These are dark times for America. Not just because the fascists are winning. But also because so many people and institutions—from universities to law firms to media companies—are willing to take the path of appeasement, sending the message that the steamroller of fascism can't be stopped. The attack on the US Capitol has morphed into the even more deadly DOGE invasion. We're abandoning our allies and inviting our enemies into the chat. It's non-stop chaos and endless grifting. And bad people everywhere are getting in on the act.
Andreessen Horror Show
As Gizmodo explained in April 2024: "Marc Andreessen Is a Maniac."
This week, Dave Troy detailed convincingly why "Creators Are Inadvertently Fueling America's Failure," by continuing to publish on the Nazi-friendly, Andreessen-backed Substack platform.
As Troy explains:
In 2019, the company received a major investment geared at attracting journalists with audiences from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz — whose head Marc Andreessen is a major Musk ally, recruiting staff for his DOGE efforts.
(Substack) is... a major tentpole in a parallel establishment envisioned by Andreessen and other promoters of the Network State movement, which specifically aims to dismantle the United States and replace it with a federation of smaller, competing fiefdoms....
Pro-democracy creators currently publishing on Substack should be cognizant of the fact that they are operating behind enemy lines, and that the company's backers are antagonistic to your goals.
Hopefully, Troy's article will inspire a few more people to get off Substack before it's too late.
(I stopped publishing on Substack in April 2023. I explained why here.)
The Substack Dilemma: How Creators Are Inadvertently Fueling America’s Failure
Creators have flocked to Substack because of its ease of use — but that simplicity comes at a steep price.
Dave Troy
Thiel's New Protégé: "Germany's JD Vance"
Elon Musk isn't the only billionaire hoping to give a boost to Germany's modern-day Nazis.
His buddy Peter Thiel is creating a "$50-Million Problem" for German-owned Politico, reports Gil Duran.
Not content to hold a majority stake in US Vice President JD Vance, Thiel is now bankrolling a new venture capital fund launched by the son of Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Axel Springer — the German media giant that owns Politico — to the tune of $50 million.
As Duran writes:
The late Axel Springer, is remembered by some as “Germany’s Rupert Murdoch.” In 2022, Foreign Policy reported that the company had “a decades-long record of bending journalistic ethics for right-wing causes.” Today, “the Axel Springer media house under Döpfner continues to pursue political agendas and vendettas with the same tenacity as it did decades ago.”
With Thiel accounting for two thirds of the funding of Moritz Döpfner's new $75 million fund, Manager Magazin notes that the younger Döpfner is already being dubbed the ‘German JD Vance’ in the investment community.
Politico’s $50M Peter Thiel Problem
Is Axel Springer CEO’s son the ‘German JD Vance’?
Gil Duran
War Crimes? Fuck Yeah!
Many people expressed concerns about day-drinker "Pete Hegseth's judgement" long before the Signalgate scandal.
But Hegseth is even more incompetent and reckless than his worst critics imagined.
As one defense official told CNN:
It is safe to say that anybody in uniform would be court-martialed for this. My most junior analysts know not to do this.
Even beyond the security lapse that could have risked the operation and put American lives at risk, one key aspect of the affair is being mostly ignored.
As Garrett M. Graff writes for his Doomsday Scenario newsletter:
Lost amid all the tumult of the context of the group chat is the content itself.... We have clear documentary evidence of US officials targeting an entire civilian building to kill a single target.
According to local reports, most of those killed were women and children, and the Houthis’ political bureau described the attacks at the time as a “war crime” — and it appears they were probably technically correct. As my online friend Southpaw wrote, “Targeting an individual for assassination at a building known to be his romantic partner’s residence by collapsing the whole structure seems to me to fall squarely within the Geneva Convention’s prohibition on targeting civilian objects, and probably other defined war crimes as well.”
After CIA Director John Ratcliffe glossed over the war crime, to call the operation "a good start," National Security Adviser Mike Walz (who had added The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg to the chat), responded with a fist bump, an American flag and a fire emoji.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth continues to tell the media he's unbothered by the scandal, while managing to appear drunk every time he does so.
With each new revelation, the national security scandal deepens.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe were exposed for lying under oath in their Congressional testimony. Congressman Jerry Nadler says they should be prosecuted for perjury.
And just when it seemed Team Trump's security failures couldn't possibly get worse, Der Spiegel broke the news that:
Private contact details of the most important security advisers to U.S. President Donald Trump can be found on the internet. DER SPIEGEL reporters were able to find mobile phone numbers, email addresses and even some passwords belonging to the top officials.... Those affected by the leaks include National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
Most of these numbers and email addresses are apparently still in use, with some of them linked to profiles on social media platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn. They were used to create Dropbox accounts and profiles in apps that track running data. There are also WhatsApp profiles for the respective phone numbers and even Signal accounts in some cases.
Meanwhile, the GOP apparently learned nothing from the Matt Gaetz scandal.
As CBS News reported:
White House national security adviser Michael Waltz's friends list on Venmo was open to the public to view as late as Tuesday.
While not negotiating NDAs with women he allegedly raped, former Fox & Friends host Pete Hegseth earned his MAGA bona fides by getting white supremacist tattoos and campaigning against DEI, which he claimed was "lowering standards" in the military.
Based on what we've seen so far, America needs more DEI, less DUI.
Meanwhile in El Salvador...
When Kristi Noem arrived at the "brutal El Salvadorean prison" where the Trump administration illegally sent Venezuelan deportees she wasn't there to check tattoos.
For the heartless animal killer Noem it was just another photo op.
If Noem had bothered to check tattoos, she might have discovered that, for example, one of Neri Alvarado's three tattoos is, reports Mother Jones, "an autism awareness ribbon with his brother’s name on it and that he used to teach swimming classes for children with developmental disabilities."
Noem could have also verified that while the gay Venezuelan makeup artist identified only as "Andrys" does have tattoos, they have nothing to do with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
As his attorney told Maddow:
These are not the tattoos of somebody who is involved with gangs. These are normal tattoos that you would see on anybody at a coffee shop anywhere in the United States or Venezuela.
But Noem wasn't in El Salvador to correct the injustices that had seen innocent people swept up in the Trump administration's mass arrests and illegal deportations.
As Michelangelo Signorile writes:
Noem was there because, as has been said many times, the cruelty is the point. They revel in showing their brutal actions, and using them to threaten others.
According to one judge, the US gave Nazis "better treatment" during World War II than it did to the hundreds of Venezuelans it shipped to El Salvador this month.
The men disappeared to El Salvador because of their tattoos
The Trump administration sent Venezuelans to El Salvador’s most infamous prison. Their families are looking for answers.
Noah Lanard
Andrew Tate fangirl named U.S. attorney for New Jersey
As Terrence T. McDonald writes for New Jersey Monitor:
There are lots of reasons to be concerned about Alina Habba, whom President Trump named as the new interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey on Monday. But chief among those is her drooling over online influencer Andrew Tate.
“I’m a big fan,” Habba told Tate when both appeared on a podcast in January.
When Habba told Tate this, she knew that Tate and his brother had been accused by Romanian authorities of trafficking women, forcing them to appear in pornographic videos that were posted online, and that the two men face charges of “sexual aggression” in the United Kingdom.
Habba comes to the traditionally non-partisan job after several years serving as a legal spokesperson for noted sex predator President Donald Trump, and a senior advisor for MAGA, Inc., Trump's Super PAC.
Democratic Senator Andy Kim reacted to Habba's appointment by saying in a statement:
The announcement of Alina Habba to be interim US Attorney in New Jersey is an unacceptable partisan choice that will leave New Jersey ill-prepared to take on dangerous challenges like gun violence and drug trafficking. We must do better to keep our communities safe.
Habba's appointment comes just two weeks after Andrew Tate sent "one of his girlfriend's" to an L.A. hospital following a vicious sexual assault.
Andrew Tate sent girlfriend to the ER while on US visit, she alleges
The self-proclaimed ‘misogynist influencer’ has previously denied all existing allegations against him as he faces sexual misconduct charges in the UK and human trafficking charges in Romania
Madeline Sherratt
Elon Musk Confesses to Murder
No "Bad People Update" would be complete, of course, without the world's worst dad/richest Nazi Elon Musk.
Musk continues to tweet about a dead son that, he claims, "was killed by the woke mind virus."
The only problem with Musk's version of events: HE PERSONALLY SIGNED THE PAPERS TO ALLOW FOR HIS DAUGHTER'S GENDER TRANSITION.
A virus didn't "kill" anyone. His own signature did.
Despite the constant abuse she receives from him, Elon's daughter Vivian Wilson is living her best life in Tokyo these days.
She's on the cover of a special issue of Teen Vogue — in which she calls her internet-troll dad a "pathetic man-child."
She's also responding to Musk's latest tweet on TikTok:
0:00
/0:10
Meanwhile, the world waits for whiny Elon to man-up, stop playing the victim, and take some responsibility for his own actions.
Thanks for reading! While paid subscriptions (billed to TLD Media LLC) and one-time tips are always welcome, all content to this ad-free newsletter is free, so subscribe for $0 and you won’t miss anything. And feel free to share this content knowing there’s never a paywall!
P.S. This really is the time to get off X once and for all. Please find me on Bluesky and these other places.
Previous "Bad People Updates"
October 2024:
Bad People Update
Trump, Musk and DeSantis are breaking laws, cheating in our election, and trampling on the First Amendment.
Richard Hine
December 2023:
Bad People Update
Catching up on some of the latest news about a few not-good people I’ve written about before.
Richard Hine
Subscribe to Unprecedented
Subscribe to the newsletter and unlock access to member-only content.