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Agents of Chaos

Published by Tom Sullivan on September 6, 2024

They know nothing, nothing!

By now you’ve read that the Department of Justice has indicted two employees of Russia’s RT network for spending nearly $10 million to pump pro-Russian propaganda into the U.S. digital mindstream:

“The Justice Department has charged two employees of RT, a Russian state-controlled media outlet, in a $10 million scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to covertly further its own propaganda efforts, and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing.”

“Our approach to combating foreign malign influence is actor-driven, exposing the hidden hand of adversaries pulling strings of influence from behind the curtain,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “As alleged in today’s indictment, Russian state broadcaster RT and its employees, including the charged defendants, co-opted online commentators by funneling them nearly $10 million to pump pro-Russia propaganda and disinformation across social media to U.S. audiences. The Department will not tolerate foreign efforts to illegally manipulate American public opinion by sowing discord and division.”

Russia paid those coopted “online commentators” (far-right podcasters) enormous sums for spewing Kremlin talking points.

According to the court documents, RT, formerly known as Russia Today, is a state-controlled media outlet funded and directed by the Government of Russia. Over at least the past year, RT and its employees, including Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva, deployed nearly $10 million to covertly finance and direct a Tennessee-based online content creation company (U.S. Company-1). In turn, U.S. Company-1 published English-language videos on multiple social media channels, including TikTok, Instagram, X, and YouTube. Since publicly launching in or about November 2023, U.S. Company-1 has posted nearly 2,000 videos that have garnered more than 16 million views on YouTube alone. Many of the videos posted by U.S. Company-1 contain commentary on events and issues in the U.S., such as immigration, inflation, and other topics related to domestic and foreign policy. While the views expressed in the videos are not uniform, most are directed to the publicly stated goals of the Government of Russia and RT — to amplify domestic divisions in the United States. 

Divisions over Russia’s war in Ukraine, in particular.

CBS News fleshes out the identity of U.S. Company-1:

Though the company is not named in the indictment, prosecutors said that it describes itself as a “network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues” and features six commentators as its “talent.” Tenet Media uses the same phrase in its description on its website, and other details in the indictment align with the firm. Its website lists six right-wing personalities, including Dave Rubin, who has more than 2.4 million YouTube subscribers; Tim Pool, a podcast host with more than 1.3 million YouTube followers; and Benny Johnson, whose YouTube channel has nearly 2.4 million subscribers.

[…]

Records with the Tennessee Secretary of State’s Office show that Tenet Media incorporated on Jan. 19, 2022, the same date of incorporation mentioned in the indictment, and is headquartered in Nashville. It was founded by Liam Donovan and his wife, Lauren Chen. The founders are referred to as Founder-1 and Founder-2 in the indictment and prosecutors said they jointly run the company.

Forbes offers profiles of the propagandists Russia allegedly funded. They claim not to have known who was paying them as much as $100,000 per week for creating Kremlin-friendly content.

Pool responded to the allegations on FKA Twitter. He’s an innocent victim:

FYI, this is Pool:

Johnson also claimed victimhood:

What time is it in Moscow?

The indictment offers this tidbit on Founder-2 on page 19 that suggests Tenet knew that “Eduard Grigoriann,” the investor Founder-1 represented as being Paris-based, was not, in fact, in Paris:

  1. Founder-2 also used the Investor Discord Channel to, among other things, submit U.S. Company-1 ‘s invoices to Persona-I, and to press for payment of those invoices. For example, on or about September 11 , 2023, at approximately 8:07 p.m. Central Time, Founder-2 wrote in the Investor Discord Channel: “Today marks two weeks since I submitted the invoice for August. Any idea for the delay? We are signing the large contracts and need to be certain we will get the funding to pay these people.” Persona-I did not immediately respond. While awaiting a reply from Persona-I, Founder-I searched for the then-current time in Moscow. Specifically, at approximately 8:50 p.m. Central Time on or about September 11, 2023, Founder-I searched on Google: “time in Moscow.” The time was, in fact, approximately 4:50 a.m. in Moscow.

Here’s another tidbit from page 24:

a. On or about February 15, 2024, AFANASYEVA (as “Helena Shudra”) shared with U.S. Company-I a video of a well-known U.S. political commentator visiting a grocery store in Russia. AF ANASYEV A posted the video in the Producer Discord Channel. Later that day, Producer-I privately messaged Founder-2 on Discord: “They want me to post this” – referencing the video that AF ANASYEVA had posted – but “it just feels like overt shilling.” Founder-2 replied that Founder-I “thinks we should put it out there.” Producer-I acquiesced, responding, “alright I’ll put it out tomorrow.”

Before signing on with Tenet, Commentator-1 (possibly Rubin) wanted some background on Eduard Grigoriann, the supposed Paris-based investor:

g. On or about April 21 , 2023 and again on or about April 24, 2023, Founder-1 performed Google searches for “Eduard Grigoriann” and for “[Bank-1] Eduard Grigoriann.” As of in or about August 2024, neither Google search returns any results for a person by that name, much less any webpages describing an “Eduard Grigoriann” as a finance professional affiliated with Bank-1.

What Commentator-1 eventually received was a fake bio (see page 13).

If an anonymous investor suddenly offered to invest in Hullabaloo at a loss of $100,000 per week (we take no advertising) to write what we’ve been writing daily, for free, for the last two decades, I’d be more suspicious about who it was and where the money was coming from and why. Maybe that’s just me.

Update: I meant to add a link to a post by Brian Klaas on the “Need for Chaos” voter, a unique personality trait researchers recently identified:

These individuals are not idealists seeking to tear down the established order so that they can build a better society for everyone. Rather, they indiscriminately share hostile political rumors as a way to unleash chaos and mobilize individuals against the established order that fails to accord them the respect that they feel they personally deserve.

As you might expect, this means that perceptions of a loss of status are really important. And if that’s true, then there will inevitably be a group that’s particularly worrisome, because they feel a relative loss of status in recent decades. That group, they found, is white men.

President Cognitive Abilities

Published by Tom Sullivan on September 6, 2024

Lord High Overseer of Gibberish

A friend owned an outdoor equipment store near me when I was in my 20s. When I stopped in to browse, Jim would smile and greet me like a stranger, saying mock-formally, “Good afternoon, sir. How may I help you?”

Glancing through the glass counter at backpacking accessories on display, I replied with meandering nonsense. It was a running gag. 

“Yeah, I’m looking for one of those narrow, square, round things that’s kind of, you know, yellow with the, the purple pointed part that’s rounded on one side, with the, the, clippy thing that hooks onto the other part. You know. They’re about this long, but shorter, so they’ll nest inside if you have another one so you can put two of them together?”

Jim would grin and answer, “Oh, I’m so sorry, sir, we just sold the last one.”

Among new employees looking on, heads would explode.

A large fraction of the American electorate wants to hire a president who talks like that for real. Behold. Donald Trump answers questions from the Economic Club of New York:

Trump’s uncle worked at MIT, dontcha know. Genius is in his genes.

“My job is to analyze policy,” tweeted Catherine Rampell, economics opinion columnist for The Washington Post. “I can’t even find a complete sentence in this.”

President Ronald Reagan had his ball-turret gunner story and “We’re doing everything we can” episode. Reagan was 73 at the time. Trump is 78.

Lawrence O’Donnell Thursday night blamed the rich people of the Economic Club of New York for inviting “the stupidest person who has ever spoke to them.” And he ridiculed “the stupidest rich people in New York” who applauded him for spouting gibberish.

Lawrence? If you’re reading this, a quip. The recommended response to the conservative taunt, “If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich?” is “If you’re so rich, why aren’t you smart?”

Chris Hayes assessed Trump bluntly.

“Obvious mental decline,” sure. But bullshit? Trump doesn’t need functional cognitive abilities to spout bullshit. All the career con man needs for that is muscle memory.

What have I been saying about Trump plundering the treasury if handed the Oval Office again? Trump biographer Tim O’Brien has his number:

Trump still believes foreign trading partners will pay his tariffs, not American businesses and consumers. Remember, his uncle worked at MIT.

The DoD & the DOJ are afraid to bust The Arlington Pusher on Trump’s campaign staff

Published by Spocko on September 5, 2024

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?

Trump at Arlington. L to R Cory Lewandowski, Justin Caporale, Chris LaCivita

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

Compare this Nazi Actor saying he knows nothing to Trump
Trump, “I don’t know what the rules and regulations are. I don’t know who did it.” “I really don’t know anything about it.”

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.”

Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign’s spokesman. Eva Marie Uzcategui, Bloomberg via Getty Images

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

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin surprising a group laying wreaths at Arlington Cemetery (Photo via Toa O Samoa Facebook page)

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.

Jessica D. Aber U.S. Attorney


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.

Hunter Biden Pleads Guilty

Published by digby on September 5, 2024

He paid his taxes late. They threw the book at him. I fully expect that they are going to throw him in jail for doing something that millions of Americans do every year and simply pay fines and interest. But this is Hunter Biden not an ordinary American and they were planning to expose every sordid detail of his descent into addiction hell in order to embarrass him and his family, especially his father.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump walks free and will likely never see the inside of a jail cell.

If you think that makes sense you must be a member of the Trump cult.

DJT Plunges

Published by digby on September 5, 2024

The stock price of Trump’s media company Truth Social continues its plunge. It’s downright spectacular:

Shares of former President Donald J. Trump’s social media company have fallen so much that his onetime $6 billion stake is now worth about $2 billion.

The stock price of Trump Media & Technology Group, closed Wednesday at $16.98, and is down more than 74 percent from the high-water mark it hit after Trump Media’s merger in March with a publicly traded shell company.

Mr. Trump is the single largest shareholder of Trump Media, the parent company of Truth Social, owning 115 million shares — a roughly 60 percent stake.

The slide in the share price has accelerated over the past few weeks as the presidential campaign has heated up and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, has narrowly overtaken Mr. Trump in most national polls. Shares of Trump Media often have risen and fallen in tandem with investor perception of how Mr. Trump is doing in the presidential race.

The stock is also falling in advance of a pivotal date — the expiration of a contractual lockup that has precluded Mr. Trump from selling any of his shares. But on Sept. 19, he and other early investors can start selling shares, which could further depress Trump Media’s stock price.

The fact that he will be able to get 2 billion out of that worthless piece of shit is an absolute travesty. But that’s Trump for you. He’ll collect while his small money investors will take the bath of the century.

But they’ll love him for it anyway. Nothing he does can shake their belief in Dear Leader.

Useful Idiots?

Published by digby on September 5, 2024

Maaaybe….

The indictment of Russian agents bankrolling a bunch of very heavy hitting right wing “influencers” says those influencer had no idea what was going on and they all insist they were “victims” (who were being paid as much as 400k a month to make some videos.)

The Daily Beast story summarizes it as well as anyone:

Several right-wing American influencers described themselves as “victims” after the Justice Department accused a company they worked with of being a front for a covert Russian influence campaign.

Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, and Dave Rubin all released statements Wednesday after prosecutors claimed a Tennessee-based firm—identified in multiple media reports as Tenet Media—was secretly funded and directed by Russian state media employees.

The company, which lists Pool, Johnson, Rubin, and others as its “talent,” published English-language videos online with content that is “often consistent” with the Kremlin’s aim of “amplifying U.S. domestic divisions” to undermine American opposition to Russian interests like its war in Ukraine, prosecutors say.

An indictment alleges that two employees of RT—the Russian state-controlled broadcaster formerly known as Russia Today—funneled almost $10 million to the content creation company, which in turn pumped out content sympathetic to Moscow’s viewpoints. The influencers aren’t accused of wrongdoing and didn’t realize they were working for the covert operation, prosecutors say, with the indictment claiming that some were misled about how the company was funded.

That’s a point several of Tenet’s influencers were eager to underscore as they came under scrutiny for their association with the company, which was allegedly paying huge sums to some of the media personalities on its books. One unidentified person was getting $400,000 a month—plus a $100,000 signing bonus—to make “four weekly videos” for the business, the indictment says, while another was contracted to get “a fee of $100,000 per video.”

“Should these allegations prove true, I as well as the other personalities and commentators were deceived and are victims,” Pool said in an X statement responding to the indictment. “I cannot speak for anyone else at the company as to what they do or to what they are instructed.”

Pool said his deal with the company meant the live broadcast of his Culture War Podcast went out on Tenet’s YouTube channel, but he alone had editorial control of the show. “That being said, we still do not know what is true as these are only allegations,” he added. “Putin is a scumbag, Russia sucks donkey balls.”

His statement came as a clip from one of his videos in August went viral on Reddit. “Ukraine is the enemy of this country!” Pool fumes in the footage, later adding that the U.S. should drop all of its military support to Kyiv and “apologize to Russia.”

Another clip shared by several users on X showed Pool talking about how it’s possible for a “foreign agent” to fund channels of influencers they want to boost. “‘This guy talks about things that we really like,’” Pool says in the video, speaking from the perspective of the hypothetical agent. “Dump ad money into his channel through Google AdSense and they’ll never know we were the ones funding him, and you can’t prove it.’”

Yeah, they had no idea. None at all.

They all deny knowing anything about this. They are just so special that they believed it was perfectly plausible that some obscure company in Tennessee would come offering them this vast sum of money. The fact that they consistently delivered pro-Russia, pro-Trump material that perfectly matches what the company was tasked with pushing into the ether is pure coincidence.

Maybe so. But I doubt it.

Appealing To The GenZ Boys

Published by digby on September 5, 2024

This is kind of depressing but it’s important. Dan Pfeiffer took a look at the gender gap and it’s a large as ever. But the younger men of Gen Z are far more likely to vote for Trump this year than they were in 2020. And it’s a problem. If the current numbers hold, Trump will win the election:

In the NBC News Stay Tuned poll of Gen Z:

Now, in a Harris-Trump race, the gender gap among Gen Z voters is significant. Young women said they’re going to vote for Harris for president by 30 points. Young men also said they favor Harris — but by only 4 points over Trump.

The sample of men under 30 is too small to get a real picture of why. In focus groups of young men who previously supported Democrats but are open to voting for Trump in 2024 many cite dissatisfaction with the economy, tremendous cynicism with politics, distrust of institutions, and a sense of being left behind or undervalued by our current culture.

Young men are Trump’s top target in this race. That’s why his convention featured a wife beating MMA fighter introducing him and he entered the stage to the tune of “it’s a man’s world.”

Trump’s campaign advisers explicitly target young men — of all races. Specifically, the Trump campaign curated a group that Axios somewhat cringely deemed the “Bro Vote” — politically disaffected young men who spend a lot of time online.

Trump’s media strategy overindexes on outlets and influencers who have great sway with this group. In recent weeks, Trump appeared on podcasts with MAGA-friendly comedian Theo Von, former Navy Seal Shawn Ryan, and Lex Fridman — a favorite of Elon Musk. Each of these podcasts have large, mostly male audiences especially on YouTube; and the clips continually go viral on TikTok.

Trump also courted influencers like Jake and Logan Paul, Adin Ross, and the Nelk Boys. It’s possible — perhaps even likely — that you have never heard of these people (I wish I hadn’t) and depending on your TikTok algorithm, you may have never seen a single clip from these interviews. This strategy is also why Trump’s first TikTok was a video of him doing a “walk on” at a UFC match.

All of these interviews get one one millionth of the scrutiny of Kamala Harris’s much anticipated CNN interview even though they are arguably much more impactful, seen more people and certainly seen by more of the persuadable voters who don’t watch cable news (the median age of a CNN viewer is 67). Few political reporters covering Trump watch these interviews or write them up. Trump’s appearance on Shawn Ryan’s podcast has nearly three million views. His interview with Vonn has 13 million views. Less than seven million people watch the CNN interview.

This massive oversight betrays a naive, anachronistic understanding of the media diets of the voters who will decide this election.

The problem?

Biden won voters under 30 by 24 points. According to the NBC News poll, Harris is up only 16 points with this cohort.

Pfeiffer suggests that Democratic men go on some of these shows and mix it up a bit, at least giving this cohort some sense of the Democrats’ understanding of their worldview. These people are steeped in misogyny and violence and whether or not Harris wins this election, it’s bad for the country.

But I have to wonder if anyone can compete with this garbage, which is so grotesque that it literally made me want to vomit. It’s the entire subtxt of this election, started by Donald Trump himself who pushes the “Willie Brown” story every chance he gets. These pigs just made it explicit:

That isn’t just some cultural trope that we aren’t supposed to take literally. That’s about a specific woman who is running for president and Trump and his campaign, in a dozen different ways, are saying that she’s not just a childless cat lady who wants to destroy the country, what she really is, is a dumb whore. This is more explicit than Trump and his boys but not by much.

You can read a whole story about this in the NY Times from a while back (gift link) They don’t seem too concerned about it.

The “Sane-Washing” Is Getting Worse

Published by digby on September 5, 2024

Mike Barnicle had a viral clip on Morning Joe today about the media refusing to report on Trump as he really is:

Greg Sargent went deeper on this subject today, referencing Barnicle and pointing out that we are simply not seeing the kind of coverage of Trump’s obvious unfitness that we saw about Joe Biden just a couple of months ago. It’s not that nobody ever says anything about this. But it’s almost in passing, as if it’s not the central story of the campaign. We have a man who is manifestly incapable of being president and we know it. And it’s much worse than it was in 2016 because nobody was sure at the time whether it was an act. It’s not an act.

The media failure this time is completely inexcusable.

Sargent writes:

 I’ve taken 10 prominent headlines on stand-alone stories that ran about Biden’s age before he dropped out. I’ve rewritten them (links to the originals are included) around Trump’s mental unfitness. Reading these, you can see how journalists might spend much more time talking to associates of Trump who privately witness his unbalanced behavior, or questioning Trump himself directly about his mental lapses, or analyzing polls showing that majorities see Trump’s pathological lying as concerning in a president, or looking at specific rants as symptomatic of Trump’s much larger infirmities:

Are these headlines really stretches, based on all we’ve seen? I submit that they are not. Note that all of these treat signs of the subject’s questionable mental fitness for the presidency—and the politics surrounding them—as themselves being the real news. How often do you see headlines like this? Why don’t we see more of them?

They are not stretches. Look at this:

Now look at how the NY Times wrote up this atrocity of an economic speech this morning.

Yes, Trump did recycle his old moldy economic tropes from 2016. But that’s not the point. He rambled like a lunatic, lied, stumbled and digressed and when they asked him questions it was clear he had no fucking idea what he was talking about.

This man is not a novice anymore. He is a former president who sounds like a junior high school kid who didn’t do the homework. He’s still completely clueless about policy and is so psychologically damaged (or intellectually lazy) that he hasn’t the capacity to learn anything.

There’s a story here that these people are determined not to tell. And I’m just stymied as to why. It’s the story of their lifetime.

Update: Oh dear God

Here’s the transcript of Trump’s daft comment on child care:

Here’s how the NY Times reported it:

Does that accurately reflect what he said?

A Member Of The US Senate

Published by digby on September 5, 2024

We wonder how it can be that Donald Trump is running even with Kamala Harris even after all we know about him and his demented performance on the stump?

There are tens of millions of people who are just like him. Like Senator Ron Johnson who is a multi-millionaire.

This still disorients me even after all this time. I thought it was just a fringe.

Put Elon In Charge

Published by digby on September 5, 2024

Musk’s new “commission” looks like a go

He plans to cut taxes and regulations to make life easier for his vastly wealthy friends to raze the government to the ground:

Donald Trump plans to outline a suite of economic proposals in a speech here Thursday, including introducing a government efficiency commission recommended by Elon Musk, taking an even more aggressive swipe at regulations than during his first White House term and pledging to rescind certain unspent funds appropriated during the Biden administration.

The commission would conduct “a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government” and make “recommendations for drastic reform,” the Republican former president plans to say in an appearance before the Economic Club of New York. The goal would be to identify ways to eliminate fraud and improper payments, according to portions of the speech viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

An “audit” and “performance review” by the guy who just destroyed twitter for his personal entertainment.

Whatever. It’s a joke designed to appeal to tech bros and Wall St greedheads to give him more money. But it’s right up there with the “immigration task force” he convened in 2017 to prove that he actually won the popular vote in a landslide for embarrassing wastes of time.

Update:

yikes…