atomheartbevo

A lot of those in leadership positions are not dumb - they know exactly what they are doing, and they are relying on other Republicans (such as the Ohio Governor and Springfield Mayor) not to rat them out. In this instance, Trump needs a group to demonize, that can't fight back, and after a lot of workshopping, they cobbled together an strategy. The "dumbest" part is the Republican voters who buy into this shit. Well, it is possible that Trump believes this shit, but the people around him most likely don't. And even Vance said they created stories like this to focus the media. They are evil and self-serving, not dumb. Abbott knows exactly what he's doing when he gins up border emergencies or Venezuelan gang emergencies.

Given that a lot (or most) of the stuff we see on those evening Russian TV shows was scripted by Margarita in some fashion and that she reports to Putin, if he's asking that openly, and that train of thought starts popping up in more and more of the shows, it maybe Putin trying to back out. Edit: or at least prepping the Russian people for some kind of cease fire that sees them giving up most/all of what they had taken going back to 2014. Given the missile strike we just saw on the ammo dump, how long before the Kerch bridge goes offline for good? Just in the last week, we've already seen the show hosts positing that Russia was never going to get in a nuclear war with NATO over NATO weapons, as if they are trying to reassure the people (or the West).

When he posts shit like this, my first thought is "what the fuck did he do, because that sounds like a man scared that he might need a federal pardon." My second thought is somebody going down the road to Howardhughesville.

Or a combination of everything - also toss in corruption at some point had to mean some shortcuts were taken, even if they weren't obvious. Maybe things were too close together or walls were thinner than they should have been. I would bet that the Ukrainians know when transfers out to air bases are happening, or shipments from factories or other countries are coming in. That was one helluva hit though, and doesn't seem like their normal UAVs. Could it be their domestically produced large ballistic missiles? Ukraine confirmed that they had tested them just under a month ago: https://www.npr.org/2024/08/28/nx-s1-5090919/ukraine-has-successfully-tested-ballistic-missiles-that-were-made-in-ukraine

At this point, given that Trump draws in the crazies, nothing that happens regarding him is surprising, at all. I'm honestly surprised it's only been a couple of attempts - a bunch of the Qanon people got really pissed off at him for not doing all of the batshit stuff they thought he was giong to do.

We don't drink raw milk in my house so those idiots won't be stopping by for a cup of milk.

....that it takes 4 12 year-olds to take down and kill an adult male hitchhiker?

What the fuck, the thread jumps a few pages and I thought he got shot at again. Edit: or maybe there was no would-be assassin and it was all for a bump in the polls.

The Kremlin sure does have some purty looking buildings in it…..

https://www.threads.net/@benricem/post/DABcBVAsDCA

I will say this - I'm enjoying the conspiracy theories that the Springfield stuff is about distracting everybody from Bernie Moreno's shenanigans. The idea that Trump would do something that could hurt his campaign to help somebody else is laughable. Edit: The idea that Trump would help another Republican is laughable.

They will destroy us once they start getting our dick pics.

And that's fair. But my (and my family's) dual citizenship (Canada eh) should be finished by the end of this year, and if Kamala loses.....I'm probably on too many social media watch lists, so this will be me.

It's the opposite of 2016 - he's pulling a Hillary and visiting plenty of safe places rather than hitting the battleground states a lot harder (like Walz and Harris are doing). Yeah, he's doing a "Town hall" in Michigan, but people were tuning in not to hear his policies, but to hear what batshit senile racist thing he'd say next. And where he could be hitting 3-4 campaign stops in a day, he's hitting one.

If anything, it's helping Harris. Trump should be spending 100% of his time attacking Harris and talking about his concepts of plans he has, and instead he and his campaign people are on the defensive and constantly getting asked about this stuff, and he and Vance took the opportunity to double down on the racism with the "animals" and "fried chicken" comments, and Laura Loomer talk is not going away, the the "eating the pets" meme is still going strong (although I wonder if Elmo is pushing it down in popularity). It's mid-September, somebody may have tried to assassinate Trump again a few days ago (and few seem to care) and Trump does not control the narrative at all. He's just reacting to all kinds of shit (including his I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT thing which also didn't help him). He's doing what he needs to do to lose.

Speaking of tanks

Long thread with lots of photos, not sure how Thread reader app would handle that, but very interesting.

The "look around you" test is most telling to me. I've finally seen a few signs and flags out in rural areas where there had been none (but had been in 2020), but it's nowhere near 2020 levels or even 2016 levels. I've even seen a few come down for some reason (I'd like to think embarrassment). What's still more surprising to me is I'm seeing very few MAGA relatives/acquaintances with that stupid fucking hat or other Trump apparel, and they aren't sticking flags or bumper stickers on their cars like they were in 2020, and they aren't being very proactive on their Facebook pages. Occasionally I'll see some anti-Harris stuff, and maybe something that was attributed to Trump, and some thoughts and prayers posts after the assassination attempt and then whatever happened on Sunday. But I don't seem them rushing out there to social media defend Trump over the blatant racism, I don't see them promoting Vance at all, and it's just not the echo chamber it was in 2020. Purely anecdotal, but it seems like Trump has changed in the eyes of at least some of them. Maybe they will still vote, but if they aren't enthusiastic enough right now, to do as something as simple as repost the latest pro-Trump memes on Facebook, I can't see them wanting to waste a day of PTO or a long lunch hour to go vote for him..

That's okay, I recently learned what a Sacramento Steamer is, and I was thinking it would be like a Cleveland Steamer, but nope, it really should be called a Sacramento Sledgehammer. I'm still walking funny.

At least they aren't going to the libertarians I guess? But maybe start up a 2020s version of the Whigs?

There isn't much room for handicapped people in Trump's America.

Yeah, the question made me feel

If Trump won, Abbott and Co. will wreck UT as we know it and turn it into Liberty U with a massive budget, so I'm not sure if we would even be competitive in the future.