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

[staboner 4,984]

20 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Joint Chiefs made it pretty clear that no nukes would be launched before 1/21.

[NAVY 6,747]

Hope dotard’s secret service detail takes a very long break at the Jared/Ivanka memorial toilet 

[Bateshorn 9,930]

My mom has been a progressive from the get go, a McNeill-Lehrer person as long as I can remember,  so I never had the Trump problem. I did catch her watching Maddow last time Ivisited and told her to turn that shit off. Not that it’s necessarily wrong, but it’s designed to gin you up and that’s not healthy for politics.  It’s like Twitter:  if it doesn’t bring you happiness, delete it.

[Bama Chick 28,596]

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. 

Make him put all his predictions in writing with deadlines and tell him if they come true by his deadline you’ll donate $100 for each true prediction to the RNC or other conservative organization of his choice.

For every one that doesn’t come true by his deadline, he has to donate $100 to the DNC or Planned Parenthood or Stacey Abrams.

Make him put up or shut up.

[Beau Vine 54,385]

 

[conVINCEd 21,469]

11 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

 

I’m not gonna listen to that cunt talk.  Quick summary?

[Cairn Horn88 8,280]

1 hour ago, NAVY said:

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

[Cousin Strawberry 1,261]

1 hour ago, tx 3 putt said:

Left out ‘crack head’ 

How many dicks you think that guy sucked in exchange for a $20 rock?

[tx 3 putt 77,345]

12 minutes ago, Cousin Strawberry said:

How many dicks you think that guy sucked in exchange for a $20 rock?

I’m sure he sucked off trump for free 

[FondrenRoad 4,378]

1 hour ago, Bateshorn said:

My mom has been a progressive from the get go, a McNeill-Lehrer person as long as I can remember,  so I never had the Trump problem. I did catch her watching Maddow last time Ivisited and told her to turn that shit off. Not that it’s necessarily wrong, but it’s designed to gin you up and that’s not healthy for politics.  It’s like Twitter:  if it doesn’t bring you happiness, delete it.

My mom was fairly progressive too. She passed away in the 90s before all the social media or even cable news/radio shows really got started. She was a daily paper reader and never a nightly news watcher anyway.  If she was alive, she would be somewhere between furious with Trump and jaded about it all. I have no idea where she would get her news from now. I will say though that I have gained additional respect for her choices since all of her friends are absolutely anti-Trump now even though they are mostly all old southern and Texas white ladies. Can't say the same for her brothers, sisters, and the rest of our relatives. I have had to say adios to some of my cousins. And only 10 years ago, they were your regular fake southern conservatives, but otherwise fine. Some people weren't cut out for the internet, and almost nobody was cut out for social media. 

[MaybeACoordinator 8,349]

1 hour ago, Bateshorn said:

My mom has been a progressive from the get go, a McNeill-Lehrer person as long as I can remember,  so I never had the Trump problem. I did catch her watching Maddow last time Ivisited and told her to turn that shit off. Not that it’s necessarily wrong, but it’s designed to gin you up and that’s not healthy for politics.  It’s like Twitter:  if it doesn’t bring you happiness, delete it.

I suspect my dad has been sucked into MSNBC land because he's as far gone into the Maddowlands as so many other parents are into Fox territory. It's a better problem to have than a Trumpy parent but it's still a problem.

He's always sending me and a bunch of other BCC'd people hot take Trump slams addressed to the editor of his local people under the subject header "Let's See If They'll Print This!" and they never do, because they are more or less what everybody who doesn't like Trump is thinking, but he sees it as him being shut down by The Man. He is now one of these people who will comment on a news story that has nothing whatsoever to do with politics with some feat of mental gymnastics that will give him a chance to take a swipe at Trump, and every couple of days he's got some new nightmare scenario, like Trump is going to slip out of the country to Moscow and hand the nuclear codes over to Putin.

And then what? Russia will just nuke us because we won't be able to fight back? And what, are the codes just some digits Trump would know and can remember, like a password that Truman and his boys thought up back in '51 like HotRitaHayworth6969? 

Another email was headed "How they handled things in Melania's native land" and the body was just a link to Wikipedia's entry on the execution of the Ceaucescus.

Um, dad...those are different countries...And not every ex-Soviet bloc country is Russia, as he seems to be thinking these days. Eastern Europe = Russia = Putin = there be dragons.

And he hasn't always been like this. Some of it is him getting old and some of it is him getting propagandized by the fearmongers opposite Fox. And yeah, some of it really is the assholes in power these days, so not all of his fears are unjustified. It all just pisses me off. Our olds should not be getting manipulated like this. 

[NAVY 6,747]

 

[Underdog 28,767]

Going home to pay "tribute" to her. 

[jimmyjazz 46,104]

Jesus Christ, how fucked are we that the fact that the First Lady used to pose for nudies is about #100 on the list of shitty things we've had to deal with under this administration?

I mean, Laura?  Babs?  Michelle?  Rosalyn?  NANCY?

Oh god, Hillary?

Not much chance.  OK, maybe a little Nancy side action exists on some b-roll somewhere.

[Eskimohorn 5,642]

Jesus Christ, how fucked are we that the fact that the First Lady used to pose for nudies is about #100 on the list of shitty things we've had to deal with under this administration?
I mean, Laura?  Babs?  Michelle?  Rosalyn?  NANCY?
Oh god, Hillary?
Not much chance.  OK, maybe a little Nancy side action exists on some b-roll somewhere.

#100? Try #100,000. Might even go in the positive column that there hasn’t been whole lot of mainstream slut shaming. The Trump Triumphs leaflet will go next to Famous Jewish Sports legends.

[Pancho 44,966]

 

[Biff Tannen 45,712]

3 hours ago, Updawg said:

You need to be better than this.

If by better you mean harsher, then yes. Family members don’t get a pass for being morons because they are family. That’s how we got to where we are right now. 

[Buzzrock 14,936]

Bro keep up. The Donald chucked him right under the bus.
That 20k a day Rudy was billing him got a hard no. 
Ain't seen ole Rudy recently have ya?
The last I saw was Gym Jordan to defend him and that got real quiet real fast.
He has run out of chits to play. Nobody owes him.

Is Avenatti busy?

[SameSame 1,705]

57 minutes ago, Pancho said:

 

Getting the big list together.  Fucking assholes.

[cactusflinthead 27,601]

36 minutes ago, Buzzrock said:

 

Is Avenatti busy?

 

I might have to amend it since Rudy showed up at the WH. 

[DigDug 1,672]

8 minutes ago, SameSame said:

Getting the big list together.  Fucking assholes.

He could just be looking for his damn money.

[conVINCEd 21,469]

1 minute ago, DigDug said:

He could just be looking for his damn money.

Was he accompanied by a large man with a baseball bat?

[Mole 4,333]

3 hours ago, Bateshorn said:

My mom has been a progressive from the get go, a McNeill-Lehrer person as long as I can remember,  so I never had the Trump problem. I did catch her watching Maddow last time Ivisited and told her to turn that shit off. Not that it’s necessarily wrong, but it’s designed to gin you up and that’s not healthy for politics.  It’s like Twitter:  if it doesn’t bring you happiness, delete it.

Generally this, but we have a civic responsibility to be generally informed. It’s just that this duty should feel like a bit of a chore. If our news isn’t boring (PBS/AP/Reuters), then it probably isn’t news.

Maddow is way less damaging than Tucker or Rush, but it’s still part destructive culture. When Jon Stewart told Crossfire that they were hurting America, he was right in ways that most didn’t ever fathom.

[Biff Tannen 45,712]

1 minute ago, conVINCEd said:

Was he accompanied by a large man with a baseball bat?

[4th&Five 41,586]

43 minutes ago, Buzzrock said:

 

Is Avenatti busy?

 

Totally forgot about that guy. Holy shit the last 4 years has felt like 15. 

[conVINCEd 21,469]

1 minute ago, 4th&Five said:

Totally forgot about that guy. Holy shit the last 4 years has felt like 15. 

Isn’t he in prison?  I don’t care enough to look it up, but he was looking at some extortion charges at some point IIRC.  

[tchookem 3,905]

Jesus Christ, how fucked are we that the fact that the First Lady used to pose for nudies is about #100 on the list of shitty things we've had to deal with under this administration?
I mean, Laura?  Babs?  Michelle?  Rosalyn?  NANCY?
Oh god, Hillary?
Not much chance.  OK, maybe a little Nancy side action exists on some b-roll somewhere.

Nancy as apparently renowned throughout Hollywood for her oral prowess.

[Longhorn_Fan68 33,887]

Watch this dildo think he's playing 8D chess and pardon Biden on his way out

[Francisco 2.0 32,416]

Gee, imagine.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/16/misinformation-trump-twitter/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=wp_main

Quote

Online misinformation about election fraud plunged 73 percent after several social media sites suspended President Trump and key allies last week, research firm Zignal Labs has found, underscoring the power of tech companies to limit the falsehoods poisoning public debate when they act aggressively.

The new research by the San Francisco-based analytics firm reported that conversations about election fraud dropped from 2.5 million mentions to 688,000 mentions across several social media sites in the week after Trump was banned from Twitter.

 

Quote

Election disinformation had for months been a major subject of online misinformation, beginning even before the Nov. 3 election and pushed heavily by Trump and his allies.

Zignal found it dropped swiftly and steeply on Twitter and other platforms in the days after the Twitter ban took hold on Jan. 8.

 

Spoiler

The president and his supporters also have lost accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitch, Spotify, Shopify and others. Facebook called Trump’s suspension “indefinite” but left open the possibility that the account could later be restored.

The findings, from Jan. 9 through Friday, highlight how falsehoods flow across social media sites — reinforcing and amplifying each other — and offer an early indication of how concerted actions against misinformation can make a difference.

Twitter’s ban of Trump on Jan. 8, after years in which @realDonaldTrump was a potent online megaphone, has been particularly significant in curbing his ability to push misleading claims about what state and federal officials have called a free and fair election on Nov. 3.

Trump’s banishment was followed by other actions by social media sites, including Twitter’s ban of more than 70,000 accounts affiliated with the baseless QAnon ideology, which played a key role in fomenting the Capitol siege on Jan. 6.

“Together, those actions will likely significantly reduce the amount of online misinformation in the near term,” said Kate Starbird, disinformation researcher at the University of Washington. “What happens in the long term is still up in the air.”

Zignal found that the use of hashtags affiliated with the Capitol riot also dipped considerably. Mentions of the hashtag #FightforTrump, which was widely deployed across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social media services in the week before the rally, dropped 95 percent. #HoldTheLine and the term “March for Trump” also fell more than 95 percent.

The research by Zignal and other groups suggests that a powerful, integrated disinformation ecosystem — composed of high-profile influencers, rank-and-file followers and Trump himself — was central to pushing millions of Americans to reject the election results and may have trouble surviving without his social media accounts.

Researchers have found that Trump’s tweets were retweeted by supporters at a remarkable rate, no matter the subject, giving him a virtually unmatched ability to shape conversation online. University of Colorado information science professor Leysia Palen declared in October, after months of research: “Trump’s amplification machine is peerless.”

“Bottom line is that de-platforming, especially at the scale that occurred last week, rapidly curbs momentum and ability to reach new audiences,” said Graham Brookie, director of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, which tracks misinformation. “That said, it also has the tendency to harden the views of those already engaged in the spread of that type of false information.”

Trump reportedly has been looking for a new social media home — with public speculation focusing on Parler, Gab or Telegram, all of which are popular with conservative users — but apparently has not yet settled on one. Parler has been offline for most of the week but reportedly is seeking to resume operations after Google and Apple removed it from their app stores because of scant moderation of violent talk. Amazon Web Services suspended Parler, taking it offline.

The left-leaning media watchdog Media Matters for America found that the number of people clicking and sharing content from right-leaning political Facebook pages also fell substantially in the days after Facebook issued its temporary ban of Trump’s account.

Trump and political allies have railed for years against what they call “Big Tech,” alleging bias against conservative voices without providing systematic proof and pushing companiesto take a lighter hand in moderating content and punishing violators of policies. Twitter and other platforms cited policies against hate speech, inciting violence and dangerous conspiracy theories in suspending accounts in the aftermath of the Capitol attack.

Disinformation researchers consistently have found that relatively few accounts acted as “superspreaders” during the election, with their tweets and posts generating a disproportionate share of the falsehoods and misleading narratives that spread about election fraud, mail-in ballots and other topics related to the vote.

A study released the week before the presidential election by the Election Integrity Partnership, a consortium of misinformation researchers, found that just 20 conservative, pro-Trump Twitter accounts — including the president’s own @realDonaldTrump — were the original source of one-fifth of retweets pushing misleading narratives about voting.

The Zignal report also found that hashtags and phrases used by QAnon adherents declined over the past week but mentions of it and of its anonymous leader “Q” increased by 15 percent — a finding that could be explained by the coverage and conversation about its role in the attack on the Capitol.

A recent report by Advance Democracy — founded by Daniel J. Jones, a former FBI analyst and Senate investigator who led the review of the CIA’s torture program — found that social media sites had “successfully purged” large amounts of content pushing false claims of election fraud. The report also found “incendiary and implicitly violent narratives continue to spread at the peripheries of the social media platforms we are monitoring.”

This includes using the word “traitors” on Twitter to describe Vice President Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. One post on the site referring to Pence, whom Trump has repeatedly criticized in recent weeks, showed a dangling noose and the word “TREASON.”

On Tik Tok, Advance Democracy found that supporters of the militia group Three Percenters were implicitly calling for violence in videos, including one that had been viewed 139,000 times. One showed a man saying: “And for all the people saying, ‘It’s un-American. It’s an act of terrorism.' How do you think we started this country?”

 

Edited January 16, 2021 by Francisco 2.0

[Biff Tannen 45,712]

17 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

Gee, imagine.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/16/misinformation-trump-twitter/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=wp_main

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

The president and his supporters also have lost accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitch, Spotify, Shopify and others. Facebook called Trump’s suspension “indefinite” but left open the possibility that the account could later be restored.

The findings, from Jan. 9 through Friday, highlight how falsehoods flow across social media sites — reinforcing and amplifying each other — and offer an early indication of how concerted actions against misinformation can make a difference.

Twitter’s ban of Trump on Jan. 8, after years in which @realDonaldTrump was a potent online megaphone, has been particularly significant in curbing his ability to push misleading claims about what state and federal officials have called a free and fair election on Nov. 3.

Trump’s banishment was followed by other actions by social media sites, including Twitter’s ban of more than 70,000 accounts affiliated with the baseless QAnon ideology, which played a key role in fomenting the Capitol siege on Jan. 6.

“Together, those actions will likely significantly reduce the amount of online misinformation in the near term,” said Kate Starbird, disinformation researcher at the University of Washington. “What happens in the long term is still up in the air.”

Zignal found that the use of hashtags affiliated with the Capitol riot also dipped considerably. Mentions of the hashtag #FightforTrump, which was widely deployed across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social media services in the week before the rally, dropped 95 percent. #HoldTheLine and the term “March for Trump” also fell more than 95 percent.

The research by Zignal and other groups suggests that a powerful, integrated disinformation ecosystem — composed of high-profile influencers, rank-and-file followers and Trump himself — was central to pushing millions of Americans to reject the election results and may have trouble surviving without his social media accounts.

Researchers have found that Trump’s tweets were retweeted by supporters at a remarkable rate, no matter the subject, giving him a virtually unmatched ability to shape conversation online. University of Colorado information science professor Leysia Palen declared in October, after months of research: “Trump’s amplification machine is peerless.”

“Bottom line is that de-platforming, especially at the scale that occurred last week, rapidly curbs momentum and ability to reach new audiences,” said Graham Brookie, director of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, which tracks misinformation. “That said, it also has the tendency to harden the views of those already engaged in the spread of that type of false information.”

Trump reportedly has been looking for a new social media home — with public speculation focusing on Parler, Gab or Telegram, all of which are popular with conservative users — but apparently has not yet settled on one. Parler has been offline for most of the week but reportedly is seeking to resume operations after Google and Apple removed it from their app stores because of scant moderation of violent talk. Amazon Web Services suspended Parler, taking it offline.

The left-leaning media watchdog Media Matters for America found that the number of people clicking and sharing content from right-leaning political Facebook pages also fell substantially in the days after Facebook issued its temporary ban of Trump’s account.

Trump and political allies have railed for years against what they call “Big Tech,” alleging bias against conservative voices without providing systematic proof and pushing companiesto take a lighter hand in moderating content and punishing violators of policies. Twitter and other platforms cited policies against hate speech, inciting violence and dangerous conspiracy theories in suspending accounts in the aftermath of the Capitol attack.

Disinformation researchers consistently have found that relatively few accounts acted as “superspreaders” during the election, with their tweets and posts generating a disproportionate share of the falsehoods and misleading narratives that spread about election fraud, mail-in ballots and other topics related to the vote.

A study released the week before the presidential election by the Election Integrity Partnership, a consortium of misinformation researchers, found that just 20 conservative, pro-Trump Twitter accounts — including the president’s own @realDonaldTrump — were the original source of one-fifth of retweets pushing misleading narratives about voting.

The Zignal report also found that hashtags and phrases used by QAnon adherents declined over the past week but mentions of it and of its anonymous leader “Q” increased by 15 percent — a finding that could be explained by the coverage and conversation about its role in the attack on the Capitol.

A recent report by Advance Democracy — founded by Daniel J. Jones, a former FBI analyst and Senate investigator who led the review of the CIA’s torture program — found that social media sites had “successfully purged” large amounts of content pushing false claims of election fraud. The report also found “incendiary and implicitly violent narratives continue to spread at the peripheries of the social media platforms we are monitoring.”

This includes using the word “traitors” on Twitter to describe Vice President Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. One post on the site referring to Pence, whom Trump has repeatedly criticized in recent weeks, showed a dangling noose and the word “TREASON.”

On Tik Tok, Advance Democracy found that supporters of the militia group Three Percenters were implicitly calling for violence in videos, including one that had been viewed 139,000 times. One showed a man saying: “And for all the people saying, ‘It’s un-American. It’s an act of terrorism.' How do you think we started this country?”

 

Imagine if we destroyed fox, Limbaugh, et al?  We might get back to a semi-sane electorate and actually progress as a society. But nope. Can’t have that. Free speech and all. 

[TheStoicPaisano 9,923]

Both sides really used the greasiest Italians — who tries to extort Nike?

Isn’t Giuliani last man standing for the impeachment trial? Even Dotard has to prep a bit.

[StassneyHorn 6,635]

Easiest way to deal with Trumpian parents is ask for specifics and don’t accept generalities. When they speak in generalities say some sarcastic shit like “Oh did pill popper Rush tell you that? Did that pussy Michael Berry say something?” My dad has always been a Republican and I can talk to him pretty straightforward when he’s being a dickhead, I just use the same language he uses back at him. At that point he pivots to how he loves watching Morning Joe.

[Bullneck 19,202]

5 hours 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.

 

 

I called up the final tally: Biden won by 11,000 votes.  

[GhostOfTomJoad 9,350]

Just got back from my Trumpkin FIL's memorial service. Five hours of round trip driving to sit in a cowboy church with 100+ people where my wife & I were 2 of less than 10 wearing masks. None of her family members--including her mother--were wearing masks. Nothing like trying to support your grieving wife while she's getting the stink eye from yokels she doesn't know because they don't approve of us following safety protocols.

The service was about what you'd expect for the poor Hill Country farmer crowd. The minister commented that it was probably a blessing that the FIL passed the day before the Capitol riots because "if he were able to, (FIL) would have been there showing the world just how strong of a patriot he was." Lots of 'amens' after that comment. 

They said a prayer for our country, of course. And for "what we all know is right to happen, God willing" in the coming days. More amens. And there was an ad hoc reciting of the pledge of allegiance by the congregation when someone took the microphone & said he had a strong feeling at that moment that God wanted us all to say the pledge to honor the FIL.

We opted not to go back to the ranch house with the rest of the family & hightailed it back to Austin. We picked up some good Mexican food & are enjoying cold beers while watching football.

Fuck Donald Trump.

[Beau Vine 54,385]

Quote

WASHINGTON —  Frustrated by the loss of his Twitter account and forced to accept that he soon must leave office, President Trump has effectively stopped doing his job, delegating daily responsibilities to Vice President Mike Pence while hunkering down with a shrinking group of acquiescent aides and contemplating additional presidential pardons.
Trump had considered leaving the White House before his final day in office Wednesday, even as early as this weekend, but he has opted to depart on the morning of President-elect Joe Biden’s Inauguration Day, according to two people familiar with discussions who cautioned that, with Trump, plans are always subject to change.

Intrigued by the idea of upstaging Biden, the president has requested a major send-off. It would begin with a throng of cheering, flag-waving staffers and supporters to see him off on the White House’s South Lawn, according to a person familiar with the planning, and continue to a more formal ceremony at Joint Base Andrews, featuring a red carpet, military band, color guard and 21-gun salute. He would make his final Air Force One flight to Florida, to take up residence at Mar-a-Lago, his West Palm Beach, Fla., estate.

While Trump is still unwilling to formally concede to Biden directly, or to participate in the traditional show of the peaceful transfer of power by attending his successor’s swearing-in, Pence on Thursday called Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and “congratulated her and offered assistance ahead of inauguration,” according to a person familiar with the call.

ADVERTISING

His relationship with Trump all but severed because he refused to abet the president’s efforts to defy the Constitution and overturn the election result, Pence confirmed earlier in the week that he plans to attend Biden’s inauguration. Trump, in one of his final tweets last week before his account was banned, made it clear he would not go.

Previously, Trump had floated the idea of leaving town early to avoid having to host Biden at the White House before the inauguration ceremonies at the Capitol, as has long been tradition — to provide the photo of the outgoing and incoming presidents that gives visual definition to the United States’ peaceful transfer of power. Though he now might stay until Inauguration Day, Trump still has no plans to meet with the president-elect.

His administration this week did extend one traditional courtesy, inviting Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, to stay at Blair House, just across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, on the eve of the inauguration.

Finally forced by the bipartisan furor after last week’s insurrection at the Capitol to acknowledge the “new administration” — if not his defeat — Trump has withdrawn almost completely from the duties of the job he fought so hard to keep. Aides and friends who have spoken with him this week describe him as “irate” about Twitter deleting his account but also say he’s been sobered somewhat by warnings from his lawyers about his potential legal liability for inciting last week’s deadly riot.

Since the moment the pro-Trump mob smashed through the Capitol doors and into the House and Senate chambers to stop Congress’ count of the electoral votes, Pence has effectively taken over the responsibilities of the presidency. With Trump mesmerized by live television coverage of his supporters fighting for him, it fell to Pence — who’d been presiding over the count and had to be rushed into hiding — to authorize the deployment of the National Guard in the District of Columbia to quell the mob.

Just a week later, the president was watching TV again — with country music star Toby Keith, to whom he gave a medal — as the House voted to impeach him on a charge of inciting insurrection, making him the only president to be impeached twice. He was 

confident the Senate again would not convict him, according to one person who speaks with him regularly, and focused on his ire at the 10 House Republicans who voted in favor of impeachment, peppering aides with questions about who some of the lawmakers were and what he could do to exact revenge.

Protesters gather in front of the Capital building on the second day of pro-Trump events
WORLD & NATION
Why veterans of the military and law enforcement joined the Capitol insurrection

Jan. 15, 2021

Trump spent time Thursday instructing aides to knock down reports of his frustration with Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of the few outside attorneys still willing to defend him. That afternoon, while Trump took farewell photos with staffers as others loaded boxes into moving vans and cars just outside the West Wing, Pence visited the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency for a briefing about security preparations for the inauguration ceremony.

After the meeting, Pence told reporters that the government would “ensure that we have a safe inauguration, that President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are sworn in … in a manner consistent with our history and traditions.”

On his way home, Pence stopped to greet some of the 20,000 National Guard troops posted outside the Capitol, thanking them for their service to ensure the ceremonies are safe.

By Friday, Trump still had not addressed the nation about reports from the FBI and other law enforcement agencies that domestic terrorists, emboldened by the breach of the Capitol that left at least five dead, threatened not only the inauguration but also all 50 state capitols.

My Pillow Chief Executive Mike Lindell, one of Trump’s staunchest defenders in arguing that fraud cost the president reelection, was spotted around an otherwise quiet White House. As Lindell left the West Wing, a photographer captured an image showing that the notes he was holding referred to “martial law” and the “Insurrection Act.”

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 14: Members of the National Guard, outside the U.S. Capitol Building - a day after the House of Representatives impeached President Donald Trump, and over a week after a pro-Trump insurrectionist mob breached the security of the nation's capitol - on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021 in Washington, DC. An estimated 20,000 National Guard troops are expected to be deployed to the city to support law enforcement - around three times the total number of American troops deployed abroad in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Syria. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)
POLITICS
After a year of civil unrest, the U.S. is running low on body armor and gas masks

Jan. 15, 2021

Pence is also scheduled to deliver an address Saturday on the administration’s “foreign policy accomplishments” at California’s Naval Air Station Lemoore, and then to the 10th Mountain Division in Fort Drum, N.Y., his office announced Wednesday.

Typically, outgoing presidents take part in an official farewell ceremony with members of the armed forces. Trump, however, isn’t bothering. On Thursday, the White House emailed a brief statement to reporters from Trump that could mark a final, 67-word valedictory. It was, above all, a salute to himself.

“United States military troops in Afghanistan are at a 19-year low. Likewise, Iraq and Syria are also at the lowest point in many years,” the president said. “I will always be committed to stopping the endless wars. It has been a great honor to rebuild our military and support our brave men and women in uniform. $2.5 trillion invested, including in beautiful new equipment — all made in the U.S.A.”

Spending his final days almost entirely out of view, Trump is said to be readying a number of pardons and weighing whether to give one to himself. A self-pardon would be an act of untested and dubious constitutionality and one — at a time when he and his family business are under investigation — suggesting indifference to the law in an effort to inoculate himself from any federal prosecutions.

The Trump International Hotel looms over the Las Vegas Strip. Donald Trump is counting on strong voter enthusiasm to overcome Hillary Clinton's organizational edge in Nevada.
BUSINESS
What will become of the Trump brand after he leaves office?

Jan. 15, 2021

Those who have been in contact with the president are loath to predict whether he will go through with the brazen move. His calculations now must be weighed against the unsettled matter of his impeachment trial in the Senate; a conviction could bar him from ever seeking office again.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) made it clear in a statement Wednesday that he is open to voting in favor of Trump’s conviction, a move some administration officials say was intended to dissuade the president from a self-pardon or any other damaging moves in his final days.

“He knows self-pardon is fraught, will invite scrutiny and does not protect him from state actions,” one former senior administration official said of Trump. But the calculation, the official said, was more about “whether it’s ultimately worth the scrutiny and hassle” than any impeachment endgame.

 

[Dr. Teeth 5,845]

He stopped doing his job one minute after he entered the West Wing in 2017. 

[Fudge Nuggets 19,213]

1 hour ago, tchookem said:

2 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Jesus Christ, how fucked are we that the fact that the First Lady used to pose for nudies is about #100 on the list of shitty things we've had to deal with under this administration?
I mean, Laura?  Babs?  Michelle?  Rosalyn?  NANCY?
Oh god, Hillary?
Not much chance.  OK, maybe a little Nancy side action exists on some b-roll somewhere.

Nancy as apparently renowned throughout Hollywood for her oral prowess.

Too $hort covered this in detail in his masterpiece, ‘Cusswords’.

[Mdhorn 5,984]

4 hours ago, Bateshorn said:

My mom has been a progressive from the get go, a McNeill-Lehrer person as long as I can remember,  so I never had the Trump problem. I did catch her watching Maddow last time Ivisited and told her to turn that shit off. Not that it’s necessarily wrong, but it’s designed to gin you up and that’s not healthy for politics.  It’s like Twitter:  if it doesn’t bring you happiness, delete it.

Even when it's pro Dem, it's difficult to watch.  Besides, we have our own local political Democrat bodies to police. There's truth to absolute power corrupts absolutely.  It doesn't rise to anywhere close to the level of their counterparts though--not in the same ballpark.  

Edited January 17, 2021 by Mdhorn

[tchookem 3,905]

Too $hort covered this in detail in his masterpiece, ‘Cusswords’.

And Patton Oswalt in The Dollop Podcast

[tchookem 3,905]

Just got back from my Trumpkin FIL's memorial service. Five hours of round trip driving to sit in a cowboy church with 100+ people where my wife & I were 2 of less than 10 wearing masks. None of her family members--including her mother--were wearing masks. Nothing like trying to support your grieving wife while she's getting the stink eye from yokels she doesn't know because they don't approve of us following safety protocols.
The service was about what you'd expect for the poor Hill Country farmer crowd. The minister commented that it was probably a blessing that the FIL passed the day before the Capitol riots because "if he were able to, (FIL) would have been there showing the world just how strong of a patriot he was." Lots of 'amens' after that comment. 
They said a prayer for our country, of course. And for "what we all know is right to happen, God willing" in the coming days. More amens. And there was an ad hoc reciting of the pledge of allegiance by the congregation when someone took the microphone & said he had a strong feeling at that moment that God wanted us all to say the pledge to honor the FIL.
We opted not to go back to the ranch house with the rest of the family & hightailed it back to Austin. We picked up some good Mexican food & are enjoying cold beers while watching football.
Fuck Donald Trump.

What a fucking gut punch. Sorry for your loss.

[Red Five 40,881]

17 minutes ago, GhostOfTomJoad said:

The minister commented that it was probably a blessing that the FIL passed the day before the Capitol riots because "if he were able to, (FIL) would have been there showing the world just how strong of a patriot he was." Lots of 'amens' after that comment. 

As in, he was such a patriot, he would have been there trying to stop the violent mob from storming the capitol in an attempt to install a dictator? Probably not. 

[RomaVicta 29,977]

6 hours ago, NAVY said:

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 

My good friends, lumping huge numbers of people together by race or age or region or party they vote for is how we got in this mess. I feel the same way when someone in my age group makes a snide or condescending remark about Milennials. 

To the rabid right, anyone who didn't vote for Trump is an ebil lib at best and a radical, socialist, reverse-racist-who-won't-let-me-say-the-N-word-even-though-Ns-use-it-all-the-time enemy of the Americans who want their country back. Among the Trump voters, that's almost the quaintest of their bad qualities. Sedition and insurrection are the worst.

[GhostOfTomJoad 9,350]

1 minute ago, tchookem said:

15 minutes ago, GhostOfTomJoad said:

Just got back from my Trumpkin FIL's memorial service. Five hours of round trip driving to sit in a cowboy church with 100+ people where my wife & I were 2 of less than 10 wearing masks. None of her family members--including her mother--were wearing masks. Nothing like trying to support your grieving wife while she's getting the stink eye from yokels she doesn't know because they don't approve of us following safety protocols.
The service was about what you'd expect for the poor Hill Country farmer crowd. The minister commented that it was probably a blessing that the FIL passed the day before the Capitol riots because "if he were able to, (FIL) would have been there showing the world just how strong of a patriot he was." Lots of 'amens' after that comment. 
They said a prayer for our country, of course. And for "what we all know is right to happen, God willing" in the coming days. More amens. And there was an ad hoc reciting of the pledge of allegiance by the congregation when someone took the microphone & said he had a strong feeling at that moment that God wanted us all to say the pledge to honor the FIL.
We opted not to go back to the ranch house with the rest of the family & hightailed it back to Austin. We picked up some good Mexican food & are enjoying cold beers while watching football.
Fuck Donald Trump.

What a fucking gut punch. Sorry for your loss.

Appreciate it, but not really necessary. The FIL had descended into the Fox News mush brain asshole for the last 15 years. My wife had a strained relationship with him most of her adult life, and his political rants were so toxic she'd gone from visiting them 3-4 times a year to once every 18 months or so. She did her best to reconcile everything in the end & was able to see him shortly before his death of cancer (a 15 month process).

It's been an anxious week with her expecting the worse as we drove out there & having the worst pretty much play out in front of her eyes real time. But she's actually optimistic that her relationship with her mom should improve in the coming days without his boorish behavior to drive a wedge between them. 

[GhostOfTomJoad 9,350]

3 minutes ago, Red Five said:

As in, he was such a patriot, he would have been there trying to stop the violent mob from storming the capitol in an attempt to install a dictator? Probably not. 

Yeah...that would be a safe bet. His dream was to go out in a blaze of glory, a pile of brass shell casings at his feet. He even had a tacky sign in his garage that expressed that wish. They took his guns away from him for good last May after the MIL recorded on her phone one of many instances when he was drunk & fucking around with his Glock. He had no recollection of it the next morning.

Let's just say that the MAGA hats and Trump 2020 stickers were on full display in the parking lot. The good thing is most of the hayseeds couldn't walk up a flight of stairs without having to sit down & catch their breath.

[Bullneck 19,202]

3 hours ago, Eskimohorn said:

#100? Try #100,000. Might even go in the positive column that there hasn’t been whole lot of mainstream slut shaming. The Trump Triumphs leaflet will go next to Famous Jewish Sports legends.

Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax would like a word with you.

[Guest Lobo]

3 hours ago, Eskimohorn said:

#100? Try #100,000. Might even go in the positive column that there hasn’t been whole lot of mainstream slut shaming. The Trump Triumphs leaflet will go next to Famous Jewish Sports legends.

Do you have anything light?  

[conVINCEd 21,469]

37 minutes ago, GhostOfTomJoad said:

Just got back from my Trumpkin FIL's memorial service. Five hours of round trip driving to sit in a cowboy church with 100+ people where my wife & I were 2 of less than 10 wearing masks. None of her family members--including her mother--were wearing masks. Nothing like trying to support your grieving wife while she's getting the stink eye from yokels she doesn't know because they don't approve of us following safety protocols.

The service was about what you'd expect for the poor Hill Country farmer crowd. The minister commented that it was probably a blessing that the FIL passed the day before the Capitol riots because "if he were able to, (FIL) would have been there showing the world just how strong of a patriot he was." Lots of 'amens' after that comment. 

They said a prayer for our country, of course. And for "what we all know is right to happen, God willing" in the coming days. More amens. And there was an ad hoc reciting of the pledge of allegiance by the congregation when someone took the microphone & said he had a strong feeling at that moment that God wanted us all to say the pledge to honor the FIL.

We opted not to go back to the ranch house with the rest of the family & hightailed it back to Austin. We picked up some good Mexican food & are enjoying cold beers while watching football.

Fuck Donald Trump.

I’ve been to funerals and weddings in the last 4 years where Trump was mentioned by the officiant.  We didn’t stick around for the after-party at either.

[GhostOfTomJoad 9,350]

If I hadn't been driving I would've taken a pic of the rusted out panel wagon outside of Stonewall that somebody painted 'Trump Promises Kept' on the sides. Powerful advertising there.

[Francisco 2.0 32,416]

$2 billion.  Going to hazard a guess, but I suspect he wants $1-1.5 billion of that to get out of debt.

 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-is-fantasizing-about-a-dollar2-billion-presidential-library-and-museum-in-florida-wapo-reports?ref=home?ref=home

 

Quote

President Donald Trump is telling his supporters and donors he wants to collect $2 billion for a presidential library and museum in Florida, The Washington Post reports. He envisions it run by his social media director Dan Scavino, who formerly served as Trump’s social media director but more recently worked as his deputy chief of staff. Such a sum would far exceed the cost of other presidential libraries, but Trump reportedly believes he can raise it via small-dollar donations from a grassroots campaign among supporters. 

 

Quote

Former Trump associates believe it will be difficult for him to raise the money in the wake of the scandal over the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. “I thought to myself, what is this alternative fantasy life you’re living? I have no clue where they think they’ll get this money raised. Anyone who gives to him will be radioactive,” an unnamed fundraiser told the Post of the plans. The commander in chief plans to leave Washington, D.C. for his new permanent residence in Florida before Joe Biden’s inauguration, which he does not plan to attend.

 

Edited January 17, 2021 by Francisco 2.0

[Biff Tannen 45,712]

5 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

$2 billion.  Going to hazard a guess, but I suspect he wants $1-1.5 billion of that to get out of debt.

 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-is-fantasizing-about-a-dollar2-billion-presidential-library-and-museum-in-florida-wapo-reports?ref=home?ref=home

 

 

 

Lol.  The final grift.  Who am I kidding?  The beginning of the final grift among his cult.  At this point, hey, go for it.  Fleece these people until they are the starving, sad, obliterated souls from the Little Mermaid.