Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[postman1782]

I'm really hoping Trump just steals the the Trophy from next year's Superbowl Winner when they visit the WH.
And the jackass team owner that backed Trump just has to stew about taking a fake replacement trophy.

If I was Chelsea, I would sue.

[Breccia]

Why is it the people who Trump has personally hired and worked with, are the ones who think the worst of him? Oh, right. It's because they know him.

So Bolton went on FOX News *ding* and

Former national security adviser John Bolton said Monday that Trump could soon retreat from efforts to resolve Russia’s war with Ukraine.

“He didn’t get what he wanted, which was a quick ceasefire from his friend Vladimir. He tried for six months, it’s not going anywhere,” Bolton said of Trump during a Monday appearance on NewsNation’s “On Balance.”

“So now he’s justifying taking steps against Putin, but I think it also lays the groundwork for him to say, ‘I’m done with it, it’s Europe’s war, that’s what I said in the beginning, I’m done with it,’” he added.

Yep. Someone who specifically and personally was hired by Trump to handle foreign relations, says Trump is going to give up on this foreign relation.

"Yeah, but it's a nearly impossible task!"

Then he shouldn't have promised to have it done by now, should he? He said he would do it. Six months later, he's due to just give up and go golfing. Like everything else.

“I think he believed Putin was his friend — I think he still believes Putin was his friend. But you know, you can have arguments with your friends, they don’t last forever,” Bolton told anchor Leland Vittert.

“I think what was really going on today was that he was saying, ‘this is not my war, this is Biden’s war’, and in 50 days, he may put secondary sanctions on Russia or he may not. I think he’s trying to walk away from this,” he added.

"But it is Biden's war! Putin unilaterally invaded Ukraine without asking the US in any way. That makes it Biden's fault."

First of all, Kyrgyzstan's President Sadyr Japarov didn't stop it, either.

"What could fucking Kyrgyzstan have done?"

What could Biden have done? Putin chose to invade. Let's be honest, Trump's not going to bomb Russia, either. This is on Putin.

Second of all, Trump blaming Biden is just Trump admitting defeat. If he can't solve the problem, he wants you to blame someone else. Again, Trump promised he had a solution. He wants the narrative to be anything other than "Trump tried and failed".

Third of all, let's keep an eye on the clock. At some point, and by "at some point" I mean "Dec 17, 2027" Russia will have been in Ukraine longer in Trump's tenure than Biden's. Barring Finland getting sick of it and just conquering Russia over the course of a long weekend, probably while drunk.

"Finland drunk or Russia drunk?"

Yes.

"Well fine, you solve it, Breccia and/or Bolton, if it's so easy!"

I never ran for office claiming to have the answer. Trump did. He took the job, on purpose, listing that as a qualification. A qualification he, so far, has proven to lack. I'm allowed to point that out, just like I can point out a substitute teacher who lied and claimed to speak German unable to speak German. I can't speak German, but I wouldn't lie and claim I could. Especially when this lie cost thousands and thousands of lives. Also, from context, I assume Bolton's solution would be "invade Iraq" and I'm okay not doing that again.

[btlcryct]

It seems the MAGAbots have gotten the latest software patch and are now up to date. Over the weekend, things were looking bleak for them, many seemingly questioning if they made the wrong move by supporting him, what with him saying to drop the whole Epstein thing. Now that they've been patched, they're back onboard the MAGA train spouting things like:

"There are no real victims! These women chose to go to the island!" Yes, even the 13/14 year olds....

"The whole Epstein file was made by Obama, Clinton, Biden! Trump had nothing to do with it." Parroting what their dear leader has said.

"Libs are the pedo party! They only want the report released so they can get off on it! Sickos, all of them!"


And here I thought they were having genuine reflection.

[jackofwind]

The rapid flip from "Release the files, we know you have them!" to "Only sicko pedos would even want the files to be released, that's child porn!" is fucking neck-breaking.

[Edge-]

The rapid flip from "Release the files, we know you have them!" to "Only sicko pedos would even want the files to be released, that's child porn!" is fucking neck-breaking.

remember when republicans dressed up like flip-flops to criticize john kerry?

fun times

[PhaelixWW]

Trump lies all the time about everything.

Except when he tells you he's going to ruthlessly deport Americans, apparently.

- - - Updated - - -

The rapid flip from "Release the files, we know you have them!" to "Only sicko pedos would even want the files to be released, that's child porn!" is fucking neck-breaking.

Uhhh.... those are not mutually exclusive.

Maybe they're all just outing themselves as sick pedos.

[Valdhammer]

Can someone explain to me why Bondi wouldn’t just mess with the files to remove references to Trump and other Republicans from the files or create an entirely fictional file entirely? I don’t understand this at all. Deception is as natural to these people as breathing, and they know Republicans will believe whatever they release. So why do any of this? What am I missing?

[Edge-]

Can someone explain to me why Bondi wouldn’t just mess with the files to remove references to Trump and other Republicans from the files or create an entirely fictional file entirely? I don’t understand this at all. Deception is as natural to these people as breathing, and they know Republicans will believe whatever they release. So why do any of this? What am I missing?

same reason they keep leaving the metadata in files, allowing folks to see that documents are being drafted and edited by non-governmental staff on the regular

they're not actually very good at their jobs

[Breccia]

Can someone explain to me why Bondi wouldn’t just mess with the files to remove references to Trump and other Republicans from the files or create an entirely fictional file entirely?

If you were a conspiracy theorist, and someone said "Here, I promise, these are the real Epstein files" how would you react?

@Edge- is right, Team Trump has proven incompetent over and over. At this point, I'd believe that they tried to redact someone's name by putting whiteout on the screen. Trump's self-created conspiracy theorist cult would keep digging, the thing is, they'd actually find something this time. Also, let's say there are four of you working on this and all four of you collectively agree to make a duplicate and destroy the original. All four of them will keep a copy. Now, you have Trump still in just as much trouble, except four people now think they own him, and at some point, one of them will be wrong, file comes out.

Same story with Trump: he would rather cover it up and let you assume it's bad, than show you how bad it really is. We're still waiting on those taxes. This is objectively worse.

[Surfd]

Can someone explain to me why Bondi wouldn’t just mess with the files to remove references to Trump and other Republicans from the files or create an entirely fictional file entirely? I don’t understand this at all. Deception is as natural to these people as breathing, and they know Republicans will believe whatever they release. So why do any of this? What am I missing?

Liability. If they "fake" the files, you can 100% guarantee that there will be a paper trail a mile wide that literally screams "this is all bullshit" which will come out immediately under basically any kind of even vague scrutiny, and you can be guaranteed that literally EVERYONE listed on whatever doctored list they put out will sue the living shit out of them to prove they don't belong on it. As mentioned by others, the "list" supposedly contains a straight up who's who list of major movers and shakers both domestic and international. Faking something like that and fucking it up would be a 10000x worse scandal than simply trying to bury it.

[gondrin]

It seems the MAGAbots have gotten the latest software patch and are now up to date. Over the weekend, things were looking bleak for them, many seemingly questioning if they made the wrong move by supporting him, what with him saying to drop the whole Epstein thing. Now that they've been patched, they're back onboard the MAGA train spouting things like:

"There are no real victims! These women chose to go to the island!" Yes, even the 13/14 year olds....

"The whole Epstein file was made by Obama, Clinton, Biden! Trump had nothing to do with it." Parroting what their dear leader has said.

"Libs are the pedo party! They only want the report released so they can get off on it! Sickos, all of them!"


And here I thought they were having genuine reflection.

Funny thing is, nobody outside of some of the crazies are asking if any videos of someone caught in the act should be released. Nearly everyone is asking to release the client list.

Which, the last time I checked, didn't involve any child pornography. If there were actual video footage shown, it would only be shown in a court of law if anyone in that video was charged with a crime. The general public wouldn't have access to it like normal evidence because of what it contains.

However, a list most certainly would be in the public domain, or should be at least. But knowing the powers that be, it will be considered sensitive or, if it involved our current sitting President, possible classified.

So anyone on the far-right that is claiming it would involve child pornography in any way is literally just making excuses on how bad they twisted themselves into a pretzel to justify somehow being so adamant on releasing and now not releasing said client list.

[Valdhammer]

If you were a conspiracy theorist, and someone said "Here, I promise, these are the real Epstein files" how would you react?

@Edge- is right, Team Trump has proven incompetent over and over. At this point, I'd believe that they tried to redact someone's name by putting whiteout on the screen. Trump's self-created conspiracy theorist cult would keep digging, the thing is, they'd actually find something this time. Also, let's say there are four of you working on this and all four of you collectively agree to make a duplicate and destroy the original. All four of them will keep a copy. Now, you have Trump still in just as much trouble, except four people now think they own him, and at some point, one of them will be wrong, file comes out.

Same story with Trump: he would rather cover it up and let you assume it's bad, than show you how bad it really is. We're still waiting on those taxes. This is objectively worse.

I don’t find that particularly convincing. I completely agree that they’re incompetent, but I don’t think they’re so conscious of their incompetence that it would stop them doing something that their whole base yearns for. If they were capable that level of introspection, they wouldn’t be such ghouls.

And I also think that if they released the files full of democrats in them, their cult would absolutely not dig any deeper because they would have gotten what they wanted. These people don’t want the truth. They want validation.

The only reason I can think of for them not releasing falsified files is that they can only play this card once and they don’t want to do it so far from any election of consequence. Doesn’t that seem more plausible?

[gondrin]

Liability. If they "fake" the files, you can 100% guarantee that there will be a paper trail a mile wide that literally screams "this is all bullshit" which will come out immediately under basically any kind of even vague scrutiny, and you can be guaranteed that literally EVERYONE listed on whatever doctored list they put out will sue the living shit out of them to prove they don't belong on it. As mentioned by others, the "list" supposedly contains a straight up who's who list of major movers and shakers both domestic and international. Faking something like that and fucking it up would be a 10000x worse scandal than simply trying to bury it.

The irony is if it contained, lets say, King Charles, there is nothing anyone can do about it other than bitch and moan seeing as he cannot be arrested. Same with pretty much most heads of states like this.

As of now, the list literally is probably going to be the most non-believed thing ever due to all that surrounds it regardless of who it holds. And that is including things like the JFK assassination and other conspiracies that just won't die off. The moment Trump said that it is all fake is the moment that the list is pretty much tainted, at least in the court of public opinion. If it were used in an actual court, there would also have to be some other evidence to show that what is on it is true because, once again, the list is tainted due to all that surrounds it.

[Valdhammer]

Liability. If they "fake" the files, you can 100% guarantee that there will be a paper trail a mile wide that literally screams "this is all bullshit" which will come out immediately under basically any kind of even vague scrutiny, and you can be guaranteed that literally EVERYONE listed on whatever doctored list they put out will sue the living shit out of them to prove they don't belong on it. As mentioned by others, the "list" supposedly contains a straight up who's who list of major movers and shakers both domestic and international. Faking something like that and fucking it up would be a 10000x worse scandal than simply trying to bury it.

That makes logical sense, but what have you seen from these people that makes you think that they believe in consequences? When’s the last time any of them felt anything of the sort? And I am not saying they have to add people to it. I am saying they just have to remove the ones they want to protect.

I guess another thing is that they can use the threat of releasing it to control people or have taken bribes not to release it.

[Cthulhu 2020]

If I was Chelsea, I would sue.

Trump literally built himself off of abusing the legal system, trapping people in legal purgatory, running up legal fees and attorney fees until they gave up because it became too expensive to keep going, or just running out the clock like with the stolen documents case.

Legal action would do nil, because the Trump appointed judge would either dismiss the case or if they did accept it, he'd keep the trial in process for the next 8 years.

[Valdhammer]

Trump literally built himself off of abusing the legal system, trapping people in legal purgatory, running up legal fees and attorney fees until they gave up because it became too expensive to keep going, or just running out the clock like with the stolen documents case.

Legal action would do nil, because the Trump appointed judge would either dismiss the case or if they did accept it, he'd keep the trial in process for the next 8 years.

I’m a lawyer and one of the things we studied in law school was how Donald Trump managed to conflict-out just about every major law firm in the 80s and the 90s by setting up meetings with them and unloading on them a bunch of sensitive information the knowledge of which would make it unethical for them to represent people who tried to sue him. It got to the point where firms forever changed how they onboard new clients.

I went to law school years before he became president btw. So this is something that was taught to law students without any political agenda.

[gondrin]

I’m a lawyer and one of the things we studied in law school was how Donald Trump managed to conflict-out just about every major law firm in the 80s and the 90s by setting up meetings with them and unloading on them a bunch of sensitive information the knowledge of which would make it unethical for them to represent people who tried to sue him. It got to the point where firms forever changed how they onboard new clients.

I went to law school years before he became president btw. So this is something that was taught to law students without any political agenda.

Question about this. Wouldn't those same lawyers also be able to say that those meetings were not done as an attorney client relationship and that any information wasn't privileged or were there documents that the law firms had to sign that said it was privileged?

[Edge-]

Showing how absolutely crucial they were and how it wasn't just expensive taxpayer-funded political theater - the Trump administration releases 2,000 of the 4,000 National Guardsmen from standing around and doing nothing - https://ktla.com/news/local-news/hal...es-going-home/

Federal officials at the Pentagon confirmed that half of the 4,000 federalized members of the California National Guard deployed in Los Angeles are being released, though 2,000 guardsmen, along with 700 active-duty Marines remain in the city.

The controversial decision to federalize the troops came after demonstrations erupted downtown in early June to protest the federal immigration crackdown in L.A. County.

Once they arrived, the troops were tasked with guarding federal buildings and protecting federal immigration agents during enforcement operations.

The state took the Trump administration to court where a federal judge ruled that the president acted illegally when he federalized the National Guard without a request from Governor Gavin Newsom. That decision, however, was later overturned by an appeals court, which returned control of the troops back to Trump while the case remains ongoing.

Newsom has continued to criticize both the court’s decision and President Trump himself, pointing out that the guardsmen have been pulled away from their families and other essential duties “to serve as pawns for the President in Los Angeles.”

“While nearly 2,000 of them are starting to demobilize, the remaining guardsmembers continue without a mission, without direction and without any hopes of returning to help their communities,” the governor’s office wrote in a post to X. “We call on Trump and the Department of Defense to end this theater and send everyone home now.”

It’s not entirely clear why federal officials abruptly ended the 60-day deployment of 2,000 guardsmen, though Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said:

“Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding.”

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass released a statement praising Angelenos for the demobilization of the troops.

“This happened because the people of Los Angeles stood united and stood strong,” Bass said. “We organized peaceful protests, we came together at rallies, we took the Trump administration to court — all of this led to today’s retreat.”

So far, no information has been provided about how long the remaining guardsmen and Marines will remain in the region.

The lawlessness in question, I guess being the protests to the intentional federal provocation or something.

Anyways, these are still all awful people who have no problems using the US military as political pawns in their racist policies.

[Valdhammer]

Question about this. Wouldn't those same lawyers also be able to say that those meetings were not done as an attorney client relationship and that any information wasn't privileged or were there documents that the law firms had to sign that said it was privileged?

It’s not an issue of privilege. It’s an issue of ethics. If you meet with a prospective client who divulges sensitive information to you, and that person is then involved in litigation where the information disclosed to you is relevant, and the other party tries to hire you you, then you have a conflict because your obligation to the prospective client is ongoing even if you aren’t actually representing them in any matter.

You have knowledge that you can use against them, and the law does not allow you to be in the position where you may act against that person’s interests even by accident. If you proceed regardless, the prospective client can sue you and you will probably lose your license.

[Malkiah]

That makes logical sense, but what have you seen from these people that makes you think that they believe in consequences? When’s the last time any of them felt anything of the sort? And I am not saying they have to add people to it. I am saying they just have to remove the ones they want to protect.

I guess another thing is that they can use the threat of releasing it to control people or have taken bribes not to release it.

i'd imagine there's also a MAD type scenario to consider.
all this hubub is about whatever files that US federal law enforcement agencies have, but i'd be shocked into a coronary event if it turned out that there was zero dirt floating around in private hands.
i obviously have no evidence for this, but simply as a matter of rational thought i cannot for a second imagine that all the high level geopolitical power brokers that we know of explicitly (not to even mention the who-knows-how-many more secretive types) wouldn't have pictures, videos, etc etc of their own kept in a safe somewhere.

i imagine the entire epstein situation is everyone involved being tied to a bundle of TNT and every cord leads to a center point where they're all connected.
donald trump might be as sharp as a burlap sack of damp cat hair and he may surround himself with some of the biggest failsons of the 21st century, but even they possess enough animalistic survival instinct to not light that particular match.