Dola, regarding Desantis.

He seems pretty similar to Scott Walker in 2016. And someone else mentioned Jindal, although I'd argue that his lack of charisma during his state of the union rebuttal sunk him. Some of this stuff excites the base, but just doesn't play nationally.

Some of the quotes in this article an insane and so telling as to why Murdoch ponied up. Man I wish this had gone to trial.

These dopes think that ticket would guarantee the White House. Not sure anyone could bring out even more of an anti trump vote but if there is it’s tucker Carlson. Not to mention all dems would have to do is run some of the shit he has said in shows on a loop.

I'm pretty sure it will be the podcast world. It doesn't have the reach of Fox, but he can make more money than he did since he can basically own it all himself.

And it's a point that I do not believe his backers really understand ... and it's going to end up being costly.

I'm absolutely certain he has no chance in hell of winning in November, which cools my support considerably.

It won't end it though, I'd rather lose with him than win with some even more useless lightweight.

I'm seeing some reporting now that also factoring into Tucker's firing is the lawsuit by the ex-Fox producer which she said Tucker had some pretty horrible stuff about women. And that the firing came straight from Murdoch

Sounds like it just hit the point where there was too much baggage and with all the lawsuits he was a liability.

And on Good News Monday, Fani Willis Georgia DA revealed to local law enforcement that the indictments will be served sometime from mid july to early September. Can someone say "Hot Lanta!"

Here's what I don't get though about that line of thinking. Why is it just him leaving the network?

Why isn't Hannity or Jeanine Pirro also getting the boot?

Why so long?

That is too late. IT will be tied up in courts until he is the nominee then we will be told they can't charge him and it will be dropped.

I stand by my statement that nothing will ever be done to hold him truly accountable.

My guess is the other personalities can be controlled and they know Carlson can't be.

It's state not Federal. I would be more worried with the Georgia GOP trying to stop her before she announces,

I am well aware of who is charging who. Doesn't mean Georgia won't follow the DOJ playbook

You think CNN which is supposed to go more conservative will throw money at Tucker?

CNN is risk-averse. I don't see it.

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Oh come one, how fun would it be to see Lemon and Fox and Carlson at CNN both confessing they have been playing for the wrong team all these years and hawking the agenda they both despised all these years.

Here you go Lathum, this guy knows what he's talking about, and doesn't like "doomsayers"


https://twitter.com/PalmerReport/sta...36011230334976

That guy is a clown and is wrong way more often then right. He has been saying "we got him this time!!" for years.

Tucker's been fired at all three 24/7 networks. Quite an accomplishment.

From what I can tell, Fox News higher up were shook by things that were found in discovery for the Dominion trial and the alleged audio recordings that the producer who is suing them has. They do not expect things that were redacted to stay redacted so they decided to get out in front of it. I wonder does Tucker have an NDA?

It sounds like there is a lawsuit by a former worker and there is some really bad stuff that will come out about Tucker and his producer from it. Guessing that's why he got the axe.

Is that it? I honestly don't understand why his presidential candidacy would die now because he is the same guy he has always been. Maybe it was the expectation that Trump would not run for office again and he would be Trump's hand picked successor. It is also possible that all the people who would vote for DeSantis nationwide have all moved to Florida.

Droves of people have moved to Florida. Everyone except Jon.

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Nothing in that story sounds like it would make Tucker Carlson watches walk away from Tucker Carlson.



SI

Who had both Tucker and Lemon fired in the pool?

That seemed like a fair bet for a very short while, but then Trump's ego got stoked.

Either could win the nomination with the support of the other, I'm not entirely sure either can win it without.

Introducing a new buddy cop show from two guys that are fed up and taking no prisoners....

Tucker and Lemon

Incidently Tucker and Lemon just hired the same high powered entertainment lawyer to get themselves to nice payouts. That's more money from Murdoch :)

Add Gorsuch to the crooked as hell list of Justices. How much time do we have as a nation? 15, maybe 20 years?

.

What's to say we're not already passed the point of no return and all that's left is the inevitable?


I'm not saying that's etched in stone. I'm just saying we don't know.


SI

Oh I think we are passed. MTG is bat shit crazy. But maybe is on to something with her national divorce.

The damage done by something like that would positively dwarf the current problems we have.

FWIW, that basic premise was suggested to me somewhere around 1994 or so

I feel like I ought to be ... discreet let's say ... in the specifics but it was relayed to me by a respected (R) figure who I happened to know personally (through a non-political connection), but attributed to a prominent (D) of the time.

It was a point that the two decidedly different figures agreed upon, and was the basis of one of the most genuinely thought provoking conversations I've had in my life before or since. (I would have been just shy of 27 years old)

This board is at it's peak old-manishness when there's a discussion of how the country won't survive whatever is happening.

I mean, here, let me drop in something a little less glib

For American "prosperity", things were never going to be as good as they were in the 50s and 60s. Coming off WW2, we basically had the only functioning first-world economy as all the rest had been bombed to hell. The crumbling of the Soviets now shows us in hindsight that their power was a lot of a mirage so militarily and influence-wise'. If you were white and male and straight and Christian and American, it was probably the best time in history to be alive.

That said, if you were not one of those, maybe you're not as enthusiastic about times when there were colored and white drinking fountains, abortions were done with coat hangers, and any sex other than straight missionary-style better not be found out about lest you're lynched, murdered, sent to jail, or have to bleed to death. That tends to put a bit of a damper on conversations about prosperity, upward mobility, and supposed freedom.

There's no one caning anyone in the Senate or doing a duel, as has happened in hour history. I think we can reasonably look at the level of discord going on in politics, both in Congress and on the street and go "hey, this is probably as bad as it's been in our lifetimes". May be true or may not be true - to my naked eye, it seems pretty true, but I'm far from an expert and don't have measurements to back that up.

That said, I don't think McConnell or Schumer are going to be trying to kill each other any time soon - they both know how the game is played and how these rules are and they're not all that different than when Newt went and reset a lot of the rules and norms back in the 90s. I'm sure McConnell doesn't care for MTG, for instance. He wants professionals, people that can be relied upon, people that play the team game. But if he can't have that, he can make do with useful idiots, too.I've long maintained that there are carnival barkers and true believers and so long as the former has the upper hand, the latter are merely a nuisance.

I think a lot about the first line of A Tale of Two Cities. Not the "best of times, worst of times" part, but the "in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only". Every time thinks they're living through the end of times or best times or whatever. However, I think it's unfair to dismiss concerns about the modern time as just being historical noise. Dickens point kindof gets undercut by the fact that A Tale of Two Cities was written about the French Revolution and I think most would argue that was a hugely important historical time. Maybe we are approaching another Civil War or a cold Civil War. People writing about that in 1855 were probably considered alarmist at the time. But people writing about it in 1968, would have been wrong.

SI

Twice in short order you remind me of some related observation.

This time it's my recent caution -- to all sides -- that "NO candidate gets elected without votes from a certain number of idiots".

(i.e. it's no longer mathematically possible to get to 50% without including some idiots)

Was it ever?


SI

I think so, maybe?

Regardless, it's a point that seems pretty lost today (I can't speak to whether it was realized in previous eras)

Nope. I think it's largely just more obvious now, like many problems. Also there's the intensifying effect where people become more aware of the problems, leading them to search for solutions more desperately, often turning to the wrong ones.


I think in general, regular posters on this board are smarter than the average person.

And smarter than your average bear.

So it seems Russia Today is playing foot-sy with Tucker Carlson. How did we not guess that? I bet they will pay him whatever he wants to get more eyeballs on Russian propaganda. He was already by far their favorite host.

Isn't that George Carlin quote mathematically wrong though? Shouldn't he be saying that half of people are smarter than the MEDIAN person and not the AVERAGE?

Hyperbole Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster

<3

I legit can't tell the difference between hyperbole and seriousness with quite a bit of what is said on this board. For example, what you said here is quite a bit more reasonable from my perspective than many things which are treated with complete seriousness.

Here is a hint. If I, or most anyone else, endorses an idea by MTG it is not meant to be serious.

Iowa reps upset their farm welfare might be cut in the new GOP budget.

House Rs from Iowa walking into Speaker McCarthy’s office as they take issue with the debt ceiling plan re. Ethanol pic.twitter.com/lhiGU0n84k

— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) April 25, 2023

Heeeeeeey BooBoo ...

But then he'd have to explain the difference between the two and even his audience wasn't going to wanna parse that lol

Jon makes a good point

Do you think they realize that's called "Socialism"?

Growing up I was taught that North Dakota was one of the most socialist states because they were one of the very, very few states that actually had a state run bank(still do).

No one wants any of your disgusting High Fructose Corn Syrup, farmies...

Stolen from SCTV page:



Following firing of Lemon and Carlson, Earl Camembert out at SCTV!

The thing about "cutting government spending" is that it sounds great in the abstract. Probably polls at 90%+

But the government tends to spend money on things that are popular. That's why it spends the money there. There just isn't some huge pot of money being spent on something that no one cares about. Previous Congresses cared about getting reelected, so they tried to do popular things.

The huge drivers of spending are really popular things--Defense, Social Security, Medicare, tax breaks, etc.

The things that people don't like--foreign aid, food stamps, etc.--already get such a small part of the budget that they are basically a rounding error.

It's like peace in the Middle East. Everyone wants it. But it turns out that it is really really hard to do.

Nice of Donald to give his testimony via tweet in the Carroll Rape suit because he won't be there in person:


https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/s...09215699046402

Sales of Bud Lite down 17%. I don't even want to hear these GOP bitches complain again about cancel culture.

I'm sure they all moved to other AB/InBev brands.

Still, I'm impressed. I have a sense of the FREEDUMBS people as loud but small in number.

17% means that there are more out there than I would have suspected.

What's funny is how they pick and choose their battles. They get outraged when something like this happens but love playing shit like Rage against the machine or Queen at rallies.

Don't have a link for you but you know how I was talking about getting to see the 7000 or so exhibits Dominion had for the lawsuit against Fox? Smartmatic Voting Systems wanted to see them too and a judge agreed.

In an effort to understand both sides, I asked a pastor I know the difference between what he called righteous boycott and cancel culture. He was not a fan of me saying he seemed to be a part of cancel culture. This link is supposed to be an explainer of the difference.

The Difference Between a Righteous Boycott and Cancel Culture - The Stream

Cancel culture is things you hate. Righteous boycott is things I hate.

To me, not doing business with someone who values offends you is simply a personal decision.

I think it starts becoming cancel culture when you start taking steps active steps to ensure that no one else can do business with that someone.

For example back in the good old days conservatives in Britain didn't want to see Monty Python's Life of Brian because if offended. If they had just simply stayed home or even told people why they were offended then that's not cancel culture to me. But where it did cross into cancel culture is when they threatened to boycott ALL movies at any movie theater that screened Life of Brian.

So does the Bud Light thing rise to cancel culture in my eyes? The answer is a definite maybe.

The issue is the hypocrisy. These dopes on the far right have boycotted WAY more things then the left ever has.

YMCA always cracks me up

Unfortunately, on the Smartmatic case, it will likely be two more years before it ever goes to trial. It is a pretty open shut case, though. They accused Smartmatic software of changing votes in the Dominion machines. Except, Smartmatic makes software for foreign voting machines. No voting machines in the US even used Smartmatic software in 2016. Only Los Angeles County in the US used Smartmatic software in 2022.

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I don't know why they even fired Tucker. I mean they got away with not having to say they were sorry and he gets their stupid assholes to watch. Do you think it is because he secretly dislikes trump? (which I also don't believe)

This is as good an explanation as any I've seen!

Did Tucker Carlson's comments about religion lead to his firing by Rupert Murdoch? | Daily Mail Online

this sounds petty enough to be true

Not worth the trouble. He is a unique paradox. Lots of viewers but generates no revenue because no advertisers of any notoriety want to be associated with his show. It is all the pillow guy and promos for other network shows.

Hmmmm maybe we need to Cancel Curture Lathum just for kicks. Lathum do you want to be cancel cultured?

I left the board once for 3 years. You would all miss me too much

I wonder if we will ever have another election like it appears 2024 will be where majority of voters on both sides don't really ant to vote their candidate?

You have to think most Dems would prefer someone other than Biden. His age has got to factor in. You also have to think most republicans, whether they will admit it or not, don't want Trump.

We are all held hostage at this point. The interesting thing is I actually think more republicans want Trump then Dems want Biden, yet Biden probably wins.

Didn't we have this in 2016?

On the Republican side we had the Never-Trump movement and on the Democratic side we had the Bernie-Bros. There were a lot of people dissatisfied with the candidates. Heck I think even Libertarian Gary Johnson was disappointed in his own candidacy.

Last time I was enthusiastic about a candidate was Obama.

I don't think 2016 was even remotely close to this

Looks like based off on Nikki Haleys recent comments the GOP playbook is going to be that Biden is going to die so a vote for Biden is actually one for HArris

And dem messaging really only needs to be that a vote for Trump is a vote for Trump.

Totally agree. I honestly don't think it matters who the Dems run out. If Trump in the GOP nominee he will lose again. Not even because he is Trump, but because he is incapable of talking about anything other than the 2020 election and some other bat shit crazy things like Freedom Cities and loyalty tests.

Imagine what things would be like if the Bernie Bros didn't fuck around and find out? Yet, I'm guessing, they still feel like they did the right thing, all things considered.

Smart move. I think Harris is awful and a liability. This is one of those pros/cons of getting an "old school" politician. Moderate/savvy enough to run a normal government, but not willing to do things against the grain like replacing his VP for a second term even though given his age it is arguably more important now than it's been since like the 1800s when people commonly died before 40.

I literally couldn't name the last time for the Presidency.

Hell, I'm scuffling to find the last time for any office that I could actually vote on (i.e. I've seen candidates I was enthusiastic about in other jurisdictions)

That parenthetical is so extreme that the last nearby candidate I do recall being enthused by -- Andrew Clyde (R-Georgia9) -- is from Athens but actually ran in an adjacent district.

As VP Harris seems to have been even more invisible and less accomplished than Mike Pence, which is really saying something, especially in this environment.

Yeah. I saw the logic of the choice at the time, but I really don't see her being a good heir-apparent. But then honestly I can't think of a great replacement, either.

Just saw a Desantis ad on espn. Wild.

I didn't put it together until today why Desantis hadn't announced. He still waiting for the "need to resign" law to come into affect. I really thought he might be giving it a second thought, but what I read was he has May 11th on the schedule to make it official.

Isn't that up to how the media wants to cover the VP though? I see her every now and then speaking out about a shooting or abortion, but other than that she doesn't make the news much. Which really isn't that surprising, when HAS the VP, really? Outside of things like Dan Quayle doing stupid shit or something. The news cycles are either focused on the president, or now focused on the antics of Trump or DeSantis.

Over and over again, they paid huge money only to prove that their was no election fraud.

NEW: The Trump campaign quietly hired a second firm to study voter fraud claims after the 2020 election and paid the firm $750k. Its founder says in an interview with Post that the claims were "all false," and that he recently met with DOJ. https://t.co/lrmh07prT7

— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) April 27, 2023

How many millions did they raise, though, and where did that money go?

Oh, they made bank. It is such a great scam. You raise money, and then pay yourself and your cronies in "consulting fees." There has still been millions in outlays to organizations whose sole purpose was to find fraud, and they still couldn't do it.

dola: Just to add, I do think Trump loves a good scam. I'm sure he enjoys the money this all brings in. But I also think he sincerely wants to find some kind of fraud. His narcissistic megalomania absolutely convinces him that there had to be fraud for him to lose. Can you imagine having to be the one who tells him they spent $750k for someone to tell him there was no fraud? I guarantee he told them "but that's not what I paid you for!"

Exactly. If you go to her twitter feed, you will find she's been doing all sorts of stuff, Official visits to Africa, standing up for women's rights,etc. The media doesn't cover most of that they are focused on the President. Most of the Cabinet members are like that too. Check out Transportation Secretary's tweets, or the Department on the Interior, they are doing a lot of stuff in the background that doesn't get a lot of coverage.


I think if Trump didn't pick him to head up the pandemic response, we might not have seen/heard much from Pence at all.

It might be a blessing in disguise as he's cratering in the polls and I still think won't end up running.

You also have to have an adult in the room at times and Trump certainly wasn't that.

I'm ok with the VP going back to being someone that mostly works behind the scenes.

Mike Pence met with the Jan 6 Grand Jury today for several hours. See that wasn't so hard Mike.

If Trump is the nominee, he probably loses the general.
If Trump isn't the nominee, he might try to sabotage whoever the nominee is.

It would be a lot easier for the GOP if he just dies.

Lots of ways to make a death look like an accident once someone is no longer useful.

Like a normal administration

Gretchen Whitmer would have nation appeal but replacing a black woman with a white woman will absolutely disenfranchise the black vote. I can already see Al sharpton and Van Jones frothing at the mouth.

The next time the VP choice truly matters will be the first time the VP choice truly matters (at least in the post-WWII era). Earlier this year I was interested in this as an idea and looked at all the races and all the analyses I was able to find and read indicated that there's no evidence that the VP choice has ever contributed significantly to a race, again, in the post-WWII era.

Compelling narratives exist, but Palin didn't really sink McCain, Gore didn't really help Clinton, Quayle turned out not to be a liability for Bush, and so on and so forth.