Two of the most gargantuan, gaping assholes in Florida collided yesterday, and all I could think of when reading about it was the sad absence of a meteor. Gift link from the Post:
Former president Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis met privately Sunday morning in Miami, according to people familiar with the matter, breaking a years-long chill between the presumptive Republican nominee and his onetime chief primary rival…
The meeting was orchestrated by Steve Witkoff, a Florida real estate investor and developer both men know, and he attended. Witkoff called the former president’s team and asked for him to meet with DeSantis, a person familiar with the matter said.
Trump and DeSantis had not spoken since the end of a bruising primary season, where DeSantis dropped out after a disappointing finish in Iowa, following months of attacks from Trump and his supporters.
Trump, DeSantis and a mindbogglingly corrupt developer/GOP donor together in the same location? In Miami? And no (highly localized) destruction raining down from the sky? Thanks for nothing, Oort Cloud!
The newsiest bit of the article is toward the end, where reporter Josh Dawsey describes a scene reminiscent of a mob boss in straightened circumstances leaning on a discredited goon in his hour of need:
In recent weeks, DeSantis held an event for donors at a resort in Florida, and people close to him said he is potentially interested in running for president again in 2028. During the Republican primary, Trump told advisers he wanted to hurt DeSantis for 2028, too. But he has moved his focus on to Biden and his criminal trial in recent weeks, and Trump allies say he would favorably view DeSantis raising money for him.
Trump would welcome donations from Old Scratch himself, so that hardly needed to be said. For me, the amusing subtext is that DeSantis is caught in yet another ambition trap. His life has become a hellscape of ambition traps, where he’s forced to suck up to odious people and adopt unnatural mannerisms and wear strange articles of clothing in a fruitless quest for the White House.
I think the frustration of being caught in these traps accounts for the undercurrent of fury that’s always just below the surface with DeSantis, whether he’s awkwardly navigating a stage wearing wedge heels in cowboy-boot wrappers or raring back like an aggressive baboon to boom fake laughter at startled Iowans.
On a related note, there was speculation in the morning thread about Trump doing time. I still think that’s extremely unlikely, even if he loses the election (which I think he will) and is convicted on at least some counts. But he’s a miserable sumbitch right now too, and so is DeSantis. That’s real, so I will savor it.
Open thread.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Is there a live blog for Trump’s trial today?
Betty Cracker
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I haven’t followed it closely, but I think I heard court isn’t in session today?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betty Cracker: I just looked it up and you’re right. It’s still Passover.
NotMax
This close to a critical mass of MEranium
FastEdD
Two cases of anal-cranial inversion.
NotMax
@Dorothy A. Winsor
Sundown Tuesday is the eagerly anticipated return to bagels.
;)
Anonymous at Work
TFG won’t serve time. Any conviction will be followed by decades of appeals, serially covering issues that “law-and-order” Republicans would decry generally and Republican judges would reject if not submitted within days of a conviction.
He’ll plead this and that, get rejected, and raise a new issue, until he’s literally too old to incarcerate.
But the conviction will make him look weak and unable to respond and will drain his cult of their vigor.
SiubhanDuinne
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I’ve obviously lived too long away from NYC! I knew there was no trial today, but couldn’t think why. Last night of Pesach, of course, duh.
Mike in NC
No doubt an expert on selling swampland with an ocean view.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Dayenu.
:)
Scout211
Ugh. I feel so bad for Florida. Sorry, Betty. A meteor with good aim would have been perfect.
I tend to search for good news now and I did find this perusing the news this morning. SCOTUS rejected Elon’s appeal. He can’t get rid of the SEC’s “twitter sitter” requirement.
NotMax
@Scout211
Florida don’t do meteors.
On the other hand, sinkholes….
;)
Matt McIrvin
Before he was even President, when the stakes were lower, the Onion observed that Donald Trump is 100% certain to die someday and we can comfort ourselves with that.
We might be waiting a long time, especially if he manages to circumvent the constitutional term limit as he clearly wants to, and becomes President for Life–Robert Mugabe lived to a ripe old age. But it will happen someday.
TBone
Went to a supermarket that I don’t normally frequent today. This song came on over the speakers and I couldn’t help dancing, and the elderly (older than me) grannies there were GROOVING in the aisles with me, one said “Ain’t this a JAM!” and one then cussed and dropped an F bomb 😆✊
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=etviGf1uWlg
SUPERmarket, next time I’ll wear a cape 💙🤣
Betty Cracker
Florida Politics published a comment from Trump campaign manager and DeSantis enemy Susie Wiles on the meeting:
Wiles is a pro, so she frames the meeting to maximize Boss Trump’s power. There’s a lot of bad blood between Wiles and DeSantis, so she must be enjoying this.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
Dayenu right back atcha.
J.
Any chance Trump puts DeSantis on the ticket in return for his soul and a billion dollars?
wjca
@J.: more likely, promises to put him on the ticket, takes the billion, and then stiffs him.
prostratedragon
A large, very deep sinkhole is what I’d prescribe.
TBone
Attitude adjustment, the lyrics might be a call to action, as well as a simultaneous “kiss my ass.” For inspiration 🎶 to all the jackals and assorted beasts
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gBl2G8Bd-aI
HumboldtBlue
Old Man Shadow
One day, the sun will expand and consume the Earth with fire and everything that we were as a species will be burned with nuclear fire and erased from the universe and it shall all return to the stars which made it. Everything is ultimately meaningless and empty in the long scale of time.
Which still doesn’t change the fact that I have to go to work today.
prostratedragon
@NotMax: Gah, I see we think alike here!
Anonymous At Work
@Matt McIrvin: The dictators-for-life that lived to old ages were TFG’s age when they died, plus they didn’t scarf down McDonald’s at every meal. Instead, they usually had some weird all-vegetable diets based on three-thousand year traditions.
3Sice
Now go home and get your shinebox….
FLA housing market is soft and getting ripe, highest homeowners insurance rates in the country, highest inflation rate of any state, and this dull bulb thinks the big money boys will front another run in ’28 if he kisses CHUDS ass. Is he a complete idiot?
TBone
@3Sice: that was rhetorical question ❓
p.a.
Maybe he gets inciner… ah, incarcerated, a few days for violating the gag orders and threatening public officials?
Scout211
Ha ha ha.
DeSantis has a soul? You are so funny!
DeSantis has a billion dollars? You make me laugh!
Trump would share the ticket with a rival and a traitor to him?
Zero chance.
beckya57
Please keep pushing back on the TFG doing time fantasy. We liberals need to give that one up. As I keep telling my brothers (who haven’t yet let this fairy tale go), a society sufficiently degraded to promote, fetishize and ultimately “elect” (via the EC) someone like him isn’t capable of holding him fully accountable. I do think he’ll lose, but that will be followed by hand wringing about moving on (with elites desperate to flush this whole embarrassing episode down the nearest rabbit hole), which will prevent any prison time. Unfortunate, but inevitable.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
<Snort> As if either of those guys has ever had a passing thought about “policy”.
You younger BJers are too young to remember Dan Quayle, former holder of the World’s Dumbest VP title before Mike Pence shattered the record. I remember there was a brief period where his speechwriters tried to break the “dumb” image by having him quote Socrates.
I’m also reminded of the White House schedule when TFG was polluting it with his presence. “Had many important conversations with people.”
3Sice
@TBone:
I guess he and Casey really miss the private jet.
Tom Levenson
@NotMax: My Rabbi (in a conservative minyan), raised in Poland in a traditional household, Yeshiva bocher, and Holocaust survivor, accepted the reasoning (in place for some centuries!) that because it is possible to know the date on the Jewish calendar as precisely in the diaspora as in Eretz Yisroel…and exercised his choice under Conservative practice that it was permissible to follow the seven day rule.
All of which means chametz is again on the menu for us as of sundown tonight.
lollipopguild
Ex-president trump and desantis get together in Miami? Bad boys, bad boys what will you do when they come for you?
Bupalos
@Anonymous at Work: That’s one plausible scenario. Among a dozen others.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@3Sice: I have no problem imagining Casey browbeating him into this meeting for that reason. “And if he asks you to literally kiss his orange ass, guess what you’re going to do?”
tam1MI
A member of the “Uncommitted” crowd says the quiet part out loud:
“Maybe if the Democrats lose this election, they’ll learn their lesson. ”
These people are out to throw the election to Donald Trump by any means necessary. They should be treated accordingly.
Steeplejack
Straitened circumstances.
NotMax
@Ceci n est pas mon nym
Potatoe!
TBone
@p.a.: 😊
MisterForkbeard
Most of Ron DeSantis’ donor network was formed to… elect someone other than Trump. I’d have a hard time thinking this would get him much, except for the whole “Republicans always fold and support Trump” thing. See Bill Barr, who believes that Trump is a threat to the nation but so is Joe Biden, because he wants to phase out certain types of stoves.
They’re always going to find a way to support the Republican.
TBone
@3Sice: tacky Onassis must be livid 😆 oops living the dream!
TBone
@NotMax: poTAHtoe
That guy was so lumpy
Belafon
@tam1MI: If Democrats lose this election, it won’t be the party that will be learning a lesson.
Bupalos
@beckya57: This is one plausible scenario amidst dozens of others.
I do think it’s fair to say that a democracy unable to mount a more robust defense against a politician like Trump is not in a particularly healthy state and doesn’t have great prospects of recovering soon, with or without that particular orange tumor.
NotMax
@Tom Levenson
Hurry Sundown.
;)
Jeffro
“trump wanted to hurt DeSantis for 2028, too”
He could commit every act of vengeance , carry out all the humiliation and degradation of his enemies…and it STILL wouldn’t be enough for this malevolent clown. I hope Bill Barr thinks about that late at night, every night.
(it’s far too late now, Bill – you’re already on The List)
Maybe some enterprising reporter could ask trump for more details about it? Get him to open up a little, share some of his plans for going down his Enemies’ List post-Inauguration? It seems like something America ought to know a little more about.
TBone
Not sure how successful this effort will be but they’re not being quiet about it. Swing states need to be prepared for a lotta bullshit.
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2024/04/29/wisconsin-gop-launches-training-for-challenges-to-voting-processes/73455440007/
NotMax
@MisterForkbeard
And Bill “Has anybody seen my spine” Barr endorsed Dolt 45 last week.
Betty Cracker
@MisterForkbeard: Great point. DeSantis flamed out spectacularly, and maybe the people whose millions he set afire will remember that in a few years. He’s a dud. They should keep looking for a post-Trump savior. He ain’t it.
prostratedragon
Campus news from a couple of days ago:
Like Shafik at the Columbia University level, Rosenbury assumed office July 1 of last year. Her previous post had been at UF.
john b
@TBone: and they sample Green Acres in that song
Dorothy A. Winsor
@TBone: I think a lot them believe their own nonsense. The people they train will expect to see busses full of Black people pulling up to the polling place.
kindness
Just imagine Trump and DeSantis having to share a jail cell. Hide the bed sheets because DeSantis would either hang himself or hang Trump in no time at all.
Urza
Is Passover a holiday in New York? Wondering why a non Federal holiday would close courts.
rikyrah
Robbing them blind…
Robbing them blind..
BWA HA HA HA AH AH AHA HA HA HA H A
NotMax
@Urza
Discretion of the judge to set a calendar accommodating court staff and trial participants of a Hebraic bent.
rikyrah
@Urza:
YEP. Thought I read that all of the Jewish holidays were observed in NY State.
Jackie
@Betty Cracker: Gaetz has been challenged 😁
Nelle
@tam1MI: I talked politics with someone nearly forty years younger than me this weekend. She would probably be in the radical left crowd. She voted “Uncommitted” in her state’s primary to express displeasure with Gaza, but said, no question, she and her friends would be voting for Biden in the general. Take that crumb of comfort – that some message sending is being done in primaries, not the general.
Sure Lurkalot
There’s no depth these losers won’t stoop to, no humiliation they won’t bear to kiss the ring of a dementia addled authoritarian with shit for brains. Maybe Kari Lake can get a job vacuuming Mar a Lago, DeSantis, bringing his liege lord Diet Cokes?
rikyrah
@TBone:
Uh huh
Uh huh
Like anyone is playing with them. Nothing but an intimidation tactic.
J.
@wjca: True.
cain
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I usually go to https://mastodon.social/deck/@GottaLaff. She’s a lovely lady.
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I checked first thing this morning.
Trial resumes on Tuesday. Not sure whether the usual suspects will be live blogging, but I”ll bet someone will be.
Either way I’ll put up a thread for the trial when it resumes tomorrow.
JWR
Background Briefing this past Sunday was a good one, including two people I’m familiar with: Leah Litman, and polling guru Allan Lichtman, the latter interview overlapping a lot on the former. But both see SCOTUS even taking the immunity case as bonkers beyond belief.
I’m listening to the first interview now.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@cain: Thanks. It turns out there’s no trial today, but I’ll bookmark that for the next time.
Attempted Chemistry
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Quayle is somehow not the dumbest Republican Vice President from Indiana in my lifetime.
HinTN
@Urza: It’s a state court. The state’s do other than Federal holidays. Around these parts the county gummint shuts down for Good Friday.
cain
@TBone: lol – I was in college when that song came out – of course, ya’lls must have been in your late 20s or 30s. Still young enough to be hitting the clubs and groovin!
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Godless, secular humanist that I am, if the Orange Fart Cloud lives to be as old as noted and recently dead war criminal, Henry Fucking Kissinger, that’ll be proof positive there is no divine being. Or there is and it simply likes fucking with us.
Jinchi
Silly Ron.
Doesn’t he know that if Trump wins, he will be running again in 2028 after the SC affirms his argument that the 22nd Amendment is unconstitutional.
tam1MI
@Nelle: That is a real relief. So much hinges on this election – democracy itself hangs in the balance. For many on our side, it is quite simply a matter of survival.
Nix Besser (fmr. steppy)
This piece of work Witkoff tried to set up a $250,000 per person fundraiser at a suite at the upcoming Formula 1 race in Miami. That is a violation of policy for the suites at the track, but that wasn’t going to bother the likes of this Witkoff. Please enjoy the smackdown he received:
wjca
Neither will it be the people refusing to vote for Biden. For whatever reason. They saw what refusing to vote for Hilary Clinton got us. If they didn’t learn the lesson then, they are ineducable.
Ruckus
@FastEdD:
anal-cranial inversion
Did you invent this?
Three words that explain SFB and DeathSanta perfectly.
S Cerevisiae
@NotMax: oh yeah, both of them being swallowed up by a sinkhole would have been appropriate. Or tossing them a hive of Asian hornets. Or a swarm of botflies…
wjca
Here’s hoping that, when they don’t see those busses, they will congratulate themselves on their successfully stopping election fraud, declare victory, and go home pleased with themselves. Leaving poll workers free to get on with their** jobs without being hassled.
** I could say “our jobs”, since I am a poll worker. But the chances to seeing this on an organized level in this suburban part of California are pretty low.
lowtechcyclist
@JWR:
Ah yes, the “Keys to the Presidency.”
It’s been wrong, and Lichtman just redefined the meanings of a couple of his ‘keys’ so his system would be right after all.
Jinchi
So Jose Andres and his World Central Kitchen are in trouble with Congress now?
I find the willingness of elected leaders to constantly conflate Palestinians as a whole with Hamas absolutely disgusting.
Brachiator
Why does DeSantis look like an alien creature about to consume a human in the CSPAN still?
Is that supposed to be a simulation of a human laughing?
JoyceH
I’m one of those people who thinks that Trump will be imprisoned if he lives long enough. Why? Because he’s dangerous and there’s no other way to shut him up. Even if he no longer has classified documents (and he still might), he remembers stuff. He told that rich Aussie stuff about our submarines without having to look it up. Then there’s his cult. Someone out there is going to celebrate a Trump tweet by killing people. Continuing violence and continuing damage to national security, all issuing from Trump’s big mouth. He’s too dangerous to be allowed out on the loose.
lowtechcyclist
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
God was giving us more time to try that fucker Kissinger for war crimes, but we still blew it.
Yeah, I know, the U.S. isn’t party to the ICC (we blew it) but they could have tried him in absentia (so did they).
As for Dump, I want him to live to be 100 – in a prison cell.
Ruckus
@Anonymous at Work:
literally too old to incarcerate.
Umpossible.
SFB cannot ever be too old to incarcerate. Even if he is certifiably insane. And when he’s too old to any longer breathe, I think the paperwork should be shown to the public. Just to be sure.
lowtechcyclist
@wjca:
Oh, they’ll learn when they protest something Dump does as President, and they find themselves in Gitmo.
trollhattan
Call an electric waaaaambulance.
TBone
@john b: holy cow! The things I learn here! 😆❤️ It’s all worthwhile 😍
TBone
@Dorothy A. Winsor: it’s the volume (quantity) of bullshit from the unpaid volunteer task force they’re recruiting that is a concern to me, as well as the number of lawsuits we can expect. Gah!
TBone
@rikyrah: I like yer style. Bring it, motherfuckers! is a good attitude
frosty
Oh, hell, and here I was thinking positively for a little while. Back to yard work.
TBone
@Attempted Chemistry: ain’t this timeline grand?
Geminid
@Jinchi: I doubt if this resolution is directed at or applies World Central Kitchen. It shouldn’t be too hard to find out.
Barry
@p.a.:
“Maybe he gets inciner… ah, incarcerated, a few days for violating the gag orders and threatening public officials?”
IMHO, the word has come down from SCOTUS that Trump is Off Limits.
Ruckus
@Matt McIrvin:
SFB’s stress level is rather high. Of his own making I might add.
This will not serve him well for a long life. It’s already starting to show.
One of the reasons we retire is that as we age our ability to live with stress is reduced, and most jobs do raise the stress level a bit. But SFB is the sort of person who raises his stress level, just by being him. As one ages, stress, which always has a negative effect on living, does more damage. Some are better at resisting this level and/or better able to handle it. His age, stress level, personality, lifestyle and the trouble he seems to search for constantly do not do him any good – in any way, especially at his age. This is one reason we retire. And yes some humans do handle stress better than others. Joe Biden is an obvious example. SFB is a good example of the exact opposite, he invites stress, and then shows how well he can’t handle it.
JWR
@lowtechcyclist: I don’t know much about his polling, but I pointed out that the two interviews overlap nicely, and they didn’t discuss his personal polling methods much at all.
@Jinchi: Same here. But the knee-jerks in this country abound!
TBone
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: it’s the fucking with us option, I mean, wouldn’t you?
Soprano2
I re-listened to two stories I heard on NPR this morning just to make sure my impressions were right. The first one was where they went back to interview voters in PA about their choices. One woman, who says she’s voting for Biden, waxed nostalgic for how her 401K was going up and up and up during TFG’s term. What does she think it’s been doing for the past three years? Has she looked at it at all? (The interviewer doesn’t seem to know what the stock market has done for the past 3 years, because he didn’t ask her about it) The stock market has been hitting record numbers, if her 401K isn’t going up that’s not because of anything Biden is doing. I mean sheesh, my accounts have gone up the past 3 years.
The second story was an interview of Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Kind of) about immigration and how “centrist Democrats” want to bring back a bunch of the TFG immigration policies. She wants them to bring back Title 42 (the one that says we can keep immigrants out due to them being diseased) so they can deport all the asylum seekers. Then she says “but this isn’t a partisan issue” when the interviewer pointed out she sounds like a Republican. She talked about fentanyl and the border. The interviewer didn’t ask her if she knew how the vast majority of fentanyl from Mexico comes into the country – like the right-wingers she didn’t seem to understand that the vast majority of the drug is coming in through legal crossings brought by American citizens! Does she know that Border Patrol already can’t fill the openings they have, so voting to give them a bunch more is a mostly empty promise to try to make things better? These debates about immigration policy drive me crazy, because they rarely address the real problems we have, like needing thousands more immigration judges to clear the backlog of cases. It’s all centered around how to keep people out, because that’s what the loudest voices are screaming about. She mentioned the “remain in Mexico” policy without mentioning that the president of Mexico says he won’t cooperate with that again. I hate it when Democrats sound like Republicans on the issues. I agree that we need to fix immigration, but Title 42 and remain in Mexico aren’t going to fix anything. She also kept repeating that we didn’t have “operational control” of the border. That sounds like a Fox News talking point. I know she’s in a more conservative district, but if she wants to get elected as a Democrat she needs to be better at actually sounding like she’s one.
TBone
@JoyceH: come sit by me.
Soprano2
@Jinchi: Why are you surprised that they are equating a group of Muslims with a terrorist group (and they aren’t even all Muslims either)? They’ve been doing that at least since 9-11 if not sooner. I agree it’s disgusting, but I’m not surprised by it.
moops
I don’t get why Trump is automatically able to file appeals to his trial losses. You need to actually have a valid appeal case, don’t you? You can’t just appeal because you have lawyers willing to take your money to make fancy paperwork that says “nuh uh!” If the case was well prosecuted these appeals should be summarily rejected. Everyone involved in these cases have taken outrageous pains to leave no case for appeal.
How come Trump can just appeal as much as he likes and never face consequences?
Eyeroller
@Soprano2: We’ve been talking a lot about polling recently. A few days ago I saw a headline and synopsis for an Axios article, which I wasn’t about to click through to read, that claimed that polling showed that 2/3 of Americans think there is a BORDER CRISIS and it’s a terrible situation and no, they didn’t arrive at that from listening to media, why would you think that? The actual headline was something like “Americans Warm to Mass Deportations.” I am having a hard time believing that 2/3 figure which is why I mention polling issues, but clearly we are encountering strong nativist sentiments.
Citizen Alan
@J.: None. Shitgibbon likes obsequious toadies who will toe the line ideally until their life is on the line. (Pence literally had to reach the point of “I am not getting in that car because I’m safer with a mob that wants to hang me than with an SS detail in an undisclosed location.”) But Deathsantis is a psychopath with an unbridled ambition and his wife considers Lady MacBeth to be a role model. If I were Shitgibbon, I would be worried that VP Ron Desantis would try to get me killed in office somehow.
Citizen Alan
@tam1MI: I wonder if Palestinian-Americans who end up electing Trump will “learn their lesson” when he calls up Bibi his first day in office and says “America will not lift a finger to stop you if you exterminate every non-Jew in Gaza.”
Citizen Alan
@lowtechcyclist: Does that crowd ever protest Republicans?
JoeyJoeJoe
@Soprano2: I think that the problem is that if she does sound more like a regular democrat, then the voters are just going to choose a republican over her. For me, I’d rather have someone like her, who will vote right at least some of the time, over a republican, who will probably never do the right thing, not to mention that she will vote for Democratic leadership in the House, which I think is the most important thing
Jinchi
@Geminid:
I don’t actually think the resolution is directed at WCK, it’s clearly meant to target groups who are vocally calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, and specifically public universities.
But it’s implicit in the title: Andres supports the Palestinian cause of feeding people in the war zone.
Jinchi
@Soprano2: I never said I was surprised.
Betty
@Soprano2: She needs to be better informed. That should be someone’s responsibility. NPR’s maybe?
Soprano2
@JoeyJoeJoe: I guess what I’m thinking is that there are better ways to make those arguments that don’t involve using all the Republican talking points. I understand all the stuff about better a conservative Democrat than a Republican, but I think they need to learn to talk about these things in a more constructive way. She said we don’t have “operational control” of the border but when the interviewer asked her to define that she didn’t, and instead pivoted to something else, and he didn’t follow up.
Soprano2
I read the article about the Muslims in Dearborn who are actively campaigning to defeat Biden. I found their logic idiotic to say the least. I understand their unhappiness, but they talk about TFG as if he has no track record re: Israel and Bibi. They seem to think somehow that TFG could get Bibi to quit bombing their relatives in Gaza. Have they listened to him at all? I’m absolutely certain that TFG would tell Bibi that he won’t lift a finger to do anything even if Bibi wants to kill every Palestinian in Gaza. This is knowable, for Christ’s sake! There were people interviewed who are more pragmatic about it – the Muslim mayor of Dearborn, for example, who mentions all the terrible things TFG did re: Israel and the Palestinians and Muslims in the ME. He knows TFG won’t be any better for Palestinians than Biden, and will probably be worse BASED ON HIS TRACK RECORD. The anti-Biden people really do talk about TFG as if he wasn’t president before so they have no idea what he would actually do. That sounds nonsensical to me.
allium
“Maybe if the Democrats lose this election, they’ll learn their lesson.”
Real Ernst Thällman energy there.
JML
@moops: it’s rare that there’s nothing that’s worth considering on appeal, because there are always judgment calls, and the more complex the case the more opportunities to consider things on appeal. If you have the money, you can keep appealing a lot. Because of who TFG is, appeals will likely keep him out of prison. Most people would have to go to jail and could keep appealing from behind bars (like that slime Harvey Weinstein)), and once the money dries up or they’re already serving out the sentence they give up…
Brachiator
@tam1MI:
RE: “Maybe if the Democrats lose this election, they’ll learn their lesson. ”
You should have posted the quote in context.
This is not about love for Trump. It is about the pain felt for what is happening to people in Gaza.
mrmoshpotato
Excellent description of DeathSantis.
Geminid
@Jinchi: You are saying Congress is going after World Central Kitchen because this is implicit in the title of a podcast segment. But that podcast title does not define the scope of the resolution Congress passed.
Soprano2
@Brachiator: Yes, and in their pain they’re ready to elect a man who is known to be worse for Palestinians than Biden. HE IS WORSE. Do they think he would lift a finger to stop what Bibi is doing? I just want them to admit that this isn’t about TFG being better, it’s about hurting Biden because of their rage at him, and they don’t care who else they hurt in the process. Just admit it. It doesn’t matter whether they love TFG or not, the result is the same.
Manyakitty
@Soprano2: he literally wants to develop Gaza with luxury condos. Anyone who thinks he’ll be better for Palestinians or Muslims is ignoring reality.
Geminid
@Manyakitty: I’ve seen plenty of “pro-Israeli” and a lesser number “pro-Palestinian” advocates say that Trump would give their side a better deal. This is projection; Trump has shown repeatedly that he does not care about Israelis, Palestinians, or anyone else other than himself.
prostratedragon
@Soprano2; @Manyakitty:
First and foremost to me is, who will be better here, including better at respecting free expression. No one kmows better than an African-American voter that sometimes you’d better take what you can get and, as the song says, keep on pushin’ (which actually might be a fair description of Biden’s Israel-Palestine policy).
tam1MI
Very well put and the absolute truth.
Sister Golden Bear
@Soprano2: IIRC, at least some of leaders of the Muslim efforts in Dearborn just happened to be long-time Republicans who voted for Trump. One may have been a Republican Patty official.
tam1MI
Quelle surprise.
Brachiator
@Soprano2:
You say he is worse. How do you know? Have you ever watched your people be ground into the dust and feel that you had no options?
I don’t agree with the decision to reject Biden, but I understand the desperation. I think it is foolish to compare apparent failures in Biden policy to dreams that Trump might do better. But I understand how some people will grasp at anything and create hope out of nothing. I don’t think that this is rational, but people are not always rational.
During the Balkan crisis, a secretary of Croatian descent was frantically trying to get family members out of the area. She would have sold her soul to the Devil to make a deal. She didn’t give a shit about who was running for president or diplomatic niceties.
I don’t think that this is true at all.
Have you ever watched the commentary of Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef? Some Muslims have given up hope that America will be anything other than the faithful poodle of Israel. This despair goes far beyond any consideration of Biden or Trump. I don’t understand why Americans don’t understand this, or only allow it to some people, but not others.
Gloria DryGarden
@JoyceH: I hope you are right. I want you to be right. Lock him up!
He has no apparent regard for national security, nor for the expertise of advisors. He’s Already revealed classified info, a few times, just to show off. Isn’t that already treason? So dangerous.
im not enjoying my helpless anger, that he’s on the loose, out saying anything, sowing his chaos and continuing to violate the safety of persons, the nation, and probably, the safety of many countries.
Gloria DryGarden
Re “unfit for office”
I’m appalled that the republican candidate for USA president might start to get security intelligence briefs. I understand it’s a normal courtesy. However, his admin definitely did nothing to forward the transfer of information to Biden, including Kushner saying absolutely not, don’t brief him on Covid. They fight so dirty. Don’t give them the benefit of the doubt.
I’d like to see a requirement that a candidate has to pass a high security clearance in advance of running for office. TFG is not to be trusted with anything.
i’d also like if they do agree to share intel, that they’d feed him false security info, and then track where it leaks.
Bill Arnold
@Gloria DryGarden:
That is known as a Canary trap.
VFX Lurker
Because he held the Presidency for four years, and he set the table for what’s happening in Gaza now.
Chris T.
@Matt McIrvin:
He’s so unhealthy, with body and brain both deteriorating fast, that it shouldn’t be all that long. He has very lucky genetics except for the dementia part but he’s abused his body pretty badly and his relatives don’t imply that much more time.
I still expect him to go within about two years at this point. He can certainly delay jail time for that long, of course.
Chris T.
@moops:
No. Why would you think that?
One does need a certain degree of credibility to make any progress with such an appeal, but unfortunately, that’s always available for sale.