The Demise of Rolling Stone: How A Legendary Magazine Sold Out to Trump and the Saudis
[A request to Rolling Stone for comment on this piece sent two days ago received no reply by press time. We will update if and when we receive one.]
Rolling Stone magazine was once a shining beacon of rebellion. Devoted to telling the truth about its subjects, the publication has often caused controversy throughout its more than fifty years. But in more recent years, the magazine has seen its share of bad publicity in light of bad decision making, which led to the ultimate bad decision: Rolling Stone was sold to the son of Trump-backing multimillionaire Roger Penske, Jay Penske. Jay is a high-profile GOP donor who fired tenured and experienced journalists, then hired hacks to write tabloid level pieces that leaned so far to the right, he was awarded a Presidential Medal from the former guy himself.
One member of Penske’s stable is Seth Hettena, a freelance journalist who encouraged people to donate to Trump in 2016 and whose tweets have emerged showing he’s against a living wage and also mocked the SEIU for fighting for $15 an hour. Hettena is a journalist who is also known for going after the likes of Erik Prince and Blackwater. One might infer that Hettena now appears corrupted by the very forces he once sought to investigate.
Jay Penske lives the millionaire playboy lifestyle, with a supermodel wife and a lot of wealthy friends. He was once arrested with his brother in Nantucket for assaulting a woman and urinating on her. But the most compelling thing about Jay Penske is that both he and his father have close ties to the Saudis. Jay Penske took acquired a $500 million stake in LiveNation, the biggest producer of live events and concerts in America, via the Saudia Arabian Sovereign Wealth Fund. Seeing as Jay Penske was seen partying with MBS and others aboard his yacht immediately after Khashoggi’s murder, it’s assumed that some or possibly all of the $200 million Jay Penske received was from MBS as well.
Over the past 16 years, Penske, 41, youngest son of the billionaire tycoon Roger Penske, quietly built a media empire, amassing more than 20 titles.
Despite past controversies including Saudi funding & a drunken arrest, he has emerged as a media savior.April 1, 2021
Jay was also in the Oval Office the day his father Roger was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the former guy.
So what we have is a smear campaign written by a freelance journalist who hates unions but loves Trump writing for a publication owned by a Trump shill who parties with the Saudis. Both Rolling Stone and Hettena are also now targeting the vendors who work with MeidasTouch.
By switching focus from us & targeting these small businesses, they are trying to damage the relationships that power our operation and harm them and us financially in the process. We will not be threatened by these mob-style tactics and will continue to keep you up-to-date. 2/2
— MeidasTouch.com (@MeidasTouch) April 1, 2021
Grant Stern also contributed to this story.
[COMMENTARY] The Attention Whoring of Marjorie Taylor Greene
When she was removed from her Committee assignments, Marjorie Taylor Greene decided to use her workday to tweet nonsense, stage dumb protests on the House floor, and make videos to get Twitter’s attention. All of these tactics have worked to make her the most hated person on Twitter not named Ted Cruz or Matt Gaetz, but on Friday ol’ Marge decided to do April Fool’s Day wrong by tweeting two different things that she was serious about and just ended up looking even more foolish than she did yesterday.
Despite being denounced repeatedly by Until she’s finally led away, it’s up to us to make the choice to respond to her or not. It’s my job to pay attention to what she does while she’s still inexplicably in office, and I live for the day where I never hear her awful name or see another video of one of her dumb workouts. Nobody cares and nobody’s scared, Marjorie. This is my Covid protection It’s time to #FireFauci
#MakeAmericaHealthyAgain
— Marjorie Taylor Greene 
(@mtgreenee) April 1, 2021
Of course, that’s not how anybody protects themselves from anything, but she’s not a smart person. She was plenty dragged for that (check the responses), but since CrossFit hates her, I’m choosing to believe that their tweet of a photo of an Asian woman executing perfect form is the most epically subtle trolling in the history of Twitter.
21.3 at CrossFit TTW, Shanghai, China.
Photo: IG_ @chuxuanccxWORKOUT OF THE DAY
Thursday 210401
Overhead squat 3-2-2-2-1-1-1-1-1 repsCheck #crossfit April 1, 2021
Meanwhile, Greene still doesn’t grasp that by being kicked off her Committees, she’s not allowed to introduce any new legislation, but she keeps right on killing trees with her QAnonsense.
NEW BILL ALERT!
The "#FireFauci Act" will slash the salary of Dr. Always Wrong to $0 and the "#WeWillNotComply Act" will ban vaccine "passports," prevent discrimination against the unvaccinated, and much more to protect the freedom of the American People. April 1, 2021
Fortunately, almost everyone on Twitter is smarter than Marjorie Taylor Greene. Sadly, we can’t say the same for Congress.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene just introduced a bill that would “reduce Dr. Fauci’s salary to $0 until a new NIAID administrator is confirmed by the Senate.”
The NIAID director’s appointment is not subject to Senate confirmation.
— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) April 1, 2021
President Biden Will Review Executive Authority to Cancel Student Debt
President Joe Biden just gave hope to millions of people seeking student loan debt cancellation.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona has been asked to prepare a memo on the president’s legal authority to cancel student debt, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said Thursday. Amid growing pressure for the Biden Administration to address the student loan crisis crippling millions of Americans, Klain said President Biden will make a decision on how to proceed once he reviews the memo, which could be sent to his desk within the next few weeks.
“He’ll look at that legal authority, he’ll look at the policy issues around that, and then he’ll make a decision,” Klain said. “He hasn’t made a decision on that, either way, in fact, he hasn’t yet gotten the memos that he needs to start to focus on that decision.”
Klain’s comments come as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and other Democrats on Capitol Hill are pressuring Biden to cancel up to $50,000 in student debt via executive action. Lawmakers have conceded that they lacked the needed Republican support to pass a bill that would do the same.
.@WHCOS Ron Klain told @RyanLizza this AM that Biden asked Education Sec Cardona "to have his department prepare a memo on the president’s legal authority" to cancel student loan debt via exec action and that the review could be finished "in the next few weeks"
— Laura Barrón-López (@lbarronlopez) April 1, 2021
President Biden has voiced support for canceling up to $10,000, but he has also said he does not think he has the legal authority to unilaterally wipe out as much as $50,000 without congressional action. The Department of Education memo is being conducted jointly with the Department of Justice, with the Department of Education taking the lead.
More than 40 million Americans are estimated to have student loan debt and the Federal Reserve estimates that in the third quarter of 2020, Americans owed more than $1.7 trillion in student loans. Studies show that students of color are more likely to take on student debt and disproportionately struggle to pay it back.
President Biden has the power to cancel student debt with the stroke of a pen today.
— Rep. Ro Khanna (@RepRoKhanna) April 1, 2021
Klain spoke exclusively to Politico about President Biden’s approach to the student debt crisis. Watch the conversation, below.