Here’s where I’m at on 2024:* It’s better for Democrats if our opponent is the baby-fingered, twice-impeached, two-time popular vote loser. But does the citrus-tinted gasbag have another presidential campaign in him? Maybe not. The Hair Furor comeback tour is getting mixed results.
Elected Republicans are still sucking up. Lindsey Graham, with a remora’s instinct for attaching himself to the strongest apex predator, still has his suction cup firmly affixed to Trump’s flabby orange ass. In a coordinated show of loyalty, the South Carolinian ripped his nominal leader Mitch McConnell on Fox News Sunday, according to WaPo’s account:
Graham had reportedly warned his GOP colleagues that McConnell had “led them on a charge up a hill and they were getting shot in the back” on the [debt ceiling] issue, according to the Hill. Asked whether it was “really such a big deal” on Sunday, Graham said it was and asserted it would have implications for the midterm elections next year.
“It was a big deal to me,” he told Wallace. “If we’re going to be successful in 2022, we’re going to have to work together as a team. And here’s what I would say to every Republican: If you want to be … a Republican leader in the House or the Senate and you don’t have a working relationship with Donald Trump, you cannot be effective. So, I hope we’ll get on the same page here.”
Maybe Graham imagines himself in McConnell’s office. Meanwhile, Trump issued a weird statement on his obscure website, calling McConnell a “Broken Old Crow” who’s hurting the Republicans’ chance to make gains in the midterm elections.
But if the response in Florida is any indication, the rubes’ interest in the comeback tour is waning, judging by attendance at the two Florida rallies held this weekend. From The Orlando Sentinel:
Guests began entering when the gates opened at noon. But just like at the kickoff event in South Florida on Saturday, turnout was light enough that ticketholders for upper bowl seats were told they could sit in the lower section instead. Trump’s representatives had predicted the shows would sell out.
Tickets started at $100, with VIP seats reportedly costing thousands more. But by Sunday morning, prices for some tickets had dropped to as low as $40.
Trump was accompanied by fellow geriatric sexual harasser Bill O’Reilly at the Orlando event, which featured an O’Reilly “interview” of Trump. Things got a bit awkward when O’Reilly mentioned FL Governor Ron DeSantis as a potential 2024 running mate:
Trump equivocated, saying, “I think that people are going to be very happy with what I do. … He’s certainly somebody that I like a lot.”
Trump, who in a tweet endorsed DeSantis in the 2018 Republican primary, took full credit for the governor’s narrow victory.
“One day, he came to see me and he said, ‘It’s really important, I’d like to run for governor of Florida.’ I said, ‘Ron, people don’t know you as the guy that’s gonna run for governor.’ … Nobody knew him.”
They knew him not! Apparently Trump points out that he made DeSantis all the time, which is true enough. But the vain cockwaffle Trump is jealous of his own creation, and maybe he has reason to be — perhaps he senses a shift in the mob’s allegiance. Here’s what a rally-goer told a reporter outside the event:
Crystal Sparks, 57, said she traveled to Orlando from La Plata, Maryland. Her friend Emily Jennings, 54, from Daytona Beach, bought them floor tickets for $365 each.
“They’re [the Biden admin] telling people how they will live, how they will talk, and how they will think,” she said. “It has impacted the way my grandchildren are raised, what they learn in school, to the point where my son actually took his children out of school to homeschool them full-time.”
She said she plans to move to Florida as soon as possible so she can live under DeSantis’ leadership.
It will never not be terrifying for the leader of an authoritarian fascist cult to have a less than zero chance of becoming POTUS. I’d rather have our candidate face the proven loser.
Open thread.
*Is discussing potential 2024 presidential matchups putting the cart before the horse? Probably, if politics is your job. But it’s not our job. We’re just bullshitting on a blog, in an open thread where no one is even required to address the topic, so it’s okay.
John S.
The Dolchstoßlegende is strong with that one.
Van Buren
When LaPlata is too progressive for you, you may as well just wear the robe and hood full time.
ETA, I am officially a geezer. Turned 60 today.
JPL
trump appears to be concerned about the Governor of Death running for president.
MagdaInBlack
@Van Buren: Happy Birthday. I passed that threshold 3 years ago. It’s not bad, you get to be extra cranky ?
Matt McIrvin
It is not better for Democrats if Trump runs again, because he’s both the most likely candidate to win outright, and the most likely candidate to be installed in a coup of some variety (perhaps even a 100% legal one) if he loses. Better than even chance the presidency is his to take. Wishing for him is still the same mistake as in 2016.
Van Buren
@MagdaInBlack: My son tells me I used to be nice but now am always crabby.
RandomMonster
I’m too low energy at this time of morning.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Van Buren:
That’s exactly what I was thinking. Good ole southern Maryland, places like La Plata and Waldorf, or as we called it “The Dorf”. Nothing but crackers.
Betty Cracker
@Matt McIrvin: I disagree because of DeSantis, who I think would be a much stronger candidate for the Repubs and a much worse president if it came to that, FSM forbid.
NotMax
Noted earlier than I’m a newcomer to Hulu (got sucked into their 99 cents per month for a year special offer last month) and have been glued to an espionage trilogy about which had been curious for some time.
Deutschlamd 83: rock solid A (ambitious and suspenseful, twisty without becoming byzantine)
Deustchland 86: A- (succumbs to the problems of trying to keep too many balls in the air)
Deustchland 89: B+ (the underlying historical political drama is so vast it butts up against overwhelming the scope of the script)
.
Don’t take what may seem negative above as an indication not to watch – in order, as the core cast remains the same – the whole is more than worth the time, IMHO. Minor but niggling annoyance is that the embedded subtitles are in white text with no contrasting background; they are occasionally washed out by bedclothes, clouds, stark bare walls or the like.
@Van Buren
Happy birthday! Your geezerdom membership card will be arriving in due time, by oxcart.
Baud
Surely there are liberals who move away from red state hellholes. Where are their stories?
Baud
@Van Buren:
??????
debbie
@Matt McIrvin:
I agree. With all the talk of Fake News bullshit and Big Steal nonsense, TFG is still a very present danger to democracy.
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: DeSantis might be objectively worse but I think Trump still retains more of the cult energy. I suppose we don’t have any control over this anyway.
NotMax
Found this tidbit inside an article on the new West Side Story.
Baud
@NotMax:
But not Texas?
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: I think a DeSantis or a Pompeo could make trumpist fascism work better than trump himself. They are smarter and not nearly as lazy. And trump has surrounded himself with second rate henchmen.
MattF
There’s no end of Trump wannabes, so if he doesn’t run there will be an immediate fight for the votes of his cultists. Guaranteed to be as ugly as possible.
Betty Cracker
Amusing account of election night 2020 from Mark Meadows’ crappy book, as reported in TPM:
Meadows then called a Fox News editor in a rage:
LOL!
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: If what I see here in Florida holds true elsewhere, I agree DeSantis is a much more viable candidate than Trump (leaving coups out of the equation). Here’s a serial liar who’s been a disaster in COVID response, rebelling against the Feds and suppressing local dissent (or even unfavorable facts) and……Republicans now outnumber Democrats in registered voters. He shits on the people and they scarf it down like Halloween candy. I have a bad feeling that his popularity here will climb right along with the death tolls from each new COVID wave. (Speaking of which, I guess we’re due for a new one starting within the next couple of weeks. Swell.)
Wanderer
@Betty Cracker: Great descriptive phrases of TFG.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Too dense to figure out how to keep a list of contacts stored on the phone?
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: trump still inspires fierce devotion among his following. But there is a lot of trump fatigue among other Republicans, and especially among Independents. That would hurt him in a general election.
Republican election officials would be as or more willing to subvert elections for DeSantis or Pompeo as they would be for trump.
debbie
@Cameron:
I can’t tell who your “he” refers to, DeSantis or TFG. Help?
Cameron
@Baud: There are stories that some have tried. They head towards the airport….or I-95…..and vanish……
SiubhanDuinne
After having been sent home, my brother’s been back in the hospital for a few days, with not just Covid but also COPD, pneumonia, and emphysema. And a blood clot in one lung, and another blood clot in his leg. As long as he lay still, his blood oxygen remained at 90, but the minute he stood up and took a step, it plummeted to 70. Same with his blood pressure — it dropped precipitously every time he got vertical. The hospital was on the verge of transferring him to a specialised rehab place, and then last night he had a heart attack. They put in one stent and will do a second in a few days.
Not a restful night, and that’s just me. I don’t pray, so I don’t ask for prayers, but if you care to send them his way, they couldn’t hurt (or healing thoughts, white light, etc.)
P.S. He has apparently expressed willingness to get the Covid vaccine!!
SiubhanDuinne
@Van Buren:
Happy birthday! You are now officially a sexygenarian!
Cameron
@debbie: Sorry – I meant DeSantis.
lowtechcyclist
As far as who’s the most dangerous Repub for 2024, my predictometer was broken by 2016, and I’ve been unable to get it repaired ever since. I used to think I had some political intuition, but I really don’t anymore.
My main advice is for Democrats: give your own people ample reason to show up. There aren’t that many people in the middle anymore, and they’re almost all low-info voters, because you really have to be pretty oblivious to be on the fence between Italian on the one hand, and tire rims and anthrax on the other.
MJS
@NotMax: Or too dense to go into his list of recent calls and hitting the little phone icon.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
As you should know, there will always be a reason not to show up to vote for Dems. We can’t outrun the propaganda.
lowtechcyclist
@Betty Cracker: As if Fox News had made it happen!
Of course, what his anger was surely about was that Fox was making it harder to convince the public that the overturning of the election was merely the resolving of a muddled result. Now it had to be all about fraud, and that would be a harder sell outside his base.
lowtechcyclist
Well yeah, but do you give up because there are factors beyond your control? Or do you do the best you can with those you can do something about?
debbie
@SiubhanDuinne:
I’m hoping for the best outcome for your brother. I’m hoping even more that he follows through and gets vaccinated.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone???
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
I didnt say give up. Dems should do the best they can. But they always do. There’s no better Dem party waiting out there in the wings.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
rikyrah
@Van Buren:
Happy Birthday????
debbie
@Cameron:
Thanks. I think it will certainly be ugly if they battle each other, but none of them will be unwounded. Maybe the vicious infighting is exactly what the country needs to get past this.
PST
@Van Buren: Sixty”s nothing. Eighty is the new geezer.
Wag
Baud
Elon Musk is Time Person of the Year.
debbie
@Baud:
If that’s not evidence of this country’s misplaced priorities, I don’t know what is.
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: I’m so sorry and hoping for the best outcome for him.
Cameron
@debbie: Several will enter the arena….only one will come out….they call it Thundermug…..
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Gross. I’m glad “Time Person of the Year” doesn’t carry the prestige it once did.
Geminid
@MattF: Chris Christie will run no matter what trump does. I don’t think Christie can win the Republican nomination, but Chistie believes in Christie and he’s going to try. He’ll probably announce after the Midterms, and may induce others to get off the fence and into the race.
DeSantis and Pompeo may well defer to trump. The 2028 election might not seem too far away to them.
debbie
@Geminid:
Patiently wait until 2028? No way.
Cameron
@Baud: And in 1938 it was Adolf Hitler.
John S.
@Baud:
Time seems to have a soft spot for preening megalomaniacs.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I remember when I was Time Person of the Year. Those were better times.
Cameron
@Geminid: And we’ll see the greatest explosion of a gas bag in NJ since the Hindenburg.
Baud
@John S.:
See my comment above at #51.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
That is a grotesque choice.
debbie
@Baud:
Heh. I remember ordering a box of Wheaties with my youngest brother’s football photo on it. He loved it!
Spanky
@Baud: Time periodically reminds us that “Person if the Year” is not an endorsement, merely a judgement of their influence on the world.
So why not Anthony Fauci or Joe Biden?
trnc
Mostly agree, although if repubs take congress in 22, there’s no reason to think they wouldn’t certify whichever republican is nominated in 2024, win or lose. We keep hearing about Biden impeachment, but if they can somehow run Harris out of office, they refuse to vote on a VP replacement and then she’s out of the way for the vote certification.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist:It is true that there are not that many actual swing voters anymore. But there are still plenty of people in the middle, and that’s not neccesarily because they are low information voters. Democratic have been winning majorities within this group not because the party is so left, but because Republicans are so hard right.
Jerry
You can’t tell me what to say in this thread, Betty! If I want to talk about the 2024 elections in here, I will! That’s it, I’m taking my kid out of a really great public school system (Wake County, NC) and will home school her full time even I don’t know shit about shit!
Spanky
@Geminid: One thing we have going for us in Christie; he holds a grudge, and he’s got a major one against tfg. No chance he’ll win, but a fair chance he’ll bloody him up a bit.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Van Buren: My dear child. 60 is the new 50
trnc
I assume his comment on the national debt is what put him over the top.
Jinchi
This was the standard take in 2015. I strongly disagreed then and I disagree even more strongly now. TFG may be a only symptom of a deeply corrupted Republican party, but his candidacy allowed and encouraged them to embrace their worst instincts. He normalized racism and violence in political discourse and gave open encouragement to the worst members of society. Hate crimes and political violence spiked. Murderers are celebrated as heros. Sitting members of Congress and state legislatures recruited and aided people who threatened assassination against their rivals.
Their party and our country are worse off because of him. Even if he loses a contest in 2024, he will carry along many others with him.
People like Boebert, Gosar and Greene, continue to win in races across the country. We have to stop hoping for the worst possible Republican to run against, because many of those people will end up in power.
chrome agnomen
@PST: glad to get confirmation of that, since 70 is a ways in the rearview mirror.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
If we had a political journalist class with any sense, they’d have been asking Miss Lindsay why they need to be in leadership, what their goals would be, why those goals are there and how those preferred policies would benefit the broader public without resorting to platitudes.
They’d also be asking people why they still support Biden.
Of course, given their current state, while they’re at it, they could send Scarlett Johansen over to my house, willing to engage in a boozy threesome – because THAT’S just as likely to occur.
trnc
@Baud: That explains a lot about 2006.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Baud:
I’ll remind everyone – Hitler made that list.
Baud
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Wasn’t Hitler considered one of the good guys at the time?
trnc
@Spanky: Have they awarded sitting presidents before? Seems like they have world impact by default. Agree that Fauci would have been a far better choice than Musk, strictly in terms of impact. What did Musk get it for – Space X, which will allow a few millionaires to live out a fantasy?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Baud:
Given the eternal proclivity of the New York money assholes and their paid for press? Probably.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@SiubhanDuinne: Sorry for your brother’s continued health problems. I’m not sure he can get the vaccine so close to having the disease, but his willingness shows he can learn
I’m still recovering files and bookmarks and programs from my computer’s big crash Saturday night. Thank god I had most things backed up.
Butter Emails!
@Jinchi:
They’re all the worst people. You’re just choosing between the mask they wear and the competency with which they’ll carry out their agenda.
Geminid
@debbie: DeSantis will have to weigh trump’s strength when they decide. The nomination might not be worth much if they beat trump and his fanatics stay home. They may decide that keeping their MAGA cred intact for 2028 is the more prudent course. DeSantis is fairly young. Pompeo is older, but now he looks like he’s ready for the long haul.
And there’s more! Paul Ryan will be rested and ready, after shrewdly stepping back from elective politics in 2018.
The 2024 Republican race will be conditioned by next year’s races, both the Republican primaries and the November elections. Trump is endorsing primary candidates promiscuosly, so we will see how strong trump actually is among Republican primary voters. The general elections will show how strong trumpists are among all voters.
Baud
@Geminid:
IIRC, Trump endorsed candidates have historically had a poor showing in the GOP primaries.
trnc
@Spanky:
How many times does Christie have to be shit on by DT and go crawling back for you to reevaluate that grudge idea? Also, no way does he get any real traction. I don’t see enough moderate republican voters at the national level to give him an edge over DT or the DT proteges.
JWR
How hard is it to become a home-school “educator” in Florida? Do you promise to sit the brats down in front of Fox News for an hour of Current Events? Alex Jones for Civics? Judge Janine for a course in Law?
Gin & Tonic
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Stalin made it twice.
Betty Cracker
@Jinchi: DeSantis is worse than Trump, so if it comes down to them, I’d prefer Trump. That’s the point, which I should have made clearer. I wish there were a non-fascist alternative with a shot at the 2024 nomination, and if one emerges, I’d hope that person wins because you’re right — it’s dangerous as hell, and the danger isn’t just the possibility of having an authoritarian wannabe as president but also the unhinged hangers on. But at this point in time, between those two men, as horrible as he is, Trump is the least-worst choice, IMO.
superdestroyer
@Betty Cracker: DeSantis would not be better because only Trump gets away with being Trump. Virtually every politician who tries to imitate Trump loses.
Starfish
@Baud: That lady had a lot of “My children did not invite me for the holidays because I refused to get vaccinated” energy.
Soprano2
@Baud: There are liberals in the red state hellholes, too, and they never ask us either.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Gin & Tonic:
I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for Stalin getting expelled for cheating at seminary and then bearing out and acting on a lifetime grudge over it.
That shows a genuine spark of masculine personality, planning and attention to detail….
Starfish
@SiubhanDuinne: Ugh. I am sorry that you have to deal with all that.
Soprano2
@Betty Cracker: They really think “Twitter traffic” means something when it comes to elections.
Geminid
@Baud: Results are mixed. In 2018, trump’s endorsement of DeSantis and Kemp seems to have made the difference in their Florida and Georgia primaries. Now the orange churl is endorsing all over the place, including Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina. North Carolina will be an interesting test. Former Governor Pat McCrory would normally have clear sailing to the nomination for next year’s open Senate seat, but trump endorsed little known Congressman Dan Bishop and now it’s a close race. In Georgia, David Perdue never would have challenged Brian Kemp but for trump’s endorsement, and initial polling showed a tied race there. The one certainty is that these Republican rivals will spend a lot of money tearing each other down.
Soprano2
@Baud: Wow, that’s just stupid.
Ramalama
@NotMax: We LOVED Deutschland 83. Didn’t even know about the others. OMG be right back………………………………………………………………
Starfish
@debbie: If he was given monoclonal antibodies, he has to wait a few months to get the vaccine.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: I know a number of older people who spend the winter in Florida. They seem to just hunker down and ignore the state’s politics, even when they vote there.
OTOH, I have friends who teach at USF and have a daughter in high school. They’d like to leave, but of course, they’d have to find academic jobs together and they don’t want to disrupt their daughter’s last two years of high school, so they stay.
My SIL is officially a Florida resident because they pay no income tax there. She’d like us to come and visit this winter. I hesitate. BTW, they live in RI the other six months of the year. They’re both retired URI staff and draw their pensions from the state of RI. But god forbid they should pay income tax.
Baud
@Geminid:
I wonder if they’ll be forced to sell their NFTs to fund their campaigns.
Ramalama
@trnc: Yeah. Christie was still a supporter of Trump’s even after Trump deliberately ordered food for a lunch meeting that Trump knew Christie was allergic to. Forget now what it was exactly. But galling. And more galling. And then further galling – the 2 of them. Deserve each other.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I think most people ignore their state’s politics.
Spanky
OT, but I got a notice about a Tbogg tweet indicating a new puppy is immanent. Since I don’t venture onto Twitter, that’s all I know, but I know some of you will be interested.
sdhays
@Jinchi: All things being equal, I would agree with this. But the big difference between 2016 and 2020 and now is the lack of Twitter. As long as Donnie Dump doesn’t have access to Twitter, he’s no longer the special guy who can make the national conversation always be about him.
If he’s the nominee, then he’ll get more coverage, but it will be closer to a normal candidate’s coverage. It won’t be the same special toxic sauce that he had before. I think that without Twitter Dump is a spent force. I think he knows this on some level too. I really wonder if he’ll run again – like Michael Cohen, I wonder if Dump’s narcissism is willing to risk another loss.
Soprano2
Correct me if I’m wrong, but haven’t Republicans threatened multiple times to use the debt limit as a hostage and then always relented in the end, because even they aren’t willing to blow things up that much?
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: Fucking Baud. Dude, when they said “You,” they didn’t mean you.
Silly rabbit.
Betty Cracker
@superdestroyer: I hope you’re right, but from my ringside seat in FL Magaland, I see DeSantis starting to get Trump levels of wingnut love. Maybe it won’t transfer out of state, but what little data we have suggests it might. I’d hoped DeSantis’s shitty handling of the pandemic would blow up in his face (particularly his inexcusable meddling with schools), but not only does that NOT seem to be happening, he’s getting credit from non-wingnut media outlets for offering a bold alternative to handwringing liberal anxiety about the virus. Crucially, Fox News is in his corner. He’s more of a Fox News personality than governor these days.
Ken
@Betty Cracker: I’m kind of wondering if Meadows thought he could order Fox to retract their call of Arizona, because that’s what all the dictatorial regimes do. Admittedly he’d have a better chance with Fox than with most others.
Starfish
@Spanky:
Here is the thread with puppy pictures. Thanks for telling us about it.
Geminid
@superdestroyer: trump’s flamboyant personality may have won some of his voters, but he stumbled upon something much deeper and wider: the attraction of a fascist strong man. That force is what people like Pompeo and DeSantis will try to harness; Trumpism without trump, so to speak. That could be even more dangerous if wielded by someone who does not have trump’s defects of narcissism and laziness.
Ken
Divine news for this Advent season.
hueyplong
Does anyone else wonder whether FoxNews would call AZ if their current thinking were in vogue in Nov 2020?
sdhays
As I recall, that’s how he got Dump’s endorsement in the first place back in 2018.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betty Cracker: I’ve never heard Desantis speak. To me, he looks like kind of a sad sack on TV but maybe he’s charismatic in person?
Geminid
@Soprano2: Big business still calls a lot of the shots in the Republican party. Mitch McConnell centers those interests even if the radical “populists” do not.
BobbyK
Unless the Democrats fix voting rights it won’t matter who the republican is, said republican will be installed as President. And yes, unfortunately Democrats will have to fix it.
Geminid
@hueyplong: Chis Stirewalt, the analyst primarily responsible for that Arizona call, is no longer with Fox News.
OzarkHillbilly
@Geminid: Is he still among the living?
Baud
@Geminid:
Cancelled!
Geminid
@OzarkHillbilly: Stirewalt is still around. I won’t be surprised if he turns up on Chris Wallace’s CNN+ show. They seem pretty compatible.
The Thin Black Duke
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The vermin in his tribe only care about what he’s saying, not how he’s saying it.
VOR
I’m of mixed minds for 2024. One the one hand, on the other hand.
If TFG runs, then I think he’s got the Republican nomination in the bag. The cult is still strong and there is every sign he has the support of the institutional party. Should he win, then his term will look different from last time.
First, it will be 100% focused on revenge for all slights real or imagined. Blue states and Dem politicians will be treated like dirt. Insufficiently loyal Republicans, ditto. This will extend to foreign policy too. I think we can kiss NATO goodbye. Ukraine would be tossed into the wood-chipper. More assassinations like the Iranian General Soleimani. Even more sucking up to favored authoritarians, possibly throwing South Korea under the bus in favor of better relations w/ North Korea.
Second, it will be even less competent than last time around. He was scraping the bottom of the barrel by the end of his first term. He’s going to start at the bottom this time. Nobody even arguably competent like Mnuchin, General Kelly, General Mattis, Dan Coats, or Elaine Chao. His #1 vetting criteria will be personal loyalty to Trump I, the President for Life. It will be all incompetence, ignorance of the law, and just plain malignancy everywhere.
I think the only way TFG doesn’t run is if there is a serious legal/criminal conviction or health reasons. I subscribe to the dementia theory, but it’s taking too long. Nothing short of repeated face-plants on camera will convince the cult he actually has medical issues. Nothing short of an actual conviction will do either, given how they shrugged off Trump University fraud, January 6th, and two impeachments.
Yes, other options like DeSantis scare me because they would be more competent and less lazy. TFG showed them there was no need to play by the rules. Smarter and harder working authoritarians like DeSantis or others can walk through the doors opened by TFG.
Betty Cracker
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I don’t see any charisma, but I don’t trust myself to gauge what will appeal to wingnuts. I never suspected they’d worship Trump as a god, so who knows? DeSantis is cocky and combative a lot of the time, and they seem to lap that up. He’s also mostly smart enough to keep the worst garbage behavior under the radar so that people who don’t play close attention miss it. He manipulates the media in a different way than Trump does, but he does have skills in that area.
The Thin Black Duke
Alright, I’m still finding it difficult to rant about politics, so my latest essay is about how the corporate shithweasels at NBC tried to play hardball with the cast of Friends and got their ass handed to them. It’s the only time I cared about what happened on that stupid TV show.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Another example that Trumpism is simply Fanboism and not politics. And I am going to bet someone named “Crystal Sparks” is an anti-vaccer.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@VOR: I am still of the opinion Trump won’t run because the risk to his Brand if he loses for a third time, or rather Trump will run/not run at the very same time. I think Trump will end up fucking the GOP over by attacking who ever is the nominee for”stealing the nomination threw backdoor schemes” from Trump while constantly dithering about running himself and then bailing at the last possible second.
OzarkHillbilly
@Geminid: So they didn’t kill the heretic. Yet.
WereBear
@Van Buren: Enjoy, took that turn a few years ago.
But then, it’s not like I ever had that strong a verbal filter. But now I have the “Golden Girls Excuse” for speaking my mind :)
Betty Cracker
@VOR: That all makes sense to me.
Mary Trump says Emperor Tang won’t run again unless he’s convinced he can’t lose, because his ego can’t sustain the blow of another loss. That sounds about right to me, but he’s also dumb, and there will be lots of grifters lined up to convince him he can’t lose, even if the odds are against him.
My guess is if Republicans make big gains in the midterms and Biden’s popularity remains low, Trump will run, provided he’s still able to stand and walk in 10-foot increments and form semi-coherent sentence fragments. If not, he’ll demur.
VOR
Oh please, oh please, oh please. Yes, it’s all about him and he has zero sense of obligation to the party. He screwed the GOP in the Georgia Senate races so this scenario is certainly possible.
WereBear
Thanks for the warning. That is what ruined my first viewing of “M.”
Steeplejack (phone)
@Van Buren:
Happy birthday! ??????
frosty
@Van Buren: Happy Birthday! It’s one of the Big Three in my experience:
20 I’m not a kid anymore
40 I’m not young anymore!
60 OMG I’m old!!!!
artem1s
I agree wholeheartedly. 2024 will be harder for him than 2020. The suck ups will still be brown-nosing. But the underlying GOP infrastructure was pulled out from under him in 2020. Our best bet is the climbers who think they are going to hold onto power via TFG will continue to muddy the waters for a real candidate right up to the last minute.
The Cheneys and who ever is left of the Bush Crime Family are already prepping someone to make a run at Biden. They already have an opposition manual ready. The less time they have to convince the MAGAts that they are the heir apparent to TFG, the better Dems chances are.
Pay attention to who is quietly still working with McConnel on obstruction. Those are the GOPers Dems have to worry about. They will stand up and carefully tut tut when the indictments are handed out. Just enough to prove they were good little Germans when the tide turns. Enough to prove to Wall Street they aren’t going to abandon them in favor of the deplorables or TFG troupe of idiots.
Cacti
The only way Trump doesn’t run again is if he’s pushing up daisies.
He’s a textbook narcissistic personality and incapable of stepping aside for someone else.
The Thin Black Duke
What’s left of TFG is running on fumes right now. The only way for the dirtbag to get his mojo back is the presidency.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@VOR: Try this one on if you want to be conspiracy minded, above all lazy narcissists who only cares about himself and only wants to creep on people;
Trump already has his excuse for screwing the GOP 2024 over preloaded with “Oh, you didn’t do that coup for me like I asked, all this is your’ fault”. Which would also explain why the coup was so ineptly carried out; Trump never meant for 1/6 to succeed, Trump staged and set it up fail in order to have a grievance to hold over the GOP’s head while simultaneous making them look bad.
PAM Dirac
I see the Maryland Congressional redistricting is out. The commentary I see says that it went from 7 solid D and 1 solid R to 7 solid D and 1 lean R. The personal good news is that we get to keep Jamie Raskin as our rep. By the slimmest of margins: one of our next door neighbors is in the 6th district.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Of course, DeSantis has to be reelected Governor before he can run for President. It sounds like there may be three good Democratic candidates. Do you see any of them getting traction now, against DeSantis or among each other?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Cacti: That’s sort of my point, Trump not stepping aside doesn’t mean he will step up himself and risk failing, again. Trump is going to try and have it both ways and throw a screaming fit when he can’t.
prostratedragon
Happy 70th Birthday to radio station WFMT in Chicago. A classic version of the long-time station theme song, often heard ’round midnight:
Geminid
@PAM Dirac: Virginia’s new districts came out last week. If they are approved by the state Supreme Court, as is likely, I will be moved from the 5th District to the 11th. That will be defended by Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton, and initial analysis is that the 11th is D+7.
jackson
@Van Buren: That’s weird because an African American friend lives there. And she is not the only non-white resident. Has she been hiding how awful La Plata is for her?
Kalakal
@Spanky: Thing is that’s not how it’s seen. It’s seen as a plaudit, the implication that the person was/is a positive influence for good and is to be admired. If they rigorously followed the logic that it is purely about influence, for good or for ill, in 2001 it would have been that bastard Bin Laden.
Geminid
@jackson: Prince George County used to be full of white working class people, but for the last few decads more ond more Black middle class people have been moving there. I think the County may be majority Black now, with plenty of foteign immigrants too.
Kalakal
@Dorothy A. Winsor: He’s not at all charismatic ( to me at least, but then neither is Trump ). For some reason the wingnuts down here seem to think he exudes confidence and decisiveness. He is very aggressive towards questioners unless they’re Fox type fluffers. Personslly I hope he does a Scott Walker and goes from golden boy to flame out when he’s exposed to the country at large.
germy
@frosty:
100 The local news van is here. They’re taking pictures and asking me what my secret is. I’ll tell them I drink whiskey and smoke cigars every day, just to mess with them.
guachi
@Geminid: PG county has been majority Black for years now. It was majority Black when I moved there in 2007. It has the highest median family income of any Black majority county in the US.
zhena gogolia
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I don’t think he has that kind of executive function in his brain.
Jinchi
@Baud:
Seriously? Why?
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: At this point, I’m not very optimistic about it, but there’s still plenty of time for something to change. IMO, it would take a breakout move by one of the Dems and a high-profile faceplant by DeSantis.
Of the three Dems running, Nikki Fried is arguably in the best position to make a breakout since she’s in a statewide office, though the Ag Commish platform is limited. She now has plenty of motivation because, as predicted by anyone paying attention, state Republicans are already attacking her on ethics charges.
PJ
@jackson: PG County close to the District is heavily African-American; further south it is, as others have commented, heavily racist white people.
Matt McIrvin
The Republican candidate may well win outright in 2024 or 2028 without the need for cheating, which will quell talk of coups for a while. But the big question for elections after that is how happily people in purple states will stand for the legislature overtly throwing out their vote and appointing the presidential electors, and what they are willing to do in response. Republicans will be fine with it as long as they have a hard lock on the legislature.
Cacti
Because he, ummm…yeah, I got nuthin.
PAM Dirac
@PJ:
True but the super redneck area keeps getting pushed farther south. The current voter registration in Charles county is 61%D. Ben Jealous won Charles County in 2018 while losing the state by 12 points.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Nikki Fried seems to have some energy, maybe even charisma. She could well be the strongest contrast to DeSantis. And if he wants to cry about ethics it will just be the pot calling the kettle black.
jonas
@Baud:
So were Hitler and Stalin, I believe. It’s not necessarily because they’re admirable, but because they capture headlines.
BlueGuitarist
@Geminid:
Appreciating the subtle joke about little known Congressman Ted Budd, the actually endorsed NC Senate candidate
mrmoshpotato
@Van Buren:
Remind him of 2017-2020. :)
Omnes Omnibus
Since we are now all being snarky about open threads, I will take advantage of this one to talk about 2022. because I think that talking about 2024 is premature. We need to be all hands on deck for this coming year; keeping the House can be done and so can increasing the margin in the Senate. If we concentrate our efforts on that, we can greatly decrease the chances that 2024 is a debacle. How can we do that? Support groups fight voter suppression laws. Support groups seeking to improve turnout. Donate to embattled candidates. Volunteer for any of the aforementioned. Talk up the Democrats. Keep calling your Senators about BBB. Keep calling everyone about voter rights legislation. Keep your own spirits up.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Mike in NC
I never get tired of reading about the idiot neo-Nazi giant Brad Parscale and how badly he fucked Trump in Tulsa.
mrmoshpotato
@SiubhanDuinne: I hope your brother makes a full recovery.
BlueGuitarist
@Omnes Omnibus:
Thanks for your Ted talk!
Thought of you when i saw
https://www.emptywheel.net/2021/12/03/ten-things-tv-lawyers-can-do-rather-than-whinging-about-merrick-garland/
mrmoshpotato
@SiubhanDuinne:
LMAO!
jonas
Yup. The media will do nothing because the death of democracy is good for clicks and 40% of the electorate is objectively pro-fascist in that they will actively support this shit, or be too lazy to care either way.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@zhena gogolia: Sure, the argument against it is Trump can’t think past the next cheeseburger, but as shown with Trump’s lawyer and accountant encouraging people to break the law to show loyalty to him is what passes for Trump’s management style.
prostratedragon
@SiubhanDuinne: Well, better late than never. My own brother gave a scare a couple of weeks ago with a pulmonary clot and pneumonia –not covid, but a complication of being in a cast for several weeks. He’s doing much better, but there goes Christmas unfortunately. Best wishes to you and your brother.
Princess
Am I the only one who thinks there will be no GOP primary in 2024? There was no GOP primary in 2020 — the states all agreed to cancel it. There was no GOP primary in VA. They know primaries are bad for them. If Trump is sentient, Trump will be the nominee.
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus: Thanks. I have trouble identifying which candidates I should contribute to. I fell for Amy McGrath and Sara Gideon, just because I hate McConnell and Collins so much. I need really laser-focused guidance on this
ETA: I’m in a blue state, so I need to support candidates outside my own district.
zhena gogolia
@BlueGuitarist: Thanks, that’s a great link. I’m disillusioned in Asha Rangappa over this very issue.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: I think DeSantis is really vulnerable on that issue. He has put cranks and incompetent cronies in charge of some really critical agencies. The surgeon general and the profligate GOP hack he put in charge of cybersecurity, for example.
jonas
You’d think being more or less responsible for tens of thousands of deaths for refusing to implement any reasonable public health measures during a global pandemic would be at least a minor “faceplant.” But, as you’ve often pointed out, it’s Florida and everything’s fubar. I guess the only question is whether he’s killed off enough of his *own* voters to tip the scales in really close districts.
Princess
@zhena gogolia: I think the key is not contributing anything to out-of-state primaries. Let the primary voters in-state choose their own candidates. They have a better idea of what will fly than we do. Cpntribute after the nominees are chosen. Sara Gideon and Amy McGrath had so much money before the primary race was even over that they swamped other possible candidates.
Citizen Alan
@Cameron:
My ideal scenario for 2024 is that Shitgibbon destroys DeSantis and Pompeo in a jealous rage and then has a complete physical and mental breakdown in mid-October.
Mike in NC
Seriously, I don’t know anybody under the age of 75 that still subscribes to TIME magazine.
The Thin Black Duke
@Mike in NC: “What’s a magazine, Mommy?”
Geminid
@BlueGuitarist: Thank you for the correction. Ted Budd is kind of a nonentity.
jeffreyw
@NotMax:
We just finished that but so much time had gone by after viewing the second series that we spent most of the time asking each other, “Who’s that?”. I hate that many shows are coming out one ep./week, we are so forgetful in our dotage that if we can’t binge the series right through we often forget that we are watching and go on to something else.
Betty Cracker
@jonas: I guess it’s possible his hideous pandemic mismanagement will blow up in DeSantis’s face yet, but so far, it doesn’t seem to matter, at least as far as public opinion surveys show. Ditto with going ultra-hard right after campaigning in the general as sort of center right. Ditto bullying school districts and businesses, etc. DeSantis is betting that the state is redder than previously thought, and he could be right. The state Dem Party being a decades-long clusterfuck makes it easier for him, of course.
SiubhanDuinne
@prostratedragon:
Thank you. You and your brother certainly have my best wishes as well. It’s hard being nearly 2,000 miles away.
There’s nothing one can really do except fret and wait for phone calls.
SiubhanDuinne
@mrmoshpotato:
Thanks, Mr. MP.
rikyrah
@The Thin Black Duke:
Just wanted to comment that I loved your Friends article.
rikyrah
@The Thin Black Duke:
Keeping him off social media is key.
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
You can’t talk about Florida with talking about the 1,000,000 PLUS voters who can’t get their voting rights back without PAYING A POLL TAX.
ONE MILLION PLUS VOTERS.
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: DeSantis is trying to MAKE the state redder by making it attractive to wingnuts and uncomfortable and obnoxious to liberals, through highly symbolic “fuck you” measures. It’s a soft ideological purge.
zhena gogolia
@Princess: Well, I think I only contributed after they had won their primaries. But I still felt maybe it should have gone elsewhere.
SiubhanDuinne
@Starfish:
I’m so far away, I don’t actually have to deal with stuff. For now, that’s all falling on our niece. But that brings its own frustrations. Thanks for your good thoughts.
SiubhanDuinne
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Just the fact that he acknowledged the value of the vaccine made me happy. He seriously thinks he’s Superman and never entertained the idea that Covid would be his kryptonite.
I hope you’re successful in recovering all your files. What a huge frustration for you!
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
Thanks. The past couple of months have been stressful, and I appreciate your good thoughts for him.
SiubhanDuinne
@debbie:
Thank you, much appreciated. I’m not sure how soon he’ll be able to be vaccinated. He has a lot to get through first.
PJ
@PAM Dirac: Glad to hear it. I moved from DC 17 years ago, but when I lived there I would have to make occasional trips to Upper Marlboro, which brought a fair amount of casual racism to my ears.
SiubhanDuinne
@The Thin Black Duke:
“It’s the same as a clip, but you must never say that out loud.”
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: Well played.
jonas
@Betty Cracker: I’ve heard that the large population of relocated New York Jews who used to be an influential liberal voting bloc in South Florida has largely passed on, replaced by a lot of super right-wing Cubans and various other lib-hating rednecks who have turned it from a purple state into a hard red one. That sucks, because it’s a big state. It’s going to be all underwater in a few decades, but in the meantime those folks can wreak a lot of havoc both locally and nationally.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
,..and ends up defecting to Puerto Rico.
jonas
@trnc:
Christie is screwed. He has absolutely none — zero — chances of any political future in the current GOP. I don’t know what the fuck he thinks he’s doing trying to balance tepid, half-assed criticisms of Trump with tepid, half-assed praises of Trump or Trumpism. And this is a guy Trump literally tried to kill by giving him Covid at the White House. Still would consider voting for him, though! Can’t rule it out!
FFS.
rikyrah
@artem1s:
There are no good GOP’ers. They are all loathesome and not worthy of trust.
rikyrah
@guachi:
Yes, it does.
Miss Bee
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: That scheme seems way too strategic for tfg to think of all by himself.
Betty Cracker
@jonas: There’s been an influx of Midwestern retirees into Central Florida (The Villages, etc.) who kinda tipped the balance, IMO. Older Cuban-Americans always skewed Republican. Now some of the more recent immigrants from other nominally socialist failed states (Venezuela, etc.) are following suit — they seem equally susceptible to simple-minded Republican screeching about socialism.
Gravenstone
It’s truly a man’s man who can abuse a simple electronic device out of pique.
smedley the uncertain
@frosty: Psssh.. whipper snappers.
I’m 8 years into my 4th Quarter and working on my Overtime strategy. And no, I won’t act my age!
JustRuss
@Van Buren: Happy birthday! I have about 9 months of sweet youthful innocence to go before I hit that
landminelandmark.dopey-o
I want billboards everywhere. Saying: “Vote while you still can.”
Ruckus
@Geminid:
So the other two have surrounded themselves with first or third rate henchmen? I get confused which is worse…..
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
SFB has few if any skills, other than being pure shit. Death has a more functional cranial/recital interface and is younger with more focus and energy. Also SFB fails purely on merit and that his focus is purely internal – up his large intestine, Death fails because his focus can face outwards, not looking only up his large intestine.
Brant
@Betty Cracker: If there’s a worse president than Stump, there’s going to be s mushroom cloud over Washington when he enters the White House.
Procopius
@BobbyK: When asked if he regretted losing in 1920 (he was the vice presidential nominee), Roosevelt replied that, no, the Democrats had been in office too long, but the Republican fiscal policies would lead to disaster and the Democrats would take the Presidency again. He figured 1930. I think something like that might happen after 1924. I have no doubt that Republican corruption will lead to disaster again. Trouble is, I don’t have any confidence there will be a Democrat bench that will lead to recovery. Certainly not if the New Democrats retain control of the party.