Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Thekri]

Looks like Esper is gone. Replaced by Christopher C. Miller from the NCC. "Acting" positions until the end!

I would bet the final straw was that Esper was concerned about the transition, and spoke up about it. With Trump refusing to accept defeat, he is barring department heads from speaking with the incoming Presidential Transition team, which is essential to making things transfer smoothly. Esper was doubtless concerned with what months of gridlock followed by an extremely rapid transition would do to our entire defense apparatus.

He has been on thin ice for a long time now, but the timing of it makes me pretty certain that he brought up the issue with Meadows, and argued for contact with Biden's team. Pure speculation I know, but we are going to see more of this. The DoD is going to be desperate to get this transition going, since there is so much to do. If they don't start talking to the Biden team soon, then Biden is going to have to start making important decisions without the pentagon's input, and that is nobodies interests.

[Edge-]

What did Trump want Esper to order, that Esper refused?

Apparently offering resignations following a loss isn't uncommon, and there had apparently been beef between the two because Esper disagreed with Trump on quite a few things.

[Belize]

Apparently offering resignations following a loss isn't uncommon, and there had apparently been beef between the two because Esper disagreed with Trump on quite a few things.

I'm reading that Trump had him fired, not resigned.

I know there's a fine line between "terminated" and "resign" where they can blend a little, but resignations aren't normally effective immediately in the middle of a Monday.

[Jotaux]

I'm reading that Trump had him fired, not resigned.

I know there's a fine line between "terminated" and "resign" where they can blend a little, but resignations aren't normally effective immediately in the middle of a Monday.

I could see someone just wanting to get out of that shit show as soon as possible though.

[cubby]

I would bet the final straw was that Esper was concerned about the transition, and spoke up about it. With Trump refusing to accept defeat, he is barring department heads from speaking with the incoming Presidential Transition team, which is essential to making things transfer smoothly. Esper was doubtless concerned with what months of gridlock followed by an extremely rapid transition would do to our entire defense apparatus.

He has been on thin ice for a long time now, but the timing of it makes me pretty certain that he brought up the issue with Meadows, and argued for contact with Biden's team. Pure speculation I know, but we are going to see more of this. The DoD is going to be desperate to get this transition going, since there is so much to do. If they don't start talking to the Biden team soon, then Biden is going to have to start making important decisions without the pentagon's input, and that is nobodies interests.

That seems likely - plus, Trump thrives in Chaos, and has said as much to multiple close advisers. This is just more of his bullshit to get attention and refuse reality.

[Breccia]

And Ben Carson is now positive for Covid.

So...Trump's tried to kill his doctor.

I just thought writing it out would make me feel better.

Nope.

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He knows he lost so who cares about mask now?

You would think they would! It's still lethal!

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Once again it's time for Guess the Speaker!

This policy framework applies to current world leaders and candidates for office, and not private citizens when they no longer hold these positions

That's an official statement by Twitter, about to slam the TOS on the POS.

It has added multiple warnings and labels to tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account, including many since Tuesday’s election that made unfounded allegations of voting fraud. It first hid one of his tweets behind a “public interest” label in May when the president violated the company’s policy against glorifying violence.

Under Facebook Inc’s policies, it appears that after Biden takes office in January, Trump’s posts would also no longer be exempt from review by Facebook’s third-party fact-checking partners.

Facebook’s online policy says it defines politicians, whose posts are exempt from fact-checking, as candidates running for office, current office holders and many of their cabinet appointees, along with political parties and their leaders.

It says “former candidates for office or former officials continue to be covered by our third-party fact-checking programme.”

Now Trump might challenge either of those, but here's the thing, funny story: Twitter and Facebook are both private companies. And let's face it, everyone reading this has clicked "Accept" on "We've updated our terms of service" at least ten times.

Trump will have three choices.
1) Build his own --

"Yeah, with what money?"

-- social media platform

2) Obey the rules

3) Be silent.

[Bodakane]

So...Trump's tried to kill his doctor.

I just thought writing it out would make me feel better.

Nope.

- - - Updated - - -



You would think they would! It's still lethal!

- - - Updated - - -

Once again it's time for Guess the Speaker!



That's an official statement by Twitter, about to slam the TOS on the POS.



Now Trump might challenge either of those, but here's the thing, funny story: Twitter and Facebook are both private companies. And let's face it, everyone reading this has clicked "Accept" on "We've updated our terms of service" at least ten times.

Trump will have three choices.
1) Build his own --

"Yeah, with what money?"

-- social media platform

2) Obey the rules

3) Be silent.

I love ya Brec, but 70+ million still suckle at this fuckstick's teat, he will have plenty of investors lining up behind him to start a network/messaging platform. It will be good though, because it will weaken FOX, Facebook and likely the GOP.

[Zan15]

I love ya Brec, but 70+ million still suckle at this fuckstick's teat, he will have plenty of investors lining up behind him to start a network/messaging platform. It will be good though, because it will weaken FOX, Facebook and likely the GOP.

every attempt to move his "70" million has failed, they all come crawling back to twitter and facebook.

They are trying it right now with one that failed last year....guess 2nd time is the charm?

[beanman12345]

every attempt to move his "70" million has failed, they all come crawling back to twitter and facebook.

They are trying it right now with one that failed last year....guess 2nd time is the charm?

I agree. Also considering Trump's failures at business, yeah good luck.

[Lenonis]

Yeah actually I can because it’s true. The left likes to go after the right about social distancing, but the left has protests, riots, and parades. I definitely can “both” sides this. Everyone on both sides of the aisle is responsible for Covid running rampant.

Unfortunately for you we have this thing call science which studies these things.

Protests because of precautions taken and being outdoors did not cause a spike in cases.

Rallies, however, caused at least 30,000 cases and 700 deaths.

There is not both sides. There is one side.

[muto]

The "left" wears fucking masks and passes them out at their OUTDOOR EVENTS hence why there have been no spikes tied to protests but tons of strikes tied to fucking trump rallies where people don't think Corona virus is a thing...

About half of them from what I’ve seen.

[Draco-Onis]

About half of them from what I’ve seen.

Well anecdotal evidence is not conclusive evidence and only the right has a campaign against masks, social distancing, science, doctors and any health measures.

[Breccia]

Pence flees like a panicky motherf (cough) Pence takes personal vacation time in Florida until Saturday. Specifically, an island, which is how rich people socially distance.

Besides the obvious motivation for fleeing the WH before he gets sick and dies, Pence is expected to hit Georgia on the way back to help the runoff.

[Benggaul]

125,689 new cases, about 36k more than last Monday. For a Monday that's bad news.

Top 20:

Illinois: 10,573 new cases; 25 deaths
Texas: 10,251 new cases; 44 deaths
California: 7,636 new cases; 28 deaths
Tennessee: 5,919 new cases (new record); 15 deaths
Kansas: 5,101 new cases (new record); 15 deaths
Iowa: 5,100 new cases (new record); 9 deaths
Ohio: 4,706 new cases; 6 deaths
Pennsylvania: 4,562 new cases (new record); 6 deaths
Michigan: 4,505 new cases; 32 deaths
Wisconsin: 4,360 new cases; 17 deaths
Indiana: 4,135 new cases; 35 deaths
Missouri: 4,091 new cases; 9 deaths
Minnesota: 3,926 new cases; 19 deaths
Fuck Florida.
New York: 3,662 new cases; 32 deaths
Colorado: 3,553 new cases (new record); 14 deaths
Connecticut: 3,338 new cases (new record); 27 deaths
Washington: 2,365 new cases (new record); 24 deaths
New Jersey: 2,357 new cases; 10 deaths
Utah: 2,247 new cases; 2 deaths

In what is becoming a running theme Nebraska failed to report on time. The report they--eventually--put in for yesterday was about a 60% increase in cases from their previous Sunday. Oklahoma's switching over to a new system and therefore didn't report yesterday, but the huge number they put up the day before appears, unfortunately, to be mostly accurate:

Today’s individual case number, 4,507, is a corrected version of yesterday’s number with all duplicate cases removed. Today we will not be releasing a new daily case number, allowing our data reporting system to catch up and ensure duplications are removed from the daily number prior to release moving forward. Starting tomorrow, the daily number released will not include any duplicates. We are committed to giving the public and media accurate and transparent data, and this will ensure the daily number reflects the actual case count. We will continue to point to the 7-day average, percent positivity and hospitalizations in addition to the daily number to give a more complete picture of trends.

We have no reason to believe our revised number is an anomaly, but instead shows community spread is occurring. We continue to urge all Oklahomans to take this highly-contagious virus seriously and act immediately to avoid large gatherings, wear a mask, wash your hands and watch your distance to others. Together we can bring these numbers down and protect our friends, family and neighbors.

There's really not much for me to say here that you can't already see for yourselves. This is a lot of records for a low report day--a lot of cases for a low report day. Prepare for a bad week ahead. As I've mentioned before, 150-160k is not out of the question. Depending on how much this escalates...possibly beyond.

641 deaths is a little over a hundred more than last Monday. The total is now 244,448. The 7-day average (according to worldometers) is now exactly 1k. And rising.

Related news:

Governor declares state of emergency, mandates masks to fight COVID--Better late than never? *sigh*

NIH study: Hydroxychloroquine had no benefit for hospitalized COVID-19 patients--Because this still hasn't been hammered home enough, apparently.

Fauci calls Pfizer coronavirus vaccine findings 'extraordinary,'--The one vaccine push that didn't receive any Trump admin funds under "Warp Speed" (and therefore Trump deserves no credit).

Stay safe, folks.

[Edge-]

Illinois: 10,573 new cases; 25 deaths
Texas: 10,251 new cases; 44 deaths

This scares the hell outta me, have we had days with multiple states at 5 figure new case levels? And IL? It's got bloody half the population of TX and 1/3 the population of CA, those are bad numbers : /

[Benggaul]

This scares the hell outta me, have we had days with multiple states at 5 figure new case levels? And IL? It's got bloody half the population of TX and 1/3 the population of CA, those are bad numbers : /

And those aren't even records.

[postman1782]

Yeah actually I can because it’s true. The left likes to go after the right about social distancing, but the left has protests, riots, and parades. I definitely can “both” sides this. Everyone on both sides of the aisle is responsible for Covid running rampant.

While being outside, WITH FUCKING MASKS ON. The right, 99% of them don't wear masks.

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Since the election, has there been a Trump concession speech?

I haven't seen one yet.

Nope, he is going to fight tooth and nail til the 20th of January when the Secret Service drags his entire family out by their cankles.

[Edge-]

And those aren't even records.

That combined with the number of new records is like...jesus, Mark Meadows was right. The Trump administration isn't even trying to combat/contain the virus, nor are many Republican governors.

Whatever happens, happens, I guess. It's a good thing these governors and the president don't have to call all the families.

[postman1782]

What did Trump want Esper to order, that Esper refused?

Esper was going to drop the Confederate names on the Military bases, which Trump stopped.

[Edge-]

Esper was going to drop the Confederate names on the Military bases, which Trump stopped.

Not just the bases, but everything else. Street names on bases, names of buildings etc. He wanted to functionally remove the stain of the Confederacy from the US military.