Dark Political Money & Billionaire Investment Firm Driving the Joe Rogan Controversy, Texas Sues Instagram "Diet Coach," AOC Campaigns Against...Other Dems in Upcoming Election (The Five for 02/08/22)
Hey, welcome to The Five.
This is a dense one…so let’s dive in.
This first story is some of the heaviest reporting I’ve ever done for The Five, and may take clicking through to multiple links to really “understand.”
If you have the time, I hope you do…very few outlets are currently reporting on such a vital story.
[one]
A well funded left-of-center SuperPac is confirmed to be behind the viral Joe Rogan “n-word” video, clipped together from thousands of hours of archival footage from roughly 5,000 hours of footage (there are currently 1,771 episodes of the Joe Rogan podcast, averaging three hours each).
Rogan apologized, saying the use of the word was quoting song lyrics and other comedians bits…which isn’t 100% accurate, as there is at least a bit of footage of Joe using the n-word for comedic effect.
There’s also ample video of other white celebs doing the same thing, including Howard Stern (and also Howard Stern in blackface), popular leftist YouTube Show The Young Turks, comedian Bill Maher. Although the Rogan/Whoopie controversy has already been beaten to death in on social media in the last week, it’s also worth noting that the use of an offensive word…may be less offensive than minimizing the deaths of 12 million people on Concentration Camps.
For all the hulabaloo around Rogan being a biggest story in the U.S. right now, there’s been precious little attention to where this video came from. Who has time to sift through 5,000 hours of video to dating back to December 2009, to piece together about 2 minutes of someone saying an offensive word?
Thanks to the Twitter account Wokal Distance, we now have that answer. The Rogan n-word video was put out by Patriot Takes, an account that lists in it’s bio is funded by MeidasTouch.
MeidasTouch is a left-of-center Super Pac, which does not have to disclose it’s donors.
MeidasTouch was profiled in Variety in 2020 for the group’s anti-Trump video clips:
That clip and more than a hundred like it — along with a series of outdoor billboards, a radio show and a podcast — are the work of MeidasTouch, a political action committee formed earlier this year by brothers Ben, Brett and Jordan Meiselas, who have deep connections to the entertainment industry.
Their father is top music attorney Kenny Meiselas, who reps Sean “Diddy” Combs, Lady Gaga, the Weeknd, Lizzo and others. Ben, 35, is a litigator and civil rights attorney who represents exiled NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick and led a class-action suit over the disastrous 2017 Fyre Festival; Brett, 30, is a video editor and former head of post-production and social media for “Ellen”; and Jordan, 27, is an executive at Steve Stoute’s branding and marketing firm Translation.
In other words…it would take a small army of content editors to create that clip, expert editing skills, and a pile of cash. And the Meislas brothers have all three.
This was certainly a hit piece from big money Democrats. This is notable, because the target is not a Rush Limbaugh Republican, but a self-proclaimed pot smoking hippie who publicly supported Bernie Sanders in 2016, and has never publicly spoken about voting for a Republican. More than once on his show, Rogan has called himself “very liberal, except for The Second Amendment.”
PatriotTakes (and Meidas Touch) are clearly not interested in Rogan apologizing or behaving differently, but instead want him off Spotify’s platform…as the Super PAC continues to release video clips they deem “controversial.”
With apologies for the rather crass anatomy reference above…there’s not a lot of controversy here. I can see the Chinese reference as being negative/a stereotype, but according to NPR, it’s also true, with “99 percent of consumer fireworks” coming from China.
The rest of those…are positive attributes. Which makes it seem like Meidas Touch is running very thin on hit pieces.
The “Joe Rogan vs. Big Money” goes even deeper with the Neil Young controversy.
Young, who kicked all this off by demanding Spotify choose between him and Rogan, recently sold his catalog to Hipgnosis, a $1 billion company that announced a partnership with investment giant Blackstone.
Blackstone, in turn is invested in Phizer, and is therefore profiting from the COVID vaccine, which two of Rogan’s guests have questioned. Blackstone is also in a business partnership with Amazon.
Now that Neil Young is off Spotify, Amazon is running a promotion to get Neil Young fans to join their struggling music streaming platform.
So, Blackstone Group makes money from:
Neil Young’s catalog
Amazon
COVID Vaccines
Call that a “conspiracy theory” if you like…but the above links are all to very mainstream news outlets.
Whatever your opinion is about Joe Rogan, the fact that this controversy is being driven by dark political contributions (MeidasTouch Super Pac) and an Investment Firm with very questionable ethics.
Blackstone is buying up residential real estate across the U.S., pushing housing prices too high for some middle class families to buy, and is involved in serious rainforest destruction.
Which seem like much more serious issues than a comedian saying a word he shouldn’t have said.
But this is America, where you might be able to go from an impoverished childhood to the biggest media figure in the world just by talking to your people on internet video (as Rogan did).
However, in this land of opportunity, you can apparently just as easily fall…if the shadow billionaires set their sites on you.
Again, that sounds like something Alex Jones would say…but the links are all above. There is no “theory” here…all business ties are linked directly from this story.
Note: making a special appeal here to share this post with your friends and network. This content is not paywalled, so anyone can read it if you send them a link.
[two]
A journalist at one of the country’s top papers has accused Joe Rogan of killing her friend—even though there’s no evidence the friend ever listened to the popular podcaster.
From The Washington Post:
What I didn’t hear from Rogan was any remorse that he might have done harm when he held forth about his own bogus belief that healthy young people don’t need to get vaccinated, or when he failed to challenge a guest who promised that the drug ivermectin would extinguish the virus altogether or when he allowed another guest to spout theories about how Americans are essentially being hypnotized about covid by the media, and comparing the situation to Nazi Germany.
He didn’t address the 270 medical professionals whose powerful open letter warned, about one of Rogan’s episodes, that “mass-misinformation events of this scale have extraordinarily dangerous ramifications.”
Let’s pause right there and consider the publication here—this is the Washington Post. The alleged “paper of record.”
Sullivan just cited an “open letter” signed by “270 medical professionals” (originally billed as (“270 doctors”), including notable signees:
Dr. Chrsitine Garvey, a Vetinary in western New York
Dr. Colleen Trecartin-Frost, a Dentist in New Jersey
Korinne Bricker, a “COVID-19 Lab Supervisor”
Autumn Shuster, a Social Worker at the University of California Irvine
All told, only 87 MD’s signed the letter, with teachers, engineers, psychologists and others filling out the 270 names.
Right off the bat, this piece is misinformation—it’s re-printing erroneous reporting the Washington Post previously did.
And then, Sullivan shares how Joe Rogan killed her friend…even if he never listened to Joe Rogan.
I don’t know for sure whether getting vaccination and booster shots would have saved Miggy’s life. And I have no idea whether he had ever listened to Joe Rogan’s podcast, or what his precise reasons were for not being vaccinated.
But I have talked to many of his co-workers and friends over the past week, briefly to his mother, and, at some length, to his father. What I’ve gleaned is that friends had been pushing him to get vaccinated for months but that he and his family hadn’t been convinced that it was wise or necessary.
“We were skeptical about the vaccine because it was so new,” his father, John Davidson, told me. Now, given all that has happened and particularly because of his son’s preexisting conditions, he believes that was wrong. Miguel had been thinking seriously about getting an initial shot when he got sick in late December, his father said.
At the center of the Joe Rogan debate is the question as to whether or not jealousy at the podcaster’s mammoth ratings are driving much of the negative attention from the mainstream press.
This is one of the worst things I’ve ever seen run in print, with errors so blatant they would have produced a failing grade on a high school paper.
To re-state the premise—Joe Rogan has not been vaccinated.
The friend was not vaccinated, had multiple co-morbidities, and died of COVID.
Therefore, Sullivan believes Joe Rogan, not the disease, killed her friend…even though we don’t think Miguel listened to Rogan, and his family appears to be the primary influence in him not getting vaccinated.
Think what you want about Rogan. And Spotify. And vaccines.
But don’t point to any of those three in a criminal lineup for “who killed the corporate media.”
Because that death is a straight suicide…and we’re watching it every day as the most “reputable” outlets in the country lack basic comprehension on how to do their jobs.
[three]
The state of Texas is suing a popular Social Media Influencer over allegedly giving people with eating disorders bad advice.
The lawsuit by AG Ken Paxton seen by Insider alleges that for fees as high as $300 per person, Dawn sold largely similar fitness plans while claiming they were personalized to each customer.
The Christian influencer —who has nearly 500,000 followers on Instagram, describes herself as a "Jesus seeker" and "Kingdom chaser" in her Instagram biography — promised individualized feedback and regular check-ins that never happened, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that Dawn charged shipping fees, when all her services arrived via electronic communications.
In one instance, Dawn shared a YouTube video in which she talks about how she overcame an eating disorder, according to the lawsuit. In social media posts sharing that video, Dawn linked to her fitness and nutrition plans — which customers took to mean she could tailor her services to those illnesses, the suit alleges.
The suit said Dawn has denied having offered services to people with eating disorders, but noted that 14 people complained to her and mentioned the illness in their complaints.
"The main reason I chose her out of all the coaches out there was specifically that she advertised herself as an 'eating disorder soldier,'" another customer is quoted as saying.
Dawn gave inappropriate advice to at least one customer, the suit alleges.
"I currently have an eating disorder, horrible body image views ... I am underweight for my height," one customer is cited as telling Dawn.
The influencer went on to advise cardio exercise and a low-calorie eating plan, which could only cause further weight loss, the suit alleged.
I’m not sure that this lawsuit is the first of it’s kind, but given the popularity of Instagram diet coaches…this does feel like it could be consequential.
[four]
It’s apparently a big week for Texas lawsuits, as the Governor of Texas is threatening to sue the Biden Administration over attempting to mandate vaccines on the Texas National Guard, which is controlled by the Governor, not the U.S. President.
The issue in question here appears to be the 10th Amendment of the Constitution:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
By that reading, the POTUS has no control over a state’s National Guard…but the courts could interpret this issue differently.
It’s certainly possible this case goes all the way to the Supreme Court.
[five]
With the 2022 mid-terms approaching and a massive “red wave” expected due to Biden’s low approval ratings, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is spending her time…trying to defeat other Democrats.
With primary day in Texas less than a month away, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez heads to the Lone Star State at the end of this week, to headline a rally on Saturday for two progressive candidates running for Congress.
"Texans, are you ready?" the progressive champion from New York and one of the founding members of the so-called Squad announced on Twitter. "We’re coming in for a major DOUBLE-RALLY next Saturday, Feb 12th… This one’s going to be special."
Jessica Cisneros is one of the two candidates Ocasio-Cortez is supporting during Saturday’s rally in San Antonio. Cisneros, for a second straight election, is primary challenging 10-term moderate Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar in Texas 28th Congressional District, which is located the southern part of the Lone Star State.
Cuellar, a key centrist negotiator in Congress, is being targeted in part because of his resistance last year to linking President Biden’s massive social infrastructure and climate change spending bill to the bipartisan infrastructure package that was passed into law. Cuellar, who’s currently under investigation by the FBI for alleged improper ties to Azerbaijan, is also under attack from the left for his ties to and support from the oil industry.
This story feels similar to the first story in this issue, with a prominent Democratic Super Pac attempting to cancel a left-of-center podcaster.
To be fair, Cuellar, the incumbent, being investigated by the FBI for alleged ties to foreign governments, is a reason for an inter-party war…but it doesn’t appear to be driving AOC here…she’s mad because Cuellar didn’t vote for the U.S. to go into even greater debt.
I suppose I’m no campaign strategy expert, but Democrats attacking other Democrats while Republicans are on pace to take back both the House and Senate…doesn’t feel like the smartest move ever.
Until the next one,
-sth