All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Tami]

How Reality-TV Fame Handed Trump a $427 Million Lifeline

From the back seat of a stretch limousine heading to meet the first contestants for his new TV show “The Apprentice,” Donald J. Trump bragged that he was a billionaire who had overcome financial hardship.

“I used my brain, I used my negotiating skills and I worked it all out,” he told viewers. “Now, my company is bigger than it ever was and stronger than it ever was.”

It was all a hoax.

Months after that inaugural episode in January 2004, Mr. Trump filed his individual tax return reporting $89.9 million in net losses from his core businesses for the prior year. The red ink spilled from everywhere, even as American television audiences saw him as a savvy business mogul with the Midas touch.

Twelve years later, that image of the self-made, self-saved mogul, beamed into the national consciousness, would help fuel Mr. Trump’s improbable election to the White House.

But while the story of “The Apprentice” is by now well known, the president’s tax returns reveal another grand twist that has never been truly told — how the popularity of that fictional alter ego rescued him, providing a financial lifeline to reinvent himself yet again. And then how, in an echo of the boom-and-bust cycle that has defined his business career, he led himself toward the financial shoals he must navigate today.

Mr. Trump’s genius, it turned out, wasn’t running a company. It was making himself famous — Trump-scale famous — and monetizing that fame.

[Mister Mets]

Trump's approval after tax reveal, 42%. Trump's approval after an embarrassing debate Tuesday, 42%. Nothing will desuade his adoring followers.
Let's hope the other 58% make the right choice.

A Politico/ Morning Consult poll has Trump at 39 percent.

https://assets.morningconsult.com/wp..._RVs_v1_AP.pdf

He is somewhat teflon, but he still has a very low ceiling.

I just find it insane the amount of **** Obama got for tan suits, and having a coffee in his hand, but Trump is just A Okay. Like, what is wrong with people.

Our governmental system is deeply damaged. Possibly irreparably.

And even Republicans who dislike Trump still support the Republicans that are letting Trump happen, and walk away without any repercussions. I cannot understand it. My brain cannot fathom what it takes to think that way.

If Trump happened to my party and they were giving him a pass, I'd be fucking done with all of them.

The tan suits thing is ridiculously exaggerated.

It seemed to be people on social media who were bored in late August. The comments at the time were largely nonpartisan, and many from left-wing figures.

https://mashable.com/2014/08/28/pres...bama-tan-suit/
https://abcnews.go.com/US/social-med...ry?id=25166551
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2014...or-summer.html

As far as I can tell no one on the political forum was talking about it at the time.

https://community.cbr.com/showthread...eyond!/page140

This has to just be the end of the GOP as we know it, right? Like, this **** cannot just pass unabated, right?

Parties are remarkably effective at bouncing back.

Nixon wins 49 states in 1972, and resigns in disgrace within two years. In 1974, Democrats get 57.5% of the vote in House elections to Republicans' 40.7%.

People talk about how Republicans have a lock on the House of Representatives due to a combination of geography and gerrymandering.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politic...ght-dems-house

And Pelosi's back as speaker after the 2018 elections.

[Gray Lensman]

On an interesting side note, today at dinner I got two texts on the police emergency line telling me not to vote for the current incumbent for the state senate in my district.

ON. THE. EMERGENCY. SYSTEM.

[Gray Lensman]

Also, I got my copy of "It Was All A Lie" the other day. and it mentioned one thing that often doesn't get talked about when discussing the party realignment that happened after 1964. Everyone talks about how the GoP nominated Barry Goldwater (whose Republican opponents openly called him a bigot) but what isn't mentioned very often is that was the same election cycle that saw the Democrats reject George Wallace. So it was a one-two punch of the Republicans embracing a racist while the Democrats rejected thiers. Of course, this was followed in the next few years by LBJ's initiatives and then by Nixon's Southern Strategy followup.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Coronavirus Is Now Responsible For At Least 1 Million Deaths Worldwide

The United States has recorded the most COVID-19 deaths of any country, followed by Brazil and India. Meanwhile....

**********

Dr. Fauci Calls Out Fox News For Misleading Reports About Coronavirus

The infectious disease expert also called Trump’s new coronavirus adviser, Dr. Scott Atlas, an “outlier.” Fauci should've used a stronger word, "yes man"!

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Trump’s Tax Debt Could Make Him A National Security Risk, Ethics Experts Say

He could be manipulated to sway U.S. policy by organizations or individuals he’s indebted to. "Could make him a risk"? Who's to say he isn't already?

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Trump Needs To Win The Election To Keep His ‘Get Out Of Jail Free’ Card

Trump’s tax returns highlight just how much he needs to stay in office to avoid possible prosecution and mountains of debt. Laws need to be put into place right away to make vetting for presidential candidates strong af. Candidates with sketchy financial situations or who refuse to provide their tax returns should be immediately disqualifying so **** like this never happens again.

**********

2020 U.S. Census Will End On Oct. 5 Despite Court Order, Commerce Secretary Says

Wilbur Ross announced the end of the census despite a federal judge’s ruling that it should continue through the end of October. What's the rush, Wilbur?

**********

GOP Sen. Joni Ernst Says There’s A ‘Very Minimal’ Chance Roe v. Wade Will Be Overturned

Republican senators are trying to reassure voters the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court won’t lead to politically unpopular outcomes. Anyone who believes that bullshit is either naive or stupid.

[Steel Inquisitor]

The tan suits thing is ridiculously exaggerated.

It seemed to be people on social media who were bored in late August. The comments at the time were largely nonpartisan, and many from left-wing figures.

https://mashable.com/2014/08/28/pres...bama-tan-suit/
https://abcnews.go.com/US/social-med...ry?id=25166551
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2014...or-summer.html

As far as I can tell no one on the political forum was talking about it at the time.

https://community.cbr.com/showthread...eyond!/page140

I was there when that happened, it was a national disgrace. Fox News wouldn't shut up about it and other racist attacks on the Obamas. The fact a thread on a tiny comic forum didn't speak about it much proves nothing, and the people who would engage in that negative behavior wouldn't last long in these political threads anyway. The GOP weren't friendly to minorities before Trump, he just goes overboard with which says something when their racism was on display back then.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I was there when that happened, it was a national disgrace. Fox News wouldn't shut up about it and other racist attacks on the Obamas. The fact a thread on a tiny comic forum didn't speak about it much proves nothing, and the people who would engage in that negative behavior wouldn't last long in these political threads anyway. The GOP weren't friendly to minorities before Trump, he just goes overboard with which says something when their racism was on display back then.

Imagine the mouth foaming outrage if Michelle had worn white after Labor Day, I mean, that would've made heads explode from coast to coast. Never mind the fact there are picture out there of Saint Ronnie having worn a tan suit, Bush I too, but I'm not sure, and yet, crickets from the right. Yeah, it was all about racism when it came to the Obamas, and nothing has changed today, other than Trump having made it fashionable and permissible.

[Tami]

Exclusive: As States Prepared Mail-in Ballots, Postal Service Failed to Update at Least 1.8 Million Addresses

For three weeks in August, as election officials across the country were preparing to send out mail-in ballots to tens of millions of voters, the U.S. Postal Service stopped fully updating a national change of address system that most states use to keep their voter rolls current, according to multiple officials who use the system. A USPS spokesperson acknowledged the failure in response to questions from TIME, and said that at least 1.8 million new changes of address had not been registered in the database.

It is not clear to what extent the failure, which has not been previously reported, could compromise Americans’ ability to vote in this fall’s election. In normal times, hundreds of thousands of people move every week, and those numbers have increased during the COVID pandemic, which has forced millions of people, particularly young adults, to relocate at higher rates than usual, according to public polling and news reports. As of early June, some 3% of adults had moved and 6% had someone move in with them because of the pandemic, according to a Pew survey. That, and concern about the health risks of voting in person, experts from both parties say, will mean an unprecedented reliance on mail-in voting this year.

Several states contacted by TIME were unaware of the change-of-address problem. Officials in Minnesota, for one, sent out their ballot applications by mail earlier in September based partly on information drawn from the faulty database in August, the state’s election officials say. Other states had to delay sending out their ballots as they scrambled to fix incorrect addresses. At least 43 states plus the District of Columbia use the USPS change of address database. Many, like Minnesota, face close presidential contests, including Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

[Tami]

Trump Secretly Mocks His Christian Supporters

One day in 2015, Donald Trump beckoned Michael Cohen, his longtime confidant and personal attorney, into his office. Trump was brandishing a printout of an article about an Atlanta-based megachurch pastor trying to raise $60 million from his flock to buy a private jet. Trump knew the preacher personally—Creflo Dollar had been among a group of evangelical figures who visited him in 2011 while he was first exploring a presidential bid. During the meeting, Trump had reverently bowed his head in prayer while the pastors laid hands on him. Now he was gleefully reciting the impious details of Dollar’s quest for a Gulfstream G650.

Trump seemed delighted by the “scam,” Cohen recalled to me, and eager to highlight that the pastor was “full of ****.”

“They’re all hustlers,” Trump said.

The president’s alliance with religious conservatives has long been premised on the contention that he takes them seriously, while Democrats hold them in disdain. In speeches and interviews, Trump routinely lavishes praise on conservative Christians, casting himself as their champion. “My administration will never stop fighting for Americans of faith,” he declared at a rally for evangelicals earlier this year. It’s a message his campaign will seek to amplify in the coming weeks as Republicans work to confirm Amy Coney Barrett—a devout, conservative Catholic—to the Supreme Court.

But in private, many of Trump’s comments about religion are marked by cynicism and contempt, according to people who have worked for him. Former aides told me they’ve heard Trump ridicule conservative religious leaders, dismiss various faith groups with cartoonish stereotypes, and deride certain rites and doctrines held sacred by many of the Americans who constitute his base.

And yet, by the end of the meeting—much of which was spent discussing the urgency of preventing trans women from using women’s restrooms—the candidate had the group eating out of his hand. “I’m not voting for Trump to be the teacher of my third grader’s Sunday-school class. That’s not what he’s running for,” Jeffress said in the meeting, adding, “I believe it is imperative … that we do everything we can to turn people out.”

The Faustian nature of the religious right’s bargain with Trump has not always been quite so apparent to rank-and-file believers. According to the Pew Research Center, white evangelicals are more than twice as likely as the average American to say that the president is a religious man. Some conservative pastors have described him as a “baby Christian,” and insist that he’s accepted Jesus Christ as his savior.

To those who have known and worked with Trump closely, the notion that he might have a secret spiritual side is laughable. “I always assumed he was an atheist,” Barbara Res, a former executive at the Trump Organization, told me. “He’s not a religious guy,” A. J. Delgado, who worked on his 2016 campaign, told me. “Whenever I see a picture of him standing in a group of pastors, all of their hands on him, I see a thought bubble [with] the words ‘What suckers,’” Mary Trump, the president’s niece, told me.

[Tami]

11 years ago, Sully was called for his moment. Now, we are all called to this moment.

Join Sully in regaining control of this nation's destiny by voting Donald Trump out.

In partnership with @votevets.

Twitter Link

[Tami]

Tibetan diaspora spying case in New York sows distrust and confusion

For staff of the Tibetan community centre in the New York neighbourhood of Woodside, the alarm bells started ringing when a local police officer suggested that they should stop flying the Tibetan flag outside their building.

The NYPD officer – who was himself Tibetan – was a familiar face: Baimadajie Angwang had dropped by the Tibetan Community of New York and New Jersey several times in early 2019 with offers to help.

But his comment about the flag prompted some raised eyebrows, said Tashi Chomphel, at the time a board member at the centre.

“He said: ‘it’s not good for you, there are people who want to use this centre, maybe from other communities … People who want to donate to you – big businessmen,’ things like that,” Chomphel told the Guardian “He was discouraging.”

Last week, Angwang was charged with being an intelligence asset for China, working secretly with handlers based at the Chinese consulate in New York.

According to court papers, Angwang – a naturalized US citizen originally from Tibet – had worked for Beijing since 2018, as part of its efforts to influence the Tibetan independence movement.

[Tami]

Eric Trump: "The LGBT community, they are incredible. And you should see how they come out in full force for my father every single day. I'm part of that community, and we love the man."

Just waiting for the Twitter Hashtag #EricComeOut


‘We don’t want him!’ Eric Trump sparks confusion by declaring himself part of the LGBT community

[worstblogever]

Eric Trump: "The LGBT community, they are incredible. And you should see how they come out in full force for my father every single day. I'm part of that community, and we love the man."

Just waiting for the Twitter Hashtag #EricComeOut


‘We don’t want him!’ Eric Trump sparks confusion by declaring himself part of the LGBT community

Today is the awkward moment when Don Jr. and Ivanka have to explain to Eric why he's not a lesbian.

[Tami]

I found this to be very funny on a few different levels:

Hello from my dining table, where I'll be listening remotely to arguments set to start at 11am on DOJ's motion to dismiss the prosecution against Michael Flynn. For a refresher on the months-long legal fight over whether this hearing should happen at all:

The judge will do the hearing via video conferencing, but the public/press can only call in to listen to the audio. If you'd like to dial in, the court has made multiple lines available to accommodate lots of callers! (There were already 300+ people on the line when I dialed in.)

The lawyers had been chatting amongst themselves for a while but it's now gotten a lot quieter after someone noted that everyone who had called in could hear them

[Joker]

The tan suits thing is ridiculously exaggerated.

BUT YOU REMEMBER IT. That's the point.

Parties are remarkably effective at bouncing back.

Nixon is, I will admit, the only real parallel, but as you said, he resigned in disgrace within two years. Trump is running for reelection.

Trump has ruined the economy. Trump has ruined our standing in the world. Trump has divided the nation in a way not seen since the Civil Rights Movement. In fact, you could almost say Trump has caused a second Civil Rights movement. Trump has caused 200,000 deaths through incompetence and inaction. And do we really need to move on from that last one? 200,000 dead and the GOP and Trump are no closer to resolving this fucking situation. In fact, they're trying to get closer to TAKING AWAY HEALTH CARE from American Citizens in the middle of a PANDEMIC they won't make any effort to deal with.

Two. Hundred. Thousand. Dead. Americans. From the party that says all lives matter. The pro life party.

How is your party not a complete disgrace in your eyes? What leg do they stand on with you that you're still willing to help them along? Are you a racist? Do you hate women having the right to chose how they manage their own bodies? Do you hate poor people? Do you hate people having affordable health care? Do you just LOVE insurance companies? Are you a "Fiscal Conservative"? (Because they tank the goddamn economy every time they're in charge, so that's wildly laughable.) Do you just hate taxes? You're a teacher, but the GOP don't value education. So what is it? What is it about Republicans that you find worth supporting with your vote? Not Trump, because I know you don't like him, but the GOP in general? What is it Mets?

I am genuinely curious how you can still sit there and support them. You said once that you vote GOP because their policies "benefit the most people". Is it the 200,000 and counting, dead through inaction? Is that the "most people" being benefited? Is it the people they're trying to take health care away from while American's are still dying at unheard of levels? Who is it? What GOP policies benefit the "most people"? I'm glad you're not voting for Trump, but Trump happened and is still happening because your party support him. So how can you still support that party?

I am asking this as a genuine line of questioning,, because I don't get it. At all. I cannot wrap my head around it anymore.