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

[Born to Run 6569]

1930s Germany had no real economic power and actually very little military power. Our version of nazism is going to be wild.

Yeah it's going to turn out that us having more military spending than the next 5 countries was a bad idea when we are a country of idiots electing fascist. Shits going to get real when we go full retard in the parlance of a not so distant time. Its a frightening thought. But my Turkey prices!

[Fastbreak 3990]

Yeah it's going to turn out that us having more military spending than the next 5 countries was a bad idea when we are a country of idiots electing fascist. Shits going to get real when we go full retard in the parlance of a not so distant time. Its a frightening thought. But my Turkey prices!

We have to think of the rich white billionaires! If we don’t pay our debt to them in war blood then they won’t trickle down to the rest of us.

[Underdog 28768]

Taylor Swift Time magazine POTY, ketchup bottles at MAL on alert. 

[AnTiM 1669]

14 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

 

Well get yourself 750 million dollars and sue the FOX network.  See how that works?

[Biff Tannen 45715]

1 hour ago, Underdog said:

Taylor Swift Time magazine POTY, ketchup bottles at MAL on alert. 

[Post Oak 20259]

On 12/3/2023 at 8:33 PM, TheStoicPaisano said:

 

From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away.

-Raymond Chandler

[Goredho 17417]

8 hours ago, Fastbreak said:

We have to think of the rich white billionaires! If we don’t pay our debt to them in war blood then they won’t trickle down to the rest of us.

That trickle?  Its piss.

[High Plains Drifter 11050]

2 hours ago, Post Oak said:

From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away.

-Raymond Chandler

 

Good from far, but far from good.

 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13523]

On 12/3/2023 at 8:33 PM, TheStoicPaisano said:

 

If I made it big, and I came home to that, I would feel like something went horribly wrong. I question how Newsom ended up with her in the past.

I had always assumed that Guilfoyle was fairly older than Newsom, and I assume that he was in his mid 50s. In looking it up, I was right that he's 56 but in complete shock that she's 54. I was thinking she was 60 with too much plastic surgery.

[Chad Fuck 17749]

15 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

If I made it big, and I came home to that, I would feel like something went horribly wrong. I question how Newsom ended up with her in the past.

I had always assumed that Guilfoyle was fairly older than Newsom, and I assume that he was in his mid 50s. In looking it up, I was right that he's 56 but in complete shock that she's 54. I was thinking she was 60 with too much plastic surgery.

I don't know if you've heard, but it's undefeated.  

Seriously, she has the strong whiff of someone who knows just the right words to say to get where she want to be.  Social climber extraordinaire.  

[Paul Wesley 3289]

On 12/4/2023 at 12:33 AM, tx 3 putt said:

That fucking clip, man...

Every year or so, I grab my keyboard and start typing, "I still cannot get my head around the fact that America elected this comically stupid buffoon to be president."

All these people at his country club, just gleefully trying to capture this moment like they're 14-year old girls at a BTS concert - presumably those are wealthy and reasonably well-educated adults.  And to see how joyful they are to be in his presence, like they're all trying to touch the hem of his garment, just soooo excited to cheer while he tells them demonstrably false lies... 

I still cannot get my head around it.

Lately I just come back to the same conclusion/explanation:  Propaganda works.

[tx 3 putt 77363]

4 minutes ago, Paul Wesley said:

That fucking clip, man...

Every year or so, I grab my keyboard and start typing, "I still cannot get my head around the fact that America elected this comically stupid buffoon to be president."

All these people at his country club, just gleefully trying to capture this moment like they're 14-year old girls at a BTS concert - presumably those are wealthy and reasonably well-educated adults.  And to see how joyful they are to be in his presence, like they're all trying to touch the hem of his garment, just soooo excited to cheer while he tells them demonstrably false lies... 

I still cannot get my head around it.

Lately I just come back to the same conclusion/explanation:  Propaganda works.

people said the same about hitler, how did we let this happen ?

[Biff Tannen 45715]

12 minutes ago, Paul Wesley said:

Lately I just come back to the same conclusion/explanation:  Propaganda works.

And I am becoming more convinced it is too late to stop.

[Wally Fairway 5580]

44 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

people said the same about hitler, how did we let this happen ?

So you are saying we could "celebrate the 90th anniversary of the night of the long knives with Herr Trumpfh ceasing permanent control of the Republican Party (which is scheduled pretty darn close to that anniversary date)

Coincedence? I think not!

[Biff Tannen 45715]

1 hour ago, Wally Fairway said:

So you are saying we could "celebrate the 90th anniversary of the night of the long knives with Herr Trumpfh ceasing permanent control of the Republican Party (which is scheduled pretty darn close to that anniversary date)

Coincedence? I think not!

Seizing

[Brisketexan 105290]

6 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

Seizing

[Incredulity 11683]

....and that's the Ethiopian Shim-Sham.

 

[TeeDubya 3362]

7 hours ago, Post Oak said:

From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away.

-Raymond Chandler

That is exactly the way I looked at airplane paint jobs.  Why pay for a two-foot paint job, when a 10 footer will do.

[WhatTheBuck 28797]

4 hours ago, Paul Wesley said:

That fucking clip, man...

Every year or so, I grab my keyboard and start typing, "I still cannot get my head around the fact that America elected this comically stupid buffoon to be president."

All these people at his country club, just gleefully trying to capture this moment like they're 14-year old girls at a BTS concert - presumably those are wealthy and reasonably well-educated adults.  And to see how joyful they are to be in his presence, like they're all trying to touch the hem of his garment, just soooo excited to cheer while he tells them demonstrably false lies... 

I still cannot get my head around it.

Lately I just come back to the same conclusion/explanation:  Propaganda works.

And every single one of them shooting vertical video, except for one guy who appears to be holding his phone at a 45 degree angle.  Perhaps he’s too embarrassed to commit to being smart and turning his phone sideways. The urge to conform is too strong.

[Guest]

Y'all remember that thread when Trump was elected with some dude essentially saying "What do I tell my children?"

We all laughed. Hell, I remember being in on the first page laughing at it. That guy was a damn Nostradamus/Confucius/Miss Cleo all rolled into one. 

 

Edited December 6, 2023 by FirstTimeCaller

[4th&Five 41586]

I wasn’t laughing. How could everyone not see what was coming?

[AnTiM 1669]

1 hour ago, 4th&Five said:

I wasn’t laughing. How could everyone not see what was coming?

Maybe because half the population is below average intelligence?  You know...morons.

Edited December 6, 2023 by AnTiM

[Macanudo 13010]

Half of Americans age 16-74 read at a 6th grade level or below.   Which means a shit ton of them can't think critically.

https://map.barbarabush.org/#:~:text=What does adult literacy look like in your state%3F,of a sixth-grade level.

130 million Americans—54% of adults between the ages of 16 and 74 years old—lack proficiency in literacy, essentially reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level.

 

 

Meaning:  We're fucked.

[Biff Tannen 45715]

18 minutes ago, Macanudo said:

Half of Americans age 16-74 read at a 6th grade level or below.   Which means a shit ton of them can't think critically.

https://map.barbarabush.org/#:~:text=What does adult literacy look like in your state%3F,of a sixth-grade level.

130 million Americans—54% of adults between the ages of 16 and 74 years old—lack proficiency in literacy, essentially reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level.

 

 

Meaning:  We're fucked.

Yep. Shut it the fuck down. I’m going to get as much money as I can and find a way to get the fuck outta here. 

[Rimbo 26059]

6 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

And I am becoming more convinced it is too late to stop.

“Believe and your belief will create the fact.” --William James

[BamaATL 16593]

40 minutes ago, Macanudo said:

Half of Americans age 16-74 read at a 6th grade level or below.   Which means a shit ton of them can't think critically.

https://map.barbarabush.org/#:~:text=What does adult literacy look like in your state%3F,of a sixth-grade level.

130 million Americans—54% of adults between the ages of 16 and 74 years old—lack proficiency in literacy, essentially reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level.

 

 

Meaning:  We're fucked.

Well, if you do the math

130 million illiterate

160 million voted last Presidential election

335 million total population

Left over population of 45 million under 18.  

Might not be time to cliff dive off a high building.  Don't get me wrong, that's a scary number.  Not in the slightest surprising, but scary.  

[Dnaguy 12054]

1 hour ago, Macanudo said:

Half of Americans age 16-74 read at a 6th grade level or below.   Which means a shit ton of them can't think critically.

https://map.barbarabush.org/#:~:text=What does adult literacy look like in your state%3F,of a sixth-grade level.

130 million Americans—54% of adults between the ages of 16 and 74 years old—lack proficiency in literacy, essentially reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level.

 

 

Meaning:  We're fucked.

I’m actually surprised that there is that many people who can read, period.

 

[atomheartbevo 89783]

4 hours ago, Macanudo said:

Half of Americans age 16-74 read at a 6th grade level or below.   Which means a shit ton of them can't think critically.

And now you know why Buzzfeed pulled in $430 million last year.

4 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

 I’m going to get as much money as I can

Make a new Buzzfeed, with listicles put out every day.

[Eskimohorn 5642]

Seizing

So, what is it to you, Butthead!

[Born to Run 6569]

Half of Americans age 16-74 read at a 6th grade level or below.   Which means a shit ton of them can't think critically.
https://map.barbarabush.org/#:~:text=What does adult literacy look like in your state%3F,of a sixth-grade level.
130 million Americans—54% of adults between the ages of 16 and 74 years old—lack proficiency in literacy, essentially reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level.
 
 
Meaning:  We're fucked.

My brother has a Masters from Aggy and a great job; he should retire by 55 with plenty of money.

He sent me a highlighted copy of Art of the Deal. Had a Maga hat in 2016. He's " not into politics now". Still, It Bottles the mind.

[TwiceHorn 31533]

5 hours ago, Macanudo said:

Half of Americans age 16-74 read at a 6th grade level or below.   Which means a shit ton of them can't think critically.

https://map.barbarabush.org/#:~:text=What does adult literacy look like in your state%3F,of a sixth-grade level.

130 million Americans—54% of adults between the ages of 16 and 74 years old—lack proficiency in literacy, essentially reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level.

 

 

Meaning:  We're fucked.

Thing is, though, this has been more or less always true, likely worse over the course of the nation's history.

We have always been at some risk from the morons in our society.  And, no matter how good we get public education, or family values, or whatever the fuck, we're always going to be at some risk of the morons upending everything.

What failed here were the political systems, i.e. parties, that allowed a dickwad like Trump anywhere near a ballot for anything beyond dogcatcher, if that.

An irony of all of this is that the morons present their largest threat via democracy.  The founding fathers realized that and installed certain features, like the electoral college, as a backstop against ti.  But due to high concentrations of morons in populous states, e.g Texas, the EC wound up reinforcing the morons.

 

[Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand 13587]

11 hours ago, Macanudo said:

Half of Americans age 16-74 read at a 6th grade level or below.   Which means a shit ton of them can't think critically.

https://map.barbarabush.org/#:~:text=What does adult literacy look like in your state%3F,of a sixth-grade level.

130 million Americans—54% of adults between the ages of 16 and 74 years old—lack proficiency in literacy, essentially reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level.

 

 

Meaning:  We're fucked.

Could be worse...

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-fire-and-fury-smart-genius-obama-774169

Quote

The analysis assessed the first 30,000 words each president spoke in office, and ranked them on the Flesch-Kincaid grade level scale and more than two dozen other common tests analyzing English-language difficulty levels. Trump clocked in around mid-fourth grade, the worst since Harry Truman, who spoke at nearly a sixth-grade level.

 

[Francisco 2.0 32423]

https://www.axios.com/2023/12/07/trump-loyalty-cabinet-2025-carlson-miller-bannon

 

Quote

Former President Trump, if elected, would build a Cabinet and White House staff based mainly on two imperatives: pre-vetted loyalty to him and a commitment to stretch legal and governance boundaries, sources who talk often with the leading GOP presidential candidate tell Axios.

Why it matters: Trump would fill the most powerful jobs in government with men like Stephen Miller, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio and Kash Patel — with the possible return of Steve Bannon. If Trump won in 2024, he'd turn to loyalists who share his zeal to punish critics, purge non-believers, and take controversial legal and military action, the sources tell us.

 

Quote

Trump and his prospective top officials don't mince words about their plans:

They want to target and jail critics, including government officials and journalists; deport undocumented immigrants or put them in detainment camps, and unleash the military to target drug cartels in Mexico, or possibly crack down on criminals or protesters at home. 

They want to scrap rules that limit their ability to purge government workers deemed disloyal. 

What's happening: Trump hasn't settled on specific roles for specific figures, and hates it when his staff and friends speculate otherwise. It's not in his DNA to do detailed personnel planning  and a lot depends on the last few people he's talked to.

 

Quote

But in rolling conversations with friends and advisers, he's been clear about the type of men — and they're almost all older, white men — he'd want to serve at his pleasure if he were to win a second term.

Between the lines: We wrote last month about the multimillion-dollar effort to vet loyalists for up to 50,000 lower-level government jobs in a Trump administration. This is about their potential bosses.

It's unclear who would land where, but make no mistake: These are specific prototypes of Trump Republicans who would run his government. This is very different from the early days of his first term, when he was restrained by more conventional officials, from John Kelly to James Mattis to Gary Cohn.

This time, it'd be all loyalists, no restraints. 

 

 

Spoiler

Here's our latest intelligence on what's being discussed among Trump and a small group of confidants: 

Vice president: Trump talks openly to friends about several possibilities for running mate. Table stakes for these candidates is proving you believe the 2020 election was stolen and that former Vice President Mike Pence wimped out by allowing its certification. 

Those who'd be considered include J.D. Vance, the "Hillbilly Elegy" author and a MAGA favorite; Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders; Kari Lake, a leading election denier now running for U.S. Senate in Arizona, and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem. (Vance might prefer to remain in the Senate as "Trump's hammer," we're told.) 

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), one of the few Black Republicans in Congress, has traveled with Trump on the campaign and would love to be V.P. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who lost her House committee assignments because she pushed baseless conspiracy theories, also gets mentioned. 

But here's an interesting twist: Melania Trump is an advocate for picking Tucker Carlson, the booted Fox News star. She thinks Carlson would make a powerful onstage extension of her husband, a source close to Trump told us. The former first lady has made few campaign appearances this time around — but a Trump-Carlson ticket might encourage her to hit the trail. 

Trump, asked last month about Carlson as a potential V.P., said: "I like Tucker a lot. ... He's got great common sense."

The idea of Tucker Carlson has been discounted by many people close to Trump because they assume he'd never pick someone who could outshine him. And Trump's staff is convinced (correctly) that Carlson can't be controlled. But the two men talk a lot.

Others likely to wield power in a second Trump term share a lot in common with Carlson. They're full, proud MAGA warriors, anti-GOP establishment zealots, and eager and willing to test the boundaries of executive power to get Trump's way. They include:

Stephen Miller: He could be your next attorney general and, if not that, get a Cabinet-level role to greatly influence immigration policy.

He was the architect of Trump's most controversial immigration plans in the first term — including family separation — and has written and spoken extensively about unprecedented plans to detain, purge and punish undocumented immigrants if put back in charge. He's eager to test the boundaries of what courts and the military can do to make this happen fast. 

Miller currently heads a nonprofit dedicated to suing the Biden administration and promoting "America First" causes, and has been leading efforts to recruit an army of right-wing lawyers to staff a MAGA-dominated executive branch.

Carlson told Axios that Miller would be his first choice to lead the Justice Department: "He's a serious person and he understands how the system works."

Mike Davis: Donald Trump Jr. has floated Davis, the former chief counsel for nominations to then-Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), to be Trump's interim attorney general — saying it would be a "shot across the bow of the swamp."

In his public auditions for the job, the bombastic Davis has promised a "three-week reign of terror" in which he would "put kids in cages" and jail prosecutors and journalists who have gone after Trump — even tellingMSNBC's Mehdi Hasan that he has "his spot picked out in the D.C. gulag."

A source close to the Trump campaign told us A.G. is the office where Trump is "most likely to make a shocking pick," with the defiant view: "You want to weaponize DOJ, mother----er?'"

Steve Bannon: In the early days of Trump's first term, he was arguably the most powerful man on staff, plotting personnel and policy decisions from his Capitol Hill townhouse. Then, he was ousted and frozen out. Now, thanks to his popular podcast and pro-Trump fervency, he's back.

He could be the next White House chief of staff, an idea Carlson and a few others are pushing hard with the former president.

Carlson tells Axios that Bannon would diligently implement promises after Trump lost interest. "Steve believes: If you said we're building a wall, we're building a wall," Carlson said.

Bannon has proud authoritarian beliefs and sees everything as an existential war between good (Trump) and evil (Democrats, establishment Republicans, the media).

Kash Patel: A protege of former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) who led efforts to discredit the Russia investigation, Patel came to be viewed as a political mercenary in Trump's war against the intelligence community. The former Pentagon official would be considered for a top national security job in the next administration, possibly even running the CIA or NSC.

In 2021, Patel authored an illustrated children's book about the Russia investigation in which "King Donald" is a character persecuted by "Hillary Queenton and her shifty knight."

Trump took a shine to Patel in his first term but was talked out of making him a deputy director of the FBI or CIA by senior officials — including former Attorney General Bill Barr, who wrote in his memoir that it would happen "over my dead body."

Former CIA director Gina Haspel threatened to resign over a plan to install Patel as her deputy in the final weeks of Trump's presidency, when he became convinced the intelligence community possessed documents that could damage his political enemies. 

Steve Bannon said this week on his "War Room" podcast that Patel would "probably" be CIA director in a second term.

Patel told Bannon: "One thing we learned in the Trump administration the first go-round is we've got to put in all of our compatriots from top to bottom. And we've got them for law enforcement ... [Defense Department], CIA, everywhere. ... Yes, we're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens."

To avoid a confirmation battle, Patel also might have a National Security Council role where he could do special projects for Trump — or even be national security adviser. 

Johnny McEntee, Trump's loyalty vetter and enforcer, headed presidential personnel in the first term. McEntee might return to that role with even more power. He also could be Trump's gatekeeper as head of Oval Office operations, or could be Cabinet secretary, riding herd on the White House liaisons to each department.

A former colleague described McEntee to us as "Trump's utility player — a guaranteed loyal ally, wherever you place him, who'd make sure the Trump agenda was being implemented."

The 33-year-old former UConn quarterback was empowered by the end of Trump's term in a way his predecessors never were — tasked with systematically purging officials deemed insufficiently loyal and making significant staffing changes without the consent of agency heads.

By late 2020, McEntee had explicit lists of top officials to fire and hire in a Trump second term, reaching far down the federal bureaucracy in a mission to truly "clean out" the "Deep State." That project has continued outside of government with a $22 million presidential transition project led by the Heritage Foundation.

"The president's plan should be to fundamentally reorient the federal government in a way that hasn't been done since F.D.R.'s New Deal," McEntee told the N.Y. Times, arguing the current system "was conceived of by liberals" and must be completely overhauled.

In the final days of the Trump administration, McEntee sought to orchestrate the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Germany and Africa — a last-minute gambit by the president stifled by guardrails that likely wouldn't be present in a second term.

Jeffrey Clark — a former assistant attorney general for Trump who could get a top Justice Department slot — is the rare person to be considered for a future administration while under indictment.

In the weeks after the 2020 election, the little-known environmental lawyer urged top DOJ officials to announce they were investigating baseless claims of election fraud, which they rejected.

Trump then considered appointing Clark as acting attorney general as the pair plotted to overturn the election results, prompting DOJ leadership to threaten to resign en masse.

Clark was charged as part of the Trump racketeering case in Fulton County, Ga., over his attempts to have DOJ send a letter to Georgia officials declaring that fraud may have altered the outcome of the 2020 election.

Prosecutors say the statement was false and furthered the conspiracy to overturn the election. Clark pleaded not guilty.

Ric Grenell — former ambassador to Germany, and Trump's acting director of national intelligence — would be on the short list for secretary of state.

Grenell infuriated European diplomats with his "America First" broadsides during his time in Berlin, and has basked in his reputation as an online troll beloved by the MAGA movement for his willingness to go on the attack.

Career intelligence officials have labeled Grenell — who declassified Obama-era intelligence in an effort to reshape perceptions of the Russia investigation — the least-experienced and most overtly political appointee ever to serve as head of the intelligence community.

In Grenell's last Cabinet meeting before his exit, Trump praised him as an "all-time great acting [official], at any position."

Former national security adviser Robert O'Brien, a more traditional conservative who remains in Trump's good graces, would be a more confirmable pick for secretary of state.

Susie Wiles: Some in Trumpworld assume the most likely chief of staff is Wiles, the longtime Florida political operative who's running Trump's campaign. 

The campaign so far has avoided the gusher of leaks that have been hallmarks of Trump operations. She's seen as an adept Trump enabler who would serve loyally, with discipline. By bridging the campaign and the administration, she'd provide continuity.

Trump's pell-mell style could push him to a wild-card choice for chief. "Everyone he knows is a direct report," said one former Trump administration official. 

John Ratcliffe, the former Texas congressman who was Trump's final DNI, would be considered to head the CIA, for a return to DNI, for defense secretary or even for vice president.

Ratcliffe, a China hawk, was one of Trump's fiercest allies in Congress during the first impeachment inquiry. He later used his authority as the nation's top intelligence official to declassify information aimed at calling into question the origins of both COVID and the Justice Department's Russia investigation.

Jamie Dimon: Trump is open to a few more mainstream picks if they bring celebrity or pizzazz. For example, Trump would consider JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, a Democrat, to head Treasury. "He wants a big name," a source close to the campaign said. "And he loves billionaires."

It's not clear Dimon would take the job — he's been talking privately with Nikki Haley about the global economy as she tries to knock off Trump for the nomination. Dimon told the N.Y. Times DealBook conference that Haley would be "a choice on the Republican side that might be better than Trump."

Dimon added: "He might be the president, and I have to deal with that, too."

Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas — a former Army infantry officer known for his hard edge, and who wrote a New York Times op-ed in Trump's first term supporting use of the Insurrection Act against civil disorder — would be considered to head the Pentagon. 

Lee Zeldin —a former congressman from Long Island who deployed to Iraq as an Army paratrooper — is another confirmable option for the Pentagon.

Like Cotton, Zeldin is considered more confirmable than many others in the mix.

Jared Kushner, who was a huge power center in Trump's West Wing, has mostly kept his distance from the campaign so far — but might well return to the White House if his father-in-law wins again, with a continued interest in Middle East policy.

Because Kushner would be talking with Trump's authority to world leaders anyway, one option would be secretary of state. 

What to watch: The heads of Cabinet departments don't have full powers unless confirmed by the Senate. Many of Trump's wannabe secretaries would have difficulty winning confirmation.

But Trump made unprecedented use of "acting" Cabinet members, who have temporary power over agencies even without Senate approval. And we're told he'd be prepared to push the envelope on ambiguities about how many stints an "acting" could serve.

"I sort of like 'acting,'" Trump said in 2019. "It gives me more flexibility."

 

[Captainant 27748]

6 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Thing is, though, this has been more or less always true, likely worse over the course of the nation's history.

We have always been at some risk from the morons in our society.  And, no matter how good we get public education, or family values, or whatever the fuck, we're always going to be at some risk of the morons upending everything.

What failed here were the political systems, i.e. parties, that allowed a dickwad like Trump anywhere near a ballot for anything beyond dogcatcher, if that.

An irony of all of this is that the morons present their largest threat via democracy.  The founding fathers realized that and installed certain features, like the electoral college, as a backstop against ti.  But due to high concentrations of morons in populous states, e.g Texas, the EC wound up reinforcing the morons.

 

Idk, I would call the justice systems failure to prosecute trump in a timely manner is the larger failure than the political one you describe. No shit things are going off the rails, he's gotten away with everything so far and has been able to appeal or outrun every meager wrist slap he's received. 

Fucking insane to me that he is actively inciting death threats against one of his judges and he's given a unique degree of deference to continue to do so. 

Yeah, the morons are making him powerful, but the law has failed with trump. 

[TwiceHorn 31533]

41 minutes ago, Captainant said:

Idk, I would call the justice systems failure to prosecute trump in a timely manner is the larger failure than the political one you describe. No shit things are going off the rails, he's gotten away with everything so far and has been able to appeal or outrun every meager wrist slap he's received. 

Fucking insane to me that he is actively inciting death threats against one of his judges and he's given a unique degree of deference to continue to do so. 

Yeah, the morons are making him powerful, but the law has failed with trump. 

No, the law has yet to fail with Trump.  It's not proceeding according to your timeline, but it has yet to fail.

Moreover, I submit that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and the law represents a cure.

The GOP could have kept Trump off the ballots if they'd really wanted to, but they were willing in their quest for power to permit idiocracy to serve them up a useful idiot a few final times before dismantling it.

[Js1 85553]

1 hour ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

https://www.axios.com/2023/12/07/trump-loyalty-cabinet-2025-carlson-miller-bannon

 

 

 

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Here's our latest intelligence on what's being discussed among Trump and a small group of confidants: 

Vice president: Trump talks openly to friends about several possibilities for running mate. Table stakes for these candidates is proving you believe the 2020 election was stolen and that former Vice President Mike Pence wimped out by allowing its certification. 

Those who'd be considered include J.D. Vance, the "Hillbilly Elegy" author and a MAGA favorite; Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders; Kari Lake, a leading election denier now running for U.S. Senate in Arizona, and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem. (Vance might prefer to remain in the Senate as "Trump's hammer," we're told.) 

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), one of the few Black Republicans in Congress, has traveled with Trump on the campaign and would love to be V.P. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who lost her House committee assignments because she pushed baseless conspiracy theories, also gets mentioned. 

But here's an interesting twist: Melania Trump is an advocate for picking Tucker Carlson, the booted Fox News star. She thinks Carlson would make a powerful onstage extension of her husband, a source close to Trump told us. The former first lady has made few campaign appearances this time around — but a Trump-Carlson ticket might encourage her to hit the trail. 

Trump, asked last month about Carlson as a potential V.P., said: "I like Tucker a lot. ... He's got great common sense."

The idea of Tucker Carlson has been discounted by many people close to Trump because they assume he'd never pick someone who could outshine him. And Trump's staff is convinced (correctly) that Carlson can't be controlled. But the two men talk a lot.

Others likely to wield power in a second Trump term share a lot in common with Carlson. They're full, proud MAGA warriors, anti-GOP establishment zealots, and eager and willing to test the boundaries of executive power to get Trump's way. They include:

Stephen Miller: He could be your next attorney general and, if not that, get a Cabinet-level role to greatly influence immigration policy.

He was the architect of Trump's most controversial immigration plans in the first term — including family separation — and has written and spoken extensively about unprecedented plans to detain, purge and punish undocumented immigrants if put back in charge. He's eager to test the boundaries of what courts and the military can do to make this happen fast. 

Miller currently heads a nonprofit dedicated to suing the Biden administration and promoting "America First" causes, and has been leading efforts to recruit an army of right-wing lawyers to staff a MAGA-dominated executive branch.

Carlson told Axios that Miller would be his first choice to lead the Justice Department: "He's a serious person and he understands how the system works."

Mike Davis: Donald Trump Jr. has floated Davis, the former chief counsel for nominations to then-Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), to be Trump's interim attorney general — saying it would be a "shot across the bow of the swamp."

In his public auditions for the job, the bombastic Davis has promised a "three-week reign of terror" in which he would "put kids in cages" and jail prosecutors and journalists who have gone after Trump — even tellingMSNBC's Mehdi Hasan that he has "his spot picked out in the D.C. gulag."

A source close to the Trump campaign told us A.G. is the office where Trump is "most likely to make a shocking pick," with the defiant view: "You want to weaponize DOJ, mother----er?'"

Steve Bannon: In the early days of Trump's first term, he was arguably the most powerful man on staff, plotting personnel and policy decisions from his Capitol Hill townhouse. Then, he was ousted and frozen out. Now, thanks to his popular podcast and pro-Trump fervency, he's back.

He could be the next White House chief of staff, an idea Carlson and a few others are pushing hard with the former president.

Carlson tells Axios that Bannon would diligently implement promises after Trump lost interest. "Steve believes: If you said we're building a wall, we're building a wall," Carlson said.

Bannon has proud authoritarian beliefs and sees everything as an existential war between good (Trump) and evil (Democrats, establishment Republicans, the media).

Kash Patel: A protege of former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) who led efforts to discredit the Russia investigation, Patel came to be viewed as a political mercenary in Trump's war against the intelligence community. The former Pentagon official would be considered for a top national security job in the next administration, possibly even running the CIA or NSC.

In 2021, Patel authored an illustrated children's book about the Russia investigation in which "King Donald" is a character persecuted by "Hillary Queenton and her shifty knight."

Trump took a shine to Patel in his first term but was talked out of making him a deputy director of the FBI or CIA by senior officials — including former Attorney General Bill Barr, who wrote in his memoir that it would happen "over my dead body."

Former CIA director Gina Haspel threatened to resign over a plan to install Patel as her deputy in the final weeks of Trump's presidency, when he became convinced the intelligence community possessed documents that could damage his political enemies. 

Steve Bannon said this week on his "War Room" podcast that Patel would "probably" be CIA director in a second term.

Patel told Bannon: "One thing we learned in the Trump administration the first go-round is we've got to put in all of our compatriots from top to bottom. And we've got them for law enforcement ... [Defense Department], CIA, everywhere. ... Yes, we're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens."

To avoid a confirmation battle, Patel also might have a National Security Council role where he could do special projects for Trump — or even be national security adviser. 

Johnny McEntee, Trump's loyalty vetter and enforcer, headed presidential personnel in the first term. McEntee might return to that role with even more power. He also could be Trump's gatekeeper as head of Oval Office operations, or could be Cabinet secretary, riding herd on the White House liaisons to each department.

A former colleague described McEntee to us as "Trump's utility player — a guaranteed loyal ally, wherever you place him, who'd make sure the Trump agenda was being implemented."

The 33-year-old former UConn quarterback was empowered by the end of Trump's term in a way his predecessors never were — tasked with systematically purging officials deemed insufficiently loyal and making significant staffing changes without the consent of agency heads.

By late 2020, McEntee had explicit lists of top officials to fire and hire in a Trump second term, reaching far down the federal bureaucracy in a mission to truly "clean out" the "Deep State." That project has continued outside of government with a $22 million presidential transition project led by the Heritage Foundation.

"The president's plan should be to fundamentally reorient the federal government in a way that hasn't been done since F.D.R.'s New Deal," McEntee told the N.Y. Times, arguing the current system "was conceived of by liberals" and must be completely overhauled.

In the final days of the Trump administration, McEntee sought to orchestrate the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Germany and Africa — a last-minute gambit by the president stifled by guardrails that likely wouldn't be present in a second term.

Jeffrey Clark — a former assistant attorney general for Trump who could get a top Justice Department slot — is the rare person to be considered for a future administration while under indictment.

In the weeks after the 2020 election, the little-known environmental lawyer urged top DOJ officials to announce they were investigating baseless claims of election fraud, which they rejected.

Trump then considered appointing Clark as acting attorney general as the pair plotted to overturn the election results, prompting DOJ leadership to threaten to resign en masse.

Clark was charged as part of the Trump racketeering case in Fulton County, Ga., over his attempts to have DOJ send a letter to Georgia officials declaring that fraud may have altered the outcome of the 2020 election.

Prosecutors say the statement was false and furthered the conspiracy to overturn the election. Clark pleaded not guilty.

Ric Grenell — former ambassador to Germany, and Trump's acting director of national intelligence — would be on the short list for secretary of state.

Grenell infuriated European diplomats with his "America First" broadsides during his time in Berlin, and has basked in his reputation as an online troll beloved by the MAGA movement for his willingness to go on the attack.

Career intelligence officials have labeled Grenell — who declassified Obama-era intelligence in an effort to reshape perceptions of the Russia investigation — the least-experienced and most overtly political appointee ever to serve as head of the intelligence community.

In Grenell's last Cabinet meeting before his exit, Trump praised him as an "all-time great acting [official], at any position."

Former national security adviser Robert O'Brien, a more traditional conservative who remains in Trump's good graces, would be a more confirmable pick for secretary of state.

Susie Wiles: Some in Trumpworld assume the most likely chief of staff is Wiles, the longtime Florida political operative who's running Trump's campaign. 

The campaign so far has avoided the gusher of leaks that have been hallmarks of Trump operations. She's seen as an adept Trump enabler who would serve loyally, with discipline. By bridging the campaign and the administration, she'd provide continuity.

Trump's pell-mell style could push him to a wild-card choice for chief. "Everyone he knows is a direct report," said one former Trump administration official. 

John Ratcliffe, the former Texas congressman who was Trump's final DNI, would be considered to head the CIA, for a return to DNI, for defense secretary or even for vice president.

Ratcliffe, a China hawk, was one of Trump's fiercest allies in Congress during the first impeachment inquiry. He later used his authority as the nation's top intelligence official to declassify information aimed at calling into question the origins of both COVID and the Justice Department's Russia investigation.

Jamie Dimon: Trump is open to a few more mainstream picks if they bring celebrity or pizzazz. For example, Trump would consider JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, a Democrat, to head Treasury. "He wants a big name," a source close to the campaign said. "And he loves billionaires."

It's not clear Dimon would take the job — he's been talking privately with Nikki Haley about the global economy as she tries to knock off Trump for the nomination. Dimon told the N.Y. Times DealBook conference that Haley would be "a choice on the Republican side that might be better than Trump."

Dimon added: "He might be the president, and I have to deal with that, too."

Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas — a former Army infantry officer known for his hard edge, and who wrote a New York Times op-ed in Trump's first term supporting use of the Insurrection Act against civil disorder — would be considered to head the Pentagon. 

Lee Zeldin —a former congressman from Long Island who deployed to Iraq as an Army paratrooper — is another confirmable option for the Pentagon.

Like Cotton, Zeldin is considered more confirmable than many others in the mix.

Jared Kushner, who was a huge power center in Trump's West Wing, has mostly kept his distance from the campaign so far — but might well return to the White House if his father-in-law wins again, with a continued interest in Middle East policy.

Because Kushner would be talking with Trump's authority to world leaders anyway, one option would be secretary of state. 

What to watch: The heads of Cabinet departments don't have full powers unless confirmed by the Senate. Many of Trump's wannabe secretaries would have difficulty winning confirmation.

But Trump made unprecedented use of "acting" Cabinet members, who have temporary power over agencies even without Senate approval. And we're told he'd be prepared to push the envelope on ambiguities about how many stints an "acting" could serve.

"I sort of like 'acting,'" Trump said in 2019. "It gives me more flexibility."

 

[Biff Tannen 45715]

1 hour ago, Captainant said:

Idk, I would call the justice systems failure to prosecute trump in a timely manner is the larger failure than the political one you describe. No shit things are going off the rails, he's gotten away with everything so far and has been able to appeal or outrun every meager wrist slap he's received. 

Fucking insane to me that he is actively inciting death threats against one of his judges and he's given a unique degree of deference to continue to do so. 

Yeah, the morons are making him powerful, but the law has failed with trump. 

 

25 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

No, the law has yet to fail with Trump.  It's not proceeding according to your timeline, but it has yet to fail.

Moreover, I submit that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and the law represents a cure.

The GOP could have kept Trump off the ballots if they'd really wanted to, but they were willing in their quest for power to permit idiocracy to serve them up a useful idiot a few final times before dismantling it.

Hey guys, let's have y'all debate this AGAIN.  I'm sure the outcome will be different this time.

[Captainant 27748]

13 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

No, the law has yet to fail with Trump.  It's not proceeding according to your timeline, but it has yet to fail.

Moreover, I submit that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and the law represents a cure.

The GOP could have kept Trump off the ballots if they'd really wanted to, but they were willing in their quest for power to permit idiocracy to serve them up a useful idiot a few final times before dismantling it.

Is the right to a speedy trial purely a right of the defendant, or does the damaged party in a crime also have an interest? When a brutal rape or murder happens should we just let that criminal go out and about and abuse and threaten the entire justice system if they happen to run for office? 

There is not some theoretical damage happening because of the slow fucking roll of justice with respect to trump. He is actively stirring up calls for violence and death threats against the judiciary. His movement is continuing to pick up momentum and damage political norms precisely because there is empirically ZERO fucking criminal consequences for any of their criminal acts done on national TV. 

Your plea for "prevention" from the fascists that back trump is like asking a leopard not to eat your face. 

1 minute ago, Biff Tannen said:

Hey guys, let's have y'all debate this AGAIN.  I'm sure the outcome will be different this time.

Oh my bad I'll stfu once our justice system actually punishes a christofascist, and I stop hearing ad nauseum how well it's handling trump

[Biff Tannen 45715]

6 minutes ago, Captainant said:

9 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

 

Oh my bad I'll stfu once our justice system actually punishes a christofascist, and I stop hearing ad nauseum how well it's handling trump

You know I'm on your side, but Twice ain't gonna give in and neither are you.  Rock on I guess.

[David Dennison 18946]

 

[SubliminalHorn 6811]

17 hours ago, Dnaguy said:

I’m actually surprised that there is that many people who can read, period.

 

*are

[Gatorubet 30294]

10 minutes ago, SubliminalHorn said:

*are

I think he means only one person can read. 

[High Plains Drifter 11050]

5 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

No, the law has yet to fail with Trump.  It's not proceeding according to your timeline, but it has yet to fail.

Moreover, I submit that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and the law represents a cure.

The GOP could have kept Trump off the ballots if they'd really wanted to, but they were willing in their quest for power to permit fascism hiding as idiocracy to serve them up a useful and fascist idiot a few final times before dismantling it.

 

fixy.

 

Also, the law has been failing with respect to dOArD for decades. He'd been criming for decades before the escalator ride.

 

[A-Tex Devil 2462]

4 hours ago, David Dennison said:

 

This is so true.  Very smart people still believe he won’t necessarily win the nomination.  

[A-Tex Devil 2462]

I asked this in another thread, but has anyone point blank asked Trump if he understands he cannot run again in 2028 he wins in 2024?  If not someone needs to   

This is to both get at his actual understanding and his intent.   

[WhatTheBuck 28797]

29 minutes ago, A-Tex Devil said:

I asked this in another thread, but has anyone point blank asked Trump if he understands he cannot run again in 2028 he wins in 2024?  If not someone needs to   

This is to both get at his actual understanding and his intent.   

He’d say “I don’t have to,” being vague enough in his admission that there wouldn’t be another election if he’s re-elected, so that no one could insist that he definitely means that. But that’s what he would mean. And then he’d go on about how the 2020 election was stolen from him and how he deserves another term. And he also might bring up his heroes Putin, Xi, and Kim and what great, strong leaders they are and how he deserves to be treated like them. And he’d whine about how unfairly he’s treated. Again. 

[ChuckNorrisActionJeans 2682]

How in the world is Kash Patel not indicted for a myriad of his actions, or is he one of the Georgia co-defendants? I forget 

[A-Tex Devil 2462]

10 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

He’d say “I don’t have to,” being vague enough in his admission that there wouldn’t be another election if he’s re-elected, so that no one could insist that he definitely means that. But that’s what he would mean. And then he’d go on about how the 2020 election was stolen from him and how he deserves another term. And he also might bring up his heroes Putin, Xi, and Kim and what great, strong leaders they are and how he deserves to be treated like them. And he’d whine about how unfairly he’s treated. Again. 

Any answer other than, "Of course I can't" should be 10x more alarming than the dictator on the first day shit of this week which has gotten some traction.  I get virtually his whole base would be thrilled with him bucking the consititution, but my *hope* is that something like that could get a chunk of apathetics/conscienctious objectors to voting to wake up.  

And frankly, I'm interested in his answer.

[tx 3 putt 77363]

52 minutes ago, A-Tex Devil said:

I asked this in another thread, but has anyone point blank asked Trump if he understands he cannot run again in 2028 he wins in 2024?  If not someone needs to   

This is to both get at his actual understanding and his intent.   

He’ll just make his own rules …

 

[Dnaguy 12054]

1 hour ago, SubliminalHorn said:

*are

Glass houses I guess.

It was nice knowing you guys. It's off to 8chan for me.....