Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Elections aren’t won by handwringing, cowering, and/or bashing your own candidates.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

The Supreme Court is corrupt. Democrats must win in November and force court reform.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Cole, when it comes to calico cats, restraint is overrated.

This fight is for everything.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Joe Biden can go out like FDR, not by dying in office, but by crushing the fascists.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL.

Everybody saw this coming.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / 2024 Primaries / Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Dead Bounce DeSaster

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Dead Bounce DeSaster

by | 112 Comments

This post is in: , ,

Important points by Josh Marshall, here, concerning Dead Bounce Ron and his most enthusiastic supporters:

As we continue to watch the ignominious collapse of Ron DeSantis’s campaign (predicted many months ago by yours truly but not like I’m focusing on that or anything), there’s a curious bit of backstory I’m reminded of. But before we get to that I wanted to flag this weekend New York Times article. It’s so passively devastating I think DeSantis’s estate might have a plausible wrongful death claim against the authors…

My takeaway…: The campaign appears to be trapped in a sort of people-hating, private-jet-taking death loop. We learn from the article that Ron and wife Casey really, really like flying on private jets, which of course cost a ton of money. I confess that I’m not a huge fan of flying. But if I were, a private jet would probably be pretty cool. But it’s also not hard to see their extreme attachment to private jets as part of or at least a symbol of not liking being around regular people. Maybe not liking being around anybody at all. Some people just want the privacy to unwind with a handful of pudding…

One of the ways the campaign has burned through a ton of money is the travel on private jets. The campaign also remains highly dependent on high-end donors rather than small donors. Unlike with online small donors, you’ve got to attend fundraisers in person to collect those checks. Which means a lot more travel. On private jets. Which means a lot more spending.

It all comes back to the fact that normal people (who don’t max out their federal limits with a single check) aren’t giving the campaign enough money. And maybe that’s not a huge surprise because the DeSantises don’t like being around those people, which is why they’re addicted to private jets. Thus we get back to the root of the problem…

When Ron was still riding high I spoke to some Republican insiders and others who talk to the insiders who won’t talk to me. The thing that came through most consistently was that these folks were excited about DeSantis because he was the neo-Jebbite candidate in the race. A Jebbite candidate clothed in a MAGA suit to succeed in the post-Trump era, to be sure, but still a Jebbite candidate. I imagine that this would seem odd to a lot of people since whatever ones feelings about Jeb Bush I don’t think most people ever thought of him as scary or evil. The fact that DeSantis was, like Bush, a Governor of Florida just cemented the equation. It also gave him a footing with many of the same Florida high-roller donors, or at least same kind of Florida high roller donors…

Of course, DeSantis’s billionaire backers were happy to go along with whatever kind of campaign he was going to run – as long as he was successful. But he wasn’t. And that’s the key to the campaign’s still-unfolding free-fall. There was never a real DeSantis constituency, aside perhaps from some Incel/mass shooting message boards. What there was was a pretty big move-on-from-Trump constituency.

It wasn’t a majority certainly and it wasn’t Never Trump or anti-Trump. But there was a substantial minority of Republicans interested in moving on from Trump’s baggage and the mounting evidence of his electoral weakness — if it could be done. What DeSantis did do last Fall was consolidate almost all of that move-on constituency based on the mistaken belief that he could pull it off. Once that impression started to falter there was no real support for the guy himself to hold on to. And here we are — on a private jet to nowhere.

… Fox Business evaluated support in the primary among likely voters in Iowa and South Carolina. Those are two of the earlier states to vote and, therefore, are likely to help shape the field as candidates are winnowed out. In each state, Trump leads the next-closest candidate by at least 30 percentage points. In each state, DeSantis is in a statistical tie for that second-place position. In Iowa, he gets 16 percent of support compared with 11 percent for Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.). In South Carolina, he gets 13 percent vs. 14 percent for the state’s former governor, Nikki Haley. (Scott gets 10 percent there.)…

Interestingly, when the pollsters asked which candidates were the respondents’ second choices, the picture diverged from what we’ve seen in national polling. In Iowa, DeSantis was the second pick of less than a quarter of respondents while Scott is the second pick of 15 percent. In South Carolina, the South Carolina Republicans are both identified as second choices about as often as DeSantis is.

This is hugely problematic for DeSantis. The reason the DeSantis campaign spokesman is so insistent that the governor and Trump are the only two viable candidates is to reinforce that those interested in blocking Trump’s path to the nomination have nowhere else to go. But voters in Iowa and South Carolina — who, again, will help set the field early next year — don’t view DeSantis that way.

There are interesting divides within the results. College-educated voters give Trump smaller advantages (though still an advantage) while those without a college degree and those who identify themselves as “very conservative” give Trump wider margins. That too isn’t great for DeSantis, who has staked a lot on being the candidate for the fringe right…

… The donor retreat was scheduled before the release of the campaign’s second-quarter FEC filing in mid-July, which showed expenditures of some $8 million during the first six weeks of DeSantis’ campaign. That spending rate led the DeSantis camp to cut roughly a dozen staffers, with more shakeups expected, sources have said.

People who attended the retreat appeared to leave “feeling more positive than before about the campaign,” said Chad Wilbanks, a former executive director of the Texas Republican Party who supports DeSantis and was there.

Wilbanks told ABC News that some donors had questions about “fundraising expenses” after reading media reports about the burned cash, but he said “they were addressed” and brushed off suggestions the campaign overspent in the previous quarter.

He said senior aides expressed a fundraising goal he described as “very, very large.” Wilbanks wouldn’t share the number but insisted it was “very doable based on what he’s been able to raise so far.”

At the same time, Wilbanks said, “There was talk of having a little bit more of a leaner operation.”…

More broadly, DeSantis has apparently changed some of his strategy, such as how he engages with the news media.

His campaign had believed the governor could continue shunning mainstream outlets and stick to more friendly platforms like Fox News and other conservative news media. Recently, however, sources have said the governor’s team has leaned toward having DeSantis do some mainstream network interviews and town halls…

Reader Interactions

112Comments

  2. 2.

    Yarrow

    It wasn’t a majority certainly and it wasn’t Never Trump or anti-Trump. But there was a substantial minority of Republicans interested in moving on from Trump’s baggage

    Who are these mythical creatures? The money guys? The pundit class who can’t get a cushy TV gig? “Substantial minority” seems very generous. Republican primary voters want TFG.

  3. 3.

    Tony Jay

    There simply does not exist a photograph of RoDS where he doesn’t look like a colony of alien breadsticks trying and failing to properly steer a human skin-ship.

  4. 4.

    NotMax

    Thing I only recently learned about Florida.

    Miami Is the OnlyFans Capital of the United States
    [snip]
    According to the study, Miami has the most OnlyFans creators per capita of any large city in the nation, with 1,110 accounts per 100,000 residents. Las Vegas came in second place with 670 OnlyFans creators per capita, and “no other cities are close,” according to the study released by men’s supplement company Madhouse Labs. Source

  5. 5.

    hells littlest angel

    DeSantis will have to go back to the Wailing Wall and pray for a devastating hurricane to hit Florida so he can temporarily suspend his campaign to attend to the needs of his constituents.

    Or some such bullshit like that.

  9. 9.

    cain

    I reckon if he goes down in flames – the florida legislature might stop giving him everything he wants. That would be fun. Seeing the guy flame out. and nothing more being a footnote in history is what he deserves.

  10. 10.

    zhena gogolia

    @cain: Haha, same here.

    I found Jeb scary and evil when he installed his brother in the White House.

  12. 12.

    MattF

    Is there anyone other than Madame DeSantis actually supporting Ron? “We think of him as someone else” is kind of a mixed message.

  14. 14.

    p.a.

    Sooooooooo… the guy who doesn’t like being around people (well, 99.8% of ’em) went into politics.  Not gubmint, where you can be an office drone and still enable fascist policies, but politics.😂

  15. 15.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Tony Jay:

    There simply does not exist a photograph of RoDS where he doesn’t look like a colony of alien breadsticks trying and failing to properly steer a human skin-ship.

    Hey, I thought cracking us up was your job…aren’t you purportedly on holiday?

  16. 16.

    OverTwistWillie

    Casey and Ron don’t like each other. They don’t want to get caught in public screaming and flinging shit at each other.

    There’s an excellent rumination in “On The Campaign Trail ’72” on the media’s brief John Lindsay boomlet in the Dem primary. The grift of no hope candidates is eternal.

    “they were addressed” = this guy is an idiot, just make sure they can’t trace that Biden superpac back to us.

  17. 17.

    trollhattan

    @Tony Jay: There simply does not exist a photograph of RoDS where he doesn’t look like a colony of alien breadsticks trying and failing to properly steer a human skin-ship.

    I’m-a admire this one for awhile.

  19. 19.

    Suzanne

    There was never a real DeSantis constituency, aside perhaps from some Incel/mass shooting message boards.

    This is one of the sickest burns I have ever read.

  20. 20.

    Ken

    A few low-hanging snarks:

    1. If you’re travelling to meet your billionaire backers and they don’t provide you the private jet, they aren’t really convinced they’re going to get any return from you.  (Conversely, Clarence….)
    2. The media’s obsession with who will come in second in Iowa and South Carolina reminds me of the old joke I shared last week, about the three music professors debating who was the greatest composer — but leaving out Mozart, because otherwise there would be no debate. (And yes, I realize this loosely equates Trump with Mozart, for which I abjectly apologize.)
    3. “People who attended the retreat appeared to leave feeling more positive about the campaign, says DeSantis supporter” sounds like an attempt to pack as many bias fallacies into a single sentence as possible.
  22. 22.

    Tony Jay

    It’s Midnight + 27 in Sicily and I’m celebrating actually getting onto the island (wildfires, train cancellations, the fucking heat) by relaxing with a beer and shaking my head at the as-yet unwritten textbook of failure that is the RoD from Flod campaign.

    I mean, FFS, even I recognise the pose from the first photo. It’s ‘White Guy On 2nd Date With More Attractive Black Woman Laughing Too Much’ from the video of Eddie Murphy’s ‘Raw’, isn’t it?

  23. 23.

    Brachiator

    Preying DeSantis looks like he’s about to eat the guy in the flag shirt.

    It wasn’t a majority certainly and it wasn’t Never Trump or anti-Trump. But there was a substantial minority of Republicans interested in moving on from Trump’s baggage and the mounting evidence of his electoral weakness — if it could be done.

    Who are these people? Do they meet in the corners of small cafes? They claim to want to move on from Trump, but don’t seem to be able to convince the GOP leadership or the GOP base to move away from him. And they are also committed to the most vile form of Trumpism. So again, what are they supposedly moving away from?

    A DeSantis collapse might be interesting to watch. A mad scramble to become the new Number 2? Or the acclamation of Trump as the GOP contender?

  25. 25.

    Cameron

    @Ken: Yeah, the taste for private jets has me thinking he should be sucking up to Leonard Leo for a SCOTUS gig instead of running around the country going “Woke,woke,woke” like a duck with laryngitis.

  27. 27.

    Delk

    Looks like he’s practicing for the eating-things-on-a-stick portion of the campaign.

  28. 28.

    p.a.

    @Brachiator:

    … substantial minority of Republicans interested in moving on from Trump’s baggage and the mounting evidence of his electoral weakness — if it could be done.

    Who are these people? Do they meet in the corners of small cafes?

     

    They get the table by the (better be as far as they’re concerned) gender-specific bathrooms.

  29. 29.

    Cacti

    The idea that Republicans want to move on from Trump is a myth that the beltway press wants to be true.

    In the real world, Republicans gave him more votes in 2020 than any candidate in the history of their party. And he’s beating the brakes off any hypothetical R challenger in the polls.

  31. 31.

    Lapassionara

    @Brachiator: They are the people who were waiting for Jeb! To break out of the pack in 2016. Remember the Brinks Trucks guy, who kept posting the hints that something big was going to happen any minute now involving lots of money. Those people.

  32. 32.

    Tony Jay

    @zhena gogolia:

    Cauvin has too much humanity and actual human facial muscle to properly emulate the frantic effort the alien breadstick colony put into hurling that not-of-this-world ‘amused reaction to stimulus’ performance out there.

    Those guys live on the protein culled from infant livers, but that aside it’s hard not to applaud their commitment to a bit they have to know they can’t pull off.

    Also too, that first photo, I missed the face of the long-suffering staffer looking down at RoDS’ cupped hands and clearly thinking “He’s totally going to piss on this guy’s shoes, isn’t he?”

    Nightmare candidate, just not for anyone in the Blue corner.

  33. 33.

    Yarrow

    @Tony Jay:
    Sicily you say? Stay safe!

    Unreal. Large parts of the city of Catania in Sicily (300k people) have now gone 48 hours without water or electricity because the cables laid under the roads have melted in 46C heat. Meanwhile Sicily’s capital Palermo is encircled by wildfireshttps://t.co/svr7nC6aap
    — Nate Bear (@NateB_Panic) July 25, 2023

  35. 35.

    Ken

    @Cameron: going “Woke,woke,woke” like a duck with laryngitis.

    I just had a brilliant idea for an SNL skit, with DeSantis as the Penguin from the 1960s Batman TV series. Pity about the actors and writers strike.

  40. 40.

    Tony Jay

    @Yarrow:

    We are (thankfully) at the other end of the island, not far from Messina, but even there our night train from Milan had to stop across the water (rather than get disassembled to go onto the big ferry) because wildfires on the tracks had cancelled every train out of Messina. It was a pain in the ass waiting for them to book us all onto another ferry as foot passengers, but we jumped a bus on the other side and got to where we needed to be.

    We saw wildfires on the bus journey, and the air was a bit hazy, but thankfully the weather is shifting and Sicily is shedding a whole ten degrees to post 30 degree plus temps over the next few days. That said, I’m sitting here in the kitchen-lounge of our AirBnB because it’s still too hot and muggy to sit on the balcony at almost 1 in the morning.

    And arseholes still play the ‘climate change is a hoax’ game. Haven’t they noticed the real money spinners have moved onto Gender and Race trolling? The climate-hoax gravy train is out of juice and getting melted down for parts. It’s just too damned hot and chaotic for the minors to play that game profitably anymore.

  41. 41.

    SpaceUnit

    Staffer:  Sir, we’ve got a donor retreat.

    DeSantis:  Okay, bring the car around.

    Staffer:  I don’t think you understand.

  42. 42.

    Yarrow

    @Tony Jay:  Sounds like a pain but at least you made it. I’ve seen video and heard interviews of people who got just minutes notice to evacuate their hotels on Rhodes in Greece. Definitely a lot of bad fires.

    I thought we were leaving the “climate change is real but it’s not our fault” phase and moving to “there’s nothing we can do about it.”

  43. 43.

    NotMax

    @Tony Jay

    Yet DeSantis just proposed “ending funding for programs designed to fight climate change” in the military. Also a blanket ban on the military using electric vehicles.

  45. 45.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Tony Jay:

    There simply does not exist a photograph of RoDS where he doesn’t look like a colony of alien breadsticks trying and failing to properly steer a human skin-ship.

    I think I’ll needlepoint this, frame the canvas, and hang it next to the faded sampler my great-great-great-grandmother stitched in 1821. It deserves that level of immortality.

  48. 48.

    Tony Jay

    @Yarrow: My better half got a Face/Book Update from a school friend who literally had to run from the hotel in her bikini carrying one of her kids with the fire chasing them. Really scary stuff. The holiday companies who flew them out there and told them nothing about the warnings they were receiving until the last minute are going to get sued into bankruptcy.

    @NotMax: Yeah, but that’s just posturing to show he’s opposed to Woke Climate Surrender policies. Once the Hugely Expensive Military Funding To Beat The Climate’s Ass bill comes across the desk he’ll never, ever even come close to occupying, he’ll sign that with a pen made from the lacquered bones of Chuck Norris’ stunt chin.

  49. 49.

    Bill Arnold

    @cain:
    What’s So Fascinating About the Letter X? (Leon F Seltzer, 2016, Psychology Today)

    — Moving in the opposite direction, X has been used as a symbol of that which is negative, or a negation generally (i.e., null), such as crossing one’s fingers behind one’s back to void a promise being made;
    – X has long been recognized as an occult symbol for Satan, and the black art or witchcraft of satanism.

    Also, this: Symbolism of X (via)

    Also, Spiritual meaning of the letter X

    Also, Meanings of the Letter X, Esoteric and Otherwise

  54. 54.

    Tony Jay

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Once he’s reduced to angrily co-hosting ‘Ron & Replacement Casey’s Woke Watch’ on Florida’s third most successful cable access channel, you should totally send him an NFT of it.

  55. 55.

    Tony Jay

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Angry, emotionally-empty sex that I walk in on and have to rescue a traumatised labradoodle from?

    I mean, that’s what springs to mind.

  61. 61.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Baud:

    Now I’m curious how your great-great-great-grandmother described James Monroe.

    “Doctrinaire.”

  62. 62.

    Gvg

    DeSantis is not a Jeb Bush though. Not at all. Jeb, honestly was not selling mean. In fact he was rather bland, remember?

    Also he knew to get his butt down to Florida and pay attention to weather emergencies. I don’t think he would have ignored the insurance crisis for years either. Got it wrong maybe, but not ignored it. He was much more in tune with this state. Frankly I am really having a hard time understanding how DeSantis AND the rest of his legislature got elected. None of them seem like they are even paying any attention to normal state business, they are just showing off for national attention. It’s really weird.

  64. 64.

    Roger Moore

    @Yarrow:

    I thought we were leaving the “climate change is real but it’s not our fault” phase and moving to “there’s nothing we can do about it.”

    There are no phases in the sense you’re describing; true denialists never actually concede anything about climate change.  They may make a tactical retreat on some point during a specific debate, but as soon as nobody is pushing them on it they’ll go right back to claiming it’s not happening.  It’s 100% bad faith.

  65. 65.

    BR

    @OverTwistWillie: ​
    I’m intrigued. Can you explain what you wrote a bit for us non-FL folks? I mean I assume most couples get stressed from travel on the road but they never struck me as a TFG marriage situation.

  66. 66.

    Roger Moore

    @Gvg:

    Frankly I am really having a hard time understanding how DeSantis AND the rest of his legislature got elected.

    This isn’t Jeb!’s Republican party anymore, in case you can’t remember back to 2015.  The people who elected DeSantis and his lackeys in the Florida Legislature don’t care about policy or governance or any of that stuff.  They care about guzzling liberal tears, and they’ll back whomever they think has the best chance of providing them by the bucket.

  67. 67.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

     DeSantis’ long history of staffing woes:

    This a perfect example of the double standard in the political media. We had endless stories about a few incidents Amy Klobuchar had with staffers in a 20 year career. Yet nothing about systemic issues surrounding DeeSaster.

  68. 68.

    dmsilev

    @NotMax: Does that include Navy ships which use diesel-electric drives?

    Or is that too much detail for a “big picture” asshole like deSantis?

  70. 70.

    Geminid

    @dmsilev: The ban would probably apply to a new model of the Abrams tank. It would have a back up battery propulsion system designed to let it move a ways without making much noise.

  71. 71.

    M31

    @Baud: Now I’m curious how your great-great-great-grandmother described James Monroe.

    nah, not Monroe, but some of the loser minor candidates

    lol I looked it up, in the election of 1816 the governors of NY and PA both started to run but dropped out before the primaries began

    “Simon Snyder, Federalist of Pennsylvania, looketh as dry sticks of breadftuff animate of Satan’s minion”

  72. 72.

    Joseph Patrick Lurker

    It’s time to stick a fork in DeSantis. He’s extremely well-done, which also happens to be the way Trump likes his steaks cooked.

  74. 74.

    Miss Bianca

    @Tony Jay:

    Angry, emotionally-empty sex that I walk in on and have to rescue a traumatised labradoodle from?

    Why am I suddenly having flashbacks to Best in Show?

  76. 76.

    MazeDancer

    Rick Wilson is on Twitter shoveling dirt on DeeSantis while he’s down.

    Naming names of the aides who made the crazy “ads” – the oiled beefcake one and the nazi image one – with knowledge and approval of everyone in the campaign. And that no matter how much he runs from it, Ron Knew.

    Apparently, the rich guys who won’t give Ron their planes did not like the vids.

  77. 77.

    Kent

    @zhena gogolia:I found Jeb scary and evil when he installed his brother in the White House.

    The Bushes were better politicians than either Trump or DeSantis.

    They were smart enough to farm out the nastiness to staff and maintain a friendly smiley face for themselves.  That was GWB with his “compassionate conservative” nonsense.  And Jeb did much the same in Florida.  He was all smiles while his staff went around governing with nastiness.

  78. 78.

    Kent

    @NotMax:Yet DeSantis just proposed “ending funding for programs designed to fight climate change” in the military. Also a blanket ban on the military using electric vehicles.

    So no more submarines then?

    Also Ukrainian commandos have been making excellent use of electric enduro bikes to do stealth night time raids on Russian positions without being heard.  Try that with a 2-stroke Yamaha.

  81. 81.

    kalakal

    @cain: He’s  completely screwed with the Florida legislature when he crashes and burns. He terms out in 26 at which point he’s unemployed with no power at all. They hate him but are scared of him. Once he’s self immolated they can just tell Mr Loser Stink to take a long walk off a short pier.  They’re all have ambition far beyond their talents and if he thinks he can get them to change Fl term limits to stay on as gov all the ambitious weasels will give a reply ending “… and the boots you stumbled in on”.

    All his posturing is really going to hit the Fl economy, education system in the next couple of years , he’ll have no chance to beat ex gov Batboy for senator so he’s out of a job.

    He’s got to fail upwards and move on as Prez in order to leave the flaming wreckage of his governorship behind him. Ain’t going to happen, he’s toast.

    Couldn’t happen to a nicer Sontaren

  85. 85.

    catclub

    @dmsilev: Does that include Navy ships which use diesel-electric drives?

     

    also nuclear powered submarines and aircraft carriers

  91. 91.

    cain

    @patrick II: Those laws are going to be a lodestone around his neck. Especially as the state economy tanks, climate change causes a ton of damage and he’s not around because he’s busy campaigning desperately – and Disney is fucking kicking him in the balls by making sure he doesn’t get any high dollar donors for his jet set life.

    He’s fucked – he knows it.

  93. 93.

    cain

    @Tony G:

    I reckon that she’s gonna find herself another suitor. She knows all the test questions to pass thanks to DeSantis – eg not opening ones mouth when they say Thigh food.

  96. 96.

    sdhays

    @kalakal: I wouldn’t risk any money betting on it (because Florida), but if half of the swarming hurricane of shit DeSantis and his legislature have unleashed on Florida starts to really land in the next couple of years, Florida just might be willing to vote for a Democrat to clean things up, as Kansas, Kentucky, and Louisiana before it finally found they had had enough.

  98. 98.

    Cliosfanboy

    @M31: ​
      since the first presidential primaries were in 1912, I’d say the 1816 candidates dropped out well ahead of time. :)

  100. 100.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @patrick II: Unfortunately, those laws have metastasized throughout the Republican Party. House Republicans have  introduced a new amendment banning any federal funds from gender affirming care in several must-pass bills, with very little public pushback thus far. Erin in the Morning who follows anti-trans legislation, says:

    The push is to make gender affirming care bans into the new “Hyde Amendment,” an amendment commonly added to funding bills that bans federal spending on abortion. These amendments would do similarly, banning all federal spending on gender affirming care. These amendments could target everything from Affordable Care Act insurance plans, which fall under the regulation of Health and Human Services, to transgender people in the military, who must get their care through the military. The military would then be banned from providing such care – a defacto trans ban for servicemembers. Collectively, these amendments would seek to enact national anti-trans bans that would reach even people in deep blue states who have fled anti-trans policies in red states.

  101. 101.

    dirge

    Anybody still here?  Pet adoption bleg.

    My wife and I have been planning to adopt three specific sibling kittens, and have just learned that they’ve all tested positive for FIV (via SNAP FELV/FIV dual test).  My understanding is, given how difficult it is to transmit FIV, the probable explanation is transmission of maternal antibodies, rather than infection with the virus itself.

    As much as I’d love to be the kind of person who provides for kittens with dire medical needs, if I’m honest with myself, the truth is that my wife’s medical needs are already too much for us to handle.  I’m quite concerned about taking on any additional day to day medical responsibilities, and especially the possible emotional trauma of losing these kittens.

    We’ve inquired about doing PCR tests to verify.  Is that a reasonable ask?  Can anyone hazard a guess at the real risks here?

  103. 103.

    Lyrebird

    @dirge: ​
     

    I don’t know much about FIV. Have you ever used Contact A Front Pager? It should be on the right up above somewhere. If you do not get much of a response here, I recommend you contact WaterGirl or Adam or Anne Laurie using that method and ask them to repost your comment tomorrow.

    Best wishes to you folks and the kitties too

  104. 104.

    karen marie

    That guy Ethan Eilon who’s “good with $”?

    When Trump’s FCC Chairman Ajit Pai decided to kill Net Neutrality, he knew he had to open his systems up for public comment, but the anti-Net-Neutrality side had that figured out: they flooded the FCC with millions of fraudulent comments that used stolen identities (dead people, people caught in massive breaches, sitting US Senators!) to rehearse a word-salad of cable lobbyist talking points against Net Neutrality.

    [dot dot dot]

    Beyond CQ, 12 additional entities were likewise subpoenaed by the New York attorney general, including Free Our Internet, an organization founded by a former Trump campaign statewide director; and Ethan Eilon, a GOP consultant, whose firm, Conservative Connector, received more than $31 million from the Trump campaign and Republican National Committee during 2016 election.

    I don’t know the outcome of any of the investigations but I’m going to guess it was a whole lot of nothing, because that’s the way this country rolls.

  105. 105.

    dirge

    @Lyrebird: Have you ever used Contact A Front Pager?

    Don’t see any such a thing anywhere, and feel it’s rude to bust in anywhere but an open thread. Maybe I’m just missing something.

    In any case, I’d certainly appreciate it if anybody seeing this sent up a flare. This had looked like a bright spot in a pretty bleak landscape, and now I’m terrified we’d just be signing up for more pain. Would appreciate advice.

  106. 106.

    cain

    @dirge: Someone could re-post tomorrow – only us west coasters are around. But there is a woman who is an expert on cats who is a regular contributor who probably could steer you straight. Unfortunately, I’m not able to recall her name right now. I’m sure it will come to me.

  108. 108.

    Paul in KY

    My lord! Another pic of him getting ready to eat someone.  This time a potential registered voter. I bet his staff is always cringing…”Don’t let his feeding mandibles appear. Don’t let his feeding mandibles appear…’

  110. 110.

    Paul in KY

    @MattF: She was a local TV newsreader, dontchaknow? Complete expert in all forms of media communication/manipulation.

Comments are closed.