They don't really have anything else to run on. "Hey, we are cutting taxes for billionaires again" isn't riling up the base.

It's been a dying party on a national level for decades now. Barring a huge shift, I don't see that changing.

DeSantis campaign seemed really into making 4chan memes. Weirdest campaign I can ever remember.

‘This belongs in the Smithsonian’: Inside the meme video operation that swallowed Ron DeSantis’ campaign | Semafor

Meanwhile the king still has it.

Attention Required! | Cloudflare

And this, I swear this guy has asperger's

"He can reboot his campaign as many times as he likes but his campaign can't change the fact that he...is a charm-free, charisma-free, humor-free zone, a rigid, unlikable, antisocial automaton of a pres. candidate." @MehdiRHasan and @AymanM roast DeSantis in tonight's #handover. pic.twitter.com/enrK2bxBSb

— The Mehdi Hasan Show (@MehdiHasanShow) July 31, 2023

Tim Scott, disappointingly, reacts to the Trump J6 indictment with a whataboutHunterBiden

He's the one GOP candidate that was seeming to offer something other than the same old story. But if he's just gonna be another Trump-but-not-actually-Trump candidate, then what's the point?

He's young enough to still want a career in politics as a conservative, so of course that's the route he takes. The ones who speak out are old, retiring, or looking for different jobs that don't require them to bow down to Trump or his followers. That's really the only test I see for who falls into which category.

He is angling to be Trump's VP.

I hadn't really considered that with Trump's known aversion to reading/working, let alone these hundreds of charges and his advanced age, that VP role is probably as attractive as it will ever get. It's probably true that these folks have more & better paths to the presidency via kissing ass and hoping to get appointed VP than attempting to beat him in the primary.

Ramaswamy is a 9/11 truther.

Great party they got.

All that sucking up to be vp and he will probably end up choosing RFK Jr

This should be entertaining.

Gives both a stage that they can/hope to build on; gives Hannity a chance to come back at Fox (?) or at least thumb his nose at them one more time.

Ron DeSantis agrees to debate Gavin Newsom on Fox News - POLITICO

Seems bad for Biden either way.

If Newsom bombs, then Dems look bad generally.

If Newsom does awesome, then the story becomes why can't we have him running instead of Biden.

Rest of the story.

Ramaswamy: I ‘don’t believe’ the 9/11 Commission report - POLITICO

I don't think its unreasonable to question SA involvement. Very easy to believe we covered up "some/tangential" Princeling/senior officials involvement because we're beholden to their oil. The 911 findings below.

This is the game these kinds of people play knowing how many people get information only from their specific silos. To a true conspiracy theorist, he said just enough on freaking Blaze TV to appeal to them. Do many of those same people care about other news sources where he cleans this up for the rest of us? Probably not. So he's effectively given 2 different answers that can co-exist to appease 2 totally different types of people. I have a hard time not believing that isn't done purposefully. It's like an art form these days.

I don't get why Newsome would do this unless he is testing the waters for a presidential run. Everyone on the right will say he was destroyed by DeSantis. Everyone on the left, if they watch, will say he killed it. Not one person will be swayed either way. DeSantis isn't going to win the nomination. I honestly think even if Trump bows out he may not win. So if Newsomes goal is just to make him malfunction in front of his supporters, cool I guess, but otherwise it seems odd.

I think he might be trying to be "forced" to run. Get enough exposure and popularity that he can pretend he was drafted by the overwhelming support of the people.

And if he objectively does well, maybe the donors/DNC make a push to force Biden aside if they feel like he's a viable candidate.

I wouldn't cry about it, but he would not be my first choice.

Speaking of how the "next" ejecting is always the most important in the history of the world. Far right personalities are now equating the j6 indictments as "assassination" and are suggesting that perhaps in kind action is the only action that will win the 2024 election

I imagine the next ejecting would be the most important one for any pilot.

Leave the man alone. He may have been trying to land a plane when he was typing that!

No comment

I imagine other planes pulling up next to you, seeing you glancing down to your phone and typing, giving the "tsk tsk" shake of the head, and flying off.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your pilot speaking. We are about to encounter some turbulence, so I've put the fasten seat belt sign back on. More importantly, my Instagram is blowing up this afternoon thanks to some pics I have up from the Taylor Swift concert. So things are pretty freaking sweet right now."

"Ladies, we were about to take off, but I need to pause for a moment because someone is very wrong on the internet."

He meant to type "'next' erection is always the most important in the history of the world..." but a boy came into the cockpit and he go distracted by gladiator talk.

Nice first step. Wonder if he'll repeat this out loud in his future rallies vs just reporters. I'm sure they'll be asked "the" 2020 election question in GOP debates.

DeSantis: Trump's 2020 election fraud theories were 'unsubstantiated' | CNN Politics

This is probably why he pivoted. He's still a shitbag.

DeSantis’s biggest donor cuts off funds, demands moderate shift | The Hill

DeSantis’s biggest donor cuts off funds, demands moderate shift

He still trying to ride the surf board. "It wasn't the way I want an election to run, but it was by the rules." It is an excuse for more voter suppression laws targeting minorities and major populated areas. If you can't win over the majority, then disenfranchise the majority.

Looks like his committed to (re)stating this. He does need to do something to shake it up some.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/07/ron-...on-claims.html
Smart of him to add below. He'll lose the true believers but maybe he'll get the more "moderate" Republicans.

Supporting or voting for an extremist like DeSantis means that you aren't a moderate.

Agree. In fact I am not sure his stuff isn’t more extreme then Trumps shit.

Pence has qualified for the GOP debates.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/08/mike...-desantis.html
Good move for Trump to avoid the debates (or at least the first/early one). He doesn't need the debate, if I was him I would plan an event/rally during the first debate.

Of course the same people agreeing Trump shouldn't debate are the ones yelling because Biden won't debate RFK. The hypocrisy never ends.

Looks like Ron is going to change things up. I do wonder if former campaign manager is just a convenient scapegoat

So far he's tried fighting culture wars, tried taking trump on indirectly by creating ads that his campaign would "leak" online to desantis supporters with large twitter followings, and refused to shift in any meaningful way as donations have dried up.

Then you have the motorcade accident that showed he was using state resources (the car and florida police) to campaign out of state.

DeSantis held a weird press conference today where he announced the suspension of another elected state attorney. Two sheriffs from counties that don't overlap in any way with her district spoke at the press conference to bash her and shared one shared a weird printed meme.

Spoiler alert: the state attorney is a black democrat

DeSantis suspends another elected prosecutor in move derided as ‘politically motivated’ - POLITICO

Trump refusing to sign a pledge saying he'd support the nominee while the other candidates pledge to support Trump is just a perfect representation of the whole GOP primary.

dola

Ramaswamy's rise as he's gotten progressively crazier is a bad sign for the future GOP.

I saw a thing the other day where someone was calling him the GOP version of Obama and almost puked.

If that's not code for "I'm gonna lose so I'm gonna play it off like I don't want to keep fighting" I don't know what does. Maybe Elon making excuses about needing surgery instead of fighting Zuckerberg. Two peas in a pod.

What a shitshow of a disaster this guy is.

Ron DeSantis campaign suffers another blow after debate memos published | Ron DeSantis | The Guardian

I can't believe they are running the 2016 strategy of hoping to be the one that gets all of Trump's supporters when he drops out.

The sooner DeSantis drops out the more likely his chances of retaining some sort of national political future. He's going to be the target for everyone at each debate until he's humiliated enough to shrink into nothingness.

If Trump can run for President then he's getting the nomination. Really the best any other Republican candidate can hope for is that Trump is unable/unwilling to run and then try to scoop up Trump's base.

Taxes are too low if rich people are willing to throw away a billion dollars on the chance that their guy might still be standing when Trump drops out.

They are all hoping he isn't eligible and they get the nomination. Even if that happened I don't think DeSantis would get it. My money is on Vivek.

I suspect Christie will bury him next week.

Christie does have a history of throat-punching FL lightweights.

Agree on DeSantis. I was completely wrong about his chances.

DeSantis is playing to a base that will never support anyone besides Trump IMO.

DeSantis seems like that guy you see at a backyard BBQ who's trying to hold court but ends up in solo conversations by sneaking up on people by grabbing their shoulder and saying something stupid loudly.

He can't lose eligibility. If where convicted on every account, he would still be eligible. The Constitutional requirements is silent on legal convictions. The craziest thing in the world would be him winning the election in Fulton county jail, which is not likely but not impossible.

There is a movement out there, believe it or no started by 2 guys from the federalist society, that he violated clause 3 of the 14th amendment and is ineligible to run.

Ultimately conviction or no the question of eligibility will be sent to the Supreme Court.

I think the chance of him being in the Fulton county jail as he wins the election is higher than that working.

Btw, hours after he said that Disney filed additional lawsuits against the state of Florida for breach of contract. I don't think they are moving on.

I don't know how it plays out, but it was a clear violation of the 1st Amendment. Guessing he wants to move on before they get to go through communication and get some of his employees into a deposition.

Maybe but this isn’t some fringe crackpot coming up with this. It’s ivy league scholars and members of the federalist society. You have to at least give it some credence.

Disney threatens small time bakeries who make Disney themed cakes. But I'm sure they'd "move on" for Ron.

I peeled off a raisin off the bottom of my shoe. I think it would make a GREAT republican candidate!

Scheduling is not confirmed yet but ...

Smart move for Trump. Smart move for Tucker. And for the first debate, I like it for the rest of the field. Gives them the ability to differentiate from one another vs. attacking/reacting to Trump.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/18/trum...r-carlson.html

It was Ivy league guys from the Federalist society who said that state legislatures can just throw out the votes of the people and decide who gets their state electors after a election. I don't trust Federalist society lawyers to come in out of the rain.

Unless I’m mistaken the federalist guys came up with it but the Yale lawyers looking at it aren’t part of them.

Apparently it's an increasingly minority opinion, but I still think it's a lot more important whether or not people are still going to support Trump than it is whether he is ruled ineligible to run. Him being ruled ineligible and people declaring victory over Trumpism doesn't fill me with happy thoughts; I'm not sure it does more than just kick the can down the road if that's all that happens.

re: ineligibility. What I've been reading says the only hope is the 14th amendment (insurrection). It'll be tested if he is convicted of that but suspect there's enough "gray" area stuff where he'll still sit in office if elected. And if it does get expedited to SCOTUS, fair chance he'll come out a winner.

So in other words, Dems need to forget their "hopism" and face reality that his name will be on the ballot. They better get their act together in supporting Joe and getting out the vote.

Thats a pipe dream. Trumpism is a cult and anyone who hasn't abandoned him at this point never will.

Best thing for our nation, at least in the relative short term is Trump is ruled ineligible, his base is disenfranchised and stays home, and this wretched current version of the GOP completes its death spiral and never holds power again.

The Supreme Court isn't going to rule Trump ineligible. All this is is an exercise for some bored Ivy leaguers.

If so, then Trump being ineligible doesn't gain us much. It doesn't address the underlying problem.

Of course it does. It ensures, at least for a time, that maniacs won't be running our government.

These people have always been here, Trump just let them crawl out from under their rocks and normalize this shit. Cut off the head of the snake and all those people will crawl back to where they came from.

We'll see, but I don't think this is the case. I don't think it's an accident that Trump emerged when he did and that a number of other nations saw a rise in similar forms of extremism to varying degrees at about the same time. We're not going to back to, for example, country-club Republicanism a la Romney and the Bushes no matter what happens to Trump. Modern democratic societies, especially but not soley the US, are more broken than that.

Do you honestly think there isn't a rather significant number of Trump supporters that will just stay home once he becomes irrelevant or dies?

For a lot of those people it isn't about politics or the GOP. They literally see him as a god like figure. They aren't turning out for anyone else.

It is why I think he has completely destroyed the party for the foreseeable future and good riddance I say. They likely can't win with him and certainly can't win without him.

It's a cult.

Why haven’t the indictments hurt?

In part it’s b/c Trump voters generally believe it's Trump who tells them the truth.
More than conservative media and their own friends & family.
Trump leads among those say it's very important a nominee is honest & trustworthy. pic.twitter.com/WwR8GWci8l

— CBS News Poll (@CBSNewsPoll) August 20, 2023

Yeah just kinda mindboggling to me, Trump has never once personally shown that he has evidence that the election was stolen. He could have released it any time and thrown the country into chaos more than it already is if it were true. After the election they lost over 60 lawsuits and won just one. But yet they keep still believing he has the evidence of Democrats cheating, even though no journalist from the right, left or independent has any evidence of it at all. People have gone to jail for years and years because they truly believed Trump's words over every one when there is nothing to back it up.



I hope the trials over Jan 6 are televised and they are finally forced to hear the evidence and Trump's lack of.

Yeah there's obviously some weird flavor of delusion going on in that world. I think if you pressed those exact same people about Trump's constant lying they would insist they know he exaggerates everything, and it's smart for him to him to cheat on his taxes, it's just good business to go bankrupt and defraud charities, it's manly for him to cheat on his wives, but in matters of politics he always tells the absolute truth...as long as you are wise enough to interpret it.

Speaking of cults...


https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/s...41330997416075

I overhear some people at work or around town, I think a lot of people don't care/don't really follow any of this, they vote Republican because they think maybe their gas will be a little cheaper, or they just don't like Democrats. I think we underestimate the number of people who don't follow any of this, who might not know anything about the charges or even know that they exist.

Or, that's a me using a defense mechanism...

My mom falls into this group. She doesn't know much of anything about Trump but has voted republican her whole life and continues to do so. She doesn't even know what the wedge issues between Dems/GOP tend to be. She lives in WV and gets the vast majority of her news from facebook, though, so she knows she likes Trump.

I think this is right, but it requires a lot of moderate GOPers to vote D and that's tough to make actually happen.

Historian Jon Meacham: “The only way to fix the GOP is to have it continue to lose. I genuinely believe that it will be the ballot that convinces Republicans that they have to do something about this flight from reason.”

The only way out is through. pic.twitter.com/uyx8oOMwXB

— Heath Mayo (@HeathMayo) August 20, 2023

They haven't won anything since 2016 and they're still on the Trump train because it drives turnout.

It's amazing, really. They allowed Trump to take such a hold on the GOP because he's driven away a significant portion of swing voters, turned away suburban moms and other groups, but he's brought in enough people that generally don't follow politics to keep elections competitive. Since that base is all that's keeping the GOP competitive right now they're trying to ride out the Trump wave. Losing isn't bothering them because accepting these MAGA voters is the only way they can win an election right now and the party refuses to look at the big picture in the long term.

The GOP has had countless opportunities to take an exit away from Trump yet here we are. I think it's naive at this point to think further losing is going to do anything more than embolden them to act on the belief that the only reason they're losing is because dems are stealing elections.

We're going to see MAGA splinter groups for the foreseeable future. Whether it's moms for liberty or whatever comes along next. These groups are really good at finding weaknesses in local leadership, taking over, and creating movements into national politics.

There aren't enough moderate Republicans left because they all electorally die in the primary. Liz Cheney went from 74% to 29% in 2 years because she voted to impeach their deity. She had voted with Trump 93% of the time previously.

The GOP hasn't lost enough. They need an LBJ or Reagan style ass whipping. They need a beating harsh enough so that they can't see a way to power without modifying their politics.

That won't take a huge amount of voters. If the GOP lost ten percent of their voters they would be wiped out nationally.

Once Trumo isnt the nominee they will.

My mom and stepdad fall into this as well. I try to tell them the awful shit that is being spewed by the right, but the church they go to gets political and alters their view of the candidates.

They are good people and they don't even had cable or local TV(they can only watch movies.) They live so far off the road they can't even get internet or a landline phone, let alone cell signal so most of the information they get....best I can call it....invented. It all comes from someone else and gets put through a strange leanse that I don't understand considering how good of people they are and how many people they help. My step-dad literally went to Guatemala as a missionary and used his skills as an electrical lineman to run electric to entire towns while he was there for no compensation. Alot of these people just don't understand how far these political parties have shifted.

Somehow it was predictable that the more he gets indicted the more his support grows.

I suspect that support comes from people in the GOP who were undecided but at the end of the day would have fallen in line with him as the nominee.

If independents or dems are buying in to the political persecution theory I would be very surprised but if they are we are fucked and we would get what we deserved.

Ramaswamy with another I'm not really a 9-11 truther comment.

What the hell is the suggestion there? The same as what was spread around the time that new Jewish people were at work in the towers on 911? They knew?

He went on to ask how many federal agents were involved in 1/6, but you can get to that without going through 9/11 conspiracies. He's either a truther or he sees some sort of value in communicating to believers that he's on their side.

Stolen from elsewhere:

First question at the GOP debate--raise your hand if you think Mike Pence should have been hanged on 1/6.

And every candidate eagerly raises their hand, including Mike Pence.

re: 9/11. I think too early to judge, he's saying he was misquoted. Per his request, no idea on when he asked for it, but you'd think the reporter can provide the recording (did the reporter really refuse?).

Access to this page has been denied

re: Jan 6. This one is more interesting. Unsure what he is getting at ... so what if there were federal agents a the Capitol? Is he saying they contributed to the rush into the Capitol?

Access to this page has been denied

Vivek, next time you sit down with a reporter, just do your own recording.

He did eventually get to 1/6, but he was clearly using 9/11 as a way to get to his point about 1/6. It doesn't make any logical sense to say he was really just talking about 1/6.

He asked for the recording which I think is fair (and the reporter shouldn't have an issue providing to him) so it's put up or shut up for him. Right now it's in the reporter's court.

I believe the Atlantic reporter has publically released the audio.

Thanks, saw it. Behind a paywall so I'll wait for the pundits to analyze who is right/wrong here.

Just basic conspiracy theory mumbo-jumbo then. Open with something you know is true, like "were there uncover Federal Agents in the crowd at 1/6?" (of course there were. The question is what they were doing not if they were there) or "the government has not told us everything about 9/11" (of course they haven't. There are intelligence gathering that will probably never be declassified because it would be dangerous if it were made public).

Trump's PAC trolling the upcoming debate by calling it the Vice Presidential Debate: Vice Presidential Debate 2024

And pretty sure they have the fly on Pence's head. The fact that so many of them are so spineless and cannot believe that he will burn it all down before letting anyone else run is hard to fathom.