Who is Brad Parscale?

Politics, ,

Trump has just named Brad Parscale to run his 2020 campaign. LOL on the campaign, but you might want to know who Parscale is.

The House Intel committee showed interest in him in mid 2017. Parscale had been Trump’s “digital director,” which would have put him right in the middle of any on-line activity related Trump-Russian collusion.

Just the fact that this looks bad makes us wonder why Trump would put him in charge of Trump Steals POTUS 2.0. On possible explanation is that Trump is simply following marching orders, from Putin or some Oligarchich handler. I say this as pure speculation, of course, but why the hell else would such a controversial pick be made?

Anyway, some basic information on who this dude is:

Parscale is from Kansas, and worked for various Trump enterprises, building their web sites. He created a firm that Trump paid $91 million to run the digital phase of the Trump campaign. Other than building some campaign web sites, the company had no experience related to running or helping with a campaign.

The work Parscale did was the Trump side (as opposed to the Putin side, or other interests) of the on line (mainly Facebook) trump blitz to win the election. Parscale had denied that he or anyone else colluded with Russia.

Newsweek has a little on that.

In June 2017:

The ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, would not confirm whether Parscale had been invited to testify as part of the congressional investigation.

But Schiff told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow this week that he is “very interested in finding out” whether there was “Russian funding or support” for the Trump campaign’s data analytics operation, “or Russian assistance in any way with gathering data” that was then used by the campaign.

Pre Trump, from Wikipedia:

After graduating from Trinity, Parscale moved to California and worked as a sales and marketing director, selling CGI software for five years. After the dot.com bust, he returned to San Antonio, investing $500 to establish Parscale Media in 2004,[6] where he gained clients by soliciting customers at Barnes and Noble looking at web development books, through the Yellow Pages and online for businesses in San Antonio that he thought needed a web presence. In 2011, he partnered with Jill Giles of Giles Design and together, founded Giles-Parscale, a San Antonio branding, design, digital media, website and marketing firm. Parscale also co-founded TechBloc, a San Antonio-based organization focused on building and expanding technology, as well as attracting and retaining professionals in the technology field.

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I for one welcome Donald Trump’s policy to arm half the teachers …

Violence and Guns, ,

… because of this: Some of my best friends are teachers, including my wife. Overall, teachers are the best people. When I imagine a trained armed force larger than the United States Marine Corps, made up of 100% teachers, teachers ready to put things right, I get all giddy.

But seriously… Continue reading I for one welcome Donald Trump’s policy to arm half the teachers … →

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Tim Walz Can Not Waltz Back His Pro Gun Political Career

Politics, Violence and Guns, , , , , , ,

“Tim Walz. He works for us.” – the NRA (see video below)

Tim Walz was a strong supporter of Republican/NRA gun policy from the beginning of his political career. There wasn’t a moment that he wavered in his support for access to assault style weapons such as those used to kill 17 people at Stoneman Douglas High School last week, or large magazines and other enhancements that were used in several of the 52 spree killings that occurred during Walz’s political career. His sudden realization that assault rifles are bad and that we have to address our gun problem can only be seen as a craven attempt to garner votes in an election that has attracted the interest of a growing and increasingly better informed progressive electorate. Continue reading Tim Walz Can Not Waltz Back His Pro Gun Political Career →

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Trump and Gun Control. LOL Republicans.

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Donald Trump will advance the regulation and control of deadly weapons but not in the way you might think. He is currently contemplating, which is a big word to use for Trump so maybe I mean having some verbal diarrhea that vaguely resembles an idea, banning assault style weapons and bump stocks. Of course, he can’t do that himself, it would be Congress, but he’s talking about it. Continue reading Trump and Gun Control. LOL Republicans. →

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Minnesota Gubernatorial Candidate Calls For Gun Safety Bill

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Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Rebecca Otto just released a letter calling on the Minnesota House and Senate, which returned to session this morning, to ban assault type rifles and bump stocks, and to institute universal background checks. Continue reading Minnesota Gubernatorial Candidate Calls For Gun Safety Bill →

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How the US Political System Works: Legislatures and assemblies

Politics, , , ,

Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump could not be more different is so many ways there is not enough ink to describe them. But they do share one thing in common. Well, great hair, but besides that. Sanders and Trump, through their respective runs for President of the United States, each brought a group of people not formerly engaged much in politics into the process. Obviously, Sanders brought in people who supported him and Trump bought in people who supported him, but subsequently, Trump just kept on going, bringing in even more people who are so alarmed at his presidency that they have shown up and want to know what to do about it. Continue reading How the US Political System Works: Legislatures and assemblies →

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The Star Spangled Banner Done Right

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I’ve never like the Star Spangled Banner. For one thing, it is a lie. The flag was still there, but the fort was utterly destroyed. It wasn’t “taken” by the British … they just bombed it all the way to Bolivia then sailed off. But it was a British Naval victory embodied in an American song as an American victory.

It is militaristic and bellicose. We celebrate bombs and war and fighting and death and destruction, and all that wrapped in fake news. Actual fake news. Continue reading The Star Spangled Banner Done Right →

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Are you ready for a national school walkout?

Violence and Guns, , ,

The idea is to protest how easily school shootings seem to happen, and how our country has not reacted to this problem ever, other than sending around a lot of thoughts and prayers.

You should know that the planning of this event has already been adulterated by either idiotic Americans or smart Russian spies. Watch carefully and pay attention… Continue reading Are you ready for a national school walkout? →

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Mueller Indicts 13 people

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That’s 13 Russians and 3 Russian entities.

The document filed in the US District Court for DC is HERE.

This appears to be a key but closely circumscribed moment in the Mueller investigation. No Americans are knowingly doing anything bad here. This is just the Russian campaign to manipulate social media etc. to shape an election, which we apparently believe they are continuing to do for 2018. This looks more or less like the end-game for that particular problem (though that does not mean that there won’t be more indictments.)

I have no idea, and I think this is generally the case, if an of these individuals or entities are in the US and/or can be actually arrested.

Some paraphrasing from the document, referring mainly to the first two counts, which are the big deal counts with all the jucy information in them, to give you an idea: Continue reading Mueller Indicts 13 people →

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Gun Control and School Shootings

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When a school shooting happens, good people become horrified and many ask for better gun laws.

The answer that comes from the anti-safeguard lobby, those who mainly want guns to be unregulated with respect to ownership, safety, use, or disposition, is that such laws would not have stopped the tragedy that prompted the conversation.

They may be right (but see below). But they have missed the point. The problem is, the people who suddenly want to do something about senseless gun deaths have also missed the point. Continue reading Gun Control and School Shootings →

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President’s Daily Brief

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Sometime after World War II, it became increasingly apparent that intelligence gathered by a growing number of US federal agencies needed to be part of the day to day policy decision making practice of the President. As the intelligence agencies themselves evolved (from the OSS to the CIA, in one lineage, for example) the idea of a Director of Central Intelligence, or later, Director of National Intelligence, would create an interface between all the agencies and the President also evolved.

I’ve been reading The President’s Book of Secrets: The Untold Story of Intelligence Briefings to America’s Presidents by David Priess. I think I got turned on to the book because I saw the author on MSNBC and it sounded interesting. And it is. The book chronicles the early development and long term evolution of what we now know of as the President’s Daily Brief. Continue reading President’s Daily Brief →

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