The Official "Damned Trump" Thread: Phase II

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Trump May Be The World's Worst Party Planner

Donald Trump’s planned midterm convention is already creating a political headache for Republicans, with candidates in some of the nation’s tightest races appearing reluctant to embrace the event.

Trump is expected to headline a first-ever GOP midterm convention in Dallas in September as Republicans fight to protect their narrow majority in Congress. The gathering, dubbed “Trumpapalooza” by Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters, is designed to rally the party and showcase candidates ahead of a crucial election season.

But for some vulnerable GOP contenders, appearing alongside Trump could come with political risks.

Of the 28 Republican candidates contacted by Politico about attending the convention, only two responded.

The hesitation comes as Trump faces some of his weakest polling numbers in months amid his deeply unpopular war in Iran, which has sent gas prices soaring above $5 a gallon, exacerbating the cost-of-living crisis.

One Republican donor, speaking anonymously about internal party dynamics, was even more direct: “The less you’re associated with Trump, the better.”

Boru

[Mister Agenda]

He's Becoming More And More Irrelevant

Trump previously attempted to strong-arm Congress into doing what it would take to pass the SAVE Act by refusing to sign another bill, the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, into law until his priority bill was passed. The ROAD Act was designed to address housing affordability concerns, prompting some Republicans to fume over Trump blocking legislative wins that could give the GOP goodwill with midterm voters.

Now, however, Trump's tactic has fallen apart, The Hill explained in a new report, as the ROAD Act automatically became law on Saturday due to a provision in the Constitution that allows bills to take effect after 10 days without action from the president if they pass in both chambers of Congress.

The duck is limping.

Boru

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he thought it wouldn't become law if he didn't sign it.

[Deesse23]

Trump May Be The World's Worst Party Planner

Donald Trump’s planned midterm convention is already creating a political headache for Republicans, with candidates in some of the nation’s tightest races appearing reluctant to embrace the event.

Trump is expected to headline a first-ever GOP midterm convention in Dallas in September as Republicans fight to protect their narrow majority in Congress. The gathering, dubbed “Trumpapalooza” by Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters, is designed to rally the party and showcase candidates ahead of a crucial election season.

But for some vulnerable GOP contenders, appearing alongside Trump could come with political risks.

Of the 28 Republican candidates contacted by Politico about attending the convention, only two responded.

The hesitation comes as Trump faces some of his weakest polling numbers in months amid his deeply unpopular war in Iran, which has sent gas prices soaring above $5 a gallon, exacerbating the cost-of-living crisis.

One Republican donor, speaking anonymously about internal party dynamics, was even more direct: “The less you’re associated with Trump, the better.”

Boru

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

He's Becoming More And More Irrelevant


The duck is limping.

Boru

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he thought it wouldn't become law if he didn't sign it.

Of course. Never has someone known so little about so much.

Boru

[Angrboda]

Purportedly to fend off those alleged saboteurs, fencing now surrounds the pool. Workers have also added opaque mesh screens to the barrier. Chain-link fencing was first installed on June 23—more than three weeks ago as of Wednesday—by the Department of the Interior.

Records show that the federal government awarded an in-progress $37,000 contract to a construction company, National Construction Rentals, for “REFLECTING POOL TEMPORARY FENCE” that started last week. According to the contract summary, the contract is not set to end until January 8, 2027.

https://newrepublic.com/post/213115/dona...tion-fence

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Trump Administration Admits to Abuse of Power. In Court.

Democratic lawmakers accused the Trump administration of abusing its power after officials admitted in a federal court filing they recommended terminating several billion dollars in grants for clean-energy projects based “solely” on states’ “political identity” and whether President Donald Trump won the vote there in the 2024 election.

In a July 15 filing that is part of a class action lawsuit seeking to overturn the decision, officials said the Energy Department sent to the Office of Management and Budget a list of more than 600 grants it recommended be canceled from recipients in states where former Vice President Kamala Harris won the vote, and that have two senators that caucus with Democrats. Ultimately, the Office of Management and Budget terminated 284 grants in October 2025.

Boru

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

America's Sleeping Giant (opinion piece by Robert Reich)

I don't generally post entire articles, but this one is a corker.

We have been subject to the sociopath for a year and a half — 18 months of the most loathsome, least competent, and most corrupt person ever to be president of the United States.

We’ve watched him take a meat-axe to every major institution of our democracy, draw the nation into a never-ending war, establish a murderous domestic police state, reject renewable energy in favor of the dirtiest possible fossil fuels, make billions off his presidency, and cause most Americans to become poorer and less economically secure.

But here’s the good news. The sleeping giant of America is finally awakening.


Trump’s poll numbers are plummeting. They’re now at record lows. Even many Republicans have had enough. Progressives are winning election after election around the country.

The sleeping giant has always remained asleep until some venality becomes so noxious, some acts so disrespectful of the common good, some brutalities so noisy, that the giant has no choice but to awaken — blinking both eyes and then roaring, “What the hell is going on here?”

The first time I saw him awaken was during the witch hunts of Senator Joe McCarthy. He awoke again when the Ku Klux Klan tried to stop the Civil Rights Movement. Again when the Vietnam War was taking the lives of tens of thousands of Americans and millions of Vietnamese. And again when Richard Nixon threatened our system of government.

Each time the sleeping giant of America has awakened, the good sense of the American people has stopped whatever it is that awakened him. Again and again, we put the nation back on track toward democracy and social justice.


Trump isn’t gone yet, of course. He has another two and a half years. But he’s on his way out. He’ll soon be a cringeworthy irrelevance, a fat lame duck, excrement on the sidewalk of history.


In a few years, Trump’s gilded monuments will be razed, his name removed from every building and pediment, his pathetic attempts to glorify himself turned into bad jokes, his legacy object lessons in why big money must be banned from politics and dastardly dickheads like Elon Musk kept away from the levers of government power.

Trump will still cause a great deal of damage over the remainder of his term, the way a wild pig who’s been gored wreaks mayhem before it expires.

So this is no time to let down our guard or become overly confident about the coming midterm elections.


Quite the contrary. One hundred days from today must be a historic repudiation of Trump and his entire disgusting regime.
The blue wave must be a tsunami — inundating everything Trump may attempt to do to hold on to the House and Senate, overwhelming whatever lies he may tell about the election, and enveloping him in a rejection that’s so unmistakable, a rebuke so unequivocal, a reproach so unambiguous as to cause the great giant of America to get up and dance.

Boru

[Deesse23]

Dont wanna spoil the party here
BUT
The author of this article does make imho two crucial mistakes:

#1 Comparing trump to Nixon, KKK or McCarthy is like comparing a sledgehammer to a wrecking ball
Those three had very specific things in mind, to alter the USA into what they thought was the "right one", none of them tried (accidentally or intentionally) destroy the very foundation of what the US is.
Nixon wanted to stay in power, because power corrupted him. But otherwise he was a capable politician (almost won against JFK) who ramped out of Vietnam and negotiated with Mao (although he was responsible for the US not being able to pull out of Vietnam earlier).
KKK wanted to discriminate against black people, probably additionally they were christian nationalists who wanted to remove separation of church and state.
MCarthy wanted to get rid of a perceived communist thread.
But thats it, for each and all of them

Trump however, is a wrecking ball, attacking the foundations (of the US) on a very broad scale, each and every single one (and i wont name them, you know them), relentlessly.

Thinking that you can go back to business as usual after the next 2 years is like thinking you can move back into your apartment once the wrecking ball is finished: There will be no apartment left to move back into, at least not one you will recognize.

#2 Upwards of 30% of voters not only tolerate the current situation, they love it!
Lets assume, best case, that Dems will take back House of Representatives (senate is very improbable, which is already damning) and AOC, Bernie or Newsome (or whoever else) gets elected, you still have to deal with the fact that obviously 30% of voters were abso-fucking-lutely aok with taking down the USA, for whatever reason or perceived grievances. Its a sword of Damocles above your head, and if you wont be able to keep outnumbering them in the next election, they will vote another Trump (-like) into office, rinse and repeat.

The root of the problem is much more fundamental than just having an utterly corrupt and incompetent idiot surrounding himself with the likes of. I said it once: At the moment its the only hope the USA have that he and his cronies are, in fact, so incompetent. Thats not really a saving grace that you should be proud of or count on at all.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

^I don’t dispute any of that other than calling them ‘crucial mistakes’. They’re mistakes, certainly, but a polemic is not necessarily constrained by facts. Reich was writing an opinion, not a research article.

Boru

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

'I had a wonderful father, and he was a hard worker. He was in the real estate business and for him, super luxury, he didn’t want planes; they didn’t have planes in those days.' - Donald Trump, whose father died in 1999, when 'they didn't have planes'.

Boru