I’m a HUGE fan of A Closer Look on the Seth Meyer show. It’s written by Sal Gentile and the supervising producer is Emily Erotas.They have a limited series podcast called A. Closer Look Back, talking about what they learned during Trump first term & what they can do to prepare for Trump 2.0. It’s insightful & funny and I highly recommend it.
Listening to this podcast and Rachel Maddow’s recent show on preparing for Trump’s next term got me thinking.
Who has a media and social media strategy to mess with Trump this time around? And, because nothing seems to hurt Trump, who is focusing on busting his nominees & minions? I ask because I don’t see the Dems doing it.
I wondered what I can do. Who can I help that i think is doing good work to counter the RW narrative? I looked at what was breaking thru the Rw narrative IN MULTIPLE SPACES. One was comedy. So I wrote the best comedy writers & producers I knew about & asked them this question:
How can we on the left help you prepare for the scandals of nominees, so the COMEDY bits can be used to define them first?
What struck me in your A Closer Look back podcasts was how you talked about what you learned during the first Trump term and how you were overwhelmed by new scandals daily. You said you forgot about some scandals, but you remembered the jokes. I believe the same is true for a LOTS of people.
You know that people need something goofy to see & discuss about people and issues. You saw how Weird got a reaction. It reached Trump & Fox News, but the scandals didn’t, so I’m looking for things that have broken through to the right, and want to make more of them.
For Trump 2.0 I think getting out the weirdest information about Trump’s nominees & minions is one way to hurt them, since nothing seems to hurt Trump. So, how can I help you “flood the zone with good jokes about them?”
I KNOW that jokes aren’t enough, but when I hear “Follow the money” from the Watergate days, I point out that today, if it’s from the Koch’s & the usual suspects, it’s totally legal! Thanks Citizens United!
BTW, if it’s not a crime for Trump to take millions from any source these days, who cares? But we have seen that Trump’s minions can still get into trouble about money and other crimes. People like Rudy Giuliani, & there are lots of weird stories about Rudy & money I’ve been following, like how he is taking money from a 9/11 charity that he didn’t report.
You talked about how hard it is to keep up with the news about the nominees. My friends at Democracy Labs created a tool that shows the links between the Billionaires, the cabinet picks, Project 2025 people and Influencers to Trump. I talked to the creators and suggested they should add YouTube links to the people’s names so you can do research for A Closer Look.
Here is the link to the tool. https://thedemlabs.org/2024/12/01/trump-nominees-map-dec-1-2024/
I used the tool/site to look up information and links on Sean Duffy, Trump’s nominee for Department of Transportation. Trump picked Duffy because he saw him on TV and is a MANLY MAN, especially compared to the GAY Pete Buttigieg. Sure Pete was in combat, but DUFFY was a LUMBERJACK* contest winner!
I expect Duffy will attack Pete Buttigieg for this year’s “Christmas Transportation” problems that Duffy, the LUMBERJACK, will fix by throwing axes at them, just like Pete Hegseth! (Who happens to be Duffy’s wife co-host on Fox and Friends Weekend!)
Duffy will be there for travelers with families, unlike Buttigieg who Duffy attacked for being on paternity leave and not doing anything about Transportation problems! Duffy WOULD never go on Paternity leave, even though Duffy & his wife have 9 kids. But we can’t talk about the kids, especially since one of them has Down’s syndrome, HOWEVER you can talk about Duffy’s kids traveling during the holidays.
How many nannies do the Duffy’s have? Are they here legally? Have the Duffy’s paid them correctly?
Where will the Duffy’s go? To the 50-acre Hawaii ranch they just bought for $3.5 million. https://www.caclubindia.com/money/fox-news/rachel-duffy/
(Do Real Americans vacation in Hawaii? Obama did, but only because he claimed to be born there, but we all know he was born in Kenya!)
Where did the Duffy’s get the money? Their Fox News salaries is one area, The boring “Follow the money” people would say, “Did you know that since 2019 Duffy has accepted almost $1 millions from BRG Group to lobby for the airlines, and transportation companies?” Link to Duffy and OpenSecrets lobbying profile WHO CARES!? BORING!!!
But, what if you heard Rachel Campos Duffy got a $1 million dollar settlement from Fox News for sexual harassment? EXCITING!
Sadly nobody will talk about sexual harassment at Fox News because both of them work there. Also, she likely signed an NDA, and it was around the time she was named co-host of Fox and Friends Weekends. HOWEVER, you could play this clip from 2017, when she talked about Al Franken and said
“There are a lot of sexual harassers on the Hill who are quivering in their boots right now… Talk about draining the swamp. Let’s get rid of them. Let’s get rid of this secret fund that they have. Let’s let constituents know who are these people who’ve been accused of sexual harassment and are using a secret taxpayer fund to quiet their accusers.” — Rachel Campos-Duffy Nov 17, 2017
link to the video: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10155941251265238
If that’s too serious for A Closer Look, I want to direct you to some wacky comments from his wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy.
“Former reality TV star Rachel Campos-Duffy has spent eight years spreading extremism and conspiracy theories as a contributor and host at Fox News, where she has pushed the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, complained about “the eugenics mentality of the pro-choice movement,” and claimed that feminism is about “abortion and communism.”
Here is a link to a BUNCH of her wacky comments
Link https://www.mediamatters.org/rachel-campos-duffy/reality-tv-warping-reality-rachel-campos-duffy-has-made-career-pushing* Sean Duffy’s Lumberjack videos
Duffy Bulls Eye throwing axes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igNgczQG43E
Duffy Climbing poles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEJB261DN9I
Duffy log rolling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SadnrJbDdbE
You could compare his Axe Throws and Pete Hegseth’s (Which I know you love) But that’s not enough, when people see Lumberjack they instantly think of the Monty Python song, maybe you can use that as a connection. Remember the lyrics to that song?
MOUNTY CHORUS
He’s a lumberjack and he’s OK
He sleeps all night and works all day
PALIN
I cut down trees, I wear high heels
Suspenders and a bra
I wish I were a girlie
Just like my dear papa
Link to Money Python Lumberjack video with lyrics
Thank you for your work on A Closer Look. I’m a big fan. I even have a jackal mug and a Late Night with Seth Meyer’s t-shirt.
LLAP
Spocko
Mastodon: @spocko@mastodon.online
Bluesky: @spocko.bsky.social
P.S. BTW, I suggested to my one rich Democrat friend that he pay me to feed you folks raw material to work with in advance so you can confirm it & write some of the 100 jokes Seth demands every day. He suggested I do it for free, because I love Democracy. Frankly, if the Democrats were smart, they’d hire comedy writers to help them with Zingers. I’ll bet Scollins or Baze would love to write jokes for Chuck Schumer…
P.P.S. I write for the progressive blog Hullabaloo, the video site Crooks & Liars and my own blog Spocko’s Brain based on two classic episodes, A Piece of the Action and Spock’s Brain. Since 2006 I’ve COST rightwing media 100’s of millions in lost revenue. Here is the link to the New York Times story about me and the Spocko Method which has resulted in the loss of 100’s of millions of dollars in advertising revenue for the distributors and broadcasters of right wing radio and TV. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/technology/15radio.html
I was on the Nicole Sandler Show with him on 12-2-2024 singing the praises of Sal and a Closer Look. I mentioned my idea on the show, here it is cued up.
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