| To: Bill Wolf who wrote (12107) | 9/14/2024 8:44:26 AM | | From: Bill Wolf | | | | What to know about Laura Loomer, Trump's conspiracy theorist ally
Photo: Jacob M. Langston for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Far-right activist Laura Loomer has been at former President Trump's side this week as he campaigns, though the GOP candidate claimed Friday he's unaware of the conspiracy theories she's promoted.
Why it matters: Members of his own party are sounding alarms over Loomer's increasing presence in Trump's inner circle, concerned it's a sign he's moving deeper into a world of conspiracies and racism, Axios' Sophia Cai and Alex Thompson report.
Relationship with TrumpLoomer, who said this week she doesn't work for Trump, is a frequent guest of Mar-a-Lago and was backstage at Tuesday's presidential debate.
- She traveled with him the following day to New York and Pennsylvania.
What she's saying: "I'm simply a ride or die supporter of President Trump," Loomer said on X Friday. "I don't want anything in return. I just want to see him win."
- She added that she's been a fan of Trump's since she was working "undercover" in Hillary Clinton's campaign to expose "all types of dirty deeds."
- Loomer did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.
Trump was asked about Loomer and his relationship with her several times during a press conference in California on Friday, and said she's a "supporter" of him and his campaign.
- "I don't control Laura," he said. "Laura has to say what she wants. She's a free spirit."
- Pressed on whether he's aware of the conspiracy theories she espouses, he said "No, I don't know that much about it. ... I know she's a big fan of the campaign."
- He said in a post on his Truth Social platform later Friday: "I disagree with the statements she made but, like the many millions of people who support me, she is tired of watching the Radical Left Marxists and Fascists violently attack and smear me."
Conspiracy theories and racist commentaryLoomer, who has described herself as a "proud Islamophobe," has called the 9/11 attacks an "inside job." She also falsely claimed President Biden was behind the assassination attempt against Trump in July.
- This week, she peddled another baseless conspiracy theory on Haitian immigrants eating pets — a claim that Trump has also raised.
- Loomer, who has 1.2 million followers on X, also posted on the social media site saying if Vice President Harris is elected president, "the White House will smell like curry & White House speeches will be facilitated via a call center."
Rise to prominence as provocateur Loomer has worked for conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' Infowars media platform, among other right-wing outlets.
- In one 2015 stunt, she posed as a Hillary Clinton supporter to try to entrap campaign workers into accepting illegal cash donations.
- Her social media presence is full of inflammatory posts about immigrants and other groups, including one celebrating the deaths of migrants crossing the Mediterranean. She denies being a racist, though she has described herself as pro-white nationalism.
- Her history of false claims include that multiple school shootings were staged.
- Getting banned from social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram — for reasons including violating policies on hateful conduct and speech and for posting misinformation — helped build her notoriety, even as it cost her large followings on those platforms.
Failed races for CongressLoomer is a twice-failed congressional candidate in Florida.
- She ran in 2020 as the GOP nominee for the state's 21st congressional district and again in the Republican primary for the 11th congressional district in 2022.
Go deeper: Anatomy of a Trump conspiracy theory
axios.com |
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| From: Bill Wolf | 9/19/2024 9:13:27 AM | | | | | | C.E.O.s increasingly see a Harris victory
Recent polling suggests that Vice President Kamala Harris holds a slim lead over Donald Trump. A group of 60 business leaders convened by Jeff Sonnenfeld of the Yale School of Management in Washington is even more bullish about her chances of winning.
DealBook’s Lauren Hirsch got a first look at the results of Sonnenfeld’s survey, which also captures their views on the economy and on the volatile political climate. (In the survey, 37 percent of respondents identified as Republican, 32 percent as Democrat and about the same as independent.)
Eighty percent expected Harris to win. As well as the latest findings, C.E.O. surveys conducted by Sonnenfeld during the Trump era have shown how business leaders have been moving away from a tendency to support Republican candidates.
Executives were concerned about inflammatory rhetoric. When asked whether they believed hate speech was inciting violence, 68 percent of respondents said that they strongly agreed, while 26 percent said that they agreed. And 87 percent said that Trump should apologize for spreading debunked rumors about Haitian immigrants in Ohio.
They’re optimistic about the economy, with 84 percent of respondents saying that the economy was headed for a soft landing. About 10 percent said that they expected a significant recession, while six percent foresaw stagflation.
They generally favor tariffs. About 42 percent of respondents agreed that measures were needed to “protect vital U.S. industries from unfair foreign competition,” while 16 percent said that they strongly agreed.
Two-thirds of executives said that Nippon Steel should be allowed to buy U.S. Steel. The $15 billion deal has been held up by political and national security concerns.
The survey’s findings track with strong business leader support for Harris.
In other election news: The International Brotherhood of Teamsters said it wouldn’t endorse either Harris or Trump, though many of the union’s West Coast chapters said that they would back Harris. |
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| From: Bill Wolf | 9/19/2024 10:03:04 AM | | | | | | Opinion
Commentary
Trump Acts as if He Has Time to Waste
He attacks Harris but can’t bring himself to focus on anything of consequence.
By Karl Rove
Sept. 18, 2024 5:34 pm ET
Every presidential campaign wrestles with how to use its three biggest resources—money, issues and time. The last is the most precious. Campaigns can always raise more money or generate more issues. But they can never create more time.
This is why Kamala Harris’s campaign wisely isn’t responding to many of Donald Trump’s attacks. The Republican, unfortunately, has been wasting precious time going after her on inconsequential matters. The Biden-Harris record on inflation, the border and world events remains relatively unmentioned. He’s letting her skate.
After Ms. Harris replaced Joe Biden in late July, Mr. Trump complained she hadn’t sat down for media interviews. “She’s not smart enough,” he said. Last Friday, Ms. Harris finally did a solo interview with a Philadelphia anchor. She’ll need to do more unscripted appearances going forward, but swing voters didn’t seem to care that she wasn’t sitting for them this summer. Her polling certainly didn’t suffer.
Mr. Trump also spent days complaining Ms. Harris hadn’t gone through any primaries, making her selection undemocratic. He called it “the first ever ‘Coup’ in America” and whined it was “not fair.” Team Harris ignored him.
Mr. Trump also complained on and on that Ms. Harris not only hadn’t laid out her agenda; she didn’t even have a policy page on her website. When she put one up Sept. 8, the Trump campaign called it “a late-night, half-ass wish list to her website to solve the problems SHE helped create over the past four years.” Again, swing voters don’t appear to be upset about this issue. Many were busy getting their kids back to school.
Mr. Trump chewed up more valuable time whining that Ms. Harris had changed her positions on fracking, the Green New Deal, the abolition of private health insurance and other progressive nostrums. “Everything that she believed three years ago,” Mr. Trump grumbled in their debate, “is out the window.” Undecided voters seem as if they couldn’t care less. They believe all politicians change opinions when advantageous, and Ms. Harris has moved toward their stances.
The Trump-Vance ticket has also wasted vital days with its self-owns. The campaign has yet to produce a single Ohio pet owner mourning Fluffy or Fido being barbecued by Haitian migrants. Mr. Trump also devoted Sunday to expressing hatred for Taylor Swift. Her many fans were doubtless angered and energized.
Ms. Harris has been content to let Mr. Trump fritter away the past eight weeks on these ridiculous attacks. Every day he focused on them—and on calling her a “Marxist, communist fascist” without concrete evidence—he neglected topics where he could inflict damage. He effectively buries what criticism he does make of her and Mr. Biden’s performance on the issues under mountains of minutiae and over-the-top rhetoric. If he pairs brief criticism on important points in a rally with a prolonged focus on weird things, what will get coverage? Weird every time.
It’s no surprise, then, that Ms. Harris has seen a significant improvement in her favorable numbers since reaching the top of the ticket. For the first time in three years, her average favorability rating is higher than her average unfavorability rating. That may lead to further improvement in head-to-head polling. She has also begun to close the gap with Mr. Trump in voters’ minds in terms of who’s better to handle the economy and border.
With less than seven weeks until Election Day—and voters in some states already receiving mail-in ballots—Mr. Trump better stop wasting time.
Fortunately for him, he may shortly get help from an unlikely corner. Mr. Biden plans what White House aides say will be a national tour to talk about his “epochal, economy-changing, history changing accomplishments.” Barnstorming America to praise Bidenomics last year made Democrats look out of touch. Repeating it now only makes Mr. Biden and his vice president a gigantic target.
Will Mr. Trump manage to hit the bull’s-eye? Drilling down on real issues in a sustained way may not appeal to the former star and co-producer of “The Apprentice.” But if he doesn’t, and instead continues failing to spell out his second term agenda, swing voters may swing away from him.
Few presidential candidates have had a better environment to run in than Mr. Trump. Voters are in a foul mood. The incumbent administration is historically unpopular and there’s a tremendous yearning for change. All these points give Mr. Trump a huge advantage and Ms. Harris a large disadvantage. But his lack of discipline is epic, and his rallies increasingly sound like therapy sessions.
Time isn’t his friend. It isn’t Ms. Harris’s either—for all Mr. Trump’s errors she’s up only 3 points in FiveThirtyEight’s national average. Let’s see who makes best use of the days they have left.
Mr. Rove helped organize the political-action committee American Crossroads and is author of “The Triumph of William McKinley” (Simon & Schuster, 2015).
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| From: Bill Wolf | 9/21/2024 10:08:37 AM | | | | | | How the Super-Rich Signal Their Wealth to Each Other
Gauche display is out. The .1% use a subtler set of cues and signifiers to mark their place on the totem pole.
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| From: Bill Wolf | 10/23/2024 7:57:19 AM | | | | | | As Election Nears, Kelly Warns Trump Would Rule Like a Dictator
John Kelly, the Trump White House’s longest-serving chief of staff, said that he believed that Donald Trump met the definition of a fascist.
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He said that, in his opinion, Mr. Trump met the definition of a fascist, would govern like a dictator if allowed, and had no understanding of the Constitution or the concept of rule of law.
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He discussed and confirmed previous reports that Mr. Trump had made admiring statements about Hitler, had expressed contempt for disabled veterans and had characterized those who died on the battlefield for the United States as “losers” and “suckers” — comments first reported in 2020 by The Atlantic.
nytimes.com
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| From: Bill Wolf | 11/21/2024 7:23:19 AM | | | | | | Opinion
Commentary
Trump Sends Clowns to Cabinet Confirmation Circus
He has mishandled his nominations, and not only by picking Gaetz, Hegseth and Gabbard.
By Karl Rove
Nov. 20, 2024 4:31 pm ET
It started so quickly and so promisingly.
President-elect Donald Trump began announcing his team Nov. 7 by naming America’s first female White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles.
After a three-day break, Mr. Trump renewed staffing his administration the following Sunday by proposing an ambassador to the United Nations and a border czar.
The next day he announced his pick for Environmental Protection Agency administrator.
That Tuesday Mr. Trump revealed his choices for national security adviser, Central Intelligence Agency director, homeland security secretary, ambassador to Israel and co-chairmen of a new commission called the Department of Government Efficiency. Though his nomination that day of Fox News host Pete Hegseth for defense secretary raised questions, all these other picks were defensible. Overall, the president-elect was coming across as purposeful, focused and energetic.
Then came Wednesday. On Nov. 13, the future president picked for his attorney general Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz. It is a catastrophically bad selection.
The nomination can’t be defended by referring to Mr. Gaetz’s record as an attorney. He has barely practiced law. He has no prosecutorial experience except as a prosecution’s target. And his law license was briefly suspended in 2021 because he stopped paying his bar-association dues.
Nor can the pick be justified because of his outstanding legislative record. He doesn’t have one. To the degree he’s known for doing anything on the House floor, it’s reportedly for sharing the details of his latest female conquests.
Then of course, there’s his turn on former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Mr. Gaetz’s behavior then makes appeals to party unity to confirm him now unpersuasive. He led seven other House GOP renegades to ally with 208 Democrats to remove Mr. McCarthy over the objections of 210 fellow Republicans.
There’s also the House Ethics Committee investigation into Mr. Gaetz for allegations that he used illicit drugs, paid to have sex with a minor and accepted improper gifts. Mr. Gaetz denies all these accusations. But his abrupt resignation from the House upon his nomination halted the committee’s process, and it’s unclear if it will release the report.
Rather than for any particular skill or competency, Mr. Gaetz was selected because he promised he would smite Mr. Trump’s enemies within the Justice Department and hound his opponents outside it. Vengeance is a powerful motive but not a sound foundation for public confidence in the nation’s chief law-enforcement officer.
It’s likely that the only way Mr. Gaetz can be approved is if Mr. Trump expends enormous political capital to browbeat Senate Republicans into backing him. But no president has infinite sway, no matter how remarkable his electoral victory. Second-term chief executives tend to have even less.
Mr. Trump now faces the likelihood of contentious hearings featuring sensational charges that will distract from the good things his administration does. And Mr. Gaetz’s hearings won’t be the only circus act in town.
The confirmation proceedings for Mr. Trump’s director of national intelligence nominee, Tulsi Gabbard, and Mr. Hegseth could also be messy and full of bad press. His in particular could entail unpleasant surprises, given that the Trump transition team was reportedly blindsided after his nomination by the news that he had reached a settlement with a woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017. Mr. Hegseth denies any wrongdoing.
The former president made one other mistake with his nominations. By revealing his early choices through posts on Truth Social, Mr. Trump missed opportunities to deliver powerful messages to the American people about what he intends to do and why.
Imagine if he’d had a news conference rolling out secretary of state nominee Sen. Marco Rubio and national security adviser appointee Rep. Michael Waltz. He could have followed a day or two later with a public unveiling of border czar Tom Homan and his pick for Department of Homeland Security secretary, Gov. Kristi Noem. A day or so after that, he could have personally introduced Interior Secretary-designate Gov. Doug Burgum and Energy-Secretary-to-be Chris Wright to outline their plans to lower utility bills and the cost of gasoline.
These introductions could have let Americans hear what was important to Mr. Trump and learn more about the people he is putting in charge of key agencies. The campaign exploited social media brilliantly during the election. By contrast, the cabinet rollout seems pedestrian.
Inadequate vetting, impatience, disregard for qualifications and a thirst for revenge have created chaos and controversy for Mr. Trump before he’s even in office. The price for all this will be missed opportunities to shore up popular support for the incoming president. But at least it’ll make great TV.
Mr. Rove helped organize the political-action committee American Crossroads and is author of “The Triumph of William McKinley” (Simon & Schuster, 2015).
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| From: Bill Wolf | 12/13/2024 9:16:21 AM | | | | | | Tracking Putin’s Most Feared Secret Agency—From Inside a Russian Prison and Beyond
The spy unit that arrested a Wall Street Journal reporter is leading the biggest campaign of internal repression since the Stalin era
By Evan Gershkovich| With Drew Hinshaw, Joe Parkinson and Thomas Grove
Dec. 12, 2024 9:00 pm ET
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| From: Bill Wolf | 12/15/2024 8:57:37 AM | | | | | | The Drugs Young Bankers Use to Get Through the Day—and Night
Many on Wall Street see Adderall and Vyvanse as tools to plow through long hours of tedious work amid high-pressure competition
The Drugs Young Bankers Use to Get Through the Day—and Night
Many on Wall Street see Adderall and Vyvanse as tools to plow through long hours of tedious work amid high-pressure competition
By Alexander Saeedy
Dec. 14, 2024 9:00 pm ET
As Mark Moran was facing another 90-hour week as an investment-banking intern at Credit Suisse in New York, he knew he needed help to survive the rest of the summer. His colleagues gave him a tip: Visit a Wall Street health clinic and tell the staff he had trouble focusing.
Ahead of his first appointment, he filled out a five-minute questionnaire. One of the questions asked if he had trouble staying organized, another, if he procrastinated. He then met with a clinician who said his answers suggested he had attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. He left with a prescription for Adderall.
No matter that a family member, a psychologist, didn’t think Moran had ADHD. He found that when he took Adderall, he could keep working for hours, and was able to actually be interested in some of the mundane tasks required of a young investment banker, such as aligning corporate logos on a PowerPoint or formatting cells in Microsoft Excel.
He also wanted to show his bosses he was a hard worker and eventually secure a lucrative full-time job offer after finishing graduate school.
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| From: Bill Wolf | 1/6/2025 7:41:50 AM | | | | | |
Top Risks 2025
EURASIA GROUP'S TOP RISKS FOR 2025
Top Risks is Eurasia Group's annual forecast of the political risks that are most likely to play out over the course of the year.
This year's report was published on 6 January 2025.
eurasiagroup.net |
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