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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Not much change in the last week according to the Morning Consult polling [DATA HERE]:

[Source Link]

The next two weeks are critical for the non-Trump team consisting of Ron DeSantis handlers, multinational corporations, GOPe professional political class, most elements of the RNC and the 2024 spearhead institution of the Republican Governors Association (RGA).  DeSantis handlers have him scheduled in Washington DC today, in an effort to circle the DeceptiCon wagons and fend off the MAGA insurgency.

However, as the DeSantis team call everyone trying to stop MAGA advancements, Florida Rep. Greg Steube became the fifth member of the sunshine state’s 20-member Republican congressional delegation to endorse former President Donald Trump for 2024.  [Details Here]

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Two quick juxtapositions to contemplate:

Just accepting things as they are presented to be, without laying opinion on the table.

♦ Mr. Elon Musk is saying he spent $44 billion to purchase a platform without any prior knowledge the U.S. Dept of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) was operating on the backbone of the communication platform he was purchasing.

Additionally, all due diligence that may have been conducted before the biggest expenditure in the history of social media networks, did not reveal this intelligence community operation, to him, until after the sale was complete.

Everything thereafter is based on this predicate.

♦ Mr. Ron DeSantis is saying he had no idea the apparatus of political constructs was creating a presidential campaign process over a period of two years that would require his ultimate approval and participation, during the period when he genuinely claimed to be running for reelection to be the 2022 Florida Governor.

Everything thereafter is based on this predicate.

Whether you believe these assertions to be true or not is entirely up to you.

However, with these two points in mind, what does that say about the current state of our national pretense?

Expand the discussion. I am very interested in how intellectually honest people view these assertions. (more…)

I am a reasonably intelligent person, generally of mild and polite disposition; perhaps blessed by the grace of a loving God and brutally practical outlook therein, and with the acuity to look at things from a slightly less complicated perspective.

I have watched, viewed, read and consumed the Potemkin Village discussion across a broad spectrum of platforms for several weeks.  I have watched the news, read the headlines, researched the general promotions from a wide variety of sources and personalities.  Heck, yesterday, I even forced myself to watch a painful podcast [LINK], which included the insufferable pontifications of Buck Sexton and Clay Travis as they discussed the Trump -vs- DeSantis popular genre of domestic 2024 politics.

The world is full of small voices shouting the exact same shiny things in unison.  However, one thing is abundantly clear… everyone in conservative and republican politics is consumed by the 2024 puppet show and focused, to the exclusion of all other intelligent review, on the Potemkin Village of federal political constructs.

Let me be clear….  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!

That’s it.

That’s the sum total of what matters.

Envelopes containing ballots.

Red envelopes -vs- Blue envelopes, and who can gather the most envelopes.   That’s it folks.  That’s the only thing that matters.

When Team Obama watch their opposition deciding on who is the best person to reach the “independent”, “middle”, or “swing voters”… as if voters really mattered, the David Axelrod’s, Marc Elias’s, David Plouffe and Barack Obama’s of the world laugh.  I mean straight up hysterically belly laugh.

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The downward spiral has reached critical mass. Following the Trump endorsement by Florida Congressman Byron Douglas [See Here], Team Meatball is triggered.  Ron DeSantis has begun calling Florida Republican congressional reps, begging them not to endorse President Trump.

You can almost see the cheese arriving to complement the whine.

(Via NBC) Gov. Ron DeSantis’ political operation has started calling Republican members of the Florida congressional delegation in an effort to consolidate support after four members publicly backed Donald Trump in his 2024 presidential bid.

Sources with four of the six members contacted by DeSantis’ team shared the outreach with NBC News; each requested anonymity to confirm the calls.

As Trump continues to lead in the polls for the GOP presidential nomination, the governor is trying to stop defections in his own backyard ahead of his expected run. DeSantis currently has no endorsements from the state delegation.

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To understand the humor in this it’s important to know that Florida Voice News is a fake news and Astroturf media operation set up entirely to promote Ron DeSantis.  Organized by CEO Brandon Leslie, a man who Will Rogers never met, the entire construct of the Florida’s Voice media firm (established in 2021) is to support and promote Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Florida Voice Media conducted a poll from their Twitter account. The FLVoice followers are all DeSantis supporters.  That’s the backdrop for this level of funny.

Even when a poll is conducted within the group that carries the most die-hard Ron DeSantis supporters, the results are the worst yet. The results are so bad for Ron DeSantis, that even Donald Trump promoted the DeSantis media operation on his Truth Social account.

(Source)

Even with all of the DeSantis die-hards on Twitter supporting the effort, they can only gather 16% support.  President Trump grows his 2024 GOP primary support to 80%.

“Top Gov” has sad.

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As team Ron DeSantis prepares for the national launch of a 2024 presidential bid, one of the campaign’s primary areas of concern is the need to create optics representing support and momentum.

As noted by comments delivered to the Washington Post by DeSantis PAC organizers:

[…] DeSantis allies are acutely aware of Trump’s still-strong influence and appeal in the Republican Party. A senior member of Never Back Down has said the group will be heavily involved in building crowds for DeSantis, in part because of Trump’s fixation on crowd size and the expectation that a front-runner candidate draws big audiences, according to a person familiar with the comments.

“If you’re DeSantis, you have to desperately avoid the small room with Jeb Bush asking attendees to please clap,” the person said, referencing a viral moment from Bush’s unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2016. (read more)

The last several weeks have been very rough for team DeSantis as noted by Politico:

[…] On the same day Trump was indicted in an alleged hush money scheme, the Florida governor was posing with puppies at a pet adoption event as his aides instructed reporters to leave.

“This is deja vu all over again,” said Terry Sullivan, who ran Marco Rubio’s 2016 campaign for president. “Trump dominates media coverage, making it impossible for his competitors to get any coverage or forward traction.”

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Sometimes the apropos of the thing is just too much fun to notice.  Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell is missing in action ever since his slip and fall/concussion a few weeks ago (insert shades of prior HRC issues here).  The conspicuous absence of media questioning his continued absence is a little odd for a DC that loves to notice such things.

Meanwhile, sniffing the possibility of enhanced career aspirations amid the political winds of incapable McConnell, Kentucky Republican Representative Thomas Massie, sees Ron DeSantis as a vector to electoral elevation.  Except, there’s a funny thing.

While Erin Perrine of Team DeSantis is quick to promote the endorsement for her managed Florida governor, a review of Representative Massie’s Twitter rapid-fire messaging doesn’t show the endorsement.   Thirsty DeSantis, with slipping polls, contrasts against a teeth-clenched Massie with political aspirations….  We laugh, because it’s, well, perfect!

Meanwhile, moments ago, in other contextual sunlight, Fox News human cabbage patch doll Bret Baier, leads off the GOPe/Murdoch Fox News narrative engineering with the 6:00pm promotion of Glenn Youngkin. LOLOL… These cats are just too transparently funny.

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Generally polling is sporadic depending on the agenda of the pollster.  However, two separate polls released within a 24-hour period show almost identical outcomes.

The YouGov Poll [DATA Here] shows President Trump with a 31-point lead over Ron DeSantis 52/21. No one really close after that. In the head-to-head matchup with only two options, Trump now leads Ron DeSantis 57%-31%.  That up from a 47%-39% last month.  [Yahoo News Article Here]

Another poll [Article Here] “by Trump’s campaign team, found that 51 percent of Republicans see him as their preferred 2024 candidate – putting him ahead of his biggest threat Ron DeSantis who scored 21 percent.”  That’s an almost identical outcome to the YouGov poll.

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