My family is scattered around Central and North Central Florida, and many family members like to write angry screeds to newspapers for publication, so I’ve been reading the The Orlando Sentinel since I was a kid. Until fairly recently, it was a conservative paper — left-of-center folks jokingly called it The Slantinel because it leaned so far right. Well, not anymore.
Today, The Orlando Sentinel published a withering editorial denouncing Ron DeSantis’s bid to outflank Trump on pandemic-denial kookery. In case you missed it, Florida’s angry little gov asked the state supreme court (which is helpfully stocked with DeSantis appointees) to empanel a grand jury to investigate “any and all wrongdoing in Florida with respect to Covid-19 vaccines.”
Ron Rage-Roid also set up his own public health committee to review recommendations from the CDC, NIH, FDA, etc., under the supervision of Florida’s (DeSantis appointed) crackpot surgeon general, Dr. Ladapo, a former associate of the “demon sperm” doc from Texas and sundry other snake oil-peddling quacks. Well, The Orlando Sentinel calls bullshit!
This is not an investigation, it’s a drama, and the script is already written, with a plot twist that recasts public-health heroes as villains and depicts DeSantis as a savior, outflanking his former mentor Donald Trump to the right. And it casts anyone who lines up behind him, up to and including the state’s Supreme Court, as supporting players who are eager to burn their own careers and credibility on the altar of his ambition. It’s an obvious second act to his successful campaign performance, rallying more gullible, COVID-weary people to his banner and boosting his bid to take his act to the national stage — with absolutely no regard to the wreckage he creates.
Up until now, DeSantis has gotten nearly everything he demanded ― from lawmakers, from state officials (who either complied with his outrageous demands or quit) and from voters who have stuck with him through outrage after stage-managed outrage.
But this is new ― more audacious than DeSantis has ever been. It’s bad. The implications for public health could resonate nationwide, and DeSantis would keep looking to weaponize tools like grand juries against his enemies. And it should change everything, starting with a firm “no” from the Supreme Court to this reckless, potentially deadly abuse of power.
Over the past six years or so, I’ve wondered many times over how (and if) the Republican Party can climb down from Trumpism, which is unpopular with the public and now a proven electoral loser. Even if the orange buffoon drops dead today, Trumpism will still be among us in the guise of many elected Republicans, including Ron DeSantis.
It seems like where Trumpism has foundered, e.g., in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, etc., it failed because normies finally paid enough attention to be horrified by deranged overreach from Republicans. Sadly, that didn’t happen in Florida in November, but maybe, just maybe, The Orlando Sentinel is a normie bellwether, an alarm ringing in America’s flooded basement.
Open thread.
RedDirtGirl
That’s a bit of encouragement.
Alison Rose
Last night, Colbert really went after him on this, including a montage of clips where DeSatan was talking positively about the vaccine and encouraging people to get it. I’d love for someone to make him watch it on live TV.
Before that, he showed a poll where DeSatan beats Trump by a large margin, and said “It’s hard to know who to root for here. It’s like a poll between gonorrhea and a slightly more racist gonorrhea.” He then adds, “Apologies to gonorrhea.”
azlib
DeSantis comes across as a mean little prick. I believe he will crash and burn on a national stage.
MattF
And there’s the coming TFG announcement today ‘cause “America needs a superhero”. I’m guessing that his ‘announcement’ con has grown stale with repetition outside the cult, but we’ll see…
Raoul Paste
If only the MSM were as emphatic and unambiguous
Math Guy
@azlib: I would like to believe that, but if he runs the main stream press – New York Times, CNN, etc. – will happily participate in maintaining his stage-managed image.
Scout211
Sweet! My sister and BIL live in Orlando and are mostly normies. They still get the dead tree version of the Sentinel so I hope they read the whole thing. My sister calls DeSantis “the idiot,” so she will not need convincing. My BIL on the other hand . . .
I hope this condemnation will spread to the rest of the country. I see too many horse race stories and polls that scream, “DeSantis is polling better than Trump!” DeSantis is definitely caught the media attention, with no actual analysis other than the horse race version of “news.”
oatler
It must get hard to begin a Florida outrage story with “sadly…” “Sadly, the Middle East erupted into…”
kindness
Ever since Newt Ginrich implored his fellow Republicans to treat Democrats, not as loyal opposition, but instead as an enemy of the Republic, it’s gone down hill. It took a while to really take hold in the psychies of the common folk. The advent of Fox News helped that cause. The rise in an Evangelical movement that is more Old Testament than New furthered the worship of hate. Casting opponents as other, not deserving the dignity they themselves expect, and treating those opponents as alien, criminal and not deserving any rights at all leaves us at the threshold of fascism. I wish I had the answers. I don’t. Except fight. Fight for your dignity. Fight for your rights. Fight for these things for your fellow humans against these forces. There are no other alternatives.
James E Powell
@Raoul Paste:
FOX & the Republican establishment love DeSantis because he is not Trump. The Beltway loves him for reasons that are not at all clear. His closest comparison is Scott Walker: extremely popular with his state’s white supremacists, not so much with anyone else.
Ken
@MattF: Wait, did Trump’s announcement yesterday, that he’s making an announcement today, actually say “America needs a superhero”?
Maybe he’s finally cracked, and will come out in some cosplay get-up and announce he’s “Super President”.
Alison Rose
@Ken: Remember how he wanted to wear a Superman t-shirt under his coat when he left the hospital after Covid treatment? Apparently he hasn’t let go of that idea……
MattF
@Ken: Yup.
Joe Falco
As a Georgian, I’m glad to have been spared from the indignity of being represented by a Senator whose only claim to fame is being involved with college football at the time (Sorry, Alabama). I do hate for you and the other Floridans having to put up with that strutting peacock of a governor and his ongoing project of placing the entire state on the sacrificial altar to his ambition. I hope this new attitude will spread to the rest of the state media if nothing else to help sound the alarm when, not if, DeSantis reaches his grubby hands towards the White House.
Layer8Problem
“America’s flooded basement”
Is that on the “Welcome to Florida!” signs at the state border?
Shana
@Alison Rose: I so many ways he’s a perpetual 7 year old.
Barbara
I don’t understand who DeSantis is appealing to with this that wouldn’t already be voting for him? Or is this strictly an intramural play for people who would otherwise vote for Trump? Because going after Moderna and especially Pfizer for creating a vaccine — and using a grand jury to do so — seems deranged.
mrmoshpotato
@kindness:
Exactly.
Amir Khalid
@Alison Rose:
TFG doesn’t have the physique to wear a Superman T-shirt without making people laugh.
Fleeting Expletive
I’ve been wanting to bring this up for a while but hadn’t found the right thread: Cleta Deatherage Mitchell has been mentioned recently as one of the Kraken lawyers, though I don’t think we yet know the extent of her machinations therein. She has a long and sordid history of ratfucking for Republicans in Oklahoma several decades ago, but she’s one of many small poisonous creatures in the fetid swamp of Trump.
Jackie
Speaking of childish behavior… This article is hilariously brutal, showing the distain republicans feel about McCarthy:
“House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is fuming over being cut out of a massive bill to fund the government through next year and the Senate thinks that’s just adorable.
With Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi all working towards an omnibus spending deal, McCarthy wants a short-term funding bill instead that would expire soon after Republicans take control of the House and let them start from scratch.
“Allow the American people what they said a month ago, to change Washington as they know it today,” McCarthy said at a press conference on Wednesday.
But with the exception of a few conservative allies, Senators are largely dismissing his complaints, telling McCarthy to get his House in order before asking for a seat at the grown-up table. And remember, they say, they’re doing this for his own good.
“I just think for Kevin’s sake, even though he’s not asking for it, I think some Republicans just feel like we should relieve him of that burden,” Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., a former House member, told Semafor.”
Much more at the link:
https://www.semafor.com/article/12/15/2022/congress-isnt-ready-to-let-kevin-mccarthy-and-and-the-house-gop-negotiate-a-big-boy-bill-just-yet
Alison Rose
@Amir Khalid: I honestly wish his people hadn’t talked him out of it, because it would have be FUCKING HILARIOUS.
gratuitous
So now that his next term is baked in, Gov. DeSantis has become even more extreme, treating his re-election as blanket approval and mandate of whatever he wants to do? GTFO! Who could have seen this coming? Not a depressingly large majority of Florida voters, that’s for sure.
different-church-lady
They will never climb down. They’ll ride it down like Slim Pickens riding the nuke in Dr. Strangelove.
SFAW
If you believe FLA is suddenly going to veer back toward sanity, well then … contact me offline, I have a bridge I’m trying to sell, I’ll give you a GREAT price. It runs between Brooklyn and Manhattan, and I’m SURE they’ll let you charge a toll for vehicles that use it.
UncleEbeneezer
Magdi Semrau pointed out that what is most likely to kill DeSantis on the National stage is his relatively high-pitched voice. Trump will absolutely go there to mock him.
SFAW
@Jackie:
Do you mean the American people who gave the Rethug Partei the worst midterm results (for an “opposition” party) in YEARS? The ones who said “screw you with your fear mongering vis-a-vis inflation”?
M31
@UncleEbeneezer: yeah, I think it was linked here (from one of the smartass Twitterers) that the moment that Trump starts calling DeSantis “Miss Florida” is when DeSantis will be done
stupid fuckers, fuck them all
UncleEbeneezer
@M31: Honestly, I could forgive Biden mocking him too, if it ever comes to that.
BC in Illinois
@MattF:
Aaron Rupar on Twitter:
From the Washington Examiner:
Yeah. “Pathetic” is the right word.
Ken
A phrase more often heard when a family sets up a trust and conservator for a grandparent suffering from dementia.
M31
@UncleEbeneezer:
yeah, if it means resorting to retrograde sexist “humor” to get rid of that whiny bloviating piece of shit fascist, then it’s worth it
Amir Khalid
@Alison Rose:
I admit I’d have gone a bit further: I’d have had TFG do the Superman T-shirt reveal to the appropriate music.
M31
lol ‘but which whiny bloviating piece of shit fascist’ you ask?
All of them, Katie
Miss Bianca
@UncleEbeneezer: It’s funny what will turn people on and off. I heard a recording of Theodore Roosevelt giving a speech – a fragment of it, anyway – and altho’ he fits the very definition of membership in He-Man Club, he too had a high-pitched voice. Had he been a woman, one might even have called it…shrill.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Barbara:
It seems like an invitation to a defamation lawsuit ala Dominion. That would be a very good thing, now that I think about it.
M31
wait, the bubblegum card thing is real?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
what a pathetic loser bumwad
Delk
So will there be a cat fight with Marco?
CaseyL
@UncleEbeneezer:
@M31:
I think mockery is the only thing that works against these assholes. Their adherents want to make people angry and despairing, so being angry just feeds them. Mockery is something they can’t handle at all.
Back in 2003, George W Bush was coming to my town for a fundraiser or something. A fellow I worked with said his son was excited to meet W. (He was pretty excited about it, too.)
I said, “I’m so sorry,” as if his kid had been, say, arrested for indecent exposure.
The fellow very quickly took himself off to brag in someone else’s ear.
M31
@Delk: just imagine the water-drinking contest, they’d both lose
waspuppet
@kindness: And they’ve decided that since we’re not human, it doesn’t matter that we outvote them. Instead of changing their philosophy in order to win elections, they’ve decided to keep us from voting against them. With prejudice, if necessary.
narya
@UncleEbeneezer: I noticed that the other night–it’s not so much the high pitch, it’s the aggrieved whine!
jonas
Half of Florida’s counties had Covid death rates higher than NYC! Some *way* higher. How is it that DeSantis gets off acting like his anti-vax, anti-public health measures were somehow a triumph? Lemme guess: most of the victims were very elderly so no-one cared and/or had the wrong skin pigmentation, so, again, no-one cared.
schrodingers_cat
Orange Error and Pudgy Santis should take each other on like gladiators so we can determine who is more manly.
Ken
@BC in Illinois: Releasing a digital NFT into the face of the FTX bankruptcy, and likely failure of Argo Blockchain and other crypto companies? That’s the kind of business savvy we’ve come to expect from Trump!
Also, he just grifted over $130 million from fundraising for the Walker campaign. I don’t see digital trading cards coming anywhere near that. Perhaps signs that he’s in a really bad negative-cashflow position?
Brachiator
DeSantis is trying some grand jury stunt to investigate Covid vaccines for… something.
And yet I saw a recent story about how DeSantis manipulated things to let residents in the 2 richest FL zip codes move to the front of the line to get the vaccine in 2021.
What a weasel.
p.a.
@BC in Illinois: Not The Onion!!??
frosty
“America’s flooded basement” You’re a treasure, Betty Cracker!
Mike S
When Eyor tweeted his pronouns DeSantis knew he had his opening for this. Its not hard to see why when you see the vaccine rates on the darkest red areas of the country. These people are stupid enough to believe that the the vaccine is worse than the virus and if he has to kill more of them to get elected, so be it.
jonas
No doubt. Except that Trump has a whiny, easily mockable voice as well (e.g. J.L. Cauvin). Lately, though, he’s lost a lot of his former energy and speaks in this sort of whispery, sing-songy cadence that’s just weird.
Betty Cracker
@SFAW: Uh, nope, not what I meant at all, but like bank accounts, fads do have a way of declining slowly and then all at once. There’s some evidence the country is done with Trumpism, and if the DeSantis boomlet dissipates, maybe that’ll be further evidence.
Mike in NC
Florida has yet to barf up a right-wing politician with the ability to gain traction national, and The New Republic has an article out entitled, Ron DeSantis Is the GOP’s Radical Lightweight
Alison Rose
@BC in Illinois: BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
BC in Illinois
@Ken:
Selling *digital* trading cards seems to be on brand for Trump these days. One needs to be reminded from time to time that he is an honest-to-goodness declared “presidential candidate.” And several commentators have pointed out that since his announcement, he has had no actual campaign events.
He is the Virtual Candidate. He perhaps has taken the lesson from his caricature of the Biden 2020 campaign, that the path to victory is to campaign on line, digitally, from the basement of Mar-a-Lago.
Josie
@M31:
Have you seen the picture on the card? Google “digital trading card” and take a look. So embarrassing. He must be really hard up for money.
Bill Arnold
@Fleeting Expletive:
Skimmed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleta_Mitchell – interesting character. Anyone who actively opposes public health measures versus a deadly infectious disease is homicidal scum. So that’s my baseline for her, but she descends well beneath it.
Citizen Alan
@SFAW: I am genuinely anxious and concerned about a job in Tallahassee, Florida that I would likely have for the rest of my life. However long that ends up being in a state with the governor will probably try to ban vaccine and masks completely.
Cheryl from Maryland
@Ken: I think the only superhero Trump could be is an old flailing Homelander on “The Boys.” A resemblance the show runner, Eric Kripke, has already noticed.
West of the Rockies
@azlib:
He also seems rather squat, probably because of his smooshed-down Eddie Munster hairline. Squat and enraged is not a good look
I think he is a Scott Walker reboot. Fiercesome-seeming but ultimately a sour fart in person.
Amir Khalid
@BC in Illinois:
That digital trading-card collection would be perfect for a display at the Trump Presidential Library. (I won’t giggle if you don’t.)
Bill Arnold
@jonas:
On team selfishness, there is also a lot of “all of the victims were other people”.
M31
lol no, sorry, I just ate
Jay C
BTW, apparently, upon reading the fine print relating to the “Trump Trading Card” grift, one discovers that the former President (nor any of his business/political entities) is/are not directly involved in peddling this junk: but that the image/rights have been “licensed” to a third-party (even if Dolt 45 is out front hawking the cards).
So not just a Trump grift, but a second-hand Trump grift at that.
SO on-brand.
Jackie
@jonas: IIRC, DeathSantis always disputed those tallies – claiming Snowbirders dying in FL didn’t count.
West of the Rockies
@Ken:
The Trumpinator. Blah…
Alison Rose
@Josie: O. M. F. G.
This…this has to be satire. PLEASE tell me it’s satire!
John Revolta
Maybe his grand jury will look into how DeSantis was pushing Regeneron as a COVID cure last year. Regeneron is of course made by a guy who gave over 10 million bucks to Rabid Ronnie’s PAC…….
https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-business-health-coronavirus-pandemic-4d0d18b24e0dd41de2424e19b3ed994f
The Moar You Know
@UncleEbeneezer: as far as I recall, the observation that the tallest candidate for president has always won still holds true.
DeSantis is short enough that he’s going to lose any general national election, and I suspect at primary time Repubican voters will suddenly find another candidate “more relatable”.
VeniceRiley
Back alley vaccinations!
BC in Illinois
@Amir Khalid:
Too late.
* ** *
In the orange-man’s defense, the NINETY NINE DOLLAR price wouldn’t have been so high, if it hadn’t been for Biden-flation.
(Thanks, Biden! You did this!)
oklahomo
@Alison Rose: The price tag of $99 is also completely insane.
Burnspbesq
I’m somewhat curious to see how DeSantis is going to spin the inevitable court defeats when his performative bullshit runs into the legal brick wall of Federal preemption. Some form of self-inflicted martyrdom?
JPL
@Joe Falco: The election did show that Herschel is worth a lot more than he tells his babies mommas. May they go back to court and sue for a more equitable child support.
JPL
@Josie: Once he is behind bars, he doesn’t need that much money. My tax dollars will gladly pay.
Shalimar
@BC in Illinois: Pretty impressive. For the $150 you used to have to pay for Trump steaks, you can now get the digital trading cards and have enough left over for much better quality steaks from your local butcher.
West of the Rockies
Did Trump ever refer to Little Marco as Micro? I think “Little Marco” and the photo of him in his heeled booties probably eliminated any chance he had to rise higher than senator.
Alison Rose
@oklahomo: I thought it was $99 for the whole set, but apparently it’s PER CARD??? And they’re not even real????
Seanly
@Barbara:
My guess – he’s making noises to get noticed more outside of Florida. He could also be a true believer in his BS, but I doubt it.
I’m sure he & his family are all vaxxed and boosted
Matt McIrvin
@The Moar You Know: John Kerry was several inches taller than George W. Bush.
update: also, Gerald Ford was taller than Jimmy Carter.
BC in Illinois
I need to get off of this topic, but the Trump Digital Cards are even more ridiculous* when you see the actual video sales pitch, by the most favorite sales-pitcher of all time:
[From JoJo from Jersey.]
He truly has no one in his family or in his circle of sycophants who can tell him, “Uh, Donald, that’s not going to look the way you think it looks.”
*ridiculous, from the Latin ridere / to laugh. (cf. ridicule.)
Yutsano
@Amir Khalid: Oh how you underestimate the cult of Dolt45. Not to mention De Santis doesn’t give them that feeling their cult leader does.
scav
I’m rooting for True Believers to get tattoos of those images. Show your Devotion! Collect them All! Permanently close to your Heart! And your Forehead, Forearm and Ass Cheeks!
trollhattan
@BC in Illinois: Next up: Trump Steaks II and Son of Trump University.
Don’t touch that dial.
Keith P
@BC in Illinois: Bored Prick Social Club
Scout211
Governor Charlie Baker is the next NCAA president.
Is this a good thing?
I wonder when they will choose someone other than a white male. Yeah, I know . . .
oklahomo
@Alison Rose: Each. And they’re digital. Because selling Trump embossed china or paintings or shower curtains would lessen his cut.
Alison Rose
@BC in Illinois: “Better than Lincoln, better than Washington” WHAT IS WRONG WITH HI
Also, the bit with the superhero one with laser eyes feels like he’s trying to copy the Dark Brandon memes. SAD!
Ken
@Josie: No, thank you. But if you’ve already gazed into the abyss, one question — is someone going to be sued for copyright violation?
Because I can totally see Trump or his second-order grifters being cheap, and stealing the artwork from one of those loons who paints Trump as Jesus, or on a flying horse, or as Jesus on a flying horse.
Matt McIrvin
…Wikipedia has a whole breakdown:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heights_of_presidents_and_presidential_candidates_of_the_United_States
I am not counting Biden vs. Donald Trump because I suspect Trump’s listed height is a lie. But both Gore and Kerry were taller than Dubya, Ford was quite a bit taller than Carter, and McGovern was taller than Nixon. In the era of television, the taller candidate usually wins, but it’s not an ironclad rule. Pre-TV, the correlation disappears.
Ken
Pretty sure the settlements for the lawsuits over the original T.U. included barring him from ever doing it again. Maybe one of his sons could set up a literal Son of Trump U, though.
Josie
@Ken:
Actually, it’s him as a superman figure, complete with bulging muscles. I guess the Jesus stuff is being saved for later editions.
jonas
You’re fucking kidding me. That’s a pretty shameless grift, even for Trump.
BC in Illinois
Okay.
Here is the Website: CollectTrumpCards.com
Here is the disclaimer: All sales of Trump Digital Trading Cards are final.
No backsies.
Barbara
@Seanly: I say this with probably only a 50/50 belief in its truth, but I honestly see people who are intent on perpetuating the significance of election fraud and/or vaccine denialism as increasingly likely to turn people off. Even if you don’t feel strongly, the way I do, for instance, the whole subject has run its course and people really want to move on. The outrage machine can’t get stuck in one groove but must constantly regenerate new outrages to remain effective. I thought DeSantis might have figured that out, but evidently not.
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: No, using a grand jury is practically guaranteed to make whatever happens immune from defamation. There’s a big difference between Rudy Giuliani private citizen going on Fox and claiming Dominion is controlled by Venezuelan spies and Ron DeSantis convening a grand jury to investigate prescription drug “fraud.” Even if that investigation is totally bogus. More likely, Pfizer — a very well-funded and large concern — will be able to tie such an investigation in knots from the get go, by challenging its jurisdiction or authority under both Florida and federal law, the statutory protections against disclosure of certain types of records and on and on. Which, in this context, is probably a good thing.
feebog
Betty, l’m curious regarding the current covid status in Florida. California is experiencing an alarming spike, as are other parts of the country. How does a big jump in cases, hospitalizations and deaths over the holidays comport with his nonsense?
jonas
They come well-charred with a side of cheap ketchup for that toasty MAGA flavor!
Zzyzx
The only problem with these is that they lessen the odds that Trump and Desantis will destroy each other. Still though, the laugh is more than worth it.
trollhattan
@Scout211: So long as the first order of business isn’t “Be more like FIFA” then perhaps he’ll be off to a good start.
More seriously, there’s a lot to be done WRT ensuring Title IX is being followed, reining in commercialization of college sports and the increasing domination of a few hyper-conferences, sexual abuse of and by athletes, addressing CTE, etc.
Frankensteinbeck
DeSantis is a mean, punching down asshole sticking it to the libs, and waves that freak flag in public. He appears to be calculated rather than a true believer about this, mainly because true believers quickly become incoherent, and he’s doing weird shit like copying Trump’s body language. I’m sure he enjoys the cruelty, so it’s a win/win for him.
The national news likes him because A) politics is just a game and DeSantis is playing it hard, and B) DeSantis is the visible rival of that wacky clown Trump who everyone loves to talk about.
Will this play nationally? Probably not. If he beats Trump in the primary he’s not as ‘fun’ as Trump for the pundit class. Most Republican voters love the cruelty, but DeSantis doesn’t have the ranting, rude and petty ‘your racist uncle’ energy that brought the fringe out in numbers for Trump. He doesn’t have the ability to lie about his record to shave off the Lefty side of the horseshoe or confuse undecideds. He doesn’t have nearly Trump’s power with the media, because he’s not a clown, just an asshole. And DeSantis is good at the ‘Democrats are communists helping the other Latinos you hate’ message that plays well with Florida’s particular Latino mix, but is weak elsewhere.
Still, predicting the 2024 elections from this far back is a fool’s game. It will be until at least early 2024.
Anyway
@Matt McIrvin:
I think Gore was taller than Dubya too.
Matt McIrvin
@Barbara: They’re thinking they can get more juice out of the trans people menace. The bathroom bills were mostly a bust, but in the purplish-red states, they’re just doubling down and straight-up calling trans people and allies of trans people child molesters and child abusers, and siccing law enforcement on them.
The question is whether this will work. I think it keeps the hardcore base loyal but I also think it probably plays as repulsive on the margin. That may not matter, though.
trollhattan
@jonas: Mmm, pre-abused for convenience!
“With every ten orders, we include a flingable replica White House plate.”
Spanky
Oh! So sad!
ETA shouldn’t that be “world’s most overvalued carmaker”?
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Alison Rose: Maybe they’d be worth it in pre-2019 Zimbabwean dollars, but anyone willing to pay 99 US dollars for a poorly-crafted digital head-swap of TFG and some roided-out body builder with a photoshopped supersuit on it needs to have their head examined, preferably by a board-certified proctologist.
Ken
@trollhattan: “One hundred orders brings you the benefits of platinum membership, including a tour of the secret storage room at Trump Tower, Chicago where you can get your own copy of one of the displayed classified documents!”
Barbara
@Matt McIrvin: I think the best way to judge the future of such tactics is looking at how they have played out recently — which is that they failed in places like Michigan. It’s too outlier, the group is too small to loom large in the imagination of most people. And the tactics being used are truly horrifying, like arresting parents.
UncleEbeneezer
@Miss Bianca: I believe Lincoln supposedly had a similar voice too. Anyways, I don’t generally believe that someone’s voice is something worthy of mockery, but when it comes to Nazi’s looking to bring full-on Fascism to the US, this is one instance where I wouldn’t object to people doing that.
trollhattan
@feebog: Are we? Have not followed the state reporting, and now my county (Sacramento) only updates case and death stats weekly and the other stats, monthly so it’s impossible to get anything like a real-time snapshot. Those used to be daily/weekly updates.
Last Dec-Jan was by far our biggest caseload of the entire epidemic and the big jump did not begin until about Christmas. IOW we have no idea yet whether we will be repeating.
Don’t think I’ll be watching any holiday blockbusters in the theater.
Soprano2
@Barbara: I don’t think he wants to go after Pfizer and Moderna – I think he wants to go after the public health officials, government officials, teacher’s unions, and anyone else who wanted pandemic provisions to stay in place or wanted any kind of vaccine mandates.
scav
You don’t even get to choose your card!?! Stuck with the randomly generated dementia -fueled persona chosen for you and no backsies?! Announced in a falling market? Oh, this is a more schaden rich vein for freude miners than I would ever have expected.
Also too, why does the astronaut almost look a bit like Biden but far more like the zombie Capaldi from that Fisher King episode?
Matt McIrvin
@Barbara: I heard the latest thing is to target recent immigrants with “teachers are forcing your children to change gender” panic. Kind of like the claims aimed at immigrant communities that Biden was going to establish a bloody Communist autocracy like the Khmer Rouge.
Betty Cracker
@feebog: COVID cases tend to decline in the winter in Florida (people are indoors with the windows shut in the summer here, not the winter), so it’s not a thing so far. My SIL is an ER doc, and she told me the other day she hadn’t seen a single COVID case on her recent shift.
Alison Rose
@scav: It’s like designer toy blind boxes, except every possibility is crap.
Kay
DeSantis and the Right will “uncover!” some ordinary process with development of a vaccine and present it as secret and evil and nefarious – in other words, the Fauci and Twitter files playbook.
No one targeted by the scam will understand how vaccines are actually developed (I certainly don’t) so a portion of easily played dumbos who are ideologically inclined Right will be tricked into thinking ordinary process is an evil plot.
Amir Khalid
@Josie:
The only part of TFG’s body that bulges ain’t his musculature.
Citizen Alan
@Anyway: Well yeah, but Gore won!
trollhattan
Noooo, not Tom Hanks! Let me add how amazed I am that Mr. Pelosi survived the attack at all, much less being able to travel and resume life.
Given the extensive and one-sided hit list, I’ll be interested in how Republicans maintain their assertion this guy is “just another Berkeley Liberal.”
ian
@The Moar You Know: Ford was taller than Carter. Gore was taller than Bush. This height thing doesn’t hold up to much scrutiny
Edit: I should read the comments, people beat me to it.
Frankensteinbeck
@Kay:
Honestly, I think this announcement begins and ends with the grand jury. DeSantis knows it will find absolutely nothing. Like the trafficked Venezuelans, that’s not the point. He pulled a political stunt that the Republican base likes, and that’s it. Sure, he’ll continue with more anti-vaxx crap, but the grand jury is just one interchangeable stunt in a campaign.
Frankensteinbeck
@trollhattan:
It’s already proven in their minds. Further facts are irrelevant. They don’t have to address those, they can just tune them out. DePape was a leftist and/or it was a gay lovers’ fight. Already established, case closed.
Alison Rose
@trollhattan: LISTEN. No quicker way to make every single person in the nation hate you than by trying to hurt Tom Hanks
Seeing Newsom’s name there too is a little scary. The people who hate him REALLY hate him and it’s quite disturbing.
feebog
@trollhattan:
I follow the LA county stats. We are up from about 400 hospitalizations to over 1200 in the past two months. The testing positivity rate is now trending down slightly, but still way too high. I expect the next few weeks to bring another spike given the number of holiday parties and other events.
Paul in KY
@Citizen Alan: Those gulf beaches are beautiful, though.
Paul in KY
@The Moar You Know: I think Sen. Kerry was just a bit taller than GWB.
BC in Illinois
Okay. I’ve decided.
I WILL BE MAKING A MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT TOMORROW !!!
(Or the next day. Certainly within the next two weeks.)
[H/T Ted Lieu]
RedDirtGirl
@Ken: I’ve been watching The Boys on Amazon, so that tracks…
Betty Cracker
@Paul in KY: They sure are. Destin is the prettiest beach in Florida, IMO. That’s a ways west from Tallahassee, but there’s some gorgeous wild coastline due south of it. There are still hundreds of miles of undeveloped coastline in Florida.
M31
hahahaha go here:
https://stablediffusionweb.com/#demo
and type in the prompt
overmuscled Donald Trump Superhero Trading Cards
Josie
@Amir Khalid:
Hmmm. That description could be open to conjecture.
M31
even better prompt:
crying whiny tittybaby Donald Trump Superhero Trading Card
trollhattan
Might consider keeping this to yourself. [sound of backhoe starting]
Ruckus
@azlib:
“DeSantis comes across as a mean little prick. I believe he will crash and burn on a national stage.”
He’s not a little prick. He’s crotch rot, what isn’t prick is ass. He’s got absolutely nothing humane to show the world so he whips out the only two defining attributes he has, prick and ass. I’d say he’s the example of current day conservatism, all prick and ass. I don’t see him appealing to a large audience but to the far right audience he may have prominence. Now that to me hopefully isn’t enough to get him anywhere and that the people he appeals to will be too small an audience.
He’s going all in, prick and ass because that is absolutely all he is and all he’s ever going to be.
Kay
@Frankensteinbeck:
DeSantis sent law enforcement to peoples homes and had them arrested on fake charges of voter fraud.
The constant minimizing of how radical these people are amazes me. How much, exactly, is needed before we decide they are serious about authoritarianism? A coup attempt? Oh right, we already had that.
trollhattan
@Ruckus: “Follow me, into battle, as we crush the Woke Liberal Democrat Groomers!” does not translate well into squeak. Know what he needs? A hat-able theme. How about “Please Clap”?
There go two miscreants
@Betty Cracker: There are still hundreds of miles of undeveloped coastline in Florida.
HOW HAS THIS OUTRAGE BEEN ALLOWED! ALERT THE AUTHORITIES!
/s (in case there was any doubt)
Kay
The only place the “woke/antivax panic” worked was NY and FL and FL arguably doesnt count since it’s basically a red state now. So that leaves NY as an outlier.
It isn’t a good political strategy. It’s too narrow.
Dave
@Alison Rose: It’s probably because Hanks has been identified by our Q friends as a baby eater or whatever. Not sure if they’ve found a new target but there was definitely a point in time where photos of random objects he was posting was proof that he was part of Satanic Conspiracy 2.0 and was also one of the 1st arrested in the secret Trump tribunals or something equally idiotic. So of course the dude is a Berkeley liberal what else could he be?
Alison Rose
@Dave: But it’s just so absurd. I mean, their bullshit is absurd anyway, but TOM HANKS? Literally the nicest human being on Earth?
Dave
@Alison Rose: I know I know; it’s just painful and every aspect of it manages to be more painfully stupid than every other painfully stupid aspect.
GibberJack
@BC in Illinois: I do wonder if his lack of campaign events is due to other reasons.
Wild horses couldn’t keep him from an opportunity for being the center of attention at his own live event. Especially since he can make money off it. So I wonder what’s stopping him.
Health reasons, perhaps?
eta: maybe going too into kremlinology here?
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: I’ve always thought that National Seashore East of Pensacola and West of Navarre was especially pretty. As you said though, it’s all beautiful.
SoupCatcher
@Frankensteinbeck:
I feel political reporters for the major media outlets want DeSantis as the Republican nominee so they can spam stories about Biden’s age.
Kay
Why are the antiwokesters so incredibly and narrowly focused on trans issues?
It’s bizarre. I mean, if your authentic interest is “childrens health” or “pediatric medicine” there are hundreds of issues that apply to many many more children to choose from yet they ONLY delved into uniformed opinion on pediatric treatment protocols for this ONE issue.
It seems like they should have strong opinions on all kinds of medical decisions regarding children if this ONE is so fascinating they literally devote years to it.
Tony G
@Ken: This country really has changed, and not for the better. As awful as Reagan and the Bushes were, they would not have used a cartoon superhero stunt. About 40% of the people in this country are demented little children — and they vote.
Kay
Here’s an issue in pediatric medicine:
There’s another one that gets attention- I recently had a seminar on it- prescribing anti depressants to children – absolutely exploded in the last 10 years.
But for some reason the advocates for children among the antiwokesters focus exclusively on gender affirming care.
Odd.
trollhattan
@There go two miscreants: Eventually they will be scraped up and hauled inland, to raise Florida’s middle bit a foot or four.
Rich people will get steel house-stilts.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
The fact that this ambulatory permafrown comports himself as though he is a Covid SAVIOR would be hilarious if not for all the death he caused.
Betty Cracker
@trollhattan: Yeah, I wouldn’t have said that if this were a top 10K blog. ;-)
@BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️: Will definitely be stealing “permafrown.”
GibberJack
@Kay: Non-cis non-het child sex is the venn diagram overlap, the trifecta of their obsessions.
A psychologist might have more learned insight as to why, but I think most of us here can make a reasonable guess.
prostratedragon
@Amir Khalid: Till I remembered the Williams music, I thought you wrre going with “The Stripper”, which has already been taken by Samuel Alito in my mind.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I assume someone confronted them over a bad joke or unintentional revelation of a prejudice at some point, and because they are rigid people, they can’t look inward, and they can’t let it go either. Their 1990s social mores are preserved in amber, and if the world intrudes, it’s the world that must change. Not them.
louc
Honestly, this may very well be the Rs downfall in Florida. They’re giving all the bennies to property insurers and are screwing homeowners. Why?
Gravenstone
@louc: Who do you think has the larger lobby?
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
“it’s the world that must change. Not them.”
That seems to be their overwhelming point in life, the world must go back to the warped great world they have built in their heads, that they are right and everyone else is completely and utterly wrong. That world of course never existed, the people in their book of life are caricatures, like in a children’s cartoon show. They just don’t know that life isn’t, shouldn’t and can’t be like that, because they dream the things they find when they have their heads firmly stuffed up their own …… And the world is supposed to be overjoyed that they are double jointed enough to place their heads where they don’t belong.
Betty Cracker
@louc: Judging from the outcome of the recent election, more Florida voters are entertained by the anti-woke spectacle than outraged by the homeowners insurance crisis. It was already a huge issue before the election, and the statehouse passed anti-CRT and trans bills while DeSantis picked fights with Mickey Mouse. They paid no electoral consequences, so they’ll keep right on ignoring it.
Helena Montana
Does this mean I’ll get arrested tomorrow when I show up at Publix pharmacy for my Covid booster?
tokyokie
@Fleeting Expletive: And I once attended a coffee klatch at her house with Fred R. Harris, back when she was a liberal Democrat.