Trump 47: The Covidiot's Traveling Circus Is Back On The Road

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump can’t land a blow on Biden, and it’s driving him crazy"

Spoiler

President Trump has never had much of a positive program — and he certainly doesn’t have one today. Asked repeatedly to explain his second-term agenda, he has been unable to articulate anything except his trademark list of grievances, vanities and resentments.

But in the past, it didn’t matter much because he was so effective at tearing down his opponents with insults, nasty nicknames and baseless charges. He couldn’t make most voters like him, but he could convince them to hate his opponent. In 2016, he did quite a number on “Crooked Hillary” with the aid of Russian intelligence. Former attorney general Jeff Sessions’s defeat in the Alabama Senate primary shows that Trump hasn’t entirely lost his touch for tearing down the objects of his wrath.

But, as Trump made clear in his Rose Garden news conference-turned-campaign rally on Tuesday, he hasn’t had any luck so far in battering his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden. Trump prides himself on being a “counterpuncher,” but none of his punches have landed yet. He hasn’t even managed to tag Biden with a nasty nickname — neither “Corrupt Joe” nor “Sleepy Joe” has stuck in the way that “Low Energy Jeb” or “Lil’ Marco” did.

The problem, from Trump’s perspective, is that Biden isn’t an African American like Barack Obama, a woman like Hillary Clinton or a socialist like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). He’s a boring, moderate white guy who has been around forever without ever being demonized in the way that Clinton was for decades. Even his base voters will have trouble seeing Uncle Joe as someone who is plotting to promote a “far-left fascism” and to “end America” — the accusations that Trump hurled at the left on July 3. As Biden himself would say in his charming throwback way: “C’mon man!”

For a sign of how flummoxed the Trump campaign is, look no further than the tweet that Steve Guest, the rapid response director of the Republican National Committee, posted on Monday afternoon showing Biden with one of his children who was wearing a Washington football team hat. “Hey Joe Biden, are you still a Redskins fan?” Guest taunted. The message seemed to be that Biden is a good father — and not politically correct. No wonder Guest had to rapidly take down the tweet after being mocked mercilessly on Twitter.

Trump is like an aging fighter who has lost his touch but keeps flailing away while his opponent easily ducks his blows. That accounts for his Rose Garden tirade, which was batty even by his standards. The ostensible reason for the news conference was the announcement of well-deserved sanctions on China for its crackdown in Hong Kong. But it turned into an extended diatribe against Biden, with Trump trotting out one specious attack after another.

The president accused his Democratic challenger of wanting to abolish suburbs (because he wants to reduce racial segregation in housing) and windows (because he wants to reduce energy usage). Those accusations are so bizarre they occasioned a collective double-take even from veteran Trumpologists. Trump was no more convincing in claiming that Biden will abolish the detention of undocumented immigrants (a Sanders-Biden policy task force said: “We believe detention should be a last resort, not the default”) and “defund our military” (Biden wants to shift some defense funding to other priorities such as public health).

Trump accused Biden of allowing “China to pillage our factories, plunder our communities and steal our most precious secrets” because, like most Republican lawmakers, Biden favored normalizing trade relations with China 20 years ago. Biden’s son Hunter made his usual appearance — “Where’s Hunter?” — as Trump again accused him of corrupt dealings in Ukraine and China. Trump got himself impeached trying to make this case, but his accusations against Hunter have not even gained the saliency of his false claim that Hillary Clinton sold our uranium to Russia.

Trump even accused Biden — a supporter of the Iraq War and the author of a tough crime bill who is roundly reviled by leftists for being a corporate sellout — of now being part of the “radical left” because, since winning enough delegates for the nomination, he has tried to heal the rift with the Sanders wing of the party.

Fact-checkers could barely keep up with this blizzard of bunkum. Trump accused Biden of everything save for being a pedophile — a charge that Donald Trump Jr. advanced in May. But the very variety of accusations simply highlights the fact that none is effective. Trump can’t find a vulnerability to exploit, so he keeps firing off smears in the hope that one of them scores a lucky hit.

So far, Biden has stayed safely out of the line of fire in keeping with Napoleon’s advice to his marshals: “When your enemy is executing a false movement, never interrupt him.” At this rate, Biden’s most effective campaign strategy might be to never come out of his basement, leaving Trump to rage in frustration and futility.

 

[fraurosena]

I didn’t know where to put this, but as he’s one of Trump’s victims, here seems as good as any.

 

His command of verbal communication is deteriorating rapidly. It’s only a matter of time before the sounds he makes aren’t even words anymore.

 

[Becky]

Is he still on about dishwashers, or is this from his previous rant?  Good Lord.  What decade is he living in?  And why has he chosen this particular issue to harp on?  Are people really complaining about this in 2020?  Like we don't have other, more pressing problems, perhaps?

I have an energy star dishwasher, it uses less then 5 gallons per full load, even on the highest setting, everything comes out sparkling, and I do not pre-wash.  My washing machine, also a low-water model, cleans clothes just fine.  Low water toilets, also fine, dude. 

He is full of it.  

[GreyhoundFan]

It's almost like he's doing an impression of the late Andy Kaufman's odd performance pieces:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

They waste taxpayer money on stunts to stroke the enormous orange ego. How many tests could have been paid for with that money?

 

[GreyhoundFan]

It's not a campaign, it's a crime syndicate:

 

[smittykins]

20 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

As read a series of hoodies and T-shirts: “Finally, a president with some balls.” 

Unfortunately, IME, this statement usually concludes “and a First Lady without them.”

Quote

Is he still on about dishwashers, or is this from his previous rant?  

Incidentally, I’m having issues with my toilet not always flushing completely the first time, although I’m not yet up to 10-15 flushes.

Edited July 17, 2020 by smittykins

[PsyD2013]

On 7/12/2020 at 1:47 PM, 47of74 said:

The Fuckmuppet only cares about one person.  Fuckmuppet.  He's pissed because other people built the wall and are making him look bad.  No one is gonna build the wall but him and his buddies.

Fuckmuppet doesn't need other people to make him look bad.  Fuckmuppet makes himself look like a gaping mango asshole.

 

What the actual fuck!??  People are DYING and this fucking moron rambles on about light bulbs that make people look better and allowing our water to be polluted.  A sane person would listen to this and demand that the 25th be invoked.  His Fuckmuppet minions just nod their heads in agreement and tweet what a great leader he is.  

[fraurosena]

15 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

It's not a campaign, it's a crime syndicate:

 

More info.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

More info.

 

David Fahrenthod has done some great work on tracking down info on Twitler's finances.

[WiseGirl]

How did I miss this shit? Or is it in another thread? Scary AF!

 

[clueliss]

Guess what got permission for quick judgement?

 

[Cartmann99]

 

[47of74]

Mrs. Clinton knows how to clap back...

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"The Trump campaign is the grift that keeps on grifting"

Spoiler

There has long been an element of grift to political campaigns.

The guys who make the ads and the media buyers get rich by paying themselves a percentage of the amount that is spent on advertising. The same is true for those who put together the direct-mail operation. As one political consultant explained it to me: “It’s sort of like getting to grade your own homework.”

Hired fundraisers can make six-figure commissions by exaggerating their worth. Others get paid similar amounts for providing “strategic advice.”

But there has never been anything quite like the racket that President Trump appears to have going.

In two days alone during March, the president’s reelection effort forked over roughly $380,000 of its contributors’ money to his hotels for “facility rental/catering services.”

The Trump Organization told my colleague David Fahrenthold that this paid for a “donor retreat” to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla. The organization further explained to Fahrenthold that the figure had to be broken into 43 separate payments, because Mar-a-Lago can’t handle credit card transactions of more than $10,000.

The campaign has also been paying more than $37,000 a month in rent to Trump Tower in New York, which is odd, considering that the campaign’s headquarters is in an office building in Rosslyn.

The Center for Responsive Politics has been keeping track of all of this on its OpenSecrets website. During this election cycle, the center reports, the president’s campaign and its related committees have steered $2.6 million of their donors’ money to Trump’s family-owned properties and businesses. The Republican Party has spent nearly $1 million as well, and GOP candidates, elected officials and their political action committees have spent another $391,000.

Sophisticated political contributors are generally wary when they see campaigns holding events in expensive hotels and resorts with lavish catering. That’s because they are well aware who is paying for it: They are.

But Trump’s donors, big and small, apparently are so dazzled by the aura of celebrity he has created around himself that they don’t care how much of their own money goes directly into his businesses. It’s all part of the experience.

Trump is not the first person to move from the private sector to the presidency. However, his predecessors — properly — severed ties with their financial holdings, for an obvious reason: to avoid conflicts of interest. There has never been a situation anything like the one that Trump created when he insisted on continuing to profit from his family business while serving as president.

As the Center for Responsive Politics noted: “Trump and his family are in the unique position to profit directly from his public service. Special interests in Washington have caught on. Those seeking to curry favor with Trump are not only donating to his reelection campaign but holding fundraisers and galas at his resorts, private clubs and hotels — the proceeds of which benefit him and his family.”

The White House loves to remind us that Trump is not taking his $400,000 annual government salary as president. In May, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany held up an oversize $100,000 check from the president’s personal bank account, made out to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health. She said Trump earmarked his earnings for the quarter to be used by the Department of Health and Human Services to combat the novel coronavirus.

HHS, no doubt, had plenty of good use for the money. But spare us the argument that this was a gesture of Trump’s great altruism. At this rate, his government salary amounts to chump change for Trump — and those who are handing his campaign their own money are the chumps.

 

[WiseGirl]

Proving once again what a petty man he is.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/17/politics/white-house-portraits-clinton-bush-trump/index.html

"White House tradition calls for portraits of the most recent American presidents to be given the most prominent placement, in the entrance of the executive mansion, visible to guests during official events."

He moved them to a little seen or used room.

[Cartmann99]

 Condolences to our friends in New Hampshire:

 

[fraurosena]

How anyone can think his constant whining is the sign of a strong leader is beyond me.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

No surprise here:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I bet this will tick off the tangerine toddler (if his nannies let him know):

 

[GreyhoundFan]

A good one from Eugene Robinson: "For the next six months, we’re trapped on a leaking ship captained by a fool"

Spoiler

This is the awful reality of our situation: For the next six months — at least — we are trapped on a badly leaking ship captained by an utter fool.

If he cared a whit about the well-being of the nation he is supposed to lead, President Trump would resign immediately. He would slink back to his gaudy apartment in Trump Tower, where he could look down at the new Black Lives Matter street painting on Fifth Avenue. Or he would flee to his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, where his rounds of golf might be disturbed by the sirens of ambulances rushing covid-19 victims to overburdened emergency rooms.

But it is absurd to imagine that Trump cares about anyone or anything but himself. He will not go voluntarily. So on Election Day, he must be made to suffer a humiliating defeat, and on Inauguration Day, he must be firmly escorted — bodily, if necessary — out of the White House.

This election is not about politics, ideology or even red vs. blue tribal identity. At this point, it’s about our collective survival.

I believe that Joe Biden will be a good president if he is elected, and that circumstances will present him with the opportunity to be a truly great president, if he’s able. But any functioning adult would be an improvement over Trump, because he is not in fact a functioning adult. As his niece, Mary L. Trump, explains at length in her new book, he is more like a damaged child.

His callousness and refusal to admit error led us to where we are now with covid-19 — beset by worsening, out-of-control spread of the virus at a time when other industrialized countries are cautiously returning to normal. There is nothing we can do about his past mistakes. But look at what the president is doing now — pushing hard for a nationwide reopening of schools with in-person classroom instruction, just like before the pandemic. If viruses had imaginations, that would be covid-19’s fondest dream.

Trump’s hostility toward a national reckoning with structural racism is no surprise — not to those who recall his crusade for the death penalty after the arrests of the Central Park Five, who were ultimately exonerated; or his exploitation of the racist “birther” conspiracy theory about former president Barack Obama, which vaulted Trump to political prominence. But look at how he is heightening racial tensions, rather than soothing them, by going out of his way to champion Confederate memorials and the Confederate battle flag, and by turning “law and order” into code words for white nationalism. Even George Wallace, when he ran for president, was more circumspect.

If Trump had done all of this out of calculation, reasoning that it gave him the best chance of winning reelection, he would immediately change course. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal national poll of registered voters released Wednesday showed him trailing Biden by 11 points, with 50 percent of respondents saying that under no circumstances would they even consider voting for Trump. A Quinnipiac poll released the same day showed Trump down by a whopping 15 points.

Listening to the hour-long screed Trump delivered in the Rose Garden on Tuesday, I didn’t hear a canny politician trying to calibrate his positioning. I heard an angry, frustrated man who might actually believe the lies he tells to excuse his failures. Witness what he said about the fact that the United States is seeing tens of thousands of new cases of covid-19 every day, while European countries now see just hundreds or even dozens:

“But if we did — think of this, if we didn’t do testing — instead of testing over 40 million people, if we did half the testing, we’d have half the cases. If we did another — you cut that in half, we’d have yet again half of that. . . . They talk about cases, and the cases are created because of the fact that we do tremendous testing.”

Can a grown man able to dress himself in the morning really not understand that all those covid-19 cases would still exist, and people would still be suffering and dying, if we were performing no tests at all? Does he sincerely believe a tree that falls in the forest makes no sound if a Fox News camera crew isn’t there to record it?

Trump is immensely powerful, bizarrely irrational and increasingly desperate. Perilous months lie ahead, and I fear that things are likely to get much worse before they get better.

 

[fraurosena]

On 7/17/2020 at 9:34 PM, WiseGirl said:

How did I miss this shit? Or is it in another thread? Scary AF!

 

Oregon is fighting back:

 

 

[formergothardite]

10 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I heard an angry, frustrated man who might actually believe the lies he tells to excuse his failures.

I really, really do think he believes most of his lies at this point. He has lied for so much of his life and been able to control the narrative around him that he has no idea what reality is anymore. That is why he angrily slapped his knees and sent an aid to get the paperwork so he could prove Biden and Sanders wanted to abolish the police. He truly thought it said that and I bet his mind was going into a meltdown when he couldn't find it and he had to see the truth for a bit. It seems at least in 2016 he had some idea of reality, but I do think he has mentally declined a great deal in the last four years and he can't distinguish his lies from the truth anymore. 

10 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

He will not go voluntarily.

I am not 100% sure he wont' do something crazy like burning down the White House if he loses. He very much has a scorched earth philosophy and if he can't have something then no one else can have it. If he loses, he is going to do something very, very bad.  

[Flossie]

If Trump loses, I think he'll immediately claim election fraud and declare the election invalid.  He'll order his minions to find proof and they'll try.  They'll ignore anything that says the election was valid and focus on anything that seems even a tiny bit suspect to their feverish minds.  

People will take to the streets to protest.  Most will insist that the results stay the same, but they'll be met with Trumpvidians who will challenge them.  Many of the protests will devolve into rioting.  Killings and vandalism will increase.  Law enforcement will be overwhelmed, hampered by increasing public distrust of the law and those within the police force who should never have been allowed in the profession in the first place.

This is where I go to the worst case scenario:  Sensing blood in the water, Trump will encourage the decisiveness and escalate matters.  He'll back his supporters both in and out of the government, getting rid of anyone who isn't fervent enough on his behalf.  

Eventually, Trump will declare a State of Emergency.  He'll be backed up by those who prop him up for various reasons.  A few might really believe he should remain president.  Some like the power they've been able to grab by supporting him.  Others will simply be too afraid to rock the boat.  

Trump will try to dismantle the news media, communication and transportation systems.  He'll take over the power and energy industry and the health care system.  The military will be ordered out to take over the streets.  Some will respond, others will refuse.  That's when we will officially be at civil war. 

An Oath of Loyalty will be required of anyone who sides with Trump.  This oath won't be to defend the State of the Union, or even the office of the presidency, it'll be an oath to Trump.

The pandemic will march merrily along, infecting more people.  More will die, from Covid 19 or the lack of proper medical care for other health issues.  We won't even be able to seek refuge in other countries, because they don't want us.  Any of us could be infected.  

Many of us will be thrown back into the Great Depression, and we won't have a government that tries to help.  It's too busy consolidating power to worry about such things.

Trump will shuffle along, hip deep in blood, until he's stopped.  I don't know if he dies from natural causes, is killed, or he's set aside by someone else who takes over as Dictator in Chief (Ivanka, I'm looking at you).

It's been nice knowing you.

Edited July 19, 2020 by Flossie

[fraurosena]

Good grief, the whining, whining, whining! Even when Wallace attempts to get him to say something positive, he goes onto a rambling rant and whines even more. 

What a whiney ass bitch.

 

This part of the interview is absolutely bonkers. Wallace calls him out on the difficulty of the cognitive test Trump was boasting about, and Trump has no real comeback.