The day before Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dropped out of the presidential contest, a pair of his most ardent supporters were circling the Democratic National Convention in an ancient RV repurposed into an unofficial campaign bus—a fact largely hidden by the explosion of red, white, and blue graphics and slogans like “Kennedy Across America” adorning its exterior.
Most of my time in Chicago was devoted to covering the influencers who were there, but I so deeply needed to get on that bus and find out why two dudes were dedicating all this time driving around the country in support of Kennedy. Luckily, my colleague Dhruv Mehrotra ran into them and had them pick me up.
PLUS: I had to have Vittoria Elliott write the Chat Room section for this week, detailing her new story about the astrologers predicting the outcome of the election.
There’s a lot to get through! Let’s talk about it.
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True believers
At the pro-Palestine protests outside the DNC or at The Daily Show’s Thursday taping in Lincoln Park, the first sign of the bus was the loud and relentless music coming from it. At the time my colleague Dhruv and I hopped on, the bus’s then inhabitants, Kyle Kemper (Justin Trudeau’s brother) and Damien Nichols, generated a playlist with AI using pre-written lyrics and simple style suggestions—like an early ’90s boy band whose lead singer went solo, Nichols says. “It’s the DNC. Democrats, why won’t Kamala talk to the press,” one of the songs croons out of the blown-out speakers. “Is it we the people, or we the party?”
The bus was the centerpiece of a caravan of 30 ride-or-die Kennedy supporters who traveled to the DNC in support of Kennedy. For more than a year, Kemper has been traveling across the country with his wife, Brittany, and their children, handing out pro-Kennedy flyers, blasting music, and stumping for Kennedy. Nichols, whom Kemper met at a 2018 crypto conference in Puerto Rico, joined him for this leg of the trip.
While Vice President Kamala Harris’ nomination was the primary story of the week, rumors of Kennedy exiting the presidential race and supporting Trump circulated for days. To Nichols, the rumors were more of a psyop for attention than anything else.
“I have no idea what’s actually going to happen. It’s a coin toss at this point,” Nichols told me. “We’ve had this 48-hour news cycle that he’s dropping out, endorsing Trump. He’s going to get in front of all those cameras, and I want him to double down on his independent campaign.”
Kemper was at the front of the bus multitasking, skillfully maneuvering his gigantic vehicle through throngs of people and narrow alleyways. In his spare moments, he hurled Kennedy reading material to people along the sidewalks, part of their “guerrilla marketing” strategy.
While Kemper and Nichols became fast friends, it wasn’t until a few months ago that Nichols hopped on the bus. It was Kennedy’s livestreamed response to the first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump that secured his support. “That's when I saw a path forward—a long shot, but a path forward.”
“You respond to the hate with some good vibes … we maintain the good vibes … and lead with it,” Nichols says. “The plan is to increase awareness.”
As the bus pulled up to a park just two blocks from the United Center, where thousands gathered to protest Israel’s deadly assault on Gaza, Nichols shared his approach. "You always start by finding common ground," he explained simply. The moment the bus stopped, a swarm of about two dozen reporters and protesters rushed toward them, cameras at the ready.
Kemper quickly changed the song on the speaker to Jackie DeShannon's "What The World Needs Now Is Love." “What are you doing?” a protester asked antagonistically. “We're having interactions,” Nichols replied calmly. This is the strategy: Counter negativity with smiles and good vibes.
Remarkably, it seems to be working. What was initially perceived by the protesters as something potentially antagonistic began to draw more curiosity the longer the bus lingered. People started asking for shirts and hats, with the bus now becoming a source of amusement and interest rather than anger.
“The number one thing for me is that we learn how to talk and respect each other,” Nichols said as the bus pulled away. “I love you, even if you're inclined to think I'm an imbecile with brain worms.”
The good vibes were never enough to support Kennedy’s campaign. The following day, Kennedy stepped out of the race, endorsing former president Donald Trump. To most, this was the end of Kennedy’s presidential ambitions. To the bus boys, it was just the start.
“Kyle and I are pretty fired up actually,” Nichols texted Dhruv after the announcement. “By staying on the ballot in all but battleground states Bobby maintains the option for a majority of otherwise politically homeless Americans to vote against the uniparty disaster without worrying about spoiling their ‘lesser evil’ preference while leaving room for an 11th-hour groundswell. I can work with that.”
Dhruv Mehrotra cowrote this report.
The Chatroom
I’m Vittoria Elliott, a reporter covering tech platforms and power on the politics desk. This week, I published a story about how astrologers online are talking—and making predictions—about the 2024 presidential election. Over the past few years, astrology has become increasingly popular, partly thanks to young people looking for a spiritual home outside of traditional organized religion. But one thing that definitely stuck out to me in reporting this piece was the role social media platforms have played.
Astrology content tends to fall under the umbrella of spirituality or wellness, two categories that drive a lot of eyeballs. (Fitness influencers! Crystals! Smoothies! Energy work!) These topics aren’t overtly political—and many platforms don’t see them as such, which is largely to their benefit. Earlier this year, Meta announced that Threads and Instagram would not recommend political content.
But the thing is, everything is political in some way. And so even “nonpolitical” content like astrology can act like a side door into politics and, more dangerously, conspiracies. There’s a lot of overlap between “nonpolitical” anti-vax, clean eating, and new age spirituality content and, say, QAnon. But the astrologers and enthusiasts I spoke to were seeing this and actively thinking about how to address it in their work. Two veteran astrologers I spoke to, Jessica Lanyadoo and Laurie Rivers, talked about being deeply motivated to use astrology to speak about politics because they saw the way astrology had become entwined with conspiracy theories and fringe politics on social media.
If anything, I was surprised at how, for people whose work can be very tied up with the idea of prediction, they viewed astrology as a way to communicate with—and mobilize—audiences that might not be looking for, or be served, political content at all.
Can political astrologers predict the election outcome any better than Nate Silver? How do you feel about these politically motivated astrologers? Send your thoughts to mail@wired.com to let us know!
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What Else We’re Reading
🔗 Mark Zuckerberg Says White House Was ‘Wrong’ to Pressure Facebook on Covid: In a letter to the House Judiciary Committee this week, Mark Zuckerberg says it was wrong for the Biden administration to point out Covid-19 misinformation on Meta’s platforms. (The Wall Street Journal)
🔗 Trump’s NFT Trading Card Grift Is Back—and as Scammy as Ever: Trump’s back with a fresh NFT drop. This time you, yes you, could own a JPEG of the former president riding a motorcycle. (New Republic)
🔗 Far-Right ‘Terrorgram’ Chat Rooms Are Fueling a Wave of Power-Grid Attacks: Attacks on the power grid have more than doubled in recent years, and there’s a loose network of Telegram channels where right-wing extremists plan their assault. (Bloomberg)
The Download
Leah’s out on vacation this week, so unfortunately there’s no podcast. But if you’re lost on what to listen to, I joined Aftermath.site’s Twitch show last week to chat about all the influencers at the DNC and the drama that went along with it. You can check that out here.
Also, here’s a fun blog from Matt Hodges, the executive director for Zinc Labs, describing how he modded the LED DNC bracelets that were worn last week.
That’s it for today—thanks again for subscribing. You can get in touch with me via email, Instagram, X, and Signal at makenakelly.32.
