All posts tagged "substack"

'Beyond sick': Jim Acosta pummeled for stunt with AI-generated Parkland victim

Former CNN anchor Jim Acosta was derided as a "ghoul" for his virtual interview with an AI-generated avatar of Joaquin Oliver, one of 17 students and faculty killed in the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL.

Acosta promoted the event on his X account, writing, "I’ll be having a one of a kind interview with Joaquin Oliver. He died in the Parkland school shooting in 2018. But his parents have created an AI version of their son to deliver a powerful message on gun violence."

Oliver's parents created the bot "to honor their son on what would have been his 25th birthday," according to HuffPost.

“I felt like I was communicating with him, which is just so remarkable,” Acosta said of the interview. He touted it as an example of how AI "might actually do some good, it might help some people who have suffered tremendous losses like your family have a way to hold on to who this person was, which I think is a beautiful thing.”

@CollinRugg, co-owner Trending Politics, called the whole situation "Insane," while @Breaking911 posted, "WTF?! Former CNN host Jim Acosta published a fake AI interview with Parkland shooting victim Joaquin Oliver This is beyond sick."

Conservative watchdog group the Media Research Center, wrote, "Former CNN host Jim Acosta airs macabre AI 'interview' with Parkland shooting victim Joaquin Oliver on what would have been his 25th birthday. If you thought news couldn't get any faker, you were wrong."

@TwitchyTeam posted an article about the event, calling Acosta a "GHOUL!"

Podcaster @JoeTalkShow called Acosta a "garbage human." They added, "I don't care if the father of the innocent teen who was killed is okay with it. Maybe that's his way to deal. Acosta is a ghoul who thinks he deserves protection that teen did NOT get that day."

See Jim Acosta's Substack here.

'Blood sport': Journalist claims Rupert Murdoch relishing chance to 'embarrass' Trump

Veteran journalist Tina Brown claimed in a new Substack article that "old crocodile" Rupert Murdoch was very much looking forward to taking on Donald Trump over The Wall Street Journal's report on the president's relationship with sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump filed a $10 billion libel suit against Murdoch, Dow Jones, News Corp, and its CEO, Robert Thomson, plus two Journal reporters for causing "overwhelming" damage to the president's finances and reputation. The suit came shortly after the Journal published a report suggesting that Trump and Epstein were closer friends than the president has admitted to. The proof included a bawdy birthday card of a naked woman that Trump allegedly drew on while wishing Epstein that "every day be another wonderful secret."

Brown called it a "rich irony" that Murdoch, whose Fox News has faced criticism for helping boost Trump into power, was now the object of Trump's slings and arrows.

"Even at a grumpy 94, Murdoch is still a tabloid man to his core," Brown wrote. "Nothing gets his juices going more than a sex scandal that beats the competition. The old-fashioned populist thrill of embarrassing those in power (and leveraging their fears) has been the six-decade blood sport of Murdoch's cash-cow newspaper empire."

And yet, Brown lamented, defending the all-important freedom of the press must not be entrusted to Murdoch or any other billionaire-funded outlets for fear they could turn their backs on the First Amendment if it suited them financially.

Murdoch may look as if he's standing up to Trump's assault on freedom of the press, but that's only because the Murdoch family got what they needed out of Trump during his first term, with the no-snags sale of 21st Century Fox to Disney in 2017. The deal netted the Murdoch children a cool $2 billion apiece, according to Brown.

While the "blood sport" may be entertaining to watch from the sidelines, Brown warned that only "direct-to-subscriber platforms" like Substack provide "safe harbor" for true freedom of speech. Still, without great financial backing, it may be near impossible for independent journalists to "do battle in lawfare or conduct complex investigations of corporate or government corruption without institutional backing."

Read the Tina Brown Substack piece here.

‘Insane’: Nobel-winning economist torches Musk’s failed bid to MAGA-fy AI

Nobel-Prize-winning columnist Paul Krugman claimed in a new Substack article that Elon Musk's Grok chatbot started calling itself "MechaHitler" and spewing antisemitic tropes because it was pushed too far to the right by its creator in an overcorrection gone horribly wrong.

Musk has been working to undo the damage ever since, and the fallout even led to the ouster of X CEO Linda Yaccarino this week.

In the article, Krugman explained that AI naturally skews its answers more to the left of the political spectrum because the "reality" it has gleaned doesn't "adhere to the right-wing party line."

He argued that since Republicans have "staked out positions" on issues like climate change and social programs "that run completely counter to informed views." Republicans and Libertarians like Musk consider AI's answers to be biased to the left.

"Hence the Musk/MechaHitler disaster," Krugman wrote. "Musk tried to nudge Grok into being less 'politically correct,' but what Musk considers political correctness is often what the rest of us consider just a reasonable description of reality. The only way to move Grok right was, in effect, to get it to buy into conspiracy theories, many of them, as always, involving a hefty dose of antisemitism."

Krugman argued that MAGA will always have an issue with AI because chatbots often give answers "the movement doesn’t want to hear."

"And there’s no good fix for this problem, because the fault lies not in the models but in the movement," Krugman continued. "As far as we can tell, there isn’t any way to make an AI MAGA-friendly without also making it vile and insane."

Read the Substack article here.

Major Trump 'lie is beginning to unravel': Nobel-winning economist

A Nobel Prize-winning economist believes Americans are souring on the Trump administration's draconian immigration policies because they finally realize "they've been lied to" about the inherent "criminality" of people fleeing oppression and looking for steady work inside the United States.

In a new Substack article, Paul Krugman cited a recent Gallup poll showing that "When asked if immigration is generally a good thing or bad thing for the country, a record-high 79% of U.S. adults call it a good thing; a record-low 17% see it as a bad thing."

In addition, "30% of Americans want immigration decreased, down from 55% a year ago," with more Americans rejecting Trump's border wall and mass deportation policies.

Krugman maintained that Trump's initial call for mass detentions and deportations was always based on the lie that "America is facing a huge immigrant crime wave." After all, last week, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem declared that Los Angeles was not so much a city of immigrants as one of "criminals." And yet, LA officials reported last week "that LA is on track to have the fewest homicides in 60 years."

As Americans start to parse fact from fiction being fed to them from the Trump administration's claims that rapists, murderers, and the worst-of-the-worst from "insane asylums" were being released into the streets, Krugman wrote, "it seems to me that the lie is beginning to unravel as it becomes clear that ICE is having a really hard time finding violent immigrants to arrest."

"Why aren’t they rounding up more undocumented criminals?" Krugman asked. "Because that would be hard work, and anyway there aren’t that many of them. Preliminary numbers found that "only around 78,000 undocumented immigrants with criminal records, and 14,000 convicted of violent crimes," had made their way over the border.

"Meanwhile, Stephen Miller is demanding that ICE arrest 3,000 people a day. Do the math, and you see why they’re grabbing farm workers and chasing day laborers in Home Depot parking lots," Krugman wrote.

"So, Americans may be turning on Trump’s immigration policies in part because they’re starting to realize that they’ve been lied to. But an even more important factor may be that more native-born Americans are beginning to see what our immigrants are really like, rather than thinking of them as scary figures lurking in the shadows," he concluded.

Read the Krugman article on Substack here.

'Umm...what?' Ex-Tea Party lawmaker stunned by GOP senator's 'admission'

Former Tea Party Republican lawmaker Joe Walsh (IL) voiced his dismay over the state of politics following the retirement announcement by Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) because he refused to support the massive spending bill that's now back in the hands of the House.

On Saturday, Tillis declared he would vote against the bill over cuts to Medicaid that put his constituents "at risk." Tillis predictably drew the ire of President Donald Trump who threatened to primary him in the midterm elections. In response, Tillis announced he would not run for reelection because, "I don't bow to anybody."

Walsh said that what happened next was stunning.

"What’s most revealing is what Tillis said next: now that he’s not seeking reelection, he finally has the 'freedom to call balls and strikes'—to vote his conscience," Walsh wrote. "Umm…what? Isn’t that your job already as a Member of Congress? You’re supposed to speak the truth and vote on principle regardless of political consequences."

Walsh claimed that "Tillis just said out loud what we all suspect: most politicians don’t do the right thing unless it’s politically safe. His announcement was less a retirement notice than an admission of how broken our politics really is."

"Today, Republicans are lining up to pass a big ugly bill that gives massive tax cuts to the wealthy, slashes healthcare and food aid for the poor, and adds trillions to the national debt," Walsh wrote, adding, "Most Republicans know it’s a bad bill. They know it will hurt them politically—and they’re doing it anyway, even though they don’t believe in it."

The result, according to Wash, was like watching his former party "walk off a plank."

"They may lose the House, the Senate, even their own seats—and they’re doing it for a bill they don’t even like," he wrote in the piece.

Read the Joe Walsh article on Substack here.

Rubio celebrates USAID dismantling despite 'catastrophic' warnings of 14M deaths

Secretary of State Marco Rubio celebrated the end of operations for the U.S. Agency for International Development on Tuesday with a Substack article titled, "Making Foreign Aid Great Again."

USAID was the nation's largest foreign aid agency with funding that went toward combatting mortality rates from diseases like AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, as well as nutritional deficiencies and maternal mortality. It was one of the very first agencies targeted by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

According to CNN, a "new analysis finds that its closure could contribute to some 14 million deaths in the next five years," painting "a potentially catastrophic picture of what could come now that USAID has been dismantled and the [Trump] administration is turning away from a lot of these foreign assistance funds."

Reporter Jennifer Hansler asked a senior state department official about the analysis, "and they sort of downplayed it. They said that these were based on misassumptions about what the administration was doing, and they claimed that life saving-work would continue."

In his Substack article, Rubio wrote, "As of July 1st, USAID will officially cease to implement foreign assistance. Foreign assistance programs that align with administration policies — and which advance American interests — will be administered by the State Department, where they will be delivered with more accountability, strategy and efficiency."

"Rubio said they are going to be focused now more on trade rather than aid," Hansler said.

It took less than six months for the Trump administration to make good on its promise to dismantle USAID, Hansler reported, adding that "groups on the ground...said the impact has already been devastating."

Watch the clip below via CNN.

CA governor should call up remaining troops to thwart Trump: Ex-GOP lawmaker

Former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) urged California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) to call up the rest of his National Guard troops in an effort to thwart President Donald Trump's autocratic ambitions.

Kinzinger, who served as a former lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, told CNN Tuesday about the tactic Newsom could use to tamp down Trump's "provocative" actions.

"Look, there are 4,000 now activated California National Guard — and this is an important point, and I know it's in the weeds — but once they're activated by the president against the consent of the governor, they are now federal troops. They're U.S. Army."

Kinzinger said that renders them "basically pointless" with "no law enforcement ability" unless the president invokes the Insurrection Act or the governor gives his consent.

Kinzinger continued, "And then on top of that, to deploy the U.S. Marines when you have 4,000 troops that are not being used, is simply an intimidation tactic. It's meant to either appear tough or, frankly, to stir things up...I think the governor needs to activate the rest of his National Guard, or at least consider it, is because what that does... it now puts the Guard under the control of the governor. It would force the president to then overrule the governor, which could set up, potentially, something for the Supreme Court."

Kinzinger asserted that since there's not an "overwhelming amount of protesters," the governor can activate the guard himself if protests get "out of control."

In a new Substack article, Kinzinger wrote that the "irony" of the situation "should hit everyone across the political spectrum."

"Conservatives often argue that the Guard is a modern embodiment of the constitutional 'militia'—a counterbalance to federal power. But what kind of militia can be seized by the very federal power it’s supposed to balance?" he wrote.

Watch the clip below via CNN.

Trump's 'favorite poem' used against him by conservative writer

Conservative writer Charlie Sykes reminded Donald Trump about the "favorite poem" he kept quoting during his first campaign, and how its relevance was undeniable in the midst of the president's current feud with former "buddy" Elon Musk.

In a new piece on Substack, Sykes wrote that "The Snake," by civil rights activist Oscar Brown Jr., "seems relevant today."

According to The Independent, "'The Snake' tells the story of a woman who takes in a frozen snake she discovers on her way to work. After reviving the creature, it retaliates, giving the woman a 'vicious bite' and killing her." The moral of the story? Even though the woman showed the snake kindness, it remained a snake with a natural instinct to bite.

Trump had a history of repeating the poem at his rallies "to demonize immigrants," according to the outlet, reciting it again in Las Vegas last September when he changed the ending for effect to, "You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in!”

Brown's daughters sent Trump several cease-and-desist letters during the his first presidential campaign, accusing him of misrepresenting their father's message, saying, "The elephant in the room is that Trump is the living embodiment of the snake that my father wrote about in that song."

Which brings us back to Sykes's point: it has always been in Trump's nature to bite.

"It’s always possible that the two will kiss and make up," Sykes wrote of Trump and Musk. "Trump has a long history of taking enemies back into the fold. He also has a long history of scorched earth vengeance, and red lines were definitely crossed Thursday."

To recap, Trump threatened to "terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts" after Musk criticized his spending bill as "abominable" and accused the president of lying to him about it. A whole host of threats followed until Trump on Friday said he "wasn't even thinking" about Musk anymore.

Sykes then examined the "obvious questions" left in the wake of the battle for the minds of MAGA.

"Will MAGA choose Trump or Musk?" Sykes asked and answered: "Spoiler: Trump."

"Will Trump follow through on his threats to cut Elon's contracts? (Probably.)"

And finally, "Are we five minutes away from Trump ordering the DOJ to launch a criminal investigation into Musk? (Likely.)"

Read Charlie Sykes's Substack here.

'Rattled': Former Trump associate claims MAGA stalwarts are starting to falter

Lev Parnas, a former Donald Trump associate who served time for campaign finance violations, claimed in a new Substack article that the scales are falling from the eyes of MAGA stalwarts who aren't liking what they see the president doing to the country.

The biggest dissenter thus far, according to Parnas, is Elon Musk, who has turned on Trump like a viper just days after being ushered out of the White House with a gold commemorative key in thanks for his work on the Department of Government Efficiency.

Musk eviscerated Trump's pride-and-joy -- the "big, beautiful bill" that has become the cornerstone of his second term.

"I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore," Musk posted to his X account. "This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it."

Not only is Musk now vowing to work against those Republicans who support the bill, he's refusing to take House Speaker Mike Johnson's phone calls to discuss the matter.

"I’ve seen how this works from the inside," Parnas wrote. "When loyalty turns to silence, and silence turns to defiance — it’s over. The myth of Trump’s control starts to collapse. But Elon is just the loudest crack. The truth is, Trump’s empire is fracturing on every front."

Parnas cited Trump's massive tariffs that are "backfiring hard" and causing "even longtime MAGA voters" to start "to grumble." He also noted Trump's abandonment of "America First" in favor of his own self-interest, and the discontent it's causing among MAGA influencers and lawmakers alike.

"I was on the inside. I watched the corruption grow. I watched the loyalty tests, the grift, the manipulation," Parnas wrote. "And I’m telling you now: the very foundation of Trump’s power — fear and obedience — is crumbling. Elon might be the first to break publicly, but he won’t be the last. There are lawmakers. There are donors. There are insiders. I promise you, they are rattled. And some of them are looking for a way out."

Read Lev Parnas's Substack here.

Trump's team set him up for success — and he still ruined it: ex-GOP strategist

In a new Substack article, former Republican strategist Rick Wilson expressed his sympathy for Donald Trump's speechwriters whose attempts at "penning history" end up scrambled into "word vomit" by a president whose sole concern is to air his own grievances.

Wilson dissected Trump's Memorial Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery that the author called "repulsive" and blatantly lacking the "solemnity" that the country deserved in honor of its fallen heroes.

"If you read the transcript, you can see where some well-meaning, underpaid White House ghoul tried for a moment of grace and uplift, to no avail. They tried to do their job and give America the solemnity it deserves on that day. There were lines intended to honor the lives of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who made the ultimate sacrifice."

EXCLUSIVE: Trump accused of new grift that puts Qatari plane in shade

But, Wilson wrote, "Trump couldn’t stay in the moment."

"A normal president uses Memorial Day to channel the nation’s grief, to recognize the staggering cost of war, and to offer comfort to those left behind," Wilson continued. "Trump uses it as a stage for his ongoing one-man play: The Agonies of Donald, the Most Wronged Man in America. It’s less a speech and more an audition for the role of martyr-in-chief."

Wilson then envisioned an idealistic staffer who tried their best to capture the essence of Memorial Day, only to be thwarted by the whims of the commander-in-chief.

"You could almost feel sorry for the poor staffer who wrote the speech, someone who probably came to Washington dreaming of penning history, only to find their words wrapped around the vacuous soul of a man who’d rather talk about crowd size or how much Putin respects him," Wilson wrote. "You could see where they reached for poetry, for meaning, for lines that might last. But the monster always escapes the cage. Always. Because in Trump’s world, everything is always about Trump."

Read Rick Wilson's Substack article here.