Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Breccia]

I would think that they would have to, especially since Trump is literally trying to sell shares of NOTHING. The service the company supposedly provides is non-existent, so it’s like they’re trying to attract investors like backers on Kickstarter.

That's my take as well, even if I'm not 100% sure about it. I know Trump is desperate for money, but to actually commit a billion dollars of outright fraud in public seems extreme, even for his unethical fat ass.

[Gelannerai]

That's my take as well, even if I'm not 100% sure about it. I know Trump is desperate for money, but to actually commit a billion dollars of outright fraud in public seems extreme, even for his unethical fat ass.

I mean, he instigated a treasonous insurrection in broad daylight, so why not?

[Breccia]

I mean, he instigated a treasonous insurrection in broad daylight, so why not?

You win this round, Rick.

Hopefully the two have something in common -- they both suck and fail, and then people go to jail.

[Ivanstone]

I mean, he instigated a treasonous insurrection in broad daylight, so why not?

Because one is politics and the other is money.

If you steal from the wrong person they might actually do something about it. Not every wealthy conservative is a lunatic like Mike Lindell who seems more than happy to set his fortune on fire in Trump’s name.

[Breccia]

More bad news for Trump in court. This is the Jean Carroll case, defamation based on rape. Not only are the judges in the case hesistant to say Trump is immune because he was in the WH at the time, they also appear hesitant to handle Trump's personal lawyer's latest defense, which is that Trump was basically baited into lying and defaming.

The judges also appeared skeptical of Habba's arguments that Trump was forced to respond publicly because Carroll had gone on the offensive with her accusations.

"She went to the press. She was a public figure," Habba said. "She went and put out an excerpt to the New York Magazine. Then she published a book. She made it public. She was on the aggressor side."

When asked by the judges whether there is any limit to the legal immunity that she believes covers presidential speech, Habba responded. "My limit to you, Your Honor, in plain English would be an unprovoked attack on a citizen. That is not what happened here."

Referring to local law covering scope of employment issues, Calabresi asked, "What D.C. case do you cite me for saying that provocation is even relevant?"

Habba responded that she could not cite a specific case but the court should take note of the context in which Trump made his comments.

"Whether it goes to the fitness of the president who was sitting, running the country, and I think in this case, it did," she said. "He had to address it. When the press ... asks him a question about a story which would go to his fitness to sit — whether it is true or untrue — he needs to respond."

There's also some concern expressed by the judges that the President could then basically say whatever they want in public and be immune to consequences. They didn't seem keen on that, either.

[Edge-]

I'm wondering what the fuck the DoJ is still doing involved in this case. I see absolutely no reason for them to be, not even because it's Trump, but because objectively, if any president had responded to accusations of rape/sexual assault from a woman (or man) by saying, "she's not my type", that it would fall outside of the bounds of the duties of their office.

I wasn't aware that, "Fuck, marry, kill" was a part of the duties of POTUS.

- - - Updated - - -

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/w...en-bay-madison

Remember the former WI supreme court justice who admitted he doesn't know how election laws even work, but is leading the review of the election?

He's threatening to throw the mayors of Green Bay and Madison into jail for failing to appear in response to a summons. Problem is, both of them responded to his office and haven't heard back.

Seems like he's just trying to jail people he doesn't like, which isn't surprising given his incompetence shown so far.

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...and-jury-finds

A federal grand jury investigating Donald Trump’s former attorney Sidney Powell has uncovered evidence that Powell filed false incorporation papers with the state of Texas for a non-profit she heads, Defending the Republic, according to sources close to the investigation.

In the incorporation papers, Powell – who filed lawsuits across the US questioning the 2020 election result which Trump lost to Joe Biden – listed two men whom she said served with her on the organization’s board of directors, even though neither one of them gave Powell permission to do so.

The Kraken seems to be getting fucked with multiple tentacles.

Is that too lewd? Maybe. But I'll leave that image in your heads. sorrynotsorry

[Breccia]

I'm wondering what the fuck the DoJ is still doing involved in this case.

That's why I clicked on it at first. But even if they weren't, Trump would still be arguing this in court.

- - - Updated - - -

Because corporations are people too, the Koch brothers just bought out the company of someone they like running for Senate. It's not a donation, they bought something. It's a loophole, but it's legal.

[Benggaul]

Thursday's report:

132,822 new cases; about 17k more than two weeks ago. The numbers are still a bit inflated due to corrections as you'll see below, but it's evening out.

Top 10:

Illinois: 11,525 new cases; 45 deaths
New York: 10,238 new cases; 55 deaths
Pennsylvania: 9,143 new cases; 128 deaths
Ohio: 9,131 new cases; deaths not reported
California: 6,214 new cases; 116 deaths
Wisconsin: 6,156 new cases; 47 deaths
Massachusetts: 5,679 new cases; 32 deaths
Indiana: 5,546 new cases; 31 deaths
Minnesota: 5,206 new cases; 72 deaths
Texas: 4,953 new cases; 97 deaths

There were huge spikes in New York and Illinois reported but those are almost certainly corrections. Hard to know for sure until the next few days' numbers come in, but we all know the score by now. Minnesota has jumped up into the "Severe" risk category as their cases per 100k rose to 76. Even if we don't have reliable daily case numbers to go by we see hospitalizations rising across various areas in the nation--some worse than others. Nothing too scary so far, and I've just read that the current vaccines are also effective at keeping severe illness down in those infected with the Omicron variant, so that's good news and gives me hope we can avoid another horrendous Winter. Er, in areas that actually have a decent percentage of vaccinated people, at least. I expect it'll still be a shitshow in Trump Country.

1,264 deaths is around 100 fewer than two weeks ago, bringing the total to 806,398, but as people always like to point out that number will grow in time thanks to backfills and late additions. Even though the 7-day average is slightly below 1k that's still artificially lowered by the holiday lull in reporting and it's slowly creeping back up. Pennsylvania, California and Tennessee had the top three on the day.

Related news:

Omicron Covid variant detected in 5 U.S. states as scientists investigate heavily mutated strain--Study of the variant is ongoing and still pretty early stages, so there's still not much concrete news on severity of symptoms, ease of transmission, etc.., but the general consensus is that getting vaccinated, masking up indoors, washing your hands frequently and maintaining social distancing still remain effective means of keeping it under control. So, you know, do that, you filthy animals.

U.S. Covid vaccinations spike as several states confirm omicron cases--If all of the incentives, including protecting yourself, weren't enough to convince more people to get vaccinated, then I guess I'm fine with fear of the new variant getting people in to get their jabs. Idiots. Half of those were boosters, but nearly a third were first shots, which is a lot (over half a million in a 24-hour period).

Stay safe, folks.

[Edge-]

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...-him-a-hacker/

Remember that journalist that "hacked" the Missouri state site and that was totally gonna get prosecuted? Well...

1. Before calling him a "hacker", the governors office had drafted up a statement thanking the journalist for bringing the publicly available security vulnerability to their attention.

2. The state informed the FBI of the "hack", and were told by the FBI "This isn't a hack, you're publicly exposing information that anyone can access."

3. Clicking "inspect element" in your browser isn't hacking.

[Benggaul]

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...-him-a-hacker/

Remember that journalist that "hacked" the Missouri state site and that was totally gonna get prosecuted? Well...

1. Before calling him a "hacker", the governors office had drafted up a statement thanking the journalist for bringing the publicly available security vulnerability to their attention.

2. The state informed the FBI of the "hack", and were told by the FBI "This isn't a hack, you're publicly exposing information that anyone can access."

3. Clicking "inspect element" in your browser isn't hacking.

IIRC Parsons also buried a study done by his state's health department that proved masking/mask mandates helped curtail COVID cases and deaths. So yeah, he's both evil and stupid.

[Edge-]

IIRC Parsons also buried a study done by his state's health department that proved masking/mask mandates helped curtail COVID cases and deaths. So yeah, he's both evil and stupid.

Yep. At least it was only buried a month ago, but it still speaks to how everything in the government is viewed through a hard-partisan political lens.

[Ripster42]

I'm wondering what the fuck the DoJ is still doing involved in this case. I see absolutely no reason for them to be, not even because it's Trump, but because objectively, if any president had responded to accusations of rape/sexual assault from a woman (or man) by saying, "she's not my type", that it would fall outside of the bounds of the duties of their office.

Essentially, setting precedent for the president being held responsible for lying. Though, IIRC, the white house counsel, who you would think would be the one involved if it was about presidential powers, isn't part of the DoJ. Kinda gives away the game that it's not. Essentially means that the WHC didn't think it was part of the president's job and was a personal matter, which the WHC doesn't do. He had to go to through barr instead.

[Breccia]

Eastman, as in "Eastman Memo" refuses to testify to Congress.

"Let me guess, Executive Time?"

No, he's pleading the Fifth.

This is a pretty significant change in tactics, and there's no good reason why Team Trump would use it. Here are some things I believe could lead to this change:
1) Trump made it clear Executive Time didn't cover them, or
1a) Everyone predicted that attempt would fail.
2) Similar, it's basically every man for himself and the Fifth does not require collaboration, choreography, or planning.
3) They know they're guilty and have no defense.

About 2) above: if this is the motive, it's suicide. Everyone in Trump's circle should know by now Trump does not reward loyalty, and sells out his friends and allies for a Slim Jim. If they all take the Fifth, Trump could potentially blame them. "Hey, here's all that stuff they sent me begging me to overthrow democracy," he could say, "and by me handing it over you know I'm innocent."

[Benggaul]

So, as mentioned before one of the hurdles I face with the updates is the constantly changing numbers after the fact due to backfilled data and odd reporting schemes. Immediately after my report yesterday Michigan gave me the finger and posted their numbers (they post every other day and just average them out over the two days) which added another 11k to the total. Yeesh. Anyway, here's me throwing caution to the wind once again for Friday's report:

147,434 new cases; about 33k more than two weeks ago.

Top 10:

New York: 11,652 new cases; 44 deaths
Michigan: 11,186 new cases (new record); 155 deaths
Pennsylvania: 10,127 new cases; 97 deaths
Ohio: 9,584 new cases; 88 deaths
California: 8,547 new cases; 90 deaths
Illinois: 7,558 new cases; 44 deaths
Massachusetts: 5,765 new cases; 27 deaths
Indiana: 5,600 new cases; 60 deaths
Minnesota: 5,596 new cases; 62 deaths
Missouri: 5,375 new cases; 7 deaths

While it's entirely possible there are more corrections being made--holidays fuck up reporting for a long time--it's equally as likely that things are about as bad as they seem and many states are approaching or even surpassing levels they reached last Winter. New York has had a few 10K+ days in a row now which is worrying, Michigan set a new record, every state in my top 10 today is on an upward curve. Fortunately we have a lot more tools to mitigate it this year so the cost shouldn't be so abysmal, but it's still depressing given how avoidable it is. 34 states reported over 1k cases, hospitalizations continue to rise, Winter is coming.

1,352 deaths is about the same as two weeks ago and brings the total to 808,116. Michigan topped the total with over 150 deaths (and thanks to their reporting method they also bumped up yesterday's total by the same amount) with Tennessee and Pennsylvania rounding out the top 3. The 7-day average has, as predicted, jumped back over 1k.

Related news:

Six more U.S. states find Omicron cases, Delta still top U.S. coronavirus threat--The bad news is that it appears Omicron is more contagious, the good news is that it seems to present with milder symptoms which, hopefully, means fewer people hospitalized/dead. Still more study needed.

Florida COVID update: 1,983 new cases added to state toll as hospital patients increase--The fact that hospitalizations are increasing yet the total of new daily cases isn't going up too much makes me press X to doubt. Fuck Florida.

U.S. white supremacists blamed for targeting Aboriginal Australians with coronavirus vaccine misinformation--Because racist Trumpers aren't content with only fucking up the US. Australia has their own racist dickheads, they don't need imports from America.

Stay safe, folks.

[Breccia]

Fuck Florida.

Florida is still doing their best to make your work harder. While some sources say they got +153 deaths reported last week, they continue to use time travel to shove some backwards, so they always appear to be in a constant state of decline when of course they are not.

Like you said, it seems the best way to see how they're doing is by hospitalization. They can lie about a lot of things, but not the number of still-living infected patients because their physical existence is tough to handwave.

They should have reported for Thanksgiving. It doesn't matter what the numbers were.

All that said, Florida is nowhere near the worst they've been. That was still August. So far.

[jonnysensible]

Regular reminder that Madison Cawthorne is a piece of shit.

christian theocracy is the primary goal of the republican party, hes just doing his bit!

[Breccia]

I wonder how long this is going to last before the SEC gets involved.

UPDATE: Team Trump claims they have an offer of a billion dollars for Trump's social media whateverthing.

Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. (TMTG), and its blank-check company announced on Saturday it had received a commitment of $1 billion from an unidentified “diverse group of institutional investors.”

TMTG and blank-check company Digital World Acquisition Corp. said that "subscription agreements for $1 billion in committed capital" would be received from an unknown group of investors once TMTG and Digital World are combined.

"What's a blank-check company?"

I think it's what you do when you want to legally commit fraud.

"No, really."

Fine. Near as I can tell, it's a 'company' that has no staff, no assets, no goal, no business plan, and publicly for-sale stock. If enough people buy stock in the Special Purpose Acquisition Company, they basically pool those random mixed investors' money and buy something, such as a company that thinks Trump can run Twitter.

And yes, the SEC keeps an eye on those.

Scoob's post was yesterday, and suddenly magically they have a billion-dollar offer today. I say there are three options.
1) They're lying.
2) It's the Rusians. Russians might not be allowed to donate to a PAC but they can buy part of a SPAC.
3) It's a small group of rich investors hoping to get Trump's favor, and are willing to bet tens or hundreds of millions on this idea.

"You ruled out the very fine Trump voters. I mean, the ones not in jail for supporting Trump."

Yes I did. Yes, if someone donated to Trump in 2016 and 2020 they've proven themselves willing to donate in 2024. But I am excluding the option "the rabid fanbase doesn't understand vaccines or walls but knows what a SPAC is". I handwave that option.

Trump is claiming that his social media network will take on big tech with a subscription service that he will very likely pocket and pay off Deutsche Bank, then post reruns of Lindell's rants. A billion dollars won't make a dent in Facebook, Twitter, or TikTok. It won't even scratch the paint.

- - - Updated - - -

Advocates of natural immunity should keep an eye on medical journals. Granted, anti-vaxxers don't do that, but they should.

A not-yet-peer-reviewed study says the re-infection rate of omicron, the rate at which it infects people who already naturally fought off other variants, is triple that of other variants so far. Vaccines were not part of this study, but such studies are likely being done even now.

One non-peer-reviewed study is not enough to slam down the gates, but it is something to keep an eye on.

[Benggaul]

White Nationalists Stage Bizarro Rally in Downtown D.C., Find Themselves Stranded

A group of white supremacists stormed through downtown Washington, D.C. on Saturday evening, bearing American flags and mildly menacing plastic shields while marching to the beat of a snare drum down the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. But after chanting aggressively about their plans to “reclaim America,” their intended show of force stalled spectacularly when they lost their ride.

While the group had marched through the city with threatening chants about their plan to “reclaim America,” by the end of the night it was not even clear how they intended to reclaim their U-Haul.

The rally by more than 100 members of the “Patriot Front” group, held just blocks from the White House, sparked fear among many bystanders and immediately attracted the attention of law enforcement, who shadowed the group to apparently prevent any clashes from erupting.

Members wore a uniform: white gators, sunglasses, blue jackets, khaki pants, and brown boots and hats. Some donned plastic shinguards, seeming to anticipate violence.

As Patriot Front’s leader Thomas Rousseau spoke beside the Capitol reflecting pool, bystanders booed. Asked about the reason for the march, Rousseau said, “Our demonstrations are an exhibition of our unified capability to organize, to show our strength—not as brawlers or public nuisances, but as men capable of illustrating a message and seeking an America that more closely resembles the interests of its true people.”

At the end of the night, the march ended in a logistical anti-climax. No arrests were made at the Arlington Memorial Bridge, where the it wound down, and D.C. police Lt. Jason Bagshaw told The Daily Beast that the cops, some in riot gear, were on the scene simply “waiting for people to leave.”

That is when it became clear that more than two dozen members of the white supremacist group could not leave, as they were apparently stranded. Members of the group had waited in a one-way roundabout to depart in one of the U-Hauls they had used to transport themselves for the rally. But the large rented moving van could not fit them all, so many of them were forced to wait in 45-degree darkness as the bulky orange vehicle made multiple trips over the course of nearly three hours.

Looks like not all of the idiots got rounded up after Jan 6th.

[Breccia]

"But the large rented moving van could not fit them all"

When you screw up this bad, it Hertz.

[Benggaul]

Marjorie Taylor Greene Blasts COVID Rules, Says 'Not a Single School Has Closed' Due to Cancer

In a message on Twitter, the Georgia Republican wrote that the U.S. has never "shut down," and that schools were not closed due to cancer-related deaths.

"Every single year more than 600,000 people in the US die from cancer. The country has never once shut down. Not a single school has closed. And every year, over 600,000 people, of all ages and all races will continue to die from cancer," Greene began.

"Since #COVID19 tracking has started, 780,000+ people have died in 22 mo in the US, but more than 1 million still died of cancer. More have died in 2021 from covid than 2020 in spite of Gov mandated widespread vaccines, mass public masking, & trillions spent," she added.

Jesus fucking CHRIST these Trumper GOP QAnon fuckwits are stupid and so are the people who support them.