JUST the NY "Hush Money"/Election Interference Trial

[youthathletics]

Call it cynical, or sketchy, but I really feel like damned near everything associated with Trump and the trials, is giving the public a peak behind the curtain as to what takes place quite often...espeically in show biz and politics. It's almost as if its intentional to normalize shenanigans. Not giving Trump a pass at all.

[SCLaxAttack]

Call it cynical, or sketchy, but I really feel like damned near everything associated with Trump and the trials, is giving the public a peak behind the curtain as to what takes place quite often...espeically in show biz and politics. It's almost as if its intentional to normalize shenanigans. Not giving Trump a pass at all.

Oh, you're giving Trump a pass all right. "Everybody does it." That'll be the new campaign line after he's found guilty and "DOJ has been weaponized against us" no longer works up MAGA enough.

[ggait]

Such spectacularly bad lawyering!

Any normal lawyer would have told Trump just to pay the hush money. Either directly or have Michael Cohen pay it and reimburse him in a straightforward fashion. Lawyers hold and direct client funds all the time.

The campaign finance violation would likely not be discovered or pursued by federal authorities. Certainly not until after the election was over. And that crime is fairly arguable -- "hey -- us rich famous guys pay off blackmailing hussies all the time. That is just a regular Tuesday for me."

Paying hush money is not a crime. But doing the convoluted cover-up makes it look nefarious and basically proves criminal intent.

And the Manhattan DA only has a felony case because of the requirement of two crimes. Campaign finance #1 plus records fraud #2 (misdemeanor at worst; and nothing if you don't stupidly do the cover-up). So these guys turned a small to non-existent problem (weak sauce campaign violation maybe) into a big problem -- criminal felony trial.

And Michael Cohen would have committed no crimes and would have done no time if they had just been straight about paying/reimbursing the hush money.

Proof yet again. The cover up is always worse than the crime.

[cradleandshoot]

Call it cynical, or sketchy, but I really feel like damned near everything associated with Trump and the trials, is giving the public a peak behind the curtain as to what takes place quite often...espeically in show biz and politics. It's almost as if its intentional to normalize shenanigans. Not giving Trump a pass at all.

Oh, you're giving Trump a pass all right. "Everybody does it." That'll be the new campaign line after he's found guilty and "DOJ has been weaponized against us" no longer works up MAGA enough.

Has Robert Menendez ever chimed in on this topic? He is still a sitting US Senator is he not?? The DoJ may be weaponized against you but oh man they can't shoot their weapon worth a chit.

[MDlaxfan76]

Call it cynical, or sketchy, but I really feel like damned near everything associated with Trump and the trials, is giving the public a peak behind the curtain as to what takes place quite often...espeically in show biz and politics. It's almost as if its intentional to normalize shenanigans. Not giving Trump a pass at all.

Oh, you're giving Trump a pass all right. "Everybody does it." That'll be the new campaign line after he's found guilty and "DOJ has been weaponized against us" no longer works up MAGA enough.

I'll give youth a slight pass, at least for the moment ...let's just say instead of "everybody does it", let's just accept his "quite often" to mean that some powerful celebrities have indeed proven to be entirely dysfunctional as human beings and downright sociopaths enabled by their money, celebrity and power to exercise all of their worst impulses. "show biz and politics" and sports and business...a percentage of all such have disgusting morals, like the population as a whole, it's just that celebrity, power and money make it easier.

Weinstein, Cosby, etc, etc...and absolutely Trump falls in this category of disgusting but enabled men. They've been increasingly getting exposed as such, and that's not 'normalizing', right? It's exposing them as the disgusting POS they really are, right?

That said, not sure who youth means as choosing to be "intentional to normalize shenanigans"...does he mean that Trump is seeking to "normalize" such? Surely not the prosecutors, right? Does he mean the news media? Ain't buying it unless he means Fox and NewsMax and AON.

Youth, look at the covers of The National Enquirer during the 2015-2016 campaign season. They had never before endorsed any candidate, never taken any side, and yet wrote the most disgusting and entirely and knowingly untrue stories about various political opponents of Trump, ridiculously fawning pieces about Trump...so, maybe you're saying, youth, that publications like that were trying to "normalize" ? As have Fox et al?

Back to 'everybody does it', that's absolutely NOT the case as most people really do have sound morals albeit we're all subject to temptation. The key is to make sound ethical judgments in the face of such temptation. And most people do, most of the time.

Trump has never done so. His only ethic is short term personal benefit.

[cradleandshoot]

Anybody have an explanation how so many of our elected officials go to Washington with not even 2 nickels to rub together and a pot to pee in and 20 years later they are multi millionaires? And all on the pay of a US Congress person. They must clipping coupons and shopping at Aldi's. You can buy a can of green beans for like 50 cents. I guess a fair assumption for the American voter would involve the conclusion that most all of them are in on the grift. What some representative could do is share their secret of how they have become so wealthy. They must be extraordinary money managers.

[MDlaxfan76]

Such spectacularly bad lawyering!

Any normal lawyer would have told Trump just to pay the hush money. Either directly or have Michael Cohen pay it and reimburse him in a straightforward fashion. Lawyers hold and direct client funds all the time.

The campaign finance violation would likely not be discovered or pursued by federal authorities. Certainly not until after the election was over. And that crime is fairly arguable -- "hey -- us rich famous guys pay off blackmailing hussies all the time. That is just a regular Tuesday for me."

Paying hush money is not a crime. But doing the convoluted cover-up makes it look nefarious and basically proves criminal intent.

And the Manhattan DA only has a felony case because of the requirement of two crimes. Campaign finance #1 plus records fraud #2 (misdemeanor at worst; and nothing if you don't stupidly do the cover-up). So these guys turned a small to non-existent problem (weak sauce campaign violation maybe) into a big problem -- criminal felony trial.

And Michael Cohen would have committed no crimes and would have done no time if they had just been straight about paying/reimbursing the hush money.

Proof yet again. The cover up is always worse than the crime.

The campaign violation would have been not reporting the payments as a contribution to the Campaign.

And they could have avoided that violation had they simply been transparent that Trump was making a contribution to the Campaign in this fashion..He could have legally done so? Or is that form of contribution itself illegal, though a hush money payoff and NDA is not otherwise?

And given the timing, if entirely transparent and honest, the public would not have known until after the election.

But they were conscious that it looked bad and papered it dishonestly. Stupid legally, but their motivations were political, not just to kill the story for 2016 election but to keep it from getting out that they'd killed it at all. So, they needed to avoid legal transparency.

And got caught.

[youthathletics]

Anybody have an explanation how so many of our elected officials go to Washington with not even 2 nickels to rub together and a pot to pee in and 20 years later they are multi millionaires? And all on the pay of a US Congress person. They must clipping coupons and shopping at Aldi's. You can buy a can of green beans for like 50 cents. I guess a fair assumption for the American voter would involve the conclusion that most all of them are in on the grift. What some representative could do is share their secret of how they have become so wealthy. They must be extraordinary money managers.

Nonsense cradle.....SCLAX would never acknowledge that politicians ever do anything in their interest that would be remotely critical of fringe behavior. The pearl clutching is getting old.

I do give MDlax credit for 'listening' to what I actually said....bottom line shenanigans happen all the time. Hell, I see it happen in sales all the time and that is small scale stuff.

[youthathletics]

Call it cynical, or sketchy, but I really feel like damned near everything associated with Trump and the trials, is giving the public a peak behind the curtain as to what takes place quite often...espeically in show biz and politics. It's almost as if its intentional to normalize shenanigans. Not giving Trump a pass at all.

Oh, you're giving Trump a pass all right. "Everybody does it." That'll be the new campaign line after he's found guilty and "DOJ has been weaponized against us" no longer works up MAGA enough.

I'll give youth a slight pass, at least for the moment ...let's just say instead of "everybody does it", let's just accept his "quite often" to mean that some powerful celebrities have indeed proven to be entirely dysfunctional as human beings and downright sociopaths enabled by their money, celebrity and power to exercise all of their worst impulses. "show biz and politics" and sports and business...a percentage of all such have disgusting morals, like the population as a whole, it's just that celebrity, power and money make it easier.

Weinstein, Cosby, etc, etc...and absolutely Trump falls in this category of disgusting but enabled men. They've been increasingly getting exposed as such, and that's not 'normalizing', right? It's exposing them as the disgusting POS they really are, right?

That said, not sure who youth means as choosing to be "intentional to normalize shenanigans"...does he mean that Trump is seeking to "normalize" such? Surely not the prosecutors, right? Does he mean the news media? Ain't buying it unless he means Fox and NewsMax and AON.

Youth, look at the covers of The National Enquirer during the 2015-2016 campaign season. They had never before endorsed any candidate, never taken any side, and yet wrote the most disgusting and entirely and knowingly untrue stories about various political opponents of Trump, ridiculously fawning pieces about Trump...so, maybe you're saying, youth, that publications like that were trying to "normalize" ? As have Fox et al?

Back to 'everybody does it', that's absolutely NOT the case as most people really do have sound morals albeit we're all subject to temptation. The key is to make sound ethical judgments in the face of such temptation. And most people do, most of the time.

Trump has never done so. His only ethic is short term personal benefit.

Proving my point, TNI and all the other tabloids have survived on this tpe of stuff.....ask yourself "Hmmm....why do these types of outlets predominantly go to print as the first to break so many epic stories and have photos to back it up.....zactly". They are in the game...and guess what, we are getting a look under the hood....RIGHT NOW.

[a fan]

Anybody have an explanation how so many of our elected officials go to Washington with not even 2 nickels to rub together and a pot to pee in and 20 years later they are multi millionaires? And all on the pay of a US Congress person. They must clipping coupons and shopping at Aldi's. You can buy a can of green beans for like 50 cents. I guess a fair assumption for the American voter would involve the conclusion that most all of them are in on the grift. What some representative could do is share their secret of how they have become so wealthy. They must be extraordinary money managers.

Nonsense cradle.....SCLAX would never acknowledge that politicians ever do anything in their interest that would be remotely critical of fringe behavior. The pearl clutching is getting old.

I do give MDlax credit for 'listening' to what I actually said....bottom line shenanigans happen all the time. Hell, I see it happen in sales all the time and that is small scale stuff.

This is true. However, the morons break laws
doing it. Trump is a moron. Don’t do stupid things, is the moral here.

Meanwhile, Pelosi et al are lining their pockets, legally.


Are we supposed to feel bad for a man who should be smart enough to grift without breaking laws?

[youthathletics]

Anybody have an explanation how so many of our elected officials go to Washington with not even 2 nickels to rub together and a pot to pee in and 20 years later they are multi millionaires? And all on the pay of a US Congress person. They must clipping coupons and shopping at Aldi's. You can buy a can of green beans for like 50 cents. I guess a fair assumption for the American voter would involve the conclusion that most all of them are in on the grift. What some representative could do is share their secret of how they have become so wealthy. They must be extraordinary money managers.

Nonsense cradle.....SCLAX would never acknowledge that politicians ever do anything in their interest that would be remotely critical of fringe behavior. The pearl clutching is getting old.

I do give MDlax credit for 'listening' to what I actually said....bottom line shenanigans happen all the time. Hell, I see it happen in sales all the time and that is small scale stuff.

This is true. However, the morons break laws
doing it. Trump is a moron. Don’t do stupid things, is the moral here.

Meanwhile, Pelosi et al are lining their pockets, legally.


Are we supposed to feel bad for a man who should be smart enough to grift without breaking laws?

That's only b/c they have not been caught. To NOT think they get inside (trading) intel is naïve, if you were to ask me.

[a fan]

Anybody have an explanation how so many of our elected officials go to Washington with not even 2 nickels to rub together and a pot to pee in and 20 years later they are multi millionaires? And all on the pay of a US Congress person. They must clipping coupons and shopping at Aldi's. You can buy a can of green beans for like 50 cents. I guess a fair assumption for the American voter would involve the conclusion that most all of them are in on the grift. What some representative could do is share their secret of how they have become so wealthy. They must be extraordinary money managers.

Nonsense cradle.....SCLAX would never acknowledge that politicians ever do anything in their interest that would be remotely critical of fringe behavior. The pearl clutching is getting old.

I do give MDlax credit for 'listening' to what I actually said....bottom line shenanigans happen all the time. Hell, I see it happen in sales all the time and that is small scale stuff.

This is true. However, the morons break laws
doing it. Trump is a moron. Don’t do stupid things, is the moral here.

Meanwhile, Pelosi et al are lining their pockets, legally.


Are we supposed to feel bad for a man who should be smart enough to grift without breaking laws?

That's only b/c they have not been caught. To NOT think they get inside (trading) intel is naïve, if you were to ask me.

No, it's because insider trading isn't illegal for Congress. And this will never get fixed.

Same goes for the SCOTUS, where unethical behavior is perfectly legal. It sucks, but here we are.'

If you have power in DC? You have to be a MORON to enrich yourself illegally---it's so easy to do legally.

[MDlaxfan76]

Anybody have an explanation how so many of our elected officials go to Washington with not even 2 nickels to rub together and a pot to pee in and 20 years later they are multi millionaires? And all on the pay of a US Congress person. They must clipping coupons and shopping at Aldi's. You can buy a can of green beans for like 50 cents. I guess a fair assumption for the American voter would involve the conclusion that most all of them are in on the grift. What some representative could do is share their secret of how they have become so wealthy. They must be extraordinary money managers.

Why do you seem so desperate to change the subject from this trial to Congress critters?
See thread title.

[SCLaxAttack]

Anybody have an explanation how so many of our elected officials go to Washington with not even 2 nickels to rub together and a pot to pee in and 20 years later they are multi millionaires? And all on the pay of a US Congress person. They must clipping coupons and shopping at Aldi's. You can buy a can of green beans for like 50 cents. I guess a fair assumption for the American voter would involve the conclusion that most all of them are in on the grift. What some representative could do is share their secret of how they have become so wealthy. They must be extraordinary money managers.

Nonsense cradle.....SCLAX would never acknowledge that politicians ever do anything in their interest that would be remotely critical of fringe behavior. The pearl clutching is getting old.

I do give MDlax credit for 'listening' to what I actually said....bottom line shenanigans happen all the time. Hell, I see it happen in sales all the time and that is small scale stuff.

Quite frankly, this is BS. Now you (and cradle) are conflating two different issues - highly questionable and unethical activity to increase personal wealth with illegal activity to gain political power that impacts much more than an individual’s personal or familial wealth. It’s unfortunate, and disappointing, that some can’t differentiate between them.

[MDlaxfan76]

Call it cynical, or sketchy, but I really feel like damned near everything associated with Trump and the trials, is giving the public a peak behind the curtain as to what takes place quite often...espeically in show biz and politics. It's almost as if its intentional to normalize shenanigans. Not giving Trump a pass at all.

Oh, you're giving Trump a pass all right. "Everybody does it." That'll be the new campaign line after he's found guilty and "DOJ has been weaponized against us" no longer works up MAGA enough.

I'll give youth a slight pass, at least for the moment ...let's just say instead of "everybody does it", let's just accept his "quite often" to mean that some powerful celebrities have indeed proven to be entirely dysfunctional as human beings and downright sociopaths enabled by their money, celebrity and power to exercise all of their worst impulses. "show biz and politics" and sports and business...a percentage of all such have disgusting morals, like the population as a whole, it's just that celebrity, power and money make it easier.

Weinstein, Cosby, etc, etc...and absolutely Trump falls in this category of disgusting but enabled men. They've been increasingly getting exposed as such, and that's not 'normalizing', right? It's exposing them as the disgusting POS they really are, right?

That said, not sure who youth means as choosing to be "intentional to normalize shenanigans"...does he mean that Trump is seeking to "normalize" such? Surely not the prosecutors, right? Does he mean the news media? Ain't buying it unless he means Fox and NewsMax and AON.

Youth, look at the covers of The National Enquirer during the 2015-2016 campaign season. They had never before endorsed any candidate, never taken any side, and yet wrote the most disgusting and entirely and knowingly untrue stories about various political opponents of Trump, ridiculously fawning pieces about Trump...so, maybe you're saying, youth, that publications like that were trying to "normalize" ? As have Fox et al?

Back to 'everybody does it', that's absolutely NOT the case as most people really do have sound morals albeit we're all subject to temptation. The key is to make sound ethical judgments in the face of such temptation. And most people do, most of the time.

Trump has never done so. His only ethic is short term personal benefit.

Proving my point, TNI and all the other tabloids have survived on this tpe of stuff.....ask yourself "Hmmm....why do these types of outlets predominantly go to print as the first to break so many epic stories and have photos to back it up.....zactly". They are in the game...and guess what, we are getting a look under the hood....RIGHT NOW.

You need to take a look at the entirely false, downright fraudulent stories they ran during the 2015-16 cycle. They are NOT a legitimate news source at all, though they may break a story now and then with salacious behavior that is actually true.

They go to print first with such because other news orgs don't PAY for tattle tales and when someone wants to tattle and get paid, they're the top game in town. AND they print untrue garbage all the time too. Other orgs are more scrupulous or at least that's their self-professed and understood culture. They don't earn their viewers with most salacious, it's with most truthful. They don't always get that right, and they certainly are happy to break serious stories when they have the goods or believe they do, but it ain't these "checkbook journalists" like Pecker and crew.

EXCEPT when it's part of scheme to catch and kill for some expected quid pro quo benefit.

What we are "getting a look under the hood" at is how seedy and unethical this checkbook journalism game is. No concern for truth, just readership.

[MDlaxfan76]

Anybody have an explanation how so many of our elected officials go to Washington with not even 2 nickels to rub together and a pot to pee in and 20 years later they are multi millionaires? And all on the pay of a US Congress person. They must clipping coupons and shopping at Aldi's. You can buy a can of green beans for like 50 cents. I guess a fair assumption for the American voter would involve the conclusion that most all of them are in on the grift. What some representative could do is share their secret of how they have become so wealthy. They must be extraordinary money managers.

Nonsense cradle.....SCLAX would never acknowledge that politicians ever do anything in their interest that would be remotely critical of fringe behavior. The pearl clutching is getting old.

I do give MDlax credit for 'listening' to what I actually said....bottom line shenanigans happen all the time. Hell, I see it happen in sales all the time and that is small scale stuff.

This is true. However, the morons break laws
doing it. Trump is a moron. Don’t do stupid things, is the moral here.

Meanwhile, Pelosi et al are lining their pockets, legally.


Are we supposed to feel bad for a man who should be smart enough to grift without breaking laws?

That's only b/c they have not been caught. To NOT think they get inside (trading) intel is naïve, if you were to ask me.

No, it's because insider trading isn't illegal for Congress. And this will never get fixed.

Same goes for the SCOTUS, where unethical behavior is perfectly legal. It sucks, but here we are.'

If you have power in DC? You have to be a MORON to enrich yourself illegally---it's so easy to do legally.

Cynical, but much more correct than not.

My only add is that not all play that game, though many undoubtedly do.

And I don't quite agree that it's inevitable that they won't fix it...really it's up to us as voters to demand better. But partisan division is a convenient excuse to ignore this stuff, I agree.

[youthathletics]

Call it cynical, or sketchy, but I really feel like damned near everything associated with Trump and the trials, is giving the public a peak behind the curtain as to what takes place quite often...espeically in show biz and politics. It's almost as if its intentional to normalize shenanigans. Not giving Trump a pass at all.

Oh, you're giving Trump a pass all right. "Everybody does it." That'll be the new campaign line after he's found guilty and "DOJ has been weaponized against us" no longer works up MAGA enough.

I'll give youth a slight pass, at least for the moment ...let's just say instead of "everybody does it", let's just accept his "quite often" to mean that some powerful celebrities have indeed proven to be entirely dysfunctional as human beings and downright sociopaths enabled by their money, celebrity and power to exercise all of their worst impulses. "show biz and politics" and sports and business...a percentage of all such have disgusting morals, like the population as a whole, it's just that celebrity, power and money make it easier.

Weinstein, Cosby, etc, etc...and absolutely Trump falls in this category of disgusting but enabled men. They've been increasingly getting exposed as such, and that's not 'normalizing', right? It's exposing them as the disgusting POS they really are, right?

That said, not sure who youth means as choosing to be "intentional to normalize shenanigans"...does he mean that Trump is seeking to "normalize" such? Surely not the prosecutors, right? Does he mean the news media? Ain't buying it unless he means Fox and NewsMax and AON.

Youth, look at the covers of The National Enquirer during the 2015-2016 campaign season. They had never before endorsed any candidate, never taken any side, and yet wrote the most disgusting and entirely and knowingly untrue stories about various political opponents of Trump, ridiculously fawning pieces about Trump...so, maybe you're saying, youth, that publications like that were trying to "normalize" ? As have Fox et al?

Back to 'everybody does it', that's absolutely NOT the case as most people really do have sound morals albeit we're all subject to temptation. The key is to make sound ethical judgments in the face of such temptation. And most people do, most of the time.

Trump has never done so. His only ethic is short term personal benefit.

Proving my point, TNI and all the other tabloids have survived on this tpe of stuff.....ask yourself "Hmmm....why do these types of outlets predominantly go to print as the first to break so many epic stories and have photos to back it up.....zactly". They are in the game...and guess what, we are getting a look under the hood....RIGHT NOW.

You need to take a look at the entirely false, downright fraudulent stories they ran during the 2015-16 cycle. They are NOT a legitimate news source at all, though they may break a story now and then with salacious behavior that is actually true.

They go to print first with such because other news orgs don't PAY for tattle tales and when someone wants to tattle and get paid, they're the top game in town. AND they print untrue garbage all the time too. Other orgs are more scrupulous or at least that's their self-professed and understood culture. They don't earn their viewers with most salacious, it's with most truthful. They don't always get that right, and they certainly are happy to break serious stories when they have the goods or believe they do, but it ain't these "checkbook journalists" like Pecker and crew.

EXCEPT when it's part of scheme to catch and kill for some expected quid pro quo benefit.

What we are "getting a look under the hood" at is how seedy and unethical this checkbook journalism game is. No concern for truth, just readership.

I almost feel like we might agree, but you want to make sure you don’t say it…. Mr. Klugscheisser

[Typical Lax Dad]

Call it cynical, or sketchy, but I really feel like damned near everything associated with Trump and the trials, is giving the public a peak behind the curtain as to what takes place quite often...espeically in show biz and politics. It's almost as if its intentional to normalize shenanigans. Not giving Trump a pass at all.

Oh, you're giving Trump a pass all right. "Everybody does it." That'll be the new campaign line after he's found guilty and "DOJ has been weaponized against us" no longer works up MAGA enough.

I'll give youth a slight pass, at least for the moment ...let's just say instead of "everybody does it", let's just accept his "quite often" to mean that some powerful celebrities have indeed proven to be entirely dysfunctional as human beings and downright sociopaths enabled by their money, celebrity and power to exercise all of their worst impulses. "show biz and politics" and sports and business...a percentage of all such have disgusting morals, like the population as a whole, it's just that celebrity, power and money make it easier.

Weinstein, Cosby, etc, etc...and absolutely Trump falls in this category of disgusting but enabled men. They've been increasingly getting exposed as such, and that's not 'normalizing', right? It's exposing them as the disgusting POS they really are, right?

That said, not sure who youth means as choosing to be "intentional to normalize shenanigans"...does he mean that Trump is seeking to "normalize" such? Surely not the prosecutors, right? Does he mean the news media? Ain't buying it unless he means Fox and NewsMax and AON.

Youth, look at the covers of The National Enquirer during the 2015-2016 campaign season. They had never before endorsed any candidate, never taken any side, and yet wrote the most disgusting and entirely and knowingly untrue stories about various political opponents of Trump, ridiculously fawning pieces about Trump...so, maybe you're saying, youth, that publications like that were trying to "normalize" ? As have Fox et al?

Back to 'everybody does it', that's absolutely NOT the case as most people really do have sound morals albeit we're all subject to temptation. The key is to make sound ethical judgments in the face of such temptation. And most people do, most of the time.

Trump has never done so. His only ethic is short term personal benefit.

Proving my point, TNI and all the other tabloids have survived on this tpe of stuff.....ask yourself "Hmmm....why do these types of outlets predominantly go to print as the first to break so many epic stories and have photos to back it up.....zactly". They are in the game...and guess what, we are getting a look under the hood....RIGHT NOW.

You need to take a look at the entirely false, downright fraudulent stories they ran during the 2015-16 cycle. They are NOT a legitimate news source at all, though they may break a story now and then with salacious behavior that is actually true.

They go to print first with such because other news orgs don't PAY for tattle tales and when someone wants to tattle and get paid, they're the top game in town. AND they print untrue garbage all the time too. Other orgs are more scrupulous or at least that's their self-professed and understood culture. They don't earn their viewers with most salacious, it's with most truthful. They don't always get that right, and they certainly are happy to break serious stories when they have the goods or believe they do, but it ain't these "checkbook journalists" like Pecker and crew.

EXCEPT when it's part of scheme to catch and kill for some expected quid pro quo benefit.

What we are "getting a look under the hood" at is how seedy and unethical this checkbook journalism game is. No concern for truth, just readership.

My old company banked TNI and Weekly World News when it was owned by Peter Callahan. We aren’t getting a look under the hood of tabloid journalism. We are getting the look at what a crooked politician and a corrupt media outlet will do to gain power. My old boss went to high school with Callahan and they were close personal friends. I was a junior guy and got to meet a lot of influential people in NYC. Those are now the “good old days”….

[PizzaSnake]

Call it cynical, or sketchy, but I really feel like damned near everything associated with Trump and the trials, is giving the public a peak behind the curtain as to what takes place quite often...espeically in show biz and politics. It's almost as if its intentional to normalize shenanigans. Not giving Trump a pass at all.

Oh, you're giving Trump a pass all right. "Everybody does it." That'll be the new campaign line after he's found guilty and "DOJ has been weaponized against us" no longer works up MAGA enough.

I'll give youth a slight pass, at least for the moment ...let's just say instead of "everybody does it", let's just accept his "quite often" to mean that some powerful celebrities have indeed proven to be entirely dysfunctional as human beings and downright sociopaths enabled by their money, celebrity and power to exercise all of their worst impulses. "show biz and politics" and sports and business...a percentage of all such have disgusting morals, like the population as a whole, it's just that celebrity, power and money make it easier.

Weinstein, Cosby, etc, etc...and absolutely Trump falls in this category of disgusting but enabled men. They've been increasingly getting exposed as such, and that's not 'normalizing', right? It's exposing them as the disgusting POS they really are, right?

That said, not sure who youth means as choosing to be "intentional to normalize shenanigans"...does he mean that Trump is seeking to "normalize" such? Surely not the prosecutors, right? Does he mean the news media? Ain't buying it unless he means Fox and NewsMax and AON.

Youth, look at the covers of The National Enquirer during the 2015-2016 campaign season. They had never before endorsed any candidate, never taken any side, and yet wrote the most disgusting and entirely and knowingly untrue stories about various political opponents of Trump, ridiculously fawning pieces about Trump...so, maybe you're saying, youth, that publications like that were trying to "normalize" ? As have Fox et al?

Back to 'everybody does it', that's absolutely NOT the case as most people really do have sound morals albeit we're all subject to temptation. The key is to make sound ethical judgments in the face of such temptation. And most people do, most of the time.

Trump has never done so. His only ethic is short term personal benefit.

Proving my point, TNI and all the other tabloids have survived on this tpe of stuff.....ask yourself "Hmmm....why do these types of outlets predominantly go to print as the first to break so many epic stories and have photos to back it up.....zactly". They are in the game...and guess what, we are getting a look under the hood....RIGHT NOW.

You need to take a look at the entirely false, downright fraudulent stories they ran during the 2015-16 cycle. They are NOT a legitimate news source at all, though they may break a story now and then with salacious behavior that is actually true.

They go to print first with such because other news orgs don't PAY for tattle tales and when someone wants to tattle and get paid, they're the top game in town. AND they print untrue garbage all the time too. Other orgs are more scrupulous or at least that's their self-professed and understood culture. They don't earn their viewers with most salacious, it's with most truthful. They don't always get that right, and they certainly are happy to break serious stories when they have the goods or believe they do, but it ain't these "checkbook journalists" like Pecker and crew.

EXCEPT when it's part of scheme to catch and kill for some expected quid pro quo benefit.

What we are "getting a look under the hood" at is how seedy and unethical this checkbook journalism game is. No concern for truth, just readership.

My old company banked TNI and Weekly World News when it was owned by Peter Callahan. We aren’t getting a look under the hood of tabloid journalism. We are getting the look at what a crooked politician and a corrupt media outlet will do to gain power. My old boss went to high school with Callahan and they were close personal friends. I was a junior guy and got to meet a lot of influential people in NYC. Those are now the “good old days”….

[cradleandshoot]

Anybody have an explanation how so many of our elected officials go to Washington with not even 2 nickels to rub together and a pot to pee in and 20 years later they are multi millionaires? And all on the pay of a US Congress person. They must clipping coupons and shopping at Aldi's. You can buy a can of green beans for like 50 cents. I guess a fair assumption for the American voter would involve the conclusion that most all of them are in on the grift. What some representative could do is share their secret of how they have become so wealthy. They must be extraordinary money managers.

Why do you seem so desperate to change the subject from this trial to Congress critters?
See thread title.

Well it should obvious to you. The critters that are after Trump have likely been engaged in grifting to benefit themselves. So your not the least bit curious how the Congress critters became rich? Maybe because they understand that greed is good in their world. I mean these same people that want trumps head on a platter are the same NYC/NYS politicians that kissed trumps ass and cashed all of his checks. You don't seem to remember that trump was the hero of The Apprentice crowd that loved watching trump be an ass wipe every week on TV. Why even the queen of evil gave trump googly eyes in that picture at trumps wedding. Spare me your spin. The undeniable fact is liberal Democrats loved trump before they hated trump. They hope that everybody forgets that. It didn't take long for you to erase it from your memory.