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Joe King's avatar

Once more, with feeling: Not. A. Drag. Queen.

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

GMTA, Joe!

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Straw's avatar

GMTA equals ...?

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Joe King's avatar

Great minds think alike.

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Matri's avatar

Gone Mad, Trying Again.

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Straw's avatar

Seems more legit.

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Bensnewlogin's avatar

Give me That Abalone.

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Walt Svirsky's avatar

Greed Motivates Trump’s Admirers

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Tinker's avatar

Good Morning to All!!!

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Matthew's avatar

Giant Muffins Tasted Awful

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Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz's avatar

Grab My Testicles Already!

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Bensnewlogin's avatar

I beg to differ sir. Did you not see that lovely teal and gold ensemble? With the tiara ready to be placed up upon his head?

Oh, you meant he isn’t a real drag queen. He just plays one on that famous and popular Netflix series NDA: special victims unit.

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Walt Svirsky's avatar

NDA’s deliver no justice. The creators of this dubious instrument were undoubtedly oligarchs, or their lawyers.

Let’s see if I have this straight. Plaintiff has been harmed and seeks damages from the defendant. Plaintiff has evidence to prove the allegations, but, the defendant will only settle if plaintiff agrees - through the NDA - to NEVER mention the abuse again. Ever.

Plaintiff thinks, “fuck that, I want them to admit what they did in open court!”

Rich defendant begins protracted litigation and initiates multiple appeals (sound familiar E Jean?) until plaintiff surrenders and signs the fucking NDA.

Ahh, justice in America!

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Bensnewlogin's avatar

NDAs aren’t supposed to deliver justice. They’re supposed to deliver protection.

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James Scammell's avatar

The 'Cattle Ticks' are always at it somewhere.

Every time I see a photo of a/the Pope, always in his gay dress, I can’t help but think of all those Father Bob Sullivan types breaking all their own laws and taking sexual advantage of young girls and boys.

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oraxx's avatar
7hEdited

Celibacy was instituted to address the problem of various institutions within the church having become hereditary fiefdoms. No legitimate heirs, no entitlement. It may have solved a problem in the eyes of the church, but it turned the priesthood into a gathering spot for pedophiles and deviants. I can only imagine what happened in all the years before these horrors began to be taken seriously by the media and civil authorities. I walked away from the church over half a century ago, never looked back, and never regretted the decision.

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Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

It didn't really resolve the problem. Priests arranged to have a "nephew" to succeed them.

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Stephen Brady's avatar

Dante sent a lot of priests and popes to various circles of Hell.

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Dianne Marie Leonard's avatar

Some popes did the same thing.

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Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

Surely, you don't think about Alexandre VI Borgia 😁

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Walt Svirsky's avatar

That’s the idea behind forcing men to remain celibate in the priesthood? I was not knowing.

This reeks of the same type of logic used by Shitler, when he wanted to “nuke a hurricane” to slow it down.

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oraxx's avatar

That's how it got started. They have since rationalized elaborate arguments to defend the idea.

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Walt Svirsky's avatar

Interesting.

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Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

This left a mystery, how their god could mislead them for several centuries.

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Bensnewlogin's avatar

It’s incredibly easy. All you need to do is not exist, and you can mislead anybody.

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OMGeneres's avatar

Don't forget it was also a papal land grab!

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ericc's avatar
7hEdited

That's a whole bunch of money.

I'm guessing he stole from the church to pay all that. If so, there's no question that they'll take the embezzlement more seriously than his not-illegal-in-Alabama-but-still-predatory sex scandal.

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Maile Lawrence's avatar

Sadly I agree. Money talks. Sexual assault (because she really was not in a position to "consent" doesn't. No one wants to stand up for the unfortunate girl who never had an adult explain how she should watch out for people like this.

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Walt Svirsky's avatar

That is very hard for me to understand. We all need to stand up for that “unfortunate girl!”

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ericc's avatar

Well in this case it's legal. So she's not going to get any relief from the criminal justice system because there is no crime to convict him of.

Best thing to do here is what she's doing: civil suit to give her some personal compensation for being taken advantage of, and shining a light on the behavior so the RCC is embarrassed into making positive local changes (there's no hope of global/organizational wide changes, but in the parish, probably yes.)

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Bensnewlogin's avatar

Well, priest is taking the vow of poverty might have some ‘splainin’” to do about where he got the money

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Joe King's avatar

𝑃𝑙𝑢𝑠, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐶ℎ𝑢𝑟𝑐ℎ 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑠 𝑖𝑡 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑠 𝑠𝑒𝑥𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑏𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑙𝑦...

So seriously that they refuse to address it until someone goes public with yet another incident. How many times have we seen this song and dance? This month? Once is too many, they should have been started dealing with the problem instead of covering up centuries ago.

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ericc's avatar
7hEdited

Even now, the only part they take seriously is the bad press.

Probably better for everyone if they dealt with the problem by letting priests marry. It won't solve all the issues, but even for young women being groomed, it helps slightly in that it takes away the "this is really love and I would marry you but we can't tell anyone or I'll lose my job" excuse. And who knows, maybe it lets the RCC raise their standards of who gets in by making the job more attractive to well adjusted adults.

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

THIS is taking sexual abuse seriously? Such a statement would be laughable if it weren't so obviously ill-informed.

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Walt Svirsky's avatar

Two hours apart on timing, but, we are still in sync, Troublesh00ter.

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Walt Svirsky's avatar

Please tell me one time that the church took sexual abuse seriously. I’ll wait…

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Vanity Unfair's avatar

Luke 1:28 ff

“And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.....”

That's the only time I remember in the NT. Does the OT count?

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Walt Svirsky's avatar

Only if the lyrics to “Proud to be an American” are written on the cover.

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Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

I would love to but I don't lie unless it's really necessary (like how we hid that DM had a cancer to my sister for several months because she was pregnant).

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Walt Svirsky's avatar

Lying is and always has been my pet peeve. It occurs when a person fails to live up to their own value system, if they have one at all.

I’m no preacher (just play one on Truth Social) but, for the children in our family, I always communicate in the strongest means possible - tell the truth and live up to it!

Lying is weak, even if the POTUS does it constantly and unendingly. Truth, facts, Science!

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John Smith's avatar

Christian nationalists wouldn’t know truth or facts if they (truth & facts) came up a took turns bitchslapping the various Christian nationalists.

It would take something dramatic to get the Christian nationalists to acknowledge the truth and fact, much less tell the truth or facts.

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

And that was BEFORE I caught that line about "stereo types!" [groan!] Oh, well, it IS a Monday, after all... 😝

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Walt Svirsky's avatar

I liked it. You audiophiles are so excitable!

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

Some are. My best friend is a bit more given to experimentation with his system than I am with mine, but I wouldn't call either of us "excitable." [shrug]

[Don't mind me. I'm having a MONDAY here. 😝]

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Walt Svirsky's avatar

Perhaps “passionate” would have been a better choice of word.

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

Hey ... we love MUSIC.

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

Bose?!? YUK!!! 😝 (and that's from a 40-plus-year audiophile!)

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Tinker's avatar

It's disappointing how many tech companies rest on their name for decades after they were the standard to which others aspired.

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Walt Svirsky's avatar

I reallly liked my “Harman Kardon” back in the day.

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

Interesting. Harmon International is the home base for a LOT of heavyweight audio gear these days, including Mark Levinson, Revel, and JBL ... so the name is still very much out there.

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Die Anyway's avatar

"Did you mean Karman Hardon?" 😉

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

Ages ago, I auditioned a pair of Bose 901 Series III speakers and compared them against a pair of Dahlquist DQ-10s. Frankly, the Dahlquists won in a walk, and I'm putting it mildly at that.

Bose has never impressed me, and I doubt it ever will.

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Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

I think I will keep to my cheap earbuds bought at the nearest grocery store 😁

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

I don't knock earbuds. For a while there, I had a pair of relatively inexpensive Shure earbuds which were VERY musical and easy to listen to.

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Vanity Unfair's avatar

Laughed so much I started to Leak.

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Walt Svirsky's avatar

😂😂😂

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RegularJoe's avatar

So, not a drag queen? Not a trans person? Hmmmmmm....... 🤔

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

Have you noticed that there's a LOT of this "not-a-drag-queen" thing going around lately? I wonder why that is... 🤔🤪

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Walt Svirsky's avatar

Then it must have been members of the imaginary ANTIFA!

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Linda Bower's avatar

This is a tale as old as time in regard to a dancer or any young woman in a vulnerable position and predators whether clergy or not. The difference is that churches hold a tremendous amount of power, but are shielded from both law and criticism. They simply attract all sorts of predators for this reason alone.

I just started watching the documentary Marcial Maciel: The Wolf of God…Wow, highly recommend.

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

Thinking about documentaries, we just watched "My Mom, Jayne" on HBO last night. It's Mariska Hargitay's story of her research into her mom, Jayne Mansfield, and her discovery of all manner of things regarding both her mom and herself in that process. It's a well done piece of work and worth your time.

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Linda Bower's avatar

Marcial Maciel: The Wolf of God

: A four-part docuseries chronicling the decades of abuse and deceit by Father Marcial Maciel, the infamous leader of the Legionaries of Christ.

This is one of the most horrific cases of abuse I’ve ever heard of within the Catholic Church.

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

Seems to me I heard Christopher Hitchens mention him once upon a time. Almost certainly worth learning more about.

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Linda Bower's avatar

Oh, I haven’t seen this one. Will add to the list!

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

Please do. I LIKE Mariska and her alter-ego, Captain Olivia Benson, and the work she has done on Law & Order: SVU (for now over 25 years!!!), and this exploration of both her life and her mom's was nothing short of extraordinary, with more than a couple surprises in it.

Whether anyone knows the actress and/or her famous mother or not, this is documentary work of the first water and deserving of your attention.

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Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

She did more than that. She was furious when she learned NYPD throw out thousands of rape kits tests without testing them, depriving victims of justice.

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

Damn! Had not heard that. Talk about taking your role to heart! All the more reason to have beau coup respect for Ms. Hargitay!

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Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

Jerry Orbach and her are two diamonds.

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NOGODZ20's avatar

As always, Christian "help" comes with strings attached.

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Boreal's avatar

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you, really. That it wasn't a boy.

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NOGODZ20's avatar

Maybe their stock of boys is drying up and they have to look...other resources.

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Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

OT : How are you ? And did you find a solution for your meals ?

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NOGODZ20's avatar

Since my apartment is in is in a supportive housing building, I might be able to get meals delivered.

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Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

Like your neighbors or meals on wheels ?

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NOGODZ20's avatar

No, the staff of my building. Some of them cook for us (I usually don’t partake because I’m self-sufficient. Looks like I don’t have a choice now).

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Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz's avatar

My wife frequently offered to bring me something to eat, but I just wasn't hungry. I started a bowl of oatmeal at some point but literally could not come up with the energy to chew.

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NOGODZ20's avatar

My appetite hasn't been affected at all. It never is.

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Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

C'est déjà ça. You will need all your strength to help the kind mr vaccine.

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Val Uptuous NotAgain's avatar

But Christianity makes you a good person. Because that is true, being clergy makes you beyond reproach.

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Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

Imagine if he wasn't a christian, he may have had a consensual relationship with another man 🙄

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Val Uptuous NotAgain's avatar

Quelle horreur!!!

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Boreal's avatar

Just because they claim to speak for "god" doesn't mean they should be held to a higher standard.

🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

All together now, gang, in three-part harmony:

𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗔 𝗗𝗥𝗔𝗚 𝗤𝗨𝗘𝗘𝗡!!!

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Kay-El's avatar

Father Bob is just one of many sleazy dirtbags in the church that think they can get away with shit and not be held accountable. The church apparently thinks so too or they would have done something about this long ago instead of trying to cover it up. The only thing they take seriously is their piggy bank.

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Maile Lawrence's avatar

So...no big surprises here. Look, I hate to bring up the obvious, but: why would someone willingly go into a leadership role which "requires" a strict moral code including celibacy? One reason is that the person actually agrees with the church's view; the other is that the person has something pretty huge to hide and they think this position would elevate them enough to do so.

It's really quite nauseating.

Side note: my favorite part of the article is at the bottom where it asks people to "share this" on Reddit, Facebook, or "the godawful" X/Bird :)

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ericc's avatar
5hEdited

Because they feel called.

Because they like the power or role.

Because, like the army or other highly proscribed situation, they are hoping the structure will change them into what they aspire to be. Bensnewlogin has spoken of this: closeted gay men becoming priests hoping it will make them less gay. But I would add that it's not just a gay thing, I think a lot of people can make the 'job-as-therapy' mistake.

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Jane in NC's avatar

So, another FOJ [Friend of Jeffrey] preying on vulnerable, underage girls for his illicit sexual pleasure. And, most likely, hitting up the church coffers to pay for it. Tell me again, how the catholic church has 'corrected' its priest pedophile problem. 🤦‍♀️

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XJC's avatar
7hEdited

And God immediately forgave his devoted priest, who confessed his sins to himself. God's love is just a big, eternal non-disclosure agreement.

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Joan the Dork's avatar

OT- The other Dominion lawsuit shoe just dropped: https://apnews.com/article/dominion-voting-newsmax-defamation-trump-2020-3b2366dfdae3a8432afe822bf14fe1ef

Newsmax, otherwise known as Fox News' even nuttier racist cousin-with-benefits, has settled with Dominion Voting Systems for $67 million. While still a reasonably punchy penalty for lying their collective asses off, it's more than an order of magnitude less than Fox had to shell out ($787 million) for telling the same exact lies. Call me crazy, but I think 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 may have had something to do with Dominion being willing to settle for a lower amount this time:

"𝘈𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳, 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘱 𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘸 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘰𝘹 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘦, 𝘚𝘶𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘎𝘰𝘥𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳, 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘢𝘸 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘮𝘴 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘱 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩, 𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘚𝘶𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘎𝘰𝘥𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘺’𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘰𝘯 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘧𝘧 𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴."

It may have been a matter of getting the case put to bed, in their favor, before Chump and his fascist goon squad found a way to kill the case and get their 𝑜𝘵ℎ𝘦𝑟 nest of propagandist hacks off the hook completely. Mind you, that's just speculation on my part, but... it's not paranoia if they really are out to get you.

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

I wonder if Trump has ever opened his mouth about Dominion Voting Systems ... because I'm sure they'd be glad to beggar the man, as surely as they hammered Fox for $787 million.

If nothing else, that would get Trump's attention.

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Guerillasurgeon's avatar

Bugger! I would have loved to have seen discovery. Just as I would have loved to see Fox employees testify under oath.

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