Donald Trump is a political outrage (split from Hot Water)

[MFS62]

He isn't just criminal. He's Corrupt.
And this article makes the distinction:

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2 ... corruption

It starts:

I have badly underestimated Donald Trump. Thursday was the day that his justices — it turns out that they are indeed his justices on the Supreme Court, just as he claimed — got it through my thick head: Trump is not just competent but masterful. He is not just capable, he is supreme.

Because Trump is clumsy at his alleged crimes, surrounding himself with flagrant thugs, telling obvious lies, leaving prolific trails of damning evidence, offering ridiculous defenses for indefensible conduct, I had long concluded that he is incompetent at crookery along with his other manifest failings. That’s true as far as it goes. But for all his mad greed and compulsive lawlessness, for all his sleaze and stupidity, crime is ultimately not Trump’s game. Trump is nothing like a master criminal. But he is a master of something far more sinister and complex: corruption.

Later

[MFS62]

He named his son Baron after the fictional alter-ego he used to call reporters.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... story.html

Later

[MFS62]

Thank you for putting that in the proper thread.
Later

[Lefty Specialist]

Your Republican nominee for President, ladies and gentlemen:

During his Las Vegas rally, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee told a story that flew a bit off the rails. The tale began by allegedly asking a South Carolinian boat manufacturer, who made boats that were too heavy and “can’t go fast,” a self-described “very smart” question about the efficacy of electric batteries in water-faring vessels—but then quickly devolved into nonsense about Trump’s fear of sharks.

“So I said, ‘Let me ask you a question,’” Trump told the crowd. “And he said, ‘Nobody ever asked this question.’ And it must be because of MIT. My relationship to MIT. Very smart. He goes. I say, “What would happen if the boat sank from its weight? And you’re in the boat and you have this tremendously powerful battery, and the battery is now underwater, and there’s a shark that’s approximately 10 yards over there."

Then, a quick sidenote: “By the way, a lot of shark attacks lately. You notice that? A lot of shark. I watch some guys justifying it today. ‘Well, they weren’t really that angry. They bit off the young lady’s leg because of the fact that they were—they were not hungry, but they misunderstood what-who she was.’ These people are crazy.”

And back to the story.

“He said, ‘There’s no problem with sharks. They just didn’t really understand a young woman swimming. No really got decimated and other people too, a lot of shark attacks,’” Trump recalled, his voice pitching. “So I said, ‘So there’s a shark 10 yards away from the boat, 10 yards or here. Do I get electrocuted? If the boat is sinking, water goes over the battery, the boat is sinking. Do I stay on top of the boat and get electrocuted? Or do I jump over by the shark and not get electrocuted?”

“Because I will tell you, he didn’t know the answer. He said, ‘You know, nobody’s ever asked me that question.’ I said, ‘I think it’s a good question. I think there’s a lot of electric current coming through that water.’ But you know what I’d do if there was a shark or you get electrocuted? I’ll take electrocution every single time. I’m not getting near the shark!” Trump said.

[metsmarathon]

A lot of times when someone tells you “that’s a very smart question” it’s because you’re a small child and they don’t want you to feel dumb for asking something ridiculous that belies a complete lack of understanding of the issue at hand.

[Benjamin Grimm]

But "You know, nobody’s ever asked me that question" often means the same thing, but with less sugar on it.

[nymr83]

Does Trump have an actual fear of sharks? That could make for some excellent costumed trolling!

[MFS62]

Moved to other DT thread.

Later

[Edgy MD]

Does Trump have an actual fear of sharks? That could make for some excellent costumed trolling!

It's been pretty broadly documented, but most particularly in Stephanie Clifford's account.

Although now, I guess, most particularly in his own account. I suppose he also fears Andromeda strains, white water rafting in Appalachia, and covens of creepy old people trying to bring forth the spawn of Satan.

But again, we're mixing his legal peril up with his political ridiculousness.

[MFS62]

From the Military.com - he gets it:
I can't understand how any person who has served in the military likes DT, but I hope those who do read this article.
https://www.military.com/daily-news/opi ... votes.html

Later

[Edgy MD]

I would encourage you to share it with any you know.

[batmagadanleadoff]

From the NYT Editorial Board:

Donald Trump Is Unfit to Lead

Excerpt:

Mr. Trump has shown a character unworthy of the responsibilities of the presidency. He has demonstrated an utter lack of respect for the Constitution, the rule of law and the American people. Instead of a cogent vision for the country’s future, Mr. Trump is animated by a thirst for political power: to use the levers of government to advance his interests, satisfy his impulses and exact retribution against those who he thinks have wronged him.

He is, quite simply, unfit to lead.

The Democrats are rightly engaged in their own debate about whether President Biden is the right person to carry the party’s nomination into the election, given widespread concerns among voters about his age-related fitness. This debate is so intense because of legitimate concerns that Mr. Trump may present a danger to the country, its strength, security and national character — and that a compelling Democratic alternative is the only thing that would prevent his return to power. It is a national tragedy that the Republicans have failed to have a similar debate about the manifest moral and temperamental unfitness of their standard-bearer, instead setting aside their longstanding values, closing ranks and choosing to overlook what those who worked most closely with the former president have described as his systematic dishonesty, corruption, cruelty and incompetence.

That task now falls to the American people. We urge voters to see the dangers of a second Trump term clearly and to reject it. The stakes and significance of the presidency demand a person who has essential qualities and values to earn our trust, and on each one, Donald Trump fails.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... unfit.html

[The Hot Corner]

That article is a home run. Too bad most Trump supporters seem to believe that any news that comes from a source other than Fox News, is "fake news".

[Edgy MD]

I don't know how I came across this fella, but I've been arguing for two days with some guy in the Internet who insists First Lady Michelle Obama is a man.

As calumnies go, that one seemed a little dated, but everybody on his page — and somehow none of them so far seem like they are incarcerated — seems to back his nonsense up.

His profile pic suggests he is or was a Marine sargeant.

[metirish]

More people need to see this

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-e ... rcna161964

[Cowtipper]

Never mind, didn't mean to post this here.

[MFS62]

The questioning of Kamala Harris' race reminded one CT writer to recall another one:(behind a paywall)

It was 1993. Connecticut took center stage. Trump's target: The Mashantucket Pequot Nation, the tribe that had gained federal recognition, enabling it to expand its high-stakes bingo hall into a full-blown Foxwoods Resort Casino.
Trump's goal: To open a casino in Bridgeport, where he had land, Connecticut lobbyists on his payroll and the blessing of a newly elected young mayor named Joseph Ganim.
The location: The United States House of Representatives. Trump testified before the Native American Affairs Subcommittee about the rise of gaming on Native American land threatening his business.
He answered a question from Rep. George Miller, a California Democrat who seemed incredulous at earlier comments Trump had made about "Indian blood."
"If you look at some of the reservations that you've approved, you sir, in your great wisdom have approved, I will tell you right now they don't look like Indians to me."
"They don't look like Indians to me," Trump repeated, "and they don't look like Indians to Indians and a lot of people are laughing at it...You go up to Connecticut and look."
Miller shot back, "Thank God, that's not the test of whether or not people have rights in this country, whether or not they pass your look test." He reminded Trump that comments like his marked the nation's ugly history of discrimination. Trump protested that reservations had special rights to open casinos — missing the entire point about his bigotry.
A few days later, Gov. Lowell P. Weicker said on WFSB-TV that Connecticut doesn't need that "dirtbag" and "racist." That led Trump to call Weicker a "fat slob" who should shed 125 pounds, which Weicker said he could do before Trump stopped being a bigot.

https://www.newstimes.com/politics/arti ... eakingnews

Later

[Benjamin Grimm]

I looked at Harris' biography. She attended historically black Howard University. In law school, she was President of the University of California's Black Law Students Association. It appears that she "decided to be black" several decades ago. Trump "not knowing" she was black is, of course, simply a matter of his own ignorance, similar to how he was late to discover that Lincoln had been a Republican.

[Lefty Specialist]

Harris should ask Trump when he decided to become orange....

[kcmets]

If you came up with that on your own it's fucking brilliant.

If you didn't, it's still quite brilliant.

[batmagadanleadoff]

If you came up with that on your own it's fucking brilliant.

That's exactly what I thought of, word for word, when I read that post.

[MFS62]

"Fine people on both sides".
He said it, but now his syncopates are trying to deny he said it

Those memories aren’t false, but a segment of Trump’s supporters would have you believe that they are.

In a post Monday night during Biden’s speech, Elon Musk, with his 195 million Twitter followers, called the “very fine people” line a hoax. As did Trump adviser Stephen Miller, who also deemed it “the most debunked, disproven and discredited hoax in existence” and a “vile … pretext for authoritarianism.”

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/202 ... -musk.html

Later

[MFS62]

He's going to host a gala to raise funds for the January 6th defendants:
https://www.salon.com/2024/08/22/to-hos ... brief=true

A flyer for the "J6 Awards Gala" reported on by MTN lists Rudy Giuliani as a guest speaker for the event where "attendees will have a chance to win a plaque commemorating the MAGA community's purchase of numerous copies of Trump's 'Justice for All' song," with the event description reading: "We gather to pay tribute...to all J6 defendants who have shown incredible courage and sacrifice."

I'll bet that all of the money raised goes right into his pocket. But the FBI should march in and arrest him for giving aid and comfort to the enemy. You know, treason.

Later

[Lefty Specialist]

Something I did not have on my 2024 bingo card- a scathing denunciation of Donald Trump's political stunt at Arlington Cemetery, written by none other than Sandy Alderson.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/ope ... 740157.php

[MFS62]

The Pumpkin Perineum will be giving a speech in Springfield, Ohio, where he said Haitian immigrants have been eating the pets of the local citizens. (Vance admitted it isn't true)
He has gone from racist innuendo to catch phrases to dog whistle.
But this is a bull horn.

How low can he go?
Later