Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[SoulForge]

So here's a compilation of RATM complaints filed by right-wing folks. Some of the responses amaze me at just how dangerously stupid a large portion of Americans are.

https://loudwire.com/people-discover...olitics-angry/

These people are clueless. I hope they also don't listen to bands like System of a Down or Five Finger Death Punch.

[Captain N]

These people are clueless. I hope they also don't listen to bands like System of a Down or Five Finger Death Punch.

Oh I'm sure they do. I have family members that are Trump supporters and love John Lennon. Like their beloved Holy Book they pick and choose which lyrics are important and to what they pertain to. Everything else can be disregarded and is not allowed to be used in a discussion against them.

[SoulForge]

Oh I'm sure they do. I have family members that are Trump supporters and love John Lennon. Like their beloved Holy Book they pick and choose which lyrics are important and to what they pertain to. Everything else can be disregarded and is not allowed to be used in a discussion against them.

Things completely out of context without the rest? They would never!

[Breccia]

This Axios playbook is a list of how Trump tries to survive, well, everything. Go on down the list and find yourself nodding your head. Especially cultists, who won't make to the halfway point.

• Pre-release: Trump will preempt any damaging announcement by releasing new information himself beforehand to try to blunt the impact of coming revelations.
• Whataboutism: Trump will try to muddy the waters by pointing to any mistakes — real, exaggerated, or false — by his opponents.
• Martyrdom: He will tell his supporters that any allegations against him are part of a larger conspiracy against his cause to fight the establishment.
• Solidarity: Even before all the facts are known, Trump has his allies hit the airwaves to claim that he is innocent or his enemies are corrupt.
• Shamelessness: Trump never hides or acts embarrassed, even in the face of damning information. (EDITOR: see below)
• Flood the zone online: Trump's team prepares large volumes of content ahead of time to pump out on social media.
• Raise big money: Never waste a chance to raise money — especially if the Justice Department indicts him for obstruction and mishandling classified materials.
• Go apocalyptic: "In the end, they’re not coming after me, they’re coming after you — and I'm just standing in their way," Trump said Saturday at a rally in Columbus, Ga., in his first appearance since the Florida indictment. He also said: "This is the final battle."

I do take issue with "Shamelessness" tho. Yes, Trump does hide acts, at least, some of them for a while. Obviously he hid the fact that he stole a bunch of boxes for a couple years, rather than saying "Yes, I took all these boxes of classified documents, I was allowed to". He hid from the "grab them by the pussy" tape that his followers (like tehdang who have no problem with sexual assault) would eventually know about and ignore. He hid the payment to Stormy Daniels until it was public.

And he's never once shown his taxes.

So the playbook should be "hide the shameful acts until they are public, then claim they were fine and never were hidden".

[Kaleredar]

I do take issue with "Shamelessness" tho. Yes, Trump does hide acts, at least, some of them for a while. Obviously he hid the fact that he stole a bunch of boxes for a couple years, rather than saying "Yes, I took all these boxes of classified documents, I was allowed to". He hid from the "grab them by the pussy" tape that his followers (like tehdang who have no problem with sexual assault) would eventually know about and ignore. He hid the payment to Stormy Daniels until it was public.

Pretty sure they mean "Trump doesn't try to remain silent/doesn't apologize for his behavior."

[Poopymonster]

Pretty sure they mean "Trump doesn't try to remain silent/doesn't apologize for his behavior."

To quote Ron White "I had the right to remain silent, but not the ability"

[Breccia]

I guess there's more.

It’s a very detailed indictment. And it’s very, very damning. And this idea of presenting Trump as a victim here, a victim of a witch hunt is ridiculous.

Yes, he’s been a victim in the past. Yes, his adversaries have obsessively pursued him with phony claims, and I’ve been at his side defending against them when he is a victim.But this is much different. He’s not a victim here/

-- William Barr, again, the lawyer Trump hired on purpose to run the country for him

And he said it on FOX News. And he wasn't done.

Barr said that the difference is that other presidents worked with the National Archives to store those documents, unlike Trump who faces obstruction of justice charges over trying to keep from handing the records back over to the federal government.

“So, there are two big lies, I think, that are out there right now,” Barr said. “One is all these other presidents took all these documents. Those were situations where they arranged with the archives to set up special space under the management, control, and security provided by the archivists to temporarily put documents until the libraries were ready. These were not people just putting them in their basement, OK.”

The second lie, according to Barr, is the notion that a president has “complete authority” to declare any document “personal.”

“It’s facially ridiculous. That opinion had to do with the distinction between official records, which are records prepared by government agencies for the purpose of government action, and personal documents, as opposed to official documents, which are things prepared by the President, such as a diary or notes, which are not used in the government’s deliberations,” Barr said.

He acknowledged that while the president does have some discretion, some of the documents in Trump’s possession, including what could be included in the president’s daily summary of high-level information, clearly could not be marked as personal. The summary includes some of the nation’s most sensitive information.

“The president has some discretion, but these are official documents. It’s inarguable the President’s daily brief provided by the intelligence community is not Donald J. Trump’s personal document, period,” Barr said.

Look, I know a lot of us hate William Bar...and don't let me stop you. But it's hard to look at his record and say "this person knows nothing about the law of the country". In the "small praise indeed" category, he did refuse to help Trump appoint himself dictator. I think he knows Constitutional law as well as, if not better than, even most lawyers, and for Trump's own personal choice to keep saying this is incredibly damning.

Speaking of experts, the NYTimes reporter Haberman who by now has to be exhausted was on ABC News.

New York Times reporter and longtime Donald Trump chronicler Maggie Haberman said Sunday that the indictment against the former president was “one of the most devastating indictments that I have ever read.”

Haberman said the details included in the document spell out Trump’s personality “to a T.”

“It’s all aspects of his personality, thinking that he can talk his way out of everything, thinking that things are — and, again, these are allegations. He is entitled to a presumption of innocence. But these are based on insider accounts, his lawyer, an audio recording of him. And it’s him boasting; it is him having a disregard for certain rules,” Haberman said as part of a panel on ABC “This Week.”

“It is him believing he can talk his way out of almost anything. And I think that it is one of the most devastating indictments that I have ever read,” she said.

Speaking of ABC News and people Trump hired, Elizabeth Neumann.

"...who?"

It's been a while since her name came up, this post from @Edge- is from Oct 2020, foreshadowing foreshadowing. It was about a month after she said "Any Naïve Hope I Had That Trump Would Rise To The Occasion… Proved To Be Wrong"

She's former Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism, specifically, trying to tamp down domestic terrorists like Trump supporters--

"Dude!"

Like many Trump supporters, as evidenced by the thousand-plus of them arrested for violent terrorism.

"...fine, continue."

From 2017 to April 2020, when she resigned in disgust and started campaigning against Trump. She was pretty specific before Congress under oath that domestic terrorism was building to another 9/11 which...yeah, it did, it's 1/6.

I found the indictment to be a really vivid picture for the American public of what the national security community dealt with for four years when he was president. He had a blatant disregard, just did not care to follow the rules.

And not only did he not protect our country’s most sensitive secrets, that’s not protecting American lives — because you have military and intelligence community personnel that are now put at risk. You have assets, our foreign allies’ information is put at risk.

If you’re a foreign intelligence agency, you know that Mar-a-Lago is a great target and you’re probably trying to figure out what might be there.

Hopefully, we’re finding out what might have been leaked, but this causes people to die. Like, this is very serious, top secret Special Access Programs — when they fall into the wrong hands, people die, and the United States Security is deeply compromised.

Why is it that the people that know Trump best, those he hired and those he allowed to follow his every move, are saying how dangerous he is and how guilty he is? Barr, Pence, Cohen, Haberman, his wife maybe? I get people like Greene, Gaetz, and tehdang supporting him, but these are people with whom he barely works. He hired Barr. He hired Neumann. He hired Cohen. He kinda hired Pence. And there are dozens more people who fled his administration in horror.

And speaking of which, has anyone seen Eastman recently? You might not have seen his name in the news much, but he's about to be disbarred for...

(reads article)

...being Trump's lawyer. Yep, he's all kinds of fucked.

That theory is at the heart of the state’s case to punish Eastman on 11 professional charges, which include failure to support the laws and Constitution, seeking to mislead a court, misrepresentations to other Trump aides and the public, and moral turpitude.

“It is no overstatement that democracy stood on the precipice. Had Vice President Pence followed [Eastman’s] baseless advice … the country would have plunged into a ‘profound constitutional crisis,’” writes Duncan Carling of the California State Bar’s office of trial counsel in a pretrial brief. “[Eastman] and Trump’s plan violated our Nation’s most fundamental commitments to the rule of law and the orderly transition of power. And it rested upon transparently false claims of election fraud that continue to harm our democracy to this day.”

And Eastman's witness/ally list includes, you'll love this, the head of Cyber Ninjas. You know, the company that was hired to find fraud and found Kari Lake?

The Republican Civil War is ongoing. There are (figurative) casualties on both sides. Don't let me stop you...

[beanman12345]

Things completely out of context without the rest? They would never!

And remember these are the same folk who worship at the orange toadstool of a guy who came out during the last election to Fortunate Son. These are such deeply stupid people. They don't just call the left "woke" for being aware and inclusive, but also because we were awake and did well for English, Math, History, Science, Social Studies, all the classes they did horrible at, except for gym class, which, even though everyone basically get's an A for participation in that one, it's all they actually know, so they have to protect it from the dozen or so trans kids in this country trying to participate in kids sports.

[Paranoid Android]

Trump notes his crowd is more enthused about bigotry than they are for tax cuts: "It's amazing how strongly people feel about that. I talk about cutting taxes, people go like that, I talk about transgender everybody goes crazy. Five years ago you didn't know what the hell it was"

Vid embedded.

Please watch the vid and listen to Trump's voice. Trump has done this several times as we know where he does think out loud.

TRUMP: Boy, what a bunch of easily manipulated rubes you people are, it's amazing, even after all this time I still can't believe how stupid you are
AUDIENCE: Woo hoo! You tell 'em, Trump! Yeah

Stealing this person's thunder but yes Trump seems puzzled but then is just tells his followers "I think its stupid, but screw it if that is the slop you want to feed on, then I will do bigotry".

[Kaleredar]

Trump notes his crowd is more enthused about bigotry than they are for tax cuts: "It's amazing how strongly people feel about that. I talk about cutting taxes, people go like that, I talk about transgender everybody goes crazy. Five years ago you didn't know what the hell it was"

Vid embedded.

Please watch the vid and listen to Trump's voice. Trump has done this several times as we know where he does think out loud.

TRUMP: Boy, what a bunch of easily manipulated rubes you people are, it's amazing, even after all this time I still can't believe how stupid you are
AUDIENCE: Woo hoo! You tell 'em, Trump! Yeah

Stealing this person's thunder but yes Trump seems puzzled but then is just tells his followers "I think its stupid, but screw it if that is the slop you want to feed on, then I will do bigotry".

Keep in mind that no matter how dumb Trump is, most of his followers are even dumber than that.

[gondrin]

I guess there's more.


-- William Barr, again, the lawyer Trump hired on purpose to run the country for him

And he said it on FOX News. And he wasn't done.



Look, I know a lot of us hate William Bar...and don't let me stop you. But it's hard to look at his record and say "this person knows nothing about the law of the country". In the "small praise indeed" category, he did refuse to help Trump appoint himself dictator. I think he knows Constitutional law as well as, if not better than, even most lawyers, and for Trump's own personal choice to keep saying this is incredibly damning.

Speaking of experts, the NYTimes reporter Haberman who by now has to be exhausted was on ABC News.



Speaking of ABC News and people Trump hired, Elizabeth Neumann.

"...who?"

It's been a while since her name came up, this post from @Edge- is from Oct 2020, foreshadowing foreshadowing. It was about a month after she said "Any Naïve Hope I Had That Trump Would Rise To The Occasion… Proved To Be Wrong"

She's former Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism, specifically, trying to tamp down domestic terrorists like Trump supporters--

"Dude!"

Like many Trump supporters, as evidenced by the thousand-plus of them arrested for violent terrorism.

"...fine, continue."

From 2017 to April 2020, when she resigned in disgust and started campaigning against Trump. She was pretty specific before Congress under oath that domestic terrorism was building to another 9/11 which...yeah, it did, it's 1/6.



Why is it that the people that know Trump best, those he hired and those he allowed to follow his every move, are saying how dangerous he is and how guilty he is? Barr, Pence, Cohen, Haberman, his wife maybe? I get people like Greene, Gaetz, and tehdang supporting him, but these are people with whom he barely works. He hired Barr. He hired Neumann. He hired Cohen. He kinda hired Pence. And there are dozens more people who fled his administration in horror.

And speaking of which, has anyone seen Eastman recently? You might not have seen his name in the news much, but he's about to be disbarred for...

(reads article)

...being Trump's lawyer. Yep, he's all kinds of fucked.



And Eastman's witness/ally list includes, you'll love this, the head of Cyber Ninjas. You know, the company that was hired to find fraud and found Kari Lake?

The Republican Civil War is ongoing. There are (figurative) casualties on both sides. Don't let me stop you...

Well, here is the reply Trump put out after finding out Barr said that.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...99376f0cd&ei=9

Virtually everyone is saying that the Indictment is about Election Interference & should not have been brought, except Bill Barr, a “disgruntled former employee” & lazy Attorney General who was weak & totally ineffective. He doesn’t mean what he’s saying, it’s just MISINFORMATION. Barr’s doing it because he hates “TRUMP” for firing him. He was deathly afraid of the Radical Left when they said they would Impeach him. He knows the Indictment is Bull…. Turn off Fox News when that “Gutless Pig” is on!

You know, the man that effectively argued against removing him from office after one of his impeachments. Speaking of impeachments, has MTG or Boeburt actually filed their paperwork to impeach Biden? I mean, they keep saying they will do it.

[Breccia]

Barr’s doing it because he hates “TRUMP” for firing him.

It's the only defense he has, at times.

Trump: Employee, do something illegal.
Employee: No.
Trump: You're fired.
Employee: Trump told me to do something illegal.
Trump: No, he's just angry because I fired him.

[Templar 331]

It's the only defense he has, at times.

Trump: Employee, do something illegal.
Employee: No.
Trump: You're fired.
Employee: Trump told me to do something illegal.
Trump: No, he's just angry because I fired him.

Not defending Trump but that's pretty much corporate America. The only difference is Trump is to stupid to listen to someone with any sense that'll cover his ass.

[Ivanstone]

It's the only defense he has, at times.

Trump: Employee, do something illegal.
Employee: No.
Trump: You're fired.
Employee: Trump told me to do something illegal.
Trump: No, he's just angry because I fired him.

I don't think that's the case here. I think Barr hates Trump because Trump failed to uphold Barr's ideals of unchecked executive power. Barr's big shot at seeing his beliefs put to use were wasted on a thin-skinned clown.

[Darththeo]

I have seen people advertising to help pay for Trump's legal team ... I thought Trump was a billionaire, why would he need money from anyone?

[Kaleredar]

I have seen people advertising to help pay for Trump's legal team ... I thought Trump was a billionaire, why would he need money from anyone?

Clearly, they don't want his hard-earned, self-made fortune and role as a job creator to be reduced by the nefarious political Biden conspiracy plot against him, so they're making sure his financial situation is secure!

I mean, why rely on an ostensible billionaire to foot his own bills when you could instead of have Grandma on a fixed income living out of a trailer do it for him?

[Shadowferal]

[Captain N]

I have seen people advertising to help pay for Trump's legal team ... I thought Trump was a billionaire, why would he need money from anyone?

Trump supporters are idiots. There's really nothing else to say. There's only 2 kinds of people in the MAGA Cult, the unintentional moron or the intentional fascist.

[Omega10]

Keep in mind that no matter how dumb Trump is, most of his followers are even dumber than that.

Trump acts stupider than he really is. He really WAS President for 4 years, and he could very well get another 4.

Trump knows sociology, and how it interacts with psychology and power. His support seems to be rebounding. He gets more press now than any non-incumbent ever at this stage of a Presidential election.

Underestimate him at your own risk.

[Benggaul]

Trump acts stupider than he really is.

While that may have been true at some point in his life, that hasn't been true in years. He really is as fucking stupid as he appears.

Underestimate him at your own risk.

More like "underestimate the ignorance, bigotry and hypocrisy of his base" at your own risk.