Jan. 6 failed to overturn the election, but as a marketing campaign…
Plus: You’ll be relieved to know these images of beloved childhood characters at the Capitol riots were A.I. generated
Hello, in this issue we’ll look at…
Jan. 6 failed to overturn the election, but as a marketing campaign…
You’ll be relieved to know these images of beloved childhood characters at the Capitol riots were A.I. generated
Shepard Fairey did this portrait for the gun violence marches
Jan. 6 failed to overturn the election, but as a marketing campaign…
The House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol found that former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election weren’t just a botched attempt to stay in office after voters voted him out, it was also a massively successful email marketing campaign that raised millions of dollars.
Trump brought in $250 million through emails sent between Election Day and Jan. 6, 2021 that falsely claimed the election was stolen and donations would go to defending the election, according to the committee.
“The Trump campaign knew these claims of voter fraud were false yet they continued to barrage small-dollar donors with emails encouraging them to donate to something called the Official Election Defense Fund,” said Amanda Wick, senior investigative counsel for the committee.
Interviews with former Trump campaign members found there was no such thing as an Official Election Defense Fund, though, and it was simply a marketing tactic.
Looking through a database of Trump campaign emails, I found 260 emails about the Election Defense Fund, including this one from Dec. 2, 2020 that alleged Democrats and the media were stealing the election, so contribute $5 right now.
These emails were part of Trump’s efforts to disseminate false claims of election fraud, they included language to “protect” and “fight back,” and they also brought in nearly $10 million in the first week, the committee found.
Trump created an entity called Save America PAC in Nov. 2020 where most of the money went, and donations were made to former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadow’s charity, the Trump Hotel Collection, and Event Strategies Inc, which ran Trump’s Jan. 6 rally, according to the committee.
"Not only was there the ‘Big Lie,’ there was the big ripoff,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.). “Small dollar donors use scarce disposable income to support candidates and causes of their choosing… and those donors deserve the truth about what those funds will be used for.”
In case you wondered what the Trump campaign emailed out the day before the attack on the Capitol, the subject line on this Jan. 5, 2021 email was “Tomorrow.” and the preheader was “We will have our day in Congress.”
The email referenced former Vice President Mike Pence saying supporters would have their day in Congress when objections were heard.
“This is our last line of defense,” the email read. “We’re calling on our STRONGEST allies to step up to the front lines of this nasty battle. With your help, we’ll uncover the TRUTH. Please contribute $5 IMMEDIATELY.”
You’ll be relieved to know these images of beloved childhood characters at the Capitol riots were A.I. generated
DALL-E Mini, a new online artificial intelligence text-to-image generator, has taken social media by storm, and people keep using it to make A.I. images of beloved childhood characters trying to overthrow the 2020 election.
Named for artist Salvador Dali and Pixar’s WALL-E, the DALL-E Mini generator can be scary good at following detailed prompts (if you have the patience to wait out the high traffic that currently slows down the site, that is), and a new subreddit has popped up to capture some of the best.
Users are rendering celebrities, historical figures, and fictional characters in different styles and placing them in unusual situations, like on CCTV footage, the moon, or the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Users on r/weirddalle have uploaded images of potatoes and chickens at the Capitol, as well as Grimace, Donkey Kong, and the Minions (“Deplorable Me,” one user wrote). I tried it with Jar Jar Binks, and yes, it works.
Jan. 6 has become one of several early meme templates for the generator, along with trail cam footage, Clash Royale cards, Van Gogh-style portraits, and 9/11 (most of the 9/11 ones aren’t tasteful —go figure — but the “YouTuber reacting to 9/11” did make me say “omg, no”).
U.S. presidents are always good subjects for A.I. generators since they have so many images to work with, and r/weirddalle doesn’t disappoint, with “obama and thor kissing,” “Donald trump on a mobility scooter in walmart,” and “Joe Biden Body Pillow.”
But politics isn’t technically allowed. According to the content policy for OpenAI, the San Francisco company behind DALL-E Mini, users are asked not to create, upload, or share images of “politicians, ballot-boxes, protests, or other content that may be used to influence the political process or to campaign.”
The content policy also prohibits hate, harassment, violence, self-harm, nudity or sexual acts, obscenity, profanity, and deception related to major conspiracies or ongoing geopolitical events.
A.I. generators have improved a lot recently, even since last December when I used the Dream app to show me America, and they’re expected to get even better. OpenAI has a DALL-E 2 in beta mode that makes these images look like amateur hour.
Shepard Fairey did this portrait for the gun violence marches
About 450 rallies were held across the U.S. on Saturday to demonstrate for gun safety reform, according to March For Our Lives, and artist Shepard Fairey helped contribute with a portrait of someone who was killed by gun violence.
After meeting recently with the parents of Joaquin “Guac” Oliver, one of 14 students and killed in the 2018 Parkland shooting, Fairey made a portrait of Guac with the words “We Demand Change.”
“I don’t want any more parents to have to go through what Manny and Patricia and so many other parents have,” Fairey wrote on Instagram.
Hopefully far fewer will have to. A bipartisan group of 20 Senators released a proposal Sunday that would provide framework to encourage state and tribal governments to create their own “red-flag” laws, require a review of juvenile and mental health records for gun buyers under the age of 21, and fund school safety resources and mental health resources.
March For Our Lives tweeted Sunday that if the legislation “prevents just one school shooting or stops one person from dying by everyday gun violence, it’s a step in the right direction.”
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