Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

Second rate reporter says what?

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

T R E 4 5 O N

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

When we show up, we win.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / 2024 Primaries / Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Musk’s DeSantis ‘DeSaster’

Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Musk’s DeSantis ‘DeSaster’

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‘DeSaster’ was trending on twitter, which isn’t searchable any more without a twitter membership, but here’s the first of what I expect to be a spate of news reports…

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign announcement plans were derailed Wednesday evening by massive technical glitches on Twitter that kept him from declaring his candidacy.

“Servers are straining somewhat,” Elon Musk, Twitter’s owner, was heard saying on the app’s live audio stream where he and DeSantis were supposed to have a conversation that included the governor’s first verbal announcement of his White House bid.

Musk’s comment came in between crashes, feedback glitches and audio failures that prevented the conversation on Twitter’s Spaces feature from beginning for around 25 minutes past its scheduled 6 p.m. ET start time.

Musk and investor David Sacks, an ally of both men, started a new Twitter Spaces webcast after the original one failed. But technical issues popped in that stream, too, including in the middle of DeSantis’ remarks…

The aborted first Spaces event listed more than half a million listeners before it was abandoned completely.

The botched event came as Musk pushes to boost Twitter’s revenue…

President Joe Biden’s official Twitter account, meanwhile, used the opportunity to ask for contributions to his reelection campaign.

“This link works,” Biden tweeted with a URL linking to his ActBlue donation page.

Reader Interactions

122Comments

  1. 1.

    Suzanne

    “This link works,” Biden tweeted with a URL linking to his ActBlue donation page.

    LMMFAO.

  2. 2.

    Scout211

    David Sacks just ludicrously made up that Ron DeSantis’ Twitter space was the largest group that “has ever met online.” There are 100,000 people in this thing.— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) May 24, 2023

    We had more people join when I played Among Us 👾 https://t.co/zBoDCM0XmL— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 24, 2023

     

    "probably the biggest room that has ever been assembled online," says David Sacks of this new Twitter Space with Ron DeStantis and Elon Musk (first one didn't work and was canceled)i have been in bigger Clubhouse rooms https://t.co/jniFJSugSi— Alex Heath (@alexeheath) May 24, 2023

  4. 4.

    Zzyzx

    What if Ron DeSantis is secretly doing a Producers-esque scam to try to help the Democrats and he’s as surprised as everyone that getting increasingly over the top isn’t enough? Maybe the incompetence is the next step. It would be irresponsible to not speculate.

  7. 7.

    M31

    The richest guy in the world

    The great White-booted Hope of the GOP

    MTG, the voice of the House

    our “betters” are a bunch of sad limp no-talent clowns with the charisma of bathtub soap scum

  8. 8.

    Baud

    He should try again in a Tesla because it’ll probably crash too.

    Then, of course, on a SpaceX rocket.

  9. 9.

    M31

    with all due apologies to bathtub soap scum, which at least means somebody got their greasy sweat coating washed off

  12. 12.

    Baud

    probably the biggest room that has ever been assembled online,”

    Someone wants the role of Sean Spicer in the DeSantis administration.

  13. 13.

    dmsilev

    Musk’s comment came in between crashes, feedback glitches and audio failures that prevented the conversation on Twitter’s Spaces feature from beginning for around 25 minutes past its scheduled 6 p.m. ET start time.

    Apparently firing 90% of the workforce and requiring most of the rest to work 20 hours a day is not a long-term path to success. Who knew? Besides “everyone”, that is.

  15. 15.

    scav

    The largest group that ever met online?  Another retread!! Let’s check the unedited park service photographs about that.

  16. 16.

    Circular Reasoning

    @Zzyzx: There were similar sentiments about Trump during his first run. I’m choosing to go with “when they show you who they are, believe them the first time”.

  17. 17.

    dmsilev

    @Scout211: “crashes, feedback glitches and audio failures” could just as well describe the Starship launch attempt/fiasco. I mean, the “audio failure” was “sound loud enough to destroy the concrete launch pad”, but surely someone can screech loudly enough into a microphone to approximate that.

  18. 18.

    Baud

    Lieutenant Valeris : 400 years ago on the planet Earth, workers who felt their livelihood threatened by automation flung their wooden shoes called sabots into the machines to stop them. Hence the word “sabotage.”

    Uhuru : [getting the point]  We are experiencing technical malfunction. All backup systems inoperative.

    Chekov : Excellent. Uh, I-I mean… too bad.

  19. 19.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @M31: ​ My soap scum is still better than that. It is at least the result of an honest day’s work.

  20. 20.

    Splitting Image

    @Zzyzx:

    What if Ron DeSantis is secretly doing a Producers-esque scam to try to help the Democrats and he’s as surprised as everyone that getting increasingly over the top isn’t enough? Maybe the incompetence is the next step. It would be irresponsible to not speculate.

    There is a longstanding theory that this is exactly what the orange thing was doing in 2016 (although not so much to help the Democrats as himself), and he was as surprised as anyone when he found himself in the White House.

    Even if every G.O.P. candidate going forward is in it simply to grift the flock for the campaign donations, Democrats can’t be confident that they won’t repeat 2016. There are at least 74 million morons out there eager to have their money stolen from them and that is enough to for a venom-spewing crook to win.

  22. 22.

    Sure Lurkalot

    Isn’t Fucker Tucker’s new show supposed to be on Twitter? Looking forward to another stellar launch!

  24. 24.

    Wilson Heath

    Twitter Spaces—duh, of course the tech was gonna fizzle and sputter out if not outright explode.

  26. 26.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Suzanne: ​ Or maybe there’s a smug, smirking bastard.

    IOWs, a kind and merciful God.

    Not that I believe in such, but a man can dream, can’t he?

  29. 29.

    Splitting Image

    I’ve been reading that Fox News is not doing so well and that the howler monkeys are deserting it for better venues, one of which is Elon Musk’s Twitter.

    I can see how long-time Twitter users are sad to see the platform decline, but I don’t think that the howler monkeys are going to be happy with the trade for very long. Whatever else you could say about Fox, it just worked, you know? You could set the TV to Fox and it would sit there all day, spreading the gospel of tax cuts for the wealthy and deregulation to everyone who happened to see it.

    Twitter is not going to just work the way Fox did. Not with Musk in charge. The longer he runs it, the more he is going to be a poster child for why you don’t put a right-wing manbaby in charge of anything.

  30. 30.

    bbleh

    @Bex: lol, along with most MSM.  As noted elsewhere, I think she would have been very happy booting him off the headlines.

  32. 32.

    Suzanne

    @Splitting Image: Also… old people watch Fox. Old people are not the Twitter user base. They’re not going to be able to make fetch happen! It’s not going to happen!

  35. 35.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    Ron DeSantis is a trillion times dumber than I had originally thought possible.  Who convinced this moron that a Twitter announcement was a better way to begin his campaign run than a traditional rally with thousands of Florida residents wildly cheering him on?

    Trump will cut this guy to ribbons before he knows what hit him.

  37. 37.

    Scout211

    @lgerard: I am the only one who thinks that DeSantis looks like Alfred E Neuman?

    Nope, it’s all over the internet.

    Correction: deleted the comment about Trump using that as an insult for DeSantis. He actually used it for then-Mayor Pete.

  40. 40.

    different-church-lady

    The aborted first Spaces event listed more than half a million listeners before it was abandoned completely.

    Christ, I had no idea there were that many political reporters in this country.

  43. 43.

    James E Powell

    “This link works,” Biden tweeted with a URL linking to his ActBlue donation page.

    This Joe Biden guy is really moving up my list of all time favorite politicians.

  44. 44.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    Twitter glitches plague Ron DeSantis

    They still haven’t ironed out the glitches in DeathSantis’s animatronics

  49. 49.

    Jackie

    @Sure Lurkalot: Faux is laughing and high fiving each other; they were miffed Pudd’n Boots didn’t announce with them.

    Faux is also gleefully hoping Tucker proceeds with his Twitter show.

  55. 55.

    Jeffro

    SO…looks like we might not need trumpov’s secret plan to end the war in Ukraine after all!  (whew)

    That was a close one.  I was just about ready to switch parties and go all-in for Peacemaker Extraordinaire Donny J Olive Branch LOLOLOL

    Prigozhin says war in Ukraine has backfired, might lead to Russian revolution

    SAY WHAT?!?!

    Prigozhin, the founder and leader of the Wagner mercenary group, also asserted that the war had backfired spectacularly by failing to “demilitarize” Ukraine, one of President Vladimir Putin’s stated aims of the invasion. He also called for totalitarian policies.

    “We are in a situation where we can simply lose Russia,” Prigozhin said, using an expletive to hammer his point. “We must introduce martial law. We unfortunately … must announce new waves of mobilization; we must put everyone who is capable to work on increasing the production of ammunition,” he said. “Russia needs to live like North Korea for a few years, so to say, close the borders … and work hard.”

    So…to win…Russians just need to work harder, like they do in North Korea.  Got it!!
    Let’s please ask our snooze media to see what trumpov, DeSaster think about this revoltin’ (literally!! LOL) development!

  57. 57.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Scout211: He actually used it for then-Mayor Pete.

    I can actually see the resemblance. But no insult, Alfred E Neuman is an American icon.

  58. 58.

    Jackie

    David Frum, a Never Trump conservative who once served as a speechwriter to President George W. Bush, tweeted, “Failure to Launch: The Ron DeSantis Story.”

    I guess Frum is also a Never DeSantis conservative!

  59. 59.

    Geminid

    This campaign launch has people yucking it up on Twitter. The best wisecrack I’ve see so far is, “Maybe DeSantis got pudding on the mike.”

    But the funniest comments are from the Republican DeSantis boosters trying to make chicken salad out of chicken shit.

  61. 61.

    Miss Bianca

    @Scout211: ok, that was a LOL for sure.

    It’s a good day to be a Democrat!

    Our enemies have made themselves more ridiculous than I could have dared hope, and our elected officials are having fun with it.

  64. 64.

    Jager

    @Baud:

    They left for dinner in a Tesla, the self-driving drove the car into the back of a trump supporter’s flag draped pickup. The Tesla caught fire and is burning with the doors locked.

  68. 68.

    Jackie

    Morning Joe is gonna be lit tomorrow. I rarely watch it live, as it starts at 3 a.m. my time, but almost every night I wake up for a potty break at approx that time, so I maybe watch 15 mins before going back to sleep – unless they’re all busting a gut about something and keep me awake a bit longer… commercial break does the job to put me back to sleep.

  69. 69.

    Alison Rose

    I still can’t get over the fact that this POS is only two years older than me. My entire life, I’ve always been assumed to be younger than my age, but I feel like in my 40s that’s kind of caught up with me…except Puddin’ Fingers easily looks like he has a decade on me, at a minimum.

  70. 70.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Scout211:

    This took me a minute to process, because 100,000 logging on to take part is gobsmacking big.  But they’re not taking part, are they?  It’s 100,000 logging on to watch, and I’m pretty sure there have been streams with watchers in the millions before.  Actually, Twitter struggling with 100,000 listening to an audio stream is… sad.

  71. 71.

    Jeffro

    Biden/Harris campaign email just a bit ago:

    [DeSantis has]:

    • Signed some of the nation’s most extreme restrictions on women’s health care choices into law.
    • Made it easier for criminals to carry guns.
    • Signed laws to limit what books kids can read in schools.

    Tech issues aside, his record is pretty clear to me.

    I’m feeling like this Dem team just might be okay no matter who they face next fall!  =)

  75. 75.

    Jackie

    WASHINGTON — No one liked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign launch more than former President Donald Trump.

    “Wow. The DeSanctus TWITTER launch is a DISASTER!” Trump wrote on the Truth Social media platform. “His whole campaign will be a disaster. WATCH!”

    Schadenfreude — the German word for taking pleasure in another’s failure — might understate the glee Trump and his team felt as DeSantis’ glitch-ridden Twitter audio-chat with billionaire SpaceX founder Elon Musk failed to lift off for about 20 minutes.

    As hundreds of thousands of listeners logged off, Trump allies shared images to represent their excitement: a glass of wine and a laughing-to-tears emoji among them. Trump quickly posted a video to Truth Social that showed contrasting images of his boisterous campaign announcement last year and a Twitter screen showing the DeSantis discussion “Preparing to launch.”
    But Trump advisers also used the moment to argue that the foul-up was reflective of DeSantis and his operation on the whole.
    “Glitchy. Tech issues. Uncomfortable silences. A complete failure to launch,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said. “And that’s just the candidate.”

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-team-trolls-ron-desantis-launch-rcna82446

  78. 78.

    Gvg

    Explain how the owner of twitter can have technical issues but the non owner president doesn’t and can promise that confidently using the same platform. Does.that mean joes campaign, not the government,  has employees that know more about how twitter works than twitter bosses chosen crew? Or does it mean twitter hates their boss…

  79. 79.

    Suzanne

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Bullying DeSantis greatly reduces Trump’s loser stink in front of his conservative audience. 

    It makes me think that the Michael Jackson eating popcorn gif will be in heavy rotation this election season.

  81. 81.

    Jeffro

    @Frankensteinbeck: AND…and let’s not forget, having the GOP’s “please god give us ‘ *someone just as much of an asshole as trump minus the obvious corruption and insanity’ ” wing, such as it is, spend all this time and energy hoping that DeSantis would be their white knight…only to see him crash, burn, and crash again at this relatively late date…

    …well, it’s gotta be extremely demoralizing, for one!

    It also means they’re going to have to scramble and find/luck their way into/settle for some other ” *SJAMAAATMTOCAI” candidate, and hope that he/she can overtake trumpov before the primary votes start getting counted next year.

    And that won’t be easy, because there are a ton of midgets in the GOP field right now, and exactly NONE of them can capture a majority of GOP primary voters or anything close to it at the moment.

    What’s the R base going to do?  Suddenly flock to Nikki Haley?  Chris Christie?  I don’t think so

    ETA: *happy to take suggestions for a shorter descriptor here!  “Not-trump but not ‘never trump’ ?”

  82. 82.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Gvg:

    In this case, it means Biden is using the basic and most reliable Twitter function, while Musk is using a completely different, more demanding and fragile function.  Aiming for the moon, Elon Musk crashes, while Biden just gets ‘er done.  Appropriate.

  84. 84.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Splitting Image:

    Twitter is not going to just work the way Fox did. Not with Musk in charge. The longer he runs it, the more he is going to be a poster child for why you don’t put a right-wing manbaby in charge of anything.

    Never subscribed to Twitter but I have followed a few feeds and since the Musking, the threads devolve into dick pics and “groomer” this and that almost immediately. It appears those folks are having a blast on Musk’s Twitter. I hope one of the copycats reaches critical mass with some new bells and whistles and the Twitterers end up in the echo chamber they feel safe in.

  85. 85.

    Jackie

    @Jeffro: Whatever happened to Pompeo? Did he chicken out? Not that he offers anything different than those already running.

  86. 86.

    Sebastian

    Hilarious in so many ways:

    Twitter “we are ready to replace FOX!” (video streaming is an order of magnitude harder than audio, emerald-boy!) puking itself and Sacks trying to help and faceplanting, too. DeSantis’ hoping that Electro-Jesus will help his campaign and getting musked is probably the best. lol

  87. 87.

    Mike in NC

    Everything I’m reading about DeSantis notes his inability to look people in the eye. What a common touch! Tomorrow we head to the Blue Ridge Mountains where our good friends settled after fleeing Tampa a few months ago. We’ll be laughing at him over martinis and some good weed.

  89. 89.

    SFAW

    @Splitting Image:

    There is a longstanding theory that this is exactly what the orange thing was doing in 2016

    In 2016, I speculated to my (NYC-area) brother just such a thing. His comment re: Trump: “No, he’s just an asshole.” That was the last time I entertained such thoughts.

  91. 91.

    S Cerevisiae

    TFG dunking on Rhonda Santis is just so much fun, I am rooting for injuries!

  95. 95.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Jackie:

    Whatever happened to Pompeo? Did he chicken out?

    Yes.  He withdrew without doing anything.  Speculation I saw was that he couldn’t get big donor funding.

    @Sure Lurkalot:

    since the Musking, the threads devolve into dick pics and “groomer” this and that almost immediately.

    Which is what Musk wanted and I wish people would just leave and stop enabling him.  Ultimately, that is not my decision to make for others.  I know the arguments for and against, and worry leaving hurt me professionally.

  99. 99.

    Shana

    We’re finishing up a road trip from DC to Philly to Champaign to Chicago to Cincinnati to the KY bourbon trail and I’ve seen a lot of billboards. Guys I’m worried about Cracker Barrel. They have a bunch of them all over promoting Brunch all Day with a picture of a plate of eggs benedict. I think they’re woke. If even Cracker Barrel is woke is there any hope for the rest of America?

  101. 101.

    Jeffro

    @zhena gogolia: my best (but mostly uninformed) guess is that Prigozhin knows that the longer the war goes on, the more likely it is that Putin gets overthrown.  Russia’s not going to rally.  They are in all likelihood going to get pushed back this summer and suffer all kinds of attacks within Russia itself.  Complete humiliation.

    So he’s teeing off, because he can see it’s kind of do-or-die time and they’re likely going to…die.

  102. 102.

    Jeffro

    @Shana: Isn’t Cracker Barrel the place that caught a whole lot of RWNJ flack just for offering a non-meat protein-thingy as an option on the menu?

    (You know, like a smart business would do.)

    But I digress…they are already ‘woke’ beyond redemption.  Alas.

  103. 103.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Jeffro: yes, Cracker Barrel is so woke they were sued in a class action for race discrimination.  And not against white people.

  104. 104.

    Tony G

    Musk and investor David Sacks, plus Ron DeSantis.  I propose that the three of them go on a one-way trip to Mars on an exploding Space-X rocket.  These are the brilliant men who control our lives.

  105. 105.

    Jeffro

    @Steve in the ATL: sorry, forgot the snark tags!  =)

    I’m sure they were like, “what?  RWNJs are hating on US?  We’re ‘woke’ despite all our efforts?”

  107. 107.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Alison Rose: Well, that was MY adorable punim, but my mother also used it as just “face”. My maternal grandma left me a wealth of words both German and Yiddish and I should’ve written them down because they have, alas, faded.

  109. 109.

    Manyakitty

    @Alison Rose: it’s from the inner evil. Look at all of them–you can tell they’re…wrong… somehow. Desantis, Possum Queen, any random trump, etc. Ugly on the inside means ugly on the outside.

    I remember the first time I saw Biden’s cabinet gathered together I was shocked by how normal they all looked. Must never allow myself to get numb to the darkness.

  111. 111.

    Jackie

    @scav: That’s delicious! So Tucker will have to resort to a fake background like TFG’s fake Oval Office!

  115. 115.

    Tony G

    “Servers are straining somewhat”. The capacity planning staff that Musk fired six months ago would have guesstimated the expected number of users, then doubled that guesstimate and then made sure that there was adequate server capacity for this “big event”.  Spikes in usage fail without excess capacity.  Any idiot knows that.  An arrogant idiot on a platform that has been destroyed by an arrogant idiot.

  116. 116.

    sdhays

    @Jackie: I recall reports of his campaign announcement last year being “low energy”, but of course he had some people cheering at some points, which is better than a weird tech disaster.

    When I heard that DeSantis had chosen to do his campaign launch on Twitter, I thought it was a joke. Even without the (utterly predictable and predicted) technical failures, what on Earth did the DeSantis campaign hope to achieve with it, other than to use the launch to stoke Elmu’s ego?

    One can only conclude that DeSantis detests events with regular supporters and thinks that rich, powerful people are the only people who matter. That actually tracks with everything we know about him.

  117. 117.

    Kent

    The aborted first Spaces event listed more than half a million listeners before it was abandoned completely.

    How many were Russian bots?

  119. 119.

    Geminid

    @sdhays: I guess DeSantis and his henchmen want to tap into that glibertarian techbro money. Musk has loudly joined the anti-“Woke”, i.e. anti-Liberal movement, so he could be a natural ally for DeSantis.

    And along with Thiel, Sacks is one of the owners of Call In, a media platform that might as well call itself Horse Shoe. I won’t be surprised if his stable of soreheads like Dore, Greenwald and Max Blumenthal start fluffing DeSantis, especially if the Governor leans into the anti-Ukraine side in this war.

    I’ll find out by checking out the Twitter account “Post Left Watch,” which specializes in monitoring the Call In and Rumble crowd.

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