Trump this.

[KaraBulut]

The jury pool would not be from Manhatten, a jury from a non-biased court would make them pay a lot more than 16 million. I think it was a smart move on their part.

If it went to trial. New York Times v Sullivan set a pretty high bar for libel. I think they would have gotten the case settled on summary judgment.

 

[rareboy]

Margaret Sullivan sees it for what it is.

ABC News caved when it settled with Trump

The Disney-owned news outlet broke Rule 1 of resisting autocracy: “Don’t obey in advance”

margaretsullivan.substack.com

 

[rareboy]

 

[rareboy]

 

[KaraBulut]

Thanks, Disney.

Emboldened by ABC settlement, Trump threatens more lawsuits against the press | CNN Business

President-elect Donald Trump had not been terribly successful in suing media organizations until this weekend when ABC News agreed to settle a closely-watched defamation case he brought against the network to the tune of $16 million.

amp.cnn.com

On Monday, Trump said he has a new target: The Des-Moines Register newspaper, which he said he plans to sue “today or tomorrow” over its final poll of Iowa voters that showed him losing the November election to Vice President Kamala Harris...

Trump then laid out several other lawsuits he’s brought against the media, including famed journalist Bob Woodward, CBS News’ “60 Minutes” program and the Pulitzer Prize board...

Some news organizations are already warning their reporters to prepare: Axios recently told its staff to expect an increased number of lawsuits from the Trump administration, Semafor reported.

Trump at one point suggested Monday that the US government should be taking up these lawsuits against the news media, even though some have been filed alleging personal defamation.

 

[cityboy-stl]

Media is cooperating and collaborating with Trump to become part of his propaganda network. ABC executives were in Florida last week meeting with Trump. It's hard to believe it is just a coincidence this "settlement" comes right after. When they voluntarily deny something, it is hard to believe a settlement payoff was not discussed.

Another brick laid in the road to the fascist takeover of the media. Joseph Goebbels would be proud.

Why did ABC News settle a lawsuit with Donald Trump? - Poynter

The network could have continued to fight the case. Some experts think it could represent an ‘attitudinal shift’ in American media.

www.poynter.org

“Debra OConnell, the Disney executive who directly oversees ABC News, dined with Mr. Trump’s incoming chief of staff, Susie Wiles, in Palm Beach last Monday, according to two people briefed on their interaction. The dinner was part of a visit by several ABC News executives to Florida to meet with Mr. Trump’s transition team. News networks typically arrange such meetings ahead of a new presidential administration to discuss subjects like booking and day-to-day coverage. Another person familiar with the meeting said its purpose was to discuss Mr. Trump’s White House transition, not the pending defamation case.”

 

[rareboy]

Hear the sounds of all the pigs at the trough?

It isn't from the family farm.

It is the CEOs of all the largest farming corporations in the US who are looking to cash in the way they did during the NAFTA trade wars.

Of course none of the subsidies will reduce the cost of food to the consumer....only make the rich richer at the expense of the treasury. You can bet that the DOGE bros. won't be looking to fuck with this USDA program for Trump donors.

USDA Bailout for Impact of Trump’s Tariffs Goes to Biggest, Richest Farmers

Farm bailout payments designed to offset the impacts of President's Trump's trade war have overwhelmingly flowed to the largest and most successful farmers, according to EWG's analysis of the latest Department of Agriculture data.

www.ewg.org

 

[rareboy]

Everything he touches....

 

[rareboy]

 

[rareboy]

From George Takaei today...som more truths about how Trump will fuck his voters over.

According to PolitiFact, Trump kept only 23% of his campaign promises during his first term. Now, with weeks to go before starting his second, he’s already walking back some of his biggest 2024 pledges. Team Big Picture breaks down these reversals in their latest piece.

Trump Is Already Walking Back His Campaign Promises

From lowering prices to disavowing Project 2025 to vaccine policy, Trump’s promises are looking hollow

thinkbigpicture.substack.com

 

[rareboy]

Everything he touches....

More on this....our stock markets are tanking as people assess the damage that Trump intends to inflict on the economy.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/17/stock-market-today-live-updates.html

 

[rareboy]

And even more of this on how Trump is going to wreck the economy for the middle class in order for his Cabal to buy up the rest of it at fire sale prices.

By the way.

My investment advisor and I spent an hour the other day in anticipation of exactly this. How to try to protect our own investments against the ravenous lust of the 1% of the 1% who have no compunction about seeing the American middle class lose all the gains they've made under Biden.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/17/stock-market-today-live-updates.html?__source=iosappshare%7Ccom.apple.UIKit.activity.CopyToPasteboard

 

[KaraBulut]

The circular firing squad known as the Republican Congressional Caucus can't get anything done.

With narrow margins, House Speaker Mike Johnson [R-LA] is increasingly dependent upon getting Democratic votes to pass legislation, including funding of the government. Speaker Johnson is one of the weakest Speakers in recent history, unable to corral members of the Freedom Caucus. Now he has Elon Musk tampering with legislation.

Musk put out over 100 tweets yesterday slamming the CR and threatening Republicans who vote for it.

If this isn't oligarchy, then what is?

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/12/18/johnsons-spending-gop-problems-2025-00195216

Speaker Mike Johnson is dealing with a nightmare before Christmas. And it won’t be his last.

GOP leaders are now considering a plan B to avert a shutdown deadline on Friday as conservatives, Elon Musk, Donald Trump and JD Vance have excoriated the original spending plan, which included several add-ons like $100 billion in disaster aid and a one-year farm bill extension. Trump and Vance, while objecting to the current bill in a long statement, also surprised lawmakers by demanding that Congress address the debt ceiling now and explicitly opening the door to a shutdown.

Plus, at least one hardliner is vowing to oppose Johnson for speaker next year, citing the funding issues, and others are noncommittal. Several conservatives have now also escalated their demands to offset ambitious policy bills on the border, energy and taxes next year with major spending cuts.

We are now two days away from a government shutdown. Congress has known this was coming for months, and as usual, they waited until the last minute to do something about it.

The "Farm Bill" is a misnomer. Funding for the Department of Agriculture benefits two key groups: farmers and poor people. The government provides loans to farms. It also provides crop insurance to support farmers during weather events (like hurricanes or drought) and to support crop prices when market pressures drive down purchase prices (e.g. soybeans which have fallen in price over 50% in the past couple of years). The government also buys excess farm products like cheese and distributes those to the poor. The Ag Department also manages the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) programs (aka "food stamps) which gives vouchers to poor Americans to buy American farm products in their grocery store.

This Farm Bill and the CR includes hurricane Helene disaster relief- like Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina- states that voted for Trump.


The Trump Transition Team released a statement explaining why they sabotaged the CR:

Trump Says "stupid" Republicans supporting CR bill should be primaried

The president-elect said a continuing resolution must have an increase to the debt limit before Congress approves it.

www.newsweek.com

"If Republicans try to pass a clean Continuing Resolution without all of the Democrat 'bells and whistles' that will be so destructive to our Country, all it will do, after January 20th, is bring the mess of the Debt Limit into the Trump Administration, rather than allowing it to take place in the Biden Administration. Any Republican that would be so stupid as to do this should, and will, be Primaried. Everything should be done, and fully negotiated, prior to my taking Office on January 20th, 2025."...

"Increasing the debt ceiling is not great, but we'd rather do it on Biden's watch," the statement added.

"If Democrats won't cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration? Let's have this debate now. And we should pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn't give [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want."

Last week, Trump, Vance, Musk, Johnson and Hegseth were all hanging out at the Army-Navy game while Trump acted like a banana republic dictator. This week, the Trump Transition Team is complaining that Johnson blind-sided them on the CR.

 

[rareboy]

The only thing that has really changed is that it is now all out in the open.

We can see the players pulling the strings. The oligarchs don't have to hide and Musk is their mouthpiece.

And of course, all this is going to actually do is to push the stock markets lower and rattle the business interests that were set to profit by the proposed spending.

And most of all, to expose Congress as being the enemy of government. By showing it to be fractured and ineffective, TrumpCo. will begin to seize the machinery for spending, directing it only toward projects that profit him or his buddies.

The Dems can probably kiss any potential influence over legislation goodbye and their projects will be the ones that MuskCo. will kill first at Trump's direction. So it will be interesting to see if they also capitulate and still try to make a deal with Mike if there is nothing for them in return or whether they just walk away and let the GQP be repsonsible for the shut-down of government.

 

[KaraBulut]

The only thing that has really changed is that it is now all out in the open.

We can see the players pulling the strings. The oligarchs don't have to hide and Musk is their mouthpiece.

Musk's net worth is up about 135% since the election, as investors seem to think that Elon's companies have more value now that he's running the government.

I saw some Democratic propaganda referring to Trump as "Vice President Trump" and implying that Musk was running the show. That might be an astute strategy if they can get it to permeate right wing media.

If Democrats wanted to get on offense, they would run around with "Defund Space-X" signs.

The Dems can probably kiss any potential influence over legislation goodbye and their projects will be the ones that MuskCo. will kill first at Trump's direction.

I can't figure out the Democratic strategy, if there is one.

Trump has put out statements indicating that he has no plans to work with Democrats in the first two years of his next tenure as President. The Democrats have two different messages: "oppose" vs "co-operate". The choice of the next DNC chair will probably decide which strategy they will go with.

Trump still doesn't understand that the debt ceiling refers to expenses already incurred, not future spending. He seems to think that not raising the debt ceiling would constrain spending. It would not. Not raising the debt ceiling is a default, and indicates that and creditors investors who own government debt cannot depend upon the government to pay bills that have already been sent or bonds that have already been issued.

 

[rareboy]

Kinzinger referred to President Musk and Vice President Trump today in his takedown of this disastrous gambit.

I think the Debt Limit thing is a Hail Mary pass to make it look like TrumpCo. isn't totally serious about the shutdown, because it ain't playing well anywhere, including with House Republicans.

Now again, I don't believe Republicans on anything, but Musk may have severely miscalculated his timing. Republicans don't yet understand they don't run all branches of the government yet.

 

[rareboy]

 

[KaraBulut]

Kinzinger referred to President Musk and Vice President Trump today in his takedown of this disastrous gambit...

Ketchup will be flying at Mar-A-Lago if the Orange Supremacist thinks someone is stealing the spotlight.

Musk's "best by" date may be about to pass.

 

[smokeshadow]

Musk's net worth is up about 135% since the election, as investors seem to think that Elon's companies have more value now that he's running the government.

I saw some Democratic propaganda referring to Trump as "Vice President Trump" and implying that Musk was running the show. That might be an astute strategy if they can get it to permeate right wing media.

If Democrats wanted to get on offense, they would run around with "Defund Space-X" signs.


I can't figure out the Democratic strategy, if there is one.

Trump has put out statements indicating that he has no plans to work with Democrats in the first two years of his next tenure as President. The Democrats have two different messages: "oppose" vs "co-operate". The choice of the next DNC chair will probably decide which strategy they will go with.

Trump still doesn't understand that the debt ceiling refers to expenses already incurred, not future spending. He seems to think that not raising the debt ceiling would constrain spending. It would not. Not raising the debt ceiling is a default, and indicates that and creditors investors who own government debt cannot depend upon the government to pay bills that have already been sent or bonds that have already been issued.

Kara - this appears to be the Democrat strategy

'Hell No!': Democrats 'Unified' Against Reworked Funding Bill More Favorable to Trump

Republican Speaker Mike Johnson has crafted a replacement spending bill to prevent a government shutdown at 12:01 AM on Saturday. The proposal, driven by Donald Trump’s demands, is being viewed by some as a test of loyalty to the President-elect. To pass, the bill will require substantial...

www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com

 

[rareboy]

We'll see.

And whether Trump can make all the Republicans lick his boots (he probably can).

And of course, now the narrative will still be that the shutdown is the fault of the Democrats.