Former president Donald Trump referred to Elon Musk as "Leon" during a speech in Wisconsin on Saturday.
  • RangerJosie@lemmy.world
    96·
    3 months ago

    He should have resigned in the last year of his presidency. Had Pence pardon him. Then attended functions for the rest of his life as a “dignified former president”

    But nah. He bought his own hype. Now he has to win or he dies in prison. And it’s every bit his own damn fault. Fully self inflicted.

    • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
      24·
      3 months ago

      This fucker is driven by nothing but his psychotic narcissism. The very idea of no longer being center of attention is probably his biggest nightmare.

    • Zeppo@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      2·
      3 months ago

      Plenty of suggestions as long as we’re second-guessing his actions. Many of his crimes were related to the 2020 election, and if he hadn’t ran, he wouldn’t have issues in Georgia. We could also just say he could have not taken a bunch of classified documents, but it’s pretty easy to say “just don’t commit crimes”. The main one that he couldn’t avoid at that point was the Stormy Daniels hush money case.

      • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
        4·
        3 months ago

        The main one that he couldn’t avoid at that point was the Stormy Daniels hush money case.

        If Trump had exited without a fight, my guess is that most of the momentum for that would have died out. Yes it was a crime, but I think most would have just wanted to put Trump in the rear view mirror and forget about him and focus on the future for better or worse.

        • Zeppo@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          3·
          3 months ago

          Possibly. That would be basically agreeing with his claim that it was politically motivated prosecution, though. Seems to me like he really pissed off some people in New York and they may have done it anyway.

          • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
            1·
            3 months ago

            Possibly. That would be basically agreeing with his claim that it was politically motivated prosecution, though.

            I disagree with your conclusion.

            As an example, Nixon committed worse crimes than Trump’s New York state crimes, and Nixon was not prosecuted for his crimes. Had authorities pursued conviction of Nixon that would not have been politically motivated.

            • Zeppo@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              1·
              3 months ago

              I’m not saying I agree with Trump saying that in the first place. But to say he’s prosecuted because he’s running and wouldn’t be if he wasn’t seems like the definition of politically motivated. In any event, he’s being prosecuted because he’s guilty.

              • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
                1·
                2 months ago

                When someone in good faith says “This prosecution against me is politically motivated.” They are communicating the idea that the charges were manufactured without any underlying crime or possibly the underlying crime is minuscule, but the charges are overblown. Neither of those is the case with Trump.

                If you’re just using the dictionary definitions of the words, “politically”, “motivated”, and “prosecuted” then yes it meets that, but then so does a whole bunch of other absurd stuff you don’t mean when using the same logic. By that logic a home burglar is the victim of “politically motivate prosecution” because our legal policy is that burglary is a crime and that the burglar is being prosecuted because of it.

                • dnick@sh.itjust.works
                  1·
                  2 months ago

                  That’s not a good parallel, it’s the politically ‘motivated’ part he’s referring to. If someone is being prosecuted because they’re running for office, and you have a legitimate argument that if they had chosen not to run for office the charges would have been dropped, it’s legitimate to say it’s politically motivated.

                  On the other hand, if your crime was literally campaign finance crimes and voter manipulation, there’s a reasonable argument that ‘politically motivated’ isn’t necessarily a bad thing here. If you did a political crime, and seem likely to continue to be politically motivated to commit more crimes, it kind of makes sense that prosecuting you with a tiny bit of political intent isn’t totally unreasonable.

      • RangerJosie@lemmy.world
        41·
        3 months ago

        Isn’t “just don’t commit crimes” a common justification for police murder and deflection when prison reform is brought up?

        • Zeppo@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          4·
          3 months ago

          I guess. Not stealing a bunch of classified documents and refusing to give them back is a great way to not be prosecuted for stealing classified documents though.

          Anyway what I meant by “pretty easy to say” is that it’s not really a satisfying or useful suggestion.

  • Zeppo@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    744·
    3 months ago

    I hope so. Biden is old, but his problems with mental acuity were dramatically exaggerated by the media and conservatives. When people asked him questions, he would actually answer them. Meanwhile republicans were “omg he doesn’t even know what room he’s in bro” and that was sort of ridiculous. But then, you have Trump seems not just loopy but insane and deranged, and unlike Biden, he’s always been an idiot. However Trump he gets a pass from these same people. The press has never paid nearly enough attention to how incoherent he is. It gets frustrating because it has to be on purpose.

    • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
      33·
      3 months ago

      Of course it’s on purpose. Most of the media are owned by oligarchs that support Trump because all they care about is their next tax cut.

      • Zeppo@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        18·
        3 months ago

        Right. The “liberal media” BS has been of the Republican’s most successful tactics. Corporate media is not left-wing - it’s absurd, but that’s what conservatives push and many people fully believe it. Almost all media outlets in the US support conservatives in subtle ways, but people have been trained to think that right/centrist corporate media is rabidly biased towards the left.

        • aesthelete@lemmy.world
          1·
          3 months ago

          Manufacturing consent documented this at great length in the late 80s, and there’s absolutely no way it hasn’t gotten worse since then.

    • auzy@lemmy.world
      10·
      3 months ago

      A lot of Biden was also focused around a brainfart he had during the debate… I just spent days at an expo, and I had plenty where I lost my chain of thought due to being tired.

      And a photo where it looks like he’s speaking to nobody… But they cropped the parachuter out.

      Whereas, Trump constantly makes major mistakes for things he should know. And it is in general incoherent rambling. I’m a total introvert and even I don’t fuck up the way Trump does (ie, completely mixing up people and names constantly).

    • CitizenKong@lemmy.world
      15·
      3 months ago

      Well, he has every reason to. According to all accounts but his own, he really is breathtakingly stupid.

      • DaddleDew@lemmy.world
        3·
        3 months ago

        I don’t think he really is that stupid (or at least used to be, IDK how much of his intellect he has left given the decline we’ve been seeing lately). What he is, is extremely intellectually lazy. He believes that he can make good decisions by “instinct”, without ever taking some time to think about it, do some research or consulting experts. He believes that this is what being intelligent is. He just says and does whatever feels good at the time, thinking that being “so smart” means he doesn’t need to do any work at all to make good decisions. And whenever whatever he said was inevitably revealed as false or stupid, only then he will actually make an intellectual effort to bullshit and manipulate his way out of it. And this ability to perform the mental gymnastics to keep himself in denial over his incompetence is something that he has become outstandingly good at. His followers are just people who buy into those mental gymnastics.

        • dnick@sh.itjust.works
          1·
          2 months ago

          Do you have any hints at what would make you consider him not stupid, historically? Being confident and narcissistic, and even talented at bullshit doesn’t make you smart. And recognizing weaknesses in the system isn’t really smart, even if it is perceptive, when those weaknesses are really just strong arm tactics that happen to be available to him through brazenness, inheritance, litigation, cruelty and others recognizing him as a convenient money laundering option.

    • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
      5·
      3 months ago

      Honestly? I hope he keeps running, then has a massive public dementia breakdown like a week before the election. I think Kamala can beat Trump, so keep him in the race until it’s too late for repubs to shoehorn anyone else in.

      • chaogomu@lemmy.world
        2·
        2 months ago

        For this year at least, it’s too late to replace Trump on the ticket. Unless they replace Trump with Vance. That would comply with the rules. Sort of. Trump’s name would still be on the ticket. But Vance would take lead, and would pick a running mate.

        There are two major factors that would keep this from becoming a reality. First is Trump will never step aside in favor of someone else.

        Second is that Vance has negative charisma.

    • qprimed@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      3 months ago

      a firefox and noscript (or likely any anti-abuse / anti-ad extension of your choice) combo will deliver unto you the article in question .