Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Poopymonster]

Now, I'm no corrupt politician, but... I do have to wonder why these fucks bothered sticking their necks out for Trump and basically sinking themselves into these horrid quagmires essentially of their own making. I'd have assumed that ol' Ghouliani was more or less retired, fairly well off, and out of the public eye prior to his involvement in the Trump administration.

Was it simply greed that drove ghouly here and others to basically wade out into the Trump cesspit until their feet got stuck? Hoping from some grand payoff from Trump or via association with him? None of these people that have either gone down or are teetering on being consumed by the Trump debacle blast zone strike me as particular ideologues who care about pushing some moral position from their newfound place of authority, even if that moral position was a terrible one. I always got the impression that they were always in it for the money.

Either way, I hope the law comes crashing down on them with full force and fury.

They thought Trump would win a second term. Then a Republican would be #46 for 8 years. They'd sweep the Senate and House. They felt safe thinking they'd never be held accountable. Statute of Limitations? They could wait it out in most cases.

[Felya]

If they could grow with Trump, he'd have won a second term, surely?

Seeing as Florida was just joined by Texas in implementing new voting restrictions, they are conceding they can’t win elections. What they need, is someone who would convince enough people that voting can’t be trusted. No one has been as successful as Trump, in doing just that.

[solinari6]

It’s time for guess the speaker!

https://mobile.twitter.com/Acyn/stat...82019738521600

Lady G admitting the GOP is committed to fascism and their one true leader. Video in link, but when your political movement is entirely tied to someone like Trump you may as well just openly admit you desire the death of democracy.

So, has it occurred to Lady G, that the person he thinks the GOP can't live without, might very well end up in jail? Then what? LOL

[Dontrike]

So, has it occurred to Lady G, that the person he thinks the GOP can't live without, might very well end up in jail? Then what? LOL

More likely by the time the election comes he'll be 77/78 and likely won't all be there even more so, mentally and especially physically.

[tehdang]

Article in question.
Politico really making me question them recently.


No, I wasn't sure where to actually put this.

Politico's job is to report the counterargument to "Biden should ignore Doocy because Fox is basically the propaganda arm of the Republican party." Which, to their credit, they distill to "Biden’s team wants to avoid the combative, disruptive attitude his predecessor took toward the media. They also acknowledge that Peter Doocy is a proxy for a huge audience, or a sizeable slice of it anyway, that still might be reachable with Biden’s message. By engaging with Fox, a president who campaigned on unifying the country stands a better chance of getting through to voters he wants, and ultimately might need."

Any news site should report on plans not involving writing off the most popular cable network in the country and their dedicated audience. I say this even if Politico doesn't have a single writer or editor that thinks it's the right move. Their audience would be misinformed to think Biden/Psaki has no reason to keep calling on Doocy and others.

[Edge-]

Politico's job is to report the counterargument to "Biden should ignore Doocy because Fox is basically the propaganda arm of the Republican party."

Why is that their job? I thought they covered political news, not one reporters desperate attempts to portray themselves as a victim?

[tehdang]

Why is that their job? I thought they covered political news, not one reporters desperate attempts to portray themselves as a victim?

Certain reporters had been pushing Biden's press office to stop taking questions from Doocy at Fox News. They should report on the the other considerations that might have led the administration to decide otherwise. And they did decide otherwise, or have up to this point.

They should really consider a different business if their readership is left without a written clue to Psaki and Biden's decision making.

[Felya]

Certain reporters had been pushing Biden's press office to stop taking questions from Doocy at Fox News. They should report on the the other considerations that might have led the administration to decide otherwise. And they did decide otherwise, or have up to this point.

Why did they decide anything? Why is not changing how they have been responding, the result of a choice?

You can some up this controversy, by saying... nothing happened...

[Benggaul]

Thursday's report:

47,819 new cases; about 12k fewer than last Thursday.

Top 5:

Fuck Florida.
Michigan: 4,113 new cases; 123 deaths
Pennsylvania: 3,268 new cases; 51 deaths
New York: 2,964 new cases; 33 deaths
Texas: 2,724 new cases; 65 deaths

Florida might well finish off the week having the top spot every single day, though Michigan's making it a close thing. For the most part the rest of the trends for the week are holding as well. California's total was a bit higher this week compared to last Thursday (2,582) but still very low comparatively. In any case the week as a whole has been going fairly well so far and I'm loathe to make any predictions lest I jinx it.

860 deaths is slightly lower than last Thursday and brings the total to 594,006. Michigan's silly system puts them at the top spot today but California also edged over 100 (101) again. I don't expect that's the start of a trend, just a minor fluctuation.

Related news:

Former COVID-19 patients surprise their front-line heroes on National Nurses Day--Wanted to give you a break from the news I posted yesterday about the ACTUAL number of deaths. Nice little feel-good story.

US rolls out carrots and expands access in push to get holdouts vaccinated against Covid-19--Some good programs here that might lure some of the reticent. I'm sure there will be Trumpers who will claim they're not getting it but secretly get it for access to some goodies.

Stay safe, folks.

[Edge-]

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/05/...rted-cesspool/

What's up with Trump World? Not much, just some very casual and blatant antisemitism. Apparently.

[tehdang]

Why did they decide anything? Why is not changing how they have been responding, the result of a choice?

You can some up this controversy, by saying... nothing happened...

The reporting is on the conflict of approaches to Doocy and Fox News. And keeping the same stance towards reporters as in past years is a choice; just like Trump decided to suddenly change things by making the opposite choice. And it’s a news article not omg controversy.

[cubby]

@Edge- and/or @cubby is there any chance these charges were delayed until the Barr was closed?

I see what you did there....

Highly likely those and many other charges will be coming out now that the Grifters of Politics aren't running the show.

We're seeing that Rudi was passed on being prosecuted. This guy mentioned above. Plus, we're going to see the memo Barr used to justify NOT indicting the Resident when he was occupying the White House. For those that are curious, the SoL for Obstruction of Justice is 5 years. Trump is still within that time frame, and if the DoJ does pursue charges against Trump, I would expect those to be included.

[Edge-]

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/07/polit...ats/index.html

The fuck is up with Trump supporters and sending death threats to literally everyone they don't like? The latest target is AZ Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who now has a protection detail because she's called out the bullshit with the "audit".

[Breccia]

The fuck is up with Trump supporters and sending death threats to literally everyone they don't like?

That sounds like literal terrorism.

[Sterling Archer]

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.

Not to go all Sir James Murray here, but honest implies someone is forthright and scrupulous. I think the word you're looking for is shameless, meaning unable to feel disgrace or remorse.

[Benggaul]

Friday's report:

49,491 new cases, roughly 10k fewer than last Friday. Another decent drop to close out the week.

Top 6:

Fuck Florida.
Michigan: 3,367 new cases; 30 deaths
Illinois: 3,321 new cases; 41 deaths
New York: 2,701 new cases; 33 deaths
Pennsylvania: 2,647 new cases; 50 deaths
Texas: 2,600 new cases; 59 deaths

Not much more for me to say that I haven't already said the past few days. Most of the same trends are holding. Florida continues being Florida. Illinois had a slight increase over their previous Friday total, but their positivity remains below 5% with nearly half the population having received at least one dose of the vaccine, so I'm not expecting a sudden huge outbreak there. We're heading into the weekend with most states looking decent, all things considered.

777 deaths is slightly fewer than last Friday and brings the total to 594,911. As I've said a few times the death total has more or less plateaued over the past few weeks, but I expect it to dip further in another week or so given the sharp decline in cases. Hopefully. We'll see.

Related news:

CDC may roll out seasonal Covid-19 boosters to protect against variants--We've known for a while that these vaccines were likely to become annual or bi-annual affairs, but I'm frankly glad that there are people looking ahead for other rocks in the shallows. We've come a long way from "it's only one person coming in from China", after all.

Stay safe, folks.

[Gorsameth]

It’s time for guess the speaker!



https://mobile.twitter.com/Acyn/stat...82019738521600

Lady G admitting the GOP is committed to fascism and their one true leader. Video in link, but when your political movement is entirely tied to someone like Trump you may as well just openly admit you desire the death of democracy.

Someone earlier linked a poll that showed that half of the Republicans are loyal to Trump over the GoP.
The notion that the GoP can't exist without Trump may well be factually accurate.

[Breccia]

Someone earlier linked a poll that showed that half of the Republicans are loyal to Trump over the GoP.

Only half? I thought it would be higher.

Now to be fair, even if it was 10% this is a problem for the GOP. We've already seen they the Republican Party does not represent the majority of America. We know this to be the case, when they bent their moral values to contain the gun nuts and the Religious Right, who you'd think wouldn't get along considering what Jesus said about killing people. (Spoiler alert: it was "don't") But there have been some close elections that a 10% loss of Republican votes would have cost them. We'd be in Clinton's second term by now. They need to bow and scrape, since they're already at the limits of gerrymandering and are now going with flat-out voter suppression efforts.

Honestly, the best thing that could happen for the remaining classic Republicans is for Trump to get caught doing something so vile, even his own rabid fanbase would turn on him. There's not a lot of options, we've already seen him cheat on every wife he had, hire illegal immigrants, refuse to pay literally hundreds of people, run a mafia from inside the WH and start a violent rebellion. It's down to "Melania has abortion" or "Trump goes on the stand and asked about Epstein flights" at this point. Failing that, they need him silenced. That means an effective lifetime prison sentence, or death. Until then, since every waking breath Trump takes is exhaled as conspiracy theories about the election and tearing the GOP in...whatever two parts by labeling everyone who does not side with Trump as the enemy, the GOP will slowly lose members who were loyal to the party over Trump, replace them with loyaltists (like Gaetz!) who have less experience and no clear direction of their own, and cause permanent damage to their party during Harris' next eight years. Or, worse for everyone, somehow turn the country into a Trump-led dictatorship just before he dies of acute fatass.

- - - Updated - - -

A new report shows that Barr and Trump's DoJ tried to get phone numbers of WaPo journalists, and also tried to access their email records without their consent.

Basically, Biden's DoJ ratted out Trump's DoJ. They were also kind enough to say "by the way, it didn't work".

[D Luniz]

*snip*
- - - Updated - - -

A new report shows that Barr and Trump's DoJ tried to get phone numbers of WaPo journalists, and also tried to access their email records without their consent.

Basically, Biden's DoJ ratted out Trump's DoJ. They were also kind enough to say "by the way, it didn't work".

and the comments of the 2 sites I saw that on were flooded with "But Obama" deflectors

but Im here for something else

Im sure you all heard about
Cybersecurity Attack Shuts Down A Top U.S. Gasoline Pipeline

well, Im just gonna drop a reminder of what Trump did 3 years ago, and go get dinner. Cause I felt like kicking his presidency in the gut while filling my own.


Trump eliminates job of national cybersecurity coordinator May 15, 2018

Trump fires DHS cybersecurity chief Chris Krebs Nov 17, 2020

[Stormspark]

and the comments of the 2 sites I saw that on were flooded with "But Obama" deflectors

but Im here for something else

Im sure you all heard about
Cybersecurity Attack Shuts Down A Top U.S. Gasoline Pipeline

well, Im just gonna drop a reminder of what Trump did 3 years ago, and go get dinner. Cause I felt like kicking his presidency in the gut while filling my own.


Trump eliminates job of national cybersecurity coordinator May 15, 2018

Trump fires DHS cybersecurity chief Chris Krebs Nov 17, 2020

Gas prices are probably going to go through the roof. Fortunately, I am working from home for the next 2 months before we go back into the office. My work is right across the street so I can walk. I currently drive 5 miles/week (grocery shopping only), my current car is a 2014 Prius (I get gas about 4 times/year). I'm trading it in, it has very low mileage and is still worth 10k, so I am not doing any nonessential driving. In 2 weeks, I am getting a Tesla Model 3, basically just waiting on the car to be delivered. I have a feeling the new car is going to pay for itself once gas prices skyrocket.