<When you meet a person for the first time, you are seeing them at their best selves. So when I find someone hard to get along with or who displays behavior I can't explain, I stay far away.

In my 10-plus years of being a CEO, investor and founder, I've worked with thousands of people in business, and there are five types of toxic personalities I see over and over again.

To avoid working with these people as much as possible, watch for these signs:

1. Withholders

Withholders are unable to deliver praise or feel happy when someone else steps up and contributes to a group success. They are wired by insecurity or the need for domination.

They resent anyone who possesses skills they don't have or who doesn't feel the same self-loathing that they are plagued with. If you are thriving, they see it as their mission to bring you down.

How to handle them: Withholders take advantage of those who don't speak up. Actively point out the strengths you each bring to the table. Demonstrate that, with your combined efforts, you can both achieve positive results.

2. Hijackers

It's not always so brazen and extreme, but Hijackers are essentially Withholders with the added bonus of aggression. They want to trade on your vulnerability, take what you are great at, and claim it for themselves.

I've seen a lot of Hijackers in managerial roles. What they don't understand is that to extract value from creatives, they must be empathetic to other people's deficiencies — instead of trying to exploit them.

How to handle them: Own your achievements and demand credit when it's due. Hijackers are less likely to bully someone who is assertive and who displays a strong sense of confidence.

3. Victims

Generally, good performers live in a place of gratitude. They don't feel entitled to success, so they're thrilled and thankful when it arrives.

But Victims live in a place of constant injustice. They see every bump in the road as confirmation that they are being unfairly targeted.

How to handle them: A Victim's central argument might be that they are burdened with an undue workload. So raise your hand to volunteer, but know that your offer will likely be rejected. Going forward, remind them that you are willing to help, while also shouting out colleagues who are team players.

4. Martyrs

Martyrs are like Victims who actually do the work, but they don't do it well enough to justify the psychological drain they place on an organization.

They take on as much as they can handle — not to help the broader team, but to confirm the narrative they carry around about themselves as unjustly forced to take on the burdens of others.

How to handle them: Convince them that the greatest service they can do in pursuit of a cause is to delegate to people best suited to perform the individual tasks. Encourage them to redirect their energy into deploying others, instead of taking everything on by themselves.

5. Gaslighters

Gaslighters will spend their energy trying to rewrite reality, to the detriment of everyone around them. They often possess narcissistic traits.

They combine the qualities of Withholders, Hijackers, Victims and Martyrs all in one, attempting to convince people that they are not seeing what's going on right in front of their eyes.

How to handle them: Put guardrails in place to keep them on track to deliver whatever value they can, and ignore the rest. If you don't spend any energy engaging with their view of the world, the fire they're trying to ignite will never take hold.>

<Donald Trump raised eyebrows with a pair of posts on his Truth Social platform suggesting some type of deal he had reached with the Internal Revenue Service.

The former president criticized the purported visit by an IRS agent to Substack writer Matt Taibbi's home the day he voluntarily testified before Congress on the alleged "weaponization" of the federal government, saying the move was "just plain dangerous and stupid."

"But even more dangerous & stupid is the way they have handled me, leaking information (which is illegal!) &, making a deal & then breaking it for strictly political reasons," the ex-president posted in all capital letters. "I had a 'done deal' before running for president -- they broke it! Treated worse than Tea Party & evangelicals."

The House Ways and Means Committee issued a report in December, following a yearslong fight to obtain his tax records, that found the IRS had failed to pursue mandatory audits of him on a timely basis during his presidency, although congressional investigators produced no evidence Trump had directly discouraged the agency from reviewing his taxes.

"I could have easily made a very good deal with the IRS during my 4 years as President, but thought it inappropriate to do so," Trump posted. "Besides, I already had a deal from before my Presidency -- A deal which they choose not to honor. So now I am demanding the original deal, without late changes in the rules & regulations so that deal would be harder to make. Most people would say that after watching the Biden family take advantage of government, I should have made deal during my term. To me, CONFLICT.">

Smith: No dice.

<A federal judge has ordered former Vice President Mike Pence to give information to Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith about his conversations with former President Donald Trump in the days before the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — something Pence has been fiercely resisting, claiming that this information is privileged.

Speaking to anchor Erin Burnett on Tuesday, CNN legal analyst Paula Reid outlined how significant a development this is in the case.

"You also have some new reporting on the other situation here," said Burnett. "I'm going to talk about that special counsel. The DOJ federal judge ruling that Mike Pence has to testify about January 6th. Interestingly not about what happened on the day of January 6th, but about other things before that has to appear before that grand jury. So Pence himself was just asked about this ruling by the judge, right. He'd fought it. Here's what he said."

"How they sorted that out and what other testimony might be required?" Pence told Greta Van Susteren on Newsmax in the clip. "We're currently reviewing, but look, let me be clear. I have nothing to hide. I have a Constitution to uphold. I upheld the Constitution on January 6th. We're currently speaking to our attorneys about the proper way forward, and as I said, we'll have a decision in the coming days."

"So the special counsel moved on this aggressively," said Burnett. "What exactly do they want from Pence?"

"So this is a big win for the special counsel, because now they're going to be able to ask him about all his conversations with former President Trump in the leadup to January 6th," said Reid. "They're interested in this pressure campaign that Trump and his allies were applying on Pence not to certify the results of the election, in particular that call on January 6th, pretty heated call, that other witnesses have testified about. Now, the former vice president will have to answer questions about that. So this is a big, big win for the special counsel.">

<A Donald Trump supporter protesting the Manhattan district attorney’s probe of the former president pulled a knife on a family with two small children Tuesday outside Manhattan Criminal Court, according to a court official.

The man and woman with two children in strollers accidentally bumped into the Trump supporter while crossing the intersection of Hogan Place and Centre Street just after 4:00 p.m., three bystanders told POLITICO. The female protester, who held a sign that read “I support Trump, do you?” began arguing with the couple before she pulled out a blade approximately 6 inches long and waved it at the family, according to the eye-witnesses.

“Angelica Rucker pulled a knife from her right side belt hip area and began menacing one of the complainants with the knife as the verbal confrontation pursued,” a court spokesperson said.

Court officers, who were standing outside the building, rushed over, pulled out their guns and ordered the woman to drop the knife, the bystanders said. She was arrested without incident.

No one was injured. Rucker, who could not immediately be reached for comment, was placed in custody and charges are pending, according to a court spokesperson.

“The court officers were standing on the corner and within 20 seconds they were here and she had dropped the knife,” said one bystander who could not be named because of his job. “The woman yelled, ‘Knife, knife’ and the court officers were on the Trump-supporter like Voltron,” the bystander said.

The altercation came after Trump called on supporters to protest the probe and predicted “potential death & destruction” if he is charged for his alleged role in a 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

So far, significant support for Trump has failed to materialize.

The Trump-supporter was the only protester present outside the courthouse Tuesday. The grand jury usually only hears evidence on the case on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Last week, activists clamoring for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to indict Trump far outnumbered the president’s supporters outside the courthouse.

Police and court officials did not immediately release the protester’s name, age or other personal information.>

<Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned Tuesday that military readiness could be impaired by the growing list of senior military nominations being blocked by Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville over his opposition to a Pentagon abortion policy.

"Not approving the recommendation for promotions actually creates a ripple effect with the force that makes us far less ready than we need to be," Austin said responding to a question from Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I., during a hearing on the Pentagon's defense budget.

Tuberville has been blocking military nominations since last month, over a Pentagon policy that covers the travel costs of service members seeking abortions in states outside of where they are stationed if their base is located in a state that bans the procedure.

Austin spoke directly to Tuberville at the hearing over the military's need to promote officials during "one of the most complex times" seen in recent years.

"I really implore you to reconsider and allow our nominations to move forward. It will make a significant difference for our force," Austin said.

After the hearing, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D, N.Y., lambasted Tuberville for blocking the Pentagon promotions.

"GOP Senator Tuberville is inflicting unnecessary damage to our military by blocking the promotion of 160 officers," Schumer said in a tweet.

"For what? So he can push the MAGA hard line on blocking women's choice? Women in the military are more than capable of making their own healthcare decisions," Schumer said.

"We're in a situation now where we are beginning to see critical positions that are in jeopardy of not being filled," Reed added.

"If this continues, we will have within a few months, no leadership in significant [parts of the military]. In fact, almost the entire Department of Defense will have acting people, will have temporary people, and we need leadership right now," he said.

Tuberville remained steadfast in opposition, arguing the policy was implemented without input from Congress.

"Y'all got the American taxpayer on the hook to pay for travel and time off for selective abortions. And you did not make this with anybody in this room. Or Congress taking a vote. In fact, this contradicts what Congress has actually voted for," he said.

"I'm not going to let our military be politicized. I want our military to be the strongest and the deadliest it has ever been. But I also want the administration to follow the law. As long as I have a voice in this body, Congress will write the laws. Not the secretary of defense, not the Joint Chiefs," he said.

"Almost one in five of our troops are women. And they don't get a chance to choose where their station, so almost 80,000 of our women are stationed in places that where they don't have access to non-covered reproductive health care," Austin said.

"And I heard from our troops, I heard from our senior leaders, I heard from our chiefs, and also our secretaries and this policy is based on strong legal grounds. And it is not a law. It is a policy. And so, you know, we obviously don't pass laws in the Department of Defense," Austin said. "But again, I assure you that we have great respect for this body, Congress, and we will do everything within our power to make sure that we continue to work with Congress."

Tuberville's hold on nominations may also have an impact on the process to pick a successor to Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark A. Milley whose tenure ends Sept. 30.

No name has been put forward yet for Milley's replacement but it's strongly believed that the two leading contenders are Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. C.Q. Brown and Gen. David Berger, the commandant of the Marine Corps.>

<Before 1914, the world lived in the era of the Great Powers. After 1945, we had the Cold War and the two superpowers. Then, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, we had the unipolar era of Western hegemony – one that we are now told is coming to an end.

A quarter of the way into 2023, the phrase of the year so far seems to be “multi-polarity”. Where once America bestrode the globe, able to intervene in the air and on the ground everywhere from Sierra Leone to Kosovo to Iraq, the rules of the game have changed. With the Iraq invasion ending in failure and a panicked withdrawal from Afghanistan, the West looks considerably less hegemonic. New powers are on the rise, and the meeting last week between Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin marked a coming together of those rising forces in their opposition to the West.

That, at least, has been the prevailing narrative. There is no doubt that the West has experienced setbacks. But those are nothing new; the Cold War was not lost despite stalemate in Korea and embarrassment in Vietnam. As for the return of Russia and the re-emergence of China, the narrative of a new Cold War and a multipolar world is lacking a crucial element: demography.

Human numbers – particularly of young people – are a crucial and often overlooked determinant of world affairs. And demographically, neither the Bear nor the Dragon is in good shape.

The Russians have had too few children to replace themselves since the days of Khrushchev. Putin’s efforts to get the birth rate up have had limited and, it would appear, merely temporary effects. If Russia has not aged as much as some other countries, it is not because of a fresh blush of surging youth but because too many of its late-middle aged, particularly men, die of alcoholism and despair.

Life expectancy in Russia is comparable with that in India and Egypt, but whereas people in these countries are living much longer than they used to, Russians have seen 60 years of stagnation. Meanwhile, the Kremlin finds itself ruling a country short of young men. Too few were born 20 to 30 years ago, and this demographic weakness has been amplified as many have fled the war.

This has deprived Putin of cannon fodder, but it also means that even fewer Russian babies are going to be born in the years to come, storing up problems for the economy and draining Moscow of its potential military manpower for decades. Hundreds of thousands of men will not be fathering Russian children because they are either seeing the crisis out in Tbilisi or dead in the fields of Ukraine.

China, meanwhile, is suffering the calamitous consequences of its One Child policy. Imposed iniquitously and lifted too late to make a difference, its legacy is a population – and in particular a young population – that is already falling, and is likely to halve by the end of the century.

Beijing has already lost top spot in the demographic league table to India, whose population is already bigger and has decades of growth ahead of it. There will still be plenty of young men to send to whatever battles the Communist Party decides to pick, but China’s manpower advantage is set to shrivel. And with an ageing population struggling to keep the lights on, it will not conjure up much enthusiasm for foreign adventures.

This is not to say that all is demographically well in the West. Fertility rates everywhere are below what they need to be. But if it chooses, the West can still offer a lifestyle attractive enough to draw vast numbers of immigrants to work in its industries and nurse in its hospitals. Immigration is at best a temporary fix to demographic weakness and it may be disliked by some, but at least for the likes of the US, the UK and Germany it remains an option. By contrast, few now wish to go to Russia, and even if they wanted to go to China (or were wanted), they would be a drop in the ocean.

China and Russia, individually or together, still have great nuisance potential. The damage wreaked by Putin’s soldiers in Ukraine is testimony to that. But as the West girds itself to confront the challenge, it should take comfort from the soft demographic underbelly of its opponents. The new Cold War may already be over.>

<Now don't come unhinged p^^^i. No need for you to hurt innocent folks because you got it thrown right back atcha. Serious work is needed on your anger management.>

<....Once again, I'm 100% right about the crap material on this page that you refuse to acknowledge, and you are 100% wrong....>

Nice strawman.

<...Use your brain -- don't overreact in anger -- and make useful chess posts....>

Sound advice; try practising what you preach, just once, prefect manque.

<....We don't need these Yahoos claiming FTB is posting politics when the evidence SMACKS YOU IN THE FACE....>

Till it is removed--if that comes off--the evidence is plain as day, you nescient twat.

<<Mar-29-23 NM JRousselle: Yikes! How can Black defend so poorly in a correspondence game?> Our NM chimed in, but the conversation went nowhere because of trash posting. ....>

Unlike yourself, I do not feel compelled to comment on every thought which passes through my mind. Of course, given your tendencies, you would also have been relentlessly maundering on, a propos de rien as usual, had I posted, of how I have no knowledge of the game, or any right to post.

<....This KILLJOY is routine at CGs. But pe is a lazy, effortless poster, so pe doesn't mind the stupidity nor the lies.>

perfidious and stone free or die are lying scum. Their political droppings, absolute lies and personal attacks on this page wreak of their dishonesty and flagrant disrespect for the chess guidelines. Take your trash to Rogoff!>

Hahahahaha!

The word is 'reek', not 'wreak' in that usage.

<Gov. Ron DeSantis gained control of Walt Disney World's oversight district board in February.

The move was an attempt to strip the company's self-governing power that it has enjoyed for decades.

But a previously signed agreement may have rendered the new governing board powerless.

Gov. Ron DeSantis' move to take over Walt Disney World's governing board in Florida may have backfired due to a prior obscure agreement that new governor-appointed board members say stripped them of their power.

The contentious agreement, approved without fanfare a day before DeSantis assumed more control of Disney's land, is the latest in an apparent feud between the governor and the company.

And in setting the expiration terms of the agreement, Disney invoked an obscure property law known as Rule Against Perpetuities, setting the date for "twenty one (21) years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles IIII, King of England living as of the date of this Declaration."

"This essentially makes Disney the government," Ron Peri, a member of the board, said during a meeting on Wednesday. "This board loses, for practical purposes, the majority of its ability to do anything beyond maintain the roads and maintain basic infrastructure."

For close to six decades, Disney has operated its expansive theme park and resort in Florida under a specially designated district that lies between two counties. A board, previously known as Reedy Creek Improvement District, oversaw the area and had free reign of development processes, such as zoning and infrastructure, and even control of its own fire department, essentially operating like a separate municipal government. Disney also had the authority to appoint district board members.

This special status came under threat when Disney entered the fray of DeSantis' culture war last year, after the company publicly objected to Florida's proposal to ban the discussion of sexual orientation in K-3 public classrooms....>

<....In a show of political force, DeSantis, who is a likely contender for the 2024 Republican nomination, attempted to dissolve the Reedy Creek district. But the dissolution would have placed the burden of paying for a fire department and road maintenance, among other services, onto taxpayers in Orange and Osceola counties. Residents would also have had to pick up the district's hefty $1 billion debt.

Instead, Florida lawmakers passed a bill in February to end "Disney's self-governing status" and give the governor the authority to appoint new board members to the district. Reedy Creek was renamed to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, and DeSantis appointed five supervisors, including a parents' rights activist and three Republican donors.

But the new supervisors are now saying that previous board members entered an agreement that effectively stripped them of their powers.

"We're going to have to deal with it and correct it," Brian Aungst, a member of the board, said during a meeting on Wednesday. "It's a subversion of the will of the voters and the Legislature and the governor. It completely circumvents the authority of this board to govern."

Another board member, Bridget Ziegler, also tweeted on Wednesday that "if unlawful actions were taken, this development agreement will be nullified."

According to the agreement text, Disney was given a slew of powers including development rights for the next thirty years, or until 2053, and the authority to approve any design improvements.

A "declaration of restrictive covenants" also bars the district from using Disney's name, characters, symbols, or any other Disney-owned intellectual property.

DeSantis has previously said that his new board members will be able to tailor the type of entertainment at the park, though it's unclear how they would be able to do so.

"When you lose your way, you gotta have people that are going to tell you the truth," DeSantis said when signing the law that granted him authority over the district in February. "All these board members very much would like to see the type of entertainment that all families can appreciate."

The agreement DeSantis-appointed members are now objecting to was signed on February 8, a day before the Florida House voted to change the existing governing body.

According to Wednesday's agenda documents, the new district is seeking counsel from four law firms. One of those firms, Cooper & Kirk, has received more than $2.8 million in legal fees and contracts from the DeSantis administration, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

"All agreements signed between Disney and the district were appropriate and were discussed and approved in open, noticed public forums in compliance with Florida's Government in the Sunshine law," Disney said in a statement to Insider.

DeSantis' communications director, Taryn Fenske, said in an emailed statement to Insider that the "Executive Office of the Governor is aware of Disney's last-ditch efforts to execute contracts just before ratifying the new law that transfers rights and authorities from the former Reedy Creek Improvement District to Disney."

"An initial review suggests these agreements may have significant legal infirmities that would render the contracts void as a matter of law," Fenske wrote. "The new Governor-appointed board retained multiple financial and legal firms to conduct audits and investigate Disney's past behavior.">

<Far-right Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., on Wednesday focused on public urination during a House hearing on crime in Washington D.C.

Boebert asked whether a new criminal code approved by D.C. lawmakers was now law — and was quickly reminded that Congress had already overturned it earlier this month. She then moved on to a fixation on whether the code would have decriminalized public urination.

Charles Allen, a city councilman, was the chair of the D.C. judiciary committee considering revisions to the code. On Wednesday, Allen was brought in as a witness at the House's "Overdue Oversight of the Capital City" hearing.

He and D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson, along with chief financial officer Glen Lee and Greggory Pemberton of the D.C. Police Union, faced intense questioning from Republicans regarding policing and crime. However, Boebert diverted attention away from the issue at hand, as she kept asking inflammatory questions about public urination.

Lauren Boebert's husband did jail time for "lewd exposure" in a bowling alley. She was there

"You led the charge to reform DC's crime laws. Is that correct?" Boebert asked Allen, to which he said yes.

"You led the charge, yes sir," she confirmed. "And these changes are now law here in DC. Correct?"

"You mean the revised criminal code? No, those are not the law," Allen replied.

When Boebert appeared confused, Mendelson tried to remind her that the code was rejected, but she cut him off to further grill Allen.

"Did you or did you not decriminalize public urination in Washington D.C.? Did you lead the charge to do so?" she asked.

"No," Allen said. "The revised criminal code left that as a criminal."

"Did you lead the charge to decriminalize public urination in Washington D.C.?" Boebert continued to ask. Allen simply said "no, ma'am."

"Did you ever vote in favor of decriminalizing public urination in Washington D.C.?" she asked again, refusing to acknowledge the repeated fact-checks he provided.

"The revised criminal code that was passed by the council kept it as a criminal offense," Allen explained.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

"Did you ever support this criminal offense status?" Boebert questioned. Allen said that he did vote for it.

"You voted to keep it as a criminal offense?" Boebert continued.

"That's correct," Allen replied. "The full council did."

The pro-Trump lawmaker then claimed to "have records" proving that Allen favored "allowing public urination".

When he tried to refute those claims, she cut him off, asking if that is "something you intend to pursue in the future?"

"No. The legislation you're referring to came from the criminal code reform commission that changed public urination from a criminal to a civil offense," Allen explained. "The council then changed that, to maintain it as a criminal offense at the request of the mayor."

Boebert then yielded her time.

Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., criticized the back-and-forth instigated by Boebert.

"Rather than addressing a number of serious concerns our constituents have, [Republicans] are choosing to waste our time talking about public urination," she said. "Do you have anything additional you want to say about public urination?"

Boebert replied, "I do."

"No, not you," Balint said to Boebert. "It's not your time. It's a question to these people."

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the ranking Democrat on the panel, slammed Boebert for her line of questioning.

"This has been a degraded, tawdry discourse today, with obsessive questioning about public urination," he said. "I hope the public doesn't see this hearing and regard all of it as an episode of public urination in which the people of Washington are the ones getting rained on."

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel in his nightly monologue on Wednesday mocked Boebert — whom he referred to as former President Donald Trump's "dumbest impersonator" — for grilling a D.C. council member "over what has to be one of the most important issues facing this fractured nation today."

"Whenever Lauren Boebert opens her mouth it should count as public urination and be a criminal offense," Kimmel joked. "I don't know what she's getting at, but it's an interesting line of questioning from someone whose husband did jail time for exposing himself to a teenager at a bowling alley."

"But with our children being shot at their schools, I have to say I thank God every day that we have people like Lauren Boebert representing the good people of Colorado," Kimmel said, before finishing the segment with a clip of her denouncing Tic Tacs after a hearing on TikTok.>

<Former President Donald Trump has responded to the news of his criminal indictment with a statement attacking Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, President Joe Biden, and the Democratic Party.

The statement:

“This is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history. From the time I came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower, and even before I was sworn in as your President of the United States, the Radical Left Democrats – the enemy of the hard-working men and women of this Country – have been engaged in a Witch-Hunt to destroy the Make America Great Again movement. You remember it just like I do: Russia, Russia, Russia; the Mueller Hoax; Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine; Impeachment Hoax 1; Impeachment Hoax 2; the illegal and unconstitutional Mar-a-Lago raid; and now this.

“The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to ‘Get Trump,’ but now they’ve done the unthinkable – indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant Election Interference.

“Never before in our Nation’s history has this been done. The Democrats have cheated countless times over the decades, including spying on my campaign, but weaponizing our justice system to punish a political opponent, who just so happens to be a President of the United States and by far the leading Republican candidate for President, has never happened before. Ever.

“Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who was hand-picked and funded by George Soros, is a disgrace. Rather than stop the unprecedented crime wave taking over New York City, he’s doing Joe Biden’s dirty work, ignoring the murders and burglaries and assaults he should be focused on. This is how Bragg spends his time!

“I believe this Witch-Hunt will backfire massively on Joe Biden. The American people realize exactly what the Radical Left Democrats are doing here. Everyone can see it. So our Movement, and our Party – united and strong -will first defeat Alvin Bragg, and then we will defeat Joe Biden, and we are going to throw every last one of these Crooked Democrats out of office so we can MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”>

<Glenn Beck said Donald Trump is a symbol for every Joe Six-Pack after the former president was indicted on 34 counts on Thursday.

Appearing on Thursday’s Tucker Carlson Tonight, Beck joined in the outrage on Fox News and predicted the U.S. will be “a virtual police state” by 2025 and will be at war with China.

“The fundamental transformation that started in 2008 is finished,” Beck said, presumably referring to the election of Barack Obama. “We are no longer viewed as a superpower.

Beck predicted the U.S. dollar will collapse and the nation will adopt a new currency.

“We will live in a virtual police state,” he said. “I know that might sound crazy to a lot of people. It’s not far off. The Bill of Rights is gone. Nobody is paying attention. Where are the Republicans? Where are the decent Democrats that can see this is, this is insanity?”

He then claimed Trump, a billionaire former president is a symbol of the average American.

“Donald Trump is not even a person anymore,” the former Fox News host said. “He is a symbol. He is a symbol of the average, everyday guy that keeps getting screwed every single time. Watch as other people screw up big banks, screw up their companies, and get away with it. They see people all the time doing stuff they know if they did, they’d be in prison for 20 years.”

Beck stated that Trump has taken flak on behalf of regular Americans.

“Donald Trump has taken arrow after arrow,” he continued. “And that’s why this is the way the average American feels tonight. I hope that there’s a few Democrats out there. But this guy has been taking the bullets for the average person now for years, and people on the right feel like he’s the only guy that really gets what the people are feeling.”

Beck predicted Democrats will pay a price in the next election, as he briefly donned a MAGA hat during his live hit.

“This country is in shambles and there’s gonna be 100 million people that will walk on broken glass and through fire to vote for someone other than this corrupt, banana republic administration.”

“I think, exactly right,” Tucker Carlson replied.

Beck has famously changed his tune on Trump. In 2016, he said opposing Trump was the “moral” thing to do.>

Lemme rephrase this: your attacks on others were removed.

Your hypocrisy is beyond belief.

<Who are you again Rpd? Can't recall seeing you ever comment on the GOTD. Do you have a favorite chess player that you've commented on?

Would you also happen to be one of these members listed?

Peppermintpot
ControlledDemotion
NobCrisp
chikfillet
StickintheMud
JaneByhre
big paw
george wallaby
refused Fyffe123:
in the woodpile
Redheels
IndiGOViolet
IncumbentEugenics
peridiculous
Fieldgenal
cassandrone
NormanB
queeneye
peckerhead
mrs gutterworth
aunt jemmi
burden offwhite
SpawnofSatan
PeepShowJoe
JohnHopkins
JefferyDahmer
JimBartolo
JackItch
Zxp
Zanzibarf
numbnut
keyslusher CIO
AlanSkrewu
AlphaSeltzer
DumpTrump
ReelectDonII
Rbd 000000009
spankywanky
Peanutbutt
money to idiots
breed less
WMD in Afghani
homophobejoe
72robertfish

To ease your pain, you might go back and look up all the nice things that others have said about you. It won't take long. Copy ALL those nice things they said, and then post them ALL here for us to read. That would help us to remember you in the proper light. You could also copy the post from the messiah forum that is not in the messiah forum as you claim, dreamer.

Sharing these nice statements would also help YOU calm down and give up your dishonest partisanship.>

Someone is rather free with the word dishonesty.

perhidious is gonna blow the fuses in his personal forum.>

Why would I remember you?

<....This vile stalking just goes on and on.>

<Eric Trump, the second-eldest son of former President Donald Trump, is being roundly mocked on Twitter after linking his father’s criminal indictment to pharmacies’ shoplifting protections in an interview on Fox News.

“This is a city – I spend a lot of time in New York – that is falling apart,” Mr Trump said. “I went into literally CVS the other day, and you can’t buy Tylenol because it’s locked behind these glass counters because there’s so much theft, there’s so much looting and homelessness and crime, but yet their attention is going after Donald Trump.”

Mr Trump’s apparent belief that New York prosecutors like Alvin Bragg should be concentrating their attention on making sure pharmacies like CVS feel free to display their Tylenol in the open air struck some as laughable.

“So he doesn’t like seeing the anything through locked glass? Well, he’s in for a surprise in the very near future,” Kathy Gori tweeted.

“Target only allows you to purchase 5 packs of Yugioh cards at once, but this is what district attorney Alvin Bragg is focused on?” Marty Shannon tweeted.

Others mocked Mr Trump’s confusing use of “literally” in his anecdote.

Donald Trump and a number of his family members, including Eric Trump’s sibilings Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump, have reacted with a mixture of fury and dismay to news of the former president’s indictment for his alleged involvement in a hush-money payment scheme.>

You do plenty to create the aura of evil about yourself.

<....I call the people who flock with him vultures; they should know better than to act like that. He wants to destroy my image with lies because the truth is not on his side.....>

As a pathological liar, 'truth' is, at best, a free-floating concept in your narcissistic universe.

<....I want this place to run the way it should run....>

Translation: I want everything here to be under my control. You toe the line, all is sweetness and light; if not, hell will be your portion.

<....They can't stand me because I'm just about the only one that [sic] corrects them. They post all sorts of material that is lame or untrue. They know it's untrue, but they're trying to manipulate. I dislike the way they harass other members -- I won't tolerate their rude behaviors....>

Projectionist, go to your booth!

It is you who relentlessly tries to manipulate on a daily basis.

<....You don't need to hate people like perfidious hates people....>

<Former speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi released a somber statement after a grand jury indicted in Manhattan indicted former president Donald Trump.

But Ms Pelosi, who led House Democrats in the minority during Mr Trump’s first two years as president and served as Speaker in his final two years, avoided mentioning his name.

“The Grand Jury has acted upon the facts and the law. No one is above the law, and everyone has the right to a trial to prove innocence. Hopefully, the former President will peacefully respect the system, which grants him that right.”

A grand jury in Manhattan has indicted the former president for allegedly paying adult film actress Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about a sexual relationship. Mr Trump has denied the affair took place. The grand jurors voted to indict Mr Trump earlier this week, and the indictment was only filed late on Thursday right before the court clerk’s office ended its business that day.

The one-term president is reportedly facing more than 30 counts related to business fraud, sources told CNN.

Ms Pelosi led the House of Representatives when it impeached Mr Trump both times.

In 2019, the House voted to impeach Mr Trump after he tried to force Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to dig up dirt on Joe Biden in exchange for sending military assistance to Ukraine. The Senate later acquitted Mr Trump with only Republican Senator Mitt Romney of Utah joining every Democrat in voting to convict the president.

In 2021, Ms Pelosi led the House in its second impeachment of Mr Trump after the former president incited his supporters to storm the US Capitol on January 6 during the certification of the 2020 presidential election results, when every Democrat and 10 Republicans voted to impeach the former president. The Senate voted to acquit the former president, but six other Republican senators joined Mr Romney in voting to convict Mr Trump.

Since then, Ms Pelosi has avoided speaking about Mr Trump by name. In November, when she gave her farewell address, she mentioned how she worked with Democratic Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama as well as Republican George W Bush but did not mention Mr Trump.>

<Former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who has sued over her election loss last November, revealed on Friday the "smoking gun" she had been teasing the day before.

Following up on an earlier tweet she posted about dropping "big news," the Republican wrote, "Maricopa County has confirmed what we all knew to be true: Ballot signatures DO NOT MATCH. Election Officials brazenly HIDING EVIDENCE from us."

"This is the smoking gun," she continued. "Unfortunately for them, I'm not giving up—even if that means legally forcing them to hand over evidence." Lake did not provide any additional information to back up her statement.

Her comments appeared to refer to a decision by the Arizona Supreme Court on Wednesday. The court accepted her argument that lower courts erroneously dismissed her legal effort to challenge the results of the 2022 gubernatorial election, ruling in her favor for one of seven claims. The court sided against her in the other six.

Lake, a staunch Donald Trump ally who was endorsed by him and has become a leading figure in the GOP since her November defeat, has insisted that voting irregularities cost her the race against Democrat Katie Hobbs, who won by over 17,000 votes. Hobbs was inaugurated as governor in January.

Lake had previously been dealt two blows from a lower court in Maricopa County, as well as the Arizona Court of Appeals, which both rejected her lawsuit claiming there was misconduct by county election officials in Arizona's most populous county.

Wednesday's state Supreme Court order sent one of her claims back to a lower court. It does not affirm that ballot signatures do not match, as Lake said Friday, but asked a trial court to conduct an additional review of Maricopa County's signature verification procedures on mail-in ballots.

Newsweek reached out by email to Lake and to Maricopa County's public information office for comment.

While it's unlikely the lawsuit will put Lake in the governor's office, she's already hinted that she's prepared to mount another political campaign—this time for the U.S. Senate.

On Monday, she told conservative commentator Charlie Kirk on his podcast that she will "seriously consider" running for Senator Kyrsten Sinema's seat in 2024, based on hypothetical polling that has suggested she could be a formidable challenger.

"I don't know politically what I will do next," Lake told Kirk. "I never had any desire to get into politics, and the people of Arizona recruited me to run for governor, and we have led an amazing movement of 'We the People.'"

Known for supporting Trump's election denialism, she's also been floated as a possible running mate in his 2024 campaign to regain the White House. But it is unclear how his indictment on Thursday will affect his latest presidential ambition.

In response to the news of Trump's impending arraignment on criminal charges in New York City, Lake tweeted, "They just indicted President Trump. Unfortunately for them, this will only make him stronger. I didn't think I could possibly support him more, but this political Witch Hunt only strengthens our resolve to fight."

She added, "We've got your back, Mr. President.">