Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Paranoid Android]

Pentagon Confirms Military Will Not Hold Traditional Farewell Ceremony for Trump https://t.co/sgMx3DBPP5

https://twitter.com/Mediaite/status/...255302658?s=19

Makes me feel so warm inside.

[Benggaul]

202,767 new cases, about 54k fewer than last week and a little over the total for the last Saturday before the holidays. If the trend continues into tomorrow then we will have a good, solid week of lower new case totals. Missouri and Nebraska have not yet reported, however.

Top 10:

California: 37,050 new cases; 398 deaths
Texas: 19,545 new cases; 338 deaths
New York: 15,180 new cases; 159 deaths
Fuck Florida.
Arizona: 8,715 new cases; 208 deaths
Georgia: 8,533 new cases; 153 deaths
North Carolina: 7,986 new cases; 83 deaths
Ohio: 7,065 new cases; 78 deaths
Virginia: 6,757 new cases (new record); 50 deaths
Pennsylvania: 6,499 new cases; 206 deaths

Maine set a new record in cases not including a correction from a few weeks ago.

I won't say the numbers look "promising", because over 200k new cases in a day isn't good no matter which way you slice it. It is, however, substantially less than I think even the experts were predicting we'd have at this point and certainly a lot fewer than the numbers we were hitting last week. I continue to believe it's a result of us coming down from the holiday bump coupled with some inflated numbers last week due to corrections--and the numbers we're seeing now are still about on par with what we had before the holidays if not a tad higher--but at least it's going in the same direction. Next week's totals will be the real test and we'll see if they continue to drop or if we bounce back upwards. Right now if you took out the last three weeks of data uncertainty it's a bit of a plateau. The US has confirmed over 24 million cases.

3,377 deaths is over a hundred more than last Saturday and brings the total to 405,261. Once the numbers for Missouri and Nebraska come in the day's total will likely go up another 50 at least. While a drop in new cases is certainly good, we can expect the death totals to stay elevated and (likely) climb higher for the next few weeks. We'll be feeling the immediate cost of the monumental fuckup from this TRUMP SHITSHOW for many months to come.

Related news:

Los Angeles becomes first county to hit 1 million Covid-19 cases--Not entirely surprising given the huge, dense population of LA, but disappointing given how well California was managing its response to the pandemic for a long time.

Who gets the COVID-19 vaccination first? Only 12 states follow CDC guidelines on the order or priority--This is part of the reason there are shortages of the vaccine all over. While poor federal planning is to blame for a large part of this, state-level administrations are also fucking it up (both GOP AND Dem).

Stay safe, folks.

[Grapemask]

McConnell has apparently given Republican senators permission to vote against the party and with their conscience (hah) in the upcoming impeachment trial.

Eh, he said they'd vote their conscience in the first impeachment, too.

Spoiler, Republican senators don't have a conscience.

[Breccia]

Makes me feel so warm inside.

The article says we don't know who made the decision or why. Since Trump isn't scheduled to leave the country, we know that's not it.

[postman1782]

(serious) a bit late, but why did a hardcore republican like Arnold Schwarzenegger publicly denounce and dehumanize Trump a week ago?

This isn't the first time he has done it, and he isn't a hardcore Republican, he is actually smart.

[Breccia]

This is interesting.

The FBI is investigating a foreign investment in the murderous insurrection.

Worth noting: I don't care if the murderous insurrectionists were paid by each other, by Democrats, by France or by Russia. A mercenary who takes money to do the crime, still does the crime. If someone paid them to do it, that's fine, arrrest them too. It's not like it's election fraud.

[For_The_Horde]

This is interesting.

The FBI is investigating a foreign investment in the murderous insurrection.

Worth noting: I don't care if the murderous insurrectionists were paid by each other, by Democrats, by France or by Russia. A mercenary who takes money to do the crime, still does the crime. If someone paid them to do it, that's fine, arrrest them too. It's not like it's election fraud.

Also worth noting: If this group received help from a foreign power to attempt to overthrow the government, it isn't just sedition anymore. That's right, treason is back on the menu.

[Fugus]

This isn't the first time he has done it, and he isn't a hardcore Republican, he is actually smart.

I haven't really paid him much attention in his political field, has he owned up to and apologized to the damage his policies did to California?

[Breccia]

Also worth noting: If this group received help from a foreign power to attempt to overthrow the government, it isn't just sedition anymore. That's right, treason is back on the menu.

Interesting, but wouldn't that require aid and comfort to a foreign enemy? I didn't mention it, but the payments came from a French guy.

[dextersmith]

Good.

I'm cynically hopeful that these challenges will lead to barring him because, despite Florida's Governor being a Trump sycophant, it seems that a lot of rich people don't want Trump living there.

And furthermore, I'd have to think the number of law firms still willing to represent Trump is pretty small.

He's notorious for not paying so why would they?

[Thepersona]

Also worth noting: If this group received help from a foreign power to attempt to overthrow the government, it isn't just sedition anymore. That's right, treason is back on the menu.

So... Breccia, remember a few days ago when u told me what are the penalties for treason?

[Breccia]

So... Breccia, remember a few days ago when u told me what are the penalties for treason?

The ones that rhyme with "hiring squad"?

[Masark]

(serious) a bit late, but why did a hardcore republican like Arnold Schwarzenegger publicly denounce and dehumanize Trump a week ago?

Awareness of his family history is a possibility.

[Breccia]

Selfies, social media posts making it easier for FBI to track down Capitol riot suspects

Yeah, you already know the idea, but it lists specifically how some people documented their trip to the House/Senate and as a result got arrested. That, and posting selfies of themselves committing insurrection (to be fair not the murder so much)

[Kaleredar]

Selfies, social media posts making it easier for FBI to track down Capitol riot suspects

Yeah, you already know the idea, but it lists specifically how some people documented their trip to the House/Senate and as a result got arrested. That, and posting selfies of themselves committing insurrection (to be fair not the murder so much)

Seems like it'd be a pretty slam-dunk conviction, too.

"is this a photo of you in the capitol building on January 6th? "
"Well, yes, but you see I really wanted Trump to win..."
"aaaaaaaand-a guilty as charged. NEXT!"

[Breccia]

"NEXT!"

The QAnon Shaman will be held without bail.

"The charges he faces are serious," prosecutors claimed in court. "Two counts of interfering with law enforcement, aka 'attacking the police', one count of threatening to assassinate a federal elected official, and one count of wearing leather as a mail class."

[Nellise]

Who gets the COVID-19 vaccination first? Only 12 states follow CDC guidelines on the order or priority--This is part of the reason there are shortages of the vaccine all over. While poor federal planning is to blame for a large part of this, state-level administrations are also fucking it up (both GOP AND Dem).

Nearly every state is still in phase 1a, where they're almost all following the recommendations with some minor tweaks in some states. It's only for the next phases that states have said they'll be allowing different groups from the recommendation, but they haven't started that phase yet. So any shortages right now really aren't on the states. The states made those changes assuming they were getting a big increases in doses delivered and only this week found out they were lied to and may have to adjust their plans again (the KFF paper was dated the 11th).

[Breccia]

While poor federal planning is to blame for a large part of this, state-level administrations are also fucking it up

I would love to say "well the states took Trump at his word when they said there'd be more vaccines".

But...yeah. Even if that was the case for the other 38 states, simply put, it's four years in and they should have known better than to take Trump at his word. He lies all the time about everything and routinely promised what he could not provide. It's like the old saying, fool me once...I just did that joke, nevermind.

[Kathranis]

(serious) a bit late, but why did a hardcore republican like Arnold Schwarzenegger publicly denounce and dehumanize Trump a week ago?

Schwarzenegger isn't a "hardcore" Republican, he's a moderate. He's from the same old school class of Republicans as Romney, McCain, Bush, etc. (probably even a bit left of them) and the others who hate how Trumpism is warping the GOP.

He's always been opposed to nazism, white nationalism, etc.

This also isn't the first time he's spoken out against Trump. Same for the others I mentioned.

[Thepersona]

The QAnon Shaman will be held without bail.

"The charges he faces are serious," prosecutors claimed in court. "Two counts of interfering with law enforcement, aka 'attacking the police', one count of threatening to assassinate a federal elected official, and one count of wearing leather as a mail class."

Also, using a polearm, when you do not have polearm skill