Can Trump hold out much longer? Pro Publica with another scoop: Former President Donald Trump’s media company has forced out executives in recent days after internal allegations that its CEO, former Rep. Devin Nunes, is mismanaging the company, according to interviews and records of communications among former employees. Several people involved with Trump Media believe the ousters are retaliation following what they describe as an anonymous “whistleblower” complaint regarding Nunes that went to the company’s board of directors. The chief operating officer and chief product officer have left the company, along with at least two lower-level staffers, according to interviews, social media posts and communications between former staffers reviewed by ProPublica. The company, which runs the social media platform Truth Social, disclosed the departure of the chief operating officer in a securities filing Thursday afternoon. ProPublica has not seen the whistleblower complaint. But several people with knowledge of the company said the concerns revolve around alleged mismanagement by Nunes.
Uncategorized
Marjorie Taylor Greene made her MAGA bones as a conspiracy theorist on Facebook just six years ago so this isn’t surprising. Does it seem to you that these people are getting nuttier by the day? The question is if it’s because they think they’re losing — or winning? I fear it’s the latter.
It would have been terrible timing: The union representing the striking U.S. dockworkers, the International Longshoremen’s Association, reached a deal Thursday to suspend the strike until Jan. 15 to provide time to negotiate a new contract. Workers had begun walking picket lines early Tuesday near ports all along the East and Gulf coasts. A shutdown lasting more than a few weeks could have led to higher prices and shortages of goods throughout the country as the holiday shopping season — along with a tight presidential election — approaches. With the strike being suspended, consumers probably won’t notice any significant shortages or price hikes. Had the stoppage persisted for more than a month, it would have been a different story, depending on what you were shopping for. Most holiday retail goods have already arrived from overseas, so there is a buffer. Prices on everything from fruits and vegetables to cars could have headed higher, at least temporarily, if it had dragged on. I honestly thought that was the intention in doing this in October.
It’s not soothing but it is necessary: This shelter saved 100 animals: A race to evacuate over 100 animals from Asheville, North Carolina’s main animal shelter ahead of Hurricane Helene’s torrential rains and devastating flooding likely saved all of their lives. But now comes the struggle to find more permanent housing, as the shelter would later become destroyed in the historic flood. “It’s been a really, really hard week for everyone,” said Leah Craig Chumbley of Brother Wolf Animal Rescue. “We’re working around the clock.” The shelter cares for mostly dogs and cats, but also such pets as rabbits and guinea pigs. “We know that when the river rises, we get some water in our building. And we really thought worst-case scenario, 6 to 12 inches,” she said. But this storm was going way beyond those levels. “So we knew that we needed to get our animals out,” she said. “The day before this storm, we sent out a social plea and email to our supporters, our fosters, our volunteers and said, you know, can you help us?” And the community rallied to save the animals.
What did I miss? It’s been a week. Thursday was the first day since the morning Helene’s winds hit that I’ve been able to load web pages. (An email bleep from the phone at 5:30 a.m. announced the news.) I thought I’d be able to provide a more coherent update this morning but the signal that was strong here yesterday is weaker this morning. I’m just beginning to see images those of you outside have seen all week. Friends who live on ridgetops seem to have had better luck. I see now that they’ve been on FB for a few days. Asheville Watchdog has an explainer for why cell service went out across WNC. > So I’ve been in a news blackout since early last Friday morning except for local public radio. That’s filled with daily press conferences (and repeats) and updates from officials from ours and surrounding counties. The local volunteer effort has been massive. This is an effort led by my friend, our Register of Deeds. You know it’s a disaster zone when World Central Kitchen shows up. I’ve donated to them for years (hint, hint). Never expected to be eating their food.
At least someone is facing judgment Via Denver’s ABC affiliate: MESA COUNTY, Colo. – On Thursday, Judge Matthew Barrett sentenced a defiant Tina Peters to 9 years behind bars on multiple charges – including felonies – for a data-breach plot amid false claims of voting machine fraud during the 2020 presidential election. Peters, the former Mesa County Clerk was found guilty in August by a jury on seven of 10 counts including first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation along with other counts. She was acquitted of identity theft charges, criminal impersonation and one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation. “You are no hero. You abused your position – and you’re a charlatan who used, and is still using your prior position to peddle a snake oil that’s been proven to be junk time and time again,” said Judge Barrett. “Your lies are well-documented and these convictions are serious.
Like Cheney and Harris, I may not agree with Tim Miller on everything but I agree with this: As long as I live I will never fully comprehend it. There should have been a line of honest and wise men a mile long standing behind Cheney on Thursday. But their cowardice, their venality, their shameful abdication of responsibility only served to make this moment in Ripon more powerful. Because instead of that mile long line of men, there stood two women with vanishingly little in common. There they were, in the place where an honest, abolitionist Republican party formed, in political unity, bound by a mutual love of country and a commitment to its best ideals. Two women standing in the breach to protect the country from the men trying to tear it apart. Two women alone, standing together for all of us. I didn’t mention it in my Salon column about their campaign stop yesterday but I was impressed by something they did that I think is important. When Cheney introduced Harris she walked back and waited for her to come out and I expected them embrace there on the stage. But they didn’t.
I thought this was a BS way to frame the abortion issue last night and because of the rule that the moderators could not fact check Vance’s lies (or even their own questions!) Walz had to just repeat over and over again that it wasn’t true. As TNR reports: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was asked to respond to Donald Trump’s outlandish abortion talking point during the vice presidential debate Tuesday. “Former President Trump said in the last debate that you believe that abortion ‘in the ninth month is absolutely fine.’ Yes or no, is that what you support?” asked CBS moderator Norah O’Donnell. “That’s not what the bill says, but look, this issue is what’s on everyone’s mind,” Walz replied, explaining that Trump had made way to destroy national protections for abortion. During the presidential debate last month, Trump had claimed that Walz supported abortion in the ninth month—and after. Trump claimed that Walz “also says, ‘Execution after birth’—execution, no longer abortion because the baby is born—is OK.
Representative Mike Collins posted this “perfected” image of JD Vance on his Twitter feed yesterday: Uhm, no: Is this Collins’s fantasy? Vance isn’t hot enough for him as he is? What? And they wonder why people think they’re weird.
Rick Perlstein is out with another interesting piece in the American Prospect today, this time about “undecided voters.” He references the great Chris Hayes piece from 2004 that I’ve often discussed over the years. It had the same effect on me that it had on Perlstein who describes it as “the most important piece of political journalism I have ever encountered.” As he says: The future MSNBC host’s TNR piece was an account of the lessons he learned canvassing among undecided voters in Wisconsin for John Kerry. It incinerates a basic foundation of how political junkies think: “Perhaps the greatest myth about undecided voters is that they are undecided because of the ‘issues.’ That is, while they might favor Kerry on the economy, they favor Bush on terrorism; or while they are anti-gay marriage, they also support social welfare programs.” Chris noted that while there were a few people he talked to like that, “such cases were exceedingly rare.