When, after 579 days in office, US President Donald Trump finally got around to mentioning Africa in a tweet, it was to support a white supremacist meme about so-called "white genocide" in South Africa:
I have asked Secretary of State @SecPompeo to closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers. “South African Government is now seizing land from white farmers.” @TuckerCarlson @FoxNews— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2018
Former U.S. diplomats and South African leaders denounced Trump’s declaration in a tweet late Wednesday that he had instructed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to monitor the “large scale killing” of white farmers and the government’s expropriations of their land.While the tweet brought criticism from many quarters, Trump's deplorables ate it up:
White-nationalist groups have for years spread false claims about the murder rates, assertions that have been widely debunked. Local police data shows the number of people murdered on farms has dropped by half over the past two decades — from 140 in 2001-2002 to 74 in 2016-2017, according to the Associated Press.
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| Daily Stormer got giddy! |
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| Breitbart was on it |
Coincidentally, on Thursday, Democracy Now reported on how VDARE founder, Peter Brimelow was given a birthday party at the home of Trump's top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow. He may also be a fan of Russia. When, in April, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley announced new sanctions against Russia for its support of Assad's use of chemical weapons in Syria, Kudlow caused a row by accusing Haley of "momentary confusion."
VDARE was on this story, as was David Duke, and Richard Spencer.
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| VDARE supports Trump's tweet |
The Washington Post piece goes on to talk about where Trump's tweet appeared to come from:
Trump’s tweet appeared to come in response to a segment on Fox News in which host Tucker Carlson railed against a plan by South Africa’s governing party to pursue constitutional changes allowing the government to redistribute land without compensating the owners. The measure is designed to redress racial inequalities that have persisted for nearly a quarter-century after the end of apartheid in 1994.
Obviously, this tweet was prompted by the Tucker Carlson report on Fox News, all the media commentators agree, and Trump even points to that in his tweet.
The funny thing is that this South Africa land seizure story really hasn't received much coverage on Fox News. As near as I can tell, this is the first story they have run on this subject, at least in awhile - I didn't go back more than a few months. On 22 July they ran 11 taxi drivers killed in South Africa ambush after attending funeral, by Travis Fedschun, on the website, but it made no mention of land seizures, alleged murdered farmers, or "white genocide." In fact, the story didn't even reveal the ethnicity of the murdered taxi drivers.
But it's gotten a lot more coverage now. Since the Tucker Carlson report prompted Trump's tweet, they have run: Inside South Africa's racist land seizures, Trump speaks out about Africa again, and many cringe and Tucker: Our ruling class believes in collective punishment. Clearly, they are now on a roll with this story.
So, if the Tucker Carlson report was the catalyst for Trump's tweet, where did Carlson's report come from?
While much of this South Africa "white genocide" mythology has been around since the end of apartheid, it has gotten a big boost recently in worldwide white supremacist circles, especially from Putin's Russia.
On 25 June 2018, the Lauren Southern documentary Farmlands was released. [YouTube 1:13:31] Calling Farmlands "a complete failure," AltNewsMedia wrote:
The opening proposition of the documentary is that in present day South Africa the white farmers and white people in general are being subjected to a terrible persecution that the State is endorsing through lack of response. From the outset it appears that Southern and her production associates have entered into this endeavour with the intent to portray a pre-written narrative that there is a proto-genocide of white people taking place in South Africa, which they have subsequently tried to fit the content to.
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What we get is a series of interviews with victims of horrific crimes of banditry and an attempt to link these crimes with an overt policy of racism towards white people.
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They even go to a city to talk to a white business owner who has suffered multiple raids to try and illustrate the point that it is not just the remote nature of the white farmlands that is leading to these attacks.
They do all these things and none of them join up to support their narrative.
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| Jared Taylor, from American Renaissance, is also an RT guest |
Finding Farmlands possible connections to Putin's Russia remains on my to-do list, however a quick search of Lauren Southern's Twitter feed turned up this picture of her with Aleksandr Dugin, who has been described as "Putin's brain," and that may give us a clue:
Hope y’all are ready for this Russia series 😉 pic.twitter.com/l3sFrT1hrK— Lauren Southern (@Lauren_Southern) June 7, 2018
Whether there were direct or indirect connections between Southern's film and Putin's project, its release at the end of June was very fortuitous for a white nationalist propaganda program the Kremlin was just starting to promote big time.
Less than two weeks after this film debuted, Putin announced that he was granting Russian land to 15,000 white South African farmers. As reported by The Impious Digest:
A day earlier, RT had reported:Putin Grants Free Russian Land To 15,000 Christians Facing “White Genocide” In South Africa
10 July 2018
By Sorcha Faal
A truly heart breaking new Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) report circulating in the Kremlin today says that President Putin has personally authorized the granting of free farm land in Russia to up to 15, 000 Christian men, women and children preparing to flee from South Africa as “a matter of life and death”—whose farms there, their ancestors have worked since the 18th Century, have all now been seized from them without payment, and whose “white genocide” extermination of the “Hitler of South Africa” now warns is near—but whom have all, also, been “rejected from protection” by the West who have, once again, turned their backs on God—with Canada outright rejecting their refugee status, the United States ignoring a petition signed by thousands to aid these Christian refugees, and the European Union not even able to be considered as it has been completely taken over by “degenerate liberalism”. More...
‘A matter of life & death’: 15,000 white South African farmers seek refuge in Russia, report says
9 July 2018
A delegation of 30 South African farming families has arrived in Russia’s farmbelt Stavropol Region, Rossiya 1 TV reports. The group says it is facing violent attacks and death threats at home.
Up to 15,000 Boers, descendants of Dutch settlers in South Africa, are planning to move to Russia amid rising violence stemming from government plans to expropriate their land, according to the delegation.
“It’s a matter of life and death – there are attacks on us. It’s got to the point where the politicians are stirring up a wave of violence,” Adi Slebus told the media. More...
This campaign has been launched to use confusion over a constitutional struggle in South Africa to build the Russian led worldwide white supremacist movement.On 1 August, RT ran this story, with tags lines virtually identical to the ones Tucker Carlson would run [6:54 minute Fox News report vs. 6:32 minute RT report] three weeks later.
It is probably worth noting that Rep. Ron Paul Jr. spent a week in Russia in the intervening period because he is widely seen as a messenger between Trump and Putin. I do not as yet see a connection to this story.
On RT, the story went relatively quiet for a while, and then this week, they started hitting it hard every day. On Sunday they lead with:
South African winemaker warns land seizures could be ‘disastrous’ for industry & economy
Land expropriation in South Africa is touching almost all spheres of business in the country, and wine making is no exception. RT has talked to a South African wine producer concerned about the land seizures.19 August 2018 | 11:03 GMT
That was followed on Monday with this:
‘Panicking’ white farmers putting land up for sale in South Africa – report
South Africa’s white farmers have been desperately trying to sell their lands at record pace ahead of planned government land seizures, according to a local farmer’s union. However, there are no buyers.20 August 2018 | 10:41 GMT
And then this:
Land seizures begin in South Africa after owners refuse govt lowball buyout offer - report
South African authorities have reportedly started seizing white-owned land after negotiations on buying out the properties stalled. The first seizures are targeting game farms in the Northern province of Limpopo.20 August 2018 | 15:29 GMT
Wednesday, they kept up the drumbeat with this:
South Africa’s land expropriation could trigger default, warns agricultural bank
Seizing privately-owned land without compensation could be costly for the South African economy. The government would be forced to bail out banks as farmers stop investing and paying off debts, warns state-owned Land Bank.22 August 2018 | 06:49 GMT
That same day, Tucker Carlson ran his first South Africa land seizures piece. Then Benedict Donald sent a tweet clearly supportive of the Kremlin campaign. This allowed RT to crow:
Trump orders Pompeo to ‘closely study’ South Africa’s land expropriation
US President Donald Trump has expressed concern over the fate of white farmers in South Africa, where the extremely controversial land redistribution reform might leave owners without their properties or any compensation.23 August 2018 | 02:52 GMT
RT knew it had landed a big fish, and since the US Presidential endorsement of the Kremlin campaign had now created an international incident, they were able to follow that with this:
‘Misinformed’: South Africa rejects Trump tweet on land seizures & ‘killing of farmers’
The South African government has slammed US President Donald Trump’s “narrow perception” over land seizures in the country after he ordered US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to study the situation.23 August 2018 | 11:21 GMT
And this, still on Thursday, pointing to a tweet effect that everyone in the self-centered western media, including this excellent Washington Post piece, seemed to have missed:
Rand sinks after Trump questions land confiscation from white farmers in South Africa
The South African rand slumped almost two percent on Thursday, following US President Donald Trump’s tweet about the country's land reforms. Trump's comment raised fears about the possibility of US economic sanctions.23 August 2018 | 12:05 GMT GMT
I'd suggest we look for someone in the Trump orbit that was short selling the rand prior to Trump's tweet. In any case, RT was just eating it up. After State Department, spokeswoman Heather Nauert confirmed that Trump and Pompeo had discussed South Africa, adding “expropriation of land without compensation would not be a good thing” and would send South Africa down the “wrong path,”, the Kremlin went with this story:
State Dept warns South Africa of ‘wrong path’ amid land expropriation row
Expropriation of land without compensation “would not be a good thing” and would send South Africa “down the wrong path,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters amid a diplomatic row with Pretoria.23 August 2018 | 20:47 GMT
In less than a week after RT had started pounding its South Africa drum, its reverberations were being felt around the world, thanks in large part due to the support of President Trump. Still, the catalyst for Trump's tweet was the single Fox News report, not anything from Russia media, right?
Is it possible that Tucker Carlson and Fox News were playing the role of cut out, much as WikiLeaks did during the election -- cut out between the Russia source and Donald Trump? I mean, he could hardly admit that the inspiration for his first presidential tweet mentioning Africa came from the Kremlin!
When we look for connections between Fox News and Putin's Russia, this particular "conspiracy theory" has a lot going for it. For one thing, there is Jack Hanick, Sean Hannity's former director. He was one of the founding producers for Fox News, where he worked from 1996 to 2011. When Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeev wanted to create the "Fox News" of Russia in 2014, he hired Hanick to create Tsargrad TV, and hired Dugin to run it. Hannick has traveled extensively between the US and Russia. He celebrated Trump's victory at Konstantin Rykov’s election night party in Moscow.
Tucker Carlson's Fox News show has also shared a number of repeat guests with RT and Sputnik, including Max Blumenthal, Stephen Cohen, and Glenn Greenwald. Clearly, they also shared this South Africa story in a timely matter. The question is: Was that just coincidence and Putin's good fortune, or was it something else?
The bottom line is this: Everybody is decrying Trump's South Africa tweet, but nobody is saying that he is carrying Putin's water, and once again, he is carrying Putin's water!
Tonight, while in a heated argument with former Hillary Clinton adviser Richard Goodstein, Tucker Carlson let slip his racist view that country needs to have a common race and religion, before taking it back to his common language cover story.
Syria is the Paris Commune of the 21st Century!
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