Trump vs. Biden

[Totenkindly]

Now this rumor-y shitshow is beginning:
Trump news live: Latest as Melania ‘planning divorce,’ says Donald’s ex-aide | The Independent

Although it doesn't seem implausible that she could cut the tie after he's out of office and a private citizen. We've been watching (seemingly) their relationship is a long decline over the last four years.



I was looking for more information this morning about all the reports of Trump's legal teams in various states and actions, only to find barely anyone is talking about it -- as in no one is taking is seriously. All I could find was this, earlier this morning:

Trump will reportedly start reading obituaries of dead people who almost certainly didn't vote



I also saw this crap:
Donations to Trump legal fund to be spent on paying off campaign debt - Business Insider

60%. Not even split 50/50, but an actual majority of the money. "We lost, but if you voted for us, please give more money to clear our bills."

I guess file that under the "Grifter's gonna grift" tab....
These people....

 

[Stigmata]

Lindsey Graham: If Trump concedes election, Republicans will 'never' elect another president | TheHill

I hate these grandstanding declarations. He's just trying to make people feel desperate. It makes no rational sense that "Republicans will never elect another president". What a dolt.

The actions of the Republicans will certainly speak louder than their words. I believe they're probably happy to rid themselves of Trump now that he has outlived his usefulness, while also delivering them the command of the Judiciary they've always dreamed of. However, I think they know that Trump still commands the overwhelming amount of support from Republican voters, thus they realize they have to pay a certain amount of lip service as to not denigrate Trump, and by proxy their own constituency. I think they'll ride the fence while giving tidbits of hope to Trump's base, yet let them Democrats seemingly roll over them citing "there's nothing we can do!" as they further legally legitimize this election. Orrrrrr they'll convince a bunch of Republican led states Biden won to go rogue with faithless electors. That's definitely darkest timeline level shit, though. If that happens, ohhhhh boyyyyyyy. The left will make the years earlier riots look like a civil disagreement amongst old poker buddies.

 

[Totenkindly]

Oh, and this....

Ben Carson, who attended Trump's election party, tests positive for COVID-19

The actions of the Republicans will certainly speak louder than their words. I believe they're probably happy to rid themselves of Trump now that he has outlived his usefulness, while also delivering them the command of the Judiciary they've always dreamed of. However, I think they know that Trump still commands the overwhelming amount of support from Republican voters, thus they realize they have to pay a certain amount of lip service as to not denigrate Trump, and by proxy their own constituency. I think they'll ride the fence while giving tidbits of hope to Trump's base, yet let them Democrats seemingly roll over them citing "there's nothing we can do!" as they further legally legitimize this election. Orrrrrr they'll convince a bunch of Republican led states Biden won to go rogue with faithless electors. That's definitely darkest timeline level shit, though. If that happens, ohhhhh boyyyyyyy. The left will make the years earlier riots look like a civil disagreement amongst old poker buddies.

I think the head of the GOP senate in PA said they will honor the wishes of the majority vote in PA this morning.

Of course, that doesn't mean they won't support reviews of the count and try to make Trump the majority winner, but... they aren't going to mess with the electors is what I am getting out of this.


I think I'm just disturbed (but not surprised) that they are willing to erode the election process yet AGAIN fighting a fruitless battle by claiming fraud (it is one thing to push for recounts and a review, without screaming "fraud" and insisting that the other side actively cheated -- just file your cases and review the process, to determine whether fraud can be detected) -- because in the end, it's not really a matter of finding the truth but simply getting all your supporters to scream loudly with you and mistrust the process, preventing us from moving forward. This guy has never had a sense of being a servant leader, ever.

 

[Totenkindly]

Here's Every Trump Campaign Lawsuit Filed Since Election Day | Time




Also just saw someone post this on FB...
Apparently they did not follow the rules on the filing. Sigh.

And more of this....
Man featured at Giuliani press conference is a convicted sex offender

 

[Stigmata]

Here's Every Trump Campaign Lawsuit Filed Since Election Day | Time




Also just saw someone post this on FB...
Apparently they did not follow the rules on the filing. Sigh.

And more of this....
Man featured at Giuliani press conference is a convicted sex offender

Did you hear about the bungled election press conference where they reserved the wrong Four Seasons and it ended up being a landscaping company instead of the hotel? The devil is in the details!

Thank god his regime was hampered by their nepotism and their own gross incompetence, otherwise it's scary to think of the amount of irreparable damage they could've caused.

 

[Totenkindly]

Did you hear about the bungled election press conference where they reserved the wrong Four Seasons and it ended up being a landscaping company instead of the hotel? The devil is in the details!

Yeah, I was all over that. That is the reason for the meme I posted earlier about "how fascism" dies -- between a dildo store and a crematorium.

It's not clear to me whether someone in the administration bungled it, or Trump tweeted preemptively that he was using Four Seasons but the hotel didn't want them, so they did what they could, or some other crazy crazy reason.

Thank god his regime was hampered by their nepotism and their own gross incompetence, otherwise it's scary to think of the amount of irreparable damage they could've caused.

I have been thinking that all morning, and again when posting that botched legal filing.

The only thing that really reduced harm was that they've all been bad / inexperienced at their jobs. They are just hacks, since loyalty is what is prized. This has been repeated ad nauseum over the last four years, one display of incompetence and poor planning after the next. That alone to me was a reason for it to come down (among many others).

If we had a competent fascist regime in place, where would we be right now?

 

[Totenkindly]

I was just briefly thinking they could probably make a lot of money by doing a spoof of "The Apprentice" Show (same kind of film footage, campy music, overblown board meetings) but with insider footage of the Trump administration, with Kushner and Ivanka and the boys and other administration hacks trying to carry out simple tasks but getting confused in the middle and/or failing dismally to carry them out. Like, even the most simple of tasks.

("You'll need to file this legal brief --" Big pause from the person being given the task. "Uh.... what's a legal brief?" Wah wah waaaa...

Don Jr: "Dad, it's like they won't even listen to me! And I'm your son! Why won't they do what I tell them to do??" Meanwhile Kimberly G is waving her arms wildly in the background and commanding people about.

Melania, given a task to feed homeless kids: "Be best, everyone! And eat soup! Yum!" Starts hacking up rose gardens.)

Everyone would be terrified of Steven Miller, at least up front -- although a few of the bigger guys would conspire on private cam about shaking all the change out of his pockets.

Of course, then we'd have a lot of people who have left the administration over the last four years (the saner ones) dropping cutting remarks about others in the administration on the private camera.

The only thing that hinders this would be the lawsuits and the lack of private footage, but I can picture the whole thing vividly in my mind.

Of course the season finale ends up with you-know-who getting fired.

 

[Stigmata]

I was just briefly thinking they could probably make a lot of money by doing a spoof of "The Apprentice" Show (same kind of film footage, campy music, overblown board meetings) but with insider footage of the Trump administration, with Kushner and Ivanka and the boys and other administration hacks trying to carry out simple tasks but getting confused in the middle and/or failing dismally to carry them out. Like, even the most simple of tasks.

("You'll need to file this legal brief --" Big pause from the person being given the task. "Uh.... what's a legal brief?" Wah wah waaaa...

Don Jr: "Dad, it's like they won't even listen to me! And I'm your son! Why won't they do what I tell them to do??" Meanwhile Kimberly G is waving her arms wildly in the background and commanding people about.

Melania, given a task to feed homeless kids: "Be best, everyone! And eat soup! Yum!" Starts hacking up rose gardens.)

Everyone would be terrified of Steven Miller.

Of course, then we'd have a lot of people who have left the administration over the last four years (the saner ones) dropping cutting remarks about others in the administration on the private camera.

The only thing that hinders this would be the lawsuits and the lack of private footage, but I can picture the whole thing vividly in my mind.

Of course the season finale ends up with you-know-who getting fired.

Oh god, yes. I'd watch a Trump family reality series......just not so long as they're leading the country. Could you imagine the inane shit you'd hear said? Don Sr would sadly come across appearing to be the voice of reason when you consider how deranged the rest of the family is.

You've got Ivanka and Jared, ivanka as the composed sociopath who manipulates the entire family subtly, with Jared being her equally depraved lackey serving as the Azrael to her Gargamel. Eric would be the comedic relief due to absolutely dense he is, coming up with wacky half-developed outbursts and hijinks, causing audible sighs of exasperation from Don Sr and Ivanka. Then you've got Don Jr as the narcissistic fratboy with delusions of grandeur, who wishes daddy would be more aggressive and ruthless, yet completely unaware that he is merely president and not emperor Trump, and is therefore limited by checks and balances.

You've got Tiffany as the dimwitted nextdoor neighbor, playing the role of the family's Kimmy Gibbler, equally lacking in self-awareness and gracefulness.

Last but not least, You've got Melania and Barron who are totally over all of them and hold palatable disdain for the whole thing, occasionally granting us boiled over outburst of repressed anguish. As Eric, Don Jr and Don Sr hold a pseudo meeting of the minds in the living room, the camera occasionally cuts over to eye rolls and mean sneers from Melania.

Don Sr occasionally loses his train of thought mid conversation, spills cuts of water, and trips over furniture, while always blaming the object for moving itself. Noone ever corrects him because they've become completely desensitized to his lack of personal accountability.

Imagine it's Always Sunny in Philadelphia with all of the antics but absolutely none of the humor and irony.

 

[Totenkindly]

the sad thing is, I get why some people have been snookered.

I did watch "The Apprentice" for the first few seasons, mostly for the psychological study of it. I found Trump really interesting in his decision-making process -- he could build logical cases at the time, but without consistency from episode to episode. I eventually realized he was working backwards -- he was having gut responses to people and situations, but then rationalizing them logically to justify his firing decisions. (It's what he does now but without ANY kind of discipline or responsibility -- he has power to just issue any whim that crosses his mind and has lost the capacity to even sound like he can justify them.)

I remember not thinking much of the two boys -- they came off okay but kind of second fiddle. I remember George Ross and Carolyn Kepcher, who seemed rational advisors enough. (I guess now I would call them "enablers.") I will be honest, I really liked Ivanka at the time. She was beautiful, poised, intelligent, reserved -- kind of like Galadriel in Lord of the Rings. At least she was cast that way. She was the one person I thought was decent and capable, out of all of them.

I did not pay attention to Trump later in the 2000's (and then onwards), so I missed all the terrible shit he was saying and doing on the crass media markets with Howard Stern and others. So my mind was blown when he started campaigning for president. At first I thought it was a joke. Then I was being acquainted with him and his family during an actual campaign, which is not scripted like a TV show, and being shocked at how terrible they all were. Like, it was totally not like what I had been led to believe on the early seasons of Apprentice. And the more I read, the worse he looked. But every day he was saying and doing awful things in the news and on Twitter. I was also having to face reality that even the ones I thought were okay (like Ivanka) actually sucked, although this really was driven home the first year he had taken office and Ivanka kind of set herself up as the woman in charge, but was totally ineffectual and misguided.

Anyway, Trump basically crafted this image for himself starting in the 70's and 80's, and it was entirely an illusion, but no one bothered to really drag him through the mud because (1) he was so nasty about things and (2) it wasn't worth the effort and (3) he wasn't nearly the danger then. By the time people realized he could acquire real power, it was too late to combat the illusions of grandeur he had been promoting for decades to the voter base. he was also the right guy for the time for that base.

 

[Jonny]

 

[Totenkindly]

^ Glad they front-loaded that (and generally populated it) with commentary by lifelong GOP people knowledgeable of the vote process in PA.

It gives it more credibility.

‐-------

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/11/08/trumps-heart-doesnt-seem-be-it/

Despite Trump and his campaign’s baseless allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election, the scenes of Saturday — and indeed much of the three days before it — don’t exactly paint a picture of a campaign working tirelessly and strategically to overturn the results of its impending loss. The question has always been whether these allegations were truly about legal challenges or about Trump claiming he never actually lost in the first place, and it’s looking more and more like it’s the latter...

Trump’s lawyers have repeatedly cast about haphazard legal theories about malfeasance in the election, which has led to losses and even some embarrassing scenes in front of judges who were asked to actually evaluate them. In one case, the lawyers tried to avoid admitting their people were indeed allowed to observe the vote-counting process in Philadelphia, only to have the George W. Bush-appointed judge ridicule their presentation. Elections officials in many key states, including some Republicans, have also denounced the arguments as being baseless.....

the campaign is soliciting donations for its “official election defense fund,” but the fine print shows half of the donations are to be used for another purpose: to retire the campaign’s debt. That’s a particularly conspicuous clause given Trump had previously said he might put up his own money for his reelection effort; even as he swears he has a legitimate legal case, he’s not just declining to use his own money, but he’s diverting half the money raised for it to another purpose tied to the winding down of the campaign. (The imbalance is even bigger for a related effort, with 40 percent going to the Republican National Committee and 60 percent going to retire Trump’s campaign debt.)

 

[Jaguar]

Is anyone listening to this crazy shit live?

 

[Totenkindly]

Which crazy shit? There is too much to keep track of.

 

[Stigmata]

Trump fires Secretary of Defense Mark Esper

Annnnnd it begins. Bill Barr and FBI Director Chistopher Wray are probably next. He's going to fire everyone who dares to hold even the slightest bit of resistance to his agenda.

 

[Jaguar]

Turtle McConnell just got done speaking on the floor about Trump not conceding and brought up H. Clinton for yapping on TV: "Joe Biden should not concede under any circumstances." He went on and on, also bringing up the fact that Al Gore didn't concede until the first week of December. I'm tired of this circus. The only way this country can move forward is if Mitch keels over.

 

[Totenkindly]

Turtle McConnell just got done speaking on the floor about Trump not conceding and brought up H. Clinton for yapping on TV: "Joe Biden should not concede under any circumstances." He went on and on, also bringing up the fact that Al Gore didn't concede until the first week of December. I'm tired of this circus. The only way this country can move forward is if Mitch keels over.

 

[Stigmata]

Can someone help me understand why Republicans are willing to destroy democracy for Donald fucking Trump? When he was in power all he literally did was throw anybody who wasn't completely beholden to him under the bus. I just don't get it...

He has shown absolutely no loyalty to anybody, yet they'll destroy the country for his benefit.

 

[The Cat]

Can someone help me understand why Republicans are willing to destroy democracy for Donald fucking Trump? When he was in power all he literally did was throw anybody who wasn't completely beholden to him under the bus. I just don't get it...

He has shown absolutely no loyalty to anybody, yet they'll destroy the country for his benefit.

Because trump presents a n opportunity of a bigger target. Any shennegnigans they're going to be able to pin the blame on trump. Think of it like a litmus test. If you wanted to see how far you could get, you'd want someone like trump being louder and pulling focus

 

[Jaguar]

Can someone help me understand why Republicans are willing to destroy democracy for Donald fucking Trump? When he was in power all he literally did was throw anybody who wasn't completely beholden to him under the bus. I just don't get it...

They're afraid to poke the bear.

 

[Tater]

I, for one, praise this great nation for electing it's first mentally handicapped president.

Truly, we have come a long way.