2020 US Election

[ignatius]

22 hours ago, ignatius said:

if you want to do a bit of a deep dive w/regards to trump and evangelicals and the fallwells... the liberty university stuff.. falwell's wife banging the pool boy and how that led to evangelicals endorsing trump..  Gangster Capitalism has an 8 part series about it all on their podcast which is amazing and hilarious. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gangster-capitalism/id1460320573?i=1000523139018

also on stitcher - all the jerry falwell jr. episodes.. 

https://www.stitcher.com/show/gangster-capitalism

i finished this 8 part series yesterday. holy shit such seedy fucked up religious behavior. cover up everything. this podcast goes everywhere, rape, trump, mega sketchy financial dealing, federal funds, racism, weirdo politics etc etc. 

some true american south evangelical extremism type shit. fuck these people. 

[Nebraska]

pete 'argh' hegseth confronts drowns out communist dissident (and alleged super texan) james talarico over him and his comrades fleeing texas over the new republican bill designed to prevent democrats from stealing the vote ever again. 

a good example of 'things don't make sense, if you don't allow yourself to hear them'.

 

[may be rude]

just an insane article:

 

 

'They're not going to f**king succeed': Top generals feared Trump would attempt a coup after election, according to new book
By Jamie Gangel, Jeremy Herb, Marshall Cohen and Elizabeth Stuart, CNN
Updated 9:03 PM EDT, Wed July 14, 2021

Washington(CNN)The top US military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley, was so shaken that then-President Donald Trump and his allies might attempt a coup or take other dangerous or illegal measures after the November election that Milley and other top officials informally planned for different ways to stop Trump, according to excerpts of an upcoming book obtained by CNN.

The book, from Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, describes how Milley and the other Joint Chiefs discussed a plan to resign, one-by-one, rather than carry out orders from Trump that they considered to be illegal, dangerous or ill-advised.

"It was a kind of Saturday Night Massacre in reverse," Leonnig and Rucker write.

The book, "I Alone Can Fix It," scheduled to be released next Tuesday, chronicles Trump's final year as president, with a behind-the-scenes look at how senior administration officials and Trump's inner circle navigated his increasingly unhinged behavior after losing the 2020 election. The authors interviewed Trump for more than two hours.

The book recounts how for the first time in modern US history the nation's top military officer, whose role is to advise the president, was preparing for a showdown with the commander in chief because he feared a coup attempt after Trump lost the November election.

The authors explain Milley's growing concerns that personnel moves that put Trump acolytes in positions of power at the Pentagon after the November 2020 election, including the firing of Defense Secretary Mark Esper and the resignation of Attorney General William Barr, were the sign of something sinister to come.

Milley spoke to friends, lawmakers and colleagues about the threat of a coup, and the Joint Chiefs chairman felt he had to be "on guard" for what might come.

"They may try, but they're not going to f**king succeed," Milley told his deputies, according to the authors. "You can't do this without the military. You can't do this without the CIA and the FBI. We're the guys with the guns."

In the days leading up to January 6, Leonnig and Rucker write, Milley was worried about Trump's call to action. "Milley told his staff that he believed Trump was stoking unrest, possibly in hopes of an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act and call out the military."

Milley viewed Trump as "the classic authoritarian leader with nothing to lose," the authors write, and he saw parallels between Adolf Hitler's rhetoric as a victim and savior and Trump's false claims of election fraud.

"This is a Reichstag moment," Milley told aides, according to the book. "The gospel of the Führer."

Ahead of a November pro-Trump "Million MAGA March" to protest the election results, Milley told aides he feared it "could be the modern American equivalent of 'brownshirts in the streets,'" referring to the pro-Nazi militia that fueled Hitler's rise to power.

'This is all real, man'
Rucker and Leonnig interviewed more than 140 sources for the book, though most were given anonymity to speak candidly to reconstruct events and dialogue. Milley is quoted extensively and comes off in a positive light as someone who tried to keep democracy alive because he believed it was on the brink of collapse after receiving a warning one week after the election from an old friend.

"What they are trying to do here is overturn the government," said the friend, who is not named, according to the authors. "This is all real, man. You are one of the few guys who are standing between us and some really bad stuff."

Milley's reputation took a major hit in June 2020, when he joined Trump during his controversial photo-op at St. John's Church, after federal forces violently dispersed a peaceful crowd of social justice protesters at Lafayette Square outside the White House. To make matters worse, Milley wore camouflage military fatigues throughout the incident. He later apologized, saying, "I should not have been there."

Mark Milley testifies during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on March 4, 2020. 

But behind the scenes, the book says Milley was on the frontlines of trying to protect the country, including an episode where he tried to stop Trump from firing FBI Director Chris Wray and CIA Director Gina Haspel.

Leonnig and Rucker recount a scene when Milley was with Trump and his top aides in a suite at the Army-Navy football game in December, and publicly confronted White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

"What's going on? Are you guys getting rid of Wray or Gina?" Milley asked. "Come on chief. What the hell is going on here? What are you guys doing?"

"Don't worry about it," Meadows said. "Just some personnel moves."

"Just be careful," Milley responded, which Leonnig and Rucker write was said as a warning that he was watching.

'That doesn't make any sense'
The book also sheds new light on Trump's descent into a dark and isolated vacuum of conspiracy theories and self-serving delusions after he was declared the loser of the 2020 election.

After the January 6 insurrection, the book says Milley held a conference call each day with Meadows and then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Leonnig and Rucker report the officials used the calls to compare notes and "collectively survey the horizon for trouble."

"The general theme of these calls was, come hell or high water, there will be a peaceful transfer of power on January twentieth," one senior official told the authors. "We've got an aircraft, our landing gear is stuck, we've got one engine, and we're out of fuel. We've got to land this bad boy."

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrive for a Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony for retired four-star Army general Jack Keane in the East Room of the White House March 10, 2020 in Washington, DC. 

Milley told aides he saw the calls as an opportunity to keep tabs on Trump, the authors write.

Leonnig and Rucker also recount a scene where Pompeo visited Milley at home in the weeks before the election, and the two had a heart-to-heart conversation sitting at the general's table. Pompeo is quoted as saying, "You know the crazies are taking over," according to people familiar with the conversation.

The authors write that Pompeo, through a person close to him, denied making the comments attributed to him and said they were not reflective of his views.

In recent weeks Trump has attacked Milley, who is still the Joint Chiefs chairman in the Biden administration, after he testified to Congress about January 6.

'You f**king did this'
The book also contains several striking anecdotes about prominent women during the Trump presidency, including GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former first lady Michelle Obama.

The book details a phone call the day after the January 6 insurrection between Milley and Cheney, the Wyoming Republican who has close military ties. Cheney voted to impeach Trump and has been an outspoken critic of his election lies, leading to her ouster from House GOP leadership.

Milley asked Cheney how she was doing.

"That fucking guy Jim Jordan. That son of a b*tch," Cheney said, according to the book.

Cheney bluntly relayed to Milley what she experienced on the House floor on January 6 while pro-Trump rioters overran police and breached the Capitol building, including a run-in with Jordan, a staunch Trump ally in the House who feverishly tried to overturn the election.

Cheney described to Milley her exchange with Jordan: "While these maniacs are going through the place, I'm standing in the aisle and he said, 'We need to get the ladies away from the aisle. Let me help you.' I smacked his hand away and told him, 'Get away from me. You f**king did this.'"

'Crazy,' 'dangerous,' 'maniac'
The book reveals Pelosi's private conversations with Milley during this tenuous period. When Trump fired Esper in November, Pelosi was one of several lawmakers who called Milley. "We are all trusting you," she said. "Remember your oath."

After the January 6 insurrection, Pelosi told the general she was deeply concerned that a "crazy," "dangerous" and "maniac" Trump might use nuclear weapons during his final days in office.

"Ma'am, I guarantee you these processes are very good," Milley reassured her. "There's not going to be an accidental firing of nuclear weapons."

"How can you guarantee me?" Pelosi asked.

"Ma'am, there's a process," he said. "We will only follow legal orders. We'll only do things that are legal, ethical, and moral."

A week after the insurrection, Pelosi led House Democrats' second impeachment of Trump for inciting the insurrection. In an interview with the authors, Pelosi said she fears another president could try to pick up where Trump left off.

"We might get somebody of his ilk who's sane, and that would really be dangerous, because it could be somebody who's smart, who's strategic, and the rest," Pelosi said. "This is a slob. He doesn't believe in science. He doesn't believe in governance. He's a snake-oil salesman. And he's shrewd. Give him credit for his shrewdness."

'That b*tch'
The book quotes Trump, who had a strained relationship with Merkel, as telling his advisers during an Oval Office meeting about NATO and the US relationship with Germany, "That b*tch Merkel."

"'I know the f**king krauts,' the president added, using a derogatory term for German soldiers from World War I and World War II," Leonnig and Rucker write. "Trump then pointed to a framed photograph of his father, Fred Trump, displayed on the table behind the Resolute Desk and said, 'I was raised by the biggest kraut of them all.'"

Trump, through a spokesman, denied to the authors making these comments.

'No one has a bigger smile'
After January 6, Milley participated in a drill with military and law enforcement leaders to prepare for the January 20 inauguration of President Joe Biden. Washington was on lockdown over fears that far-right groups like the Proud Boys might try to violently disrupt the transfer of power.

Milley told a group of senior leaders, "Here's the deal, guys: These guys are Nazis, they're boogaloo boys, they're Proud Boys. These are the same people we fought in World War II. We're going to put a ring of steel around this city and the Nazis aren't getting in."

Trump did not attend the inauguration, in a notable break with tradition, and the event went off without incident.

As the inauguration ceremony ended, Kamala Harris, who had just been sworn in as vice president, paused to thank Milley. "We all know what you and some others did," she said, according to the authors. "Thank you."

The book ends with Milley describing his relief that there had not been a coup, thinking to himself, "Thank God Almighty, we landed the ship safely."

Milley expressed his relief in the moments after Biden was sworn in, speaking to the Obamas sitting on the inauguration stage. Michelle Obama asked Milley how he was feeling.

"No one has a bigger smile today than I do," Milley said, according to Leonnig and Rucker. "You can't see it under my mask, but I do."

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/14/politics/donald-trump-election-coup-new-book-excerpt/index.html

[ignatius]

 

[Satans Little Helper]

Too bad the blackmail leverage is still way too powerful to just throw away. If you'd be Putin, you'd be sure to keep things going as they currently are. The "effort to impact" ratio is far too good! Trump is a political goldmine for Putin. 

huhu goldmine huhu

[EdamAnchorman]

2 hours ago, ignatius said:

 

I'd prefer details to trickle out. 

[may be rude]

another article about that upcoming book by leonnig and rucker:

 

 

'This has to stop': Ivanka Trump repeatedly tried to convince Trump to tell his supporters to leave the Capitol on January 6, book says
Oma Seddiq Jul 15, 2021, 2:34 PM

Ivanka Trump tried to get her father to speak out strongly against the Capitol riot, a book says.
"I'm going down to my dad. This has to stop," she reportedly told her aides.
The scene was described in an excerpt of a book by two Washington Post journalists.
See more stories on Insider's business page.

Ivanka Trump repeatedly tried to persuade her father and then-boss to tell his supporters storming the Capitol on January 6 to leave the complex, according to an excerpt of a book by the Washington Post journalists Carol D. Leonnig and Philip Rucker.

Leonnig and Rucker wrote in the excerpt, published by the newspaper on Thursday, that Ivanka, then a senior advisor to President Donald Trump, left her second-floor office in the White House after she saw on TV that a mob had breached the Capitol. She wanted to find him and convince him to speak forcefully against the violence, the excerpt said.

"I'm going down to my dad. This has to stop," she reportedly told her aides.

But she ended up spending "several hours walking back and forth" to the Oval Office trying to convince Trump to order his supporters to stand down, the excerpt said.

Mark Meadows, then the White House chief of staff, would at times call her to come downstairs to get through to Trump, the book says.

"I need you to come back down here," Meadows reportedly told her. "We've got to get this under control."

Meadows would direct other Trump aides to leave the room, saying, "I only want Ivanka, myself and the president in here," Leonnig and Rucker wrote.

One White House advisor said Ivanka "was described to me like a stable pony," the excerpt said. "When the racehorse gets too agitated, you bring the stable pony in to calm him down," the advisor was quoted as saying.

GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Trump's ally, called Ivanka numerous times before she answered, the excerpt said.

"You need to tell him to tell these people to leave," Graham reportedly said.

"We're working on it," Ivanka responded.

Hours before the violence broke out, Trump had pushed Vice President Mike Pence to do something out of his power: block the 2020 electoral certification in Congress. Ivanka took issue with the situation, the excerpt said.

"This is not right. It's not right," Ivanka reportedly said that morning.

"Mike Pence is a good man," she later told Keith Kellogg, a White House aide, the excerpt said.

Trump was unmoved. As the riot unfolded, he attacked Pence in a tweet. In two later tweets, he said the mob should "stay peaceful" and "respect the Law." Then he tweeted a video telling his supporters to "go home," calling them "special."

Leonnig and Rucker said they spoke to more than 140 sources for their book, "I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year," which comes out Tuesday.

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/ivanka-trump-tried-to-get-trump-to-stop-capitol-insurrection-2021-7

 

Edited July 17, 2021 by very honest

[Rubin Farr]

On 7/15/2021 at 10:21 AM, ignatius said:

 

 

[ignatius]

[Rubin Farr]

I’m starting to get the impression that Trump is actually more popular with his Republican politicians than the wider conservative base. The media on both sides constantly beating the war drums is louder than the disdain among the electorate, I think enough moderate Republicans, plus the swing voters, independents, and the conservative funding apparatus, have made it nearly impossible for Trump to win re-election even if he won the nomination. The growing anti-vax movement in conservative circles, and subsequent coronavirus surges in Republican strongholds, is also turning off voters who see how many people have been misled, to their own misfortune.

[EdamAnchorman]

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/amp/2021/07/tom-brady-joins-president-biden-at-white-house-to-mock-trump.html

Quote

Tom Brady visited the White House Tuesday to celebrate the Tampa Bay Buccaneers winning the Super Bowl, where he joked around with President Biden at Donald Trump’s expense. It was a scene straight out of a Donald Trump nightmare, and quite possibly the worst day of Donald Trump’s life.

 

Edited July 20, 2021 by randomsummer

[Rubin Farr]

 

[Nebraska]

tom brady is a traitor 

[zlemflolia]

uphold Marxism-Tillman Thought

 

[ignatius]

lol. 

 

[chenGOD]

19 hours ago, Nebraska said:

tom brady is a traitor 

Jesus those guys sure get riled up any time someone take shots at ol' tiny hands.

[Nebraska]

lol @ house freedom caucus

[Nebraska]

officer fanone shares voice mail he got whilst testifying from disgruntled law-abiding citizen who clearly doesn't believe that blue lives matter

Edited July 29, 2021 by Nebraska

[zero]

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/31/trump-political-groups-82-million-501958

Quote

The scenario is virtually unprecedented: Never in history has a former president banked nine figures' worth of donations to power a political operation. Over the first six months of the year, Trump’s political groups whipped up supporters with baseless claims of election fraud to pull in cash on a scale similar to the GOP's official political arms, the Republican National Committee and the party's House and Senate campaign committees.

 

grifting your way to 9 figures is no freakin joke. if grifting were an olympic sport, donnie would be the undisputed world record holder. Ponzi was a fuckin clown compared to him. still can't believe that in all the years trump has been a "businessman," he's never been caught.

maybe in like 60-70 years "trump scheme" will be defined as someone who holds political office solely for the purpose of grifting donations from members of their own bullshit movement. 

Quote

Trump has spent little from the fund so far this year, but he can use it to pay for travel, events, advisers, ad campaigns, and supporting candidates and other political activities.

wonder what exactly "other political activities" includes...paying off ruskies?

[ignatius]

10 minutes ago, zero said:

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/31/trump-political-groups-82-million-501958

 

grifting your way to 9 figures is no freakin joke. if grifting were an olympic sport, donnie would be the undisputed world record holder. Ponzi was a fuckin clown compared to him. still can't believe that in all the years trump has been a "businessman," he's never been caught.

maybe in like 60-70 years "trump scheme" will be defined as someone who holds political office solely for the purpose of grifting donations from members of their own bullshit movement. 

wonder what exactly "other political activities" includes...paying off ruskies?

well, if it's like a super PAC type thing then the rules (of which there are none) will allow him to fold the money into pretty much anything and not have to report it. he probably could create a super pac and put that money in that pac account then disappear it to wherever he wants. 

i'm sure there's an angle here where there are people staying loyal to him and jiggling his balls on command so that he'll spread the cash around to republican candidates to help w/election campaigns. but trump has never been the generous type and i can see him saying "no. it's my money." or something and not sharing.. instead feeling like he's going above and beyond by simply endorsing candidates. 

if he hasn't spent much of the money it's because he's waiting until election season or he's trying to figure out how to put them money in golden shower piss stocks for his own bathing use. 

Edited August 2, 2021 by ignatius

[ignatius]

american politics is turning into that rick & morty doublecross heistcon episode. 

[Nebraska]

Quote

On August 4, two emails regarding "OFFICIAL TRUMP CARDS" were sent by Save America, a joint fundraising committee of Save America and the Make America Great Again PAC. Each showed four designs and spoke of Trump's desire for recipients to decide which one should be chosen.

https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-donald-trump-supporters-carry-trump-cards-1616443

these cards are a great idea coz it will show who's traitor and who's the patriot. 

[may be rude]

this is big:

 

Edited August 6, 2021 by very honest

[zero]

1 hour ago, Nebraska said:

https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-donald-trump-supporters-carry-trump-cards-1616443

these cards are a great idea coz it will show who's traitor and who's the patriot. 

 

reminds me of those old Master P / No limit album covers where they made things like this up. like this one:

[J3FF3R00]

Edited August 6, 2021 by J3FF3R00