Eyeless on Campus: EOC400.3012--Video Game Campaign Contributions--ZENIMAX $20K TO DNC 2016

Monday, August 5, 2019

EOC400.3012--Video Game Campaign Contributions--ZENIMAX $20K TO DNC 2016

EOC400.2012
J. L'Angelle
Univ of Nevada, Reno
Fall 2019

   (The Arcade)--Deflecting blame and responsibility is nearly as important to political survival in the Washington rank and file as directing it. Without specific details to back it up, the tactic of obfuscation allows the politician to gradually defuse the issue. Take for instance the twin mass shootings of El Paso-Dayton last week and the half-hearted resolve to "do something about it" with the usual "enough is enough" hardline promises.
   Following the Parkland, FL massacre in 2018, the President held a summit of video game manufacturers to get a handle on the link between violent video games and the trigger man in mass slaughter, as reported by Mike Snider in USA Today;
   "This likely feels like déjà vu for the video game industry. Several attendees Thursday had also attended a January 2013 meeting convened by Vice President Joe Biden after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting: Michael Gallagher, president of the Entertainment Software Association, a video game industry trade group; Patricia Vance, president of the Entertainment Software Rating Board; and Robert Altman, CEO of ZeniMax Media, which owns Bethesda Softworks (Fallout) and id Software (Doom). Also attending: Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two Interactive (Grand Theft Auto). (Mike Snider, USA Today)
Aside from the rating board, ZeniMax CEO Robert Altman attended; that's Robert A. Altman, the powerful DC attorney. A check of his campaign contributions at Open Secrets turns up something rather interesting;

Money to Parties
ALTMAN, ROBERT A
ROCKVILLE, MD 20850
ZENIMAX MEDIA
10-10-2016
$20,000.00
Democratic Congressional Campaign Cmte (D) (Open Secrets)

Money to Parties
ALTMAN, ROBERT A
ROCKVILLE, MD 20850
ZENIMAX MEDIA
07-31-2017
$20,000.00
Democratic Congressional Campaign Cmte (D) (Open Secrets)

   While the gun control hawks among the Democrats are hollering for the head of the NRA on a platter, they are taking money from the publisher of the very violent video games that are causing the fringe elements to acquire AK-47s and a dozen quick-change magazines.
   The overall contributions to the Entertainment Software Association read like a rogue's gallery of Washington, DC rank and file with ZeniMax leading the pack of hired guns and a $5000 pony up in 2018.
   Even more shameful in the call to put a muzzle flash on the violent video game industry is the hypocrisy that the President's own brother, as reported in Bloomberg by Sink and Palmeri, is on the board of directors of ZeniMax;

"His younger brother Robert Trump has been on the board of the Bethesda, Maryland-based producer of games like Doom, Rage and Fallout since at least 2007. The board also includes Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer, CBS Chairman Les Moonves and former baseball great Cal Ripken Jr., according to its website." (Justin Sink, Christopher Palmeri, Bloomberg)
Moonves? Wasn't he in the news recently?

Works Cited
Snider, M., https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2018/03/08/trump-talk-video-game-makers-critics-thursday-white-house-meeting/406374002/
Altman, https://www.opensecrets.org/search?q=robert+a+altman&type=donors
Ent Software Assn, https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?cycle=2018&cmte=C00439216
ZeniMax board, Sink, J., Palmeri, C., https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-08/game-maker-joining-gun-violence-discussion-has-a-trump-on-board
Bob Trump photo, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_of_Donald_Trump

...

RED FLAG
Checkpoint Charlie: NATO, Article 5 and the Berlin Wall
There was no North American Treaty Organization, NATO, immediately following the close of World War Two. By the close of the decade, due to pressure from the Soviet Union, particularly in Germany, the alliance was formed with 12 initial members. The concept of “collective security” had been around for over 30 years, at least on the Continent, with respect to the World War One League of Nations; neither the United States nor the Soviet Union were members. (09 March 2025)

Red Flag: The U.S.-Japan Security Pact of 1960
The recent statement by the White House concerning a “bilateral” treaty between the United States and Japan from 1960 raised the issue of the former’s lack of a security-military commitment, with the latter doing the heavy lifting. It comes as no surprise in light of other treaties such as NATO in Europe with the U.S. again carrying The Weight.
Part and parcel to how it all unfolded had to do with certain ambiguous positions by the two nations coupled with the American public not totally informed of the agreement. The situation was quite different in Japan. (09 March 2025)

...

BORDERLANDS
Ukraine: The Art of the (Peace) Deal
Nations are big on treaties, enforcing them is another matter. This paper traces some of the more recent, failed and otherwise, then takes a close look at one of the most controversial in history, The Versailles Treaty at the end of World War One. (09 March 2025)

Ukraine and The Rubio Doctrine The purpose of this report is to test the secretary’s three core principles against the Ukraine conflict to see if they are viable and would have been if he became president in the 2015 election. (09 March 2025)

Ukraine Betrayed: American Robber Barons to Steal Rare Minerals
Ukraine possesses significant reserves of rare earth minerals and other critical raw materials that are essential for modern technology and industry. According to reports, Ukraine has deposits of 22 out of 34 minerals identified as critical by the European Union. (09 March 2025)