It Could Happen Here - Infiltrating Local Nazi Groups

Episode Date: October 22, 2024

Garrison is joined by Corvallis Antifa and Left Coast Right Watch to discuss the Oregon chapter of White Lives Matter and one particular nazi who is receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in go...vernment contracts via his company Whit Industries.  Sources:https://cvantifa.noblogs.org/post/2024/09/16/wlm/ https://leftcoastrightwatch.org/articles/your-tax-dollars-at-work-the-nazi-leader-behind-coos-bays-whit-industries/ https://info4publicuse.org/2024/09/tax-dollars-funding-a-nazi-linked-business-at-the-port-of-coos-bay/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and expanding your horizons? Hit play on the sex-positive and deeply entertaining podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Join hosts Gabe Gonzalez and Chris Patterson Rosso as they explore queer sex, cruising, relationships, and culture in the new iHeart podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds and help you pursue your true goals.
Starting point is 00:00:22 You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. Welcome to Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get real and dive straight into todo lo actual y viral. We're talking música, los premios, el chisme, and all things trending in my cultura. I'm bringing you all the latest happening in our entertainment world and some fun and impactful interviews with your favorite Latin artists, comedians, actors, and influencers. Each week, we get deep and raw life stories, combos on the issues that matter to us, and
Starting point is 00:00:55 it's all packed with gems, fun, straight up comedia, and that's a song that only nuestra gente can sprinkle. Listen to Gracias Come Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into tech's elite and how they've turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google Search, Better Offline get your podcasts from. 2025 iHeart Podcast Awards are coming. This is the chance to nominate your podcast for the industry's biggest award.
Starting point is 00:01:48 Submit your podcast for nomination now at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. But hurry, submissions close on December 8th. Hey, you've been doing all that talking. It's time to get rewarded for it. Submit your podcast today at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. That's iHeart.com slash podcast awards. That's iHeart.com slash podcast awards.
Starting point is 00:02:17 On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, five-year-old Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez was found off the coast of Florida. And the question was, should the boy go back to his father in Cuba? Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or stay with his relatives in Miami? Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. CallZone Media. Welcome to It Could Happen Here. I'm Garrison.
Starting point is 00:02:55 This is a little special episode today. I'm joined by Alex from Corvallis Antifa and Hank, who's using a pseudonym for personal safety, from the Left Coast Right Watch team. Hello to you both, and thank you so much for joining me. Hey, what's happening? Thank you so much for having us. Thanks for having us. Good to be here.
Starting point is 00:03:13 So today we're going to be talking about this group called White Lives Matter. I guess originally, White Lives Matter was like a slogan and like a very, very loose group from like 2015, or at least it kind of started in 2015, as a reaction to the growing Black Lives Matter movement. I know I definitely saw this phrase propagated via like memes, flyers, billboards, and other forms of propaganda as a way to like seed white nationalist rhetoric to the then like growing and burgeoning alt-right. Yeah. So there was a formation that was kind of like an NSM splinter formation that happened in reaction to the initial Black Lives Matter protests in 2015. The White Lives Matter that we're talking about today is a different formation entirely that utilizes sort of the same slogan. They are a group that started in like 2021 and have been organizing primarily on Telegram and have grown really rapidly across the country in the years since.
Starting point is 00:04:17 Yeah, we can see the early use of this phrase spread by, you mentioned, the National Socialist Movement, along with a few other kind of collections of neo-Nazis, the Aryan Resistance Society and the Aryan Nationalist Alliance. But then things kind of like died down. It was just, it was like a slogan you could see at rallies, but it wasn't, it wasn't anything like too prominent, honestly. But then we had this big second wave in 2021 with Telegram channels promoting a White Lives Matter march uh or a series of marches to be held across the country on like april 11th this batch of rallies were mostly a failure in part due to the efforts of anti-fascists who worked to sabotage the planning of these rallies ahead of time of the rallies that did eventually take place really only a handful of white supremacists showed up and most were outnumbered by anti-fascist counter demonstrators. So then after this initial event with this big
Starting point is 00:05:12 batch of channels on Telegram, which is this encrypted messaging platform based out of Russia, it's not very good. Don't use it unless you're trying to infiltrate a Nazi group. But after these like failed rallies, White Lives Matter kind of turned into yet another one of these like networks for white supremacists and neo-Nazis that advocate quote unquote pro-white activism. Typically this includes like putting up
Starting point is 00:05:35 white nationalist like stickers around neighborhoods, hanging large banners with fascist rhetoric or Nazi imagery, flyering and just spreading propaganda online with the occasional like in-person rally. I think you can see kind of the peak of like the White Lives Matter slogan at least was when it was propagated to the degree
Starting point is 00:05:55 that Kanye West wore it on a t-shirt during his little Nazi era back in 2022. And I think now you see White Lives Matter as like a network. like it overlaps and crosses over a lot with like similar groups, like the GDL, that's the Goyim Defense League, as well as the National Socialist Club and Patriot Front to some degree. I guess one thing that I wanted to talk about is that, and this is mentioned in the Corvallis and Tifa article on the Oregon chapter of White Lives Matter, is like this idea
Starting point is 00:06:25 of hiding your power level, which we used to talk about it a little bit more. I think in some ways, a whole bunch of Nazis kind of blew their cover back around 2020. But now you see kind of more attempts to try to seed a white nationalist rhetoric into other kind of right-wing spaces to push them farther along that radicalization pathway. And I would like to have a discussion at least a little bit about how White Lives Matter specifically tries to hide their power level, like kind of disguise the level of like overt fascism that they're really proposing by employing this like, quote unquote, like pro white rhetoric. Yeah, so White Lives Matter as a national organization is extremely like conscious of what
Starting point is 00:07:07 they would describe as like their optics they are very intent on like radicalizing who they perceive to be everyday white people into sort of fascist politics and in their national level manuals and the uh the materials that they provide to the leaders of statewide organizations. They specifically talk about stuff like not displaying Nazi flags or using neo-Nazi rhetoric, despite that being what they believe. But their goal is to use more innocuous styles of sloganeering, like the phrase white lives matter and protect white babies, stuff like that, like white lives matter and protect white babies stuff like that as ways to kind of open the door to get people to uh become interested in a more like overtly national socialist politic they can
Starting point is 00:07:53 radicalize people to who like join their group and you see a lot of groups uh like active clubs patriot front uh other sort of white nationalist formations using the national WLM org as sort of a way to recruit to their own organizations with this sort of more innocuous, subtle style of propaganda. Yeah, and like one other thing that's pointed out in the Corvallis and Tifa article is like, they don't just do agitprop. Like, they're not just a group that is composed of only doing stickering. There's been multiple instances when their online propaganda as well as their in-person stickering escalates to real violence. Last year, a 28-year-old from New Jersey attacked an anti-racism concert at a church. He yelled, white lives matter at attendees,
Starting point is 00:08:42 threw smoke bombs at the church, and then tried to bear spray the crowd. I think inadvertently bear spraying himself, which he then recorded a video talking about and posted online. Later that year, a 20-year-old male associated with White Lives Matter firebombed a church in Ohio, and the church was picked as a target because it planned to host two drag events. After being arrested, police found six firearms and dozens of loaded magazines alongside Nazi paraphernalia. This guy also wrote a manifesto defending his actions and specifically stating that he was happy about it because people online were proud of him. And like, you can even go back to the White Lives Matter rallies back in 2021, especially the one in Huntington Beach, which saw a degree of physical violence. It's important not just not to just write these groups off as being like, oh, they only do banner drops. Oh, they only do stickers, because not only is like propaganda really important part of growing the number of them out there, but they also do real world violence.
Starting point is 00:09:45 It's also important to talk about like the ways that WLM is organizationally connected to like more like scary elements of the neo-Nazi right. Recently, Left Coast Right Watch published proof that Matthew Allison, who was one of the leaders of the Terror Ground Collective, who was one of the leaders of the terror ground collective who was recently arrested, was responsible for some of the national WLM propaganda that they published, which is quite concerning. So, you know, even these groups that are more movementarian in nature and are trying to appeal to, you know, you know, more quote unquote normie white people are like directly in bed with people who are like associated with mass shooters and like terrorists. Yep. Specifically try to like groom people into becoming mass shooters. Yes.
Starting point is 00:10:33 I mean, and like, that's why I think specifically with both these guys who, who did physical violence, you can see violence as like a, as like an escalatory thing for the person who's like doing it right. You start off with throwing a Molotov cocktail and then later you might do a mass shooting it's like a testing ground you can see the same thing with you know bear macing an anti-racism concert the fact that both these guys specifically the
Starting point is 00:10:53 one in ohio had like a lot a lot of guns and like we're in america there's there's a lot of guns around but but having that many guns and and and in Ohio as a 20-year-old with all that Nazi paraphernalia, that is what a Nazi mass shooter's bedroom looks like. And these are not isolated incidents. I guess let's take a bit of a break and we will come back to talk about specifically the Oregon chapter of White Lives Matter and what they've been getting up to the past few months. literature. I'm Jack Peace Thomas, and I'm inviting you to join me and a vibrant community of literary enthusiasts dedicated to protecting and celebrating our stories. Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while commuting or running errands, for those who
Starting point is 00:11:57 find themselves seeking solace, wisdom, and refuge between the chapters. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Together, we'll dissect classics and contemporary works while uncovering the stories of the brilliant writers behind them. Blacklit is here to amplify the voices of Black writers and to bring their words to life. Listen to Blacklit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:12:28 Hola, mi gente. It's Honey German, and I'm bringing you Gracias, Come Again, the podcast where we dive deep into the world of Latin culture, musica, peliculas, and entertainment with some of the biggest names in the game. If you love hearing real conversations with your favorite Latin celebrities, artists, and culture shifters, this is the podcast for you. We're talking real conversations with our Latin stars, from actors and artists to musicians and creators, sharing their stories, struggles, and successes.
Starting point is 00:12:54 You know it's going to be filled with chisme laughs and all the vibes that you love. Each week we'll explore everything from music and pop culture to deeper topics like identity, community, and breaking down barriers in all sorts of industries. Don't miss out on the fun, el té caliente, and life stories. Join me for Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get into todo lo actual y viral. Listen to Gracias Come Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:13:24 Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season, I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel-winning economists to leading journalists in the field. And I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong, though.
Starting point is 00:13:57 I love technology. I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God, things can change if we're loud enough. So join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean.
Starting point is 00:14:29 He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez.
Starting point is 00:14:45 At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story,
Starting point is 00:15:15 as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Parenti. And I'm Jimei Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, the early career podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. One of the most exciting things about having your first real job is that first real paycheck. You're probably thinking, yay, I can finally buy a new phone.
Starting point is 00:15:45 But you also have a lot of questions like, how should I be investing this money? I mean, how much do I save? And what about my 401k? Well, we're talking with finance expert Vivian Toot, aka Your Rich BFF, to break it all down. I always get roasted on the internet when I say this out loud, but I'm like, every single year you need to be asking for a raise of somewhere between 10 to 15 percent. I'm not saying you're going but I'm like every single year you need to be asking for a raise of somewhere between 10 to 15 percent. I'm not saying you're going to get 15 percent every single year. But if you ask for 10 to 15 and you end up getting eight, that is actually a true raise. Listen to this week's episode of Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:16:22 or wherever you get your podcasts. All right. So after Corvallis Antifa leaked like chat logs from the Oregon White Lives Matter group back in 2021, the chapter went dormant and then it restarted earlier this year. I guess, Alex, can you walk us through kind of the rebirth of White Lives Matter Oregon? Yeah, so the way that WLM works as a national organization is there's like a series
Starting point is 00:16:52 of groups that all kind of are extant, like there are groups, and then people would like apply to be with the national order to be like a leader of a state group so back when uh wlm initially began as a thing in 2021 our group uh was running the oregon chapter and exposed several people who tried to join that group and then after that like interest in uh that organization became uh it stopped existing for several years yeah then uh earlier this year we noticed that somebody had taken over the chapter and had started engaging in some stickering and some propaganda. So we were like, well, you know, we may as well join this group and see what's up. infiltrated the organization gathered information about the membership and published that information online in order to warn the communities that these guys inhabit about their activities the group you know was doing stuff that was not like extremely intense like they were doing stickers they did
Starting point is 00:18:00 two banner drops or three banner drops successfully rather. But in their chat, we also found that they were talking a lot about like, you know, military training and escalating. And, you know, even though this group kind of like seemed very low key and was like not doing anything, you know, super scary, like the stuff they're talking about is concerning and they're getting organized and they're getting to know each other so we put a kibosh on that so it looks like according to your research the new leader is this guy named cruz dean walters yeah yeah so cruz is a marine kind of washout who lives in mcminnville oregon until very recently was living a double life. He was living with his mom and his fiance, neither of whom knew about his racist beliefs and now knew. He was a highly incompetent leader who, you know, really had a tremendous number of security flaws in his organization, you know, as is evidenced by the fact that we were able to, you know, infiltrate and destroy it in a matter of just a few months. But, you know, it is evidenced by the fact that we were able to, you know, infiltrate and destroy it in a
Starting point is 00:19:05 matter of just a few months. But, you know, it is worth noting that, like, the group grew from just a handful of people to, you know, doing banner drops with, like, you know, six or seven folks in just a couple, you know, a couple of short months. So, like, even though these groups can kind of be benign, if there winds up being somebody who is like, particularly passionate behind the channel, like, they can transform into something less benign very, very quickly. And that's something we want to impart to other anti-fascists across the country is there are all these channels, and they might be seeming kind of like, benign now, but they can turn to something very malignant very quickly.
Starting point is 00:19:46 I wanted to ask specifically about Cruz's radicalization. It's written in your piece that he was radicalized in part by the GDL, the Going Defense League, and participated in the city council death squads, as reported by our own Molly Conger. And then just seemingly like just getting bored of just calling into city council meetings to yell slurs he then like cooed the organization so i i i'm curious uh if he ever
Starting point is 00:20:12 wrote about or talked about his background with the gdl and his like apparent boredom at their particular style of like a white supremacist activism yeah so um he i think was just kind of like sitting on the internet as, like, a fucking, you know, dorky, lonely, sad little man. And, you know, got into the GDL. For those who have the fortune of not knowing, the GDL is sort of this network of, like, really grotesque, highly cringy, racist Twitch streamers. Or, like, not on Twitch anymore, but, like, you know, there's streamers nonetheless not on twitch anymore but like you know there's streamers nonetheless they've been banned from twitch but yeah um but yeah so they uh have this program called the city council death squad where they will like call into like your local city
Starting point is 00:20:57 council meeting and just like yell slurs at the bleeder municipal employees that have to sit and watch uh they did one in corvallis and like watching the footage was just like watching like these like grown men acting like children like you know hollering at like random like city counselor 23 or whatever it's it's really like pathetic so and i think you know crews kind of saw that, and many do, you know, the GDL is just a tremendously fucking pathetic organization. And he was, like, kind of decided that he wanted to get more involved, and he chose to get involved with WLM as opposed to, like, another neo-Nazi formation, because WLM is, like, a really, really easy entry point and has a very, like know kind of base politic it's not like you know hatred front or an active club where there are you know membership requirements and you have to engage in certain amounts of organizing activity or whatever it's just very easy for you know you're
Starting point is 00:21:55 lazy nazi to engage with yeah absolutely it definitely feels like the lazy person's option who doesn't want to go through the work of being vetted by like actual like larger organizations yeah and he he took over the chapter from an even lazier nazi uh named christian coats who lives in portland oregon who is like this old school bonehead from the 2000s who like has some hate crime charges from like i think like attempting to and failing to assault some Black teens in 2007. So Christian had, in the interceding years between us destroying the initial iteration of WLM, taken it over and basically done zilch with it. He posted one photo on the channel ever. But then he got taken over by this dude, Cruz,
Starting point is 00:22:41 who grew the organization from just a few people to being a reasonable street presence in a short number of months, obviously at the expense of including an anti-fascist infiltrator and also just a true coterie of scumbags and idiots in the group. Yeah, one of the other guys that you've identified is um i don't know how to say his last name but casey i want to say nuts him oh yeah casey nelson who after being kicked out of both the proud boys and patriot front made his own group in 2022 uh the rose city nationalists which is kind of the laughingstock of all white supremacist groups in the pnw and the group has the group has largely fallen apart after being just extensively investigated
Starting point is 00:23:26 and exposed by local anti-fascists, almost to a comical extent. Yeah, ourselves, Rose City Antifa, and the Stumptown Research Collective have been kind of going through and just, you know, ripping apart RCN. And RCN is, at this point more or less just casey and this fella named jaron huber who is an absolute like freak he's got a bunch of tattoos all over his
Starting point is 00:23:53 face he uh was arrested for kicking a puppy nearly to death and beating up his grandfather um just real scumbags jesus christ yeah they all they all have domestic violence charges and are just real nightmare folks. The funniest thing about Rose City Nationalists is they got in this conflict with the Proud Boys. I believe it was in Oregon City where they got just absolutely washed by some drunken Proud Boys on the street. Proud Boys on the street, not because of ideological issues, but just because they have interpersonal issues between Casey and the
Starting point is 00:24:29 Portland chapter of the Proud Boys. They are truly just a laughingstock and are just like, I hate to use the term, but kind of like wall cows at this point. One thing that you do document is just how many of these guys are like domestic
Starting point is 00:24:45 abusers and like this is not uncommon for like these types of fellows but also crews uh like both admitted to stealing a gun and also abusing his wife and threatening other family with firearms and this is like a trend across so many of of the people exposed in these articles is the extent to which they're all imbued in like spousal abuse child abuse it's it just it's one of the people exposed in these articles is the extent to which they're all envuved in like spousal abuse child abuse it's it just it's one of the very consistent factors yeah misogyny is you know one of the very very core parts of neo-nazism and white nationalism and uh yeah there's a really really horrible like section of text in our article that where Cruz discusses like physically hitting his fiance and then threatening his brother with a firearm and yeah it's really
Starting point is 00:25:31 really common that these people have domestic abuse charges multiple people in WLM Oregon have histories of domestic abuse including Jaron Huber and Casey Knudsen who are the two other members and yeah it's just anytime you look at a Nazi group there's a dude who beats his wife in it like kind of bar none as long as we've been doing this work we've been seeing it i'd like to talk now about the second in command of white lives matter oregon this small business owner in coos bay named michael witt gatenbein who usually just goes by wit now wit has been a part of the White Lives Matter Oregon banner drops, and is also responsible for a lot of the stickering that gets done as he leaves stickers across the truck stop bathrooms up and down the coast.
Starting point is 00:26:17 Now, Witt's kind of a fascinating fellow to me. He has shockingly bad OPSECsec kind of one of the worst examples i've ever seen his very easily recognized custom flatbed truck can be seen at banner drops in august and it even appears in their own like propaganda videos for for another banner drop in september he like talked about his just like utter disregard for opsec in uh in one of the audio archives that you have hosted on Left Goes Right Watch. What else can you tell us about kind of Witt's background here? Yeah, so Witt is a Nazi. And I believe his mother is actually, you know, he said at one point his mother was like, quote, awakened to the truth about the Jews or something like that. So he seems to come from, at the very least, an-semitic family but he himself is certainly a nazi and and i think he has believed he can operate with
Starting point is 00:27:11 impunity in kuzbe so i think it's less that he has bad opsec and more believes he seems to think of himself as living in a world where it's okay to be a nazi sure we can talk a little bit more about that but yeah he he runs a company called Industries, which he's claimed does business from Mexico to Russia. He works in the marine and maritime industry. Within the port of Coos Bay and Coos County, we know that he's gotten about a quarter million dollars in public contracts, primarily from the port of Coos Bay, but also the Port of Umpqua, the City of North Bend, Coos County, South Coast Education Service District. That's just what we've found so far. It can be pretty difficult to find, you know, even though this is public money, it can still be sort of a pretty difficult process to get public records and things like that. But, you know, we know that the Port of Coos Bay alone has awarded him like $219,000 in contracts for work ranging from hydraulics repairs and replacements on vessels and the bridge. He's also painted the state dredge and the trailer, things like that.
Starting point is 00:28:17 You mentioned him using his work vehicle. So he has stated, and this is from information we have from the Port Dallas Antifa infiltration, he stated that part of his goal is to build a white supremacist hub in Coos Bay. He wants to get guys elected to mayor and city council and things like that. And he actually was using White Lives Matter to recruit guys to come and work for him. in White Lives Matter to recruit guys to come and work for him. He was recruiting a guy named Landon Calhoun, who is also an alleged pedophile, and we go into that in the Left Coast Right Watch article. But if he got this alleged pedophile, Landon, to come and work for him, they met in White Lives Matter, and he said, hey, come work for an all-white organization where we can come and build the movement together. And as far as we know, it does appear that Landon has moved there.
Starting point is 00:29:05 He was planning to move there in this fall, and we believe he's currently there. Yeah, I'd like to kind of go by some of these points one by one, because he's certainly a worrying figure. The fact that he's using his income, which is largely derived of government contracts to specifically
Starting point is 00:29:20 fund white supremacist activity in the PNW and like use his own company resources to grow the number of far-right extremists in coos bay specifically his plans of like having them eventually like occupy positions of of local government it's a degree of like long-term planning that isn't always present in some of these types of guys you know plans are one thing but when you actually have a business that you are like hiring people to move to this town to like actually build this plan up like it shows the degree of uh chutzpah i guess on his part that he's actually like doing
Starting point is 00:29:56 this i mean it kind of reminds me of the the rise above movements tree trimming business but that was just to pay bills they had no plans to like slowly actually just like take over a small town there's a lot of these businesses that are run by nazis that primarily hire other nazis but the degree to which that michael witt is is able to operate without much oversight and just get get all of this money from local government is certainly worrying i know he's stated that one of his employees like prints out all of this money from local government is certainly worrying. I know he's stated that one of his employees prints out all of his White Lives Matter stickers and has gotten help from employees to do one banner drop outside of Roseburg and has a history of hiring far-right people,
Starting point is 00:30:36 conspiracy theorists, and monetarily supporting them to help them continue their own far-right activism. Yeah, and you mentioned his employees that were printing the stickers for him that was before he hired landon so yeah he already has guys that are that are doing this and the port i think it's important to point out that the port of coos bay it's public body the the commissioners are elected by the governor and they're confirmed by the oregon senate you know or yeah the yeah, the Oregon Senate, I believe it is. So this is a state body that is giving state funding to this Nazi. And I think that's really important to name.
Starting point is 00:31:13 It's also, like, just to give people a little bit of the geography. Coos Bay is a small town, but actually geographically it takes quite a while to, like, drive from North Bend to Coos Bay. And Witt lives right over by the Charleston Marina, and we know he's pretty in bed with the marina folks there. There was a big Oregon Department of Transportation grant at a state level that the port had written that Witt would have been one of the people making money. He was written officially into this grant. It was a $3.5 million grant that Witt was written into this grant for it was a 3.5 million dollar grant that was written into right so they're like his friends you know like they're like yeah they're writing him into these grants wit's office is over there on ocean view boulevard which is
Starting point is 00:31:56 right next to the confederated tribes of kuz lower um indians tribal housing office and right next to one of their casinos and just to give folks the terrain of where he's living and kind of operating too. Yeah. Hello, Garrison from the future. Just cutting in to say something that Hank said, but it got a little bit garbled in the voice modulation. So I just want to state it a little bit more clearly here. There's some other events that can help contextualize what Witt is doing in Coos Bay. Because currently in Coos County, there's this sort of intense far
Starting point is 00:32:30 right power grab that is slowly happening. Some people might know of this radio host named Rob Taylor. He's said to be one of the guys who coordinated the breaching of the Oregon Capitol in late December, which was basically a test run for January 6th. And he's hosted people with the far-right group Patriot Prayer. He has an old Gab account, which was essentially like Nazi Twitter before Twitter just became Nazi Twitter under Elon Musk. So this guy is like very comfortable and associates with extremely far-right people, as well as engaged in a level of activism in Oregon, at least. So that's Rob Taylor, the radio guy. There's this other person named Rod Taylor, who's a Coos County commissioner,
Starting point is 00:33:10 who actually was a January 6th insurrectionist. He was arrested at the Capitol on J6. Now, Michael Witt Gatenbein has also previously employed this guy named Matt Wilbanks, who's a buddy of Rob Taylor. He runs this blog called Matt Wilbanks, who's a buddy of Rob Taylor. He runs this blog called The Daily Resister, and also one of the Coos County Neighborhood Watch Groups in the Empire District of Coos Bay, which is mostly just focused on like doxing and harassing homeless people. And these guys are also part of various mega groups like Citizens Restoring Liberty. And
Starting point is 00:33:43 Witt himself is a part of this network. He has attended Citizens Restoring Liberty events. He's also an admin on a Telegram channel called the Oregon Patriot Alliance, which is like this mega patriots organizing channel on Telegram. Nominally, these mega types typically say that they are, you know, not for Nazis. They are against Nazis. They are against pedophiles. And yet they are associating with wit here who employs a pedophile and is a Nazi. But one other thing that Hank said that I want to reiterate is that Coos Bay is also a contested space. Although there is this intense far-right power grab happening, there's also a whole bunch of other much more positive
Starting point is 00:34:25 activism. Hank pointed to the tribal communities fighting for indigenous sovereignty, as well as environmentalist groups calling BS on the port's greenwashing of all their projects. So it's not just that like everyone's Nazis now in Coos Bay. Yes, WIT is a Nazi and people should be concerned about that, but it is a contested space home to a diverse group of people who are also fighting for good things we're now going to have an ad break and then return to talk more about white lives matter oregon hey i'm jack these thomas the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit, the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature. I'm Jack Peace Thomas, and I'm inviting you to join me and a vibrant community of literary enthusiasts dedicated to protecting and celebrating our stories.
Starting point is 00:35:22 Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while commuting or running errands, for those who find themselves seeking solace, wisdom, and refuge between the chapters. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Together, we'll dissect classics and contemporary works while uncovering the stories
Starting point is 00:35:45 of the brilliant writers behind them. Blacklit is here to amplify the voices of Black writers and to bring their words to life. Listen to Blacklit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into how tech's elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. nothing to lose. This season, I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel-winning economists to leading journalists in the field, and I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong, though. I love technology. I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that
Starting point is 00:36:38 actually do things to help real people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough, so join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. and I'm bringing you Gracias, Come Again, the podcast where we dive deep into the world of Latin culture, musica, peliculas, and entertainment with some of the biggest names in the game.
Starting point is 00:37:09 If you love hearing real conversations with your favorite Latin celebrities, artists, and culture shifters, this is the podcast for you. We're talking real conversations with our Latin stars, from actors and artists to musicians and creators, sharing their stories, struggles, and successes. You know it's going to be filled with chisme laughs and all the vibes that you love. Each week, we'll explore everything from music and pop culture
Starting point is 00:37:30 to deeper topics like identity, community, and breaking down barriers in all sorts of industries. Don't miss out on the fun, el té caliente, and life stories. Join me for Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get into todo lo actual y viral. Listen to Gracias Come Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba.
Starting point is 00:38:05 He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian Gonzalez. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian.
Starting point is 00:38:15 Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzales wanted to go home, and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well.
Starting point is 00:38:43 Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Parenti. And I'm Jimei Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, the early career podcast from LinkedIn News
Starting point is 00:39:05 and iHeart Podcasts. One of the most exciting things about having your first real job is that first real paycheck. You're probably thinking, yay, I can finally buy a new phone. Mm-hmm. But you also have a lot of questions,
Starting point is 00:39:19 like how should I be investing this money? I mean, how much do I save? And what about my 401k? Well, we're talking with finance expert Vivian Tu, aka Your Rich BFF, to break it all down. I always get roasted on the internet when I say this out loud, but I'm like, every single year you need to be asking for a raise of somewhere between 10 to 15%. I'm not saying you're going to get 15% every single year, but if you ask for 10 to 15 and you end up getting eight that is actually
Starting point is 00:39:45 a true raise listen to this week's episode of let's talk offline on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts okay we are back and uh alex you said you wanted to add something on this point about projects of like moving a bunch of people to certain usually rural areas to, you know, try to take them over, you know, most notably like Leaf, North Dakota, where Craig Cobb tried to take over. But what I think has been shown really repeatedly is that these projects have failed because the communities that live there, you know, even if they're rural communities, even if they're small towns, don't have it and are willing to fight back.
Starting point is 00:40:48 And that's what we're really hoping to see from folks on the Oregon South Coast being willing to push back against this sort of thing like was done in Leith and, you know, forcing these people out of the institutions they're trying to inhabit. Yeah, and especially with someone like Michael here because he's
Starting point is 00:41:05 hiring people who advocate going much farther than White Lives Matter to actually engage in paramilitary training, hiring someone who is not just accused of being a pedophile, but has admitted to Michael that his family hates him because of an allegation that he's touched someone, and that Michael
Starting point is 00:41:22 himself witnessed this guy, Calhoun, being quote-unquote hands-on with an eight an eight year old girl while they were meeting together in Coos Bay. There's like that side of it. And then you have him like posting on Telegram about like wanting the day of the rope to come faster. Kind of like an old like Nazi slogan about like racial lynchings and like furthering racial conflict, as well as like sharing instructions from the meme Waffen telegram channel about how to make them all tough cocktails. I believe we've talked about meme Waffen on the show before. So he's like doing all of this type of stuff.
Starting point is 00:41:55 That's like so much more obviously objectionable. We're also trying to like make like space for himself within like the mega community, right. Being the admin of this Oregonregon patriots alliance telegram channel which is like also an attempt just to like further the radicalization of these like mega centric members by like inundating them with more explicit kind of fascistic propaganda but on like a slower level and then there are multi-million and multi-billion dollar government projects to
Starting point is 00:42:21 improve the port that wit is expected to receive funds from and i feel like this is something that's pretty pretty objectionable and it should be easy to stop but it requires like attention and it requires a degree of public pressure to make sure that the government both state and federal are not giving funds to like an explicit neo-nazi who hires alleged pedophiles to fund like right-wing activism across the Pacific Northwest. Yeah, totally. And I think it's important to point out too, like, you know, Coos Bay is in this process. They have the intermodal port of Coos Bay, which is like a $2.3 billion project where they want to become like, you know, they want to be as big of a port as Oakland, California or whatever. And, you know, one of the things i mean my understanding from
Starting point is 00:43:06 talking to folks in coos bay is that it's just greenwashed capitalism that will be destructive to the environment it won't actually bring the community the kind of like people are like what about bike lanes you know like there's like community infrastructure people want in coos bay and dredging the port is not that you know and I think there's also like a couple examples of that is it'll destroy eelgrass which is a really important marine habitat and also source of storage carbon it'll destroy indigenous cultural resources or impact those spaces and you know we haven't seen the exact financials yet for what this project will be but it's a 2.3 billion dollar project that involves dredging, you know, which is sort of deepening and widening the port and the channels.
Starting point is 00:43:53 And we know that Witt has gotten money, for example, to work on the state dredge and do work on it. think it's very possible that wit would be until the port takes a stand and says hey we're not funding this nazi who uses his work truck to do nazi stuff i think people should be really concerned about this port money going back to help build a nazi community that he's trying to build there yeah and like to your previous point like the fact that he's able to be so flagrant about his white supremacist beliefs the way that he doesn't feel like he needs to care about OPSEC because he has a job that's irreplaceable. He provides a service to this community that he feels like no one else can do. Therefore, he is secure in that. You can't allow them that level of comfortability.
Starting point is 00:44:38 And that's something that has to be opposed due to both public pressure and research that you have done, as well as the crucial work from Corvallis Antifa. Yeah, I think just to add to groups like the Oregon's Bay Area, which is a popular Facebook group, has been doing a really great job just talking about what's going on. I think largely we really haven't seen much response from the Port of Coos Bay or the governor who's confirming these commissioners. Like largely the sort of institutions of power are not yet responding. And so I think that's something that both local folks in Coos Bay could be pressuring and also at a statewide level. Right. Like this is state funding and the Port of Coos Bay Development has federal funding too.
Starting point is 00:45:26 But I think those are places where there could really be a lot more pressure being applied. And I think a lot more people should be talking about all of this as well as we mentioned earlier, you know, WIT claims to have a reputation and work and contracts
Starting point is 00:45:43 all up and down the entire West Coast. So certainly if there are listeners in here in Oakland or Alaska or Washington or wherever you might be who know the name Witt Gate and Vine or Witt Industries and you want to send in a tip to Corvallis Antifa or whatever, Left Coast Right Watch, we would be really happy to hear what you know about this guy because we know he's working in other communities, but we would love details or any tips folks may have. Yeah, would either of you like to kind of add anything else before we close out and
Starting point is 00:46:12 point people towards both your work and where to send information to? Yeah, I guess the thing that I would just close out with is WLM is not just an Oregon problem. It's a national problem. I know this podcast reaches folks all across the country. Because WLM is not just an Oregon problem, it's a national problem. I know this podcast reaches folks all across the country. If you are somebody who is Antifa curious or is interested in making a difference in your community, it's a group with really terrible security culture, and it might be worth taking a gander at.
Starting point is 00:46:47 God, it feels so silly to do a podcast plug, but please check out our work at cvantifa.noblogs.org we're also on twitter at cv against fash and instagram at cvantifa and you know we have lots of articles exposing neo-nazis in oregon and across the country and uh you might just find somebody in your community who sucks hank yeah i'll just add you know if you want to see the the of course the left coast right watch article gives a really deep dive on whip and also information for public use has posted like the financials so if you really want to like get into the numbers it's worth looking there and yeah just to reiterate i mean i think coos bay and so many other places are really contested spaces and i think these nazis want us to believe that they're in charge and that they're powerful and they have this idea that they can operate with impunity and it's really
Starting point is 00:47:36 not true like we've seen small and rural towns take down nazis all over this country and i think that will continue and i think that yeah like what tactics and ways people might do that in from place to place can look different. But I just, you know, encourage folks to dig into your local Nazis and get together and figure out how to how to mess them up, you know, and it's a good way to have fun with your friends and and we can do it, you know, and we need to be doing it. I mean, there just shouldn't be state money going to help a Nazi build a white supremacist utopia. I mean, that's the history of this country, right?
Starting point is 00:48:15 Like, that's the history of colonization. That's the history of Oregon specifically. So, yeah, it's time to do something else. Yeah. And Antifa isn't just for you big city folk. You know, those of us that live in rural communities can and should be involved in these struggles. And it is something that like,
Starting point is 00:48:34 is not just something that happens in Portland. People in rural Oregon are doing anti-fascism and we'll continue to do it and we'll continue to win. Thank you both so much. I will leave links to your orgs and your articles in the description below. Thank you for listening. And yeah, if you are Antifa curious, give it a shot. It is indeed fun.
Starting point is 00:48:57 If What Happened Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com. Or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources for It Could Happen Here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and expanding your horizons? Hit play on the sex-positive and deeply entertaining podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Join hosts Gabe Gonzalez and Chris Patterson Rosso
Starting point is 00:49:26 as they explore queer sex, cruising, relationships, and culture in the new iHeart podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:49:44 New episodes every Thursday. The 2025 iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. The 2025 iHeart Podcast Awards are coming. This is the chance to nominate your podcast for the industry's biggest award. Submit your podcast for nomination now at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. But hurry, submissions close on December 8th. Hey, you've been doing all that talking.
Starting point is 00:50:05 It's time to get rewarded for it. Submit your podcast today at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. That's iHeart.com slash podcast awards. Welcome to Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get real and dive straight into todo lo actual y viral. We're talking música, los premios, el chisme, and all things trending in my cultura. I'm bringing you all the latest happening in our entertainment world and some fun and impactful interviews with your favorite Latin artists, comedians,
Starting point is 00:50:35 actors, and influencers. Each week we get deep and raw life stories, combos on the issues that matter to us, and it's all packed with gems, fun, straight-up comedia, and that's a song that only nuestra gente can sprinkle. Listen to Gracias Come Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline Podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into Tex Elite and how they've turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech brought to you by an industry veteran with nothing to lose. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app,
Starting point is 00:51:20 Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts from. Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts from. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, five-year-old Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez was found off the coast of Florida. And the question was, should the boy go back to his father in Cuba? Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or stay with his relatives in Miami? Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story,
Starting point is 00:51:57 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.