One of the most obvious similarities between Trump and RFK Jr is that the more you get to know about him, the more you realize he’s just a terrible human who doesn’t care about anyone other than himself. https://t.co/fbG3jU4uNU
— Jason Karsh (@jkarsh) March 30, 2024
The [unpaywalled] MSN / Washington Post, last Friday – “Cesar Chavez’s family tells RFK Jr. to stop using activist’s name, image”:
The family of labor activist Cesar Chavez sent a letter to independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Friday, warning him to stop referencing the late patriarch in election campaigns or face potential legal action.
The letter, signed by Cesar Chavez’s eldest son, Fernando, reiterates the family’s support for President Biden, according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post. Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the granddaughter of the labor union leader, leads Biden’s reelection campaign.
“We respectfully call upon you and your campaign to cease using images of our father to associate yourself with him and suggest your campaign’s goals are compatible,” Fernando Chavez writes.
The letter comes a day before Kennedy is set to host a campaign event in Los Angeles on Cesar Chavez’s birthday to launch a Latino outreach program. In promoting the event, Kennedy called Chavez a good friend…
Kennedy’s father famously supported the farmworkers’ strike that Chavez led in the 1960s and was present when Chavez broke his fast protesting the conditions.
In the letter, Fernando Chavez says the family remains grateful to the younger Kennedy for helping carry Chavez’s casket after his death in 1993, as did other prominent figures.
“To our knowledge, none of them have featured images carrying the casket in their political campaign materials and promotions,” Fernando Chavez writes. “We take offense at the use of such sacred moments purely for political purposes.” …
He is paid by special interests to divert votes from president Biden. Dems who want to vote for him will be complicit in trump and putin winning.
— Baba Jaga ???????? (@AnnaKub10184673) April 2, 2024
People wonder why this guy's family has disowned him, the only people he is going to court is the fringe left and right Qanon types https://t.co/ajLOxY1e8O
— Vermillion🔥 (@moalusi_victor) April 3, 2024
RFK Jr.’s newly-announced running mate, Nicole Shanahan, is anti-IVF just like many Republicans.
She says women who have fertility issues can conceive children through “exposure to sunlight” instead.https://t.co/TpezlxvYQ8 pic.twitter.com/C2WXjQNnuz
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) March 29, 2024
RFK JR’s campaign site, where anyone can make events with no approval process, is a MasterClass in shitposting pic.twitter.com/VFmh9MO0eb
— Jennie Egerdie (@hijennieblair) March 28, 2024
Maybe the best summation of RFK jr as a politician, intellectual, Kennedy clan member, and human being is that the only Palestinian he thinks has been treated unfairly is Sirhan Sirhan. https://t.co/JbcnbNX8B6
— zeddy (@Zeddary) April 2, 2024
Why did Trump donor Tim Mellon give RFK Jr $20 MILLION?
Why did Steve Bannon and Mike Flynn beg RFK Jr to run?
Why is RFK Jr maliciously attacking Biden?
Why are so many GOP billionaires donating to him?
Cuz RFK Jr is the GOP’s weapon to sabotage Biden and get Trump reelected
— Lindy Li (@lindyli) April 2, 2024
War for Ukraine Day 769: Ukraine Strikes Deep Into Russia!
NotMax
Well remember the dedicated Boycott Grapes picketers marching in front of supermarkets.
Betty Cracker
Christ, what an asshole!
I hope everyone made it through the storms. We’re supposed to get the front later today. The frogs are already singing about it.
Brachiator
So, we’re talking about, what, 3 to 5 people.
This is the kind of news that would be buried somewhere in the back pages of the National Inquirer.
I guess I should ask who his known backers are. They love to throw their money away.
JWR
I saw a CNN video where the host played a few clips of his family members calling his candidacy a horribly dangerous joke, and in reply, he went on and on about how many family members he has so don’t go cherry picking quotes! I thought that showed him as a really bad clown, but good Lord, this tells me he’s, “arguably”, a more pampered idiot than anyone else of his already over privileged class.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Did someone mention frogs singing?
:)
Jay
He’s oooold.
Really sucking on ancient memes for Boomers.
He had a brief moment of relevance with RiverKeepers, and it’s been all down hill from there.
He will suck the QAnon vote away from TIFG.
Betty Cracker
@NotMax: Michigan J. Frog!
SpaceUnit
This clueless fuck might just save us all.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Sing along with Mich.
(Humorous reference which performs loop-the-loops over the heads of the young’uns.)
;)
Baud
Reminds me of Tucker Carlson telling men to irradiate their balls.
Jay
@Baud:
it makes them easier to find in the dark,…….
Baud
@Jay:
No more fumbling to turn on your phone’s flashlight.
Tony Jay
What a disgraceful little shit this wrinkled failure is.
The wankers at the FTF Guardian must be drenched at the prospect of bigging him up for the next eight months, unless they’ve concluded he’ll act as a loon-drain on Trump’s support, in which case they’ll ignore him when they’re not dragging him.
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker:
The skies will be alive with the stormy boom booms of thunder?
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Hello my baby!
Baud
Via reddit, if Kay is around
Warblewarble
“The Palestinian people are aguably the most pampered people by international aid organizations in the history of the world” With the help of the US the IDF is going to put that right. Right!
Baud
Interestingly, the only billionaire putting chips in brains is Elon Musk.
Sid
I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall during some off-camera conversations between Cheryl Hines and Larry David.
Shalimar
@Baud: Leo Strauss was an evil piece of shit. The modern Republican philosophy of constant lying to the public about their real goals for everything can be traced directly to his influence. In this case, they really believe that 90%+ of people don’t need to be educated, but they can’t come out and say that in a democracy where they need those votes. So lies and more lies to funnel all the money to the children of the already wealthy.
Shalimar
@Baud: The libertarians consider it extremely exciting when Elon does it. Besides, he is open about his chips in brains so surely nothing sinister is going on from such a wonderful person.
Baud
@Shalimar:
It’s evolution of the white flight of the 60s and 70s.
Baud
@Shalimar:
Tesla and Elon may be hitting the wall of reality.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Jay: I think maybe he’s angling to take over the movement. TFG isn’t going to be around forever and JFK is somehow wrapped up in some of the Qanon conspiracies. So a guy connected to that family may have an inside edge to taking over the movement. I don’t think the TFG’s kids have the juice to step into the role. So there’s a soon to be opening there for someone. And he’s someone. In that sense it might encourage him if he’s pulling support from TFG. It means he’s touching a chord with them.
Might help us in this election but it means the movement might not die with TFG.
Baud
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Makes sense. Trump knows how to ham it up as a celebrity. Not sure if RFK Jr. has that skill. And he’s no spring chicken either.
Matt McIrvin
He’s an HIV-AIDS denialist too, of the type who think AIDS patients did it to themselves by taking drugs, and by participating in vaccine research. Because of course it’s all about the vaccines too.
Matt McIrvin
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: I think part of his campaign strategy is literally to get the votes of people who think they are voting for one or another of his dead family members.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Garbage person. And it’s a competitive field.
Rusty
@Baud: New Hampshire is headed the same way. We are a small, heavily gerrymandered state and wealthy conservative organizations have figured out we are a cheap and easy buy. The twist here is funneling voucher money to not only private and sectarian schools, but also home schoolers. It’s completely unaccountable, we give money with follow up or testing to know if children are even being educated. The state is dead last in what we give public schools, and now we are diverting those small amounts away to private and home schoolers. Good bye public education.
Baud
@Rusty:
I’m hoping gets to the point where they hand out education money to those of us without kids. I want in on the largesse.
Suzanne
@Matt McIrvin: Okay, but who GAF about the Kennedys? Anyone under 50? I bet there’s a significant percentage of people who have only ever heard about JFK as a passing comment in history class and have no idea that this clown is related, and don’t know anything about the family at all.
Boomer nostalgia, man. I guess it’s just a slightly different flavor than MAGA.
Baud
@Suzanne:
Boomers vote.
Suzanne
@Baud: Sure. It’s just….. a fraction of a fraction, at best. Like, if you took 50 people off the street and asked them who Bobby Kennedy was, I would bet that 45 of them would have no idea who you were talking about.
Baud
@Suzanne:
He’s not trying to win. He’s trying to draw votes away from Biden. He might fail and hurt Trump, but his strategy doesn’t require convincing a lot of people.
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne: QAnoners. Aged QAnoners.
Yeah, there aren’t that many of them. On the other hand, they are in the demographic who vote the most enthusiastically.
Rusty
@Baud: The tell will be where he gets on the ballot. I am assuming he will focus his efforts on the handful of swing states where he can swing the election. He won’t waste his time and money for ballot access in Mississippi, but will focus on Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, …
Baud
@Rusty:
Last I heard, he’s trying to work out a deal with the Libertarians.
suzanne
@Baud: Sure, but even that requires a significant amount of delulu. Like “I MATTER!!!”. No you don’t, dude.
Betty Cracker
Did y’all hear about Jack Smith’s filing last night? He sounds fed up! He told Cannon the legal premise on which she based demands for jury instructions from both the prosecution and defense is prejudicial bullshit and asked her to shit or get off the pot on motions she’s ignored for weeks.
Baud
@Betty Cracker: Did not. I assume WG will post it.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Here’s a PDF link to the filing. Reading between the lines, it sounds like Smith is saying, “What the fuck, you fucking fuck?!?”
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
But he uses the Latin phrase, so it’s classy sounding.
Yeah, it sounds like a put up or shut up situation.
Matt McIrvin
@suzanne: This could well be another knife-edge election in the crucial swing states, like 2000 or 2004. In that kind of situation just about anything could matter, like Nader voters or people who accidentally voted for Pat Buchanan because of a messed-up ballot design.
I suspect the Louisiana wingnut Senator John Kennedy gets some of his support from similar confusion, though he’s not one of the Kennedys at all.
Brachiator
@Jay:
I don’t connect him to the era of his father at all. Not in any way.
JML
@Sid: well, supposedly Larry David is the one who introduced her to RFK Jr.
There’s plenty of quacks and fools in Hollyweird, RFK Jr probably fit in ok.
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: One thing I keep in mind about RFK Jr. is that while people here and those like us have a good grasp of RFK Jr’s dicreditable past and disqualifying statements, he is still a mostly blank slate to his target audience of relatively disengaged voters.
Evidently, the Biden campaign intends to change that to his detriment. This may prove neccesary; while current polling seems to show RFK Jr. taking more votes from Trump than from Biden, RFK Jr.’s campaign can shape its messaging to attract Democratic-leaning voters if it chooses to, and I think they will.
The Thin Black Duke
I’m sorry, but as someone mentioned earlier, to folks younger than 50, RFK Jr is as relevant as a floppy disk.
Baud
@The Thin Black Duke:
Thank God no one over 50 is allowed to vote.
Baud
@Geminid:
Did you know Biden is a greater threat to democracy than Trump?
SFAW
@The Thin Black Duke: I hope you’ll forgive me, but (lapsing into quasi-NotMax-ville) I sorta-read your comment as “I’m sorry, but as someone mentioned earlier, to guys older than 50, RFK Jr is as relevant as a floppy dick.”
ETA: Semi-joking aside: I hope he is exposed and crushed (with respect to potential Biden voters) ASAP. The longer he stays in the race without enough people pointing out he’s insane, the greater the likelihood he’ll screw things up for Dems and Biden.
Geminid
@Brachiator: I’d be interested in seeing a breakdown of RFK Jr. supporters by age, and whether his appeal is concentrated among older voteres or is more evenly distributed among the various age groups.
The Thin Black Duke
@Baud: The folks over 50 who would vote for RFK Jr weren’t going to vote for Biden anyway.
Baud
@The Thin Black Duke:
I don’t know about that. Not all older Dem voters are free from prion diseases, even though percentage wise they’re a much smaller share than you see on that right.
TS
@Betty Cracker:
Or even reading the lines themselves – he is instructing the judge as to the law and obviously incensed that he has to do this.
SFAW
@The Thin Black Duke:
I think you’re wrong. The only question is how many votes his being a Kennedy will draw away from Biden, not whether he will. There are a lot of insufficiently-informed voters out there, some percentage of which will see the “RFK” and pull the lever.
Sid
@JML:
I hadn’t heard that, so I searched it- while it’s true he introduced them at an event, he wasn’t ‘enthusiastic’ about them hooking up:
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/cheryl-hines-larry-david-robert-kennedy-jr-204009052.html
The Thin Black Duke
@SFAW: I respectfully disagree. I don’t think the Kennedy name has the emotional and cultural resonance that it used to. If it wasn’t for the corporate fat cats bankrolling RFK’s campaign, this fool wouldn’t even be a blip on the political radar. A Charlie Baker type would scare the hell out of me, but thankfully they’re smart enough to sit this one out.
Betty Cracker
@TS: Yep. I don’t know much about Cannon except that she’s a Trump lackey, but it seems like lots of legal beagles associated with the orange fart cloud are dumber than stumps. I recall in an earlier trial that the judge had to explain the basics to Trump attorney Alina Habba.
Manyakitty
@Baud: my cats need book learnin’!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betty Cracker: I just scanned some posts about Jack Smith’s filing. They made me happy.
Geminid
@Geminid: The Washinton Post weighed in on thr discusdion st 6 a.m. this morning with an article titled, “RFK Jr.voters span political spectrum. But they agree on disliking Biden and Trump”:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/03/robert-kennedy-junior-voters
Ed. Not sure if this link works. It may come up later.
Anyway, the article is based on interviews with 27 potental RFK Jr. voters of various ages, in 5 states.
Baud
@Geminid:
I’d think they have to.
Anything about age breakdown?
Baud
@Manyakitty:
“To serve man.”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Yes, this feels like what the Asshole Right thought DeSantis was.
SFAW
@Baud:
Yes: Biden is old.
Or is that not what you meant?
Baud
JWR
Fun article about mail in voting… Republican style! (They’ll do it secret, behind Dear Leaders back.) From NBC:
Lots more in the article.
Denali5
@The Thin Black Duke:
OK, I’m old. Who is Charlie Baker?
schrodingers_cat
The only person I know personally who is interested in RFK Jr is a young white man in his early 20s. And is an uber leftie.
SFAW
@The Thin Black Duke:
I completely agree. But it still does (to some extent) with a certain demographic (my age and older), and not everyone in my cohort is as informed as we jackals.
If the election were going to be a blowout, I wouldn’t care. But with it likely to be as tight as 2020 was, the potential for peeling off a percent or two from Biden in key states worries me.
topclimber
The continued fuckery of Bibi and his gang could gift RFK Jr with the many Dem voters sick of what’s happening not just to Palestinians but to anyone who tries to feed them.
SFAW
@Denali5:
Former MA governor. A Rethug, but less evil/insane than most of them.
SFAW
@topclimber:
Oh, but Bibi said that the
murderdeaths of the WCK workers was an “oopsie,” and I totally believe him!Geminid
@Baud: Trump is like some Money Laundromat.
artem1s
@Rusty:
Jeebus plz let him waste his time on Ohio. He’s only going to hurt TIFG. And if it means a bunch of Q’s and Kucinich babees ignoring the down ballot races, even better for the Ohio Dems.
sdhays
@Betty Cracker: Habba literally bragged about not needing to “be smart” because it was easy to fake. Bragged!
sdhays
@topclimber: Only if they completely ignore what he says (which is possible!). Or if they think calling Palestinians “pampered” is a compliment.
The Thin Black Duke
@topclimber: This. I’m more worried about Bibi’s genocidal bullshit pulling votes from Biden than RFK Jr.
Baud
@sdhays: I thought that was Omnes.
@sdhays:
To be fair, most people who decide to undercut Dems tend to be selective in their facts.
zhena gogolia
One of my normie friends said, “I was so shocked that [other friend she knows is a staunch Democrat] hates RFK Jr.” I explained to her why it wasn’t very shocking.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Other friend knows where it’s at.
Scout211
No surprise, but Trump lied in his speech yesterday.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: No, I fake being pretty.
The Thin Black Duke
(mic drop)
zhena gogolia
@Baud: The normie friend is teachable, so it’s all good.
“Uncommitted” got over 11% in the CT primary yesterday. But Nikki got over 13%.
Anne Laurie
(Ex) Governor ‘Chickenshit’ Charlie Baker was an old-school corporatist Republican — he didn’t care what people got up to, as long as his buddies could siphon money out of the government. He got the corner-office job because it’s pretty much a token position here in Massachusetts, and our not-always-saintly Dem legislators like to parade the occasional Republican officeholder as proof of bold bipartisanship.
Baker got the ‘profile’ to run for Governor by gutting the state’s best HMO (yes, I was a customer, and yes I remain bitter) to make it ‘profitable’. His jump to government came shortly before the butcher’s bill came due — slashing services & shutting down medical centers, primarily where they were most needed (poorer, urban areas disproportionately serving people of color). When he got bored doing gubmint, rather than challenge Liz Warren, he chose to take over as
mouthpiecepresident of the NCAA, which was very much in need of his skill set (being a very large white dude who can smile avuncularly while lying). As the saying goes: I would not wish him dead, but I hope to someday read his obituary.topclimber
@The Thin Black Duke: Do you mean the Palestinian (people) sympathizers are going to vote for Trump instead of lil RFK or stay at home or what?
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Teachable is good. I dislike the people who simply reject facts out of hand or don’t “trust us.
Manyakitty
@Betty Cracker: and he was almost certainly toning it down.
Baud
@Manyakitty:
Find: Motherfucker
Replace with: Your Honor.
The Thin Black Duke
@topclimber: There’s always a subset of “progressives” who delude themselves into thinking that “not voting” is a courageous political action and Gaza is an easier con to sell than RFK Jr.
zhena gogolia
@The Thin Black Duke: I’m with you. This is what worries me most. They can’t think two moves ahead. WHAT DO THEY THINK TRUMP’S POLICIES TOWARD ISRAEL AND PALESTINE ARE GOING TO BE? By the time they wake up to it, it will be too late. See: 2016.
Geminid
@topclimber: A year ago varios lefties wdre warning their comerades against RFK Jr. be cause of his positions on the Israel/Palestine conflict. He was very much pro-Israel.
But like I said above, RFK Jr. is still a blank slate on this and other issues so far as his target audience goes. He can turn on a dime if he wants to because he is opportunistic and unprincipled; a fundamentally dishonest man.
RFK Jr. already shares the antipathy towards Ukraine aid that already common among the tankie-types, as well as their general fear of the “globalists” and the “Uni-Party” that allegedly serves their evil cause.
Those beliefs are often voiced by people on the right (including the Libertarian Party) and I think this accounts for some of RFK Jr.’s attraction to potential Trump voters. But Trump’s pretty Isolationist in his own right and can probably hold on to most of that bunch.
Glidwrith
@Rusty: Wasn’t Florida also handing money out to homeschoolers to buy giant TVs and resort tickets?
Manyakitty
@Baud: as a snack
SW
If Biden’s people were smart they would paint Bobby as a broken product of gun violence. An object of pity. Much more effective than vitriol.
Manyakitty
@Baud: and also somehow managing to conjure a demon via the Word formatting tools.
cmorenc
@Betty Cracker:
Cannon will continue to blow Smith off, so long as she has the vision of a future “Justice Cannon” in her head if Trump wins in November without the classified docs case making it to trial. OR, alternatively the 11th Circuit orders lights a fire under her butt to move and move correctly, or get moved off the case.
Manyakitty
@The Thin Black Duke: I practically got into a screaming fight with someone who refused to acknowledge the clear binary choice. She kept trying to tell me how democracy is supposed to work and that it will never improve if we keep playing along. JFC I hope people like her just stay home.
Manyakitty
@zhena gogolia: yes, but at this point, it makes sense to me that we view them as lost and work on the nonvoters or people who are otherwise open to reality.
Geminid
@SW: I think Democrats- not the Biden campaign- will paint RFK Jr. as a sexually promiscuous, abusive husband who drove his second wife to suicide. There was a New York Post article that laid out the facts of the matter and they were damning in my opinion.
Also, I expect there will be ads juxtaposing RFK Jr. attacking childhood vaccination with old headlines about polio outbreaks and new ones about measles outbreaks.
I think these ads and others are in the pipeline, and it’s just a matter of when and how they appear, and which entities sponsor them. The campaign will start on social media and could include broadcast radio and maybe even TV by October.
Paul in KY
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: I would think Don Jr or Ivana would assume control on that blessed day TFG goes to Hell.
Unless they happen to expire along with him in some kind of accident or murder/suicide.
Paul in KY
@Baud: Any sane (IMO) older (60 and up) voter would presumably know that the real RFK was murdered back in 68. They would know (presumably) that it is not THAT RFK running.
Paul in KY
@schrodingers_cat: an ‘uber leftie dipshit’. There, I added nuance.
Paul in KY
@topclimber: If they don’t vote for Biden, that’s bad. Obviously, voting for fake RFK would be less bad than voting for TFG.
Paul in KY
@SW: To me, that gives him some sympathy that he doesn’t deserve.
Matt McIrvin
@zhena gogolia: Based on the interactions I’ve had with them, I think they know perfectly well Trump would be worse than Biden on this. They don’t care– they don’t see it as a matter of harm reduction, they see it as moral red lines that must never be crossed even if the outcome is worse. The whole system is rotten and has to be punished.
Emotionally, there’s a part of me that that resonates with. An inner drama king.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
As long as they waste my time asking why things are as bad as they are, it’s their choice to make.
Layer8Problem
@Matt McIrvin: “It’s a fair cop but society’s to blame.”
“Agreed, we’ll be charging them too.”
SFAW
@Matt McIrvin:
As noted classical philosopher TBogg once wrote: “You don’t live there. Grow the fuck up.”
Ruckus
Listened to about 10 seconds of some speech RKjr was attempting to give and wow, he does not sound good. Almost like he’s gargling rocks. Me thinks there is something wrong with this human. Seriously wrong. I could be mistaken of course…..
Matt McIrvin
@Ruckus: He has spasmodic dysphonia, a rare neurological condition of unknown origin. I wouldn’t hold *that* against him though I do wonder if his experience of a chronic condition inspired his tendency to hope to find some environmental/chemical cause for everything.
Ruckus
@The Thin Black Duke:
A floppy disc?
They were at least somewhat relevant at some point in history. I forget how many decades ago but they were. Has RFK jr ever been relevant? Even for a day? His uncle, his father, sure, very relevant to history. His only claim is the jr behind his name. And he’s making a mockery of that.
Hob
@Ruckus: There’s plenty wrong with him, but the voice thing is a medical condition. I honestly think its off-puttingness may be somewhat helpful to him with his really devoted followers: there’s a “my guy is un-smooth and un-pretty and that makes him authentic” factor, and also, it makes his incredible rambling long-windedness seem like a heroic struggle.
Bill Arnold
@SpaceUnit:
The Democratic-party-supporting anti-RFK-Jr efforts need to focus on themes that make him look bad to Democrats and good to Republicans.
Republicans will do (are doing) the opposite.
Ruckus
@Matt McIrvin:
His illness that I elude to isn’t his speech.
And no I do not hold his speech against him. Many humans have traits that affect them that are not relevant to their mental acuity. His speech is one of them.
His “illness” is him. And possibly his family history. It is a rich history, and I don’t mean monetarily rich, although that exists. We each have to, at some point, stand on our own 2 feet, be ourselves. In a family such as his, that is I believe, more difficult. He is 70 yrs old and his family’s accomplishments are well known. Where does that put him in the family history? Age is knocking on his door, what is he feeling his family obligations are? Play in the same schoolyard as his uncle, his father? Is this an ego thing? Is he trying to prove something rather than accomplish something? Because it seems like it.
Bobby Thomson
Fuck sternly worded letters. Sue the bastard.