Trump 2024 Run Thread

Never mind if trump meddling in Gaza / Israel relations is illegal (he is 100% above the law), it's playing with peoples lives. Literally getting people killed for his own political gain. Trump is a plague.

What on earth will it take for some of you to stop blindly supporting him? How far can he push? You don't need his permission to hate, you can do that all on your own.
 
milehighpoke said:
Never mind if trump meddling in Gaza / Israel relations is illegal (he is 100% above the law), it's playing with peoples lives. Literally getting people killed for his own political gain. Trump is a plague.

What on earth will it take for some of you to stop blindly supporting him? How far can he push? You don't need his permission to hate, you can do that all on your own.
Click to expand...
They've been conditioned to believe that dems are evil and communist and any news that is negative against trump is fake news.
 
milehighpoke said:
Never mind if trump meddling in Gaza / Israel relations is illegal (he is 100% above the law), it's playing with peoples lives. Literally getting people killed for his own political gain. Trump is a plague.

What on earth will it take for some of you to stop blindly supporting him? How far can he push? You don't need his permission to hate, you can do that all on your own.
Click to expand...
This should be more pointedly directed at the "I don't like him personally, don't support him, and wish he wasn't the Republican candidate, but I'm still voting for him" folks than the blindly supporting cultists.

Nobody and nothing is ever going to change the minds of that latter group.
 
CowboyJD said:
This should be more pointedly directed at the "I don't like him personally, don't support him, and wish he wasn't the Republican candidate, but I'm still voting for him" folks than the blindly supporting cultists.

Nobody and nothing is ever going to change the minds of that latter group.
Click to expand...
Hoping the lifelong R's coming out in support of Harris will help with this group.

At some when current R Mayors, former R elected officials, and former Trump advisors keep saying they can't support him at some point those non-cultists that just vote R because of the letter will look around and listen... right?
 
mugatu said:
Hoping the lifelong R's coming out in support of Harris will help with this group.

At some when current R Mayors, former R elected officials, and former Trump advisors keep saying they can't support him at some point those non-cultists that just vote R because of the letter will look around and listen... right?
Click to expand...
Shrugs GIF


I hope so.
 
When I talk with people about politics at times the decision to vote for someone is on a very simple level.
It is often very sensible but very simple as well. It is often not some deep, dark bad rational. Someone steps on something that I see as important and therefore I will never consider the alternatives. Go after someone’s interest in a specific area and you will be perceived as a potential threat.
 

Trump's Latest Claim About Crime Is A Real Doozy​


https://twitter.com/x/status/1825977688080662931

Most people who’ve been around since 2015 are probably aware that Donald Trump tells a helluva lot of lies.

But his latest exaggeration was a real doozy, even for him.

“You can’t walk across the street to get a loaf of bread. You get shot, you get mugged, you get raped, you get whatever it may be,” Trump said on Tuesday during a visit to Howell, Michigan, while standing in front of two sheriffs. “You’ve seen it, and I’ve seen it.”


Currently, law enforcement in this country doesn’t keep track of how many rapes, shootings or muggings occur while someone is crossing the street to buy a loaf of bread.

But a study of FBI data by the Pew Research Center released in April shows that the violent crime rate fell 49% between 1993 and 2022, with large decreases in the rates of robbery (down 74%), aggravated assault (down 39%) and murder/nonnegligent manslaughter (down 34%) ― all crimes Trump mentioned in his fact-free diatribe.
 

Former White House Press Secretary Speaks to and tells DNC: Trump called own supporters 'basement dwellers'​

Former President Trump's onetime White House press secretary told delegates at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday that Trump, when out of the public eye, would mock his supporters and refer to them as "basement dwellers."

Stephanie Grisham, who said she would be voting for Vice President Kamala Harris, began her remarks at the United Center in Chicago by saying, "I wasn’t just a Trump supporter. I was a true believer — one of his closest advisors."


She likened the Trump family to her own family and recounted spending Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's at Trump's Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago. But then she addressed Trump's character.

"I saw him when the cameras were off," Grisham said. "Behind closed doors, Trump mocks his supporters — he calls them 'basement dwellers.' On a hospital visit one time, when people were dying in the ICU, he was mad that cameras were not watching him. He has no empathy. No morals. And no fidelity to the truth."

Grisham is among a handful of Republicans appearing at the convention to denounce Trump and endorse Harris.

To applause, Grisham said she was the first senior White House staffer to resign on Jan. 6, 2021, the day Trump supporters stormed the Capitol and tried to block the certification of Joe Biden's election victory. "I couldn’t be part of the insanity any longer," she said.



Referring to Trump, she added, "He used to tell me, 'It doesn’t matter what you say, Stephanie. Say it enough, and people will believe you.' But it does matter. What you say matters — and what you don’t say matters."

Grisham said that when she was press secretary, she "got skewered for never holding a White House briefing. It’s because, unlike my boss, I never wanted to stand at that podium and lie."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
 
Heart Smiles said:
When I talk with people about politics at times the decision to vote for someone is on a very simple level.
It is often very sensible but very simple as well. It is often not some deep, dark bad rational. Someone steps on something that I see as important and therefore I will never consider the alternatives. Go after someone’s interest in a specific area and you will be perceived as a potential threat.
Click to expand...
What is that something important to you?

In no particular order for me:
  • Basic human rights for all
    • Womens rights to choose what to do with their own bodies
    • The right to marry whomever you like, regardless of gender or race
    • The right to have children, or not have children
    • Healthcare
    • Clean water
  • A planet that my children, and hopefully grandchildren, can actually enjoy
  • The same opportunities for every single person in this country, regardless of race or gender
  • Easily accessible education for all
  • Freedom of, and especially freedom FROM, religion
  • Basic human decency
Donald Trump embodies a threat to every single one of these things. If a Dem candidate was the same, I would never EVER vote for them, regardless of the letter next to their name. I'm not going to let some politician, who works for ME, compromise my moral code.
 
Opinion piece

I'm an evangelical against Trump ... and genocide​

(RNS) — This week I was one of dozens of prominent Christian leaders invited to speak at a virtual event called “Evangelicals for Harris.” I was also invited to speak at the protests outside the Democrat National Convention, where thousands of activists are asking the Democrats inside the party’s national convention to demand an arms embargo on Israel before they lend their support to the Harris-Walz ticket.

My two invitations show the conflict I find myself facing this election season. A committed follower of Jesus, I see no way to defend Donald Trump, who has made a vocation out of the seven deadly sins. In addition, Trump promises to raise the death toll in Gaza, further fan the flames of hatred through the annexation of the West Bank and help annihilate the Palestinian people.

The former president’s rhetoric and policies are not only un-Christlike, they are so devoid of love and compassion and decency that even my conservative friends don’t know what to do. One of my neighbors who has voted Republican all his life told me he will be joining the swelling number of “Republicans Against Trump.”

Yet my same commitment to Jesus, the Prince of Peace, puts me at odds with Vice President Kamala Harris in her decision to stand by the Biden administration’s unqualified support for Israel. Christians, whose history began under the occupation of empire, should lend an ear to Palestinian theologians who have so much wisdom to offer at such a time as this.


Like many people committed to peace, I have spoken out passionately against Hamas’ atrocious act of terror on Oct. 7. I continue to demand the release of hostages. I have demanded that humanitarian aid be let into Gaza. It’s not too much to expect my presidential candidate will similarly be committed to ending the funding and arming of Israel as that country mercilessly slaughters women and children.

When Jesus commanded me to love my enemies, I’m pretty sure he meant that we shouldn’t kill them. The New Testament teaches: “Do not repay evil for evil. … If your enemy is hungry, feed them. If your enemy is thirsty, give them something to drink.” That doesn’t leave much room for the forced starvation that’s happening in Gaza. No Christian can defend the evil being done by the state of Israel.


Even Augustine’s “Just War Theory” created limits for times of war, and one of those limits is proportionality. If Augustine were alive today, I’m confident that he would be appalled by how folks pretending to be Christian have distorted and betrayed his own ideas with willful ignorance. We are not going to bomb our way to a better world. Violence only begets more violence. As Jesus said, if you live by the sword, you die by the sword.


It was only a generation ago that thousands of protesters converged outside another Democratic convention held in Chicago, opposing another war. We know those who demanded we stop fighting in Vietnam were on the right side of history. It’s difficult to imagine the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who spoke out against that war, supporting this one.

But it’s difficult too not to support the first Black and South Asian and female president, who is likely the most effective way to stop another four years of President Trump.

Millions of Americans do not want our taxes and our government to support a genocide in Gaza. Not just in Chicago, but all over the country this week, thousands of people have marched in the streets with the message: “Not Another Bomb.” If Harris said that she won’t send another bomb to Israel, she might forfeit the $5.3 million she’s gotten from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as AIPAC, the most powerful pro-Israel lobby, but recent data shows she would not lose votes from millions of Americans who want an end to the violence in Gaza.


It all feels so calculated and choreographed, and gross. Robin Williams once said: “Politicians should wear sponsor jackets like NASCAR drivers. Then we know who owns them.” We want to believe a woman as strong as Harris would not sell out her moral conscience to lobbyists.

Even if the Democrats win this election, their policy in the Middle East may lose this generation. Young people have had enough of the excuses and accommodations and political calculations. They’ve had enough of empire and colonialism and corporate greed and capitalism. For many young people, the American experiment in democracy is broken. They question the Supreme Court, the Electoral College, the permanent two-party system, the war economy, campaign financing and the inability of Congress to do anything meaningful on guns or immigration — and now, stopping the genocide in Gaza.


My faith as a Christian has long been about subverting empires and standing with the vulnerable, the widows and orphans, and all those Christ called “the least of these.” Right now, that means standing against the genocide in Gaza. As my friend the Rev. Munther Isaac says, “Gaza is the moral compass of the world.”

When I vote, then, I am not looking for a Savior. My Savior is a brown-skinned, Palestinian, homeless Jewish refugee born in a genocide, who would get kicked out of most evangelical Christian churches if he stood up to preach. Because of Jesus, I’m sure not voting for Trump. But it would be a lot easier to feel excited about Harris if she would stop giving Israel weapons.

King once said, “The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state.”

Whoever we elect in November will certainly need us to be their moral conscience in January. We are not electing a Savior. We are electing a commander in chief of the largest military in the world, inside the world’s most powerful empire. We are electing the person we will need to protest for the next four years.
 

‘That’s down and dirty’: Trump talks cocaine use with podcaster Theo Von​


In a bizarre turn of events for the 2024 election cycle, Donald Trump sat down for an interview with Theo Von at his Bedminster club in New Jersey and quizzed the podcaster about, of all things, cocaine.

During the latest episode of This Past Weekend with Theo Von, which aired on his YouTube channel on Tuesday, the topic of addiction and alcoholism rates in the US came up, specifically the fentanyl crisis.

Donald Trump learns about cocaine during interview with comedian Theo Von
At one point in the discussion, the former president turned to asking Von about his own drug use, before peppering him with questions about cocaine use in general.

Trump asked the podcast host how he “got addicted.”

“Oh no I would just do cocaine,” replied Von.

“That’s down and dirty right?” questioned Trump, adding: “But you don’t anymore?”


“No, I don’t do it anymore man and I’m not doing it,” Von said.

With his interest clearly piqued, Trump quizzed Von further about whether cocaine is a “stronger up”.

“Is it too much? Too much to handle?” he asked.

“Some of the stuff started to get a real rattle in it too,” Von explained. “I don’t know where we were getting it from in this country but yeah it started to make me feel like I was a mechanic or something.”

Trump, who is famously teetotal, followed up by pushing Von onto the topic of alcohol. “So the thing you go back to then is alcohol – for the most part.”

“Well-that-what I want probably is cocaine but I know that if I have a drink it’ll be like, ‘okay, well I had a drink then I can do this,” said Von.

“Is cocaine a stronger...up?” Trump asked. “So you’re way up with cocaine more than anything else you can think of?”

This prompted an interesting and slightly enigmatic reply from Von, also known by his give name, Theodor Capitani von Kurnatowski III.



“Cocaine will turn you into a damn owl homie – you know what I'm saying,” he joked. “You'll be out on your own porch, you know. You'll be your own street lamp.”

His curiosity unsatisfied, Trump asked Von if that’s “a good feeling.”

“No, horrible,” came the response.

“It's a miserable feeling,” added Trump, just as Von expanded at the same time: “But you do it anyway.”

The bizarre discussion appears to have taken place around the same time as Trump’s press conference at his Bedminster club last week as he continues his campaign trail for the November election.

While Trump courts podcasters, his rival Kamala Harris is in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention, where she will become the party’s official nomination.

The Independent is the world’s most free-thinking news brand, providing global news, commentary and analysis for the independently-minded. We have grown a huge, global readership of independently minded individuals, who value our trusted voice and commitment to positive change. Our mission, making change happen, has never been as important as it is today.
 
milehighpoke said:
What is that something important to you?

In no particular order for me:
  • Basic human rights for all
    • Womens rights to choose what to do with their own bodies
    • The right to marry whomever you like, regardless of gender or race
    • The right to have children, or not have children
    • Healthcare
    • Clean water
  • A planet that my children, and hopefully grandchildren, can actually enjoy
  • The same opportunities for every single person in this country, regardless of race or gender
  • Easily accessible education for all
  • Freedom of, and especially freedom FROM, religion
  • Basic human decency
Donald Trump embodies a threat to every single one of these things. If a Dem candidate was the same, I would never EVER vote for them, regardless of the letter next to their name. I'm not going to let some politician, who works for ME, compromise my moral code.
Click to expand...
Don't forget protection of and adherence to the US Constitution as it is written and supporting the processes described therein, as well as norms that have been followed for centuries.
 
Polds4OSU said:

‘That’s down and dirty’: Trump talks cocaine use with podcaster Theo Von​


In a bizarre turn of events for the 2024 election cycle, Donald Trump sat down for an interview with Theo Von at his Bedminster club in New Jersey and quizzed the podcaster about, of all things, cocaine.

During the latest episode of This Past Weekend with Theo Von, which aired on his YouTube channel on Tuesday, the topic of addiction and alcoholism rates in the US came up, specifically the fentanyl crisis.

Donald Trump learns about cocaine during interview with comedian Theo Von
At one point in the discussion, the former president turned to asking Von about his own drug use, before peppering him with questions about cocaine use in general.

Trump asked the podcast host how he “got addicted.”

“Oh no I would just do cocaine,” replied Von.

“That’s down and dirty right?” questioned Trump, adding: “But you don’t anymore?”


“No, I don’t do it anymore man and I’m not doing it,” Von said.

With his interest clearly piqued, Trump quizzed Von further about whether cocaine is a “stronger up”.

“Is it too much? Too much to handle?” he asked.

“Some of the stuff started to get a real rattle in it too,” Von explained. “I don’t know where we were getting it from in this country but yeah it started to make me feel like I was a mechanic or something.”

Trump, who is famously teetotal, followed up by pushing Von onto the topic of alcohol. “So the thing you go back to then is alcohol – for the most part.”

“Well-that-what I want probably is cocaine but I know that if I have a drink it’ll be like, ‘okay, well I had a drink then I can do this,” said Von.

“Is cocaine a stronger...up?” Trump asked. “So you’re way up with cocaine more than anything else you can think of?”

This prompted an interesting and slightly enigmatic reply from Von, also known by his give name, Theodor Capitani von Kurnatowski III.



“Cocaine will turn you into a damn owl homie – you know what I'm saying,” he joked. “You'll be out on your own porch, you know. You'll be your own street lamp.”

His curiosity unsatisfied, Trump asked Von if that’s “a good feeling.”

“No, horrible,” came the response.

“It's a miserable feeling,” added Trump, just as Von expanded at the same time: “But you do it anyway.”

The bizarre discussion appears to have taken place around the same time as Trump’s press conference at his Bedminster club last week as he continues his campaign trail for the November election.

While Trump courts podcasters, his rival Kamala Harris is in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention, where she will become the party’s official nomination.

The Independent is the world’s most free-thinking news brand, providing global news, commentary and analysis for the independently-minded. We have grown a huge, global readership of independently minded individuals, who value our trusted voice and commitment to positive change. Our mission, making change happen, has never been as important as it is today.
Click to expand...
Trump is being a good father and trying to learn about DTJr's favorite hobby
 
Utilizing a 60 year old Farm tax break for his golf course

Trump National Golf Club saves $257K a year through a tax break by claiming to have 12 goats​


A six-decade-old tax break intended to help struggling farmers in the Garden State has long been a target of critics who say it's been co-opted by wealthy suburban landowners. Now, there's a push to tighten its loopholes.

New Jersey lawmakers approved the Farmland Assessment Act of 1964 to help farms that were being squeezed out of business as demand for suburban housing drove up land values — and the taxes that went with them.



Today, about 35,000 landowners enroll some part of their properties in the program, which can discount a real estate tax bill by up to 98%.

Complaints about alleged abuses have been around almost as long as the program itself. In her 1993 race for governor, Christie Whitman faced criticism for farm assessments on two family properties in Central Jersey, though she won the election anyway. More recently, NJ Transit CEO Kevin Corbett took flak in 2019 for claiming a tax break based on a flock of sheep kept at his Mendham Township home.

Honey for sale outside a property in Bernardsville that gets a farmland assessment tax break. State law requires owners to sell $1,000 a year of agricultural products to claim the break, but reporting is on the honor system.

The state revised the law in 2013, requiring more farming revenue to qualify and more training for local tax assessors.



But critics say the changes haven't gone nearly far enough, and a review this summer by The Record and Northersey.com of just who receives farmland assessments reveals that the breaks are still used by many wealthy landowners living on luxury suburban estates that seem to have little to do with commercial agriculture.

"The size of that program is a red flag," said state Sen. Joe Pennacchio, a Morris County Republican who is pushing for a commission to reevaluate the program.

"I'm not against it," he said. "But what I don't want is people gaming the system, forcing other people to pay more tax, which is what is driving people out of this state."

Getting a farmland tax assessment in NJ is easy​

Obtaining a farmland assessment is simple in New Jersey — if you own enough land. Property owners must fill out an annual form attesting they have set aside 5 acres or more for agricultural purposes and that they expect to make at least $1,000 from that activity. (Taxes are reduced only on the agricultural portion of a parcel; homes and other non-farming uses are taxed at the normal rate in town.)


Agricultural activity can range from growing crops to raising chickens, sheep or goats, as well as horse farming and beekeeping. With New Jersey seeking to preserve open space, the program is also open to acres that qualify as pasture, wetlands or woodlands.

When the act passed in 1964, the state required that farmers produce at least $500 a year in revenue to qualify, whether through sales of produce, firewood or other products or the value of livestock kept on site. That minimum would equate to about $5,000 in today's dollars, but when legislators raised the threshold in 2013, it was only increased to $1,000.

The revisions also allowed owners to claim the break for new kinds of farms: biomass, solar or wind energy generation now qualify.

The yearly applications are processed by municipal tax assessors who may or may not seek supporting documentation. In interviews, some assessors said receipts are rarely required. In most cases, the applicant merely attests to the anticipated income.


Pennacchio proposed his commission after meeting with Mendham Township resident Jack Curtis, who has spent years compiling data on farmland assessments awarded in and around his Morris County town, where the median home value in 2022 was $1.05 million, according to the U.S. Census.

In Mendham Township 'this law has morphed into a scam'​

Curtis, a former high school principal in Roxbury, seethes over the imbalances in town. While he pays more than $9,600 in annual property taxes on the undeveloped portion of his 2½-acre lot, some of his neighbors pay only a few hundred dollars on significant portions of their multi-acre estates thanks to farm assessments.


"This law has morphed into a scam that wealthy people, with large tracts of land, have adopted as their own personal tax-reduction scheme," Curtis said.

Through Open Public Records Act requests, Curtis confirmed 155 farmland-assessed properties in 2024 for Mendham Township, which has a population of 6,000. Combined, those properties included 1,600 qualified acres, on which owners paid $11,000 in property tax. Curtis estimates they would have owed an additional $1.1 million if not for the farmland designations.

"No one is doing me a favor while I pay $4,683.32 per acre in tax, while these 155 entitled folks are paying $6.88 per acre," he said.

"What they are actually doing is transferring their tax bill to the 2,126 non-assessed property owners in town," Curtis added, citing data from 2021. "It has to be understood: This is a tax transfer, not a tax break."


Morris County is a Ground Zero for what Curtis sees as abuse of the farmland assessment privilege. The county currently has about 1,500 qualified properties that claim to be farming in 28 of its 39 towns.

Mayor defends the farmland assessment program​

Mendham Township Mayor Sarah Neibart defended the residents receiving those tax breaks. Farming has been a major activity in the township since its settlement in the early 18th century, she said.

"Mendham Township is a residential community with a traditional character based upon its rural and historic past and high-quality natural resources, especially our extensive woodlands and pristine streams," Neibart said.

That history includes 20 agricultural parcels identified in Mendham Township in 1964 when the farmland assessment law was passed. Sixty years later, the 155 designated properties in town represent a 775% increase.

The mayor is also a beneficiary of the program. She lives on a 65-acre estate complex owned by a limited liability company affiliated with her father-in-law, Sol Barer, the former CEO and current board chairman of the pharmaceutical company Celgene Corp. The land is enrolled in the farmland program.

Mendham Township residents are hardly alone in the practice. Other towns in and around the affluent Somerset Hills region have even more farm-assessed parcels, including Harding, with 177 qualified properties; Chester Township, with 166; and Washington Township, with 304.

Trump National Golf Club houses goats, saves an estimated $257K in taxes​

Crossing south into Somerset and County, properties that have benefited from farm assessment include tracts owned by Whitman, the former governor; Johnson & Johnson heir and New York Jets owner Woody Johnson; and family members of the Forbes publishing empire.

In Bedminster, former President Donald Trump enjoys a farm tax break for a portion of his Trump National Golf Club.


Trump National's 2024 FA-1 farm assessment application, obtained from the Bedminster tax assessor, lists 320 acres taxed as standard commercial property, including its golf courses. It also includes 183 acres that are treated as farmland: 113 acres on which the club says it grows hay and another 70 counted as protected woodlands or wetlands, according to the form.

Trump National — referred to on the application as the Lamington Farm Club LLC — also claims a herd of 12 goats as part of its agricultural operations.

The first page of a farmland assessment form filed by Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, aka the Lamington Farm Club LLC. The club gets a hefty tax break for harvesting hay and keeping a herd of goats on part of its property.

The club's 2024 property tax bill comes to $450,000 for its 320 conventionally taxed acres — a rate of $1,406 per acre — and $1,168 for its farmland, or just $6.38 an acre.


That's a saving of almost $257,000, Curtis calculates. "Donald Trump charges a $350,000 membership fee to anyone who wants to join his club," he said. "I hardly believe that Mr. Trump needs a 98% tax reduction when one new membership would more than pay for the taxes he is avoiding."

The club didn't return messages seeking comment.
 
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