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Author Topic: Donald Trump: 45th President of the United States (Certified Dishonest)  (Read 13615 times)

Offline greentara

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Re: Donald Trump: 45th President of the United States (Certified Dishonest)
« Reply #2 on: December 17, 2018, 11:38:36 PM »
Mueller Exposes Putin's Hold Over Trump
Steve Denning | 17 Dec 2018

Just over a week ago, on Friday December 7, the Special Counsel’s Office headed by Robert Mueller for the first time outlined in a court filing the grand narrative of the Russia Probe. The court filing revealed what many had long suspected, that Trump and his family had used, or tried to use, his presidential candidacy, and then his presidency, to enhance their own wealth.

We also learned finally what hold Russian President Vladimir Putin has over Trump. It’s not as some suspected, a money laundering episode from more than a decade ago. It was something that happened in real time during the presidential election itself. Thus, Trump himself repeatedly stated since entering the presidential race in June 2015 that he had no business in Russia and no interactions with representatives of Russia. It now turns out that Putin knew what the American people didn’t, namely that Donald Trump was throughout the 2016 presidential primary campaign secretly negotiating to build a huge and lucrative hotel in Moscow, which required the personal support of Vladimir Putin. The fact that Putin knew about Trump’s secret dealings, while the American people didn’t, meant that if Trump didn’t do what Russia wanted, Russia could expose Trump’s lies and so bring him down.



The filing revealed that Mueller’s Office is now investigating the hypothesis that Donald Trump, his campaign, his organization and his associates participated in a massive election fraud, through five interlocking conspiracies—arguably the worst set of crimes against the United States in its history.

For some time, it’s been obvious that Donald Trump has been acting in a weird way towards America’s adversary, Russia. Until recently, the miscellaneous bits and pieces of the Trump-Russia jigsaw puzzle didn’t fit together in any coherent way.

Mueller’s Grand Narrative Outlined

Mueller’s probe initially focused on the Russian dimension of the case. The “core crime” is that the Russian Federation and its associates illegally conspired to intervene in the 2016 presidential election in favor of Donald Trump. In February and July 2018, Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted the Russian entities GRU and IRA, along with 13 Russian nationals and 12 Russian intelligence officers, for these crimes (which we might call collectively “the Russia Intervention”). The indictments describe the illegal interventions in minute detail.

Now the Special Counsel has turned to the American dimension of the elections. The Special Counsel now appears to be exploring five interlocking criminal conspiracies, building on the core crime of the Russian Intervention. Thus on December 7, the Special Counsel’s Office filed a court document that gave us important new clues as to the main hypotheses being explored.

    Conspiring with Russia: Donald Trump, his campaign, his organization and his associates knew of the intent of the Russian Federation to carry out the Russian Intervention as early as November 2015. Upon learning of that intent, instead of alerting the FBI to the likelihood of a foreign government trying to commit a crime, Donald Trump, his campaign, his organization and his associates illegally conspired throughout the 2016 presidential election to encourage and enable the Russia Intervention. The result was to defraud the American people of a free and fair election.
    The Moscow Trump Tower Project: Donald Trump, his campaign, his organization and his associates illegally conspired to expand its involvement with Russia beyond the Russian Intervention itself, through efforts from November 2015 at least until June 2016, to negotiate and build the Moscow Trump Tower Project. The Project, if realized, would bring “hundreds of millions of dollars from Russian sources in licensing fees and other revenues” to Donald Trump, his organization and some of his associates.
    Currying Favor with Russia: The Moscow Project “was a lucrative business opportunity,” the Special Counsel notes, “that sought, and likely required, the assistance of the Russian government.” Accordingly, Donald Trump, his campaign, his organization and his associates illegally conspired to curry favor with the Russian Federation in order to facilitate the Moscow Trump Tower Project and to promote their own financial interests, thus depriving the American people both of a free and fair election and of an independent government solely devoted to their interests.

    Hiding the conspiracies: Donald Trump, his campaign, his organization and his associates illegally conspired to hide (1), (2) and (3) from the American people and to lie about them to Congress. According to the court filing, this was done “in order to (1) minimize links between the Moscow Project and [Donald Trump] and (2) give the false impression that the Moscow Project had ended before the Iowa caucus and the first presidential primaries, in hopes of limiting the ongoing Russia investigations being conducted by Congress and the [Special Counsel’s Office].”
    Enabling hard kompromat: Through Donald Trump’s lies to the American people, of which the Russian Federation was aware, Donald Trump made the U.S. Presidency a potential victim of blackmail (aka kompromat) at the hands of the Russian Federation and in so doing illegally compromised the legitimate interests of the American people.



Is This Beginning of the End for Trump?

On December 7, the New York Times asked, “Is This the Beginning of the End for Trump?” Such a question had already been asked more than a hundred times since Trump’s election. All too often, the question reflected wishful thinking. On this occasion, however, we do appear to be at a turning point, since we finally know what hold Putin has over Trump. Yet, we may be rather “at the end of the beginning,” in that we finally know how and why Trump became president.” The beginning of the end” will come once there is a viable path towards doing something about it.

While the liberal media highlights the salacious aspects of the payments to cover up Trump’s affairs with Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, and the Russian spy Maria Butina’s interactions with the NRA, and trumpets the claim that Trump himself became a felon  by directing felonious campaign finance contributions, Trump’s defenders have scoffed. Breaches of campaign finance legislation might be felonies in a court of law, but in the court of public opinion they are unintelligible technicalities:

    “Ok, Trump’s lawyer didn’t file the right report at the right time. Not Trump’s fault! Paying off women with whom Donald had an affair? Boys will be boys! Didn’t Clinton do something similar?”

Moreover, Trump’s defenders also note that in order to prove that Trump committed a felony by instructing his lawyer to make illegal campaign contributions, the Special Counsel would have to show that Trump did so “willfully” i.e. that he knew that the payments were illegal under the notoriously complex campaign finance law. This may be difficult, given that the liberal press has spent two years seeking to prove that Donald Trump doesn’t understand the law of anything.

It is noteworthy that Mueller has handed off the prosecutions of the hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal and Maria Butina’s involvement with the NRA to other parts of the Justice Department.

In effect, the Special Counsel’s Office gives every sign of focusing sharply on the larger narrative with Russia. It is investigating the possibility that Donald Trump, his campaign, his organization and his associates, participated in a set of criminal conspiracies with Russia to defraud the United States both of a free and fair election and of a government solely devoted to its interests (18 U.S.C. § 371).

Where’s The Crime That Trump Supposedly Committed?

Trump’s defenders—and Donald Trump himself—contend that the Special Counsel has yet to allege, let alone prove, that Trump committed a crime in the sense that “Trump’s fingerprints are on the murder weapon.” There’s no “smoking gun.”

What these contentions overlook is the law of criminal conspiracy.

    Guilt in a criminal conspiracy doesn’t require that every participant in the conspiracy commit a criminal act. All it requires is that there is an agreement by two or more people to commit a criminal act and that at least one of the co-conspirators commits an overt act towards the accomplishment of the conspiracy.
    Nor is it necessary that the goal of the conspiracy has been successfully accomplished: it is enough if at least one overt step has been taken towards implementing the conspiracy.
    Nor is it necessary that co-conspirators know the identity of the other members of the conspiracy.
    Nor does the conspiracy have to be planned in secret.

Repeated actions by Donald Trump, his campaign, his organization and his associates appear to fit this definition of criminal conspiracy in multiple instances. At least, that is the possibility that the Special Counsel’s Office is investigating.

How Trump’s Campaign Joined Russia’s Criminal Conspiracy

The “core illegal act” at the heart of the Russia Probe is the conspiracy of the Russian Federation and its agents to intervene in the 2016 presidential election in favor of Donald Trump and so defraud the American people of a free and fair election (the Russia Intervention).

It is irrelevant whether the Russia Intervention was successful in its efforts to affect the outcome of the election and whether Trump would have won anyway. All that is necessary to prove a criminal conspiracy is that there was an agreement for a foreign government to intervene illegally, combined with overt acts to intervene (of which there were multiple instances outlined in the Special Counsel’s indictment of several dozen Russians).

We learn from the Special Counsel’s filing of December 7 that Donald Trump, his campaign, his organization and his associates knew of the intent of the Russian Federation to effect “synergy” (aka collusion) with Trump’s campaign at least as early as November 2015. We know that multiple members and associates of the Trump campaign had meetings with representatives of the Russian Federation, and in many of these interactions, they demonstrated willingness to collaborate, encourage and enable the representatives of the Russian Federation to continue intervening. They did not, as they should have done, contact the FBI.

We also know that on July 27, 2016, Donald Trump himself spoke on national television and invited Russia—“Russia, if you are listening”—to intervene in the election and “find Hillary Clinton's 30,000 missing emails.” It seems that Russia was listening: just the next day, Russians illegally hacked into the Democratic Party’s computer system stole files. Redacted sections of the Special Counsel’s filing suggests that there is further evidence of collaboration that has yet to be revealed.

It therefore seems likely that the Special Counsel’s Office has evidence to prove that Donald Trump, his campaign, his organization and his associates illegally conspired throughout the 2016 presidential election to encourage and enable the Russian Intervention so as to defraud the American people of a free and fair election.

Participation in a criminal conspiracy is itself a crime, even if the illegal acts were committed by someone else, in this case, agents of the Russian Federation. Participation in such a conspiracy is a felony, whether or not the Russian Federation was successful in affecting the outcome of the election.

How The Conspiracy Expanded To Include Trump Tower Moscow

Trump’s involvement with Russia wasn’t limited to getting assistance to win the election. What we learned on December 7 from the Special Counsel’s filing is that Donald Trump, his campaign, his organization and his associates effectively expanded the Russian Intervention by endeavoring, from November 2015 at least through June 2016, to launch the Moscow Trump Tower Project. The filing notes that this Project would, if realized, bring “hundreds of millions of dollars from Russian sources in licensing fees and other revenues” to Donald Trump, his organization and some of his associates.

The Moscow Project was a lucrative business opportunity that “likely required, the assistance of the Russian government.” The Trump campaign, organization and associates sought that assistance at a time when the Trump campaign knew that the Russian Federation was trying to commit the crime of intervening in the U.S. election.

This is why Senator Rand Paul is mistaken when he said on the Meet the Press on December 9 that “Nothing’s wrong with Donald Trump pursuing a hotel deal in Moscow while running for president.” Pursuing a hotel project in Russia that effectively required the consent of the President of Russia made Donald Trump beholden to President Putin and prevented him from independently reflecting and representing the interests of America.

The continued pursuit of the Moscow Trump Tower Project thus explains why Donald Trump, his campaign, his organization and his associates repeatedly tried to curry favor with the Russian Federation, by pursuing policies consistent with the goals of the Russian Federation and even proposing to offer the President of Russia a $50 million penthouse in the Moscow Tower.

Those efforts attempted to advance the financial interests of Donald Trump, his organization and some of his associates, but they were in tension with the interests of the American people. Thus, the efforts defrauded the American people both of a free and fair election and of an independent government solely devoted to the interests of the American people.

How Trump Conspired To Hide The Conspiracies

The Special Counsel’s filing also shows that while participating in these conspiracies, Donald Trump, his campaign, his organization and his associates systematically sought to hide them from the American people. Donald Trump and his campaign repeatedly denied that he or his campaign had any interactions with representatives of the Russian Federation or business with Russia. It now appears that at least 14 members and associates of Trump’s campaign interacted with representatives of the Russian Federation in the course of the presidential campaign, in some cases encouraging or enabling the Russian Intervention.

Until this month, Donald Trump, his campaign and his associates repeatedly maintained that Moscow Trump Tower Project was abandoned in January 2016, i.e. before the primaries of the U.S. presidential election. The Special Counsel’s filing of December 7, 2018 says those statements are false.

The Special Counsel alleges that efforts to bring the Moscow Trump Tower Project to fruition continued at least through June 2016. Indeed, the fact that Donald Trump still argues that there was “nothing wrong” with pursuing the Moscow Trump Tower Project while engaged in the presidential election campaign may indicate that Donald Trump even today continues to pursue the Moscow Trump Tower Project—despite the obvious conflict of interest with his duties as president. This possibility may shed light on why Donald Trump continues to curry favor with Moscow by pursuing a foreign policy closely aligned with the goals of the Russian Federation and at odds with the entire thrust of U.S. foreign policy over the last 70 years.

How The White House Tried To Guide Other Witnesses

The filing by the Special Counsel’s Office on December 7 also states that Michael Cohen not only gave false testimony in August 2017 in private sessions to the Congress and the Senate to the effect that the Moscow Trump Tower Project was abandoned in January 2016, i.e.  before the 2016 presidential election. Cohen, in collaboration with associates, also issued a public statement at the same time.

The filing also states that Cohen “amplified his false statements by releasing and repeating his lies to the public, including to other potential witnesses.” [italics added] In effect, the filing is suggesting that Cohen’s unusual public statement about the content of a private hearing was a signal to other witnesses who were due to give evidence before Congress to align their testimony with Cohen’s falsehood. If, as the filing implies, Donald Trump, his campaign or his associates followed that signal in giving testimony, it is possible that they too committed perjury.

How Trump Put Himself At Risk Of Kompromat

There has of course been much theorizing about what the Mueller probe might come up with. Among the most comprehensive analyses was: “What More Do We Know About L’Affaire Russe?” by Quinta Jurecic, and Benjamin Wittes in July 2018. Based on what was known at the time, this article argued that Trump was probably the victim of “soft kompromat” i.e. he himself didn’t know whether the Kremlin had anything on him, but was treading carefully on the chance that it might. As New Yorker writer Adam Davidson explained:

    “A decade or so ago, Trump, naïve, covetous, and struggling for cash, may have laundered money for a business partner from the former Soviet Union or engaged in some other financial crime… He fears that there is kompromat out there—maybe a lot of it—but he doesn’t know precisely what it is, who has it, or what might set them off.”

That may be true. But on December 7, the Special Counsel’s filing goes further. In addition to any soft kompromat from shadowy dealings a decade ago, the Special Counsel’s filing points to the risk of hard kompromat from Trump’s dealings in the here and now—the Moscow Trump Tower Project.

Thus, the Russian Federation knew that Trump and his campaign were lying to the American people about the pursuit of that Moscow Project in the course of the presidential campaign of 2016 and subsequently as presiden6t. Since the Russian Federation knew what Trump was up to—while the American people didn’t—Trump himself is at risk of becoming a victim of hard Kompromat and in effect turning himself into a Russian intelligence asset.

A Massive Election Fraud Against The American People

“Until now, you had two different charges, allegations, whatever you want to call them,” Jerrold Nadler of New York, the incoming Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said in an interview on December 8. “One was collusion with the Russians. One was obstruction of justice and all that entails. And now you have a third — that the president was at the center of a massive fraud against the American people.”

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2018/12/16/mueller-exposes-putins-hold-over-trump/#2a1350b748f6
Source 2: https://www.vox.com/2018/12/7/18130805/michael-cohen-sentencing-memo-mueller
Court documents (PDF) Cache: https://goo.gl/jyAxL1

Offline greentara

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Robert Mueller testimony LIVE: Former special counsel testifies on Russia investigation



Offline greentara

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Re: Donald Trump: 45th President of the United States (Certified Dishonest)
« Reply #5 on: December 08, 2019, 10:23:24 AM »

Offline greentara

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Re: Donald Trump: 45th President of the United States (Certified Dishonest)
« Reply #7 on: December 21, 2019, 01:10:20 PM »
Major Evangelical Magazine Calls For Trump's Removal


Offline ainat

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Trump has many hunches about the coronavirus. Here's what the experts say.
Trump has spread misinformation about the coronavirus, contradicting health officials on significant facts and advice.
_____________________

Experts say the death rate is 3.4 percent.
Trump says that's 'false.'

Experts predict 'more cases.'
Trump says U.S. cases are 'going very substantially down.'

Trump says a vaccine is coming soon.
Experts say not so fast.

Trump says coronavirus is 'like a flu.'
Experts say it's 'multiple times' worse.

Trump says it's OK to go to work when sick.
Experts say 'do not go to work.'

Trump says warm weather could 'kill the virus.'
Experts say that's 'premature.'


Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/just-my-hunch-trump-contradicts-health-experts-coronavirus-n1151006

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Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing
Issued on: April 23, 2020
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

"... THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much.  So I asked Bill a question that probably some of you are thinking of, if you’re totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting.  So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light — and I think you said that that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it.  And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you’re going to test that too.  It sounds interesting.
:
:
THE PRESIDENT:  Right.  And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute.  One minute.  And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning.  Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs.  So it would be interesting to check that.  So, that, you’re going to have to use medical doctors with.  But it sounds — it sounds interesting to me.

So we’ll see.  But the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute, that’s — that’s pretty powerful."

Source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-vice-president-pence-members-coronavirus-task-force-press-briefing-31/

Cache: http://archive.fo/r7QkL



Coronavirus: Trump’s disinfectant and sunlight claims fact-checked
By Reality Check team BBC News | 24 April 2020

President Donald Trump has questioned whether injecting people with disinfectants and exposing patients' bodies to UV light could help treat the coronavirus.

The Reality Check team has been looking into both of these issues.

Claim 1

"I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning, because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs."

Mr Trump suggested injecting patients with disinfectants might help treat coronavirus.

Using a disinfectant can kill viruses on surfaces, but this is crucially only about infected objects and surfaces - not about what happens once the virus is inside your body.

Not only does consuming or injecting disinfectant risk poisoning and death, it's not even likely to be effective.

Doctors have appealed to people not to ingest or inject disinfectant, as there are concerns people will think this is a good idea and die.

"Injecting bleach or disinfectant at the dose required to neutralise viruses in the circulating blood would likely result in significant, irreversible harm and probably a very unpleasant death," says Rob Chilcott, professor of toxicology at the University of Hertfordshire."

He adds that it would also "not have much effect on viral particles within the cells".

Reckitt Benckiser, a leading manufacturer of disinfectant products including Lysol and Dettol, has issued a statement in response to the president's comments. It said: "We must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route)."

Mr Trump has subsequently defended his comment claiming "I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters."

Claim 2

"I said supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. And I think you said you're going to test that too... So, we'll see, but the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute - that's pretty powerful."

Mr Trump has also floated the idea of exposing patients to "ultraviolet or just very powerful light".

There is some evidence that, in general, viruses on surfaces die more quickly when exposed directly to sunlight. But we don't know how much or how long they have to be exposed for UV light to have an effect.

And again, this is only about infected objects and surfaces - not about what happens once the virus is inside your body.

By the time the virus has taken hold inside your body, no amount of UV light on your skin is going to make a difference.

"UV irradiation and high heat are known to kill virus particles on surfaces," says Dr Penny Ward, visiting professor in pharmaceutical medicine at Kings College London. But "neither sitting in the sun, nor heating, will kill a virus replicating in an individual patient's internal organs".


Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52399464

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Offline ainat

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Re: Donald Trump: 45th President of the United States (Certified Dishonest)
« Reply #10 on: November 05, 2020, 05:19:59 PM »
Facebook and Twitter take emergency steps against Trump false victory claims
Two tech platforms counter misinformation with statements that votes are still being counted
Alex Hern and Kari Paul | 5 Nov 2020

Facebook and Twitter have deployed emergency measures to counter Donald Trump’s false claims of victory on their social networks, bringing them more directly into conflict with the US president than ever before.

The two tech platforms had announced plans in the run-up to the election to counter misinformation about the vote, as well as premature claims of victory, and on the night of and day after, both companies mostly stuck to the plan.

Facebook notably dropped the euphemistic phrasing that had previously accompanied its announcements, which discussed the risk that “candidates” may falsely claim a win. It also walked back a previous policy that would have allowed candidates to claim state-level victories before they were called, despite barring the premature announcement of a national win. On Wednesday it started to flag posts from Trump and affiliates claiming the president had won Pennsylvania and other battleground states, even as ballots continued to be counted and official results had yet to be announced.

A company spokesperson cited Trump by name in explaining its decision, saying: “Once President Trump began making premature claims of victory, we started running notifications on Facebook and Instagram that votes are still being counted and a winner is not projected. We’re also automatically applying labels to both candidates’ posts with this information.”

When it came to reacting to individual posts, both platforms faced criticism for their responses. In late-night posts cross-posted to both Twitter and Facebook, Trump declared: “We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed!” That post was followed by a second that read: “I will be making a statement tonight. A big WIN!”

Misinformation experts say because such posts are able to achieve widespread circulation before being addressed, more comprehensive policies to correct the effects of the misleading posts should be put in place, calling it a “democratic emergency”.

“False claims of voter fraud, early victory and election-stealing are helping plunge the country further into chaos and confusion, creating alternate realities for Americans,” said Fadi Quran, the campaign director at Avvaz, an online activist network and non-profit. “Platforms must immediately adopt more effective policies such as retroactively sending corrections to all users who see misinformation and downgrading the reach of repeat misinformers.”

Facebook initially labelled the first post with a simple box advising readers to “see the latest updates on the 2020 US election”. More than 30 minutes after it was posted, the company updated its warning to note that “final results may be different from initial vote counts, as ballot counting will continue for days or weeks”. By that time the post had well over 100,000 reactions.

Twitter restricted distribution on the first post from Trump on Tuesday night, blocking it from being retweeted or replied to, and appended a note saying the content “is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process”. A spokesperson said the warning was “for making a potentially misleading claim about an election. This action is in line with our civic integrity policy.”

Neither platform took specific action against the second post claiming “a big WIN!”. Twitter said the lack of action was because it was unclear what, specifically, was being referenced. While the post could have constituted a premature claim of victory in the national race, it could just as easily be construed as a legitimate expression of pleasure at winning a state such as Florida, which had declared several hours earlier.

On Wednesday morning, more labels were deployed, as Trump continued to launch false claims of election malpractice. Twitter put a warning over two tweets, one declaring that “surprise ballot dumps” were swinging the election, and another alleging “they are working hard to make up 500,000 vote advantage in Pennsylvania disappear.” Facebook added labels to the same posts, countering Trump’s claims with the statement “Election officials follow strict rules when it comes to ballot counting, handling and reporting.”

Twitter flagged the accounts of Eric Trump, Kayleigh McEnany, and the Trump re-election team with misinformation warnings after declaring victory in Pennsylvania long before any final result was announced. However, flagging these tweets took more than a half hour and they had been shared more than 20,000 times before Twitter attached a warning to them, feeding criticism of the social media firm for a continued lag in applying their policies.

Twitter was able to quickly flag posts from Trump on Wednesday afternoon in which he said to have “claimed” the electoral vote in four states where no results had been called. This, of course, is not how elections work. The tweets were hidden behind a warning that “some or all of the content shared in this tweet is disputed and might be misleading”.

The platform also blocked 20 tweets from sent by Marjorie Taylor Greene – a Georgia Republican who on Tuesday became the first supporter of the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory to be elected to Congress. The tweets in question featured the hashtag #stopthesteal and falsely accused Democrats of cheating in the election. Many of them also linked to a petition, calling on supporters to sign in order to “Save America” and “Stop Socialism”, and falsely referred to the continued vote counting as “the biggest voter fraud operation in American history”.

Greene accused Twitter of censorship and called the tech company a “Silicon Valley Cartel”. Even with dozens of tweets flagged, several of her “stop the steal” posts remained unblocked as of Wednesday night.

The tech platforms are remaining in an election mode while counts continue. Political adverts are now suspended indefinitely at Facebook and Google, while Twitter has not allowed them since October 2019.

Google has blocked all adverts “referencing candidates, the election, or its outcome, given that an unprecedented amount of votes will be counted after election day this year”. According to Axios, the ban should be expected to last at least the next week, and possibly longer if the results remain contentious.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/04/facebook-and-twitter-emergency-trump-false-victory-claims

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Offline ainat

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Re: Donald Trump: 45th President of the United States (Certified Dishonest)
« Reply #11 on: November 06, 2020, 02:00:20 PM »

Source: https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000175-6bc5-d2df-adff-6fdfff5c0000




Source: Google


Source: https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6


Harvard doctor rips White House for listing ‘ending the COVID-19 pandemic’ as Trump accomplishment
Dialynn Dwyer, Boston.com Staff | October 28, 2020

A Harvard epidemiologist is blasting the Trump administration after the White House listed “ending the COVID-19 pandemic” as one of President Donald Trump’s first-term accomplishments.

The list of “wins” being claimed by the administration was sent out in a Tuesday press release by the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Michael Mina, a physician and assistant professor of epidemiology at Harvard University, reacted to the administration’s claim on Twitter.

This is complete fabrication,” he wrote. “ ‘ENDING THE #COVID19 PANDEMIC’ canNOT go on ⁦@POTUS⁩ list of accomplishments – at SAME time as US hits all time high cases!”

Tagging the Twitter handle for the president, Mina wrote that a “pandemic that is killing 100,000s does not go away just [because] you choose to stop trying.”

    I’m sorry. This is complete fabrication.

    “ENDING THE #COVID19 PANDEMIC” canNOT go on ⁦@POTUS⁩ list of accomplishments – at SAME time as US hits all time high cases!@POTUS A pandemic that is killing 100,000s does not go away just bc you choose to stop trying. pic.twitter.com/MC7MnLf9o8

    — Michael Mina (@michaelmina_lab) October 28, 2020


Hogan Gidley, the National Press Secretary for the Trump campaign, was asked about the language used in the administration’s press release and whether the pandemic is “ended” during an appearance Wednesday on CNN.

“I’m not going to quibble over semantics,” Gidley said when pressed by host Alisyn Camerota. “The fact is we’re moving in the right direction.”

    White House lists ending Covid-19 pandemic as an accomplishment despite cases spiking to record levels.@AlisynCamerota: “Do you think it has ended?”@JHoganGidley: “I don’t know who said that… I have not seen the document… We’re moving in the right direction” pic.twitter.com/5MTSv8QQRU

    — New Day (@NewDay) October 28, 2020


The United States is reporting an average of 70,000 new coronavirus cases a day, with the average daily case count climbing up 41% percent over the last two weeks, according to NPR.

The daily case counts have surpassed the averages seen over the summer, and on Friday, the U.S. recorded the most new cases in a single day — more than 85,000. Nationally, more than 220,000 people have died from COVID-19.

Source: https://www.boston.com/news/coronavirus/2020/10/28/harvard-michael-mina-calls-out-white-house-coronavirus-pandemic

Offline ainat

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Re: Donald Trump: 45th President of the United States (Certified Dishonest)
« Reply #12 on: November 06, 2020, 02:01:24 PM »
Fact Check on US Election Voting Fraud claims:




Source: https://www.factcheck.org/issue/voter-fraud

Offline ainat

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Re: Donald Trump: 45th President of the United States (Certified Dishonest)
« Reply #13 on: December 15, 2020, 05:03:52 PM »
Fact checking Trump's falsehood-filled Supreme Court brief
By Daniel Dale and Tara Subramaniam, CNN

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump filed a brief at the Supreme Court on Wednesday that featured some of the same false and misleading claims Trump has been making on Twitter.

The brief asks the Supreme Court to allow Trump to intervene in support of a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Republican attorneys general of 18 other states are supporting Texas as well. They are asking the court to invalidate the election results in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, all of which were won by President-elect Joe Biden.
The lawyer who filed the Trump brief, John Eastman, made a series of inaccurate claims in arguing the President's position. Here's a breakdown of some of them.

Florida and Ohio
The brief says, "President Trump prevailed on nearly every historical indicia of success in presidential elections. For example, he won both Florida and Ohio; no candidate in history—Republican or Democrat—has ever lost the election after winning both States."

Facts First: This is false. Richard Nixon lost the 1960 presidential election to John F. Kennedy even though Nixon won Florida and Ohio.

Also, it would merely be an interesting fact, not evidence of fraud, if Trump was indeed the first candidate to lose an election while carrying Ohio and Florida. Different candidates build different geographic coalitions.

Absentee ballot applications in Michigan
The brief says, "In Michigan, the Secretary of State illegally flooded the state with absentee ballot applications mailed to every registered voter despite the fact that state law strictly limits the ballot application process."

Facts First: The Supreme Court has the final say on what is legal and not, but there is no apparent basis for the claim that Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson broke the law by sending out absentee ballot applications to every registered voter (in jurisdictions that were not themselves sending out applications to every registered voter). The application was available online to be printed out by anyone; even Michigan residents were allowed to mail applications to other residents.

When Trump was asked by reporters in May to explain what he thought was illegal about what Michigan did, he did not offer a specific answer. Nor did White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany when she was asked in May.

Pennsylvania and signatures
The brief alleged that "Pennsylvania's Secretary of State issued guidance purporting to suspend the signature verification requirements, in direct violation of state law."

Facts First: Again, we defer to the Supreme Court on what is legal -- but it's worth noting that both a unanimous Pennsylvania Supreme Court and a Trump-appointed federal judge both ruled that the signature guidance from Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar was legal. Both found that nothing in state law requires counties to check whether voters' signatures on ballot envelopes match the signatures on file.

Pennsylvania's Supreme Court ruled unanimously in October to uphold the Boockvar guidance. "We decline to read a signature comparison requirement into the plain and unambiguous language of the Election Code," the court said in the decision, in which the judges forbade counties from rejecting mail-in ballots because of non-matching signatures.
Similarly, federal District Court Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan, who was appointed by Trump, ruled in October: "After carefully considering the parties' arguments and the relevant law, the Court finds that the plain language of the Election Code imposes no requirement for signature comparison for mail-in and absentee ballots and applications. In other words, the Secretary's guidance is consistent with the Election Code, and creates no vote-dilution problems."

Drop boxes in Wisconsin
The brief claimed that "in Wisconsin, the largest cities all deployed hundreds of unmanned, unsecured absentee ballot drop boxes that were all invalid means of returning absentee votes under state law."

Facts First: We'll again leave the question of legality to the courts, but it's not true that the drop boxes in Wisconsin's big cities were "unsecured." The drop boxes were secured in various ways -- such as being anchored to the ground, sealed against tampering, and subjected to 24-hour video surveillance, as per guidance from the state elections commission.

Drop boxes and parking lots
The brief does not provide evidence of any mass fraud. Instead, it claims that the policies of Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania created a greater prospect of fraud. As an example, it said that "leaving ballot boxes in public parking lots invites fraud."

Facts First: This is baseless. Official ballot drop boxes around the country are specifically designed and set up to securely receive ballots without tampering, theft, or other kinds of fraud -- they are designed with anti-tampering measures, affixed to the ground, made with durable materials, and often monitored by video surveillance -- and there is no evidence that the boxes were used for fraudulent purposes in the 2020 presidential election.

"Although there was much debate over the use of drop boxes this past election for dropping off absentee ballots, I am unaware of any instances in which there has been any fraud found in the use of them during the past election," said CNN election law analyst Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine.
Wendy Weiser, the director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center, told CNN in August that drop boxes don't "introduce some kind of uniquely difficult security problems," adding that election administrators follow the same security practices they employ in collecting all other ballots.

Poll watchers
To imply that the US presidential election was unfair, the brief invoked an August statement in which Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticized the presidential election in Belarus. The brief noted that Pompeo had cited the "prohibition of local independent observers at polling stations" as a factor demonstrating that the election there was "not free and fair."

Facts First: This is misleading. Regardless of what happened in Belarus, there is no evidence that independent observers were systematically prohibited at US polling stations.

Since Election Day, Trump has falsely claimed on several occasions that Republican poll watchers in particular were banned from counting locations or otherwise prevented from observing the count and denied the access they legally deserved. But Trump claim after Trump claim has been debunked; where Democratic observers were permitted, Republicans observers were permitted as well.

You can read more about what happened with poll watchers in key swing states here.

Bellwether counties
The brief says of Trump: "He won 18 of the country's 19 so-called 'bellwether' counties—counties whose vote, historically, almost always goes for the candidate who wins the election."

Facts First: This is true -- Trump won 18 of the 19 counties that had voted for the president in every election from 1980 through 2016, according to the Wall Street Journal -- but irrelevant to the claim that the election was tainted. As demographics and political preferences change, bellwether areas can cease to be bellwether areas for all sorts of entirely benign reasons.

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/10/politics/fact-check-trump-supreme-court-brief-texas-lawsuit/

Offline ainat

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Re: Donald Trump: 45th President of the United States (Certified Dishonest)
« Reply #14 on: January 08, 2021, 10:22:02 AM »
Facebook bans Trump through Biden inauguration, maybe longer
08 Jan 2021

SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook said it would block US President Donald Trump's accounts for at least the next two weeks and perhaps indefinitely with CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying the risks of allowing him to use the platform were "simply too great".

The block by Facebook, which was joined by live-streaming platform Twitch and photo-sharing service Snap, is the most significant sanction of the president by a major social media company.

Tech giants have been scrambling to crack down on the president's baseless claims about the Nov 3 US presidential election after hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol in unrest that resulted in four deaths.

"The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden," Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post on Thursday.

He said the action on Trump's Facebook page, which has 35 million followers, would last at least until President-elect Joe Biden takes office on Jan 20 and would also apply to Facebook-owned Instagram.

Twitter temporarily locked Trump's accounts on Wednesday. Twitter said its freeze of @realDonaldTrump, which has more than 88 million followers, would last until 12 hours after Trump removes three tweets. Trump has not tweeted since the being blocked.

Amazon.com's Twitch also said on Thursday it had disabled Trump's channel due to the "extraordinary circumstances and the president's incendiary rhetoric." A spokeswoman said it would reassess Trump's account after he leaves office.

E-commerce platform Shopify also said on Thursday it was shutting down service for stores affiliated with Trump for violations of its "acceptable use" policy, prompting e-commerce sites for both the campaign and the Trump Organization to go offline.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Social media companies have been under pressure to police misinformation about the US election on their platforms, including from the president. Trump and his allies for months have amplified baseless claims of election fraud and the president told protesters to go to Capitol Hill, with both Republicans and Democrats saying he was responsible for the resulting violence.

In a video posted to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube on Wednesday, which was later deleted by the platforms, Trump repeated election fraud claims as he told protesters to go home.

"His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world," said Zuckerberg in his Thursday post.

Civil rights groups including Color of Change have called for social media companies to permanently ban Trump from the platforms, where he has repeatedly violated policies.

The Anti-Defamation League praised Facebook's move, calling it "an obvious first step," while the NAACP in a statement said the move was a "long overdue" gesture that "rings hollow."

Facebook has previously been blasted by lawmakers and employees for not acting on inflammatory posts from Trump, including those that have been labelled by Twitter.

Facebook has drawn criticism for exempting politicians' posts and ads from its third-party fact-checking program and repeatedly said it does not want to be "the arbiter of truth." The company has in recent months started labelling some of Trump's statements.

Some Facebook employees joined calls for Trump’s accounts to be shut down on Wednesday, according to internal posts seen by Reuters.

Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement he was "deeply frustrated that it took a group of domestic terrorists storming the Capitol" for Facebook to take action and wondered "if the decision was an opportunistic one, motivated by the news of a Democratically controlled Congress."

Democratic Senator Mark Warner, incoming chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said he was glad social media was cracking down on Trump's false claims but the actions did not go far enough.

"These platforms have served as core organising infrastructure for violent, far right groups and militia movements for several years now – helping them to recruit, organise, coordinate and in many cases (particularly with respect to YouTube) generate profits from their violent, extremist content," he said in a statement.

YouTube, which is owned by Alphabet's Google, said Thursday any channel that posts videos with false claims about the election results will be temporarily restricted from uploading or live streaming.

YouTube did not respond to a question about whether it would ban Trump's account in the same manner as Facebook, while a Twitter spokesman said it was continuing to "evaluate the situation in real time, including examining activity on the ground and statements made off Twitter." He said Twitter would inform the public if an "escalation" in its approach was necessary.

Violent rhetoric ramped up significantly in the past three weeks on major social networks as well as alternative platforms like Parler and pro-Trump site TheDonald.win, as groups planned for the rallies, according to researchers and public postings.

Source: Reuters/ta/ec

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/facebook-bans-trump-through-biden-inauguration-13915738