Cont: The Trump Presidency: Part 23

[Trebuchet]

They put 3 degree angle, more like 30 so there might be some fake news! comeback.

I noticed that. I don't think as much as 30, but at least 15 or 20. Maybe I'll try to measure it.

 

[jimbob]

But not that many. You really think that teenagers with no intention of going accounted for 90% or more of the ticket orders?

It doesn't matter how many ticket orders they were responsible for. The campaign gave tickets to ANYONE AND EVERYONE who asked for them, and entrance to the arena was first come first served. The fact is, only 6,200 Trump supporters actually ordered tickets AND showed up. It doesn't matter if people on Tik Tok ordered 1,000, 1,000,000, or 1,000,000,000 tickets! Only time will tell if people were just too smart to risk their lives and health to show up, or if this is a sign that Trump's base is cracking.

Exactly, and Trump's campaign managed to make themselves look stupid. So I suspect a lot of those tickets were ordered to troll him.

I have to disagree... IF the campaign team were actually competent, there would be plenty of incentive to change their process.

Yes, I can understand a desire to boast about 'demand for a million tickets', but if
they still have Trump appearing in a half empty arena (and a cancelled overflow area), it just makes them look silly.

With a more accurate count of who would show up, they could have taken steps to minimize the problems... For example, no need to waste money setting up an outside stage if you know you won't fill the arena. Inside the arena they could have set up huge signs or maybe flags for some of the sections that they knew wouldn't be filled (to force everyone else into fewer seats.

(Its a little like professional wrestling... when they do a TV taping in an arena that they know will not sell out, they will only sell tickets in parts of the arena that will be seen on camera, because seeing one 'full' section looks better than seeing 2 half-full sections.

And if the trump campaign wants to boast about something, get creative. "Our ordering system got a million web hits from all 50 states", or something like that. It might be B.S., but it won't look as bad when things don't work out the way they expect.

Instead, what did Trump get? Plenty of pictures of empty seats, a boast of "A million tickets" that ends up looking false, and a waste of money to set up the outdoor area.

 

[thaiboxerken]

No Trump still thinks that's his wheelhouse. It's where he can just full on drop the pretense and be a trolling, lying, poisoning the well bully showing off for his followers.

I hope they don't do it on stage, in person. I believe Trump will try to bully and provoke Joe Biden into a physical altercation and Biden just might oblige.

 

[Aridas]

Elsewhere...

Trump & Mnuchin Sent Out Stimulus Prepaid Cards with Forced Arbitration Clause

About 120 million Americans have received stimulus funds. But for reasons that are not clear, four million of those people did not receive checks, but instead received a prepaid card (called the EIP card) from the federal government. The cards were sent out in a plain envelope that didn’t say that it was from the federal government, so quite a few people didn’t realize that this was their stimulus funds.

Some recipients even called the Better Business Bureau, their state Attorney General - even the FBI - thinking it was a scam!

The cards are managed by Money Network Financial, LLC (I wonder if Steve Mnuchin has friends there, or if they do business with Trump corporations?) and issued by Treasury’s financial agent, Meta Bank, N.A. (same questions). The cards also come with fees if one uses them at an ATM outside of Money Network’s network.

And, in a real affront to consumer rights, the cards also come with a forced arbitration clause;

*stares*

WTF?

Cause for a serious investigation into very likely corruption, yet again.

Also of interest...

Voting Rights Roundup: Iowa GOP wants absentee voters to provide PIN that no one knows

Iowa: With no advance notice, Republican legislators in Iowa passed a budget bill just before adjourning that included an expansion of the state's voter ID requirement, violating a compromise that the GOP had reached with Democrats to remove proposed voting restrictions from the final bill. The new bill adds an ID requirement for voters who go to their county government offices to vote early in-person.

The bill also requires absentee ballot applications to include the voter's "voter ID PIN," a state-issued four-digit number that few voters are aware of. Under current law, county officials can verify voter identities using other information on their applications or the state's registration database, but this bill would disallow that. Instead, officials would have to contact the voter individually to confirm their identity, which could cause significant delays in processing absentee requests and lead to voters not receiving their ballots in time to vote by mail.

A number of other bits of voting rights news at the link, too.

 

[Earthborn]

They put 3 degree angle, more like 30 so there might be some fake news! comeback.

It is definitely more than a 3 degree angle. I measured it as about 13 degrees. I've seen wheelchair ramps steeper than that but it is not as shallow as the video says it is.

Also, to be fair to Trump, the comparison between Biden walking up the ramp and him walking down isn't entirely fair. It is much easier walking up such a ramp as it is walking down one, and walking down is much more likely to make you slip. Had we not heard the claim that he's "the healthiest president ever" and had he admitted being the old man that he is, him having some difficulty walking down this ramp would have been a non-issue.

 

[thaiboxerken]

Is this the end of Rallies for 2020?

Is it worth the risk of embarrassment for either candidate?

Well, I think Biden won't have rallies because he respects the fact that Covid-19 is still a pandemic.

 

[Segnosaur]

I would bet that Trump won't agree to any debate.
Moderators might be partisan and ask questions.

Well, supposedly the Trump campaign is actually trying to increase the number of debates from 3 to 4. (It is generally the candidate that is trailing that wants more debates, since they have little to lose and may be hoping for a miracle during a debate. This fits in with all the polls showing Trump trailing Biden.)

Of course, he has also pushed to be able to select the moderators, so its not totally outside the realm of possibility he may drop out and use accusation of moderator bias as an excuse.

See: Politico

 

[thaiboxerken]

But not that many. You really think that teenagers with no intention of going accounted for 90% or more of the ticket orders?

I'm thinking Trumps ego accounted for 90% of the ticket projection.

 

[Horatius]

As much as I'd love to interpret it as a crushing spiritual blow, I do feel it's necessary to remember that Trump is an old man in poor physical shape. It's not unreasonable that it could be simple physical exhaustion after a long day.

But he's also the President of the United States, who has a staff follow him everywhere. Was he so exhausted he couldn't even let a valet fix his tie for the 30 seconds he'd be seen in public?

And now Trump is denying manipulation:

Donald Trump: Re-election campaign denies low turnout manipulation claim

This is good, if they fail to take measures expect many more empty venues.

"Hey, we don't need a bunch of punk kids to help us over-sell our rally! We can over-sell it all on our own!"

Like I said, no matter how they spin this, they lose either way. Either they really did have one million ticket requests, of which only 0.62% actually decided to show up, or they had a lot of fake ticket requests, which they didn't realize. Neither option makes them look good.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Twitter: Trump's dejected return to the WH Be sure to turn the sound on.

 

[Segnosaur]

As much as I'd love to interpret it as a crushing spiritual blow, I do feel it's necessary to remember that Trump is an old man in poor physical shape.

But I have it on good authority that he is the healthiest person ever elected to the office of president.

 

[Belz...]

Okay, I searched the transcript for "glass" and got this stream of consciousness:



Jesus ******* christ.

What the **** is he babbling about?

I mean, I know he's lying because there's a "sir" in his story, but unholy mother of hell.

 

[alfaniner]

I'm pretty sure at one point I heard him talk about the upcoming 220 Election.

Not 2020. 220.

 

[acbytesla]

As much as the small turnout delights me, I don't think we can draw any conclusions or inferences.

I think a good explanation really is the pandemic. Yea there are people that ignore science. Especially when it comes to their crazy religion. But my experience is even those people don't ignore their doctor and rely on faith alone to cure what ails them.

As much as these people see Donald as the second coming of King David, they also know he's not a doctor. Why take a chance?

 

[Stacyhs]

Well, I think Biden won't have rallies because he respects the fact that Covid-19 is still a pandemic.

Plus the fact he's not a narcissistic psychopath like Trump who needs to have his ego fed every 10 seconds.

 

[Belz...]

Wow, those stupid ass rubes have really lowered the bar, cheering, their dear leader for drinking a glass of water.

They were not cheering that. They were cheering stupid liberals pointing out that he can't drink with one hand. Even though it was quite obvious that Trump could barely do it and it seemed uncomfortable. Facts were less comfortable still, so presented with an obvious but convenient lie they cheered like Trump was their preacher. In fact, exactly like that.

 

[Trebuchet]

Twitter: Trump's dejected return to the WH Be sure to turn the sound on.

That might be even better than the funeral march version. Better still would by Yakkety Sax!

 

[Mongrel]

It is definitely more than a 3 degree angle. I measured it as about 13 degrees. I've seen wheelchair ramps steeper than that but it is not as shallow as the video says it is.

Also, to be fair to Trump, the comparison between Biden walking up the ramp and him walking down isn't entirely fair. It is much easier walking up such a ramp as it is walking down one, and walking down is much more likely to make you slip.

My biggest issues about that bit off his ramblings is his mention of the ramp being like an "ice skating rink".
Given that it's not a one off construction (although it probably gets packed away between uses) I'd be surprised if it didn't have a non-slip surface on it, it'd be a Health & Safety nightmare otherwise

 

[Stacyhs]

My biggest issues about that bit off his ramblings is his mention of the ramp being like an "ice skating rink".
Given that it's not a one off construction (although it probably gets packed away between uses) I'd be surprised if it didn't have a non-slip surface on it, it'd be a Health & Safety nightmare otherwise

It had non-slip strips every stride length:


WAPO

 

[Belz...]

Yes trump might ignore the question. But it might still embarrass him, and put the question in people's minds... "Why is he joking about tragedy"

Tragedy's the best time to joke, I think.

I think most political analysts have concluded the reason trump does things like calling out Bolton as a "wacko and liar" is really just to evade having to answer Bolton's criticisms in any substantive form. trump doesn't want to answer a question such as, "Did you ask Xi Jinping to buy U.S. soybeans to help you in 2020?" How could trump answer it other than to deny it, only that would put him on the defensive which is where he doesn't want to be. Thus to avoid that whole scenario trump calls Bolton names and ridicules him.

Isn't that exactly how his ghost writer put it in The Art of the Deal? Always go on the attack?

If this actually marks a turning point in the administration's popularity, I would be ironic to know that of all the things that could sink Trump, it would be one lacklustre rally in Oklahoma. Not the lies, not the incompetence, not the lawsuits and indictments; just one completely visible show of just how far his star has fallen.

His downfall would be a show of weakness? That doesn't bode well for future GOP candidates, though.