Trump this.

[rareboy]

​

 

[rareboy]

 

[rareboy]

​

 

[KaraBulut]

Trump must be needing money, again.

Yesterday, he sucked up to megadonor Miriam Adelson, the widow of Sheldon Adelson. The Adelsons donated over $500 million to Republicans between 2010 and 2020, a feat that in 2018 earned Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the ability to influence US policy towards Israel (remember when Clinton got in trouble for letting donors sleep in the Lincoln bedroom?).

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honor and is usually given to award the honoree for their "meritorious contribution" to mankind. In Miriam's case, it seems to have been award to her for her meritorious contributions to the Republican Party.

In 2020, Trump also gave the Medal to Rush Limbaugh.

While gathering Jewish donors at his Bedminster golf club yesterday, Trump managed to insult soldiers who had received awards for valor or injury. While "the Jews" applauded, Trump said that Miriam's award was better than the Congressional Medal of Honor because soldiers had to get shot or killed to get the Congressional medal.

Trump Says Medal He Gave Billionaire Donor 'Much Better' Than Military Medal of Honor

Trump said that a civilian Medal of Freedom is better than the Medal of Honor given to soldiers who are recognized are "in very bad shape … or dead."

www.rollingstone.com

“I watched Sheldon sitting so proud in the White House when we gave Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom,” Trump said on Thursday evening. “That’s the highest award you can get as a civilian. It’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor,” Trump added, referring to the highest military honor given for valor in combat.

“But civilian version, it’s actually much better because everyone [who] gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they’re soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead,” Trump continued. “She gets it, and she’s a healthy, beautiful woman, and they’re rated equal, but she got the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and she got it for — and that’s through committees and everything else.”

View attachment Trump&Adelson-DisrespectToSoldiers.mp4

 

[KaraBulut]

...and whatever this is...

 

[rareboy]

 

[KaraBulut]

And whatever this is...

 

[rareboy]

Meanwhile, he has nothing to say about the record profits and stock buy-backs of these food giants as they gouge their consumers.

 

[KaraBulut]

Meanwhile, he has nothing to say about the record profits and stock buy-backs of these food giants as they gouge their consumers.

For good reason... Back in Feb 2024, Sen Casey (D-PA) introduced legislation that would give the FTC the ability to investigate companies who inflate prices or downsize portions but keep the price the same. The Republicans cried "big government" and "socialism", so the legislation went nowhere. The Biden Administration didn't do much to fight back, even after Biden mentioned the issue in his State of the Union message.

I was actually surprised Trump mentioned TicTacs since that is "shrink-flation" which is what the Casey bill tried to address.

Harris to propose federal ban on 'corporate price-gouging' in food and groceries

Vice President Kamala Harris plans to propose the first-ever federal ban on “corporate price-gouging in the food and grocery industries,” her campaign announced late Wednesday. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., who in February introduced legislation to go after corporate price gouging, joins Morning Joe to...

www.msnbc.com

 

[rareboy]

He knows he can talk about this stuff because his base is too stupid to understand the drivers of inflation and shrinkflation being capitalist greed...and I include myself in this category as a shareholder in some of the worst offending corporations. As I mentioned in another thread post...the gains this year are beyond obscene...and we are miniscule investors. Imagine the billions that are being raked off by the largest shareholders, including pension funds.

 

[Thad1527]

Note this speech was not given anywhere near an actual supermarket. I'm sure Toad hasn't been in one in...ever.

 

[cityboy-stl]

Do you agree with George Conway? Are we finally seeing the narcissistic collapse?
I would say something needs to happen before the election, but after the point where he cannot be taken off the ballots.

 

[KaraBulut]

Do you agree with George Conway? Are we finally seeing the narcissistic collapse?

The narcissistic collapse isn't a destination, it's a journey. Trump's journey started on 3 November 2020, or perhaps during the COVID-19 crisis during the summer of 2020 when Trump realized that COVID-19 would likely cost him the Presidency. Narcissists can't accept failure, so everything is always someone else's fault. Collapse happens when they are forced to deal with their own imperfection and inadequacy.

All one has to do is compare his 2016 behavior, his 2020 behavior to his current behavior. He's less coherent and there's evidence that his campaign is less able to cover it up. It's going to get worse because he's not running for President; he's running to avoid prison.

Whether he's in narcissistic collapse doesn't matter. Trump's numbers in 2024 are better than they were in 2016 or 2020. Trump got 46 percent of the vote in 2016 and 47 percent in 2020. He was sitting at about 50 percent in the 2024 polls before Biden dropped out. The Republicans don't care that he's old, mentally unstable and probably dangerous. It's really a cult at this point.

 

[NotHardUp1]

It's really a cult at this point.

It has been a cult since Boehner and Ryan were forced out.

After all, the cult is the extremism in the conservative faction, which has simply been overlayed on Donald Trump who had zero history of conservatism beyond tax evasion prior to his 2012 run. Trump's persona is not the preference of the majority of conservatives, only the ugly necessity of knitting together the gun nuts, the xenophones, Evango-Zionists, and the greedy.

In all likelihood, his adoption of an anti-black, anti-Mexican, anti-Muslim, anti-feminist, anti-gay populism, was nothing more than a strategic capturing of a reactionary wave in the electorate. In hindsight, Trump's race was probably a play to use the White House to manipulate business opportunities, hence his ensconcement of his family in actual positions of poweer in his administration. The fact that the U.S. system allows such naked nepotism is a clear Achilles heel and even more shocking that no legislative referendum has been launched to end it forever. Our deep corruption as a state is showing.

The coup in the GOP that indeed mirrors the Nazi takeover of the German state is the happy marriage of a plutocrat looking to save his ass from growing failures and lawsuits, to a party whose platform has increasingly spelled its doom as America marches forward into greater diversity, a post-Industrial economy, and a turn from fossil fuels and their influence on GDP.

 

[rareboy]

 

[Alistair]

 

[KaraBulut]

It has been a cult since Boehner and Ryan were forced out.

It's a cult on two fronts and what the two fronts have in common is a dwindling base of support. The Republican Party had a point in 2012 where they were told that they were losing elections because they had become a minority party and they were given a recommendation to expand their base of support.

Instead, the business wing of the party embraced the Koch philosophy that the way to power wasn't through democracy. Meanwhile, the evangelical wing of the party followed other countries like Brazil, Hungary, Poland and Russia into a populist Christian nationalism.

The coup in the GOP that indeed mirrors the Nazi takeover of the German state is the happy marriage of a plutocrat looking to save his ass from growing failures and lawsuits, to a party whose platform has increasingly spelled its doom as America marches forward into greater diversity, a post-Industrial economy, and a turn from fossil fuels and their influence on GDP.

There are a lot of parallels to Europe in the 1930s but there is one difference: the dwindling base of support of both business libertarians and white Christian Nationalists. Both factions rely upon voters over age 50 to stay in power. It's why they want to weaken democracy to stay in power. The question in the short term is whether the Trump family takeover of the Republican Party will outlast its aged leader. The question in the long term is whether democracy can survive long enough for the demographic shift to liberalism that is coming as the baby boomers die off.

 

[TX-Beau]

...An assassination attempt, the shock withdrawal of Joe Biden from the White House race and replacement by his younger, high-energy vice president, Kamala Harris, all seem to have taken a toll on a candidate who -- until recently -- had seemed well on course for victory in November...

MSN

So that brings up a curious point. Someone tried to kill Toad, and no one seems to care. There was no outrage, no sympathy, not rush to support. Even among the horde it was barely a blip - and now, no one seems to even remember.

Including Toad. There was the bit with the fake ear thing, but that came and went, but that's all.

 

[NotHardUp1]

There are a lot of parallels to Europe in the 1930s but there is one difference: the dwindling base of support of both business libertarians and white Christian Nationalists. Both factions rely upon voters over age 50 to stay in power.

Let's face it. The voting population right or left has shrunken to be mostly the mature adults in their last half of life. Lots of young people talk democracy, but they talk more of being screwed out of the right to be idle like their elders who have worked their whole lives. They also talk a good bit about ecology while doing little for it.

It's why they want to weaken democracy to stay in power. The question in the short term is whether the Trump family takeover of the Republican Party will outlast its aged leader. The question in the long term is whether democracy can survive long enough for the demographic shift to liberalism that is coming as the baby boomers die off.

Our democracy doesn't deserve to live if it doesn't rise to fend off the anarchists, the fascists, and the apathetic.

 

[rareboy]

It's a cult on two fronts and what the two fronts have in common is a dwindling base of support. The Republican Party had a point in 2012 where they were told that they were losing elections because they had become a minority party and they were given a recommendation to expand their base of support.

Instead, the business wing of the party embraced the Koch philosophy that the way to power wasn't through democracy. Meanwhile, the evangelical wing of the party followed other countries like Brazil, Hungary, Poland and Russia into a populist Christian nationalism.


There are a lot of parallels to Europe in the 1930s but there is one difference: the dwindling base of support of both business libertarians and white Christian Nationalists. Both factions rely upon voters over age 50 to stay in power. It's why they want to weaken democracy to stay in power. The question in the short term is whether the Trump family takeover of the Republican Party will outlast its aged leader. The question in the long term is whether democracy can survive long enough for the demographic shift to liberalism that is coming as the baby boomers die off.

If Trump loses, his family's grip on the GQP will collapse. No reasonable person sees Usay and Quday as legitimate contenders for Supreme Leader. The far right will turn on them with fury for having lost them another 4 years to demolish democracy once and for all.

I find it interesting that Trump seems oddly alone this campaign.

Am I missing something maybe? There seems to be an absence of big name donors and celebs touting him on the trail...wife and kids largely off screen or even absent and basically mute.

He has a Veep that he must hate by now and who just doesn't look like a possible successor to Trump when he has a stroke or is sidelined with dementia.

There also don't seem to be all the big name Republican governors, senators and others flocking to be seen with him to help their campaigns.

I think that behind the scenes, the thinking at this point is that if they aren't successful at stealing the election and declaring Trump president for life in November that a lot of people are looking to put distance between them and the Trump dumpster fire that is starting to burn out of control.