Apparently, it’s been officially confirmed, Trump truly is the biggest loser, after the Electoral College and even the right-wing packed Supreme Court have confirmed it. The turn of events has inspired a January 2021 version of the classic song by the Von Trapp family of “The Sound of Music” in a special a Trump remix.
Thanks to a New Zealand Principal and musician, Shirley Șerban, who cleverly and brilliantly adapted the lyrics to fit Trump. Her YouTube channel also has other parody videos including “Covid Christmas” and A Message to Trump in Disney Frozen style “Let it Go” .
Russia and others speculate on what will become of ‘Trumpusha’
When Trump leaves the White House come January 20th, he will undoubtedly have many obstacles to face, both legal and in his business concerns. Meanwhile, it still remains unclear if Trump has plans to try and preemptively pardon himself (and that point is moot since it only covers federal crimes), as he stands to face charges for numerous offenses related to fraud, tax evasion and sexual assault.
What will happen with Trump as he makes his likely final exit as president is a question on many people’s minds, including at the Kremlin, interestingly.
Russian state media have expressed concern about their dear “Trumpusha” or “Comrade Trump” as he is sometimes referred to. During a state-run TV talk show ‘Russia-1’, Olga Skabeeva brought up the “serious” possibility that the soon to be ex-President should seek asylum within Russia in order to avoid the prosecutions that will surely follow him at the end of his term.
Other Russian leaders also had more to say, such as Defense Ministry’s Public Council Igor Korotchenko, who also spoke out to defend Trump; which is reportedly a stark contrast to his traditionally combative stance toward other Western leaders.
“Russia can offer political asylum to the persecuted former president of the United States, Donald Trump. But let him not simply arrive to Rostov or elsewhere, but also transfer his capital here and finally build his famous Trump City somewhere in our New Moscow.”
Day by day the options for Trump dwindle and recede, it seems…
U.S. laws may or may not allow Trump to roam free after he is no longer protected by presidential immunity to prosecution. Yet in Russia, a country who’s laws have the ability to stretch and blur leaders’ accountability, like the constitutional amendment barring any criminal liability for Putin, should he ever step down, that was recently advanced.
The amendment that would secure immunity from any type of criminal prosecution not just within the tenure of the country’s former presidents, but lifetime criminal immunity. Which is just the kind of thing Trump might be wishing for right about now.
During the Russia-1 TV show, politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky spoke to the idea of potential last-minute surprises that could still be unveiled prior to the 20th of January.
“You don’t know Trump, he has plenty of tricks up his sleeve and can still cause lots of damage to America and the entire world.” This could be an indicator of the reason why Putin held out for as long as possible in acknowledging President-elect Joe Biden.
Ever the Trump cheerleader, Putin has some encouraging words
During an annual news conference, Putin, on center stage, spoke of Trump, future U.S.-Russia relations, as well as continued to deflect questions stemming from the long-standing allegations of Russia’s involvement with hacking and interference in the 2016 presidential elections.
When asked about the U.S. elections and what Trump’s future would hold, he seemed very optimistic on Trump’s possible future options when he said:
“He is an experienced man both in domestic and foreign policy, and we expect that all the problems that arose, or at least some of them, will be solved with the new administration. Trump, in my view, doesn’t have to find a job, almost 50% of the [US] population voted for him if we count the number of voters, not the electoral college. He has quite a large base of support in the U.S. and, as far as I understand, he is not going to leave the political life of his country.”
Remind us again, why families are in such desperate need?
Ivanka Trump, first daughter, posted a video of herself, in an extreme-self-congratulatory fashion, with instrumental music playing in the background. In the oddly disconcerting clip she can be seen working “hard” to hand deliver boxes of food to those in need.
In the final days left of Trump’s term, apparently, his eldest daughter felt the need to make her presence known.
According to many on Twitter, her strange, weak attempts to display compassion (with a clear agenda to promote herself) failed to convey actual concerned authenticity, despite the fact that millions of people continue to be seriously affected during the coronavirus pandemic.
In her Twitter post, along with her PR video, her caption read:
“I visited Woodbridge, VA to help deliver #FarmersToFamilies food boxes to those in need in the community,” she tweeted. “Our #FarmersToFamilies Program has delivered 125 M boxes of farm fresh produce, meat, & dairy and served 3.2 B meals to hungry Americans during the pandemic.”
Many were quick to respond to how the video came off; pointing out how staged, inauthentic and tone-deaf her post actually was.
Dirty Politics and crazy hunt for voter fraud conspiracy ‘proof’ continues
Mark Aguirre, a former captain for the Houston Police Department (HPD) was charged with assault after running an A/C repairman off the road and then holding him at gunpoint. Aguirre was fired from HPD back in 2003 for a botched raid on illegal street racing. The reason for the violent altercation? Aguirre claimed the man was the mastermind of voter-election fraud scheme. He was nothing but an AC Repairman going about his business.
In the Fox news account, however, there was no mention of the fact that the man was not involved with ballots or the election.
According to the affidavit, the defendant stated the driver held “approximately seven hundred and fifty thousand fraudulent mail ballots and is using Hispanic children to sign the ballots because the children’s fingerprints would not appear in any databases”.
What was actually inside the A/C repairman truck? Police inspected thoroughly and found that his vehicle was filled with air conditioning parts and tools, zero ballots, nor anything resembling such items.
While the above information implies the possibility that the allegations by the defendant could have some kernel of truth behind them, they fall apart completely and show the opposite when the most glaringly important fact is omitted.
This story was first broken by the Associated Press and then picked up and expanded on by many others, including the Washington Post and, of course Fox News. The Fox News version was notable for a very significant omission: they chose not to mention that the ‘ballots” were never in the truck and there were no ballots. Here are some of the comments from the Fox News thread:
“Here is the key detail that was omitted in this description of the story: KTRK (Houston): “According to court documents, there were no ballots in the truck. The truck was filled with air conditioning parts and tools.”
The police found nothing but HVAC material in the guy’s truck. Read basically every other article on this and you will see they found ZERO BALLOTS.
The reason that Fox omits this statement of fact from the article is that they know a good percentage of their base believes in these crackpot theories. They can’t be calling out their base for being insane, so they just dance around the facts in this article so that they can avoid alienating that part of their base.
Go read some of the comments. The fact that Fox didn’t put the fact that there were no ballots in the truck is enough to make people think they DID find something but they are keeping it quiet because it’s all part of the bigger conspiracy.
It took them 2 months and they only charged him with assault. How about willful reckless driving, unlawful detainment, kidnapping, use of a weapon to commit a felony.
Fox left out part of the story that was mentioned in every Texas paper. “There were no ballots in the truck,” according to the Harris district attorney’s office press release. “It was filled with air conditioning parts and tools.” There, you have the rest of the story.
From all appearances,’crazies’ are being recruited, then go over the edge trying to fabricate “evidence”
Trump has spread so many lies about the election being “stolen”, “rigged” and riddled with “fraud”, all baseless to the point of insanity, if viewed from a sane perspective. Yet this story shows how there are always “unintended” consequences. Trump’s GOP base and MAGA followers, because of his crazy rants, have gone to ever more extreme measures to try to prove what cannot be proven, that the election was somehow corrupt.
The story is even more bizarre, once the facts emerge, such as how it was revealed Aguirre received a payment of $266,400 from a GOP mega-donor, a Houston organization, Liberty Center for God and Country.
The CEO of the organization, Steven Hotze , reportedly hired Aguirre to investigate voter fraud. Hotze sued, and was unsuccessful, in an attempt to have nearly 127,000 votes deposited at drive-thru polling sites invalidated.
Aguirre told police that he assembled a group of friends to set up a post at the Marriott hotel where they conducted 24-hour surveillance on the repairman for 4 days.
Nothing about Aguirre’s allegations matched up and the Harris Country District Attorney Office called the story “bogus”. District Attorney Kim Ogg commented “He crossed the line from dirty politics to commission of a violent crime and we are lucky no one was killed”.
On Dec. 16 he was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. If convicted, Aguirre can face up to 20 years in prison.
In a comment on a recent post from a hilarious send-up showing Trump being removed from the White House (literally by furniture movers) a reader offering this: “The left is having a wet dream, time to wake up and get to work”.
While technically not bad advice, although it’s a creepy observation, let’s just make something clear; anyone who endured the sick and insane and destructive four years of Trump deserves to celebrate as long as they feel like it. And then get to work rebuilding and repairing all the damage that was caused. On that note, we offer up yet another hilarious video to celebrate.
Slightly frightening and equal parts hilarious, a video of a deepfake Trump reading an election-themed holiday version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer has popped up on the internet. Sassy Justice is responsible for its creation and is the name of the new YouTube series by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
What is a deepfake? It is very likely you have seen one and maybe didn’t even know it, deepfakes use technology from artificial intelligence (AI) that can create digitally altered versions of pretty much anyone, although usually used for malicious intent, this time, is for pure entertainment purposes.
In this take, Trump wears a mini Santa hat atop his head along with a festive Santa sweater. The story unfolds the tale of Rudolph, the “best” reindeer that stands out from all others, this time no red nose, but a blonde toupee.
This reindeer happens to coincidentally be the target of an unfair election in the story, yet the ending of the story takes a dark turn. In near tears, Trump reads what happened to the election because all the other reindeers cheated, the died, and there was “no Christmas ever again” all because of a “sleepy-eyed” reindeer.
This episode from Sassy Justice marks the channels 12th episode. The web series that centers around deepfake Trumps, played by actor Peter Serafinowicz. This holiday meltdown of Trump a much needed end of year chuckle and final countdown until he is officially out of the WH.
After the Electoral College affirmed what the majority of us already knew, that President-elect Joe Biden won over President Trump, with an electoral count of 306 vs 232, coincidentally the same margin as Trump had and called a “landslide” in 2016, perhaps a sigh of relief can finally happen. Or even a little laugh. What better way to bid farewell to Trump than with a viral Twitter video.
Paul Lee Teeks shared a hilarious video of Trump being rolled out of the White House while he rants and raves about the “rigged” and “stolen” election. Trump blabs and continues to flap his gums all the way until the end when he is wheeled and lifted up into a moving truck.
The original video comes from creator of the “The President Show” Tony Atamanuik from the Comedy Central network. Teeks recreated the video placing the head of Trump (versus a caricature in the original) with dubbed audio, creating mass interest within the social media world. The hashtags #LoserOfTheCentury and #TrumpIsALaughingStock trended as a result.
If you like winning, this is your chance to do it, over and over and over…
Never before has a presidential candidate won his election so many times. Never before has a loser found so many ridiculous ways to avoid conceding to the winner. Of course, it is the very fact that a loser has brazenly lied and fabricated nonsense reasons and accusations to contest at every opportunity that has created the possibility for Biden to win, again and again.
First, Joe Biden won what appeared to be a relatively narrow victory on election day with enough confirmed electoral votes, along with a lead in enough other states to create an impossibility for Trump to get to 270, the margin of votes needed to prevail.
Next Biden was declared winner in states which had held back in declaring a projected winner. Then the re-counts, court challenges and and final tallies commenced.
Pennsylvania gave him a win. That was a big win and he became President-elect. Then the Georgia re-count was another time to celebrate his victory. And Arizona, a state he flipped for the first time since 1996, and before that a Republican won there since 1948.
So, get ready everyone, on December 14th there will be another win for Joe Biden. Tired of winning yet?
In the end Biden will have, barring any absolutely and totally unlikely changes, 306 electoral votes. “A landslide” according to Trump when it was his exact winning number. Of course he did not get more than 80 million popular votes, or vanquish his opponent by more than 6 million. That’s only another unique and first in all history – big big win for Biden.
Trump lost the popular vote by 2.9 million votes in 2016.
A comet, a meteor shower and a total eclipse of the sun (visible in some parts of the Earth) will all occur on December 14th. It also will be the final deadline for the Electoral College to officially confirm Joe Biden as President-elect. Are the stars, planets and even meteors in our solar system feeling like celebrating?
Florida is the only one of the four most populous states that has, as of yet, already been certified. Early in December was the deadline for the other large ones: California, Texas and New York. None of them were ever in doubt, of course.
Talk of “faithless electors” being put into action by Trump is becoming les and less likely by the day. Not 100% off the table but around 99.9999% not gonna happen.
I wonder if Trump is tired of losing yet? Gas-up the private jet. Moscow’s waiting.
Electoral College meets on Dec. 14, and all states must be certified before that, while any challenges to the results must have been resolved by Dec. 8.
Above: Photo Collage / Time Inc. / Mock up of Der Spiegel Concept
Changing America’s Story and Awarding Trump what he has Earned
On the same day that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris received the “Time’s Person of the Year” designation, jointly, in another of the new twists that Time likes to feature, Trump got his own award from Germany’s ‘Der Spiegel’ magazine: Loser of the year.
While anyone who has been paying attention, noticed that Trump deserved this award most, if not, all the years of his life, this year it is particularly fitting as he earned it with the most lies and potentially, the most alleged indictable crimes.
Featuring Kamala Harris as co-Person of the year is a nice touch, since she is both a woman of color and was attacked in a particularly vicious and personal way by Trump and his Republican minions during the campaign.
Further, the possibility of real partnership to oust a misogynistic and racist foe showed that humility, dignity and compassion for others could actually win against a bully and, with Kamala Harris on the ticket, could demonstrate leadership and leaders, who are not bullies or failed human beings but empathetic and fully functioning people capable of cooperation and teamwork.
For so many, indeed, over 81.2 million, the time was right to join together and take the old saying “nice guys (or gals) finish last” and turn it on its head – This year, the best man & woman won and the world’s biggest a-hole lost big, which, though long-ish, makes for a more apt phrase to sum up 2020, in the presidential race, at any rate.
Early, Monday morning, Ivanka Trump decided to share a picture of her father during his visit to the historic Mount Rushmore back in July of this year. The positioning of Trump’s head alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, was according to the caption of Trump’s daughter… “amazing”.
Back in August, Trump was quick to call reports from the NYT “Fake News” that he had inquired with the South Dakota governor about getting his face carved upon the iconic rock face, yet he also somehow thought it was “good idea”.
This is Fake News by the failing @nytimes & bad ratings @CNN. Never suggested it although, based on all of the many things accomplished during the first 3 1/2 years, perhaps more than any other Presidency, sounds like a good idea to me! https://t.co/EHrA9yUsAw
Ivanka’s tweet went viral with immediate reactions on Twitter, proving those on the internet felt the opposite of amazed, with majority of users, quick to mock her decision and timing of the shared post.
Check out the reaction posts below and some alternative versions of a Mt. “Trump-more”
Retired Lt. General Michael Flynn, former national security advisor and newly pardoned admitted liar to the FBI, retweeted a petition by an organization that calls it self WTPC:
“WTPC Calls for President to Invoke Limited Martial Law to Hold New Election and Protect our Vote” and goes on to urge: “temporarily suspend[ing] the Constitution and civilian control of these federal elections.”
The idea is to call in the military to force a new election and, not surprisingly they have already decided who should win:
“Without a fair vote, we fear, with good reason, the threat of a shooting civil war is imminent,”
Imploring unknown armies that are non-existent to rise up and start a “shooting civil war” if Trump is not “installed” as president.
Flynn, known for admitting to lying to the FBI and chanting “Lock her up” at rallies with Trump, is not far off from this kind of treason-talk in the first place, but the timing and his military background makes it more alarming and disgusting.
Fortunately both Republicans and notable military voices have spoken out against this overt endorsement of the lunatic fringe.
“Flynn’s anti-election propaganda is an essential precursor to violent terrorist attacks on legitimate electoral outcomes, when the bombs go off, the blood is on Mike Flynn’s hands.”
—Paul Yingling, a retired Army colonel, quoted in The Daily Beast
“This ad, though protected by the First Amendment, is utterly irresponsible, ahistorical and without precedent or legal rationale,”
This ad, though protected by the First Amendment, is utterly irresponsible, ahistorical and without precedent or legal rationale. https://t.co/P40lfPD7v7
More perfectly normal behavior: Former Trump lawyer amplifying a call for the suspension of the Constitution and the effective imposition of martial law. https://t.co/T3IBmgmp2Ppic.twitter.com/F7QxScLmFI
Attorney Sidney Powell, who was Flynn’s lawyer in his criminal prosecution, is openly advocating a coup, retweeting tweets from individuals that are calling for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, suspend the election and establish “military tribunals.” Powell had previously represented Trump directly in court until she was fired after a particularly disastrous press conference went off the rails.
Joseph diGenova — who is a former US attorney for the District of Columbia also an attorney for Trump, while he was appearing on the The Howie Carr Show, called for former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Chris Krebs, should be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot.”
In you are not a medieval history fan, being “drawn and quartered” was a grisly practice commonly consisting of:
First he was drawn, that is, tied to a horse and dragged to the gallows. The remainder of the punishment might include hanging (usually not to the death), usually live disemboweling, burning of the entrails, beheading, and quartering. Also referred to as “disruption” dismemberment could be brought about by chaining four horses to the condemned’s arms and legs, thus making them pull him apart.
Clearly this “lighthearted” “joke” was neither light or funny in any way, shape or form. In a statement released by the Tump campaign, after the furor erupted over his irresponsible, reckless remarks, diGenova stated:
”For anyone listening to the Howie Carr Show, it was obvious that my remarks were sarcastic and made in jest. I, of course, wish Mr. Krebs no harm. This was hyperbole in a political discourse.”
This kind of disingenuous mea culpa is a standard Trump strategy, countless times in the last four years an outrageous, obviously serious and deeply held, Trump statement is followed (generally in 24-36 hours) with a denial that it was “just a joke”, that he was “obviously being sarcastic” and that somehow, the listeners are at fault for not realizing that he should not be held responsible for his comments.
Similar to his now infamous “Stand back and stand by”, code words during the presidential debates that were, unequivocally, understood by the “Proud Boys” as a call to arms, this kind of weak denial without taking any responsibility is unacceptable.
Accordingly, Democrats in congress referred the conduct by diGenova to the DC Bar’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel and recommended them to open an investigation into the matter.
Nixon once asserted: “Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal”. The implication was not lost on Trump who has seemingly flaunted the law throughout his life and then appeared to shift into overdrive once in the White House.
Naturally, as has been evident as well, also even boasted “I don’t pay taxes because I’m smart”, and when money, especially free money gained at the expense of the less fortunate, it seems Trump and his “Jr. partner Jared Kushner might indeed pull out all the stops.
Therefore, it comes as no surprise that, once details on who received pandemic relief loans were revealed by the Small Business Administration, including the PPP or Paycheck Protection Program, multiple businesses linked to both were allegedly present.
NBC news: Over 25 PPP loans worth more than $3.65 million were given to businesses with addresses at Trump and Kushner real estate properties, paying rent to those owners. Fifteen of the properties self-reported that they only kept one job, zero jobs, or did not report a number at all.
While there have been many reports of fraud and abuse related to this and other pandemic relief programs, most stories on these were slanted towards shaming various individuals who had engaged in fraud to obtain the loans.
There were also numerous accounts of, in some cases, public companies with access to billions in capital applying for and receiving $100s of millions of dollars in forgivable loans. Names like Shake Shack, Ruth’s Chris, Potbelly Corp. and others were embroiled in controversy when some information leaked, and in some cases the companies, fearing public boycott or backlash, returned funds. While these examples show no specific wrongdoing on any particular company, the appearance of impropriety is nevertheless in question.
Now with more data the headlines are expanding to include potential impropriety , if not possible criminal action of Trump and Kushner seen as bilking the program at will, as well as massive and tragically-comical mismanagement of the “relief” funds with 100s of examples such as loans payed to companies that did not supply a name and many larger companies using multiple subsidiaries to gang together groups of smaller loans into sums totally tens of millions or more.
According to NBC, All these tricks and potentially more were employed (surprise!) by Trump and Kushner affiliated firms.
NBC: Sweeping [analysis of] data released by the Small Business Administration…found that properties owned by the Trump Organization as well as the Kushner Companies, owned by the family of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, profited from the program.
The potential abuses, beyond the obvious one that this money was meant to relieve business not connected to government officials, and those who’s business were damaged by the pandemic in general, followed a pattern where the money flowed to those that needed it least (due to massive wealth, such as stories that have circulated about Kanye West) or due to already having existing access to nearly unlimited capital (such as the public companies that lined up to access relief funds rather than use billions they had in reserve).
Other examples of Trump allegedly using and exploiting the presidency are so common as to make it almost redundant to cite these massive, and if true, unethical and potentially criminal abuses. So many have already been noted and cited in the press – from the profits flowing into his properties directly from taxpayer dollars or by diverting foreign officials to them, tax cheating, dirtying money to his daughter and son-in-law, on and on it goes.
The only question that remains is why there appears to be “no-one home” when it comes to holding Trump and his family of abusers accountable. Much has been made of his soon-to-be gone immunity from federal prosecution, but what about the family? Pardons and tra-la-la?
That can’t be the way this ends. Otherwise the rest of us are just as corrupt by letting it happen without a response of appropriate magnitude.
Rudy Giuliani’s “star” witness brings about all the LOLs
Late night hosts: Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel all weighed in on the very absurd testimony given in Michigan. No one knew the name Melissa Carone before Dec. 1, but the now viral videos will undoubtedly be turned into memes and SNL sketches very soon.
Still not convinced this isn’t a SNL character. (A judge previously declared this Trump supporter /freelance contract IT worker’s testimony “simply not credible.”) pic.twitter.com/ptsN665A0T
Carone’s Testimony on the alleged Voter Fraud is like as kit from out of ‘SNL’
Even if Rudy Giuliani will retire from all the recent comedy he has provided, the baton has been passed Ms. Carone. With her “talent” and flair for the dramatics, we can all look forward to many more years of comedic rants from this oversight committee hearing.
It’s hard not to immediately compare the insanity that was called a testimony and not compare it to performances on “Saturday Night Live”. Specifically like the above video that hilariously showcases Cecily Strong’s drunk girl character.
Don’t you know who I think I am? I’m the President of the United States?!
It has been well over three weeks since Trump lost the presidential election to Joe Biden, yet like a broken record, he continuously tries to peddle the still unsubstantiated claim that the election was somehow “rigged”.
Trump has been adamant that he will continue the fight to overturn election results, however, at the same time saying that he would leave on his own accord.
That being, only after Biden has officially been deemed the victor by the Electoral College, which will take place come Dec. 14.
Biden can only enter the White House as President if he can prove that his ridiculous “80,000,000 votes” were not fraudulently or illegally obtained. When you see what happened in Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia & Milwaukee, massive voter fraud, he’s got a big unsolvable problem!
On Thanksgiving, Trump held a press conference to answer questions from reporters, a first since Biden was called as the projected winner of the presidential election.
One could easily find humor with just the small desk that Trump sat behind in the Diplomatic Room of the White House.
But wait, there was more, Trump decided to flip out on a reporter, lashing out saying, “Don’t talk to me that way,” ….“You’re just a lightweight…I’m the president of the United States. Don’t ever talk to the president that way.”
Coming just about as close to a concession as we realistically are ever going to get from 45, he says, “It’s going to be a very hard thing to concede because we know there was massive fraud,” while again spouting lies without backing anything up with evidence.
He continued to ramble on, “As to whether or not we can get this apparatus moving quickly — because time isn’t on our side, everything else is on our side, facts are on our side, this was a massive fraud.”
The combination of the tiny desk, which many compared it to a child’s desk and Trump lashing out at a reporter, made for the perfect storm in social media content creativity. Almost immediately #DiaperDon started trending on Twitter and Donald Trump tried to call upon Section 230 for purposes he deemed at levels of National Security. Check out the hilarious video
Twitter is sending out totally false “Trends” that have absolutely nothing to do with what is really trending in the world. They make it up, and only negative “stuff”. Same thing will happen to Twitter as is happening to @FoxNews daytime. Also, big Conservative discrimination!
Wisconsin & Arizona Certified results while Georgia Republican Governor says he won’t break the law for his “hero”. The cards are stacking up against the criminal grifter in the WH and not in any way that was “rigged” by anyone but him.
We are all still waiting for him to recede from the public discourse (haha not discourse in his case) but in the end it is ok to want to congratulate Biden and all of those that helped him win so we can all be rid of the terrorist clown club.
Though there are many who do not look fondly on “never-Trumpers” like The Lincoln Project and plain that they had a self-serving agenda, nonetheless, they were a powerful force in countering the Russian-bot army that would possibly otherwise have made 2020 more like 2016.
And the MeidasTouch, RVAT and others all contributed to the fight with great ads that kept people informed of the dangers of a second term for the maniac, and at the same time used his own words, actions and inactions to prove that he had to go, one way or another.
We’ve compiled some of the greatest hits here and think we should all give ourselves permission, one last time, to revel in the absurdity that this man was ever “leader of the free world” and how glad we are that ads like these will soon be in the history books (internet archives).
Witnesses of Evil and survivors deserve a decompression phase
For nearly all of 2017 the word “lie” rarely if ever appeared in an article written about the president. The reasons for this are more complex than it would first appear, and relate to the history of political journalism reaching back at least 50 years. The reason why, beginning in 2018 and early 2019, “lie” became a daily and oft used word in connection with this lying-president is a more subtle and interesting story.
As of this writing it is 100% clear that Trump has lost the election (odd to even have to say that, considering how obvious it is to any sane, rational observer) and that, ultimately, we will all benefit from forgetting about this attention-addicted-sociopath. However, with regard to something we all experienced, witnessed and endured over a period of four plus years; before forgetting there must first be a remembering.
And, for the benefit of those of us who have various forms of PTSD as a result of what he perpetrated and what we had to witness, that remembering is a healthy, necessary step.
For nearly all of 2017 the word “lie” rarely if ever appeared in an article written about the president. The reasons for this are more complex than it would first appear, and relate to the history of political journalism reaching back at least 50 years. The reason why, beginning in 2018 and early 2019, “lie” became a daily and oft used word in connection with this lying-president is a more subtle and interesting story.
As of this writing it is 100% clear that Trump has lost the election (odd to even have to say that, considering how obvious it is to any sane, rational observer) and that, ultimately, we will all benefit from forgetting about this attention-addicted-sociopath. However, with regard to something we all experienced, witnessed and endured over a period of four plus years; before forgetting there must first be a remembering.
And, for the benefit of those of us who have various forms of PTSD as a result of what he perpetrated and what we had to witness, that remembering is a healthy, necessary step.
Perhaps rushing forward to “fix” everything he broke, destroyed or tried to destroy must be combined with looking back.
Seeing some of the events that shaped the last four years through the eyes of the media and the press
The public perceptions and reactions to history during significant and extreme events are shaped over time, and meaning are not always clear until we look back. If this article was a typical “2020 Looking Back” year-end recap, and did not run 5000 words or more it’d be about the coronavirus, the election, and a skim through the various events on the periphery. Instead, we must begin on June 16th, 2015 when Donald J. Trump began his assault on America.
And, as we all remember, it started with “Mexicans”:
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best, they’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us [sic]. They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
Donald J. Trump, as he descended on his golden escalator
This technique of viciously attacking a particular ethic group, generally, and pandering to negative stereotypes was just getting started.
Also couching broad statements, that often included boldfaced lies, within statements that could have a tiny sliver of truth would also be a propaganda technique he would use, sometimes dozens of times in a day, over the next nearly 4.5 years.
Then came the nicknames. Again, maybe “little Marco” was not the tallest guy and “Low-energy Jeb” was not the most exciting. But Trump’s character traits that would later expand and multiply were not pretty, and were on full display even during the initial phases of the election.
Belittling opponents in an ugly personal way, pushing all dialog away from substance and toward personal attacks of the lowest form was standard operating procedure. All the signs were there of a mental sickness, one that we would all later experience more intimately, but at the time it was all an amusing diversion, since most believed he had “zero chance” of winning the 2016 presidential election.
Phase 2, 3, 4 and beyond: testing the limits of outrage
Just making a laundry list of outrageous and disgusting behavior by this man is easy, but of little value, beyond our mutual sharing of “I was there” recollections publicly. More interesting, it seems, would be an exploration of how “we”, the media, and the public, reacted and adjusted to having such a malignant presence in the White House.
It’s easy to forget that, around the time of the 2016 inauguration, many in the media went on and on about how the outrageous tactics were just a ploy, and a successful one at that, for him to get elected, and now that the election was over, Trump would magically become “Presidential”.
Then the lies began to multiply. All during 2017, however, it was very difficult to find the word “lie” in any article from a mainstream outlet that was about Trump, well, lying. The lengths that journalists went to avoid that word was, in a word, incredible. To look further into the history of not saying the word “lie” when a president lies, this Politco article from 2017 is a great deeper dive.
In the final paragraph summation the overall view at the time was encapsulated:
“Using the word “lie” promiscuously may, in the short term, score a point against a president who has shown a contempt for the facts. But over the long-term, the authority and credibility of aspirationally objective mainstream news organizations like the New York Times are best served by scrupulously trying to report the news in ways that can be trusted by readers of any political viewpoint. And it’s by upholding and reinforcing that authority and credibility that the Fourth Estate will best guide readers to the truth amid the misinformation, propaganda and lies produced by the administration of Donald J. Trump.”
David Greenberg, a professor of history and media studies at Rutgers in Politico Magazine
This viewpoint, ultimately, disintegrated and was abandoned, generally, by the middle of 2018 into the beginning of 2019. Trump literally bashed down that wall of civility with thousands and thousands of lies.
Terms and phrases like “decorum”, “deference”, “non-partisan” and “civilized discourse” became meaningless in the endless assault of lies, hate speech and outrageous acts. At Lynxotic, we made a decision fairly early that this was not a “normal” president and these were not normal times. We seriously had to ask ourselves, if this was an emerging danger to this country and to democracy itself, who would we be serving by mincing words?
And further, the news has always been, to a certain degree, opinion infused facts with a, sometimes, thin veneer of artificial authoritative eminence. And wasn’t the media often guilty of using “impartiality”, similarly to an arms dealer, selling ammunitions to both sides in a civil war?
As time went on, the incredible border “cages” scandals, then the impeachmentdrama came and went and on and on, until Trump’s massive coronavirus failures, and finally the election madness.
In the end all pretense of, and use for civility, any belief that a non-corrupt outcome was possible, revealed a truth that the choices for the nation were, and are, to jail the man famous for chants of “Lock her up” or let him continue until he destroys the democracy and possibly, ultimately the country itself.
The good thing that was bestowed upon all of us by a bad man
Of course, in all of this, he did do one good thing for the media and journalism. Not “ratings” or prosperity through scandal. No, what he did was to help us to remove the hypocrisy of the long standing “deference” to any and all sitting in the White House, just because they are there.
“When he “won” in 2016 it was on the shoulders of Russian hackers and social media “bots” that influenced the thinking of real, living, breathing humans. In 2020 those real humans showed up, 80 million strong, and took back the country.”
D.L.
The blurred lines between observation, opinion, facts and fiction are ones that have, in reality, always been blurred. To face that fact, and to grapple every day with the issues of how to communicate the hard truth, is also a legacy of this evil man.
When he “won” in 2016 it was on the shoulders of Russian hackers and social media “bots” that influenced the thinking of real, living, breathing humans. In 2020 those real humans showed up, 80 million strong, and took back the country.
That is also a lesson we owe to “The Donald”. That, if a pretender rises up, the rest of us have to rise up as well, to put him down.
The favor he did us all was to force us to examine the real facts, and make the real news and not the fake news matter, even if that news is that he is a liar, a grifter, a cheat and a criminal. And if any of his ilk come to power again, or continue to remain in power, they should be treated the same way, as needed.
Above: 80 Million in Washington D.C.? Photo Collage / Lynxotic / Adobe Stock
Pseudo-conciliatory tone vanishes in a haze of Tryptophan
Chalk it up to just another day in Trump-world where nonsense is fact and facts don’t exist. After making another non-concession-consession on Thursday, stating that “of course” he would vacate the White House if Biden has won the electoral college vote by December 14th (which is the deadline for those votes to be certified), on Friday, he had, apparently, re-thought that whole “be a reasonable human” thing.
In two tweets that were both marked “This claim about election fraud is disputed” the current election result “denier in chief” postulated that president-elect Biden “can only enter the White House as President if he can prove that his ridiculous ‘80,000,000 votes’ were not fraudulently or illegally obtained,” and further, that “Biden only did well in the large cities of Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Milwaukee, which he claimed have “long [been] known as being politically corrupt.”
The latter is, of course, completely false, and the former is an absurd assertion, even from this source.
Also claiming, with as much false bravado as someone in his losing position could muster, that Biden has a “big, unsolvable problem”.
Trump, laughingly, put forth the theory that “Biden only did well in the large cities of Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Milwaukee”, and added a baseless claim that those cities (that were most assuredly not the “only” ones where Biden did well) have “long [been] known as being politically corrupt.”
Um, Los Angeles ? New York City? We could go down this list all day. “Only did well?”
Which leads to the real question here: who, outside of the thoroughly brainwashed, would even consider such nonsense. Do losing teams in the Super-bowl get to dispute every point on the scoreboard, after the game is over? Does winning by more than 6 million votes count for anything in this wacko universe?
Biden can only enter the White House as President if he can prove that his ridiculous “80,000,000 votes” were not fraudulently or illegally obtained. When you see what happened in Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia & Milwaukee, massive voter fraud, he’s got a big unsolvable problem!
Perhaps, to insure absolute certainty, 80 million people should show up at the White House to remind Trump why he must, and will, be moving out on January 20th, if not before (wink).
Biden did poorly in big cities (Politico), except those of Detroit (more votes than people!), Philadelphia, Atlanta and Milwaukee, which he had to win. Not surprisingly, they are all located in the most important swing states, and are long known for being politically corrupt!
“It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon,”
—Trump via Tweet
Michael Flynn Pleaded Guilty To Lying About Russia Contact but will not serve time
Michael Flynn’s convoluted legal travails are now over. With this brazen, political pardon, Trump managed to keep at least one of his cronies out of jail. Attempts were made by the Bill Barr justice department to have the case dropped, which would have made an official pardon unnecessary, but those efforts did not come to fruition.
This pardon follows that of Trump’s friend and self-proclaimed “dirty-trickster” Roger Stone Jr., who had been facing down seven felonies, after the Mueller Inquiry led to charges against the outspoken and ultra-partisan Mr. Stone.
Stone had originally pleaded guilty, twice, to lying about a series of conversations with the ambassador of Russia.
Here are some others that Trump has already pardoned:
Date of Pardon
Name
Sentencing date
August 25, 2017
Joe Arpaio
October 5, 2017
March 9, 2018
Kristian Saucier
August 19, 2016
April 13, 2018
Lewis “Scooter” Libby
June 14, 2007
May 24, 2018
Jack Johnson
September 14, 1920
It is unlikely that he will try pardon himself, but with Trump, as anybody paying attention would know by now, anything is possible. Stay tuned
If you like winning, this is your chance to do it, over and over and over…
Never before has a presidential candidate won his election so many times. Never before has a loser found so many ridiculous ways to avoid conceding to the winner. Of course, it is the very fact that a loser has brazenly lied and fabricated nonsense reasons and accusations to contest at every opportunity that has created the possibility for Biden to win, again and again.
First, Joe Biden won what appeared to be a relatively narrow victory on election day with enough confirmed electoral votes, along with a lead in enough other states to create an impossibility for Trump to get to 270, the margin of votes needed to prevail.
Next Biden was declared winner in states which had held back in declaring a projected winner. Then the re-counts, court challenges and and final tallies commenced.
Pennsylvania gave him a win. That was a big win and he became President-elect. Then the Georgia re-count was another time to celebrate his victory. And Arizona, a state he flipped for the first time since 1996, and before that a Republican won there since 1948.
So, get ready everyone, on December 14th there will be another win for Joe Biden. Tired of winning yet?
In the end Biden will have, barring any absolutely and totally unlikely changes, 306 electoral votes. “A landslide” according to Trump when it was his exact winning number. Of course he did not get more than 80 million popular votes, or vanquish his opponent by more than 6 million. That’s only another unique and first in all history – big big win for Biden.
Trump lost the popular vote by 2.9 million votes in 2016.
So far, 54 of his 306 Electoral College votes and Trump 73 of his 232 votes have been officially certified by a total of 16 states. They have awarded President-elect Joe Biden 54 of his 306 Electoral College votes, and Trump has been awarded 73 of his 232 votes.
Florida is the only one of the four most populous states that has, as of yet, already been certified. Early in December there’s a deadline for the other large ones: California, Texas and New York. None of them are at all in doubt, of course.
Talk of “faithless electors” being put into action by Trump is becoming les and less likely by the day. Not 100% off the table but around 99.9999% not gonna happen.
I wonder if Trump is tired of losing yet? Gas-up the private jet. Moscow’s waiting.
Electoral College meets on Dec. 14, and all states must be certified before that, while any challenges to the results must have been resolved by Dec. 8.
Trump’s continued efforts to overturn election results: …laughable (literally)
Most of us know, that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the 2020 election. With the records showing the President-elect reached 80 million popular votes, with still more counting to be done. Yet, even though the electoral college votes, which determines the White House winner have been clearly laid out on Nov. 7 with the resounding 306-223.
Trump has done almost everything in his power to deny the facts. The “red mirage” has yet to fade for 45. He’s been seen tweeting from the rooftops that the election was rigged and riddled with fraud, he’s flat out tried to deny it, he has refused to concede or peacefully transfer power, Trump even begged battleground states for a recount of votes. None of the above was the truth; the simple fact is, he just lost.
Yet, the American people have had to bear witness to just how badly of a sore loser Trump has been. Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, all reconfirmed that Biden is the victor.
On Nov. 23, head of the GSA Emily Murphy formally approved for the transition, pushing reality even that much further, that now, perhaps the 2020 presidential elections can be finalized.
As a result, “Joe Biden winning” memes have been spreading throughout the internet wide and far, showing Biden winning multiple times while highlighting a range of feelings – hilarity, relief, to just plain absurdity of how this presidential election year has gone down.
The inauguration isn’t until Jan 20, 2021 and if you are like the majority of us, that means there, unfortunately, is still two more months of having to deal with Trump’s antics. It’s far past time for Trump to end his delusional battle and come to some sort of acceptance of the obvious election reality.
This is going way, way, over the edge, what’s next?
Trump and his supporters continue to follow the rhetoric that the election was rigged, fraught with fraud (despite continued evidence to the contrary) and that Joe Bidenstole the election.
Trump’s retweets of Quaid’s posts come after GSA Emily Murphy informed Biden that the Trump administration is ready to formally allow the presidential transition to begin. Perhaps that set him off…
Trump, as per usual, took to Twitter, and decided to retweeted a total of 5 old tweets from Randy Quaid, who has been very vocal in calling for a total 2020 election recount / do-over.
Producer, director, writer, actor, Quaid does it all in Tweets from hell
Randy Quaid, a fervent Trump supporter, has made headlines not for this acting, but for his bizarre social media posts, two in particular that showcase his political ranting in the most theatrical way possible.
Oddly, since Quaid is an actor (or at least a retired one) it is hard to tell if he is serious or if this is some sort of “long con”. He comes across as far more than deranged, mad, totally off his rocker – almost like it’s scripted.
And, yet, this is what he is known for – one of his most famous roles is in “Independence Day” where he plays an alcoholic, wacko, ex-military, semi-retired pilot who commits hari-kari in an effort to save the planet from aliens.
Could it be that some sort of actor-related (or real?) PTSD is causing his brain to think that he is in some imaginary sequel to his Independence Day role? Or maybe Trump is also thinking he is living an extension of his glory days as the mogul on The Apprentice – well, the answer to that one is obviously, yes, but, it appears that the strangeness and sickness is just mounting up for the third act. what will that be?
Some parts of the video, are literally innocent (?), as he speaks gibberish with green and red strobe lights flashing upon a closeup of his face.
“Is this the way America goes? From George Washington to George Soros? From oceans white with foam to a socialist swamp. Is this the way America goes? Is this really our future? Wake up you sleeping giant, the lilliputians have tied you down with their fantastic dreams of icebergs melting into dinosaurs and train tracks stretching across the Pacific water…”
Trump, at the same time, said he was still not conceding
The first crack in Humpty-Trumpty’s fall is here. After more than two weeks since his victory in the electoral college was known, President-elect Joe Biden has been officially cleared to formally start his transition to the White House.
The General Services Administration, or GSA, has sent a letter and thereby formally acknowledged Biden as the apparent winner of the presidential election. This letter will allow him and his team to begin officially working on all aspects of the transition.
Non-concession concession, in a tweet, of course
“Nevertheless, in the best interest of our Country, I am recommending that Emily and her team do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols, and have told my team to do the same.”
Trump in Tweet on November 23rd, 2020
Trump, in a somewhat confused tweet, appears to concede, or at least accept that he can not block what is inevitable, and yet still clings to his “I believe we will prevail” line.
However the important part: “Nevertheless, in the best interest of our Country, I am recommending that Emily and her team do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols, and have told my team to do the same.” Was there for all to see in the second section of the tweet.
The president-elect cannot access federal transition funds or contact federal agencies to plan staffing, as per federal law, until the GSA recognizes him as the electoral winner.
Apparently this was all an off-the-cuff-tweet-scenario, as there were reports that various senior staff in the White House were unaware of this development, until having read the tweet themselves.
Many White House officials have said in confidence, according to reports, that they have been pushing for this next, important step, and only Rudy Giuliani was against moving forward.
“Today’s decision is a needed step to begin tackling the challenges facing our nation, including getting the pandemic under control and our economy back on track”
— Johannes Abraham, transition executive director for Biden / Harris, in a statement Monday
Until now the GSA has remained silent, thus limiting the President-elect from proceeding in some aspects of the transition. Now that the GSA has acknowledged formally via this letter, Biden‘s team will have access to more than $7 million of public funds.
…fight, and I believe we will prevail! Nevertheless, in the best interest of our Country, I am recommending that Emily and her team do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols, and have told my team to do the same.
