Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

“Alexa, change the president.”

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

You are here: Home / Politics / Information Warfare / Schadenfreude Open Thread: JO’Keefe & Project Veritas Have Parted Ways

Schadenfreude Open Thread: JO’Keefe & Project Veritas Have Parted Ways

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They can’t fire him, he QUITS!!! The lamentations and threats from all the usual right-wingers on twitter are completely unhinged at this point, although a consensus seems to be emerging that it’s all due to Pfizer, who didn’t like O’Keefe promoting a particularly unhinged anti-vaxx video recently. Officially, “James O’Keefe Resigns From Project Veritas After Employee Complaints”:

… In a video to Project Veritas employees, O’Keefe promised to start a new, rival organization doing similar undercover activist work…

O’Keefe, who became a star on the right by targeting journalists and liberal groups in hidden-camera stings, was placed on paid leave earlier this month amid a dispute with the nonprofit’s board. The board reversed O’Keefe’s firing of two top executives, and received a lengthy memo from unhappy employees detailing O’Keefe’s allegedly “outright cruel” conduct.

A video of O’Keefe announcing his exit was posted to the video website Vimeo. In it, an emotional O’Keefe, standing in front of his desk and a Project Veritas backdrop, claimed he had been pushed out by the board after telling its members to either quit themselves or face his resignation—a gambit that apparently failed. In the 45-minute video, O’Keefe got choked up, quoted Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, and appeared to wipe away tears as he announced his plans for a new Project Veritas-type group…

In a statement posted Monday night responding to O’Keefe’s video, Project Veritas’s board claimed it was legally required to call a board meeting after it discovered O’Keefe committing what it described as “financial malfeasance.”

According to the statement, the board’s list of alleged misspending incurred by the nonprofit at O’Keefe’s direction included a $14,000 charter flight to meet someone who could repair his boat. Other alleged expenses included $150,000 over 18 months on private “black cars”and thousands of dollars on “DJ and other equipment.”

The board also accused O’Keefe of wasting $60,000 on “dance events.” O’Keefe, a former high school musical theater performer, has been accused in the past of spending the nonprofit’s money on his own musical interests. Last year, Project Veritas acknowledged improperly spending more than $20,000 to help O’Keefe star in a performance of the musical Oklahoma!

“Even with all of this public fallout, the Board still wants to speak with James,” the statement reads, adding it wanted to “work things out.” “We did not fire him, nor do we want him to resign.”

[We’re just worried about Mr. O’Keefe’s… welfare. He’s been under so much stress…]

In his video, O’Keefe also posted screenshots of what he claimed were the minutes of the board meeting where he was put on unpaid leave and offered “mental wellness care,” pending the results of a financial audit. Those alleged expenses, according to screenshots provided by O’Keefe in the video, included frequent private-car trips and a $12,600 expense at a wedding hall that O’Keefe claimed was used for the organization’s holiday party.

O’Keefe defended his management style in the video, saying he had sometimes had to make hard choices as Project Veritas’ leader.

​​“Leadership has a price, and results often come at a human cost,” O’Keefe said.

The news that O’Keefe had been sidelined in the group he founded provoked outrage on the right, with many conservative pundits tweeting that Project Veritas would be nothing without him. Project Veritas’ board and remaining executives had tried to heal the rift, insisting in a bizarre tweet last week under the organization’s name that O’Keefe was “alive and well.” Just days before the resignation, the board put out a statement insisting that its members “all love James.”…

Insert LET.THEM.FIGHT gif. (Normally I wouldn’t use a tweet with an O’Keefe photo, but I like the subtle suggestion that he’s growing out a Hitler ‘stache.)

Reader Interactions

100Comments

  1. 1.

    dmsilev

    Please tell me there is undercover video of the various meetings and that both sides will put out deceptively edited versions that push their respective slants.

  2. 2.

    RaflW

    When bad things happen to the people who deserve it. Not a frequent enough thing in politics. And, he’s a political operative, not a journalist, not a nonprofit leader, not a person who does ‘under cover stings’.

    He’s a dumb, lazy update on Roger Stone.

    Sucks to be him. As it should.

  3. 3.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    I can only hope he doesn’t learn from his mistakes. I want his next venture to be a personal failure, too. Or.. I hope he drops out of political theater and moves to some small town somewhere and to do community theater.

  4. 4.

    piratedan

    am happy to watch his downfall.  I can only hope that the flames continue to burn.  The amount of damage that this self-righteous bastard did at the expense of the people who really needed help continues to grate.

  6. 6.

    Shalimar

    I know O’Keefe’s worst stunts cost Project Veritas a lot if money in lost lawsuits, but at least he did bring them the attention that got them shadow billionaire funding in the first place.  Have they ever done a single thing that he wasn’t involved in?  I’m not sure why the board and other employees think they have a viable organization without the asshole.

  9. 9.

    VOR

    Someone on Twitter suggested taking his 45 minute video and editing it down to a deceptive 15 seconds. Sounded appropriate to me.

  10. 10.

    Raoul Paste

    So the total zero is quoting the Fountainhead, as if he were the acme of humanity.  Please…..

    I really hope this guy is unemployable, but he’ll probably stumble upon some wingnut welfare

  11. 11.

    JAFD

    A few of you have asked me what I do with my time since I retired.  So have taken a few photos, put them up at

    http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=568010

    for the world to see.

    Sent these pics to Ms. WaterGirl earlier, possibly for ‘On the Road’, but she wasn’t impressed.  Darn.  Anyway, feel free to comment there, or ask a frontpager to pass on email to me yf you’ve questions.

  12. 12.

    SFAW

    This may have already been mentioned/covered in another thread, but:

    Speaking of deceptively-edited videos: apparently Squeaker MqQarthy has given Fucker Carlson full access to Jan 6 Capitol security footage. I’m sure Fucker will only use that access for not-at-all-dishonest purposes which will in-no-way-whatsoever compromise the security of the Capitol and Democrat members of Congress. Naturally, MqQarthy did not consult with Leader Jeffries before reaching that decision.

    I hope that motherfucker* burns in Hell, sooner rather than later.

    * MqQarthy, although I’d be OK if Cucker were included.

  13. 13.

    The Moar You Know

    [We’re just worried about Mr. O’Keefe’s… welfare. He’s been under so much stress…]

    Gosh, I hope he doesn’t keep guns in the house.

  15. 15.

    dmsilev

    @Inventor: To my eternal regret, I saw a clip from his music video. He may have wanted to dance, but he most certainly was not capable of doing such.

  19. 19.

    piratedan

    @SFAW: and this pisses me off even more because we KNOW that DJT and members of the J6 riot club were corresponding with MOC during the events and those fuckers should be under investigation, if not under indictment.

    Have seen it speculated that giving the unadulterated unedited J6 video is the same as giving it to the GRU, which could just as easily imply that now, ALL members of Congress could be at risk, all security is now compromised to anyone that is planted at Faux with any outside entity or even anyone who shares those sympathies that coincide with people that just attempted a coup.

    McCarthy just gave that all away, with no consultation and to me, it wasn’t his to give and certainly not in the name of “transparency”.

    It’s time for some people to get arrested as national security threats.

  20. 20.

    Carlo Graziani

    So, on the bizarre spectacle of the PV board claiming that

    …it was legally required to call a board meeting after it discovered O’Keefe committing what it described as “financial malfeasance.”

    Here we have a fantastic example of the US institutional culture militating against public corruption that I  was pointing to in Part 4 of The Resumption of History.

    Think about it. An organization dedicated to subverting and exploiting journalistic standards to furnish Chuck Colson-grade special effects for the benefit of the Republican party has a board of trustees charged with ensuring that funds donated by other psychopaths who believe in the cause are not misspent as personal funds. And the consequences of violating this trust is swift and sure dismissal of the offending organization founder.

    Please believe me, this kind of thing is essentially inconceivable in most of the nations of the world. There exists an attachment to institutional propriety in the habits of Americans that infiltrates and perverts even organizations inimical to American institutionalism. Irrespective of their other political pathologies (which are considerable), Americans simply can’t stand corruption.

    Be glad of that. It’s still alive, and it gives our institutions some measure of protection that many peoples lack.

  21. 21.

    West of the Rockies

    Maybe he and Milo can do a modern-day Lewis and Martin thing.  They’re both such charmers.//  Maybe Guiliani and Hershel Walker can join them for a 2023 (genuine) Rat Pack gig.

  24. 24.

    Mike in NC

    MSNBC reports that the US Naval Acadmy has renamed Maury Hall (named after a Confederate traitor) to Carter Hall, after the president who graduated from there. BZ!

  26. 26.

    NotMax

    @Mike in NC

    Phew. For a fleeting second worried you were going to say Custer Hall.

    Trivia:

    Carter Hall is the civilian name Hawkman uses when he’s on Earth. On his homeworld his given name is Katar Hol.

  32. 32.

    Steeplejack

    @Raoul Paste:

    Just want to point out that Project Veritas is wingnut welfare. It’s got 60-70 employees and tens of millions in funding. O’Keefe will have a hard time duplicating that (I hope).

  34. 34.

    ian

    @Omnes Omnibus: Custer fought for the North because he was from Michigan.  He and his family were prominent Copperheads. Custer was known as a “McClellan man” for his long loyalty to the ex-general and his support during the 1864 campaign.  His treatment of black people was barely any better than Confederate standards.  And that is before we get to how he viewed Native Americans (when he wasn’t forcing some of them to be his mistresses).

    Should you have time to look for it in your local library, I recommend Cavalier in Buckskin: George Armstrong Custer and the Western Military Frontier. By Robert Utley, University of Oklahoma Press (2001).  Custer shouldn’t be remembered fondly just because he fought for the Union.

  39. 39.

    WhatsMyNym

    OT: via The Guardian

    Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has reportedly ordered the formation of a new volunteer territorial defence so everyone knows how to “handle weapons” and be ready to respond to an act of aggression and keep public order in peacetime.

    Reuters reports Lukashenko told a meeting of his Security Council on Monday:

    The situation is not easy. I have said more than once: every man – and not only a man – should be able to at least handle weapons.
    At least in order to protect his family, if needed, his home, his own piece of land and – if necessary – his country.”
    Lukashenko, who allowed Russia to use Belarus to send troops into Ukraine a year ago, has often said his army would fight only if Belarus was attacked. He has also said the “experience” in Ukraine necessitates additional defence.

    “In case of an act of aggression, the response will be fast, harsh and appropriate,” Lukashenko said.

    Defence minister Viktor Khrenin said the territorial defence force will have 100,000-150,000 volunteers, or more if needed. The paramilitary formation will be ideally in every village and town.

    The country’s professional army has about 48,000 troops and some 12,000 state border troops, according to the 2022 International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Military Balance.

  40. 40.

    Feathers

    @Mike in NC: Good news! Alexandria, VA had a Maury Elementary which is now named Naomi L. Brooks Elementary School, after a longtime teacher who had attended, and fought against, Alexandria’s segregated schools.

    In a weird renaming coincidence, the TC Williams whose racism is why the school from Remember the Titans is now called Alexandria High School, is apparently completely unrelated to the racist TC Williams whose name was removed from the University of Richmond School of Law.

  41. 41.

    Tim Ellis

    @Carlo Graziani: Thanks for pointing this out; it never would have occurred to me, but you’re absolutely right of course. It’s a truly remarkable thing that the board of directors processes worked correctly even in this deliberately underhanded organization, and is a genuinely good sign.

  44. 44.

    Jackie

    @Mike in NC: The Rachel Maddox show had a fascinating piece regarding Carter in charge of disassembling a nuclear reactor in Canada. He was 28 yrs old. Here’s the WaPo version:

    ”The world was in the grip of the Cold War in 1952 when a nuclear reactor began melting down.

    That reactor, located at Chalk River Laboratories in Ontario, had suffered an explosion on Dec. 12. Radioactive material had escaped into the atmosphere, and millions of gallons of radioactive water flooded into the reactor’s basement. Thankfully, no one was injured, but the Canadians needed help to disassemble the reactor’s damaged core.

    The United States sent 28-year-old Jimmy Carter…”
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/02/20/jimmy-carter-nuclear-reactor-navy/

  45. 45.

    frosty

    @dmsilev: ​
     Whoa! That’s way better than the standard “rooting for injuries”! Detail! Specific requests! I’m waiting with popcorn.

  46. 46.

    frosty

    @JAFD: That’s a cool hobby, but I guess it’s a stretch for OTR. It could be a post on its own for “Hobbyists in our midst.” I used to make ships in bottles when I was young and desperately looking for work. I have pictures. It’s worth an email to WG maybe?

  47. 47.

    Tony Jay

    Nothing else for it now. O’Keefe will simply have to strap up the knee that Uncle Joe ‘s goons broke and take that wildcard to the Regional Street Dance heats being held in the big city.

    If he beats Hunter ‘Cyber’ Biden into second and wins a place on the National team, those old men on the board will have to give him his job back. Won’t they? That’s just how these things work.

  50. 50.

    Amir Khalid

    @Quaker in a Basement:

    Actually, bankrolling James O’Keefe’s musical theatre career is a much less socially harmful use of Project Veritas’ money than its usual projects. So I guess I’m all for it.

  51. 51.

    lurker

    this seems like a situation where the board looked at some of the spending and said if someone else finds out about this, and we did nothing, we would personally be liable … and it is hard to get members of a board of directors to be personally liable, so while the details seem somewhat laughable (as with much of the right), our overly litigious society is managing to give us a bit of a win (for now)…

    you hate to see it [that’s the phrase in this situation, right, ‘cuz it just seems rough how they are treating young jimmy o’keefe, such a nice boy …  ; – )]

  52. 52.

    NotMax

    @JAFD

    Linked site borked at the moment. Presumably gaming miniatures? “The dip*” has relegated spray sealer all but extinct, last I heard.

    *Trade name escapes me. Been years upon years (as in well before this century) since I occasionally dabbled in miniatures. So old can remember when Ral Partha figures were made of lead. Imagine that with the advent of 3-D printing there’s been a sea change in the hobby.

  57. 57.

    Chyron HR

    My “James O’Keefe is alive and well” tweet has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my tweet.

  65. 65.

    Gregory

    O’Keefe, who became a star on the right by targeting journalists and liberal groups in hidden-camera stings

    Please replace “hidden camera stings” with “deceptively edited videos.”  –Your Editor

  74. 74.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Ohio Mom: I would have felt that way years ago. Small towns are so Trumpy these days, even in community theater. That mught be the only place that he’d fit in.

  75. 75.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: I just realized I don’t have a single piece of yellow clothing. I’d like to wear blue and yellow on Friday. Plenty of blue, no yellow.

    Just ordered a flag pin.

  85. 85.

    Kay

    Good story on an antiwoke warrior in Florida:

    It is a wholesome and inspirational story. But When Wilma Rudolph Played Basketball is one of nearly 150 books that Vicki Baggett, a high school English teacher, is seeking to ban from school libraries in Escambia County, Florida. According to a challenge form submitted by Baggett on August 24, the purpose of When Wilma Rudolph Played Basketball is “race-baiting,” and the book is not appropriate for any student.

    They interviewed some of her students, who say she regularly expresses her racist and homophobic views in class- even outside of class- challenging black children at a public swimming pool on whether they know how to swim or not, for example.
    This is the person choosing curriculum in Florida. Good job, antiwokesters! Excellent work!

  86. 86.

    Ken

    @dmsilev: From Cheers, the bar is watching a video of Diane’s dance performance:

    DIANE: All my life I’ve wanted to dance so badly!

    NORM: You got your wish.

  89. 89.

    Steeplejack

    @eclare:

    I happened to be watching in real time. Jonathan Lemire, the Way Too Early guy, had to hold the fort with Elise Jordan and the always useless Katty Kay. I think they even had second-tier guest pundits on. Who knew Presidents’ Day was such a big holiday for the commentariat?

  94. 94.

    eclare

    @Steeplejack:   I guess Joe, etc all needed new mattresses.  Yeah I caught yesterday on the DVR, and they all seemed caught off guard.

    I talked with my aunt yesterday, and she said she wondered “you know Poland is right next door”…

  96. 96.

    Ken

    @eclare: It’s romance writers, and they’re more like the Bacchae. I’m trying to remember the name of the last person who was ripped to shreds by them online.

  98. 98.

    WaterGirl

    @frosty: In all fairness to me :-) as I recall, I suggested that it was more “artists in our midst” because it didn’t really fit with On the Road.  JAFD said he had photographed them but hadn’t made them,, so I thought we ruled out the Artists post together.

    But your hobbies idea is a good one!

  99. 99.

    Quaker in a Basement

    @Kay: Ugh. Escambia County. That’s Gaetz’s district and it’s where I went to public school long, LONG ago. Hasn’t changed much in all those years.

  100. 100.

    JAFD

    @NotMax: TheMiniaturesPage.com closes for updates, about 3-4 AM EST – been running on the same software since the Year One …

    ‘Minwax’, I think your referring to.  Some folk like it, my problem that I’m living in studio apt in ‘senior citizens’ building’, and the fumes therefrom smell awful.

    Hope all is going well for you !

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