At this point she is like, ‘f*ck it. I’m taking over and doing all the talking. Just sit there, shut up, try the smile I taught you. I’m supposed to be Jackie O 2.0 and this moron is screwing it up for me!’ pic.twitter.com/wa6GB0ehmh
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) December 8, 2023
Dead campaign walking…
Casey DeSantis just went on FOX and asked people from around the country to descend upon Iowa and participate in the caucus.
According to the Iowa GOP website, in order to participate you must be 18 on the day of the caucus, and registered with the party of the caucus you wish… pic.twitter.com/kY7vM3HL8k
— JoMa (@joma_gc) December 8, 2023
Seriously, though: ‘We’ll just bus in supporters to intimidate anyone from voting against us’ is a pretty good illustration of why caucuses are a terrible way to choose a candidate.
During interview w/ @marthamaccallum, Casey DeSantis called on an out-of-state coalition of mothers and grandmothers “to descend upon the state of Iowa to be a part of the caucus” and “let their voices be heard.”
“You do not have to be a resident of Iowa,” she said. pic.twitter.com/Z8FsKrFM0K
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) December 8, 2023
Was it the plan for Casey Desantis to reveal on national television the Florida GOP’s playbook of having out-of-state people vote in elections?
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) December 9, 2023
After Casey Desantis said today that they plan to flood Iowa with out-of-state voters for the caucus, the Iowa GOP issues a statement. pic.twitter.com/nQa8XtWTyg
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) December 9, 2023
War for Ukraine Day 653: We Need To Clarify a Few Things
karen marie
Okay, now I’ll make some popcorn.
HumboldtBlue
Here’s the musical.
Gotta love the DeSantis clan, who won’t miss a chance to shoehorn some weird, off-putting vibe to an interview.
Why does Casey DeSantis look like a regular at the local community theater production of plays about vampires?
satby
Seems they’re well matched as a couple. Their poor, unfortunate children.
Suzanne
When people are this wrong, it makes me wonder if they’re genuinely stupid or if they’re contemptuous of truth/reality.
Suzanne
@HumboldtBlue: It’s those fucken stenciled-on brows. They’re so weird. They’re trendy right now and I don’t get it. They make it look like you’re wearing a Buffalo Bill skin suit.
NotMax
DollarsPesos todonutspudding she won’t be in attendance.“I, uh, had to wash my hair.”
prostratedragon
@HumboldtBlue:
What a singer — really!
I’d been saving this one for the Princess Judge of Ft. Pierce, but I think Casey’s stolen it: “I Am Woman,” Darlene Edwards.
Baud
Fly, my pretties! Fly, fly to Iowa!
ETA: Single ladies should vote for Biden.
NotMax
@prostratedragon
Jonathan and Darlene — a perfect pairing.
Inevitably coaxes forth a crooked grin.
Dangerman
Alas, there was no joy in Chudville; the Mighty Casey had struck out.
NotMax
@Baud
Nuthin’ says lovin’ like sumthin’ from the coven.
//
NotMax
@Dangerman
Nice. :)
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
C, both of the above.
FelonyGovt
@HumboldtBlue: They’re like pod people, or aliens in ill-fitting human suits.
Betty Cracker
OMFG, that’s hilarious! I loathe those two even more than I despise Trump, so hearing Tacky O angrily and futility attempt to incite election fraud on national TV is music to my ears! Thank you!
Also, when I was younger, strangers would sometimes order me to smile, which was SO goddamned annoying, so it pleases me to know that Tacky O’s lumpen mate is constantly being harassed in that manner. Hahaha! I hope and trust that they are both utterly miserable!
p.a.
Do I get a more creepy Lilly & Eddie Munster or Morticia & Pugsley Addams vibe from them? “You’ve done your best. Now let mommy take charge.” IDK. So so wrong.
ETA: Or maybe Joan Crawford, but with a son 🤢
satby
Since in a thread yesterday people were sharing their favorite Christmas movies, here’s one of mine, and I watch it every year. Not a movie, a YouTube from 2008. Silent monks sing the Hallelujah Chorus.
Jeffro
Good morning folks.
Man, the idea that “moms and grandmoms” from all over the country are going to stop what they’re doing, grab their purses and their best caucusin’ hat, jump in the LeBaron, and hustle on over to Iowa to save Charisma Ron’s bacon…whew.
I mean, there’s delusional and then there’s DELUSIONAL.
Jeffro
@Suzanne: yes is the answer
Dog Mom
Hmmm, so is Ron going to bus some ‘illegals’ in from Texas for the caucus . . .
Barney
When I see a ventriloquist’s act, I expect the dummy to talk at least occasionally …
The Thin Black Duke
It pleases me immensely that in spite of the tens of millions of dollars spent on Ron’s campaign, hours of free advertising courtesy of the MSM and a never-ending tsunami of bootlicking op-ed pieces, the malignant turd that is Ron DeSantis can’t be polished sufficiently to make it appealing to the American electorate.
NobodySpecial
She thinks the snowbirds are gonna bus up to Pencil Neck, Iowa in sub 40 temps to save Three Finger Ronnie’s bacon?
Evidently climate change has caused a shortage of oxygenated blood in Republican heads.
JWR
Did anyone else catch Brooks & Capehart last night? Watch it from here, (should be cued up to about the 7:22 mark), and tell me if your reaction is the same as Capehart’s. Wild! And good on the host for following up.
prostratedragon
@satby: Brilliant! Goes on the list.
ron
one of the go to GOP lies about elections is people being bussed in to vote illegally. and here they are advocating for it.
Betty Cracker
@JWR: I’d prefer a more visceral reaction from Capehart, such as grabbing Brooks by the scruff and slamming his stupid face on the desk or breaking a coffee mug on his thick noggin, but Capehart’s reaction was otherwise good. Seriously, GOP fluffers like Brooks aside, there’s a tone shift in the dreaded MSM. It’s years too late and not nearly enough, but I think it’s real. We’ll see if it lasts. I hope to Christ it does.
prostratedragon
@JWR: Yes, good that he pointed out Capehart’s reaction. Don’t know as I’d be agape; been told that I have a certain look, and Brooks would have got it. And by now I more likely would have said either “Have you lost your fucking mind?” or “Don’t stand near me when the shit breaks out.” Capehart is a much better diplomat, or in this case missionsary to the unenlightened, than I can be.
Balconesfault
It would be hilarious for a large group of guys to dress in elderly lady drag and show up at the caucuses as “Tranny Grannies for Ronnie”
evodevo
@ron:
I’m guessing she’s trying to Jan6 the caucus, but I doubt if this Hail Mary will work like she wants….DeathSantis just doesn’t have the nationwide nutter following that Trumpy does…
There go two miscreants
Well that got my day started with a laugh! (Altho, since I am old, the image that popped into my head was Buffalo Bob.)
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
They did train DeSantis not to open his mouth so wide when he smiles though – he doesn’t do it now.
Scout211
Texas Supreme Court place a temporary stay on the lower court’s decision to allow Kate Cox’s abortion.
Ken Paxton is a horrible person.
JWR
@Betty Cracker: I got the notion that maybe Brooks was trying out some sort of normalization scheme, trying to make TFG’s odious words seem almost normal, that what he said was actually “funny”. But there’s no rational way to make what he said sound normal, or funny. Aside from that, I agree with you completely.
MagdaInBlack
@Betty Cracker: Brooks is so gd jovial about it all. I cannot comprehend his attitude.
Capehart’s restraint was admirable. I would not have done so well.
JWR
@prostratedragon: Good description of Capehart, maddening though it may be.
OzarkHillbilly
@Scout211: How horrible a person is Ken Paxton? This horrible:
Self-righteous fuck.
Kay
Kate Cox/AFP Handout
CNN
—
I’m glad national media are covering this one case and one part of the abortion issue, but come on CNN. “She says”?
Her treating physician says.
A big part of the anti abortion “movement” – central to the ideology- is the idea that women are dishonest and cunning – self centered tricksters who will lie to get their way. That’s why anti abortion religious extremists have to monitor us – women are bad inherently sinful people. CNN shouldn’t be promoting that. But given how stodgy and rigidly conventional political media are, it doesn’t surprise me that they hold antiquated views on women.
Scout211
Brooks actually looked embarrassed to me, like his laugh was more a nervous laughter. Very weird on national tv.
I never watch the news on PBS (or any other live broadcast) so I am not familiar with Brooks’ on-camera demeanor. Is this normal for him? His comment is typical of his writing, but his on-camera demeanor looks very weird and uncomfortable.
BellyCat
Hilarious!
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
The anti abortion movement are no longer hiding. They’ll sacrifice women for their religion(s).
There are very few countries that are this far Right and backward on womens rights.
It’s the US, some central and south American countries and Poland. Ireland doesn’t sacrifice women in childbirth anymore and either does Mexico. Saudi Arabia actually has an exception for womens health, including mental health.
hueyplong
@The Thin Black Duke: It’s even worse than that. They can’t even polish the turd sufficiently to pass muster with the current Republican electorate, in the first known instance of their requiring any humanity at all.
MagdaInBlack
@Scout211: It has been a long time since I’ve watched Brooks. I recall him more smug. If it is embarrassment, and I think you’re right, he damn well should be.
Scout211
There’s now two with national coverage. CNN
This one is about a person’s right to make their own health decisions.
Betty
@HumboldtBlue: I was not familiar with their work. So thank you. I used the opportunity to listen to one of my all time favorites by her, You Belong to Me.😊
JWR
@Scout211: I occasionally catch the Brooks & Capehart segments, and I’ve seen Brooks chuckle like that before. Maybe not so nervously, but often enough. I think you’re right, though, about him looking embarrassed after that. H*ll, he f*ckin’ oughta be embarrassed, for his entire “reasonable Repub” schtick.
Betty
@OzarkHillbilly: He is a criminal who has yet to answer for all his malfeasance. Shame on you, Texas.
OzarkHillbilly
That or simple, pure innocents who just aren’t capable of understanding the gravity of an abortion, people who need to be protected from the evil OB-GYN industry.
Kay
It’s he said/she said on womens health at CNN. The pregnant woman and her physician say one thing about her body and health and the far Right Texas attorney general and religious extremists say another, and she’ll just have to duke it out and win this debate to get medical care!
They should put up odds on whether or not she’ll die – maybe poll some Republicans in diners to see if she should receive medical care. After all, she might be lying.
artem1s
I guess it would be futile to point out to C+ Jackie-O that maybe since she is the one who has such high political ambitions maybe she should be running for President? That she shouldn’t have settled for being first lady in FL in the first place? Too bad her party is full of such misogynists and self hating mom’s and grandmom’s. Geez.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I’d love to have seen the looks on R caucus organizers when they heard Casey DeSantis. Not only do you have to be an Iowa voter, but at least on the D side, the caucuses were by precinct, just like voting was. You had to live in the precinct. They checked at the door. As I recall, they may even have had the voter lists to check from.
stinger
I understand why Casey gets the “Tackie O” moniker, but she’s probably too young to have Mrs. Onassis as an influence. I think she’s aping the current Princess of Wales, who sometimes wears capes and gloves–and has a royal title!
Kay
The Texas AG wrote in his motion that the pregnant women should try Florida to get medical care.
Good to know that women can no longer get modern, standard of care health services in Texas. This is apparently a point of pride now in the state.
EarthWindFire
The Repubs really project more than your average IMAX, don’t they? Or maybe the right people (if you know what I mean and I think you do) can commit all the fraud they want. It’s a tough call.
Kay
I think Casey is probably still in denial about the DeSantis chances. It’s understandable. DeSantis was held up as a really talented pol who was leading a national movement against “wokeness” and was wildly popular.
Political media just aren’t good at judging who will be popular nationally. They’ve regularly promoted “local” conservatives and just as regularly were wrong. It’s a list – Jeb Bush, Kasich, Christie, Scott Walker, Bloomberg – hell, at one point they were promoting Mitch Daniels.
delphinium
@JWR: Good for Capehart for stating how serious this is. Brooks, as usual, acts like the pathetic tool he is.
The Thin Black Duke
@artem1s: It’s the same problem Marilyn Quayle had. She was way smarter than her dimbulb husband but was stuck playing a Donna Reed housewife.
Nelle
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yep, in 2020, we were checked in, by precinct, and with ID to get in.
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: when I was in Iowa in 2007-08 for obama, you did have to caucus in your precinct. You could register to vote at the caucus on the night of the caucus. I don’t recall specifically, but I imagine you would have to have ID.
Yarrow
@OzarkHillbilly:
They certainly will be in Texas and other hardline red states as Ob/Gyns move out of the states.
prostratedragon
“How America Ends and Begins Again,” Sherrilyn Ifill
Not merely a jeremiad, though it’s surely that. She lists several important points to remember:
“First, recognize that we have been here before.”
“The second thought guiding me is that we have to diagnose the sources of the challenges we’re facing. It’s fashionable for those of us working for equality, inclusion, and democracy to lament that we haven’t been strategic enough. But perhaps we are being too hard on ourselves. I have come to believe that we are facing such strong opposition precisely because we have won so much.” [My bold, because I agree strongly and think it’s important to remember those victories rather than succumbing to a sense of doom.]
“Third, we need to embrace better sources of information.”
“Finally, we need to pursue power, and when we have power we need to be prepared to make transformative change. “
brantl
@Dangerman: Rotating Tag line. Seriously.
Yarrow
@Kay:
This sounds like the premise for a really bad Judge Judy type show. Or maybe a reality show where people eat bugs to determine who wins.
artem1s
@The Thin Black Duke: Well the GOP decided they wanted to be the ‘shut up and make me a sammich’ party back when they rejected Elizabeth Dole in favor of Third Person Bob.
Imagine how different the GOP might have turned out if they had the guts to endorse a more qualified, sane, ‘reach across the aisle’ candidate instead of Ronnie Raygun and his murderous VP from the Bush Crime Family in 1980.
Tony Jay
Give it up, K.C.D. In a few months the last embers of hope will be pissed on and the thousand skittering crewmates of RODS-Probe Alpha will scuttle their listing vessel and beam back up to the mothership. Leaving you to broodmate up with some other half presentable nobody with a lack of drive and an appetite for humiliation.
Mousebumples
I caucused in Iowa as a college student in 2004. (for Edwards, feh) I think I had to show my student ID and bring mail or something to prove I lived in campus. I think I registered that evening.
Iowa has probably tightened up voting laws around college students, especially, since then. Just guessing…
Frankensteinbeck
@Kay:
I noticed long ago that the national press* are great at controlling what is being discussed, but terrible at convincing people how to feel about those topics.
*I include pundits and commentators, because there is no clear line between them and reporters.
Another Scott
@JWR: Many of the reporters and hosts on the NPR news segments I hear laugh when talking about TIFG’s latest antics. It’s a common reaction, and human, but they don’t take the next step and examine why they are laughing. Just saying “X is unorthodox and unusual, we’ll see how the other candidates respond” is unfair to listeners. And it normalizes and encourages the behavior by the candidates and their supporters.
It’s dangerous.
Grr…,
Scott.
OzarkHillbilly
Feature, not a bug.
RepubAnon
@The Thin Black Duke: DeSantis ran the “ Definitely not Shinola” campaign. It did, however display the true face of Republican values without Trump’s huckster veneer.
mrmoshpotato
Ahhhh, when you’re too much of a Nazi bitch for a state’s GrOPers party…
Casey, stay in Florida, and teach your meatball husband how to eat pudding like he’s an adult.
Percysowner
I do feel sorry for Iowa. First the Democrats bump them back in voting order. Then the Republicans pull this! There is Iowa saying “We will stand by our time honored caucuses. We will uphold tradition.” Then there is a call from a woman who lives in a state with zero gun control telling people to come to Iowa to participate in and help “convince” actual residents of Iowa to vote for Ronnie, or ELSE! Some Iowans may be thinking that maybe primary elections aren’t THAT bad.
JWR
@Tony Jay: Lol! You funny, man. ;)
Betty Cracker
@Yarrow: OB-GYNs are already exiting FL in anticipation of the six-week ban taking effect. (The FL Supreme Court is waiting until it’s politically convenient for DeSantis, who appointed most of them.) To their credit, the local dailies are covering the exodus.
Gvg
@stinger: She looks like Annette Funicello the Disney star and they got married at Disney. Annette was pretty conservative in an old fashioned way but she played a very nice girl. That is nice to everyone even people others were scared of, and people liked her. Her conservative persona was wearing a one piece bathing suit not a bikini even when the other girls were but still being friends.
Mrs. DeSantis missed the point of popularity from being nice, but I can sort of see why they picked a fight with Disney. They both still missed a lot of points and are superficial thinkers.
Yarrow
@OzarkHillbilly: Wasn’t saying it was a bug. You said they wanted people to be protected from the evil Ob/Gyn industry. It’s working as planned. That will of course lead to more women and babies dying. Also part of the plan. Women must suffer for what they did. It’s in the Bible.
Rileys Enabler
@Kay: Her OB/GYN was mine back when I was carrying the sprog (advanced maternal age) and she was amazing. Got me through a brutal miscarriage prior to the seamless birth. Smart as hell, tough and endlessly kind. If Dr. Damla is backing her, she has the best care (if only the State would allow it). I vote for launching Paxton into the Sun immediately.
brantl
@Scout211: Brooks looks like that most of the time, trying to look like one of the guys while also trying to look like an English episcopal bishop. The dictionary of idiom would have a picture of him next to the phrase “stuffed shirt” with no need of any other explanation.
OzarkHillbilly
I didn’t think you were.
Scamp Dog
@Dog Mom: or they’re bringing in outside agitators.
JWR
@Another Scott:
Indeed! And far better put than what I tried to do in my comment, that Brooks was trying to normalize the crap T***p actually said.
RaflW
I know the term harpy is out of favor, but damn, Casey brings it to mind.
RaflW
@Betty Cracker: Brooks even says, while laughing, “it’s still true that he’s likely to be a dictator.” So David, why did you say you don’t take him seriously?
Brooks is just such a twit.
Gvg
I haven’t seen a good thread to mention it for a few days now but apparently DeSantis has stated in the last debate that he wants the federal government and banks to not be the backers of student loans anymore and that colleges should be to hold them “accountable”.
Essentially this would shut down all student loans. I don’t know if he is ignorant of the economics or intends that, but colleges don’t have that kind of money. They charge tuition because they need the money to operate, they don’t have extra lying around. For scale, my University of Florida pays out around 900 million in aid a year, the majority of it student loans. I am guessing 6 to 700 million a year every year. There are thousands of colleges across the country, most not as well off as us…assuming DeSantis doesn’t somehow screw that up. I think we are trying not to attract attention beyond the necessary. It’s a lunatic proposal. Before the feds backed student loans, there were none pretty much. Schools do very small emergency loan funds using some donor money. If there are no college loans, the schools would have to shut, pretty much nationwide.
Yarrow
@JWR: I do not watch that sort of thing but had a look at the clip you linked. Brooks fell back on the “I take him literally not seriously” trope that was so common in 2016. Brooks’ job on these kinds of shows is to comfort the comfortable and afflict the afflicted, all while appearing non-threatening to normies. If he ever says anything outside that box i’s in the “more in sorrow than in anger” vein. He does his job well.
Capehart used far too many words to push back. I don’t know what his role is on these kinds of shows but Brooks said he thought Trump was joking. Capehart would have done better to say, “People who think Trump is joking are part of he problem. He’s not joking. He’s an authoritarian and this election is all hands on deck to fight back against him and the Republican party that supports him.”
Montanareddog
@brantl:
Definitely a Trollope. The Obadiah Slope of reactionary apologists.
Layer8Problem
@Montanareddog: You’re on to something there. Alan Rickman’s sadly no longer with us but having portrayed Slope we’ll at least never have to see his David Brooks.
Betsy
So done with these Stepford Wife fuckwits. The area I live in is absolutely chock-full of women who live through their husbands, and their husbands are usually untried dullards (being white patrician types, they’ve not been challenged or ever had to develop grit — only deferred to their whole lives)
Married women here seek out catty, passive, needy ways of getting ahead, since the culture here mostly teaches girls to decorate the outside of their heads instead of cultivating the inside of them, and they end up with no skills that matter.
The men, for their part, are utterly terrified and aggressive toward any woman that has a skill, an opinion, a working brain, or any strength other than hair ops, yet they are used to their little sneaky wife-types carrying their dick around in her purse so hey end up with a weird distorted view of women and will often go on an attack toward women who are outside their petty conception of womanhood.
Mike in NC
What a creepy, ghastly couple.
StringOnAStick
@Betsy: “Teaches girls to decorate outside their heads instead of cultivating the inside” is a perfect description; kudos.
CaseyL
@NotMax:
Nuthin’ says lovin’ like
sumthin’a summon from the coven.sab
@Yarrow: Yikes. Eight years into the Trump nightmare and people still get paid to say on television that Trump is “joking.”
Paul in KY
@Balconesfault: That would be funny!
Paul in KY
@stinger: I thought she was trying a bit for that look. Had a similar hairstyle at one point.
PJ
@Kay: The thing is, the media likes all these Republican politicians who don’t have the juice to make it nationwide. They want them to succeed. If it’s not DeSantis this year, it’ll be Youngkin next time – the “reasonable adult in the room”, the relatively well-mannered, presentable face of cruelty, as opposed to those namby-pamby spendthrift Democrats. David Brooks would cream in his pants if one of them became President and instituted policies exactly like Trump’s.
The reason these “reasonable adults” don’t succeed is partly down to their policies being out of step with what most Americans want, but also partly down to them being personally weird (sometimes a little, sometimes a lot) in the context of how Americans now see themselves. Even if they have a long way to go personally, most Americans see themselves as being tolerant of different ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, etc.
The Republican candidate who succeeds nationwide will be the one who presents as amiable and warm-hearted, in the way that Reagan did (though it was all a front for cruelty), but I don’t think that kind of candidate stands a chance in a Republican primary.
West of the Rockies
@Kay:
I wonder if DeSantis has enough sense to be miserable. Imagine being told that your natural responses (smiling and laughing) are creeping people out and you should do them differently.
Citizen Alan
@artem1s: That was too late. The die was cast in 1964 when the GOP made opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 central to its platform, leading to the ascension of uber-racist Richard Motherfucker Nixon.
Citizen Alan
@Gvg: LOL. Wasn’t there a Frankie and Annette movie where she not only wore one-piece bathing suits instead of bikinis but she actually wore a mumu for much of filming because she was pregnant?
West of the Rockies
@Betsy:
Is this a particular town or region or state you refer to? It sounds awful.
Citizen Alan
@Yarrow: I vividly remember watching some fundie asshole preacher arguing from the pulpit that we should ban epidurals because they defy God’s command that women should bear their children in pain.
karen marie
@West of the Rockies: Does first being told to “smile more” and then having his smile criticized make DeSantis unhappy? Only insofar as it causes his wife to send him to another coach.
I’d love to hear from the people hired to improve his appearance and mannerisms. I doubt any of them will want to admit such a failure.
Kathleen
@p.a.: Perhaps a “Klanchurian Kandidate?
Chris T.
@OzarkHillbilly:
(quoting)
I have a suggestion here. Since the fetus will not live, and the woman carrying the fetus will be damaged or killed by carrying the fetus, and this is all known and clearly foreseeable: should this come to pass, I suggest that Ken Paxton be prosecuted for depraved indifference.
It’s not a great outcome, but it would be a small measure of justice.
Soprano2
@Kay: It doesn’t even make sense in this case because the baby will probably die almost as soon as it’s born and the woman’s future fertility could be imperiled. What are they “saving “? They’re doing this to prove that they can, nothing more.
Paul in KY
@West of the Rockies: His ‘natural tendencies’ are only to laugh when abject cruelty is being done to some poor soul. Since out on the campaign trail, he doesn’t get much of that, he has to fake the smile. If he was torturing you to death, I bet he has a very natural smile.
wjca
The only problem with this (besides the obvious disaster it would be for the woman, and doctors, involved) is that it is clear that Paxton is NOT indifferent. Anything but. Well, maybe in the narrow legal sense of the term, but definitely not in its every day usage. He cares deeply about his depraved cruelty.
Jacqueline Squid Onassis
Wait. The governor’s name is Rhonda Santis?
brantl
And their ruthlessness is only exceeded by their stupidity.