Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[NoiseTank13]

A depressingly, horrifying, valid chance.

[Celista]

A depressingly, horrifying, valid chance.

Yeah I am concerned.

I do think a lot of the people motivated to answer polling questions are Trumpsters. And Hillary Clinton polled massively ahead of Trump...and we know what happened there (electoral college system quirks aside).

I would be interested in seeing data on how polling is conducted during these past three election cycles. Getting a large portion of data from the demographic of people willing to answer the phone (which we know will be older adults) has to skew polling accuracy.

[Trifle]

I do think a lot of the people motivated to answer polling questions are Trumpsters. And Hillary Clinton polled massively ahead of Trump...and we know what happened there (electoral college system quirks aside).

Hillary got screwed by the "but her emails" investigation right as voting started. Which is hilarious given that only 8 years later we have someone actually convicted of crimes and it's barely hurting his numbers at all.

[Captain N]

Hillary got screwed by the "but her emails" investigation right as voting started. Which is hilarious given that only 8 years later we have someone actually convicted of crimes and it's barely hurting his numbers at all.

To be fair it was never about e-mails. Conservatives, mostly the incel variety (we have a few that frequent here), have big feelings about a woman being in a position of power and it hurts so many delicate egos.

[trapmaster]

Not going to be happy if trump actual win the election... our freedom def gonna get skewered.. I don't... even understand america anymore...

[Endus]

Hillary got screwed by the "but her emails" investigation right as voting started. Which is hilarious given that only 8 years later we have someone actually convicted of crimes and it's barely hurting his numbers at all.

Democrats largely do seem to give a shit about the ethics and conduct of their representatives, so the appearance of malfeasance alone was enough to knock Hillary Clinton down enough to lose. Republicans, on the other hand, don't care in the slightest. Trump could announce tomorrow that he's raped and murdered several thousand hookers over his lifetime, and I doubt it would cost him a single vote. Republicans simply don't care. Conservativism isn't about principles that everyone is held to, it's about the idea that there should be rules that defend the in-group but do not bind them, and which bind the out-groups but do not defend them. Hypocrisy on those rules' application isn't a negative to conservatives, it's a feature.

[En Sabah Nur]

Rep Steube (r-fla), in a display of slavish sycophancy, is introducing legislation to rename the US EEZ to the Donald John Trump exclusive economic zone.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hou...rs-after-trump

Can someone please remind me as to how this isn't a cult? This is a cult.

[Breccia]

For those of you wondering how Trump spent his 78th birthday, he spent the majority of it attacking Biden for being too old at 81.

Trump has re-stated his demand for cognitive testing before the upcoming debate -- the debate Biden agreed to in a concession he shouldn't have. Now Trump, getting what he asked for, knows he'll get his convicted felonious ass kicked on live TV and is looking for a way out to save face.

Let me make this clear: none such exists.

Yes, his cult will pretend that Trump ditching the debate he asked for on purpose multiple times is good and smart and bigly and yuge, but they will see their chosen leader as a coward, because he'll be acting as one. Biden, as unwise as that agreement was to skip the CPD and meet early, is not running in orange-sweat-soaked terror. Trump is.

And it's not like Trump's mental acuity is without question. Remember that meeting with the CEOs that just happened? The CEOs in question were not fans of Trump's inability to handle a coherent thought.

CEOs who met privately with Donald Trump tell CNBC they walked away unimpressed by the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. “I was surprised,” said CNBC’s Andrew Sorkin. “I talked to enough CEOs who walked into the meeting being Trump supporter-ish,” only to leave with doubts about the former president.

“CEOs said that he was remarkably meandering, could not keep a straight thought, was all over the map,” said Sorkin said on Squawk Box Friday morning. “They walked out of the room less predisposed to him.”

Trump reportedly promised cuts to the corporate tax rate in his off-the-record meeting with dozens of the country’s most powerful CEOs, including Apple’s Tim Cook and JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon.

Trump also accused President Biden of being unfit for a second term, saying “we need a president who is at the top of his game, and let’s face it, this president is not at the top of his game,” according to a person who attended the meeting and described the remarks to CNBC.

The event in Washington, the quarterly meeting of the Business Roundtable, featured executives asking Trump questions about his plans for a second term. “We’re going to give you more of the same for the next four years,” Trump told them, promising to cut income taxes, the federal corporate tax rate, and to ease regulations on business.

According to a post by CNBC’s Brian Schwartz, executives who heard Trump’s pitch say many of his ideas lacked detail and a person close to one CEO left the meeting saying Trump “doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

"How can Trump unilaterally cut business tax rates?"

He can't. But he could devise a plan that a GOP-led House and Senate sign onto.

"Did he do that last time?"

No. The GOP made one on their own. They had to. Same with the health care plans.

"Where would they money come from to do this? I seem to remember that being an issue last time."

Remember how I just quoted that Trump had no details or plans? That. But, playing devil's advocate, the tax cut for the rich is due to expire for people who aren't rich in 2025. That could be the excuse Trump needs to lower the business rate even lower, and claim things are balanced, by using money that doesn't exist.

So yeah, Trump is desperate and flailing. I would promise magical tax cuts too, if I thought it would keep me out of jail. To go further, I think Trump would not accept it even if Biden did agree to fair cognitive tests. I think Trump would then ask for his results to be private and Biden's to be public. Trump might be a sociopathic narcissist, and by "might be" I'm saying he is, but he does know he'll lose this debate like he lost the last six.

"Five."

I'm counting "caught COVID and nearly died" as a loss. Trump needs an excuse not to get massacred on live TV again, and is trying to find an excuse to back out of the plan he set up that Biden, for whatever dumb reason, agreed to. Bad for Biden. Worse for Trump.

Also:

@tehdang has 24 hours to comment on, as a known Trump supporter, his stance on mandatory military service and his stance on Trump's discussed private support of it, by virtue of wanting to keep both Miller and pick up Vance who both support it. Failure to do so means I get to quote tehdang as supporting mandatory military service, a reasonable conclusion when he supports a candidate who supports this measure.

Well, it has been not 24 but 72 hours, and he's posted plenty of times since then, so it's not like he hasn't been listening.

Based on Trump supporting mandatory military service, and also tehdang supporting Trump and refusing to comment otherwise when specifically and directly asked, I think it is reasonable to say "tehdang supports mandatory military service". What choice do I have? Trump supports it, he supports Trump, I asked and got no answer.

So, from now on, when responding to tehdang, you are not just allowed but encouraged to remind him/everyone that he supports mandatory military service in the United States, based on the words/actions of the people he supports and his lack of clarification or denial when directly asked on the topic.

- - - Updated - - -

Of all the sources to have this headline

Think twice? Bar group tells members it’s OK to criticize, but don’t dare call Trump conviction 'partisan'

I did not expect FOX News *ding* to be one of them.

So the article cites a statement from the Connecticut Bar Association and I CBA to post it HARDEE HAR HAR but the gyst is, there's no place in ethical discourse to call what happened to Trump a show trial organized by the executive branch and rigged. These statements "cross the line from criticism to dangerous rhetoric."

Now, the author is Turley, so you know where this is going.

My concern is not with the plea for lawyers to take care that their comments do not encourage such "aggressive tactics." The problem is the suggestion that lawyers are acting somehow unprofessionally in denouncing what many view as a two-tier system of justice and the politicization of our legal system.

Yep. "I feel this case is partisan, I feel this case is unfair, don't you dare tell me that my feelings don't have weight in a court case". The Trump cult will continue to call the case biased, partisan, and rigged, because they desperately want it to be. Not because they have a shred of proof.

Notably, CBA officials did not write to denounce attacks on figures like Bill Barr, or claims that the Justice Department was rigging justice during the Trump years.

And of course, there's the double standard. Saying "this lawyer/judge is making up law where none exists" is something that can be discussed with evidence and precedent. "Trump's conviction should be overturned because my feelings are hurt" is not.

If the batter swings and misses, you are allowed to say "he shouldn't have swung" without raising eyebrows. But if you try "that should be a base hit because his team is down 0-8 in the second inning" you're going to get laughed at. And I have zero problems with MLB umpire leaders saying "umpires shouldn't call it a base hit when the batter swings and misses".

[Teriz]

These people are insane.

I can't believe Trump's polling numbers. How likely do you all think it is that he is going to be reelected?

Not likely.

A lot of those polls for example have Trump getting north of 20% of the black vote and winning the youth vote from Biden. Neither is going to happen. This is no different than the polls in 2022 saying that Republicans had a 90% chance of winning the senate and were heading to a 30-seat majority in the House. Polling for whatever reason has been off for several years now. For Trump's current polling to be accurate, you would need a political realignment that hasn't occurred since the Civil Rights movement 60 years ago. There's nothing to indicate that that level of realignment is happening.

[Edge-]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps...-year-old-girl

The pastor of one of the country’s largest churches—and who Donald Trump once named as a spiritual adviser—has admitted to “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a woman who says he sexually abused her when she was just 12 years old.

On Friday, Cindy Clemishire told The Wartburg Watch, a religious watchdog blog, that Robert Morris, the pastor of Texas’ Gateway Church, asked her to come into his room when he stayed with her family for Christmas in 1982. She was 12 and he was 20 at the time. She said Morris molested her and then ordered her not to say anything about his behavior “because it will ruin everything.” The abuse continued for years before Clemishire confided in a close friend, prompting Morris’ wife to find out and Morris to step down from the ministry, according to the report.

He eventually returned to the church and founded Gateway Church in 2000, turning it into one of the country’s largest megachurches with an estimated weekly attendance of 100,000, according to the church. He serves as its senior pastor, prompting Trump to name him to a spiritual advisory board in 2016.

After Clemishire came forward, Morris acknowledged the claims in a statement to The Christian Post, admitting he engaged in “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a “young lady,” refusing to acknowledge Clemishire’s age at the time.

“It was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong,” he said.

He claimed that, with the blessing of the girl’s father and church elders, he returned to ministry two years after the abuse was reported. “I asked their forgiveness, and they graciously forgave me,” Morris said.

Well that's great!

Donald's spiritual advisor once sexually molested a 12 year old. He was 20 at the time, so it was long ago, but he was still a grown ass adult sexually assaulting a child.

Strange how pedos keep popping up around Donald?

[Captain N]

Just another friendly reminder during Pride Month that if folks wanted to groom and/or abuse your children -- they'd completely avoid the social stigma of being in the LGBTQ community and join the clergy.

[Pendulous]

Just another friendly reminder during Pride Month that if folks wanted to groom and/or abuse your children -- they'd completely avoid the social stigma of being in the LGBTQ community and join the clergy.

https://www.reddit.com/r/NotADragQueen/ exists for that reason.

[Redwyrm]

In case you missed it, here is Trump's Fathers Day message. Expect the same and more if re-elected

"HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL, INCLUDING THE RADICAL LEFT DEGENERATES THAT ARE RAPIDLY BRINGING THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA INTO THIRD WORLD NATION STATUS WITH THEIR MANY ATTEMPTS AT TRYING TO INFLUENCE OUR SACRED COURT SYSTEM INTO BREAKING TO THEIR VERY SICK AND DANGEROUS WILL. WE NEED STRENGTH AND LOYALTY TO OUR COUNTRY, AND ITS WONDERFUL CONSTITUTION," he wrote on Truth Social. "EVERYTHING WILL BE ON FULL DISPLAY COME NOVEMBER 5TH, 2024 - THE MOST IMPORTANT DAY IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!"

[Odinfrost]

In case you missed it, here is Trump's Fathers Day message. Expect the same and more if re-elected

Can we get one holiday... just one, where he doesn't attack "the radical left", "the corrupt biden crime family" or both?
It was funny the first few times, but now it's so samey that I feel I've read that message before, but instead of Father's Day it was another holiday...

[Flarelaine]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps...-year-old-girl

A bit offtopic, but... The Wartburg Watch, lol. The Wartburg is a marvellously preserved medieval castle in Germany. What is kinda relevant here is its origin story: a noble was out hunting, saw a steep cliff and thought "this would be a great spot for a castle". He did not own the land, but when he started construction and the actual owner showed up to protest, he had 12 of his knights swear an oath before the local bishop that they are standing on the soil of their lord's domain.

Which was literally true, he had a cartful or two placed there the night before.

I think Trump and his circle are aiming for appropriate moral heights.

[diller]

He couldn't even get his wife to appear for his birthday, I wonder why Republicans don't think that is an issue!

[En Sabah Nur]

It was funny the first few times, but now it's so samey that I feel I've read that message before

Isn't this just Trump in a nutshell? His campaign material is still just his personal gripes from years ago. He has a vanishingly small amount of new material he uses at this rallies. I think the only new addition I've seen recently is something about tips.

[Teriz]

In case you missed it, here is Trump's Fathers Day message. Expect the same and more if re-elected

Well expect more along the lines of actual violence backing up what he's saying. People need to stop treating this lunatic like a joke, because there are people who literally worship him and everything he says.

He's already bragged about pardoning terrorists who were loyal to him on Jan 6. That gives a green light to even more violence.

[Edge-]

“I have so many black friends that if I were a racist, they wouldn’t be friends, they would know better than anybody, and fast,” he told the news website, Semafor. “They would not be with me for two minutes if they thought I was racist — and I’m not racist.”

Donald, again, with the, "I can't be racist, have you seen my Black friend?!".

This is not the first time he's used this defense for his racism.

[Endus]

Donald, again, with the, "I can't be racist, have you seen my Black friend?!".

This is not the first time he's used this defense for his racism.

Let's also recall he was literally sued by the feds over how completely fuckin' racist he was. They settled out of court, largely with Trump promising to stop being so openly racist moving forward.