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You are here: Home / Elections / 2022 Elections / Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Curses, Foiled!…

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Curses, Foiled!…

by Anne Laurie|  September 20, 20226:54 pm| 73 Comments

This post is in: 2022 Elections, Immigration, Open Threads, Republican Venality

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The small Delaware town of Rehoboth Beach, where President Joe Biden has a vacation home, appears to be the landing spot for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ next round of expensive migrant flights, according to flight plans.https://t.co/xdfWoci9ko

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) September 20, 2022

The element of surprise only works when it’s surprising:

The small Delaware town of Rehoboth Beach, where President Joe Biden has a vacation home, scrambled Tuesday to prepare for the expected arrival of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ next round of expensive migrant flights—but the day only ended with more confusion in the Diamond State.

Instead, confusion swirled as the chartered plane that was scheduled to leave Texas on Tuesday morning, filled with migrants, departed hours late and bound for a different city—Nashville, Tennessee—with no passengers on board.

Delaware officials had sprung into action on Monday night after word got out that the same plane DeSantis used to fly migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard last week was listed on a public schedule to fly to Delaware, via Florida, on Tuesday morning. There was also a $950,000 payment made by Florida to Vertol Systems Company Inc, the same charter company that flew migrants to Martha’s Vineyard.

Once word spread, however, DeSantis lost the element of surprise that marked his Martha’s Vineyard stunt. This time, city, state and federal officials immediately began preparing for a possible arrival.

“We are aware of the situation and are working with state and local partners to compassionately address this situation and take care of the migrants who may arrive,” a spokesperson for Rehoboth Beach, a city of 1,108 people, said in a statement to The Daily Beast on Tuesday morning.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) told CNN on Tuesday that he spent much of Monday night on the phone, coordinating with community leaders “to make sure that we provide an appropriate, welcoming and supportive reception in Delaware.”…

The White House also indicated that federal agencies had reached out to coordinate with Delaware Gov. John Carney and service providers in a bid to prevent a repeat of the Martha’s Vineyard episode…

The Republican mantra has been that any publicity is good publicity, but I’m not sure these stories look good to those not already part of the GOP Death Cult…

The San Antonio sheriff is launching a criminal probe into DeSantis’s kidnapping operation:

“What infuriates me most in this case is that we have 48 people who are already on hard times, they are here legally…and I believe they were preyed upon.” pic.twitter.com/CC33Em7BGT

— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) September 19, 2022

Venezuelan migrants flown to the upscale Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard sued Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his transportation secretary Tuesday for engaging in a "fraudulent and discriminatory scheme" to relocate them. https://t.co/yItYqwzCc8

— The Associated Press (@AP) September 20, 2022

Earned media, the flip side!

Ron DeSantis thinks using millions in taxpayer dollars to run a state sponsored human trafficking scheme is a good way to spend Floridians money.

Remember that on November 8th.

— Charlie Crist (@CharlieCrist) September 20, 2022

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Reader Interactions

73Comments

  1. 1.

    SpaceUnit

    September 20, 2022 at 6:56 pm

    Arrest the pilots.  Yank their licenses.

  2. 2.

    evodevo

    September 20, 2022 at 6:58 pm

    You want to stop this shit? Start prosecuting the little guys at the bottom…the pilots, bus drivers, dispatchers, whatever…it will only take one or two arrests, or threatening the CEO of the private transport co. and this will halt tout suite…when the worker bees refuse to be involved for fear of legal consequences, it will end…threatening to prosecute DeathSantis or Abbottoire will only add to the martyrbation of those two…

     

    I see Space Unit and I think alike lol

  3. 3.

    SpaceUnit

    September 20, 2022 at 7:00 pm

    @evodevo:

    Right on.

     

    ETA:   Also impound the planes.

  4. 4.

    lowtechcyclist

    September 20, 2022 at 7:04 pm

    @SpaceUnit:

    Arrest the pilots. Yank their licenses.

    What laws have the pilots broken?​

    ETA:

    @evodevo: ​

    You want to stop this shit? Start prosecuting the little guys at the bottom…the pilots, bus drivers, dispatchers, whatever…

    I hate to be pedantic, but exactly WTF are you going to charge these people with? What laws did they break?

  5. 5.

    Ben Cisco🎖️🖥️♦️👌🏽

    September 20, 2022 at 7:08 pm

    Wow, this thread came from outta nowhere…

    Purely in jest, I humbly submit the following.

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    September 20, 2022 at 7:08 pm

    @evodevo: @SpaceUnit:

    Speaking as a working man who spent his life doing what he was told whether it made sense or not, don’t, unless you are giving him/her a very broad off ramp. All too often working folks have been forced to pay for the sins of their “betters.”

  7. 7.

    P Thomas

    September 20, 2022 at 7:09 pm

    Well, I think I’ll just start floating stories about a plane load of Antifa landing at Orlando ANY MINUTE and watch the morons run over and start a panic.  Two can play at this game.

  8. 8.

    Dangerman

    September 20, 2022 at 7:09 pm

    @SpaceUnit: Nah. Impound the plane for a thorough investigation. Pilots are cheap. Planes aren’t.

  9. 9.

    SpaceUnit

    September 20, 2022 at 7:10 pm

    @lowtechcyclist:

    I dunno.  Human trafficking.  Interstate fraud.  Racketeering.  Get creative

     

    Also, that Texas sheriff investigating the Martha’s Vineyard stunt seems very sure a crime was committed.

  10. 10.

    cain

    September 20, 2022 at 7:11 pm

    @evodevo:

    The company though still got a cool million dollars to fly an empty plane to Nashville. Someone should ask about that.

     

    ETA deleted some stuff

  11. 11.

    brantl

    September 20, 2022 at 7:11 pm

    Impound the plane as a vehicle used in a crime, and as evidence. Hold it several days to be examined and dusted for prints, etc. And return it, after they squeal about their lost revenue. Ground it and impound it out of Florida, make it as big a pain in the ass as possible. I suspect law enforcement in the state where it lands will be on the lookout for this shit, now, and this might actually happen. And somebody in Florida needs to look into a class action suit against DeShmuckis, for misappropriating the states money. Him transporting people from another state, not his own, with state funds has to be illegal.

  12. 12.

    Nelle

    September 20, 2022 at 7:12 pm

    @lowtechcyclist: We have a friend who unknowingly gave a ride to someone involved with drugs.  No drugs involved.  FBI came after him too.  Confiscated a very nice plane.  He decided not to risk a jury trial as his passenger got a plea deal by implicating him, the pilot.  He pled guilty, got a year or two in a more cushy prison ( did you know that you can hire “counselors” to help you get into a prison of your choice?  Sort of like college advisors). Definitely go after those driving the buses and flying the planes.  There is precedent.

  13. 13.

    brantl

    September 20, 2022 at 7:13 pm

    @lowtechcyclist:  Transportation of “Illegal” aliens, it only takes one that is in the country illegally, and then these assholes can go to jail.

  14. 14.

    The Moar You Know

    September 20, 2022 at 7:14 pm

    Wow, arresting the little guys?  For real?  Shit that’s what the fucking Nazis do.  Should we arrest Starbucks baristas because their company union busts?  That is literally the same idea as what you are suggesting.

    You wanna get this shit stopped just impound that plane for two weeks.  That’s all.  Nobody will ever charter the state of Florida a plane ever again.

  15. 15.

    Tony Jay

    September 20, 2022 at 7:16 pm

     

    A LETTER FROM BREXITANIA

    “House of the Drags On”

     

    Slumping on the couch yesterday morning with a mug of coffee and a day of leisure ahead I turned on the TV and was greeted, as has become customary over this recent long forever, by the dismal sight of all five terrestrial networks plus BBC News 24 concentrating their fullest attention and maximum level of obsequiousness on matters monarchical. In this case, the state funeral of… what’s that? Oh, I’m so terribly sorry, how unforgivably rude of me… on ‘The Royal State Funeral of Her Most Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the Royal House of Windsor, by the Grace of God, Sovereign of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of her other realms and territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Beloved Royal Grandmother of All People & All Things Royal, Non-Royal and Merely Common, Defender of the Faith, Walker of Red Carpets, Waver of Very Economical Waves, Alpha-Prime of All Septs of Clan Corgi’, etc, etc, on into infinity, for verily she didst possess more titles than Barbara Cartland’s back catalogue multiplied by a full accounting of the Now That’s What I Call Music oeuvre.

    “Fuck”, I said, “that”, and turned on The Infinite Monkey Cage, which while sometimes being almost as ridiculous as the very idea of hereditary monarchy, is at least doing so for a laugh, and otherwise concentrates on filling your fragile human head with things you don’t know but absolutely should, even if only for as long as it takes to go “Wow!” and impress a stranger on a bus. Some wag on the Intertubes christened the BBC’s over the top waaaahvalanche of blubbering as ‘a 24 hour subscription to Mournhub’, and I really don’t think I can top that for succinctness. From the unedifying sight of Cash-Only Charlie peremptorily sacking his entire Clarence House staff by e-mail (one is moving on to bigger and better things, you see) then demanding that some nameless minion make an unwanted inkwell their problem live on TV, to the Police going full meathead on anyone verbalising their opinion on the stiffly uncomfortable rehabilitation of our own $16 Million Dollar Man, Prince Andrew the Poreless Porker, it’s been either an embarrassment of riches or a cornucopia of outrage for those who’d rather not tug the forelock to their ‘betters’.

    Outside of this suffocating bubble of manufactured/mandated grief and pomp (gromp?) the real world is still where we left it before Charlie’s trip to the Make A Wish Foundation with a brown envelope of untraceable riyals bore such gilded fruit. On the cold, hard streets of a Britain where no Royal dares or cares to tread there’s a massive cost of living crisis with no end in sight. Energy bills are spiralling upwards thanks to unrestricted price gouging. Food prices are shooting skywards quicker than a cartoon spring with a wide-eyed Wile E Coyote on it. Wages (outside of the top echelons of bastardy) are falling waaaaay behind inflation. Waves of strikes are either taking place or being planned across the nation’s infrastructure. Brexit and its oft predicted repercussions are still kicking the shit out of the underlying infrastructure of the economy and the damage is accelerating. Every economist with a degree that didn’t come rolling out of cereal packet is predicting that the multi-pronged crisis we’re experiencing is going to get ever so much worse unless the Government takes immediate and drastic action to right the ship.

    So, what are they proposing?

    Tax Cuts! Yaaaaay. Big, swinging tax cuts aimed at the already comfortably well off and larger bank accounts north of them. Thanks to forty years of ‘free-market reforms’ and ‘modernisation’ the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is up to its neck in late-stage Númenór roleplay and sinking lower every week, but our unelected Government’s only conceivable strategy is to chuck another couple hundred billion of public money onto the Great Pyre and dance around it ululating in praise of Melkó while the smoke plumes thicken above and coalesce into a cloud shaped exactly like a geriatric Australian hand with its bony middle finger thrust upright.

    It’s not like this was even unexpected. When an undetermined but nevertheless tiny number of Tory members chose the barely sentient hodgepodge of conflicting behaviour modification strategies called Liz Truss to be Flobalob’s replacement they were choosing one of the authors of Britannia Unchained, a turgid gobblejob of corporate-speak Glibertarianism that was once seen as a shameful insight into the mania infecting the Tory Party fringes, but now serves as a modern-day Mein Kampf for the Tory Party’s core phalanx of extremists. It’s all there. Truss, along with Kwasi Kwarteng (her new Chancellor of the Exchequer) Priti Patel (former Home Secretary under Flobby) Dominic Raab (former Foreign Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister under Flobby) and Chris Skidmore (the runt of the litter, promotionwise) put their empty little heads together to collectively vomit forth every single discredited economic truism of the Kapitalism Uber Alles era like the good little virions they are, describing the UK as, amongst other things, a “bloated state, (with) high taxes and excessive regulation” populated by “…the worst idlers in the world.” because “We work among the lowest hours, we retire early and our productivity is poor.”

    Now this may astonish you, but their fully worked out solution to all the ills of this world that Modern Conservatism built? More of the same, baybee, on rocket-fuelled steroids. Cut those taxes, defund that Welfare State, eliminate those pesky regulations, slash that useless social spending and funnel the savings into yet more corporate handouts. Basically, instruct the peons that they have to sacrifice every single observable improvement made to their lives since the Industrial Revolution so that the Job Creators will feel it worth their while to bless them with their Presence. Or even more basically, “Only People Fail, Not The System”.

    Very familiar, no? It’s the formula for every failed Red State in America transferred to Great Britain and sold in the same way, wrapped in a tatty flag and dripping with culture war venom. That’s what Truss is gearing up to inflict on the country now that the boneless obstacle of Flobalob and his desperate need to be loved has been removed from their path. You’d think that this would be an open goal for any Opposition worth its salt, and you’d be right, it absolutely would be, but we haven’t had one of those in a while. Instead, and as is absolutely par for the course where Shocked Face Starmer and his menagerie of shit-flinging pseudo savants are concerned, while a genuine Government-in-Waiting would see in this lunatic agenda a bow-wrapped present delivering them a chance to absolutely savage an overreaching Administration while carving out bright red dividing lines putting themselves firmly on the side of the British people, the absolute legends (in their own tiny minds) who run NuNew Labour’s policy shop are incapable of seeing past another opportunity to further divide the Party and play their Mean Girls games.

    Banning your MPs from saying anything (and I mean anything) vaguely political for two whole weeks – other than tongue bathing the Wonderful Widow of Windsor – while the new Tory regime are under no such self-imposed omerta? That’s the kind of political malpractice that I’m sure sounded ‘proper respectful’ to the culturally conservative swing voters NuNew Labour uses in its focus groups, but won’t shift a single vote their way out in the real world. Still, I’m sure everyone with column inches will at least pretend to be surprised when the Student Union Stalins twitching Starmer’s strings decide to suspend and deselect ‘troublesome’ MPs for (what’s the word their anonymous viper used in the FTF Guardian? Ah, yes) for ‘egregiously’ violating Starmer’s pointless little diktat by doing their actual jobs in a way the Daily Mail might disapprove of.

    Pardon me for being cynical in the extreme, but once again it’s almost like giving them a wafer-thin excuse to trot-hunting just before the Party Conference season starts was the main reason behind issuing such a ridiculous order in the first place. Wouldn’t want the wrong people voting the wrong way at the annual festival of rubber-stamping, would we?

    As for the country? Fuck the country. Who in their right mind would want to win a General Election now and take over the job of fixing the mess over a decade of Tory madness has bequeathed us? Far better to purge the Party of dissident voices and prepare to inherit those lovely Government limos after Truss has had a couple of years to drag the status quo another few Imperial miles to the far-Right, when simply ordering the phased closure of the five best known destructive labour camps constructed around the partially sunken ruins of central London can be packaged and presented as a great victory for moderate centrism. Forward thinkers, they are.

    Sarcasm. It’s plentiful and it’s free.

    All of this dangerous nonsense is taking place right now, but has been mostly obscured behind an artificially generated screen of pompous caste-signalling honouring the second most boring ‘celebrity in a box’ event since David Blaine’s heyday. It’s 2022, and all appearances to the contrary I’m actually a grown-up, so when I’m in the mood for a bit of throne-based action I want my Kings and Queens where they belong, which is on a TV screen or the pages of enormous books with multiple maps, occasionally swinging massive bastard-swords or doing sexy things with dwarfs, but mostly having character building adventures during which they learn how very important it is for them not to be a pampered, over-privileged parasite who exists only to maintain their dynasty in the luxury to which it has become accustomed.

    We don’t have that. We’ve got the shit version, where we’re all playing the role of Dung Heap Peasant#35 and our only speaking part in the whole performance is to chant “ God Save the King” loud enough to drown out the meaty thunk of teenage skaters’ heads getting slammed into concrete paving slabs because the Police forgot to close off the road for a Royal motorcade and, well, you never know do you, they could have had a gun or a bomb couldn’t they? Or, horror of horrors, a neatly written placard asking why we’re supposed to be content with this farce of a system when they don’t even have any fucking dragons? So that’s alright then. Kids getting roughed up by the Po-Po is just the price we apparently agreed to pay in order to keep the really important people 100% safe from imaginary threats.

    Still, the fog of gromp might be lifting a little now that every single succulent droplet of coverage has been wrung out of the most important event in the history of the world. I certainly bloody hope so. Truss has already been humiliated by smiling Joe Biden’s distain, and with the announcement that there’s not going to be a US/UK trade deal another few bricks fall out of the crumbling Got Brexit Done edifice. There might not be anything good to look forward to, but at least we can look forward now. The car is on fire, the wheels are flat, there’s a wolf on the roof and something about the driver’s expression screams “I have a death-wish”, but look on the bright side, we’re going downhill, and chances are that wall at the bottom of the hill was going to be demolished soon anyway.

    What’s not to love about that?

    Now, back to your scheduled head-shaking at the inhuman cruelty and boundless stupidity of your domestic Conservatives, who I’m quietly confident are going to roemember this November with all the fondness of a dog at a firework display.

  16. 16.

    Doug R

    September 20, 2022 at 7:23 pm

    @lowtechcyclist: Pilot is legally supposed to know who they are flying.

  17. 17.

    Roger Moore

    September 20, 2022 at 7:25 pm

    @lowtechcyclist:

    I hate to be pedantic, but exactly WTF are you going to charge these people with? What laws did they break?

    Kidnapping and human trafficking.  They transported people who had been kidnapped and trafficked from one place to another.  That makes them part of the crime.  My suggestion would be to prosecute them but offer them a favorable plea bargain if they’ll serve as prosecution witnesses for the higher-ups.

  18. 18.

    Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)

    September 20, 2022 at 7:26 pm

    @SpaceUnit:  Or just impound the planes as evidence until after the trial (in a year or two) then no charter company will risk working for them again.

    I see I am jjust agreeing with @Dangerman:

  19. 19.

    Doug R

    September 20, 2022 at 7:26 pm

    @The Moar You Know:

     

    Should we arrest Starbucks baristas because their company union busts?

    Uh, no-because baristas aren’t management.

  20. 20.

    NorthLeft

    September 20, 2022 at 7:26 pm

    @Dangerman: Actually, there is a pretty serious shortage of experienced pilots. If the pilot takes a stand regarding “trafficking” of people, I am pretty sure that his employers would not cut their own throats and fire him.

  21. 21.

    Danielx

    September 20, 2022 at 7:27 pm

    @Tony Jay:

    thank you.

  22. 22.

    Doug R

    September 20, 2022 at 7:28 pm

    @NorthLeft: If your company fires you because you take a stand against trafficking, you don’t want to work there anyway.

  23. 23.

    Bunter

    September 20, 2022 at 7:28 pm

    I imagine the pilots assume theyll be fired if they refuse, wonder if the religious freedom act would work for the pilots? Like, I can’t fly them because my religion says welcome the stranger, not dump them in another city?

  24. 24.

    Citizen_X

    September 20, 2022 at 7:29 pm

    @The Moar You Know: arresting the little guys?  For real?  Shit that’s what the fucking Nazis do.

    Also: any cops investigating a criminal enterprise.

    Fuck these crooks. Yes, bust them. Make ‘em squeal and work your way up.

  25. 25.

    HinTN

    September 20, 2022 at 7:31 pm

    Ron DeSantis thinks using millions in taxpayer dollars to run a state sponsored human trafficking scheme is a good way to spend Floridians money. Remember that on November 8th.

    Bingo

  26. 26.

    Tony Jay

    September 20, 2022 at 7:35 pm

    @Danielx:

    It was bubbling up, now it’s out.

    Always a relief.

  27. 27.

    Sparkedcat

    September 20, 2022 at 7:35 pm

    @Tony Jay: The Queen is thankfully in the ground.

  28. 28.

    Scout211

    September 20, 2022 at 7:35 pm

    More details and information from the Sheriff and CNN.  Link

    On Monday, the migrants’ attorneys said that brochures given to their clients were “highly misleading” and “used to entice (their) clients to travel under the guise that (resettlement) support was available to them.”

    The brochure lists refugee services, including cash and housing assistance, clothing, transportation to job interviews, job training and assistance registering children for school, among other resources.

    However, migrants are, in many cases, asylum seekers, not refugees. Refugees apply for protection overseas and are admitted through the refugee admissions program, whereas asylum seekers apply within the US.

    One Venezuelan migrant, who spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity for fear of negative impacts on their immigration case, shared images of the brochure. They said migrants were told that the brochure had information on the assistance they would receive in Massachusetts, but they were not told about the differences in programs for refugees and asylum seekers.
    . . .

    Florida’s Department of Transportation has paid $1.565 million to Vertol Systems, an aviation company based in Destin, Florida, as part of the state program to relocate migrants, according to state budget records.

    A payment of $615,000 was made on September 8 and a $950,000 payment was requested by the state on September 16, budget records show.

    The budget records do not detail what kind of “contracted services” Vertol provided the department, nor is it clear whether the two payments were for two flights to Martha’s Vineyard that were flown and operated by Ultimate Jet Charters, a separate private jet company based in Ohio.
    . . .
    The website for Vertol Systems was removed in the days after it was revealed they were providing “contracted services” for the Florida program.

    CNN was able to access the company’s website on September 16, but cached copies of the website indicate it was removed sometime between September 16 and September 18.

    CNN has previously reached out to Ultimate Jet Charters, Vertol Systems and the Florida Department of Transportation about the flights, but has not received a response.

  29. 29.

    bcw

    September 20, 2022 at 7:36 pm

    These guys acted like any smuggling operation, they aborted the attempt once the ability to be in and out without detection was lost. And yes, the company would know the people it’s carrying don’t want to end up in a small town in Delaware so they would know they are kidnapping people.

  30. 30.

    Ken

    September 20, 2022 at 7:38 pm

    @Tony Jay: every single succulent droplet of coverage has been wrung out of the most important event in the history of the world

    That’s what I like about your dispatches, Tony: Your boundless optimism.

    I was expecting additional memorial observances on a monthly if not weekly basis, all dutifully followed by the US media, and culminating in a few months with the coronation of your third Charles.

  31. 31.

    SpaceUnit

    September 20, 2022 at 7:39 pm

    I once pissed off a cop in a park and got a ticket for creating the possibility of a public inconvenience.

    I’m sure they can come up with something for these guys.

  32. 32.

    Geminid

    September 20, 2022 at 7:41 pm

    It sounds like “Perla” and her coyote-conspirators chickened out this time.

    I give some credit to Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar for announcing a criminal investigation into the circumstances of the first flight of migrants from San Antonio. Sheriff Salazar looked like he meant business!

  33. 33.

    Tony Jay

    September 20, 2022 at 7:42 pm

    @Sparkedcat:

    I’m not pleased she’s dead, I’m pleased the whole WORLD IMPORTANT EVENT is over.

    They banned adverts. Out of ‘respect’. FFS.

    Watching the PTBs handle the coverage of the last two weeks with all the sure-handed calmness of a blind man tossed a bucket of tarantulas has been… uncomfortable viewing.

  34. 34.

    Skepticat

    September 20, 2022 at 7:42 pm

    @Dangerman: Nah. Impound the plane for a thorough investigation. Pilots are cheap. Planes aren’t.

    Spot on.

  35. 35.

    Expatchad

    September 20, 2022 at 7:43 pm

    The T. JAY INCREDIBLE STUDY IN NEAR-INFINITE ANTI-MONARCHICAL TEDIOSITY IS HEREBY

  36. 36.

    kalakal

    September 20, 2022 at 7:45 pm

    @Tony Jay: Be fair, they were simply trying to let todays British youngsters know what a Sunday afternoon in 1980 was like

  37. 37.

    Anonymous At Work

    September 20, 2022 at 7:46 pm

    Josh Marshall at TPM is on the right track here: Florida hired outside contractors and vendors to perform these operations.  Breaking laws would void the contracts that MUST be in place.  Every state also has rules and regulations for selecting vendors based on bidding or pricing sheets that must be followed, terms of employment, etc.  There’s a lot of paperwork.
    OR
    There was a lot of work being done by the DeathSantis campaign staff to make this happen, which is illegal to intermingle government and campaign funds and operations.

    This won’t be as clean as DeathSantis thinks it is.  Not since the persons moved across state lines.

  38. 38.

    Tony Jay

    September 20, 2022 at 7:48 pm

    @Ken:

    Whenever Truss needs a distraction, I’m sure something mawkishly monarchical will be dragged out of storage.

    I give Charlie six months before he’s gotten himself into hot water one way or another. The people who matter don’t want to be reporting on a spiky old fart when there are fresher generations of scandal-spawn to be mined for headlines.

    And with that, it’s late over here and I yearn for the sleep of the no-longer editing.

  39. 39.

    C Stars

    September 20, 2022 at 7:50 pm

    @P Thomas: This happened. Great article
    https://www.wired.com/story/antifa-social-media-rumor-forks-washington/

     

    All of backwoods Oregon and Washington was in a panic in the summer of 2020, thinking that every suspicious new vehicle that passed through was chock full of antifa coming to take away their cheeseburgers. I was telling a friend of mine about this article and he laughed and mentioned that his (Trumpy) family in the mountains in Oregon had told him sometime in fall 2020 that they scared off a car full of “antifa” who were trying to drive through the local McDonalds.

     

    ETA fix dates

  40. 40.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    September 20, 2022 at 7:50 pm

    BREAKING: NYAG Tish James will make a MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT tomorrow at 10:30 AM ET. Ooooh, I bet I know what it is! https://t.co/KKRPMmMF9K— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) September 20, 2022

  41. 41.

    Miss Bianca

    September 20, 2022 at 7:51 pm

    @Tony Jay: OK, my awe at your command of imagery and invective is now warring with my mild arachnophobia as I savor (?) the squirm-worthy mental picture of “a blind man being tossed a bucket of tarantulas.” Eeek!

  42. 42.

    Scout211

    September 20, 2022 at 7:52 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: So what will she announce?

  43. 43.

    Tony Jay

    September 20, 2022 at 7:52 pm

    @kalakal:

    Heh, Christ, those were the days.

    Sleep in, cartoons on ITV, Errol Flynn movie, Roast dinner, ‘Knights of God’ miniseries, then something Godly with Harry Secombe and I was already looking forward to being back at school on Monday.

    Kids these days don’t know they’re born.

  44. 44.

    Ken

    September 20, 2022 at 7:53 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: @Scout211: Tish James is running for mayor of New York?

  45. 45.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    September 20, 2022 at 7:53 pm

    @Scout211: An indictment? A girl can hope

  46. 46.

    Tony Jay

    September 20, 2022 at 7:54 pm

    @Miss Bianca:

    I’m a bit put off myself. Shudder.

  47. 47.

    Another Scott

    September 20, 2022 at 7:57 pm

    @Scout211:

    Going out on a limb. Someone fucked around….and is about to find out

    — Hugh Ghass (@HughGhass2) September 20, 2022

    Hehehe.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  48. 48.

    Scout211

    September 20, 2022 at 8:00 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Reading just now, it would more likely be the lawsuit that she was considering a few days ago after rejecting the settlement offer from the Trump attorneys. Link

    The New York attorney general’s office has rebuffed an offer from Donald J. Trump’s lawyers to settle a contentious civil investigation into the former president and his family real estate business, setting the stage for a lawsuit that would accuse Mr. Trump of fraud, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.

    The attorney general, Letitia James, is also considering suing at least one of Mr. Trump’s adult children, the people said. Ivanka, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. have all been senior executives at Mr. Trump’s company, the Trump Organization.

    The likelihood of a lawsuit grew this month after Ms. James’s office rejected at least one settlement offer from Mr. Trump’s lawyers, the people said. While the Trump Organization for months has made overtures to the attorney general’s office — and the two sides could still reach a deal — there is no indication that a settlement will materialize anytime soon.

  49. 49.

    SpaceUnit

    September 20, 2022 at 8:00 pm

    @Another Scott:

    Just out of curiosity, how does a person pronounce Hugh Ghass?

  50. 50.

    Gvg

    September 20, 2022 at 8:01 pm

    I don’t think the pilots or even management of the company had to know that those asylum seekers were being lied to. They were transporting people who weren’t in cages, didn’t appear to be threatened and thought they were going somewhere they wanted to go. They had been lied to about where that was and what was there where they were going. The transport company employees might have fully realized it, or might not. They might have caught a few things one person said wrong but just thought, oh he’s confused, or even I don’t care. They also might not know much about any particular place they fly to themselves. or they might be gleeful creeps. We actually don’t have any info on them except their company got paid to fly. Since this is a new kind of gig, they must normally fly regular people, but since it’s the GOP which always grifts, I bet the bosses are friends or donors of conservative causes. That doesn’t mean the employees are.

    Since I am a Florida taxpayer, my reaction is get DeSantis for stealing my money. This can’t be legal. Unless the pilot or crew heard something definite I don’t think they likely did anything illegal. The spending though sure seems hinkey, and anyway, I want the Governor not some fall guy.

  51. 51.

    lowtechcyclist

    September 20, 2022 at 8:07 pm

    @Tony Jay:

    The car is on fire, the wheels are flat, there’s a wolf on the roof and something about the driver’s expression screams “I have a death-wish”

    And the dashboard’s melted, but we still have the radio

  52. 52.

    lowtechcyclist

    September 20, 2022 at 8:13 pm

    @SpaceUnit:

    Just out of curiosity, how does a person pronounce Hugh Ghass?

    Probably the way Moe the bartender on The Simpsons would.

  53. 53.

    Argiope

    September 20, 2022 at 8:15 pm

    @Tony Jay: ​
      Sweet dreams, and thanks for the missive. I always enjoy them, even while shaking my head about the underlying clusterfucks they depict.

  54. 54.

    lowtechcyclist

    September 20, 2022 at 8:15 pm

    @Gvg:

    The spending though sure seems hinkey, and anyway, I want the Governor not some fall guy.

    And even if this part isn’t illegal, he just basically threw away a million bucks of state money and got nothing in return for it.

  55. 55.

    Gin & Tonic

    September 20, 2022 at 8:16 pm

    @Expatchad: Hereby what? The suspense is killing me.

  56. 56.

    SpaceUnit

    September 20, 2022 at 8:17 pm

    @lowtechcyclist:

    “I’m looking for a Hugh Ghass!

     

    ETA:  Yes I am an easily amused ten year old.

  57. 57.

    Poe Larity

    September 20, 2022 at 8:17 pm

    Enough of all this transneoantidisenstablishmentarian caterwauling.

    I learned more new words this week than any bombastic Tonyism. Like catafalque. I feel brilliant.

    Harry 2028.

  58. 58.

    Starfish

    September 20, 2022 at 8:21 pm

    Again, probably shouldn’t have flown them to Liberal Lawyer Vacationland https://t.co/d2uiYvNROF
    — Is This Hell? (@WattleOfBits) September 20, 2022

  59. 59.

    Dan B

    September 20, 2022 at 8:22 pm

    @Tony Jay: Tarantulas make good pets because they’re calm but throwing them might produce different behavior.  And… there’s a South American version that is deadly.  Choose carefully.

  60. 60.

    Geminid

    September 20, 2022 at 8:22 pm

    Protests in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of Tehran’s morality police have continued for a third day. Although protesters in Ms. Amini’s native Kurdestan Province are especially active, large and angry crowds gathered again in cities across Iran. Security forces are responding with tear gas, water cannons, beatings and arrests. So far live fire seems to be limited to shotguns. At least six protesters have been killed.

    The media site Iran News Wire (based in Europe) has put up a video clips of protests in numerous cities. They show a lot of young people. I’ve read that 45% of Iranians are under age 35.

    Right now Iran’s President, Ebraham Raisi, is in New York City, preparing for his UN speech on Saturday. Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khameini, is recovering from gastro-intestinal surgery. I can only guess at how this will affect the regime’s handling of what could turn into a serious threat to its survival.

    The last time such widespread protests occurred was “Bloody November,” 2019. The protests were widespread, and they were put down savagely. The US State Department estimated the death toll at 1000 people, and Reuters said it was1500.

  61. 61.

    Starfish

    September 20, 2022 at 8:22 pm

    @lowtechcyclist: He got his name splashed around in news stories, which enhances name recognition for future elections. It also made some Florida golf course resident sad.

  62. 62.

    mrmoshpotato

    September 20, 2022 at 8:46 pm

    “Fooy!”

    “You mean curses darling.”

    “Please, Natasha.  This is kiddie show.”

  63. 63.

    different-church-lady

    September 20, 2022 at 8:52 pm

    You where they probably wouldn’t welcome a plane full of migrants?

    Texas.

  64. 64.

    HumboldtBlue

    September 20, 2022 at 9:22 pm

    Guys, guys, Herschel Walker learned today he was a black man.

  65. 65.

    Origuy

    September 20, 2022 at 9:34 pm

    It’s still not clear who sent a planeload of migrants from Texas to Sacramento.

    I bet I could guess, though.

    Eight people from Venezeula arrived in Sacramento on two different flights, KCRA reported on Saturday. Three of them had to walk barefoot from the Sacramento International Airport to a local charity after arriving in the city.

  66. 66.

    trollhattan

    September 20, 2022 at 9:52 pm

    Iran security evidently now killing Masha Amini protestors.

    https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1572334618879090689?cxt=HHwWgoCzpauAh9IrAAAA

  67. 67.

    trollhattan

    September 20, 2022 at 9:55 pm

    @Origuy:

    Huh. And to think Texas is always claiming Californians are fleeing to their state in droves.

    Counterdrove?

  68. 68.

    BigJimSlade

    September 20, 2022 at 10:04 pm

    Maybe we could have truck loads of coal delivered to the Florida state house, dumping it in a way to block all the entrances. They like the extractive resources industry, right? They should thank us for it.

  69. 69.

    El Muneco

    September 20, 2022 at 10:12 pm

    @C Stars: Note that Forks is a bit of a special case, as it was the setting of the _Twilight_ novels, so it has tended to draw visiting pilgrims of a young, urban, emo demographic – much more so than your typical logging town of that size four hours from a major city.

  70. 70.

    Paul in KY

    September 21, 2022 at 8:59 am

    @evodevo: Not sure that is ‘politically’ the right solution. I think focusing on the cost & cruelty of DeSatanis’ actions will hurt him more.

  71. 71.

    Paul in KY

    September 21, 2022 at 9:21 am

    @Tony Jay: Sorry things are so fucked up over there, Tony. Enjoyed the screed, though.  Cheers!

  72. 72.

    Paul in KY

    September 21, 2022 at 9:25 am

    @Tony Jay: Henry the Prince of Wales, etc. etc. would have been much more fun to report on than Henry V.

  73. 73.

    Paul in KY

    September 21, 2022 at 9:29 am

    @C Stars: Those poor people on that bus that entered Bumfuck, WA.

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