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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow Russia Created the Most Popular Texas Secession Page on Facebook. Plus Calexit, remember!
Lots and lots of links in this article:
How Russia Created the Most Popular Texas Secession Page on Facebook
When is a Texan not a Texan?
SNIP/
Moscows ties to the California secession movement, which received a boost following Donald Trumps election, have seen the greatest coverage understandably so, given the former #Calexit leaders willingness to highlight his links to the Moscow-funded Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia (AGMR) at every turn. Only so many people would be willing to open a California Embassy in Moscow, after all. (For my own writings on #Calexits myriad ties to Russia, in addition to the links above, click here, here, or here.) As Jonathon Morgan, the founder of Data for Democracy, noted a few months back in detailing the online footprint of Russia and California secessionists, the primary group pushing #Calexit was further amplified by many of the same accounts that infiltrated conservative Twitter communities and promoted a pro-Trump, white nationalist agenda. Not exactly an organic upswell.
But for all of the egregious links between Russia and California separatists, the earliest foray into ties between Moscow-linked actors and American secession movements, per my research, was found in my former home: Texas. Back in 2015, I put together a piece for POLITICO Magazine detailing the ties between Lone Star secessionists and Russia, dovetailing off a recent visit from the Texas foreign minister to St. Petersburg, where the Texan turned to Russian media to fan the flames of secession. As local Russian officials were threatening to deliver arms to Mexico (and unidentified guerrillas) to allow Mexico City to reclaim Texas, Texas secessionists themselves were finding sympathetic ears in Moscow.
Then, in 2016, the same foreign minister, the Texas Nationalist Movements (TNM) Nathan Smith, returned to Russia, attending the same pro-secession conference as the California secessionists and, this time, with the AGMR, the group behind the conference, receiving funding from the Kremlin. In the time since, its come out that the AGMR also helped fund the Texans travel to Russia.
But promotional efforts behind Smiths trip were kept to a minimum. Not only did the TNM not mention Smiths travel to Moscow despite promoting his stop-overs in France and the U.K. but the only evidence of Smiths presence, besides a clip shared by RT (see 0:12), is a tweet from, of all people, former #Calexit head Louis Marinelli.
Link to tweet
And thats where the evidence, as of mid-2017, stood, as it pertained to Moscows links with Texas separatism. Funding for travel to, and organizing in, Moscow; plumping support in Russian-backed outlets like RT and Sputnik; odd comments about funding Mexican guerrillas to claim lands lost. Noteworthy enough developments, but without much evidence of success, or much lasting impact.
***
Enter the Heart of Texas. The Facebook site, for the past two years, existed as the most prominent Texas secession social media presence online. With over 225,000 followers as of summer 2017, the page, at one point last year, boasted more Facebook fans than the official Texas Democrat and Republican pages combined.
Link here: https://medium.com/cjcmichel/how-russia-created-the-most-popular-texas-secession-page-on-facebook-fd4dfd05ee5c
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How Russia Created the Most Popular Texas Secession Page on Facebook. Plus Calexit, remember! (Original Post)
Madam45for2923
Sep 2017
OP
dalton99a
(81,386 posts)1. Kick.
democratisphere
(17,235 posts)2. Facebook Propaganda Tool needs to be repealed and displaced.
Facebook; the bane and destruction of society.