The Roundup
Russian propagandists are openly supporting Trump, Dr. Phil attempts to silence a critique of his interview with Trump, an update on that Canadian farming family who moved to Russia, and more!
Joe Biden's Son is a Convicted Felon Just Like Donald Trump
This week the Republican Party is crowing over the fact that Hunter Biden was convicted of a felony. If Hunter Biden was running for president I would not vote for him at all because, as a convicted felon, his abilities to be able to fulfill the role as president would be just as compromised as Donald Trump's abilities to do the same. I would not vote for either Hunter Biden or Donald Trump because they are both convicted felons.
But Hunter Biden isn't running for president. In fact he's not even in politics. His father, Joe, is the one who is running for president and he hasn't been convicted of a felony. Also, Hunter is an adult so Joe really can't control him or his actions. Let's not focus too much on Hunter Biden's recent conviction because he is irrelevant to the future direction of American democracy (especially since Hunter Biden has just lost his right to vote as a convicted felon).
The Russian Propagandists are Openly Supporting Donald Trump
There is a one-minute subtitled clip from a program that aired on Russian television where the propagandists on that show openly talk about why they want Donald Trump to win the election. They are hoping that Trump will be the catalyst that will destroy the United States from within and usher a second American civil war. You can view this clip right here.
Trump Promises Revenge If He is Elected
Trump has consistently repeated over and over that he will seek revenge on perceived enemies. He has even said “I will be your retribution.” Despite that fact, various people that Trump had spoken with this week, including Dr. Phil and Sean Hannity, are downplaying Trump's revenge threat. In fact, the mainstream media seems to have gone out of its way to downplay Trump's threat, as this article says. Don't the mainstream media know anything about history? They should at least read the Wikipedia page about Joseph Stalin to learn why no one should ever take a politician's threat of revenge lightly.
Is Donald Trump's Campaign Falling Apart?
According to this video, the answer seems to be yes.
The fact that Donald Trump is now a convicted felon doesn't help at all. Right now the Republican National Committee is preparing for the possibility that Trump might not attend since his sentencing is scheduled for July 11 and the RNC is scheduled to begin its convention just four days later on July 15.
On top of this, the RNC convention will be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Donald Trump had recently decided to insult Milwaukee as “horrible.”
Of course the Lincoln Project is taking advantage of Trump's insult with this short ad that's directed at Wisconsin.
This whole drama surrounding the upcoming RNC convention is yet another indication that if the Republicans want to have any hope of saving their election chances in the fall, they really need to seriously consider replacing Trump with someone else before the convention. It's highly unlikely that they will do so but they should do it before it's too late. Many voters have said that they will not vote for a felon. Even if Trump pulls off a victory and becomes president once again, he will be very hobbled in being able to carry out the basics of the job because he is a convicted felon.
Dr. Phil as a Copyright Bully
Not too long ago I wrote this post about Dr. Phil's interview with Donald Trump and how he has come out as an openly Trump supporter where he was very deferential towards the former real estate developer-turned president-turned convicted felon. (Which was the polar opposite of his days as a TV talk show therapist where he frequently confronted his guests about their behavior.) In that post I included a video by Jesse Dollemore where he provided excerpts from that interview along with his own commentary on what was said in those excerpts. There's nothing wrong with it. Under US copyright law, it is permissible to use excerpts from a copyrighted piece of work without getting permission from the copyright owner for the purposes of providing commentary or review under the fair use exception.
Dr. Phil decided to file a complaint with YouTube against Jesse Dollemore and YouTube initially sided with Dr. Phil and told Dollemore that if he doesn't remove that video soon, YouTube will do it for him and Dollemore's channel will get a copyright strike. Dollemore made this video where he thoroughly explained fair use and why he had the right to use those excerpts.
Apparently enough of Dollemore's regular viewers had complained to YouTube because YouTube had contacted Dollemore and it immediately backtracked on its threat to take down that video. For now the video can remain on YouTube and Dollemore made this followup announcing the good news.
The issue seems to be over for now. Dr. Phil's copyright infringement charge was ludicrous when you consider the fact that the original Dollemore commentary has a total runtime of nearly 12 minutes while Dr. Phil's original interview with Donald Trump has a runtime of a little over one hour. It was obvious that Dollemore had only used a small portion of that interview to make his review. By the way, here's the original one-hour interview that you can watch in full below.
Protests in Hungary
Last weekend there was a large demonstration in Budapest that was organized by Péter Magyar, who is an opponent to Hungary's authoritarian leader Viktor Orbán.
More Protests in Israel
Israel also had a major protest in Tel Aviv where they demanded a deal with Hamas and Benjamin Netanyahu's resignation.
More Protests in Washington, DC
Last weekend thousands of pro-Palestinian people from across the US gathered outside of the White House to protest the Biden Administration's policies in the Israel-Hamas war. They also set up an encampment in the Ellipse that was similar to the encampments at select college campuses across the US. They had even repeated something they did at previous protests in DC—vandalized the statues in Lafayette Square with paint.
All of these protests brings to mind this post by Spoutible CEO Christopher Bouzy: “If the protests stop immediately after November 5, but the war in Gaza rages on, then you will know most of the protesting was all about hurting Biden’s reelection chances and not about Gaza.”
Project 2025
I've written previously about Project 2025 and how it can adversely impact America, especially if Donald Trump wins the election in November. I came across this explainer video that details what is in Project 2025. I recommend this one if you want to learn more about Project 2025 but aren't into reading the original 900+ page document.
As more and more people are learning about Project 2025, the more alarmed that they are becoming. This week California Congressman Jared Huffman has announced the formation of a Stop Project 2025 Task Force, saying “Project 2025 is more than an idea, it’s a dystopian plot that’s already in motion to dismantle our democratic institutions, abolish checks and balances, chip away at church-state separation, and impose a far-right agenda that infringes on basic liberties and violates public will. We need a coordinated strategy to save America and stop this coup before it’s too late.”
The High Price of Saying That the 2020 US Presidential Election Was Stolen From Donald Trump
To this day Donald Trump refuses to admit that he lost the last election by claiming that the election was stolen. However those in the right-wing media who have not only echoed Trump's claim but had lobbed accusations at random people and companies of helping to rig that election have faced steep penalties and, in some cases, financial ruin. Here's a rundown of the steep prices that these media outlets have had to pay in their service to Donald Trump.
When the Mainstream Media Functions More as a Pro-Trump Propaganda Outlet Than Actually Providing the News
In my previous article about the mainstream media I mentioned than many of these media outlets are pro-Trump because their corporate owners are more concerned about getting their taxes cut than actually providing information to the American public.
Among the worst offenders is Sinclair. That media outlet is just as right wing as Fox News but they have a different business model. While Fox News is more focused on its main cable channel that is distributed across the US, Sinclair has purchased a bunch of local TV stations. These local stations have local news but they have far less autonomy under Sinclair's ownership. Here's a compilation of Sinclair-owned local news anchors at various TV stations across the US reading from an identical script about a recent Wall Street Journal article questioning President Joe Biden's mental fitness.
You can read more about the story behind that video right here. That video not only went viral but it received lots of mainstream media attention. You can check out the responses here.
An Update About That Canadian Family Who Moved to Russia to Escape From LGBTQ People
Remember Arend and Anneesa Feenstra and their eight children? They were a farming family in Canada who grew so tired of LGBTQ people that they decided to sell their farm and move to Russia. When they arrived, things quickly turned into a nightmare. First, they had their accounts frozen in their new Russian banks so they suddenly had no money and they also didn't speak Russian, which made things worse.
Then they couldn't buy land to farm on due to Russian laws regarding foreign ownership of land.
If all that weren’t enough, they couldn't even get a temporary residency permit in Russia because they flunked the required Russian language proficiency test so they were required to leave Russia for three months then maybe try again once those three months were up.
Wonkette has this update. Apparently the family is still in Russia. They managed to get a workaround in their quest to stay in Russia and resume their careers as farmers where they could form a corporation and have at least 51% of it owned by Russians (which would be in full compliance with Russian law). They managed to get one or more Russians to own the 51% so the corporation is now looking for land to buy. Once that happens, the Feenstra family can resume their farming trade.
It sounds great at first but, based on that Wonkette article, it sounds like little more than a glorified sharecropper agreement where the family will work on land that's majority-owned by someone else. As long as the Feenstras remain in the good graces of the Russian owners then things are fine. If the family ever have a major falling-out with the Russian owners then they will be back to square one.
At least in Canada they fully owned their own land along with the animals and farming equipment. But they let their intolerance towards the LGBTQ community push them towards making drastic and disastrous decisions to the point where their future is uncertain and unstable.
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