Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[arandomuser]

https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/...3220e6c73d3d28

huh i guess hes a RINO who believes the deep state democratic hoax
and hes not MASCULINE enough to attend a rally like a man, not a real republican!

[Edge-]

Let's check in with Dr. Fauci on the state of the US response to the latest coronavirus outbreaks.

"really not good"

In some good news for Larry Kudlow, we may not see a second wave so he might be right!

Fauci said part of the problem is the U.S. never got the virus down to a low level before the most recent surge, saying “we are still knee deep in the first wave of this.”

Oh...well he's technically correct, which is the best kind of correct.

[Twdft]

Yeah, the fact that they say this shit to me daily is starting to break me down. I may have to donate to get him to stop.

Send him a Ruble, I'm sure he has enough in his pocket to match you fivefold.

[Breccia]

Oh...well he's technically correct

I don't know if there's an official definition of "first wave" versus "second wave" but our chart of cases still looks like this:



If, gun to my head, I was forced to make a legal distinction, I would say "there is a second wave if you've dropped below half the first wave's peak, then went back up significantly". Which has not happened. You could make an argument there is a second wave on top of the first wave, which is another way of saying "it's the worst of all options" and nobody wins.

I don't know how you could contradict Fauci, other than by suggesting that that mild decline is enough to say there's a second wave. There is no good spin on this, only explaining how bad it really is.

Or, I guess you could deflect by hugging a Brazillian statue. Well, when push comes to shove, you gotta do what you love...even if it's not a good idea.

[Redwyrm]

pretty sure old white people don't like dying to Covid.

At this point the only solid voting block he has are neo-nazi's. Which is why he has been retweeting them recently.

Unfortunately all the neo-nazis in america can't account for Trumps 40% approval ratings

[Drutt]

Ah, ok. Are you saying that they can't be stopped from passing the law, regardless - which is true; Congress can pass whatever they want, and then see if it's legal. Or are you also saying that those kind of employee protection laws would be valid after they are passed, because you're arguing that it has nothing to do with the First Amendment? Sorry if I'm not entirely following you - I might be over thinking.

No worries. What I am saying is:

1. There is no current protection under the law.
2. Nothing is stopping Congress from passing a new law protecting personal expression on e.g. social media from retaliation by an employer.

Having said that, anyone expecting the Republicans to pass a law protecting workers at the expense of their employers is setting themselves up for disappointment. The Republican platform has championed the complete opposite for a long time now.

[Blur4stuff]

There's a significant number of people that only get their news from right wing propaganda outlets and whatever gets passed around in their facebook bubble. I've talked with Trump supporters that have no fucking clue about the most basic Trump faults. Whether it's in his past like how horrible of a business person he was or how he bragged about creeping on underage girls. Of course, his more recent fuck ups are completely ignored by right wing media or twisted so severely they have his supporters believing that water isn't wet.

Also you have to consider that a certain percentage of people are just fucking stupid and/or borderline evil. If you look at other polls not related to politics you see surprising percentages for really weird or dumb shit. People don't even know the fundamentals of government, basic science and geography, or just common sense type things.

Given these types of problems, it's no surprise that even a monumental failure like Trump can still get 35-40% approval. If him doing nothing about Putin putting bounties out on our troops isn't enough to drop him below 35% then I'm not sure anything would. The only thing I can think of is if it were proven and he admitted to paying for abortions for his mistresses.

[Felya]

Unfortunately all the neo-nazis in america can't account for Trumps 40% approval ratings

This reminded me of this SNL sketch:

[Redwyrm]

I wonder if the GOP Senate and Trump (sensing a loss in Nov) will try to pull the same trick as state officials have done in limiting the power of incoming Democratic Governors by limiting the power of the President. I know it would have to make it through the House which would never happen, but it doesn't mean they wouldn't try.

[Redwyrm]

Wrong. It would have to make it through the House AND 38 states would have to ratify it.

If I recall that is only if it's an amendment to the Constitution. What I was talking about was what they did for limiting the President's ability to declare war without approval from the Congress.

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/13/80559...s-against-iran

[Breccia]

I wonder if the GOP Senate and Trump (sensing a loss in Nov) will try to pull the same trick as state officials have done in limiting the power of incoming Democratic Governors by limiting the power of the President.

There are a few things they could take back, like the ability to launch attacks at Iran on whim and the ability to put National Security Lol in front of a tariff. Honestly, I don't think Biden has any need for those.

McConnell could try to change the filibuster rules back, making it harder for President Biden to nominate judges. That would be tough, of course, since I think that move could itself be filibustered.

[cubby]

Having said that, anyone expecting the Republicans to pass a law protecting workers at the expense of their employers is setting themselves up for disappointment. The Republican platform has championed the complete opposite for a long time now.

Agreed - the Grifters of Politics (GOP) are completely against worker's rights, even if the position would help their platform.

No worries. What I am saying is:

1. There is no current protection under the law.
2. Nothing is stopping Congress from passing a new law protecting personal expression on e.g. social media from retaliation by an employer.

Ok, I wanted to clarify before I put out the below, just so we weren't two angry ships passing in the night, or some such thing.

And here is where I would disagree. The protection afforded employers to fire employees for "poor social behavior" is set in the Constitution, under the First Amendment. Countless employers have fired employees for rude or socially unacceptable behavior - all based on first amendment rights. While the initial litigation would start at the EEOC and other state and federal employment laws, the issue has gone up the chain, based on first amendment protection, and been shot down. The ruling, essentially, is that by choosing to work for someone, you choose to adhere to their rules on speaking your mind while representing the company.

I believe what you would be looking for in an amendment to the constitution, changing what the First Amendment is and does.

To your second point, Congress could still technically pass a law attempting to protect social media expression from retaliation by an employer, but it would never pass judicial muster.

- - - Updated - - -

I wonder if the GOP Senate and Trump (sensing a loss in Nov) will try to pull the same trick as state officials have done in limiting the power of incoming Democratic Governors by limiting the power of the President. I know it would have to make it through the House which would never happen, but it doesn't mean they wouldn't try.

They might be thinking it, but most Executive Powers are set in stone, and given their lack of control of the House, any attempts to shrink the executive power would be limited by their inability to get it past the House.

- - - Updated - - -

Just now:

15-year friend and confidant of Melania Trump to release tell all book. Folks, shit just got real.

[swiftowner]

Just now:

15-year friend and confidant of Melania Trump to release tell all book. Folks, shit just got real.

I’m not sure what she could add to what we already know about the trump family that would cause anyone, who is still willing to vote for Trump, to change their minds.

[Benggaul]

I’m not sure what she could add to what we already know about the trump family that would cause anyone, who is still willing to vote for Trump, to change their minds.

"He's actually a liberal..."

[cubby]

I’m not sure what she could add to what we already know about the trump family that would cause anyone, who is still willing to vote for Trump, to change their minds.

Agreed - I don't think anyone could add any fact or event that would change the minds of people continuing to support Trump. Hitler could walk out to the Rose Garden holding hands with Trump and they would cheer, believing whatever Trump told them to think.

But the book will be good readin'.

[Benggaul]

As expected, numbers are a bit wonky again today as we come off the end of essentially 3 days of lax reporting thanks to the holiday. There are STILL a couple states that haven't reported anything but it's been another tiring day of physical therapy and I need to go lay down, so fuck it.

New cases hit 50k again, fueled in part to Texas setting another record of nearly 9k (as of my writing this). We also have an explanation as to why California's cases have been lower than expected this past weekend:

California: Los Angeles County: "Today, after improving the data processing systems, which resulted in no data being reported since Thursday, July 2, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) is reporting an increase of 7,232 new cases for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. [...] As a reminder, data is reported from the day before [...] The reported new cases for Thursday, July 2 are 2,643; Friday, July 3 are 3,187; and Saturday, July 4 are 1,402. Saturday's number is missing lab reports from one of the larger labs. [source]

And so the US blew right past 3 million cases easily today. States that had been reporting in the thousands the past week continued to do so, but as far as I can see at a glance Texas is the only one with the new record, though the others still continue trending up.

Deaths also were up higher than the previous Monday. I expect tomorrow will be higher as well thanks to the corrections.

12 days straight of 40k+ new cases which can't be written off as "more tests means more cases". I linked earlier how one Texas doctor was lamenting the fact that he had 10 calls for patients needing ICU beds when he only had 3 free beds and I doubt that's the only story out there right now. Arizona and Florida must be reaching dangerous levels as well; California probably isn't far behind.

This likely won't be a good news week.

Stay safe, folks.

[Smitzelplix]

huh he also met with ivanka right before announcing his run,
quid pro quo?

Sure seems like it. They're definitely pushing Kanye to be a spoiler candidate, they know it could split the vote on the left, but the right is too racist to vote for a African American so Trump's right wing base wouldn't split at all. However I think they might have made this push a bit too late, I was reading some discussion posts on Reddit about Kanye's presidential run and supposedly he's already missed the deadline to be on the ballot in some states.

[Smitzelplix]

Not every state, but so far he has done exactly nothing to register in any of them. So this may just be drunk tweeting.

Yeah I misworded that and have corrected my post to say some states.

[Polyxo]

I feel like you should already know it's not that they can't get it, but that they don't want to.

I mean they really don't understand the concept of rate of change, or instantaneous population vs a total possible population.

[cubby]

Not every state, but so far he has done exactly nothing to register in any of them. So this may just be drunk tweeting.

Let's hope so. Even a strong write-in campaign could jeopardize some states.