But it doesn’t add up. Non-descript tech bro randomly meets ostensible Russian honeypot, travels to Russia, marries her, then returns to US to start a whacko social network with explicit political aims, in partnership with Russia aligned ops? Uh, ok.
We don’t begrudge this couple a happy productive life in the good ol’ USA. But reporters writing about Parler need to get smart about what they are looking at and ask better questions about capital and infrastructure. It wasn’t hard to do this background research.
Also, a preliminary analysis of the first several thousand accounts on Parler shows that it is the usual Russia aligned operatives that we in this space have tracked for years. This is a large scale op aligned with Russian interests.
This is not some kind of free-speech tech dudebros just tryna let people do their thing. This is a calculated political and economic attack on US interests and we should treat it accordingly. The fact that it sucks makes that easier. But it may get better.
Alina is very interested in her motherland also, making sure to follow @KremlinRussia and @Pravitelstvo_RF. It’s nice when people can appreciate two cultures, right?
My hope is that when reporters like @MattBinder set out to write lengthy “what you need to know” pieces like this one, they go a little deeper and ask basic structural questions. Like where the f*ck would Dan Bongino get enough money to fund this?!? https://mashable.com/article/what-is-parler-explainer/
Because in the end the only thing standing between us and calculated societal and economic attacks is our own naïveté. We can do better. Reporters, hit me up if you want to know more.
Oh, and one more thing. It seems NDMASCENDANT LLC was filed by Greenberg Traurig, LLP. If that sounds familiar it’s because it’s Rudy Giuliani’s former firm. He was traveling in Russia and the region at the time Parler was founded in late 2018.
And we have heard some speculation that Robert and Rebekah Mercer may be the source of funds for NDMASCENDANT, but we cannot confirm that at this time. But here is Rudy traveling in Russia around that time.

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-rudy-giuliani-mystery-trips-to-russia-armenia-and-ukraine
Ultimately Parler would seem to have very little chance to become self-sustaining, so who will fund such a money-sink, for how long, and why? What is the investment play here?
And... researcher @VickerySec points out a very good set of leads for those looking to get a clearer picture of the opaque Parler / NDMASCENDANT money trail. Follow the money. This is NOT a conventional tech startup! https://twitter.com/VickerySec/status/1302815780782764033
So what might be next for Parler? We anticipate Trump will join and announce his plan to transition away from Twitter. Kanye West too; maybe some others. But to do that, Parler needs to be ready to scale up quickly, which requires $$$ and people.

Again, where’s that coming from?
A tiny number of people (also, Kremlin) have criticized this thread for being “xenophobic” and targeting people with “Russian last names.” Flatly: that is nonsense. Grow up.

I am calling out opaque behaviors and associations with Americans working for Russian interests.
You can follow @davetroy.
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