Hillary Clinton’s highly-anticipated book What Happened released this Tuesday, kicked off with a book signing at the Barnes and Noble in New York City’s Union Square. Hundreds of New Yorkers came to have their book signed by their former senator and Secretary of State, with many lining up and waiting through the night to be first in line.
But not everyone in attendance was eager to have their copy signed: Laura Loomer, a conservative political activist affiliated with The Rebel Media, was lying in wait to ambush Clinton with questions, while streaming the encounter on Periscope.
After exchanging pleasantries and shaking hands, Loomer dug in, “The American people would like to know: what happened to your 33,000 emails?”
Hillary rebuffed Loomer’s question with a laugh. As the former Project Veritas operative lined up further attacks (revisiting conspiracy theories from Haiti to Seth Rich) Hillary, moving onto signing the next attendee’s book, retorted, “I’m so sorry that you believe things that are untrue.”
Loomer was then escorted away with her signed copy in tow, but not before lobbing another 2016-throwback diss at Clinton’s long-time aide Huma Abedin. “Huma, so great to see you! I have a question for you,” she began, before continuing her harassment with, “When are you going to divorce your husband for sexting under-aged girls?”
This is not Loomer’s first ambush of a Clinton at a book signing. She pulled a similar stunt at Chelsea Clinton’s book signing this July, asking the former first-daughter to make out a copy of her children’s book She Persisted to Juanita Broaddrick, one of Bill Clinton’s accusers. Prior to that, Loomer gained media attention as she interrupted a Shakespeare in the Park production of Julius Caesar.
As Donald Trump’s presidency continues to flail, it’s not hard to understand why Loomer would continue to attack Clinton. There’s a yearning for the more embattled days of the election, when a shared hatred for Clinton gave their lives purpose. With Clinton now largely out the political spotlight, the alt-right has desperately spun around for a new villain, a new outlet for their spite, whether an imagined puppetmaster of the deep state or the special prosecutor Robert Mueller.
But for one fleeting moment, Loomer relived the alt-right’s glory days, re-litigated Benghazi and the Seth Rich conspiracy theories, and grabbed another 15-seconds of notoriety, before drifting back into the purgatory of the Trump presidency.
The reception of her latest stunt was lukewarm on alt-right platforms. One poster, calling Loomer a “dollar store general replacement for Lauren Southern” on Voat called Loomer’s stunt out as an elaborate leftist ploy to defame the alt-right. “Never trust a jew using our narratives,” he wrote.
In response to praise on Twitter, Loomer encouraged others to harass Clinton for the rest of her book tour.
Thank you! Everyone should hold @HillaryClinton accountable. Show up @ her book signing events & ask her what the media refused to ask her! https://t.co/prWHXcayqc
The Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville was widely regarded as a massive PR failure for the alt-right. The fear that white supremacist organizers attempted to instill through strength of numbers was largely undercut by absurdity of grown men chanting Nazi slogans while carrying tiki torches. And any moral high ground they were seeking through peaceful protest was lost when an alt-right affiliated young man drove his car through a crowd, injuring several protestors and killing Heather Heyer.
Since Charlottesville, the alt-right has mostly licked its wounds, as participants in the rally were identified and fired from their jobs, or put under arrest. If their rally had any meaningful effect, it attracted the attention and condemnation of the media, and ignited massive protests across the United States in resistance to white supremacy.
However, in the past day, alt-right figures and communities looking to absolve themselves of the embarrassment of the rally have placed the blame for Heather’s death elsewhere. Circulating an interview with Heather’s mother with additional videos taken during the march, Hunter Wallace (real name Brad Griffin), the operator of the white nationalist WordPress blog Occidental Dissent, claims that the driver is not responsible for Heather’s death.
Griffin claims that Heather died of a heart attack following the impact of the car hitting the crowd. He claims to have identified her in videos walking the day of the rally and later during video of the car’s impact with the crowd, even though there does not appear to be a significant resemblance between the woman in his video, and the pictures that Heather Heyer had posted to her Facebook page.
Picture taken from Heather Heyer’s Facebook page.
Picture taken from video that Brad claims depicts Heather Heyer.
Regardless of whether or not Heather did die of a heart attack, it’s not exactly a convincing argument for absolving the driver of the car, James Fields, Jr., of murder. He still drove a vehicle purposefully into a crowd with the apparent intent to injure, and his actions still caused injury and death.
White nationalist and the operator of the Occidental Dissent blog, Brad Griffin.
Despite the slipshod nature of his argument and evidence, Other Alt-Right figures ran with Griffin’s story, spreading the rumor and going a step further: ridiculing Heather Heyer for her weight, as if her death was something she deserved. Mormon alt-right figurehead Ayla Stewart (@apurposefulwife) shared Griffin’s tweet, blaming mainstream media for misrepresentation.
It’s unsurprising that Ayla would spread this unverified information: when initial reports were coming out of Charlottesville, she asserted the driver of the vehicle that struck the protesters was not affiliated with the alt-right.
Days later, when it became clear that James Fields was the driver of the car, and that he had attended the rally and was pictured with a white supremacist group, she attempted to cast Heather Heyer as a rioter affiliated with Antifa.
Since then, she has continued to spread conspiracy theories that the violence that occurred at the Unite the Right Rally was staged.
Other users of white supremacist and alt-right oriented social media sites have spread this story far and wide, shamelessly willing themselves to believe that Heather Heyer’s death was entirely her own fault, whether or not she was struck by the car.
Many have gone so far to invent that Heather suffered from an eating disorder. The Gab.ai posts below include a smattering of self-absolution and spite.
Discussion on Voat didn’t significantly differ. The same general potshots were made about Heyer’s weight, and no sympathy was felt for the family that lost a daughter to a young man radicalized into white nationalism.
Many of the white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville have faced a swift karmic comeuppance. Participants identified from the rally have been placed under arrest, or lost jobs from hot dog restaurants.
But one western Michigan resident, Paul Walsh, faced perhaps the most ignominious consequence of all the alt-right protestors that road-tripped to Virginia. Walsh’s medieval fantasy live action role-play group, Dagorhir Battle Games, issued a statement banning him from future events.
Dagorhir Battle Games, or just Dagorhir, is a live action role-playing game that incorporates dressing up as a medieval character and fighting with foam swords, flails, spears, etc. Founded back in 1977 by a group of college friends with a shared interest in Lord of the Rings, the fantasy sport has grown from a few dudes wailing on each other to an organization of thousands of players, with local chapters spread throughout the United States.
Picture taken by Stephen Rawlings
Dagorhir member John Hutchinson alerted the group to Paul Walsh’s attendance at the Unite the Right rally, sharing my previous news coverage that indicated that Walsh had raised money on GoFundMe to attend the rally, and asking “So is this a thing what (sic) Dagorhir should be know (sic) for? Shouldn’t the higher up possible (sic) take steps to show that we don’t condone this? This is Paul Walsh/Woody a Dagorhirm from Michigan.”
Members argued in the comments about the best way to handle the potentially poor optics. “If to (sic) many members get associated with alt right it could look as though it’s a Nazi training ground,” one user commented.
Another cautioned, “I’m not really a member of the Dag community, but I would like to point out that the Nazis and white supremacists who showed up in Charlottesville shows up with homemade shields and clubs, and used the poles of their flags as spears. I’ve seen the videos of the riots. They used reasonably well coordinated medieval skirmish tactics, utilizing a shield wall up front with ranks behind them u sing weapons to beat counter protesters and prevent any effective resistance.”
He continued, “Considering that we now have at least one widely known and identified white supremacist, who heads an organization that were seen bearing shields and using them in the previously described manner, it is safe to say that there are white supremacists and Nazis who are ACTIVELY using Dag as a personal and organizational training ground to give them an edge in premeditated race riots.”
Later that evening, at 9:49pm, Dagorhir member Kithallah Canid Somnia responded to concerns about Walsh’s involvement:
“We are currently doing everything we can to have him blacklisted on a national level. I want everyone to know that the Dagorhir I know and love does not welcome racist scum like this. He is being blacklisted from Dagorhir on a national level.”
The next morning, on August 17, the president of the 2017-2018 board of directors for Dagorhir Battle Games, David Vierling, better known to players by his character name, Graymael, issued the following statement to the public Facebook group:
“Dagorhir Battle Games Association, Inc. is founded on equality and mutual respect. Our organization decries white supremacists, Nazis, and other hate groups. They are anathema to what Dagorhir represents.
We’re looking into the legal ramifications of how to keep people who espouse hate speech out of all Dagorhir events.
We’re also researching how to deal with things like the hate speech people are reporting on the Dagorhir Unmoderated FB group.
Bear in mind, I haven’t been involved in Dagorhir administration for more than a decade, and I’ve been in my current position for less than 2 weeks. During that time, I’d been concentrating on assembling a team of website volunteers and standing up a ‘Welcome Committee’ to work with new chapters.
Please understand that some of these things will take time to do them legally and right.
Thanks for your patience and any information you can offer to help identify these thugs who have no place at our events.
Graymael/David Vierling, DBGA”
Members expressed their gratitude for the prompt response in the comments, saying “Thank you for your efforts, Graymael. I appreciate you addressing this and taking the time to do things properly,” “Atta boy Gray,” as well as, “Graymael? More like Baemael.” True to medieval epic style, their wise leader had taken up the cause of banishing a resurgent evil once more to the shadows.
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This backlash from the Dagorhir community followed an equally pointed condemnation from the Detroit Red Wings. Walsh’s neo-nazi contingent, the Detroit Right Wings–an ill-conceived play on the Original Six NHL Team—soaked up a moment of the Charlottesville spotlight when its members drew the ire of the sports franchise for marching with shields emblazoned with a Schutzstaffel-inspired variation of the iconic winged wheel logo.
After his display offended the dichotomous worlds of professional athletics and amateur fantasy reenactments, Walsh deactivated his Facebook accounts. His social media activity prior to takedown of his pages reveals he was a member of groups including “The Deplorables,” “Round Up and Deport Every Illegal Alien In The USA,” and “Stop the Destruction of Confederate American History.” Also among the groups Walsh’s profile joined: Irceni Dagorhir, a group of 135 members based out of the Grand Haven area. The Facebook page for this group, too, has since been deactivated.
Paul Walsh, when he donned his LARP armor and drew his foam blade, went by the character name Kromkar. He and his fellow LARPer, Anthony Overway (who role-played as Heinz the Barbarian, “a man who towers over most at almost six and one half feet tall” and also attended the Charlottesville rally) oversaw the Irceni Dagorhir chapter operating out of Grand Haven, Michigan.
Walsh posted occasionally in Dagorhir forums under the alias of his character name, Kromkar, or Kromkar Da Yooper, inviting local LARP novices to attend his chapter’s practices, or share space in his carpool to battles. Posting in a forum thread about how to psych yourself up for a battle, Walsh answered, “Painting and garbing up gets me really excited, and the final bit is chanting ORKZ IZ GREEN! GREEN IZ BEST! Right before I hit charging distance and then WAAAGH! as I close with the enemy. I usually pick a new fighter because the look of fear on his face makes me feel like a real orc.”
In the summer of 2016, for Dagorhir’s primary annual event, Ragnarok, a week-long celebration where all Dagorhir chapters gather for contests of battle and bardsmanship, Walsh hosted one of the festival’s signature games, the Assassin’s Tournament.
According to one member, Walsh spoke regularly about his views on the genetic superiority of the white race, and joked that slavery was justified. His racist remarks alienated other players, leading to a decline in members.
A friend of Walsh who preferred to be left unidentified said that he espoused racist views as far back as high school, gradually delving further into the Internet sinkhole of men’s rights activism, “I remember him getting crazy into the whole men’s rights thing. Almost every post on Facebook was about men’s rights or ‘alpha’ vs ‘beta’ males, and all that junk.”
Before fully embracing the mantle of the alt-right, and forming the Detroit Right Wings, Walsh supported Bernie Sanders in the presidential election, before switching to Trump when he felt Sanders was too strict on gun control.
Another acquaintance from Grand Valley High School, Nealon Bradley, was not so shocked about his involvement in the alt-right. “To be perfectly honest, I’m not surprised that he became a Neo-Nazi,” he said. “He was heading towards that route, he was a hateful man in high school, he became a hateful man out of high school. Just now he has a cause for it.”
Following the white supremacist and white nationalist activity in Charlottesville, including the domestic terror attack that killed Heather Heyer, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints denounced racism in its ranks.
Their statement is as follows:
It has been called to our attention that there are some among the various pro-white and white supremacy communities who assert that the church is neutral toward or in support of their views. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In the New Testament, Jesus said, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.’ (Matthew 22:37-39) The Book of Mormon teaches ‘all are alike unto God’ (2 Nephi 26:33).
White supremacist attitudes are morally wrong and sinful, and we condemn them. Church members who promote or pursue a ‘white culture’ or white supremacy agenda are not in harmony with the teachings of the church.
Ayla, a newly prominent alt-right figure, and its leading Mormon proponent, who was scheduled to speak at the Unite the Right rally before bowing out at the last second citing concerns from her “security team,” took to Twitter to vent her disbelief. A convert to the Mormon faith after a young adulthood lived as an “SJW” and pagan, Ayla embraced white supremacy and promoted an upsetting and misguided concoction of white pride and Mormon family values, blogging and recording videos on her blog, Wife With A Purpose.
Now, with the religious authority of her church condemning racism, with a focus on white pride, Ayla lashed out in disbelief on her Twitter.
Her Tweets are below:
My church just declared that I, as a white person, have no culture. Despite my never claiming supremacy of any kind & advocating for ALL ppl pic.twitter.com/WEYdDUdFFR
This is a lie. God created white people and our culture, just like he did all races & ppl. We do not have to choose between the two. https://t.co/gWvkBLFIip
I don't listen to the church's PR department, have someone from the first presidency tell me I can't love my culture, then we'll talk. https://t.co/spnfjFkoYJ
Note: 10:27 AM, November 16th, 2017. This article initially misidentified the victim of the car crash as “Helen” Heyer. The article has been updated to reflect the correct name, Heather Heyer.
In what appears to be a desperate attempt to abdicate responsibility for the violence that occurred in Charlottesville, right-wing-leaning users of 4chan identified a Michigan teenager as the driver of a car that mowed through a crowd of counter-protesters.
Though the crowd appeared to be carrying a myriad of Black Lives Matter signs, these right-wing-leaning online communities have developed a theory that the violence was perpetrated by a left-wing antifascist. The theory has made its way to populate the top posts on Voat.
Using the license plate of the car and a series of Internet searches, users identified an owner of the car, and placed the blame on the man’s son, Joel. The evidence they claim supports this theory is available as compiled in this tweet from PEBBLES_GOMAD, who identifies himself as “INTJ. Man of the west.” etc.
Joel’s sister posted a concerned status on Facebook, asserting that Joel could not possibly be the driver, as they both were attending a wedding in Michigan as the Unite the Right rally was underway.
Posts from Joel’s Facebook account also denied his involvement. Even Mike Cernovich, conspiracy-booster extraordinaire, picked up on this, producing screenshots of the posts on his account. Presumably, if Joel were actually the suspect currently in custody, he would not have been able to make these posts himself.
Joel VanGheluwe, or someone running his Facebook accounts, responds to internet rumors. pic.twitter.com/94vcqFQkWM
As additional information came out and made this theory continually less plausible, users of Voat began to bicker and back off from the claim that Joel was the driver of the vehicle.
User gosso920 sums it up, saying simply, “4chan done goofed.”
It remains to be seen who is culpable for the driving the car into pedestrian counter-protesters. Ultimately, one would hope our president would condemn displays of white supremacy, but I’m not getting my hopes up.
Update: the suspect in custody has been identified as James Alex Fields, Jr, a 20-year-old registered as a Republican voter, from Maumee, Ohio.
Of all the institutions that had to issue a statement condemning the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, I would have never have guessed the Detroit Red Wings.
The perennial NHL powerhouse has recently fallen on hard times, sure. The team missed the playoffs this season for the first time in a quarter century. They lost one of their legendary former players, Gordie Howe, who passed away in June later year, as well as their beloved owner, Mike Illitch, who passed away this February. And yet, the Red Wings are dealt another blow. Who could have expected their logo, the iconic winged wheel, would be appropriated by Neo-Nazis?
The Detroit Red Wings, to their credit, immediately issued a statement when alerted.
The white supremacists that marched with the Red Wings logo appear to be a part of a Michigan-based far-right group that calls itself the Detroit Right Wings. I agree, pretty corny.
The group appears to be led by a Muskegon, Michigan resident, Paul Walsh, pictured below with a cigarette and a case of Pabst Blue Ribbon.
To fund the Detroit Right Wings’ expedition to Charlottesville, to participate in the white nationalist rally, he created a fundraiser on GoFundMe, entitled Detroit Right Road Trip. He then shared the fundraiser in Pro-Trump Facebook groups, such as The Deplorables.
Presumably to skate by GoFundMe’s hate speech policy undetected, the fundraiser makes no mention of white nationalism, nor does it refer to the Unite the Right rally by name.
Instead, Walsh refers to the rally as “a vacation and fellowship event the weekend of August 12.”
The fundraiser appears to have raised $328 out of its goal of $2,500. The description indicated approximately 40 people from the “self-organized group of young Republicans” attended the rally.”
Walsh also appears to have led another fundraiser, specifically for “one of our dear friends.” The fundraiser is not available for viewing, except in a cached form, since it has completed and reached its goal of $1,250 dollars. In the excerpts that are visible, the alt-right rally is described as a family reunion.
Here’s the full-text of the fundraiser’s mission from a cached webpage. “Brothers” appears to be a term for fellow Alt-Right activists, and the main reunion, ostensibly, refers to the Unite the Right rally.
An update indicates the beneficiary will be able “see us all,” accompanying a picture of a protest.
A final update confirms the link to the alt-right rally in Charlottesville. Walsh asks that other donors contribute to the fundraiser to help the Detroit Red Wings “get to the same place,” i.e., the Unite the Right Rally.
On Walsh’s Facebook, he identifies himself as a fan of both Lauren Southern and Richard Spencer, notable figures in the Alt-Right movement.
Additionally, he is a member of Facebook groups including “Confederate Citizens,” “Stop the Destruction of Confederate American History,” and “Round Up And Deport Every Illegal Alien In The USA.” His apparent allegiance to the Confederacy is intriguing, considering he is a resident of Michigan, a state that, as I recall, fought on the side of the Union in the Civil War.
As the rally continues to descend into violence, one hopes that the leadership of the United States and its citizens can address the proliferation of white supremacy in the aftermath of the 2016 election. With any luck, no one was harmed in the violence of Charlottesville, but it’s hard to believe that’s the case.
One thing that is certain: Gordie Howe and Mike Illitch must be rolling in their graves, as a logo that stands for excellence and sportsmanship has been defiled as a political symbol for a derelict group of Michigan Neo-Nazis who can’t afford to pay for their own hotel room in Virginia.
A series of comments in a Stormfront forum provide an insight into how Ayla Stewart, now a verified Twitter user with over 30,000 followers, was initially received by the online white nationalist subculture. The posts demonstrate how Ayla may have been swayed toward the alt-right and further radicalized, adopting antisemitic views from members of the neo-nazi Internet forum.
A Stormfront.org user, Pinpoint, shared one of Ayla Stewart’s YouTube videos with the message, “This video is excellent and gives me hope.” He goes on to say, “Please give her some likes and subscribers. We need to stick together.”
The video, entitled “Welcome Refugees?? I blame feminism, this is why,” is among the first dozen posted from her account. It is also her most viewed; at over 126,000 views, it outranks her next most watched video by 110,000 views.
Stormfront-posters were somewhat split on Ayla’s developing ministry. Some were overjoyed at the discovery of an articulate spokesperson that shared their views. “Nice to see a smart young white lady,” commented one user.
“That is the attitude I like to hear from women,” commented another.
User FredF saw in Ayla’s developing hostility toward refugees the beginning of a fully-fledged anti-semite. “Once this girl becomes Jew wise,” he writes, “it will change her world.”
Well, I hate to agree with a white supremacist, but in this case, FredF was right. Ayla took to anti-semitism like a goose-stepping duck to water. By March 2017, the so-called “TradLife” lover was making crackpot posts like the following:
But while a number of Stormfront users felt that Ayla could become a promising spokesperson for white nationalism, others expressed skepticism that she would ever adopt full-blown white supremacist views.
“I watched some of her other videos, and I do not think she can be convinced to join our cause. She is a former liberal who over the last 5 years has converted over to conservatism, but of the somewhat cuckservative variety,” writes user, The Q. A veteran Stormfronter of ten years, he continues, “I do not think there is any chance that white nationalism is in her future.”
Even among her earliest cheerleaders, it’s hard to imagine any of them would have expected that in the not-too-far future, the TradLifer they were hoping to sway from anti-feminism to antisemitism would end up appearing at a Richard Spencer-led rally.
But Stormfront users definitely saw something in Ayla, something they could cultivate and encourage and use for their purposes. One user described creating a YouTube account just to support her, in the hopes she’d turn toward White Nationalism.
“She is good and she has great potentials,” comments another user, a Confederate flag serving as his profile picture.
User EuropaMatters describes sending a message of support to Ayla, and encouraging her to “look deeper.” Recommending that other forum users do the same, he explains, “Our goal is not to intimidate, but to hold the door open for those who might want to join.” And join she did.
Ayla would go on to create a Stormfront account in November, and promote her blog and social media accounts there herself. Her first posts are below.
Alt-Right Already 