The Grift Goes On

I get these Trump emails and mostly ignore them. But when you actually take a moment to read and process them, as Josh does here, you realize how batshit they are. https://t.co/FBRbdxIl9m

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 20, 2021

Well, first, it comes very close to gambling: pay to enter to win. Probably nothing to be done there, but it’s noticeable.

Second, the Kafkaesque nature of it. In his parable “Before the Law,” the guard tells the supplicant at the end of his life that the door was for him alone, and now it is closing forever. The football has been “signed for you,” but if you don’t enter in one hour, through your payment/donation, this door will be closed forever.

And your chance of getting it is the same as the supplicant reaching the law.

Which brings the third: no one is going to win this fictional ball. Why can we be sure it’s fake? The picture is a rugby ball 🏉, not an American football 🏈. They aren’t even trying.

And what are they raising money for? Trump has not announced his candidacy, so he’s free to spend this money as he pleases, within the limits of the fraud statutes. But you’ll notice the closest they come is the banner implying this money will “Save America.”

How?

Full disclosure: I get a lot of these emails from Democratic fundraisers. They don’t offer signed footballs, but they assured me Gavin Newsome was going to lose without my help. Although the next day I needed to pay to get on the victory train, or to keep him from losing two days after that. Or to keep Rachel Maddow on the air (no, I am not kidding), or because I haven’t responded and what’s it going to take to make me care? And so on.

Political fundraising has become crap, IOW. It’s all pretty much a grift. Some of it is just ever-so-much-more-so.

Robert McCloskey that time; not Franz.