender on the Megan’s Law website. Reportedly, after Ryder’s neighborhood was flyered and an extensive dox was dropped, Lynn moved out quickly. Lynn is reportedly bouncing bouncing around living with different Injekt members

Scotlyn take this as a warning- you just turned 20, you don’t have to live like this. All of your friends end up in jail or dead. Reach out to us [email protected]

https://jerseycounterinfo.noblogs.org/scotlyn-schmitt-of-york-pa/

#Antifascist #general #news #NJWhiteLivesMatter #NJWLM #Republished #S14

Republished From Left Voice

Dispatch from the Rutgers Encampment for Palestine

A report from a pro-Palestine union teacher at Rutgers.

By Jason Koslowski

Photo credit: Twitter (@bulat666)

This one’s at Rutgers University’s New Brunswick campus where I’m an adjunct teacher. We marched across campus and took the streets. I was chanting next to one of my students, when we saw each other we were both grinning ear to ear.

Now I’m sitting at a beautiful encampment in the sun and shade typing. The sun just slipped behind clouds. An ice cream truck parked nearby so some of us are eating ice cream. My neck is sweating from the keffiyeh.

Rutgers — the largest public university in New Jersey with campuses in the north, south, and center of the state — is the latest university to join the fight for Palestine with an encampment. At Columbia, which has inspired so many, a hundred were arrested but others set right back up anyway; the same happened at NYU. There’s a camp at CUNY, UPenn, and at campuses across the country too. Encampments are even popping up around the world.

This one has been organized by Rutgers’ Students for Justice at Palestine and the Endowment Justice Collective. They’re amazingly mobilized; when SJP was suspended recently, the students organized, fought back, and won their reinstatement. This was accomplished through a campaign which united hundreds of other student organizations —many representing oppressed communities — behind the line “We are all SJP.” The wide support from different sectors of the student body was publicized on the SJP’s social media pages. The university had to back down, though they still wield “probation” of student activists as a threat.

The students organizing the camp put out some muscular demands a minute ago. They want Rutgers to divest from every company connected to Israel and its death machines; terminate a connection to Tel Aviv University; display the Palestine flag across campus; and more.

I’m sitting folding some Left Voice pamphlets to hand out. A grad student comes over and starts helping me. We talk about how big the camp is already and how important. Later, as I’m writing this, an undergrad sits next to me eating ice cream. I asked him what he thought of the new camp:

I think that the people here are just — amazing. I’ve never seen a movement this big, ever. It’s amazing we’re just a unit. We all have a single purpose, to Free Palestine. The kids of Palestine are being slaughtered. … Seeing the youth come out, they know more information than people who are way older than us. People who aren’t even from Palestine, never been to Palestine, are here supporting.

There’s barely any cops yet. They’re staying away, I think they’re spooked at how the repression of students at the point of batons wielded by heavily armed cops (and state troopers at UT Austin and Emory University) actually helped spread the revolt more. There are a good number of faculty here.

(Now two students are walking by asking: “Do you want chicken? You have a preference?” They’re holding a massive container of chicken fingers. They smell good.)

Just a minute ago my phone dinged because my union leaders here at Rutgers put out a pretty good statement. They defend the right of our students to speak out, their democratic right to protest. And they’re right that we have to surround these students with big numbers to protect them from more savage repression like at Emory, Columbia, USC, Emerson, Indiana University, and so many other schools that have unleashed cops on their students.

But the statement was disappointing too. Yes, surround the students. But their fight is our fight; we can and we should join the struggle fully, as part of the encampment. Call us all by the thousands into the student space!

But more than this: we’re workers; we make this university function by teaching and grading, just like the janitors keep it going by cleaning and the cooks by cooking. That means as workers, and as a union, we have a special weapon. Call us to do a picket, a work stoppage, even out on strike!

You can feel the resistance to this inside the letter from the union. And there’s a long history of unions trying to control from the top down the unruly power of the rank-and-file. So as a union, and in Faculty for Justice in Palestine, we’ll have to organize ourselves to get the union to put the full weight of all our resources into this struggle — workers and students united. We can organize ourselves to join the encampment. We’ll need some spaces to coordinate all of us and our fight against the cops and school bosses, to really organize worker and student power here to win our demands. We need assemblies, democratic and deliberative, to organize the encampment, discuss our problems together, and decide on a course of action to sustain the movement.

Another announcement, a Passover celebration is starting now.

The fight is raging, and workers and students united can win this battle.

Free, free Palestine!

https://jerseycounterinfo.noblogs.org/dispatch-from-the-rutgers-encampment-for-palestine/

#Analysis #anticolonial #Antifascist #general #international #news #Republished #solidarity

Anonymous Submission to Jersey Counter-Info

Republished from gofundme:

On New Years Day 2024 Daryle Lamont Jenkins was admitted to a hospital in the New Jersey area, three days later and he is still there. Doctors have removed several blood clots and are now concerned with his kidneys. Daryle has been fighting for the cause of civil rights in the United States for well over a quarter of a century, traveling over the country at his own expense, giving help to all of us whenever we needed it- he now needs our help to heal.

I am writing this asking for your help. Daryle is going to need time to heal and get well, not get out of the hospital and get back to work- that may cause damage that there is no coming back from, so we are asking for funds that will help with rent and bills and food while he recuperates. Your generosity is appreciated it will allow him to continue this important work that too few people are willing to do on all of our behalf.

Update From Daryl on January 7, 2024

I figured I will be the one who updates this time. As you might know from some of the vids I have posted on social media, I’m home now. Next week, I will be talking with doctors to see what my next steps are because there needs to be alternatives to the treatment I have been getting and we need to pursue them. That’s not the only issue as before I had to deal with all the craziness of the past week, I had to make plans to get surgery on my hand because of some issues I have been having for a few months. So I am pretty much spending the next month or two doing doctor appointments and making sure things stay good. I should by the way note that due to the proximity of the two situations there might have been some confusion so let me note that me going to the hospital was unrelated to the accident with the train a few days prior. There were no injuries that day and only the car was hurt. Still, that is going to hurt me financially on a few levels which is why Luis suggested this GoFundMe in the first place. I’m glad he did because I was very down and stressed out these past few days and this effort took me out of that. I know I have said thank you before but frankly I can’t say it enough. So once again thank you and I will be out there with you all soon enough!

If you are interested in donating to help support Daryl please do so through this gofundme link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/a-fighter-is-fighting

https://jerseycounterinfo.noblogs.org/urgent-fundraising-support-needed-for-nj-antifascist-daryl-lamont-jenkins/

#Antifascist #general #MutualAid #news #Republished #solidarity

"#RapidOnsetGenderDysphoria" Republished In #JunkScience #Journal With A #Shady #Record.

A paper about "Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria," #retracted in March, was #republished in a #journal with a shady record. #Major #antitrans #accounts celebrated this as a "#victory."

#Women #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #JunkScience #Conservatives #Extremism #Fascism #Hategroups #RepublicanParty #Hate #Bigotry #Violence #Genocide #Discrimination #Transphobia #ThePartyOfHate

https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/rapid-onset-gender-dysphoria-republished

"#RapidOnsetGenderDysphoria" Republished In #JunkScience #Journal With A #Shady #Record.

A paper about "Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria," #retracted in March, was #republished in a #journal with a shady record. #Major #antitrans #accounts celebrated this as a "#victory."

#Women #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #JunkScience #Conservatives #Extremism #Fascism #Hategroups #RepublicanParty #Hate #Bigotry #Violence #Genocide #Discrimination #Transphobia #ThePartyOfHate

https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/rapid-onset-gender-dysphoria-republished

Republished from Idavox

We wanted to make sure that our readers saw this. She needs help and needs it now.

Epona Rose is a woman of trans experience who was attacked on the street in Flagstaff by a group of three men while two more men watched.

The men were drunk and sexually harassing her in a way that was making her feel unsafe. The harassment escalated to threats of rape, and then to actual physical violence, when they realized she was transgender. Epona defended herself bravely against this attack and did not call the police. She was then punished for this when the cops arrived and arrested only her.

Epona is currently being held on the men’s side of Coconino County Detention Facility in segregation with one hour a day out of her cell, where she has struggled to gain access to her prescribed medications. Her current bond is set at $500,750 but we are fiercely working to overturn such an excessive bond amount and fear mongering charges. The longer Epona is in jail, the much more risk she is exposed to as a trans woman and abolitionist. We cannot let Epona be made an example out of for demanding the basic rights of genderqueer, third gender, Two Spirit, and/or trans people to exist.

For her commissary, phone, and potential bond, please send donations to her family’s accounts specifying thr donations are for Epona. You can also use the 🌹 emoji to specify donations are for Epona:

Paypal: @brokebackwolfpack
Venmo: @brokebackwolfpack
Cashapp: $brokebackwolfpack

Epona’s quotes:

“In the year of a state of emergency, I’m still alive.”

“I defended myself against three men. They classified me as a male in here. I don’t feel safe around other men.”

quote from Epona’s partner:

“Epona was feeling unsafe even before she was physically attacked…She knew she was vulnerable traveling alone as a houseless, traumatized, neurodiverse trans woman, and yet her mission of building resource networks for other trans humans was so important to her that she decided to take that risk, even when her traveling partners flaked off one by one. That was her sacrifice. And she needs our support now.

#antifascist #general #lgbtq #mutual-aid #news #prison-support-prison-abolition #republished #solidarity

https://jerseycounterinfo.noblogs.org/free-epona-rose/

Republished From Act For Freedom Now!

Unravel is a counter-information project with an insurrectional perspective that aims to connect acts of negation and attack in the so-called USA. Those in power want our acts to remain disparate and disconnected, the spark that drives each of us shielded from the other’s view. By weaving together the threads of action, this project hopes to draw throughlines in the struggles that anarchists engage in, in order to broaden and amplify shared projectualities.

Domination and authority cross us in a tangled and knotted web of ever more interconnected systems; unraveling this network at one point has the potential to create a cascade that throws everything into disarray, opening spaces for freedom. This website is explicitly anarchist, and accepts/reposts communiques, reportbacks, analysis, calls to action, events, and mass media articles about unclaimed acts of vandalism, sabotage, arson, or destruction.

Actforfree receive and spread.

#anarchism #communique #general #news #report-back #republished

https://jerseycounterinfo.noblogs.org/annoucning-unravel-noblogs-org/