Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Edge-]

He may say that publicly, but this video reads like a Q post through and through.

I never said he wasn't equally unhinged for completely different reasons : P

[Edge-]

Someone should really read it to him...

This is a man who needs pictures and his name all over briefing documents just to hope he'll pay attention for long enough to get critical information.

Do you honestly think he'd listen to someone read a dry report like that, especially when it's 400 pages long? Do you honestly think he'd understand half of it, or wouldn't fly off the handle if he was told something he didn't like?

[Moonstream]

So I'm not sure if this has been discussed recently but it's rather interesting. Not going to quote the whole thing, as it's rather large. Bolded the extra interesting or alarming parts.

He always brings them up

President Trump has personally and repeatedly urged the head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to award a border wall contract to a North Dakota construction firm whose top executive is a GOP donor and frequent guest on Fox News, according to four administration officials.

In phone calls, White House meetings and conversations aboard Air Force One during the past several months, Trump has aggressively pushed Dickinson, N.D.-based Fisher Industries to Department of Homeland Security leaders and Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, the commanding general of the Army Corps, according to the administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal discussions. The push for a specific company has alarmed military commanders and DHS officials.

Alarming indeed.

We Build the Wall, a nonprofit that includes prominent conservatives who support the president — its associates and advisory board include former White House adviser Stephen K. Bannon, Blackwater USA founder Erik Prince, ex-congressman Tom Tancredo and former Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach — has guided an effort to build portions of the border barrier on private land with private funds.

Is this a thing? Like really?

Trump’s repeated attempts to influence the Army Corps’ contracting decisions show the degree to which the president is willing to insert himself into what is normally a staid legal and regulatory process designed to protect the U.S. government from accusations of favoritism. They also show how a private company can appeal to the president using well-placed publicity and personal connections to his allies — and the president’s willingness to dive into the minutiae of specific projects

But Trump’s personal intervention risks the perception of improper influence on decades-old procurement rules that require government agencies to seek competitive bids, free of political interference.

Most recently, the president has insisted the structure be painted black and topped with spikes, while grumbling to aides that the Army Corps contracting process is holding back his ambitions. At the White House meeting Thursday, he said he doesn’t like the current design for the wall’s gates, suggesting that instead of the hydraulic sliding gate design, the Army Corps should consider an alternative, according to an administration official: “Why not French doors?” the president asked. He also wants the flat steel panels removed from the upper part of the fence, which he considers unsightly, preferring sharpened tips at the end of the steel bollards.

Lol, wtf.

Fisher Industries was one of the six companies that built border wall prototypes outside San Diego in 2017, but the company’s concrete design did not afford the see-through visibility that DHS officials wanted. While many of the companies declined to discuss their prototypes with reporters, Tommy Fisher was an eager booster for his plan, criticizing the steel bollard design and professing that a more expensive concrete version would be better.

When Fisher began promoting a steel version of the barrier that he said could be installed faster and cheaper, the Army Corps said the design did not meet its requirements and lacked regulatory approvals.

So uh which is it...?

Collecting private donations, We Build the Wall has raised $22 million for the cause. The group has announced a raffle for a “wall reveal ceremony” it said will be attended by its “MAGA All Star board of advisors.”

“Witness history made on completion of the first privately funded section of the border wall!” it says. Cramer said Fisher is working with We Build the Wall. The group did not respond to a request for comment.

Good lord, not sure if I've ever been more embarrassed of one of my states reps.

Officials from the Army Corps and DHS then met with Kushner several times to explain why Fisher wasn’t the best deal.

Army Corps of Engineers officials evaluated Fisher’s proposal and said that it didn’t meet the requirements of the project — and that the proposal was cheaper because it wasn’t as high-quality, or as sophisticated, in their view.

BUILD THE (cheap)(low quality)WALL!!!!

Cramer said that he has long known the Fisher family and that he is not advocating for the company because its ownership has donated money to his campaigns.

“I was doing it before they were a financial contributor,” he said. “For no other reason than the fact that he’s a constituent of mine.”

Uh huh, sure.

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Lol, talk about not being quite honest. The local paper for Dickinson, where they are located, didn't post the whole article....where it starts to get a bit more critical of the company. Actually pretty much the whole thing.....funny how the missing stuff has all the fun things like spikes, french doors, cheap wall, possibly unlawful meddling, etc.

Could just be a copy/paste fail coincidence, but I find it rather amusing.

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Actually the more I look at this the more I think it was intentional. They even end it on a rather sassy line. "You know who else watches FOX News?"

[Paranoid Android]

Facebook acknowledges Pelosi video is faked but declines to delete it https://t.co/DeE2QsQn9g

Wait. WTF? Fuck Facebook and them spreading conspiracy shit.

Despite the apparently malicious intent of the video’s creator, Facebook has said it will only downgrade its visibility in users’ newsfeeds and attach a link to a third-party factchecking site pointing out that the clip is misleading. As a result, although it is less likely to be seen by accident, the doctored video will continue to rack up views. Facebook only took the action following inquiries from the Washington Post, which first reported the story.

This is their excuse, I guess. So good luck on that when more crap like this continues.

[Endus]

Wait. WTF? Fuck Facebook and them spreading conspiracy shit.

This is their excuse, I guess. So good luck on that when more crap like this continues.

To play devil's advocate for a sec, I think the real legal consequences should be meted out to the users who create and pass along that kind of libelous propaganda, not the medium they use to pass it along.

Getting Facebook et al to block it just drives it underground. Instead, dig out the lying shits-for-brains at the core of the issue and hit them with real consequences.

And before anyone comes back with it, I know libel and slander don't exist if they're in politics, but that's a stupid loophole in the first place. There is precisely zero reason political libel should be given a free pass, particularly when truth is already an ironclad defense against a libel accusation.

[Paranoid Android]

An oh btw on this thread nobody posts that our POTUS posted a doctored, edited video of the 3rd person in line for the Presidency.

@Endus. While a different platform but again our POTUS posted a this fake video on Twitter. This is reach but many are saying the Facebook video is spreading because of the President.

[D Luniz]

An oh btw on this thread nobody posts that our POTUS posted a doctored, edited video of the 3rd person in line for the Presidency.

@Endus. While a different platform but again our POTUS posted a this fake video on Twitter. This is reach but many are saying the Facebook video is spreading because of the President.

and Giuliani, Trump's lawyer posted it too

[Paranoid Android]

Trump invokes emergency powers to sidestep Congress and sell arms to Saudi Arabia
...

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Not even a little bit. Surely someone actually vaguely honest could give him the main bullet points though? Is even that too much to expect him to read?

Yeah. Accidentally posted in wrong thread but this guy abuses or breaks the law of our land on a weekly basis. I mean if he breaks only one a week, it's a slow week for Trump.

[Dacien]

An oh btw on this thread nobody posts that our POTUS posted a doctored, edited video of the 3rd person in line for the Presidency.

There was a debate a while back about the difference between edited and doctored, and there is one. Clips are routinely edited together to create a montage, we see this all the time. This is what came from Fox News and what Trump tweeted. It was edited.

Doctored videos, according to the definition, are altered with "the intent to deceive". So the Facebook video would fall under this definition. The speed of the video was slowed down by 75%, and the pitch was altered to compensate and give Pelosi a normal-sounding voice, to hide the fact that it had been slowed down to make her appear sluggish and stupefied.

I only bring this up because people have sort of been playing loose with these definitions lately, including parody videos mocking AOC that were clearly parody, being referred to as "doctored".

I had a condemnation locked and loaded when I first heard about this. I would be incensed if Obama had offered up an altered video of a political opponent trying to pass it off as authentic. But you have to dig around quite a bit these days to sort through the spin, cross-reference multiple websites to nail down who actually did what and where. Conflation between two events that are close but different in important ways seems to be a common trap.

[Edge-]

There was a debate a while back about the difference between edited and doctored, and there is one. Clips are routinely edited together to create a montage, we see this all the time. This is what came from Fox News and what Trump tweeted. It was edited.

Doctored videos, according to the definition, are altered with "the intent to deceive". So the Facebook video would fall under this definition. The speed of the video was slowed down by 75%, and the pitch was altered to compensate and give Pelosi a normal-sounding voice, to hide the fact that it had been slowed down to make her appear sluggish and stupefied.

I only bring this up because people have sort of been playing loose with these definitions lately, including parody videos mocking AOC that were clearly parody, being referred to as "doctored".

That distinction is important, I agree.

But can we take a moment to appreciate how Trump is throwing stones from a rice-paper house? The man can barely deliver a coherent, complete sentence in English. He has no place or room to be critical of others stammering or mispronouncing words.

At least not without being a gigantic, hypocritical piece of shit.

[Dacien]

That distinction is important, I agree.

But can we take a moment to appreciate how Trump is throwing stones from a rice-paper house? The man can barely deliver a coherent, complete sentence in English. He has no place or room to be critical of others stammering or mispronouncing words.

At least not without being a gigantic, hypocritical piece of shit.

Yeah he's a big child, and it's not presidential at all. I wholly don't support his lashing out.

[Smitzelplix]

Well Trump's trade war could very well impact the video game industry soon.

Trump administration 25 percent tariff proposal targets U.S. board game, game console imports

Depending on how things go this could damage the next console cycle happening soon and is something the article makes mention of.

[Masark]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-a8928556.html

No comment.

[Felya]

The Kraken is unleashed, the hyenas will now eat each other. Mark my words, Q knows all. /s

It’s a very weird parody of himself. To the point I thought it was James Adomian doing his impession.

Is that his audition tape to play Euron Greyjoy?

[Paranoid Android]

That distinction is important, I agree.

But can we take a moment to appreciate how Trump is throwing stones from a rice-paper house? The man can barely deliver a coherent, complete sentence in English. He has no place or room to be critical of others stammering or mispronouncing words.

At least not without being a gigantic, hypocritical piece of shit.

In his prees conference where he made his staff do the loyalty pledge again, Trump had the gall to paraphrase 'It was sad watching Nancy move her hands and the craziness' Trump then goes on to say 'I have been watching crazy Nancy for a long time she has gotten worse'.

ROFL! Projection much? A person who talks with his hands and one more time watch any interview from the 80's and 90's and listen to his speech and how coherent he was back then.

[Dontrike]

New Jersey has no law mandating E-Verify use.

Clearly Trump is making principled sacrifice of lower labour costs to promote his America-First agenda by voluntarily using E-Verify on his premises.

"Making principle sacrifice" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Yeah and then he totally debated in good faith and didn't eat fast food for every meal.

[zorkuus]

Not even a little bit. Surely someone actually vaguely honest could give him the main bullet points though? Is even that too much to expect him to read?

There isn't anyone vaguely honest left in this administration.

[Dontrike]

Someone should really read it to him...

They probably should considering that huge fucking grammar mistake of "how u obstruct NO crim?" (I made it stupider to match him farther), and of course him probably not reading one word of it, especially in combination of needing pictures like a kindergartner and needing his name said, again like a kindergartner.

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An oh btw on this thread nobody posts that our POTUS posted a doctored, edited video of the 3rd person in line for the Presidency.

"It's okay." - @rda

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Trump invokes emergency powers to sidestep Congress and sell arms to Saudi Arabia

What kind of emergency would the president need to sell arms to another country?

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Yeah he's a big child, and it's not presidential at all. I wholly don't support his lashing out.

You just support the things he does while doing the lashing out.

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https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-a8928556.html

No comment.

So this is the dozenth time he talks about treason and the second or third time he's suggest death to those who don't clap?

[rda]

"It's okay." - @rda

(Please refrain from putting words into my mouth. I haven't watched the video in question and expressed no opinion on it. If you absolutely want to say that you think my opinion regarding X is Y, please clarify that this is you thinking what my opinion might be, not me expressing that opinion. Thank you.)

[Dontrike]

(Please refrain from putting words into my mouth. I haven't watched the video in question and expressed no opinion on it. If you absolutely want to say that you think my opinion regarding X is Y, please clarify that this is you thinking what my opinion might be, not me expressing that opinion. Thank you.)

Is it really putting words in your mouth? You believe some weird things, like Trump can do well, the trade war is hurting China and not the U.S., that the Mueller investigation found nothing, that the other investigations should end for not reason, and a whole heap of other shit. I took a well educated guess that you're as okay with that as the whole heap of other shit he does.

Also, no.