January 29, 2019 • 31 mins
In episode 45, Robert is joined by Katy Stoll and Cody Johnston to discuss the GoFundMe, 'We The People Will Build the Wall' campaign.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
M hm, Hey everybody, I'm Robert Evans. That was another
classic terrible introduction to Behind the Bastards, the show where
we tell you everything you don't know about the very
worst people in all of history. And my guests today
are Katie Johnston. We've been talking for two hours so
(00:24):
and Katie still I am frazzled and have been reading
paper for two an hour talking. I mean we're tired.
You must this is the right Yeah, you're still sick.
I still feel fine. You guys are the patrons of
the some more news network Patreon, uh, and today we're
(00:45):
going to be talking about a subject that we should
be exhausted and a little bit frazzled to talk about.
You guys, remember that go fund me to try to
build that wall dollars. Now, if you paid attention to
sort of like the way that was presented on social media,
it was dumb. Rubes paid raised twenty million dollars to
build the wall, and then go fund me were funded
(01:07):
at all. That's not what happened. What happened is terrible
and frustrating. We're gonna get into that, but first we're
going to get into the guy behind that campaign, Brian Colefage.
On Tuesday, October eleventh, two eighteen, Facebook deleted eight and
ten pages from their site for quote inauthentic behavior. Some sites,
(01:29):
like Newsweek, we're quick to comment about the bias of
this purge. Quote Newsweek's title is Facebook biased against conservatives?
Right wing news? Other fake news sites taken down. American Thinker,
another conservative site, echoed this angle. Facebook's midterm purge of
conservative pages well under way now. While most of the
outrage came from the right, both left wing and right
(01:50):
wing sites were deleted wholesale, and in true Facebook fashion,
the purges seemed to have been a mix of legitimately
toxic bullshit being axed and also legitimate activist pages being
deleted because they ran a foul of an algorithm. Because again,
it's Facebook. They don't think about anything they do. They do.
Even if they're trying to do a good thing, they're
going to do it in the dumbest way. Abso yeah, yeah,
(02:10):
we promise we will do the right thing the wrong way.
Eventually is the face and algorithm do it? Can machine thoughts? Yeah?
Here's the Guardian quote and a statement posted to its
online newsroom. Facebook says it purge these pages because their
owners were using fake accounts, sharing the same content between
multiple pages, and linking to add supported websites. It calls
(02:30):
add farms, but what the social network called spam, the
owners of these pages called standard up procedures for operating
on Facebook. Nearly all the page owners contacted by the
Guardians say they use backup or fake accounts along with
their real ones. They do it in part to protect
themselves from being targeted by political opponents and having their
real accounts end up in Facebook jail, says Edward Lynn,
the editor in chief of Reverb Press, a left leaning
(02:50):
news side whose Facebook page disappeared yesterday. Now The Guardian
talked to left wing and right wing content makers who
believe they had been unfairly targeted. One of those people
was and cole Fage Quote Brian cole Fage, another disabled
veteran who administered the right wing news page, as well
as three other conservative pages that were removed, says his
organization worked closely with Facebook. He showed copies of emails
(03:11):
with a Facebook executive in which he tried to set
up a meeting to talk about how his pages could
adhere to the networks evolving policies regarding political content. The
meeting was abruptly canceled. A week later, his pages were gone.
I've talked with Facebook maybe fifty times in the last months,
he says, not once. Did they ever say we broke
any rules or did something wrong. If they had an issue,
they could have brought it up. We had a really
(03:31):
close working relationship. That's why this whole thing is a
complete shock. Now. Brian cole Fage will again be our
subject today. If you don't recognize his name immediately when
he's he's the guy behind build the Wall, Go fund
me now. In two eighteen, the website Media Matters launched
a study evaluating four hundred and sixty three prominent political
Facebook pages from January to July of that year. They
(03:53):
found that images posted on right wing pages did better
than any other kind of political content. A follow up
study on twenty six right meme generating pages found that
Facebook's algorithm changes tended to boost their traffic rather than
reduce it. On August thirty one, eighteen, Media Matters published
another study with the goal of tracking major narratives pushed
by these meme pages and identifying the pages most responsible
(04:14):
for spreading the sort of misinformation. The study heavily implicated
in network of sites focused around Brian Colefage's right wing
News quote. One Facebook network used pro Trump groups run
by fake news sites to push its content through right
wing circles. Five pages tied to the far right website
right wing News each post of the exact same engagement
bait meme calling for the cancelation of the TV show
(04:36):
the view in light of Roseanne's cancelation, within about an
hour of each other. The most popular post in this
batchhead over seven hundred thousand interactions. Between the five page posts,
the meme earned almost one point three million interactions. Three
pages in the same network shared the most popular post
from the Trump Republic later that night and in an
additional forty one seven hundred interactions. Right Wing News also
pushed this meme through its Facebook group and a now
(04:57):
deleted post. The personal account of Amanda Shay, who runs
two of right wing news pages, shared the most popular
post from right wing News is batch of memes into
the group President Donald Trump Official All Caps LLC with
a static text calling for a boycott of ABC. The
post got over eight thousand, four hundred interactions before it
was deleted. The group President Donald Trump Official LLC was
(05:18):
originally started by right Wing News is official Facebook page.
Six of the group's twelve administrators are pages that are
part of the right wing news networks. Amanda Chet's personal account,
along with the personal account of administrators and moderators to
the group, regularly pushes post from right wing News as
network of pages to the President Donald Trump Official LLC
groups a hundred and eighty three thousand plus members. So
we're building this something here. There were several large networks
(05:40):
of right wing meme and fake news generating pages. Right
Wing News, run by Cole fag was the center of
one of these networks. They all reinforced each other, creating
a never ending font of viral content. So the one
Roseanne related meme that right Wing News posted earned nearly
one point six million interactions solely from circulating through these networks,
Like you could get something an enormous amount of content,
(06:03):
and the main goal seems to have been driving ad revenue,
because they would have ads on these pages would make
a shipload of money. Now, when Facebook purged all these pages,
it seemingly wiped out Brian Cofage's digital empire. He responded
in the way of all aggrieved parties in the twenty
first century, using go fund me to raise money for
a court case. I'm not a conservative. I'm not a liberal.
(06:23):
I'm an American with deep beliefs in what our country
stands for. I proved this by vowing to protect and
fighting for America's greatest tenant, free speech. Many Americans have
fought for these political freedoms, freedom of speech, and every
American has enjoyed those freedoms until today. On October eleventh,
two eighteen, Facebook shutdown thousands of Facebook accounts for their
political opinions, saying an effect that they don't have a
(06:44):
legitimate political argument. Stop social media censorship now, until today,
until everything now. Over the last two months, this campaign
has gained almost seven four thousand dollars if it's a
hundred thousand dollar goal. In the campaign, Brian talks up
(07:04):
his military credentials and his story is pretty incredible. Quote
from Brian, I'm a veteran of the United States Air Force.
I was severely wounded in combat. Combat is capitalized, not
with a camp four while serving in Iraq. I lost
both my legs entirely in my right hand. I'm the
most severely wounded US airmen to survive. You'll hear that
(07:24):
line a lot with any points out most severely wounded
US airmen. Maybe it's true, but like it's hard, you
can't quantify most, like it's the guy that loses two
hands and one leg less severely, Like yeah, Tammy Duckworth
can't walk, Yeah, exactly. You know. It's it's legitimately horrifying
injury that he suffered. Hard to imagine going through that.
(07:45):
But he's also really done a good job of painting
himself out, making lemons out of lemonade. He's the most
severely injured, and the buck stopped there was free speech. Yeah,
he was the he was the first guys been threatened.
Now also when he knows he was severely wounded in combat,
you kind of debate that too, because in other videos
(08:06):
he said he was on an air base when this happened.
A hundred and seven millimeter rocket landed a couple of
feet away from him and blew him up. He's heading
to the gym, um. I mean, you could argue, I guess,
and I think for the purpose of like getting an
award for something like this, like you get your shot
at by the enemy or whatever, like, I'm not gonna
split hairs with a guy who lost three limbs. But again,
(08:29):
you can kind of see what he's going for. On
his website, Brian Cole Fage motivational veteran speaker, there is
a picture of him severely wounded in the hospital with
a guy laying a purple heart on his chest. It
is the main picture of the website. This is like
the front page of his site as him severely wounded
in a gurney. So that's him, and then that's his medal. Yeah,
(08:49):
that's his medal. Now, it is hard to imagine someone
getting injured worse than Brian cole Flag and surviving. He
said about his injury quote, I was fully conscious after
my friends rolled me over my back, remember every detail
like it was yesterday. I wasn't in any pain at first.
I remember being pissed because I knew what had happened
and how it happened. I looked at my hand and
it was hanging by skin like it had been shoot off.
My hand was folded backwards and hanging. I tried looking
(09:11):
at my legs, but my friend, Senior Airman Cortez, put
his hand over my eyes so I wouldn't see. I
told him to just get me home. Once he got home,
Quofage had to relearn virtually everything about day to day life,
from how to tie his shoes to how to do
everything else we do that's not shoe tying. Brian's story
is undoubtedly harrowing, and the rather spectacular nature of his
survival and recovery ensured that he would get work as
(09:31):
a sort of inspirational figure. He's been on Anderson Cooper,
He's met George W. Bush, he's done photo ops with
Mike Huckabee, he's won awards, and he's pretty plugged into
a certain corner of the conservative media ecosystem. But he's
also never been quite mainstream. So Brian still in progress.
Go fund me to fight Facebook made vague promises about
his access to the Trump inner circle. In an update,
(09:53):
he posted quote, we're talking with a major law firm
who worked with the Trump transition team, and they are
now assisting us in moving ahead on our legal case
and also getting Zuckerberg hauled back into a Senate Congress
hearing so Americans can hold him accountable. Your donations will
be used to jump start the legal proceedings. Against Facebook. Now,
I want to note right now that this is not
Brian's first go fund me. His first go fund me
(10:13):
was made in two thousand fifteen, and its goal was
to support what he called a veteran mentorship program. In
the original Facebook post for that, he claims, quote, my
wounded warrior mentor engagement program was created after Obama slashed
military spending. Up to that point, the U. S Military
would fund my trips to visit wounded warriors who needed
a little motivation. When doctor saw a patient struggling, they
reached out to me and I donate my time to
(10:34):
put these vets back on track. So he claimed to
have deals in place with Walter Reid, laun Stool and
other official military hospitals. His campaign raised sixteen thousand, two
hundred and forty six dollars. BuzzFeed confirmed through go fund
me that all of these funds went directly to Brian
cole Faje. I have not found any information on his
(10:54):
mentorship programs since, although just based on what he promised,
going out and hanging with wounded vets who are buddies
of his on occasion would technically qualify. BuzzFeed reached out
to all of the medical centers call fage named. None
of them had any agreements in place with him or
had ever heard of his mentorship program. Sure BuzzFeed actually
published the best article I found on this guy. It's
(11:16):
titled I Felt Dirty. Former employees of veteran crowdfunding Trump's
Wall say he pushed fake news to get rich. The
article does not paint a positive picture of Brian cole Foch.
Lindsay Lowery, who wrote under the alias Prissy Holly, wrote
for a cool Fasch's main site, Freedom Daily. Quote. After
I started challenging some of his business decisions that I
felt were reckless for the company and for my career,
(11:36):
the real Brian emerged. Everything is only about his war
hero persona and money. If there's a perceived slight on
his part, he viciously attacks people and in my case,
tries to destroy their life and livelihood. Now in their conversations,
he claimed to run a multimillion dollar business, which may
well have been true. He also advised her on how
to gin up fake stories for outrage clicks. Quote. Former
employees told BuzzFeed News that col fag instructed his crew
(11:58):
to produce Facebook content to more flagrantly convey a false narrative,
and one instance photoshopping former President Obama's head onto another
body to make it appear as though he was having
an affair with the caption breaking Obama Busted video leaked.
You'll love this one, he texted employees during a conversation
about manipulating images. Um, yeah, You're free speech is being silenced, bro,
(12:20):
I mean that makes me so angry. It's really gross,
and it's it's one of these things like the people
BuzzFeed are talking to we're all fine writing for far
right hill pages, so like, oh yeah, no, I mean,
and were like, yeah, that's part of what we did. Yeah,
we'd create these fake things. Knowingly pushing the fake stuff
is like really, it makes me insane. And there's some
(12:43):
stuff I left out about her, like accusing him of
going after her and her husband and stuff, because it's
just like, I just don't know how credible you are,
but it's not. I can't. But I'm not gonna feel
sorry for you. Right, you had a job lying and
now you're you know, the person that you were working with.
Yeah you know, you know, Yeah, You're job is to
breaking Obama Busted. But which I guess that was a
(13:05):
line too far for them, right, But like, yeah, even
like knowingly photos shopping it. It's not even like we're
misrepresenting it accidentally or like we heard it from somebody else.
Like no, it's gonna make up something, put it out
there like they're one of the biggest. There's such a
big problems. So yeah, how do you get people to
(13:28):
stop focusing on that and stop believing it? You can't anyway, Yeah,
or well was right that people just want to spend
some time every day hating something, Yeah, with other people,
and Facebook has made that easier than ever. Thanks Mark,
Thank you, Mark, You're really you're gonna do Hey, remember
when Mark Zuckerberg was touring the country because he thought
he was going to run for president. I'm glad we've
(13:51):
shut that. I feel like the whole country got unified
for a second, to be like we all hate each other,
but no, no, no, no, absolutely, under no circumstances. We
can't agree on whether or not we should be one country,
but we're all agreed. That's not okay. Oh god, what
(14:13):
if we could just turn him into like the kind
of like alien invasion that we need to unify human
What if we all eat Mark Zuckerberg eat eat. Yeah,
Like it's like the exidential crisis of climate change or
something like that could do it. But I think eating
Mark zucker it might be an easier we can all
get on board that. Maybe. Yeah, I mean I feel
(14:38):
like that's ethical consumption under capitalism. Eating Mark Zuckerberg. It's
not like he's going to taste like meat. No, we're
not doing it for the flavor he has, eat my
human meat. No, yeah, that's exactly how we'd say, Oh, Mark, Okay,
So we're going to get back to the rest of
Brian cole Flage's story and how it gets way more
(15:00):
sinister than I had guessed west of this research. But
first products and services. Maybe here's some ads, and we're back.
We're talking about Brian cole Fage. Now, Brian ran a
(15:23):
constellation of sites. The Guardian was definitely off when they
said he only had three, at least ten, probably more
like dozens more. These pages had names like Patriot Nation
and right wing News. Every page was boosting and sharing
what went up on every other page. Co Fage claimed
you have purchased one page with a reach of one
million people per week for a hundred thousand dollars. He
(15:44):
seems to have started hiring people in two thousand and sixteen,
paying two dollars per thousand clicks on Facebook, which was
seen as a good rate by the employees interviewed. It's
hard to say just how many pages he operated or
how much money he made. It was enough to drive
twenty million page views to his website Freedom Daily and
one month in two thousand seventeen, or at least according
to BuzzFeed, which was about three thousand dollars in monthly
(16:05):
ad revenue on just that website. He's making money off
of the revenue of this stuff on Facebook. He has
other websites. He's potentially making millions of dollars a year
doing this, at least he was until his revenue stream
from Freedom Daily was cut off in March two. Yeah,
well that was later. That was when Facebook was sounds
(16:25):
his website Freedom Freedom Daily was cut off in March
of eighteen. He was NBC News explaining why. Quote. The
shuttering of kofass sites came a month after Michigan man
Joel van vangele Huge sued Freedom Daily and other right
wing sites from misidentifying him as the driver of the
car that plowed into a group of peaceful protesters at
a two thousand seventeen white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
(16:46):
The Freedom Daily article relied on an image board four
Chan as its major source. According to a letter provided
by the court by the contributor named in the suit, yep, yep, yeah,
so he lost his websites before he lost his face books.
Um good good yeah uh NBC quote. The site often
(17:07):
trafficked and false, inflammatory and racist content, including headlines like
obnoxious black people lose their minds when Victoria's secret model
says this one word on live video, and Trump just
released embarrassing VIDs of Obama's Muslim friends that he never
wanted seen. I hate it really really gross, really gross. Yeah.
(17:28):
So the website is currently defunct, and it does seem
that Facebook sweep succeeded and, if not wiping out, severely
damaging Brian co Faj's empire of bullshit. Co Fash himself
is permanently banned from Facebook due to both his manipulation
of their system and a number of harassment complaints smiled
against him. Now that all went down in the middle
of October. On December six, that same year, Brian cole
(17:48):
Fas created the fundraiser for Donald Trump's long promised wall.
It quickly went viral and then viral or. The goal
this time was to raise one billion dollars. Co fa
planed to have. Didn't realize how much money that was,
did you. Brian co Fag claimed to have some vague
connection to the Trump administration who had assured him that
there was a way the government could take the money.
So his promise at the beginning was I'm not getting
(18:10):
a dime of this, A hundred percent of it is
going to the government. On January eleven, two thou nineteen,
after raising well over twenty million dollars from threety six thousand,
two d and thirty seven donors, Brian co Fag posted
an update and I created the viral campaign that raised
over twenty million dollars for the Southern border wall. And
(18:31):
it's only possible because of your donation. So thank you.
But do you really think the Democrats and Congress will
take the money you donated and put it towards the
Southern border wall? I doubt it. That's why we are
changing our mission from we fund the wall, so we
build the wall, and we the people can build the wall.
We consulted with our nation as leading experts on border
(18:53):
security and construction. There's hundreds of miles of private land
along the border. To continue this mission, we need you
to opt in so that your donation counts. The one
thing I learned from being a triple amputee is that
anything is possible. We the people can build the wall,
but I need your help. If you're sick and tired
(19:14):
of Democrats holding national security over our heads, opt in now.
We build the wall, and we can start now. We'll
be getting the opt in in a second. Wait a minute,
privately build the wall. Yeah, you're gonna have to. That's
people's land. Like I have to say, what I'm about
(19:35):
to explain is actually a kind of genius con It's not.
He's not a dumb man. Give him credit for that.
So below the video, in the text on the go
fund me update, he admits offhandedly that the federal government
won't be able to take donations quote anytime soon. Notice
in the video he says, the Democrats you just wouldn't
spend on the Yeah, Caflage Braggs quote are highly experienced.
(19:57):
Team is highly confident that we can complete significant segments
of the wall and less time for less money than
the federal government. So he opened a new site, We
Build the Wall, where he solicits donations for We Build
the Wall, Inc. The idea he very much puts across
on the go fund Me page is that they're just
raising the funds in a different area because they can't
donate directly to the government anymore, and that was part
(20:18):
of the original promise. Now, the way this became framed
in news reports was that go fund Me was refunding
all of the donations. That's not what's happening. They are
giving people until April to opt in and transfer their
donations to We Build the Wall in. So you do
have to opt in in order to transfer the donations,
but it is not a straight refund. So here's how
(20:42):
We Build the Wall, Inc. Describes their mission quote, Our
mission is to unite private citizens that share a common
belief in providing national security for our souven border through
the construction, administration, and maintenance of physical barriers inhibiting a
legal entry into the United States, and interpreting the purpose
of the corporation. The Board of Directors and members of
the Advisory Board will consider the impact of a prose
structure on a selected sites and environment, and construct effective
(21:04):
barriers primarily designed to prevent illegal access to the United States.
We will focus on building portions of the US Southern
Border Wall and managed support operations required four and the
processes associated with the design, engineering, construction, and maintenance of
the wall. Now, this is officially a five oh one
C four. Do you guys know anything about five oh
(21:25):
one C fours? I came across something interesting about the
mono legal blog I found because I didn't know much
about this either. So I'm gonna quote from this legal blog,
which is run by a nonprofit legal aid group, and
this this article is from July sixteen. Quote. The Treasury
Department announced to change in the regulations making it no
longer necessary for five one C four and one C
(21:47):
six organizations to disclose the identities of their donors on
their annual information returns to the i r S. The
concern with the elimination of the disclosure requirement, however, is
that more dark money will flow through one C four
social welfare organis stations like the n r A. Yeah.
So this same blog, which is part of a nonprofit
called the Neo Law Group published another fun article in
(22:07):
January of two eighteen. They called it a prediction for
nonprofits in two thousand eighteen rise of the five oh
one C four and then, to quote another exert from that,
we'll see an increase in the number of five one
C four social welfare organizations being formed and receiving contributions.
While contributions to five O one C four organizations are
not deductible as charitable contributions, this won't matter to many
(22:29):
donors for two major reasons. With the increase in the
standard deduction, there will be a substantial reduction in the
number of taxpayers who itemize their deductions. This means that
the vast majority, possibly nine of taxpayers, will get no
tax benefits from making a charitable contribution to a five
O one C three charitable organization. The Tax Cuts and
Jobs Act did not eliminate the charitable contribution deduction, but
(22:51):
the act made the deduction useless for all but a
small number of taxpayers. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimates
that charitable contributions will decline by about twelve point three
billion to nineteen point seven billion per year as a
result of the change. Because five oh one c four
organizations can engage in unlimited lobbying and further into of
their social welfare purposes. And because they can use their
(23:11):
resources to support or oppose political candidates, they have greater
flexibility and potential power to affect social change than three organizations.
So that is the kind of organization Brian cole Fage
has founded. That's some bullshit, has some bullshit, Mark smart guy.
Go fund me has confirmed that so far of the
(23:34):
Wall's original donors have responded and of those have opted
in rolling their money into this new venture, we Build
the Wall, Inc. But is he going to keep that?
Seems like not the way It's not the way it's
been presented. It seems like Brian went from go fund me,
(23:55):
a platform that's very tries to be pretty open about
how the money that gets raised on it gets spent
in a platform would have held him accountable to a
platform to where he is completely unaccountable for how the
money is spent, and both in the mission statement and
in the legal operation about five oh one c four.
He could use that money to build a wall, or
you could justify, well, I'm going to spend it putting
in donations to political candidates will help the wall get mad,
and that's how will further the wall. As long as
(24:19):
it has to do with the wall. As long as
it has to do with the wall, it's going to
pay for my life as I try to get the wall. Bell. Yeah,
of course that counts. That is something else. That is
something guy now, uh yeah, I mean here's this is
a start. Now. Brian still uses that twenty million dollar
(24:42):
raised number on its site. Here's one of his tweets
by Amanda Shay, who you may recognize from that Media
Matters report was also a big part of his fake
news Facebook network, and its first month, Weld the Wall
link has raised over twenty five million from five thousand
opt in today. Badly photoshop picture of Donald up giving
a thumbs up at the wall. Great tweet, great tweet
(25:03):
that they were like, it was like twenty almost that's
a fourth of a billion dollars. I saw a lot
of people say that we're on our way. They only
needed million dollars. Now we build the wall. In has
joy of Joyce released the names of their team members.
(25:23):
You can get some of the names on this list.
Tom tan Credo, former congressman and failed presidential candidate sheriff
David Clark, former Kansas Secretary of State, Chris Kobach, some
guy named Dustin, and Eric Prince. This is a real
(25:44):
I am not kidding you like that. Don't allow that.
That's yeah. We talked about Betty often of Yeah, we
just did a k episode before recording this the world. Yeah, wow,
(26:08):
So it's Dustin. He's just some guy. He's like right
in between Chris Kobak and Eric Prince. I think he's
he's gonna he just isn't anyone famous. He's just a
dude named Dustin. The team dust he has a last name,
doesn't called the man. They called me the old Man.
(26:31):
I don't know what's going to happen, but I am
certain we are all going to be hearing about this
fun scam slash multimillion dollar five of one C four
in the very near future and probably during the shocking. Yeah.
I'm definitely going to tell people on our podcast come
listen to all of your episodes. But like this is
I don't give a ship. If you guys want to
(26:51):
report the same thing, I'll send you my notes. It's
fucked up and people should know about five years before. Yeah. Well,
we'll talk about it, and we'll say we talked about
it in depth, but like, yeah, yeah, the news really
fell down on the job of reporting. What the funk
went Prince and David Clark with an extra at least
(27:17):
around eight to ten million dollars. Yeah, that's like, I mean,
that's spitting money for Eric Prince. But I still don't
want him to have it. But like it sounds made up,
Like what you're describing is like but that's like some
someone would make that up to say like, oh, this
is our situation. No, no, no, it's just reality. This
is just reality. Dang, fun on the bone. I haven't
(27:41):
waiting for you to to uh be Like, by the way,
he was never even like in the Middle he was
in the military. He got horribly injured in Iraq. I
do think he's kind of fudging a little bit when
he says it's a capital C combat injury. But that's debatable.
It's not debatable that it was a horrific horrific But again,
(28:03):
well he was going to battle with his abs at
the gym. Ye, the battle with his abs at the gym.
I'm not trying to I'm not. Also, no, he's a
legitimate like guy who went to war and was horribly injured.
Nothing about that I've ever read seems exaggerated. It's probably
an asshole before the war too. Just I mean maybe
not traumatic brain injuries realities, And it's hard to imagine
(28:27):
getting hit by a rocket at that range and not
having a traumatic brain injury. And it can change people's
personalities dramatically. All right, Well that's a slightly kinder push.
On a fun note, I read a neat article recently
about a guy named Doctor Rapp who was an elderly
white neuro doctor like brain doctor, who had a series
(28:47):
of minor strokes and started rhyming things and then started
hanging out and like a chunk of Los Angeles where
there was like nightly rap battles and just became like
a fixture of the rap scene in l A for
years and it was like like professional rap art us
and stuff, and was like everybody loved him. He was
just he was Dr Rapp with two piece being made. No,
but there's like a documentary that that talks about it
and stuff. It's amazing. Yeah, it's really call himself doctor Stroke.
(29:13):
Well pretty good too, Yeah, I mean doctor Strokes definitely
cooler sounding Yeah, yeah, you know, but then again, Dr
Rablets you know what he does mean a doctor and
he's very descriptive. Yeah, good times. Wow, this has been fascinating.
I'm very upset that you said, Eric princess name get
(29:33):
you get a little little rage spike every down and
that motherfucker comes into something adrenaline rush. Yeah. Well live
doodled this entire page. There's not an inch left. Then,
I think it's time for y'all to plug your plugables.
You can check us out at Patreon dot com, slash
some more news. That's where we are, and on other
places like other places like the Twitter, Twitter, same name, YouTube,
(29:57):
same name. I'm Katie Stole with k A t y.
My Twitter's Dr Mr Cody Yes. On Twitter dot com,
I'm Robert Evans. Sophie's not in the room right now.
She had to leave, so I'm probably gonna just wild
dog the rest of these plugs all right, Twitter and
Instagram and at bastards pot. If you want to support
to social media sites that are terrible, I'm on there
(30:19):
a lot because I'm a gigantic hypocrite. If you want
to buy a T shirt which does not cause massive problems,
in the nation in the world. You can go to
t public dot com. We also have cups uh stickers
we sell uh. I always throw a joke in about
my place of my fried right now. We don't sell
(30:40):
peace of mind. It's unattainable at any christ my friend. Yeah,
I don't pretend I said something funny about that. I
don't have anything funny. Go to t public and buy
a thing. Behind the Bastards Public we have a website
Behind the Bastard's dot com where you can read all
the sources for this super fun episode. You can find
me on Twitter at I right. Oh yeah, I already
plug the funcket Twitter podcast. Who whoa? That was the
(31:06):
end of the episode. That, yeah, things really go off
the rails and stuff. It's gonna do it. H m
M hm, Hey everybody, I'm Robert Evans. That was another
classic terrible introduction to Behind the Bastards, the show where
we tell you everything you don't know about the very
worst people in all of history. And my guests today
are Katie Johnston. We've been talking for two hours so
(00:24):
and Katie still I am frazzled and have been reading
paper for two an hour talking. I mean we're tired.
You must this is the right Yeah, you're still sick.
I still feel fine. You guys are the patrons of
the some more news network Patreon, uh, and today we're
(00:45):
going to be talking about a subject that we should
be exhausted and a little bit frazzled to talk about.
You guys, remember that go fund me to try to
build that wall dollars. Now, if you paid attention to
sort of like the way that was presented on social media,
it was dumb. Rubes paid raised twenty million dollars to
build the wall, and then go fund me were funded
(01:07):
at all. That's not what happened. What happened is terrible
and frustrating. We're gonna get into that, but first we're
going to get into the guy behind that campaign, Brian Colefage.
On Tuesday, October eleventh, two eighteen, Facebook deleted eight and
ten pages from their site for quote inauthentic behavior. Some sites,
(01:29):
like Newsweek, we're quick to comment about the bias of
this purge. Quote Newsweek's title is Facebook biased against conservatives?
Right wing news? Other fake news sites taken down. American Thinker,
another conservative site, echoed this angle. Facebook's midterm purge of
conservative pages well under way now. While most of the
outrage came from the right, both left wing and right
(01:50):
wing sites were deleted wholesale, and in true Facebook fashion,
the purges seemed to have been a mix of legitimately
toxic bullshit being axed and also legitimate activist pages being
deleted because they ran a foul of an algorithm. Because again,
it's Facebook. They don't think about anything they do. They do.
Even if they're trying to do a good thing, they're
going to do it in the dumbest way. Abso yeah, yeah,
(02:10):
we promise we will do the right thing the wrong way.
Eventually is the face and algorithm do it? Can machine thoughts? Yeah?
Here's the Guardian quote and a statement posted to its
online newsroom. Facebook says it purge these pages because their
owners were using fake accounts, sharing the same content between
multiple pages, and linking to add supported websites. It calls
(02:30):
add farms, but what the social network called spam, the
owners of these pages called standard up procedures for operating
on Facebook. Nearly all the page owners contacted by the
Guardians say they use backup or fake accounts along with
their real ones. They do it in part to protect
themselves from being targeted by political opponents and having their
real accounts end up in Facebook jail, says Edward Lynn,
the editor in chief of Reverb Press, a left leaning
(02:50):
news side whose Facebook page disappeared yesterday. Now The Guardian
talked to left wing and right wing content makers who
believe they had been unfairly targeted. One of those people
was and cole Fage Quote Brian cole Fage, another disabled
veteran who administered the right wing news page, as well
as three other conservative pages that were removed, says his
organization worked closely with Facebook. He showed copies of emails
(03:11):
with a Facebook executive in which he tried to set
up a meeting to talk about how his pages could
adhere to the networks evolving policies regarding political content. The
meeting was abruptly canceled. A week later, his pages were gone.
I've talked with Facebook maybe fifty times in the last months,
he says, not once. Did they ever say we broke
any rules or did something wrong. If they had an issue,
they could have brought it up. We had a really
(03:31):
close working relationship. That's why this whole thing is a
complete shock. Now. Brian cole Fage will again be our
subject today. If you don't recognize his name immediately when
he's he's the guy behind build the Wall, Go fund
me now. In two eighteen, the website Media Matters launched
a study evaluating four hundred and sixty three prominent political
Facebook pages from January to July of that year. They
(03:53):
found that images posted on right wing pages did better
than any other kind of political content. A follow up
study on twenty six right meme generating pages found that
Facebook's algorithm changes tended to boost their traffic rather than
reduce it. On August thirty one, eighteen, Media Matters published
another study with the goal of tracking major narratives pushed
by these meme pages and identifying the pages most responsible
(04:14):
for spreading the sort of misinformation. The study heavily implicated
in network of sites focused around Brian Colefage's right wing
News quote. One Facebook network used pro Trump groups run
by fake news sites to push its content through right
wing circles. Five pages tied to the far right website
right wing News each post of the exact same engagement
bait meme calling for the cancelation of the TV show
(04:36):
the view in light of Roseanne's cancelation, within about an
hour of each other. The most popular post in this
batchhead over seven hundred thousand interactions. Between the five page posts,
the meme earned almost one point three million interactions. Three
pages in the same network shared the most popular post
from the Trump Republic later that night and in an
additional forty one seven hundred interactions. Right Wing News also
pushed this meme through its Facebook group and a now
(04:57):
deleted post. The personal account of Amanda Shay, who runs
two of right wing news pages, shared the most popular
post from right wing News is batch of memes into
the group President Donald Trump Official All Caps LLC with
a static text calling for a boycott of ABC. The
post got over eight thousand, four hundred interactions before it
was deleted. The group President Donald Trump Official LLC was
(05:18):
originally started by right Wing News is official Facebook page.
Six of the group's twelve administrators are pages that are
part of the right wing news networks. Amanda Chet's personal account,
along with the personal account of administrators and moderators to
the group, regularly pushes post from right wing News as
network of pages to the President Donald Trump Official LLC
groups a hundred and eighty three thousand plus members. So
we're building this something here. There were several large networks
(05:40):
of right wing meme and fake news generating pages. Right
Wing News, run by Cole fag was the center of
one of these networks. They all reinforced each other, creating
a never ending font of viral content. So the one
Roseanne related meme that right Wing News posted earned nearly
one point six million interactions solely from circulating through these networks,
Like you could get something an enormous amount of content,
(06:03):
and the main goal seems to have been driving ad revenue,
because they would have ads on these pages would make
a shipload of money. Now, when Facebook purged all these pages,
it seemingly wiped out Brian Cofage's digital empire. He responded
in the way of all aggrieved parties in the twenty
first century, using go fund me to raise money for
a court case. I'm not a conservative. I'm not a liberal.
(06:23):
I'm an American with deep beliefs in what our country
stands for. I proved this by vowing to protect and
fighting for America's greatest tenant, free speech. Many Americans have
fought for these political freedoms, freedom of speech, and every
American has enjoyed those freedoms until today. On October eleventh,
two eighteen, Facebook shutdown thousands of Facebook accounts for their
political opinions, saying an effect that they don't have a
(06:44):
legitimate political argument. Stop social media censorship now, until today,
until everything now. Over the last two months, this campaign
has gained almost seven four thousand dollars if it's a
hundred thousand dollar goal. In the campaign, Brian talks up
(07:04):
his military credentials and his story is pretty incredible. Quote
from Brian, I'm a veteran of the United States Air Force.
I was severely wounded in combat. Combat is capitalized, not
with a camp four while serving in Iraq. I lost
both my legs entirely in my right hand. I'm the
most severely wounded US airmen to survive. You'll hear that
(07:24):
line a lot with any points out most severely wounded
US airmen. Maybe it's true, but like it's hard, you
can't quantify most, like it's the guy that loses two
hands and one leg less severely, Like yeah, Tammy Duckworth
can't walk, Yeah, exactly. You know. It's it's legitimately horrifying
injury that he suffered. Hard to imagine going through that.
(07:45):
But he's also really done a good job of painting
himself out, making lemons out of lemonade. He's the most
severely injured, and the buck stopped there was free speech. Yeah,
he was the he was the first guys been threatened.
Now also when he knows he was severely wounded in combat,
you kind of debate that too, because in other videos
(08:06):
he said he was on an air base when this happened.
A hundred and seven millimeter rocket landed a couple of
feet away from him and blew him up. He's heading
to the gym, um. I mean, you could argue, I guess,
and I think for the purpose of like getting an
award for something like this, like you get your shot
at by the enemy or whatever, like, I'm not gonna
split hairs with a guy who lost three limbs. But again,
(08:29):
you can kind of see what he's going for. On
his website, Brian Cole Fage motivational veteran speaker, there is
a picture of him severely wounded in the hospital with
a guy laying a purple heart on his chest. It
is the main picture of the website. This is like
the front page of his site as him severely wounded
in a gurney. So that's him, and then that's his medal. Yeah,
(08:49):
that's his medal. Now, it is hard to imagine someone
getting injured worse than Brian cole Flag and surviving. He
said about his injury quote, I was fully conscious after
my friends rolled me over my back, remember every detail
like it was yesterday. I wasn't in any pain at first.
I remember being pissed because I knew what had happened
and how it happened. I looked at my hand and
it was hanging by skin like it had been shoot off.
My hand was folded backwards and hanging. I tried looking
(09:11):
at my legs, but my friend, Senior Airman Cortez, put
his hand over my eyes so I wouldn't see. I
told him to just get me home. Once he got home,
Quofage had to relearn virtually everything about day to day life,
from how to tie his shoes to how to do
everything else we do that's not shoe tying. Brian's story
is undoubtedly harrowing, and the rather spectacular nature of his
survival and recovery ensured that he would get work as
(09:31):
a sort of inspirational figure. He's been on Anderson Cooper,
He's met George W. Bush, he's done photo ops with
Mike Huckabee, he's won awards, and he's pretty plugged into
a certain corner of the conservative media ecosystem. But he's
also never been quite mainstream. So Brian still in progress.
Go fund me to fight Facebook made vague promises about
his access to the Trump inner circle. In an update,
(09:53):
he posted quote, we're talking with a major law firm
who worked with the Trump transition team, and they are
now assisting us in moving ahead on our legal case
and also getting Zuckerberg hauled back into a Senate Congress
hearing so Americans can hold him accountable. Your donations will
be used to jump start the legal proceedings. Against Facebook. Now,
I want to note right now that this is not
Brian's first go fund me. His first go fund me
(10:13):
was made in two thousand fifteen, and its goal was
to support what he called a veteran mentorship program. In
the original Facebook post for that, he claims, quote, my
wounded warrior mentor engagement program was created after Obama slashed
military spending. Up to that point, the U. S Military
would fund my trips to visit wounded warriors who needed
a little motivation. When doctor saw a patient struggling, they
reached out to me and I donate my time to
(10:34):
put these vets back on track. So he claimed to
have deals in place with Walter Reid, laun Stool and
other official military hospitals. His campaign raised sixteen thousand, two
hundred and forty six dollars. BuzzFeed confirmed through go fund
me that all of these funds went directly to Brian
cole Faje. I have not found any information on his
(10:54):
mentorship programs since, although just based on what he promised,
going out and hanging with wounded vets who are buddies
of his on occasion would technically qualify. BuzzFeed reached out
to all of the medical centers call fage named. None
of them had any agreements in place with him or
had ever heard of his mentorship program. Sure BuzzFeed actually
published the best article I found on this guy. It's
(11:16):
titled I Felt Dirty. Former employees of veteran crowdfunding Trump's
Wall say he pushed fake news to get rich. The
article does not paint a positive picture of Brian cole Foch.
Lindsay Lowery, who wrote under the alias Prissy Holly, wrote
for a cool Fasch's main site, Freedom Daily. Quote. After
I started challenging some of his business decisions that I
felt were reckless for the company and for my career,
(11:36):
the real Brian emerged. Everything is only about his war
hero persona and money. If there's a perceived slight on
his part, he viciously attacks people and in my case,
tries to destroy their life and livelihood. Now in their conversations,
he claimed to run a multimillion dollar business, which may
well have been true. He also advised her on how
to gin up fake stories for outrage clicks. Quote. Former
employees told BuzzFeed News that col fag instructed his crew
(11:58):
to produce Facebook content to more flagrantly convey a false narrative,
and one instance photoshopping former President Obama's head onto another
body to make it appear as though he was having
an affair with the caption breaking Obama Busted video leaked.
You'll love this one, he texted employees during a conversation
about manipulating images. Um, yeah, You're free speech is being silenced, bro,
(12:20):
I mean that makes me so angry. It's really gross,
and it's it's one of these things like the people
BuzzFeed are talking to we're all fine writing for far
right hill pages, so like, oh yeah, no, I mean,
and were like, yeah, that's part of what we did. Yeah,
we'd create these fake things. Knowingly pushing the fake stuff
is like really, it makes me insane. And there's some
(12:43):
stuff I left out about her, like accusing him of
going after her and her husband and stuff, because it's
just like, I just don't know how credible you are,
but it's not. I can't. But I'm not gonna feel
sorry for you. Right, you had a job lying and
now you're you know, the person that you were working with.
Yeah you know, you know, Yeah, You're job is to
breaking Obama Busted. But which I guess that was a
(13:05):
line too far for them, right, But like, yeah, even
like knowingly photos shopping it. It's not even like we're
misrepresenting it accidentally or like we heard it from somebody else.
Like no, it's gonna make up something, put it out
there like they're one of the biggest. There's such a
big problems. So yeah, how do you get people to
(13:28):
stop focusing on that and stop believing it? You can't anyway, Yeah,
or well was right that people just want to spend
some time every day hating something, Yeah, with other people,
and Facebook has made that easier than ever. Thanks Mark,
Thank you, Mark, You're really you're gonna do Hey, remember
when Mark Zuckerberg was touring the country because he thought
he was going to run for president. I'm glad we've
(13:51):
shut that. I feel like the whole country got unified
for a second, to be like we all hate each other,
but no, no, no, no, absolutely, under no circumstances. We
can't agree on whether or not we should be one country,
but we're all agreed. That's not okay. Oh god, what
(14:13):
if we could just turn him into like the kind
of like alien invasion that we need to unify human
What if we all eat Mark Zuckerberg eat eat. Yeah,
Like it's like the exidential crisis of climate change or
something like that could do it. But I think eating
Mark zucker it might be an easier we can all
get on board that. Maybe. Yeah, I mean I feel
(14:38):
like that's ethical consumption under capitalism. Eating Mark Zuckerberg. It's
not like he's going to taste like meat. No, we're
not doing it for the flavor he has, eat my
human meat. No, yeah, that's exactly how we'd say, Oh, Mark, Okay,
So we're going to get back to the rest of
Brian cole Flage's story and how it gets way more
(15:00):
sinister than I had guessed west of this research. But
first products and services. Maybe here's some ads, and we're back.
We're talking about Brian cole Fage. Now, Brian ran a
(15:23):
constellation of sites. The Guardian was definitely off when they
said he only had three, at least ten, probably more
like dozens more. These pages had names like Patriot Nation
and right wing News. Every page was boosting and sharing
what went up on every other page. Co Fage claimed
you have purchased one page with a reach of one
million people per week for a hundred thousand dollars. He
(15:44):
seems to have started hiring people in two thousand and sixteen,
paying two dollars per thousand clicks on Facebook, which was
seen as a good rate by the employees interviewed. It's
hard to say just how many pages he operated or
how much money he made. It was enough to drive
twenty million page views to his website Freedom Daily and
one month in two thousand seventeen, or at least according
to BuzzFeed, which was about three thousand dollars in monthly
(16:05):
ad revenue on just that website. He's making money off
of the revenue of this stuff on Facebook. He has
other websites. He's potentially making millions of dollars a year
doing this, at least he was until his revenue stream
from Freedom Daily was cut off in March two. Yeah,
well that was later. That was when Facebook was sounds
(16:25):
his website Freedom Freedom Daily was cut off in March
of eighteen. He was NBC News explaining why. Quote. The
shuttering of kofass sites came a month after Michigan man
Joel van vangele Huge sued Freedom Daily and other right
wing sites from misidentifying him as the driver of the
car that plowed into a group of peaceful protesters at
a two thousand seventeen white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
(16:46):
The Freedom Daily article relied on an image board four
Chan as its major source. According to a letter provided
by the court by the contributor named in the suit, yep, yep, yeah,
so he lost his websites before he lost his face books.
Um good good yeah uh NBC quote. The site often
(17:07):
trafficked and false, inflammatory and racist content, including headlines like
obnoxious black people lose their minds when Victoria's secret model
says this one word on live video, and Trump just
released embarrassing VIDs of Obama's Muslim friends that he never
wanted seen. I hate it really really gross, really gross. Yeah.
(17:28):
So the website is currently defunct, and it does seem
that Facebook sweep succeeded and, if not wiping out, severely
damaging Brian co Faj's empire of bullshit. Co Fash himself
is permanently banned from Facebook due to both his manipulation
of their system and a number of harassment complaints smiled
against him. Now that all went down in the middle
of October. On December six, that same year, Brian cole
(17:48):
Fas created the fundraiser for Donald Trump's long promised wall.
It quickly went viral and then viral or. The goal
this time was to raise one billion dollars. Co fa
planed to have. Didn't realize how much money that was,
did you. Brian co Fag claimed to have some vague
connection to the Trump administration who had assured him that
there was a way the government could take the money.
So his promise at the beginning was I'm not getting
(18:10):
a dime of this, A hundred percent of it is
going to the government. On January eleven, two thou nineteen,
after raising well over twenty million dollars from threety six thousand,
two d and thirty seven donors, Brian co Fag posted
an update and I created the viral campaign that raised
over twenty million dollars for the Southern border wall. And
(18:31):
it's only possible because of your donation. So thank you.
But do you really think the Democrats and Congress will
take the money you donated and put it towards the
Southern border wall? I doubt it. That's why we are
changing our mission from we fund the wall, so we
build the wall, and we the people can build the wall.
We consulted with our nation as leading experts on border
(18:53):
security and construction. There's hundreds of miles of private land
along the border. To continue this mission, we need you
to opt in so that your donation counts. The one
thing I learned from being a triple amputee is that
anything is possible. We the people can build the wall,
but I need your help. If you're sick and tired
(19:14):
of Democrats holding national security over our heads, opt in now.
We build the wall, and we can start now. We'll
be getting the opt in in a second. Wait a minute,
privately build the wall. Yeah, you're gonna have to. That's
people's land. Like I have to say, what I'm about
(19:35):
to explain is actually a kind of genius con It's not.
He's not a dumb man. Give him credit for that.
So below the video, in the text on the go
fund me update, he admits offhandedly that the federal government
won't be able to take donations quote anytime soon. Notice
in the video he says, the Democrats you just wouldn't
spend on the Yeah, Caflage Braggs quote are highly experienced.
(19:57):
Team is highly confident that we can complete significant segments
of the wall and less time for less money than
the federal government. So he opened a new site, We
Build the Wall, where he solicits donations for We Build
the Wall, Inc. The idea he very much puts across
on the go fund Me page is that they're just
raising the funds in a different area because they can't
donate directly to the government anymore, and that was part
(20:18):
of the original promise. Now, the way this became framed
in news reports was that go fund Me was refunding
all of the donations. That's not what's happening. They are
giving people until April to opt in and transfer their
donations to We Build the Wall in. So you do
have to opt in in order to transfer the donations,
but it is not a straight refund. So here's how
(20:42):
We Build the Wall, Inc. Describes their mission quote, Our
mission is to unite private citizens that share a common
belief in providing national security for our souven border through
the construction, administration, and maintenance of physical barriers inhibiting a
legal entry into the United States, and interpreting the purpose
of the corporation. The Board of Directors and members of
the Advisory Board will consider the impact of a prose
structure on a selected sites and environment, and construct effective
(21:04):
barriers primarily designed to prevent illegal access to the United States.
We will focus on building portions of the US Southern
Border Wall and managed support operations required four and the
processes associated with the design, engineering, construction, and maintenance of
the wall. Now, this is officially a five oh one
C four. Do you guys know anything about five oh
(21:25):
one C fours? I came across something interesting about the
mono legal blog I found because I didn't know much
about this either. So I'm gonna quote from this legal blog,
which is run by a nonprofit legal aid group, and
this this article is from July sixteen. Quote. The Treasury
Department announced to change in the regulations making it no
longer necessary for five one C four and one C
(21:47):
six organizations to disclose the identities of their donors on
their annual information returns to the i r S. The
concern with the elimination of the disclosure requirement, however, is
that more dark money will flow through one C four
social welfare organis stations like the n r A. Yeah.
So this same blog, which is part of a nonprofit
called the Neo Law Group published another fun article in
(22:07):
January of two eighteen. They called it a prediction for
nonprofits in two thousand eighteen rise of the five oh
one C four and then, to quote another exert from that,
we'll see an increase in the number of five one
C four social welfare organizations being formed and receiving contributions.
While contributions to five O one C four organizations are
not deductible as charitable contributions, this won't matter to many
(22:29):
donors for two major reasons. With the increase in the
standard deduction, there will be a substantial reduction in the
number of taxpayers who itemize their deductions. This means that
the vast majority, possibly nine of taxpayers, will get no
tax benefits from making a charitable contribution to a five
O one C three charitable organization. The Tax Cuts and
Jobs Act did not eliminate the charitable contribution deduction, but
(22:51):
the act made the deduction useless for all but a
small number of taxpayers. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimates
that charitable contributions will decline by about twelve point three
billion to nineteen point seven billion per year as a
result of the change. Because five oh one c four
organizations can engage in unlimited lobbying and further into of
their social welfare purposes. And because they can use their
(23:11):
resources to support or oppose political candidates, they have greater
flexibility and potential power to affect social change than three organizations.
So that is the kind of organization Brian cole Fage
has founded. That's some bullshit, has some bullshit, Mark smart guy.
Go fund me has confirmed that so far of the
(23:34):
Wall's original donors have responded and of those have opted
in rolling their money into this new venture, we Build
the Wall, Inc. But is he going to keep that?
Seems like not the way It's not the way it's
been presented. It seems like Brian went from go fund me,
(23:55):
a platform that's very tries to be pretty open about
how the money that gets raised on it gets spent
in a platform would have held him accountable to a
platform to where he is completely unaccountable for how the
money is spent, and both in the mission statement and
in the legal operation about five oh one c four.
He could use that money to build a wall, or
you could justify, well, I'm going to spend it putting
in donations to political candidates will help the wall get mad,
and that's how will further the wall. As long as
(24:19):
it has to do with the wall. As long as
it has to do with the wall, it's going to
pay for my life as I try to get the wall. Bell. Yeah,
of course that counts. That is something else. That is
something guy now, uh yeah, I mean here's this is
a start. Now. Brian still uses that twenty million dollar
(24:42):
raised number on its site. Here's one of his tweets
by Amanda Shay, who you may recognize from that Media
Matters report was also a big part of his fake
news Facebook network, and its first month, Weld the Wall
link has raised over twenty five million from five thousand
opt in today. Badly photoshop picture of Donald up giving
a thumbs up at the wall. Great tweet, great tweet
(25:03):
that they were like, it was like twenty almost that's
a fourth of a billion dollars. I saw a lot
of people say that we're on our way. They only
needed million dollars. Now we build the wall. In has
joy of Joyce released the names of their team members.
(25:23):
You can get some of the names on this list.
Tom tan Credo, former congressman and failed presidential candidate sheriff
David Clark, former Kansas Secretary of State, Chris Kobach, some
guy named Dustin, and Eric Prince. This is a real
(25:44):
I am not kidding you like that. Don't allow that.
That's yeah. We talked about Betty often of Yeah, we
just did a k episode before recording this the world. Yeah, wow,
(26:08):
So it's Dustin. He's just some guy. He's like right
in between Chris Kobak and Eric Prince. I think he's
he's gonna he just isn't anyone famous. He's just a
dude named Dustin. The team dust he has a last name,
doesn't called the man. They called me the old Man.
(26:31):
I don't know what's going to happen, but I am
certain we are all going to be hearing about this
fun scam slash multimillion dollar five of one C four
in the very near future and probably during the shocking. Yeah.
I'm definitely going to tell people on our podcast come
listen to all of your episodes. But like this is
I don't give a ship. If you guys want to
(26:51):
report the same thing, I'll send you my notes. It's
fucked up and people should know about five years before. Yeah. Well,
we'll talk about it, and we'll say we talked about
it in depth, but like, yeah, yeah, the news really
fell down on the job of reporting. What the funk
went Prince and David Clark with an extra at least
(27:17):
around eight to ten million dollars. Yeah, that's like, I mean,
that's spitting money for Eric Prince. But I still don't
want him to have it. But like it sounds made up,
Like what you're describing is like but that's like some
someone would make that up to say like, oh, this
is our situation. No, no, no, it's just reality. This
is just reality. Dang, fun on the bone. I haven't
(27:41):
waiting for you to to uh be Like, by the way,
he was never even like in the Middle he was
in the military. He got horribly injured in Iraq. I
do think he's kind of fudging a little bit when
he says it's a capital C combat injury. But that's debatable.
It's not debatable that it was a horrific horrific But again,
(28:03):
well he was going to battle with his abs at
the gym. Ye, the battle with his abs at the gym.
I'm not trying to I'm not. Also, no, he's a
legitimate like guy who went to war and was horribly injured.
Nothing about that I've ever read seems exaggerated. It's probably
an asshole before the war too. Just I mean maybe
not traumatic brain injuries realities, And it's hard to imagine
(28:27):
getting hit by a rocket at that range and not
having a traumatic brain injury. And it can change people's
personalities dramatically. All right, Well that's a slightly kinder push.
On a fun note, I read a neat article recently
about a guy named Doctor Rapp who was an elderly
white neuro doctor like brain doctor, who had a series
(28:47):
of minor strokes and started rhyming things and then started
hanging out and like a chunk of Los Angeles where
there was like nightly rap battles and just became like
a fixture of the rap scene in l A for
years and it was like like professional rap art us
and stuff, and was like everybody loved him. He was
just he was Dr Rapp with two piece being made. No,
but there's like a documentary that that talks about it
and stuff. It's amazing. Yeah, it's really call himself doctor Stroke.
(29:13):
Well pretty good too, Yeah, I mean doctor Strokes definitely
cooler sounding Yeah, yeah, you know, but then again, Dr
Rablets you know what he does mean a doctor and
he's very descriptive. Yeah, good times. Wow, this has been fascinating.
I'm very upset that you said, Eric princess name get
(29:33):
you get a little little rage spike every down and
that motherfucker comes into something adrenaline rush. Yeah. Well live
doodled this entire page. There's not an inch left. Then,
I think it's time for y'all to plug your plugables.
You can check us out at Patreon dot com, slash
some more news. That's where we are, and on other
places like other places like the Twitter, Twitter, same name, YouTube,
(29:57):
same name. I'm Katie Stole with k A t y.
My Twitter's Dr Mr Cody Yes. On Twitter dot com,
I'm Robert Evans. Sophie's not in the room right now.
She had to leave, so I'm probably gonna just wild
dog the rest of these plugs all right, Twitter and
Instagram and at bastards pot. If you want to support
to social media sites that are terrible, I'm on there
(30:19):
a lot because I'm a gigantic hypocrite. If you want
to buy a T shirt which does not cause massive problems,
in the nation in the world. You can go to
t public dot com. We also have cups uh stickers
we sell uh. I always throw a joke in about
my place of my fried right now. We don't sell
(30:40):
peace of mind. It's unattainable at any christ my friend. Yeah,
I don't pretend I said something funny about that. I
don't have anything funny. Go to t public and buy
a thing. Behind the Bastards Public we have a website
Behind the Bastard's dot com where you can read all
the sources for this super fun episode. You can find
me on Twitter at I right. Oh yeah, I already
plug the funcket Twitter podcast. Who whoa? That was the
(31:06):
end of the episode. That, yeah, things really go off
the rails and stuff. It's gonna do it. H m
Behind the Bastards News
Host
Robert Evans
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!