To help WaterGirl keep the troubleshooting thread to just that, here’s something I’ve been thinking about.
We see statements not unlike TFG’s tweets occasionally emanate from a certain Florida resort. We see quotes in the news about grand political thinking from TFG – endorse this, fundraise that, remove Liz Cheney.
But we hardly ever see TFG. There was one video a couple of weeks ago that looked like one of those folks you see ranting on street corners about the unfairness of life, chemtrails, and the aliens that are hiding in the bank building. A small audience applauded. I wondered if that was a deepfake. It was perfectly believable.
And now the questions.
Is TFG having a hard time adjusting to his Twitterless existence? Is he ranting incoherently, so that his handlers don’t want the world to see him directly? Or is he just nursing his butthurt and thinks that he is damaging the media by denying them his essence? (Oh wait) Is he being manipulated by any number of manipulators?
You may have questions too. You may deposit them here or any other profound thinking you have to offer this Sunday morning.
Open thread!
Chief Oshkosh
My question: am I first?
Downpuppy
Who’s going to pay $200k for access to a ranting clown with no job and indictments on the way? Sure, they’ll send him thoughts and prayers, but money is something else.
A Good Woman
Have you considered the possibility that he has dementia and it is getting worse? That his staff is protecting him by keeping him away from cameras?
Jinchi
They never cared while he was president. Why would they start now?
dmsilev
I’m not sure there’s much of a distinction between these possibilities.
A Good Woman
@Jinchi:
Because he is their rainmaker, and the marks might reconsider if they realize he is mentally incompetent.
MattF
TFG’s recent post ‘From The Desk’ claiming that the Arizona voter database has been deleted is entirely bonkers. And it’s the (Republican) Maricopa county registrar who is saying this. I think TFG now believes that any action on his part that stokes or amplifies resentment benefits him, so he’s going to do it. Whether this is precisely ‘delusional’ is, I guess, debateable. It is certainly evil and deliberately destructive.
Nettoyeur
We will see how far gone he is when the rallies start.
MomSense
It looked to me like he had a face lift and maybe some other work done which may explain why he was so quiet immediately after he left office.
He seems to have resumed his ranting sessions, but the Q thing has taken on a life if it’s own. If he died tomorrow, they could just keep going with their activities.
What I find more interesting are the calculations that Cruz and other aspirants have made about how to best position themselves for 2024. They want to be seen as loyal to TFG, but they don’t seem to be repeating any of his rants or calling for him to be replatformed at all.
RandomMonster
The whole point is to keep the grift going. Trump appearing weak and uninfluential doesn’t help the grift.
MomSense
@Nettoyeur:
I’m skeptical that he will resume rallies. Otherwise he would have already. Nothing is stopping him from dragging his ass to The Villages and doing bullshit rallies with MTG or whoever now. The sweet spot for the wannabe leaders of the GQP seems to be loyalty to him without actually being with him.
debbie
I don’t see him as more incoherent than before the election. Maybe because there are fewer emissions now, they seem nuttier? The communications and lies were so overwhelming and numerous, it would be a surprise if lots didn’t get noticed.
And now I see Matt Gaetz spoke in Strongville OH and compared his “indiscretions” to earmarks.
debbie
@MomSense:
A face lift would explain the loss of orangeness.
Tony Jay
Taking into account his lingering stench of traitorous loserdom, the tidal wave of debt and criminal liability rushing his way, and the chaotic malfunctionality his spiteful influence provokes on the political Right, the very best thing Trump could do for the Republican Party and it’s backers, both foreign and domestic, would be to die ASAP.
Maybe he knows that. Maybe he’s scared. Maybe he’s right to be.
MattF
@Tony Jay: I have to admit that thought has occurred to me. And I’m not happy about that.
Uncle Jeffy
I suspect that his hemorrhoids are acting up.
Stella
@MattF: it’s not just that stoking resentment benefits him. It’s also about getting even and punishing people. He wants to punish us for opposing him and I think he wants to punish his followers for failing him. And he wants to punish the American people in general for his low approval ratings. It’s not like he’s going to accept responsibility for his failures, even to himself. The more violence and resentment he can create the more people will be punished.
Elizabelle
Hadn’t noticed. Just grateful for his absence, which improves my life considerably.
Working on the “too far into dementia” charade perfected by some gangster years ago? For when the SDNY charges drop?
Anyway, happy Sunday morning, jackals.
MagdaInBlack
His big new site is basically a personal blog where only he can post, so we wouldn’t even see his “releases” if news media didn’t pick them up and report.
( “his releases” sounds kind of unsanitary, doesn’t it )
Eta: someone suggested it was a bit like when they gave his father blank pieces of paper to sign to keep him occupied.
Sure Lurkalot
John Gill. Except he drugs himself. And supposedly has for so long that various functions don’t function all that well.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: Rallies will now cost him a ton of money, and I wonder if cities and venues are now requiring that they be paid in advance.
Tony Jay
@MattF:
Hey, it’s not like you made him go drunk sailing on Shark Lake in a yacht made of court affidavits and severed heads.
Let Trump be Trump.
Booger
@Sure Lurkalot: Nice TOS reference.
WaterGirl
@debbie: How so?
Baud
I knew it!
WV Blondie
My thought has been that his weight is ballooning – he could be bingeing his idea of comfort food.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Have you seen the prices for insurrection insurance these days? Outrageous!
Suzanne
@A Good Woman:
Yes. I think this is exactly right: he looks feeble AF now.
Likely, he has for a while, and it was part of the staff’s job to dust him off and prop him up for public appearances. But now the staff is much smaller.
Melania must be happy.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Ha!
It would be a shame if Not In My Back Yard led to cities not wanting him to hold rallies there.
Danielx
Obligatory: it would be irresponsible not to speculate.
Xeny
A couple thoughts.
1. He is out of cash so he can’t go anywhere. His plane needs repairs and he cannot fly commercial. Now one of his buddies could loan him a plane but maybe he has used up that goodwill.
2. If he leaves FL, he leaves potential protection of extradition. But I heard Mango Lago closes for the summer and he is going back to NJ. But maybe this is what they are waiting for in the indictments
3. lastly. And this is probably the most likely. He is not well. Every person who has seen starts by saying something positive about his health or mood. This is odd because I don’t talk about someone’s health unless it is an issue.
just my lurkers thoughts.
debbie
@WaterGirl:
“I can’t operate on your face with all that crap in your pores.” I saw one photo where he was definitely not orange.
NorthLeft12
Add me to the list of people who really don’t see that his rants are more insane and ignorant than any over the last six years.
If somebody has the stomach for it, pick any month over the last six years and review his “output” . I’m sure it will be just as crazy, although dated, than the crapola he is spewing now.
Note: I don’t have any intent of subjecting myself to that. I just want him to go away.
MomSense
@WaterGirl:
Right, but if he were useful to Republicans who hold office they would hold rallies and invite him. Gaetz and MTG have held rallies. They didn’t invite him.
Baud
@MomSense:
Much of the work of deifying Reagan happened after he left office. Reagan wasn’t directly involved in a lot of it. I think the GOP is trying to do something similar here to try to hold onto Trump voters.
Urban Suburbanite
https://www.trashberg.com/p/what-exactly-is-trump-doing-at-mar
The writer spent a lot of time digging through Instagram posts where people posted their joy about being able to eat an overpriced meal and bask in the presence of The Great Weave. I suspect the pilgrimages will start tapering off – sucking up to Trump won’t get you a piece of what he skimmed off the campaign or the donor lists, and he’s not giving any endorsements or engaging in his fascist ramblings to rule up the faithful. (As bizarre and dumb as those were, they were effective)
Steeplejack
@MomSense:
I agree about the rallies. The former guy is nothing if not lazy and spoiled, and it has got to be a tremendous shock to go back to private life after being cosseted in the White House, where all he had to do was announce that he wanted to do a rally on date X in place Y and it would magically get taken care of. That’s not happening in his current situation, especially since he (or his surrogates) will have to pay for it. The horror!
MomSense
@Baud:
Agreed. I think that is exactly the model they are following. I don’t think it will be as successful, though.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
The thing that worries me is that the GQP seems to have embraced TFG’s game plan – suppress the votes of the CLANGs, the HONKs, and the AWOOGAs, while whipping up the Southern Strategy voters into a frenzy, both for enthusiasm at the polls and for intimidation purposes – while looking for a standard-bearer who can embody that evil while being more disciplined than TFG was. That’s the best of both worlds from the GQP perspective, the worst of both worlds for America’s sake.
If they can successfully promote Trumpism without Trump, then the US is in deep, deep, deep trouble, to a much greater degree than at present, or at any time since the Civil War.
I’m hoping against hope for AG Garland to use Greece’s case against Golden Dawn as a model strategy to follow.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Possibly well into dementia and the TFG cult leaders are just using his image to fundraise on, like the dictator in “Sleeper” who was nothing but a preserved nose.
Roger Moore
@A Good Woman:
This has been my working hypothesis. I also suspect that his election loss (and failure to overturn the result violently) made whatever other problems he had worse. There’s also the possibility the people around him have been trying to wean him off whatever combination of drugs he took to keep him marginally functional while in office, and that’s making him especially unfit to be out in public.
That said, I think you have to consider that maybe the cameras just aren’t that into him anymore. While he was still in office, the media had to focus on him because his power made him inherently interesting. But ex-presidents generally don’t merit the kind of wall to wall coverage the current president gets. As much as the media loved to cover him, they are moving on and just aren’t going to bother broadcasting his every move. He needs to do something genuinely newsworthy to get attention, and his handlers have kept him from doing anything genuinely newsworthy.
Geminid
trump looked like crap when he became president, and he looked worse by the time he left the White House. While some observers probably overstated various diagnoses of illness, the way trump wound himself up for hour long stream-of-consciousness rants at rallies, frequently repeating himself, showed problems that I think are progressive.
Emotionally, trump must be let down and depressed. He loved the spotlight and his status as President, and these are gone. And with his precarious legal situation, trump desperately needed to win reelection in a way Jimmy Carter and the elder Bush did not. Now he faces civil lawsuits and likely federal indictments, with a fragile business empire and little hope of relief.
Trump is still mean as a snake,* but I think he is a sluggish, worried snake now.
* My apologies to snakes everywhere.
artem1s
@Nettoyeur:
we’ll see how much actual support and money he has left when the venues start letting him book their arenas again. no one is going to let him thru the door without a payment in full. no city has to put up with the security costs of him holding a rally ever again. they only need cite 1/6 as evidence that it’s too dangerous to let him have a permit and make the venue owners take responsibility for security and damages. one insurer threatens to pull the venues liability coverage and that’s the end of that pipedream. best bet, his “rallies” are going to be open to donors only, online events posted on his blog. They will be prerecorded and heavily staged and will require signing off on miles of disclaimers specifying that TFG gets indemnity for any acts of treasons that might occur afterwards or in the past.
he has to pay up front for those rallies now and we all know what that means. so he’s basically stuck with the option of being the political equivalent of the 700 Club. I’m not seeing Triumph of Will levels of production coming out of this gang of thieves.
WaterGirl
@debbie: That makes sense. Before the surgery. But once he has recovered from surgery, couldn’t he just start going with the orange crap again? Or are you thinking he doesn’t need the orange crap because he needs it less after the surgery has (I suppose) improved the look of his skin?
brendancalling
@Xeny: Re: NJ. Martin Longman suggested the same, noting that DeSantis “has the power to intervene and “investigate whether an indicted ‘person ought to be surrendered‘ to law enforcement officials from another state.” Politico (link at the link) reports that Palm Beach is making contingency plans in case TFG is indicted.
NJ’s Phil Murphy also has that power, but its unlikely to protect TFG. So perhaps they are waiting for the Orange Shitstain to arrive at Bedford.
Danielx
@WaterGirl:
Considering the number of cities he has already stiffed for rally-associated expenses, I would be totally surprised if he wasn’t required to pay all such expenses up front. I am tolerably sure his quarter billion “election fraud legal fund” (read: TFG’s slush fund) could cover it, except that he is allergic to paying bills.
artem1s
@debbie:
oh my
probably not enough ‘eating their own grandmothers’ to mean that Dems can retake the state or Portman’s Senate seat, dammit. but that quote about Whaley definitely means DeWimps attempts to straddle the fence when it comes to pleasing the extremists was all for naught. couldn’t happen to a better guy.
WaterGirl
@brendancalling: Someone yesterday said on BJ that there is a law that says states MUST honor those requests from other states.
Roger Moore
@WV Blondie:
I don’t think so. I saw a claim, backed up by photos, that he had lost 20 pounds since leaving office. Whether that’s through diet or liposuction is not clear.
NotMax
I don’t give the proverbial rat’s ass about what goes on in or oozes from Elba-lago, nor about its inhabitants.
Danielx
@Geminid:
Likely he is depressed. He was The Most Important Man In The World, able to command attention to his every fragmented thought, even those tapped out while pinching a loaf on his tacky gold plated toilet. Now he is….a Loser, a label which he hates with every molecule of his being.
MomSense
@Roger Moore:
Having your face lifted and jaw wired will do that.
patrick II
According to a story at Raw Story by Jordan Green, as QAnon becomes a less prominent driving force for the far right it is being replaced by the theory infiltration into the deep state by China helping Biden win the election, in part by purposefully causing the coronavirus pandemic to weaken the U.S.
I don’t think the Chinese purposefully caused a worldwide pandemic to weaken the rest of the world — although in the usual authoritarian fashion they did hide bad news as long as they could — not as long as Trump and Bolsonaro though. Pretending things are better than they seem important to would-be dictators.
But I have always wondered about a phone call between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Although Trump played with public perceptions of relations between him and other dictators, notably Trump and Kim Jung Un as well as the Chinese president Xi — but behind the propaganda seemed to trust authoritarian leaders more than any other group of people.
Early in the pandemic, Trump said not to worry, that the virus would just go away in April when the warmer weather hit. And, of course, it didn’t go away and Trump’s wishful thinking, for that reason as well as other right-wing problems with freedom and lunacy, prevented the U.S. from having the response it should have.
In late January when Xi and Trump had that phone call in which the Chinese leader told Trump the virus would not do as well once the warm weather hit. My personal paranoid conspiracy theory is that wasn’t an accident and dictator Xi knew exactly the gullible idiot he was dealing with would believe him.
I try not to go overboard with the crazy paranoia — but this is one that kind of sticks with me.
topclimber
Kudos to Tony Jay on one of his shortest and best comments (back at 14). Succinct yet colorful.
OT: following up on JC’s post on Israel-Palestine, I did not know that Turkey has aligned with Hamas, at least on this issue. The Bibi Bros keep stepping deeper into it.
Geminid
@artem1s: At some point, trump and his people will likely stage more rallies. But I wonder what trump’s rallies will look like? The dollar store Nuremburg rallies of his campaigns? They might be more like Sam Sheppard wrestling exhibitions.
tandem
@WaterGirl: Here’s an overview of the law: https://www.findlaw.com/criminal/criminal-procedure/extradition-law—state-to-state-extradition-process.html. Short version: once the request is made, there are very few ways to avoid extradition.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
Have missed seeing you recently. In fact, have toyed with the idea of putting up a mild “Oh, BTW, has anyone seen Elizabelle around these parts recently?” comment, but hadn’t got around to it yet. Glad I don’t have to, and hope you are well.
sab
@debbie: Strongsville sent a political telemarketer to Columbus as their state rep. What is wrong with those people?
WaterGirl
@tandem: Yay! Happy to have that confirmed. I felt much better after I had read that yesterday, and now I feel better again. :-)
L85NJGT
How’s Donnie?
Oh.. Donnie, won’t see him no more.
Roger Moore
@Steeplejack:
I don’t think you can understand what’s happening to Trump now without recognizing how much of what happened for the past 5 years was contingent on everyone bending the rules for him. He held rallies without paying for security because nobody wanted to say no to a major party candidate or POTUS. He could blatantly violate the rules of Facebook and Twitter because they didn’t want to provoke his wrath. He could demand time on TV any time he wanted because the networks wanted to get POTUS on screen.
Now all that is gone. Nobody is willing to bend the rules for a washed up has-been. The only way he can get attention is to do something even more outrageous than what he did before, but the stuff he was doing by the end of his presidency was outrageous enough that people stopped tolerating it, even from the president. That puts him in an untenable position, where he can’t command attention and he can’t win it, either.
germy
That’s what happens when a man has to pay for his own hamberders.
L85NJGT
He was sick as fuck, that had to put on mileage. I forget what they call that made up word salad, but it’s a sign of delusional or psychotic behavior.
Michael Cain
@tandem:
Yeah, and those all seem to be some flavor of “the requesting state has messed up its paperwork somehow.”
Tony Jay
@topclimber:
I save my extended free form rants for British politics. So much shit, never enough shovel.
Trump is scared shitless because literally no one wants him alive speaks for itself.
citizen dave
Waiting to see if the dementia is happening. Saw a piece on CBS Sunday morning on the Secret Service. Hoping that the members of it who were cheering on the insurrection (this was an aside in the story, not the main point) are now detailed to the Mar a Lago hellscape protecting the Historical Accident.
Happy Sunday Juicers! The sun is out–check local listings.
MattF
@Michael Cain: So, delay… but not indefinite delay.
Ken B
His plane won’t fly, not with at least one engine removed. Trump doesn’t have friends, he has toadies, victims, people he uses, and people that use him. It doesn’t appear that anyone that has a flyable plane is inclined to loan him one.
His health really seems to be shot. In that one video of him ranting at a wedding he was just standing in place, twisting his body around slightly and starting the accordion hands as he wound himself up. I’m not certain that he can talk and walk at the same time anymore. And he looks frail. He reminded me of the old moving mannequins in the Disney park’s Hall of Presidents, except less lifelike.
Even if DeSantis can protect Trump from from extradition, that only apples to Florida, right? So if Trump leaves the state, isn’t he subject to extradition in whatever state he visits?
Mike in NC
A certain bedbug-ridden Florida resort should be designated as a military bombing range. Give everyone 24 hours to vacate.
germy
Cy Vance? I’ll believe it when I see it.
Jinchi
@A Good Woman:
We’re way past that point. All the nonsense he tweeted in the last 4 years didn’t clue them in. The marks are the same people who nodded along when Trump suggested bleach injections were a cure for coronavirus and are convinced that the January 6th insurrection was a setup by antifa.
Ken
Are you talking Weekend at Bernie’s manipulation, or something more traditional?
Skepticat
I don’t care what he’s doing; I’m happy not to be barraged by his idiocy, and I want him simply to continue to fade away as fast as possible. I refuse to click on links about him or his family, and I actually think we on BJ ought to stop giving him head space.
Cervantes
I noticed a while ago that the Great Pumpkin has largely disappeared from public view. Whatever the difficulty of staging rallies, he hasn’t even called in to his fellators on Faux News or its imitators. Basically anybody, from them to the NYT to CBS would be more than happy to do a sit-down with him. I have little doubt that he has rapidly progressing fronto-temporal dementia and he is not presentable in public.
germy
Jinchi
The world got instantly better the moment they cutoff his twitter feed.
Imagine what it could look like if the Murdoch empire simply ceased to exist.
Geminid
@debbie: The reporting from the Strongsville, Ohio rally is interesting. Several Governor candidates besides Mandel had agreed to speak, but took a pass after Gaetz’s participation was announced. The trumpist challenger to the district’s incumbent Republican congressman appeared remotely. This may not have been a smart move. Max Miller only recently moved to the district from Shaker Heights, on the other side of Cleveland. Some district Republicans complain that Miller spends more time in Florida than the district.
Congressman Anthony Gonzales was formerly famous as a star receiver at Ohio State. Now he is notorious as one of the ten Republican Representatives to vote to impeach trump, and he was the target of a lot of abuse during this rally. Gaetz said that Gonzales’ political career would be like his NFL career: drafted in the 1st round, cut four years later.
But Gonzalez got his licks in first yesterday when he tweeted:
“Ending child exploitation remains one of my top polcy initiatives in Congress.
Anyone engaged in these heinous acts needs to be held accountable and taken off the streets.”
smith
Re extradition from FL: The main problem is that DeSantis would use every means at his disposal to block, or at least delay, TFG’s extradition, thus gaining nationwide attention as the noble defender of the Orange Idol, and positioning himself as front runner for 2024.
Re TFG’s apparent low energy: No one has yet mentioned long covid. He had a really serious case, and he was not in good health to begin with, so he seems like a prime candidate for long-term consequences to me.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I think nothing would make Hawley, DeSantis et al happier than for the actuarial tables to catch up with trump so they could run as the heirs to The Beast. One way or another, trumpism– what that crew now believes they can get away with– will be a bigger factor than trump in the near future.
Jinchi
The interview of him desperately repeating “Person, woman, man, camera, TV…” over and over convinced me that not only does he probably have dementia, but that his doctors suspected it, too.
germy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Have you noticed the trump cosplay?
I see lots of younger repubs who affect the blue suit/red tie look, like they’re at a halloween party, but have removed the full head mask to snort a line
Of course, Wimpy (the hamburger lover from the old Popeye series) got there first with his blue suit/red tie combo. And he looked better, too.
Benw
I think about TFG the same way as I feel about British royalty…
Mike in NC
@Suzanne: His coffee boy and ball washer is Stephen Miller.
germy
@Benw:
Profound indifference?
WaterGirl
@citizen dave: They should be out of a job, not moved elsewhere like the Catholic Church did with pedophile priests.
zhena gogolia
@A Good Woman:
I’ve certainly considered that possibility. So have a lot of other people.
hells littlest angel
He’s plotting. That’s just what wrongfully-scorned evil geniuses do.
Kent
I gotta say. I’m loving the “Kremlinology Phase” of Trumpism. All this wondering and speculating about how sick, unwell, and senile the man is. Based on occasional clips of Trump in Mar-a-Lago. It’s rather like the late cold war days when the experts tried to discern the health and relevance of Yuri Andropov from photos.
Let’s hope it stays that way.
Honestly I think if Trump were truly vital and virile right now we’d be seeing a LOT more of him. The man has NEVER hid from a camera. And Facebook/Twitter not withstanding. There are PLENTY of TV cameras that would be happy to follow him around 24/7 if given the opportunity.
smith
@WaterGirl: I agree. One of the mysteries about the genius plan for 1/6 is what were they planning to do about Biden and Harris? Neither was in the Capitol that day. Did they imagine that the mob, or maybe Trump loyalists in the Secret Service, would somehow overcome their SS protection? If evidence arises that any SS agents were in any way involved, their heads need to roll in the most emphatic way.
zhena gogolia
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Checking the cell structure!
Amir Khalid
@Benw:
That’s not fair. The British Royal Family may live lives of privilege, but they’re not a bunch of irredeemable dicks.
laura
TFG is a broke ass joke, a loser, a bed shitter, a has been, a low energy ranting grievance polishing old sad sagging ass joke. He’s paranoid and lazy, an embarassment who’s lost all the power and prestige that comes with the presidency. He attracts the worst sort of people and is the Republican party personified. At least one of his large adult children appears to be gacked to the rafters every time he posts a “hey guys” video.
I await the trickle, the stream, the veritable flood of dirt that’s bound to come out and hope with every fiber of my being that it wrecks the party enough and for long enough to send them to the wilderness until some sense of reality and sobriety is a requirement. Also prison – I hope a bunch of them go to prison.
WaterGirl
@smith: nodding in total agreement.
Geminid
@debbie: Besides Gaetz, the other headlined speaker at the Strongsville rally was Candace Owens. A third, Representative Lauren Boebert (CO-3), did not show.
Nettoyeur
@Stella: See the Hitler bunker rant in Downfall and his Nero decree to burn Germany to the ground because the Germans had failed him.
Nettoyeur
@Stella: See the Hitler bunker rant in Downfall and his Nero decree to burn Germany to the ground because the Germans had failed him.
@WV Blondie: actualy, some reports of weight loss….
SiubhanDuinne
@Amir Khalid:
Thank you for saying what I was going to say, but saying it infinitely more politely.
CaseyL
The GQP wants Trumpism without Trump. That’s why they booted Liz Cheney, because she kept reminding them of Trump’s presence and influence.
I think the GQP wants to recast the 1/6 insurrection as a regrettable excess, but one that shows the “passion” the GQP has for achieving GQP Uber Alles.
But they have to dismiss the insurrection as a trifling excess, in order to stem the tide of suburban voters and women voters fleeing the party. Whether they can succeed is an open question.
West of the Rockies
Didn’t read all the comments, but is he no longer golfing? I’m surprised there aren’t daily shots of his enormous keister swaddled in too-small white pants as he shambles about the sand traps.
Kent
Wasn’t at least one of them caught up in the Jeffrey Epstein pedophilia scandal
And Prince Charles sounds like he is about as bad of a landlord as Trump and Kushner: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/09/prince-charles-vetted-laws-that-stop-his-tenants-buying-their-homes
NetheadJay
@laura: Can I just say how much I love the “gacked to the rafters” phrasing, along with the large adult children reference. Had me almost literally ROTFLMAO :-D
James E Powell
@artem1s:
For Democrats to win in Ohio or any of the other white supremacist revanche states in 2022, it will take the collapse of the Republican party.
Expelling Gonzalez or DeWine, like expelling Cheney or any other heretic, isn’t a collapse or a civil war.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@West of the Rockies: a couple of weeks ago, Lindsey Graham was auctioning off a golf date with trump to raise money
piratedan
why not all of it… he’s a medically altered psycho who has little control of his impulses and is being fluffed and abetted in future schemes of grift and power acquisition to benefit his and those in his orbit.
He’s more than just Trump, he’s a means to an end and the folks on board are playing the percentages that no bill will ever come due.
sab
@Geminid: Also showing was the lovely Josh Mandel. I am so glad my work from home income tax won’t have to be paid to Strongsville next year.
Frankensteinbeck
90% of the elected GOP wants Trump to be flushed down the memory hole, while wanting to push the ‘the 2020 election was stolen’ idea as hard as they can. So, Trump himself is getting a lot less face time.
Amir Khalid
@Kent:
That’s only Andrew and Charles.
scav
Brain’s now decided to overlay the ?Cuckoo for Cocopuffs!!? soundtrack all over any and all TFG’s adherents’ footage (he does rather have the spherical, puffy, not in any manner naturally colored physique of the processed breakfast cereal).
Another Scott
I think I heard that the kids decided to turn Xanadu into a Sunrise Assisted Living so that TFG won’t have to live with them. That’s why they agreed to rip out the helipad, etc., and that’s why he’s in Jersey for the summer – while the renovations get underway.
Could have misheard though. ;-)
Seriously, understanding that video is always deceptive, these TikToks of him at Xanadu don’t show him being at death’s door but standing still for a minute or two isn’t especially taxing.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Benw
@Amir Khalid: well, mostly just that.I don’t have to care about them, but hey, they couldn’t tolerate a nice young black woman marrying into their stupid family.
Geminid
@James E Powell: Next year’s Ohio general election will likely be close. Ohio can’t be but so red if Sherrod Brown won by 300,000 votes in 2018. Democrats don’t need the Republican Party of Ohio to collapse to win statewide races next year. Some dissension and hard feelings among Republicans would help, though.
James E Powell
@sab:
Strongsville is one of whitest of Cleveland’s white flight suburbs, both in the literal sense and in the ignorant, hateful bigot sense.
namekarB
Has anyone considered long term effects from Covid-19?
Anoniminous
@smith:
“No one has yet mentioned long covid.”
Exactly what I was thinking. Tons of evidence links Covid and brain dysfunction(s.)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Geminid: I can’t remember who made the point that Sherrod Brown has always run in exceptionally strong years for Dems– 06 wave, with Obama at the top of the ticket in 12, another waver in 18. I think we’re still at least a year away from knowing what kind of year ’22 will be.
If I were an Ohio Dem I’d be on the look out for signs of R ratfucking in the upcoming special primary. Republicans would love for Nina Turner to be the face of Ohio Democrats.
debbie
@artem1s:
Josh Mandel is an embarrassment to his party, his religion, and good people everywhere, but it’s his nomination to lose.
That said, 2022 in Ohio promises to be very entertaining.
debbie
@Geminid:
I really hope Gonzales can hang onto his seat.
hitchhiker
chiming in to say I agree that TFG has had some work done — face lift, tummy tuck, whatever.
also that he still enjoys the ability to collect money from his remaining rubes (and they number in the millions) whenever he wants.
also that whoever said above that the person-woman-man-camera-tv interview remains persuasive evidence that he’s incoherent … what is the one subject he’s fixated on? they cheated! I won!
he has nothing else to say.
he’s watching his buddies Rudy and Matt inch closer to indictment and planning a rally at which he’ll say … they cheated! I won!
predict that this will lose him some more of the soft supporters, even if it manages to feed his ego for a day or two.
Salty Sam
I think we’re already there unfortunately…
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@Skepticat:
Agree with Skepticat. Unless it involves indictment, conviction, and/or sentencing, discommendation is the way.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Here this is the clue what is up with Trump
https://twitter.com/DPRK_News/status/1392857691530334215?s=20
Trump is depressed that he will never be as close to Kim Jong-Un as Dennis Rodman.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
in other news, washed-up former child actor has a melt down in the CostCo, as one will….
Geminid
@sab: It sounds like you might live in the district. I’ve been wondering about something that I read in a long Politico Magazine piece a couple of weeks ago. The article was a about Gonzales’ primary challenge. Some of the local officials speculated that carpetbagger Max Miller’s Shaker Heights origin might be held against him. Others said nah, that west-side, east-side enmity is more on the level of high school football rivalry, and will not matter. What do you think?
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
“Do you know who I was…?”
Mo MacArbie
I gotta say, I don’t get this “TFG” thing we indulge in here. To be blunt, trump that trumpin’ bulltrump.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: Ha!
@Mo MacArbie: I don’t much care what people call him, but Brian Williams has been making a point lately that I agree with: the term “Big Lie” actually understates what happened on 1/6, and what is happening in state legislatures all over the country. I’ll admit “anti-democratic seditionist movement” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue…
Raven
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’d drop that motherfucker like a bad habit
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
With the mask mandate ending here in two weeks, I’m working on the pithy responses I’ll need when assholes telling me to take my mask off.
Sure Lurkalot
@James E Powell:
Old Liz is not a heretic. She voted for the fucker not 6 months ago despite the fucker claiming for 5 years that any election he didn’t win was rigged. She voted with him over 90% of the time. She’s an opportunist with dangerous ideas and allies.
Geminid
@debbie: I am very interested in this primary, and in those of fellow impeachers Upton (MI), Meijer (MI), and Kinzinger (IL). These will give a good snapshot of which way Midwestern Republicans are moving next year.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: What is Xanadu? Have I tuned T**** out so well that I missed something important?
J R in WV
I’m just relieved to not have to think about him all the time any more. I’m sure his dementia is moving on relentlessly, that’s what it does.
I’m sure he’s called into Faux and Friends, just like he used to as TFG when they would put him on live for a hour or more, and they declined to connect him with the hosts, live. I like to imagine how that made him feel for, oh, 20 seconds or so, and then I forget about him again. But for just those few seconds, imagine how enraged and helpless being disconnected after calling on to talk to Doozey and Friends TFG must have been.
OMG, outraged, infuriated, frustrated, helpless, all those things at once. HAHAHAHaha, take that MFer Former Guy!!!
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
I think he’s just referring to Mar-a-Lago.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@WaterGirl: Mar-a-Lago. Xanadu was what Citizen Kane (WR Hearst) called his megalomaniacal retreat (San Simeon), SPOILER ALERT! where he went mad and died alone whispering “Rosebud”.
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: It’s a way of saying the place without saying the place. The way we say his name without saying his name.
Kubla Khan by Coleridge.
It’s also an allusion to Citizen Kane, for similar reasons.
HTH!
Cheers,
Scott.
narya
To add to the dementia claims: TomJ has been pointing out for awhile that we haven’t seen him eat solid food in public in a very long time; TomJ claims TFG no longer can do that.
sab
@Geminid: I live in Tim Ryan’s district right on the edge of Marcia Fudge’s district. I work in Strongsville, and feel like I am on another planet when I am there. They are in Patton’s district.
Gonzalez’s district is Medina County up into Cuyahoga County. Medina, Wadsworth, Rocky River. They don’t seem to have any expectation of personal standards for their elected officials so long as they are right wing Republicans. Gonzalez is an aberration that way. His predecessor, Jim Renacci, was one of the richest men in Congress because of the fortune he built by owning and operating nursing homes. How could a decent person get rich doing that? The only way to do it is to neglect old people, rip off their families and the State government’s medicaid system.
ETA West/East side differences are pretty intense. It’s not so much rivalry as being from different worlds. They don’t mix much at all. An east-sider would definitely be an outsider. They can’t even agree on how to pronounce Cuyahoga.
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Well, I would just make the point that if in 2018 Brown could win Ohio by 300,000, next year a Democrat can win by 30,000, like Warnock and Ossoff did in Georgia. I’m not saying this will happen, but I certainly am not counting the Democrats out.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
We have primaries coming up this Tuesday in PA. We were really being bombarded with fliers for the party-recommended choice for one judgeship and I was wondering why. Till I saw in one of the fliers a warning that there were Republican names on the ballot for this Democratic primary.
Other MJS
He Is The Walrus.
Delk
As president he had free hair and makeup artists (ha! Such artistry!) free travel planning, and free travel. Now he has to pay for all it.
dmsilev
The LA Times tells an epic story of stolen valor: The man who didn’t invent Flamin’ Hot Cheetos
The sad thing is that his life is genuinely inspirational. He really did work his way up from janitor to executive at Frito-Lay. It’s just that chili-coated pseudo-cheese snacks had nothing to do with it.
sab
@Geminid: If only we could clone Brown. He’s funny. He’s cheerful. He is charming. He is utterly honest, both in his personal finances and in presenting his policy positions. He is also smart as a whip and knows his state.
There aren’t many other politicians like him coming up in Ohio.
Baud
@Other MJS:
I knew it!
Geminid
@sab: Thanks. It sounds like you live on east side of Cleveland. That west side Congressional district sounds like it’s pretty conservative. But I think Gonzalez carried it by a little over 10 points, which means that for every 11 or so Republican voters, there are 9 Democratic.
J R in WV
@Anoniminous:
I visited our family doc a month ago late Friday afternoon, his shop was nearly empty for once, so we chatted a bit. One of his patients who was hospitalized with pretty serious Covid pneumonia, by the time he was breathing OK on his own, a fairly smart businessman elected to mayor in his small town, had completely lost his wits. Couldn’t even talk, nearly unresponsive.
Son had moved back to family home to help care for dad, take care of business, get power of attorney, etc. Months pass, dad is still basically unaware of anything. Then one morning, Dad say “Where am I? What’s going on?” Seems to have made a nearly full recovery over night.
Others have reported that after being a long-haul covid patient for a long time, then getting a mRNA vaccination spurs a full recovery from many of their symptoms.
Hope no miracle recovery for TFG, tho. Don’t care if that’s evil of me either!
pluky
@West of the Rockies: Florida is already way too hot for him to venture outside, even early in the morning.
dervy scram
What’s wrong with him? He got STOMPED. After non-stop braggadocio about his stam-i-nah, hyoooge glove size, and his out-braining the Generals, he got rolled by a guy he spent months ridiculing as “Sleepy Joe”. How embarrassing. To make “lewsers” seem so unattractive, so unmanly, only to be the biggest one EVER. For five years since the “I like people who weren’t captured” moment we had to endure trump, that rotten fuck, all day every day. Would that we get to see his demise so thoroughly covered.
Geminid
@J R in WV: Maybe trump will wake up one day and ask, “Who am I?” And when people tell him he’s Donald Trump, he’ll say “Trump?!! I really hardly knew the guy…”
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: Got it, thanks!
It’s been so long since I saw Citizen Kane that I remember nothing! Not sure I even saw it way back when!
MomSense
In happier events, my fully vaxxed self is sitting outside at a bar eating a lovely lunch, drinking a beer and listening to music. I’m not wearing my mask! ?
ETA live music!
karen marie
@MomSense: Nothing is stopping him but the cash outlay. He’s not going to get “free” police security like he did when president, and there are cities still waiting to be reimbursed for his 2016 campaign rallies. Every penny paid to an expense is a penny that doesn’t go into his pocket or that of someone he’s buying.
Geoduck
@Delk: Do presidents really get free hair and makeup services? I know they have to pay for their own food while in the White House.
MagdaInBlack
@MomSense: Oh for a good bar cheeseburger and live music!
Enjoy ?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mo MacArbie: “The Former Guy”(TFG) is how the President refers to his predecessor.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m not one to turn away converts, no matter how late their awakening, and I applaud the anti-confederate statement, but I’d a fair amount of quatloos that if I were better googler, I could find images of confederate flags being waved at Bush/Cheney campaign events.
MomSense
@MagdaInBlack:
Stupid me is eating a salad with falafel.
Another Scott
@WaterGirl:
Hehe.
Cheers,
Scott.
debbie
@Geminid:
Every nonsensical moment created by MTG et al. will move the moderates further away. I think lots of Republican moderates are beginning to have had enough of their high school prankings.
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Inside the Capitol building is an entirely different thing.
karen marie
@patrick II: I don’t think Xi is that stupid.
karen marie
@patrick II: I don’t think Xi is that stupid.
Steeplejack
@MomSense, @MagdaInBlack:
I’m looking forward to going back to my own local pub, where in the before times I would drop in every couple of weeks for a burger, onion rings and a pint at the bar. I supported them during the pandemic, but takeout is not the same!
James E Powell
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
If memory serves, the Republicans used the treason flag issue to sink Georgia governor Barnes back in the Bush/Cheney days.
Tom Levenson
@Steeplejack: Same. There’s a bar near me with a back garden that I hope to enjoy very soon.
No live music, alas, but decent burgers and good beer, and the red wine I’ll likely order.
karen marie
@topclimber: Is it just me or has Bush II’s role in Hamas gaining power just been shoved down the memory hole?
MomSense
@Steeplejack:
You are going to love being back there! I’ve missed people and music so much.
Mo MacArbie
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yes, I understand its provenance, but I prefer to go the quisling route and profane his name. If you don’t like it, you can stick it up your trumphole. ;)
JDM
Who’s going to pay for these rallies? Really, that’s a lot of it. You’re the GOP, do you want this loony spouting off and reminding people how loony he is? Are tv shows really going to cover it intensely and favorably like they did when he was the president? Either way, you think it’s going to do you good? You want to PAY for that? So what’s the alternative, Trump pays for his own rallies? Give me a break.
Baud
@MomSense:
I hate people and already miss the virus.
But I’m happy you’re happy.
Steeplejack
@Tom Levenson:
I used to go at late lunchtime on a weekday, and it was nice to be around other people for a bit, even if I was just reading on the phone and not talking to anyone. And sometimes interesting small talk would bubble up.
MomSense
@Baud:
There are a lot of dogs here, B. You could do it!
ian
He’s snapped. Into the loonie beyond. Thank the lord, expect it wont matter one bit to the ravenous plague of zombies intent on returning their emperor to the throne.
Steeplejack
@karen marie:
Bush’s role in everything has been shoved down the memory hole! Trump has completely erased the fact that Dubya was previously the worst president in living memory. Now he’s such a distant second that all people say is “Aw, he’s painting. That’s nice.”
NotMax
@Baud
Mandatory.
:)
WaterGirl
@Tom Levenson: Good to know it’s not just me. As I try on the idea of maybe being ready to eat food from a restaurant, and sit at their outdoor tables, I have chosen the local place that serves burgers and fresh cut fries as the place.
They also have salads, but salad is not going to be my go to for my first not-cooked-by-WaterGirl meal in 15 months.
Another Scott
@JDM:
That’s a big part, but another big part is – Who’s going to pay him to attend? We know that it’s always about the grift and how much he can take. The overhead is astronomical, and people remember that the Tulsa rally was a disaster. Who’s going to promise to pay him, say, $500k + 50% to show up when nobody competent can guarantee enough receipts to even cover the facility expenses?
No, he’ll try to monetize things that don’t require any actual work (his blog, his membership fees, maybe fees to do a pre-recorded virtual speech for some candidate or other).
With any luck, he’ll be even more irrelevant as the backstabbing continues in the GQP.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
@dervy scram:
Oh, that was just the end of the stomping. The final humiliation.
Trump was impeached for attempting to blackmail another country into smearing and then beating Joe Biden.
The whole second half of Trump’s one term was wholly consumed with beating Joe Biden. Tax cut for rich people, impeached for attempting to smear/beat Joe Biden, then being beaten by Joe Biden, then insurrection- again, Joe Biden. That’s the story of Trump’s single term.
lowtechcyclist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I’m confused. Every usage of the phrase “Big Lie” that I’ve seen clearly referred to the claim that Trump really won the 2020 election, but the Dems stole it from him by fraudulent means.
IOW, the Big Lie fueled the January 6th insurrection, and justifies (in their minds) the wave of voter suppression legislation that’s going on right now. But they’re not the Big Lie, they’re its downstream consequences.
MomSense
@Steeplejack:
In my lifetime the pattern has been – Republican fucks shit up. Democrat comes in and spends two years unfucking the Republican mess only to have voters punish them for not doing enough (lefties) and doing too much (righties). Then they have to just coast competently for two or six years only to be followed by an even worse Republican who makes an even bigger mess.
Rinse repeat.
JoyceH
@JDM:
Kinda what I thought. And yet, he apparently THINKS he’s going to be holding rallies and what staff he has appears to think so too. I saw an article just the other day with some spokesperson for Trump saying they’d be starting up with rallies soon.
Last year all he’d have to do is say he wanted to have a rally, and among the executive branch, the national party organization and the campaign staff, it would get put together. But what staff does he HAVE anymore? What funding? I know he’s pulled in millions from his rubes for Stop The Steal fundraising, but does he really want to spend his own money?
I wish he could/would put a rally together, to be honest. I’d like to see who and how many people show up. Might give us a snapshot into the size of the problem.
MomSense
@Kay:
Meanwhile the country was thinking Sleepy sounds pretty damned good after four years of trumpsomnia.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: The Beast recently made some petulant reference to “St Joe” or something like that. He’s still watching enough non-Fox TV to be jealous and bitter. Probably Morning Joseph.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Dearly love well made onion rings (as opposed to the passable in a pinch ones too many places foist on their customers). As the years have passed, however, they are a rare indulgence as fried foods and the innards have become prone to enacting an episode of The Bickersons.
Kay
FWIW, I think he’s definitely running again and it will be fun to watch because the primary will be an absolute shit show.
Not only can’t his primary opponents in the GOP criticize him or run against him in any way, they can’t admit he’s isn’t the sitting President. What do you think he’s going to spend 12 months talking about? He’s going to talk about how he didn’t really lose. Every debate, every interview, and none of his primary opponents will be able to contradict him. They’ll stand there like the potted plants they were born to be and nod their heads as he rants about the broken seals on the ballot boxes in Arizona.
That’s if he allows a primary at all. He could simply announce he’s the only candidate and every fucking one of them would go along with it because if they don’t he shoots the hostage, which is the Republican Party. They made a deal with the devil and the devil dictates the terms. He decides.
Tom Levenson
@WaterGirl: wise choice.
artem1s
@Geminid:
This is NOT an east side/west side Cleveland district. It’s a suburban district largely south of Cleveland that stretches into several rural counties. It’s night and day. Cleveland has NO elected officials that are republicans. The West side of Cleveland has just as many Democratic voters as the East Side. Set one foot outside the city and then you are looking a mostly unincorporated townships that were nothing but farmland and a one-stop-light villages until White Flight in the 70s. The older, inner ring suburbs are generally more liberal but also more gentrified – and the residents are quick to make the point that they don’t reside in CLE, they reside in the Heights or Lakewood. Cleveland is where the poor White and Blacks live. No one wants anyone to think their kids are going to school in CLE, mind you.
dmsilev
@Kay: Even if he didn’t issue a no-primary decree, there effectively wouldn’t be one if he ran (and, like you, I think it’s very very likely he will). He’s very popular with the GOP base, as the whole Cheney Affair made very clear. How does someone (a) seek the support of that base while (b) oppose Trump’s run?
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
I’m with you on finding good rings. My local (Dogfish Head Alehouse) has genuinely good ones, enhanced by some “Cajun/Creole” (?) dipping sauce that is way better than mere ketchup. The also excellent cheddar bacon burger is almost the side dish.
Damn, I’ma have to get over there pretty soon.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Conversation from earlier this month.
Mom: “Why don’t you splurge for your birthday and get take-out from a really good restaurant?”
NotMax: “Frankly, because my cooking is better than any place reasonably nearby.”
;)
MomSense
@Steeplejack:
Five Islands Lobster Co. makes the best onion rings and they are delicious with their homemade tartar sauce – lots of fresh dill.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: I have a theory that insurgent candidacies are effective when the insurgent runs against another candidate rather than for something. Ross Perot for most of his campaign was running against HW Bush. Ralph Nader ran against Al Gore. I swear there’s another example… anyway, it’ll be interesting, if The Beast is in physical shape to run, if Liz Cheney decided to run against trump in that way. I think Dick Jr, as Dick Nixon would say, knows how to hate.
Kay
How do they run against him in a primary? They have to kiss his ass and he’s their competition. After they finish the obligatory Trump ass-kissing and fawning and pretending to be him why pick any of them? Why not just pick the real thing? They can’t even admit he lost. They’re not allowed to.
If Joe Biden took the term that Trump rightfully earned – and that is the lie they sold their base- what is the possible justification for not giving him the nomination in 2024? My God, it would be another theft, and this one would be done by the Republican Party. There’s no “choice” involved in this for Republicans. The events will be wholly dictated by Donald Trump. This is the deal they made.
Maybe they’re counting on him dropping dead, but I wouldn’t take that bet. Mean-spirited assholes live forever. They should hope he gets indicted. It’s the only way out.
MagdaInBlack
@Steeplejack: You’re killin’ me here ?
jnfr
I never thought he was a well person, really. I see no reason to change my mind.
Steeplejack
@MomSense:
Mmm, tartar sauce. Sounds like a good combo.
Geminid
@artem1s: Well, I did not say Anthony Gonzales’ district was an east-side, west-side district, but that people interviewed in an article on the primary were speculating on whether there might be animus towards carpetbagger Max Miller on account of his Shaker Heights origin. And while much of the district may be south of Cleveland, I believe it’s northern border is on Lake Erie, due west of Cleveland.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Liz Cheney is making rational choices in an environment with very few options, let alone “good” options.
If they split in two they lose. She knows that. But she can’t accept the terms of the deal the GOP made with Trump, because then Trump dictates the future of the GOP. Her only option is to attempt to get the Party to go in a different direction. There’s only two choices and one of them is Trump. She had no other choice. None of them do.
Steeplejack
@MagdaInBlack:
I’m torturing myself! Hmm, maybe tomorrow . . .
Kay
This would never happen but say it did. Obama loses to Romney in 2012 and Obama and the Democrats tell the D base Romney stole the election. Obama himself advances this lie every day and all the Democrats go along. What happens in 2016? Obama’s the nominee. He has to be. The only way he isn’t is if he voluntarily relinquishes the nomination and chooses a successor.
Steeplejack
@Kay:
I hadn’t thought about this much, but I think you’re right. If Trump is (relatively) healthy and lucid in ’24—big ifs!—and he wants the nomination, it’s hard to see how the GQP threads the needle to deny him. But that is a long way off.
JoyceH
To be honest, I don’t think Cheney could have made nice with Trump if she’d wanted to. As someone pointed out the other day, Trump seem to have a particular animus for the Great Families of the GOP – the Cheneys and the Bushes and the Romneys. He goes after the members of those clans with particular vitriol, probably because he sees them as rival power centers. He probably wouldn’t accept her as an acolyte even if she’d been willing to bend the knee.
Tom Levenson
@MomSense: 5 Islands! My inlaws have a place on the Sheepscot (up by Robinhood) and we would sail for the day and end up at 5 Islands. Fried oysters and onion rings after a day on the water. Heaven on earth.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Putting all their eggs in one casket, as it were.
//
Anomalous Cowherd
@Uncle Jeffy:
uh, how do we tell where they end and the rest of him begins? Asking for a friend…
Kay
@Steeplejack:
Try it another way. Time passes and Republicans dare to field an actual primary. Trump is one of the primary candidates. He loses. Does he graciously accept that defeat? Fuck no. He does the same thing he’s doing now. It doesn’t really matter if one of them beats him. He’ll say he won, and take 40 or 25 or 20 or 10% of their voters with him.
MomSense
@Tom Levenson:
We kayak out of five islands. I have a group of very close friends who all live in Georgetown. One of them is a kayak builder in Robinhood. We paddle and then gather for food and wine every weekend.
cckids
@MagdaInBlack:
It’s designed so that the media, or DT’s fans, can pick tweetable chunks & get his views out. It gets him on Twitter even though he’s banned.
We can point & laugh at his “social media platform “ cosplay, but it is functioning as they want it to.
Tim C.
@Anoniminous @smith: This was my thought as well. He was so effed up during his trip to Walter Reed that he could only manage a 13 second message; likewise, his staff clearly thought he was dying then. And the health issues were there before hand too. Long Covid and declining health mean I’m betting he can’t run in 24.
NotMax
Crikey, what a jerkwad.
VOR
@Mo MacArbie: President Biden once referred to Trump as “The Former Guy” – TFG. It’s a way of referring to the ex-President without using the name.
James E Powell
@debbie:
EveryoneMany people keep saying this, but I see no evidence that is happening or will happen.If the majority of white people didn’t fully support voter suppression and other anti-democratic measures, the Republicans would not be doing it.
To the extent that Republican voters even allow that their elected officials actions might be less than perfect, they respond with a what-about.
MomSense
@Kay:
I don’t think he will run. He doesn’t have the stamina anymore and I don’t even think Q need him at this point. His health will only continue to deteriorate.
Steeplejack
@Kay:
True. ?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@James E Powell: I think most people don’t make the connection between their Senator/Rep and the national party, or national issues, the way we do. Susan Collins’ reelection is probably the best example of that. It’s a lesson I learned, even if I sometimes forget, in ’06, when Lieberman survived even though Bush and the war were very unpopular in CT. The explanation I saw most often was “he saved the New London naval base”
zhena gogolia
Please God:
Fair Economist
@Kay: I think Liz Cheney understands the nature of fascist rule – that it sucks for everybody, because the strongman views his “allies” as being as much of a threat to him as his enemies. As the scion of a pre-existing Republican power family, she’s on the chopping block – perhaps literally – if Trump manages the autogolpe he’s aiming for.
It sucks down the line too. The bourgeois business owners that helped Orban gain power are now getting party apparatchiks coming to them and saying “sell your business for a song or we’ll gin up some new laws or charges to put you out of business”. Never mind all the Russian oligarchs who got Novichoked, or just chucked out of a highrise window. Fundamentally, fascism is a looter’s system. It consumes everything.
The depressing part is how few other Republicans get it.
All true, but I can’t imagine him losing a Republican primary at this point.
zhena gogolia
@MomSense:
Right.
dmsilev
@MomSense: At least for the primary, how much stamina would he need? Fundraising is all getting your staff to blast out emails to the faithful, rallies are in his own schedule, and it’s not like he’d spend much time in things like debate prep. Assuming that there were debates, of course.
General election would be another story.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Fair Economist:
or they assume they’ll always be among the favored.
Another Scott
@Kay: As you say, it would never happen.
But remember, he didn’t really want to win in 2016. He wanted to prove he was an actual BMOC and do well enough to serve as the official opposition to a Hillary Administration, build up his TV show/network, rake in the bucks, and make Manhattanites kiss his ring.
He’s kinda in that position now (except for being broke and not having a TV show). Why would he actually want the headaches of being President again? It interferes with his golf game, and having all sorts of people who swore an oath to the Constitution rather than to him personally cramps his grifting.
He’ll try to stay in the news, try to make the GQP pay attention to him and pay him, but he won’t seriously run IMHO.
There’s still a DSW or few of shoes to drop about his and his minions’ actions, also too. It’s not going to get easier for him…
The GQP is lined up behind him now, but the knives are being sharpened. Too many ambitious people see 2024 as their time and they’re not going to quietly let some brain damaged old man decide. “Let TFG be TFG!! Eric and Jr are trying a coup!!11” Etc., etc.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
Coming late to the thread and am interested in looking over the responses.
It is crazy, but obvious that we, the people are being manipulated. To what ends I do not know.
Trumpism is still everywhere, but Trump himself is nowhere to be seen. Nor any of his vile spawn or minions, or hacks like Maggie Haberman. It’s as though the entire circus has been packed up and shut down, leaving only vague memories of a bad experience.
But Trump supposedly needed that center ring under the big top. What happened. I don’t really care about him, his feelings, or whether he feels dejected as well as unelected and de-selected. But I do care that we as a nation have been played for fools by villains who are feverishly coming up their next set of tricks.
Kay
The way the current GOP strategy makes sense is like this:
They cede the 2024 race to Trump. Internally of course- they’ll never admit but we’ll know it because he will “clear the field” – smarter Republicans will wait for an open race in 2028. If he wins, great, if he loses no biggy, they come back in ’28 having shed his baggage. Biden is an incumbent and most incumbents win so it was a longer shot anyway.
They keep the Trumpists on board and take Congress, but give Trump the 2024 Presidential race to lose. He was going to get it anyway. In the meantime they take Congress by hanging onto the Trumpists and get rid of Trump by having him lose to Biden a second time, a race they were probably going to lose anyway.
Geminid
@James E Powell:
@James E Powell: There really is no evidence to be seen now as to how Republican voters are moving. Republican electeds try to reflect what they think these voters feel, but they are apt to hear the loudest ones and act accordingly. I don’t think we will have solid evidence of what Republican voters want until next year. Thst is why I am interested in next year’s primaries for midwestern impeachers like Gonzales, Upton, Meijer, and Kinzinger.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay:
The reason this couldn’t happen is that in this case, the big media pillory him as the second coming of Sore Loserman, and since they are not Republicans, the Democrats back down amid general hilarity and find somebody else to nominate (who probably loses, because they have to run away from the sore-loser narrative)
Nobody who performs neutrality is afraid of Democrats in quite the way they are of Republicans.
dmsilev
@Another Scott: Yes, but from his point of view, whoever does end up winning the primary will inevitably supplant him. Sure, that whoever will make a show of asking for his support and I’m sure Trump would milk that for all it’s worth, but sooner or later it would be his sunset.
Unpossible.
Ruckus
@Uncle Jeffy:
I always thought he is a hemorrhoid.
@MomSense:
The republican masses seem to like him, maybe because he spoke their language so to speak. Maybe they feel they can’t abandon him, all of their base believes in him. And they like the power they have, the control, the money, the attention. Attention whores like attention, they aren’t usually too concerned as to why they are getting attention.
Kay
So the presumptive GOP Trump primary challengers aren’t kissing his ass for 2024. They’re kissing his ass for 2028, when he’s not a candidate. They don’t expect to win in 2024. They expect to win in 2022 and 2026 and 2028.
topclimber
@karen marie: I missed that one. Maybe you can expand your thoughts on a non-terminal thread.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: I suspect people like DeSantis, Haley and Hawley are trying to game out trump and ’24, but McCarthy and McConnell are focused on 2022, and what role he can play, and still dreaming they can make him follow their script.
Another Scott
@dmsilev: Good points, but narcissists always find a way to move on. He’s been a failure at everything except “The Apprentice”. That was his pot-o-gold. He wanted to get that magic back.
We’ll see.
In the meantime, Uncle Joe is getting it done. Yay!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Warblewarble
How many children need die under the bombs before the U.S. will support a ceasefire?
Sure Lurkalot
@dmsilev: I think it’s likely he would run if the election were this year. I may not be as strident as Tom Joseph but I do think it’s clear from observation of videos over the years that TFG has deteriorated in ways more than attributable to age.
debbie
@Kay:
He may think he’ll win bigly, but his base won’t carry him over the line. He needs the moderates to win. I wonder what he can promise them to get their votes?
zhena gogolia
@Warblewarble:
You mean like this?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/05/16/predawn-israeli-airstrikes-kill-23-gaza-biden-regional-partners-urge-cease-fire/
debbie
@JoyceH:
He goes after them because they looked down on him for decades. Nothing more than spiteful revenge.
debbie
@zhena gogolia:
I always thought that cover story about McCarthy flying down to Xanadu to ask for Trump’s donor list was totally bogus.
Geminid
@Kay: Virginia Republican leaders know they have a divided party, and now try to unite the two wings by nominating what I would call hybrid candidates, like Governor nominee Glenn Youngkin. Republicans have been getting killed in the suburbs and losing among Independents, so Youngkin, a facile communicator, speaks out of one side of his mouth to reassure moderate suburbanites that he is no radical. He speaks out of the other side of his mouth to the hard right, using coded language to appeal to gun nuts and conservative evangelicals. If Youngkin were to win, this could be a template to apply to Republican campaigns in purple states. But I don’t think he will win. The Republican embrace of the tea party cranks and bible thumpers has really damaged their brand among moderate Virginians, and trump aggravated that dynamic.
Sure Lurkalot
@Kay:
How is Liz going in a different direction? As I posted earlier, she voted for the guy just 6 months ago despite his railing about election rigging for years. She’s all in on most everything he “accomplished” as is demonstrated by her voting record. She goes on TV and rails about socialism like they all do. For all her talk about democracy, she does not promote fair voting access or an end to gerrymandering. Her only difference is not selling the big lie. She and her ilk care not one whit about democracy.
Mike in NC
I don’t get all this “will Trump run in 2024?” nonsense.
Prior to January 6, he was ‘merely’ a career white-collar criminal. After January 6, he was a domestic terrorist who launched an attack on our government that killed five people, injured scores more, and caused millions of dollars in damage.
He’s also responsible for the deaths and injuries to any Asian-Americans attacked by his goons after he spouted off about the “China virus” and “Kung flu” (how cute). He also completely fucked up the handling of the pandemic which has killed possibly up to a million Americans.
Are we supposed to believe Republicans want us to forget all of that and let bygones be bygones? Jesus wept.
debbie
@Sure Lurkalot:
I think it was the insurrection that changed her thinking. Minus that, she would still be with him.
MagdaInBlack
@Sure Lurkalot: She’s setting herself up for a presidential run.
mrmoshpotato
@Tony Jay:
Bury him next to Reagan, and Moscow Bitch next to him. Line ’em up and piss ’em down.
germy
Area substacker never lets a crisis go to waste:
Gvg
@James E Powell: There is plenty of evidence. The percent of the US a population identifying as Republican keeps going down. It’s actually been going down since Bush, though not fast enough for me. It’s gone down since the election and the insurrection too.
too bloody slow though.
Baud
@germy:
What if you just care more about making Glenn Greenwald mad?
germy
@Baud:
Say his name three times and he will appear.
And he will be mad.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
trump is that one horse gadfly. The one that sees only himself, even without a mirror. He is popular with the republican rabble because he is a massive racist and that is their number one issue. They have been told over and over that the people screwing them are minorities, while the entire time it is the people they elect to serve them and those who only serve themselves. People who do nothing but screw over their supporters have to redirect that anger or get lynched. trump is their perfect leader. He believes in money as the only thing important in the world, as do the people screwing everyone to get more. Which of course they deserve because they screwed people to get what they’ve got, so they should be able to screw more people to get more money. And trump has portrayed himself as one of the very wealthy in order to screw people to get more. The fact that he lies easier than breathing is not just important to getting more, it is the process that got him where he is. The real problem is that life supports those like him, most of whom are better at cheating than he is and those who aren’t as good at it support him because he is better at it than them. And current American life supports them better than people who actually accomplish anything solid and real.
Geminid
@Geminid: Also, Youngkin could only get by with an all-things-to-all -people approach because Virginia Republicans selected their nominee with a convention. Youngkin will now try to get by as long as he can pretending to be a moderate conservative, and the media may let him. But the Democrats will almost certainly nominate Terry McAuliffe, not just because he is a well funded successful former Governor, but also because he is thought to be a ruthless fighter. McAuliffe will be relentless in calling out Youngkin’s deceptive moderation, and making him take a stand on issues like women’s rights and gun safety. The Republicans will try to woo the Independents while putting the Democrats to sleep, but Virginia Demicrats are not going to sleep through this one.
J R in WV
A mother deer has stashed her fawn in a bed of ajuga and mayapples about 15 feet from the front door. Tiny little creature, lovely head peeking from the flowers.
Now the young dogs have seen the little fawn, and want out in the worst way… I’m sure mom will be back around dark, but the boy hound is starting to whimper and moan. I hope I can stand it for 3 more hours…
Now I’m reading in bed, and finally both pups are in bed with me, being quiet, this may work out yet. Wish us luck! I dunno what I’ll do if mom doesn’t show!
sdhays
@Kay: If Dump decides he wants to run in 2024, I don’t think they’ll have a primary, just like they didn’t have a primary in 2020. As you point out, he’d win if they had one, but if there is an actual primary, someone will run against him – probably a never-trumper, and it will be embarrassing for the party, particularly if the person gets decent funding (and you know Dump won’t take it well).
Bill Arnold
@MagdaInBlack:
If you search twitter for their text, you’ll find plenty of MAGA types amplifying them, including the egregious lies.
The Pale Scot
@germy:
How exactly does the SS handle that? Palm Beach Sheriff shows up at 6am, acceding to the local politics who want TFG gone. More likely the FBI gents this task. And it’s just a shame that the agents wouldn’t be the clique of fascists in the NYC office who helped put hm in
Geminid
@sdhays: I think there will be Republican primaries in 2024 even if trump runs. And while I don’t know about the others that are often pegged as potential contenders, I think Chris Christie won’t be afraid to run against trump. Christie was a loyal supporter of trump as president, but the assertion, “we need to move on” may appeal to a lot of Republicans by January, 2024. Christie may be an asshole, but he does not seem to lack in self-confidence or self-esteem.
Matt McIrvin
@Mike in NC:
No, the idea is that they’ll fill enough state legislatures and Congressional seats with ride-or-die Trump loyalists in 2022 that they can simply reinstall Trump using a variety of procedural tricks, mostly likely declaring Democratic wins illegitimate and overriding them. Our votes in 2024 won’t matter at all.
MagdaInBlack
@Bill Arnold:
I guess what I mean is they aren’t megaphoned at me every morning in headlines and every news outlet. They do turn up but not in the same way. I recognize the purpose of his postings, and yes, its working in getting to his base. But it isn’t quite the feeding frenzy it was and he isn’t getting his “attention fix” in quite the same strength as before , or so I’d like to believe.
different-church-lady
A wise psychologist friend once told me: loss of status hurts the human psyche more than never having that status in the first place.
Not being president anymore is KILLING that guy inside.
Geminid
@The Pale Scot: I think if trump is to arrested, arrangements will be worked out at a high level, probably between Treasury Secretary Yellen’s and Attorney General Garland’s Deputies, with Yellen and Garland signing off on the plan.
Tom Levenson
@MomSense: Lovely!
Tehanu
@JoyceH:
Absolutely. The idea that anyone else is “better” than he is makes him crazy and always has.
@Fair Economist:
Totally agree. I read once that the extent to which the Holocaust was the biggest robbery in history — not “Just” the biggest mass murder — isn’t really understood.
Bill Arnold
@MagdaInBlack:
Oh yeah, absolutely.
It’s definitely contributing to his misery.
Another effect I’m seeing is that his web site postings are longer, and while the density of incoherence is about as high as with his tweets, the web site postings are more clearly incoherent, and pathetic.
(Have notread all of them though, just enough to sample verbalizations of his mind state.)
Skepticat
Blissful quiet and sanity. IF ONLY.
BK in NJ (was BK in NC)
@Mike in NC: Could we just tell Israel that Hamas has a headquarters there?