The Supreme Court blocks states from taking Trump off the ballot and considers his immunity arguments; Trump awaits a SPAC windfall that could satisfy his judgments; Hunter Biden speaks
Speaking of Weisselberg going to jail (again!) for Trump, I’ve long wanted some enterprising journalist to compile the total number of months of incarceration Trump’s supporters have been sentenced to. How many lifetimes of freedom have been thrown away in service to one man’s bullshit?
If you know of anyone who’s attempted such a tally, let me know.
Hi Josh & Ken! If a merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp does make Trump Media public, is there any reason a wealthy donor or foreign government couldn’t purchase shares as a backdoor contribution to Trump? I’m thinking of folks like those who gave Jared Kushner a couple billion in backing for his first foray into private equity. It seems both ethically dubious and entirely possible but I might be missing something.
I couldn’t sleep after reading that crime of an “opinion” — after reading it, I spent hours tossing and turning in despair trying to get to real sleep, and I got this image of a roaring sound of the bellows powering the furnaces of hell and finding out that it was actually the sound coming from millions of little server fans in troll farms in Russia feeing a precisely calibrated dose of microtargeted propaganda to millions of upon millions of Americans, each message — thousands and thousands of them per troll, per day — designed to support Trump and make Biden appear to be a drooling and addled shell. Care about Palestinians? Ok, here’s a year of constant messaging about what a murderous monster Biden is, and no mention of how Netanyahu is just another criminal like Trump, laughing at slaughtering Gazans because for him it’s a twofer, helping ethnically cleanse Gaza while helping get Trump reelected. Etc. Etc. Each segment of American society tethered to their drip feeds of social media like Big Brother’s dream technology . . . I not only get to totally give you a distorted reality, I can do it in such secrecy that only I know what you’re being fed.
I kept thinking about Neil Postman’s book “Amusing Ourselves to Death” and realizing again what a prophet he was.
And I kept thinking about the phrase “Everything Trump Touches Dies” and realized that, uh, hello, that includes not just Ukraine but America too. If the Rs take either the Senate or the White House in 2024, Ukraine is finished and gets to have another round of mass murder directed from Moscow, and America is finished as well.
If the Rs take both, they’re going to take all that left advocacy for expanding the Supreme Court and ram through four new appointments for themselves and appoint four 30 year olds from the Federalist Society to go along with the replacement for Clarence who will go off to his rich reward — the descendant of slaves happy to be bought by rich white men again.
This whole Trump experience has made me see what a romantic idiot I have been. My whole life people have said I’m way too cynical but since 2016 I’ve been forced to face that I actually had this deep seated belief that America *was* different and that we would never have a Pol Pot time — what a sap I am.
Not talking about your crimes in public is such an obvious piece of advice you guys have an ongoing joke about all the places not to do it... but does it ever actually matter? Trump has publicly admitted to more crimes than I can count. Rudy in press conferences, Alex Jones live on his show during his trial, Chesebro on Twitter, Gaetz on Venmo and a host of others seem to constantly be saying stuff that could be used against them in court, and yet even when they lose cases their own admissions seem barely relevant to the outcome.
Seems like Hunter is winning the PR battle and only risking the most minimal additional consequences.
So if we are in the worst possible timeline and the orange imbecile dies get reelected, why wouldn't President Biden just pardon Hunter on his way out? It's the only way to fully protect him from tangerine tantrums. He probably should pardon Jill and Major, just to be on the safe side. Otherwise Hunter will spend the rest of his life fending off ridiculous prosecutions from a lobotomized DoJ.
The "self-pardon" trope appears again in this episode. What's the current state of debate among informed constitutional lawyers on that topic, both in terms of whether it's *actually* constitutional, and whether the current court would allow it?
The way that big stockholders finance big projects is not to sell their stock, it's to take loans secured by the value of the stock. So Trump would not have to sell Truth Social stock, he'd just have to get a loan backed by the stock.
On the discussion of selling shares in Trump Media, would he have to actually sell them? Isn't it theoretically possible that he could simply pledge them as collateral for a bank issuing the required bond(s)?
I read recently that Hunter Biden wanted to completely separate himself from his dad, making clear President Biden had nothing to do HB's machinations. That would give Hunter another reason to talk when silence would help him more, perhaps?
The federal insurrection statute 18 USC 2383 seems to echo a lot of the 14.3 language, including disqualification from office. If Jack Smith adds this charge to the Jan 6 prosecution and wins a conviction, would it be sufficient to disqualify (or, gulp, remove) Trump from office?
Ken, you said they might "come up with some sort of rule that only applies to core presidential functions". Would that not be a huge grant of presidential power? Is there some constitutional or statutory basis for presidential immunity? If they did that, could Biden for example come up with some way to frame assassinating Trump as a core presidential function, defending the union from an insurrectionist? It just seems like a lot of things could be potentially framed as presidential functions.
Josh seemed very determined to discuss how potentially valuable Trump's shares in Truth Social could be if the merger with Digital World Acquisitions is completed and Trump could sell part or all of his shares sooner than the minimum after the merged entity goes public.
It seemed like Ken did not share Josh's fervor for this topic.
This just seems like Josh is investing a lot of unwarranted speculation about a possible pot of money that 1) may not be enough to cover the amount needed to appeal the NY state judgement, 2) under normal circumstances will not be available until after that amount must be deposited for the appeal, and 3) may be tied up for some time beyond normal circumstances because of the multiple lawsuits between shareholders.
Bringing it up is one thing, but the Truth Social/Digital World SPAC merger discussion went on way longer than it needed to.
Speaking of Weisselberg going to jail (again!) for Trump, I’ve long wanted some enterprising journalist to compile the total number of months of incarceration Trump’s supporters have been sentenced to. How many lifetimes of freedom have been thrown away in service to one man’s bullshit?
If you know of anyone who’s attempted such a tally, let me know.
Hi Josh & Ken! If a merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp does make Trump Media public, is there any reason a wealthy donor or foreign government couldn’t purchase shares as a backdoor contribution to Trump? I’m thinking of folks like those who gave Jared Kushner a couple billion in backing for his first foray into private equity. It seems both ethically dubious and entirely possible but I might be missing something.
Props, Ken, for having Admiral Ozzel's name off the top of your head.
I couldn’t sleep after reading that crime of an “opinion” — after reading it, I spent hours tossing and turning in despair trying to get to real sleep, and I got this image of a roaring sound of the bellows powering the furnaces of hell and finding out that it was actually the sound coming from millions of little server fans in troll farms in Russia feeing a precisely calibrated dose of microtargeted propaganda to millions of upon millions of Americans, each message — thousands and thousands of them per troll, per day — designed to support Trump and make Biden appear to be a drooling and addled shell. Care about Palestinians? Ok, here’s a year of constant messaging about what a murderous monster Biden is, and no mention of how Netanyahu is just another criminal like Trump, laughing at slaughtering Gazans because for him it’s a twofer, helping ethnically cleanse Gaza while helping get Trump reelected. Etc. Etc. Each segment of American society tethered to their drip feeds of social media like Big Brother’s dream technology . . . I not only get to totally give you a distorted reality, I can do it in such secrecy that only I know what you’re being fed.
I kept thinking about Neil Postman’s book “Amusing Ourselves to Death” and realizing again what a prophet he was.
And I kept thinking about the phrase “Everything Trump Touches Dies” and realized that, uh, hello, that includes not just Ukraine but America too. If the Rs take either the Senate or the White House in 2024, Ukraine is finished and gets to have another round of mass murder directed from Moscow, and America is finished as well.
If the Rs take both, they’re going to take all that left advocacy for expanding the Supreme Court and ram through four new appointments for themselves and appoint four 30 year olds from the Federalist Society to go along with the replacement for Clarence who will go off to his rich reward — the descendant of slaves happy to be bought by rich white men again.
This whole Trump experience has made me see what a romantic idiot I have been. My whole life people have said I’m way too cynical but since 2016 I’ve been forced to face that I actually had this deep seated belief that America *was* different and that we would never have a Pol Pot time — what a sap I am.
Not talking about your crimes in public is such an obvious piece of advice you guys have an ongoing joke about all the places not to do it... but does it ever actually matter? Trump has publicly admitted to more crimes than I can count. Rudy in press conferences, Alex Jones live on his show during his trial, Chesebro on Twitter, Gaetz on Venmo and a host of others seem to constantly be saying stuff that could be used against them in court, and yet even when they lose cases their own admissions seem barely relevant to the outcome.
Seems like Hunter is winning the PR battle and only risking the most minimal additional consequences.
Is it now: (1) Impeachment--> simple majority both houses; and (2) Disqualification from serving -->2/3 majority both houses?
I found the suggestion that ACB was actually responding to an earlier version of the liberal's writing pretty convincing.
Hi! What would stop the Saudis or Putin from "buying" something from Trump as a way to pay off his debts and help his campaign?
So if we are in the worst possible timeline and the orange imbecile dies get reelected, why wouldn't President Biden just pardon Hunter on his way out? It's the only way to fully protect him from tangerine tantrums. He probably should pardon Jill and Major, just to be on the safe side. Otherwise Hunter will spend the rest of his life fending off ridiculous prosecutions from a lobotomized DoJ.
The "self-pardon" trope appears again in this episode. What's the current state of debate among informed constitutional lawyers on that topic, both in terms of whether it's *actually* constitutional, and whether the current court would allow it?
The way that big stockholders finance big projects is not to sell their stock, it's to take loans secured by the value of the stock. So Trump would not have to sell Truth Social stock, he'd just have to get a loan backed by the stock.
On the discussion of selling shares in Trump Media, would he have to actually sell them? Isn't it theoretically possible that he could simply pledge them as collateral for a bank issuing the required bond(s)?
I read recently that Hunter Biden wanted to completely separate himself from his dad, making clear President Biden had nothing to do HB's machinations. That would give Hunter another reason to talk when silence would help him more, perhaps?
The federal insurrection statute 18 USC 2383 seems to echo a lot of the 14.3 language, including disqualification from office. If Jack Smith adds this charge to the Jan 6 prosecution and wins a conviction, would it be sufficient to disqualify (or, gulp, remove) Trump from office?
Ken, you said they might "come up with some sort of rule that only applies to core presidential functions". Would that not be a huge grant of presidential power? Is there some constitutional or statutory basis for presidential immunity? If they did that, could Biden for example come up with some way to frame assassinating Trump as a core presidential function, defending the union from an insurrectionist? It just seems like a lot of things could be potentially framed as presidential functions.
Josh seemed very determined to discuss how potentially valuable Trump's shares in Truth Social could be if the merger with Digital World Acquisitions is completed and Trump could sell part or all of his shares sooner than the minimum after the merged entity goes public.
It seemed like Ken did not share Josh's fervor for this topic.
This just seems like Josh is investing a lot of unwarranted speculation about a possible pot of money that 1) may not be enough to cover the amount needed to appeal the NY state judgement, 2) under normal circumstances will not be available until after that amount must be deposited for the appeal, and 3) may be tied up for some time beyond normal circumstances because of the multiple lawsuits between shareholders.
Bringing it up is one thing, but the Truth Social/Digital World SPAC merger discussion went on way longer than it needed to.