Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[fwc577]

Unlikely to happen. FaceBook has a market share that Twitter could only dream of. And while people may be ragging on them for the whole Metaverse thing, the reality is that their attempts to diversify themselves has been a strength despite the high profile mistakes. The sheer difference in size and reach that FB has over Twitter is one of the reasons why the idea that Twitter was the 'open public square' and a ban on it was silencing a person's freedom of speech was always laughable.

Yup, and just to reiterate for @Fugus There are 2.13 billion monthly active Facebook users and 330 million monthly active Twitter users.

[Fugus]

Yup, and just to reiterate for @Fugus There are 2.13 billion monthly active Facebook users and 330 million monthly active Twitter users.

@Lynarii

I know the part with Facebook, that wasn’t talking about it actually going down just wishful thinking. The stuff I put with Trump and Twitter though is what I was serious about.

Sorry, thought I had separated the two good enough to show that intent.

[Breccia]

For people questioning if there will be a civil war within the Republican Party, let me make it clear: you're already seeing it.

1) Rick Scott challenged McConnell for Senate GOP leadership. He failed, the vote was 37 to 10. While that's bad, it's not "CBS turns off the Vikings game" bad. In fact, to quote Ted Cruz

We underperformed among independents and moderates because their impression of many of the people in our party, in leadership roles, is that they’re involved in chaos, negativity, excessive attacks

Shit, that was Mitch McConnell. This is Ted Cruz.

We had a double-digit vote against the current leader and that’s never happened in the time I’ve been here

I didn't bother to look it up. Cruz was one of the ten, just so we're clear.

However, more than just a couple failed but significant runs at leadership are showing the strain. I don't know who these two people are, but they're Religious Right leaders with names worthy enough for WaPo to drop them.

“If Mr. Trump can’t stop his little petty issues, how does he expect people to stop major issues?” James Robison, the president of the Christian group Life Outreach International, said Wednesday night at a meeting of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL), a conservative political group that focuses on social issues.

The televangelist then started criticizing Trump, prompting the crowd to grow quiet.

“Everything you wanted him to hear — every single thing you ever prayed for him to hear — came through these lips right straight into his face,” Robison told the crowd Wednesday, his voice growing lower and louder. “And with the same force you’ve heard me talking to you, I spoke it to him.”

Robison continued: “It’s time for us to get together and pray and stop trying to destroy each other, and I make that loud and clearly heard to Mr. Trump! We’ve got to quit amputating each other, slicing each other, and come together in supernatural unity that Jesus Christ prayed for!”

In an essay sent to The Washington Post earlier this month, Mike Evans, a former member of the evangelical advisory board, said he would not vote for Trump again and recalled how he once left a Trump rally “in tears because I saw Bible believers glorifying Donald Trump like he was an idol.”

“All of us knew that Trump had character flaws, but we considered our relationship with him transactional,” wrote Evans, a Texas author and Christian Zionist who raises money for outreach and support in Israel. “We wanted Supreme Court justices to overturn Roe v. Wade. We wanted his support of our biblical values. We all wanted his support for the State of Israel. Donald Trump indeed kept and exceeded his promises to us.”

However, Evans said Trump had done damage by turning “the pulpit that we preach from” into a political platform.

“Donald Trump can’t save America. He can’t even save himself. He used us to win the White House. We had to close our mouths and eyes when he said things that horrified us,” Evans wrote. “I cannot do that anymore.”

So, yeah, that's a couple of apparenlty top-tier "Christians" saying Trump wasn't worth the benefits they got. Newsweek found a third who is, at the most charitable, hesitant.

Robert Jeffress, a pastor at the First Baptist Dallas church in Texas and staunch evangelical ally of Donald Trump, said on Wednesday that he will wait for the Republican Party nomination to endorse the former president.

"Donald Trump was a great president, and if he becomes the GOP nominee in 2024 I will happily support him," Jeffress told Newsweek.

When further asked about supporting Trump ahead of the Republican nomination, Jeffress told Newsweek that "the Republican Party is headed toward a civil war that I have no desire or need to be part of. My priority is being pastor of First Baptist Church Dallas and preaching God's word to millions of people each week on our television and radio broadcasts."

Jeffress' church is substantial, and he has endorsed Trump before. He's not now, at least, not yet. If Trump wins the nomination, he probably will, but we're a ways off from fucking around and finding out.

This was further echoed by this Washington Times OP ED from Prof. Everett Piper, which mirrors the approach of Robinson above.

It’s the weekend after the November midterms, and here are three key takeaways from Tuesday’s election.

No. 1: Conservatism still wins.
No. 2: Trumpism does not.
No. 3: If we don’t learn lessons one and two, and learn them quickly, the GOP will get destroyed in 2024.

Before you accuse me of treason, please take a deep breath, calm down, and do what all good Republicans should do — listen to the message before you shoot the messenger. In other words, don’t succumb to the conservative variant of TDS that causes inexplicable babblings of “Yeah, but Trump …” and just consider the following argument with an open mind.

What you're seeing is pushback across the board. Pushback against "Because he's Trump" with actual evidence which spans from "he keeps losing" to "and he's a horrible human being". And they're not talking to reasonable people who never liked Trump in the first place. They're talking to each other. That crowd Robinson addressed went quiet. Piper was expecting readers to immediately be turned off when he pointed out Trump was losing, something everyone already knows. Piper also wrote this other OP ED asking for a bunch of other GOPers to jump into the competition.

The Republican Party is in conflict so bad they're admitting it in public. On one side, the classic Republicans who are saying "thanks for stacking the courts, now get out before you do any more damage". On the other, literal idolators who, maybe even literally in some cases, worship Trump as a god, an act even less Christian than refusing food and medicine for the poor while arming themselves with weapons intentionally designed to kill human beings.

Trump still has the usual problems. The NYTimes char-broiled him again, calling Melania a hostage and...well, I'll quote one paragraph:

Trump flaunts his faux Macho Macho Man rhetoric. For decades, Republicans have lectured Americans to quit embracing victimhood and stand on their own two feet, and here’s their leader announcing his presidency on a platform of Woe is me! Quit picking on me! Elect me because I’m a fall guy!

Trump saw that and responded....and his literal first line was, yep, playing the victim game.

Maureen Dowd, the super whacko who constantly writes so nastily about me, saying things that if ever said about another person, trouble would ensue

Why yes, he did put that on CyberTrump 2077 and not Twitter, which means more people read the NYTimes article than Trump's response. But everything above that? That's proof a rift...beyond any Dowd.

[Gorsameth]

So, yeah, that's a couple of apparenlty top-tier "Christians" saying Trump wasn't worth the benefits they got. Newsweek found a third who is, at the most charitable, hesitant.

No, he clearly says Trump exceeded his expectations. They got Roe vs Wade, they got the embassy moved. Trump did everything they wanted and more and they were happy to close their ears when he said horrible shit because it was worth it.

Now that Trump has done those things he can't do enough for them to convince them to vote for him again.

I'd love to ask him how forgiving he thinks God is about those who knowingly work with evil men and help evil men do evil things to accomplish some other objective, that they could have done without helping the evil man, in the name of God.

[Rasulis]

Not worth its own thread. So here it goes.

Anti-Woke Banking Startup Cancels Itself

Less than three months after its public debut, the “anti-woke” banking startup GloriFi is canceling itself.

The company has laid off employees and informed them the end is nigh, via an email from Chief Marketing Officer Cathy Landtrop obtained by the Wall Street Journal. Landroop cited “financial challenges related to startup mistakes, the failing economy, reputational attacks, and multiple negative stories,” as reasons for the downfall.

The Journal reports the company’s fate was sealed Friday when a funding arrangement fell through.

Pitching itself as a financial institution that allowed one to be “free to celebrate your love of God and country without fear of cancellation,” GloriFi’s marketing read more like a campaign ad than an enticing APR offer on a new credit card. Highlights from the “about us” page include: “OUR BILL OF RIGHTS IS NON-NEGOTIABLE” and “WE ARE ONE NATION UNDER GOD.”

In its short tenure GloriFi, managed to launch checking and savings accounts as well as credit cards, with plans to offer mortgages and insurance in a future that will no longer take place. Founder and CEO Toby Neugebauer pitched plans to offer gun owners discounts on home insurance, credit cards made of shell casing material, and assistance paying legal bills if customers shot someone in self-defense. Over the summer, GloriFi secured conservative commentator Candace Owens as a co-founder and spokesperson for the brand.

In October, the Wall Street Journal detailed the tumultuous beginning of the startup that led to its swift collapse. Neugebauer and business partner Nick Ayers, former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, managed to secure an imposing roster of financial backers for their Texas-Based company. Enticing investors like conservative billionaire Peter Thiel, former Georgia Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Citadel founder Ken Griffin with promises of a market chalk full of “plumbers, electricians and police officers,” who “are fed up with big banks that don’t share their values.”

But GloriFi was unable to translate ideological grandstanding into functional corporate management. Even before its public launch, the startup was plagued by reports of chaos amongst staff and financiers. GloriFi missed its planned launch date several times, at one point due to clashes with Texas financial regulators. Reports emerged of unpaid invoices and erratic behavior from Neugebauer, who had converted his home Dallas mansion into the company’s main office.

According to the Journal, the company was eventually forced to hire a law firm to investigate workplace issues, particularly around Neugebauer. In one memo reviewed by the Journal, GloriFi’s former Head of Human Resources Britt Amos described several employees at Neugebaur’s mansion telling him to “make sure I leave around six,” and explaining that “after 5 p.m. Toby starts drinking and things at the house deteriorate quickly.” Amos also described a meeting where a visibly drunk Neugebauer was “drinking Red Bull and putting alcohol in it.”

[Zan15]

Not worth its own thread. So here it goes.

Anti-Woke Banking Startup Cancels Itself

Don't you know god and jesus love their red bull !!!
Also according to the bible they hate rich people, so yah no wonder this happened. :P

[callipygoustp]

Not worth its own thread. So here it goes.

Anti-Woke Banking Startup Cancels Itself

Am I missing something? What does this have to do with Trump?

[Kaleredar]

Am I missing something? What does this have to do with Trump?

Well Mike Pence's former chief of staff was involved with it, as per the article.

But moreover, it's another demonstration that the "anti-woke" movement, of which Trump is a major poster boy, is run by a bunch incompetent charlatans.

[Breccia]

Am I missing something? What does this have to do with Trump?

The Trump Shitshow thread is the default place for people who espouse Trump's views as well as Trump personally. People who are willing to burn piles of their own money just to own the libs, for example.

But back on the primary target, just not the sole one, Steve Bannon is added to the list of abandoned Trump allies backing slowly away from the mistake they'll spend their lives refusing to admit they made.

In a post on the right-wing social media platform Gettr on Monday, Bannon, whose--

"Doesn't Bannon have a media company?"

Yes, it's called Brietbart. He posts a lot of opinion articles there.

"Why didn't he say this on Brietbart?"

...good question.

whose "War Room" podcast is essential listening in populist conservative circles, appeared to suggest that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was poised to assume the mantle of today's Republican Party, praising a strategy to win, when others, namely the former president, had failed.

In a speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition's annual conference over the weekend, DeSantis spoke of the virtue of never backing down one's principles, evoking General Douglas MacArthur's famed quote, "there is no substitute for victory," after consecutive elections in which Trump's influence appeared to hold the party back.

"Governor DeSantis Watching WarRoom and doing a straight lift," Bannon wrote.

"Isn't Steve Bannon on Truth Social?"

Uh..(checks notes)...no. Turns out that wasn't Bannon but the Anonymous hacking group. It took Trump's fans weeks to realize that wasn't a photo of Steve Bannon but a defecating pig.

While Bannon has remained a cheerleader for the Make America Great Again movement Trump inspired, Bannon reposted an article in The Hill late Monday morning authored by Republican consultant Keith Naughton questioning whether Trump would "flame out" before the crucial Iowa caucuses, noting his poor performance in recent polling and his apparent inability to discuss anything new on the campaign trail.

And over the weekend, he reposted a CNN poll showing that Trump was in his weakest position in "years," while positive DeSantis-related content has been increasingly present on Bannon's Gettr feed.

While Bannon has not outright endorsed DeSantis, well, neither has anyone else. He did cheer DeSantis on for committing fraud in putting immigrants on a plane, which to be fair, is not the only crime Bannon encouraged.

"Surely Trump can handle losing one media outlet turning its back on him."

Yes...but we're well beyond one, at this point. The National Review also took a swing, but it appears to be in self-defense. And of course there's all the Murdoch stuff we've seen.

It seems Trump just can't buy good press.

- - - Updated - - -

WaPo goes year-by-year over Trump's win/loss record. Spoiler alert: the headline of the article is "Trump’s win-loss record is worse than he pretends"

The TLR is the last paragraph.

2016 Republican primaries. Trump won more support in 39 of the 54 contested nomination fights in 2016, according to a review of the year’s results. That includes nine wins after he locked up the nomination with a victory in the Indiana primary.

2016 general election. Trump won more electoral votes than Hillary Clinton but lost the popular vote by 2.9 million ballots. Republicans also saw their House majority slip by six votes and lost two Senate seats.

2018 elections. Trump made more than 130 endorsements in 2018, including both primary and general election endorsements for some candidates. Most of his endorsed primary candidates won (35 of 37) but his candidates won a bit over half of their general-election fights (56 of 95). That includes six state-level candidates in Texas, for example, as well as several almost-certain red-state governor candidates.

Nationally, his party was battered, losing more than 40 seats in the House. Republicans gained two seats in the Senate, thanks to a favorable map (picking up seats Democrats gained in the 2012 presidential cycle), something that Trump seized upon as proof of his effectiveness as a party leader.

2020 elections. The Republican Party was assertive about boxing out challengers to Trump in the 2020 party primaries, rendering an assessment of those contests about as useful as parsing the vote totals for Kim Jong Un’s most recent reelection bid.

He made more than 300 endorsements in primary and general-election contests, with his primary candidates winning in 117 of the 121 identified by Ballotpedia. In general elections, his candidates won 142 of 182. Those wins were again driven higher by endorsing numerous incumbents; more than half of his wins were incumbents winning primaries and then retaining their positions.

The marquee race that year, of course, was his own, with Trump again losing the popular vote as he also trailed in the electoral college. His party also lost control of the Senate, though it did add 14 seats in the House.

2022 elections. With an eye on announcing his candidacy for the 2024 presidential nomination, Trump made nearly 500 endorsements in the most recent cycle. Most were successful, thanks to his making a number of endorsements aimed at boosting his total. (His endorsement of Doug Mastriano’s gubernatorial primary bid in Pennsylvania, for example, came only after it was clear Mastriano would win — and as it seemed possible that his endorsed Senate candidate, Mehmet Oz, might not make the general.) In total, Trump’s candidates won 224 of 241 primary races and 208 of 254 general-election ones.

Ballotpedia also broke out key battleground races for 2022, contests that weren’t simply Trump rubber-stamping the likely Republican winner. In those, they estimate, Trump’s candidate won in only 14 of 37 general-election contests (though the results are incomplete, awaiting other election calls). That includes Oz’s loss in Pennsylvania.

Overall, Trump’s party underperformed expectations, failing to retake the Senate while only barely taking a majority in the House. For Democrats, it was a surprisingly good year, given how midterm elections usually go for the party of a new president.

The overall analysis?

Trump’s position with the Republican Party, then, might be the worst one possible: very effective at getting his candidates to win primaries by speaking to his base — but ineffective at getting those candidates to win in November. His base makes up a sizable chunk of the GOP, yes, but a much smaller part of the electorate. His polarizing effect on the primary electorate aids Republicans who side with him, but his polarizing effect overall probably often hurts his candidates.

[callipygoustp]

@Kaleredar;@Breccia

I figured it was a case of someone who is connected to Trump. Was, genuinely, wondering if there was something deeper I was missing.

[Breccia]

Was, genuinely, wondering if there was something deeper I was missing.

First, kind of, GloriFi is heavily backed by known Trump cabalist Peter Thiel. I don't believe that was in the recently-quoted article.

Two, come @ me bro.

[Edge-]

First, kind of, GloriFi is heavily backed by known Trump cabalist Peter Thiel. I don't believe that was in the recently-quoted article.

Two, come @ me bro.

Wait, I missed this. Thiel backed yet another losing venture? Boy, that's probably a nice cherry on top of almost all his chosen candidates losing. No wonder he wants to create his own island for rich people, nobody to mock him for being a super huge fuckin loser. He can't even use one of the dating apps he's fuckin backing because he's not allowed to as a gay dude, lol.

I'm just waiting for him to be shocked that aligning with a bunch of leopards that want to eat gay peoples faces might result in him getting his face nibbled on at some point. And then expect the world to feel empathetic and bad for him because he's oppressed and literally nah fuck all that jazz. For the amount of harm he's caused, and continues to cause? He can suffer.

[Redwyrm]

Pence "likely" to run for President in 2024. AHAHAHAHAHA *deep breath* AHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Can't think of a candidate more hated by both sides of politics than Pence

[Edge-]

Pence "likely" to run for President in 2024. AHAHAHAHAHA *deep breath* AHAHAHAHAHAHA.

I mean, he really seems into the humiliation at this point. Or maybe it's Mother that's into it and he must do Mother's bidding.

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...be-2022-11-22/

Nov 22 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday asked a federal court in Florida to provide him and his lawyers with a complete version of the affidavit that federal investigators used to obtain a search warrant for his Florida property in August.

Fuckin lolnope. Has he signed an affidavit certifying which documents were "his" yet? No? Lol.

[Breccia]

Pence "likely" to run for President in 2024. AHAHAHAHAHA *deep breath* AHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Please, let Harris run against him. I can't wait to see the debates when Pence can't talk with another woman.

Pence has got to be the single least popular person in the human centipede that is the current Republican Party. He was a classic Republican, tasked with keeping Trump in line, he failed in every way. Meanwhile Trump's insane murderous insurrection was aimed at murdering him specifically. He could be the first person to run on a major party and get trounced by a third party.

By the way, Trump's back in court again -- the DOJ are asking for the "special master" to be thrown out on the grounds of "there was never a reason for him to be there in the first place".

Days after Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to take over the investigation, Justice Department attorneys are expected to urge the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to end a document-vetting arrangement, instated by a lower court, that prosecutors have argued has slowed the investigation into the material the FBI seized from the Florida resort in August.

On appeal, the Justice Department is arguing that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon lacked jurisdiction to hear Mr. Trump’s objections to the Mar-a-Lago search. It was in response to those objections that she named a so-called special master to review the documents and determine whether some of them are privileged and should be kept from investigators’ view.

The oral argument is scheduled for 2 p.m. in Atlanta before a three-member panel drawn at random Tuesday morning from the appeals court bench. Alongside Chief Judge William Pryor Jr., it includes Judges Britt Grant and Andrew Brasher, both of whom were on the panel that ruled against Mr. Trump in another aspect of the same case in September. Judges Grant and Brasher were both appointed by Mr. Trump, and Chief Judge Pryor was appointed by former President George W. Bush.

The hearing comes as the criminal investigation into the handling of the documents is moving ahead, with Mr. Garland naming veteran war-crimes and public-corruption prosecutor Jack Smith as special counsel to oversee it. Some former prosecutors said his appointment signals that the Justice Department might consider its probe close to having amassed enough evidence for an indictment. Mr. Trump has denied wrongdoing and called the appointment of a special counsel “disgraceful.”

Mr. Smith is expected to work on the Trump investigations from the Netherlands in the coming weeks as he recovers from injuries suffered in a biking accident there, officials said. Since 2018 he has been working in The Hague as chief prosecutor of war crimes committed in Kosovo.

In a filing on Monday, the Justice Department notified the 11th Circuit that Mr. Smith reviewed and approved the arguments the department plans to make at Tuesday’s argument.

On Friday, Mr. Smith said he would keep the investigation moving quickly and Mr. Garland said he would give him the resources to do so.

[Edge-]

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/1...turns-00070530

After 3 years of delay tactics, it appears the House might finally receive Trump's tax returns. Only a few months to do anything with it before Republicans take over and abandon efforts to hold Trump accountable and instead focus on how Hunter Biden's laptop is the most important thing in the world, and I'm sure they'll find another excuse to investigate Hillary while they're at it.

[Rasulis]

Wait, I missed this. Thiel backed yet another losing venture? Boy, that's probably a nice cherry on top of almost all his chosen candidates losing. No wonder he wants to create his own island for rich people, nobody to mock him for being a super huge fuckin loser. He can't even use one of the dating apps he's fuckin backing because he's not allowed to as a gay dude, lol.

I'm just waiting for him to be shocked that aligning with a bunch of leopards that want to eat gay peoples faces might result in him getting his face nibbled on at some point. And then expect the world to feel empathetic and bad for him because he's oppressed and literally nah fuck all that jazz. For the amount of harm he's caused, and continues to cause? He can suffer.

It spent way too much time convincing potential customers that by doing business there they’d be owning the libs. It forgot that banks in startup mode are supposed to be focused primarily on one thing: offering attractive rates on deposits to bring in new customer accounts and to be able to expand to more products like car loans and mortgages. Not alienating half of its potential customers.

[Edge-]

It spent way too much time convincing potential customers that by doing business there they’d be owning the libs. It forgot that banks in startup mode are supposed to be focused primarily on one thing: offering attractive rates on deposits to bring in new customer accounts and to be able to expand to more products like car loans and mortgages. Not alienating half of its potential customers.

Who knew that "owning the libs" most often results in "owning yourself". Are they all secretly libs so it's actually "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED"?

[Fugus]

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/1...turns-00070530

After 3 years of delay tactics, it appears the House might finally receive Trump's tax returns. Only a few months to do anything with it before Republicans take over and abandon efforts to hold Trump accountable and instead focus on how Hunter Biden's laptop is the most important thing in the world, and I'm sure they'll find another excuse to investigate Hillary while they're at it.

Get it and hand it off to the new special counsel appointed to look into his other cases.

Make sure to take it out of the houses hands before the traitors retake control of it.

[Breccia]

Today, Senator Graham appeared before the Fulton County Special Grand Jury for just over two hours and answered all questions. The Senator feels he was treated with respect, professionalism and courtesy. Out of respect for the grand jury process he will not comment on the substance of the questions.

-- Sen. Graham, serial subpoena-dodger, by statement

Guess all that fleeing that made him look guilty was for nothing.

- - - Updated - - -

Judge sets Trump NYState fraud trial for Oct 2023.

"But he's running for office!"

Yes.

"Him being held accountable for all those things he did is going to be such an obstacle!"

I know. *sips coffee* It's perfect.