why did he even go to that event? he's already got the racist vote in the bag, and it doesn't seem like he put a molecule of effort into convincing any attendees that he's the best choice. actually nvm, he's just fucking stupid and incompetent on top of being racist af
The submission title of "earning trust" is fucking hilarious but it speaks to your question. Trump has appeared before an audience of Bitcoin enthusiasts in recent days. He's apparently open to reaching out to crowds that aren't his core MAGA audience at this particular moment.
Knowing as we do now that this event went to shit for him, it's easy to look back and say it wasn't strategic for him to do it, but for the campaign manager planning the event, it was probably an easier call than letting him debate Joe Biden was, and he [will be perceived as having] "nailed that," right?
Like yeah it’s bigoted, we knew that, but holy fuck it’s just weird to do that. I wouldn’t do that, I’m pretty weird myself but I’m nowhere near that weird
He doesn't need to prepare answers when he has a generic template for everything. "I'm the best at [blank]". He even changed it up a little this time with ". . . since [historical figure]".
Now accept that answer at face value and you, too, can be a standard Republican voter.
You know, I'm not often proud of Germany, but to expell this guys grandfather and revoke his citizenship when he wanted to move back to Germany might have been the best thing that happened to the country in the last 200 years.
Ironically he was expelled (by royal degree no less) for skipping out on mandatory military service. Twice. Didn't even made an excuse like bones spurs or something.
But yeah, making money by exploiting the vulnerable lays in the family at least since the brothels of the gold rush.
You see in the original universe, Trump's grandfather was never expelled in 1904 The Trumps became rich and successful in Germany, and when the Nazis came along, the Trump family was right there with them.
After the war, the Trumps pulled a BMW and managed to survive the backlash, becoming as powerful, or more than they had been before WW2, and when neo-fascists started to pop out of the wood-work in the late 2000's, it was in Germany that DJT (or as he was known in that universe Gerhardt Johann Trump) rallied the far-right to take power in Germany, leading to another world war which ended when the USA dropped a nuke on Berlin.
In the chaos that followed, one man invented a time machine, travelled back through time and arranged for Trump's grandfather to be deported by making it impossible to fulfill his military service and thereby creating a new timeline in which Trump ends up in America.
Opa Trump got rich with brothels and liquor during the gold rush in the US.
Not because he was such a hard worker and awesome bussinessman that he pulled himself by the bootstraps into the millions. But by the fortune that he found enough women to exploit and that there were a lot of lonely men paying for it in gold.
I believe he would have never had the chance to make big money in europe at the time. He wouldn't have skipped out on military service and would have been conscripted early into WW1 and would have possibly died at the Somme or Verdune. The family would have sunken into poverty and obscurity without a breadwinner and nobody would have even heard of any of these Clowns.
Anyone else and this would be completely career ending. The fact that it's not likely to cause any serious damage to his campaign just serves to show that his followers don't give a shit what he says, nothing Trump says or does will lose him the loyalty of his cult.
It’s less about his followers and more about project 2025 likeminded groups funding conservatives. Trump has never won a popular vote, only marginal electoral victories
Edit and tbh the culture war shit is just a distraction from the massive greed and exploitation of workers. Majority of the conservatives wouldn’t pass any moral or ethical bar they outline in any cultural agenda.
Unionizing workers and getting fair wages would probably reduce tons of funding sources.
I think Republicans look at a small handful of statistics about black voters, like religious affiliation and views on lgbt issues, and think that means they could be won over. But it's really missing the forest for the trees when they're making blatantly racist attacks.
Republicans want to pander to big business with promises of cheap labor while pandering to labor with promises of future self-enrichment.
Black workers are the fulcrum that argument turns on. They're the workers you can use as scabs when you need to break up a union. And they're the workers you can blame for Woking and DEIing your professional jobs.
That's why Trump sounds so incoherent around them. He's trying to pander to white nationalists and black labor at the same time, and it comes out as gibberish.
Republicans could honestly pick up a lot of black votes if they were capable of dropping the racism. Unfortunately it's so deeply ingrained into the base now that I doubt they could pull it off.
Guys like SC-R Tim Scott figured out how to run as a Black Republican and tap into a sizable split in the Democratic base, beating his lily white rivals by filling a niche with the state's large base of socially conservative black voters. Allen West, down in Florida, managed a similar stunt to beat out his whiter conservative rivals, before moving to Texas to chair the state's wealthy and nationally influential Republican Party.
I think they do see black voters as winnable constituency, based on how they align on religious beliefs and economic beliefs. During the late 19th / early 20th century, the GOP benefited enormously from an African American voter base that would support New York / California business tycoons simply because they weren't racist Dixiecrats. But then Nixon did the Southern Strategy to win the Dixiecrat segregationist rump in the 70s, and they've been pandering to them ever since. Bush Jr tried to bridge that gap from 2000 to 2008, identifying a host of POC cronies willing to shill for big business without regard to their skin color. But he ultimately failed when the party went into a reactionary anti-Obama backlash.
There are plenty of Republicans who would love to get back to a kind of color-blind corporate hegemony, because its far more profitable to exploit the entire underclass than to be pinned to a chronically disaffected white middle class male base. But you gotta dance with who brung ya. And its the Used Car Dealership voter that's powering the Trump campaign.
There aren't enough personal consequences for voting poorly. If I don't go to work, or do the work badly, I end up on the street. If I don't date, or am a jerk to women, I end up single. If I don't eat, or eat all junk food, I get malnutrition. But if I don't vote, or vote Republican, it's everyone who gets the consequences.
Traditionally across human history, poor or dissenting political opinions were punished by having the shit beat out of you.
Not saying I agree with it necessarily, but them's the facts.
While we may wish to build a more civilized and less violent society, which I think we should, we are giving up some things in the process. Most major consequences for being an asshole fall under the things we're trying to do away with. Vigilante justice, like it or not, was a big contributing factor in keeping the crazies quiet during many times in many places in the world.
It's more technical then that. They're a 501(c)(3) non-profit, which has some clear rules around politics. They can't specifically endorse a candidate. If they invite one candidate for a race, they also have to invite the others in the same race. Those candidates don't necessarily have to show up, but they have to be offered the chance.
It seems the NABJ invited both Kamala and the trumpster fire. Kamala's team couldn't make the date and suggested video conference. The head of NABJ then cancelled Kamala's appearance, rather than make it work. Not sure why but they choose that but we got delicious news out of it.
I did wonder for a second while Kamala didn't want to join as well. But after hearing all of the weird nonsense he sprouted. It was a great idea for her to skip this event. Let Trump do stupid things all by himself with all the negative attention
maga single handedly killed any US comedy. like when the don got memed into office was the day you could cancel any comedy movie or sitcom. no author can come up with the absurdity maga produces. like idiocracy roleplay.
next election is not only about democracy, basic human rights, civil war etc.. it will also impact if there will be funny US shows again.
Journalist meets the low bar of interrupting his drivel and forcing an answer. I don't know where to go from there, he is a fucking awful interviewee.
An author with dementia who just starts ad-libbing stream-of-consciousness fiction in response everything. They're lucky if he starts the narrative anywhere near the question.