Tagged with Janet Albrechtsen

On Right-Wing Trolls Touring Australia in 2018

Update (December 3, 2018) : Hope Not Hate provide a potted summary of Milo Yiannopoulos’ financial and legal situation in Milo Yiannopoulos’ debt crisis (December 2, 2018).

In so many ways, Milo Yiannopoulos is unremarkable. He is just one of a long line of conservative grifters making hay in Australia. ~ Richard Cooke, Australia’s welcome mat for right-wing trolls, The Saturday Paper, October 21, 2017.

See also : Age-old hate, The Monthly, July 2017 | Alt wrong, The Monthly, April 2017.

Gavin McInnes : CANCELLED

This week, the Australian Minister for Immigration, David Coleman, decided to refuse to issue a visa to Gavin McInnes on the basis of his ‘bad’ character. His decision follows closely upon the tabling of a petition to the Australian Parliament with over 80,000 signatures calling upon the Minister to do just that (and — no doubt coincidentally — a mere week after the Victorian Liberals got trounced in the state election after running a race-baiting law-and-order campaign).

See : Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes denied visa to tour Australia with ‘The Deplorables’, Matthew Doran, ABC, November 30, 2018 | Australia rejects far-right Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes’ visa application, Riley Morgan, SBS, November 31, 2018 | Founder of US far-right group denied Australian visa: ABC report, Al Jazeera, November 31, 2018 | Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes denied entry to Australia for ‘Deplorables’ speaking tour, Travis Gettys, Raw Story, November 30, 2018.

As for the Proud Boys, in addition to having most if not all of their Facebook pages closed, yesterday it was announced NYPD Arrests Two More Proud Boys As Hate Group Grapples With ‘Cuckery’ (Jake Offenhartz, Gothamist, November 30, 2018). See also : Scary Clowns, Brendan O’Connor, The Baffler, November 21, 2018 ~and~ follow AntiFash Gordon and Rose City Antifa for d0xx.

Milo Yiannopoulos ~versus~ AE Media

For those of you coming in late, back in April ‘Future Now’ (AKA Queensland businessmen Ben & Dan Spiller) announced that Milo Yiannopoulos and Gavin McInnes would be touring the country in May, accompanied by serial pest Neil Erikson (and possibly disgraced Sky News presenter Ross Cameron). Almost immediately upon it being announced the tour collapsed in a heap.

Undeterred, in September ‘Future Now Australia’ announced that they would be touring Fraser ‘Final Solution’ Anning, Ann Coulter, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (‘Tommy Robinson’) and Milo Yiannopoulos in November/December. That, too, collapsed in a heap, with Yaxley-Lennon withdrawing and the tour being promoted as ‘Ann & Milo’. Not long after, the organisers announced that this tour too was cancelled, and ticket-holders would instead be issued tickets to see Gavin McInnes. That tour, organised by Damien Costas (Penthouse Australia), would later add Yaxley-Lennon to the bill. Intended to kick-off in December, the tour has now been delayed until February 2019, will not feature McInnes and — given his extensive criminal and political record of racist agitation — there’s a serious question mark hanging over the likelihood of Yaxley-Lennon being admitted to the country.

In any case, there’s no love lost between ‘Future Now/Australia’ — now re-badged as ‘AE Media’ — and Milo Yiannopoulos, which has come to a head in the last few days with d0x being released by Erikson which purport to detail financial shenanigans by Milo. One is titled Milo-Event-Facts-Press-Version and the other Dan-helping-milo-with-bills-email-chain-PRESS-1. For his part, Yiannopoulos published a YouTube video (streamed live on November 28, 2018) and issued a statement:

MILO JOINS PENTHOUSE AUSTRALIA’S “THE DEPLORABLES” TOUR WITH GAVIN AND TOMMY

Sydney, Australia.— Milo Yiannopoulos is joining Penthouse Australia’s “The Deplorables” Tour, alongside Gavin McInnes and Tommy Robinson, following the cancellation of his previously slated tour in December by original promoters AE Media.

Ticket-holders for the original “Milo and Ann” tour will have their tickets honored and they will see Milo, Gavin McInnes and Tommy Robinson live in Australia in February 2019. Ticket-holders will be contacted via email by Penthouse in the coming days.

Damien Costas, publisher of Penthouse Australia, said: “Milo’s record-breaking Australia tour remains the standard by which conservative speaking tours are judged. And now we’re adding him to an already brilliant line-up. The three of them together promise an absolutely spectacular show—not to mention terrific value for money.”

Yiannopoulos said: “I’m delighted to be rejoining Penthouse for another tour in Australia in 2019, after my sellout runaway success with them last time. I’d like to thank Penthouse for honoring the tickets sold under my previous promoter, who unfortunately could not meet their financial or logistical obligations. I’m delighted my fans will not lose out and can’t wait to be back in Australia.”

Yiannopoulos has delayed the release of his forthcoming book, Australia, You’re My Only Hope!, to coincide with the rescheduled Deplorables tour. The book will now be released in February 2019. VIP ticket holders will receive a free signed copy.

“For those of you who want to know what went down with my last promoters, well. It’s an ongoing drama, and I need your help,” Milo added. “I’ll be doing a stream today, November 28, for fans, live on YouTube. Look out for notices on Facebook and Instagram for a link to the stream.”

The Deplorables Tour Enquiries: [email protected]

Ticket-holders seeking refunds from the previous promoter should contact: Daniel Spiller, Seagate Services Pty Ltd, [email protected] and Benjamin Spiller, Seagate Services Pty Ltd, [email protected]

*Presumably, Milo didn’t get the memo that Gavin won’t be coming.

In the video which accompanies the statement, Yiannopoulos variously describes AE Media and the Spiller brothers as inter alia ‘fraudulent’, ‘insane’, ‘incompetent’, ‘liars’ and ‘cunts’. For their part, the Spillers have contracted the services of fellow Queenslanders Rose Litigation in order to sue Yiannopoulos for monies allegedly owed them. The video also contains some discussion around Australia and the upcoming publication of his book, Australia, You’re My Only Hope!. Note that the conception of Australia as ‘The Last Great (White) Hope’ has been a trope among White nationalists for quite some time.

Be that as it may, Yiannopoulos, while bemoaning the awful sacrifices he’s made in order to write the book, also expresses concern that it might contravene Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. Given that the racist commentary he provided on his December 2017 tour (organised by Costas/Penthouse) triggered no such prosecution; that his fanbase includes such luminaries as Richard Wolstencroft and Kate Langbroek and Janet Albrechtsen (an Ambassador for the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation); that a number of the venues at which he performed both celebrate their Indigenous art collections while profiting handsomely from Milo’s anti-Indigenous hate-speech; that, in October, Indigenous Affairs minister Nigel Scullion was one of the 23 members of government who voted to support Pauline Hanson’s motion decrying ‘anti-white racism’; and given that the (to-date unsuccessful) campaign to amend or indeed scrap altogether Section 18C has won broad support from Tories, it may be that his angst is unfounded.

More broadly, Yiannopoulos notes that while anti-fascists in the US have had some degree of success in de-platforming and marginalising him, Australia is a very ‘safe space’. Thus (52:00), ‘I’m kind of mainstream in Australia. You know, I’m kind of like a ‘normal’ conservative in Australia … if you tone down the language a little bit, I’m kind of like safe for public consumption in Australia. I’m just worried about the book …’. Further (2:24:36), ‘I only engage with you because you were going to pay me a shit-tonne of money, and I was going to have fun in Australia … Australia? I like the country, but I was, you know, I’m fundamentally touring because I like the country and because I’m very popular there, and it pays a lot.’ Finally, with regards the Spiller brothers, his invitation (2:07:40) to examine their correspondence is introduced by way of stating ‘Let’s just have a quick window into the insane world of the Spiller brothers.’

Yiannopoulos on Australian Indigenous life, art and culture

The following is an extract from Yiannopoulos’s December 2017 speech at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre:

Because newsflash [Aboriginal art] really is shit … Now Australians in this sort of bizarre form of middle-class guilt have decided to pay obeisance to a culture that failed to invent the wheel — and whose signature musical achievement is a big stick … The ugly truth that they don’t want you to say out loud is that history has winners and losers. The progressive left wants to turn Western countries into the only developed civilisations in the history of human society that shit on their own accomplishments in favour of vastly inferior civilisations for no apparent reason. Hence we’re confronted with the ugly spectacle of your own nation and ‘welcome to country’ … and the desperate, pathetic attempts to pretend that didgeridoos represent a beautiful and historic cultural achievement, and not a punchline to a joke. Now you might not know this, but there are absolutely no Aboriginal people left alive in Australia — the last ones died in the ’60s and ’70s, and since then George Soros has been shipping over Black Lives Matter activists, giving them tubs of white-out, and telling them to just daub themselves and make all the White people feel bad. Your politicians in a symbol of how intelligent they are have been falling for it for half-a-century.

Milo Yiannopoulos ~versus~ Axiomatic Events

The other bit-player in the Australian foreign troll circuit is ‘Axiomatic Events’. As Axiomatic Events, Dave Pellowe and Luke Chandler toured Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern in July. They also hired neo-Nazi grouplet ‘The Lads Society’ to provide security for the tour. Of the tour, Yiannopoulos notes (54:58) that ‘Their promoters really fucked them … [Axiomatic Events is an] equally amateurish, disastrous outfit… I don’t even know if they’ve [Molyneux and Southern] been paid yet, their audiences were tiny …’.

See also : Dave Pellowe & Axiomatic Events ~versus~ Daniel Spiller & Future Now +++ (June 6, 2018) | Stefan Molyneux & Lauren Southern’s hate-speech tour kicks off in Cairns (with a little help from the AFL) (July 16, 2018) | Stefan Molyneux & Lauren Southern @ La Mirage, Somerton : Friday, July 20, 2018 (July 20, 2018).

Kermit The Flog

Jordan Peterson’s March 2018 tour was organised by ‘True Arrow Events’ (Sam McClelland); his upcoming 2019 tour by TEG Dainty & Nice Events.

Saturday, February 9 : Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, Riverside Theatre
Monday, February 11 : Adelaide Entertainment Centre Theatre
Wednesday, February 13 : Plenary, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre
Friday, February 15 : Llewellyn Hall, Canberra
Saturday, February 16 : Sydney Opera House
Sunday, February 17 : Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre

• Postmodernism Did Not Take Place: On Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life, Shuja Haider, Viewpoint, January 23, 2018 (‘A specter is haunting North America — the specter of postmodernism. Or at least, that’s what Jordan Peterson would have you believe. Peterson, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, has entered into an unholy alliance with all the powers of the alt-right to exorcise this specter. Though he calls himself a “British classical liberal,” Peterson’s appeal feeds into the most reactionary tendencies in contemporary politics’). See also : A Messiah-cum-Surrogate-Dad for Gormless Dimwits: On Jordan B. Peterson’s “12 Rules for Life”, Houman Barekat, LA Review of Books, March 11, 2018 | The Intellectual We Deserve, Nathan J Robinson, Current Affairs, March 14, 2018 | Jordan Peterson & Fascist Mysticism, Pankaj Mishra, The New York Review of Books, March 19, 2018.

antifa notes (november 2, 2018) : milo & mcinnes; lads, proud boys & natzis

Update (November 3, 2018) : Nationals ban 22 members for life after investigation into neo-Nazi links, Michael Koziol, The Sydney Morning Herald, November 3, 2018.


Above : On L, alleged killer Robert Bowers announcing his intention to GTKRWN; on R, Brisbane-based neo-Nazi and member of The Lads Society Beau Maverick. Neither man cares greatly for ‘optics’.

* The massacre at the synagogue in Pittsburgh on October 27 was reportedly the worst such event in US history. Unfortunately, given current political trends, that record may not last very long. In any case, Julie Nathan of the ECAJ has written ‘As the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre shows, fears of “White Genocide” are incitement to murder’ (ABC Religion & Ethics, October 29/31, 2018), while CEO Alex Ryvchin reckons ‘Synagogue slayings not a shot in the culture wars’ (October 31, 2018 — for a contrary view, see : Jews Against Fascism).

I may add some more thoughts at a later date, but in the meantime I think it worthwhile highlighting the fact that the rehabilitation of anti-Semitism and its increasing centrality to extreme-right perspectives in the United States is echoed Down Under as an increasingly larger segment of younger right-wing activists not only adopt a fascist outlook but place anti-Semitic conspiracy theories at the heart of their worldview. By way of example, the AltRight media platforms ‘XYZ’ and ‘The Unshackled’ (AKA ‘The Unhinged’ — which, to its credit, has been authorised by Google as a trusted media source) have drifted over the course of the last year or two from fairly conventional arch-Toryism to an open embrace of white nationalism. Leaving aside David Hilton (‘Moses Apostaticus’), fellow XYZ contributor Ryan Fletcher has accounted for this shift in an essay titled ‘Trading HEMP for Hitler’ (a text which comes highly recommended by editor David Hiscox). Fletcher is also a YUGE fan of James Mason’s Siege — required reading for members of local neo-Nazi grouplet Antipodean Resistance.


Above : Tim Wilms of The Unhinged wearing his Proud Boys ‘Pinochet Did Nothing Wrong’ shirt. Note that the arm reads RWDS (‘Right Wing Death Squad’). Under the Pinochet dictatorship (1973–1990), tens of thousands of Chileans were raped, tortured, murdered and forced into exile by his death squads. (Coincidentally, this weekend, LASNET has organised a gathering on Autonomy & Resistance at Trades Hall in Melbourne.)

See also : Pittsburgh shooting extends wave of conspiracy-minded rightwing violence, Jason Wilson, The Guardian, October 27, 2018 | George Soros: Why Are Australians Flirting With This American Conspiracy Theory?, Alex Bruce-Smith, 10 Daily, October 31, 2018 | Dialectic of Counter-Enlightenment: The Frankfurt School as Scapegoat of the Lunatic Fringe (March 9, 2012).

1) Dan Spiller/Future Now Australia Presents: Milo Yiannopoulos & Ann Coulter

Queensland businessman Dan Spiller (AKA ‘Future Now Australia’ AKA ‘AE Events’) has recently announced the cancellation of the upcoming tour by Infowars-supplements salesman and paedophile apologist Milo Yiannopoulos (accompanied by fellow wealthy blabbermouth Ann Coulter). This is the second time Spiller has tried and failed to organise a tour by ‘foreign radicals’: back in April, Spiller announced that he’d be bringing both Yiannopoulos and ‘Proud Boys’ founder Gavin McInnes to Australia. That effort collapsed in a heap within a few days, but Spiller’s latest production took several months to fall apart … which I suppose could be considered either an improvement or a degeneration (depending on your perspective). In any (non-)event, the decision to cancel the tour has been compounded by Spiller’s decision not to refund buyers but instead offer them tickets to go and see two other ‘foreign radicals’ — Gavin McInnes and Stephen Yaxley-Lennon — when they tour in December.

Fingers crossed, Mr Spiller’s seemingly chronic inability to successfully profit from foreign hate-merchants will not deter him from attempting to do so and being similarly adept in future. The silver lining on this grey cloud of failure, however, is perhaps the new book by Milo, which is apparently All About Australia:


Above : An extract from Yiannopoulos’s upcoming book on Australia. It’s unclear at this stage if Janet Albrechtsen has accepted an invitation to write the foreword.

See also : Milo Yiannopoulos Fans Are Pissed His Aussie Tour Got Cancelled, And It’s Extremely Funny, Tom Clift, Junkee, November 1, 2018 | Milo Yiannopoulos’ Australian Tour Has Been Cancelled And Fans Want Refunds, Josh Butler, 10 Daily, October 31, 2018 | Milo Yiannopoulos’ Australian tour cancelled with no refunds, SBS, October 31, 2018 | Milo Yiannopoulos’ Aussie Tour Has Been Cancelled, Disappointing Dozens, Ben McLeay, pedestriantv, October 31, 2018 | Milo Yiannopoulos tour cancelled; Gavin McInnes visa debate continues, Kieran’s Review, October 30, 2018.

2) Gavin McInnes & Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (‘Tommy Robinson’)

Damien Costas, publisher of Penthouse Australia, is planning on bringing Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes and ex-BNP member and founder of the English Defence League Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (AKA ‘Andrew McMaster’/’Paul Harris’/’Tommy Robinson’) to Australia in December. As usual, venues will be made public 24 hours prior to the event, but it’s not unreasonable to expect previous venues, including Festival Functions in Findon (Adelaide), Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, Melbourne Pavilion in Flemington/La Mirage in Somerton, Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre and Le Montage/International Convention Centre Sydney (ICC Sydney) to again provide a platform for race-hate. The dates for the tour are as follows:

• ADELAIDE : WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5
• PERTH : FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7
• MELBOURNE : TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11
• GOLD COAST : THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13
• SYDNEY : SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16

Of course, the possibility of either McInnes or Yaxley-Lennon being able to enter the country is entirely dependent upon Mr Potato Head’s feels on the subject. On Robinson, and in particular his current legal troubles (which may also see him prevented from coming), see : David Renton and Barrister Blogger.

With regards McInnes, he and his ‘Boys’ have been getting into some bother of late. Just a few weeks ago (Friday, October 12) in New York, McInnes was invited by the Metropolitan Republican Club to celebrate the anniversary of the assassination of Japanese socialist Inejiro Asanuma on this date in 1960. Following the event, some of McInnes’s fanboys went on a bit of a rampage, and some got arrest. An awful lot of ink has been spilled on the subject of the event and its aftermath, but as ever New York City Antifa (Twitter) is an xclnt resource. See also : The Proud Boys, The GOP And ‘The Fascist Creep’, Christopher Mathias, Huffington Post, October 18, 2018 (‘Gavin McInnes spoke at a GOP club, then his followers violently attacked leftist protesters. Modern American fascism finds its foot soldiers’) | NYPD arrests 14 Jewish protesters outside Republican club where Proud Boys brawled, Rex Santus, Vice, October 31, 2018 (‘The protesters outside the Club on Tuesday were there to call on the Republican Party to denounce white nationalism after the Saturday shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue where 11 worshippers were murdered by a man who’d shared anti-Semitic and white supremacist comments online.’).

Closer to home, Melbourne lawyer Nyadol Nyuon has launched an online petition, calling on the Minister to deny McInnes a visa. For their part, both Facebook and Instagram appear to have removed a large number of (official and unofficial) Proud Boy accounts from their sites. ‘The crackdown came slightly more than two weeks after members of the group reportedly attacked and beat activists protesting at an event in Manhattan. It also follows the massacre of 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue — the worst anti-Semitic attack in recent US history.’ The gab.ai webshite (AKA ‘Twitter for nazis’) is also experiencing technical difficulties at the moment …


Above : Melbourne-based neo-Nazi Blair Cottrell tweets a dank meme about killing socialists. Note that Asanuma’s teenybopper assassin, Otoya Yamaguchi, killed himself a few weeks later.

See also : Australia should be wary of the Proud Boys and their violent, alt-right views, Kaz Ross, The Conversation (ABC), October 30, 2018 | Proud Boys Founder Gavin McInnes: ‘We Need More Violence from the Trump People’, gritpost, October 18, 2018 | The New Nazis: How the meme-rich world of the internet is a threat in Australia, Kaz Ross, ABC, October 14, 2018.

3) Young Natzionals

The recent revelation that the Young Nationals in NSW have been targeted for infiltration by neo-Nazis and White supremacists created some mild embarrassment for the party over the course of the last few weeks. On Wednesday, it was announced that 15 members of the party — including Thomas Brasher, Michael Heaney, Clifford Jennings and Oscar Tuckfield — had resigned, while something like another 20 have had their membership status questioned, and may yet leave or be forced out of the party. See : Nationals members resign en masse amid investigation into neo-Nazi ties, Michael Koziol, The Age, October 31, 2018 | Young Nationals resign after after ABC investigation reveals alt-right push, Alex Mann, ABC, October 31, 2018.

On Monday the story — the origins of which may be traced back to some reportage in The Australian back in May, but which was given flesh by Alex Mann for the ABC — provoked the following front-page treatment in The Daily Telegraph:

Oddly enough Sharri’s father, Max Markson, has been doing his bit to promote racism and fascism in Australia by way of Penthouse and in his capacity as Milo’s Australian publicist. Sadly, the relationship between Costas and Markson has broken down in the wake of the paedophile apologist’s December 2017 tour: ‘ … Mr Markson called Mr Costas a “lying conman”. Mr Costas, the publisher of Penthouse Australia and owning a company alongside one of Australia’s biggest drug dealers, convicted ice importer Sean Dolman, retaliated by calling Mr Markson “a very naughty boy” who “had his finger in the till”‘ (Private Sydney: Markson sparks up in court in dispute with Penthouse publisher, Andrew Hornery, The Sydney Morning Herald, September 6, 2018).

See also : “I’ve had pictures of the Florida school shooter posted on my door”. UTAS’s Dr Kaz Ross says she has had death threats since exposing young Nationals alt-right supporters, On Mornings with Sarah Gillman, ABC, November 1, 2018 | NSW Nats clear key player in Nazi scandal, SBS (AAP), October 31, 2018 | White Nationalists Plan to Infiltrate Mainstream Australian Politics, Paul Gregoire, Sydney Criminal Lawyers, October 22, 2018.

4) The Lads Society

As noted a year ago, the neo-Nazi grouplet ‘The Lads Society’ has a clubhouse in the Melbourne suburb of Cheltenham. The nazis also have a training facility in Sydney, which is located at 34 Thomas Street, Ashfield. The Lads certainly have a sense of humour, with the lease on the property being signed with Colemon Property Group on Hitler’s birthday (April 20).

The chief organiser of ‘The Lads’ in Sydney is a Kiwi called ‘Mark McDonald’. Previously, Mark was the lvl boss of another short-lived neo-Nazi grouplet called ‘Squadron 88’. It attracted some media attention by way of stuffing letterboxes in Jewish areas of Sydney with anti-Semitic tracts. McDonald is also widely-believed to be responsible for the distribution of some racist posters in Sydney in mid-2017. Most recently, McDonald and several other Lads attended Adelaide barrister John Bolton’s batshit rally in Wiley Park:


Above : Partially-obscured, joining Cottrell on the right is Adelaide barrister John Bolton; standing between Cottrell and Tuckfield is Mark McDonald, founder of defunct neo-Nazi grouplet Squadron 88 and current lvl boss of The Lads Society in Sydney.

Finally, ladsleaks has published an interesting discussion drawn from The Lads’ private Facebook page. The list of participants in the discussion reads like a Who’s Who of neo-Nazism Down Under, including both founders Blair Cottrell and Tom Sewell, Mark McDonald (‘Tyler Winchester’) and Stuart Von Moger, David Hilton (‘Moses Apostaticus’), Jim Perren (Australia First Party/’Whitelaw Towers’/United Patriots Front), Welf Herfurth and more. Much of the discussion revolves around The Lads’ shared hatred for Jewish neo-Nazi Nathaniel Jacob Sassoon Sykes. Based in Sydney, Sykes was until a few years ago a prolific contributor to the world’s leading neo-Nazi webshite ‘The Daily Stormer’. A member of the Australia First Party, Sykes uses his blog ‘United Nationalists of Australia’ to take aim at the party’s rivals on the right — including, of course, The Lads.

The post which triggered Tom can be read here — I’ll post other commentary from ladsleaks here laters.

5) … of note

• Guns, fascism, infighting and couch-surfing: Researcher Serena Tarr recounts a year studying the alt-right, Emma McClatchey, Little Village, October 8, 2018;
• Here Is a List of Far-Right Attackers Trump Inspired. Cesar Sayoc Wasn’t the First — and Won’t Be the Last., Mehdi Hasan, The Intercept, October 28, 2018;
• We Must Pressure Mainstream Forces to Stop Downplaying the Far Right, Spencer Sunshine, truthout, October 29, 2018;
• Three Months Inside Alt-Right New York, Jay Firestone, Commune, Fall 2018 (‘An undercover antifascist descends through all nine circles of the alt-right inferno.’);
• Twilight of the Racist Uncles: How Facebook is melting the minds of our elders, Ed Burmila, The Baffler, October 30, 2018;
• After Last Week, There’s No Hope That the Media Will Ever Abandon False Equivalencies With the Far Right, Natasha Lennard, The Intercept, October 31, 2018;
• Engedaw Berhanu Remembers His Nephew—Brought to Portland, Then Forever Lost, Jason Wilson, Willamette Week, October 31, 2018;
• Punching On With Patriots: How To Tackle Gavin McInnes And His Proud Boys’ Promise of Violence In Australia, Tom Tanuki, New Matilda, October 31, 2018.

antifa notes (september 28, 2018) : Anning, Coulter, Fortress, Palmer, Yaxley-Lennon, Yiannopoulos et. al.

1) More planeloads of racist dickheads on their way

Ann Coulter, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon & Milo Yiannopoulos

‘Australia’ was founded as a dumping-ground for the shit of British Empire. Over two centuries later, it’s now a lucrative market for other forms of animae viles. Thus, Milo Yiannopoulos returns to our shores in November, on this occasion bringing with him another wealthy right-wing blabbermouth, Ann Coulter. If all goes to plan, the pair will be accompanied by Senator Fraser ‘Final Solution’ Anning, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (assuming he’s not back in prison and/or in breach of his bail conditions by leaving E-E-England) and other speakers yet TBA.

The tour kicks off on the Gold Coast on November 29, followed by a ‘VIP Yacht Cruise’ on November 30, and then proceeds to Sydney on December 2, with another v xpnsv boat trip on December 3, and performances in Melbourne (December 5), Adelaide (December 8) and finally Perth (December 11).

The tour is being organised and underwritten by Queensland businessman Dan Spiller AKA ‘Future Now Australia’.

Until very recently, twice-convicted racist Neil Erikson was Mister Spiller’s gopher, which role included paying a nocturnal visit to the family home of sometime-rival Dave Pellowe AKA ‘Axiomatic Events’ (the mob responsible for bringing Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern Down Under).

Presumably, Spiller’s deranged acolyte will now have more time to devote to his various legal defences.

As for the luminaries Spiller will be hoping to turn a hefty profit from, Infowars-supplements salesman Milo has been having a somewhat difficult time of late, whining on Facebook about being uninvited from a conference in October and castigating his fans for failing to shovel enough money in his direction: I have lost everything standing up for the truth in America, spent all my savings, destroyed all my friendships, and ruined my whole life, Yiannopoulos wrote: At some point, you realize it’s occasionally better to spend the money on crabs and cocktails.

Fortunately for him, Facebook remains committed to facilitating his batshit, he receives the red-carpet treatment in Australia, and is celebrated by Newscorpse, including The Australian columnist Janet Albrechtsen. When she’s not enjoying Milo’s anti-Aboriginal diatribes (a sample from his talk in Perth is below), Albrechtsen may be found promoting the work of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation (AIEF), where she serves as a brand ‘Ambassador’. Quite how Albrechtsen squares her support for Milo with her role as ambassador I don’t know: after I asked the AIEF for comment on Twitter, I was blocked.

Because newsflash [Aboriginal art] really is shit … Now Australians in this sort of bizarre form of middle-class guilt have decided to pay obeisance to a culture that failed to invent the wheel — and whose signature musical achievement is a big stick … The ugly truth that they don’t want you to say out loud is that history has winners and losers. The progressive left wants to turn Western countries into the only developed civilisations in the history of human society that shit on their own accomplishments in favour of vastly inferior civilisations for no apparent reason. Hence we’re confronted with the ugly spectacle of your own nation and ‘welcome to country’ … and the desperate, pathetic attempts to pretend that didgeridoos represent a beautiful and historic cultural achievement, and not a punchline to a joke. Now you might not know this, but there are absolutely no Aboriginal people left alive in Australia — the last ones died in the ’60s and ’70s, and since then George Soros has been shipping over Black Lives Matter activists, giving them tubs of white-out, and telling them to just daub themselves and make all the White people feel bad. Your politicians in a symbol of how intelligent they are have been falling for it for half-a-century.

So much for Milo. As for Coulter, while she’s been splashing about in the white nationalist pool for some years now, in April ‘Coulter gave a little more credence to those accusations [of white nationalist sympathies] by exposing her Twitter following of just under 2 million users to Mike ‘Enoch Peinovich’‘, a neo-Nazi blabbermouth from (((New York))).

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

See also : When Mormons Aspired to Be a ‘White and Delightsome’ People, Emma Green, The Atlantic, September 18, 2017 (‘An historian looks at the legacy of racism in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’).

Fraser Anning (and Clive Palmer)

Since his unexpected elevation to the Australian Senate following the disqualification of crazed pixie Malcolm ‘Jew World Order’ Roberts, Fraser ‘Final Solution’ Anning has been furiously competing with Pauline Hanson for the title of ‘Most AltRight 2018’. Thus his political obsessions have run in rough parallel with those of the baying KKKrowd, from the plight of White South African farmers to the dastardly conspiracy to commit White Genocide™, calling for the forcible eradication of Islam from Australian shores, Putin fanboydom and climate change denial. Recently, however, there’s emerged another contender: billionaire Clive Palmer. See : Alt-Right Memes and Clive Palmer’s Return to Politics, Jordan McSwiney, POP POLITICS AUS, September 27, 2018. Chumbawamba, however, are not down with the bloated idiot. See : Chumbawamba knock down ‘Trump-lite’ Clive Palmer over song use, Naaman Zhou, The Guardian, August 31, 2018.

*Anning’s Facebook page has been (temporarily?) DELed. See : Facebook Deletes Fraser Anning Over ‘Hate Speech’ Complaint, Josh Butler, ten daily, September 28, 2018 | Fraser Anning Has Been Banned From Facebook For Hate Speech, Sam Langford, Junkee, September 28, 2018 | Fraser Anning’s public Facebook page removed for reported hate speech, Jake Evans, ABC, September 28, 2018.

**Anning, along with Avi Yeminem (Australian Liberty Alliance), is scheduled to appear at a rally in Melbourne on October 6 in order to protest censorship by Facebook.

Gavin McInnes

Also touring Down Under is ‘Proud Boys’ founder Gavin McInnes. The chinless wonder is scheduled to be speaking in Melbourne (November 2), Perth (November 4), Adelaide (November 7), Gold Coast (November 8) and Sydney (November 11).

Recently, after declaring his appreciation for NYHC band ‘Sheer Terror’, only to be rebuffed by the boys, McInnes’s followers have rather foolishly declared WAR! on skinheads, in particular RASH and SHARP (See : Hardcore Legends Sheer Terror Take the Proud Boys Down a Notch, Landon Shroder, rvamag, September 26, 2018).

McInnes is proudly-sponsored by Penthouse magazine and publisher Damien Costas, who in September was responsible for arranging Nigel Farage‘s tour of the colonies, and in December 2017 that of Milo Yiannopoulos. Following Milo’s tour, Victoria Police made noises about issuing an invoice to Costas for $50,000 for costs associated with their policing his tour but a savvy Costas told them to bugger off and, happily enough for him, they did.

See also : Rose City Antifa on Proud Boys | Alternative Influence: Broadcasting the Reactionary Right on YouTube, Rebecca Lewis, Data & Society, September 18, 2018 | Nostalgia for the empire and ‘identity politics’ for white people: Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern in Sydney, A Communist At Large (James Robb), August 2, 2018.

2) Brisbane nazi punks f*ck off

Speaking of nazi punks, one, ‘Angel Montague’, is currently running a Facebook page called ‘Brisbane city punks’. Allegedly, Montague has been banned from the pubs The Back Room (Chardons Hotel) in Annerley and The Jubilee in Fortitude Valley and possibly one or two others for drunken violence. Still, by most accounts Brisbane punx give short shrift to neo-Nazi shenanigans, so it would make sense if Montague and her handful of neo-Nazi mates were continued to be shown the door.

3) Fortress (Australia)

Pioneering Aussie reich ‘n’ rollers Fortress have recorded a new album: ‘Brothers of the Storm’. The release comes in the wake of renewed touring by the band in Europe, with the boys playing a Hammerskins event in Frankreich (FRA) on March 18 last year, the annual memorial to Skrewydriver Ian Stuart Donaldson in Melbourne (AUS) on October 14, 2017 and another bonehead gig in Queensland on July 21, 2018.

See also : A Brief History Of Neo-Nazi Music In Australia (December 2, 2010).

One neo-Nazi who probably won’t be making any more muzak is Marcel ‘Flubber’ Kuschela. Kuschela, who performed with ‘Kategorie C’, committed suicide in the German town of Moenchengladbach last week: ‘According to the German newspaper Bild and public broadcaster WDR, the victim is a known right-wing extremist and Hooligan who is part of the extreme right-wing band “Kategorie C” and co-founded a movement known as “Hooligans against Salafists” (Hogesa).’

4) Dick returns to MUFF

In an about-face that surprised no-one, Richard Wolstencroft has returned to the helm of the Melbourne Underground Film Festival (MUFF). This follows a brief moment last year when, after having made a stoopid homophobic statement, he ‘resigned’ as organiser and handballed responsibility for it to a flunkey. But in June he returned.

The fascist meathead’s festival does have its supporters, but such is the stench emanating from Wolstencroft he’s having some difficulty finding a venue to screen his shite. Hence ‘Club Voltaire’ in North Melbourne was on-board, and then not, and now the main venue is Top Secret.

LOL.

You can read more about Wolstencroft’s shitty fascist politics in this blog by Tony Goodfellow — Richard Wolstencroft’s relationship to holocaust denial and Nazis (November 17, 2017) — and you can peruse some unanswered ‘Questions for Richard Wolstencroft’ (June 30, 2018) by SF Lyons here.

See also : After His Show Was Canceled Due to Alleged Neo-Nazi Ties, Boyd Rice Claims ‘Offers Are Coming In’ to Restage It, Sarah Cascone, artnet, September 13, 2018.

5) local and/or general

In AUS, 4Corner’s recent interview with jet-setting fascist shitweasel Steve Bannon is examined by The Guardian writers Nesrine Malik in Indulging Steve Bannon is just a form of liberal narcissism (September 13, 2018) and by Jason Wilson in The consequences of Steve Bannon’s ideas need to be interrogated, not just his words (September 5, 2018); writer Laurie Penny has written a piece in response to the decision by The Economist to provide Bannon another platform in ‘No, I Will Not Debate You’ (September 18, 2018) … which could also be read in light of her earlier adventures with Milo. In BENdigo, meanwhile, anti-Muslim campaigner Julie Hoskin has been forced to resign her position on council after being declared bankrupt — seemingly, in no small thanks to the efforts of lawyer Robert Balzola. See : Bendigo councillor Julie Hoskin, the centre of anti-mosque protests, declared bankrupt and resigns, Peter Lenaghan and Mark Kearney, ABC, September 26, 2018 | Julie Hoskin declared bankrupt one day before sending councillor resignation to City of Greater Bendigo, Adam Holmes, The Bendigo Advertiser, September 26, 2018.

In FRA, two boneheads have been convicted of the murder of anti-fascist Clement Méric in 2013 (see : Two boneheads convicted over 2013 death of anti-fascist activist, The Guardian, September 15, 2018); in GER, Facebook Fueled Anti-Refugee Attacks in Germany, New Research Suggests (Amanda Taub and Max Fisher, The New York Times, August 21, 2018); in GRE, Kevin Ovenden has authored a ‘new study that documents the murderous activities of Greece’s far-right Golden Dawn’ (The terrorist activity of neonazi organisations in Europe – The case of Golden Dawn, jailgoldendawn, September 18, 2018); last week in ITA, an MEP, Eleonora Forenza, and their assistant were attacked by members of neo-Fascist organisation Casapound after attending an anti-racist rally (MEP and assistant attacked by Italian far-right group, Lili Bayer, politico.eu, September 22, 2018); in the USA, Hope Not Hate ventured ‘Inside America’s biggest anti-Muslim organisation’ (Charlie Prentice, September 16, 2018); also in the US, Derek Black, son of White supremacist and Stormfront founder Don Black, stars in Renouncing Hate: What Happens When a White Nationalist Repents (Wes Enzinna, The New York Times, September 10, 2018), while Media Matters examines some of the white nationalists who write for FOX News’ Tucker Carlson’s batshit website The Daily Caller in ‘The Daily Caller has published white supremacists, anti-Semites, and bigots. Here are the ones we know about.’ (September 5, 2018); Billy Briggs for The Ferret writes that ‘YouTube provides a network for far right extremists such as Scot Colin Robertson, aka Millennial Woes, to promote white supremacist views and radicalise people, according to a new report’ (Far-right Scots vlogger named in report on YouTube extremist networks, September 23, 2018); the report — ‘Alternative Influence: Broadcasting the Reactionary Right on YouTube’ — by Rebecca Lewis for Data & Society (September 18, 2018), can be read here.

More generally: ‘Far right’ groups may be diverse – but here’s what they all have in common, Daphne Halikiopoulou, The Conversation, September 27, 2018 | The Religion of Whiteness Becomes a Suicide Cult, Pankaj Mishra, The New York Times, August 30, 2018 (‘A wounded and swaggering identity geopolitics puts the world in grave danger.’) | Against mirror world: fascists were not socialists, Comrade Motopu, libcom, August 26, 2018.

Finally, str8 outta Moscow, RUS, comes …