US Politics, June 2020 — You have to dominate.

SQUIRM, SHITBAG

that's kinda how i break it down to an extent

his totally reactive whiny mode (soooo unfaaaaair) indicates that he's losing. He's not controlling the narrative; it's controlling him. And that is, on its own, hilarious.

How many presidential candidates have felt it necessary to PROVE that they are able to drink water like a big boy?

Exactly. And the reason to keep hammering away at this shit is that for a significant number of his cultists, being on Team Trump is being on The Winning Team, and they won't stick around if the stink of loserdom gets too strong. They won't vote for Biden, but they'll be discouraged from voting for Trump in November. The failed Tulsa rally is a major, important harbinger of doom to come.

Let’s think positive thoughts, in the future we will be spared his tweets as he won’t be allowed his phone in jail

Ol' donny trump, jam, wriggle etc ah! nevertheless

Bananaman, that is understood. But why not let people have a glimmer of hope?

all this focus on the rally is pathetic and not just from the Trump side tbh

I get where this is coming from but it's not the media that's obsessed with crowd sizes & "the silent majority" and the cult of personality that surrounds Trump; it's literally the only thing that matters to him. He spent weeks bragging about how big this rally was gonna be and how it was effectively the start of his 2020 campaign. It is the first massive indoor event to take place in the US in 3 months and it's coming just as cases are reaching all time highs in the South. The fact that the event was a total failure seems pretty significant actually? Like, either it's a big sign that even deep red states are not following the leader when it comes to the pandemic or a sign that Trump's popularity really has slipped. Not only that but if their campaign data has been corrupted by thousands of rude teens that also feels like kind of a story. Plus you've got the contents of his speech, particularly the part where he admits to trying to pull back on testing, admitting point blank that re-election is more important than American lives, and the fact that in the midst of a pandemic and massive civil unrest his main talking point seems to be about him walking down a ramp, all of it is just fucking insane

Other people don't even have to clown on him that hard, is the thing. He'll gladly spend twenty minutes painting a detailed portrait of himself to his base as a brittle fogey in a bafflingly-inept attempt to offset passing suggestions that he might be a brittle fogey. Once you prime that pump, it pretty much runs itself.

Someone: Donald Trump is thin skinned.
Donald Trump: Please sit down for half an hour and pule about how thick my skin is because that is a thing that non-thin skinned people do.

'and LISTEN TO ME pule' etc, you geddit

There is no way he's devoted a second of thought to stuff like Berman. He doesn't even know who Berman is. There are schemers in charge of that sort of thing, appointing judges and the like. Asshole is totally superficial, so the way you get under his skin is the superficial stuff. That's what bugs him and takes up his time. It's all about him (duh), not boring government stuff. He is his audience, they were made in his image.

Remember when he went on national television to say that his hands are not small, and that no one except Lil' Marco Rubio has ever suggested that his hands are small? (Except a nationally distributed satirical magazine that Trump repeatedly lashed out at for suggesting that he had short fingers, which is technically a different thing.)

Of course MAGAnauts will continue to see this as counterpunching, a sign of strength. To the rest of humanity it reinforces "THE WAAAAH HOUSE" memeage.

Exactly. And the reason to keep hammering away at this shit is that for a significant number of his cultists, being on Team Trump is being on The Winning Team, and they won't stick around if the stink of loserdom gets too strong.

I've always likened Trump's hardcore support as being like fans of a sports team, it's really got nothing to do with policy or being right or wrong. The folks who love Tom Brady and think he's God's gift to football are the same people who would hate his guts if he was playing for a different team. They have no mixed feelings about benefitting from a clearly wrong call. It's all about winning, and more importantly, making the people you don't like sad. It's got nothing to do with making their own lives better.

There is no way he's devoted a second of thought to stuff like Berman. He doesn't even know who Berman is

He was questioned about Berman before the weekend and literally was like "I don't now that's something Barr's all up in"

Which is his trained response. But regardless there is so way he has the attention span to keep track of this sort of minutia. I don't think any president can, but this introspection-free Asshole in particular lives for the moment like a lazy house cat.

xxp - that's not just Trump's hardcore support. See: rehabilitation of Rick Wilson, Steve Schmidt, most Bush-era neocons except for lolBolton

For a silent majority these fuckers sure can't seem to ever shut up

silent majority is neither

Which is his trained response. But regardless there is so way he has the attention span to keep track of this sort of minutia. I don't think any president can, but this introspection-free Asshole in particular lives for the moment like a lazy house cat.

oh yeah definitely, it's exactly that

Plus you've got the contents of his speech, particularly the part where he admits to trying to pull back on testing, admitting point blank that re-election is more important than American lives,

ok I watched him saying this about testing and it actually...sounded like he was joking? Granted it's monumentally stupid for a President to make statements like that which are hard to determine if they're a joke or not, as he's done time and time again if we are to believe the rest of his previous "jokes" were jokes (I don't).

I'd like to hear an interviewer ask him "have you considered that you might be really bad at comedy?"

it's not a joke because he's been saying the same thing for weeks in clearly non-joke contexts

Less is more, Donnie. Just stand there and let us look at your incredibly stupid face. Yuks galore.

He isn't bad at comedy though.

i agree that in the context of the rally, it seemed like a joke. he knew it would get a laugh, so he said it.

but he also said this in an interview earlier today:

Asked Monday whether he had indeed directed officials to slow down testing, Trump paused.

“If it did slow down — frankly, I think we’re way ahead of ourselves, if you want to know the truth,” he then said. “We’ve done too good of a job. … The reason we have more cases is because we do more testing.”

and that's been his stance from day one, iirc. at first it was kind of shocking, like so dumb and wrong that no one could believe that was his opinion. he must know that doing more tests is worth it because it helps to identify sick people and help them, right?! he can't actually be more concerned with just how he is judged, right?! oh wait...

I wouldn't call him a comedian so much as an entertainer. It is an integral part of his grift. It combines with his bullying to keep people off balance.

To complete the thought, the third leg of his grift is constant lying.

i like the weird shoulder twist he does when he thinks he's said something good or important. very childlike

i think there's a fourth leg - immense unearned personal wealth

because i know a few people who are lying bullies who some people think are funny or entertaining. somehow they manage to stay isolated and don't damage the world at large, and i think one reason for that is they don't have billions of dollars

how many penises are you giving this dude

This article was sad and insane but mostly sad:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/we-dont-see-color-trump-rallygoers-explain-black-lives-matter-protests-to-their-children/2020/06/21/79ee890c-b40c-11ea-a510-55bf26485c93_story.html

He said he once believed the Confederate flag represented slavery, though his thinking has evolved.

“I have since learned a lot of other variations of the history,” he said. “I think that it’s allowed for people to have their own interpretations from their family and their experience.”

He said his son, who is home-schooled, demanded to come to the rally with his father from their home in Albuquerque, specifically to see the Black Lives Matter protests. Joshua wore a shirt reading “LGBT” with a drawing of the Statue of Liberty above the letter L, a rifle above the letter G, a glass full of beer above the letter B and a picture of Trump, in full-throat, above the letter T.
“But Joshua’s going to have to form his own opinions,” Brown said. “In our family, we use our brains.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/7CHFIRFTMMI6VGFVE6NGI6NB4Q.jpg&w=916

like the weird shoulder twist he does when he thinks he's said something good or important. very childlike

I think it's more like a sleeping dog that hears his owner scoop its food.

ya good point re: always been his stance. They can say he was joking at the rally and know that no journalist will be able to press further on the issue.

Trump, in full-throat

um

Worst Celeb Sex Tape

Or like a bullfrog.

https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/funny-donald-trump-frog-1.jpg

wow, that's some nightmare fuel there

how many penises are you giving this dude

it's way more complicated than you'd think.

https://i.imgur.com/xcxXOOG.jpg

he has two main penises, one in the front, one in the back. but each one is split like a hot dog octopus

When I was a child, we called them spiderdogs

i arrived at the split hot dog via a search for "dual faucets", saw some weird shit along the way

Did Jeff Sharlet's new Vanity Fair piece get posted already?

Such is the intimacy of Trumpism: innuendo and intimation, the wink and the revelation. Jones gets it. To demonstrate, he pops up his Trump mask, bends over, and begins sniffing the wet blacktop like a hound. “Creepy Joe!” cries another supporter. Jones bounces up and beams. It’s his imitation of Joe Biden, on the trail of young boys to molest. Biden as child sniffer is a popular right-wing meme, but it’s not really Biden himself who matters. They know Joe is one among many. “Demons,” says Jones, speaking of the Democratic Party leadership in general. “Not even human.” Which is why it will take the Great White Hope, chosen by God, to confront them.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/06/inside-the-cult-of-trump-his-rallies-are-church-and-he-is-the-gospel

The Vanity Fair piece was posted, yes, and despite the amped-up level of weirdness (lent extra weirdness by the photos)... I'm also thinking:

How different is it from the thousands of "Cletus safari" folsky-diner pieces? I feel like we've gotten a lot of information about "what makes Trump voters tick?"

What I want to know is how to make them stop existing, or (failing that) how to neutralize them as a cultural and political force, forever. Perhaps persuade them to enter some sort of dome-bubble and just stay there?

They need to be shamed and humiliated.

I feel like we've gotten a lot of information about "what makes Trump voters tick?"

otm

These rally-goers are mostly the same slice of Trump's base that proudly and defiantly adopted the "deplorables" label in 2016. Figuring them out isn't all that hard; they are delighted to howl their beliefs at the journalists who attend the rallies. The mere fact that Trump is the person they have raised up to lead them, whose every word and action they lavishly dote upon, is what you might call a big clue. They love these Trump rallies for reasons similar to why protestors at recent demonstrations against racism feel heartened; it makes them feel part of a strong movement, instead of isolated and outcast. It is up to us to cast them back out.

I didn’t see that as a Cletus Safari explainer as much as just Grand Guignol. That’s why you hire Bruce Gilden!

Imagine going through life without a powerful figure to help focus the chaotic evil that's driven you since birth. Just imagine how sad and lonely you would have felt, knowing under more fortuitous circumstances that you might burden not only those around you but perhaps everyone on earth. Just imagine.

^think that helps explain why they were so giddy that he "won" and why there is such a cult, unlike most other politicians' followers: he validated their entire fucked-up, pathetic, moronic existence.

So weird that they can't recognize he absolutely despises them.

he loves the poorly educated

His supporters in that VF piece seem further off the rails than they did in 2016 though. It's gone from "Build the wall" and "Lock her up" as dog whistles for racists and misogynists to his core supporters now all talking about spiritual warfare and using their Q decoder rings to unlock secret messages that prove that all democrats will burn in a lake of fire for eternity.

The Reformation was a terrible mistake.

I don't hesitate to call what's happening spiritual warfare, but not for the reason the Asshole's followers might call it so.