All the more reason that he must be defeated in November. Once the gravy train dries up, these people will squeal like a stuck pig. Apologies for the barnyard simile.
I am also ever grateful to the independent journalists who are not as well protected as they should be in a democracy. I know that the Daily Koz got a slap suit. I know that Candidate Kennedy is also bringing suit against independent press. Now ProPublica is probably going to be harassed by every right-wing billionaire who wants to buy Trump the election by keeping his dirty laundry unaired. I am also frightened by how full this world is of bad guys who are trying. When Psychologists first started discussing Trump as sociopathic, they pointed out that a lot of people in business are like him. Many CEOs. It is frightful that so many crooks exist. All of the people who vote for Trump are either crooks, or crook wannabes.
For a good example of independent journalism being targeted, look up the case of Tim Burke who was the man responsible for bringing the Tucker Carlson Kanye west interview outtakes to light. He’s under federal investigation and indictment now for doing what most other journalists do. But he went after Fox and they have deep pockets
I know him personally (through his wife) and this is a SHOCKINGLY scary situation.
Linda Weide it is true that a disproportionate number of business leaders are indeed sociopathic in personality traits. Transactional, without guilt or sense of opprobrium, they climb the ladder through self-serving means, caring not whom they harm along the way. Sound familiar? Their goal is not to lose. When their actions are isolated and examined and criminally charged, they really can't believe it. They have skated the law in so many other ways. And then they fight back, in the most damaging ways. Because for them, everything is personal.
And, if or when trump does get convicted in all these cases, where are these corrupt employees going to go? Oh, never mind, their are plenty more just like him ready to reward them. It really turns my stomach…karma is waiting for them.
Right. Can you imagine...putting on your resume you worked for Trump. Whatta red flag. As an employer, I would seriously question their values and integrity.
But Vickie does have a point. A red flag questioning their values and integrity to your or I, but to CEO’s, right wing leaning financiers, bankers and Wall Street, conservative think tanks, business lobbyists, and certain foreign governments and corporations that resume line item is a sign of valor, dedication, loyalty and back door connections. There are plenty more like him and his family business organization.
Maybe people are in a state of just surviving day to day and not engaged in ritual anger by Trump’s actions because they recognize he is just one head on this hydra of American corruption with its armies of paladines, ninjas, beserkers called lawyers on this marshy field called justice with dim light because of the fog of SCOTUS and other courts.
The American way is to profit from the ordinary with daily bloodlettings and stuff your throat and nostrils with the papers of legal briefs threatening lawsuits should you object to giving up your blood.
Jeff Tiedrich did a Substack column the other day about how Samuel Alito's attitude and behavior are one big "eff you" to the entire country. I think that extends to the Dumpy campaign machine and his party. We desperately need to re-elect Pres Biden and then hold all these people's feet to the fire. We can't let them get away with this stuff.
We must March them all to the cliff overlooking their abyss of darkness and chaos, attach searing flares of goodness to their backs and push them screaming over to continually fall with their fellow disciples of division.
smdh. Do none of these people--NONE of them???--have a conscience? A spine? A loyalty to the country, to democracy, or to the world, even? Have they no honor? No character? No decency? All these people... and they're all ruled by GREED. Any one of them could save us from tRump and his plan for dictatorship... like dominoes, they'd fall. It would just take ONE to grow a spine.
Some grew spines! Michael Cohen, Cassidy Hutchinson, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Miles Taylor, to name a few. But those close to him still are in a word deplorable.
Jay! You're right! I forgot about them... but I guess one can't be blamed for forgetting about them since they're far from the forefront these days (save for Cohen) because, well, they're all in HIDING, fearing for their lives.
Yes. And her NDA had expired. Then an evening visit by two of Convicted Felon DJT’s thugs and the next day she falls down some stairs. Reminds me of Putin and windows.
I was unaware that Ivana's NDA had expired. Seems very Pootin-ish, does it not?? Well, at least she wasn't defenestrated. In NYC, that would've been messy and attracted too much attraction of people who would not just accept it and slink away in fear.
I'm sure some are banking on Trump winning in November and keeping themselves out of his crosshairs for retribution. If Trump loses, count on many of them to start cutting deals.
Some do have a conscience. But as Bob Dylan once said, "Monday doesn't talk, it swears." Getting paid is a big motivator. But I always wonder, "What's the price of a clear conscience?" Most of them are buried so deep in corruption, they will never live long enough to attain that goal. All they seem to have is the protest that they haven't done anything wrong.
I get a lot of "employment" emails from them. They very actively seek stringers (they actually still use that old word!) and are constantly on the lookout for local news shops to split the investigative work with.
I wrote an article about ProPublica for Medium about a year ago that digs into this a bit (you may want to skip toward the end because a lot of it deals with C Thomas badness).
Because they are too small to sell out? Once upon a time NYT was an ok news source. What the hell happened? WaPo still occasionally gets it right.... occasionally...
And this is a key point on ANY discussion of the current corporate media environment: it’s all about ad dollars, and to some extent, making sure they don’t “burn bridges” and continue to have access.
For decades, I sold high technology to the networks and large news & media conglomerates. There’s a phrase they use in the newsroom, have been using for decades, and it’s even more true now: “If it bleeds, it leads”. It’s all about clickbait and a “salacious” headline they can promote before every commercial break, to keep you watching or clicking through.
All this (former) talk about the supposed “liberal bias” of the media has always given me a chuckle: they’re not trying to support a “cause” (though I would say that the extremists of the right, ie Fox, Newsmax, OAN, etc, clearly ARE in support of a “cause”), they’re just trying to keep you watching and consuming ads. Ratings are EVERYTHING!
Plus I think there was a certain codependency between the bigger media outlets and the Trump administration. Trump lashed out at the liberal media but he still wanted them writing headlines about him. And all the constant scandals were good for ratings and clicks. But the Biden Whitehouse doesn't cultivate the press like Trump did because Biden prefers to just get on with the job. I think for some of the big media orgs that's frustrating because there is less scandal to write about.
Nepo baby publisher. The latest Sulzberger scion is afraid to antagonize the rabid right - gotta tell both sides, y'know. Which is utter BS - there is only one side to a fact, no matter what Kellyanne says.
How do any of us keep our faith in humanity, knowing what we know about the unbridled greed and the total absence of personal integrity and honor among such a large swathe of our population? If they don't have it, they worship those who do. Money truly is the root of all evil and public shame sadly holds little weight in our culture.
You know, right, that in the United States, in most jobs, when you sign the contract you are not supposed to engage in any public unrest? And that being fired from the job means no health insurance? And that no health insurance means you die if you have a chronic condition or several? And that some of us have families to support and ourselves to keep alive? The reason we see more protests in Europe, for example, is because they are not chained to their workplace by the shackles of health insurance and because they do have the notion of living minimum. We don't. It's easy to talk about protests when you have nothing but yourself to worry about. If you can do it - kudos. But it's not an option for a lot of us.
It’s like any law enforcement officer who sees things beyond the public’s imagination, they leave it all at the station and go home to concentrate on what is right in the world. It takes a toll though.
That I can actually relate to in a way. I work in healthcare - not on the medical side, but I fix broken medical records and charges, so I get to read a lot of patient records every day. Cancers, heart attacks, miscarriages, child abuse - the works. It's really hard to unplug after that.
Tampering with witnesses? Oh my! What lucky parking garage lawyer looking to destroy their career will jump on this one for TFFCFG, for notoriety and zero pay I wonder? The sickening thing is that there is so much more criminal acts we have yet to discover, and it will only get darker. The desperation of the maga cult is growing more each day. I mean, Dr. Fauci? Really? WTAF will be next…shudder.
A couple days ago the felonius president wannabe promised to release Dread Pirate Roberts if elected. That's the guy who developed and ran the Silkroad dark web site that was a marketplace for illegal drugs. The guy is serving a life sentence for putting out like 5 murder for hire solicitations. Yes, desperation is in the air!
I was awake last night when the ProPublica story broke, and I woke my husband to read the piece to him. I am so pleased, Jay, to see you flesh out the details here this morning. Funny, I don’t see major news alerts yet.
Roy Cohn taught him well. The tRump Organization is nothing but a criminal enterprise. Otherwise why all the shell corporations? Growing up in the 60s and 70s, I would never in my wildest dreams have imagined a mob boss attaining to the Oval Office. We cannot let him get back in there!
Vote Blue from school board up. It all begins with the education. There’s a reason the Republicans attack schools, ban books, etc. the uneducated are the easiest to manipulate. If you’re unhappy with today’s citizen awareness, wait till this elementary school cohort is old enough to vote.
I've been following this story all morning, and hands down this is the clearest and most illustrative summary I've seen. Jay, you are a phenom! And Holy Cow... Let's just call him "Mafia Don" The Convict from Hell.
"ProPublica has once again, and heroically, lifted the rock and revealed the worms wiggling beneath it." Very true, but worms are useful in the ecosystem. I prefer to think of the criminal Trump Organization and its wholly owned subsidiary, the RNC (when I have to) as termites, eating away at the foundation of American democracy.
Wow, all the people taking the bribes are thinking they have hit gold. Not realizing, that by accepting these bribes of sorts, can and most likely will be used to make them do other illegal things later in life. They will own the bribee.
Almost every day, I say to myself unbelievable! And then I have to say it to myself again the next day! Unfortunately, all the criminality is just too easy to believe☹️
Speaking of marriage and mobs, Rupert Murdoch got hitched to one with Russian mob ties and former doj water boy for tffg 💩 Bill Barr was an invited guest to the ceremony. I wonder which side of the aisle he sat on?
All the more reason that he must be defeated in November. Once the gravy train dries up, these people will squeal like a stuck pig. Apologies for the barnyard simile.
With apologies to the pigs.
Indeed, porcines are far more intelligent than your average MAGA.
No need to apologize from me. I hope you are right.
The illegality runs so deep...it's breathtaking. Frightening that there are people who STILL would condone a mob boss as a president.
I am also ever grateful to the independent journalists who are not as well protected as they should be in a democracy. I know that the Daily Koz got a slap suit. I know that Candidate Kennedy is also bringing suit against independent press. Now ProPublica is probably going to be harassed by every right-wing billionaire who wants to buy Trump the election by keeping his dirty laundry unaired. I am also frightened by how full this world is of bad guys who are trying. When Psychologists first started discussing Trump as sociopathic, they pointed out that a lot of people in business are like him. Many CEOs. It is frightful that so many crooks exist. All of the people who vote for Trump are either crooks, or crook wannabes.
For a good example of independent journalism being targeted, look up the case of Tim Burke who was the man responsible for bringing the Tucker Carlson Kanye west interview outtakes to light. He’s under federal investigation and indictment now for doing what most other journalists do. But he went after Fox and they have deep pockets
I know him personally (through his wife) and this is a SHOCKINGLY scary situation.
They justify their votes for him by saying they like his “policies,” whatever that means.
Linda Weide it is true that a disproportionate number of business leaders are indeed sociopathic in personality traits. Transactional, without guilt or sense of opprobrium, they climb the ladder through self-serving means, caring not whom they harm along the way. Sound familiar? Their goal is not to lose. When their actions are isolated and examined and criminally charged, they really can't believe it. They have skated the law in so many other ways. And then they fight back, in the most damaging ways. Because for them, everything is personal.
And, if or when trump does get convicted in all these cases, where are these corrupt employees going to go? Oh, never mind, their are plenty more just like him ready to reward them. It really turns my stomach…karma is waiting for them.
Right. Can you imagine...putting on your resume you worked for Trump. Whatta red flag. As an employer, I would seriously question their values and integrity.
Resume' stain indeed.
But Vickie does have a point. A red flag questioning their values and integrity to your or I, but to CEO’s, right wing leaning financiers, bankers and Wall Street, conservative think tanks, business lobbyists, and certain foreign governments and corporations that resume line item is a sign of valor, dedication, loyalty and back door connections. There are plenty more like him and his family business organization.
Sadly true. :(
Jail, one hopes.
Unless they flip and start singing pretty songs to the prosecutors, that is indeed where they will go.
Maybe people are in a state of just surviving day to day and not engaged in ritual anger by Trump’s actions because they recognize he is just one head on this hydra of American corruption with its armies of paladines, ninjas, beserkers called lawyers on this marshy field called justice with dim light because of the fog of SCOTUS and other courts.
The American way is to profit from the ordinary with daily bloodlettings and stuff your throat and nostrils with the papers of legal briefs threatening lawsuits should you object to giving up your blood.
Frightening? I’m not frightened—well, maybe a little—because I have witnessed this type of mentality my entire life.
Jeff Tiedrich did a Substack column the other day about how Samuel Alito's attitude and behavior are one big "eff you" to the entire country. I think that extends to the Dumpy campaign machine and his party. We desperately need to re-elect Pres Biden and then hold all these people's feet to the fire. We can't let them get away with this stuff.
We must March them all to the cliff overlooking their abyss of darkness and chaos, attach searing flares of goodness to their backs and push them screaming over to continually fall with their fellow disciples of division.
smdh. Do none of these people--NONE of them???--have a conscience? A spine? A loyalty to the country, to democracy, or to the world, even? Have they no honor? No character? No decency? All these people... and they're all ruled by GREED. Any one of them could save us from tRump and his plan for dictatorship... like dominoes, they'd fall. It would just take ONE to grow a spine.
Some grew spines! Michael Cohen, Cassidy Hutchinson, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Miles Taylor, to name a few. But those close to him still are in a word deplorable.
Jay! You're right! I forgot about them... but I guess one can't be blamed for forgetting about them since they're far from the forefront these days (save for Cohen) because, well, they're all in HIDING, fearing for their lives.
No, they have no consciences. None whatsoever.
I suspect more than one person in Tangerine Tojo's past has mysteriously died or disappeared.
That felon guy's (tfg) ex-wife perhaps.
Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
Yes. And her NDA had expired. Then an evening visit by two of Convicted Felon DJT’s thugs and the next day she falls down some stairs. Reminds me of Putin and windows.
To clarify, I’ve now found mixed answers if the NDA was in effect when she died. It’s buried (no pun intended) deep in the divorce agreement.
The coroner said the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head from falling down the stairs
Yet no investigation? Hmmmmm
I was unaware that Ivana's NDA had expired. Seems very Pootin-ish, does it not?? Well, at least she wasn't defenestrated. In NYC, that would've been messy and attracted too much attraction of people who would not just accept it and slink away in fear.
Exactly! I imagine him telling her he was gonna do it & bury her on the golf course, just to see her eyes widen in terror.
And those boxes of documents that were loaded into the plane right before she was buried on that golf course. Sure makes you wonder.
Nope. It's all about the money.
And power and vainglorious ego.
I'm sure some are banking on Trump winning in November and keeping themselves out of his crosshairs for retribution. If Trump loses, count on many of them to start cutting deals.
Some do have a conscience. But as Bob Dylan once said, "Monday doesn't talk, it swears." Getting paid is a big motivator. But I always wonder, "What's the price of a clear conscience?" Most of them are buried so deep in corruption, they will never live long enough to attain that goal. All they seem to have is the protest that they haven't done anything wrong.
"What? Everybody does it..."
How do those diligent people at ProPublica keep their faith in humanity, having dug through so much filth to get to the truth, is beyond me.
I would like to know why a much smaller outfit like ProPublica keeps breaking the stories that bigger papers like the NYT and WaPo should be all over.
I get a lot of "employment" emails from them. They very actively seek stringers (they actually still use that old word!) and are constantly on the lookout for local news shops to split the investigative work with.
I wrote an article about ProPublica for Medium about a year ago that digs into this a bit (you may want to skip toward the end because a lot of it deals with C Thomas badness).
Friend links (no paywall):
https://medium.com/ruminato/why-is-propublica-trying-to-cancel-clarence-thomass-vacations-1bf091e31b9d?sk=0fb44c5bb6f73bb722a10f24cdfe0b34
They are truly fantastic. Like you, a bastion for our community.
Because they are too small to sell out? Once upon a time NYT was an ok news source. What the hell happened? WaPo still occasionally gets it right.... occasionally...
Also, I should add, it was started by a very, very rich couple who had money to burn and used their excess money for good instead of evil.
What a concept.....
IKR?
No advertising is key, I think. Completely user/reader-funded.
And this is a key point on ANY discussion of the current corporate media environment: it’s all about ad dollars, and to some extent, making sure they don’t “burn bridges” and continue to have access.
For decades, I sold high technology to the networks and large news & media conglomerates. There’s a phrase they use in the newsroom, have been using for decades, and it’s even more true now: “If it bleeds, it leads”. It’s all about clickbait and a “salacious” headline they can promote before every commercial break, to keep you watching or clicking through.
All this (former) talk about the supposed “liberal bias” of the media has always given me a chuckle: they’re not trying to support a “cause” (though I would say that the extremists of the right, ie Fox, Newsmax, OAN, etc, clearly ARE in support of a “cause”), they’re just trying to keep you watching and consuming ads. Ratings are EVERYTHING!
Plus I think there was a certain codependency between the bigger media outlets and the Trump administration. Trump lashed out at the liberal media but he still wanted them writing headlines about him. And all the constant scandals were good for ratings and clicks. But the Biden Whitehouse doesn't cultivate the press like Trump did because Biden prefers to just get on with the job. I think for some of the big media orgs that's frustrating because there is less scandal to write about.
Nepo baby publisher. The latest Sulzberger scion is afraid to antagonize the rabid right - gotta tell both sides, y'know. Which is utter BS - there is only one side to a fact, no matter what Kellyanne says.
Prolly not anymore as it seems they are cleaning house! Busbee went first!
They’re not a huge corporation with shareholders,
Same.
How do any of us keep our faith in humanity, knowing what we know about the unbridled greed and the total absence of personal integrity and honor among such a large swathe of our population? If they don't have it, they worship those who do. Money truly is the root of all evil and public shame sadly holds little weight in our culture.
Agreed. Like why are we not protesting at dump tower or Mara Lago?
You know, right, that in the United States, in most jobs, when you sign the contract you are not supposed to engage in any public unrest? And that being fired from the job means no health insurance? And that no health insurance means you die if you have a chronic condition or several? And that some of us have families to support and ourselves to keep alive? The reason we see more protests in Europe, for example, is because they are not chained to their workplace by the shackles of health insurance and because they do have the notion of living minimum. We don't. It's easy to talk about protests when you have nothing but yourself to worry about. If you can do it - kudos. But it's not an option for a lot of us.
Yes, I agree. The capitalist are masters at controlling the herds of American workers.
Because we work for a living?
"The love of money" is the "root of all evil." It's not the money itself.
Mel, hope springs eternal, to coin a phrase.
What would we do without ProPublica? All user/reader supported, too. No advertising. So they aren't compromised in the usual ways.
Please donate to them if you can! I give annually.
Monthly for me
Every Christmas, my friend!!
I do - and I think I gotta go check and see if it's time again.
It’s like any law enforcement officer who sees things beyond the public’s imagination, they leave it all at the station and go home to concentrate on what is right in the world. It takes a toll though.
That I can actually relate to in a way. I work in healthcare - not on the medical side, but I fix broken medical records and charges, so I get to read a lot of patient records every day. Cancers, heart attacks, miscarriages, child abuse - the works. It's really hard to unplug after that.
🌷
Yes, it is.
Good analogy.
The powerful light of honest journalism
Tampering with witnesses? Oh my! What lucky parking garage lawyer looking to destroy their career will jump on this one for TFFCFG, for notoriety and zero pay I wonder? The sickening thing is that there is so much more criminal acts we have yet to discover, and it will only get darker. The desperation of the maga cult is growing more each day. I mean, Dr. Fauci? Really? WTAF will be next…shudder.
A couple days ago the felonius president wannabe promised to release Dread Pirate Roberts if elected. That's the guy who developed and ran the Silkroad dark web site that was a marketplace for illegal drugs. The guy is serving a life sentence for putting out like 5 murder for hire solicitations. Yes, desperation is in the air!
I was awake last night when the ProPublica story broke, and I woke my husband to read the piece to him. I am so pleased, Jay, to see you flesh out the details here this morning. Funny, I don’t see major news alerts yet.
Heather Cox Richardson reported on it last night, but she’s not the msm. Her writings do appear on facebook though.
Is msm afraid of a threat against a lawsuit by trump? I sure hope not.
She has a huge following, thank goodness.
Yes, I read HCR last night. And have posted it elsewhere. I’m doing a search on MSM — nothing yet.
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/june-3-2024?r=9u8mr&utm_medium=ios
🤷🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
But breaking news about Sean Combs. JFC.
Roy Cohn taught him well. The tRump Organization is nothing but a criminal enterprise. Otherwise why all the shell corporations? Growing up in the 60s and 70s, I would never in my wildest dreams have imagined a mob boss attaining to the Oval Office. We cannot let him get back in there!
This is just horrible. I hope they can be exposed and disgraced. Vote Blue in every election state and fed in Nov.
Vote Blue from school board up. It all begins with the education. There’s a reason the Republicans attack schools, ban books, etc. the uneducated are the easiest to manipulate. If you’re unhappy with today’s citizen awareness, wait till this elementary school cohort is old enough to vote.
I've been following this story all morning, and hands down this is the clearest and most illustrative summary I've seen. Jay, you are a phenom! And Holy Cow... Let's just call him "Mafia Don" The Convict from Hell.
"ProPublica has once again, and heroically, lifted the rock and revealed the worms wiggling beneath it." Very true, but worms are useful in the ecosystem. I prefer to think of the criminal Trump Organization and its wholly owned subsidiary, the RNC (when I have to) as termites, eating away at the foundation of American democracy.
Maggots
True, but those are the brain worms, already got to RJK Jr, now showing up in DJT.
Cheseboro was indicted in Wisconsin this morning.
Yep, Cheseboro and two others. Yay. Our very own false electors were indicted and are awaiting trial.
On Wisconsin! 🎶
Thankfully the states are doing what the federal DOJ only wishes they could do in a world without judges like the Florida Fan Girl.
Yes, I saw that. Good for Wisconsin!
Wow, all the people taking the bribes are thinking they have hit gold. Not realizing, that by accepting these bribes of sorts, can and most likely will be used to make them do other illegal things later in life. They will own the bribee.
Almost every day, I say to myself unbelievable! And then I have to say it to myself again the next day! Unfortunately, all the criminality is just too easy to believe☹️
Speaking of marriage and mobs, Rupert Murdoch got hitched to one with Russian mob ties and former doj water boy for tffg 💩 Bill Barr was an invited guest to the ceremony. I wonder which side of the aisle he sat on?
https://www.thecut.com/article/rupert-murdoch-elena-zhukova-engagement-wedding-everything-we-know.html
If you have any spare cash laying around, consider directing some of it to ProPublica! The heroic Unearthers and Rock-Turners!
Yes, ProPublica does the hard work that once gave all investigative journalism its Fourth Estate credentials.