Donald Trump: Classic or Dud?

I mean it'll be a power vacuum but it wasn't as if more extreme right-wing candidates weren't starting to gain footholds even pre-Trump.

him dying leads them to splinter a bit though which helps

it's quite possible I've been out of the country too long at this point and I'm missing the overall US vibe, but trump long-windedly rambling through that tortured train station analogy, getting slightly lost mid-riff, and ending up complaining about "the commies" just doesn't have the juice his past public appearances had imo. I'm not advising anyone to take it easy or anything — and I have no illusions that the core 40% maniac electorate will vote for him, Ron, or whoever the hell — but idk he's lost almost all the showbiz dazzle he once had. maybe that won't matter, I'm not making any predictions, I literally meant it's hard for me to imagine him succeeding again

alternately, it's just that the terror his public appearances used to precipitate in me has finally gone, which means nothing outside of my own brain

a big factor, i think, which is also very hard to measure and very subjective is how people are watching footage of trump these days. up until the early 2010s, it seems like evening news and mainstream newspapers was a major source, maybe the major source. at some point the major sources switched to just straight up propaganda (fox and rightwing radio already being a thing, then breitbart and daily caller then newsmax and OANN and wherever dumbasses get their news from these days)

i guess what i'm trying to say is that i don't think many conservative voters are likely to even see trump say the dumb shit about "the commies". they'll get a version that edits that out. the people who do see it are the true diehards who will watch a full speech by him or attend a rally, and at that point they're clearly some of the worst, hateful people who are currently alive so they're already a convert

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FphnRyUacAA_HGk.jpg

Chuds won’t be turned off, but the not insignificant segment of people who in 2016 may have been like “he’s a successful businessman and I always said we need a businessman as president and sure he says weird things but he’ll mellow out in office” may be tuned off this time.

poll: will you be shocked

A special grand jury that investigated election interference by former President Donald J. Trump and his allies in Georgia recommended indictments of multiple people on a range of charges in its report, most of which remains sealed, the forewoman of the jury said in an interview today.

“It is not a short list,” the forewoman, Emily Kohrs, said, adding that the jury had appended eight pages of legal code “that we cited at various points in the report.”

She declined to discuss who specifically the special grand jury recommended for indictment, since the judge handling the case decided to keep those details secret when he made public a few sections of the report last week. But seven sections that are still under wraps deal with indictment recommendations, Ms. Kohrs said.

Asked whether the jurors had recommended indicting Mr. Trump, Ms. Kohrs gave a cryptic answer: “You’re not going to be shocked. It’s not rocket science,” adding “you won’t be too surprised.”

...“We definitely started with the first phone call, the call to Secretary Raffensperger that was so publicized,” said Ms. Kohrs, whom The Associated Press first named and spoke with on Tuesday about the election meddling investigation.

“I will tell you that if the judge releases the recommendations, it is not going to be some giant plot twist,” she added. “You probably have a fair idea of what may be on there. I’m trying very hard to say that delicately.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/21/us/jury-in-georgia-trump-inquiry-recommended-multiple-indictments-forewoman-says.html

https://i.imgur.com/VIPWosK.png

Ms. Kohrs said she was between jobs, after helping make masks during the pandemic, when she received a grand jury summons last year. Even though she didn’t vote in 2020, she said she was “insanely excited” about serving on the jury, adding, “This is one of the coolest things that’s ever happened to me.”

She could tell that not everyone on the jury felt the same way. “It seemed like everybody else was not initially happy about eight months of jury duty,” she said, and so she volunteered to be the forewoman.

Among the things that surprised her in listening to the testimony, including from a number of officials from the Trump administration, was “how much people curse in the White House.”

As forewoman, she got to swear in each of the witnesses who came through, including her state’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp.

“It was really cool,” she said. “I got 60 seconds of eye contact with everyone who came in the room. You can tell a lot about people in that 60 seconds.”

When she asked David Ralston, the former Georgia House speaker who died in November, if he swore to tell the truth during his testimony last July, he told her “it was the first time in 60 years he had said ‘I do’ to a woman,” Ms. Kohrs said.

Noting that she was 11 when the Sept. 11 attacks happened, Ms. Kohrs said that “Rudy Giuliani is almost like a myth figure in my head, so I’m already intimidated.” She said she made a point of shaking his hand when his testimony was finished.

“It was really cool,” she said. “I got 60 seconds of eye contact with everyone who came in the room. You can tell a lot about people in that 60 seconds.”

this is both true and also what everyone always says, like they're especially good at those 60 seconds. bush was able to get a sense of putin's soul using such methods

As forewoman, she got to swear in each of the witnesses who came through

i keep reading this as "swear in front of" bc of the previous paragraph

with enough chance first interactions of people, i bet you'd find a lot of combos where both people meeting each other shake each other's hands intensely (because you can tell a lot about someone from the way they shake hands) while also staring deeply into each other's eyes (same reason)

"John, get the fuck up to the stand, now"

there's so much in there I missed the detail of her not voting in 2020.

Isn’t the entire point of shaking the hand of someone like Giuliani to pull them in for the head butt? I don’t see anything about the follow through though

She probably didn't want to get any weird dark liquids dripping down the side of his head onto her clothing

I wonder whose idea this was. Hers? Did she have a lawyer, and if so did that lawyer try to talk her out of it? It seems to me to be a really bad idea.

it's quite possible I've been out of the country too long at this point and I'm missing the overall US vibe, but trump long-windedly rambling through that tortured train station analogy, getting slightly lost mid-riff, and ending up complaining about "the commies" just doesn't have the juice his past public appearances had imo.

― rob, Tuesday, February 21, 2023 4:49 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

tbf hes always been like this hour long rambling rallies that the best 30 seconds gets pulled from, which is not to say he hasnt aged and worn down cause he obvs has

The audiences for those gonzo rally speeches are just thrilled to be in The Presence of the Orange God; they aren't following every twist and turn.

Like lagoon I can both recognize decline and suspect it doesn't matter.

Why are news orgs interviewing that juror? She could possibly throw the case in jeopardy.

Knowing trump’s luck, I bet it will.

xp That was my thought exactly. It struck me as very irresponsible.

Wasn’t she advised by the judge not to do this?

i'm sure there are rightwing conspiracies being hatched right now, as well as leftwing counterparts that she was planted as foreperson in order to do exactly what she's doing now and fuck it up. i do have to wonder about the competence of any group of people who selected her as the leader

https://news.yahoo.com/cnn-panel-cringes-trump-grand-050305226.html

Honig, a former state and federal prosecutor, said that the interviews were a “horrible idea” and that prosecutors were probably wincing watching them, adding that it was “painful” to see Kohrs dropping hints.

“This is a very serious prospect here,” he said. “Indicting any person, you’re talking about potentially taking away that person’s liberty. We’re talking about potentially [indicting] a former president for the first time in this nation’s history. She does not seem to be taking that very seriously.”

Honig, a former assistant U.S. attorney, suggested that Kohrs’ comments could pave the way for Trump’s team to make a motion, should he be indicted, to dismiss the indictment based on grand jury impropriety.

“She’s not supposed to be talking about anything really, but she’s really not supposed to be talking about the deliberations,” he said, describing Kohrs as “a prosecutor’s nightmare.”

she said she was “insanely excited” about serving on the jury, adding, “This is one of the coolest things that’s ever happened to me.”

And now she wants to tell you all about it!

The greeting people involved also seems bizarre (shaking Rudy's hand, etc). You're not supposed to have any interaction with the parties involved.

"It's so cool being in Witness Protection. When I was known as Jane Miller, my life was under constant threat from organized crime. Oh, and please don't print that name in the paper", the star witness informed us exclusively this afternoon.

Subsequent attempts to get back in touch with her were unsuccessful.

Aren't jurors allowed to blab all they want after their work is done?

I mean, if I am ever on a high profile jury, just try and stop me! (And comments like that will preclude me from ever serving on said juries.)

I got a federal grand jury summons recently, but I was able to weasel out of it because I appeared for selection on a (non-grand) jury within the last year; one that I was not selected for

(being a victim of a violent crime sucked, but it means I'll probably never be selected so there's that)

i was summoned once in 2006, and never even left the lobby. read an entire Al Franken book that day.

the last time, they told me I didn't even need to show up the day before.

they must read my social media

This reminds me that the last time I got summoned I kicked the can down the road...and next month is the end of the road.

it's a pretty limited group of people that can serve on an 8 month grand jury where you instructed not to look at the news or talk to anyone about the case

you really can't blame them for wanting to get their yap on as soon as it's done

i shook rudys hand looked him dead in the eye and said you are americas mayor

and we're gonna get you out of this mess, sir

(being a victim of a violent crime sucked, but it means I'll probably never be selected so there's that)

I laugh because when I was last called for jury duty and woman said she should be excused for this very reason and the judge said, "ma'am, this is Cook County, everyone has been, or is related to, someone who has been the victim of a crime, that's not going to get you out of performing your civic duty".

Now, I do suspect that if the case involved a violent crime and wasn't a civil case that might have actually been taken into account - but you could see the shoulders slump on other potential jurors who hoped that would be their ticket out.

when you know a secret but you're not supposed to share but technically you are allowed to share so

https://i.imgur.com/figOhQ4.png

So he went to Ohio...

Not paper towels. This time tossing MAGA hats in a McDonalds.

Leadership. pic.twitter.com/YHc5ziDnJK

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) February 22, 2023

Please enjoy this 2007 video of Sylvester Stallone taste testing Trump Water and truly hating it.

Easily the second most embarrassing Access Hollywood clip involving Donald Trump. https://t.co/HyIV02cqSy pic.twitter.com/spUZhpdbss

— Jon Bershad (@JonBershad) February 22, 2023

"Trump Water" is just Mar-A-Lago piss, yes?

Grand Jury is different from a regular trial jury, you’re not allowed to talk about what you’ve done even after your service is over.

I’m just going to be the one to say that even if they’re going after people whom I loathe and who want to kill me, grand juries seem blatantly fucked up and insane to anyone with a reasonable outlook on “justice” imho.

xp that's what I thought as well... that's why you get $40 per day instead of $15, to keep your trap shut

ok the poor hatless people of eastern Ohio now have some shitty hats, so there's that

I mean, when your economy has been fucked over by coroporate greed and your air is toxic, it's great that you have a stupid red hat. Hats are well known for their ability to protect you from economic and environmental harms wreaked upon you by... pretty much the same people who gave you a stupid red hat

carry on

take notes, biden

i'm reading https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/591675/american-made-by-farah-stockman/. it seems like a book length version of those NYT-on-safari-in-a-diner industrial midwest things, padded out to book length. and i guess it kind of is. but it's pretty good and th length allows her to talk a lot more about local labor history, etc. while still ultimately being a long profile of a couple of specific trump voters.

anyway, my point is, reading it, i feel confident that 1) these kinds of voters are not going to turn out for trump again en masse 2) they will never turn out for desantis.

Just a reminder about Ohio and pay for play politics. This story seemed to really go under the radar with the orange infants incessant crying.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_nuclear_bribery_scandal

nice to take both trump and desantis out of the running! this is the day nikki haley became my president

Cut every cent from every country that hates us.

— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) February 25, 2023

good luck ron!

Jeb Bush endorses Ron Desantis for president. pic.twitter.com/qBF0YGHcG4

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) February 26, 2023