Tuolumne County Elections Influenced by Anonymous Websites Promoting Antisemitic Propaganda
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out…
Because I was not a CommunistThen they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out…
Because I was not a SocialistThen they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out…
Because I was not a trade unionistThen they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out…
Because I was not a JewThen they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me- Martin Niemöller
With the election a month away and the ballot drop eminent, the local campaign for Tuolumne County District 1 and District 5 supervisor seats are heating up. There have been numerous instances of campaign signs being taken down or vandalized, accusations of fake campaign sites going up, petty smears and attacks coming from one camp, and the appearance of two websites designed to smear a local political group and candidates they support.
Beginning at the end of August, a website titled Keep Tuolumne County Safe began spreading around Tuolumne County Facebook social media. The website became a topic of controversy over its claims that the grassroots group, Tuolumne County Indivisible, is attempting to take over the county with a nefarious Marxist agenda and their goal is nearly complete. A second website appeared at the start of September, purporting to be the official Tuolumne County Indivisible website despite Indivisible leadership denouncing the website as an impersonator.
These websites lurk in anonymity, the creator(s) have taken all precautions to ensure their privacy. Despite these websites being of clandestine origin their content has been synthesized into the final stretch of the election, influencing at least one candidate’s ideology and platform.
How did two poorly designed websites come from obscurity to being promoted in a candidate’s campaign video, and why are they set on attacking Tuolumne County Indivisible? There is speculation of a coordinated smear campaign to destroy the campaigns of District 1 candidate, David Goldemberg, and District 5 candidate, Jaron Brandon. But this is a rumor, what is the evidence?
Because the websites are obscured in anonymity, it’s not a straight forward task of simply asking the website author(s) their motivation behind the websites, or if other people are involved. While the identities of those involved are hidden, there is an intriguing trail of clues which can be followed.
What Is Tuolumne County Indivisible?
The main target of ire for these propaganda websites is Tuolumne County Indivisible. Indivisible is a self-described progressive movement started in 2016 in “response to Trump’s election.” From the humble origins of a 23-page handbook, “Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda,” written by former US Congressional staffers, the Indivisible Project has become a full-fledged political movement with thousands of self-governing groups operating under the Indivisible umbrella. Taking inspiration from the Constitutional conservative Tea Party Movement, Indivisible’s goal is to provide resources to encourage grassroots political organizing within one’s own community and network with other political groups to build a powerful voting bloc. Groups operating under the Indivisible label are encouraged to follow the Indivisible Guide, but have room to adjust focuses based on the specific community’s needs. Indivisible provides suggestions for events — such as a series of 2019 rallies supporting the impeachment of Trump — or important topics which need to be focused on — racial justice and support of Black Lives Matter movements. Indivisible supports a moderately progressive platform, and, as expected from Congressional staffers, advocates for a change-the-system-from-within model.
Tuolumne County Indivisible is one of these self-governing grassroots groups. Founded in 2017, Tuolumne County Indivisible has followed the Indivisible Guide to encourage political awareness, boasting hundreds of supporters and members. The local group is led by Jessica Metcalfe and Julie Gorgas, Chair and Vice Chair respectively. The group has organized local events, such as the Women’s March in Sonora, and a candlelight vigil for Ruth Bader Ginsburg last month. Group membership is largely centrist or left-leaning Democrats with some more leftist ideologies present, though a few fiscal conservatives and Republicans agree with their vision for addressing local issues.
Most notably, Tuolumne County Indivisible has encouraged locals to run for political positions be it city council, board of supervisor, or Congress. According to Jessica Metcalfe, Tuolumne County Indivisible doesn’t directly endorse candidates nor donate to their campaigns, but will encourage members to support local candidates. In the 2020 election, Tuolumne County Indivisible encouraged support for board of supervisors candidates David Goldemberg in District 1, Kathleen Haff in District 4, and Jaron Brandon in District 5; David Beyersdorf for Tuolumne County Superior Court Judge; and Brynne Kennedy to represent California’s 4th Congressional District.
In the March primary, Kathleen Haff won her race for District 4, beating Dameion Renault, while Districts 1 and 5 races were run-offs with both David Goldemberg and Jaron Brandon having the majority but not the required 50% plus 1 votes. David Beyersdorf lost his race to Laura Krieg.
Tuolumne County Indivisible operates a website, but is most active on their Facebook page and linked group. The group used to be public until an onslaught of trolls and trouble makers began leaking discussions out of context, forcing the group to temporarily go private to sort out the issues.
This bringing us to the last few months of the 2020 election.
Keep Tuolumne County Safe; the Propagandist
The first website, Keep Tuolumne County Safe is a shoddily constructed website with a difficult to navigate layout, and even worse content. The overall thesis the website promotes is that Tuolumne County Indivisible is a George Soros funded group which is seeking to infiltrate local politics and destroy the conservative Tuolumne County way of life. The website relies on using the classic antisemitic Nazi conspiracy of a powerful Jewish banker being puppeteer of global and national shadow organizations (“deep state”) to overthrow governments. The claim Soros is funding Indivisible goes back to white nationalist and former Grandwizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke.
The Nazi-esque conspiracies are blended with strong McCarthy Red Scare language, accusing Indivisible of being supporters of Marxism, communism, and socialism, and by proxy the candidates they support are Marxists. Neither District 1 candidate, David Goldemberg, nor District 5, Jaron Brandon, are Marxists or even socialists.
The website went online on 05 Aug. 2020 according to a Whois query. The website domain was purchased from Tucows Inc., a domain registrar with a notorious reputation. The Canadian registrar’s emphasis on privacy and protection of its clients had led many criminals to use the domain for clandestine operations, mainly revolving around pharmaceutical scams, but also trafficker of neo-Nazi websites. Until the El Paso shooting in 2019, the nefarious 8Chan was registered with Tucows.
The website is hosted with CyberHour, a Bulgarian based webhosting company who boasts “is the best anonymous hosting 2020 provider in Europe since 2012!” It’s unsurprising then that CyberHour is also popular with people looking to conceal criminal and unethical operations, being one of the first webhosts to accept Bitcoin as payment.
The website was constructed using the popular blogging platform, WordPress.
Though registered and hosted in foreign countries, this is not indicative of the website’s operations being outside the US, or even outside of Tuolumne County. Unfortunately, a misunderstanding of Whois queries have led some in the county to speculate that the website is a North Korean, Bulgarian, or even Russian psy-op.
While no name is attached to the Keep Tuolumne County Safe website to identify the creator, there are clues to the creator’s identity. A YouTube channel associated with the website was created on 16 Aug. 2020 belonging to a “judas thedog.” Two of judas thedog’s videos appear on Keep Tuolumne County Safe. The first video features a snake crawling up the side of a house set to soft rock warning Tuolumne County Indivisible is trying to destroy the constitution and get in your house. The video is unlisted which means it can’t be seen without the uploader of the video personally providing the link to Keep Tuolumne County Safe to host it on the website. The second video is public and more of the same, though this time serves as a direct advertisement for the Keep Tuolumne County Safe website.
The first person to begin sharing Keep Tuolumne County Safe content was from a Facebook profile calling themself “Judas Smith.” The earliest post on Smith’s timeline was made 15 Aug. 2020. The account’s activity coincides with activity on the Keep Tuolumne County Safe website and judas thedog’s YouTube. On 16 Aug. 2020, the day the “snake” video was uploaded it was shared on Smith’s Facebook. On 20 Aug. the video titled “Indivisible is here” was uploaded by judas thedog and then shared by Smith on their Facebook.
Tuolumne Indivisible; the Mimic
A second website sprang up near the end of August: Tuolumne Indivisible (tuolumneindivisible.com). The intent of the website is to impersonate the real Tuolumne County Indivisible group.
The quickly slapped together site uses images taken from the recent Black Lives Matter protests in Minneapolis over George Floyd’s murder; the original photographer’s EXIF data is still attached to the images. There is very little content and clearly the creator did not research Tuolumne County Indivisible, evidenced by leaving the address incomplete.
But the site was never meant to be well constructed, in fact it works better being incompetently built because the goal of the site is to deceive and discourage. While the written content is coded using leftist buzzwords, it reads as a caricature of leftist beliefs written by someone who doesn’t engage with leftist political discourse, nor has read Indivisible’s mission and thesis.
The mentioning of “reeducation” and “mandating gender-fluid restrooms” betrays the conservative creator’s attempt to mimic leftists. But it’s the individuals mentioned (and not mentioned) which are more telling. Once again Jaron Brandon and David Goldemberg are referenced, along with District 2 supervisor, Ryan Campbell which the site claims “has been pushing [Tuolumne County Indivisble]’s Anti-Racism, Anti-Discrimination Progressive agenda since 2018.” There’s no mention of Tuolumne County Indivisible Chair, Jessica Metcalfe, and Vice Chair, Julie Gorgas.
The website boasts that “fearless leaders” Campbell, Brandon, and Goldemberg promote defunding the police and removing white supremacy, two points inversely used by Keep Tuolumne County Safe to spread fear and derision. It should be noted, none of the three mentioned on the website are in any leadership position within Indivisible, nor is defunding the police in any of their platforms.
According to a Whois query, the mimic Tuolumne County Indivisible site was created on 23 Aug. 2020, registered and hosted with GoDaddy. WordPress is once again used to build the site. Much like the Keep Tuolumne County Safe website the registrant information is private.
The existence of the website was first revealed on 02 Sep. during a conversation started by Cecilia Frierson about the District 1 write-in candidate, Cody Ritts. During the conversation Frierson promoted Keep Tuolumne County Safe, and shortly later Ian Nandhra attempted to pass off the impersonating Tuolumne County Indivisible.
Looking at what other websites are hosted on the same GoDaddy server IP address as the faux Indivisible website, 10 of the 213 websites listed were registered to Ian Nandhra.
Over the years Nandhra has registered just under 40 websites, all but one appearing to be hosted by GoDaddy including sites such as: StepsToDance.com, kunt69.com, nandhra.com, and FreakFire.com. The whois and IP whois queries for StepsToDance.com and TuolumneIndivisible.com are near carbon copies, demonstrating they are hosted on the same GoDaddy server. GoDaddy hosts over 5 million websites, across 35,000 servers, averaging about 143 websites per server; astronomical odds that the Indivisible impersonator first revealed by Nandhra, and 10 of Nandhra’s websites would be hosted on the same server.
When asked about the websites and shared IP addresses Nandhra refused to confirm whether he had purchased the domains of the websites attached to his name, nor comment on his involvement with the fraudulent Tuolumne County Indivisible website. Nandhra claimed that he “registers an awful lot of sites, for an awful lot of people, in an awful lot of places. Sometimes I get paid to do it, sometimes I don’t.” Citing confidentiality and privacy concerns Nandhra expressed, “Anything I do between me and the client is my business.” Nandhra would not clarify if the creation of the fake site was at the request of a client and hung up on me.
Tuolumne County Indivisible’s actual website is www.tuolcoindivisible.org, though it appears to not have seen an update in months.
Nandhra continues to be the primary person to share the website, insisting it’s the real website despite every time he shares it people correct him. A new schtick he’s incorporated into taunting Tuolumne County Indivisible supporters is questioning why they are upset by a website which is “so openly anti-racist?? Why aren’t you supporting your splinter group and their stated objectives?” There are no splinter groups of Tuolumne County Indivisible, but nonetheless Nandhra seems intimately invested in spreading this rumor, though never specifies how he knows the website is from a splinter group.
Coordinated Campaign, or Many Coincidences?
In the course of this investigation multiple interviewees expressed concerns that a coordinated campaign was underway to destroy the campaigns of county supervisor candidates, David Goldemberg and Jaron Brandon. Speculation suggests there were two parts to the campaign: roll out Keep Tuolumne County Safe (and possibly the trickster Tuolumne Indivisible website) to discredit the candidates, then supply alternatives candidates. For District 5 this was an easy choice, the incumbent, Karl Douglas Rodefer, would attempt to reclaim votes lost during the primary election where Brandon won the majority but not the 50% plus one of votes required to become candidate-elect.
With the withdrawal of the District 1 candidate Sherri Brennan earlier this summer, a new alternative candidate was required. They found their solution in Sonora Elementary School Board of Trustee, Cody Ritts.
According to Tuolumne Republican Central Committee president, Randy Hanvelt, this is the most important election in Tuolumne County history. The loss of either seat would supposedly give the county to the far-left. A claim promoted on Keep Tuolumne County Safe, suggesting the Tuolumne GOP is taking inspiration from the propaganda site.
Delving into this possible conspiracy, a handful of individuals repeatedly popped up revolving around these shady websites and campaigns. What was uncovered was a network of active politicians and failed candidates, conservative group organizers, Republican sponsors, business owners, and a cadre of fake Facebook profiles actively promoting this antisemitic, Red Scare propaganda.
Returning attention back to the Keep Tuolumne County Safe website, while Judas Smith was the first known account to share the conspiratorial website, State of Jefferson — Tuolumne County president, David Titchenal, was the person to bring the young and obscure Facebook profile and unknown website to the attention of Tuolumne County.
Titchenal first began sharing the anti-Tuolumne County Indivisible propaganda on 20 Aug., the same day new articles began appearing on Keep Tuolumne County Safe after a two-week hiatus, and the second video appeared on the judas thedog Youtube. Since then, Titechanal has promoted the website and Cody Ritts’ write-in campaign for weeks.
Between the timing of Titchenal’s shares and similar description for the site’s content used by both Smith and Titchenal, rumors quickly swirled that Titchenal is behind Keep Tuolumne County Safe website and the one operating the Judas Smith account.
Titchenal denies these accusations, telling the Sierra Foothill Stump Judas Smith added him and he simply found the website interesting. When pressed on Smith, Titchenal claimed he thought the owner of the account was homeless and didn’t actually know him, but he trusted the website because Titchenal claimed to have done his own research.
David Titchenal is not a stranger to Tuolumne County politics. Besides being the original designer of the Tuolumne Republican Central Committee’s website and president for the Tuolumne County chapter for the State of Jefferson movement, Titchenal made his own run for District 2 supervisor seat in 2018 against incumbent, Randy Hanvelt, and challenger, Ryan Campbell, but was knocked out during the primary. During the 2020 supervisor election Titchenal supported and coached, District 4 candidate, David Badgley’s campaign. Badgley ultimately dropped out after a downward spiral in which his wife left him, he received a debilitating hand injury stripping him of his ability for woodcarving, and making threats to sexually assault me.
When the friend list was still publicly visible, the Judas Smith Facebook account only had 6 friends: David Titchenal, two of David Badgley’s accounts, Jeff Scipio, Edward Gravely, and Jo Rodefer. Though Badgley has engaged with posts on Smith’s wall, two friends of Badgley claimed he has not posted or talked to them about Keep Tuolumne County Safe, one stating, “He’s focusing on medical concerns and personal life.”
Fake Accounts
Judas Smith is not the only allegedly fake account circling around Keep Tuolumne County Safe. The other suspect accounts include Ed Gavin, renamed Edward Gravely; Robert Travis, an account used to “infiltrate” Tuolumne County Indivisible, and renamed Phil Young; and Bill Evans, an account now deleted by Facebook for being fake.
Ed Gavin or Edward Gravely?
Before going by Edward Gravely, the account was created as Ed Gavin on 28 June 2020. The profile boasted to belong to a retiree from Amtrak in 2011, born on 21 Mar. 1983, and used a profile pic that was taken from a reviewer on Softonic who had a different name.
Edward Gravely appears to have some connection with District 5 supervisor, Karl Rodefer. On Rodefer’s campaign Facebook page Gavin responded to questions about policy directed to Rodefer. Gavin was added to the Patriots of Gold Country hate group by Karl Rodefer, who also added his wife, Jo. Ed Gavin only made a few posts in Patriots of Gold Country, but they were largely antagonistic towards Black Lives Matter. One post in particular reads like the progenitor rant for Keep Tuolumne County Safe. Interestingly, when a commenter claimed all those on the Board of Supervisors were trash, as were those running, Ed Gavin swooped in to disagree.
Due to these connections conservatives, liberals, and leftists alike have speculated that Ed Gavin is Karl Rodefer’s unfiltered mouthpiece, though all evidence is purely circumstantial. In a now deleted post in Patriots of Gold Country, members discussed the removal of Karl Rodefer, Jo Rodefer, and Ed Gavin from the group due to Karl’s unwillingness to explain to the admins who Ed Gavin was or why Karl added him.
I reached out to Karl Rodefer for comment on 04 Aug. about these connections and rumors of being Ed Gavin, but he has not responded.
Coincidentally, Ed Gavin went quiet after my message, popping up once on 11 Aug. to chat with Andy Mellott about his initiation into the Mofomen motorcycle club before being converted to Edward Gravely on 25 Aug, days after Keep Tuolumne County Safe came to the forefront of Tuolumne County social media gossip. Edward Gravely returned, now claiming to be a retiree of JB Hunt but the same birthday and Facebook URL. The website began promoting the Keep Tuolumne County Safe website.
While discussing the fake accounts with Mark Banks, sign provider on the Committee to Elect Cody Ritts, Banks mentioned that he first became aware of the Ed Gavin account earlier this year when the account messaged him out of the blue to inform him Tuolumne County Indivisible was attacking his business. Banks Glass was the first page liked by Ed Gavins. Mark Banks is aware of the propaganda site, but has not supported or shared the propaganda and told the Sierra Foothills Stump he doesn’t approve of the attacks on any candidates or their signs. This tracks with Ed Gavin passing a screenshot to Native Sons of the Golden West, a group mentioned in Keep Tuolumne County Safe.
Robert Travis the Mole, Phil Young the Antagonizer
An account proclaiming to belong to Robert Travis followed a similar history. Robert Travis was created on 01 June 2020 with the birthday 01 April 1979, using a stock image as the profile picture.
Robert Travis pretended to be a leftist activist, joining Tuolumne County Indivisible and BLM Peaceful Protests Sonora groups for the purpose of infiltrating them. One of the images featured on Keep Tuolumne County Safe shows that screenshots were taken from the Robert Travis account.
After this fact was revealed by local activist, Carly Fox, the account was removed from the group and went dormant. On 25 Aug. Robert Travis’ Facebook underwent a facelift and became Phil Young with a new personality antagonistic towards Tuolumne County Indivisible and anyone he claims is linked to them, but same birthday and Facebook URL.
Phil Young has become an aggressive and vicious voice on Tuolumne County social media. Young is most active in the Tuolumne County Politics Facebook group, admined by Ian Nandhra, spreading Keep Tuolumne County Safe propaganda on near daily basis. Intrigue and speculation over Phil Young’s identity has caused rumors to spread that account is being operated by either Karl or Jo Rodefer, though there’s no evidence of this.
The person with seemingly the most information about Phil Young, or at least the alleged backstory of the account, is Cecilia Frierson, a friend of the Rodefers. Frierson claims that Phil Young is a businessman who will reveal himself after the election.
The Late, Irate Bill Evans
The fourth fake account belonged to a supposed Bill Evans. Precise details of the account are no longer available due to Facebook removing the account for being fake, but it was most active mid-to-late August before being deleted on 25 Aug., the same day the Robert Travis and Ed Gavin accounts were brought back into action. The account featured a profile picture of Dwight Eisenhower, and was used primarily to push Keep Tuolumne County Safe and anti-Brandon propaganda.
Much like the Judas Smith account, there are no public records of a Robert Travis, Edward Gravely, Ed Gavin, or Phil Young living in Tuolumne County born on the days they claim, nor were there any birth records or indexes.
Sycophants and Supporters
While four fake accounts were used to promote Keep Tuolumne County Safe, Titchenal wasn’t the only real person to push the anti-Tuolumne County Indivisible propaganda. Trinka Martin, Cecilia Frierson, Jeff Scipio, Ian Nandhra, Loree Davis, Peter Kendall, Karl Rodefer, Jo Rodefer and many others have all promoted the libelous propaganda.
At the top of the list of those with the most to gain from people believing the propaganda are District 5 supervisor, Karl Douglas Rodefer, and his campaign manager and wife, Jo Dee Rodefer, who also serves as Board of Trustee clerk for Columbia Union School District.
During the 2020 primary, Rodefer received only 34.39% of the votes, while Brandon claimed 49%, but fell short of the required 50% plus one of votes pushing the election into a runoff. Karl has a second chance at retaining his spot this November.
Rodefer’s campaign has eagerly embraced the messaging of Keep Tuolumne County Safe, incorporating the propaganda as a pillar of his platform. At a meet and greet for Cody Ritts on 16 Sep., Tuolumne County Republican Central Committee president, Randy Hanvelt spoke on the importance of getting both Rodefer and Ritts elected otherwise the county would be lost to Marxists, anti-fascists, and Black Lives Matter. Despite being a non-partisan position, the Tuolumne County GOP is actively supporting both Cody Ritts and Karl Rodefer, and Hanvelt encouraged donations for the candidates.
After Hanvelt spoke, Rodefer too gave a short speech calling out Tuolumne County Indivisible using the same fearmongering found on Keep Tuolumne County Safe. Though Rodefer stated, “I’m not going to name names or anything like that, we actually have one among us tonight,” referencing myself, a person standing next to clarified he meant Tuolumne County Indivisible.
Rodefer would later clarify this himself when he accused me of being with the group. I asked Rodefer about any possible involvement he may have with the propaganda site, along with the various fake accounts. Rodefer denied any connection to the website, and Ed Gavin. Rodefer claimed, “I have no contact with Ed Gavin, I don’t use Ed Gavin, I have never used Ed Gavin. Um. I was not involved in the development of that Facebook or website.” Rodefer did admit to reading the website and finding it very interesting. Jo Rodefer did want me to know one scandal I could report on, “I’m sleeping with my campaign manager.”
In his five minute campaign video on Access Tuolumne, Rodefer devoted the majority of his time claiming to be the victim of an, “orchestrated, coordinated, and personal attack on me and my wife on social media, and even on Zoom meetings.” The last being a reference to my reading of Jo Rodefer’s own words regarding COVID-19 during a Columbia Union School District Board of Trustee’s meeting about reopening Columbia Elementary, hardly an attack.
Directly naming the website, Rodefer mentions becoming aware of Keep Tuolumne County Safe after the alleged attacks started, and “things began to make sense.” Instead of focusing on what his platform and candidacy brings to Tuolumne County, Rodefer chose to rant about Tuolumne County Indivisible, Kathleen Haff, Jaron Brandon, and David Goldemberg. Rodefer accused Brandon of “wanting to be a professional politician, and he is obviously been well schooled on how to run a modern-day campaign,” ironic since Rodefer is an actual professional politician. Rodefer went on to make a number of accusations against Brandon, before finishing his conspiratorial rant with the warning if he is not elected, “Indivisible is going to succeed in flipping us to their left-wing progressive vision,” a similar warning to the one Hanvelt gave at the Cody Ritts Meet & Greet and appears on Keep Tuolumne County Safe.
Fearmongering the vibrancy candidate Brandon may bring to Tuolumne County if elected supervisor has been a continued tactic for Rodefer’s campaign. A conservative Jamestown couple, agreeing to speak on anonymity out of fear of retaliation, revealed that during the primary an elderly woman campaigning for Rodefer came to their apartment to discuss the candidate. “Her exact words were ‘Rodefer was running to keep that bastard Jaron out of office,’” she stated confidently, echoing a previous statement her husband made. “She said that Rodefer believes that someone so young has no business in office and that we need to keep our elected officials here in Tuolumne County older and experienced instead of these young hippy kids who will just ruin our beautiful county with their stupid ideas.” They were completely flabbergasted at what they had heard.
Discussing the website with Sonora Mayor, Matt Hawkins, he informed me that two constituents contacted him with concerns after being directed towards Keep Tuolumne County Safe where they found Hawkin’s name linked to Tuolumne County Indivisible on the website. District 5 challenger, Jaron Brandon, claimed similar conversations with voters, hearing some had been contacted by phone or email to view the propaganda.
In searching for first-hand witnesses to this alleged phone banking there was an overwhelming fear of retaliation by those supporting the conservative candidate. One person who described themself as a longtime friend of the Rodefers, agreed to speak on the grounds of anonymity, “We [Jo and I] hadn’t spoken much in the past few months, so when I received a message from JoDee it was a pleasant surprise,” they said, handing me their phone, “But all she wanted was for me to read this website.” They allowed me to read the short message from Jo Rodefer. The message was from Jo Rodefer, with a link to Keep Tuolumne County Safe, asking the friend if she’d read the website.
Karl Rodefer’s campaign manager and wife, Jo Rodefer has pushed anti-Indivisible opinions before.
Earlier this year on 16 July, Jo Rodefer made her first public attack on Indivisible. In a conversation criticizing the idea of defunding police, Rodefer responded to her niece, “Here’s some homework for you. Get it….homework for the teacher :) Google up Indivisible.org. This is what we are up against at every local, state and national level. They are very organized. We have them up here. They bus in people for protests. Really nasty people. Figure out who they are supporting for any elected office, including dog catcher, and vote for their opponent.” No one has been bussed into Tuolumne County by Indivisible for protests; a teacher should know to fact-check.
In a post made on 23 Aug., Rodefer made a comparison Karl Rodefer to Jaron Brandon. The comparison was made using an image of Rodefer standing in uniform in front of a jet, and Brandon studying in the bathtub from a posed photo for the New York Times, with the caption, “Since everyone is obsessed with Jaron in the tub I thought I would share what Karl was doing at the same age.”
The post stirred considerable controversy, though Rodefer accused those who criticized her teasing as being unable to take a joke, the last refuge for refusing to hold oneself accountable in the face of criticism. During the comments Rodefer admitted she got the picture from Keep Tuolumne County Safe, plugging the site in the process. Less than an hour after Rodefer made this comparison, Ian Nandhra began sharing Keep Tuolumne County Safe in various Tuolumne County Facebook groups.
During the Cody Ritts Meet and Greet I had a chance to ask Jo Rodefer if she was involved with Keep Tuolumne County Safe. “Zero. We have no connection with that”. When asked about the rumors that those affiliated with Karl’s campaign were soliciting people to view and share the website, Rodefer admitted to having “sent it out informationally,” but denying out right solicitation. Pressing her on the issue, I mentioned there is evidence that she herself solicited people to share the website. For a brief moment Rodefer had a deer caught in the headlights stare, the wheels actively turning to think of a response before revising her answer and admitting, “It’s possible that I asked people to share it… I’m informing people.”
The wife Rodefer finds her personal Facebook profile at the center of the loudest proponents for Keep Tuolumne County Safe, both fake and real. Of the active fake Facebook accounts she is friends with Judas Smith, Edward Gravely, and Phil Young, and before deleted Bill Evans commented on her posts, suggesting they were friends too. The flesh and blood friends promoting the propaganda include: Cecilia Frierson, Trinka Martin, Peter Kendall, Hal Prock, Jeff Scipio, Randy Hanvelt (indirect supporter), and David Titcehnal. She’s also friends with and a committed supporter for Cody Ritts, to the tune of $1,099 donated to his campaign, according to Ritts.
When pressed about her friendship with the three fake accounts, Rodefer claimed she “doesn’t know about any fake accounts.”
Three of the profiles she’s friends with were used to infiltrate the Tuolumne County Indivisible Facebook group. Peter Kendall, Jeff Scipio, and Phil Young have all revealed themselves as having taken screenshots from within the Indivisible group, with some of those screenshots making it on Keep Tuolumne County Safe. Kendall, who had been in the group since 2017 kept a low profile in the group, albeit injecting occasional conservative antagonism into Indivisible discussions. One of the screenshots from within the group leaked earlier this year revealed the image had been taken from the perspective of Kendall’s account, though the image never made it on Keep Tuolumne County Safe.
Despite his extended presence in Tuolumne County Indivisible and leaking of screenshots, Kendall is reserved in sharing propaganda from Keep Tuolumne County Safe.
On the other hand, Jeff Fitzwater (Jeff Scipio), first-degree Proud Boy initiate and white nationalist sympathizer outright admits to leaking screenshots taken from within Tuolumne County Indivisible and regularly shares and promotes the propaganda. One video he shared on 25 Aug. was a 7 second video allegedly showing Indivisible members interrupting Tom McClintock’s Sonora town hall in 2017; coincidentally, Phil Young reacted to the video. This video would eventually be featured in another hit piece on Keep Tuolumne County Safe posted on 29 Sep.
Though the video on Keep Tuolumne County Safe is hosted on the site itself, the video Scipio shared was uploaded on 25 Aug. on a YouTube account called “Eddie Petetti;” another Ed name. Unsurprisingly the account was created the same day.
Arguably the loudest voice to not just spread but manufacture propaganda against Toulumne County Indivisible and candidates Brandon and Goldemberg is Cecilia Frierson, another of Jo Rodefer’s friends, though sycophant may be a more appropriate word.
Frierson jumped on the Keep Tuolumne County Safe bandwagon the day Jo Rodefer posted the image of Brandon in the bath where she antagonized Brandon and others across dozens of comments. Since then she’s carried on her crusade for a month, often making multiple posts a day attacking Indivisible or someone she arbitrarily accuses of being affiliated with them.
Cecilia Frierson’s stomping grounds are primarily the Tuolumne County Politics Facebook group which is admined by Ian Nandhra. Where Frierson posts, Phil Young is often to follow.
In a fanatical fury to smear Brandon at every angle, Frierson has taken to prowling the corners of the Internet for information on the District 5 challenger. She has manufactured faux controversy from the most trivial of places. In one post, Frierson shared a casting talent profile for Brandon in which he described himself as a “capable schmoozer,” the point of criticism Freirson feigned. Brandon said he made the profile when attempting to get on the CBS reality show, “Survivor.” “Schmoozer is a good trait to have,” Brandon justified. Frierson further tried criticizing Brandon’s safety by posting another picture of the candidate in the bath using his laptop, ignoring the shelf the laptop was on, or the GCFI outlet designed to shutoff power in cases of short outs.
While Frierson can claim the title of Petty Queen for the dozens of hours she’s invested into her smears, her attacks dip into the serious, such as when she dredged up a mugshot of Brandon for resisting arrest. Brandon had addressed this previously during the primaries, and the charges were ultimately dropped, facts Frierson ignored when brought to her attention. Though trivial, nonetheless she reignited a wave of rumors and criticism. It’s also ironic that Frierson would use a dropped charge as a source of attack considering her own 2001 dismissed charge of assault with bodily injury.
The Sierra Foothills Stump hasn’t escaped the unhinged conspiracies of Frierson. In a post licked with transphobia and ableism, Frierson claims, “rumor has it that he created the fake [Tuolumne County Indivisible] website so you’d have something to blame on Jaron’s opponent and supporters. Sound pretty credible considering this whackadoodle attacked his wife.” The claim that I created the impersonating website came after I had talked to Ian Nandhra on the phone regarding his possible involvement with it.
Throughout the same conversation and across other posts, Frierson alludes to an internal issue I was having with my employer regarding an email I sent to the Columbia Union School District citing concerns over board member Jo Rodefer’s biases and conspiratorial beliefs surrounding COVID-19 after the CUSD Board of Trustees unanimously voted to reopen Columbia Elementary School to hybrid learning. Frierson went so far as to post my workplace email.
This is part of a conspiracy originating on the Patriots of Gold Country group by Loree Davis. Davis is a regular Keep Tuolumne County Safe pimp and friend of Cecilia Frierson.
Davis, spurned on by the malicious and fearful imaginations of other Patriots of Gold Country members manufactured a rumor that I was fired for using my position to illegally access and steal faculty information which I used to steal emails and attack Jo Rodefer out of revenge after being cut off during a board meeting and throwing a tantrum. Somewhere in there they make jumps to claims of cyber terrorism and cyber crimes, and that I should be arrested.
Most egregiously, retired police officer, Randal Villata, and white nationalist sympathizer, Bob Shatraw Sr., aided by fake accounts, are spreading a lie that I’m a pedophile, citing images of me in dresses posted by Loree Davis. Queer people have been labeled sexual degenerates and pedophiles for centuries as a form of dehumanization and fear mongering, often through manipulated queer language to connect LGBTQIAA2+ communities to pedophilia, such as the fabricated “clover gender” or “age-fluid” hoax. They also discussed plans to impersonate me to make it appear I have affiliations with white nationalists.
This prompted people to call Columbia Union School District with an assortment of wild conspiracies, all of which were of course unfounded.
There’s at least one account using my picture, but operating under Stephen Rogers floating around.
Seemingly irrelevant to the topic of this article, these libelous accusations against me have since become a further source of attack against candidate Brandon by the Keep Tuolumne County Safe fanatics.
During the conversation about the leaked email, Jeff Scipio expressed desire to forward it to the operator of Keep Tuolumne County Safe, to which Loree Davis claimed, “I say share it with him or I can, I know him,” before saying she sent it herself. Davis hung up when contacted for comment. A person, presumably Jeff Scipio — they never gave their name — greeted my introduction with a, “Fuck off,” before hanging up. The letter nor false accusations have thus far appeared on Keep Tuolumne County Safe.
Local mechanic, Leslie Carrigan “Lee” Herrick ran with the rumor that I was fired for cyber terrorism, writing long-winded strategies to use the false information to connect candidate Brandon to my activism. The goal was to get Brandon to “either deny ot [sic] amd [sic] piss off his friends, or he will confirm it and then he can be tied to Alex amd [sic] the doxing of businesses….” Herrick’s perverse desire was to get Brandon and others, including an elderly woman, to have meltdowns.
Herrick has since taken to calling supporters of Brandon’s campaign “Brandon’s Brown Shirts” or “Stormtroopers,” both terms making reference to the Sturmabteilung (SA), the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi party notorious for violently disrupting Jewish, socialist, and communist meetings. Ironically, Herrick acknowledges he’s “just a pawn in this game;” a fact Phil Young has if not exploited, at least has encouraged.
Herrick is an experienced abuser, currently hiding out in Tuolumne County due to an active warrant in Shasta County for “Willful Cruelty to child.” Redding Police Department and Shasta County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Leslie Herrick’s status as Most Wanted is accurate if still on their website. Herrick has history of abusing his daughter.
Much like the wildfires gripping the West Coast, Keep Tuolumne County Safe propaganda has rapidly spread through Tuolumne County social media, now creeping up in political campaign videos. The clandestine operation of the propaganda websites makes it difficult to identify those who operate them, from those whose fear is being exploited to signal boost and expand upon the sinister Tuolumne County Indivisible mythology.
What’s truly concerning about the mimic Tuolumne Indivisible and propaganda Keep Tuolumne County Safe websites are that our local politics are being manipulated by an anonymous person in this county. Or people. From a different county, state, or even country.
And that’s the point, we don’t know who is behind the disinformation. The propaganda could be created by someone in our local government, one of Tuolumne County’s local neo-Nazis, an elaborate troll, a coordinated smear campaign, a radical lone-wolf, a business owner, or, as Cecilia Frierson rumored, even me.
What we do know is that Karl Rodefer legitimized the antisemitic, Red Scare conspiratorial rantings from a faceless website in his Access Tuolumne campaign video, even crediting the site for his understanding of local politics. Taking Rodefer at his word that he’s ignorant of those behind the websites, it’s concerning that a supervisor has adopted the conspiracies from a poorly designed propaganda site with an anonymous author into his political ideology and campaign platform, all without question or research. Same goes for the Tuolumne County Republican Central Committee platform.
Going back to the initial question, what is coincidence, and what is coordinated? The question is left open. Besides those involved with the websites and fake accounts, none of us know. And that’s a terrifying place for the fate and integrity of our county election to be.
