This indictment alleges that right-wing commentators like Dave Rubin, Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, and Lauren Southern — as part of the "Tenet Media" YouTube channel — have been unwittingly working for a Russian influence operation. https://t.co/O4DBYDeGGN
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) September 4, 2024
The indictment wasn’t leaked.
It was unsealed and announced as part of a press conference. pic.twitter.com/6YKtomNPhj
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) September 4, 2024
‘Beanie Boy’ Tim Pool and serial plagiarist Benny Johnson are two of the highest-ranked ‘Just Doing Our Own Research’ right-wing pests on social media. It’s probably true that they’d be almost as persistent in pushing Russian disinformation for free. But then again, it can be assumed that, given the lavish nature of the Wingnut Wurlitzer, they knew they’d never have to go unpaid… Per the Washington Post, “Justice Dept. charges two Russian media operatives in alleged scheme”[gift link]:
The Justice Department on Wednesday charged two Russian media executives in an alleged scheme that authorities say illegally funneled millions of dollars to a Tennessee-based company to create and publish propaganda videos that racked up millions of views on U.S. social media.
The 32-page federal indictment accuses Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, employees of RT, a Russian-state news site formerly known as Russia Today, of conducting a money-laundering operation that spent nearly $10 million on efforts to covertly influence public opinion and sow social divisions, including placing blame on Ukraine regarding the war with Russia.
Authorities said the U.S. company, which was not identified by name in the indictment, allegedly created and posted hundreds of English-language videos on social media sites, including TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and X, a site formerly known as Twitter, that echoed Russian state propaganda and garnered 16 million views on YouTube alone.
Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva, Russian citizens who remain at large, were charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, which is punishable by up to 20 years, authorities said…
The federal indictment doesn’t name the Tennessee-based company. But a quote from the company’s YouTube channel in the indictment describing it as a “a network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues” suggest the business is Tenet Media.
Tenet is a Tennessee corporation founded by conservative commentator Lauren Chen, who goes by the name “Roaming Millennial” online and her husband, Liam Donovan. Chen, who also works as a host for Glenn Beck’s BlazeTV online video company and contributes to Turning Point USA, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The indictment alleges that at least two Tenet contributors were misled about the true source of the site’s funding, while the company’s co-founders knew the money came from Russia.
Tenet Media’s launch in November 2023 was hotly anticipated in the world of right-wing YouTube, a mega-channel combining the work of prominent pundits like Dave Rubin, Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, and Lauren Southern.
The launch was preceded by months of cryptic social media posts and videos in Tenet’s signature purple color, billing the channel as a sort of supergroup for conservative YouTube stars.
The indictment also offers a glimpse into how much money significant conservative personalities can make. One unnamed Tenet contributor with 2.4 million YouTube followers on their own channel received $400,000 a month, plus a $100,000 signing bonus and performance incentives, just for making four videos a week for Tenet, according to the indictment…
At the Justice Department, Garland scoffed when asked about a significant subset of Americans, mostly far-right conservatives who support Trump, who have sought to discredit reports of Russian meddling.
“I’m sure that was much funnier in the original Russian,” Garland said. “But for us, it’s not funny. This is deadly serious, and we are going to treat it accordingly.”
Wow suddenly Tim Pool having takes like this makes way more sense. pic.twitter.com/Q43eeV8XhT https://t.co/qIsCML9Wwl
— highprogressive🥂🇦🇶 (@highprogressive) September 4, 2024
Dude first thing you do when the feds are after you–any cops, but especially the feds–is to SHUT THE FUCK UP!!! https://t.co/TrVYIOt46b
— CougarSpider (@CougarSpider) September 4, 2024
Anyways when the federal government of the United States comes after you? They tend not to miss. So he's probably gonna say you should do a plea bargain.
But still.
— CougarSpider (@CougarSpider) September 4, 2024
Baud
Benny and Tim are still on the job!
Mai Naem mobile
Wonder if Tim Poole is going to end up slipping on a banana peel and falling out of a hotel or apartment window since he called Putin a bad word.
BR
Not sure if I missed it here in another thread — the big scandalous reveal from Tim Walz’s brother is that … Tim Walz used to throw up on drives when he was a kid. Seriously.
BR
Also, here was Harris in NH today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od1ssLepITc
Chief Oshkosh
What’s the old saw about playing poker? If you look around the table and can’t spot the mark,…it’s YOU.
Benny and Tim, please proceed.
Chris Johnson
Unwittingly my whole entire ass.
I’ve known Tim was dirty for years.
I hate that little creep
Bit late for ‘Putin is a scumbag’ eh timmie boy? You didn’t mind when he was paying for your beanies and indoor skate parks and your fucking compound.
Gravenstone
Unwitting, my ass! They’re bought and paid foreign agents.
Oh well, now they have something else they can rail against America about.
Baud
Via reddit
WaterGirl
Several more people got caught in the SPAM filter in the past couple of days. I freed everyone just now. So if you were having trouble commenting, please try again. :-)
MattF
It’s interesting to note how the deed was done, but Russian money behind the RW Wurlitzer is the opposite of surprising. Can we allege that Russia is subsidizing Fox? Not just yet, I guess.
Jackie
@BR: No wonder he doesn’t like his younger brother! I’d feel similar if one of my siblings threw up on me because of car sickness!!! Sheesh //
SW
Influencers 🤣🤣🤣. What a weird freakin concept. Time was a person would be ashamed and ridiculed for being easily influenced. Now we are building a culture based on a weakness of human nature.
Chris Johnson
Next do Cenk!
They work a whole range of influencers. The message can be from different angles but the principle is the same.
Baud
@SW:
I take comfort in the idea that my ability to push people away technically counts as influencing them.
Fraud Guy
“Unwittingly” is doing a lot of work. These folks were massively overpaid for drivel, and never stopped to think who would pay for that? If only liberals actually had the funding that even one of these jokers had, but Soros never delivered.
Jim Appleton
@BR: She’s good and riffs well off script.
Tim Walz entirely without the teleprompter might be a scoch better
ETA Which is a very good place to be now.
Kirk
I enjoyed emptywheel’s shorter than normal post about this. She points out that since only the two RT associates are in the charges a lot of the political morass and accusation is officially avoided for now. So far all the US side folk are just “victims” and “dupes”, so no 1st amendment and no 60 day political blackout.
Which means the investigation and the reporting can continue through and past the next 60 days.
Jay
@SW:
There have always been “influencers”.
The rise of social media monetization has just made it so that popular you-tubers, tic-tok-ers, twitterati, podcaster’s, substack-ers can make anything from a living at it to quite a significant living.
Few “blogs”, (influencers) have survived from their heyday and almost none ever managed to make money at it or become “media”.
karen marie
@Fraud Guy: I’m STILL waiting for my check from 2008.
BR
@Jim Appleton:
I think I’ve realized that Walz has one voice — the real guy from Nebraska / Minnesota. And that’s excellent.
In speeches Harris is good — I agree her stump speech is maybe slightly less exciting now than Walz’s — but she does have a range / diversity of voices that you don’t see as much with Walz. Like Harris with little kids vs. when cooking vs. in the DNC speech.
SW
@Baud: Hope you are properly compensated
MagdaInBlack
@Fraud Guy: Where were they getting their content? Just pulled the pro-russian stuff out of thin are, or was it also provided to them?
(i should probably go read more about this, so I dont ask dumb questions)
RaflW
@Jackie: I once puked on my older (and only) brother’s arm in our hotel bed. I still blame the Ramada Inn, source of the fried chicken and the barf-inducing pale green hotel room walls. There might even have been sad clown art. Really!
Road trips after that were even less fun that they had been.
He was so proud of his Xmas gift divers watch with red leather strap. That was ground zero for my rejected drumstick. At least it was waterproof, and my sainted mom washed it thoroughly.
satby
Mueller She Wrote has some details from the indictments. More at the link.
MuellerSheWrote
Hoo, boy y’all! What a day!
Earlier, Merrick Garland gave a press conference in which he said the Department of Justice had unsealed an indictment of two Russian agents for spreading Russian propaganda in the US in an effort to interfere in the 2024 election by helping Donald Trump.
At first, I thought “Good! More Russians indicted!” But as I began to read the indictment and watch how people were reacting to it, it became clear just how involved some of the most popular right wing podcasters and media outlets have been.
CNN is now confirming that Russian agents negotiated contracts worth millions of dollars for folks like Tim Pool and Benny Johnson – commentators for a company called Tenet media. As one sleuth pointed out – the Tenet Media mission statement matched that of “company 1” in the indictment, and the number of followers for both Tim Pool and Benny Johnson matched the number of followers mentioned in the indictment.
So while we all knew that these guys were pushing Russian talking points, we now know that they were paid by Russia, and we have proof that Russia was dictating their talking points.
In some of the exhibits attached to the indictments, we can see the talking points shared with this right wing nut jobs – and they read just like Trump’s campaign talking points.
For example, exhibit 8 is a document shared with Tenet media, and it says (translated from the original Russian):
Goal: To secure victory of a US. Political Party A (republican/Trump) at the US Presidential elections to be held in November of 2024.
Objectives:
To increase the percentage of Americans who believe that the US “has been doing way too much to support Ukraine” to 51% (as of 11/02/2023 such index was 41%, according to Gallup).
To increase the percentage of Americans who believe that the war is to be ended as soon as possible, even at the cost of territorial concessions on the part of Ukraine, to 53% (as of 11/02/2023 such index was 43%, according to Gallup).
To bring Candidate B (Biden’s) confidence rating down to the minimal level of 29% (as of 11/19/2023 this rating was 39%, based on CNNs “poll of polls”).
Target audience:
Residents of “swing states whose voting results impact the outcomes of the elections more than other states. In 2024, such states, according to The New York Times and Sienna College, are Nevada, Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Residents of conservative states where traditional values are strong who more often vote for candidates of the US. Political Party A: Alabama, Kansas, Texas, Wyoming, Louisiana, etc.
US citizens of Hispanic descent.
American Jews.
Community of American gamers, users of Reddit and image boards, such as 4chan (the “backbone” of the right-wing trends in the US segment of the Internet).
Exhibit 9 goes a step further:
Topics to discuss:
1. Encroaching universal poverty. Record Inflation. Halting of economic growth. Unaffordable prices for food or essential goods.
2. Risk of job loss for white Americans;
3. Privileges for people of color, perverts, and disabled;
4. Constant lies of the Biden administration about the real situation in the country,
5. Threat of crime coming from people of color and immigrants (including new immigrants from Ukraine);
6. Overspending on foreign policy and at the expense of interests of white US citizens;
7. Constant lies to the voters by Democrats in power.
8. Last but not least – America is suffering a defeat despite Biden’s efforts. We are being drawn into the war. Our guys will die in Ukraine.
Target Audience:
Trump voters. Trump supporters. Supporters of traditional family values. White americans in the lower middle and middle class.
SW
@Jay: Feels related to the marginalization of expertise
satby
Oh yeah, Poole and Johnson apparently were collecting $400k per month (!!) If true, that’s stunning
craigie
Apparently my sister threw up all over me when we were both too young to remember it. I still let her buy me birthday presents though.
Baud
@satby:
Good stuff. Nice job, DOJ.
Snarki, child of Loki
“unwittingly” ?
more like “half-wittingly”.
This RuzziRatfucking would be a good reason to send Ukraine a huge amount of arms. Payback.
MagdaInBlack
@satby: Ok, you answered my question. These “unwitting” clowns knew exactly who was paying them and what to do.
zhena gogolia
@satby: OKay, now I’m suspecting the NYT is another target.
zhena gogolia
@satby:
“our guys will die in Ukraine”
This is the one I’ve been hearing was circulating among the locals.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Objectives
Lure gullible liberals with addictive games and recipes
Discourage them through constant drumbeat of negative stories.
MagdaInBlack
@zhena gogolia: I just started hearing it this past week.
satby
@zhena gogolia: if they really were paying relative nobodies like those two gomers, imagine what Sulzberger could command. Worth looking into, hmmm?
Jim Appleton
@BR: Agree. Again, the mix of brainy and effective plus Coach and effective is pretty awesome.
KatKapCC
@BR: Not uncommon in women. We have to modulate our voices and match them to what people expect in a given situation, lest we be seen as “wrong” in some way. If your voice is too high or breathy in a business setting, (some) men won’t take you seriously. If you don’t sound “sweet” enough when talking to children, you might get labelled as a kid-hating hag. When asking for something, you need to sound firm but also not too demanding. It’s annoying.
Not that I am defending her in the least, but that was probably one reason why Elizabeth Holmes did her weird affected deep voice in public. She was young and pretty, and even though with hindsight no one should have taken her seriously at all, she probably knew nobody would do so if she had a voice to match her appearance.
Ken
@satby:
So basically they took what’s happening in Russia, and made some name substitutions. Also check out points 4, 6, 7, 8 — especially 8, with Our guys will die in Ukraine.
Chet Murthy
@KatKapCC: I have a Jewish friend who grew up in North Texas. Big guy, was an Army Ranger, has often sported serious muscles. He looks white. And so, he tells me white people tell him all sorts of racist [ETA] and antisemitic things, when they think no nonwhites are around. Stuff they’d never say otherwise. I myself have seen the same thing from men regarding women: the most vile shit comes streaming out of their mouths about women, when they know there aren’t any around.
Gosh, is that code-switching? Is that being insincere? Gosh, it’s all so confusing, surely Peter Doocy can help me understand it. After I kick and stomp his kidneys into ground meat.
Citizen Alan
@SW: IMO, most “influencers” are people who were Regina George or Reggie Mantle in high school. Low key bullies who somehow became the arbiters of taste for everyone else. And then, after graduating, they figured out how to monetize that through sheer chutzpah by boldly assuming that everyone else wants to bask in their presence and be as cool as them by buying whatever crap they advertise in the middle of their Youtube videos and swear up and down that they use religiously.
I mean, I think it’s ridiculous that there are people making six figures by posting videos of them playing a video game and making snarky comments. But it’s a gig economy now, so good luck to them.
That said, I hate the term “influencers” because it makes them sound more pretentious than most of them are.
KatKapCC
@Chet Murthy: Was your friend of another race? Because if he was just Jewish but not also Hispanic, Asian, Black, etc, then he is white. “Jewish” and “white” are not mutually exclusive.
Mousebumples
Postcarders alert!
Postcards to Voters has addresses for Tony Vargas in a NE House race. I think it’s the NE-2 district that gave Biden 1 EV in 2020.
I have more Wisconsin postcards to work through, but the GOTV push for November is starting..
And now to read the thread…
Chet Murthy
@KatKapCC: No, Jewish, and probably Ashkenazi Jewish — I mean, he looked like your typical European white guy.
Chet Murthy
@KatKapCC: “if he was just Jewish but not also Hispanic, Asian, Black, etc, then he is white. “Jewish” and “white” are not mutually exclusive.”
At least from my Jewish friends, I’ve concluded that that’s not actually true. Or, that is, “white-looking” Jewish people are white ….. until, well, the Fascism train arrives, and at that point they’re no longer so. That’s what I mean: when he’s around white men and they don’t -know- he’s Jewish, hooboy out comes the anti-Semitism, like nobody’s business.
hells littlest angel
@Mai Naem mobile: It sounds better in the original Russian. “Scumbag” and “donkey balls” are considered symbols of virility.
zhena gogolia
@satby: But who will do the looking???
Jay
@SW:
Depends, I used You Tube video’s all the time when having to diagnose and repair tools I hadn’t worked on before. You can quickly learn who’s great, and whom is a waste of time.
Mart
Tim Pool states the Ukrainians blew up the Nord Stream pipeline starting the war with Russia therfor Ukraine is an enemy of the United States. Russia escalated the war in February 2022, Nord Stream blew in September 2022. Russia started the war in 2014. Trump was impeached for withholding military aid to Ukraine to fight Russia until Ukraine came up with dirt on the Biden’s. Last fall I was driving in northeast KY and the RW gasbag AM station was bellowing about the wasted $$ to Ukraine, and no accountability. (Even though 90% of the money is paid to our arms manufacturers.) And I noticed a lot of family Trumpers being very concerned with all that money going to Ukraine this spring/summer. For the price of tank or two Putin gets all this. It is nuts.
cain
Yet, Trump still continues to survive with help from judges like Cannon and the SCOTUS.
cain
@Fraud Guy: lol – it’s not soros checks, it’s all putin checks and there are receipts. We need to just make them say they are using ‘communism funded bucks’.
They will whine like crazy.
KatKapCC
@Chet Murthy: Well, yes. We have access to white privilege but it can be taken away in the wrong circumstances. But my only point is that it is uncomfortable to imply that a white Jewish person isn’t actually white because that is the antisemitic way of viewing us. Judaism is an ethnoreligion, it’s true, but it is not a race of its own.
cain
My wife and I have started watching Veep. We are also watching Wheel of Time and “Sherlock Holmes” the BBC version. That will be our evening entertainment.
Frankensteinbeck
@KatKapCC:
I think the point of this anecdote is that the people opening up to him don’t think so.
BR
I watch the anti-Trump GOPers once in a while, and this episode where they rip into the GOP is hilarious:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXN7s5LuYXc
JoyceH
@BR:
So did I. So did my sister. So did my nephews. It’s remarkably common for children to throw up on drives.
Chet Murthy
@KatKapCC: All I can say is, when I’ve asked my Jewish friends about this in the distant past, they all said they weren’t white, no matter how northern-European-looking they are. So I stick with that. And from the POV of “white means being a member of the unmarked category”, I have to agree with them.
Ivan X
Here is my problem. Am I just a dumb sucker? All these cretins just lie and promote awful things and they get paid for it and like…part of me envies them. I would love to not care. I would love to be amoral, or, better still, believe that I myself am in fact moral, just for awful causes I’ve contorted myself (or not!) to see as awful. What do they have that I don’t? I feel like I could go so far if I just did the wrong thing. And yet I feel some inhibition around it. Maybe it’s fear of getting caught, maybe it’s conscience, but goddam do I wish I had the “fuck it, who cares” vibe of these awful, awful pepole.
BR
@Ivan X:
I think buying into the Trumper nonsense is actually exhausting for the people in that world. They have to constantly be afraid and keep up with whatever they’re supposed to hate.
Ivan X
@Chet Murthy: I struggle with this all the time. Am I white? Or not? Black KKKlansman made it pretty clear. I’ll say that I benefit from white privilege, but I’m never not aware of just how provisional that is as a Jew.
kindness
Wouldn’t it be fun if all sorts of right wing media nut cases ran off to live in exile in Russia? The joke would be on them. They have to live in modern Russia.
Bill Arnold
@satby:
If anyone wants a look at the justice department affidavit with those exhibits,
AFFIDAVIT IN SUPPORT OF SEIZURE WARRANT – Doppleganger affidavit (PDF, September 4, 2024)
raven
Doc Sardonic
@JoyceH: Yep, I think one of my sisters has thrown up in all the states and several countries.
Harrison Wesley
I had never heard of Tim Pool or Benny Johnson until I read this post Doesn’t sound like I’ve missed a damn thing.
karen gail
@Chet Murthy: I find it “interesting” that any group that doesn’t meet the proper standards isn’t considered “white;” my great grandmother remembered being called named because she was Irish. During a certain time in history Irish were degraded and treated as less than human. At the time it was assumed if you were Irish you were Catholic; and Catholics weren’t welcomed. It didn’t matter that the reason family ended up living in wilderness was to get away from all form of “Christians” it was the mindset of the people moving into Midwest that labeled them as undesirables.
Chet Murthy
@raven: “there was no probable cause for arrest or to take any additional law enforcement action on the local, state, or federal levels”
Second Amendment, tree of liberty, blood of martyrs. Ugh.
Chet Murthy
@karen gail: @KatKapCC: I didn’t mean to derail the conversation into a discussion of “whiteness”. I was just telling a story about code-switching, in which the ones doing the switching were white men.
mrmoshpotato
@Chris Johnson:
Yes please!
Mai Naem mobile
@raven: so this garbage asshole dad got basically a heads up about his idiot/mentally ill/neglected (whatever term you want to use) and didn’t heed the warning? The garbage asshole ammosexual dad who no doubt was harrharring when he named his kid after a gun. Hope the dad goes to prison for a couple of decades like the parents in Wisconsin.
raven
@Chet Murthy: Governor dumb fuck is very serious.
hueyplong
There might be a Republican or three who note the timing of this indictment and consider Merrick Garland to be a little less naive and politically hapless than do many here
raven
@Mai Naem mobile: This ain’t Wisconsin.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chet Murthy: That isn’t really code switching because it’s change what you say not how you say it. I once was at a federal CLE sponsored by the local US Attorney’s office where the speaker suddenly said “We’re all prosecutors here, right?” and talked about some tricks of the trade. He forgot that they had invited the law clerks from the District Court. He wasn’t code switching either.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@zhena gogolia:
@MagdaInBlack:
Shades of “Why die for Danzig?”
Omnes Omnibus
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Some think he is a pretty good guitarist.
mrmoshpotato
@Mai Naem mobile: Wisconsin?
Sally
Witless dupes.
Omnes Omnibus
@mrmoshpotato: Many people confuse WI, MI, and/or MN. It is puzzling.
mrmoshpotato
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m assuming they’re talking about Michigan.
Sally
@MagdaInBlack: This is the question that should be asked over and over and over again (asking the question to which you know the answer). As in “Just asking questions”.
catclub
@hueyplong: No waiting for Mitch McConnell agree to a joint statement. Lesson learned. The hard way.
catclub
@Omnes Omnibus: That ain’t all. Somebody abbreviated mississippi as MI on my wife’s Social Security records.
Kayla Rudbek
@karen gail: as seen here: https://thomasnastcartoons.com/irish-catholic-cartoons/irish-stereotype/
Scout211
@Omnes Omnibus: And so many people confuse Idaho, Iowa and Ohio that they sell t-shirts at the University of Iowa that read:
Tony G
The Reverend Chris Hedges used to have a show on RT. I remember him bitching and moaning shortly after the 2022 re-invasion Ukraine about how the REAL INJUSTICE was the fact that he couldn’t make money on RT anymore. Thoughts and prayers to the Reverend!
mrmoshpotato
@Scout211: Hahaha! That’s great!
Anyway
Me either. I am always surprised by how much money there is in the RThug gravy train. 400k a month? sweet gig.
Mai Naem mobile
@Harrison Wesley: consider yourself lucky. They’re talking about Russians’ involvement. I have no doubt the Chinese, Saudis and Iranians are doing similar stuff.
Tony G
I honestly wonder how deep the Russian influence goes. This evening I was listening to a radio show called “The Electronic Intifada”, a pro-Palestinian commentary on NYC radio station WBAI. During the show a guy was presenting the usual line about how there is “no real difference” between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump — and, as an example, he mentioned Harris’s opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. What? Exactly how does opposition to the Israeli attacks in Gaza imply support for Russian attacks in Ukraine? Very puzzling to me, unless there’s Russian money involved.
HumboldtBlue
TBone
Hannity is now imitating Donvict’s lingual “weave” every chance he gets at the “Town Hall.” Hannity tries to steer him in a direction by modeling/mirroring the weird speech behavior as an opening for Donvict to riff on…
The lies they are a spewin’
schrodingers_cat
Can I ask for good thoughts from the Jackalteriat for my mom who is going under the knife tomorrow? There is a small growth on her tongue and they are going to remove it and also get a biopsy
Thanks.
Mr. Bemused Senior
Of course. My best wishes to your mom and you.
mrmoshpotato
@schrodingers_cat: Hope all turns out well.
Kayla Rudbek
@schrodingers_cat: yes, I hope it goes well and that the results are good.
Manyakitty
@Baud: good for Lula.
Ironcity
@schrodingers_cat: Not sure it will do much but for what it is worth good thoughts only on the procedure.
@schrodingers_cat:
DarbysMom
@schrodingers_cat: Sending all my positive energy and healing vibes to your Mom!
Manyakitty
@schrodingers_cat: wishing for good news and a speedy and full recovery 🙏
scribbler
@schrodingers_cat: Good luck and best wishes for your mom tomorrow.
artem1s
@HumboldtBlue: So a couple of distant cousins are MAGAts. How does this revelation help TCF exactly? Do they think Harris or voters will dump Walz because he has deplorable relatives? Or that he should be ashamed of them? How does this reflect well on MAGAts exactly? Isn’t it kind of telling that even the GOP thinks having these people in the family is something you’d want to hide? Jeebus they just can’t keep from stepping on those rakes.
kalakal
@schrodingers_cat: Hoping your mother has a speedy recovery and a benign result from the biopsy. All good thoughts to you and your mother
Lyrebird
@schrodingers_cat: Lifting up the amazing mom of a feisty physicist… may the procedure go well, may the docs be at their best, may the results be the best possible
satby
@schrodingers_cat: All the best thoughts to your mom SC! Lighting a candle for no bad news and a quick recovery. Let us know how she’s doing.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: I’ll be thinking of you and your mother 🙏
schrodingers_cat
Thanks for the good thoughts and wishes.
Jackie
@TBone: I caught a few minutes of TCFG’s town hall. I noticed the camera is only showing a tight shot of the audience and not panning up to the top of the seating. Which leads me to think it’s not a substantial audience. Plus the crowd sound was small enough to discern individual voices.
Anyway
@schrodingers_cat: Best wishes to you and your mom tomorrow.
Trivia Man
@Omnes Omnibus: I grew up in California and moved to the midwest. I always liked all of the (now) nearby football teams, no hate from me. I tell them – from where i was sitting there s no difference between Detroit, Green Bay, Chicago, or Minneapolis. Beat Dallas and it’s all good. Still true – but Detroit is long overdue for a Super Bowl.
But I can tell the difference between the states.
Jay
@Anyway:
@Ivan X:
In this case, it’s RT (ruZZian) money, and they formed a Company specifically to “buy” some “young” existing Wingnut “influencers” who’s existing audience is young, mostly male, Incels, GamerGater’s, Light Fringe-ers, Budding CT addicts, anti-vaxxers, etc. They are gateway influencers for the harder Reichwing nuts.
That’s why you have never heard of most of them because you arn’t in their 12 – 25 year old demographic.
Their purchase price was based on the size of their existing audiences on social media.
And IvanX, you don’t have to be evil, push a product, (other than ideas, skills, talents) to be an influencer. You just need to be good at multiple social media forms and be willing to create a lot of content. The old term is “content creators”.
Trivia Man
@Scout211: there is a funny song called the O-hio, I-owa, Id-aho, Hawaii Highway. Those states all sound so smooth together.
Trivia Man
@artem1s: the united front of Kennedys against RFK Jr made them jealous. They think this is EXACTLY THE SAME! PWND!
Jay
@schrodingers_cat:
Best wishes for the surgery and the biopsy results.
kalakal
@Jay: I’ll probably regret this but…
what are?
Trivia Man
@kalakal: CT is probably conspiracy theorists – they are conspiracy curious and that is a steep funnel that can suck in the unwary. Lite-fringe I guess is the lunatic fringe… but a mild version (so far)
kalakal
@Trivia Man:
Thanks, that makes sense, I should have got the CT but I’d never have got the lite/lunatic bit
wjca
No puzzling. Just that flyover country is all the same. In the eyes of a different party than they usually blame, but the elitism is there nonetheless.
Quaker in a Basement
“Yeah, so we posted the opinions they wanted spread around in the US and they gave us money to do that…but WE’RE THE VICTIMS HERE!!”
Layer8Problem
@schrodingers_cat: All my spare positive waves and vibes are on their way. All the best to you both!
Jay
@kalakal:
Lite-fringers are the semi normal who however, for example believe in Sasquatch, or Roswell. They have seen the rabbit hole, but havn’t gone down it.
BTW, Netflix sent me a rejection letter today. They dissed my proposal for a Reality TV show. That’s the 9th rejection letter so far. My concept is that the camera(s) follow a group of Flat Earther’s searching for the edge of the Earth. I keep pointing out it should have lot’s of drama as they try to convince each other of their other pet Conspiracies and of course, grow frustrated, by never finding the edge or the never ending ice wall.
wjca
It’s true guys. You’re victims of being outed for the scum you are.
VFX Lurker
Wishing you and your mom good things and a dull, boring, uneventful procedure and outcome tomorrow. ❤️❤️❤️
Princess
If they would have produced the same videos and content without Putin’s money, why was Putin bothering to support them? He’s not a charity. They’re bought and paid for and I’m betting they knew it.
im going with “allegedly unwitting.” It’s all alleged at this point, right?
Jay
@Princess:
As I pointed out in a comment in another thread, it’s pretty easy for State and the DOJ to target, charge and sanction Foreign Entities.
It took 2 years from “notice” to “investigation” to “charges” for the Chinese agents in the NY State Gov’s office.
I am going with charges in 2 years.
Chris Johnson
@Princess: Pool has a compound with a skate park in the basement, and is responsible for producing three or four videos A DAY at the highest production quality you could ask for. This is not about him being picked BECAUSE he was a big youtuber.
Much like Trump himself, they made him and the house he lives in. He’s not pocketing all the money. He’s responsible for putting out their messaging at a rate where if you don’t have a team you straight up fall over and die real quick. It’s impossible to produce that much content without a hard-working team behind you, which Tim hires from his $400k a month or whatever. Again, they made him but the way they seem to do that is, they open the money pipeline and then depend on their asset to do all the actual work, including SOME influence over framing the propaganda, but only so much: he is still made to do stuff that he knows won’t fly.
Dave Rubin is another guy like that, and I’m waiting for them to get to Cenk.
The Pale Scot
I think a case can be made that the settlers and the Haredim would disagree with you. The articles that I have read in Israeli newspapers makes it seem so to me. The New Scholars movement that has investigated the 1948 war and its aftermath would say that a faction believed that. My opinion is there are three groups, Zionist socialist Ashkenazi, the bloody minded RWNJ that are/were heavily influenced by Russian immigrants who are not culturally Jewish. Their culture is based on Russian imperialism (a Russian doesn’t feel Russian unless they have their boot on somebody’s neck. And lunatic settlers that believe their status as dog’s chosen people means that 10 Commandments doesn’t apply to their treatment others. The Commandments were intended as rules for how treat other Jews, for the goyim it’s open season, they don’t accept the modern interpretation of Hillel the Elder’s