Donald Trump: Classic or Dud?

On his way out of court, Kise further applauded Trump’s performance, telling reporters: “In 33 years, I’ve never had a witness testify better.”

The level of sycophancy that this guy demands is so gross. Just odious.

yeah it’s for the paycheck right

That's the weird thing, supposedly Kise got paid up front. (Which, credit to him, everyone else should have figured that out long ago.) I guess he figures doing all this nonsense is worth it.

ha! ty i obv didn’t remember that.

Kise is allegedly the most highly reputable of the Trump legal team, which isn't saying much. He might think peers will understand that you have to be an obsequious creep to work for him and if he faced the press and said it truly was a cringeworthy and legally disastrous performance from his client, well then he'd be sacked and Trump would probably be suing him. But still he went much further than he needed to there!

https://i.insider.com/65492a67b788914e555106ef?width=1000&format=jpeg&auto=webp

https://media1.giphy.com/media/wu2nCG9rOy7AY/giphy.webp?cid=6c09b952p9jk43lltkdanzqhivygxwy3ee0uk5n3uxajg5xx&ep=v1_internal_gif_by_id&rid=giphy.webp&ct=g

Worth a read for y'all struggling to understand Trump's appeal to Cubans:

To many Republicans, the multiple criminal cases against Trump aren’t viewed as the just desserts of a norm-busting former president who broke the law or inspired angry people to sack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021; they’re seen as “the weaponization of the justice system. And for those who fled dictatorships, that’s a red flag,” said Diaz-Balart.

“Trump is being persecuted unfairly. It’s not a prosecution. It’s the banana republic so many of us fled,” said Rafael Montalvo, who was part of the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba and is the president of Brigade 2506 Veterans Association​.

The association made its first presidential primary endorsement ever in 2016 by backing Trump and Montalvo said “the Cuban community will always stand by Trump because he stood by us. I like DeSantis. He is great. He will make a great president one day. But he is our governor. Trump is our president.”

Guillermo J. Grenier, who conducts the widely respected Cuba Poll for Florida International University where he’s a sociology professor, said many Trump is a “political Rorschach” where people see what they want, and Cuban Americans and immigrants are no different.

Many voters view Trump as a strong man for tough times, he said, and they see the former New York developer and TV star of ‘The Apprentice” as the “pinnacle of success” who also is “the underdog, someone who has overcome in their view every smear and he’s talked truth to power. And Cubans identify with that here because they feel like they made Miami through hard work: ‘We’re the underdog. We made it.’ That’s just the DNA of this place.”

The man has a gold shitter. He's no underdog.

The irony is, Trump is a weakling and a coward.

Most "strong men" are

so that all boils down to: he had a TV show, Biden never had his own TV show

Alfred, can I ask what role you think racism plays in Trump’s high esteem among Cubans? Having a lot more friends and people around from Puerto Rico, Haiti, and the DR has opened my eyes to some of the racial dynamics at play in these communities, but I’m curious what you think

He routinely “punches down” at people with lesser economic, social and political power. And somehow his fans see that as a sign of strength. This will always baffle me.

so that all boils down to: he had a TV show, Biden never had his own TV show

― Andy the Grasshopper, Tuesday, November 7, 2023 1:30 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Take heed, White House media team

anecdotal but one of my friend's mother's growing up was Cuban and any time her daughter went to a dance, she instructed her not to accept dance requests from Puerto Ricans

Take heed, White House media team

― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings)

Three's Company reboot with Biden as Mr. Furley.

Alfred, can I ask what role you think racism plays in Trump’s high esteem among Cubans? Having a lot more friends and people around from Puerto Rico, Haiti, and the DR has opened my eyes to some of the racial dynamics at play in these communities, but I’m curious what you think

― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table)

With the younger ones the racism is harder to see; they grew up in a more integrated society (not that Batista-era Cuba had Jim Crow).

My parents and grandparents? For damn sure. Exceptionalism reigns. The Black family friend is treated no differently than the rest (we have a cliche: "Juanito's not Black, he's Cuban!"), but Blacks as a group are regarded as aggrieved, in some cases The Real Racists.

Trump's support among the Hialeahans cited in the article has little to do with racism: it's xenophobia. The Bootstrap Ethos: "We made it; if you can't, fuck you." The Cubans my grandparents age think they earned the Cuban Adjustment Act -- the most generous and far-reaching assimilation law ever signed by an American president -- by demonstrating how hard they worked, not realizing that, as even Joan Didion figured out, they arrived in Miami as the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts passed and promptly took those middle management jobs (supers, bank managers, small business owners, etc.) that would've gone to Miami Blacks as Jim Crow dissolved.

Finally: I've written about this a lot. Those Cubans don't hate Fidel because he was a dictator -- they hate him because he was the wrong kind of dictator. He was one of them, a member of the elite (he went to Belen and studied law!). We like dictators.

https://media4.giphy.com/media/rZJLgMSaRd62HQjAuv/giphy.gif?cid=6c09b952xqiw8hg3ezjuzl74f5dbxv74geyunqgltgltoy2h&ep=v1_internal_gif_by_id&rid=giphy.gif&ct=v

"Live and let live, I always say"

xp When I lived in Perú, I got the sense that many people resented Fujimori not because he was a dictator, but because he was a Chino.

The upper class who benefited from Batista disdained him for being mulatto.

They mockingly called it "la blandadura" LOL

Thanks for that response, Alfred!

a pleasure

I meant "la dictablanda," which is actually funnier because it makes sense.

Alberto Fujimori is still rotting in prison afaik. Which, I suppose, is some reason for optimism.

https://i.imgur.com/pzDkNyG.jpg

Doesn't Peru have like three different ex-presidents currently in jail? xp

It's a nice thought

ivanka will outsmart the NYC DA's office

Doesn't Peru have like three different ex-presidents currently in jail? xp

you may be mistaking them with the number of ex-cleveland browns head coaches still under contract

;_;

Heckuva job, brownie

xxp Yes, Perú has three ex-presidents currently in the same prison.

When I lived there in the early 90s, the immediate past president had fled the country to escape corruption charges. He later returned and was re-elected. He would likely be in prison as well if he hadn't shot himself in the head in 2019.

i cannot believe i didn't realize the number of peruvian ex prez in prison because i've been there and have like cousins there. i am aware of fujimori's daughter tho, who is running for the third time or fourth time in 24 or 6. def trumpy authoritarian elections-are-frauds type i understand

the whole fujimori-shining path conflagration is one the the darker crazier political things in recent history

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

neck going crazy

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/6/6f/Henrietta_after_her_transformation.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/250?cb=20130904000726

Brodigliani

Have to stretch it out to unhinge the jaw.

staring right at the illustrator: "how dare you, you filthy peon?"

serious question: who is that supposed to be?

ivanka

giger has really hit hard times. sad.

wait— he’s dead?

I think Barron drew that

Judge is really giving somebody the business in that sketch!

alina habba: "another Trump child was dragged into court today..." - not even appending ‘adult’ to one of the Trump children suggests to me some kind of fucked up psychological dynamic

think of the children!

I don’t want to think of these children anymore (I never wanted to)

Is she calling a special advisor to the White House (or whatever Ivanka’s ridic title was) a child?

Today in Trump NYC trial:

Per Adam Klasfeld's reports on Twitter, Judge Engoron is basically overruling every AG objection to whatever evidence Trump wants to admit, which has to be very heartwarming for the AG and terrifying for Trump's lawyers

When the judge is being very, very nice to you, they are either in the tank for your side, or you are absolutely fucked and the judge wants to make sure you have no space for appeal. Guess which is more likely here.

Meantime...

https://abcnews.go.com/US/boss-leave-proffer-videos-show-trump-lawyers-telling/story?id=104831939

As part of a plea deal, one of former President Donald Trump's attorneys has told prosecutors in Georgia that she was informed in the wake of the 2020 election that Donald Trump was "not going to leave" the White House -- despite the fact that he had already lost the election and most of his subsequent challenges.

The revelation, along with others, came during a confidential interview the attorney, Jenna Ellis, had with Fulton County investigators. ABC News has obtained portions of videos of the proffer sessions of both Ellis and Sidney Powell, two attorneys who aided Trump's efforts to overturn the election.

NYT covering Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables” remark vs NYT covering Donald Trump’s “vermin” remark. pic.twitter.com/SR2gLIlEvb

— Gabe Ortíz (@TUSK81) November 12, 2023