https://emptywheel.net/2026/09/27/cannonball-aileen-cannon-wears-two-hats/
A number of people on Bluesky asked for a Dummies version of my post unpacking the request, from some number of current and former FBI personnel, for Judge Aileen Cannon to clarify her gag order regarding the Jack Smith report on the stolen documents case. So here it is, just like NYT does.
With reader commentary.
Presented in narrative form, rather than as a spread sheet. Either way Dollars is the story.
Candidates advertising themselves, their opponents. Games politicians play.
Then, after the election, figure who gets concerns heard by the winners.
How it is, how it not should be. The Supremes, with Leonard Leo's love are at fault.
Commerce in candidate credibility, while Trump sells pardons, or it is claimed he does.
search = Trump selling pardons
Sample returned items: here, here and here. That last one -
When President Trump returned to power, a group of his former campaign and administration officials started a federal lobbying practice. Mo Strategies, which has registered an array of corporate clients, is now expanding into the newly lucrative world of pardons.
Business is booming.
The Trump-linked firm has signed on to lobby for the law firm Blessinger Legal in Northern Virginia for "immigration and pardon-related discussions," federal lobbying disclosures in late May show. The engagement has already yielded the firm $500,000 in income, and more work is expected, Marty Obst, president of Mo Strategies, said in an interview.
"We're one of the fastest-growing firms in D.C., and are helping them navigate the landscape and process," Obst told CBS News. "What I've tried to do is provide guidance of what the process looks like, and what types of cases would appeal to this White House."
Emmer, while boosting crypto, has let the pardon buying industry, if it needs a name that serves, languish.
He and his acolytes could gin up a play in that park; where Crabgrass envisions those impecunious but wanting to spring a friend or relative being coached to use Go Fund Me.
Just saying.
Were Emmer so inclined, who'd be the acolytes? And would they turn Tom down? Or see it as a new way to practice law? I'd guess a no-thank-you, and that Tom would not do it. But hypotheticals help put pardon selling in a perspective, if the publishing about Trump is true. Crabgrass has no reason to doubt, even where Crabgrass has never bought one or put in a bid.
Even People has published:
60 Minutes Returns with Bombshell Hidden-Camera Exposé on ‘Pardon Brokers’ Taking Cash to Influence Trump
Rapper Boosie Badazz says he seeks to reclaim money he paid as he sought clemency from the president for a gun charge
After months of reporting on the firings, hirings and internal debate at CBS’ 60 Minutes, the iconic Sunday night news program opened its 59th season with a hidden-camera report on the thriving industry of pardon brokers taking cash for promises over influence on President Donald Trump.
Rapper Boosie Badazz has launched a legal action against two lobbyists he had hired in an unsuccessful bid to obtain clemency from the president for a gun charge.
“This is what I was led to believe: If you come with this money, you will get a pardon,” Boosie, born Torence Ivy Hatch Jr. and formerly known as Lil’ Boosie, told 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl.
The rapper said he paid $600,000 to D.C. lobbyists Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl, conservative conspiracists who in 2023 were assessed the largest-ever fine by the Federal Communications Commission in connection with a robocall scheme intended to discourage Black voters during the 2020 election.
The two were sentenced in Michigan to one year of probation in December 2025, and pleaded guilty to felonious telecommunications fraud in Ohio in 2022.
“I just thought, I mean, ‘This is the way it’s done.’ I’m paying these guys, you know? And they’re gonna make it happen,” Boosie said on 60 Minutes.
In a statement to PEOPLE, White House spokesperson Lauren Bis says that Wohl and Burkman have no relationship with the president.
“Anyone spending money to lobby for pardons is foolishly wasting their money and the President doesn’t even know who these so-called ‘lobbyists’ are,” Bis told PEOPLE.
Burkman and Wohl told CBS News their dealings with Boosie were above board: “We don’t owe him anything. ... We encourage him to drop the suit,” Burkman said. “It’s without merit.”
There has long been a market for lobbyists and orbiters of presidential administrations in Washington, D.C., promising to aid pardon-seekers in their pursuit of a clean slate — and an even longer history of presidents making controversial pardons.
President Gerald Ford pardoned his predecessor Richard Nixon after Watergate. President Jimmy Carter pardoned draft dodgers after the Vietnam War, and President Bill Clinton pardoned fugitive financier and donor Marc Rich.
But the 60 Minutes report on Sunday, Sept. 13, sought to highlight the “marketplace of money and mercy” that has resulted in pardons for political allies and “a string of unrepentant financial conmen who argued” to Trump that “they were wrongly prosecuted” by President Joe Biden’s Justice Department “just like him,” as Stahl said.
(Don't blame me, I voted for Harris.)
In any event, Money and Mercy - that would be a hell of a trade name. Copyright it quick before the next guys with connections. If that's how it is done.
Last -- It probably is not that open a thing.
Do you guess that boutique mentioned in the earlier pargraphs before the People quote offers a money-back gurantee?
Perhaps a combo innovative startup is in gestation, using Go Fund Me and with a disclaimered-up gurarantee of some kind. No pardon, money-back -- with caveats of course.
A niche industry where the potential sings. It will happen, but perhaps more discrete than crypto. Like fumural parlors are more discrete in marketing than Glock. But with overlapping worldviews.
Discrete. Not wanting too much sunshine on the industry.
Zhou got his, you get yours, but there's reason not to be pretentious about it.
As the Big Oil friends of Trump are not at all loud about how long an elastic four weeks can be stretched
____________UPDATE___________
Those pardoned include the “fake electors” who approved fraudulent slates of electors falsely claiming Trump had won their state in the 2020 election, as well as a number of former Trump lawyers who worked with him to challenge the election results, such as Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro, Jenna Ellis, Christina Bobb, John Eastman.
Others who were pardoned after being employed by the president include Boris Epshteyn, a longtime Trump attorney and advisor, and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
These most recent pardon recipients appear to have given Trump approximately $250,000 in combined political donations through 2025, according to Federal Election Commission filings, with David Hanna, a Georgia elector and CEO of Atlanticus Holdings Corporation, giving the most at $145,500.
Changpeng “CZ” Zhao: Trump pardoned the billionaire Binance founder after Zhao’s company worked extensively with the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial business, with World Liberty’s USD1 stablecoin used for a $2 billion investment made in Binance earlier this fall.
Binance launched a task force aimed at “striking a deal” with World Liberty after Trump won the 2024 election in hopes of easing Zhao and Binance’s legal woes, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, with Binance’s engineers building the technology behind the USD1 token (World Liberty denies having any involvement with Zhao’s pardon).
[...] Who Are Democratic Lawmakers Questioning?Zhao’s pardon also came after Trump erased another legal trouble for his company, with the Securities and Exchange Commission dropping a lawsuit against Binance in May only days after the exchange began listing USD1.
Democratic lawmakers sent letters to some of the political donors and business partners whom Trump pardoned, including Milton, Zuberi, Zhang, Walczak and Chrisley. They also targeted a number of people without clear financial ties to the president, including Lawrence Duran, Jason Galanis, Marian Morgan and David Gentile, who were all convicted of fraud; British billionaire Joseph Lewis and Devon Archer, the former business partner of Hunter Biden who has since turned his allegiance to Trump. Former Nevada politician Michelle Fiore also received a letter, and was known as a longtime Trump supporter prior to the president pardoning her—even earning the nickname “Lady Trump.” The president previously endorsed her in a race for state treasurer while she spread his false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election. Lawmakers also sent letters to several people whom they noted had employed former Trump lawyers or Trump-friendly attorneys to help secure their pardons, such as Adriana Isabel Camberos and Andres Enrique Camberos, who were represented by former White House counsel Stefan Passantino and former Rudy Giuliani attorney Adam Katz. Ozy Media CEO Carlos Watson was questioned for receiving a pardon after employing law firm Aidala, Bertuna & Kamins, which lawmakers allege used Trump allies like Steve Bannon to help secure Watson’s pardon and made the defendant’s case to the White House directly, bypassing the Justice Department. Oak View Group co-founder Timothy Leiweke received a letter after he was represented in his pardon efforts by former Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., whom lawmakers allege successfully pushed for Leiweke’s pardon over a round of golf with the president. The Democrats did not send letters to a number of other pardon recipients with ties to the president, including Vázquez, Peters and Ulbricht, but lawmakers confirmed to Forbes that it’s possible additional letters could be sent out.
[....] Big NumberMore than $1 billion. That’s likely how much the government lost in restitution and other fees from Trump’s pardon recipients. Presidential pardons erase any unpaid fees defendants have been ordered to pay as part of their sentences, though it’s unclear in many cases whether Trump’s pardon recipients had paid any part of their fees, making the exact amount the government lost out on unknown. Those who received clemency after offering some benefit to Trump were often those who owed particularly large amounts of cash: Zhao was ordered to pay $50 million in restitution; Milton owed approximately $676 million in restitution to shareholders and a Nikola investor; Ulbricht was ordered to pay $183.9 million and HDR Global Trading owed a $100 million fine. In Milton’s case, it’s unclear how much of his nine-figure fine he would have had to pay, however, as the amount was still being finalized and had not been approved by a judge at the time of his pardon.
Trump Pardons Other Political AlliesMany of Trump’s pardons and commutations in his second term have been for people who support him politically, though FEC filings suggest many haven’t given his campaign any notable donations. Former Nevada politician Michelle Fiore was known as a longtime Trump supporter prior to the president pardoning her—even earning the nickname “Lady Trump”—and he had previously endorsed her in a race for state treasurer while she had spread his false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election. U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin described Trump’s pardon of former Virginia sheriff Scott Howard Jenkins as showing, “No MAGA left behind,” while former Republican Rep. Michael Grimm earned a pardon after speaking out in Trump’s favor and becoming an on-air personality for Trump-friendly Newsmax. Former Tennessee state Sen. Brian Kelsey, indicted on campaign finance-related crimes, was pardoned after he repeatedly praised Trump on social media and later went to work as a lawyer for America First Policy Institute, a right-wing think tank widely credited for helping to spearhead Trump’s presidential transition. Most notably, Trump’s first pardons after his inauguration were blanket pardons to participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol building, after rioters stormed the Capitol in protest of Trump’s loss in the 2020 election. The president also commuted the sentences of 14 people who were convicted of harsher crimes related to Jan. 6, including leaders of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, though none are shown to have donated significant amounts to Trump’s campaign.
TangentJeremy Hutchinson, a former Arkansas state senator whom Trump pardoned for corruption and fraud charges, also spent significant money on his pardon, though it didn’t go to Trump directly. The New York Times reported in 2020 that Hutchinson’s father Tim Hutchinson paid a lobbyist $10,000 in 2020, during Trump’s first term, to lobby for his son’s release. Before Trump took up Ulbricht’s cause to shore up support among Libertarians, a man connected to the Silk Road founder, Brian Anderson, also spent $22,500 lobbying on Ulbricht’s behalf at the end of Trump’s first presidency. NBC News reported last week the Trump administration is now seeking to halt outside lobbying efforts around pardons, citing more recent reports in which people have attempted to solicit as much as $30 million to help secure clemency.
[...] Who Could Trump Pardon Next?
It’s unclear. Politico reported in May 2025 that Martin was reviewing pardon applications for Jan. 6 conspirators that Trump had already given commutations to, such as Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes. Crypto booster Roger Ver, known as “Bitcoin Jesus,” has also been angling for clemency from Trump for charges of tax evasion and mail fraud, Bloomberg reported in August, though a campaign to secure a pardon for Ver appears to have fizzled out. Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell—who was moved to a lower-security facility last after speaking with the DOJ and absolving Trump of any role in Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation—has also been angling for clemency, with whistleblower documents given to House Democrats suggesting Maxwell is preparing a “commutation application” for the president. Her attorney told Politico in April they would not seek a pardon until after the public interest in Epstein and the Epstein files has died down, however. Trump has not committed either way to giving Maxwell clemency, saying in October he would “have to take a look at it” and he “wouldn’t consider it or not consider,” and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in February that the last time she talked to Trump about it, “He said it’s not something he’s considering or thinking about.” Lawyers for Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was sentenced to four years in prison, have also said they’ve reached out to the White House about a pardon. Trump has complained Combs was “very hostile” to the president during his campaign, however, and told The Times in January he was not considering granting Combs’ pardon request. The president also ruled out pardons for now-indicted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, former Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and cryptocurrency entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried, and said he “[hadn’t] been asked” about pardoning Derek Chauvin, the officer convicted of murdering George Floyd in 2020.
Further Reading
Pardon buying agent = Cottage industry, or as big a heist as being a DC campaign consultant? That's a giant range. And, hypothetically, where should fraud vs abuse of pardon power draw a line?
Just saying. She's been quite silent on the item. As if it didn't exist. Or she has no opinion.
Likes it? Thinks it's cute?
It is one of the most grotesque things Trump has done.
And Sideline Susie missed the play.
Maybe thinking about Colin Kapernick's business decisions instead?
It is likely that Paxton might slip among Hispanic voters, given ICE shooting a retreating man in Austin.
Guns in ignorant and impetuous hands are a menace.
https://www.newsweek.com/james-talarico-chances-beating-ken-paxton-flip-poll-texas-senate-rate-midterms-12438285 - re polling before the Austin shooting.
Dems should be encouraged because of the Texas record of not recently electing Dems to statewide office.
This contest seems GOTV will be a major factor, and it is unclear if there is any backlash against Trump's effort to tamper with voting (Newsweek's item does not address that specific question).
Old farts seem to be the strongest bloc identified by Newsweek as favoring Paxton. Trump favors Paxton, and he is an old fart, so he fits the Texas polling pattern. Trump endorxed Paxton before the primary where the Republican incumbent then lost to Paxton.
Nothing in the report mentioned early voting as a present practice or trending thing, in Texas.
Questions at present stand unresolved, but Talarico does not seem to be losing ground. Gaining, if anything, but given poll error ranges, at present it is a reported toss-up.
Quoting -
Tafoya, who is married to Mark Vandersall, a private wealth advisor, reported that she and her husband’s assets were valued at between about $17 million and a little more than $33 million.
The couple’s assets, which do not include the value of a personal residence, included mutual funds — many of them invested in aggressive growth stocks — exchange traded funds (ETFs), cryptocurrency and individual stocks that favored the tech sector, including Nvidia, Alphabet (Google), Apple and Tesla.
All that high tech. And has she been definitive in laying out a policy on AI. its dangers, its potential? From here:
Michele Tafoya’s policy on taxing ai and robots
These issues below are sorted in descending order based on how important the average American voter ranked them on the quiz.
Should the government tax companies that replace human workers with artificial intelligence or robots?
ChatGPT Party Research - No, taxing efficiency is economic suicide that will immediately offshore our AI innovation to China
Personal answer
This candidate has not responded to our request to answer this question yet. Help us get it faster by telling them to answer the iSideWith quiz.
So, only someone's Chat GPT query to show anything, a generic likely GOP position; while invested up in AI/high tech. Crabgrass found no concrete online Tafoya position on crypto, the tariff war, or the Iran war. She is against boys in girls locker rooms. Talking at length, repeating herself. Short of that, fluff.
$9 billion baseless "fraud" assertions. Tariffs, not her issue. War, not her issue. AI? Not her issue. Back to MinnPost's report -
Tafoya’s financial disclosure report also shows that her husband invested between $5,000 and $50,000 in the U.S. Oil Fund, a mutual fund based on West Texas crude futures that has boomed since the start of the war in Iran and the subsequent disruption of global petroleum shipments.
A pecuniary stake in the Iran war dragging on. But not her issue?
MinnPost ending paragraph on Tafoya wealth -
Tafoya’s report only listed one liability: a 4% interest loan from RiverSource Life Insurance Company valued at between $250,000 and $500,000.
[...]Americans have soured on both GOP, Dems
A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released this week confirmed what many people already knew – Americans don’t like either political party.
In answers to open-ended questions, Americans offered wide-ranging complaints about the Democratic Party. The two most common criticized the party as too liberal in general or on a range of issues (12%) or said Democrats were weak and don’t stand up enough to President Donald Trump (10%).
Other respondents said the Democratic Party was corrupt and favored corporations or was too lax on immigration, among other complaints.
The GOP did not fare any better. Twelve percent of the respondents specifically cited Trump or loyalty to Trump when asked what they dislike most about the Republican Party, though 4% criticized the party for not supporting Trump enough.
Others cited “dishonesty, hypocrisy and immorality,” including a lack of transparency over information about disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, for their dislike of the GOP. Lack of concern for ordinary people and “cruelty” was also at the top of the list.
“The scattered criticisms of both parties in the poll suggests there’s no silver bullet to rebuilding their popularity,” the pollsters concluded.
The poll was conducted online April 24-28 among 1,267 U.S. adults nationwide and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points. The sample was weighed to match population demographics, 2024 turnout/vote choice and political partisanship.
A poll saying voters dislike both parties, is that news, given how both have acted?
BOTTOM LINE: A Machelle Tafoya dilettante candidate whose life's work was as a Sideline Susie. whatever that earned, while the husband ran or still runs a finance business, and the outcome, a multimillionaire family, liking Republicanism and Trump. Loyal to Turmp, who endorsed Tafoya over the candidate who won the local MN Republican convention endorsement. (Tafoya subsequently winning the Republican primary voting.) Does that seemingly effective Trump favoritism mean she owes Trump a rubbsestamp support performance, if elected? She's not said so. She's not said no. Not really. Crabgrass is fearful that rubberstamp will prove real and problematic. That she's basicly a ditz who'd go along to get along, and welcome the paycheck and benefits plan the Senate offers. Lightweight. Speaks cleanly. Good teeth.
A 2022 item suggested latent racism or cluelessness via her denial racism in our country still exists.
There's a feeling of repugnance, seeing Tafoya's recent comments contrasted with the fact that for years she was smiling in the faces of Black coaches and players to mine them for nuggets of information to make sure she looked good in her job, but we'll set that aside for now.
There's also a familiar feeling of disgust, as in some cases she is turning to lies – or at minimum a painfully thin understanding of American history – to prop up her statements. Saying Colin Kaepernick made "business decisions" in protesting the extrajudicial killings of Black citizens by agents of the state, as she told one radio show, is flat out untrue. Kaepernick didn't sit and then kneel with the aim of leaving his job.
The NFL made a business decision by excising him from its league, listening to a loud minority of people, including the former president of the United States, who called Kaepernick and others "sons of bitches" for daring to silently protest and completely ignoring the Black fans and others who understood his message and at minimum supported his method.
(And if we're talking about business decisions, let the record reflect that Kaepernick stood on his principles while he was still playing and had his career taken from him. Tafoya waited until she knew she was leaving NBC before she started spewing her venom, lest she face any backlash.)
"Business decision" wording? For Kapernick? How much to make of that? You decide.
Title:
Tom Emmer is running cover for Don Jr.
In part -
On Wednesday, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer dismissed a proposed Senate investigation of the president’s eldest son.
“Some senators want to waste time creating a new Russia hoax and attacking Don Jr.,” Emmer wrote. “Don Jr. is a private citizen and businessman so this unwarranted attack will go nowhere. This partisan distraction is NOT what the American people voted for!”
The request came from Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah. This week he asked Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and ranking member Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, to investigate “the use of presidential family relationships for private financial benefit.”
Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, both on the committee, said they would support an inquiry, and Durbin joined them in calling for an investigation. Grassley said he needed more facts.
Curtis asked for subpoenas of both Donald Trump Jr. and Hunter Biden. Emmer’s post mentions only Trump Jr., even though he has frequently called for investigations into Hunter Biden.
What prompted it?
On Sept. 14, ProPublica reported that Umar Kremlev, a Russian businessman close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, paid hundreds of thousands of dollars toward Trump Jr.’s May wedding celebrations in the Bahamas, including a private island rental and fireworks. Trump Jr. and his wife, Bettina, confirmed it and called it a gift from a friend. President Trump said his son had paid Kremlev back.
Curtis summed up his case on X: “A toaster is a wedding gift.”
[...] What triggered this coverage was Emmer (as linked, first paragraph of quote) gratuitously made a total fool of himself; showing his real nature. Emmer's tweet:
[UPDATE: Images as posted do not expand on clicking to readable form. An error in posting. After each limage a caption - original link is given, so readers can read. Sorry about that. A minor inconvenience.]
 |
| https://x.com/GOPMajorityWhip/status/2102819200918036919 |
Dumb as a brick? Arguably, but then would an apology be due the brick?
Beyond those existential questions, Sorensen reposted the entire item with a lead-in few paragraphs which included a link here, and stating, "I deeply appreciate this commentary by Chad Maschke, a Blaine resident who runs MN-06 Watch, an independent accountability publication covering U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer," leading to Crabgrass discovery of: https://mn06watch.com/articles/where-they-stand/
The questions were reasonable, and things voters should consider before having a ballot in hand. Emmer's campaign declined to respond, apparently, so Maschke supplied information about Emmer on the questioned issues, it being his summary comment and not Emmer's direct facing of the issues and responding. In effect, fair questions - Emmer ducked. Go figure. Emmer speaks or posts on his own terms, and ducks actual questions -- or that's how Crabgrass sees things.
Maschke details his methology on Emmer positions with Emmer declining the questions, i.e., how he justifies the fairness of constructing the presentation in a separate post: https://mn06watch.substack.com/p/where-they-stand
search =tom emmer commentary don jr. wedding financing
That returned a RawStory: https://www.rawstory.com/tom-emmer-trump-jr-wedding/
and apart from the Emmer spin, about the wedding situation itself: https://www.salon.com/2026/09/17/don-jr-had-a-big-wedding-reporters-started-following-the-money/
Emmer could have left such coverage alone, for others to respond, but appears to have had the urge to lick the Trump hand, which feeds in a measure his reelection chances. He joins others in showing rubberstamp loyalty to the king. Others in the Republican Party. Tafoya for example. Per -
search = tafoya rubberstamp for all trump policies and actions
Readerss might get a range of returned items on that search. One Crabgrass obtained per the search dated days ago -
https://punchbowl.news/article/campaigns/michele-tafoya-supported-jan-6-rioters/
Another, dated January 21, 2026 -
“I Support Trump” Former NFL Employee Runs For US Senate, Republican Ties Exposed Immediately
Like a marriage of "minds," from the outset. Finally, for amusement value FOX shading truth -
DAVID MARCUS: Minnesota GOP candidates keep Trump at arm's length as they eye a post-Trump party future
As the once-long shot Minnesota GOP Senate nominee Michele Tafoya has closed in on Democratic opponent Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, the issue of President Donald Trump — who is not particularly popular in the Gopher State — has taken a unique turn.
For Tafoya, as well as gubernatorial candidate Lisa Demuth and others down ballot for the GOP — not to mention their potential voters — the general attitude toward Trump is that while they support much of what he has done, they also represent what a post-Donald Trump Republican Party could look like.
[...]
The upshot of those two items, trust a waffle, and you'll get a less healthy breakfast than scrambled eggs. Especially it it's loaded up with syrup.
And Wow. Rats can smell a sinking ship? I'd not known that. Trust FOX about the distancing and if deemed helpful, abandonment, but be the FOX skeptic on almost all else. These people doing their distancing act are only acting. They will rubberstamp Trump's shooting war, tariff war, and will duly frown upon Carney and Canada for not caving in and licking the hand they lick.
Or, buy the lie. It's your vote. Mine's already been cast - early voting.
_________________UPDATE_____________
MinnReformer has a parallel item about how Lisa Demuth has a puppet string operator - a never elected but deep inner Republican party operative/lobbyist named Ben Golnik.
The strings are pulled, the puppet dances. This Golnik's idea of pro bono, perhaps, with a cash flow from those who'd influence federal policy, legislation, and other actions. Who'd curry favor, early and often. Offering reliance services at one point, seeking at another.
https://golnikstrategies.com/our-approach/
If you click the image link, you can see how Crabgrass highlights the ending words of the marketing pitch.
" * * * crafting a plan that fits your needs and budget."
It makes you think, is the Demuth budget so hurting that the needs to be pseudo pro bono?
Or is it that it just looks better, any campaign can be endorsed and assisted by any willing volunteer, and this volunteer has others paying the food and utilities. And it is all the American Way?
And of course, there is no admission by Golnik or Demuth about a puppet - puppeteer relationship. It is a circumstantial guess of Crabgrass and others might guess otherwise. (But who'd expect a confession if there are strings attached?) Differentiating between a guru-acolyte relationship, and a puppeteer -puppet one is a guess, from the outside, and do the insiders know for certain?
BOTTOM LINE: Change always raises the question: What is real and lasting and what is for short-term show and convenience today, as a finger to the wind advises best?
The headlining is from here, about Ivanka Trump ostentatious display of what slanted capitalism means to her in several tone-deaf scenarios. Excerpt -
What began as a one-issue outcry has developed into an organized movement as thousands of Albanians demand their government resign over concerns of corruption in the hands of oligarchs.
Ivanka Trump sparked this “Flamingo Revolution” when she bragged, again on her social media, about how she dived off a friend’s boat, swam to what she claimed was the barely known Sazan Island, took a barefoot hike to its peak and decided to “realize its potential.”
“It’s not even a business for me, despite the scale of it,” Ivanka told interviewer David Senra in May. “For me, it feels more like a challenge than anything else… a lot of reflection on how I want to live.”
How she wants to live? How I'd want to live, how I do live, absent wealth, clashes with priviliged ones such as Ivanka and Jarad.
My fault? Know my place? Viewpoints such as these fell the Bastille.
The people of Paris have no bread to eat. * * *