Tagged with Fraser Anning

antifa notes (may 29, 2019) : 2019 Australian federal election edition

Joy of Fools!

Briefly:

• To the surprise of pundits and pollsters, the ruling Liberal-National Coalition won majority government at the 2019 Australian federal election, with a likely total of 77 seats in the 151-seat parliament. Rah rah rah! They’re going to smash the oiks!

• Many blame rural and regional Queenslanders, along with the good burghers of western Sydney, for Labor’s loss. In Queensland, Labor’s equivocal position on the Adani coal mine has been blamed for it obtaining an extraordinarily low primary vote; further, ‘Labor was decimated in Queensland, but an examination of the “Adani” coal mining seats of Dawson, Capricornia and Flynn for example show a negligible increase in the LNP primary vote but a collapse in Labor’s vote and subsequent increase in One Nation’s vote’ (Labor has a problem and its name is Pauline, Jody Fassina, The Sydney Morning Herald, May 28, 2019). In Sydney, ‘Labor bled votes in its heartland of western Sydney because aspirational voters feared its economic policies, while social conservatism was another factor cited by experts and insiders for the party’s loss of supporters’ (Why Labor bled votes in its Western Sydney ‘heartland’, Rashida Yosufzai, SBS, May 24, 2019). See also : It wasn’t Bob Brown who lost the election, it was the Labor Party, James Norman, ABC, May 26, 2019 | It’s a myth that Aussie battlers handed the Coalition its election victory, Shaun Ratcliff, The Guardian, May 24, 2019 | North Queensland is just at the sharp end of what’s happening across Australia, Jason Wilson, The Guardian, May 21, 2019.

• Preference flows from Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party (PHONy) and Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party (UAP) voters appear to have secured victory for the Coalition in a number of seats in Queensland, but the billionaire mining magnate failed to (again) get bumped into parliament, none of UAP’s candidate obtained more than a handful of votes, and while PHONy didn’t do too badly — its national primary vote doubled — it too failed to gain any further seats, with Senator Peter Georgiou (WA) out and Malcolm Roberts (QLD) in.

• Outside of PHONy and UAP, the right-wing micro-parties — Dr Jim Saleam’s Australia First Party (AFP), Fraser Anning’s Conservative National Party (FACNP), Rod Culleton’s The Great Australian Party (GAP), Kim Vuga’s Love Australia Or Leave (LAOL), Danny Nalliah’s Rise Up Australia Party (RUAP), Debbie Robinson’s Yellow Vest Australia (YVA) — fared poorly at the ballot box. Still: ‘Rising White Nationalism Was The Real Story Of Australia’s Elections’, according to James Muldoon, who argues that ‘It’s too early to obtain exact figures, but it looks like over 1,000,000 first preferences were directed towards right-wing minor parties – xenophobes were spoilt for choice.’ On the other hand, white nationalist Queensland Senator Fraser ‘Final Solution’ Anning — that dawg — failed in his attempt to retain his spot in the Senate, receiving less than 30,000 votes (about 1.3%), while in the Lower House, no FACNP candidate managed to break thru the magical 4% barrier, with most receiving 1 or 2% and generally being ranked last or near-last. And why did Anning and his party fail? According to the reject(ed) senator: ‘I think we got dudded at the counting stations. We’re investigating that now. But that’s what you’d come to expect from a socialist government.’ *Note that Max Towns, the over-enthusiastic fascist teenybopper and Anning fan who allegedly assaulted overly-critical journalists at the launch of FACNP’s campaign in Cronulla a month ago, pleaded not guilty at a hearing on May 17; he returns to court on June 27.

• See also : Australia’s Federal Elections and Far Right Normalisation, The White Rose Society, Hope Not Hate, May 17, 2019 | Labor’s election defeat reveals its continued inability to convince people it can make their lives better, Geoffrey Robinson, The Conversation, May 19, 2019 | Ten piping hot takes on Labor’s election defeat, The Banner Bright, May 21, 2019 | ACTU launches review of $25m election campaign after Labor defeat, Lisa Martin, The Guardian, May 24, 2019 | Shocked by the rise of the right? Then you weren’t paying attention, Gary Younge, The Guardian, May 24, 2019.

Swastika Cupcakes!

Last week, in a joint investigation by the ABC and 9/Fairfax, several articles were published about a Canberra-based neo-Nazi couple, Justin Beulah and Lisa Sandford. You may remember Beulah and Sandford from the failed attempt to infiltrate the NSW Young Nationals late last year — or perhaps as some of the voices on AltRight podcast ‘The Convict Report’.

‘Swastika cupcakes’: private chats of neo-Nazis who stacked Young Nats, Patrick Begley, The Sydney Morning Herald, May 23, 2019:

Secret conversations between neo-Nazis who tried to take over the NSW Young Nationals have been uncovered in a leak of online chat logs that also reveal contact with a leading US alt-right figure.

A joint Herald-ABC investigation has identified several Australians within a previously hidden online world, where racists post memes, share gun pictures and discuss real-life meetings …

…. a fascist Australian couple … courted each other online with talk of “swastika cupcakes” and “jokes” about killing non-white people.

Justin Beulah was a Young Liberal university student at the time of the 2017 messages. He and his now wife Lisa Sandford, a former One Nation member, then joined a far-right attempt to branch stack the NSW Young Nationals last year.

The couple say they have now abandoned the “toxic” white supremacy movement and urge others to do the same.

Married to the alt-right, Elise Worthington, ABC, May 23, 2019:

The clandestine activities of an Australian neo-Nazi couple and their network have been exposed in a leak of hundreds of thousands of secret messages from a forum used by American white supremacists.

A joint investigation by ABC News and The Sydney Morning Herald reveals the pair also tried to recruit others to their cause and spread their views to mainstream political parties.

The messages, which date back from 2017, show that they engaged in racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic slurs, as they conversed in a closed community of like-minded zealots.

The investigation identified the couple as Canberra newlyweds Lisa Beulah (née Sandford) and her husband, Justin, who say they have now renounced their former lives.

For what it’s worth, I don’t believe that Beulah and Sandford have had a genuine change of heart, nor that this supposed shift took place post-Charlottesville (August 2017) as they claim. Thus in reality, both celebrated Heather Heyer’s murder. Sandford:

Sandford’s account of how she drifted from ‘anti-feminism’ to antisemitism/white supremacy/neo-Nazism is also contradicted by the biographical one she provides on Discord, in which she attributes responsibility for her adult worldview to her father, a bonehead, who fed her a steady diet of war propaganda growing up:

There’s numerous other problems with Beulah and Sandford’s account, but I’ll leave it up to the reader to detect them. As I see it, the story is really one in which, under media scrutiny, a newly-married (February 2019) couple has decided that distancing themselves from their neo-Nazi beliefs is probably A Very Good Idea. Thus while claiming to have abandoned the “toxic” white supremacy movement, when contacted by media about her views and opinions, Lisa sought counsel from leading Melbourne neo-Nazi Blair Cottrell (whose trial for religious vilification fangirl Lisa attended). In any case, anybody interested in reading the thousands of comments the couple made on Discord should consult Unicorn Riot’s logs. See : MsNatSocialist (Discord ID: 279874893846413313) and Brad Small (Discord ID: 211098280761884672). *Note that Clifford Jennings (‘The Dingoes’) was also active as ARA1788.

Serial Pests!

1) E r i k s o n

A few months ago, Melbourne’s premiere neo-Nazi serial pest, Neil Erikson, made a number of claims about meeting and organising with several Coalition MPs, viz, Andrew Hastie and Ian Goodenough in Perth: Hastie denied all knowledge. Erikson later claimed to have attended, along with his mate Ricky Turner and FACNP candidate and Erikson’s former ‘United Patriots Front’ comrade Scott Moerland, another meeting on the Gold Coast last year, organised by Liberal Party hacks in order to discuss how-to stack a branch with ‘conservatives’. (Moerland ran for Pauline Hanson’s former seat of Oxley, and received a little over 1,400 votes (1.6%) for his troubles — as a RUAP candidate in 2013, Moerland got just 400 votes, so well done Scott.)

Guest speakers at the Queensland recruitment drive included David Goodwin – a former LNP Senate candidate and former president of the Young Nationals and the Young LNP – and Victorian conservative Elliot Watson.

At the function, which is understood to have been held at a private residence, Goodwin and Watson both spoke about the need to recruit more conservatives into the party.

Watson, who is reportedly one of a number of Mormons appointed as party delegates in the Victorian Liberal Party, is credited with playing a “leading role” in recruiting conservatives to the Victorian branch of the party.

The Victorian branch of the party has been riven by factional divisions, amid claims that an insurgent group led by hardliner Marcus Bastiaan is pushing the Liberals too far to the right.

At the time of the Gold Coast meeting in June 2018, Erikson had acquired some sugar-daddies: Queensland businessmen, failed political entrepreneurs and Mormons Ben and Dan Spiller (AKA ‘AE Media’ and ‘Future Now Australia’). Thus the meeting appears to have taken place at the same time that Erikson and Turner paid an unscheduled nocturnal visit to the private residence of David Pellowe, a sometime rival of the Spillers on the AltRight tour-circuit.

Erikson later claimed that he met with former Victorian Liberals leader Matthew Guy during the Victorian state election campaign of last year (a claim Guy strongly denies). For its part, Victoria Labor issued a statement (May 6, 2019) demanding that ‘Victorian Liberals Must Explain Extremist Links’. The saga to that date is summarised by Richard James in Here’s Everything We Know So Far About Far-Right Activist Neil Erikson’s Alleged Meetings With The Liberal Party (Buzzfeed, May 7, 2019), but under pressure and having already lost almost all of his Facebook and Twitter accounts, Erikson eventually closed his gab account too, along with his wesbshite (neilerikson dot com).

He still maintains a YouTube channel but. See also : Far-right activist admits: ‘I lied about meeting WA MPs Hastie, Goodenough’, Nathan Hondros, WA Today, May 21, 2019.

via Puf Pitchers

On May 12, the pest was it again, only this time in the company of AltRight chum Claudia Benitez (AKA ‘Dia Beltran’), who together decided it would be fun! to interrupt a church service at West Hawthorn Uniting Church, it having been selected by the pair on account of its queer-friendly status. To cut a long story short, it appears as though — apart from anything else — Benitez lost her job at a local orthodontic clinic as a result of her participation in the idiotic stunt.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Having disturbed a gathering of “faggots” on Sunday, on Monday Erikson was in court, along with Turner, to face charges arising from the Milo stoopid of December 2017. Erikson was later found guilty of affray & assault with a weapon, and received a 120-hour community corrections order as punishment; Turner accepted a plea deal of a $1,000 fine and a 12-month good-behaviour bond. (Last month, Erikson’s olde nazi chum Richard Whelan had his charges dropped, and earlier Dwayne McKenzie and Garry Hume received diversion orders, as did Soldier of Odin Garry Mattsson.)

Convicted racist Neil Erikson spared jail despite assault and affray conviction
Genevieve Alison
Herald Sun
May 16, 2019

Convicted racist Neil Erikson has been spared prison for his role in a Right-wing riot after begging a magistrate not to jail him because he is soon to become a father.

After a two-day hearing, Erikson, 33, was this week found guilty of affray and assault with a weapon in a brawl during which hundreds of protesters clashed with police.

A charge of inciting riotous behaviour was dismissed.

Erikson’s lawyer, John Bolton, unsuccessfully argued his client had been acting in self-defence during a confrontation with a group protesting against a speaking appearance by Right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos in Kensington on December 4, 2017.

Erikson told police he had been “in fear” and only stepped in to protect his friends because police “were nowhere”.

And Mr Bolton argued in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court that Erikson was forced into the confrontation and had been protecting his mates when he punched, kicked and hit protesters with a pole.

But after viewing hours of CCTV footage from news media and police bodycams, which showed dozens of riot squad officers rushing to break up the violence, magistrate Michael Smith said Erikson had entered the affray voluntarily.

“No one was attacking him at the time,” Mr Smith said.

“He’s standing on the edge and voluntarily entered the ­affray with his banner.”

Erikson told the court he regretted the incident and was “never looking for any trouble that day”.

He pleaded with Mr Smith not to lock him up, because he was about to become a father.

The far-Right activist said while he received a small income from making “political videos”, he had been jobless for some time after finding it difficult to get a job because of his “political history”.

Erikson is one of the first people in Victoria to have been charged under racial vilification laws.

In 2017, he and two others were convicted of inciting contempt for Muslims and fined $2000 after they filmed a video of themselves beheading a mannequin outside Bendigo council offices in 2015.

The film was meant as a protest against the construction of a local mosque.

And last year, he was found guilty of contempt of court for failing to observe orders that he take down social media posts of himself wearing a uniform of a former employer.

One of those posts showed him haranguing former senator Sam Dastyari in a pub.

Mr Smith sentenced Erikson to a 12-month Community Corrections Order.

2) Y e m i n e m

Also experiencing some legal difficulties at the moment is Erikson’s rival serial pest Avi Yeminem. (Note that Yeminem’s party, Yellow Vest Australia, held a fairly desultory rally in Melbourne on May 4: a few dozen attended, while at the federal election just under 1,800 (0.06%) voted for the party for the Senate in Victoria — a drop of 0.60% since 2016.)

Avi Yemini in court over assault, knife-throwing charges against woman
Jon Andrews
Caulfield Glen Eira Leader
May 2, 2019

Activist and self-defence guru Avi Yemini has appeared in court facing charges that he injured, harassed and threw a knife at the face of a woman.

Mr Yemini, whose real first name is Avraham, pleaded not guilty to eight charges at Moorabbin Magistrates’ Court yesterday morning.

The 33-year-old’s case was adjourned until next month, with his lawyer saying he will contest the case.

Court documents released to the Leader state he has been charged with recklessly causing injury to a woman at a Caulfield North premises on March 18, 2016.

Police allege on the same day he also recklessly engaged in conduct by throwing a knife at the victim’s face that placed her in danger of serious injury.

They also believe in December 2015, three times in July 2017 and again in November last year he used a carriage service to harass her.

A summary of his alleged offending was not released.

The self-proclaimed “proud Ozraeli” promotes himself as someone who empowers women through self-defence classes.

A former Israel Defence Force soldier, he has a large Facebook following under his page Avi Yemini Unbanned and is an avid Twitter user, reaching out to his more than 43,000 fans.

His website states he is a voice for “issues relating to self-defence, counter-terrorism, being pro-Israel in Australia and the Jewish community in Melbourne”.

Considered as a far-right political activist, he failed in his bid last year to become an Upper House Victorian MP.

His lawyer, Deborah Mandie, told the court she believed the reckless cause injury charge was likely to be withdrawn, and the knife-throwing incident was disputed.

She said the defence needed statements regarding the carriage service to harass charges, which the police prosecution said they would be happy to provide.

Mr Yemini was bailed to his Berwick home on the condition he did not contact any witnesses.

He will appear in court again on June 13.

Balwyn Calling!

The Christchurch massacre continues to have some minor repercussions in the land of the alleged killer’s birth. Thus Tom Sewell, the fuehrer of neo-Nazi groupsucule The Lads Society, featured in ‘Threats from white extremist group that ‘tried to recruit Tarrant” (Patrick Begley, The Sydney Morning Herald, May 2, 2019), which details a sooky Sewell’s response to inquiries regarding the relationship between the Society and Brenton Tarrant.

“The difference between my organisation, myself and him [Tarrant], is simply that we believe, certainly at this stage, that there is a peaceful solution for us to create the society we want to live in,” Mr Sewell said.

“We want a peaceful alternative, we want to be treated with respect, we want to be left alone. If we are not given that opportunity, well, time will tell. I’m not going to give you any explicit threat but it’s pretty f–king obvious what’s going to happen.”

Mr Sewell said “we’re all gravy at the moment” because police were leaving his group alone but that people were “making the world burn, and they have names and addresses.”

At least The Lads don’t have access to firearms eh?

Bookface!

Facebook gonna Facebook, amirite? See : ‘Good PR but ultimately useless’: Facebook slammed over election ad transparency, Jennifer Duke, The Sydney Morning Herald, May 27, 2019 | Alt-right Facebook memes pushed anti-Labor message, Nigel Gladstone and Max Koslowski, The Sydney Morning Herald, May 26, 2019. See also : Minds, the ‘Anti-Facebook,’ Has No Idea What to Do About All the Neo-Nazis, Ben Makuch and Jordan Pearson, Vice, May 29, 2019 | Live Coverage Of A Disinformation Operation Against The 2019 EU Parliamentary Elections, Andy Patel, F-Secure, May 24, 2019.

Fraser “Final Solution” Anning’s Conservative National Party ~versus~ 2019 Australian federal election

Update (April 28, 2019) : The ‘White Rose Society’ has published an account of the little fascist shit Max Towns, the 19yo what allegedly assaulted the photographer @ Fraser ‘Final Solution’ Anning’s campaign launch @ Cronulla on Friday. The article also contains an appeal for more infos on the subject of neo-Nazi activist Troy Crockett, an associate of Blair Cottrell’s and the UPF and a member of ‘The Lads Society’. Crockett has not previously been publicly named but has otherwise been active as ‘Trè Blackstone’, ‘Trè Bloodstone’, ‘Troy’ or ‘Trè Targaryen’ and ‘Trè Greystoke’.

Update : The fascist teenybopper who allegedly punched a photographer at Anning’s media conference in Cronulla today is ‘True Blue Crew’ (TBC) NSW associate Max Towns. Towns has form, being one of a dozen or so meatheads who joined neo-Nazi Blair Cottrell in monstering entertainer Dandyman outta Fed Square in Melbourne following the TBC flagwit parade in June last year, and otherwise reportedly enjoys attacking leftist women along King Street in Newtown. The TBC was of course one of the groups the Christchurch killer was a YUGE fan of, and the TBC in QLD has organised a picnic for FACNP candidate Perry Adrelius and other patriotik candidates this Sunday in Gatton …

As usual, I’ll examine candidates for the 2019 Australian federal election from the far left and the far right at a later date, but in the meantime I thought I’d take a brief look at the few score Volk who’ve decided to join Senator Fraser Anning in his pursuit of a Final Solution to The Immigration &/Or Muslim Problem. With the possible exception of Anning himself, none have any real chance of being elected to office, and their entry into the contest may well simply end up fracturing the far right vote, pitted as they will be against Pauline Hanson’s mob. Still, as the Prime Minister put it so eloquently ‘If you have a go, you get a go’, so who knows who’ll end up getting what.

In summary then, Fraser Anning’s Conservative National Party (FACNP) is fielding candidates in 45 seats in the House of Representatives — 30 in Queensland, 6 in Victoria, 5 in New South Wales and two each in the Northern Territory and Tasmania — along with Senate teams in every state and territory. Most are unknown figures, with just a handful having any kind of public profile, and others transferring their political loyalties from a previous micro-party to Anning’s.

As noted below, Anning choose Cronulla beach to launch the NSW component of his campaign today, the beach being the site in 2005 of a major race riot and a point of celebration for many other white nationalists. In January, Anning held an anti-African rally at St Kilda Beach in Melbourne on the 100th anniversary of the launch of The German Workers’ Party (German: Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, DAP), the precursor to the Nazi party (NSDAP). As also noted previously, his office and social media campaign employs a number of neo-Nazis, fascists and White supremacists. See : Fraser Anning’s Conservative National Party, Andrew Wilson, neo-Nazis, & the 2019 Australian federal election (April 20, 2019).

Above : Anning @ St Kilda Beach with Kiwi Mark McDonald, former leader of neo-Nazi grouplet ‘Squadron 88’ turned The Lads Society organiser in Sydney.

Anyway, here’s a few of the more colourful characters running with Anning this year (a list to which I may add in the coming weeks):

• Mark Absolon (Senate, QLD)

Mark Absolon would appear to be ‘Messianic Torah Observant’, which is … ah … yeah.

• Perry Adrelius (Groom, QLD)

A Swedish migrant opposed to (non-white) migration and ‘socialism’, Adrelius’ campaign manager, Nicole Kinsey, is a QAnon fangirl.

• David Archibald (Senate, WA)

A semi-professional climate change denialist, scribbler for Quadrant and The Spectator who reckons single moms are too lazy and stoopid to attract a mate, Archibald is a former One Nation Party (ONP) candidate (Western Australian state election, 2017: Pilbara) and one of several aspiring MPs to have jumped ship for Anning’s party. (He also ran in the federal seat of Curtin in 2016 for the anti-Muslim micro-party ‘Australian Liberty Alliance’, which is now known as ‘Yellow Vest Australia’).

• Adrian Cheok (Boothby, SA)

A Bannon and Trump fanboy, Professor Cheok got a few moments in the spotlight last year. Hence:

The political views of Stephen K. Bannon, the former White House chief strategist and co-founder of the far-right Breitbart News, are considered repugnant by many people in academe.

So when it was announced last week that Bannon would be a keynote speaker at the Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology conference, to be held at the University of Montana’s flagship campus in December, people revolted. Bannon is said to be an architect of Gamergate, a 2014 hashtag campaign that brought virtual hatred to women and minorities in the gaming community.

The other keynote speaker dropped out. The university distanced itself. A hashtag circulated, calling for those who had submitted papers to withdraw them, and for potential attendees to boycott the conference.
The Future of Learning

And at the center of the outrage is Adrian David Cheok, who in the past year has alienated his colleagues through a presentation on sex robots, and by his online emulation of the only hard-right figure more famous than Bannon: President Trump.

Just a few weeks ago, Cheok was urging the importance of voting for the Christian fun-da-mentalist ‘Rise Up Australia Party’ (RUAP), but has obviously changed his mind, and now urges concerned citizens to support Final Solution.

• Julie Hoskin (Bendigo, VIC)

You may remember Julie Hoskin from such anti-Muslim groups as ‘Rights For Bendigo Residents’ (2014–), which among other things staged demonstrations against and launched a legal challenge to the construction of a mosque in the Victorian town. Unhappily for Hoskin, the legal challenged ultimately failed, and she ended up owing tens of thousands to solicitor Robert Balzola, who undertook the case. Consequently, in September last year, Hoskin was declared bankrupt and forced to resign her seat on Bendigo council. As a result, Hoskin is likely ineligible to take up a seat in parliament in the miraculous event (“Praise Jesus!”) she should win.

• Peter Kelly (Cook, NSW)

Kelly is a former ONP councillor in Ku-ring-gai and adviser to (former) NSW One Nation senator Brian Burston (see : One Nation councillor Peter Kelly has links to a Muslim sultan and a questionable PhD, Lisa Visentin, The Sydney Morning Herald, September 22, 2017). Kelly’s campaign got off to a flying start today when after a media conference announcing his candidacy one of his teenybopper supporters allegedly punched a journalist and subsequently got arrest. See : Fraser Anning federal election candidate announcement in Cronulla ends with violent scuffle, Nick Dole and Kevin Nguyen, ABC, April 26, 2019 | Man charged after scuffle with photographer at Fraser Anning press conference, Matt Bungard and Jenny Noyes, The Sydney Morning Herald, April 26, 2019.

• Peter Manuel (Senate, SA)

Not to be confused with the serial killer AKA ‘The Beast of Birkenshaw’, Manuel is a ‘salt-of-the-earth farmer’ according to his comrade David Flint. Further, according to the elderly monarchist, at the nineteenth annual gathering of ‘Australians for Constitutional Monarchy’, Manuel warned that ‘mainly republican politicians who prefer to waste money on buying votes or on massive financial disasters like the NBN … prefer to have our water flow out to sea while unleashing a reign of terror on our persecuted farmers as if they were latter-day Kulaks’ (‘Aux bien pensants’, Spectator, February 16, 2019). When he’s not being a persecuted, climate-change denying Kulak, Manuel may be found touting the virtues of some thing called ‘FLAG Australia’.

• Scott Moerland (Oxley, QLD)

Scott Moerland is best known for being one of the faces of ‘Reclaim Australia’ in Queensland and a founding member of the ‘United Patriots Front’ (2015–2017). A Christian, Moerland ran for RUAP at the 2013 federal election and received 400 votes (0.53%) for his troubles. Otherwise, Moerland’s candidacy contradicts Anning’s claim, made in early April, that he would rule out running anyone tied to Blair Cottrell and Neil Erikson (Moerland’s former UPF comrades).

• Rod Smith (Wright, QLD)

Another Hanson reject, Smith was the One Nation candidate for the federal seat of Wright in 2016 (18,461 votes/20.9%), the QLD state seat of Scenic Rim in 2017 (8,662 votes/27.6%), and the federal seat of Page (NSW) in 2013 (1,381 votes/1.61%).

• Paul Taylor (Senate, QLD)

Like Moerland, Taylor is a former candidate for ONP and RUAP, standing for ONP in Capalaba at the 2017 Queensland state election (gaining 6,049 votes or 19.5%) and as a Senate candidate for RUAP in Queensland at the 2016 federal election (receiving 5,734 votes or 0.21%). Taylor is a Good Christian and a migrant from India.

• Adam Vail (Calwell, VIC)

On his Facebook page promoting his campaign, Vail endorsed Bill Heffernan’s 2015 claims about elite paedophile rings, concluding that ‘If you put a number in a box on any ballot paper that now makes YOU an enabler of Paedophile filth’.

• Shane Van Duren (Senate, ACT)

A former soldier with 3RAR, Van Duren’s candidacy was soon brought into question on account of his criminal record — he assaulted a police officer and choked an RSPCA inspector in Canberra in 2015, and last year was involved in an exciting escapade with his brother Owen in Thailand — and as a result it would seem likely that, in the extraordinary event he was elected to the Senate from Canberra, he too would be ineligible to sit.

House of Representatives

NSW

Cook : KELLY, Peter (Student) / Hume : HARGRAVES, Tanya (Graphic Designer and Marketing) / Lindsay : LEES, Brandon (Warehouse Worker) / Lyne : GOLDSPRING, Ryan Frederick (Primary Producer) / Warringah : CLARE, Brian (Retired)

QLD

Blair : FITZPATRICK, Peter John (Diesel Fitter) / Bonner : MAYNARD, Alex (Unemployed) / Bowman : ANDERSON, David (Electrician) / Brisbane : JEANNERET, Rod (Retired) / Capricornia : PRATT, Grant (Motor Technician/Business Owner) / Dawson : TURNER, Michael Wayne (Small Business Ownr (Heavy Trns)) / Dickson : SIMPSON, Richelle (Unemployed) / Fadden : BARBER, Allan (Business) / Fairfax : RYAN, Jake Luke (Metal Fabricator) / Fisher : JESSOP, Mike (Boat Builder) / Flynn : HIESLER, Marcus John (Manager) / Forde : INNES, Les (Retail Manager Semi Retired) / Griffith : MURRAY, Tony (Retired) / Groom : ADRELIUS, Perry (Self Employed) / Herbert : DURANT, Tamara (Self Employed) / Hinkler : ERSKINE, Aaron (ICT Specialist) / Kennedy : HACKWELL, Ian Douglas (Retired) / Leichhardt : ASHBY, Jo (AIN Nurse) / Lilley : COLES, Don (Restoration Specialist) / Longman : PAULKE, Dave (Semi Retired) / Maranoa : CHRISTIANSEN, Darren Lee (Farmer Grazier) / McPherson : GAFFY, Sean Gordon (Service Advisor) / Moncrieff : LONG, Darren Alan (Business Owner) / Moreton : NIEASS, Aaron (Tradesman Tiler) / Oxley : MOERLAND, Scott (Business Owner) / Petrie : FOWLER, Neville John (Retired) / Rankin : ANDREWS, Peter James (Retired) / Ryan : BANKS, Andrew (Civil Engineer) / Wide Bay : SMITH, Jasmine (Delivery Driver) / Wright : SMITH, Rod (Tiler)

SA

Boothby : CHEOK, Adrian David (Professor) / Hindmarsh : VAID, Rajan (Telecommunication Engineer)

TAS

Braddon : ALLAN, Shane (Fitter Machinist) / Franklin : HAWES, Darren John (Electrical Contractor)

VIC

Bendigo : HOSKIN, Julie (Advocate) / Bruce : BOYANTON, Tim (Storeman) / Calwell : VAIL, Adam (Factory Hand) / Dunkley : JAMES, Christopher Ronald (Builder) / Gippsland : TICKNER, Neville Phillip (Truck Driver) / Mallee : GROSVENOR, Rick (Farmer)

Senate

ACT

VAN DUREN, Shane (Veteran)
BIRKETT, Scott (Client Service Administrator)

NSW

THOMSON, Carolyn (Financial Reform Advocate)
YOUNG, Gary (Manager)
SWANN, Paul (Roads Infrastructure Supervisor)
WHARTON, Ian (Farmer)

NT

DICKSON, Mark James (OIG Professional)
WHEELER, James David Richard (Student/Casual Pest Management)

QLD

ANNING, Fraser (Senator for Queensland)
TAYLOR, Paul Arthur Simon (Manager/Trade)
ABSOLON, Mark (Property Services)
SANDFORD, Nancy Louise (House Keeper)
CAMERON, Brad (Bus Driver)

SA

MANUEL, Peter (Primary Producer)
DWYER, Tim (Business Owner)

TAS

JONES, Michael (Sales Manager)
FALZON, Frank (Insurance Assessor)

VIC

STEVENS, Bruce (Maintenance Officer)
MAZALEVSKIS, Rita (Bank Victim Advocate)
WILLIAMSON, Benjamin (Owner/Operator)

WA

ARCHIBALD, David (Geologist)
CAMPBELL, Meredith Melinda (Hairdresser)

antifa notes (march 20, 2019) : From Christchurch to Canberra

[Update (March 24, 2019) : ABC’s ‘Background Briefing’ has published a report which documents the links the alleged Christchurch killer had with the Australian far right, including the fact that he described prominent neo-Nazi figurehead Blair Cottrell as his ‘Emperor’, and expressed a desire to join Cottrell, his then-group the United Patriots Front, members of the True Blue Crew, Combat 18 and Antipodean Resistance at the June 2016 racist rally in Coburg: “Communists will get what communists get, I would love to be there holding one end of the rope when you get yours traitor,” Tarrant posted. See : Christchurch shooting accused Brenton Tarrant supports Australian far-right figure Blair Cottrell, Alex Mann, Kevin Nguyen and Katherine Gregory, March 23, 2019.

In other news, following the massacre, Nathan Sykes, the notorious neo-Nazi troll, Australia First Party member, The Daily Stormer trollumnist and editor of ‘United Nationalists Australia’ blog got arrest: ‘The decision to arrest and charge Mr Sykes was made by senior NSW police just hours after The Age and Sydney Morning Herald revealed how officers had shelved an investigation’ into threats he made against freelance journalist and lawyer Luke McMahon. See : Police swoop on right-wing troll over alleged violent threats, Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker, The Sydney Morning Herald, March 22, 2019. See also : On Troll Hunting (Ginger Gorman), February 16, 2019.]

I haven’t had time to really process things inre the horrific massacre in Christchurch last week, but insofar as one of its effects has been to focus attention on the far-right in Australia & Aotearoa/New Zealand, I’ve endeavoured to share some of what I understand of the situation on Twitter. My initial reaction, in which I expressed shock but not surprise, is captured by Threadreader here; I examine some of the immediate effects of the massacre upon and provide a few details inre the far-right in Aotearoa/New Zealand here; I also took the opportunity to take a closer look at Senator Fraser ‘Final Solution’ Anning’s antics at his meeting in Moorabbin the day after the slaughter, along with ‘eggboy’, here. Finally, inre David Wroe and Max Koslowski’s article (March 19, 2019) on Australia’s right-wing extremist problem: Are we doing enough?, I provided some supplementary notes regarding the various groups they name here.

Obviously, a lot more could be said on the subject, has and will be. Some of this discussion has been useful and interesting, while other reflections have been far less so. Ghassan Hage’s White entitlement is part of the very structure of Australian society (The Guardian, March 18, 2019) provides useful context, while the ACRAWSA statement ‘For Muslim People’ of yesterday is worthwhile reading. Finally, Jason Wilson’s articles on Do the Christchurch shootings expose the murderous nature of ‘ironic’ online fascism? (March 16), Islamophobia is practically enshrined as public policy in Australia (March 17) & Eco-fascism is undergoing a revival in the fetid culture of the extreme right (March 20) are germane, as are the statements by Tame Iti and Marama Davidson.

See also : The Australian neo-fascists who swim in the same sewer as the Christchurch terrorist, Tom Coburg, The Canary, March 19, 2019.

At present, it seems likely that [T]he Christchurch killer did in fact have some interactions with other far-right figures in Australia at least, but given that investigations are ongoing, presumably those connections, if they exist, will come to light sooner rather than later. There’s also been a whole lot of other stuff going on that I’ve been unable to blog about, but a few highlights include:

• Senator Fraser ‘Final Solution’ Anning has doubled-down in the wake of the massacre, and continued to act like the compleat shitkvnt he is. Fortunately, I expect that his associations with (other) elements of the extreme-right in Australia, which are quite extensive, will also be explored in greater detail sooner rather than later.

• Predictably, the massacre has caused many on the local far-right to do one of two things: do an Anning, or run for cover. Of the former, Anning fanboy Neil Erikson has described the massacre as ‘karma’; others, chiefly (but not always) anonymously, have celebrated it. Among those choosing the second option are those gathered around ‘The Dingoes’ podcast, whose online presence has in the last day or two been scrubbed. This is presumably on the basis that one of the few concrete linkages between the killer and the local AltRight — in particular its resonance with various elements of their online culture — has been through way of the Aussie Shitposter meme, which The Dingoes helped to popularise and which the killer subsequently adopted, both on his Twitter account and on 8chan. See : Alleged mosque shooter’s meme popular with Australian far-right group, Patrick Begley, The Sydney Morning Herald, March 15, 2019. Begley writes that: ‘The Dingoes, who do not reveal their identities, run a podcast called The Convict Report that has in previous years hosted former Labor leader turned One Nation candidate Mark Latham as well as Nationals MP George Christensen.’ But while they may not reveal their identities, their identities have been revealed. See : TheDingoes.xyz /// The Convict Report /// DingoCon (July 8, 2017). And while The Dingoes have attempted to develop a more determined AltRight vernacular for Australian shitposters in particular, it’s also worth recognising their participation in a broader network centred on the US neo-Nazi website and podcast network ‘The Right Stuff’.

See also : Cabinet’s National Security Committee to receive briefing on right-wing extremist risk, SBS (AAP), March 18, 2019 | Only NSW Gov. program preventing far-right extremism had funding cut in 2014, Avani Dias, JJJ’s Hack (ABC), March 20, 2019.

• Another effect of the massacre has been to cause some mild embarrassment to the Australian government. Hence for the last nine months or more, various attempts have been made by local racists to import Milo Yiannopoulos to the country for a speaking tour. Currently, responsibility for the tour has been assumed by Damien Costas and Penthouse Australia. While the Minister, David Coleman, denied a visa to another speaker, Gavin McInnes, late last year, prior to the massacre, against the advice of his Department but following a campaign by Pauline Hanson and Newscorpse, he was happy to issue one to Yiannopoulos. After the massacre, that decision was reversed, and it appears as though the tour, after numerous other delays, will now be cancelled. See : Milo Yiannopoulos promoter Damien Costas on thin ice, Myriam Robin, Australian Financial Review, March 17, 2019 | Sydney porn king bankrupted over unpaid debts, Andrew Hornery, The Sydney Morning Herald, March 20, 2019.

• Finally, last week veteran anti-Muslim agitator Ralph Cerminara (‘Australian Defence League’ / ‘Left Wing Bigots & Extremists Exposed’) was sentenced to a spell in prison for assaulting his neighbour. See : Former leader of far-right movement jailed for foul-mouthed attack on neighbour, Sally Rawsthorne, The Sydney Morning Herald, March 14, 2019.

Notes

The massacre has generated a vast commentary. The following are just some of the items which have caught my eye and which I think are interesting. I may add to the list over time.

hero

After New Zealand Shooting, Far-right, Racists Claim Victimhood, Hail Killer as Hero, Brett Barrouquere, Southern Poverty Law Centre, March 15, 2019
How a Spanish neo-Nazi became an international ‘hero’ of the far right, Juan Diego Quesada & Fernando Peinado, El País, March 26, 2019 (‘Josué Estébanez is considered a cult figure by extremists, including the New Zealand mosque shooter, for killing a left-wing activist on the Madrid subway in 2007.’)

kiwi far right

Along with the New Zealand National Front, another smol neo-Nazi group that has come under some scrutiny in the wake of the Christchurch massacre is the ‘Identitarian’ ‘Dominion Movement’. Its leader is a bloke called Jarrad Randell-Walsh. See also : Austrian far-right activist raided over possible donation from New Zealand shooting suspect, ABC, March 27, 2019.

Spotting the signs of white supremacy in New Zealand, Mava Enoka, Noted, February 21, 2018
The story of White Supremacy, William Ray, Radio New Zealand, March 26, 2019 (‘Since the attack in Christchurch, many people have called for New Zealand to examine its history of white supremacy. In this special episode of Black Sheep, William Ray looks at the origins of this ideology, how it warped and changed over time, and how people have fought against it.’)
The ‘growing’ white nationalist group with a ‘harmful and violent’ ideology, Thomas Manch, stuff, March 26, 2019

memes & manifestos

Shitposting, Inspirational Terrorism, and the Christchurch Mosque Massacre, Robert Evans, bellingcat, March 15, 2019
New Zealand Terrorist Manifesto Influenced by Far-Right Online Ecosystem, Hatewatch Finds, Michael Edison Hayden, SPLC, March 15, 2019
Decoding the racist memes the New Zealand shooter used to communicate, Tess Owen, Vice, March 16, 2019
White supremacism in Australia, long a virulent strain, is amplified by the Internet, Robyn Dixon, The Los Angeles Times, March 17, 2019
‘Replacement Theory,’ a Racist, Sexist Doctrine, Spreads in Far-Right Circles, Nellie Bowles, The New York Times, March 18, 2019
Nazis Have Always Been Trolls, Adam Serwer, The Atlantic, March 21, 2019 (‘They rely on murderous insincerity and the unwillingness of liberal societies to see them for what they are.’)

policing

No mention of right-wing extremist threats in 10 years of GCSB and SIS public docs, Jane Patterson, Radio New Zealand, March 20, 2019
A single police officer in the Bias Crime Unit tasked with monitoring hate crime across NSW, Hagar Cohen and ABC Investigations, ABC’s Background Briefing, March 22, 2019
Social media giants face regulation as publishers, not just postmen, Max Mason, Australian Financial Review, March 22, 2019
Christchurch mosque attack prompts Home Affairs boss to threaten greater scrutiny on white supremacists, Andrew Greene, ABC, March 22, 2019

reflections

Today, we mourn. Tomorrow, we organise., Faisal Al-Asaad, Overland, March 17, 2019
Christchurch attacks are a stark warning of toxic political environment that allows hate to flourish, Greg Barton, ABC, March 17, 2019
In Australia, the terrorist’s homeland, anti-Muslim hatred is rife, Nasya Bahfen, The Spinoff, March 18, 2019
After Christchurch, the political class must stop positioning racism as a democratic demand, Aaron Winter & Aurelien Mondon, Open Democracy, March 20, 2019
Spencer Sunshine on the Implications of the Christchurch Massacre, It’s Going Down, March 20, 2019
Hi everyone, please stop doing some or all of the following things, Ketan Joshi, March 20, 2019
Christchurch terror: How did this happen?, Byron Clark, Daphne Lawless, Tyler West, and Ani White, Fightback, March 21, 2019
White Supremacy in Australia Set the Stage for the Christchurch Massacre, Antony Loewenstein, The Nation, March 21, 2019
Things I’ve Learned About Homegrown Terrorism by Following the Alt-Right, Royce Kurmelovs, Vice, March 22, 2019
Political Correctness — From The Other Side, Bashi Hazard, Meanjin, March 26, 2019

terrorisms

A history of recent attacks linked to white supremacy, Lois Beckett, The Guardian, March 16, 2019
Christchurch: True Blue Aussie Terrorism, Paul Gregoire, Sydney Criminal Lawyers, March 19, 2019
Radical White Terrorism, Intercepted [podcast], March 20, 2019

Statement From The Australian Muslim Community on Christchurch and Islamophobia

See the website (March 25, 2019):

As a community, we are shattered by the recent act of terror in Christchurch.

For years, we have warned against the use of racist and discriminatory language in media and politics. We warned that this creates a culture of fear and hysteria that would inevitably result in exactly this type of attack.

We also acknowledge our brothers and sisters in the Indigenous community who have resisted white supremacist violence on this continent for over two centuries.

We owe it to the victims of this massacre to bear witness to the truth of why they died. Their deaths cannot be used to whitewash the reality of how this occurred.

While our political leaders have expressed sympathy over the deaths of our brothers and sisters, there has been little responsibility taken for their own role in creating a political climate that has demonised the Muslim community for decades.

Sadly, we remember the numerous times the Coalition have used the Muslim community as targets in vicious debates around immigration, multiculturalism and national security.

We remember when Liberal Party Senators lined up to kiss, hug and shake hands with Pauline Hanson – a woman who has referred to Islam as a ‘disease’ – following her openly Islamophobic return speech to Parliament.

We remember when Liberal Party Senators openly congratulated Fraser Anning after his explicit reference to a ‘final solution’ when discussing Muslim immigration.

We remember when Peter Dutton suggested that sections of our community should never have been allowed into this country in the first place.

We remember when elected Liberal Party representatives campaigned to remove Section 18c of the Racial Discrimination Act under the guise of protecting ‘free speech.’

We remember when Liberal Party Senators joined One Nation to vote in favour of the white nationalist slogan ‘It’s OK to be white.’

This climate of hostility breeds discrimination, harassment and ultimately violence.

A truly safe society is one where no community should fear that they will be made scapegoats or demonised for the sake of cheap political point-scoring.

If our leaders are truly committed to building a society where our community can live in safety, they must make real assurances that they will not resort to this language of racism and division.

On Troll Hunting (Ginger Gorman)

Troll Hunting by Australian journalist Ginger Gorman is a new book which examines the world of online hate and its human fallout. Along with interviews with a small number of trolls and general reflections upon this hateful world, Gorman’s book includes a number of case studies of trolling, some of which are relatively well-known while others not: all make for disturbing reading. While it’s of general relevance, many of the characters and events which populate this world would be especially familiar to (Australian) readers, or at least those who take an interest in such matters: on the one hand, ‘GamerGate’, convicted terrorist Joshua Goldberg, Andrew Auernheimer (AKA ‘weev’) and GNAA; on the other hand, those subject to what Gorman calls ‘predator trolling’, including writer Van Badham and lawyers Josh Bornstein and Mariam Veiszadeh (among others). Gorman’s book is well-written and engaging, and weaves together the author’s own experience of being ‘trolled’ with those of others, along with some examples of ‘troll hunting’ and ‘troll hunters’, the latter category including journalist and lawyer Luke McMahon. As well as being of general interest, the text is of particular interest to me because of the ways in which the ‘world of online hate’ has been ‘weaponized’ by elements of the far right, a theme explored in more detail in the anthology Cyber Racism and Community Resilience: Strategies for Combating Online Race Hate (Palgrave, 2017). At a little over 250 pages long, the text includes endnotes, which are useful, but — rather annoyingly — no index.

Gorman’s book is divided into three parts: ‘Trolls’, ‘Targets’ and ‘Troll hunting’. The first part examines the evolution of online trolling, the emergence of ‘predator trolls’ in particular — which Gorman defines (p.18) as those who set out to do real-life harm — and details the author’s lengthy conversations and interactions with several of its enthusiastic practitioners. In the second part, Gorman provides case studies of predator trolling and investigates the ways in which law enforcement has responded, or more precisely failed to respond, to these activities. Gorman also explores how social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have dealt with trolling and cyberhate generally — which is argued to be less-than-adequate. The third and final part of the book explores how some trolls, including Goldberg, came unstuck. Throughout the text, Gorman reflects upon her journey into this ‘world of online hate’, and how her interactions with the creatures which inhabit it change her understanding of them, their world, and its relationship to broader social and technological trends, especially racism and misogyny and the central place of social media in everyday life.

‘Trolling’ IRL

While the second part reveals varying degrees of incompetency and indifference on the part of tech companies, after documenting the systemic failure of law enforcement to address cyberbullying, Gorman does detect a more hopeful sign (pp.119–120):

Some stories are emerging of more appropriate, and effective, responses to cyberbullying complaints. Take comedian and writer Catherine Deveny. After making controversial comments on Twitter and Facebook about Anzac Day in 2018 — describing it as ‘Bogan Halloween’ and a ‘fetishisation of war and violence’ — she was doxed multiple times. Her home address was posted all over the internet and she received an avalanche of credible rape and death threats. She was the focus of several facebook hate groups. One night, five men in a ute turned up to her house. One of them knocked on her door and videoed himself doing it.

Within forty-eight hours of Deveny’s original comments being posted — and the resultant blow-up of public vitriol — Victorian counter-terrorism police reached out to her. They got her statement and started investigating. Police patrolled outside her house and work events. An investigator from the Office of the Federal eSafety Commissioner also got in touch. In contrast to many who’d gone before her, Deveny received significant and appropriate support. After hearing so many dire stories, it’s great to hear one like this. Wouldn’t it be amazing if all predator-trolling victims could rely on getting this kind of assistance?

LOL.

For what it’s worth, I remember when this incident took place, and at the time made brief reference to it on the blog. In which context, a few things. First, those responsible for paying Deveny a nocturnal visit included right-wing activists Julian de Ross (AKA ‘Hugh Pearson’), Rino ‘Bluebeard’ Grgurovic and Ricky Turner. Secondly, whatever became of the intervention by Victorian counter-terrorism police and the Office of the Federal eSafety Commissioner, the boys carried on as before. Thus one month later, members of the same crew — on this occasion consisting of Paul Exley and Danny Peanna/Parkinson from Sydney, together with the Melbourne-based Grgurovic, Logan Spalding, and their ringleader Neil Erikson — filmed themselves disrupting a church service in Gosford; in June, Erikson, Turner and several others paid another nocturnal visit to a private address, on this occasion that of rival right-wing entrepreneur Dave Pellowe. While it’s unclear if those responsible for attending Deveny’s and Pellowe’s address faced any legal repercussions (it seems not), for his part in the disruption of the church service Erikson at least was later charged under an obscure law making it an offence to ‘obstruct a member of the clergy in the discharge of his or her duties’.

It’s possible, I suppose, to characterise this behaviour as ‘IRL trolling’ — but there’s certainly other interpretations. One critical difference is that, while it may be performed for teh lulz, unlike almost all of the examples of ‘trolling’ Gorman provides in her book, such actions are not really all that anonymous. In fact, while there’s occasionally some effort made to disguise the identities of those responsible, for the most part it’s very public — and by public I mean ‘filmed and then published by/on Facebook’. When de Ross, Grgurovic, Turner & Co. visited Deveny’s home; Exley, Peanna, Grgurovic, Spalding and Erikson disrupted a church service; and Erikson, Turner & Co. visited Pellowe’s home; these actions were undertaken precisely in order to be documented and distributed via Facebook. So too, the numerous other occasions upon which Erikson in particular has undertaken the role of a serial pest, from disrupting council meetings and various left and ‘multicultural’ events to stalking and abusing various public figures he happens to dislike. (Note that Grgurovic is due in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on February 26 over assault charges; Erikson, along with his kameraden Ricky Turner and Richard Whelan, have a date on May 13 over similar.)

All of these acts have been performed publicly and for the benefit of his Facebook audience, the corporation having granted Erikson permission to do so for at least the last four years. Thus, it was only in the space of the last few days that Facebook, for unknown reasons, banned a number of Erikson’s accounts. (It’s possible that the pest may have come unstuck upon announcing the re-launch of the ‘United Patriots Front’ by creating an event page for a February 16 rally at Federation Square — the UPF collapsed after Facebook banned its page in May 2017.) Still, there are hundreds if not thousands of very similar pages on the site, and it remains the critical tool for far-right organising in Australia and elsewhere. (See, for example, Fraser Anning’s Neo-Nazi connections (The White Rose Society, January 11, 2019) and Facebook Fueled Anti-Refugee Attacks in Germany, New Research Suggests (Amanda Taub and Max Fisher, The New York Times, August 21, 2018) for two among innumerable other instances.)

More broadly, while Gorman makes fairly short work of the corporate pablum spewed by Facebook and Twitter concerning their commitment to combating trolling and ‘hate speech’, if Facebook in particular is understood as being a massive private data-collection agency — one which derives a substantial proportion of its profits from selling this information to advertisers (and whoever else can pay for it) — it’s possible to cut through this nonsense fairly easily. Further, like corporations generally, Facebook is able to use the enormous financial and political power at its disposal to ensure the forms of regulation which might inhibit its continued growth and profitability are kept at bay. And while YouTube/Google doesn’t feature in Gorman’s account, its role in promoting racist and fascist propaganda, along with anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, rivals that of Facebook, and has long been understood as a key node in the distribution and promotion of race-hate and other forms of hate speech (see, for example, ‘Fiction is outperforming reality’: how YouTube’s algorithm distorts truth, Paul Lewis, The Guardian, February 2, 2018 and ‘Alternative Influence: Broadcasting the Reactionary Right on YouTube’, Rebecca Lewis, Data & Society, September 9, 2018).

In any case, to return to Goldberg and Veiszadeh (pp.218–219):

Towards the end of 2014, [Veiszadeh] publicly voiced her outrage that a Woolworths supermarket in Cairns was selling singlets printed with the Australian flag alongside the tagline,’If you don’t love it, LEAVE’.

Three months after her tweet, the far right anti-Islam group The Australian Defence League posted her tweet to their Facebook page. From there, it was picked up by the alt-right Daily Stormer website. Chillingly, The Daily Stormer post about Veiszadeh, written under the byline Michael Slay, demanded of its thousands of followers: ‘Stormer Troll Army … assemble!’ ‘We need to flood this towelhead subhuman vermin with as much racial and religious abuse as we possibly can,” the spite-filled post reads …’

(Note that a few weeks ago the former ‘President’ of the ADL, Ralph Cerminara, was found ‘guilty of two counts of intimidation and one count of common assault’ after attacking his neighbour in Sydney.)

In addition to being attacked on The Daily Stormer, Veiszadeh’s tweet also triggered a Queensland woman, Jay-Leighsha Bauman, to send Veiszadeh messages calling her a “whore”, a “rag-head” and [telling] her to return to her own “sand dune country” — Bauman was later sentenced to 180 hours of community service for the crime. A few months later, an Ordinary Mum™ and Reclaim Australia supporter was charged with threatening to slit Veiszadeh’s throat. On these and other occasions, it seems the chief fault of those charged was not bothering to anonymise their threats; the fact that Bauman’s threats were reported on by both the BBC and CNN may also have prompted authorities to take a closer look. That said:

Later in 2015, Luke McMahon and Elise Potaka reported in Fairfax newspapers that Michael Slay turned out to be not one person, but two. One of those two men was Joshua Goldberg, whose main trolling preoccupation was preserving freedom of speech. As the troll hunter explained earlier, this was how he ended up choosing targets such as Josh Bornstein.

Nathaniel Jacob Sassoon Sykes

The ‘other’ Michael Slay was of course Jewish neo-Nazi and toy-doll enthusiast Nathaniel Jacob Sassoon Sykes, who was exposed by McMahon in April 2017. Like Goldberg, Sykes contributed scores of articles to The Daily Stormer, inter alia attacking Veiszadeh along with Badham, Bornstein, Dr Tim Soutphommasane and yours truly. Currently, Sykes is the chief writer for the ‘United Nationalists of Australia’ blog, the online shitsheet of the ‘Australia First Party’. In that capacity, Sykes attacks the various enemies of the AFP on the left as well as the right. Sometimes, this creates legal difficulties. Hence, after publishing an article in June 2017 by party leader Dr Jim Saleam which detailed alleged crimes committed by members of rival fascist groupuscule ‘Klub Nation’, in May 2018 legal action against Saleam and the blog was apparently taken by various persons associated with KN. (Member of this radical right-wing network are also implicated in an attempt to infiltrate the Young Nationals in NSW last year.) Beyond this, members of the neo-Nazi ‘Lads Society’ and, more recently, a man called Michael Freshwater, have also been attacked by Sykes on the UNA blog. While Sykes was dismissed by ex-UPF and Lads Society organiser Tom Sewell as a ‘divisive little Jew’, Freshwater, it’s alleged, has been part of a conspiracy to undermine AFP, embracing elements of the Liberal Party as well as neo-Nazis like Mark McDonald, the leader of the Lads Society in Sydney and former leader of neo-Nazi groupuscule ‘Squadron 88’.

Notes

• Joshua Goldberg (as ‘Moon Metropolis’) published a statement on Medium on December 28, 2018 which provides a defence of sorts to his actions: ‘It was always my intention to infiltrate online jihadist spheres so that I could eventually become either a journalist, an FBI agent, or both.’ The statement also refers to … when I got Milo Yiannopoulos to publish that “expose” on Shaun King, I did it purely to see the shitstorm that I knew it would create, not because I actually care in the least about anything involving either Shaun King or Milo Yiannopoulos (both of those people are complete and utter clowns as far as I’m concerned). The article, ‘Did Black Lives Matter Organizer Shaun King Mislead Oprah Winfrey By Pretending To Be Biracial?’ (Breitbart, August 19, 2015), is dissected in this blogpost on Internet Famous Angry Men. Yiannopoulos is of course a very well-known troll who for several years was able to translate his trolling activities into sponsorship by wealthy right-wing reactionaries and sought to acquire more filthy lucre by conducting (semi-)lucrative tours. In fact, Yiannopoulos, along with Gavin McInnes and Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, are supposedly being brought to Australia by Penthouse Australia publisher Damien Costas next month (March 9–14) for a speaking tour. For his part, Costas is currently embroiled in a legal battle with publicist Max Markson regarding alleged unpaid debts; there’s also allegedly been some fisticuffs. See also : Here’s How Breitbart And Milo Smuggled White Nationalism Into The Mainstream, Joseph Bernstein, BuzzFeed, October 5, 2017 (A cache of documents obtained by BuzzFeed News reveals the truth about Steve Bannon’s alt-right “killing machine.”).

• Gorman makes reference (pp.199-200) to a category of trolling known as ‘media fuckery’, and cites US academic Whitney Phillips who defines it as ‘the ability to turn the media against itself … by either amplifying or outright inventing a news item too sensational for media outlets to pass up’. This brought to mind two things. First, a recent example of ‘media fuckery’ in which a fake Facebook page titled ‘Melbourne Antifa’ applauded the 2017 Las Vegas shooting. This later featured in an article in The Daily Mail by Stephen Johnson (‘Melbourne Antifa extremists praise Las Vegas shooter’, October 2, 2017), was fact-checked by FactCheck.Org and Snopes and in May 2018 also triggered a bizarre interaction between myself and a right-wing blogger in the US. Secondly, the phrase immediately brought to mind similar terms such as ‘culture-jamming’ and ‘subvertising’, political practices which pre-date both ‘media fuckery’ and teh intarwebs as a whole. See : How To Make Trouble And Influence People.

• Gorman also makes reference (p.47) to local neo-Nazi activist Blair Cottrell in the context of a discussion regarding ‘hate leaching into the mainstream’ and Cottrell’s appearance as a very special guest on Adam Giles’ show on Sky News in August last year. As noted elsewhere, Cottrell – following an appearance on Sky News – told his 25,000 Twitter followers he might as well have raped presenter Laura Jayes on air because “not only would she have been happier with that but the reaction would’ve been the same”. In which context, a few things: first, while Facebook has banned the UPF and Cottrell, such commentary is considered acceptable by Twitter (to which platform Cotrell shifted after being kicked off Facebook). Secondly, his kamerad Neil Erikson made a similar remark directed at another female journalist, Jodi Lee, in November last year: ‘Jodie [sic] Lee acted like I had raped her on live TV….. She wishes!’ Thirdly, Cottrell has an extensive criminal record, mostly revolving around his stalking of an ex-girlfriend. Finally, Cotrell, Erikson and fellow white nationalist Chris Shortis were convicted in September 2017 of inciting hatred for Muslims; Cottrell is appealing the conviction on the grounds that the Victorian Act under which he was convicted (The Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001) is in fact un-Constitutional, and will be appearing in the County Court in Victoria on February 19.

• While Gorman devotes relatively little space to d0xing, it’s relevant in several instances. In her chapter on weev, ‘A Professional Racist’, for example, Gorman notes (p.232) that weev appeared on a neo-Nazi podcast with Mike Enoch and Christopher ‘Crying Nazi’ Cantwell. Later in the chapter (p.236), Gorman also refers to ‘Azzmador’, who along with Daily Stormer publisher Andrew Anglin wrote a post for the site encouraging their fellow neo-Nazis to attend the murderous ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville in August 2017. As it happens, Mike Enoch is in fact Mike Peinovich, who got d0xxed in January 2017, while ‘Azzmador’ is Robert Warren Ray. (According to a November 2018 report, Ray is currently a fugitive after being charged with a felony allegedly committed at the rally.) As for Cantwell, late last year he voiced an audio version of local neo-Nazi Ryan Fletcher’s tract ‘From HEMP to Hitler’, which has been promoted on David Hiscox’s AltRight website XYZ. See also : The far right, the “White Replacement” myth and the “Race War” brewing, Julie Nathan, ABC (Religion & Ethics), February 12, 2019:

The potential for violence which such online posts portend was graphically demonstrated in the United States in October 2018 by Robert Bowers, who wrote on Gab, a Twitter-like platform which is a haven for extremists and racists, “Screw your optics, I’m going in.” Shortly afterwards, he entered the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and murdered eleven Jews. Afterwards, Bowers told police that he was motivated by his belief that “the Jews” were “committing genocide to my people.”

Chillingly, these words were echoed by another Gab user, an Australian named Ryan Fletcher, who wrote, “I think its [sic] about time to say ‘f*** your optics I’m going in’.” Fletcher has a dark history of calling for the murder of Jews in Australia and worldwide, and of posting images of Jews being killed, on his Gab account. Fletcher subscribes to the myth: “#White gentiles are waking up to the agenda of #ZOG (which is #WhiteGenocide).” “ZOG” stands for “Zionist Occupied Government,” a term used to insinuate that “the Jews” control the United States and other Western governments. Fletcher also writes articles for XYZ.

• Speaking of neo-Nazis, Gorman notes that inre her own experience of being trolled in 2013 (pp.10–11), Six days after Newton was sentenced in 2013 came the second frightening moment. Don found a photo of our family on the fascist social network Iron March. The now-defunct website carried the slogan ‘Gas the kikes’ on its homepage. Iron March was of course the birthplace of Australian neo-Nazi groupuscule ‘Antipodean Resistance’. Its British cousins, National Action, have been proscribed as a terrorist organisation (see : See Graham Macklin, ”Only Bullets will Stop Us!’: The banning of National Action’, Perspectives on Terrorism, Vol.12, No.6 (2018) [PDF]). See also : Extreme neo-Nazi ‘death cults’ drawing in children as young as 13, report warns, Lizzie Dearden, The Independent, February 17, 2019 (‘Exclusive: Children as young as 13 being drawn into ideologies ‘harder, darker and more committed than ever before’’).

Below : Nathaniel Jacob Sassoon Sykes (Australia First Party/United Nationalists (of) Australia; Jacob Hersant (Antipodean Resistance/The Lads Society):

See also : Online abuse of women in the media, Justine Landis-Hanley, The Saturday Paper, February 16, 2019 | Meet The Woman Giving A New Face To Troll Hunting, Jamila Rizvi, Future Women, February 2019 | The ‘Canary In The Coalmine’ Link Between Terrorism And Trolling, Alex Bruce-Smith, Ten Daily, February 5, 2019 | Internet trolls are not who I thought — they’re even scarier, Ginger Gorman, ABC, February 2, 2019 | Troll hunting: a journey to the dark side, Karen Hardy, The Canberra Times, February 2, 2019 | Twitter, the barbarian country, or how I learned to love the block button, Van Badham, The Guardian, January 31, 2019 | Troll Hunting review: Ginger Gorman goes in search of the online bullies, Jonathan Green, The Sydney Morning Herald, January 18, 2019 | Staring down the trolls: Mute, block or resort to ‘digilantism’?, Ginger Gorman, The Sydney Morning Herald, June 16, 2017 | Cyberhate With Tara Moss, ABC, 2017 | Misogyny Online: A Short (and Brutish) History, Emma A Jane, SAGE (2017) | Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous, Gabriella Coleman, Verso (2014). As well as providing some further detail regarding weev’s activities prior to his going full nazi as an editor for The Daily Stormer, Coleman’s book also contains important background on the various (sub-)cultural contexts from which the ‘predator troll’ emerged. (Note also that, in conversation with weev in August 2010, Coleman writes (p.22): ‘His denunciation of “the repulsive order of the financiers” had the ring of truth, given the recent financial mess their recklessness has engendered, so I found myself, only minutes into my first bona fide conversation with a world famous troll, in agreement with him.’ LOL.)

antifa notes (january 15, 2019) : Fraser ‘Final Solution’ Anning & Simon Hickey, ‘The Nazi Sparky’

Fraser ‘Final Solution’ Anning

Anti-fascist research group ‘The White Rose Society’ has published an exposé on federal Senator Fraser ‘Final Solution’ Anning and his many links to local neo-Nazis and other far-right activists.

See : Fraser Anning’s Neo-Nazi connections.

Included in the exposé is reference to a range of familiar characters, most especially Andrew Wilson (Patriotic Youth League/Volksfront/Klub Nation/Klub Naziya/Public Information Forum).

See also : The Nationals Party express concern over new Fraser Anning’s Conservative National Party, Lucas Baird, The Australian Financial Review, January 11, 2019 | Cronulla 2.0? : Racist assembly @ St Kilda Beach, Saturday, January 5, 2019 | Neo-Nazi infiltration of the Young Nationals in NSW, October 11, 2018.

Simon Hickey, ‘The Nazi Sparky’

In February 2017, it was reported that Simon Hickey of ‘Smerff Electrical’ in Brisbane had sponsored leading neo-Nazi website ‘The Daily Stormer’:

A Queensland tradie has emerged as the sole corporate sponsor of one of the world’s most popular neo-Nazi websites, drawing condemnation from a Jewish civil rights organisation.

Simon John Hickey, a Brisbane electrician and airconditioner installer whose business logo appears to feature Pepe the Frog, a meme that has become popular with the alt-right, wearing an SS uniform and standing in front of Auschwitz, wouldn’t answer questions posed by Fairfax Media …

See : The Brisbane tradie sponsoring a prominent neo-Nazi website, Jorge Branco, The Brisbane Times, February 28, 2017.

In November last year, Hickey was fined $10,000 (plus costs) in the Holland Park Magistrates Court in an action brought by the Office of Fair Trading ‘for acting as an unlicensed security equipment installer’. Further:

The court heard Mr Hickey was uncooperative throughout the investigation and repeatedly showed abusive and discriminatory behaviour towards investigators.

In January 2018, the Richlands Magistrates Court convicted and sentenced Mr Hickey to six months’ imprisonment, with the term of imprisonment suspended after serving seven days, for the unlawful stalking of an OFT inspector involved in the investigation of the unlicensed security work.

Yesterday (January 14), in Brisbane, the Fair Work Commission rendered a verdict in the case a former employee of Hickey’s brought against him for unfair dismissal.

Conclusion in relation to compensation

[110] After considering the matters required by s. 392 of the Act, I have decided to award Mr Lamacq the amount of $11,400.00 being twelve weeks’ ordinary wages, to be taxed according to law. The amount is to be paid within 21 days of the date of release of this Decision and an Order to that effect will issue with this Decision.

The ruling makes for interesting reading. Highlights include:

[30] Mr Hickey also tendered a written employment contract said to have been signed by Mr Lamacq on 17 September 2017. Mr Hickey said that he did not remember signing the contract and that the signature on it was not like his signature. The contract makes for interesting reading. In relation to wages it states at 5.1:

“You will be paid Weekly at the rate of $15 per hour. If you are unhappy with your wage, you can fuck off. Nobody is forcing you to work here.”

…

[36] [Hickey:] … Here’s the number for fair work Australia 13 13 94. Do you know how many calls they get per day? Boo Hoo this cunt fired me and he wasn’t paying me leave loading 12% or some shit. Do you know what these cunts do about it? Nothing unless it’s a company worth prosecuting. They know they’ll get nothing from me and even if they could get me for something what would it be?

Nazis eh?

Bonus! Clive Palmer

Fabulously-wealthy blabbermouth Clive Palmer is continuing to carry on like a pork chop, and aiming to return to the federal parliament this year. To that end, he’s been chucking up billboards ripe for redecoration, spamming text messages and has now launched a mobile gaming app called ‘Clive Palmer, Humble Meme Merchant’. It’s replete with AltRight messaging, and is dissected by Jordan McSwiney in this thread, which is recommended-reading.