TikTok and Trump

 

Fuck TikTok

 New owner

UPDATE 03:56 pm:  That clinches it.

Above the law

Trump extended TikTok divestiture another 90 days. This was a law passed by Congress. The deadline for divesture was January 21. Trump has granted two extensions. There is no provision for allowing enforcement of the law to be extended. The Supreme Court upheld the law 9-0. But Trump is just ignoring it and nobody is saying anything about it.

  Meidas Touch

The grift and graft are out for all to see

 

GD Culture Group, which is traded on the Nasdaq, said it would spend $300 million on a stockpile of Bitcoin and $TRUMP, using proceeds from a stock sale to an unnamed entity in the British Virgin Islands, a popular tax haven.

[...]

GD Culture Group became the latest business with foreign ties to seize on Mr. Trump’s crypto venture, which channels profits directly to the Trump family and has generated conflicts of interest that have alarmed ethics experts.

[...]

The purchase would create clear ethical conflicts, enriching Mr. Trump’s family at the same time that the president tries to reach a deal that would allow TikTok to keep operating in the United States rather than face a congressionally approved ban.

The announcement also shows how investors around the world, including some that have virtually no public footprint, have latched on to the president’s crypto ventures to boost their own business prospects.

  NYT

The Trump takeover is complete

Then:

Now:

We'll see, won't we?

He has Congress, too.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 02:32 pm:

He saved it!  All hail the Orange God King!

Won't  happen.

There's no law now.  Just Trump.

Planet Earth 2025.

UPDATE 02:45 pm:  Whoops.

I'm sure they'll be "clarifying" their position soon.

UPDATE 06:15 pm:

Jesus wept.

Democrats demonstrate how easily they're played

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 01/19/2025:

The future of TikTok

Did they not get the message that Trump likes TikTok now?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 01/19/2025:

It's true.  The man has never been wrong about anything in his entire life.

Everybody is lying to everybody else.  This is the new MAGA America, headed up by the Liar in Chief, Donald J Trump.

Explaining TikTok legal status

I can't summarize it.  Read Elie Mystal's article.

And, that's where I expect this is going.  Totally effed.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

He means to get use out of his judges

Donald Trump is a former president who is set to become president again on January 20 despite having faced four felony prosecutions from three different prosecutors — one of which led to conviction — relating to actions he took when seeking the presidency, while president, and after leaving the presidency.

Sam Alito is a justice who, in addition to his flag issues, held private interviews with two conservative figures for glowing narrative-setting opinion columns — including with a lawyer who had a key case before the court — in which they wrote that it is Alito’s view that Congress has no authority to pass legislation relating to judicial ethics.

Now, they’ve teamed up for everyone’s favorite new nihilistic buddy comedy, sketched out by Alito himself on Wednesday, as first reported by ABC News:

  Lawdork

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito spoke to President-elect Donald Trump by phone Tuesday to recommend one of his former law clerks for a job in the new administration, ABC News has learned. "William Levi, one of my former law clerks, asked me to take a call from President-elect Trump regarding his qualifications to serve in a government position," Justice Alito confirmed to ABC News Wednesday. "I agreed to discuss this matter with President-elect Trump, and he called me yesterday afternoon."

  ABC News

It's a cozy clique.

"We did not discuss the emergency application he filed today, and indeed, I was not even aware at the time of our conversation that such an application would be filed," Alito said.

That's funny. Everybody else in the world knew it would be.

"We also did not discuss any other matter that is pending or might in the future come before the Supreme Court or any past Supreme Court decisions involving the President-elect."

Define "discuss".

On Wednesday, Trump asked the justices to immediately halt all criminal proceedings against him in New York, including Friday's sentencing, warning that failing to do so during a presidential transition would "damage" the presidency and disrupt "national security and America's vital interests."

[...]

Late last month, Trump waded into a momentous case over the future of the video-sharing app TikTok, asking the justices to delay an impending ban on the extraordinary grounds that he "alone possesses the consummate dealmaking expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the Government."

[...]

The Supreme Court has asked for a response from prosecutors in New York by Thursday at 10 a.m. ET. It's expected to weigh in on Trump's request by Friday morning.

Sentencing is scheduled for Friday.

It is not unusual for a sitting justice to offer a job recommendation for a former clerk, but it is rare, court analysts said, for a justice to have such a conversation directly with a sitting president or president-elect, especially one with an active stake in business pending before the court.

It's a new day in America.

"The justices of the Supreme Court are, among other things, employers to their law clerks," said ABC News contributor Kate Shaw, who clerked for former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. "So providing a reference for a former employee is not atypical, whatever job a former clerk may be applying for -- an academic job, private sector job, or even a government job."

[...]

Levi is being considered for various legal jobs in the incoming administration, including general counsel of the Department of Defense, sources said. Levi, who clerked for Justice Alito from 2011-2012, served in the first Trump administration as chief of staff to then-Attorney General Bill Barr.

So then, there was no need for a reference or recommendation from Alito.*  

All bullshit, all corruption, all the fucking time.

UPDATE 01/09/2025:  And, another thing...

 Jesus Christ, this guy.  

I'll be interested in what SCOTUS does on this, and Trump's request to have the sentencing in his Stormy Daniels/falsification of records lawsuit in Manhattan set aside.**

UPDATE 01/09/2025 01:51 pm:

UPDATE 01/10/2025: 

* Apparently, the problem was precisely that Levi had worked for Bill Barr....

Justice Alito was being drawn into a highly personalized effort by some Trump aides to blackball Republicans deemed insufficiently loyal to Mr. Trump from entering the administration, according to six people with knowledge of the situation.

[...]

In the first Trump administration, he served as the chief of staff to Attorney General William P. Barr, who is now viewed as a “traitor” by Mr. Trump for refusing to go along with his efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election.

  NYT

**SCOTUS denied the request 5-4.