The Grift Has a Grift, Man
Ninety million dollars. Zero wins. Now they charge you to explain why other people sold out. This aggression will not stand, man.
pours White Russian
So here’s the thing about the Never Trump media ecosystem that nobody wants to say out loud. These guys — and I say this as someone who’s been watching from the couch with a White Russian since approximately 2016 — these guys have a racket going, man. A pretty sweet racket.
The Lincoln Project raised ninety million dollars. Ninety. Million. Dollars. They lost every race they touched, paid roughly twenty-seven million of that to their own founders, and then — and this is the part that makes me spill my Kahlua — one of those founders now charges you eight bucks a month to explain why other people sold out.
Yeah, well. That’s just, like, your opinion, man. Except it’s also your credit card statement.
refreshes White Russian
And The Bulwark. Oh man. The Bulwark. They took left-wing philanthropic money to build a center-right publication for a left-leaning audience, sold it in 2021 for a hundred grand to a company more than thirty-five percent owned by their own publisher — who was, let’s be clear, also the publisher when they sold it — and now clear nine million dollars a year telling anxious liberals that some Republicans are still sane.
Am I wrong? AM I WRONG?
This is not ‘Nam. There are rules, man. You can’t be on both sides of the transaction and then charge people to watch you explain institutional integrity.
long pull on White Russian
Meanwhile Charlie Sykes left because of burnout from the daily hamster wheel — his words — and immediately got back on a daily hamster wheel. Just his own hamster wheel now. With his own wheel revenue.
Look. The Dude is not saying these people are wrong about Trump. Trump is bad, man. The Dude has been calmer than these guys about it and even the Dude knows Trump is bad.
But at some point you gotta ask: who’s the Big Lebowski here? Who’s the guy whose money turned out to be somebody else’s all along, standing there telling you the bums lost?
The rug tied the room together, man.
They peed on it and are now charging you for the cleaning.
The Dude abides.