Donald Trump: Classic or Dud?

oh phew - I only scrolled to a couple of points and it got darker/later in the day

like are we really living in a country where one of the two candidates for President is a guy whose campaign events are just rambling about electric cars for some reason until everyone leaves

― frogbs, Friday, May 17, 2024 9:29 PM bookmarkflaglink

The content doesn't matter, it's a show of strength and brand recognitions that helps people construct their desired consensus reality.

Have been. We are nearly in Jean Beaudrillard's hyperreality, where the strength of the signifier is more important to many people than what the signifier actually stands for, or whether it stands for anything at all.

It's encouraging that people still have a sense of "wtf" about it.

I think this has likely always been the case, that the label carries more weight than the labelled (and there are valid reasons why this might be the case too), though I think they are still think the label is tethered and not completely free-flowing and detached it just has a lot more room to grow and move than we might previously have thought (though I think it might be that the postwar period is the anomaly not the current period)

I think this applies to all groups of people to an extent, not just Trumpists - and brings in to play things like group dynamics, pattern recognition, social cues

Oh definitely. Possibly the signifier has become untethered from substantive ideas and values and reattached to tribes instead. I think this when arguments are based on alleged bad faith or attacking who else is advancing "talking points" than the points themselves.

This video explains some of that dynamic.

A friend who went to journalism school told me she was taught there isn't "one truth" in journalism. There is a process and set of conventions and that they are there to report the "truth" they see on the ground.

Perhaps it takes more humility to recognize the fact that our simple human brains are too stupid to process the 100 zetabytes of information on the internet than we want to accept. But the 2-party system in the US probably doesn't help.

yeah my priors on hyperreality were “always there.” tryna put it to the now, i think the amount of stimuli has now been massively increased again. stuff is still ultimately generally provable, but resistance can be strong. with deepfakism about to be amplified (at least i fear that dunno), info may get less proveable.

in my terrible non-statsy mind it’s like the std dev gets way worse, the size of the curve gets enormous, the falcon cannot hear the falconer and a beast (who looks like cthulu) takes a exit towards the new bethlehem suburb somewhere in texas but it may be near vegas i forget

looks like Blanche is jumping all over the place again trying to make Cohen look like a crook (which he obviously is, that's why Trump hired him), the whole "WHAT ABOUT THAT PHONE CALL" thing which CNN thought ruined the entire case has apparently not even been brought up again, and now the jury is getting bored

yeah this thing is almost over.

idk if the defense has any actual strategy here or if they're just fishing and/or trying to set things up for appeal but their line of questioning on Cohen had no real through line and it kept jumping to different points in time which is a good way to confuse the jury into just disregarding the whole thing, I know because pretty much this exact thing happened in the trial I was a juror on

The basic defense approach:

https://y.yarn.co/15402de3-05c0-43e5-9537-100b4a1c94f7_text.gif

I think every lawyer who works with Trump ends up losing the plot from the stress of having him bellowing terrible instructions at them from the unreality he lives in and telling them how they need to be more like Roy Cohn, while the case is going badly and their professional rep is in tatters. It's funny tho!

https://i.imgur.com/qnHKJ7O.png

lmao that CNN front page story looks dumber every hour

Trump is back in the courtroom, this time with Chuck Zito, the former president of the New York chapter of the Hells Angels

He's going to need some connections in prison.

looks like Cohen squared the circle:

https://i.imgur.com/n0JlHvF.png

forever president

Former President Donald Trump on Saturday floated the idea of a third term if he wins in November.

“You know, FDR 16 years — almost 16 years — he was four terms. I don’t know, are we going to be considered three-term? Or two-term?” Trump quipped at the National Rifle Association annual meeting, speaking before a crowd of gun rights supporters.

Please, please testify, Two-Peach! Please hold forth

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/20/trump-testify-hush-money-trial-00158756

there's no chance

How to win friends and influence people:

Susan Hoffinger, the prosecutor, is objecting to many of Emil Bove's questions, often successfully. Robert Costello had been ignoring the judge’s rulings, so Justice Merchan warned him directly to wait for a ruling before answering.

It happens again, and when Merchan sustains an objection, Costello says “jeez,” apparently meaning to question the judge's authority. “I’m sorry?” the judge asks, glaring down at the suddenly reddened witness. Costello mumbles something in return and testimony resumes.

there's no chance

otm. he thinks he has to make these noises because he claims he's pure and innocent and being unjustly hounded, but he won't take the stand.

going well

"I want to discuss proper decorum in my courtroom," Justice Merchan tells Costello.

"As a witness in my courtroom, if you don't like a ruling, you don't say 'geez,'" the judge says.

"You don't make a side-eye, you don't roll your eyes," Justice Merchan continues.

Geez

I'm sorry?

geez

Merchan, angrily: Are you staring me down right now?

Clear the courtroom, the judge says.

— Tyler McBrien (@TylerMcBrien) May 20, 2024

Oooohhhh shhhhiiii-

lmao this dude making Cohen way more likeable and credible in contrast, what a shitshow of a defense

he's their only witness too lol

https://i.imgur.com/xhvLRm6.png

Why ruin a perfect case

I have people come up to me, grown men, with tears in their eyes, big men who have never cried before, saying, "sir, it's the perfect defense".

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/trump-media-lost-3276-million-first-quarter-year-revenue-just-771000-rcna153165

I genuinely do not understand how they could lose this much, there has to be some sort of money laundering going on here

Not sure that money was real in the first place

how they could lose this much

when the founder raids the till, it can go pretty quickly

genuinely do not understand how they could lose this much, there has to be some sort of money laundering going on here

🙀

last year they lost like $50m, idk how it could be that much in just one quarter

well, they went public - more suckers to fleece

I hope it's the RNC's money going into that black hole, but more likely it's the Saudis and UAE currying favor.

It’s just the dipping value of his meme stock, right? It was worth a gazillion dollars on paper, and then it dropped, so I guess he can write that drop off on taxes?

No, he cannot, unless he sells, and only then in certain circumstances to offset gains in other stucks.

stocks

STONKS

I don't think that is the stock price dropping, I think that's actually saying "the company lost 328 million dollars last quarter", unrelated to the company's like total value stock-wise

"i'll vote for him, he's a successful business man!"

Ah… Seems on the level then:

“The company told the SEC last week that it would delay its quarterly filing, after the agency charged its former auditor, BF Borgers CPA, with “massive fraud” of hundreds of companies, raising red flags about the accuracy of the financial information that the firm had audited.”

Funny, Borgers are Trump’s BF.

I feel like I understand the core parts of Trump's appeal to the people he appeals to, but the thing that just trips me up over and over is how anyone fails to see what a cheap crook and grifter he is. Every single thing about him screams CON MAN in big red letters, which to me seems like it shouldn't really be a matter of ideology just basic self-preservation. Afaik even right-wing nuts don't enjoy getting ripped off. But maybe I'm wrong.

You're not wrong, and it's what has baffled me most about Trump's rise to the presidency and his continuing hold on his base. It's really a study in mass psychosis.

They think that all politicians are crooks and cheats. If you say Trump is a swindler they'll say "They're ALL crooked! At least he's honest about it!"

Something I hadn't realized: if Trump doesn't testify, he has to say so clearly and unequivocally in open court:

https://mitchellepner.substack.com/p/on-donald-trumps-decision-not-to

xp the lack of a real core competence-- outside of bluster and lying-- makes me wonder wtf is up with these people, they have like, no standards for either ruthlessness or dominance. so far.

hmmm very strange to put this in an official campaign video

https://i.imgur.com/wbDNYe9.jpeg

As Trump once said during a presidential debate, "I don't know much about QANON, but I hear they like me."