Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Breccia]

So weird that what should be slap on the wrist for rich people fine seems unpayable for a self-peoclaimed billionaire

Not trying to defend Trump here, but I wonder how often this really happens, namely, the lawyer paying the legal fees of their client. Like, is this normal and we're just now hearing about it?

Either way, I think this is Habba effectively bribing Trump, yep, paying Trump for the privilege to work with Trump.

[Poopymonster]

Not trying to defend Trump here, but I wonder how often this really happens, namely, the lawyer paying the legal fees of their client. Like, is this normal and we're just now hearing about it?

Either way, I think this is Habba effectively bribing Trump, yep, paying Trump for the privilege to work with Trump.

Trump is paying her.
He's exposing himself to her, er, I mean, he's paying her in EXPOSURE.

[Breccia]

Trump is paying her.

Citation needed.

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Trump seems to have an issue with legal deadlines. Let's see how he fares with this one.

The press want Trump's trial to be televised. To be slightly more accurate, this is the federal one, and the groups pressing for this include NBC, the WSJ, the LATimes, ABC News, the AP, Bloomberg, YouTube, Politico, the NYTimes, WaPo, C-SPAN and TENGA who is...something, I guess.

"They run a bunch of affiliates. There are other similar groups involved."

Okay. Anyhow, they're all filing a claim that blocking the press from the trial is basically illegal and the people have the right to know. Fair enough, I'm sure that's something that has legal prescedent in either and/or both ways.

Judge Chutkan has given Trump until Nov 10 to respond.

If Trump fails to respond, their opinion on the subject will be moot. We already know he'll complain, but this is so public and so open, that it should be met with the same mockery under the assumption he refuses to do so.

So, just so we're clear: Trump on camera will be devastating for him. Yes, Trump believes that there's no such thing as bad press, or at least, he acts like he believes it. But he also has no impulse control, and scripts things to say on the courthouse steps minutes or hours later. In addition, I think Trump will probably not attend most of the court dates -- he has a Republican Party to sodomize after all -- so it'll mostly be his lawyers being incompetent 24/7.

Which means Trump will have to intentionally go out of his way to say "No, I don't want cameras showing me on trial", something he'll have to publicly do. His failure to do so will likely mean NBC etc. will win an uncontested case.

"The prosecution could move to block it, on the grounds of national security. And they would likely succeed."

I guess we'll find out if they do, but I don't think Smith is going to miss a deadline. I think Trump will.

[Benggaul]

To be slightly more accurate, this is the federal one, and the groups pressing for this include NBC, the WSJ, the LATimes, ABC News, the AP, Bloomberg, YouTube, Politico, the NYTimes, WaPo, C-SPAN and TENGA who is...something, I guess.

"They run a bunch of affiliates. There are other similar groups involved."

TENGA is also a masturbatory aid...appropriate in the circumstances.

[Egomaniac]

So he admits he did an illegal?

At some point the court should be able to just say "ok you're going to prison right now" if the defence keeps changing their story.

Not quite. He's saying that because there was an impeachment "trial" he can't be tried again.

It's a stupid interpretation of Double Jeopardy...but that's what he's going for.

[gondrin]

Citation needed.

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Trump seems to have an issue with legal deadlines. Let's see how he fares with this one.

The press want Trump's trial to be televised. To be slightly more accurate, this is the federal one, and the groups pressing for this include NBC, the WSJ, the LATimes, ABC News, the AP, Bloomberg, YouTube, Politico, the NYTimes, WaPo, C-SPAN and TENGA who is...something, I guess.

"They run a bunch of affiliates. There are other similar groups involved."

Okay. Anyhow, they're all filing a claim that blocking the press from the trial is basically illegal and the people have the right to know. Fair enough, I'm sure that's something that has legal prescedent in either and/or both ways.

Judge Chutkan has given Trump until Nov 10 to respond.

If Trump fails to respond, their opinion on the subject will be moot. We already know he'll complain, but this is so public and so open, that it should be met with the same mockery under the assumption he refuses to do so.

So, just so we're clear: Trump on camera will be devastating for him. Yes, Trump believes that there's no such thing as bad press, or at least, he acts like he believes it. But he also has no impulse control, and scripts things to say on the courthouse steps minutes or hours later. In addition, I think Trump will probably not attend most of the court dates -- he has a Republican Party to sodomize after all -- so it'll mostly be his lawyers being incompetent 24/7.

Which means Trump will have to intentionally go out of his way to say "No, I don't want cameras showing me on trial", something he'll have to publicly do. His failure to do so will likely mean NBC etc. will win an uncontested case.

"The prosecution could move to block it, on the grounds of national security. And they would likely succeed."

I guess we'll find out if they do, but I don't think Smith is going to miss a deadline. I think Trump will.

Honestly, I don't know if his trial being televised is a good thing or not. On one hand, he wouldn't be able to lie about anything that happened in the courtroom as it would be for all to see, even though he would still lie regardless. On the other hand though, it would be a literal circus that, unless they limit who could be in the courtroom, would have constant interruptions from Trump supporters for whatever idiotic reason comes in their head. And unless Trump has a permanent gag order while being in the courtroom that would result being thrown in jail for doing so, he would also cause interruptions because, well, it is Trump and he is just an idiot that cannot control himself.

[Kaleredar]

Honestly, I don't know if his trial being televised is a good thing or not. On one hand, he wouldn't be able to lie about anything that happened in the courtroom as it would be for all to see, even though he would still lie regardless. On the other hand though, it would be a literal circus that, unless they limit who could be in the courtroom, would have constant interruptions from Trump supporters for whatever idiotic reason comes in their head. And unless Trump has a permanent gag order while being in the courtroom that would result being thrown in jail for doing so, he would also cause interruptions because, well, it is Trump and he is just an idiot that cannot control himself.

The media want it to be televised not because they care about "transparency" but because they know exactly what kind of ratings that fiasco would net them. Just like the OJ trial.

I say keep it all behind closed doors. We will have court transcripts of everything that is said and done, so calls for "transparent justice" are empty.

Trump is trying to keep this in the court of public opinion because in an actual court of law it seems fairly evident he hasn't a leg to stand on. I say deprive him of any such thing.

[Huehuecoyotl]

Honestly, I don't know if his trial being televised is a good thing or not. On one hand, he wouldn't be able to lie about anything that happened in the courtroom as it would be for all to see, even though he would still lie regardless. On the other hand though, it would be a literal circus that, unless they limit who could be in the courtroom, would have constant interruptions from Trump supporters for whatever idiotic reason comes in their head. And unless Trump has a permanent gag order while being in the courtroom that would result being thrown in jail for doing so, he would also cause interruptions because, well, it is Trump and he is just an idiot that cannot control himself.

Don't forget that the MAGA morons don't believe the evidence of their own eyes. They could see Trump sobbing like a baby in the courtroom as he begs for mercy when the evidence against him mounts up, and all they will do is ignore the evidence in the court, ignore the evidence of their own eyes and carry on demanding that the fake witch hunt be stopped.

There is no point hoping that the people following the orange man baby are going to grow up and develop cognitive abilities. They're going to remain extremist morons regardless of whether this shitshow is televised or not.

[ringpriest]

This is how fines work in general and why non-scaling fines are regressive and fucking stupid.

I always think back to a story a woman shared about a guy she dated a while back. Super rich guy, like, apparently "money is literally never an issue" rich. As they were dating she started noticing that he'd park his nice car in red zones and other no-parking zones where he'd always get a ticket. She asked him about this at one point and why he paid for all these parking tickets and his response was that was just the cost of convenient parking for him.

The ticket, the fine, wasn't a penalty. That was just the basic cost for convenience.

But it's unlikely we'd ever see scaling fines as those with money would never want to conceive of the notion that they might ever actually suffer financial penalties for any wrongdoing. They are rich, after all.

In Scandinavian countries, many such fines do scale. Finland has given out million-dollar speeding tickets.

[Bakis]

He has a history of not paying his legal team, either, so I imagine she's eating this cost and won't be reimbursed, rofl. I wonder if she knows this.

More importantly he has a history of demanding total loyalty from employees and lawyers.
Yet he offer them none in return. Would have thought they would have learned by now.
Especially since many tend to be thrown under the bus and committing crimes in his name

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In Scandinavian countries, many such fines do scale. Finland has given out million-dollar speeding tickets.

Last I heard the record was $129,544 fine for speeding, poor guy
Think its only Finland though that has those fines in regards to speeding which is sad.

[The Stormbringer]

The media want it to be televised not because they care about "transparency" but because they know exactly what kind of ratings that fiasco would net them. Just like the OJ trial.

I say keep it all behind closed doors. We will have court transcripts of everything that is said and done, so calls for "transparent justice" are empty.

Trump is trying to keep this in the court of public opinion because in an actual court of law it seems fairly evident he hasn't a leg to stand on. I say deprive him of any such thing.

Let's be honest, a large percentage of Americans aren't gonna read transcripts. It has to be going on in front of them, spoken aloud, for them to actually care. Once it's written down, it might as well be a book, and they don't like those.

[Breccia]

I hope you have your coffee ready on a Monday morning, because the unthinkable has happened: Donald Trump told the truth off the stand.

Trump claimed he turned down multiple opportunities to make money during his presidency because, he said, it would be a conflict of interest, and “I have too much respect for the office.”

“It’s cost me a couple of billion dollars to be a politician. Everyone else makes, they make [money]. I said, ‘No, we can’t do that.’ I could have made a fortune. The countries are coming [and saying,] ‘We’d like to build a job and we’d like to have you involved.’ Billions. I say, I tell my kids, ‘Sorry, kids, we can’t do it. I’m president.’ I respected the office,” Trump said.

“And of course, then they made it much worse with legal fees. I have $100 million worth of legal fees,” Trump said. “And they’re doing good. At least I have good lawyers, because you can spend $100 million and have lousy lawyers too. It happens.”

Now the bolded is the true part. Trump has likely spent enough money on lousy lawyers by now to say $100 million is realistic -- as of this Aug 2023 NYTimes article he'd spent between $20 and $40 million in 2023 so far.

I do not believe the first part -- and you all already know why. One of the first things Trump tried to do in office was unload 666 5th Ave to foreign investors, including foreign countries. Here's some of the details. Simply put, Trump "divested" by letting his family run his business, which continued to do business like Trump.

Losing.

Trump is also lying when he blames his billions in losses on being in the WH. He lost billions because he's a horrible businessman. He could have put his money into a holding pattern and either lost far less or broken even. He didn't. Because everything Trump touches, dies.

Speaking of lousy lawyers, neither Giuliani nor Eastman have been offered a plea deal yet for their charges in the Georgia case. Possibly because they're not needed. You can't exactly knock on the governor's door and say "Hi, I'm Giuliani, here's a bribe to break the law" and expect a plea deal.

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I called Bill Barr Dumb, Weak, Slow Moving, Lethargic, Gutless, and Lazy, a RINO WHO COULDN’T DO THE JOB. “He just didn’t want to be Impeached, which the Radical Left Lunatics were preparing to do.

“I was tough on him in the White House, for good reason, so now this Moron says about me, to get even, ‘his verbal skills are limited,’ Well, that’s one I haven’t heard before. Tell that to the biggest political crowds in the history of politics, by far. Bill Barr is a LOSER!

Remember when Trump said he would only hire the best people? Here, I'll remind you, with this article from August 2016.

"I’m going to surround myself only with the best and most serious people," he told our Robert Costa in a phone interview at the time. "We want top of the line professionals."

Are the best and most serious people Trump knows dumb, weak, slow moving, lethargic, gutless, lazy, and RINOs? If so, that should be something his supporters should comment on. Surely Trump didn't lie about picking only the best and picking someone dumb, weak, slow moving, lethargic, gutless, and lazy instead, despite promising not to do that?

Man, with Pence and this, it sure does seem like--

Anyway, Birdbrain doesn’t have the TALENT or TEMPERAMENT to do the job.

And Haley too, yes. But when--

First, Trump called Jim Mattis “one of the most effective generals and extraordinary leaders of our time.”

Now, he says his former secretary of defense “is the world’s most overrated General.”

John F. Kelly was once a great Homeland Security secretary who would be an even better White House chief of staff, “if it’s possible.”

This week, Trump said Kelly is an also-ran who “was not in my inner-circle, was totally exhausted by the job, and in the end just slinked away into obscurity.”

Jeff Sessions entered the administration being hailed by Trump as “a world-class legal mind” who was “greatly admired by legal scholars and virtually everyone who knows him.”

Now, Trump demeans him as someone who “didn’t have a clue,” “let our Country down,” “was played like a drum” and is not to be trusted by Alabama voters weighing whether to return him to the Senate.

And Rex Tillerson went from “the embodiment of the American dream” whose “tenacity, broad experience and deep understanding of geopolitics make him an excellent choice for Secretary of State” to “‘dumb as a rock’ and totally ill prepared and ill equipped to be Secretary of State.”

Thanks, WaPo from June 2020.

Wow, Trump continues to proclaim to the world he hires the absolute worst people. I'd love to hear what his defenders have to say about that, but they won't, because they're all cowards who fled these forums rather than defend their choice of candidate and/or worship. Not that they'd have much to work with anyhow -- it is objectively impossible to line up what Trump says before, and after, hiring these people on purpose in public.

"Slow-moving? Is that really a problem, in this context?"

Trump is a sociopath, he's projecting. Trump thinks other people are fat, stupid, and lazy, because he is fat, stupid, and lazy, but is incapable of non-self-awareness. It's actually part of a standard playbook.

Anti-Social Personality Disorder (ASPD) is the technical definition for sociopathic and psychopathic behavior. Imagine ASPD as a spectrum where there is evidence of subtle to extreme versions of the behavioral dysfunction. Sociopaths are generally thought of as a milder type than psychopaths. This makes them harder to recognize in the average work environment. So how do they do it?

(skip ahead)

Vengeance Anyone who tries to stop the sociopath along the way will be met with swift and severe revenge, threats, or punishment. They will use tactics such as inappropriate rage, the silent treatment, intimidating stares, twisting the truth, and playing the victim card to manipulate others into compliance. By this point, the sociopath has too much invested in the deception to walk away. So instead, they push away protectors while pulling in the target.

Projection Here is where things become tricky. The sociopath now secretly turns on the victim to the victims friends and co-workers by projecting the sociopaths selfish motives onto the victim. This completes the betrayal cycle. When the sociopath removes themselves from the environment, everyones fingers will be pointed at each other with none pointed at the sociopath. This sets the stage for the final act.

Deceit Now the sociopath is free to embezzle, exploit, take over a business, and/or commit acts of fraud or felony. Because all eyes will be on the fight between each other and not on the sociopath. By the time the dust has settled, the sociopath will be long gone with whatever money, power, position, or prestige they desired.

I want you to read those last three steps. No, really, read them again, you skimmed them. Actually read every word.

Sound familiar?

I'm not debating whether Barr would beat Trump in a foot race. I'd instead debate that Speed is the tertiary stat least useful to an Attorney General. Barr seemed to go with Leech and Avoidance.

[Kathranis]

Your quote about ASPD lowkey looked like an expansion leak for a new class with tanking, support, and DPS specs.

[Egomaniac]

Your quote about ASPD lowkey looked like an expansion leak for a new class with tanking, support, and DPS specs.

I'm rolling a Void Elf Gaslighter.

[Egomaniac]

Deceit spec Rogue sounds pretty fun.

That's my idea. Why are you taking my idea? You always do this...I come up with an idea and you take it! Why don't you ever think of my feelings?

It's ok. I forgive you.

[Captain N]

That's my idea. Why are you taking my idea? You always do this...I come up with an idea and you take it! Why don't you ever think of my feelings?

It's ok. I forgive you.

The Void Elf rolls a Natural 20 on their gaslighting attempt. Saving Throw time, Deceitful Rogue.

[Egomaniac]

The Void Elf rolls a Natural 20 on their gaslighting attempt. Saving Throw time, Deceitful Rogue.

You didn't forget that I told you about the -4 penatly that applies to a saving throw when I crit, right? You wouldn't do that to me, would you? Of course you wouldn't. Love you.

[Breccia]

Ty Cobb, Trump lawyer that Trump hired on purpose, says Trump will continue violating the gag order until he spends a night in jail for it.

Well, the New York judge fined him $10,000. That’s in a civil case.

That’s not as consequential as Judge Chutkan’s case… I think she’ll come in with a much heavier penalty, and ultimately, I think he’ll spend a night or a weekend in jail.

I think it’s gonna take that. I think it’ll take that to stop him.

That's worth a CNN point, I think.

[Redwyrm]

Trump wants to go to "jail" because he could fund raise the hell out of that shit. And I put "jail" in quote because I don't believe for a second he would go to anything less than a Red Roof Inn with additional dead bolts.

[Edge-]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...ay-legal-bills

So I believe I saw it linked recently that Lindell is broke and is having issues paying his lawyers and all.

But wait, there's more!

A trio of top Donald Trump allies who have racked up huge legal expenses to defend themselves from either criminal charges, convictions or defamation lawsuits have lost key lawyers for failing to pay six- and seven-figure bills in a sign of the huge legal problems they face.

The hefty legal bills of the ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon, former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and MyPillow CEO, Mike Lindell, underscore the scale of the criminal and civil charges that ensnare them.

Add America's former mayor and leaker of ink from his head Rudy Giuliani and also Steve Bannon who I guess does manage to find his way out of the bottom of a bottle into a chair to host a podcast for a bit.