Monkeyboy wrote:also reports out of iowa that sorting machines are being removed from post offices.

https://www.salon.com/2020/08/12/mail-s ... on-leader/

Monkeyboy wrote:

traderdave wrote:Just in case anybody was unsure about Trump's motives in defunding the USPS, he was kind enough to make it perfectly clear this morning on Fox Business:

“Now they need that money in order to make the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” he said Thursday in an interview on Fox Business. “But if they don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting.”

“They don’t have the money to do the universal mail-in voting. So therefore, they can’t do it, I guess, right?” Trump said. “Are they going to do it, even if they don’t have the money?”

I feel like I've been very patient with people in my life who support him, but I am pretty much at my breaking point.

This is a soft coup, plain and simple. He is trying to unseat the rightful winner before the election happens. He is desperate and weak.

Trump had colluded with the Russians, but not in the sophisticated ways imagined by his detractors. I also knew that the Mueller investigation was not a witch-hunt. Trump had cheated in the election, with Russian connivance, as you will discover in these pages, because doing anything—and I mean anything—to “win” has always been his business model and way of life. Trump had also continued to pursue a major real estate deal in Moscow during the campaign. He attempted to insinuate himself into the world of President Vladimir Putin and his coterie of corrupt billionaire oligarchs. I know because I personally ran that deal and kept Trump and his children closely informed of all updates, even as the candidate blatantly lied to the American people saying, “there’s no Russian collusion, I have no dealings with Russia…there’s no Russia.”

There are reasons why there has never been an intimate portrait of Donald Trump, the man. In part, it’s because he has a million acquaintances, pals and hangers on, but no real friends. He has no one he trusts to keep his secrets. For ten years, he certainly had me, and I was always there for him, and look what happened to me. I urge you to really consider that fact: Trump has no true friends. He has lived his entire life avoiding and evading taking responsibility for his actions. He crushed or cheated all who stood in his way, but I know where the skeletons are buried because I was the one who buried them. I was the one who most encouraged him to run for president in 2011, and then again in 2015, carefully orchestrating the famous trip down the escalator in Trump Tower for him to announce his candidacy. When Trump wanted to reach Russian President Vladimir Putin, via a secret back channel, I was tasked with making the connection in my Keystone Kop fashion. I stiffed contractors on his behalf, ripped off his business partners, lied to his wife Melania to hide his sexual infidelities, and bullied and screamed at anyone who threatened Trump’s path to power. From golden showers in a sex club in Vegas, to tax fraud, to deals with corrupt officials from the former Soviet Union, to catch and kill conspiracies to silence Trump’s clandestine lovers, I wasn’t just a witness to the president’s rise—I was an active and eager participant.

In the pitiful sight of Republicans throwing aside their dignity and duty in an effort to grovel at Trump’s feet, I saw myself and understood their motives. My insatiable desire to please Trump to gain power for myself, the fatal flaw that led to my ruination, was a Faustian bargain: I would do anything to accumulate, wield, maintain, exert, exploit power. In this way, Donald Trump and I were the most alike; in this naked lust for power, the President and I were soul mates. I was so vulnerable to his magnetic force because he offered an intoxicating cocktail of power, strength, celebrity, and a complete disregard for the rules and realities that govern our lives. To Trump, life was a game and all that mattered was winning. In these dangerous days, I see the Republican Party and Trump’s followers threatening the constitution—which is in far greater peril than is commonly understood—and following one of the worst impulses of humankind: the desire for power at all costs.

TomatoPie wrote:read the foreward to Michael Cohen's book:
https://disloyalthebook.com/download-th ... ael-cohen/

Monkeyboy wrote:Thought this was good by Silver.... gives a rundown of why his model says it's closer than we'd like.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/it ... trump-out/

Monkeyboy wrote:Thought this was good by Silver.... gives a rundown of why his model says it's closer than we'd like.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/it ... trump-out/

ReadingPhilly wrote:What the fuck

https://twitter.com/rexchapman/status/1 ... 05889?s=21

On Friday, the official “The Simpsons” Twitter account posted a video of the blue-haired matriarch responding to a Trump campaign advisor who appeared to try to insult California senator and vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris by comparing her voice to the character’s.

Werthless wrote:

Monkeyboy wrote:Thought this was good by Silver.... gives a rundown of why his model says it's closer than we'd like.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/it ... trump-out/

I agree that it is worthy of a repost.

It's not closer, per se, but more uncertain than we'd care to believe.

Monkeyboy wrote:

ReadingPhilly wrote:What the fuck

https://twitter.com/rexchapman/status/1 ... 05889?s=21

"We are not going to let Joe Biden and Kamala Harris cut America's meat."

That's quite a quote.

In fairness, the juvenile nature of this country makes me wonder if we do need someone to cut our meat. And wipe our mouths. And someone to make s get to bed on time. We can barely tie our shoes these days