With about 750 students from kindergarten to 12th grade, the school’s students are not just from well-to-do local families but also from liberal enclaves like New York and California. In Mr. DeSantis’s history and government courses, that made for spirited debates.
Danielle Pompey remembers Mr. DeSantis, a Florida native and recent Yale grad, being an outsider like her, a New Yorker with a thick accent to match. But Ms. Pompey, who is Black and was on an academic scholarship, said she felt that Mr. DeSantis treated her worse because of her race.
“Mr. Ron, Mr. DeSantis, was mean to me and hostile toward me,” said Ms. Pompey, who graduated in 2003. “Not aggressively, but passively, because I was Black.”
She recalled Mr. DeSantis teaching Civil War history in a way that sounded to her like an attempt to justify slavery.
“Like in history class, he was trying to play devil’s advocate that the South had good reason to fight that war, to kill other people, over owning people — Black people,” she said. “He was trying to say, ‘It’s not OK to own people, but they had property, businesses.’”
Ms. Pompey said she saw parallels between Mr. DeSantis’s views as a young educator and his policies as a governor 20 years later.
“He had a good opportunity to enrich people, to come there from the Northeast and show people in the South that we can blend,” she said. “It seemed like he didn’t want to do that.”
Ms. Minis, who is white and was in the same history class as Ms. Pompey, also remembers debating issues around the Civil War. Mr. DeSantis wasn’t so much politically opinionated, she said, but, in her view, factually wrong. She remembers him claiming that every city in the South had burned, even though she knew her hometown, Savannah, had not and she called him out on it.
Another student who requested anonymity because he feared repercussions for his job said Mr. DeSantis’s takes on the Civil War were the subject of so much talk that students made a satirical video about him at the time for the video yearbook.
The video, which was reviewed by The Times, includes a short snippet in which a voice purporting to be Mr. DeSantis is heard saying: “The Civil War was not about slavery! It was about two competing economic systems. One was in the North. …” while a student dozes in class. (A student voiced the role of Mr. DeSantis, because students did not have any actual footage of him, according to a student who helped put it together.)
Abortion was another issue that came up in class at least once, according to Matthew Arne, a former student. Mr. Arne, who was a senior, said students talked among themselves about Mr. DeSantis expressing his strict belief that abortion was wrong. He said it troubled him when his girlfriend, who was in Mr. DeSantis’s history class, told him about what Mr. DeSantis had said. He had grown up in California, he said, and disagreed with Mr. DeSantis’s stance.
“He’s pretty much held fast to what he believes in,” Mr. Arne said. Ms. Minis added that he always seemed to have his eye on the future. “He seems like someone who, as a young person, was in it for the long game,” she said.
Several students described Mr. DeSantis as having an air of superiority.
“Mr. DeSantis was kind of a smug guy,” Mr. Arne said. Students were well aware that he had just graduated from Yale, he said. “It was like a, ‘I’m kind of better than you,’” he said. “And we were all just kids.”
Several students recalled that Mr. DeSantis was a frequent presence at parties with the seniors who lived in town. Most spoke about socializing with him on the condition of anonymity because they feared backlash for speaking publicly about it.
“As an 18-year-old, I remember thinking, ‘What are you doing here, dude?’” one former student said.
Ms. Minis said that when she was a senior, the fall after Mr. DeSantis left, she found a memo on a teacher’s desk reminding the staff that fraternizing with students was inappropriate, even after they graduated.
“‘That’s got to be about Mr. DeSantis!’ That’s what I remember everyone saying,” she said. Other students remembered at least one other teacher who had socialized with students that year.
Last year, Hill Reporter, a blog put out by a Democratic super PAC, published a photograph of Mr. DeSantis taken with several female students from Darlington in 2002, one of whom was holding what appeared to be a bottle of beer.
Two former students, both women, remembered him attending at least two parties where alcohol was served, but they said that the parties took place after graduation and that they were not bothered by his presence at the time, although they question it now. “It was his first job out of Yale, he was cute. We didn’t really think too much about it,” one of the former students said.
Two other students remembered a prank involving Mr. DeSantis and a student who had bragged about how much milk he could drink.
They said Mr. DeSantis challenged the boy to guzzle as much milk as he could in one sitting. The boy did, and threw up as dozens of students watched.
“I think about it, now — I’m a teacher now in public school,” said Adam Moody, who was a freshman on the baseball team and witnessed the incident. “I put myself in that moment, and it’s just unthinkable. There’s a cruelty to the sense of humor. There’s a cruelty to the mentorship.”
James Fallows’s Breaking the News newsletter is always a must read. (I’d say it’s in the top ten and well worth the subscription price.) Here are his thought on the twitter mess and it’s indispensable if ou want to understand the underlying dynamics at play:
This post is about the carnage at Twitter. No one can predict exactly what will come next. But here are my personal plans, plus an in-the-moment1 thought on What It All Means.
Personally:
-Will I keep using Twitter, as I have since its early days? For now and I hope for a while, yes. I explain the reasons below.
-Will I pay even a modest sum to keep using a “blue check” that verifies my identity, which (along with most other journalists) I got almost automatically many years ago? For now and I think forever, no.
-As many people have pointed out, verification exists not for the checkmark-holders’ benefit but for Twitter’s as a system. It helps readers know whether they’re really hearing from, say, Joyce Carol Oates, versus someone just masquerading or trolling. Twitter is only hurting itself if it takes the marks away, including from the 400,000 or so lesser figures like me who are now verified. If they want to remove mine because I won’t pay, no problem.2 Most other now-verified people apparently feel the same way.
Why am I mentioning this at all, given Twitter’s niche nature and the nonstop torrent of Twitter coverage? For me it’s because of the bellwether status for much larger groups of people who will need to find new media “homes,” as they’re driven from existing ones.
I think Twitter is a bellwether for two reasons.
One is that Elon Musk’s attempted destruction of Twitter, be it reckless or intentional, is worth seeing as a speeded-up version of what is happening in other parts of the media. Twitter is an outlier, and so is Musk. But because of the incredible haste of this process, the dismantling of Twitter is usefully clarifying about changes for the media as a whole.
The other is that there are “many” possible replacements for parts of the positive functions Twitter has offered. But there is no one, clear, obvious, easily available, broadly comparable other place to go. It’s not like saying, “Oh, just get an Android” if you’re unhappy with Apple or iPhones. It’s more like saying: “We’re building a dam, so everyone has to move out of this town before the water gets too deep. Good luck staying in touch after each of you settles someplace else.”
Twitter is only 16 years old, so its own story demonstrates how rapidly new communities can emerge. My point is that Musk is forcing people to go through that process of search, reconnection, and reinvention. He says he is reconceiving online discussion with whatever he has in mind for Twitter. The real entrepreneurial effect may come from the wave of Musk-era Twitter exiles and refugees, among employees and users alike.
1) The Twitter takeover, as nature video.
We’ve all seen time-lapse nature videos, which compress into minutes action that takes months to unfold.
A seed goes into the ground. A few seconds later the first shoots poke through. Then the plant leafs out, blossoms, bears fruit. If it’s a perennial, it keeps going. If not, in the autumn it wilts and dies—all as you watch. The artificially speeded-up pace adds a logic and drama that are hard to notice at real-life pace.
This is Elon Musk’s past week at Twitter. It is a time-lapse video of changes in the media, compressing into a few days changes that have been underway for years. The changes are of course technological and financial in origin. But the results—on TV, in magazines, in national news organizations, most dramatically in local publications—boil down to the fact that media communities, habits, and habitats are disappearing. The main variable is the speed.
When communities or habitats of any sort decline or are destroyed, there is usually no easy alternative for those who have been displaced. People who might have preferred to stay have to figure out somewhere else to go. That’s happening suddenly with Twitter. It has been happening for a while with other parts of the news establishment that, as I argued last time, are less and less matched to the realities of our times.
2) What is odd about Twitter.
It was never a mainstream platform. Nearly every journalist has relied on it. A lot of politicians, entertainers, “thought leaders,” corporations, and other public figures also use it to stay in touch with their audiences. But very few “normal” people have ever cared.
As a business, it has lost much more money than it has earned.
As a social environment, it has always had grave problems. It’s a bad venue for “debate” or “discussion.” Someone was sure to construe your statement in the most selective and misleading way and then try to start a fight. You: “I like Candidate X.” Them: “So you’re saying, let’s kill everyone who disagrees.” These exchanges are why I almost never tried to “argue” on Twitter, and they are what the Block button is for.
You learned the hard way that sarcasm would never come across on Twitter, and that context rarely did. Twitter mobs have been a real thing. Every year or two, I’ve had one sicced on me, which was no fun – and I’m in the least vulnerable position, as an “established” (old) white man. I know many people so embittered by their Twitter exposure that they permanently signed off. And this doesn’t even count the incitement and disinformation.
In short, it’s been much easier to catalog what’s wrong with Twitter than what’s right.
But here is what has been right about it. As a source of information and connection, it’s had the virtues of old-style blogging, or even older-style reader mail, with much greater breadth and immediacy. Tips and insights from a variety of sources, connections you might not have developed in other ways, a real-time sensory network for breaking news. And as a platform, it benefitted from the management’s better-than-nothing attempts to screen out bigots, trolls, liars, and others who can easily turn an online forum into a “free-for-all hellscape,” as Elon Musk himself has put it.
For more than dozen years, I’ve gained much, much more from Twitter—in connections, suggestions, insights—than I’ve lost, via friction or frittering. This is what’s going away.
3) What is odd about Elon Musk.
Where do we start.
I have met, interviewed, emceed events with, and at one point liked him. He has gone through these Jekyll-and-Hyde cycles with many reporters, as Russ Mitchell has chronicled.
Nine years ago, his photo was on the cover of The Atlantic, and I wrote the main story for that issue, about technological breakthroughs in general. The story was based on an expert-survey of the greatest innovations since the wheel, and I think it stands up surprisingly well. It quoted Musk only once, which I find interesting in retrospect:
When I asked him what innovation he hoped to live long enough to see but feared he might not, he said, “Sustainable human settlements on Mars.”
At face value, every move Musk made at Twitter has seemed childish, willful, heartless, and destructive, and seemed to reveal how little he grasps the difference between running a media organization and running an electric-car or rocket-ship firm. It’s like a rich football fan buying an NFL team and imagining that he can name draft-picks and call plays.
At least once an hour a new account appears of Musk’s hubris and self-destruction. A week ago we had Nilay Patel’s “Welcome to hell, Elon.” It has only gotten worse since then. Some people have argued that Musk doesn’t care about mere profit-and-loss and has a larger cosmic vision in mind. Others, that it’s a cynical ploy to disrupt for disruption’s sake —or to win favor with the Communist Party in China or the Republican Party in the United States.
We’ll know some day whether this has been genius or idiocy, arson or accident. For now we just know that he is burning the house down. And that he’ll still be rich.
They were careless people… they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness… and let other people clean up the mess they had made.6
4) Where does this leave people who have relied on Twitter?
Again, there aren’t that many of us. But I think most will try to hang on, until the water backing up behind the dam becomes too deep.
Will that moment come because of trolling? More vitriol and hate speech? Reputational queasiness about using this platform and being associated with Musk? I don’t know.
When it happens, there will be a range of new habitats.
There’s Mastodon, the open-source, decentralized system based in Europe, which you can read a good account of in this Gizmodo piece by Dell Cameron. The challenge is, it means starting from scratch to build a network and community. An excellent how-to primer is here, in a Twitter thread. I’ve opened an account.
There’s Substack, which you know about if you are reading this. My friend Hamish McKenzie explained its logic in a recent post here. I’m a believer, user, and fan.
There’s a range of other alternatives, which are well explained in this excellent Washington Postpiece by Heather Kelly.
And there’s just bailing out, as Harold Meyerson recently argued. His conclusion: “We are awash in viciously bigoted neofascist outbursts, and far from declining to give them wider distribution, Musk wants to let ’em rip. We don’t have to participate in such a venture. We need an alternative and we need to take a walk from his.”
But there won’t be any one convenient place. If there were, people would already have moved. As Harold Meyerson says, people “need” an alternative. But they don’t have one. Which will mean the tedious work of creating and promoting something new. Destruction can be quick and easy. They were careless people. Reinvention is hard and slow.
5) Where does this leave people who have relied on mainstream media?
That is also where I ended the previous dispatch: There is little point in continuing to call out leading publications for their “both sides” / “horserace uber alles” / “what does it mean for the midterms?” approach to our moment in history. This is who they are.
Calling out Merrick Garland? Yes. There is only one Justice Department. Nothing else can do its job. But for the media, the challenge is beginning the slow, hard work of creating something different and new.
If there were “an” answer to this problem, someone would already have suggested it. Instead — as with Twitter alternatives, but on a broader and more consequential scale — there will have to be many, and we’ll blunder and feel our way forward.
Highlighting, connecting, and trying to support this diverse “many” is one of my ongoing ambitions in this space.
For the moment I’ll mention just one of the many: Lion Publishers, for Local Independent Online News. This is where the future of news is being invented, city by city, one revenue-and-engagement model at a time.
These are the kind of entrepreneurs who deserve more attention. They—we—will be the ones to clean up the mess that careless people have made.
I put up that unbelievable Ron DeSantis-is-Jesus ad earlier today. I still can hardly believe it. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a political ad quite like it, not even around St Ronnie or Trump.
I had to share this bit from Steve Schmidt about the Crown Prince of Tallahassee. It’s just too good:
Ron DeSantis presides over a tiny fiefdom in the hot, humid, corrupt Florida city of Tallahassee. He is king there, and he reigns with his wife, Casey. Mostly, the relevant information that political reporters talk to each other about is omitted from the coverage that informs the reader. Occasionally, some sunlight breaks through the murk, and citizens are able to cobble together some understanding around the psychology, motivations and decision-making values of the elected officials who have immense power, should they choose to abuse it.
DeSantis is an isolated figure. He does not like people, and has a difficult time connecting with them. He is known to be rude, arrogant, disrespectful, and completely disinterested in anything beyond his ambition or power. His leadership style and office culture are abusive. The horrendous treatment of his staff is an open secret, and their alienation and abuse by him and his wife are well-known to anyone paying attention.
DeSantis and his wife run the show. It is a ‘mom and pop’ shop of malice. The construct of the operations around DeSantis are important to understand. His wife views him as inerrant. Any bad thing that happens is thus not her beloved Ron’s fault. DeSantis is the vessel of perfection in his wife and co-governor’s eyes. He is a victim and champion simultaneously in her imagination, which is imposed on her controlled world by her pedestrian office bullying. When they attacked Disney as a proxy to assault gay people, it must have given them a special satisfaction. Rarely do the unhappiest places and people get to assault the happy ones in America.
DeSantis can’t beat Trump in a primary because he isn’t tough enough. He lacks the character for direct confrontation with the big boss. He is a schemer. He wants to inherit the throne, not fight the king for it. Relations between the true seat of MAGA power and DeSantis’ backwater duchy are poor. Making a move against Trump requires courage, and the one thing that Trump is completely right about is his assessments around his court’s cowardice. He looks at DeSantis, and sees a punk. He knows that the diminutive bully strikes down, not up. Trump knows he’s weak even if the national political press corps hasn’t figured it out yet.
What DeSantis just did in Martha’s Vineyard is frontally assault the Sermon on the Mount, and the basic core concepts of all the world’s major religions. He did not welcome the stranger. He rejected every precept of Christian charity. He struck out at vulnerable people, and assaulted their dignity. He weaponized fear and deployed it. It begs a question. Why did DeSantis do this? Is he sadistic? The short answer is, probably. That’s besides the point though.
Here is what matters: this is the audition. What does he want? He wants to be the American head of state. He wants to feel what it’s like to be the commander-in-chief of the most potent and deadly military in the history of humanity. This is how he thinks he gets there. He is talking to the small group of extremist donors, pundits, academics, and militia thugs who he believes control the Republican nominating process.
DeSantis knows these people don’t want to talk about American unity. He knows they reject the notion of “E Pluribus Unum.” They aren’t interested in building or making things better. They want to punish, dominate and control half the country. DeSantis is laying his cards on the table. He is making an offering. He is trying to say, “I will hurt the people you hate”. What he is saying is, “Give me power, and anything is possible.”
The real Republican Jesus doesn’t like it, not one bit. Let the games begin:
Several DeSantis allies, some also close to Trump, texted last night and this morning, unprompted, expressing private anger and even disgust w/ Trump for his remarks about the Florida governor. Say they're telling DeS. and his family, and his top aides, to still move twd '24 bid.
I suspect DeSantis will sit this one out. He doesn’t want to go up against Trump. Why bother?He’ll only be 48 in 2028, Trump will be out of the scene and he doesn’t have to get his crown of thorns dirty by rolling around in the mud with Orange Julius Caesar.
I kind of hope I’m wrong. It would be great if Trump could knock this guy off his pedestal. It would be his only positive legacy.
As if election coverage was not enough of a horse race already, MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki broadcast this week from the site of the Breeder’s Cup in Lexington, Kentucky.
While our focus is on which horses win this Tuesday and on the political fallout after, Ukraine is still fighting for its life against Russian invaders. And doing the U.S. a favor in the bargain, says Timothy Snyder (“On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century“) in a tweet thread:
I have been hearing the idea from some Republicans that Ukrainian resistance comes at a cost to Americans. Nothing could be more wrong. Ukrainian resistance provides extraordinary security benefits to Americans. 1/
In fact, Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s genocidal invasion does more for American security than any American policy does – or could do. It has changed the global balance in a way that makes peace more likely in decades to come. 2/
Republicans present China as America’s real, long-term rival. Democrats agree. The scenario for a U.S.-China war is a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. By resisting a Russian invasion, Ukrainians have shown the difficulty of such operations, making this scenario less likely. 3/
By fighting in self-defense, Ukrainians have thus reduced the risk of a major war and of a nuclear war. This extraordinary achievement is due to the courage and skill of Ukrainians. They do not get much credit for it. They should get more credit, and more support. 4/
For decades, Republican and Democratic administrations alike have failed to formulate a policy that could prevent Russia from weakening and undoing the international order. Russia serves as a cat’s paw, doing what China would not wish to be seen doing. 5/
In defeating Russia’s armed forces and exposing Russia’s weakness, the Ukrainians have both made a larger war in Europe far less likely, and gotten China’s cat’s paw under control. 6/
The Ukrainians have reduced the possibility of Chinese aggression through Russia, and made direct Chinese aggression less likely. They have done all of this just by defending themselves, without making any move against China. 7/
Without the Ukrainians, the United States would lack the policy instruments for this. By resisting, Ukrainians created an opportunity for U.S. policy that would not otherwise have existed. 8/
Rounding error
Costs for supporting Ukraine’s defense are low and the benefits are high, Snyder believes:
No American lives have been placed at risk. U.S. assistance to Ukraine amounts to a rounding error in the defense budget. 9/
The gains Ukrainian resistance brings to American security are so enormous that the US national security establishment is embarrassed to speak of them directly. 10/
It is awkward to say that another country is doing so much for us. It is awkward to say that Ukrainian resistance has done more for the safety of Americans than any U.S. policy since the end of the cold war. But it is true and must be said. 11/
Reversing the U.S. policy of aiding Ukraine will undo all of these gains. There is still time to revive Russia and reassure China, which is what ending support of Ukraine will mean. Such a policy reversal would make Americans far less safe and secure. 12/
My concerns about the Russian invasion of Ukraine are the prevention of genocide and the defense of democracy. But those who think first of U.S. interests should acknowledge what Ukrainians are doing for American security. The least we can do is be on our own side 13/13
Despite an America-first posture, MAGA Republicans have chosen the side neither of the United States nor of Russia. Many now pledge their allegiance to Christiannationalism wherever it grows. If Republicans mean to rule. Christian nationalist Republicans mean to rule in Jesus’s name. Their Jesus. They’ve pledged to withdraw support from Ukraine if Republicans gain control of Congress in 2023.
After dropping the previous propaganda about NATO and Nazis, Moscow now maintains that its war in Ukraine is justified by the presence of Satan.https://t.co/EubwiI85VH
Vladimir Putin knows the Christian right will gobble up whatever propaganda he’s dishing out, especially anything seasoned with Satan. He must be gleeful.
Time zones were introduced by the major railroad companies in 1883 to resolve confusion and avoid train crashes caused by different local times. As the United States entered World War I in 1918, the government delegated time zone supervision to the federal organization in charge of railroad regulation—the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC). The new concept of DST was also overseen by the ICC to assist in the war effort. Initially introduced by Germany during the war to conserve fuel and power by extending daylight hours, the United States soon followed suit.
So why do we still do shift time zones twice a year when we’re not at war in the age of GPS and satellite communications? Because 1883.
Sleep experts writing in the Washington Post argue that permanent Daylight Saving Time is harmful to developing kids:
This would all be tremendously bad for kids. Because of the later biological pacing of the teenage brain, waking at 7 a.m. already feels to young people like waking at 5 a.m. With permanent daylight saving time, it would feel like 4 a.m. This would put a serious strain on teen mental health. The result would be, among other things, shortened sleep for a population that is already severely sleep-deprived and a potential uptick in rates of depression, when teens are already struggling with elevated levels of depressive symptoms and suicidal thinking.
And let’s not forget: A policy that’s bad for teens is bad for the rest of us. Sleep-deprived teens are driving next to us on the freeway. Sleep-deprived teens are twice as likely to experience mental health symptoms, which affect families, schools and health-care systems.
Working with volunteers during early voting, I asked several if they knew why we vote on Tuesday. Had they seen Jacob Soboroff’s brief TED talk on it? Nope.
So, why Tuesdays?
“It is just a stupid law from 1845,” Soboroff explains.
Soboroff concludes that with introduction of the Weekend Voting Act in 2017, “we are now on the verge of changing American history.”
The bill went nowhere. It still specified voting in November. Since 1845.
Every election, people by the dozens call in to volunteer to drive people to the polls on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. We still do it. Activists from Black neighborhoods still do it. Except with the advent of 2-1/2 weeks of one-stop early voting here in 2001, rides to the polls has been a declining part of our get-out-the-vote operation for well over a decade.
In 2008, Obama’s regional team might send over a spreadsheet with 20-30 requests for rides their canvassers collected every other day. And in 2022? Maybe six requests. So why do people think driving people to the polls is still the most important way they can help? Because it’s what you do. It’s what’s always been done.
Like Daylight Saving Time. Like voting on Tuesday.
With the advent of 2-1/2 weeks of early voting, the old model of precinct organizing, of block captains getting out their vote on Election Day, is all but obsolete. Two-thirds of the vote is already cast here by Election Day. Elections in most states are no longer one-day, 14-hour marathons. But the decades-old model persists.
The Beatles were beside themselves with glee. Stoned – which they were most of the time in the studio – the experiments became part prank, part innovation. In that kind of dreamy, altered, impractical state, the possibilities were limitless. Recording became no longer just another way of putting out songs, but a new way of creating them.
–from Bob Spitz’s 2005 biography The Beatles, regarding the sessions for Revolver
On August 5, 1966, The Beatles released an LP that not only represents the pinnacle of their oeuvre, but remains one of the best pop albums of all time. Yes, as painful as it may be for some of us of “a certain age” to process, Revolver turned 56 years old this year (!).
It’s even more mind-blowing that Revolver arrived just 8 months after Rubber Soul, an album that in and of itself reflected a quantum leap in musical and lyrical sophistication for the band. And whereas Rubber Soul demonstrated an earnest embrace of eclecticism (incorporating everything from rock, pop, and R&B to country, folk, and chanson), Revolver ups the ante further. As Tim Riley nicely summates in his book, Tell Me Why:
Rubber Soul has a romantic astonishment, the echoing realization that teenage quandaries don’t dissipate with age; they dilate. Starker realities intrude on Revolver: embracing life also means accepting death.
That’s a heavy observation; but lest you begin contemplating opening your veins, keep in mind that while “Tomorrow Never Knows” suggests you surrenderto the void, and “She Said, She Said” insists I know what it’s like to be dead…this is the same album that gifted us the loopy singalong of “Yellow Submarine” and upbeat pop of “Good Day Sunshine”.
Yet Revolver works as a whole; 14 cuts of pure pop nirvana, with no filler. As someone once astutely observed, “They were probably the most avant-garde group in Britain [in the 1960s], but also the most commercial.” Therein lies the genius of the Beatles; their ability to transcend that dichotomy with sheer talent and craftsmanship. It is significant to note that when recording sessions for Revolver began in April of 1966, the Beatles were nearing the end of their touring days. It’s a logical assumption that the less time they spent touring, the more time they had to experiment and innovate in the studio.
How quickly were they evolving? Consider this, from a 1966 UK newspaper article:
LONDON – They’re calling it the end of an era, the Beatles’ era. […]
Last Sunday night, about 200 [fans] picketed the London home of Beatles manager Brian Epstein, demanding to see more of their idols. The foursome has not toured Britain this year and there are no plans for personal appearances […]
The obvious conclusion, supported by their words and actions in the past months, is that they are bored with being the Beatles. […]
With their success, they have gained a certain sophistication. Their last album, Revolver, was musically far ahead of their efforts at the height of their popularity and they are well aware of the fact.
“Songs like ‘Eight Days a Week’ and ‘She Loves You’ sound like right drags to me now,” John told an interviewer recently. “I turn the radio off if they’re on.” *
(*Source: Things We Said Today: Conversations with the Beatles, by Geoffrey and Vrnda Giuliano)
It’s very telling that Lennon distances himself from “Eight Days a Week” and relegates it to a bygone era, even though it was released just the year before (in February of 1965). You just don’t see that kind of accelerated artistic growth nowadays.
At any rate, in celebration of Revolver handily pushing past the half-century mark with very little sign of aging, I thought it would be fun to revisit it, track-by-track, and see why it stands the test of time. In addition to giving a nod to the original UK 14-track sequence, I am prefacing with the double-sided 45 RPM release of “Paperback Writer” and “Rain” – as they were recorded during the same sessions and shore up this truly amazing song cycle.
Paperback Writer – One of the classic riff songs (it may have “inspired” the suspiciously similar hook for the Monkees’ “Pleasant Valley Sunday”), featuring proto-metal guitar tone from George and a sonic Rickenbacker bass line from Paul (who also contributes lead guitar). In a Ray Davies-styled turn, Paul assumes the character of a cynical pulp writer, drafting a letter of introduction that he hopes to be his entree to fame and fortune: Please Sir or Madam, will you read my book? It took me years to write, will you take a look? Later in the song, he synopsizes it as a dirty story of a dirty man…and his clinging wife doesn’t understand. He’s flexible: I can make it longer if you like the style. Listen for George and John’s “Frere Jacques” quote in the backing vocals.
Rain – This is a Lennon song all the way; and generally regarded as the birth of psychedelia (the latter by virtue of actual release date, as it was preceded in the sessions by the equally trippy “Tomorrow Never Knows” the week before). The tune’s signature backward tape-looping was a trick accidentally “discovered” by a stoned John, who put the reels on upside down while listening back to a demo at home. The harmony vocals are very “raga-rock”. It’s a great track, with excellent drumming by Ringo (who concurs, stating once in an interview “I think it’s the best out of all the records I’ve ever made.”).
Taxman – Back in the old days, before “shuffle play” (or “mix tapes”) were a thing, Side 1, Cut 1 held import; it really meant something. Sequencing an LP was a science; as that opening cut set the tone for the next 30 minutes of your life (slightly longer in the UK). This funky number, the first of 3 Harrison contributions to Revolver, is a perfect kickoff. It sports a catchy riff (I’m pretty sure Paul Weller had it stuck in his head when he wrote the Jam song “Start”), and a strident burst of lead guitar by Paul. This is the Beatles’ first foray into agitprop, with a stinging lyric that name checks politicians, and advises Inland Revenue to fuck off.
Eleanor Rigby – This is one of “those” songs that anyone who has ever sat down and attempted to compose a piece of music would gladly sell their soul to have written. Paul’s original working version was the sad tale of a “Miss Daisy Hawkins”, but eventually morphed into the sad tale of an “Eleanor” (after actress Eleanor Bron, who co-starred in the Beatles’ 1965 film, Help) “Rigby” (the name of a shop, according to Paul). It was a masterstroke to add the string backing (Paul’s idea, but producer George Martin’s arrangement), which makes this melancholic, yet hauntingly beautiful song even more so.
I’m Only Sleeping – Lennon really ran with that backward looping thing during these sessions; the resultant “yawning” guitar effect gives this lovely, hypnotic number an appropriately “drowsy” vibe, lulling the listener into an agreeable alpha state for 3 minutes. My favorite take on the song is from Lennon’s BFF Pete Shotten, who observed that it “…brilliantly evokes the state of chemically induced lethargy into which John had…drifted.” Ouch. If you want to hear an unapologetic lift, check out the song “Sweet Dreams” by The Knack.
Love You To – While George had already introduced Beatle fans to the exotic eastern twang of the sitar on Rubber Soul, he later insisted the 13-note run that defines “Norwegian Wood” was “accidental” (he was ever the wry one). There is nothing “accidental” about the Indian influences on this proto-worldbeat number, which features Anil Bhagwat on tabla, along with “session musicians”. Interestingly, George (sitar and vocals) is the sole Beatle on the track; if I’m not mistaken, the only precedent at that time was “Yesterday” (just Paul, and session players). Akin to “Taxman”, its couplets wax acerbic: There’s people standing round / who’ll screw you in the ground.
Here, There, and Everywhere – Paul has made it no secret that he was really taken by the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds album, so much so that he developed an acute case of Brian Wilson Envy and lobbied his band mates to “go to 11” with Revolver to blow Wilson’s irksome masterpiece out of the water. Brian Wilson later said that Sgt. Pepper’s had a likewise effect on him! At any rate, this achingly beautiful ballad was allegedly Paul’s attempt to one-up “God Only Knows”.
Yellow Submarine – It’s a novelty tune. But as far as novelty tunes go, it’s a classic. This was Ringo’s “one song” for this album (OK, occasionally they would let him sing two, but not as a rule). While it has been interpreted by some to be about drugs, or war, Paul and Ringo insist it was designed to be exactly what it sounds like…a kid’s song (sometimes, a yellow submarine is just a yellow submarine). It sounds like they had fun making it, which apparently they did. George Martin says they “all had a giggle”. He even pitched in on the fade-out chorus, which included Patti Harrison and studio staffers.
She Said She Said –Another psychedelic gem by John, which was literally inspired by psychedelics, written in reference to an acid trip he took in 1965, while partying with The Byrds in L.A. (you know those space cowboys had the good shit). At any rate, the story goes that John got freaked out by Peter Fonda, who kept cornering him and whispering in his ear: “I know what it’s like to be dead.” Obviously, this unsettling mantra stuck with Lennon, who modified the final lyric, so that it became “she” said…I know what it’s like to be dead…
(End of Side 1. I’ll give you a moment to flip the record over.)
Good Day Sunshine – The kickoff to Side 2 is Paul in full cockeyed optimist mode. Everything about it is “happy”, from the lyrics (I feel good, in a special way / I’m in love and it’s a sunny day) and the bright harmonies, to George Martin’s jaunty ragtime piano solo. Paul has said that he was inspired by the Lovin’ Spoonful; and indeed the song does have that “Do You Believe in Magic?” / “Rain on the Roof” / “Daydream” kind of vibe to it. So lighten up!
And Your Bird Can Sing – It’s always fascinating to me how artists view their own work, as opposed to fans’ perceptions. This song is a perfect example. In interviews over the years, John dismissed it as “Another horror.” (Hit Parader, 1972) and “Another of my throwaways.” (Playboy, 1980). But as far as I’m concerned, he was wrong. This easily places in my top 5 Beatles favorites; a perfect 2 minute slab of power pop goodness, replete with chiming open chords for the verses and Lennon’s patented chromatically descending bass lines on the bridge. And for a “throwaway”, its double-tracked harmony guitar parts sound pretty sophisticated to my ears (to this day, I can’t figure out those note runs).
For No One – Another unmistakably “McCartney-esque” ballad; this one a melancholic lament about a relationship gone sour. It features one of Paul’s most beautiful melodies (this guy tosses them off in his sleep-it’s a genuine gift) and sophisticated lyrics. The narrative is the aural equivalent of a “split-screen” view, observing two ex-lovers as they go about their daily routines; one still pines, the other has moved on. Alan Civil’s transcendent horn solo rips your heart out. Lennon once named this as one of his favorite McCartney tunes.
Dr. Robert – Prince had “Dr. Michael”, Michael Jackson had “Dr. Conrad”, Elvis had “Dr. Nick”, but the (more often than not) dubiously titled “personal physician” is no stranger to show biz (or professional sports…or to the rich and famous in general). Back in the 1960s, NYC-based Dr. Charles Roberts became popular with Andy Warhol and the Factory crowd for his, shall we say, open-mindedness when it came to administering “medicine” (mostly in the form of injections; vitamins, speed and even LSD). This was John’s in-jokey homage.
I Want to Tell You – This superb cut from George is one of his best tunes, with a memorable riff. A friend of mine who is more versed in music theory than I (I’m largely self-taught) has been kind enough to occasionally enlighten an old dog on some new scales and chord theory and such (it’s never too late to start). Recently, I asked him to deconstruct this particular song for me, because I’ve always wanted someone to explain why that dissonant piano figure Paul pounds out at the end of each verse “works” so well. Naturally, it went in one ear and out the other, but it made sense to me at the time!
Got to Get You into My Life –Paul’s Motown homage (and possible nod to the Northern Soul movement that flourished in the U.K. at that time) was also one of his most self-consciously “radio-friendly” compositions to date (witness its belated official release as a “single” in 1976, when it managed to climb up to #7 on the charts…six years after the Beatles disbanded). Of course, Paul’s little in-joke may be embedded in the lyrics, which he later confessed to be an ode to the joys of weed (a predilection that once landed him a night in a Japanese jail). At any rate, it’s a fab song, no matter how you interpret it, with a soul/R&B flavored horn chart (a Beatles first).
Tomorrow Never Knows – Just when you think the Fabs couldn’t possibly top the creative juggernaut of the previous 13 cuts, they save the best for last (sequentially, the first number they had worked on for these sessions, which lends the song cycle a poetic symmetry, especially considering the refrain: So play the game “Existence” to the end / Of the beginning…of the beginning…). In a 1980 Playboy interview, John explained, “That’s me in my ‘Tibetan Book of the Dead’ period. I took one of Ringo’s malapropisms as the title, to sort of take the edge off the heavy philosophical lyrics.” It’s heavy, all right-and doesn’t sound like anything in Western pop up to that time; truly innovative. It’s basically a drone in “C”, with John’s vocals recorded through a loudspeaker, which George Martin turned to the side of the studio microphone. This gave John the sound of a “Dalai Lama singing on a hilltop” (as he had requested). Backward tape loops add to the mesmerizing vibe, and Ringo lays down a thunderous, primal beat that drives the tune quite powerfully.
Which brings us to the end.
Of the beginning…
“All in all, not a bad album” notes Paul McCartney (with possible tongue-in-cheek) in his forward to a 100-page book included with the new 5-CD Revolver Special Edition box set. Revolver is the latest album from the Beatles catalog to get the deluxe treatment (following Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The White Album, Abbey Road, and Let it Be).
OK, Boomer…here’s the deal. As with previous Beatles deluxe reissues, there are many editions of Revolver (which can be perplexing, even with a little help from your friend Mr. Google). Don’t fret, Beatle people…I’ve done the research and am here to assist. First, a note on the most important part-the music. All the editions feature new mixes by producer Giles Martin and Sam Okell, and are sourced directly from the original four-track master tapes.
A lot of us are budget-conscious right now, so I will begin with the most affordable option, and we’ll work our way up from there. If you just want Revolver classic, with the original 14-tracks and no frills, there’s the 1-CD Special Edition (includes a truncated booklet). If you prefer to kick it old school, there is the original 14-track vinyl LP Special Edition (picture disc).
Upgrading slightly: The 29-track Deluxe 2-CD Special Edition features the 14-track album, a 2nd disc of bonus tracks that includes new stereo mixes of “Paperback Writer” and “Rain” (in addition to demos and studio outtakes), plus a 40-page booklet.
Moving into 3-digit territory: The Special Edition Super Deluxe 5CD (the one I went with) includes the new stereo and mono mixes of the original album (1-disc each), an EP replica CD of “Paperback Writer” and “Rain” (new stereo and mono mixes), 2 additional CDs with bonus tracks (demos, outtakes, alternate mixes, etc.) plus a lovely (hardbound) 100-page book.
If money is no object, there is a limited Special Edition Half-Speed 4 LP + 7″ Vinyl EP box set. And for those who simply must have it all, there is the 63-track Super Deluxe Special Edition, which essentially combines the 5-CD box with the 4 LP/7″ EP set (tossing in digital audio versions in stereo and hi res 96kHz/24-bit stereo + mono + Dolby Atmos for giggles).
Oh, yeah …almost forgot. How do the new mixes sound? Let me put it this way…”Eleanor Rigby” literally had me in tears. Granted, not a happy song to begin with…but I have easily heard it close to 1,000 times, and I detected a new resonance in the strings, a warmth in McCartney’s vocal, an overall clarity and depth to the mix that is truly mind-blowing (the Beatles catalog is so embedded into my neurons that if there is even the slightest of variance in a song…be it but a brush on a string or an intake of breath, I’ll notice it). Ditto the entire album.
Bottom line-if you’re a Beatle fan, just go for it, because…tomorrow never knows.
At the QAnon conference today, Eric Trump says Democrats “want to destroy christianity, destroy our families, our children, our history. Guys, this is a cognizant (?) war in this country. I don’t say that lightly. I’m not the tinfoil hat-wearing guy.” pic.twitter.com/5ixBHOTUeI
Since early last year, some of the most prolific spreaders of conspiracy theories have been barnstorming across the country alongside a stacked cast of pro-Trump speakers, preachers and self-proclaimed prophets.
Each stop of the ReAwaken America Tour is part conservative Christian revival, part QAnon expo and part political rally. It features big name stars in the MAGA galaxy, including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, Trump adviser Roger Stone and former President Donald Trump’s son, Eric. There are meet and greets, a buffet and, lately, baptisms and the casting out of demons.
The show was conceived in the months after former national security adviser Michael Flynn received a pardon from Trump. Flynn connected with Clay Clark, an Oklahoma man who had been hosting local, anti-lockdown gatherings during the pandemic. The two put on their first event in Tulsa in April 2021. The most recent stop in Pennsylvania Amish country was their 16th show together.
“Here, we go through two days of probably the best education you’re ever going to get,” Flynn told the audience.
Between stage calls, “America’s General,” as he’s known in these circles, paced through the sports complex in a suit and red, white and blue sneakers. His partner, Clark, raced on and off stage with a clipboard and the unshakeable cheerfulness of his former career as a wedding DJ, to coordinate the speaking slots of the more than 70 presenters over two days. Clark is also a podcaster who is being sued for defamation by a former executive of Dominion Voting Systems over claims that aired on his show.
“I don’t take any income or salary from these events and I do that because I’m not trying to get rich, I’m not trying to make it as a firebrand. I’m trying to save this nation,” Clark told the crowd between acts.
Plenty of money does change hands though. Dietary supplements, fluoride-free toothpaste, patriotic coffee and children’s books like “The Cat In The Maga Hat” are all on sale. Bedazzled purses in the shape of a gun or the Titanic (a metaphor for the country) cost $500.
Carson Massie was selling vibrating platforms you can stand on instead of exercising. “Ten minutes on this is equal to an hour at the gym,” said Massie. The units go for $3,300 each, a steal compared to other models on the market, he said. Their stand sells about 150 on an average ReAwaken day.
After his speech, Roger Stone remained near the stage to pose for pictures with attendees. On either side of him were two people holding open large, clear garbage bags who collected cash donations toward Stone’s legal and medical bills.
It’s easy to just dismiss this as extreme nutso grift that goes even beyond the usual MAGA lunacy. But Eric Trump has been dispatched to this tour and that’s not just because he’s a true believer in Michael Flynn. He’s representing the Trump family, putting its imprimatur on their crazy, saying he’s one of them. They aren’t trying to hide it anymore.
At the QAnon conference today headlined by Eric Trump and Michael Flynn, the speaker says the ‘Angel of Death’ is coming for various govt officials, and God is reinstating Trump to the presidency by the end of the year. pic.twitter.com/i7tyWOdWlB
These guys out at the Trump rally in PA today says God will soon be revealing the truth that Trump won in 2020, then they say a quick prayer. pic.twitter.com/REOzPrEnbN
This is a handy website you might want to bookmark. They are keeping track of all of Trump’s legal woes.
Which comes first, the indictment or the re-election announcement?
In Sioux City, Iowa on Nov. 3, five days before the midterms, former President Trump told a rally, “Get ready. That’s all I’m telling you,” pausing to let the crowd chant his name. “Very soon. Get ready.”
“In order to make our country successful, and safe and glorious, I will very, very, very probably do it again okay,” he added. “Very, very, very probably.”
But Alexander Bolton at The Hill reported on Nov. 2, “Republican aides and strategists privately expect Attorney General Merrick Garland to pursue an indictment of former President Trump within 60 to 90 days after Election Day, predicting the window for prosecuting Trump will close once the 2024 presidential campaign gains momentum.”
And while we all wait breathlessly for the drama to unfold in the weeks ahead here is a guide to the criminal and grand jury investigations found below in the blog which may – or may not – lead to one or more indictments of the former president/possible future GOP presidential nominee. Scroll down the Index and the blog to find each heading and its full text.
New York AG sues Trump for $250 million, threatening to shut down business On Sept. 21, Attorney General James filed the civil lawsuit seeking a $250 million judgment and a prohibition on any of the Trumps leading a company in the state of New York. The suit was filed against the Trump Organization, the former president and three of his children, Eric, Don Jr. and Ivanka. James said her office has sent a criminal referral to the U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York in Manhattan and the IRS.
Trump Organization goes on trial for tax fraud, prosecutors put Trump at center of crimeThe prosecution has started to lay out its case in the trial of the Trump Organization and Trump Payroll Corporation on criminal charges of grand larceny and tax fraud. As the CEO of the company, testimony by the company’s executives linking Trump, the CEO of the company, to the crime could put Trump in the thick of the alleged fraud. The trial resumes Nov. 10.
Georgia county DA investigating Trump’s alleged attempt to overthrow electionCNN reported in October, 2022 that the prosecutor investigating the very public efforts by Trump and his allies to challenge the 2020 election results may be issuing indictments as soon as this coming December. A federal judge declared Trump has signed a document under oath claiming Fulton County had improperly counted more than 10,000 votes of dead people, felons and unregistered voters and that Trump and his attorneys had been warned repeatedly the claim was false.
Is Donald Trump guilty of criminal obstruction? Regarding Trump’s actions between the election and Jan. 6: “At the core of a possible criminal case against former President Trump is this argument – He knew he had lost the election and sought to overturn it anyway.” Will the Jan. 6 committee recommend the House vote to recommend the DOJ to prosecute the former president?
Justice Department investigating Jan. 6 riot; is Trump now a target? A special federal grand jury has issued subpoena requests to more than 40 officials in former President Trump’s orbit. Justice Department criminal prosecutors are now examining nearly every aspect of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election — including the fraudulent electors plot, efforts to push baseless election fraud claims and how money flowed to support these various efforts.
Justice Department, states investigating GOP plot to submit fake Electoral College voters Former President Trump played a direct role in the effort to use fake electors to overturn the presidential election, the head of the Republican National Committee told the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot.
Timeline: Trump’s removal of top-secret documents to Mar-a-Lago and the ongoing federal investigation Donald Trump’s legal team acknowledged Sept. 19 in a court filing the possibility the former president could be indicted for any one of several crimes being investigated. Breitbartreported Trump is under investigation by the Department of Justice for concealment, removal or mutilation; gathering, transmitting or losing defense information and destruction, alteration or falsification of records in Federal investigation.
Is this the end for Trump’s Truth Social? Feds launch investigations, investors balk, Musk buys Twitter Trump Media & Technology Group is being investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and has been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in connection with a criminal probe.
Lawsuits
New York AG sues Trump for $250 million, threatening to close down business, plus Legal Analysis
House committees seek Trump’s tax returns, financial records
NAACP, Democrat House members file lawsuit for Jan. 6 attack on Capitol; Trump, Pence don’t see “eye to eye” on Jan. 6 violence
E. Jean Carroll sues Trump for defamation, threatens to sue for sexual battery
Trump and GOP face lawsuit claiming they violated the Ku Klux Klan Act
Trump faces five separate lawsuits by Capitol and D.C. police officers for Jan. 6 riot
Trump sues Facebook, Twitter and Google, plus Legal Analysis
Dominion sues Fox News, Giuliani and Powell
Smartmatic sues Fox News, its hosts and Giuliani and Powell, plus Legal Analysis
Trump family accused of pushing pyramid scheme on “The Celebrity Apprentice”
Trump 2020 campaign, Giuliani, Powell and others target of defamation suit
Trump sues the New York Times and niece Mary Trump
Trump sues CNN for defamation (and $475,000,000)
Trump 2020, 2024 campaigns subject of lawsuits filed against FEC
Criminal indictment and trial
Trump Organization goes on trial for tax fraud, prosecutors put Trump at center of crime
Investigations
Georgia county DA investigating Trump’s alleged attempt to overthrow election, plus Legal Analysis
House Select Committee investigates Jan. 6 attack on U.S. Capitol; plus, Running Tally: Who’s cooperating and who’s not; Legal Analysis: Is Donald Trump Guilty of Criminal Obstruction? and 64 Days That Will Live in Infamy
Justice Department investigating Jan. 6 riot; is Trump now a target?
Justice Department, states investigating GOP plot to submit fake Electoral College voters
Timeline: Trump’s removal of top-secret documents to Mar-a-Lago and the ongoing federal investigation
Is this the end for Trump’s Truth Social? Feds investigating, investors balk, Musk buys Twitter
Trump’s A-Team: Meadows, Powell, Giuliani and Eastman all under investigation
Complaint
Trump’s Bedminster golf club facing criminal complaint
Disposition of six Trump cases
Manhattan DA’s investigation of Trump’s real estate empire comes to an end (maybe?)
DC Attorney General, Trump Organization settle case over alleged misuse of Inaugural funds
Summer Zervos drops suit against Trump for alleged assault
Trump avoids Wisconsin $$ bill for failed election fraud lawsuit
Trump campaign ordered to pay Omarosa $1.3 million
Judge dismisses Trump lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, James Comey and others
Following up on the post below, here’s an interesting analysis from the NY Times about how the dangerous conspiracy theories are spread by GOP officials and right wing luminaries. It’s disturbing to say the least:
Within hours of the brutal attack last month on Paul Pelosi, the husband of the speaker of the House, activists and media outlets on the right began circulating groundless claims — nearly all of them sinister, and many homophobic — casting doubt on what had happened.
Some Republican officials quickly joined in, rushing to suggest that the bludgeoning of an octogenarian by a suspect obsessed with right-wing conspiracy theories was something else altogether, dismissing it as an inside job, a lover’s quarrel or worse.
The misinformation came from all levels of Republican politics. A U.S. senator circulated the view that “none of us will ever know” what really happened at the Pelosis’ San Francisco home. A senior Republican congressman referred to the attacker as a “nudist hippie male prostitute,” baselessly asserting that the suspect had a personal relationship with Mr. Pelosi. Former President Donald J. Trump questioned whether the attack might have been staged.
The world’s richest man helped amplify the stories. But none of it was true.
The flood of falsehoods showed how ingrained misinformation has become inside the G.O.P., where the reflexive response of the rank and file — and even a few prominent figures — to anything that might cast a negative light on the right is to deflect with more fictional claims, creating a vicious cycle that muddies facts, shifts blame and minimizes violence.
It happened after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, which was inspired by Mr. Trump’s lie of a stolen election, and in turn gave rise to more falsehoods, as Republicans and their right-wing allies tried to play down, deny or invent a different story for what happened, including groundlessly blaming the F.B.I. and antifa. Mr. Pelosi’s attacker is said to have believed some of those tales.
“This is the dynamic as it plays out,” said Brian Hughes, a professor at American University who studies radicalism and extremism. “The conspiracy theory prompts an act of violence; that act of violence needs to be disavowed, and it can only be disavowed by more conspiracy theories, which prompts more violence.”
The Justice Department moved swiftly to bring criminal charges against the suspect in the attack, David DePape, 42, who prosecutors said broke into the Pelosi home intending to kidnap Ms. Pelosi and shatter her kneecaps, and assaulted her husband with a hammer, leaving him with a cracked skull. The San Francisco district attorney said it was imperative for prosecutors to present the facts to the public, given the misinformation circulating widely about the case.
But by then, it was far too late. In a pattern that has become commonplace, a parade of Republicans — helped along by right-wing media personalities including the Fox New host Tucker Carlson, and prominent people including the newly installed Twitter owner Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man — had already abetted the viral spread of lies about the attack, distorting the account of what happened before facts could get in the way. Finding life on far-right websites and the so-called dark web, conspiracy theories and falsehoods leaped from the fringes to the mainstream.
While many Republican leaders denounced the violence and some, including former Vice President Mike Pence, expressed sympathy for the Pelosis, none of them publicly condemned the falsehoods their colleagues were elevating or did anything to push back on the false narrative. That left others to fill the void.
“Just produce the police body cam, — why is that so hard?” Mr. Carlson demanded on his show on Wednesday night. Addressing those criticizing the conspiracy theorizing, he added: “We’re not the crazy people; you’re the liars. There’s nothing wrong with asking questions, period.”
The disinformation surrounding the attack on Mr. Pelosi presented many of the standard elements of alt-right conspiracy theories, which relish a culture of “do your own research,” casting skepticism on official accounts, and tend to focus on lurid sexual activities or issues related to children, often driven by a fear of society becoming immoral.
Nina Jankowicz, a disinformation expert, said no amount of evidence — be it police body camera footage or anything else — could get in the way of such falsehoods in the eyes of those who do not want to believe facts.
“It doesn’t matter when there are documents or sworn testimony claiming something is, in fact, not the case,” Ms. Jankowicz said. “There will be an elaborate reframing effort. If the footage was released, people would claim it was fabricated. There’s no bottom.”
Republicans are accomplices in the violence as far as I’m concerned. They believe they are benefiting from it so the so-called Team Normal says as little as possible while the rest endorse it.
