U.S. Politics megathread (merged)

[Ulysses]

33 minutes ago, Jim_Duncan said:

Twenty years ago I got a round of applause from a group of students at an American university when I suggested Americans need to focus less on the first and more on the second part of their hyphenated national identities. Those students were mainly of Hispanic origin. 

 

It's an odd thing, and it almost certainly derives from the fact that America is a country of immigrants and the descendants of immigrants. 

 

One way or another, when it comes to excuses or reasons for handing the White House to Donald Trump, empathy for Palestinians was not on my bingo card.

[JFK-1]

The likelihood of Trump being jailed for contempt of court is greatly increasing, Glenn Kirschner thinks this judge will jail him before this trial is over. But Kirschner also thinks Trump is angling to be jailed, because it suits the victim card Trump tries to play plus it's another reason to ask for money.

 

Trump has now begun abusing the jurors before they're even all seated. Trump hating liars all of them, which he posted on his troof soshul after some Fox pundit told a lie about the jurors. and I wouldn't be surprised if he actually outs one of them despite the fact they have a privacy guarantee, his lawyers know who they are so will he through them.

 

Standard mob strategy of intimidating witnesses and jurors. Though even the mob typically don't try to go after judges and prosecutors plus their families, Trump does. And the mob typically don't have a mainstream TV channel making up their lies and disseminating it for them. Trump does.

 

 

[Maple Leaf]

4 hours ago, JFK-1 said:

The likelihood of Trump being jailed for contempt of court is greatly increasing, Glenn Kirschner thinks this judge will jail him before this trial is over. But Kirschner also thinks Trump is angling to be jailed, because it suits the victim card Trump tries to play plus it's another reason to ask for money.

 

Trump has now begun abusing the jurors before they're even all seated. Trump hating liars all of them, which he posted on his troof soshul after some Fox pundit told a lie about the jurors. and I wouldn't be surprised if he actually outs one of them despite the fact they have a privacy guarantee, his lawyers know who they are so will he through them.

 

Standard mob strategy of intimidating witnesses and jurors. Though even the mob typically don't try to go after judges and prosecutors plus their families, Trump does. And the mob typically don't have a mainstream TV channel making up their lies and disseminating it for them. Trump does.

 

 

Does anyone actually believe that this is Presidential behavior? I can well imagine what this bitter, twisted individual will be like if he ever gets back into the White House.  It will be ugly.

[Hansel]

2 hours ago, Maple Leaf said:

Does anyone actually believe that this is Presidential behavior? I can well imagine what this bitter, twisted individual will be like if he ever gets back into the White House.  It will be ugly.

Unfortunately, Trump's unpresidential  behaviour is what has attracted a lot of his supporters in the 1st place. 

 

 

 

[Watt-Zeefuik]

Ukraine aid may finally be moving, as of Saturday. In response, the most unhinged of the far right in the GOP House caucus are throwing the kitchen sink at stopping it, including a very likely motion to vacate the chair of the Speaker (again!).

 

Republicans, who have slowly made their entire party identity down to nothing except that everything that Democrats want is wrong, are starting to make private entreaties to Democrats as to what it would take to save Johnson. Jeffries has made it clear that in order to get Democratic votes, the Speaker has to share some small but meaningful amount of power with them, which is a non-starter in the current GOP's fevered state.

 

I have no idea how this ends and seemingly neither do people who are normally good at this sort of thing. But Johnson, to his (very small) credit, seems like he's done with dancing to the wingnuts' tune.

 

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/house-installs-new-speaker-yolo-johnson/sharetoken/xZyvtn87IReB

 

 

[Mikey1874]

The trial proper starts Monday. 

[cosanostra]

Is he still denying even putting away Stormy Daniels in the first place? When this trial starts and he swears on the bible or whatever they do, won't he be perjering himself and open to all other kinds of criminal action?

Surely the first question will be putting up a photo of Stormy and asking "did you hit that bro?" but in legalese.

[Jim_Duncan]

2 hours ago, cosanostra said:

Is he still denying even putting away Stormy Daniels in the first place? When this trial starts and he swears on the bible or whatever they do, won't he be perjering himself and open to all other kinds of criminal action?

Surely the first question will be putting up a photo of Stormy and asking "did you hit that bro?" but in legalese.

For a man who boasted of grabbing women by the pussy, it's quite apt that he now appears to be getting gripped by his own parts.

[Ulysses]

3 hours ago, cosanostra said:

Surely the first question will be putting up a photo of Stormy and asking "did you hit that bro?" but in legalese.

 

 

[Canscot]

7 hours ago, cosanostra said:

Is he still denying even putting away Stormy Daniels in the first place? When this trial starts and he swears on the bible or whatever they do, won't he be perjering himself and open to all other kinds of criminal action?

Surely the first question will be putting up a photo of Stormy and asking "did you hit that bro?" but in legalese.

I hope they ask her if there are any identifying marks below his waist that only someone who has been intimate🤢 with him, would know about. Then the judge forces him to drop his drawers in court to see if she is telling the truth😂

Edited 19 hours ago by Canscot

[il Duce McTarkin]

7 hours ago, cosanostra said:

Is he still denying even putting away Stormy Daniels in the first place? When this trial starts and he swears on the bible or whatever they do, won't he be perjering himself and open to all other kinds of criminal action?

Surely the first question will be putting up a photo of Stormy and asking "did you hit that bro?" but in legalese.

 

 

[All roads lead to Gorgie]

44 minutes ago, Canscot said:

I hope they ask her if there are any identifying marks below his waist that only someone who has been intimate🤢 with him, would know about. Then the judge forces him to drop his drawers in court to see if she is telling the truth😂

I think everything below Trump's waist will be put under the microscope, literally 😉

[Bigsmak]

1 hour ago, All roads lead to Gorgie said:

I think everything below Trump's waist will be put under the microscope, literally 😉

He would have to take his nappy off...  They best of Nappy's - Everyone says Trump only has the best Nappys - all the people, they want the nappys, but they cant have them.  He knew a man who was a cowboy and he knew about nappys.  I think he might have taught Clint Eastwood everything he knows.  What happened to him, sad, so sad.  

Edited 16 hours ago by Bigsmak

[Maple Leaf]

2 hours ago, Canscot said:

I hope they ask her if there are any identifying marks below his waist that only someone who has been intimate🤢 with him, would know about. Then the judge forces him to drop his drawers in court to see if she is telling the truth😂

I have a vague memory of her saying something about his, er, anatomy a couple of years ago and said it resembled a mushroom.  Take your choice:

 

 

 

[Watt-Zeefuik]

49 minutes ago, Maple Leaf said:

I have a vague memory of her saying something about his, er, anatomy a couple of years ago and said it resembled a mushroom.  Take your choice:

 

 

 

But to verify that would require him to stand at attention, as it were, and that's going to be impossible as I think it's against US policy to force a defendant to take medication.

[Kalamazoo Jambo]

10 hours ago, cosanostra said:

Is he still denying even putting away Stormy Daniels in the first place? When this trial starts and he swears on the bible or whatever they do, won't he be perjering himself and open to all other kinds of criminal action?

Surely the first question will be putting up a photo of Stormy and asking "did you hit that bro?" but in legalese.

 

 

[Watt-Zeefuik]

The foreign aid bills get through the procedural hurdles and make it to the House floor tomorrow for a vote, with Democrats lending rare votes to pass the rule out of the Ways and Means Committee. These votes are normally formalities, as it's just about what the terms of debate are going to be on the House floor, and by tradition all of the majority party vote for it and the minority party vote against it and it sets the stage for the actual debate and everyone goes on with their lives. But the wingnuts revolted and refused to pass it, meaning Johnson had to come to the Democrats for help, which in this case they did.

 

The first three bills at least are widely expected to pass the House tomorrow and are close enough to bills the Senate already passed that, barring crazy last minute changes, they will likely be directly approved then passed on to Biden, who has already said he'll sign them.

 

Ukraine aid is finally back on.

[Mikey1874]

Fair play. Both sides conducted themselves quite reasonably. See what happens next week.

 

 

[Gizmo]

https://news.sky.com/story/person-sets-themselves-on-fire-in-protest-area-outside-trump-trial-reports-13118749

[Cade]

Cult member does strange cultish thing

[Ulysses]

 

 

 

 

 

[Hansel]

2 hours ago, Gizmo said:

https://news.sky.com/story/person-sets-themselves-on-fire-in-protest-area-outside-trump-trial-reports-13118749

Florida man...

[JFK-1]

16 hours ago, cosanostra said:

Is he still denying even putting away Stormy Daniels in the first place? When this trial starts and he swears on the bible or whatever they do, won't he be perjering himself and open to all other kinds of criminal action?

 

Yes he actually is publicly denying it, but he probably wont testify in court. This is truly going to be a real mental torment for Trump, he's used to dictating the conversation, basically just rambling utter shit with no analysis of it, talking over any critique. Trump just wants to talk, he never listens.

 

But, if you want to dispute anything in the court the price is you're under oath and if we catch you lying you're toast. Trump can't do two things at the same time, like in he can't talk and not lie at the same time, so for that reason he can't speak in court.

 

But he will lie about it outside the court, spin some simple minded fantasy version of events to waiting press while the prosecution will say nothing at all to the press, or pretty much nothing.

 

Then when they convict him Trump will ramble about how outrageous it is if his fantasy version of events were real. This is an open and shut case, they have him nailed and even glued down too from every angle.

 

Anything Michael Cohen for one says will be backed up by masses of documentary and further witness evidence. I can't see how this can last too much longer than it takes the prosecutors to lay out their case.

 

There is no feasible defense, I think there is already a top Trump exec in prison for lying in connection to this this case. Plus Michael Cohen spent time in prison for lying in relation to this case, lying at the behest of and for the benefit of, Trump.

 

He's going to be convicted, this is where Trumps lifelong war against reality hits a brick wall, he had a good run at it, but didn't quite manage to Jimmy Saville it all the way to the grave.

[Cade]

Turns out the unfortunate individual that set himself on fire is not aligned with Democrats nor Republicans nor reality itself.

He's a full on crazy conspiracy theorist that decided to just take advantage of the fact that the world's media was there to push his ideas and set himself on fire so people would pay attention.

Hope he gets the help he so clearly needs.

 

[cosanostra]

49 minutes ago, JFK-1 said:

 

Yes he actually is publicly denying it, but he probably wont testify in court. This is truly going to be a real mental torment for Trump, he's used to dictating the conversation, basically just rambling utter shit with no analysis of it, talking over any critique. Trump just wants to talk, he never listens.

 

But, if you want to dispute anything in the court the price is you're under oath and if we catch you lying you're toast. Trump can't do two things at the same time, like in he can't talk and not lie at the same time, so for that reason he can't speak in court.

 

But he will lie about it outside the court, spin some simple minded fantasy version of events to waiting press while the prosecution will say nothing at all to the press, or pretty much nothing.

 

Then when they convict him Trump will ramble about how outrageous it is if his fantasy version of events were real. This is an open and shut case, they have him nailed and even glued down too from every angle.

 

Anything Michael Cohen for one says will be backed up by masses of documentary and further witness evidence. I can't see how this can last too much longer than it takes the prosecutors to lay out their case.

 

There is no feasible defense, I think there is already a top Trump exec in prison for lying in connection to this this case. Plus Michael Cohen spent time in prison for lying in relation to this case, lying at the behest of and for the benefit of, Trump.

 

He's going to be convicted, this is where Trumps lifelong war against reality hits a brick wall, he had a good run at it, but didn't quite manage to Jimmy Saville it all the way to the grave.

 

So he's unlikely to testify and can't be made to?

Sensible from his legal team if the best chance he has is to not speak and implicate himself.

There was a massive serial killer case a few years back near where I live and his legal team wouldn't allow him to speak other than to confirm his name and to plead not guilty. Nobody heard his voice in several months of court case after that.

[Jim_Duncan]

8 hours ago, Maple Leaf said:

I have a vague memory of her saying something about his, er, anatomy a couple of years ago and said it resembled a mushroom.  Take your choice:

 

 

 

I've said all along that Trump is a fun guy.

[JFK-1]

42 minutes ago, cosanostra said:

 

So he's unlikely to testify and can't be made to?

Sensible from his legal team if the best chance he has is to not speak and implicate himself.

 

He can't be compelled to testify, and you can be guaranteed his lawyers are pleading with him to STFU, even out of court his mouth is making things harder for them. I would guess just about anybody else would in the circumstances follow legal advice. But with Trump I really don't know.

 

He's an unstable and notoriously thin skinned ego driven narcissist, someone so thin skinned who will go after people for something as irrelevant as a comment about his hair. One psychologist concluded Trump has an emotional maturity age of about 14 at best, an entitled teenage brat. 

 

There are some and i'm one of them who think Trump if he doesn't actually testify may act out during proceedings and get himself removed from the court, potentially even jailed. And/or say something that could get him jailed outside the court when rambling to the press after hours sitting bored out of his diaper trying to stay awake.  

 

I would absolutely love it if he testified because if he did they could then question him on anything at all, and he would perjure himself endlessly.

 

I would enjoy Trump testifying so much it probably wont happen, in fact maybe getting tossed in jail is more likely. But with something as unstable as him you just never know what he might do. 

Edited 7 hours ago by JFK-1

[Cranston]

2 minutes ago, JFK-1 said:

 

He can't be compelled to testify, and you can be guaranteed his lawyers are pleading with him to STFU, even out of court his mouth is making things harder for them. I would guess just about anybody else would in the circumstances follow legal advice. But with Trump I really don't know.

 

He's an unstable and notoriously thin skinned ego driven narcissist, someone so thin skinned who will go after people for something as irrelevant as a comment about his hair. One psychologist concluded Trump has an emotional maturity age of about 14 at best, an entitled teenage brat. 

 

There are some and i'm one of them who think Trump if he doesn't actually testify may act out during proceedings and get himself removed from the court, potentially even jailed. And/or say something that could get him jailed outside the court when rambling to the press after hours sitting bored out of his diaper trying to stay awake.  

 

I would absolutely love it if he testified because if he did they could then question him on anything at all, and he would perjure himself endlessly.

 

I would enjoy Trump testifying so much it probably wont happen, in fact maybe getting tossed in jail is more likely. But with something as unstable as him you just never know what he might do. 

Who was the accredited psychologist?

[JFK-1]

1 hour ago, Cade said:

Turns out the unfortunate individual that set himself on fire is not aligned with Democrats nor Republicans nor reality itself.

He's a full on crazy conspiracy theorist that decided to just take advantage of the fact that the world's media was there to push his ideas and set himself on fire so people would pay attention.

Hope he gets the help he so clearly needs.

 

 

Well now i'm intrigued, a neutral crazy at last, we must discover exactly what his ideas were.

[Cranston]

2 minutes ago, JFK-1 said:

 

Well now i'm intrigued, a neutral crazy at last, we must discover exactly what his ideas were.

Who was the accredited psychologist?

[JFK-1]

1 minute ago, Cranston said:

Who was the accredited psychologist?

 

I can't remember the one who said that, but I wouldn't be saying this if I hadn't known it was an accredited opinion. There are a number including from his own accredited psychologist niece Mary Trump, her opinion would pretty much match my depiction of him.

 

You think Trump acts more mature than 14? 😉

[Cranston]

Just now, JFK-1 said:

 

I can't remember the one who said that, but I wouldn't be saying this if I hadn't known it was an accredited opinion. There are a number including from his own accredited psychologist niece Mary Trump, her opinion would pretty much match my depiction of him.

 

You think Trump acts more mature than 14? 😉

Dearie me. I thought as much. This is like make it up as you want to. Pure garbage.

[JFK-1]

1 minute ago, Cranston said:

Dearie me. I thought as much. This is like make it up as you want to. Pure garbage.

 

Cool, you go for that. While introducing absolutely nothing to support it. until you can say something, anything, to to dispute such a depiction of Trump.

 

While he's all over the news acting like a spoiled toddler. Look up his niece, she's accredited and knows him better than any other psychologist possibly could.

Given that reality, I will go for her opinion before you and your talking while saying nothing of any content. Pure garbage. 

[Cranston]

4 minutes ago, JFK-1 said:

 

Cool, you go for that. While introducing absolutely nothing to support it. until you can say something, anything, to to dispute such a depiction of Trump.

 

While he's all over the news acting like a spoiled toddler. Look up his niece, she's accredited and knows him better than any other psychologist possibly could.

Given that reality, I will go for her opinion before you and your talking while saying nothing of any content. Pure garbage. 

You lost the audience when found out to bear false witness to a supposed imaginary psychologist. Beat it liar.

[JFK-1]

Just now, Cranston said:

You lost the audience when found out to bear false witness to a supposed imaginary psychologist. Beat it liar.

 

You're being a weirdo, I will now ignore you.

[Cranston]

Just now, JFK-1 said:

 

You're being a weirdo, I will now ignore you.

It wasn't me that imagined up an imaginary psychologist, but hey I'm delighted that you will ignore me. I try to live in the real world. 

[Watt-Zeefuik]

2 hours ago, Cade said:

Turns out the unfortunate individual that set himself on fire is not aligned with Democrats nor Republicans nor reality itself.

He's a full on crazy conspiracy theorist that decided to just take advantage of the fact that the world's media was there to push his ideas and set himself on fire so people would pay attention.

Hope he gets the help he so clearly needs.

 

 

It'll be remarkable if he survives, and if he does, he'll likely be severely disabled most of there rest of his life.

 

1 hour ago, JFK-1 said:

 

Well now i'm intrigued, a neutral crazy at last, we must discover exactly what his ideas were.

 

NYU is the mob, the CIA are after him, all government is criminal.

 

50 minutes ago, Cranston said:

You lost the audience when found out to bear false witness to a supposed imaginary psychologist. Beat it liar.

 

There have been plenty of folk with psych credentials who've done diagnosis from afar which I wish they wouldn't do and is kind of a sketchy thing to do in the first place. But many have said he shows classic signs of clinical narcissism. They're not worth remembering because they're just talking heads on TV. The fashy rapist has done plenty on the public record to judge him by without trying to diagnose him.

 

But as JFK-1 pointed out, Mary Trump is a psychologist and has said the same, and she's seen him up close plenty.

[JFK-1]

3 hours ago, Watt-Zeefuik said:

 

It'll be remarkable if he survives, and if he does, he'll likely be severely disabled most of there rest of his life.

 

 

NYU is the mob, the CIA are after him, all government is criminal.

 

 

There have been plenty of folk with psych credentials who've done diagnosis from afar which I wish they wouldn't do and is kind of a sketchy thing to do in the first place. But many have said he shows classic signs of clinical narcissism. They're not worth remembering because they're just talking heads on TV. The fashy rapist has done plenty on the public record to judge him by without trying to diagnose him.

 

But as JFK-1 pointed out, Mary Trump is a psychologist and has said the same, and she's seen him up close plenty.

 

There have been numerous diagnoses of Trump by many accredited professionals which I thought was a common knowledge, but even that aside I ignored that individual because this jump into beat it liar shit is utterly bizarre and real weirdo shit in the circumstance. You would think I had insulted his mother or something.

 

In general I would agree with your feelings about remote diagnosis, but in this case Trump just wont shut up, isn't very bright, let him talk enough he will tell you exactly what he's about, even when he's trying to pretend to be something else entirely.  Trump is an open book, just about anybody far less a professional can see right through him. 

 

And of course there is as you say Mary Trump who grew up around not just him but his entire family dynamic and who is a trained psychologist who would entirely agree with these more remote diagnoses. Incidentally I even gave Trump credit for being maybe up to 14 years old mentally, a generous estimate.

 

Psychological Science Says Trump Is a Four-Year-Old 

 

Author Noam Shpancer Ph.D. he is a professor of psychology at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio.

 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/insight-therapy/201705/psychological-science-says-trump-is-four-year-old

 

 

[JFK-1]

On 18/04/2024 at 07:57, Maple Leaf said:

Does anyone actually believe that this is Presidential behavior? I can well imagine what this bitter, twisted individual will be like if he ever gets back into the White House.  It will be ugly.

 

A quote from a link I just posted about the psychology of Trump, seems apt in relation to your comment.

 

 

The experience of observing Trump is akin to that of noticing the strangeness of a painting from the Middle Ages before realizing that the oddity is due to the fact that the children are depicted with adult body proportions.

 

And therein lies the key: The core Trump dissonance is that he’s an elderly man who possesses the outward appearance and trappings of adulthood—and who occupies the public role we most strongly associate with adulthood—but who is on the inside predominantly infantile.

 

It is that specific dissonance that is wholly novel on the political scene. Over and above the contested considerations of ideology, temperament, character, or intelligence, we all expect (and are used to) a modicum of maturity in our presidents.

 

In our collective imagination the president is a grown up, not a child; not immature in his fundamental bearing and cast of mind.

 

Trump is, and as such he dramatically violates both our experience and our cultural expectations. He calls up the incongruent fascination and dread of a child-king or the baby-faced assassin.

 

To say Trump is ‘infantile,’ in this context is to say two related yet distinct things: One, that he fails to demonstrate some behavioral and attitudinal quality we call ‘maturity'

 

Two, that his cast of mind, the way he processes information, appears qualitatively different from an adult mind.