“The far-right political influencer James O’Keefe, founder of Project Veritas, has reportedly assembled a group of election personnel and monitors in the US to secretly film voting and ballot counting procedures on election day.
According to documents given by a whistleblower to the New York Times, the people involved would use hidden cameras “to record and then publicise video to support their claims of fraud and irregularities” at polling locations”
theguardian.com/us-news/2024/n…
James O’Keefe in alleged plan to secretly film US voting and ballot counts
Nearly 70 people committed to Project Veritas founder’s election scheme, whistleblower saysLorenzo Tondo (The Guardian)
Nicole Parsons
in reply to Laffy • • •James O'Keefe is a guy who steals from his own right wing organization
rollingstone.com/politics/poli…
vanityfair.com/news/2023/08/ja…
washingtonpost.com/style/the-m…
npr.org/2023/02/21/1158505780/…
Funded by #KochNetwork.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projec…
James O'Keefe Accused of Mismanaging Project Veritas Funds: Audit
Peter Wade (Rolling Stone)Svavar
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •"O’Keefe wanted them to ensure he could get to Virginia where he was starring in a production of the musical Oklahoma!"
This story is so weird. What kind of right-wing con artist also stars in musicals?
@Npars01 @GottaLaff
Roger Moore
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •Everyone on the right steals from their own organization, and they've been doing it for a long time. There's a whole ecosystem of grifters attached to the far right wing of the party whose goal is to produce just enough results to keep the money flowing. It's the natural consequence of the right-wing attitude that money is everything.
Nicole Parsons reshared this.
Matthew Loxton
in reply to Roger Moore • • •@VATVSLPR
It is certainly very clear that the MAGA crowd are being feasted on by a swarm of grifters. I am not entirely sure why this is though.
Traditionally, it was the conservatives who were more resistant to scams and outrageous claims, but either Post-Modernism has finally caught up with them and has blown up their ability to evaluate claims, or the religious side has metastasized through their body politic
Or maybe something else
But clearly they are easier to fool
@Npars01 @GottaLaff
Roger Moore
in reply to Matthew Loxton • • •My theory is that contemporary right wing politics is so bizarre and self-contradictory that you have to be willing to accept a lot of bullshit to believe in it. That makes true believers a tremendous resource for grifters. This is especially true of the right wing media, where their devoted viewership is preselected for people willing to believe nonsense. That's the main reason the left has failed to create a parallel media system.
Nicole Parsons
in reply to Roger Moore • • •@VATVSLPR @mloxton
The Left doesn't need or want the equivalent of the Right's information bubble & closed off media ecosystem
Good strategy comes from full access to information
Full situational awareness feeds scientific discovery, democracy, and awareness on how you're being manipulated
MAGA still refuse to acknowledge the manipulative cognitive prison they're living in
Information inoculates against lies & weaponized bigotry used to manipulate.
nbcnews.com/news/world/russian…
Russian documents reveal desire to sow racial discord — and violence — in the U.S.
Richard Engel (NBC News)Nicole Parsons reshared this.
FurballsNHairballs
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •Too ignorant to think for themselves.
Urzl
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •@Npars01 @VATVSLPR @mloxton Even capitalism is presumably predicated on *enlightened* self interest.
That only exists if all dealings and dealers are acting in good faith.
Nicole Parsons
in reply to Urzl • • •@gooba42 @VATVSLPR @mloxton
Good point.
Republican billionaires ignore how much capitalism & modern society relies on trust.
As they undermine trust in democracy for self-enrichment, we watch them sawing away on the branch they're sitting on...
As the moneyed foster #enshittification, they're mystified why their latest products fail to launch...it takes trust to buy into the new.
Nicole Parsons reshared this.
Nicole Parsons
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •There's been a lot of media reporting on why Silicon Valley funds Trump's fascist movement.
Tax evasion. Deregulation. Libertarianism. Antitrust. Anti-unionism.
The biggest reason is a switch from genuine innovation towards products that defraud, #enshittify, price fix, & platform mass surveillance of citizens.
Cryptocurrency's mainly for money laundering, tax evasion, sanctions busting, wasteful energy usage, human trafficking, & organized crime
Nicole Parsons reshared this.
Urzl
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •Nicole Parsons reshared this.
Nicole Parsons
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •2/2
Cryptocurrency is a scam with national security implications.
truthout.org/articles/why-are-…
AI, facial recognition, & spyware - Surveillance Capitalism on Steroids
Why Are More Tech Leaders Pivoting to Trump? Follow the Crypto.
Tyler Walicek (Truthout)Nicole Parsons reshared this.
CES For Harris 🥥🌴
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •GhostOnTheHalfShell
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •Oh, so cryptocurrency is just catering to the talents of billionaires
GhostOnTheHalfShell
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •And let us not forget Leonard Leo, and his 1.6 billion dollar walking around money gift from some billionaire ass hat, granted with the intent to the Bay Area and probably San Francisco into a rabidly conservative enclave.
In reality, this just means that the billionaires of Silicon Valley the bay area and turn it into their personal playground.
Rusty Ring
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •Curious how you can always tell who these people are just by their faces. It's like Dracula: their superpower is that people won't believe what's clearly standing in front of them.
Nicole Parsons
in reply to Rusty Ring • • •@RustyRing @VATVSLPR @mloxton
Yes, agreed.
Who knew that the faces of the PayPal Mafia Contrarian's Club would turn Nazi.
businessinsider.com/paypal-maf…
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal…
PayPal Mafia: Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, and others
Tami Brehse (Business Insider)Nicole Parsons reshared this.
Roger Moore
in reply to Roger Moore • • •There's also the whole billionaire-funded "think tank" ecosystem, which serves a dual function. On the one hand, it produces propaganda; on the other, it provides jobs for out of work right wing politicians ("wingnut welfare"). These are both highly susceptible to grift, especially because there's so much money sloshing around.
Nicole Parsons
in reply to Roger Moore • • •The analogy I use for #KochNetwork 's practice of providing "jobs" for their hacks after their utility ends: Sinecures & Shingles, an allegory
A fascist movement doesn't discard their supporters: they sideline & recycle them, (or end them.)
pbs.org/newshour/politics/ken-…
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_…
Sinecures & Shingles:
Shingles is a viral post-chicken pox disease. It lurks hidden in neural tissue until opportunity presents itself when the immune...
1/2
Ken Starr, whose criminal investigation led to Bill Clinton's impeachment, dies
PBS NewsNicole Parsons reshared this.
Nicole Parsons
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •2/2
... system is weakened or distracted.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shingl…
Post-polio syndrome is similar in pattern.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willia…
Example:
Bill Barr (virus) hid in a telecom & a conservative law firm Kirkland & Ellis (neurons) after the Starr Report (infection) until reactivated for the Trump administration (reinfection).
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willia…
That's what #KochNetwork provides: a cache of ready-made partisan hacks.
77th & 85th United States Attorney General
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)Nicole Parsons reshared this.
Nicole Parsons
in reply to Matthew Loxton • • •@mloxton @VATVSLPR
Scams, frauds, & cults all use similar techniques & create a ready-made audience for the next con.
Repetition. Phony confidence. Suppression of doubt. Greed. Psychological & emotional manipulation. Restricting access to information. Punishment for doubt.
Religions ask people to believe things without proof. So do political parties.
Nicole Parsons reshared this.
philbee
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •Nicole Parsons
Unknown parent • • •To manufacture a vulnerable population:
1. Brainwashing that says only money & social status matter.
It's why the prosperity gospels of the Moonies took hold of the GOP so quickly.
vanityfair.com/news/2021/01/ca…
publicwitness.wordandway.org/p…
m.usw.org/blog/2017/the-strang…
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Un…
Greed makes people vulnerable to delusional thinking.
Folks fall for the con because they really do want to believe they're SO special & won a prize.
1/3
A Strange Unification
Brian Kaylor (A Public Witness)Nicole Parsons reshared this.
Nicole Parsons
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •2/3
2. Unresolved trauma - every Republican candidate shows signs of childhood mistreatment & trauma.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Religions & Republican policies mass produce the traumatized.
psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/…
vachss.com/av_dispatches/disp_…
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ma…
Gun violence, substance abuse, financial collapses, poor nutrition, limited health access, homelessness, social murder, gossip, shame, collaboration with the enemy, vigilantes, domestic terror, reduced circumstances, ...
We each have a Nazi in us. We need to understand the psychological roots of authoritarianism
Guardian staff reporter (The Guardian)Nicole Parsons reshared this.
Nicole Parsons
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •3/3
... erosion of social standing, bigotry, lack of accountability for consequences, social media jealousy & rage baiting, expecting rescue from a "hero" & passivity, limited education & literacy, informers, social isolation, physical & sexual abuse, societal expectations that entrench emotional immaturity, poverty & precarity.
All of these austerity measures & GOP public policy are policies of immiseration that produces a traumatized population ready built for a populist fascist movement.
Nicole Parsons reshared this.
Nicole Parsons
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •Book recommendations:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_De…
theguardian.com/books/2024/mar…
Five of the best books about democracy in crisis
Rafael Behr (The Guardian)Nicole Parsons reshared this.
M.S. Bellows, Jr.
Unknown parent • • •en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defini….
scientific theories about the historical phenomenon of fascism
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)M.S. Bellows, Jr.
Unknown parent • • •RiaVotesBlue
Unknown parent • • •I think Rush Limbaugh & conserv radio + Pat Robinson blending religion & politics in the ‘80s/‘90s has something to do w it.
I’ve driven thru hundred of miles of rural America w only that garbage to listen to, back in the day.
They’re literally in an echo chamber that won’t allow anything else in.
Then comes Trump who for whatever reason is the personality changed all that into a cult. One big cult w several factions
Nicole Parsons
Unknown parent • • •Both the religious & Republicans react punitively to critical thinking, investigation, doubt, & requirements for proof.
Nicole Parsons reshared this.
Piousunyn
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •