I apologize for harping on the shitty Florida governor yet again, but I despise the man on a deep and personal level, so the recent GOP backbiting has me as high on schadenfreude as a sugared-up toddler after pounding three espressos at Legoland. And the hits just keep coming! Here’s an anecdote from Rep. David Trott (R-Mich.) in Politico Playbook:
“I sat right next to DeSantis for two years on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and he never said a single word to me…”
“He’s got an ability to size up the electorate and figure out what issues and hot buttons he needs to press to advance his political ambitions,” Trott said. “There’s no question there’s a talent there. No taking that away from him.”
But equally apparent to Trott was what DeSantis was missing.
“If you’re going to go into politics, kind of a fundamental skill that you should have is likability. I don’t think [he] has that,” Trott said. “He never developed any relationships with other members that I know of. You’d never see him talking on the floor with other people or palling around. He’s just a very arrogant guy, very focused on Ron DeSantis.”
Given that, Trott isn’t surprised that so many members of the Florida delegation are opting to endorse Trump over their own governor.
“He wasn’t really liked when he was in Congress. And now it’s coming home to, you know, prove out as some of the Florida delegation endorsed Trump and and some of the donors, you know, think he’s kind of awkward in terms of how he interacts with them,” Trott said. “If his pre-presidential campaign was playing out differently, then I’d say, ‘Well, maybe he just didn’t like me.’ But I think there’s something more at work here.”
In short, said Trott, “I think he’s an asshole. I don’t think he cares about people.”
The article also has an anecdote from GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who got a note from Trump when her father was killed in a car accident last year. DeSantis either outsourced the task to Tacky O or she took it upon herself to send condolences. From herself only. Anyway, Luna endorsed Trump.
There’s another Politico piece featuring Repub recriminations — this time from the still-supine lickspittles in the Florida statehouse, who are anonymously “deeply frustrated” and “worn out” by DeSantis:
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ iron-clad grip on the Republican-controlled Legislature may be slipping amid growing frustration among GOP legislators.
Republican lawmakers are stalling a handful of his key remaining legislative priorities with just weeks left in the annual session. And what started out as whispers in private about unhappiness over the governor are starting to become louder even though Republican lawmakers remain unwilling to speak out publicly against DeSantis because of his power and clout…
Part of the angst has been sparked by a grinding session where legislators have pushed through bill after bill — and chewed up hours of contentious debate — that’s considered integral to DeSantis’ expected presidential campaign. DeSantis’ announcement this week that he wanted legislators to take aim again at Disney has irritated conservative Republicans loath to target private businesses.
One GOP legislator privately said: “We’re not the party of cancel culture. We can’t keep doing this tit for tat.” The lawmaker was granted anonymity to speak freely about the GOP governor.
Over the past month or so, the bottom seemed to be dropping out of DeSantis’s as-yet-unannounced presidential bid — at first gradually with a drip-drip-drip, and now seemingly all at once, like a gelatinous blob of cheap chocolate pudding detaching from the bottom of an inverted plastic cup to hit the cafeteria floor with a nasty wet plop. Friends, it’s glorious!
Open thread!
PS: I never say never anymore about Repubs, so it’s possible DeSantis rebounds. I don’t think so, though. He was definitely overhyped, and it’s possible the political gossipmongers are overcorrecting now. But the flailing is real, and the flaws are fundamental.
Tony Jay
A BREXITANIA NOTE
The Life Cycle of Invertibrits
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Qevin ‘Squeaker’ McCarthy, MAGOP House Speaker and an entity so completely the mirror opposite of his Democratic predecessor that he’s made of anti-matter, is a weak man. So weak that Mitch McConnell’s cooling corpse could take him in a fist fight. To get his hands on Nancy’s gavel he sold so much of himself to so many different people that he’s effectively a junk bond with a whiny voice. A shadow of a whisp of a theory of a person with the credibility of a Trumpian press-release.
That said, he’s a monolith of towering authority next to the UK’s current Prime Minister.
Like Qevin, Rishi ‘Squishy’ Sunak only achieved the office he now holds because someone had to fill the post and there were no other viable options for his fractured Party to coalesce around, but at least Qevin has some kind of like-minded constituency within the MAGOP he can rely on to say the right things when the life of a spineless punching-bag is getting him down. Sunak doesn’t even have that. His appeal to Tory Party MPs was that he’d come second to Liz ‘Please Lettuce Not’ Truss in their last leadership election and his previous job as a vicious investment banker for Goldman Sachs gave him a superficial (and most importantly, media-friendly) sheen of “he knows money” credibility they found attractive in the wake of Truss’ imposition of “a proper Conservative budget” crashing the UK’s economy and flushing £37 billion pounds down the drain.
As a result, Squishy has the job, but his authority within the Party and over his Cabinet is pretty much zero. He’s got nothing in the way of patronage, no machine behind him, and he can’t build one because all he’s got to work with are the dregs left to him by Truss and Flobalob Johnson. Whereas Johnson wouldn’t sack Ministers because of the nature of the deal he’d struck with them when becoming Party Leader (we’re all in this together, don’t challenge me and you’ll be untouchable), and Truss, who almost certainly planned a mass sacrifice of anyone in the Cabinet she saw as a threat to her authority, ambitions and self-esteem (which means everyone, including the Downing St cat) wasn’t in office long enough to shed much blood, Sunak just doesn’t have the cojones.
Case in point, one of Truss’ final acts was to sack the Johnson-appointed Home Secretary Suella ‘Wide-Eyed Zealot’ Braverman last October for violating the Ministerial code by leaking restricted documents through her own e-mail account. Sunak replaced Truss days later and one of his very first appointments was to bring back the manifestly unqualified Braverman after only six days in the wilderness and restore her to the Home Office, claiming that “she had had time to reflect on and understood her error”. No one bought it. He needed the acquiescence, if not the support, of the Hard Right loons who love Braverman’s full-throated parroting of wingnut fringe theories as Government policy, so back she came. One of the three biggest jobs in British politics and Sunak had to give it to a recently disgraced and barely competent junior assistant lawyer in order to curry favour with the worst people in the Tory Party.
That’s how weak he was from Day One.
Today we’ve had yet another example of how tandem inter pares Squishy really is. Five whole months ago it was announced that Dominic Raab, the peanut-headed steroid abuser who Sunak restored to the posts of Justice Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister after Truss had booted him for insufficient loyalty, was being investigated on charges of bullying civil servants. If you think five months is a long time to spend on an inquiry like this, you’d be right, but it’s hardly surprising. Raab is an infamously unpleasant personality as well as being thicker than a stack of Tomahawk steaks, so he probably spent 19 of those 20 weeks accosting anyone who looked like they might be about to question his placid disposition, dragging them into the nearest toilet cubicle and flushing their heads down the bowl until they agreed that their dad was gay and their mum was, indeed, a dirty slag.
OTOH, it could just have been that the inquiry kept on turning up new stories about Raab’s volcanic temper and tendency to throw both insults and nearby fruit-bowls at civil-servants who told him things he didn’t want to hear and couldn’t actually understand anyway. 25 different people across three Government departments eventually provided testimony about what a nasty little thug Raab was to work for, and the report was handed to Sunak yesterday.
And he did… nothing. Cowardly little squish that he is, he had his spokespeeps mumble something about “reading the report carefully” and “giving the evidence all due consideration”, but really, he was just scared shitless of being in a room with Ragin’ Raab and his throbbing forehead vein. Paralysed with fear like a gerbil in Richard Gere’s dressing room, Sunak hid in his little cardboard fort under the Number 10 desk while the mockery grew louder at his inability to make an executive decision and Raab’s allies in the Party and the Media fed the beast with quotes about how he was definitely going to get “lawyered up” would “fight to the death” to preserve his position.
It was all in vain, though. Late this morning Raab released a statement as charming and reality based as the man himself announcing that he was tendering his resignation, but not because he’d done anything wrong. Oh no, of course not. He was resigning to draw attention to the Woke, lefty, snowflake cowards who had cynically “lowered the threshold for what constitutes bullying” in order to smear him for “any unintended stress or offence that any officials felt, as a result of the pace, standards and challenge that I brought to MOJ.” He’s still at it now, claiming that there needs to be an inquiry into the sisister conspiracy of “unionised officials” organised against him and lying about the findings of the report. Exactly what you’d expect from the delusional creep whose previous moment of peak-Raabitude came when, as Foreign Secretary, he refused to cut short his Greek beach holiday to deal with the small matter of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Even Flobalob had to demote him for that fuck up, which somehow breaks the space/time continuum by confirming that Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson was, in this particular case, a braver and more ethical man than… well… no… can’t do it.
Thing is, how spineless do you have to be not to understand from the get-go that showing weakness like this doesn’t win you a single speck of respect? By freezing in the headlights and showing his belly over an issue as cut and dried as Raab’s persistent bullying, all Sunak has done is hand his rivals in the Party a stick with which to hammer his lacquered carapace into splintery pieces. One the one hand he’s a coward, on the other hand he’s a tool of the Wokeratti Left, on the third hand he’s a cynical mastermind prising ‘proper, British’ Ministers out of his cuckoo government so that he can replace them with Remainiacs who want to put us back under Euro-Communist domination! The coverage has already switched from “Will he sack Raab?” to “What did he know and why didn’t he sack him?”, and it’s only going to get worse.
Give it a few days and ‘Squishy Rishi’ will be wishing he’d never got rid of his green card. Maybe Qevin would consider a bit of a job-share?
Baud
True, the GOP is the party of the cancel government.
Layer8Problem
“We gave him all his power and clout, and now he has all that power and clout, and now we’re regretting it! Who could have predicted this??”
mrmoshpotato
Harp away! DeathSantis deserves every word of disgust that’s thrown at his fucking fascist face!
Baud
@Layer8Problem: They regret that he’s flailing.
OzarkHillbilly
He could have just said “He’s a republican.” That would cover all the bases by itself.
And to repeat myself Betty, I just want to say thank you for that NYT Sandy Hook piece. Damned hard reading, tear rending at times. I can’t imagine going thru what those people did and in all likelihood are still going thru.
Leto
All the early talk of Meatball Ron was, all the policies of Trumpov, none of the chaos. Turns out it’s all the chaos, basically same policies. And JFC that voice. Every time I hear it, it’s like the first time. Just whiny, nasal, grating…
Also I’m out of the loop, but wtf is the thing with him and chocolate pudding? I missed something there because he’s being mocked as pudding fingers and I don’t know what people are talking about wrt.
Kristine
@Baud:
Must nominate.
Betty Cracker
@Layer8Problem: Maybe I should have seen it coming, but I was a tad surprised at how quickly the state legislature rolled over for Pudd’n Boots. They’re a deeply corrupt, entrenched bunch that have been known to pummel each other to bits to hang onto their fiefdoms.
I guess they bought the hype too.
CaseyL
@Leto: He ate pudding with his fingers. I don’t know the context (like, why didn’t he just get a spoon?) but that’s it. That’s the story.
Barbara
I wish I could say that the groundswell of disdain for DeSantis is due to his grotesque war on pregnant women and all transpeople, but it seems like on the Republican side of the equation, it turns out that going after Disney was a seriously stupid thing to do. DeSantis doesn’t know how to be subtle about these things in the way that Ronald Reagan was — he dog whistled enough to piss off Democrats and capture the hearts and minds of Southern voters without turning off Republicans who didn’t mainline bigotry and hate. It’s a different era.
@Leto: Supposedly, he was served a pudding cup on a flight and ate it with his fingers rather than ask for a spoon.
Layer8Problem
@CaseyL: Important man doing important things in a hurry, because important, so no time for niceties. He probably doesn’t wash his hands after using the toilet either.
OverTwistWillie
If this was a Democratic governor who was suffering from failure to launch, FOX would be piling on, and flogging some favorability poll with way sketchy cross-tabs.
Kristine
When bad things about GOPers from other GOPers start leaking out, you know the knives are out. When GOPers let themselves be quoted directly, it’s pretty much over.
clay
I don’t have a Twitter account and never will, but I have been in the habit of going to the site and searching up names whose posts I enjoy.
I tried it today and the site is now insisting that I log in (or sign up) just to be able to use the search bar! Guess what Twitter.. making your site harder to use is not going to entice anyone to jump aboard.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Those legislators weren’t so worn out a couple months ago when they thought DeSantis was headed for the White House. But now they’re really, really tired, and DeSantis is becoming a lame duck before his time.
BethanyAnne
Oh, no, he’s drowning! Quick, someone toss that man an anvil!
Dangerman
So, who is screwing DeSantis? Disney (i.e., The Mouse)? Trump (i.e., the Louse)? Melania (the Louse Spouse)? Mind boggles.
OverTwistWillie
…and I see the majority of Democrats are fine with Joe, which translates to “despite some concerns” in the MSM.
Jesus fuck with these people.
Leto
@CaseyL: @Barbara:
I’m not exactly sure what I was expecting but that’s… something. Ok.
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud:
As the Liberal Redneck says: https://youtu.be/883YKiCJfxo
waspuppet
So is DeSantis not a conservative? What is he then? Seriously, what’s your word for him? Or is this just your continued effort to make “conservative” seem moderate and respectable?
Butch
So joining Bobby Jindahl and Scott Walker as the next “rising star” anointed by the Beltway Media. They never miss, do they?
Leto
@clay: Twitter a few days ago rolled back the policy on dead naming trans folk. Previously using a trans persons former name was against tos, but good ole Elon changed that too. Nobody is coming back except the hate groups. They’re loving all the new changes.
Baud
@Leto:
Chief Oshkosh
@OverTwistWillie:
FTFY
Hoodie
@Barbara: I suspect it’s not so much going after Disney as getting fucking owned by Disney. The Mouse basically took a big dump on him and didn’t even bother to wipe, so these GOP cretins probably feel they’re covered in feces by association. Add on top his arrogance, it’s not surprising they’re starting to sour on him. Above all, the GOP hates losers, and DeSantis is starting to smell like one.
MoCaAce
As opposed to all of the likable empathetic republicans?
Tony Jay
Once the Media settle on a narrative that’s usually it as far as future coverage goes, and it’s looking like the Media are settling on “Not quite the ruthlessly efficient Heir to the Hair we were led to believe”. They’ll be looking at the donors recoiling from him and the distinct lack of enthusiasm amongst MAGAP pols as a piece with Tang’s gleeful hammering of D’Ron’s record and thinking it might be best to let this bubble burst on its own.
If he displays a previously unseen ability to hit back hard at Tang and shake up a bit of fizz, and especially if he puts enough pressure on Disney that they give him some sort of ‘win’ to parade around, they might give him a second look, but it’s much more likely that any future stories about the Shame of Florida are going to concentrate on how he let the Media down by not being the candidate they desperately wanted him to be.
OverTwistWillie
@waspuppet:
He is a brick with a politically ambitious wife.
Chief Oshkosh
@Dangerman:
I was told that whoever is screwing Meatball Ron, it ain’t Tacky O no mo’! Another Trump-like attribute of Pudd’n Boots? Or just a scurrilous rumor?
I report, you decide!
Bill Arnold
Open thread, so:
Hoodie
@OverTwistWillie: Yeah, I’d say she’s the brains of the operation, but that’s not saying much.
Shakti
Whatever. I want to see something other than anonymous whining from their sinecures. We saw plenty of that with Trump and it’s not like that guy is likeable or grateful or a relationship builder either. Neither was Cruz. But here’s the thing: some people wanted to watch Trump on tv once. DeSantis has the charisma of a whiny middle manager at a kid’s soft ball game and that’s after his wife’s contour lessons; and Cruz has the charm of a serial killer who doesn’t Duchenne smile.
But when you gerrymander and voter suppress, charisma isn’t nearly as important. How do you explain Kemp winning over Abrams or DeSantis over Gillum and Crist? I don’t think Luna cares about which names were on those notes. As an IG influencer, she just knows that Trump has brand recognition and DeSantis is fairly unknown outside of this state except to right wingers who pleasure themselves to OANN and Fox News. (Luna is my rep, ugh.)
I hate that fucker. A former coworker of mine went to Tallahassee to speak out against the drag bills, which passed. He was in Fort Myers when that hurricane hit.
Leto
@Baud: Twitter did something last week that basically broke the National Weather Service’s ability to alert people, through their various Twitter accounts for each city/region, and that functionality isn’t coming back. Idk. Maybe Apartheid Clyde could’ve rolled that $44B into more SpaceX R&D, or used that money to fix the reliability issues with Tesla… but here we are.
clay
@MoCaAce: A lot of Republicans can make people feel like they care about them, even if they don’t actually give a damn. Trump certainly could do it, despite being a narcissistic sociopath. Bush Jr could as well.
Desantis lacks the charm to even fake it.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: I’m still on twitter because my editor says I have to be, but it’s a much less interesting place. Musk is a toddler smashing things for the sheer fun of it.
West of the Rockies
I think DePinhead and Pompeo are virtually the same: arrogant, aloof, seething with obvious disdain and meanness. Neither look especially fit. They do not smile easily or well.
At least greedy Pompeo read the room and decided he was not the man for the (this) hour. It’s enjoyable watching Puddin’ Boots step repeatedly on his own wee dick.
Leto
@Tony Jay: most of the early “challengers” to Trumpov are hoping that he’ll self destruct. It’s the same playbook they tried in 2016 and it’s going the exact same way. Nobody is willing to directly engage with him, because they’re all cowards and they also want the MAGAt votes. Whatever; he’s the albatross around their collective necks and I can only hope they go all the way to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
Josie
@Leto: It’s possible that Chris Christie might step up to the plate, according to what I read lately. I doubt that he could actually win the Republican primary, but he is willing to engage with the former guy and try to take him down. The question is, if he is successful, who could come forward to be the nominee?
ETA: https://politicalwire.com/2023/04/20/chris-christie-wants-to-run/
smith
On the issue of DeSantis’ unlikeability: Is there any GQP pol who has what appears to be a genuine smile? This struck me during the 2020 campaign, looking at the very warm smiles that you commonly see on both Biden and Harris. I couldn’t think of a single R pol whose smile wasn’t strained and halfway to a sneer.
Unfortunately, what this says to me is that likeability isn’t a relevant quality for the goobers who vote R. They want the mean bastards, not anyone you could like or trust.
rikyrah
Ok, this cracked me up…LOL
No fear at all of wannabe Mussolini of Florida to put that on the record.
Tony Jay
@Leto:
It’s genuinely bizarre. Did Desantis think that Trump would have pulled out of the 2024 race by now? If not (and why would he think that) he had to have been told in no uncertain terms by professional political advisors that his only chance of getting past the tiger-striped tovarisch was by hammering him hard on his multiple betrayals of the MAGA faithful while presenting himself as the only True Conservative capable of leading those disappointed voters to the promised land of All The Bigotry, All The Time.
It would have been a longshot and damned hard to pull off, but he didn’t even try, he’s just sort of stood there, mumbling into his booties about that mean ol’ mouse while Trump pisses on his chips and rubs ketchup into his hair.
Leto
@Dorothy A. Winsor: the video game I play, along with a few others here (World of Warcraft), is going through a similar issue after they just forced a Return to Office order. Long story short, a lot of their good talent is leaving and it’s forcing the remaining people to essentially enter into crisis mode. It was a topic of discussion a few days ago on the Reddit sub thread, and bunch of IT people were talking about what that means:
It’s similar to when I was in the military, and I’m sure all the IT folks here can chime in with similar experience. He absolutely broke it, there was a mass exodus, and what remains is the shell as he tries to get new people in to figure shit out, as well as implement his “gRAnD ShtRaTuGeeH” of free speech utopia.
Hoodie
@Leto: Given the current state of the GOP base, no one is going to dislodge Trump. His transgressive personality is the only thing that unites them. If you look under the covers (e.g., follow recent revelations re the TN legislature), you discover a rotten turd of garden variety corruption. Owning the libs is mostly about being able to arbitrarily exercise power with no consequences, so none of this is surprising. It’s what happens when you don’t have a legitimate argument.
Captain C
@Layer8Problem: So we can’t be sure it’s pudding on his fingers, then.
Cameron
The guv should start looking for a little wingnut welfare at the MAGA Institute. He isn’t going to be President, he isn’t going to be Senator, he can’t run for Governor again, and he’s already had his shot in the House.
MisterForkbeard
I’m sure everyone had a collective spit take at that sentence. And woe that our media can’t find the effort to contest that statement at all.
Hilbertsubspace
“There’s no question that there’s talent there.”
A talent that doesn’t include utensils apparently. Must be the Harvard Law pedigree shining through. What’s Latin for Pudding Fingers anyway? Lex, Lux, Dux, Blech?
I guess the only thing that matters for Harvard is if his fingers are long enough to reach the pudding.
Ruckus
A lot of politicians do OK or even well in a smaller setting, local, county or even some state races. But put them out on the big trail and they fold like a cheap tent because they’ve got nothing holding them up. And I’ve just described deathsanta. He’s got nothing going for him except a seemingly big Florida stick. Which just make people in other states point and laugh. Or in this case point and get that feeling in the throat of the possibility of heaving. He has not one positive anything. At least SFB is showy, in a damn it I’m actually going to throw up way. deathsanta can’t even get that much of a response. He’s an empty suit in white boots. He’s pompous and arrogant in the manner of a small child with zero to back it up. IOW there’s nothing there except the suit and white boots. And he knows and shows that any time he’s out of his very small element.
Lavocat
It was a joy reading this. How do you REALLY feel? It reminds me of a time that I so pissed off a fellow attorney that she just completely lost her shit and started yelling at me “Just fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!”. It’s always fun to watch the wheels come off. Watching the DeSantis meltdown is AWESOME.
Greg
I am kind of disappointed in Ron. I was hoping that he and Trump would have a knock down, drag out fight to the bottom. A fight that would horrify most Americans and make the GOP toxic from president to school board. And if we were lucky would have Trump splitting off to form his own 3rd party, hopefully with some congressional and senate candidates at the state and national level. It would burn that party to the ground.
dmsilev
@MisterForkbeard: It’s somebody who is either in deep denial about himself and his party or knows but is trying to snow a reporter with bullshit.
Urza
I’d rather he get in and waste lots of money fighting Trump before failing. Getting the big money donors cash out of their hands and hopefully spreading it back into the public coffers a little more while wasting it is a public service.
Betty Cracker
@Shakti: I hear you, but maybe basic blocking and tackling are still important, even in Repub politics. Trump’s an asshole, but he has schmoozed all his life and has people around him who know how that crap works. Also, like you said, Trump had been on people’s TVs. He was hyped as a self-made business man, which was a total lie but people bought it, and I’m not sure you can put a value on that sort of thing. The good news now if Trump is the nominee again is that he has a record, and it sucks.
sdhays
@Tony Jay: This is where Republicans are now really incapable for planning even a single step ahead. It should have been clear that entertaining Trump’s lies about the election being stolen were just going to keep him around, while they needed to get the party moving away from him so that by 2023/24, he wouldn’t be clogging the toilet.
If Republican leaders had been able to bring themselves to forcefully shut down the talk of election stealing early on, Fox might be nearly $800m richer and they might have a real primary getting started. The problem was, they needed to all/mostly all jump together and say, “yes, Trump is a LOSER, let’s move on”, and since so many of them are focused on their own grift, collective action against the boss could just never happen.
zhena gogolia
@MoCaAce: This is what kills me. He’s an asshole, so you’re going to support Trump, who’s . . . an asshole?
raven
I just found two goofball pitties romping in the middle of the street. I’ve but them up on the neighborhood FB page and hope I can find their peeps soon.
narya
@Leto: My old organization is in the process of Finding Out just how much knowledge I had (nearly 11 years there, plus nearly five at a similar place, so about 15 years of knowledge on some very arcane subjects tied to government funding). I tried very hard to share it as widely as I could, but some folks chewed on the corners instead of reading the “books” I provided. Another person who is leaving today is going to be missed even more than I am missed.
Since it’s an OT: today’s project is . . . gnocchi! I have a bunch of potatoes from the farm share, and, since they’re end of season, they should be good for gnocchi. I’m have purple, sweet, and white taters, and will probably use all of them for this endeavor. Because the oven will already be on, also gonna make some chocolate cake with cherries, and include a cherry/cream cheese filling and a cherry frosting.
sdhays
Something I often forget is that DeSantis was lifted in the primary by Trump – if it wasn’t for Trump, he wasn’t going to be able to win by himself, and Trump is terrible when it comes to picking talent.
Who did Trump screw over to foist DeSantis on Florida?
Baud
@raven:
No tags?
smith
Didn’t Christie join the Grovelers Caucus in 2016? Any reason to think he won’t do it again?
zhena gogolia
@Captain C: I’m having lunch here!
gVOR08
As a fellow SW Floridian, I sure hope you’re right. Puddin Boots does seem to have badly overplayed his hand. Seems to be a matter of pandering to the GOP primary MAGA base intersecting with his naturally authoritarian personality. Somebody or other pointed out yesterday that “Caligula” was a nickname from the emperor’s days following his soldier father around. It means in Latin “little boots”. Serendipity I guess.
Baud
I wonder if the FL legislature will refuse to amend the law to allow DeSantis to run for president.
jonas
Trump, of course, could not give a shit about anyone but himself, either, but can at least *pretend*, with tears in his eyes, sir, like he sometimes cares.
Ocotillo
I am not sure who said it, but about presidential races, it always almost the case the most likable candidate wins in the end and looking back in my adult life, it pretty much seems to be the case. The old “have a beer with so and so” thing. While Dukakis, Gore, Kerry and Hillary were all waaaaaay more competent then their opponents, they came across as wooden and/or distant. Not sure how Nixon beat Humphrey though, I guess that is the exception in my lifetime.
gvg
I think the Republicans have been coasting towards a ditch since Hastart. Bush broke a lot of things too. I noticed about then 2000 that a lot of the republicans elected had apparently grown up on the Regan era propaganda trickle down, government enemy, religion over facts, tax cuts always work and America can beat anyone we are awsome, guns are always great mish mash AND THEY BELIEVED IT! It wasn’t slogans to get votes and then you did real deals and read complicate nuanced reports and worked on policy that were influenced by these republican ideas but weren’t just childish outlines that were of course going to work because shrug you believed.
I mean every experienced political leader knew they needed a large number in their party to be elected in order to have the votes to pass anything so there were always some backbenchers who were not brilliant that you fought to get elected. It was about 2000 that I thought they didn’t have anything else. They were almost all morons (including Bush).
They don’t like experts and won’t follow them any more. They don’t have policies, not really. They don’t see future trends, they don’t understand…much of anything. Beyond their hate, they prevent the country from taking steps to protect us that is a normal function of a national government, especially in defense and trade. It’s fairly terrifying if you think about it.
Trump just made it really clear, but it’s not just him. He got in because they were already pretty leaderless. In fact I would say even McConnell is a sign of it. McC isn’t exactly perceptive about foreign issues, he just raises money and protects it. Frankly, that isn’t that much. Billionaires ought to be expecting more, but they don’t seem that smart either.
Josie
@smith:
Note the link I added to my comment. It describes a recent interview with him that shows willingness to engage.
MattF
DeSantis has settled on a strategy, ‘no enemies to my right’, so that’s what will be seen on every issue from now on. Hardest line on everything.
Leto
@narya: I had a similar experience when I left my last duty station on active duty. A combination of gutting the work center, not hiring replacements in time, followed by poor “official” training classes… I created a lot of local training products (basically everything I wish I knew, as well as step by step processes for most of our computer programs), tried desperately to pass off all the things I’d learned over the previous 3 years, as well as continually putting the new people into positions of learning the essentials. All of that was met by, “Yeah, yeah, we know what we’re doing.” Six months after I left I got a brief report on how things were going and it was just an unmitigated shitshow. Ofc a good portion of that is poor decisions made by higher level leadership, but I left with a clean conscience because I know I did all that I could.
Edit: regarding the gnocchi, awesome! I have a video for you just for a general watch: https://youtu.be/JXyL87gGrEU
jonas
@smith: IIRC he was angling to be TFG’s “transition manager”, but was sacked by Jared Kushner, unsurprisingly, because he had put Kushner’s father in prison when he was a federal prosecutor. Also, TFG wasn’t interested in making any kind of orderly or coherent transition and just wanted to appoint whatever lackey he felt like to whatever position regardless of qualifications or interest in actually carrying out the mission of the agency or department.
Betty Cracker
@sdhays: Adam Putnam, who was at the time the FL ag commish
ETA: Putnam was a Repub, so terrible, but more in the Jeb mold than the Mussolini one. Also, if DeSantis ever announces, I’m sure Trump will remind everyone about that horrible, fawning ad DeSantis cut when he was kissing Trump’s ass to win the 2018 primary.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I bet he eats pudding the right way.
jonas
@MattF: Yes, insane, revanchist conservatism performed so well in last year’s elections, from AZ to MI to GA. What could go wrong?
Geminid
@smith: Chris Christie is a flexible guy, and an opportunist. There’s nothing in it for him now to be sucking up to Trump.
I don’t see Christie beating Trump even if he does run. But Christie likes to hear himself talk, so maybe he will run.
Raoul Paste
“ as high as a sugared-up toddler…”
You could have stopped there. The gratuitous addition of the espressos and Legoland had me laughing for a solid 30 seconds.
Leto
@Baud: with a spork?
A Good Woman
@narya:
Will you need help with the cake? Do I need to take dome off your hands?
Baud
@Leto:
The Utensil of Champions.
trollhattan
He’s the Scott Walker of Rick Perrys.
jonas
@Geminid: Who does Christie think his constituency is? There is no significant block of Republican primary voters willing to break with Trump at this point. He will never, ever win a Republican election.
Ruckus
@Leto:
It’s similar to when I was in the military
If your time was anything like mine I fully understand. Most of the people and every new officer I saw was grasping at straws with eyes closed. It’s not that they didn’t have a clue, it’s that they had no idea how to recognize a clue if one hit them in the face. And most of the time it wasn’t that they hadn’t gotten some training, it’s that the training and real situations were very different. In training you got generalizations and everything out of a book. But the real world was specifics and out of the mouths of experience who weren’t going to make it easy, because they’d been through the same thing.
Manyakitty
@narya: yum! I made sweet potato gnocchi recently and they ROCKED. Browned butter, sage, parmesan, and a healthy grind of black pepper. Heavenly!
Enjoy your feast 🤤
AlaskaReader
@Ocotillo: So by your assessment,
…Trump is the likable one.
Baud
@Geminid:
I think it’ll be tough for him for come off as bigoted enough for GOP voters.
I can’t recall, is Christie one of those nominally pro-choice Republicans?
trollhattan
@Leto: Pretty much. “Be in the game to pick up the pieces if he crashes. Also, sweet, sweet campaign coffers.”
There’s no golden child waiting in the Republican wings, as much as the Kochs and Mercers et al wish there were. They are shrewd enough to realize they are drinking from a poison chalice with Trump. He’s won them ONE election and failed in every one since.
RedDirtGirl
@Baud: I had a minimal presence, but finally deactivated my account today. Backtracking on their policy against dead-naming was just a bridge too far.
narya
@Leto: Oh, nice! I personally like this one from the (late, lamented) Lucky Peach. gnocchi recipe
I’ve used all kinds of potatoes–purple ones are really fun
ETA: I like to make a whole big batch, through the boiling stage, and then FREEZE them. If you freeze them individually, it works just fine. I am a big fan of “make big batches and then freeze some,” especially for anything that’s fiddly and time-consuming
ETA2: I bake, rather than boil the potatoes, for less water, and I scoop out the flesh rather than trying to peel them. I also bake the skins and fill w/ veggies and/or cheese, so as not to waste anything.
Betsy
That’s the thing about sociopaths and bullies. They’re absolutely terrifying as they single their targets out — but at some point (and it’s a different timeline for every bully, depending on how stupid they are), when it finally gets to where they have singled out “50% + 1” of the people around them … everything changes.
trollhattan
@jonas: Mean Jerseyites. The kind that cackle about intentional traffic jams.
Baud
@trollhattan:
With a shit-ton of help from others.
Tony Jay
@sdhays:
That’s the thing, DeSantis and his people decided he was running for the 2024 MAGOP primary when they – knew – this was the situation. They – knew – Trump was joined at the amygdala with the Party and the only way to the nomination was through his dead body.
And yet, it looks for all the world like at no point in the entire process of deciding to run did D’Ron and his people ever sit down and ask the simple question “What’s the plan?”
They didn’t have one. At all.
Baud
@Tony Jay:
Agree. The only thing I can think is that they thought he’d be in prison.
Betty
@Barbara: If I recall correctly, it was a private plane where one would expect them to have cutlery aboard.
Hungry Joe
It’s possible that Florida Man Ron simply rolled the dice: Jump into the race with the hope that Trump drops dead, strokes out, or becomes Prisoner #55378262. Were that to happen, he’d be in the catbird seat. But it hasn’t happened (yet), and might not. The odds weren’t bad, and still aren’t. But his best play was to lie low, don’t piss people off — especially Trump. A bridge WAY too far, apparently.
rikyrah
@Tony Jay:
Always welcome these dispatches from overseas, Tony Jay :)
Hoodie
@Tony Jay: They had a plan, it just happened to suck. It was roughly along the lines of “MAGA policy without the flamboyant personality.” However, there really is no such thing as “MAGA policy” beyond being an asshole in the most attention-grabbing way possible. It’s the same moronic assessment you get from some anti-Trump GOPers, that they’re cool with Trump’s policies but not his personality. Trump’s appeal is his personality, he just gave the evangelical and business elites what they wanted – power – to keep them on board.
Suzanne
I have never understood why people don’t get this. Even if you are nakedly self-interested, how do you not realize that you will need to put some coins in the favor bank? In something like American politics, it’s so relationship-driven. If you, like me, hate those games….. go get a job where you hide in a corner.
Shalimar
I don’t think DeSantis has talents or skills, and that is what’s so scary about him. His advisors devised a political strategy around red meat for the base and short public appearances to announce local initiatives where he doesn’t answer questions. I assume the vindictiveness and the fascist control are mostly him, but even that could be advisors. So basically endless money from billionaires and a willingness to follow the playbook could turn anyone into DeSantis (or Abbott). It will be terrifying if they ever find a big-state puppet with charisma.
kindness
With all due respect to the Republican abject liars in the Florida House, they are lying sacks of shit if they are now trying to claim their only MO isn’t cancel culture. All they have done all year is to go after one hapless minority after another. All they have is ginning up fear and hatred, and to hear any one of them say: ‘No! That isn’t us!’ is just hog wallup.
I feel real bad for you Betty. I’m just glad it isn’t going on in my state.
Shalimar
@Suzanne: DeSantis has been able to create a favor bank in Florida with brute force. Do what he wants, or he will ruin you and your replacement will do what he wants. It has worked for him so far, but clearly does not scale to national politics. And I have never heard a single story about state politics where Ron comes across positively. Even his allies and stooges don’t like him.
Eolirin
@Leto: With any luck the MS acquisition will go through, and they’ll restore sensible work from home policies, like exist for the rest of MS. Maybe they’ll be able to coax some of those workers back if it doesn’t take too long for the FTC to get on board, as it’s looking like they’ll be the last hold out.
Activision Blizzard’s bosses are *massive* assholes. Xbox’s seem to be a bit better at least.
twbrandt (formerly tom)
@Ocotillo:
Humphrey was LBJ’s VP. People who might otherwise vote D HATED LBJ due to the Vietnam war, and HHH carried that baggage with him. The violence at the 1968 Dem convention did him no favors either. And then there was Nixon’s ratfucking LBJ with backchannel talks with the North Vietnamese over the end of the war. Humphrey couldn’t overcome all that, likable or no.
Delk
@Betty Cracker: ha! I forgot that horrible ad.
Suzanne
@Shalimar: Yeah, that’s not a favor bank. Threats work with your underlings, but they don’t work with your peers or with your superiors (or donors). That’s exactly what I’m talking about. It’s a complete lack of emotional intelligence to never contemplate that, at some point, you will need people to go out of their way on your behalf. In order to make that more likely, you have to build some sort of positive relationship.
Tony Jay
@Baud:
And now the plan is..? Stay in the race while letting Trump pummel him into toothpaste in the hope that no one else jumps in but Trump either strokes out or gets jailed before the end of the Primaries?
Even for the modern MAGOP cult that seems a bit… kinky.
Anyway
@gvg:
I think it was Rove but could be misremembering who said “We create our own reality”. I took it to mean an extension of rejecting experts, empiricism, demand-based analysis . Sales and real estate people tend to be Rs and all that positive magical thinking has addled their brains.
Hoodie
@twbrandt (formerly tom): One word – Wallace.
Geminid
@jonas: LIke I said, I don’t think Christie can win the nomination. I can’t see him getting many if any delegates outside Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states. He could potentially do well in my state, just because Virginia primaries are open and a lot of Independents don’t like Trump.
Christie has told reporters that “I’m not a hitman,” and that he would not run just to wreck Trump. I took that to mean, “I’m a hit man, show me the money.”
Kay
DeSantis went heavy into the woke panic because Christopher Rufo was advising him and Rufo had a lot of elite support among Substackers and people like Andrew Sullivan and Bari Weiss.
Much as I’d like it to be true, it just isn’t true that the woke panic was limited to the GOP- it had tons of centrist punditry support and also support from The Bitter Middle Aged Men of the Left- Greenwlad, Taibii, etc.
They were in their own bubble, the anti-wokeists. They thought screeching about “WOKE!” 24/7 would be wildly popular with normies and it just isn’t. Rufo and Parents Defending Education don’t actually win school board races – they’re a flop as a political strategy. Republicans did better in school board races before they all started paying Rufo and Parents Defending Ed.
rikyrah
@Tony Jay:
You have such a way with words..
BWA HA AH AH AHA HA HA HA AH
Kay
2022 was supposed to be the election where The Public rose up against The Woke Mob and it was a big fucking flop. Bari Weiss even acknowleged it (none of the rest of them have) – she called 2022 “the dog that didn’t bark” because they all expected this massive rejection of liberals.
They POUNDED anti woke in MI, WI and PA and they lost all three.
Tony Jay
@rikyrah:
You’re very welcome. Sometimes the venting can be brief but satisfying. 👍
@Hoodie:
That must have been a hell of a strategy session.
“What’s our play? How do we sell this?”
“It’s brilliant. Revolutionary. Totally left-field while being clearly conservative, outside the box but traditionalist as fuck”
“Sounds great, dazzle me”
“Here it is. Prepare to be rocked. It’s Trumpism, but without the Trumpism”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously”
“Love it!”
Wankers.
raven
@Baud: Nope, really nice collars though. I may take them to a nearby vet to see if they are chipped.
Geminid
@jonas: I would say, though that there are plenty of Republican voters who would break from Trump. I even know some. They’re burnt out on the guy, and they think he’ll lose in 2024 for sure. These voters would rally behind a strong candidate if the Republicans had one, but they don’t.
But even if Republicans had someone who could beat Trump, Trump would sandbag him in the general election. I think Republicans are screwed either way.
The Moar You Know
I am a native Californian, and have lived most of my live under GOP governorship, and you don’t have to apologize for shit. I am enjoying the knives coming out for DeSantis in the same way I REALLY enjoyed watching the California GOP turn on Schwarzenegger for being not enough of an asshole.
He was asshole enough to deserve what he got. And the California GOP deserved what they got when they got rid of their last semi-reasonable leader. May Florida be as fortunate
Kinda looking like a lot of people are going to be fighting to see who can get a knife into DeSantis’ back first.
Layer8Problem
@zhena gogolia: Republican politics will do that to one.
Kay
@rikyrah:
I thought this was ineresting. The Chicago polling was bad because Vallas paid a GOP pollster 360,000 to flood the zone with bullshit polls that had Vallas up.
I wish it was a blog post rather than 15 tweets on Twitter. I feel like if Twitter dies people will go back to writing blog posts, which were better.
Nonrev321
Don’t want DeSantis to flop … yet. When he announces he has to resign as Gov. Also I want to see DeSantis and Trump go toe to toe. Trump will eat up Meatball Ron but DeSantis will do some damage to Trump also. Let him announce, run for a few months than crash & burn
RaflW
Honestly, the FL legislators who are anonymously backbiting can just f=== themselves. They’re passing incredibly odious bills, wether Ron asked for them (or demanded them) or whatever. Their phone lines should be melting down for all the horrors they support.
And I hope Disney execs have figured out that they need to bankroll an entire, 160-seat slate of non-Republican candidates for the FL House & Senate.
Geminid
@Shalimar: A lot of DeSantis’s former advisers are now working for Trump. I expect one of them, maybe Susan Wiles, was the source for the pudding story.
GibberJack
@Tony Jay:
Qevin Man, Qevin Man
Doing the things that Qevin can
What is that?
It’s not important.
Qevin Man
Is he weak or a sycophant
When he leads does he get pantsed
Or does MGT pants him instead
Nobody knows, Qevin Man
Anti-Matter Man
Anti-Matter Man
Anti-matter Man hates Qevin Man
They have a fight
Anti-matter wins
Anti-Matter Man
Hoodie
@Tony Jay: That’s probably about right. You can imagine it going down that way because that’s essentially what anti-Trump republicans are saying with “we like Trump’s policies but not his behavior.” It’s moronic. The only person who could wrest the base from Trump would be someone with a persona of comparable size and ability to cast Trump as a loser, e.g., the reanimated corpse of Ronald Reagan. There is absolutely no one in the GOP field who can come close to that. DeSantis is a one-minute flash in the pan, the rest are all retreads.
Tony Jay
@GibberJack:
Now all I can see is The Squeaker running around The Capitol in a mask and cape with his undies outside his pants.
It’s a vision and a half, let me tell you.
The Moar You Know
@Shakti: he’s always struck me as the kind of guy who loves the result but hates all the work involved and just wishes that his victims would kill themselves on his orders.
Jeffro
The GOP has a real dilemma on its collective hands, doesn’t it?
Go with the unlikable, unrelatable, petty dictator, or go with the 3x proven loser with multiple indictments pending.
And not a lot of time to decide, either!
Maybe No Labels can help them out – you know, find them a nice, center-right politician without any baggage. I’m sure the GOP’s voter and donor bases would eat that right up. ;)
Tony Jay
@Hoodie:
It’s crazy. Don’t those guys remember the evergreen advice of political guru Yoda Atwater?
“There is no try, you fuckheads. There is only do.”
It’s like they misheard Mike Tyson and thought he said “Everyone should plan to get punched in the face.”
Once again, wankers.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Butch: You left out Chris Christie! He got more Beltway fluffing than anyone for the first half of Obama’s second term. It wasn’t until the bridge scandal caught up with him that the Beltway press moved on.
Sloegin
If the Donald has a coronary, or ends up with an extended stay in Club Fed, DeSantis becomes the number one candidate again. Rs and the media hype machine aren’t that creative about their picks, they just choose the most obnoxious authoritarian and run with that.
Downballot Rs and fake centrist grassroot campaigns are too busy building the ratfscking apparatus for ’24 to care about the top of the ballot.
RaflW
@Leto: As people engage less with Twitter, (and I believe that is happening), the trolly, crappy right wing accounts – at least the ones driven my humans – will have less and less fun.
Pwning the libs only works if libs are in the forest to hear the tree fall. And suchlike that there metaphorizing.
glc
@twbrandt (formerly tom): Also, running on “The Politics of Joy” during the Vietnam War was a bit off. Running a bit too hard on the congeniality line, perhaps, with the police rioting during the convention, and the mayor of Chicago shouting antisemitic obscenities on national TV (“Fuck you, you Jew son of a bitch, you lousy motherfucker, go home.”).
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Sloegin: I strongly suspect Rs are checking out the actuary tables for Trump
Jeffro
If the coronary or stay begins early enough, there are plenty of other crabs in the GOP’s bucket who’d be more than happy to take their shot at DeSantis.
Kay
“Despite”. Because. They know parents can (now) pay out of pocket to supplement the voucher so they’re gouging them. Voucher PLUS parent payment. This was predictable. Conservatives never really understood markets.
This is going to be the biggest transfer of public funds to a specific religion in US history. It’s a mass transfer of hundreds of millions dollars from the public to Catholic churches because don’t forget kiddies- money is fungible! Whatever the Catholic church doesn’t pay for Catholic schools goes to the church.
I wonder when people will figure out they got flim flammed.
Roger Moore
@zhena gogolia:
Trump is an asshole to the right people. What the Republicans in the House really want is someone who schmoozes them but is an asshole to the people they want hurt. DeSantis is an asshole to everyone, and they’re upset he isn’t sucking up to them.
Ksmiami
@OzarkHillbilly: I used to live down the street from the Trotts in MI.. they were at least outwardly nice people despite being Romney ish Republicans. DeSantis is a charmless gorm
Layer8Problem
@Tony Jay: “Wankers.”
Like Mr. Burns said about U2.
Ksmiami
@Kay: it’s Iowa. As far as I can tell, the residents there are too dumb to realize they are the patsies
The Moar You Know
@Kay: this is true. They had our board before they went down this road. They’ve now lost it and will lose another seat next go-round. 4-1 gets you nothing but a guy who yells a lot and everyone ignores.
smith
@Roger Moore: I dunno. Does TFG suck up to anyone but Russian mobsters? I think at this point, TFG is simply a safe choice for backbenchers to endorse, because they believe he’s still in charge of the Goober hordes.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Ocotillo: IDK, of all the POTUS’s of my lifetime (which goes back to Nixon too) the two I’d most want to have a beer with are Obama and Jimmy Carter, who was an all around great guy in every way, shape and form. I know a lot of people found Reagan likeable but I always saw him as a phony. And honestly I’m not sure whether Reagan was more likeable so much as that at that moment a lot of people were looking for someone to say “America F*ck Yeah!” again and he did it better. There was a weird malaise in America at the time and Reagan sort of offered a change of pace to get over it. I still would rather have a beer with Carter than Reagan, and despite having grown up in the same town as Gerry Ford (Grand Rapids, MI) would prefer Carter over Ford.
I think I’d rank ’em Obama, Carter, Biden (seems like a fun guy), Clinton, and here I’ll throw Ford a bone for being from my hometown. Then then W, then Pappy Bush, then Reagan (again, a phony. Pappy was a blue blood patrician New Englander, and they’re not often very likeable, but he was an authentic one), then Nixon is the bottom of the heap until we get to TFG who I’d rather not be within 100 miles of.
Hoodie
@Roger Moore: Trump is also an asshole with a twinkle in his eye; a playful, fun asshole. If you watch his rallies, he kind of sing-songs through the noxious crap that Miller writes, but the real message is “we’re going to have fun owning the libs.” The joke is only as good as the delivery, and DeSantis does not deliver.
Kay
@Ksmiami:
There’s a lot of new voucher states. Hence, biggest transfer in history. The Catholic Church argued that money is fungible when they refused to cover prescription drugs, but only for female employees.
They said any compensation they paid their female employees remained property of the church and they would decide how women spent it. So does this Bedrock Belief of theirs extend to the huge public subsidy they just got for their churches? Does that money remain public? If so I would like to direct how they spend it. They can’t use it lobby against women.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: Hahaha, I also suspect it was Wiles — she has every reason to despise DeSantis — and I’ve further speculated that she or an aide might have snapped a pic. Otherwise, why won’t he just outright deny having eaten pudding with his fingers while governor of Florida instead of saying “I don’t recall doing anything like that…”?
I mean, if someone asked me if I’ve eaten pudding with my fingers, I’d say, maybe when I was three? But in the past four years? I could issue a categorical denial! ;-)
lowtechcyclist
@Tony Jay:
Maybe he believed all the media bullshit about how he was the Next Big Thing on the Rethug side. All that fluffery just fell into his lap, and maybe he expected it to keep on being like that.
AWOL
@GibberJack: TMBG on BJ? A first, for sure.
Hoodie
@Betty Cracker: The Trumpian response would be “It never happened but, if it had, it would have been the right thing to do given that I was starving! Blame the fuckers who didn’t give me a spoon!”
Betty Cracker
@Kay: There’s a NYT guest essay today, I think from the president of Brown, that says what a crock of shit the woke panic has been from day one. Not as vociferously as that, but she does contrast the freak-out over student protests to the actual government censorship, etc., happening in places like Florida. If they run another 700 or so, maybe the NYT can balance the scale?
RaflW
@jonas: I don’t know what Christie’s income source is, or if he has sufficient wealth to just coast, but I think he’s largely unemployable. Who is looking to hire a guy who failed terribly at defeating Trump, then went full on hollow-eyes Trump flunky, and then went back to flea biting Trump after departing the circus tent?
Acting like he’s running for president at least gets desperate cable bookers to keep Chris in their virtual rolodexes.
Kay
@The Moar You Know:
I lol’ed because I read the “new” thinking in GOP circles is they should run on “parental involvement and academic achievement”. No more screeching about vaccines and Woke Mobs. So, what every school board candidate in history, ever, runs on.
All that money wasted on Rufo and Moms for Whatever. The NYTimes barely got their glowing portrait of Rufo out before he started to lose. They’re all such lemmings.
teakay
@Tony Jay: I always enjoy the colorful updates, Tony. It is edifying to read something other than the fawning or taunting that constitutes most of the coverage of Great Britain we get in the U.S.
GibberJack
@GibberJack:
Even Anti-Matter Man hates Qevin, man
[Got called away before editing 4th from last line and edit time ran out, drat]
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I saw it! I haven’t read it because I don’t pay to read the NYTimes but my husband does- I’ll read it when I see him so he can get me in. He likes the NYTimes, still.
He used to read the WSJ too but he thinks it’s too wingnutty now that Murdoch bought it. He thinks the quality suffered. I sort of miss the WSJ because it had these great, in depth articles about businesses. I love that. I love like: “they make the giant turning screw in ships and have since 1840”
Roger Moore
@Baud:
The Republican party is a cult. For most of my life, they’ve been a nascent cult in search of a leader. People tried really hard to make a cult of Reagan, but his Alzheimer’s prevented him from being an effective leader, and the acolytes to tried to build the cult around him never succeeded in taking control. Republican leaders since Reagan have either refused cult leadership or failed to take over because they lost their elections. Trump was able to take over the party because he was happy to become cult leader and succeeded in getting power in 2016. Nobody is going to be able to seize control from him; they’re going to have to wait for him to die.
Ksmiami
@Kay: having survived years of Catholic school, the answer to all is no more religious education institutions. Anywhere, all they do is teach fairy dust and divide us.
Geminid
@twbrandt (formerly tom): Humphrey left Chicago broke and with a divided party, and way behind in the polls. He made a race of it though, and was closing on Nixon by the end. In The Making of a President: 1968, Theodore White said he thought Humphrey would have won if the election has been three days later.
Ksmiami
@Kay: NYT is garbage… all of them Katie.
trollhattan
@Ksmiami: Growing up there I learned the “fact,” which proved mostly true, that every town had a Catholic church, a Lutheran church and at least two bars. Darned if that didn’t prove accurate. But the Lutherans weren’t so much into building schools, guessing because there were no nuns to staff them for free.
Roger Moore
@Suzanne:
Because he doesn’t work that way himself. He would never return a favor, so he doesn’t grok the importance of granting them.
Paul in KY
@Dangerman: He’s got em both as enemies.
Jinchi
Republican legislators complaining about their leader, anonymously, after having rubber stamped every initiative they claim to hate is a page right out of the TFG era playbook.
If you don’t like what the guy is doing – Shut him down!
Otherwise just shut up.
matt
@Tony Jay: I think they thought they’d ride favorable media coverage out to a win without getting their hands dirty.
The Lodger
@OverTwistWillie: I’m hoping for rapid unscheduled disassembly.
Paul in KY
@waspuppet: He’s a fascist.
Jinchi
@Tony Jay: I think the plan is to be the only one standing if Trump dies, is convicted, or implodes.
There is no plan to defeat him, only to survive him.
Paul in KY
@Bill Arnold: Today. So 63 years old.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
In one of the 5000 cancel culture articles in the NYTimes one professor said there is less dissent of ANY KIND since Bari Weiss and the Anti Woke Army jumped in to police every 22 year old. The only people who go to speeches by wingnut judges now are Federalist Society members and ass-kissing careerists (no shortage of them in law school!). It’s very polite and proper because everyone agrees. They made a “safe space” for our coddled, regal federal judges- no one challenges them at all anymore.
So maybe they’re realizing they threw their own fucking students under the bus in order to impress the editorial writers at the NYTimes? let’s hope so.
Paul in KY
@smith: The vest wearing dude can fake it.
GibberJack
@AWOL: Likely not. This is B-J, ya know ya know.
geg6
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Huh. I’d put Ford down as just before Nixon. I think he’s totally to blame for this whole unaccountable president (and seemingly every other federal office holder, including judges) shit. Fuck that noise. He was a piece of shit. I thought so at the time of the pardon and I have never changed my mind. Betty should have divorced his shitty ass.
Ocotillo
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
The theory which is not mine but I do believe has some validity, I would think apply to the “swing voter”. Us partisans see through the stagecraft and vote our values.
And it is the public perception. Hillary in public settings as a candidate, struggled to connect with audiences but I have read in small groups she was engaging and quite an enjoyable person but alas, the overwhelming majority of the electorate only see the sound bites on TV or other media.
Delk
@Ksmiami: taught me to take a slap to the face.
Paul in KY
@Greg: I’m hoping TFG can do that all by his lonesome.
Kay
@Ksmiami:
The vouchers are completely unregulated. It’s just a straight transfer of hundreds of millions in public funding to church coffers. Ohio doesn’t even make them test students. They used to have to test students but then public schools did better so they ended the testing requirement for private “voucher” schools. They needed a leg up to compete so we just stopped measuring them completely.
Ocotillo
@AlaskaReader:
It wasn’t so much Trump was likable, it’s that after a 30 year campaign of demonizing the email lady, he came across to the low info voters as more likable.
I would never consider him likable myself, I have been saying lately, I hope he goes to prison, dies in prison and is buried in the prison yard so the inmates can relieve themselves on his grave.
karen marie
@Bill Arnold: “This page is down.”
wonkie
It’s weird to me that Republicans find Di Santis unlikeable. It seems to me that very few Republican politicians are likeable. Trump sure wasn’t. Taylor Green, Gaetz, Gym Jordan—no one likes them, and they don’t like each other. Even the pols that are more or less “normal” in the sense of not being obvious sociopaths aren’t likeable. WHo likes Mitt Romney? Or Mitch McConnell? The Republican party selects for unlikeable people. The most appealing of them just come across as gray men, guys in suits who smoothly deliver their lines without revealing much personality at all. They judge each based on two items: competition for power and usefulness for achievement of their common goal (ending democracy). DO their voters like them? Granted many worship Trump, but I’m not sure R voters LIKE any of the R politicians. It seems like R voters voter during the primary vote for the biggest nastiest thug and during the general vote for any R. THey identify with the Republican party and want a member of their tribe to win, but that’s not the same thing as actually liking the politician.
Paul in KY
@Ocotillo: George Wallace (spit) ran in 68 and took some votes/states that probably would have gone to Humphrey.
...now I try to be amused
@West of the Rockies:
Trott’s description made me think of Ted Cruz, another guy who I wonder how he ever managed to get elected. But Pompeo fits.
The impending collapse of DeSantis’s support in Florida reminds me of Lord Varys’s maxim: “Power resides where men believe it resides.”
Kay
My middle (grown) son is a really quiet person and I drove him home from getting dental surgery today and when the nurse brought him out she said “he is a SCREAM!”
Oh, no. He was so high when they walked him out. I’m never telling him she said that. He’ll be horrified.
Citizen Alan
@jonas: I still don’t know if we can count GA in there. I strongly suspect that if every aspect of Hershel Walker’s existence had been the same except he’d been white, he would have pulled ahead of Warnock. I anticipate MTG running against Ossoff in ’26 and quite possibly winning.
Paul in KY
@Tony Jay: DeSatanis is not above murdering TFG in some manner.
lowtechcyclist
@Ocotillo:
Humphrey had the taint all over him of having groveled to LBJ. And fuck LBJ.
Another Scott
Twitter is dead for me now (no account, just visiting things on the web) for 7veritas4, nycsouthpaw, and bettycrackerfl The bare twitter.com page works.
It will be good to get that time back!
But it’s yet another illustration of the toxicity of vast fortunes…
Cheers,
Scott.
geg6
@Kay:
Catholic schools have been cruising along on their 1960s reputation for being excellent. It’s been many, many, many years since they’ve been excellent. They pay shit and, since there aren’t enough nuns anymore, they can’t get good, qualified teachers to work for pennies. I can’t imagine sending my child to a shitty Catholic school and that’s been true for a few decades now.
Citizen Alan
@Tony Jay: Pretty sure the plan was for Trump to keel over or go to jail. thought as we all know, “hope is not a plan.”
RaflW
@Kay: So “unskewing” the polls doesn’t actually drive turnout and win an election? Unpossible!
I was just sure the silent majority was waiting to see what their neighbors were thinking so they could rush out and silently vote. Darn.
lowtechcyclist
@jonas:
The media. For some reason, they love him.
RaflW
@Jeffro: Saw yesterday that harmless good guy and all around wonderful friend Harlan Crow has given $100,000 to No Labels.
Pretty much the blue ribbon badge of elite corruption, in other words.
Tony Jay
@Layer8Problem:
Truth in Television
@lowtechcyclist:
That could have been it, but once it was obvious to everyone that Trump wasn’t going to be scared off, was staying in the race and still had the MAGOP base in his corner, why didn’t D’Ron bail? He could have officially dropped out at any time under cover of “Well shucks, don’t you people know that the Governor of Florida can’t run for President without standing down?” and waited until Trump stroked out or until 2028.
But he didn’t. He just kept on going through the motions of unofficially running while pretending not to notice that Trump was following him around with a garden hose spraying him with ammonia and calling him names.
That’s the bit that can confuses me. Get out or hit back. It’s not like the target isn’t obvious. Trump told the MAGOP base to overthrow an Election for him and when they turned up, he didn’t. But nothing. Nada.
The Moar You Know
@Jeffro: Manchin’s been sitting by the phone for fifteen years waiting for that call. And he will get it.
Jeffg166
Gladdens my heart to think little meatball D is sinking. Hope he continues to do. So.
Paul in KY
@Kay: They don’t care about the markets. Anyone with any sense knew they’d just raise their tuition as they can’t handle an influx of 3 times as many students or whatever. Those that had the sense, but wanted that vote, voted for it anyway. Those that had no sense just thought it made them look ‘Pro Education’.
Tony Jay
@teakay:
It’s important to me that you fine people get cautionary tales from the island of “It Could Be Worse, You Know”.
Just so you all know, it really could.
Spanky
@Hoodie: Two more words: Sirhan Sirhan.
OK, that’s one word twice.
Burnspbesq
@OverTwistWillie:
MAGA’s answer to Evan Bayh (I knew Susan in law school, and she was pretty likable, but there was no doubting the ambition).
Captain C
@gvg:
Someone pointed out once (around the Teabagger years) that the inflection point was probably 1994, when Gingrich and his whole “treat the Democrats as treasonous enemies with no good faith” approach to getting Republican majorities became their standard. By 2010 and the Teabagger astroturf nonsense, most of the then-current Republican elected officials had spent their whole time in office under the Gingrich bullshit political regime and had not idea how to compromise, or that doing so was even necessary (and they were by and large insulated from any consequences of their bad decisions). Hence, the rising tide of bile and incompetence that is the vast majority of the Republican party these days.
Ksmiami
@Kay: in my darker moments I think the Supreme Court justices are well protected but perhaps Leonard Leo is not… We really should start hounding these troglodytes
Mike in NC
It was true of Trump, and it’s true of DeSantis. It’s all about who they hate. We’ll never see another Republican presidential candidate who isn’t an asshole and bigot; they broke the mold. Ted Cruz, Greg Abbot, etc. all come across the exact same way.
Burnspbesq
You want to know who loves DeSantis?
Greg Abbott loves DeSantis for diverting national media attention from all the evil shit that Republicans are doing in the current session of the Texas Legislature.
trollhattan
@geg6: IDK how good they are overall from the standpoint of graduate success, other than college admission rates are midpack compared to certain lavish suburban HSs, but our three Catholic high schools get some bank for tuition: $15k, $16k, $18k/yr for the coed, all-girls, all-boys options. (There are also added fees and a ton of mandatory fundraising.)
TBF compared to many elite private schools that’s peanuts, but in our metro area they lack much competition. LA, by contrast, typical elite high schools run between $40 and $50k per year.
ETtheLibrarian
Every politician knows that you have to be able to fake caring even if you don’t. It is part of the job description.
Citizen Alan
@lowtechcyclist: A thought experiment: Would people be saying “Fuck LBJ” today if he’d either run for reelection and won or if Humphries had won, and LBJ got the Paris peace talks back on before leaving office and gotten us out of Vietnam 3-4 years earlier?
Paul in KY
@Ocotillo: I want to relieve myself on his grave & I’m damn sure not going to prison to do it! I guess I could hire an inmate to do it…
Tony Jay
@matt:
@Jinchi:
@Citizen Alan:
Yeah, that was the plan, but what’s the plan they’re following now? The one where DeSantis plays Reek to Trump’s Ramsey and gets nowhere? The MAGOPs like a fight. They love some nasty shit. Either feed them or fuck off.
Don’t just lie there thinking it’ll be worth it once the fucker dies. That’s Melania’s job.
Kay
@geg6:
They do. They have huge turnover here because new teachers take the jobs just until they can get into a public school. I spoke to one teacher – she’s the little kid swim teacher at the public pool in the summers- who could not pay her car payment, student loan and rent on her Catholic school salary so was living with her parents. Her salary was 10k lower than the public school, which I didn’t mention but since the public school salaries are in the newspaper, maybe she knows.
I think a lot of people were shocked when Ohio publics outscored Ohio privates – we had a comparison because of vouchers – but I was not. They’ve been overrated a long time.
trollhattan
@Spanky: Am also of the belief RFK would have passed HHH for the nom–he was ascendant when assassinated–and would have fared better against Nixon in a tight race. What I do not know is if Wallace took any of his five states from Humphrey, or were they all headed for Nixon; is that known today? (Dems were in the process of shedding the South due to Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts.)
Tony Jay
@Paul in KY:
“Houston, we have ourselves a ballgame.”
karen marie
@jonas: Trump loves shooting the shit with people. The conversation always revolves around him but he gives enough apparently that people stick around. DeSantis doesn’t have that talent. No surprise he joined the military where there were people below him he could boss around and they couldn’t talk back.
Paul in KY
@Tony Jay: Maybe he has a plan for TFG to fall down some stairs or run into 3 bullets in the back…
Then DeSatanis get’s to be Mark Antony for the deceased Caesar.
Don’t tell him how Mr. Antony ended up…
geg6
@trollhattan:
Based on what we see here on my campus, the Catholic schools are not sending us their best. If they have any best. Those students, with a few exceptions, are almost always way behind the public schools students we get in everything except, maybe, some English classes. Science, math and language skills are terrible. This would be mostly from the Pittsburgh diocese schools, but also many out-of-state students come from their local Catholic schools. And, really, they are academically stellar compared to the ones who come from Christian schools or are home schooled.
RaflW
@wonkie:Taylor Green is the mean chick at the dive bar who you kind of can’t understand why she has a lot of friends, but she throws a great insult at the dweeb dudes and gets laughs.
Gaetz is just kind of classic Florida swam real estate salesman. Doesn’t have to be liked, exactly, but fits the role so the dull and dispirited retirees in the panhandle click “R” on the voting screen.
Kay
@Ksmiami:
I was just repelled by those photos or paintings or whatever they are with Harlan Crow.
The name of that painting should be “this is what is wrong with American politics”.
How can he be fucking “patriotic” and BUY judges? How is that patriotism? I swear to God I prefer the olde timey plutocrats. They at least weren’t emotionally needy and demanding we all admire them.
It’s bad to buy judges! That’s not what civic minded people do!
Tony Jay
@Paul in KY:
Fat, drunk and cuckolded by an asp?
Isn’t that the Floridian Dream?
trollhattan
@Citizen Alan: LBJ left a ton of accumulated political capital on the table when he walked away, so it’s possible he could have extricated us from SE Asia. Hard to imagine him going down Nixon’s path, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ He also had a ton of bad advice from unqualified people and there’s no guarantee he would have cleaned house.
War on crime, war on drugs, no. He’d have attempted continuing to build the Great Society.
Paul in KY
@Citizen Alan: He’d be better thought of, that’s for sure.
Hoodie
@trollhattan: They’ve become the private school of choice around here because the other private schools around here are overpriced or really suck because they’re filled with entitled rich shits. We did send one of our sons to the local Catholic high school because he got bullied in the local public HS, but we were lucky to catch it at the time the Catholic HS had a pretty reasonable guy running it and before we got a succession of asshole bishops who started meddling. The academics at the school were pretty mediocre, but the atmosphere was pretty supportive and not too heavy on conservative catholicism. The priest and nun who were resident at the time were actually very nice, fairly liberal and connected with the kids pretty well, but were soon changed out for some real assholes. The principal who ran it during my son’s time took off for California shortly thereafter.
The Moar You Know
@geg6: my wife went to Catholic school until seventh grade. She came out testing at two grade levels below where she should have been.
She once got to witness a nun beat one of her classmates into a coma.
Boy, she hates the Catholic schools.
Paul in KY
@trollhattan: If RFK had gotten the nom (and I’m not so sure he would have bested Humphrey), he would have whupped Nixon’s ass.
karen marie
Yesterday I made crumpets yesterday for the first time. WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME THEY ARE FANTASTIC?
I ate three, just to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating. I wasn’t.
This morning I was going to have just one with a one-egg cheese omelet but the second slot in the toaster was lonely, so I had two. They are incredible. Like soft, pillowy English muffins
Now I’m trying to justify eating the last one. It’s lonely! It wants to be in my tum with its friends!
Ocotillo
To all who responded to my statement that I didn’t know what happened in the ’68 race between Nixon and Humphrey, I understand the points all of you eloquently stated, my unclear point was regarding the theory of the most likable candidate winning did not apply in that race, Nixon had all the warmth of a damp cloth that had been used to wipe a bathroom floor.
Geminid
@Ocotillo: Don’t let it bother you. There is a spirit of one-upmanship here that a lot of people indulge in. And one of your respondents is bent.
Keep saying what you think.
Another Scott
@Another Scott: And it’s back working again for me.
There goes my late afternoon…
Cheers,
Scott.
Ksmiami
@Kay: they all have the the sex appeal of squid on red wings ice… that’s why they suck so much and are so angry all the time.
raven
Dog update. I took them to a nearby vet, no chips. They suggested I take them to Animal Control because they will make the fucking morons tag, cap and fix them. I drove all the way out there and it’s closed because it’s EARTH fucking Day! We can’t keep them so I decided to try back at the vet (who is a great dude) and, against all protocol, he kept them!!
raven
@Ocotillo: Pick this up for a good look at that race.
The Last Gentleman: Thomas Hughes and the End of the American Century
Matt McIrvin
@Tony Jay: Maybe in some ways, but I’ve been to your island and you have stuff we can only dream of. The Elizabeth Line? My God, where in America could you even hallucinate a wish of getting something like that built? We get Elon Musk to build a stupid tunnel for Teslas instead.
Ruckus
@Tony Jay:
Sounds like even our squishy house not leader because he sold everyone a soul that he didn’t have is at least a step above the entire England house of “Oh fucking Lords!”, at least on the lack of everything conservative side. Are there enough jackets with wraparound sleeves available on the entire island?
Ruckus
@clay:
I used to be on twit about as long per day as here. I don’t think I’ve looked at it in 2 days, or more than maybe 15 minutes in the last week and I haven’t missed a damn thing.
Ruckus
@Leto:
Apartheid Clyde seems like he thinks his money buys him perfection. It might if he actually knew how to spend it well, but, he doesn’t.
NotMax
@Matt McIrvin
Only took 97 years for the first phase of the Second Avenue underground subway in Manhattan to be built and opened (in 2017).
;)
rikyrah
@Kay:
Thanks for this, Kay.
...now I try to be amused
@Ksmiami:
These people simply don’t fear enough.
Roger Moore
@Ruckus:
People get addicted to Twitter because they love the feeling they’re tuned in and getting everything as it’s happening. I think this is a big attraction of the 24 hour news cycle, too. Because we can get minute by minute updates about everything that’s happening, we feel like we’re missing out when we don’t. It turns out that isn’t very important. We can wait until the evening news, the next day’s paper, or even a newsweekly magazine to find out what’s happening in the world.
Bobby Thomson
Biden would have wiped the floor with DeSantis, but I guess we’re stuck with the grudge match.
DaddyJ
@Betty Cracker:
Verteran thread killer here, but I’ve become increasingly curious about the source of DeSantis’ power in the state and have wanted to ask you or any other Florida Dem about it.
As someone who lived (briefly) in Jacksonville, my interest is probably a little bit morbid (the only things I miss about Florida are the beach, the swamps and the non-two-legged critters). But when I was there in the mid 90s I knew there were some Dems there. Wha’ happened?
The general MSM narrative seems to be that Puddin’ Head rode to victory in 2022 because of COVID denialism and anti-vax fervor; others say it was because Crist was uninspiring, ran a tv-centric campaign, and didn’t get out the vote. What’s the local take?
prostratedragon
@Tony Jay:
Much belated congratulations!
AlaskaReader
@Ocotillo: When I see the phrase ‘low info voters’ used in any discussion about the demographics of who might have shifted in favor of becoming Trump voters,
…6 plus decades worth of active political involvement tells me that what are most often being being described are just simply the bigots and the racists.
There was once a time a few Republicans could make the claim they voted ‘fiscally conservative’ but claim to be socially progressive. Improbable then.
Not even a chance of being credible in today’s world.
Republican voters really are every bit as corrupt and depraved as are the people they elect.
AlaskaReader
@Captain C: Inflection point?
1994 didn’t happen without the 50s, the 60s, the 70s and the 80s.
It never was one big kumbaya clambake before 1994.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Leto: I worked as a programmer analyst in IT at a community bank for almost 30 years, and I agree with the 6 months figure before you get any real use out of a new hire. And that assumes they are being trained by competent others in the department (usually someone who was retiring). Before I retired, I updated all my manuals to be useful for inexperienced people. Most manuals produced by the people doing the job are more like reminders for stuff you know how to do, not how to do it if you don’t know how to do it. IT systems are complicated, man. And easy to break if you don’t know what you are doing.