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tthew
Full MemberNet losses at Trump Media widened from $210m to $328m in the first three months of this year. Revenue dropped 31% to $770,500 over the same period.
The big thing is that the losses are absolutely structural; the bulk of it is borrowing costs, and they are longterm and essentially fixed. So it's basically unfeasible that the company can ever make money. The best it can ever do is either write off a load of debt while still trading, which of course no normal investor would ever do, or continue to keep its head above water while spending money and borrowing more, which again no normal investor would ever do.
Of course, it can attract money from idiots but idiots don't generally have $100m to spend. So mostly what it's doing is getting money from people who don't expect to get a return on that investment, at least not financial. So you just ask who's throwing them these millions of dollars and what they could hope to gain by essentially pushing dollar bills into the least ethical presidential candidate of all time's g string. In the end it's like Trump bibles, a way of pushing huge amounts of money to the candidate while avoiding all the electoral rules.
Of course, the stock market is essentially a fever dream and you can make big money on a business that barely exists or lose your money on a completely sound profitable one and drag it down with you. But this is way more than that.
Keep going fellas. I know this thing’s a racket but keen to hear the routes the money’s taking. I always assumed most of it was coming from small investor MAGA useful idiots but keen to understand if there are heavyweights, shells and foreign investors piling in…
Whatever it is, I can't believe the SEC aren't taking a close look and gathering evidence...
I always assumed most of it was coming from small investor MAGA useful idiots
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_Social
In summary
$8m from 'Putin-linked entities' in Russia, $2m from ARC Capital a Chinese firm specialising in getting Chinese companies listed on the US Stockmarket, The CFO of Digital World Acquisition Corp is a Brazilian parliamentarian and ally of Jair Bolsonaro.
All this foreign investment is obviously money well spent as it has helped to make Truth Social the 101ist most popular social media platform!
scuttler
Full MemberKeep going fellas. I know this thing’s a racket but keen to hear the routes the money’s taking. I always assumed most of it was coming from small investor MAGA useful idiots
Basically important to keep the initial investors who made it possible for the company to exist, and stock buyers. Small investors don't have the spending power to fund the scam, they can only contribute and keep it rolling
I can’t believe the SEC aren’t taking a close look and gathering evidence
As the old joke goes, the scandal isn't that what they're doing is illegal, it's that it's legal.
has helped to make Truth Social the 101ist most popular social media platform!
But in the history of 101st most successful sites, it's the best. There's never been such an amazing site. I've seen it with my own eyes, it's bigly and the best, by a long way.
I don't understand how a company with a turn over of just 770k in a quarter and losses of over 300 million can exist? How does that work (serious question) as I feel I need to start up a company like that (not so serious)?
Another one of Trump's buddies arrested on money laundering charges.
CFO of right-wing Epoch Times accused of $67M money laundering scheme
https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1797991711261503995
The Epoch Times grew from a free newspaper in New York to a media company with a presence throughout the Western world and Asia in languages including English and Chinese, though it is not banned in China.
In 2019, it was barred from advertising on Facebook because of its pro-Trump ads that the social network said breached its rules about political advertising and transparency. The newspaper objected to the ban and said it had been running a “very popular digital marketing campaign for our print-newspaper subscriptions.”
An NBC News investigation that year found the outlet had spent more than $1.5 million over six months to boost thousands of pro-Trump posts, the most of any organization besides Donald Trump’s official campaign. The Epoch Times said the report was “incorrect.”
Just to expand a little on the 'what does Truth Social spend all all its money on?' discussion.
Across Trumps various business, fundraising and campaign activities there are employees. Employees that see stuff, and hear stuff and know stuff. Those people in the context of numerous court cases are also therefore 'witnesses'.
When it's time to be a witness in any given trial or investigation Trump employees might just magically find their wages double. Or their daughter might be given a job with the campaign that just happens one of the best paid jobs in the organisation. Or they might get a severance package worth $2m that carries with it a condition that they don't cooperate with law enforcement.
In at least one case a witness was given a place on Truth Social board - just utterly coincidently been given that position right between being subpoenaed to appear and them testifying.
assuming Trump wins they are much more organised this time
House speaker Mike Johnson elevated Ronny Jackson (R-TX) and Scott Perry (R-PA) to the House Intelligence Committee, giving them oversight of the entire U.S. intelligence community and access to the nation’s most sensitive foreign intelligence. The Intelligence community includes intelligence from the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.S. Space Force, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Department, the State Department, the Department of Energy (which oversees information about nuclear weapons), the Treasury Department, and the Department of Homeland Security.
It also oversees the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and that oversight is likely a key reason Johnson put Jackson and Perry on the committee.
A former Navy admiral, Jackson was Trump’s White House physician. Trump liked him enough to try unsuccessfully to promote him into the cabinet and within the U.S. Navy, and then to back him successfully for Congress after he retired from the Navy in 2019. In 2022 the U.S. Navy demoted him from admiral to captain after a 2021 report by the inspector general of the Defense Department showed he had “disparaged, belittled, bullied, and humiliated” his staff and abused alcohol on at least two occasions when he was supposed to be providing medical care to government officials.
Perry is more problematic than Jackson. Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, told the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol that Perry played an important role in the plan to keep Trump in office after he lost the 2020 presidential election. She told podcast host Scott Lamar in October 2023 that Perry was “central to the planning of January 6,” and she has said repeatedly that Perry asked Trump for a pardon before he left office.
Federal authorities from the FBI seized Perry’s cell phone in 2022 as part of their investigation into the effort to seize the presidency; he is the only member of Congress whose cell phone was seized. Like Trump, who has attacked the FBI since then-director James Comey refused to drop the investigation into the connections between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russian operatives, Perry has complained bitterly about the FBI’s investigation of him.
Now, Perry will be on the committee that oversees the FBI. In a statement, he said: “I look forward to providing not only a fresh perspective, but conducting actual oversight—not blind obedience to some facets of our Intel Community that all too often abuse their powers, resources, and authority to spy on the American People.”
Former director of the CIA General Michael Hayden wrote: “That’s unbelievable. Both of them. Intelligence Committee? God help us.”
😂
What the hell did I just watch?
And somehow people will still vote for that one...
You watch that and you think, 'No way, even Americans aren't that stupid, it's going to be fine.'
Then you go on election odds checker and you realise we are all 100% ****ed. The dip from his conviction has now more or less disappeared, by the way.
https://electionbettingodds.com/President2024.html#chart
"Nobody's ever asked me that question before."
That part, I believe.
In case he gets tried for a crime and death sentence is decided...at least we know how he wants to go...
The silent disinterest of the crowd is deafening!
He needs to lose the lectern - I've always though Trumps oration style would work better sat side on to the audience with a nice sparkly grand piano
This is worth watching, Jamie Raskin giving a Trump acolyte a history lesson.
https://twitter.com/BigBlueWaveUSA/status/1748210580505456793
You watch that and you think, ‘No way, even Americans aren’t that stupid, it’s going to be fine.’
Then you go on election odds checker and you realise we are all 100% ****. The dip from his conviction has now more or less disappeared, by the way.
If the dumb ****s in the US are stupid enough to vote him in then they deserve everything coming their way
Every day the film Idiocracy gets closer to being a documentary and we don’t even get Terry Crewes as the POTUS.
Then you go on election odds checker and you realise we are all 100% ****. The dip from his conviction has now more or less disappeared, by the way.
https://electionbettingodds.com/President2024.html#chart/blockquote >
Is it a coincidence that Trump's line is orange?
That video is bizarre, luckily he won't ever be in a position of power...
If the dumb **** in the US are stupid enough to vote him in then they deserve everything coming their way
Its more than just the American population that suffers though isn't it!
Watch the acolytes in the shark / battery vid. Only one wide reaction in response to him saying ‘lots of shark attacks recently’. Compared to the wider recording where they’re whooping’ and hollerin’.
Sorry Shitgibbon you even lost the faithful there you retarded ****.
So, anything other than a collective "who cares!"shrug about the Hunter Biden guilty verdict on STW? Or do we think the Reps or the Dems will make political capital out of it?
So, anything other than a collective “who cares!”shrug about the Hunter Biden guilty verdict on STW? Or do we think the Reps or the Dems will make political capital out of it?
The case itself was pretty cut and dried - what will be interesting is the sentencing in that quite large jail terms are an option but that would typically call for other aggravating factors - organised crime and violence basically. Its unlikely he'd get jail time but the fact that quite a long sentence is possible will make it seem like not receiving a custodial sentence will be the result of favouritism or interference
Will be interesting to see how the MAGA crowd react - I'm not sure how the republican gun lobby can square it with their insistence on wider gun use and fewer checks if the whole case is just about a bit of admin
- the specifics crime - ticking / not ticking the right box in relation to drug use when purchasing a gun... its a fairly low bar in terms of gun control to leave it up to the purchaser to self declare their suitability for gun ownership in that respect - but the republicans would argue that even that check shouldn't be there. (or that the form itself should be armed or something, other that drug councillors should be armed or something )
Theres also...
DJTJ's ex has discussed his drug use publicly (and there was evidence of cocaine use in the Whitehouse during his time there) - so if theres a similar tick on a similar form somewhere he's in the frame for the same chargers.
On these guilty verdicts regarding Biden and Trump, last time I checked only one is a presidential nominee 🤷
DNGAF
scuttler
Full Member
On these guilty verdicts regarding Biden and Trump, last time I checked only one is a presidential nominee 🤷DNGAF
Just a general comment, not specific to Biden here.
MAGA/the far right across the world have no problems doing some huge mental gymnastics on stuff like this mostly helped by an amazing ability to cope with planet sized hypocrisy... Yet the slightest sign of that from the "liberal left" is jumped on like it's an afront to humanity.
Hence, far right types can go all nationalist and patriotic to the nth degree yet still pal up with Putin who would love nothing more than to weaken the democracy/country they profess to love.
I'm not sure it belongs in this thread, TBH. But it also doesn't fit with the Gaza thread. But Poop's comment above highlights a weird trend here where far-right knobbers, who were previously threatening synagogues, are now flying Israel flags. There is nothing that defines them but their desire to be opposite to liberals. So yeah, they will bang on about how gun control is working because it caught HB while simultaneously opposing gun control. It's just owning the libs. Thankfully, even though it seems worse, it is a small minority. Apocryphally, I'm seeing fewer Trump stickers and flags in this painfully red county. While still seeing election shit for 'Vote conservative with...' type boards and adverts. Even these staunch reps are shying away a bit from openly cheering Trump even though they're surely going to vote for his shit-soiled arse.
Recently saw a video where Trump supporters were played "new found audio" of supposed Trump dialogue. The clips were created with AI but the supporters reactions to it were genuine.
Despite Trump "admitting" to various nefarious things including being late to in interview due to a blood test to verify whether Ivanka was his, because your know, who'd want to miss out on hitting that ass.
In reply to 10's comment. I think there's a fair dose of trying to own the libs but also a case of white nationalism... if there is an option to choose sides and one side isn't white, well its a no brainer for them.
I wonder how this latest example of the United States losing its previous grip on the region is going to be seen:
https://www.tipranks.com/news/u-s-saudi-petrodollar-pact-ends-after-50-years
Well, at least Lindsey Graham is still the shit-eating **** he's always been. Why would the highest court in the land need to have any ethics? They should be able to have their lifetime positions, with no electoral oversight, and do whatever the **** they want. This would never pass anyway; there would always be someone looking to curry favor and try to block it. And Graham is the kind of feeble-minded **** who would see this as a great way to advertise himself to the Trump-loving skidmarks of the conservative voters.
Well that went well.
No coming back from here I fear. Biden is finished, and too late to get someone parachuted in and get the recognition needed.
I fear we need to get used to Trump 2.0 being a done deal. And it's Biden's fault - what a deluded fool. I genuinely thought in 2020 he had a good enough grip on reality to appreciate his main role once Trump was beaten was to be the warm up guy for the next generation. So disappointing he didn't.
Any links for those not paying attention? /\/\
Guardian reporting that there are calls for him to stand aside. Problem is ‘for who?’
Article on BBC is pretty damning of sleepy Joe's performance and excuses that he had a cold and a generally toned down Trump.
Surely they have to get Kamla in? These two are the best the whole of USA can offer? I thought our choices were bad, but this is disastrous.
All reports suggest he's blown it.
Bugger.
Yes and no. Apparently the debates don’t really have a huge effect on the polls, and what effect they do have tends to be transient. We can all hope.
Shit. Watched about 30 seconds of it. Pretty bad..
Kamala would also be a disaster. She is very unpopular.
Biden blown this, he should never of stood.
God help us and all Western democracies. Project 2025 is incoming.
If you haven't heard of it, google it. Scary shit.
They've done it again. First Clinton who was loathed by a huge proportion of swing voters and now this.
The US Democratic party are absolutely useless at any form of future planning. The whole world suffers from their failure to make basic good early decisions.
Problem is ‘for who?’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Newsom
Yes and no. Apparently the debates don’t really have a huge effect on the polls, and what effect they do have tends to be transient. We can all hope.
Debates might not but countless youtube clips of Biden mumbling incoherently will.
Biden is done. The only hope is a contested convention and someone like Gavin Newson getting the pick.
It will probably still end up being Trump but if Biden doesn't drop out it will be Trump.
Debates might not but countless youtube clips of Biden mumbling incoherently will.
Yep, this is the biggest issue people have with Biden and it's not going to go unnoticed.
It's very worrying now.
Maybe it's a genius move from the Dems - get to the point where the swing voters think "anyone else would be better than these two" then wheel out the real candidate who fits the "anyone else" brief.
Ffs. I've said it before on here, but the Democrats could pretty much field anyone else as a candidate and they would have a 90% chance of winning.
Instead they pick a guy who is pretty much senile and the world will need to put up with the disaster that is Trump once again. If Biden had a shred of self awareness, or actually cared about the country he leads, he'd step down immediately from the race to make way for another candidate. As convert says, if Trump wins this one it is very much on Biden
First Clinton who was loathed by a huge proportion of swing voters and now this.
I'm thinking that Donald Trump will be caught by swing votes and a silent proportion of the electorate. The Democratic Party could have played the events of the last couple of years much better, but I really don't see a viable option to President Biden
I look around the world at it's various leaders and genuinely wonder, is the best that humanity has to offer?
Shit. I'm so upset for Ukraine.
It's a bloody tragedy. NATO, UK and the EU must step up.
Biden needs to look in the mirror and realise that the best thing he can do for America, Ukraine, the west... Is step down.
Debates might not but countless youtube clips of Biden mumbling incoherently will.
By the same measure though - it's hard to make clips of Trump when he isn't incoherent. 'Clips' - isolated moments - are the weapon used against Biden - Trump's Achilles heal is unedited live streaming. He's always been known from his off-script adlibs but they've become longer and longer.
A few days ago Fox was broadcasting one of his rallies and the just had to pull the plug on him as he went down some weird cul de sac about washing machines for dishes (if only was a catchy name for those)
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sLLWA_0RHeQ
Worry is the Democrats won't act quickly enough on this.
They've got 4 months so they need to select someone now and get them building momentum
Trump is vulnerable simply because he's not much worse than Biden when it comes to be a bumbling old codger.
Whatever happens it has to be done fast
Trump doesn’t have to make sense. Biden does. It’s not fair, but that’s how it is. Europe has a lot of work to do in the next 5 years… and we’re not exactly in the right place economically or politically right now to get that right I fear. Putin’s parties are going to be epic.
kimbers
Full Member
Worry is the Democrats won’t act quickly enough on this.
Yes, there is time but they and Biden must be decisive. Biden can come out of this well, he would be respected for stepping down, it shows respect for the office. It's the right thing to do and puts country before politics.
They’ve got 4 months so they need to select someone now and get them building momentum
I don't think that it's viable:
Joe Biden would need to stand down - no indications of that
There isn't a mechanism available now.
There's a Democratic Party national convention in August to rally around their Presidential (and VP) nominations
It would mean overturning the primaries where Joe Biden won by a massive majority
You can't just "promote" VP Harris. She would become President, but not Democratic Party nominee
I hate this, because polling-wise Biden still probably beats all his potential replacements in a match-up against Trump. I'm not sure why he is agreeing to debates when neither of them is the nominee yet.
Harris/Newsom/Whitmer are the obvious choices, but they haven't got their election and fundraising machines rolling.
Slow hand clap for the democrats. Some of us said months ago it was blindingly obvious Biden couldn’t be the anti-trump candidate, and now everyone can see why. Four more years of Trump on the way thanks to the hubris of arrogant and incompetent democrat senators and representatives. Nice work!
They’ve done it again. First Clinton who was loathed by a huge proportion of swing voters and now this.
So is Trump, anyone educated, most women, most of the black and Hispanic community all loathe him.
As an American you must be feeling today how a lot of felt in the UK in December 2019... are you ****ing serious? I have to choose between one of these pair of clowns?
A second presidency for the orange shitgibbon is now looking like a horrible inevitability, isn't it?
I hate this, because polling-wise Biden still probably beats all his potential replacements in a match-up against Trump. I’m not sure why he is agreeing to debates when neither of them is the nominee yet.
Polling suggests otherwise
In an "any democrat but Biden" Vs Trump, "any democrat but Biden" wins.
In an "any republican but Trump" Vs Biden, any republican but Trump" wins.
Both are really incredibly unpopular with swing voters. I think people outside the USA are only just catching onto this because all our news just focuses on Trump being bad but not what a problem Biden's age is.
I thought O’Rourke looked great but he seems to have fizzled.
Buttegeig could be good but will never get elected.
I think people outside the USA are only just catching onto this because all our news just focuses on Trump being bad but not what a problem Biden’s age is.
This is the problem with politics. Nobody is focussed on Trump lying repeatedly, rather Biden's apparent frailty.
CNN has fact-checked the debate, Biden managed 9-ish false statements, Trump 30-ish https://edition.cnn.com/2024/06/27/politics/fact-checking-the-cnn-presidential-debate/index.html
For clarity, I don't think that CNN should have live-fact-checked, that was for the candidates to deal with, but neither did that very well
Phillips P. O'Brien thinks that "If Biden cant win, it would be better to replace him asap, so that the Convention in August can nominate someone else.", but he would need to stand down first https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/not-knowing-your-candidates-until
It will only happen now if Biden either by himself, or through the persuasion of others, comes to believe that he does not represent the best chance to beat Trump. He will get the nomination if he stays in—as delegates are pledged to support him. However, all it would take is for him to step back and release his delegates—and the convention would be free to choose someone else.
https://electionbettingodds.com/President2024.html#chartBetting odds so far this year
The last 24 hours
Issue with betting is that (after the initial odds) does movement not largely depend on the amount of money staked?
It blows my mind that the only option for anyone remotely sane voter on either side of the election is to vote for "their" candidate and hope they die of old age so someone competent can take over.
Issue with betting is that (after the initial odds) does movement not largely depend on the amount of money staked?
Yes, but that's why it's such a useful indicator. Not so much of intention on how people are going to vote, but how people think people are going to vote. It's a Wisdom of Crowds thing.
It's also good because people have a financial incentive so you know they have at least thought about it a bit.
It's not the be all and end all but in this case it shows that people think the debate went so badly that they say Biden's chances of winning went from 38% (which wasn't great to begin with) to 22% (which is ****ing terrible).
By the way, since fivethirtyeight.com is no more I can definitely recommend finding Nate Silver's email newsletter for decent analysis of the election data.
He's been saying Biden should step aside for months based on the numbers.
sobriety
Free Member
It blows my mind that the only option for anyone remotely sane voter on either side of the election is to vote for “their” candidate and hope they die of old age so someone competent can take over.
I'm not disagreeing with you.
However, I trust that Biden has surrounded himself with pretty competent advisers to, erm, compensate for his...issues.
Trump though, we know who he will surround himself with... and it's fair to say they wont be around him for their competence but instead for their total unquestioning loyalty. The ultimate Yes Men environment. Dangerous.