Discussion: Trump Campaign Digital Director Will Be Interviewed By House Intel Committee

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What did he know, and when did he know it?

web design and digital marketing firm, Giles-Parscale, worked for the Trump campaign for 18 months and was reportedly paid $88 million

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Yawn. Wake me up when they subpoena voting machine manufacturers. Until that happens Republican’ts will continue illegally manipulating elections with no Russians required…

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I saw an interview with him…60 Minutes???..he’s pretty darn sharp. A true believer (of Trump) and arrogant but that’s ‘tech’.

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This guy went from hawking for clients in a bookstore (“Hey, you need a website??”) to being paid tens of millions of dollars by Trump. I’ve looked at a few of his websites and they look like they were created by a high school kid, many of them only one or two pages!

Fishy.

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What is this “interview” shtick? I want to see these people grilled! Grilled until they are completely charred.

(I realize they are “interviewed,” because they haven’t been subpoenaed, and it’s hard to get subpoenas from a committee given the Republican majority, but still…)

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The old Watergate addage still rings true: Follow the money. In this case, follow the Mercers (Cambridge Analytica).

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It looks like they found him at a tech firm catering to white supremacists.

Seriously though, $88 million for social media? How much social media content can be developed for $88 million over 18 months? How much of that found it’s way back into Trump pockets?

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Ding ding ding ding ding! We have a winner!

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Parscale seems more like a front for a different operation. Cambridge Analytica was the entity that stepped up the digital and data mining game for Trump. Kushner’s digital operation itself seems like a front for a large Russian intel operation to spread targeted disinformation.

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Could be interesting to break this down. I have a lot of SWdevelopment experience, both as a programmer and in middle management, you can get quite a lot of manpower for $88 Million.

A wild guess: A lot of the money went to ‘political Consultants’ of the Karl Rove kind…

One of the things I really miss (and I think there is book, for the right kind of journalist, to write) is to document the cashflows over one or more presidential campaigns.

Those who assist, say, a Herman Cain running for president, probably never saw him as a viable candidate, but more like a prey to suck dry for cash, before they dropped him.

A lot of the expenditures for stuff like e.g. advertisments, are pretty flexible, meaning rich opportunities for kick-backs etc.

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When your “interview” consists of being questioned by an ill-tempered staff lawyer while a transcriptionist takes down your answers and lying is a crime even if you didn’t take an oath, and you don’t know what they already know, it’s not a friendly chat.

That’s my understanding of how these “interviews” work.

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Almost like the business is a front of some kind?

Hmnn…

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I just had to do the math, $88 M is $4.8 M a month, that’s insane. What was the size of his staff? Where did he work from? And most importantly how many protesters/supporters did that buy?

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I think that is more or less the correct analysis. I tend to agree with Josh on this one, this guy isn’t the guy pulling the strings.

But he is probably a guy way over his head, acting as a front, and thus susceptible to making mistakes during questioning.

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Weird, I did not realize Parscale was so anchored here in San Antonio. I was looking through his wiki and surprised to find his father was part of NewTek. Not significant unless you are in to video processing and graphics or an Amiga fan. Must have been interesting growing up around that company.

And what is with the weird beard? I never get the beards.

I hate the beard thing with a passion. They look stupid - which means I’m old since they apparently appeal to the young but god knows why.

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Well I have a beard, but it is trimmed when it begins to look like I am down to the last bit of jerky stored up for the winter and I can’t get to my traps because the snow is too high. These weird old world type beards and the fastidiousness involved with them throw me. With the short hair and the this pontoon of facial hair, Parscale looks like he should be crawling out of a mud hut in Russia in the 1800s.

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That’s different. I like trimmed beards myself but I don’t like the no mustache chin fringe half way down the chest.

Sorry didn’t mean to hurt any beard wearer’s feelings. We have friends with very sexy beards. It just depends on the beard.

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