“All Roads Lead to Mar-a-Lago”: Inside the Fury and Fantasy of Donald Trump’s Florida
Roger Stone, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Ben Shapiro—they’ve all made their way to the Sunshine State, fueling and profiting from a tabloid culture that turns politics into spectacle, arguably Florida’s greatest export.
BY JOE HAGAN
AUGUST 10, 2021
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/08/the-fury-and-fantasy-of-donald-trumps-florida
[Excerpt:]Before he died of cancer earlier this year, Limbaugh, a Trump supporter through and through, privately expressed contempt for Sean Hannity and Mark Levin, calling them “imitators” who copied his act but with half the wit and even less of the intellect (his opinion no doubt complicated by the fact that Limbaugh’s brother David is Hannity’s agent). In the Trump era, whatever thin line had existed between the political parties and their media mouthpieces was long ago erased.
Limbaugh repeatedly promoted debunked conspiracy theories about Dominion Voting Systems as part of his broader campaign to undermine the credibility of the 2020 presidential election:
He suggested that Dominion’s systems were designed to manufacture Democratic victories, falsely claimed that Dominion is “owned and operated” by former Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, that Dominion executives were seen “fleeing the jurisdiction” following the election, and that “the Democrats and the people were running the cheating software, the Dominion software with Smartmatic.
Limbaugh repeatedly promoted pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell’s false accusations against the company in November and continued to spread false information about Dominion in the following months.
“Rush Limbaugh dead at 70”
thehill.com, Feb. 17, 2021
Judge orders two lawyers who filed suit challenging 2020 election to pay hefty fees: ‘They need to take responsibility’
“As officers of the Court, these attorneys have a higher duty and calling that requires meaningful investigation before prematurely repeating in court pleadings unverified and uninvestigated defamatory rumors that strike at the heart of our democratic system and were used by others to foment a violent insurrection that threatened our system of government,” Magistrate Judge N. Reid Neureiter wrote.
The two argued that a scheme was engineered by the voting machine vendor Dominion Voting Systems; the tech company Facebook, its founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan; and elected officials in four states. They had sought $160 billion in damages. (Boldface added]
Their case was dismissed in April. In August, Neureiter ruled that the attorneys had violated their ethical obligations by filing it in the first place, arguing that the duo had run afoul of legal rules that prohibit clogging the courts with frivolous motions and lodging information in court that is not true. At the time, he called their suit “the stuff of which violent insurrections are made,” alleging they made little effort to determine the truth of their conspiratorial claims before filing them in court. He ordered them to pay the legal fees of all of the many entities they had sued.
“The hosts who replaced Rush Limbaugh just aired their first segment and it’s embarrassing”
New York, June 22, 2021
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/rush-limbaugh-clay-travis-buck-sexton-b1870138.html
[Excerpt:]
For decades, Rush Limbaugh was the lightning-rod of American political discourse. His racist invective, homophobic bile, and misogynistic tirades drew scorn and controversy, and even inspired a massive advertiser boycott.
Limbaugh’s legendary toxicity even supplanted my income for a spell: In 2011 and 2012, a Democratic operative paid me to call into Rush Limbaugh’s show and debate him. I was given bonuses whenever Limbaugh got flustered and the segment went viral.
Even in death, Rush Limbaugh was polarizing — Fox News spent the day broadcasting hagiographies of him, and leftist Twitter made the macabre hashtag #RotInHellRush trend.
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Judge orders two lawyers who filed suit challenging 2020 election to pay hefty fees: ‘They need to take responsibility’
The federal judge ordered the duo to pay more than $187,000, arguing that the penalties are important in deterring future lawsuits aimed at the democratic system.
By Rosalind S. Helderman
“History shows that autocrats always tell you who they are and what they are going to do.”
“We just don’t listen until it is too late.”
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