Donald Trump: Classic or Dud?

And yet people keep calling us skeptics out for being.... skeptical.

skepticism that there will be no legal consequences I understand, saying "this all just makes him stronger" is ludicrous

at some level i think people want him back. they want to see him in handcuffs, they want to see his goons riot and then get arrested, etc. it's like a sequel to a hit movie.

xp - yeah I'm def not onboard "this will make him stronger" train, but the former absolutely. the most likely worst (best?) case outcome in any of the ongoing cases is that he'll end up with a minimal, "symbolic", slap on the wrist fine that he supporters will happily pony up for and he'll continue to sow chaos to uncritical media dipshits for another decade from his gold-plated compound.

the thing that's causing my brain to go crack-ping right now is that Michael Cohen ALREADY served time for trying to cover this up, which is almost certainly a much harsher punishment than what the man who ordered him to do it will get, and now Trump is using Cohen's "criminal history" as evidence that he's not a reliable witness, it's making me feel like Frank Grimes right now

I think the legal system is simply not designed for, and perhaps has never faced, a chaos agent as overwhelming as Trump.

maybe his whole game is just to make all go insane.

i think he relishes the contradictions and the stunned look on people's faces as they are plowed down by the firehose of bullshit

yea to make another Simpsons reference this is the Mr. Burns thing where he has so many health problems that none of them can get through the door to actually kill him, it sure seems like a big problem with these investigations is the fact that there are so many happening at once and he committed so many crimes that we're still discovering new ones

It seems like it shouldn’t matter though. People can be tried for several independent crimes.

and there's the rub, there is so much about the last seven years of this guy's life that "should" have happened and yet... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

tbqh, even with the knowledge that we are in a completely unprecedented era wrt what is deemed "acceptable" for a politician, i still have trouble wrapping my brain around how there were stretches where this fuckin' guy would have things come out weekly that had killed entire careers in the recent past!

maybe we're all just living in a simulation, or the dream my brain is concocting while I'm in a coma

we are in a completely unprecedented era wrt what is deemed "acceptable" for a politician

to be fair a lot of what's "acceptable" now applies to Trump and Trump only. I think the "nothing matters lol" mentality has caused Republicans to lose a lot of winnable races, even to the extent they lost a Senate seat in Alabama because they didn't want to cut ties with a dude who was probably a pedophile. they ran a lot of freaks and weirdos in the midterms and nearly all of them lost. Boebert was in a R+20 district and won by like 3 votes vs. a dude nobody had ever heard of. Trump's been a known quality as a celebrity and a scumbag for decades so I think he's kinda grandfathered into the anti-mattering shield. its kinda like how a bunch of rock musicians from the 60s almost certainly did a lot of dubious shit that would absolutely get you cancelled today (and you know because they wrote it into their own memoirs and went "ah yeah, those were the days") but nobody cares because "that's just how it was back then".

Y'all the impending indictment news didn't all come from Trump. The date did.

The "he may be indicted soon" came from the fact that Bragg actually offered Trump the opportunity to testify before the Grand Jury, which is a usual sign that charges are forthcoming. Usually such an offer isn't granted if charges aren't coming - it's a last ditch chance to give defendants to answer grand jury questions before and indictment. This isn't like a public trial where you're forced to read tea leaves.

Enhanced Security protocols at the courthouse began well in advance of Trump's "I'm being arrested Tuesday statement", which was another acknowledgement of there being a feeling that charges were coming.

Bragg might ultimately decide not to, who knows, but the media didn't just get fed this by Trump

The media didn't even really suggest he'd be arrested Tuesday, they reported that he made that claim on social media. Readers for some reason took it as gospel

its true actually its just next tuesday

see you then

many are saying

if you have to guess wildly, guess on a day of the week. 1 out of 7 chances at worst, and if you know it's gonna be a weekday it's 1 in 5

if you predict when you will be arrested they have to arrest you that day or its unconstitutional

indictment week is the new infrastructure week

if you predict the day you're indicted, you get your choice of whether to go first or last during questioning and you get to choose the music

Sadly he predicted incorrectly, so he doesn't get the free large fries that would have otherwise come with his indictment.

Trump just shared a fake AI-created image of himself praying on Truth Social https://t.co/14SqJ96qhJ pic.twitter.com/SNAB2qi2GO

— Matt Novak (@paleofuture) March 23, 2023

One Corinthian
Two Corinthians
Three times a Corinthian

People can be tried for several independent crimes

And if you're an unarmed poor person of color, you can be executed just for suspicion of a minor nonviolent crime or just during a routine traffic stop.

Just to put all this hilarity into sobering perspective. The justice system can move quickly when it wants to.

Oh my god. Running out of words to describe how crazed he is pic.twitter.com/s6YkhnNOBN

— Spiro’s Ghost (@SpiroAgnewGhost) March 23, 2023

dude is really, really fucking proud of those Georgia phone calls isn't he?

PERFECT phone calls

perfect phone calls is so absurd, and i can't believe it's far from the first phone call he's had that he described as perfect. the "beyond parody" stuff has been well discussed but when you take a step back and walk back in, hear "perfect phone calls" fresh, it's just astonishing

imagine your most perfect phone call

Even if we had no other supporting evidence, Trump's Truth Social cosplay is a decent signifier of deep mania

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/12/Nuke_%28Marvel_Comics_character%29.png

it's just a weird feedback loop with this guy, "perfect phone call" being one of those odd phrases that Trump sometimes says that people glomped on to, so naturally that makes Trump use it more, obviously not really understanding why people thought it was a weird phrase in the first place

everything about it. the pristine quality of the audio. the time of day it was made. the dulcet tones of his voice. the asking to disenfranchise 100,000+ voters. one day this call will be played as a benchmark for all calls to be measured by.

I thought the original 'perfect call' was the one to Zelensky, no?

it's hard to remember, so many of his calls are perfect. relaly it'd be easier just to ask which ones were only A minuses...and even those, I mean, those should be in the Smithsonian

Harassing and intimidating people at levels not seen before

Yes, as I recall, American history has heretofore been mercifully free of harassment and intimidation of innocent people

It's really amazing we made it so far

There's a more recent post (I think from today) along the same lines that specifically mentions indictment. Call me crazy, but I don't think he's playing 8-dimensional chess here, I think he's been told an indictment is forthcoming.

He's not playing chess at all, he's too busy eating checkers.

the President of Evidence actually ruled today that they can't indict Trump what a super victory for America!!!

There is a loophole in the Constitution that a former President can be arrested at the Superbowl if halftime show performers are white.

There was some reportage I saw this morning from his purported inner circle that claimed his lawyers informed him, yes, an indictment is all but certain, with that settling in as they recommended, and he seemed to agree, to focusing on a future appeal. but there are many stories about this mad monkey seemingly accepting an outcome only to turn around and freak out in public about it.

Bombthrower, what a sick burn. If Trump had started his own fast food chain this would be one of the characters.

Mayor McCheesy

Bombthrower sounds like the nickname a fast food place would give a frequent customer who would come in and just utterly destroy a toilet.

really more like *dropping* a bomb tho

if you're throwing it, kinda insinuates you didn't make it to said toilet

There is nothing wrong with the Bombthrower nickname, it is a PERFECT beautiful nickname.

Maybe that's what Trump was talking about when he complained about having to flush 10-15 times.

Even if we had no other supporting evidence, Trump's Truth Social cosplay is a decent signifier of deep mania

I know the true deplorables are beyond help but I would love to know what %age of his hardcore following aren't feeling at least a little uneasy about how unhinged and bonkers he is. Like, at least a few of the Nazis in the classic Downfall clip were shooting each other nervous glances.