Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[bladeXcrasher]

What really scares me about this continuation of the GOtrumP is that he will die, and probably soon, and if they make some kind of golden-calf martyr out of him, they will just continue down the batshit path of insanity, with comments on policy including "Trump would have wanted it that way", and pushing a bare-intellectual cult of deplorables into something, somehow, worse.

They already made a golden idol of him, lol.

[Breccia]

if they make some kind of golden-calf martyr out of him.

I don't think that's likely.

Simply put, the only way Trump could sell is when Trump was selling himself. Only he could push a fraudulent, damaged product this well. Without Trump constantly telling people how good Trump is, his brand will sink. We've already seen a slow decline without his Twitter account.

My concern is, without their Orange God, they'll basically go full bandit tribes. Various Gaetz-like people will be able to hold small groups, but they'll turn on each other for their own power. And the concern is, this leads to chaos, even violence, as we've already seen is possible. A splinter group that feels they can't grow honestly will find a way to make their name by...other means.

I was hoping that the Republican Party would eventually realize there was nothing wrong with the Republican Party. Based on the above quotes, I was wrong.

- - - Updated - - -

Biden --

"Wrong thread."

Nope. Biden found some of the rules Trump made about how he was allowed to kill terrorists in 2017 and disclosed most of them. While he decides which to dump and which to keep, I'll spare you the read: they're lethally vague. I'm not fluent in legalese, but they seem to say "I can hit whoever I want, if I say I have a good reason and I say there's no risk."

We appreciate this release, which confirms our fear that President Trump stripped down even the minimal safeguards President Obama established in his rules for lethal strikes outside recognized conflicts. Over four administrations, the U.S. government’s unlawful lethal strikes program has exacted an appalling toll on Muslim, Brown, and Black civilians in multiple parts of the world.

Secretive and unaccountable use of lethal force is unacceptable in a rights-respecting democracy, and this program is a cornerstone of the ‘forever wars’ President Biden has pledged to end. He needs to do so.

-- the ACLU

"The most transparent administration ever" made rules about which people in other countries they were allowed to kill, which were less restrictive than the ones Obama had.

No poster in these forums may ever say "but Obama killed people too" ever again, without also saying "but Trump was worse". Failure to do so is admission of hypocrisy.

[Breccia]

Trump outpaced Obama in drone strikes AND decided reporting on the deaths was too pesky. We may never know the full extent of the death toll, but it’s most assuredly the highest to date.

Agreed. It would take nothing less than full, intentional hypocrisy to condemn Obama without condemning Trump for being worse.

[Breccia]

This wasn’t at some random appearance, it was at their GOP convention.

Yep, that matches with what else we've been seeing.

It's the Party of Trump. Your choices are exile, or sucking the flaccid orange dick.

[Kaleredar]

Yep, that matches with what else we've been seeing.

It's the Party of Trump. Your choices are exile, or sucking the flaccid orange dick.

I do so hope that the various legal proceedings against trump are progressing at a steady pace. The gop placing all their eggs in such a criminally and civilly litigable basket could end up dealing them a massive blow if an election cycle coincides with ongoing charges being brought against trump or him being trapped in courtrooms.

[Breccia]

I do so hope that the various legal proceedings against trump are progressing at a steady pace. The gop placing all their eggs in such a criminally and civilly litigable basket could end up dealing them a massive blow if an election cycle coincides with ongoing charges being brought against trump or him being trapped in courtrooms.

I honestly don't believe even being brought to trial will be enough. Anyone willing to leave his base for going to trial, left when he started a murderous insurrection. That said, it would keep him from throwing rallies.

Of course, if Trump is actually found guilty and/or liable, that might work. Of course, it's too late for them. They've chosen to be the Party of Trump, as we've seen strong evidence of today. At best, the Party of Trump could carry on his ideals, but only Trump is Trump. The 10-20% loss they'd get overnight would, however, be enough to cost them some purple races.

[Kaleredar]

I honestly don't believe even being brought to trial will be enough. Anyone willing to leave his base for going to trial, left when he started a murderous insurrection. That said, it would keep him from throwing rallies.

Of course, if Trump is actually found guilty and/or liable, that might work. Of course, it's too late for them. They've chosen to be the Party of Trump, as we've seen strong evidence of today. At best, the Party of Trump could carry on his ideals, but only Trump is Trump. The 10-20% loss they'd get overnight would, however, be enough to cost them some purple races.

I care less about his sycophants and more about the broader political spectrum. It’ll be a lot more difficult for moderates to lean into the party of “guy currently under persecution for numerous crimes.” And I imagine it will be incentivizing for democrats to go out and vote if the person they’re voting against is some criminal-endorsed whackadoo.

[D Luniz]

I honestly don't believe even being brought to trial will be enough. Anyone willing to leave his base for going to trial, left when he started a murderous insurrection. That said, it would keep him from throwing rallies.

Of course, if Trump is actually found guilty and/or liable, that might work. Of course, it's too late for them. They've chosen to be the Party of Trump, as we've seen strong evidence of today. At best, the Party of Trump could carry on his ideals, but only Trump is Trump. The 10-20% loss they'd get overnight would, however, be enough to cost them some purple races.

I doubt it would work, these people were screaming "deep state" before Trump
If he is going to jail, they'll claim he was railroaded or something, and likely go terrorist

[Poopymonster]

I honestly don't believe even being brought to trial will be enough. Anyone willing to leave his base for going to trial, left when he started a murderous insurrection. That said, it would keep him from throwing rallies.

Of course, if Trump is actually found guilty and/or liable, that might work. Of course, it's too late for them. They've chosen to be the Party of Trump, as we've seen strong evidence of today. At best, the Party of Trump could carry on his ideals, but only Trump is Trump. The 10-20% loss they'd get overnight would, however, be enough to cost them some purple races.

The money for lawyers (He'd presumably never pay?) he'd grift from the Right would be a serious drain on their war chest in the next election. So let it drag out a few years. Tap dat ass til it's dryer then Shapiro's wife.

[Masark]

Why younger patients are becoming severely ill with COVID-19--TL;DR: Some of it might be chalked up to mutations, but a lot of it is because younger people feel "invulnerable" to it because of their youth and are eschewing protections and precautions. Idiots.

Or younger persons overwhelmingly work in service jobs where they have to deal with plague vector fuckwits.

Fucking none of the customers pay any attention to distancing. At least 1 in 5 can't be bothered to wear their masks properly (nose hanging out, etc.).

[Breccia]

I doubt it would work, these people were screaming "deep state" before Trump

Yes.

But only Trump mobilized an army.

[Benggaul]

It's time for another episode of It's Always Republicans....

Man Pleads Guilty to Illegal Vote for Trump, Blames 'Stupid Mistake' on 'Too Much Propaganda'

We keep finding evidence of voter fraud...just not the evidence Trump and his braindead supporters keep falsely claiming.

[Breccia]

Utah's GOP held a vote to censure Romney for daring to question Trump.

[url=https://www.axios.com/mitt-romney-censure-vote-fails-utah-gop-vote-1f4a278b-398b-4a3f-a44e-485d9d42759b.html]It failed, 711 to 798.

In a related story, 1500+ is a lot of people to convene for a vote.

[Captain N]

In a related story, 1500+ is a lot of people to convene for a vote.

And quite telling about how many cult followers in the GOP reside in Utah.

Every passing day the Republican Party proves its end goal is to be a cartoon villain.

[Nastard]

Of course, if Trump is actually found guilty and/or liable, that might work.

If he's found guilty it won't be enough. These people believe Trump was robbed of an election without any evidence backing it up. If he's found guilty it will be proof of a corrupt system trying to bring down the poor downtrodden underdog Trump once again. It was rigged against him yet again! The only way it works is if he accepts full blame for everything he's done. And let's be real here, he was literally unable to take responsibility for a TYPO.

[Azadina]

If he's found guilty it won't be enough. These people believe Trump was robbed of an election without any evidence backing it up. If he's found guilty it will be proof of a corrupt system trying to bring down the poor downtrodden underdog Trump once again. It was rigged against him yet again! The only way it works is if he accepts full blame for everything he's done. And let's be real here, he was literally unable to take responsibility for a TYPO.

His fanatics would simply claim he was forced to make that confession under threats from evil demoncrats and deep state media and whatever they can come up with.

[Breccia]

His fanatics would simply claim he was forced to make that confession under threats from evil demoncrats and deep state media and whatever they can come up with.

Actually I'd be okay with that. It'd be admission Trump was powerless and weak.

[Benggaul]

Saturday's quick report:

42,040 new cases; 664 deaths, bringing the total to 590,707. 15 states not reporting. Both numbers are down a decent amount from last Saturday, but given that New York is among the states that did not report (on time--first time I've seen them not have updated reports throughout the day for this whole thing) it's not as dramatic as it appears.

As time goes on it's becoming apparent that reports from Saturday to Monday are just going to become more and more inaccurate, partly due to a variety of circumstances but also due to the increased apathy of certain states/government officials. I guess the virus takes weekends off now, y'all.

Related news:

More than 101 million Americans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19--I find this more impressive than the 200 million doses. It's great news and needs to continue.

Stay safe, folks.

[Endus]

What really scares me about this continuation of the GOtrumP is that he will die, and probably soon, and if they make some kind of golden-calf martyr out of him, they will just continue down the batshit path of insanity, with comments on policy including "Trump would have wanted it that way", and pushing a bare-intellectual cult of deplorables into something, somehow, worse.

That's a feature™, not a bug.

Trump didn't bring any of this about. He didn't change the party. He's the excuse. He was as venal and abusive and hateful and petty and vindictive as Republicans have always secretly been since, oh, around about Nixon's era (and I honestly have difficulty including Nixon as part of this shift, but by Reagan, it was full-force). He ripped his mask off and dared anyone to judge him negatively, and Republicans adored that, because they all wanted to take their masks off and stop pretending to be decent people. It's gotta be exhausting, trying to maintain the doublethink of "fiscal conservativism" while simultaneously pushing for more wars and police hardware and drug wars and so on. To claim it's "just about finances" when their targets are inevitably ethnic minorities and LGBT people. It's so much easier and freeing to just admit you're bigoted. That's why the counters stopped being shocked "I can't be racist", and started becoming "oh yeah? You're just as racist too, commie!"

Trump represents ideological liberation. Republicans are free to publicly be who they've always been. They haven't changed, they're just being more honest about it for once. That's why they'll never give Trump up; he doesn't actually represent any kind of change in their beliefs. Just freedom from constraint. That's why they treat him as practically Christ-like; it's the same kind of saviour syndrome, to them.

Tearing Trump down is just gonna be a crucifixion equivalent. It won't stop anything. Because he was never the origin. He didn't make Republicans into anti-intellectual bigots. He just let them feel proud of it, again.

[Breccia]

I find this more impressive than the 200 million doses.

As do I, and I realize too late I earlier said "200 million vaccinated" when that's not really true.