Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Edge-]

https://www.theroot.com/strict-georg...jec-1848132473

Unsurprisingly, the restrictive voting bill passed by Georgia Republicans earlier this year worked to disenfranchise Georgia voters in the Nov. 2 municipal elections.

The law imposed a new deadline to apply for an absentee ballot 11 days ahead of the election when voters used to be able to apply up until the Friday before election day. 52% of the applications were rejected for coming in after the deadline.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, only 26% of those who had their applications tossed were able to get to the polls to vote in person.

Disenfranchisement in-action.

Obviously, the law worked just as intended.

The Root is on-point here. This was always the intent of the law, and it's working.

[postman1782]

I really need to look into how I too can become a Professional Twitter Shitposter and get paid for it.

Just make a fake persona, tell people you love Trump, and buy followers til you start getting real people, that is basically what Candace Owens the Hitler Defender did. She literally did everything the opposite of that til she realized she could make money from Trump.

[Breccia]

Fuuuuuuuck you, Ron.

People are lining up around the block to express this sentiment.

I watched 60 hours of MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's 96-hour election-fraud livestream so you don't have to. Here are 5 things you missed.

(That's the headline title, I was too busy being with my loving family)

Lindell gave an extremely detailed run-through of his Supreme Court complaint

I mentioned this earlier: Lindell had his filing ready to go...except for the part that there were no names on it. Apparently during his hellathon he read it out loud a few times.

He repeatedly called out the state attorneys general, complaining about their refusal to sign his SCOTUS complaint

That's how you get help: repeatedly shaming the people who you want to help you on live...um...well it wasn't exactly television, was it?

Lindell claimed the RNC called these state AGs and pressured them not to sign. The RNC responded with "why would we have to?"

I read through multiple sources, looking for the AGs that signed up. I believe the answer is "none of them". Apparently Lindell thought Alabama was his best bet, calling their AG out the most, which to be fair, if someone said "Hey Breccia, if you had to guess which state would be most likely to risk their own taxpayer money and reputation to follow an insane conspiracy theory to SCOTUS with no evidence, no witnesses, no legal standing to file such a claim and no hope of success?" I would say "What are you, a crack addict?" Then I'd remember some of my family members, sigh, and say "I dunno, Alabama maybe? I can think of at least four people there who sound like they'd be in for that."

The pillow CEO pulled his ads from Salem Media, a network of conservative Christian radio stations

A bunch...of Christians...called "Salem Group". Huh. I should have bought stock in them, my stake would be burning up.

In the fourth day, Lindell read what he claimed were texts from Salem, begging him to reconsider. Having seen none of them and having heard nothing from Salem, I will just assume Lindell was lying.

I joke, of course. I did find a response from Salem.

No, we're not upset. He has the right if he wants to do that

Salem also responded to Lindell's claims that Salem was gagging their media hosts from talking about this, to which Salem responded no they weren't. I suppose if Lindell keeps saying this it could lead to slander or libel, and I'm curious witch trials will come first.

Lindell accused mainstream journalists of bias and encouraged conservative radio hosts to go rogue

This is an exact quote:

You know where they should be? Right here at FrankSpeech.com. I'll tell you this — every one of you hosts that are on Salem or any other radio station, if you speak out, I'd rather you just do it live to get it out there.

Just speak it out, get yourself fired, and come on over to Frank Speech. I'll pay their salary, you know I will!

I mean, that's fair, why keep a safe, lucrative job in mass media when you could quit and join what Lindell jokingly calls TV and has less net traffic than that Twitter blog about pies I just read? So, the idea is you pre-bake the apples, that way the crust rem--

Lindell fundraised for his 'legal offense fund'

Ah. And with any gift of $10 or more, you get a book called "From Crack Addict to CEO" Wow. From his erratic behavior, insane beliefs, desire to destroy not just his livlihood but those of his workers, and of course going for 96 hours without sleep, I never would have guessed Lindell was a CEO.

I joke, of course. He didn't go without sleep.

Lindell also did not appear on the stream for all 96 hours. For at least 10 to 12 hours a day, the stream consisted of reruns of the previous day's broadcast, a continuous stream of MyPillow ads, and screenings of the "Absolute Proof" series, Lindell's conspiracy-theory-laden movies on election fraud.

Lindell claims that every single dollar will go to his defense fund, and therefore, not to pay for those books...which means he has a bunch of books he couldn't sell for $10.

So there you have it. Kinda sorta 96 hours of Lindell proving how much support he has: none.

By the way, when was the last time Trump spoke Lindell's name out loud? He was at the inauguration...is that it?

[Paranoid Android]

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/t...t-book-2021-11

Probably for the best, but Trump apparently stopped doing even more of his job after the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt. No presidential daily briefs for intelligence in the year 2020, he stopped those before the holiday and never resumed them in his final weeks.

I mean Trump literally had a tantrum after the election. Besides trying to subvert our democracy and eventually trying to overthrow it. Trump again really acted like a 2 year old by having tantrum fits and just stopped doing his job. This was widely reported in real time. The BIG one was him doing basically nothing on COVID.

[Breccia]

The QAnon Shaman is looking at swapping lawyers, most likely to appeal his sentence. Which, again, was three years for punching a federal police officer in the line of duty.

- - - Updated - - -

A second contempt vote may be underway. The current topic is Jeffery Clark.

Clark, who at the time was apparently assistant AG in one WH division and acting assistant AG in another, attempted to use the weight of his office to delay certification of the election, according to evidence the House has. They subpoena'd him to testify Oct 28th and he didn't. Reports say Clark was close to Trump and essential to his coup attempt.

Clark would be the second person held in contempt, but more important than Bannon, because
a) who isn't, and
b) Clark was an actual Executive Branch employee. Bannon had no claim to Executive Time, and he knew it. Clark will test that in earnest.

It should be noted that Clark, Miller, Meadows and McEnemy have all refused to answer any questions at all. It's not "I can't answer that question, that's privileged" it's just them not showing up at all. Bannon was the warning shot nobody heeded. Clark is, I guess, hitting them in the arm or such? Once the House proves they can/will throw people in jail who were actual WH employees, for trying to assert privilege when Biden won't extend it, it's blood.

- - - Updated - - -

More bad news for the Iran Nuclear Deal.

We already know Trump claimed it was a weak deal and scrapped it. Old news. Problem is, as US Intel officials tell Axios, the new Iranian President thinks the original deal was bad, too. So he has zero incentive to bring it back. And while Trump watched and did nothing, Iran has been building up its nuclear program.

Simply put, there was no reason for Iran to hold true to the deal without the US. But now, even that status quo looks dead. Which means, due to Trump's direct actions, Iran will either demand stronger accomodations -- or will just outright break what's left of the deal, give up on negotiations, and make nukes in the open.

Mr. Only I Can Fix It racks up yet another objective failure.

[Kaleredar]

The QAnon Shaman is looking at swapping lawyers, most likely to appeal his sentence. Which, again, was three years for punching a federal police officer in the line of duty.

At some point I gotta ask... what's in this for the lawyers?

How much money can this random bumblefuck have to pay legal fees? Most lawyers seem to have been content to wash their hands of this whole affair when it became obvious that the January 6th insurrection, and Trump in general, became an insolvent financial prospect.

[Azadina]

The QAnon Shaman is looking at swapping lawyers, most likely to appeal his sentence. Which, again, was three years for punching a federal police officer in the line of duty.

I was under the impression, that if people die as result of one committing a felony, then anyone assisting in that felony can be charged with felony murder. People died as direct result of the "insurrection", and I'd imagine a terrorist attack against the government counts as a felony. So...why are they receiving slaps on the wrist?

[PhaelixWW]

I was under the impression, that if people die as result of one committing a felony, then anyone assisting in that felony can be charged with felony murder. People died as direct result of the "insurrection", and I'd imagine a terrorist attack against the government counts as a felony. So...why are they receiving slaps on the wrist?

Charging them with felony murder is not the same as getting a jury to convict them of felony murder. And if you charge hundreds of people with it and nobody actually gets convicted of it, that's an even worse look for the prosecutors, specifically, and justice, in general.

[Azadina]

Charging them with felony murder is not the same as getting a jury to convict them of felony murder. And if you charge hundreds of people with it and nobody actually gets convicted of it, that's an even worse look for the prosecutors, specifically, and justice, in general.

Something is terribly wrong with the legal system if you cannot get jury to say the obvious, that 1 + 1 = 2.

[Gorsameth]

More bad news for the Iran Nuclear Deal.

We already know Trump claimed it was a weak deal and scrapped it. Old news. Problem is, as US Intel officials tell Axios, the new Iranian President thinks the original deal was bad, too. So he has zero incentive to bring it back. And while Trump watched and did nothing, Iran has been building up its nuclear program.

Simply put, there was no reason for Iran to hold true to the deal without the US. But now, even that status quo looks dead. Which means, due to Trump's direct actions, Iran will either demand stronger accomodations -- or will just outright break what's left of the deal, give up on negotiations, and make nukes in the open.

Mr. Only I Can Fix It racks up yet another objective failure.

The carrot for the Iran Nuclear Deal was Iran getting a lot of their frozen funds back. Since they now have them back the deal without the carrot is obviously a lot lot less appealing for Iran. Especially when the US has shown that signing such a deal is no guarantee for anything at all.

[Dontrike]

At some point I gotta ask... what's in this for the lawyers?

How much money can this random bumblefuck have to pay legal fees? Most lawyers seem to have been content to wash their hands of this whole affair when it became obvious that the January 6th insurrection, and Trump in general, became an insolvent financial prospect.

The best they can likely hope for is a whole bunch of appearances on various right wing talk shows, "news" shows, etc. and getting noticed if by some chance they do get some sort of win out of one of these and then sit pretty knowing one of those secret Republican millionaires fills their pockets.

[Yuujin]

Something is terribly wrong with the legal system if you cannot get jury to say the obvious, that 1 + 1 = 2.

It is a shitty law anyway.

I'm more concerned about these people getting just sixty days in jail. What kind of a message are we sending for future elections? Don't like the election results? Storm the capital, get a sixty day vacation and a go fund me!

[Poopymonster]

At some point I gotta ask... what's in this for the lawyers?

How much money can this random bumblefuck have to pay legal fees? Most lawyers seem to have been content to wash their hands of this whole affair when it became obvious that the January 6th insurrection, and Trump in general, became an insolvent financial prospect.

Some do it to get their name out there. It might be their only high profile case ever. The exposure alone is worth it. You can't win all the cases, but having your name read nationally? Priceless. Some might be True Believers who want to help The Cause and Trust The Plan.

[ati87]

The carrot for the Iran Nuclear Deal was Iran getting a lot of their frozen funds back. Since they now have them back the deal without the carrot is obviously a lot lot less appealing for Iran. Especially when the US has shown that signing such a deal is no guarantee for anything at all.

The whole deal itself was ridiculous in that sense that all of the involved parties know that the nuclear material Iran is collecting is not really useable for weapons.
Only reason why you need a " nuclear deal with Iran" is because half of the US population would be more then willing to start a war with them if those rightwingers would make them a little bit more afraid of the evil brown people.

[Benggaul]

Even the quickie report for Monday is kinda meaningless given how screwed up reporting has been since Thanksgiving, but here goes.

69,498 new cases; 422 deaths, bringing the total to 801,326. Discerning trends via cases isn't viable right now, so taking a look at hospitalizations not much has changed since before the holiday: Texas and Florida are currently relatively flat. California's hospitalizations are still declining a bit. Michigan and Minnesota's hospitalizations are skyrocketing. New York's are heading up. New England and the Great Lakes region are currently being hit hard and I expect that to spread to the rest of the nation within the next couple weeks.

I could talk about Omicron Persei 8--I mean the Omicron variant, but honestly at this point it's still too early to really say how bad (or benign) it is. It's popping up all over the place and will absolutely be in the US at some point if it isn't already, but there's not enough information to tell whether it's much more transmissible, vaccine resistant or more deadly, so my advice is just to keep being smart about it and being careful. I've been reading some people whining that "enough is enough" and they're not going to adhere to safety precautions and just take their chances and to those people I say "Fuck you" because it's that bullshit attitude that ensured we were mired in this pandemic for this long to start with, so congratulations on contributing to the problem.

To the rest of you, as always, stay safe.

[Breccia]

Michigan is not having a good day.

@Benggaul will get to those numbers eventually

EDIT: God dammit, he literally did it as I was typing, now I look the fool

he did say the holiday would, erm, pull a Florida and screw up reporting, and he's almost certainly right. But what we do know is Michigan is past 80% capacity in hospital beds, setting a new record.

As I've posted before, Biden has already sent help, but there's only so much you can do when the population has a long history of challenging authority figures asking them to vaccinate or mask up.

How far north they are isn't great, either. We should expect results like this to follow the Mississippi River through December.

[Hammerfest]

Oh, right because...uh...Comey didn't convict Hillary or something?

On a related note...

[DarkTZeratul]

The carrot for the Iran Nuclear Deal was Iran getting a lot of their frozen funds back. Since they now have them back the deal without the carrot is obviously a lot lot less appealing for Iran. Especially when the US has shown that signing such a deal is no guarantee for anything at all.

This is actually a lie perpetuated by the GOP trying to make the deal look bad by claiming it would give Iran a buttload of money. The truth of the matter is that an international court had already demanded that the US give Iran its money back, we'd run out of appeals, and the timing happened to coincide. The actual carrot of the deal was that we'd get the world to lift sanctions in exchange for their compliance; they would have gotten their money back regardless.

You're right that this carrot is a lot less appealing now, though, because A) we broke the deal once already, so they don't trust us not to break it again, and B) they now have a new leader who's considerably less progressive and more of a hardliner than the one who inked the deal, and who got elected largely on the platform of blaming the previous guy for accepting a bad deal that he should have expected us to break because we were never trustworthy in the first place and this just proved it.

[Verdugo]

On a related note...

Oh, you exist. How's Earth, still flat?

[Edge-]

On a related note...

How is that related to anything having to do with conspiracy theories around Maurene Comey?

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/...ski-ip-vpx.cnn

Oh look, more video of Boebert calling Omar a terrorist and saying she's "black hearted" and "evil".

Censure her ass and kick her off committees. What ever happened to decency? To decorum? To civility? I remember Republicans complaining about that a lot.

The expectation is basic professionalism, and she's failing to meet that bar. Make her an empty floor vote until she decides to start acting like a professional, otherwise her and her husband who loves to expose his penis to underage girls can fuck off.

Because yes, as you all know, her husband exposed his penis to underage girls at, I believe, a bowling alley.