FTR #1077 Surveillance Valley, Part 3: Cambridge Analytica, Democracy and Counterinsurgency
Continuing the discussion from FTR #1076, the broadcast recaps key aspects of analysis of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
In our last program, we noted that both the internet (DARPA projects including Project Agile) and the German Nazi Party had their origins as counterinsurgency gambits. Noting Hitler’s speech before The Industry Club of Dusseldorf, in which he equated communism with democracy, we highlight how the Cambridge Analytica scandal reflects the counterinsurgency origins of the Internet, and how the Cambridge Analytica affair embodies anti-Democracy/as counterinsurgency.
Key aspects of the Cambridge Analytica affair include:
1.–The use of psychographic personality testing on Facebook that is used for political advantage: ” . . . . For several years, a data firm eventually hired by the Trump campaign, Cambridge Analytica, has been using Facebook as a tool to build psychological profiles that represent some 230 million adult Americans. A spinoff of a British consulting company and sometime-defense contractor known for its counterterrorism ‘psy ops’ work in Afghanistan, the firm does so by seeding the social network with personality quizzes. Respondents — by now hundreds of thousands of us, mostly female and mostly young but enough male and older for the firm to make inferences about others with similar behaviors and demographics — get a free look at their Ocean scores. Cambridge Analytica also gets a look at their scores and, thanks to Facebook, gains access to their profiles and real names. . . .”
2.–The parent company of Cambridge Analytica–SCL–was deeply involved with counterterrorism “psy-ops” in Afghanistan, embodying the essence of the counterinsurgency dynamic at the root of the development of the Internet. The use of online data to subvert democracy recalls Hitler’s speech to the Industry Club of Dusseldorf, in which he equated democracy with communism: ” . . . . Cambridge Analytica was a company spun out of SCL Group, a British military contractor that worked in information operations for armed forces around the world. It was conducting research on how to scale and digitise information warfare – the use of information to confuse or degrade the efficacy of an enemy. . . . As director of research, Wylie’s original role was to map out how the company would take traditional information operations tactics into the online space – in particular, by profiling people who would be susceptible to certain messaging. This morphed into the political arena. After Wylie left, the company worked on Donald Trump’s US presidential campaign . . . .”
3.–Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie’s observations on the anti-democratic nature of the firm’s work: ” . . . . It was this shift from the battlefield to politics that made Wylie uncomfortable. ‘When you are working in information operations projects, where your target is a combatant, the autonomy or agency of your targets is not your primary consideration. It is fair game to deny and manipulate information, coerce and exploit any mental vulnerabilities a person has, and to bring out the very worst characteristics in that person because they are an enemy,’ he says. ‘But if you port that over to a democratic system, if you run campaigns designed to undermine people’s ability to make free choices and to understand what is real and not real, you are undermining democracy and treating voters in the same way as you are treating terrorists.’ . . . .”
4.–Wylie’s observations on how Cambridge Analytica’s methodology can be used to build a fascist political movement: ” . . . . One of the reasons these techniques are so insidious is that being a target of a disinformation campaign is ‘usually a pleasurable experience’, because you are being fed content with which you are likely to agree. ‘You are being guided through something that you want to be true,’ Wylie says. To build an insurgency, he explains, you first target people who are more prone to having erratic traits, paranoia or conspiratorial thinking, and get them to ‘like’ a group on social media. They start engaging with the content, which may or may not be true; either way ‘it feels good to see that information’. When the group reaches 1,000 or 2,000 members, an event is set up in the local area. Even if only 5% show up, ‘that’s 50 to 100 people flooding a local coffee shop’, Wylie says. This, he adds, validates their opinion because other people there are also talking about ‘all these things that you’ve been seeing online in the depths of your den and getting angry about’. People then start to believe the reason it’s not shown on mainstream news channels is because ‘they don’t want you to know what the truth is’. As Wylie sums it up: ‘What started out as a fantasy online gets ported into the temporal world and becomes real to you because you see all these people around you.’ . . . .”
5.–Wylie’s observation that Facebook was “All In” on the Cambridge Analytica machinations: ” . . . . ‘Facebook has known about what Cambridge Analytica was up to from the very beginning of those projects,” Wylie claims. “They were notified, they authorised the applications, they were given the terms and conditions of the app that said explicitly what it was doing. They hired people who worked on building the app. I had legal correspondence with their lawyers where they acknowledged it happened as far back as 2016.’ . . . .”
6.–The decisive participation of “Spy Tech” firm Palantir in the Cambridge Analytica operation: Peter Thiel’s surveillance firm Palantir was apparently deeply involved with Cambridge Analytica’s gaming of personal data harvested from Facebook in order to engineer an electoral victory for Trump. Thiel was an early investor in Facebook, at one point was its largest shareholder and is still one of its largest shareholders. In addition to his opposition to democracy because it allegedly is inimical to wealth creation, Thiel doesn’t think women should be allowed to vote and holds Nazi legal theoretician Carl Schmitt in high regard. ” . . . . It was a Palantir employee in London, working closely with the data scientists building Cambridge’s psychological profiling technology, who suggested the scientists create their own app — a mobile-phone-based personality quiz — to gain access to Facebook users’ friend networks, according to documents obtained by The New York Times. The revelations pulled Palantir — co-founded by the wealthy libertarian Peter Thiel — into the furor surrounding Cambridge, which improperly obtained Facebook data to build analytical tools it deployed on behalf of Donald J. Trump and other Republican candidates in 2016. Mr. Thiel, a supporter of President Trump, serves on the board at Facebook. ‘There were senior Palantir employees that were also working on the Facebook data,’ said Christopher Wylie, a data expert and Cambridge Analytica co-founder, in testimony before British lawmakers on Tuesday. . . . The connections between Palantir and Cambridge Analytica were thrust into the spotlight by Mr. Wylie’s testimony on Tuesday. Both companies are linked to tech-driven billionaires who backed Mr. Trump’s campaign: Cambridge is chiefly owned by Robert Mercer, the computer scientist and hedge fund magnate, while Palantir was co-founded in 2003 by Mr. Thiel, who was an initial investor in Facebook. . . .”
7.–The use of “dark posts” by the Cambridge Analytica team. (We have noted that Brad Parscale has reassembled the old Cambridge Analytica team for Trump’s 2020 election campaign. It seems probable that AOC’s millions of online followers, as well as the “Bernie Bots,” will be getting “dark posts” crafted by AI’s scanning their online efforts.) ” . . . . One recent advertising product on Facebook is the so-called ‘dark post’: A newsfeed message seen by no one aside from the users being targeted. With the help of Cambridge Analytica, Mr. Trump’s digital team used dark posts to serve different ads to different potential voters, aiming to push the exact right buttons for the exact right people at the exact right times. . . .”
Supplementing the discussion about Cambridge Analytica, the program reviews information from FTR #718 about Facebook’s apparent involvement with elements and individuals linked to CIA and DARPA: ” . . . . Facebook’s most recent round of funding was led by a company called Greylock Venture Capital, who put in the sum of $27.5m. One of Greylock’s senior partners is called Howard Cox, another former chairman of the NVCA, who is also on the board of In-Q-Tel. What’s In-Q-Tel? Well, believe it or not (and check out their website), this is the venture-capital wing of the CIA. After 9/11, the US intelligence community became so excited by the possibilities of new technology and the innovations being made in the private sector, that in 1999 they set up their own venture capital fund, In-Q-Tel, which ‘identifies and partners with companies developing cutting-edge technologies to help deliver these solutions to the Central Intelligence Agency and the broader US Intelligence Community (IC) to further their missions’. . . .”
More about the CIA/DARPA links to the development of Facebook: ” . . . . The second round of funding into Facebook ($US12.7 million) came from venture capital firm Accel Partners. Its manager James Breyer was formerly chairman of the National Venture Capital Association, and served on the board with Gilman Louie, CEO of In-Q-Tel, a venture capital firm established by the Central Intelligence Agency in 1999. One of the company’s key areas of expertise are in ‘data mining technologies’. Breyer also served on the board of R&D firm BBN Technologies, which was one of those companies responsible for the rise of the internet. Dr Anita Jones joined the firm, which included Gilman Louie. She had also served on the In-Q-Tel’s board, and had been director of Defence Research and Engineering for the US Department of Defence. She was also an adviser to the Secretary of Defence and overseeing the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is responsible for high-tech, high-end development. . . .”
Program Highlights Include: Review of Facebook’s plans to use brain-to-computer technology to operate its platform, thereby the enabling of recording and databasing people’s thoughts; Review of Facebook’s employment of former DARPA head Regina Dugan to implement the brain-to-computer technology; Review of Facebook’s building 8–designed to duplicate DARPA; Review of Facebook’s hiring of the Atlantic Council to police the social medium’s online content; Review of Facebook’s partnering with Narendra Modi’s Hindutva fascist government in India; Review of Facebook’s emloyment of Ukrainian fascist Kateryna Kruk to manage the social medium’s Ukrainian content.
John Roberts Gives Bad Faith Blessing to Hyper-Partisan Gerrymandering, Paving Way for the Kochstitution.
There was an ominous warning about the direction American Democracy was heading When David Frum warned, “If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy.” It was a warning about what might happen, but as we’re going to see, the corporate/billionaire wing component of the Republican party has already concluded that it can’t get the public behind its agenda and has already turned against democracy. And John Roberts just handed this billionaire faction a massive legal victory in Rucho vs Common Cause: federal courts can’t rule on whether or not district lines are drawn in an overly-partisan manner. It’s up to each state on its own. And as we’re going to see, Republicans already dominate the control of state governments and now state legislatures can gerrymander their own districts without fear of federal meddling. Beyond that, the Kochs and ALEC are working on removing state courts from overseeing redistricting maps too. And to top it off, the Kochs are aggressively pushing for a constitutional convention that could easily turn into a ‘runaway’ convention. And if there’s a constitutional convention, whichever party controls the most states is going to control the outcome of the convention. So the Supreme Court just turbocharged the Kochs’ capture of state assemblies, the House of Representatives, and eventually the Constitution.
“Sovereign Citizen” Accused of Setting Huge Southern California Wildfire
Many of the perpetrators of mayhem in our society have been followers of right-wing/fascist ideologies, a fact that has not received due notice. In FTR #1011, we noted that Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock was a “Sovereign Citizen” and Dimitrios Pagourtzis (the accused Sante Fe, Texas school shooter) was influenced by online fascist ideology. Accused Parkland High School shooter Nikolas Cruz was also influenced by Nazi ideology, as were Columbine shooters Harris and Klebold. Damon Pashilk–accused of setting the 2016 Clayton fire–was also influenced by Nazi ideology. (One of his Facebook posts is pictured at right.) In FTR #1016, we learned that Jarrod Ramos, accused of a mass gunfire-killing at an Annapolis, Maryland, newspaper, was a follower of the neo-Confederate movement. Now we learn that the ironically-named Forrest Gordon Clark–accused of setting the Holy Fire in Southern California–is (like Paddock) a sovereign citizen. With California suffering the effects of drought and with the Golden State in Trump’s political crosshairs, we should be prepared for more “leaderless resistance” wildfire terrorism from fascists.
FTR #992 Hindutva Fascism, Part 5: Political and Historical Context (Connecting the Dots)
This program concludes our FTR series on Hindutva fascism (Hindu nationalist fascism). In previous programs, we highlighted key features of the governance of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose BJP is a political front for the RSS. Formed along the lines of Mussolini’s Blackshirts in 1925, the RSS was the organization that assassinated Mahatma Gandhi. (We have discussed Modi, the RSS and the BJP in numerous broadcasts, including FTR #‘s 795, 889, 441, 442, 445, 988 and 989, 990, 991.)
In past discussions of the RSS and BJP, we have noted the following:
1.–Modi’s political fortunes were boosted with support and apparent financing from Pierre Omidyar, who also helped finance the rise of the OUN/B fascist successor organizatios in Ukraine.
2.–Modi and his BJP are viewed with great favor by Breitbart kingpin, former Trump campaign manager and adviser Steve Bannon. A number of Trump’s business associates in India are associated with the BJP.
3.–Bernie Sanders’ prospective Vice-Presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard helped arrange the details for Modi’s American visit and is networked with the RSS.
4.–The above-mentioned Tulsi Gabbard is a member of the Hare Krishna cult, as is her husband, her in-laws, her parents and her Congressional staff.
5.–Gabbard is highly regarded by Modi admirer Steve Bannon as well.
6.–Gabbard was seriously considered for a cabinet position by Team Trump.
7.–Under Modi, anti-Muslim violence has dramatically accelerated, journalistic and civil free speech has been attenuated, opponents of the government have faced various forms of retaliation and oppression, journalists and activists critical of Modi/BJP/RSS have been murdered, a virulently anti-Muslim cleric has been appointed head of Uttar Pradesh (India’s largest province), voting machines have apparently been tampered with, and Indians have expressed positive feelings about martial law. BJP members have celebrated Gandhi’s murder.
In this program, we position the ideological/political tile of Hindutva fascism in the mosaic of what freelance Danish journalist Henrik Kruger (author of The Great Heroin Coup: Drugs, Intelligence and International Fascism) and Kevin Coogan (author of Dreamer of the Day: Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Fascist International) call “The Fascist International.”
Beginning with review of ideological and operational links between RSS Hindutva fascists and the followers of Hitler and Mussolini, we highlight key features of what may seem to many to be a classic case of political “strange bedfellows.” Key considerations in the Hitler/Mussolini/Hindutva fascist affinity include:
1.–Opposition to the British Empire (as constituted), admiration for the domestic agendas of the Fuehrer and Il Duce, as well as the military prowess shown by the European Axis nations: “. . . . In the decades prior to that momentous event, senior RSS members had direct links to both Benito Mussolini in Italy and Adolf Hitler in Germany. Part of the RSS’ fascination with these totalitarian regimes was their shared opposition to the British Empire — however, it went far beyond that. The RSS (as well as multitudes of other Hindu nationalists) admired the way Mussolini and Hitler reorganized their respective nations so quickly from the wreckage of war to build a powerful economy and military under the banner of patriotism and nationalism. . . .”
2.–The studied nature of the Hindutva/Hitler/Mussolini affinity: ” . . . . Marzia Casolari, an Italian scholar who studied Indian politics, once wrote of RSS’ connections with European fascism: The existence of direct contacts between the representatives of the [Italian] Fascist regime, including Mussolini, and Hindu nationalists demonstrates that Hindu nationalism had much more than an abstract interest in the ideology and practice of fascism. The interest of Indian Hindu nationalists in fascism and Mussolini must not be considered as dictated by an occasional curiosity, confined to a few individuals; rather, it should be considered as the culminating result of the attention that Hindu nationalists… focused on Italian dictatorship and its leader. To them, fascism appeared to be an example of conservative revolution. . . .”
3.–Belief in the common, mythological “Aryan” origins of India and Germany: ” . . . . Much of Nazi ideology and imagery came from the symbols and history of ancient India – indeed, the infamous Nazi swastika was based on a Hindu symbol of strength and good fortune. Moreover, the legendary history (some would say, myth) of the invasion of prehistoric India by the mysterious ‘Aryan’ tribes would (centuries later) provide Hitler with his notion of a ‘super master race’ that was destined to dominate the world. . . .”
4.–The enthusiastic embrace of Hitler and Mussolini by V.D. Savarkar, the ideological founder of Hindutva fascism and the primary architect of Gandhi’s assassination: ” . . . . Perhaps there was no greater admirer of Hitler and Mussolini in India than Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, another leading member of RSS.In a speech delivered in 1940 (after the Second World War had commenced), Savarkar said: There is no reason to suppose that Hitler must be a human monster because he passes off as a Nazi or Churchill is a demigod because he calls himself a Democrat. Nazism proved undeniably the savior of Germany under the set of circumstances Germany was placed in. . . .”
5.–The Hindu Mahasabha’s support for a Hitler/RSS conjunction: ” . . . . Indeed, many Hindu nationalists also derided Gandhi for opposing Nazism and fascism. In 1939, a spokesman for the Hindu Mahasabha (Hindu Party) intimately connected Germany with Indian culture and people. ‘Germany’s solemn idea of the revival of the Aryan culture, the glorification of the Swastika, her patronage of Vedic learning and the ardent championship of the tradition of Indo-Germanic civilization are welcomed by the religious and sensible Hindus of India with a jubilant hope,’ the spokesman blustered. ‘Only a few Socialists headed by… Nehru have created a bubble of resentment against the present government of Germany, but their activities are far from having any significance in India.’ He added: ‘Germany’s crusade against the enemies of Aryan culture will bring all the Aryan nations of the world to their senses and awaken the Indian Hindus for the restoration of their lost glory. . . .’ ”
6.–Other RSS leaders saw useful similarities in the ethnic chauvinist philosophy of both Hitler and Hindutva fascism. ” . . . . Another senior RSS member, Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, also praised Nazism and believed the ideology should be applied to India. ‘German race pride has now become the topic of the day,’ he wrote. ‘To keep up the purity of the race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic Races — the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well-nigh impossible it is for races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindustan [India] to learn and profit by.’ Golwalkar enthusiastically advocated for an India dominated by Hindus. ‘There are only two courses open to the foreign elements, either to merge themselves in the national race and adopt its culture, or to live at its mercy so long as the national race may allow them to do so and to quit the country at the sweet will of the national race,’ he wrote. . . . ”
7.–The ethnic ideological paradigm of Hindutva fascism and Nazism meld well: ” . . . . If one were to replace ‘Hindu’ with ‘German,’ Golwalkar’s words would match Hitler’s rhetoric almost exactly. . . .”
8.–Savarkar also saw Nazi and RSS ethnic theory and policy as converging: ” . . . . Savarkar also spelled out why Hindus should rule India and others should either be expelled or merged into the Hindu majority. ‘The Aryans who settled in India at the dawn of history already formed a nation, now embodied in the Hindus,’ he wrote. ‘Hindus are bound together not only by the love they bear to a common fatherland and by the common blood that courses through their veins and keeps our hearts throbbing and our affection warm but also by the of the common homage we pay to our great civilization, our Hindu culture. . . .”
The late Savitri Devi was an embodiment of the Hindu/Nazi/Aryan ideological convergence. Devi has been among the elements synthesizing Hindutva fascism with the contemporary “Alt-Right.” Devi has been the focal point of renewed interest:
1.–” . . . . I filed her as a curiosity at the back of my mind, until the rising tide of extreme-right politics in Europe and America threw up the name ‘Savitri Devi’ once again. It isn’t hard these days to find discussions of Savitri Devi’s books on neo-Nazi web forums, especially The Lightning and the Sun, which expounds the theory that Hitler was an avatar — an incarnation — of the Hindu god Vishnu, and Gold in the Furnace, which urges true believers to trust that National Socialism will rise again. The American extreme-right website Counter-Currents hosts an extensive online archive of her life and work. . . .”
2.–More about the resuscitation of Devi: ” . . . . Her views are reaching a wider public, too, thanks to American alt-right leaders such as Richard Spencer and Steve Bannon, former Trump chief strategist and chair of Breitbart News, who have taken up the account of history as a cyclical battle between good and evil — a theory she shared with other 20th Century mystical fascists. Dark metal bands and American right-wing radio stations also roar about the Kali Yuga, the Dark Age of Hindu mythology, which Savitri Devi believed that Hitler was once destined to bring to an end. . . . ”
3.–The psychological and political foundation of the Aryan/Hindutva convergence is neatly summed up in the BBC Magazine article we excerpt: ” . . . . Savitri Devi herself is almost forgotten in India now, but the Hindu nationalism she espoused and helped to promote is in the ascendant, much to the concern of her nephew, the veteran left-wing journalist Sumanta Banerjee. ‘In her book A Warning to the Hindus, which came out in 1939, she advised the Hindus to cultivate a ‘spirit of organised resistance throughout Hindudom,’ he says. ‘The targets of this resistance were the Muslims, who were a threat, according to her, to the Hindus. And this is the same fear that is being echoed today.’ . . .”
4.–More about the dynamics behind the “Alt-Right”/Hindutva convergence: ” . . . . Hindutva is the official ideology of Prime Minster Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which claims that Muslims and secularists have undermined the strength of the Hindu nation. Though the party’s official spokesmen condemn violence, the riots that led to the tearing down of the Babri Mosque at Ayodhya in 1992 and the current waves of attacks — sometimes fatal — by vigilante groups on Muslims and dissenters tell a different story. . . . ”
5.–Highlighting the nature of the ideological similarity between Nazi ethnic policy and Hindutva fascist ideology: “In the US, racism, anti-communism and Christian fundamentalist notions about the impending apocalypse have together prepared the ground for the far right’s flirtation with occult Nazism and Hindu prophecies. And as in India, the traditional ruling majority’s fear of losing power has been an effective recruiting tool. . . .”
In addition to the position of Hindutva fascism in the Fascist International , we examine Pierre Omidyar, his espousal of neoliberal economic doctrine, his support for Modi’s Hindutva fascists and his support (along with U.S. intelligence cut-outs like the National Endowment for Democracy and the Agency for International Development) for the Ukrainian OUN/B successor organizations like Pravy Sektor, Svoboda and the Azov Battalion.
In FTR #889, among other programs, we highlighted Omidayar’s devotion to the Austrian school of economic theory.
The political/economic context of Omidyar’s efforts can be seen as a “neo-liberal” flanking maneuver: putting “free-market” forces in power and the Western and Southeastern flanks of Russia and China. Those two nations constitute much of what geo-politicians call “The Earth Island” or “World Island.”
Omidyar’s neo-liberal, Austrian economic school can be seen in Modi’s enthusiastic reception by Silicon Valley movers and shakers, at the same time that the Indian leader is moving to weaken his country’s child labor laws.
Program Highlights Include:
1.–The Omidyar-owned Honololu Civil Beat’s curious cover-up of Tulsi Gabbard’s participation in the Hindutva fascist Hare Krishna cult.
2.–The participation of Indian soldiers in the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS during World War II.
3.–Tulsi Gabbard’s co-sponsorship of a bill that would label opponents of Ukraine’s entrance into the EU as “terrorists.”
4.–Omidyar journalistic protege Glenn Greenwald had Andrew “Weev” Auerenheimer at his party celebrating Greenwald and Laura Poitras’s receipt of the prestigious Polk Award. Weev’s name has been bandied about in connection with the [alleged] hacking of DNC e‑mails. We note that Weev is apparently resident in Ukraine. ” . . . . [GOP operative Peter] Smith also reached out to “Guccifer 2.0”—an alias the U.S. intelligence community has linked to Russian state hackers—and was advised to seek the help of a white nationalist hacker who lives in Ukraine. . . . [Alt-Right media figure Charles] Johnson said he also suggested that Smith get in touch with Andrew Auerenheimer, a hacker who goes by the alias ‘Weev’ and has collaborated with Johnson in the past. . . .”
Peter Thiel’s Political/Philosophical Influences: ” . . . Carl Schmitt . . . a Nazi and the Third Reich’s Preeminent Legal Theorist. . . ”
Trump may be appointing Peter Thiel as head of his President’s Intelligence Advisory Board. Thiel is heavily influenced by Carl Schmitt, (on the right in the photograph) “. . . . a Nazi and the Third Reich’s preeminent legal theorist. For Thiel, Schmitt is an inspiring throwback to a pre-Enlightenment age, who exalts struggle and insists that the discovery of enemies is the foundation of politics. . .” We have been warning about Thiel since July of 2010. All of the contents of this website as of 12/19/2014–Dave Emory’s 37+ years of research and broadcasting–as well as hours of videotaped lectures are available on a 32GB flash drive. Dave offers his programs and articles for free–your support is very much appreciated.
Nazis Cash in With Bitcoin
After encountering problems advancing more conventional fund-raising methods, Nazi groups are prospering due to successful mining of Bitcoin. The most successful Nazi miner of Bitcoin is Andrew “Weev” Auerenheimer: ” . . . . One neo-Nazi stands above the rest in his bitcoin usage: Andrew ‘weev’ Auernheimer, who’s received over $1 million in bitcoin, according to one report. Even though Auernheimer has withdrawn roughly $118,620 from his bitcoin wallet between late August and Wednesday, his remaining bitcoin store has been replenishing his wealth throughout the recent bitcoin boom. . . .” It is not surprising that Bitcoin should become a source of Nazi wealth, since its foundations are as far to the right as can be.
FTR #984 Fascism: 2017 European Tour
We begin our tour by examining overtly fascist elements in the governing Bulgarian coalition of Boyko Borisov, evocative of Bulgaria’s past as an ally of Nazi Germany in World War II. ” . . . May 17, Pavel Tenev, Minister of Regional Development, at the time, was forced to resign, after publication of a photo, showing him with his right arm extended in a Nazi salute, standing in front of a wax figure of a Nazi officer in Paris’ Musée Grévin. May 19, another photo was published on the internet, showing the freshly appointed department director in the Ministry of Defense, Ivo Antonov, also giving the Nazi salute in front of a Second World War tank of the Wehrmacht. . . .”
Other coalition partners have made disparaging remarks about Roma (“gypsies”) and Jews. Worth noting that Borisov’s selection of coalition partners: ” . . . .Following the recent March 26, parliamentary elections, Borisov, the winner of the elections (his GERB with 32.7 percent), did not begin negotiations for a government coalition with the Bulgarian Socialist Party (27.2 percent) or with the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (9 percent) representing the Turkish-speaking minority, but rather with the United Patriots (9.1 percent). The United Patriots is an alliance of three extreme right-wing parties. . . .”
In recent weeks, the struggle over the potential secession of Catalonia from Spain has garnered considerable attention
That struggle is framed against a larger political dynamic embracing advocacy of the elimination of formal national borders in Europe in favor of “regionalist plans.” Just such regionalist advocacy was the focal point of a prominent article (with accompanying maps of the projected realignment) in Die Zeit, a major German weekly.
Regionalist advocacy has a significant past, with the early postwar CIA and Allen Dulles having embraced such a dynamic. ” . . . . the federalists had initially been supported and controlled by the CIA predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and [one of its top spies] Alan Dulles, residing in Bern, and later by the CIA itself. . . .”
In addition, the regionalist dyanamic enjoyed the support of long-time German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble, whose advocacy and implementation of brutal fiscal austerity helped beggar much of the EU, including Spain, following the financial crisis of 2008. ” . . . . Wolfgang Schäuble, as President of the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR) in the early 1980’s, was also promoting regionalist plans. Inspired by former Nazi functionaries, the AEBR criticized the ‘nation-state’s barrier effect’ of borders in the interests of large corporations. . . . Former Nazi functionaries were actively participating both on the AEBR’s committees and in the immediate entourage of its planning of the ‘regionalization’ of the border regions, including Gerd Jans, the former member of the Waffen SS in the Netherlands, Konrad Meyer, responsible for the Nazi’s ‘Generalplan Ost,’ Hermann Josef Abs, of the Deutsche Bank, as well as Alfred Toepfer, described by the publicist Hans-Rüdiger Minow as ‘infamous for his border subversion of France’s Alsace.’ In an extensive study, Minow describes the continuities of the Nazi’s concepts. . . .”
Despite an initial impression of “regionalism” that many might see as alien, The Schauble/AEBR/regionalism dyanmic ideology may be seen as something of a subsidiary element of globalization. ” . . . . .In 1979, Schäuble became president of the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR), an organization with the objective of downgrading the significance of borders in Europe. Business interests played an important role, which is why the AEBR could find reliable supporters in industry. A ‘European Charter on Border and Cross-Border Regions,’ passed by the AEBR in 1981, stipulated that the ‘elimination of economic and infrastructural barriers’ must urgently be pursued. . . .”
The implementation of regionalization would facilitate German domination of Europe, which has met resistance from poorer EU and EMU countries over the austerity doctrine favored by Wolfgang Schauble. ” . . . . Economic maps by the EU’s Eurostat statistics administration show the regions where Europe’s wealth and, therefore, Europe’s economic power is concentrated, a block with its centers in southern and central Germany, to the west, in Flanders and spreading to segments of the Netherlands, and to the South to parts of Austria and Northern Italy and in various separate regions of Western and Northern Europe. A number of these regions maintain close relations to Germany, or to the German regions. (german-foreign-policy.com reported.[11]) This clearly German-dominated block would hardly have any difficulty controlling a ‘Europe of the Regions.’ . . . .”
Also worth noting is the fact that the Catalonian independence movement embraces a Catalonian identity that involves people from France, as well as Spain: ” . . . . The Catalan movement currently pushing for secession is in fact largely defining itself ethnically. The autonomous movement has been closely cooperating with French citizens, who live outside the Spanish region of Catalonia, but also consider themselves ‘ethnic Catalans.’ At their rallies one can hear ‘Neither France nor Spain! Only one country, Catalonia!’ . . . .”
The two Twitter accounts that appear to account for nearly a third of all Twitter traffic with the #Catalonia hashtag, in reference to the Catalonian secession movement belong to Julian Assange and Edward Snowden.
Of more than passing interest, under the circumstances, is the Twitter effort by both Julian Assange and Edward Snowden on behalf of Catalonian independence.
As seen in many past programs and posts, Snowden and Assange are as far to the right as it is possible to be.
Their cyberlibertarian activism and their support for Catalonian independence is rooted in anarcho-libertarian economic theory. Seeing the dissolution of national governments as desirable, their support for the principle of secession is rooted in what Mussolini termed “corporatism.”
Snowden and Assange’s ostensibly “liberating” doctrines, if put into effect, would leave citizenry at the mercy of unfettered economic will, exercised by corporations and their associated elites.
Snowden specifically appears to be advocating that no secession movement anywhere ever can be rejected by the government under the premise that self-determination is a human right, viewing this as a “natural law” issue.
In that context, the right to secede is championed by the Libertarian far-right, all the way down to the right to individuals to secede from all government. As this piece from Libertarian David S. D’Amato demonstrates, extending the right to secede down to the individual facilitates the implementation of an anarcho-capitalist society with no government at all, as seen by figures like Murray Rothbard. This is envisioned as an excellent wayof achieving an anarcho-capitalist utopia.
The Snowden/Assange pro-secessionist movement should also be seen against the background of the Neo-Confederate movement, championed by Ron Paul and the Ludwig Von Mises Institute.
Following capture of 13 percent of the vote in Germany’s federal elections on Sunday by the Alternative For Germany (AfD), Alexander Gauland, the AfD leader, provoked outrage after suggesting that Germans should no longer be reproached with the Nazi past.
This type of behavior apparently motivated AfD leader Frauke Petry to leave the party, just hours after the election over its extremism.
Program Highlights Include:
1.-Review of Dorothy Thompson’s 1941 article about what a Nazi victory in Europe would look like–a scenario that bears considerable resemblance to the regionalization plan discussed above.
2.-Discussion of the potential fortunes of Austria’s Freedom Party, formed in 1956 as a vehicle for the re-introduction of Austrian Third Reich alumni into that nation’s political process.
“The Politics of Bitcoin: Software as Right-Wing Extremism” by David Golumbia
In previous programs, we have highlighted technocratic fascism, embodied in a text excerpted from an excellent article by David Golumbia. In other programs, we have detailed the anarcho/fascist politics underlying Bitcoin. Now, Mr. Golumbia has published a book about Bitcoin, as excellent as it is short (77 pages of text.) It should be noted that the apocalyptic, dystopian view of our civilization epitomized by the Bitcoin crowd is embraced by Steve Bannon and the philosophical influences on him.
“Alt Right” Assange, the Facebook “Virtual Panopticon” and the Victory of the Trumpenkampfverbande
WikiLeaks is a fascist, “Alt-Right” institution that aided Trump’s election. Facebook, one of whose largest stockholders is Trump supporter Peter Thiel, also helped aid the election of “The Donald.” All of the contents of this website as of 12/19/2014–Dave Emory’s 35+ years of research and broadcasting–as well as hours of videotaped lectures are available on a 32GB flash drive. Dave offers his programs and articles for free–your support is very much appreciated.
FROM THE LECTURE SERIES
The Political Implications of the UFO Phenomenon and the "ET" Myth Exposes U.S. intelligence influence behind the "brothers from space" industry. Read more »- Spitfire List is licensed under Creative Commons.
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