.@NicoleShanahan has her Sarah Palin moment.
Says she's qualified to be commander in chief because she "understands how we build batteries around the world" and "spent most of [her] spiritual life studying world religions." pic.twitter.com/dQosEqhRUO
— Lis Smith (@Lis_Smith) June 21, 2024
Not good places, mind you… but her seven-figure donation to RFK Jr’s campaign bought her a bigger audience, and by Grabthar’s Hammer she’s gonna take full advantage of the spotlight!
Elex Michaelson goes one-on-one with attorney, entrepreneur and philanthropist Nicole Shanahan, for her first TV sit-down since being named Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s running mate. https://t.co/bJGFaIL7ir
— FOX 11 Los Angeles (@FOXLA) June 21, 2024
Per Fox LA, “First TV sit-down with Independent VP candidate Nicole Shanahan”:
… The two sit down at Shanahan’s Malibu home for a wide-ranging discussion, talking the state of the Presidential race, addressing hot-button issues like vaccines, abortion, IVF, and the war in the Middle East, and getting personal, as Shanahan opens up about her career, her difficult childhood, being a mom, and the behind-the-scenes events that led her to join Kennedy’s Independent ticket.
THE ISSUE IS: SHANAHAN ON VACCINES AND VACCINE MANDATES
“I don’t think mandates should exist for any healthcare decisions related to children… Historically, I have always, complied with the CDC recommendations… what I have noticed is that there has been less and less informed consent over time, and there has been, since the 1986 Vaccine Act, a lack of liability for when a vaccine is either not effective or causes more injury than we would accept…”
THE ISSUE IS: SHOULD ABORTION ACCESS BE DETERMINED BY INDIVIDUAL STATES?
“Personally, I was saddened [by the Dobbs decision]. I think that anytime you take something as historic, as Roe v Wade, and the headline is, it’s been reversed, it startles you. However, that being said, when you look at it, it was an issue of constitutional law…”“It’s what we have right now. And I can see a benefit, we have to look at it in the positive, because it’s what we have, and we have to make the best with what we have. The Supreme Court is our highest court. We have to respect its decision. It is what we have. And whether or not I’m happy with that or not is irrelevant…”
THE ISSUE IS: WHY NICOLE SHANAHAN WANTS TO BE THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
“I want to be Vice President, because I want to take my learnings of being a mother in today’s America, being somebody who has really looked at our health care issues, who understands deeply our AI challenges and the technology landscape of this country, and I want to bring it to the White House. I think that there’s a great need right now to bring a youthful, capable, mindset and framing to the biggest issues that are challenging this country today. And, of course, I’m a very, very enthusiastic, Bobby Kennedy supporter, I want to see him in the White House, and I was already working behind the scenes before I joined the ticket…”
So… Goop, but for politics? That’s probably unfair to Gywneth Paltrow and her vagina-scented candles.
Calling the overturn of Roe a benefit while women are forced to miscarry in hospital lobby restrooms is certainly a choice. This is campaign is against your right to abortion care. Period. https://t.co/l1mkqizFv5
— Brandon Weathersby (@WeathersbyWI) June 20, 2024
You know, not gonna defend Palin, but at least she was once a mayor and a governor. This moment is less a "Palin moment" and more like a Trump moment: Answering a question with a stream of words that don't really make much sense. But at least sharks weren't involved. https://t.co/fNPutpG2XV
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) June 21, 2024
Citizen Alan
It is possible to become extremely wealthy without becoming feeble-minded?
lollipopguild
she is an idiot.
mrmoshpotato
Who? (Retorical, I don’t care.)
JWR
Speaking of VP picks:
Yeah, he still hasn’t decided who it’ll be, and will probably second-guess himself once he goes public with a name, just like he did with Pastor Pence.
mrmoshpotato
@Citizen Alan: Apparently not. Becoming a horse’s ass is apparently very profitable.
Chet Murthy
@lollipopguild: once upon a time she would have been called an adventuress.
smith
@JWR: They will be at the debate? Is he aware that there will be no audience?
Dangerman
Let me stop you right there.
Personally, I’m hoping there comes a point where Joe turns to TCFG and asks “Dude, did you just shit yourself?”
JWR
@smith: Support staff? OTOH, he probably meant the convention.
Baud
Even Trump managed to come up with a lie about abortion. Jeez.
Baud
@smith:
He’s going to choose one of his split personalities.
Betty Cracker
Wow, Shanahan is a blithering moron! What an embarrassment for whichever institution issued her JD.
@JWR: I want Marco Rubio’s career to end in the most ignominious manner possible, so in a way I hope Trump picks him, they lose and thereby rid Florida of the corrupt toad. On the other hand, DeSantis would undoubtedly replace him with someone even worse…
Hard to believe Trump is seriously entertaining the idea of choosing a running mate who once implied on national TV that Trump has a small dick. I know he loves to convert critics into grovelers, but does he really want that clip replayed on loop?
My guess is he goes with a low-wattage nonentity like Bergum.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@smith: “In a bold surprise move, Trump names CNN cameraman…”
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Oh, Rubio. Didn’t Trump mix up Rubio and Paul Ryan yesterday when referring to Biden’s prior debate opponent? Maybe he’s got Rubio on the brain for some reason.
smith
@Betty Cracker: According to Anthony Scaramucci, the tiny hands crack disqualified Rubio for all time. He predicts the Felon will go for a Pence 2.0, so Bergum it is.
Baud
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Haha. “He saw him and thought he looked like a vice president.”
JWR
@Betty Cracker: If it is one of those three, Burgum would be my guess, too. Both Vance and Rubio have demonstrated at least a modicum of brain power when it comes to public policy, whereas Burgum comes off as a complete maroon.
ETA edit to fix the spelling of Burgum.
Anne Laurie
Even worse possibility: She’s not a moron, but she’s playing at being one… because that’s what she thinks the interviewer, or RFK Jr, or potential voters want. Uwu smol bean!, as I’m informed the kids say.
The nuns who taught me said that being dumb was a tragedy, but deliberately faking dumb was a sin. The older I get, the more I agree with them!
Betty Cracker
Would a Trump-Rubio scenario be a historic first ever all-combover ticket? Trump’s AquaNet-defying multidimensional combover is legend, of course. Rubio’s is less impressive — the part on his noggin has steadily migrated toward his ear over the years in the common way. Still, it would give the nation’s tonsorial punditry corps something to discuss.
NotMax
The names unspoken are the ones to watch. People like Stefanik. Like Pompeo. Like Ivey. Like Tom Brady. Hell, for that matter like Don Jr.
WereBear
Anyone who believed tRump would choose a WOMAN VEEP is extra-delulu, since Trump would choose an aspiring underwear model, not an aspiring Republican politician.
He chooses VP to blend into the woodwork because it’s a constant reminder of “I’m here to replace you when you die” and how can tRump stand that?
Can’t.
smith
@JWR: Both Vance and Rubio are on record saying scathing things about the Felon in the past. As much as he loves the humiliation theater, I don’t think the Felon is inclined to forgive and forget. Also, Vance strikes me as the type who would invoke the 25th at the first opportunity, something I bet the Felon might sense as well.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
What state do you think Rubio would move to?
NotMax
@smith
The 25th is a toothless, arthritic tiger.
Baud
@NotMax:
Like NotMax?
Betty Cracker
@Anne Laurie: The mister was also educated by nuns (and friars), and he reports the dumbest nun he encountered was called Sister Simplicia. His dad was once called to the school on a disciplinary matter and later remarked, “There’s a reason they don’t call her Sister Einstein!” So, a tragedy!
smith
@NotMax: Could be, but we’ll never know if it’s never tried.
NotMax
@Baud
Not in your wildest LSD-fueled dreams.
;)
rikyrah
Bill Madden (@maddenifico) posted at 6:17 PM on Sat, Jun 22, 2024:
If there is one video y’all need to watch this weekend, this is it.
If you do not think Christian nationalism and Project 2025 is the American version of the mustache man’s Night of the Long Knives — then like many Germans during that horrific era, you are in denial. https://t.co/YeRH3iCZPE
(https://x.com/maddenifico/status/1804654901181436068?s=02)
Betty Cracker
@Baud: I hate to say it, but Rubio can only be a Florida man — a South Florida fop, specifically. He wouldn’t be remotely believable as a resident of Pensacola, let alone another state!
rikyrah
Hope that the FrontPagers pay attention to
Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline) posted at 9:07 AM on Sat, Jun 22, 2024:
Holy Fu@K‼️
Please make sure everyone you know sees this segment with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts — the organization behind Project 2025.
—————
QUESTION: Is your organization going to accept the results of the 2024 presidential election, regardless of the election results.
ANSWER: Yes, if there isn’t massive fraud like there was in 2020.
QUESTION: There wasn’t massive fraud. Where was it?
ANSWER: no answer
QUESTION: What is the plan for the deportation of undocumented immigrants in the interior, not at the border.
ANSWER: We need to have the biggest mass deportation system in America.
QUESTION: What are these people (undocumented immigrants) doing?
ANSWER: A lot of them are committing crimes like murdering the 12-year-old girl in Houston.
FACT: That’s one out of 11 million. In Texas, undocumented immigrants were 37.1 % less likely to be convicted of a crime.
QUESTION: Should a woman be able to get an abortion if her doctor says she needs one?
ANSWER: Abortion is not healthcare . We will change the name of the Department of Health and Human Services to the Department of Life, because we are all in support of life.
… https://t.co/zEbZtRr1mf
(https://x.com/cwebbonline/status/1804516454727057607?s=02)
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
A Trump/Harris administration would be historic. Media would love it.
WereBear
It is to our advantage that failsons and faildaughters are the ranks our enemies are choosing from.
They are starting to turn on each other. It’s the only way they know how to turn.
WereBear
@Betty Cracker: OMG, he IS, and frankly, I was thinking he’s not going to work in any other state…
NotMax
@snith
It’s Section 4 which bollixes up the works. A letter stating, “”Nah, I’m OK” throws the entire thing into a Moebius strip of procedure.
NotMax
@Baud
South Deludia.
//
Anne Laurie
Vance’s recent forays into increasingly dramatic eyeliner seem like a key to his mental state: As soon as (Murphy forbid) TFG is sworn in again, JD is going Full Metal Ninja Assassin.
NotMax
@Anne Laurie
Eyeliner courtesy of Max Factless.
//
Shalimar
@Baud: Most members of Congress have a place to live in DC or more often Virginia. Does Rubio already have a home in Virginia that he can claim as a residence?
Shalimar
@Anne Laurie: Peter Thiel is still alive, even though it seems like he would be a pretty easy person to murder by tainting his virgin blood transfusions. I assume he would be dead long ago if Vance really was the murdering kind.
Anne Laurie
Not joking: As recently as my childhood, nunneries were still considered safe places to house ‘defective’ women of sufficiently good families. There were endless rumors that particularly not-smart or semi-hinged nuns had been delivered to one or another convent, with fat dowries, by families who couldn’t or didn’t want to cope with them. (Of course, the uber-practical Dominican sisters who educated me insisted this might happen at some convents — not that the cloistered orders weren’t also brides of Christ — but not in their precincts!)
(This tied in with rumors about poor doomed Rosemary Kennedy — about how much her father Joe must’ve pissed off the local (priestly) hierarchy, when he couldn’t even buy Rosemary a ‘safe haven’ in the arms of Mother Church.)
There were, and from current reports of sexual / financial abuse in *all* denominations still are, a considerable percentage of modern American communities which have not advanced socially beyond the average medieval village…
Anne Laurie
Thiel has been a good Sugar Daddy to J.D. — he’s had no reason to bump the guy off. Were Trump crazy enough to pick Vance for his Veep, TFG would be just another obstruction on J.D.’s rise to the top. You think a man who’s already sold out the family members he ‘loved’, the granny who raised him, for money & attention, is gonna balk at using his Marine-Corps acquired skills to get rid of a two-bit prick like Trump?
TBone
@NotMax: 😆
Baud
@Anne Laurie:
The case is the poisoned hamburger.
ColoradoGuy
Are ALL the billionaires (or wannabe billionaires) microdosing on ketamine?
Baud
@Anne Laurie:
I blame Shakespeare.
Princess
Shanahan on abortion tells us that RFK thinks his best bet is peeling off Republicans and please proceed.
Trump loves letting people think he’ll choose them, then disappointing them. He could literally pick anyone for VP. If he’s smart he’ll pick Vance. Though then he’d need to hire a food taster.
Freemark
Always appreciate a Galaxy Quest reference.
Baud
@Baud:
Is = of
Ken
“Micro”?
Ken
@Baud: I think it would be more like Blackadder: “he accidentally brutally stabbed himself in the stomach while combing his hair.”
Lacuna Synecdoche
smith @ 7:
NBCNews:
Apparently, Trump: forgot.
Baud
@Lacuna Synecdoche:
I wonder if he’ll bring an entourage and dare CNN to block them.
There won’t be an audience but there will be a backstage.
Frankensteinbeck
@Lacuna Synecdoche:
Trump is going through the motions a lot more in this campaign than previous ones. He’s not paying attention, just spouting a non-answer to any question. How much this is him not understanding what’s going on is hard to say. Since he’ll be putting forward his best effort at the debate, I guess we’ll see what the highest point in his current mental range is.
Raoul Paste
So Shanahan claims to “deeply understand the challenges of AI”
Pull the other one. Next contestant?
chrome agnomen
@NotMax: or Max Fascist.
artem1s
@smith:
BIngo. It’s the reason I fear Vance the most. He’s going to be a threat well past 2024 no matter what happens with the election. And will definitely be on the short list to assume the crown should TCFG take a dirt nap or is otherwise indisposed and can’t perform the duties of the office if he’s ever elected again. Vance is the kind of guy who knows how to position himself to take advantage of opportunities. I’m sure TCFG’s orange fart clouds can sense a fellow grifter from a mile away. But the smell of greenbacks is oh so tempting and Vance has proven his backers are will to pay to let him play. It’s possible Vance would prefer to ascend to the McConnell throne though. Senate is a lifetime position and potentially a lot more powerful than POTUS if you know what your doing. I don’t see Vance throwing away that kind of power for a temp job, especially if he thinks his boss may decide he’s expendable once the election is over and has declared himself dictator for life.
Rubio is too dumb to realize the cushy job he’s giving up and is obviously just a chew toy for TCFG since Christie won’t play that part anymore.
I don’t know much about Burgum but he seems like a perfect storm of ‘businessman’, fossil fuel money, and pro-Xtian Rightwingnut posturing that would appease all the right MAGAt and red state base voters. So maybe he will get the nod. The only other option that doesn’t seem to get much chatter is Johnson. I could see him weaseling himself into TCFG’s addled mind with some well placed messianic bullshit. I don’t care who gets picked as long as Vance isn’t in position to take advantage of an October surprise. That could be an EC disaster for Biden.
FYI, all these debates have fundraisers attached so the money can buy access to the canidates. I’m sure that’s what TCFG meant when he said his choice was going to be ‘at the debate’.
RevRick
@Betty Cracker: Does Florida have a law that requires an office holder to resign before running for another office? Because otherwise Rubio would remain Senator unless he’s elected VP.
Tony G
Back in the early eighties, when Ivana Trump and that guy that she was married to were heavily covered in the New York tabloids, I used to work with several people who were recent immigrants from Eastern Europe. One of them one time described Ivana as being “horizontally ambitious”. For some reason, the recent fame of Nicole Shanahan reminds me of that long-ago joke.
Betty
@RevRick: I seem to recall they changed the law to allow DeSantis to run. Maybe?
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
You referring to Kay Ivey, governor of Alabama? Apart from all else, she’ll be 80 by election day. Hard to imagine that even TCFFG, in all his glorious stupidity and obliviousness, would pick a running mate two years his senior. Or that the RNC / his campaign handlers would allow it.
Maybe there’s another Ivey I’m unfamiliar with
Tony G
@Tony G: I want to make clear, however, that I have the deepest respect for sex workers like Ivana Trump, Melania Trump and Nicole Shanahan! (A grifter like RFK Junior, not so much.)
Tony G
@Tony G: (Looking back to that long-ago time, I worked with several people from Russia and a couple of people from Ukraine — both nations, of course, being part of the USSR back then.). Both the Russians and the Ukrainians were, of course, equally opinionated and loud-mouthed — what I think of as the Eastern European Loudmouth Personality — but, at least on the surface, there was zero animosity between them. My impression, at least, is that the current murderous hatred of Russians for Ukrainians is mostly a recent development ginned up by Putin.
Geminid
The USS Eisenhower is finally headed home from the Mediterranean after a twice-extended deployment. The aircraft carrier should reach Norfolk around the 4th of July.
The Truman is in the middle of pre-deployment training and won’t be ready to go until August, so the Navy is sending the PPacific-based Roosevelt to the Middle East in order to bridge the gap.
jimmiraybob
@Anne Laurie: I get an Alice Cooper vibe.
Another Scott
@artem1s: Made me look.
Vance has co-sponsored a bazillion RWNJ performative bills and maybe a couple of potentially sensible ones (the Railway Safety act with Sherrod Brown). And a tiny number of others that are potentially non-controversial (diabetic shoes) – if they don’t have poison pills. It looks like the vast majority got kicked to committees where they will likely die (as they should). He seems to be following the normal RWNJ performative process in the Senate.
He strikes me as yet another empty suit who carries out the RWNJ agenda. I don’t see him as any more dangerous as a VP than Tuberville or Scott or Scott or … They’re all dangerous if they get the majority in the Senate, because they will enable whoever they pick as their leader. Folks like Stefanik and Rubio strike me as more dangerous. They crave the spotlight and have no center and will do anything for power.
Maybe I lack imagination. ;-)
Of course, any GQPer having the presidency now or in the near future is an extreme danger to the republic. And we need to do all we can to prevent that from happening (while also taking the House and expanding the Democratic majority in the Senate). And taking more governorships and state houses!!
Twitter dick_nixon has a special hatred for Rubio, and he has so many pols to choose from…
FWIW.
Vote the monsters out!!
Cheers,
Scott.
prostratedragon
@Anne Laurie: Bingo.
Starfish
“at least sharks weren’t involved”
We have lowered the bar to the bottom of a trench, haven’t we?
Starfish
@NotMax: It won’t be any of them.
With a normal President, a Vice President is picked, the spotlight moves to the Vice Presidential candidate for a moment, and we learn about that person.
With Trump as President, a Vice President is picked, the spotlight must remain on Trump and his brilliant decision making. If the spotlight moves to the Vice Presidential candidate for a brief time, Trump would get jealous and vengeful.
I see @Werebear saying something similar.
MazeDancer
In the no accounting for taste department, do not understand her appeal to her romantic partners.
Maybe Brin was a nerd that no girl had smiled at before. And luring a married lady was exciting.
Now, she’s rich. She needs no appeal.
Starfish
@NotMax: I see you are holding out for @Baud to make his VP pick.
TerryC
Nope.
sdhays
@Shalimar: I think it’s quaint that we think the Constitutional requirement that Presidential candidates and their running mates have to be from different states is enforceable nowadays with the current Supremacist Court.
Starfish
@Raoul Paste: She might. She was in the Silicon Valley tech circles.
PST
Doug Burgum has the same thing going for him as Nicole Shanahan, although in a smaller quantity. He’s rich as hell. He can afford to pump tens of millions of dollars into the campaign, and he can do so without restrictions or artifice if he’s a candidate. That would be a win-win. Trump gets money and a running mate who will never overshadow him; Burgum buys a very expensive lottery ticket for the presidency. Being on the ticket could put him the proverbial heartbeat away, a decent bet if the heartbeat is Trump’s and one actually wants to be president. And what’s the difference, anyway, between having $100 million and $50 million when you’re as old as Burgum and not even close to competitive for real wealth by today’s billionaire standards? Why not roll the dice?
Bill Arnold
@ColoradoGuy:
No. Some are microdosing LSD, DMT or other psychedelics.
Some are using more exotic/bleeding edge neuro-plasticizers , and some just using general nootropics stacks.
And some are using nothing. (Maybe they are Mormons.)
wjca
Except (or did you know?), when Shakespeare wrote “Get thee to a nunnery!” he was using the then-current slang for a brothel. (I wonder if they still call them that in Nevada…?)
karen marie
@Chet Murthy: Don’t insult adventuresses.
karen marie
@Anne Laurie: I don’t think she’s playing dumb. She’s simply never given anything a thought. You can see that in her abortion word salad.
wjca
Been saying that for a while now.
Yup, ticks all the boxes. A match made in
heavenhell.wjca
The question is, will they decide that the Founding Fathers obviously meant, by “from”, where the candidate was born? Or where he was conceived? (Where he currently lives being irrelevant. Especially as most Congressmen live in Virginia, regardless of which rotten borough they supposedly represent.)
Whichever is more convenient, I suppose. “Conceived” does have the advantage that it’s much harder to nail down. But, as we saw with Obama, that may not matter much.