Did Nothing Wrong podcast

The one where we talk about the somewhat anticlimactic indictment of Donald Trump, Adam Nettina's violent threats, and some of the developments in Russia's War Of Choice in Ukraine. Here are some of the sources and references that we used to create this episode:Trump judge and his family receive threats after New York arrestIn the 24 hours since former President Donald Trump’s arraignment, the presiding judge and his family have received multiple threats, two sources familiar with the matter said.One official said “dozens” of threats have recently been directed at Judge Juan Merchanand his chambers but did not give an exact time frame for them.The other source said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and other top officials in his office continue to receive threats. The threats have been in the form of calls, emails and letters.Maryland man threatened to 'slaughter' LGBTQ+ people after Covenant School shooting, DOJ saysAccording to an affidavit, on the morning of March 28, Nettina left a threatening voice mail at the D.C. office of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization in the United States. The call came just one day after six people, including three children, were killed in a shooting at The Covenant School – a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee. Evan Gershkovich Loved Russia, the Country That Turned on Him. Mr. Gershkovich, 31 years old, is the American son of Soviet-born Jewish exiles who had settled in New Jersey. He fell in love with Russia—its language, the people he chatted with for hours in regional capitals, the punk bands he hung out with at Moscow dive bars. Now, espionage charges leave him facing a possible prison sentence of up to 20 years. His employer, colleagues and the Biden administration all deny Russia’s claimthat he was spying on behalf of the U.S., and have called for his immediate release. Diplomats and legal experts see little hope Mr. Gershkovich, a reporter accredited by the Russian foreign ministry, will immediately be freed, given that espionage trials in Russia are conducted in secret and almost always end in a conviction.Finland joins NATO as 31st AllyFinland became NATO’s newest member today (4 April 2023), upon depositing its instrument of accession to the North Atlantic Treaty with the United States at NATO Headquarters in Brussels. NATO Allies signed Finland’s Accession Protocol on 5 July 2022, after which all 30 national parliaments voted to ratify the country’s membership. Speaking ahead of the ceremony, the Secretary General thanked President Niinistö for his outstanding leadership and for leading Finland into the most successful Alliance in history. “I am deeply proud to welcome Finland as a full-fledged member of our Alliance and I look forward to also welcoming Sweden as soon as possible,” he said. “Joining NATO is good for Finland, it is good for Nordic security and it is good for NATO as a whole,” he added. The Secretary General also noted that Finland’s accession shows the world that President Putin failed to “slam NATO’s door shut.” “Instead of less NATO, he has achieved the opposite; more NATO and our door remains firmly open,” he said. Putin has gone crazy' says his defected security officerPutin has 'gone crazy' according to one of highest ranking Russian security service officers who defected in 2022, Marc Bennetts tells Times Radio.‘He’s a war criminal’: Elite Putin security officer defects On Oct. 14, a Russian engineer named Gleb Karakulov boarded a flight from Kazakhstan to Turkey with his wife and daughter. He switched off his phone to shut out the crescendo of urgent, enraged messages, said goodbye to his life in Russia and tried to calm his fast-beating heart.But this was no ordinary Russian defector. Karakulov was an officer in President Vladimir Putin’s secretive elite personal security service — one of the few Russians to flee and go public who have rank, as well as knowledge of intimate details of Putin’s life and potentially classified information.Karakulov, who was responsible for secure communications, said moral opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and his fear of dying there drove him to speak out, despite the risks to himself and his family. He said he hoped to inspire other Russians to speak out also.“Our president has become a war criminal,” he said. “It is time to end this war and stop being silent.”Bill Clinton says he feels 'terrible' for pushing a 1994 agreement with Russia that resulted in Ukraine giving up its nuclear weaponsFormer US President Bill Clinton said that he regrets pressuring Ukraine to give up its nuclear warheads in a high-stakes negotiation in 1994. In an interview with Irish news service RTÉ released on Tuesday,Clinton said that he felt a "personal stake" in Ukraine's fragile territorial integrity. He said he believed that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine in 2014, and in 2022, had the weapons still been in the country — a position that a Soviet historian echoed to Insider."I feel a personal stake because I got them [Ukraine] to agree to give up their nuclear weapons," Clinton said. "And none of them believe that Russia would have pulled this stunt if Ukraine still had their weapons."This is our current events recap program, where we offer our takes on what’s going on at the bleeding edge of the information war. Feel free to let us know what you think, suggest topics, etc. at didnothingwrongpod@protonmail.com, or in our group chat using the Substack app.Thanks for listening,Jay and Griff This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.didnothingwrongpod.com/subscribe

The one where we talk about the horrifying massacre in Nashville, the MAGA ghouls exploiting it, and what we could do going forward to prevent more of these tragedies from occurring. Here are some of the sources and articles we used to assemble this episode:‘Our heart is broken,’ Nashville mayor says as city comes together to grieve 6 killed in school shooting Eric LevensonAs the community grieves, police continue to work to answer the yet unanswerable: Why did 28-year-old Audrey Hale decide to storm into a private Christian school and murder three children and three adults?A Brief History of Guns in the U.S. How to explain Americans’ astonishing personal arsenal? Start with politics, fear, and marketing.“In almost any aspect of public health, culture and policy are reinforcing and reflecting each other,” says Daniel Webster, ScD ’91, MPH, director of the Center for Gun Violence Prevention and Policy. “You gradually see carrying a gun around as normative.” Forty years ago, if someone brought a gun to a party, Webster says, “you would have been shocked. It would have been incredibly abnormal.” Now, gun ownership is a lifestyle choice, one rooted in the individualism “baked into our culture and our laws.”How many US mass shootings have there been in 2023?The US ratio of 120.5 firearms per 100 residents, up from 88 per 100 in 2011, far surpasses that of other countries around the world.While calculating the number of guns in private hands around the world is difficult, the latest figures from the Small Arms Survey - a Swiss-based research project - estimated that there were 390 million guns in circulation in the US in 2018.Violence Against Trans and Non-Binary PeopleAccording to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey:* Nearly half (46%) of respondents were verbally harassed in the past year because of being transgender.* Nearly one in ten (9%) respondents were physically attacked in the past year because of being transgender.* Nearly half (47%) of respondents were sexually assaulted at some point in their lifetime and one in ten (10%) were sexually assaulted in the past year. In communities of color, these numbers are higher: 53% of Black respondents were sexually assaulted in their lifetime and 13% were sexually assaulted in the last year.* 72% of respondents who have done sex work, 65% of respondents who have experienced homelessness, and 61% of respondents with disabilities reported being sexually assaulted in their lifetime.* More than half (54%) experienced some form of intimate partner violence, including acts involving coercive control and physical harm.This is our current events recap program, where we offer our takes on what’s going on at the bleeding edge of the information war. Feel free to let us know what you think, suggest topics, etc. at didnothingwrongpod@protonmail.com, or in our group chat using the Substack app.Thanks for listening,Jay and Griff This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.didnothingwrongpod.com/subscribe

The one where we talk about Donald Trump's curious choice of location for a campaign rally, and whether the fact that it's the 30th anniversary of the Waco standoff means anything to him.Here are some of the sources and articles we used to create this episode:Trump holding his next rally in Waco, Texas, sends a message to the far right, experts sayWaco became synonymous with the worst failings of the federal government and has been used to push anti-government conspiracy theories for years. Though the Waco compound was home to a specific sect of religious extremists, elements of the tragedy resonate in today's times: gun ownership vs. gun regulation, rural independence vs. Washington bureaucracy.   And some experts say that's likely exactly why the city was chosen for a Trump rally."Waco is hugely symbolic on the far right," said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. "There's not really another place in the U.S. that you could pick that would tap into these deep veins of anti-government hatred – Christian nationalist skepticism of the government – and I find it hard to believe that Trump doesn't know that Waco represents all of these things."Timothy McVeigh at WacoDuring the stand-off between federal agents and the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas in 1993, people gathered on a hill roughly three miles away to see what was happening at the compound. One of those drawn to Waco was a 24-year-old Army veteran named Timothy McVeigh.Far Right Reading List Shows Link Between Its Literature and Real-World ViolenceThe list also included more overt resistance narratives. It initially featured The Turner Diaries by William Luther Pierce (it has since been removed with no explanation given). The Turner Diaries is a novel about a clandestine movement of white men who use racialized terrorism and nuclear warfare to “take back” the United States from Jewish “usurpers” and what Pierce portrays as the mindless, sex-crazed Black and Latino men who act as their enforcers. Pierce was the leader of the militant white supremacist organization National Alliance and his novel inspired neo-Nazi terror group The Order, which was responsible for murdering talk radio host Alan Berg in 1984. Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh evangelized the book, traveling to gun shows to sell it (and its sequel, Hunter) to like-minded people; his bombing attack on the Murrah Building closely resembled a similar act described in detail in Pierce’s text. Investigators found portions of it in his getaway car. Germany’s National Socialist Underground (NSU), which murdered 10 people and injured others in a years-long terror campaign against a mostly Turkish immigrant population, also took inspiration from The Turner Diaries: NSU member Uwe Mundlos translated several chapters of the book into German and a digital copy was found on a hard drive in an apartment Mundlos and his two primary accomplices had rented while undergroundGunman in FBI attack was Navy veteran who once handled classified infoMeanwhile, authorities are continuing to investigate a potential motive for the shooting in addition to Shiffer’s possible ties to extremist groups, a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation said. Shiffer’s name is used on several social media platforms by an individual who spoke about being at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and urging a “call to arms” after the FBI executed a search warrant at former president Donald Trump’s Florida estate on Monday.On Truth Social, a site started by Trump, an account with Shiffer’s name published a post after the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago telling others to “get whatever you need to be ready for combat.” On Thursday at 9:30 a.m., he wrote another post that seemed to indicate he was writing after attempting to enter the FBI building.“Well, I thought I had a way through bullet proof glass, and I didn’t,” he wrote. “If you don’t hear from me, it is true I tried attacking the F.B.I., and it’ll mean either I was taken off the internet, the F.B.I. got me, or they sent the regular cops.”This is our current events recap program, where we offer our takes on what’s going on at the bleeding edge of the information war. Feel free to let us know what you think, suggest topics, etc. at didnothingwrongpod@protonmail.com, or in our group chat using the Substack app.Thanks for listening,Jay and Griff This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.didnothingwrongpod.com/subscribe

The one where we discuss Xi's visit to Russia and what that means to the future of their alliance , notorious troll "Microchip"s testimony in the Mackey trial, and Donald Trump's latest media stunt.Here are some of the sources we used to create this episode:No path to peace: Five key takeaways from Xi and Putin’s talks in MoscowExperts say that China and Russia’s inclination to build their alignment against the US – and a world order more suited to their own more autocratic agendas – was driving the meeting, not interest in resolving the conflict in Ukraine.As Xi left the Kremlin following a state dinner on Tuesday evening with Putin, his parting message reiterated his view that global power dynamics are shifting. “Together, we should push forward these changes that have not happened for 100 years. Take care,” he said during a goodbye handshake with Putin, alluding to what Xi sees as an era where the West is fading and China is ascendant.Online Troll Named Microchip Tells of Sowing ‘Chaos’ in 2016 Election““I wanted to infect everything,” Microchip said, adding that his aim before the 2016 election had been “to cause as much chaos as possible” and diminish Mrs. Clinton’s chances of beating Donald J. Trump.”SPLC article on MicrochipPosobiec has an apparent personal connection to Microchip that goes beyond interviewing him on OANN. Posobiec referred to what he claimed was the creator of QAnon as his friend in a tweet he published on March 8, 2019. He made the claim six months after he produced the segment reporting that Microchip created QAnon with another person. Posobiec and Microchip both promoted fake antifa Twitter accounts as part of a disinformation campaign intended to discredit the leftist protest movement, Buzzfeed reported in March 2017.“Well seeing as QAnon was started by two guys that are friends of mine, wouldn't that make sense?” he wrote in response to a comment that he “speaks the same language” as QAnon.Hatewatch reached out to Microchip over the gaming app Discord to ask him about that statement. He described Posobiec as his “buddy just through the internet” and said the OANN correspondent “doesn’t know who [he is],” regarding his true identity.White House ‘antifa’ petition written by pro-Trump troll“Microchip is an online provocateur who is routinely kicked off Twitter and claims to direct legions of automated bot accounts. He said getting conservatives to share and discuss the petition is the entire point, and not to prompt concrete action by the government.He called the petition “a waste of time” but a useful distraction from recent infighting among conservative factions.He created the petition on Aug. 17, the day after Trump made controversial remarks in which he blamed “both sides” after white nationalist rallies in Charlottesville.Microchip told POLITICO he wrote it with the explicit intent of stoking conservative rage and forcing the GOP establishment to take a stand or risk becoming targets themselves.“It was to bring our broken right side together” after Charlottesville, he said, “and prop up antifa as a punching bag.”“So the narrative changed from ‘I hate myself because we have neo-Nazis on our side’ to ‘I really hate antifa, let’s get along and tackle the terrorists,’” he explained.”Trump posts disturbing baseball bat photo with Alvin Bragg, threatens ‘death and destruction’Trump first said last week that he expected to be arrested on Tuesday, which came and went without any word of charges. Instead, the grand jury was postponed on both Wednesday and Thursday.Manhattan prosecutors have been presenting evidence to the grand jury since late January in connection with the $130,000 hush money payment made to porn star Daniels shortly before Trump’s shocking victory over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, alleges she had an affair with Trump in 2006, which Trump has denied.Former Trump lawyer and ex-con Michael Cohen alleges he made the payment at Trump’s direction.Trump paid off Stormy Daniels to subvert democracy Despite what Republicans would have you believe, it matters.Aaron Rupar’s great Substack article about the caseThis is our current events recap program, where we offer our takes on what’s going on at the bleeding edge of the information war. Feel free to let us know what you think, suggest topics, etc. at didnothingwrongpod@protonmail.com, or in our group chat using the Substack app.Thanks for listening,Jay and Griff This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.didnothingwrongpod.com/subscribe

The one where we talk about what's at stake in the Douglass Mackey/Ricky Vaughn election interference trial, as well as the ramifications of a potential ban on TikTok in the United States.Here are some of the sources we used to create this episode:Douglass Mackey's indictment“There is no place in public discourse for lies and misinformation to defraud citizens of their right to vote,” said Seth D. DuCharme, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “With Mackey’s arrest, we serve notice that those who would subvert the democratic process in this manner cannot rely on the cloak of Internet anonymity to evade responsibility for their crimes. They will be investigated, caught and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”“Protecting every American citizen’s right to cast a legitimate vote is a key to the success of our republic,” said William F. Sweeney Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office. “What Mackey allegedly did to interfere with this process – by soliciting voters to cast their ballots via text – amounted to nothing short of vote theft. It is illegal behavior and contributes to the erosion of the public’s trust in our electoral processes. He may have been a powerful social media influencer at the time, but a quick Internet search of his name today will reveal an entirely different story.”The complaint alleges that in 2016, Mackey established an audience on Twitter with approximately 58,000 followers. A February 2016 analysis by the MIT Media Lab ranked Mackey as the 107th most important influencer of the then-upcoming Election, ranking his account above outlets and individuals such as NBC News (#114), Stephen Colbert (#119) and Newt Gingrich (#141).Luke O'Brien's story revealing "Ricky Vaughn's" identity as Douglass Mackey“During Gamergate, a 2014 online harassment campaign waged by misogynists and racists online against women and minorities in the video game industry, Ricky Vaughn linked up with Yiannopoulos and Cernovich, who were ringleaders in the harassment and would both go on to even greater notoriety with their attempts to contaminate American political discourse with conspiracy theories.“I owe a lot to them,” Ricky Vaughn said on a recent podcast.By the beginning of 2016, he was clearly an open “alt-right” white nationalist. He talked about how “the good people are siding with nationalism and the Shabbos goyim shills and the neocohens are siding with the globalists.” He talked about how he wanted to “introduce ideas of racial consciousness into the mix so that patriotic American conservatives don’t feel bad about creating all-White communities and shunning mixed-marriages and that sort of thing, because we need racial separatism in order to maintain our unique culture and racial heritage.”Michael Edison Hayden on the Douglass Mackey trial - SPLCMackey’s Ricky Vaughn persona seemed to disappear from the web until the DOJ produced these charges in January 2021. After the DOJ charged Mackey, he emerged as a cause célèbre among anti-democracy, radical-right figures, who have depicted him as a victim of state oppression. Daily Stormer and other racist websites raised money for his defense. Fox News’ Tucker Carlson inaccurately described Mackey as a “conservative journalist” on his show in January 2021. Following Carlson’s segment, an anonymous person dropped $60,000 to Mackey in Bitcoin, buoying his defense, as Hatewatch previously reported."Microchip" interviewed by Jack PosobiecJack Posobiec, a correspondent for One America News Network (OANN), brought a pseudonymous disinformation poster onto the air without providing context of that person’s hateful and terroristic beliefs, Hatewatch found.Posobiec produced a segment for OANN in September 2018 in which he interviewed “Microchip,” who was at that time a pseudonymous contributor to the white-supremacist-friendly website Gab. Microchip achieved notoriety during Trump’s 2016 run for president for his involvement in a number of high-profile disinformation campaigns. Posobiec also linked his Twitter followers to Microchip’s Gab feed at least five times after the interview was aired, archives show. Microchip posted statements to Gab prior to being interviewed on OANN that celebrated Hitler, and alluded to terrorism and murder.Wall Street Journal - TikTok tracking pixels present in government websitesA review of the websites of more than 3,500 companies, organizations and government entities by the Toronto-based company Feroot Security found that so-called tracking pixels from the TikTok parent company were present in 30 U.S. state-government websites across 27 states, including some where the app has been banned from state networks and devices. Feroot collected the data in January and February of this year.The presence of that code means that U.S. state governments around the country are inadvertently participating in a data-collection effort for a foreign-owned company, one that senior Biden administration officials and lawmakers of both parties have said could be harmful to U.S. national security and the privacy of Americans.China's version of TikTok -Deseret NewsAlthough they’re both owned by ByteDance, Douyin — China’s version of TikTok — offers a different version of the social media app that is unavailable to the rest of the world, especially for children. “It’s almost like they recognize that technology is influencing kids’ development, and they make their domestic version a spinach version of TikTok, while they ship the opium version to the rest of the world,” Tristan Harris, a former Google employee, and advocate for social media ethics, said of China’s approach to TikTok. “If you’re under 14 years old, they show you science experiments you can do at home, museum exhibits, patriotism videos and educational videos,” said Harris, according to “60 Minutes,” adding that children in China were limited to only 40 minutes a day on the app.“There’s a survey of pre-teens in the U.S. and China asking, ‘what is the most aspirational career that you want to have?’ and in the U.S., the No. 1 was a social media influencer, and in China, the No. 1 was astronaut,” Harris said. “You allow those two societies to play out for a few generations and I can tell you what your world is going to look like.” "National Rape Day" hoax goes viral for the second time - Media MattersIn April 2021, a hoax called “National Rape Day” went viral on TikTok. Videos garnered millions of views claiming that on April 24, 2021, large groups of men planned to sexually assault women en masse. Now, the same hoax is reemerging on the very same social media platform, which seems unable or unwilling to curtail the spread of viral misinformation.While the “National Rape Day” hoax had been previously floating around the collective consciousness as an urban legend, it found new levels of virality through TikTok’s recommendation algorithm in 2021. The earliest mention of “National Rape Day” on social media that Media Matters could identify was a tweet from April 11, 2021, that read, “Please if you are in the uk, be safe, the boys have made a ‘national rape’ day and that’s tomorrow.” A screenshot of the tweet was circulating on 4chan’s /pol message board the next day.It seems that shortly after this tweet, the hoax started to spread on TikTok, where it went viral. At the time, a Media Matters study found that 48 of the top 50 TikTok videos under the “#April24” hashtag contained misinformation and none of the videos provided a debunk or any factual information. The hoax gained further legitimacy through poor media coverage, which amplified the panic, as well as participation in the trend from some members of law enforcement on TikTok.TikTok's algorithm leads users from transphobic videos to far-right rabbit holes - Media MattersSeveral of the videos fed to our FYP featured audio called “Teddy” which says, “The industrial revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race,” a quote taken from the first line of “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski’s manifesto, “Industrial Society and Its Future.” Kaczynski killed three people and injured 23 others in 1978 with homemade bombs. The audio, which already has been used in over 1,200 unique videos, has become popular on right-wing TikTok and particularly in anti-LGBTQ content, based on the frequency with which it emerged during our study. In the videos we reviewed, it was frequently paired with montages of screenshots of LGBTQ people livestreaming on TikTok. These videos not only use an audio that pays homage to a terrorist, but they also promote the harassment of LGBTQ TikTok users. This is our current events recap program, where we offer our takes on what’s going on at the bleeding edge of the information war. Feel free to let us know what you think, suggest topics, etc. at didnothingwrongpod@protonmail.com, or in our group chat using the Substack app.Thanks for listening,Jay and Griff This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.didnothingwrongpod.com/subscribe

The one where we team up with Jared Holt from Posting Through It to have a conversation with Mike Rothschild about certain "researchers" who are long on speculation and vitriol but short on facts.Here are some of the sources we used to create this episode:Mike Rothschild’s WebsiteMike Rothschild is a journalist, researcher, expert witness, subject matter expert, speaker, and debunker of conspiracy theories and fringe beliefs.Over the last decade, Mike has written extensively about politics, history, pop culture, and weird stories your aunt shares on Facebook without actually reading. In particular, Mike is an expert on the QAnon conspiracy theory, tracing its evolution from a few 4chan posts to a massive, worldwide movement that draws on centuries of conspiracy theories and scams to induct its believers into a violent mythology.Mike is the author of “The Storm is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything,” published in June 2021, with a paperback version coming in August, 2022.  His next book, to be published in 2023, is “Jewish Space Lasers,” on the Rothschild banking family and the two centuries of conspiracy theories about them. His first print book, “The World’s Worst Conspiracies” was published in January 2020 by Arcturus Publishing, London.In addition to his work as an author, Mike has served as an expert witness in several legal cases related to conspiracy theories, has guest lectured at numerous college classes and academic panels, and submitted written testimony to the January 6th Committee.His work in debunking conspiracies has been cited in articles or interviews by the New York Times, Snopes, NBC News, Vice, Daily Beast, CNN and many others. He’s also appeared on high profile podcasts like Maintenance Phase, the Duncan Trussell Family Hour, Armchaired and Dangerous, Knowledge Fight, Reply All, and numerous others. Mike is also a published playwright, podcaster, and working on several TV projects. For more information, contact Mike – rothschildmd@protonmail.compMike Rothschild on TwitterPublisher’s Weekly review of “The Storm is Upon Us”“Rothschild also offers useful advice on how to help loved ones get out of QAnon. This is a disturbing and well-informed look at the darker side of modern American politics.“Written Testimony of Mike Rothschild, Journalist and Author Before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on House Administration Election Security Subcommittee“Human brains are hardwired to seek patterns in random chance, and order in chaos. We want explanations for why things are the way they are, why bad things happen to us, who’s responsible, and what we can do about them. By nature, this means we are susceptible to being given incorrect or intentionally misleading answers – particularly if the questions we’re asking don’t have a satisfying answer. And sometimes, if we don’t like the answer, we decide it’s not true – giving rise to conspiracy theories. Over the past few years, these incorrect or misleading answers have been branded with the term “disinformation.”Conspiracy theories and disinformation, therefore, are not an invention of the internet age, didn’t emerge from a Russian trolling lab, and aren’t restricted to Americans of any political persuasion. Disinformation has been used by governments, rulers, and corporations for centuries to mislead people, cover up misdeeds, or in times of war to throw enemies off the track. And everyone is vulnerable to the right piece of false information or wishful thinking, if it hits them at the right time in the right way.”Posting Through ItPosting Through It" is Jared Holt’s weekly podcast and newsletter about our modern political disorder. You should go sign up for it because it’s awesome!Vice News: The Organization Trying to Save QAnon Believers Is Falling Apart“Stewartson readily admits he’s not a journalist and his only real investigative skill is “googling shit.”“I’m not a spy or a journalist,” Stewartson wrote. “All I can do is google shit, talk to people and write about it —which I have done.”This is our current events recap program, where we offer our takes on what’s going on at the bleeding edge of the information war. Feel free to let us know what you think, suggest topics, etc. at didnothingwrongpod@protonmail.com, or in our group chat using the Substack app.Thanks for listening,Jay and Griff This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.didnothingwrongpod.com/subscribe

The one where we talk with "Proud Boys Whisperer" Samantha Kutner about the dynamics of radicalization, the vanguard role of the Proud Boys group, and how to tell when a "Former" is really a "Former".Here are some of the sources we reference in this episode:Proud Boys WhispererThis is Samantha’s website, with links to some of her work, as well as a selection of her other interviews.GlitterpillGlitterpill provides actionable data, analysis, and consulting services to companies grappling with the challenge of violent extremism and terrorism.Kutner. “Swiping Right: The Allure of Hyper Masculinity and Cryptofascism for Men Who Join the Proud Boys”International Centre for Counter-Terrorism-The Hague, 2020. Kutner. “Take the Redpill: Understanding the Allure of Conspiratorial Thinking among Proud Boys.” Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, 2020.Samantha’s appearance on The Loopcast, which is another really interesting podcast that covers extremists and extremism, often from a deep historical perspective. Check them out.The Khalifa Ihler Institute's Statement to The January 6th Select Committee In February, the January 6th Select Committee requested that The Khalifa Ihler Institute, represented by Bjørn Ihler, Samantha Kutner, and C.L. Murray, provide a written statement for the congressional record on the Proud Boys’ role and involvement in the attack on the US Capitol.The Khalifa Ihler Institute is honored to share our findings with the January 6th Select Committee and the public.This is our current events recap program, where we offer our takes on what’s going on at the bleeding edge of the information war. Feel free to let us know what you think, suggest topics, etc. at didnothingwrongpod@protonmail.com, or in our group chat using the Substack app.Thanks for listening,Jay and Griff This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.didnothingwrongpod.com/subscribe

The one where we talk about Nayib Bukele, an indictment from the EDNY, the curious crackdown on some gang members in El Salvador, and MAGA's fawning approval of these measures.Here are some of the sources we used while assembling this episode:Guardian on Bukele's decision to move 2000 suspected gang members to the new "Megaprison"Damian Merlo's Foreign Agent Registration(FARA) for his work on behalf of El SalvadorEDNY Indictment for the MS-13 gang leadersEl Faro on the EDNY indictmentEl Faro on the aftermath of the crackdown“He says that, for some time now, the gangs’ street "soldiers" believe that their leaders "sold them out.""It’s true. These structures have no management. The ranflas [leaders] claimed to be looking out for their soldiers’ wellbeing. Not anymore. We came to the conclusion that it wasn’t the case." He thinks that the concentration of power in the hands of the historic leaders of the organizations had backfired on them."The ranflas [in prison] didn’t want to appoint substitutes [in the streets]. I don’t know why. Maybe because they didn’t want to leave to someone else what was theirs. So they didn’t do it. These locos negotiated for their own benefit. What did they negotiate? I don’t know," he said.”El Faro on the pact between Bukele and the gangs The Guardian on the beginnings of ISISThis is our current events recap program, where we offer our takes on what’s going on at the bleeding edge of the information war. Feel free to let us know what you think, suggest topics, etc. at didnothingwrongpod@protonmail.com, or in our group chat using the Substack app.Thanks for listening,Jay and Griff This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.didnothingwrongpod.com/subscribe

The one where Amanda Moore joins us again to discuss her experiences at CPAC, Rage Against The War Machine, and why people keep platforming guys like Chuck Johnson and Richard Spencer.Here are some of the sources we used, as well as more information on some of the subjects we discussed:Amanda's piece on Rage Against The War Machine and the collection of odds and sods that attended.“The Rage Against the War Machine rally had all of those problems. And while the organizers feebly attempted to portray the rally as pro-peace, the speaker line up included Miss Russia’s boyfriend, a journalist for Sputnik (a Russian state owned media agency), a former UN weapons inspector turned convicted pedophile, and a current lieutenant colonel in the US Army.”Amanda on CPAC, Shabbat, and Groypers“After Fuentes’ event was over Saturday evening, a Groyper approached me in the Gaylord hotel. He asked me why I left the rally early, and I held up my press badge. “No journalists, no drag queens. Per Nick himself.”He informed me someone told the fire marshal they were over capacity, and that 20 people were forced to leave. He shot me an accusatory look, and I shrugged. “It wasn’t me. It wasn’t any of the journalists. We were all together the whole time.”“Well,” he said as he started to walk away. “If it wasn’t the journalists, it must have been the Jews.”GOP congressional candidate Joe Kent’s ties to white nationalists include interview with Nazi sympathizer“On a since-suspended Twitter account and active channel on Telegram called “Pure Politics,” Greyson, or “American Greyson” as he calls himself, has shared posts that called Nazi men the “pure race” and that the US should have sided with the Nazis during World War Two. Arnold has falsely claimed there were “Jewish plans to genocide the German people,” and in a post, he shared a quote that said the “Jewish led colored hordes of the Earth” were attempting to exterminate White people. “Rosendale calls neo-Nazi photo op a mistake“U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale said he unwittingly posed for a photo with high profile members of the neo-Nazi movement last week walking between congressional hearings.The photo taken March 1 in front of the Capitol shows Rosendale, a two-term lawmaker, posing with Ryan Sanchez, formerly of the white supremacist street-fighting gang RAM, or Rise Above Movement, and Greyson Arnold, a Nazi sympathizer and podcaster present at the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Arnold has called Adolf Hitler a "misunderstood" and “complicated historical figure."“This is our current events recap program, where we offer our takes on what’s going on at the bleeding edge of the information war. Feel free to let us know what you think, suggest topics, etc. at didnothingwrongpod@protonmail.com, or in our group chat using the Substack app.Thanks for listening,Jay and Griff This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.didnothingwrongpod.com/subscribe

The one where we talk with Journalist and Author David Neiwert about his 35 years of covering the Radical Right, Eliminationist rhetoric, and how the old playbook hasn't changed much.Here are some of the sources we used, as well as more information on some of the subjects we discussed:Richard Mack - Constitutional SheriffsChris Rufo on Curtis "Mencius Moldbug" YarvinThe Stranger, Seattle's Hometown Newspaper, on Chris Rufo's withdrawal from the City Council raceBill Morlin -- How journalists should cover hate and hate groupsA&E Forensic Files episode on the Phineas Priesthood with Bill MorlinDead Kennedys - Nazi Punks Fuck OffDavid Neiwert on Louis Beam“This was explicitly laid out by one of these leaders, a man named Louis Beam, who was a top lieutenant in the Aryan Nations organization in northern Idaho. Writing in his magazine The Seditionist, in an essay titled, “Leaderless Resistance,” he advocated the formation of independent cells of militias that could spring into action when needed. And he encouraged “lone wolf” attacks by violent believers – attacks that would undermine public confidence in the ability of a democratic society to keep them safe and secure.”"Lone Wolves Connected Online" - New York Times article on Louis BeamThe Kehoe Brothers "Of Orcas and Men", David's "whale book"“In Of Orcas and Men, a marvelously compelling mix of cultural history, environmental reporting, and scientific research, David Neiwert explores how this extraordinary species has come to capture our imaginations--and the catastrophic environmental consequences of that appeal. In the tradition of Barry Lopez's classic Of Wolves and Men, David Neiwert's book is a powerful tribute to one of the animal kingdom's most remarkable members.”This is our current events recap program, where we offer our takes on what’s going on at the bleeding edge of the information war. Feel free to let us know what you think, suggest topics, etc. at didnothingwrongpod@protonmail.com, or in our group chat using the Substack app.Thanks for listening,Jay and Griff This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.didnothingwrongpod.com/subscribe