BorderCount wrote:

BorderCount wrote:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/28/politics/trump-supreme-court-immunity/index.html

I am legitimately worried that the conservatives on the Supreme Court are going to fuck this country's future in order to save one man today.

Oh, look, I was right. They effectively invented a rule that it takes an act of Congress to disqualify someone for federal office under the 14th Amendment. I know that link was about immunity, but the comment holds.

Watch the gas prices. A good index for who the owners want in charge.

I don't take issue with the Supremes' ruling that states cannot decide on their own who appears on the presidential ballot.  What bothers me is that they went beyond that and ruled on a case that was not before them.  They ruled that even federal courts cannot act on the 14th Amendment.  The case before the Court did not present that issue.  In essence, they decided to legislate.

BorderCount wrote:

I also find it notable that they didn't even attempt to address the insurrection issue.

The 64,000.00 question.

He gave himself the nickname "Honest Don."

You can't make this shit up.

Johnny_Rotten wrote:

BorderCount wrote:

He gave himself the nickname "Honest Don."

You can't make this shit up.

Would you buy a used casino from a man named "Honest Don"?

He is constantly Self-Fellating himself.

Baywolfe wrote:

Trump’s lawyers have asked the appeals court to delay posting the bond until his appeal of the case is over, arguing that the value of Trump’s properties far exceed the judgment.

Isn't over-inflating the value of his properties what got him into this mess?

DmtDusty wrote:

This is my happy place today!

I'm just hoping the appeals courts all tell him to pound sand so that Letitia James can seize Mar-A-Lago next week. The apoplexy will be DELICIOUS!

Baywolfe wrote:

Or even better, Trump National Golf Club Bedminster.  That seems to be his new HQ, I read that he turned Mar-a-Lago over to Jr.

That's silly - it's worth more than a billion dollars!

But he said he had $500 million in cash on-hand that he wants to funnel to his campaign! [/sarcasm]

Baywolfe wrote:

A lot of House Representatives are going broke because of no money from the RNC.

Huh, so at least Trump is doing something good, then.

Trump’s media stock plunges after posting a big loss for 2023

By Matt Egan, CNN
Updated: 2:32 PM EDT, Mon April 1, 2024
Source: CNN

Shares of Truth Social owner Trump Media & Technology Group plunged Monday after the company disclosed that it lost more than $58 million and generated very little revenue in 2023. 

The figures underscore why some experts warn Trump Media’s multibillion-dollar valuation defies logic and is reminiscent of the meme stock craze.

In a regulatory filing on Monday, Trump Media said it lost $58.2 million in 2023, compared with a profit of $50.5 million in 2022.

The Truth Social owner generated just $4.1 million in revenue, although that was up from $1.5 million in 2022.

Not only that, but revenue tumbled 39% year-over-year in the fourth quarter to just $751,500. That’s not what investors want to see from any start-up, especially one valued at these levels.

Shares of Trump Media tumbled 24% Monday afternoon following the new filings, though they are still up nearly 200% so far this year.

The losses are so severe that Trump Media’s accountants warned they “raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern,” which is Wall Street for: We may not be able to stay in business. That warning echoes one made in November when accountants said Trump Media might not survive unless it soon completes its merger to go public.

That long-delayed deal was completed last week, paving the way for Trump Media to receive an influx of approximately $300 million in cash. The company can now use those funds to pay down debt and, importantly, build out its infrastructure.

“I believe the $300 million of cash should remove this ‘going concern’ risk,” said Matthew Kennedy, senior IPO strategist at Renaissance Capital.

Even though Trump Media is losing money and generating scant revenue, Wall Street has valued the company by as much as $11 billion based on the stock’s closing price Friday, according to Renaissance Capital.

While Trump Media made just $4.1 million in revenue in 2023, rival X (formerly known as Twitter) raked in more than 100 times that much — $665 million — in 2013, ahead of its initial public offering in November 2013. Twitter also generated just over $5 billion in revenue in the final year before it was taken private by Elon Musk.

The problem for Trump Media is its main product — Truth Social — is shrinking.

Monthly active US users on iOS and Android plunged in February to 494,000, down 51% year-over-year, according to Similarweb. By comparison, X has 75 million monthly active US users. Even Threads has more than 10 times as many users as Truth Social, according to Similarweb.

“2024 is the make-or-break year for this company,” said Kennedy. “For TMTG the thing that matters now is getting in front of the cash cannon that is the 2024 presidential election. And the company does have one notable advantage. Trump-backed super PACs have raised millions. Where do you think they’ll spend their digital ad buckets?”

It was widely considered from the start as a way to do money laundering so they could funnel it back to Donnie.  Yeah, sorry TS, sorry DJT, sorry DWAC, they're gonna spend their money on Facebook, Instagram, and X.

Two investors in Trump Media insider trading case plead guilty

By Matt Egan, CNN
Updated: 12:39 PM EDT, Wed April 3, 2024
Source: CNN

Florida venture capitalist Michael Shvartsman and his brother Gerald Shvartsman pleaded guilty on Wednesday to participating in an insider trading scheme linked to the blockbuster deal that brought former President Donald Trump’s social media business public.

Each of the brothers pleaded guilty in New York to one count of securities fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, according to federal prosecutors.

The two brothers were arrested in June and charged with illegally trading on nonpublic knowledge of a shell company’s secret plan to buy Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of struggling social network Truth Social.

This is a developing story. It will be updated.

– CNN’s Kara Scannell contributed to this report

Trump says Jewish Americans who vote for Biden don’t love Israel and ‘should be spoken to’

By Kate Sullivan, CNN
Updated: 12:07 AM EDT, Tue April 9, 2024
Source: CNN

Former President Donald Trump on Monday again criticized Jewish Americans who don’t support him and said any Jewish person who votes for President Joe Biden doesn’t love Israel and “should be spoken to.”

It’s the latest example of the presumptive GOP nominee playing into an antisemitic trope that Jewish Americans have dual loyalties to the US and to Israel.

“Any Jewish person that votes for Biden does not love Israel and frankly, should be spoken to,” Trump said in an interview aired Monday night on Real America’s Voice.

Trump argued Biden was “totally on the side of the Palestinians” amid Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. Biden has largely remained steadfast in his support of Israel’s right to defend itself, only last week seriously threatening Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with consequences if Israel did not change the way it was waging its war. And Trump just last week said Israel needed to “finish what they started” and “get it over with fast,” as he said Israel was “losing the PR war” because of the visuals coming out of Gaza.

Trump also argued on Monday that Jewish and Black Americans vote for Democrats “by habit.”

“A lot of it’s habit. Jewish people by habit, they just, they vote for the Democrats and Black people, by habit, vote for the Democrats,” Trump said.

His latest comments echo remarks he made last month that earned swift condemnation from Biden’s administration and reelection campaign. Speaking on a podcast hosted by his former White House aide Sebastian Gorka, Trump said any Jewish person who votes for Democrats “hates their religion” and hates “everything about Israel.”

Trump has long played into antisemitic tropes, lashing out at Jewish Americans he says don’t support him enough. During his first campaign for president, he delivered a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition that was rife with antisemitic stereotypes, and shortly after he left office in 2021, he told reporters that Jewish Americans have turned their back on Israel.

A year later, he said American Jews weren’t praising his administration’s policies toward Israel enough: “Evangelicals are far more appreciative of this than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the U.S.” And last year, during celebrations of the Jewish New Year, Trump shared a social media post that said liberal Jews who did not support him “voted to destroy America & Israel.”

At least 63% of American Jews said their place in American society is less secure than a year ago, according to a report released last month by the American Jewish Committee. The Anti-Defamation League tracked a total of 3,283 antisemitic incidents in the three months following Hamas’ October 7 attacks on Israel, CNN previously reported, a 361% increase compared to the same period the prior year.

Jewish Americans have for decades been a largely Democratic and politically liberal constituency, identifying with Democrats over Republicans by a wide margin, according to the Pew Research Center’s 2020 survey. While Orthodox Jews lean heavily Republican, American Jews of other denominations, including the Reform and Conservative branches, have identified with or leaned toward the Democratic party.

Oh, our stock is falling like a lead balloon.  Let's

1. Secure some private investment
2. Buy back some of the surplus
3. Announce new features on the social media platform
4. Dump more stock on the market

Donald's financial guys may be worse than his lawyers

matty.the.damned wrote:

Baywolfe wrote:

Oh, our stock is falling like a lead balloon.  Let's

1. Secure some private investment
2. Buy back some of the surplus
3. Announce new features on the social media platform
4. Dump more stock on the market

Donald's financial guys may be worse than his lawyers

https://cruelery.com/uploads/157_2024-04-15_9-41-17.jpg

So that's what winning bigly looks like.

This is the last chapter.  Donald looks like shit, smells like shit, and is worth shit.

BorderCount wrote:

And he apparently fell asleep in court.

Well to be fair, who hasn't done that?

It's not that you can't make this shit up, it's that they do it before you can imagine it.

Trump’s stock tumbles again after Truth Social announces it’s getting into streaming

By David Goldman, CNN
Updated: 2:04 PM EDT, Tue April 16, 2024
Source: CNN

Investors in Trump Media & Technology Group’s stock are throwing in the towel.

Shares of TMTG (DJT) tumbled 14% Tuesday after closing 18% lower Monday. Driving the stock lower Tuesday: The company’s premier product, Truth Social, announced a major expansion into streaming, a notoriously cost-intensive business in which media behemoths like Disney have struggled to turn a profit.

TMTG’s stock, majority-owned by former President Donald Trump, is down more than 70% from the all-time high it set on March 26, the day after it merged with a blank-check acquisition company to go public. Although the company is still worth billions of dollars, it is struggling to make money and desperate for cash. Experts have warned investors to be careful if they choose to trade the stock, because the company doesn’t have the fundamentals to back up its sky-high valuation.

Trump Media lost $58 million in 2023 and made just $4.1 million in revenue. So, it announced Monday it would sell 21.5 million more shares to the public to raise cash — even though that would dilute the value for existing shareholders.

A home for ‘suppressed’ content
The streaming initiative didn’t give investors any reason to get enthused about the company. Truth Social said it spent the past six months testing its web, iPhone and iPad apps for live TV streaming, and it hopes to launch a content delivery network to stand up streaming apps for phones and tablets — and eventually smart TVs.

Truth Social suggested its streaming network could host live news, religious programing and family-friendly shows, movies and documentaries that “has been cancelled, is at risk of cancellation, or is being suppressed on other platforms and services.”

“With our streaming content, we aim to provide a permanent home for high-quality news and entertainment that face discrimination by other channels and content delivery services,” said TMTG CEO Devin Nunes, a former Republican congressman for California in a statement. “There is a lot of great content that simply can’t find an audience for unjust reasons, and we want to let these creators know they’ll soon have a guaranteed platform where they won’t be cancelled.”

Truth Social’s latest push sounds similar to Elon Musk’s X, which claims to be the streaming platform that best defends free speech. But X has hundreds of millions of active users — hundreds of times Truth Social’s audience — and has still struggled to attract advertisers after Musk reshaped the business, allowing hate speech and conspiracy theories to run rampant on the platform.

Trump’s association with the brand appears to be the primary reason for its sky-high valuation. That helped turn shares into a meme stock — that is, the company doesn’t trade on its fundamentals so much as it trades on emotional responses.

Trump added billions of dollars to his net worth after TMTG’s merger with the blank check company in late March. But his shares’ value has plunged from a peak of $5.2 billion to about $1.8 billion. Trump’s net worth fell roughly $300 million Tuesday from the stock’s plunge.

I have to imagine that even a half-way competent lawyer would at least be telling him to shut. The. Fuck. Up.

Not that he seems capable of doing so...

Donkey: You're supposed to tell me that I have the right to remain silent!
Shrek: Donkey... You HAVE the right to remain silent. What you lack is the ability.

Johnny_Rotten wrote:

Shoot, maybe I shouldn't be letting my faith slide. Makes me feel bad. Should I be buying some Trump stock?

The play was to short it again when it hit $60 and take your profit when it fell to $27.

"Illegal shorts"; why am I not surprised that Donald doesn't know anything about the market either.  I still wonder about the poor schmucks that bought it at $100.

Jeebus on a stick , I never thought about what it would be like to have your social media scoured and read out loud to the man who could be King. At least a king for well nigh a third of the country.

At one point, it apparently became too much and Trump couldn’t help himself, muttering something while one woman was being questioned about her posts—earning a swift scolding from Judge Juan Merchan.

“Your client was audibly uttering something,” Judge Merchan told Trump’s lawyers in a stern warning. “I won’t tolerate that. I will not have any jurors intimidated in this courtroom. I want to make that crystal clear.”

the former president was subjected to a different kind of punishment that seemed almost expressly designed to torment him: He had to sit silently as mean tweets about him were read aloud.

As prosecutors and defense lawyers sparred over the composition of the jury that will ultimately decide the hush money case, some of the prospective jurors’ past social media posts about the former president were debated for evidence of possible bias.

BorderCount wrote:

Kristi Noem said with a straight face that Donald Trump "didn't think he was better than anybody else in this country". That's some serious Kool-Aid.

Cultist and professional liar. 

Meanwhile, Bash continued to press the governor on the reimbursed checks, showing a picture of them from Trump, asking her if she's "comfortable with this."

Noem said that the checks are from Trump paying Cohen's "legal fees," adding that she will continue to support him in this year's presidential election.

"Michael Cohen worked for president Trump, President Trump paid his legal fees, Michael Cohen legal fees and bills and that's what this trial will bring forward, hopefully is the truth. What a ridiculous case this is and that it's coming from a man that is proven to be a liar...yes I will support Donald Trump and I have from the beginning," Noem said.

In response to Noem's comments, Cohen said in a statement to Newsweek via email on Sunday, "Kristi Noem, in a single breath, spewed nothing more than one Trumpian talking point followed by another and then another. The only accurate statement coming from her mouth is that the Judge and jury, not Donald, will make the ultimate decision of innocence or guilt."