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No Democracy Lasts Forever….

Sounds like he’s going to try using misinformation to ride two hurricanes into the Oval Office. It will be interesting, and likely outrageous, to hear his reaction to Milton’s landfall. This is what Strongmen do, where truth is concerned.



Following Hurricane Helene, and with another storm on the way, Trump is falsely claiming the White House is diverting disaster relief aid to unrelated migrant programs. This is false, but Trump, while president, did repurpose FEMA funds to help finance his hardline immigration policies.


The Republican nominee often insists that his legal troubles are proof of Democratic election interference. But he’s the one who tried to subvert the will of voters in 2020 in the most flagrant attempt to overturn an election in American history.

Trump also accuses the Biden administration of weaponizing justice against him. But the then-president in 2020 went on a late-night Twitter tirade demanding the jailing of his political enemies, warning that Biden shouldn’t be allowed to run for president, and asking, “Where are all of the arrests?”

Given his attempt to squelch democracy and to steal Biden’s win four years ago, it was rich for the ex-president to warn in Wisconsin on Sunday that if he doesn’t win in November, “Some people say you’ll never have an election again.”

On Monday, on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show, the ex-president – whose administration was famous for “alternative facts” and who uttered thousands of documented lies while in office – made one of his most brazen complaints yet about his Democratic opponent, saying of Harris, “Everything she says is a lie, you know, is a total lie.”

It’s not exactly news that Trump often has a distant relationship with facts. And many politicians fib — an industry of fact checkers is proof of that. Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, for instance, has had to answer for questionable statements about his military record and whether he was in Hong Kong during the crackdown on China’s Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. And the Minnesota governor made false claims as recently as Sunday about the former president’s stance on abortion and the state of the economy when he left office in January 2021.

But no modern politician has built a presidency on such outrageous untruths as Trump. And the ex-president has never really hidden what he’s up to. In one of the most revealing moments of his political career, before the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Kansas City in 2018, the 45th president told his supporters that he was their only reliable source of reality. “Stick with us. Don’t believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news,” Trump said. “What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.”

And the name of the former president’s social media network, “Truth Social,” is a knowing attempt to rebrand falsehood as fact.
 
The Trump supporters here approve of this. They approve of Trump hurting the efforts to help Americans affected by Hurricane Helene. They would rather support Trump, who, in turn, prefers to make matters worse for those affected. There’s no way around that simple fact: a couple of our posters prefer to see Trump damage the recovery efforts. Don’t ya? Even Republican leaders in affected states understand their boy is hurting Americans. And it’s deliberate.

 
The Trump supporters here approve of this. They approve of Trump hurting the efforts to help Americans affected by Hurricane Helene. They would rather support Trump, who, in turn, prefers to make matters worse for those affected. There’s no way around that simple fact: a couple of our posters prefer to see Trump damage the recovery efforts. Don’t ya? Even Republican leaders in affected states understand their boy is hurting Americans. And it’s deliberate.




I found this ****ing hilarious
 


I found this ****ing hilarious
Good watch.
trump is a scummy douchebag.

Watch Active Measures

Sent from my CPH2451 using Tapatalk
 
Here’s what I think won’t stand: the revised history, the recent history, of the country, offered by Trump and the cult. Electing him means the continuation of a fictional narrative of American history. American history, according to Donald Trump. If the authoritarian nature of that fictional narrative isn’t clear to his cult by now, either because they cannot see it, or would prefer not to talk about that part for political reasons, they will go along. The nation will be expected to accept the Big Lie, which by now is an “historical alternative fact”, and move fwd into the future on a phony narrative of who we are and where we are as a nation.
It’s funny how things work sometimes. After offering the above thoughts yesterday, I stumbled across David Corn and realized he is also focused on Trump’s creation of a fictional alternative reality. I think we’re so accustomed to lies from Trump, it’s certainly so normalized by now, that the concerted effort to rewrite history by Trump, which started dawning on me, can slide right by people. “Yeah , he’s lying, what else is new?”. True, but, as noted, he’s creating a fake history, and if elected, this will continue to be presented as true. I cannot be the only one who thinks it’s absurd to move into the future on the back of a fake narrative of where we we’ve been, and where we are. This is the stuff of a Strongman who would be dictator. Not saying our institutions can’t deal with it, but we should at least recognize it!!

Bingo: “Trump is not merely heading a campaign fueled by the routine lies of politics. He is endeavoring to use these and other lies to create an alternative reality for millions so they will vote on the basis of a false understanding of the world”. Exactly what I said, and I believe really cannot stand in the long run. This is not Russia. Yet.


As Donald Trump attempts to return to the White House, he is not operating a political campaign as much as mounting a disinformation campaign.

Trump’s dishonesty goes further than the usual campaign lying. He concocts and promotes utterly false narratives to shape voters’ perceptions of fundamental realities. His campaign is a full-fledged project to pervert how Americans view the nation and the world, an extensive propaganda campaign designed to fire up fears and intensify anxieties that Trump can then exploit to collect votes. And the political media world has yet to come to terms with the fact that Trump is heading a disinformation crusade more likely to be found in an authoritarian state than a vibrant democracy. This is unlike other presidential campaigns in modern American history—other than his own previous efforts.

Not merely peddling a series of lies, Trump is knitting together a full story that is utterly bogus, trying to convince tens of millions of a reality that does not exist: They’re living in a dangerous hellhole in which they’re imperiled by barbarians, who happen to be people of color. And Trump then accuses Harris and President Joe Biden of purposefully orchestrating this purportedly deadly situation and the collapse of America. At a recent campaign stop, Trump presented a nutty conspiracy theory: “I will shut down all entries through Kamala’s migrant phone app. She’s got a phone app. It’s meant for the cartel heads. The cartel heads call the app, and they tell them where to drop the illegal migrants…It’s not even believable.” It’s not true.

The overarching goal of Trump’s disinformation efforts is to persuade voters that they should live in fear—and that only he can save them.

Trump has been depicting all of America as a place of tremendous peril: “You can’t walk across the street to get a loaf of bread. You get shot, you get mugged, you get raped, you get whatever it may be and you’ve seen it and I’ve seen it.” Yet crime rates across the nation are down this year, including for murder.

A critical piece of his disinformation strategy is to present Democrats as perverse extremists—and baby-killers. At rallies, he lies to his supporters and says that in states run by Democrats it is okay to kill infants after they are born. There are no states where that is legal. He says that Harris “wants to legalize fentanyl.” No she doesn’t.

It’s one bull**** story after another, with the malicious intent of dehumanizing and demonizing his political rivals and large groups of people.

He is perpetuating a fraud. His electoral success is dependent on his ability to poison the national discourse and turn his fictions into reality for tens of millions of voters. And he is enthusiastically aided by a right-wing media ecosystem, a conservative movement, and a GOP that all work together to echo and affirm Trump’s deceptions, for that is how residents of MAGA-land attain influence, power, and profit. They must endorse Trump’s deceit or face being excommunicated.

“Trump is running a disinformation campaign,” confirms Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a New York University history professor who studies authoritarianism. “I also have long sustained that he is running a radicalization campaign, using his rallies since 2015 to change the way people perceive violence, to build his leader cult. It’s unprecedented even among most autocrats on the rise. People like Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, would tell lies about some things or target some subjects, but Trump lies about everything, on the model of the Kremlin (big surprise).”

The author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, Ben-Ghiat adds, “Trump is one of the most successful propagandists in history. He managed to convince tens of millions that he won a national election working not in a domesticated media system or a one-party state but in a fully pluralist media environment in a democracy. No one has ever done that on that scale. Also look at what he’s accomplished with the perception of January 6.”

Trump is not merely heading a campaign fueled by the routine lies of politics. He is endeavoring to use these and other lies to create an alternative reality for millions so they will vote on the basis of a false understanding of the world. “I get asked all the time how to counteract it,” Hett notes, “and I wish I had a better answer than ‘come with the truth and try to teach critical reading skills where and when you can.'” Diamond says, “What frustrates me is that I don’t know how to counter this. If you point out every single lie, it’s all you’ll be reporting. And still people will believe this.”

Trump’s disinformation con, boosted and abetted by a political party, an expansive media infrastructure, and an entire political movement, is a challenge for the United States and a test. Can his all-out war on the truth prevail? That depends on whether other media accurately portrays it, on how the rest of the political system responds to it, and on whether enough voters resist its pull. Trump has gotten far with this campaign, proving that disinformation delivered by the right carnival barker can be highly effective within America. The final vote count—and perhaps what happens afterward—will show if this nation can resolve its political divisions and differences within the realm of reason and rationality.
 
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I found this ****ing hilarious

I don’t think it was known at the time that Nixon was undermining the peace talks, but yeah, the war dragged on for years after the 68 election. As far as Trump, thanks to Woodward, we now know Trump has talked to Putin a few times since leaving office. He looks up to Putin. He admires and has tons of respect for Putin. And, just as Putin delivers a fake version of Russian history, Trump is more than willing to fabricate a fake version of recent American history, like the dedicated authoritarian that he is…..
 

Last november, during a symposium at Mount Vernon on democracy, John Kelly, the retired Marine Corps general who served as Donald Trump’s second chief of staff, spoke about George Washington’s historic accomplishments—his leadership and victory in the Revolutionary War, his vision of what an American president should be. And then Kelly offered a simple, three-word summary of Washington’s most important contribution to the nation he liberated.

“He went home,” Kelly said.

The message was unambiguous. After leaving the White House, Kelly had described Trump as a “person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about.” At Mount Vernon, he was making a clear point: People who are mad for power are a mortal threat to democracy. They may hold different titles—even President—but at heart they are tyrants, and all tyrants share the same trait: They never voluntarily cede power.

The American revolutionaries feared a powerful executive; they had, after all, just survived a war with a king. Yet when the Founders gathered in 1787 to draft the Constitution, they approved a powerful presidential office, because of their faith in one man: Washington.

Washington’s life is a story of heroic actions, but also of temptations avoided, of things he would not do. As a military officer, Washington refused to take part in a plot to overthrow Congress. As a victorious general, he refused to remain in command after the war had ended. As president, he refused to hold on to an office that he did not believe belonged to him. His insistence on the rule of law and his willingness to return power to its rightful owners—the people of the United States—are among his most enduring gifts to the nation and to democratic civilization.

Forty-four men have succeeded Washington so far. Some became titans; others finished their terms without distinction; a few ended their service to the nation in ignominy. But each of them knew that the day would come when it would be their duty and honor to return the presidency to the people.

All but one, that is.

Donald Trump and his authoritarian political movement represent an existential threat to every ideal that Washington cherished and encouraged in his new nation. They are the incarnation of Washington’s misgivings about populism, partisanship, and the “spirit of revenge” that Washington lamented as the animating force of party politics. Washington feared that, amid constant political warfare, some citizens would come to “seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual,” and that eventually a demagogue would exploit that sentiment.
 
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I don’t hate Donald Trump. I recognize who he is, and what he represents. People who think this is all about hate, all about TDS, may be consumed by hatred themselves, when in the bright light of day, it’s about resistance, to my dying breath, to this man: “A person that has no idea what America stands for, and has no idea what America is all about”.
—————————————-

Gen. Kelly, one year ago:

“What can I add that has not already been said?” Kelly said, when asked if he wanted to weigh in on his former boss in light of recent comments made by other former Trump officials. “A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.

“A person who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women,” Kelly continued. “A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason – in expectation that someone will take action. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.

“There is nothing more that can be said,” Kelly concluded. “God help us.”

 
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Last november, during a symposium at Mount Vernon on democracy, John Kelly, the retired Marine Corps general who served as Donald Trump’s second chief of staff, spoke about George Washington’s historic accomplishments—his leadership and victory in the Revolutionary War, his vision of what an American president should be. And then Kelly offered a simple, three-word summary of Washington’s most important contribution to the nation he liberated.

“He went home,” Kelly said.

The message was unambiguous. After leaving the White House, Kelly had described Trump as a “person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about.” At Mount Vernon, he was making a clear point: People who are mad for power are a mortal threat to democracy. They may hold different titles—even President—but at heart they are tyrants, and all tyrants share the same trait: They never voluntarily cede power.

The American revolutionaries feared a powerful executive; they had, after all, just survived a war with a king. Yet when the Founders gathered in 1787 to draft the Constitution, they approved a powerful presidential office, because of their faith in one man: Washington.

Washington’s life is a story of heroic actions, but also of temptations avoided, of things he would not do. As a military officer, Washington refused to take part in a plot to overthrow Congress. As a victorious general, he refused to remain in command after the war had ended. As president, he refused to hold on to an office that he did not believe belonged to him. His insistence on the rule of law and his willingness to return power to its rightful owners—the people of the United States—are among his most enduring gifts to the nation and to democratic civilization.

Forty-four men have succeeded Washington so far. Some became titans; others finished their terms without distinction; a few ended their service to the nation in ignominy. But each of them knew that the day would come when it would be their duty and honor to return the presidency to the people.

All but one, that is.

Donald Trump and his authoritarian political movement represent an existential threat to every ideal that Washington cherished and encouraged in his new nation. They are the incarnation of Washington’s misgivings about populism, partisanship, and the “spirit of revenge” that Washington lamented as the animating force of party politics. Washington feared that, amid constant political warfare, some citizens would come to “seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual,” and that eventually a demagogue would exploit that sentiment.
There are a few other Presidents I like more than Washington and have more interest in their life and administration, but when I am asked (no one ever asks me this, really) who I think was the most important President or most influential, or anything like that I say Washington. The reason is because he left willingly after being a perfectly wonderful President and with enough support to be the President for life. Not until FDR, who I think was looking to rule for life, and actually did that, did any President serve more than 2 terms and now it's part of the Constitution.
 
Elizabeth Warren would have been a fantastic President in 2020. She was my choice by far. In 2024 she is too old. I'd vote for Harris over Warren in this election. In my opinion Presidents don't matter too much as long as they don't have bad intentions. I think Presidents have almost no power to do positive things without convincing congress and the senate to vote for it. I think they have nearly unlimited power to do negative things that in the worst case scenario could end human life on Earth, or at least TEOTWAWKI.

I don't think Harris intends harm. I think that Trump does.

There's nothing else to this story.
I don’t disagree with much of what you wrote, but the American system is built for the type of intentions Trump has. As cuckoo as it sounds, free market capitalism and the system of checks & balances fundamentally depends on it. Trump is an extra-special type of egomaniacal douchebag who tested things in ways they have never been tested before, and afterwards the system was reinforced via the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022.


The system has been Trump-proofed. If Trump were to win, he’d get in to office and do Trump things that would have people talking about Trump. Four years later the tide would come in to wash Trump’s sandcastles away.

Kamala Harris isn’t bad. I don’t know the supposed deep state players working Kamala’s marionette strings are that bad. The Getty group *IS* that bad, but they are not the ones currently controlling Kamala. TEOTWAWKI in human form looks like this:

220px-Newsom_April_2024_%28cropped%29.jpg


When that guy gets in to office, the game is over. America is over. The Getty group has found an exploit that works, and we cannot patch it once in place. As of this election, it is only installed in about a third of US states. When Gavin Newsom gets into office, they’ll pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act which will mandate installation in all 50 states. No incoming tide 4 years later will wash it away. One party will control the White House and have super-majorities in both chambers of Congress permanently while the Supreme Court will be effectively neutered as an entity able to function as a check on the power of the Executive.
 
I don’t disagree with much of what you wrote, but the American system is built for the type of intentions Trump has. As cuckoo as it sounds, free market capitalism and the system of checks & balances fundamentally depends on it. Trump is an extra-special type of egomaniacal douchebag who tested things in ways they have never been tested before, and afterwards the system was reinforced via the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022.


The system has been Trump-proofed. If Trump were to win, he’d get in to office and do Trump things that would have people talking about Trump. Four years later the tide would come in to wash Trump’s sandcastles away.

Kamala Harris isn’t bad. I don’t know the supposed deep state players working Kamala’s marionette strings are that bad. The Getty group *IS* that bad, but they are not the ones currently controlling Kamala. TEOTWAWKI in human form looks like this:

220px-Newsom_April_2024_%28cropped%29.jpg


When that guy gets in to office, the game is over. America is over. The Getty group has found an exploit that works, and we cannot patch it once in place. As of this election, it is only installed in about a third of US states. When Gavin Newsom gets into office, they’ll pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act which will mandate installation in all 50 states. No incoming tide 4 years later will wash it away. One party will control the White House and have super-majorities in both chambers of Congress permanently while the Supreme Court will be effectively neutered as an entity able to function as a check on the power of the Executive.
You are still wrong about the last part. All the Republican party has to do is shift to meet voters where they are. This happened in the past to the extent that the Republican party became the old Democrat party and the old Democrat party became the new Republican party. I mean it's not that clean, but the parties essentially traded geographic territory strongholds along with the demographics of their respective party.

The Republicans aren't going to stay relevant just catering to rural voters. Why act like the actual problem is voter access when the Problem is that the Republicans have tied themselves to a smaller and smaller piece of the pie, old people, rural communities, racists, and the ultra-religious. Like you're telling me this is about voting rules and I'm looking at the target audience of the Republican party and saying I don't think voting rules are the biggest problem. Of course voter access, however it happens, favors the Democrats. That's because the Republican demographics are made up of people who ARE GOING TO VOTE, and the Democrats will vote if it is easy and they don't have anything else mildly important to do that day.
 
the Problem is that the Republicans have tied themselves to a smaller and smaller piece of the pie, old people, rural communities, racists, and the ultra-religious.
The polling doesn’t show the GOP tying themselves to a smaller and smaller piece of the pie. Trump is currently polling better right now than he was in either 2016 or 2020. Many left apparatchiks are panicking over how fast Black and Hispanic men are moving into Trump’s base of support. The outreach is there and it is showing in the polling data. Kamala is falling in the polls, especially in the battleground states.

https://www.realclearpolling.com/latest-polls/election

Polling_Oct9.gif

It doesn’t matter. I’ve said this before, but Orange County, California was a super right county. There aren’t rural areas. It is nice houses, shopping centers, and office parks from edge to edge. The first election after these changes were made to the system statewide, the local GOP candidates were leading in every poll. On election night, the counts were all going in their favor and then the trucks pulled up with the harvested votes. The vote counts looked exactly like they did in Michigan and Wisconsin, with vertical spikes to give the democrat challenger the win in every race.

It is no longer about ideas or outreach. How well financed and organized the ground game determines election outcomes under the new system. I'll believe the new system can be beat when I see someone beat it. So far, I haven't seen it defeated.
 
The polling doesn’t show the GOP tying themselves to a smaller and smaller piece of the pie. Trump is currently polling better right now than he was in either 2016 or 2020. Many left apparatchiks are panicking over how fast Black and Hispanic men are moving into Trump’s base of support. The outreach is there and it is showing in the polling data. Kamala is falling in the polls, especially in the battleground states.

https://www.realclearpolling.com/latest-polls/election

View attachment 17347

It doesn’t matter. I’ve said this before, but Orange County, California was a super right county. There aren’t rural areas. It is nice houses, shopping centers, and office parks from edge to edge. The first election after these changes were made to the system statewide, the local GOP candidates were leading in every poll. On election night, the counts were all going in their favor and then the trucks pulled up with the harvested votes. The vote counts looked exactly like they did in Michigan and Wisconsin, with vertical spikes to give the democrat challenger the win in every race.

It is no longer about ideas or outreach. How well financed and organized the ground game determines election outcomes under the new system. I'll believe the new system can be beat when I see someone beat it. So far, I haven't seen it defeated.
I have really tried my best to understand why harvesting inherently benefits Democrats, rather than just enhancing the participation of their current supporters? Those supporters could become Republican voters. Then it would be an "unfair" advantage for Republicans. Your flex about the alpha demographic notwithstanding, which is actually counter to your argument about ballot harvesting.
 
I have really tried my best to understand why harvesting inherently benefits Democrats, rather than just enhancing the participation of their current supporters? Those supporters could become Republican voters. Then it would be an "unfair" advantage for Republicans. Your flex about the alpha demographic notwithstanding, which is actually counter to your argument about ballot harvesting.
My argument is based purely on observation, not theory. You can quibble about how it theoretically could shift or be used equally, but in the real world I have not ever seen that. It always benefits democrats, and it is never reversible. Nationally, it is operators on the left trying to expand it and operators on the right fighting as hard as they can to contain it. Maybe your musings will prove correct but I'll believe it when I see it. I see Trump in a polling position that prior to 2018 would indicate a win, and I'm thinking there is a zero percent chance he'll win. I've seen this play out enough times that I'm confident in knowing how it ends. We won't have to wait long to see if I'm correct.
 
My argument is based purely on observation, not theory. You can quibble about how it theoretically could shift or be used equally, but in the real world I have not ever seen that. It always benefits democrats, and it is never reversible. Nationally, it is operators on the left trying to expand it and operators on the right fighting as hard as they can to contain it. Maybe your musings will prove correct but I'll believe it when I see it. I see Trump in a polling position that prior to 2018 would indicate a win, and I'm thinking there is a zero percent chance he'll win. I've seen this play out enough times that I'm confident in knowing how it ends. We won't have to wait long to see if I'm correct.
I think polling is flawed atm because they are using assumptions based on behavior from 30+ years ago, and they do not have the ability to even create a modern model because it wouldn't be relevant from one election cycle to the next. Polling is probably broken for at least this Presidential election and the next. I think it depends on AI, so until AI either produces a reliable polling strategy or just goes ahead and tells us who is going to win, I don't think polling means anything.
 
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