Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Breccia]

Which means the NY prosecutors have found the incriminating documents.

Based on what Cohen told us, we all saw this coming. You can't tell two different people two different numbers, and have them both be right.

[Edge-]

Based on what Cohen told us, we all saw this coming.

It's amusing that in the Trump orbit, Cohen, the guy who got convicted of lying to Congress, is continuing to be the most reliable source for information surrounding Trump.

It's oddly fitting.

[Breccia]

I feel this goes here, because the speaker is known Trump cultist Cruz.

The senator from Connecticut knows that is false, and he knows that’s false, because Sen. [Chuck] Grassley [R-Iowa] and I together introduced legislation … targeted at violent criminals, targeted at felons, targeted at fugitives, targeted at those with serious mental disease to stop them from getting firearms and put them in prison when they try to illegally buy guns.

Of course, the topic is "thought and prayers" after the Colorado shooting. Specifically, Sen. Blumenthal saying that's all Cruz ever offered.

In what I'm sure is a coincidence, we now know who the Colorado shooter is. Info is still coming in, but we do not currently have anything suggesting the shooter -- before he killed 10 people of course -- was a violent and/or insane felon. Now, perhaps Sen. Cruz's proposed legislation would prevent him from getting a weapon of war when he gets out of prison for murdering 10 people. But it kind of feels ten people too late for that to be much good.

So while Cruz is claiming Democrats have proposed measures that won't help...wait, hold on.

Every time there’s a shooting, we play this ridiculous theater where this committee gets together and proposes a bunch of laws that would do nothing to stop these murders

Yes, that's Cruz again. Anyhow, that's Cruz claiming that Democrats offered nothing that helps. Then immediately, when accused of doing nothing that helps, defends it by pointing out legislation that wouldn't have helped and also didn't pass. Nothing in Cruz's proposed legislation would have stopped the Colorado shooter from getting a gun and killing ten people. Universal background checks, by contrast, might have. Mandatory licenses or registration might have.

Now, info is still coming in. We won't know for a while yet. But even if Cruz is right, in that his proposed legislation would have helped because the shooter was a violent, insane felon BEFORE killing ten people, even if Cruz was right, then the universal background checks still would have caught that. Or, I guess he could have illegally bought the gun (cough gun show cough) or stolen it, in which case Cruz wouldn't have helped anyhow.

There is no way that what Cruz says is justified. At the best, he can claim his proposed legislation would have been just as effective as Democrats'. At the worst, we'd see yet another case where universal gun control (not allowing a 21-year-old to buy an assault weapon) would have saved lives, but Cruz offers nothing of meaningful value.

Looks like Cruz's defense is dead. Thoughts and prayers.

- - - Updated - - -

"#BuildTheWall", says Matt Gaetz.

Maybe he thinks Trump is still in charge. Which was the "Trump reveals he's still in charge" QAnon date, pushed back yet again? I lost track after the murderous insurrection.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm just going to guess the person who held National Guard delivering vaccines at gunpoint no really literally at gunpoint is a Trump supporter.

Wake me when we know either way. I'm confident enough with the last 4 years of history to make that statement without evidence, and not lose sleep over it.

[Zan15]

The article goes in depth in describing what Trump did and tried to do, to stop independent watch dog groups. With his cronies ousted, stuff is starting to come out.

Edit: I think there is some irony in Trump being so corrupt, that he will likely be the most corrupt president for a considerable future. But, at the same time, his corruption was so successful, that 33% of the people will think history is lying.

you don't understand trump HAD TO break the law in order to do what is right to fight the global elete and drain the swamp from corrupt....ummm...something something....

sorry got bored half way through that...

[DarkTZeratul]

I feel this goes here, because the speaker is known Trump cultist Cruz.

We really should make a new thread for general Republican fuckery rather than continuing to associate it with Trump.

[Xyonai]

Saw the story on Facebook from someone commenting on it from Fox News, and ho fuck do people there have issues. The usual "if libs had guns this wouldn't happen" and the usual other shit.

It also remains telling of the GOP's (apparent) Priorities.

550k Dead from COVID? It's not a big deal, it's a hoax, we need to get over it, and we should open everything back up as soon as possible because the economy is doing bad because we refuse to do anything about it.

Biannual Mass Shootings of unarmed civilians and sometimes children? We can't do anything about it because it's too soon but also how dare the Democrats want to take away every single gun and emasculate law abiding American patriots.

Handful of - Exclusively Republican - instances of Voter Fraud in an election they lost in a veritable landslide? THE ENTIRE SYSTEM IS RUINED AND MUST BE MORE HEAVILY RESTRICTED SO THE FILTHY ILLIGAL VOTERS CAN'T RIG OUR ELECTIONS!!!'

Like they don't give a flying fuck about people dying but will scream and shit their pants in their attempt to heavily restrict voting access because they don't like losing.

[Breccia]

We really should make a new thread for general Republican fuckery rather than continuing to associate it with Trump.

Hey, the day the Republican Party moves away from being the Party of Trump, I'll back this play.

But they haven't, and I don't see it happening soon, so, here we are.

- - - Updated - - -

Parler turns on itself.

Parler co-founder John Matze has sued the social media platform over his firing earlier this year.

Matze filed suit on Monday in a Nevada state court, according to a copy of the complaint published by The Las Vegas Sun.

The former Parler CEO accuses co-owner and GOP megadonor Rebekah Mercer of conspiring to dismiss him for “endeavoring to preserve Parler's commitment to free expression while combatting any misuse by violent extremists and domestic terrorists in the wake of the January 6, 2021 attack at the U.S. Capitol.”

Fox News reported in early February that Matze was dismissed by Mercer, a benefactor to Breitbart News and Steve Bannon, a campaign and White House adviser for former President Trump.

After the Jan. 6 riots, Parler was booted from several platforms including Apple and Google’s app stores, as well as Amazon’s web hosting service, over its failing to moderate extremist content on the platform.

The suit alleges that Mercer ignored Matze’s proposals for moderation policies that would have booted extremist content while preserving free speech. Instead, she and now-interim CEO Mark Meckler sought to turn Parler into a media outlet that would be the “tip of the spear” for conservatism.

The suit alleges says that this new goal led Mercer to force Matze out, and “steal his forty percent (40%) ownership interest” in Parler.

“This scheme is epitomized by oppression, fraud, and malice, for which Matze is entitled to punitive damages trebling (at a minimum) the millions that he is owed in compensatory damages,” the suit says.

Ah, this is amazing. Days after all the rabid fanbase flees to Parler, it gets torn in half and starts to eat itself. And I love how Breitbart was involved and FOX News announced it. It's magnificent.

- - - Updated - - -

So we have a report from a Washington watchdog group that says DeVos did, in fact, make hundreds of millions of dollars while in Trump's White House.

"it's a good thing she pledged to avoid conflicts of interest."

She did say that, but then just...didn't. She continued to run an education-based company, and also, continued to donate heavily in politics in 2018 and 2020.

"You said 'hundreds of millions'. Surely you have an exact figure."

I don't, because fiscal disclosure forms aren't taxes. That's why Trump released them. Such forms use terms like "over five million" which the IRS won't allow.

DeVos is worth billions, arguably richer than Trump. In office, she intentionally took actions to make herself richer. But we all saw it coming. Some of us just pretended that "drain the swamp" was happening.

[Edge-]

I won’t be linking a video for this one, but Jordan Peterson is back doing interviews and today he “guessed”(his words) that medicine is killing more people than it’s saving. “Just a guess,” he said, while peddling more dangerous tripe.

"This is just a guess and it could be wrong but it easily could also not be wrong"

"Overall the net consequence of hospitals is negative."

Seeing folks post those snippets elsewhere...man, I'm glad that even through his trials and tribulations that Jordan Peterson is steadfast in his resolve to be a know-nothing idiot incapable of learning from past experience. But that if he says it with enough confidence, he'll convince a bunch of folks that he's right.

I mean, HITLER COULD HAVE WON WWII IF HE JUST USED THE JEWS AS SLAVE LABOR AND DIDN'T KILL THEM ALL! Said the non-historian about the Nazi's, who made extensive use of slave labor in concentration camps and for massive construction projects.

[Felya]

I won’t be linking a video for this one, but Jordan Peterson is back doing interviews and today he “guessed”(his words) that medicine is killing more people than it’s saving. “Just a guess,” he said, while peddling more dangerous tripe.

Yeah, I saw that... did he forget about being incubated in Russia?

[Elegiac]

I won’t be linking a video for this one, but Jordan Peterson is back doing interviews and today he “guessed”(his words) that medicine is killing more people than it’s saving. “Just a guess,” he said, while peddling more dangerous tripe.

Reminder this is the same dude who wrote a book with a chapter called "set your room in order before criticizing others" and then proceeds to do every Zoom call with his home office looking like Asmongold's desk, lol.

[Edge-]

Reminder this is the same dude who wrote a book with a chapter called "set your room in order before criticizing others" and then proceeds to do every Zoom call with his home office looking like Asmongold's desk, lol.

Lobsters don't need to clean their rooms, and we're basically lobsters, after all.

[masterhorus8]

LOL. Biden doesn't need to be in front of a camera feeding his ego like Trump did. And Trump may have gotten a record, but he still LOST by 7 million fucking votes.

And Trump is going to have a hard time running for president from a fucking jail cell.

Also, notice the obvious attempt at bs and lack of any understanding? "world record" for a national election.

Pathetic.

[Breccia]

Luxury hotel agency Virtuoso drops Trump hotels from its list.

As of March 8, apparently. Oddly enough, they made a public statement about dropping Trump followed by a public statement saying there would be no public statement as to why.

So I'm going to guess...60% COVID outbreak, 30% bedbugs and 10% not wanting anything with the word "shithole" on their main page.

[NoiseTank13]

Oh bless your heart.

I know, they are trying so hard to fill in the shoes of old time contrarians, it's kinda cute.

[Edge-]

https://www.salon.com/2021/03/23/fox...ing-primetime/

Man this was so predictable. What did Fox News air when the Boulder PD were giving their press briefing on the shooting yesterday?

A segment about Biden tripping while going up stairs.

Nobody better tell them about the trouble Trump had with a slightly decline on a ramp!

[Breccia]

Man this was so predictable. What did Fox News air when the Boulder PD were giving their press briefing on the shooting yesterday?

A segment about Biden tripping while going up stairs.!

They shot themselves in the foot. (too soon?) The shooter had an ethnic name. Like me, they probably assumed it was a Trump supporter. Unlike me, they lose money when they're wrong.

[Edge-]

Unlike me, they lose money when they're wrong.

Not really. The beauty of the Fox News business model is that they don't even need to sell ads to make money. The money they make off cable bundles alone is massive. Don't watch Fox? Have cable? Congrats, you're (the royal you) unintentionally contributing to their bottom line.

[Shadowferal]

I never knew Biden was ever a member of parliament.

[Felya]

I never knew Biden was ever a member of parliament.

Deep state? So deep, he is a secret MP... that’s why that BBQ and beer guy was demanding freedom of the world from Biden...

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You are not even trying, are you? Low energy. Sad.

I love how they keep saying Biden is so quiet... they don’t know what he is doing, so they assume their ignorance means he isn’t doing a thing. It’s a testament to their news sources being such shit...

[Benggaul]

58,705 new cases, about 5k more than last Tuesday. A handful of states haven't reported yet.

Top 5:

New York: 7,017 new cases; 21 deaths
Fuck Florida.
New Jersey: 4,803 new cases; 61 deaths
Texas: 4,713 new cases; 79 deaths
Michigan: 4,540 new cases; 20 deaths

It's beginning to look like we're heading back up again. Still a chance that today's increase is a correction, but the difference week to week has been shrinking for a while now and we had a few days last week that were also above the previous. Shit's not good. Even undertesting in Texas isn't enough to keep it out of the top 5 again. And gee, I wonder why Florida is up at number 2. I'm sure swarms of vacationing college kids in a wildly unregulated environment has nothing to do with it...and I'm sure their returning home to states across the nation afterwards won't cause any issues whatsoever...

936 deaths is about 300 fewer than last Tuesday and brings the total to 556,883. California is still topping this chart most of the time and will likely continue to do so for a while longer thanks to their explosion of cases in the beginning of the year, but their deaths per million pop is still lower than over half the country; lower than both Texas and Florida (and Florida's not even being honest with their death counts--Fuck Florida).

Related news:

New U.S. COVID-19 cases show weekly uptick for first time since January--This is what I've been trying to avoid saying since it was just my own untrained opinion, but yeah. It's not looking good. Over half the states have started seeing upticks again the past week and hospitalizations are starting to rise again in several of them. The good news is that daily vaccinations keeps increasing and setting new records and about 25% of the population has gotten at least one shot. It's nowhere near enough, but given we're just two months into an administration with actual adults at the helm I'd say that's a pretty damned good start.

Stay safe, folks.