Today in Trump

[TitoFan]

https://apnews.com/article/congress-...e24c7573d6a9ff

"Election deniers moving closer to GOP mainstream, report shows, as Trump allies fill Congress"


Trump telling voters they won't have to vote again in 4 years....

Warning flags of voter subversion for 2024 all over the place... (might as well put up billboards saying MAGA will steal back the election in November)

Trump seemingly not bothered by debate results or polling numbers....




FUCKING HELL.

How many more signs do we need to know that Kamala doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell to win the election??!!??

It's one thing when something catches people by surprise.

Like a tornado or an earthquake.

THIS fucking issue is like a hurricane coming all the way from Africa as a Cat 5... and taking dead aim at the U.S.

And STILL some people will be surprised.

[Master]

America PAC is awarding $1m a day to a voter who signs a petition backed by Musk

[Master]

A judge has ordered Rudy Giuliani to turn over his Manhattan apartment and other valuables to two Georgia election workers as part of a defamation lawsuit.

Last year, the two election workers - Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss - successfully sued Mr Giuliani for over $140m (£106m).

Mr Giuliani, a former attorney to Donald Trump, had falsely accused them of tampering with votes during the 2020 presidential election.

In addition to the apartment, the federal judge ruled on Tuesday that Mr Giuliani must turn over his watches, furniture and sports memorabilia to Ms Freeman and Ms Moss.

The judge also ruled that Ms Freeman and Ms Moss are the beneficiaries of $2m that the one-time New York City mayor says Trump's 2020 presidential campaign still owes him.

Ms Freeman and Ms Moss asked a court last month to seize some of Mr Giuliani's assets, including multiple properties in New York and Palm Beach, Florida, as well as dozens of luxury watches, a Mercedes-Benz and other personal items.

They also sought three of his New York Yankees World Series rings, one of which is valued at roughly $30,000.

In the 24-page order released on Tuesday, the judge ruled Mr Giuliani must turn over more than two dozen watches and a jersey signed by former New York Yankees centre fielder Joe Dimaggio.

The judge deferred judgment on the World Series rings and the condo in Palm Beach.

Mr Giuliani has seven days to turn over his possessions, including the luxurious Manhattan apartment, which he previously tried to sell for $6m, according to BBC's US news partner CBS.

Mr Giuliani was stripped of his legal credentials in July after facing legal trouble for making false statements about Trump's 2020 election loss.

Separately, he has pleaded not guilty to nine felony charges in what prosecutors called a "fake elector scheme" to declare Trump the winning candidate in Arizona during the 2020 presidential election.

Mr Giuliani was charged with 17 others for his alleged role in that scheme.

He filed for bankruptcy last year after losing the defamation lawsuit to Ms Freeman and Ms Moss.

The women said they had to endure threats and harassment after being targeted by Mr Giuliani.

In July, a federal judge dismissed his bankruptcy case, leaving him without protection from his creditors.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly3y501zxvo

[mrbig1]

Harris won't do nothing for the people of Gaza. Trump wants war with Iran. I'm voting for Jill Stein. Refuse to be a slave to either party.

[TIC]

Harris won't do nothing for the people of Gaza. Trump wants war with Iran. I'm voting for Jill Stein. Refuse to be a slave to either party.

& yet you will vote for someone to rule over you

[TitoFan]

Harris won't do nothing for the people of Gaza. Trump wants war with Iran. I'm voting for Jill Stein. Refuse to be a slave to either party.

& yet you will vote for someone to rule over you

Whether you vote or not... someone's always going to rule the country you live in.

[TIC]

voting is giving your consent to be ruled. no one has the right to rule over you

[Kirkland Laing]

ON FRIDAY AFTERNOON, the Washington Post announced that it would not be making an endorsement in the presidential race. After that, a number of things happened very quickly.
First, the paper’s former executive editor Marty Baron called the decision “cowardice.”
Second, at least one senior Post opinion writer resigned.
Third, it was leaked that the editor of the editorial page had already drafted the paper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris when publisher Will Lewis—who is a new hire, hailing from the Rupert Murdoch journalism tree—quashed it and then released a CYA statement about how the paper was “returning to its roots” of not endorsing candidates. The Post itself reported that the decision was made by the paper’s owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Everything about this story feels like a tempest in a teapot, a boiling story about legacy media fretting over itself in the mirror.
It’s not.
It’s a situation analogous to what we saw in Russia in the early 2000s: We are witnessing the surrender of the American business community to Donald Trump.
Share

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No one cares about the Washington Post’s presidential endorsement. It will not move a single vote. The only people who care about newspaper editorial page endorsements are newspaper editorial writers.
No one really cares all that much about the future of the Washington Post, either. I mean, I care about it, because I care about journalism and I respect the institution.
But this isn’t a journalism story. It’s a business story.
Following Trump’s 2016 victory, the Post leaned hard into its role as a guardian of democracy. This meant criticizing, and reporting aggressively on, Trump, who responded by threatening Bezos’s various business interests.
And that’s what this story is about: It’s about the most consequential American entrepreneur of his generation signaling his submission to Trump—and the message that sends to every other corporation and business leader in the country. In the world.
Killing this editorial says, If Jeff Bezos has to be nice to Trump, then so do you. Keep your nose clean, bub.
Share

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We have seen this movie before.
The year was 2003, and the scene was Russia, where Vladimir Putin, still in his first term as president, had not yet let the mask slip.
Putin was carefully consolidating power and he realized that the same oligarchs who had supported him initially were also a source of danger. Their money and control of important industries—especially the media—gave them independent bases of power. And every autocrat knows that dictatorship only works when his subjects understand that the only power they may have is the power he grants them.
At the time, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was the wealthiest man in Russia. He controlled Yukos, a massive oil company he cobbled together from formerly state-owned assets. He had the kind of wealth and power that made him untouchable, and he started making noises about getting more involved in politics—maybe even running for office.
So Putin had him arrested.
You may not remember this, but the Khodorkovsky case was a major piece of international news at the time. In the West, people weren’t quite sure what to make of it. Khodorkovsky’s people waged an aggressive PR campaign on his behalf claiming that his arrest was politically motivated and that Putin was becoming a thug.
Putin’s side portrayed it as an anti-corruption move, since Khodorkovsky was no angel.
Here in the West, we were all still giddy over glasnost and the end of the Cold War. We didn’t want to believe that Russia might be plunging back into authoritarianism. So people mostly took a wait-and-see approach.
But the Russians understood.
Khodorkovsky was convicted and sent to a labor camp in the Russian Far East while the government confiscated Yukos and redistributed it to Putin’s cronies. Khodorkovsky’s money, his power, his connections—none of it could protect him from Vladimir Putin.
The rest of the oligarchs got the message. If Putin could get to Khodorkovsky, he could get to anybody.
And so the oligarchs fell in line and ceased to be a source of concern to Putin. Instead of alternative power centers, they became vassals.

---

Which is exactly what Jeff Bezos has just taught Jamie Dimon and every other important American businessman.
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These guys can hear the music. They’ve seen the sides being chosen: Elon Musk and Peter Theil assembling with Trump’s gangster government in waiting. They see Mark Zuckerberg .” And now they see Bezos getting in line, too.
What’s remarkable is that Trump didn’t have to arrest Bezos to secure his compliance. Trump didn’t even have to win the election. Just the fact that he has an even-money chance to become president was threat enough.
Or maybe that’s not remarkable. One of Timothy Snyder’s rules for resisting authoritarians is that “most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given.” People surrender preemptively much more often than you might expect.
Two weeks ago, Ian Bassin and Maximillian Potter wrote what might be the most prophetic essay of the year. They warned about “anticipatory obedience” in the media.
Seventeen days later, Bezos made his demonstration.
In case you needed reminding: The “guardrails” aren’t guardrails. They’re people.
And they’re already collapsing. Before a single state has been called.


https://www.thebulwark.com/p/bezos-k...drails-falling

[Kirkland Laing]

Harris won't do nothing for the people of Gaza. Trump wants war with Iran. I'm voting for Jill Stein. Refuse to be a slave to either party.

[Beanz]

[*QUOTE=TIC;1670327]voting is giving your consent to be ruled. no one has the right to rule over you[/QUOTE]


This is a very childish and naive view. If anything not voting is giving your consent to be ruled. There is no perfect system and democracy is hugely flawed but it gives you an opportunity to at least choose the least harmful of all the options. Believe me I have a lot of friends and colleagues who will swear by Anarchy or claim that 'they are all the same' and yet all those people, and you, will still spend your life using the freedoms the vast majority who voted have bestowed upon you. If are not choosing any option you are giving up your consent and just accepting whomever everyone else is choosing. Basically boasting about not wanting to consider any options and not taking any personal responsibility. Conspiracy theories offer the same cop out, easy answer platitudes that remove difficult questions from the equation. It is for you always 'They' and never you, anyone or anything specific.

[TIC]

choosing someone to rule over you is stupid larry. not giving consent is giving consent? you're a retard. democracy is the mob, the majority telling the minority what they can & can't do. no one bestowed freedom on me. i am a free man by virtue of being born in this world. by not playing the game & having no interest in the scam i am not accepting anyone has a right to rule over me you clown. i am responsible for my life & actions, nobody is responsible for me & no one has a higher claim of my life than me. answer this one question larry, i know you won't because you're a spastic. does one adult have the right to rule over another adult & tell them what they can & can't do with their life?

[Spicoli]

[Master]

In the North Philadelphia neighbourhood of Fairhill, signs of Puerto Rico are never far off. The US island territory's red, white and blue flag adorns homes and businesses, and the sounds of salsa and reggaetón boom from passing cars and restaurants selling fried plantains and spit-roasted pork.

The area is the beating heart of Philadelphia's more than 90,000-strong Puerto Rican population and forms a key part of Pennsylvania's Latino community, which both the Democrats and Republicans have sought to woo ahead of the 5 November election.

But on Monday morning, many locals were left seething at a joke made at Donald Trump's rally the night before in New York, in which comic Tony Hinchcliffe described Puerto Rico as an "island of garbage".

The joke, some said, could come back to haunt the Republicans in a key swing state that Democrats won by a narrow margin of 1.17% - about 82,000 votes - in 2020.

"The campaign just hurt itself, so much. It's crazy to me," said Ivonne Torres Miranda, a local resident who said she remains disillusioned by both candidates - Republican Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris - with just eight days to go in the campaign.

"Even if he [Mr Hinchcliffe ] was joking - you don't joke like that.

"We're Puerto Ricans. We have dignity, and we have pride," she told the BBC, speaking in rapid-fire Spanish with a strong Puerto Rican accent.

"You've got to think before saying things."

In the aftermath, the Trump campaign was quick to distance itself from Mr Hinchcliffe's joke, with a spokesman saying the remark "does not reflect the views" of Trump or his campaign.

The Harris campaign pounced on the joke, with the vice-president pointing to the comment as a sign that Trump is "fanning the fuel of trying to divide" Americans.

Her views were echoed by Puerto Rican celebrities Bad Bunny and Jennifer Lopez, who both endorsed Harris on Sunday.

A campaign official told CBS, the BBC's US partner, that the controversy was a political gift to the Democrats.

Some Puerto Rican residents agree with that assessment.

"[The joke] just put it in the bag for us. He literally just gave us the win," said Jessie Ramos, a Harris supporter. "He has no idea how hard the Latino community is going to come out and support Kamala Harris."

Residents of Puerto Rico - a US island territory in the Caribbean - are unable to vote in presidential elections, but the large diaspora in the US can.

Across Pennsylvania, about 600,000 eligible voters are Latino.

More than 470,000 of them are Puerto Ricans - one of the largest concentrations in the country and a potential deciding factor in a state where polls show Harris and Trump in an extremely tight race.

North Philadelphia in particular has been a target for Harris, who on Sunday made a campaign stop at Freddy & Tony's, a Puerto Rican restaurant and community hub in Fairhill.

The same day, Harris unveiled a new policy platform for Puerto Rico, promising economic development and improved disaster relief and accusing Trump of having "abandoned and insulted" the island during Hurricane Maria in 2017.

Whether or not this will sway Puerto Rican voters remains to be seen.

Freddy & Tony's owner, Dalma Santiago, told the BBC that she is not sure whether the joke will make a difference but that she believed that it was heard "loud and clear" in Fairhill and other Puerto Rican communities.

"Everybody has their own opinion," she told the BBC. "But nobody will be forgetting that one."

Similarly, Moses Santana, a 13-year US Army veteran who works at a harm reduction facility in Fairhill, said he is unsure of the joke's impact.

In an interview with the BBC on a Fairhill street corner, Mr Santana said the area is traditionally weary of politicians of all kinds, with many believing that both parties have failed to address socio-economic issues, crime and drug abuse there.

"Folks around here tend not to get what they ask for," he added. "Even when they vote."

On Tuesday, Trump will campaign in Allentown, a town of about 125,000 in central Pennsylvania where about 33,000 people identify as Puerto Rican.

But even among Trump supporters in Pennsylvania's wider Latino community, the joke was poorly received.

That included Republican voter Jessenia Anderson, a Puerto Rican resident from the town of Johnstown about 240 miles (386 km) west of Philadelphia.

Ms Anderson, a military veteran who was born in New York's heavily Puerto Rican Lower East Side, is a frequent attendee of Trump rallies in Pennsylvania.

She described the joke as "deeply offensive" and said the routine felt "wildly out of place" - and implored her fellow Republicans to engage in "thoughtful and respectful conversations".

But Ms Anderson has no plan to switch her vote.

"My belief in the party's potential to make a positive impact remains strong," she said.

"I hope they will approach Latino voters with the respect they deserve."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgj7689v757o

[Kirkland Laing]

Elon gets a whole post to himself. Not because he said something racist, but because he said something so massively dumb.

🚨ELON MUSK: "I think we can rip out at least 2T out of the wasted 6.5T Harris/Biden budget. All government spending is taxation. Your money is being wasted and the DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY is going to FIX that. We're going to get the Government off of your back, and… pic.twitter.com/uDx6jyFN1k
— Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) October 27, 2024

Elon used to be smart enough to do simple addition, but he thinks we can cut "at least" $2 trillion from federal spending—which amounted to $6.7 trillion in FY2024, not $6.5 trillion.
The arithmetic here is simple. If you add up Social Security + Medicare¹ + defense² + veterans pensions + interest on the debt³ you get $4.4 trillion. There's only $2.3 trillion left.
So Elon is claiming we should literally zero out the entire rest of the federal budget. Everything. The FBI, national parks, food stamps, Medicaid, education, NASA, the EPA, farm support, the NIH, all federal R&D grants, embassies worldwide, the FAA, the Department of Justice, the VA, the weather service, the border patrol, etc. etc. Everything.
What is it that didn't just move Musk to the right, but turned him into into a screaming, drooling lunatic with the effective IQ of a squirrel? I won't say I've never seen anything like it, but I've never seen it quite so unhinged from a basically sane and brilliant starting point.
¹Trump has promised not to cut either one.
²Trump has promised to increase defense spending.
³Both are legally obligated.


https://www.saddoboxing.com/boxingfo...0363&noquote=1





I can answer the question here. Elon has gone all MAGA because he stand to profit enormously from it. He'll become one of the very first American oligarchs and the world's first trillionaire. So he's spouting a load of bullshit he knows is bullshit in the hopes of getting an autocratic regime. The most obvious thing he can benefit from is self driving cars. Tesla are miles behind Waymo and others and have apparently been bullshitting the markets that they're as far on as they are. He loses the race or the tech isn't good enough to get regulatory approval for driverless cars and his car company then becomes just another electric car compnay that's rapidly losing market share to others anyway. It would be worth a small fraction of its current market cap and his wealth would mostly evaporate. Put an Elon approved regulator in charge and he can do what he wants, force Waymo or whoever to sell to him and so on. Like what happened to privatised former Soviet assets in the nineties. That's just one way he can make money. All his other businesses rely on government contracts/access all over the world and not least in America. Easy to get and maintain that if you're part of the American regime.

It doesn't matter anymore but just look:

Since people seem to have missed this one, unsealed in the Smith filing:
-Trump used a burner phone, routed through a foreign country to contact Michigan house speaker.
-He tried to pressure the speaker in this off book call.
-Speaker McCarthy knew about the burner phone line.
-The phone showed up as “Spam Risk Egypt” on caller ID.
If the President thought his attempt to overturn the election and forge elector documents were legitimate “official acts” why was he using an insecure, foreign routed burner phone for these calls?

Receipts—i.e., testimony from Michigan's house speaker—are here.



America is about to be absolutely looted by a small group of people. And there's no chance they're going to risk a rule of law government ever coming back into power.

[Kirkland Laing]

Harris won't do nothing for the people of Gaza. Trump wants war with Iran. I'm voting for Jill Stein. Refuse to be a slave to either party.

So essentially you're voting for Donald Trump, a man who will let Netanyahu turn Gaza into a parking lot and annexe the West Bank.