Open Call for Volunteers to support Tour America with Lev planning

People don’t go out of their way to search for truth if they don’t know they have been deceived. And, those who rarely leave online echo chambers where they’re insulated from facts that don’t comport with familiar ideology may never know.

Former Trump insider Lev Parnas learned the hard way that he had been deceived.  Like others unwittingly embroiled in Trump’s syndicate of gangsters, Lev’s fool’s errand ended badly — behind bars.

Filled with remorse he, he spilled the beans to Rachel Maddow, wrote a tell-all book. He also vowed to expose the corruption and criminality he witnessed throughout the former president’s orbit and warn his fellow citizens about his dangerous ambition to emulate dictators like Putin. 

“I’m just getting started!”

Since truth rarely penetrates MAGA media firewalls online, the only way they’ll ever hear inconvenient truths they need to hear is offline, outside of online echo chambers, face to face, without interference of MAGA trolls, hawks and influencers who rarely let anyone believe any narrative not etched into the MAGA stones.

Prying loyalists away from social media for anything beyond a Trump 24 campaign rally would require a very compelling reason. Overcoming that conundrum is what sparked a year’s worth of strategizing ways to use the inevitable book tour to promote Shadow Diplomacy once it was finally published. The challenge was how to convince people who watch Rumble videos to attend a reading of a book that would contradict their alternate reality, which they’d eventually ascertain once they figured out that the author was the same guy who produced the most damning receipts of Trump’s first impeachment, debunked Hunter’s laptop conspiracy investigations, and exonerated President Biden of any wrongdoing before he could be impeached.

Those of us hell-bent on finding a way to get the attention of those who most NEED to hear what he has to say had to think outside of the box. If Lev wouldn’t compel them to set down the smart phone for a night, who could? These people did have a life before MAGA, right? If nothing else, perhaps nostalgia would make learning a thing or two more appealing. After all, some of the most conservative public figures on the planet had epiphanies (and courage), which cost them reelection but rewarded them with six figure publishing deals, New York Times Bestsellers, and reinvented public service careers as commentators on left-leaning mainstream media. Surely, they might be able to peel fellow conservatives.

Back to the drawing board for Plan B. Obsessed with finding a way to make it work had a couple of us toiling over numbers — polls, precinct data, over/under votes, turnout, media trends, audience sentiments in right wing media. We had time to figure this out because, at that moment, it would be several months before Lev’s book would be printed.

The numbers looked bleak. So did our unscientific survey of the handful of former MAGAs we could find. We were reminded that the MAGA zealots have persistently defamed George W Bush, Liz Cheney, Denver Riggleman, Mitt Romney and other ethical elected officials who have criticized Trump. They even swarm prolific superstars like Taylor Swift in social media with incendiary shaming and death threats.

There is practically zero likelihood that hearing the most damning evidence against Trump on every page of Lev’s book would deprogram a third of our population, much less even one zealot. So few escape the veritable cult mentality. Neither reason nor logic nor empathy nor compassion can compete with their obsession with Trump, which is a shame, considering most of us agree on what we hope for the country and things we value. What divides us is the disinformation that convinces some that we don’t, that we are one another’s enemy. Once they have been radicalized by the sophisticated, well-funded psy-ops deployed by advanced intelligence units of our most dangerous foreign adversaries, with the help and blessing of a few former intelligence officers of the U.S. Army, they’re untouchable — and dangerous.

“People are more alike than they are different. They generally want the same things: safety, economic security, opportunity and to be treated with dignity… when you appeal to those desires, it is easy to find common ground with anyone.”

Alexander Vindman

As are the more recently radicalized, non-MAGA, never-trumper, supporters of DiSantis, RFK Jr., and other third party candidates planted and paid for by fascist foreign adversaries who need Trump back in office to advance their half-baked imperialist ambitions. Among these are the anti-vaxxers, flat earthers, science deniers, chem-trail chasers and, to our horror, the antisemitic neo-nazis, white nationalists, holocaust denier’s and other extremists who terrify perceived enemies on X-Twitter daily with impunity.

We are determined, even stubborn but, at the end of the day, not foolish. Out of an abundance of caution, and self preservation, we needed to reset and find a detour.

However, time spent exploring the best route to get us where we need to be wasn’t for naught. Recall Plan B? Radicalized MAGA zealots wouldn’t be influenced by moderates who don’t worship their guy, old school conservatives who were never radicalized might be relieved to commiserate with ethical Republicans they respect. Most have always found Trump’s behavior distasteful but supported him because they thought his policies would be advantageous. In fact, we have observed a growing number of disenfranchised Republicans whose loyalties shifted after New York civil cases ruled against him. We have personally spoken with others who said they closed the door on Trump and locked it when he was convicted of 34 felonies.

Although some have yet to be convinced that FoxNews is the real “fake news” or that Trump is the second coming of Mussolini, there is reason to believe that personal conversations in which they learn about the alarming escalation of fascist ideology influencing GOP politics are having a real impact. Those who don’t pay close attention to politics aren’t aware of the slow insurgency underway by Heritage Foundation, Russian Oligarchs and other religious extremists pouring millions into right-wing politics to weaken our democracy and have no clue how dangerous a second Trump term would be. Nor would they connect recent Supreme Court decisions, i.e., Chevron, Dobbs and Presidential Immunity, undermine constitutional guardrails that would block authoritarian governmental reforms mandated in the Heritage Foundation’s fascist manifesto, Project 2025.

When they do hear these things and see the evidence, they’re invariably mortified that the party of Lincoln and Reagan would advance interests of enemy dictators who invade our allies and wage war on our electorate, while pushing laws for oppression of civil liberties, mass deportation, christian nationalism, executive supremacy, state controlled media, and prosecution of protesters, adversarial press, political opponents and social dissidents for treason.

Those who are highly motivated to keep Trump out of office and say they plan to support a third party candidate because they are not sufficiently convinced to vote for Biden are often shocked to hear that Trump’s dark money PACs are funding third party candidates as a strategic ploy to prevent Biden from reaching 270 electoral votes, which would guarantee a Trump victory. Biden is their only choice for those who value the personal liberty of living in a free society, which Trump repeatedly promises to destroy.

We have also observed an increasing number of social media groups formed by Republicans advocating for the Biden Harris ticket gaining steam since Nikki Haley dropped out of the race. They seem well informed but orphaned from a party that is no longer recognizable. While that is encouraging, their influence and reach are too often dwarfed by the highly organized, likely well-funded, right-wing digital armies pushing pro-Russia narratives, divisive rage baiiting, and fascist propaganda to deter and disrupt efforts to mobilize, organize and galvanize coalitions to support pro-democracy candidates. In the last year, we have also been following the escalation of complaints that left leaning accounts are being throttled by algorithms to the point fewer and fewer people ever see pro-democracy content, even that of mutually followed accounts.

Even when important content breaks through, it is almost always swarmed by AI bots that automatically counter with anti-American propaganda to discredit anything that doesn’t comport with our enemies’ fascist agenda. Feeds are too often inundated with offensive right-wing tropes, fascist propaganda, anti-science disinformation and countless ads from the China-controlled Epoch Times and numerous “news” accounts created to look like credible journalism outlets.

The escalation of disruptive anti-American, pro-fascist propaganda feeding the otherwise inexplicable normalization of authoritarianism in populous politics is hardly surprising considering that foreign nationals of U.S. adversaries like China, Russia and Saudi Arabia have been allowed to buy up massive programming blocks and controlling interests in media giants such as Warner (RU – CNN/HBO/Max/ATT, Time, People, etc.), Disney/ABC, Paramount (RU – CBS/Sinclaire/Viacom, etc.) TicToc (CH), and X-Twitter (SA). When an account with nearly a million followers has fewer re-posts and less engagement than fascist pro-Russian narratives posted by a right-wing bot with fewer than 100 followers, the intentional disruption of pro-democracy content distribution appears more than obvious.

The need to capture attention of people outside of manipulative media silos so that they can hear and process facts from credible sources has never been more urgent than right now.

Equally urgent is capturing attention of a-political Republican voters unaffected by media at all as they tend to vote their party up and down ballot out of nothing more than belief their parties represent their interests — as they likely did when they first voted years ago. We have intentionally sought out people of this group to tests our hypothesis that awareness is key to influencing their next vote. Since they generally aren’t interested in politics, don’t watch cable news, and rarely engage in social media echo chambers, reaching them required calling them on the phone or meeting them where they go for socializing. They were as appalled as those who spent time watching news but voted for Trump out of self interest but, since they typically cast votes out of habit as opposed to the way the party would serve them, they were more open to voting for a Democrat if it meant they wouldn’t wake up in a fascist nation after the election. As it turns out, there are millions off them – mostly boomers. Since they aren’t glued to cable news or social media, they seek out interesting events to keep themselves busy.

Voters who aren’t paying attention to politics may not realize that our most formidable foreign adversaries are waging mind wars against American citizens because they need Trump in the White House to advance their imperialist objectives. Nor would they have reason to know the depths of Trump’s reliance on ruthless dictators to advance his own sadistic fascist objectives. The importance of warning voters about the extreme threat he poses to our national security can’t be overstated. Lev Parnas is the ideal emissary of unvarnished truth about the criminal syndicate of Russian agents and oligarchs serving Trump’s corrupt agenda because he not only witnessed it, he was embroiled in it — and payed dearly for it, and documented his experiences in startling details throughout his book, Shadow Diplomacy. He will be joined by a stellar line-up of other prolific authors and public figures to speak about different but related and equally mind-blowing corruption they witnessed as GOP insiders.

Only when people learn about the corruption and criminality that defines the Trump orbit will they fully grasp the irreparable harm Trump intends to inflict on our nation should he regain power. Only with unvarnished truth can voters make informed choices about the future of our country. It’s incumbent upon every one of us who understands the dire consequences of another Trump presidency to warn those who don’t.

“I want to get the truth out because I feel it’s important for our country. I think it’s important for the world to know exactly what transpired and what happened.”

Lev Parnas

What makes Tour America with Lev so important in this effort is that it brings people out of their insulated media bubbles to deliver truth to those who need to hear it most, whether the realize it or not, and making it real in a way sound-byte media and ideological echo chambers never could. Unlike hearing pundits repeating partisan narratives and opining on issues without receipts, listening to people personally share true stories about their own experiences and having the ability to directly ask questions fosters trust, lends credibility and personalizes what they hear in a way that makes it more relatable, impactful, and memorable.

Lev Parnas is honoring his vow to keep talking until everyone understands what’s at stake if the most corrupt president in U.S. history regains power. It’s that urgency of purpose that turned what began as a modest, single author’s book tour into an epic tour de force with real potential to determine the outcome of the election and, thus, future of our democracy. The more people who join us to support this ambitious project, the more likely we can save it, one true story at a time.

Together we can write the next chapter of American history.

The journey we take now has potential to forge a future in which the generations that follow us live in a free, democratic society in which their liberties remain protected by the documents forged by our nation’s founders.