Faux derangement syndrome or just the profit motive?: This is a snippet from the 192 page Dominion lawsuit at pages 118-119:
If any doubt existed about what [Sydney] Powell would say in the interview, certainly none existed by the time the pre-taped interview aired. No such doubt ever existed, though, because Powell sent Bartiromo an email prior to the interview with the subject line Election Fraud Info which Bartiromo forwarded to Grossberg with information from a woman claiming Dominion's software flips votes from Trump to Biden and tying Dominion to a conspiracy theory involving Nancy Pelosi and Senator Dianne Feinstein. Ex.154 . In the same email, Powell's singular source explained that Roger Ailes (who, as previously noted, had died years ago) huddles every day with Rupert Murdoch about airing anti-Trump material, and that Justice Scalia was killed in a human hunting expedition. Id.at FNN001_00000010 . Powell's source also explained that she gets her information from experiencing something like time-travel in a semi-conscious state, "allowing her to see what others don't see, and hear what others don't hear, and she received messages from the wind. Id.at FNN001_00000011. Bartiromo read this email at the time: she responded to Powell saying she had shared this very imp[ortant] info with Eric Trump. Ex.259. Powell provided Bartiromo with no other evidence for her claims about Dominion. Ex.98,Bartiromo 147:6-15. At her deposition, Bartiromo admitted that this email is not evidence for Powell's claims [really?? seems like solid evidence to me!!], and indeed was nonsense and inherently unreliable. 133:25-134 :13 ,141:21-24 . Grossberg likewise conceded that this isn't something that I would use right now as reportable for air, no. Ex.121,Grossberg 148:15-17. And Clark ,the executive directly responsible for the show, admitted that this is not sufficient to make the severe allegation that Dominion Voting machines rigged the election and flipped votes, and if he had known that this was the sole support for the crazy theories, he would not have allowed that claim to be aired. Ex.106, Clark 209:21-210:17,213:3-11. (emphasis added)
This is from pages 29-30:
G. This Dominion shit is going to give me a fucking aneurysm.By November 12, Dominion became a focal point of discussion within multiple shows at Fox. Spurred by the November 8 Bartiromo broadcast, the wild Dominion allegations entered the mainstream. That day, Ingraham's producer Tommy Firth texted Ron Mitchell, one of the Fox executives responsible for overseeing Ingraham's show. Firth bluntly captured the dilemma: This dominion shit is going to give me a fucking aneurysm --many times as I've told Laura bs, she sees shit posters and trump tweeting about it-- [redacted]. (emphasis in original)
I would love to see what was redacted. I bet it’s juicy good stuff. Shit posters and Trump in the same breath. I like it.
In recent days, various sources have reported that Faux aired garbage based on things like messages from the wind. That changed to lies and crackpottery because early Faux reporting that there was no widespread election fraud was causing its audience to flee to OAN and other even more crackpot and lies-based “news” sources. That scared the hell out of Faux executives who believed the fleeing audience would destroy the image of its brand. In other words, it was all about profit and nothing but profit. Truth did not matter to Faux. Neither did the health of democracy. Only profit mattered.
I cannot overstate the fact that for the most part, capitalism does not inherently care about anything or anyone other than wealthy or powerful people. That includes democracy, truth, human life, the environment and modern civilization. The exceptions do not disprove the rule.
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Radical right authoritarianism: There is a heck of a lot of lies, deceit and money behind the radical right anti-democracy, pro-tyranny/plutocracy/theocracy political movement currently centered in the Republican Party. The Guardian writes:
Koch brothers’ advocacy group courts far-right Republicans it vowed to thwartAmericans for Prosperity Action recently invited two politicians who tried vigorously to overturn the 2020 presidential electionAmericans for Prosperity Action, founded by Republican megadonors Charles Koch and David Koch, who died in 2019, would be seeking to “turn the page on the past”, it said, in remarks that were covered extensively, and favorably, in the US media.
But it didn’t take much to expose the hypocrisy of AFP Action’s commitment to move away from Maga politicians who, it said, “go against core American principles”.
Present at the network’s meeting in Palm Springs were two of the reactionary and far-right Republicans AFP Action claims it is trying to thwart.
In Eric Schmitt, a Missouri senator, and Andrew Ogles, a congressman from Tennessee, AFP Action had invited two newly elected men who tried vigorously to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and seem to have little interest in turning the page on history.
Schmitt, who has invoked the “great replacement” conspiracy theory, has already backed Trump for 2024, while Ogles, a culture warrior whose campaign pitch was that the US needs to “go back to honoring God and country”, giddily accepted Trump’s endorsement last year.
If, in inviting two politicians who appear to embody the essence of Trumpism, AFP Action exposed a separation between what it says and what does, then it should come as no surprise.
This has been standard Koch bros. (estimated net worth $68 billion) lies and deceit tactics for decades. The monster claims it is pro-democracy and pro-tolerance, but it constantly supports anti-democratic authoritarianism, intolerance and overt racism. And, as usual, us dumb ass taxpayers support the Koch monster’s attempt to destroy democracy, install tyranny and enslave and defraud the masses. This is beyond disgusting.
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Republicans try to cancel inconvenient free speech: The Guardian writes:
Republicans take aim at risque jokes and romance novels with anti-sex bills
Bills are part of religious right’s post-Roe strategy, with most prevalent ones relating to age verification of sex-related websitesA wave of proposed legislation pushed by Republicans across the US at the state level is aimed at outlawing aspects of sexuality that could have a huge impact on Americans’ private lives and businesses.The bills are part of a post-Roe nationwide strategy by the religious wing of the Republican party, now that federal abortion rights have fallen. They range from banning all businesses that sell sex-related goods to anti-drag queen bills. Tyler Dees, an Arkansas state senator who wrote an anti-porn bill said: “I would love to outlaw it all,” referring to porn.The most prevalent bills relate to age verification of sex-related websites. Seventeen states drafted porn age-verification bills, many inspired by Louisiana’s law that went into effect in January. Louisiana’s law requires websites featuring 33.33% or more pornographic content to check government-issued ID to verify users are 18 and older. Websites that don’t comply face civil penalties. Parents can sue the site if kids access it.
“These laws are really not about controlling minors’ access to violent pornography … In the conservative world view, pornography is information about LGBTQ identity, abortion, gay marriage,” said Bronstein.
It will be interesting to see how this strain of oppression plays out. The threat to democracy, free speech and civil liberties from the authoritarian, theocratic radical right Republican Party is far from quashed. Those people want to get rid of democracy and civil liberties, and install a corrupt, Christian and capitalist tyranny.
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The 5th Circuit mocks liberty: The 5th Circuit federal appeals court has been more heavily poisoned by radical right Republican judges than any other federal appeals court. Here criminal defendant Percy Taylor sued Louisiana officials for keeping him in jail for two years beyond his scheduled release date.
The 5th circuit kicked him hard in the nuts and told him to f*#@ off. Why? Because he failed to properly brief whether the delay, over two years, was “objectively unreasonable.” The court put it clearly and simply:
Percy Taylor was detained beyond the expiration of his sentence. After his release, he sought redress for this violation of his rights by bringing a lawsuit against various Louisiana officials under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and Louisiana state law. The district court dismissed most of Taylor’s claims, but allowed a supervisory liability claim against Department Secretary James LeBlanc to proceed by denying qualified immunity. Now Secretary LeBlanc appeals the denial of qualified immunity arguing, inter alia, that his conduct wasn’t objectively unreasonable in light of clearly established law.
The right to timely release is clearly established. But Taylor failed to adequately brief—and has thus forfeited—any meritorious argument that Secretary LeBlanc’s behavior was objectively unreasonable in light of that right. Accordingly, we must reverse.
This is how radical right Trumper dispense justice when they are in power. They are tyrants, plain and simple. What Louisiana did was arguably objectively unreasonable to most everyone except Trumpers. The question is, did that need to be briefed? Was that such an egregious error that there was no remedy for two years of lost life? According to Trumpers it sure is.
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