Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Rasulis]

Theranos' Elizabeth Holmes accused of bilking Betsy DeVos' family out of $100 million

Elizabeth Holmes did something good after all.

[Edge-]

https://www.vice.com/en/article/4awy...d-child-abuser

THE CHILD PREDATOR IS IN THE HOUSE

QAnon promoter David Trent has spent the last four years telling his tens of thousands of followers that the Democrats are pedophiles working as part of a global child sex trafficking ring run by the world’s elite.

What he didn’t tell them was that he was the real pedophile: In 1999, he was found guilty of coercing an 8-year-old boy into sexual acts three years earlier, and spent almost five years in prison.

Trent’s followers remained oblivious, because he was convicted under his real name, David Todeschini.

Remember how we keep saying that this is all projection? This is why.

[Breccia]

FOX News backs a Tucker Carlson pay-per-view special in which Tucker Carlson will claim
1) that Biden brought troops back from Afghanistan to suppress Trump supporters, and
2) Jan 6th was a false flag operation

"Wait, didn't people like Eastman--"

Stop trying to bring facts and logic into this.

While it will be hosted on "FOX Nation" and not the basic cable network, FOX News is allowing this to happen with their star and their brand. Therefore, they are claiming that Jan 6th was an inside job and Biden is using military force to suppress peaceful tourist Trump supporters.

I feel like that's the sort of thing civil action could be taken on.

[Breccia]

Legal precedent says no rational person would take Tucker seriously. Sorry.

Yes. But FOX News didn't say that about themselves. Someone could potentially take the platform to task. We've said a lot about not being able to sue Twitter for things people say on Twitter, but that's because Twitter hosts random-ass people. FOX News does not. Of course, they'll probably try the usual "Opinions stated here are not ours but theirs" but "Jan 6th was a false flag and Biden is using military force on peaceful Trump supporters" is not an opinion, it is an accusation of a crime. That's not protected.

In theory, a good lawsuit scare could put them off their lunch.

[Breccia]

It’s an entertainment show, not a news show.

He's presenting new falsehoods as if they were true information. That's not entertainment, that's not satire, that's just lying on FOX's channel. There should be a consequence for that.

[jonnysensible]

Alex jones will be pissed now tucker is fully taking his space.

[Breccia]

Speaking of making shit up and consequences, let's talk about Oltmann.

"...who?"

In the last few months of 2020 Trump-aligned media outlets and Trump attorneys spread an allegation from a conservative podcast host named Joe Oltmann claiming that Coomer had promised to rig the election for Biden during an “Antifa phone call.” Oltmann alleges he had infiltrated the call months earlier. Here are a small number of those confessions:

Oltmann admitted that he could not name a single person to authenticate the existence of the call at the center of the lawsuit. “Other than yourself, and as you claim, Dr. Coomer, is there anyone that you can say was on the call with certainty?” An attorney for Coomer asked Oltmann. “I mean, I know for certainty that other people were on the call, yes. But I don’t know for certainty the direct identity of those people,” Oltmann stated. Oltmann couldn’t confirm the time and date of the supposed call, and he refused to name the person who connected him on the line, contrary to a court order from the judge. It is safe to say that a jury will reasonably wonder if there ever was a call.

TV host Michelle Malkin—on whose Newsmax program Oltmann first began to widely spread his allegation—could not explain the theory of how Coomer allegedly helped steal the election. “So as you sit here, you cannot cite to the Court one working theory as to how Eric Coomer could have rigged the 2020 presidential election; isn’t that true?” Coomer’s attorney asked after intensive and precise questioning urging Malkin to describe the specifics of “the steal.” “That is true,” Malkin responded.

Powell, the former Trump campaign attorney who spread the falsehood that Coomer had confessed on tape to a plot to rig the election, could not describe how Coomer had done it either. “I can’t say he flipped a switch himself,” Powell conceded. She also couldn’t recall a single thing she had done to verify Oltmann’s allegation aside from watching the Malkin clip. Indeed, she couldn’t describe in any way shape or form any aspect of how the election was stolen from Trump, as she has alleged for months. “There were thousands of stories about voting irregularities on election day. I don’t have any specific recollection of any single one of them,” Powell confessed. She also said, incredibly, that she “didn’t know” whether or not she was being sarcastic when she said, during the infamous hair dye press conference with Giuliani, that Coomer had promised to rig the election on a call before (sarcastically) adding the phrase: “Nothing to worry about here.”

In other words, this Oltmann guy presented falsehoods as if they were facts, and Trump's lawyers ran with them -- without verifying them, of course, because they were false. (We also know Giuliani did the same thing, pushing depositions he didn't verify)

Coomer, in case the name isn't familiar, is Dominion's lawyer. So now you know the context: the Kracken is being sued for pushing Oltmann's claims, and Oltmann is being sued directly. Oltmann was ordered to show up and reveal how he got this information -- he couldn't, of course, he lied. Coomer also direct the judge to posts made in public by Oltmann about the judge -- and they were exactly what you think they were, claims that the judge is a Deep State Antifa etc etc. He was also ordered to stop bringing his phone into the courtroom, to which he responded by calling the judge a Nazi and vowing to refuse and to sue the judge. His threats have caused the judge to increase security on the courtroom, because as we're all aware, Trump's rabid fanbase are literally terrorists.

I want the judge to go to jail. I don’t want the judge to be disbarred, I don’t want the judge to be taken off of the bench, I don’t want to just win on appeal…. I want the judge to be put in jail.

-- Oltmann, after all that above bullshit he pulled

Incidentally, Powell tried submitting Oltmann's handwritten notes as evidence. Not the recording he didn't have, his notes. As such, they are now evidence against Oltmann, and I guess Powell too. Oddly enough, the notes did not include the day and time of the call, which honestly was the only move he could make because calls are logged yo, Coomer could have disproven it easily.

Oltmann, as expected, is taking the fight out of the courtroom because he knows he can't lie on the stand. The problem, of course, is that he's being effectively dragged to the courtroom. "I don't remember" might avoid perjury, but this is a civil matter. Dominion doesn't need beyond all reasonable doubt (though to be fair, I'm pretty sure Oltmann claiming he didn't remember how he found this amazeballs evidence on Coomer's personal FB messages -- oh, right, he claimed he read Coomer's personal FB messages too -- or get an invite to the Antifa group call for which he also doesn't have any call logs and forgot to record it). They need 49% doubt or less, which probably happened around the word "Nazi".

So let's talk about Oltmann.

He's fucked.

1) In all likelihood, the lawsuit against him personally will continue. Powell might possibly escape by simply saying "I trusted Oltmann", which would set horrible precedent -- simply find someone willing to lie for you and refuse to check them before putting their words in as evidence. I admit it's possible, I hope it's unlkely. Oltmann has no such defense, and there's a zero percent chance he can claim to be joking, sarcastic, or mistaken. Nor can he avoid the stand for long on this exact matter. Dominion's lawsuit is more than Oltmann can afford to lose, they will not accept a deal because they have him by the balls, and the only realistic way out is a mistrial and would require Oltmann to basically rush the bench.

2) Speaking of which, Oltmann seems to be daring the court to hold him in contempt. Matter of time before that happens. You can't post threats about a judge you call a Nazi and expect to stay out of jail.

3) And finally, since the lawsuit is almost certain to proceed and Oltmann could easily end up in jail, the next move is his place getting tossed and his documents searched.

"Wait, why would that happen?"

Slander and libel require a knowingly untrue statement. At this point, there's no contest that Oltmann said those things and they were injurious. That ship has sailed. Proof that he knew the statements were false, and the lawsuit is over, Oltmann loses. However, now that these statements have been introduced as evidence, we aren't just talking defamation. We are talking perjury. For either reason, I think it's reasonable to look through his communications and see if he knew these statements were true or false. It could cement the millions upon millions he'll lose, and might set him up for a deposition he knew to be false. While he's in jail and doesn't have his phone is the best time to search everything he owns and every site he's ever visited, which I'm just going to assume includes PornHub, GrubHub, and TrumpHub.

If we find out he told Powell his claims could not be verified, Powell is also fucked. But one thing at a time.

Oltmann is about to become the poster child for consequences. He lied about Dominion fixing the election, and those claims were used to attack the election despite having no basis in anything even fact-adjacent. And he's antagonizing the only person who can stop his mistake from costing every dollar he's ever made and maybe years of freedom as well. Replace one of his cell walls with plexiglass, put up the velvet rope, and charge people $1 to gawk at the guy who thought he could overthrow democracy and get away with it.

We haven't talked about Oltmann much, but details of the suit against him are everywhere.

- - - Updated - - -

Fox News knows how to play the game.

Oh, they do.

FOX News stopped hosting Giuliani and Lindell. Why? Because they know full well hosting objective falsehoods will put them at risk too. Carlson's false flag claims need to be put in the same bucket.

- - - Updated - - -

Counting the seconds before the REEEEEEEEE crowd logs on to say "Cuomo was charged!"

It was a single misdemeanor. But when you worship an Orange God, you take whatever tiny, flacid victory you can get.

- - - Updated - - -

66 former lawmakers sign this...petition? That asks the judge to block Trump's claim of Executive Time for his planning of the murderous insurrection.

Trump is desperate. Executive privilege was never designed to cover up crimes, which is exactly what's being looked at. In addition to everything else we've already talked about, it's worth noting these communications (which include Bannon, so, already he doesn't have a point) are about his actions to stay in office, and election/re-election actions are not part of his job in the White House. He could have been organizing a bake sale and couldn't privilege it. Trump is trying to claim that the request is too broad, but "did you attempt treason" doesn't sound that broad to me. "You can't look at anything I have ever done, even if there's reason to believe I've committed the most serious crime in the country" sounds too broad. There is no slippery slope here, unless President Biden is also planning a coup.

And I have yet to hear a compelling reason Bannon can't testify, either. Oddly enough, a compelling reason he should comes from SC's Rep. Mace. Mace refused to vote for either of Trump's impeachments, but did vote for Bannon's contempt. She explains in her own words here, which is paywalled, but it's a smaller, local newspaper and it's not a very good paywall¹.

The question wasn’t about whether the committee should exist or the merits of the subpoena itself. The question was simply: Does Congress have the ability to issue and enforce its subpoena power? I believe it does, and our courts do, too.

In McGrain v. Daugherty (1927), Justice Van Devanter wrote for a unanimous Supreme Court that “the power of inquiry — with process to enforce it — is an essential and appropriate auxiliary to the legislative function” and that ” A legislative body cannot legislate wisely or effectively in the absence of information … and where the legislative body does not itself possess the requisite information — which not infrequently is true — recourse must be had to others who possess it.”

I wish Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s House was focused on the issues that matter. Unfortunately, that is not the reality of this Congress. But next Congress, if Republicans are in the majority, we will want and need the same tools to investigate the many crises being overlooked by the current administration: the southern border, Afghanistan and antifa, for starters. The subpoena power I just upheld will be crucial for learning more about those issues.

That's right, even as someone who...plans to subpoena Antifa somehow for some reason...and even though she voted against forming the murderous insurrection committee in the first place, she still wants the subpoena to have teeth, because she plans to bite one day.

And what do I always say?

"I'm fucking Graham's wife?"

No!...well that too. But I don't make the rules. I just see to it they're enforced. If Bannon, who has no legal right to Executive Time, is allowed to just not testify before Congress when it's demanded by Congress as laid out in the Constitution, than nobody has to testify. Bannon was a private citizen and at best on Trump's re-election campaign. He was not a White House staffer. And he's basically being accused of insurrection.

It's time for Bannon to fork over his records and testify on the stand. And it's time for Trump's communications to be brought out as well. This should not be a country where you can attempt a forceful coup and then just walk away when it fails. The American people deserve answers.

---

¹ Yes, I "hacked" it by right-clicking :P

[Benggaul]

Thursday's report:

78,460 new cases; about 10k fewer than last Thursday.

Top 10:

Texas: 6,043 new cases; 159 deaths
California: 5,884 new cases; 99 deaths
New York: 4,461 new cases; 19 deaths
Pennsylvania: 4,312 new cases; 98 deaths
Ohio: 4,190 new cases; deaths not reported
Colorado: 3,823 new cases; 16 deaths
Washington: 3,098 new cases; 31 deaths
Arizona: 2,795 new cases; deaths not reported
Minnesota: 2,685 new cases; 41 deaths
Illinois: 2,601 new cases; 41 deaths

Texas reclaimed the top spot with an increase over their total from last Thursday while California was slightly lower than last week's total. Colorado's numbers continue to rise and they're reaching levels they haven't had since last Winter. Again, I haven't looked at every state, but they currently appear to have the worst trajectory in the nation. "Only" 24 states reported over 1k new cases on the day and most have been on the decline for the past week or so; as they go down, Colorado rises up the list. Alaska is currently the only state still listed as "Severe" risk, though their cases per 100k has dropped below 100 (94) for the first time in ages. Kristi Noem continues to largely ignore the problem as her state has the worst positivity rate (17.2%) in the nation for, I dunno, the 4th week in a row? 5th? I stopped caring.

1,208 deaths is more than 450 fewer than last Thursday and brings the total to 763,784. Texas is, predictably, still at the top of the list, though their number has dropped below 200. They are creeping ever closer to California's total and are now less than 800 from overtaking them, which is embarrassing for a state that "mastered the pandemic" and has 10 million fewer people. No other states--including California--broke 100.

Related news:

Florida now has America's lowest COVID rate. Does Ron DeSantis deserve credit?--The short answer is "no". The long answer is "noooooooooooooooooooooo".

And the bottom line is that this summer in Florida, people did not do as well as they should have. Why? Because far too many of them died. The raw numbers alone are staggering. In all of 2020 — before vaccines essentially eliminated the risk of death for most recipients — 23,384 Floridians died of COVID-19. Now nearly as many — 21,000 and counting — have died in the past four months alone. And another 135 Floridians are still dying, on average, every single day.

Fuck DeathSantis and fuck Florida.

Only 40% of Americans know vaccinated people are less likely to test positive, poll says--Thanks to 4 years of Trump and the rise of "Q"-idiocy, Biden is facing an ignorance problem. To be fair to America, they don't hold a monopoly. There's plenty of stupid abroad as well as I can attest.

I'm trying not to post links that are already present in the Gen-OT thread but I stopped reading that one because I was getting eye-strain from constantly rolling them at the people who still insist COVID is no big deal, so sorry if I'm linking duplicates.

Stay safe, folks.

[Breccia]

"Because far too many of them died."

A graveyard has herd immunity.

Also, someone watches Zero Punctuation.

- - - Updated - - -

Alex jones will be pissed now tucker is fully taking his space.

The left is hunting the right, sticking them in Guantanamo Bay, for American citizens, leaving them there to rot.

-- someone in Tucker Carlson's show

- - - Updated - - -

An increasingly butthurt sad old man demands that the Pulitzers for exposing his dealings with Russia be removed, and also, claims that the Pulitzer committee was too embarrassed to do it.

"How much of it is true?"

The Russia thing? Pretty much all of it. Mueller found--

"No no, the 'too embarrassed' part."

Oh, it's not. The NYTimes, Trump, and the Pulitzer committee all know Trump objectively worked with Russia to attack the election. He asked them to do it in full public.

- - - Updated - - -

Kinzinger [R-IL] will not seek re-election in 2023.

Dehumanizing each other has become the norm. We’ve taken it from social media to the streets. We’ve allowed leaders to reach power selling the false premise that strength comes from degrading others and dehumanizing those that look, act or think differently than we do. As a country, we’ve fallen for those lies, and now we face a poisoned country filled with outrage blinding our ability to reach real strength.

"So he's blaming both sides?"

No.

Two of the 10 Republicans who voted for Trump's impeachment have now fled Congress, rather than risk being murdered by Trump's rabid fanbase. There is no Republican Party anymore, it is the Party of Trump, or die.

[beanman12345]

"So he's blaming both sides?"

No.

Two of the 10 Republicans who voted for Trump's impeachment have now fled Congress, rather than risk being murdered by Trump's rabid fanbase. There is no Republican Party anymore, it is the Party of Trump, or die.

He's being districted out along with almost every republican. We're gerrymandering the fuck out of this state, I think we're trying for 0 republicans, seriously you should see the last proposal, cause fuck it.

NY and Cali should do the same, get Stefanik and McCarthy out.

[Breccia]

get Stefanik out.

Very little would make me happier that didn't involve Salma Hayek, an uptune for Ignore Pain, or Firefly 2. She voted against the tax cut for the rich and also voted to take away health care, both VERY unpopular here, yet sucked Trump's dick on stage so re-elected. She "pulled a Clinton" by using her family money to run for a seat in a district she doesn't live in and never comes here.

[Edge-]

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mur...rific-decision

Apparently, Republicans are FURIOUS that the Biden administration is considering financially compensating the families whose children were kidnapped from them under the Trump administration. Sure, $450K is a lot per family but also like, a government kidnapping you children is pretty fuckin awful.

"Promising tens of thousands of dollars to those who unlawfully entered the United States would not only reward criminal behavior, but it would surely send a message to the world that our borders are open and our rule of law will not be enforced," the letter also reads.

Spoilers: that's not what's happening. It's compensation for families who had their children specifically kidnapped by the US government.

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.nbc12.com/2021/10/29/gro...esville-event/



In which candidates that love Trump are reminded about what happened under Trump and get upset and try to blame the opponent.

It wasn't. It was the Lincoln Project, grifters who are great at raising money from liberals to produce some entertaining but largely politically pointless content.

[Machismo]

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mur...rific-decision

Apparently, Republicans are FURIOUS that the Biden administration is considering financially compensating the families whose children were kidnapped from them under the Trump administration. Sure, $450K is a lot per family but also like, a government kidnapping you children is pretty fuckin awful.



Spoilers: that's not what's happening. It's compensation for families who had their children specifically kidnapped by the US government.

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.nbc12.com/2021/10/29/gro...esville-event/



In which candidates that love Trump are reminded about what happened under Trump and get upset and try to blame the opponent.

It wasn't. It was the Lincoln Project, grifters who are great at raising money from liberals to produce some entertaining but largely politically pointless content.

That's a pretty damn good troll on the part of the Lincoln Project.

[jonnysensible]

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mur...rific-decision

Apparently, Republicans are FURIOUS that the Biden administration is considering financially compensating the families whose children were kidnapped from them under the Trump administration. Sure, $450K is a lot per family but also like, a government kidnapping you children is pretty fuckin awful.



Spoilers: that's not what's happening. It's compensation for families who had their children specifically kidnapped by the US government.

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.nbc12.com/2021/10/29/gro...esville-event/



In which candidates that love Trump are reminded about what happened under Trump and get upset and try to blame the opponent.

It wasn't. It was the Lincoln Project, grifters who are great at raising money from liberals to produce some entertaining but largely politically pointless content.

the sex offenders at the lincoln project need to fuck off and die. utter scumbags. The cantwell trial is going on at the moment (and hes such a fucking idiot thats its kind of funny, he said the n word about 3 sentences into his opening statement, the only redeeming feature of cantwell is that hes so stupid he will get everyone else into trouble)

[Breccia]

Texas sues White House over vaccine mandate.

"Let us die in peace," the lawsuit doesn't say but might as well have, "we're tired of being forced to help our fellow man."

[PhaelixWW]

Texas sues White House over vaccine mandate.

"Let us die in peace," the lawsuit doesn't say but might as well have, "we're tired of being forced to help our fellow man."

SCOTUS will throw it out, if it even gets that far.

[Kaleredar]

Texas sues White House over vaccine mandate.

"Let us die in peace," the lawsuit doesn't say but might as well have, "we're tired of being forced to help our fellow man."

Against vaccine mandates? Like the vaccine mandated by George Washington for smallpox as they fought against the British for independence?

Why does Texas hate the founding fathers so much?

[DarkTZeratul]

SCOTUS will throw it out, if it even gets that far.

They've thrown out every other case against mandates. Not sure why this one would be any different.

[PhaelixWW]

They've thrown out every other case against mandates. Not sure why this one would be any different.

Yarp. Just more Texas grandstanding. Maybe they'll threaten to secede again.

[Breccia]

Yarp. Just more Texas grandstanding. Maybe they'll threaten to secede again.

Sweet. Take Florida too. And add Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. Balls, penis and taint. House/Senate goes 70%+ Democrat and the USA gets things done, while Texas tries to figure out which part of their budget they'll take Wall funds out of.