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Cont: The Trump Presidency: Part 27

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I don't usually quote the National Review, but:

Maggie Haberman Is Right [nationalreview.com]

More from your link:



Two days ago, the New York Times’s Maggie Haberman reported that Donald Trump “has been telling a number of people he’s in contact with that he expects he will get reinstated by August.” In response, many figures on the right inserted their fingers into their ears and started screaming about fake news.
Instead, they should have listened — because Haberman’s reporting was correct. I can attest, from speaking to an array of different sources, that Donald Trump does indeed believe quite genuinely that he — along with former senators David Perdue and Martha McSally — will be “reinstated” to office this summer after “audits” of the 2020 elections in Arizona, Georgia, and a handful of other states have been completed. I can attest, too, that Trump is trying hard to recruit journalists, politicians, and other influential figures to promulgate this belief — not as a fundraising tool or an infantile bit of trolling or a trial balloon, but as a fact.

American politicians do not lose their reelection races only to be reinstalled later on, as might the second-place horse in a race whose winner was disqualified. The idea is otherworldly and obscene.

The author, Charles C. W. Cooke, is a conservative, but a conservative with, from what I've read, a brain and common sense rather than an ideologue. British born but an American citizen, he is Oxford and Cambridge educated.
 
The citizenship test includes questions such as
which of these four states borders Canada?
Four constitutional amendments relate to who can vote. Describe one of them?
...
There is no way Trump could answer those.
I’m not entirely convinced he could pass a citizenship test if he had time to prepare for it,
I'm certain a large percentage, if not a majority, of American citizens couldn't.
Yeah but if an average person was asked one of those citizenship questions that they didn't know, they would probably admit they didn't know, or would consult someone who might have the answer.

Trump would give the wrong answer, complain it was "fake news" that he didn't know the answer, then spend the next 6 months quoting bogus sources to prove he was somehow right all along.
 
Hey, got an extra $500 bucks to spend?

From: Business Insider
Donald Trump Jr., the former president's eldest son and top surrogate, is selling $500-plus videos of himself to fans on Cameo, a service that allows people to commission video messages from celebrities.

Because nothing says "wealthy successful businessman" like having to hawk cheezy self-promoting videos.

Trump Jr. says "a portion" of the video proceeds go to a foundation supporting private US military contractors.

Donating money to private military contractors.
 
The only thing more idiotic than that is the idiots who will actually pay for it. And I'm sure they're out there.

You are correct, although it pains me to say so. I would dearly love to tell you that you are flat out wrong, but I cannot. Trump back in the WH in August? There are insufficient face palms. Alas, to my regret, I fact checked. I may have lost brain cells in the effort. It is true yet doomed to failure. I cannot fathom the lunacy these people go on with.
 
I'm certain a large percentage, if not a majority, of American citizens couldn't.

The Amendments question, I would have a hard time with. States bordering Canada? Easy. Number of voting members in the House of Representatives? I got that one right on a quick check, but I would have almost definitely got it wrong until relatively recently.

I don't usually quote the National Review, but:

Maggie Haberman Is Right [nationalreview.com]

Just to poke at the topic... To quote Abramson for the sake of invoking another possibility,

Trump is talking about an August return to the White House because he thinks he'll be indicted soon. As a Trump biographer, I can say this is the thinking most in line with his history. He's setting the table to try to forestall an indictment with the implicit threat of violence.

Trump believes that if he can whip his supporters into a frenzy this summer via rallies, the Big Lie, and a false belief that he's about to be reinstalled in the White House, it somehow decreases the ease with which authorities can indict, prosecute, and ultimately imprison him.

Malignant narcissistic sociopathic would-be strongmen always act this way. When they finally face accountability, they ramp up the threat of violence significantly by ramping up the anger and paranoia of their supporters. Trump is no different from Saddam Hussein in this respect.
 
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The Amendments question, I would have a hard time with. States bordering Canada? Easy. Number of voting members in the House of Representatives? I got that one right on a quick check, but I would have almost definitely got it wrong until relatively recently.



Just to poke at the topic... To quote Abramson for the sake of invoking another possibility,
Trump is talking about an August return to the White House because he thinks he'll be indicted soon. As a Trump biographer, I can say this is the thinking most in line with his history. He's setting the table to try to forestall an indictment with the implicit threat of violence. Trump believes that if he can whip his supporters into a frenzy this summer via rallies, the Big Lie, and a false belief that he's about to be reinstalled in the White House, it somehow decreases the ease with which authorities can indict, prosecute, and ultimately imprison him. Malignant narcissistic sociopathic would-be strongmen always act this way. When they finally face accountability, they ramp up the threat of violence significantly by ramping up the anger and paranoia of their supporters. Trump is no different from Saddam Hussein in this respect.

And his GOP Congresscritters will be right there either supporting him because they actually believe his crap, thinks it's best to pretend they do for their own benefit, or because they're too cowardly to speak up against him. Whichever one it is, they're disgusting.
 
And his GOP Congresscritters will be right there either supporting him because they actually believe his crap, thinks it's best to pretend they do for their own benefit, or because they're too cowardly to speak up against him. Whichever one it is, they're disgusting.

Lies are all they have at this point. I don't think there are many GOP politicians who actually believe Trump, or who ever did. It's pure desperation from a loser and his minions. The problem is that there are too many suckers who'll fall for it.
 
Not that I'm playing a violin for those poor beleaguered politicians, but as a matter of understanding their behavior: clearly lots of them are stuck in a dilemma caused by our dysfunctional electoral system. Primaries are dominated by the extremes of the wing, but catering to them creates a disadvantage in the general election where you need non-partisans to vote for you, as well as trying to peel away some partisans of the opposition if you can.

That process creates a filter that produces elected officials that are wishy-washy and won't take a strong stand on anything, or who are unashamed hypocrites and flip back and forth between positions as needed.
 
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One of them I can answer off the top of my head because of Schoolhouse Rock during Saturday morning cartoons when I was a kid. :D

"The 19th Amendment struck down that restrictive rule."

There was an episode of "Cheers" in which Coach claimed that we remember facts by associating them with music, and it's true in this case. I can recite the Preamble of the Constitution from memory, but I tend to use the cadence of the Schoolhouse Rock song when I do. I also remember things like the commander at Bunker Hill being named Prescott.


This is how I know Albania borders the Adriatic. The tune will be with me until I die.
 
Not that I'm playing a violin for those poor beleaguered politicians, but as a matter of understanding their behavior: clearly lots of them are stuck in a dilemma caused by our dysfunctional electoral system. Primaries are dominated by the extremes of the wing, but catering to them creates a disadvantage in the general election where you need non-partisans to vote for you, as well as trying to peel away some partisans of the opposition if you can.
.....

That's another argument for rank-choice voting. To take an extreme example, in 2016 Trump was winning early primaries with around 20% of the vote because votes were split among 16 candidates. If the 80% of Repubs who didn't want him could have listed second, third etc. choices to be tabulated until someone won a majority, Trump would have been wiped out. If primaries today favor the extremists, rank-choice voting would support the moderates.
 
That's another argument for rank-choice voting. To take an extreme example, in 2016 Trump was winning early primaries with around 20% of the vote because votes were split among 16 candidates. If the 80% of Repubs who didn't want him could have listed second, third etc. choices to be tabulated until someone won a majority, Trump would have been wiped out. If primaries today favor the extremists, rank-choice voting would support the moderates.

Nailed it.
 
Trump Jr. says "a portion" of the video proceeds go to a foundation supporting private US military contractors.

Donating money to private military contractors.
Not that he wouldn't be lying if he named an amount but WTF does "a portion" mean? I think we know.
 
one-quarter-portion.jpg
 
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