Jaff's stupid shit

[Racehorse]

Originally Posted by JAFF

I’m better on my wife and daughters

WTF are you doing on your daughters?

[JAFF]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ju...bbcc5003&ei=16

[JAFF]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...614c5fad&ei=27

[JAFF]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainm...19a2051&ei=140

According to emails contained in Dominion attorneys' slide deck used against the company in a hearing earlier this March, Suzanne Scott— Fox News CEO since 2018—wrote to Fox News Executive Vice President of Primetime Programming Meade Cooper on December 2, 2020, demanding the network's reporters immediately stop fact-checking Trump's false claims about the election and the security of Dominion's voting machines, claiming it was bad for business.

"This has to stop now," wrote Scott. "[...] this is bad business and there is clearly a lack of understanding what is happening in these shows. The audience is furious and we are just feeding them material."

"Bad for business," she emphasized.

[JAFF]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/30/polit...ent/index.html

[JAFF]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/31/media...uit/index.html

Dominion Voting Systems’ historic defamation case against Fox News will proceed to a high-stakes jury trial in mid-April, a Delaware judge ruled Friday, in a major decision that dismantled several of the right-wing network’s key defenses.

The judge’s decision is a painful setback for Fox News and sets the stage for an agonizing, weekslong trial, where the network’s highest-ranking executives and most prominent hosts could be called to the stand to testify about the 2020 election lies that were promoted on its air.

Both sides had asked Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis for a pretrial ruling in their favor, declaring them the winner. After thousands of pages of filings and exhibits, and a series of courtroom clashes, Davis decided the case should go to trial. But one question jurors won’t need to weigh, he concluded, was whether Fox’s claims about Dominion were true or false.

“The evidence developed in this civil proceeding demonstrates that is CRYSTAL clear that none of the Statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true,” Davis wrote.

Unless there is an out-of-court settlement — which is always possible — Davis’ ruling means jurors will need to decide whether Fox News defamed Dominion by repeatedly promoting false claims that the voting technology company rigged the 2020 presidential election by flipping millions of votes from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. Dominion wants $1.6 billion in damages.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin on April 13 in Wilmington, Delaware.

Fox News and its parent company, Fox Corporation, deny all wrongdoing. They’ve argued that their conspiracy theory-filled broadcasts after the 2020 election were protected by the First Amendment, because their on-air reporters were merely reporting on “newsworthy allegations.”

“This case is and always has been about the First Amendment protections of the media’s absolute right to cover the news,” a Fox spokesperson said in a statement after the ruling. “Fox will continue to fiercely advocate for the rights of free speech and a free press as we move into the next phase of these proceedings.”

Judge blocks key Fox defenses
In his 130-page ruling, Davis dismantled several of Fox News’ potential trial defenses, dealing a significant blow to the network. On the whole, these findings from Davis take away several key arguments that Fox could’ve presented to the jury, making it harder for them to prevail at trial.

Davis ruled that Fox News can’t invoke the “neutral report privilege,” which protects journalists who neutrally pass along newsworthy allegations in an unbiased fashion. Dominion had argued that Fox News hosts essentially took a side while covering the fallout of the 2020 election, by throwing their weight behind the false idea that the results were illegitimate, and Dominion was to blame.

“The evidence does not support that (Fox News) conducted good-faith, disinterested reporting,” Davis wrote. “(Fox News’) failure to reveal extensive contradicting evidence from the public sphere and Dominion itself indicates that its reporting was not disinterested.”

The judge also blocked Fox News from using the “fair report privilege” with the jury. That legal doctrine protects journalists who report on what is being said at official proceedings, like congressional hearings, or on allegations being levied in court filings, like in a civil lawsuit.

Davis pointed out that the timeline of Fox’s on-air statements didn’t sync up with the lawsuits, many filed by pro-Trump lawyers like Sidney Powell, that sought to overturn the 2020 election.

“Most of the contested statements were made before any lawsuit had been filed in court,” Davis wrote, adding that out of the nearly 20 broadcasts on Fox’s networks that Dominion claims damaged their reputation, “only one broadcast at issue even mentioned Ms. Powell’s lawsuit.”

(L to R) Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of News Corp and chairman of Fox News, and Lachlan Murdoch, co-chairman of 21st Century Fox, walk together as they arrive on the third day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 13, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Judge in Dominion defamation case skeptical of Fox's arguments, as both sides seek a pretrial win
The judge gave Dominion a boost by determining that the on-air statements at the heart of the litigation were either factual assertions or “mixed opinion,” which might make it harder for Fox to defend itself in front of the jury. Fox had asked Davis to rule that the statements were “pure opinion,” and therefore couldn’t be defamatory under the First Amendment.

“The context supports the position that the statements were not pure opinion when they were made by newscasters holding themselves out to be sources of accurate information,” Davis wrote.

Davis additionally wrote in his ruling that even if the statements were opinion, Fox News would not be protected under the Constitution, given that they appeared to “charge Dominion with the serious crime of election fraud.”

“Accusations of criminal activity, even in the form of opinion, are not constitutionally protected,” Davis wrote

The voting technology firm cheered these parts of Davis’ ruling in a statement on Friday.

“We are gratified by the Court’s thorough ruling soundly rejecting all of Fox’s arguments and defenses, and finding as a matter of law that their statements about Dominion are false. We look forward to going to trial,” a Dominion spokesperson said in a statement.

Damning revelations
Fox’s legal liability will be decided at trial. But the case has already battered Fox’s reputation.

Incriminating texts and emails have shown how Fox executives, hosts and producers didn’t believe the claims the network was peddling about Dominion. These revelations drove a dagger through the idea that Fox News is anything but a partisan GOP operation focused on ratings — not journalism.

The lawsuit is seen as one of the most consequential defamation cases in recent memory. Fox has argued that a loss will eviscerate press freedoms, and many scholars agree that the bar should remain high to prove defamation. Other analysts have said holding Fox accountable for knowingly airing lies won’t pose a threat to objective journalists who would never do that in the first place.

The case has elicited a mountain of evidence exposing Fox News as a right-wing profit machine lacking the most basic journalistic ethics — and willing to promote unhinged election conspiracy theories to preserve its lucrative business.

Fox Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch conceded in his sworn deposition that several of his top hosts endorsed election lies on the air that he knew were false. And after the 2020 election, its most prominent stars and top executives privately trashed the conspiracy theories that were being spread on-air, according to internal text messages and emails revealed in court filings.

The legal filings showed how worried Fox News executives and hosts were of losing viewership to Newsmax, a smaller right-wing talk channel that was saturating its airwaves with election denialism. And in multiple instances, Fox News executives and hosts started to crack down on those at the network who fact-checked election lies, private messages revealed in court filings showed.

Despite what appeared on air, Fox News executives and hosts privately criticized the Trump camp for pushing claims of election fraud. Hannity said Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s then-lawyer, was “acting like an insane person” and Ingraham described him as “an idiot.” Rupert Murdoch said it was “really bad” that Giuliani was advising Trump.

[JAFF]

Los Angeles, Las Vegas and other major cities could face huge water cuts in feds’ proposed plan to save the Colorado River

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/11/us/co...ate/index.html

CNN
—
The Biden administration on Tuesday released a highly anticipated analysis of the Colorado River crisis that paints a dire picture of what that river system’s collapse would portend for the West’s major cities, farmers and Native tribes.

In the draft analysis, the US Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation offers two different scenarios for how to slash water usage should the levels in Lakes Mead and Powell continue to plummet, with the immediate goal of keeping enough Colorado River flowing through the Glen Canyon and Hoover dams to supply hydroelectric power to hundreds of thousands of customers.

But the implications of the analysis go far beyond hydropower.

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The Colorado River provides water and electricity to more than 40 million people in seven states: Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and California. Decades of overuse, combined with years of drought worsened by the climate crisis, have spurred a sharp drop in water levels in recent years at Lakes Mead and Powell, the nation’s largest reservoirs that power Hoover and Glen Canyon and provide water for drinking and agriculture to millions.

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In both of the federal government’s scenarios, states, farms and tribes could be forced to cut nearly 2.1 million more acre-feet of their Colorado River usage in 2024, on top of existing water-conservation agreements struck in past years.

That is an enormous amount of water, roughly 684 billion gallons and nearly equivalent to what the entire state of Arizona was expected to use from the Colorado River this year.

The Interior Department is expected to make a final decision on the cuts – and how and when they would be implemented – later this summer.

After an epic winter full of record-breaking snow and flooding rainfall in the West, state water officials have said the pressure is easing to find an immediate solution to the Colorado River’s woes. But Deputy Interior Sec. Tommy Beaudreau told CNN that the department didn’t consider this year’s historic winter in its analysis.

“While it’s encouraging, it’s great, the long-term trend here has been continued drought and water shortages,” Beaudreau said. “But there’s a chance even with a good water year that it just kind of pushes the curve out a few months and we have to continue our planning process accordingly.”

Water intake towers at the Hoover Dam on April 3.
Water intake towers at the Hoover Dam on April 3.
Will Lanzoni/CNN
What the cuts would mean for cities, farmers and tribes
As pressure mounts for the federal government to come up with a fair deal for water users, Camille Calimlim Touton, the Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner, said Tuesday in a news conference that the Colorado River “is one community comprised of 40 million people and landscapes that need us to get this right.”

Touton and other officials spoke Tuesday in front of Lake Mead’s dramatic bathtub ring, showing how much the water levels there have fallen.

And while the extent of the water cuts is the same in the two main scenarios, the difference lies in who would bear the brunt of the cuts.

In one, major Western cities – including Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix – would take the vast majority of the water cuts if Lake Mead levels were to plummet further, because these cities have a lower priority claim to the water, compared to farmers and Native tribes.

The Colorado River flows through the Imperial National Wildlife Refuge in Yuma, Arizona.
Did this winter solve the Colorado River crisis? No -- but it took some pressure off, for now
And it would be a major blow to those cities; 90% of Las Vegas’ water supply comes from the river, while Phoenix’s water supply is about 40% Colorado River water, for example.

“For purposes of the analysis, we show what the effect would be,” Beaudreau told CNN, adding he hopes the stark figures help spur an agreement among seven basin states.

The other scenario examines what would happen if the water cuts are spread equally among cities, farmers and tribes alike – an option that some high-priority water users have warned could result in a prolonged, high-stakes court battle between states and the federal government.

There is also a third scenario the feds offered: Do nothing. But that is not an option states or the federal government are seriously considering as the Colorado River continues to decline.

Will Lanzoni/CNN
Beaudreau called the no-action option the “most severe” for the river basin, but said it was important to include to emphasize why more cuts are so critical should water levels plummet further.

The federal government is trying to paint a picture that shows what a future with less water would actually look like, Beaudreau said, in hopes that sparring states can come together with a short-term agreement on cuts.

“There has been a lot of negotiation and conversation among the states and with the Interior Department, but a lot of it’s been conceptual and abstract,” Beaudreau told CNN. “Putting things down on paper to give direction I think will meaningfully move the conversation.”

Arizona’s top water official Tom Buschatzke said the federal plan “presents multiple paths forward, but those paths have dire consequences.”

“In some cases, it may spur opposition or even litigation,” Buschatzke said at Tuesday’s news conference. “Instead, let us accelerate our discussions in the basin for a collaborative consensus-based outcome.”

California’s lead negotiator in the Colorado River talks, JB Hamby, echoed that sentiment, and said Arizona, California and the other states are looking to “develop a true, seven-state consensus in the coming months – ideally in the next 45-day period.”

The two main scenarios may also not be what is finalized later this summer, as states continue to negotiate among themselves. And a third, less-severe option could ultimately emerge based on how water levels in Lakes Mead and Powell respond to this winter’s rain and snow, as well as water cuts that are already being implemented across farms and cities in the Southwest, Beaudreau said.

Administration officials are incentivizing water cuts across agriculture in exchange for federal dollars. Last week, Beaudreau and other administration officials announced the first deal it signed in a series of short-term agreements to fallow water-intensive farmland and keep more water in Lake Mead. More fallowing agreements, some of which are still being negotiated, could be coming in the next few weeks.

A canal runs through Imperial Valley farm land in Southern California on April 4.
A canal runs through Imperial Valley farm land in Southern California on April 4.
Will Lanzoni/CNN
The result of those programs could change the landscape enough by late summer that the feds could ramp down the extent of the water cuts in their final decision.

“It all depends on how much the shortages are,” he said. “If there’s conservation in the system that keeps water in Lake Mead, and we have to make minimal shortage reductions on top of [existing drought guidelines], that is an accomplishment in and of itself.”

A vehicle drives down a road in Ivins, Utah.
The fastest growing metro in the US is looking to a shrinking reservoir to keep the boom going
A combination of those fallowing agreements and the good winter rain and snow are expected to raise elevations in Mead and Powell in the short term, which could stave off bigger cuts. State negotiators have told CNN they hope the good winter helps take some of the immediate pressure off and gives them more time to come to an agreement on water cuts.


Beaudreau said that while he hopes the seven states can strike a short-term deal, he doesn’t yet know whether than can be achieved. If not, he reiterated Interior is prepared to act and implement cuts itself to keep the system from crashing.

“I think this is a step towards facilitating what I hope is some consensus coming out of the basin, but it also shows at the end of the day, the [Interior] Secretary will do what’s necessary and responsible to keep the system operating,” Beaudreau said.

[JAFF]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainm...e4a5f1e4&ei=61

The judge overseeing Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News called out the network's "credibility problem" after a last-minute revelation about billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch's role at the company.

Rupert MurdochJustin Sullivan/Getty Images
Rupert MurdochJustin Sullivan/Getty Images
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Justin Nelson, an attorney for Dominion, alleged on Tuesday that Fox News withheld information that would have allowed the voting machine company to obtain more of Murdoch's communications in the lawsuit, according to The Washington Post.

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Nelson told Judge Eric Davis that the company was led to believe that Murdoch was only an officer at Fox News' parent company, Fox Corp., but in recent days the company learned that he also has an officer title at Fox News.

"This alone has meant that we are missing a whole bunch of Rupert Murdoch documents that we otherwise would have been entitled to," Nelson said. "It's very troubling that this is where we are. It's something that has really affected how we have litigated this case."

Davis "echoed Nelson's frustration," according to the Post, and said the missing information about Murdoch's title may have affected his decision-making in limiting the scope of the case.

"I could have made an entirely wrong decision," Davis said before calling out the network's "credibility problem."

"My problem is that it's been represented more than once to me that he's not an officer of Fox News," Davis said. "I need to feel comfortable that when you represent something to me, it's the truth. I'm not very happy right now. I don't know why this is such a difficult thing."

Related

"Stunning proof": Legal experts say Rupert Murdoch deposition admission is "absolutely devastating"
Legal experts observed that it was unusual for the "mild-mannered" judge to be "fairly steaming."

Related video: New detail in Dominion’s case against Fox News (MSNBC)

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"Wow," tweeted attorney George Conway. "The judge is pissed, as he should be," he wrote.

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Dominion is suing Fox over false claims made by Trump allies that the company rigged the election against former President Donald Trump. Internal messages released in the lawsuit show that Murdoch, executives and hosts trashed the conspiracy theories they aired and Murdoch acknowledged in his deposition that some hosts "endorsed" the false claims.

An attorney for Fox said that Murdoch's title at Fox News was an "honorific," according to the Post.

"Rupert Murdoch has been listed as executive chairman of Fox News in our [Securities and Exchange Commission] filings for several years and this filing was referenced by Dominion's own attorney during his deposition," a spokesperson for Fox said in a statement.

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Dominion sued Fox Corp. as well as Fox News and were able to depose Murdoch and obtain some of his internal communications but Nelson argued that the company should have received additional documents, adding that Dominion is "still evaluating our options."

The judge said that he does not anticipate the revelation to derail the case but would need to determine how to handle the issue, according to the Post.

"I don't know if this is something we have to turn the battleship around, that it's that big of a deal," he said. "We'll deal with it."

At the end of the hearing, Davis told a Fox attorney, "I'm not mad at you."

"I'm mad at the situation I'm in," he said. "So, I have to figure out how I deal with that."

Jury selection in the trial is slated to begin on Thursday.

Former federal prosecutor Elie Honig, a CNN legal analyst, said he would "feel queasy" heading into the trial if he was an attorney for Fox.

"I would not want to be in the position of defending Fox here. I think they're headed for a full-blown journalistic and legal disaster. It is very difficult to successfully sue a media outlet for defamation in this country… that's a very high bar," he said. "But here we have Fox's own texts in black and white, where they call the election fraud claims, and I quote, 'nuts,' 'insane,' 'B.S.'"

Read

[JAFF]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/12/media...ter/index.html

[JAFF]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...b91c9f02&ei=18

Trump asking for money from his minions for his defense and using it for almost ANYTHING else. Not his first fraud.