Trump 56: He Still Loves Rallies Almost As Much As He Adores Putin

[WiseGirl]

8 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Can’t say I’m surprised but it’s disquieting nonetheless.

Do you have room for FJ refugees? Asking for a friend.

This is beyond scary.

[fraurosena]

2 hours ago, WiseGirl said:

Do you have room for FJ refugees? Asking for a friend.

This is beyond scary.

You can tell your *air quote* friend... I'll happily aid any FJ refugees. However, although I've believe that yes, they are gearing up for civil war, there is one thing that they have yet to do before that could ever effectively happen: get the military on their side. I'm not so sure that will happen any time soon. In the meantime, do not give them any power to change the military command. So vote as if your lives depend on it. Because they literally do.

 

Edited May 23, 2022 by fraurosena

[Dandruff]

2 hours ago, fraurosena said:

You can tell your *air quote* friend... I'll happily aid any FJ refugees. However, although I've believe that yes, they are gearing up for civil war, there is one thing that they have yet to do before that could ever effectively happen: get the military on their side. I'm not so sure that will happen any time soon. In the meantime, do not give them any power to change the military command. So vote as if your lives depend on it. Because they literally do.

 

How is the weather in your part of the world?  Also, how well could a pretty much English-only speaker get by?

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, Dandruff said:

How is the weather in your part of the world?  Also, how well could a pretty much English-only speaker get by?

The weather is average, not too cold and not too hot, if somewhat wet at times.
Just about everyone speaks English, even children so you’ll have no problems there.

Edited May 23, 2022 by fraurosena
Removed a random question mark

[WiseGirl]

5 hours ago, fraurosena said:

So vote as if your lives depend on it. Because they literally do.

So true and again so scary.  I fear for my country and what the future will bring. 

Edited May 23, 2022 by WiseGirl
Spelling is hard

[GreyhoundFan]

CREW just got a bunch of Secret Service documents about the grifting: "The Secret Service spent nearly $2 million at Trump properties"

Quote

The Secret Service has spent nearly $2 million of taxpayer money at Trump properties, literally paying Donald Trump for the right to protect him and his family, according to government records obtained and analyzed by CREW. Newly acquired records show roughly $1.75 million being paid to Trump’s businesses; however, these records appear to be incomplete. Previously published records, by CREW and others, which do not appear to be included in the documents, account for thousands more in Secret Service spending at Trump properties, bringing the likely grand total closer to $2 million.

One of the biggest sources of expenses was Mar-a-Lago, the so-called Winter White House. The documents, obtained by CREW through the Freedom of Information Act, show the Secret Service paying Trump’s private club more than $300,000 to protect him and his family there. Over his presidency, Trump made an astounding 146 visits to the Palm Beach club, which makes sense in the context of his inability to bill the government when he was staying at the actual White House. The records do not show any spending at Mar-a-Lago until 2018, despite the fact Trump visited that property many times the year before, and those visits are known to have resulted in tens of thousands of dollars of Secret Service spending. 

One of the defining features of the Trump presidency was how much time he spent golfing. It’s not just that he spent nearly a quarter of the days of his presidency at a golf course, it’s that he almost exclusively did so at courses that bear his name. Many of Trump’s golf courses follow the naming convention of Trump National Golf Club and then the city they’re nearest. That creates a problem in the records, as most of the expenditures are listed as just Trump National Golf Club without an identifying location (although his Doral course seems to be categorized separately). While we cannot know for sure which courses he was at, the records show the Secret Service spending more than $850,000 at his golf properties, with reported numbers outside of the records obtained by CREW bringing the likely total closer to $1 million. In addition, the Washington Post reported that in some records they analyzed, payments to Mar-a-Lago were sometimes listed as “Trump National Golf Club”–there is a course in nearby Jupiter, FL by that name–meaning that the full extent of the payments to his private club may be obscured.

Likewise, the documents tend to list all of his hotels as just Trump International Hotel, including the recently departed Trump International Hotel in DC, which served as the nexus of his corruption. The documents show more than $400,000 spent at Trump hotels, while previous reporting suggests a total likely much more than that. For example, documents obtained by the Washington Post show that the Secret Service spent nearly $50,000 at Trump’s Washington hotel during 2016. These new documents don’t show any payments to that property until February 2017.

This is not to question the legitimacy of these expenses–of course presidents and their families need to be protected. But Trump is ostensibly a billionaire (although he’s the first president in generations not to release his tax returns, so it’s hard to be sure), and these were not personal residences. Trump was making promotional appearances at businesses he continued to own and profit from. It would be bad enough that he visited his properties nearly 550 times while in office, but it is much worse that he was using the trips to line his pockets with taxpayer money via his Secret Service protection. As Trump is still protected by Secret Service agents, the spending–which began before his oath of office–at his properties continues.

These properties were resorts and hotels, he did not need to charge the Secret Service to stay there. In fact, Eric Trump, who along with his brother Don Jr. was nominally in charge of his businesses at the time, lied that they were only charging the Secret Service the cost of housekeeping. Trump made a choice that he was going to actively grift the Secret Service since it was required to protect him. He appears to have made millions, but the cost to the integrity of the presidency was much higher.

 

[Cartmann99]

Guns are banned during Trump's upcoming speech at the NRA conference

Quote

Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to speak at the National Rifle Association's Annual Leadership Forum on Friday. But audience members at the group's annual meeting, being held this year in Houston, won't be able to carry guns during his address.

The conference is going ahead in the shadow of Tuesday's mass shooting at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school that killed at least 21 people — including 19 students.

According to the NRA, the Secret Service is taking control of the hall during Trump's speech and is prohibiting attendees from having firearms, firearms accessories and knives. Ammunition, laser pointers, pepper spray, toy guns, backpacks and other items also won't be allowed.

The Secret Service will search attendees with magnetometers before they enter the hall, the NRA said.

This isn't the first time firearms have been off-limits during a part of the gun group's annual convention. In 2018 a similar prohibition was put in place during a speech by then-Vice President Mike Pence.

The Secret Service told NPR in a statement at the time that the agency has the "authority to preclude firearms from entering sites visited by our protectees, including those located in open-carry states."

In 1999, after the mass shooting at Columbine High School that left 13 people dead, the NRA considered canceling its annual convention scheduled for a few days later in Denver but ultimately decided to go ahead with the event.

 

[Ozlsn]

3 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to speak at the National Rifle Association's Annual Leadership Forum on Friday. But audience members at the group's annual meeting, being held this year in Houston, won't be able to carry guns during his address.

Oh no, will no one think of the Trump faithful's rights? How dare they prevent them from expressing their constitutionally guaranteed right to carry when Trump is present? They could give Trump a blanket to hide behind - if it's good enough for primary school kids it's good enough for the former guy, right? /s

Hypocrites.

[Becky]

6 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

Guns are banned during Trump's upcoming speech at the NRA conference

 

But- won’t all those “good guys” with guns make the place safe from the “bad guys?” Color me confused!

[Alisamer]

True, they are all about how the answer to gun violence is arming the victims with guns. As usual, they are OK with that as an answer for schools and churches, but their own meeting? Nope, leave those guns at home!

I know it's the Secret Service requiring that, as they should, but still the irony...

[Cartmann99]

 

[Ozlsn]

Dear Lord. Every time I think he can't get worse he starts digging.

[formergothardite]

Please tell me he didn’t really conclude reading the names of slaughtered children by dancing? Even for Trump that is low.

[thoughtful]

1 hour ago, formergothardite said:

Please tell me he didn’t really conclude reading the names of slaughtered children by dancing? Even for Trump that is low.

As far as I can tell, it wasn't immediately after reading the names - there was more to the speech.

But, of course, he was as obnoxious, offensive, and massively self-centered as ever.

More here:

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/donald-trump-speech-nra-convention-1360038/

Quote

Donald Trump kicked off his appearance at the National Rifle Association’s annual convention on Friday by awkwardly reading the names of the 21 people slaughtered with an AR-15-style rifle in Uvalde a few days earlier. The NRA played a recording of a bell clanging as the former president strained to pronounce the names of the victims.

The speech didn’t get any less offensive from there.

Quote

Trump continued to argue that if Congress can send money to Ukraine as it fights off Russia’s invasion, “we should be able to do whatever it takes to keep our children safe.” His message came down, as it always does, to his loss to President Biden in 2020. He lamented what’s happened to Ukraine, and said it would have never happened if the election wasn’t “rigged.” He offered a particularly grim vision of what America might be like should he retake the White House in 2024. “If I ever run for president and win . . . I would crack down on violent crime like never before,” he said, noting how he sent federal forces to break up Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the summer of 2020.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that despite the enormity of what happened in Uvalde on Tuesday, Trump’s speech at the NRA’s annual convention was not much different than any of his other speeches. He spent a few minutes waxing idiotic on the news of the week — in this case 21 people including 19 children being slaughtered — before fuming about the 2020 election.

 

Edited May 28, 2022 by thoughtful
left out a word

[Howl]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Apparently there's a trump/klan rally in WY right now. BarbieQ sounds more moronic than usual:

 

[Shrubbery]

Wow, stop the presses, the orange one once shared a bowl of popcorn.

Who knows, maybe we should find out first whether Putin ever helped an old lady cross a street before we assign blame for the war in Ukraine.

[Xan]

15 hours ago, Shrubbery said:

Wow, stop the presses, the orange one once shared a bowl of popcorn.

Who knows, maybe we should find out first whether Putin ever helped an old lady cross a street before we assign blame for the war in Ukraine.

I really doubt that the popcorn story is true.  Trump is famously scared of other people's germs.  I don't think he'd share food with a teenager.

[fraurosena]

47 minutes ago, Xan said:

I really doubt that the popcorn story is true.  Trump is famously scared of other people's germs.  I don't think he'd share food with a teenager.

The source of his germophobia is Trump himself. I honestly don't believe anything he says, and I don't believe this either. So, afraid of germs, no. Afraid of being poisoned, on the other hand...

Or, he uses his so-called fear of germs as an excuse to almost exclusively eat McDonalds, Burger King and Kentucky Fried 'meals' instead of regular food.

[fraurosena]

Things could get real good down in Georgia...

Wouldn't it be wonderfully ironic if one of the red states were to become Trump’s downfall?

 

[fraurosena]

A certain someone is producing copious amounts of flop sweat at the news out of Georgia.

 

[Xan]

I just love Trump's tweet.  You're right -- it's drenched in flop sweat.  Since he projects all over the place and says the opposite of what he knows to be true, we can see that he understands that the call was obviously a bad idea.  He wants the Trumpies to think that Fani Willis is going after them and not him.  He knows the election wasn't stolen.  (The only reason it wasn't stolen is that he got stopped from his own plans to steal it.)  And the best he can do is call it a "PERFECT" phone call.  That means squat.  He should've said "LEGAL" (which it wasn't) but the man is dumb as a box of rocks.

Edited May 30, 2022 by Xan

[Shrubbery]

I dunno, I sure hope he’s sweating because he’s finally feeling the heat, but I can’t get my hopes up just yet. 
 

It’s just that, over the past I-don’t-know-how-many years, there have been so many judicial proceedings where I thought that would be the one that would stick, but I’m beginning to think that the outermost orange layer is not tanning spray, but Teflon. Nothing will stick. 
 

I‘d love to be wrong, of course.

ETA: I also think that if anything does finally stick, it’ll probably be something financial. Al Capone-style and all that. Let it be taxes for all I care, as long as it has him end up behind bars.
 

 

Edited May 30, 2022 by Shrubbery
Forgot sth

[Alisamer]

On 5/30/2022 at 12:35 AM, Xan said:

I really doubt that the popcorn story is true.  Trump is famously scared of other people's germs.  I don't think he'd share food with a teenager.

I don't think Trump would willingly share anything with anyone. More likely the kid had a bowl of popcorn and Dumpy reached over and took a handful without asking. 

And "I don't share food with my son"? Really? 

Like I understand things like popsicles or lollipops, but popcorn? That makes no sense. If literally any one of you walked up while I was eating some popcorn and looked like you'd be OK with it, I'd offer you some. Maybe that's the Southern coming out in me, we feed people, it's the South's "love language" or whatever. But if I am eating something like fries or popcorn or something similar in front of a person who is not eating, I'll totally offer them some. Heck, if I'm eating literally anything and you come up and say "Mmmm... that looks tasty" I'm going to offer you a bite. Grab a spoon. I'll cut off a piece of my sandwich for you. Whatever. 

And I totally still share food with my siblings and parents if we're out together. And my friends. And co-workers. 

Maybe I just have low standards? I'm definitely not a germaphobe. I prefer not to share a drink with others who aren't family, but I totally will if asked by someone not a total stranger. I once knew a woman who wouldn't share drinks with her husband. I thought that was strange. Like, you'll kiss the guy, but won't share a drink?

Bobo is a strange one. She's OK with her husband sharing his penis with a bunch of underage girls, but won't share a tub of popcorn with her own kid?

[GreyhoundFan]

49 minutes ago, Alisamer said:

I don't think Trump would willingly share anything with anyone. More likely the kid had a bowl of popcorn and Dumpy reached over and took a handful without asking. 

I was thinking that the mango moron had the popcorn and handed it to the kid when he was finished.