Dominion voting systems had sued Fox News for $1.6 billion, claiming defamation about statements surrounding the 2020 election outcome and Dominion voting systems.  Today Dominion and Fox settled the lawsuit for $787 million.

The lawsuit itself is odd in that both the plaintiff and the defendant carried the same political motivation within it.  As an outcome of ideology, Fox News wanted to cement the 2020 election as clear Biden victory, the same position as Dominion.  The settlement provides that narrative to U.S. MSM corporate news. The same corporate news who pushed the fraudulent Trump-Russia collusion conspiracy theory, without accountability.

(VIA ABC) “Fox has admitted to telling lies about Dominion,” Dominion Voting Systems CEO John Poulos said outside the courthouse following the announcement of a settlement. It was not immediately clear where this admission took place, beyond Fox’s statement that “We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false” — or whether Fox News had agreed to a more formal acknowledgement in a public way. (link)

Fox News Says: “We are pleased to have reached a settlement of our dispute with Dominion Voting Systems,” Fox News officials said in a statement after an agreement had been reached. “We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false. This settlement reflects FOX’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards.”

“We are hopeful that our decision to resolve this dispute with Dominion amicably, instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial, allows the country to move forward from these issues,” the statement said.

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I write the headline in the form of a question but in reality, all of the data points in one direction, yes.

If I am going to be brutally honest, this Elon Musk scenario is like the August 2022 review when it became obvious all of the DeSantis 2024 data only reconciled in one direction.  In many ways, Musk is to social media interests as DeSantis is to DC UniParty interests.

More than half the readers here have picked up on the clues and cues showing Musk has a very real motive to position himself in the best light possible given the situation that surrounds him.  Unfortunately, that position creates conflicts between ideals (what’s possible) and reality (what limits surround one’s ability).  Musk is riding a tiger, and the intelligence community ring masters control the beast.

The damage control motive is a few layers deep.  However, one of the recent events that would lead to Musk’s public need for brand image protection comes from the situation with Matt Taibbi:

…”When we got into the Files, we were caught off guard. The content-policing system was more elaborate and organized than any of us imagined. A communications highway had been built linking the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence with Twitter, Facebook, Google, and a slew of other platforms. Among other things this looked more like a cartel than a competitive media landscape, and I had an uneasy feeling early on that publicizing this arrangement might create a host of unanticipated problems for everyone involved. Still, there was no question this was in the public interest. So we kept going.”  (more)  ~ Matt Taibbi

On the issue of Twitter File access and personal motivation, Taibbi’s best financial and short-term professional interests would be served most by retaining a positive relationship with Musk/Twitter.  The fact that Taibbi would turn away from the lucrative interests, says something positive about his compass heading.

Accepting the COVID-19 files were never released, what some have called the Fauci files, and accepting the revelations within the filtered internal documents stopped abruptly, we can consider that ‘stakeholder’ interests became more consequential as the outside peering gained depth.  Likely the core of the platform, which we now know is based on a U.S Government intelligence relationship, needed a protective boundary.

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A very interesting interview conducted by Fox News host Tucker Carlson with billionaire entrepreneur, CEO and owner/operator of Twitter, Elon Musk.   The interview is interesting on a variety of subjects, specifically artificial intelligence, public speech, government control of the public information networks and the broad picture of freedom in a digital era.

The interview is extensive and provided below in multiple parts.  The first part discusses the big picture issue of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the potential of AI to disrupt society through the control of public opinions and perceptions of reality.  WATCH:

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The second segment continues discussing AI, more philosophical aspects of what defines humanity, and then the conversation transitions to the issue of government control within the Twitter social media platform that Musk now owns.

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Watching Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman return to work in the Senate reminded me today of all those professional republican voices who shout about ‘candidate quality’ when explaining GOP election losses.

Here’s the video as an audio/visual exclamation point about the irrelevance of “candidate quality.” WATCH (30 secs)

It’s the Envelopes, Stupid!

Nothing, not one single thing….  about candidates, debates, endorsements, media support, branding, imaging, leadership, effectiveness, policy, polling, communications, digital outreach, social media platforms, rallies or love of country matters in the 2024 election.  None of it matters.  The outcome of the 2024 presidential contest will be determined by ONLY ONE THING…. ….ENVELOPES!

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Consider this an open thread on this interview which will broadcast tonight at 8:00pm ET, along with a good preview by Tucker Carlson below.

The topic of Musk is interesting from multiple perspectives, particularly in an era of universal deceit, pretending and openly exposed manipulation of information by government and govt stakeholders.   I have my own keen reasons to watch the Musk dynamic closely, one of them pertains to the Twitter situation and what it means in the bigger sphere of communication.

Readers here will long remember my outline of the Twitter/Govt dynamic.  However, lesser focused is my empirical belief that a collaborative financial relationship, a subsidy of sorts, had to exist given the nature of both public and private enterprises.  The lesser discussed aspect to social media is the scale and cost of operations in proportion to the revenue the platforms can create.

Musk has essentially confirmed the basic premise I always believed about this public-private partnership; however, what has never been discussed is the financial subsidy for the data processing -and hardware- at scale.  People shrug off this part of the equation, but if you look at the financial moves Mr. Musk is making through the prism of trying to break free of a background financial dependency/subsidy, while simultaneously maintaining viable platform operations, then suddenly some of his moves make sense.

If you are watching the interview tonight, use this thread to share opinion, and I will update with video after broadcast.

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This is one of those reality moments when a few more people might scratch their puzzlers and, if we are lucky, possibly awaken themselves to the reality of World War Reddit.

It was not long ago when MSM headlines were all about how Russia was to blame for starving people around the world as a result of Ukraine farming shortages caused by war. As the narrative was told, specifically as it reflected in massive food inflation, the EU and corporate media said the global grain market was missing the farm output from Ukraine, ergo grain prices skyrocketed; ie. Russia bad.

Well, how does this story reconcile with that narrative?   According to Reuters reporting, the EU is telling all member states they must take massive shipments of grain and excessive grain commodities into their country even if it collapses the market price.   Poland and Hungary said they don’t want the excessive harvest outputs; the EU is telling them they must take them.

Funny how that global famine narrative now disappears under the weight of excessive commodity outputs from Ukraine.  Farming output going well in Ukraine. Weirdest war outcome ever. lolol

WARSAW, April 16 (Reuters) – Unilateral action on trade by European Union member states is unacceptable, the bloc’s executive said on Sunday, after Poland and Hungary announced bans on grain and other food imports from Ukraine to protect their local agricultural sectors.

After Russia’s invasion blocked some Black Sea ports, large quantities of Ukrainian grain, which is cheaper than that produced in the European Union, ended up staying in Central European states due to logistical bottlenecks, hitting prices and sales for local farmers.

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Tucker Carlson has interviewed Twitter CEO Elon Musk and will broadcast the interview on Monday at 8:00pm ET.

If Carlson had the accurate and full context of the background situation, he would be able to ask the right questions. It appears Mr. Carlson does have the key issues well understood.  This should be a good interview.

In this preview segment {Direct Rumble Link Here}, Musk admits his mind was blown when he discovered the extent of the full government access to everything that was happening on Twitter.  He essentially confirms two key elements.  First, our long-held framework of Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop, is accurate.  Second, Musk had no idea when he bought it.

There has been an ongoing debate about whether Elon Musk was aware of the U.S. government and intelligence community control over Twitter prior to the purchase; with many people saying there is no way that Musk could not know given the scale of the money involved, $42 billion and the due diligence that generally follows such transactions.

However, in this interview Musk states he had no idea how much operational control and influence the government and intelligence apparatus held over the platform prior to the purchase.

Readers here are so far ahead of the curve on this story, it’s kind of cool, funny, and yet frustrating at the same time.  Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop is all a wild conspiracy theory born from the oddly wired brain of some dude in the corner of the internet; until suddenly it’s not.

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Delivering statistics on gun deaths among teenagers, NBC News Chuck Todd discovers that black teenagers are killing each other at a much higher rate than white and asian kids.   Todd is shocked, shocked, at the outcome.  WATCH:

The rumors of cultural violence have Chuck Todd perplexed….

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Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, appears on Face the Nation to describe the current status of EU success in shrinking the economy to achieve parity with the shrinking of energy development. Ms. Lagarde is very happy with their ‘management of the transition’ so far, and sees slow economic growth combined with a citizenry happily accepting the lower standard of living, the new normal.

As Lagarde outlines, the lowered economic activity is helping the central banks support the objectives of the government officials and corporations who are giving the instructions. Overall, she is optimistic the common man and woman will continue accepting less ability to achieve personal economic and financial success, as the bankers and politicians continue managing the western transition. Things are going swimmingly. WATCH:

MARGARET BRENNAN: We’re joined now by Christine Lagarde, former head of the IMF, now the president of the European Central Bank. Good morning.

PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK CHRISTINE LAGARDE: Good morning, Margaret. Lovely to be back.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Good to have you here, and your recovery is going all right?

MADAME LAGARDE: Yes, in a couple of days, I think I’ll be fine.

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Given the nature of the club plan, we can probably expect to see the field thin much faster as it gets closer to Ron DeSantis launch date.

The South Carolina folks (Haley and Scott) will remain, and Asa Hutchinson is likely to hang out as the club player for Iowa, but pulling the other noise away from DeSantis will be a priority.  Also, no one will enter the contest after DeSantis.

With Trump surging, Team RdS needs every part of their 20% to remain as the floor.  The Big Club handlers can’t afford the optics of Ron DeSantis polling dropping further because it will make his pre-planned entry look weak and more transparent.   As such, Youngkin taps out before he reaches the ring.

(Via New York Times) –  Virginia’s governor is putting the presidential hoopla on ice.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin, the Republican whose surprising election in a blue-trending state set off instant talk of a presidential run, has tapped the brakes on 2024, telling advisers and donors that his sole focus is on Virginia’s legislative elections in the fall.

[…] “Listen, I didn’t write a book, and I’m not in Iowa or New Hampshire or South Carolina.” Instead, he said, he is putting his full focus on November’s statewide Virginia election, when all 140 seats in both chambers of the General Assembly are on the ballot. A decision to enter the 2024 campaign in November would be historically late, well past the first Republican debate in August.

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