The rather jaw dropping story from the past week has been the revelation that there really is a Russian scheme that was setup to promote Russian disinformation in the US.
The first bombshell dropped last Wednesday when a DOJ indictment was unsealed and it was revealed that the Right Wing Tenant Media outlet was a Russian funded outlet for useful fools …
- The Alpha Source, the official DOJ Press Release can be found here. To be wholly clear here, this is an indictment – it is an ongoing investigation. It has not been leaked, it is all via an official press release.
- The full 32 page indictment itself can be found here
- For those brave enough to wade in and read it, you can derive from the description of their actions who the unnamed commentators are – Commentator 1: Dave Rubin; Commentator 2: Tim Pool; Commentator 3: Unclear; Commentator 4: Lauren Southern; Commentator 5: Unclear; Commentator 6: Matt Christiansen; That leaves Benny Johnson and Tayler Hansen unassigned. Benny is probably Commentator 3.
The founders knew where their money was coming from …
“Unwittingly” is a phrase used within the press release, as in “Unwittingly received $10M”. This is a very charitable turn of phrase and is doing a lot of heavy lifting. What is rather clear from the evidence laid out within the indictment is that the founders knew they were funded by the Russians …
As for people like Tim Pool and Dave Rubin, to be honest, “Unwittingly working for a Russian influence op” is so embarrassing that they’d probably be better off pretending they knew even if they really did not.
Meanwhile, this revelation is now a cue for all the Russian bots and their followers within Elon’s cesspit of disinformation to now pop up with “It’s a Russian Hoax all over again” … or … “The DOJ is out of control” … or … well, you get the idea.
Tim Pool, Benny Johnson and others, along with the backing of their fans, are now claiming that they had no idea. As pointed out by Rick Wilson, that is indeed a stance that truly stretches all credibility …
It is also a stance that demands that we believe that they never once Googled “Eduard Grigoriann” the “famous European banker” who was supposedly bank rolling their efforts, yet despite his “fame” does not actually exist.
It’s a tough choice for them – admit crass stupidity and incompetence, or admit that they did know and turned a blind eye to who they were really working for.
Personally I lean towards the thought that they all knew damn well whom they worked for, but happily did it anyway for $400,000 a month. Seriously now, who makes $400K a pop and doesn’t ask who is paying me?
So why is the DOJ public stance going with “unwittingly”?
It is because they need to flip them so that they cooperate and are also willing to testify. It’s usually how stuff like that works as they follow the money trail.
If you have doubts about any of it, then this is where the old adage that emerged from the Nixon era works rather well – “Follow the Money”. The indictment lays it all out.
Side note: When Nixon was elected, people did not know he was a crook. These days, when it comes to Trump, well, that’s a rather different story. Those that support him are doing so in the full knowledge that he is a sexual predator, fraudster, and convicted felon.
However, the above is just one data point in what is now revealed this past week to be a far larger disinformation campaign.
Wired digs into another related Indictment that was also unsealed this past week after the above: DOJ: Russia Aimed Propaganda at Gamers, Minorities to Swing 2024 Election
- Here is the DOJ Press Release for that (Dated Sept 4): Justice Department Disrupts Covert Russian Government-Sponsored Foreign Malign Influence Operation Targeting Audiences in the United States and Elsewhere
“Companies operating at the direction of the Russian government created websites to trick Americans into unwittingly consuming Russian propaganda. By seizing these websites, the FBI is making clear to the world what they are, Russian attempts to interfere in our elections and influence our society. The FBI will continue to work with our partners to expose and shutdown these covert influence campaigns.”
So to wrap this up, what we actually have is a real conspiracy that involved using conspiracy theorists to spread disinformation via fake conspiracy theories.
Welcome to 2024.
Let’s move on now to a warning of what may come next.
Fabricated Nonsense
Given the above revelation, it is perhaps also wholly appropriate to also flag up the distinct possibility that we may face some dramatic disinformation upticks. The below is via USA Today Journalist and columnist Rex Huppke, who is also the adjunct journalism professor in Loyola University. He tweeted out the following rather sensible warning this past week …
Here’s what’s going to happen: In October, Trump will drop some fabricated nonsense about Harris. Elon Musk and the rest of the right-wing media ecosystem will amplify it, the mainstream press will cover the fight and, absurd as it is, it will present a pre-election problem.
Given Trump’s reach and the full power of the Trump-obsessed online army, this will be a bigger deal than Comey’s Hillary Clinton letter. And it will be total bullsh*t. But as we’ve seen, facts mean nothing to many. If you think Trump’s team isn’t already planning this then you haven’t been paying attention. This election is existential for Trump and those in his orbit. He loses, they all lose – mainly money. So of course they’re going to pull something wildly dishonest. Of course. Democrats need to know that’s coming.
They need to be prepared not just to play defense and debunk whatever it is, but they need to be ready to win by a margin that can overcome that kind of an obstacle. Point of all this: The polls look encouraging. But they aren’t even remotely good enough to win.
Harris has to not just overcome the electoral college disadvantage. She has to overcome whatever the hell the most dishonest politician the country has ever known is cooking up. So cork your optimism. This is gonna be a righteous slog. Get in the mud. Fight. Full steam.
He is spot on about many things that you are perhaps well aware of.
- Trump does indeed promote the most absurd BS regarding those he does not like and he will do or say anything to win. It is all about him. If he fails to win, then justice is looming for this already convicted felon – full accountability for both the sexual assault and fraud convictions, and much more is yet to come.
- Others, such as Elon, are desperate for Trump to win. A Harris-Walz win is a direct threat to the ability of the 0.1% to continue to accumulate vast amounts of wealth. Elon himself has now been promised an influential position of power if Trump wins.
- October is indeed the window within which we can anticipate an attempt to manipulate vast numbers of voters via manufactured disinformation.
Will it actually happen?
Possibly yes. Trump would happily do it
However, if Trump then fails to win, what then happens?
We also all know that playbook. The stage is already being set to claim the election was stolen, and where possible Trump loyalists will be pressured to not certify election results.
Peter Stone writes within The Guardian (Sep 3rd): Trump and allies plant seeds for ‘chaos and discord’ if he loses, experts warn …
Donald Trump and election denialist allies at Turning Point USA, True the Vote and other Maga stalwarts are spreading conspiracy theories about election fraud in order to lay the groundwork for charging the election was rigged if Trump loses, warn election experts and some veteran Republicans.
The consequences of the strategy could be dire. John Giles, the Republican mayor of Mesa, Arizona, who spoke at the Democratic national convention in August in support of Kamala Harris’s campaign for the presidency, said that former president Trump and his allies “will throw everything at the wall and see what sticks”, if Trump loses.
He added: “They’ll claim everything went wrong if they lose. I’d be surprised if Trump doesn’t try to foment insurrection if he loses the election.”
For Trump it is literally existential, he either wins or he goes to jail, so this convicted felon will say or do literally anything to avoid that.
It really is a cult of fools that is buying into all this.
OK, let’s leave it at that for now and move on to review some of the other deeply crazy and bizarre stuff that emerged during the last seven days.
They are coming for your Pastor
This is fast becoming a popular and totally bogus talking point that is being deployed to manipulate the evangelicals into sticking with the orange messiah.
MAGA cultist Eric Metaxas likens the current situation in the U.S to Nazi Germany: “I promise you, if Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are elected, they are going to come after pastors and people of faith like you have never seen.“
- Every election it used to be the “they’re coming for your guns” lie, but that no longer works, so they are now going for “coming for your pastor“.
- “I promise you” … ah yes, the old “just trust me” ploy which basically means he is just making shit up.
- The rather gaping grand canyon sized flaw within his claim is that back in 2020, Harris was elected, and has been VP ever since then. Number of pastors that “they” have come for has been exactly zero, but that’s not exactly a surprise given the observation that she is a devoted Baptist herself.
It is now new. This argument is actually a well worn argument often used by Jim Bakker over the years, and so he also popped up this past week to double down on it …
- Reminder: Jim Bakker was previously taken off air and put in jail … not because of his “faith”, but because of financial fraud. This guy uses religion to run scams.
- He is also credibly accused of drugging and then raping Jessica Hahn. He then paid her $279,000 to remain silent.
- These days he is also often on air promoting his “It is the end times” and then uses the fear he drums up to sell overpriced food survival buckets. Back in 2015 NPR bought some and got a chef to review it – “They taste, he says, like, “paper-mache,” “a bathroom at a bar at the end of the night in a college town,” and, simply, “one of the worst things I’ve ever eaten in my life.” … which to be frank more or less sums up Jim Bakker rather well.
Guns
Here we are once again after no meaningful action …
With yet another tragic shooting, this time in GA, it was wholly appropriate for a quick reminder. So this happened a few years ago …
- Let’s be clear about this, the majority want sensible gun regulations, and time and time again Republicans block it. It’s really not a pro-life stance they are adopting.
- But hey … priorities … fetuses, tax loopholes for billionaires, book bans, and guns … but not students.
- Next Nov is an ideal time to send him a hard “Nope” to the pro-shooting party.
Others also had a few very obvious thoughts …
Brian Kemp is not exactly doing all he can …
Now this is what a real pro-life stance looks like …
Now let’s be also clear about this, it really is all about who you vote for …
Homophobia on Steroids
Do not be under the illusion that Trump is in any meaningful way LGBTQ friendly. He demonstrated where he really stands during the past week.
Alex Bollinger @ LGBTQ Nation (Sep 3): Donald Trump claims that schools are performing gender-affirming surgery on students
- We do indeed live in “Interesting Times”, an age where presidential candidates can promote utterly false lies and mainstream media does not even notice because him lying is so normal that it is not newsworthy.
- Thankfully some are flagging it up …
Tucker Carlson Update
There was a bit of an “interesting” Tucker Carlson update this past week.
Via Isaac Schorr writing in Mediaite on Sep 3rd that this happened … “Tucker Carlson Starstruck By Historian Who Calls Churchill, Not Hitler, the ‘Chief Villain’ of WW2 and Casts Holocaust as Accident“
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson fawned over Darryl Cooper, whom he described as “the best and most honest popular historian in the United States,” during a recent interview in which Cooper identified Winston Churchill as the “chief villain” of World War Two and appeared to argue that the Holocaust was an accident.
If you are familiar with Tucker then him going full Nazi is perhaps not a shock …
- I mean seriously now, Tucker did telegraph his extreme right-wing leanings with his Russian propaganda clips live from Moscow a couple of months ago … literally … and added a grovelling Putin Interview as the cherry on that cake.
- Rumor has it that Captain Renault was also shocked to find gambling going on at Rick’s Cafe in Casablanca, Morocco in 1942. (This was a snarky line of his in the movie – “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here.“)
JD Vance is still being JD Vance
The man demonstrates once again that he is incapable of going more than 24 hours without saying something deeply weird. The Harris campaign are just loving it …
- Yep, it’s Mr. Polite when it comes to Tucker Carlson and Nazi apologists, but has no problem insulting “childless cat ladies.”
- For any JD Vance fans reading this, the correct answer is something along the lines of …“No, Nazis are bad”.
Pastor of the Week
The Roys Report, a Christian run outlet that exposes corruption, reports on Aug 31 – Chris Reed Attributes Sexual Misconduct to Being ‘Under Attack’
- For context, Chris Reed was CEO of Morningstar Ministries … and then resigned when he was exposed as a sexual abuser.
- His claim is literally “It was not my fault, the devil made me do it“.
Could any pastor be worse than him this past week?
Well yes.
Pastor claims Democrats are a Death Cult
I highlighted Pastor Jack Hibbs within last week’s posting, so can he possibly do anything that is even weirder to top that?
Of course he can.
This week he comes out with “vote my way or burn in hell because God will judge you for voting for a death cult” …
- He really is going for the full MAGA halo effect there.
- For those that believe in judgement, it’s going to be rather hard to explain votes for republicans who do not feed the hungry, who do not forgive, do not love their neighbors or welcome the stranger.
The Olympic Weirdest Gold Medal winners
Brand Awareness is something to be aware of, well guess what – A survey in the state of Washington found that people dislike Republicans more than atheists. It’s politically toxic. As one commentator noted, “Republicans, take it from me, if you’re below the atheists, you’re having a major brand perception crisis.“
- Here is a link to the Survey details. It comes from a group called DHM Research. They surveyed 500 residents in Washington (state) to gauge their opinions about a variety of issues. Republicans ranked at the bottom below absolutely everybody else. (Seriously now, is anybody actually surprised? They have worked every so hard for that recognition, so it truly warms the heart to see it).
- Bonus Statistic: Would you believe even Transgender people were more popular than Republicans.
Well, it’s a good thing that Kandiss Taylor only got 3.4% of the vote when she ran for governor of Georgia in 2022 since she doesn’t think women belong in government: “I’m not about women’s empowerment. … I hate feminism.“
- It truly is deeply weird that a Republican woman would run for office on the platform “Women don’t belong in government!“
Hypocrite of the week
NC GOP Gov candidate steals Girl Scout cookies made the news…
- The details are here.
- It gets worse for him, buried further down is this gem that should really have been the lead…
After auditing just a few months of Balanced Nutrition’s nearly ten-year activity, DHHS found that the nonprofit, which served as a conduit for getting federal funding for child care facilities’ meals, was requesting federal funding on behalf of childcare centers and then not actually giving them the money.
Robinson and Hill must now pay back $132,118.86 in federal funds, and the US Department of Agriculture may launch an investigation into whether additional violations occurred.
However, all of that fades into the background concerning another revelation regarding him that emerged this past week. First a bit of context – he claims he found Jesus in the late 80s. Now that’s rather odd because via a jaw-dropping article in The Assembly we learn this …
Ex-Porn Shop Employees Say Mark Robinson Was A Regular. He Denies It.
…according to Louis Money, who worked in several of Greensboro’s windowless, 24-hour video-pornography stores, Robinson was a frequent customer in the 1990s and early 2000s. Money, 52, told The Assembly that Robinson came in as often as five nights a week to watch porn videos in a private booth.
Five other men who said they were former employees or customers during this period also told The Assembly that Robinson visited two of these stores: Gents Video & News and I-40 Video & News.
This is a guy who has adopted a Christian Nationalist persona for his campaign, yet anybody who scratches a bit will find under the surface a lot of deeply dubious stuff bubbling away. Beyond this Porn revelation, and the previous financial fraud there is much more.
Normally a persons private life should be just that … private. However, when you have individuals like Robinson who run an election platform that is founded on stuff like this …
…in the past few years alone, has said that forced religion in public schools could prevent mass shootings, that transgenderismand homosexuality amount to filth, that the trans movement is demonic and full of Antichrist spirit, and that straight couples are superior to gay ones. At a June rally, he ranted “Some folks need killing.”
He also denies the Holocaust. Really. In 2018, in a Facebook post denouncing gun safety measures, he wrote that the “foolishness about Hitler disarming MILLIONS of Jews and then marching them off to concentration camps is a bunch of hogwash.”
When it comes to abortion, he’s been equally extreme, saying in a 2021 speech that once a woman is pregnant, its not [her] body anymore. His campaign website once made clear that, “As a Christian, Mark will honor the sanctity of life.” (That phrase no longer appears on his campaign website, as abortion rights have become a major unifying force for Democrats.)
Not that Robinson cares about “sanctity,” either, since he paid for an abortion in 1989—after he had supposedly found Jesus.
… then yea, the gloves are off and it is open season for the exposure of his blatant hypocrisy.
I just love this quote …
“I know [Robinson] might have problems with gay people, but I don’t think he has problems with lesbians,” said one of the clerks at the adult sex shop that Robinson frequented as often as five times a week.
Excellent messaging from Walz
Walz really is a truly excellent communicator …
“We respect differences, that’s your opinion … but on things like healthcare or what books I read, in democracy, we all live by that very simple golden rule – mind your own damn business” …
As Always, The Political Cartoonists continue being excellent
Memes
There were also a few rather funny memes doing the rounds …
While this next one is making a solid point, the reason it gave me a bit of pause is because Scottish Author Ian Banks, who lived in Scotland, died over a decade ago in 2013. The quote is unsourced, but I checked. It really was him, it comes from his final interview given shortly before his cancer took him at the age of 59. For context, he was talking about how the UK political party called UKIP demonised immigrants. You might wonder if it applies here and now. The answer is yes, not only because UKIP was a party run by a very sleazy guy called Nigel Farage who is very good buddies with Trump, but also because the point he is making is robustly solid.
Here is the full quote, in context …
I won’t miss waiting for the next financial disaster because we haven’t dealt with the underlying causes of the last one. Nor will I be disappointed not to experience the results of the proto-fascism that’s rearing its grisly head right now. It’s the utter idiocy, the sheer wrong-headedness of the response that beggars belief. I mean, your society’s broken, so who should we blame? Should we blame the rich, powerful people who caused it? No let’s blame the people with no power and no money and these immigrants who don’t even have the vote, yeah it must be their fucking fault. So I might escape having to witness even greater catastrophe
He was spot on in what was coming. A couple of years later, in 2016 after he had passed, enough UK people were stupid enough to believe the UKIP rhetoric and so voted for BREXIT. They now deeply regret the decision to isolate the UK from Europe. It literally decimated the economy, by not protecting all those jobs that “they” were supposedly coming to take, but instead by obliterating them.
Do we have enough stupid people to do the same here?
So far the jury is out on that one.
Finally…
Unfortunately, rather a lot are like him …
- Oh wow … that guy. It’s Edward X Young. He was at the Captiol on January 6th, and has been to 70+ trump rallies(front row Joe), including the Moms4Liberty event last week….and….wait for it…..he’s a porn actor/director
- He is also going to need to learn how to cope with the upcoming Kamala win.
This next one really is mind blowing and truly hilarious stuff: When asked about protestors at the Trump Rally, she says, “Don’t come if you are uneducated and you don’t know what you are talking about“. This dialog then happens: “Are you a fan of the First Amendment? … Absolutely, you know, the right the bear arms … That’s not the First Amendment … er, no no, that’s the fourth Amendment” …
- She is indeed right about one thing — there are uneducated people at that rally.
Here is their 8 min clip from YouTube clip the rally … (and yes, the answers people give when asked questions truly are hilarious) …
Next week
It will be a rather dull week, absolutely nothing interesting is going on, and all the crazies will take a vacation … right?
Oh wait!