"John is right. We should put ‘entertainment and compelling story and engaging characters’ first – and that is what we’re achieving, with or without political messaging."
"When Disney director John Musker said he understood ‘woke criticism’ and political ‘messaging’ should take a back seat, I couldn’t help but cry – there is no woke agenda!
"Over the past year accusations of Disney’s political pandering have skyrocketed following Halle Bailey’s turn as Ariel in the live-action Little Mermaid (a role which inspired young Black girls everywhere) and American-Latina actor Rachel Zegler’s casting as Snow White.
"What should have been a non-issue blew up into a fiery social media storm with the right-wing’s favourite buzzword ‘woke’ being tossed around like candy.
"Now acclaimed director Musker – known for helming Disney classics such as Hercules, Aladdin and The Little Mermaid – has put his misguided two cents into the exhausting conversation.
"First, he addressed the backlash to his 2009 Disney film Princess and the Frog, saying: ‘We weren’t trying to be woke, although I understand the criticism.’
"John didn’t expand on why he understood the criticism, making this statement even more disappointing. At the time Tiana (voiced by Anika Noni Rose) made history as the first African-American princess since the company was founded in 1923.
"Although the film touched on social class discourse, with Tiana working multiple jobs to support herself and achieve her dream of opening a restaurant, it could hardly constitute as ‘woke’." . . .
"Second, American patriots of all political stripes must come to terms with the current fallen state of the nation. The prosecution and incarceration of political opponents on trumped-up (no pun intended) charges is third-world, tinpot dictatorship, banana republic-type stuff—pure and simple."Josh Hammer
Joe Biden is asked a question about Donald Trump being a political prisoner by his government. He grins for a few seconds before walking out of the room without saying anything. pic.twitter.com/00ttZKSMBZ
Post-Trump Verdict, Will the American Right Finally Wake Up? | Opinion - Newsweek"Like many others in the punditry space, I am a lawyer by background. I practiced law at a major global law firm. I clerked for a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. I have I have published multiplepieces of formal legal scholarship on constitutional issues. I regularly lecture at law schools and present to professional lawyer groups across the country on assorted legal topics. I host two shows, one of which is explicitly legal-based—and with a focus, above all, on the unprecedented lawfare tactics sullying the 2024 presidential race.
"In other words, I know a thing or two about the law. And I have been doing my part to sound the alarm on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's sham prosecution and eventual show trial of former President Donald Trumpever since the George Soros-backed lawman first dropped his ludicrous 34-count indictment over a year ago. There are far too many technical deficiencies in Bragg's "case," to say nothing of the grotesque manner in which the presiding judge comported himself at trial, to recapitulate here.
"But for present purposes, the key point is this: None of those details matter. None of them.
"The key points following Thursday's first-ever criminal "conviction" of a former U.S. president, rather, are three-fold.
"First, the Democrats' long march to get the nefarious Orange Man by any means necessary, beginning with the 2016 election cycle, has finally worked. There was the Russia collusion hoax—birthed by the failed Hillary Clinton campaign and laundered through Fusion GPS and the tony law firm Perkins Coie LLP. There was the illegitimate spying on Trump campaign hands like Carter Page. There were the Democrats' street hooligans, from the Women's March of 2017 through the Antifa-Black Lives Matter riots of 2020. There was the constant Deep State undermining of the presidential agenda. There were two bogus impeachments—for an entirely inconsequential phone call with the Ukrainian president, and for the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol jamboree that transpired mere days before Trump was set to leave town anyway. Most recently, there was the Aug. 2022 predawn FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago, and all the multistate lawfare that has followed.
"Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) gave the commencement address at Yeshiva University this week. Fetterman has been in the news frequently over the last several months for breaking with the progressive wing of his party and standing up as a vocal defender of Israel following the October 7th attacks.
"During the proceedings, Fetterman even defiantly removed his Harvard hood, a dramatic and symbolic gesture. Fetterman was given the school’s greatest award.
Yeshiva University Honors Senator John Fetterman With Its Highest Award
“I’m just a senator with a big mouth that happens to be committed to Israel,” said Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) at Yeshiva University’s 93rd annual commencement ceremony on Wednesday. Fetterman received the private Modern Orthodox Jewish University’s highest honor for global leadership, the Presidential Medallion.
“It is truly humbling to be invited to share in this milestone with the graduates of Yeshiva University,” said Fetterman. “As we gather to celebrate the achievements of the graduating class, we must also acknowledge the profound significance of their journey within the context of the recent surge in antisemitism across the country.”
Fetterman said he was surprised by the invitation to speak at the ceremony, especially after finding out that last year’s commencement speaker was the inventor of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system. “I don’t belong in that company, I truly don’t,” Fetterman, 54, told the 1,700 graduates at Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens." . . .">To a standing ovation, Senator John Fetterman removed his Harvard Crimson hood during commencement today in outrage over the rampant antisemitism here on campus. This is what true leadership looks like!
Unsurprisingly, some therapists answered that of course they would work with patients who believed the State of Israel has a right to exist, which, after all, is the real meaning of the question. "Are you a Zionist?" is almost exactly the same question as "Does Israel have a right to exist." They mean the same thing, only stated differently.
. . ."De Niro has gone full Travis Bickle. However, now 80, it came across as De Niro screaming at the courthouse for Trump to get off his lawn.
"The diatribe is consistent with the messaging of Democrats, including President Biden, that “democracy is on the ballot” and that this may be our last election. De Niro was not satisfied with that alarmist message and decided to take it to an apocalyptic level in predicting a global meltdown.
"As I have previously written, it is a narrative that ignores our history and our values. To suggest that this may be our last democratic election is to suggest that both branches (and the population at large) would stand idly by as a president assumed tyrannical powers. That did not occur, even when this country was united by wars and national emergencies. With the nation now divided right down the middle, it is even less likely.
"That is why the “democracy is on the ballot” claims border on defamation against our Constitution. We have the most successful and stable democratic system in history. The success of that system is not measured by those who would riot or challenge our values. It is measured by how the system responds. Our system works because it was not only written for times of relative unity and calm, it also was written for times like these.
"What was particularly weird is that the Biden campaign succeeded in reinforcing the view of this case as lawfare, an effort to stop Trump at any cost." . . .
"The case violated virtually every aspect of the Sixth Amendment. The top New York court or the United States Supreme Court had better step in or this will not go well for America."Andrea Widburg
. . ."There were other problems, too, with this case -- Trump was tried by a jury not of his peers but of his political enemies, all Democrats, one a teachers union member, none sequestered, all voting against Trump on election day. Worse still, Trump was tried by a judge with profound conflicts of interest, his daughter a Democrat political operative, himself a Biden donor, giving an illegal donation for which he was only "cautioned" by the New York bar authorities instead of disqualified. Worse still is the oddity of his trying multiple Trump allies in the past, always handing out the maximum sentence he could get away with. That's too much coincidence." . . .
Felon? Trump is in good company - Monica Showalter . . ."Trump also joins Lech Walesa of Poland for the 'felon' title. Walesa was arrested and jailed in Poland in 1981, shortly after dicator Wojciech Jaruzelski declared martial law on the entire country based on his protests for free trade unions. Dictators declare national emergencies based on "threats to democracy" and it doesn't take long for them to just round their political opponents up.
"Trump also joins Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic, back when it was Czechoslovakia for the title of "felon." Havel had been banned, blacklisted and gagged for years for speaking and writing about the ruling communists' corruption of language, and finally, was imprisoned four times by the communist Soviet puppet regime for challenging the regime. Sound like anyone you know in the states? Certainly the dynamic of harassment and then imprisonment suggests a parallel." . . .
President Donald Trump’s sacrifices are like no other leader in the history of America - Rajan Laad . . ."Now for Barack Obama. The Obamas entered the White House with $1.3 million. Upon leaving, they received lucrative book, oratory, movie, and podcast deals which caused their net worth to multiply by almost 24 times, to $70 million. Experts claim that if the Obamas proceed on this trajectory they will be worth $242.5 million when all is said and done.
"What do we infer?
"All former presidents have benefitted from their tenure in the White House.
"The benefits are not just financial but social, as they are welcomed in elite circles that probably would have never entertained them before their presidencies.. . .
. . ."There is only one president in recent times who lost financially and socially following his tenure at the White House—that man is Donald J. Trump.
"Before being sworn in his net worth was around $3 billion, due to his amazing success in real estate and as a brand. After leaving the White House, his worth dwindled to $2.3 billion. Trump’s net worth soared to $6.5 billion a few months back when his popular Truth Social became a publicly-traded company." . . .
Team Biden Reacts to the Trump Verdict (townhall.com)"Team Biden is reacting to the guilty verdict handed down to former President Donald Trump by a New York City jury Thursday afternoon after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg filed34 felony charges, which were upgraded from misdemeanors with spent statutes of limitations, against him in April 2023. "
"First, the Biden campaign:
In New York today, we saw that no one is above the law.
Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain. But today's verdict does not change the fact that the American people face a simple reality. There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box. Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president." . . .
"For many of us, the Trump trial has seemed otherworldly, a vaguely familiar proceeding where common elements of a trial seem to have been flipped.
"Even before the jury instructions, the trial was controversial for both liberal and conservative commentators. At the start of closing arguments, most honest observers were still wondering what the prosecutors were alleging as to the crime that Trump was allegedly concealing with the falsification of business records.
"Then came the closing arguments. Around the country, it is standard for the government to go first with a closing to allow the defense to respond. The government is then given the privilege of a rebuttal after the defense rests. In New York, the defense must go first, giving the government free rein over its closing with no risk of contradiction from the defense. With the exception of objections, any abusive or improper arguments are left to the judge to address." . . .
. . ."Merchan did ask about the bail status, and the prosecution said there's no bail.
"Sentencing is scheduled for July 11, four days out from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where Trump will be selected as the party's nominee. Nothing in the Constitution currently precludes Trump from running for president in November.
"Trump is expected to appeal immediately, though the appeals process typically takes years.
" 'This gonna go up on appeal," Turley predicted." . . .
"Consider Biden’s choice of running mate: Kamala Harris. Harris’s political persona was as mostly as a ruthless prosecutor. “She is a dead-on prosecutor,” Harris’s political mentor Willie Brown wrote in her first months in the Senate, “and when she goes into that mode, watch out. She is out for blood.”
"Her failed 2020 presidential campaign, which was the audition for her vice president role, was explicitly about prosecuting “bad” guys.
"Then consider the Biden administration’s overzealous prosecution of pro-lifers, part of their outreach to their abortion-supporting base.
"Recall the Left’s bizarre infatuation with prosecutors Robert Mueller and Jack Smith.
"Also, consider the mania of liberal politicians calling for the jailing of Kyle Rittenhouse, who quite obviously acted in self-defense when he shot three different people who seemingly were trying to kill him.
"Delegations to the Egyptian-hosted hostage negotiations left Cairo on Thursday night after talks collapsed. A member of the U.S. delegation led by CIA director Willian Burns briefed reporters that the talks failed “due to Israel’s operations in Rafah.”
"Under normal circumstances—circumstances that would see the United States siding with Israel in its demands for the release of all hostages, as well as the eradication of Hamas’s forces and its regime of terror—such a statement could easily have been interpreted as supportive of Israel’s operation in the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip, where terrorist strongholds still function.
"Israel made an offer to Hamas that U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken praised as “incredibly generous.” Hamas rejected it completely, so Israel renewed its offensive entering Rafah. Nothing weakens Hamas’s negotiating position more than defeat. And now, having rejected the deal, Hamas can only expect a much worse offer from its perspective whenever talks are renewed.
"Unfortunately, that isn’t what the U.S. announcement meant at all. It meant that the Hamas and the U.S. positions are in complete alignment. This isn’t new information. The fact that the United States, like Hamas, views the hostages as a means to force Israel to capitulate to Hamas’s demands—including ending the war with Hamas victorious, leaving more than 100 held captive behind in Gaza and thousands of terrorists freed from Israeli prisons—became clear last Saturday.". . .
"The American political landscape has been rocked by what many are calling a travesty of justice. After a contentious trial, widely regarded as politically motivated, the jury returned a guilty verdict on all 34 counts against President Trump.
"Shortly after the verdict was announced, President Trump’s official website was updated with a bold and defiant message: “BREAKING NEWS: I’M A POLITICAL PRISONER!”
"According to the fundraising email:
I was just convicted in a RIGGED political Witch Hunt trial: I DID NOTHING WRONG!
They’ve raided my home, arrested me, took my mugshot, AND NOW THEY’VE JUST CONVICTED ME!
But with your support at this moment in history, WE WILL WIN BACK THE WHITE HOUSE AND MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
Crooked Joe Biden needs to get the message – right here, right now – that his chances of a 2nd term END TODAY!
Will the Trump Verdict Have Much Effect on the 2024 Election? New Poll Says No.. . ."A guilty verdict - which, as we see, is the case - 67 percent of registered voters say it will make no impact, while 17 percent say they will be less likely to vote for Trump; fifteen percent say they will be more likely to vote for him. This is a statistical wash; although we should note that this poll was taken before the verdict, when all this was hypothetical. At the moment, though, the only indicator we have is that this verdict won't have much effect.
"As for the impact of a not-guilty verdict - well, there's little point in discussing that now.
"There are a few likely outcomes of all this that we can predict right away, though:
"Joe Biden - or rather, his handlers - have the reason they need to pull out of any presidential debates now. Biden can swell up and pontificate that he's not going to debate a "convicted felon," and Democrats will line up to bark and clap like trained seals; this works to the Democrats' advantage, as any debate performance by the clearly-impaired president was bound to be a disaster.
"Donald Trump (and this is a guess, but I think it's a pretty good one) will suffer some see-sawing in the polls for a few days, but will continue slowly gaining ground, as he has been doing in recent weeks.
"If Donald Trump does win the election, which is perfectly possible as there is nothing in the Constitution prohibiting a convicted felon from running for or being elected president, the left will use this verdict as a reason to screech "Illegitimate President" for four years."
But in a Biden second term, there will be no guardrails. The administration’s decision to abandon Jerusalem and side with its enemies is a terrible development. But the fortuitous timing allows Israel and the American people to minimize the damage in the coming months, and, if Biden is denied a second term, over the next four years.
The Biden-Harris campaign has released a statement after a jury returned its verdict in Donald Trump's Manhattan criminal trial. Given that Joe Biden's son is facing federal criminal charges in two jurisdictions and goes on trial next week, the statement itself is completely asinine and tone deaf.
It reads:
“In New York today, we saw that no one is above the law.
“Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain. But today’s verdict does not change the fact that the American people face a simple reality. There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box. Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president.
“The threat Trump poses to our democracy has never been greater. He is running an increasingly unhinged campaign of revenge and retribution, pledging to be a dictator ‘on day one’ and calling for our Constitution to be ‘terminated’ so he can regain and keep power. A second Trump term means chaos, ripping away Americans’ freedoms and fomenting political violence – and the American people will reject it this November.”
"A second Trump term means chaos? More chaos than we already have? We already know what a Trump presidency means and chaos is not what we experienced during the first three years of Trump's presidency. The only "chaos" from 2017 through early 2020 was due to sham impeachment hearings by the Democrats - sham hearings that were a fitting prelude to the institutionalized lawfare Trump's been subjected to since Democrats knew he was coming back as the GOP's 2024 nominee.
"It really takes some stones for Joe Biden to say "Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain" given the indictment against Hunter Biden and everything the IRS whistleblowers testified to last year, when they said they were not allowed to pursue any leads that could eventually reveal evidence that Joe Biden committed a crime.
"President Biden was slated to deliver remarks from the White House after the verdict was released, but has postponed those remarks."
“ 'First of all, let me say this,” Biden spokesman Michael Tyler shouted over Trump supporters taunting the Biden campaign. “First and foremost, we are not here today because of what is going on over there,” Tyler continued, motioning toward the courthouse. “We are here today because you all are here,” he said, motioning to the assembled press.
"But the only reason the press were there was the spectacle of the Trump trial, a trial Biden’s White House has more than happily supported with snide remarks about Trump’s required presence in the courtroom. Tyler then added to the absurdity of the spectacle by introducing a masked Robert De Niro, who claimed Trump “wants to destroy not only this city, but the country, and eventually, he could destroy the world.”
"The farce of Biden’s courthouse campaign press conference has been more than matched by Bragg’s preposterous arguments in the courtroom. Trump is charged with falsifying business records by causing his accountants to label payments to lawyer Michael Cohen as legal expenses rather than something else. The prosecution has not, however, given any guidance on what an accurate description of the payments would have been." . . .
“First of all, let me say this,” Biden spokesman Michael Tyler shouted over Trump supporters taunting the Biden campaign. “First and foremost, we are not here today because f what is going on over there,” Tyler continued, motioning toward the courthouse. “We are here today because you all are here,” he said, motioning to the assembled press.
"But the only reason the press were there was the spectacle of the Trump trial, a trial Biden’s White House has more than happily supported with snide remarks about Trump’s required presence in the courtroom. Tyler then added to the absurdity of the spectacle by introducing a masked Robert De Niro, who claimed Trump “wants to destroy not only this city, but the country, and eventually, he could destroy the world.”
"The farce of Biden’s courthouse campaign press conference has been more than matched by Bragg’s preposterous arguments in the courtroom. Trump is charged with falsifying business records by causing his accountants to label payments to lawyer Michael Cohen as legal expenses rather than something else. The prosecution has not, however, given any guidance on what an accurate description of the payments would have been." . . .
"Photos showing vast spaces of emptiness at the Philadelphia rally began to circulate on Wednesday fromNew York Postreporter Steven Nelson.
“Photos from President Biden’s Philadelphia rally: the school’s gym is only about half full of supporters A good amount of space is empty and spacious press workspace takes up the rest,” Nelson noted on X.
The Judge overseeing President Trump’s New York trial has broken numerous judicial standards that his behavior should lead to his disbarment. Judge Juan Merchan’s bias against President Trump is indisputable. Any “reasonable” person can spot it. We go through each of his missteps, mistakes, and deceitful decisions aimed at swaying the jury to convict.
"His behavior is so outside the bounds of standard judicial conduct that he is guilty of not just ethical violations, but he clearly has violated Donald Trump’s constitutional right to due process.
"That violation could lead the U.S. Supreme Court to step in. In this podcast, I lay out the exact New York Statutes that prove Judge Juan Merchan’s official misconduct." . . .
