DeSantis drops out, endorses his Daddy

[Cindy Claveau]

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ends presidential campaign

The second-term governor echoed Trump’s combative style and “America First” rallying cry while arguing he would be more electable, truer to conservative values and more effective at executing an agenda. He appealed heavily to the party base as someone willing to dig in on polarizing issues and go to battle with critics, the media and companies such as Disney. Struggling to make headway against Trump, he increasingly criticized the former president as “high risk” and “low reward” for the Republican Party.

Bye Felicia... I mean, Ronny!

 

[Zaida Gearbox]

I really don't want another Trump presidency.

 

[Beebo Brink]

I really don't want another Trump presidency.

I'm betting that if Trump wins, it won't be a "presidency" for very long. His position will become something else entirely.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Maybe Trump will make Ronnie boy if he's a good asslicker his vice president?

 

[Free]

 

[Free]

Looks like failure may have been partly due to...working on the wrong puzzle pieces.

‘A total failure to launch’: Why Ron DeSantis was doomed from the start

Muddled messages, hiring too many staffers and even a puzzle — how it all went wrong for DeSantis' presidential bid.

www.nbcnews.com

The Florida governor essentially moved his campaign there late last year, and Never Back Down, his allied super PAC, spent tens of millions of dollars knocking on doors in the state.

“We’re going to win Iowa,” DeSantis declared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Dec. 2.

But in the week before the all-important caucuses, Scott Wagner, the recently installed head of the super PAC, was doing something that aides found puzzling: He was literally doing a puzzle.

In the headquarters of Never Back Down in West Des Moines, Iowa, Wagner was, according to some of his staff, spending a significant amount of time in the precious final few days constructing a peaceful 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle of a landscape.

Typical Republican hiring strategies.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

Maybe Trump will make Ronnie boy if he's a good asslicker his vice president?

I actually doubt any of the republican candidates thought they would seriously beat Trump. They were running for vice president. DeSantis MAYBE was delusional enough to think he had a shot at one point.... but he really didn't.

 

[Free]

 

[Zaida Gearbox]

I'm betting that if Trump wins, it won't be a "presidency" for very long. His position will become something else entirely.

That's what I'm afraid of too. A friend on FB was joking about Trump being the anti-Christ, and I told him, "You're joking, but I really am worried about that just because of the way so many supposed Christians worship him."

 

[Cindy Claveau]

 

[detrius]

Looks like failure may have been partly due to...working on the wrong puzzle pieces.

‘A total failure to launch’: Why Ron DeSantis was doomed from the start

Muddled messages, hiring too many staffers and even a puzzle — how it all went wrong for DeSantis' presidential bid.

www.nbcnews.com

Typical Republican hiring strategies.

If it keeps them from getting elected, someone should send them this puzzle:

 

[Innula Zenovka]

That's what I'm afraid of too. A friend on FB was joking about Trump being the anti-Christ, and I told him, "You're joking, but I really am worried about that just because of the way so many supposed Christians worship him."

This recent article in the NYT suggests that, in recent years, "evangelical Christian" has, for white Americans, become more of a political than a religious identity -- that is, people don't support Trump because they identify as "Christian" but identify as "Christian" because they support Trump:

Trump Is Connecting With a Different Type of Evangelical Voter

They are not just the churchgoing, conservative activists who once dominated the G.O.P.

www.nytimes.com

Evernote link

 

[Zaida Gearbox]

My informal polling among my Facebook friends shows a significant number planning to vote 3rd party this time. Including some of the people who called me names, and even threatened me with violence, in the last two elections because I voted 3rd party. I would like to see one of the 3rd parties pull away a significant enough percentage of the vote that it makes both the Ds and Rs stop and say, "oh shit. we better get our heads out of our asses and start running better candidates..."

 

[Beebo Brink]

Except who are these "better candidates"? The ones I really liked had little support in the last Dem primary. Factions are so fragmented that it's difficult to find someone that everyone likes. I think this country is close to ungovernable.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

Except who are these "better candidates"? The ones I really liked had little support in the last Dem primary. Factions are so fragmented that it's difficult to find someone that everyone likes. I think this country is close to ungovernable.

Which makes electing uninformed dimwits all the more puzzling.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

 

[Beebo Brink]

Which makes electing uninformed dimwits all the more puzzling.

An amazing number of people take Trump's word for who he is and what he does. They distrust "the media" and automatically discount all the logic-based criticisms as left-wing propaganda. You would think that just looking at the man and listening to him speak would be enough evidence, but then I feel the same way about televangelists and other grifters. What I see and what other people see are not the same.

Apparently a significantly proportion of the U.S. population is dysfunctional and just plain mean when it comes to anyone outside their Us group. Trump takes aim at Them, and Us are just fine with that.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

Apparently a significantly proportion of the U.S. population is dysfunctional and just plain mean when it comes to anyone outside their Us group. Trump takes aim at Then, and Us are just find with that.

My husband had a talk with his son (my step son) and found out that he voted for Trump last election. I think hubs nearly blew a bearing at the news but he kept his cool. He asked his son if he'd heard of [insert lengthy list of indictments, threats, lies and upcoming court dates], and the guy hadn't heard about any of it except for Jan. 6.

I told him there are a lot of people living in the conservative bubble and don't trust any news source that's not right wing, but then there are people who don't listen to the news at all and have NO clue what's going on. It sounded like S-I-L is among the latter.

I'd like to say that S-I-L has changed his vote for the generals, but honestly I don't know if he understood what his father told him.

 

[Beebo Brink]

.....then there are people who don't listen to the news at all and have NO clue what's going on.

It's so easy to overlook that many people don't walk around with all the news that's stuffed into our heads. I read political news from a variety of sources and probably spend a few hours a day doing that. Even so, I'm woefully uninformed about major topics such as Ukraine and Israel. I owe my understanding of Brexit more to Innula than to the Guardian. I can afford to be current because I am childless and a computer nerd who is always parked in front of a keyboard, so might as well read the news as anything else.

For people who have far less time and interest, many -- if not most -- news issues are complicated, unpalatable, and confusing. It takes time and consistent exposure to make sense of it all, and the motivation to hang in there.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

For people who have far less time and interest, many -- if not most -- news issues are complicated, unpalatable, and confusing. It takes time and consistent exposure to make sense of it all, and the motivation to hang in there.

So, thank the Goddess for us political nerds, right?

No really, I mostly watch MSNBC which is about as "left" as mainstream news goes these days (even though it's not), and there are often times when I'm angry at an announcer's voice (nasal rambling really twerks me off) or they let some bullshit words escape their pieholes, and I will shut off the TV with extreme prejudice. Nobody knows or cares but it makes me feel better.

I don't know that there's a way to fix it, either. We will always have a divided electorate (that's the nature of democracy) with far too many whacked-out ignoramuses. The best we can probably do is to just teach our kids and vote our consciences. I'm past the age or situation where I can march in protests like in my youth.