Trump: Illusion, Mist and Bought?

**Emil El Zapato** · 21st October 2020, 15:20

I'm kind of surprised that the term 'swamp' hasn't yet morphed to 'cesspool' given that is so descriptive of the Trump organization/administration. More proof that most derogatory memes are started from the right. So what else is not new!?

**Dreamtimer** · 21st October 2020, 15:36

Originally posted by Dreamtimer

Isn't 5G supposed to be terrible? Aren't Trump supporters in large measure against 5G? I'm sure I've been hearing a bunch of noise about 5G.

Gee.

I mean, 5G.

People get all worked up over something and then suddenly they're not.

So weird.

**Wind** · 21st October 2020, 16:00

The second and last debate between Trump and Biden will be on thursday:
https://www.npr.org/2020/10/21/92538...u-need-to-know

I will probably try to watch it, but I'm sure that Trump will make the experience almost unbearable again.

**Emil El Zapato** · 21st October 2020, 16:31

Maybe you should watch it David Pakman ... he's doing it live.

**Dreamtimer** · 21st October 2020, 16:35

Will Trump show up? He seems to have been making noises about not doing it. But then again, Trump making noises...

**Wind** · 21st October 2020, 16:38

Originally posted by NotAPretender

Maybe you should watch it David Pakman ... he's doing it live.

Nah, I'd rather watch it without any commentary. Also I think he's a bit too much pro-establishment.

Originally posted by Dreamtimer

Will Trump show up? He seems to have been making noises about not doing it. But then again, Trump making noises...

He basically has to and already agreed anyways, he knows that debate is perhaps his last chance to gain enough support.

**Emil El Zapato** · 21st October 2020, 17:12

lol ... softy ...

**Wind** · 21st October 2020, 17:16

Who are you calling softy, Trump? He's still a fucking moron.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_2AXxCPFxg

**Dreamtimer** · 21st October 2020, 19:27

Trump has been giving Biden political fodder, no doubt. So have others. See Mr. Rogers.

**Dreamtimer** · 22nd October 2020, 14:34

From some 'boots on the ground' Americans.

It was not easy. In the one hour we stayed at the rally, many offensive incidents occurred. A motorbike driver revved his bike while we crossed the road showing his disdain for a girl, boy, and their dad. A car driver called us “a bunch of p&$$!3s”, probably alluding to us wearing masks. Many drivers yelled, “F$^k Biden, Trump 2020,” and we saw quite a few people flip birds on us. They all saw children in our group, who could have been their kids. They saw older adults and women who were the ages of their parents and grandparents. They all knew that all we were doing was standing up for what we believed in, but this did not stop them from calling us names, screaming obscenities, and making a scene.

To be fair, not all Trump supporters were outright insulting either. A pickup truck with a massive MAGA flag passed by our rally, and he just yelled, “Trump 2020”. He circled back and made sure that we saw him on both the lanes, and we waved at him with all sincerity. It was his right to make his voice heard, just as much as it was our right to do so. After all, this is what democracy is all about.

For every obscene gesture, we saw at least a dozen positive cheers for our group.

For every flipped bird, we heard over a hundred honks from the ongoing cars.

For every negative gesture, we saw an overwhelming flow of positive signs of support.

If this corner sign rally is any indication, I have a feeling that our nation is truly ready to turn the corner in a couple of weeks.

**Dreamtimer** · 22nd October 2020, 14:52

Here's more of the illusion and mist:

The Associated Press reports that despite having raised over $1 billion since 2017, the president’s reelection campaign has “set a lot of it on fire.” One of the biggest tells is that Joe Biden and his Democratic allies are expected to outspend Trump and the GOP by more than 2-to-1 on ads in the final days of the campaign, reportedly because Trump just doesn’t have the cash:

On Monday, the firm Medium Buying reported Trump was canceling ads in Wisconsin; Minnesota, which Trump had hoped to flip; and Ohio, which went for Trump in 2016 but now appears to be a tight contest. It’s a reversal from May, when Biden’s campaign was strapped for cash and [former campaign manager Brad] Parscale ominously compared the Trump campaign to a “Death Star” that was about to “start pressing FIRE for the first time.”

Trump is now in a position that’s virtually unthinkable for an incumbent president, said Travis Ridout, codirector of the Wesleyan Media Project, which tracks advertising spending. “Advertising obviously isn’t everything. But we do think ads matter for a couple percentage points in a presidential race. And it’s just not a good sign for the Trump campaign,” Ridout said.

Where the campaign has dropped major money on advertising, it might as well have put the cash through an industrial shredder for all the impact it made. In January, Trump spent $10 million on a Super Bowl ad when he didn’t even have a Democratic challenger, in a pointless pissing contest with Mike Bloomberg. Last fall, he dropped $250,000 on an ad that ran during Game 7 of the World Series, after the booing against him reached “almost 100 decibels” during Game 5. The campaign also sunk $1.6 million on TV ads in the Washington, D.C., media market—where he received a humiliating 4% of the vote in 2016 and has no chance of winning in 2020—so Trump could gaze adoringly at himself during Fox News commercial breaks. Additionally, Parscale reportedly purchased “a fleet of luxury vehicles“; surrogates were flown on private jets; and it wouldn’t be a Trump operation if the candidate wasn’t charging his own campaign to stay at his properties to the tune of more than $7.4 million since 2017.

Naturally, money also went toward legal fees ($38.7 million), merchandise ($35.2 million), and relocating the Republican National Convention after a fight with North Carolina’s governor over coronavirus safety measures. And obviously donors must have known six-figures worth of their contributions would be put toward the first son’s crack at literature:

Nearly $100,000 [was] spent on copies of Donald Trump Jr.’s book Triggered, which helped propel it to the top of the New York Times bestsellers list.

Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, recently donated $75 million to Preserve America, a new pro-Trump super political action committee that is not controlled by Trump World political operatives. One of the reasons the group was founded in August is because there is deep distrust among some GOP donors that the existing pro-Trump organizations would spend the money wisely, according to a Republican strategist with direct knowledge of the matter.