Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[postman1782]

Trump always knew Twitter was free publicity. He knew it was a loud, ALL CAPS voice where everyone would see it. Now he's asking everyone to go to an entirely separate site, where they can't even speak in a loud, ALL CAPS voice of their own.

Those rumors that Trump was going to start his own media company or social platform, from his perspective, should have been correct. Trump should have bought Parler or OANN so there was actual traction and response when he swung his dick around. Instead, he's waving it in empty space and drunk-dialing FOX News when he wakes up at 4AM all alone. And nobody wants to see that.

They say money can't buy happiness (tell that to someone working 60hrs/week on minimum wage) but it comes a lot closer if you spend it. Trump, ever the miser, wants something for nothing -- just like he has his whole life. Nobody taught him how this works.

I can't bypass the paywall but I did read some tweet replies. There are the usual memes, some great pet pics, and the winning line is "Russian bots can't subscribe to blogs".

He also knew that more than 60% of his followers were literally bots that either he or Russia or other people paid for to make him one of the biggest followed accounts out there.

[D Luniz]

Well, not sure if this irony or just the fact that even Trump knew that Qanon was too far out there.

https://www.businessinsider.com/trum...on-away-2021-5

They looked "low class" to him
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b1785099.html

[Benggaul]

They looked "low class" to him
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b1785099.html

To be fair, he is an expert on being low class.

[Kaleredar]

He also knew that more than 60% of his followers were literally bots that either he or Russia or other people paid for to make him one of the biggest followed accounts out there.

I don’t actually know that he knew that, or at least, actually believed it.

It’s very difficult to tell where Trump’s “guiling conman, intentionally lying and ignoring the truth” ends and his “self-aggrandizing blowhard that believes in his own delusions of grandeur” begins.

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That he was president and would remain president till the day he died and would never need it again. He would get a second term with ease and then either get things changed where he got a 3rd term or his daughter became the first female president for 2 terms and so on.

I truly do hope that an event as momentous as the first female US president is not sullied by merit of them being a trumpspawn, either directly by blood or metaphorically by political supplication.

[Ripster42]

If they are official government documents I’d imagine that forging them is a big no-no.

You'd be correct.

[Benggaul]

Saturday's quick report:

19,639 new cases; 468 deaths, bringing the total to 603,876. 18 states not reporting. Florida, however, DID report--about 100 cases more than last Saturday. It's likely just a blip as their overall trend has been declining, but they're also the only state reporting over 3k cases on the day. Well over double the next most reported (Pennsylvania's 1.2k). I don't normally put much stock in the numbers for weekends now (especially with more and more states deciding to forgo the reports), but, I mean, c'mon. Fuck Florida.

Stay safe, folks.

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In other news: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA

Conservative media outlets feud as OAN accuses pro-Trump Newsmax of being a 'left-leaning' network

"You only sucked the tip! You didn't deepthroat him! Commie!"

[Breccia]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA

Three additions:

1) The OAN "journalist" in question began by saying "Fox's increasingly left-wing angles"

NOTE: I have no idea what FOX News' approach should be here. In theory, FOX News could crush OAN and Newsmax together like walnuts and eat the delicious meat inside the shells.

2) The reason appears to be "Newsmax threw Trump under the bus and buckled almost immediately, declaring Biden the next president, despite all the evidence of massive fraud and without waiting for the contested battleground states to finish their investigations" So, either they're made that Newsmax followed what most networks did, declareing Biden the winner before all the lawsuits recounts and lawuits, and like most networks were correct; or, they did so after the failed lawsuits and recounts and OAN is still holding out hope that the Arizona farce will actually find something that makes a difference that holds up in court, despite all evidence that it won't.

3) I didn't find a Newsmax reply to this. I didn't have to. This article from three days ago has the headline

OAN Stars Bolt for Newsmax as Pro-Trump Network Reaches New Levels of Bonkers

Already known for its cartoonishly bonkers MAGA propagandizing, OAN in recent months has veered even further into unhinged right-wing territory. And Newsmax—which is often just as obsequiously pro-Trump in its commentary—has pulled back on its wildest election conspiracy theories while hoovering up some of OAN’s top on-air talent: news anchor Alex Salvi, correspondent Jenn Pellegrino, and reporter Amanda Brilhante. Those moves followed Newsmax poaching OAN’s White House correspondent Emerald Robinson last year.

Pellegrino, who served as a White House correspondent and on-air host for OAN, abruptly left the far-right channel earlier this month, only for Newsmax to announce her debut as co-anchor of a 9 p.m. ET program called Cortes and Pellegrino, co-hosted by former Trump campaign senior adviser Steve Cortes.

In late March, meanwhile, Salvi—one of OAN’s rare “straight news” anchors—revealed during his media-focused show After Hours that he was exiting the network after hosting since 2019. A few weeks later, Salvi quietly showed up on Newsmax, revealing his new role as a Rome-based foreign correspondent with the network. Brilhante, who’d been with OAN since graduating college in 2017, was hired away in February to be Newsmax’s breaking news reporter.

The Newsmax poaching of One America News staffers has come as OAN struggles with an ostensible exodus of talent. Network president Charles Herring recently acknowledged to The New York Times that the already thinly staffed network has lost more than a dozen staffers in recent months.

“We are not surprised that other networks target OAN as a goal to reach and look to hire our staff, thinking it might improve their ratings,” Herring said in a statement to The Daily Beast.

I'm going to read that last part again.

We are not surprised that other networks target OAN as a goal to reach and look to hire our staff, thinking it might improve their ratings

In the span of a few days, these two statements together means that, yes, Newsmax is more left-leaning and getting better ratings. (Their lower ratings are objective by the way, they're just admitting it out loud) I mean, if OAN is proud of their low-market-share niche that's fine, but when their One Exodus Network is complaining that their competitors are taking a stance that leads them to doing better, it doesn't read as much as pride as WAAAAAAAH WAAAAAAAAAAAAH WAH WAH *sniff* WAAAAAAAAAH

[gondrin]

Orange calling the basketball orange.

Donald Trump Slams Arizona GOP AG Mark Brnovich, Says He's 'Always On TV Promoting Himself'

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...cid=uxbndlbing
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trum...imself-1593949(this link requires a free account)

[Breccia]

Link in the tweet is for WaPo

It finally got a nonpaywall source.

On the blog’s first day, The Washington Post reported 159,000 total social media interactions. The following day, interactions dropped to 30,000 and have since not surpassed 15,000 per day, according to a Post review of data from online analytics firms.

Trump’s blog received about 4 million visits the week ending May 18 from desktop and mobile devices.

During the same period, the blog has been shared on Facebook an average of less than 2,000 times per day, a change from the tens of millions of comments, shares and reactions his Facebook page received each week last year, according to social media data firm BuzzSumo and Facebook-tracking tool CrowdTangle.

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Sen. Roy Blunt, who will be called "Party of Trump" Senator and not Republican until I see reason to do otherwise, has a statement about the Jan 6th committee into the murderous insurrection:

I will continue working with my colleagues to uncover the facts surrounding these attacks and to ensure the military, the intelligence community, and the State Department follow through with the intelligence committee’s recommendations to improve the security of U.S. officials serving overseas.

Oh whoops, that's his statement on the Benghazi Committee. Oh deary me, how did I get those two mixed up? Is my face red. Here is his statement about the Jan 6th committee:

I think it's too early to create a commission, and I believe Republicans in the Senate will decide that it's too early to create that commission. Commissions often don't work at all and when they do work, like the Simpson-Bowles commission, produced a good result, nothing happened as part of that result

Wow, forgot his stance on committees that quickly? What's going through that mind? What has Sen. Blunt been smoking? Man, there's a joke in there somewhere...

[Gorsameth]

OAN is still holding out hope that the Arizona farce will actually find something that makes a difference that holds up in court, despite all evidence that it won't.

Funny think about that, even if tomorrow it was revealed that every single Biden vote was committed via fraud it wouldn't matter.
The elections were certified by the states and then Congress.

There is literally no way for the election to be 'undone' after Congress certifies it.

[Breccia]

Funny think about that, even if tomorrow it was revealed that every single Biden vote was committed via fraud it wouldn't matter.

Well, the Party of Trump is looking to suppress votes. Cyber Ninjas is going to give them a lame-ass limp-dick IMPOTUS-approved reason to do it. If there really was fraud, however, it would be a lot harder to oppose it.

I'm not holding my breath. [url-https://www.businessinsider.com/arizona-elections-official-tells-maricopa-county-to-toss-voting-machines-2021-5]Their credibility is as broken as the voting machines they investigated[/url]. I've said things like "Trump could tell me the sky was blue and I'd laugh in his face without bothering to look up" over and over. Well, Cyber Ninjas could find Biden's DNA on a ballot marked "Legal US Voter Bob Smith" and I would tell them it was fake to their face without bothering to run a test.

[s_bushido]

Funny think about that, even if tomorrow it was revealed that every single Biden vote was committed via fraud it wouldn't matter.
The elections were certified by the states and then Congress.

There is literally no way for the election to be 'undone' after Congress certifies it.

As Breccia implied, whatever they find/invent is just going to be an excuse for restricting voting rights in red states, as they've already begun doing.

[beanman12345]

As Breccia implied, whatever they find/invent is just going to be an excuse for restricting voting rights in red states, as they've already begun doing.

Isn't it Arizona that are the ones who are trying to pass a bill that let's legislatures pick whoever they want in charge regardless of the people? I think I read something about that, and them becoming basically North Korea and Russia "democracies."

[s_bushido]

Isn't it Arizona that are the ones who are trying to pass a bill that let's legislatures pick whoever they want in charge regardless of the people? I think I read something about that, and them becoming basically North Korea and Russia "democracies."

Yes.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...s-out-n1256097

Didn't go digging much, but there's not been much written about it since January.

[Benggaul]

Sunday's quick report:

13,541 new cases; 228 deaths, bringing the total to 604,087. 18 states not reporting. *grumble*

Stay safe, folks.

[Breccia]

Every day of Biden's house cleaning leads to another example of Trump being evil.

This time, he deported hundreds of parents but kept their children locked in dog cages. Yep, ICE didn't even give them the option to ask for their children back.

Their. Children.

The DHS OIG OMG WTF report goes on to say that Trump, under Trump's 2018 policy not Obama's like he sometimes claimed, separated at least 2800 children from their parents and 500 were not returned. This also follows Trump's ICE hiring surge which, as I'm sure we all remember, really broadened the level of "how racist can you be and how little education can you have and still be an ICE agent" plus also Trump's expansion of allowing ICE agents to set their own personal standards for individual cases. There will be no blaming Obama on this one, or more precisely, only by those who are being disingenuous or willfully ill-informed, neither trait is redeeming.

Incidentally a reminder, as if "seprating children from their parents" wasn't bad enough, Trump did this and hid the fact that he was doing it. We're only finding out about this part now. If Trump thought what he was doing was moral and just, why didn't he do it in public? Why didn't he announce at his pep rallies "I am throwing out illegal immigrant parents and keeping their children against their will"? It's because there's two types of things you hide even from your friends and allies:

1) Surprise parties
2) Things that you know are wrong.

And a second point I don't feel is worth an entirely new post. Sondland is suing Pompeo because Sondland was called as an impeachment witness and spent $1.8 million in legal bills, which he claims Pompeo promised the government would pay, but then didn't pay. I don't know which happened:

1) The claim in the lawsuit is accurate.
2) Pompeo changed his mind before Sondland's testimony, which is why Sondland's testimony was not so favorable for Trump.
3) Sondland is lying. I put this forward only as an option that's physically possible, but unlikely. Trump hired Sondland following a million-plus dollar donation. But if it's somehow true, say it with me @Edge- "only the best people"
4) The twisting morass of Trump's swampian evil is turning on itself for sustainance, and the legal merits are not as important as the humor of watching the snake eat its own tail.

After 3 minutes on Google, it appears that government employees brought in as witnesses to government hearings for their role as government employees are typically given legal representation by the government they work for. (The lawsuit also claims this, but I did my own checking...and cases like this are not common) Sondland must have known he was fronting the money ahead of time. He knew he was asking Trump to pay what he contractually owed. Well, Pompeo, but Trump's WH, same thing.

Am I victim blaming? Yeah, I guess I am. Am I an asshole? Less so than someone who donated to Trump on purpose, asked Trump for a job on purpose, in that job helped extort a country on purpose? Less so than the guy who asked him to do all that, then refused to pay him? Yeah, I know I am.

Maybe @cubby will see it differently, but I think Sondland's lawsuit is doomed to fail. Pompeo is many things, but he doesn't strike me as the guy who will write down a promise to pay legal bills and then not do it. And if it comes down to a vague, unsupported depiction of a verbal contract, no judge and no jury will know which of Trump's goons is most likely to lie about it. And the lawsuit seems to be aimed at Pompeo, who is not a government paycheck, so even if Sondland's case has merit, Biden will have to pay it.

Raise your glasses, one and all, for another chorus of the "I Never Thought Trump Would Turn On Me" song!

P.S. Just a reminder, Trump fired Sondland for his testimony. Like, immediately after.

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228 deaths

I mean, even scaling this up for missing states, this is better than a year ago. June last year was a low point, bottoming out about 300 deaths/day, then went back up to Trumpian levels of 1,000 a day or so through September -- then got much worse. 2021 should not see that. I hope.

We should all continue doing our part and keeping ourselves, and others, safe. And don't go to India.

[Edge-]

Every day of Biden's house cleaning leads to another example of Trump being evil.

This time, he deported hundreds of parents but kept their children locked in dog cages. Yep, ICE didn't even give them the option to ask for their children back.

Their. Children.

I'm done. Republicans can never claim to care about the unborn, children, or anyone ever again. If they do, I'll remind them of the time a Republican administration created and engaged in a program to kidnap hundreds of children from their parents, and how Republicans writ-large - from Congress down to the voters - was not just fine with it, but cheered it on.

Republicans are monsters. Period.

[Breccia]

Alabama passes a bill banning private entities from requiring "vaccine passports" 76 to 16 and the governor signs it into law.

Alabama has no mask mandate, of course. They have the second-lowest vaccination rate saved only by Mississippi, and are in the top ten total COVID death rates which considering that list contains NY and NJ, hit early and hard, that's offensively impressive.

These legal moves represent the will of the people via their elected representatives.

Man, I'm doing a lot of victim-blaming today.

[Edge-]

Alabama passes a bill banning private entities from requiring "vaccine passports" 76 to 16 and the governor signs it into law.

They sure do love them some big-government regulations on small business.

[Xyonai]

They sure do love them some big-government regulations on small business.

No see it's not 'big' government. It's state government, which is smaller!

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But speaking of 'Smaller-Than-Big-Government' Republicans signing bills into law that regulates big business:

DeSantis finally got around to signing that Bill that would prevent Social Media platforms from enforcing their rules-... I mean, would prevent them from Unfairly Censoring Patriotic Conservatives and would allow Florida residents to challenge bans from their platform. With one such citizen happening to be a high profile conservative who got banned from Twitter for inciting a poorly executed insurrection.

(Edited for better link and extra snark)