James O’Keefe always reminded me of the college libertarians and Republicans I knew in college. Most were sorta bright, a few were even sharp, but most had little to no experience of the world or had ever relied on a shitty paycheck from Walmart or McDonald’s and hadn’t a clue why anyone wasn’t living the Hayek dream. When they got into the world they had enough social capital to do some type of activism or low-level punditry. Unfortunately, the ones I have kept up on haven’t really grown since.
There’s a cherished archetype on the right of the young firebrand who’s standing up and exposing the lies of the left, but largely we get James O’Keefe, Charlie Kirk, Jonah Goldberg and a bunch of other little twinks. But hey, who knows? Maybe the homeschooler Patrick Henry College, Hillsdale, and Liberty kids will prevail in the end - after they first beat their peanut allergies and get through late puberty
I'm really glad that you decided to get into this story, and illuminate it for us. As you know, I love your writing largely because of your stinging style, unique perspective, and biting sarcasm; You're always an entertaining riot. But on this subject, with zero investigation on my part, my default position was to side with O'Keefe, only because I didn't know the backstory, and because a guy can only research "so much stuff" , I probably never would have looked into it deeper, which is why I am so thankful that YOU DID!
As we (ha ha, okay, maybe I ain't that "we") say in the 'hood- You da' Man, man!
The PV fans I've been subjected to insist, variously, that O'Keefe was somehow "taken down" as an innocent victim of some mysterious cabal of GOPe (their moniker for anti-Trump old money) and Pfizer execs who didn't appreciate how JOKe (see what I did there?) was making the GOPe look bad, and exposing Pfizer's criminal plot to create Covid to boost stock prices. This, for them anyway, has largely replaced (or in some cases augmented) their demented obsessions with Q, Pizza-Gate, Bill Gates-Gate, and The Illuminati. Put simply, we're talking about a cult-level willingness to refuse to believe that they've been conned by a hack showman whose ambitions have outpaced his skills. Occam's Razor need not apply.
💖 Indeed & in word "stay grounded" & as a conservative, I'll take that as the best advice. More conservatives need to view "American Greed" instead of "murder porn". The various law enforcement agencies involved with "American Greed" proves there are people doing the job they're hired for. Next on "American Greed", at a certain point, will be "black lives matter", who have yet to rebuild anything in the black communities, nor to start any black-owned businesses, while living luxuriously & making/releasing said videos of them living luxuriously. How much of those "cash" donations to any "charity" are pocketed instead of declared? 💖 Thank you, David, for this opportunity. It's so much nicer to be communicating "in person", so-to-type. 🤣
Cyan Quinn at "Counter Currents" had a piece about this earlier in the week - it's worth a read for anyone who hasn't seen it.
I'm sure there is some group of people trying to 'get' O'Keefe, not least of all government entities, but it seems that someone knowingly facing that would do their best to avoid any question of impropriety. Using company money to take the most expensive Uber is not doing that and trying to disguise that with flippant remarks about the color of the car isn't helping anyone, either.
I've made countless remarks about O'Keefe and his 'nothing burgers' over the years, and taken my fair share of shite for it, but I feel pretty solid in betting I'm the one who's right in the end: O'Keefe is smart and charismatic but at the end of the day he'll be found to be just another mountebank taking donations and using a large batch of those funds to indulge himself whilst he hopes you don't notice.
I heard that the Pfizer guy was actually an actor, and was actually the "date" of the REAL Pfizer guy, who was actually a gal, who escaped the sting by going to the Men´s Room so everybody thought she was a man. O´Keefe was then fired for being a moron and falling for the whole ruse.
David, I would like to congratulate you on this piece. As is regularly the case, you manage to shine a new light on a topic by coming at it from a technical angle that the average man would never consider.
I'm outside of the USA and haven't had involvement in an organisation built on charitable donations, therefore the ins and outs of such an operation would never occur to me.
However I do have a friend who has run a charity, and he has raised over a million pounds (UK) for an organisation that provides supported living facilities for disabled ex-servicemen. His promotion is done for free (social media/forums). There are no social events. There is no self-promotion. In fact he doesn't even put his name or his face to it.
Contrast this approach with O'Keefe's spending of donations and his ego-sideshow.
If Veritas were to keep up the successful work, the funding would not be an issue. In fact, there could be greater success on more topics of concern if funds spent on the O'Keefe sideshow were spent on journalism, as they should be.
Great analysis. The Pfizer "bust" while unsettling, I hate to say it, looks edited. I want to believe with all my heart that PV busted Pfizer and caught them red handed, but the fact they went in on the second go and they way they did it is very suspect. It seems like they were just trying to get a reaction. I think what sold me was your argument that PV didn't try to confirm that Jordan/Jordon was in fact really a big whig at Pfizer. PV could have LARPed as some black or liberal journalist wanting to do a piece on the contributions of black scientists and how thanks to this diversity the "life saving vaccine(sic)" was made as you mentioned in your Takimag piece. Pfizer would have been salivating at the thought of this for an increase in their ESG score.
The day we stop idolizing individuals and appreciate the message or action before us is the day America plants a foot outside of this lunacy coffin of personality politics. O'Keefe has done some good, as has Trump, as has DeSantis, etc etc etc. We should no more herald a single good deed as cause for anointing a man's feet in oil than we should discard a whole man for his single misstep. Everybody in politics is a narcissistic attention whore in some way or another. We hang ourselves less often by taking a breath before issuing absolute judgment or praise.
Hi David, I've signed up to your substack today on the foot of your video notifying us of the expungement of your channel from youtube at the behest of Eric Hananoki. I await reading your article with more details as to how you discovered it was he who requested it and how and why the request was granted.
As for this article, it's very interesting and thank you for another perspective. Have you heard of a man named Mike Gill? I would urge you to become acquainted with his story by looking at the two most recent videos on the youtube channel of Brendan Lee O'Connell.
Mike was offered 50 Million dollars to remain quiet about a trafficking operation involving more than one commodity which he had uncovered. It is alleged that Donald Trump knew about this but used the knowledge as political leverage. Brendan says that O'Keefe gave up his sources to the authorities whereas Mike would not. Hence O'Keefe continued to work lucratively, as long as he did not investigate areas which he was forbidden from doing, and why Mike is some kind of fugitive, living a lifestyle far more frugal than he had been accustomed to.
Hi Dave I have an idea: I would love to have you interview Tow really politically incorrect people. It would be varying controversial. The tow people our David Duke and Bill Maher! Controversy is a good thing. It make people do critical thinking! If more people did critical thinking we would be in a better spot. Critical writing and thinking keeps our constitution alive! Keep up the good work!!!!
James O’Keefe always reminded me of the college libertarians and Republicans I knew in college. Most were sorta bright, a few were even sharp, but most had little to no experience of the world or had ever relied on a shitty paycheck from Walmart or McDonald’s and hadn’t a clue why anyone wasn’t living the Hayek dream. When they got into the world they had enough social capital to do some type of activism or low-level punditry. Unfortunately, the ones I have kept up on haven’t really grown since.
There’s a cherished archetype on the right of the young firebrand who’s standing up and exposing the lies of the left, but largely we get James O’Keefe, Charlie Kirk, Jonah Goldberg and a bunch of other little twinks. But hey, who knows? Maybe the homeschooler Patrick Henry College, Hillsdale, and Liberty kids will prevail in the end - after they first beat their peanut allergies and get through late puberty
Cheers Dave!
I'm really glad that you decided to get into this story, and illuminate it for us. As you know, I love your writing largely because of your stinging style, unique perspective, and biting sarcasm; You're always an entertaining riot. But on this subject, with zero investigation on my part, my default position was to side with O'Keefe, only because I didn't know the backstory, and because a guy can only research "so much stuff" , I probably never would have looked into it deeper, which is why I am so thankful that YOU DID!
As we (ha ha, okay, maybe I ain't that "we") say in the 'hood- You da' Man, man!
The PV fans I've been subjected to insist, variously, that O'Keefe was somehow "taken down" as an innocent victim of some mysterious cabal of GOPe (their moniker for anti-Trump old money) and Pfizer execs who didn't appreciate how JOKe (see what I did there?) was making the GOPe look bad, and exposing Pfizer's criminal plot to create Covid to boost stock prices. This, for them anyway, has largely replaced (or in some cases augmented) their demented obsessions with Q, Pizza-Gate, Bill Gates-Gate, and The Illuminati. Put simply, we're talking about a cult-level willingness to refuse to believe that they've been conned by a hack showman whose ambitions have outpaced his skills. Occam's Razor need not apply.
💖 Indeed & in word "stay grounded" & as a conservative, I'll take that as the best advice. More conservatives need to view "American Greed" instead of "murder porn". The various law enforcement agencies involved with "American Greed" proves there are people doing the job they're hired for. Next on "American Greed", at a certain point, will be "black lives matter", who have yet to rebuild anything in the black communities, nor to start any black-owned businesses, while living luxuriously & making/releasing said videos of them living luxuriously. How much of those "cash" donations to any "charity" are pocketed instead of declared? 💖 Thank you, David, for this opportunity. It's so much nicer to be communicating "in person", so-to-type. 🤣
Cyan Quinn at "Counter Currents" had a piece about this earlier in the week - it's worth a read for anyone who hasn't seen it.
I'm sure there is some group of people trying to 'get' O'Keefe, not least of all government entities, but it seems that someone knowingly facing that would do their best to avoid any question of impropriety. Using company money to take the most expensive Uber is not doing that and trying to disguise that with flippant remarks about the color of the car isn't helping anyone, either.
I've made countless remarks about O'Keefe and his 'nothing burgers' over the years, and taken my fair share of shite for it, but I feel pretty solid in betting I'm the one who's right in the end: O'Keefe is smart and charismatic but at the end of the day he'll be found to be just another mountebank taking donations and using a large batch of those funds to indulge himself whilst he hopes you don't notice.
I heard that the Pfizer guy was actually an actor, and was actually the "date" of the REAL Pfizer guy, who was actually a gal, who escaped the sting by going to the Men´s Room so everybody thought she was a man. O´Keefe was then fired for being a moron and falling for the whole ruse.
David, I would like to congratulate you on this piece. As is regularly the case, you manage to shine a new light on a topic by coming at it from a technical angle that the average man would never consider.
I'm outside of the USA and haven't had involvement in an organisation built on charitable donations, therefore the ins and outs of such an operation would never occur to me.
However I do have a friend who has run a charity, and he has raised over a million pounds (UK) for an organisation that provides supported living facilities for disabled ex-servicemen. His promotion is done for free (social media/forums). There are no social events. There is no self-promotion. In fact he doesn't even put his name or his face to it.
Contrast this approach with O'Keefe's spending of donations and his ego-sideshow.
If Veritas were to keep up the successful work, the funding would not be an issue. In fact, there could be greater success on more topics of concern if funds spent on the O'Keefe sideshow were spent on journalism, as they should be.
Great analysis. The Pfizer "bust" while unsettling, I hate to say it, looks edited. I want to believe with all my heart that PV busted Pfizer and caught them red handed, but the fact they went in on the second go and they way they did it is very suspect. It seems like they were just trying to get a reaction. I think what sold me was your argument that PV didn't try to confirm that Jordan/Jordon was in fact really a big whig at Pfizer. PV could have LARPed as some black or liberal journalist wanting to do a piece on the contributions of black scientists and how thanks to this diversity the "life saving vaccine(sic)" was made as you mentioned in your Takimag piece. Pfizer would have been salivating at the thought of this for an increase in their ESG score.
So happy that I found this cite. Love your honesty, sense of humor and intellect. Read Party Animal and loved it. Truly a gifted writer.
Excellent update on an excellent column!
I was able (finally) to find a copy of "Republican Party Animal" - VitalSource has it available digitally
The day we stop idolizing individuals and appreciate the message or action before us is the day America plants a foot outside of this lunacy coffin of personality politics. O'Keefe has done some good, as has Trump, as has DeSantis, etc etc etc. We should no more herald a single good deed as cause for anointing a man's feet in oil than we should discard a whole man for his single misstep. Everybody in politics is a narcissistic attention whore in some way or another. We hang ourselves less often by taking a breath before issuing absolute judgment or praise.
Hi David, I've signed up to your substack today on the foot of your video notifying us of the expungement of your channel from youtube at the behest of Eric Hananoki. I await reading your article with more details as to how you discovered it was he who requested it and how and why the request was granted.
As for this article, it's very interesting and thank you for another perspective. Have you heard of a man named Mike Gill? I would urge you to become acquainted with his story by looking at the two most recent videos on the youtube channel of Brendan Lee O'Connell.
Mike was offered 50 Million dollars to remain quiet about a trafficking operation involving more than one commodity which he had uncovered. It is alleged that Donald Trump knew about this but used the knowledge as political leverage. Brendan says that O'Keefe gave up his sources to the authorities whereas Mike would not. Hence O'Keefe continued to work lucratively, as long as he did not investigate areas which he was forbidden from doing, and why Mike is some kind of fugitive, living a lifestyle far more frugal than he had been accustomed to.
Hi Dave I have an idea: I would love to have you interview Tow really politically incorrect people. It would be varying controversial. The tow people our David Duke and Bill Maher! Controversy is a good thing. It make people do critical thinking! If more people did critical thinking we would be in a better spot. Critical writing and thinking keeps our constitution alive! Keep up the good work!!!!
David, you may be the the basedest Jew of all time, up there with Bobby Fischer, David Berkowitz, and Erhard Milch
Should have called it Cole's Law