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Trump's Second Term

newyorkguy said:
This is what I don't get about Republicans and magamutts. According to trump, Biden was the worst president we ever had and he, trump, is the greatest. So why were Biden's approval ratings higher? trump never discusses that. He won't. His whole narrative is based on lies. Yet Republicans accept all the lies at face value with nary a complaint. How do Republicans sleep at night? Isn't lying bad, self-defeating?

We've never had a president that behaved anything close to the way trump carries on. What might be scariest to me is how many people -- the ones who know trump is a liar, probably the worst president the USA has ever had -- have come to seem ambivalent about the whole charade.
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It's still about owning the libs. But even that's getting boring. Also lots of MAGA is starting to realize it's not just libs being owned.
 
Dr.Sid said:
It's still about owning the libs. But even that's getting boring. Also lots of MAGA is starting to realize it's not just libs being owned.
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Yeah, and a lot of them are just dying to see the contents of the Epstein files, for the thrill of the scandal.
 
CNN has reported that President Donald Trump is suing the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). "According to the docket filed in federal court in South Florida, Trump is suing for libel, assault and slander."

As for what legal theory would justify suing for "assault", I have no idea.

If the birthday card described by the WSJ exists, then the filing of this lawsuit makes it more likely that birthday card will become public, to the chagrin of Donald Trump. If it does not exist, then its non-existence will probably become evident as well, embarrassing the WSJ.

I therefore welcome this lawsuit and hope it proceeds to trial.

As a realist, however, I suspect this will be settled out of court via a secret agreement that admirers of both parties will construe as victory.

(Edited to add this link to the 20-page filing. I now see that the "libel, assault and slander" comes from the "CIVIL COVER SHEET" on page 19 of the filing, whose part IV ("NATURE OF SUIT") contains a number of check boxes. Check box 320 ("Assault, Libel & Slander") is the only box of part IV that is checked. It appears there is no way to sue for libel in that jurisdiction without checking the box for "Assault, Libel & Slander".)
 
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Huh. I had a stray thought: what if Trump, who loves gold so much, tried to ingest it? You know how people who take too much colloidal silver turn blue? I wondered if ingesting too much gold turns people orange. However it looks like ingesting pure gold does nothing at all to a human, it just passes through with no effect. Which made me wonder why the heck old Chinese literature has characters committing suicide by "swallowing gold". Further --and weird-- Googling later I've learned that "swallowing gold" was just a poetic way to refer to taking poison -- classy people would wrap the poison in gold leaf before swallowing it. I feel like I've learned a lot today, and am going to reread The Dream of the Red Chamber soon, and also I hope Trump attempts to eat that World Cup trophy he stole and that it disagrees with him horribly.
 
newyorkguy said:
From Safe-Keeper
View attachment 62486


This is what I don't get about Republicans and magamutts. According to trump, Biden was the worst president we ever had and he, trump, is the greatest. So why were Biden's approval ratings higher? trump never discusses that. He won't. His whole narrative is based on lies. Yet Republicans accept all the lies at face value with nary a complaint. How do Republicans sleep at night? Isn't lying bad, self-defeating?

We've never had a president that behaved anything close to the way trump carries on. What might be scariest to me is how many people -- the ones who know trump is a liar, probably the worst president the USA has ever had -- have come to seem ambivalent about the whole charade.
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Their ability to believe reminds me of this:

 
TragicMonkey said:
Huh. I had a stray thought: what if Trump, who loves gold so much, tried to ingest it? You know how people who take too much colloidal silver turn blue? I wondered if ingesting too much gold turns people orange. However it looks like ingesting pure gold does nothing at all to a human, it just passes through with no effect. Which made me wonder why the heck old Chinese literature has characters committing suicide by "swallowing gold". Further --and weird-- Googling later I've learned that "swallowing gold" was just a poetic way to refer to taking poison -- classy people would wrap the poison in gold leaf before swallowing it. I feel like I've learned a lot today, and am going to reread The Dream of the Red Chamber soon, and also I hope Trump attempts to eat that World Cup trophy he stole and that it disagrees with him horribly.
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Yeah, but we're talking about the orange swamp creature. Who knows what ingesting precious metals might do to it.
Edit: Artist's rendition, 2025, colourized
1752886465473.png
 
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Andy_Ross said:
Not a cult

Mike Johnson on Trump: "His approval ratings are skyrocketing. CNN had a story a day or two ago -- he was at a 90 percent approval rating! There's never been a president that high."

https://twitter.com/x/status/1946192630078967846
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It's a no brainer those numbers aren't right. I don't even believe this from Crooks and Liars: But I don't want to keep looking.
What Johnson thought he heard and what CNN's Harry Enten actually said were two different things, though. Enten was referring to polls results showing Trump's support among Republicans, with this present Epstein mess dominating the newscycle.
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Politics https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/18/trump-epstein-fbi-durbin.html
FBI agents were told to ‘flag’ any Epstein records that mentioned Trump, Sen. Durbin says
Durbin asked the Justice Department and FBI to explain what his office called “apparent discrepancies” regarding handling of the Epstein files and findings from a Justice Department memo.
Trump has called on supporters to drop their pursuit of the release of the files, saying the controversy of their withholding by Attorney General Pam Bondi is a “hoax.”
Durbin’s claim came in letters the Illinois Democrat sent to the Justice Department and FBI asking them to explain discrepancies between past statements about a promised release of the Epstein files and findings from a July 7 Justice Department memo, which said no such release would happen.
Durbin is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has oversight over the Justice Department and the FBI.

“Who made the decision to reassign hundreds of New York Field Office personnel to this March review of Epstein-related records?” Durbin asked in his letters.

“Why were personnel told to flag records in which President Trump was mentioned?” he asked.

An FBI spokesperson told CNBC in an email, “The FBI has no comment,” when asked about Durbin’s letters.
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stanfr said:
It's well known that Trump dated 19 year old Gabriela Sabatini when he was 43. He obviously wasn't gonna be public with the youngest women. But his sexualization of younger women, including his own daughter, is pretty suggestive. Given that the age of consent is 16-18 depending on location, I don't think it is going out on a limb to say he is/was a pedophile.
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His sexualization of Ivanka was weird and as much about territory as sex, I think. It was because she was his. Which is pretty sick but still doesn't suggest (in my mind) that he has a primary attraction to children, let alone prepubescent children. Nineteen is not a child, IMO but many would disagree. Believe me, I'm not defending him. He's handsy with his daughters, that's incontestable, maybe I'll try to find the YouTube clip on the convention podium or stage. IIRC it was both Ivanka and Tiffany, and involved a fatherly hand on the back dipping down and maybe up.
 
newrepublic.com

Stephen Colbert’s Cancellation Is Exactly What It Looks Like

Mock a Trump bribe on Monday, get canceled by Thursday. The Late Show’s death reveals how billionaires and presidents are reshaping American media.
newrepublic.com newrepublic.com

Stephen Colbert’s Cancellation Is Exactly What It Looks Like​

Mock a Trump bribe on Monday, get canceled by Thursday. The Late Show’s death reveals how billionaires and presidents are reshaping American media.​

Stephen Colbert announced on Thursday night that next May would mark not just the end of his run as host, but the death of The Late Show itself, a CBS institution that has existed since 1993.

“I found out just last night,” Colbert told his audience. “Yeah, I share your feelings,” he continued as they booed. “It’s not just the end of our show, but it’s the end of The Late Show on CBS. I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away.”

What Colbert didn’t say was why CBS would suddenly kill off one of television’s most storied franchises. The network’s press release insisted this was “purely a financial decision” while defensively adding it was “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.” That second part reads like someone protesting way too much.

If you’re thinking that sounds like complete ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊, you’re right.

Just days earlier, Colbert had openly mocked Paramount for paying Trump $16 million to settle what the company itself called a meritless lawsuit. “I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles,” Colbert joked on Monday. “It’s Big Fat Bribe.” He even acknowledged reports that Skydance’s new ownership might “put pressure on late night host and frequent Trump critic Stephen Colbert.”

What Colbert didn't say was why CBS would suddenly kill off one of television's most storied franchises. The network's press release insisted this was "purely a financial decision" while defensively adding it was "not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount." That second part reads like someone protesting way too much. If you're thinking that sounds like complete ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊, you're right. Just days earlier, Colbert had openly mocked Paramount for paying Trump $16 million to settle what the company itself called a meritless lawsuit. "I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles," Colbert joked on Monday. "It's Big Fat Bribe." He even acknowledged reports that Skydance's new ownership might "put pressure on late night host and frequent Trump critic Stephen Colbert."

The real story starts with an $8 billion merger, a right-wing billionaire, and a president who just successfully shook down CBS for $16 million. The Late Show isn’t dying because people stopped watching late-night TV. It’s being murdered because Stephen Colbert spent the last decade being one of Trump’s most persistent critics on network television, and the billionaires about to take over CBS need Trump’s approval for their merger.
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Please click the link to read the rest of this article.
 
Aha?

The Wall Street Journal reported as fact that Trump had written a bawdy letter for Epstein on his birthday, complete with a sketch of tits.

There is no way a WSJ reporter would do that unless it had been cleared by the publisher.

Rupert Murdoch has probably known Ghislaine Maxwell her whole life. He and her father were both in the rough-and-tumble London tabloid press, both outsiders, probably rivals, maybe frenemies.

Maxwell wants a get-out-of-jail card. So she calls Murdoch and tells him where some mementos were stored. Murdoch flexes on Trump - telling captains of finance everywhere that Trump was a lot chummier with Epstein than he was acting. This was no surprise to the world at large but for some reason it really riled the MAGA base. They aren't saying "5-D chess" about this.

I'm not sure how much this matters politically. It's not even new. They lit up in each other's company. It's weird to even try to deny it. But the word I heard was "bawdy" and I thought, this is just what I'd expect from a bunch of middle-aged bad boys. The letter was part of a leather portfolio created for Epstein. It would have been a sort of roast, salted with risqué ribbing. OK full disclosure all I know about this dynamic comes from "The Crown."

I don't know why Rupert would be doing this.
 
To give Trump the benefit of the doubt, I think he sees a teenage girlfriend as a Status Symbol, proof that he is part of that fictitious stereotypical world were Men a Rich, have a Trophy wife and underage mistress and spend their days bragging about golf and sexual exploits.
Epstein provided exactly that service of making people think that the True Test of wealth and power is when a young attractive woman is willing to sleep with you in the hopes of financial security.
It's Misogyny born out of status insecurity and, of e, fear of death.
 
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