The Donald Trump Score Card

Trump praises‘Beautiful Ladies’ from a secretive evangelical church


https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/30/us/politics/trump-women-church-north-carolina.html

excerpt:

"Former President Donald J. Trump has gruesome rhetorical staples he likes to deploy at his political rallies, including homicidal sharks, bird-killing windmills and Hannibal Lecter. Amid the litany, one less morbid aside tends to escape notice.

“Those beautiful ladies from North Carolina are here again without their husbands,” Mr. Trump observed at a rally in Mosinee, Wis., on Sept. 9, veering off from a rant about the 2020 election. He gestured toward the rafters and a row of a dozen impeccably coifed women in brightly colored pantsuits, as if they had wandered in from an Easter gala."

 

While speaking to the Suffolk County Police Department in July 2017, Trump told police to not be so polite with suspects when arresting them.


Trump to police: 'Please don't be too nice' to suspects

excerpt:

"President Donald Trump seemed to encourage police to be more violent in handling potential offenders during a speech to law enforcement officers today.

"Please don't be too nice," he said to the audience in Long Island, New York.

While the speech was largely focused on the fight against the gang MS-13, it appeared that Trump was directing his comments about police interactions with suspected criminals in general.

He described the precautions typically taken by police where they place a hand over a suspect's head while they're being put into a police car to protect them.

"When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you just seen them thrown in, rough. I said, ‘Please don’t be too nice,’" he said.

"When you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting their head you know, the way you put their hand over [their head]," Trump continued, mimicking the motion. "Like, 'Don’t hit their head and they’ve just killed somebody, don’t hit their head.' I said, 'You can take the hand away, OK?'

 

Trump to police: 'Please don't be too nice' to suspects

excerpt:

"The SCPD has strict rules & procedures relating to the handling of prisoners," it tweeted following the president's speech. "Violations of those rules are treated extremely seriously."

A subsequent tweet read, "As a department, we do not and will not tolerate roughing up of prisoners."

 

It's pathetic that the police group that Trump had behind him during his speech had to issue a disclaimer following his speech that it wouldn't rough up people.

 

Trump to police: 'Please don't be too nice' to suspects

excerpt:

During a campaign stop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on the day of the Iowa caucuses, for instance, he told audience members he would pay their legal fees if they engaged in violence against protesters.

"If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously, OK? Just knock the hell ... I promise you I will pay for the legal fees. I promise, I promise," he said on Feb. 1, 2016.

At a Las Vegas rally later that month, he said security guards were too gentle with a protester. "He's walking out with big high-fives, smiling, laughing," Trump said. "I'd like to punch him in the face, I'll tell you."

A similar situation unfolded at a rally that month in Warren, Michigan.

"Get him out," he said of a protester. "Try not to hurt him. If you do, I'll defend you in court. Don't worry about it."

 

In the 2016 election, Trump lost the popular vote by 2.1% but won the election.

In the 2020 election, Trump lost the popular vote by 4.5% and lost the election.

In the 2000 election, G.W. Bush lost the popular vote by 0.5% but won the election.

 

Nate Silver and Allan Lichtman have been exchanging barbs.


'Two wizards bickering': Nate Silver, Allan Lichtman trade barbs over 2024 election picks

excerpt:

"Lichtman, an American University professor who has correctly predicted the outcome of nine out of the 10 most recent presidential elections, earlier this month forecasted that the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket would win the White House.

Since then, Silver, a political pollster and founder of FiveThirtyEight, released data showing vice president Harris ahead of former President Donald Trump in the national polling average by nearly three points – 48.9% to 46% – but Trump and vice presidential candidate JD Vance have a 56.2% chance of winning the Electoral College compared to Harris-Walz (43.5%)."

 

Far-right party wins in Austria, a boost to Putin and Trump.


Far right wins close Austria election, a boost for Putin

excerpt:

"A far-right party founded by former Nazis appeared to have won Austria’s election Sunday, in a result that could reshape Europe’s political landscape and help tilt the balance of power between Russia and the West.

Projections from ORF public television based on exit polls suggest that the pro-Russia, anti-immigration Freedom Party, or FPÖ, has finished first, with 29.1% of the vote."

 

Politics in Florida has turned ugly.


Florida congressional candidate charged with threatening to kill primary opponent

excerpt:

"William Robert Braddock III, 41, of St. Petersburg, Florida, was charged with threatening two people, one of whom the DOJ said was his primary opponent in the 2022 election for Florida’s 13th Congressional District. Braddock allegedly threatened to “call up my Russian-Ukrainian hit squad” and make the primary opponent disappear, according to the indictment.:

 

The Tampa area again, home to many of Trump's rioters at the Capitol.

 

Fascism in America: It’s Happening Here, According to Professor's New Book

excerpt:

"DiMaggio details the key role that propaganda has played and continues to play in fueling fascist politics. He points to several “Trojan Horses” responsible for mainstreaming extremist viewpoints such as pundit Alex Jones and outlets including Infowars and Breitbart, which he refers to as “alt-light.”

“This extremism has been building for decades with rightwing media pundits’ embrace of increasingly conspiratorial, authoritarian, racist and xenophobic messages, which has gone unacknowledged for the most part in mainstream political and academic discourse,” he writes.

One chapter details the rise of “Trumpism” and the various movements that coalesced and strengthened during his time as president, such as QAnon and the “Reopen” movement. DiMaggio points to the 2017 “Unite the Right Rally” in Charlottesville, Virginia―when a gathering of White supremacists, neo-Confederates and others who came to Charlottesville to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee resulted in violence and death―as a key moment in the rise of neo-fascist politics, calling it the movement’s “coming out party.”

“Trump refused to clearly condemn the reactionary right, relying on false equivalencies, Orwellian double-talk and romanticization of Confederate politics,” writes DiMaggio. “He ‘condemn[ed] in the strongest possible terms’ the ‘egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence,’ in Charlottesville ‘on many sides,’ thereby drawing a false equivalency between neo-fascists who idealized White supremacy and activists who opposed it.”"

 

https://www.psichi.org/page/283Eye-The-Psychodynamic-Underpinnings-Of-Fascism

excerpt:

"How would you define fascism, and what are key characteristics to look for?

When I talk about these ideas, I try and say to folks, “Leave your politics at the door.” This is a non-political effort to understand a timely and important phenomenon that is happening around us. With that in mind, I rely on Jason Stanley, a philosopher at Yale who wrote a book called How Fascism Works, the Politics of Us and Them (2018). He said that fascism has three components:

Populism: fosters domestic divisiveness

Nativism: tends to surround racial, ethnic, or religious purity, and is often complemented by xenophobia

Authoritarianism: submission to authority, often by mindless adherence to larger-than-life leader who thinks they’re solely capable of running the world

“Fascist politicians,” Stanley notes, “transform the population’s shared understanding of reality by twisting the language of ideals through propaganda and promoting anti-intellectualism, attacking universities and educational systems that might challenge their ideas. Eventually…fascist politics creates a state of unreality, in which conspiracy theories and fake news replace reasoned debate.”

 

Trump has already implemented his underhanded brand of Kristallnacht by spreading false rumors about Haitians in Ohio. It has caused numerous bomb threats targeting Springfield.

Even after the trouble Trump caused, he and Vance continue with their lies.

Yet he's still within the marin of error with Harris in the presidential race.

Spreading false rumors is one of the attributes of fascism.

 

It's a dodge to get around campaign finance laws. "Я не делаю незаконных пожертвований на предвыборную кампанию! Я просто покупаю две дюжины этих воображаемых часов за 100 000 долларов!" (I'm not making an illegal campaign contribution! I'm merely buying two dozen of these imaginary $100,000 watches!).

 

Poland presents plan to fortify border to Russia, Belarus – DW – 05/27/2024

excerpt:

"The presentation of the plan comes as many countries from the former "Eastern Bloc" increasingly fear Russian aggression in view of Moscow's unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine."

 

Florida man arrested and charged with entering Capitol on Jan. 6..


Winter Haven man arrested, charged with entering US Capitol on Jan. 6

 

Rudy Giuliani’s Daughter: Trump Took My Dad From Me. Please Don’t Let Him Take Our Country Too

excerpt:

"As Rudy Giuliani’s daughter, I’m unfortunately well-suited to remind Americans of just how calamitous being associated with Trump can be, even for those who are convinced he’s on their side. Watching my dad’s life crumble since he joined forces with Trump has been extraordinarily painful, both on a personal level and because his demise feels linked to a dark force that threatens to once again consume America. Not to disregard individual accountability in the slightest, but it would be naive for us to ignore the fact that many of those closest to Trump have descended into catastrophic downward spirals. If we let Trump back into the driver’s seat this fall, our country will be no exception."

 

Giuliani's daughter endorses Harris.


Rudy Giuliani's daughter Caroline endorses Kamala Harris

excerpt:

"Not to disregard individual accountability in the slightest, but it would be naive for us to ignore the fact that many of those closest to Trump have descended into catastrophic downward spirals," Caroline Giuliani wrote. "If we let Trump back into the driver's seat this fall, our country will be no exception."

 

Trump makes false claims about federal response as he campaigns in area ravaged by Hurricane Helene

excerpt:

"VALDOSTA, Ga. (AP) — Donald Trump repeatedly spread falsehoods Monday about the federal response to Hurricane Helene despite claiming not to be politicizing the disaster as he toured hard-hit areas in south Georgia.

The former president and Republican nominee claimed upon landing in Valdosta that President Joe Biden was “sleeping” and not responding to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who he said was “calling the president and hasn’t been able to get him.” He repeated the claim at an event with reporters after being told Kemp said he had spoken to Biden.

“He’s lying, and the governor told him he was lying,” Biden said Monday."