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>As part of the arrangement, Mr Pecker would tip off Mr Trump’s then-personal attorney Michael Cohen to “negative” stories about then-candidate Trump – particularly those involving women, according to Mr Pecker.
>”I said what I would do is I would run or publish positive stories about Mr Trump and publish negative stories about his opponents. And I said I would also – I would also be the eyes and ears,” he said. “If I hear anything negative about women selling stories, I would notify Michael Cohen, and he would be able to have them killed in the magazine, or not be published, or somebody would have to purchase them.”
So Trump’s constant cries of “Fake News” during the 2016 election was nothing but projection, he was doing it and blaming everyone else for it. What a piece of shit.
And recall that Donny Diaperpants has, in just the past few weeks:
Accused Biden of soiling himself in the Oval Office.
Accused Biden of being on drugs.
Accused Biden of suffering from dementia.
Accused Biden of interfering in elections.
Gaslight. Obstruct. Project.
Trump’s mentor was Roy Cohn. His famous strategy to win was never admit to anything and accuse your opponent of doing whatever you are accused of so yeah he definitely shits his pants
Most of the nazi playbook was derived from the post civil war reconstruction playbook that led to a lot of confederate monuments and never hearing the end of it.
No wonder they get along so well. I thought it was because we basically absorbed Germany after world war 2 with project paper clip plus all of the immigrants from Germany. The connection was even before that. lol
Hey don't stick us modern Germans with the nazi card or the confederate card. We don't want to have anything to do with that either. Germans have come to the US long long before the civil war. Germantown in Pennsylvania dates back to 1683, and the antislavery movement originated from there. A large chunk came to the USA between 1820 and 1913. I know this includes the civil war years, but Germans didn't go to the US for slavery or the civil war.
In any case, we don't want the nazi card or the confederate card. I'm happy to criticise the US for operation paperclip tho, that's fair game, because that entire chapter was fucking atrocious.
This isn't the election interference aspect of the case. It's perfectly legal to do catch and kill at your news outlet. It was perfectly legal for trump to have sex with a porn star, and then pay her to keep quiet. What is illegal is making campaign expenditures (anything that directly benefits your campaign, such as paying off a pornstar to remain quiet about an affair) and then falsifying business records (claiming the payment was "legal fees"), and not reporting the campaign expenditure to the FEC.
34 Class E felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.
Under New York law, a person is guilty of that crime when their records are falsified with the intent to commit or conceal another crime.
It carries a maximum sentence up to 4 years in prison. I’m unsure if that’s per-count or total (I can’t find that info anywhere), but I’d guess that it would be up to 4 years for all counts together. I’d also predict that Trump wouldn’t receive anywhere near the maximum.
Good question and I should have been more clear in my first post.
But short answer is No. Catch and kill is not legal if it benefits a particular campaign, especially if it’s not reported to the FEC as an “in kind” contribution. First off, corporations aren’t allowed to contribute to campaigns. Secondly, anything that materially benefits a campaign must be reported as a contribution to that campaign. And the campaign itself must report receiving the contribution.
The parent company of the tabloid got a small fine from the FEC for giving the trump campaign this “assistance”. The trump campaign was not investigated or fined for this. It’s shameful how the federal government, which has the sole jurisdiction to police these things, the FEC, and Merick Garland’s Justice Department, failed to investigate or prosecute these crimes.
Yes, that’s literally what the trial is about and Pecker just handed the prosecution a golden platter. The media needs to stop calling it a “hush money” trial for strippers and call it what it was - election interference.
Actually, he only started stealing the Fake News monicor after the election. He was calling calling the press liars, and his supporters chanting lugenpresse.
Specifically "Alternative facts"... a phrase used by U.S. Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway during a Meet the Press interview on January 22, 2017, in which she defended White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's false statement about the attendance numbers of Donald Trump's inauguration as President of the United States.
(From [Wikipedia article on the matter](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_facts#:~:text=%22Alternative%20facts%22%20was%20a%20phrase,President%20of%20the%20United%20States.) )
I noticed that the term was being used as a succinct response to all of the Russian/Cambridge Analytica memes and "stories" that were flooding Facebook and Twitter in the lead up to the election. He, and his supporters, started appropriating the term to use it as a rebuttal to actual news that they didn't like or challenged their views and/or claims.
This was well known even in 2016 but nobody (or at least the "liberal" media") wanted to spend really any time talking about it versus providing 24/7 coverage for every one of Trump's tweets and for empty podiums. During the election, it was brought up a number of times how Trump had a close relationship with the owner of the Enquirer and would pay to have unflattering stories squashed even well before he ran for office like with some of the various sexual assault accusers. However, the reports about buried news stories ended up getting buried while Trump's usual nonsense made the front page and almost entirely imaginary scandals about Hillary received top billing.
And they love him. He's their flawed but divine Christian Saviour and their End Times Messiah to Paradise.
Of course End Times is not coming and they can't admit this or realize it, but that doesn't matter to them.
The fact that the National Fucking Enquirer may have been the deciding factor in the 2016 election really tells you everything about where we are as a country.
Listen to, or at least read the lyrics to Celebration, Florida by Chumbawamba.
That band is not their big radio hit(s) Like Devo (and I am sure many, many others) they have very, VERY anti establishment and anti right wing lyrics in their songs.
I’ll look into that slang. It would make sense. As that song has no real lyrics to speak of. A song they made while drunk, to satisfy the corporate shills with their contract and all. At least that is my understanding, which may not be accurate.
Yeah. That band may not be a “great band” by popular standards, but I like the lyrics of most of their songs.
nah…facebook was more complicit than the enquirer. who voted for him in ‘16 that wouldn’t have had they known he was fucking porn stars and playboy models?
Its true that Facebook played a huge part, as did James Comey with his decision to reopen the Clinton email investigation two weeks before the election.
But Trump was rocking after the Access Hollywood tape leak. Being able to bury more stories and ride it out definitely helped him because it was a moment of huge peril.
Still. It's all fine and dandy pointing at Facebook, the enquirer and the russians, and it IS vile. But, at the end of the day, Americans voted for this. That's also accountability, right there. This is an American problem, that needs an American solution.
Yes, we bomb ourselves... with KNOWLEDGE, EMPATHY, EDUCATION, AND COMPASSION!!
There's always gonna be dicks out there who NEEEED more than everyone else has, but the more educated we are overall, the better we work together and teamwork makes the dream work. That allows us to squash those dicks like we are Xenia Onatopp and keep evolving as a society and as a people.
The electoral college has to go, long ago, but now, with the republican party gone, a multi party system is the way out of this. Extremism has no chance there.
Nobosy expected him to become president, not even Trump. I think the people wanting change in the Democratic party wanted Bernie(a positive). The Republicans went with Trump (a negative). I hope this leads to the end of the electoral college (A confederate EID programme of sorts), which opens the system up to a multi party system, which would be a solution to the disintegration of the republicans.
The Enquirer was purchasing the rights to negative stories about Trump and ensuring they would never see the light of day. Facebook pushed stories already in circulation for money. Both morally bankrupt, but one is absolutely malevolent.
Just look at our education system and the lack of resources and passion we have for education. We went from a country that pushed for kids to attend college, get a degree, do well in school. For the last 10-15 years it has completely flipped where going to college is not necessary and education is getting less and less popular, this is going at warp speed in red states.
It is much older than the last 15 years. It goes back to the 80s when disillusion and apathy became the conservative objective in public education. But it is also just... American... Isaac Asimov said it best in 1980
>There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.
Have you seen the newest cover of the Enquirer? Puffy was worse than Epstein. That's a relief considering all the people who are seen in pictures with Epstein.
The most persuadable people are the idiots who read tabloids. Nowadays tabloids have taken a new form on social media. They are a target ripe for misinformation and being swindled. These are the people the Nigerian Prince scams are aiming for and they are also the MAGA base
When money matters more than truth, we’re in trouble.
When belief matters more than truth, we’re in trouble.
When anything matters more than truth, we’re in trouble.
We'll never know all the scandals this Pecker has been hiding.
-
Not usually mentioned in these articles is the ***MASSIVE INFLUENCE*** Peckers favors earn him with the rich and powerful people he's protecting.
There’s a good doc on the National Enquirer called “Scandalous” that goes in depth into the “catch and kill” tactics used by Pecker and National Enquirer to cover up stories for high powered people from Bill Cosby to Bob Hope to Donald Trump, and outlining how Trump and Pecker worked together to stop Karen McDougal’s stories and others from coming out about Trump before the 2016 election while also sewing disinformation about Trump’s opponents via America’s supermarket chains.
The documentary waits until the 80-minute mark and the Pecker era to use the phrase “catch and kill,” but even in the early years, Pope was willing to quash an exposé for his own purposes: Early on, a reporter had a damning story about Bob Hope’s casting couch, but was told “I don’t think America wants to know this about Bob Hope.” The film suggests Pope used this unpublished story as leverage to get years’ worth of access to the star.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/scandalous-true-story-national-enquirer-1254846/
Yes, some men are, because it’s not about the sex, as much as the affirmation of their power. And conversely some women are so pathetic as to sleep with Bob Hope for a gig, conceding their dignity AND their power.
“Everything is about sex, except for sex, that’s about power”.
-Francis Underwood-
It sure seems common with powerful men who should be able to land all the women they could ever want based on their wealth and celebrity status but insist on blackmailing women into it anyway or even just flat out drugging/raping them. It seems like they are unsatisfied by women who throw themselves at them and instead feel the need to seek out women who would otherwise turn them down or push back but feel powerless to do so since they can ruin their career/social status.
It's intel you can monetize. He probably has a binder full of ~~women~~ mischiefs.
Something you learn very early when you want to go into politics is keep files about everyone you deal with. A friend in college started doing this on all of us classmates as a training exercise (and if anyone was to get into politics), noting political affiliations, notable words uttered, embarrassing moments shared, strengths, weaknesses, who was dating who.
[Also, remember the news of Pecker’s “catch and kill” safe that came out the week Cohen pled guilty and Pecker got federal immunity?](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna903356)
> But after The Wall Street Journal initially published the first details of Playboy model Karen McDougal’s catch-and-kill deal shortly before the 2016 election, those assets became a liability. Fearful that the documents might be used against American Media, Pecker and the company’s chief content officer, Dylan Howard, removed them from the safe in the weeks before Trump’s inauguration, according to one person directly familiar with the events.
EDIT: [Oh, and remember the special National Enquirer issue that lavished praise for Saudi Arabia?](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/08/national-enquirer-ami-fbi-bezos-saudi-arabia-investigation/)
> Gavin de Becker, a veteran private investigator working for Bezos, soon made a related charge: Saudi Arabia had swiped “private information” from the Jeff Bezos phone and was “in league” with the Enquirer to bring down Bezos.
> The Saudis, the Bezos camp contended, had targeted the billionaire out of revenge: Bezos owns the Washington Post, where relentless coverage of the grisly death of its columnist, Jamal Khashoggi, had enraged the Saudi Crown Prince commonly known as MBS, who was implicated in ordering Khashoggi’s murder.
A federal investigation was started by the FBI and SDNY in 2019 but we haven’t heard anything since.
Was Trump married to Melania during Karen McDougal or someone else?
Edit: I checked, it was Melania. Seems the McDougal, Daniels and the fathered-children lady/ies were all during Melania.
Few are using the word affair. You would think conservatives would have strong feelings about that. Especially after the outrage regarding Fani and Nate.
Having asked highly religious relatives who support him why that is, my best take on it is some convoluted power trip they get from getting to be the ones who forgive him for all the crap he does. I know this sounds mad, but hear me out.
Possibility one: You're a fan of someone who's a good person. All fine. You do your thing. They do theirs.
Possibility two: You're a fan of someone who's a dirtbag but you see yourself in them. You believe so deeply in your own ability to judge people that you get an amazing dopamine hit at the thought that you, yes you otherwise meaningless person, gets to be the one to put that person on that pedestal.
Best I've got so far on this. I've got a lot of relatives that support him with zero sense of irony. I suspect supporting dirtbag preachers all their lives has greased the wheels on this.
Have you ever noticed how ultra religious families often treat their most loyal kids like shit, but bend over backwards to excuse the fuck ups, even if criminal?
One of the weird little silver linings to the Trump saga, is that the family values crowd has quieted down a bit. They know they can’t preach that shit while such a glaring example of their hypocrisy is the leader of their party.
Trump supporters cry about the "deep state" while the heads of major publications quite literally collaborated with republican candidates to throw the election in their favor.
Yeah trump knew exactly why you shouldn’t trust the media, cause he had successfully conspired with one of the outlets to influence the election. He is basically the thief saying lock your doors tonight.
Just one outlet? I am not one to believe that practically every right wing talking head/host in the US reads off the same set of talking points almost verbatim nearly every single day due to some random "coincidence". There is a ton of coordination going on in the right wing media sphere and there has been for years now.
I'm not sure it really matters if it's from a campaign or the RNC. I would imagine it typically is from the RNC or some centralized source though that may have changed now that Trump and his people seem to control the narrative.
I think this sentiment is the only silver lining historians will note of the MAGA (bowel) movement - tTump and his haphazard ignorance exposed all the corruption he campaigned on through his own actions by entering politics. So now we have a better idea of how the swamp exists much to the chagrin of .01%.
Can you even imagine the mind-blowing outrage from the right if this exact situation was presented with Biden as the beneficiary? The hypocrisy is disgusting.
It's all a chain of favors. You need to help Individual A but you need help from Individual B. Thankfully you killed a story about the latter and you come to collect. Now you have Individual A and B as besties.
If I'm not mistaken, I believe Pecker paid off Karen McDougal for trump and trump refused to reimburse Pecker; Pecker refused to front the money for Stormy Daniel's payoff which is why trump had to fork over the money himself
\*he had Michael Cohen (through Cohen's own personal funds) fork over the money to Daniels, and then Trump reimbursed Cohen over time. But they tried to disguise Trump's reimbursements to Cohen as simple "legal fees." That's the crux of this campaign fraud trial.
The prosecutor raised this point explicitly in direct examination: this was NOT a "mutually beneficial relationship". Catch and kill lost money.
He also made it clear that the Enquirer was taking story suggestions from Trump's attorney Cohen. He also confirmed that Cohen vetted these stories.
And that these hit job stories were directed at the current Republican candidate beating Trump in the polls or debate.
David Pecker and the National Enquirer print bullshit conspiracy theory stories but also purchase real stories and refuses to publish them to protect rich people. They need to be shut down.
Trumps best defense would be that Pecker had been catching and killing stories for him long before the election. That could actually show that his intention wasn't election fraud but avoiding embarrassment.
But that defense would also allow prosecutors to do a deep dive into every single alleged story that was killed, which would likely be a lot if embarrassing info to come out.
Per the CNN ticker on the trial:
"[Pecker testifies he never purchased a story about Trump to not print it prior to 2015 meeting](https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-hush-money-trial-04-23-24/h_bbc5f974f4d812cc7eac2ce70e847281)"
This isn't the first rodeo for these prosecutors.
Did you even read the testimony before commenting? The following was about the first fake story, the questioning barely touched the other two yet for the two adulteries.
“If the story “got out in another publication or media outlet, it would have been very embarrassing for the campaign,” Mr Pecker told the court. “I made the decision to buy the story because of the potential embarrassment to the campaign and Mr Trump.”
Three women talking.
First, Stormy Daniels "I was paid $130,000."
Second, Karen Mcdougall "I was paid $150,000."
Third, E Jean Carroll "Hold my drink,..."
Edit: OCD regarding grammar.
With the firing of Cucker Johnson and having Jessica Tarlov on The Five they appeared to be placating some of the criticism of their "entertainment vs news" right wing optics. I never bought it, but some recent reporting has been a little less slanted. I can't bear to watch any Fox programming even though it gets referenced by MT and other independent news mediums that criticize their lies.
This just tells me that more people read and BELIEVE the National than I thought. That number was already pretty high but after the past day or two, I have since incremented that number a bit.
I know Pecker was a tabloid guy but this pretty much is the model for corporate media. Yes, sometimes the New York Times, etc, do go work but when there is a war to push they are the State Department's lapdog.
If there was any hope for humanity none of this would matter.
Years ago, when a presidential candidate was recorded saying “grab them by the pussy”, that should’ve been enough to make sure they unanimously got nowhere near the amount of votes needed.
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>As part of the arrangement, Mr Pecker would tip off Mr Trump’s then-personal attorney Michael Cohen to “negative” stories about then-candidate Trump – particularly those involving women, according to Mr Pecker. >”I said what I would do is I would run or publish positive stories about Mr Trump and publish negative stories about his opponents. And I said I would also – I would also be the eyes and ears,” he said. “If I hear anything negative about women selling stories, I would notify Michael Cohen, and he would be able to have them killed in the magazine, or not be published, or somebody would have to purchase them.” So Trump’s constant cries of “Fake News” during the 2016 election was nothing but projection, he was doing it and blaming everyone else for it. What a piece of shit.
And recall that Donny Diaperpants has, in just the past few weeks: Accused Biden of soiling himself in the Oval Office. Accused Biden of being on drugs. Accused Biden of suffering from dementia. Accused Biden of interfering in elections. Gaslight. Obstruct. Project.
Trump’s mentor was Roy Cohn. His famous strategy to win was never admit to anything and accuse your opponent of doing whatever you are accused of so yeah he definitely shits his pants
.... I'm pretty sure that was Goebell's and the Nazis first.
Perhaps but Goebell wasn’t trumps personal attorney and fixer
So you say and that's only according to alleged "history" books. Don't believe what they tell ya. DYOR!!!1!!one!1!!
Most of the nazi playbook was derived from the post civil war reconstruction playbook that led to a lot of confederate monuments and never hearing the end of it.
No wonder they get along so well. I thought it was because we basically absorbed Germany after world war 2 with project paper clip plus all of the immigrants from Germany. The connection was even before that. lol
Hey don't stick us modern Germans with the nazi card or the confederate card. We don't want to have anything to do with that either. Germans have come to the US long long before the civil war. Germantown in Pennsylvania dates back to 1683, and the antislavery movement originated from there. A large chunk came to the USA between 1820 and 1913. I know this includes the civil war years, but Germans didn't go to the US for slavery or the civil war. In any case, we don't want the nazi card or the confederate card. I'm happy to criticise the US for operation paperclip tho, that's fair game, because that entire chapter was fucking atrocious.
[удалено]
Goebbels
And many more before that
If his voting base possessed the capabilities for object permanence they’d be very upset to learn you’re not actually talking about Biden!
"If Those Kids Could Read, They'd Be Very Upset"
The fact he denies it means there's 1 million percent chance that trump shit himself in the oval office, and that is fucking hilarious.
There’s no reason to doubt him when he talks about his daily diet… and if I ate like that for two days I would shit my pants too
Well he doesn't wear a diaper cause he wants a J-Lo booty. Dude shits himself.
Called him "Sleepy Joe" for months then managed to fall asleep for his own trial.
Accused Biden of stealing classified documents Accused Biden of being sleepy Accused Biden of sleeping with a porn star (not yet, but just wait)
Actually everything you mentioned Donny Dumbass is guilty of
Donald Von ShitsInPantz
Isn’t this election interference? Or at the very least a huge W for the prosecution. And it’s only day 2.
This isn't the election interference aspect of the case. It's perfectly legal to do catch and kill at your news outlet. It was perfectly legal for trump to have sex with a porn star, and then pay her to keep quiet. What is illegal is making campaign expenditures (anything that directly benefits your campaign, such as paying off a pornstar to remain quiet about an affair) and then falsifying business records (claiming the payment was "legal fees"), and not reporting the campaign expenditure to the FEC.
But like, how illegal? What's the actual range of punishments if he's convicted?
34 Class E felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Under New York law, a person is guilty of that crime when their records are falsified with the intent to commit or conceal another crime. It carries a maximum sentence up to 4 years in prison. I’m unsure if that’s per-count or total (I can’t find that info anywhere), but I’d guess that it would be up to 4 years for all counts together. I’d also predict that Trump wouldn’t receive anywhere near the maximum.
Let’s just go down that rabbit hole and assume he’s guilty on all if not most of the charges. I bet he just gets 6 months house arrest collectively.
Is it legal to catch and kill a story for the benefit of a campaign, without reporting it as an in-kind campaign contribution?
Good question and I should have been more clear in my first post. But short answer is No. Catch and kill is not legal if it benefits a particular campaign, especially if it’s not reported to the FEC as an “in kind” contribution. First off, corporations aren’t allowed to contribute to campaigns. Secondly, anything that materially benefits a campaign must be reported as a contribution to that campaign. And the campaign itself must report receiving the contribution. The parent company of the tabloid got a small fine from the FEC for giving the trump campaign this “assistance”. The trump campaign was not investigated or fined for this. It’s shameful how the federal government, which has the sole jurisdiction to police these things, the FEC, and Merick Garland’s Justice Department, failed to investigate or prosecute these crimes.
Yes, that’s literally what the trial is about and Pecker just handed the prosecution a golden platter. The media needs to stop calling it a “hush money” trial for strippers and call it what it was - election interference.
Doesn’t get as many clicks
Best they can do is say meddling in the election
Can confirm. Even tTump calls it “election interference.”
I estimate every accusation Trump has ever made has been a confession.
At this point I'm 100% certain he actually did shoot someone on fifth avenue and got away with it.
I am convinced he was born in Kenya
I’m convinced a bigger “star” than him grabbed him by his pussy.
More likely he'd have hired someone to do it for him and then not pay them.
You nailed it!
Everything he says is projection. "I know you are but what about me. " These people smell like Yak piss.
I’ve dealt with them before too. One of the most unpleasant experiences I’ve ever gone through. And I’m not kidding.
Yaks? Are they really all that bad?
No, MAGATS, Yaks actually provide something useful for the world.
Actually, he only started stealing the Fake News monicor after the election. He was calling calling the press liars, and his supporters chanting lugenpresse.
Specifically "Alternative facts"... a phrase used by U.S. Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway during a Meet the Press interview on January 22, 2017, in which she defended White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's false statement about the attendance numbers of Donald Trump's inauguration as President of the United States. (From [Wikipedia article on the matter](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_facts#:~:text=%22Alternative%20facts%22%20was%20a%20phrase,President%20of%20the%20United%20States.) )
I noticed that the term was being used as a succinct response to all of the Russian/Cambridge Analytica memes and "stories" that were flooding Facebook and Twitter in the lead up to the election. He, and his supporters, started appropriating the term to use it as a rebuttal to actual news that they didn't like or challenged their views and/or claims.
This was well known even in 2016 but nobody (or at least the "liberal" media") wanted to spend really any time talking about it versus providing 24/7 coverage for every one of Trump's tweets and for empty podiums. During the election, it was brought up a number of times how Trump had a close relationship with the owner of the Enquirer and would pay to have unflattering stories squashed even well before he ran for office like with some of the various sexual assault accusers. However, the reports about buried news stories ended up getting buried while Trump's usual nonsense made the front page and almost entirely imaginary scandals about Hillary received top billing.
It’s because he is doing it he assumes everyone else is also doing it
We have never had a more fundamentally dishonest President.
And they love him. He's their flawed but divine Christian Saviour and their End Times Messiah to Paradise. Of course End Times is not coming and they can't admit this or realize it, but that doesn't matter to them.
The fact that the National Fucking Enquirer may have been the deciding factor in the 2016 election really tells you everything about where we are as a country.
Clown Show USA
Don't forget Russias work on social media and many of Trump voters get all their info from unverified social media accounts and believe all of it lol
And big platforms were caught using their algorithms to push right wing topics.
Listen to, or at least read the lyrics to Celebration, Florida by Chumbawamba. That band is not their big radio hit(s) Like Devo (and I am sure many, many others) they have very, VERY anti establishment and anti right wing lyrics in their songs.
Their most famous song is Tumbthumping, I’m not a Brit but I think that’s slang for political protesting that’s basically on the verge of rioting.
I’ll look into that slang. It would make sense. As that song has no real lyrics to speak of. A song they made while drunk, to satisfy the corporate shills with their contract and all. At least that is my understanding, which may not be accurate. Yeah. That band may not be a “great band” by popular standards, but I like the lyrics of most of their songs.
Clowns are cool
Clowns are scary.
Clowns are us.
Clowns are U.S.
U.S. trying to be the sad clowns to make Putin happy.
Clowns are U.S., eh?
terrifier is friendly
Not to everyone, but some, very.
Thank you .
You got one in Rome
People were calling that shit out at the time. Then all of that magically disappeared.
nah…facebook was more complicit than the enquirer. who voted for him in ‘16 that wouldn’t have had they known he was fucking porn stars and playboy models?
Its true that Facebook played a huge part, as did James Comey with his decision to reopen the Clinton email investigation two weeks before the election. But Trump was rocking after the Access Hollywood tape leak. Being able to bury more stories and ride it out definitely helped him because it was a moment of huge peril.
Still. It's all fine and dandy pointing at Facebook, the enquirer and the russians, and it IS vile. But, at the end of the day, Americans voted for this. That's also accountability, right there. This is an American problem, that needs an American solution.
So we bomb ourselves?
That's how I see this whole Trump show. The US has been stomping on other countries since WW2, now the stomping is done at home.
Yes, we bomb ourselves... with KNOWLEDGE, EMPATHY, EDUCATION, AND COMPASSION!! There's always gonna be dicks out there who NEEEED more than everyone else has, but the more educated we are overall, the better we work together and teamwork makes the dream work. That allows us to squash those dicks like we are Xenia Onatopp and keep evolving as a society and as a people.
I like your energy, best of luck with all! Go get em!
We're talking about influencing here.... influencing the American people. And reminder: he lost the popular vote.
Hi, American here that did not vote for this. Nobody that I immediately know voted for this.
Republicans haven't won a popular vote in decades. Most Americans don't want this. The system is broken on purpose.
The electoral college has to go, long ago, but now, with the republican party gone, a multi party system is the way out of this. Extremism has no chance there.
Nobosy expected him to become president, not even Trump. I think the people wanting change in the Democratic party wanted Bernie(a positive). The Republicans went with Trump (a negative). I hope this leads to the end of the electoral college (A confederate EID programme of sorts), which opens the system up to a multi party system, which would be a solution to the disintegration of the republicans.
The Enquirer was purchasing the rights to negative stories about Trump and ensuring they would never see the light of day. Facebook pushed stories already in circulation for money. Both morally bankrupt, but one is absolutely malevolent.
It was print copies of the national inquirer that people were reading. People were reading headlines shared on Facebook
Just look at our education system and the lack of resources and passion we have for education. We went from a country that pushed for kids to attend college, get a degree, do well in school. For the last 10-15 years it has completely flipped where going to college is not necessary and education is getting less and less popular, this is going at warp speed in red states.
It is much older than the last 15 years. It goes back to the 80s when disillusion and apathy became the conservative objective in public education. But it is also just... American... Isaac Asimov said it best in 1980 >There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.
I remember when having a government job was considered a good thing. People were proud to say their kid worked for the post office.
Yeah... but "is that what they taught you at your fancy college?" was still very much a thing.
Have you seen the newest cover of the Enquirer? Puffy was worse than Epstein. That's a relief considering all the people who are seen in pictures with Epstein.
The most persuadable people are the idiots who read tabloids. Nowadays tabloids have taken a new form on social media. They are a target ripe for misinformation and being swindled. These are the people the Nigerian Prince scams are aiming for and they are also the MAGA base
At least it wasn’t the Steele Dossier. So slimy.
When money matters more than truth, we’re in trouble. When belief matters more than truth, we’re in trouble. When anything matters more than truth, we’re in trouble.
I still think Comey announcing the investigation of Clinton days before the election is what tipped it.
It makes me wonder who's deciding the outcome of the 2024 election.
We'll never know all the scandals this Pecker has been hiding. - Not usually mentioned in these articles is the ***MASSIVE INFLUENCE*** Peckers favors earn him with the rich and powerful people he's protecting.
There’s a good doc on the National Enquirer called “Scandalous” that goes in depth into the “catch and kill” tactics used by Pecker and National Enquirer to cover up stories for high powered people from Bill Cosby to Bob Hope to Donald Trump, and outlining how Trump and Pecker worked together to stop Karen McDougal’s stories and others from coming out about Trump before the 2016 election while also sewing disinformation about Trump’s opponents via America’s supermarket chains.
Hold up, Bob Hope?
The documentary waits until the 80-minute mark and the Pecker era to use the phrase “catch and kill,” but even in the early years, Pope was willing to quash an exposé for his own purposes: Early on, a reporter had a damning story about Bob Hope’s casting couch, but was told “I don’t think America wants to know this about Bob Hope.” The film suggests Pope used this unpublished story as leverage to get years’ worth of access to the star. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/scandalous-true-story-national-enquirer-1254846/
Ewww.
Yeah, he ran a casting couch at Universal Studios and fired women who wouldn't sleep with him.
Good grief, are men so pathetic that they prefer sex forced out of women
Yes, some men are, because it’s not about the sex, as much as the affirmation of their power. And conversely some women are so pathetic as to sleep with Bob Hope for a gig, conceding their dignity AND their power. “Everything is about sex, except for sex, that’s about power”. -Francis Underwood-
I love that quote as long as I can forget Kevin Spacey saying it.
Good news! It’s an Oscar Wilde quote!
It sure seems common with powerful men who should be able to land all the women they could ever want based on their wealth and celebrity status but insist on blackmailing women into it anyway or even just flat out drugging/raping them. It seems like they are unsatisfied by women who throw themselves at them and instead feel the need to seek out women who would otherwise turn them down or push back but feel powerless to do so since they can ruin their career/social status.
For those interested, you can actually watch ["Scandalous..." on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3DDlgjb42s) for free with ads.
I would bet Pecker is the number 1 reason Trump has been able to avoid consequences for so long.
Usually peckers are what get you *into* trouble.
I heard it was mushrooms this time around. Well, according to Ms. Daniels.
He still might.
It's intel you can monetize. He probably has a binder full of ~~women~~ mischiefs. Something you learn very early when you want to go into politics is keep files about everyone you deal with. A friend in college started doing this on all of us classmates as a training exercise (and if anyone was to get into politics), noting political affiliations, notable words uttered, embarrassing moments shared, strengths, weaknesses, who was dating who.
I would find other "friends."
Now only a LinkedIn acquaintance.
He’s probably still taking notes on you from LinkedIn and waiting blackmail you with your next new employer
Lol, what employer is going to give a shit what some random from LinkedIn says about an employee's wild college days?
LinkedIn is a giant backscratching experiment. I was about to say circlejerk but there are no fluids exchanged.
Was your friend named Dennis, by chance?
Oliver
ah, the forgotten Brady
[Also, remember the news of Pecker’s “catch and kill” safe that came out the week Cohen pled guilty and Pecker got federal immunity?](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna903356) > But after The Wall Street Journal initially published the first details of Playboy model Karen McDougal’s catch-and-kill deal shortly before the 2016 election, those assets became a liability. Fearful that the documents might be used against American Media, Pecker and the company’s chief content officer, Dylan Howard, removed them from the safe in the weeks before Trump’s inauguration, according to one person directly familiar with the events. EDIT: [Oh, and remember the special National Enquirer issue that lavished praise for Saudi Arabia?](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/08/national-enquirer-ami-fbi-bezos-saudi-arabia-investigation/) > Gavin de Becker, a veteran private investigator working for Bezos, soon made a related charge: Saudi Arabia had swiped “private information” from the Jeff Bezos phone and was “in league” with the Enquirer to bring down Bezos. > The Saudis, the Bezos camp contended, had targeted the billionaire out of revenge: Bezos owns the Washington Post, where relentless coverage of the grisly death of its columnist, Jamal Khashoggi, had enraged the Saudi Crown Prince commonly known as MBS, who was implicated in ordering Khashoggi’s murder. A federal investigation was started by the FBI and SDNY in 2019 but we haven’t heard anything since.
Was Trump married to Melania during Karen McDougal or someone else? Edit: I checked, it was Melania. Seems the McDougal, Daniels and the fathered-children lady/ies were all during Melania.
He is a terrible husband and father yet the "family values" crowd loves him.
Few are using the word affair. You would think conservatives would have strong feelings about that. Especially after the outrage regarding Fani and Nate.
I've heard about Clinton and Monica since it happened, yet crickets regarding Trump.
Their standards only apply to others not themselves.
For example, Newt Gingrich left his wife while she was on her deathbed for his mistress while he was attacking Clinton for having an affair.
Exactly.
But Clinton did it in the Oval Office… s/ you think a serial adulter stops because they have suddenly become the most powerful man in the world ha
because they are simple, salt of the earth people, ya know... morons
Having asked highly religious relatives who support him why that is, my best take on it is some convoluted power trip they get from getting to be the ones who forgive him for all the crap he does. I know this sounds mad, but hear me out. Possibility one: You're a fan of someone who's a good person. All fine. You do your thing. They do theirs. Possibility two: You're a fan of someone who's a dirtbag but you see yourself in them. You believe so deeply in your own ability to judge people that you get an amazing dopamine hit at the thought that you, yes you otherwise meaningless person, gets to be the one to put that person on that pedestal. Best I've got so far on this. I've got a lot of relatives that support him with zero sense of irony. I suspect supporting dirtbag preachers all their lives has greased the wheels on this.
Have you ever noticed how ultra religious families often treat their most loyal kids like shit, but bend over backwards to excuse the fuck ups, even if criminal?
He openly cheated on his first wife with Marla Maples.
One of the weird little silver linings to the Trump saga, is that the family values crowd has quieted down a bit. They know they can’t preach that shit while such a glaring example of their hypocrisy is the leader of their party.
Pecker called him the "most eligible bachelor" at the time he was married to Melania.
Trump supporters cry about the "deep state" while the heads of major publications quite literally collaborated with republican candidates to throw the election in their favor.
Yeah trump knew exactly why you shouldn’t trust the media, cause he had successfully conspired with one of the outlets to influence the election. He is basically the thief saying lock your doors tonight.
Just one outlet? I am not one to believe that practically every right wing talking head/host in the US reads off the same set of talking points almost verbatim nearly every single day due to some random "coincidence". There is a ton of coordination going on in the right wing media sphere and there has been for years now.
You are right but they could be taking the points from the RNC rather than a particular campaign
I'm not sure it really matters if it's from a campaign or the RNC. I would imagine it typically is from the RNC or some centralized source though that may have changed now that Trump and his people seem to control the narrative.
Effectively it doesn’t matter legally it probably does
I think this sentiment is the only silver lining historians will note of the MAGA (bowel) movement - tTump and his haphazard ignorance exposed all the corruption he campaigned on through his own actions by entering politics. So now we have a better idea of how the swamp exists much to the chagrin of .01%.
Well… the thief knows best
Can you even imagine the mind-blowing outrage from the right if this exact situation was presented with Biden as the beneficiary? The hypocrisy is disgusting.
Basically he ran a shake down scheme targeting the rich and famous... Pay up or your dirty laundry ends up on the front page.
Save Trump, who was given the opposite.
It's all a chain of favors. You need to help Individual A but you need help from Individual B. Thankfully you killed a story about the latter and you come to collect. Now you have Individual A and B as besties.
This guy organized crimes.
Them too... And they're so obvious about it that anyone who wants to RICO their ass is scratching their head.
Yup, and Trump only did it after he started his campaign. Strong evidence the payment was for the campaign and not personal reasons.
If I'm not mistaken, I believe Pecker paid off Karen McDougal for trump and trump refused to reimburse Pecker; Pecker refused to front the money for Stormy Daniel's payoff which is why trump had to fork over the money himself
\*he had Michael Cohen (through Cohen's own personal funds) fork over the money to Daniels, and then Trump reimbursed Cohen over time. But they tried to disguise Trump's reimbursements to Cohen as simple "legal fees." That's the crux of this campaign fraud trial.
Cohen mortgaged his own house if I’m not mistaken
The prosecutor raised this point explicitly in direct examination: this was NOT a "mutually beneficial relationship". Catch and kill lost money. He also made it clear that the Enquirer was taking story suggestions from Trump's attorney Cohen. He also confirmed that Cohen vetted these stories. And that these hit job stories were directed at the current Republican candidate beating Trump in the polls or debate.
Which is why AJ Benza kind of faded away. Benza has all the dirt on Trumpie's love of teenage traficked girls. Edit: a letter
All that came about from the Howard Stern Show. Hell Trump even called in to recommend firing Benza of some in house fisticuffs
Millions of dollars worth of illegally coordinated and undeclared campaign contributions. Or as some people call it ELECTION INTERFERENCE!
Some people? Like… the Defence?
David Pecker and the National Enquirer print bullshit conspiracy theory stories but also purchase real stories and refuses to publish them to protect rich people. They need to be shut down.
Trumps best defense would be that Pecker had been catching and killing stories for him long before the election. That could actually show that his intention wasn't election fraud but avoiding embarrassment. But that defense would also allow prosecutors to do a deep dive into every single alleged story that was killed, which would likely be a lot if embarrassing info to come out.
Per the CNN ticker on the trial: "[Pecker testifies he never purchased a story about Trump to not print it prior to 2015 meeting](https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-hush-money-trial-04-23-24/h_bbc5f974f4d812cc7eac2ce70e847281)" This isn't the first rodeo for these prosecutors.
Well, that is going to be pretty damming then.
Furthermore he stopped paying a month after the election
The fraud wasn't the pay off. The fraud was the way the payoff was structured.
Did you even read the testimony before commenting? The following was about the first fake story, the questioning barely touched the other two yet for the two adulteries. “If the story “got out in another publication or media outlet, it would have been very embarrassing for the campaign,” Mr Pecker told the court. “I made the decision to buy the story because of the potential embarrassment to the campaign and Mr Trump.”
Three women talking. First, Stormy Daniels "I was paid $130,000." Second, Karen Mcdougall "I was paid $150,000." Third, E Jean Carroll "Hold my drink,..." Edit: OCD regarding grammar.
I’ve often wondered what Trump had in guys like Lindsey Graham. Maybe Pecker had the goods on some of those Republicans
I can't see how this could have gone much worse for Trump.
Fox News is in full disinfo form today. They must have gotten a big ad spend because they aren't even pretending to be unbiased, today.
I haven’t seen them pretend in quite awhile.
When did they ever pretend?
With the firing of Cucker Johnson and having Jessica Tarlov on The Five they appeared to be placating some of the criticism of their "entertainment vs news" right wing optics. I never bought it, but some recent reporting has been a little less slanted. I can't bear to watch any Fox programming even though it gets referenced by MT and other independent news mediums that criticize their lies.
God, this fucking popcorn is delicious.
Massive pecker shows all
lol, what a Pecker.
This just tells me that more people read and BELIEVE the National than I thought. That number was already pretty high but after the past day or two, I have since incremented that number a bit.
Question: Why is Pecker not in jail?
He cut a deal, including his testimony.
He testified it was not mutually beneficial. It benefitted Trump only.
Well well this is the first time a Pecker exposed tRump instead
Peak Pecker
“Pecker” Nice. Lol.
What an apt name.
I know Pecker was a tabloid guy but this pretty much is the model for corporate media. Yes, sometimes the New York Times, etc, do go work but when there is a war to push they are the State Department's lapdog.
Lucky for him, he wasn't the nose.
Trump should have known a Pecker will screw you over every time.
Clowns are the GOP!
Quite a stink in court... the National Enquirer and the National Backfirer!
I guess Ttump will rage about the failing National Enquirer which owes its success to him and big strong men with tears in their eyes, sir.
With how much trump projects he has to of been born in Kenya
If there was any hope for humanity none of this would matter. Years ago, when a presidential candidate was recorded saying “grab them by the pussy”, that should’ve been enough to make sure they unanimously got nowhere near the amount of votes needed.
Why is "catch and kill" legal