Alexander Downer – Donald Trump aide George Papadopoulos – Russian Influence?

Alexander Downer, former Australian Foreign Minister in Conservative LNP coalition, Australia’s UK High Commissioner till 2018, visitor to Koch Network Heritage Foundation linked Hungarian Danube Institute (with former PM, now GWPF, UK Trade Advisor and Murdochs’ new Fox Board member Tony Abbott), and source for claims by Trump related people of DNC emails stolen by Russians i.e. George Papadopoulos.

‘Just a diplomat doing his job? A new book puts the spotlight back on Australia, Russia and interference in the US election.’

PUBLISHED DAILY BY THE LOWY INSTITUTE

‘Downer, Turnbull, Trump and a poke in the Five Eyes

DANIEL FLITTON

Published 1 Sep 2022  

“What he did would have got any other ambassador sacked. It was reckless and self-indulgent and put the Australian government in a very awkward position.”

Strong comments from Malcolm Turnbull. Even more remarkable considering that the former prime minister was reflecting on the performance of Alexander Downer, a fellow Liberal, Australia’s longest-serving foreign minister, a former UN special envoy and Australia’s one-time High Commissioner in London – the job where Turnbull’s barbs are aimed. “Foolish behaviour … blundering … blurting out political gossip … worst possible way to do it.”

Downer’s notorious 2016 drinks with Donald Trump aide George Papadopoulos have again hit the headlines, the wine bar chat said to have triggered an FBI investigation into Russian interference into the US presidential election that year. Or the “Rigged Witch Hunt”, as Trump would have it.

The latest adventure into this prickly history comes via extracts from a newly released book, The Secret History of the Five Eyes, by journalist and filmmaker Richard Kerbaj. And the book – canvassing the controversies and intelligence ties between Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand – has quickly caused a stir.

Former UK Prime Minister Theresa May reportedly confessed doubts about continuing a “special relationship” with Washington after unfounded allegations of British eavesdropping on Trump. China, meanwhile, is complaining about details in the book of American pressure on Britain to force Huawei out of the country’s 5G network. Canadian spies are accused of knowing that an informant helped smuggle British teenager Shamima Begum into Syria to join Islamic State, a claim that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has now pledged to examine. (Begum is in a long-running legal stoush in a bid to return home after being stripped of citizenship.)

But back to Downer and concern that what Papadopoulos allegedly said at the drinks “should only have been passed on to the Americans via the most discreet intelligence community channels”, as Turnbull put it to Kerbaj.

To refresh the timeline: Downer met Papadopoulos at Kensington Wine Rooms in London in May 2016, hearing, he says, Papadopoulos claim Russia had a dirt file on Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

“It sounded bad, but my attitude at the time was who would know whether this was even true,” Downer is quoted by Kerbaj.

Afterwards, Downer sent a cable back to Canberra reporting the conversation. Some six weeks went by until July when Trump was officially endorsed as the Republican candidate. Downer then decided to bring the Papadopoulos claims directly to the attention of the US chargé d’affaires in London, Elizabeth Dibble.

“He had no authority from Canberra to do this,” Turnbull wrote in his 2020 memoir, “and the first we heard of it in Australia was when the FBI turned up in London and wanted to interview Downer.”

Cue what is by now a long-standing debate.

Some have described Downer’s actions as “those of a diplomat doing what he was paid to do: gather information in Australia’s national interest”. Joe Hockey, who had to contend with the fallout in Washington as Australia’s ambassador at the time and warning it could have put intelligence sharing at risk, has also defended the actions of his former colleague.

Other questions have been raised about the urgency with which the information from Downer’s initial cable was passed on to the Americans (or whether it was passed on at all). Trump pressed Scott Morrison to examine Australia’s role. Papadopoulos, who spent a fortnight in prison for lying to investigators and was later pardoned by Trump, casts the whole episode in vastly conspiratorial terms.

Downer, while admitting he would have voted for Trump, has been dismissive:

‘I’ve had to put up with four years of Trump and some of his fringe cronies claiming I was part of a conspiracy with Hillary Clinton, the FBI, CIA, MI6, Italian intelligence, ASIS, Ukrainian spies and who knows who else, to bring him down. Twitter is full of demands from the hysterical right that I be sent to Guantánamo Bay.’

So, rewind. In 2016 – before the Trump presidency, Brexit, “fake news”, the “deep state” and the passing parade of Putinistas that has turned modern politics into a circus – it might not have been obvious what was about to be unleashed. But in Turnbull’s view, Downer’s action brought into question “the discipline and professionalism of our foreign service”, which was enough for him to be sacked. Why wasn’t he?

“Alexander was a good friend of mine and the foreign minister, Julie Bishop. He is our longest-serving foreign minister, a former leader of the Liberal Party. And at the time we learned of his foolish behaviour we had every interest in keeping it confidential.”

But this raises another enduring and yet unanswered question about this whole messy episode. Why wasn’t Downer’s involvement kept confidential, given the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network is built on trust and secrecy?’

For related articles and links on Australian Politics, EU European Union, Immigration, Koch Network, Political Strategy, Russia and Tanton Network click through:

‘Why Australia’s conservatives are finding friends in Hungary’

‘Doing the right thing’: Ex Trump adviser praises PM as Alexander Downer cops it again’

Russia Report – Anglo Conservatives Compromised by Russian Interference on EU and Brexit

Return to questions over the U.K. Russia Report, former PM Johnson, Brexit, Conservative government, Russian oligarchs and influence on elections including the EU referendum..

Written by Peter Jukes and originally published January 2023 by ByLine Times, asking questions that are not only unresolved, but actively avoided by the Tories, media and supporters for the advantage of Putin’s Russia and oligarchs, both east and west?

Brexit, Conservatives, Nativism, Libertarian Strategy, Single Market and the European Union

US or Anglo led nativism operates in a parallel universe with the, often fossil fueled, libertarian socio economic ideology promoted by The Republican or GOP, UK Conservatives or Tories and Australian LNP Liberal National Conservative Parties, along with many others in media and/or have influence e.g. climate science denial and blaming ‘immigrants’ for environmental ‘hygiene’ issues.

Monbiot – Radical Right Libertarians – Fossil Fuel Think Tanks – Koch & Tanton Networks

Good overview via Argentina by George Monbiot in The Guardian ‘What links Rishi Sunak, Javier Milei and Donald Trump? The shadowy network behind their policies’ and concerning dynamics around national politics, media, think tanks and governance.

The ‘junk tanks’ he talks of, observed in Anglosphere and globally are Atlas – Koch Network and another that shares donors in the US, Tanton Network. The former does low tax, low regulation and small government while the latter is faux environmental via demographics, population and migration ‘research’.

Assange – Useful Idiot or Willing Dupe of the US Right and Putin’s Russia?

Recently there have been calls and pressure on the Biden Democratic administration, by supporters of Assange in Australia and the U.K., for him not to be deported and possibly pardoned (for charges brought by Trump administration), while many others contest his ‘journalism’ credentials, or at least how unhelpful his cause has been for journalism.

Putin’s Supporters in Europe and Anglosphere: Willing Dupes and Useful Idiots?

Article from the ECFR European Council on Foreign Relations in 2016 describing those aligned or allied with Putin’s Russia on both the European left and right, while the latter are adopted or supported by Putin’s Russia, with recommendations on what Europe could do, warning of Russia’s covert support for populist parties; post Brexit, pre Trump and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

‘Putin’s friends in Europe’

The upsurge of populism in Europe has provided Russia with an ample supply of sympathetic political parties across the continent.

Russia and Anglosphere – Conservatives and Oligarchs – War vs EU and Future

Very good insight into and overview of Putin’s Russia and the ‘west’ including the Anglosphere from Alexander Etkin (presently of CEU Wien).

Following are significant excerpts from Etkind’s analysis from reviewer at Inside Story (Australia) Jon Richardson, on how it endeavours to explain Russia, and one would add many other nations too, mirroring the radical right or corrupt nativist authoritarians with support from fossil fuels & industry oligarchs, consolidated right wing media, think tanks and leveraging ageing electorates.

A link of interest is in Hungary Central Europe where a few entities promote Christian nationalist conservatism, namely The Centre for Fundamental Rights (linked to US CPAC), MCC Mathias Corvinus Collegium and the Danubius Institute (linked to the Koch Network Heritage Foundation).  Further former Murdoch – Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson would promote both Hungary and Putin’s Russia (vs. Ukraine), with dog whistling of Soros via the anti-semitic ‘great replacement’, anti-refugee and anti-immigration sentiment supported by Tanton Network, with a veritable ‘conga line’ of Anglo conservatives presenting in Hungary, in support. 

If one goes back in history with the Anglosphere, much was and is still shared with Russia’s regime and its former empire, including related to the British (& German) royal families, shared conservatism, religious orthodoxy, far right nativism or nationalism, authoritarianism, class order, fossil fuels and oligarchy.

If one then looks at the values, interests and talking points of major Anglo media outlets, think tanks in Koch Network, unspoken but dog whistled class order and eugenics of Tanton Network, are there similarities that make allegations of Russian influence on Brexit and Trump, seem unsurprising?

Using sociocultural issues to deflect and divide electorates for right wing power, e.g. modern immigration, authoritarianism to negate any dissent, then use Orwellian doublespeak for ageing voters to deny freedoms for younger generations, but how does this relate Russia and the Anglosphere apart from these obvious generic traits?

Climate science denial, anti-EU for Brexit to avoid constraints e.g. financial transparency, anti-money laundering measures, workers’ rights & unions, work health & safety, open society and empowered citizens. Central has been the US fossil fueled ‘libertarian’ Koch Network think tanks in US, UK and Australia, with media architecture helped by Rupert Murdoch while still unresolved, but Russian money and influence in UK politics, especially the Conservative party. 

Finally the use of events or grifters to inversely present pro-Russian narratives by blaming Ukraine, NATO, the EU and the west for provoking Russia through visitors platformed in Hungary.  The highest profile ‘geopolitical experts’ visiting and demanding ‘peace’ included Jeffrey Sachs linked to (originally) fossil fueled Rockefeller Foundation (Standard Oil/Exxon & UN ‘Sustainability’) and John Mearsheimer with the Charles Koch Foundation.

Another important area of shared interests, often presented alongside ‘peace’ and anti-EU platforms, is conservative Christianity, especially the US environment via the Council on National Policy which is described as ‘owned’, like the GOP, by Koch Network donors or investors; over years since Soviet times there have been links whether WCC, WCG or more recently ADF, while energising evangelicals, pro-life, Baptists and Catholics.

Who is manipulating whom?

From Inside Story:

‘Russia’s war with the future

Underlying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are existential fears of democracy, diversity, sustainability and the decline of patriarchy

What links Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutinous March on Moscow, climate denialism, the Nord Stream pipeline and vaccine scepticism with the jailing of Aleksei Navalny, the Russian Orthodox patriarch’s rants against “gay parades,” domestic violence and declining life expectancy in Russia?

In his provocative new book, Russia Against Modernity, Alexander Etkind argues that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is part of a single, broad historical pattern. It is the last gasp of a failing, kleptocratic petrostate for which external aggression is a natural move. Rather than the Ukraine war itself, Etkind is interested in the conditions within Russia that have culminated so calamitously.

In what is more a pamphlet than a treatise, Etkind combines brevity and playfulness with a degree of erudition that other works covering the Russia–Ukraine conflict seldom manage, melding political economy, history, demography, social theory and social psychology. That range reflects Etkind’s eclectic polymathy: a native of St Petersburg (then Leningrad), he grew up in the Soviet Union, completed two degrees in psychology at Leningrad State University before earning a PhD in Slavonic cultural history in Helsinki, and has variously taught and researched — in faculties of sociology, political science, languages, history and international relations — in St Petersburg, New York, Cambridge, Florence and Vienna…

….Most explanations of the Ukraine war tend to give primacy to either external or internal factors. The “externalists,” for want of a better word, include those who claim the war is a natural outcome of unwise/reckless NATO expansion. Going further, some even buy the Kremlin line — despite all evidence to the contrary — that the West’s fundamental, if unstated, goal is to weaken or destroy Russia.

At the other end of the externalist spectrum are those, including many Ukrainians and East Europeans, who believe an inherent imperialism is demonstrated by Russia’s aggression towards former territories. Some attribute this to the size of the country, its innate political culture, the “Russian psyche” or, in its crudest renderings, a kind of Russian DNA.

“Internalists” emphasise the domestic drivers of the war — notably an authoritarian state’s need to legitimise itself through nationalist and revanchist propaganda. In this view, the Ukraine war and other militaristic posturing or adventures are cynically deployed to further the interests of the elite. For some, Ukraine presented a threat to the Kremlin because it offered a democratic alternative. A handful on the left claim that the war’s roots lie in the ambitions of Russian oligarchs vying to capture Ukraine’s valuable natural and other resources.…

….Etkind’s main idea is that the Russian state and society is an exemplar of “paleomodernity,” following in the footsteps of the Soviet Union in championing “grand designs, unlimited social engineering, huge and bulky technology, total transformation of nature.” For Etkind, Putin’s war is not only a “special operation” against the Ukrainian people, their statehood and culture; it is also “a broader operation against the modern world of climate awareness, energy transition and digital labor.”

If paleo modernity — a conglomeration of steel, oil and gunpowder — reached its apotheosis in the twentieth century, then its twenty-first-century antithesis is “gaia modernity,” a higher form of civilisation where small, sustainable, democratic and feminine are beautiful, and racial, sexual and intellectual diversity are cherished. Etkind seems to see this nightmarish scenario for Tucker Carlson or Sky After Dark’s pundits as both a utopia to be dreamed of and a kind of immanent social order, destined to emerge, echoing Hegel’s and Marx’s systems of thought.

Etkind’s key take is that the “oiligarchs” and bureaucrats running Russia saw this “advance of history” as an existential threat to its oil and gas exports, which make up a third of Russia’s GDP, two-thirds of its exports and half the state budget. The money was crucial to the stability of Russia’s currency, crucial for its military spending and crucial for maintaining the elite’s luxurious lifestyle. It was also the chief driver of corruption, inequality and declining social and demographic indicators. All of this fed popular disillusionment, growing authoritarianism and elite paranoia and the ideologies supporting aggression.

As an archetypal petrostate, Etkind argues, Russia is afflicted by the resource curse, whereby an economy as a whole underperforms because a single commodity is so dominant. Initially, in the 2000s, rising oil prices underpinned Putin’s success in restoring economic growth. The populace gained a welcome sense of stability after the economic and political turmoil of the “wild nineties,” leading many to accept the gradual erosion of civil liberties.

By the 2010s, however, not only were Russian incomes falling but so were a range of social and economic metrics. By 2021, life expectancy had fallen to 105th globally, per-capita health spending to 104th and education spending to 125th. Russia had the fourth-highest carbon emissions globally and among the highest rates of suicides, abortions, road deaths and industrial accidents.

Thanks largely to embezzlement, post-Soviet Russia witnessed the fastest rise in inequality ever recorded. Its income inequality was among the world’s highest and by 2021 it led all major countries in inequality of wealth: 58 per cent of national wealth belonging to the top 1 per cent, well above Brazil (49 per cent) and the United States (35 per cent). More than a fifth of Russia’s citizens, meanwhile, lived on less than US$10 a day, and the middle class had been hollowed out.

In excess of three trillion dollars had been stolen and squirrelled away abroad — more than the total financial assets legally owned by Russian households. “Economists from Harvard and Moscow alike believed that economic growth would be the source of all good in Russia, that accumulated wealth would trickle down to the poor, that the rising tide would lift all boats,” writes Etkind. “In fact, it lifted only the yachts of the rich. The boats of the poor leaked, and they drowned in the tide.”….

….Some of Etkind’s most interesting, albeit speculative, chapters deal with the interplay between Russia’s political economy, its demographic decline and issues like gender inequality and homophobia. The latter have become a common theme of state-sponsored propaganda: TV pundits talk about fighting a degenerate West where genders proliferate; patriarchs and priests equate the war on Ukraine with fighting those Satanic “gay parades.”

Partly because of very high divorce rates, children are raised by only one parent, usually the mother, in one in three Russian families. Etkind pushes the envelope when he posits the growth of “fatherlessness” as a cause of authoritarian tendencies, as some postwar German theorists did in the case of Nazi Germany. High rates of domestic violence — which was actually decriminalised in 2017 in a nod to patriarchal opinion — have been another symptom of social dysfunction.

Etkind also highlights “granny power” as another bulwark against modernity: the heightened role of babushki (grandmothers) in many three-generation households, he says, imbues children with backward-looking and authoritarian ideas and attitudes. The three-generation household, with overburdened mothers and absent fathers, is a product of the inadequate incomes, housing, childcare and pensions generated by the parasitic petrostate, as well as men’s much lower life expectancy (sixty-five years, compared with women’s seventy-seven).

Etkind points to other elements of Russia’s demographic catastrophe — world-leading abortion rates, high rates of emigration among the young and educated — as signs of lack of trust and faith in a future governed by a corrupt and authoritarian state. “The birth rate,” he writes, “was the ultimate manifestation of public opinion.” A lot of these demographic problems were also present in the Soviet years, serving as a kind of canary in the mine presaging the Soviet Union’s decline.

….Etkind coins the term “stop modernism” to describe Russia’s “special operation” against gaia modernity. The war in Ukraine is just one weapon in its arsenal, alongside climate denial, election interference and others. Decarbonisation represents a huge challenge to Russia’s interests, and although Putin’s regime has played along at times with moves towards curbing emissions, it has also played a spoiler role. The biggest “gaia modern” threat to the wealth of Russia’s elite have been the moves towards zero emissions by the European Union, its chief market for gas and oil, including the Transborder Carbon Tax announced in 2021.

Etkind also suggests that the 2009 Climategate hacks of emails, which purported to show climate change to be a conspiracy among scientists, was of a piece with Russia’s more recent hacking and online-disinformation efforts (including via Prigozhin’s infamous troll factories) to support right-wing politicians in the United States and Europe….

….Russia Against Modernity ends with a picture of the future: Russia will inevitably lose the war and begin a process of defederation. Its constituent national minorities, indigenous peoples and diverse regions will at last — after a long but hopefully not bloody transition period — gain real autonomy and democracy and move towards a gaia modern world, leaving behind the petrostate that has exploited them. One can’t help feeling that this is more utopian dream than sober analysis, however much we might hope elements of it come true.

Sceptics may ask whether Russia is really so different from some or many developed capitalist societies in terms of the evils and dysfunctions Etkind outlines. I suspect he would say that they/we all cling to elements of paleo modernity to differing degrees, exemplified in different political and social forces competing with the gaia modern. He would add that, as a petrostate, Russia is a more extreme and different kind of polity in terms of its interest in thwarting gaia modernity.

Russia Against Modernity is a useful corrective for some on the left (and far right) who are instinctively suspicious of American actions and see merit in claims that Ukraine is a “proxy war” by NATO against Russia. Systemic factors in Russia are more than enough to explain the war, without having to disentangle the history of NATO enlargement or the contribution of Western blundering in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan. As I have argued elsewhere, while we can debate the wisdom or morality of these actions, none represented a serious threat to Russia. And Etkind is right to see Ukraine’s treatment of Russian speakers and other internal issues as more of a “fetish” among the Russian elite, as he puts it, rather than a serious factor.

Etkind’s work is also valuable because he is a Russian with an intimate understanding of the country and broad international experience who brings to bear serious intellectual firepower. In one section, “The Unbearable Lightness of Western Pundits,” he beautifully skewers so-called experts like Niall Ferguson and Adam Tooze who pointed to Ukrainian weaknesses and the inevitability of Russian victory just before the 2022 invasion. Another target is international relations guru John Mearsheimer, who more or less justified the invasion by saying that, if Ukraine joined NATO, Russia would suffer “existentially.” Russia now has both Sweden and Finland rushing to join NATO, while Ukraine, of course, had no near-term prospect of membership.

One thing common to these generalist historians, economists and foreign policy wonks is a lack of real expertise in Russian or Ukrainian history and politics. That’s why it is vital to listen to independent Russian (and Ukrainian!) voices on the war, as well as real Western specialists. Only a few of the latter make excuses for Putin’s regime and many would see merit in the broad thrust of Etkind’s argument.

Likewise, the Russian democratic opposition almost unanimously sees the war as generated by systemic internal problems. They would agree with Aleksei Navalny, whom Etkind lauds as the champion of exposing corruption, in blaming the war on Russia’s “endless cycle of imperial authoritarianism.” 

Russia Against Modernity

By Alexander Etkind | Polity Press’

For more related articles and blogs on Ageing Democracy, Conservative, EU European Union, Evangelical Christianity, Fossil Fuel Pollution, Koch Network, Nationalism, Political Strategy, Russia, Tanton Network and White Nationalism click through:

The Tory donor, Soviet-born Billionaire and Fossil Fuel Interests Bankrolling British Politics – ByLine Times 

Conservative Christian CNP – Council for National Policy in US – Influence in UK, Russia and Europe

Russia Report – Anglo Conservatives Compromised by Russian Interference on EU and Brexit

Chomsky, US, Russian Propaganda and Faux Anti-Imperialist Narratives

Fake Anti-Imperialists of the Anglo Left and Right on Ukraine and Russia

Russian Brexit Coup by Putin and Compromised British Conservatives

Strange Conservative Political Links – The Anglosphere, Hungary and Russia

US or UK Sanctions on Murdoch’s Fox News Support for Putin’s Russia?

Koch Industries – Putin – Russia – Ukraine – Koch Network – Think Tanks

World Congress Of Families WCF, Russia, The Kremlin, Christian Conservative Nationalists, Dugin, Conservatives and US Evangelicals

Anglosphere – Radical Right Libertarian Socioeconomics and Authoritarianism

Another article from Lucy Hamilton on John Menadue’s ‘Pearls & Irritations’ titled ‘Think tanks’ call for ‘freedom’ really promises authoritarianism’ (13 Nov. ‘21); backgrounded by media narratives round Covid19 with demands for, using the Americanism, (Kochian) ‘freedom & liberty’ from regulation and government, with much authoritarianism.

Very complex ecosystem of relationships and dynamics, hence, understanding almost requires an ever evolving 3D helix to show the dynamics, interwoven relationships, ideology, etc. over time, as it’s a long game that transcends politics, parties and electoral cycles, especially the Anglosphere of Australia, UK and US, plus less developed democracies.

‘Ideological think tanks campaigning for ‘freedom’ are really pushing us further into a competitive authoritarianism regime.’ and ‘public choice theory’….

Demographic influence of social-Darwinism or eugenics of Galton and concerns about humanity of Malthus, equates with authoritarianism,  while  ‘freedom’ fits with Adam ‘invisible hand’ (of God) Smith, later Hayek, Friedman et al. morphing into Chicago School of Buchanan’s ‘public choice theory’ i.e. racial Kochonomics*; survival of the fittest, protecting themselves from (disruption by) the lower orders, presented as freedom of choice but needing authoritarianism to ensure the right choices are made.

*According to Bethany Moreton in a review of Nancy MacLean’s ‘Democracy in Chains’, titled ‘Kochonomics: The Racist Roots of Public Choice Theory:

‘Virginia’s nationally prominent stand against desegregation and voting rights was the inescapable context of public choice theory.’

A disturbing example was Chile, post ‘70s coup and during the Pinochet regime, had the required military backed autocracy, domestic security services and social class division for their Chicago School experiment.  However, this experiment suggests that radical right libertarian economics requires autocracy, without constraints i.e. no society, no community, no unions, no free press, control by security services, no empowered middle class, low regulation, low taxes and small government, to function?

Soft authoritarianism, ageing electorates, eugenics, environment and ‘Big Oil’ 

Galton’s eugenics and Malthusian Population control movement reemerged after the embarrassment of pre and WWII experiments with eugenics and the Nazis; strategic in making population and immigration an environmental ‘hygiene issue’ to both deflect from fossil fuels and use as a dog whistle (to channel eugenics sentiments).

Key people in ZPG Zero Population Growth were falsely described as ‘progressive’ i.e. Tanton and Ehrlich (plus Watson of SeaShepherd fame); all had visited Australia from the early ‘90s, or before, to develop an Australian version of ZPG, post white Australia.  This was well before population was spiked by the (2006 UNPD defined) NOM Net Overseas Migration temporary churn over inflation (with below replacement fertility in the permanent population), climate science pointing to carbon emissions’ negative impact on the environment and post PM Howard, carbon mitigation policies being denigrated and voted down. 

How does nativism fit into authoritarian yet supposedly libertarain socioeconomic practice? 

ZPG in Australia morphed into SPA Sustainable Population Australia.  In addition to deflecting from mooted fossil fuels and carbon regulations or constraints by accessing naive or complicit media in platforming immigration, NOM and population growth as environmental issues of our time….. 

‘The fight against the masses …. allowing the worker the freedom to associate was dangerous.’

Again a feature of the eugenics movement informing radical right libertarian socio-economic policies to oppose an equitable electoral franchise, unions, workers’ rights, welfare, higher education and empower citizens; achieved by clever agitprop under various guises in legacy media by influencers and commentators using memes, ‘sciency’ PR, local vs. immigrant workers, and general disruption of social narratives.

We have observed often in Australia, with declining union membership, the ongoing demands for constraints on unions, including proxies such as union or industry superannuation funds.

Products of PR Meme factories, repackaging old theories, tropes and agitprop

It’s been alleged that in Delaware there exists a meme factory that is an assembly line of memes designed for traction in both legacy and social media. If not to help the libertarian radical right libertarians, but used by fringe media, far right, white nativists and conspiracists to oppose progress and importantly, disrupt joined up narratives.

The following memes to be opposed would be familiar to all in the Anglosphere i.e.  PC political correctness, empowerment, CRT critical race theory, BLM black lives matter, women, minorities, LGBT, curricula, education, learning, assessments, science and research, especially universities and higher education.

Autocracy and censorship in the public sphere round media, informing, secrecy and communicating

Australia has witnessed many of its ‘top people’ in an egalitarian society use their power for self protection whether LNP Ministers, MPs, business or even some journalists, to shut down or nobble reporting, discussion and analysis.  

The popular tools to threaten investigative journalists, civilians, whistleblowers, lawyers, innocent bystanders etc. are: claiming freedom of speech to denigrate, spiking articles, journalists losing jobs, removing article comment functions, but more recently, wanton use of authoritarian power via defamation laws for vexatious suits i.e. SLAPPs, according to The Conversation in ‘Slapps: the rise of lawsuits targeting investigative journalists’

(October 27, 2021):

‘A type of legal action is increasingly being used by powerful people to shut down criticism from activists, academics, whistleblowers, and journalists. This is known as a strategic lawsuit against public participation, or Slapp’

Electoral campaigning, astroturfing, imported tactics and ideology

The US Koch related State Policy Network is another web of think tanks including the ‘bill mill’ ALEC American Legislative Exchange Council which externally lobbies mostly GOP Reps who are insiders, to vote for or oppose specific bills e.g. oppose environmental regulation of fossil fuels. 

However, one would argue that the now nominally agrarian based National Party in the Australian LNP Liberal National Party coalition government, acts like ALEC, but from inside the coalition.  This is to oppose Liberal and National moderates following climate science and demanding more done for achieving Net Zero; seemingly informed by think tanks.

More recently ALEC’s and the Atlas Network’s influence emerged to promote Voter ID under the guise of solving a non-existent problem, but in fact to suppress votes.  This was introduced by news media into both UK and Australian political narratives, simultaneously; unlikely to have any short term impact, but likely to be mooted again.  At minimum it acts as a distraction to solve a non-existent electoral issue, but one day may come to fruition and follow the US GOP tactic of voter suppression; threatened by emerging younger working age demographics, more diversity, plus voters more educated and empowered, hence, unlikely to vote conservative.

White Australia policy, refugees, immigration, NOM, population and borders as a security issue for autocratic solutions or a ‘Trumpian but ‘virtual wall’

Something achieved in post white Australia is having rhetoric or PR aka the GOP, policies and proxies to deliver similar agitprop, satisfy sentiments of many ageing Anglo-Celtic, European heritage Australians, dog whistling and appear to be ‘not racist’.  Accordingly, we had fossil fuel supported ZPG imported from the US, with liaison of deceased racist John ‘passive eugenics’ Tanton with Paul ‘Population Bomb’ Ehrlich, later becoming SPA Sustainable Population Australia.  It’s role has been to focus upon the ‘virtual wall’ aka incoming NOM then conflating with permanent migration, then spruiking alarm about population growth as an environmental ‘hygiene’ issue.  

The eugenics based focus upon humanity avoids scrutiny of fossil fuels and needs for environmental etc. regulation, by using (non science/data literate) media to inform social narratives or word of mouth; the latter is the most powerful form of messaging and reinforcement because it’s trusted (like organic search engine results vs. paid ads).

SPA access media under the guise of ‘environment’ and patrons too, who include former NSW Labor Premier & Federal Senator Bob Carr, Tim Flannery and Dr. Katherin Betts who has collaborated with ‘Australia’s best demographer’ Dr. Bob Birrell at APRI Australian Population Research Institute. Both of the latter contributed to John Tanton’s journal TSCP The Social Contract Press which is part of what is known as the Tanton Network, described by SPLC Southern Poverty Law Center in John Tanton’s Network as:

‘The organized anti-immigration “movement” is almost entirely the handiwork of one man, Michigan activist John H. Tanton.’

Not only have there been allegations of the Tanton Network sharing donors and networks with the Koch’s SPN, related to Tanton Network and SPA, former Australian Labor MHR Kelvin Thomson attended an event in the US by PFIR Progressive for Immigration Reform.  PFIR is part of the Tanton Network.  Described by ADL Anti-Defamation League in 2012 in ‘Progressives for Immigration Reform Conference Attracts Major Anti-Immigrant Figures’:

‘Despite claims by Progressives for Immigration Reform (PFIR) to be a “progressive” and “environmental” organization, the appearance of several anti-immigrant activists at PFIR’s third annual conference in Washington, DC, earlier this month, further confirms that the group is firmly entrenched in the anti-immigrant movement.’

Thomson’s participation is cited here in 2011 on Philip Cafaro’s website, who is also a key member of Tanton’s Network and presented:

‘Progressives for Immigration Reform panel discussion with Vernon Briggs, Ben Zuckerman and Kelvin Thomson on US Population and the National Environmental Protection Act. October 4, 2011.’

One hopes Thomson realises that PFIR is more about astroturfing and white ‘patriots for immigration restrictions’, i.e. not a progressive environmental organisation, nor is the Tanton Network, which nobbles the centre and left to support the far or alt right.

Australia has become embarrassing with its obstructive policies and behaviour, recently highlighted with COP26 and few concrete measures for the LNP government’s ‘Net Zero’ policies; too easy for ‘owned’ governments in catering to donors and radical right libertarain ideology.

Further Reading:

Lucy Hamilton’s article follows, as do related blogs posts:

Think tanks’ call for ‘freedom’ really promises authoritarianism

Climate Confusion, Astroturfing, Pseudo-Science, Population Movement and Radical Right Libertarians

Past Literature & Ideas on Roots of Radical Right, Nativism & the Great Replacement Today

Eco-System of Libertarian Think Tanks and White Nativism in the Anglosphere

Anglosphere Triangle – Immigration – Environment – Population Growth – Radical Right Libertarians

Lobby Groups, Policy, Government and Influence

Dumbing Down and Gaming of Anglosphere Media, Science, Society and Democracy

Radical Right Libertarain Economics or Social Populism?

Koch Industries: How to Influence Politics, Avoid Fossil Fuel Emission Control and Environmental Protections