The Trump Thread: Pro? Con? Who cares?

[Billy_T]

In the spirit of thread consolidation, I thought I might start a general, clearing-house, all-things Trump-related post.

Speaking for myself, this is warranted given the power of the presidency to do incredible damage, Trump’s own record of heinous acts, odious words and deeds — often on a daily basis. I’ve tried my damndest not to start new threads for each instance, cuz, well, it would probably take down those Rams-Huddle servers in Reykjavik, Iceland; Heraklion, Crete; and Dr. No’s faux-volcano retreat off the coast of Jamaica. And, as the followers of the Khaleesi put it, “It is known” that as the Rams-Huddle servers go, so goes the entire Internet.

So, without further elaboration, let me introduce to you the new and improved Donald Trump Thread of threads . . .

• This topic was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by Billy_T.

[zn]

Before Trump was elected, some folks I know in various parts of the universe, online and in the “real world,” tried to suggest he wouldn’t be that bad. I always believed he would be even worse than people imagined.

BUT…if you ignore the daily WTF?! moments, all he has done, really, is implement the right-republican agenda, as much as he could.

Which IMO is the absolute worst thing about him.

…

[zn]

Pentagon officials were ‘pounding on the door’ to get Trump to do something about Russia’s assassination bounty: WaPo’s Ignatius https://t.co/g2Q3J0IgUf

— Jorie graham (@jorie_graham) June 30, 2020

[Billy_T]

zn wrote:

Before Trump was elected, some folks I know in various parts of the universe, online and in the “real world,” tried to suggest he wouldn’t be that bad. I always believed he would be even worse than people imagined.

BUT…if you ignore the daily WTF?! moments, all he has done, really, is implement the right-republican agenda, as much as he could.

Which IMO is the absolute worst thing about him.

…

Well said. Agreed.

I thought he was going to be horrifically bad once elected (too). I thought he was full of shit from Day One of his campaign and said so. Never followed his reality TV shows, but what I did know about his history made me cringe. He’s always been a despicable human being, a conman, a cheat, a liar, a serial sexual predator, an extremely arrogant, entitled, privileged uber-brat. But while that was within the confines of his little business/entertainment world, the damage was relatively small.

Hand him the keys to the Kingdom, and I knew, going in, the damage would be colossal.

That said . . . as horrifically bad as I thought he was going to be, I have to admit he’s exceeded my worst fears by a thousand fold.

[Billy_T]

I have more stuff to add later . . . but want to wait a bit in hopes of more posts from you and others, etc. . . .

A link to (IMO) an important New Yorker article:

Why the Mueller Investigation Failed President Trump’s obstructions of justice were broader than those of Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton, and the special counsel’s investigation proved it. How come the report didn’t say so? By Jeffrey Toobin, June 29, 2020

[zn]

BREAKING: Donald Trump’s father “destroyed” him by short-circuiting his “ability to develop and experience the entire spectrum of human emotion,” Trump’s niece says in her new book, obtained by The Washington Post.
By @shaneharris @PostKranishhttps://t.co/Fhe7kGCJnT

— Carol Leonnig (@CarolLeonnig) July 7, 2020

[wv]

Billy_T wrote:

I have more stuff to add later . . . but want to wait a bit in hopes of more posts from you and others, etc. . . .

A link to (IMO) an important New Yorker article:

Why the Mueller Investigation Failed President Trump’s obstructions of justice were broader than those of Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton, and the special counsel’s investigation proved it. How come the report didn’t say so? By Jeffrey Toobin, June 29, 2020

==================

I dont really have anything to say about him, BT. I mean we all agree he’s a monster. I had hopes he would be the anti-NAFTA Trump he ran on. I thought that might outweigh the other obvious monstrous stuff. But he became the worst President ever, I suppose. Hard to calculate these things.

My brain has a very very hard time focusing on Trump though. Even though he’s a monster, even though he’s the Worst. My brain always puts him together WITH the Hillary’s
and the Senate,
and the House,
and Corporate Media,
and the murderous-CIA,
and the idiot-voters
and the whole biosphere-killing Corporotacracy,

Trump is just an image in the Guernica/Dali mash-up postmodern painting.

He’s the flaming Giraffe maybe 🙂

w
v

[wv]

[Billy_T]

wv wrote:

Billy_T wrote:

I have more stuff to add later . . . but want to wait a bit in hopes of more posts from you and others, etc. . . .

A link to (IMO) an important New Yorker article:

Why the Mueller Investigation Failed President Trump’s obstructions of justice were broader than those of Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton, and the special counsel’s investigation proved it. How come the report didn’t say so? By Jeffrey Toobin, June 29, 2020

==================

I dont really have anything to say about him, BT. I mean we all agree he’s a monster. I had hopes he would be the anti-NAFTA Trump he ran on. I thought that might outweigh the other obvious monstrous stuff. But he became the worst President ever, I suppose. Hard to calculate these things.

My brain has a very very hard time focusing on Trump though. Even though he’s a monster, even though he’s the Worst. My brain always puts him together WITH the Hillary’s
and the Senate,
and the House,
and Corporate Media,
and the murderous-CIA,
and the idiot-voters
and the whole biosphere-killing Corporotacracy,

Trump is just an image in the Guernica/Dali mash-up postmodern painting.

He’s the flaming Giraffe maybe 🙂

w
v

I get that it can be difficult to separate him away from the rest of the poison sea. But I think we have to. I think it’s an existential necessity.

This past weekend, for instance, he gave two incredibly incendiary speeches, trying to whip up a civil war in America, again. He’s been ratcheting that up in the midst of a pandemic which he’s dangerously dismissed and downplayed . . . and Tucker Carlson said it was his best yet. And what was at the heart of his message, as he tried to equate the protests and the dissent and the desire to take down Confederate statues with the fascism that Americans like him supposedly defeated back in the day? The “radical left” is the supposed enemy of all Americans and “our way of life.” He might have mentioned that it was that radical left that led the resistance throughout Europe, and has always been its mortal enemy.

What kind of human being does something like that, knowing he has followers who will actually go out and act on this? It’s all the more despicable when he’s the president. And recent championing of the Confederacy? He’s actually stated publicly that he’ll veto any defense bill that tries to rename a base. Seriously, did you ever think you’d live to see a president do that? Or go after the lone black Nascar driver and demand he “apologize” for finding a noose, etc. etc.?

More to post later, and will take a look at your new vid. Thanks for posting that here.

[wv]

Maybe I’m stuck in a left-bubble, but
it seems like the Trumpies are gettin nervous. Feelin the pressure.
===============

[wv]

I dunno why the Dem-powers-that-be havent done more of THIS. The ‘creepy’ factor.
Its not about policies, in a corporate-idiocracy — its about emotion/gut.

Ive been waiting for a long time to see more of this:

[wv]

[zn]

Asked why "African Americans are still dying at the hands of law enforcement," President Trump tells CBS, "So are white people. So are white people. What a terrible question to ask. So are white people. More white people, by the way. More white people." https://t.co/vvyBQyk9kW

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) July 14, 2020

[zn]

BrooklynDad_Defiant!@mmpadellan
I was just about to tweet that trump is the first “president” since James K. Polk not to have a dog, but then I remembered he has Mike Pence

[wv]

Trump wants a “vast garden of american heroes”

——————
Trump:http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176728/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_donald_j._trump%2C_or_osama_bin_laden%27s_revenge/

“The Bleeding Wound”
Osama bin Laden Won (Twice)
By Tom Engelhardt

It’s July 2020 and I’m about to turn 76, which, as far as I’m concerned, officially makes me an old man. So put up with my aging, wandering brain here, since (I swear) I wasn’t going to start this piece with Donald J. Trump, no matter his latest wild claims or bizarre statements, increasingly white nationalist and pro-Confederate positions (right down to the saving of the rebel stars and bars), not to speak of the Covid-19 slaughter of Americans he’s helped facilitate. But then I read about his demand for a “National Garden of American Heroes,” described as “a vast outdoor park that will feature the statues of the greatest Americans to ever live” and, honestly, though this piece is officially about something else, I just can’t help myself. I had to start there.

Yes, everyone undoubtedly understands why General George Patton (a Trump obsession) is to be in that garden, not to speak — given the president’s reelection politics — of evangelist Billy Graham, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and former president Ronald Reagan. Still, my guess is that most of you won’t have the faintest idea why Davy Crockett is included. I’m talking about the frontiersman and Indian killer who died at the Alamo. Given my age, though, I get Donald Trump on this one and it gave me a rare laugh in a distinctly grim moment. That’s why I can’t resist explaining it, even though I guarantee you that the real subject of this piece is Osama bin Laden’s revenge…..see link

[wv]

Sagaar on the 13 point polling swing against the Reps and Trump.

Sounds like a Rep Populist in this vid.

[zn]

More than 6 in 10 Americans do not trust what Trump says about the coronavirus pandemic https://t.co/BpqwP6y2BJ

— Emily Guskin (@EmGusk) July 17, 2020

[JackPMiller]

[zn]

I’m a US Marine. I’ve served this Nation with my life so I know a thing or two about respect for Country. But to keep calling out players for kneeling during National Anthem when you very well know they are doing so to raise awareness for racial injustice is straight disingenuous https://t.co/7yqf88UdEJ

— MuslimMarine (@mansoortshams) July 21, 2020

[wv]

Amy Goodman’s question: “Is the United States being run by a MadMan?”

This is where we are at now 🙂

=============

[wv]

The repugnant-weasel-shapiro doesnt like Trump’s chances.

=================

[wv]

If Trump’s weasel-number-crunchers come up with the same numbers….what will he do in the last month before the election?

Anything. He could do…anything.

==

[zn]

‼️ Stella Immanuel, Trump’s New COVID-19 Doctor, Believes in Alien DNA, Demon Sperm, and Hydroxychloroquine https://t.co/mGqJXPQnSD

— Katie Phang (@KatiePhang) July 28, 2020

[zn]

Trump: "I read a lot. They like to say I don’t read, I read a lot."
@jonathanvswan: "You read your daily intelligence brief?"

Trump: "I comprehend extraordinarily well. Probably better than anybody that you’ve interviewed in a long time. I read a lot…"

So…that’s a no.

— Samantha Power (@SamanthaJPower) July 29, 2020

[zn]

Trump’s Republican Party is defined by racism and those who tolerate it: GOP strategist
I’ve worked on winning Republican races across the South, and I’ve never seen a racist appeal like Trump’s succeed. Why won’t his party challenge him?

Stuart Stevens
Opinion contributor

Stuart Stevens, a senior adviser to the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, was chief strategist for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in 2012. His latest book, “It Was All A Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump,” will be published Tuesday. Follow him on Twitter: @stuartpstevens

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2020/08/02/republicans-embrace-trump-racism-give-up-on-black-voters-column/5559249002/

About a year ago, I finished writing a book in which I posited that race was the original sin of the Republican Party and that the rise of President Donald Trump is based more on white grievance than any other factor. It was a conviction I’d come to after over 30 years of working in Republican politics, including five presidential campaigns. To me it seemed an inescapable if depressing reality.

My first campaign was for a congressional seat in Mississippi between a white Republican (my client), a white Democrat and a Black Independent. I quickly realized anything we could do to increase the profile of the African American would help divert votes from the Democrat to the Independent. It was our best play, since there was little we could do to attract African Americans to our own campaign.

That was a long time ago, and Republicans are still failing to win Black voters in substantial numbers. For decades the party admitted that was in fact a failure and at least attempted to change. But now it has settled into a comfortable embrace of white grievance and Trump is running as the Yankee George Wallace.

Trump is proving my thesis

I’ve worked with a lot of candidates, and for all the hocus-pocus mystique about consultants pulling strings controlling campaigns, I’ve found that ultimately candidates do what they most want to do. This is never truer than when a candidate and campaign are under stress. It’s a natural instinct, the same phenomena of when someone who is multi-lingual reverts to their native tongue when most angry.

Still, I never expected Trump to base his re-election campaign around proving my thesis.

There are times when elections are, to borrow the Jerry Seinfeld description of his show, campaigns about nothing. For obvious reasons this tends to happen in times of peace and prosperity, with an electorate that is generally satisfied with the status quo.

That’s not this election. One recent poll shows only 18% of the country believes we are headed in the right direction, and others aren’t much higher. This 2020 campaign does not lack for big issues that impact every American: the worst public health crisis in 100 years, the highest unemployment since the Depression. This is a moment that uniquely calls out for strong presidential leadership. Most presidents would grasp that their fate lay with the public’s view of their response and act accordingly.

Not Donald Trump. It’s clear his instinct is to make the 2020 election a cultural war, which in his interpretation is just a socially acceptable term for a race war. Why? How does this make any political sense?

The answer is that it doesn’t but it is what Trump wants to do. Steve Bannon liked to say of Trump, “Dude, he’s Archie Bunker,” but that seems overly generous. Archie had Meathead, who strongly disagreed with him and would argue. Trump has his children and son-in-law, who serve the same purpose in a Trump administration as the devoted Waylon Smithers does for his boss in “The Simpsons.”

There is a need in Trump world to describe his erratic behavior and lack of discipline as some kind of brilliant hidden strategy because otherwise you are left with the conclusion that he is a blithering idiot. Which, of course, Trump is, but he’s an idiot with deep racial animosity that dates back decades. Now with his reelection campaign crumbling around him, Trump is lashing out trying to divide the country along racial lines.

Baffled by GOP reluctance to speak out

This isn’t surprising. We shouldn’t forget that Trump still says the falsely convicted Central Park Five, African Americans he had said deserved the death penalty, are guilty despite exoneration. But what is shocking, if not surprising, is that the Republican Party is going along with Trump’s strategy to model his campaign after Wallace’s 1968 run for president. It reveals a combination of moral failure and political stupidity rarely evidenced by a major party.

Whenever I tell my Republican friends that I think racial animosity is the root of Trump’s appeal, the inevitable and often angry rejoinder is, “Are you saying that 63 million Americans are racists?” What I try to point out to them is that you don’t have to consider yourself a racist (and, of course, most racists don’t consider themselves racists) but you do have to be willing to accept that having a racist president is less important than something else you are getting from that president.

That might be conservative judges, that might be tax cuts, that might be increased tariffs on Chinese goods (since anti-free trade is apparently the new Republican standard.) From defending Confederate monuments to attacking Black NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace, Trump seems determined to make it impossible to deny he’s a racist.

I’m a seventh generation Mississippian who has worked on winning Republican races for governor and Senate across the South, and I’ve never seen Trump’s level of direct racist appeal work. While there is still an angry racist constituency, not just in the South but in every state, it is small and growing smaller. Your average white teenager in the South looks to black rap stars as cultural icons more than Robert E. Lee.

What baffles me is the reluctance of Republicans to speak out and challenge Trump on race. With the exception of Utah’s Mitt Romney, has any Republican senator or House member even uttered the words “Black lives matter?” What does it say about the future of the Republican Party when my home state of Mississippi finally lowered the Confederate battle flag just as a Republican president tries to raise it? It leaves me deeply pessimistic about the future of the Republican Party, while deeply hopeful about America.

Trump is trying to refight the Civil War. He’ll discover in November that it’s over. And America won.

[zn]

.@jonathanvswan: “Oh, you’re doing death as a proportion of cases. I’m talking about death as a proportion of population. That’s where the U.S. is really bad. Much worse than South Korea, Germany, etc.”@realdonaldtrump: “You can’t do that.”

Swan: “Why can’t I do that?” pic.twitter.com/MStySfkV39

— Axios (@axios) August 4, 2020

[zn]

He cannot bring himself to say anything negative about child sex trafficking. He is not disgusted at all. He shows no concern for victims. He just needs her to know he has her back. He did this with Manafort, Stone, Flynn and generally with people who have dirt on him. https://t.co/X7aL30lbez

— Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) August 4, 2020

[zn]

Fox News is onto something here… he is NOT okay pic.twitter.com/PgFpVchkdR

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) August 4, 2020

[zn]

Trump's latest interview vs monty python parrot sketch pic.twitter.com/GKlpNF4ffB

— Darren Dutton (@Darren_Dutton) August 4, 2020

[zn]

Tom Nichols@RadioFreeTom
Trump explaining the danger of stock prices, saying everyone owns stocks. The amazing thing about this is that a big chunk of his base, which does not own stocks, is probably nodding along as if they do,

[Author]

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