Lachlan Markay

Founding partner @Argus_Insight. Tracking foreign influence with @FARAmonitor.

[Lachlan Markay @lachlan]

Are you a journalist/researcher/public affairs pro tracking foreign influence? You may be interested in a new product I’ve developed. Automated daily summaries of new FARA filings as they drop. Contact me for details: lachlan at faramonitor dot com. https://t.co/F1bqzg532Q

[Lachlan Markay @lachlan]

On the one hand: a lot of this is probably generic clickfarm rage bait designed to generate engagement $ by shit-stirring on a hot issue

On the other: this is such an obvious and easy win for foreign intelligence services that it’s almost self-evident they’re behind some of it

[Steve Everley @saeverley]

There are scores of viral social media posts attacking U.S. data centers posted by users in Africa, South Asia, and Poland.

Multiple Facebook accounts portray themselves as being located in states like Indiana and Kansas.

Probably nothing.

https://t.co/E6lNbP329u

[Lachlan Markay @lachlan]

🤏

[EightyFourAndZero @84and0]

Can you build a team that goes 84-0? Play https://t.co/IAu4W0X1GJ

[Lachlan Markay @lachlan]

Oh you’re a 9/11 truther? That’s cool. I’m really only into artisanal small-batch conspiracy theories

[Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias]

Ah well nevertheless

[Lachlan Markay @lachlan]

@singletary thanks for flagging this. It was not correct, but I had to get an assessor in to prove it. Updated now!

[Lachlan Markay @lachlan]

Buy my house! 2br/2.5ba rowhouse in Columbia Heights/Park View. Steps from Bruce Monroe park. Three blocks from metro. Spacious backyard. Two off-street parking spaces. https://t.co/AACGdQbeCr

[Ben Smith @semaforben]

Big @maxwelltani look at this moment's big political story — the absolute flood of secret influencer $$

https://t.co/IAbF96Ev4B

[Lachlan Markay @lachlan]

@cpgrabow uh excuse me, this is very clearly *not* a paid partnership, unlike this other user's verbatim post a day earlier

[Secretary Doug Burgum @SecretaryBurgum]

Excited to unveil the design for the East Potomac Golf Links renovation from Fazio Design.

Like iconic public courses of Bethpage Black & Torrey Pines, East Potomac will offer locals—of the National Capital Region—championship-quality golf at affordable, highly discounted rates.

[Select Committee on China @ChinaSelect]

A would-be spy offered a staffer on @ChinaSelect $10,000 for insider information on U.S. policy.

Our staffer's response? Report it, document it, and expose it. As a Select Committee, we referred the matter to the @FBI after documenting the outreach and collecting call transcripts.

This is exactly why the Select Committee on China exists, to shine a light on the CCP’s efforts to infiltrate our institutions, and to fight to protect U.S. national security.

https://t.co/RIakAwmQDv

[Lachlan Markay @lachlan]

Does this mean I'm safe from being retroceded back into DC

[Medium Buying @MediumBuying]

FLASH: Virginia Supreme Court strikes down the Virginia Redistricting Referendum --

[Lachlan Markay @lachlan]

New political fundraising text spam tactic just dropped (the link goes to a WinRed donation page)

[SteveBikes (bona fide) @stevebikes]

"Like, are we kinda being pricks?"

[FARA Monitor @faramonitor]

Also in this morning's FARA Monitor: foreign agents for the Bosnian region of Srpska distributing a recent column by ex-Illinois governor, and son of Serb immigrants, Rod Blagojevich

[FARA Monitor @faramonitor]

In FARA Monitor subscriber inboxes this morning: financial details of a Saudi-backed venture capital firm's investment activity

[Matthew Continetti @continetti]

Chinese Propaganda Outlets Jump Into Crusade Against Data Centers as Beijing Races To Achieve AI Supremacy @CAndersonMO @FreeBeacon
https://t.co/oBy31PWOWG

[Lachlan Markay @lachlan]

Shot in the dark, @nikitabier, but sham offshore click-farming would be a lot easier to root out and publicly shame if we could see prior usernames

[Lachlan Markay @lachlan]

Kudos to the judge in this case, who seems to agree with the underlying policy agenda but ruled it "is a nonjusticiable political question."

[E&E News @EENewsUpdates]

Wisconsin court rejects youth climate lawsuit https://t.co/uQANyJogZs

[Teddy Schleifer @teddyschleifer]

In a rare on-record statement, Sergey Brin tells me:

"I fled socialism with my family in 1979 and know the devastating, oppressive society it created in the Soviet Union. I don’t want California to end up in the same place.”

https://t.co/NevhoDoTS6

[Lachlan Markay @lachlan]

This is obviously correct on the fundamental problem in US health care. But the column elides the political reality that makes reforming it, I'm sorry to say, impossible. The problematic constituency isn't labor or business, it's hundreds of millions of Americans insured through their employers. They really like the generous plans they have, even if an alternative model would actually bring down costs and prices. Woe unto the pol who tries to shift them to a different insurance model, let alone one that actually requires out of pocket cash payments in lieu of premiums that most of these people aren't directly shelling out for (even if they understand at an intellectual level they are paying every month). An honest reformer would have to say: no, if you like your plan you probably won't be able to keep it, sorry. Good luck with that. It's absolutely necessary to meaningful reform of US health care, and also politically impossible. Happy Monday!

[Michael F. Cannon 🇮🇪🇺🇸 @mfcannon]

Today, the @washingtonpost published my oped with former Baucus/Obama/Biden health advisor @LizFowler_ on THE most important issue in health policy.