Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Felya]

So this new revolutionary social media platform is a blog?

It is exactly what a lot of people thought Trump’s version of free speech actually was... a place where only he can talk.

[Edge-]

This is disappointing. Unhinged comments from his supporters would be a gold mine.

Just go to the Qult HQ or Parler Watch or the dozen other reddits created to share and mock the lunacy of these absolutely insane people.

[Breccia]

Unhinged comments from his supporters would be a gold mine.

I mean...every once in a while I'm not sure if I should take a short of grain alcohol over rock salt, or read the FOX News comments below their stories. I don't think we're missing much.

[Benggaul]

Wednesday's report:

46,129 new cases, about 10k fewer than last Wednesday.

Top 7*:

Fuck Florida.
Michigan: 3,047 new cases; 45 deaths
New Jersey: 2,528 new cases; 49 deaths
New York: 2,511 new cases; 52 deaths
Illinois: 2,410 new cases; 33 deaths
Pennsylvania: 2,386 new cases; 63 deaths
Texas: 2,384 new cases; 58 deaths

*Places 3 through 7 are separated by only 150 cases, so it felt appropriate to include them all. Plus Texas is lying through omission still. Florida had more cases than Michigan by over 1,300, FYI.

Pretty much the same picture as yesterday as cases continue falling nationally. With the exceptions of Hawaii and New Mexico, New England dominates the top 10 states for percentage vaccinated, varying between 51.2% in Pennsylvania to 61.2% in New Hampshire. California is still just shy of the top 10 in the 11th spot with 50.1% which is pretty huge considering the population, New York is 14th with 48.9%. Texas is 40th. Just under Puerto Rico.

743 deaths is around 250 fewer than last Wednesday and brings the total to 593,148. Quite a large drop from last week, though I don't expect the drops to be so precipitous for the rest of the week. Cases are falling, but until this week they weren't falling that quickly nationally. We're averaging around 700 a day now.

Related news:

Minnesota, Virginia join U.S. states easing COVID-19 restrictions--I'm against restrictions being relaxed in general in the US at this stage, but Minnesota still has a 5.6% positivity rate and currently has the second-highest new case per 100k ratio in the nation. Granted it's Minnesota, so chances are it wasn't being taken especially seriously there in the first place. Virginia's doing well, but honestly this isn't the time to start letting up for anyone. All it takes is for anti-mask dipshits from one state to go visit another.

Analysis: Half of Global Coronavirus Deaths Unreported:

The analysis found that the U.S. still has the highest death toll of any country. But instead of the country's official toll of nearly 580,000 lives lost, it is actually over 900,000, according to the analysis. That number would put the U.S. well over the death toll from the 1918 flu pandemic, which was estimated to be about 675,00 lives.

Looking at you, Florida.

Stay safe, folks.

[Ivanstone]

Just go to the Qult HQ or Parler Watch or the dozen other reddits created to share and mock the lunacy of these absolutely insane people.

Those aren’t “legitimate” places. I expect idiocy to be brewing there. The blog of a former President on the other hand is supposedly better than that. Watching all the pigeons flock there to shit all over it would’ve been wonderful.

It’s like that Fox Business op-Ed from Rick Scott a few weeks ago. Fox has the veneer of legitimacy but the comments section was a clown show.

[Breccia]

" supposedly better than that"

There is a 0.00138% chance you wrote this with a straight face. Oh, you meant generally. Not specifically.

[Ivanstone]

There is a 0.00138% chance you wrote this with a straight face. Oh, you meant generally. Not specifically.

I am really, really looking forward to the Trump Presidential library.

[Edge-]

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/0...485584?cid=apn

Oh boy, apparently Stefanik isn't Trumpian enough for the Trump cult. Their reception to Trump endorsing her and her potential to replace Cheney as conference chair seems uh...not great.

Man I love the circular firing squad. Here I was worried liberals/progressives would end up in this situation with "purity tests" and whatnot, but it seems like Republicans have bigly beat them to that punchy.

Lou fuckin Dobbs calling her a RINO. Toppest of keks.

*Insert Ken Watanabe "Let them fight" gif here*

[postman1782]

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/0...485584?cid=apn

Oh boy, apparently Stefanik isn't Trumpian enough for the Trump cult. Their reception to Trump endorsing her and her potential to replace Cheney as conference chair seems uh...not great.

Man I love the circular firing squad. Here I was worried liberals/progressives would end up in this situation with "purity tests" and whatnot, but it seems like Republicans have bigly beat them to that punchy.

Lou fuckin Dobbs calling her a RINO. Toppest of keks.

*Insert Ken Watanabe "Let them fight" gif here*

She isn't Trumpian enough for Trump, because she was against him, before she was for him. And then when she was for him, she is idiotically for him.

[Edge-]

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/06/we-b...d-charges.html

Brian Kolfage, who was previously indicted with Steve Bannon for his role in an allegedly fraudulent crowdfunding campaign to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, was indicted Tuesday on additional charges, of fraud and filing a false tax return.

A federal grand jury in Florida accused Kolfage of failing to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in income on his 2019 taxes, according to the latest indictment.

An arraignment and initial appearance for Kolfage are set for May 27 in a Pensacola courthouse before Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Timothy, court filings show.

Why do all these criminal grifters keep acting like criminal grifters?!

[postman1782]

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/06/we-b...d-charges.html



Why do all these criminal grifters keep acting like criminal grifters?!

Because, when Trump was president, they thought they could get away with anything. And technically they could. Because with Barr and other cronies, they would silence the investigations or pardon them.

[Breccia]

apparently Stefanik isn't Trumpian enough for the Trump cult.

Stefanik used to identify as a moderate. In 2020 she dances with Trump at the TNC. She's also a woman and they're desperate.

Stefanik is stupid popular around here, despite having no experience before getting the job, basically never doing Q&A and never being able to defend herself when she did, voting against the tax cut for the rich, voting to take away health care, and Puling a Clinton by running in a district in which she just happened to move about 30 seconds before the election. She's a Republican, she's rich (well, upstate NY rich), she's a woman, her last election rally was literally a pickup truck and motorcycle parade (not kidding, I could have taken pictures) and she supports Trump in effectively everything.

I've talked with her local staff. Stefanik tells them nothing, because like any other Party of Trump member they have no backing they're willing to admit to in public. They're forced to defend her behavior with nothing to go on and armed only with pamphlets for the next election.

She's perfect for the current "Republican" party. She's taking the reins. The good news? She's probably an easy target for the Democrats. Without Trump physically coming here to help (again) she'll have a hard time defending her record once it's shoved on every TV in the county, including the waiting room at the hospital. Oh, and there are some highly-motivated college students because of her stance with student loans.

- - - Updated - - -

Why do all these criminal grifters keep acting like criminal grifters?!

@Edge- and/or @cubby is there any chance these charges were delayed until the Barr was closed?

[gondrin]

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/twi...tions-platform

Womp womp, Twitter doesn't like circumventing bans either. And will ban accounts that exist just to retweet Trump's blogs. Sad, truly pathetic people, these are.

Best part is someone got a screencap of the bio of one of the twitter accounts.

The bio of the account, which appeared to be created on Wednesday, said: "Posts copied from Save America on behalf of the 45th POTUS; Originally composed via https://DonaldJTrump.com/Desk. *Note: Not Donald J. Trump Tweeting."

This looks like what a 10 year old would do trying to pretend it isn't them.

Sources:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...?ocid=msedgdhp
https://web.archive.org/web/20210505...er.com/djtdesk

[Breccia]

I could write up a post citing the sources directly, but, this MSNBC YouTube leads with a hilarious bit with Cohen saying "Good luck getting Trump to pay you, Giuliani!"

Medium story short, Trump still owes Giuliani back-pay from various 2020 activities. Giuilani has had to let staff go and, as we all know, he's been begging Trump, Trump's campaign, and the RNC for cash. Now, Trump is out of office where the threat isn't impeachment, it's being arrested, tried, and convicted. And Giuliani has only one person he can realistically throw under the bus to cooperate...Trump. (Nobody believes Barr blackmailed Ukraine) As we've also discussed, anything they did together and criminal is not protected by privilege and the FBI already is getting someone to comb through it.

Trump now faces an ugly choice: Taco Bell or Burger King. But he also has an awkward legal choice. Paying Giuliani would make Giuliani less desperate, but it could also be seen as witness tampering. Or, Trump could refuse to pay even what he contractually owes (or maybe there's no contract for blackmailing Ukraine) and hope Giuliani could take care of himself without flipping.

Things are not looking good for Giuliani. Dominion is stepping on the gas. It's possible Blackwater was involved, as they were providing security, since Giuliani was not, you know, a WH employee and the SS could not help during GIuliani's...um...ambassador trip, yeah, good luck with that one. A Zelensky aid is using the exact phrase "quid pro quo" in public. And that's all in the last 24 hours.

Run, Giuliani, run. There's nothing left here you can salvage.

[Edge-]

https://www.military.com/daily-news/...mpaign-ad.html

So how does a MAGA candidate who is former military start his campaign? By using dead soldiers at Arlington as a political prop, without clearing it with the Arlington Cemetery first.

Weird that Republicans would like, politicize the military like that. And dead soldiers.

[Breccia]

FEC votes 4-1 to end the investigation into Trump/Cohen's hush-money payments during the 2016 election.

"The vote was 4-1? Wow, I guess no crime was committed!"

Actually, it's almost the opposite. The FEC had earlier voted 2-2 whether any laws were broken. The Democrats said "Well, Cohen confessed and we have his turned-over documents". The Republicans said "Yes, but he got tried and convicted, so really we don't need to do anything do we?" With such partisan gridlock in place, the 4-1 vote to end the probe was mostly born of frustration.

As a reminder, the FEC's general council did say that a case should proceed. Again, the Republicans said "No, we'd rather let Trump off the hook."

[Azadina]

Run, Giuliani, run. There's nothing left here you can salvage.

I wonder if there's a need for crooked lawyers in Kremlin? Just asking for a friend... who might need a long vacation trip somewhere around that area.

[Breccia]

Hey remember when some of Trump's friends tried to crowdsource the Wall and Trump gave them a no-bid contract and then it fell down and they got charged with fraud?

Good times...good times...

The leader of We Build The Wall was just charged with cheating on his taxes.

For, you guessed it, taking the donation money and putting it in his own private bank account. Oh, and then lying to the IRS about it.

While getting a few thousand in fines isn't the end of the world, if the IRS gets proof that this guy took money from the donation fund and just kept it, those charges of fraud he's facing get a whole lot worse. Just a reminder, not only could Bannon be compelled to testify (pardoned!) but the charges go up to 20 years.

[Kaleredar]

I could write up a post citing the sources directly, but, this MSNBC YouTube leads with a hilarious bit with Cohen saying "Good luck getting Trump to pay you, Giuliani!"

Medium story short, Trump still owes Giuliani back-pay from various 2020 activities. Giuilani has had to let staff go and, as we all know, he's been begging Trump, Trump's campaign, and the RNC for cash. Now, Trump is out of office where the threat isn't impeachment, it's being arrested, tried, and convicted. And Giuliani has only one person he can realistically throw under the bus to cooperate...Trump. (Nobody believes Barr blackmailed Ukraine) As we've also discussed, anything they did together and criminal is not protected by privilege and the FBI already is getting someone to comb through it.

Trump now faces an ugly choice: Taco Bell or Burger King. But he also has an awkward legal choice. Paying Giuliani would make Giuliani less desperate, but it could also be seen as witness tampering. Or, Trump could refuse to pay even what he contractually owes (or maybe there's no contract for blackmailing Ukraine) and hope Giuliani could take care of himself without flipping.

Things are not looking good for Giuliani. Dominion is stepping on the gas. It's possible Blackwater was involved, as they were providing security, since Giuliani was not, you know, a WH employee and the SS could not help during GIuliani's...um...ambassador trip, yeah, good luck with that one. A Zelensky aid is using the exact phrase "quid pro quo" in public. And that's all in the last 24 hours.

Run, Giuliani, run. There's nothing left here you can salvage.

Now, I'm no corrupt politician, but... I do have to wonder why these fucks bothered sticking their necks out for Trump and basically sinking themselves into these horrid quagmires essentially of their own making. I'd have assumed that ol' Ghouliani was more or less retired, fairly well off, and out of the public eye prior to his involvement in the Trump administration.

Was it simply greed that drove ghouly here and others to basically wade out into the Trump cesspit until their feet got stuck? Hoping from some grand payoff from Trump or via association with him? None of these people that have either gone down or are teetering on being consumed by the Trump debacle blast zone strike me as particular ideologues who care about pushing some moral position from their newfound place of authority, even if that moral position was a terrible one. I always got the impression that they were always in it for the money.

Either way, I hope the law comes crashing down on them with full force and fury.

[s_bushido]

Lady G admitting the GOP is committed to fascism and their one true leader. Video in link, but when your political movement is entirely tied to someone like Trump you may as well just openly admit you desire the death of democracy.

It's been apparent for years now that the GOP has literally no plan to actually govern and no policy beyond saying "fuck you" to everyone without seven figures in their bank account. This just seems to me like them finally coming to terms with that reality.