Tag: debate
Luigi Mangione

The Stunning Normality Of Alleged Killer Luigi Mangione

DIY sleuths and amateur gumshoes (including yours truly) spent the five days since the murder of the CEO of what turns out to be one of the most hated companies in America debating whether the killer was a hired hitman, a corporate black bag job pro, or a DIY radical.

My very first thought at news of the shooting was, this is the first shot in the M4A* revolution, the shooter a 21st Century John Brown, ready to kill for single payer socialized medicine.

But as facts dribbled out - the gun with the silencer, knowledge of exactly which door and at what time CEO Brian Thompson would arrive at the Hilton in pre-dawn darkness, the use of cash and burner phone, the clever getaway by bike into camera-free Central Park - I started to waver. The mind wandered into cinematic territory: A billionaire Doctor No behind the United Health Care C-suite’s insider trading scandal, hiring a professional with a non-extraditable national passport. A fellow corporate suit with a personal vendetta, a love triangle, a dirty secret involving massive medical malpractice.

A few nights after the “hit” I cued up a movie that seemed in the spirit of the moment. Michael Clayton is a classic of corporate evil, Tilda Swinton as the pinched corporate lawyer who hires a pair of professional killers to commit a murder and hide the fact that her chemical agribusiness client has been poisoning farmers with a toxic product. George Clooney as the fixer is terrific. Swinton won an Oscar for it.

Corporate intrigue seemed possible. Black bag team. High end hit man already on a flight back to Belarus.

But this morning, it turned out, my initial instinct was kind of on target: The suspect is an all-American boy who, as an NYPD chief of detectives put it drily, “does seem to have some ill-will toward corporate America.” He even had an anti-insurance “manifesto” on his person when arrested.

Luigi Mangione, 26, charged with murder in a so-far sealed New York criminal complaint, is presumed innocent until proven otherwise, obviously. But the reported clues to his involvement are pretty damning. He was arrested with a ghost gun - possibly made with a 3D printer - that matched the one the killer used. He had on his person the fake ID the killer used to check into the New York hostel police had traced him to, and where, flirting with a female clerk, he had pulled down his otherwise ubiquitous face mask to flash a grin. And he looks like that guy.

Early reports are that either an “elderly customer” or the Altoona McDonald’s staff themselves recognized the patron and called cops.

Either way, online fans of the murderer (whose numbers are legion, who have started selling merch commemorating him, and whose existence has provoked reams of concerned analysis) apparently went on an immediate bad-review rampage, posting that the kitchen was rat-infested, etc. The fact that McDonald’s doesn’t offer its employees health insurance also came up.

The truth, as is often the case, turns out to be stranger than fiction.

Mangione reportedly studied computer science at the University of Pennsylvania. He was enough of an intellectual to have on his Goodreads account quotes from Bertrand Russell. (“Luigi’s favorites” include Russell’s: “Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.”

He read Michael Pollan’s book on hallucinogens - How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics - earlier this year. His “want to read” list also included a tome called The Great Conversation: Volume I: Pre-Socratics through Descartes.

He gave Unabomber Ted Kaczynski’s manifesto four stars and reporters have cherry-picked his commentary of that book because it seems relevant:

It’s easy to quickly and thoughtless[ly] write this off as the manifesto of a lunatic, in order to avoid facing some of the uncomfortable problems it identifies. But it’s simply impossible to ignore how prescient many of his predictions about modern society turned out.

He was a violent individual - rightfully imprisoned - who maimed innocent people. While these actions tend to be characterized as those of a crazy luddite, however, they are more accurately seen as those of an extreme political revolutionary.

He added: “When all other forms of communication fail, violence is necessary to survive. You may not like his methods, but to see things from his perspective, it’s not terrorism, it’s war and revolution.”

The New York Post, Murdoch rag, was first out of the gate with the predictable assessment that Mangione is a radical leftist. But even a cursory glance at his digital trail indicates it’s not that simple. He was engaged with the online male right, was an Elon Musk fan, seemed antagonistic to DEI, and even had Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged on his “want to read” list.

He was the 2016 class valediction at Baltimore’s top boys’ prep school. My friend investigative journalist and author Dave Troy, happened to have a son who graduated in the same class of the Gilman School, and he first shared a video of the speech on X. In it, a composed younger Mangione - the same man in a hoodie and a mask New York City street surveillance cameras recorded shooting a man in cold blood and calmly walking away - wears a navy blue suit with a white boutonnière, surrounded by a sea of young men in suits.

His speech isn’t fiery at all. No politics even though it was an election year. No whiff of radicalization. He is not yet a murderer, just a thoughtful, poised young man, on the road to success, one of America’s more promising, poised and brainy Gen Z men, about to step out into an amoral world.

On the knife edge of adult understanding and his destiny.

Poignant, tragic and deeply uncanny - the video can be viewed on Youtube here. “The rush is on,” journalist Troy posted. “Was he a 'leftist', or radicalized by the 'online right'? Facts, as always, are more nuanced. Evidence suggests he is a smart, mixed-up kid with questions, who got turned inside out by a nasty world and did something terrible. Other takes are incomplete.”

As I write this “FREE HIM” is trending on social media.

*M4A - Medicare For All, the slogan that supporters of nationalized healthcare have been using since at least 2016, when Bernie Sanders ran on it, lost to Hillary Clinton, who then lost to Donald Trump.

Nina Burleigh is a a journalist, author, documentary producer and adjunct professor at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. She has written eight books including her recently published novel, Zero Visibility Possible.This post is reprinted with permission from her American FreakshowSubstack. Please consider subscribing.


Reprinted with permission from American Freakshow.

Alleged Assassin Of United Health Care Boss Nabbed At McDonald's

Alleged Assassin Of United Health Care Boss Nabbed At McDonald's

DIY sleuths and amateur gumshoes (including yours truly) spent the five days since the murder of the CEO of what turns out to be one of the most hated companies in America debating whether the killer was a hired hitman, a corporate black bag job pro, or a DIY radical.

My very first thought at news of the shooting was, this is the first shot in the M4A* revolution, the shooter a 21st Century John Brown, ready to kill for single payer socialized medicine.

But as facts dribbled out - the gun with the silencer, knowledge of exactly which door and at what time CEO Brian Thompson would arrive at the Hilton in pre-dawn darkness, the use of cash and burner phone, the clever getaway by bike into camera-free Central Park - I started to waver. The mind wandered into cinematic territory: A billionaire Doctor No behind the United Health Care C-suite’s insider trading scandal, hiring a professional with a non-extraditable national passport. A fellow corporate suit with a personal vendetta, a love triangle, a dirty secret involving massive medical malpractice.

A few nights after the “hit” I cued up a movie that seemed in the spirit of the moment. Michael Clayton is a classic of corporate evil, Tilda Swinton as the pinched corporate lawyer who hires a pair of professional killers to commit a murder and hide the fact that her chemical agribusiness client has been poisoning farmers with a toxic product. George Clooney as the fixer is terrific. Swinton won an Oscar for it.

Corporate intrigue seemed possible. Black bag team. High end hit man already on a flight back to Belarus.DIY sleuths and amateur gumshoes (including yours truly) spent the five days since the murder of the CEO of what turns out to be one of the most hated companies in America debating whether the killer was a hired hitman, a corporate black bag job pro, or a DIY radical.

My very first thought at news of the shooting was, this is the first shot in the M4A* revolution, the shooter a 21st Century John Brown, ready to kill for single payer socialized medicine.

But as facts dribbled out - the gun with the silencer, knowledge of exactly which door and at what time CEO Brian Thompson would arrive at the Hilton in pre-dawn darkness, the use of cash and burner phone, the clever getaway by bike into camera-free Central Park - I started to waver. The mind wandered into cinematic territory: A billionaire Doctor No behind the United Health Care C-suite’s insider trading scandal, hiring a professional with a non-extraditable national passport. A fellow corporate suit with a personal vendetta, a love triangle, a dirty secret involving massive medical malpractice.

A few nights after the “hit” I cued up a movie that seemed in the spirit of the moment. Michael Clayton is a classic of corporate evil, Tilda Swinton as the pinched corporate lawyer who hires a pair of professional killers to commit a murder and hide the fact that her chemical agribusiness client has been poisoning farmers with a toxic product. George Clooney as the fixer is terrific. Swinton won an Oscar for it.

Corporate intrigue seemed possible. Black bag team. High end hit man already on a flight back to Belarus.

But this morning, it turned out, my initial instinct was kind of on target: The suspect is an all-American boy who, as an NYPD chief of detectives put it drily, “does seem to have some ill-will toward corporate America.” He even had an anti-insurance “manifesto” on his person when arrested.

Luigi Mangione, 26, charged with murder in a so-far sealed New York criminal complaint, is presumed innocent until proven otherwise, obviously. But the reported clues to his involvement are pretty damning. He was arrested with a ghost gun - possibly made with a 3D printer - that matched the one the killer used. He had on his person the fake ID the killer used to check into the New York hostel police had traced him to, and where, flirting with a female clerk, he had pulled down his otherwise ubiquitous face mask to flash a grin. And he looks like that guy.

Early reports are that either an “elderly customer” or the Altoona McDonald’s staff themselves recognized the patron and called cops.

Either way, online fans of the murderer (whose numbers are legion, who have started selling merch commemorating him, and whose existence has provoked reams of concerned analysis) apparently went on an immediate bad-review rampage, posting that the kitchen was rat-infested, etc. The fact that McDonald’s doesn’t offer its employees health insurance also came up.

The truth, as is often the case, turns out to be stranger than fiction.

Mangione reportedly studied computer science at the University of Pennsylvania. He was enough of an intellectual to have on his Goodreads account quotes from Bertrand Russell. (“Luigi’s favorites” include Russell’s: “Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.”

He read Michael Pollan’s book on hallucinogens - How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics - earlier this year. His “want to read” list also included a tome called The Great Conversation: Volume I: Pre-Socratics through Descartes.

He gave Unabomber Ted Kaczynski’s manifesto four stars and reporters have cherry-picked his commentary of that book because it seems relevant:

It’s easy to quickly and thoughtless[ly] write this off as the manifesto of a lunatic, in order to avoid facing some of the uncomfortable problems it identifies. But it’s simply impossible to ignore how prescient many of his predictions about modern society turned out.
He was a violent individual - rightfully imprisoned - who maimed innocent people. While these actions tend to be characterized as those of a crazy luddite, however, they are more accurately seen as those of an extreme political revolutionary.

He added: “When all other forms of communication fail, violence is necessary to survive. You may not like his methods, but to see things from his perspective, it’s not terrorism, it’s war and revolution.”

The New York Post, Murdoch rag, was first out of the gate with the predictable assessment that Mangione is a radical leftist. But even a cursory glance at his digital trail indicates it’s not that simple. He was engaged with the online male right, was an Elon Musk fan, seemed antagonistic to DEI, and even had Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged on his “want to read” list.

He was the 2016 class valediction at Baltimore’s top boys’ prep school. My friend investigative journalist and author Dave Troy, happened to have a son who graduated in the same class of the Gilman School, and he first shared a video of the speech on X. In it, a composed younger Mangione - the same man in a hoodie and a mask New York City street surveillance cameras recorded shooting a man in cold blood and calmly walking away - wears a navy blue suit with a white boutonnière, surrounded by a sea of young men in suits.

His speech isn’t fiery at all. No politics even though it was an election year. No whiff of radicalization. He is not yet a murderer, just a thoughtful, poised young man, on the road to success, one of America’s more promising, poised and brainy Gen Z men, about to step out into an amoral world.

On the knife edge of adult understanding and his destiny.

Poignant, tragic and deeply uncanny - the video can be viewed on Youtube here. “The rush is on,” journalist Troy posted. “Was he a 'leftist', or radicalized by the 'online right'? Facts, as always, are more nuanced. Evidence suggests he is a smart, mixed-up kid with questions, who got turned inside out by a nasty world and did something terrible. Other takes are incomplete.”

As I write this “FREE HIM” is trending on social media.

*M4A - Medicare For All, the slogan that supporters of nationalized healthcare have been using since at least 2016, when Bernie Sanders ran on it, lost to Hillary Clinton, who then lost to Donald Trump.

Nina Burleigh is a a journalist, author, documentary producer and adjunct professor at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. She has written eight books including her recently published novel, Zero Visibility Possible. This post is reprinted with permission from her American FreakshowSubstack. Please consider subscribing.

Reprinted with permission from American Freakshow.

Donald Trump Kamala Harris Debate

Associated Press Exposes Fraudster Behind Claim That ABC Rigged Debate

An anonymous social media account that went by the name “Black Insurrectionist” was the origin of a false story about an “ABC whistleblower” that claimed Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris was given sample debate questions in advance. This baseless story was amplified by MAGA influencers and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

An Associated Press investigation recently revealed the person behind the account is a white man from New York named Jason G. Palmer, who “owes more than $6.7 million in back taxes to the state of New York” and has “repeatedly been accused of defrauding business partners and lenders.”

In September, the account claimed it would post an “affidavit” from an “ABC whistleblower” revealing that ABC News colluded with the Harris campaign for the September 10 presidential debate the network hosted. Black Insurrectionist wrote, “The affidavit states how the Harris campaign was given sample question[s] which were essentially the same questions that were given during the debate and separate assurances of fact checking Donald Trump and that she would NOT be fact checked.”

ABC categorically denied Black Insurrectionist’s claims. A network spokesperson told the Daily Beast, “Harris was not given any questions before the debate,” and, according to the outlet, “the spokesperson also said no aides were in contact with moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis.” When the account did release the supposed affidavit, there were internal inconsistencies and grammatical errors.

Right-wing media personalities and politicians, including Trump, spread the story even though the account had engaged in a slew of baseless conspiracy theories and violent pro-Trump rants. Turning Point USA contributor and podcast host Benny Johnson shared the supposed affidavit citing Black Insurrectionist, which was then reposted by Trump’s younger son Eric. Fox’s Maria Bartiromo then amplified the baseless claim on her Fox Business show and highlighted right-wing billionaire Bill Ackman’s post that further spread claims of an ABC whistleblower.

In October, the account also spread vile claims baselessly accusing Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, of sexually assaulting a student. Though some conspiracy theorists with prominent platforms, including Trump ally Laura Loomer, picked up the claims, others in right-wing media cautioned against the spread of the salacious allegations.

New reporting now shows that Black Insurrectionist was misleading about more than just the alleged ABC whistleblower. The Associated Press reported: “The Black Insurrectionist account is linked directly to Jason G. Palmer, who has his own questionable backstory, starting with the fact that he isn’t Black, according to an Associated Press review of public records, open source data and interviews with a half-dozen people who interacted closely with Palmer over the past two decades.

The records and personal accounts offer a portrait of an individual who has repeatedly been accused of defrauding business partners and lenders, has struggled with drug addiction and whose home was raided by the FBI over a decade ago. He also owes more than $6.7 million in back taxes to the state of New York.”

Black Insurrectionist’s X account was deleted several hours after the AP first reached out to Palmer for comment.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

JD Vance and Tim Walz debate

Politely Dull Debate Changes Nothing As Election Draws Closer

It was a debate that changed zero minds, no home runs were hit, and no flubs were made.

Republican Ohio Sen. JD Vance came out looking like a My Chemical Romance groupie. Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota was shaky and glitchy. But it wasn’t long before both candidates got in a groove, mostly civil, mostly sticking to the rules.

Some observations:

  • Vance pivoted away from every opportunity to defend Donald Trump, focusing his attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris instead. I bet Trump didn’t love that.
  • Walz focused both on defending the Biden-Harris administration and attacking Trump.
  • Vance leaned heavily into the “Why didn’t Harris fix things the last four years?” narrative that Trump was supposed to deploy during his one debate with Harris. The problem with that line, of course, is that Trump didn’t accomplish all the things he claimed he’d do, like build a wall paid for by Mexico, when he was actually president. Does it matter? Nope. But it’s a safe attack line, and one that is difficult to defend with “Republicans control the Senate and sabotaged the bipartisan border deal.” In politics, if you’re explaining, you’re losing.
  • As you’d expect, Republicans are losing their minds over CBS’ mild fact checks, because they love screaming “Why do they keep pointing out our lies?” Vance himself whined, “The rules were that you were not going to fact-check me.” That’ll be brutally memed and is a top moment from the debate, akin to George H.W. Bush looking at his watch.
  • Media false equivalency at work: Walz misstating exactly when he was in China 35 years ago is totally the same thing as Vance endangering an entire immigrant community in Springfield, Ohio, by lying about them eating their neighbors’ pets.
  • Walz crushed the segment on abortion, with Vance literally admitting that women don’t trust Republicans on abortion. Vance also lied about his past support for a national abortion ban. Fortuitously, the moderators and candidates lingered on the issue for an extended period of time. The issue is so toxic for Republicans that Trump quite literally lost his mind on his Truth Social:

EVERYONE KNOWS I WOULD NOT SUPPORT A FEDERAL ABORTION BAN, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, AND WOULD, IN FACT, VETO IT, BECAUSE IT IS UP TO THE STATES TO DECIDE BASED ON THE WILL OF THEIR VOTERS (THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE!). LIKE RONALD REAGAN BEFORE ME, I FULLY SUPPORT THE THREE EXCEPTIONS FOR RAPE, INCEST, AND THE LIFE OF THE MOTHER. I DO NOT SUPPORT THE DEMOCRATS RADICAL POSITION OF LATE TERM ABORTION LIKE, AS AN EXAMPLE, IN THE 7TH, 8TH, OR 9TH MONTH OR, IN CASE THERE IS ANY QUESTION, THE POSSIBILITY OF EXECUTION OF THE BABY AFTER BIRTH. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!

  • The gun segment offered a shockingly civil and substantive discussion on the problem of gun violence. The country would be a lot better off if that was the energy lawmakers in Congress brought to the issue. Also, Walz had the best line in that exchange.
  • Vance quite successfully sold himself as a reasonable, human-like politician, while Walz is naturally nice, which is why he’s so popular nationally. The two wanted to seem nice and reasonable. Problem is, only Walz is that; Vance quite literally got the job by promising Trump he’d overturn the election given the chance.
  • Walz’s defense of the Affordable Care Act was stellar. Vance was boxed in by Trump’s “concepts of a plan” flub. He had some BS lined up about how Democrats fearmonger about a second Trump presidency and how Trump saved the law, but the reality is that Trump was a single vote away from repealing the ACA. Had Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) not unexpectedly flipped, we’d have no ACA today. We don’t need to fearmonger when we have reality showing us what will happen.
  • This gets its own bullet point: Vance claimed Trump saved the ACA. Yes, he really said that.
  • Debate moderators challenged Vance on his undemocratic efforts to overturn the 2020 elections. Vance’s revisionist response was beyond gaslighting. It was a completely different timeline paired with a transition to crying about made up liberal “censorship” as the real danger to democracy. If nothing else, this was more disqualifying than anything else Vance said. And as Vance refused to admit that Trump lost in 2020, Walz nailed him with a hilarious, “That’s a damning non-answer!”
  • I don’t pretend to understand how people perceive candidates. Al Gore smashed George W. Bush in 2000, and people decided they’d rather “have a beer” with Bush. If that test applies in Tuesday’s debate, Walz is quite easily the more likable candidate, far more so than the fast-talking emo makeup-wearing Yale lawyer.
  • If this debate has any impact on the race, it won’t be because of those watching it to the end (political junkies), or an increasingly ridiculous punditry. It will be because of the meme war. And as such, I’m guessing the Zoomers will have a lot more material to mock Vance than Walz.

But really, watch the polling stay exactly the same all the way through Election Day.

Guys, this thing is going to be won on effort. Let’s finish strong!

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

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