Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Belize]

A 38 year old single man "adopted" a ~20 year old? That seems... interesting.

He never married.

[Thekri]

Adopted? Maybe just coincidence, but I'd say he strikes a resemblance to Gaetz through certain markers.

inb4 actually an illegitimate love child >_>

If not, good for him. Shame he's being used right now.

Wasn't the kid born in Cuba? Gaetz said he was. Seems like actual parentage is very unlikely, so I dismissed it. Maybe though, who knows with this bunch.

[Thepersona]

Wasn't the kid born in Cuba? Gaetz said he was. Seems like actual parentage is very unlikely, so I dismissed it. Maybe though, who knows with this bunch.

He could be born from a cuban mother, though.

[Rasulis]

In his majority opinion, Roberts (praised be) called the decision to terminate the program an “arbitrary” and “capricious” violation of the law. Those two phrases are terms of art, and in using those Roberts and the majority opinion are calling Trump to the table for his run on reversing all things Obama. Obviously, that's not what the opinion said, but it's certainly a heads up of what Trump can expect in the future.

With that decision, Republicans in Washington probably just took a deep sigh of relief. The last thing they want to see this close to the election is tens of thousands young Latinos protesting in the street.

[Easo]

I gotta say, Supreme Court surprises me. Either they are not as conservative as we thought, or Trump is even worse judge of a character than we thought or... They actually are people who care about the rule of law.
O_O

[cubby]

"We need more Justices"...

This I can get behind. Biden expands it by 2? Barrack and Hillary nominated.
That 10 hours of reeee would be the soundtrack to the confirmation hearings

OMG that would be the best. Long game, though, we wouldn't actually want either of them on SCOTUS - they are both too old. We'd want 40-ish aged judges in those seats.

But yeah, maybe initially nominate them both, just for the reeeeee.

[Poopymonster]

Yeah, the feels on this don't seem right at all. The kid apparently came to Capital Hill as a page in 2016, and is now living with an unmarried Congressman? Gaetz didn't say he adopted him, and even if he did that would be weird as shit for a kid that old. Typically 20 year olds are not adopted, because why the hell would you?

Gay doesn't bother me. Grooming does. Page to Congressman is not an equal relationship, nothing about this seems ok.

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Unrelated, apparently Trump is launching a new episode of the ongoing witch hunt in the White House. This time he wants to know on who snitched about his bunker inspection.

Someone needs to man up and tell him it was Stephen Miller. It probably wasn't, but it would be funny to watch him get escorted off the grounds.

I think Billdo Barr would be a close second for funny.

[cubby]

Unrelated, apparently Trump is launching a new episode of the ongoing witch hunt in the White House. This time he wants to know on who snitched about his bunker inspection.

Someone needs to man up and tell him it was Stephen Miller. It probably wasn't, but it would be funny to watch him get escorted off the grounds.

This is exactly what we want to see from the Deplorable-in-Chief. Him showing his deeply seated paranoia and channeling 1940's Hitler culling his Generals is a perfect picture as we swing into November.

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If you want reeeee you nominate AOC and watch heads explode.

Ladies and gentleman, we have a winner!

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I gotta say, Supreme Court surprises me. Either they are not as conservative as we thought, or Trump is even worse judge of a character than we thought or... They actually are people who care about the rule of law.
O_O

It is interesting, especially Roberts coming down "on the side of liberals". But really the SCOTUS when they are making their decisions, can choose from a litany of reasons to rule for or against a case, even coming out of left field sometimes. Those left field opinions don't usually garner a majority opinion, but they do count when tallying up the vote count.

[Edge-]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-a9573716.html

Ms Trump, who now serves as a senior White House adviser in President Donald Trump’s administration, was found to have conducted government business over a private server using personal email account “on hundreds of occasions”, according to the watchdog group, American Oversight.

I feel like this was discussed earlier but like...

LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP!

[Breccia]

This time he wants to know on who snitched about his bunker inspection

The inspection that wasn't his idea, was in the daytime, and was brief? None of that sounds like a problem, considering Trump said he went himself. Or, I suppose, Trump could have lied about the details...

[Easo]

He certainly doesn't take losing very well. I honestly expect far more tweets on Bolton than this.

You can clearly see when the tweet was written by the intern, not him.

[Lenonis]

One, Trump tried to force drug companies to disclose prices and a court blocked it. I actually feel bad about that one -- it made sense and wasn't inherently evil.

Let me preface this by stating that I'm not against transparency in drug pricing. However this issue is waaaaaaaaaaay more complex than most people realize. Drug companies typically need to negotiate with middle-men -- and these middle men get rebates from the pharma companies. This is why there is such a disparity from the list price of a drug to what people end up paying at the pharmacy. These rebates end up a key element of negotiations and are pretty secret as if one group saw another company getting a higher rebate...well...you can put two and two together.

This would end up forcing the companies to all default to the lowest rebate. Which is problematic because often times drugs are negotiated in a package of related medicines or a formulary that covers multiple products that are in the same contract. This could cause some drugs to become unprofitable because they are more heavily rebated as part of a package than alone.

There are even more issues that come into the middle men who don't want to reveal the rebates as then the patients and insurance companies will want more of a cut of that pie, so to speak.

If we want transparency in drug pricing forcing the drug companies to reveal their prices isn't the way to go. You'd have to overhaul the whole system into one that makes sense and has everyone on the same playing ground.

[Thekri]

That's my fave part lol

"We need NEW JUSTICES.... because one of those I got in there isn't doing what I want...."

Consider that this is the man that hired Cohen, Kelly, Mattis, Sessions, Tillerson, Scaramouche, Southerland, Esper....

Trump could replace all 9 justices and they would still tell him to go fuck himself. Trump can't agree with himself for more then 24 hours, so nobody else has a real chance of doing so either.

[Paranoid Android]

Trump to
@WSJ
: Covid testing is "overrated" and some Americans may be wearing masks to signal disapproval of him—not as a preventative measure. “I personally think testing is overrated, even though I created the greatest testing machine in history."

His narcissism is incredible. Yes, people are don't want to get ill and possibly die, because of you. Such a PoS. I just wish enough sensible voters see all of this.

Do you get the impression that the Supreme Court doesn’t like me?

Trump tweet.

I mean...

[Breccia]

He certainly doesn't take losing very well. I honestly expect far more tweets on Bolton than this.

Trump: This ruling gives the President extra power!
Biden: I'll use it to make DACA permanent on Day One.
Obama: I applaud the verdict, and also, I endorse Biden.
Biden: Also, I'm blitzing campaign ads in those states where the polls say I'm close.
Montana: Can I get in on that? We really aren't buying the WH spin on the coronavirus.
Republican Party: Oh, shit, this looks bad.

In other news:

Trump takes credit for making Juneteenth famous,

The vote to remove statues of Confederate traitors from the Capitol was blocked by GOP Sen. Blunt, but in his defense, he said he wanted more time with the Rules Committee, and also pointed out the statues were there by an agreement with the states, so he has a point. It's like saying a clearly guilty murderer still gets a lawyer and a trial.

Pelosi immediately responded by ordering the House to take down all portraits of Confederate traitors. "There's no state agreement on this part," she didn't say but I'm pretending she did, "We could ask the southern states if they want them up, but they'd probably just surrender again."

Esper announces a review of diversity in the armed forces.

Bias & prejudice have no place in our military, or in our country. Prejudices – whether visible or invisible, conscious or unconscious—remain a burden to many. They hold back the diversity of the force, representation in our officer ranks, and experiences of our minority members.

Trump gives an interview to the WSJ in which he says COVID-19 testing is unnecessary and makes us look bad, that China released the virus on purpose to damage the US economy, and that masks don't do anything because you touch the mask.

In the ongoing effort to drive Phase One even further into the grave, China promises to retaliate against the latest round of sanctions -- the ones put against China for the Muslim concentration camps that Trump himself praised.

We again urge the U.S. side to immediately correct its mistakes and stop using this Xinjiang-related law to harm China's interests and interfere in China's internal affairs. Otherwise, China will resolutely take countermeasures, and all the consequences arising therefrom must be fully borne by the United States,

FOX News says Trump blew his last chance to end DACA unless he's re-elected.

The latest news about unemployment is as bad as everyone expected. Texas, in particular, is seeing claims spike.

And finally...for now...a high-ranking military official resigns after three years on the job, without explanation.

Kathryn Wheelbarger, one of the Pentagon’s most prominent and respected policy officials, is resigning after three years in the job at a time when critics have accused President Donald Trump of prioritizing perceived “loyalists” for top national security posts, sources told Reuters on Thursday.

She had been named by the White House on Feb. 13 to a senior intelligence positihere but in a surprise move last week, the White House instead announced plans to nominate Bradley Hansell here a former special assistant to Trump, to become deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence.

Both current and former U.S. officials accused the White House of passing over Wheelbarger because of her past work with the late Republican Senator John McCain, a fierce Trump critic and former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Wheelbarger handled the committee’s intelligence portfolio and was well regarded by Congress.

“It looks like she failed the loyalty test somehow,” said one former U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A congressional source said it was disappointing that the Trump administration didn’t recognize “one of its greatest assets.”

“She was one of the few really thoughtful, compelling voices that people really seemed to respond to,” the congressional source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Hmm. With that, I'm left wondering, is there a single woman in Trump's administration who isn't a secretary or a teacher?

[Noxx79]

I'm curious enough to see his updated list.

He said he’d have it by September, so we’ll see it when he releases his tax returns, his infrastructure plan, and gives his speech on race relations.

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Hmm. With that, I'm left wondering, is there a single woman in Trump's administration who isn't a secretary or a teacher?

Ivanka, but I don’t know what her job title is , probably secretary of daddy issues...

[Edge-]

his infrastructure plan

IS INFRASTRUCTURE WEEK BACK?! I sure hope so.

[beanman12345]

He said he’d have it by September, so we’ll see it when he releases his tax returns, his infrastructure plan, and gives his speech on race relations.

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Ivanka, but I don’t know what her job title is , probably secretary of daddy issues...

He'll have the list. But it'll have 1 name, Jared Kushner. He put him in charge of everything else, might as well nominate him for supreme court justice.

Also don't forget Skeletor, I mean Kellyanne

[Breccia]

An OP ED I cited in that last post actually has a lot of poll results, and therefore, is worth quoting the entire thing, because paywall.

With traumatic memories of election night 2016 still quite vivid, Americans praying for President Trump’s eviction from the White House are not about to get complacent. However, it is hard not to look ahead and wonder: Is Trump going to drag the entire Republican Party under, and, if so, shouldn’t they do something now to minimize the damage?

We are more than 137 days until the election (or, if you prefer, “We’re only 137 days from the election!”), so it is way too early to suggest former vice president Joe Biden has the race locked up. There is plenty of time for him to stumble, or for Trump to find some way to slip through the electoral college. It nevertheless is fair to say that if something does not materially change for the better for Trump, he is going to get wiped out.

FiveThirtyEight’s weighted average shows Trump’s net approval rating at nearly negative 15. It would be hard to find a legitimate pollster or strategist to argue that a president can win reelection with a 40 percent-to-55 percent approval deficit. Moreover, Trump’s disapproval rating has floated up to the high 50s, meaning Trump will have to win back a significant chunk of the electorate that thinks he is doing a bad job.

The head-to-head polls are just as awful for Trump. Biden is ahead by a whole lot in the most recent polls from CNN (14 points), CNBC (9 points), Reuters/Ipsos (13 points) and YouGov (10 points). For those who have grown accustomed to the conventional wisdom that we are a deeply and evenly divided country, these seem almost unbelievable.

When you look deeper, however, you can see why Biden has opened up a large lead in national and key swing state polls. Take the CNBC poll (the least awful for Trump of the most recent batch), In which Trump is declining nationally and in battleground states in sync with ratings for his handling of the pandemic (where his disapproval has inched up three points). “He leads by 10 points nationally (51% Biden, 41% Trump), a 3-point gain since we last fielded, and he leads by 3 points in the battleground (48% Biden, 45% Trump), a 2-point gain since we last fielded,” the pollsters found. “Biden is also leading in all six states in the battleground.”

"Battleground" as in "I also linked Biden is doing a campaign ad spending blitz there"

Does anyone think Trump’s handling of the pandemic will get better? Not with a president who insists on going to Oklahoma in the middle of a surge and who has moved his convention acceptance to Florida, where cases are also on the increase. (The Miami Herald editorial board writes, “How in the world will those tens of thousands of attendees be protected? Not well, not when they might have to sign a waiver freeing the party of liability should they catch COVID-19. Not, in an example of pretzel logic, when so many of their elected leaders are denying the coronavirus is a big deal.”) It is not going to go down well with voters, especially extra-vulnerable seniors in Florida and other sunshine states, if Trump leaves a trail of disease and death behind him.

Likewise, Trump suffers from the perception he handled the killing of George Floyd and the demands for police reform poorly: “A 52% majority of voters in the battleground and 56% nationally say ‘Donald Trump’s response to the killing of George Floyd and protests for criminal justice reform’ were mostly harmful. Just 23% of voters in the battleground and 21% nationally say Trump’s response was helpful.” Views on race seem also to have unleashed progressive impulses. (“A stunning 64% of voters nationally and 61% of voters in the competitive battleground agree that ‘We should invest more in education, mental health, and social services and spend less on policing.’”)

Does anyone really think Trump is going to get on the bandwagon to champion real police reform or stop flaunting his unqualified support for police? It is unlikely, judging from the Republican Senate’s aversion to another stimulus bill, that we will get an outpouring of support for “education, mental health, and social services” from Trump and his congressional allies. The chances of him reinforcing his racist image, ignoring systemic racism and refusing to rein in police are much higher than the chances of reinventing himself as a model of inclusion and fairness.

In short, Trump is in deep, deep trouble despite the advantages of incumbency, and despite a media spending spree. Unless he materially changes how he is handling the pandemic — not to mention the economy and race relations — there is not much reason to think he is going to improve his standing. In their wisdom, Democrats selected a well-liked nominee whose gaffes seem “baked in” to voters’ evaluation of him.

Meanwhile, former national security adviser John Bolton’s book reminds us that Trump is a know-nothing (e.g., allegedly unclear if Russia owned Finland), is utterly corrupt (e.g., seeking to enlist the Chinese president’s help to win) and lacks any appreciation for American values (e.g., allegedly giving the Chinese the thumbs-up to build concentration camps). They also remind us that the craven, simpering Senate Republicans who kept him in office need to go as well.

The question, then, is not whether Democrats will get complacent. The real question is why Republicans are not in high panic and looking for a way either to dump Trump or distance themselves from him. Time is running out.

Bolded mine, italics author's.

Trump is desperate for a win on any level. (Those italics are mine) The list of major public failures just got ten feet higher this very morning. I don't think he can pull off a win with China anymore, not just because both sides are still throwing insults and punishments, and not just because China is too sick to adhere to Phase One even if they wanted to, but because Bolton's book said "Trump will sell US out to China for a re-election" and if that magically happens, everyone will assume that's the cause -- even if they refuse to admit it. So unless he personally starts murdering SCOTUS judges to replace them or discovers a cure for cancer up his ass, he's going to have to get really imaginative, really quickly.

By which I mean, making shit up about Biden.

[Thekri]

IS INFRASTRUCTURE WEEK BACK?! I sure hope so.

I miss infrastructure week, it has been so long since we have had one.

Is anyone clear on what happens in an Infrastructure Week? I am not sure if we are supposed to be building infrastructure, praising infrastructure, or funding infrastructure.