All Things Trump: Is it over yet?

[Animavore]

#JusticeForCarolyn trends on Twitter as pressure mounts on Jack Dorsey to rein in Trump.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has been under public pressure to rein in President Donald Trump on the social networking platform.

Trump, who routinely violates the company’s terms of service, has not had his account shut down like the company routinely does when others violate the company’s rules.

Trump accusing MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough of murder has highlighted the issue.

On Tuesday, the popular “unverified” account @TheTweetOfGod tweeted out a tale of Trump murdering a woman to draw attention to the situation. The story appears to be invented, but spread quickly by fans of the account, which has over six million followers.

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/05/justic ... ds.twitter

[Cunt]

Lots of orange idiots get away with breaking twitters 'term of service'.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/kat ... ri18n=true

[L'Emmerdeur]

Oh yeah!

'Jack Dorsey Assures Twitter Users That Company Having Most Idiotic Possible Internal Conversations About Trump’s Account'

Responding to continued outcry over their handling of the president’s often false and aggressive tweets, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey reportedly assured users Wednesday that the company was having the most idiotic possible internal conversations about Donald Trump’s account. “I understand many of our users are concerned, and I want to be transparent that at Twitter HQ, we’re working around the clock to address this in the least helpful, most inept way possible,” said Dorsey, adding that in cases involving Trump’s Twitter account, questions of free speech, and the spread of misinformation on the platform, the company’s chief concerns all centered around unimaginably puerile bullshit that ignored any real retrospection on any of the platform’s actual issues. “Believe me when I say that our top dimwits are engaged in absolutely fucking moronic discussions about what Trump tweets. Our emails and Slack channels are full of cringingly short-sighted and searingly stupid ideas, because at Twitter we address concerns as thoughtlessly and with as little intelligence as we can. We want our users to understand that no matter what side of this or any issue you fall on, we promise to find a resolution that doesn’t solve anything, exacerbates the problem, and makes everyone mad.” At press time, Dorsey responded to outcry by assuring Twitter users that all of their most idiotic and bafflingly uninformed suggestions were being heard.

[Tero]

It's really bad!
.... reflecting sadly that even one death that makes him look bad is a tragedy. “Every single loss of human life that can be directly attributed to my actions is one too many,” said Trump, telling reporters that each case of a citizen succumbing to Covid-19 was a singularly devastating event with untold impact on his likeability numbers. “There are simply no words to express how truly horrible it is that I could be blamed for these casualties.

https://www.theonion.com/trump-even-one ... 1843679603

[JimC]

Even some conservatives are disgusted by this latest Trump arseholery:

https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-a ... 54x4j.html

In July 2001 Lori Klausutis was working as a constituent services officer for then Republican congressman Joe Scarborough in his office in Fort Walton, Florida. One morning she was found dead at her desk.

The local medical examiner concluded that the 28-year old lost consciousness because of an abnormal heart rhythm and fell, hitting her head.

Despite the medical examiner ruling out foul play, conspiracy theories instantly began circulating about Klausutis's death - specifically whether Scarborough had played a role it.

Left-wing film-maker Michael Moore even registered the domain name JoeScarboroughKilledHisIntern.com. But no evidence ever emerged connecting Scarborough, who was in Washington at the time, to the incident.

By 2016 Scarbrorough had reinvented himself as a morning television show host on MSNBC, the left-leaning cable network. During the Republican primaries Scarbrorough and his co-host Mika Brzezinski were friendly with Trump, who regularly called in for interviews on their Morning Joe program.

But the relationship soon soured.

Scarbrorough and Brzezinski (who are now married) have since become some of Trump's most vociferous critics. Trump, in turn has called Brzezinski "low IQ" and claimed he has seen her "bleeding badly from a face-lift".

In 2017 Trump resurfaced the Klausutis conspiracy theory, asking on Twitter when MSNBC executives would "terminate low ratings Joe Scarborough based on the 'unsolved mystery' that took place in Florida years ago? Investigate!"

In recent weeks, as the Morning Joe hosts have hammered his coronavirus response, Trump has repeatedly floated the baseless theory. "Did he get away with murder?" Trump asked on May 12. "Some people think so."

The latest stream of tweets prompted Klausutis's widower, Timothy Klausutis, to write to Twitter's chief executive Jack Dorsey and ask him to remove the tweets.

"I’m asking you to intervene in this instance because the President of the United States has taken something that does not belong to him - the memory of my dead wife - and perverted it for perceived political gain," he wrote.

"My wife deserves better."

Twitter responded that it did not believe Trump's tweets breached its terms of service, and would not be removing them.

Even following the release of Timothy Klausutis's letter, Trump has continued to promote the conspiracy theory, falsely describing Lori Klausutis's death on Twitter as a "cold case" on Wednesday (Thursday AEST).

Trump's behaviour has been criticised by prominent Republicans and usually supportive media outlets who say that, even for someone who revels in provocation, he had crossed the line.

"I do think the president should stop tweeting about Joe Scarborough," Liz Cheney, one of the most senior Republicans in the House of Representatives.

"We’re in the middle of a pandemic. He’s the commander in chief of this nation. And it’s causing great pain to the family of the young woman who died."

Republican Senator Mitt Romney tweeted: "I know Joe Scarborough. Joe is a friend of mine. I don't know TJ Klausutis. Joe can weather vile, baseless accusations but TJ? His heart is breaking. Enough already."

The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board, while noting that Trump regularly traffics in conspiracy theories, said the smear was "ugly even for him".

"Mr Trump is debasing his office, and he’s hurting the country in doing so," The Journal said.

The right-leading Washington Examiner said Trump had promoted a "vile slander", and that this may be looked back upon as the moment his presidency began to unravel.

Addressing the issue for the first time at length on Wednesday (Thursday AEST), Scarborough said: "It is heartbreaking, the cruelty is unspeakable...Enough. Just enough. Let this poor woman rest in peace and let her family finally be able to move on with their lives 19 years later."

[Tero]

Trump not bothering to threaten veto, just sick lapdog Barr on congress. For FISA.
https://www.npr.org/2020/05/27/86311231 ... ce-departm

[Cunt]

Executive order coming in the morning, for social media companies.

So nope...not quite over yet.

[JimC]

Executive order coming in the morning, for social media companies.

So nope...not quite over yet.

It will be declared unconstitutional, and widely regarded as the actions of a petulant child.

[Cunt]

Executive order coming in the morning, for social media companies.

So nope...not quite over yet.

It will be declared unconstitutional, and widely regarded as the actions of a petulant child.

Do you know what it is going to say?

I think the only way they could support their 1a would be to do it themselves, but it's HARD.

Maybe anti-trust-type stuff?

Remove their 'Section 230' legal immunity if they 'fact-check'?

I really don't know yet, so don't know if it could be unconstitutional.

[JimC]

Anyway, it will be delicious irony if Trump acts to shut down Twitter, then suddenly realises that he can't tweet anymore...

[Cunt]

It's like when people call for censorship, then get censored lol

[Animavore]

May 27, 2020 (Wednesday)

Today Trump’s reaction to Twitter fact-checking him was so extreme that #TrumpMeltdown trended on Twitter. This morning, to his audience of more than 80 million, he tweeted: “Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices [sic]. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen….” Then he went on to reiterate that mail-in ballots would “be a free for all on cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots.”

This evening, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump would be signing an executive order pertaining to social media companies, although just what that might look like is unclear. Brian Fung, CNN’s technology reporter, says that the White House did not consult the Federal Communications Commission about the forthcoming executive order, suggesting that the order has not gone through the normal review process.

This means that any executive order he issues—if he issues one—is unlikely to withstand legal scrutiny. Rather than actually affecting the law, he is likely simply trying to pressure Twitter into leaving his own disinformation unchallenged. It is also likely he is eager to change the subject to anything other than our growing numbers of Americans dead of Covid-19. (None of his tweets today acknowledged our dead.)

Finally, he is seeing what can he get away with. Will he be able to bully Twitter’s moderators into leaving his own disinformation unchecked?

The question of what Trump can get away with, how far he can move the goalposts for his own campaign, was in the news tonight over another issue, as well. In the past two months, Trump has cleaned house of five inspectors general. By law, though, he cannot fire them cleanly; he has to give Congress thirty days notice so it can prevent the president from firing an inspector general because of an investigation.

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who has a reputation as a protector of inspectors general, led a number of other senators to question Trump’s removal of Intelligence Community IG Michael Atkinson. Atkinson was the one who alerted Congress when the acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire withheld from it the whistleblower’s complaint about Trump’s call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, asking Zelensky to announce an investigation into Joe Biden’s son Hunter. The senators demanded that Trump provide evidence of “clear, substantial reasons for removal.” When Trump then axed State Department IG Steve Linick, who was investigating Secretary of State Pompeo, Grassley followed up with another letter, again demanding an explanation, and noting that the president’s replacements for the fired men must not be partisan hacks.

Yesterday, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone responded with a letter that simply said Trump had the right to fire IGs. It noted other instances when presidents had done so: Reagan when he fired thirteen IGs and President Obama when he fired one. But the comparisons are false. Reagan’s action came before the 2008 law that made IGs nonpolitical, and Obama did, indeed, provide to Congress a convincing justification for why the Americorps IG could no longer do his job.

Trump is, once again, solidifying his power in the Executive Branch, refusing to acknowledge that Congress has any role in his oversight, despite the fact that congressional has been an accepted part of our constitutional system since America’s first president, George Washington, agreed to hand over executive documents to Congress in his first term.

But, so far, Republicans in the Senate have refused to check Trump in any way. Grassley has said the White House’s answer is “insufficient,” and that it had failed to meet the legal requirement for telling Congress why it was dismissing an inspector general. But while Grassley opened a full investigation into President Obama’s dismissal of acting Americorps inspector general Gerald Walpin in 2009, in this case, Grassley appears to be backing off. Rather than launching an investigation, or blocking Trump’s nominees until Trump actually responds to his letters, the 86-year-old senator so far is simply saying he is developing new legislation that will prevent political appointees from serving as inspectors general. Pretty weak sauce.

But there has been one surprise in Congress lately. New Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Marco Rubio (R-FL) appears to be following the lead of former chair Richard Burr (R-NC), trying to retain the committee’s independence from Trump.

The president wants Republicans to bolster his reelection campaign by investigating Hunter Biden and attacking those who revealed Russia’s intervention in the 2016 election, and most of the Senate Republicans have gone along. The head of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Ron Johnson (R-WI), is conducting an investigation into Hunter Biden’s role on the board of the Ukraine energy company, Burisma, providing the investigation Trump tried to pressure Zelensky into announcing. And at Trump’s urging, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Lindsay Graham (R-SC) has announced an investigation into the origins of the Russia probe, an investigation that will likely lead to subpoenas for former Obama officials to testify over the summer.

But Rubio is not on board with Trump’s vague “Obamagate” claims, and has warned his colleagues not to amplify current Russian disinformation. “I’m not going to accuse any member who believes that they are exercising oversight to be colluding with a foreign power,” Rubio said. “I will say to you that I think it’s pretty clear that the Russians are constantly pursuing narratives that they believe will drive conflict in our politics and divide us against each other.”

This is of interest because Rubio is young, just 49, and clearly interested in a presidential run after Trump. He is making a gamble that defying the president, rather than bowing to him, will give him a brighter political future.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_ ... 6929332714

[pErvinalia]

Executive order coming in the morning, for social media companies.

So nope...not quite over yet.

It will be declared unconstitutional, and widely regarded as the actions of a petulant child.

The President is the ultimate authority. The constitution is below him.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Retweeting 'The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.'

[L'Emmerdeur]

Bleating about 'WARRANTLESS SURVEILLANCE' after signing the law that provides for exactly that. Priceless.

'Trump signs surveillance extension into law'