Month: July 2021

I think we knew this was in the offing. But what in the hell does GETTR mean?

Former President Donald Trump’s team quietly launched a new social media platform on Thursday, billing it as an alternative to Big Tech sites.

The platform, called GETTR, advertised its mission statement as “fighting cancel culture, promoting common sense, defending free speech, challenging social media monopolies, and creating a true marketplace of ideas.”

Trump’s former spokesman, Jason Miller, is leading the platform. A person familiar described the site as similar to Twitter.

Trump’s involvement with the project is unclear as is whether or not he will set up an account on GETTR and use it, though his proximity to Miller suggests that this may be the latest attempt to get him back in the churn of social media

The former president has been looking for alternative ways to engage with his base online after having been booted off Twitter and suspended from Facebook after encouraging the Capitol rioters on January 6. And his prior effort to engage online—through the launch of a professional blog—ended quickly amid widespread ridicule and poor readership.

GETTR is one of the highest-profile projects in a larger ecosystem of pro-MAGA tech and social media platforms that have blossomed on the right, largely fueled by a sense that Big Tech is attempting to silence conservative and pro-Trump ideology from being disseminated online. In recent months, it was widely reported that the Trump team was searching for a platform on which to re-establish his online presence, either by buying a company outright and rebranding it as his exclusive platform, or becoming a featured draw.

The app first went live on the Google and Apple app stores in mid-June and was most recently updated Wednesday. It’s been downloaded over one thousand times on each, drawing positive reviews from users.

A description for GETTR on the app stores calls it a “non-bias social network for people all over the world.” The app is rated “M” for mature, meaning it is recommended for users 17 and older.

GETTR’s user interface appears similar to that of Twitter. Initial promotional materials for GETTR on the app stores displayed posts of users celebrating the House of Representatives no longer requiring masks on the floor of the chamber.

Initial trending topics on the app included the hashtags “#trump,” “#virusorigin,” “#nra” and “#unrestrictedbioweapon.” Those tags refer to the newfound and still unproven refrain from Republicans that China created the Covid-19 virus in a lab as a bioweapon.

Whether GETTR will succeed is dubious at best. Their last attempt to replicate his twitter feed, a site called “From The Desk of Donald Trump”, was widely derided as nothing more than a blog, barely received any web traffic, and shut down less than a month later.

He made MAGA into a thing and it’s stupid and kind of gross sounding, so I suppose this “brand” could work too. But is it really the best they could come up with?

This poll is not a poll. It’s a wardrobe malfunction:

The results from my fellow historians are now in: Donald Trump is not our worst president. Instead, James Buchanan continues to hold the bottom spot. Trump ranks in 41st place, with three presidents beneath him.

What this demonstrates, obviously, is an over-reliance on metrics for accurate evaluation of phenomena that resist easy quantification.

It sounds all so scientific, rank them along specific axes, maybe add a little bit of groovy statistical weighting and other hoohah and voila!

But a poll that would put Donald Trump, a monumentally corrupt, mentally ill, and utterly incompetent president who incited a riot and is directly responsible for the needless deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans… a poll that would anoint Trump anything other than the unquestionably worst leader of America (to date)?

Please. To call such a poll “deeply flawed” is to give it too much credit.

So the ultra politically partisan Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito wrote today’s majority opinion further gutting the voting rights act, which figures. The Court is willing to throw a few bones to the libs just to pretend that they are not a wholly partisan institution devoted to protecting the wealthy, corporations and the Republican Party. But when it comes right down to it, they’re going to make sure their real constituency is taken care of.

The fact that there has been absolutely no proof of any systemic voter fraud means absolutely nothing. They are determined to let Republicans suppress the vote as much as they need to. I guess we just have to hope at this point that they go so far that they suppress their own dipshit voters too.

As with everything else political, the stolen, undemocratic Supreme Court conservative majority is completely out of step with the American people:

By a roughly 2-to-1 margin, Americans prioritize making lawful voting easier rather than making voter fraud more difficult, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released Thursday.

The poll finds 62 percent of adults saying it is more important to pass new laws “making it easier for people to vote lawfully,” while 30 percent say it’s more important to pass new laws “making it harder for people to vote fraudulently.”

The poll was conducted just before the Supreme Court upheld two Arizona voting restrictions that a lower court had said discriminated against minority voters, with experts saying the decision could make it harder to challenge some new voting restrictions being passed following former president Donald Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud.

The Post-ABC poll finds sharp partisan and racial differences on what new voting laws should focus on. A 59 percent majority of Republicans say it’s more important to pass new laws making it harder to vote fraudulently, while 62 percent of independents and 89 percent of Democrats say new laws should make it easier for people to vote lawfully.

An 82 percent majority of Black adults say it’s more important to make it easier for people to vote lawfully, compared with 67 percent of Hispanic adults and 58 percent of White adults.

The Post-ABC poll was conducted June 27-30 among a random national sample of 907 adults; the margin of sampling error for overall results is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points and error margins are larger among subgroups.

The GOP’s white majority is letting the country know that they will protect their privileges by any means necessary.

Oh, and by the way, the court’s other parting shot was to strike down a California law that required rich political donors to put their names where their money is. They aren’t concerned about average Americans having to go through hoops to vote in this country. But wealthy wingnuts shouldn’t have to reveal who they are financially supporting. God bless America.

“We’re letting the nation know we can cooperate. When it’s really important … This is life and death.”

— President Biden sitting next to Gov. Ron DeSantis in Surfside, Florida

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) to Biden in Surfside, FL:

“You recognized the severity of this tragedy from day one, and you’ve been very supportive.”

Originally tweeted by The Recount (@therecount) on July 1, 2021.

Meanwhile:

 Former President Donald Trump is rejecting pleas from Gov. Ron DeSantis to postpone his “Save America” rally scheduled to take place in Sarasota on Saturday, a report said.

According to the Washington Examiner, a conservative news website, DeSantis’ office “made a direct plea” to the former president’s team, calling on it to postpone the Saturday event in Sarasota due to the condo collapse in Surfside.

One unnamed Florida Republican said Trump and his team need to “read the room,” the report said.

An unnamed source said, ‘There’s a huge rift between the DeSantis and Trump [camps],’ and alleged it ties to tensions between the Florida governor and Trump’s post-president lead Susie Wiles, a former top Trump campaign official.

But Christina Pushaw, the governor’s press secretary, denied such claims and said DeSantis never called for the event to be canceled

Another anonymous operative said that this would only add fuel to the fire regarding Trump’s decision to keep the rally scheduled. ‘Because Ron DeSantis doesn’t want it, she’s gonna make sure it happens. The governor supports the president, but something awful just happened in his state.’

‘We can walk and chew gum at the same time. But right now, there’s a Kumbaya moment. People need this. We need everybody to come together, we need to see that to start healing this country. And we saw a little bit of that today for the first time in five years. Today was the first day that people were like, “Maybe there’s hope that our country can come back together again.” Only for, on Saturday, the former president tearing the Band-Aid off: He’s gonna go for the jugular.’ 

In promotions of the Trump event, the Republican Party of Florida urged attendees of the rally to donate to two local relief funds. And an unnamed source said that Trump could hold a moment of silence for the mourning Surfside community.

Liz Harrington, a spokeswoman for Trump, defended the rally and told the Washington Examiner that Trump spearheaded the fundraising push.

‘Like all Americans, President Trump sends his deepest condolences to those who’ve lost loved ones or been displaced by the terrible tragedy in Surfside. The event in Sarasota, however, is on the other side of the state, 3 1/2 hours away, approximately the same distance from Boston to New York, and will not impact any of the recovery efforts. In fact, President Trump has instructed his team to collect relief aid for Surfside families both online and on-site at the Sarasota rally.’

Aaaand scene:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has canceled his planned appearance at former President Donald Trump’s Fourth of July weekend rally in Sarasota, Politico reported.

Trump’s Save America rally is scheduled to take place at the Sarasota Fairgrounds Saturday. Doors open at 2 p.m. with the rally starting at 8 p.m. and fireworks at 9 p.m.

Now that Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg and the Trump Organization itself are to be indicted in New York City, one can expect the usual torrent of abuse from the Doge of Mar-a-Lago. What an opportunity for a judicial gag order, writes former Manhattan D.A.’s office prosecutor Robert C. Gottlieb (CNN opinion):

One must have been sleeping through the Trump presidency not to expect that a wounded Trump will do and say anything to prejudice the fair administration of justice. Now, the district attorney should ask the judge at the arraignment to impose a strict gag order restraining Trump, the Trump family, prosecutors, defense attorneys and all witnesses from making any public statements intended to prevent a fair trial, free of prejudice. A violation of a gag order is the crime of contempt of a court order with a potential one year in jail.

I have personally been involved in a number of high-profile cases where gag orders were imposed, and they are not unusual in high publicity criminal cases. Harvey Weinstein, Michael Jackson, Paul Manafort are just a few of the recent cases in which judges restricted attorneys, defendants and witnesses from speaking publicly.

From the US Supreme Court to state and federal district courts, judges have affirmed their inherent power to control their courtroom by forbidding participants from making public statements whenever they have a “reasonable likelihood of tending to prevent a fair trial, free of prejudice and properly administered.” The New York Rules of Professional Conduct for attorneys codifies restrictions on lawyers’ out of court statements by prohibiting an attorney from making any statement “ordinarily likely to prejudice materially” a criminal matter — namely, influencing jurors to affect the outcome of a trial. Without a court-ordered gag order, Trump will likely set out to demonize witnesses, cooperators, prosecutors and the judge in his effort to delegitimize the entire criminal justice system, a bedrock American institution that reflects this nation’s principle of impartial justice that is based on evidence and truth.

In fact, Trump is already at it:

New – Trump Organization statement reacting to Allen Weisselberg who just surrendered to the Manhattan DA this morning — says in part he is being used as a “pawn in a scorched earth attempt to harm the former President. “ pic.twitter.com/WavgJWhy26

— John Santucci (@Santucci) July 1, 2021

Roger Stone’s example comes to mind. Judge Amy Berman Jackson banned Stone from major social media platforms for repeatedly violating the court’s gag order in his case, but she declined to charge the Trump confidant with contempt. Those platforms have already booted Trump.

Stay tuned later today.

As I write this, from the New York Times:

Donald J. Trump’s long-serving chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg, surrendered on Thursday to the Manhattan district attorney’s office as he and the Trump Organization prepared to face charges in connection with a tax investigation, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Prosecutors are expected to unseal indictments later on Thursday against Weisselberg and the Trump Organization itself. Those familiar with the investigation expect criminal charges related to unpaid taxes on benefits for the firm’s executives.

No charges against Donald Trump or his family members are expected at this time. Trump characteristically calls the investigation a “witch hunt.”

Mr. Weisselberg, accompanied by his lawyer, Mary E. Mulligan, walked into the Lower Manhattan building that houses the criminal courts and the district attorney’s office about 6:20 a.m. He is expected to appear in court in the afternoon along with representatives of the Trump Organization.

The charges against the Trump Organization and Mr. Weisselberg — whom Mr. Trump once praised for doing “whatever was necessary to protect the bottom line” — emerged from the district attorney’s sweeping inquiry into the business practices of Mr. Trump and his company.

As part of that inquiry, the prosecutors in the office of the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., had been examining whether Mr. Weisselberg failed to pay taxes on valuable benefits he and his family received from Mr. Trump, including private school tuition for at least one of his grandchildren, free apartments and leased cars.

Trump himself facing criminal charges will be the main event. Indictments against Weisselberg and the Trump Organization amount to undercard bouts.

Let this be a lesson to anyone who dare threaten our democracy. Several months later your CFO may face what appears to be incidental tax fraud charges. https://t.co/N9Q1JLsbUd

— L O L G O P (@LOLGOP) July 1, 2021

Investigations are ongoing into whether Trump and the Trump Organization manipulated property valuations both for tax and bank loan purposes. Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen attested to that under oath before Congress in 2019. Cohen served prison time over undeclared hush-money payments made on Trump’s behalf during the 2016 presidential campaign to conceal Trump’s affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels. Cohen identified Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator in that federal election law case.

The [Weisselberg] indictment follows months of an increasing pressure campaign on Mr. Weisselberg to offer information that could help that inquiry. Prosecutors had subpoenaed Mr. Weisselberg’s personal tax returns and bank records, reviewed a raft of his financial dealings and questioned his ex-daughter-in-law — all part of an effort to gain his cooperation.

Weisselberg, 73, has been tight-lipped with reporters and has resisted requests to provide evidence against his longtime employer. His indictment increases the pressure on Weisselberg and his family. Both Weisselberg and his wife received a leased Mercedes as Trump Organization perks.

In December 2019, the state of New York closed the Trump Foundation for misuse of funds, forced Trump himself to repay funds he spent on himself, and forced the foundation to disburse remaining funds to eight legitimate charities. The N.Y. attorney general’s office concluded its statement:

Additionally, as part of the settlement, Trump was required to agree to 19 admissions, acknowledging his personal misuse of funds at the Trump Foundation, and agreed to restrictions on future charitable service and ongoing reporting to the Office of the Attorney General, in the event he creates a new charity. The settlement also included mandatory training requirements for Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump, which the three children have already undergone. Finally, the settlement required the Trump Foundation to shutter its doors last December and dissolve under court supervision.

A Pulitzer-winning New York Times expose in October 2018 examined the late Fred Trump’s business dealings. Based on 100,000 pages of documents, the report detailed a history of the Trump Organization manipulating property values and employing tax avoidance schemes that, while they may have been criminal, fell outside the statute of limitations for charging the Trump Organization or Trump père’s surviving children. Donald Trump’s sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, nevertheless retired as a federal appellate judge in Philadelphia in early 2019, ending a pending ethics review into whether she had participated with her siblings in evading inheritance taxes. The New York indictments will be the first criminal charges targeting Trump’s family business.

Trump himself is notoriously scrupulous about not using email that might leave “fingerprint” records tying him to the actions of lieutenants such as Cohen or Weisselberg. Suggestions that “the walls are closing in” on Trump himself are premature. Trump has lived his entire life skirting the law if not publicly flaunting it.

Former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s death Wednesday is a reminder that a different justice system exists in this country for elites. Rumsfeld and the Bush administration that employed him were credibly (if informally) accused of committing war crimes for which they faced neither international opprobrium, investigation nor indictment.

Salon’s Paul Rosenberg tweets in response, “Elite impunity is both a cause & consequence of everything from forever wars to mass incarceration to the climate catastrophe & the global resurgence of fascism.”

Wall Street bankers avoided prosecution for bringing the world financial system to its knees and impoverishing their victims in the millions in the wake of the 2008 financial collapse.

“Only one political party was agitating for the violent overthrow of our democracy, and it was the Republican Party. And to this point, they’ve mostly gotten away with it,” writes Kurt Bardella. “Democrats need to stop worrying about hurting GOP feelings and start worrying about what will happen if Republicans believe they can get away with pretty much anything.”

Trump has lived that charmed, elite life for seven-plus decades. Do not hold your breath waiting for him to face the music. In his circles, criminals expect to get away with everything.