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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#326376: Sep 5th 2020 at 11:25:22 PM

Holy fuck, the man was obsessed.

“Was”?

Edited by M84 on Sep 6th 2020 at 2:27:28 AM

Disgusted, but not surprised
RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#326377: Sep 5th 2020 at 11:26:22 PM

I'm baffled there's even a photo.

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#326378: Sep 5th 2020 at 11:27:05 PM

Of course Trump would have a picture taken.

He's a petty, petty man.

Disgusted, but not surprised
RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#326379: Sep 5th 2020 at 11:29:28 PM

His lack of forethought strikes again: throwing everyone under the bus isn't great.

Protagonist506 from Oregon Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#326380: Sep 5th 2020 at 11:33:02 PM

I'm actually left a bit speechless for once. I mean, I thought Trump couldn't do anything to make me respect him less, but he went and did it.

Leviticus 19:34
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#326381: Sep 5th 2020 at 11:41:21 PM

This is a man who spread a racist conspiracy theory about Obama's citizenship and ran for President for a chance to destroy Obama's legacy just because Obama roasted him once over said conspiracy theory.

Something like this would be entirely in character.

Edited by M84 on Sep 6th 2020 at 2:41:45 AM

Disgusted, but not surprised
Eschaton Since: Jul, 2010
#326382: Sep 5th 2020 at 11:41:55 PM

The case has been cracked.

Trump tweeted he was working on a "big surprise" for the 2012 RNC, which Salon writer Alex Pareene guessed was "almost definitely just going to be some idiotic video where Trump 'fires' an Obama impersonator."

Naturally, Trump then specifically targeted Pareene on Twitter. The "surprise" was ultimately cancelled due a to convention scheduling shift.

In fact, the video exists, obtained by Breitbart years ago.

Edited by Eschaton on Sep 5th 2020 at 11:59:16 AM

slimcoder The Head of the Hydra Since: May, 2013
The Head of the Hydra
#326383: Sep 5th 2020 at 11:48:27 PM

Its ironic that he may genuinely be senile considering how much he brags about passing that mental acumen test & constantly insults Biden as senile.

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."
Clarste One Winged Egret Since: Jun, 2009 Relationship Status: Non-Canon
One Winged Egret
#326384: Sep 6th 2020 at 1:00:18 AM

I don't think it's that weird, it's just a goofy attack ad where the host of the Apprentice symbolically "fires" the sitting president of the United States. There have been thousands of way dumber political cartoons published, so something like this doesn't sound at all unreasonable.

If anything, the weirdest part of the story is that Trump decided not to publish it.

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#326385: Sep 6th 2020 at 4:19:37 AM

Clint Eastwood spent several minutes yelling at an empty chair. This is Obama Derangement Syndrome.

Edited by Fighteer on Sep 6th 2020 at 7:19:48 AM

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Forenperser Foreign Troper from Germany Since: Mar, 2012
Foreign Troper
#326386: Sep 6th 2020 at 4:23:04 AM

To his credit, he at least later said he regretted it.

Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% Scandinavian
Reflextion from a post-sanity world (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: What's love got to do with it?
#326387: Sep 6th 2020 at 4:47:34 AM

Translation: He regretted being mocked and called out over it.

Someone did tell me life was going to be this way.
unknowing from somewhere.. Since: Mar, 2014
#326388: Sep 6th 2020 at 4:58:28 AM

That is sill regreating.

If i have to guess, Obama also trigger two things on the Right: that he black president and that he dificult to mock, since he is black but also a quiet man that dosnt comit easy mistakes like trump.

"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"
Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#326389: Sep 6th 2020 at 5:02:38 AM

That chair was so rude

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
Overlord Since: Mar, 2013
#326390: Sep 6th 2020 at 5:37:11 AM

Conservatives did suffer from Obama Derangement Syndrome during his time in office, this action by Trump is not surprising:

https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/15-ridiculous-moments-fox-news-attacked-barack-obama.html/

Forenperser Foreign Troper from Germany Since: Mar, 2012
Foreign Troper
#326391: Sep 6th 2020 at 5:46:38 AM

Add to that "His actual father was Frank Marshal Davis" or "Michelle Obama was really a transwoman." (Not that there would be anything wrong with the latter, mind you)

Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% Scandinavian
nova92 Since: Apr, 2020
#326392: Sep 6th 2020 at 8:51:28 AM

There will be two open spots in House Democratic leadership in the next Congress.

  • Assistant Speaker
    • #4 Democrat, behind Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Hoyer, and Majority Whip Clyburn
    • Current holder Rep. Ben Ray Lujan is (likely) moving to the Senate
    • David Cicilline (RI-1), Tony Cardenas (CA-29) have both declared they are running for the position, while Katherine Clark (MA-5) is likely to but hasn't made an official announcement yet.

Cicilline serves as chairman of the House Democrats's messaging arm, the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC). He is also one of the vice chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and a co-chair of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus.

Cardenas is a leading member of the increasingly powerful Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC). He has served as chairman of the CHC's political arm, Bold PAC, which during the past two cycles raised $17 million for Democrats and boosted the number of Hispanic members from 25 to 39.

Clark, the vice chairwoman of the Democratic caucus and a prolific party fundraiser, also is expected to launch a run for assistant Speaker. She's a popular member who's been courting both minority and female Democrats, two groups that have quickly become the new power centers of the 232-member caucus.

  • Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee
    • Current Chair Eliot Engel lost his primary
    • Brad Sherman (CA-30), Gregory Meeks (NY-5), Joaquin Castro (TX-20) have announced their candidacies.
    • There is a Roll Call article that goes into each Representative's foreign policy positions/priorities; I don't really know enough to comment.

Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#326393: Sep 6th 2020 at 10:19:06 AM

Biden has announced that they're investing in Arizona, Georgia, and Texas because they may be theoretically winnable

I'm not especially surprised by Arizona, it's practically a purple state. But it would be amazing if Georgia goes blue, my joy would be unending.

I'm not really expecting anything to happen in Texas and thus I'm going to avoid getting invested in the idea of it flipping.

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
nova92 Since: Apr, 2020
#326394: Sep 6th 2020 at 10:23:46 AM

Biden probably has the money to spend after that enormous August haul. Taking the Texas State House would do wonders for redistricting, even if neither Biden nor MJ Hegar win their respective races. Arizona was already looking pretty doable on all levels this year, and of course Georgia has its two Senate races.

Edit: Point being that if he has the money and he's shored up the Midwest Blue Wall, this is a good investment.

Edited by nova92 on Sep 6th 2020 at 10:50:58 AM

PointMaid Since: Jun, 2014
#326395: Sep 6th 2020 at 10:26:21 AM

Just as long as they don't take their eyes off the ball on the swing-y states that are already breaking blue, as seemed to happen four years ago. I assume his team have taken that particular object lesson to heart.

[up] In other words, pretty much agreeing with your edit.

Edited by PointMaid on Sep 6th 2020 at 1:27:05 PM

tclittle Professional Forum Ninja from Somewhere Down in Texas Since: Apr, 2010
Professional Forum Ninja
#326396: Sep 6th 2020 at 10:27:48 AM

Washington Post (paywall): DeJoy got employees of his former company New Breed Logistics to make donations to Republicans by offering them bonuses to reimburse them back.

"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."
RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#326397: Sep 6th 2020 at 10:29:42 AM

Bonus points for forcing the Republicans to spend money where they don't want to.

nova92 Since: Apr, 2020
#326398: Sep 6th 2020 at 10:31:09 AM

Although it can be permissible to encourage employees to make donations, reimbursing them for those contributions is a violation of North Carolina and federal election laws. Known as a straw-donor scheme, the practice allows donors to evade individual contribution limits and obscures the true source of money used to influence elections.

Such federal violations carry a five-year statute of limitations. There is no statute of limitations in North Carolina for felonies, including campaign finance violations.

Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#326399: Sep 6th 2020 at 10:36:23 AM

Facebook's plan to prevent election misinformation: Allowing it, mostly: The election is going to be a hot mess, and Facebook isn't really helping.

Facebook is doing more fact checking, but when you refuse to fact check this particular sitting president, you have a real problem on your hands.

They also won't accept new ads before the election, but old ads are allowed to stay on, factual or not.

And of course a big problem is that Facebook tends to be reactive, rather than proactive, and slow about it at that.

The FBI determined extremist movements, including Q Anon, to be threats more than a year ago, but the content was allowed to proliferate on social networks until very recently. Twitter banned Q Anon activity in July, calling it "coordinated harmful activity" that spread offline into real-world injury. The conspiracy movement has been linked to several violent episodes, including a kidnapping and a murder.

Facebook, however, has a record of failing to act against violent threats until it's too late. The company cracked down on Q Anon about two weeks ago, removing thousands of Facebook and Instagram groups, pages, and accounts.

As The Verge's Casey Newton pointed out, that's probably already too little, too late.

"On its face, [Q Anon] seems no less a joke than the idea that Tide Pods secretly taste delicious," Newton wrote. "But as with the laundry detergent, thousands of Americans have now been poisoned by Q Anon, and the consequences seem likely to be far more dire, and long-lasting."

Why experts are overwhelmingly skeptical of online voting: An online voting CEO tried—and failed—to convince me it was a good idea.

The "me" in question is Timothy Lee of Ars Technica.

NSA spying exposed by Snowden was illegal and not very useful, court says: NSA's illegal mass surveillance did not help thwart terror plot, court says.

Besides being illegal and ineffective, the NSA spying program violated the privacy of millions of Americans. "[T]he NSA collected Moalin's (and millions of other Americans') telephony metadata on an ongoing, daily basis for years," the judges wrote. Referring to a ruling from a different case on cell-phone location information, the 9th Circuit judges said that "telephony metadata, 'as applied to individual telephone subscribers, particularly with relation to mobile phone services and when collected on an ongoing basis with respect to all of an individual's calls... permit something akin to... 24-hour surveillance.' This long-term surveillance, made possible by new technology, upends conventional expectations of privacy."

Trump ban on Chinese drone parts risks worsening wildfires: Only a quarter of possible controlled burning has been carried out because of order.

More unexpected and damaging consequences from the trade war. Another example of why a trade war can damage your own side just as badly as the other side.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#326400: Sep 6th 2020 at 10:36:31 AM

Just as long as they don't take their eyes off the ball on the swing-y states that are already breaking blue, as seemed to happen four years ago. I assume his team have taken that particular object lesson to heart.

I agree they shouldn't ignore battleground states but I think it's worth pointing out that "swingy states that are almost breaking blue" perfectly describes Arizona and Georgia.

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang

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