Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Edge-]

It's not sad. It's expected.
Biggest surprise is he ONLY took out his father instead of the usual targets for people who vote for Trump/Republicans.
Like black/brown people, schools, and churches.

Feds are actually targets for the crowd as well, they just take fewer shots at them because A) feds are often armed B) the consequences are usually pretty fucking high and C) they're less generally harder to find than say, traveling to part of town with more Black and brown folk and picking a Walmart to shoot up.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/robert-...vid-underwood/

Because like, it happens from time to time. Often with these right wing extremist group, usually anti-government as well like the Hawaiian shirt wearing "boogaloo boys" (whatever happened to them?). Like the one that murdered a federal cop during the Floyd protests because he thought it was great cover for a murder of a fed.

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While 1 in 14 Kansans is an immigrant, foreign-born residents make up a larger share of the state's labor force. Construction, an important industry in Kansas, relies on immigrants for 15 percent of its employees. The majority of immigrants speak English well and are naturalized citizens or eligible for naturalization.

I swear I wish we could collapse these red states economies to prove a point. Since most red states and blue state rural areas rely on migrant workers for agriculture, but the xenophobia and racism is too strong in them.

Imagine if Biden find a farmer $1,000/day for each migrant employed. These farmers would be crying so hard to Biden to fix immigration.

Well first off, I got my K-states wrong. This is Kentucky, not Kansas. So definitely eastward of the "center" of the lower 48, but still very landlocked and with at least two states buffering it from any US border.

But, it wouldn't matter if they did. Remember when Kansas (the actual state) gutted their economy with tax cuts and ended up having to override a governors veto to raise them again because the state would have run out of money?

https://www.kansascity.com/news/poli...154691724.html

Oh yeah, they did that! Anyways, what's Kansas up to nowadays?

https://kansasreflector.com/2024/01/...tion-to-house/

Republicans in the Kansas Senate approved Wednesday a three-year, $1.6 billion tax reform bill anchored to introduction of a controversial flat 5.25% state income tax rate, but not by the two-thirds margin required to override a potential veto by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly.

Senators spent a couple hours exploring advantages and disadvantages of sales, property and income tax provisions crafted by GOP negotiators in the House and Senate. The package, dominated by the $300 million per-year reduction in income tax revenue and elimination on April 1 of the state’s $75 million sales tax on groceries, moved to the Republican-dominated House for a vote. If passed, it would go to the governor.

It seems like learning from their mistakes is not a strong suite for Republicans.

[Poopymonster]

I think the unofficial term I and a few others have come up with for this is a, "Tayhad". It doesn't have quite the mouthfeel one would hope for, but it still ultimately has that pleasing aftertaste.

Read an Op Ed piece while in the bathroom at work, some are trying to get some sort of name like Swifties that they can commandeer for Boebert, as if it'll endear people to her without receiving a handy while watching the stage version of Beetlejuice.
Sadly no one mentioned Bimberts.

[Paranoid Android]

Well first off, I got my K-states wrong. This is Kentucky, not Kansas. So definitely eastward of the "center" of the lower 48, but still very landlocked and with at least two states buffering it from any US border.

That's okay we just remove Kansas with Kentucky.

Kentucky Ag Heavily Dependent On Migrant Labor

This is plug and play by now.

[Edge-]

Read an Op Ed piece while in the bathroom at work, some are trying to get some sort of name like Swifties that they can commandeer for Boebert, as if it'll endear people to her without receiving a handy while watching the stage version of Beetlejuice.
Sadly no one mentioned Bimberts.

"Handies" is literally right fuckin there for them to reach out and grab, maybe in a jerking motion.

[Breccia]

Georgia introduces this bill, SB 416.

The effects are:
1) make it illegal to charge people with racketeeering attempts to subvert democracy.
2) to remove any racketeering charges filed after July 1, 2023, that were attempts to subvert democracy.
3) to make any ongoing prosecutions of people charged with racketeering with attempts to subvert democracy immediately end, and cannot be refiled because it's not a crime anymore.
4) all other laws that conflict with this are handwaved with by the "infinity plus one" rule of 4th-grade recess.

Anyone charged before July 1, 2023, of course, is still a criminal. Only charges six months ago and after would be removed.

"When was Trump charged?"

August 2023.

"Subvert democracy is kind of vague."

No, that's my language. You can read the bill yourself, but, here's the specific list of specific crimes which racketeering would no longer possibly apply to:

• Forgery in violation of Code Section 16-9-1
• The Georgia Computer Systems Protection Ac in violation of Article 6 of Chapter 9
• Violation of oath by a public officer in violation of Code Section 16-10-1
• False statements and writings or false lien statements against public officers in violation of Code Section 16-10-20 or 16-10-20.1
• Conspiracy to defraud state or political subdivisions in violation of Code Section 16-10-21
• Impersonating a public officer or employee in violation of Code Section 17-10-23
• Influencing a witness in violation of Code Section 16-10-93
• Interference with primaries and elections in violation of Code Section 21-2-566
• Unlawful possession with primaries and elections in violation of Code Section 21-2-574
• Conspiracy to commit election fraud in violation Code Section 21-2-603

"Which of those crimes was Trump coincidentally charged with?"

The fat orange ones. Here is the original indictment, you can check for yourself. Literally every charge against him is mentioned in this bill.

"Which of those crimes was Team Trump collectively coincidentally charged with?"

All of them.

"Wait, the bill makes it impossible to charge someone with racketeering...for conspiring?"

Yes.

"Isn't conspiring to commit a crime literally what racketeering is?"

Yes.

"Has anyone been charged with these before?"

Yes, actually, Georgia caught a bunch of people in this 2013 indictment.

There's more from the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

Former Atlanta schools Superintendent Beverly Hall was the leader of a corrupt organization that used students’ test scores to earn bonuses if they rose, or intimidation and termination if they fell, according to a 65-count indictment returned Friday.

Grand jurors have been meeting for months, sorting out the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal, and on Friday they made clear their outrage at what they had been hearing by setting a bond of $7.5 million for Hall. She and the other 34 indicted — all for racketeering — have until Tuesday to surrender. They reached a decision after 45 minutes of deliberation.

“The whole purpose behind this is to vindicate the little children who got gypped out of an education,” said former Attorney General Michael Bowers, one of three investigators who produced the report that was the blueprint for the grand jury, and who was the final witness to testify before the grand jurors voted.

The indictment says Hall and the other 34 named “conspired” to make the school district look like it was more successful than it was.

“If a school achieved 70 percent or more of its targets, all employees at the school received a bonus,” the indictment said. “Additionally, if certain system-wide targets were achieved, Beverly Hall herself received a substantial bonus.”

The charges involve racketeering for false statements, influencing officials, intimidating witnesses, etc. Basically, most of the above list.

"And this superintendant, was she convicted?"

No, actually, she died before the case went to trial. But, yes, she was charged with a staggering number of false statements, etc. all of which this bill would make illegal to charge her with. She has her own Wikipedia page, this was huge news, she won a bunch of awards for being an amazing educator until everyone found out she was cheating.

"So she would have been on the hook for rigging a school district, Trump would get away for rigging the country?"

Yes.

"Let's see, born in Jamaica...she was black, wasn't she?"

Next question.

"How likely is it for this bill to pass?"

The bill may not be intended to pass. This could be yet another "let's impeach Biden!" lack-of-virtue signal.

"If this passes, why wouldn't Democrats just blatantly rig the election, violently if necessary, and point out they can't be charged?"

Well individuals could still be charged with their own acts. You just couldn't charge the organizers who said "go out and do these crimes, here's some money, a crowbar, some emetic poison, the Pale Duck, and a clown suit, and I'm writing down all the directions with my handwriting, fingerprints, and DNA."

Which means some members of Team Trump would still be in trouble regardless, and Trump's famous "find the votes" threatening phone call could still be used for a direct, non-racketeering charge.

[Gelannerai]

"Handies" is literally right fuckin there for them to reach out and grab, maybe in a jerking motion.

Boebert…..means……Boejobs……?

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Read an Op Ed piece while in the bathroom at work, some are trying to get some sort of name like Swifties that they can commandeer for Boebert, as if it'll endear people to her without receiving a handy while watching the stage version of Beetlejuice.
Sadly no one mentioned Bimberts.

Off the top of my head:

"Bobos"

[Edge-]

https://abovethelaw.com/2024/01/trum...ba-come-tf-on/

Donald posted he's looking for a legal team for his appeal the Carroll ruling, which has apparently made some people think he's ditching Habba.

Above the Law are fun and point out that nope, that's not what she does so him hiring some new lawyers for that makes sense. And she's still very much working for him because really who else is going to so publicly humiliate themselves on a daily basis while collecting IOUs?

[Flarelaine]

Yo remember how we were half-memeing about Trump’s cult being Y’all Qaeda?

Pennsylvania man beheaded his father, a federal employee, and called for "revolution" against "Biden regime" and "army of illegal immigrants" in online video.

Very cool and normal country we live in.

Stable, above all.

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That tends to be the norm.

Someone posts the most viciously anti-immigrant rhetoric you've ever seen, frothing at the mouth about how immigrants are swarming across the border, then you look up their location and they live in... rural Maine.

Rural Maine is where the worst things happen. Just ask Stephen King.

[Paranoid Android]

@Breccia

Our favorite topic.

Trump spent more than $50M of his PAC and super PAC money on legal bills in 2023

But I also get this so a little conflicting information.

Former President Donald Trump’s affiliated committees spent about $27 million on lawyers’ bills and related legal fees in the last six months of 2023, according to new federal election filings.

So take whichever figure you want but Holy Bleep did he blow through some money on legal fees. Listen the rule of law that goes around is Trump never pays his lawyers, but if this is true, they got Paid.

So here as we and others wonder about this. First for me, I wonder very much if all this money was not somehow back laundered to him. Trump is a criminal at heart and him grifting all the suckers, err donors out of anywhere from $50-$100 million you know he wanted a cut of this. I guess maybe the filings are air tight it's hard for him to do this but C'mon this is political money we are talking about. Like politicians want air tight transactions to show where all the money goes.

Next is I always question how this is crazy legit. To say trials are part of your political campaign is nuts. Especially the Jean Carroll case. Once more our political money is so effed in this country.

For those who choose not to go in depth, both stories come to the conclusion that Trump blew threw the money in legal fees and has around "only" $5 million left. This won't matter cause he doesn't really have to campaign for the primary and his coffers will get replenished for the General Election.

[Breccia]

So take whichever figure you want

One's for the whole year, the other's the last six months. And you're right, it's crazy that this is legit. Carroll's case is not WH business, that was ruled on repeatedly.

[Edge-]

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...l-peace-prize/

Rep. Claudia Tenney nominated the former president Tuesday for his “groundbreaking efforts to foster peace and cooperation between Israel, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates through the Abraham Accords.

Oddly, she's a NY Rep. and not from one of the states one would imagine.

Either way, Donald's cultists still think he really deserves a Nobel and keep nominating him to earn it for his amazing accomplishment of existing. Really, it's hilariously pathetic.

[DarkTZeratul]

Either way, Donald's cultists still think he really deserves a Nobel and keep nominating him to earn it for his amazing accomplishment of existing. Really, it's hilariously pathetic.

I'm certain part of it is that they're still big mad Obama got a Nobel Peace Prize for doing absolutely fuck all beyond "being black."

(Which, to be fair, is absolutely true and the man knows it).

[Ivanstone]

Yes, actually, Georgia caught a bunch of people in this 2013 indictment.

Who was lead prosecutor for this case? Fani Willis.

Jeez this lady gets all the big fun racketeering cases.

[Breccia]

Who was lead prosecutor for this case? Fani Willis.

How did I miss that? Nice catch!

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It might have come up due to some thinking he has Syphilis thanks to a picture that's been circulating where he's waving and you see "three red sores" on his hand/fingers. Could also be dried ketchup, so here's hoping for the worst.

Trump told FOX News the red marks were AI.

*ding*

Honestly, he's so vain, he would have lied about it being ink or a condiment. His denial means nothing, other than he bothered to make it -- and that's suspicious.

[Edge-]

How did I miss that? Nice catch!

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Trump told FOX News the red marks were AI.

*ding*

Honestly, he's so vain, he would have lied about it being ink or a condiment. His denial means nothing, other than he bothered to make it -- and that's suspicious.

But did she ask to see if his hand was still red? :thinkingface:

This is hilariously trivial, but amuses me.

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https://abcnews.go.com/US/special-co...y?id=106826552

Special counsel Jack Smith's team has questioned several witnesses about a closet and a so-called "hidden room" inside former President Donald Trump's residence at Mar-a-Lago that the FBI didn't check while searching the estate in August 2022, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

As described to ABC News, the line of questioning in several interviews ahead of Trump's indictment last year on classified document charges suggests that -- long after the FBI seized dozens of boxes and more than 100 documents marked classified from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate -- Smith's team was trying to determine if there might still be more classified documents there.

According to sources, some investigators involved in the case came to later believe that the closet, which was locked on the day of the search, should have been opened and checked.

As investigators would later learn, Trump allegedly had the closet's lock changed while his attorney was in Mar-a-Lago's basement, searching for classified documents in a storage room that he was told would have all such documents. Trump's alleged efforts to conceal classified documents from both the FBI and his own attorney are a key part of Smith's indictment against Trump in Florida.

Jordan Strauss, a former federal prosecutor and former national security official in the Justice Department, called the FBI's alleged failure to search the closet "a bit astonishing."

"You're searching a former president's house. You [should] get it right the first time," Strauss told ABC News.

In addition to the closet, the FBI also didn't search what authorities have called a "hidden room" connected to Trump's bedroom, sources said.

Smith's investigators were later told that, in the days right after the search, some of Trump's employees heard that the FBI had missed at least one room at Mar-a-Lago, the sources said.

According to a senior FBI official, agents focused on areas they believed might have government documents.

“Based on information gathered throughout the course of the investigation, areas were identified and searched pursuant to the search warrant,” the official told ABC News.

Within a few months of the FBI's search, federal prosecutors in the Justice Department pushed Trump's legal team to ensure that no classified documents remained at any of Trump's properties, but it's unclear if those prosecutors or any Trump lawyers even knew about the unexamined spaces then.

It's also unclear if Trump ever kept any classified documents in either of those spaces, or whether Smith's team ever considered seeking another warrant to search Mar-a-Lago again.

In their questioning of witnesses, Smith's team seemed to focus more on the missed spaces in the three months before first indicting Trump in the case, sources said.

Oh come the fuck on. How the fuck do you "miss" searching fucking rooms in someone's "personal residence" when you're searching for fucking top secret/classified documents that they've illegally been hiding from the federal government and lying about for years?

Fucking clown shoes.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Republicans when raising taxes on businesses, raising minimum wage, or literally almost anything else that increases the cost of business: "WE CAN'T DO THAT THE BUSINESS WILL JUST CHARGE THE CUSTOMER MORE AND PASS THE COST ON TO THE CUSTOMER!"

Republicans when tariffs: "Hell yeah brother tariff the shit out of those foreign products this totally won't backfire in our faces!"

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Yeah, because that wouldn't be viewed as threatening the judge (not with violence) or anything.

Jack Smith simply letting her know what they have in terms of communications, and giving her a chance to recuse, doesn't exactly sound like a huge breach of ethics, but maybe I'm just hopeful that they get Cannon off of the documents trial.

Either way accusing me of watching too many political dramas is funny since the last one I watched was House of Cards, and before that the original House of Cards (UK). The British one was way better. I don't tend to dip my toes into political dramas unless it's in anime form ("Stop bringing politics into my Gundam!") because they tend to just outright suck.

[Breccia]

Several opinion pieces that, while I don't 100% agree with, I think are worth at least thinking about.

1) Is the Big Lie backfiring?

Summary: Trump says every election he loses is rigged. Now, he's painting the picture that elections coming up are rigged as well. In other words, Trump is announcing, in his own native language, "I am going to lose". Problem is, some people speak Trump's language and are hearing that.

2) If Trump’s Campaign Filings Are Any Proof, He’s Dead Meat

Summary: Taking all of Trump's PACs and rolling them all together, "which include his campaign, Save America, Make America Great Again PAC, his joint fundraising committee, and MAGA Inc.", in 2023 he made $200 million and spent $210 million.

3) MAGAs Are Somehow Convinced That ‘Incompetent’ Trump Lawyer Alina Habba Must Be A Government Plant To ‘Destroy’ Him

"That's an opinion piece?"

Well, it's a piece about an opinion held by Trump cultists. I did say I didn't 100% agree with, but in this case, it's 0%.

Summary: There is no way Trump would ever hire anyone but the best bestiest best. If he didn't win, even if it was because of his own behavior, it's because his lawyer is really a Biden Soros spy.

I DON’T TRUST ALINA HABBA!! I believe she is Deep State Plant just like Jenna Ellis. They have prevented him from hiring competent council the entire time & when he does find council they ALL seem to be incompetent or corrupt. This is planned.

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Well while we wait for the verdict about Trump overstating the values of his assets, let's see how Giuliani is doing.

(thirty seconds later)

Giuliani overvalued his assets.

Fascinating.

Questions remain over any transfers Giuliani may have made 90 days before his bankruptcy, said Philip C. Dublin of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, representing a committee of Giuliani’s unsecured creditors. He made the comments at a bankruptcy court status hearing Wednesday in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Disclosures about any transfers have yet to be filed, he said.

But there’s “no pot of gold at the end of the day” for creditors to find among Giuliani’s assets, his attorney, Heath Berger of Berger Fischoff Shumer Wexler & Goodman LLP, objected at the hearing.

Creditors also have questions about potentially “significant” overstatements and understatements of the value of Giuliani’s assets, Dublin said. The committee plans to ask the court to hire a forensic accounting firm to help it probe Giuliani’s finances, he said. In addition, Giuliani’s debts may not be able to be forgiven through bankruptcy at all, he said.

“Whether there’s a pot of gold here remains to be seen,” Dublin said.

There are also “red flags” when it comes to the financing of one of Giuliani’s third-party litigation defense funds, whose president is Giuliani’s son Andrew Giuliani, Freeman and Moss’s attorney, Rachel C. Strickland of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, told the court.

A collective $70,000 payment to the funds raised concerns as to who made the payments and where the money came from, Strickland said.

“The issue of the source of funds is going to be very ripe,” Strickland said.

Oh, he was also shuffling money directly to his family. Think we heard that one, too.

Giuliani has called the DC judgment “unreasonable on its face,” and said it doesn’t reflect the true damages suffered by the workers.

Big words, from someone who didn't reflect the true value of his assets.

In recent financial disclosures, Giuliani has said he has about $10.6 million in assets against almost $153 million in liabilities. His attorney says Giuliani plans to ask for court permission to sell his Manhattan condominium valued at about $5.6 million. His financial disclosures show that the former mayor has been living mostly off of retirement benefits in recent years.

"If he's overvalued his assets, as the claim made under oath is, then even that bolded is worse than it looks?"

Correct.

[Gorsameth]

The notion that Trump voters don't bother showing up to vote because its rigged against them anyway also presumably cost the GOP a run off or special election that was shortly after the general election in 2020 no?

So it wouldn't be the first time.

[Odinfrost]

The notion that Trump voters don't bother showing up to vote because its rigged against them anyway also presumably cost the GOP a run off or special election that was shortly after the general election in 2020 no?

So it wouldn't be the first time.

The worst part is, that it means Biden will win with a greater margin, and then they internalise that as them being right it was rigged, instead of figuring out that many others also didn't bother to go and vote.