Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Edge-]

https://thehill.com/news/house/34833...onduct-claims/

Another Republican member of Congress resigning following accusations of sexual misconduct.

[Breccia]

In yet more "Trump being a vindictive asshole" Esper reveals Trump wanted to re-activate two former military, just so he could court-martial them.

"What horrible crime or breach of protocol did they commit?"

They criticized Trump.

"What? They criticized Trump while in uniform?"

Well...no, they had already left service.

Trump has responded to Esper's book by telling the world Esper was weak and ineffective. So...probably not a great move to hire him, huh? Either Trump hires weak and ineffective people, or they become weak and ineffective under his leadership. Or...Trump is lying.

[PhaelixWW]

Trump has responded to Esper's book by telling the world Esper was weak and ineffective. So...probably not a great move to hire him, huh? Either Trump hires weak and ineffective people, or they become weak and ineffective under his leadership. Or...Trump is lying.

Por que no los tres?

[Poopymonster]

Oh, and biology. "Evolution? The John Lennon song?"

No, the Motorhead song.

[Edge-]

https://www.vice.com/en/article/3abg...tion-fraud-nft

Fuckin lol. Just as NFT's are tanking hard, chairwoman of the AZ Republican Party and multi-time failed Senate candidate, is moving on to her next grift: NFT's!

Reminder: She was the lead champion for the Maricopa county "audit" clown show.

[Belize]

https://thehill.com/news/house/34833...onduct-claims/

Another Republican member of Congress resigning following accusations of sexual misconduct.

Weekly reminder that anything the GOP accuses others of doing is simply projection.

[Xyonai]

https://www.vice.com/en/article/3abg...tion-fraud-nft

Fuckin lol. Just as NFT's are tanking hard, chairwoman of the AZ Republican Party and multi-time failed Senate candidate, is moving on to her next grift: NFT's!

Reminder: She was the lead champion for the Maricopa county "audit" clown show.

There must be some incredibly specific combination of mental deficiencies that makes these people so eager to be so obviously scammed out of so much money.

[Edge-]

There must be some incredibly specific combination of mental deficiencies that makes these people so eager to be so obviously scammed out of so much money.

Generally, a lack of critical thinking skills. Things you learn with "liberal" education.

[Flarelaine]

Texas is a blight on the textbook community.

Do they have the same influence CA has on emission standards? Your comment seems to imply they have some pull outside their borders.

[Breccia]

Do they have the same influence CA has on emission standards? Your comment seems to imply they have some pull outside their borders.

Texas has pull, in that they are a large state filled with people afraid of women's rights, being told their attempt to defend slavery with their lives failed, and evolution. Multiple large publishers therefore catered to their delusional needs because it would make a quick buck. A smaller state can't do that, and is left with whatever books are already being published -- meaning a state like VT might end up picking through the leftover Texas books because so many Texas youths dropped out of school to make meth and shoot at Mexican rapists.

If you think that doesn't make a lot of sense, look at Florida right now. They're banning math books on a false premise that these math books have CRT in them, and publishers will comply with that. Granted, making a math textbook without CRT is easy, and Florida technically already uses those, but you get the idea. A state with 20+ million people can and will make up stupid, stupid demands, and K-12 publishers will just agree to that in exchange for effectively printing money.

Basically, Texas' rules were trolling the entire discussion. And the people in charge just watched it happen.

You brought up CA and thankfully that's where the issue isn't nearly as bad. A publisher of a biology textbook make for Texas biology can staple the missing chapter about evolution at the end, and for decades that's basically what they did, because that's a cheap and effective -- for them -- solution. Even those VT students who get the stapled-together textbook are still stuck with a biology textbook that somehow fails to mention biology in Chapters 1 through 16 but does in 17, rather than weave it through naturally because that's where life came from. History texts, similar issue, I would imagine publishers would make history books that conveniently stop mentioning the Civil War outside of the years 1862 to 1865, rather than address the very real build-up and fallout that half the country wanting to use people as property to the point of wanting to kill other white people so they could own black people, and still wanting to do so after the war they lost being over (1872 and 1876 were really ugly times in US politics).

These texts, made to be glossed over or sectioned off, are a dissservice to education if that's what you end up with because the parents that come to the school board meetings keep voting down budget increases, and you're left eating the scraps Texas leaves on the floor. Thankfully, developments in publishing tech have made it easier to print custom books -- I teach about 12 different classes here and 2 of them use texts only available at this school -- and the "scraps" issue is far less prevalent. It's not perfect, as the "Chapter 17" example above shows, but it is better than the 1990s and 2000s.

By contrast, CA cars have to hold up to strong emissions standards, and when Ford or GM is looking at their factories and asking "do we really want a giant Pollution On/Off switch to sell worse cars to Texas" it's actually against their best interests to do so. Also the rest of the world agrees with California, so there's that. American K-12 textbooks don't really have much play outside the US. I have done no research, but I'd be willing to bet the US history books used in British schools are written by Brits.

Now, I rant over and over about Texas texts, but the good news is, there have been dramatic changes over the last few decades which are thinning the problem out. Common Core is one. Another is the penetration of Pearson Publishing in more recent years -- Pearson is British, I lied, I did do some research. McGraw-Hill and Scholastic are both in NY. And nothing makes me happier as an educator than seeing Texas bend over and get penetrated by New York.

For more information about the grasp Texas still has, consider these articles. There are dozens, hundreds, of articles on the subject, but these are some I read while writing up this response.

https://education.msu.edu/green-and-...ory-standards/ (calls out how Texas' grasp is fading)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlo...hildren-learn/

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/loc...ks-9225732.php

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/23/e...-concerns.html this is a 2013 article about Texas still trying to flag evolution out of textbooks in 2013.

- - - Updated - - -

Sen. Graham caught on tape saying

“We’ll actually come out of this thing stronger. Moments like this reset. People will calm down. People will say, ‘I don’t want to be associated with that,’” Graham says in the audio clip. “This is a group within a group. What this does, there will be a rallying effect for a while, the country says, ‘We’re better than this.'”

When asked if Biden will help unite the country, Graham agreed, saying that he was the best person to have at that moment.

“Biden will help that, right?” Martin asks Graham in the audio clip.

“Totally, he’ll be maybe the best person to have, right. I mean, how mad can you get at Joe Biden?” Graham replied.

"Also, has anyone seen my wife? She said something about taking a shower but that was yest--" (tape cuts off)

[Edge-]

Sen. Graham caught on tape saying

I love his, "Well POTUS Biden is a radical leftist and I was talking about Senator Biden!

Apparently forgetting that Biden also served as VP more recently.

And that largely, he's governing as the slightly liberal moderate that he was as VP and campaigned as.

Graham is gonna have to issue some public statements praising Trump's golf game post-haste.

[Breccia]

Graham is gonna have to issue some public statements praising Trump's golf game post-haste.

Not this time, luckily. GOP governors are pushing for Kemp, the GOP Georgia governor that refused Trump's extortion attempt. Near as I can tell, the only issue Trump has with Kemp is that Trump lied about the election in Georgia being rigged for Biden and wanted Kemp to rig it for Trump, and Kemp refused because Trump was lying. No really, Trump endorsed Kemp in 2018. Then big surprise, changed his mind later and even admitted he was to blame. He lied about Kemp being nearly last in the polls and then winning, of course. July 2 Kemp was second to Cagle 44%-43%. Trump's endorsement came July 18th. Trump lied. I know -- shocker.

Because Trump is still pushing the "Trump won the election" falsehood, so are known Trump supporters, and anyone who doesn't agree is to be removed. That...doesn't seem to be happening. While Trump continues to project (unrelated: the two worst people to project are narcissists and sociopath) that anyone who isn't his favorite will lose, Kemp leads Purdue by a likely uncatchable lead.

A recent poll performed by the SPIA Survey Research Center at University of Georgia, led by professor M.V. (Trey) Hood III illustrates this.

The survey of 736 likely Republican voters was split into two camps. One group was told who Trump had endorsed in the race beforehand, the “treatment” group. The other was not given any additional information, the “control” group.

And for the governor's race, it didn't make much difference: Only 39.2% of the treatment group chose Perdue over Kemp. He was chosen by 37.2% of the control group. Kemp was chosen by 47.9% of the control group, and 46.2% of the group that was told Trump endorsed Perdue.

GOP strategist Edward Lindsey says while candidates in less popular races may get a boost from a Trump endorsement, big name candidates with high-profile political careers like Perdue and Kemp, the voters already know who they are, and generally already feel one way or the other about them.

“I think that his influence is greater in races in which people might not already be familiar with the candidates. And so they fall back on someone that they feel like they can trust,” Lindsey said.

Which means, 2% of GA Republicans feel they can trust Trump. Holy shit, that's embarrassing.

While Purdue hasn't said how much money he has left, Kemp has, it's $10 million plus. Purdue got a few attack adds from Trump, but I have seen no indication Purdue has anywhere near that amount of money in his coffers. I don't think Trump has actually given him any, just bought some attack adds he assumed would help.

[Edge-]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...-clerk-barred/

A Colorado judge on Tuesday ruled that Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters (R), a supporter of former president Donald Trump who has embraced election-fraud conspiracy theories, is banned from overseeing elections in her home county because of her indictment for allegedly tampering with voting equipment.

Peters, who is running for the GOP nomination for secretary of state in Colorado, had already been prohibited by a judge from overseeing last year’s local elections. Mesa County District Judge Valerie Robison ruled on a lawsuit brought this year by Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) that called for Peters and deputy Belinda Knisley to be barred from overseeing this year’s midterm elections and the upcoming Mesa County primary.

The embattled clerk is facing multiple investigations, and 10 felony and misdemeanor counts from a grand jury indictment, stemming from allegations of election equipment security breach and campaign finance violations. Knisley was also indicted by the grand jury and suspended from her county position last year.

“Based on the circumstances of this case … the Court determines that the Petitioners have met the burden of showing that Peters and Knisley have committed a neglect of duty and are unable to perform the duties of the Mesa County Designated Election Official,” Robison wrote in her ruling.

Another Peters deputy named in the lawsuit, Julie Fisher, is also barred from overseeing this year’s elections, according to the ruling. Robison appointed Brandi Bantz, the county elections director, to oversee this year’s elections in Mesa County because she is “clearly more qualified” than Fisher, the order says.

Griswold, who is running for reelection in November, said in a written statement that Robison’s ruling “bars Peters from further threatening the integrity of Mesa’s elections and ensures Mesa County residents have the secure and accessible elections they deserve.”

Womp womp.

[Breccia]

Today we see yet another objective failure of Trump.

It is no secret that opioids are pretty much the one thing I agreed with Trump on. Obviously, in hindsight, I have wonder why
a) I would take Trump seriously on any medical situation when he put Dr. Ben "grain pyramid" Carson in charge of inner-city slums, led an anti-vaxxer movement, had a doctor who claimed Trump was the healthiest man to ever run for office -- all before being elected, and
b) I would take Trump seriously on literally anything because what the fuck was wrong with me?

That said,

It is tragedy enough that so many Americans are struggling with life-threatening addiction. We should not compound that tragedy with government policies and bureaucratic rules that make it even harder for them to get help.

-- Trump, Oct 15, 2016, in public

Then, as I should have expected but didn't...nothing happened. Trump was in charge when some lawsuits kicked in, that's barely better than nothing.

Trump saw a record number of drug overdose deaths in 2020.

And, just to prove a point, 2021 was even worse, proving that re-opening the economy wasn't the answer.

The National Center for Health Statistics said at least 107,622 people died from overdoses in 2021, a major increase from the estimated 93,655 deaths in 2020.

Overdose deaths involving opioids increased from an estimated 70,029 in 2020 to 80,816 in 2021.

Alaska experienced the largest percentage increase in overdose deaths in 2021. Deaths there were up by 75.3%.

Considering how pro-Trump Alaska is, I would expect to see a map of overdose increases align with Trump states. Can anyone find one?

"Surely many of those were suicides, like Trump said there'd be!"

Objectively false. Suicides were down in the pandemic.

Trump did not reduce overdoses. At best you could say he held them steady until the lethal outbreak, but even that's false. Overdoses rose in 2017, dropped in 2018 to 2016 levels, then rose in 2019 to 2017 levels. In three years, Trump saw a rise of about 12%. Then 2020 happened, and while the fat orange fuck in the White House was pushing UV lights and hydrochloriquine, people taking bad drugs and dying went up. Gee. Can't see how those are connected at all.

If you blame the lethal outbreak, well, you get to blame Trump's poor handling of the lethal outbreak. Remember 15 Days To Stop The Spread? Remember "it's just one person coming over from China"? Remember huffing bleach?

Obviously a rise from there in 2021 isn't great either, but nobody here believes that just because Biden fairly and honestly won the election that people would stop taking ivermectin or, more to the point, fentanyl and/or opioids overnight. Wrong thread I know, but Biden last month is taking action and send Congress a plan to handle exactly this threat. Trump and the GOP passed a bill they said would help in 2018, but as we've seen, it didn't help. Things are actually much worse now.

That one time, the one single time, I wanted Trump to come up with a win and he fucked that up even worse.

[Ripster42]

Which means, 2% of GA Republicans feel they can trust Trump. Holy shit, that's embarrassing.

You're misreading that.

GOP strategist Edward Lindsey says while candidates in less popular races may get a boost from a Trump endorsement, big name candidates with high-profile political careers like Perdue and Kemp, the voters already know who they are, and generally already feel one way or the other about them.

“I think that his influence is greater in races in which people might not already be familiar with the candidates. And so they fall back on someone that they feel like they can trust,” Lindsey said.

In races where people don't know the candidates (not the case here) trump supporters fall back on someone that they feel like they can trust.

[Breccia]

You're misreading that.

Well, there are two options, barring a confounding variable.

One, that only 2% of people changed their mind from Kemp to Purdue after being told Trump picked Purdue.

Two, that knowledge of Trump's endorsement is so high that most Republicans already knew....and are still voting for Kemp anyhow.

Neither result is flattering. Maybe our resident Trump supporters (not you) can pick?

[Edge-]

https://www.axios.com/2022/05/11/flo...cting-desantis

A Florida judge on Wednesday struck down a portion of a redistricting map drawn by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' (R) and his staff.

Driving the news: "I am finding that the enacted map is unconstitutional under the Fair District amendment ... because it diminishes African Americans' ability to elect the representatives of their choice," Leon County Circuit Judge Layne Smith said.

Smith is expected to issue a formal order on Thursday or Friday to ensure that the maps are not in effect during November's election, AP reports.

Womp womp. Oh look, another Republican map about to be slapped down by the courts for being just a little bit explicitly racist.

[Ripster42]

Two, that knowledge of Trump's endorsement is so high that most Republicans already knew....and are still voting for Kemp anyhow.

You're still misreading what the guy was saying if you're making statements like this. He's saying trump's endorsement is only significant in races where the people don't know who the candidates are. That's not the case here, as participants in the poll already knew who the candidates are.

The only conclusion you can reach is that only ~2% of the electorate, who were going to vote kemp, trust trump's endorsement more than their own judgement.

[PhaelixWW]

You're still misreading what the guy was saying if you're making statements like this. He's saying trump's endorsement is only significant in races where the people don't know who the candidates are. That's not the case here, as participants in the poll already knew who the candidates are.

The only conclusion you can reach is that only ~2% of the electorate, who were going to vote kemp, trust trump's endorsement more than their own judgement.

It really means 2% to 39.2%, since we have no idea if that 37.2% overlap would have changed their vote if they found out that Trump had endorsed someone other than whom they picked with their own judgment.

[Edge-]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...90ca303b069aba

“If you wanted to kill a bunch of MAGA voters in the middle of the heartland, how better than to target them and their kids with this deadly fentanyl? … It does look intentional. It’s like Joe Biden wants to punish the people who didn’t vote for him and opening up the floodgates to the border is one way to do it.”

JD Vance, onetime liberal hero for helping them "understand" Appalachia, is promoting another batshit crazy, baseless conspiracy theory.

Just a reminder that Republicans live in a world of pure imagination. And their imaginations fuckin suck.