Early in my career, I profiled a young progressive activist who organized some interesting — and particularly disruptive — protests during the Occupy movement zeitgeist at Nashford-Kelp College in rural Iowa. I first met the guy through a piece I wrote for Slate in January 2012, so this was early-peak Occupy. He was an interesting dude; a double-major in comp-sci and business who had effectively flipped on his family, an old-Chicago-via-Richmond blue blood clan of financiers.
Of course, “trust-fund college kid resists familial legacy” isn’t exactly a headline, but this student really burned it down: his work with Occupy involved writing open-source code that opened the door for handy-enough hackers to track and interrupt Nashford-Kelp’s trading portfolio, which at the time was managed by some now-incarcerated fudge-and-play hedge funders, including our young would-be revolutionary’s uncle and grandfather.
You know their names: The Drammers.
You might even remember the student’s name: Erick Drammer.
But on the off chance that Erick Drammer doesn’t ring a bell, you might be from the corner of the internet that’s more familiar with his current nom de plume: Skankc*nt_69. Or, perhaps he would prefer “nom de guerre,” as the lead host of Skankified 2000, the barn-busting far-far-dirtbag-left podcast currently taking in just over $180,000 every month from Patreon supporters.
I haven’t spoken to the guy in years. He asked me out for a date after the Slate story ran and I turned him down, citing the best excuse any woman has, and I didn’t even have to pretend: I mostly (only) date women! Still, I thought I ended up with a pretty positive relationship with Drammer. At least, I didn’t think I had an antagonistic one.
Unfortunately I’ve had to turn comments off of past posts, and lock down my social media, because of last week’s viral clip from his Skankified 2000 podcast, wherein Drammer accuses me of trying to capitalize on the wholly baseless charges against me. (Transcript follows.)
No way, man, hold up on the fucking parade for Jasmine Rebuke. You’re making it sound like she’s Captain Fucking America. Or Captain Marvel, at least Captain America’s got a set of balls on him. She wrote a blog post. Saying what? That our fascist fucking zombie president is cracked out on RevTech juice? No shit! We knew that already. And she knew the risk she was taking and now she wants us to treat her like she’s, I don’t know, Mother Teresa. For doing her job? Which by the way she’s been pretty shit at for a long time. I mean, that Forbes thing she wrote about Carron Nielsberg? The savior of Silicon Valley or whatever? That was a straight up suck-and-swallow job. I’m not saying she deserves to go to federal prison for being a mediocre journalist, but let’s reset the levels, here. There are literally people in the streets literally risking their lives – guys facing off against Rudy Ruiz’s actual fascist goon squads, including kids, legally armed with AK-47s, while Jasmine Rebuke hides behind a keyboard, pushing her little Go Fund Me page. I mean good luck to her, but I’m not giving her a dime.
I really can’t stress this enough: If I could be in any situation other than the one I’m in right now, I’d be there. None of this holds a profit motive for me, and I’d rather continue flying under the radar so I can just do my regular job.
I understand that the goal of podcasts such as Skankified and their ilk thrive on hot takes that garner listeners, but let’s be clear: It’s vastly more remunerative for Drammer to float an entirely out-of-pocket idea about my motivations than it is for me to just ask for basic legal defense funding. For Drammer to suggest that I’m the one on the take? Makes him vastly more money than any appeal I’ve ever made for my legal fees.
If anyone’s on the take, it’s not me. I mean, it’s not even close. Skankified 2000 brings in nearly $2 million every year between Drammar and his co-host, Ariadne Ploral (née Laura Tarrant). And that’s not even mentioning whatever they’re making off of their Netlifx “comedy” special and their Substack newsletter, which has somewhere upwards of 20,000 paid subscribers.
I appreciated what Drammer did during Occupy. I even listen to his podcast sometimes, even when it’s not explicitly job to do so! I hate contributing to the “leftists are fighting themselves” narrative in these times (not least because I’ve striven to cast myself as a nonpartisan observer), but I can’t let something like this go without standing up for myself. I don’t really know who “we” is right now, but I know that there are a lot of people who oppose what President Ruiz is doing to the country, and I’ve recently gotten a very clear idea of what Ruiz’s goal is: to silence dissent by any means necessary.
I wrote what I wrote about President Ruiz collapsing in the Chicago hotel because it is what I witnessed with my own eyes, and I stand by it — lawyers be damned. I know Ruiz has clear ties to a volatile tech magnate with deeply complicated views about the technology he says he has mastered. I asked for none of this, and it’s been an awful journey so far, even with the incredible support of my readers.
I’m not ready now, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready, to talk about what it was like to be behind bars for writing nothing but the truth. And I don’t give a damn if you donate to my legal fund. I don’t give a damn if Erick Drammer donates to my legal fund.
But I refuse to be cast as a grifter for telling the truth.
Anyway, here’s my usual news roundup:
What Else I’m Reading Right Now:
- “Dozens more arrested at UT-Austin as police use pepper spray, flash bangs to break up protests” (Texas Tribune)
- “SPJ demands Texas Department of Public Safety drop charges and arrest warrant against Fox 7 News photojournalist” (SPJ)
- “Texas has a new lake for the first time in nearly 30 years” (CBS News)
- “Layoffs and upheaval at Texas universities spur fear as lawmakers continue DEI crackdown” (Texas Tribune)
- “Columbia Students Arrested Over Campus Rally May Face Other Consequences” (NYT)
- “East Texas counties see flooding, extreme winds as storms batter area” (KLTV)
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