Category Archives: 45

45, Current Affairs, Fire This Time, Journalism/Media, Sedition Watch, Signs of the Times, The Law — Inside & Outside it, To Save Democracy, Top-Secret

CNN’s Top Experts Unpack the Secrets in Trump Boxes: “Stunning,””Egregious” & “Flagrant”

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CNN Rush Transcript [text may not  be in its final corrected form] from August 12 on the content and the significance of the retrieved TOP SECRET documents (emphasis added):

Erin Burnett (CNN-OutFront): In all, 11 sets of classified documents, four of them, according to this receipt, marked top secret. Four of them marked top secret, and one with that special designation of the highest classification were taken from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago. All in, the FBI collected more than 20 boxes.

Evan Perez is OUTFRONT in Washington.

Burnett: Evan, it’s pretty incredible, right? It’s been a year and a half of negotiations. They sent back 15 boxes. Oh, you got everything. It turns out no. Oh, no, now you’ve got everything. And now another 15 boxes with all of this list.

What more are you learning about what the FBI took and why?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: No, Erin, the timeline that you just laid out is exactly the importance of why the FBI went to do this. They listed on this document their 33 entries. And, of course, the most important one is the set of documents that are labeled as TS/SCI. This is — this means top secret — I’m sorry. Top secret compartmented information. Continue reading CNN’s Top Experts Unpack the Secrets in Trump Boxes: “Stunning,””Egregious” & “Flagrant” →

45, Current Affairs, Election 2020, Journalism/Media, The Law — Inside & Outside it

The Long Read: Fox News and the Billion Dollar Lawsuit

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New York Times: Defamation Suit About Election Falsehoods Puts Fox on Its Heels

The suit, filed by Dominion Voting Systems, could be one of the most consequential First Amendment cases in a generation.

The Fox News studio in Manhattan on election night in 2020. A defamation suit by Dominion Voting Systems threatens a huge financial and reputational blow to Fox.

By Jeremy W. Peters

In the weeks after President Donald J. Trump lost the 2020 election, the Fox Business host Lou Dobbs claimed to have “tremendous evidence” that voter fraud was to blame. That evidence never emerged but a new culprit in a supposed scheme to rig the election did: Dominion Voting Systems, a maker of election technology whose algorithms, Mr. Dobbs said, “were designed to be inaccurate.”

Maria Bartiromo, another host on the network, falsely stated that “Nancy Pelosi has an interest in this company.” Jeanine Pirro, a Fox News personality, speculated that “technical glitches” in Dominion’s software “could have affected thousands of absentee mail-in ballots.”

Those unfounded accusations are now among the dozens cited in Dominion’s defamation lawsuit against the Fox Corporation, which alleges that Fox repeatedly aired false, far-fetched and exaggerated allegations about Dominion and its purported role in a plot to steal votes from Mr. Trump.

Those bogus assertions — made day after day, including allegations that Dominion was a front for the communist government in Venezuela and that its voting machines could switch votes from one candidate to another — are at the center of the libel suit, one of the most extraordinary brought against an American media company in more than a generation.

Continue reading The Long Read: Fox News and the Billion Dollar Lawsuit →

45, Sedition Watch, Signs of the Times, The Law — Inside & Outside it, To Save Democracy

Super-Secret Docs Found in Mar-a-Lago Stash: Reports

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Top-Level Classified Documents Found in FBI Seizure: CNN-WSJ-POLITICO

(CNN) – The FBI recovered 11 sets of classified documents from its search of Mar-a-Lago earlier this week, including some materials marked as “top secret/SCI,” The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The newspaper reported that FBI agents removed about 20 boxes from former President Donald Trump’s resort and residence in Palm Beach, Florida — including binders, sets of classified government materials, photographs and at least one handwritten note.

Federal agents reportedly seized one set of “top secret/SCI” documents, the highest level of classification. Agents took four sets of “top secret” documents, three sets of “secret” documents and three sets of “confidential” documents, the lowest level of classification, the Journal reported.

Continue reading Super-Secret Docs Found in Mar-a-Lago Stash: Reports →

45, Annals of Inequality, Et Cetera, Remarkable People, Signs of the Times, Sports, Torture & Human Rights

The Saudi Blood Money Golf Tour: No Tiger In Their Tank!

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Tiger Woods spurned offer in $800m range to join LIV Golf, Greg Norman says

  • Norman says Woods turned down massive offer from LIV Golf
  • Woods has been against Saudi-financed tour since last year
Associated Press — Tue 2 Aug 2022 

Tiger Woods turned down an offer that Greg Norman says was in the region of $700m to $800m to take part in the Saudi-funded LIV Golf series.

During an appearance on Fox News with Tucker Carlson that aired Monday night, Norman confirmed what he told the Washington Post in a story two months ago. Norman told the Post in June the offer was “mind-blowingly enormous; we’re talking about high nine digits.”

Woods has been opposed to LIV Golf since late last year, and he delivered his strongest comments at the British Open when he said players who took the money funded by the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund had “turned their back” on the PGA Tour that made them famous.

OMFG! Thank you, Tiger!

When an offer was made to Woods was not clear.

“That number was out there before I became CEO. So that number has been out there, yes,” Norman said in the Fox News interview, which took place Sunday at Trump National in Bedminster, New Jersey, where the third LIV Golf Invitational was held.

“And, look, Tiger is a needle-mover and of course you have to look at the best of the best,” Norman said. “So they had originally approached Tiger before I became CEO. So, yes, that number was somewhere in that neighborhood.”

Various reports out of the United Kingdom have said Phil Mickelson received a $200m signing bonus, while Dustin Johnson received $150m. The 48-man fields, which play 54 holes with no cut, offer $25m in prize money at each event. Norman announced a 14-tournament schedule for next year.

LIV Golf currently has only one player – Johnson at No 18 – from the top 20 in the world.

The source of the funding has led to sharp criticism of the series and the players who have enlisted because it is viewed as an attempt to distract attention from its human rights record and links to the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Asked why his rival tour has caused such an uproar among American golf fans, Norman responded plainly, “I don’t know.”

“I really don’t care,” Norman said. “I just love the game so much and I want to grow the game of golf and we at LIV see that opportunity not just for the men but for the women.”

The LIV Golf Invitational is off for a month during the FedEx Cup playoffs on the PGA Tour, returning over Labor Day weekend about an hour west of Boston, and then two weeks later plays in the Chicago suburbs.