Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Breccia]

I hope they send some repo guys to maralago.

Speaking of Trump, remember how he promised the most transparent administration ever?

And lied?

Trump calls for jailing journalists who broke Supreme Court’s draft abortion decision

“They’ll never find out, & it’s important that they do,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social website. “So, go to the reporter & ask him/her who it was. If not given the answer, put whoever in jail until the answer is given."

"Okay, jailing a journalist for printing a story leaked to them is bad. But at least he didn't--"

"You might add the editor and publisher to the list.”

"...did Trump call for the jailing of whoever found Hunter Biden's laptop?"

No.

"Did Trump call for the jailing of the journalists who printed the story?"

No.

"Didn't he claim there was sensitive information on that?"

I mean, he lied, but yes.

[Cthulhu 2020]

See, I haven't seen any report of him actually trying to declassify them. And even then, he still cannot have them. Especially some that even he cannot declassify, like SIGINTEL, human intel, and nuclear documents.

I forget where I read it, but Trump did attempt to have the documents declassified the day before he lost his power and he was declined. Mere possession itself isn't necessarily criminal, and an indictment for this hinges upon proving intent to knowingly keep as well as deceive. That's the whole reason Biden isn't in trouble, or at least won't be. There's zero reason to believe there was any intent on his part and he didn't even need to "comply" with requests to return them, they were found and returned before there was even a request.

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Trump to be the keynote speaker at CPAC. But hey, that's just the "fringe" and not the main stream conservative movement, right?

[postman1782]

Coming across breaking news right now on my phone, Judge in Trump VS Clinton case sanctions Trump and his lawyer $1 million for the frivolous lawsuit.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/0...inton-00078700

[Breccia]

Coming across breaking news right now on my phone, Judge in Trump VS Clinton case sanctions Trump and his lawyer $1 million for the frivolous lawsuit.

Between the times you and Edge- posted this, I had time to read the judge's ruling. I understood maybe 20% of it, maximum, but there is one key takeaway that stuck out.

Defendants request $1,058,283.50 in fees and costs. See generally Defendants’ Joint
Motion for Sanctions (DE 280-2) (hereinafter “Application”). The Application is a 304-page
document filed in support of Defendants’ fee request. See id. The Application contains eleven
exhibits in support of the requested fees for each set of lawyers/law firms representing (some
jointly) the Defendants in this case. Each exhibit contains (1) a declaration attesting to the
authenticity of the hours and rates billed, with a corresponding summary of fees based on stages
of the case; (2) background information on each timekeeper that describes professional experience
and credentials; and (3) time entries

Now, the judge will go on at great length to discuss how much the defence, Clinton's lawyers, are due and why. Like, it starts at page 34 and goes on until page 45, hardee har har. And see the bolded above -- they submitted over three hundred pages detailing exactly how much they were due, and why. After reading that, I was still confused, but at least I know what "block billing" is.

I mean, I don't blame them -- it's not like they had any legal arguments from Team Trump to smack down.

But.

The literal very next line is

In response, Plaintiff filed largely indecipherable objections.

No really, it's page 35, check for yourself.

I think @cubby needs to sound off on this, because he actually knows what he's talking about and I don't, but to me at least, this looks like the single biggest difference between Trump's lawyers, like any/all of them, and...like, the entire rest of the profession. You know, competent lawyers.

Allow me to extend the judge's depiction of, what appears to be in legalspeak, "a fucking trainwreck of a clownshow and a shitshow".

. For instance, in raising line-by-line objections to Defendant
Joffe’s attorneys’ fees, Plaintiff failed to multiply the hourly rate by the number of hours billed,
making the total amount objected to uncertain. I doubt that
this was intentional because nowhere else in the Corrected Objections does this appear to happen.

Like, what the fuck, my students would have caught that by the third week in class -- if they didn't catch it in high school or before.

Allow me to extend it again.

Plaintiff

That's Trump, I should have made that clear earlier.

’s objections for “duplicative” time entries are not presented in a way that allows
this Court to properly review and analyze them. Plaintiff’s table simply points out entries that he
believes are “duplicative” but does not say what it duplicates. Instead, Plaintiff leaves it up to the
Court to piece together a cogent series of objections. I refuse to do so. But even when I reviewed
the relevant time entries with an eye for duplicative billing, I did not find any unreasonable billing
that merits a cut in hours.

Again.

I considered whether to offer Plaintiff yet another opportunity to cure his objections. Without a motion, however, I did
not find it to be a fair exercise of this Court’s discretion. In almost every area of law, a party
waives an objection for failing to properly raise it. So too here. Thus, to the extent that Plaintiff’s
objections were not clearly identifiable, I did not consider them.

Again!

The Plaintiff does not even attempt to respond with respect to most of the legal failings of
his claims.

Like, holy fucking shit, the judge goes on for pages and pages about how much Trump's lawyers just flat-out suck at their job.

And that wasn't even the main issue! The main issue was Trump abusing the legal system! Speaking of which, hey @cubby what's "shotgun pleading" as shown starting page six? I think I get the general idea, but I keep envisioning what a staggered demon does just before Doomguy turns them into a fine red mist.

We've more or less all been saying for years, that Trump is out of competent legal help, as shown by Powell and Giuliani and whoever it was that stood on the balcony texting while the FBI went through Trump's stolen stuff. But this might be the single best documented evidence of this, bringing it from a reasonable conclusion through educated opinion to basically objective fact.

Wow. Just...wow.

[Cthulhu 2020]

300 pages of why Trump and his lawyers owe Clinton and her lawyers a million dollars?

I expect the Trump response to be something along the lines of "no u" given his history.

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Also, given Trump's history of not paying... well... anyone who works for him, who wants to bet that his lawyers are going to be left holding the bill for this one?

[Breccia]

Also, given Trump's history of not paying... well... anyone who works for him, who wants to bet that his lawyers are going to be left holding the bill for this one?

I mean, it's possible Trump's lawyers took the case on contingency...but, like, why would anyone? The case had no chance of success.

But then I read the judge's ruling and was all "oh, because they're incompetent".

So I'm with you on this one. I don't think Trump paid them -- even if he was supposed to.

[Corvus]

The judge really went to town on Trump.

Here, we are confronted with a lawsuit that should never have been filed, which was
completely frivolous, both factually and legally, and which was brought in bad faith for an
improper purpose. Mr. Trump is a prolific and sophisticated litigant who is repeatedly using the
courts to seek revenge on political adversaries. He is the mastermind of strategic abuse of the
judicial process, and he cannot be seen as a litigant blindly following the advice of a lawyer. He
knew full well the impact of his actions.

[fwc577]

I hate Trump. But I will give the guy credit when he says or does something smart:

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaig...y-or-medicare/

Under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny from Medicare or Social Security...

Wow good job.

...to help pay for Joe Biden’s reckless spending spree, which is more reckless than anybody’s ever done or had in the history of our country

And then he ruined his statement.

Donald Trump added $8.2 trillion over 4 years.

To put that into perspective, Obama added $8.34 trillion over 8 years pulling the country out of one of the worst recessions we've seen in 100 years. Joe Biden has contributed $1.84 trillion in 2 years.

[Breccia]

I recently stumbled across this OP ED which raises what I think is a question worth discussing: why hasn't the DOJ indicted in the Mar-a-Lago case, and what's the next step?

The author answers the first with "Biden told them not to -- because of the documents found at his place". Which, okay, understandable at the least.

So what happens now? The author gives three options.

1) Indict nobody for having documents. Focus on Trump's many other crimes instead, most notably treason.

2) Indict Trump, and just assume Biden can withstand the MAGA shrilling about how this is soooooo unfair.

For the record, this is my choice but not the author's. There are demonstrable differences between the two cases, as anyone reasonable knows. And regardless, if Biden actually committed a crime, he should be prosecuted for it. No-one is above the law.

That said, the third option isn't bad either.

3) Indict Trump, not for having documents, but for obstruction of justice.

See, the big difference was more the why and how, not the what. Trump intentionally stole large piles of government property. Biden forgot he had a few pages. Then, Trump fought and fought and fought to prevent anyone in the WH from even seeing how much WH property he took on purpose. Biden handed it back the next day. Trump keeps asking why Biden hasn't been raided, the answer is "he wasn't begging to be raided".

Obstruction of justice is a big deal. Trump would not be getting off light, because he's 300 pounds of obese walrus blubber in a Chinese suit. But he also would not be getting off light legally. As long as Trump knew he was blocking a fair and legal law enforcement action, such as by directing his lawyers to take such actions, this case would be easy to prove too. And the author says this carries up to a 20 year penalty.

If this sounds familiar, it should. Clinton was (unsuccessfully) impeached, not for getting a blowjob, but for lying about it to Congress. And Clinton was Presdient, Trump was not.

By taking the documents off the table, the rabid fanbase and the GOP House can't do much of anything, since neither Biden nor Trump would be charged -- hard to pretend that's not treating both sides the same. Until something magically appears to show Biden was blocking the FBI from raiding his house...for documents not even he knew he had, somehow...Trump faces the charge for what he did, but Biden didn't.

It's not my first choice, but I'd accept it. But what do you think? Should Trump get the possession handwaived, but not the intent to sell, so to speak?

[cubby]

Between the times you and Edge- posted this, I had time to read the judge's ruling. I understood maybe 20% of it, maximum, but there is one key takeaway that stuck out.



Now, the judge will go on at great length to discuss how much the defence, Clinton's lawyers, are due and why. Like, it starts at page 34 and goes on until page 45, hardee har har. And see the bolded above -- they submitted over three hundred pages detailing exactly how much they were due, and why. After reading that, I was still confused, but at least I know what "block billing" is.

I mean, I don't blame them -- it's not like they had any legal arguments from Team Trump to smack down.

But.

The literal very next line is



No really, it's page 35, check for yourself.

I think @cubby needs to sound off on this, because he actually knows what he's talking about and I don't, but to me at least, this looks like the single biggest difference between Trump's lawyers, like any/all of them, and...like, the entire rest of the profession. You know, competent lawyers.

Allow me to extend the judge's depiction of, what appears to be in legalspeak, "a fucking trainwreck of a clownshow and a shitshow".

Holy shit - some high school students could have done a better job of responding. Trump's lawyers seem entirely incompetent at this point.

[Edge-]

Holy shit - some high school students could have done a better job of responding. Trump's lawyers seem entirely incompetent at this point.

Pretty sure that's the actual point.

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https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/...rant-rcna66748

Survivors of the BOWLING GREEN MASSACRE were re-traumatized recently...

Wait...oh right that didn't happen.

Anyways -

Diners at a Greek restaurant in Bowling Green, Kentucky, on Tuesday night were subjected to police body camera footage from the night Breonna Taylor was shot and killed in her Louisville apartment in 2020, according to the local NAACP and restaurant patrons.

The Republican Women’s Club of South Central Kentucky scrambled to find a new venue for an event featuring former-Louisville-police-officer-turned-conservative-author-and-pundit John Mattingly after the initial location for its dinner, the Bowling Green Country Club, said it would no longer host the group. Additionally, gubernatorial candidate and Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles backed out of the event because of the mounting controversy around Mattingly’s attendance, according to Spectrum News in Louisville.

Mattingly was one of the three police officers who raided Taylor's home and fired shots while searching her apartment for her ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover. He was not in the apartment at the time. Glover was handed a five-year probation sentence in 2021 after he accepted a plea deal from prosecutors for charges related to narcotics.

Gee, Republicans sure love their murderous pieces of shit! But that's not the worst -

The Tuesday night event took place in the balcony of Anna's Greek Restaurant, while it was still open to patrons unaffiliated with the event. According to the Bowling Green-Warren County NAACP and restaurant patrons' accounts online, the lights went dark, as patrons unaffiliated with the event heard and saw graphic descriptions of the incident that killed Taylor. The audio from that night could be heard throughout the restaurant, through its speaker system.

Cayce Johnson, who posted an account of the evening to Facebook, said that restaurant patrons were given no warning the event would take place and that it became so invasive that “we were no longer able to even hear people at our table and barely could see our food.”

Johnson told NBC News on Friday that she was not made aware of the event before entering the restaurant. The Bowling Green resident said she heard actual gunshots in the videos and that they showed footage of Taylor’s body.

“Words can’t even describe how absolutely disgusting it is, what this group put on, the platform they gave him and what he showed to them,” Johnson said. “These women, they need to be held accountable. Not just Anna’s restaurant but the group themselves that put it on, and at the very least they need to apologize to the people that they offended, to Breonna Taylor’s family and, and the community honestly.”

One minute you're sitting down for a nice family meal at a restaurant, the next minute you're getting a detailed play-by-play of how cops murdered Breonna Taylor, complete with audio.

Another fantastic example of Republicans being selfish, unthinking, inconsiderate assholes to generally everyone.

Now for the club itself -

“These events may be controversial, however, we believe Sgt. Mattingly has the right to share his experience,” the group said in a statement to Spectrum News in Louisville earlier this week. “Other individuals with firsthand experience relating to this case are welcome to request an opportunity to speak to our organization as well.”

Sure, he has that right! But enjoy eating the shit sandwich for being terrible human beings and giving him the platform to do so. However, it seems like the Republican club is standing by their decision to host this event -

Stacy Webb, the president of the women’s club, has not responded to a request for comment. The group’s Facebook page has since been deleted.

Fuckin spineless shitlord cowards.

[Breccia]

The US seriously needs punishment, and harsh ones at that, for lawsuits that are clearly bullshit where the prosecution has no evidence.

These people should fear that if they take these bullshit allegations to court the judge is going to ruin the rest of their life.

Well you'll be glad to note that at least some of them are. I won't re-quote the article, but recently, some of Trump's (likely unpaid) lawyers lost a million dollars for being Trump's lawyers.

Okay, almost a million. Some of the posters here are pretty aggressive rounders when it comes to decimal places. As they should be.

[beanman12345]

Not sure where to post this, not really about Trump, but this is a face eating leopard party story, didn't think it deserved it's own thread but is hilarious anyways. A quick recap first. So, Gina Carano, the woman who would likely be just about wrapping of season 2 of her own Star Wars show right about now if she didn't decide being a hateful bigoted dumbass on twitter was a bigger priority. So Disney fired her dumbass, because you know Disney can't be having their own stars being more terrible than the company. Nothing better on the resume for a right winger I guess, then being cancelled by "woke" Disney, and she was boastful about it, deciding being in the group of face eating leopards is the right place for her, after all she's one of them right? And them cheering her on, she started working on films made by... Ben Shapiro.

So I guess in this new movie she plays a bad ass wife killing outlaws during the wild west or something. I didn't watch it. In fact, it doesn't seem many did. It grossed $13,000. So why'd it flop this bad, why didn't right wingers flock to see this film? If you guessed 'movies too woke, wives shouldn't be bad ass, they should be in the kitchen making me dinner' than you guessed right! At least according to some of the reviews by the handful of people who did watch this thing. It's also probably somewhat has to do with being a dailywire movie, but also most definitely because it's simply just "more woke nonsense."

https://www.avclub.com/gina-carano-b...ars-1849979835

[Breccia]

Not sure where to post this

This is a big foul on your part. How dare you come here posting about the right-wing Carano movie Terror on the Prairie?

...and not mention My Son Hunter as well?

Yeah, never heard of it, did you? It was pushed by Breitbart and stars Carano as an FBI agent going after Hunter Biden. It has a 90% audience review on Rotten Tomatoes because, well, it was basically only advertised on Breitbart and guess who visits that site? It also has a 4 out of 6 positive critic review, and yes, that means only six reviewers thought it was worth their time.

Here's one of them!

[quote]Writing critically about a film like My Son Hunter feels kind of like sending the kid making fart noises from the back of the class to detention. Any measure of reprimand means giving the troublemaker exactly what they want – engagement, which is to say attention, which is to say validation. [/quote[
-- the Guardian

Also:

Joe Biden himself, played by John James of the 1980s soap opera Dynasty, is a secondary character in terms of screentime, but his behind-the-scenes machinations are what drive the plot. In this movie’s vision, our 46th president is at once a doddering fool and a global puppetmaster, a man who holds his cellphone upside down and struggles to communicate simple ideas in conversation (at one point he begs his son to do all he can to help with the upcoming “erection”) while playing international superpowers off one another like so many casino dice. My Son Hunter is not above getting a laugh or two out of Biden’s well-documented speech impediment: The old man’s rendering of “quid pro quo” comes out as “quick pro crow”—a malapropism whose hilarity is underlined by flashing the words onscreen in all capital letters.

The aforequoted review actually points out that Biden is played like Trump.

The movie also stars animated fact checks that jump up on screen (they are not cited) and also an alternate reality where Giuliani releases the laptop and it actually makes a difference. Oh, and a stripper who starts comically left-wing woke and turns alt-right after one night with Hunter Biden. She's the main character, by the way.

I cannot find a "box office" total for this straight to digital movie. Breitbart claims it was watched by 3.5 million people, and it had a budget of $2.75 million, so it probably made some kind of profit. But while looking for a box office total, I found this article in which...just read it.

Russian state media has gone all-in on the movie, which stars fallen Mandalorian supporting player Gina Carano and was directed by a Bond villain. On the aggressor nation’s version of 60 Minutes, host Evgeny Popov breathless hyped the trailer, and hoped that it would do more than simply make a lot of money.

“We’re waiting for the premiere and hoping for a big success in the United States, to bring our beloved Trump back into power,” Popov told viewers.

Yep, this is the big move to bring Trump back into power -- movies nobody watches.

[beanman12345]

Yeah, never heard of it, did you?

I did actually =P it's mentioned in the article I linked, though, only mentioned, not in any way gone into any detail at all, as you did here.

[Edge-]

Since the actual thread for it got closed, I guess I can just put it here? God knows at this point.


All I'm personally reading here is "we white-washed it all for a reason, its staying that way, fuck any minorities that don't like it." That and it, of course, circling back to LGBTQ+ stuff lol This man could be a transparent blob for how subtle he is.

"I view it as American history. I don't view it as separate history," he adds.

This is just barely-papered over racism.

Which honestly isn't surprising from a guy who repeatedly refused to condemn Nazi's by name while they were publicly protesting in his state.

[Edge-]

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/202...vist-rcna66973

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sharply criticizes murdered Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in his new book, questioning his journalism credentials and lambasting what he calls the media’s sympathetic coverage of his brutal killing in Saudi Arabia.

“He didn’t deserve to die, but we need to be clear about who he was -- and too many in the media were not,” Pompeo wrote in “Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love.” NBC News obtained a copy of the book in advance of its Jan. 24 release.

Pompeo, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, mocked the media’s portrayal of Khashoggi as “a Saudi Arabian Bob Woodward who was martyred for bravely criticizing the Saudi royal family through his opinion articles in the Washington Post.”

Pompeo, who also served as CIA director in the Trump administration, described Khashoggi as an “activist,” claiming that he was a journalist only “to the extent that I, and many other public figures are journalists. We sometimes get our writing published, but we also do other things.”

Damn man, Pompeo on the pro-MBS and pro-dismemberment train, apparently.

Weird he's singing a very different tune on the topic years after he commented on it as Secretary of State.

Guess he's hoping controversy will help his book sales since he's selling a book he wrote now, as any red blooded American looking to run for president does.

[Paranoid Android]

Since the actual thread for it got closed, I guess I can just put it here? God knows at this point.


All I'm personally reading here is "we white-washed it all for a reason, its staying that way, fuck any minorities that don't like it." That and it, of course, circling back to LGBTQ+ stuff lol This man could be a transparent blob for how subtle he is.

Thanks for post since a couple trolls shut down the other one.

People stop feeding these trolls!

Queer history? So is the course teaching that if every African American turned LBGTQ that would be great! <sarcasm>. I'm betting this is acknowledging people such as James Baldwin or whoever's sexuality adding to empowerment or the added struggle. You know, being black than gay. The double whammy.

His standards for black history. Laughable. What standards do you have DeSantis? Seems they are not great since you are trying to crush AA Studies. Also the views, or interpretation of saw "white history" may not be the best. Basically, more voices, opinions and changing the history as needed to update is fine.

I thought DeSantis was doing identity politics but I really, really think he is a big time racist.

[Paranoid Android]

I give the overinflated, white-as-rice piece of shit points for his absolute arrogance over thinking he can dictate what black history even is, at least.

I guess I should be a little clear in that just having one focused point or let's say a interpretation that we have had since day one of a white view. So I'm going more for a big picture of yes him just thinking that he or even past history is right and the only history we should have.

But of course DeSantis himself is as you stated, wants to dictate that he doesn't want any more thought on African American studies than what the DeSantis government wants to give.

[Edge-]

https://www.inquirer.com/politics/pe...outputType=amp

Know what's a wonderful way to campaign?

Do photo-ops with former mob bosses.

I'm not kidding.

Merlino was convicted in 2001 in a racketeering case and served a decade in federal prison. He had claimed more recently to have left that life behind, moving to Boca Raton in Florida to work as maître d’ at an Italian restaurant named after him.

The restaurant closed after Merlino’s most recent run-in with the feds, which led to a two-year sentence in October 2018 when he pleaded guilty to a gambling-related charge. Merlino, after being sentenced, echoed comments from Trump at the time that were critical of witnesses who cooperate with federal investigators.

“President Trump is right — they’ve got to outlaw the flippers,” said Merlino, who was released from prison in July 2020.

Well no wonder the two are hanging out and apparently get along, they hate when their own people rat them out.