Donald Trump: Classic or Dud?

i'm going full resistance lib this week for fun, apologies in advance

i think this is otm

one of my longstanding views is that the absence of criminal charges or consequences for trump has validated his behavior and neutralized some of his opposition since, the logic goes, if he was *actually* as bad an actor as his opponents say, he would already be in jail

— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) March 19, 2023

this is a long list of likely forthcoming charges!

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/19/us/politics/trump-investigations.html

georgia one certainly looks like it's coming soon

NEW: As he awaits indictment in Manhattan, Trump is trying to stave off another one — in Georgia, where today his lawyer moved to suppress evidence gathered by a special grand jury. https://t.co/FSMmbSJIQ4

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) March 20, 2023

right, I get that this particular case feels a bit underwhelming compared to some others that have been brewing, but I don't really get the despair over that, it's not like any of those others suddenly go away.

just need one of them to get a photo of him without makeup on

What is the likelihood of these idiots pulling off a huge demonstration in NYC? There would probably be an equal or greater number of counter protestors.

Bunch of Proud Boys already had a bad weekend protesting a Drag Queen Story Hour this weekend, can't imagine a Trump honor guard would fare much better

First they would have to overcome their fears and make it to New York, a Big City which is very very dangerous.

xp got a link for that? love 2 read PB arrest records

xxp

ha, was just typing this up, New Yorkers are ready to rumble if MAGA shitheads try any bullshit

#HappeningNow "I came here to help, not get the shit beat out of me" - a member of Proud Boys, with visible blood on his face ushered away from Drag Queen Story Hour event in NYC as protesters chant "Fuck the Proud Boys" https://t.co/bXZXQWtfVH pic.twitter.com/ObbuyZXOVo

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) March 19, 2023

love it

And yeah, I kinda think b-boy is OTM, too. When I read defenses from some of the Jan. 6 jagoffs, I get the feeling a lot of them just had no idea what they were doing was illegal. Like, they just fundamentally don't understand how the world works, and part of that is because they view people like Trump as untouchable superheroes.

I don't know if there were any arrests but here's one crying about getting punched

#HappeningNow "I came here to help, not get the shit beat out of me" - a member of Proud Boys, with visible blood on his face ushered away from Drag Queen Story Hour event in NYC as protesters chant "Fuck the Proud Boys" https://t.co/bXZXQWtfVH pic.twitter.com/ObbuyZXOVo

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) March 19, 2023

oops xp

no I enjoyed reading that twice, really, tyvvm

I hoped someone smacked him in the face with a stiletto heel

I get the feeling a lot of them just had no idea what they were doing was illegal

or, as with the Proud Boys or the freaks they ran in the midterms, how much normal people hate them - they're convinced there's a true silent majority of support for their fascism

I've come across a couple of interesting essays noting that a downside of deplatforming at least some of these dummies is that their echo chambers become smaller and smaller, and tighter and tighter, and crazier and crazier, until they just end up with a throroughtly distorted view of reality.

I don't think that's much of a downside compared to the alternative, tbh

Yeah, neither do I. Just might explain why these guys can't understand how they can be so bad and so hated.

I also think Bouie is right that Trump being actually indicted and arrested matters. I think it weakens him, just like him being impeached twice weakened him. That doesn't mean it kills him off, politically speaking, obviously it doesn't. But the whole "you'll only make him stronger" thing I think is bullshit. Seeing people arrested has an effect, sends a message. And anyway, if he broke the law he oughta be held accountable.

a downside of deplatforming at least some of these dummies is that their echo chambers become smaller and smaller, and tighter and tighter, and crazier and crazier, until they just end up with a throroughtly distorted view of reality

There's a guy across the street from the hotel I'm currently staying in with a series of hand-scrawled signs taped to a tree. I think he's reaching just about as many people as Milo Yiannapolous (sp?)...and I'm fine with that. I don't see that as a "downside" of anything, and the more of these fuckos it happens to, the better. Eventually each one of them will have 10-12 hardcore disciples and they'll yammer at each other in the political equivalent of twin talk and no one else will need to care at all.

these people were better when they were afraid to show their faces

this is 9/11 for HVAC guys in florida https://t.co/BbWF0NvoQC

— hasanabi (@hasanthehun) March 20, 2023

when i worked in NYC my office window looked down directly onto the front steps of that court! wish i could be there to see the ultimate fuckface confront the bare minimum of accountability for all the shit he's done

the thing about these echo chambers is nobody knows what the fuck these people are talking about half the time anymore. it's like how Trump would randomly tweet shit like "Remember sailor!" which I think entrenches them even more since now they get to believe that they're the only ones who follow the "real news"

every now and then some bullshit they're talking about trends on Twitter and I see it: like yesterday they were talking about how John Fetterman had died and been replaced.

But the whole "you'll only make him stronger" thing I think is bullshit.

yeah it's just the Bond villain thing where they just go "you'll be sorry!" whenever they get foiled, it's so see-through. of course getting arrested isn't going to help him.

It is more publicity for him and raises his star in the Republican primary. But he is no longer electable nationally.

interesting to see desantis (pretty succesfully?) try to thread the needle of supporting him and reminding people he's bad

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/20/us/politics/desantis-trump-indictment.html

lol at trump's response too

"when he’s unfairly and illegally attacked by a woman, even classmates that are ‘underage’ (or possibly a man!). I’m sure he will want to fight these misfits just like I do!"

Thus far they're doing a bang-up job of smearing each other. Long may they run.

Folks, the reason Trump said he was going to be arrested is because he knows he won't be arrested. Indicted, charged, arraigned, questioned, subpeonaed, maybe, but it's unlikely

When he is very much NOT arrested, he can claim that the deep state WANTED to arrest him, but backed down in the face of his ballsiness and the patriotism of his MAGA supporters. "See? Those wimps didn't have the guts to arrest Your Favorite President." He gets both the martyrdom points, and the hero points.

On the (very very minimal) chance that he DOES get actually arrested, well, he gets even more martyrdom points.

I dunno, dude is prideful above all else. But he doesn't want this kind of attention. (See also: pleading the fifth 400 times in that other NY case.) His survival instinct lets him know the rare times he should just stfu. He'll crow or complain when it's done and he's back in Florida.

Not getting arrested, though, unless he doesn't show up.

Agree that he will whine, boast, or most likely both, no matter the outcome.

Anything that he's directed to do he will just... not do.

It's a fantasy to think he'll be cuffed and led off to a cell in an orange jumpsuit or whatever.

I’m at the pro-Trump protest put on by the NY Young Republicans Club. Not a joke, there are more reporters here than Trump supporters.

This was supposed to be the big one. pic.twitter.com/NhXyiKoDAC

— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) March 20, 2023

Take me back to Four Seasons Total Landscaping.

It's astounding to me that he called on his supporters to protest and they're like "nice try FBI, we know a trap when we see it!" like trump somehow secretly didn't want them to protest and was just trolling the deep state by calling for protests. Like they can take away the exact opposite message from what he says and still think he's brilliant for saying it.

astounding dumbfounding that is.

Never underestimate our talent for stupidity.

soooo sounds like this is not happening now? has ol' Donny wriggled his way out of another jam?

I mean it's also hilarious because obvs he does want them to protest

If nothing comes of this it's clearly because Bragg is down in Guantanamo along with the Biden, the Clintons, Tom Hanks, George Soros and everyone else awaiting execution.

xxpost where are you seeing it might not happen? sincerely doubt they're gonna just abruptly yank an indictment (unless there never was one to begin with).

some armchair analysis on Twitter, apparently they decided not to reconvene the grand jury which implies they aren't gonna indict him, at least not today

dud

Last I heard the idea was it would either happen yesterday or tomorrow. But of course who knows.

NBC News: Several sources familiar with the matter say do not expect developments Tuesday in the Trump grand jury matter. The next scheduled grand jury date is Wednesday. That is the earliest we may learn more as to what comes next. @MSNBC

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 21, 2023

A lot of people fixated on public safety, or the safety of the court, but don't underestimate the possibility of someone trying to pull a Jack Ruby. Which, you know ...

lmao that Trump is now doing the "Michael Cohen is a disbarred lawyer with a lot of clients!" thing, given that A) he was disbarred for trying to keep Trump out of legal trouble and B) his only other clients were Sean Hannity and some other Republican lawmaker who knocked up a young woman

xp Addition by subtraction

killer mike going lib for #resistance week, love it

Up watching ya now my guy. https://t.co/3k3lqdw0rM pic.twitter.com/o7ewFrvKo7

— Killer Mike (@KillerMike) March 21, 2023