The Whirled turns 15 today

 

We haven't had a Quinceañera (fifteenth birthday) celebration on this Whirled in years. The previous gala, in June of 2013, celebrated the fifteenth anniversary of the former Bernd Klein of the Republic of Germany getting his new name, Leonard Coldwell. So actually... it was a Quinceañera for a name, which not only is terribly silly but, I'll acknowledge, is probably also a grievous example of cultural appropriation, for which I hope I may be forgiven. By any name, Bernd/Lenny is one of the stupidest and most evil men that most of the world has never heard of (a man so unimportant that even a blogger whose blog was totally dedicated to his stupidity and evil got bored with him several years ago)... but I digress.

With the current Whirled celebration, I am committing yet another act of cultural appropriation, but for what I think is a much better cause: to commemorate the fifteenth birthday of Whirled Musings, which was launched on July 27, 2006. I've marked the anniversary every year here, sometimes with a brief mention and other times a more extended rumination about the history and purpose of this endeavor. Regarding said history and purpose, I've said pretty much everything that I think needs to be said, and don't feel compelled to say it all again, but for anyone who's curious, this page 'splains it all.

Being nothing if not redundant, though, I'll repeat a Quinceañera-related anecdote that I published on my June 2013 post, and on Facebook, and probably on other posts here as well. So here we go again.

The Quinceañera -- pronounced KEEN-say-ahn-YEH-ra -- is a lovely tradition, usually held for girls on their fifteenth birthday. It's kind of like a Sweet Sixteen party, but a year early. Marking a young girl's passage into womanhood, it is a time when the honoree is truly a princess-for-a-day. Done properly, a Quinceañera is nearly as elaborate (and expensive) as a wedding, and some girls do choose a white wedding-ish gown for their special day.

In fact, a few months ago at my favorite country auction, there was a Quinceañera doll on the block. More than likely she was intended as a table centerpiece for a Quinceañera party. (Yes, I know I've told this story before on Facebook and possibly here as well, but I'm afraid you'll have to hear it again.) At first I thought the little figure to be a bride doll, because she was decked in a gorgeous white gown. But then I looked at the sash the doll was wearing, which read, "Mis Quince Años." (Mis Quince años (pr. MEES KEEN-say AHN-yos) literally translates to "My Fifteen Years," and is of course a reference to one's fifteenth birthday.)

I thought nothing more about it till much later on when, half asleep, I heard the twangy, Texas-accented voice of the obviously Spanish-impaired auction floor assistant holler out:

"Miss Quint's anus!"

Startled into full wakefulness, I looked up and saw that he was holding the Mis Quince Años doll high up in the air. There were a few shocked faces in the audience; no one who was paying attention knew quite what to make of it. But others, like me, were trying heroically to suppress their mirth. Said the dapper British auctioneer, who was clearly trying to stifle his laughter, "Um, what was that again?"

"Miss Quint's anus!"

A few in the audience tittered. Confused, the poor floor guy said, "Hey, don't blame me. That's what it says on the doll's ribbon!"

Once the confusion was cleared up, the proceedings continued, but alas, there were no buyers for Miss Quint or her anus. I kind of felt sorry for both of them.

That certainly wasn't the first and won't be the last time I write about assholes on this blog, of course.

I want to thank my three or four regular readers for your continued reading over the years, even when I got redundant and obsessive and boring, which is probably more often than even I am willing to admit. I especially want to thank everyone who posted comments over the years, even the ones blasting me for any number of [imaginary] sins. I most especially want to thank those of you who have made monetary donations to this blog. They're always appreciated, even more so now. If you'd like to help Whirled Musings celebrate its fifteenth birthday, here's a handy link to do just that. Whether you donate or not, thank you for visiting.

 

 

Colleen Conaway: twelve years since her death at a James Arthur Ray event

Another year has gone by... and we've reached yet another sad anniversary.

On July 25, 2009, 46-year-old Colleen Conaway died during a San Diego event held by New-Wage/McSpirituality guru James Arthur "Death" Ray, of whom Colleen was a devoted follower. She plummeted to her death from an upper-level balcony of a San Diego mall during one of Ray's weekend "wealth creation" seminars, and when Ray and his top people discovered she was missing, and later learned of her death, they kept it under wraps and partied on.

Ray was later convicted of negligent homicide, not for Colleen's death but for the October 2009 deaths of three other people -- Kirby Brown, James Shore, and Liz Neuman -- in a phony and dangerous sweat lodge in Sedona, Arizona. He served less than two years in an Arizona state prison, and has been spending the time since he got out of prison trying desperately to make a comeback in Scamworld.

Today marks the 12th anniversary of Colleen's death. If you want more information, start with the post I published in 2019, on the 10th anniversary. I included a number of external links, including to content by bloggers who have told Colleen's story much more comprehensively than I have.

In that 2019 post I wrote about the connection between Ray and the Transformational Leadership Council, or TLC, aka the Trained Liars Cartel, a group of "elite" New-Wage/McSpirituality "thought leaders" who meet semi-annually, in late January and late July, at some desirable resort location. (Well, except for the past two meetings anyway, due most likely to the pandemic: the location for the July 2020 and the January 2021 gathering was listed simply as "Earth," so it was probably a Zoom meeting.) The most recent meeting began July 21 and wraps up today, according to the TLC schedule page, though the location has yet to be revealed on the TLC web site. I'm guessing... um... Earth again.

It was at a 2005 TLC meeting in Aspen, Colorado, Aussie film that producer Rhonda Byrne shot most of her infamous moviemercial, The Secret... and the rest is Scamworld History. At that time, Ray was a TLC member and so he became a "star" of The Secret, which shot him to new heights of fame and infamy, ultimately leading to the deaths of four people and the injuries of many more. I'm wondering if the TLC will have a tribute to Colleen during their wrap-up meeting today... but I'm guessing not.

As for Ray, these days he is (still) branding himself as "One of the World's Foremost Leadership and Redemption Advisors," explaining his qualifications thusly:

Because of his experience in building from humble beginnings and scratch, as well as rebuilding after hitting rock bottom post terrible crises, James has the unique experience and ability to help those at the top, those on the climb, and those who must put their life back together to get up and climb again.

It's too bad that Colleen Conaway -- and Kirby Brown, James Shore, and Liz Neuman -- won't have the opportunity to put their lives back together.

Never forget.

Serial scammer Kevin Trudeau: new websites, same old hustle

Kevin Trudeau's loyal water carriers (aka "virtual full-time volunteers" who serve him "with joy and honor") want you to send him money now -- as much as you possibly can -- to support him once his prison sentence is complete in May of 2022. And they're working hard to convince you that even though Kevin could most assuredly make zillions of dollars solely from his genius and his incredible marketing skills, as he has done numerous times before, he now intends to focus all of his energy on selflessly serving humanity -- so naturally, he needs humanity to serve him by paying for his basic and not-so-basic needs. Don't buy it.

If you're wondering what previously imprisoned/currently on "home confinement" serial scammer Kevin Trudeau, aka KT, aka Katie on this Whirled, has been up to lately, you're not alone. He hasn't been in the news very much lately, or even on most of the blogs. But I haven't forgotten him.

Periodically I've been checking The Official Kevin Trudeau Fan Club page on Facebook, looking for updates, and for several months the most recent post was from the pseudonymous "Rahelios," dated February 14, 2021. The post simply listed links to "new material" on the Kevin Trudeau dot com site. But for months after that... nothing.

I'd heard buzz that one of the conditions of Trudeau's "home confinement" was that he stay off of social media. But in truth he hadn't actually been on social media himself while in actual prison; instead he had been conveying his propaganda through proxies ever since his pre-trial confinement in Chicago's Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC). What, I wondered, was to prevent him from continuing to do that while on "home confinement?"

It's a moot question now. I just checked in, and it appears that The Official Kevin Trudeau Fan Club page is active again, as of July 12, 2021. The page has a new look, including a logo that looks a lot like the old GIN (Global Information Network) seal, and "Rahelios" appears to be gone, but other than that... it's the same old song. The post seems to be a mission statement of sorts for the refurbed Facebook page, as well as an announcement/reminder that the KT Fan Club is an actual LLC.

The Official Kevin Trudeau Fan Club LLC was founded by two of Kevin Trudeau's loyal supporters including Tonya Canada

The Fan Club owners are long time students and supporters of Kevin who have benefited greatly from Kevin’s teachings. We have gone through most of Kevin’s Courses, Books, Seminars, and Workshops.

We have seen first hand how life changing Kevin’s training is, not only for ourselves, but for the thousands of people we have communicated with over the years whose lives are better because of their exposure to Kevin and his teachings.

We serve Kevin as virtual full-time volunteers with joy and honor. It is a privilege to help Kevin serve and achieve his mission of “Positively Impacting Humanity”.

The post is followed by some unabashedly supportive comments, which was to be expected, but one person had a question. She wrote, "Ok Tonya Canada is one of the supporters who founded this club. Who is the other supporter running this fan club? And how can we get in touch with them personally before contributing?"

The author of the original post simply replied with a contact link and explained that messages sent through the contact form go directly to Tonya. But there was nothing about who the other loyal supporter was -- an omission that I commented on myself.

I'm guessing the silence could be because that other loyal supporter is no longer a loyal supporter. And if I were to guess who it was, I'd probably say it's "Rahelios," who used to be so prolific on the Fan Club page and related sites, and I would further speculate that maybe the Fan Club just doesn't wanna talk about it. But hey, Tonya is still there to help carry Trudeau's water for him, so there's that. (Note to Tonya: It's not too late to wake up and get the hell out of the rabbit hole too. Do it for your family if not for yourself.)

At the end of the July 12 post is a link to a new web site, Kevin Trudeau Fan Club dot com, the main purpose of which is to recap The Myth of Saint Kevin the Fearless, First Amendment martyr, and to beg for money to support the sainted man once he is fully released. The header on the landing page, graced by what appears to be a newer pic of Kevin with somewhat grayer hair than most of us remember, reads:

Kevin Needs Your Help!

For over 30 Years Kevin Trudeau has been serving humanity by exposing corporate and government corruption, revealing secrets “THEY” don’t want you to know.

Kevin has been a fearless voice to the voiceless and has given power to the powerless.
For three decades the “Powers that Be” have been trying to silence and discredit Kevin by spreading misinformation, distorted facts, and outright lies.

In what is being called “The Greatest Injustice in American History”, the US Federal Government has put Kevin in prison for 10 years for “Contempt of Court”, as well as confiscated all of Kevin’s assets and possessions worldwide, leaving Kevin penniless. We believe this is because Kevin dared to go on TV and talk about his #1 NY Times bestselling books and express his opinions about natural ways to cure and prevent disease....

Actually, anybody who believes that Kevin was pursued and ultimately imprisoned by the Feds merely because he went on TV to express his opinions, etc. etc. is either uninformed, hopelessly naive, willfully blind, or stupid. But I digress. What really struck me was the phrase, "what is being called 'The Greatest Injustice in American History.'" Really?!? A greater injustice than slavery, greater than denying Blacks and women the right to vote for centuries, greater than the systemic racism that continues in America to this day, greater than the oppression of LGBTQ+ folks, greater than the internment of Japanese Americans in "camps" on American soil... and on and on and on and on? Greater than all of that?

But that definitely sounds like something Kevin would say about himself, knowing that his fawning followers will swallow it whole and regurgitate it on his cue.

The intro copy continues:

Kevin has served over seven and a half years in a US Federal Prison and is now on “Home Confinement” serving the remainder of his 10-year sentence.

Kevin has done so much for humanity and virtually risked his life by sharing insider information that “They” don’t want us to know about.

"Virtually" risked his life? How does one do that? Following that bold claim is a list of much of the recycled, rebranded misinformation on which Trudeau has been crapitalizing for decades.

But wait, there's more! You -- yes, you -- have a chance to "Become A PARTNER" With Kevin.

Everyone who gives a monetary gift to Kevin will be put on a special list called
“Friends of Kevin”.

As soon as Kevin has completed his “sentence", there will be a special event with Kevin, given exclusively for “Friends of Kevin". You will get to meet Kevin in person, shake his hand, and get a personal photo. Kevin will give you special “training” and many other
“gifts and blessings”.

When you give to Kevin and help him, you release “The Power of Giving”.  Kevin has taught on this subject and offers Free Lessons on this “magical” method of unleashing the attractive force of the Universe...

I think I know something about that "special event"... even though between now and release time, it could change a dozen times. But here's what I wrote about it early last year.

In case you're still just a little suspicious, given Kevin Trudeau's "lifetime of epic grift," as my blogging colleague Salty Droid once put it, fear not, for Kevin has Seen The Light. You can read all about it in a section bearing the bold subhead, Kevin can help you attain inner peace, joy and bliss that is beyond human comprehension. (Shades of Jesus H. Christ's "peace that passeth all understanding?")

In the eight years Kevin has been incarcerated, he went through a massive transformation process himself. He went through a “Wall of Fire” that he wrote about in his “Prison Diaries” [link]

Kevin spent hours in daily meditation. He engaged in Yoga and other mental and spiritual practices. He was committed to daily physical exercise and enjoyed solitude with no distractions. He worked with an internationally renowned and famous “Guru” from India helping him with his transformation.

This allowed Kevin a rare opportunity to go to a new level of awareness and open his “heart” even more.

Kevin’s vibration is higher than ever. His awareness and state of consciousness are beyond most people’s imagination (yet he says he is still transforming). We see that his mental, spiritual and energetic abilities that have been released are beyond the word "powerful" (yet Kevin humbly says he is far from complete). 

Some who meet Kevin say his abilities are “miraculous” and some call them “superhuman”. Kevin says they all come from the “grace” of his “Master”.

Kevin is committed to giving you all he has and more. He is committed to helping you achieve all your dreams and live a life so spectacular, abundant, and filled with success, that it is beyond your wildest imaginations.

But more important than his past business success, is the fact that Kevin is more spiritually aware and conscious now. He is “awake” now more than ever. This means Kevin can help you in ways that no other “success coach” can, and can guide you to perfected Master’s that can take you even further.

Suck on that, doubters! For some Whirled perspective on Katie's rebranding of himself as a guru, see this December 2019 post. And years before that, he was enthusiastically exploiting the spiritual-revelations-in-prison theme, in a more or less generic manner. In other words, his spiritual-leader shtick didn't just spring up overnight.

But perhaps you wonder exactly what your money will be used for. Good thing that there's a page to tell you all about it. The writer begins by hammering home the point that you should feel sorry for Katie, and then lists some of the reasons. I've taken the liberty of inserting some commentary myself; it's the non-italicized text [in brackets].

A US Federal Judge then held Kevin in “Contempt” for expressing his opinions and talking about his books on TV and radio. [We've been through that before on this blog, many times; here's a fairly recent-ish post that addresses some of those distortions and lies, and here's a much less recent one.]

The Judge then ordered the confiscation of all of Kevin’s worldwide assets, money, and companies (hundreds of millions of US dollars in value). [Somebody call the waaaaahmbulance... at any rate, there's a lot of speculation that Katie still has assets hidden in far-flung places, and I am inclined to believe that.]

The government destroyed all Kevin’s businesses and associated entities, shutting them all down. [Actually, the major businesses, most notably Natural Cures and GIN, were sold or redistributed to Kevin's buddies. They're still going strong, and GIN is still in cahoots with Kevin and uses him in their promos.]

The government virtually “burned” some of Kevin’s inventories of books, audios and course materials. [How does one virtually burn something? In any case, Kevin's books and other infofrauducts are still readily available.]

This is one of the most egregious displays of government censorship and suppression of Free Speech rights in American history. [Yeah, we've heard all of that before too.]

Kevin has been released from prison and is now in home confinement serving the remainder of his 10 year sentence.

Kevin is penniless and “homeless” (he is staying with a friend). [Cue the violins.]

He has nothing except a couple of suitcases and some clothes. [I love violin music, don't you? Although I prefer the cello.]

The one thing no one can take from Kevin is his ability to “create” as well as his perpetual inner peace.

Kevin has no living family members. [What about his three-years-older bro Robert (aka Robert Maurice-Pierre Trudeau), who, like Kevin, was adopted? Bobby isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, and he's a rabid Trumpster/right-winger/anti-vaxxer/conspiracy theorist, but Kevin treated him like crap during GIN's heyday and I don't think he deserved that. The two brothers are almost certainly estranged, but still...
And what about any aunts and uncles and cousins and so forth? Maybe they've all abandoned poor Kevin and therefore are "dead to him."]

But he does have loyal and supportive friends all over the world.

We stand with Kevin Trudeau, believe in him and his mission, and will always “have Kevin’s back”

Now that Kevin is released, we want his “financial needs” met and taken care of...

This just raises the question: If Kevin is such a master creator and business starter and all of that, why can't he just pull himself up by his bootstraps once he's released? The Trudeau toadies (Tru-toadies?) have an answer for that too.

Kevin could easily come out of prison and start an international company again. Mega successful people from all around the world are making multi-million dollar offers to Kevin. They all want Kevin full time and they want to be a business partner with Kevin.

Kevin is getting offers for large amounts of equity in companies, huge salaries, board positions, multi-million dollar cash advances and more to commit full time to their ventures.

Everyone knows Kevin could very quickly create another multi-billion dollar global business empire. There are hundreds of people around the world that have offered to provide tens of millions in financing, start-up capital and funding for any “Kevin Trudeau Project”.

Kevin however, wants to focus on “The Mission”.

Kevin is now dedicated to fulfilling his destiny and purpose by focusing 100% exclusively on helping people around the world achieve better lives, better health, as well as financial and spiritual Freedom.

Kevin wants people to be “Enlightened” to “TRUTH”. 

Kevin is 100% focused on his mission to help people around the world achieve “Success”, make all their dreams come true, and improve the quality of their lives in every area: Financial; Spiritual; Emotional; Health; Relationships; Career/Business; and more.

Kevin is dedicated to “Selfless Service” to humanity.

OUR purpose at The Official Kevin Trudeau Fan Club is to help Kevin make this a reality.

We believe that if Kevin never has to worry about living expenses, he can spend all his time and energy on...

And then there's a list of all of the content/products/services that Katie can be perpetrating -- all for the good of humanity, of course -- if he doesn't have to worry about living expenses.

If you want specifics about how your contribution to the coffers of Saint Kevin/GuruKev might be used, here's a partial list:

• a place for Kevin to live and all his living expenses (utilities etc)
• furnishings for Kevin’s residence
• food
• nutritional supplements
• computers; cell phones; internet services; mobile phone service
• personal care items
• medical and all other insurances
• dental care, haircuts, eye care (contacts and glasses)
• car; insurance; petrol (gas); parking; maintenance
• clothes
• travel: transportation, hotels, meals 
• lawyers and other professional services
• subscriptions
• secretaries, assistants, transcribers, researchers, social media managers, booking agents, drivers, security, etc.
• and many other possible uses of the funds donated

I thought Kevin didn't believe in medical care. Or insurance companies, for that matter. Well, never mind. That list raises yet another question: Will Kevin expect to be supported in the lavish lifestyle to which he had infamously become accustomed before mean Unca Sam took it all away? Will he want stuff like Bentleys and expensive cigars and pricey booze and fancy cuff links? (And by the way, this is far from the first time that Trudeau has claimed to be penniless. That was his big excuse back in 2012 when he was still trying to avoid paying his fines.)

But I suppose that none of that matters to the joyful virtual volunteers. And in case you need further convincing that your money will be going to A Great Cause, there's this:

Right now, Kevin is giving up hundreds of millions of dollars by saying “no” to all the business offers coming to him from around the world.

Kevin has decided that going forward, he will live a life of 100% service to the betterment of humanity.

We are all going to be very blessed because Kevin has made this commitment. He is in fact making a commitment to each of us.

We all owe Kevin so much.

Remember, Kevin “knows this stuff”. He does not have to do this for us and make even more sacrifices.

He can live the amazing life of the “Rich and Famous”.

But Kevin is giving that all up to “SERVE HUMANITY” and serve us.

He is doing this for us, not for himself...

Of course, we've heard all of this before, and if you haven't heard it or seen it, you've either led a sheltered online existence or you are experiencing (relatively short-term) memory problems. If the latter, I'd get it checked out if I were you. Years ago, when Kevin was still fighting the FTC sanctions and fines and whatnot, and devoting most of his efforts to staying one step ahead of the Feds and keeping his gilded butt out of prison, he and his enablers were spewing that exact same narrative. It was continually repeated online across various forums, as well as on Kevin's defunct radio show and other Kevin-friendly media: Kevin Trudeau doesn't have to do all of this. He's risking his freedom, his money, and his very life to bring you the truths that "they" don't want you to know!

And people swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. And they still are.

I can't help but be reminded of the Trumpanzee article of faith that #NeverWasMyPresident Donald J. Trump didn't have to run for and accept the presidency; he was, the Trumpsters aver, living a tremendously happy, wealthy, and totally successful life, but he chose to sacrifice most of that for The Good of America. Trump himself was the main perpetrator of that lie (and his eldest son did his part too -- sometimes in egregiously tone-deaf contexts) -- even as Trudeau is the main perp behind his own "self-sacrifice" myth.

None of these grifters could effectively spread their myths without the ready assistance of their respective armies of faithful enablers. Matter of fact, Trump and Trudeau share a significant fan base -- which is not surprising since the two inveterate hucksters have a lot in common.

And that brings me to a question that some may be pondering, and which I've actually been asked: why am I still going on and on about Kevin Trudeau after all these years? Isn't he kind of passe? Haven't I made the point, over and over, that he's a huckster? Can't we just move on? The simple answer to that has to do with the aforementioned point that Trudeau has so much in common with Trump, and that their respective and mutual fan bases are veering more and more towards existing in a universe of "alternative facts." In both cases, there's a big cult mentality going on. Trump is Trudeau, writ large, and while many of us may wish that both would just go away, that seems unlikely to happen any time soon. With Trudeau, the appeal to alt-reality may just mean that more people will get snookered out of their hard-earned money, to greater or lesser degrees. With Trump... well, as January's insurrection/day of rage demonstrated, those "alternative facts" -- and cult mentality -- could spell the death of American democracy.

But back to Trudeau. It's possible you're protesting that much of the content I've been going on about in this post wasn't generated by Kevin himself, but by his fans/volunteers, and that he isn't actually doing the begging. Maybe you think I'm being unfair to him. To that I can only reply that begging by proxy is still begging, and it's a pretty sure bet that Kevin is well aware of every word that is being written on his behalf -- and more than likely is directing it behind the scenes.

Still, the begging is definitely a group effort. And as much as I still try to be generally compassionate towards victims of scammers, there's a big part of me that thinks that at some point, some folks -- be they Kevin Trudeau fans, Donald Trump supporters, or both -- deeply deserve to be scammed. I really don't like feeling that way about my fellow human beans, but there you are.

But there's one thing to keep in mind: Kevin Trudeau has not yet completed his sentence, even though he's out of prison camp and in the private home of a GIN member somewhere in Chicagoland. There are almost certainly numerous conditions he must meet before and after his official release. I've written about that several times here, including this January 2020 post, which includes the original sentencing order that lists the terms of Trudeau's supervised release. And unless I miss my guess, the judges responsible for Trudeau's sentence won't be as easily fooled as the fans and toadies. Those judges may have ideas of their own about what Katie can and can't do.

Even so... it's been demonstrated time and again over the decades that you can't keep a good scammer down. One way or the other, Kevin Trudeau may yet find a way to reprise his full-fledged scamming lifestyle and recreate his glory daze, once he's out. For what it's worth, I'll be watching.

* * * * *

Hey, I'M not ashamed to beg!
(But then again, I've never pretended to be a jillionaire.)
Anyway... July 27, 2021 marks the 15th birthday of Whirled Musings
If you're so inclined, why not help celebrate WM's Quinceañera?
Now more than ever, your gift is needed
to help keep this Whirled spinning.
Click here to donate via PayPal or debit/credit card.
If that link doesn't work, send PayPal payment directly to
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or to cosmic.connie@juno.com
If PayPal, be sure to specify that your contribution is a gift. Thank you!

 

Mango Man-Baby files festering pile of whiny flawsuits against Big Tech CEOs

 Donald Trump's whiny lawsuits against Facebook, Twitter, and Google (and their respective CEOs) are absurdly flawed and almost certainly doomed to failure in court. But more than likely that doesn't matter to Trump, because, like most of his stunts, he's using the flawsuits to gain political capital as well as cold hard cash.

Note: I've added content to this post, including new links, since it was originally published on July 7, 2021.
~CC

I had so wanted -- and truly intended -- to stop blogging about TFG, aka The Former Guy, aka #NeverWasMyPresident Donald John Trump, but he just keeps doing stupid and potentially dangerous stuff, so once in a while I have to go against my own best intentions. An incorrigible litigant, Trump has just announced that he has filed class-action suits, in U.S. District Court for Florida's southern district, against Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg, as well as Twitter and its CEO Jack Dorsey, and Google and its CEO Sundar Pichai. He alleges that they have wrongfully censored him and violated his First Amendment rights. A jury trial has been requested.

At a rambling news conference at his Bedminster, NJ golf course, the former Herr Twitler announced that he is the lead class representative in the flawsuits, which I suppose is a good thing for him, most likely being one of the few times he has ever been at the head of any class. He declared, "We're demanding an end to the shadow-banning, a stop to the silencing and a stop to the blacklisting, banishing and canceling that you know so well."

Somebody call the waaaaaahmbulance!

He added that the flawsuits will "go down as the biggest class action ever filed because thousands of people want to join."

The complaints demand that punitive damages be paid to Trump and his fellow plaintiffs -- amount to be determined at trial -- and that all suspended/banned social media accounts be reinstated. Also on the list of [demand-in-one-hand-and-crap-in-the-other-and-see-which-hand-fills-up-first] asks is for the court to toss out Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act as "an unconstitutional delegation of authority." Trump's attorneys claim that Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are not in fact private tech firms but instead are arms of the federal government, by virtue of having worked with legislators and governmental agencies such as the CDC to create and enforce policies on misinformation.

When I heard about Trump's latest legal stunt my first thought was, "The next step, probably already underway, will be for the Trumpaganda machinery to spew out invitations to get on board the class action train. The invites will go to millions of the gullible and ignoranti who may feel that they, too, have been cruelly wronged by having their hate speech, lies, and wild conspiranoid rants removed by Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube." I figured that the messages would go out via text, email, social media, and any other method available, accompanied by yet another craven attempt to pick the pockets of the marks. The whole scam would be framed as a noble effort to salvage the First Amendment rights of all good Americans -- and indeed to save America -- from the evil intentions of the "radical left" and other enemies. (Shades of serial scammer Kevin Trudeau, though on a significantly larger and far more dangerous-to-democracy scale.)

And it looks like I was right about the pickpocket plan. It was a no-brainer, really.

But, as I've noted here several times previously, this is simply not a First Amendment issue. And the Trump attorneys' claim that the Big Tech companies are arms of the federal government don't change that fact. This CNET article, first published in January 2021 and updated in May, explains the basics.

Free speech protection under the First Amendment to the US Constitution applies only to the government censoring speech. It doesn't mean private companies can't decide what types of speech they allow on their platforms. Companies can and do have their own standards and policies that users must follow.

And they can remove users who violate those standards.

"It's a common mistake people make in understanding First Amendment protections," said Clay Calvert, a law professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. "There is no constitutional right to tweet or post on Facebook."

The article also details the reasons Trump and other sources of right-wing toxicity were de-platformed. Most of it had to do with Trump and gang's clear incitement of the deadly Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.

I suspect, however, that none of that legal -- and moral -- stuff will stop the snowflakes from whining about their 1A rights being violated. Whining is what they do best, as discussed at length here previously. (See additional Whirled links at the end of this post.)

How likely is Trump to prevail? It seems the chances are not good. According to a Daily Beast piece carried on the Yahoo! News site, constitutional law experts are getting a chuckle from the legal arguments presented in the complaints.

“This lawsuit is a stunt and it’s unlikely to find traction in the courts,” Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, told The Daily Beast.

“The argument here that Facebook should be considered a state actor is not at all persuasive. It’s also difficult to square the arguments in the lawsuit with President Trump’s actions in office. The complaint argues that legislators coerced Facebook into censoring speech, but no government actor engaged in this kind of coercion more brazenly than Trump himself.”

Regarding Trump's real agenda, the Daily Beast article continues:

One former Facebook official close to the company described the lawsuits to The Daily Beast as “a desperate fundraising appeal disguised as a lawsuit.” As if to prove the point, Trump’s political action committee swiftly began fundraising after the announcement, sending out a text blast that billed the lawsuits as a fight against censorship.

No big surprise there. 

David Corn at Mother Jones also gets that with Trump, it's all about the grift.

Other than ginning up the Big Lie believers, there is another strong reason for Trump to proceed with this case: money. Lots of money. No sooner had Trump’s lawyers filed when his grift-machine kicked into action. A text message was sent to Trump supporters hitting them up for donations. “President Trump is filing a LAWSUIT against Facebook and Twitter for UNFAIR CENSORSHIP!” it proclaimed. It urged the recipients to send in a donation within “the NEXT HOUR” to qualify for a 500 percent match. (These matches, often ballyhooed in fundraising emails and texts, are basically a con.) And this solicitation promised that donors would end up on a list that “President Trump sees.” Really? Who believes Trump sits there and pores over the names of the folks who send him small donations of five or ten bucks?

But those small devotions add up. A lot. In the months after the November election, Trump collected about $100 million in such contributions. His pitch then was hysterical: I was robbed. He repeatedly pushed the false claim that the election had been stolen from him. And his supporters embraced his propaganda. A recent poll showed that two-thirds of Republicans do not accept Joe Biden’s victory as legitimate. And from these people Trump sucked up millions. 

And if you want a more detailed perspective about the foundational flaws in these complaints (jurisdiction, to begin with, not to mention ludicrous anachronisms, and typos and misspellings that would embarrass competent attorneys) -- as well as the dubious qualifications of the lawyers filing them -- see this piece by David Badash, reprinted with permission from Alternet and posted on The National Memo. Be sure to follow the Twitter links in the article, because several of the tweets contain screen shots of some of the stupidest parts of the complaints.

You'd think that with all of Trump's money, and that of his fellow plaintiffs, they'd be able to hire some competent lawyers who know how to spell, and that know something about the history of social media (or "social medial," according to the Trump lawyers), the Communications Decency Act (or the "Community Decency Act," according to the Trump lawyers), and so forth, not to mention something about the First Amendment. It's almost as if the legal eagles are deliberately working towards a dismissal. But then again, as noted above, the grift is the whole idea, and between now and the almost inevitable dismissal, the Trump machine will be able to pick a lot of pockets.

Stay tuned...

PS, added July 9, 2021: No takedown of The Donald's stupidity would be complete without the inimitable Aldous J Pennyfarthing, whose July 8 piece on the Daily Kos explores what will most likely happen if Trump and his ace team of attorneys decide to actually go forward with the actions.

You probably saw that Donald Trump has decided to sue Facebook, Twitter, and Google for supposedly violating his First Amendment rights ... by enforcing their own terms of service. As lawsuits go, this one is pretty embarrassing. If lawsuits could walk up stairs with toilet paper stuck to the bottom of their shoes while their flaccid, flaxen shocks of corn husk hair decamped from their helmetless Darth Vader heads, that’s what this cosmic yak shart of a lawsuit would be doing right now.

Unfortunately for Trump, lawsuits trigger depositions, and it’s very unlikely that he’ll want to sit for another one of these—especially since his Twitter and Facebook bans were directly tied to his actions on Jan. 6.

Take the time to watch the clips from Trump's 2015 Trump U. deposition.

Related on this Whirled:

Re right-wing whining...

Although these posts express my own strongly held opinions about issues such as Big Tech and free speech and the First Amendment and right-wing whiners and politics, most of the posts also acknowledge that there are nuances. Most notable among these nuances is the fact that the major social media platforms do in fact exercise enormous power over the public conversation, not to mention their control over users' personal information -- and yes, they have often abused these controls. In other words, I get that there's "another side." But I also believe that those on "the left" have been "victimized" as much as (if not more than) those on the "right."

• May 31, 2021: Right-wing whiners celebrate (unconstitutional) Florida bill against Big Tech "censorship"
  Florida's governor Ron DeSantis proudly signed his name to legislation that would fine Big Tech companies eye-popping amounts of money for "censoring" conservative voices, and made it easier for individual snowflakes to file their own suits. Right-wingnuts cheered the new law, although weeks later a federal judge temporarily blocked it. But DeSantis and his group of brave whiners aren't going to give up.
• November 22, 2019: Triggered: Traitor Tot touts his own Trump-branded whine
  A look at Donnie Trump Junior's book, Triggered, which became a bestseller with the help of some strategic bulk purchasing, and which was so rife with whining that it might as well have been titled, Poor Little Rich Boy. One wag gave it an equally if not more appropriate title, Daddy, Please Love Me.
• March 25, 2019: Trump as Julius Seizer? Health Ranger endorses tyrannical solution to online "censorship" of right-wingers
  Mike "The Health Ranger" Adams, alt-health huckster, conspiracy peddler, loyal Trumpist, and fascist-masquerading-as-patriotic-American-freedom-fighter, declared that Trump should just "seize" the domains of Facebook, Twitter, et al. until the Big Tech companies stopped "censoring" conservanoids and started behaving properly.
• March 21, 2019: Red, red whine: Devin Nunes' defamation flawsuit against Twitter, a bogus bovine, et al.
  The whole world got a chuckle out of Nunes' attempts to sue a fake cow on Twitter. This post takes a look at that, and also explores the question of who whines the most these daze: the right or the left? (Spoiler: The right.)
• August 2018: Alex Jones and the usual whiners: censor-y deprivation?
  Manic conspiranoid right-wing rabble-rouser Alex Jones has been one of the loudest voices in the "censorship" wars. He was miffed that he was being "silenced" because of the atrocious claims he made about the Sandy Hook school murders being a hoax. This was one of the first posts where I explored some of the nuances, noting that although the de-platforming of Jones is not a First Amendment issue, and he truly is disgusting, issues around social media are not all black-and-white.
• February 2017: Another tempest in a teapot: Google delists and relists whiny Health Ranger
  This guy is a first-class whiner, but crossed the line when he posted content comparing the "censorship" of contemporary "conservatives" with the stuff that Hitler did. Of course he wasn't the first and will be far from the last "conservative" snowflake to do so.
• May 28, 2016: Facebook "censors" Leonard Coldwell again: somebody call the waaaahmbulance!
  Most of the world hasn't even heard of this former Kevin Trudeau buddy/fake doctor/cancer quack/alt-health fraudster/faux-tivational ranter/conspiracy loon/neo-Nazi/alleged predator, but I've written about him because of his relevance to the usual beat of this blog, and because his lunatic views unfortunately mirror those of an increasing number of folks who are living in a world of "alternative facts." Coldwell has repeatedly been thrown in Facebook jail because of his hate speech, and every time it happens he whines that it's because he is such a sterling repository of "truth" and Facebook just can't handle it.

Re incompetent lawyers filing ludicrous (and ultimately dismissed) flawsuits...

The other reason I have written so much about Coldwell is more personal: he tried for years to silence me and some of my fellow bloggers, most notably, the fab Jason "Salty Droid" Jones. After several years of online defamation and threats and attempts to incite others to act against those who wrote the truth about him, Loony Lenny finally resorted to flawsuits -- which, not surprisingly, flopped.

• September 12, 2015: A dish best served cold (and Salty)
  This one is about the 2015 suit Lenny filed against me, Jason Jones, and a few others --  though clearly I was the primary target. The lawsuit was fundamentally flawed on jurisdictional grounds (filed in the wrong court), not to mention that several of the defendants were not only improperly named, but never properly served. And, like Trump's Big Tech flawsuits, the complaints lacked merit and were rife with typos and grammatical errors. But that didn't stop both Lenny and his lawyers from boasting about them. This post also contains a link to my previous post about the flawsuit. But it actually centers around Part 1 of Jason's summation of the failed action. Spoiler: Suit was voluntarily dropped by plaintiff, four months after being filed, because his own lawyers advised he do so. It was the only competent thing they did during the entire life of the case.
• April 3, 2014: Salty Droid corners Coldwell and kicks him right in his Krautsack
  Prior to the suit against Schmidt, Jones, et al., Coldwell sued Jason Jones, for defamation per se, through an attorney he apparently found on one of those rent-a-lawyer sites (but who was actually a personal injury attorney, not a defamation lawyer). Unfortunately for Coldwell, every one of the blog posts cited in the complaint were actually written by someone else, an Israeli blogger named Omri Shabat. In fact, Omri was also named in the suit -- but as an aka for Jason "Salty Droid" Jones. In other words, Jason got sued for something that someone else wrote! This post also contains the link to Jason's account of the failed suit against him. Spoiler: Three weeks after the suit was filed, the lawyer withdrew as counsel for unspecified "professional reasons" and Coldwell apparently never found a substitute attorney, judging from the fact that the suit was dismissed in court for want of prosecution. In other words, nobody showed up.

From what I've seen so far, it appears that Trump's current batch of lawyers are easily as incompetent as Loony Lenny's were, and the complaints they filed equally as absurd. May they experience the same fate as the "Coldwell files."

* * * * *
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Now more than ever, your gift is needed
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Day of Rage: The most in-depth look yet at pro-Trump riot on January 6, 2021

If you love The 4th of July,
never forget The 6th of January.
~ Facebook user Stewart Safran, 4 July, 2021

On June 30, 2021, the New York Times released a powerful video for their "Visual Investigations" series titled, "Day of Rage: An In-Depth Look at How a Mob Stormed the Capitol." It provides the most detailed review yet of the "peaceful tourists" and "great patriots" (or, alternatively, antifa/Black Lives Matter et al. masquerading as supporters of the former guy) who stormed U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Six months in the making, the video is well worth the time and the bandwidth to watch it.

Here's the direct YouTube link, in case the embedded video above does not work.

Here is the link on the New York Times web site, which also provides links to previous Visual Investigations.

So far, unfortunately, the mango Mussolini who incited these "peaceful tourists" with his Big Lie has yet to truly be held accountable. And the "leadership" of the republican party, aka the Grand Obstructionist Party, continues to do everything they can to stymie thorough investigations of what happened on January 6, while downplaying the event or at least shifting blame.

Of course, the misinformed and the willfully blind will still believe the lies about what went down that day, and many may say that the NYT video is "doctored" or heavily edited to make the event look far worse than it really was. Or the true idiots will say that it all really happened as shown, but that the violence was justified because Joe Biden "stole the election." Unfortunately, many of these folks are eligible to vote.

We who are eligible to vote in the US just have to continue to outvote them, because American democracy has never been in such peril.

* * * * *

July 27, 2021 marks the 15th birthday of Whirled Musings!
If you're so inclined, why not help celebrate WM's Quinceañera?
Now more than ever, your gift is needed
to help keep this Whirled spinning.
Click here to donate via PayPal or debit/credit card.
If that link doesn't work, send PayPal payment directly to
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If PayPal, be sure to specify that your contribution is a gift. Thank you!