I agree three of four are excellent candidates. But theyll need to bat 100% in 24 and the two big factors that helped dem in 18, huge anti trump tsunami, AND this year, Roe and J6 will likely be faded from many voters next time.
point is, look at our states, NY VA and even CA….There is ample evidence of storm clouds.
VA isn't a concern. Youngkin was a good candidate and Mccauliffe felt like a has been. He campaigned lethargically and the voters reacted. Kaine and Warner will win as long as they run. They are both center left and are popular here.
Trump exec says he feared firing if he spoke up about scheme
By MICHAEL R. SISAK
Yesterday
NEW YORK (AP) — An executive at Donald Trump’s company testified Monday he was afraid he’d hear those famous words — “you’re fired!” — if he went to the big boss with concerns that two top company officials were scheming to dodge taxes on company-paid perks.
Senior Vice President and Controller Jeffrey McConney told jurors at the Trump Organization’s criminal tax fraud trial that he didn’t see much upside if he ratted on longtime finance chief Allen Weisselberg or operations chief Matthew Calamari Sr., two of Trump’s most trusted, loyal lieutenants.
“I thought if I started refusing or fighting back, I’d probably lose my job,” McConney said near the end of a sometimes contentious fourth day of testimony — a lengthy warm-up act for Weisselberg’s looming turn as the prosecution’s star witness.
“Allen was my boss. Who was I going to tell? I wasn’t going to confront him with it. I wasn’t going to argue,” McConney said at another point in his testimony. “I was going to do what he told me to do.”
Judge Juan Manuel Merchan declared McConney a hostile witness after prosecutors complained that he had been far more responsive to defense questioning, even though he was granted immunity to testify as a prosecution witness.
McConney, who still works for the Trump Organization and has a company-paid lawyer, acknowledged on the witness stand Monday that he's been speaking with company lawyers about his testimony when court wasn’t in session. He said he even performed some tax calculations on their behalf Sunday night.
“I think it is pretty clear to the average observer, he is very helpful to you (the defense),” Merchan said. “On the other hand, it seems like he has a really hard time understanding the people’s questions and he has a hard time, frankly, giving credible answers.”
McConney is scheduled to return to the witness stand on Tuesday. As a hostile witness, he could be subject to several more hours of questioning as prosecutors seek to square his previous trial testimony and his answers to questions during eight grand jury appearances in the last few years.
The Trump Organization, the holding company for the former president’s various assets — including buildings, golf courses and hotels — is accused of helping some top executives avoid income taxes on compensation they got in addition to their salaries.
The company, which could be fined more than $1 million if convicted, has denied wrongdoing. Its lawyers allege that Weisselberg concocted the scheme on his own, without Trump or the Trump family’s knowledge, and that the company didn’t benefit from his actions.
Weisselberg, 75, has pleaded guilty to taking $1.7 million in off-the-books compensation and agreed to testify as a prosecution witness at the trial, possibly as early as Tuesday, in exchange for a five-month jail sentence.
Trump Organization lawyer Susan Necheles turned part of McConney’s cross-examination into a preemptively attack on Weisselberg — eliciting testimony that he sneakily tried to enrich himself on the company’s dime.
McConney said Weisselberg and Calamari Sr. leaned on him over the years to fudge payroll records to hide extras such as Manhattan apartments and Mercedes-Benz cars from their taxable income, in part by reducing their salaries by the cost of those perks and issuing falsified W-2 forms.
McConney said Weisselberg, his supervisor, once even had him set his wife up with a one-time $6,000 payroll check for a no-show job at the company so she could qualify for Social Security benefits. He said Weisselberg warned him not to tell others in the company about what they were doing.
“Allen Weisselberg did not want other people at the company to know this secret,” McConney said.
Trump signed off on some salary adjustments — which McConney said Weisselberg claimed was his way of paying back the company for the perks — but it isn’t clear if he knew they weren’t paying taxes.
Neither Trump nor any of his children who have worked as Trump Organization executives are charged or accused of wrongdoing.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass seized on McConney’s reluctance to tell Trump, questioning him on what’s known as re-direct examination — a chance for him to ask more questions after the defense’s cross-examination.
“You falsified W-2s, you invented an employee and gave her a W-2 for work she didn’t perform,” Steinglass asked. “Did you ever bring this to Donald Trump’s attention and say, ‘the CFO is making me commit a fraud … I’m uncomfortable doing this.’”
“No,” McConney said.
Also Monday, the judge in the New York attorney general’s fraud lawsuit against Trump and the Trump Organization has appointed former Manhattan federal judge Barbara Jones as an independent monitor overseeing the company’s business dealings.
Jones recently served as special master in two other high-profile cases related to Trump. She reviewed materials seized in FBI raids on Trump’s one-time personal lawyers — Michael Cohen, in an investigation related to hush-money payments, and Rudy Giuliani, in a probe of his dealings in Ukraine.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
POOTWH will carry 35% of repub voters. That is his base. Throughout his tenure, the 35% have never wavered.
35% = 25,978,391 repub voters. These are the flag buying/flying, boat parading, slow rolling coal, painting the barn, house and yard, small dollar recurring donation donor white nationalists fearing elimination of the white race Qanon deplorables (that Hillary Clinton tried to warn us about and Stephen Miller, SteveO, Rodger Dodger Stoned, Josh Hee Hawly, Maggie Three Names, Matt Getts Off, Lindsey Flimsey Flipped Flopped Faloozy Graham and the rest of his ilk lead).
Does anyone have a transcript of POOTWH’s word salad? In case the fake media false news got the quotes wrong?
Trump aide Jason Miller promised a 35-minute, “very forward-looking” speech. Instead, it was interminable, meandering and, well, low-energy, as Trump kept departing from the teleprompter into gibberish.
He was defensive. He said the “fake news” is “trying to blame me” for the disappointing election showing, but he had an “unprecedented success rate” (!) with his endorsements.
He spoke nonsense: “I’ve gone decades — decades — without a war, the first president to do it that long,” he said of his four-year term.
He renewed old grievances. “I’m a victim,” he complained, moaning about the“fake dossier” — of six years ago.
He lashed out anew at immigrants undertaking an “invasion” of America for "very bad and sinister reasons.”
This really might be fun! I wonder if Putin on the ritz’s troll farms are going to work overtime to see POOTWH through till the end? Koch Brother? MBS? Elongitaint? How long before there’s quits for more family time or firings via TruthSocialist?
The sentence announcing his candidacy for president came immediately after one portraying President Biden as senile, “going to Idaho and saying welcome to the state of Florida.”
As Trump rambled, the planned 35-minute speech eventually passed the 65-minute mark. Along the way, the crowd of about 600 grew listless. Even Sean Hannity cut away on Fox News.
Karl Marx, of all people, anticipated the Donald Trump of 2022, when he noted that great personages of history occur twice, “the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.”
Only a fool would count Trump out. If past is prologue, GOP leaders who criticize him now will embrace him anew in about a week.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,297
"Acronym my friend/ don't you start away uneasy..."
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!" -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
"Try to not spook the horse."
-Neil Young
0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,297
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!" -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Comments
Tonight is such a time.
NEW YORK (AP) — An executive at Donald Trump’s company testified Monday he was afraid he’d hear those famous words — “you’re fired!” — if he went to the big boss with concerns that two top company officials were scheming to dodge taxes on company-paid perks.
Senior Vice President and Controller Jeffrey McConney told jurors at the Trump Organization’s criminal tax fraud trial that he didn’t see much upside if he ratted on longtime finance chief Allen Weisselberg or operations chief Matthew Calamari Sr., two of Trump’s most trusted, loyal lieutenants.
“I thought if I started refusing or fighting back, I’d probably lose my job,” McConney said near the end of a sometimes contentious fourth day of testimony — a lengthy warm-up act for Weisselberg’s looming turn as the prosecution’s star witness.
“Allen was my boss. Who was I going to tell? I wasn’t going to confront him with it. I wasn’t going to argue,” McConney said at another point in his testimony. “I was going to do what he told me to do.”
Judge Juan Manuel Merchan declared McConney a hostile witness after prosecutors complained that he had been far more responsive to defense questioning, even though he was granted immunity to testify as a prosecution witness.
BUSINESS
Trump Org.'s longtime CFO testifies at company's fraud trial
Walmart offers to pay $3.1 billion to settle opioid lawsuits
Walmart puts up strong Q3, announces opioid settlement
US wholesale inflation eases to 8%, 4th straight slowdown
McConney, who still works for the Trump Organization and has a company-paid lawyer, acknowledged on the witness stand Monday that he's been speaking with company lawyers about his testimony when court wasn’t in session. He said he even performed some tax calculations on their behalf Sunday night.
“I think it is pretty clear to the average observer, he is very helpful to you (the defense),” Merchan said. “On the other hand, it seems like he has a really hard time understanding the people’s questions and he has a hard time, frankly, giving credible answers.”
McConney is scheduled to return to the witness stand on Tuesday. As a hostile witness, he could be subject to several more hours of questioning as prosecutors seek to square his previous trial testimony and his answers to questions during eight grand jury appearances in the last few years.
The Trump Organization, the holding company for the former president’s various assets — including buildings, golf courses and hotels — is accused of helping some top executives avoid income taxes on compensation they got in addition to their salaries.
The company, which could be fined more than $1 million if convicted, has denied wrongdoing. Its lawyers allege that Weisselberg concocted the scheme on his own, without Trump or the Trump family’s knowledge, and that the company didn’t benefit from his actions.
Weisselberg, 75, has pleaded guilty to taking $1.7 million in off-the-books compensation and agreed to testify as a prosecution witness at the trial, possibly as early as Tuesday, in exchange for a five-month jail sentence.
Trump Organization lawyer Susan Necheles turned part of McConney’s cross-examination into a preemptively attack on Weisselberg — eliciting testimony that he sneakily tried to enrich himself on the company’s dime.
McConney said Weisselberg and Calamari Sr. leaned on him over the years to fudge payroll records to hide extras such as Manhattan apartments and Mercedes-Benz cars from their taxable income, in part by reducing their salaries by the cost of those perks and issuing falsified W-2 forms.
McConney said Weisselberg, his supervisor, once even had him set his wife up with a one-time $6,000 payroll check for a no-show job at the company so she could qualify for Social Security benefits. He said Weisselberg warned him not to tell others in the company about what they were doing.
“Allen Weisselberg did not want other people at the company to know this secret,” McConney said.
Trump signed off on some salary adjustments — which McConney said Weisselberg claimed was his way of paying back the company for the perks — but it isn’t clear if he knew they weren’t paying taxes.
Neither Trump nor any of his children who have worked as Trump Organization executives are charged or accused of wrongdoing.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass seized on McConney’s reluctance to tell Trump, questioning him on what’s known as re-direct examination — a chance for him to ask more questions after the defense’s cross-examination.
“You falsified W-2s, you invented an employee and gave her a W-2 for work she didn’t perform,” Steinglass asked. “Did you ever bring this to Donald Trump’s attention and say, ‘the CFO is making me commit a fraud … I’m uncomfortable doing this.’”
“No,” McConney said.
Also Monday, the judge in the New York attorney general’s fraud lawsuit against Trump and the Trump Organization has appointed former Manhattan federal judge Barbara Jones as an independent monitor overseeing the company’s business dealings.
Jones recently served as special master in two other high-profile cases related to Trump. She reviewed materials seized in FBI raids on Trump’s one-time personal lawyers — Michael Cohen, in an investigation related to hush-money payments, and Rudy Giuliani, in a probe of his dealings in Ukraine.
___
Follow Michael Sisak on Twitter at twitter.com/mikesisak and send confidential tips by visiting https://www.ap.org/tips/.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/11/no/
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
35% = 25,978,391 repub voters. These are the flag buying/flying, boat parading, slow rolling coal, painting the barn, house and yard, small dollar recurring donation donor white nationalists fearing elimination of the white race Qanon deplorables (that Hillary Clinton tried to warn us about and Stephen Miller, SteveO, Rodger Dodger Stoned, Josh Hee Hawly, Maggie Three Names, Matt Getts Off, Lindsey Flimsey Flipped Flopped Faloozy Graham and the rest of his ilk lead).
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Trump aide Jason Miller promised a 35-minute, “very forward-looking” speech. Instead, it was interminable, meandering and, well, low-energy, as Trump kept departing from the teleprompter into gibberish.
He was defensive. He said the “fake news” is “trying to blame me” for the disappointing election showing, but he had an “unprecedented success rate” (!) with his endorsements.
He spoke nonsense: “I’ve gone decades — decades — without a war, the first president to do it that long,” he said of his four-year term.
He renewed old grievances. “I’m a victim,” he complained, moaning about the “fake dossier” — of six years ago.
He lashed out anew at immigrants undertaking an “invasion” of America for "very bad and sinister reasons.”
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
The sentence announcing his candidacy for president came immediately after one portraying President Biden as senile, “going to Idaho and saying welcome to the state of Florida.”
As Trump rambled, the planned 35-minute speech eventually passed the 65-minute mark. Along the way, the crowd of about 600 grew listless. Even Sean Hannity cut away on Fox News.
Karl Marx, of all people, anticipated the Donald Trump of 2022, when he noted that great personages of history occur twice, “the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.”
Only a fool would count Trump out. If past is prologue, GOP leaders who criticize him now will embrace him anew in about a week.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Well, look at it this way, if he can only get a couple of Tribbles to show for his speech, I'm thinking he's done for!
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Prague Krakow Berlin 2018. Berlin 2022
EV, Taormina 1+2 2017.
I wish i was the souvenir you kept your house key on..
never left
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana; 2025: Pitt1, Pitt2
The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana; 2025: Pitt1, Pitt2
The best thing for the GOP would be for tRump to say he's ready to step back and support the future nominee and just keep his fucking mouth shut.
He is unable to do that so he'll take the whole motherfucker down with him.
The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana; 2025: Pitt1, Pitt2
ISO Hollywood & Nashville 2 tickets. PM me to coordinate a drop!