Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

There will be lawyers.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

The math demands it!

The revolution will be supervised.

How does anyone do Gilligan’s Island as trump world and not cast Jared as Gilligan?

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

An almost top 10,000 blog!

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

We have all the best words.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

We still have time to mess this up!

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

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Social Media Self-Selection Open Thread: To the Surprise of Nobody…

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… The social network — started a month ago by members of former President Donald Trump’s inner circle — features reams of jihadi-related material, including graphic videos of beheadings, viral memes that promote violence against the West and even memes of a militant executing Trump in an orange jumpsuit similar to those used in Guantanamo Bay.

The rapid proliferation of such material is placing GETTR in the awkward position of providing a safe haven for jihadi extremists online as it attempts to establish itself as a free speech MAGA-alternative to sites likeFacebook and Twitter.

It underscores the challenges facing Trump and his followers in the wake of his ban from the mainstream social media platforms following the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riots.

Islamic State “has been very quick to exploit GETTR,” said Moustafa Ayad, executive director for Africa, the Middle East and Asia at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank that tracks online extremism, who first discovered the jihadi accounts and shared his findings with POLITICO…

While GETTR does not provide access to its data to track the spread, or virality, of such extremist material on its platform, POLITICO found at least 250 accounts that had posted regularly on the platform since early July. Many followed each other, and used hashtags to promote the jihadi material to this burgeoning online community…

So far, GETTR has been the highest-profile pro-Trump platform launch, given the names behind it: Jason Miller, former Trump spokesperson, is its chief executive, and the site is partially funded by Miles Guo, the business partner of former Trump advisor Steve Bannon. Trump, himself, is not directly involved in the operation, nor has he officially signed up to the platform. The social network has touted a “free speech” policy that, purportedly, would allow users to fully express themselves without the censorship of tech giants…

Larger platforms like Facebook and Twitter now work via the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, an industry-funded nonprofit which shares terrorist content between companies — via a database of extremist material accessible to its members — so that the material can be taken down as quickly as possible.

GETTR has yet to sign up…

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Amazing Read: “The MyPillow Guy Really Could Destroy Democracy”

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Anne Applebaum is an authority on “countries in transition to, or away from, democracy”:

… I met Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, in the recording studio that occupies the basement of Steve Bannon’s stately Capitol Hill townhouse, a few blocks from the Supreme Court—the same Supreme Court that will, according to Lindell, decide “9–0” in favor of reinstating Donald Trump to the presidency sometime in August, or possibly September. I made it through the entirety of the Trump presidency without once having to meet Bannon but here he was, recording his War Room podcast with Lindell. Bannon has been decomposing in front of our eyes for some years now, and I can report that this process continues to take its course. I walked in during a break and the two men immediately gestured to me to join the conversation, sit at the table with them, listen in on headphones. I demurred. “Anne Applebaum … hmm,” Bannon said. “Should’ve stuck to writing books. Gulag was a great book. How long did it take you to write it?”…

… MyPillow has long been an important advertiser on Fox News, so much so that even Trump noticed Lindell (“That guy is on TV more than I am”), but has since widened its net. MyPillow spent tens of thousands of dollars advertising on Newsmax just in the week following the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

And now Lindell is spending on more than just advertising. Last January—on the 9th, he says carefully, placing the date after the 6th—a group of still-unidentified concerned citizens brought him some computer data. These were, allegedly, packet captures, intercepted data proving that the Chinese Communist Party altered electoral results … in all 50 states. This is a conspiracy theory more elaborate than the purported Venezuelan manipulation of voting machines, more improbable than the allegation that millions of supposedly fake ballots were mailed in, more baroque than the belief that thousands of dead people voted. This one has potentially profound geopolitical implications.

That’s why Lindell has spent money—a lot of it, “tens of millions,” he told me—“validating” the packets, and it’s why he is planning to spend a lot more. Starting on August 10, he is holding a three-day symposium in Sioux Falls (because he admires South Dakota’s gun-toting governor, Kristi Noem), where the validators, whoever they may be, will present their results publicly. He has invited all interested computer scientists, university professors, elected federal officials, foreign officials, reporters, and editors to the symposium. He has booked, he says variously, “1,000 hotel rooms” or “all the hotel rooms in the city” to accommodate them. (As of Wednesday, Booking.com was still showing plenty of rooms available in Sioux Falls.)

Wacky though it seems for a businessman to invest so much in a conspiracy theory, there are important historical precedents. Think of Olof Aschberg, the Swedish banker who helped finance the Bolshevik revolution, allegedly melting down the bars of gold that Lenin’s comrades stole in train robberies and reselling them, unmarked, on European exchanges. Or Henry Ford, whose infamous anti-Semitic tract, The International Jew, was widely read in Nazi Germany, including by Hitler himself. Plenty of successful, wealthy people think that their knowledge of production technology or private equity gives them clairvoyant insight into politics. But Aschberg, Ford, and Lindell represent the extreme edge of that phenomenon: Their business success gives them the confidence to promote malevolent conspiracy theories, and the means to reach wide audiences…

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Saturday Morning Open Thread: Incremental Progress

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Elsewhere… Friday doc dump:

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The Coup Next Time

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Breaking from The New York Times:

WASHINGTON — President Donald J. Trump pressed top Justice Department officials late last year to declare that the election was corrupt even though they had found no instances of widespread fraud, so that he and his allies in Congress could use the assertion to try to overturn the results, according to new documents provided to lawmakers and obtained by The New York Times.

According to the article, Trump didn’t directly say “the following people will assist me in the coup” and list the so-called allies, but he did name-check Jim Jordan (R-OH), Scott Perry (R-PA) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) as “fighters,” and in the context of the conversation, that’s pretty damning — and a great excuse for hauling those specimens before a committee.

The article describes how Trump’s own DOJ officials told him they’d investigated the nutty conspiracy theories and found nothing, only to see their boss move the goal posts again and again.

The officials also told Mr. Trump that the Justice Department had no evidence to support a lawsuit regarding the election results. “We are not in a position based on the evidence. We can only act on the actual evidence developed,” they said.

Mr. Trump castigated the officials, saying that “thousands of people called” their local U.S. attorney’s offices to complain about the election and that “nobody trusts the F.B.I.” He said that “people are angry — blaming D.O.J. for inaction.”

“You guys may not be following the internet the way I do,” Mr. Trump said, according to the document.

I’m not a lawyer, but I suspect we’ll find out Trump’s outrageously corrupt and authoritarian actions weren’t even illegal. Maybe that’s because so few people get their hands on the presidency of the United States; there’s just not a big body of law developed around the office. It mostly runs on the honor system.

Thank dog that deranged idiot is out of the White House, but someone needs to figure out how to idiot-proof the Oval Office because a person who is just as bad or worse will probably take up residence again. Call it the Tyranny Reduction and Unitary-Executive-Corruption Mitigation Provisions (TRUMP) Act.

Open thread.

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Trump Crime Cartel Open Thread: Will Tom Barrack Flip On His ‘Best Friend’?

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But then again: Bonesaws!

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Schadenfreude Open Thread: Tom Brady Only Likes Winners

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From what I’ve seen over the past several years (you can’t live in the Boston media market and not hear about Tom Brady), TFG’s always been a lot more enamored of Brady than Brady ever was with him. This seems in character, because Mr. Brady famously does not waste his extremely valuable attention on sideshows — he’s strictly about Being The GOAT in His Chosen Endeavors.

Given a fistful-plus of Superbowl rings and a wife who’s a genuine supermodel (and a billionaire in her own right), it’s not as though Brady might need anything from his highest-profile groupie…

… To grasp why such an anodyne scene would produce such a wounding effect on a man who has endured misfortunes such as bankruptcy, losing a presidential election, two impeachments, and innumerable legal setbacks, one needs to understand his peculiar psychology. Here, in rough order, is Trump’s hierarchy of needs:

1. To be treated as a winner

2. To pal around with celebrities

3. To not be laughed at

4. To gain the specific approval of Tom Brady

Trump’s special obsession with Brady goes back years, when he would devote his now-suspended Twitter account to vocally defending the quarterback against penalties for using a deflated football…

The relationship always had an asymmetric quality. Brady repeatedly expressed discomfort at Trump’s public adulation, and has declined to talk about who he voted for. In 2017, he skipped a White House invitation to celebrate a previous Super Bowl win, citing his need to attend to his ailing mother. The snub, according to the Washington Post, sent Trump into a rage…

Biden and Brady, together at the house Trump used to live in and hoped to never leave, basking in their winner-ness and laughing at Trump. Donald Trump would rather relive Election Night a thousand times than see this day.

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Trump Buddy Tom Barrack Indicted As Foreign Agent

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Tom Barrack was the chair of Donald Trump’s inaugural committee. He had been a Trump confidant and financial backer for some time, and thus not surprising he would get a job like that. Today he was arrested for acting as an agent of the United Arab Emirates and trying to influence the President in their favor.

From the Department of Justice press release:

According to court documents, between April and November 2016, Barrack served as an informal advisor to the campaign of the candidate in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Between November 2016 and January 2017, Barrack served as Chairman of the Presidential Inaugural Committee. Beginning in January 2017, Barrack informally advised senior U.S. government officials on issues related to U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Barrack also sought appointment to a senior role in the U.S. government, including the role of Special Envoy to the Middle East. Barrack served as the Executive Chairman of a global investment management firm headquartered in Los Angeles, and Grimes was employed at the firm and reported directly to Barrack. During the relevant time period, Alshahhi worked as an agent of the UAE and was in frequent contact with Barrack and Grimes, including numerous in-person meetings in the United States and the UAE.

As alleged in the indictment, the defendants used Barrack’s status as a senior outside advisor to the campaign and, subsequently, to senior U.S. government officials, to advance the interests of and provide intelligence to the UAE while simultaneously failing to notify the Attorney General that their actions were taken at the direction of senior UAE officials. Barrack – directly and through Alshahhi and Grimes – was regularly and repeatedly in contact with the senior leadership of the UAE government. On multiple occasions, Barrack referred to Alshahhi as the UAE’s “secret weapon” to advance its foreign policy agenda in the United States.

Alshahhi and Grimes were also indicted. Grimes was also arrested, and Alshahhi remains at large. Barrack also made a big mistake:

On June 20, 2019, Barrack voluntarily met with FBI special agents. During the interview, Barrack allegedly made numerous false statements, including falsely denying that Alshahhi had ever requested that he take any actions on behalf of the UAE.

Barrack’s company, Colony Northstar, laid out plans to influence the government in a document. They expected to make a lot of money.

Back when Barrack was trying to influence Trump in favor of the UAE before and after the 2016 election, a lot was going on. Mike Flynn was working for Turkey and trying to set up something with Russia. Flynn was also working with Barrack on other deals. We are likely to see more come out about that as Barrack’s prosecution proceeds.

This is a big deal.

Coverage:

Daily Beast

CNN

CNBC

NPR

New York Times

Washington Post

Cross-posted to Nuclear Diner

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