We Need To Talk About Donald

[Brian Peacock]

[Brian Peacock]

Judge rejects Trump defense against claim he incited violence at rally

A federal judge has rejected President Donald Trump’s free speech defense in a lawsuit in which he is accused of inciting violence against protesters during his campaign.

Trump’s lawyers sought to dismiss the lawsuit by three protesters who say they were roughed up by Trump supporters at a March 2016 campaign rally in Louisville.

Trump’s lawyers contend that when the candidate said “Get ’em out of here”, he didn’t intend for his supporters to use force. Two women and a man say they were shoved and punched by audience members as Trump directed them from the podium. Much of the scuffle was captured on video and widely broadcast during the presidential campaign.

Judge David J Hale in Louisville ruled on Friday that the suit against Trump, his campaign and three of his supporters can proceed. Hale found that there were ample facts supporting the allegation that the protesters’ injuries were a “direct and proximate result” of Trump’s actions.

“It is plausible that Trump’s direction to ‘get ‘em out of here’ advocated the use of force,” Hale wrote....

More...

[Tero]

Trump's Mar-a-Lago helipad is finally finished, which will help us pick him up and deliver him to jail.

[pErvinalia]

Sorry, my photoshop skills are a bit rusty..

[tattuchu]

That underbite makes my penis hard

[tattuchu]

What an adorable image of Clownshoes Littlehands

[Tero]

Trump and the power of fiction

The same thing is happening now in America. “Work hard and you will achieve, society will achieve”—so long the meaning of life dangled by liberal democracies (and known as “the American dream” in the United States) has become obsolete. With that gone, it was not long before those left behind fell under the populist spell Trump was conjuring. Like Chávez, Trump offers his supporters not details, policies or laws, but faith. The swamp will be drained, he promises, and walls will rise to protect and shelter, and ruined factories will begin their clanging anew. It’s all empty rhetoric. But as long as you believe it, it is already happening. Who can say that post-factual worlds do not undergo post-factual improvements?
You might be thinking that Trumpism cannot possibly endure, that the president’s most diehard supporters will eventually release themselves from this deception, and that American moderates will never succumb to it. But do not to underestimate the power of fiction. I watched the delirium spread like wildfire through a population, infecting extremists and moderates alike. And I watched it go on and on and on. Even today, 52 percent of Venezuelans still view Chávez positively, despite daily and yearly evidence in the form of increasing scarcity, crime and illness to the contrary.

Remember: Delirium is contagious. It is self-enforcing. It feeds through the natural channels of society’s networks effects. Looking through history one can find many examples of civilized nations being rhetorically driven unto dementia and total war. Like Venezuela, yes. But also, like Russia in the early 20th century. And yes, like Germany in the 1930s. Reasonable people in these countries thought they’d be able to resist the irrationality. They couldn’t. Do not assume the United States will not be next.

You should therefore see Trump’s increasing war against the media and established fact for what it is. Not as a case of presidential derangement, or even a certain carelessness about what is factual. Not even as some sort of obstinate demolition. It is something else altogether. Like all populists, Trump is motivated mainly by the construction of a fiction. His is a carefully designed plan to recreate for a large enough chunk of people an alternative reality in which there really is success, there really is vengeance, there really is a sense of improvement. For himself and for his audience, this suspicion of improvement, like the placebo effect that begins before a drug begins to work, is good enough. And to your dismay, durable enough also.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/ ... ela-214973

[Tero]

Washington (CNN)Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said Sunday he is treating an immunity request from ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn with "healthy skepticism."

Schiff's indication on CNN's "State of the Union" with Jake Tapper that he might oppose an immunity deal for the former adviser to President Donald Trump's campaign in exchange for testimony related to the committee's investigation into Russian interference in the US election came days after Flynn's lawyer said his client "has a story to tell" but wanted "assurances against unfair prosecution."
Schiff said he'd need to consult with the Hehehehehe hehe hehehehehehehehe hehe hehe hehe hehehehe...

hehehehe hehe hehehehehehehe...

hehehe hehe hehe hehe....

You said "Justice Department"... hehe hehe hehe...

hehehe hehe hehe hehehe hehehe hehe hehe hehe hehe.... and assess whether Flynn would actually "add value" to the investigation.

[Animavore]

Why has this thread gone quiet? Has he not done anything stupid in a while?

[JimC]

Just a brief lull...

[Animavore]

Must be playing golf.

[Animavore]

That article on fiction is good. Trump supporters really are dangerous cultists.

[rainbow]

Why has this thread gone quiet? Has he not done anything stupid in a while?

He is in sulk mode.

[Animavore]

I see he stormed out of a bill signing today as the press questioned him on ties to Russia. This story is not going away. Hopefully he'll be behind bars soon.

[pErvinalia]

That story isn't going away. Unless perhaps he can manufacture a bigger story. Today he started making threats to North Korea. I really hope he doesn't start a war just to get out this Russia stuff..