Author: Spocko

I’m a HUGE fan of A Closer Look on the Seth Meyers show. It’s written by Sal Gentile and the supervising producer is Emily Erotas. They have a limited series podcast called A Closer Look Back, talking about what they learned during Trump first term & what they can do to prepare for Trump 2.0. It’s insightful & funny and I highly recommend it. I was on the Nicole Sandler Show on 12-2-2024 singing the praises of Sal and A Closer Look. I mentioned my idea on the show, here it is cued up.

Listening to their podcast and Rachel Maddow’s recent show on preparing for Trump’s next term got me thinking.

Who has a media and social media strategy to mess with Trump this time around? And, because nothing seems to hurt Trump, who is focusing on busting his nominees & minions? I ask because I don’t see the Dems doing it.

I wondered what I can do. Who can I help that I think is doing good work to counter the RW narrative? I looked at what was breaking thru the RW narrative IN MULTIPLE SPACES. One was comedy. So I wrote the best comedy writers & producers I knew about & asked them this question:

Dear Sal & Emily:

How can we on the left help you prepare for the scandals of nominees, so the COMEDY bits can be used to define them first?

What struck me in your A Closer Look back podcasts was how you talked about what you learned during the first Trump term and how you were overwhelmed by new scandals daily. You said you forgot about some scandals, but you remembered the jokes. I believe the same is true for a LOTS of people. 

You know that people need something goofy to see & discuss about people and issues. You saw how Weird got a reaction. It reached Trump & Fox News, but the scandals didn’t, so I’m looking for things that have broken through to the right, and want to make more of them. 

For Trump 2.0. I think getting out the weirdest information about Trump’s nominees & minions is one way to hurt them, since nothing seems to hurt Trump. So my question is,

How can I help you “flood the zone with good jokes about Trump’s nominees?”

Spocko’s question to Seth Meyers’ writers & producers

I KNOW that jokes aren’t enough, but when I hear “Follow the money” from the Watergate days, I point out that today, if it’s from the Koch’s & the usual suspects, it’s totally legal! Thanks Citizens United!  

You talked about how hard it is to keep up with the news about the nominees. My friends at The Democracy Labs created a tool that shows the links between the Billionaires, the cabinet picks, Project 2025 people and Influencers to Trump. I talked to the creators and suggested they should add YouTube links to the people’s names so you can do research for A Closer Look.

Here is the link to the tool. https://thedemlabs.org/2024/12/01/trump-nominees-map-dec-1-2024/

I used the tool/site to look up information and links on Sean Duffy, Trump’s nominee for Department of Transportation. Trump picked Duffy because he saw him on TV and he looks like a MANLY MAN, especially compared to the GAY Pete Buttigieg. Sure Pete was in combat, but DUFFY was a LUMBERJACK* contest winner! 

 I expect Duffy will attack Pete Buttigieg for this year’s “Christmas Transportation” problems that Duffy, the LUMBERJACK, will fix by throwing axes at them, just like Pete Hegseth! (Who happens to be Duffy’s wife co-host on Fox and Friends Weekend!)

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We know Fox will position Duffy as being there for travelers with families, unlike Buttigieg who Duffy attacked for being on paternity leave and not doing anything about Transportation problems!  Duffy WOULD never go on Paternity leave, even though Duffy & his wife have 9 kids. But we can’t talk about politicians kids, especially since one of them has Down’s syndrome, HOWEVER you can talk about Duffy’s traveling with kids during the holidays. How do they do it!?

How many nannies do the Duffy’s have? Are they here legally?  Have the Duffy’s paid them correctly?

Where will the Duffy’s go for Christmas? To the 50-acre Hawaiian ranch they just bought for $3.5 million.  

Where did the Duffy’s get the money? Their Fox News salaries are one area. You might point out Duffy quit Congress because he said couldn’t live on $174K a year. The boring “Follow the money” people would ask, “Did you know that since 2019 Duffy has accepted almost $1 millions from BRG Group to lobby for the airlines, and transportation companies?” Link to Duffy and OpenSecrets lobbying profile. BUT WHO CARES!? It’s totally legal! BORING!!! 

But, what if you heard Rachel Campos-Duffy got a $1 million dollar settlement from Fox News for sexual harassment? EXCITING!

Sadly nobody will talk about sexual harassment at Fox News because both of them work there.  Also, she likely signed an NDA, and it was around the time she was named co-host of Fox and Friends Weekends. HOWEVER, you could play this clip from 2017,  when she talked about Al Franken and said,

“There are a lot of sexual harassers on the Hill who are quivering in their boots right now… Talk about draining the swamp. Let’s get rid of them. Let’s get rid of this secret fund that they have. Let’s let constituents know who are these people who’ve been accused of sexual harassment and are using a secret taxpayer fund to quiet their accusers.” — Rachel Campos-Duffy Nov 17, 2017

link to the video: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10155941251265238

If that’s too serious for A Closer Look, I want to direct you to some wacky comments from his wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy. 

“Former reality TV star Rachel Campos-Duffy has spent eight years spreading extremism and conspiracy theories as a contributor and host at Fox News, where she has pushed the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, complained about “the eugenics mentality of the pro-choice movement,” and claimed that feminism is about “abortion and communism.”

Here is a link to a BUNCH of her wacky comments from my friends at Media Matters.

Link https://www.mediamatters.org/rachel-campos-duffy/reality-tv-warping-reality-rachel-campos-duffy-has-made-career-pushing

* Sean Duffy’s Lumberjack videos

Duffy Bulls Eye throwing axes 
Duffy Climbing poles
Duffy log rolling

You could compare Sean Duffy’s Axe Throws and Pete Hegseth’s (Which I know you love) But that’s not enough, when people see Lumberjack they instantly think of the Monty Python song, maybe you can use that as a connection. Remember the lyrics to that song? 

MOUNTY CHORUS

He’s a lumberjack and he’s OK
He sleeps all night and works all day
PALIN
I cut down trees, I wear high heels
Suspenders and a bra
I wish I were a girlie
Just like my dear papa

Thank you for your work on A Closer Look. I’m a big fan. I even have a Corrections jackal mug and a Late Night with Seth Meyer’s t-shirt.

LLAP 
Spocko
Mastodon: @spocko@mastodon.online 
Bluesky: @spocko.bsky.social  
Twitter/X @Spockosbrain 

P.S. BTW, I suggested to my one rich Democrat friend that he pay me to feed you folks raw material to work with in advance so you can confirm it & write some of the 100 jokes Seth demands every day. He suggested I do it for free, because I love Democracy. Frankly, if the Democrats were smart, they’d hire comedy writers to help them with Zingers. I’ll bet Scollins or Baze would love to write jokes for Chuck Schumer…

Cross Posted to Spocko’s Brain #SethMeyers #ACloserLook #SeanDuffy #PeteHegseth #Lumberjack song #MontyPython #AxeThrowing #RachalCampos-Duffy #FoxNews #SexualHarassment

Today Cliff Schecter and Hal Sparks talked about Kash Patel & how he could be the first possible leather daddy to head the FBI.

The Steve Bannon plan is to overwhelm the media with Trump’s horrible nominees. What gets to the MSM, that makes them disqualified, isn’t the same as what makes it to late night comedy shows, or to Fox News, or RW social media.

Part of what we can do with our audiences is to show how weird these people are. There are serious reasons these people are horrible, that would disqualify them to normal people like us. But we need to also point out stuff that the MAGAs have a hard time with, but we can’t reach their channels. If we tried they’d say, “I thought you were COOL WITH DEI, gays, and leather daddies!” So we put stuff out saying, “We’re cool them being gay or leather daddies, but we are not cool with their policies to destroy our national security, are you?”

Frankly I don’t know which weird, corrupt, sick, incompetent or illegal activity of Trump’s nominees will knock them out of the process. But we need to find them and share them. And if we don’t succeed in knocking them out, we need to prepare for weaknesses in the crappy choices number 2 & 3.

Marcy Wheeler was on the Nicole Sandler show talking about all the things the Dems need to point out in other candidates, like Pam Bondi, that we can hammer on during the nomination process.

What we find disqualifying, like failing to protect the people of Florida from bank fraud, THEY like! Such as when Bondi fired the Florida AG staff who were prosecuting the banks offering fraudulent loans. She got donations from one of the companies behind the fraud. The corporations would LOVE and AG that gives them a pass for fraud. So, we have to show all the Trump supporters who were harmed by Bondi’s failure as Florida AG, that she is not going to protect them in the future. (Sadly, people who lost their homes to mortgage fraud, and the attorneys who resigned or were fired don’t have a big lobbying arm, but they are available to talk on camera during a nomination hearing.

Maybe that’s not sick enough, so I look forward to retelling the story of the time Pam Bondi delayed an execution so she can party

Cross posted to Spocko’s Brain @spocko.bsky.social @spocko@mastodon.online

As Digby wrote earlier, Republicans ought to think twice about confirming Kash Patel, “Hoover had everyone under his thumb, not just the liberals. ”

On Cliff Schecter’s Youtube channel today is a video about Kash Patel, “a very emotionally and intellectually damaged “person,” has long been a fave of Trump’s bc he’s a Stalinist to the core. Not very bright, but very vengeful & very loyal to whichever authoritarian he serves. He was installed at the Defense Dept in 2020 to help w Trump’s coup. Gee, why would Trump want him running “his” FBI??”

Yesterday I watched hours of Kash Patel videos on Rumble and YouTube. The things that people on the left find horrifying, the right LOVES. “Drain the SWAMP! Fire everyone! Prosecute TRAITORS!” But what we have seen is that what upsets the RW is the only way we can stop Trump’s nominees. In the video I watched, Patel on The Shawn Ryan Show September 2, 2024, I found the comment that will get the RIGHT to push him out.

Patel’s plan is to take a way the money making power of 51 intelligence community people by revoking their security clearance.

I think THIS is what will crush his nomination. The intelligence community won’t be obvious that they want to protect their revenue streams, but they will find something bad enough to upset the GOP. Like how they got rid of the DEA sheriff nomination because he was too tough on some mega church pastor in Florida that didn’t follow the COVID laws.
THAT is how you get rid of someone on the right. YOU SHOW the times they were too LEFTY.

What people need to prepared for is that Patel will blame the LEFT for losing the nomination for FBI. But he won’t go away. Just like Matt Gaetz won’t go away. I expect Patel to lash out at EVERYONE, so the RW won’t want their fingers on the leaks/ story. But this is one way government employees will protect themselves against Trump’s nutballs.

As I said on the Nicole Sandler show, we need to keep finding ways to knock down Trump MAGA, the media isn’t going to do it for us. The Dems are afraid, the Republicans are afraid. So we look for who will LOSE money because of Trump’s minions. They can see this as a zero sum game for revenue and play the hardball that we can’t.

Last Wednesday I wrote about Democrats fear of fighting back. I linked to a video from my friend Cliff Schecter. We’ve been talking about what fighting back looks like. I’m going to share some examples here next week with specifics. Today Cliff shares an example, Gavin Newsom.

Yes we were all horrified by Trump’s win. But at some point we get back up and fight. Newsom’s response has been chef’s kiss. No Trump congratulations. You accept the results, but rip him to cameras, point out it was a puny win, he’s no king and still an asshole. You call a special legislative session to bolster legal defenses and garner media coverage of your message!

You go to D.C., meet with Democratic reps and President Biden–not Trump. You know it’ll piss him off and he doesn’t deserve the photo op. The coup de gras? Newsom’s using a Trump threat to justify harming Apartheid Man-Baby’s business, which should help kick the inevitable Musk vs. Trump clash into gear. Watch the video for that one and all the rest, as we learn to fight the tyrants.

And be sure after you watch to SUBSCRIBE to Cliff’s Edge, which is quickly becoming a leading resistance outlet on Youtube we’ll need over the next four years!

I just saw a great video from my old friend Cliff Schechter on his new YouTube channel, Cliff’s Edge.

Is It Time to Start FIGHTING Dirty Against Donald Trump?

After I watched it, I liked, subscribed and joined the channel as a paying member. I’d like folks to do the same. Then I called Cliff to talk about it.

I’ve known Cliff for years and we talked about “fighting” on camera on RW media, and the opportunity for a lefty billionaire to buy a media outlet like CNBC and MSNBC. I hope it happens. If it DOES happen, we need to understand the fear of funders on the left to fighting back and what to do about it.

One thing that I’ve seen is that people who consider themselves journalists in the mainstream media don’t see “fighting back” as their job. That’s the job of activists. That’s the job of Democrats. Many see their role as reporting the facts. (Or “documenting the atrocities” as Atrios would say.)

I’ve written about what happens to journalists when they do report the facts, do the “both sides” bit, and talk to experts. They get threatened. Accepting death threats IS NOT part of the job! @spockosbrain 

I’ve been a behind the scenes activist for almost 20 years. I’ve taught my techniques and methods to others. I see how when we win, the right adapts. I actively developed the Spocko Method to drive advertisers away from the violent rhetoric of RW talk radio. This method destroyed RW media’s easy corporate revenue stream. Brands didn’t want to associate with hosts talking about blowing people’s brains out, and sexist attacks on women. Respectable corporate customer facing ads got pulled from RW radio hosts’ shows. The RW media lost 100s of millions of dollars in revenue.

The RW media adapted and started taking money from boner pill companies & supplements. They took money from dark money fronts & RW groups who just wanted the audience and didn’t need to sell goods or services.

I don’t want to get started about how this strategy failed with Elon Musk. When you can tell Advertisers to Go. F*ck. Yourself, that’s a game changer. I worked with the groups that contacted advertisers just to tell them “Hey your brand is being tainted you might want to do something” Musk SUED THOSE GROUPS, AND THE ADVERTISERS! That is something Disney/ABC/ didn’t do when I alerted advertisers to the violent rhetoric coming from the KSFO hosts.

But just like the RW adapts, so do we. There are ways to fight back. There are people who are fighting back. And we need to support them. Financially.

One of my recent projects involves helping the people who have been harmed by the right. It involves suing those who have been harming others AND those who organized the harm. What I’m doing behind the scenes is learning WHY, when we win, we stop. I’m looking at the models of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Qui tam laws and class actions suits. I’m also looking at how these stories are covered in the media, how they are shared (or not shared) on social media. How can these stories penetrate the RW bubble? What can we do when the RW bubble REFRAMES everything so that the person DOING the harm is seen as the victim? (“Cricket shot first! Kristi Noam was defending her family from a vicious dog! Coastal elites don’t understand farm life!”)

One of the things I’m looking at is how regular people can help, without subjecting themselves to massive attacks online, in the media and on social media. Here’s the thing, there are already people who have been harmed and the bad people have gotten away with it. They PROFITED from organizing harm. People might say, that’s “Just good business” because in America making money often overrules EVERYTHING. But not always.

Some change does happen when causing and organizing harm ends up COSTING corporations and individuals money. And when reducing harm MAKES money for the people who were harmed, well, most people can get behind that.

Yes. I know the people causing harm adapt. We on the left feel better helping victims. We don’t like to be the aggressor, many want to forgive the bad people and move on. We need to understand this impulse, and prepare for it in our fights.

This is one of the reasons that the right screams “political prosecution!” when they are held accountable for crimes where they have had due process, found guilty and ordered to pay restitution. They STILL want to appeal to people’s sympathy. We are seeing this right now with Rudy Giuliani’s failure to pay what he owes to Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.

Rudy goes outside the courthouse, where he’s not under oath, and lies about the case. That’s the video I’ve seen used on TV and quoted in stories. What we DON’T see are the lawyers for Freeman & Moss calling out the lies following Rudy’s press conference outside. I want to see more of Freeman & Mosses lawyers on the attack.

If we don’t hear from the victims, the focus of the story becomes RUDY as the victim, not, Rudy failing to pay the REAL victims what he owes. RUDY IS NOT THE VICTIM! He’s the bully, the aggressor and the adjudicated LOSER in this case. If I was doing PR for the lawyers I would be out front of the courthouse every SINGLE TIME Rudy whines, and point out what a LIAR he is and remind people of the HARM he caused.

We can not forget what happened to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, remind people of the 100’s of death threats they got that drove them from their homes. Tell people the story again of the big names who still haven’t been held accountable for their role in the case. We need to fight back on behalf of the people who have been harmed. And we keep fighting back after we win.

Yes, I’m on BlueSky @spocko.bsky.social also on Mastodon @spocko@mastodon.online

Cross posted to Spocko’s Brain.

“When we fight, we win!” – Kamala Harris.

So, what do we do when we fight & lose? Never Give Up! Never surrender!

People admire that about a leader and a cause. We don’t just fight the fights we can win. You fight the fights that need fighting!” Martin Sheen, The American President (1995)

We expect people to follow the norms of losing. Like we do. Accept the loss. Don’t flip the board over.

And when we WIN? We are supposed to accept the win. So we stop fighting. We reach out to the losing side & shake hands. We follow the norms of winners. Say, “Good luck! It’s great to have a strong opponent!”

We aren’t supposed to be a sore winner! Don’t spike the football. Don’t mock them for losing. Don’t brag about the win everywhere. “Don’t get cocky kid!”

I’m getting into too many sports and movie metaphors here, so I want to talk about a specific win and why when we fight & win against RWers we must keep fighting, because the norms of winning aren’t enough against today’s RW.

Ruby Freeman & Shaye Moss won a $148 million judgement against Giuliani after he defamed them

Rudy delayed turning over his assets to them for over a year.

Inside court, under oath, Rudy & his lawyers were rebuked and chastised by the judge for their failures to follow the law. Rudy was threatened with contempt

Outside the court, when he was NOT under oath, Rudy lied about the case.

The MSM ran the video of Rudy lying. Those lies were shared everywhere on social media.

There was no video of the lawyer for Freeman & Moss reminding people of the harm Rudy did, his failure to comply, debunking his new and reoccurring lies, and what was revealed UNDER OATH in the court.

On Thursday of last week Rudy’s lawyers quit working for him.
Rudy Giuliani’s Lawyers Tell Judge They Want To Quit On Him
(This is a GREAT story about it by Brandi Buchman in the Huffington Post. She focused on how the victims were harmed. )

People think they quit because they were worried about getting paid, but I asked Glenn Kirschner about that Sunday and he said, judges don’t grant that kind of request, because they should have known that going in. More likely it was because they didn’t want to commit crimes for Rudy and they didn’t want to get disbarred, like Rudy.

Outside of court Rudy whined he didn’t have enough money to afford food, and his followers donated $127,000 to him. (Money that should be seized by the court and given to Freeman and Moss.)

Friday, we learned he’s been hiding over $40,000 in joint checking accounts in multiple LLCs, in court he didn’t want to tell the judge who was in those LLCs with him, but because it was in court, he was ORDERED to do it. (BTW, why did he say he couldn’t give their name? He claimed they would be threatened and harassed. They expect that the tactics THEY use to intimidate others will be used by the left.)

Friday night Rudy finally turned over some assets: some watches, his Mercedes. Hooray! That’s a win! We need to celebrate!

Rudy was ALSO supposed to turn over a signed, framed Joe DiMaggio jersey. That was supposed to be settled on Nov 15. But Rudy’s new lawyer didn’t turn it over and engaged in legal f*ckery.

See the Jolting Joe jersey hung over his fireplace in his penthouse apartment? Rudy got it in 2002 at the 3rd Annual Joe DiMaggio Awards Gala Honoring Rudy Giuliani. When the lawyer for Freeman and Moss got the keys to the penthouse, it wasn’t there.

There was a bunch of back and forth with Rudy’s lawyers about exactly where it was, asking for a list of inventory and how the Freeman/Moss lawyers could access them. The old lawyers quit, the new lawyer sent a letter saying something like,

‘Oh yeah, that framed Joe DiMaggio jersey that was in his penthouse apartment? According to OUR interpretation of the law in the state of New York, that shirt is ‘wearing apparel’ and is exempt.’

ARE YOU Fking KIDDING ME? WEARING APPAREL? RUDY LOST THE CASE! It’s been adjudicated! IN COURT! He did the crime, pay the fine!

What I see today is a lot of people giving up. I get it. When Trump never went to prison for his crimes, people think “What’s the point of fighting him?” It’s hard to think about fighting NEW fights over his lawbreaking, when we failed to punishing him for his OLD attacks. But I want to remind people to focus on the victims who have succeeded in fighting Trump, Rudy, RW media and MAGA nuts.

Learn from what they did right. Learn what to do when they refuse to accept defeat. Anticipate their doubling down. Know that winning in court is not the end of fighting them. They have to be fought OUTSIDE the court too.

Learn how knock back their own narrative in their own media and on social media when we win. “Political prosecution?! We’re the real victims here!”

I’ve written recently why the DOJ is bad at promoting their successes. They don’t get that truth and justice need a hype-man.

But in civil cases, we can talk about the case while it is happening. We can comment about their lies right outside the courthouse. We can get the last word. We can remind people about what was said UNDER OATH in court, and who is the real victim.

These women were DRIVEN from their HOMES and neighborhood of the death threats based on the DEFAMATION of Rudy, OAN, Gateway Pundit and Donald Trump. They had to go into HIDING because people were POUNDING on their doors and pushed their way into their homes to confront them.

@msnbc

GA election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss speak after a jury orders Rudy Giuliani to pay nearly $150 million in damages for defaming the mother and daughter pair after the 2020 election.

♬ original sound – MSNBC

I’ve looked at what kind of cases against Trump & MAGA have succeeded, the civil cases. One reason was there was a financial pay off for the people fighting, so that they can fund the ongoing case against an opponent, especially against one that uses delays & financial resources to overwhelm people.

At the highest levels on the right when someone does something immoral or illegal for Trump they have been getting away with it. But when he thinks someone is ripping him off or doing something that costs him money, THAT is when he gets pissed and will cut them loose. Trump expects to PROFIT from everything. If someone is a big earner, they can get away with ANYTHING.

Fighting Trump, the RW media & MAGA in this century requires us to understand what levers work on them and why. We have seen that when something costs corporations massive amounts of money, the change their behavior. (Then they buy politicians & change the laws so that it doesn’t cost them money anymore, but that’s another story)

With Trump, like a mob boss, if someone stops being a big earner for him they lose power in the organization.

When we win against them, we need ways to take their money and use it to build our side. That means, activists, our media, our lawyers, our influencers, our messaging experts or technology experts. We use that to build and win our future cases against them.

We work the narrative to show our side that when we win, we fight.

Now that it’s clear that Elon is “Dark Gothic MAGA” he’s using multiple ways to help Trump return to power. Here’s one I spotted the other day, from Doge Designer (a suspected Musk sock puppet account).

He says Elon Musk’s PAC launched an X Community focused on “exposing voter fraud and election interference” and it asks people to post videos or information about “election interference” or “anything compromising election integrity” in the X Community.

What’s this really about? It’s a place to dump false and unverified stories that can be used to create the appearance of widespread voter fraud. It will be used right after the election to demand that the votes not be certified until the “fraud” is investigated. It’s also about “flooding the zone with sh*t” in social media so that the media, who are all still on Twitter/X, will have to address all the “fraud” that is posted. Especially since the Musk X algorithm will be amplifying them.

I went to X’s “Election Integrity Community” and found a handful of posts. Three were looking to dox someone who delivered ballots. MAGAts are going after a postal worker for doing his job. Just like they went after election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss for doing their jobs.

This line of attack, going after someone dropping off multiple ballots, presuming they are fraudulent, is the same one used by the widely debunked film 2,000 Mules.

For years I have been writing about the FAILURE of social media companies to enforce their own rules and guidelines about threats of violence on their platforms. Legislators in most states have FAILED to pass laws to address the harm from doxing and harassments of public health officials & workers during the height of the pandemic.

So what are people like this ballot delivery guy to do when they start getting death threats and harassed? Report them to the DOJ’s Election Threats Task Force. It was set up in 2021 for this purpose.

Post by @spocko@mastodon.online

View on Mastodon

It’s good that the Election Threats Task Force exists, but it’s not enough to change the attitude that it’s okay to threaten, dox and harass people online. Because of that attitude I’ve been suggesting the use of civil cases.

The Georgia courts never criminally prosecuted the people who attacked them. but Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss did sue the people who defamed them. They sued them for millions. And they WON all those cases. “News network” OAN, Gateway Pundit, and as of Oct 31 2024 “A moving company representative and lawyers were expected to be given access to Rudy Giuliani’s Manhattan apartment after the former New York City mayor failed to turn over belongings to two former Georgia election workers who won a $148 million defamation judgment against him.”. Freeman and Moss are the winners.

There is also the case of Mark Andrews, who was featured putting five ballots in a drop box in Lawrenceville, an Atlanta suburb, in the debunked voter-fraud film 2,000 Mules. He sued Dinesh D’Souza, Salem Media, Regnery Publishing, True The Vote, and True the Vote’s Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips for peddling manufactured lies that the 2020 presidential election was stolen by “ballot mules” engaged in election fraud.

The publisher apologized to Andrews and the Salem Media Group stopped distributing 2,000 Mules. The lawsuit for damages to Andrews is still proceeding. (PDF link)

How do we bust Musk & the MAGA attackers of election workers?

I’m the kind of Vulcan who wants to know the logical steps for how to do things, & then prepare for the illogical actions of humans who do NOT WANT TO DO those things. I say to people, “This is our 3rd rodeo.” We’ve seen these tricks before. We know how the bull will buck. We know how the orange-faced rodeo clown will try to distract us from our goal.

I’m betting that MAGA people will find the ballot delivery man, dox, harass and threaten him. The Election Threats Task Force will need to be alerted to investigate. They might not be able to successfully prosecute a criminal case, because the laws against harassment and doxing aren’t in every state, but it is their mission to take on these kinds of cases. They have the resources to track down all the connections to his threats, including those who amplified, organized and spread false & unverified information that was used to target him. But as I said, lots of humans in law enforcement do NOT want to investigate & prosecute anything that has to do with WORDS. Because of that history I’ve been teaching people. & groups how to file civil lawsuits against the people who defamed and threaten them.

I hope that concurrently to the Task Force investigation the doxxed, harrrassed & threatened ballot deliverer goes to the group that won the Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss civil defamation case. Or the group that sued Dinesh D’Souza, & The Salem Media group.

He will need resources to sue Elon Musk, his PAC and the people who carried out the threats. But, there are now multiple successful cases that the lawyers can point to as a reason to keep the lawsuits going for the years it will take. People need to know Musk has lost cases. He doesn’t prepare for the lawsuits that will come following his rash actions and that makes vulnerable. He has a grade school level of understanding of the law & thinks his definition of free speech is a get out of jail free card for when he breaks laws about speech that is not protected..

The other reason I want to see civil cases is so the lawyers for the plaintiffs can keep talking about the case in public. Civil lawsuits don’t go into the black hole of the DOJ and come out 19 month later with a press release about the win. The DOJ is TERRIBLE at promoting their successful prosecution of threats to election workers and officials.

For example, did you hear about Brian Ogstad, the guy who got 30 months in prison for threatening Arizona election workers? Of course you didn’t! The DOJ put out a press release, didn’t you read it? It didn’t have any photos of Ogstad though, so the media that DID pick it up showed images of a ballot box or a building. I searched for him and found the photo below from when he “confronted” the Cullman City Council on it’s COVID-19 response. )

Alabama Man Sentenced to 30 Months for Threatening Maricopa County Elections Office During 2022 Primary

Brian Ogstad, a former business professor at Maricopa Community Colleges, sent 18 messages to Maricopa County Election workers between August 2 and August 4, 2022, a majority of which contained threats against the workers’ lives. (Photo taken from X, formerly Twitter)

I wanted to make a short video of the threats Ogstad & others made that was powerful enough to get on Fox News, but it’s hard when the DOJ doesn’t even bother to provide MUG shots of the people they put away for years for their true threats to election workers.

In the past people would ask private entities to enforce their own rules & guidelines about speech, especially on social media where people said things that that were “awful, but lawful.” But Musk ignores rules developed on his own platform to protect the community from harm. The “Election Integrity community” looks like it is violating X’s OWN Civil Integrity rules, which, sadly, no one expects Musk to follow. But based on what I’ve seen so far, the new X community violates multiple state and federal laws. I’m going to dig into it more, but just because Musk is protected under rule 230 of the Telecommunication Act, doesn’t mean he’s above all laws. Stay tuned.

Cross Posted to Spocko’s Brain

Did you know it’s illegal to knowingly broadcast false information about a catastrophe, especially if such communications may cause substantial “public harm?”

Public harm includes direct & actual damages to people or property & the diversion of law enforcement or public health & safety authorities from their duties.

Link to FCC rules on FALSE INFORMATION/BROADCAST HOAXES https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/guides/hoaxes

But Elon Musk & X are not regulated by the FCC. So, HOW DO WE STOP THIS?

Make it illegal, just like we did for broadcast TV and radio.

I know that the internet is not subject to the same laws as broadcast radio & TV. But we can create them.

We can use the same criteria that the FCC uses, which will protect people who spread the false information unintentionally. But to just ignore it is to abdicate the need to protect people during this vulnerable time.

Dash, on Mastodon pointed out some of the reasons why Musk is getting away with this. He also understood that this is a call for a change

@CatDragon @spocko because the internet isn’t subject to the same laws as broadcast tv (so he isn’t breaking the law). And republicans won’t agree to any additional regulations, particularly when they benefit from spreading disinformation themselves.

Also Dash wrote:
social media companies aren’t broadcasters though (according to the government). The law won’t apply to them.

I think this post is meant to encourage us to consider lobbying for a change in how internet companies are regulated. And I agree with that initiative.

@dashrb@awscommunity.social

Post by @spocko@mastodon.online

View on Mastodon

Make knowingly spreading false information on social media illegal, just like we did for broadcast TV and radio.

I know a lot about FCC law and what is and is not enforced. I also know that the broadcast radio & TV companies spent a lot of time and money to weaken the regulations, but also to protect themselves from fines and possibly losing licenses. For example they implementes 7 second delays, they file appeals for accidents they could not control. They fire people who are repeat offenders.

We might mock the obscenity restrictions on broadcast radio and TV now, but at the time enough people decided it was a problem, and took steps to limit it.

Public harm following people knowingly posting false information has already happened. In a catastrophe “the diversion of law enforcement or public health & safety authorities from their duties.” can lead to “direct & actual damages to people or property.”

We know the social media companies will do & say whatever they can to avoid being held responsible for what is said on their platforms.

Musk will go on about “free speech” but knowingly posting false information in this situation does not contribute to the “marketplace of ideas.” It’s a condemnable act, and it should be made criminal.

Cross posted on Spocko’s Brain

NPR just reported that one of two staffers involved in the altercation at Arlington National Cemetery is a deputy campaign manager for Donald Trump’s reelection bid. The two staffers, according to a source with knowledge of the incident, are deputy campaign manager Justin Caporale and Michel Picard, a member of Trump’s advance team.

I thought it was Chris LaCivita or Cory Lewandowski. One of the misogynistic a-holes on Donald Trump’s campaign staff pushed a female employee at Arlington National Cemetery. It’s probably Chris “I’m the a-hole who created Swift Boating” LaCivita, but it might be Cory “I don’t have to be honest with the media” Lewandowski. As of Sept 5th 2024, the DoD and the DOJ aren’t going after them for what happened at Arlington. Why?

The FEC isn’t going after the Trump campaign for their use of campaign footage from Arlington in an ad. Why?

The outlet that broke the story, NPR, KNOWS exactly who did what, but they aren’t revealing that information. Why?

None of them are pursuing the Trump campaign for their blatant disrespect and law breaking for 3 reasons,

1. Fear of retaliation
2. Fear of losing favor in the future
3. They LIKE what Trump & his staff did

You probably read that the woman declined to press charges for fear of retaliation. But that’s also part of the reason behind why the Army, DOD and DOJ aren’t pushing to charge the Trump campaign.

I had a great conversation with a former military lawyer about what happened at Arlington National Commentary. I wanted to know why no one in the Trump campaign staff got in trouble for clear violations of rules, regulations and federal laws.

He walked me through the process of when a civilian commits a crime at Arlington National Cemetery. He explained which MPs are called and why. Because the Trump campaign staff pusher was a civilian, if charges were going to be pursued the Virginia Department of Justice folks in the Eastern District of Virginia and Alexandria would need to get involved.

What was fascinating to me was his explanation that someone in command at the military made a decision to let “the pusher” go home and then NOT press charges. The reporting is that the woman who was pushed decided not to press charges because of “fear of retaliation” and the Army considers the matters closed.

It’s 2024 and we all nod in agreement that “of course she will get death threats” for simply telling Trump’s campaign staff to respect the dead & follow the law. WTF? We have come to expect that because our system refuses to punish those who make the threats.

Second, as it was explained to me, the Army could have brought a case on her behalf, but made a decision NOT to, because they didn’t want to upset Trump. I know that there are Trump supporters in the military. But I would THINK that they would so upset by what happened that they would do something, like at least throw his STAFF under the bus. Trump has already used the Sargent Shultz defense

You know how in police procedurals when cops are talking to a witness they say, “We can protect you.” The person, who knows how the bad guys have infiltrated the police, will often say, “No you can’t. They can get to me anywhere.” The good guy cop knows the victim is right so he takes her to a private place, that supposedly nobody knows about & tells them “Don’t use your phone!” But of course some paid off cop leaks it, or the victim has to call her mother to tell her she is okay and then BOOM. Bad guy comes after them. (Then we have the exciting scene at the house where good guy show up just in time to stop the bad guy from killing the woman. The bad guy is either shot and killed, in American TV series, or arrested and charged, in British TV series.)

I’ve listened to Glenn Kirschner talk about how hard it is for witnesses and victims to go up against mobsters. The prosecution might have a good case, but they need the help of the witness and victims, and practically, sometimes trying the case puts the victim in danger. For prosecutors, we now see that Trump and his MAGA people are worst than mobsters, because the prosecutors are afraid to charge them. Imagine yourself in the same situation as the woman at Arlington.

Now imagine that 1/2 of the police force & millions of people on the internet want to find you and 100’s of them threaten to KILL you because you did the RIGHT thing to hold accountable someone worse than a mobster and his people that broke the law.

Even though you didn’t press charges, the millions on the internet STILL FIND you and 100s will start sending you death threats. This is what I imagine the call to the cops would be like. (BTW, this is based on actual cases of death threats to election officials and workers I’ve followed in the US.)

Good Guy Cop: We heard you aren’t pressing charges. We’re sorry people are threatening you. There’s nothing we can do, especially when they do it Musk’s platform that doesn’t ban people for making threats.

You: Can you at least arrest the people who are threatening to KILL me?

Cops: Well, that’s complicated because they threatened you in a general way, and we don’t know who they are, plus they did it publicly on social media and the platform doesn’t have a problem with how they threatened you.

You: But what about the ones that showed up OUTSIDE MY HOUSE with GUNS?

Cops: Well, it’s legal to protest with guns in your state.

You: PROTEST WITH GUNS? ARE YOU Fking kidding me? There was an armed mob outside my home!

Cops: Look lady, I don’t make the laws. I agree with you it sucks, but a bunch of guys I work with think YOU are the problem AND the top brass play golf with the guy you pissed off. His staff said you were having a “mental event” It’s their word against yours and they’re very powerful. If we had video you could sue them for defamation, but that will take years.

You: So I can sue them for defamation, but not the death threats or armed mob?

Cops: Yep, that’s about the size of it. Look into the Shaye Moss & Ruby Freeman defamation cases they’ve won a bunch of them. Good luck!

My brilliant friend Sara Robinson pointed out the military’s fear of losing favor in the future issue.

The Army command is no doubt terrified that Trump will take power again, and doing anything about this now will only aggravate him more than he’s already aggravated at them.

I can see their point, but my response remains the same: this is tantamount to coddling terrorists, which only means that the future will hold more of the same.

Will they also hold still when President for Life Trump physically shoves aside the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, claiming that he was having a mental episode?

What’s the deal with the media? Most of the MSM is afraid of retaliation and losing access. Yes, Esquire’s Charlie Pierce wrote a great piece, “How The Hell Was Trump Allowed To Use Arlington National Cemetery As A Campaign Prop?”

My friend Will Bunch of the Philly Inquirer, who I met at Eschacon 2008 in Philadelphia, wrote about the “blatantly sexist bullying of the Arlington employee.” It has worked so many times for Trump himself during his decades-long trail of sexual abuse and harassment allegations. He’s right, violence and gross mistreatment of women hasn’t thwarted the careers of Trump’s male-dominated inner circle.

Even the reporters who broke the story at NPR are afraid to put out the identities of the pusher and sexist bullies. The reporters have run bs statements from Trump campaign’s spokesman, Steven Cheung,

“The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony,” In a statement to NPR, Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign’s spokesman, strongly rejected the notion of a physical altercation, adding: “We are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made.”
[snip]

“The Trump campaign declined to make that footage immediately available. On Wednesday the campaign released a video on TikTok that includes Trump’s Section 60 visit.”

So Cheung says they’ll sue for defamation and says the campaign has footage to prove their case, but then, when asked to see it, backs down. (Come on Oddjob, show us the unedited footage! )

Cheung called the employee despicable and wrote “Whoever this individual is, spreading these lies are dishonoring the men and women of our armed forces.”
Wow. Nice projection Cheung! As they say with Trumpers, every accusation is a confession.

On social media, the Trump campaign staff went on the attack first, to set the narrative.
They set up the families to tell only part of the story, “We invited Trump. I didn’t see anything.” That interview leaves out it was the campaign staff who were briefed on ALL the rules & regulations ahead of time and didn’t follow them when at the grave site.

Two things to note:
1) The chief of staff of Congressman Brian Mast of Florida, who was at Arlington with Trump, WAS briefed.
James Langerderfer said he told the Trump campaign staff and they agreed to the rules. When asked to verify it, Mast’s office said, “President Trump conducted no politics at Arlington National Cemetery.” (That’s just your opinion man, plus it still doesn’t excuse the shoving.)

2) Governor Cox apologized for making political and campaign use of a visit to Arlington

Governor Cox has since apologized for making political and campaign use of a visit to Arlington National Cemetery—but neither Mr. Trump nor his campaign have joined Governor Cox in apologizing for these blatant violations. AP, Hannah Schoenbaum, September 1, 2024

What is being done? Raskin & Connelly demand investigation

The activist side of me wants to figure out what can be done to stop them? What stops them so they don’t keep doing it? How do we beat these people? 
Who’s on the side of justice? The good news is that Reps. Raskin and Connelly have demanded an investigation.

When I see something like this happen, as we have seen for the last 8 years, I always want to know, “How are they getting away with this? Who is helping them? Why? Who is defending Trump and his staff? Why? What can we do to change that?”

I’ve learned the basic techniques they use. They attack with name calling, lying, gaslighting, hiding the evidence, going over people’s heads to their bosses. The play dumb, argue in bad faith, file frivolous lawsuits, harass people on social media, make threats of violence on social media, threats of violence on the phone and threats via email. The use financial threats and legal threats. When they are in person, they use physical intimidation and make threats of physical violence.

I’ve also learned over the last 8 years is that the people who do NOT go after Trump (or his people) have a number of valid reasons. They know Trump has a history of how he responds when someone tries to hold him or his people accountable. 
He’ll tie them up in court. He’ll go on the attack publicly on social media, he’ll lie and defame people at rallies and press conferences. He’ll get others to attack on his behalf. 
He will use threats. He’ll have others use threats on his behalf. 
He will get others to shut down stories or actions against him (Like Pecker of the National Enquirer ).  

Remember, Michael Cohen’s JOB was to threaten people with legal problems on Trump’s behalf. Trump’s body guards and “security” physically threatened people on Trump’s behalf.

But WE HAVE to keep going after these people. They are wrong. Lots of people know they are wrong, but there are enough people who are afraid of them or who want something from them that they get away with it, again and again.

There is an appropriate response to the violations of the Arlington National Cemetery rules and laws. Make an apology and remove the ads, like Gov. Cox.
For the battery? Possible criminal charges, a trial so all the facts can come out by people, under oath, I’m looking at you Cory Lewandowski.
For the defamation? If the person who was shoved is identified, bring a civil case for enough money to pay for lifetime security from MAGA nutballs and to make up for possibly not being able to work at Arlington anymore, because of the unwanted attention from MAGAts.

Who are the people who could make these things happen? ” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin

When the DoD decides to act, and to protect the witness, the DOJ needs to tell U.S. Attorney Jessica Aber in the Virginia Department of Justice in the Eastern District of Virginia they should prosecute.

The FEC should act. I suppose I should write a letter and ask them to do something, because even though the FEC is divided, a crime WAS committed and they ARE supposed to do something. The campaign should be busted on an FEC complaint. The ads should be forcefully pulled, like Gov. Cox voluntarily pulled his. And the Trump campaign should have to pay a fine.

The press needs to keep asking. “Who is the Arlington Shover?” Maybe I’ll ask if the good people at Task & Purpose who wrote the article about Defense Secretary Austin at Arlington to follow up on the violations of the rules and regulations at Arlington National Cemetery Maybe someone at will start a social media campaign demanding the Arlington Shover apologize.

We know that Trump NEVER apologizes. If he doesn’t throw someone under the bus, and no one apologizes, that is our cue to use it to drive a bigger wedge between Trump and the military, the vets and the families of the honored dead at Arlington.

I was on the The Nicole Sandler Show show as RFK Jr.’s brain worm. I was going to add photos of the people and articles that I was referring too, because as bizarre at all these stories sound, I WAS NOT MAKING THEM UP!

I decided to just list the articles below in case anyone wants to know more details.

These are Real Headlines Written by Actual Humans about RFK Jr. in a new segment I’m calling RFK Jr.’s Brain Worm News.
(The graphic is from an actual article on brain worms from ABC News, Australia that said, “headlines about brain worms can be alarming.” but adds, “..here are ways you can minimize your risks of being infected with one.” )

• R.F.K. Jr. Says Doctors Found a Dead Worm in His Brain The New York Times
  
• RFK Jr says he was behind mystery of dead bear dumped in Central Park with bicycle The Guardian
  
• RFK Jr. Once Decapitated A Dead Whale With A Chainsaw BBC
  
• Mary Richardson Kennedy’s grave was exhumed & moved 700 feet away by her ex-husband RFK Jr., because he wanted her to be buried on a hilltop People Magazine
  
• RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard named to Trump transition team CBS News

When I talked about how Dave, RFK Jr’s brain worm, would be advising Trump on loyalty and cabinet positions I was talking about John McEntee, Trump’s body man during the 2016 campaign is currently working on HR for the Trump campaign.

“As the Director of PPO, McEntee took it upon himself to ensure that all presidential appointees were sufficiently loyal to Trump, conducting loyalty interviews with employees throughout the federal government and monitoring their social media presence.”

Who would help Trump carry out his promised “purge” of the “deep state”? Citizens For Ethics in Washington July 9, 2024

Nicole had hoped to have Digby on the show but she was ill. Luckily not with BRAIN WORMS!

I modeled the segment on A Closer Look on Late Night with Seth Meyers. Those are written by my favorite writer, Sal Gentile, who does an amazing job of getting in jokes along with the facts.

Cross posted to Spocko’s Brain