@mods resolves NO

Does "run" include running as republican candidate but not being the nominee?

@MartinRandall Would you say Vivek "ran for president"? I certainly would

It should be noted that Trump paid his most recently hired attorney $3mm in advance in PAC money. Notable because this money disappears completely if he truly announces. I would expect similar deals to follow to secure long term representation.

This is obviously going to happen. He may even run from jail. But it is absolutely bonkers to think he could win now. The MAGA faithful (40 million max) are not even close to enough to get him there. 90 million will come out to vote against him if he runs again and he will be absolutely humiliated like no presidential candidate before. I don't care if he runs against Joe Biden in a coma. His legitimate political career is over.

@BTE I hope you're right

@Snarflak I think voting is stupid and don't usually do it, but the TDS-fueled conspiracy to get Trump is ridiculous and is making me want to vote Trump this year if Biden is the Dem nominee (Biden's foreign policy outside of his hard line on China has been mostly a disaster. The world has read correctly that his State Dept and administration has no spine which is why these conflicts are erupting all over. Let's get Hillary as POTUS!)

@AlQuinn Trump literally said that he wants to be a dictator and that he thinks the Constitution can be terminated if he loses an election, after trying to deprive millions of people of their right to vote and take power by force.

It sucks that Biden is old, too, but at least he's not openly trying to destroy our republic.

@Snarflak lol "dictator for a day" was a joke; r/whoooooosh and all that

@AlQuinn

"I want to be a dictator for one day."

"We pledge to you that we will root out the Communists, Marxists, Fascists, and Radical Left Thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our Country"

"Their entire existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House."

"When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it. Then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength. That shows you the power of strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak."

"He's now president for life. President for life. And he's great. I think it's great. Maybe we'll give that a shot someday."

"A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution"

Doesn't sound like a joke to me.

@Snarflak good job taking a bunch of out-of-context quotes. Here is the actual context of what we're talking about:

Right, but when you say bedlam, what do you mean? You say-

President Donald Trump (13:09):

Bedlam? I think you look at Joe Biden, it’s bedlam. You have a man who can’t lead. You have a man who can’t find his way off a stage after he makes a speech that lasts for about two minutes. Now I think Bedlam is Joe Biden. I think that he’s using this. This is just a political ploy. “Trump is a dictator. He wants to be a dictator.” It’s interesting, I did a show, Sean Hannity, did you ever hear of him? He’s a very nice man. And he said essentially, “You’re not going to be a dictator, are you? Tell me.” I think he was trying to give me a nicer question than maybe you guys would. He meant it very well. I said, “I’m going to be a dictator for one day. We’re going to do two things. The border, we’re going to make it so tight you can’t get in unless you come in legally. And the other is energy. We’re going to drill, baby drill. After that, I’m not going to be a dictator. After that, I’m not going to be a dictator.” And the press-

So he clarifies his "dictator" remarks to refer to two specific policy goals: defending the US-Mexico border (which Biden is unable or unwilling to do) and, I would presume, liberalizing oil lease arrangements on federal lands.

I'm saying this nicely, as I would to anyone: you seem to be caught up in the fog of propaganda surrounding Trump that is designed to perpetuate TDS. I speak from experience. I had a mild case of TDS back in 2015/2016, but after he was elected, I had a very painful think while hiking to the top of Cameron Peak in Colorado about the entire situation and realized I had been looking at the situation completely wrong. Have you ever felt physical pain from thinking about something? I highly recommend it; it is what rapidly changing your mind due to new evidence feels like! You are missing out on a treasure-trove of some of the funniest political commentary by a politician in quite some time because you have been corralled into a MSM-enforced reality distortion field. I wonder if you also still think that Trump called Neo-Nazis "fine people" in 2017.

@AlQuinn You accuse me of being a victim of propaganda while unironically using the term "TDS"... 🤦

@Snarflak it's a real thing as far as I can tell, and note I accuse my past self as having had it. But otherwise thanks for the non-responsive reply.

@Snarflak And let me add a bit more context on TDS (which is real). As far as I can tell, Political Derangement Syndrome (PDS) in the recent era arguably started during the Bill Clinton presidency, and has existed in every presidencies since. The recent Trump version is merely a more severe version.

What caused PDS? I have two hypotheses that may have both contributed:

1) end of the Cold war -- the Cold war was reasonably good at aligning political interests across the aisle, which held polarization in check.

2) the atomization of media -- rather than have one fake version of truth that everyone nominally believed that was delivered by a centrist MSM, the rise in right wing alternative sources, perhaps notably talk radio like Rush Limbaugh, enabled polarized ecosystems (echo-systems?) to form. Think of Rush's daily reminder of the horror of Bill Clinton ("America Held Hostage, Day ###" he would declare on every show).

Following Clinton, we had GW Bush derangement, Obama derangement, Hilary derangement, and now Trump. This is not an invention of Trump supporters but rather the mere recognition of a pattern of bad-faith vitriol that has infected partisan politics.

Now we have media that has the capability of giving each person the exact bullshit that they demand (mis/disinformation is mostly a demand-side problem, not supply-side). One manifestation of that demand is the demand for out-of-context quotes to achieve the (often) willful misrepresentation of words and meaning.

@AlQuinn Bruh, you need help. Get out of your echo chamber and learn some critical thinking skills. You're being played like a fiddle.

@Snarflak once again, non-responsive answer that ignored my implication of right-wing talk radio in the origination of this problem