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and my point was: how did they miss this golden opportunity? Looks fishy to me.Quote:
Originally Posted by TitoFan
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kirkland LaingIf they really have just indicted him for falsification of business records it's counterproductive. They shouldn't have done it. He'll doubtless be found guilty but then there's no way the Supreme Court will let it stand. The six conservatives will do some legal gymnastics and overturn it. Not that that will happen before any election but it's a weak case on basically campaign finance violations which are no big deal and this is a former president. This gives Trump the perfect opportunity to frame any subsequent indictments on actual serious charges as witch hunts, banana republic stuff and so on. The DA doing the charging had better have a bulletproof personal and professional life or it's going to go badly for him.Quote:
Originally Posted by palmerq
In other Trump news he's crushing the primary opposition:
https://www.foxnews.com/official-pol...ver-50-support
DeSoros just got his arse handed to him by Mickey Mouse:
https://twitter.com/PoliticsReid/sta...78185109831680
A second Trump term would be something:
https://twitter.com/RadioFreeTom/sta...56426034155520
More Fox News election email leaks:
https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status...20321343307784
Keep scrolling with that one if twitter lets you.
And:
https://twitter.com/stengel/status/1641391404696911872
This... in principle... has been my fear all along! Scattershot cases and accusations... shoddy and hasty investigations... all in disorganized desperation to bury Trump.
And for what?? So he can be the 21st Century's version of Teflon Don??
Damn...
A golden opportunity to bury this asshole... and he could easily come out even stronger... as a (shudder) martyr.
We're fukking doomed.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/...162449247.html
"Tearful Lindsey Graham begs Trump fans to give him money to fight indictment"
Wait... wha?? :D
This is SO COOL on SO MANY LEVELS. :D
Crying?? Ok, first of all... I've never been able to stomach that two-faced weasel. But CRYING?? :rofmaoal:
Oh man... I don't know where to start. This is just too good. :D
Ok so let's see if I've got this straight...
The two-faced, whiny, flip-flopping weasel goes on national television to tearfully BEG people to send Trump MONEY to help defend against his indictment.
Is that about the size of it?
Damn. This is stand-up comedy material if I ever saw it. I know I'd have a field day with that one.
Begging... people... to... send... MONEY... to... Donald... Trump!!
The travesty of it all. I just don't have the words to express the revulsion Lindsey Graham causes in the pit of my stomach every time I see his face, or he opens his mouth on national television. "Lowlife scumbag" is too kind a description....
About the only thing that would've made it better, would've been to see him and Rudy Guliani crying and hugging each other while Rudy's hair dye runs down his face and onto Graham's cheeks.
The circus continues...
34 false statements and Trump still attacks everyone else. This is the least of the serious charges that have been made against him. Watching the news coverage was fun.
This may revitalise the Trump supporters and maybe even some of the Republicans but they will lose the General Election in 2024 if Donald is their leader.
Nothing circles the wagons better than essentially bringing to life the repeated rantings of a kook campaigning on victimhood and roulette wheel rage. Not saying they shouldn't have indicted, prove a crime charge them up. But the bi partisan scrutiny of the same charge 34 times over is glaring. Made to sound like some semi experimentation by a NY DA. In the big picture, it would be much worse for Trump to just wallow and anticipate the bigger cases over his head. If anything, now he has a chaos direction. Effectively his campaign kicked off when he got back from court last night. Then again, all he managed to do in his post Don the con speech was admit to a crime and remind exhausted Repubs what they are thinking about re shoveling again.Quote:
Originally Posted by Master
He's got a thing about admitting crimes:Quote:
Originally Posted by SpicoliNothing circles the wagons better than essentially bringing to life the repeated rantings of a kook campaigning on victimhood and roulette wheel rage. Not saying they shouldn't have indicted, prove a crime charge them up. But the bi partisan scrutiny of the same charge 34 times over is glaring. Made to sound like some semi experimentation by a NY DA. In the big picture, it would be much worse for Trump to just wallow and anticipate the bigger cases over his head. If anything, now he has a chaos direction. Effectively his campaign kicked off when he got back from court last night. Then again, all he managed to do in his post Don the con speech was admit to a crime and remind exhausted Repubs what they are thinking about re shoveling again.Quote:
Originally Posted by Master
https://www.mediaite.com/news/that-w...mp-confession/
HANNITY: You would never have committed this crime they're saying you committed.
TRUMP: I totally fucking would! I absolutely did commit that crime.
HANNITY: Let's move on.
TRUMP: No! No! I want to talk about the crime I committed......
Sean Hannity, journalist extraordinaire. Get a former president on your show admitting to committing a crime and you say "let's move on".
In other Trump news:
Two years ago, President Donald Trump signed what he called a "historical trade deal" with China that committed China to purchase $200 billion of additional US exports before December 31, 2021. Today the only undisputed "historical" aspect of that agreement is its failure. One lesson is not to make deals that cannot be fulfilled when unforeseen events inevitably occur—in this case, a pandemic and a recession. Another is not to forget the complementary policies needed to give an agreement a chance to succeed.
In the end, China bought only 58 percent of the US exports it had committed to purchase under the agreement, not even enough to reach its import levels from before the trade war.[1] Put differently, China bought none of the additional $200 billion of exports Trump's deal had promised......
https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-...mps-trade-deal
A persistent idea undergirds reactions by Donald Trump and the GOP to Trump’s indictment. Sometimes it’s explicitly stated, and sometimes it’s more implicit: Indicting a former president and a candidate in the next election is beyond the pale. It’s even election “interference” or the stuff of banana republics.
Trump ceded the moral high ground on this idea long ago.
He has advocated for the prosecutions of each of the last four Democratic presidential nominees — every single one since 2004. In two cases, he did it during the campaign, even suggesting they should be ineligible to run.
And that’s to say nothing of the many other political opponents he has suggested should be prosecuted. He even, in some cases, actually agitated for that outcome when he held sway over the Justice Department......
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other...go/ar-AA19mkUE
Nearly 9 in 10 Americans say they oppose reducing spending on Social Security or Medicare, according to new polling from our Axios-Ipsos Two Americas Index.
https://www.axios.com/2023/03/16/two...urity-medicare
Scalia's best friend:
Now, Judge Luttig is back, with even a starker warning.
The institutions of our democracy and law, he says, “are under vicious, unsustainable, and unendurable attack — from within.”
https://morningshots.thebulwark.com/...ibextid=r5uJeJ
This could hand the 2024 election to Trump:
https://twitter.com/TheRickWilson/st...29268681330692
related:
https://twitter.com/PeterSchorschFL/...10656622039044
and finally:
https://twitter.com/PeterSchorschFL/...10656622039044
He's basically asking Putin to get him elected and he'll stop supporting Ukraine and pull out of NATO. He'd probably try and send him weapons too once he never has to face an election again.
Read something about the Georgia investigation and when they might bring charges:
To bring charges, Willis would have to present her case to a regular grand jury that, unlike the special-purpose grand jury, has the power to bring criminal indictments.
In Fulton County, grand jury terms begin every two months. Some observers believe Willis has been waiting to present her case to a fresh panel because of legal rules that allow defendants to request speedy trials within two months of the end of the grand jury terms in which they are indicted.
The latest grand jury panels were sworn in during the first week of March. The next panels will begin the first week of May.
https://wapo.st/3Ue4N1C
That link will get you past the paywall.
So if it's down to them wanting to have as much time as possible to prepare for any trial then they're going to be presenting the evidence to a grand jury at the start of May. So early May for any indictments then.
Trump support going up:
https://twitter.com/SarahLongwell25/...37628713955328
And if there are any constitutional crises over the next few years caused by a disputed election or a new/old vengeful president determined to wreck democracy, the election process, turn the country into a banana republic or whatever we can feel safe in the knowledge that the ultimate arbiter of justice in the country is completely incorruptible:
“It’s incomprehensible to
me that someone would do this,” said Nancy Gertner, a retired federal judge appointed by President Bill Clinton. When she was on the bench, Gertner said, she was so cautious about appearances that she wouldn’t mention her title when making dinner reservations: “It was a question of not wanting to use the office for anything other than what it was intended.”
Virginia Canter, a former government ethics lawyer who served in administrations of both parties, said Thomas “seems to have completely disregarded his higher ethical obligations.”
“When a justice’s lifestyle is being subsidized by the rich and famous, it absolutely corrodes public trust,” said Canter, now at the watchdog group CREW. “Quite frankly, it makes my heart sink.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/c...vel-gifts-crow
This article is well done:
With the 2012 presidential election, Fox struggled to maintain an increasingly angry — and fickle — audience. Core viewers didn’t want to believe that Obama was cruising to re-election, and Fox’s hosts and guests told them over and over that they did not have to: The polls showing an Obama victory over his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, were “skewed” by mainstream pollsters with a Democratic bias.
Ailes had long seen every election night as a chance to burnish the news division’s “fair and balanced” bona fides. “Don’t go out there looking like your puppy died,” he would say. But in 2012, viewers’ wishes and reality reached an impasse. As Obama clinched the critical state of Ohio, Karl Rove — George W. Bush’s former political adviser, now a Fox contributor — said the call was premature, keeping audience hopes alive; Megyn Kelly, a rising star from the news side, shut him down mercilessly, marching down to the Fox News decision desk, on camera, to have the team explain why in no uncertain terms Rove was wrong.
In the days that followed Obama’s re-election, Fox’s ratings fell, so much at some points that the network was trailing MSNBC in the key 25-to-54 age demographic, a focus of advertisers. As the discussion about whether and how the network had lost the trust of its audience continued, executives in the news division dropped their most strident poll denier, the political analyst Dick Morris, and sidelined Rove. But another network regular, Donald J. Trump, appeared to draw a different lesson from the election miss. The audience wanted to stay in the world Fox presented the first time.
In 2012, you could see the seeds of Trump’s 2016 victory and even the run-up to the Jan. 6 crisis. The longtime television personality knew his audience — soon to be his base — better than any Fox host, and he did not hesitate to feed it: “More reports of voting machines switching Romney votes to Obama,” Trump tweeted before voting had even ended; then afterward, “Let’s fight like hell to stop this great and disgusting injustice,” and “We can’t let this happen, we should march on Washington and stop this travesty” and “This election is a total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy!”
Trump, with his flagrant disregard for facts, presented every news organization with significant challenges. For Fox, the problem was even trickier. Trump had a particularly strong hold on its core audience members. Would Fox follow them down the rabbit hole? By the time he clinched the 2016 Republican nomination, they had choices. For the first time, there were other options for conservative news consumers on television — Newsmax, which Ruddy had brought to cable in 2014, and One America News Network, which made its debut in 2013. The new networks were “barely a blip,” one Fox executive would say dismissively.
[...]
This was the company, and the audience, that were confronted by Trump’s election lie in 2020. The president could create and distribute a story in real time, and Fox could track the viewer response minute by minute. What it found was exactly what Trump intuited after Romney’s loss in 2012: The audience wanted the election lie. When Fox stopped giving it to the audience, there was an instant falloff. That falloff came quickly after Fox News became the first network to call the state of Arizona for Biden in 2020, undermining his contention that he was winning. The president and viewers were furious, and competitors were ready to take them away.
Murdoch had stood by the Arizona call, even as the White House, behind the scenes, called him to question it. A few days later, after Fox News and all of its competitors called the election for Biden, the consequences were becoming clear. “Getting creamed by CNN!” Murdoch wrote to Scott. “Guess our viewers don’t want to watch it. Hard enough for me!” Scott, who had been at the network during the Romney election-night fiasco, had told Murdoch that the “first 72 hours will be the worst of it.” But CNN was not the only competition now. Newsmax was coming in hard and fast. “Fox is having something of an identity crisis, and I don’t know if they know the country as well as we do here,” boasted its star anchor, Greg Kelly, a former Fox News correspondent. Kelly “had over 1 million total viewers on Newsmax,” the president of the Fox Business network, Lauren Petterson, wrote to a colleague. “I see it,” the colleague responded. “Jesus.”
The network’s biggest stars saw it too. “We certainly have gone against the customer is always right,” a Fox colleague wrote to Tucker Carlson. “But hopefully our product is strong enough to withstand.” Carlson later replied, “With Trump behind it, an alternative like Newsmax could be devastating to us.” The route back was clear. As a producer later wrote to associates: “Don’t know how closely you’ve looked at our charts this week, but audience much more interested in voter irregularities than covid hypocrisy or race/Obama book tour.”
In fact, the first Fox News host to detail the supposed Dominion plot, Maria Bartiromo, was grabbing big ratings as she treated its intricacies seriously. (“Sidney, I want to ask you about these algorithms and the Dominion software,” she said to Sidney Powell.) Another host, Lou Dobbs of Fox Business, was doing the same as other Dominion allegations spread across other shows.
‘I want to ask you about these algorithms and the Dominion software — I understand Nancy Pelosi has an interest in this company.’ Maria Bartiromo
Emails and texts turned over during discovery show that Scott and Wallace, and so many others at the network, had been informed it was all false. Dominion representatives and then lawyers were pelting the network with fact-checks and finally legal warnings. “Lies,” a Dominion representative, Tony Fratto, wrote to Wallace at one point. Yet the network seemed trapped by the viewer expectations it helped set; attempts to address the preposterousness of the whole conspiracy theory would draw blowback and new attacks from rivals. In late November, Tucker Carlson gave it a shot, telling his audience that Powell was failing to provide any evidence for her conspiracy theory. Even then, he qualified it: “It doesn’t mean it didn’t happen,” he said. “It might have happened.” And he still took a hammering online.
If they didn’t want it from Carlson — who was at the same time seeding other false notions about voter fraud — they certainly didn’t want it from the news correspondents, who were not. It was then that Fox’s journalists began hearing about “respect” for the audience. What the journalists didn’t understand was that in all the news-side election calling and debunking, “the audience feels like we crapped on them,” Scott explained to her deputy. They were going to have to rebuild trust.
An executive at Fox News, who would speak about the court proceedings only on the condition of anonymity, said that showing “respect” did not mean relinquishing the job of debunking the false reports. In the executive’s view, those who were drawing Scott’s ire were being unduly “snarky” in doing so and appeared to be “talking down to” viewers and “even rolling their eyes.”
But for all the executives’ venting about a lack of “respect” among Fox journalists, what is not apparent in the emails is any dressing down of those on the staff who were spreading the falsehoods. There is certainly no obvious concern about what the anger that was stemming from the belief in those falsehoods might lead to. As a producer texted to Bartiromo in late November: “To be honest, our audience doesn’t want to hear about a peaceful transition. They still have hope.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/06/m...ion-jan-6.html
DeSantis latest, from behind a paywall:
Among the 15-20 Republican mega-donors who control the purse strings in G.O.P. politics, there’s growing concern that Ron DeSantis, the great white knight from Tallahassee, might not be the one, or at least not yet. Most of these top dogs—Steve Schwarzman, Ken Griffin, Paul Singer, Ken Langone, etcetera—are moderate-ish Bush-era billionaires who loved Trump’s corporate tax cuts but have appeared ready to move on from the candidate, despite the former president’s efforts to win them back by circulating memos highlighting his poll numbers or working the room at John Paulson’s Palm Beach housewarming party.
Nevertheless, these are businessmen, hedge fund founders, and private equity moguls who appreciate optionality and are now looking to hedge their risk, as I reported last week. “If DeSantis is the guy, we’re ready to go for it and we’re ready to throw our weight behind him,” one major donor told me. “We want one or two of them rather than Trump. DeSantis should not misread early support for him, which I’m sure DeSantis hates. We’re ready to support two Trump alternative candidates, because why wouldn’t we?”
Sure, DeSantis already has about $200 million in the bank, but it’s been a rough month or so. He’s been trending downward in early polling and was completely upstaged by Trump’s indictment and arrest in New York, an oxygen-annihilating media event that seemed, somehow, to have caught the Florida governor and his staff off-guard—first with his disingenuous, chatbot-esque performance during a softball interview with Piers Morgan, during which he fumbled his response to questions about Trump’s looming indictment, and again when he was put on the spot regarding whether he would stand in the way of Trump’s potential extradition.
The trouble with DeSantis is that his candidacy is more compelling on paper than it is in practice. Of course, any would-be president’s ambitions eclipse their accomplishments. But DeSantis, despite ruling over a state of 20 million people, has yet to be tested on a national stage. He’s also revealed a reactive and potentially short-sighted political instinct with his recent moves to legalize permitless concealed carry in Florida and his plan to sign a six-week abortion ban—two base-revving policies that would unquestionably come back to haunt him in a general election.
Other missteps have been stylistic, donors say, like his desire to always appear as the smartest person in the room. Perhaps he should embrace a more genial approach, like their north star George W. Bush, the guy who didn’t drink but whom you would grab a beer with. (Though look how that turned out…)
DeSantis’s people brush off this grumbling as a bunch of moderates who don’t understand what it takes to win the Republican primary these days. Sure, the six-week abortion ban might upset them, but if he’s going to beat Trump in the primary, he needs to campaign to the hard right. But the party’s moneymen worry he’s being myopic, or naive. “He’s showing signs of stress and that only he and his wife Casey are in his inner camp,” the major donor told me. “DeSantis has to do whatever he can to stop the bill from getting the six-week abortion ban to his desk.”
In fact, these donors see it as a real test. One called it a “death warrant.” That’s why you’re starting to hear the intensified grumbling that perhaps DeSantis should do a headfake and sit this one out for 2028. I’ve been in Florida reporting for the past two weeks and have heard this inside conversation at all levels, from voters to G.O.P. leaders to top donors who wonder if DeSantis should really run.
“The Game-Winning Pitcher in the Bullpen”
Three months ago, DeSantis was on top of the world, having beaten Trump in a poll of G.O.P. voters in New Hampshire and enjoying his own sense of political inevitability. Now, the conversation among donors has shifted to whether they need to identify another “game-winning relief pitcher in the bullpen,” in case DeSantis doesn’t have the gas to go the distance. (I know, more sports metaphors, but these are obviously all men talking.) The de facto option for these guys is to pick someone most like them—a man who understands the economic and political universe as they see it; a former private equity hero and centimillionaire on their level. Yes, we’re talking once again about Glenn Youngkin.
I’m reliably told that Youngkin has made it clear that he will not run before the state legislature elections in Virginia, in November. He’s dead set on flipping the state red and making that his signature success story, outside of his manufactured C.R.T. platform, which DeSantis snatched up and turbocharged. Of course, a very late entry would put him at a sizable disadvantage—especially if it means missing debates, potentially failing to qualify for the ballot in certain states, and arriving without a national campaign apparatus in place. But surely, the argument goes, Youngkin can spend $20 million of his own cash immediately to make up any lost ground, and he’d be able to call on his peers to help bridge the delta. He’s got significant evangelical support waiting in the wings. And by waiting on the sidelines, Youngkin avoids months of Trump attacks.
Sure it’s a longshot, but this may be Youngkin’s last chance at the White House. Whereas donors are telling DeSantis to consider sitting back and waiting until 2028, after Trump is out of the picture, Youngkin is being advised that 2028 is too far away. His term as governor is up in 2025, and he’s term limited from running again. Without a political platform to stand on, he runs the risk of becoming just another rich guy with presidential dreams.
Oh, and there’s the Rupert Murdoch factor, too. I’m told that both Youngkin and DeSantis met with Murdoch, separately, at his $200 million Montana ranch last year, and the Fox and News Corp. owner seemed to get on better with the fleece-wearing former Carlyle co-C.E.O. than he did with the former Navy lawyer.
It’s not just the monied class whose confidence DeSantis appears to be losing; his appeal with the grassroots is also being tested. To wit, multiple sources noted to me that the New Hampshire G.O.P. is still struggling to sell tickets, at every level up from entry-level tickets to $5,000 dinner sponsorships, for the annual Amos Tuck Dinner on April 14, featuring DeSantis as the special guest. With only one week to go, organizers are apparently underwhelmed by the interest in an event they’d hoped would sell out. Meanwhile, The Daily Beast has a story out about how everyone from G.O.P. donors to organizers have been frustrated by the lack of responsiveness from the DeSantis team, as well as his insistence on doing as little media as possible. New Hampshire activists have been particularly miffed that they need to submit requests to the governor’s office to see him while he’s in town—a hurdle they’re not used to as influencers in the first-in-the-nation primary. (A New Hampshire G.O.P. spokesperson declined to comment.)
But maybe DeSantis doesn’t care about New Hampshire or Iowa. NBC News is reporting that he’s instead focusing on outlasting Trump and winning more delegates overall—what people in the know are already calling “the Rudy Guiliani strategy.” Which by the way, didn’t work.
Also this:
https://twitter.com/crampell/status/1643966195291557888
So the GOP establishment are backing an outright conspiracy theorist. Maybe he's coming out with shit like this because he thinks he needs to to win the primary. That does not say good things about the present day Republican party.
Also, too, the Republican party and the media:
https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan/stat...79161540919296
and the GOP just giving up on democracy and the rule of law:
https://twitter.com/RadioFreeTom/sta...92844228857856
Interestingly this was one military veteran killing another. The jury heard eight days of evidence and found this guy guilty, now he gets an instant get out of jail free card because he's white and the guy he killed was a BLM protestor.
Think the Judge may have pooched the case with revelation of political donations. That is a horrid look of impropriety. Big picture though this feels similar to pawing with a jab to throw the meaningful right hand coming out of Georgia.
Sorry if I'm repeating what's already been said.
But...
The following is making the media rounds both on TV and Internet media:
https://news.yahoo.com/jan-6-investi...234212517.html
"Jan. 6 Investigators Think Trump May Have Duped Donors With Election Fraud Claims"
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/p...sized_6484.jpg
Here's the first sentence from the above article:
"Special Prosecutor Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s role on Jan. 6 has launched a probe into allegations the former president and his allies defrauded donors by touting false claims of election fraud."
Really?? :rolleyes: :vd:
First off (and incredibly as it sounds)... I'm gonna defend Trump here. :D
"Jan. 6 Investigators Think Trump May Have Duped Donors With Election Fraud Claims"
May... have... duped. :vd:
To all Trumpie donors out there:
The word "donor" implies a VOLUNTARY action. Nobody held a gun to your head and took your money. You willingly forked over good money to a PROVEN CON ARTIST who has made a living out of conning losers like you. You've done it since Day One.
Now let's get to the real doozie. May... have... duped. Let's dispense with the nice words here. If you're stupid enough to give money to this con artist on the ridiculous premise (proven ridiculous UMPTEEN times) that the election was somehow STOLEN from Trump... (and read carefully here)...
YOU DESERVE TO HAVE BEEN BILKED FOR ALL THE MILLIONS YOU POURED DOWN THE DRAIN... YOU BRAINDEAD MORONS!!!
But the laughable part is January 6 investigators actually looking into these truths (they're not just allegations)... as if something is actually going to happen here.
WAKE THE FUKK UP!!!
If braindead donors decided to empty their bank accounts because this fukking Orange Clown lied to them about a stolen election... SO. THE. FUKK. WHAT??!!??
Do us all a favor, huh? Let's concentrate on the important stuff here. :vd:
It doesn't look good but any judge appointed is going to have a sister's cousin's boyfriend who voted for Biden so that's enough to smear them with. After this case is eventually over it'll move to an appeals court where a judge or three that Trump literally appointed to the job will rule on it and eventually it'll hit the Supreme Court where a judge who accepted millions of dollars of secret payments from a massive Trump supporter will rule on it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Spicoli
This case is small potatoes anyway and won't be over until well after the election. Like you say Georgia is coming and that's a huge problem for Trump because there are tapes.I thought one tape was bad but it turns out Trump called just about every fucker in Georgia who had anything to do with the election or confirming the result in the legislature and half of them taped it. It's not going to bother his cult followers but independent mushy middle voters must be affected when they hear about it, no?
It'd be lovely if he's done for wire fraud too but it would just be a cherry on top of the obstruction of justice case. They're also investigating him for showing people classified information relating to the chairman of the joint chiefs apparently.Some of this may stick too.Quote:
Originally Posted by TitoFan
https://www.mediaite.com/news/marjor...ale-christian/
This is just horrific but what really bothers me about this is why some twenty year old low level idiot has access to information like this in the first place. Apparently there are over a million people with security clearances. Absolutely nuts.
In a video seen by The Post, the man who the member said is OG stands at a shooting range, wearing safety glasses and ear coverings and holding a large rifle. He yells a series of racial and antisemitic slurs into the camera, then fires several rounds at a target.
https://wapo.st/405NDEM
This is him. Marvellous. Great job everybody.
New 2024 contestant:
https://twitter.com/amandacarpenter/...78815940444161
and
https://twitter.com/stuartpstevens/s...55340622204929
can't wait to see the liberal media frame him as the moderate centrist unifying-the-country face of the GOP and a strong alternative to Trump right up until the point where he accepts the VP slot on the ticket.
Trump gave me a box of Anisette Italian cigars called "Avanti" in 1987. Tavern On The Green restaurant. Complimentary box to all customers in the VIP lounge that night. He didn't hand it to me personally, but our tables all got one box from him that night.
I’ve sat through hundreds of focus groups with GOP voters over the last four years and one thing is perfectly clear: The Republican party has been irretrievably altered and, as one GOP voter put it succinctly, “We’re never going back.”
Share
IT’S EASY TO IDENTIFY people who don’t realize the transformation undergone by GOP voters. Many of them, in fact, have been talking about running for president. Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, Chris Christie, Asa Hutchinson, Mike Pompeo—these are Before Trump (BT) politicians who don’t quite realize they’re living in an After Trump (AT) world.
https://plus.thebulwark.com/p/think-...m_campaign=%3D
Fox News has settled a defamation lawsuit from the voting machine company, Dominion, over its reporting of the 2020 presidential election.
In a last-minute settlement before trial, the network agreed to pay $787.5m (£634m) - about half of the $1.6bn initially sought by Dominion.
Dominion argued its business was harmed by Fox spreading false claims the vote had been rigged against Donald Trump.
The deal spares Fox executives such as Rupert Murdoch from having to testify.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65318654
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kirkland Laing
This is pretty much spot on, and unfortunate as well.
In terms of platform and ideologies... I've always considered myself not totally Republican or Democrat. But if given a choice on the spectrum... I've always leaned a bit toward the Republican side of things (save for a few ideologies where I'm strictly on the Democrat side).
But that's all over now. Politics has stopped being about ideologies, and now is all about personalities, insults, mud-slinging, and one-liners.
You've got circus clowns like MTG actually holding down a congressional position... ACTUALLY ELECTED BY THE AMERICAN PUBLIC :rolleyes: :vd: and STILL around to spread her moronic rhetoric.
You've got totally undesirable people like Lindsey Graham and Rudy Guliani, captivating a portion of the American public... which is enough to nauseate the strongest of stomachs.
Yeah... there was pre-Trump GOP... and now there's post-Trump GOP.
Sad. :(
Quote:
Originally Posted by Master
I think Fox got off easy. Dominion should've held their feet to the fire.
There is another company suing for the same thing so maybe they will.Quote:
Originally Posted by TitoFanQuote:
Originally Posted by Master
I think Fox got off easy. Dominion should've held their feet to the fire.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TitoFanQuote:
Originally Posted by Master
I think Fox got off easy. Dominion should've held their feet to the fire.
The biggest judgement ever in a defamation case was about $220 million. But then it was vacated on appeal and the people on the hook, Dow Jones newspapers didn't have to pay a dollar of the award. This is something Dominion were well aware of. Even if they'd won a billion dollar judgement then it stood s huge chance of being drastically reduced or quashed entirely by a higher court, and as you go up the appeals system in America the courts get more and more pro corporate/big business/big guy over the little guy culminating in the Supreme Court which is comically so. Dominion is owned by a private equity firm. It has revenues, not profits, of about a hundred million dollars a year and profits of a few million. The total value of every asset the private equity fund own is less than a billion dollars, so this judgement basically doubled their net worth overnight. There was no way they could turn it down.
It would have been nice to have six weeks of bombshells about what was going on behind the scenes at Fox but it wouldn't have made any difference. People who aren't Fox viewers are looking at it and thinking what they're thinking. Fox viewers, to the extent they're hearing anything from conservative media by and large don't want to know about it or think about it. They need their safe space, media that will tell them what they want to hear regardless of reality so they don't want to hear anything bad about Fox. They need a source of new they can trust to lie to them. Fox can only lose them by telling them the truth which is how they ended up having to pay out what will eventually be a couple of billion dollars, because when they started telling them the truth about the election the viewers deserted them for Newsmax and One America and Fox had to start lying about Dominion and other shit to get them to come back.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MasterThere is another company suing for the same thing so maybe they will.Quote:
Originally Posted by TitoFanQuote:
Originally Posted by Master
I think Fox got off easy. Dominion should've held their feet to the fire.
The other company are after two point seven billion. After this judgement you've got to figure they get over a billion. Dominion are also suing Newsmax and One America news, two much smaller versions of Fox News who don't have much money and wouldn't be able to pay much in the way of fines. They're likely going to trial and will be shitting themselves after this judgement. Then there are a bunch of private individuals Dominion are suing. Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, the pillow guy and others. You've got to figure Dominion go to trial with these fuckers and expose as much of their bullshit as they can as noisily as possible.
Georgia investigation latest:
The Fulton County District Attorney’s office said some fake electors for Donald Trump have implicated each other in potential criminal activity and is seeking to disqualify their lawyer, according to a new court filing.
The district attorney’s office is requesting that attorney Kimberly Bourroughs Debrow be disqualified from representing a group of 10 Republicans who served as electors for the former president in Georgia – a state Trump lost to President Joe Biden. The DA’s office also accused the lawyer of failing to present an immunity deal to her clients last year, according to the filing.
The new filing offers the latest indication that immunity offers could still be in the works months after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis suggested charging decisions were “imminent.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/18/p...ors/index.html
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kirkland LaingQuote:
Originally Posted by TitoFanQuote:
Originally Posted by Master
I think Fox got off easy. Dominion should've held their feet to the fire.
The biggest judgement ever in a defamation case was about $220 million. But then it was vacated on appeal and the people on the hook, Dow Jones newspapers didn't have to pay a dollar of the award. This is something Dominion were well aware of. Even if they'd won a billion dollar judgement then it stood s huge chance of being drastically reduced or quashed entirely by a higher court, and as you go up the appeals system in America the courts get more and more pro corporate/big business/big guy over the little guy culminating in the Supreme Court which is comically so. Dominion is owned by a private equity firm. It has revenues, not profits, of about a hundred million dollars a year and profits of a few million. The total value of every asset the private equity fund own is less than a billion dollars, so this judgement basically doubled their net worth overnight. There was no way they could turn it down.
It would have been nice to have six weeks of bombshells about what was going on behind the scenes at Fox but it wouldn't have made any difference. People who aren't Fox viewers are looking at it and thinking what they're thinking. Fox viewers, to the extent they're hearing anything from conservative media by and large don't want to know about it or think about it. They need their safe space, media that will tell them what they want to hear regardless of reality so they don't want to hear anything bad about Fox. They need a source of new they can trust to lie to them. Fox can only lose them by telling them the truth which is how they ended up having to pay out what will eventually be a couple of billion dollars, because when they started telling them the truth about the election the viewers deserted them for Newsmax and One America and Fox had to start lying about Dominion and other shit to get them to come back.
I know Dominion's gotta do what's best for Dominion... and good for them. Plus if what you say is true about the higher courts and how they side with big business... it probably wasn't worth the risk. You never can tell how courts are going to rule in specific cases... but again, can't fault Dominion for taking the money.
But... I'm gonna have to disagree on your take on what viewers on both sides would've reacted like, had Fox been dragged over the coals on this one.
We both are of similar mindsets when it comes to the American public, for the most part. All I gotta do is think about the fanbases of aliens like MTG, Boebert, Graham, and others... to see that many people are beyond hope when it comes to rational thought. But in an ideal situation where Fox's lies had been laid bare for all to see... I'm sorry. Even the most moronic of fanatical zombies would've had something stir in their minds. Yes... I still remember when Sean Spicer said with a straight face that Trump's inaugural crowd was larger than Obama's... so I'm well aware of some people's ability to look at a white wall and insist that it's black. But DAMN... an ideal situation judicial process, where Fox's blatant lies were exposed over and over again... and judgments were handed down... that's the sort of reality you just can't wish away.
I say all that... then visions pop into my mind where some GOP lawmakers insisted on live television that January 6th had been a peaceful stroll to the Capitol. :vd:
So although I'm arguing a point... my heart's not entirely IN it. ;D
All we can hope for is that Smartmatic's lawsuit goes as well (or better) than Dominion's... and that Fox News can be damaged beyond repair. Meanwhile... some of Trump's high profile Minions like Giuliani, and that clown with the pillow company can get raked over the coals as well.
Gotta spread the love. :cool:
The most mind blowing thing about all of this is how...even after Murdoch, the biggest and most powerful mainstream media mogul this planet has ever seen, describing Trump as 'My good friend Donald Trump' the Trumpoids will still insist that Trump is some kind of alternative voice, the anti-estabishment candidate, the one the elite want to silence.
Brain washing on a massive scale.
It's being said that Murdoch could've avoided all the headaches and the $787 million if only his bumbling newscasters had uttered three simple words whenever they reported on the alleged election fraud.
"If it's true..."
But they stupidly left themselves open to the lawsuits by violating one of the simplest, most basic laws of responsible journalism.
No matter what came out at a trial Fox viewers are going to stick with Fox so long as Fox keep giving them their daily dose of anger heroin. The only way Fox lose their audience is if they start telling them the truth.Quote:
Originally Posted by TitoFanQuote:
Originally Posted by Kirkland LaingQuote:
Originally Posted by TitoFanQuote:
Originally Posted by Master
I think Fox got off easy. Dominion should've held their feet to the fire.
The biggest judgement ever in a defamation case was about $220 million. But then it was vacated on appeal and the people on the hook, Dow Jones newspapers didn't have to pay a dollar of the award. This is something Dominion were well aware of. Even if they'd won a billion dollar judgement then it stood s huge chance of being drastically reduced or quashed entirely by a higher court, and as you go up the appeals system in America the courts get more and more pro corporate/big business/big guy over the little guy culminating in the Supreme Court which is comically so. Dominion is owned by a private equity firm. It has revenues, not profits, of about a hundred million dollars a year and profits of a few million. The total value of every asset the private equity fund own is less than a billion dollars, so this judgement basically doubled their net worth overnight. There was no way they could turn it down.
It would have been nice to have six weeks of bombshells about what was going on behind the scenes at Fox but it wouldn't have made any difference. People who aren't Fox viewers are looking at it and thinking what they're thinking. Fox viewers, to the extent they're hearing anything from conservative media by and large don't want to know about it or think about it. They need their safe space, media that will tell them what they want to hear regardless of reality so they don't want to hear anything bad about Fox. They need a source of new they can trust to lie to them. Fox can only lose them by telling them the truth which is how they ended up having to pay out what will eventually be a couple of billion dollars, because when they started telling them the truth about the election the viewers deserted them for Newsmax and One America and Fox had to start lying about Dominion and other shit to get them to come back.
I know Dominion's gotta do what's best for Dominion... and good for them. Plus if what you say is true about the higher courts and how they side with big business... it probably wasn't worth the risk. You never can tell how courts are going to rule in specific cases... but again, can't fault Dominion for taking the money.
But... I'm gonna have to disagree on your take on what viewers on both sides would've reacted like, had Fox been dragged over the coals on this one.
We both are of similar mindsets when it comes to the American public, for the most part. All I gotta do is think about the fanbases of aliens like MTG, Boebert, Graham, and others... to see that many people are beyond hope when it comes to rational thought. But in an ideal situation where Fox's lies had been laid bare for all to see... I'm sorry. Even the most moronic of fanatical zombies would've had something stir in their minds. Yes... I still remember when Sean Spicer said with a straight face that Trump's inaugural crowd was larger than Obama's... so I'm well aware of some people's ability to look at a white wall and insist that it's black. But DAMN... an ideal situation judicial process, where Fox's blatant lies were exposed over and over again... and judgments were handed down... that's the sort of reality you just can't wish away.
I say all that... then visions pop into my mind where some GOP lawmakers insisted on live television that January 6th had been a peaceful stroll to the Capitol. :vd:
So although I'm arguing a point... my heart's not entirely IN it. ;D
All we can hope for is that Smartmatic's lawsuit goes as well (or better) than Dominion's... and that Fox News can be damaged beyond repair. Meanwhile... some of Trump's high profile Minions like Giuliani, and that clown with the pillow company can get raked over the coals as well.
Gotta spread the love. :cool:
This is the only polling I've seen on it and nothing else shows up via google:
https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/fox...st-1235554399/
Of the Fox viewers who even know about the court case and the leaked texts and emails only about a fifth of them trust Fox less. But that's now. In a few months this will all be ancient history, Fox will have come up with some new culture war shit, another CRT or tranny swimmer or something that really grabs their audience and lets them know Fox covers the issues they want covering in the way that they want covering and they're back to a hundred percent trust again. All the current Dominion/Smartmatic stuff will be water under the bridge.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kirkland LaingNo matter what came out at a trial Fox viewers are going to stick with Fox so long as Fox keep giving them their daily dose of anger heroin. The only way Fox lose their audience is if they start telling them the truth.Quote:
Originally Posted by TitoFanQuote:
Originally Posted by Kirkland LaingQuote:
Originally Posted by TitoFanQuote:
Originally Posted by Master
I think Fox got off easy. Dominion should've held their feet to the fire.
The biggest judgement ever in a defamation case was about $220 million. But then it was vacated on appeal and the people on the hook, Dow Jones newspapers didn't have to pay a dollar of the award. This is something Dominion were well aware of. Even if they'd won a billion dollar judgement then it stood s huge chance of being drastically reduced or quashed entirely by a higher court, and as you go up the appeals system in America the courts get more and more pro corporate/big business/big guy over the little guy culminating in the Supreme Court which is comically so. Dominion is owned by a private equity firm. It has revenues, not profits, of about a hundred million dollars a year and profits of a few million. The total value of every asset the private equity fund own is less than a billion dollars, so this judgement basically doubled their net worth overnight. There was no way they could turn it down.
It would have been nice to have six weeks of bombshells about what was going on behind the scenes at Fox but it wouldn't have made any difference. People who aren't Fox viewers are looking at it and thinking what they're thinking. Fox viewers, to the extent they're hearing anything from conservative media by and large don't want to know about it or think about it. They need their safe space, media that will tell them what they want to hear regardless of reality so they don't want to hear anything bad about Fox. They need a source of new they can trust to lie to them. Fox can only lose them by telling them the truth which is how they ended up having to pay out what will eventually be a couple of billion dollars, because when they started telling them the truth about the election the viewers deserted them for Newsmax and One America and Fox had to start lying about Dominion and other shit to get them to come back.
I know Dominion's gotta do what's best for Dominion... and good for them. Plus if what you say is true about the higher courts and how they side with big business... it probably wasn't worth the risk. You never can tell how courts are going to rule in specific cases... but again, can't fault Dominion for taking the money.
But... I'm gonna have to disagree on your take on what viewers on both sides would've reacted like, had Fox been dragged over the coals on this one.
We both are of similar mindsets when it comes to the American public, for the most part. All I gotta do is think about the fanbases of aliens like MTG, Boebert, Graham, and others... to see that many people are beyond hope when it comes to rational thought. But in an ideal situation where Fox's lies had been laid bare for all to see... I'm sorry. Even the most moronic of fanatical zombies would've had something stir in their minds. Yes... I still remember when Sean Spicer said with a straight face that Trump's inaugural crowd was larger than Obama's... so I'm well aware of some people's ability to look at a white wall and insist that it's black. But DAMN... an ideal situation judicial process, where Fox's blatant lies were exposed over and over again... and judgments were handed down... that's the sort of reality you just can't wish away.
I say all that... then visions pop into my mind where some GOP lawmakers insisted on live television that January 6th had been a peaceful stroll to the Capitol. :vd:
So although I'm arguing a point... my heart's not entirely IN it. ;D
All we can hope for is that Smartmatic's lawsuit goes as well (or better) than Dominion's... and that Fox News can be damaged beyond repair. Meanwhile... some of Trump's high profile Minions like Giuliani, and that clown with the pillow company can get raked over the coals as well.
Gotta spread the love. :cool:
This is the only polling I've seen on it and nothing else shows up via google:
https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/fox...st-1235554399/
Of the Fox viewers who even know about the court case and the leaked texts and emails only about a fifth of them trust Fox less. But that's now. In a few months this will all be ancient history, Fox will have come up with some new culture war shit, another CRT or tranny swimmer or something that really grabs their audience and lets them know Fox covers the issues they want covering in the way that they want covering and they're back to a hundred percent trust again. All the current Dominion/Smartmatic stuff will be water under the bridge.
It gives me no pleasure to say that you're 100 percent correct.
That's what Murdoch is saying in public. He's doing his best to smooth things over with Trump as it looks like he's going to be the nominee and around for years to come.Quote:
Originally Posted by Beanz
“The more I think about McConnell’s remarks or complaint, the more I agree,” Murdoch wrote in an email on Biden’s Inauguration Day. “Trump insisting on the election being stolen and convincing 25 percent of Americans was a huge disservice to the country. Pretty much a crime. Inevitable it blew up Jan. 6th. Best we don’t mention his name unless essential and certainly don’t support him. We have to respect people of principle and if it comes to the Senate, don’t take sides. I know he is being over-demonized, but he brought it on himself.”
and
“Stupid and damaging,” Murdoch continues, referring to a news conference by the then Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. “The only one encouraging Trump and misleading him. Both increasingly mad. The real danger is what he might do as president.”
In a text, Murdoch described the claims of election fraud as “really crazy stuff”.
Murdoch tried to dump Trump after the insurrection but Fox viewers wouldn't let him. After he'd got his audience back Trump vanished from Fox for months on end while Murdoch promoted Ron DeSantis, the most plausible Trump alternative for the 2024 nomination. DeSantis was on Fox on an almost daily basis and Fox and a lot of conservative media have done everything possible to promote his candidacy for 2024. The GOP establishment such as it is doesn't want Trump back. They don't want some crazy coup attempting unstable fucker running things. They like the policies, and Trump's policies were just standard GOP stuff, but they don't like the crazy stuff and the potential end of democracy. For both the GOP and Murdoch though it's increasingly looking like they're stuck with him though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TitoFanQuote:
Originally Posted by Kirkland LaingNo matter what came out at a trial Fox viewers are going to stick with Fox so long as Fox keep giving them their daily dose of anger heroin. The only way Fox lose their audience is if they start telling them the truth.Quote:
Originally Posted by TitoFanQuote:
Originally Posted by Kirkland LaingQuote:
Originally Posted by TitoFanQuote:
Originally Posted by Master
I think Fox got off easy. Dominion should've held their feet to the fire.
The biggest judgement ever in a defamation case was about $220 million. But then it was vacated on appeal and the people on the hook, Dow Jones newspapers didn't have to pay a dollar of the award. This is something Dominion were well aware of. Even if they'd won a billion dollar judgement then it stood s huge chance of being drastically reduced or quashed entirely by a higher court, and as you go up the appeals system in America the courts get more and more pro corporate/big business/big guy over the little guy culminating in the Supreme Court which is comically so. Dominion is owned by a private equity firm. It has revenues, not profits, of about a hundred million dollars a year and profits of a few million. The total value of every asset the private equity fund own is less than a billion dollars, so this judgement basically doubled their net worth overnight. There was no way they could turn it down.
It would have been nice to have six weeks of bombshells about what was going on behind the scenes at Fox but it wouldn't have made any difference. People who aren't Fox viewers are looking at it and thinking what they're thinking. Fox viewers, to the extent they're hearing anything from conservative media by and large don't want to know about it or think about it. They need their safe space, media that will tell them what they want to hear regardless of reality so they don't want to hear anything bad about Fox. They need a source of new they can trust to lie to them. Fox can only lose them by telling them the truth which is how they ended up having to pay out what will eventually be a couple of billion dollars, because when they started telling them the truth about the election the viewers deserted them for Newsmax and One America and Fox had to start lying about Dominion and other shit to get them to come back.
I know Dominion's gotta do what's best for Dominion... and good for them. Plus if what you say is true about the higher courts and how they side with big business... it probably wasn't worth the risk. You never can tell how courts are going to rule in specific cases... but again, can't fault Dominion for taking the money.
But... I'm gonna have to disagree on your take on what viewers on both sides would've reacted like, had Fox been dragged over the coals on this one.
We both are of similar mindsets when it comes to the American public, for the most part. All I gotta do is think about the fanbases of aliens like MTG, Boebert, Graham, and others... to see that many people are beyond hope when it comes to rational thought. But in an ideal situation where Fox's lies had been laid bare for all to see... I'm sorry. Even the most moronic of fanatical zombies would've had something stir in their minds. Yes... I still remember when Sean Spicer said with a straight face that Trump's inaugural crowd was larger than Obama's... so I'm well aware of some people's ability to look at a white wall and insist that it's black. But DAMN... an ideal situation judicial process, where Fox's blatant lies were exposed over and over again... and judgments were handed down... that's the sort of reality you just can't wish away.
I say all that... then visions pop into my mind where some GOP lawmakers insisted on live television that January 6th had been a peaceful stroll to the Capitol. :vd:
So although I'm arguing a point... my heart's not entirely IN it. ;D
All we can hope for is that Smartmatic's lawsuit goes as well (or better) than Dominion's... and that Fox News can be damaged beyond repair. Meanwhile... some of Trump's high profile Minions like Giuliani, and that clown with the pillow company can get raked over the coals as well.
Gotta spread the love. :cool:
This is the only polling I've seen on it and nothing else shows up via google:
https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/fox...st-1235554399/
Of the Fox viewers who even know about the court case and the leaked texts and emails only about a fifth of them trust Fox less. But that's now. In a few months this will all be ancient history, Fox will have come up with some new culture war shit, another CRT or tranny swimmer or something that really grabs their audience and lets them know Fox covers the issues they want covering in the way that they want covering and they're back to a hundred percent trust again. All the current Dominion/Smartmatic stuff will be water under the bridge.
It gives me no pleasure to say that you're 100 percent correct.
It's a real problem when a significant chunk of the country is so radicalised that they'd support anything, even political violence, if it means that their side is in power. Fox led the way with radicalising these people but the advent of the internet made it inevitable. If it hadn't been Murdoch and Fox it would have been somebody else. Now there's this huge chunk of permanently angry polarised radicalised people who are going to be a permanent ongoing threat to democracy. If Fox even tried to dial down the crazy these people will just go elsewhere and probably splinter between even crazier media outlets. Fox are stuck in a room with the Frankenstein monster they created.
Honestly WTF are you smoking G.
Tucker and Don Zitrone have both been fired on the same day, maybe some weird job swap incoming.
Fox Corporation’s market value tumbled by almost 5% on Monday, erasing $930 million, after announcing that Tucker Carlson was leaving the network.
Shares of the media company pared the losses slightly and were trading at $29.61, down almost 4% at noon eastern.
“The reason to watch Fox, you’ve got Maria (Bartiromo) in the morning, Jesse (Watters), he is getting there, but Tucker’s really the reason,” said former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.
“With this, I don’t know any reason to watch the Murdoch empire,” he added