Goredho

:raises hand: Um, I'd just like to state for the record, my brain is actually weed-addled.

When reached for comment, male cougars simply responded with

Like a three-toed sloth slut.

I think it's probably an attempt to muddy what is meant by "influencing an election." Like, portraying yourself in your best light is technically an attempt to influence an election (I'm a stable genius!). Portraying your opponent in their most negative light is as well (sleepy Joe). Attempting to influence an election also covers paying off a porn star to avoid talking about an affair, and likewise stoking an insurrection at the capitol to stop certification. I think they are trying to equate what Trump did with regards to Stormy as nothing more than successful campaigning.

I don't necessarily disagree, but I know there are conservatives looking for an off ramp from highway Trump, and I know there are Republican congressional members that are not just doing his bidding in the House. I also have a hunch that a lot of his support in the party itself is more of opportunity vs belief. Sure, there are Boebert's and MTG's that are true believers, but I think there are more people like Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham who would defect from team Trump in a heartbeat as soon as it is politically advantageous to do so. Those people would be happy to stick a shiv in him if/when the right opportunity presents itself. I don't think anyone knows exactly how the next 6 months plays out.

It is starting to feel more like a Republican civil war with some Republicans who have had enough of Trump willing to take a bit of a public stand. I fear it will be way too-little-too-late, though.

This cunt really makes me pissed off at our ancient ancestors in the homo sapiens lineage that decided it would be a great idea to fuck that butterfaced neanderthal from the village they just raided. Undefeated, I know, but go fuck a mastodon or something if you are that hard up.

MyTrumpPillows

I would have to immolate myself as well.

Well then, don't light yourself on fire.

We all knew this election cycle was going to be lit.

But what about the despots? No one is looking out for them.

For you surly law dogs, can a judge order that a defendant be fitted with a shock collar so they can be issued a mild correction whenever they fall asleep at their own criminal trial?

Someone should have told him "Fat, MAGA drunk & stupid is no way to go through life, son."

By the way, for all you snowflake conservatives that believe you'll get negged to death in the cloakroom if you don't march lock step with the "liberal hive mind" here, this conversation is proof that you are full of shit

Not at all. I'm arguing that while Trump's leadership was objectively shitty, the populist anti-establishment response to the pandemic -- eschewing social distancing, not masking up, not getting vaccinated -- did not come from the top/Donald Trump. They arrived at their beliefs elsewhere, and they are who made the pandemic what it was in the US.

Something we can all agree on! How many people were harmed during Covid from injecting themselves with bleach as Trump suggested might be a treatment? How many injected themselves with horse paste as was circulating online as a proper treatment? I know a ton of people that didn't vaccinate, didn't mask up and didn't social distance, and it had absolutely nothing to do with Donald Trump. And Donald Trump being wise, sensical and Presidential would not have gotten them to carry themselves otherwise. They didn't vaccinate, mask up or social distance because they exceeded some critical threshold of stupidity and/or distrust of government that allowed them to fall victim of a digital grass roots movement promoting conspiracies, lies and misinformation online. One thing I think is under appreciated here is that it is not Trump leading these people astray. He's their figurehead, but these people were already fucking astray. And to the degree they've been led there, they've been led by their pastor, their family member, their friend, the community around them telling them, "Hey, you need to be aware this is going on" while passing them some bullshit meme, blog post, YouTube video or the content thereof. It is at least as influential in their mental context as a steady diet of Fox News.

I knew it was going to be a popular take. I think there are a shit ton of people in this country that are a dangerous combination of A) stupid and B) irrationally distrustful of things like the federal government, science, medicine and education. They were both consumers and purveyors of disinformation related to the pandemic and they are who made the pandemic what it was in this country. They are who filled the covid death stat sheet for the US. They were going to be stupid, distrustful and not follow guidelines and mandates regardless of who was elected in 2016. Do you all honestly think Joe Dirt would have happily practiced social distancing, masked up when out and taken the vaccine like a good citizen if Hilary Clinton or Joe Biden was in the White House being all Presidential and shit? Fuck no. Has the Republican party done a lot to ensure we have an unhealthy population of manipulatable idiots that are irrationally distrustful of societal institutions like government, science, health care and education? Absolutely. But Donald Trump wasn't involved with the Republican Party before 2015 or so and the post I responded to stated Donald Trump should be held criminally liable for covid deaths in the US. I still completely disagree. January 6th, yes. Georgia vote manufacturing pressure, yes. Covid deaths, no.

I agree 100% with #1 and #2. I disagree about #3. Trump's public displays of leadership during covid were about what you could expect from a reality TV star running a superpower during a no-shit global crisis, but covid was going to come to the US and kill a million plus no matter who was in the white house. And for all of his public fumbling, Trump largely allowed "the deep state" to do what they had planned for this scenario. Even if he just kind of left a lot of the actual response to the states, lockdowns and mask mandates happened, and a vaccine got developed and deployed in a pretty astonishing feat of governmental and industrial cooperation. A lot of lives were saved as a result of those efforts directed primarily by federal technocrats like Fauci and other public health officials below the federal level. Neither Trump or Biden had much to do with it. The movement against vaccines and public health measures to deal with covid didn't come from the oval office and seemed largely grass roots to me. If anyone is to blame for that, its probably social media companies and their algorithms to amplify content among clusters of the population regardless of its veracity and nation states unfriendly to the US that would have seen it as another great opportunity to sow discord amongst our citizens using their varied means.

One of the greatest in one of my favorite bands, and it is still kind of mind blowing he probably wasn't even the best guitarist in his own band. Gonna be playing In Memory of Dickie Betts on the guitar tonight.

The government winds up... delivers the pitch... Trump swings... and misses! That brings the count to two and three... ...million five hundred sixty eight thousand four hundred ninety three.

Six? I only needed sheeeit said:

He drives you crazy OOOH! OOOH!