>>“You can’t have a president without immunity. You have to have, as a president, you have to be able to do your job,” Mr Trump said.

“We feel very confident that eventually, hopefully at this level, but eventually we win.

“A president has to have immunity.

“And the other thing is, I did nothing wrong. We did nothing wrong.”<<

So….if you did nothing wrong, why do you need immunity?

From this ABC news story

buffy said:

>>“You can’t have a president without immunity. You have to have, as a president, you have to be able to do your job,” Mr Trump said.

“We feel very confident that eventually, hopefully at this level, but eventually we win.

“A president has to have immunity.

“And the other thing is, I did nothing wrong. We did nothing wrong.”<<

So….if you did nothing wrong, why do you need immunity?

From this ABC news story

Its strange to have a president with so much power and ability to pardon people when you want to avoid tyranny

Cymek said:

buffy said:

>>“You can’t have a president without immunity. You have to have, as a president, you have to be able to do your job,” Mr Trump said.

“We feel very confident that eventually, hopefully at this level, but eventually we win.

“A president has to have immunity.

“And the other thing is, I did nothing wrong. We did nothing wrong.”<<

So….if you did nothing wrong, why do you need immunity?

From this ABC news story

Its strange to have a president with so much power and ability to pardon people when you want to avoid tyranny

Yeah they can even pardon their brother.

https://youtu.be/CpKiZyp4FlE?si=wZ0EFskQIm84_ejD

More details on the case of the woman who was charged with mishandling a corpse after a miscarriage.

buffy said:

>>“You can’t have a president without immunity. You have to have, as a president, you have to be able to do your job,” Mr Trump said.

“We feel very confident that eventually, hopefully at this level, but eventually we win.

“A president has to have immunity.

“And the other thing is, I did nothing wrong. We did nothing wrong.”<<

So….if you did nothing wrong, why do you need immunity?

From this ABC news story

Trump: I could ‘shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters’

Ogmog said:

buffy said:

>>“You can’t have a president without immunity. You have to have, as a president, you have to be able to do your job,” Mr Trump said.

“We feel very confident that eventually, hopefully at this level, but eventually we win.

“A president has to have immunity.

“And the other thing is, I did nothing wrong. We did nothing wrong.”<<

So….if you did nothing wrong, why do you need immunity?

From this ABC news story

Trump: I could ‘shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters’

It’s not necessarily much different here.

I live in one of the safest National party seats there is. I’ve said before, the NP candidate could stand in the middle of town, stark naked, a swastika painted in blood on his chest, biting the heads off kittens and pissing on the flag, and he’d still win because he’s not Labor.

captain_spalding said:

Ogmog said:

buffy said:

>>“You can’t have a president without immunity. You have to have, as a president, you have to be able to do your job,” Mr Trump said.

“We feel very confident that eventually, hopefully at this level, but eventually we win.

“A president has to have immunity.

“And the other thing is, I did nothing wrong. We did nothing wrong.”<<

So….if you did nothing wrong, why do you need immunity?

From this ABC news story

Trump: I could ‘shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters’

It’s not necessarily much different here.

I live in one of the safest National party seats there is. I’ve said before, the NP candidate could stand in the middle of town, stark naked, a swastika painted in blood on his chest, biting the heads off kittens and pissing on the flag, and he’d still win because he’s not Labor.

Same here.

roughbarked said:

It’s not necessarily much different here.

I live in one of the safest National party seats there is. I’ve said before, the NP candidate could stand in the middle of town, stark naked, a swastika painted in blood on his chest, biting the heads off kittens and pissing on the flag, and he’d still win because he’s not Labor.

Same here.

The converse is, if Jesus himself descended on clouds of glory from Heaven and personally anointed the ALP candidate in front of the assembled populace, he’d still lose because he IS Labor.

> So….if you did nothing wrong, why do you need immunity?

Cripes, you’ve never heard of assassination?

mollwollfumble said:

> So….if you did nothing wrong, why do you need immunity?

Cripes, you’ve never heard of assassination?

of course we have

Bombshell allegation: Trump insider caught on tape plotting to kill Democratic congressmen with cop?

MSNBC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M1IX1vyER0

sarahs mum said:

Bombshell allegation: Trump insider caught on tape plotting to kill Democratic congressmen with cop?

MSNBC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M1IX1vyER0

What?! Farking hell!

kii said:

sarahs mum said:

Bombshell allegation: Trump insider caught on tape plotting to kill Democratic congressmen with cop?

MSNBC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M1IX1vyER0

What?! Farking hell!

it’s the mob.

US/ chilean Youtuber Gonzalo Lira killed in Ukrainian prison.

Not satire

Dictionaries removed from some Florida schools because of sexual references

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/01/12/escambia-county-florida-dictionary-ban/72202686007/

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/literal-dictionaries-were-removed-florida-183231950.html

dv said:

Not satire

Dictionaries removed from some Florida schools because of sexual references

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/01/12/escambia-county-florida-dictionary-ban/72202686007/

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/literal-dictionaries-were-removed-florida-183231950.html

Kids will just go to bookstores to refer to hard copy books.
At B&N we’d get teenagers researching “forbidden” topics in the Sex & Relationships and Pregnancy sections. One of the saddest moments at work was when I talked to a female teenager hunched over a book about pregnancy in a corner of the Kid’s department.

I’ve looked for the original video of DeSantis listening to the child asking him a question. No luck.

Here’s a spoof of the moment. He actually stood like this as the girl asked her question. Under the layer of SFX you can hear the child talking and see him breathing. The original video was hilarious.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/339378522201488

kii said:

dv said:

Not satire

Dictionaries removed from some Florida schools because of sexual references

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/01/12/escambia-county-florida-dictionary-ban/72202686007/

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/literal-dictionaries-were-removed-florida-183231950.html

Kids will just go to bookstores to refer to hard copy books.
At B&N we’d get teenagers researching “forbidden” topics in the Sex & Relationships and Pregnancy sections. One of the saddest moments at work was when I talked to a female teenager hunched over a book about pregnancy in a corner of the Kid’s department.

:-(

OCDC said:

kii said:

dv said:

Not satire

Dictionaries removed from some Florida schools because of sexual references

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/01/12/escambia-county-florida-dictionary-ban/72202686007/

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/literal-dictionaries-were-removed-florida-183231950.html

Kids will just go to bookstores to refer to hard copy books.
At B&N we’d get teenagers researching “forbidden” topics in the Sex & Relationships and Pregnancy sections. One of the saddest moments at work was when I talked to a female teenager hunched over a book about pregnancy in a corner of the Kid’s department.

:-(

Often while walking downtown with Mrs rb she’d say, “Look at that girl. She’s barely fifteen and she’s pushing a pram”. I’d ask maybe she’s older than you think. “No I taught her in primary school, I know how old she is”.
It used to upset her to see very young girls trapped by pregnancy before they could make their way in the world.

Apparently they don’t all favour Trump

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/bill-oreilly-outraged-after-school-district-pulls-his-books-under-florida-law-he-supported-its-absurd

Link

LOL.

JudgeMental said:

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/bill-oreilly-outraged-after-school-district-pulls-his-books-under-florida-law-he-supported-its-absurd

Link

LOL.

Come in spinner.

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas continues his illuminating investigative series on Donald Trump’s secret past that Trump tries to desperately hide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT5vctbicd4

sarahs mum said:

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas continues his illuminating investigative series on Donald Trump’s secret past that Trump tries to desperately hide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT5vctbicd4

Ben’s looking and sounding very stressed.

kii said:

sarahs mum said:

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas continues his illuminating investigative series on Donald Trump’s secret past that Trump tries to desperately hide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT5vctbicd4

Ben’s looking and sounding very stressed.

Looks like he’s doing too much coke.

Peak Warming Man said:

kii said:

sarahs mum said:

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas continues his illuminating investigative series on Donald Trump’s secret past that Trump tries to desperately hide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT5vctbicd4

Ben’s looking and sounding very stressed.

Looks like he’s doing too much coke.

Now everyone is playing spot the habit.

sarahs mum said:

Peak Warming Man said:

kii said:

Ben’s looking and sounding very stressed.

Looks like he’s doing too much coke.

Now everyone is playing spot the habit.

Not me. He’s overworked and probably being threatened by trump’s cult.

kii said:

sarahs mum said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Looks like he’s doing too much coke.

Now everyone is playing spot the habit.

Not me. He’s overworked and probably being threatened by trump’s cult.

for the life of me I don’t know why Republicans aren’t demanding someone who doesn’t parrot Trump.

dv said:

Ha!

TYT interviews with Trump supporters about J6.

kii said:

TYT interviews with Trump supporters about J6.

They are as thick as two planks.

roughbarked said:

kii said:

TYT interviews with Trump supporters about J6.

They are as thick as two planks.

Figured out what is wrong with Trump.

“Educational attainment is an interesting one; the more education you have earlier in your life the less chance you have of developing dementia later in your life.”

Those poor slates.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1746611495301959819

Spiny Norman said:

Those poor slates.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1746611495301959819

The false teeth are loose.

The Texas National Guard stationed at the border stop Border Patrol officers from rescuing a woman and 2 children who were drowning in the Rio Grande.

Fucking hell.

kii said:

The Texas National Guard stationed at the border stop Border Patrol officers from rescuing a woman and 2 children who were drowning in the Rio Grande.

Fucking hell.

How is that legal?

How is it that an organisation acting under orders from a State government is able to interfere with the operations of a Federal agency?

captain_spalding said:

kii said:

The Texas National Guard stationed at the border stop Border Patrol officers from rescuing a woman and 2 children who were drowning in the Rio Grande.

Fucking hell.

How is that legal?

How is it that an organisation acting under orders from a State government is able to interfere with the operations of a Federal agency?

It’s Texas.

kii said:

The Texas National Guard stationed at the border stop Border Patrol officers from rescuing a woman and 2 children who were drowning in the Rio Grande.

Fucking hell.

That’s worse than awful. Racist murder.

Michael V said:

kii said:

The Texas National Guard stationed at the border stop Border Patrol officers from rescuing a woman and 2 children who were drowning in the Rio Grande.

Fucking hell.

That’s worse than awful. Racist murder.

And don’t try that ‘i was just following orders’ shit. Didn’t work at Nuremberg, doesn’t work now.

In Texas, “Failure to Stop and Render Aid” is a criminal offense that occurs when a driver involved in a motor vehicle accident leaves the scene without stopping to provide assistance or information as required by law.

The penalties for Failure to Stop and Render Aid in Texas can be severe and vary depending on the circumstances. There is a minimum jail term of 120 days as a condition of probation, in the event that probation is granted for offenses punishable under the section of 550.021.

For Injury: Failure to stop and render aid in an accident-causing injury is generally a third-degree felony, punishable by 2 to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

For Death: If the accident results in death, the offense is a second-degree felony, punishable by 2 to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

How is not only failing to give assistance to people in peril of their lives, but blocking attempts by others to do so not a crime?

kii said:

The Texas National Guard stationed at the border stop Border Patrol officers from rescuing a woman and 2 children who were drowning in the Rio Grande.

Fucking hell.

Total madness.

captain_spalding said:

kii said:

The Texas National Guard stationed at the border stop Border Patrol officers from rescuing a woman and 2 children who were drowning in the Rio Grande.

Fucking hell.

How is that legal?

How is it that an organisation acting under orders from a State government is able to interfere with the operations of a Federal agency?

It is the disunited states of America Anything seems possible until three or four years later when it ends up in court where millions of dollars are earned by lawyers who somehow get them off.

Michael V said:

kii said:

The Texas National Guard stationed at the border stop Border Patrol officers from rescuing a woman and 2 children who were drowning in the Rio Grande.

Fucking hell.

That’s worse than awful. Racist murder.

Yeah :(

captain_spalding said:

In Texas, “Failure to Stop and Render Aid” is a criminal offense that occurs when a driver involved in a motor vehicle accident leaves the scene without stopping to provide assistance or information as required by law.

The penalties for Failure to Stop and Render Aid in Texas can be severe and vary depending on the circumstances. There is a minimum jail term of 120 days as a condition of probation, in the event that probation is granted for offenses punishable under the section of 550.021.

For Injury: Failure to stop and render aid in an accident-causing injury is generally a third-degree felony, punishable by 2 to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

For Death: If the accident results in death, the offense is a second-degree felony, punishable by 2 to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

How is not only failing to give assistance to people in peril of their lives, but blocking attempts by others to do so not a crime?

Because they have border madness?

captain_spalding said:

Michael V said:

kii said:

The Texas National Guard stationed at the border stop Border Patrol officers from rescuing a woman and 2 children who were drowning in the Rio Grande.

Fucking hell.

That’s worse than awful. Racist murder.

And don’t try that ‘i was just following orders’ shit. Didn’t work at Nuremberg, doesn’t work now.

Nods.

Michael V said:

captain_spalding said:

Michael V said:

That’s worse than awful. Racist murder.

And don’t try that ‘i was just following orders’ shit. Didn’t work at Nuremberg, doesn’t work now.

Nods.

They are going to be having their own Nuremberg in the US by the looks.

captain_spalding said:

In Texas, “Failure to Stop and Render Aid” is a criminal offense that occurs when a driver involved in a motor vehicle accident leaves the scene without stopping to provide assistance or information as required by law.

The penalties for Failure to Stop and Render Aid in Texas can be severe and vary depending on the circumstances. There is a minimum jail term of 120 days as a condition of probation, in the event that probation is granted for offenses punishable under the section of 550.021.

For Injury: Failure to stop and render aid in an accident-causing injury is generally a third-degree felony, punishable by 2 to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

For Death: If the accident results in death, the offense is a second-degree felony, punishable by 2 to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

How is not only failing to give assistance to people in peril of their lives, but blocking attempts by others to do so not a crime?

I have no idea. I think as a minimum it is manslaughter.

Michael V said:

captain_spalding said:

In Texas, “Failure to Stop and Render Aid” is a criminal offense that occurs when a driver involved in a motor vehicle accident leaves the scene without stopping to provide assistance or information as required by law.

The penalties for Failure to Stop and Render Aid in Texas can be severe and vary depending on the circumstances. There is a minimum jail term of 120 days as a condition of probation, in the event that probation is granted for offenses punishable under the section of 550.021.

For Injury: Failure to stop and render aid in an accident-causing injury is generally a third-degree felony, punishable by 2 to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

For Death: If the accident results in death, the offense is a second-degree felony, punishable by 2 to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

How is not only failing to give assistance to people in peril of their lives, but blocking attempts by others to do so not a crime?

I have no idea. I think as a minimum it is manslaughter.

Culpable manslaughter?

Mar-A-Lago Assisted Living
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4eK4jBY55c

sarahs mum said:

Mar-A-Lago Assisted Living
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4eK4jBY55c

Surprisingly few American flags there compared with everywhere else in the USA. I’ve seen them ploughing the paddocks with the stars and strpes flying on their tractors.

kii said:

Spiny Norman said:

Those poor slates.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1746611495301959819

The false teeth are loose.

42% of Americans approve of this gibbering goomba.

kii said:

The Texas National Guard stationed at the border stop Border Patrol officers from rescuing a woman and 2 children who were drowning in the Rio Grande.

Fucking hell.

So the civil war begins in earnest…

dv said:

kii said:

The Texas National Guard stationed at the border stop Border Patrol officers from rescuing a woman and 2 children who were drowning in the Rio Grande.

Fucking hell.

So the civil war begins in earnest…

It would be interesting to skip forward a few decades and see how history records these events.
I wasn’t interested in studying history in high school, choosing geography instead. That’s how the curriculum was set up. I did try Ancient History once for 2 classes. It was the only alternate option for level 3 maths. The teacher was so ancient that she was dusty
and very slow. So, I went back to maths and failed it in the HSC. Modern History was all about WWI & WWII, with lots of boring stuff about men killing people.
Anyway…

kii said:

dv said:

kii said:

The Texas National Guard stationed at the border stop Border Patrol officers from rescuing a woman and 2 children who were drowning in the Rio Grande.

Fucking hell.

So the civil war begins in earnest…

It would be interesting to skip forward a few decades and see how history records these events.
I wasn’t interested in studying history in high school, choosing geography instead. That’s how the curriculum was set up. I did try Ancient History once for 2 classes. It was the only alternate option for level 3 maths. The teacher was so ancient that she was dusty
and very slow. So, I went back to maths and failed it in the HSC. Modern History was all about WWI & WWII, with lots of boring stuff about men killing people.
Anyway…

Ron DeSantis rips the conservative media that propelled him to a national level

The tables have turned for the Florida Governor at the worst possible time.

The narrative of the 2024 presidential campaign has officially gone full circle, with a candidate who enjoyed laudatory coverage for years now complaining about the right-wing press walking in lockstep against him.

In Urbandale, Iowa, Ron DeSantis offered yet another round of critiques of the conservative press, which he said is unwilling to question Donald Trump. While he didn’t call them “fake news” or a “racket” like he did Thursday on the trail, he did describe the conservative press as a “Praetorian Guard” protecting the former President.

“He’s got basically a Praetorian Guard of the conservative media, Fox News, the websites,” DeSantis claimed. “They don’t hold them accountable because they’re worried about losing viewers and they don’t want to have the ratings go down. And that’s just the reality, that’s just the truth, and I’m not complaining about it. I’d rather that not be the case, but that’s just, I think, an objective reality.”

..
“The sources that Republicans are now looking to more than any, are just not even engaging in any of this,” DeSantis lamented. “I think that a lot of it is, is rooted in audience and thinking that … you’ll lose audience. I don’t know. But the reality is, that’s just the case.”

https://floridapolitics.com/archives/652828-ron-desantis-rips-the-conservative-media-that-propelled-him-to-a-national-level/

>>conservative press as a “Praetorian Guard” protecting the former President.

Blimey, he’s………………he’s an intellectual.

Peak Warming Man said:

>>conservative press as a “Praetorian Guard” protecting the former President.

Blimey, he’s………………he’s an intellectual.

He’s Edward fkn Gibbon compared to The Don

dv said:

Peak Warming Man said:

>>conservative press as a “Praetorian Guard” protecting the former President.

Blimey, he’s………………he’s an intellectual.

He’s Edward fkn Gibbon compared to The Don

thumb thumb e thumb thumb d thumb thumb thumb thumb w thumb
Talk among yourselves for a while
a thumb thumb thumb r

Peak Warming Man said:

dv said:

Peak Warming Man said:

>>conservative press as a “Praetorian Guard” protecting the former President.

Blimey, he’s………………he’s an intellectual.

He’s Edward fkn Gibbon compared to The Don

thumb thumb e thumb thumb d thumb thumb thumb thumb w thumb
Talk among yourselves for a while
a thumb thumb thumb r

rise and fall of the roman empire.

Peak Warming Man said:

dv said:

Peak Warming Man said:

>>conservative press as a “Praetorian Guard” protecting the former President.

Blimey, he’s………………he’s an intellectual.

He’s Edward fkn Gibbon compared to The Don

thumb thumb e thumb thumb d thumb thumb thumb thumb w thumb
Talk among yourselves for a while
a thumb thumb thumb r

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

check out the latest racist bullshit: planes crash because diversity.

Bill may get a laugh out of this.

kii said:

check out the latest racist bullshit: planes crash because diversity.

Bill may get a laugh out of this.

Shakes head
Not exactly the brightest candle on the cake, are they.

Just spotted this, and a rather amusing reply to it -

“Rasik Mistry
@rasik_mistry
He is confusing his actual march to a Burger King with an imaginary march with Dr. Martin Luther King.”

Spiny Norman said:

kii said:

check out the latest racist bullshit: planes crash because diversity.

Bill may get a laugh out of this.

Shakes head
Not exactly the brightest candle on the cake, are they.

Just spotted this, and a rather amusing reply to it -

“Rasik Mistry
@rasik_mistry
He is confusing his actual march to a Burger King with an imaginary march with Dr. Martin Luther King.”

He would have been 17 when Martin Luther King marched. I doubt that burger King was an entity in 1963.

Spiny Norman said:

kii said:

check out the latest racist bullshit: planes crash because diversity.

Bill may get a laugh out of this.

Shakes head
Not exactly the brightest candle on the cake, are they.

Just spotted this, and a rather amusing reply to it -

“Rasik Mistry
@rasik_mistry
He is confusing his actual march to a Burger King with an imaginary march with Dr. Martin Luther King.”

Oh dear…I haven’t caught up with today’s insanity.

roughbarked said:

Spiny Norman said:

kii said:

check out the latest racist bullshit: planes crash because diversity.

Bill may get a laugh out of this.

Shakes head
Not exactly the brightest candle on the cake, are they.

Just spotted this, and a rather amusing reply to it -

“Rasik Mistry
@rasik_mistry
He is confusing his actual march to a Burger King with an imaginary march with Dr. Martin Luther King.”

He would have been 17 when Martin Luther King marched. I doubt that burger King was an entity in 1963.

Whoosh…

Spiny Norman said:

Just spotted this, and a rather amusing reply to it -

“Rasik Mistry
@rasik_mistry
He is confusing his actual march to a Burger King with an imaginary march with Dr. Martin Luther King.”

“I have a hole lot of black friends”

kii said:

check out the latest racist bullshit: planes crash because diversity.

Bill may get a laugh out of this.

I got a laugh out of it, thanks.

:)

roughbarked said:

Spiny Norman said:

kii said:

check out the latest racist bullshit: planes crash because diversity.

Bill may get a laugh out of this.

Shakes head
Not exactly the brightest candle on the cake, are they.

Just spotted this, and a rather amusing reply to it -

“Rasik Mistry
@rasik_mistry
He is confusing his actual march to a Burger King with an imaginary march with Dr. Martin Luther King.”

He would have been 17 when Martin Luther King marched. I doubt that burger King was an entity in 1963.

Yes it was.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burger_King

Spiny Norman said:

kii said:

check out the latest racist bullshit: planes crash because diversity.

Bill may get a laugh out of this.

Shakes head
Not exactly the brightest candle on the cake, are they.

Just spotted this, and a rather amusing reply to it -

“Rasik Mistry
@rasik_mistry
He is confusing his actual march to a Burger King with an imaginary march with Dr. Martin Luther King.”

:)

roughbarked said:

Spiny Norman said:

kii said:

check out the latest racist bullshit: planes crash because diversity.

Bill may get a laugh out of this.

Shakes head
Not exactly the brightest candle on the cake, are they.

Just spotted this, and a rather amusing reply to it -

“Rasik Mistry
@rasik_mistry
He is confusing his actual march to a Burger King with an imaginary march with Dr. Martin Luther King.”

He would have been 17 when Martin Luther King marched. I doubt that burger King was an entity in 1963.

This is probably what he’s talking about. A faked-up photo, distributed by Brigitte Gabriel, founder of the Trump-supporting political organization Act For America, who has a long history of sharing fake images on Twitter.

Gabriel’s black-and-white image of Trump and King together has been viewed over 8 million times in just two days, despite the fact that it’s completely fake.

captain_spalding said:

roughbarked said:

Spiny Norman said:

Shakes head
Not exactly the brightest candle on the cake, are they.

Just spotted this, and a rather amusing reply to it -

“Rasik Mistry
@rasik_mistry
He is confusing his actual march to a Burger King with an imaginary march with Dr. Martin Luther King.”

He would have been 17 when Martin Luther King marched. I doubt that burger King was an entity in 1963.

This is probably what he’s talking about. A faked-up photo, distributed by Brigitte Gabriel, founder of the Trump-supporting political organization Act For America, who has a long history of sharing fake images on Twitter.

Gabriel’s black-and-white image of Trump and King together has been viewed over 8 million times in just two days, despite the fact that it’s completely fake.

And so obviously so. Trump doubtless looked quite a deal younger before April 1968.

Michael V said:

captain_spalding said:

roughbarked said:

He would have been 17 when Martin Luther King marched. I doubt that burger King was an entity in 1963.

This is probably what he’s talking about. A faked-up photo, distributed by Brigitte Gabriel, founder of the Trump-supporting political organization Act For America, who has a long history of sharing fake images on Twitter.

Gabriel’s black-and-white image of Trump and King together has been viewed over 8 million times in just two days, despite the fact that it’s completely fake.

And so obviously so. Trump doubtless looked quite a deal younger before April 1968.

Well, this is how he looked in 1964:

and in ‘Home Alone 2’, 1992:

Michael V said:

captain_spalding said:

roughbarked said:

He would have been 17 when Martin Luther King marched. I doubt that burger King was an entity in 1963.

This is probably what he’s talking about. A faked-up photo, distributed by Brigitte Gabriel, founder of the Trump-supporting political organization Act For America, who has a long history of sharing fake images on Twitter.

Gabriel’s black-and-white image of Trump and King together has been viewed over 8 million times in just two days, despite the fact that it’s completely fake.

And so obviously so. Trump doubtless looked quite a deal younger before April 1968.

Aaaahhhh, one of the people I work for is a conspiracy theory nut. She introduced me to a humdinger the other day, about Trump’s uncle and Nikola Tesla. How Donald Trump is a genuis just like his uncle, and how there is so much more than we know about…..*taps side of nose

I thought I would go all Wookie on her and look up what she was talking about and come up with something so outrageous that she would back off a bit. So Donald Trump being able to time travel was it, courtesy of some of Tesla’s papers that went missing after Trump’s uncle was tasked with examining his voluminous papers and equipment after his death.
I presented it to her expecting to get blank looks, but no. She was thrilled that I had done my ‘research’. It seems there is nothing too outrageous for the nutters of this world.

So, that picture is entirely plausible to some. A time travelling Trump walking with Martin Luther King. And heck, I reckon Donald trump may well be able to convince himself that this may have happened to him. Narcissists are very good at rewriting their own histories if it serves their purposes and they think they can get enough people to believe it.

Here you go, feast your eyes on this to see how I fell into the nutter trap.
https://heavy.com/news/2017/08/john-trump-donald-uncle-mit-nikola-tesla-g-george-time-travel/

ruby said:

Michael V said:

captain_spalding said:

This is probably what he’s talking about. A faked-up photo, distributed by Brigitte Gabriel, founder of the Trump-supporting political organization Act For America, who has a long history of sharing fake images on Twitter.

Gabriel’s black-and-white image of Trump and King together has been viewed over 8 million times in just two days, despite the fact that it’s completely fake.

And so obviously so. Trump doubtless looked quite a deal younger before April 1968.

Aaaahhhh, one of the people I work for is a conspiracy theory nut. She introduced me to a humdinger the other day, about Trump’s uncle and Nikola Tesla. How Donald Trump is a genuis just like his uncle, and how there is so much more than we know about…..*taps side of nose

I thought I would go all Wookie on her and look up what she was talking about and come up with something so outrageous that she would back off a bit. So Donald Trump being able to time travel was it, courtesy of some of Tesla’s papers that went missing after Trump’s uncle was tasked with examining his voluminous papers and equipment after his death.
I presented it to her expecting to get blank looks, but no. She was thrilled that I had done my ‘research’. It seems there is nothing too outrageous for the nutters of this world.

So, that picture is entirely plausible to some. A time travelling Trump walking with Martin Luther King. And heck, I reckon Donald trump may well be able to convince himself that this may have happened to him. Narcissists are very good at rewriting their own histories if it serves their purposes and they think they can get enough people to believe it.

Here you go, feast your eyes on this to see how I fell into the nutter trap.
https://heavy.com/news/2017/08/john-trump-donald-uncle-mit-nikola-tesla-g-george-time-travel/

Noooooo!

Michael V said:

ruby said:

Michael V said:

And so obviously so. Trump doubtless looked quite a deal younger before April 1968.

Aaaahhhh, one of the people I work for is a conspiracy theory nut. She introduced me to a humdinger the other day, about Trump’s uncle and Nikola Tesla. How Donald Trump is a genuis just like his uncle, and how there is so much more than we know about…..*taps side of nose

I thought I would go all Wookie on her and look up what she was talking about and come up with something so outrageous that she would back off a bit. So Donald Trump being able to time travel was it, courtesy of some of Tesla’s papers that went missing after Trump’s uncle was tasked with examining his voluminous papers and equipment after his death.
I presented it to her expecting to get blank looks, but no. She was thrilled that I had done my ‘research’. It seems there is nothing too outrageous for the nutters of this world.

So, that picture is entirely plausible to some. A time travelling Trump walking with Martin Luther King. And heck, I reckon Donald trump may well be able to convince himself that this may have happened to him. Narcissists are very good at rewriting their own histories if it serves their purposes and they think they can get enough people to believe it.

Here you go, feast your eyes on this to see how I fell into the nutter trap.
https://heavy.com/news/2017/08/john-trump-donald-uncle-mit-nikola-tesla-g-george-time-travel/

Noooooo!

Noooooo! is exactly what I am thinking when I talk to her. I wanted to do it for a while to see what people are being exposed to, how it all happens, and if there is a way back for them from the cesspool of disinformation. But my poor little brain just can’t take it any more.

Given where things are at, DeSantis will probably come third in Iowa and that trend looks likely to continue into New Hampshire.. after that he’ll probably drop out leaving it between Trump and Haley.. if this is the case I’d be surprised if she lasts until the end of Feb.. Haley really needs DeSantis to stay in the race as long as possible a steal votes from Trump.. but it seems that the GOP base just love The Donald

Morning pilgrims.

diddly-squat said:

Given where things are at, DeSantis will probably come third in Iowa and that trend looks likely to continue into New Hampshire.. after that he’ll probably drop out leaving it between Trump and Haley.. if this is the case I’d be surprised if she lasts until the end of Feb.. Haley really needs DeSantis to stay in the race as long as possible a steal votes from Trump.. but it seems that the GOP base just love The Donald

He’s just the biggest, the best, the most outrageous distraction they could wish for while corporate America continues to plunder their nation and other people’s as well.

Michael V said:

kii said:

check out the latest racist bullshit: planes crash because diversity.

Bill may get a laugh out of this.

I got a laugh out of it, thanks.

:)

I’m not laffin.

sarahs mum said:

Michael V said:

kii said:

check out the latest racist bullshit: planes crash because diversity.

Bill may get a laugh out of this.

I got a laugh out of it, thanks.

:)

I’m not laffin.

The writing’s good. That made me laugh.

captain_spalding said:

roughbarked said:

Spiny Norman said:

Shakes head
Not exactly the brightest candle on the cake, are they.

Just spotted this, and a rather amusing reply to it -

“Rasik Mistry
@rasik_mistry
He is confusing his actual march to a Burger King with an imaginary march with Dr. Martin Luther King.”

He would have been 17 when Martin Luther King marched. I doubt that burger King was an entity in 1963.

This is probably what he’s talking about. A faked-up photo, distributed by Brigitte Gabriel, founder of the Trump-supporting political organization Act For America, who has a long history of sharing fake images on Twitter.

Gabriel’s black-and-white image of Trump and King together has been viewed over 8 million times in just two days, despite the fact that it’s completely fake.

My goodness..Trump is way too old to be president if he looked like that then….

captain_spalding said:

roughbarked said:

Spiny Norman said:

Shakes head
Not exactly the brightest candle on the cake, are they.

Just spotted this, and a rather amusing reply to it -

“Rasik Mistry
@rasik_mistry
He is confusing his actual march to a Burger King with an imaginary march with Dr. Martin Luther King.”

He would have been 17 when Martin Luther King marched. I doubt that burger King was an entity in 1963.

This is probably what he’s talking about. A faked-up photo, distributed by Brigitte Gabriel, founder of the Trump-supporting political organization Act For America, who has a long history of sharing fake images on Twitter.

Gabriel’s black-and-white image of Trump and King together has been viewed over 8 million times in just two days, despite the fact that it’s completely fake.

Wasn’t me who viewed it.

roughbarked said:

captain_spalding said:

roughbarked said:

He would have been 17 when Martin Luther King marched. I doubt that burger King was an entity in 1963.

This is probably what he’s talking about. A faked-up photo, distributed by Brigitte Gabriel, founder of the Trump-supporting political organization Act For America, who has a long history of sharing fake images on Twitter.

Gabriel’s black-and-white image of Trump and King together has been viewed over 8 million times in just two days, despite the fact that it’s completely fake.

Wasn’t me who viewed it.

Probably Trump viewed it himself a million or so times.

ruby said:

Michael V said:

ruby said:

Aaaahhhh, one of the people I work for is a conspiracy theory nut. She introduced me to a humdinger the other day, about Trump’s uncle and Nikola Tesla. How Donald Trump is a genuis just like his uncle, and how there is so much more than we know about…..*taps side of nose

I thought I would go all Wookie on her and look up what she was talking about and come up with something so outrageous that she would back off a bit. So Donald Trump being able to time travel was it, courtesy of some of Tesla’s papers that went missing after Trump’s uncle was tasked with examining his voluminous papers and equipment after his death.
I presented it to her expecting to get blank looks, but no. She was thrilled that I had done my ‘research’. It seems there is nothing too outrageous for the nutters of this world.

So, that picture is entirely plausible to some. A time travelling Trump walking with Martin Luther King. And heck, I reckon Donald trump may well be able to convince himself that this may have happened to him. Narcissists are very good at rewriting their own histories if it serves their purposes and they think they can get enough people to believe it.

Here you go, feast your eyes on this to see how I fell into the nutter trap.
https://heavy.com/news/2017/08/john-trump-donald-uncle-mit-nikola-tesla-g-george-time-travel/

Noooooo!

Noooooo! is exactly what I am thinking when I talk to her. I wanted to do it for a while to see what people are being exposed to, how it all happens, and if there is a way back for them from the cesspool of disinformation. But my poor little brain just can’t take it any more.

Save your brain. Back away now.

captain_spalding said:

roughbarked said:

captain_spalding said:

This is probably what he’s talking about. A faked-up photo, distributed by Brigitte Gabriel, founder of the Trump-supporting political organization Act For America, who has a long history of sharing fake images on Twitter.

Gabriel’s black-and-white image of Trump and King together has been viewed over 8 million times in just two days, despite the fact that it’s completely fake.

Wasn’t me who viewed it.

Probably Trump viewed it himself a million or so times.

Just like looking in his rose coloured mirror.

At a rally in Iowa yesterday he urged people not to sit at home and get to their precincts. “If you’re sick as a dog … Even if you vote and then pass away, it’s worth it,” he said.

Peak Warming Man said:

At a rally in Iowa yesterday he urged people not to sit at home and get to their precincts. “If you’re sick as a dog … Even if you vote and then pass away, it’s worth it,” he said.

Witty Rejoinder said:

Peak Warming Man said:

At a rally in Iowa yesterday he urged people not to sit at home and get to their precincts. “If you’re sick as a dog … Even if you vote and then pass away, it’s worth it,” he said.

Again…

captain_spalding said:

roughbarked said:

Spiny Norman said:

Shakes head
Not exactly the brightest candle on the cake, are they.

Just spotted this, and a rather amusing reply to it -

“Rasik Mistry
@rasik_mistry
He is confusing his actual march to a Burger King with an imaginary march with Dr. Martin Luther King.”

He would have been 17 when Martin Luther King marched. I doubt that burger King was an entity in 1963.

This is probably what he’s talking about. A faked-up photo, distributed by Brigitte Gabriel, founder of the Trump-supporting political organization Act For America, who has a long history of sharing fake images on Twitter.

Gabriel’s black-and-white image of Trump and King together has been viewed over 8 million times in just two days, despite the fact that it’s completely fake.

I wouldn’t describe it as fake. I don’t think anyone would think that an 80-ish year old Trump ever walked with MLK. I would describe it more as persuasive art.

dv said:

captain_spalding said:

roughbarked said:

He would have been 17 when Martin Luther King marched. I doubt that burger King was an entity in 1963.

This is probably what he’s talking about. A faked-up photo, distributed by Brigitte Gabriel, founder of the Trump-supporting political organization Act For America, who has a long history of sharing fake images on Twitter.

Gabriel’s black-and-white image of Trump and King together has been viewed over 8 million times in just two days, despite the fact that it’s completely fake.

I wouldn’t describe it as fake. I don’t think anyone would think that an 80-ish year old Trump ever walked with MLK. I would describe it more as persuasive art.

Well it didn’t persuade me.

dv said:

captain_spalding said:

roughbarked said:

He would have been 17 when Martin Luther King marched. I doubt that burger King was an entity in 1963.

This is probably what he’s talking about. A faked-up photo, distributed by Brigitte Gabriel, founder of the Trump-supporting political organization Act For America, who has a long history of sharing fake images on Twitter.

Gabriel’s black-and-white image of Trump and King together has been viewed over 8 million times in just two days, despite the fact that it’s completely fake.

I wouldn’t describe it as fake. I don’t think anyone would think that an 80-ish year old Trump ever walked with MLK. I would describe it more as persuasive art.

When Trump claims to have ‘marched with King’ and this appears at about the same time, you have to wonder as to what they’re trying to ‘persuade’ people to believe.

And where they’ll stop with their ‘persuasion’.

dv said:

captain_spalding said:

roughbarked said:

He would have been 17 when Martin Luther King marched. I doubt that burger King was an entity in 1963.

This is probably what he’s talking about. A faked-up photo, distributed by Brigitte Gabriel, founder of the Trump-supporting political organization Act For America, who has a long history of sharing fake images on Twitter.

Gabriel’s black-and-white image of Trump and King together has been viewed over 8 million times in just two days, despite the fact that it’s completely fake.

I wouldn’t describe it as fake. I don’t think anyone would think that an 80-ish year old Trump ever walked with MLK. I would describe it more as persuasive art.

On the other hand, you’ve seen how brain-dead Trump voters are…

captain_spalding said:

When Trump claims to have ‘marched with King’ and this appears at about the same time

Damn, I missed that claim. It’s not the most ridiculous thing he’s ever said but it is more ridiculous than anything most people have said.

dv said:

captain_spalding said:

When Trump claims to have ‘marched with King’ and this appears at about the same time

Damn, I missed that claim. It’s not the most ridiculous thing he’s ever said but it is more ridiculous than anything most people have said.

Maybe he meant Rodney King.

Possibly before the cops beat the shit out of Rodney.

captain_spalding said:

dv said:

captain_spalding said:

When Trump claims to have ‘marched with King’ and this appears at about the same time

Damn, I missed that claim. It’s not the most ridiculous thing he’s ever said but it is more ridiculous than anything most people have said.

Maybe he meant Rodney King.

Possibly before the cops beat the shit out of Rodney.

Nope. He marched with himself. The King of MAGA. The new country..

Projections have DJT winning the Iwoa Primary Cacusus with an actual majority.

diddly-squat said:

Projections have DJT winning the Iwoa Primary Cacusus with an actual majority.

That’s how it has been polling from the start.

On the bright side it is not a “winner takes all” state.

dv said:

diddly-squat said:

Projections have DJT winning the Iwoa Primary Cacusus with an actual majority.

That’s how it has been polling from the start.

On the bright side it is not a “winner takes all” state.

yes, but I think it’s optimistic to even be suggesting DJT won’t do anything other than completely walk the national primary

diddly-squat said:

Projections have DJT winning the Iwoa Primary Cacusus with an actual majority.

He’s giving a speech.
He’s thanking the media for giving him such a high profile over the past 4 years and the Democrats for making it possible,

diddly-squat said:

dv said:

diddly-squat said:

Projections have DJT winning the Iwoa Primary Cacusus with an actual majority.

That’s how it has been polling from the start.

On the bright side it is not a “winner takes all” state.

yes, but I think it’s optimistic to even be suggesting DJT won’t do anything other than completely walk the national primary

I mean he might die.

dv said:

diddly-squat said:

dv said:

That’s how it has been polling from the start.

On the bright side it is not a “winner takes all” state.

yes, but I think it’s optimistic to even be suggesting DJT won’t do anything other than completely walk the national primary

I mean he might die.

Is there a convenient high window he can fall from?

dv said:

diddly-squat said:

dv said:

That’s how it has been polling from the start.

On the bright side it is not a “winner takes all” state.

yes, but I think it’s optimistic to even be suggesting DJT won’t do anything other than completely walk the national primary

I mean he might die.

Wouldn’t that be loverly.

OCDC said:

dv said:

diddly-squat said:

yes, but I think it’s optimistic to even be suggesting DJT won’t do anything other than completely walk the national primary

I mean he might die.

Is there a convenient high window he can fall from?

Dude is 140 kg, hasn’t eaten a vegetable since 1961 and thinks exercise “drains your batteries”. Like Omega he is now only kept alive by stubbornness.

dv said:

OCDC said:

dv said:

I mean he might die.

Is there a convenient high window he can fall from?

Dude is 140 kg, hasn’t eaten a vegetable since 1961 and thinks exercise “drains your batteries”. Like Omega he is now only kept alive by stubbornness.

He isn’t a stellar engineer either

Sportsbet have DJT as the odds on favourite to be the next POTUS, they are paying $2.30.. Biden is paying $3.00.

you could do worse than to throw $100 either way on that…

dv said:

diddly-squat said:

dv said:

That’s how it has been polling from the start.

On the bright side it is not a “winner takes all” state.

yes, but I think it’s optimistic to even be suggesting DJT won’t do anything other than completely walk the national primary

I mean he might die.

Can you imagine the nutters going off with their theories if when that happens

ruby said:

dv said:

diddly-squat said:

yes, but I think it’s optimistic to even be suggesting DJT won’t do anything other than completely walk the national primary

I mean he might die.

Can you imagine the nutters going off with their theories if when that happens

I’ve said it before, if he was struck dead by lightning while out on the golf course, his fans would instantly construct a ‘conspiracy theory’ to explain his ‘murder’, and they’d make him a martyr saint.

ruby said:

dv said:

diddly-squat said:

yes, but I think it’s optimistic to even be suggesting DJT won’t do anything other than completely walk the national primary

I mean he might die.

Can you imagine the nutters going off with their theories if when that happens

He’s gone to God for the country.

Gavin Newsom is paying $14.00 so the Scottish Teens may have a read on this whole death in the lead up idea of dv’s

dv said:

OCDC said:

dv said:

I mean he might die.

Is there a convenient high window he can fall from?

Dude is 140 kg, hasn’t eaten a vegetable since 1961 and thinks exercise “drains your batteries”. Like Omega he is now only kept alive by stubbornness.

Next POTUS could well come down to the “last man standing” literally.

captain_spalding said:

ruby said:

dv said:

I mean he might die.

Can you imagine the nutters going off with their theories if when that happens

I’ve said it before, if he was struck dead by lightning while out on the golf course, his fans would instantly construct a ‘conspiracy theory’ to explain his ‘murder’, and they’d make him a martyr saint.

jewish space laser.

diddly-squat said:

Gavin Newsom is paying $14.00 so the Scottish Teens may have a read on this whole death in the lead up idea of dv’s

‘…this whole death in the lead up idea…’

I missed the details on that, but i’ll make a guess.

Trump dies during the campaign, and the next-likely candidate rides on the coat-tails of his campaign, pleading for a chance to make the Fallen Leader’s vision come true?

JudgeMental said:

captain_spalding said:

ruby said:

Can you imagine the nutters going off with their theories if when that happens

I’ve said it before, if he was struck dead by lightning while out on the golf course, his fans would instantly construct a ‘conspiracy theory’ to explain his ‘murder’, and they’d make him a martyr saint.

jewish space laser.

That’d be one of the first ingredients into the witches’ brew.

captain_spalding said:

diddly-squat said:

Gavin Newsom is paying $14.00 so the Scottish Teens may have a read on this whole death in the lead up idea of dv’s

‘…this whole death in the lead up idea…’

I missed the details on that, but i’ll make a guess.

Trump dies during the campaign, and the next-likely candidate rides on the coat-tails of his campaign, pleading for a chance to make the Fallen Leader’s vision come true?

Newsom is a Dem

diddly-squat said:

captain_spalding said:

diddly-squat said:

Gavin Newsom is paying $14.00 so the Scottish Teens may have a read on this whole death in the lead up idea of dv’s

‘…this whole death in the lead up idea…’

I missed the details on that, but i’ll make a guess.

Trump dies during the campaign, and the next-likely candidate rides on the coat-tails of his campaign, pleading for a chance to make the Fallen Leader’s vision come true?

Newsom is a Dem

OK, but even Democrats are allowed to speculate on Republican strategies.

Like i say, i’ve come in late on this, i’m making it up as i go.

captain_spalding said:

diddly-squat said:

captain_spalding said:

‘…this whole death in the lead up idea…’

I missed the details on that, but i’ll make a guess.

Trump dies during the campaign, and the next-likely candidate rides on the coat-tails of his campaign, pleading for a chance to make the Fallen Leader’s vision come true?

Newsom is a Dem

OK, but even Democrats are allowed to speculate on Republican strategies.

Like i say, i’ve come in late on this, i’m making it up as i go.

Haley is the next favourite Republican and she’s paying $8.50

diddly-squat said:

captain_spalding said:

diddly-squat said:

Newsom is a Dem

OK, but even Democrats are allowed to speculate on Republican strategies.

Like i say, i’ve come in late on this, i’m making it up as i go.

Haley is the next favourite Republican and she’s paying $8.50

C’mon, she’s just there to fill an empty barrier slot.

Americans, across the board, are not yet grown-up enough to countenance the idea of a woman in the Oval Office.

Republicans are doubly unlikely to give it a chance.

diddly-squat said:

Sportsbet have DJT as the odds on favourite to be the next POTUS, they are paying $2.30.. Biden is paying $3.00.

you could do worse than to throw $100 either way on that…

They could both cark it by November

If they _do_both die this could be Nimarata vs Kamala for the all-Injun Derby.

Looks like the delegates from the Iowa caucus will be distributed as follows

DJT 20
DeSantis 8
Haley 7
Ramaswamy 3

dv said:

Looks like the delegates from the Iowa caucus will be distributed as follows

DJT 20
DeSantis 8
Haley 7
Ramaswamy 3

As expected then.

The Indian chap Vivek Ramaswamy has dropped out.

Peak Warming Man said:

The Indian chap Vivek Ramaswamy has dropped out.

He might reemerge as a Vice presidential candidate

Technically Asa Hutchinson, former Arkansas governor, is still in the race. He received 0.2% of the vote in this Iowa Caucus.

We are all now living in a reality Donald Trump is creating

Trumper: I Haven’t Read A Book Since The Berenstain Bears
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfSwZ_Kw1R8

captain_spalding said:

diddly-squat said:

captain_spalding said:

OK, but even Democrats are allowed to speculate on Republican strategies.

Like i say, i’ve come in late on this, i’m making it up as i go.

Haley is the next favourite Republican and she’s paying $8.50

C’mon, she’s just there to fill an empty barrier slot.

Americans, across the board, are not yet grown-up enough to countenance the idea of a woman in the Oval Office.

Republicans are doubly unlikely to give it a chance.

Haley is a war monger, when challenged by vivak in a debate she couldn’t name 3 regions in ukraine yet wanted to to send billions of dollars there, she stood there SILENT. Haley is an intelligence agency asset – she’s not intelligent or capable in any governmental role.

Australia has just handed over 1 billion dollars worth of military equipment

sarahs mum said:

No wonder the young ‘uns don;t have much time for Sky News.
Apart from Young Libs who go there for their speech making

ruby said:

sarahs mum said:

No wonder the young ‘uns don;t have much time for Sky News.
Apart from Young Libs who go there for their speech making

They go there to sit in awe of Peta Credlin, and to hope that, one day, they can fill her shoes as a vacuous, bullying, lying, sneering bitch who gets paid to waste oxygen and electricity parroting whatever right-wing, crypto-fascist nonsense her boss tells her to.

captain_spalding said:

ruby said:

sarahs mum said:

No wonder the young ‘uns don;t have much time for Sky News.
Apart from Young Libs who go there for their speech making

They go there to sit in awe of Peta Credlin, and to hope that, one day, they can fill her shoes as a vacuous, bullying, lying, sneering bitch who gets paid to waste oxygen and electricity parroting whatever right-wing, crypto-fascist nonsense her boss tells her to.

I am having massive failures of understanding re how this shit is happening.

He’s a bit grumpy about life getting in his way.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-18/donald-trump-trial-e-jean-carroll-new-york-sexual-abuse/103361938

buffy said:

He’s a bit grumpy about life getting in his way.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-18/donald-trump-trial-e-jean-carroll-new-york-sexual-abuse/103361938

All he wants to do is to take over his country’s government, install an apparatus of servile flunkies in the highest offices of power, alter the law so that he can’t ever be removed from the Presidency, and use the structure and force of the government to enact a programme of petty but vicious revenge on people who have embarrassed him, or who have exposed his criminally fraudulent business practices, putting him in danger of imprisonment, disgrace, and ruin.

It’s not a lot to ask, now is it, but how’s he supposed to do that if they keep insisting that he’s subject to the law, like some peasant, and demanding that he be responsible for his actions?

buffy said:

He’s a bit grumpy about life getting in his way.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-18/donald-trump-trial-e-jean-carroll-new-york-sexual-abuse/103361938

All he wants to do is to take over his country’s government, install an apparatus of servile flunkies in the highest offices of power, alter the law so that he can’t ever be removed from the Presidency, and use the structure and force of the government to enact a programme of petty but vicious revenge on people who have embarrassed him, or who have exposed his criminally fraudulent business practices, putting him in danger of imprisonment, disgrace, and ruin.

It’s not a lot to ask, now is it, but how’s he supposed to do that if they keep insisting that he’s subject to the law, like some peasant, and demanding that he be responsible for his actions?

captain_spalding said:

buffy said:

He’s a bit grumpy about life getting in his way.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-18/donald-trump-trial-e-jean-carroll-new-york-sexual-abuse/103361938

All he wants to do is to take over his country’s government, install an apparatus of servile flunkies in the highest offices of power, alter the law so that he can’t ever be removed from the Presidency, and use the structure and force of the government to enact a programme of petty but vicious revenge on people who have embarrassed him, or who have exposed his criminally fraudulent business practices, putting him in danger of imprisonment, disgrace, and ruin.

It’s not a lot to ask, now is it, but how’s he supposed to do that if they keep insisting that he’s subject to the law, like some peasant, and demanding that he be responsible for his actions?

so are they wanking blisters?

captain_spalding said:

buffy said:

He’s a bit grumpy about life getting in his way.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-18/donald-trump-trial-e-jean-carroll-new-york-sexual-abuse/103361938

All he wants to do is to take over his country’s government, install an apparatus of servile flunkies in the highest offices of power, alter the law so that he can’t ever be removed from the Presidency, and use the structure and force of the government to enact a programme of petty but vicious revenge on people who have embarrassed him, or who have exposed his criminally fraudulent business practices, putting him in danger of imprisonment, disgrace, and ruin.

It’s not a lot to ask, now is it, but how’s he supposed to do that if they keep insisting that he’s subject to the law, like some peasant, and demanding that he be responsible for his actions?

And make money

kii said:

captain_spalding said:

buffy said:

He’s a bit grumpy about life getting in his way.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-18/donald-trump-trial-e-jean-carroll-new-york-sexual-abuse/103361938

All he wants to do is to take over his country’s government, install an apparatus of servile flunkies in the highest offices of power, alter the law so that he can’t ever be removed from the Presidency, and use the structure and force of the government to enact a programme of petty but vicious revenge on people who have embarrassed him, or who have exposed his criminally fraudulent business practices, putting him in danger of imprisonment, disgrace, and ruin.

It’s not a lot to ask, now is it, but how’s he supposed to do that if they keep insisting that he’s subject to the law, like some peasant, and demanding that he be responsible for his actions?

And make money

I didn’t know that Melania’s mother had died. I wonder if he wants to bury his MIL on a golf course? And wtf are those sores on his palm? So many questions.

kii said:

kii said:

captain_spalding said:

All he wants to do is to take over his country’s government, install an apparatus of servile flunkies in the highest offices of power, alter the law so that he can’t ever be removed from the Presidency, and use the structure and force of the government to enact a programme of petty but vicious revenge on people who have embarrassed him, or who have exposed his criminally fraudulent business practices, putting him in danger of imprisonment, disgrace, and ruin.

It’s not a lot to ask, now is it, but how’s he supposed to do that if they keep insisting that he’s subject to the law, like some peasant, and demanding that he be responsible for his actions?

And make money

I didn’t know that Melania’s mother had died. I wonder if he wants to bury his MIL on a golf course? And wtf are those sores on his palm? So many questions.

Where did Melania’s mother live?
The marks on his hand may have occurred when he slammed his hand on the desk?

Kentucky Republican has introduced legislation that would amend the state’s law so a person who had sex with their first cousin would no longer be criminally liable for incest.

House Bill 269, which state Representative Nick Wilson sponsored, was introduced on January 16 to the House Committee on Committees. According to the Kentucky General Assembly website, it would strike “first cousin from the list of familial relationships” defined as unlawful incest in the state. The amendment would also reduce the designation of incest by contact to a Class D felony for some cases “unless it is committed with a person who is less than twelve years of age,” in which case it is Class C.

https://www.newsweek.com/kentucky-bill-sex-first-cousins-not-incest-nick-wilson-1861398?piano_t=1

dv said:

Kentucky Republican has introduced legislation that would amend the state’s law so a person who had sex with their first cousin would no longer be criminally liable for incest.

House Bill 269, which state Representative Nick Wilson sponsored, was introduced on January 16 to the House Committee on Committees. According to the Kentucky General Assembly website, it would strike “first cousin from the list of familial relationships” defined as unlawful incest in the state. The amendment would also reduce the designation of incest by contact to a Class D felony for some cases “unless it is committed with a person who is less than twelve years of age,” in which case it is Class C.

https://www.newsweek.com/kentucky-bill-sex-first-cousins-not-incest-nick-wilson-1861398?piano_t=1

egad!

dv said:

Kentucky Republican has introduced legislation that would amend the state’s law so a person who had sex with their first cousin would no longer be criminally liable for incest.

House Bill 269, which state Representative Nick Wilson sponsored, was introduced on January 16 to the House Committee on Committees. According to the Kentucky General Assembly website, it would strike “first cousin from the list of familial relationships” defined as unlawful incest in the state. The amendment would also reduce the designation of incest by contact to a Class D felony for some cases “unless it is committed with a person who is less than twelve years of age,” in which case it is Class C.

https://www.newsweek.com/kentucky-bill-sex-first-cousins-not-incest-nick-wilson-1861398?piano_t=1

Not quite the full Frizl, yet…

dv said:

Kentucky Republican has introduced legislation that would amend the state’s law so a person who had sex with their first cousin would no longer be criminally liable for incest.

House Bill 269, which state Representative Nick Wilson sponsored, was introduced on January 16 to the House Committee on Committees. According to the Kentucky General Assembly website, it would strike “first cousin from the list of familial relationships” defined as unlawful incest in the state. The amendment would also reduce the designation of incest by contact to a Class D felony for some cases “unless it is committed with a person who is less than twelve years of age,” in which case it is Class C.

https://www.newsweek.com/kentucky-bill-sex-first-cousins-not-incest-nick-wilson-1861398?piano_t=1

Fucking hell. I hate this so much.

dv said:

diddly-squat said:

dv said:

That’s how it has been polling from the start.

On the bright side it is not a “winner takes all” state.

yes, but I think it’s optimistic to even be suggesting DJT won’t do anything other than completely walk the national primary

I mean he might die.

State funeral plans are already being made.

dv said:

https://www.newsweek.com/kentucky-bill-sex-first-cousins-not-incest-nick-wilson-1861398?piano_t=1

The Republican party.

Proudly leading the United States into the 17th century, bum-first.

Trump in Portsmouth New Hampshire:
“Non-liquid gold. You know where it was? Iowa. It’s called corn. They have, it’s non-liquid, that’s my thing, you have more NON-LIQUID gold, they said what is that? I said corn. We love that idea. You know it’s a pretty cool thought isn’t it? That’s a nickname in its own way, but we came up with a new word, a new couple of words, for corn…”

Jim Wright/Stonekettle:
Trump in Iowa explaining how he came up with a new pretty cool word for corn and Iowans totally dig it.
I mean, you can see why this guy keeps bringing up that cognitive test for dementia he took, can’t you?
Hilarious.
Yeah, except…
Except the thing is right now Trump is just some goof. A crazy, smelly old man who should be in a facility licking butterscotch pudding out of a plastic cup because they won’t let him have utensils.
His family, his employees, the inbred dipshits who attend his rallies, they have to listen to him, you don’t.
But…
BUT, you let him back into the White House and whole goddamn world will have to put up with his blathering gibberish and pretend like it’s the coherent thoughts of a rational man. Hey! Guess what? I invented corn! Yeah, that’s right. Ha ha non-liquid corn, I invented that!
This sort of rambling disjointed self involved story of how he invented corn (or cars or banking or lightbulbs or flushable toilets) will be the basis of our foreign policy, trade, agriculture, military strategy, education, infrastructure, energy policy, ALL of it.
And then the people actually running our country, left, right, whatever, will have to listen to this drooling nonsense and pretend like Trump is an actual leader with some sort of actual vision and then they’ll have to implement his insanity, the military will have to take his incomprehensible orders, and foreign governments will have to treat the United States like an enraged toddler with a loaded pistol — because that’s exactly what we’ll be.
This guy belongs in the psychiatric ward of a federal prison, not in the White House.
You better show up.
I don’t care how mad you are at Joe Biden, you better show up anyway.

Trump’s hands COVERED IN BLOOD, syphilis suspected

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV0_NQl4k48

—-

Surely he wouldn’t let that go untreated?

Meanwhile

dv said:

Meanwhile

Do they have a ranch to go back to?

dv said:

Meanwhile

I’m currently reading a Vanity Fair article about Tucker Carlson’s fall from Fox. What a wanker.

a pastor was arrested for saving homeless people from freezing.

there was a time not very long ago when Republicans tried to convince us that they had turned over a new leaf — that they were “compassionate conservatives.” of course it was a bullshit lie from the get-go, but now they’re not even bothering to pretend. being a heartless shithead is now a GOP badge of honor.

“compassionate conservatism” has been replaced with the doctrine of “just fucking die.”

carrying a non-viable fetus that’s a danger to your life? just fucking die.

caught in razor-wire booby traps in the Rio Grande? just fucking die.

can’t afford healthcare? just fucking die.

unhoused and freezing? just fucking die.

kii said:

a pastor was arrested for saving homeless people from freezing.

there was a time not very long ago when Republicans tried to convince us that they had turned over a new leaf — that they were “compassionate conservatives.” of course it was a bullshit lie from the get-go, but now they’re not even bothering to pretend. being a heartless shithead is now a GOP badge of honor.

“compassionate conservatism” has been replaced with the doctrine of “just fucking die.”

carrying a non-viable fetus that’s a danger to your life? just fucking die.

caught in razor-wire booby traps in the Rio Grande? just fucking die.

can’t afford healthcare? just fucking die.

unhoused and freezing? just fucking die.

Nods.

It’s just depressing, but unfortunately, there is nothing I can do about it.

Michael V said:

kii said:

a pastor was arrested for saving homeless people from freezing.

there was a time not very long ago when Republicans tried to convince us that they had turned over a new leaf — that they were “compassionate conservatives.” of course it was a bullshit lie from the get-go, but now they’re not even bothering to pretend. being a heartless shithead is now a GOP badge of honor.

“compassionate conservatism” has been replaced with the doctrine of “just fucking die.”

carrying a non-viable fetus that’s a danger to your life? just fucking die.

caught in razor-wire booby traps in the Rio Grande? just fucking die.

can’t afford healthcare? just fucking die.

unhoused and freezing? just fucking die.

Nods.

It’s just depressing, but unfortunately, there is nothing I can do about it.

Don’t worry it’s coming to a govt near you. If American lobbyists can assist.

sarahs mum said:

Michael V said:

kii said:

a pastor was arrested for saving homeless people from freezing.

there was a time not very long ago when Republicans tried to convince us that they had turned over a new leaf — that they were “compassionate conservatives.” of course it was a bullshit lie from the get-go, but now they’re not even bothering to pretend. being a heartless shithead is now a GOP badge of honor.

“compassionate conservatism” has been replaced with the doctrine of “just fucking die.”

carrying a non-viable fetus that’s a danger to your life? just fucking die.

caught in razor-wire booby traps in the Rio Grande? just fucking die.

can’t afford healthcare? just fucking die.

unhoused and freezing? just fucking die.

Nods.

It’s just depressing, but unfortunately, there is nothing I can do about it.

Don’t worry it’s coming to a govt near you. If American lobbyists can assist.

I don’t want to worry, but I can’t help myself.

Heather Cox Richardson
38 m ·
January 20, 2024 (Saturday)

Last night at a rally in New Hampshire, former president Trump repeatedly confused former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who is running against him for the Republican presidential nomination, with Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the former speaker of the House.

“By the way, they never report the crowd on January 6th,” Trump told the audience. “You know, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, you know they, do you know they destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, everything, deleted and destroyed all of it. All of it because of lots of things, like Nikki Haley is in charge of security. We offered her 10,000 people. Soldiers, National Guards, whatever they want. They turned it down.”

Observers have been saying for a while now that once Trump had to start appearing in public, his apparent cognitive decline would surprise those who haven’t been paying attention.

That certainly seemed to be true on Wednesday, January 17, when he told a New Hampshire audience: “We’re…going to place strong protections to stop banks and regulators from trying to debank you from your—you know, your political beliefs, what they do. They want to debank you, and we’re going to debank—think of this. They want to take away your rights. They want to take away your country. The things they’re doing. All electric cars.”

His statement looks like word salad if you’re not steeped in MAGA world, but there are two stories behind Trump’s torrent of words. The first is that Trump always blurts out whatever is uppermost in his mind, suggesting he is worried by the fact that large banks will no longer lend to him. The Trump Organization’s auditor said during a fraud trial in 2022 that the past 10 years of the company’s financial statements could not be relied on, and Trump was forced to turn to smaller banks, likely on much worse terms. Now the legal case currently underway in Manhattan will likely make that financial problem larger. The judge has already decided that the Trump Organization, Trump, his two older sons, and two employees committed fraud, for which the judge is currently deciding appropriate penalties.

The second story behind his statement, though, is much larger than Trump.

Since 2023, right-wing organizations, backed by Republican state attorneys general, have argued that banks are discriminating against them on religious and political grounds. In March 2023, JPMorgan Chase closed an account opened by the National Committee for Religious Freedom after the organization did not provide information the bank needed to comply with regulatory requirements. Immediately, Republican officials claimed religious discrimination and demanded the bank explain its position on issues important to the right wing. JPMorgan Chase denied discrimination, noting that it serves 50,000 accounts with religious affiliations and saying, “We have never and would never exit a client relationship due to their political or religious affiliation.”

But the attack on banks stuck among MAGA Republicans, especially as other financial platforms like PayPal, Venmo, and GoFundMe have declined to accept business from right-wing figures who spout hate speech, thus cutting off their ability to raise money from their followers.

The attempt to create distrust of large financial institutions is part of a larger attempt to destabilize the institutions of democracy. Trump is the figurehead for that attempt, but it is larger than him, and it will outlast him.

The news media is often called the fourth branch of government because it provides the transparency and oversight that hold leaders accountable. But as soon as he began to campaign for office in 2015, Trump responded to the negative press about him by attacking the press, calling it the “fake news” media. In 2016, 70% of Republicans said they trusted national news media; by 2021 that number was 35%.

Once elected, Trump and MAGA Republicans started to undermine faith in the rule of law that underpins our democracy. Less than four months after he took office, Trump fired the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, James Comey, for investigating the connections between his 2016 campaign and Russian operatives, and his attacks on the FBI and the Department of Justice under which the FBI operates have been relentless ever since.

Those attacks now involve the entire judicial system, which Trump and his loyalists attack whenever judges or juries oppose him, while judges like Aileen Cannon, who appears to be protecting Trump from the federal criminal case against him for mishandling classified documents, have escaped his wrath.

Trump and his supporters have also challenged the U.S. military, insisting that it is weak because it is “woke.” He has called its leaders “some of the dumbest people I’ve ever met in my life.”

But it is not just the banking, justice, and military systems MAGA Republicans are undermining. They are sowing distrust of our educational system, claiming that it is not educating students but, rather, indoctrinating them to embrace left-wing ideology. Public education is central to democracy because, as Thomas Jefferson wrote, it enables a voter to “understand his duties to his neighbours, & country,…o know his rights…nd, in general, to observe with intelligence & faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed.”

Extremists in Congress are undermining even that body, the centerpiece of our democratic system. They have ground business there to a halt, weakening the idea of Congress as a deliberative body that can pass legislation to represent the wishes of the American people.
In addition, they are now trying, quite deliberately, to end the country’s traditional system of foreign policy that protects the nation’s national security. Instead, they are trying to politicize foreign policy, standing against further aid to Ukraine although it has strong bipartisan support, thus tipping the scales in favor of Russia’s authoritarian leader in opposition to U.S. national security.

Over all, of course, is the Big Lie that undermines the nation’s electoral system by insisting that the 2020 presidential vote was “rigged” against Trump. Although there has never been any evidence of such a thing, 30% of Americans think Biden won the presidency only through “voter fraud.”

This weakening of our institutions threatens the survival of democracy.

Tearing apart the fabric of democracy invites an authoritarian to convince his followers that democracy is weak and that only a strongman can govern.

Three years ago today, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took the oath of office, vowing to restore faith in our democratic institutions.

“This is a time of testing,” Biden said in his inaugural address. “We face an attack on democracy and on truth. A raging virus. Growing inequity. The sting of systemic racism. A climate in crisis. America’s role in the world. Any one of these would be enough to challenge us in profound ways. But the fact is we face them all at once, presenting this nation with the gravest of responsibilities.
“Now we must step up. All of us. It is a time for boldness, for there is so much to do. And, this is certain. We will be judged, you and I, for how we resolve the cascading crises of our era. Will we rise to the occasion? Will we master this rare and difficult hour? Will we meet our obligations and pass along a new and better world for our children?”

“Let us add our own work and prayers to the unfolding story of our nation,” Biden said. “If we do this, then when our days are through, our children and our children’s children will say of us: They gave their best. They did their duty. They healed a broken land.”

sarahs mum said:

Heather Cox Richardson
38 m ·
January 20, 2024 (Saturday)

Last night at a rally in New Hampshire, former president Trump repeatedly confused former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who is running against him for the Republican presidential nomination, with Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the former speaker of the House.

“By the way, they never report the crowd on January 6th,” Trump told the audience. “You know, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, you know they, do you know they destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, everything, deleted and destroyed all of it. All of it because of lots of things, like Nikki Haley is in charge of security. We offered her 10,000 people. Soldiers, National Guards, whatever they want. They turned it down.”

Observers have been saying for a while now that once Trump had to start appearing in public, his apparent cognitive decline would surprise those who haven’t been paying attention.

That certainly seemed to be true on Wednesday, January 17, when he told a New Hampshire audience: “We’re…going to place strong protections to stop banks and regulators from trying to debank you from your—you know, your political beliefs, what they do. They want to debank you, and we’re going to debank—think of this. They want to take away your rights. They want to take away your country. The things they’re doing. All electric cars.”

His statement looks like word salad if you’re not steeped in MAGA world, but there are two stories behind Trump’s torrent of words. The first is that Trump always blurts out whatever is uppermost in his mind, suggesting he is worried by the fact that large banks will no longer lend to him. The Trump Organization’s auditor said during a fraud trial in 2022 that the past 10 years of the company’s financial statements could not be relied on, and Trump was forced to turn to smaller banks, likely on much worse terms. Now the legal case currently underway in Manhattan will likely make that financial problem larger. The judge has already decided that the Trump Organization, Trump, his two older sons, and two employees committed fraud, for which the judge is currently deciding appropriate penalties.

The second story behind his statement, though, is much larger than Trump.

Since 2023, right-wing organizations, backed by Republican state attorneys general, have argued that banks are discriminating against them on religious and political grounds. In March 2023, JPMorgan Chase closed an account opened by the National Committee for Religious Freedom after the organization did not provide information the bank needed to comply with regulatory requirements. Immediately, Republican officials claimed religious discrimination and demanded the bank explain its position on issues important to the right wing. JPMorgan Chase denied discrimination, noting that it serves 50,000 accounts with religious affiliations and saying, “We have never and would never exit a client relationship due to their political or religious affiliation.”

But the attack on banks stuck among MAGA Republicans, especially as other financial platforms like PayPal, Venmo, and GoFundMe have declined to accept business from right-wing figures who spout hate speech, thus cutting off their ability to raise money from their followers.

The attempt to create distrust of large financial institutions is part of a larger attempt to destabilize the institutions of democracy. Trump is the figurehead for that attempt, but it is larger than him, and it will outlast him.

The news media is often called the fourth branch of government because it provides the transparency and oversight that hold leaders accountable. But as soon as he began to campaign for office in 2015, Trump responded to the negative press about him by attacking the press, calling it the “fake news” media. In 2016, 70% of Republicans said they trusted national news media; by 2021 that number was 35%.

Once elected, Trump and MAGA Republicans started to undermine faith in the rule of law that underpins our democracy. Less than four months after he took office, Trump fired the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, James Comey, for investigating the connections between his 2016 campaign and Russian operatives, and his attacks on the FBI and the Department of Justice under which the FBI operates have been relentless ever since.

Those attacks now involve the entire judicial system, which Trump and his loyalists attack whenever judges or juries oppose him, while judges like Aileen Cannon, who appears to be protecting Trump from the federal criminal case against him for mishandling classified documents, have escaped his wrath.

Trump and his supporters have also challenged the U.S. military, insisting that it is weak because it is “woke.” He has called its leaders “some of the dumbest people I’ve ever met in my life.”

But it is not just the banking, justice, and military systems MAGA Republicans are undermining. They are sowing distrust of our educational system, claiming that it is not educating students but, rather, indoctrinating them to embrace left-wing ideology. Public education is central to democracy because, as Thomas Jefferson wrote, it enables a voter to “understand his duties to his neighbours, & country,…o know his rights…nd, in general, to observe with intelligence & faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed.”

Extremists in Congress are undermining even that body, the centerpiece of our democratic system. They have ground business there to a halt, weakening the idea of Congress as a deliberative body that can pass legislation to represent the wishes of the American people.
In addition, they are now trying, quite deliberately, to end the country’s traditional system of foreign policy that protects the nation’s national security. Instead, they are trying to politicize foreign policy, standing against further aid to Ukraine although it has strong bipartisan support, thus tipping the scales in favor of Russia’s authoritarian leader in opposition to U.S. national security.

Over all, of course, is the Big Lie that undermines the nation’s electoral system by insisting that the 2020 presidential vote was “rigged” against Trump. Although there has never been any evidence of such a thing, 30% of Americans think Biden won the presidency only through “voter fraud.”

This weakening of our institutions threatens the survival of democracy.

Tearing apart the fabric of democracy invites an authoritarian to convince his followers that democracy is weak and that only a strongman can govern.

Three years ago today, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took the oath of office, vowing to restore faith in our democratic institutions.

“This is a time of testing,” Biden said in his inaugural address. “We face an attack on democracy and on truth. A raging virus. Growing inequity. The sting of systemic racism. A climate in crisis. America’s role in the world. Any one of these would be enough to challenge us in profound ways. But the fact is we face them all at once, presenting this nation with the gravest of responsibilities.
“Now we must step up. All of us. It is a time for boldness, for there is so much to do. And, this is certain. We will be judged, you and I, for how we resolve the cascading crises of our era. Will we rise to the occasion? Will we master this rare and difficult hour? Will we meet our obligations and pass along a new and better world for our children?”

“Let us add our own work and prayers to the unfolding story of our nation,” Biden said. “If we do this, then when our days are through, our children and our children’s children will say of us: They gave their best. They did their duty. They healed a broken land.”

Thank you Heather Cox Richardson.

roughbarked said:

sarahs mum said:

Heather Cox Richardson
38 m ·
January 20, 2024 (Saturday)

Last night at a rally in New Hampshire, former president Trump repeatedly confused former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who is running against him for the Republican presidential nomination, with Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the former speaker of the House.

“By the way, they never report the crowd on January 6th,” Trump told the audience. “You know, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, you know they, do you know they destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, everything, deleted and destroyed all of it. All of it because of lots of things, like Nikki Haley is in charge of security. We offered her 10,000 people. Soldiers, National Guards, whatever they want. They turned it down.”

Observers have been saying for a while now that once Trump had to start appearing in public, his apparent cognitive decline would surprise those who haven’t been paying attention.

That certainly seemed to be true on Wednesday, January 17, when he told a New Hampshire audience: “We’re…going to place strong protections to stop banks and regulators from trying to debank you from your—you know, your political beliefs, what they do. They want to debank you, and we’re going to debank—think of this. They want to take away your rights. They want to take away your country. The things they’re doing. All electric cars.”

His statement looks like word salad if you’re not steeped in MAGA world, but there are two stories behind Trump’s torrent of words. The first is that Trump always blurts out whatever is uppermost in his mind, suggesting he is worried by the fact that large banks will no longer lend to him. The Trump Organization’s auditor said during a fraud trial in 2022 that the past 10 years of the company’s financial statements could not be relied on, and Trump was forced to turn to smaller banks, likely on much worse terms. Now the legal case currently underway in Manhattan will likely make that financial problem larger. The judge has already decided that the Trump Organization, Trump, his two older sons, and two employees committed fraud, for which the judge is currently deciding appropriate penalties.

The second story behind his statement, though, is much larger than Trump.

Since 2023, right-wing organizations, backed by Republican state attorneys general, have argued that banks are discriminating against them on religious and political grounds. In March 2023, JPMorgan Chase closed an account opened by the National Committee for Religious Freedom after the organization did not provide information the bank needed to comply with regulatory requirements. Immediately, Republican officials claimed religious discrimination and demanded the bank explain its position on issues important to the right wing. JPMorgan Chase denied discrimination, noting that it serves 50,000 accounts with religious affiliations and saying, “We have never and would never exit a client relationship due to their political or religious affiliation.”

But the attack on banks stuck among MAGA Republicans, especially as other financial platforms like PayPal, Venmo, and GoFundMe have declined to accept business from right-wing figures who spout hate speech, thus cutting off their ability to raise money from their followers.

The attempt to create distrust of large financial institutions is part of a larger attempt to destabilize the institutions of democracy. Trump is the figurehead for that attempt, but it is larger than him, and it will outlast him.

The news media is often called the fourth branch of government because it provides the transparency and oversight that hold leaders accountable. But as soon as he began to campaign for office in 2015, Trump responded to the negative press about him by attacking the press, calling it the “fake news” media. In 2016, 70% of Republicans said they trusted national news media; by 2021 that number was 35%.

Once elected, Trump and MAGA Republicans started to undermine faith in the rule of law that underpins our democracy. Less than four months after he took office, Trump fired the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, James Comey, for investigating the connections between his 2016 campaign and Russian operatives, and his attacks on the FBI and the Department of Justice under which the FBI operates have been relentless ever since.

Those attacks now involve the entire judicial system, which Trump and his loyalists attack whenever judges or juries oppose him, while judges like Aileen Cannon, who appears to be protecting Trump from the federal criminal case against him for mishandling classified documents, have escaped his wrath.

Trump and his supporters have also challenged the U.S. military, insisting that it is weak because it is “woke.” He has called its leaders “some of the dumbest people I’ve ever met in my life.”

But it is not just the banking, justice, and military systems MAGA Republicans are undermining. They are sowing distrust of our educational system, claiming that it is not educating students but, rather, indoctrinating them to embrace left-wing ideology. Public education is central to democracy because, as Thomas Jefferson wrote, it enables a voter to “understand his duties to his neighbours, & country,…o know his rights…nd, in general, to observe with intelligence & faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed.”

Extremists in Congress are undermining even that body, the centerpiece of our democratic system. They have ground business there to a halt, weakening the idea of Congress as a deliberative body that can pass legislation to represent the wishes of the American people.
In addition, they are now trying, quite deliberately, to end the country’s traditional system of foreign policy that protects the nation’s national security. Instead, they are trying to politicize foreign policy, standing against further aid to Ukraine although it has strong bipartisan support, thus tipping the scales in favor of Russia’s authoritarian leader in opposition to U.S. national security.

Over all, of course, is the Big Lie that undermines the nation’s electoral system by insisting that the 2020 presidential vote was “rigged” against Trump. Although there has never been any evidence of such a thing, 30% of Americans think Biden won the presidency only through “voter fraud.”

This weakening of our institutions threatens the survival of democracy.

Tearing apart the fabric of democracy invites an authoritarian to convince his followers that democracy is weak and that only a strongman can govern.

Three years ago today, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took the oath of office, vowing to restore faith in our democratic institutions.

“This is a time of testing,” Biden said in his inaugural address. “We face an attack on democracy and on truth. A raging virus. Growing inequity. The sting of systemic racism. A climate in crisis. America’s role in the world. Any one of these would be enough to challenge us in profound ways. But the fact is we face them all at once, presenting this nation with the gravest of responsibilities.
“Now we must step up. All of us. It is a time for boldness, for there is so much to do. And, this is certain. We will be judged, you and I, for how we resolve the cascading crises of our era. Will we rise to the occasion? Will we master this rare and difficult hour? Will we meet our obligations and pass along a new and better world for our children?”

“Let us add our own work and prayers to the unfolding story of our nation,” Biden said. “If we do this, then when our days are through, our children and our children’s children will say of us: They gave their best. They did their duty. They healed a broken land.”

Thank you Heather Cox Richardson.

It’s good having a real time historian.

Observers have been saying for a while now that once Trump had to start appearing in public, his apparent cognitive decline would surprise those who haven’t been paying attention.

———————-
this.

I wonder if he could be forced to do a test for Old-Timers disease and removed as unfit for office when he fails.

I thought Trump was just being inventive/losing it…

Debank

(diːˈbæŋk  )

VERB

(transitive)

to deprive (someone) of banking facilities

Let’s talk about the Democratic New Hampshire primary….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osMHBkAcr4U

—

there has got to be a better system than this shit.

sarahs mum said:

Let’s talk about the Democratic New Hampshire primary….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osMHBkAcr4U

—

there has got to be a better system than this shit.

As he said, it’s a mess.

sarahs mum said:

Let’s talk about the Democratic New Hampshire primary….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osMHBkAcr4U

—

there has got to be a better system than this shit.

Primaries were created 50 odd years ago to prevent presidential candidates being chosen by faceless men in smokey rooms so despite their faults they were an improvement on what came before.

Witty Rejoinder said:

sarahs mum said:

Let’s talk about the Democratic New Hampshire primary….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osMHBkAcr4U

—

there has got to be a better system than this shit.

Primaries were created 50 odd years ago to prevent presidential candidates being chosen by faceless men in smokey rooms so despite their faults they were an improvement on what came before.

So how then did Trump slip through the net?

roughbarked said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

sarahs mum said:

Let’s talk about the Democratic New Hampshire primary….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osMHBkAcr4U

—

there has got to be a better system than this shit.

Primaries were created 50 odd years ago to prevent presidential candidates being chosen by faceless men in smokey rooms so despite their faults they were an improvement on what came before.

So how then did Trump slip through the net?

People are fucking idiots.

roughbarked said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

sarahs mum said:

Let’s talk about the Democratic New Hampshire primary….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osMHBkAcr4U

—

there has got to be a better system than this shit.

Primaries were created 50 odd years ago to prevent presidential candidates being chosen by faceless men in smokey rooms so despite their faults they were an improvement on what came before.

So how then did Trump slip through the net?

Turns out American conservatives are by and large stupid.

roughbarked said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

sarahs mum said:

Let’s talk about the Democratic New Hampshire primary….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osMHBkAcr4U

—

there has got to be a better system than this shit.

Primaries were created 50 odd years ago to prevent presidential candidates being chosen by faceless men in smokey rooms so despite their faults they were an improvement on what came before.

So how then did Trump slip through the net?

I blame social media.

OCDC said:

roughbarked said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

Primaries were created 50 odd years ago to prevent presidential candidates being chosen by faceless men in smokey rooms so despite their faults they were an improvement on what came before.

So how then did Trump slip through the net?

People are fucking idiots.

Yes. Exactly.

party_pants said:

Observers have been saying for a while now that once Trump had to start appearing in public, his apparent cognitive decline would surprise those who haven’t been paying attention.

———————-
this.

I wonder if he could be forced to do a test for Old-Timers disease and removed as unfit for office when he fails.

Pish tosh, he did one and “aced it”, remember?

Man, woman, TV, camera and…….er, something else.

Witty Rejoinder said:

roughbarked said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

Primaries were created 50 odd years ago to prevent presidential candidates being chosen by faceless men in smokey rooms so despite their faults they were an improvement on what came before.

So how then did Trump slip through the net?

Turns out American conservatives are by and large stupid.

Apparently so.

Neophyte said:

party_pants said:

Observers have been saying for a while now that once Trump had to start appearing in public, his apparent cognitive decline would surprise those who haven’t been paying attention.

———————-
this.

I wonder if he could be forced to do a test for Old-Timers disease and removed as unfit for office when he fails.

Pish tosh, he did one and “aced it”, remember?

Man, woman, TV, camera and…….er, something else.

Sadly enough I do remember.

Science is revealing why American politics are so intensely polarized
Political psychologists say they see tribalism intensifying, fueled by contempt for the other side

By Joel Achenbach
January 20, 2024 at 9:45 a.m. EST

ATKINSON, N.H. — They stood in line for hours, in steady snow that became steady sleet, to hear the leader of their tribe.

Fresh from a major victory in Iowa, former president Donald Trump was scheduled to speak at 5 p.m. The parking lot at the country club opened at 10 a.m. The doors opened at 2 p.m., and hundreds of people were already in line. When everyone finally got inside, most had to stand tightly packed for hours more until the snowstorm-delayed candidate finally arrived just before 7 p.m.

It’s not always logistically easy being in the Trump tribe, but people stuck it out — and when instructed to turn around and express their sentiments directly to the news media, they dutifully booed and raised middle fingers.

The antagonism that Trump supporters feel toward the media is a small piece of a broader political and cultural phenomenon. This country, though politically fractious since its founding, is more polarized than ever, the rhetoric more inflammatory, the rage more likely to curdle into hate. It’s ugly out there.

As the 2024 primary season revs up, and with the political stakes this year extraordinarily high, voters are both polarized and hardly budging. Pundits expect another close election that’s a repeat of 2020. There’s not a lot of wobble on either left or right.

Social scientists have taken note of these hardening political divisions, pumping out academic articles and books that add data to what appears to be a steady rise in tribalism.

One theme emerges in much of the research: Our politics tend be more emotional now. Policy preferences are increasingly likely to be entangled with a visceral dislike of the opposition. The newly embraced academic term for this is “affective polarization.”

“It’s feelings based,” said Lilliana Mason, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University and author of “Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity.” “It’s polarization that’s based on our feelings for each other, not based on extremely divergent policy preferences.”

The tendency to form tightly knit groups has roots in evolution, according to experts in political psychology. Humans evolved in a challenging world of limited resources in which survival required cooperation — and identifying the rivals, the competitors for those resources.

“The evolution of cooperation required out-group hatred, which is really sad,” said Nicholas Christakis, a Yale sociologist and author of “Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society.”

This is just as true on today’s political stage. There are two major parties, and their contests are viewed as zero-sum outcomes. Win or lose. The presidency is the ultimate example: There are no consolation prizes for the loser.

No researcher argues that human nature is the sole, or even the primary, cause of today’s polarization. But savvy political operatives can exploit, leverage and encourage it. And those operatives are learning from their triumphs in divide-and-conquer politics.

The case of the warring Boy Scouts
People are instinctively prone to group identification.

“We wouldn’t have civilizations if we didn’t create groups. We are designed to form groups, and the only way to define a group is there has to be someone who’s not in it,” Mason said.

Experiments have revealed that “children as young as two will prefer other children randomly assigned to the same T-shirt color,” Christakis writes.

What’s most striking is that in the process of defining who is in and who is out of a group, enmity and derision can arise independently of any rational reason for it.

Mason and Christakis point to a famous-among-academics experiment from 1954. Social psychologist Muzafer Sherif took 22 Boy Scouts and separated them into two groups camping at Robbers Cave State Park in Oklahoma. Only after a week did they learn that there was another group at the far end of the campground.

What they did next fascinated the research team. Each group developed irrational contempt for the other. The boys in the other group were seen not just as rivals, but as fundamentally flawed human beings. Only when the two groups were asked to work together to solve a common problem did they warm up to one another.

The warring Boy Scouts “have a lot more in common with today’s Democrats and Republicans than we would like to believe,” Mason writes in her book.

“In this political environment, a candidate who picks up the banner of ‘us versus them’ and ‘winning versus losing’ is almost guaranteed to tap into a current of resentment and anger across racial, religious, and cultural lines, which have recently divided neatly by party.”

Shanto Iyengar, a Stanford political psychologist who coined the term “affective polarization,” explained in a 2018 paper why people typically identify with a group.

“Homo sapiens is a social species; group affiliation is essential to our sense of self. Individuals instinctively think of themselves as representing broad socioeconomic and cultural categories rather than as distinctive packages of traits,” he wrote.

Here’s where psychology gives way to political science. The American political system may cultivate “out-group” hatred, as academics put it. One of the scarce resources in this country is political power at the highest levels of government. The country has no parliamentary system in which multiple parties form governing coalitions.

Add to this fact the redistricting that ensures there are fewer truly competitive congressional races. The two parties have inexorably moved further apart ideologically, and leaders are more likely to be punished — “primaried” — if they reach across the aisle. And because many more districts are now deeply red or blue, rather than a mix of constituencies, House members have fewer reasons to adopt moderate positions.

How sorting feeds polarization
Human nature hasn’t changed, but technology has. The fragmentation of the media has made it easier to gather information in an echo chamber, Iyengar said. He calls this “sorting.” Not only do people cluster around specific beliefs or ideas, they physically cluster, moving to neighborhoods where residents are likely to look like them and think like them.

Partisan clustering has increased even within households. In 1965, Iyengar said, only about 60 percent of married couples had the same party registration. Today, the figure is greater than 85 percent, he said.

Research shows that affective polarization is intensifying across the political spectrum. Recent survey data revealed that more than half of Republicans and Democrats view the other party as “a threat,” and nearly as many agree with the description of the other party as “evil,” Mason said.

Asked in the summer of 2022 if they agree or disagree that members of the other party “lack the traits to be considered fully human — they behave like animals,” about 30 percent in both parties agreed, Mason’s research shows.

Now, even the partisans fret about polarization.

“We’re on the verge of a civil war, without a doubt,” said Brad Rowe, 40, a Republican who attended the talk of Gov. Ron DeSantis ® in Hampton, N.H., on Wednesday and is leaning toward supporting independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Some voters find the polarization confusing, because they don’t see how anyone could possibly support a candidate on the other side. That’s the sentiment of Susan and Peter Delano, both 60, who also came to see DeSantis.

“If you are voting Democrat today, you are supporting Biden. I don’t understand it,” she said.

“We see the polls. We ask: Why are they still voting Democrat?” he said.

David Fox, 60, a limo driver who waited in the frigid line to cheer for Trump in Atkinson, said he thinks President Biden is a liar who stole the 2020 election. Fox is not fond of Democrats generally.

“I think they’re very angry people. I think they don’t hold doors open for people, they don’t wave to people, they don’t say hi to people,” Fox said.

Meanwhile, there are voters who can’t believe their choice this fall may come down to Trump or Biden.

“Trump is terrifying, and Biden I don’t think is cognitively there,” Karl Schumacher, 53, said Wednesday as he waited to hear Nikki Haley in Rochester, N.Y.

Trump’s polarization powers
Though partisan vitriol is intensifying across the spectrum, Trump looms large among researchers on polarization and group identity. He has cultivated an extraordinarily devoted base of supporters who see his long list of felony indictments not as evidence of potential wrongdoing, but as proof that the elites are out to get him.

Meanwhile, his opponents, including Biden, have described him as an aspiring dictator who poses an existential threat to democracy.

Rep. Dean Phillips, a long-shot Democratic candidate on the ballot here in New Hampshire, suggested Thursday that a reelected Trump might defy the constitutional limit on presidential terms and try to remain in power: “There may not be a 2028 if we allow Donald Trump to return to the White House,” Phillips said Thursday during a pitch to New Hampshire voters in Manchester.

In an interview, he explained that he thinks Trump has taken cues from dictators abroad and may try to block the transfer of power: “He’s already tried it once and now he’s on a revenge mission.”

A recent paper published in the journal Science argued that the three core ingredients of political sectarianism are “othering, aversion, and moralization.” Trump has mastered that recipe. He activates emotional responses in his followers by telling them that they are threatened.

“I would give it to Trump: He figured out he could cash in on polarization,” Iyengar said.

Trump, he said, began running for president in 2015 when the country was already divided and he leveraged those divisions. He used inflammatory and racist language that violated political norms, called the media the “enemy of the people,” and promoted a vision of America besieged.

A New Hampshire campaign flier touting Trump shows him pumping his fist and looking combative, and quotes him: “They’re not after me, they’re after you. … And I’m just standing in the way!”

At the Trump rally Tuesday, former Republican presidential rival Vivek Ramaswamy told the crowd, “We are in the middle of a war in this country … between the permanent state and the everyday citizen.”

Trump “is not just saying be afraid. He’s saying, ‘Be angry,’” said Dannagal Young, a professor of communication and political science at the University of Delaware. “Anger is a mobilization emotion because it makes people do things. When you’re angry, you’re angry at someone.”

The media do their part to keep things inflamed. Conflict grabs attention.

“We’re evolutionarily predisposed to pay attention to conflict, because we might be in danger. We don’t turn our head really quickly to look at a beautiful flower. We turn our heads quickly to look at something that may be dangerous,” Mason said.

That’s a part of human nature anyone can exploit.

“There are politicians who are good at this,” Mason said. “Trump is the best.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2024/01/20/polarization-science-evolution-psychology/?

fascist fuckfaces shocked to discover their fascist fuckfacery isn’t popular

And deSantis has withdrawn.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-22/ron-desantis-withdraws-from-the-republican-nomination-contest/103374170

buffy said:

And deSantis has withdrawn.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-22/ron-desantis-withdraws-from-the-republican-nomination-contest/103374170

More votes for Trump.

kii said:

fascist fuckfaces shocked to discover their fascist fuckfacery isn’t popular

If only funny writing like that could turn the tide against the fascists.

Sigh.

roughbarked said:

buffy said:

And deSantis has withdrawn.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-22/ron-desantis-withdraws-from-the-republican-nomination-contest/103374170

More votes for Trump.

I was thinking “what’s in it for him?” Trump owes him now. Because now way in Hell will the Republicans pre-select a woman.

buffy said:

roughbarked said:

buffy said:

And deSantis has withdrawn.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-22/ron-desantis-withdraws-from-the-republican-nomination-contest/103374170

More votes for Trump.

I was thinking “what’s in it for him?” Trump owes him now. Because now way in Hell will the Republicans pre-select a woman.

they already have “preselected” a woman.. this issue is that Haley simply isn’t close to popular enough among GOP primary voters… no one other than Trump is… There never really was any question that Trump wasn’t going to be the GOP candidate.

diddly-squat said:

buffy said:

roughbarked said:

More votes for Trump.

I was thinking “what’s in it for him?” Trump owes him now. Because now way in Hell will the Republicans pre-select a woman.

they already have “preselected” a woman.. this issue is that Haley simply isn’t close to popular enough among GOP primary voters… no one other than Trump is… There never really was any question that Trump wasn’t going to be the GOP candidate.

She can string a sentence together.

sarahs mum said:

diddly-squat said:

buffy said:

I was thinking “what’s in it for him?” Trump owes him now. Because now way in Hell will the Republicans pre-select a woman.

they already have “preselected” a woman.. this issue is that Haley simply isn’t close to popular enough among GOP primary voters… no one other than Trump is… There never really was any question that Trump wasn’t going to be the GOP candidate.

She can string a sentence together.

Which is not what the Republicans want.

Someone who can speak coherently is likely to be able to think coherently, and if they can do that, they might start asking questions.

What the Republicans want is a President who’s happy being way, way off with the pixies (and providing lots of distraction), while they and their corporate friends continue the plundering.

sarahs mum said:

diddly-squat said:

buffy said:

I was thinking “what’s in it for him?” Trump owes him now. Because now way in Hell will the Republicans pre-select a woman.

they already have “preselected” a woman.. this issue is that Haley simply isn’t close to popular enough among GOP primary voters… no one other than Trump is… There never really was any question that Trump wasn’t going to be the GOP candidate.

She can string a sentence together.

Sure, but facts are facts.. Trump has almost unmoved popularity among GOP voters. He has a majority so clear that despite there even a primary process, it’s effectively irrelevant to the outcome.

captain_spalding said:

sarahs mum said:

diddly-squat said:

they already have “preselected” a woman.. this issue is that Haley simply isn’t close to popular enough among GOP primary voters… no one other than Trump is… There never really was any question that Trump wasn’t going to be the GOP candidate.

She can string a sentence together.

Which is not what the Republicans want.

Someone who can speak coherently is likely to be able to think coherently, and if they can do that, they might start asking questions.

What the Republicans want is a President who’s happy being way, way off with the pixies (and providing lots of distraction), while they and their corporate friends continue the plundering.

I think that is a broad oversimplification… your typical Trump voter sees DJT as “their man”.. they see him as the non-establishment candidate and they like (read love) hi\s policy platform. Like it or not, people are motivated by what he says.

diddly-squat said:

captain_spalding said:

sarahs mum said:

She can string a sentence together.

Which is not what the Republicans want.

Someone who can speak coherently is likely to be able to think coherently, and if they can do that, they might start asking questions.

What the Republicans want is a President who’s happy being way, way off with the pixies (and providing lots of distraction), while they and their corporate friends continue the plundering.

I think that is a broad oversimplification… your typical Trump voter sees DJT as “their man”.. they see him as the non-establishment candidate and they like (read love) hi\s policy platform. Like it or not, people are motivated by what he says.

Yes, they are. He presents a simple view of the world and its troubles that they can understand, complete with scapegoats, and promises them that he can fix it all for them. That’s the kind of thing that all of your more successful demagogues and dictators do.

So, ‘the people’ get the messiah they’ve dreamed of, and the Republicans/corporates get the kind of President who won’t interfere in what they’re up to.

Win/win.

diddly-squat said:

captain_spalding said:

sarahs mum said:

She can string a sentence together.

Which is not what the Republicans want.

Someone who can speak coherently is likely to be able to think coherently, and if they can do that, they might start asking questions.

What the Republicans want is a President who’s happy being way, way off with the pixies (and providing lots of distraction), while they and their corporate friends continue the plundering.

I think that is a broad oversimplification… your typical Trump voter sees DJT as “their man”.. they see him as the non-establishment candidate and they like (read love) hi\s policy platform. Like it or not, people are motivated by what he says.

The bit I don’t really understand is how (especially Australian voters) can sit here and say, “we just don’t understand why he’s so popular”… His most base policy platform is one of anti-immigration… I mean just have a think about how many elections have been fought here on that issue.. think about how it’s still an issue in the electorate.. think about how the ALP completely pivoted on the issue as a means of removing a differentiating factor.

it’s not rocket science.

diddly-squat said:

diddly-squat said:

captain_spalding said:

Which is not what the Republicans want.

Someone who can speak coherently is likely to be able to think coherently, and if they can do that, they might start asking questions.

What the Republicans want is a President who’s happy being way, way off with the pixies (and providing lots of distraction), while they and their corporate friends continue the plundering.

I think that is a broad oversimplification… your typical Trump voter sees DJT as “their man”.. they see him as the non-establishment candidate and they like (read love) hi\s policy platform. Like it or not, people are motivated by what he says.

The bit I don’t really understand is how (especially Australian voters) can sit here and say, “we just don’t understand why he’s so popular”… His most base policy platform is one of anti-immigration… I mean just have a think about how many elections have been fought here on that issue.. think about how it’s still an issue in the electorate.. think about how the ALP completely pivoted on the issue as a means of removing a differentiating factor.

it’s not rocket science.

It’s a good thing that First Nations people here and in America didn’t have PMs/Presidents with anti-immigration platforms.

captain_spalding said:

diddly-squat said:

diddly-squat said:

I think that is a broad oversimplification… your typical Trump voter sees DJT as “their man”.. they see him as the non-establishment candidate and they like (read love) hi\s policy platform. Like it or not, people are motivated by what he says.

The bit I don’t really understand is how (especially Australian voters) can sit here and say, “we just don’t understand why he’s so popular”… His most base policy platform is one of anti-immigration… I mean just have a think about how many elections have been fought here on that issue.. think about how it’s still an issue in the electorate.. think about how the ALP completely pivoted on the issue as a means of removing a differentiating factor.

it’s not rocket science.

It’s a good thing that First Nations people here and in America didn’t have PMs/Presidents with anti-immigration platforms.

…shrug…

politicians draw their support from the electorate

diddly-squat said:

diddly-squat said:

captain_spalding said:

Which is not what the Republicans want.

Someone who can speak coherently is likely to be able to think coherently, and if they can do that, they might start asking questions.

What the Republicans want is a President who’s happy being way, way off with the pixies (and providing lots of distraction), while they and their corporate friends continue the plundering.

I think that is a broad oversimplification… your typical Trump voter sees DJT as “their man”.. they see him as the non-establishment candidate and they like (read love) hi\s policy platform. Like it or not, people are motivated by what he says.

The bit I don’t really understand is how (especially Australian voters) can sit here and say, “we just don’t understand why he’s so popular”… His most base policy platform is one of anti-immigration… I mean just have a think about how many elections have been fought here on that issue.. think about how it’s still an issue in the electorate.. think about how the ALP completely pivoted on the issue as a means of removing a differentiating factor.

it’s not rocket science.

Australians generally are fine with immigration as long as it doesn’t involve illegal means with special mention of boats. Trump wants to put those granted asylum in prison camps because they’re not of the ‘right blood’. There really is no comparison.

Witty Rejoinder said:

diddly-squat said:

diddly-squat said:

I think that is a broad oversimplification… your typical Trump voter sees DJT as “their man”.. they see him as the non-establishment candidate and they like (read love) hi\s policy platform. Like it or not, people are motivated by what he says.

The bit I don’t really understand is how (especially Australian voters) can sit here and say, “we just don’t understand why he’s so popular”… His most base policy platform is one of anti-immigration… I mean just have a think about how many elections have been fought here on that issue.. think about how it’s still an issue in the electorate.. think about how the ALP completely pivoted on the issue as a means of removing a differentiating factor.

it’s not rocket science.

Australians generally are fine with immigration as long as it doesn’t involve illegal means with special mention of boats. Trump wants to put those granted asylum in prison camps because they’re not of the ‘right blood’. There really is no comparison.

I’m not really convinced that first sentence is an accurate representation of reality.

Witty Rejoinder said:

diddly-squat said:

diddly-squat said:

I think that is a broad oversimplification… your typical Trump voter sees DJT as “their man”.. they see him as the non-establishment candidate and they like (read love) hi\s policy platform. Like it or not, people are motivated by what he says.

The bit I don’t really understand is how (especially Australian voters) can sit here and say, “we just don’t understand why he’s so popular”… His most base policy platform is one of anti-immigration… I mean just have a think about how many elections have been fought here on that issue.. think about how it’s still an issue in the electorate.. think about how the ALP completely pivoted on the issue as a means of removing a differentiating factor.

it’s not rocket science.

Australians generally are fine with immigration as long as it doesn’t involve illegal means with special mention of boats. Trump wants to put those granted asylum in prison camps because they’re not of the ‘right blood’. There really is no comparison.

Or if we’re atheists. I’ve been told to leave, because I am not a Christian. So I’m literally in a group of undesirables. I could wait around for my medical records to be used against me, but I think I’ll leave before I’m jailed for having had abortions. And please don’t say stuff like that won’t happen.

Interesting interview with George Conway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHBZaPGBaQ0

Also, some interesting perspectives from non-MAGA Trump voters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4SUFm9b4xc

and Trump takes the New Hampshire primary… can’t see Haley prolonging the agony here and would imagine the remainder of the Republican primary will be uncontested. Gonna be an interesting year in US politics this..

diddly-squat said:

and Trump takes the New Hampshire primary… can’t see Haley prolonging the agony here and would imagine the remainder of the Republican primary will be uncontested. Gonna be an interesting year in US politics this..

Yes, it will be.

And, if Trump should be re-elected, we may well look back to 2024 as ‘the better times’.

captain_spalding said:

diddly-squat said:

and Trump takes the New Hampshire primary… can’t see Haley prolonging the agony here and would imagine the remainder of the Republican primary will be uncontested. Gonna be an interesting year in US politics this..

Yes, it will be.

And, if Trump should be re-elected, we may well look back to 2024 as ‘the better times’.

I think he’ll win

diddly-squat said:

captain_spalding said:

diddly-squat said:

and Trump takes the New Hampshire primary… can’t see Haley prolonging the agony here and would imagine the remainder of the Republican primary will be uncontested. Gonna be an interesting year in US politics this..

Yes, it will be.

And, if Trump should be re-elected, we may well look back to 2024 as ‘the better times’.

I think he’ll win

And the USA’s fall to the dark side is complete

diddly-squat said:

captain_spalding said:

diddly-squat said:

and Trump takes the New Hampshire primary… can’t see Haley prolonging the agony here and would imagine the remainder of the Republican primary will be uncontested. Gonna be an interesting year in US politics this..

Yes, it will be.

And, if Trump should be re-elected, we may well look back to 2024 as ‘the better times’.

I think he’ll win

I regret to say that i think the same.

The best that we can hope for then is that he dies not too long after taking office. However, he’d be replaced by the Vice-President, who, you can be sure, Trump will have made certain is someone with no political will of their own (no more Mike Pences saying ‘i won’t do that’.)

So, the Republicans will continue with working to rig the system so that they can never again lose an election, and they can exploit and plunder as they please.

While the country might be spared Trump’s personal campaign of revenge and vendetta, it will still be a very dark time for America (and, by extension, all of us), and the end of America as it’s been known.

captain_spalding said:

diddly-squat said:

captain_spalding said:

Yes, it will be.

And, if Trump should be re-elected, we may well look back to 2024 as ‘the better times’.

I think he’ll win

I regret to say that i think the same.

The best that we can hope for then is that he dies not too long after taking office. However, he’d be replaced by the Vice-President, who, you can be sure, Trump will have made certain is someone with no political will of their own (no more Mike Pences saying ‘i won’t do that’.)

So, the Republicans will continue with working to rig the system so that they can never again lose an election, and they can exploit and plunder as they please.

While the country might be spared Trump’s personal campaign of revenge and vendetta, it will still be a very dark time for America (and, by extension, all of us), and the end of America as it’s been known.

this is where Trump picks MTG as his running mate

diddly-squat said:

captain_spalding said:

diddly-squat said:

I think he’ll win

I regret to say that i think the same.

The best that we can hope for then is that he dies not too long after taking office. However, he’d be replaced by the Vice-President, who, you can be sure, Trump will have made certain is someone with no political will of their own (no more Mike Pences saying ‘i won’t do that’.)

So, the Republicans will continue with working to rig the system so that they can never again lose an election, and they can exploit and plunder as they please.

While the country might be spared Trump’s personal campaign of revenge and vendetta, it will still be a very dark time for America (and, by extension, all of us), and the end of America as it’s been known.

this is where Trump picks MTG as his running mate

Seems logical. When did you ever see a circus that had only one clown?

diddly-squat said:

captain_spalding said:

diddly-squat said:

I think he’ll win

I regret to say that i think the same.

The best that we can hope for then is that he dies not too long after taking office. However, he’d be replaced by the Vice-President, who, you can be sure, Trump will have made certain is someone with no political will of their own (no more Mike Pences saying ‘i won’t do that’.)

So, the Republicans will continue with working to rig the system so that they can never again lose an election, and they can exploit and plunder as they please.

While the country might be spared Trump’s personal campaign of revenge and vendetta, it will still be a very dark time for America (and, by extension, all of us), and the end of America as it’s been known.

this is where Trump picks MTG as his running mate

MTG?

Michael V said:

diddly-squat said:

captain_spalding said:

I regret to say that i think the same.

The best that we can hope for then is that he dies not too long after taking office. However, he’d be replaced by the Vice-President, who, you can be sure, Trump will have made certain is someone with no political will of their own (no more Mike Pences saying ‘i won’t do that’.)

So, the Republicans will continue with working to rig the system so that they can never again lose an election, and they can exploit and plunder as they please.

While the country might be spared Trump’s personal campaign of revenge and vendetta, it will still be a very dark time for America (and, by extension, all of us), and the end of America as it’s been known.

this is where Trump picks MTG as his running mate

MTG?

marjorie taylor greene

Michael V said:

diddly-squat said:

captain_spalding said:

I regret to say that i think the same.

The best that we can hope for then is that he dies not too long after taking office. However, he’d be replaced by the Vice-President, who, you can be sure, Trump will have made certain is someone with no political will of their own (no more Mike Pences saying ‘i won’t do that’.)

So, the Republicans will continue with working to rig the system so that they can never again lose an election, and they can exploit and plunder as they please.

While the country might be spared Trump’s personal campaign of revenge and vendetta, it will still be a very dark time for America (and, by extension, all of us), and the end of America as it’s been known.

this is where Trump picks MTG as his running mate

MTG?

Mouth Talks Garbage.

Michael V said:

diddly-squat said:

captain_spalding said:

I regret to say that i think the same.

The best that we can hope for then is that he dies not too long after taking office. However, he’d be replaced by the Vice-President, who, you can be sure, Trump will have made certain is someone with no political will of their own (no more Mike Pences saying ‘i won’t do that’.)

So, the Republicans will continue with working to rig the system so that they can never again lose an election, and they can exploit and plunder as they please.

While the country might be spared Trump’s personal campaign of revenge and vendetta, it will still be a very dark time for America (and, by extension, all of us), and the end of America as it’s been known.

this is where Trump picks MTG as his running mate

MTG?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Taylor_Greene

JudgeMental said:

Michael V said:

diddly-squat said:

this is where Trump picks MTG as his running mate

MTG?

marjorie taylor greene

Thanks.

Michael V said:

JudgeMental said:

Michael V said:

MTG?

marjorie taylor greene

Thanks.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZQ_d9rFNBJI

I refuse to believe that Trump will gain the presidency again.

sarahs mum said:

I refuse to believe that Trump will gain the presidency again.

We can’t really have faith in America but I’d prefer to do that than be forced to accept Trumpism again.

sarahs mum said:

I refuse to believe that Trump will gain the presidency again.

I feel sick.

sarahs mum said:

I refuse to believe that Trump will gain the presidency again.

I thought that the first time. :(

Spiny Norman said:

sarahs mum said:

I refuse to believe that Trump will gain the presidency again.

I thought that the first time. :(

Same.

kii said:

Spiny Norman said:

sarahs mum said:

I refuse to believe that Trump will gain the presidency again.

I thought that the first time. :(

Same.

Same, same.

kii said:

Spiny Norman said:

sarahs mum said:

I refuse to believe that Trump will gain the presidency again.

I thought that the first time. :(

Same.

Funny thing: the Democratic party also thought that.

sarahs mum said:

I refuse to believe that Trump will gain the presidency again.

I think you may end up having to adjust your belief system

diddly-squat said:

sarahs mum said:

I refuse to believe that Trump will gain the presidency again.

I think you may end up having to adjust your belief system

I’ll lose the will to live.

close anyway.

sarahs mum said:

diddly-squat said:

sarahs mum said:

I refuse to believe that Trump will gain the presidency again.

I think you may end up having to adjust your belief system

I’ll lose the will to live.

close anyway.

I understand that feeling. Currently at a very low point. How can I manage to gtf out of here when I feel like I am stuck in a deep hole?

kii said:

sarahs mum said:

diddly-squat said:

I think you may end up having to adjust your belief system

I’ll lose the will to live.

close anyway.

I understand that feeling. Currently at a very low point. How can I manage to gtf out of here when I feel like I am stuck in a deep hole?

you need to fight that deep hole and gtf out.

you can break down when you’re back here.

kii said:

sarahs mum said:

diddly-squat said:

I think you may end up having to adjust your belief system

I’ll lose the will to live.

close anyway.

I understand that feeling. Currently at a very low point. How can I manage to gtf out of here when I feel like I am stuck in a deep hole?

I thought you had plans to return back to Aust?

well I hope you manage to manage in the mean time

sarahs mum said:

kii said:

sarahs mum said:

I’ll lose the will to live.

close anyway.

I understand that feeling. Currently at a very low point. How can I manage to gtf out of here when I feel like I am stuck in a deep hole?

you need to fight that deep hole and gtf out.

you can break down when you’re back here.

That sounds like a plan, feeling bad in Australia sounds preferable to feeling bad in the USA

sarahs mum said:

kii said:

sarahs mum said:

I’ll lose the will to live.

close anyway.

I understand that feeling. Currently at a very low point. How can I manage to gtf out of here when I feel like I am stuck in a deep hole?

you need to fight that deep hole and gtf out.

you can break down when you’re back here.

Concur with this plan.

https://www.worldhighways.com/wh4/products/german-autobahn-receives-new-concrete-surface

Link

JudgeMental said:

https://www.worldhighways.com/wh4/products/german-autobahn-receives-new-concrete-surface

Link

this should be in chat, but meh. it’ll be read here.

JudgeMental said:

https://www.worldhighways.com/wh4/products/german-autobahn-receives-new-concrete-surface

Link

Sounds expensive.

Haley might as well stay in “just in case”. It’s going to be tough because her only opponent in the Primary is someone she can’t really attack.

dv said:

Haley might as well stay in “just in case”. It’s going to be tough because her only opponent in the Primary is someone she can’t really attack.

Just in case she suddenly pulls a lot of independant voters off their seats and out to vote.

roughbarked said:

dv said:

Haley might as well stay in “just in case”. It’s going to be tough because her only opponent in the Primary is someone she can’t really attack.

Just in case she suddenly pulls a lot of independant voters off their seats and out to vote.

Just in case he fucking dies.

dv said:

Haley might as well stay in “just in case”. It’s going to be tough because her only opponent in the Primary is someone she can’t really attack.

Could they suspect her opponent of harbouring WMD’s and send a carrier group to bomb the shit out of them.

dv said:

roughbarked said:

dv said:

Haley might as well stay in “just in case”. It’s going to be tough because her only opponent in the Primary is someone she can’t really attack.

Just in case she suddenly pulls a lot of independant voters off their seats and out to vote.

Just in case he fucking dies.

I’m kinda hoping someone helps him on his way. Some disenfranchised republican voter who flips out at one of Trumps rallies and sprays the podium with his M16.

roughbarked said:

dv said:

roughbarked said:

Just in case she suddenly pulls a lot of independant voters off their seats and out to vote.

Just in case he fucking dies.

I’m kinda hoping someone helps him on his way. Some disenfranchised republican voter who flips out at one of Trumps rallies and sprays the podium with his M16.

Sounds delightful.

Witty Rejoinder said:

roughbarked said:

dv said:

Just in case he fucking dies.

I’m kinda hoping someone helps him on his way. Some disenfranchised republican voter who flips out at one of Trumps rallies and sprays the podium with his M16.

Sounds delightful.

chokes on some KFC?

sarahs mum said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

roughbarked said:

I’m kinda hoping someone helps him on his way. Some disenfranchised republican voter who flips out at one of Trumps rallies and sprays the podium with his M16.

Sounds delightful.

chokes on some KFC?

Aneurism from overconsumption of diet coke.

dv said:

roughbarked said:

dv said:

Haley might as well stay in “just in case”. It’s going to be tough because her only opponent in the Primary is someone she can’t really attack.

Just in case she suddenly pulls a lot of independant voters off their seats and out to vote.

Just in case he fucking dies.

well even then she may still not win.. in the event that a GOP presidential candidate has to withdraw from the primary, the delegates that candidate has allocated to them are not necessarily bound to have a free choice of candidate at the convention (in fact different states have different rules).

roughbarked said:

dv said:

roughbarked said:

Just in case she suddenly pulls a lot of independant voters off their seats and out to vote.

Just in case he fucking dies.

I’m kinda hoping someone helps him on his way. Some disenfranchised republican voter who flips out at one of Trumps rallies and sprays the podium with his M16.

I find wishing death upon another human rather distasteful.. and besides, we all know guns are banned at GOP events…

diddly-squat said:

roughbarked said:

dv said:

Just in case he fucking dies.

I’m kinda hoping someone helps him on his way. Some disenfranchised republican voter who flips out at one of Trumps rallies and sprays the podium with his M16.

I find wishing death upon another human rather distasteful.. and besides, we all know guns are banned at GOP events…

:) I was only thinking of all the dark skinned people that get shot regularly in these gun toting states.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/24/politics/house-ethics-matt-gaetz/index.html

Republican-led investigation in Matt Gaetz has reached out to the woman who alleges that the Congressman had sex with her when she was a minor.

Lololol…he posted this on his social media thing.

kii said:

Lololol…he posted this on his social media thing.

LOL, 5 fingers + a thumb.

kii said:

Lololol…he posted this on his social media thing.

Shopped.

His hands aren’t that big.

captain_spalding said:

kii said:

Lololol…he posted this on his social media thing.

Shopped.

His hands aren’t that big.

Could explain why his wife is always looking grumpy

Cymek said:

captain_spalding said:

kii said:

Lololol…he posted this on his social media thing.

Shopped.

His hands aren’t that big.

Could explain why his wife is always looking grumpy

She’s just upset because THE BASTARD REFUSES TO DIE!

kii said:

Lololol…he posted this on his social media thing.

Could praying to the devil.

captain_spalding said:

Cymek said:

captain_spalding said:

Shopped.

His hands aren’t that big.

Could explain why his wife is always looking grumpy

She’s just upset because THE BASTARD REFUSES TO DIE!

Like Rasputin

JudgeMental said:

kii said:

Lololol…he posted this on his social media thing.

LOL, 5 fingers + a thumb.

LOLOL indeed.

:)

captain_spalding said:

kii said:

Lololol…he posted this on his social media thing.

Shopped.

His hands aren’t that big.

Still, it will appeal to his followers, many of whom have the same affliction.

PermeateFree said:

kii said:

Lololol…he posted this on his social media thing.

Could praying to the devil.

dv said:

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/24/politics/house-ethics-matt-gaetz/index.html

Republican-led investigation in Matt Gaetz has reached out to the woman who alleges that the Congressman had sex with her when she was a minor.

always good to discuss an investigation with the alleged victim

diddly-squat said:

dv said:

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/24/politics/house-ethics-matt-gaetz/index.html

Republican-led investigation in Matt Gaetz has reached out to the woman who alleges that the Congressman had sex with her when she was a minor.

always good to discuss an investigation with the alleged victim

They want to make her an offer.

captain_spalding said:

kii said:

Lololol…he posted this on his social media thing.

Shopped.

His hands aren’t that big.

He’s the first atheist US president and you should all be very proud

dv said:

captain_spalding said:

kii said:

Lololol…he posted this on his social media thing.

Shopped.

His hands aren’t that big.

He’s the first atheist US president and you should all be very proud

Not true. He believes that he’s the Messiah, if not actually God.

diddly-squat said:

dv said:

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/24/politics/house-ethics-matt-gaetz/index.html

Republican-led investigation in Matt Gaetz has reached out to the woman who alleges that the Congressman had sex with her when she was a minor.

always good to discuss an investigation with the alleged victim

They can usually provide some information or even evidence.

But when you think about it, isn’t Matt Gaetz the real victim of this witch-hunt?

captain_spalding said:

dv said:

captain_spalding said:

Shopped.

His hands aren’t that big.

He’s the first atheist US president and you should all be very proud

Not true. He believes that he’s the Messiah, if not actually God.

I prefer this one, where he has three legs and has set the church on fire.

Spiny Norman said:

captain_spalding said:

dv said:

He’s the first atheist US president and you should all be very proud

Not true. He believes that he’s the Messiah, if not actually God.

I prefer this one, where he has three legs and has set the church on fire.

LOL
It’s all about Trump, Joe seems to be the forgotten man.

Spiny Norman said:

captain_spalding said:

dv said:

He’s the first atheist US president and you should all be very proud

Not true. He believes that he’s the Messiah, if not actually God.

I prefer this one, where he has three legs and has set the church on fire.

When he’s sitting he always looks like he’s squatting on the loo, doing a shit.

Peak Warming Man said:

Spiny Norman said:

captain_spalding said:

Not true. He believes that he’s the Messiah, if not actually God.

I prefer this one, where he has three legs and has set the church on fire.

LOL
It’s all about Trump, Joe seems to be the forgotten man.

Biden is the quiet achiever.

Spiny Norman said:

captain_spalding said:

dv said:

He’s the first atheist US president and you should all be very proud

Not true. He believes that he’s the Messiah, if not actually God.

I prefer this one, where he has three legs and has set the church on fire.

Heidi said..

Places ravaged by opioids are giving Republicans the upper hand
Could the opioid epidemic have driven legions of voters to the right?
Jan 4th 2024

America’s opioid epidemic has rocked communities across the country. New evidence suggests that it has had an outsize role in shaping today’s political landscape, too. Drug-related deaths over the past two decades appear to have pushed the electorate to the right and helped Republican candidates in several elections.

Establishing that relationship is tricky. Some factors, such as worsening economic conditions, have been found to increase votes for conservatives and, separately, increase drug use. To try to isolate the role of the epidemic on voting, Carolina Arteaga and Victoria Barone, respectively economists at the University of Toronto and the University of Notre Dame, started by looking at areas where opioids had been heavily prescribed when they first hit the market in the 1990s. Purdue Pharma, a company that contributed to America’s opioid crisis, initially marketed OxyContin, its potent and addictive painkiller, to areas with high cancer mortality rates. In the decades that followed these towns, which were varied in terms of geography and socio-economic conditions, suffered from lethal drug overdoses more than other parts of the country.

Looking at cancer mortality rates also helped establish a before-and-after trend in opioid use and political outcomes. Before 1996, when Purdue patented OxyContin, cancer mortality was not a very good predictor of Republican vote share. But a relationship started to emerge in the decades that followed (see chart). The economists found that a one-standard-deviation increase in the cancer-mortality rate in 1996 predicted a 13.8 percentage-point jump in votes for Republican candidates in the 2020 congressional elections. In presidential elections, they found that it buoyed Republican nominees by an average of 12 percentage points between 1996 and 2020.

That is a remarkable swing. (Studies have found that the launch of Fox News on cable channels, for example, only increased the vote share for Republicans in presidential elections by less than one percentage point.) You might suspect cancer to be a proxy for poor health, which could affect political trends regardless of opioids. But the researchers found that rates of diabetes and influenza—which were not related to opioid marketing—did not influence subsequent political trends. Further analysis showed that the economy, race, migration patterns and changes in voter turnout did not explain the shift either.

Anger about the opioid epidemic may have made people more receptive to right-wing ideas. Places with high cancer rates—and therefore more opioid marketing—saw a rise in conservative views on immigration, abortion and guns, as well as a surge in animosity towards people from a different party than their own. Both white and black people shifted right by similar amounts, regardless of where they lived. They also found other signs that these areas were lurching to the right: donations to Democratic candidates fell and Fox News viewership rose.

Still, that the effects were apparently so large is reason to suspect that other forces could be at work. If the economists are right then opioids would rank among the most important political forces in recent American history.

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2024/01/04/places-ravaged-by-opioids-are-giving-republicans-the-upper-hand?

Witty Rejoinder said:

Places ravaged by opioids are giving Republicans the upper hand
Could the opioid epidemic have driven legions of voters to the right?
Jan 4th 2024

America’s opioid epidemic has rocked communities across the country. New evidence suggests that it has had an outsize role in shaping today’s political landscape, too. Drug-related deaths over the past two decades appear to have pushed the electorate to the right and helped Republican candidates in several elections.

Establishing that relationship is tricky. Some factors, such as worsening economic conditions, have been found to increase votes for conservatives and, separately, increase drug use. To try to isolate the role of the epidemic on voting, Carolina Arteaga and Victoria Barone, respectively economists at the University of Toronto and the University of Notre Dame, started by looking at areas where opioids had been heavily prescribed when they first hit the market in the 1990s. Purdue Pharma, a company that contributed to America’s opioid crisis, initially marketed OxyContin, its potent and addictive painkiller, to areas with high cancer mortality rates. In the decades that followed these towns, which were varied in terms of geography and socio-economic conditions, suffered from lethal drug overdoses more than other parts of the country.

Looking at cancer mortality rates also helped establish a before-and-after trend in opioid use and political outcomes. Before 1996, when Purdue patented OxyContin, cancer mortality was not a very good predictor of Republican vote share. But a relationship started to emerge in the decades that followed (see chart). The economists found that a one-standard-deviation increase in the cancer-mortality rate in 1996 predicted a 13.8 percentage-point jump in votes for Republican candidates in the 2020 congressional elections. In presidential elections, they found that it buoyed Republican nominees by an average of 12 percentage points between 1996 and 2020.

That is a remarkable swing. (Studies have found that the launch of Fox News on cable channels, for example, only increased the vote share for Republicans in presidential elections by less than one percentage point.) You might suspect cancer to be a proxy for poor health, which could affect political trends regardless of opioids. But the researchers found that rates of diabetes and influenza—which were not related to opioid marketing—did not influence subsequent political trends. Further analysis showed that the economy, race, migration patterns and changes in voter turnout did not explain the shift either.

Anger about the opioid epidemic may have made people more receptive to right-wing ideas. Places with high cancer rates—and therefore more opioid marketing—saw a rise in conservative views on immigration, abortion and guns, as well as a surge in animosity towards people from a different party than their own. Both white and black people shifted right by similar amounts, regardless of where they lived. They also found other signs that these areas were lurching to the right: donations to Democratic candidates fell and Fox News viewership rose.

Still, that the effects were apparently so large is reason to suspect that other forces could be at work. If the economists are right then opioids would rank among the most important political forces in recent American history.

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2024/01/04/places-ravaged-by-opioids-are-giving-republicans-the-upper-hand?

So money to trump from the pharmaceuticals pays off in the end.

Peak Warming Man said:

Spiny Norman said:

captain_spalding said:

Not true. He believes that he’s the Messiah, if not actually God.

I prefer this one, where he has three legs and has set the church on fire.

LOL
It’s all about Trump, Joe seems to be the forgotten man.

(Shrugs) Hitler got more press than Chrispien.

You’re an odd fellow.

Haley is about 40% behind Trump in South Carolina, whose primary is coming up and of which she was governor. Polls are just polls but if she can’t win on her home turf then she has a tough road.

https://youtu.be/ZXiMuJ0z-RE?si=dzS_PAIiCpeOeG7W
United Auto Workers Union has endorsed Biden.
Haley finally goes after Trump with some venom.

dv said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Spiny Norman said:

I prefer this one, where he has three legs and has set the church on fire.

LOL
It’s all about Trump, Joe seems to be the forgotten man.

(Shrugs) Hitler got more press than Chrispien.

You’re an odd fellow.

Speaking of Adolf…

Hitler phones Trump.

Link

AussieDJ said:

dv said:

Peak Warming Man said:

LOL
It’s all about Trump, Joe seems to be the forgotten man.

(Shrugs) Hitler got more press than Chrispien.

You’re an odd fellow.

Speaking of Adolf…

Hitler phones Trump.

Link

like.

sarahs mum said:

AussieDJ said:

dv said:

(Shrugs) Hitler got more press than Chrispien.

You’re an odd fellow.

Speaking of Adolf…

Hitler phones Trump.

Link

like.

Lolol…same.

the man is a f’n idiot

Dump The Chump

One Way Tickets

Ogmog said:

the man is a f’n idiot

Dump The Chump

One Way Tickets

If someone gave him a stand-up comedy show I think he’d be happy, or set him up with something like The Truman Show. Yes, excellent idea!

The GOP sure looks like it wants to punt on border crisis to help Trump

Analysis by Aaron Blake
Staff writer
January 25, 2024 at 12:31 p.m. EST

A little-noticed social media post last week featured a lament from Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), the GOP’s lead negotiator on a potential immigration deal.

“Only in Washington is our southern border political gamesmanship instead of a national security crisis,” Lankford said.

It wasn’t clear whom Lankford was accusing of political gamesmanship. But it came amid a growing push from the right wing of his party, Donald Trump and his allies to kill a promising potential deal.

And a week later, Republicans have done a great job confirming that they won’t do anything on the border for one big reason: political expediency.

As The Washington Post’s Tobi Raji, Theodoric Meyer and Leigh Ann Caldwell report, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday privately offered a dour prognosis for a deal that would unite border security measures with funding for Ukraine’s war effort. In doing so, McConnell pointed to Trump’s apparent ascension as the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. (Trump, who won the New Hampshire primary Tuesday, has called for Republicans to reject the bipartisan compromise.)

Punchbowl News and others reported that McConnell specifically cited a desire not to “undermine” Trump and the fact that the former president would like to campaign on immigration in the 2024 election.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) called it “appalling” that Trump “would communicate to Republican senators and congresspeople that he doesn’t want us to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden for it.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) told USA Today, “Is it really better to have 10,000 people crossing a day illegally or 5,000? Clearly it’s 5,000. So somebody who is trying to defeat legislation, all in the name of running for office? That is irresponsible.”

McConnell has since clarified that he still aims to forge a deal, Romney said Thursday — though it remains to be seen how hard he’ll push.

It’s been clear for a while that the politics of this issue would be tough, especially in a GOP-controlled House which has balked at what senators like Lankford are negotiating. The public details of the deal are sparse so far, but key aspects include toughening rules for those who show up at the border to claim asylum. A sticking point has been how to handle parole for migrants to temporarily enter the United States.

But specifically citing Trump and his campaign takes things to another level. The objections don’t seem to just be about the difficulty in passing something or that it would be insufficient in stemming the flow at the border, but about how it would play politically. This from a party that has played up the immediacy of what it labeled a national security crisis at the border.

The shift also comes, notably, after McConnell and other top Republicans previously stressed the opportunity at hand — and the necessity to get something done now.

Senate Republicans last week actually pushed back when some of their GOP colleagues and conservative talkers suggested that legislation wasn’t necessary or that they should wait until Trump took office in a year.

Lankford called it “by far, the most conservative border security bill in four decades.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called it a “historic moment” and assured the GOP that it “won’t” get a better deal with Trump as president. “To get this kind of border security without granting a pathway to citizenship is really unheard of,” Graham said.

The No. 2 Senate Republican, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), offered similar comments, calling it a “unique moment” and arguing that there’s “absolutely no way” to get such a deal under Trump unless Republicans get a 60-seat, filibuster-proof majority.

McConnell himself maintained that even full GOP control of Washington wouldn’t work, because “we probably would not be able to get a single Democratic vote to pass” the deal.

“This is a unique opportunity to accomplish something in divided government,” McConnell said.

The logical extension of those comments is that Republicans might be giving up doing something significant on the border: If it’s not going to happen under Trump, and you’re not going to do it now, it’s not going to happen, period.

And by sticking their necks out in favor of the push for a deal, they have made it look even more like political gamesmanship rather than national security concerns killed the agreement. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to dispute that Trump and some Republicans see political value in continuing the border crisis and declining to cut a bipartisan deal that could help Biden politically. GOP lawmakers are now talking openly about that.

A comment I keep coming back to on this is one from Rep. Troy E. Nehls (R-Tex.), who just came out and said it early this month: “I’m not willing to do too damn much right now to help a Democrat and to help Joe Biden’s approval rating.”

One way to look at McConnell’s comments is just an acknowledgment of the political reality that it was going to be tough to pass. Why even have the Senate pass something that the House won’t — and in the process, make it clear the House killed a deal that could have helped at the border?

But another is that it’s just sheer exasperation with Trump and an attempt to lay the failure of the deal at his feet. This is a man who has relentlessly attacked McConnell, launching racist attacks at his wife and even seeming to suggestively point to McConnell’s demise. Yes, McConnell would appear to be capitulating to Trump after all that, but he’s also effectively blaming Trump.

While walking off the Senate floor Thursday, McConnell was asked about Trump potentially killing the deal.

“It’s not anything new,” he replied.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/01/25/gop-sure-looks-like-it-wants-punt-border-crisis-help-trump/?

Senior Senate Republicans are furious that Donald Trump may have killed an emerging bipartisan deal over the southern border, depriving them of a key legislative achievement on a pressing national priority and offering a preview of what’s to come with Trump as their likely presidential nominee.

In recent weeks, Trump has been lobbying Republicans both in private conversations and in public statements on social media to oppose the border compromise being delicately hashed out in the Senate, according to GOP sources familiar with the conversations – in part because he wants to campaign on the issue this November and doesn’t want President Joe Biden to score a victory in an area where he is politically vulnerable.

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged in a private meeting on Wednesday that Trump’s animosity toward the yet-to-be-released border deal puts Republicans in a serious bind as they try to move forward on the already complex issue. For weeks, Republicans have been warning that Trump’s opposition could blow up the bipartisan proposal, but the admission from McConnell was particularly striking, given he has been a chief advocate for a border-Ukraine package.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/25/politics/gop-senators-angry-trump-immigration-deal/index.html
—-

Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro sentenced to 4 months

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/25/politics/peter-navarro-contempt-congress-sentence/index.html

REPORT: The Trump White House Went Through A LOT Of Drugs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBFmBxmcBag

Jay Kuo:
January 26 2021

“I read an interesting study that left quite an impression on me. It was about risk assessment, which sounds boring but hear me out.
The study, conducted in 1994 so it was a while back, showed perhaps unsurprisingly that white males in the United States as a group have a far lower sense of “environmental health” risk than other demographics such as white women, and to and even greater extent minority men and women.
Since that study, social scientists have examined whether this lower sense of health risk from the environment extended into other behaviors and activities. They found that it does, and that the same demographic patterns emerge. The low sense of risk among white males helps explain a great deal of what seems like baffling behavior, including the flouting of mask and social distancing rules and even the carefree attitude many had in storming the U.S. Capitol. Having been raised in a society where their actions often come without consequences, or at least far lower consequences than others, as a group white males simply go through life with a different set of expectations, and they bring those assumptions along in every interaction.
If you extend this reasoning a bit, one alarming thought arises: It is mostly white men who are setting legislative and corporate policy. Because subjective assessment of risk by white men is considerably lower than other groups, this can translate into, for example, lower penalties for behavior that they are more likely to engage in, with harsher ones for behavior or circumstances that are typically unassociated with their demographic.
The ex-president was able to tap into white male low risk assessment and weaponize it precisely because he led a similar charmed existence, never truly facing consequences for his actions. In fact, he openly encouraged people to signal their disdain for things like rules and limits, the louder the signal the better. Thus were born anti-mask rallies and armed protests in state capitols. It wasn’t just that black or brown citizens were far less likely to attend these; most would simply never even dream of walking around in public armed, as the risk of punishment from the authorities is real and severe.
This is one clear reason why diversity in leadership matters. White men represent a wholly different mindset when it comes to the risks and protections that a nation, a community, a family ought to be taking. It’s not that the mindset is bad, it’s just that it is unrepresentative of the whole. By including more viewpoints in leadership, policy can better reflect what the actual consensus of the governed is.”

Original study here: https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/…/22417/slovic_337.pdf

The childishness goes on.

Trump at his trial

kii said:

Jay Kuo:
January 26 2021

“I read an interesting study that left quite an impression on me. It was about risk assessment, which sounds boring but hear me out.
The study, conducted in 1994 so it was a while back, showed perhaps unsurprisingly that white males in the United States as a group have a far lower sense of “environmental health” risk than other demographics such as white women, and to and even greater extent minority men and women.
Since that study, social scientists have examined whether this lower sense of health risk from the environment extended into other behaviors and activities. They found that it does, and that the same demographic patterns emerge. The low sense of risk among white males helps explain a great deal of what seems like baffling behavior, including the flouting of mask and social distancing rules and even the carefree attitude many had in storming the U.S. Capitol. Having been raised in a society where their actions often come without consequences, or at least far lower consequences than others, as a group white males simply go through life with a different set of expectations, and they bring those assumptions along in every interaction.
If you extend this reasoning a bit, one alarming thought arises: It is mostly white men who are setting legislative and corporate policy. Because subjective assessment of risk by white men is considerably lower than other groups, this can translate into, for example, lower penalties for behavior that they are more likely to engage in, with harsher ones for behavior or circumstances that are typically unassociated with their demographic.
The ex-president was able to tap into white male low risk assessment and weaponize it precisely because he led a similar charmed existence, never truly facing consequences for his actions. In fact, he openly encouraged people to signal their disdain for things like rules and limits, the louder the signal the better. Thus were born anti-mask rallies and armed protests in state capitols. It wasn’t just that black or brown citizens were far less likely to attend these; most would simply never even dream of walking around in public armed, as the risk of punishment from the authorities is real and severe.
This is one clear reason why diversity in leadership matters. White men represent a wholly different mindset when it comes to the risks and protections that a nation, a community, a family ought to be taking. It’s not that the mindset is bad, it’s just that it is unrepresentative of the whole. By including more viewpoints in leadership, policy can better reflect what the actual consensus of the governed is.”

Original study here: https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/…/22417/slovic_337.pdf

Makes sense. Jacinda Ardern’s response to covid was marked in comparison.

kii said:

Jay Kuo:
January 26 2021

“I read an interesting study that left quite an impression on me. It was about risk assessment, which sounds boring but hear me out.
The study, conducted in 1994 so it was a while back, showed perhaps unsurprisingly that white males in the United States as a group have a far lower sense of “environmental health” risk than other demographics such as white women, and to and even greater extent minority men and women.
Since that study, social scientists have examined whether this lower sense of health risk from the environment extended into other behaviors and activities. They found that it does, and that the same demographic patterns emerge. The low sense of risk among white males helps explain a great deal of what seems like baffling behavior, including the flouting of mask and social distancing rules and even the carefree attitude many had in storming the U.S. Capitol. Having been raised in a society where their actions often come without consequences, or at least far lower consequences than others, as a group white males simply go through life with a different set of expectations, and they bring those assumptions along in every interaction.
If you extend this reasoning a bit, one alarming thought arises: It is mostly white men who are setting legislative and corporate policy. Because subjective assessment of risk by white men is considerably lower than other groups, this can translate into, for example, lower penalties for behavior that they are more likely to engage in, with harsher ones for behavior or circumstances that are typically unassociated with their demographic.
The ex-president was able to tap into white male low risk assessment and weaponize it precisely because he led a similar charmed existence, never truly facing consequences for his actions. In fact, he openly encouraged people to signal their disdain for things like rules and limits, the louder the signal the better. Thus were born anti-mask rallies and armed protests in state capitols. It wasn’t just that black or brown citizens were far less likely to attend these; most would simply never even dream of walking around in public armed, as the risk of punishment from the authorities is real and severe.
This is one clear reason why diversity in leadership matters. White men represent a wholly different mindset when it comes to the risks and protections that a nation, a community, a family ought to be taking. It’s not that the mindset is bad, it’s just that it is unrepresentative of the whole. By including more viewpoints in leadership, policy can better reflect what the actual consensus of the governed is.”

Original study here: https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/…/22417/slovic_337.pdf

I remember reading this a while ago. Interesting and a little worrying.

buffy said:

The childishness goes on.

Trump at his trial

He’ll have to either cough up the money himself (something that would really sting him hard), or else appeal to wealthy backers to subsidise the cost.

If he does the latter, then they may begin to wonder whether this jerk isn’t too expensive to keep around, or else they’ll demand some very serious quid pro quo if he returns to the Presidency.

kii said:

Jay Kuo:
January 26 2021

“I read an interesting study that left quite an impression on me. It was about risk assessment, which sounds boring but hear me out.
The study, conducted in 1994 so it was a while back, showed perhaps unsurprisingly that white males in the United States as a group have a far lower sense of “environmental health” risk than other demographics such as white women, and to and even greater extent minority men and women.
Since that study, social scientists have examined whether this lower sense of health risk from the environment extended into other behaviors and activities. They found that it does, and that the same demographic patterns emerge. The low sense of risk among white males helps explain a great deal of what seems like baffling behavior, including the flouting of mask and social distancing rules and even the carefree attitude many had in storming the U.S. Capitol. Having been raised in a society where their actions often come without consequences, or at least far lower consequences than others, as a group white males simply go through life with a different set of expectations, and they bring those assumptions along in every interaction.
If you extend this reasoning a bit, one alarming thought arises: It is mostly white men who are setting legislative and corporate policy. Because subjective assessment of risk by white men is considerably lower than other groups, this can translate into, for example, lower penalties for behavior that they are more likely to engage in, with harsher ones for behavior or circumstances that are typically unassociated with their demographic.
The ex-president was able to tap into white male low risk assessment and weaponize it precisely because he led a similar charmed existence, never truly facing consequences for his actions. In fact, he openly encouraged people to signal their disdain for things like rules and limits, the louder the signal the better. Thus were born anti-mask rallies and armed protests in state capitols. It wasn’t just that black or brown citizens were far less likely to attend these; most would simply never even dream of walking around in public armed, as the risk of punishment from the authorities is real and severe.
This is one clear reason why diversity in leadership matters. White men represent a wholly different mindset when it comes to the risks and protections that a nation, a community, a family ought to be taking. It’s not that the mindset is bad, it’s just that it is unrepresentative of the whole. By including more viewpoints in leadership, policy can better reflect what the actual consensus of the governed is.”

Original study here: https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/…/22417/slovic_337.pdf

Interesting notion.

Michael V said:

kii said:

Jay Kuo:
January 26 2021

“I read an interesting study that left quite an impression on me. It was about risk assessment, which sounds boring but hear me out.
The study, conducted in 1994 so it was a while back, showed perhaps unsurprisingly that white males in the United States as a group have a far lower sense of “environmental health” risk than other demographics such as white women, and to and even greater extent minority men and women.
Since that study, social scientists have examined whether this lower sense of health risk from the environment extended into other behaviors and activities. They found that it does, and that the same demographic patterns emerge. The low sense of risk among white males helps explain a great deal of what seems like baffling behavior, including the flouting of mask and social distancing rules and even the carefree attitude many had in storming the U.S. Capitol. Having been raised in a society where their actions often come without consequences, or at least far lower consequences than others, as a group white males simply go through life with a different set of expectations, and they bring those assumptions along in every interaction.
If you extend this reasoning a bit, one alarming thought arises: It is mostly white men who are setting legislative and corporate policy. Because subjective assessment of risk by white men is considerably lower than other groups, this can translate into, for example, lower penalties for behavior that they are more likely to engage in, with harsher ones for behavior or circumstances that are typically unassociated with their demographic.
The ex-president was able to tap into white male low risk assessment and weaponize it precisely because he led a similar charmed existence, never truly facing consequences for his actions. In fact, he openly encouraged people to signal their disdain for things like rules and limits, the louder the signal the better. Thus were born anti-mask rallies and armed protests in state capitols. It wasn’t just that black or brown citizens were far less likely to attend these; most would simply never even dream of walking around in public armed, as the risk of punishment from the authorities is real and severe.
This is one clear reason why diversity in leadership matters. White men represent a wholly different mindset when it comes to the risks and protections that a nation, a community, a family ought to be taking. It’s not that the mindset is bad, it’s just that it is unrepresentative of the whole. By including more viewpoints in leadership, policy can better reflect what the actual consensus of the governed is.”

Original study here: https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/…/22417/slovic_337.pdf

Interesting notion.

Read that.

Marjorie Taylor Greene would have this quality.

Interesting how some politicians are expressing this behaviour.

Imagine not being able to change this behaviour.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Michael V said:

kii said:

Jay Kuo:
January 26 2021

“I read an interesting study that left quite an impression on me. It was about risk assessment, which sounds boring but hear me out.
The study, conducted in 1994 so it was a while back, showed perhaps unsurprisingly that white males in the United States as a group have a far lower sense of “environmental health” risk than other demographics such as white women, and to and even greater extent minority men and women.
Since that study, social scientists have examined whether this lower sense of health risk from the environment extended into other behaviors and activities. They found that it does, and that the same demographic patterns emerge. The low sense of risk among white males helps explain a great deal of what seems like baffling behavior, including the flouting of mask and social distancing rules and even the carefree attitude many had in storming the U.S. Capitol. Having been raised in a society where their actions often come without consequences, or at least far lower consequences than others, as a group white males simply go through life with a different set of expectations, and they bring those assumptions along in every interaction.
If you extend this reasoning a bit, one alarming thought arises: It is mostly white men who are setting legislative and corporate policy. Because subjective assessment of risk by white men is considerably lower than other groups, this can translate into, for example, lower penalties for behavior that they are more likely to engage in, with harsher ones for behavior or circumstances that are typically unassociated with their demographic.
The ex-president was able to tap into white male low risk assessment and weaponize it precisely because he led a similar charmed existence, never truly facing consequences for his actions. In fact, he openly encouraged people to signal their disdain for things like rules and limits, the louder the signal the better. Thus were born anti-mask rallies and armed protests in state capitols. It wasn’t just that black or brown citizens were far less likely to attend these; most would simply never even dream of walking around in public armed, as the risk of punishment from the authorities is real and severe.
This is one clear reason why diversity in leadership matters. White men represent a wholly different mindset when it comes to the risks and protections that a nation, a community, a family ought to be taking. It’s not that the mindset is bad, it’s just that it is unrepresentative of the whole. By including more viewpoints in leadership, policy can better reflect what the actual consensus of the governed is.”

Original study here: https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/…/22417/slovic_337.pdf

Interesting notion.

Read that.

Marjorie Taylor Greene would have this quality.

Interesting how some politicians are expressing this behaviour.

Imagine not being able to change this behaviour.

It’s not just men who are like this.

On the whole it does see male orientated.

Obama’s fb:

In 2022, lawmakers in Louisiana passed a Congressional map with only one majority African American district out of six – even though Black Louisianans make up about a third of the state’s population.

Now a federal court has ordered Louisiana to redraw their maps and create a second Black majority district. It’s a victory for our democracy, and should motivate us to keep pushing for equal representation in every state. https://www.npr.org/2024/01/23/1226364461/louisana-new-congressional-districts

OCDC said:

Obama’s fb:

In 2022, lawmakers in Louisiana passed a Congressional map with only one majority African American district out of six – even though Black Louisianans make up about a third of the state’s population.

Now a federal court has ordered Louisiana to redraw their maps and create a second Black majority district. It’s a victory for our democracy, and should motivate us to keep pushing for equal representation in every state. https://www.npr.org/2024/01/23/1226364461/louisana-new-congressional-districts

Good. Very good.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/verdict-reached-e-jean-carrolls-defamation-damages-trial-trump-rcna135919

Former President Donald Trump must pay writer E. Jean Carroll over $83 million in damages for repeatedly defaming her, a jury found Friday.

The nine-person jury began deliberations in federal court in New York at 1:40 p.m. ET and reached a verdict in just under three hours.

dv said:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/verdict-reached-e-jean-carrolls-defamation-damages-trial-trump-rcna135919

Former President Donald Trump must pay writer E. Jean Carroll over $83 million in damages for repeatedly defaming her, a jury found Friday.

The nine-person jury began deliberations in federal court in New York at 1:40 p.m. ET and reached a verdict in just under three hours.

‘It Was Sexual Assault, Not Rape’: Giuliani Offers Unhelpful Defense of Trump
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/it-was-sexual-assault-not-rape-giuliani-offers-unhelpful-defense-of-trump/

dv said:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/verdict-reached-e-jean-carrolls-defamation-damages-trial-trump-rcna135919

Former President Donald Trump must pay writer E. Jean Carroll over $83 million in damages for repeatedly defaming her, a jury found Friday.

The nine-person jury began deliberations in federal court in New York at 1:40 p.m. ET and reached a verdict in just under three hours.

If trump gets in you’ll see wholesale arrests of members of the democrat party.

Weren’t they trying to get trump on a loan he repaid years ago because it was argued he defrauded banks on the value of a property?

I don’t read the accusations against trump anymore because it’s all lies. There’s trillions of dollars at stake

dv said:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/verdict-reached-e-jean-carrolls-defamation-damages-trial-trump-rcna135919

Former President Donald Trump must pay writer E. Jean Carroll over $83 million in damages for repeatedly defaming her, a jury found Friday.

The nine-person jury began deliberations in federal court in New York at 1:40 p.m. ET and reached a verdict in just under three hours.

Excellent. Don’t know why she needs the money but it sure is going to make DJT smart a bit.

dv said:

dv said:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/verdict-reached-e-jean-carrolls-defamation-damages-trial-trump-rcna135919

Former President Donald Trump must pay writer E. Jean Carroll over $83 million in damages for repeatedly defaming her, a jury found Friday.

The nine-person jury began deliberations in federal court in New York at 1:40 p.m. ET and reached a verdict in just under three hours.

‘It Was Sexual Assault, Not Rape’: Giuliani Offers Unhelpful Defense of Trump
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/it-was-sexual-assault-not-rape-giuliani-offers-unhelpful-defense-of-trump/

How is sexual assault not rape?

roughbarked said:

dv said:

dv said:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/verdict-reached-e-jean-carrolls-defamation-damages-trial-trump-rcna135919

Former President Donald Trump must pay writer E. Jean Carroll over $83 million in damages for repeatedly defaming her, a jury found Friday.

The nine-person jury began deliberations in federal court in New York at 1:40 p.m. ET and reached a verdict in just under three hours.

‘It Was Sexual Assault, Not Rape’: Giuliani Offers Unhelpful Defense of Trump
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/it-was-sexual-assault-not-rape-giuliani-offers-unhelpful-defense-of-trump/

How is sexual assault not rape?

rubbing your penis up against someone or sticking your hand up her dress etc. is an assault.

sarahs mum said:

roughbarked said:

dv said:

‘It Was Sexual Assault, Not Rape’: Giuliani Offers Unhelpful Defense of Trump
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/it-was-sexual-assault-not-rape-giuliani-offers-unhelpful-defense-of-trump/

How is sexual assault not rape?

rubbing your penis up against someone or sticking your hand up her dress etc. is an assault.

I’d still feel raped.

roughbarked said:

dv said:

dv said:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/verdict-reached-e-jean-carrolls-defamation-damages-trial-trump-rcna135919

Former President Donald Trump must pay writer E. Jean Carroll over $83 million in damages for repeatedly defaming her, a jury found Friday.

The nine-person jury began deliberations in federal court in New York at 1:40 p.m. ET and reached a verdict in just under three hours.

‘It Was Sexual Assault, Not Rape’: Giuliani Offers Unhelpful Defense of Trump
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/it-was-sexual-assault-not-rape-giuliani-offers-unhelpful-defense-of-trump/

How is sexual assault not rape?

The jury in the original trial found that there was some sort of penetration, but was unsure if it was digitall or penile.

roughbarked said:

sarahs mum said:

roughbarked said:

How is sexual assault not rape?

rubbing your penis up against someone or sticking your hand up her dress etc. is an assault.

I’d still feel raped.

The trauma is equivalent.

dv said:

dv said:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/verdict-reached-e-jean-carrolls-defamation-damages-trial-trump-rcna135919

Former President Donald Trump must pay writer E. Jean Carroll over $83 million in damages for repeatedly defaming her, a jury found Friday.

The nine-person jury began deliberations in federal court in New York at 1:40 p.m. ET and reached a verdict in just under three hours.

‘It Was Sexual Assault, Not Rape’: Giuliani Offers Unhelpful Defense of Trump
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/it-was-sexual-assault-not-rape-giuliani-offers-unhelpful-defense-of-trump/

Giuliani is an idiot. He’s definitely on trump’s list of targets.

party_pants said:

roughbarked said:

dv said:

‘It Was Sexual Assault, Not Rape’: Giuliani Offers Unhelpful Defense of Trump
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/it-was-sexual-assault-not-rape-giuliani-offers-unhelpful-defense-of-trump/

How is sexual assault not rape?

The jury in the original trial found that there was some sort of penetration, but was unsure if it was digitall or penile.

I’ve heard his fingers are small and maybe also his little dicky bird is too.

kii said:

roughbarked said:

sarahs mum said:

rubbing your penis up against someone or sticking your hand up her dress etc. is an assault.

I’d still feel raped.

The trauma is equivalent.

I’d expect so.

JudgeMental said:

kii said:

Jay Kuo:
January 26 2021

“I read an interesting study that left quite an impression on me. It was about risk assessment, which sounds boring but hear me out.
The study, conducted in 1994 so it was a while back, showed perhaps unsurprisingly that white males in the United States as a group have a far lower sense of “environmental health” risk than other demographics such as white women, and to and even greater extent minority men and women.
Since that study, social scientists have examined whether this lower sense of health risk from the environment extended into other behaviors and activities. They found that it does, and that the same demographic patterns emerge. The low sense of risk among white males helps explain a great deal of what seems like baffling behavior, including the flouting of mask and social distancing rules and even the carefree attitude many had in storming the U.S. Capitol. Having been raised in a society where their actions often come without consequences, or at least far lower consequences than others, as a group white males simply go through life with a different set of expectations, and they bring those assumptions along in every interaction.
If you extend this reasoning a bit, one alarming thought arises: It is mostly white men who are setting legislative and corporate policy. Because subjective assessment of risk by white men is considerably lower than other groups, this can translate into, for example, lower penalties for behavior that they are more likely to engage in, with harsher ones for behavior or circumstances that are typically unassociated with their demographic.
The ex-president was able to tap into white male low risk assessment and weaponize it precisely because he led a similar charmed existence, never truly facing consequences for his actions. In fact, he openly encouraged people to signal their disdain for things like rules and limits, the louder the signal the better. Thus were born anti-mask rallies and armed protests in state capitols. It wasn’t just that black or brown citizens were far less likely to attend these; most would simply never even dream of walking around in public armed, as the risk of punishment from the authorities is real and severe.
This is one clear reason why diversity in leadership matters. White men represent a wholly different mindset when it comes to the risks and protections that a nation, a community, a family ought to be taking. It’s not that the mindset is bad, it’s just that it is unrepresentative of the whole. By including more viewpoints in leadership, policy can better reflect what the actual consensus of the governed is.”

Original study here: https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/…/22417/slovic_337.pdf

I remember reading this a while ago. Interesting and a little worrying.

It was in my fb memories from a few years ago. Maybe that?

kii said:

JudgeMental said:

kii said:

Jay Kuo:
January 26 2021

“I read an interesting study that left quite an impression on me. It was about risk assessment, which sounds boring but hear me out.
The study, conducted in 1994 so it was a while back, showed perhaps unsurprisingly that white males in the United States as a group have a far lower sense of “environmental health” risk than other demographics such as white women, and to and even greater extent minority men and women.
Since that study, social scientists have examined whether this lower sense of health risk from the environment extended into other behaviors and activities. They found that it does, and that the same demographic patterns emerge. The low sense of risk among white males helps explain a great deal of what seems like baffling behavior, including the flouting of mask and social distancing rules and even the carefree attitude many had in storming the U.S. Capitol. Having been raised in a society where their actions often come without consequences, or at least far lower consequences than others, as a group white males simply go through life with a different set of expectations, and they bring those assumptions along in every interaction.
If you extend this reasoning a bit, one alarming thought arises: It is mostly white men who are setting legislative and corporate policy. Because subjective assessment of risk by white men is considerably lower than other groups, this can translate into, for example, lower penalties for behavior that they are more likely to engage in, with harsher ones for behavior or circumstances that are typically unassociated with their demographic.
The ex-president was able to tap into white male low risk assessment and weaponize it precisely because he led a similar charmed existence, never truly facing consequences for his actions. In fact, he openly encouraged people to signal their disdain for things like rules and limits, the louder the signal the better. Thus were born anti-mask rallies and armed protests in state capitols. It wasn’t just that black or brown citizens were far less likely to attend these; most would simply never even dream of walking around in public armed, as the risk of punishment from the authorities is real and severe.
This is one clear reason why diversity in leadership matters. White men represent a wholly different mindset when it comes to the risks and protections that a nation, a community, a family ought to be taking. It’s not that the mindset is bad, it’s just that it is unrepresentative of the whole. By including more viewpoints in leadership, policy can better reflect what the actual consensus of the governed is.”

Original study here: https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/…/22417/slovic_337.pdf

I remember reading this a while ago. Interesting and a little worrying.

It was in my fb memories from a few years ago. Maybe that?

Most likely. I thought it seemed a good fit with the evidence.