[News] What's Trump Done This Time, part 2

The continuation of the thread chronicling Trump's gaffes, faux pas, and other face palm-worthy antics. Light discussion welcome.

CONTENT WARNING: This thread regularly contains vulgar language, as well as depictions of racism, sexism, and sexual assault, among other potential triggers.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

In typical Trump fashion, you say something negative about him, he'll go on a rambling, incoherent rant about you. This time it was Robert Gates, director of the CIA under Bush Sr, former Secretary of Defense, was president of Texas A&M University and president of the Boy Scouts of America.

Donald Trump carried his attacks on former Defense Secretary Robert Gates from Twitter to a rally in Colorado Springs Saturday night, calling Gates a "nasty guy."

“We had a clown today, an absolute clown. Robert Gates, he’s supposed to be an expert, he’s been there forever," Trump said.

"Never met the guy, never saw him. I saw him on television, didn’t like him. The end result is look where we are. He’s a mess, OK? He’s a mess, so he goes out and he says negative things about me. I never met him, I never talked to him. Believe me, I am so much better at what he’s doing than he is, you won’t even believe it."

Trump hit Gates for criticizing presidents George W. Bush and Obama.

"He’s a nasty guy, probably has a problem that we don’t know about," he said.

Wow.

He's never met me - so he can't criticize me.
I've never met him - he's a clown; a mess; don't like him; I'm so much better than him; nasty guy; must have problems.

Tscott wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

In typical Trump fashion, you say something negative about him, he'll go on a rambling, incoherent rant about you. This time it was Robert Gates, director of the CIA under Bush Sr, former Secretary of Defense, was president of Texas A&M University and president of the Boy Scouts of America.

Donald Trump carried his attacks on former Defense Secretary Robert Gates from Twitter to a rally in Colorado Springs Saturday night, calling Gates a "nasty guy."

“We had a clown today, an absolute clown. Robert Gates, he’s supposed to be an expert, he’s been there forever," Trump said.

"Never met the guy, never saw him. I saw him on television, didn’t like him. The end result is look where we are. He’s a mess, OK? He’s a mess, so he goes out and he says negative things about me. I never met him, I never talked to him. Believe me, I am so much better at what he’s doing than he is, you won’t even believe it."

Trump hit Gates for criticizing presidents George W. Bush and Obama.

"He’s a nasty guy, probably has a problem that we don’t know about," he said.

Wow.

He's never met me - so he can't criticize me.
I've never met him - he's a clown; a mess; don't like him; I'm so much better than him; nasty guy; must have problems.

Believe me, I am so much better at what he’s doing than he is, you won’t even believe it.

Jane Goodall says Trump's been posturing like a chimp vying for dominance.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

In typical Trump fashion, you say something negative about him, he'll go on a rambling, incoherent rant about you. This time it was Robert Gates, director of the CIA under Bush Sr, former Secretary of Defense, was president of Texas A&M University and president of the Boy Scouts of America.

Hillarys campaign should really just have a strategy of having one new person attack Trump every day until the election. Bring up some of it during the debates and watch him go into rambling mode.
Too long since Trump talked about his big hands on TV.

sometimesdee wrote:

Jane Goodall says Trump's been posturing like a chimp vying for dominance.

I wonder how long it'll be for the New Racist (alt-right just doesn't seem accurate enough) group start complaining that liberals can compare Trump to a chimp but calling Barack or Michelle Obama monkeys is racist.

Shadout wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

In typical Trump fashion, you say something negative about him, he'll go on a rambling, incoherent rant about you. This time it was Robert Gates, director of the CIA under Bush Sr, former Secretary of Defense, was president of Texas A&M University and president of the Boy Scouts of America.

Hillarys campaign should really just have a strategy of having one new person attack Trump every day until the election. Bring up some of it during the debates and watch him go into rambling mode.
Too long since Trump talked about his big hands on TV.

The pro-Hillary ads running here are either clips of Trump being Trump or clips of Republicans calling Trump a disaster.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

The pro-Hillary ads running here are either clips of Trump being Trump or clips of Republicans calling Trump a disaster.

I've seen a few of those as well and whoever came up with the idea is a genius, it completely removes Hillary and her baggage from the equation while also avoiding the normally sketchy tones of attack ads by letting the opponent attack themselves.

sometimesdee wrote:

Jane Goodall says Trump's been posturing like a chimp vying for dominance.

That is the single best thing I've read today. Thanks, dee.

Donald Trump Suggests ‘Freedom Of Expression’ Is Hurting Fight Against Terrorism

But the Republican presidential nominee says he’s “totally in favor of freedom of the press.”
Republican nominee Donald Trump cited “freedom of expression” Monday as a potential roadblock in the fight against terrorism, remarks that set a troubling precedent if he’s elected president in November.

While speaking about the recent bombings in New York and New Jersey, Trump suggested that press freedom is preventing law enforcement from arresting the publishers of bomb-making instructions.

“I see the other day, and they’re all talking about it so wonderfully, because, you know, it’s called freedom of the press, where you buy magazines and they tell you how to make these same bombs that I saw,” Trump said in an interview on on “Fox & Friends.” “Now people will go crazy, they’ll say, ‘Oh Trump is against freedom of the press.’ I’m not against. I’m totally in favor of freedom of the press. But how do you allow magazines to be sold?”

Trump didn’t mention any specific titles, but he’s presumably referring to Al Qaeda’s English-language propaganda magazine Inspire or jihadi websites that publish bomb-making instructions. However, publications such as Inspire are not sold at any mainstream U.S. bookstores or newsstands, as Trump suggests, but can be found on the internet. It’s also unclear who is supposedly speaking “wonderfully” about jihadi propaganda in the context of press freedom, as Trump contends.

“We should arrest the people that do that because they’re participating in crime,” Trump continued. “We should arrest them. Instead they say, ‘Oh no, you can’t do anything, that’s freedom of expression.’”

He added that “we don’t want to touch them because of freedom of speech.”

What’s chilling about Trump’s remarks isn’t his criticism of jihadi propaganda ― which is clearly awful ― but his casual dismissal of “freedom of expression” and “freedom of speech,” bedrocks of American democracy, as potentially disposable in fighting terrorism

Trump Won Tax Breaks While Donating Tens Of Thousands To Corrupt Official

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump gave at least $45,000 to the campaign of Alan Hevesi, a New York state comptroller who later went to prison for his role in a pay-to-play bribery scandal, according to a Huffington Post review of campaign finance records.

Trump’s donations coincided with a $500 million lawsuit he filed against the city of New York in the hopes of reducing his property taxes. As the city comptroller and later the state comptroller, Hevesi, a Democrat, played a role in evaluating and settling legal claims against the city of New York and its officials.

The bulk of Trump’s donations went to Hevesi’s campaign for state comptroller, a race Hevesi won in the fall of 2002. In the fall of 2003, by which point Trump had given Hevesi $35,000, the city settled Trump’s lawsuit, a decision that would have involved both the state comptroller ― i.e., Hevesi ― and the new city comptroller.

The city reduced the tax assessment for Trump’s newest building by 17 percent and awarded the building a special tax abatement. In exchange, Trump agreed to subsidize 200 units of affordable housing in the Bronx. The settlement saved Trump $97 million in taxes he didn’t have to pay, he later wrote in Trump: How To Get Rich.

Trump used $258,000 from his charity to settle legal problems

Donald Trump spent more than a quarter-million dollars from his charitable foundation to settle lawsuits that involved the billionaire’s for-profit businesses, according to interviews and a review of legal documents.

Those cases, which together used $258,000 from Trump’s charity, were among four newly documented expenditures in which Trump may have violated laws against “self-dealing” — which prohibit nonprofit leaders from using charity money to benefit themselves or their businesses.

But, see, none of this matters. The Clinton Foundation is the corrupt one. Haven't you been following along?

Trump lies about his birther past

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/wRpR99q.gif)

This makes me angry (more than usual)

Why the hell doesn't every media article that is on Trump start with the title, "Another Lie"

The media is as effective as congress right now.

JC wrote:

This makes me angry (more than usual)

Why the hell doesn't every media article that is on Trump start with the title, "Another Lie"

The media is as effective as congress right now.

Hey, good news, the NY Times has decided to actually start doing journalism!

New York Times editor on Trump: “We will call out lies”

Tanglebones wrote:
JC wrote:

This makes me angry (more than usual)

Why the hell doesn't every media article that is on Trump start with the title, "Another Lie"

The media is as effective as congress right now.

Hey, good news, the NY Times has decided to actually start doing journalism!

New York Times editor on Trump: “We will call out lies”

Clearly I have a different definition of the word "harsh."

Nicco Mele, director of the Shorenstein Center, tracks the turning point in the tone on Trump to the Republican and Democratic conventions in July. “Broadly speaking, the media has turned harsher on Trump since he locked up the nomination in late May/early June. Coverage of him during and after the GOP convention was particularly harsh,” he says.
Tanglebones wrote:

Hey, good news, the NY Times has decided to actually start doing journalism!

New York Times editor on Trump: “We will call out lies”

He probably just realized that he won't be able to just search and replace "Iraq invasion" with "Trump campaign" in the NYT's next "sorry our lazy-ass reporting f*cked up half the world" letter.

But even if every media outlet started calling out every one of Trump's lies, would that really make a difference at this point? He's become a cult of personality, and he's built his platform on "you can't believe anyone except me." Someone calls him a liar? Well, that person is in the pocket of Hillary/the politicians/the media. You can't trust them, trust me!

I don't see any other realistic option. We have to unequivocally state again and again that he is lying.

Chaz wrote:

But even if every media outlet started calling out every one of Trump's lies, would that really make a difference at this point? He's become a cult of personality, and he's built his platform on "you can't believe anyone except me." Someone calls him a liar? Well, that person is in the pocket of Hillary/the politicians/the media. You can't trust them, trust me!

See Quintin's gif.

Chaz wrote:

He's become a cult of personality, and he's built his platform on "you can't believe anyone except me."

It's important to make sure that people on the fence and people considering not voting at all just what kind of person Trump is and just how ridiculous it is to consider making him "leader of the free world".

IMAGE(http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/sagacomic/images/e/e7/Lyingcat.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/270?cb=20130223023445)

Chaz wrote:

But even if every media outlet started calling out every one of Trump's lies, would that really make a difference at this point? He's become a cult of personality, and he's built his platform on "you can't believe anyone except me." Someone calls him a liar? Well, that person is in the pocket of Hillary/the politicians/the media. You can't trust them, trust me!

It's more than calling him as a liar. It's calling him out on the fact that he's completely unsuitable for the presidency based on his complete lack of experience governing, his thin-skinned temperament, his inability to express a coherent policy position for longer than an hour, his repeated disdain for the political process (and Constitutional rights), and many, many other reasons.

And while Trump has built a cult of personality the media should be constantly calling him out to reach the percentage of the population who haven't quite drunk the Trump KoolAid.

It's about getting those white conservatives who haven't lost their goddamned minds to either overcome 20+ years of anti-Hillary propaganda and pull the lever for her or getting them to stay at home on November 5th out of shame and embarrassment over what Trump's done to their party (and what he wants to do to America).

Tanglebones wrote:

IMAGE(http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/sagacomic/images/e/e7/Lyingcat.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/270?cb=20130223023445)

I want to live in a world where all presidential debates are moderated by Lying Cat

muttonchop wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:

IMAGE(http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/sagacomic/images/e/e7/Lyingcat.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/270?cb=20130223023445)

I want to live in a world where all presidential debates are moderated by Lying Cat

Trump aside, most other politicians know enough not to flat-out lie, you would need a setup like this:

JC wrote:
Nicco Mele, director of the Shorenstein Center, tracks the turning point in the tone on Trump to the Republican and Democratic conventions in July. “Broadly speaking, the media has turned harsher on Trump since he locked up the nomination in late May/early June. Coverage of him during and after the GOP convention was particularly harsh,” he says.

Maybe. But then the Democratic convention kicked ass. Hillary had the election locked up. And the media said "oh sh*t, what will happen to our ratings until November?"

So they let Trump lie and lie and lie, and they instead talk about the Clinton foundation and e-mails and holy sh*t, Trump is lying every other sentence that comes out of his mouth.

I just (literally, no joke) had a serious case of food poisoning the night before the centerpiece plan of the first part of our vacation (visiting Skellig Michael), and spent the day vomiting and sh*tting in our hotel room instead of taking a boat ride on a beautiful day to one of the most mind-blowing and unique places on the planet.

And upon contemplation, I think I'd rather relive that experience every day for a month than have Trump win the presidency.

(Sorry, I had nothing productive to add, but I wanted to tag into the thread. )

More on the Trump Foundation:
Trump Life

Lynne Patton, a senior assistant to three of Trump’s adult children and the vice president of son Eric Trump’s charitable foundation, told The Des Moines Register that some donations to the Donald J. Trump Foundation should be recognized as contributions from Trump himself because in some cases that money would have been paid to Trump directly.
.
“A lot of times Mr. Trump will give a speech somewhere or he’ll raise money in some way and he asks that that entity, instead of cutting a personal check to him, cut it to his charity,” Patton said. “That’s money that otherwise would’ve been in his personal account, right?”
.
“So when he cuts a check from his foundation for let’s say, St. Jude, it is his money,” she added. “No ifs, ands or ways about it.”