The Former Trump Presidency Thread

[Unagi]

Before we all start cheering for Ann Coulter, let’s keep in mind she’s only bashing Trump because he has failed to deliver on some of his more extreme right-wing promises. She’s
only pissed because she got Hitler Lite.

Yes. Certainly not cheering her on.

I’d say she’s upset that he’s Stupid Hitler.

I’m just happy to see them attack each other.

[Unagi]

It’s also possible that she see’s the writing on the wall, and is positioning for the next stage in a post-Trump world.

This is my hope as well.

[Holman]

It’s also possible that she see’s the writing on the wall, and is positioning for the next stage in a post-Trump world.

She should be careful. If Trump loses the White House, he'll probably go on to be the king of right-wing media.

Coulter might be begging for a slot on TrumpTV (formally OANN) like all the rest.

[Zaxxon]

Twitter finally started adding fact checks to some of Trump's tweets today. I expect the outraged tweetstorm any minute now.

[Smoove_B]

I was just about to come and post that. When he wakes up from his afternoon nap, there's going to be a Tweet storm, I suspect.

Deets:

Twitter on Tuesday slapped a fact-check label on President Trump’s tweets for the first time, a response to long-standing criticism that the company is too hands-off when it comes to policing misinformation and falsehoods from world leaders.

[Skinypupy]

This is being touted as a BIG DEAL, but I don't really see why.

- For those of us who already know he lies about literally everything, having that suspicion "verified" by Twitter doesn't matter much.

- The hardcore MAGA's will continue to believe whatever spills out of Trump's lie-hole, regardless of whether it's true or not. But now they'll get the added benefit of screeching about "BIASED MEDIA" for anything that happens to get tagged, and Trump gets to howl even louder about how Twitter is unfair and how the Deep State is now "censoring" him because reasons...causing the derp squad to dig in even further.

If they're not actually going to remove the tweets, simply labeling them as false kinds just seems like a win for Trump, tbh.

[pr0ner]

[Alefroth]

I hope they fact check those also. Wouldn't it be great if they linked to the 1st Amendment?

[malchior]

This is being touted as a BIG DEAL, but I don't really see why.

Yep. I totally agree. Twitter should have banned him long ago but they like the media make money off him. This is just the latest defense of their indefensible position. There were public campaigns from individuals writing letters to Jack Dorsey about specific TOS violations Trump committed that they were ignoring. This is just a cynical attempt to deflect that criticism. And as you mentioned it only helps him. Removing the tweets or banning him are the only real remedy but lets be real. If they did ban him, it'd probably backfire and cause someone to stand up the bugaloo twitter anyway.

[Skinypupy]

The irony of the POTUS threatening action against a private company in the name of “free speech” might make my brain explode.

If Twitter is so awful and hostile to conservatives, then someone should probably make a “conservative Twitter” that allows people to spread their GOP viewpoints without fear of censorship. Oh wait, they did that and it was almost immediately overrun by Nazis (see Gab). Funny how that happens.

[Kraken]

Just imagine if both Twitter and Fox turn away from the dark side before the election. Then imagine if some of the GOP follows their lead.

Nahh, not going to happen. But crazier things happen every day. Ann Coulter, anyone?

[LordMortis]

Just imagine if both Twitter and Fox turn away from the dark side before the election. Then imagine if some of the GOP follows their lead.

Nahh, not going to happen. But crazier things happen every day. Ann Coulter, anyone?

Twitter don't need the deplorables. Fox does, their viewers will turn to OANN and Newsmax and likely is already competing to keep viewers from moving.

[Kraken]

Just imagine if both Twitter and Fox turn away from the dark side before the election. Then imagine if some of the GOP follows their lead.

Nahh, not going to happen. But crazier things happen every day. Ann Coulter, anyone?

Twitter don't need the deplorables. Fox does, their viewers will turn to OANN and Newsmax and likely is already competing to keep viewers from moving.

I don't use it myself so I wouldn't know, but I'm under the impression that Twitter would collapse without trump content. Otherwise they would've banned him for hate speech.

[LordMortis]

Just imagine if both Twitter and Fox turn away from the dark side before the election. Then imagine if some of the GOP follows their lead.

Nahh, not going to happen. But crazier things happen every day. Ann Coulter, anyone?

Twitter don't need the deplorables. Fox does, their viewers will turn to OANN and Newsmax and likely is already competing to keep viewers from moving.

I don't use it myself so I wouldn't know, but I'm under the impression that Twitter would collapse without trump content. Otherwise they would've banned him for hate speech.

I don't use it either. So rather than making assumptions Google says!!!

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/char ... g-expenses

Twitter operating expenses for the twelve months ending March 31, 2020 were $3.215B, a 19.41% increase year-over-year.

Google Twitter Revenue

3.46 billion
Twitter company information
In 2019, Twitter's annual revenue came to 3.46 billion U.S. dollars.May 4, 2020

I'm kinda shocked. 1) that their operating costs are so high. 2) that their profit margin is so low. I think of Twitter as #2 giant and their their ad revenues would be on a par with FB well above the others.

I'm kinda shocked you seem to be correct.

[Octavious]

Why are their costs so damn high? Are they using a live bird for every tweet? Seems kind of crazy.

[pr0ner]

Just imagine if both Twitter and Fox turn away from the dark side before the election. Then imagine if some of the GOP follows their lead.

Nahh, not going to happen. But crazier things happen every day. Ann Coulter, anyone?

Twitter don't need the deplorables. Fox does, their viewers will turn to OANN and Newsmax and likely is already competing to keep viewers from moving.

I don't use it myself so I wouldn't know, but I'm under the impression that Twitter would collapse without trump content. Otherwise they would've banned him for hate speech.

Twitter would be better off without Trump, to be honest.

It's also possible to curate your feed to be generally politics free if you want.

[stessier]

It's also possible to curate your feed to be generally politics free if you want.

Yeah, mine is almost entirely sports (I include 538 which has political statistics).

[Paingod]

It made me feel physically ill to hear this man masturbating himself over the 100,000 graves his incompetence helped fill.

[LawBeefaroni]

Why are their costs so damn high? Are they using a live bird for every tweet? Seems kind of crazy.

Total expenses were $3.2B.

Total operating expenses were $2.05B:

$930M Sales & Marketing
$736M R&D
$392M general administrative

Financials.


I know LMs article said "operating expenses" were $3.2B but that's total, not just operating.

[RunningMn9]

It's also possible to curate your feed to be generally politics free if you want.

Yeah, mine is almost entirely sports (I include 538 which has political statistics).

This only works if you NEVER click on a tweet to read replies. Once you do that, you’re infected with BS.

[stessier]

It's also possible to curate your feed to be generally politics free if you want.

Yeah, mine is almost entirely sports (I include 538 which has political statistics).

This only works if you NEVER click on a tweet to read replies. Once you do that, you’re infected with BS.

Why would one ever do that? I curate for the person sending the tweet - not what anyone else thinks.

[Skinypupy]

This all makes me realize how little I actually use Twitter functionality. I click on and read individual tweets all the time, but don't have any sort of feed set up, don't have an active account, never re-tweet or comment on anyone else's tweets, etc.

I'm a completely passive user of the service, at best, which works just fine for me. I info how and when I choose, without getting bombarded with other meaningless crap.

[Smoove_B]

Apparently I use Twitter wrong too. I just read Tweets. It's rare for me to open them up and view responses. For example:

NEW: White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has voted by mail in every Florida election she has participated in since 2010, according to state records.

McEnany has defended President Donald Trump's recent attacks on vote by mail.

[malchior]

This all makes me realize how little I actually use Twitter functionality. I click on and read individual tweets all the time, but don't have any sort of feed set up, don't have an active account, never re-tweet or comment on anyone else's tweets, etc.

I'm a completely passive user of the service, at best, which works just fine for me. I info how and when I choose, without getting bombarded with other meaningless crap.

Like anything it has various depths of engagement. It really is what you make of it. If you want to keep abreast of what's being talked about it, it's fine for that. If you want to wade in and get a temperature on the culture war, you can definitely do that. If you want to do deep data based sentiment analytics, it has a wonderful API for that. If you want to join a neo-Nazi movement and gear up to fight the bugaloo, twitter can get you on the way to that goal.

[Jeff V]

Apparently I use Twitter wrong too. I just read Tweets. It's rare for me to open them up and view responses. For example:

NEW: White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has voted by mail in every Florida election she has participated in since 2010, according to state records.

McEnany has defended President Donald Trump's recent attacks on vote by mail.

Sounds like someone is offering to be investigated for voter fraud to prove her monarch is good at his word.

[gameoverman]

The irony of the POTUS threatening action against a private company in the name of “free speech” might make my brain explode.

If Twitter is so awful and hostile to conservatives, then someone should probably make a “conservative Twitter” that allows people to spread their GOP viewpoints without fear of censorship. Oh wait, they did that and it was almost immediately overrun by Nazis (see Gab). Funny how that happens.

Even though this year has been crazy it still boggles my mind that we have a President who, while a deadly virus is spreading across the country, spends his time posting tweets. On top of that, they're deranged tweets. On top of that, he invokes the 'free speech' cry when the right to free speech is not relevant to this situation. It's the Inception of crazy times.

[Zaxxon]

The irony of the POTUS threatening action against a private company in the name of “free speech” might make my brain explode.

If Twitter is so awful and hostile to conservatives, then someone should probably make a “conservative Twitter” that allows people to spread their GOP viewpoints without fear of censorship. Oh wait, they did that and it was almost immediately overrun by Nazis (see Gab). Funny how that happens.

Even though this year has been crazy it still boggles my mind that we have a President who, while a deadly virus is spreading across the country, spends his time posting tweets. On top of that, they're deranged tweets. On top of that, he invokes the 'free speech' cry when the right to free speech is not relevant to this situation. It's the Inception of crazy times.

On top of that, he invokes free speech while simultaneously promising to squelch free speech.

[LordMortis]

On top of that, he invokes free speech while simultaneously promising to squelch free speech.

That was my only takeaway but then I'm really dense and forest through trees is difficult for me.


Actually I lied, I also took away that he managed that feat in under 600 characters.

Edit and now that you've force me. My third take way is this is an analog to one of those Mel Brooks-like jokes about the guy in power beating down the powerless while complaining about being oppressed. The idea that the President of the US can be deprived of his free speech while POTUS circa 2017 said of Kaepernick

“It was reported that NFL owners don’t want to pick him up because they don’t want to get a nasty tweet from Donald Trump,” Trump said. “Do you believe that? I just saw that. I just saw that.” He continued, “I said if I remember that one I’m going to report it to the people of Kentucky. They like it when people actually stand for the American flag.”

[TheMix]

I was amused... is that the right word?... that he chose to threaten Twitter... in a Tweet.

[Default]

On top of that, he invokes free speech while simultaneously promising to squelch free speech.

That was my only takeaway but then I'm really dense and forest through trees is difficult for me.


Actually I lied, I also took away that he managed that feat in under 600 characters.

Edit and now that you've force me. My third take way is this is an analog to one of those Mel Brooks-like jokes about the guy in power beating down the powerless while complaining about being oppressed. The idea that the President of the US can be deprived of his free speech while POTUS circa 2017 said of Kaepernick

“It was reported that NFL owners don’t want to pick him up because they don’t want to get a nasty tweet from Donald Trump,” Trump said. “Do you believe that? I just saw that. I just saw that.” He continued, “I said if I remember that one I’m going to report it to the people of Kentucky. They like it when people actually stand for the American flag.”

[Skinypupy]

I was amused... is that the right word?... that he chose to threaten Twitter... in a Tweet.

I made a similar observation recently when someone shared a rambling video about how YouTube was actively censoring conservative viewpoints...on YouTube.

They didn't appreciate that very much.

[LordMortis]

video

That wasn't quite what I was going for but the drifting to the left was a nice touch. History of the World is exactly where I assumed the bit I was in search of came from (as opposed Monty Python but that kept drowning out the bit I was trying to remember)

[Zaxxon]

Executive Order coming tomorrow re: Twitter. Should be... interesting, in a dumpster fire sort of way.

[LordMortis]

Tried to find what you are talking about in failed but I did see this bit Orwellian free speech one man one vote talk

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/sta ... 1310739456

Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen. We saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in 2016. We can’t let a more sophisticated version of that....

....happen again. Just like we can’t let large scale Mail-In Ballots take root in our Country. It would be a free for all on cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots. Whoever cheated the most would win. Likewise, Social Media. Clean up your act, NOW!!!!

Republicans feelings are hurt so the executive office must regulate or close down corporate speech provided platforms that hurt those republican feelings and we can't let people use sophisticated forms of voting because the federal government demonstrably can't regulate or close down corrupt practices. We need to run this country more like a corporation where deregulated free enterprise sorts out what is right rather than the mechanization of an incompetent and corrupt government.

[Zarathud]

I’m getting sick of whiny Republicans complaining about being persecuted and their feelings. Suck It Up, Hippies!

[Isgrimnur]

I believe that "snowflakes" is the preferred nomenclature.

[Zarathud]

I’m bringing back the Irony. Besides, don’t conservatives hate Hippies more than Snowflakes?

[malchior]

Uh oh! The WH is saying they'll be dropping an Executive Order on social media tomorrow. Maybe they'll ban him after all.

[Zarathud]

If Twitter deletes the Order then it didn’t exist. Winning!

[Skinypupy]

Uh oh! The WH is saying they'll be dropping an Executive Order on social media tomorrow. Maybe they'll ban him after all.

A bit more info (and lack thereof) here.

I expect this we be a completely unenforceable version of , "I, Donald Trump, I hereby decree that you big poopy-heads must stop being mean to me online immediately. If not, I will continue to whine like a child and say even more bad things about you. SO THERE!"

The social media companies will pay lip service to it, but will ultimately change nothing. And the MAGAs will wildly celebrate at how "strong" Trump is being in standing up for their values.

It's also worth noting that Twitter stock dropped 2.76 today, which could be part of the plan for his buddies as well. Threaten Twitter so the stock price drops, buy low, drop the whole thing, profit!