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You are here: Home / Economics / Free Markets Solve Everything / Dangerous Moron Open Thread: Brad Parscale Has Been Fed A New ‘Idea’

Dangerous Moron Open Thread: Brad Parscale Has Been Fed A New ‘Idea’

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Like the old crack about a guy who thinks he’s a genius because he was standing outside with a bucket when it started raining soup, Brad ‘GRU Conduit’ Parscale thinks Trump’s promotion to the Oval Office makes Brad a political trendsetter. Trump is gonna give up his YOOOOGH instant-gratification Twitter platform about the same time my rescue bitch stops trying to get at the cat’s food — if that were ever to happen, I’d know if for a brink-of-death indicator. But, hey, here’s hoping the publicity puts this Parler platform under all the bright regulatory lights…

Donald Trump’s beef with social-media giants is well-documented—just last month, he brought Twitter C.E.O. Jack Dorsey to the White House to whine about the dip in his following that’s supposedly due to anti-conservative bias. Yet despite his gripes, and the gripes of his far-right allies over the de-platforming of people like Alex Jones, Twitter has remained the president’s megaphone of choice. That’s in part because no platform rivals the reach of Twitter, where Trump can broadcast his every thought to millions of people in seconds. But a new report suggests the president’s aides are pushing him to lend his online clout to a Twitter competitor, raising the specter of a social-media ecosystem that’s even more deeply polarized.

According to Politico, Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale is weighing setting up a presidential account on Parler, a Twitter-style site that controversial conservatives, exiled from larger platforms and leery of censorship, have begun to adopt. “It’s something [Parscale is] aware of and is checking out,” a Trump campaign official said of Parler, which has attracted right-wing notables like Milo Yiannopoulos and Candace Owens. (Owens herself endorsed the idea: “Donald Trump should just switch social media platforms altogether because everyone will follow him,”she told Politico.) Per the campaign official, there’s currently no plan to “make a big move to the platform.” But Parscale and Utah Sen. Mike Lee, a Trump ally, have both created Parler accounts and started posting on the site…

Still, the threat alone could be useful in his war against the social-media giants. Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg have already shown themselves to be clumsy in their attempts to purge their platforms of hateful content, and nervous about stepping on conservatives’ toes in the process. At his big White House sit-down, Dorsey reportedly did his best to reassure Trump that he’s not trying to purge his supporters from the site. As Trump’s Twitter engagement declines, he and his advisers may be more inclined to look elsewhere for ways to make an impact. And the president’s threat to lead conservatives astray could make the likes of Dorsey even more skittish.

AFAICT, Jack Dorsey is at best Nazi-agnostic, in the proud libertarian ‘I got mine, who cares what happens to the peons’ tradition. Zuckerberg, at least, has enough ties to normal humans to be nervous about staking his trademark on the likes of Milo and Mike Lee.

(Do Lee’s Mormon voters know he’s hanging around with noisy xenophobes? Because the LDS, grant them their due, seem to be well aware that an increasing portion of their new membership will be other than than lily-‘white’ and all-American.)

Reader Interactions

101Comments

  2. 2.

    Adam L Silverman

    As Trump’s Twitter engagement declines

    His twitter engagement has declined because 60% of his followers are bots, which get purged by Twitter on something of a regular schedule.

  3. 3.

    Mnemosyne

    I am too fat for my new pants that arrived last week, so I’m in a bit of a mood tonight.

  5. 5.

    Anne Laurie

    @Adam L Silverman:

    His twitter engagement has declined because 60% of his followers are bots, which get purged by Twitter on something of a regular schedule.

    But are we, the taxpayers, paying for the same bots over & over again?

    Do we at least get a bulk discount from TrollBiz’R’Us?

  7. 7.

    Amir Khalid

    If Trump were to switch from Twitter to a platform no one has heard of, it would be a good thing. And if no one followed him there, even better.

    Twitter and Facebook will always be reluctant to ban unsavoury content if it is popular. Popular content is what brings in the ad dollars, and Zuckerberg and Dorsey are not in business for their health.

  12. 12.

    Mnemosyne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I wish. I think it’s more that Kühl doesn’t do vanity sizing.

    And also that I need to get my poor eating habits under control.

  14. 14.

    Another Scott

    In other news, Reuters:

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The former British spy who produced a dossier describing alleged links between Donald Trump and Russia will not cooperate with a prosecutor assigned by U.S. Attorney General William Barr to review how the investigations of Trump and his 2016 election campaign began, a source with knowledge of the situation said.

    Christopher Steele, a former Russia expert for the British spy agency MI6, will not answer questions from prosecutor John Durham, named by Barr to examine the origins of the investigations into Trump and his campaign team, said the source close to Steele’s London-based private investigation firm, Orbis Business Intelligence.

    Trump has given Barr broad authority to declassify intelligence materials related to the investigations. Last week Trump ordered the heads of U.S. spy and law enforcement agencies to cooperate with Durham.

    Steele, who had previously collaborated with the FBI on issues such as corruption in the global soccer organization FIFA, was hired in 2016 by Fusion GPS, a Washington-based private investigations firm working for lawyers representing the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

    Steele produced for Fusion GPS a set of controversial and sometimes salacious reports describing alleged contacts Trump and his team had with Russians before the election.

    Trump says Steele’s “fake dossier” was a key factor behind the investigations and what he claims is a broader “witch hunt” against him. He also accuses senior intelligence officials of improperly “spying” on his campaign.

    According to documents declassified by the Trump administration, the FBI cited Steele’s reporting as partial justification for electronic surveillance targeting Carter Page, a one-time Trump campaign advisor with business dealings in Russia.

    Democrats accuse Trump of trying to turn attention away from the findings of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose report into Russian interference in the 2016 election described numerous links between the Trump campaign and Moscow, and said Trump had repeatedly tried to impede the investigation.

    The source close to Steele’s company said Steele would not cooperate with Durham’s probe but might cooperate with a parallel inquiry by the Justice Department’s Inspector General into how U.S. law enforcement agencies handled pre-election investigations into both Trump and Clinton.

    Steele also cooperated with Mueller’s investigative team, voluntarily submitting to two interviews in September 2017. He also gave written testimony to the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee in August 2018, the source said.

    The Justice Department had no immediate comment, and a spokesman for Durham declined to comment.

    Now why would he not want to talk to Donnie’s henchmen?? Hmm….

    Seriously, good for Steele. Throw up every legitimate obstacle you can in this horrible witch-hunt that Barr is running.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  15. 15.

    Barbara

    @Amir Khalid: Not all popular content brings in ad revenue. I almost never look at FB anymore, but I think advertisers are somewhat leery of appearing in conjunction with certain types of content. AFAIAC Twitter really is a waste of my energy. Can’t speak for others, but ISTM its real practical potential is a long way away from its actual use.

  19. 19.

    lamh36

    @emilylhauser
    10m10 minutes ago
    More
    “Women *died* before we had Roe v. Wade in place. So I’m going to tell you – on this issue? I’m kinda done.” – Kamala Harris, and also Emily L. Hauser

  20. 20.

    lamh36

    @cmclymer
    Following Following @cmclymer
    More
    Lawrence O’Donnell: “Where would you be today if your mother had been told this country is full.”

    Sen. Kamala Harris: “Not only me, Lawrence, but you, too. And everyone in here. This is a nation of immigrants.”

    #HarrisTownHall

    9:17 PM – 28 May 2019

  23. 23.

    chris

    Trump moving to another site would improve the hell out of Twitter. But I can’t see it because Parler and Gab are closed, one has to join and log in to enjoy the freeze peach, he’d have to give up millions of followers in a public forum that anyone can read.

  26. 26.

    H.E.Wolf

    @SRW1:
    Someday gendered slurs, which equate female anatomy to things that are negative, will become as inappropriate as racist slurs. We’re not there yet, but I keep hoping.

  29. 29.

    lamh36

    @MSNBC
    15m15 minutes ago
    More
    Sen. Harris: “I am going to put in place and require that states that have a history of passing legislation that is designed to … limit a women’s access to reproductive health care, that those laws have to come before my Department of Justice for a review and approval.”

  30. 30.

    misterpuff

    This probably doesn’t have to voiced but how many shares of Parler does Parscale own? Drumpf will sign on when he amasses enough shares himself (unless POTUS is long on Twitter).

  31. 31.

    Adam L Silverman

    @lamh36: Would you just like to live blog this on the front page or would that cramp your commenting style?//

  32. 32.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    POLITICO @ politico
    A town hall crowd gave Rep. Justin Amash a standing ovation for standing up to Trump

  34. 34.

    Jay

    @Another Scott:

    Big chunks of bothsiderism in that dreck.

    Didn’t Romney hire Fusion GPS for the oppo research and isn’t McCain the one who gave the FBI a copy,…..

    So why mention Hillary other than to promote the CT,……

  39. 39.

    MisterForkbeard

    @lamh36: I’ve only been able to catch the portion after the first 30 minutes, but she’s really good.

    Even when theres not really a good answer or she doesn’t have a plan yet, she can talk enough about the subject to let you know she understands.

    Shes giving too long of an answer to this “how do our square your prosecutive history with being a progressive prosecutor.” question. It’s a good answer with a lot of depth, but it needed to be snappier.

  41. 41.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jay: The reporting indicated that Fusion GPS was originally hired by Jeb’s campaign/people connected to it to do oppo on the President during the primaries. Once Jeb! was essentially eliminated by the spring of 2016, Fusion GPS basically set it aside. Then Marc Elias, one of the top election/campaign litigation specialists used by Democrats hired Fusion GPS to do an external oppo research project on the President on behalf of the Democrats. It was at this point that Fusion GPS hired Steele to look at the Russian connections as those were being reported on and Steele had been one of the foremost Russia hands at MI6. My understanding from the reporting and the testimony of Fusion GPS’s owners to both the House and the Senate is that Elias never notified the Clinton campaign, nor the DNC that he was paying for Fusion GPS to do the opposition research and none of it had been given to or even seen by Elias, the Clinton campaign, and/or the DNC. Though Steele was pulling his hair out trying to get senior British leadership, as was reported last week, to pay attention to what he’d turned over to MI6, just as he was trying to get the FBI and CIA to get their butts in gear.

  42. 42.

    lamh36

    @MisterForkbeard: I think like Obama she will err on the side of more information that explains the situation, rather than snappy quips…in the long run it’s better to try to explain things to folks, but in the short term, snappy quips makes clips…so there is that…

  43. 43.

    MomSense

    Brad is on to some new trick and we still don’t know the full story about Cambridge Analytica’s work with Parscale and the Trump campaign.

  44. 44.

    lamh36

    @kylegriffin1
    Kamala Harris on Justin Amash: “What he has done is what we need more people in the United States Congress to do, which is to put country before party.”
    https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1133567435678912512

    Now here’s the test from Amash.

    Can he take this complimentary take from Harris is a “reasonable” way, or will he or any of his GOP fans try to backhand compliment Harris, ya know, thank her and then deride her?

  46. 46.

    patrick II

    @Jay:

    The Bush team first hired the company that hired Steele. Hillary’s team picked up the oppo research after Bush dropped out.

  47. 47.

    Ruckus

    @TaMara (HFG):
    Great – hate, it all sounds the same to a demented mind.
    Of course shit for brains hasn’t been demented for that long a time.
    Of course he has been hating for a long time.

  51. 51.

    Mike in DC

    Harris was impressive tonight. While Biden seems to be pitched as the “safe” candidate, and Warren is the “policy” candidate, Harris seems to be the “Goldilocks” candidate…just the right combination of charisma, policy and character to get the job done.

  52. 52.

    Jay

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Wiki says:

    Wingnut whirletzer Washington Free Beacon,
    Then DNC/Clinton’s lawyers, firewalled from the Campaign,
    Then Fusion GPS, themselves,

    and:

    “Steele had agreed with Fusion GPS to deliver a hard copy of all 16 memos to McCain,[36] which McCain received in early December from Kramer.[2] On December 9, McCain met personally with FBI Director James Comey to pass on the information.[63][22][66] “

    But of course, the role of the Media is to feed the wingnuts.

  54. 54.

    Mary G

    Twitler won’t leave for a smaller service; he’d equate to being sent down to the minors because his batting average declined. His ego couldn’t take it.

    Here’s my personal scariest news of the day:

    “The request [for military options vs Iran] alarmed Mr. Mattis.. When Mr. Bolton tried to bypass the Pentagon and go straight to..Central Command for military options, Mr. Mattis blocked the end run, according to a senior administration official.” https://t.co/1GC1htpIWM— Kingston Reif (@KingstonAReif) May 29, 2019

    Mattis isn’t there to block anymore and somehow I doubt the Boeing guy will put up much resistance.

    ETA: Link goes to the FTFNYT.

  56. 56.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Mary G: I was kind of surprised to see on twitter the other day that Mattis has a book coming out. His silence since leaving the Pentagon has been disappointing, and I don’t expect him to do much more than the oblique criticism of the sort he’s offered before.

  57. 57.

    SFAW

    @Adam L Silverman:

    used by Democrats hired Fusion GPS to do an external oppo research project on the President on behalf of the Democrats.

    They did oppo on Obama? Because if that’s not who you mean, then I think you’re talking about a Candidate. OK? Don’t make the Traitor-in-Chief into Preznit more than he already claims to be.

  59. 59.

    Jay

    @Mary G:

    They will slow walk it to hell and back, and when forced to, will come back with actual options and consequences,

    Option A, 15,000 lightly armed troops disappear in Iran while the Persian Gulf explodes,

    Option B, Naval strikes resulting in $600 a barrel oil, the Persian Gulf explodes, several thousand dead US Sailors,

    Option C, Airstrikes, see above,

    Option D, all three, see above,

    American Military Impotence has been noticed globally and there is no little blue pill for that.

  60. 60.

    Brachiator

    @MisterForkbeard:

    Shes giving too long of an answer to this “how do our square your prosecutive history with being a progressive prosecutor.” question. It’s a good answer with a lot of depth, but it needed to be snappier

    Some people need to go jail.

  61. 61.

    Brachiator

    @lamh36:

    How u know Kamala Town Hall went well… Cenk and TYT talking bout it was a “mixed reaction”

    They are the official propaganda channel for Wilmer.

  63. 63.

    Lyrebird

    @lamh36: LOVE Sen. Harris. Not gonna read about Mr. Parscallywag, though I am thankful that Anne Laurie is brave enough to do so. Had enough malicious ignorance in my week already. Gonna click on the AG Harris videos on Cole’s Twitter feed and watch a master.

    Note: I also LOVE Sen. Warren and lots of the others, too, but tonight I want to give Sen. Harris her due.

  64. 64.

    Harbison

    Kamala Harris was rocking it tonight.

    She had the proven skill set of a street-fighting pol, not least of which is a willingness to shape her positions to whatever position will get her into office and this is the kind of politician we need against Trump.

    Uninformed people think, “Oh, product of San Francisco political machine, must be UR liberal.” Uh, no. SF is the City that loves Feinstein, remember. And who elected Clinton with Better Hair, Gavin Newsome. Absolutely middle of the road – to libertarian on economic issues. If you subtract it’s embrace of the LGBTQ community, it is indistinguishable from Cincinnati or St. Louis. The point being that she will sell well in middle America. And even thought there is grumbling about her not being “black enough” in some retrograde corners she will drive black (female) voter turnout in a way that Clinton couldn’t.

    My heart is still with Warren, but I don’t think she has the required ruthlessness – but I have to say the way her dogged persistence and preparation are moving her up in the polls is inspiring in its own way.

    ——

    And a big shout out to Duck Donuts in Nags Head. Had the most fantastic maple bacon donut there over the weekend. Made fresh to order … you have to stand there holding the plate for a minute two for it to get cool enough to eat. Just fantastic.

  65. 65.

    Sloegin

    Huh. Speculation of Trump moving to Parler, and here I thought he’d be more of a Gab man.

  66. 66.

    Martin

    Not sure Trumps folks are smart enough to realize this, but if they move to Parler, then Parler will go under. The flood of shitposting will destroy the platform. Twitter is barely holding on now.

    The future of any right-wing tolerant platform is walking the knife edge between mass abandonment and demonetization.

  67. 67.

    Duane

    @MomSense: Parscale’s new trick is getting in on that Parler grifting action. Using Trumpov’s name draws the rubes. The Republican party is a criminal enterprise. It’s always about the money.

  72. 72.

    Mary G

    This woman ROCKS!

    I don't know what I love more
    Is it the strut
    Is it the middle finger
    Is it the dress
    Is it the fierce zero fuck state of mind
    Is it the dog looking for somewhere to piss on
    Is it her disregard for white men
    Fuck it, this is my entire mood during the election season… pic.twitter.com/ibEDc3kBei— Mr. Weeks ?? (@MrDane1982) May 28, 2019

    I want some of her merch. Women have to be loud and proud, not hide in secret Facebook groups this time.

  74. 74.

    Mary G

    I hope I never run into Susan Sarandon IRL, because the Hillary is worse than Trump have enabled a lot of terrible things all over:

    NEW: The Supreme Court reversed a lower court ruling on fetal remains, leaving in place an Indiana law, signed by now-Vice President Mike Pence when he was governor, that mandates that aborted fetuses be buried or cremated.— NPR Politics (@nprpolitics) May 28, 2019

    Cruel and evil. And it’s going to be cranked up to eleven, in case they don’t get reelected.

  75. 75.

    Lyrebird

    @Mary G: Wow.

    And you can buy a shirt or the whole dress for under $50. Tempting, tempting.

    An updated version of the hugely popular Sheroes Print.
    Sheroes are a 5 x 5 pattern as follows:

    Cecile Richards, Kirsten Gillibrand, Dr. Anita Hill, Nancy Pelosi, Elena Kagan
    Maxine Waters, Ann. Richards, Dolores Huerta, Kamala Harris, Tammy Duckworth
    Mazie Hirono, Shirley Chisholm, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Michelle Obama, Amy Klobuchar
    Emma Gonzalez, Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Jordan, Elizabeth Warren, Rosemari Aquilina, Gloria Steinem, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Tarana Burke, Sonia Sotomayor, and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford

  76. 76.

    Brachiator

    @Martin:

    Not sure Trumps folks are smart enough to realize this, but if they move to Parler, then Parler will go under. The flood of shitposting will destroy the platform

    This is something to be wished for.

  77. 77.

    Jackie

    I really wish when there’s a Town Hall meeting covering Democratic potentials running for President, someone would create an open post covering it. Kamala Harris deserved Front Page. That is all.

  80. 80.

    Another Scott

    It’s a good thing that trade wars are easy to win, otherwise sensible people might start to get worried. Reuters:

    Rare earths are a group of 17 chemical elements used in everything from high-tech consumer electronics to military equipment.

    While China has so far not explicitly said it will restrict rare earths exports to the United States, Chinese media has strongly implied this will happen, including remarks from the editor of influential paper the Global Times on Twitter late on Tuesday.

    In a commentary headline “United States, don’t underestimate China’s ability to strike back”, the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily noted the “uncomfortable” dependence on rare earths from China of the United States.

    “Will rare earths become a counter weapon for China to hit back against the pressure the United States has put on for no reason at all? The answer is no mystery,” it said.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  81. 81.

    Mnemosyne

    @Mary G:

    We hid inside Facebook groups in 2016 because we were afraid that our anger would cost Hillary the election.

    Now we don’t give a fuck who knows we’re angry. Come at me, bros — I dare you. ?

  88. 88.

    Jay

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Yeah, no. It’s been butt clench/ready to evac season here for over a month already and Northern Alberta and the Yukon are burning down again,

    Not really ready for the forest fire snark.

  91. 91.

    Darkrose

    @H.E.Wolf: Funny that you mention that…

    Last Friday as I was watching the Giants lose in historic fashion, I got into it with a couple of MAGA-hatted trolls—one of them black—who were clearly there to pwn the libs. I suggested they stop being assholes and throwing things at the D-backs dugout, and I flipped them off when they started filming me and my wife. When they told the D-backs Nick Ahmed to “go back to your sand dune” I reported them. It turned out the D-backs bench coach had called security already. When park security came they refused to leave, bragging about having 75k followers on Twitter. Finally the cops came and escorted them out.

    I tweeted about it all, and the next day the showed up on my timeline. Black MAGA dude called me a bitch, so I blocked and reported him. His buddy dropped by to tell me I was a “cunty racist”; I blocked and reported him and made my Twitter feed private.

    According to Twitter support, none of that violates their TOS, because freeze peach, and I can use their tools like blocking to help me feel safer. I pointed out that forcing me to lock down my account is infringing on my speech, but since the president isn’t going to complain on my behalf it doesn’t matter.

  92. 92.

    Jay

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Forest fire season here used to be August. Now it’s snowmelt to snowfall. It’s not CA and even in CA, wildfire season was much shorter.

    Because of the fuel load, fires now burn so hot they sterlize soil and generate their own weather systems.

    Then of course, there’s the no being able to breathe outdoors for 8 months out of the year.

    And then of course, living in the bush with one good(ish) gravel road out to the south, a horrible 4×4 road to the north, and the livestock.

    And a winter drought/spring drought this year because CA’s getting all our rain.

    My fire lines are now 160 feet wide, bulldozed clear of everything that can burn, and my gut feeling is this year, it’s not enough.

    Making it all the more “fun”, is the #1, ( TransCanada Highway), closes regularly, due to landslides from last years fires, ( and the year before).

  94. 94.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Jay: Let me point out that if you feel sensitive about fires, restrain your own snark. Unless it’s actively raining here, the fire danger is never low and is usually high or extreme; that’s the case now, that was how it was when I was growing up.

  96. 96.

    Jay

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    There was no snark.

    5 years ago we had to evacuate. SWMBO took the pets, art, valuables, documents and found a place 120 km east.

    I moved the cattle and horses off.

    My last day leaving, made it into town on melted tires and rims, paint on the truck gone.

    https://www.med.ubc.ca/the-psychological-impact-of-wildfires/

    When we came back, 70% of our neighbors places were gone.

    Because of our firelines, automated sprinklers, and the hard work of fire fighters, our place was saved, but still damaged. Our solar array was melted.

    Now, of course, we don’t qualify for fire insurance, so at best, if we get burned out, we get 25 cents on the dollar from Provincial relief.

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