We’re still waiting for Jan. 6 ‘masterminds’ to get theirs A federal judge on Thursday sentenced Proud Boy leader Joe Biggs to 17 years in prison this week. Someone on “formerly known as Twitter” snarked that by the time he gets out of jail, Biggs will be a proud man. The Lincoln Project is having fun with the fate of the furious. Comeuppance is a guilty pleasure we were denied in the wake of the banking collapse of 2008. Those assholes got $1.6b in bonuses. But these threats are not funny. We covered some of this nascent Rwanda talk on Friday. But threats of violence against election workers are widespread enough to deserve an Election Threats Task Force. At least some people are being charged: More than a dozen people nationally have been charged with threatening election workers by a Justice Department unit trying to stem the tide of violent and graphic threats against people who count and secure the vote. Government employees are being bombarded with threats even in normally quiet periods between elections, secretaries of state and experts warn.
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That’s pretty much what Truth Social is all about. Just Trump worship. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be enough: The complex deal to take Donald Trump’s social-media platform Truth Social public faces a crucial test next week that could determine whether it becomes a multibillion-dollar company that the former US president once vowed would stand up to “big tech” or instead languish in financial limbo. Under the terms of the deal, announced in October 2021, Trump’s Trump Media & Technology Group was destined to merge with Digital World Acquisition Corp, a special-purpose acquisition company, or Spac. But shareholders in Digital World are now being asked to give the company another year to complete the deal. If they refuse to do so at a meeting on 8 September, the enterprise may never become the $1.7bn company it once envisioned. The path to tech riches the deal floated for Trump and his supporters has not been smooth. Jay Ritter, a University of Florida finance professor, told the Washington Post this week that the merger has “been pretty much unprecedented in terms of all of the glitches”.
CNN reports: The breach of the Coffee County elections office can seem almost out of place in the 97-page Georgia indictment of former President Donald Trump and associates. The sprawling racketeering allegations spread from centers of power with pressure on the vice president to ignore the Constitution, reported calls to secretaries of state to change vote counts, and the creation of slates of fake electors for Congress. They also include the invitation of a tech team to a non-public area of a small-town administration building. But to some people in Coffee County, deep in southern Georgia and far from interstates, the alleged crimes were merely the latest chapter in a local history of failing to secure the rights and votes of residents. And they worry it’s a history that will repeat… Douglas is a majority Black city, and the surrounding Coffee County is about 68% White and 29% Black. Like many places in the South, Black citizens have had to fight for democratic rights in court – repeatedly suing for representative districts for the election of local officials since the 1970s.
The macro commentator Alfonso Peccatiello, who writes as @MacroAlf on Twitter/X and publishes the Macro Compass newsletter, recently posted an excellent thread on private debt that cited my work: Let me show you one of the most underrated and yet crucial long-term macro variables in the world. Debt. But not government debt: people should stop … Continue reading "The Failure of Neoliberalism: Backing Up Macro Alf, & Showcasing Ravel, in 11 plots and two averages"
More trouble on the way? Rudy has been drunk for the past several years so it’s certainly within the realm of possibility that he was compromised by Russia in his quest to get Trump re-elected and make big bucks in the process. This bombshell report from Mother Jones suggests it happened: It was big news when Rudy Giuliani, once hailed as America’s Mayor, was indicted last month by a district attorney in Atlanta for allegedly being part of a criminal enterprise led by Donald Trump that sought to overturn the 2020 election results. Giuliani was back in headlines this week when he lost a defamation suit filed against him by two Georgia election workers whom he had falsely accused of ballot stuffing. Giuliani’s apparent impoverishment, caused by his massive legal bills, and even his alleged drinking have been fodder for reporters. But another major Giuliani development has drawn less attention: An FBI whistleblower filed a statement asserting that Giuliani “may have been compromised” by Russian intelligence while working as a lawyer and adviser to Trump during the 2020 campaign.
This is hilarious: In an urgent appeal to wealthy Republicans who had assembled in Milwaukee ahead of the first GOP presidential primary debate, top brass for the super PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told donors they needed an injection of $50 million over the next four months, according to leaked audio obtained by CNN. “We just need your help getting $50 million more by the end of the year, and $100 million more by the end of March,” Never Back Down CEO Chris Jankowski told donors hours before DeSantis stepped on the stage Aug. 23, according to the audio. “I’m not worried about the second 50. We need the first 50.” Throughout an hour-long presentation, Jankowski, chief operating officer Kristin Davison and chief strategist Jeff Roe walked donors through their inside view of how DeSantis is faring just five months before the Iowa caucus kicks off primary season. Their frank but upbeat assessments touched on perceived shortcomings in media exposure compared to the Trump campaign, their push to lean more heavily on Florida first lady Casey DeSantis and their goal of getting more than 100,000 Iowans to caucus for DeSantis.
If you have some time today, take a look at this video from a leading activist in Hungary about the growing ties between Viktor Orbán and the Republican Party. It’s not good: This is the story of how has the far right ruling party of Hungary been building its connections with the Trumpist wing of the American Republicans. In our video, we show that Orbán’s party, the Fidesz, and its publicly funded political machinery have been consciously working for years on developing a network of lobby groups, think tanks and media organizations that creates and nurtures the international comradery between the hardline nationalists of Hungary and America.
Cancun Ted is desperate for a Fox gig The manly man being manly with his manly beard and his manly beer. And yet nobody can stand the guy, not even the people who vote for him.
Axios reports: Each day, former President Trump‘s staff presents him with a stack of mostly supportive letters, op-eds and printouts of tweets. They’re meant to keep him informed — but perhaps just as important, to boost his spirits. Trump, signature black Sharpie in hand, often scrawls responses on them and has his aides text a photo of the comments back to the writers. The Trump-signed hard copies are sent back by U.S. mail. Why it matters: It’s an ego-soothing exercise for Trump that winds up creating a series of viral threads, as recipients of Trump’s comments — some of whom are essentially pen pals with large digital followings — post them on social media. For Trump — whose online rants against critics, prosecutors and judges are escalating as the four felony cases against him proceed — the virality of such personal notes provides a constant chain of support, commiseration and shared anger. Zoom in: Paul Ingrassia, a former Trump White House intern, says he’s received more than a dozen notes from Trump since October in response to supportive articles Ingrassia wrote for conservative outlets.
Whale rescue! Watch the whole thing. It’s beautiful.