President Biden and US politics catchall

[inactionman]

Am I missing something. I'm not really sure what is so totally mad about this.

It feels as much about protectionism of US social media firms as it does about national security.

I'm not sure I'd be too exercised by Chinese secret services monitoring American teenagers doing silly dances in shopping malls.

The problem is that once you install the app on your phone, you might be giving them access to all the other data on it, or any other devices.

This is also why everyone wants to exclude Huawei from their critical infrastructure; the combination of hardware & software control would allow a hostile state to build in backdoors everywhere.

I can understand not wanting Huawei on critical infrastructure and tiktok not on government or corporate devices, I can't really see how Tiktok could be worse than the likes of facebook and instagram (who do cause real harm) on devices used by the general public.

[Kiwias]

Donald a spurned lover. SFW.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/18/nyre ... t_20240318

[fishfoodie]

The bottom line is that after losing a case that started years ago & months of lying to the Court about how the NY DA was an idiot, because she didn't understand how high finance worked, & how his, "Brand", was worth so much more than their estimates, & how just his shitty resort was worth billions on its own; now "High Finance" has looked over his books, & deemed that he is just a lying, delusional, loser, & they aren't going to lend him any money, because he couldn't pay it back !

Worse than that; now his own lawyers are saying that he's so poor that he can't pay his debts, but they took 5,000 pages to do it !

There's no NY law or precedent to allow the Appeals court to put the Traitor above the law, & stop the process that has applied to every other citizen; he can appeal, but if he doesn't put a bond in place in time, then the DA is allowed to follow the lawful process of the State & can seize assets to the damages that the Court awarded.

[Rhubarb & Custard]

if he can show he's been trying to get a bond, and if he has to sell real estate (and we'll skip over securitising the same) to allow an appeal which might prove successful but by dint of selling part of his estate would have received irreparable harm then Donny has a point. and the courts would likely come down on wanting a side to be able to appeal.

that's not to say he need hand over nothing, and he'd better be able to show steps he's tried to take. but I can see why you'd want to find some wriggle room when an award is so large to allow an appeal

[TB63]

[Raggs]

Tiktok is basically run by the CCP. Facebook et al are bad for social engineering, but at least it's good old capitalistic social engineering. Tiktok can be used by one nation to happily undermine another, and encouraged/manipulated to do so.

[Slick]

Tiktok is basically run by the CCP. Facebook et al are bad for social engineering, but at least it's good old capitalistic social engineering. Tiktok can be used by one nation to happily undermine another, and encouraged/manipulated to do so.

Quite. I'm not sure how this point is being missed.

[inactionman]

What, expressly, are tiktok doing to undermine the US?

Mining the browsing habits of US teenagers doesn't seem to be something I'd get too stressed about. Corporations and government are free to ban it from their devices, in fact I'd hope many do already for a chunk of social media applications. But most of the kerfuffle about tiktok is aiming to ban it completely.

Having Huawei kit in infrastructure is a different question, and I think some (not on here, for avoidance of doubt) are conflating these two aspects.

[Raggs]

What, expressly, are tiktok doing to undermine the US?

Mining the browsing habits of US teenagers doesn't seem to be something I'd get too stressed about. Corporations and government are free to ban it from their devices, in fact I'd hope many do already for a chunk of social media applications. But most of the kerfuffle about tiktok is aiming to ban it completely.

Having Huawei kit in infrastructure is a different question, and I think some (not on here, for avoidance of doubt) are conflating these two aspects.

They can boost videos at will. At the start of the Houthi bullshit, suddenly tiktok was pushing people agreeing with Osama Bin Laden's letter to America after 9/11.

You can always find nutjobs making videos on any topic, with every opinion, if you then have the ability to expose that whackery to tens of millions, you'll no doubt find a few more influenceable minds.

OK, now Tiktok is banning those pushing the Osama letter, but once it in the news, it gets pushed again, even if being banned.

EDIT - I mean you are aware of just how much damage Social media can do in elections and referendums right? They're massively influential. Having one in the hands of a foreign government is not good.

[inactionman]

What, expressly, are tiktok doing to undermine the US?

Mining the browsing habits of US teenagers doesn't seem to be something I'd get too stressed about. Corporations and government are free to ban it from their devices, in fact I'd hope many do already for a chunk of social media applications. But most of the kerfuffle about tiktok is aiming to ban it completely.

Having Huawei kit in infrastructure is a different question, and I think some (not on here, for avoidance of doubt) are conflating these two aspects.

They can boost videos at will. At the start of the Houthi bullshit, suddenly tiktok was pushing people agreeing with Osama Bin Laden's letter to America after 9/11.

You can always find nutjobs making videos on any topic, with every opinion, if you then have the ability to expose that whackery to tens of millions, you'll no doubt find a few more influenceable minds.

OK, now Tiktok is banning those pushing the Osama letter, but once it in the news, it gets pushed again, even if being banned.

EDIT - I mean you are aware of just how much damage Social media can do in elections and referendums right? They're massively influential. Having one in the hands of a foreign government is not good.

Given Russian bots/farms are already doing this within US-controlled social media platforms (and Trump, to be honest, is shilling for Russia on US platforms anyway), is the approach to ban tiktok actually what is needed?

Or is the worry as much about meta getting stroppy that market share is being gobbled up?

I suppose I've always had a real worry about the US wanting control of commerce but not allowing diversity of opinion (they can push their agendas worldwide but heaven help those who look to do the same), and further to that using confected concern as a proxy to maintain commercial control (e.g. Concorde's sonic boom to lead to a ban/restriction simply as Boeing couldn't compete in that space).

Simply put, I don't trust the US to be genuine in any international dispute - I distrust them almost the same as I distrust China, the only difference is the US tends to align to the UK's interests.


eta: on a related but perhaps tangential point, the rest of the world have to get on with it, and deal with China's very different approach to life. I worked for Jaguar Land Rover and the only way they could operate in China was by Joint Venture. So, of course, they ripped off JLR's design for the Evoque.

[fishfoodie]

if he can show he's been trying to get a bond, and if he has to sell real estate (and we'll skip over securitising the same) to allow an appeal which might prove successful but by dint of selling part of his estate would have received irreparable harm then Donny has a point. and the courts would likely come down on wanting a side to be able to appeal.

that's not to say he need hand over nothing, and he'd better be able to show steps he's tried to take. but I can see why you'd want to find some wriggle room when an award is so large to allow an appeal

The lesson is that if you're planning on committing fraud, don't make the fraud so huge that the penalties & interest exceed your available cash !

The reason the system makes the offender lodge these bonds, is so that the victim knows they'll receive the judgement, & the offender won't just delay for years & piss away the money they're owed, like what's happening now with Rudy & the Georgia election workers he defamed !

[Sandstorm]

These judgements are too big, no one is going to cover these gajillion dollar fines for these losers. And the plaintiffs won’t get paid either.

[Rhubarb & Custard]

if he can show he's been trying to get a bond, and if he has to sell real estate (and we'll skip over securitising the same) to allow an appeal which might prove successful but by dint of selling part of his estate would have received irreparable harm then Donny has a point. and the courts would likely come down on wanting a side to be able to appeal.

that's not to say he need hand over nothing, and he'd better be able to show steps he's tried to take. but I can see why you'd want to find some wriggle room when an award is so large to allow an appeal

The lesson is that if you're planning on committing fraud, don't make the fraud so huge that the penalties & interest exceed your available cash !

The reason the system makes the offender lodge these bonds, is so that the victim knows they'll receive the judgement, & the offender won't just delay for years & piss away the money they're owed, like what's happening now with Rudy & the Georgia election workers he defamed !

I doubt there can be many cases with such awards in play, so there can't be much to go on. But the idea the courts try to allow for an appeal and avoid irreparable harm in doing so doesn't seem unreasonable, and that a piece of shit like Trump might catch a break from that doesn't mean it's a wholly unreasonable notion.

I'd hardly cry if the courts told him to do one, but I can see why they'd adjust the amount he needs to lodge down.

[Rhubarb & Custard]

These judgements are too big, no one is going to cover these gajillion dollar fines for these losers. And the plaintiffs won’t get paid either.

They're not plucked from the air, they take into account damage. And in the case of E. Jean Carroll we see Trump keeps going back to talk crap about her again even pervious judgements in her favour, so the awards will only get bigger until he stops

Perhaps people will not get paid, but it's also hard to see how they do lower when his abuse of systems is what it is

[yermum]

The Florida judge has stated either the prosecution show the classified files to the jury or dismiss the case…

The American legal system is west African level corrupt.

[fishfoodie]

The Florida judge has stated either the prosecution show the classified files to the jury or dismiss the case…

The American legal system is west African level corrupt.

Might be enough of a piece of a crass, corrupt act to get her slung off the case.

[fishfoodie]

Alina , meet bus, bus, meet Alina !

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-new ... out-to-dry

She was always a shit lawyer, & when this finishes she won't even be that anymore.

Donald Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, paid $82,500 last week to settle a lawsuit alleging that it had silenced a sexually harassed waitress by tricking her into an unfair hush money deal, according to the ex-employee’s lawyer.

But the curiously worded contract left the former president’s own attorney Alina Habba—a rising star in his orbit—wide open to getting sued herself.

Trump and his top advisers are already a magnet for legal trouble. Habba, who already settled a discrimination lawsuit by her former legal secretary, is no exception. But now she faces the wrath of Alice Bianco, who was once a waitress at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, the real estate tycoon’s summertime abode.

Bianco feels betrayed by Habba, who was one of her Bedminster regulars until, her lawsuit says, Habba posed as a concerned friend giving legal advice about how to address alleged sexual harassment by a supervisor—only to abuse that relationship and “fraudulently inducing” her to “quickly agree to unconscionable and illegal terms.”

The alleged ploy, rapidly paced over just two weeks, gave Habba leverage to arrange a hush money deal that would curry favor with the former president and earn her way into his inner circle.

Within a month of working on the August 2021 hush money deal, Habba quickly became Trump’s leading lawyer defending him from a sexual assault defamation case by former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos—replacing Trump’s nationally renowned attorney on the case. That case was later dropped.

The scandal concerning the toxic non-disclosure agreement at Bedminster threatens to expose what appears to be the strange origin story of a little-understood, up-and-coming lawyer who suddenly became a legal adviser to the former and possibly future president—just as he faces four criminal indictments and cases that seek to empty his considerable bank accounts.

Bianco is now preparing to sue the club all over again, this time for sexual harassment. But she’s also targeting Habba with a potential fraud lawsuit too, according to Bianco’s New Jersey lawyer, Nancy Erika Smith.

The four-page settlement, which Bianco signed on March 4, reads like a total win for the angered ex-employee. She gets to keep the measly $15,000 hush money payment she received in 2021 for keeping quiet about the way a supervisor repeatedly intimidated her and pressured her to sleep with him. Her attorney gets $82,500 for briefly litigating the case. Both sides can rip up the one-sided NDA. And the club doesn’t admit it “committed fraud to induce” her into a shady deal.

But then comes this line out of nowhere: “The parties agree that Alina Habba is not a party to this release.” That means Habba was specifically cut out of the deal, allowing Bianco to sue her directly for the exact same issues.
....

[Rhubarb & Custard]

The Florida judge has stated either the prosecution show the classified files to the jury or dismiss the case…

The American legal system is west African level corrupt.

This idea, that Trump is empowered to state documents to be personal, absurd as it might be, is odd in this because that stems from the Presidential Records Act that Cannon is going for, and Trump isn't being charged under the PRA.

Of course in moving to jury instructions months ahead of even having a jury this is very likely just about delay.

[fishfoodie]

In other news, only days after telling everyone that individual States didn't have the authority to enforce the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, as this was somehow disenfranchising the other States, this same SCOTUS has decided it's just fine for Texas to make up it's own rules on behalf of the entire US, & usurp the authority of the Federal Government !

The Supreme Court has allowed Texas to enforce one of the toughest immigration laws enacted by any US state in recent memory.

The measure allows police to arrest and prosecute those suspected of illegally crossing the US-Mexican border.

The Biden administration has challenged the law, calling it unconstitutional.

Crossing the US border illegally is already a federal crime, but violations are usually handled as civil cases by the immigration court system.

One reason the Texas law, SB4, is so controversial is because courts have previously ruled that only the federal government can enforce the country's immigration laws, not individual US states.

SB4 gives local and state police officers the ability to stop and arrest anyone suspected of having crossed the border illegally, except in schools, healthcare facilities and places of worship.
....

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68609930

[Uncle fester]

So this new law will make it legal to arrest any "suspicious" i.e. brown people on flimsy subjective grounds yeah?

[Kiwias]

SB4 gives local and state police officers the ability to stop and arrest anyone suspected of having crossed the border illegally, except in schools, healthcare facilities and places of worship.
....

So the police will be hanging out just down the road from schools, places of worship, and healthcare facilities on a regular basis?

[Hal Jordan]

These judgements are too big, no one is going to cover these gajillion dollar fines for these losers. And the plaintiffs won’t get paid either.

They're not plucked from the air, they take into account damage. And in the case of E. Jean Carroll we see Trump keeps going back to talk crap about her again even pervious judgements in her favour, so the awards will only get bigger until he stops

Perhaps people will not get paid, but it's also hard to see how they do lower when his abuse of systems is what it is

He won't stop until he's too far gone wirh dementia or is dead. And his parents lived to ripe old ages, so no of us will be taking pleasure in reading his obituary any time soon, I fear.

[TB63]

[TB63]

[TB63]

[TB63]

[fishfoodie]

Interesting !

Judge Engeron has issued a new order, further strengthening the financial monitors powers, & the list of activities that all Traitor Inc companies & individuals have to report to the monitor. He's increased the surveillance on anything that looks like an attempt to transfer assets out of NY, & added a new wrinkle, that the Traitor has to report a month ahead of time before any expected gain from IPO of Traitor Social !

There's a lot of questions about the valuations here, but if there are enough fools out there who'd buy this turkey, then the Court wants to know where this cash is, so they can put a lien on it before it disappears.

A lot of commentators have also mentioned that in the formal request for a stay on the civil case in NY, the Traitors team somehow managed to not include a single piece of sworn evidence of their failure to get a bond, from the thirty odd companies they say they approached, or a single piece of evidence, just their word !

[TB63]

Rage posting in the middle of the night..

THE NEW YORK A.G. USED A STATUTE TO GO AFTER ME THAT HAS NEVER BEEN USED BEFORE, NOT ONCE, FOR SUCH A PURPOSE. IT, IN AND OF ITSELF, IS SOOO UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND UNFAIR. UNDER THIS STATUTE, I GET NO JURY AND HAVE NO RIGHTS. All DECISIONS AND RIGHTS ARE GIVEN TO, IN THIS CASE, A CORRUPT, TRUMP HATING JUDGE, WHO CAME UP WITH A CRAZY, OUT OF THIN AIR AWARD, IN ORDER TO DAMAGE ME POLITICALLY, AND NOT ALLOW ME TO USE ANY OF THE LARGE AMOUNT OF CASH I HAVE BUILT UP OVER THE YEARS, THROUGH HARD WORK, INSIGHT, INSTINCT, AND DILIGENCE, ON MY POLITICAL CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT. THAT IS JUST WHAT CROOKED JOE BIDEN WANTED THIS POLITICAL HACK, COUPLED WITH A CORRUPT AND RACIST ATTORNEY GENERAL, TO DO. I DID NOTHING WRONG! THIS IS SIMPLY A “TAKING.” MUCH LIKE WHAT IS DONE IN COMMUNIST COUNTRIES, AND WILL LEAVE AN IRREPARABLE STAIN ON NEW YORK STATE AND ITS JUDICIAL SYSTEM. IT IS TOTALLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL, INCLUDING THE HARSH GAG ORDER IMPOSED. THE STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS WAS ALREADY RULED ON, FOR ME!

[dpedin]

Rage posting in the middle of the night..

THE NEW YORK A.G. USED A STATUTE TO GO AFTER ME THAT HAS NEVER BEEN USED BEFORE, NOT ONCE, FOR SUCH A PURPOSE. IT, IN AND OF ITSELF, IS SOOO UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND UNFAIR. UNDER THIS STATUTE, I GET NO JURY AND HAVE NO RIGHTS. All DECISIONS AND RIGHTS ARE GIVEN TO, IN THIS CASE, A CORRUPT, TRUMP HATING JUDGE, WHO CAME UP WITH A CRAZY, OUT OF THIN AIR AWARD, IN ORDER TO DAMAGE ME POLITICALLY, AND NOT ALLOW ME TO USE ANY OF THE LARGE AMOUNT OF CASH I HAVE BUILT UP OVER THE YEARS, THROUGH HARD WORK, INSIGHT, INSTINCT, AND DILIGENCE, ON MY POLITICAL CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT. THAT IS JUST WHAT CROOKED JOE BIDEN WANTED THIS POLITICAL HACK, COUPLED WITH A CORRUPT AND RACIST ATTORNEY GENERAL, TO DO. I DID NOTHING WRONG! THIS IS SIMPLY A “TAKING.” MUCH LIKE WHAT IS DONE IN COMMUNIST COUNTRIES, AND WILL LEAVE AN IRREPARABLE STAIN ON NEW YORK STATE AND ITS JUDICIAL SYSTEM. IT IS TOTALLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL, INCLUDING THE HARSH GAG ORDER IMPOSED. THE STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS WAS ALREADY RULED ON, FOR ME!

Good grief. Someone forgot to add his sleeping pill into his drug cocktail before he went to bed? Perhaps he had to get up to change his diaper? Or else perhaps the judge is hitting all the tigger points?

[Sandstorm]

NOT ALLOW ME TO USE ANY OF THE LARGE AMOUNT OF CASH I HAVE BUILT UP OVER THE YEARS, THROUGH HARD WORK, INSIGHT, INSTINCT, AND DILIGENCE

Uh huh.

[TB63]

Or else perhaps the judge is hitting all the tigger points?

FFS! Now I'm singing "The wonderful thing about Tigger...."

[LoveOfTheGame]

Or else perhaps the judge is hitting all the tigger points?

FFS! Now I'm singing "The wonderful thing about Tigger...."

Tee eye double guh ur!

[tabascoboy]

Rage posting in the middle of the night..

THE NEW YORK A.G. USED A STATUTE TO GO AFTER ME THAT HAS NEVER BEEN USED BEFORE, NOT ONCE, FOR SUCH A PURPOSE. IT, IN AND OF ITSELF, IS SOOO UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND UNFAIR. UNDER THIS STATUTE, I GET NO JURY AND HAVE NO RIGHTS. All DECISIONS AND RIGHTS ARE GIVEN TO, IN THIS CASE, A CORRUPT, TRUMP HATING JUDGE, WHO CAME UP WITH A CRAZY, OUT OF THIN AIR AWARD, IN ORDER TO DAMAGE ME POLITICALLY, AND NOT ALLOW ME TO USE ANY OF THE LARGE AMOUNT OF CASH I HAVE BUILT UP OVER THE YEARS, THROUGH HARD WORK, INSIGHT, INSTINCT, AND DILIGENCE, ON MY POLITICAL CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT. THAT IS JUST WHAT CROOKED JOE BIDEN WANTED THIS POLITICAL HACK, COUPLED WITH A CORRUPT AND RACIST ATTORNEY GENERAL, TO DO. I DID NOTHING WRONG! THIS IS SIMPLY A “TAKING.” MUCH LIKE WHAT IS DONE IN COMMUNIST COUNTRIES, AND WILL LEAVE AN IRREPARABLE STAIN ON NEW YORK STATE AND ITS JUDICIAL SYSTEM. IT IS TOTALLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL, INCLUDING THE HARSH GAG ORDER IMPOSED. THE STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS WAS ALREADY RULED ON, FOR ME!

[Flockwitt]

Marjorie Taylor Greene filed a motion to remove GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson, but without requesting privilige so it's a political stunt that'll just sit there as a potential threat for now.

PIty somebody can't do the same for his Trumphood.

[Rhubarb & Custard]

The Dems might be willing to save Mike if he puts some bills they wanted voted on to the house.

[Uncle fester]

Potential source of cash?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... dApp_Other

[fishfoodie]

Potential source of cash?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... dApp_Other

1. The IPO share price is fantasy for a company that has had a sniff of a profit, & a minute footprint
2. He has to hold his stock for 60 days after the IPO.
3. He holds ~60% of the stock ? Just the size of this holding & his awful financial position of the holder makes the stock poison, as who wants to put money into it when a single nutcase can do a rug pull on the company by announcing he's going back to twitter ?

[Uncle fester]

Potential source of cash?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... dApp_Other

1. The IPO share price is fantasy for a company that has had a sniff of a profit, & a minute footprint
2. He has to hold his stock for 60 days after the IPO.
3. He holds ~60% of the stock ? Just the size of this holding & his awful financial position of the holder makes the stock poison, as who wants to put money into it when a single nutcase can do a rug pull on the company by announcing he's going back to twitter ?

Potential for non-state actors to buy up at least some of these and funnel cash into their guy?
Also the maga tools who will mortgage their assets to buy these?

[fishfoodie]

Potential source of cash?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... dApp_Other

1. The IPO share price is fantasy for a company that has had a sniff of a profit, & a minute footprint
2. He has to hold his stock for 60 days after the IPO.
3. He holds ~60% of the stock ? Just the size of this holding & his awful financial position of the holder makes the stock poison, as who wants to put money into it when a single nutcase can do a rug pull on the company by announcing he's going back to twitter ?

Potential for non-state actors to buy up at least some of these and funnel cash into their guy?
Also the maga tools who will mortgage their assets to buy these?

The first one is definitely possible, the 2nd one, less so, because the latest data from GOP small donors contributions says that particular well is dry.

He started his campaign too early, to try to cut off the legal actions, & has bleed the small donors dry. The latest data says he's pissing away $230k each & ever week from his campaign on lawyers. Meanwhile the DNC is spending money on ads & the campaign, & like winning over voters.

[Flockwitt]

The Dems might be willing to save Mike if he puts some bills they wanted voted on to the house.

Yeah, rather than letting Mike hang out to dry I think they will for any bi-partisan spending bill like the government funding (or overseas aid), so a lot of the freedom caucus conservatives are table thumping to get their name in lights, but not doing too much else yet.