This one made me laugh.

FineWine:

I do not think that even if the State Electors vote along Trump Party lines for Trump to be their representative, that Trump will win the November election, for all the above reasons.

 

I think we are short changing the general American voting public. They have had a 4 year taste of Trump and the only spectacular thing he did was totally bungle the COVID crisis. Anything else for the people went to all his wealthy friends and corporations, (including the 'small wall'). Oh! he shook hands with an evil dictator. Middle and lower America was poorly done by Trumps administration. The only person to really get anything from his 4 year term was himself.

FineWine:

 

I agree with what has been said above Rikkitic & quickymart but remember there are two elections before inauguration day 20th January 2025.

 

All the 50 States College Vote elections requiring 170 out of 538 for party candidate and then the national general election on the 5th November 2024 (I'm simplifying this here).

 

I do not think that even if the State Electors vote along Trump Party lines for Trump to be their representative, that Trump will win the November election, for all the above reasons.

 

I think we are short changing the general American voting public. They have had a 4 year taste of Trump and the only spectacular thing he did was totally bungle the COVID crisis. Anything else for the people went to all his wealthy friends and corporations, (including the 'small wall'). Oh! he shook hands with an evil dictator. Middle and lower America was poorly done by Trumps administration. The only person to really get anything from his 4 year term was himself.

 

I could be wrong but a lot of people are going to be well out of pocket for a psychopathic, narcissistic orange buffoon, even well past 20th January 2025. Of course the truly faithful will just stay the truly faithful, "You can educate a fool, but you cannot make him think."

 

I don't know about that. The 2020 election was a lot closer than it really should have been, and Biden's approval rating is a lot lower now than it was then so he's hardly a strong candidate. Once again the Democrats are relying on people to VOTE AGAINST the Republican candidate instead of putting up a candidate for them to VOTE FOR, and it's not a good strategy.

A few good posts from The Bulwark: https://morningshots.thebulwark.com/p/the-arrest-of-donald-j-trump >> overview of the whole arraignment

https://plus.thebulwark.com/p/trumps-best-defense-is-no-defense-at-all >> he could be wise to shut his mouth, yes, but will he be wise? (hint: of course not)

https://thetriad.thebulwark.com/p/the-2024-campaign-logo-rankings >> a hilarious look at the current campaign logos. Poor Michael Pence 😀

Assuming its Biden vs Trump in 2024 it's possible, with such poor candidates, that a larger number of people than usual won't bother to turn out to vote. 

If that leaves just the hardliners on both sides it will be a close run thing, especially with the electoral college setup.

Presidential signatures

The NY Times - The Radical Strategy Behind Trump’s Promise to ‘Go After’ Biden

15 June 2023

When Donald J. Trump responded to his latest indictment by promising to appoint a special prosecutor if he’s re-elected to “go after” President Biden and his family, he signaled that a second Trump term would fully jettison the post-Watergate norm of Justice Department independence.

 

“I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family,” Mr. Trump said at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., on Tuesday night after his arraignment earlier that day in Miami. “I will totally obliterate the Deep State.”

 

Mr. Trump’s message was that the Justice Department charged him only because he is Mr. Biden’s political opponent, so he would invert that supposed politicization. ...

 

The naked politics infusing Mr. Trump’s headline-generating threat underscored something significant.

 

In his first term, Mr. Trump gradually ramped up pressure on the Justice Department, eroding its traditional independence from White House political control. He is now unabashedly saying he will throw that effort into overdrive if he returns to power.

 

Trump is desperate, deluded, and more dangerous than ever.  🙁

Just like he was after the cabal of paedophiles as per QAnon (until he lost the election)? Yes, that also happened didn't it 🙄 some people are so ridiculously gullible in America, it absolutely astonishes me sometimes.

Also: a former Trump ally turns foe: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/15/trump-christie-desantis-2024-election-00102085

kingdragonfly: Perhaps the GOP should change its symbol from the elephant to the ouroboros

Nah, the elephant will soon be extinct. It is the perfect symbol.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/us-canada/300907297/donald-trump-tells-restaurant-food-for-everyone-then-leaves-without-paying

Never mind paying his lawyers, he doesn't even pay his frikken' restaurant bills! Yet again, some poor sap will have to pick up the tab for the orange a-hole.

Trump defenders on Twitter noted the GOP frontrunner only said there’d be food for everyone at the restaurant – not that he was buying it >> that's a bit of a stretch. I personally would interpret his line as he was paying for the food, not merely "there is food here". Well, duh, it's a restaurant. What else would you expect? 🙄

The Washington Post - Opinion - Trump’s chances of a Jan. 6 indictment soar

15 June 2023

 

Five factors now point to a federal indictment on Jan. 6-related charges.

 

First, the Justice Department has already obtained multiple convictions on the most serious charge - seditious conspiracy * - and long prison terms for multiple militia group members. 

 

Second, a state filing in Georgia based on the phony elector scheme and the effort to cajole Georgia officials to “find” just enough votes to flip the state to Trump more or less force Garland’s hand. 

 

Third, Smith has the goods. The inner circle has been pierced; credible witnesses with percipient knowledge of the relevant facts are arrayed against Trump. He’s got the evidence the House select committee on Jan. 6 committee obtained. He has the testimonies of former vice president Mike Pence, former chief of staff Mark Meadows and former White House lawyers. 

 

Fourth, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, in a case involving John Eastman’s assertion of attorney-client privilege, already found that “President Trump attempted to obstruct an official proceeding by launching a pressure campaign to convince Vice President Pence to disrupt the Joint Session on January 6. ... These actions more likely than not constitute attempts to obstruct an official proceeding.”

 

Fifth, the conversation about the propriety of indicting a former president has percolated throughout the political system. ... polling during and after the Jan. 6 hearings showed that majorities think that [Trump] did something illegal and/or should be indicted.

 

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/16/trump-attorney-trusty-resigns-00102408

Another lawyer seeing sense and getting out before he realises this is a lost cause?

Two professional opinions on the Orange Narcissist (abridged)

The NY Times - What Makes Trump Act That Way? A Psychiatrist and a Psychologist Weigh In.

16 June 2023

To the Editor:

 

Donald Trump never apologizes, acknowledges a mistake or appears to reflect on his role in the creation of his recurrent difficulties. ...

 

This is the central problem that other mental health experts and I addressed in our 2017 book “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump” and is what makes him unfit to hold high office.

 

He has to be right, never needs to learn from his mistakes, and must protect his inflated and fragile self-image above all else, including the nation’s security.

 

He is always the victim, never having had a hand in the creation of his own dilemmas.

 

Leonard L. Glass
Newton, Mass.

 

The writer is an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

To the Editor:

 

Efforts to find a “logical” or even minimally reasonable explanation for human behavior tend to run into a stone wall, especially when the behavior clearly defies ordinary logic.

 

Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents and his response to government efforts to reclaim them arguably fall within this category.

 

I would suggest a different approach: a consideration of what might be going on deeper inside Mr. Trump psychologically, below the realm of logic and conscious reason.

 

Think of a child’s beloved stuffed animals, commonly known in psychoanalytic terminology as “transitional objects.” ...

 

Mr. Trump’s behavior in protecting his transitional objects (in this case the documents) shows all the characteristics of a child’s response when the beloved stuffed animal is lost or taken away. Anxiety and rage are almost instantaneous. Desperate attempts to retain or restore the transitional objects follow.

 

It may be helpful to reconsider Mr. Trump’s behavior as primitive, regressive and best understood outside the parameters of adult thinking.

 

Priscilla F. Kauff
New York

 

The writer is a clinical professor of psychology at Weill Cornell Medical College.

I thgink we all could have come to those conclusions! But, good on them for saying it.

Indictments aren't doing anything overly bad for Trump's polling so far (I didn't expect it would - his base are apologists for anything he does), although De Santis has dropped slightly. Interestingly, third party candidates (Scott, Christie, etc) are making a few gains now:

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/17/trump-indictment-election-2024-polling-00102522