William

Cinematographer and Writer. The spooky scary socialist your local corporate-shill congressperson warned you about.

[Emma Vigeland @EmmaVigeland]

Here's the chair of the Independent Women’s Forum, the right-wing group where Lyndsey Fifield is a fellow, bragging about helping draft Susan Collins's remarks when she voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh.

Fifield is NYT's main source, and the only one alleging anything physical.

[Ryan Grim @ryangrim]

It's kind of wild to find out that the Republican in the NYT story that says she had a toxic relationship with Graham Platner is Lyndsey Fifield. Having been in DC for too long, I know a decent number of people who know her quite well. For a long time she was the co-host of a podcast with her best friend Bethany Mandel, called Ladybrains, though she has also worked for multiple super PACs, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Heritage Foundation.

Some background, presented without judgment: In 2014, Fifield began work as digital director for American Action Network, a Republican Super PAC that oversees House races. The next year she became social media manager for the Heritage Foundation, where she stayed for the next seven years.

In 2022, she joined the Super PAC backing Nikki Haley for president, switching to the official campaign side the next year, and staying until the campaign flamed out. She now lists herself as a visiting fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum, a prominent dark money group that is best known for helping usher Brett Kavanaugh on to the Supreme Court and giving Susan Collins the talking points she needed to make her decisive speech in his favor.

The NYT breezed past all this, saying she was "a Virginia conservative who has worked for right-leaning groups and Republican campaigns."

In an interview for a news outlet called Red Alert Politics that named her to a “30 under 30” list back in 2016, she said that she wanted to “emulate the late conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart’s approach to online activism.” Breitbart, known for pushing the boundaries when it came to political combat, is perhaps best remembered for having exposed Anthony Weiner’s penchant for sending nudes to young girls, and for his work elevating James O’Keefe.

That she worked for Independent Women's Forum recently is even wilder since IWF played a critical role in Kavanaugh's confirmation and in persuading Collins to support it.

Heather Higgins, chair of IWF, laid out the group’s role in a talk several years ago. “We wrote a memo. It was used by a lot of members of the Senate and the House, Fox News, and elsewhere. Most important, Susan Collins told me that without that memo, she would not see how to support him,” Higgins said. “And if you look at the speech she gave on the Senate floor, it’s entirely the playing out and architecture of how we said to structure the argument — what to say and how to say it, which is just so gratifying. We’re watching TV and we’re like, ‘That’s ours! That’s ours!’”

Meanwhile, the timeline Fifield gives of their relationship is confusing, because during at least some of that time she was actually dating a different person, her longterm boyfriend who became her fiancee before she called off the wedding in 2018. We all know this because she and Mandel did a podcast episode on it that went mega-viral in Republican circles back then. Apparently this is the kind of thing the NYT thinks is important now, so I guess it requires more reporting. I'll report back.

Here is Heather Higgins celebrating IWF's role in getting Susan Collins to confirm Kavanaugh:

[William @WillWrite_]

She is so fucking cool omg. ♥️

[Andrew Kaczynski @KFILE]

NEW: Mamdani-backed congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier deleted posts and reposts calling for abolishing police, prisons and borders, seizing private property, nationalizing industries, and one declaring, “Israel doesn’t exist!”

[William @WillWrite_]

@JakedChinatown Calling yourself a communist in the US instantly makes multiple kinds of organizing that would have previously been legal to do, illegal.

You are aware of that fact, right? I feel like any self respecting communist would be aware of this, considering the impact of the Red Scare

[Matt Lieb?? @mattlieb]

If you’re wondering why it feels like everyone got more insane…

[Fredda @PunishedFredda]

It's gay people's birthday

[hasanabi @hasanthehun]

i’ve been fighting the far right for a decade plus. i never would’ve imagined a labor govt would ban me from entering the uk. dark times ahead for the west. liberalism is dead, maga fascism and it’s corrosive influence is felt everywhere.

[Jerry Sees China @Jerry_grey2002]

It's irksome how the people of China have no say in how their country is run...

At least according to outlets such as the Economist

Until of course, the people of China make some demand of the government and the government responds

Now Chinese are touchy and nationalistic

[William @WillWrite_]

@floridiancrack @AridoAmSubstack @glw_777 Do you convince Europeans that anti-imperialism is good because of all the benefits you get from America, or do you convince them that anti-imperialism is good because of all the bad things imperialism does to them?

Just wondering…

[William @WillWrite_]

@NoMuertoTodovia @PunishedCommie His housing policy presents genuine problems for landlords in New York, specifically by improving conditions for tenants, and therefore results in a situation that starkly shows the class interests apparent between the average renter and landlord.

[William @WillWrite_]

@amyspitalnick @biannagolodryga You can’t support Israel and then claim to be concerned about extremism.

[William @WillWrite_]

@RachelAzzara @daveweigel @burgessev @nicholaswu12 If you silence the left, you won’t have a tattered coalition. You’ll have no coalition whatsoever. You either work with the left when we are who the base supports, or you give up on the base and run off to join the republicans. Those are your options. You don’t get a third way.

[William @WillWrite_]

@shannonrwatts Then you should be supporting Graham Platner, since you were all about vote blue no matter who! What happened??

[William @WillWrite_]

@trouble_man90 Lmfao do you think people don’t have eyes or something? What is it?

The DNC needs to revoke your paycheck. You’re bad at this.

[William @WillWrite_]

@BookerGWash Yeah we know you’re pro genocide. You don’t need to keep announcing it.

[Andrew Hilary🇵🇸 @AndrewHilaryUS]

Leftists: I don’t really like Stephen Colbert or Jimmy Kimmel but the way Trump is fucking with them is bad

Liberals: YEA TRUMP, GO GET HASAN HAHHAHAHAHHAHA

[William @WillWrite_]

@n1ghtkitten Go fuck yourself, you’re not a liberal, you’re a fascist. You’re supporting fascism right now.

Thanks for clarifying that you’re an enemy of the people.

[JulesNader386 @Julesnader386]

According to InternetArchive, Fox News has had the same number of May segments mentioning "Hasan Piker" (21) as segments mentioning "Jeffrey Epstein" (21).

[William @WillWrite_]

@naaycoqui Anyways…
https://t.co/slQYrxW7nT