72 thoughts on “Debating the DeSantis Descent”

  1. musical version of the magaT mantra

    Attribution: Country Crooner by Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune, UT

  2. yesterday’s other losers 

    Mark Meadows and Jeffrey Clark can’t avoid arrest in Georgia election subversion case, judge rules (msn.com)

    Afederal judge on Wednesday rejected efforts by former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and ex-Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark to avoid arrest if they fail to turn themselves in by Friday’s deadline in the Georgia election subversion case.
    US District Judge Steve Jones declined the emergency requests by Meadows and Clark, who are both trying to move Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ prosecution to federal court.
    […]
    “(T)he clear statutory language for removing a criminal prosecution, does not support an injunction or temporary stay prohibiting District Attorney Willis’s enforcement or execution of the arrest warrant against Meadows,” Jones wrote.
    In a separate order, Jones turned down Clark’s emergency request, which was more sweeping and argued that the entirety of the state court proceedings – including any attempt to arrest any of the 19 defendants who did not turn themselves in this week – should automatically be put on hold.
    Willis told the federal court in court filings earlier Wednesday that it should not interfere in any efforts to arrest Meadows, calling his request for the court’s intervention “improper” and “baseless.”
    “It should be noted the defendant’s former boss, the former president of the United States, voluntarily agreed to surrender himself to state authorities, while other defendants have already surrendered,” Willis’ office said.
    [continues]

  4. Trump suggests in Carlson interview that U.S. could see more political violence – The Washington Post

    Former president Donald Trump suggested that the United States could see intensifying political violence, saying in a new interview that tensions in the country were reaching a boiling point.
    Asked by former Fox News host Tucker Carlson whether the nation is headed toward open conflict, Trump responded: “I don’t know. I can say this: There’s a level of passion that I’ve never seen. There’s a level of hatred that I’ve never seen. And that’s probably a bad combination.”
    Trump compared the current volatile mix of passion and hatred to the crowd on Jan. 6, 2021, and pivoted to defending his supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol that day — falsely describing the violent assault as a day of “love and unity.”
    “Jan. 6 was a very interesting day because they don’t report it properly,” he told Carlson in the previously recorded interview, which was posted Wednesday night on X, the website formerly known as Twitter. “People in that crowd said it was the most beautiful day they ever experienced. There was love and unity. I have never seen such spirit and such passion and such love. And I’ve also never seen, simultaneously and from the same people, such hatred at what they’ve done to our country.”
    Trump, the polling leader for the Republican nomination, has repeatedly declined to condemn or rule out political violence. As a candidate, in 2015 and 2016, he encouraged rallygoers to rough up hecklers and protesters. As president, in 2017, he defended white nationalist marchers in Charlottesville, one of whom killed a counterprotester, saying there were “very fine people on both sides.” In a 2020 presidential debate, he told the Proud Boys violent extremist group to “stand back and stand by.” And on Jan. 6, 2021, and ever since, he has praised his supporters who attacked police and broke into the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

    hmmm, remember those words in the 14th amendment – something about giving aid and comfort to insurrectionists – sure sounds like “comfort” to me especially when you add his “we love you” jan6 video telling the seditious rioters to go home and later his promise to pardon all of them.

  6. query in re weight debate:  at the booking weigh-in, do they let them keep on their suit coats, body girdles, shoes with heavy lifts and the bulletproof vests?  those things add a lot of pounds and can skew accurate bets.

  8. DeSantis donors are probably looking for another horse after last night. They had given him this last chance before moving their big bucks elsewhere. To my surprise, I’d say Nikki Haley did well enough to catch their interest. Tim Scott had been seen as their next choice but he was flat last night, talked too much like a senator and that’s never good.

    Overall though I got the answer to my main reason for watching: What does the Republican Party look like without Trump? Answer: There isn’t one.

    Old school stalwarts like Hutchinson and Pence are history, the only standout was Trump mini-me Vivek Ramaswamy, who bullied and cross-talked his way into disrupting the whole thing.

    Funny moment on the CNN post-debate panel between Democrat David Axelrod and Republican Scott Jennings, who was listing Vivek liabilities such as wacky his Q-Anon conspiracy theories, letting Putin take Ukraine, etc. Axe: “I hate to tell you bro, but that’s your party now, that’s the stuff that works”. Jennings sheepishly grinned and nodded agreement.

  9. But the weirdest show of the night was Tucker Carlson trying to get Trump to agree that Jeffrey Epstein was murdered (by Bill Barr, he hinted) and that Trump’s political enemies will try to kill him:

    Tucker: “Do you think Epstein killed himself?”

    Trump: “I don’t know.”

    Tucker: “Why would Bill Barr be covering up the death of Jeffrey Epstein?”

    Trump: “I think he probably committed suicide…”

    Tucker: “I think he was killed”

    ——————————

    Tucker: “Nothing they’ve done so far is working.. don’t they have to kill you next? It started with protests against you. Then it moved to impeachment twice. Now indictment. The next stage is violence. Are you worried that they are going to try to kill you?”

    Trump: “They are savage animals. They are people that are sick.”

  10. Seeding more paranoia into Orange Adolf and calling MAGAts to arms?   Must see TV that, thankfully, I did not see.    
    How was Tucker’s viewership v Fox Noise numbers? 

  11. https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/first-republican-debate-biggest-loser-biggest-winner

    “She was passionate but not emotional – a difficult balance for female candidates. Similarly, she stood her ground but did not come across as harsh – another challenging dynamic for women in politics.”

    Look, I don’t like what Nikki Hayley stands for in many instances, but that paragraph is the EXACT type of misogynistic BS women face every day. (Speak up, you sound like a child. Quiet down, you sound sound shrill.)

  12. another good quick ad out by joe

    Biden Campaign Promotes Haley’s Criticism of GOP Spending (wsj.com)

    President Biden’s re-election campaign is seizing upon former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s accusations that Republicans were complicit in raising the federal debt by approving a more than $2 trillion Covid stimulus package under former President Donald Trump.
    “What she said,” Biden wrote in posts released by his team on Instagram and on X, formerly known as Twitter.
    The posts showed video of Haley during the GOP debate saying, “You have Ron DeSantis, you’ve got Tim Scott, you’ve got Mike Pence, they all vote to raise the debt and Donald Trump added $8 trillion to our debt and our kids are never gonna forgive us for this.”

  13. Nikki Haley Hailed By MSNBC Hosts, Joe Biden After Debate Performance (mediaite.com)

    Following Haley’s skirmish with Vivek Ramaswamy, MSNBC host and former Biden Press Secretary Jen Psaki also praised Haley, tweeting, “Haley pushing back on Vivek was a very good moment for her.”
    MSNBC host Joy Reid argued Haley “acquitted herself quite well, to be honest with you, and seemed like a reasonable Republican politician who kind of made sense,” while Rachel Maddow claimed Haley had “probably the most effective presentation” on the issue of foreign policy.
    CNN political commentator Alyssa Farah Griffin — who served as the Director of Strategic Communications in Trump’s White House — also praised Haley’s performance during a CNN panel following the debate.
    “Nikki Haley was the winner of the night. If you’re trying to pull for the sort of alternative to Trump who can get mainstream Republicans and win a general election, she did that,” Griffin declared.

  14. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ron-desantis-debate-takeaways_n_64e6dcffe4b0a04c2ed7ee69

    “But Haley insisted that Republicans are every bit to blame for the country’s inflation problem and growing debt.”

    “Donald Trump added $8 trillion to our debt,” she said. “And our kids are never going to forgive us for this.”

    “Biden clipped the video of her remarks and posted it approvingly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter. “What she said,” Biden’s campaign account wrote.

    I love it when Republicans write campaign ads against themselves.

    BIDEN/HARRIS 2024

  15. Vivek is a scary dude. Arrogant. He thinks we need a “tonal reset from the top down” about what it means to be an American? Wow! Thankfully, it sounds like Nikki got the best of him.

    Why was Vivek debating Ronald Regan last night, anyway?

  16. George Conway on Morning Joe about the Republican Party: “They’re all going to end up nominating a candidate who will maybe be a convicted felon, will probably die in prison, and was found by a federal district court to be a rapist. It’s crazy.”

  18. I ‘preciate y’all posting tv highlights, as I lost cable when the roof fell in.   Onliest news I get is here, “countdown”, Twitter, AlFranken podcast (you know: for a change), and local broadcast nbc.

  21. George Stephanapolous is hammering Nikki Hayley!   He was asking why she raised her hand to say she would vote for a convicted felon, which was the way the question was posed last night. She’s not saying she doesn’t like Biden, but that she’s afraid of a Harris presidency. She’s playing the ageism card, because she knows full well that POTUS Joe is doing a great job.

  22. It looks like RFK, Jr. will be Orange Adolf’s pick for VP, after everyone said that Pence did the right thing on J6.

  23. Don’t go assuming all over the place that there will be a pick for VP.    It might not get to that point.   

    However

    There are so many hopefuls…..there’s so many more VP hopefuls than P hopefuls. Weird puppy all the way.

    I love the way they’re all trying to shine enough to be blessed by the Orange Swine.

  26. sturge,  it’s more like a pheromone contest among ring-tailed lemurs

    according to Horny lemurs use body odor as a pick-up line | Popular Science (popsci.com):

    For ring-tailed lemurs, love stinks. They practically use body odor as a pick-up line, with ring-tails rubbing their fluffy tails into scent glands on their wrists so that they might wave the aroma around enticingly.

    Lemur researchers have witnessed this behavior in the wild for years, and knew the stinky courtship ritual was uniquely important to the animals’ way of life. [continues]

    the debaters really tried to out-stink each other rather than just “shine enough.” 

  29. NY Times says Vivek won it.  WashPo says Hayley won it.  eh. Did not bother trying to find out anything, only picked up this because the media is trying to make it something.  The big deal today will be who has the first copy of a mug shot.  One of my cats tries to find a piece of paper to hack up hairballs on. She is very sweet.  I figure printing off a nice supply and placing them around should help during hairball seasons.

  30. Joel from Woodstock, a former Republican who came to the Fulton County Jail this morning to deliver a message: “I want to see the sociopath who tried to steal my vote in 2020 go to prison.” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

  31. I did watch the debate.  I really hated the moment I had to say “Fox News” into my remote control… hopefully won’t have to do that again.
     
    I thought Nikki Haley did the best too…  she was the actual adult in the room.  But I would never vote for her or anyone else on that stage.
     
    I’ve come to the conclusion that DeSantis isn’t a real person…  he’s a life size bobble head.
     
     

  33. “he’s a life size bobble head”

    Image result for desantis bobble head

    on sale yesterday for $34.99 at wally world and $22.99 at ebay. tomorrow they’ll be giving them away.

  34. how will this impact certain friends at scotus and will they recuse themselves once the case (if tried and appealed) gets to them?

    Rightwing activist Leonard Leo under investigation in Washington DC | Washington DC | The Guardian

    The attorney general of Washington DC is investigating Leonard Leo, the rightwing activist who has driven efforts to install judges on federal courts including the US supreme court, which he helped tip 6-3 in conservatives’ favour, Politico reported.
    Citing a source with direct knowledge, the site said the scope of the investigation mounted by the Democratic attorney general, Brian Schwalb, was unclear.
    Leo is the driving force behind the Federalist Society, which the Harvard law professor Noah Feldman has called “a club for conservative and libertarian lawyers … focused on promoting conservative legal thought and filling the American judiciary with like-minded allies”. All six conservatives on the supreme court (three appointed under Donald Trump, with Leo’s active involvement), are current or former members.
    Leo’s name has cropped up in reports alleging serious ethics violations by justices prominently including Clarence Thomas, the senior conservative on the court.
    Leo’s ballooning personal wealth and hugely successful fundraising has also been widely reported. Earlier this year, he made headlines with receipt of a $1.6bn giftfrom a single donor, believed to be the largest such gift on record.
    In April, the Campaign for Accountability, a progressive watchdog, filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service, alleging Leo “caused” recently formed non-profits “to pay him (directly or indirectly) more than $73m over a six-year period from 2016 through 2021”.
    Groups offering consulting, research or public relations services, the complaint said, “may either not have provided those services at all or may have provided services at a level not commensurate with the payments received”.
    The Campaign for Accountability also wrote to the DC attorney general, requesting an investigation.
    […]
    The DC attorney general, Schwalb, has a background in tax law. A spokesperson did not comment to Politico. An IRS spokesperson declined comment too.
    [continues]

  35. Nikki Hayley blamed Republicans for the COVID relief debt, but not the tax cuts for billionaires.  She is not pro-life if she doesn’t think medical care and food are important (things paid for with COVID funds).    They are all TERRIBLE human beings, Christian or Hindu, they are not kind people.    Pence was having  a good night because everyone agreed he did the right thing on J6, but why would he then agree to vote for tRUMPsky even if he’s a convicted felon.  The orange guy would’ve let them kill him and not lifted one, tiny finger to stop them.   Cult.  It’s a cult.  Not just MAGAts, but all Republicans are in a cult.

  38. Really Riggers?  And who does not think that is racist and meant to be
     

  39. I sure hope the judge orders his lawyers to stop referring to him as “President Trump” in legal filings. In this one it’s in the header and at the beginning of the first three paragraphs

  41. At least preface it with “former.”   What time is the orange putz turning himself in?  Mark Meadows is already there. 

  42. Claudia Conway makes more sense than either of her parents

    tim scott: we cannot let states like california, new york, and illinois allow abortions on demand up to the “date of birth”

    91% of all abortions happen in the first trimester. 98.7% of abortions are performed within the first 20 weeks. almost all of the remaining abortions are performed for the mother’s sake and because the fetus is not viable. read a book

     

  44. Jamie – Thanks!  So, that’s 6:30 CDT which is after the evening news.   I guess he’s going to be prime time Donny tonight.   Appointment TV.

  48. https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/texas-news/ercot-calls-for-conservation-warns-tight-grid-conditions-could-lead-to-energy-emergency/3323284/

    “ERCOT asked Texans to voluntarily reduce electricity use on Thursday, warning tight grid conditions this afternoon and evening could lead to an energy emergency.”

    “The notice will be in effect Thursday, Aug. 24 from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m.”

    “Due to low wind-power generation and high demand, operating reserves for ERCOT are expected to be low for several hours this afternoon into the evening.”

  49. The Russian authorities seem to be blaming the pilot’s post-Covid-vaccine heart attack for the plane crash.  

    Now isn’t that special…………

  52. These lengthy motorcades for him are ridiculous. Former presidents don’t do that, except for psychotic narcissistic megalomaniacs who think they’re still president

  53. It may be a Secret Service decision since there are any number of people who might to take him out of the running permanently.

    The motorcycles do seem a bit excessive.

     

  54. I forced myself to watch.  Haley speaks well and was well prepared – I thought she made Vivek look like an idiot.  I didn’t see anyone who I thought had a great night that will make any difference, except maybe to their fundraising efforts.  
     
    I see Dumbass is in  GA to turn himself in – in a, wait for it, navy suit and red tie. (Who could have guessed that?)

  57. He LIED about his weight and possibly height!   There’s no way he’s 4” taller than Rudy and weighs 15# less.     How in the F did they allow a habitual liar to self-report?

  58. Oky-doky – height and weight are void.  We need to wait for actual intake, which for his happiness includes body cavity check, for real numbers.
    We still have several of the herd to check in and get their picture taken.  Bah, hum-bug.

  59. Can’t wait to hear Dumbass tell us how big tough guys were crying and apologizing to him for having to book him. 

  61. Mark Meadows 6’1”  240#
    RICO Rudy 5’ 11”  230#
    We have eyes and we know he lied about his stats.   Why was he given yet another opportunity to lie?

  62. new charge for lying on official gov’t form – perjury, felony in GA can earn one a fine up to $1000 and imprisonment 1-10 years

  65. This sucks, he is not centered in the picture and my cat will have problems aiming for his nose.  Maybe some cropping, but it will never be right.  Inmate PXXXXXXXXX.  Yeah. When you need to change your diaper and the guards do not care.

  70. He thought he would spare his ego by making up a fake weight, but he’s getting trolled even harder for such an obvious lie.  I mean, if he’d only fudged by 10-15 pounds, eh.  But it would’ve hurt his ego to say 225 or 230.  You know who’s probably getting a kick out of his mugshot? Poo-tin. 

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