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Michael Cohen hands Mary Trump the key to making her uncle's $100 million lawsuit blow up in his face
September 25, 2021
Appearing on MSNBC on Saturday afternoon, former Donald Trump attorney Michael Cohen laughed at his former boss filing a $100 million lawsuit against his niece MaryTrump and the New York Times, saying one simple legal maneuver will make it disappear like it never happened.
Speaking with host Alex Witt, Cohen said there was about a one in ten chance the lawsuit over releasing Donald Trump's tax information would go forward.
Alternately laughing and handing out legal tips, Cohen said he had some advice for Mary Trump and her attorneys who he also praised.
"To those people who follow Donald Trump, you might remember that there was a case called Trump versus Timothy O'Brien and the New York Times," he began. "It's eerily reminiscent of what he did many, many years ago. The only difference is that Donald at that point in time sued for $5 billion, right? It's as ridiculous as this lawsuit against Mary Trump for $100 million."
"But what makes this case very difficult than the other case is the fact that it's predicated on a non-disclosure agreement," he continued. "You know, non-disclosure agreements are paid in order to get somebody to do something or not to do something, not to reveal something, and clearly he must have given money to whether it was to Mary Trump, to her father, to somebody for that non-disclosure, but the part that we don't really know is what's written in that non-disclosure."
"But what makes this even more interesting to us as a public, is the fact that if I was Mary Trump and her lawyer, I would turn and say don't fight this," he elaborated. "Just answer the complaint and look for depositions. Let's look for discovery because one thing for certain -- and I have read dozens of Donald Trump depositions -- they are the dumbest written paper that you've ever seen, nothing makes sense, everything is circular."
"He will -- he does not want to do depositions," he told the MSNBC host. "Right now I'm in a lawsuit against the Trump Organization. I have asked for depositions of Donald and they are adamant that they do not want him to sit for depositions because he doesn't know what he's talking about."
Watch below:
MSNBC 09 25 2021 12 33 44 youtu.be
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'Pureblood': Anti-vax TikTokers push new meme to promote COVID vaccine misinformation
September 25, 2021
A new trend circulating on TikTok is further contributing to the anti-vaccination extremism and the rapid spread of misinformation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Crooks and Liars, the hashtag #PureBlood shows that supporters of the far-right are not only "unable to distinguish between J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter wizarding world and their own, but simultaneously appear either oblivious to the fact that either they're identifying with the story's fascists, or perhaps wink-and-nudgingly embracing their eugenics."
Vice reporter Tess Owens initially reported on the disturbing trend. According to Owens, self-proclaimed "purebloods" are individuals who are not vaccinated for COVID. In one TikTok video on the topic, the onscreen caption read, "We will No longer be referred To as Unvaxxed… We simply go by…." Then the phrase "Pureblood" appeared on the screen in red letters.
One TikTok influencer named Lyndsey Marie helped popularize the trend when she made a declaration in support of it. In a video, she said, "From now on, I refuse to be referred to as 'unvaccinated. I want everyone to now call me Pureblood." The video, which received more than 250,000 views before Marie changed the viewing setting to private, has spawned a number of other similar videos from other TikTokers.
According to Daily Kos writer Aysha Qamar the latest pureblood trend underscores a growing problem on TikTok, as it has become a driving force for the spread of more Covid misinformation.
"A newly released Homeland Security briefing found that insurrectionists used TikTok to spread information about the Jan. 6 Capitol attack and interfere with the National Guard during the riot and information about how to access the White House via tunnels and sabotage railroad tracks. According to the briefing document, domestic extremists have been using TikTok since October of 2019 to "recruit adherents, promote violence, and disseminate tactical guidance for use in various terrorist or criminal activities.
"According to another report published in August 2021 by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (IDS), at least 491 accounts were found that shared a combined number of 1,030 videos that promoted hatred, extremism, and terrorism. … At the time of writing the report, the Institute found that 81.5% of the extremist videos they identified on the platform were still live."
Social media networks are continuing their fight against misinformation, but content is plentiful.
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'Drop the act': Susan Collins mercilessly buried by columnist for lying about supporting women
September 25, 2021
In a brutal to-the-point column for the Daily Beast, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) was mercilessly skewered by Erin Gloria Ryan for professing she supports women's rights and then turning right around and voting against their best interests.
As Ryan notes, it is long past time Collins stops acting like a supporter of women and it's time for the media to stop calling her a "moderate" and giving her a pass after each far-right vote.
With Ryan writing, "the self-proclaimed pro-choice Senator announced that she wouldn't support a federal law upholding abortion rights, with the Republican from Maine saying the Democrats' current proposal intrudes on state's rights," she added that Coliins' true colors are once again on display just like they were when she gave Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh her vote while claiming he would uphold Roe v Wade.
"Recall, three years ago, that Collins voted to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, satisfied that the fit-throwing beer-enjoyer who had been vetted by the extremist Federalist Society considered abortion to be 'settled law,' speculation that was reported by mainstream news outlets with a straight face. Kavanaugh has proven that he, in fact, does not believe that abortion is 'settled law,' but all Collins has been able to do is shrug," she wrote. "Can we stop calling Collins 'pro-choice' now? Pretty please? Because if Collins is pro-choice, then I'm Baba Yaga. It's time the political press stopped playing along with her centrist LARPing."
"Does Collins keep getting fooled by bad liars, or is she simply a bad liar? Or are we—the royal 'we'—so committed to not disrupting our preexisting political narratives that we are willing to bend reality to fit them? The media has long upheld the lie that Collins supports abortion rights. But, at this point, why? It's clearly a lie, a title she once held at a job she quietly quit, but tells people she still has. She hasn't lifted a finger to support abortion rights in years, beyond doing what it takes to fool reporters into mischaracterizing her as an abortion rights-supporting centrist, a 'moderate,'" she added.
As Ryan notes, Collins was just elected to a new six-year term and has no reason any more to try and fool voters in her state.
"She's about as valuable to American women as a lifeguard who keeps letting people drown, and claims she never heard the splashing," Ryan explained. "Until she actually does something meaningful to preserve choice, Collins can drop the act."
You can read the whole piece here.
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