Because Trump 2.0

[Ivanhoe]

[rmgill]

Fulton County SO is a joke. An old friend worked for Atlanta PD Internal Affairs. He related how the bulk of their IA complaints and charges were actually dealing with Fulton County deputies who would do any number of patently illegal things.

 

Sucks for that photographer. Takes what’s a super famous picture. Can’t even get a byline. 

Edited August 28, 2023 by rmgill

[JWB]

A judge on Monday set a March 4, 2024, trial date for Donald Trump in the federal case in Washington charging the former president with trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, rejecting a defense request to push back the case by years.

[Soren Ras]

13 hours ago, JWB said:

A judge on Monday set a March 4, 2024, trial date for Donald Trump in the federal case in Washington charging the former president with trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, rejecting a defense request to push back the case by years.

Just one day before Super Tuesday, eh? 

What a strange inexplicable coincidence. I fear we may never get to the bottom of why that particular date was chosen.

[Harold Jones]

Hey, every American has a right to a speedy trial.

[DKTanker]

Trump gets indicted, his poll numbers go up because, victim.
Probably should be looking at the start of a "bogus" trial not as a way to suppress votes, but as a last minute campaign stop because, super victimhood.

[17thfabn]

1 hour ago, DKTanker said:

Trump gets indicted, his poll numbers go up because, victim.
Probably should be looking at the start of a "bogus" trial not as a way to suppress votes, but as a last minute campaign stop because, super victimhood.

Makes ZERO sense to me. I still have a hard time believing Trump's poll numbers among Republicans. It will be interesting when the "Real Poll Numbers" the actual primaries and caucuses results start coming in next year. 

[DKTanker]

1 hour ago, 17thfabn said:

Makes ZERO sense to me. I still have a hard time believing Trump's poll numbers among Republicans. It will be interesting when the "Real Poll Numbers" the actual primaries and caucuses results start coming in next year. 

Makes sense to Leftists.  They are building up Trump as a victim of the system and have been doing so since this past January, coincidently the last time Ron DeSantis actually led Trump in the polls.  Meanwhile almost the entirety of talk radio is pumping up Trump by repeating the victim line and using his "insurmountable" lead in the polls as evidence that the primary is as good as over.  They're even pointing out and rationalizing that Trump could be elected and serve as President while incarcerated.  Surely somebody, anybody, realizes that those who make a candidate (Left Stream media and the Democratic machine) can break a candidate.

Pretty much the same thing happened in 2016 sans the victimization of Trump.  The media gave him free coverage while suppressing his GOP rivals.  As soon as he received the GOP nomination it was full bore attack mode on him.  It would have worked too except they didn't count on Hillary being so damned lazy that she wouldn't campaign in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

Edited August 29, 2023 by DKTanker

[Josh]

2 hours ago, 17thfabn said:

Makes ZERO sense to me. I still have a hard time believing Trump's poll numbers among Republicans. It will be interesting when the "Real Poll Numbers" the actual primaries and caucuses results start coming in next year. 

I suspect his poll numbers amongst likely Republican primary voters are quite accurate. In the US system, there is a separate, much smaller number of voters in the party primaries and they tend to have much more extreme positions and media sources than the rank and file party members. For instance one of the largest primary turnouts is Iowa history was in the midterms in 2022, at 356,00 voters. Trump took Iowa in 2020 with almost 900,000 voters. The primary voters are often a tiny fraction of the general election voters and they are much harder left/right then even other party registered voters, let alone registered independent voters.

Edited August 29, 2023 by Josh

[JWB]

 

[17thfabn]

4 hours ago, JWB said:

 

I suspect that the secretaries of state that would keep Trump off the ballot are in states where it he has approaching ZERO % chance of winning.

 

[rmgill]

The Dems better be careful of that 14th amendment interpretation. If they make it too slack then we can apply it to all of the commies and islamist sympathizers. 

[R011]

Woulldn't he need to be convicted of insurrection before they could take him off the ballot for it?  As I understand it, he hasn't even been charged with it.

[Tim Sielbeck]

14 minutes ago, R011 said:

Woulldn't he need to be convicted of insurrection before they could take him off the ballot for it?  As I understand it, he hasn't even been charged with it.

You would think, but their grasping at anything.

[EchoFiveMike]

They weaponize everything, and attack until you stop them.  S/F....Ken M

[Josh]

3 hours ago, 17thfabn said:

I suspect that the secretaries of state that would keep Trump off the ballot are in states where it he has approaching ZERO % chance of winning.

 

Agree. And I suspect they would never do that for that reason. It is a legally questionable stance. New Hamshire seems to have some people contemplating it, but I'd be surprised if that was a thing. Most swing states have GOP state majorities such it is hard to imagine this would go forward. I personally am of the opinion that it would be incorrect sans an insurrection conviction, and I assume the SCOTUS would back up that view.

[glenn239]

12 hours ago, Josh said:

Agree. And I suspect they would never do that for that reason. It is a legally questionable stance. New Hamshire seems to have some people contemplating it, but I'd be surprised if that was a thing. 

The US seems to be progressing towards two states that share the same armed forces.  So if New Hampshire and 20 friends starts passing laws that GOP candidates it doesn't like, say Trump, are not on the ballot, that's actually progress for your country towards the desired end state, because it will allow 15 or 25 states to take Biden off their ballot.   

[Josh]

4 hours ago, glenn239 said:

The US seems to be progressing towards two states that share the same armed forces.  So if New Hampshire and 20 friends starts passing laws that GOP candidates it doesn't like, say Trump, are not on the ballot, that's actually progress for your country towards the desired end state, because it will allow 15 or 25 states to take Biden off their ballot.   

Like I said, I think it will be easily struct down in the courts by any state that attempts it.

[JWB]

Donald Trump defended his real estate empire and his presidency in a face-to-face clash with the New York attorney general suing him for fraud, testifying at a closed-door grilling in April that his company is flush with cash — and claiming he saved “millions of lives” by deterring nuclear war when he was president.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-new-york-civil-lawsuit-fraud-88379aaf16849c255365ff871384ff7e?taid=64efd96898b0c40001338975&utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&utm_medium=AP&utm_source=Twitter

[Angrybk]

I thought this chunk from Matt Yglesias (middle-of-road Democrat) was pretty good: 

 

Quote

It’s a cliché to talk about presidential primaries in terms of lanes, but I’d say this GOP field has four of them.

One lane, the biggest and most important, is the “literally be Donald Trump” lane, and that lane is occupied by Donald Trump.

Then there’s the pre-Trump lane represented by Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, and Tim Scott, all of whom basically want the GOP to more closely resemble what it was before the 2016 primary cycle. That’s distinct from the anti-Trump lane where Christie is trying (and succeeding!) to get attention with a “Donald Trump is a seriously bad person” message that, while accurate, just does not resonate with many Republican voters. Then, last but not least, you have Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis in the post-Trump lane. This is the lane that most current Republican Party politicians exist in. They believe that they have learned some valuable lessons about American politics and public policy from Trump’s success and that they can blend those lessons with their greater intelligence or skills or experience or discipline and be more effective than Trump ever was.

This is, I think, a pretty reasonable idea, and if Biden gets re-elected, we’ll probably see a formidable post-Trump nominee in 2028. The problem in 2024 is that we’re not post-Trump. Trump is standing right there.

If Trump were deeply committed to the America First Agenda, he might decide that he’s got a lot of baggage and he’s pretty old, and so instead of running for president, he might dedicate his time to fundraising for America First think tanks and fleshing out the MAGA policy agenda while letting a younger generation carry forward the torch. But Trump wants to win. So most Republicans ask themselves “how do I feel about Trump?” Most of them feel good about Trump, and most of the people who feel good about Trump just want to vote for actual, literal Donald Trump. The post-Trump play is a decent expected value in the sense that Trump might die suddenly of a heart attack and then it really is a post-Trump party. But absent the heart attack, DeSantis is drawing dead and Ramaswamy is at best running for vice president.

That said, running for VP isn’t a crazy idea. Trump would be a lame duck from the moment of his inauguration, and his vice president would have a clear leg up for the 2028 nomination. So even though there is something stupid about this whole thing, it’s not quite as stupid as it seems.

 

[seahawk]

Lame Duck or unburdened for the term and free to do what is needed to MAGA.

[Stuart Galbraith]

6 hours ago, JWB said:

Donald Trump defended his real estate empire and his presidency in a face-to-face clash with the New York attorney general suing him for fraud, testifying at a closed-door grilling in April that his company is flush with cash — and claiming he saved “millions of lives” by deterring nuclear war when he was president.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-new-york-civil-lawsuit-fraud-88379aaf16849c255365ff871384ff7e?taid=64efd96898b0c40001338975&utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&utm_medium=AP&utm_source=Twitter

What the frick is he, an orange version of Dr Manhattan?

 

[Yama]

1 hour ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

What the frick is he, an orange version of Dr Manhattan?

Okay, that image is hard to get out of my head 

[Stuart Galbraith]

Does this help?

 

[TonyE]

That would truly underline his status as The God Emperor, if he become a literal god.