[satnav]

The main reason Trump lost the last election is that is support amongst women voters fell. Since 2020 he has lost a civil case which basically left him labelled as a sex offender, the Republicans have tightened abortion laws and he has been convicted as a criminal. Whilst his core voters will remain loyal I really can't see how he is winning back the women voters he lost in 2020.

[Andy McDandy]

He won't, which is why they're going in hard on voter suppression at state level. So what if the women won't vote for you, if they can't vote in the first place?

[Bones McCoy]

Has the mass uprising started yet?

A few "shaman cosplayers" doing throat singing.
That seems to be the limit.

But there's always the chance of an "only in America" moment.

[Abernathy]

I'm thinking the best sentencing option for the Donald now would be extensive community service - humiliation without the opportunity for martyrdom.

[Youngian]

I'm thinking the best sentencing option for the Donald now would be extensive community service - humiliation without the opportunity for martyrdom.

Trump playing to the camera while picking up litter has promising opportunities; aaw shucks we all fuck up, I’m a blue collar guy who takes it on the chin and not afraid to get my hands dirty.
He’ll win over the gang of petty crooks he’s with. One of the boys.
This is a triumph for the rule of law but a political disaster for Biden. Hope I’m reading this wrong and the American electorate is more honourable than I give them credit for. But won’t bet on it.

[Andy McDandy]

I doubt it. His man of the people stunts in the past (packs of kitchen roll in Puerto Rico etc) last as long as they have to and not a second more. Most of the chain gangers will be from groups he's smeared extensively. Him cleaning up dogshit while a dozen secret service agents look on will make him seem utterly pathetic.

He won't be sent to a serious prison - even with the security detail, it'd not be feasible. If he goes inside, it'd be to a Jordan Belfort-style country club with locks and gates. And hopefully without unlimited communication with the outside world.

[Crabcakes]

Trump playing to the camera while picking up litter has promising opportunities; aaw shucks we all fuck up, I’m a blue collar guy who takes it on the chin and not afraid to get my hands dirty.

Thing is, the notoriously germophobic Trump *is* afraid to get his hands dirty. He also loathes the common man, is extraordinarily lazy and unfit, and will be absolutely incandescent at being made to associate with poor people. And he absolutely cannot fake it - not will not, cannot. He is incapable of toughing it out because he is so narcissistic and so privileged he will be utterly unable to disguise it or countenance doing it. Stunts like taking pizza to firefighters he can do because he thinks they love him and that’s what he’s there for. Community service would be him doing something for someone else with no benefit to himself. That’s a concept as alien and incomprehensible to him as a dishwasher would be to an ant.

Community service wouldn’t destroy him, but his reaction to community service would.

[Crabcakes]

Also, I’ve read somewhere that this will probably result in a 2-3% shift alone in polling, and a 2% shift sees Biden safely returned even at this current wonky polling 6 months out.

It doesn’t have to be seismic, it just has to be enough. And it looks like this is enough. On top of that, despite whatever bravado he projects, the very real stress of a potential jail sentence and the risk of a challenge from within for the nomination now he’s a felon - however remote - is going to accelerate whatever is going on with his mental decline and increasingly unhinged behaviour. That’s more lashing out, more people thrown under buses, more people not paid, and more Cohen-type figures ready to flip.

The presidency is his only route out of absolute peril, and the more it seems to be slipping away the more batshit he’s going to get and the more people he turns off. This conviction will be polarising and will make some of his support solidify - but that’s support he was probably going to get anyway. For anyone with any rationality, or with morals that can’t see a convicted man become president (however warped), or for people wronged by him, his offer is only going to get worse and worse and worse.

And if nothing else, between now and polling day an awful lot more women and families are going to find out exactly how horrific his Supreme Court picks have made maternity and pregnancy issues.

[Abernathy]

I just saw him speaking this afternoon. Extraordinary, babbling stream-of consciousness stuff, most of which I could barely comprehend, let alone follow. He seemed to be trying to re-litigate the trial, despite having declined, on his lawyer's advice, to take the stand and testify. On the basis of this performance, you could see why.

Surely someone in the GOP needs to grow some cojones, stand up, and say that they simply cannot permit this crook to go forward as the Republican presidential nominee?

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Not going to happen. The USA is a failed state.

[Watchman]

Why get rid of a gibbering idiot who can say anything and approx half the country will believe what he says, whilst he provides a massive distraction why the Republicans are fucking up the country.

[Bones McCoy]

I just saw him speaking this afternoon. Extraordinary, babbling stream-of consciousness stuff, most of which I could barely comprehend, let alone follow. He seemed to be trying to re-litigate the trial, despite having declined, on his lawyer's advice, to take the stand and testify. On the basis of this performance, you could see why.

Surely someone in the GOP needs to grow some cojones, stand up, and say that they simply cannot permit this crook to go forward as the Republican presidential nominee?

My memory must be playing tricks.

I don't recall Scooter Libby getting a full press conference and free rein to diss all and sundry after his conviction.

[Oboogie]

Surely someone in the GOP needs to grow some cojones, stand up, and say that they simply cannot permit this crook to go forward as the Republican presidential nominee?

Careful what you wish for. The nightmare scenario is that Trump is replaced by someone equally repugnant, but less obviously mentally unwell, with no convictions who then beats Biden in November.

[Abernathy]

Good point. It may well be best to keep giving Donald enough rope.

[Youngian]

The nightmare scenario is that Trump is replaced by some equally repugnant, but less obviously mentally unwell, who then beats Biden in November.

Might be someone out there but DeSantis, Cruz and Hawley’s approval ratings stink or else Trump would have been dumped.

[Oboogie]

The nightmare scenario is that Trump is replaced by some equally repugnant, but less obviously mentally unwell, who then beats Biden in November.

Might be someone out there but DeSantis, Cruz and Hawley’s approval ratings stink or else Trump would have been dumped.

I really hope you're right.

[Bones McCoy]

The nightmare scenario is that Trump is replaced by some equally repugnant, but less obviously mentally unwell, who then beats Biden in November.

Might be someone out there but DeSantis, Cruz and Hawley’s approval ratings stink or else Trump would have been dumped.

It's like the "Bring Back Boris" granny brigade over here.

They've created a personality cult, and for them, no other leader will ever match his looks, physique, talent or electability

[davidjay]

Why get rid of a gibbering idiot who can say anything and approx half the country will believe what he says, whilst he provides a massive distraction why the Tories are fucking up the country.

Fixed.

[Andy McDandy]

A lot of people don't want much - just the joy of looking down on someone, the knowledge that you're not at the bottom of the heap. Trump and Johnson offer that.

[Spoonman]

2015: "Lock her up!!"
2016: "Lock her up!!"
2017: "Lock her up!!"
2018: "Lock her up!!"
2019: "Lock her up!!"
2020: "Lock her up!!"
2021: "Lock him up!!"
2022: "Lock him up!!"
2023: "Lock him up!!"
2024: "We mustn't go after political opponents..."