Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[gondrin]

This is what I imagine a Trump trial will look like. Except the ending, that would need to be changed.

[cubby]

god even GeoCities web sites lasted longer....

how embarrassing. Obama got millions in deals and successful endeavors after his term....trump can't maintain a blog.

Obama's Foundation was so overwhelmed with applications to work there he had to limit consideration initially to only people who had previously worked with him. Trump's foundation was shut down for fraud, and the Trump's barred from starting or working in one for years.

Ladies and Gentleman - the two Americas.

[Kaleredar]

god even GeoCities web sites lasted longer....

how embarrassing. Obama got millions in deals and successful endeavors after his term....trump can't maintain a blog.

It’s because most people with money are smart enough to know that publicly supporting him is bad for business.

...most

[Breccia]

"A Trump adviser told The Washington Post that the former president shut down his blog because he didn’t like that this platform was being mocked and had so few readers."

I mean...who was mocking it if it had no readers? Was this Shroedinger's Blog?

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It was 2.6 Mooches, they.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA oh man, that's a win post right there.

Hes a former President under Secret Service protection. He isn't going to jail, impossible to protect him there.

Rich people go to Club Fed, true. But once it's found he's a chain felon, I'm willing to bet his protections could be stripped. Imagine being not just the first person impeached twice, but the first impeached three times.

It would require the Party of Trump to sign off on it, of course, so the difference is moot.

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I'm just going to jump out in front of this one.

New York could foot the bill for Cuomo's legal bills.

"This is an outrage! If a Repub--"

(points at thread title)

"Oh. Right."

Yeah. If anyone dares to express outrage about this, without also expressing concern about Trump using Barr as his personal lawyer for defamation charges and having the IRS block his taxes, they are a hypocrite and their feigned outrage can be objectively shown as such and therefore handwaved.

[Poopymonster]

This is what I imagine a Trump trial will look like. Except the ending, that would need to be changed.

Pants off to you my good person.

Now to rewatch that movie tomorrow.

[Fugus]

Hes a former President under Secret Service protection. He isn't going to jail, impossible to protect him there. At worst he will be put under house arrest.

Not necessarily, they can put him in prison and under one of the more protected areas or actually force him to have a wing isolated to him. Put him in a wing where they have to put pedo's, rapists, and snitches for their protection or in a wing with just him and the guards.

[Breccia]

The NYTimes reports that Trump's DoJ seized records for NYTimes reporters --

"You already posted that. Twice, I think."

This is a new list. Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eric Lichtblau and Michael S. Schmidt were apparently investigated for their April 22, 2017 article about how Comey wasn't going to prosecute Clinton for using a private email server. (As a reminder, "used a nongovt server for govt communications" isn't even in the top 100 Trump fuckups anymore. Looking back at a special prosecutor to arrest Clinton for this seems hyperbolic at this stage)

Again, this was Trump acting with dictatorial intent (luckily the DoJ didn't seem to get very far). Four months into office.

[Benggaul]

To me the numbers still look really "iffy", but I'll do Wednesday's report anyway:

16,974 new cases; about 7k fewer than last Wednesday.

Top 5:

Texas: 2,417 new cases; 52 deaths
Fuck Florida.
Arizona: 915 new cases; 55 deaths
California: 825 new cases; 35 deaths
Washington: 754 new cases; 9 deaths

See what I mean? Yeah, anyway, Texas' 2k+ total is likely due to corrections from the weekend (though they've been swapping spaces back and forth with Florida for number one spot for a while now) and I expect other states will also have similar discrepancies for the rest of the week. I do believe nationally there's a good chance we're under 20k cases legitimately for a few days this week which would be the first time that's happened (not including underreported weekends/holidays) since June of last year. Meanwhile, Montana has overtaken South Dakota as the state with the worst positivity rate--how fucked up is your COVID response when your lower-population states have the worst percentage of cases? Both of them, however, have a higher percentage of vaccinated population than Texas. All of them, including Florida, have less than 50% with at least one dose.

514 deaths is over 100 deaths fewer than last Wednesday and brings the total to 611,020. Florida and Texas again topped the list, though again there's no telling how (in)accurate the numbers are for this today. The rest of the week will be filled with corrections that inflate the numbers a bit.

Related news:

70% of adults in 12 states have received at least 1 COVID vaccine dose: CDC--Good start, and the bulk of those are in the Northeast, as expected. You can guess which states are going to once again be dragging the rest of the nation down.

Anheuser-Busch offers to 'buy America's next round'; shots for shotguns in West Virginia vaccine lottery--More carrots, though West Virginia can go fuck themselves with this one. "Save a life and change your life. The more we can get vaccinated, the faster we’ll get to saving all kinds of additional lives" said WV governor Jim Justice, announcing a lottery to give away weapons capable of taking lives. It's no wonder Manchin's such a preening schmuck if this is the stock he comes from.

Stay safe, folks.

[Katchii]

Why would they worry about protecting a criminal ex-president, in that circumstance? Moreso than the usual white-collar criminal, anyway?

Can't be fear of external attacks; a prison's about the safest place he could be.

Telling secrets that can get out is about the only thing I can think of. SS isn't just there to protect HIM, it's to protect what he knows and prevent him or his knowledge from being used.

I have absolutely zero doubts that Trump would sing like a canary if he ended up in a "problematic" situation if he thought he could use that to get out of it. I'm pretty sure everyone else thinks the same thing.

[Benggaul]

Telling secrets that can get out is about the only thing I can think of. SS isn't just there to protect HIM, it's to protect what he knows and prevent him or his knowledge from being used.

I have absolutely zero doubts that Trump would sing like a canary if he ended up in a "problematic" situation if he thought he could use that to get out of it. I'm pretty sure everyone else thinks the same thing.

Of course, this presumes Trump actually knows anything. Given how hard the staff had to work to get him to pay attention to briefings I doubt any of it sunk in.

[Katchii]

Of course, this presumes Trump actually knows anything. Given how hard the staff had to work to get him to pay attention to briefings I doubt any of it sunk in.

You may have a point, but I highly doubt that he didn't learn ANYTHING in those 4 years. There's no telling what he does or doesn't know/ remember. And as I said, given his propensity to suffer from sudden onset diarrhea of the mouth, SS has the very REAL challenge of trying to make sure it doesn't get on the wrong persons shoes (into the wrong persons ears).

[Benggaul]

You may have a point, but I highly doubt that he didn't learn ANYTHING in those 4 years. There's no telling what he does or doesn't know/ remember. And as I said, given his propensity to suffer from sudden onset diarrhea of the mouth, SS has the very REAL challenge of trying to make sure it doesn't get on the wrong persons shoes (into the wrong persons ears).

I'm mainly being facetious. Mainly. Though given the stuff he's spouted in the past 4-5 years I'd think his value as a leaker has suffered too given that at least 90% of if has been complete fabricated bullshit.

[Katchii]

I'm mainly being facetious. Mainly. Though given the stuff he's spouted in the past 4-5 years I'd think his value as a leaker has suffered too given that at least 90% of if has been complete fabricated bullshit.

The term that I think applies very appropriately to Trump in this case is "Useful Idiot."

[Benggaul]

The term that I think applies very appropriately to Trump in this case is "Useful Idiot."

I'm sure that's what the GOP thought, though he doesn't appear to have been very useful to them. He's tearing their party apart and gained them practically nothing substantial during his time in office. Seems like he was too much "idiot" and not enough "useful".

[DarkTZeratul]

They packed the courts which was their entire goal on the national level. As such he was as useful as he could have been. More so since he isn’t smart enough to evaluate candidates himself and relied on them to tell him what to do. Mission accomplished.

Unfortunately, his base of absolute deplorables means they couldn't just dump him once he was no longer useful. They're now saddled with his shit forever.

[cubby]

They packed the courts which was their entire goal on the national level. As such he was as useful as he could have been. More so since he isn’t smart enough to evaluate candidates himself and relied on them to tell him what to do. Mission accomplished.

Agreed. 3 SCOTUS seats in one term is a record (outside court size increases). And the YUGE tax break for the rich. GOP doesn't really have much more on their agenda. Most of their bigoted agenda will be addressed by SCOTUS - voting rights, trans rights, gay marriage even, Roe is on it's way out.

Trump was a huge success for the GOP, in many ways.

[DarkTZeratul]

Trump was a huge success for the GOP, in many ways.

And all it cost was their souls.

[Belize]

And all it cost was their souls.

Let's not pretend they had much of that left even prior to Trump.

Republicans have been soulless anti-american tools since at least the Clinton Admin w/ Newt Gingrich.

[Benggaul]

Agreed. 3 SCOTUS seats in one term is a record (outside court size increases). And the YUGE tax break for the rich. GOP doesn't really have much more on their agenda. Most of their bigoted agenda will be addressed by SCOTUS - voting rights, trans rights, gay marriage even, Roe is on it's way out.

Trump was a huge success for the GOP, in many ways.

ANYONE the GOP got into office would have rubber stamped all of the judges and the tax break; it didn't take Trump to do it. And it's costing them now. Not nearly enough yet, but it will continue to do so as time goes on and they reap what they've sown. Trump cost them what should have been a slam-dunk incumbent win, control of the Senate and continues burning bridges for them every time he opens his mouth. He has cost them members of their own party as his influence over his brain-dead base forces them to cannibalize themselves. It's not going to stop anytime soon.

[cubby]

ANYONE the GOP got into office would have rubber stamped all of the judges and the tax break; it didn't take Trump to do it. And it's costing them now. Not nearly enough yet, but it will continue to do so as time goes on and they reap what they've sown. Trump cost them what should have been a slam-dunk incumbent win, control of the Senate and continues burning bridges for them every time he opens his mouth. He has cost them members of their own party as his influence over his brain-dead base forces them to cannibalize themselves. It's not going to stop anytime soon.

True re anyone, but we're not talking about theoretical here - this is about what actually happened. And what actually happened is that Trump delivered for the GOP by winning the 2016 election, giving McConnell what he wanted - three SCOTUS seats and the Tax Break for the Rich. And Trump has certainly cost them in other categories, most notably the Senate, and the Insurrection. But the GOP also gained seats in the House, and barely lost the Senate.

Don't get me wrong - I agree with you overall, Trump is turning into more of a liability every day. And the incumbent win issue should have libraries built with the studies that are going to come out of that debacle.