Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[postman1782]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/26/polit...ges/index.html

Coming 2 hours ago roughly, John Eastman is getting 11 disciplinary charges in California looking to disbar him from ever being a lawyer.

https://www.documentcloud.org/docume...n-john-eastman

[Breccia]

Coming 2 hours ago roughly, John Eastman is getting 11 disciplinary charges in California looking to disbar him from ever being a lawyer.

There's enough public info for California to form a decision without anyone taking the stand. Eastman should be facing criminal charges, but this is a start.

[Masark]

Yeah. That's a blatant lie, as Nielsen ratings cited above show.

Maybe he meant tenths of millions.

[Breccia]

Maybe he meant tenths of millions.

Well if he's going to lie like that, he can suck millions of dicks.

[Paranoid Android]

William Barr wanted John Durham to dig into the investigation, but his review found no wrongdoing — and veered into a criminal inquiry related to Donald Trump.

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1...Y8b_8e-RQ&s=19

So this is big. Another link for short description.

And when Italian officials told Barr and Durham about Trump's possible financial misdealings what did they do? Barr gave Durham the authority to investigate it, they kept the probe a secret -- and then they apparently buried whatever they found.

https://twitter.com/TimOBrien/status...PlF5WP34w&s=19

So who weaponized the DOJ?

So Barr setup Dirham investigation into Clinton and Russia. Well it was bullshit and 4 years later nothing. He tried 2 people but both acquitted.

Story says Barr would inquire most often about the investigation. Barr and Durham pressed questionable Russia who had access to emails about George Soros.

Barr and Durham searched everywhere and nothing. Yet they found from Italy about Trump's financial dealings. This was buried.

When Durham said he found a criminal probe and right wing media hyped it up. It was about Trump. Then when this was clear, Republicans buried it cause it didn't help politically.


I hope every outlet and whoever one last bleeping time give credence to Bill Barr.

My last word to @tehdang, who I happily is on my ignore list because of this story. When I offered evidence at least a year ago and this person who ignored stories and just claimed 'my opinion' or something. A tactic I have read since where acknowledging of facts is dismissed just to make stupid banter.

[Edge-]

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1...Y8b_8e-RQ&s=19

So this is big. Another link for short description.



https://twitter.com/TimOBrien/status...PlF5WP34w&s=19

So who weaponized the DOJ?

So Barr setup Dirham investigation into Clinton and Russia. Well it was bullshit and 4 years later nothing. He tried 2 people but both acquitted.

Story says Barr would inquire most often about the investigation. Barr and Durham pressed questionable Russia who had access to emails about George Soros.

Barr and Durham searched everywhere and nothing. Yet they found from Italy about Trump's financial dealings. This was buried.

When Durham said he found a criminal probe and right wing media hyped it up. It was about Trump. Then when this was clear, Republicans buried it cause it didn't help politically.


I hope every outlet and whoever one last bleeping time give credence to Bill Barr.

My last word to @tehdang, who I happily is on my ignore list because of this story. When I offered evidence at least a year ago and this person who ignored stories and just claimed 'my opinion' or something. A tactic I have read since where acknowledging of facts is dismissed just to make stupid banter.

There's just no way that the Durham investigation was political in intent! No way at all!

I mean sure, Durham found literally nothing, with the worst being a "process crime" that conservatives keep telling us is basically a jaywalking ticket - and that didn't even stick.

Overall I'm glad it happened, they got their investigation without any interruption or meddling from "libs" and it turned up literally nothing. After years of breathlessly discussing the DURHAM BOMBSHELLS they end up with a nothingberder.

That doesn't appear to be deterring them though, since they're ignoring those results and continuing the complaints and narrative. But for the rest of us, it sure was expected and hilarious.

[gondrin]

So, in typical Trumpian fashion, Truth Social is now courting ads from scammers seeing as they cannot get typical advertisers.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...1abec5626ac068

'Scammed' users rage at Trump over 'misleading gimmicks' on Truth Social

Because major advertisers are avoiding Donald Trump's Truth Social, users are instead being exposed to a flood of ads from what the New York Times characterizes as "miracle cures, scams and fake merchandise," as the platform is forced to take what it can in an effort to survive.

That, in turn, has led to complaints aimed at the former president in his comment sections for allowing the forum to turn into a cesspool of ads from scam artists.

As the Times is reporting, Truth Social is almost devoid of ads from large corporations for a multitude of reasons that include the toxic rhetoric on the site, its small reach due to few users and the fact that the predominant demographic is not one that advertisers are trying to reach.

As the Times' Stuart Thompson wrote, "Ads from major brands are nonexistent on the site. Instead, the ads on Truth Social are for alternative medicine, diet pills, gun accessories and Trump-themed trinkets, according to an analysis of hundreds of ads on the social network by The New York Times," before adding, "The ads reflect the difficulty that several far-right platforms, including Rumble and Gab, have faced in courting large brands, preventing the sites from tapping into some of the world’s largest ad budgets."

As the report notes, Truth Social was initially financed with $37 million from GOP donors, and is currently estimated to be burning through $1.7 million per month and money is running out because of problems with the Security Exchange Commission.

Upon it's launch, Devin Nunes, the chief executive of Trump Media, announced major advertisers would flock to the site -- which has not happened -- and the gap has been filled by companies that are much less desirable.

Add to that, according to one advertiser, the money he has spent on Truth Social has gone nowhere when it comes to sales.

"Maxwell Finn, an online marketer, said in a YouTube video that he was one of Truth Social’s top advertisers, spending more than $150,000 on ads, including those for Trump-themed hats, shirts, coins and novelty bills. In the video, he called the ad platform 'frustrating' and 'bare bones,' adding that it lacked even basic functionality, forcing his company to manually track ad performance — a method that would prove impossible for advertisers with larger budgets," the report states with Finn explaining, "Do I think this is a platform where you can be spending tens of thousands of dollars a day, especially if you only have a few products? No, probably. The audience is just too small.”

As for those who are still advertising on the site, fans of the former president are furious that advertisers are not being vetted.

"Over time, the low-quality ads on Truth Social have irritated its own users, who have complained to Mr. Trump after repeatedly seeing the same disturbing images or after falling for misleading gimmicks," the Times is reporting before adding an example of one user complaining directly to Trump, "Can you not vet the ads on Truth? I’ve been scammed more than once.”

Fool someone once, shame on you. Fool someone twice, must be a Trump supporter.

[Edge-]

Wait...$150K like...annually? Total? Monthly? Because if it's annually or total, that's uh...well...very, very, very, very bad for the company's financials.

And they built Truth without extensive analytics? No platform/advertisers tools like dashboards to review past campaigns and compare against more recent ones?

Also, aren't these the types of ads this crowd sees most places they go on the internet given that they're usually into the "parallel economy" and these are the only companies that are desperate enough to advertise to that crowd?

[gondrin]

Wait...$150K like...annually? Total? Monthly? Because if it's annually or total, that's uh...well...very, very, very, very bad for the company's financials.

And they built Truth without extensive analytics? No platform/advertisers tools like dashboards to review past campaigns and compare against more recent ones?

Also, aren't these the types of ads this crowd sees most places they go on the internet given that they're usually into the "parallel economy" and these are the only companies that are desperate enough to advertise to that crowd?

Yep. I can probably put a $1000 bet on the fact some are trying to sell them gold, some are trying to sell essential oils and "supplements", books on how to end the fed, books on buying property in Belize or some other developing nation that ends up being outright scams. Probably a crypto ad for good measure.

[Breccia]

"The audience is just too small.”

So, selling blue pills, then?

You can find my lack of sympathy for the people who intentionally signed up into a Trump safe space, getting scammed, in the empty space below.

[jonnysensible]

lol did desantis ban pink floyd

[Edge-]

lol did desantis ban pink floyd

I see one substack article and tweet thread from the same person about this, so not inclined to believe it yet. I imagine if this really was 4 hour old news there'd be a LOT more on it, especially some actual video or documentation or something.

Though the whole Pink Floyd shit is absolutely hilarious. Fake fans being super outraged because none of them have ever actually owned, watched, or listened to Dark Side of the Moon.



HOW DARE THEY GO WOKE ALL THE WAY BACK IN 1973!

Edit: The DeSantis bit is super fake - https://mobile.twitter.com/cmclymer/...07488359305216

“You know, when I was in high school and college, rockers were men’s men,” he said in response to reporters. “I’d pop in a Judas Priest CD on the way to class and feel amped. You remember Rob Halford? That guy was a beast. Women loved him.”

Ain't nobody gonna believe for a second that Ron DeSantis has ever listened to Judas Priest, or that he knows who Rob Halford is.

https://mobile.twitter.com/cmclymer/...07493337919489

DeSantis appeared briefly confused at muffled laughter from the gathered press.

“I mean, look, you can laugh at my taste in music, but you can’t deny that men back then weren’t wearing dresses onstage. You’d never see Kurt Cobain or David Bowie dressing like women.”

Though it's some pretty good satire.

[jonnysensible]

snip

looked like the onion, not gonna lie not a big fan of pink floyd but i had to suffer through a post malone gig at work once and that shit needs to be banned.

[Breccia]

Fake fans being super outraged because none of them have ever actually owned, watched, or listened to Dark Side of the Moon.

I guess the band they're in is playing different tunes?

On topic: three articles that came up while I was stuck in a stupid meeting.

1) Trump’s Killing Spree: The Inside Story of His Race to Execute Every Prisoner He Could

Trump had signed perhaps the lone broadly popular major initiative of his presidency: a bipartisan criminal-justice reform bill. By 2020, however, his political calculus had changed. As he geared up for another election, Trump White House sources say, the president was telling advisers that carrying out capital punishment would insulate him from criticism that he was soft on crime. And in his attorney general, Bill Barr, a longtime death-penalty advocate, he had the perfect accomplice.

The executions, carried out in the name of law and order, took place at a time of peak lawlessness within the White House. While his administration killed prisoners at an unprecedented clip, Trump spent his final months attempting to overturn the 2020 election, culminating in the Jan. 6 ransacking of the U.S. Capitol. And though Trump did show some mercy on his way out the door, it was largely reserved for political cronies such as Paul Manafort and Roger Stone.

The killing spree ended with Trump’s first term, as President Biden suspended capital punishment on the federal level, but it may only have been a pause. The former president is running again — and opened his 2024 campaign with a speech that promised more executions if he wins: “We’re going to be asking [for] everyone who sells drugs, gets caught selling drugs to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts,” Trump said in his November campaign announcement. “Because it is the only way.”

So there is no dancing around this one for Trump supporters. Trump asked for the death penalty for drug dealers.

Incidentally, this is not the first time, either, so this can't be blamed on a random statement or going off-script.

The penalties should be very, very severe. If you look at countries throughout the world, the ones that don’t have a drug problem are ones that institute a very quick trial death penalty sentence for drug dealers
-- Trump, in July

2) 'Trump fatigue' in New Hampshire complicates 2024 White House bid

So as some of you have seen/read/posted, Trump finally waddled his fat ass onto the campaign trail after announcing, what, two-three months ago? Then hiding in his bunker? Anyhow, it doesn't seem to be going well.

In interviews with 10 New Hampshire Republican Party officials and members, some of whom worked on Trump's 2016 primary campaign and all of whom have been staunch Trump supporters in the past, Reuters found only three who were sticking with him this time around - including the state chair, an influential Republican figure who is so enthusiastic about Trump he is stepping down on Saturday to help his campaign.

The rest cited exhaustion with Trump's controversies, exasperation at the constant drama, and a desire to move on from Trump's loss in 2020 with a fresh face who they thought would have a stronger chance of winning in 2024.

Now before anyone says anything -- oh, you can still say it, I just wanna go first -- what's left of the Republican Party still seems to be a bunch of whiney spineless pussies who will back Trump if he starts winning their primaries, just like in 2016. And, just as the GOP learned a while ago they can no longer win elections without the religious right, the gun nuts, or the conspiracy theorists, they also need the Trump cultists, or their party will be split and die. So they'll vote for a Trump, a Lake, or a Santos before they admit that maybe a Democrat might have a good point once in a while.

3) Saved this one for last because...well, just read the headline.

Facebook was a cash cow for Trump. It could end up being a ‘bronze goose.’

Is...is "bronze goose" a thing? Like, has anyone here used that term before? Is Trump playing the Unelected Goose Game?

Anyhow:

Advertising on the social media giant has changed significantly since Trump was last on the platform. Republicans say investments in Facebook no longer translate to small-dollar donors as they once did. Campaigns are spending far less on advertising there. And while the former president has always been a unique draw for conservatives on Facebook, there are significant questions as to whether an out-of-office Trump still has the same pull.

“We saw in the midterms how a lot of campaigns were shifting their money to streaming, because Facebook just was not giving them the return on value that they had seen in the past,” said Katie Harbath, a one-time senior Republican digital staffer who then spent a decade at Facebook, before leaving in early 2021.

“I’ll be curious to see if the Trump team runs into a similar situation,” she added.

Trump's campaign is already on record saying they never should have been banned in the first place. Yes, that means they think instigating violence and baseless election fraud conspiracies should be something a private platform should be required to carry. Butt hat admission, sorry, but that admission means Trump could very easily endorse that philosophy by saying the same shit again, and hopefully when that happens, get thrown off again.

Or maybe FB is spineless too.

The platform Trump is rejoining, however, is different from the one from which he was exiled. And how his team manages those changes could go a long way in determining the success of his efforts for a second term.

For starters, Facebook placed notable restrictions on ad targeting for political clients at the beginning of last year. And in 2021, Apple turned off ad tracking on their phones for users by default.

Those alterations represented a seismic shift for the advertising world. It also had profound impacts on political campaigns. Digital operatives from both parties say the changes have made it less valuable for campaigns to advertise on the social media behemoth.

So Trump is suffering from income loss, voter loss, and morality loss. Not that he had enough of any of them before, but it's not looking great afterwards.

This is likely why we're seeing next to nothing from DeSantis. He doesn't need to enforce Trump's bedtime. He just has to wait until Trump tires himself out, stamping his feet and yelling NO NO NO until he goes down for a widdle nappie (possibly in jail) then he gets to call the shots again.

DeSantis' main issue remains the same: anyone who is not Trump, is not Trump, and will not succeed -- even if Trump specifically endorses them. I mean, we all saw what happened with McCarthy, right? The RNC head is also having issues -- think we have a thread on that one. If Trump stubbornly refuses to go to sleep, the GOParents will come home to find him still screaming his head off while DeSantis stands there and shrugs, loses that babysitting job, and nobody's happy.

Well, Democrats will be.

[jonnysensible]

ooof dunno what thread to chuck this in but seen this yet? suprised to cops didnt blow that cunt away

[Edge-]

ooof dunno what thread to chuck this in but seen this yet? suprised to cops didnt blow that cunt away

So...exactly the story Pelosi and the police were saying happened, and all the conservatives who spent the past however many months saying that the attacker was Paul Pelosi's gay lover are all amoral pieces of dogshit who probably should be hit in the head with a hammer instead.

Man, the wrong people are being assaulted by hammer-wielding conspiracy theorists.

[Kathandira]

So...exactly the story Pelosi and the police were saying happened, and all the conservatives who spent the past however many months saying that the attacker was Paul Pelosi's gay lover are all amoral pieces of dogshit who probably should be hit in the head with a hammer instead.

Man, the wrong people are being assaulted by hammer-wielding conspiracy theorists.

Its obvious projection. How many closeted gay republicans have been found with their lovers? They were dying to find a democrat who also has a gay lover.

[Edge-]

Its obvious projection. How many closeted gay republicans have been found with their lovers? They were dying to find a democrat who also has a gay lover.

We know Grindr activity spikes hard when the RNC rolls into town.

I just wish they'd chill on the homophobia and conspiracy theories a bit, because they literally result in shit like this crazy conspiracy theorist breaking in an assaulting a dude in the middle of the night with a fuckin hammer.

- - - Updated - - -

https://newrepublic.com/post/170239/...ing-conspiracy

Spoilers, even with the actual video of Paul Pelosi being attacked conservatives across the board, including on Fox, are continuing to push conspiracy theories.

Because apparently there's a "proper" way to answer the door when an intruder breaks into your house and threatens you with a hammer in the middle of the night and the cops then knock on the door for a wellness check.

I'm still waiting for one of them to tell me what the appropriate way to behave when answering the door in that situation is.

Reminder: Conservatives continue to out themselves as amoral ghouls. Purely of their own volition, nobody is forcing them to spin the endless conspiracy theories.

[Xyonai]

For no reason at all I'm reminded about all the times prominent conservative figures were 'viciously attacked' by milkshakes or having their hats flipped off or bear macing themselves or losing fights they started on video and how insufferable all the conservative posters and pendants wouldn't shut the fuck up about 'THE LEFT'S UNHINGED VIOLENCE!' and how much that contrasts to the absolutely callous disregard for this attack.

It's as if, again, they don't stand for anything besides being contrarian douche-bags with perpetual victim complexes.

[Breccia]

conservatives across the board, including on Fox, are continuing to push conspiracy theories.

We already know the attack was politcally motivated.

Using violence, force, and threats to change political discourse is the definition of terrorism.

The people you described are defending terrorism. I'm putting this out there, on the off-chance any of our, erm, "genuinie and serious posters" decide they want to side with the attacker on this one. Because objective descriptions of behavior are not insults.