Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Edge-]

Don’t forget Herman Cain quoting “the Pokémon movie.” (It was actually the second one, but whatever )

A poet*

Though he later did saltily admit it in his concession speech -

[YUPPIE]

*sigh*

I hate explaining the obvious but here we go.

The fear isn't that Trump is this shining beacon of popularity that is going to win the next election. The fear is that the GOP is going to ratfuck enough of the electoral process to get Trump back in office.

Trump is a deeply unpopular man who has very little to show from his presidency who lost his last election in disgrace and has spent the last two years throwing a giant temper tantrum.

He can't win again by his own merits.

Unfortunately the GOP has spent the last six year packing courts, destroying voter access to democratic leaning groups (minorities), and gotten people so caught up in their mass delusion that we now have GOP officials refusing to certify elections. This is what people are worried about enabling Trump to get back into office. And if that happens we're likely quite screwed.

if trump gets back into office, he's going to turn America into a dictatorship where the insurrection failed.

i thought knowing this, there would be measures or *something* to ensure he can never run for anything again. but evidently, the guy is untouchable.

[postman1782]

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/16/gop-...-children.html

Herschel Walker admits to a second secret child . The man talks a great game about kids needing to have stable families, but he doesn't seem to actually believe that.

It's up to 3 now.

[Edge-]

It's up to 3 now.

Yeah, I misread it as a "second" secret child vs. two more secret children.

I'm just wondering how many more secret children he's abandoned and had to be taken to court over child support payments for.

[Breccia]

Eastman has effectively admitted criminal fault in his role in the Jan 6th insurrection.

"Shame on you! Just because he took the 5th over 100 times doesn't mean he's guilty. Innocent people plead the 5th all the time. Just ask Trump."

No, that's not it. I mean, that's bullshit, but still not what I meant. He asked for a pardon after Jan 6th.

I've decided that I should be on the pardon list, if that is still in the works

-- Eastman, in an email to Giuliani a few days after the murderous insurrection he pushed Trump to lead

"Um...that would have been a convenience pardon. He wasn't admiting guilt, he just didn't want to face consequences should liberal judges find him guilty, including SCOTUS led by Ginni Thomas."

Okay, even at this stage, maaaaaaaaaaaaybe I'd accept you at least had a point, even if I disagreed.

*ahem*

But.

Eastman repeatedly acknowledged that his proposal for former Vice President Mike Pence to unilaterally reject electors lacked a legal basis.

He emailed associates the plan was "dead on arrival" days after state legislatures refused to certify alternate slates of Trump electors.

Former Pence counsel Greg Jacob testified Thursday that Eastman said former Vice President Al Gore didn't have had that power in 2000 and that Vice President Kamala Harris won't have it in 2024.

Former Pence chief of staff Marc Short said in closed-door testimony, played at the hearing, that Eastman told him on Jan. 4 that the proposal violated the Electoral Count Act.

Eastman also emailed Jacob the night of Jan. 6, after the Capitol riot, asking him to "consider one more relatively minor violation" of the ECA.

These actions opened Eastman up to criminal liability, according to Judge David Carter, who wrote in March that Trump and Eastman's efforts were a "coup in search of a legal theory."

By the way, if you're wondering what a minor violation of the Electoral Count Act is, you're not alone. I'd never heard of it, but I know full well anything about federal elections written in 1887 was taken seriously. I read it twice but speak as much legal-ese as I speak Klingon, and I can say that nothing in the ECA involves a duel to the death or eating food raw. However, near as I can tell, it lays out a narrow list of times Congress can throw out perfectly good votes, and "because the loser said so" isn't on the list.

In my research with limited success, I did see the name batted around when people were declaring themselves fake electors, but they were being looked at for false documents which is fraud.

This extensive NYTimes piece is from late March after a judge ruled. I know I normally quote those (I pay wall so you don't have to) but I'll TL:DR it. Eastman was ordered to turn over emails, and that above quote is almost certainly one of them.

So in the end, I gave up -- I could not find what penalties the ECA had. I suspect -- and someone please correct me in the very likely chance I'm wrong -- that the ECA doesn't so much have penalties, but just restricts the actions allowed by people involved in the election. Someone trying to bypass those restrictions would be breaking some other law, like fraud. That said, if organizing a massive conspiracy to throw out perfectly good votes just because you lost isn't at least a felony, then I don't know what should be.

[Chonogo]

And somehow he'll defeat Warnock in the election because fuck this timeline.

If Alabama can elect a shitty football coach who knows nothing about government, you can bet your ass Georgia will elect the guy who won a national championship for their state university.

[gondrin]

Ok, this could belong in 2 threads but since it is about Trump himself, I'll put it here. Question is, doesn't he have his own social media network where he can post whatever he wants and get as much airtime as he wants.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...79c9d3b2ec522e

Donald Trump is raging on Truth Social and demanding 'equal time' on national TV amid the January 6 committee's primetime hearings

Former President Donald Trump raged on Truth Social on Thursday, demanding equal airtime on national TV amid the January 6 committee's primetime hearings.

Trump made a post on his social media platform hours before the committee's third hearing on Thursday, claiming that the lack of airtime was unfair to him.

"The Fake News Networks are perpetuating lies, falsehoods, and Russia, Russia, Russia type disinformation (same sick people, here we go again!) by allowing the low rated but nevertheless one sided and slanderous Unselect Committee hearings to go endlessly and aimlessly on (and on and on!)," Trump wrote.

"It is a one sided, highly partisan Witch Hunt, the likes of which has never been seen in Congress before. Therefore, I am hereby demanding EQUAL TIME to spell out the massive Voter Fraud & Dem Security Breach!" Trump added, once again parroting his own groundless claims of voter fraud.


The former president then followed up with another post, this time in all caps, reading: "I DEMAND EQUAL TIME!!!"

This week, Trump released a 12-page statement bashing the January 6 investigation. In that statement, he claimed without substantiation that the January 6 panel investigating the riot was out to stop him from running for president again in 2024.

Many US television networks have been airing the January 6 hearings during primetime slots. The committee held the third of its six public hearings on Thursday afternoon, outlining how the Trump camp pressured former Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election.

[UnifiedDivide]

Ok, this could belong in 2 threads but since it is about Trump himself, I'll put it here. Question is, doesn't he have his own social media network where he can post whatever he wants and get as much airtime as he wants.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...79c9d3b2ec522e

He does, but it isn't big enough numbers to satisfy his insecurity.

Honestly, I would love a large network to tell him he can have an hour on air to go through the "massive Voter Fraud & Dem Security Breach" with someone there as a fact checker, just to see him squirm like the worm he is when his conspiracy theories are fact checked in real time.

[s_bushido]

If the little shit wants to be on air so bad, maybe he should go testify.

[Belize]

Ok, this could belong in 2 threads but since it is about Trump himself, I'll put it here. Question is, doesn't he have his own social media network where he can post whatever he wants and get as much airtime as he wants.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...79c9d3b2ec522e

He's free to come testify under oath if he wants airtime

[Breccia]

doesn't he have his own social media network where he can post whatever he wants and get as much airtime as he wants.

It wouldn't matter if he did, nobody would watch it. MSNBC is cleaning up in the ratings.

[Paranoid Android]

Trump brags that his speech along the National Mall outdrew (or so he says) MLK's "I have a dream" speech

Vid in link.

Trump claims this is his July 4th speech. I powered thru this to see if it was even Trump with his bad humor, but know he was being his egomaniacal, narcissistic self.

[Breccia]

Trump brags that his speech along the National Mall outdrew (or so he says) MLK's "I have a dream" speech

There were 25,000 people at Trump's Jan 6th pre-riot warm-up. That is the National Mall speech, right?

MLK drew a crowd of over 200,000.

So either I have the wrong Trump National Mall speech, or he's lying by a factor of eight to ten. This seems like one of those things a Trump supporter should weigh in on. Perhaps the next one I see will be politely asked to comment? Surely a Trump supporter would be all too happy to explain how big Trump's crowd sizes are.

- - - Updated - - -

Trump spent today bashing Pence for not overturning the fair and legal election. Again. Because nothing proves how hypocritical the "Clinton lost, get over it" party is than Trump still claiming he won almost a year and a half after leading a murderous insurrection.

Probably because of this, and maybe out of fear for his life, Pence missed a big time conservative religious gathering, probably a place where old white rich people state that Jesus wants us to have more guns and less health care. He attended the last five of these, by the way, so being VP wasn't enough of an excuse to miss it, but he "had a scheduling conflict" this time.

“I think he’s seeking God’s direction for his decision on what to do next,” said Dr. Robert Jeffress, pastor at First Baptist Dallas, who is close to both Pence and Trump, and sits on the advisory board for Pence’s political group, Advancing American Freedom.

God, when reached for comment, said "I don't know why Pence would come to me for help. I told him Trump was a serial adulterer, a serial thief, and violently insane. He agreed to be his Vice President anyhow. I'd tell him to go to Hell, but based on his words and actions, I'm pretty sure he's going there anyhow."

The authors of the article talked to a fair number of Trump cultists attending, possibly because they were trying to lynch Pence if he stepped through the door. There was not a single word of negative opinion of Trump gassing his way through peaceful protestors to hold a Bible upside-down.

- - - Updated - - -

Oh, and DWAC stock price fell again. Lost about 4% today. I wonder what it would take to get back up past $40. That Musk Q&A thing did not go great, but DWAC didn't bounce upwards from that. I would blame the SEC investigation, because while Trump's cult seems to be as divorced from reality as Trump from the wives he cheated on, most stockbrokers are not, as making purchases based on wild theories rather than facts and logic tends not to pay well. But that investigation isn't going anywhere soon.

[s_bushido]

I don't know if it's "satisfaction," but I'm definitely feeling ways about things when I see Pence cast aside by the evangelicals...when his only purpose on Trump's ticket was to reassure them in the first place. But they found their new messiah in 2016, so he's just redundant now.

[Kaleredar]

He does, but it isn't big enough numbers to satisfy his insecurity.

Honestly, I would love a large network to tell him he can have an hour on air to go through the "massive Voter Fraud & Dem Security Breach" with someone there as a fact checker, just to see him squirm like the worm he is when his conspiracy theories are fact checked in real time.

He would never accept such a thing.

He wants a giant, free space to be able to shout whatever he wants to rile up his followers utterly uncontested, and is pissy that no major news network will supply that avenue, that he was banned from the most popular one, and that the one he has he has to pay for and isn't even doing well.

I really do hope that they demand Trump take the stand. Where him lying actually has serious repercussions. I don't think he's actually capable of telling the truth.

[szechuan]

Dan Crenshaw physically assaulted by right wingers at the RNC.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b2104275.html

[Endus]

Dan Crenshaw physically assaulted by right wingers at the RNC.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b2104275.html

Reminder that anyone spewing "globalist" as an insult is an antisemite at a minimum, if not a full-on swastika-bearing Nazi. Literally every single one of them.

Their issue is that Crenshaw's not Nazi enough.

[Xyonai]

Reminder that anyone spewing "globalist" as an insult is an antisemite at a minimum, if not a full-on swastika-bearing Nazi. Literally every single one of them.

Their issue is that Crenshaw's not Nazi enough.

Or they're just easily duped idiots who're being lead around by said anti-semites. Like not to devalue your points, because the folks with actual influence throwing these terms around know exactly what they're doing, but the rank-and-file have proven time and time again how they just fall behind stupid buzzwords and never actually think about it.

[Endus]

Or they're just easily duped idiots who're being lead around by said anti-semites. Like not to devalue your points, because the folks with actual influence throwing these terms around know exactly what they're doing, but the rank-and-file have proven time and time again how they just fall behind stupid buzzwords and never actually think about it.

There's a word for easily-duped idiots in the Weimar Republic being led around by the likes of Hitler and Goebbels.

The word for those idiots was "Nazis".

This wasn't a correction. You're just describing Nazis.

[Vegas82]

I can somewhat attest to this; I had thought that surely Trump can't be as bad as frequent media portrayed him as, surely? We've got some scumtastic people wanting to lead the GQP and I am not a fan of the still centre-right push by the DNC. . . Maybe he'll shake it up?

Nah, dangerous rabbit hole. I regret advocating for giving drumpf a chance, big mistake and I get to regret such stupidity. Some people just haven't figured it out and cling to it, and they are going to extremely dangerous lengths now RE following Trump to cult-status.

All it took was reading up on the very public history of Trump to know how it would go.