I'm assuming he's trying to explain that a shark doesn't know the difference between a person and another source of food such as a seal.
Though I spit my drink when he mentioned that he's smart because he knows people at MIT.
I wonder what his Erdos number is. Shockingly, mine is 3 (the professor of logic and mathematical history who wrote the foreword to my masters thesis has published an article on the history of math with a mathematician who worked with Erdos) which is absurdly low for a non-scientist
Trump is that guy we all know that believes anything he hears and quotes it as a fact that he thinks other people aren't aware of, like the shark thing.
One of these days I just want him to try to claim a famous urban legend as recent news.
"Did you hear about that young couple in the news recently? Terrible thing. They were attacked by an escaped lunatic. Very common now. Lots of escaped lunatics out because Biden. He just opens the door for them. If he's not killing bird with windmills or electrocuting you with boats he's releasing lunatics. But yeah. The couple. Very sad. They heard scratching on their car. And the lunatic left his hook on their door handle. Very lucky they survived. So lucky. I think the boyfriend went to Trump College, so he was smart and knew to stay in the car. Saved their lives. Not like that babysitter last week. The calls were coming from inside the house. Terrible thing. Root-a-too...*other undecipherable mumbling*"
One of these days I just want him to try to claim a famous urban legend as recent news.
"Did you hear about that young couple in the news recently? Terrible thing. They were attacked by an escaped lunatic. Very common now. Lots of escaped lunatics out because Biden. He just opens the door for them. If he's not killing bird with windmills or electrocuting you with boats he's releasing lunatics. But yeah. The couple. Very sad. They heard scratching on their car. And the lunatic left his hook on their door handle. Very lucky they survived. So lucky. I think the boyfriend went to Trump College, so he was smart and knew to stay in the car. Saved their lives. Not like that babysitter last week. The calls were coming from inside the house. Terrible thing. Root-a-too...*other undecipherable mumbling*"
GasBandit
Staff member
Portrait of a president.
- Biden visited a World War I cemetery outside Paris where American troops are buried – the same cemetery Trump said was filled with “losers” and “‘suckers’ for getting killed.” (NPR / ABC News)
- Trump told rally-goers not to die in blazing heat in Las Vegas, saying: “I don’t care about you, I just want your vote.” Six people were taken to a hospital, while another two dozen received medical attention on site at Trump’s rally. (The Independent / ABC News)
- Trump threatened to stiff the company he contracted to set up teleprompters at his Vegas rally after they malfunctioned in an extended rant: “I’ve got no teleprompters, and I haven’t from the beginning. I pay all this money to teleprompter people, and I’d say 20% of the time they don’t work. The thing’s waving around, they can’t tie it a little bit tighter? So we’re all in this together — just a mess! […] Tell them to make the microphone louder. It’s terrible! Are the teleprompters not working? Not even a little bit. Great job! And then I don’t pay the company that does it, right? Then I end up with a story, ‘Trump doesn’t pay.’ I don’t pay contractors that do a shitty job, and that’s a shitty job. You can’t read a word. But you know what, it usually ends up that the speech is better. It’s crazy.” (Rolling Stone)
- Trump complained that electric boats are heavy and prone to sinking at his Vegas rally, but then veered off into a rant about sharks. “If the boat is sinking, water goes over the battery, the boat is sinking, do I stay on top of the boat and get electrocuted?” Trump said. “Or do I jump over by the shark and not get electrocuted?” (New York Magazine / Daily Beast / HuffPost)
- Trump told Dr. Phil that “sometimes revenge can be justified,” referring to his intention to retaliate against Democrats for his criminal conviction by a jury of his peers in Manhattan. (The New Republic)
- Trump will be interviewed by a New York probation officer ahead of his July 11 sentencing after he was found guilty on all 34 felon counts of orchestrating an illegal conspiracy to influence the 2016 presidential election by falsifying business records. (CNBC / CNN)
I get that these people are blindly devoted to him, but I can't for the life of me understand why. It's like he reveals himself to be a bigger idiot or a crueler person with every action or every word out of his mouth.
GasBandit
Staff member
Because kindness is weakness and weakness is to be despised.
Speaking as someone who was born and raised Baptist, it's because they cannot admit they backed a revolting man. White evangelicals tend to view themselves as the moral guardians of American society. If they back a candidate, then that candidate must be a good, virtuous person. Their opponents, by contrast, must be depraved and evil if they're standing against those wholesome, God-fearing, patriotic Americans. Seeking compromise makes one weak and complicit in immorality.
Furthermore, they see their candidates and figures as reflections of themselves. They take any criticism personally. The attitude is, "if you say Trump is a stupid and horrid man then you're saying my family and I are stupid and horrid people too." I get that from the wife sometimes because so many of her family are deep in the MAGA movement. "When you badmouth his supporters you're badmouthing my family too."
Furthermore, they see their candidates and figures as reflections of themselves. They take any criticism personally. The attitude is, "if you say Trump is a stupid and horrid man then you're saying my family and I are stupid and horrid people too." I get that from the wife sometimes because so many of her family are deep in the MAGA movement. "When you badmouth his supporters you're badmouthing my family too."
It is my current belief that their devotion to him is entirely because he appears to live his life free of consequences and responsibilities, and since they also happen to be people who wish to live their lives similarly unburdened by consequences and responsibility, they believe that throwing their support behind him will ultimately unlock for them the "freedom" to do just that.
--Patrick
I don't think it needs to be complicated, there doesn't need to be a deep psychological reason for why people still follow Trump. It can be as simple as them believing that the alternative is worse. If, somehow, people think that the "Demoncrats" are going to completely destroy America, then yes, they're gonna follow the guy who claims he'll prevent that.
GasBandit
Staff member
Judge Aileen Cannon denied convicted felon Trump’s effort to dismiss his classified documents case, but did agree to delete a paragraph in the federal superseding indictment that alleges he mishandled classified materials after he left the White House and obstructed attempts to retrieve them. Cannon said that special counsel Jack Smith’s inclusion of a paragraph, which alleges Trump showed a classified document in September 2021 about an “ongoing military operation” was “not going well” to someone without a security clearance, was “not appropriate,” because it’s not directly related to the charges Trump is facing. Trump isn’t charged with disclosing classified materials; only with illegally retaining them. (NBC News / Washington Post / New York Times / CNN)
I think that's fair from a legal perspective.
GasBandit
Staff member
Trump demanded that House Speaker Mike Johnson use the federal government to help him “overturn” a conviction by a jury of his peers in New York. Shortly after he was convicted on 34 felony counts of orchestrating an illegal conspiracy to influence the 2016 presidential election by falsifying business records, Trump called Johnson and, in between “frequent F-bombs,” implored Johnson to do something about his conviction. “We have to overturn this,” Trump said. Following the call, Johnson called for the Supreme Court to “step in” to overturn Trump’s guilty verdict and floated a “three-pronged approach” to punish the Justice Department for Trump’s felony conviction. (Politico / Vanity Fair / Rolling Stone / The New Republic)
GasBandit
Staff member
Trump called Milwaukee — the location for the Republican National Convention — a “horrible city.” Even though Trump lost Wisconsin to Biden by about 20,000 votes in 2020, he’s repeatedly and falsely claimed he won the state and has baselessly claimed that absentee voting in the state was tainted by cheating or fraud despite two recounts – both requested by Trump – and an international delegation monitoring the election confirming that there was no evidence to support Trump’s allegations of voter fraud. Republican members of Congress from Wisconsin suggested that Trump was expressing his “concern about the election in Milwaukee” and “election integrity.” One representative, however, said the whole thing never happened. Nevertheless, Trump may not be able to attend the convention, where he’ll officially be nominated as the Republican presidential nominee, due to the possibility he’ll be serving his sentence for his conviction on orchestrating an illegal conspiracy to influence the 2016 presidential election by falsifying business records. Trump’s sentencing is four days before the convention. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / NBC News / Politico / Wisconsin Examiner / Axios)
GasBandit
Staff member
Trump Weighs in on Milwaukee Flub and Somehow Makes It Even Worse
Donald Trump doubled down on his comment as his fellow Republicans spiraled over it.
newrepublic.com
GasBandit
Staff member
The New York Court of Appeals rejected convicted felon Trump’s appeal of the gag order in the election interference case involving falsified business records, in which he was convicted last month. The court wrote that Trump’s appeal was dismissed because “no substantial constitutional question is directly involved.” As a result, Trump’s gag order, which bars him from speaking about jurors, witnesses and other parties involved in the Manhattan Supreme Court case, remains in effect. After Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts, his lawyers argued that the order should be lifted because the trial was over. (Associated Press / NBC News / CNN / Politico / Axios / CNBC)
Trump calls Biden’s student loan forgiveness a ‘vile’ publicity stunt
GOP officials have launched more than a dozen lawsuits to block debt relief after nearly 5 million Americans had their balances wiped out
www.independent.co.uk
He then went on to promise that, if elected, he will reinstate (all?) the canceled loans in order to undo the damage all these loan cancellations have caused to the federal deficit.
--Patrick
I know young voters aren’t the most reliable voting bloc but it’s weird to see both presidential candidates treating them with outright contempt.Trump calls Biden’s student loan forgiveness a ‘vile’ publicity stunt
GOP officials have launched more than a dozen lawsuits to block debt relief after nearly 5 million Americans had their balances wiped out
He then went on to promise that, if elected, he will reinstate (all?) the canceled loans in order to undo the damage all these loan cancellations have caused to the federal deficit.
--Patrick
figmentPez
Staff member
Young people don't have money.
GasBandit
Staff member
The judge overseeing convicted felon Trump’s trial involving “willful retention” of classified documents in violation of the Espionage Act refused to hand off the case to a more experienced judge despite two more senior colleagues on the federal bench in Florida urging her to do so. Two judges called Judge Aileen Cannon shortly after she took on the case. The first told her the case would be better handled by a jurist closer to Miami’s busiest courthouse, which had a secure facility approved to hold the sort of highly classified information that might be used in the case. The second call came from Cecilia Altonaga, the chief judge in the Southern District of Florida, who told Cannon the optics of her overseeing the trial would be bad. Cannon presided over the legal battle between the Justice Department and Trump’s lawyers regarding the classified documents that the FBI seized from Mar-a-Lago. Although Cannon granted Trump’s request to temporarily block federal investigators from using documents with classified markings and appoint a “special master” to review all 11,000 documents, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals twice reversed her decisions. Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, has little trial experience and has indefinitely postponed the trial and declined to set a date for it to begin even though both the prosecution and the defense said they’re ready to start. Should Trump win the presidential election in November, he could order the Justice Department to drop the case. Trump faces 40 federal charges for keeping classified government documents at Mar-a-Lago and then obstructing government efforts to retrieve them. (New York Times / CNN / Daily Beast / Axios)
GasBandit
Staff member
Judge Aileen Cannon rejected convicted felon Trump’s claim that the FBI misled the court in order to obtain a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago related to his mishandling of national security secrets. In an 11-page ruling, Cannon said Trump’s argument that the FBI misrepresented facts to a federal judge in order to secure the search warrant were meritless. FBI agents found 103 classified documents, which eventually led to Trump’s indictment, after searching Mar-a-Lago in 2022. Cannon, however, agreed to schedule additional hearings to resolve “pertinent factual disputes” related to key evidence in the case. Prosecutors expressed concern that holding evidentiary hearings would result in a “mini-trial” that would subject some key witnesses to cross-examination before the actual trial. “There is a difference between a resource-wasting and delay-producing ‘mini-trial,’ on the one hand,” Cannon wrote, “and an evidentiary hearing geared to adjudicating the contested factual and legal issues.” (Politico / Washington Post / New York Times / Associated Press / CNN / ABC News / USA Today / The Hill)
Liar, you aren't looking forward to it any more than the rest of us.
Why change it back when we should just add to it.
Once Former President but now President and Convicted Felon Trump Thread
Yeah, that is the way to go should we drive this car right off the cliff.