#trump blames everybody but himself

[tomorrowusa]

« [W]e face the unfortunate reality that we must be honest with the nation about: Donald Trump is unfit to lead during moments of crisis like this. Before victims have even been identified, Trump is blaming people with disabilities. He’s blaming the U.S. service members in the Blackhawk helicopter. He’s blaming hiring programs he can’t even name or offer examples of. The buck stops with him – yet he is failing to demonstrate his role as protector of the American people and head of our government. »

— Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois responding to Donald Trump's crazed rantings at a White House news conference after last week's air disaster at the Potomac River. From The Office of the Governor.

Donald Trump is unfit to be president. He's unfit to be a crossing guard, for that matter.

Trump never really grew up. He refuses to take responsibility for his actions. Nothing is EVER his fault – even when he is caught with his hand stuck in the cookie jar.

[thegaylink]

Biden and Harris shot themselves on the foot but sure the 500k people who voted Stein are to blame

Many things to work on here.

1. Stein is not the only 3rd party candidate.

All together, this amounts to 2,097,242 votes

2 million votes that were wasted on candidates that everybody knew wouldn't win. When we say every vote counts, this is why. They ADD UP. These numbers can change the course of an election, and they were tossed aside.

2. I never said 3rd party voters are the only ones at fault. If you chose not to vote, you are as much to blame as Trump supporters. Non-voters also make up an enormous number of people. Those kinds of numbers can change the course of an election, and they were discarded by people who chose to remain ignorant, uneducated, and uninvolved.

3. I assume you are the same person who sent me an anon message that says "genocide is bad" and YES. That's exactly what I said. Trump has been very clear about his plans for Gaza. He will not help them. He will continue to fund the IDF and support Isreal. He will help Putin invade even more European countries, and in doing so, he will fund the murders of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. I understand that Kamala Harris has contributed to the horrid deaths in Gaza, but the chances of getting a ceasefire/stopping support of Isreal were much better under her than Trump. If you seriously believe that voting 3rd party is going to help the people of Gaza, you are just as ignorant and uneducated as those who support the genocide.

4. Even with the genocides going on, the president's biggest loyalty should still be to the people of THIS country. They should be fighting for the rights, liberties, and happiness of the American people. Out of every candidate on the ballot, Harris has shown that she is loyal to America. She had worked in all 3 branches of the government, she has worked her way up and worked hard to get to where she is. She understands the struggles the average American faces. Trump is loyal to his own pocket, and that's it. He makes decisions not based on good values, but on how much money he's set to make. He is greedy in his professional and personal life. He takes from people over and over again, whether it's by taking their money, their trust, or their bodies. He grew up rich and stayed that way by running back to the comfort of his father so he can take more from him. He ran his business into the ground repeatedly, he ran his marriage into the ground, and he ran this country into the ground. He has no sense of loyalty. Not to his family, not to this country, and not to our people. He is loyal to himself and his wallet, and that's it. To see all of this evidence, these testaments to their character, these reflections of their values and morals, and still decide to use your vote for a candidate that you know will not be able to win even one state, even one county, shows where your loyalties lie. It is a testament to your character and a testament to your values. If you vote 3rd party, you do not value the people of this country. You want to be able to say you voted, to let people think that you used your power and your voice, while allowing your voice to be silenced. You want the praise from voting, but refuse to help. When you vote 3rd party, you prove your loyalties lie only to yourself, not to your community, and not to others. You are thinking only of your conscience, despite the fact that your poor choices will lead to thousands of deaths. You do it so you feel better when you lose, instead of fighting to win. Nobody will never agree with everything a candidate believes in, but elections are not for you to elect someone just like you, they are to elect someone who will lead the country with its people in mind, with loyalties to their people. If you vote 3rd party, you have failed at your role in this election.

[thebonesofhoudini]

MAGA is dying. Trump doesn't have the juice anymore. His rallies are decreasing in attendance with many empty seats available. Even some of his die hard supporters have had enough of his whining and victim complex.

He has no plans to improve American life. No talks about creating jobs, investing in fixing infrastructure, roads, highways, no talks about making Healthcare affordable, none of that.

When Donald loses in November, he's taking the reputation of the GOP down with it.

I really don't see him winning at this point. I don't even think he cares anymore about winning this election.

And when he loses, he's going to blame everybody except himself.

[jeannereames]

Your top 5 Alexander the Great moments?

Top Five Alexander Moments

One issue with answering this is to figure out what events actually happened, especially when it comes to anecdotes! Here are four I find either significant to understanding his charisma and/or which explain how he functioned and why he was successful, plus one I like just because I’m a horse girl.

1) To my mind, the event that best illustrates why his men followed him to the edge of their known world occurred in the Gedrosian Desert. While I’m a bit dubious that this trek was as bad as it’s made out to be (reasons exist for exaggerating), it was still baaaad. One story relates that some of his men found some brackish water in a sad little excuse for a spring, gathered it in a helm, and brought it to him. Given his poor physical condition after the Malian siege wound, he no doubt needed it badly. He thanked them (most sincerely), then carried it out where all (or at least a lot) of his men could see, raised it overhead, and announced that until all of them could drink, he wouldn’t. Then he poured it onto the rocky ground.

That gesture exemplified his charisma. And it absolutely is not something the likes of a Donald tRump could even imagine doing—nor most dictators, tbh. They’d be blaming everybody else and calling for heads while drinking Diet Coke, not suffering alongside their people.

This wasn’t an isolated event of that type. While he almost certainly didn’t have time to engage along with his soldiers in every project, we’re told he would drop in from time-to-time, to inspire them and to offer a little friendly competition.

He also dressed like his men for everyday activities, especially early in the campaign. As time went on, some sources say he inserted more distance—probably necessary as his duties exploded—but he still seems to have found time to “just hang out” with his Macedonians on occasion. The claims that he was too high and mighty to do so appears to have been exaggeration (as such accusations often are) in order to forward a narrative that he was “going Asian.” Troop resentment over court changes was very genuine—I don’t want to underplay it (especially as I’ve written about it in a few chapters in this), but it tended to boil up during certain periods/events, then die back again. Alexander was trying to walk a very fine line of incorporating the conquered while not ticking off his own people.

2) Reportedly, he once threw a man out of line because he hadn’t bothered to secure the chin strap on his helm. I pick this one because it tells me a whole lot about how he saw himself as a commander, and what he expected of his men (and why he tended to consistently win).

On the surface, his reaction seems almost petty. It’s precisely the sort of mistake students whine about when professors ding them for it. It’s just a chin strap! I’d have tightened it before I went into battle! (It’s just a few typos; you knew what I meant! Or, Why does everything in the bibliography have to be exactly matching in style? Who cares? What a stupid thing to obsess about!) These objections are all of a piece. First, they’re lazy, and second, they indicate a disconcern with details. In battle, such disconcern can get a person killed. And on a larger scale, for a general, such disconcern loses battles.

One of the striking aspects of Alexander’s military operations was just how well his logistics worked. Consistently. We hear little about them precisely because they rarely fail. Food and water was there when they needed it, as were arrow replacements, wood to repair the spears, wool and leather for clothes and shoes, canvas for tents, etc., etc. All those little niggling (boring) details. If these are missing, soldiers become upset (and don’t fight well). Starting with Philip, the Macedonian military was a well-oiled machine. That’s WHY Gedrosia was such a shock: the logistics collapsed. Contra some historians, he did not do it to “punish” his men, nor to best Cyrus.* He had a sound reason—to scout a trade route.

Alexander understood that details matter. It starts with a loose chinstrap. (Or an unplanned-for storm and rebellion in his rear.) Everything else can unravel from that.

3) Alexander sends Hephaistion a little dish of small fish (probably smelts). He also helps an officer secure the lady of his dreams. And writes another on assignment (away from the army) that a mutual friend is recovering from an illness. While technically three “moments,” these are all of a piece. Alexander knows his men, and is concerned not only for their physical well-being, but also their mental state: that they’re happy. Granted, these are all elite officers, but it suggests he’s paying attention to people. I’ve always assumed he sent Hephaistion the fish because they were his friend’s favorite, and/or they were a special treat and he wanted to share. That he didn’t punish an officer for going AWOL to chase the mistress he wanted but offered advice, and even assistance, on how to court and secure her suggests the same care.

I don’t want to take away from what appears to be his serious anger management problems(!), but little details like those above strike me as the likeable side of Alexander—why his men were so devoted to him.

4) Then we have the encounter with Timokleia after the siege of Thebes. While probably a bit too precious to have occurred exactly as related, I think it may still hold a kernel of truth.

Alexander had a reputation of chivalry towards his (highborn) female captives. If some of that was likely either propaganda from his own time or philhellenic whitewashing later by Second Sophistic authors such as Plutarch (and Arrian), poor treatment of women is not something we hear attributed to him.

Ergo, while the meeting was probably doctored for a moral tail, he may well have freed Timokleia as an act of clemency to put a better face on a shocking destruction he knew wouldn’t sit well with the rest of Greece—who he both wanted to cow yet earn support from. (A difficult balancing act.) Also, if Timokleia hadn’t been high-born, she’d probably have been hauled off to one of the prisoner cages with little fanfare.

Nonetheless, I find his actions surprising given the casual misogyny of his era. If we can take the bare bones of the story as true, and it’s not all invented, Timokleia was raped as a matter of course during the sacking of Thebes, then managed to trick her rapist and kill him by pushing him down a well and dropping rocks on him. I assume this happened when his men weren’t there, but they found out soon enough and hauled her in front of Alexander to be punished for killing an officer. To the surprise of all, Alexander decided the man had earned it and freed Timokleia. One might be inclined to call this overly sentimental, but….

There’s a similar story that occurred much later in the Levant, when two of Parmenion’s men seduced/(raped?) the mistresses/wives of some mercenaries. Alexander instructed Parmenion to kill the Macedonians if they were found to be guilty.

In both cases, we have an affront against (respectable) women. In the latter case, Alexander was (no doubt) working to avoid conflict between hired soldiers and his own men, who—in typical Greek fashion—would have looked down on mercenaries as a matter of course. Some sort of conflict between Macedonians and Greek mercenaries up in Thrace had almost got Alexander’s father killed. Alexander saved him. No doubt that was on Alexander’s mind here.

Yet what both events illuminate is a willingness on Alexander’s part to punish his own men for affronts to honor/timē that involved women. Yes, this is clearly about discipline. But it also shows an unusual sensitivity to sex crimes in warfare: actions that would normally fall under the excuse of “boys will be boys” (especially when their blood is up).

I doubt he’d have felt the same about slaves or prostitutes; he was still a product of his time. Yet without overlooking his violence—sometimes extreme (the genocide of the Branchidai, for instance)—I find his reaction in these cases to be evidence of an atypical sympathy for women that I’d like to think isn’t wholly an invention of later Roman authors. And just might show the influence of his mother and sisters.

5) Last… the Boukephalas story…because who doesn’t love a good “a boy and his horse” tale? Obviously the Plutarchian version is tweaked to reflect that author’s later concern to contrast the Macedonian “barbarian” Philip with the properly Hellenized Alexander. Ignore the editorializing remarks, especially the “find a kingdom big enough for you” nonsense.

But the bare bones of the story seem likely: unmanageable horse, cocky kid, bet with dad, gotcha moment. You can imagine this was an anecdote Alexander retold a time or three, or twenty.

——

* His attempts to copy Cyrus may be imposition by later writers. In his own day, he may have cared more about the first Darius, for reasons Jenn Finn is going to explain in a forthcoming, very good article on the burning of Thebes and Persepolis.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Daniel Cox at American Storylines:

Watching the clips from Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, what struck me more than anything else is how utterly unrecognizable the Republican Party has become under Trump. A party that once stressed the importance of honesty and integrity is gone. The rally speakers engaged in unrestrained vitriol and bigotry.  It’s not all happening on stage either.  The Washington Post interviewed Craig Dumas, a T-shirt vendor at one of Trump’s campaign events. His best seller? “Say No to the Hoe.” Variations of this message can be found at Trump rallies around the country. When the Post reporters talked with Brian Howard, a Trump rally-attendee, about his “Joe and the Hoe Gotta Go” T-shirt, he replied: “We can joke. We can wear crude shirts. Everybody here is having a good time.” 

Hilarious.  How much is Trump to blame for the type of nasty, derogatory rhetoric that has become a mainstay of American politics? I would argue more than a little.   But worse than the normalization of casual cruelty is the way Trump has subverted the importance of character in politics. In our late summer poll, we found that 44 percent of Americans believe he committed sexual assault. A Marquette Law School poll conducted over the summer found that 62 percent of voters believe Trump is corrupt. Only 41 percent of voters believe Trump could be described as honest and trustworthy. Even a quarter of Republicans do not believe Trump is honest.  Most Americans who are supporting Trump recognize that he has deep personality flaws, that he is not a good role model. The central animating question of the Trump era has always been: How can so many Americans support Trump for the country’s highest office when so many Americans have such a low opinion of his character? 

All Politicians Are Corrupt and Dishonest 

From the very beginning of Trump’s political career, he has sought to position himself as a brash outsider against a corrupt, effete establishment. At the same time, he never promised to restore honor and dignity to the presidency. Rather, he promised to wade into the swamp and fight dirty. Plenty of Americans were receptive to the message.  It’s not hard to see why.  Trust in government has plummeted over the past few decades. Part of the reason this happened is that Americans increasingly view their elected leaders as unethical. This is a fairly recent phenomenon. Twenty years ago, only about one in four Americans rated the honesty of members of Congress as low or very low. Most Americans rated the honesty of their elected officials as average, and one in five rated it as above average. Today, most Americans do not believe members of Congress are honest or ethical. In 2023, seventy percent of the public rated the honesty and integrity of congressmembers as low or very low. That’s a massive change and it has profound implications on the voting decisions Americans make. If elected officials are viewed as universally dishonest, then integrity is no longer a useful metric in assessing their worthiness for public office. 

Who benefits the most from this? The candidates who are most ethically compromised. Officials who engage in the most egregious acts of public corruption. 

[...]

Polarized Voters Want Pugilistic Politicians 

It's been well documented that Americans have become more polarized over the past couple decades. This has been especially evident in the negative views partisans have about those across the aisle—a phenomenon political scientists define as affective polarization. Republicans and Democrats have come to dislike each other much more in the modern era.  A couple years ago I wrote about the dramatic change occurring among partisans during the Trump presidency. Republicans and Democrats not only believed their opponents were simply wrong or misguided, but that they presented a threat to the nation. In 2017, only about half of Democrats and Republicans believed their opposition represented a threat to the country—a worryingly high number. By 2020, three-quarters of Republicans and nearly two-thirds of Democrats said the other side posed a threat to the country. 

More recent polling suggests things may be getting worse. A new poll by Johns Hopkins University found that nearly half of Republicans and Democrats believe the opposing party is “downright evil.” And a recent NBC News survey found that 8 in 10 Democrats and Republicans said their opponents are so dangerous they pose a threat that would destroy America as we know it.  The growing hostility that partisans feel towards their opponents has altered the way voters respond to deficiencies in their party’s candidates. As partisan animosity toward their political opponents grows, Democrats and Republicans become less concerned about the behavior of their own leaders. It becomes easier to overlook disqualifying attributes, because the political alternative is always worse.   It has also led partisans to prioritize candidates who would go after their opponents. If character no longer matters amidst heightened partisan hostilities, an ability and willingness to destroy the other side does. Trump excels at this type of combative politics. He relishes it. 

The real tragedy is that more Americans have come to believe that honesty and integrity don’t matter. Trump has convinced many Americans that being a good guy in politics is not only unnecessary, but undesirable. It’s a sign of weakness or capitulation. An unsurprising result is that more Americans discount a candidate’s character when making political choices. In 2011 most Americans believed that elected officials who engaged in immoral acts in their personal lives would not behave ethically in carrying out their public duties. Now, most Americans believe the opposite. The shift is far more pronounced among Republicans, but it’s not exclusive to them.   Whether he wins or loses, Trump’s legacy will be forever wrapped up in his bizarre, belittling and bullying behavior, and how he transformed our expectations for political leaders. When Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic, talked with Jared Kushner about Trump’s behavior, he received a startling reply. “No one can go as low as the president,” Kushner said. “You shouldn’t even try.” It was a compliment. 

Daniel Cox of American Storylines wrote a stark reminder that character and morals were jettisoned with the rise of Donald Trump in GOP politics.

[i-turn-characters-2-warrior-cats]

maxo and slime from the qsmp should become cats :3

Yes, you're right. They should.

I'll do this as a duo request!

So, first up, names.

For Slimecicle....*drumroll*.....

Muddrift, Oozemuck, Slimefloat, Swamptom, and so on, and so on....

His original name is actually Muddrift, but he has about ten different nicknames for himself that he uses often, everybody else uses often, and he knows if it has some variation of sludge and some variation of floating or drifting in it then he needs to pay attention. Mud because...slime...and drift because that's what he did for a long time after Juanaflippa.

For Maxiumus, I originally was going to go for an english translated name, but I ended up with Mirargarre, a combination of the spanish words for "too look" and "grip" I think. For english version, we can just use Lookingclaw. Because Maxo is looking for things he lost, but at the same time blames himself for loosing his grip.

Not much for backstory, I'm afraid. Most of the stuff in the qsmp I would need to change gets cut out, because they would be too difficult to write in as a warrior cats thing or an oc warrior cats thing.

StarlightClan, their version of the federation, is what happens when spirits interfere with life. Instead of freezing in ice, kidnappings are done by trapping the living in StarlightClan.

The eggs are all the young of another species! Juanaflippa is an african golden cat, and q!Trump is a southern tiger cat.

[jonostroveart]

TRIGGERED

Kristi Noem is still pushing her book hard and she continues to press the rationale for shooting dogs. She also said that the passage in the book where she describes in detail her meeting with Kim Jong Un (never happened) was there somehow by mistake, letting her editor take the fall. However, she said “When I became aware of that, we changed the content…” A very interesting claim, since she is the reader on the audio edition of her book “No Going Back.” You’d think there would be no going forward for her in her quest to be Trump’s running mate, but her efforts to lie, deflect and blame everybody else for her problems seem to be as shameless as Mango Mussolini himself.

[the-firebird69]

This is what these retards do to see if they have power and they have tried several takes before you see this it was sick of these dumb assholes it's so based and so ridiculous I don't want them here anymore what to say after and when people look at us ridiculous I mean they're disgusting. There's a lot more concrete stuff to reference but this is terrible terrible behavior I want them out of here they're all prima Madonna's and they don't control anything

You don't have any of our sons money or daughters money in the cities you're ridiculous we're talking about the Mac money can you get a clue you don't have anything in there it's a massively valuable cuz you can't get it there this is disgusting so freaking lame going after each other I just shut up and fight each other there's nothing to it

Thor Freya

I said this in the mall these people are s*** I'm from the other side and you're fighting the death out there I can't even hear them bothering me at all or see it and they're not really and like a year ago it would be a horror show it's not because we do stuff it's because they're freaking strange we're killing you and we're right over there and it's okay and my friend says no my grandson in-law says shut up Ken they're doing that because I said your Harrison Ford and you don't want to do it that that's happening out there so I say this it was only a little bit mild but you're right he's saying stuff but it's true I don't feel like doing it but boy this guy Trump is getting to me and people are not stopping him they're encouraging him to get me mad and they might be the ones in the past and they're saying no you read up on it we read up on it I said how you going to get out of the way of what looks like the entire South and he says it looks like we're fighting up north so I looked it up and it looks like I go down the East Coast until only a couple Southern States when one of them you can't access and he says that doesn't mean much and it's true I'll have to tell you something this movie was disturbing it seems like our people doing it but we don't seem to be that aggressive and for small ships maybe so I looked at where and is the refinery it looks like it's gets destroyed and I started wondering tell me if have any places to go to and why would he do that. And it then occurred to me that he is a maniac but yeah it doesn't make sense It was kind of upsetting watching this movie and seeing my friend get disturbed my grandson that is in law and watching them not get disturbed much. A harrowing feeling came over me that these people are dog s*** and their brainwashed in some way or worse and I heard you ask Max for a scan and he's like what is wrong and he said they're just sitting there like I'm nothing at all that's not right they should be at least murmuring they do it all day long and he said these people are disgustingly stupid and want you to turn into Ulysses as Grant and destroy them and I found it to be horrible horrifying it might be what it is so they research it that's us being held and they were saying nasty things when they were separated I got an eye full of it from that moron who's at the Greek place he would not leave me alone and he walked by three times and is bothering us so I figured out he's this a****** bus driver and he is beating the s*** out of himself too and everybody here is sicker than a dog I don't know what to say this is a terrible situation and we seem to be making it worse so we researched what was going on and we don't think it's us doing this tornado stuff and he thought about it for a minute this guy is trying to kidnap this guy these people are always in the way and it looks like he's trying to kill him and blame our friend and that probably was what it was it's Tommy F again

Ken

You sure don't think there's any price for this I got to tell you something I'm really mad already and my friend doesn't give a s*** I'm going to be really dead soon yeah we get killed now doing the stuff but I'll tell you why you're so sick if you want to die five times that's fine you've already had two coming to you see what you want and get the f*** out of here take your douchebag with you thanks for the win by the way you're a moron if you can't figure it out and certainly understand what you're saying I'm not helping anybody doing it and I'm not helping my bothering him and harassing and I'm going down because of it but I'm doing doesn't make sense and I'm not stopping apparently and soon I'll be out of here and gone and what he says is right we're not in control of ourselves we don't run this machine we're not running any kind of plane we're a bunch of jackasses and we need out we really don't belong here and I agree this is sucky or Rooney tons of stuff as a group as warlock

Tommy f

What our friend says is who gives a s*** we can conjure him he's going to talk smack that's fine he's telling us what he's up to he's a little baby and what is this guy suck he is such a loser why the f*** would you do that out there you idiot these people hate you already and going out and destroying historical places and you think you're going to get rewarded

Mac daddy

I have reasons for doing it and it's a small town with a small area they're always happy but really they pushed me out of there and we have a small presence and he says everyone's pushed out of there because you're running around trying to attack my people so you're blaming them and ruining them is not what it looks like

Tommy f

The other bothering us when you're stupid s*** you're attacking these people and a couple other groups of idiots and you are trying to attack the general populace and use them as an excuse when they offer reprisal and you tried to threaten us and there's a few groups out there doing that but you seem to be the predominant loser. And we are going to mess you up and we're going to post this and it will mess you up naturally

Thor Freya

Olympus

Habilidades sobrehumanas:

[the-firebird69]

Fantastic Four First Steps FULL PLOT LEAK! Multiverse, Galactus, Origin ...

You want to be screaming and evil people you should have checked the price before you purchased. The price is unbearably high and you are very delusional people you get big you get very small you're in space surviving all that stuff doesn't make sense to most people and Trump thinks he's threatening everybody for it terrific. He is but it's not what he's threatening for that he's getting and you guys don't get it for some reason and you can see it happening in the movies and you should get it but you don't and I understand what you're saying you feel like you don't have a chance you're fighting yourself you can't stop doing it anyone after the Mac proper and that's what you're doing and they're going after you a whole bunch of different ways I got to take this opportunity to blame the clans I'm not sure how I'm going to do that right. Your kids go up there with you there's a new round of kids each time and you think you defeat them or something or is it there not making it can you bring up an extra round of higher-ups usually they check out like in the hospital near me and they are revived to do the job. The job is sick some of them understand it it's not real complicated it's in all the comic books. A lot of them. You are aware that there are actual cages they come armored they have weapon rebuilt in and you're seeing some of it but you're not that knowledgeable of a people and I'm talking about the warlock and when you're working with the clans per se they have a tendency to use you not really sure how to pose this pretty big and what you're doing to me is illegal all day and night so I decided to fight fire with fire and stick it all the way up there so enjoy your day knowing what I told you stupid f****** assholes

Zues

Yeah what he said LOL

Hera

Like a huge black lady yes. We agree when he told them is horrific and they should shut up and they might but we don't think so in the same all sorts of garbage they're saying all sorts of garbage and then really they need to be shut down and the Mac proper will see it as an emergency yes

Gu Oya

And they're the hand of God and it's sacrilege and we get it it seems to be bja telling them off you might even do it he might have been doing it he says no but yeah he's up there doing it in pisses his pants and such when people talk about it

Anthony Hopkins and we're going to have a trial isn't there too much about it and he is doing it to protect himself and then you guys started abusing him and it and apparently he's got you doing things somehow and for reasons that are starting to make sense and the clans might be involved and they have a possibly a huge planet so we want to hear what happened there

Oops ok and now for this guy and he said shut up you nothing you don't control those creatures you piece of s*** and I sort of get it it says you should stage six cancer is what you have it doesn't go away when the creature gets huge so I sort of get this this is not going to be good and we get big it might not be us getting big we don't even know it and we look like us that might also be very bad

Trump

You stupid s*** you don't understand how that happens well I get it and I have to stop doing it yeah he's on his own and stuff he says not really you do actually get big and your kids and they get well he's going to post a video

Tommy f

Olympus

[mongowheelie]

Trump Blames Everybody but Himself

Source: The Atlantic

Trump Blames Everybody but Himself

Source: The Atlantic

https://share.newsbreak.com/8qhco8gs

He has done this his whole career! Why is it such a surprise to everyone?

[sublimeobservationarcade]

The Truth Is Too Boring

The truth is that governing is a mixture of boring details and long hours - it essentially involves a lot of deal making. The truth is too boring. To engage the voting public in the political system those charged with the task make up a bunch of contentious stories. They craft a narrative where a group of people are to blame for many of the frustrations that the dominant cohort experience in their lives. Exaggeration is the order of the day when it comes to pinning the tail on the donkey or scapegoat. Emotive issues are called upon to rile up sections of the electorate. Gay people or the more collectively referred LGBTQIA are often in the crosshairs of the conservative minded parties. Gender identity and sexual preference are Rubicon’s not to be crossed in the minds of many. Therefore, these folk get the blame morally and, also, economically because diversity costs money according to the straight and narrow batting for the social conservatives. This all appeals to the very un-Christian like hardline Christian groups who maintain an exclusive door policy as to who gets into their idea of heaven. Photo by Element5 Digital on Pexels.com

Confabulation, Lies & Mistruths

The stories inflaming political opponents in the US and elsewhere have grown legs of their own thanks to fear mongers like Fox News. Polarization is so extreme now everybody has their own media networks to watch and social media platforms to share on. Diversity is not only on the nose for those on the right but any diversity of views is too. Getting folks riled up is the click baiting policies of all media shows and channels. Rupert Murdoch told the court in Fox New’s recent libellous loss for $700 million that he was neither red nor blue but motivated by green, as in greenbacks. This was both true and false, as Murdoch is pandering to the right wing audience for his advertising revenue. The free speech first amendment malarkey means that there are no standards of reporting in the American media, especially in the political sphere. Donald Trump can continue to spout The Big Lie despite numerous judicial and private enquiries finding no evidence for substantial voter or election fraud in the 2020 presidential election. This is another manufactured narrative employed by the GOP in their fund raising and political campaigns. Trump portrays himself as this celebrated victim in direct contradiction of what really happened – he lost fair and square. Polarization A Product Of Political Grievance Narratives The presentation of politics in America is so far from the reality of governing that it bears no resemblance to anything like the facts of the matter. The facts have gone out the window and we are left with this crazy alternate universe where up is down and black is white. A considerable number of Americans obviously love this chaotic piss and wind. Hot air is the Trump fare and he pumps it out on the hour day after day. President Joe Biden is so boring in comparison and the celebrity driven population want more Trump drama to fill their f***** up lives with entertainment. I mean you have a country where mass murdering children via gun violence committed at schools is almost a daily occurrence. Still, the nation’s elected representatives are unwilling or unable to do anything to stop it. Health in the US is run on a for profit basis with hospitals and medical insurance at the mercy of rapacious pharmaceutical corporations and private equity funds. They tell this neoliberal story about the market being more efficient but the cost of medicine in the US is more expensive than anywhere else by miles. Canada, the UK, and Australia provide far better health care at minimal cost to the user. Higher education in America costs an arm and a leg, as student loans are around $1.7 trillion. “The impact is broad. About 12% of the US population has student loans, over 43 million Americans hold a collective $1.7tn in debt. The youngest borrowers have just graduated from college and some of the oldest have retired with student loans. Many parents who took out loans to pay for their children’s education are also still burdened by debt.” - (https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/sep/06/us-student-loan-repayment-start-impact-debt) This idea that you can make money out of every aspect of life – the financialization of all things- is the burden that weighs so heavily on so many ordinary Americans. The GOP push this unfettered market BS to the detriment of so many lives. What kind of country makes getting medical care so expensive that it frequently bankrupts ordinary working Americans! Photo by Ogo Johnson on Pexels.com The racist nature of modern America was exposed during the Covid pandemic crisis. Nearly a million Americans died on Trump’s watch in the wealthiest nation on the planet. A large number of these folk were African Americans, as a racist white medical edifice failed those on the fringes of society. Black Americans have been locked out of the professions by institutional racism in education and within the medical bodies and boards. “Dr. Uche Blackstock: I'm going to say that many more barriers should have fallen since our mom graduated from medical school. Only about 6 percent of physicians are Black; 3 percent are Black women. So, we still are quite rare, and we think about, why it is that the case is, right, when we know that we are very able and competent to do this work? And so it's a tremendous amount of work needs to be done. I think, if our mother were still here, I think she would very much agree, and still be still be working on all of the same efforts that we are.” - (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/twin-doctors-combat-systemic-racism-and-lack-of-access-in-healthcare) This is not because African Americans don’t work hard enough or aren’t smart enough, it is because of structural barriers erected to limit their access to opportunity. Photo by CARLOSCRUZ ARTEGRAFIA on Pexels.com Dealing The Dirt On Diversity Still, we are hearing the GOP led narrative about diversity programs favouring underserving black people at the expense of whites. The confabulation and connivance of the conservative media, like Fox News, in promoting lies and distortions of the truth is paramount here. SCOTUS have ruled against diversity entrance programs for universities. This is especially galling when you consider that Justice Clarence Thomas was a beneficiary of such programs. Billionaires like Harlan Crow seem to have bought Thomas, as the evidence published by ProPublica indicates. “Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's name is once again in the headlines with Texas real estate magnate Harlan Crow, this time over a ProPublica investigation that found Crow paid private boarding school tuition for Thomas's grandnephew. Previous reporting by ProPublica in the last month has revealed a real estate deal and years of luxury travel that Clarence Thomas accepted but failed to disclose from Crow. “ - (https://www.npr.org/2023/05/04/1174083586/a-look-at-harlan-crow-the-billionaire-central-in-clarence-thomas-controversies) Selling out your skin and selling out your identity can be quite lucrative in the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump at the 101st by U.S. Department of Agriculture is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0 The truth is too boring to tell in the political sphere, apparently. We are much more likely to engage if we are told a story. Made up narratives about grievance and injustice are much more juicy to spin. The immigrants are pouring into the country and poisoning the bloodstream of the nation. What a load of rubbish! Blaming the foreigners is an oldie but a goody. Focusing voter hate on those lower down on the wealth ladder like refugees and immigrants is smart politics. Directing the blame upon those not in any position to fight back appeals to the cowardly sensibilities of cheap bullies. Build a wall. Trump had 4 years last term to build that wall and didn’t, why? Because he is a BS merchant and doesn’t really want solutions. He wants the imaginary problems to always be there. Dictators stage manage crises to keep the masses on edge and a police state on red alert. Look at Putin’s Russia for a view into a Trump second term. Do you really think that Trump will ever relinquish power after what happened on January 6th  if elected? The bankers and money men will vote for Trump because they want lower taxes and potentially greater profitability. Big business backed Hitler in Germany in the 1930’s. Americans are endlessly encouraged to buy stuff. Will they buy the GOP crap about wokeness and liberal lefties damaging the fabric of the nation? Biden has brought America back from the inflationary economic shores of recession and restored market confidence. He might be boring but he has steered the nation toward better times. Will America really embrace the chaos of Trump once again? I doubt it. Politics feeds on stories and fear mongering only works for so long before the banality of reality stands up. Bill Clinton famously said, “it’s the economy, stupid.” Photo by Alexas Fotos on Pexels.com The orange Jesus with his fake tan painted on looks like an illustration from a comic book. Electing a cartoon character for president is not going to do anyone any favours. Has America so lost contact with reality that it will install a dangerous buffoon. The Germans thought Adolf Hitler was a bit of a joke in the early 1930’s and those in the establishment thought that they would be able to control him. Plenty of domestic violence victims were attracted to their sexual partners for their ability to make them laugh – they soon experienced the other side of that charming characteristic. The political system may seem like a circus but a clown is not the best candidate for president. Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Money Matters: Navigating Credit, Debt, and Financial Freedom.  ©MidasWord Read the full article

[tomorrowusa]

Dr. Anthony Fauci voluntarily testified before a House committee and debunked MAGA Republican conspiracy theories regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.

While Donald Trump and his lickspittles were telling Americans to drink bleach, take useless malaria pills, stick ultraviolet lights up their butts, and eat horse paste, Dr. Fauci headed an effort to develop vaccines for COVID-19.

A reminder to people with short memories who view the Trump administration as some sort of bucolic paradise: The last quarter of that administration included the worst government response to an infectious disease outbreak since 1920. Trumpsters who want us to ignore Trump's horribly botched response to the pandemic are like cruise-liner enthusiasts who want us to ignore the last 2% of the voyage of the Titanic.

Economic activity ground to a halt in 2020 as the US slid into a recession. I took this picture of a sign at a dollar store which had been completely closed for almost two months.

The whole Trump clan was disdainful of the sacrifices hundreds of millions of Americans were making.

Why has the U.S. COVID-19 response been so bad? Jared Kushner, Vanity Fair suggests.

At Times Square Jared and Ivanka's contemptuousness was made into an ad before Election Day.

If you are looking for the Original Sin of Trump's pandemic response, it was on January 22nd when he basically told CNBC's Joe Kernen that COVID-19 was nothing to worry about.

Of course it wasn't "just fine".

Trump did not declare a state of emergency for seven weeks. That gave the virus plenty of time for it to spread throughout the US.

Republicans know that their Dear Leader totally mishandled the pandemic response. That's why they repeatedly try to make Dr. Fauci a type of scapegoat for Trump's horrendous incompetence. Dr. Fauci has spent his entire career fighting disease. Donald Trump has spent his entire career narcissistically promoting himself.

Harry Truman had a sign on his desk saying: "The Buck Stops Here!" If Trump had a sign on his Oval Office desk (which he seldom used except for photo ops) it would be: "It's Everybody's Fault But Mine!"

Don't be hesitant to remind people of how awful 2020 was. And point the finger of blame at the orange blob who was responsible for the catastrophe.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

As the looming shutdown goes, it’s a minor thing, especially when you factor in how many members of today’s Congress are millionaires, but of course their paychecks are protected.  The Constitution does it for both the Congress and the President.  Article I, Section 6 states, “The Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the treasury of the United States.”  Article II, Section 1, similarly guarantees that the President will be paid:  “The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected.”

Everybody else who gets a federal paycheck is shit out of luck.

That means that the approximately 150,000 Virginians who work for the federal government will lose their paychecks, too, and you have to wonder why Congressional Republicans, especially Speaker Kevin McCarthy, don’t appear to have factored that into their calculations over whether to turn off the federal spigot at the end of this week.  Every elective state office in Virginia comes up for election next month, and if past is prologue, that does not auger well for Republicans.  After the shutdown in 2013, Governor Terry McCauliffe and other Democrats won their races when Republicans were blamed for that debacle.  The current Virginia governor, Glenn “Check Out My Monogrammed Fleece Vest” Youngkin, has promised to pass limitations on abortion if he is reelected and Republicans take the state house and senate.  That promise alone is going to hurt Republicans next month, and a government shutdown might just bury them.

But Virginia politics isn’t all that’s on the chopping block for Republicans if the radical Freedom Caucus goes through with its threat to close down the government over spending demands that include cutting out U.S. funding for Ukraine’s war of survival against Vladimir Putin’s Russia.  Goldman Sachs has said that a shutdown of the government similar to the 35-day shutdown under Trump that ran from late 2018 into 2019 would take a full percentage point off Gross Domestic Product.  That may sound like a technical detail, but it would have dire effects on the national economy and lives of citizens, driving up costs of lending, forcing some small businesses to close, and once again, rattling credit markets around the world. 

House conservatives have already blocked the defense spending bill twice.  Now they have their hero, Donald Trump, egging them on.  Trump has several things in mind in his backing of Republicans’ shut down fever, and as ever, his own future is among them.  Last week on Truth Social, Trump reminded them that “This is the last chance to defund these political prosecutions against me and other Patriots” (capitalization provided by himself).  Yesterday, Trump all-capped “UNLESS YOU GET EVERYTHING, SHUT IT DOWN!”  Then he all-capped Mitch McConnell: “Close the border, stop the weaponization of ‘Justice,” and End Election Interference – WE MUST HAVE HONEST ELECTIONS.  Are you listening, Mitch McConnell, the weakest, dumbest, and most conflicted “Leader” in U.S. Senate history?  HE’S ALREADY GIVEN THE DEMOCRATS EVERYTHING, THEY CAN’T BELIEVE HOW LUCKY THEY GOT. WE NEED NEW, & REAL, REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE, NOT A CLONE OF MITCH, & WE NEED IT NOW!!!” 

The Atlantic reported today that Democrats and Republicans in congress agree that the chances of a shutdown are 90 percent, and with Kevin McCarthy holding all the cards, I’d say they’re off by 10 percent.  The House is scheduled to hold votes on rules to advance four spending bills involving the Departments of State, Homeland Security, Defense, and Agriculture – funding the Republican Party has rubber stamped a zillion times over the years.  Passage of these rules bills would open the door to a continuing resolution that would fund the government for a period of time, a month has been mentioned, for negotiations on the overall budget.  But several far-right Republicans in the House have said they will vote against a continuing resolution, including Marjorie Taylor Greene, mentioned as something of a lieutenant in what’s left of McCarthy’s rule, because of funding in the continuing resolution for $300 million to help Ukraine.

Ukraine is fighting the first land war in Europe since World War II against an enemy that has announced aims to expand its sphere of influence back into countries it controlled as the Soviet Union.  The war has cost Ukraine more than 100,000 of its citizens so far.  Just to put that in perspective, it is more than this country lost in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan together.  This fact seems to mean nothing to Greene and her buddies on the Right.

All McCarthy would have to do to keep the government open is to strike a deal with Democrats, but passage of a bipartisan bill of any kind would spell the end of McCarthy’s time as Speaker of the House.

They used to call this kind of thing brinksmanship.  That’s not what it is.  It’s insurrection-by-vote, and nobody knows this better than the man who fomented the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to keep himself in the White House.  Trump made it clear back then that he would take the whole thing down if he had to, and he’s doing it again with the entire Republican Party behind him.  Every single vote in the House and Senate, every single vote in Virginia in November, and every single vote in November of 2024 is a vote to defend our democracy.  That’s how we have to think about these elections.  Every. Vote. Counts. 

[linuseer]

thanks for the additional information and i'd like to add that 1) he's not subtle about his opinions and we would have heard about any kind of trans criticism directly from him on stage, multiple times and in elaborate ways like we have with his opinion of trump and catholicism and the less bad word, 2) he slipped up on everybody's in LA calling mae martin the wrong pronoun, immediately corrected himself and went on without a fuss. how transphobic of him /s

an additional kinda off-topic thing i'd like to say is that comedians crying about wokeness are the weaker ones on stage. john mulaney's opinion that comedians have authority by being the person on the stage in control of the room comes from him being able to have and do that in the first place. As of now, all the comedians i've seen seriously crying about political correctness and blaming it for their lack of success are people i'd never heard of before, without strong bits and stuck in open mics, or people already in a decline.

i'd made a reblog of another post but i might as well make my own because it's truly bizarre the way the internet still behaves

the internet's reaction to john mulaney will be found in psychology books in future years.

this got long. my bad.

tldr: yall have been weird about john mulaney for a long while. yes, even about the dave chappelle thing.

"but he let dave chappelle on stage-" the venue let dave chappelle on stage. Because despite all the bullshit he's been saying venues and platforms still think he's a big name, so if he decides to pop up and drop in, they're going to let him regardless of openers already being there. It's insane how people think john mulaney could dictate what a big venue (and netflix, as i think it was during an event) can and can't do around him.

"but dave chappelle based all his set on transphobic and ableist things-" that's on dave chappelle, not any other comedian who has to share the stage with him. let's repeat this again: john mulaney did not "platform" chappelle, the venue did. john mulaney can't go around dictating what other comedians say the same way other comedians can't dictate what he says, just like it is in any other profession and general aspect of society.

"but he hugged chappelle at the end-" chappelle had talked about an aggression he'd been a victim of in the previous months and john mulaney expressed solidarity for that. Like the testimony of the transphobic and ableist jokes, this was said by other people on the internet that claim to have been present. It's impressive how fast any other recounting has been shut down and ignored, like any possibility of further critical analysis of the situation. I'm not cis myself. I could smell the "something's weirdly missing" from miles away, because when he went to rehab I thought back about all his jokes involving drugs and thought "yeah this checks out", when people started calling him transphobic i thought "this guy?? Horse Loose In A Hospital guy?? I gotta check".

(other testimonies also said the transphobic and ableist jokes were a part of the appearance, not all of it, and that other jokes did get a laugh. Which yes, it is annoying to hear people reward a comedian with laughter after he's been a dick and I would've been mad the whole time too)

"well he shouldn't go around hugging transphobes" on an abstract moral basis, I agree. I'd rather he stick to hugging people like jon stewart.

"he betrayed his lgbt+ fanbase that is the reason he's famous" no it isn't. I find no righteous joy in telling yall that john mulaney is known and respected and gets gigs in the comedy scene because he's good at it on his own from content and technique standpoints, and people recognized his talent and future fame from the start, not because the community made him famous by latching on to him as the Cute Unproblematic White Twink. Him becoming famous would've happened anyway because he's objectively good at his chosen career. Also "betrayed" is objectively wrong because of the previous points mentioned above.

Also let's remember the time period this happened in: john mulaney was recovering from nearly killing himself with drugs, dealing with the fact his friends had to push him into rehab, ending a years-long relationship (where he did not cheat according to the ex herself if yall bother listening to her), finding himself a parent of a clearly unplanned baby and stepping up to it, while facing vitriol and crazy backlash because of it all. I wouldn't take anyone too seriously in the aftermath of this.

yeah while we're here, let's also address the whole divorce fiasco:

"he cheated" no he didn't. The timeline provided and that can be proven by social media interactions and talk show appearances says so. They were separated well before they both went to rehab for different things. She wasn't at the december 2020 intervention, at least. She removed hims from her socials months before. They weren't involved anymore, let it go.

"he never wanted kids" so? people change as he himself says. Or was he meant to be a deadbeat and ignore the baby that was clearly unplanned? It's insane how people are holding this against him.

"he robbed tendler of her childbearing years" this is even more insane. She has repeatedly said she didn't want kids herself, and froze her eggs because of feeling socially pressured, at least twice in instagram comments only. She's got a new boyfriend and can have all the kids she wants with him. But people don't actually care about her as a person, only as her being a means for their weird revenge fantasies against a comedian they thought they knew through a stage persona. Just take a look at the unhinged comments people have been leaving under everyone's social media posts including hers.

"he based his whole shtick on being a wife guy (so i now feel betrayed that they have divorced because ??? but pretend i'm righteously offended as He Has Lied On Stage)" equally insane things to say. Also no, the wife bits make up not even a fourth of his overall material, but one wouldn't know that if they only saw his stuff through memes and the netflix specials.

"well i'm childfree and liked he was also childfree and now i'm disappointed" now this is reasonable. I was weirdly disappointed for a while too and then got over it. Because it's one of the things in life you have to shrug off, because other people can choose to keep children and raise them with an obviously present support net and it's none of our business.

Here's some more things for yall to chew on: john mulaney has expressed support for trans kids being targeted in schools, during the initial monologue when he hosted the Independent Spirit Awards with nick kroll (they did it two years in a row and i can't remember which year it was). john mulaney has also previously supported lgbt+ charities with donations some years ago (i don't remember the name but i remember being happy about confirmation that a comedian i liked was a good person). john mulaney hasn't said or done anything negative towards trans people and lgbt+ in general since the "incident", nor did he ever before. Also he striked with the other writers to support the less famous and wealthy ones.

"but he had jerry seinfield on." Netflix had jerry seinfield on. Because seinfield just made a show with netflix too and he's being made to promote it. Also yes, by several accounts john mulaney looks up to jerry seinfield, in the same way i might look up at a senior in high school when I'm a freshman. Doesn't mean he agrees with him on everything and doesn't mean they both can skirt the obligations of the industry they're in.

Yall want something nice to chew on? When john mulaney went on seinfield's show "comedians in cars getting coffee", seinfield demeaned annamarie tendler's professional abilities and john mulaney immediately and repeatedly contradicted him. "She doesn't know what she's talking about, all women think they're interior designers" vs "Actually she does know what she's talking about" kinda exchange. Seinfield also made a joke about her throwing a rolling pin at john, and john mulaney deemed it a dumb 1950s stereotype.

look, is he perfect? no. he has moments where he lacks some social awareness, because he was born and raised wealthy, but he's never been cruel or obnoxious about it and instead recognizes it every time he mentions (and disparages) his upbringing. it could be seen even before baby j that he grew up insecure of himself, through and under the obvious jokes about anxiety and servility, and he can be an asshole about it (though less now, i suppose thanks to near-death experiences and having a child readjust your whole life). it's the fact that the internet decided to put him on a pedestal as a paragon of neat cuteness, reducing his work to Wife Guy Blorbo and seemingly ignoring all the "hey i've been an alcohol and drug addict willing to commit crimes to get drugs and i'm putting up an extremely clean-cut persona that should have you all worried and suspicious". I used to look at that guy and sense the something that wasn't adding up. I've been observing this whole mess since he first went to rehab with a sense of relief. Parasocial of me, yes I know.

one day the internet will add up the pieces. hopefully. until that day, it's gonna be weird.

[retropopcult]

Donald Trump made an appearance on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episode “For Sale By Owner”  in 1994. He plays himself and the storyline is he is interested in purchasing the Banks’ large Bel-Air mansion.

Will’s uptight cousin Carlton (being Carlton) is so excited about meeting Trump that he faints. Remember, at this point in history, Trump was merely a rich businessman, and probably Carlton’s idol.

Carlton’s sister, Ashley, however, is furious with Trump because she doesn’t want her father to sell their childhood home. She yells to his face that he’s ruining her life to which he responds: “Everybody’s always blaming me for everything.”

The producer, Gary Miller, remembers being called to Trump’s dressing room to listen to the future president complain about how he didn’t think his lines were funny enough. At one point backstage, Miller says, Trump “threw a tantrum” and tossed his script into the air, pages flying everywhere.

[justsomeantifas]

The five U.S. attorneys along the border with Mexico, including three appointed by President Trump, recoiled in May 2018 against an order to prosecute all illegal immigrants even if it meant separating children from their parents. They told top Justice Department officials they were “deeply concerned” about the children’s welfare.

But the attorney general at the time, Jeff Sessions, made it clear what Mr. Trump wanted on a conference call later that afternoon, according to a two-year inquiry by the Justice Department’s inspector general into Mr. Trump’s “zero tolerance” family separation policy.

“We need to take away children,” Mr. Sessions told the prosecutors, according to participants’ notes. One added in shorthand: “If care about kids, don’t bring them in. Won’t give amnesty to people with kids.”

Rod J. Rosenstein, then the deputy attorney general, went even further in a second call about a week later, telling the five prosecutors that it did not matter how young the children were. He said that government lawyers should not have refused to prosecute two cases simply because the children were barely more than infants.

“Those two cases should not have been declined,” John Bash, the departing U.S. attorney in western Texas, wrote to his staff immediately after the call. Mr. Rosenstein “instructed that, per the A.G.’s policy, we should NOT be categorically declining immigration prosecutions of adults in family units because of the age of a child.”

The Justice Department’s top officials were “a driving force” behind the policy that spurred the separation of thousands of families, many of them fleeing violence in Central America and seeking asylum in the United States, before Mr. Trump abandoned it amid global outrage, according to a draft report of the results of the investigation by Michael E. Horowitz, the department’s inspector general.

The separation of migrant children from their parents, sometimes for months, was at the heart of the Trump administration’s assault on immigration. But the fierce backlash when the administration struggled to reunite the children turned it into one of the biggest policy debacles of the president’s term.

Though Mr. Sessions sought to distance himself from the policy, allowing Mr. Trump and Homeland Security Department officials to largely be blamed, he and other top law enforcement officials understood that “zero tolerance” meant that migrant families would be separated and wanted that to happen because they believed it would deter future illegal immigration, Mr. Horowitz wrote.

“The department’s single-minded focus on increasing prosecutions came at the expense of careful and effective implementation of the policy, especially with regard to prosecution of family-unit adults and the resulting child separations,” the draft report said.

The draft report, citing more than 45 interviews with key officials, emails and other documents, provides the most complete look at the discussions inside the Justice Department as the family separation policy was developed, pushed and ultimately carried out with little concern for children.

This article is based on a review of the 86-page draft report and interviews with three government officials who read it in recent months and described its conclusions and many of the details in it. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they had not been authorized to discuss it publicly, cautioned that the final report could change.

Before publishing the findings of its investigations, the inspector general’s office typically provides draft copies to Justice Department leaders and others mentioned in the reports to ensure that they are accurate.

Mr. Horowitz had been preparing to release his report since late summer, according to a person familiar with the investigation, though the process allowing for responses from current and former department officials whose conduct is under scrutiny is likely to delay its release until after the presidential election.

Mr. Sessions refused to be interviewed, the report noted. Mr. Rosenstein, who is now a lawyer in private practice, defended himself in his interview with investigators in response to questioning about his role, according to two of the officials. Mr. Rosenstein’s former office submitted a 64-page response to the report.

“If any United States attorney ever charged a defendant they did not personally believe warranted prosecution, they violated their oath of office,” Mr. Rosenstein said in a statement. “I never ordered anyone to prosecute a case.”

Gene Hamilton, a top lawyer and ally of Stephen Miller, the architect of the president’s assault on immigration, argued in a 32-page response that Justice Department officials merely took direction from the president. Mr. Hamilton cited an April 3, 2018, meeting with Mr. Sessions; the homeland security secretary at the time, Kirstjen Nielsen; and others in which the president “ranted” and was on “a tirade,” demanding as many prosecutions as possible.

Mr. Hamilton declined to comment for this article, as did Mr. Horowitz’s office. Mr. Sessions did not respond to requests for comment. Alexa Vance, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, disputed the draft report and said the Homeland Security Department referred cases for prosecution.

“The draft report relied on for this article contains numerous factual errors and inaccuracies,” she said. “While D.O.J. is responsible for the prosecutions of defendants, it had no role in tracking or providing custodial care to the children of defendants. Finally, both the timing and misleading content of this leak raise troubling questions about the motivations of those responsible for it.”

The draft report also documented other revelations that had not previously been known:

Government prosecutors reacted with alarm at the separation of children from their parents during a secret 2017 pilot program along the Mexican border in Texas. “We have now heard of us taking breastfeeding defendant moms away from their infants,” one government prosecutor wrote to his superiors. “I did not believe this until I looked at the duty log.”

Border Patrol officers missed serious felony cases because they were stretched too thin by the zero-tolerance policy requiring them to detain and prosecute all of the misdemeanor illegal entry cases. One Texas prosecutor warned top Justice Department officials in 2018 that “sex offenders were released” as a result.

Senior Justice Department officials viewed the welfare of the children as the responsibility of other agencies and their duty as tracking the parents. “I just don’t see that as a D.O.J. equity,” Mr. Rosenstein told the inspector general.

The failure to inform the U.S. Marshals Service before announcing the zero-tolerance policy led to serious overcrowding and budget overruns. The marshals were forced to cut back on serving warrants in other cases, saying that “when you take away manpower, you can’t make a safe arrest.”

For two years, Ms. Nielsen has taken the brunt of the public criticism for separating migrant families because of her decision to refer adults crossing the border illegally with children for prosecution. A day after the president’s retreat, Mr. Sessions distanced his department from the decision, telling CBN News that “we never really intended” to separate children.

That was false, according to the draft report. It made clear that from the policy’s earliest days in a five-month test along the border in Texas, Justice Department officials understood — and encouraged — the separation of children as an expected part of the desire to prosecute all illegal border crossers.

“It is the hope that this separation will act as a deterrent to parents bringing their children into the harsh circumstances that are present when trying to enter the United States illegally,” a Border Patrol official wrote on Oct. 28, 2017, to the U.S. attorney in New Mexico, according to the draft report.

After the pilot program in Texas ended, the report asserted, Mr. Sessions, Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Rosenstein pushed aggressively to expand the practice across the entire southwestern border, with help from prosecutors.

In a briefing two days after Christmas in 2017, top Justice Department officials asked Mr. Bash for statistics from the pilot program, conducted by his predecessor, that could be used to develop “nationwide prosecution guidelines.” Mr. Bash, a former White House adviser, did not receive a follow-up request for the information. Thinking that the idea had been abandoned, he did not provide it.

By April 2018, Mr. Sessions nevertheless moved to enact the zero-tolerance policy across the entire border with Mexico. Mr. Rosenstein told the inspector general that Mr. Sessions “understood what the consequences were.”

“The A.G.’s goal,” he said, “was to create a more effective deterrent so that everybody would believe that they had a risk of being prosecuted.”

But the Justice Department still needed to persuade Ms. Nielsen to refer all families for prosecution, which she had been resisting. The draft report says a pressure campaign culminated in a May 3 meeting in which Mr. Sessions insisted that Customs and Border Protection begin referring all of those cases to prosecutors.

A note from Mr. Hamilton to Mr. Sessions before the meeting indicated: “You should lead this discussion.”

“We must vigorously enforce our criminal immigration laws to ensure that there are consequences for illegal actions and to deter future illegal immigration,” Mr. Sessions planned to say, according to the draft report. “That means that an illegal alien should not get a free pass just because he or she crosses the border illegally with a child.”

When the group voted by a show of hands to proceed, Ms. Nielsen was the only one who kept her hand down, according to two people familiar with the vote, which was reported earlier by NBC News. The next day, Ms. Nielsen backed down, signing a memo referring all adults for prosecution and clearing the way for the children to be separated.

The decision roiled the prosecutors along the border. In Arizona, Elizabeth Strange, the acting U.S. attorney, led a minor rebellion, temporarily declining six cases, citing concern about the children. That prompted a rebuke from top Justice Department officials, who demanded to know “why would they be declining these cases?”

Justice Department officials have repeatedly claimed that they thought the adults would be prosecuted and reunited with their children within hours of being separated. But the inspector general found a memo informing top officials that sentences for adults ranged from three to 14 days, making it all but certain that children would be sent to the custody of officials at the Health and Human Services Department for long periods of time.

“We found no evidence, before or after receipt of the memorandum, that D.O.J. leaders sought to expedite the process for completing sentencing in order to facilitate reunification of separated families,” the inspector general wrote.

Over all, Mr. Horowitz concluded in the draft, Mr. Sessions and other senior department officials “were aware that full implementation of the zero-tolerance policy would result in criminal referrals by D.H.S. of adults who enter the country illegally with children and that the prosecution of these family-unit adults would result in children being separated from families.”