45th President of the United States, Donald Trump (Vol. 9)
Discussion
Giuliani's arrested and charged partner in crime Lev Parnas is brutal
Lev Parnas
@lev_parnas
If nothing else, Coronavirus isn’t the smallest or most disturbing thing that Kimberly Guilfoyle has had inside of her.
https://twitter.com/lev_parnas/status/127928625798...
It looks now like she's been spreading the infection
The Montana Republican Party is facing a crisis after multiple members of the ticket were potentially exposed to COVID-19.
“Montana gubernatorial candidate Rep. Greg Gianforte and his running mate, Kristen Juras, confirmed Saturday they will self-quarantine after Gianforte’s wife, Susan, and Juras attended an event last week with Kimberly Guilfoyle, who has since tested positive for COVID-19,” KBZK-TV reported Saturday.
https://www.kbzk.com/news/coronavirus/gianforte-ju...
Lev Parnas
@lev_parnas
If nothing else, Coronavirus isn’t the smallest or most disturbing thing that Kimberly Guilfoyle has had inside of her.
https://twitter.com/lev_parnas/status/127928625798...
It looks now like she's been spreading the infection
The Montana Republican Party is facing a crisis after multiple members of the ticket were potentially exposed to COVID-19.
“Montana gubernatorial candidate Rep. Greg Gianforte and his running mate, Kristen Juras, confirmed Saturday they will self-quarantine after Gianforte’s wife, Susan, and Juras attended an event last week with Kimberly Guilfoyle, who has since tested positive for COVID-19,” KBZK-TV reported Saturday.
https://www.kbzk.com/news/coronavirus/gianforte-ju...
Byker28i said:
Giuliani's arrested and charged partner in crime Lev Parnas is brutal
Lev Parnas
@lev_parnas
If nothing else, Coronavirus isn’t the smallest or most disturbing thing that Kimberly Guilfoyle has had inside of her.
https://twitter.com/lev_parnas/status/127928625798...
It's a parody account. But a very funny tweet.Lev Parnas
@lev_parnas
If nothing else, Coronavirus isn’t the smallest or most disturbing thing that Kimberly Guilfoyle has had inside of her.
https://twitter.com/lev_parnas/status/127928625798...
minimoog said:
Lentilist said:
Interesting stuff. I'm curious how things like conspiracy theory and the Infowars / Icke / QAnon etc. worldview fit into that? Appreciate the "conspirasphere" isn't a single thing, and there are all sorts of different narratives that may or may not overlap, but anecdotally, it does seem that men of a certain age seem very prone to going down that rabbit hole? I know people who are decently intelligent and were previously politically very middle of the road (apologetically vote Lib Dem every four years, don't bother in local elections sort of thing), yet several of them seemed to plunge off down the Prison Planet / Infowars path when they hit a certain age. I can see how pace of change in a socially liberal direction could outstrip those in the centre ground and make that position look more right wing, but that wouldn't explain people actively getting drawn into the fringe and more more right wing parts of the conspiracy world? It seems that some people react to increasingly liberal social norms by vehemently reacting against the shift, rather than just staying in place? Those that have that reaction are then radicalised into it by those within that world view. There's definitely an almost spiritual quest character to a lot of it, especially when you really dig into the QAnon stuff.
Completely agree. It seems to fill a void in their lives, Also there's a strong whiff of cultism to the the Trumpists, evidenced by their ability to rationalise his most craven anti-American or generally misanthropic behaviours.Most of what I've seen tends to come from either the neuroscience side such as Antonio Damasio's somatic marker hypothesis which looks at what's going on inside our heads as we make decisions, or from the sociological point of view such as this experiment run by Stanford where they got people to deactivate facebook four weeks before the 2018 mid term elections: pdf https://web.stanford.edu/~gentzkow/research/facebo...
My lay understanding is that the brain has various modes of operation so the electrical activity in your brain will look a certain way when you are trying to critically analyze a subject, and will look very different when in 'receive mode' and is trying to soak up information.
Note that receive mode is not a technical term but one I use after reading various books, papers and articles on the subject as it seems to be critical in both religion and political propaganda, the two of which get more and more similar the more you delve in to the neuroscience.
A key understanding is that each time we have a thought it triggers twice in our brain, known as the long path and the short path. The short path runs through our amygdala or lizard brain to give a basic fight or flight and good or bad response while the long path runs up through our cortex and higher brain functions. When in receive mode there isn't much going on in the higher brain centres other than what's required to comprehend what you are learning but it is very good at memorising what it sees.
Receive mode has a certain feel good factor associated with it, as anyone who used to devour statistics from car magazines will understand, or as you might get from reading a book about a subject that interests you. It is also a critical component in propagating social movements such as a religious or political identity. A good preacher or orator will literally shut down your higher brain functions because the crowd is so intent on listening to them.
The above has been known for some decades but what Damasio has started to unravel is how this is connected to decision making, including political decisions. To cut a long story short we don't come to a decision before our body sends a signal to our brain telling us that we've reached the correct conclusion, as quoted from the wiki article above...
Somatic Markers said:
Emotions, as defined by Damasio, are changes in both body and brain states in response to stimuli.[1] Physiological changes (such as muscle tone, heart rate, endocrine activity, posture, facial expression, and so forth) occur in the body and are relayed to the brain where they are transformed into an emotion that tells the individual something about the stimulus that they have encountered. Over time, emotions and their corresponding bodily changes, which are called "somatic markers", become associated with particular situations and their past outcomes.
When making subsequent decisions, these somatic markers and their evoked emotions are consciously or unconsciously associated with their past outcomes, and influence decision-making in favor of some behaviors instead of others.
Another better known key piece of neuroscience is that the more often we have a specific thought the stronger that particular neural pathway becomes, a classic example being changing gear in a car which may require a lot of neural effort for a beginner whereas an experienced driver is barely aware of the thought as they change gear. The more someone allows their brain to listen to a preacher or demagogue the harder it may be for them to get out of that pattern of thought.When making subsequent decisions, these somatic markers and their evoked emotions are consciously or unconsciously associated with their past outcomes, and influence decision-making in favor of some behaviors instead of others.
<><><>
Linking this together and getting back to Lentilist's question...
The 'nature' part of how we make political decisions is not yet fully understood, however I would theorise that our brains need to be exercised in their various different modes so if you've got someone who had kids at 25 and has spent 25 years providing for said sprogs then they've probably had very little time to kick their brain in to receive mode and let someone else do the thinking. Add to this a tendency towards dopamine responses after a threat (a huge part of the nature debate that I've not gone in to here) and there may be a vulnerability towards radicalization.
I'd also caution against thinking that this is a male phenomenon, they might be more mouthy about it at the pub but I've met more than one prim little Mrs who wouldn't say boo to a goose but is surprisingly extreme in her viewpoints once you're on to the second bottle of wine.
On the nurture side "pace of change in a socially liberal direction" may be happening as a generalized comment about British society but may not be true in a localized sense. If someone's kids are out the house and they're comfortable counting down years to retirement or recently retired then there may be changes in their social sphere which go in a completely different direction to society. Retirement in itself brings a huge set of challenges about what to do and who to hang around with.
<><><>
The theory I'm working on for now is that the key to all this is education about the amygdala, the lizard brain.
Both my parents are strong advocates of the scientific method so as a child I was made to repeat the questioning words 'who what why when where how and with whom' over and over again. The most frequent rebuke from my mum was "Think before you act!" at which point I would mentally go back to the point before I'd got in trouble and ask 'who what why when where how and with whom'.
As an adult I've noticed that my decision making process is different to most of my peers because my amygdala is not happy to say 'decision made' until I've run through the questioning words, something that I'm sure makes me insufferable at times.
By contrast I've noticed that some people will take their initial reaction or gut feeling and straight away get the 'decision made' signal from their amygdala then use their higher brain centres to justify rather than question their decision.
The above are different extremes of how people use their brains and most people will have variations of both that they use in different situations and contexts, however until knowledge of the physiological process you go through when making a decision becomes commonplace I'm not sure it will be possible to explain why some people disappear in to the conspirasphere and other's don't.
As that understanding comes in to place I think there's going to a much greater distinction between a physiological decision based on dopamine, oxytocin, cortisol, etc and a logical decision based on facts and evidence.
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Tartan Pixie said:
I've fallen down various rabbit holes over the years trying to get to the bottom of this and even as someone used to long reports and complex issues I've got to surround this one with mindfield signs, the more data you collect on this subject the less answers and more questions you will have.
I can only assume that it's a bloody big rabbit and I'm still a very long way from catching it so please take all the above with a dose of salt
Vote vets are calling trump Americas no 1 traitor, over his continued inaction over the Russian bounty
https://mobile.twitter.com/votevets?lang=en
https://mobile.twitter.com/votevets?lang=en
trumps trying another rally
The disclaimer again when registering for Trump's Portsmouth rally: "In attending the event, you and any guests voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19, and waive, release, and discharge Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. ... from any and all liability."
It took three months for Florida to reach 100,000 new confirmed COVID-19 cases.
It took less than two weeks for the state to go from 100,000 to 200,000 cases — and the positive test rate keeps rising.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/artic...
A complete failure to act by trump and the GOP
The disclaimer again when registering for Trump's Portsmouth rally: "In attending the event, you and any guests voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19, and waive, release, and discharge Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. ... from any and all liability."
It took three months for Florida to reach 100,000 new confirmed COVID-19 cases.
It took less than two weeks for the state to go from 100,000 to 200,000 cases — and the positive test rate keeps rising.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/artic...
A complete failure to act by trump and the GOP
trump remains silent on the russian bounty. He's so compromised by many world leaders and countries that he cant act.
Remember: “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump.” -Kevin McCarthy, Trump supporter
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-secu...
Sen. Tammy Duckworth on Trump's Mt. Rushmore speech: "His priorities are wrong. What are we going to do to push Russia back? Instead, he had no time for that. He spent all his time talking about dead traitors."
Susan Rice on NBC: "We have a president who's doing our arch-adversary's bidding, it would seem, and he's surrounded by sycophants & weaklings who aren't doing their jobs, who don't have the confidence in themselves ... to bring the president the tough messages he needs to hear."
https://twitter.com/i/status/1279794942093729794
Sens. Warren and Hirono: "President Trump appears to be knowingly echoing what appears to be false denials of the Russian government while its spy unit allegedly pays Taliban-linked militants to kill American soldiers."
Edit: Another day, another court case
The Trump admin is being sued to compel the release of docs that may shed light on the influence lobbyists, banks or private interests, including Trump's personal business might have had over where taxpayer money was directed in the corona relief package.
Lawsuit filed by American Oversight against the Department of the Treasury for records concerning the coronavirus stimulus package, including communications about key provisions in the stimulus, agency officials’ communications with White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner and emails with non-government entities.
https://www.americanoversight.org/document/complai...
Remember: “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump.” -Kevin McCarthy, Trump supporter
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-secu...
Sen. Tammy Duckworth on Trump's Mt. Rushmore speech: "His priorities are wrong. What are we going to do to push Russia back? Instead, he had no time for that. He spent all his time talking about dead traitors."
Susan Rice on NBC: "We have a president who's doing our arch-adversary's bidding, it would seem, and he's surrounded by sycophants & weaklings who aren't doing their jobs, who don't have the confidence in themselves ... to bring the president the tough messages he needs to hear."
https://twitter.com/i/status/1279794942093729794
Sens. Warren and Hirono: "President Trump appears to be knowingly echoing what appears to be false denials of the Russian government while its spy unit allegedly pays Taliban-linked militants to kill American soldiers."
Edit: Another day, another court case
The Trump admin is being sued to compel the release of docs that may shed light on the influence lobbyists, banks or private interests, including Trump's personal business might have had over where taxpayer money was directed in the corona relief package.
Lawsuit filed by American Oversight against the Department of the Treasury for records concerning the coronavirus stimulus package, including communications about key provisions in the stimulus, agency officials’ communications with White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner and emails with non-government entities.
https://www.americanoversight.org/document/complai...
Edited by Byker28i on Monday 6th July 06:09
Ah that comes after trump threw a tantrum because he tunes in to Fox News each day to be coddled and lied to, not to be hit with the cold hard reality of how badly he’s losing, hence the accusation the Fox News poll is fake:
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
.@FoxNews gladly puts up the phony suppression polls as soon as they come out. We are leading in the REAL polls because people are sick & tired of watching the Democrat run cities, in all cases, falling apart. Also, now 96% Approval Rating in the Republican Party. Another 2016!
9:47 PM · Jul 5, 2020
This 96% approval doesn't appear anywhere. Is this something his yes men are telling him?
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
.@FoxNews gladly puts up the phony suppression polls as soon as they come out. We are leading in the REAL polls because people are sick & tired of watching the Democrat run cities, in all cases, falling apart. Also, now 96% Approval Rating in the Republican Party. Another 2016!
9:47 PM · Jul 5, 2020
This 96% approval doesn't appear anywhere. Is this something his yes men are telling him?
Eric Trump "predicts that after his father leaves office, the Trump Organization will launch a major expansion that will in part focus on luxury hotels abroad. The company has previously eyed projects in the Middle East and China... "
https://www.wsj.com/articles/eric-trump-steers-fam...
Asset capture in the US? US properties heavily losing money so move out to places that have favoured trump?
Remember trump cancelled sanctions against Chinese phone company ZTE so his asian property development got a loan. Ivanka's been granted numerous patents by the Chinese. Qatar bailed out Kushners business after the Saudi's put a blockade on them, that was lifted after they bailed out Kushner, Kushner and trump are compromised by Saudi, hence no action over Khashogi, the forcing through of arms sales over the block from Congress etc.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/eric-trump-steers-fam...
Asset capture in the US? US properties heavily losing money so move out to places that have favoured trump?
Remember trump cancelled sanctions against Chinese phone company ZTE so his asian property development got a loan. Ivanka's been granted numerous patents by the Chinese. Qatar bailed out Kushners business after the Saudi's put a blockade on them, that was lifted after they bailed out Kushner, Kushner and trump are compromised by Saudi, hence no action over Khashogi, the forcing through of arms sales over the block from Congress etc.
trump claimed “99 percent of coronavirus cases are completely harmless."
Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday morning, fill-in host Dana Bash put FDA head Dr. Stephen Hahn on the hot seat as she confronted him with Donald Trump’s claim on Saturday night that 99 percent of the COVID-19 cases are harmless, telling the administration official that it was a provable lie.
The CNN host cut right to the chase in her interview, asking about Tump’s dismissive assertion that there is nothing for people to fear about getting the coronavirus.
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/07/trump-fda-head-co...
Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday morning, fill-in host Dana Bash put FDA head Dr. Stephen Hahn on the hot seat as she confronted him with Donald Trump’s claim on Saturday night that 99 percent of the COVID-19 cases are harmless, telling the administration official that it was a provable lie.
The CNN host cut right to the chase in her interview, asking about Tump’s dismissive assertion that there is nothing for people to fear about getting the coronavirus.
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/07/trump-fda-head-co...
remember the stories from last week, Tucker Carlson preparing to stand, McConnell tell trump to reverse his polls.
At what point is McConnell's (and hence the GOP's) tipping point?
Whilst trump was busy golfing...
Latest jh kersting Forecast:
https://projects.jhkforecasts.com/presidential-for...
Chance of winning the electoral college:
Biden 87.8%
Trump 12.2%
Electoral votes:
Biden 357
Trump 181
Latest The Economist Forecast:
https://projects.economist.com/us-2020-forecast/pr...
Chance of winning the electoral college:
Biden 88%
Trump 11%
Chance of winning the most votes:
Biden 98%
Trump 2%
Estimated electoral college votes:
Biden 343
Trump 195
At what point is McConnell's (and hence the GOP's) tipping point?
Whilst trump was busy golfing...
Latest jh kersting Forecast:
https://projects.jhkforecasts.com/presidential-for...
Chance of winning the electoral college:
Biden 87.8%
Trump 12.2%
Electoral votes:
Biden 357
Trump 181
Latest The Economist Forecast:
https://projects.economist.com/us-2020-forecast/pr...
Chance of winning the electoral college:
Biden 88%
Trump 11%
Chance of winning the most votes:
Biden 98%
Trump 2%
Estimated electoral college votes:
Biden 343
Trump 195
More on that 'leak' about Carlson running in 2024, which looks like a message to trump he's ignoring.
Tucker Carlsons monologues have been compared with trumps independence days speech
And we thought it was Miller. Is Carlson helping trump write his speeches? We know he meets with trump.
Tucker Carlsons monologues have been compared with trumps independence days speech
And we thought it was Miller. Is Carlson helping trump write his speeches? We know he meets with trump.
Also lets not forget about this lot as well;
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6058773/B...
https://twitter.com/lehudgins/status/1025949241359...
He invited Neo-Nazi's to the White House for a photo op. In a vacuum the similarity of the images can be dismissed, but given his track record with White Supremacists and Neo-Nazi's. It should be obvious to stay away from images like this.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6058773/B...
https://twitter.com/lehudgins/status/1025949241359...
He invited Neo-Nazi's to the White House for a photo op. In a vacuum the similarity of the images can be dismissed, but given his track record with White Supremacists and Neo-Nazi's. It should be obvious to stay away from images like this.
mx5nut said:
In a way, it's reassuring that they still know they're the "bad guys" and their views are abhorrent to the vast majority of people, so they still have to hide them and pretend it's all a big misunderstanding.
When they are comfortable enough to openly share their views, we're really in trouble - as we saw on a small scale with Trump's "very fine people" in Charlottesvile
When they are comfortable enough to openly share their views, we're really in trouble - as we saw on a small scale with Trump's "very fine people" in Charlottesvile
Edited by mx5nut on Thursday 2nd July 12:27
There's a huge piece in the Atlantic about how trump has completely gailed the US in his response to Coronovirus, consistantly denying it's seriousness, how it was in his daily briefings from the very start of January, but he didn't/doesn't read them.
It's a huge piece - but well worth the read
"But the evidence shows that he (trump)has been deadly earnest about denying the threat of COVID-19, and delaying action against it."
"During the Obama administration, the U.S. had negotiated to have its observers stationed in many cities across China, through a program called Predict. But the Trump administration did not fill those positions, including in Wuhan. This meant that no one was on site to learn about, for instance, the unexplained closure on January 1 of the city’s main downtown Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, a so-called wet market where wild animals, live or already killed, were on sale along with fish and domesticated animals. It was at this market that the first animal-to-human transfer of the virus is generally thought to have occurred, probably from a bat. But by that time, as Marisa Taylor of Reuters first reported, the Trump administration had removed dozens of CDC representatives in China.
Nonetheless, information came in. By the final days of December, and no later than January 1, a warning would have appeared in the President’s Daily Brief—the classified summary of international developments distilled from all intelligence agencies and passed to the president and a handful of advisers. “It was in the briefings by the beginning of January,” a person involved in preparing the president’s briefing book told me. “On that there is no dispute.” This person went on: “But knowing it is in the briefing book is different from knowing whether the president saw it.” He didn’t need to spell out his point, which was: Of course this president did not."
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/...
It's a huge piece - but well worth the read
"But the evidence shows that he (trump)has been deadly earnest about denying the threat of COVID-19, and delaying action against it."
"During the Obama administration, the U.S. had negotiated to have its observers stationed in many cities across China, through a program called Predict. But the Trump administration did not fill those positions, including in Wuhan. This meant that no one was on site to learn about, for instance, the unexplained closure on January 1 of the city’s main downtown Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, a so-called wet market where wild animals, live or already killed, were on sale along with fish and domesticated animals. It was at this market that the first animal-to-human transfer of the virus is generally thought to have occurred, probably from a bat. But by that time, as Marisa Taylor of Reuters first reported, the Trump administration had removed dozens of CDC representatives in China.
Nonetheless, information came in. By the final days of December, and no later than January 1, a warning would have appeared in the President’s Daily Brief—the classified summary of international developments distilled from all intelligence agencies and passed to the president and a handful of advisers. “It was in the briefings by the beginning of January,” a person involved in preparing the president’s briefing book told me. “On that there is no dispute.” This person went on: “But knowing it is in the briefing book is different from knowing whether the president saw it.” He didn’t need to spell out his point, which was: Of course this president did not."
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/...
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