The Trump Presidency: Part 21

[The Don]

Trump tweets

“Scandal has defined the Obama Administration.”
@LisaMarieBoothe @ffweekend

Projection much ?

 

[Andy_Ross]

Trump Retweeted

Judicial Watch
@JudicialWatch
Judicial Watch released 80 pages of new emails recently found by the FBI that further document how former SecState #HillaryClinton used her unsecure, non-government email to transmit classified and other sensitive government information.

@TomFitton made the following statement on the decision by the DOJ to drop its case against Gen. #MichaelFlynn: “The targeting of Gen. Flynn was a key part of the Obama/Clinton/Deep State coup against @realDonaldTrump."

 

[Armitage72]

Hey, it IS seventeen times faster if you can believe that!

I ... I don't know what to say. I've just seen that there are people who have taken his repeated emphasis of 17, connected it to the 17th letter of the alphabet being "Q", and are claiming he was sending a secret message to the Qanon crowd.

 

[newyorkguy]

In Texas armed groups have begun 'assisting' businesses like bars and tattoo parlors reopen in defiance of the state's restrictions.

While Gov. Greg Abbott this month allowed a wide range of malls, restaurants and other businesses to reopen after a coronavirus lockdown, bars, salons, tattoo parlors and other enterprises where social distancing is more difficult were ordered to remain closed for a longer period. In at least a half dozen cases around the state in recent days, frustrated small-business owners have turned to heavily armed, militia-style protesters like Mr. Archibald’s group to serve as reopening security squads. Link

The armed demonstrators use very confrontational rhetoric.

J.P. Campbell, 45, a military veteran with the group Freedom Fighters of Texas, met Mr. Archibald face to face for the first time only during last week’s action at Crash-N-Burn. “It’s not for looks,” Mr. Campbell said as he stood guard with a shotgun draped across his chest. “We’re willing to die.”

“We go out there because we want peace, but we prepare for war,” said C.J. Grisham, 46, a retired Army sergeant whose gun rights group Open Carry Texas helped the arrested owner of the bar in Odessa get a lawyer. “I hope this never happens, but at some point guns are going to have to cease to be a show of force and be a response to force,” he said

But what happens this November if trump loses the election and claims fraud? Are these the groups that will roll out to 'protect their president?' The damage trump has done to the U.S. and our way of life is incalculable. And predictable. This country may never be the same.

An armed group 'protecting' a bar owner's right to do business during a public health crisis being arrested by local law enforcement.

 

[Fast Eddie B]

But what happens this November if trump loses the election and claims fraud? Are these the groups that will roll out to 'protect their president?' The damage trump has done to the U.S. and our way of life is incalculable. And predictable. This country may never be the same.

Not so very long ago I would have found such talk alarmist, bordering on paranoid.

No longer, sadly.

 

[Segnosaur]

Trump Tweets

The Radical Left is in total command & control of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google. The Administration is working to remedy this illegal situation. Stay tuned, and send names & events. Thank you Michelle!

Ironic, considering Facebook is actually sponsoring the Republican convention.

Sent from my LM-X320 using Tapatalk

 

[Mumbles]

According to Bloomberg News, Putin has said his Avangard missiles can “travel at up to 20 times the speed of sound, like a ‘meteorite’ or a ‘fireball’”.

Seventeen times faster than that claim is Mach340 or 260,780 mph. One might get that outlandish figure by listening to only part of the president’s address: “We have, I call it the super duper missile and I heard the other night [it’s] 17 times faster than what they have right now.” Unfortunately, President Chuckles has trouble with pronouns. He later clarifies the claim by saying it is 17 times faster than what we have right now.

That leads to roughly the same peed - remember y'all, taking a hardware feature list from a guy who has repeatedly said that the F35 is "invisible" (it's a freaking stealth jet, not the invisible jet, that's from Wonder Woman), and calls this a "super duper" missile (that phrasing is from a child) is a mistake.

 

[newyorkguy]

Not so very long ago I would have found such talk alarmist, bordering on paranoid. No longer, sadly.

That's what I mean. We're in uncharted waters. It began with candidate trump casting doubt on the integrity of our electoral process in 2016, claiming (with no evidence) the voting was going to be rigged. An incredibly irresponsible thing to say. So far as I know, that was totally unprecedented for a presidential candidate to say. I have the feeling George Washington would have slapped trump in the face.

 

[Safe-Keeper]

I ... I don't know what to say. I've just seen that there are people who have taken his repeated emphasis of 17, connected it to the 17th letter of the alphabet being "Q", and are claiming he was sending a secret message to the Qanon crowd.

Given how over-represented the far-right people are in the trumpkin crowd, and how they're really into this whole "88" thing (eight letter of the alphabeth is H, etc.), I... actually wouldn't put it pas them. I'm sure they think it's really clever, too.

 

[Safe-Keeper]

J.P. Campbell, 45, a military veteran with the group Freedom Fighters of Texas, met Mr. Archibald face to face for the first time only during last week’s action at Crash-N-Burn. “It’s not for looks,” Mr. Campbell said as he stood guard with a shotgun draped across his chest. “We’re willing to die.”

I want to laugh at this, but then I realize that if they are this militant over a freaking bar, they might be even more unhinged if their Führer loses the election in November and they are convinced the election is rigged. They already believe the impeachment was an attempted coup.

eta read the rest of your post and saw this was exactly the point you were making .

 

[Armitage72]

Ironic, considering Facebook is actually sponsoring the Republican convention.

it's also funny, considering how he can't stop using Twitter 24/7.

 

[MRC_Hans]

I want to laugh at this, but then I realize that if they are this militant over a freaking bar, they might be even more unhinged if their Führer loses the election in November and they are convinced the election is rigged. They already believe the impeachment was an attempted coup.

eta read the rest of your post and saw this was exactly the point you were making .

Well, I expect most of them will turn tail, once they realize Trump is not there to parole them. But even a few of them can cause some nasty incidents. ... Overthrow the government, however? Not likely.

Also, I don't believe for a moment that the majority of Republicans love Trump. They put up with him because, 1) He is all they have. 2) He supplies some of what they want.

The moment he burns out, by losing the election or a personal break-down (I think we are seeing some signs of an impending break-down), they will line up at the hand-wash and start looking for a new start. And then those who would think of revolt will find themselves awfully alone.

Just my two cents.

Hans

 

[The Great Zaganza]

Who wouldn't want to go in a restaurant with guys with guns standing at the entrance?

 

[StillSleepy]

Who wouldn't want to go in a restaurant with guys with guns standing at the entrance?

Rugged individualists.

 

[kookbreaker]

I want to laugh at this, but then I realize that if they are this militant over a freaking bar, they might be even more unhinged if their Führer loses the election in November and they are convinced the election is rigged. They already believe the impeachment was an attempted coup.

eta read the rest of your post and saw this was exactly the point you were making .

However keep note that these folks were all arrested by cops with sidearms.

Most of these guys are all posture : “lookit me an’ mah gun!” but will likely fold when there are actual consequences. Sadly, a small percentage will try something stupid later on.

 

[Bob001]

.....
But what happens this November if trump loses the election and claims fraud? Are these the groups that will roll out to 'protect their president?' The damage trump has done to the U.S. and our way of life is incalculable. And predictable. This country may never be the same.
......

Some serious-minded people have expressed exactly that concern. It's almost three months between the inauguration and the election. Imagine the damage Trump will do, unrestrained even by the hope of re-election.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/02/what-if-he-wont-go/606259/
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-tru...voluntarily-if-he-loses-2020-election-1441216
https://www.thedailybeast.com/heres-a-preview-of-americas-2020-nightmare-if-trump-loses

 

[newyorkguy]

I read a New Yorker article about Trump's support among the very wealthy and it's extensive. Here's two quotes:

As early as May, 2016, exit polls and other data showed that Trump supporters earned an average of seventy-two thousand dollars a year, while supporters of Hillary Clinton earned eleven thousand dollars less. Two-thirds of Trump’s supporters had incomes higher than the national median...

The story of Trump’s rise is often told as a hostile takeover. In truth, it is something closer to a joint venture, in which members of America’s élite accepted the terms of Trumpism as the price of power. Long before anyone imagined that Trump might become President, a generation of unwitting patrons paved the way for him. From Greenwich CT and places like it, they launched a set of financial, philanthropic, and political projects that have changed American ideas about government, taxes, and the legitimacy of the liberal state. Link

I got the impression, reading between the lines, that the election of Barack Obama was a defining moment for a lot of the conservative elite. Though not racists in the common perception of the word, I think they were greatly bothered by having a black man in the White House for eight years and they don't want to have that happen again. Or a liberal white woman like Hillary Clinton, either. I think the article is quite perceptive. The moneyed elite -- investment bankers, hedge fund managers -- are willing to support someone like donald trump as a way of ensuring America continues to work for them.

 

[Bob001]

I read a New Yorker article about Trump's support among the very wealthy and it's extensive. Here's two quotes:


I got the impression, reading between the lines, that the election of Barack Obama was a defining moment for a lot of the conservative elite. Though not racists in the common perception of the word, I think they were greatly bothered by having a black man in the White House for eight years and they don't want to have that happen again. Or a liberal white woman like Hillary Clinton, either. I think the article is quite perceptive. The moneyed elite -- investment bankers, hedge fund managers -- are willing to support someone like donald trump as a way of ensuring America continues to work for them.

Here's the link.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/11/how-greenwich-republicans-learned-to-love-trump

I disagree that they weren't generally racists. They weren't setting fire to crosses, but they certainly had views about what a black man should and shouldn't be doing. But pretty clearly their No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 goals were keeping the buckets of money they had and making more.

I recall reading a commentary some time ago that observed sarcastically that at the beginning of the Reagan administration, the nation's powers-that-be pretty much decided that the biggest problem facing America was that the rich didn't have enough money. The consequence was long-term cuts in taxes, cuts in social spending and cuts in education, all behind the scam of "supply-side" economics.

 

[Beelzebuddy]

But pretty clearly their No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 goals were keeping the buckets of money they had and making more.

Yeah but that's not a racist view, though. The color of a candidate's skin means less to them than the weight of their pockets.

 

[Bob001]

Trump fires another Inspector General.

State Department Inspector General Steve Linick was fired Friday in a late-night ouster that drew condemnations from Democrats, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warning of an acceleration in a “dangerous pattern of retaliation” against federal watchdogs.

Linick, a 2013 Obama appointee who has criticized department leadership for alleged retribution toward staffers, will be replaced by Stephen J. Akard, a State Department spokesperson confirmed Friday. It was the latest in a string of weekend removals of oversight officials who have clashed with the Trump administration.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...emocrats-decry-dangerous-pattern-retaliation/