normal guy https://t.co/xBbehFdUl1
— world famous art thief (@famousartthief) April 24, 2023
Despite the rich pickings concerning Tucker Carlson’s defenestration, IMO commentor Geminid wins the internet for the day:
RIP DeSantis campaign https://t.co/WJY8nMR94R
— vocational politics appreciation account (@Convolutedname) April 24, 2023
The expression on his lady wife’s face, also one for the (comic) books; she’s realizing how much her Jackie Kennedy dreams are unlikely to see fruition.
Maybe he’s just mad at Disney because he’s been asked which cartoon character he voices once too often?
DeSantis on attacks from Trump: I’m happy to uh I’m happy to stand strong and do what’s right pic.twitter.com/sng9mFIezI
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 25, 2023
While I spend FL tax payer money to let my wife act like a princess!!
— 💙Michele 🇺🇸 🇺🇦 (@michellyn1) April 25, 2023
This is your Faustian bargain, dudes. Enjoy it.
— Jean-Michel Connard ?? (@torriangray) April 22, 2023
the salvation of the anti-trump right being a guy zooted out on pep pills and at war with the walt disney corporation is probably suboptimal for them, not my problem
— world famous art thief (@famousartthief) April 24, 2023
coin operated
The man ain’t ready for primetime now (and if he doesn’t know it, his advisors are running the biggest scam since Oceans 11) but this will give him experience for the 2028 run.
Rusty
DeSantis in Japan reminds me of when W’s campaign frantically sent him on a trip overseas to create some fake foreign policy credentials. I remember being shocked that a guy with that level of wealth, along with being the son of the president and grandson of a senator had barely ever left the country. Seems like DeSantis may have the same weakness. What is it with conservatives that are so limited in their vision and so un-worldly?
gwangung
They match their voters.
West of the Rockies
Was the weird head bobble real or a deep fake? Why on Earth would he do that? What was he going for there? What a fucking creepster.
opiejeanne
@Rusty: Most of them are like that, afraid of them furriners with their odd ways and strange food. I mean, why would I want to go to France or Italy, or Asia for that matter? Those places are full of people who don’t speak proper English, ya know. And the English, well, don’t get me started, with their snooty pernunciation, and their driving on the wrong side of the road.
Yutsano
This is not a serious person. The fact that Florida voters chose him is not so much irritating as it is massive levels of disappoint. That the legislature is just so much a rubber stamp for him has to hurt them on some level. Maybe not fixing the insurance crisis will finally wake Florida the fuck up.
opiejeanne
@West of the Rockies: Someone from his state says that head-bobble is a tell when he’s really annoyed. He did not like that question at all, at all, but he was in Japan so he couldn’t behave the way he does at home in Florida.
BlueGuitarist
Have you seen this Rolling Stone article?
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/donald-trump-campaign-ron-desantis-personal-attacks-explained-1234722045/
opiejeanne
@opiejeanne: My favorites are the ones who tell you they are going to see the good old US of A first before they go jaunting off to Europe, and then they sit at home, watch tv, and never even leave their county except maybe for a funeral.
opiejeanne
@BlueGuitarist: The three-fingered pudding thing. So that’s where TFG got it. I haven’t seen the attack yet, I need to go find it.
piratedan
@opiejeanne: ty for the Fish Called Wanda reference, and to be fair, the wide world scares the living shit out of them…. gadzooks, they might encounter erudite people of color, people with disabilities making music or art, or women who would not desire to sleep with them or recognize their inherent authority… its madness I tell ya, madness!
Aussie Sheila
@opiejeanne:
It’s a disgusting visual, but the messages regarding DeSantis’ attacks on Social Security are masterful. Trump has him dead to rights for the older low information demographic. DeSantis is an establishment Republican posing as a fearless outsider.
People can sniff phonies like that a mile off. When you can have the real thing (trump), why settle for cheap imitations?
DeSantis is toast imo. Still not absolutely sure trump will be the nominee. By this time next year he will have at least three indictments under his belt. I know he can run from jail, but I think that would be a stretch even for him.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@opiejeanne: Whatever his emotion, it’s a really weird and creepy clip. I can hardly believe my eyes and ears (that’s his voice?). Ugh.
opiejeanne
@Aussie Sheila: If he’s above ground, he’ll run. I don’t think he’ll win but the Rs don’t have a star as shiny as he is, despite the fact that the star is made of pot-metal and tin.
opiejeanne
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): His voice. A lot of people have remarked on how awful it sounds, even worse than TFG, and that’s going some.
He’s toast, and not just for his voice: he lacks any sort of charisma or appeal, and he appears to be short. The idea of TFG trundling around the debate stage behind him like he did with Hillary is creepy and disgusting.
Tony Jay
Tucker Carlson, Ron DeSantis, two disappointed guys with a grudge against Trump and nothing left to lose.
Pity they’re such a pair of useless cowards. Otherwise this could be shaping up to be something good.
For certain specific values of good, of course.
Hildebrand
It makes me wonder how much even his own voters know about DeSantis – because every article that comes out seems to be about folks who dislike him intensely or find him weird.
It’s that or his voters simply don’t care because they revel in his cruelty.
Either way, that’s not a winning campaign recipe. He may still get in the race, but I don’t think he is going anywhere. And if he fails this time, I don’t see him ever trying again . He may be young enough, but his image will never recover from this revealing of his true self.
opiejeanne
@piratedan: I shout “Asshole” ala Kevin Kline, at other drivers from the safety of my car with the windows closed, after they’ve wronged me, and after they’ve passed.
Ruckus
@Rusty:
What is it with conservatives that are so limited in their vision and so un-worldly?
It’s difficult for them to have all that vision with their heads rammed so far up their own ass, and their eyes full of …..
Citizen Alan
@Rusty: Worldly, well-developed people capable of vision end up as Democrats. The moment that I knew Bill Clinton was going to beat Bush Sr. was at the DNC convention when he started talking about “vision” in soaring biblical terms and then sneeringly described Bush referring to it as “the vision thing.”
JWR
I saw that DeSantis clip earlier and I’m glad to see it getting it’s own front page post, because there’s def something wrong with the goofy doofus. His trials and tribulations deserve much wider scorn. And believe it or don’t, before this post I hadn’t seen “the wife”, and the Jackie O references are spot on.
And oh poo, Colbert is in reruns again. Maybe Seth Meyers will be able to keep the day’s hilarity rolling.
Finally, a great big H/T to Geminid for the Koi
quotecomment!Heh
ETA Seth Meyers is live!
Geminid
@opiejeanne:
@Aussie Sheila: Any Republican challenging Trump will have to deal not only with Trump’s bullying ridicule, but his vindictiveness as well. Even if a rival can wrest the nomination away from him, Trump will likely sandbag that candidate in the general election.
Trump’s hard core loyalists are as vindictive as he us, and Republicans can’t afford to lose them because the party has a numbers problem already. A nominee might win Trump’s grudging support, but he’ll have to grovel for it and that will look weak to other voters. Even then, a lot of Trump’s supporters will stay home anyway
Balconesfault
My SO has been convinced all along that it’s DeSantis wife who has been shoving him towards the Presidency thing all along so she can play Jackie O.
Problem is that who she really needed to be was a Lady Bird, molding Ron into something more than a schoolyard bully.
I’m amused by the browbeating he’s probably taking at home each time he fires another round into his feet.
Geminid
@Geminid: It’s conceivable that there will be a bad recession next year that gives the Republican nominee a path to victory. I doubt it though. Otherwise, I think Republicans are screwed no matter who is the nominee. If I were Karl Rove, I’d be thinking of damage control strategies
Tony Jay
The Republicans are are running into the same problem as the Klan in the 1920s.
Lots of eager believers, lots of ideological allies, but not a lot of capable leadership.
Bless their kkkkruel hearts.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
This dude ever hear DeSantis speak? I would vote against DeSantis just to not hear that winy punk ass voice of his.
Aussie Sheila
@Geminid:
My secret hope is that some Republican squish manages to seize the nom from trump, who then goes after them in the general in a gotterdamerung of electoral chaos and destruction.
That would be glorious and fitting.
sukabi
@West of the Rockies: he looks like he’s wired on something…. speedish….
John Revolta
The bobblehead thing may actually be an improvement from the deer-in-the-headlights thing he did when Charlie Crist asked him the same question at their debate.
Then there’s his new, almost-human laugh
https://twitter.com/PiersUncensored/status/1639010379111211008?lang=en
TriassicSands
Last year, I mentioned a “focus group” in which even some of the “self-proclaimed” progressives had good things to say about DeSantis. I can’t figure out what they could possibly have seen in him that was worth voting for. Were they just trying to justify voting against the lame Democratic candidate? Or were they lying when they claimed to be progressives or even Democrats? Naah, no wing nut would ever stoop to lying about anything. They have the highest reverence for the truth and honesty, which explains why they support Trump.
Baud
@TriassicSands:
More likely, it’s because a lot of people, including progressives, subconsciously take their cues from the media, and the media was fluffing DeSantis like crazy.
Aussie Sheila
If some decent organising investment can be sunk in the South, there would appear to be some seats that could be picked up, and some ground work for turning around some of the most egregiously gerrymandered electorates/counties.
The work is enormous obviously but even if it can’t be completed by 2024, I refuse to believe that the Dems can’t improve their prospects in places like Tennessee and Mississippi enough to stop the creation of a new Jim Crow .
Nothing makes me angrier in politics than attempts to suppress peoples’ votes. It is the most direct attack on social, political and economic dignity there can be. It drives me crackers that there isn’t a massive drive in these states to register voters, organise politically and fight these bastards to a standstill.
I understand that there is a plurality of electorates in Tennessee that only had one candidate for election-the Republican. What the ever loving fuck!
No democratic political party should ever leave the field uncontested. Ever.
sab
@Baud: I am beginning to think the people in the MSM live and work in such a toxic environment that they cannot think like or relate to normal people who just want to live their lives and raise their kids.
When I really hated my workplace and coworkers I went out and got another job.
sab
MSM producers have a difficult job. If they survive they are competent. If they are survivably competent they can go elsewhere. So why did Abby Grossberg stay on with abusive Tucker Carlson for years? Maybe liked the message but not the messanger? Liked the paycheck?
I want to know because everything and everyone Tucker Carlson touches should also be tainted.
cain
If CaseyL is around and is reading this .. I was wondering if medical marijuana would be something instead of opioid. Painkillers will leave you feeling like shit and it is just no way to live.
lowtechcyclist
@Aussie Sheila:
I agree, but U.S. state legislatures are a real problem. In most states, they don’t pay enough to live on, and they’re in session for just long enough each year to make it impossible to hold down a real job. So that really limits who can run for state legislature, because most people can’t afford to win.
Back in the 1990s, when I was living in southwest Virginia, I briefly considered running for a seat in the legislature, but when I looked it up and found it only paid something like $10,000 per year, my brief consideration ended.
Aussie Sheila
@cain: Opioids are very bad for constipation, which in older people can be fatal. My mother was prescribed opioids for a bone injury and they nearly killed her. They are destructive drugs and unnecessary. There are less lethal synthetics available. They should be banned for all but the most dire circumstances, like end of life pain treatment.
Aussie Sheila
@lowtechcyclist: I understand, but that in itself is undemocratic. Payment of MPs was one of the basic demands of the 19th century Chartists for precisely the reason that working class candidates needed a wage cheque. Low wages for MPs means working class candidates can’t compete fairly against the wealthy who have independent sources of income.
A decent (not extravagant ) wage/salary is a prerequisite for democratic representation. Together with a ban on MPs not declaring all their financial interests, and a ban on share and stock trading while doing the people’s business. Crikey, this is so basic.
Frankensteinbeck
The Republican base wants a petty schoolyard bully. No amount of punching down by DeSantis will save him as long as Trump is visibly bullying him.
@West of the Rockies:
It took me a second to recognize it. He’s trying for sarcasm and contempt.
TriassicSands
@Baud:
You may well be right. It would have to be subconscious, wouldn’t it, since the media are generally held in such low esteem?
As the old saw goes (sort of), no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American voter. I wrote “American voter” since they are the ones who are overtly wrecking things in so many places today, but widening the reference to the “American people” does no harm to the truth of the statement.
People often decry the failure of so many Americans to vote, but without a significant upgrade in intelligence* and engagement, things would likely get even worse if today’s non-voters started voting.
*And being well-informed.
TriassicSands
@sab: “…to normal people who just want to live their lives and raise their kids.”
You’ve, perhaps inadvertently, put you finger on one of our biggest problems. Democracies can’t afford to have populations of voters who “…just want to live their lives and raise their kids.” In order to live and raise children in a decent, successful democratic country (state, county, city, etc.) people have to be willing to spend the time and energy necessary to be well-informed voters. That is something that is in increasingly short supply.
sab
@Aussie Sheila: My dog just had surgery and a big 8 inch incision and there were a lot of other medications that worked without putting her on opioids.
My stepson is a recovering/ed drug addict. Yes opioids are terrible drugs, not just because addiction but because they mess up your body’s basic functions so bady.
Aussie Sheila
@TriassicSands: Everyone wants to do normal things. A minority is devoted to politics and political campaigning. What is so pernicious about the US is the ease with which barriers to easy voting can be erected, and the minoritarian political arrangements that make rapid change for the better almost insuperable.
That is why people give up on voting and lose hope in democratic political change. On the right it leads to hysterical demagoguery, on the left, political nihilism, and the centre just wants to do brunch.
lowtechcyclist
@Aussie Sheila:
I agree completely with what you’re saying, but damned if I know how you get there from here. The Supreme Court doesn’t have a problem with gerrymandering, so most GOP-controlled states are heavily gerrymandered in their favor, and they’re happy to keep things the way they are.
Also, because state legislatures are only in session for a few months a year, it’s still viewed as a part-time thing that only deserves part-time levels of compensation, despite their making decisions about budgets of tens of billions of dollars. The whole system’s pretty dysfunctional.
Keith P.
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: He should take lessons from Kari Lake and “enhance” his video appearances…by replacing his voice with Fred Thompson’s.
Aussie Sheila
@lowtechcyclist: The only thing I can think of is a movement for democratic reform akin to the civil rights movement, involving a wide and diverse layer of people and interests.
PJ
@West of the Rockies: He’s deeply uncomfortable and panicking because he doesn’t know what to do when confronted with evidence he’s a loser. He wants to flee but can’t, and has to pretend that everything is A-OK, so that nervous flight energy gets channeled into his head.
Tony Jay
@Frankensteinbeck:
Yup. And I know I may be coming across as a broken record here but I still can’t get my head around the DeSantis campaign not understanding that.
If they’re in the 2024 race (and they are) then they can’t wait for some combination of external forces to (maybe) take out Trump. Even if that happens, he’ll have irreparably damaged DeSantis’ credibility with the MAGA faithful already, leaving Loser Ron to limp bleeding and shit-dipped into a contest with Smilin’ Joe Biden as the 2nd Choice absolutely nobody wants.
The only play available to him right now is to go after Trump hard for failing the MAGA Revolution. Hit him over and over and over again for putting his own personal interests above those of ‘Real Americans’, for making truckloads of promises on immigration, the economy and the debt that he didn’t keep, for promising to drain the swamp only to fill it with more garbage, for basically being a tired old fraud who begged his followers to take on the Deep State, only to throw them under the bus when they came through for him.
DeSantis could (theoretically) present himself as the one man in the country nasty enough to keep the promises Trump made about hurting the enemies of Real America with none of the slimy scandal that turns off squishy centrists. But he’s not even trying. He’s just sort of hanging in there there like a piñata in ladyboots while Trump wallops him into various deformed shapes.
It’s baffling. What is the plan?
PJ
@piratedan: Fear of being out of their comfort zone, no matter how miserable, overrides any curiosity they may have.
eversor
I’ve never seen a human act like that and it looks off.
Baud
@eversor:
AI is still in beta testing.
Gvg
@TriassicSands: Well, the would be elites know this and set out to make it difficult. They lower wages or fail to raise them to keep up with costs, extend working hours by increasing the hours open “for the convenience of the customer” or more shifts for production. They lower the working age to allow child labor again! They increase the retirement age and cut pensions and they don’t fund childcare. And so on and so on. People are tired and wore out. They don’t have time to spare for voting. Oh, I left off attacking the schools which really are free daycare even though we aren’t supposed to think of them that way, it causes a big problem if they aren’t working as expected.
And sympathetic people start by saying you have to understand why they don’t vote. It takes a few years to see that it has a cause. I wonder if we can do a long term ad campaign to point out who it benefits that the working poor can’t/don’t vote their interests and how to get them to see what we think their interests are. Not resentments against other taking their jobs (which they are easily led to) but those who make the jobs so hard and poorly paid, dangerous with few benefits and the rich get all the rewards.
PJ
@PJ: Ron De Panic is comfortable being a bully among his pals in Florida, but has no idea what to do when challenged. Thus, the defensive “I know you are, but what am I” behavior. He wants to be seen as brave, but can’t actually bear it.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
This reminds me how the Village kept saying Lil’ Marco was a great candidate but turned out to be a malfunctioning robot wearing heels.
PJ
@Aussie Sheila: TFG won’t be in jail before the election. It’s possible there will be trials before then, but the appeals will stretch out long past 2024.
eversor
@PJ:
They keep going to Hungary. Conservatives only want to be in places that are Christian, traditionalist, and white. There aren’t many of those places as most white areas are de-Christianizing rapidly (which is always good) and not traditionalist. So you have Hungary, and Russia… that’s it. Though some of them will go to other parts of Europe and then hate post about how everyone left Christianity. Since the white part is negotiable but the Christian part is not you also get some who go to Africa to Jesus them up and make sure all the stuff about patriarchy, the meat and bones of the Bible, is being enforced there.
But let’s get real most liberals don’t travel either. That costs money most people don’t have. Travel is really an upper middle class and rich person luxury. And most of the upper middle class and rich are not socially conservative and live in blue zip codes. Conservatives aren’t wrong when they point out the well off are Democrats.
A lot of the “bleh Paris, who goes there but snooty assholes” boils down to the fact that they can’t afford it, but those urban professionals can. Their politicians follow them. Most of the “vacations” I’ve had have been due to work and then extending a few days in area X.
Aussie Sheila
@PJ: Sure, I understand, but he will be facing at least three serious indictments by this time next year. That’s not nothing, even for that criminal.
Forget the trials for a moment, just think about the implications of a Presidential candidate facing those circumstances. Even I can’t imagine a majority of Usaians going along with that disaster and thinking it’ll all work out in the wash.
TriassicSands
There is time to do “normal” things and be politically well-informed, but one has to care. Responsible voting has to be a priority — not the only priority, but it has to be important.
All true, but poor voter turnout and poorly informed voters go back long before Republicans decided that voting is only for people willing to vote Republican.
It may explain why some people give up, but this is a long-standing problem even among those who haven’t faced age-old restrictions on voting.
On the right, people vote like it matters. They have something they don’t want taken away (white supremacy, sexist society, etc.) or things they want to happen (persecution of the LGBTQ+ community, the end to abortion, etc.) On the left and elsewhere on the political spectrum too many people take far too much for granted. They leave voting to others. The natural constituency in the U.S. for the Left is far larger than for the right. You’ve named some of the things that the Right does to combat that.
When a “simple” issue (of right and wrong) appears, like a ballot initiative supporting a woman’s right to control her own reproductive life, people can turn out. But when the next election happens, it is far too likely that many of those who felt threatened by a ban on abortion (women and men) either won’t turn out or will vote in ways that are in direct conflict with their previous vote.
It’s simple, really. Democracy requires well-informed, engaged voters. That lack is why we’re are in such danger today. Everything, ultimately, goes back to the voters.
Thomas Jefferson made this point:
That isn’t his only quote on this subject, but it is simple and to the point. Obviously, it does no good to be well-informed if one doesn’t bother to vote. Life today is much more complicated than it was in the 18th century, but most people (not all) have more leisure time now than people had back then. It’s really just a matter of what is most important.
And, yes, I am aware of how bad a lot of Americans have it. But, for the others, expecting them to give up some of the time they spend watching sports or other things on TV, as examples, should not be too much to ask.
PJ
@Aussie Sheila: Trump couldn’t get a majority of voters in two national elections, even without any indictments. He is deeply unpopular here.
His base still loves him, though, and the GOP is unwilling to let that base go, so as long as he is alive, he will be their candidate.
Aussie Sheila
@eversor: Overseas travel in Australia is a middle class and working class pastime. A large immigrant population plus reasonably generous annual leave provisions, mandated by law, mean that most people have travelled overseas by the time they are forty. Overseas travel is far from an elite only experience.
It is not a symptom of being American. It is a symptom of not enough leisure time. The money is not nothing, but it’s the time that I think stuffs the ability of Americans to plan trips overseas.
PJ
@eversor: Hungary and Russia aren’t particularly religious, though. Russians have been the most materialistic people I have ever met. Putin absolutely does not believe in God, all he believes in is power.
What US conservatives like about Hungary and Russia is that their ruling parties have wrapped up their ethno-nationalism with Christianism to sell authoritarianism. They would love for this to work in the USA.
Aussie Sheila
@PJ: If so, that is good. He will lose. Biden has been a great President imo, and I have confidence in the ability of his re-elect people to make the most of his and VP Harris’ accomplishments. The Dems have a great opportunity in 2024 imo, to go for broke, and crush the maggots.
Doom and gloom are reinforcing for passivity and lethargy. I am confident in the determination of people to keep their freedom, and to defeat the tyrannical, tiresome and toddler behaviour of the US Right.
Baud
lowtechcyclist
@Aussie Sheila:
And I have never understood why the Democratic Party doesn’t make an issue out of this. I mean, there’s no requirement in the law for even the proverbial two weeks’ vacation: employers don’t have to grant their workers ANY paid leave.
Surely this would be popular. And good luck to the GOP if they became the party that voted against giving everyone a couple weeks’ vacation.
I’ve called my Congressman about this a number of times. He’s a Democrat – hell, up to a few months ago, he was House Majority Leader – but it just doesn’t seem to be something they’re interested in up there.
eversor
@Aussie Sheila:
Right but keep in mind the majority of the US does even have paid time off. Getting PTO and vacation days does not exist in working class, and even many lower middle class jobs. So if it’s not a place you can hit on the weekend via a fast drive it’s not really an option.
Then there is the sheer cost of it. Most Americans do not have retirement savings and are constantly savaged by healthcare costs. My parents after they retired traveled the world and my dad faffed off charging people a thousand+ an hour if they wanted him to consult for them off and on. They own their house and have millions in savings, pensions, and retirement accounts. But that’s rare. Most people here work as long as they can and then limp along on social security and constantly choose between medical care, food, a pet, or repairing things that break.
Even within America travel can be hard because of the cost. As people here know I’m in the DC area and we do get a lot of tourists. I bartended for a bit at a steak house, which is affordable in flyover, and had to watch people wander in who weren’t from here take one look at the menu and after their eyes bugged out of their heads take the walk of shame back out the door. As someone from a higher income area I can go to New York, Chicago, LA, or any other touristy place and afford the food. But if you came from a lesser off place getting the full experience is out of your price range.
People need more paid time off, more money, and healthcare before they can travel.
Chris Johnson
@Tony Jay: Not Carlson. Him and Trump hate each other with an impressive passion, but they will not go after each other directly, because they both answer to Putin and that takes precedence. Their work for Russia doesn’t have to be done from inside mainstream media or political office, that’s just a bonus when possible. In some ways their roles haven’t changed a bit, they just have to pursue them differently but the lines are unaltered.
DeSantis on the other hand… he’s not looking to serve the Kremlin, he’s just a fascist for himself and himself alone. The problem is, that hasn’t given him very good weapons against the likes of Trump.
Betty Cracker
DeSantis rarely exits the con media bubble, but when he does and encounters a non-fluff question, he tends to glitch out like he did in the video up top. Check out the first few seconds of the video below — his face goes all wonky like a short-circuiting robot:
Not ready for prime time!
BruceFromOhio
Biden/Harris 2024 campaign announcement.
@Baud: hell yeah
Anyway
@Aussie Sheila:
Back in grad skool always ran into Aussies on my active adventure -type travels. My travelling buds and I were on the lookout for Aussie and Kiwi accents and almost always found them :-)
BruceFromOhio
@eversor: The Uncanny Valley.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-uncanny-valley-human-look-alikes-put-us-on-edge/
MagdaInBlack
@Betty Cracker: Lotta rage bundled up in that man/child. He looks like he’s about to lose his shit.
Not ready indeed.
Anyway
@Aussie Sheila:
The awful thing is when people vote through referenda to extend or expand voting rights ( ex. to felons like they did in FLA) red states have become very adept at using their gerrymandered supermajorities to thwart the popular vote. Time and again red state leges vote to block the will of city councils that have often passed with large majorities. So frustrating..
satby
@lowtechcyclist: because it’s not actually as slam dunk an issue as you’d think it is. Entire coalitions have kept this country from a universal health care insurance system to this day, and the same coalitions would heavily mobilize against a universal paid vacation time. The brainwashing against “socialism” has been incredibly effective.
But to the larger point of change, Beau of the Fifth Column put out a great video yesterday on Tucker, change, and what it takes.
Tony Jay
@Chris Johnson:
Except Trump’s value to the five-foot Czar is tenuous at best. What he desperately needs is another stooge in the White House, or at the very least a deeply corrupt authoritarian who he can horsetrade with to get some kind of ‘victory’ out of his Ukrainian fuck-up. An unelectable Trump running against Biden just means another four years of Democratic leadership and, probably, Democratic majorities in Congress to completely lock his agents out of power.
There was a lot of chat around here last year about how everyone but Trump himself would benefit from the Gross Orange Pustule popping off this mortal coil, that’s not changed. He might see dominating the MAGOP Primaries as his only outside chance of staying out of jail, but that doesn’t necessarily coincide with Russia’s strategic interests anymore.
Which is my verbose way of saying, Carlson might well be given licence and a venue from which to start chopping away at his old mucker’s skinny white legs. He might not, but it’s not out of the realms of possibility.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
Carlson will run for office in Maine, a light blue state. I expect it will be Congress or the Senate.
LiminalOwl
@Tony Jay: As to the plan, I posted this elsewhere:
Yes,it’s good that Faux News finally deplatformed Tucker Carlson. No, I’m not foolish enough to think that this represents a turn to the good; most likely it’s about evading liability.
But, reading MAGAt comments to the news, I wonder whether it’s a Murdoch (or Russian) head-fake. Does someone think Tucker has a serious chance of being nominated for VP to Trump? And that the latter has a serious chance of winning the election?
And if so, I greatly fear that they just might be correct. I think the probability is low, but not zero.
Baud
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
No chance he can win southern Maine, so it would have to be for the Senate or northern Maine.
TriassicSands
We can spend endless amounts of time finding excuses for why Americans are so poorly informed or don’t vote, or we can recognize the reality that this country rises or falls based on its voters. And right now, we’re falling. I’ve spent my adult life engaging people (mostly strangers) in conversations about their beliefs, politics, and knowledge. Even on college campuses, I’ve never found a group of ten people where even half of them were well-informed on basic issues. A number of years ago, a study came out that showed that Fox News viewers were among the least well-informed voters of all. No surprise there, but Republicans who aren’t watching Fox probably know even less. They’re like my neighbor who grew up as a Republican and somehow never noticed the transition the GOP has gone through.
Start with this:
In 2020, the census says there were about 258 million Americans of voting age.
In 2020, according to the Census Bureau, about 154.6 million Americans voted. Of those, the majority were likely either poorly informed or misinformed (which would be the normal condition for the majority of the 74 million who voted for Trump).
We’re wasting our time trying to excuse non-voters and low information voters. We need to find a way to change the situation or there won’t be a democracy to save. And all those people who have a hard time voting now, won’t be able to vote at all (or have their votes counted honestly).
It’s our choice.
Tony G
@gwangung: I’m no psychologist, but, based on my own experience, there is a right-wing personality that never wants to experience anything new — they want every minute of every day to be exactly the same. They’re afraid of anything different. So their “leaders”, like Trump and DeSantis, match the rank and file in that aspect.
TriassicSands
@Betty Cracker:
Betty, I understand your antipathy toward DeSantis, but maybe it’s time to start hoping he does well enough to be able to engage Trump in a knock down, drag out fight to the death for the nomination. I think it is unquestionable that Biden’s best chance will be if DeSantis gets the nomination and whiny baby Trump decides to run as a third party candidate. Or maybe that’s just too much to hope for.
On the other hand, if DeSantis is as poor a public performer as it appears he is, Biden ought to be able to handily defeat him in a head-to-head election. Unless, of course, the MSM decide that Hunter Biden is the election’s key issue.
Gosh, my head hurts just thinking about 2024.
PJ
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: It seems to me that Carlson is much more about money than political power. I think he has as much interest in actually being a Representative, or Senator, or President as Trump did. (Trump ran because he’d been humiliated and he thought that just running would boost his businesses, which it did.)
But unlike Trump, as far as I know, Carlson doesn’t have any businesses he is currently operating that would benefit from his entry into politics. He wants to keep his grift going, which means keeping his face on TV every week night. So he’ll wind up somewhere where he can do that.
Ken
I’ll be charitable and assume this unnamed* GOP member misspoke, and doesn’t actually think the presidential election was in 2022. Or maybe they’re referring to the further losses in the Senate, and the distinctly non-wavelike results in the House?
* “Unnamed” almost goes without saying, since they’re a GOP member criticizing Trump. Has anyone used “the cowardice of their convictions” for such people?
Shalimar
@TriassicSands: Floridian Dems have been hoping DeSantis was capable enough to do damage to Trump. A few months ago, everyone was pointing out how thin-skinned Ron was but saying he managed to cover up those flaws with careful handling in the state so maybe that could transfer to a larger stage.
It hasn’t. Trump has been savaging him for weeks unchallenged. DeSantis is the worst possible candidate to fight Trump head-to-head. He’s a small-time bully who can only stand out in fixed fights and he has nothing at all to say against a bigger bully. He isn’t up to it. That race is already over.
Shalimar
@Ken: I think the unnamed coward is referring to the anti-Trump Republican contention that Republicans lost in 2022 because Trump turned that cycle into a referendum on himself. There is some truth to that, but I think the bigger reason is that it was the beginning of the backlash against Dobbs.
cmorenc
@opiejeanne:
Alas, these deficits didn’t stop Florida voters from re-electing DeSantis by 19% in 2022. I hope we’re not over-confident regarding the repulsiveness of DeSantis’s personal deficits because we’re evaluating him from within our own echo chamber. Recall that we thought Trump was such an obvious piece of shit huckster that he would remind too many voters of some repulsive encounter they’d had with a slick salesman to be electable.
Tony Jay
@LiminalOwl:
Ten seconds after any Trump/Carlson announcement, every single Democratic nut-cutter in the country would be sending out examples of Carlson’s venomous anti-Trump comments and asking “What kind of leader is weak enough to need someone who said this about them as their Number Two?”
If the conversation is all about how Trump needs Carlson (well, when it’s not about the Media obsessing over if, why and how their Hunter Biden stories might damage Biden’s campaign) then it’s pretty much a given that the Tangster blows a sprocket and starts humiliating Carlson just show who’s boss.
Which is why it’s very unlikely to happen. Trump is dumber than a bag of water-damaged vibrators, but he’s got a cunning nose for what might make him look weak to his fellow creeps.
SFAW
@TriassicSands:
I think Betty, along with many of us, has been hoping that Trump and DeathSantis would stage the political/campaign equivalent of a steel-cage death match. I think such a battle would severely weaken DeathSantis. (Although I don’t think there’s much DeathsAnus could do to Trump vis-a-vis voters suddenly saying “OMFG! I had no idea Trump was [XXX].”)
SFAW
@cmorenc:
Which was surprising, considering what a powerhouse campaigner Charlie Crist is. [Sorry. For some reason, Charlie Crist annoys the crap out of me, and I wish he’d move to Outer Slobovia, or somewhere else where he can’t present himself as a Dem candidate.]
LiminalOwl
@Tony Jay: I hope you’re right. Thanks for replying.
SFAW
@Tony Jay:
Maybe DeathSantis’s team is collecting (figurative) underpants? [Or equivalent, although “panty-sniffer” might also apply, albeit for a different reason.]
sdhays
There’s a lot of truth here, BUT it MAY not be 100% true. I think it’s looking likely that Trump WILL be under at least 1 federal indictment by 2024. So you soften Trump up by emphasizing how, whatever his merits, he LOST to Joe Biden and WILL LOSE AGAIN. Then, when indictments are handed out, you have a frank conversation with Trump that you’re his best bet for making those indictments go away.
It’s still a low chance gambit, but under certain conditions it could work. Better than “I hope he leaves me alone and then dies”.
sdhays
@LiminalOwl: Trump will never bring on someone as his running mate who has even the potential to outshine him in star power. Mike Dense was perfect for him, and he’ll look for someone like that.
SFAW
@sdhays:
So I guess that rules out him picking Baud as his Veep. [Not that Baud ever run as a Rethug, of course.]
Geminid
@sdhays: I think Trump would likely want more than a frank conversation with the nominee. Trump’s egotism would require a public show of fealty.
Anyway, right now I don’t see a Republican candidate that can even beat Trump, even with his upcoming indictments and other baggage. That could change of course, but it would take a strong candidate.
CaseyL
@cain: I appreciate your reaching out. But the person I’m worried about is a pot smoker/user, and if it would help, she would use it. I therefore conclude she’s tried, and it hasn’t. RA is awful, in that nothing less than serious opiates are effective against the pain (which she already has had prescribed, and already has a high tolerance of) or the biological drugs, (she she refuses to get).
She doesn’t want advice; she doesn’t want to try anything anymore. The only way forward I can tell is if she hangs around long enough for the RA attack to pass and she can think more clearly again.
Paul in KY
@sukabi: Jeffrey McDonald, who murdered his family, way back in the day in NC, was taking lots of diet pills.
Paul in KY
@Tony Jay: I hope his crack campaign team (his wife, I guess) doesn’t read this, Tony!
Paul in KY
@Tony Jay: The plan is that DeSatanis’ lackeys meet with Putin & pledge fealty to him and TFG falls down 7 flights of stairs and….profit!
Paul in KY
@Chris Johnson: Stalin and Hitler made peace for a time. Don’t think it couldn’t happen again…
cmorenc
@SFAW:
…maybe the problems with the recent weak competitiveness of the Florida Democratic party are directly reflected by the fact that candidates like Charlie Crist are winning Democratic primaries, which means either that: a) too many of our primary voters think he actually is right candidate to take on the GOP nominee; or b) we have such a weak bench that Crist actually is the best among a weak available field. These two possibilities are not mutually exclusive, but different in that possibility a) reflects a deficit in voters’ judgment, whereas possibility b) reflects a surplus of voter despair, neither of which are very promising toward electoral success.
Manyakitty
@TriassicSands: I personally know absolute idiots who will vote for anyone under 75, no matter what. 🤮 The only chance with those people is another pairing of old white men, at which point they’ll probably go for Biden.
Manyakitty
@CaseyL: what is her objection to the biologics?
Tony Jay
@Paul in KY:
Let them, it won’t help him at all in the General, but at least it’d entertain the noodles out of us watching Tang squirm.
StringOnAStick
@CaseyL: The biologic drugs for RA work really well, why won’t she take them?
GibberJack
@opiejeanne: And yet it was the most obvious question to ask, which is more or less, why the hell are you in Japan if you’re not a presidential candidate?
And he didn’t anticipate that? Why, they weren’t supposed to ask that! They’re not playing along. Don’t they understand kayfabe? Everyone in the media at home does. The nerve!
He is the biggest koi in the stagnant rightwing pond that is Florida. He’s in the ocean now and thinks everything works the same.
GibberJack
@eversor:
A $60,000 truck or SUV that never goes off-road or hauls anything but groceries is a luxury. A second vehicle is a luxury. Seventeen mpg is a luxury. Big dogs and multiple pets are a luxury. Gun safes full of an arsenal of guns and ammunition are a luxury.
Average cost of a 6-day 5 night Disney World vacation is about $6,200 for a family of 4. This site says average cost of a week trip to London for a family of 4 is $6,700.
The average American spends their money on what’s important to them. Visiting other countries is not.