A story about a pathetic man's downfall [34 Felony Convictions]

[Jive Turkey 12608]

This is pretty incredible. Axios does great work. 

[Mrs Whiggins 13050]

4 minutes ago, Lobo said:

I've never had an account, I did like the posts here of his tweets, as well as googling them sometimes.  And while I still don't understand the global fascination with Twitter, I just realized I miss his account right now.  Twitter was the long straw by which I could taste Donald Trump's tears.  I drink your self pity...I drink it up!  

You don't have to have an account to read his tweets, I never did. Most people don't lock their accounts the way Facebook does anyway. If it weren't for the bots, twitter would be a decent way to quickly scan a variety of news and opinions and then delve deeper on subjects of interest. I frequently visit the news agency accounts, and then specific reporters, and institutes/academia/watchdog organizations to examine perspectives.

[Francisco 2.0 32395]

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/16/politics/fact-check-dale-top-15-donald-trump-lies/index.html

 

Quote

Trying to pick the most notable lies from Donald Trump's presidency is like trying to pick the most notable pieces of junk from the town dump. 

There's just so much ugly garbage to sift through before you can make a decision. 

But I'm qualified for the dirty job. I fact checked every word uttered by this President from his inauguration day in January 2017 until September 2020 -- when the daily number of lies got so unmanageably high that I had to start taking a pass on some of his remarks to preserve my health.

 

Quote

Trump got even worse after November 3. Since then, he has spent the final months of what has been a wildly dishonest presidency on a relentless and dangerous lying spree about the election he lost. 

As the country grapples with the deadly consequences of this deception, I've selected the 15 Trump lies that stand out to me from his four years in power -- for their importance, for their egregiousness, for their absurdity, or for what they say about the man.

 

Spoiler

The most telling lie: It didn't rain on his inauguration

Trump began his presidency by lying about the weather.

It rained during Trump's inaugural address. Then, at a celebratory ball later that day, Trump told the crowd that the rain "just never came" until he finished talking and went inside, at which point "it poured." 

This was the first lie of Trump's presidency. Like his lies that same week about his inauguration crowd, it hinted at what would come next.

The President would say things that we could see with our own eyes were not true. And he would often do this brazen lying for no apparent strategic reason.

The most dangerous lie: The coronavirus was under control 

Trump speaks at the beginning of a new conference with members of the coronavirus task force, February 26, 2020 in Washington, DC. Trump updated the American people about what his administration's 'whole of government' response to the global coronavirus outbreak. 

This was more like a family of lies than a single lie. But each one -- the lie that the virus was equivalent to the flu; the lie that the situation was "totally under control"; the lie that the virus was "disappearing" -- suggested to Americans that they didn't have to change much about their usual behavior.

A year into the crisis, more than 386,000 Americans have died from the virus.

We can't say with precision how the crisis would have unfolded differently if Trump had been more truthful. But it's reasonable to venture that his dishonesty led to a significant number of deaths. 

The most alarming lie saga: Sharpiegate

Trump references a map held by acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan while talking to reporters about Hurricane Dorian in the Oval Office at the White House September 4, 2019 in Washington, DC.

Trump tweeted in 2019 that Alabama was one of the states at greater risk from Hurricane Dorian than had been initially forecast. The federal weather office in Birmingham then tweeted that, actually, Alabama would be unaffected by the storm. 

Not great, but fixable fast with a simple White House correction. Trump, however, is so congenitally unwilling to admit error that he embarked on an increasingly farcical campaign to prove that his incorrect Alabama tweet was actually correct, eventually showcasing a hurricane map that was crudely altered with a Sharpie.

The slapstick might have been funny had White House officials not leaped into action behind the scenes to try to pressure federal weather experts into saying he was right and they were wrong. The saga proved that Trump was not some lone liar: he was backed by an entire powerful apparatus willing to fight for his fabrications.

The most ridiculous subject of a lie: The Boy Scouts

When I emailed the Boy Scouts of America in 2017 about Trump's claim that "the head of the Boy Scouts" had called him to say that his bizarrely political address to the Scouts' National Jamboree was "the greatest speech that was ever made to them," I didn't expect a reply. One of the hardest things about fact checking Trump was that a lot of people he lied about did not think it was in their interest to be quoted publicly contradicting a vengeful president.

The Boy Scouts did. A senior Scouts source -- a phrase I never expected to have to type as a political reporter in Washington, DC -- confirmed to me that no call ever happened. 

Yep, the President of the United States was lying about the Boy Scouts.

The ugliest smear lie: Rep. Ilhan Omar supports al Qaeda

At a White House event in 2019, Trump grossly distorted a 2013 quote from Rep. Ilhan Omar to try to get his supporters to believe that the Minnesota Democrat had expressed support for the terrorist group al Qaeda. 

Trump went on to deliver additional bigoted attacks against Omar in the following months. But it's hard to imagine a more vile lie for the President to tell about a Muslim official -- who had already been getting death threats -- than a smear that makes her sound pro-terrorist.

The most boring serial lie: The trade deficit with China used to be $500 billion

Trump, an incorrigible exaggerator, rarely chose to use an accurate number when he could instead use an inaccurate bigger number. So he said well over 100 times that, before his presidency, the US for years had a $500 billion annual trade deficit with China -- though the actual pre-Trump deficit never even reached $400 billion.

Trump made versions of the "$500 billion" claim so many times that it became almost physically painful for me to fact check it any more. 

The most entertaining lie shtick: The burly crying men who had never cried before

They were almost always male. They were almost always large. They were almost always blue-collar. And, according to the President, they kept walking up to him crying tears of gratitude -- even though they had almost always not previously cried for years.

Trump's series of Tears Stories -- which sometimes doubled as "Sir" Stories -- helped me understand his lying as a kind of performance art. 

The stories were oddly grandiose, like something you'd hear from a two-bit foreign strongman. They were also pure shtick. Trump was like a touring stand-up comic, refining and re-using his favored dishonesty bits until they stopped working for him.

The most traditional big lie: Trump didn't know about the payment to Stormy Daniels 

We've established that Trump was not your traditional political liar. One of his distinguishing features is that he lied pointlessly, dissembling about trivial subjects for trivial reasons.

But he also lied when he needed to. When he told reporters on Air Force One in 2018 that he did not know about a $130,000 payment to porn performer Stormy Daniels and that he did not know where his then-attorney Michael Cohen got the money for the payment, it was both audacious -- Trump knew, because he had personally reimbursed Cohen -- and kind of conventional: the President was lying to try to get himself out of a tawdry scandal.

The biggest lie by omission: Trump ended family separation

Much of Trump's lying was clumsy, half-baked. Some of it was almost art. Here's what he toldNBC's Chuck Todd in 2019 about his widely controversial policy of separating migrant parents from their children at the border: "You know, under President Obama you had separation. I was the one that ended it." 

Yes, Trump signed a 2018 order to end the family separation policy. What he did not mention to Todd is that what he had ended was his own policy -- a plan announced by his own attorney general that had made family separation standard rather than occasional, as it had been under Obama.

All of Trump's words in those two sentences to Todd were accurate in themselves. But he was lying because of what he left out.

The most shameless campaign lie: Biden will destroy protections for pre-existing conditions

Trump's re-election campaign was consistently and consciously dishonest, especially in its attempts to cast Joe Biden as a frightening radical. When Trump claimed in September that Biden would destroy protections for people with pre-existing health conditions -- though the Obama-Biden administration created the protections, though the protections were overwhelmingly popular, though Biden was running on preserving them, and though Trump himself had tried repeatedly to weaken them -- Trump was not merely lying but turning reality upside down.

The lie he fled: He got Veterans Choice 

Trump could have told a perfectly good factual story about the Veterans Choice health care program Obama signed into law in 2014: it wasn't good enough, so he replaced it with a more expansive program he signed into law in 2018. 

That's not the story he did tell -- whether out of policy ignorance, a desire to erase Obama's legacy, or simply because he is a liar. Instead, he claimed over and over -- more than 160 timesbefore I lost count -- that he is the one who got the Veterans Choice program passed after other presidents tried and failed for years. 

And why not stretch? He knew he probably wouldn't be challenged by a press corps drowning in other Trump drama. It wasn't until August 2020 that he was asked about the lie to his face.

He promptly left the room. 

The Crazy Uncle lie award: Windmill noise causes cancer

It was a problem for the country that the President was not only a conspiracy theorist himself but immersed in conspiracy culture, regularly stumbling upon ludicrous claims and then sharing them as fact.

For such a fierce critic of the media's use of anonymous sources, Trump sure liked to use a lot of unnamed sources himself. His stories were full of nonsense he attributed to "people" or that he claimed "they" say. One of the most bonkers "they say" items: his 2019 declaration that "they say" the noise from windmills "causes cancer." 

After Trump amplified another conspiracy lie in 2020, NBC's Savannah Guthrie admonished himby saying that "you're not, like, someone's crazy uncle who can just retweet whatever." 

Except he was, until Twitter took down his account. 

The most hucksterish lie: That plan was coming in two weeks

Trump's big health care plan was eternally coming in "two weeks." So were a bunch of otherplans and announcements. 

Trump is, at his core, a huckster. Every moment of his presidency was a chance for him to sell someone on something, whether or not that something actually existed. And if they asked when they could actually see the magic elixir he said was being brewed just over there behind the curtain, he would just have to delay them until they forgot about it. 

My personal favorite lie: Trump was once named Michigan's Man of the Year

Trump has never lived in Michigan. Why would he have been named Michigan's Man of the Year years before his presidency?

He wouldn't have been. He wasn't. And yet this lie he appeared to have invented in the final week of his 2016 campaign became a staple of his 2020 campaign, repeated at Michigan rally after rally. 

It's so illustrative because it makes so little sense.

The most depressing lie: Trump won the election

Trump's long White House campaign against verifiable reality has culminated with his lie that he is the true winner of the 2020 presidential election he clearly, certifiably and fairly lost.

To many of us, it's ludicrous nonsense. But to millions of deluded Americans, it's the truth. And it has now gotten people killed. 

The nation's truth problem, clearly, isn't just a Trump problem. With this last blizzard of deception and the Capitol insurrection it fomented, Trump has shown us, once more, just how detached from reality much of his political base has become -- or always was.

 

Edited January 16, 2021 by Francisco 2.0

[TwiceHorn 31488]

1 hour ago, Jive Turkey said:

This is pretty incredible. Axios does great work. 

I'm very impressed with Jonathan Swan.

[Woland 733]

the Repeachment. 

Too bad there isn’t enough time for a threepeachment.

[Chooky 13307]

Nothing defines "soft" more than a fucking pillow salesman pitching martial law on behalf of overthrowing the longest living democracy for a pack of cunts who just can't come to grips with truth and reality.

[Pancho 44826]

 

[smuggs 9353]

This slob with his shirt tail hanging out is driving me crazy. Maybe Rudy was there with his goo-faced hair dye to compete the trifecta of slummocks.

[Brisketexan 105151]

This is pretty incredible. Axios does great work. 

Documenting the madness, in near-real time.

Which is what this entire episode has been (and will remain, because the disease of his madness spread more easily than COVID has) - pure madness. Collective madness. Half our country dove headlong into insanity, and merrily proclaimed it as truth.

In 10 years, when the truth is fully documented, and Trump isn’t around to spout the counter-lies, the depth and breadth of the absolute madness, insanity, and evil of this admin will be there for all to see....but we may not believe it, because the scope is truly unbelievable.

[Fudge Nuggets 19194]

2 hours ago, Jive Turkey said:

This is pretty incredible. Axios does great work. 

And all of it was known at least a month before Election Day. 
 

[pyrohornIII 4815]

4 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

And all of it was known at least a month before Election Day. 
 

Yes, and it might have succeeded if none of the MSM would have picked up and reported on the potential 'red mirage.'    Those with interest in the truth at least were aware that such a bubble could pop up.   What we didn't see was how close the vote would be, nor how many republicans would hold on to their seats while Trump lost his.  The blue wave was thwarted everywhere but the WH.  

[Red Five 40859]

Talked to a Trumper family member last night for the first time about the coup attempt. "Can you believe the craziness in DC? Who would want to go there with Antifa fighting the Trump supporters like that?".

I quickly changed the subject. 

[immamac 42857]

Yesterday my mom who is visiting made a comment about all trump voters getting cancelled and just because she voted for trump doesn't mean she deserves yadda yadda. 

I turned to her and said well you are kind of a piece of shit since you voted for trump. 

Anyone that defends that vote is a piece of shit in my book. Including my dear mother. 

[NAVY 6740]

I hear ya man. I can barely talk to my ma right now. Just a litany of RNC talking points. And to think she was a 1969 SF hippie 

[Hagbard Celine 10867]

12 hours ago, fakebusiness said:

I just hope at some point the MSM can move on from covering him every second of the day & we can move forward & put that energy into solving our countries problems. Just impeach him and move the fuck on please. 

joe wants this, the country needs it, but the lure of the best trainwreck in the history of the galaxy beckons.....

the hoard convened at the white house this morning no doubt trying to figure out what their last move is.

/ wonka suspense meme

[NAVY 6740]

And I’m a demon rat. 
 

furk 

[JimmyJames 12271]

Just now, immamac said:

Yesterday my mom who is visiting made a comment about all trump voters getting cancelled and just because she voted for trump doesn't mean she deserves yadda yadda. 

I turned to her and said well you are kind of a piece of shit since you voted for trump. 

Anyone that defends that vote is a piece of shit in my book. Including my dear mother. 

That sucks. My dad is sticking with the “it was all antifa” theme and story. He’s pretty far gone. Luckily I still have my mom who is on the political side of whoever she happens to be talking to at that particular moment in time. She cares about friends and family way more than politics. Imagine that. 

[SameSame 1704]

4 minutes ago, immamac said:

Yesterday my mom who is visiting made a comment about all trump voters getting cancelled and just because she voted for trump doesn't mean she deserves yadda yadda. 

I turned to her and said well you are kind of a piece of shit since you voted for trump. 

Anyone that defends that vote is a piece of shit in my book. Including my dear mother. 

Bro, take a breath or meditate for a minute, that’s your momma man.

[JimmyJames 12271]

4 minutes ago, NAVY said:

I hear ya man. I can barely talk to my ma right now. Just a litany of RNC talking points. And to think she was a 1969 SF hippie 

I’m not saying your mom is a narcissist, but her generation is. A narcissist does not care about political parties, just themselves. Just look at Trump, who is the perfect baby boomer president. 

[AnTiM 1666]

2 hours ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/16/politics/fact-check-dale-top-15-donald-trump-lies/index.html

 

 

 

  Hide contents

The most telling lie: It didn't rain on his inauguration

Trump began his presidency by lying about the weather.

It rained during Trump's inaugural address. Then, at a celebratory ball later that day, Trump told the crowd that the rain "just never came" until he finished talking and went inside, at which point "it poured." 

This was the first lie of Trump's presidency. Like his lies that same week about his inauguration crowd, it hinted at what would come next.

The President would say things that we could see with our own eyes were not true. And he would often do this brazen lying for no apparent strategic reason.

The most dangerous lie: The coronavirus was under control 

Trump speaks at the beginning of a new conference with members of the coronavirus task force, February 26, 2020 in Washington, DC. Trump updated the American people about what his administration's 'whole of government' response to the global coronavirus outbreak. 

This was more like a family of lies than a single lie. But each one -- the lie that the virus was equivalent to the flu; the lie that the situation was "totally under control"; the lie that the virus was "disappearing" -- suggested to Americans that they didn't have to change much about their usual behavior.

A year into the crisis, more than 386,000 Americans have died from the virus.

We can't say with precision how the crisis would have unfolded differently if Trump had been more truthful. But it's reasonable to venture that his dishonesty led to a significant number of deaths. 

The most alarming lie saga: Sharpiegate

Trump references a map held by acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan while talking to reporters about Hurricane Dorian in the Oval Office at the White House September 4, 2019 in Washington, DC.

Trump tweeted in 2019 that Alabama was one of the states at greater risk from Hurricane Dorian than had been initially forecast. The federal weather office in Birmingham then tweeted that, actually, Alabama would be unaffected by the storm. 

Not great, but fixable fast with a simple White House correction. Trump, however, is so congenitally unwilling to admit error that he embarked on an increasingly farcical campaign to prove that his incorrect Alabama tweet was actually correct, eventually showcasing a hurricane map that was crudely altered with a Sharpie.

The slapstick might have been funny had White House officials not leaped into action behind the scenes to try to pressure federal weather experts into saying he was right and they were wrong. The saga proved that Trump was not some lone liar: he was backed by an entire powerful apparatus willing to fight for his fabrications.

The most ridiculous subject of a lie: The Boy Scouts

When I emailed the Boy Scouts of America in 2017 about Trump's claim that "the head of the Boy Scouts" had called him to say that his bizarrely political address to the Scouts' National Jamboree was "the greatest speech that was ever made to them," I didn't expect a reply. One of the hardest things about fact checking Trump was that a lot of people he lied about did not think it was in their interest to be quoted publicly contradicting a vengeful president.

The Boy Scouts did. A senior Scouts source -- a phrase I never expected to have to type as a political reporter in Washington, DC -- confirmed to me that no call ever happened. 

Yep, the President of the United States was lying about the Boy Scouts.

The ugliest smear lie: Rep. Ilhan Omar supports al Qaeda

At a White House event in 2019, Trump grossly distorted a 2013 quote from Rep. Ilhan Omar to try to get his supporters to believe that the Minnesota Democrat had expressed support for the terrorist group al Qaeda. 

Trump went on to deliver additional bigoted attacks against Omar in the following months. But it's hard to imagine a more vile lie for the President to tell about a Muslim official -- who had already been getting death threats -- than a smear that makes her sound pro-terrorist.

The most boring serial lie: The trade deficit with China used to be $500 billion

Trump, an incorrigible exaggerator, rarely chose to use an accurate number when he could instead use an inaccurate bigger number. So he said well over 100 times that, before his presidency, the US for years had a $500 billion annual trade deficit with China -- though the actual pre-Trump deficit never even reached $400 billion.

Trump made versions of the "$500 billion" claim so many times that it became almost physically painful for me to fact check it any more. 

The most entertaining lie shtick: The burly crying men who had never cried before

They were almost always male. They were almost always large. They were almost always blue-collar. And, according to the President, they kept walking up to him crying tears of gratitude -- even though they had almost always not previously cried for years.

Trump's series of Tears Stories -- which sometimes doubled as "Sir" Stories -- helped me understand his lying as a kind of performance art. 

The stories were oddly grandiose, like something you'd hear from a two-bit foreign strongman. They were also pure shtick. Trump was like a touring stand-up comic, refining and re-using his favored dishonesty bits until they stopped working for him.

The most traditional big lie: Trump didn't know about the payment to Stormy Daniels 

We've established that Trump was not your traditional political liar. One of his distinguishing features is that he lied pointlessly, dissembling about trivial subjects for trivial reasons.

But he also lied when he needed to. When he told reporters on Air Force One in 2018 that he did not know about a $130,000 payment to porn performer Stormy Daniels and that he did not know where his then-attorney Michael Cohen got the money for the payment, it was both audacious -- Trump knew, because he had personally reimbursed Cohen -- and kind of conventional: the President was lying to try to get himself out of a tawdry scandal.

The biggest lie by omission: Trump ended family separation

Much of Trump's lying was clumsy, half-baked. Some of it was almost art. Here's what he toldNBC's Chuck Todd in 2019 about his widely controversial policy of separating migrant parents from their children at the border: "You know, under President Obama you had separation. I was the one that ended it." 

Yes, Trump signed a 2018 order to end the family separation policy. What he did not mention to Todd is that what he had ended was his own policy -- a plan announced by his own attorney general that had made family separation standard rather than occasional, as it had been under Obama.

All of Trump's words in those two sentences to Todd were accurate in themselves. But he was lying because of what he left out.

The most shameless campaign lie: Biden will destroy protections for pre-existing conditions

Trump's re-election campaign was consistently and consciously dishonest, especially in its attempts to cast Joe Biden as a frightening radical. When Trump claimed in September that Biden would destroy protections for people with pre-existing health conditions -- though the Obama-Biden administration created the protections, though the protections were overwhelmingly popular, though Biden was running on preserving them, and though Trump himself had tried repeatedly to weaken them -- Trump was not merely lying but turning reality upside down.

The lie he fled: He got Veterans Choice 

Trump could have told a perfectly good factual story about the Veterans Choice health care program Obama signed into law in 2014: it wasn't good enough, so he replaced it with a more expansive program he signed into law in 2018. 

That's not the story he did tell -- whether out of policy ignorance, a desire to erase Obama's legacy, or simply because he is a liar. Instead, he claimed over and over -- more than 160 timesbefore I lost count -- that he is the one who got the Veterans Choice program passed after other presidents tried and failed for years. 

And why not stretch? He knew he probably wouldn't be challenged by a press corps drowning in other Trump drama. It wasn't until August 2020 that he was asked about the lie to his face.

He promptly left the room. 

The Crazy Uncle lie award: Windmill noise causes cancer

It was a problem for the country that the President was not only a conspiracy theorist himself but immersed in conspiracy culture, regularly stumbling upon ludicrous claims and then sharing them as fact.

For such a fierce critic of the media's use of anonymous sources, Trump sure liked to use a lot of unnamed sources himself. His stories were full of nonsense he attributed to "people" or that he claimed "they" say. One of the most bonkers "they say" items: his 2019 declaration that "they say" the noise from windmills "causes cancer." 

After Trump amplified another conspiracy lie in 2020, NBC's Savannah Guthrie admonished himby saying that "you're not, like, someone's crazy uncle who can just retweet whatever." 

Except he was, until Twitter took down his account. 

The most hucksterish lie: That plan was coming in two weeks

Trump's big health care plan was eternally coming in "two weeks." So were a bunch of otherplans and announcements. 

Trump is, at his core, a huckster. Every moment of his presidency was a chance for him to sell someone on something, whether or not that something actually existed. And if they asked when they could actually see the magic elixir he said was being brewed just over there behind the curtain, he would just have to delay them until they forgot about it. 

My personal favorite lie: Trump was once named Michigan's Man of the Year

Trump has never lived in Michigan. Why would he have been named Michigan's Man of the Year years before his presidency?

He wouldn't have been. He wasn't. And yet this lie he appeared to have invented in the final week of his 2016 campaign became a staple of his 2020 campaign, repeated at Michigan rally after rally. 

It's so illustrative because it makes so little sense.

The most depressing lie: Trump won the election

Trump's long White House campaign against verifiable reality has culminated with his lie that he is the true winner of the 2020 presidential election he clearly, certifiably and fairly lost.

To many of us, it's ludicrous nonsense. But to millions of deluded Americans, it's the truth. And it has now gotten people killed. 

The nation's truth problem, clearly, isn't just a Trump problem. With this last blizzard of deception and the Capitol insurrection it fomented, Trump has shown us, once more, just how detached from reality much of his political base has become -- or always was.

 

Every last Republican diehard needs to have this tattooed on their forehead in reverse so they can read it every time they look in a mirror.

[totallynotabuttpirate 5400]

11 minutes ago, NAVY said:

I hear ya man. I can barely talk to my ma right now. Just a litany of RNC talking points. And to think she was a 1969 SF hippie 

 

14 minutes ago, immamac said:

Yesterday my mom who is visiting made a comment about all trump voters getting cancelled and just because she voted for trump doesn't mean she deserves yadda yadda. 

I turned to her and said well you are kind of a piece of shit since you voted for trump. 

Anyone that defends that vote is a piece of shit in my book. Including my dear mother. 

 

This is why no one will ever compare to South Austin's mom. She not only voted for Biden, she personally took care of the needs of many Biden volunteers and donors. A truly great woman. 

[brown water 3777]

Count me among the fortunate few.

My parents voted republican their whole life until trump was on the ballot. They immediately mobilized against him. They’re deeply principled (but not religious) and took great exception to his ethical and moral shortcomings.  For them character overrides policy. My mom, in particular, was very active supporting Beto for senate and doing what she could to get the democratic vote out.  During the pandemic she stuffed mail and packets that could be handed out even though she wouldn’t leave home much for safety. They’ve taken covid seriously and are debating staying locked down longer to allow others in need to get vaccinated before them (which I’ve discouraged).  

I’m sorry every time I read how this environment is alienating families. I’ve never been more proud of mine - even if their decency might have skipped a generation. 

[tchookem 3900]

Yesterday my mom who is visiting made a comment about all trump voters getting cancelled and just because she voted for trump doesn't mean she deserves yadda yadda. 
I turned to her and said well you are kind of a piece of shit since you voted for trump. 
Anyone that defends that vote is a piece of shit in my book. Including my dear mother. 

I've had a shift in the way I think about voting. Something along the lines of "who you vote for is how you treat people". I know a lot of people compartmentalize those two things, but for me it's also changed the way I look at the people in my life.

Not looking to pile on. This post just struck a chord.

[Willfully Horn 8017]

13 minutes ago, SameSame said:

Bro, take a breath or meditate for a minute, that’s your momma man.

She was my mom, too. Until Patrick suggested she should die for the economy. That changed my mother’s mind. Now, she’s uphauled at her former Party. 

Prior, we knew better than to discuss politics at the table.

[Bullneck 19107]

 

 

[SaucyJack 3488]

25 minutes ago, NAVY said:

I hear ya man. I can barely talk to my ma right now. Just a litany of RNC talking points. And to think she was a 1969 SF hippie 

Most don't have real issues/ grievances.  Just bitter about their lives. IMHO

Edited January 16, 2021 by SaucyJack

[Hagbard Celine 10867]

3 hours ago, Lobo said:

And while I still don't understand the global fascination with Twitter, I just realized I miss his account right now.  Twitter was the long straw by which I could taste Donald Trump's tears.  I drink your self pity...I drink it up!  

the overall level of sanity on the planet increased by 50% with dotard's censure.

[WhatTheBuck 28783]

55 minutes ago, Red Five said:

Talked to a Trumper family member last night for the first time about the coup attempt. "Can you believe the craziness in DC? Who would want to go there with Antifa fighting the Trump supporters like that?".

I quickly changed the subject. 

You should’ve laughed and said, “You can’t possibly be that fucking stupid.”

[TexasEd 8067]

17 hours ago, pyrohornIII said:

 

College Station or Denton is my guess.   

Don't count out Brenham for MyPillow headquarters.  They would be able to recruit from the Blue Bell Management and the aggy business pipeline.  Product development likely to introduce a MyPillow Sheep

 

Edited January 16, 2021 by TexasEd

[Biff Tannen 45691]

35 minutes ago, NAVY said:

And I’m a demon rat. 
 

furk 

So creative. I guess that’s the best they can do, being a party of so very little brains. 

[MidTexHorn 822]

Had dinner with the in laws last night. Dad is still parroting all of the bullshit. Last week’s insurrection was all Antifa. Kamala will be president and she’s a communist. Christians can’t speak their beliefs any more. On January 20 churches will begin to be shut down - it’s already happening. Blah blah blah bullshit. Infuriating. 

[Gatorubet 30243]

You should’ve laughed and said, “You can’t possibly be that fucking stupid.”

By not addressing that, he in effect encourages it.

[Jive Turkey 12608]

58 minutes ago, pyrohornIII said:

Yes, and it might have succeeded if none of the MSM would have picked up and reported on the potential 'red mirage.'    Those with interest in the truth at least were aware that such a bubble could pop up.   What we didn't see was how close the vote would be, nor how many republicans would hold on to their seats while Trump lost his.  The blue wave was thwarted everywhere but the WH.  

Fox News Decision Desk calling Arizona for Biden so early may have saved the republic.  

obviously, that's hyperbole.  but if that hadn't happened, and Trump was leading in all 6 of the contested states that night (AZ, GA, MI, NV, PA, WI) when he went to bed, things would be a lot worse than they are.  and it's real bad now.  but Fox News bursting Trump's bubble by giving Arizona to Biden was massive.  and their spokesperson came on tv and gave no fucks about any doubts as to his call.  i hope it doesn't get lost in the future.  it was a critical moment in presidential politics.

 

 

[NAVY 6740]

30 minutes ago, JimmyJames said:

I’m not saying your mom is a narcissist, but her generation is. A narcissist does not care about political parties, just themselves. Just look at Trump, who is the perfect baby boomer president. 

I don’t know if narcissistic qualities are behind this on a huge scale. 
 

More likely that our olds are just not equipped with critical thinking as it relates of modern media channels.  Their gen has a trust in the printed and spoken word that does not jive with the current state of media and social media. They don’t have a bullshit shield 

[Updawg 2266]

Yesterday my mom who is visiting made a comment about all trump voters getting cancelled and just because she voted for trump doesn't mean she deserves yadda yadda. 
I turned to her and said well you are kind of a piece of shit since you voted for trump. 
Anyone that defends that vote is a piece of shit in my book. Including my dear mother. 

You need to be better than this.

[RPM 26322]

I'm just glad my Dad isn't alive anymore. That sounds harsh, but knowing him and FOX News brainwashing, he would be far gone into the conspiracy shit. It's heartbreaking.

[NAVY 6740]

3 minutes ago, RPM said:

I'm just glad my Dad isn't alive anymore. That sounds harsh, but knowing him and FOX News brainwashing, he would be far gone into the conspiracy shit. It's heartbreaking.

I have pondered the same. I’d like to think mine would see through it, but.... 

[Bozo_Casanova 26472]

12 minutes ago, Jive Turkey said:

Fox News Decision Desk calling Arizona for Biden so early may have saved the republic.  

obviously, that's hyperbole.  but if that hadn't happened, and Trump was leading in all 6 of the contested states that night (AZ, GA, MI, NV, PA, WI) when he went to bed, things would be a lot worse than they are.  and it's real bad now.  but Fox News bursting Trump's bubble by giving Arizona to Biden was massive.  and their spokesperson came on tv and gave no fucks about any doubts as to his call.  i hope it doesn't get lost in the future.  it was a critical moment in presidential politics.

 

 

That was the moment I texted my friend “thank God for Cindy McCain, she may have saved the Republic.”

[Francisco 2.0 32395]

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/16/technology/inside-twitter-decision-trump.html

 

Quote

Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive, was working remotely on a private island in French Polynesia frequented by celebrities escaping the paparazzi when a phone call interrupted him on Jan. 6.

On the line was Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s top lawyer and safety expert, with an update from the real world. She said she and other company executives had decided to lock President Trump’s account, temporarily, to prevent him from posting statements that might provoke more violence after a mob stormed the U.S. Capitolthat day.

 

Quote

Mr. Dorsey was concerned about the move, said two people with knowledge of the call. For four years, he had resisted demands by liberals and others that Twitter terminate Mr. Trump’s account, arguing that the platform was a place where world leaders could speak, even if their views were heinous. But he had delegated moderation decisions to Ms. Gadde, 46, and usually deferred to her — and he did so again.

Mr. Dorsey, 44, did not make his misgivings public. The next day, he liked and shared several tweets urging caution against a permanent ban of Mr. Trump. Then, over the next 36 hours, Twitter veered from lifting Mr. Trump’s suspension to shutting down his account permanently, cutting off the president from a platform he had used to communicate, unfiltered, with not just his 88 million followers but the world.

 

Quote

The decision was a punctuation mark on the Trump presidency that immediately drew accusations of political bias and fresh scrutiny of the tech industry’s power over public discourse. Interviews with a dozen current and former Twitter insiders over the past week opened a window into how it was made — driven by a group of Mr. Dorsey’s lieutenants who overcame their boss’s reservations, but only after a deadly rampage at the Capitol.

 

Spoiler

Having lifted the suspension the next day, Twitter monitored the response to Mr. Trump’s tweets across the internet, and executives briefed Mr. Dorsey that Mr. Trump’s followers had seized on his latest messages to call for more violence. In one post on the alternative social networking site Parler, members of Twitter’s safety team saw a Trump fan urge militias to stop President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. from entering the White House and to fight anyone who tried to halt them. The potential for more real-world unrest, they said, was too high.

Twitter was also under pressure from its employees, who had for years agitated to remove Mr. Trump from the service, as well as lawmakers, tech investors and others. But while more than 300 employees signed a letter saying Mr. Trump’s account must be stopped, the decision to bar the president was made before the letter was delivered to executives, two of the people said.

On Wednesday, Mr. Dorsey alluded to the tensions inside Twitter. In a string of 13 tweets, he wrote that he did “not celebrate or feel pride in our having to ban @realDonaldTrump” because “a ban is a failure of ours ultimately to promote healthy conversation.

But Mr. Dorsey added: “This was the right decision for Twitter. We faced an extraordinary and untenable circumstance, forcing us to focus all of our actions on public safety.”

Mr. Dorsey, Ms. Gadde and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.

Since Mr. Trump was barred, many of Mr. Dorsey’s concerns about the move have been realized. Twitter has been embroiled in a furious debate over tech power and the companies’ lack of accountability.

Lawmakers such as Representative Devin Nunes, a Republican from California, have railed against Twitter, while Silicon Valley venture capitalists, First Amendment scholars and the American Civil Liberties Union have also criticized the company. At the same time, activists around the world have accused Twitter of following a double standard by cutting off Mr. Trump but not autocrats elsewhere who use the platform to bully opponents.

“This is a phenomenal exercise of power to de-platform the president of the United States,” said Evelyn Douek, a lecturer at Harvard Law School who focuses on online speech. “It should set off a broader reckoning.”

Mr. Trump, who joined Twitter in 2009, was a boon and bane for the company. His tweets brought attention to Twitter, which sometimes struggled to attract new users. But his false assertions and threats online also caused critics to say the site enabled him to spread lies and provoke harassment.

Many of Twitter’s more than 5,400 employees opposed having Mr. Trump on the platform. In August 2019, shortly after a gunman killed more than 20 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Twitter called a staff meeting to discuss how the gunman, in an online manifesto, had echoed many of the views that Mr. Trump posted on Twitter.

At the meeting, called a “Flock Talk,” some employees said Twitter was “complicit” by giving Mr. Trump a megaphone to “dog whistle” to his supporters, two attendees said. The employees implored executives to make changes before more people got hurt.

Over time, Twitter became more proactive on political content. In October 2019, Mr. Dorsey ended all political advertising on the site, saying he worried such ads had “significant ramifications that today’s democratic structure may not be prepared to handle.”

But Mr. Dorsey, a proponent of free speech, declined to take down world leaders’ posts, because he considered them newsworthy. Since Twitter announced that year that it would give greater leeway to world leaders who broke its rules, the company had removed their tweets only once: Last March, it deleted messages from the presidents of Brazil and Venezuela that promoted false cures for the coronavirus. Mr. Dorsey opposed the removals, a person with knowledge of his thinking said.

Mr. Dorsey pushed for an in-between solution: appending labels to tweets by world leaders if the posts violated Twitter’s policies. In May, when Mr. Trump tweeted inaccurate information about mail-in voting, Mr. Dorsey gave the go-ahead for Twitter to start labeling the president’s messages.

After the Nov. 3 election, Mr. Trump tweeted that it had been stolen from him. Within a few days, Twitter had labeled about 34 percentof his tweets and retweets, according to a New York Times tally.

Then came the Capitol storming.

On Jan. 6, as Congress met to certify the election, Twitter executives celebrated their acquisition of Ueno, a branding and design firm. Mr. Dorsey, who has often gone on retreats, had traveled to the South Pacific island, said the people with knowledge of his location.

When Mr. Trump used Twitter to lash out at Vice President Mike Pence and question the election result, the company added warnings to his tweets. Then as violence erupted at the Capitol, people urged Twitter and Facebook to take Mr. Trump offline entirely.

That led to virtual discussions among some of Mr. Dorsey’s lieutenants. The group included Ms. Gadde, a lawyer who had joined Twitter in 2011; Del Harvey, vice president of trust and safety; and Yoel Roth, the head of site integrity. Ms. Harvey and Mr. Roth had helped build the company’s responses to spam, harassment and election interference.

The executives decided to suspend Mr. Trump because his comments appeared to incite the mob, said the people with knowledge of the discussions. Ms. Gadde then called Mr. Dorsey, who was not pleased, they said.

Mr. Trump was not barred completely. If he deleted several tweets that had stoked the mob, there would be a 12-hour cooling-off period. Then he could post again.

After Twitter locked Mr. Trump’s account, Facebook did the same. Snapchat, Twitch and others also placed limits on Mr. Trump.

But Mr. Dorsey was not sold on a permanent ban of Mr. Trump. He emailed employees the next day, saying it was important for the company to remain consistent with its policies, including letting a user return after a suspension.

Many workers, fearing that history would not look kindly upon them, were dissatisfied. Several invoked IBM’s collaboration with the Nazis, said current and former Twitter employees, and started a petition to immediately remove Mr. Trump’s account.

That same day, Facebook barred Mr. Trump through at least the end of his term. But he returned to Twitter that evening with a video saying there would be a peaceful transition of power.

By the next morning, though, Mr. Trump was back at it. He tweeted that his base would have a “GIANT VOICE” and that he would not attend the Jan. 20 inauguration.

Twitter’s safety team immediately saw Trump fans, who had been saying the president abandoned them, post about further unrest, said the people with knowledge of the matter. In a Parler message that the safety team reviewed, one user said anyone who opposed “American Patriots” like himself should leave Washington or risk physical harm during the inauguration.

The safety team began drafting an analysis of the tweets and whether they constituted grounds for kicking off Mr. Trump, the people said.

Around noon in San Francisco that day, Mr. Dorsey called in for an employee meeting. Some pressed him on why Mr. Trump was not permanently barred.

Mr. Dorsey repeated that Twitter should be consistent with its policies. But he said he had drawn a line in the sand that the president could not cross or Mr. Trump would lose his account privileges, people with knowledge of the event said.

After the meeting, Mr. Dorsey and other executives agreed that Mr. Trump’s tweets that morning — and the responses they had provoked — had crossed that line, the people said. The employee letter asking for Mr. Trump’s removal was later delivered, they said.

Within hours, Mr. Trump’s account was gone, except for an “Account suspended” label. He tried tweeting from the @POTUS account, which is the official account of the U.S. president, as well as others. But at every turn, Twitter thwarted him by pulling down the messages.

Some Twitter employees, fearing the wrath of Mr. Trump’s supporters, have now set their Twitter accounts to private and removed mentions of their employer from online biographies, four people said. Several executives were assigned personal security.

Twitter has also broadened its crackdown on accounts promoting violence. Over the weekend, it removed more than 70,000 accountsthat pushed the QAnon conspiracy theory, which posits that Mr. Trump is fighting a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles.

On Wednesday, employees gathered virtually to discuss the decision to bar Mr. Trump, two attendees said. Some were grateful that Twitter had taken action, while others were eager to leave the Trump era behind. Many were emotional; some cried.

That afternoon, Mr. Trump returned again to Twitter, this time using the official @WhiteHouse account to share a video saying he condemned violence — but also denouncing what he called restrictions on free speech. Twitter allowed the video to remain online.

An hour later, Mr. Dorsey tweeted his discomfort about the removal of Mr. Trump’s online accounts. It “sets a precedent I feel is dangerous: the power an individual or corporation has over a part of the global public conversation,” he wrote.

But he concluded, “Everything we learn in this moment will better our effort, and push us to be what we are: one humanity working together.”

 

 

[tantric superman 4667]

1 hour ago, immamac said:

Yesterday my mom who is visiting made a comment about all trump voters getting cancelled and just because she voted for trump doesn't mean she deserves yadda yadda. 

I turned to her and said well you are kind of a piece of shit since you voted for trump. 

Anyone that defends that vote is a piece of shit in my book. Including my dear mother. 

How I picture your mom:

 

[WhatTheBuck 28783]

9 minutes ago, RPM said:

I'm just glad my Dad isn't alive anymore. That sounds harsh, but knowing him and FOX News brainwashing, he would be far gone into the conspiracy shit. It's heartbreaking.

That’s not how I would put it but I’m in the same boat. I miss my dad but I’m glad he’s not around to be deceived by Trump. I would’ve hated to see that.

I’ve still got my mom, though. I’m in the same place with her as immamac is with his mom. I’ve been hesitant to talk about her because I’m worried that it would be hard to stop once the floodgates are opened. But she’s never heard the words “Fuck you” come out of my mouth and sometimes I feel like that needs to change 

[Beau Vine 54238]

17 minutes ago, RPM said:

I'm just glad my Dad isn't alive anymore. That sounds harsh, but knowing him and FOX News brainwashing, he would be far gone into the conspiracy shit. It's heartbreaking.

Yep.  My mom died in January and I feel the same way about her.  What would have made it worse is that death was the only thing to ever shut her mouth.

[Brisketexan 105151]

Count me among the fortunate few.
My parents voted republican their whole life until trump was on the ballot. They immediately mobilized against him. They’re deeply principled (but not religious) and took great exception to his ethical and moral shortcomings.  For them character overrides policy. My mom, in particular, was very active supporting Beto for senate and doing what she could to get the democratic vote out.  During the pandemic she stuffed mail and packets that could be handed out even though she wouldn’t leave home much for safety. They’ve taken covid seriously and are debating staying locked down longer to allow others in need to get vaccinated before them (which I’ve discouraged).  
I’m sorry every time I read how this environment is alienating families. I’ve never been more proud of mine - even if their decency might have skipped a generation. 

Same here. I grew up in a household that was pretty steadily Republican. But it was also a household that was uncompromising on its contempt for racism, and cruelty. I don’t know when the pivot happened (and it happened with my mom slightly before my dad), but seeing the naked racism in the narrative opposing Obama, and the ignorant cruelty emanating from Texas Republicans (esp Dan Patrick and his ilk) turned my parents. Of course, they also get their news from written sources, not just TV. And they saw Fox for the insane propaganda that it is from the get go.

When Trump came along, that cemented them as warriors against the GOP. They’ve donated money, and vote blue across the board. We are very lucky in that respect.

Fox News Decision Desk calling Arizona for Biden so early may have saved the republic.  
obviously, that's hyperbole.  but if that hadn't happened, and Trump was leading in all 6 of the contested states that night (AZ, GA, MI, NV, PA, WI) when he went to bed, things would be a lot worse than they are.  and it's real bad now.  but Fox News bursting Trump's bubble by giving Arizona to Biden was massive.  and their spokesperson came on tv and gave no fucks about any doubts as to his call.  i hope it doesn't get lost in the future.  it was a critical moment in presidential politics.
 
 

When all is said and done (if we make it (jury is still out)), the number of knife-edge moments - where seconds/minutes made the difference between losing the Republic or keeping it - is going to make our jaw drop and skin crawl. Seriously. On several occasions, we were moments away from losing it all.

Of course, I think we’ve already lost it all. For example, one of the hallmarks of our nation has been “the peaceful transfer of power.” We don’t have that anymore. We will never be able to claim that again. That’s devastating, because 1) the precedent has been set, and 2) the political party responsible for it remains ready and willing to do it again.

[Gatorubet 30243]

I don’t know if narcissistic qualities are behind this on a huge scale. 
 
More likely that our olds are just not equipped with critical thinking as it relates of modern media channels.  Their gen has a trust in the printed and spoken word that does not jive with the current state of media and social media. They don’t have a bullshit shield 

This is true. When they grew up, Uncle Walt on CBS told you what was going on and that was that. If you turned to Huntley Brinkley on NBC you saw a similar story. Most olds look to facebook for news. If a real world friend posts it, it must have validity.

Thank God for the generation that was raised on catfishing and knows to look critically. They will save us.

[mdmost 43004]

24 minutes ago, RPM said:

I'm just glad my Dad isn't alive anymore. That sounds harsh, but knowing him and FOX News brainwashing, he would be far gone into the conspiracy shit. It's heartbreaking.

Same. My Dad was going full Fox News/Facebook troll back in Obama's 2nd term. He would have gone full Trumper if he lived to see that. 

[mchookem 16336]

41 minutes ago, RPM said:

I'm just glad my Dad isn't alive anymore. That sounds harsh, but knowing him and FOX News brainwashing, he would be far gone into the conspiracy shit. It's heartbreaking.

same. mom passed January 2019 and she was already pretty Trumpy and we'd had a number of 'conversations' by that point, i'd be lying if my feelings towards her weren't already being impacted. i'm grateful she didn't live long enough to be as far gone as others 😕

my dad lives in Trump country (NE TX) and has that stupid Trump as Rambo flag in his barn, mostly bc a friend gave it to him and he thinks it's funny. he votes for his $$ so isn't incensed by Biden (bc market is still running strong 🙄)...but on 1/6 i texted him to 'take that stupid flag down if you love your country like you claim bc Trump is a damn traitor!'

he hasn't mentioned it since then, if he's still flying it next time i visit i'm giving him hell 😡

just bc they are old and parents doesn't give them the right or excuse to support insurrection and sedition. if the shitheads at the capitol and online deserve derision and judgement so do people in real life that support/encourage it. i'm not gonna be hypocritical or overly sentimental about it. they are people with morals and brains who just happened to have me as a child, not some magical fairy angels that deserve unquestioning loyalty.

Edited January 16, 2021 by mchookem

[tx 3 putt 76980]

2 hours ago, Chooky said:

Nothing defines "soft" more than a fucking pillow salesman pitching martial law on behalf of overthrowing the longest living democracy for a pack of cunts who just can't come to grips with truth and reality.

Left out ‘crack head’ 

[NAVY 6740]

Thank you armed forces 

 

 

[Gourmand 7774]

2 hours ago, Red Five said:

Talked to a Trumper family member last night for the first time about the coup attempt. "Can you believe the craziness in DC? Who would want to go there with Antifa fighting the Trump supporters like that?".

I quickly changed the subject. 

I guess I'm a bigger asshole because I would love an opening to tell any Trumper--friend, family, cow-worker--how dumb they are to continue to support him and believe his traitorous lives. I'm outta fucks to give for any of them and if we don't hold the mirror up to show them how they have been brainwashed by fascists and racists, who will?

[NAVY 6740]

Make that fucker ride to Florida in the back of a U-Haul