Read carefully the key extracts from SALON here below and believe it or not – the truth always wins in the
end no matter our opinions otherwise – the truth must prevail:
KEY PARTS FROM ARTICLE HEADLINE:
“Trump's Big Lie and
Hitler's Big Lie: Is this how America's slide into totalitarianism begins?”
Hitler undermined Germany's democracy by
lying about outcome of WWI. Trump and MAGA are constantly lying about the 2020 election outcome.
Thanks to the 2020
presidential election, there is now a convenient way to answer the above truth
premise (in my view at least):
+ Hitler rose to
power because he told a Big Lie about not losing WWI. Millions of people believed that Big Lie
because they held more sinister beliefs; millions more likely didn't believe
it, but weren't willing to denounce it as an outright lie at the time.
+ That same
dynamic is true regarding Trump's claim that Joe Biden stole the 2020 election from him. (Still sustained today by Trump).
It is a Big Lie being embraced to advance a racist,
anti-democratic agenda. Anyone who doesn't stand up to that Big Lie today would
have likely been complicit in Hitler's Big Lie last century.
A lot of prominent Republicans (not all) try to worm their
way around this issue by not quite saying they believe the Big Lie, but
rather that it is somehow validated by the fact that many other people agree
with it.
Two Examples:
First:Shortly before Trump egged on his supporters to storm the
Capitol on January 6, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) argued that America should rely on a white nationalist precedent to
resolve the election (in Trump's favor) because: “Recent polling shows that 39% percent of Americans believe the election
was rigged. You may not agree with that assessment; nonetheless it’s a reality
for nearly half the country.”
Thomas wrote in part: “That an election
free from strong evidence of systemic fraud is not alone sufficient for
election confidence, but that people on the losing side of an
election need the assurance that fraud will not go undetected.”
(Note: My
emphasis highlighted to the two above statements).
Thomas' argument was essentially the same as Cruz's: “Even if there isn't evidence of fraud, if
one side claims the other side might have stolen an election, that's
enough to justify making it harder for the other side to vote.”
Let's call these
things what they are: “Attempts by
Republican officials (again, some not all) to exploit Trump's Big Lie to create
permanent Republican rule, but without quite saying that they agree with the
Big Lie itself. But even if those prominent Republicans (again, some not all) don't flat-out say that the Big Lie is
true, refusing to denounce it, emboldens more people to believe it
— and that emboldens our policy makers to change society based around it.”
My 2 Cents: I felt the above article and subject matter of the Big
Lie used by Hitler and now Trump’s Big Lie were comparable in purpose.
Some readers
may not agree with that, but once Justice Thomas’ 2020 decent is factored in for
that PA ballot case, I find it hard for anyone not be agree.
But, that’s who we are.
Nevertheless the truth must always prevail, right?
MAJOR UPDATE:
As I said before, the growth and use of AI in this election will show some very
nasty stuff, and now, well: Bingo!!! It’s here as seen in the excellent AP article
below (refer to the several links in the article below) proving my prediction
true with examples of Russian disinformation; AI stunts; and now this October
22 AP story headline (AP writer Melissa Goldin contributed to this
report). The original and recent article follows this update:
“Russia is behind viral
disinformation targeting Kamala Harris and now Tim Walz, intelligence official
says”
WASHINGTON (AP) — Groups in Russia created and helped spread viral
disinformation targeting Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz,
a senior U.S. intelligence official said Tuesday.
The content, which includes baseless accusations about the
Minnesota governor’s time as a teacher, contains several indications that it
was manipulated, said the official with the Office of the Director of National
Intelligence (O/DNI).
Analysts identified clues that linked the content to Russian disinformation operations, said the official, who briefed reporters
on the condition of anonymity under rules set by the office of the director.
Digital researchers had already linked the video to Russia,
but this announcement is the first time federal authorities have confirmed the
connection. The disinformation targeting Tim Walz is consistent with Russian disinformation seeking to undermine the Democratic campaign of
Vice President Kamala Harris and now Tim Walz, her running mate.
Russia also
has spread disinformation aimed at stoking discord and division ahead of
voting, officials said, and may seek to encourage violent protests after Election Day.
Two recent examples of disinformation:
(1). Last month, analysts at Microsoft revealed that a viral
video that baselessly claimed Kamala Harris left a woman paralyzed in a
hit-and-run accident 13 years ago was Russian disinformation.
(2). More recently, a video surfaced featuring a man
claiming to be a former student of Tim Walz’s who accused the candidate of
sexual misconduct years ago.
Private researchers at
firms that track disinformation, including NewsGuard,
already have concluded the video was fake and that the man in the footage isn’t
who he claimed to be. The AP contacted a former employer of the man whose
identity was used in the video. The employer, Viktor Yeliohin, confirmed the
man shown in the video was an impostor.
Some researchers have also
suggested the video may contain evidence that it was created using AI, but
federal officials stopped short of the same conclusion, saying only that the video
contained multiple indications of manipulation.
Officials also said there are no indication that Russia,
China, or Iran are plotting significant attacks on election infrastructure as a
way to disrupt the outcome.
“Exceptionally Long Post re: Disinformation spreader, John
Dougan”
He is former American, but now is a Russian citizen in Moscow see site below
(edited and formatted to fit the blog). Dougan is a traitor and turn-coat
to the nation now serving as a Putin disinformation guru from Moscow.
What a story on Dougan’s ties and efforts to disrupt the
2024 election as a Russian citizen who got there via political asylum in 2016
as a runaway felon from Florida. Amazing story of a very sick man seen the
video – just watch and listen to the video of the site owner, Steven Brill of Dougan broadcast below:
NewsGuard Technologies was founded in 2018 by
Steven Brill and L. Gordon Crovitz, who serve as co-CEOs – they track and ID disinformation
posters like John Dougan.
More info on Dougan:
His emergence as a weapon of the Kremlin’s propaganda war follows a troubled
life in the United States that included home foreclosures and bankruptcy. As a
law enforcement officer in Florida and Maine, he faced accusations of excessive
use of force and sexual harassment that resulted in costly lawsuits against the
departments he worked for. He still faces an arrest warrant in Florida on 21
felony charges of extortion and wiretapping that resulted from a long-running
feud with the sheriff of Palm Beach County.
Dougan is also a former
deputy sheriff in Palm Beach County, FL where he sent voters an email posing as
a county commissioner, urging them to oppose the reelection of the county’s
sheriff.
After a four-year stint in
the Marine Corps, Dougan became that former deputy police officer first in a
small force in Mangonia Park, FL, and then with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s
Office from 2005 to 2009.
He later masqueraded online as a Russian tech worker with a
pseudonym to leak confidential information in violation of state law, fooling
officials in Florida. He also has posed as a fictional NYC heir he called
Jessica, tricking an adviser to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office into
divulging improper conduct by the department.
Dougan said in a written response to questions for this
article, in which he confirmed his role in these episodes: “Boy, did he ever spill ALL of the beans.”
His subterfuges were a prelude to a more prominent and
potentially more ominous deception he has been conducting from Russia.
Dougan, 51, who sought and received political asylum after
he fled to Moscow is now a key player in Russia’s disinformation operations
against the West.
In 2016, when the Kremlin interfered in the U.S.
presidential election, an army of computer trolls toiled for hours to try to
fool Americans online.
Today, Dougan may be
accomplishing much of those same tasks by himself, according to U.S. and
European government officials and researchers from companies and organizations
that have tracked his activities since August.
Those groups include NewsGuard,
a company that reviews the reliability of news and information online; Recorded
Future, a threat intelligence company; and Clemson University’s Media Forensics
Hub.
Dougan has built an ever-growing network of more than 160
fake websites that mimic news outlets in the United States, Britain and France.
With the help of commercially available artificial intelligence tools, he has
filled the sites with tens of thousands of articles.
Interspersed among them are also bespoke fabrications that
officials in the United States and European Union have attributed to Russian
intelligence agencies or the administration of President Vladimir Putin.
Dougan’s outlets have been cited or referred to in news
articles or social media posts nearly 8,000 times, and seen by more than 37
million people in 16 languages, according to a report released from NewsGuard.
Two Examples:
1. The fakes recently included a fake San Francisco
Chronicle website that said Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had
smuggled 300 kilograms of cocaine from Argentina.
2. Another false narrative appeared last month in the sham
Chronicle and on another site, called The Boston Times, claiming that the CIA
was working with Ukrainians to undermine Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
Dougan, in a series of
text exchanges and one telephone interview with The New York Times, denied
operating the sites. A digital trail of clues, including web domains and IP
addresses, suggests otherwise, the officials and researchers say.
A friend in Florida who
has known Dougan for 20 years, Jose Lambiet, also said that Dougan told him in
January that he had created the sites.
Steven Brill, a
founder of NewsGuard, which has spent months tracking Dougan’s work, said:
“He represents a massive incursion into
the American news ecosystem.”
Dougan’s activities from Moscow, where he fled in 2016 one
step ahead of the FL charges, continue to draw scrutiny from authorities in the
United States. For example: Last year, he impersonated an FBI agent in a
telephone call to Brill according to Brill.
Dougan, who acknowledged making the call in a text message
this week, had been angered by a NewsGuard report in February 2023 that
criticized YouTube for allowing videos parroting Russian propaganda about the
war in Ukraine, including some by Dougan himself.
The call prompted an FBI investigation that, according to
Brill, traced the call to Dougan’s telephone in Russia. According to news
reports and his own accounts, Dougan repeatedly clashed with superiors and
colleagues, facing numerous internal investigations.
Earlier, in 2009, Dougan moved briefly to Windham, ME to work
in another small-town police department. There he faced a complaint of sexual
harassment that resulted in his dismissal before he completed his probationary
period.
There also, Dougan started a website called WindhamTalk to
defend himself. The website foreshadowed others he would create, including one
devoted to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, PBSOTalk.
In February 2016, PBSOTalk
posted confidential information about thousands of police officers, federal
agents, and judges.
The next month, FBI agents
and local police officers searched his home, seizing all of his electronic
equipment.
Fearing arrest, he made
his way to Canada and caught a flight to Moscow where he sought political
asylum and has been there since.
He was indicted on the 21
Florida felony charges in 2017.
In April 2021, Dougan revived a website called DC Weekly and
published fake articles about the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
According to a report in December 2021 by Clemson’s Media
Forensics Hub, the domain and IP address were shared by PBSOTalk and Dougan’s
personal website, as well as two marketing books he wrote in exile and a
security firm he operated, Falcon Eye Tech, which offered “offshore security
monitoring services.”
After Russia’s assault on
Ukraine began in 2022, his site carried articles about the war.
Then, in August 2023, the
site began to publish articles based on elaborate fabrications that the Western
government officials and disinformation researchers said came from Russia’s
propaganda units.
The baseless narratives
included claims that relatives or cronies of Ukraine’s leader secretly bought
luxury properties, yachts or jewelry, and that Prince Andrew, the brother of
King Charles III of Britain, had abducted and abused children during a secret
visit to Ukraine.
Dougan, became a Russian citizen in 2023, and he said in his
messages to the NY TIMES said he now makes a living by selling security devices
he designed for a manufacturer in China.
He denied being paid by
any Russian authorities, claiming he funds his activities himself. While
Dougan’s sites have focused on Russian narratives about the war in Ukraine, the
researchers and government officials say he has laid the foundation for
interference in the unusually large confluence of elections taking place around
the world this year.
From the diplomatic
service of the EU wrote in a report last month, in part: “This suggests a “risk of an expanded
operation scope in the near future, potentially targeting diverse audiences and
democratic systems in Europe and other Western nations for various strategic
objectives.”
My 2 Cents:Once again for “poorly educated that Trump said
he loves” that we all now call MAGA, I hope this reminder of the differences
between “misinformation vs. disinformation”
helps you improve your education level.
Here that refreshment:
Misinformation is information made
or placed by a simple mistake not covertly and not made with malice, intent,
or definite purpose – like a white or bold-face lie.
vs
Disinformationis information purposely placed with the full
intent to cause harm, disruption, distrust, and chaos. In more modern times it
is placed covertly to disrupt or topple established governments, competing political
systems around the globe for self-interests, and for political, military,
financial, or more devious purposes and gain.
The word “disinformation” is
the English transliteration of the Russian word: “дезинформация.”
Thatwordwas
derived from the former KGB’s “BlackPropaganda Department” handbook
that shows how Joseph Stalin coined the term, even giving it a French-sounding
name and falsely claiming it had Western origin, that being a false statement itself.
Precise Russian use of the word began in the now defunct USSR’s “Special Disinformation Office” in 1923.
From BUSINESS INSIDER vis-à-vis Trump’s pledge to slap a 20% or higher tariff on all
imported goods has this shocking headline:
“These 5 parts of the stock market are most at risk if Trump wins the
election and implements wide-reaching tariffs, Barclays says”
Key Points According to Barclays:
§Trump's proposed tariffs would lower S&P 500
earnings as much as 4.7% next year.
§Trump has pledged to unleash universal tariffs
on all U.S. trade if elected.
§Barclays outlined five sectors that are the most
exposed to losses if Trump wins and implements his tariff plan.
§Trump's plan to tax virtually all imports would
take a big toll on 2025 earnings (Barclays research found).
§Current outlooks view the election as a coin
toss between Trump and Kamala Harris.
§The outcome has high stakes for trade policy, as
the former president has committed to unleashing trade barriers around the U.S.
Trump said during the
presidential debate with Harris: “Other
countries are going to finally, after 75 years, pay us back for all that we've
done for the world. And the tariff will be substantial in some cases.”
Trump previously said
that if he is re-elected: “All
countries could face a 10% universal tariff, while duties on Chinese products
would reach as high as 60%. Plus, a 100% tariff on cars imported through Mexico
could also be in store.”
If implemented, Barclays expects these policies to cut into
the S&P 500's earnings they said adding: “To be sure, U.S firms have some
way of navigating higher costs associated with tariffs. That includes shifting
supply chains or passing prices on to consumers as higher cost and tax on the
item(s).”
Import duties will hit profit margins to a degree, as
companies risk losing market share if they don't absorb some of the costs.
Barclays analysts
wrote: “We find that SPX (S&P) earnings
would be negatively impacted by 3.2% if the new Trump tariffs are enacted and
another 1.5% if those countries were to retaliate with similar measures.”
Companies that rely
more heavily on supply chains are especially at risk, with five sectors in most
danger: (1) Materials, (2) Discretionary, (3) Industrials, (4) technology,
and (5) healthcare.
1.Discretionary
stocks would suffer the largest earnings-per-share impact from import tariffs
alone — and sector earnings would fall around 10%.
2.Materials
is most impacted by retaliatory tariffs on exports with sector earnings dropping
close to 8%.
Other economists have loudly criticized Trump's tariff idea
as fuel for inflation, given that prices will rise amid a pullback in foreign
products. Accordingly, inflation would climb 0.09 percentage points in the
short run, and U.S GDP could take a 1.2% hit in the first 12 months alone.
Barclays concluded:
“While the new proposed tariffs would
have a modest direct negative impact on corporate earnings if implemented, the
second order effects from higher cost inflation and slowing economic growth
would be an incremental headwind to corporate earnings, and cause further pain.”
My 2 Cents: I’m not an economist by any stretch, but I do have
money on Wall Street earned or lost via my government TSP fund (C & G fund
via the S&P).
I would be impacted by this insane Trump tariff plan outlined
above. Even without my TSP I would lose money on prices (tariff is added tax)
on things I need to buy that says “MADE IN CHINA.”
The B/L: Trump is totally ignorant about tariffs and as the
expression example above says “He doesn’t know a tariff from his ass or a hole in ground.”
More utter madness in this update on the GA State Elections
Board that is total insanity with this headline from PROPUBLICA:
“Skeptics Are Running Some
County Election Boards in GA. Their New Rule Could Allow Them to Exclude
Decisive 2024 Votes”
An examination of a new election rule in GA suggests that local
officials in just a handful of rural counties could exclude enough votes to
affect the outcome of the 2024 presidential race.
Brief instruction to this the latest impact: An examination
of a new election rule in Georgia passed by the state’s Republican-controlled
election board suggests that local officials in just a handful of rural
counties could exclude enough votes to affect the outcome of the presidential race.
Their rule was backed by national groups allied with Trump.
It gives county boards the
power to investigate irregularities and exclude entire precincts from the vote
totals they certify. Supporters of the rule, most of whom are Republicans, say
it’s necessary to root out fraud. Critics, most of whom are Democrats, say it
can be used as a tool to disenfranchise select buckets of voters.
The Original Story:
GA State Election Board (5 members: 3
GOP; 2 DEM; and 1 non-partisan appointed chairman) are way out control
regarding election results certification reported on here from CBS News and most all other major media outlets with this headline:
“GA Democrats sue over
rules they say could block election certifications”
Atlanta — The GA state and national Democratic
parties sued to block two recent rules adopted by Georgia's State Election
Board (3-2 GOP-leaning vote) that could be used by county officials who
want to refuse to certify an election, potentially causing delays in finalizing
the state's results.
1. The lawsuit,
filed before a state judge in Atlanta, argues the rules violate a state law that
makes certification a mandatory duty based on the actual votes and NOTbased
on personal hunches, guesses, or itchy palms.
Note My insert: The BOE acts as an umpire who reports election
results NOT serve as referees who along the way make up or decide new
on-the-spot rules willy-nilly. The lawsuit says the rules invite
post-election chaos, which the board is defying
GA state law clearly states:
“County officials shall certify.”
I
Further Note: They are not
to change the rules or be a judge along the way just to please Trump, et al).
Fact:
More than a century of court precedent in GA finds county officials have no
wiggle room.
2. The
suit asks the judge to find the rules invalid becausethe State Election Board, now dominated by 3
Trump allies, is exceeding its legal authority under GA state law.
The BOE vote alarms DEMS
& voting rights activists against the raw partisan struggle over procedures
that even predate the 2020 election a battle
in yet another state over what had long been an admin afterthought: State
and local boards certifying results.
My 2 Cents:The general summary of
the above once again to measure the ugly nasty impact of that GA BOE 3-2 vote:
Repeat of the Heart of the Issue and the Pending Lawsuit:
BOE (3-2 vote) changing the rules invite post-election chaos, that the board is
defying state law that clearly says: “County officials shall certify (not
change or modify) the outcome.”
More than a century of court precedent in GA finds county officials have no
wiggle room.
The lawsuit states in this key part:“According
to the BOE drafters, these rules rest on the assumption that certification of election
results by a county board is discretionary and subject to free-ranging action
that the 3-2 board calls:
“REASONABLE INQUIRY”that may delay certification or foreclose entirely. But
that is not the law in Georgia.
Impact if the unlawful rule (3-2 vote) is allowed to stand:
It could impact other states as well and disrupt the entire 2024 election voter
certification outcome.
The GA highest
court, or the GA AG, and /or the GA SOS must overturn that wild and unlawful
BOE vote. Now we wait to see, pending a Judge’s ruling now expected any day.
Background on Aqil: The U.S. State Department said he was a
“principal member of the Hezbollah terrorist Islamic Jihad Organization” that
claimed the bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in April 1983 that killed 63
people, including 17 Americans.
Aqil also “directed the
abduction of American and German hostages in Lebanon” in the 1980’s.
LONDON – Sunday opened
with a new barrage of Hezbollah fire into Northern Israel, according to the IDF,
which continued its own campaign of cross-border strikes after a week of
high-profile attacks across Lebanon.
The IDF said Hezbollah launched 150 rockets, cruise missiles,
and drones toward Israel on Sunday, of which were fired within 45 minutes.
Hezbollah said the barrage was “an initial response to
Israel's pager and walkie-talkie attacks in Lebanon last week.”
The IDF said it was striking “Hezbollah terrorist targets in
Lebanon in response, having already bombed 400 targets through Saturday.”
IDF international spokesperson aid in a Sunday morning
briefing: “There was heavy rocket fire by Hezbollah across multiple northern
regions. This is a situation that is intolerable and Israel is committed to act
to change this reality.”
Cross-border fire has been
near-constant since October 8, when Hezbollah began attacks in protest of
Israel's latest offensive into the Gaza Strip, which followed Hamas' October 7
operation in Israel.
Hezbollah, which
controls southern Lebanon and is backed by Iran, has vowed to continue its
attacks until Israeli forces withdraw from Gaza. Tensions have been steadily
mounting on the Israel-Lebanon border as the war drags on and cease-fire
negotiations fail. Israel has long demanded Hezbollah withdraw its forces north
of the Litani River – some 18 miles from the Israeli border – per the 2006 UN Security Council resolution
that sought to end the last major clash between the two sides.
Tens of thousands of Israelis have left their homes in the
border region since October, 8 under the threat of Hezbollah strikes. Their safe return is a key war goal for
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government.
My 2 Cents: Pluses and minuses from the above report. How much longer
will this go on and will it get worse?
That is key question for if it gets
worse and drags in Iran and their allies against Israel, then we in the U.S.
probably will be blamed and dragged into another all-out ME war there has been
7 since 1948 … this would the worst of all since Iran is now more heavily armed
and allied with Russia, too.
I hope that does not happen. Key to not seeing that
happen is PM Netanyahu. He is for his one-sided rule in that that area: “From
the river to the sea” as that expression says.
Loomer's crazy unfounded post
received more than 1.3m views the very next morning.
Loomer made that claim that VP Harris wore clip-on
audio headphones disguised as pearl earrings circulated on social media following
that first Harris-Trump debate promoted by prominent accounts
on X and other platforms for example.
However, the earphones do not look the same as Harris's
earrings that she was wearing (see photo above and below).
My 2 Cents: Far be it from
this Trump MAGA-owned and operated GOP to pass up a good lie or conspiracy such as
this earring audio device story.
Or maybe not considering
Trump said during the same debate with VP Harris that Haitian immigrants in
Springfield, OH were catching, killing, and eating city-owned pets.
That too has been debunked
by the Springfield City Mayor, Rob Rue, the City Manager, and Ohio’s own GOP
Gov. Mike DeWine. All have disputed that claim (BBC report here).
Additionally, the Springfield
police and other city officials also have said there were no credible reports
of Haitian immigrants stealing pets to eating them.
The truth from REUTERS news: Social
media posts has
bodycam footage of a woman’s arrest in Canton, OH for killing and eating a cat
to support the above online narratives, but
Canton police spokesperson Dennis Garren said in an email: “That suspect in this case is not a Haitian
immigrant. She is a lifelong Canton resident.”
MAGA-Trump sustained BS
score: Zero – the truth and the facts: 100%.
(1 to be sentenced; 1 w/Trump; 1 died in prison; 1 in prison)
Trump wants to get rid of the world’s safest money – the U.S. dollar and
replace it with Bitcoin cryptocurrency – or so says Trump and his new economic
BFF and monetary sidekick, Elon Musk – what could possible go wrong with that
twosome in charge of the Treasury Department; the Federal Reserve; U.S.
currency overall; and well, your wallet, cash in hand, and in our bank and
other accounts? Ouch…
Story here from VANITY FAIR and in other media sites on that same subject with this
headline:
“Trump’s Bizarre Crypto
Cash-in is Actually Perfectly on Brand”
When he was
president, Trump said
he was “not a fan” of cryptocurrency, adding
a Tweet in 2019: “We have
only one real currency in the USA. It is called the United States Dollar!”
Also, while in
office, Trump sharply criticized crypto. In 2019, he derided digital assets in a post on X as “Highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated
Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade.”
Oops… as former TX Gov. Rick Perry once said say.
It was an unusually sensible position for an otherwise incorrigibly
foolish man. Given Trump’s appetite for grift — and the overlapbetween his movement and crypto true believers — it was only a matter of time before he
got into the digital currency.
He’s done so wholeheartedly lately — albeit in that fumbling,
bumbling way of his that makes clear he doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking
about. He has repeatedly described himself the “crypto president”—including in a video last week hawking his scammy digital
trading cards. He promised in an Economic Club of NY appearance to
make America “the world capital for crypto and Bitcoin.”
He’s even dipping a
toe into the muddy waters himself, as the chief crypto advocate for his family’s forthcoming
startup: “World Liberty Financial” (run by Don Jr. and Eric – what could go
wrong there, I wonder)?
Bottom of Form
That project has gone about as well as you might expect a
venture headed by his sons Donald Jr. and Eric to
go: Earlier this week, soon after Trump himself promoted his family’s latest scheme on his
TruthSocial page, the X accounts of his daughter Tiffany Trump and
his daughter-in-law Lara Trump were apparently
hacked, with links posted to the pages directing followers to what
Eric Trump indicated were “scam” World Liberty Financial sites.
The alleged hack of Lara Trump — who serves as a co-chair of
the RNC — underscores the political liabilities of the former president’s
clumsy foray into cryptocurrency.
Trump supporter Nic Carter, founding partner at Castle
Island Ventures, told Politico
of the Trump family’s latest undertaking: “This is a huge mistake. It looks like Trump’s inner circle is just
cashing in on his recent embrace of crypto in a kind of naive way, and frankly
it looks like they’re burning a lot of the good will that’s been built with the
industry so far.”
Of course, Trump’s naivety — and evident disregard for the welfare of even those who support him — is
part of what makes him an asset to a freewheeling industry resistant to real
regulation. At the annual bitcoin conference in Nashville this summer, Trump
compared crypto to the “steel industry
of 100 years ago” and he promised to deregulate it, including by firing SEC
Chair Gary Gensler, who has criticized the industry as the “wild west.”
Trump said: “I will appoint an SEC chair who will
build the future, not block the future.”
Then Trump called for the establishment of a national bitcoin “stockpile” — even as he
suggested he didn’t really know all that much about the digital currency,
adding: “Most people have no idea
what the hell it is. So what happens when everyone figures it out?”
The Trump family’s current crypto misadventure from Don Jr.
and Eric could be yet another conflict of interest for the former president.
For example, Jordan Libowitz, a spokesperson for the watchdog
group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) told the
AP: “Taking a pro-crypto
stance is not necessarily troubling. The troubling aspect is doing it while
starting a way to personally benefit from it.” But Trump’s embrace of
crypto also seems to reflect his increasingly cozy symbiotic relationship with
what’s been called the new tech right — a cast of characters that
includes Elon Musk.
Musk framed
his support for Trump in libertarian terms, and JD Vance’s patron Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist
whose politics can be best described as fascist, as the writer John Ganz has put it: “It’s
a confederation of figures who support Trump for the same reasons rich assholes
always do — because of his promise to cut their taxes and, as he said at the
Economic Club of New York, to liberate our economy from crippling regulation.”
But Trump's movement also serves as a vessel for some of the
new tech right's stranger and more corrosive visions, which are chock-full of
far-right junk— but with a fresh coat of technocratic paint.
Trump told the
Economic Club, endorsing an idea pitched by Musk in an interview last month:
“I will create a government efficiency
commission tasked with conducting a complete financial and performance audit of
the federal government and making recommendations for drastic reforms.”
Musk responded (see my earlier post) saying: “I
look forward to serving America if the opportunity arises.”
My 2 Cents: Trump and family might outta research this guy: Sam
Bankman-Fried before you try to change from the world’s famous and
trusted dollar to some kind of Bernie Madoff scam cryptocurrency grift rip off,
okey dokey?
All this is classic Trump:
“Do, say, pay, try, lie, imply, or deny everything, then blame others, even
those close to him all the while he ducks, dodges, deflects, denies, and
distracts.
