mastodonmigration

mastodonmigration, 1 day ago to random

Tomorrow in the Trump election fraud trial, Cohen's cross examination will conclude. The usual suspects on TV will offer their hot takes as to whether the defense 'scored points' or 'dirtied up Cohen' successfully.

Let's try to stay focused on the facts, not some kind of sports coverage analogy.

Bottom line is going to be, did Trump approve "grossing up" Cohen's payment, thereby commiting fraud, as shown in this piece of hard evidence, the Cohen bank statement with Weisseberg's notes?

mastodonmigration, 3 days ago (edited 3 days ago) to random

So now SpaceX, with no working spacesuit, and years behind on it's multi-billion dollar moon lander, is lobbying NASA to go to the Hubble Space Telescope.

"A successful private mission could improve Hubble's ability to point at celestial objects and, by boosting its orbit, extend its life by years... however, an accident could leave the multibillion-dollar telescope broken — or, even more tragically, tethered to the dead bodies of the astronauts sent to repair it."

https://www.npr.org/2024/05/16/1250250249/spacex-repair-hubble-space-telescope-nasa-foia

mastodonmigration, 5 days ago (edited 5 days ago) to random

So, over in the astronomy world there is some consternation about a tweet from eminent satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell.

Apparently "Starlink Precipitation" is now a thing. And yes, you got that right, Starlink precipitation is pieces of Elon Musk's fucking internet satellites raining down from space.

See also this post from @carlysagan: https://mastodon.social/@carlysagan/112448150797509408

mastodonmigration, 4 days ago to random

For those following the Trump election fraud trial.

Is this really what just happened?

Trump attorney shows Cohen texts between Cohen and Schiller that do not mention the Stormy matter. The attorney then says that these texts prove Cohen did not discuss the Stormy matter in a subsequent phone call.

Missing something here? Does this make any logical sense?

mastodonmigration, 4 days ago (edited 4 days ago) to random

For those following the Trump election fraud trial.

Just wondering about the New York Times' journalistic ethics having Maggie Haberman covering the Trump election fraud trial, when she is also identified several times during the trial as a go to reporter for pushing out stories Team Trump want to favorably spin.

mastodonmigration, 5 days ago to random

Really disappointed in Biden today. Believe given climate crisis we should be doing everything we can, including buying inexpensive EVs from China, to hasten the transition from carbon based fuels.

That said, certainly international relations are complex and we don't have all the information or know all the constraints he is wrestling with.

In any case, would never threaten to withhold electoral support. These issues pale measured against a Trump win and the incumbent end of democracy.

mastodonmigration, 5 days ago (edited 5 days ago) to random

New gag order violation? How does the judge deal with all this? Trump keeps finding new ways to break the law and rope others into breaking the law for him.

https://www.rawstory.com/editing-the-quotes-reporter-sees-trump-prepping-surrogates-talking-points-in-court/

"New York Magazine's Andrew Rice, appearing on MSNBC's "Alex Wagner Tonight," said he spotted Trump rewriting and editing lines that would be spoken by the handful of notable guests who made the pilgrimage to the court, where he's on trial for falsifying business records."

mastodonmigration, 6 days ago (edited 6 days ago) to random

Probably the most important documentary evidence of the crime in the Trump election fraud case is this Michael Cohen bank statement showing an amount Weisselberg wrote on the document of $420,000 — the $130,000 plus $50,000 repayments grossed up to $360,000 to account for taxes and a $60,000 bonus.

The fraud is revealed by "grossing it up" since this demonstrates the payments are being represented as income when in fact they are a repayment of the hush money Cohen gave Stormy Daniels.

mastodonmigration, 7 days ago (edited 7 days ago) to random

Cohen today said it was Melania's idea to spin the Access Hollywood tape as "locker room talk." We will most certainly get strong push back on this from team Trump in the days ahead, but let's recall that immediately after the tape came out just prior to the 2016 election, Melania was all over the media pushing this 'totally unfair' "boy talk" damage control canard.

Here is just one example from an interview with Anderson Cooper on October 17, 2016:

https://time.com/4534216/melania-donald-trump-billy-bush-boy-talk/

mastodonmigration, 7 days ago to random

The best place to follow today's riveting testimony by Michael Cohen in Trump's election interference trial is @GottaLaff and @Nonilex right here on Mastodon.

Today's threads start here:

https://mastodon.social/@GottaLaff/112434039123806359

https://masto.ai/@Nonilex/112434161732601624

mastodonmigration, 8 days ago to random

So, ah....

Trump Says He’d Deport ‘Anti-American’ Protesters in Bizarre Rally Speech

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-says-d-deport-anti-024045505.html

"Trump criticized the pro-Palestine protests on American college campuses, saying, “When I’m president, we will not allow colleges to be taken over by violent radicals.”"

mastodonmigration, 9 days ago to Astronomy

Thanks to the aurora tonight discovered that the amazingly wonderful Dr. Pamela Gay @starstryder is here on Mastodon.

For those who don't know her, Dr Gay is the co-host, along with Frazer Cain @fraser, of Astronomy Cast (https://www.astronomycast.com/) the long running and IMO absolute best astronomy podcast.

If you found today interesting and want to learn more about astronomy and this incredible universe, Dr Pamela Gay, Frazer Cain and Astronomy Cast are the best way to get started!

#Astronomy

mastodonmigration, 10 days ago to random

Notice. For those who may not follow astronomical news our Sun is "going through some things" this week.

Huge Coronal Mass Ejections, the largest in decades, directed towards Earth took place yesterday and will result in a severe Geomagnetic Storm arriving tonight and tomorrow morning. There is potential for disruption of communications, the electric power grid, navigation, radio and satellite operations.

For much more on this event @AkaSci has this excellent thread: https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/112413669499567336

mastodonmigration, 10 days ago (edited 10 days ago) to random

Notice. The Earth is currently experiencing a solar storm of extreme magnitude.

Images of aurora as far south as France and Germany are being posted. The skies above northern UK and Scandinavia are ablaze.

Check out @AstroMigration for dozens of posts of aurora images.

Check out this thread by @AkaSci for much more on the technical side of what we are now experiencing: https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/112419503406734631

Image credits: Simeon Schmauss @stim3on, @thejoelsylvester NOAA

mastodonmigration, 10 days ago to random

Some have been raising questions about the potential affect of current solar storm activity on satellite operations, and in particular the potential for something called Kessler Syndrome where loss of navigational control results in satellites colliding with each generating a runaway cascade of destruction (https://interestingengineering.com/science/kessler-syndrome-spacex-starlink-orbital-chaos).

Perhaps the foremost advocate for sensible regulation of low earth orbit, astronomer Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets discusses this subject: https://mastodon.social/@sundogplanets/112416664121492169

mastodonmigration, 12 days ago to random

Seems like petitions to remove Aileen Cannon have become a thing. Newsweek reports that over 300K signatures have been gathered.

These may not have any force, but it is something tangible you can do to register your disapproval. Another is to channel this anger into electing Democrats.

Here are four of the petitions to remove Aileen Cannon:

https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-the-petition-judge-aileen-cannon-must-recuse-herself-from-trumps-case?nowrapper=true&referrer=&source=

https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/remove-biased-judge-cannon-from-u-s-vs-trump-case

https://www.dailykos.com/campaigns/forms/sign-the-petition-judge-aileen-cannon-must-recuse-herself-from-trumps-case-2

https://www.thepetitionsite.com/819/262/485/demand-judge-aileen-cannon-recuse-herself-from-the-trump-case/

Newsweek article: https://www.newsweek.com/remove-aileen-cannon-petitions-300k-signatures-1898410

mastodonmigration, 13 days ago to random

For those losing their heads over today's actions by Judge Cannon, take a deep breath. This was always going to happen. The writing has been on the wall since Judge Cannon was drawn for the case. Getting all worked up about it is only going to make you crazy and desperate. The way we will rid ourselves of this menace is at the polls in November.

For a sober discussion on this topic this exchange today between @Teri_Kanefield and @JonChevreau is highly recommended:

https://mstdn.ca/@JonChevreau/112401937598899929

mastodonmigration, 18 days ago to random

So, was in the car today and wanted to follow Trump's election fraud trial, so for the first time in months listened to some CNN and MSNBC. It was horrible, but think we have a new "...but her emails" tag line for this election. Must have heard "...but is that a crime" fifty times in the space of an hour, which is pretty amazing since half the hour is ads.

mastodonmigration, 24 days ago to random

Anyone surprised?

Tesla autopilot recall under scrutiny:

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/04/feds-concerned-some-of-teslas-autopilot-recall-was-opt-in-reversible/

"Today, we've learned that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is concerned that Tesla's massive recall to fix its Autopilot driver assist—which was pushed out to more than 2 million cars last December—has not actually made the system that much safer."

mastodonmigration, 25 days ago to random

What a sad day...

“There is no immunity that is in the Constitution, unless this court creates it today"

Michael Dreeben arguing before the US Supreme Court

mastodonmigration, 26 days ago to random

Here is a great goal! And you can help.

Randahl Fink @randahl has started a campaign to assist resident journalist @dangillmor in reaching more followers on Mastodon than he had back on Twitter before following his principles and quitting the bird.

He is currently at 33K followers. On Twitter he had 43.5K. Only a little more than 10K to go!

Dan is superb, and if you don't already follow him, please give his work a try.

mastodonmigration, 28 days ago to random

We are incredibly fortunate to have two excellent play by play summaries of today's Trump trial here on Mastodon. News reports are one thing, but to get a real flavor if what's actually happening in court there is nothing like a primary source!

Check out

@GottaLaff >>> https://mastodon.social/@GottaLaff/112315091938632426)

and...

@Nonilex >>> https://masto.ai/@Nonilex/112315072067843512

...for a couple threads providing superb real time reports from today's courtroom proceedings.

mastodonmigration, 28 days ago to random

If you were wondering, even a little bit, if the New York Times was going to "both sides" Trump's criminal election interference trial, here's the answer. 🤷

mastodonmigration, 28 days ago (edited 28 days ago) to random

Really simple thead about Trump's Truth Social (DJT) stock. Don't get too worried about the fact that he will ON PAPER have another billion dollars tomorrow. It's just "monopoly money."

Back to basics. Stocks are shares in a company. They are sold in a market, the stock market ie. NASDAQ. For any transaction there has to be a seller and a buyer. Right now there are very few shares of DJT that are tradeable because Trump and other "founders" can't trade them yet.

1/2

mastodonmigration, 29 days ago to random

Tomorrow Trump's $175M bond may be ruled null and void.

Just a quick reminder that Trump is facing two tough court reckonings tomorrow. Everyone will be following the opening statements in his NY election fraud trial, but nearby his lawyers will be meeting with NY prosecutors and Judge Engoron to rule on the validity of his 'fishy' $175M bond for his business fraud conviction. If the bond is deemed invalid, asset seizure to cover the $450M+ judgement may commence.

https://www.newsweek.com/letitia-james-may-seize-trumps-assets-hush-money-trial-glenn-kirschner-1892580