In a normal world he would be in prison for treason. There is no way he wasn’t aware of what was happening when he was being paid 100,000 a week.
I don't understand these guys. They know what they're doing, and they know it's to help a sick and despotic country wreck the United States. If that effort is successful... what do they think their dollars will be worth when the "full faith and credit of the United States of America" no longer means anything?
These motherfuckers can't see further than their nose. It's a common problem with the right wing. Their motto should be "Modern problems require shortsighted solutions."
“Not my problem” until it is, then it’s “who did this to me?”
"Fuck em, I got mine."
I mean the silver lining / horrifying truth is that they aren't able to support their show with the audience they have. The movement to prop them up is losing money on it and is not effective.
It's effective enough that Trump is a coin flip away from being president again
Unfortunately, these shows aren't why it's a coin flip. The tim cast channel has just over 1 million subscribers and the recent episodes struggle to crack 100k on the best days.
The reason the election is a coinflip is cause there's swathes of the US that are barely connected to any form of media except fox news and spend their days in ultra-conservative ultra-religious echo chambers.
Don't get me wrong, the foreign and domestic shadowy investment money is working, just not the portion that was allocated to propping up the tim cast.
Holy christ 100k a week? How was the FBI not on that?
I think they kind of were honestly, the goobers didn't even last two years before getting busted.
It's not treason, they haven't interfered with the government or leaked secrets, that I'm aware of. They spread misinformation, but beyond that nothing illegal
According to U.S. code:
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States and having knowledge of the commission of any treason against them, conceals and does not, as soon as may be, disclose and make known the same to the President or to some judge of the United States, or to the governor or to some judge or justice of a particular State, is guilty of misprision of treason and shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than seven years, or both.
He is taking money from Russia, who is an enemy of United States, and has the intent to undermine the current government and this year’s election. He didn’t report it and benefited financially from it. Sounds like it fits the code well to me.
Taking large amounts of money from foreign nationals to spread misinformation is beyond just being unethical. Getting paid $2,500 an hour is obviously fraudulent.
There are definitely laws that could be twisted to charge them but we really should codify this so there is no question about its legality.
So, as a Majority Report fan... there's a bit here that makes this even more funny and ironic.
Putting this in Spoiler because its a gigantic wall of text
So, sometime last year, Emma (MR's primary cohost) went on Tim's show, actually on location in his compound.
During their exchange, Emma brought up how right wing shows such as Tim's, just generally have a whole lot more funding than similar left wing shows...
... alluding to how most right wing shows tend to have large donations or grants from wealthy right wing businessmen, or their 'foundations', whereas left wing shows tend to get much smaller donations from far more people, which sum up to a whole lot less than what right wing shows get.
(This is all like a year before the Russian funding story broke)
....Tim's response to this is to deny that his show has any large benefactors, begins talking about no, we just have a larger audience and thus better ad deals, and the suggests to Emma that the Majority Report should focus on stories people want to hear that draw a larger audience, and that they should a CTO to manage their finances better.
...
So ok fast forward to now, and it's all but certain that Tim got all this Russian money, assumed it was legit, and normal, despite it being a very large sum of money, for very little extra or specified work...
... and then he massively expanded his operation with this money.
And then he not only lied to Emma's face, in person, but also had the gall to magnanimously critique the financial operations of the Majority Report and pretend to be some kind of helpful, well intentioned business guru.
... And now that Tim's stupendous Russian donor that he lied about not having isn't funding the his operation any more, welp uh it appears to be time to close up shop.
...
So this is on its face just astoundingly, perfectly representative of the total falsity of the 'self made man, bootstrapped my empire from the ground up, I'm just better at business and thus life than you' narrative that basically all wealthy people, and certainly all wealthy conservatives in America promulgate.
...
But it gets even funnier.
You see, in the last, roughly two weeks....Sam Seder, MR's main host was invited to Tim's show, for an in person appearance and discussion with Tim... on November 1st.
If you don't follow online political drama much... basically no conservative talking head will agree to debate or even discuss anything with Sam, because he's been doing this shit for like 20+ years, and basically, in a rather composed manner, he always makes fools out of any conservative he's ever verbally sparred with, or the conservative ends up cancelling or backing out for some reason.
... So... November 1st is a Friday.
And Tim Pool appears to have stated that if the show does continue, well Fridays he won't be there, it'll just be his cohosts and guests.
... As it currently stands, Sam legitimately does not know if he will be appearing on Tim's show to, you know, talk to Tim.
... So....Tim may have also (inadvertantly?) added himself to the list of conservative talking heads that are too afraid to talk to Sam.
You forgot the best part. The Russian deal had just come in within days of Emma being on his show. Likely around a week before.
Wait, it wasn't like a year ago?
... fuck.
I am apparently still brainfucked in the 'how does time pass' department from covid and the just non stop insano-hyper reality that US politics has been since.
Oh well, that does objectively make the story even funnier.
That is fucking glorious, thanks for taking the time to put that beautiful wall of text together.
Excellent recap, love seeing a similarly obsessed Majority Report fan out in the wild. How's it going friend?
we just have a larger audience and thus better ad deals
What is it about being a conservative and lying about the size of your... audience? "I'm just very good at making deals" also has a certain right wing vibe to it.
Unfortunately the only evidence that we have of the Tim Pool show ending is that Tim Pool said it. Does anyone have a more trustworthy source?
From my understanding of what was in the article, the DoJ indictment has Laura Chen, founder of the company that employs him and Dave Rubin, stating that without the funding of their Russian contact, their profitability isn't enough to sustain the show and all the staff.
Hopefully I will never have to hear about Tim Pool and his stupid fucking beanie ever again.
Like what a transparently shallow fuckhead. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with going bald, it happens to a ton of people. If you’re self conscious about it that’s understandable but for the love of fuck all don’t put a beanie on and wear it 100% of the time, even when it’s 99% humidity outside, and pretend like it’s your fucking brand or whatever. Just take that $100k an episode AND GO GET HAIR PLUGS YOU STUPID FUCK LOOK AT MUSKS HAIR WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU TIMMY.
I really, really, really hate Tim Poole.
It’s a MAGA secret, but Tim Pool’s beanie is also his nightly cumsock.
In his surprise announcement, Pool claimed that he needs to focus on his family (which doesn’t yet exist), and it’s all the fault of his shitty staff members who were stealing from him anyway.
Hookay, dude, whatever you say..
I remember him being a seriously big name that was impossible to avoid if you discussed politics a lot on Twitter back when I was still on there. And of course he was obnoxiously wrong about everything.
That he's not only quitting but fallen so far that his name isn't even in the headline?
Tim Pool is a bald traitor. He is unhealthily insecure about his hairless scalp, even denying its existence while in full view. Frankly, he put more effort into hiding the top of his head than he did in hiding his ties to Russia. It’s okay to be bald. It’s not okay to be Tim Pool
He has 30 people on staff? Why? I could do his show, and do it better, with a fifth as many people.
The problem is that the only people willing to work for obvious grifters are other grifters.
Probably script writers, people to keep up with the latest narrative (I refuse to call them researchers), some people to handle the business side to get in money, some people to handle pr and comments and lastly some people to handle the publishing side like takedown requests etc etc.
Half of that sounds like the job of a single PR person. And the rest sounds like 1 or 2 people can write and research.
This of course begs the question of what exactly Tim does on his own fucking podcast. If he’s not writing, researching, securing business deals, or doing anything but reading a script, is it really his show?
Why is he always wearing a meg beanie? Is he balding?
He claims it’s to hide his identity in public… as hilarious as that sounds
Yeah, he’s bald. That might be it, or it might be something else. He gets REALLY upset if you knock off his beanie.
Something tells me that Tim "the problem is everybody else" Pool might have a hard time finding a woman willing to put up with his narcissistic and toxic personality...
No fucking way. His show can’t even sustain itself without hundreds of thousands of dollars from foreign agents? It’s a shitty fucking podcast.
...pursue acquiring that family
That's just such a weird creepy incel way to word that...
Seems to be happening a lot right now. Even on Lemmy.
i haven’t been certain about whether there are foreign influence campaigns active on Lemmy, but their ripples are undeniably visible here. Particularly on the communist instances and the smattering of far right spaces.
That’s code for “I’m fleeing the country and moving to either an underground bunker or a one story home with no windows, so I don’t “accidentally” fall out of one.”
I saw the headline before leaving work and a "Wouldn't it be glorious if it's Tim Pool?" thought popped into my head.
Fuck this bald traitor scum. May the offspring of a thousand fleas find refuge apon his genitals.
Well duh. The money was always the only reason. These trash humans will just move on to some other grift. Its clear they are completely lacking in any morals or ethics.
All these yokels are like badly cooked souffles that eventually deflate into a soggy, somehow-grosser-than-before mess. As gross as Alex Jones was during his run, watching him come apart was even grosser. They're all rotten on the inside and it's like watching overripe fruit splatter when they hit rock bottom.
I really get why some people like gory, bad, cheesy horror movies now.
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