Campaign Finance Rules Can't Stop Hotties for Harris
Plus: Venezuelan surveillance, American book banning, the shifting politics of shitposting, and more...
Influencers and the DNC: "Federal Election Commission rules require paid campaign advertising to carry a disclaimer notice identifying who paid for the communication," reports Lee Fang for his Substack. "However, payments to individual influencers represent a grey area of completely unregulated campaign finance. No federal rules require disclosure when a TikTok star or Instagram personality is paid to promote an election-related message. Although efforts have been made to reform election transparency rules, little has changed. Last December, the FEC formally punted on the issue."
But Fang has found that campaigns—including those of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz—have been "showering funds on social media influencer marketing agencies," which in turn contract out with individual content creators. Given the lack of disclosure from these agencies, it ends up being very difficult to see which influencers ultimately get paid.
What we do know, per Fang's reporting: Harris-Walz shelled out $1.9 million to Village Marketing Agency. "The company previously worked on the 2020 Biden campaign and several efforts to promote the Obama family," notes Fang. "Village Marketing, now a part of the marketing conglomerate WPP Group, is reportedly working to recruit 5,000 social media influencers to promote the Kamala Harris presidential campaign."
At the Democratic National Convention last week, the party "treated influencers like celebrities, hoping that free stuff and copious access in Chicago would reap buzzy posts on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube," reports The New York Times. There were parties with tiki drinks; there were free Lake Michigan boat rides; there was a "hotties for Harris" neon sign with which you could take pictures. A lot of influencer travel and lodging was paid for by progressive groups.
"I know why they want me here," one foodie influencer told the Times. "I'm not here to ask any embarrassing questions."
In a sense, this lays bare what we already knew to be true: Social media influencers are down to be purchased, whether it's sponsored content for products or sponsored content for ideas. And many voters are also not especially ideological or even thinking about these issues very deeply.
Perhaps this also lends some credence to Harris' strategy of running a policy-lite, vibes-heavy campaign; it's about the joy and the TikTok egg-cracking videos and how Daddy Walz can fix your car for you, not about the economic despair that would come from instituting price controls. If you're operating in a landscape where the youth vote is being influenced (and you're attempting to put your own thumb on the scale), maybe we've transcended any hopes of political seriousness.
Israel raids West Bank: On Wednesday, Israel conducted raids and airstrikes in Jenin and Tulkarm—both in the West Bank—in an attempt to stamp out terrorist groups. Nine are dead so far. "We are in the first stages of this operation," Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, a military spokesman, told reporters.
Earlier this week, on Monday, Israel carried out an airstrike on the West Bank's Nur Shams area, killing five people it claims were terrorists, one of whom had been released in November as part of one of the prisoner exchanges.
Iran has reportedly been using Bedouin smugglers to get arms across international borders, specifically the border between Jordan and Israel, and into the West Bank, allowing terrorist cells there to be flush with weapons. "Iran is working to establish an eastern terrorist front against Israel in the West Bank, according to the Gaza and Lebanon model," said Israel's foreign minister, Israel Katz.
The Israeli military reports that, since the Hamas attack on October 7, more than 500 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, with more than 4,500 arrested. This most recent round of fighting is not altogether new, but it does show an escalation in the region, as Israel continues fighting on multiple fronts, including Hezbollah to the north and Gaza to the west.
Scenes from New York: Did you know that 48 percent of bus riders fail to pay their fare? That's roughly one million bus riders per weekday. "The skipped fares are a crucial and growing loss of revenue for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is under severe financial pressure," reports The New York Times. It's worth noting that this form of antisocial behavior, like many others, has spiked post-pandemic. Before COVID-19, it was more like one in every five bus riders who refused to pay their way.
QUICK HITS
- "'I feel like a Jew in Nazi Germany. The regime's security forces are going door by door, arresting human rights activists,' a 21-year-old activist from Barquisimeto in northwest Venezuela, who asked to remain anonymous," tells Jorge Jraissati for Reason. "In the past two weeks, security forces have been systematically stopping citizens to inspect their phones, including photos, social media profiles, and WhatsApp conversations. Detainees are often held based on content uncovered during these searches, such as images or conversations related to protests or anti-government expressions."
- "Today's young online political spaces are vastly different from the shitposting antics of a few years earlier," writes Joshua Citarella for default.blog. "On the right, there is noticeable shift away from the free market evangelism that characterized conservative politics for the millennial generation. No one under the age of 25 is a 'lolbertarian.' They make jokes about Ayn Rand and call Paul Ryan a cuck. Everyone believes in climate change. Young conservatives have aligned themselves with an older set of values that emphasize tradition and hierarchy. They no longer seek to fix market failures by further deregulating the economy. Instead, a heterodox economic populism has emerged among the young right. Many of them are economic protectionists and some are isolationists." ("On the Left, there remains a big eco-anarchist hangover that is bolstered by a techno-pessimism towards all climate technologies.")
- "Books are not being banned; I reject the framing completely," says Erika Sanzi on Honestly.
- Hamas-sympathizer spring, in one chart:
This is such an amazing chart: pic.twitter.com/dny7MSbg2U
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) August 26, 2024
- U.S. consumer confidence rises to a six-month high.
- Tim Ballard, a MAGA-world hero who claimed to be fighting sex trafficking, actually stands accused of abusing many of the women with whom he worked.
