• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

The DeSantis gambit

angrysoba said:
I honestly think that insanity, fleeing the country and death might not even be an impediment. People would probably vote for Trump if his gibbering corpse was televised and beamed to the Republican Conference from Buenos Aires with Milei propping him up on one side and Orban the other. They would probably take him over DeSantis, and honestly we'd have to admit that between DeSantis and a rotting corpse, I really am not sure which is most unpleasant.
Click to expand...
It's just so hard to get my head around the idea that the USA, a country of 330 million people with oodles of extraordinarily capable and noteworthy statesmen and women, any one of whom would make a reputable, upstanding president of the republic, that the choice the GOP is giving is either a head-wobbling second-rate petty Nazi gauleiter of marginal sanity, or an orange corpse rotting on a stick in Argentina.
 
Last edited:
angrysoba said:
Back on 16th May 2023

Of course, it never looked likely that DeSantis would beat Trump. Really the only chance DeSantis has is if Trump is rendered ineligible by the courts. Even then, it seems clear that Vivek is trying to soak up any voters left by a vacant Trump, and Nikki Haley is taking votes from the non-lunatic fringe of the party.
Click to expand...

Yep, I'm taking this one on the chin - a prediction that was wildly off target, and it's going to cost me an avatar change for a while.

I don't think DeSantis would win the nomination if Trump died and said with his dying breath that he wanted Ronnie to take over. He's done his dash and come up wanting on every angle. Haley seems to be the clear number 2.
 
Ron DeSantis Advisers Prepare To 'Make The Patient Comfortable' Ahead Of Dropping Out: NYT

His campaign has entered the hospice care phase.

Morale has gone from bad to worse within Ron DeSantis’ presidential primary operation.

With only three weeks to go before voting begins in Iowa, the DeSantis campaign is moving from life support to hospice care, according to a brutal Sunday New York Times story, effectively amounting to the Republican Florida governor’s 2024 pre-obituary.

His longtime pollster and adviser, Ryan Tyson, has privately conceded the campaign is reaching the point where they can “make the patient comfortable,” according to The Times, which spoke to more than a dozen DeSantis advisers current and past from both the campaign and affiliated groups. (Tyson denied those remarks in the campaign’s response.)
Click to expand...

Of course, his campaign spokesperson says otherwise.

“Different day, same media hit job based on unnamed sources with agendas,” DeSantis campaign spokesperson Andrew Romeo told The Times. “While the media tried to proclaim this campaign dead back in August, Ron DeSantis fought back and enters the home stretch in Iowa as the hardest-working candidate with the most robust ground game. DeSantis has been underestimated in every race he’s ever run and always proved the doubters wrong—we are confident he will defy the odds once again on Jan. 15.”
Click to expand...

However, as they say, money talks and ******** walks, and this is what the money says:

The DeSantis campaign proper and Never Back Down super PAC have been in tumult amid a series of high-profile departures and a battle of egos between two entities legally prohibited from coordinating, as The Daily Beast reported on Wednesday. The Times also found DeSantis’ campaign is on track to spend more on private jet travel than TV ads by the time the caucus rolls around on Jan. 15.

The PAC has since gone dark on the airwaves in Iowa and New Hampshire, pulling $2.5 million worth of ad buys, according to AdImpact.
Click to expand...

When your PAC pulls the rug out from under you, it's time to think hard about quitting.

Stuart Stevens, who helped lead Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential bid, summed up the fundamental problem for DeSantis and his presidential ambitions.

“There was a superficial impression that DeSantis was in the mode of big-state governors who had won Republican nominations and been successful—Reagan, Bush, Romney—but DeSantis is a very different sort of creature,” Stevens told The Times. “These were positive, expansive, optimistic figures. DeSantis is not.”
Click to expand...

That last sentence is the understatement of the year.
 
A new bill in Florida would mean you could get charged a fine of least $35,000 for calling someone racist.

The measure states that “an allegation that the plaintiff has discriminated against another person or group because of their race, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity constitutes defamation per se.”

Proving “actual malice” is one of the main requirements of a successful defamation case. And this bill would make that easier, setting up conditions for a fact-finder to automatically infer that actual malice took place after an accusation of discrimination.

In cases of alleged homophobia or transphobia, defendants charged with defamation are not allowed to use the plaintiff’s religious or scientific beliefs as part of their defense. If they are found liable for defamation, the defendant could be fined at least $35,000.
Click to expand...

It would also make journalists who keep their sources anonymous automatically lose, making their words 'presumptively false'.

But, conservatives are free speech champions, right? Right?
 
tyr_13 said:
A new bill in Florida would mean you could get charged a fine of least $35,000 for calling someone racist.



It would also make journalists who keep their sources anonymous automatically lose, making their words 'presumptively false'.

But, conservatives are free speech champions, right? Right?
Click to expand...

From your article:

If the new bill does become law, it is unlikely to survive a legal challenge due to its clear violations of free speech and anti-discrimination laws. But as with so many Republican culture-war laws, the point is not to create good legislation. The point is to scare people.
Click to expand...

As I've repeatedly said for many years: The basis of conservatism is fear. Fear mongering is a staple of the conservative diet; they consume it and they serve it.
 
tyr_13 said:
A new bill in Florida would mean you could get charged a fine of least $35,000 for calling someone racist.



It would also make journalists who keep their sources anonymous automatically lose, making their words 'presumptively false'.

But, conservatives are free speech champions, right? Right?
Click to expand...

"We're not saying that Racism is good, we just want to punish anyone who says Racism is bad. Totally different."
 
Stacyhs said:
From your article:



As I've repeatedly said for many years: The basis of conservatism is fear. Fear mongering is a staple of the conservative diet; they consume it and they serve it.
Click to expand...

IIRC, an outsized 'fear' reaction was correlated to having a 'conservative' political ideology, but nothing matched as well as 'disgust' being a primary motivator.
 
tyr_13 said:
IIRC, an outsized 'fear' reaction was correlated to having a 'conservative' political ideology, but nothing matched as well as 'disgust' being a primary motivator.
Click to expand...


This article in Psychology Today covers these with references to studies:

Fear and Anxiety Drive Conservatives' Political Attitudes
Can brain differences explain conservatives' fear-driven political stances?

1. Conservatives tend to focus on the negative.
2. Conservatives have a stronger physiological response to threats.
3. Conservatives fear new experiences.
4. Conservatives’ brains are more reactive to fear.
Click to expand...
 
Bill O'Reilly isn't too happy about two of his books being removed "for review" from FL's Escambia School District under a DeSantis law that he voted for.
More than 1,500 books have been temporarily removed from a Florida school district this week, including two written by former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly.

The Florida Freedom to Read Project recently obtained a list of books that have been temporarily removed from libraries in the Escambia County Public School District, which included encyclopedias, The Guinness Book of World Records and two books from conservative pundit O'Reilly: Killing Jesus: A History, and Killing Reagan: The Violent Assault That Changed a Presidency.
Click to expand...

While speaking with Newsweek on Friday, O'Reilly said the temporary removal of his books is "absurd [and] preposterous."

"What I'm going to do is find out exactly who made the decision to temporarily take them out of the library in this county," he said. "And I'm going to ask them for a detailed explanation of why they did that."

"This is insane," O'Reilly said, adding that he is seeking further action by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to address this situation.
Click to expand...

Good news:

The Associated Press (AP) reported this week that a judge in Florida ruled in favor of Pen America and Penguin Random House publishers, allowing their lawsuit against the Escambia school district to move forward. According to AP, the lawsuit claims the book ban violates First Amendment rights.

"We are gratified that the Judge recognized that books cannot be removed from school library shelves simply because of the views they espouse, and are looking forward to moving forward with this case to protect the constitutional rights of the plaintiffs," attorney Lynn Oberlander said following the ruling, AP reported.
Click to expand...
 
The Escambia school district in Florida has removed Webster's Dictionary and Thesaurus from its libraries (not actually banned yet, just removed pending review, no worries!). I don't know how they're going to handle the Gazetteer, maybe just take a sharpie to the ******** countries.
 
I suggest the Escambia school district in Florida remove all books altogether from their schools, and ban anything involving the written word. Who knows what may lurk in even the most innocent of text books, pamphlets, newspapers or set novels! And as for that satanic evil of the internet, TURN IT OFF! And TV as well - don't want the kids reading evil headlines!

Really, just ban reading and writing. It is an abomination in the eyes of the Lord, and can only lead to pool rooms in River City.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom