Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Giving up is unforgivable.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

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

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / 2024 Primaries / Decline & Fall (Open Thread)

Decline & Fall (Open Thread)

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Michael Wolff, author of the amusingly unflattering shitgibbon tell-all “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” takes aim at the House of Murdoch in a new book: “The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty.” (Let’s hope the title proves prophetic!)

The Daily Beast says the book is “heavy on salacious gossip” (ooo! my favorite!) and implies Wolff isn’t a wholly reliable narrator. However, the following vignette, in which Ron DeSantis horrifies Tucker Carlson and his “genteel” spouse with uncouth behavior, sure does ring true:

With Fox urging its stars to be “open-minded” about the Florida governor, then Murdoch’s “favored candidate” for 2024, Wolff writes, Carlson and his wife Susie welcomed DeSantis and his wife Casey to their Florida home for lunch. Despite hoping to impress Carlson—arguably a top GOP kingmaker—the presidential hopeful and Trump rival failed the “Susie Carlson test” during the visit, Wolff claims.

The DeSantis couple allegedly failed “to read the room,” especially with Carlson’s wife, “a genteel, stay-at-home woman, here in her own house,” Wolff notes. “For two hours Ron DeSantis sat at her table talking in an outdoor voice indoors, failing to observe any basics of conversation ritual or propriety, reeling off an unselfconscious list of his programs and initiatives and political accomplishments.”

I’m guessing “the Susie Carlson test” is considerably less arduous than “the Balmoral test,” but our Ron blew it anyway. Also, can we say the theory that Tacky O is a human block of sandpaper capable of smoothing Ron’s rough edges has been thoroughly exploded? Friends, I think we can!

Making matters worse, Wolff claims, an “impersonal” DeSantis seemed dismissive and may have used physical force against one of the Carlson family’s four beloved spaniel pups.

During the dinner, Wolff writes, “DeSantis pushed the dog under the table. Had he kicked the dog? Susie Carlson’s judgment was clear: she did not ever want to be anywhere near anybody like that ever again. Her husband agreed. DeSantis, in Carlson’s view, was a ‘fascist.’ The pot calling the kettle even blacker. Forget Ron DeSantis.”

Politically, there’s no daylight between DeSantis and Carlson, so this should have been an easy sell. Both are expensively educated elites who farm right-wing grievance for money and power. Both favor Viktor Orbán’s culture war-focused “soft autocracy” blueprint to turn the U.S. into a repressive, one-party state. Both are/were Trump remoras when it serves their purposes.

They have so much in common (fascism!), but DeSantis couldn’t close the deal because he’s a rude asshole who is mean to spaniels. And you know what? FAIR ENOUGH, Tucker Carlson! I also find that disqualifying! (But the fascism was the original dealbreaker — for me, not the Carlsons).

Anyhoo, in addition to outing Ron DeSantis as an animal punter/pusher, Wolff’s book alleges that Rupert Murdoch called Sean Hannity “retarded” and considered firing him as a response to the Dominion situation before deposing Carlson instead. Also, Murdoch is a vile homophobe, which enraged his ex-wife Jerry Hall, who considered homophobia an “old man” trait.

Wolff dishes some dirt on Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert’s heir, too. I had assumed Lachlan was a true believer like his awful father, but accord to the Beast, Wolff portrays Lachlan as “a virtue-signaling elitist who didn’t want his celebrity friends to think of him as a Trump supporter or a right-winger. At one point, Wolff alleges, this included showing off his Resistance-style anti-Trump toiletries.”

Meaning Lachlan stocks guest bathrooms with toilet paper featuring Donald Trump’s face. Personally, I think too highly of my heinie to place such a grotesque image in close proximity to it. So, if I ever had the occasion to visit the powder room at Chez Lachlan, I’d have to root through my handbag for Kleenex.

The Guardian also covered the book launch, and in their summary, they highlight Rupert Murdoch’s abiding hatred of Donald Trump:

Rupert Murdoch loathes Donald Trump so much that the billionaire has not just soured on him as a presidential candidate but often wishes for his death, the author Michael Wolff writes in his eagerly awaited new book on the media mogul, The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty.

According to Wolff, Murdoch, 92, has become “a frothing-at-the-mouth” enemy of the 77-year-old former US president, often voicing thoughts including “This would all be solved if … ” and “How could he still be alive, how could he?”

Murdoch is livid because he sees something our own Beltway press tries hard to ignore: Donald Trump is destroying the Repub Party. Doesn’t mean they can’t win. Doesn’t mean they’re not incredibly dangerous. But it’s a party in decline, and Murdoch is angry about that.

The End.

Reader Interactions

146Comments

  1. 1.

    Mousebumples

    Murdoch is livid because he sees something our own Beltway press tries hard to ignore: Donald Trump is destroying the Repub Party. Doesn’t mean they can’t win. Doesn’t mean they’re not incredibly dangerous. But it’s a party in decline, and Murdoch is angry about that.

    Which will die first? Murdoch or the Republican Party? My money is on the old guy since I think the GOP death throes will continue for awhile longer.

  2. 2.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    One observation – when liberal and progressive pols act to preserve democracy, what they’re really acting to do is to preserve the principle of government by the consent of the governed. When a narrow majority representative government acts to strip voting rights and attempts to pretend that it has a mandate to act in authoritarian ways, it loses that fig leaf of consent and risks oppositional violence in response.

  5. 5.

    Parfigliano

    DeSantis a dog abusing boorish fascist.  Shocking revelation Wolff.

    Note to Jerry Hall Rupert passed “old man” decades ago.  His money still spends though right.

  7. 7.

    MattF

    Ha. Ha. Ha.

    Speaking of books… I finished the crypto book, Number Go Up by Zeke Faux, at the end the survivors were Bitcoin and the stablecoin Tether. Bitcoin has the hard-core believers, Tether appears to have more or less rational financial management and has been lucky. Also, I read John Scalzi’s new novel Starter Villain, and it’s a lot of fun. And a lot of wannabe oligarchs get what they deserve.

  8. 8.

    Cameron

    Every time I learn something new about DeSantis,it’s dreadful. All these years and I never knew there was such a thing as a 360-degree asshole

  9. 9.

    Leto

    “This would all be solved if … ” and “How could he still be alive, how could he?”

    Don’t worry Rupert, we say this about you too.

  10. 10.

    AM in NC

    @Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: Yes. THIS.  How long to these right-wingers really expect that they can rule (and I do mean rule, not govern) from a minority position, passing laws against the will of (and frequently with the specific intent of harming) the majority, and laws to lock-in minority power, without violence erupting?  They are trying to eliminate the only peaceful way to change this situation (representational voting).

    Malcom X was spot on – it’s either the ballot or the bullet, eventually.

  12. 12.

    Scout211

    Politically, there’s no daylight between DeSantis and Carlson, so this should have been an easy sell. Both are expensively educated elites who farm right-wing grievance for money and power

    But because they are so much alike, I think that both assumed that the other would be praising and genuflected toward the other to gain the other’s admiration and fealty.  I would be surprised if it really has much to do with the reasons stated in the article, fascism or Casey’s sensibilities.  My guess is that those were just excuses.  The real reason was, “Doesn’t he know who I am?!”  

  14. 14.

    sdhays

    Well, from Atrios, Donald Trump, Jr.’s Xitter account was apparently hacked and may have given on Rupert heart palpitations:

    I’m sad to announce, my father Donald Trump has passed away. I will be running for President in 2024.

    It would be hilarious if the excitement and subsequent disappointment of that xeet caused old Rupert to stroke out. But drinking the blood of infants does seem to have some benefits to personal longevity (I assume that’s why he’s not dead himself), so I guess we’ll be stuck with the dark lord for a while longer.

  15. 15.

    Frankensteinbeck

    “a genteel, stay-at-home woman, here in her own house,”

    This sounds like polite phrasing for an absolutely vile personality.  That doesn’t negate DeSantis being a boor.  Inability to grasp social context appears to be one of DeSantis’s defining features.

    I would say the other and unconnected features are sadism, bigotry, and being a weak puppet of a nagging wife.  Conservatives seem incapable of a relationship between equals.

  17. 17.

    Mike in NC

    It’s just a matter of which one will Fat Bastard destroy first with his insatiable greed and thirst for revenge: the GQP or the USA?

  19. 19.

    Princess

    @Frankensteinbeck: A Barbara Bush type. Thinks the De Santises are not quite the right sort but willing to host them for Tuckie’s career

    ETA: Yup, I got it. They met at their prep boarding school.

  20. 20.

    sdhays

    @Scout211: It really amounts to DeSantis can’t be a normal person for 5 minutes. He’s at a dinner with political allies. He doesn’t need to sell them on his policies – they know his policies and successes. He just needs to chat like a normal person. And he can’t do it. He’s too loud and just talks about himself, and not even personal things. He just talks about his job that everyone in the room knows about.

    He could have been mostly quiet, laughing at jokes, complementing people when appropriate and it would have been a rousing success. He couldn’t do it.

    He failed the dinner party test. And that’s the line that lets the Carlsons identify “fascist”. *rolling eyes

  21. 21.

    jonas

    If Murdoch is really as through with Trump as Wolff suggests, and Trump is virtually assured to sail through to the GOP nomination, why is his network still slagging on Biden 24/7 when it’s also abundantly clear that Biden-Harris will be the only thing preventing Trump’s return to power?

    We’ll see what the Murdochs really care more about — money and viewership, or denying Trump a second term. I don’t think we have to think too long about which they’ll choose…

  22. 22.

    kindness

    Sounds like DeSantis thought he was interviewing with Sauron, not lil Tucker.  Honestly Sauron is a better fit for Puddin’Boots.

  23. 23.

    Mike in NC

    So we’re told that Meatball Ron and Dotard Donald both hate dogs and other animals. Does that remotely surprise anyone at all? They’re both classic psychopaths. What else to expect from the MAGA fascist movement?

    DeSantis may simply reveal himself as a younger, meaner, stupider version of Trump. Will he stick around to run in 2028 if we still have elections? I’d happily buy a case or two of that toilet paper and give a roll to each of my shitty Republican neighbors.

  25. 25.

    marklar

    I’m pretty sure I read this here several months ago (so I’m not claiming credit), but if Trump and DeSantis were walking down a path and a dog was in front of each of them, Trump would kick the dog since it was in his way, while DeSantis would kick the dog because he likes kicking dogs.

  26. 26.

    Roger Moore

    All the GQP backbiting is amusing, but it doesn’t mean much in practice.  They may dissolve into a band of squabbling toddlers when they’re together, but they are solidly unified when the primary is over.  They know defeating the Democrats is more important than their internecine fights.

  27. 27.

    JaySinWA

    Don’t try this at home or in the home of someone you care about:

    Meaning Lachlan stocks guest bathrooms with toilet paper featuring Donald Trump’s face. Personally, I think too highly of my heinie to place such a grotesque image in close proximity to it. So, if I ever had the occasion to visit the powder room at Chez Lachlan, I’d have to root through my handbag for Kleenex.

    I have it on great authority [someone on the internet] that facial tissue doesn’t flush well and can gum up the plumbing.

    But at a Murdoch home? Carry on.

  28. 28.

    Cervantes

    Yeah well if Murdoch really feels that way about the Dumpster you sure couldn’t tell it from the product he sells. He obviously cares about money even more.

  32. 32.

    Fraud Guy

    Murdoch needs to remember that it’s the king who gets rid of meddlesome priests, not the other way around.

  36. 36.

    VOR

    Not liking dogs is a red flag. Being mean to a dog in it’s own home is an instant disqualification. The dog lives there, not you. Anyone without empathy or kindness toward animals will probably also lack those qualities for their fellow man.

    Man, if Tucker Carlson thinks someone is too much of an asshole…

  39. 39.

    Butch

    @sdhays: There were a bunch more of these hacked tweets; they were reprinted this morning at Joe.My.God.

    But on the subject of this book, I thought Fire and Fury basically consisted of “stuff Steve Bannon wants me to write.”  I wasn’t impressed by it at all, so I doubt I’ll be reading this new one.

  40. 40.

    Brachiator

    @Mousebumples:

    Murdoch is livid because he sees something our own Beltway press tries hard to ignore: Donald Trump is destroying the Repub Party. Doesn’t mean they can’t win. Doesn’t mean they’re not incredibly dangerous. But it’s a party in decline, and Murdoch is angry about that.

    Murdoch continues to prop up Trump, the GOP and would-be fascists in other countries. I don’t buy the argument that Murdoch cares about anything other than being a right wing puppet master.

  41. 41.

    Betsy

    Ah, where would we be, without housetrained Republicans.

    But where would *they* be, without the   hordes of unwashed ones?

  43. 43.

    VOR

    @dlwchico: I did not know that Murdoch was married to Mick Jagger’s ex.

    Not anymore. Murdoch and Jerry Hall divorced in 2022. Rupert was engaged to another woman earlier in 2023 but called it off after just a couple  weeks.

  44. 44.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Mousebumples:

    Donald Trump is destroying the Repub Party. Doesn’t mean they can’t win. Doesn’t mean they’re not incredibly dangerous. But it’s a party in decline, and Murdoch is angry about that.

    Good.

  45. 45.

    UncleEbeneezer

    The Battle of the Sexes was played 50 years ago today. More than a tennis match, it was a catalyst for social change & one of the most important days of my life. We have come a long way since 1973, but we are not done yet. Let’s keep going for it.

    If you never saw it, I still maintain that Battle Of The Sexes (starring Emma Stone as BJK) is one of the best sports movies ever made. And DEFINITELY the best tennis movie (with King Richard as a close second).

    Billie Jean King literally built the WTA (along with the original nine) and brought equal prize money to women. And at 79 she’s been consistently on the right side of supporting Transgender Rights, Black Lives Matter and every other Social Justice issue I can think of. She is a true American hero.

  46. 46.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    Wolff isn’t a wholly reliable narrator

    Wolff is just the kind of chronicler that assholes like Murdoch and Trump deserve.

  47. 47.

    Roger Moore

    @Fraud Guy:

    Murdoch needs to remember that it’s the king who gets rid of meddlesome priests, not the other way around.

    It’s gone all different ways.  Sometimes the king was strong and got rid of meddlesome underlings.  Sometimes the king was weak, and whomever was strong could depose the king and replace him with his own favorite.  Murdoch thinks he’s Rupert the Kingmaker.

  48. 48.

    Ruckus

    @Scout211:

    The real reason was, “Doesn’t he know who I am?!”  

    Bingo!

    Money only buys so much. OK it does buy so much. But the important bits are not bought and sold. Massive money seems to always think that massive money is the answer but it never is. Actual humanity is. The concept that this country was founded upon. Equality not money is the rub and their loss. Their money is supposed to buy them status above all else, the elite, and in this country that does buy them land and big homes, but it only buys them equality, not betterment. All their money doesn’t make them more equal. They still have only one vote.

  50. 50.

    Suzanne

    @Mousebumples: Fetterman is funny as hell. I was very excited to vote for him!

    My previous Senatorial vote was for Kyrsten Sinema, which was a big fucken nose-holding moment. I kept saying over and over to myself, “Minority. Leader. McConnell. Minority. Leader. McConnell.“.

  51. 51.

    opiejeanne

    @narya: I enjoyed KPS too and Scalzi is an entertaining speaker (I’ve gone to listen to him twice), but I forgot that Starter Villain was already out. I’ve been too busy or too sleepy to finish The Longmire Defense, and sleepiness is no reflection on the story. Before I can turn around, the next Inspector Gamache will be out.

  52. 52.

    Old Man Shadow

    @kindness: Sauron wouldn’t care for Ron much either.

    Other than sharing a mutual ideology of authoritarianism and a distaste for nature, they don’t have much in common.

    Sauron is an industrialist and craftsman who likes what he sees as progress and order. DeSantis is a weenie who has probably never done a real day’s work in his life.

    Sauron would probably pawn DeSantis off as an underling of a more competent underling and have him killed the moment he proved he was more of a hinderance than a help in executing Sauron’s vision.

  55. 55.

    Mousebumples

    @Suzanne: he’s great – and so is his social media team. I’m now wondering if the change in dress code was set up for now to try to use that as leverage, lol.

  56. 56.

    Shalimar

    I need to find a link to the time earlier this year when Matt Gaetz went on Tucker’s Fox show and strongly hinted that he had dinner previously with Tucker and a woman who was not Tucker’s wife

    Edit: found it, it was 2 years ago and I misremembered, Tucker was with his wife at the dinner. the sexual harassment discussion was a different allegation against Tucker.

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/matt-gaetz-tries-to-rope-tucker-carlson-into-his-fbi-teen-sex-case-defense

  57. 57.

    artem1s

    @Mousebumples: ​ 

    Which will die first? Murdoch or the Republican Party?

    neither – they are both undead already – like Darth Cheney who killed the GOP 2 decades ago.

  61. 61.

    Suzanne

    @Mousebumples: As someone who is wearing a hoodie right now…. I don’t know why they aren’t considered the perfect garment for almost every occasion. They keep you thermally comfortable, protect your skin, feel soft, offer versatility!

    I have two American Giant hoodies, one traditional weight and one lightweight. They’re just awesome.

  63. 63.

    opiejeanne

    @MazeDancer: Terrible! No wonder she sang like a canary at the hearings.

    Eastman called Pence a potted plant recently. Better a potted plant than a dog-kicker.

  64. 64.

    narya

    @opiejeanne: I am (slowly, because the library has limited copies) working my way through the three pines series . . . and filling in with old Thomas Perry to fill the gap while I wait for the next one to be available. While there are murders in both writers’ novels, let’s just say that Penny is more genteel than Perry.

  67. 67.

    trollhattan

    Murdoch, after sixty or so years acquiring and destroying news organizations and hating on any sort of liberal: “Oopsie.”

    Can’t unfuck that chicken, you wanker.

    I assert as well known and loathed/loved as News Corp is, very few comprehend just how much media they control.

  68. 68.

    rikyrah

    BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) posted at 11:05 AM on Tue, Sep 19, 2023:
    I’m confident I speak for many of us when I say I don’t care what Susan Collins, aka Senator Concernicus, has to say about ANYTHING.

    She helped give us Brett Kavanaugh.
    She said trump “learned his lesson.”
    She is voting no on many of President Biden’s judicial nominees.

    She’s… https://t.co/arxbckgiw2
    (https://x.com/mmpadellan/status/1704164921078853816?t=Q9hkLsGWNDSHVW-mZqcJGw&s=03)

  69. 69.

    jonas

    @Mousebumples: That is pretty funny. So what is Fetterman’s deal with not wanting to wear a suit on the Senate floor? I know he’s a big guy and hoodies and shorts are comfortable (I’m an XL fella myself), but there are big and tall clothiers that make suits for NBA players and the like and they look pretty sharp in them.

  70. 70.

    Shalimar

    @rikyrah: That story is hilarious.  There is absolutely no way she thought she was arranging appointments for “models”.   The standard lie, “I was young and immature and that horrible experience led me to find God and become the woman I am today”, would have worked a lot better, but then she would have had to admit she isn’t perfect.

  72. 72.

    Joseph Patrick Lurker

    @MazeDancer:

    What’s the problem with your website?

    When I clicked on your screen name, I received this error message:

    This site can’t provide a secure connection

     

  74. 74.

    New Deal democrat

    @jonas: “If Murdoch is really as through with Trump as Wolff suggests, and Trump is virtually assured to sail through to the GOP nomination, why is his network still slagging on Biden 24/7 when it’s also abundantly clear that Biden-Harris will be the only thing preventing Trump’s return to power?”

    I see room for a “Breaking Bad” type of deal here:

    Dark Brandon [approacing Murdoch who is in a wheelechair]: “I know you hate me. But I’m betting you hate Trump even more.”

    [cut]

    D.B.: “So are you in?”

    Murdoch: [rings bell]

  75. 75.

    MisterDancer

    @Suzanne: I have two American Giant hoodies, one traditional weight and one lightweight. They’re just awesome.

    I just bought another hoodie for the colder months, it feels amazing and is very comfy. It’s something I’m looking forward to wearing when I work out, outside.

    That said, I still am…careful, where I wear it.

  77. 77.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @rikyrah: Maybe she was just confused “Isn’t a blow job something involving welding?”, lol*

    *This is a question I actually asked my parents when I was like 10 years old while we were driving.  Everyone burst out laughing and I only found out why a couple years later.

  79. 79.

    Brachiator

    During the dinner, Wolff writes, “DeSantis pushed the dog under the table. Had he kicked the dog? Susie Carlson’s judgment was clear: she did not ever want to be anywhere near anybody like that ever again. Her husband agreed. DeSantis, in Carlson’s view, was a ‘fascist.’ The pot calling the kettle even blacker. Forget Ron DeSantis.”

    DeSantis is a fascist because of boorish behavior? This anecdote falsely assumes that the reader should give a shit about the judgement of either Carlson or his wife. I feel sorry for the dog. It should probably be rescued and given a better home.

    Rupert Murdoch loathes Donald Trump so much that the billionaire has not just soured on him as a presidential candidate but often wishes for his death, the author Michael Wolff writes in his eagerly awaited new book on the media mogul, The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty.

    If Murdoch hates Trump, why does he continue to do so much to support him? Do Murdoch and his fellow oligarchs get together and have a pity party over the notion that Trump is no longer under their control? And isn’t plutocrat money supposedly able to do anything, including the ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound?

    Aside from the salacious gossip, does the book explain what Murdoch wants and how he is trying to get it?

  80. 80.

    opiejeanne

    @narya: I haven’t read Perry’s books but I did read the first five Will Trent books while I was recovering from surgery and couldn’t do much but sit. They’re really good but the murders became increasingly brutal, and after two weeks of it I needed a break for a similar reason.  There was a series I was reading about ten years ago and I had to give it up because the murders were increasingly bizarre and brutal. The murderer in the first one put a live bird inside the ribcage of the victim, and IIRC, the bird could be heard chirping frantically. The books got worse after that even though they were very well written.

  81. 81.

    Laertes

    The hilarious thing about DeSantis making a pilgrimage to Carlson’s lair is that everyone is wrong about which one of them has a future in Republican politics and which doesn’t.

  82. 82.

    trollhattan

    @MazeDancer: ​
    Feel bad for any victim like this (brainbleach, stat!) and also have to ask why she allowed herself to be lured into a viper pit like the Trump White House? Nazi-curious? Springboard to a “real job?” Did she expect them to conduct themselves professionally after observing that campaign and the turnover of THREE chiefs of staff?

    [brief googling[ Oh fuck me, she worked for Ted Cruz and Steve Scalise.

  89. 89.

    narya

    @opiejeanne: Oh my; no way I could read that series. Thomas Perry is interesting because there isn’t a lot of time spent on the gore, but there IS a lot of time spent with one character or another thinking/talking about how to manage a particular situation. The Butcher’s Boy novels have a very high body count, but I never felt like it was gruesome. The Jane Whitefield novels are also very interesting; I’m “saving” the newest one because I know as soon as I check it out I will devour it. You might also like Tana French, if you haven’t discovered her already.

  90. 90.

    wjca

    @Frankensteinbeck: Inability to grasp social context appears to be one of DeSantis’s defining features.

    Not sure how he manages to so consistently trash it if he doesn’t grasp it.  If it was just ignorance, seems like he would occasionally get it right, if only by accident.  But no.

  91. 91.

    TeezySkeezy

    @AM in NC: I dunno, the trifecta of propaganda, state violence, and sham elections seems to be working for a lot of despots these days.  Granted, it is more risky to the authoritarians to be authoritarians than to run a legitimate republic, I don’t under the such psychopathic motivations myself, but some of them seem able to keep it all going for a long while.

  92. 92.

    Alison Rose

    @narya: I’m wondering if she’s going to write any more Dublin Murder Squad books. Her last few novels haven’t been part of the series. It was a bit up and down for me, but I really liked a few of them and would like to see more.

  94. 94.

    New Deal democrat

    In ever so slight fairness to DeSantis, he wasn’t born into the elites. His parents owned a store (grocery I think?) in a central Florida suburb. He attended public high school.

    His one claim to fame as a child was getting his little league team to the World Series playoffs through sheer force of fanatical will. Like a lot of politicians, by high school he was telling friends that one day he would be President.

    It’s unclear whether he got into Yale just on grades or whether, ironically, he was affirmatively actioned in via a baseball scholarship.

    Unlike Trump, he is a True Believer. I read a story a few years ago where, after a generic talk show interview, he stayed in the green room for twenty minutes afterward boring the show’s staff to death with RWNJ hysterics.

  95. 95.

    narya

    @trollhattan: I think with some of them, they come from a R family, they take the usual path through schools, clubs, etc., get the internships, etc. . . . and then a leopard wants to eat their face, and they either succumb or they change paths. I’m interested to see which way Hutchison turns; the current change in paths may only be temporary. I imagine it’s a challenge when all of your life assumptions, handed to you and endorsed by your parents and surroundings, are challenged at that scale. And I can see how Cruz and Scalise wouldn’t necessarily challenge much, if, e.g., you were a lower-level intern or something. (As you can see, I’m trying to give her some benefit of the doubt, but I don’t have any great faith that she really will change her assumptions.)

  96. 96.

    citizen dave

    @UncleEbeneezer: It was a big cultural event for the U.S., as I remember it, as a nearly 13 year-old.  I read a lot of sports paperback books back in my youth, and am pretty sure I read Bobby Riggs book, and was rooting for him.  Reality ensued.  Decades and life later, I now appreciate the great American that Billie Jean King is.  I’m not much of a tennis fan, but both of the movies are great movies–agree!

  100. 100.

    Jeffro

    I can’t imagine being part of a political party in which Tucker Freakin’ Carlson is a “kingmaker”

    blech to the blech power  =P

  102. 102.

    wjca

    @Mr. Bemused Senior: one has to wonder, why did he choose to go into politics? He seems ill-suited for it.

    An off the wall guess: he was just self aware enough to realize he couldn’t get rich and powerful in business.  Which tends to require more unscripted interaction with others, and on an ongoing basis.

  104. 104.

    Ruckus

    Betty,

    But it’s a party in decline.

    It is and it has been for a long time. With decent reason, it is about conserving a way that really does not fit in with the concept of our country, equality. It is a party of the long ago past. It is a political party about control of everything, including people. Conserve what was, before. We don’t talk about it that way, nor do many see it that way. But the reality is that any country that is about the people and equality is not a country that supports the concept that what once was perfect and can never change or grow. When what this country is about is really not in agreement with that. Humanity moves on and the requirements to govern that moves on as well. Yes we have a basis for a country and it is very good – equality. That is something that really didn’t exist when this country was born and it is the basis of what we are about. And yes there is a hierarchy of power and control because in any group there has to be or it devolves into mayhem. But that is not the same as equality of being. This is still not a universal concept of country and we are still learning and we have to be careful and aware of the frailty of the concept because some will always think they are above the concept. They are not more equal than everyone else.

  105. 105.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @jonas:

    If Murdoch is really as through with Trump as Wolff suggests, and Trump is virtually assured to sail through to the GOP nomination, why is his network still slagging on Biden 24/7 when it’s also abundantly clear that Biden-Harris will be the only thing preventing Trump’s return to power?

    Exactly! All he has to do is have his pundits to do two things: 1) slag Biden a little less, with some occasional very faint praise and 2) ‘just ask questions’ about Trump indictments including having real legal analysts talk about the implications. That’s it. That is enough to sink Trump. OANN is now just a website and Newsmax is its main competitor. It won’t lose that much market share. Even IF they take a shorter term hit, the personal wealth of the Murdoch’s is greater than they can EVER spend in their lifetimes. Why not sacrifice a negligible amount to take down Trump?

  106. 106.

    rikyrah

    I never thought that I would come to love a bee.

    But, there’s an account on TikTok.
    Person came across an injured, one winged-bee.
    They took it in and built it a small greenhouse where she can live out the rest of her days.
    Go to TikTok and put in SWEETPEA.

    I look forward to seeing my daily dose of Sweetpea for as long as she’s here.

  107. 107.

    jimmiraybob

    What’s to become of all the former Republicans that have left the Party – the never-Trumper, not insane, not Democrats?  Is either a new party or a fight to reclaim the old party feasible?  How many decades might that take?

    It’s impossible to be optimistic about the future of American democracy when we are left with only two possible choices – Democrats and the insane Party of Shit-Slinging & Government Destruction*.

    *Why yes, I have been following today’s Garland hearing.

  108. 108.

    Jeffro

    btw some folks upthread were talking about some recent books they’ve read, and it reminded me that a day or two I’d said that “The Great Transition” by Nick Fuller Googins had made me grumpy.  In fairness to the book, I just woke up cranky (although at times the book’s bleak, narrow-miss outlook will get to you).  It’s a great very-near-future, near-climate-collapse story about a family struggling to find/save each other.

    The world they live in is both horrifying and hopeful, having…maybe…turned the corner on carbon emissions (“Zero Day” is a new worldwide holiday celebrating the day Earth finally went net-zero emissions).

    Really well done (and it’s just his first book!  He’s a schoolteacher up in Maine) – check it out if you have time!

    Closely aligned with that…I see that President BFD is pressing ahead with initiating the Climate Corps for young people: installing solar panels, rebuilding wetlands, and more.  (The mom and dad in Googins’ book are veterans of this exact same type of program!)

    President Biden on Wednesday announced an initiative to train more than 20,000 young people in skills crucial to combating climate change, such as installing solar panels, restoring coastal wetlands and retrofitting homes to be more energy-efficient.

    How will the Climate Corps work?

    As part of a recruitment push, the White House on Wednesday will launch a new website where Americans can sign up to learn more about the workforce training program. All participants in the program will be paid, administration officials said, although they declined to disclose specific salaries.

    The officials, who are closely monitoring the United Auto Workers’ ongoing strike against Detroit’s Big Three automakers, emphasized the program would help young people secure high-quality jobs after their training is complete.

    The administration “will specifically be focused on making sure that folks that are coming through this program have a pathway into good-paying union jobs,” White House National Climate Adviser Ali Zaidi said on a Tuesday call with reporters previewing the announcement. “We’re very keenly focused on that.”

    History being made in real-time…fiction being turned into non-fiction…something like that!

    Way to go, Joe!

  110. 110.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Suzanne: I’m a Flint and Tinder guy myself but only because they fit me better than the American Giant ones. I will speak up for the crewneck though – sometimes the hood can be a bit of a nuisance, but either way a trusty sweatshirt is nice to have and super comfortable.

  111. 111.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @Cameron:

     All these years and I never knew there was such a thing as a 360-degree asshole

    Everything I learned in high school and college says that should be impossible in a three-dimensional world, geometrically and topologically, but somehow DeSantis manages it.

  112. 112.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @wjca:

    Not sure how he manages to so consistently trash it if he doesn’t grasp it.

    Social rules are incredibly complex and nuanced.  99.99% of possible responses are horrible faux pas.  A mistake as minor as discussing the topics you have heard your conversation partner discourse about passionately and at length at a volume level that would be appropriate in another location but not this one can make you an absolute boor.

  114. 114.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @narya:

    I think with some of them, they come from a R family, they take the usual path through schools, clubs, etc., get the internships, etc. . . . and then a leopard wants to eat their face, and they either succumb or they change paths. … I imagine it’s a challenge when all of your life assumptions, handed to you and endorsed by your parents and surroundings, are challenged at that scale.

    I think this is especially true with right-wing women. Modern society keeps telling them they really are equal, but right-wing culture doesn’t actually believe that. I don’t think many of them have thought enough about it to understand that disconnect. They are allowed to work and thrive to a point, as long as they know their place. Get too ambitious, not defer to the right men, etc. and even the people who always encouraged them suddenly get unsympathetic.

  115. 115.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Sun rising directly over the middle spire at Angkor Wat (FB link).  Super-cool pix!  Posted by Palm Village Hotel, the lovely place we stayed at, when we visited Siem Reap in 2016.

  116. 116.

    Ruckus

    @Bruce K in ATH-GR:

    When you work on something for an entire lifetime, every once in a while you can actually manage to have something.

    Ron has been working on it and has gotten there.

    A well rounded asshole.

  117. 117.

    Jeffro

    Also, per “President BFD”: I don’t know why we don’t talk about it more (either here or in our blessed media) but the contrast between Biden and trump, Pelosi and McCarthy, just in terms of sheer competence vs incompetence, cannot be overstated.

    It’s almost like experience in the job + wanting to do it well matters.

  118. 118.

    narya

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: as long as they know their place

    DINGDINGDING! And we internalize so much misogyny that we “accept” our place–until the day when we realize just how hemmed in we really are. I have to think that it’s even worse in RW circles. “My mom worked outside the home.” “Both of my parents went to college.” Yeah? Who cleaned the toilet? Who did the laundry? Who tracked the kids’ school events and doctors’ appointments?

  119. 119.

    Scout211

    Headline writers for CNN have done it again.

    You just to laugh.

    Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain implant startup, set to begin human trials

    I wonder what type of implant is being implanted in Elon’s brain, but I have ideas.

    And can we really call Elon human?  I have my doubts.

    LOL

  120. 120.

    Hoodie

    @New Deal democrat: He has the clumsiness of a zealot.  Most successful pols are charismatic types who are not wedded to particular ideologies because most people quickly get bored by people droning on about their unified theory of the universe.  The charisma can be used for good or bad, but it doesn’t bow to ideological consistency. I can only imagine how boring and annoying DeSantis is in person.   In contrast, I’ve heard that Trump can be charming in person, notwithstanding that he is un-aldulterated evil.

  122. 122.

    WaterGirl

    @jonas: No suits are going to be as comfortable as shorts and hoodies.  Come on, man!  :-

    edit: You could find me the most comfortable dress or suit and high heels that are more comfortable than tennis… you could find me some makeup that makes me look younger and makes me look prettier…  and I would tell you that THAT IS NOT ME.

    No thanks.  I imagine he feels similarly.  With different details, of course!

  126. 126.

    WaterGirl

    @JaySinWA:

    What if they held a special election and nobody front paged it?

    Hey, I had the post written!  Just waiting to put it up because Betty’s thread was still getting a lot of action.

  129. 129.

    Paul in KY

    @wjca: He loves wielding power. Loved it when he was humiliating prisoners at Gitmo. If you are not going to own your own company/crime gang you have to get into politics to get that powa!!!

  130. 130.

    Shana

    Forgive me if others have already weighed in on this aspect but Lachlan Murdoch thinks that he has left-leaning friends who will overlook the fact that he’s Rupurt Murdoch’s fu&king heir at Fox and still hang with him? It’s as clueless as Ivanka bemoaning how people won’t talk to her anymore after Daddy got elected.

  131. 131.

    narya

    @Shana: And even if this is a nearly dead thread, I must add that Vanky’s distress continues to make me happy. Her faux “expertise,” her belief that she could avoid the Trumpstank, her desire to part of the group that gets invited to All The Best Parties . . . it is unseemly how much it pleases me that she is Not Welcome.

  133. 133.

    Kathleen

    @MisterDancer: Take heart. Within their evil lies the seeds of their own destruction. We just need to figure out how to make sure we don’t let them take us down with them.

  137. 137.

    Shana

    @Mousebumples: I could be wrong but I thought the dress code in Congress mandated “jackets” which was obviously written when it was only men and meant suit jackets, which was why Gym Jordan’s “blue collar shirt sleeves in Congress” bs was supposed to be such a shocking break with tradition.

  138. 138.

    Roger Moore

    @narya:

    I have reasonable hopes for Cassidy Hutchinson.  Her job in the Trump Administration was her first work out of college.  I know my political views have changed a lot since I was in college, and I can’t imagine how much faster they would have changed after being exposed to something like the inner workings of the Trump Administration.  What she says about her decision to testify- that she had an attack of conscience, realized what she had done for the Trump Admin was wrong, and decided she needed to testify to set things right- sounds like someone who isn’t going to fall back into blindly accepting the Republican POV.  And that’s assuming any of them would take her, which seems unlikely.

  140. 140.

    Betty

    @WaterGirl: I have the impression his time at Walter Reed convinced him that it would be okay to just be himself snd be happy with that. It is driving Republicans bonkers – and the Washington Post too.

  141. 141.

    JaySinWA

    @WaterGirl: Glad to see it, I was just thinking there usually were posts up on the night of special elections touting the races, and I didn’t see that this time, so I tweaked BJ a bit. Not often that I break news that hasn’t been broken here before.

  142. 142.

    Paul in KY

    @Citizen Alan: Would think he only knew the names of his very top orc commanders. He could pretty much control them like puppets anyway, so knowing their names was not necessary, IMO.

  146. 146.

    Aj

    @narya: who called relatives, planned holidays, bought all presents wrapped them, cleaned for guests, shopped all food cooked all , decorated everything, and when all over cleaned all up and wrote the thank you notes?

    Just all part of the unmentioned job.

    “Who cooked Adam Smith’s dinner?”

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