Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Endus]

i know this is rhetorical, but there's actually an answer to this which i find very interesting.

post monarchy societies have thus far basically operating on the following guideline:
the elite rape and pillage and exploit everyone and everything as much as possible solely for the purpose of gratuitous excess greed.
BUT, so long as they allow juuuust enough to be spread out to the plebes so that enough of a percentage of the population is living a life better than revolution, they can sustain that pretty much indefinitely.

the only time there is anything resembling a threat to the established order of the upper class is if enough of the population gets desperate enough that keeping to the social contract is no longer beneficial to them.
(see: the french revolution)

so the answer to your question is that is will be allowed to continue to run amok until the majority of people living in american are so impoverished and desperate that they go "fuck all of this" and burn the political structure to the ground and start over.

might happen some day, eventually, but not within the lifetimes of anyone posting on this forum i wouldn't think.
though, with the extent to which the US conservative movement has utterly forgotten this life lesson and has been trying to accelerate the process, i guess there's a chance it could happen a bit sooner than that.
but probably not by much.

I mean, you have the vanishingly small possibility of a populist movement arising too quickly to be controlled by the megacorporation capitalists, electing representatives in enough numbers to make rapid changes without enough remaining reps being able to prevent it, before that new blood gets enough money thrown at them in bribes and "lobbying" (which is just bribes, but legal) for them to end up in the same state as their forebears.

This is possible, but we're entering "how to unbreak an egg" territory of difficulty. Which is why basically all revolutions involve the use of violence. It's just far easier to not try and win by the intentionally biased rules, and to throw the board over and fight everyone to make an entirely new game.

[Breccia]

Trump might be blackballed and/or blueballed from FOX News *ding*

In recent months, Trump's inner circle has become increasingly convinced that Fox News is essentially sidelining the former president by restricting live appearances on their network.

“Trump is not allowed live on Fox *ding*,” a Trump operative told The Daily Beast, chalking it up to “fear” that Trump could level a baseless allegation that could leave the network in a legal mess.

A Trump adviser told The Daily Beast a similar story—that Trump isn’t allowed on live air anymore. At the very least, this person said, Fox News *ding* prefers to have Trump in a pre-recorded setting.

“Fox *ding* sent down word from the top that they don't want to ‘platform’ Trump like they did before,” a Trump adviser told The Daily Beast. “I find it hilarious. For one, it sounds like something MSNBC would do.”

After a lengthy hiatus last year, Trump re-emerged on Fox News *ding* this past March. However, following Trump’s absence, Trump came back in a diminished capacity. Starting in March of 2023, Trump conducted a string of interviews with Fox hosts and anchors including Sean Hannity *ding*, Bret Baier *ding*, and Larry Kudlow *ding*. But gone are the days of Trump simply calling in live and offering his stream of consciousness.

According to a search by The Daily Beast and Media Matters for America, Trump last phoned in live to a Fox News program *ding* in April of 2022. And Matt Gertz, senior fellow at Media Matters, told The Daily Beast the live freeze-out is no coincidence.

“Fox News’ *ding* record defamation settlement stemmed in part from its on-air Trump fanatics refusing to correct their guests' election-denial conspiracy theories live, even when they knew their claims were lies,” Gertz said. “It’s wildly implausible to imagine the likes of Sean Hannity *ding* pushing back on Trump’s rigged-election fantasies, so it looks like Fox’s lawyers *ding* may have engineered a solution that doesn’t require its propagandists to perform journalism.”

One Trump confidant contrasted the apparent ban on Trump’s live appearances to earlier Fox News coverage *ding*, when they “used to go live at every single one of his rallies!”

We all saw this coming. Well, everyone reading this. Trump might not have. Yes, from a legal perspective, Trump having unfiltered access to spew blatant falsehoods that FOX News refuses to correct seems like a bad idea. So is losing half your viewers. Tough call, but hey, it's not like you didn't bring this on yourself.

[Dontrike]

https://apnews.com/article/donald-tr...b4290001eaf7d1

The chances of anything significant were always slim given that this was an "oversight" and all, so $5K fine for leaving that post up on his site.

We'll see if Trump decides to continue testing the waters or if he forgets about other disparaging remarks he's made but failed to remove.

I understand this is a first strike and all that, but as a supposed "rich" guy, his first fine should have been $100k. I'm aware there are caps and the like, but this is some bullshit. That next fine better be dectupled at minimum.

[Breccia]

Also Very Stable Genius Donald: Eh, I won't return to the courthouse Thursday, I have a big golf tournament to go to or something.

He skipped the LIV tournament. Yes, that we knew. Funny story, this is his first miss, and he was in the WH for some of them. As a reminder, the Trump Golf Count stands at 298 meaning he almost too an entire year off to play golf.

- - - Updated - - -

So Mike Lindell has a new product! It's a Wi-Fi device announced a couple of months ago called a Wireless Monitoring Device, which--

"He did not fucking call them WMD's."

He did, yes.

"Can I call him 'retarded' without being canceled?"

I mean...maybe? It does mean very foolish or stupid and quite frankly, there's three voices in my head, I can afford to lose one. Anyhow, the claim is

We have been told our election computers are never connected to the Internet. The WMD will put that to the test by detecting and reporting in real-time Wi-Fi connections in county and state election offices

"That...sounds like some serious slippery slope territory."

Oh, it's worse. It could be a felony.

Kenton County Clerk Gabrielle Summe said the devices may be able to unlawfully identify voters and could be small enough for people to sneak into polling locations.

"These are the kinds of things that keep me up at night," she said at a board of elections meeting Friday morning.

Lindell, the founder and CEO of My Pillow, said his wireless monitoring devices, or WMDs, can detect any Wi-Fi signal at polling locations, record IP addresses and show what a network is named.

The four-person Kenton County board of elections voted unanimously that poll workers will be told not to let people use the devices.

Kentucky law prohibits the use of "computer or other information technology system" to record the identification of voters.

Summe said it would be up to a Commonwealth attorney to file charges against someone for using the devices, so she's not sure what the punishment for offenders would be. But she said most crimes involving election issues are class D felonies, which are punishable by one to five years in prison.

So I'm of the opinion that the idea is that people bring these scanners into a polling place, it naturally says there's fraud happening because look at who's selling them and why, and they make a huge fuss and get the polling station shut down. In fact, I'm predicting this now.

"What does it do that your phone isn't already doing?"

Well, for one, paying Mike Lindell. Other than that, I don't care. For all I care it's a GameBoy with "Election Fraud Detected" on the main menu. I want whoever is caught using one of these to attack democracy is given the full five years so they miss the following election.

[DarkTZeratul]

"That...sounds like some serious slippery slope territory."

Oh, it's worse. It could be a felony.

It also sounds completely useless if all it's doing is identifying networks. I'm not sure there's a way to remotely identify whether a specific piece of hardware is actively connected to a wireless network.

[Breccia]

It also sounds completely useless if all it's doing is identifying networks.

I mean, come on, look at the source. Not only has Lindell had issues with computer code before, nobody expects the guy who made a square pillow to come up with the Tardis, warp coil, or self-microwaving hot dog. Maybe election officials are worried about it, maybe they should be, I'm more concerned that he's making it so easy to shove your hand in the garbage disposal of the Trump cult and hit the on switch.

- - - Updated - - -

Fans mock LIV Golf after the drone shot at the Brooks Koepka-Phil Mickelson match reveal limited crowd at Trump Doral

The Flushing It shared a clip of the quarterfinal match between Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson on X (formerly called X), which featured a drone shot including the 'tracer.'

While the clip was intended to showcase the broadcasters' innovation, it also highlighted spectators' absences at the Saudi-backed circuit's final event. Only a handful of people were visible at Doral in the drone shot, and fans didn't miss the chance to criticize LIV Golf on social media.

Twitter has intentionally made itself cumbersome to quote replies, but fortunately, the article I cited got a few choice ones.

There’s like 27 people there

I've seen bigger crowds at a high school tournament

30 people there lol

Good Good gets more people at their events, laughing face emoji

Whoa !!! There’s like, 10’s of people there !

There is almost 25 people watching

I've seen more people watch a high school JV jamboree in bay county

I think like 17 people saw this “boundary breaking” broadcast.

There’s like 50 people there for the championship lol

Very cool. Looks like at least 30 people got to enjoy that in person too.

This great one:

Liv has made huge effort to avoid any wide angle or high angle pic to avoid this very fan embarrassment. I'm sure they're thankful you've shared it.

And my favorite:

They can do this because there are no people under the drone to injure.

Just a reminder:

All of those golfers that remain ‘loyal’ to the very disloyal PGA, in all of its different forms, will pay a big price when the inevitable MERGER with LIV comes, and you get nothing but a big ‘thank you’ from PGA officials who are making Millions of Dollars a year.

If you don’t take the money now, you will get nothing after the merger takes place, and only say how smart the original signees were

-- Trump, July 19, 2022

Trump was not one of the 10's of people who were present. This was supposed to be a win for Trump. He can't even get golfing and taking money from Saudis right anymore.

[Templar 331]

"What does it do that your phone isn't already doing?"

The least nefarious thing it does is creates more confusion and doubt for Trumpers by screaming "election fraud!!!" The worst it can do is actually hack into election computers and compromise them. I doubt they would be able to get any information off the voting machines but all they have to do is disable the machines enough that they would be unable to be used. If the district doesn't have a backup plan, like enough paper ballots to cover everyone, the poll location is shut down. And we all know the main reason why Republicans win is because enough people don't vote.

[Mazza]

The least nefarious thing it does is creates more confusion and doubt for Trumpers by screaming "election fraud!!!" The worst it can do is actually hack into election computers and compromise them. I doubt they would be able to get any information off the voting machines but all they have to do is disable the machines enough that they would be unable to be used. If the district doesn't have a backup plan, like enough paper ballots to cover everyone, the poll location is shut down. And we all know the main reason why Republicans win is because enough people don't vote.

Hacking a device through a wifi the device is not connected to seems nonsense to me. As far as I know voting computers aren't even connected to ANY network, so good luck to anybody showing up and trying to shut down a polling station this way without landing their ass in jail lol.

[Templar 331]

Hacking a device through a wifi the device is not connected to seems nonsense to me. As far as I know voting computers aren't even connected to ANY network, so good luck to anybody showing up and trying to shut down a polling station this way without landing their ass in jail lol.

I didn't mean hack as in accessing the information on the polling computer. I meant hack as in disrupting the operation system of the computers or create the appearance of a disruption. I admit that I'm not tech savvy and don't know if such a device can be produced. But if something could be made to create even a minor disruption in the computers then the Trumpers have all they need to show some kind of compromise. Even if they are the ones creating it. Imagine the internet being flooded with videos of polling stations with machines that have faulty monitors. Something as minor and inconsequential as that being the rallying call to throw out an election.

[Breccia]

The least nefarious thing it does is creates more confusion and doubt for Trumpers by screaming "election fraud!!!"

Again, I think this is the most dangerous outcome. The devices can't hack voting machines remotely, they're not connected to anything, and quite frankly Lindell is not designing a portable hacker. He can design a device that says "You found fraud!" and that's enough for too many people.

[Mazza]

I didn't mean hack as in accessing the information on the polling computer. I meant hack as in disrupting the operation system of the computers or create the appearance of a disruption. I admit that I'm not tech savvy and don't know if such a device can be produced. But if something could be made to create even a minor disruption in the computers then the Trumpers have all they need to show some kind of compromise. Even if they are the ones creating it. Imagine the internet being flooded with videos of polling stations with machines that have faulty monitors. Something as minor and inconsequential as that being the rallying call to throw out an election.

Could be, though that would mean actually sabotaging the device. Bringing some sort of wifi detector isn't an issue (as mentioned, all phones have one), I would think activally sabotaging voting machines would land somebody in jail. So like others mentioned I'd expect this to be all optics and screaming...

[ringpriest]

Hacking a device through a wifi the device is not connected to seems nonsense to me. As far as I know voting computers aren't even connected to ANY network, so good luck to anybody showing up and trying to shut down a polling station this way without landing their ass in jail lol.

I think the best equivalent to this is the ADE 651 and its various knock-offs.

The ADE 651 is a fake bomb detector produced by the British company Advanced Tactical Security & Communications Ltd (ATSC). Its manufacturer claimed it could detect bombs, guns, ammunition, and more from kilometers away. However, it was a scam, and the device was little more than a dowsing rod.

There's been a great deal of discussion over the years about how the ADE 651 was "fake" or "a scam", or in various ways focusing on it as an unworkable fraud. I've seen very little that understands it's real purpose: to give the users (usually police/security forces) a plausible excuse for what they want to do anyway - search people and vehicles at their whim.

Lindell's... thing will doubtless be designed to give American fascistsRepublicans an excuse to see what they want to see: election fraud (when they don't win).

[Breccia]

I am looking forward to the Cohen-Trump face-off, but I worry it may not happen. Cohen will show, he missed last time due to medical issues, but he's motivated. Trump, by contrast, was told "stop commenting during the witness’ testimony" by a judge, to his face, already. I get that some people here think Trump won't be thrown in jail for contempt, I'm not ready to disagree with that, but he can be ejected from the courtroom. Cohen knows this, and Trump's lawyers know this. I think Trump's lawyers know this is a make-or-break for them and discrediting Cohen is mandatory, and they can't do it if Trump fucks it up while Cohen troll grins the entire time.

- - - Updated - - -

Despite the Fake News reports to the contrary, and without even reaching out to ask the Trump Campaign, MS. POWELL WAS NOT MY ATTORNEY, AND NEVER WAS.

So...Trump's not even trying for privilege, I see.

"So who said Powell was Trump's lawyer?"

I'm not sure, probably nobody recently. Maybe at the time there was some confusion, but anyone serious by now has the right idea.

[Edge-]

https://www.rollingstone.com/politic...tt-1234859957/

NEARLY TWO WEEKS ago, media reported that Donald Trump reportedly revealed information about U.S. nuclear submarine capabilities to Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt. And on Sunday, 60 Minutes Australia played recordings of secret tapes where Pratt disclosed other non-public information Trump shared with him, including information about U.S. military operations in Iraq and Trump’s conversations with the presidents of Iraq and Ukraine.

According to Pratt, Trump shared a lot with him, such as information about U.S. bombings in Iraq before they were publicly reported. “I hadn’t even heard it, it hadn’t even been on the news yet, and he said, ‘I just bombed Iraq today,'” Pratt said Trump told him.

In the ongoing saga of why Republicans should not be trusted with classified information, Donald blabbed about a LOT more classified information than previously known.

[Zaydin]

https://www.rollingstone.com/politic...tt-1234859957/



In the ongoing saga of why Republicans should not be trusted with classified information, Donald blabbed about a LOT more classified information than previously known.

And even though we now have confirmation he blabbed about classified info, Trumpist cultists still won't care.

[Captain N]

And even though we now have confirmation he blabbed about classified info, Trumpist cultists still won't care.

Based on a few different social media pages it's the same excuse. "The Democrats and MSM are just trying to smear The Best President Ever because he wasn't afraid to tell it like it was!"

[Breccia]

In the ongoing saga of why Republicans should not be trusted with classified information, Donald blabbed about a LOT more classified information than previously known.

Republicans yes, Trump is an impulsive child. I would trust Romney or McConnell.

[Sunseeker]

https://www.rollingstone.com/politic...tt-1234859957/



In the ongoing saga of why Republicans should not be trusted with classified information, Donald blabbed about a LOT more classified information than previously known.

Trump's getting AWFUL close to getting thrown in front of a tribunal as a traitor.

[Resurgo]

I am looking forward to the Cohen-Trump face-off, but I worry it may not happen. Cohen will show, he missed last time due to medical issues, but he's motivated. Trump, by contrast, was told "stop commenting during the witness’ testimony" by a judge, to his face, already. I get that some people here think Trump won't be thrown in jail for contempt, I'm not ready to disagree with that, but he can be ejected from the courtroom. Cohen knows this, and Trump's lawyers know this. I think Trump's lawyers know this is a make-or-break for them and discrediting Cohen is mandatory, and they can't do it if Trump fucks it up while Cohen troll grins the entire time.

- - - Updated - - -



So...Trump's not even trying for privilege, I see.

"So who said Powell was Trump's lawyer?"

I'm not sure, probably nobody recently. Maybe at the time there was some confusion, but anyone serious by now has the right idea.

Something something …there’s a tweet for that…
https://imgur.com/a/o7wYAok

[DarkTZeratul]

Based on a few different social media pages it's the same excuse. "The Democrats and MSM are just trying to smear The Best President Ever because he wasn't afraid to tell it like it was!"

Also "he's the president so technically it's legal for him to tell whoever he wants," which isn't really the complaint so much as that it's a really bad fucking idea to be doing that.