Donald Trump: Classic or Dud?

xpost That's what I was thinking, too. As soon as I heard his voice, I wanted desperately (as always) for someone in attendance to just cut his tongue out for the sake of humanity, but hey, if he just wants to ramble incoherently for the next five months about mundane minutia that only has an impact on him and that is just going to bore and confuse literally every other human on earth, shit, have at it.

It was like the thing where I occasionally find myself getting way too in the weeds about some work thing with someone who has no idea what I'm talking about and probably couldn't care less and I stop myself before their eyes start to glaze over except without the part where I stop myself.

all I could think of was Lenny Bruce in the final year

was thinking the same thing... the red meat for his followers is build the wall, lock her up (!), deport everyone... if he just becomes a sad Dangerfieldesque 'no respect' loser parody, they'll be pretty disappointed

(some of Jello Biafra's spoken word has this indignant self-pity as well)

http://x.com/Acyn/status/1796625872541372659

The above is a video clip of Paul Begala on CNN saying in part, "In a way, I feel some pity for him. He’s an obese, flatulent old man with bad makeup and weird hair who had to sit in a courtroom and listen to a porn star testify about how bad he is in bed."

lol, that's like feeling pity for someone who slowly and deliberately sawed their left arm off for no reason.

I gotta say, I don't think his pity, as expressed, is 100% sincere.

Paul Begala came up from the catacombs?

Has this person always been deranged? I thought people viewed her as a reliable source on trump legal stuff and now she’s melting down over another left-liberal blogger criticizing Merrick Garland - https://bsky.app/profile/emptywheel.bsky.social/post/3ktqlnhtx242x

She's a mix of interesting insight and an absolutely fragile shell.

also I'm curious what this means for his biggest fans

The people whose hearts beat with MAGA Kool-Aid are just ratcheting up their attacks and tired conspiracy theories about Biden.

I was surprised at how upset some GOPers got about this, then someone pointed out that psychologically for them, it's important to control what type of person gets labeled a criminal, so this matters to them in a way to Carroll case didn't.

how upset some GOPers got about this

theatrics are required with that bunch

that emptywheel person is a nightmare

this seems like a winning message

https://i.imgur.com/JZF0Ah8.png

2coups once again accordion waves away rules for the poors. lock her up!

I guess one of the smoking guns that really swayed the jury was Cohen's 'invoice' with an accountant's handwritten note instructing to round up the payment because he would be taxed on legal services provide (income tax) while he was just seeking reimbursement for the Stormy payment

Trump's team never even attempted to question its veracity

theatrics are required with that bunch

sure but they're making a much bigger deal about this than prior verdicts

Well it IS a criminal case rather than a civil one, so.

that emptywheel person is a nightmare

― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Friday, May 31, 2024 5:33 PM (thirty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

saw her melting down last night and my god its still ongoing

https://i.imgur.com/CDbmwLL.png

many replies later

https://i.imgur.com/3xCV1hH.png

yeesh

We don't need another asshole

my god

https://i.imgur.com/AQo7QVm.png

Haha

I wasn't paying attention because other, funnier stuff was going on, but apparently Truth Social lost 20% of its value when the verdict came down?

Great!

well look at that

Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. (TMTG), trading under the moniker DJT, plunged on Friday, a day after the company's majority shareholder former president Donald Trump was found guilty of falsifying business records.

The company's share price declined 5.30 percent by close of trading on Friday which amounted to a $314 million loss in value for Trump's shares

https://i.imgur.com/Ble9k7N.png

damn, emptywheel as in Marcy Wheeler? She used to be good on nat'l security matters.

this is a goldmine for him

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/31/us/politics/trump-fundraising-verdict.html

which he's going to spend on legal fees, as he has been doing all along, because he can legally due to loopholes.

hence why between Biden and him, he's the one that's been too chickenshit to report 'cash in hand'

When the unlikable sports boor podcast crowd are landing haymakers like this you’re in trouble

https://bsky.app/profile/noelmu.bsky.social/post/3ktueo6mmok2m

Black voters, especially Black men, have slipped away from Mr. Biden over the last four years, but 27 percent of Black voters who backed Mr. Trump told pollsters from The New York Times and Siena College before the verdict that a conviction would flip them to Mr. Biden, compared with just 5 percent of white respondents who said that.

Daryl Jones, 49, who is Black, made it clear that he remained a fan of Mr. Trump’s as he cut hair at the busy Universal Barber Shop in Des Moines on Thursday evening. Yet when it came to the former president’s convictions, Mr. Jones was resolute.

“Well, you do the crime, you’ve got to do the time,” he said. “So, at the same time, if he’s wrong, he’s wrong. And he was wrong.”

Kourtney Thomas, 31, a coordinator at a Racine homeless shelter, was conflicted. In a lengthy conversation in the city’s downtown, she was visibly torn. She favors abortion rights, she said, and did not like how Mr. Trump had approached L.G.B.T.Q. issues in his term in office. She liked the former president’s much tougher policies at the border, however, an issue she said the current president had badly fumbled.

As the conversation swung back to Mr. Trump’s convictions, Ms. Thomas showed she understood chapter and verse what the former president had been convicted of, and she expressed anger at the way that the district attorney in Fulton County, Ga., Fani T. Willis, a Black woman like her, had been treated by Mr. Trump and his allies as she pursued her efforts to prosecute the former president for subverting the 2020 election. She is leaning toward Mr. Biden.

“No one is above the law,” Ms. Thomas concluded. “He should go to jail.”

We really need some sort of documentary or movie or something - a public thing - exploring the life experiences that lead minorities to support someone like Trump.

Do you think that for some people there’s just an assumption that powerful white guys are all racist anyway, so that Trump’s more overt racism isn’t as disqualifying as it seems like it should be?

In the same way some people write off his legal issues because “eh, they’re all crooks”?

there are tons people of color who hold generally conservative views, republicans just wont allow them in the tent due to racism, trump might hold more appeal by being not your typical establishment republican

Tipsy, I think those points are probably part of it.

There’s also, maybe, a sort of - if we think about family/community/nation/world, people are way more family and MAYBE community. Like “how does my life change either way” in strictly economic terms, not thinking about or paying attention to the dictator shit.

I do want to find and read the article Alfred quoted from.

That’s a fair point, L. But why are the percentages shifting?

The bootstraps myth exerts a powerful pull. I live this shit. "I work hard, these illegals are leeching off the system, Donald Trump is strong," etc.

cause biden sucks prob xp

I've been steeped in Cuban butthurtness for decades.

I grew up with two black parents who were exceptionally politically aware, and left leaning, but there’s always been a bit of bootstraps built in. Maybe the bootstraps aspect is bigger for others.

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cf26plxwia7dxpm6plry3sj2/bafkreia4o6627ohx2iukituw2heytjc5nd4uctqwqohfthbqtgfmjxonhm@jpeg

but if he doesnt, theyll vote for him, right

A lot of people seem to have the “surely Trump will step aside as things get worse” perspective, which makes me laugh. That won’t happen unless he dies or has a stroke or something. This is his Republican Party, and his ego may be bigger than that - which will (fingers crossed) crater the GOP in November.

Hopefully this is the last time I paste this into an ILE politics thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVDH3MX4MYI

Trump won't even drop out of he dies

I've been asked in my dad's hometown why I vote Democratic when it's against my interests as a white guy.