The Plausible Decoy

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

This was going to be a completely different post. I’ve been reading about the culture war and how the preponderance of bad movies, books, comics, etc. etc. etc. is due to bad story telling, not wokeness.

This is not wrong, because we used to swallow a lot more preaching when the story was better. It’s just that I think both the preaching has got thicker and the story telling worse.

Let that idea rest. I’ll do it tomorrow. But as I was planning the post, while painting the new portion of the deck, I thought of the series I’m re-reading which must have been originally published in the eighties — I have part of it in paper. I’m just being lazy about going to the guest room (where the fiction is) and checking. And the author doesn’t get the concept of “re-issue” so it’s not in the electronic version — because the USSR hadn’t fallen.

In the middle of book eight, I found myself reading a three page thing about how the USSR and the US both wanted the best for their people, and perhaps the right way was in the middle of our systems. (I’ll have more to say about this tomorrow.)

And like that I thought that you know, fraud was probably already massive then. But with all the preaching and stuff, they made the lefty wins seem plausible. This linked to Nikki Haley in my head, and I saw with startling clarity why she’s staying in the race, heavily financed by the left and still saying she will trust the American people to reject her if they want to reject her.

This also made perfect sense of their running the corpse again and being fairly certain he’ll “win.”

It should have occurred to me before, because they have basically one playbook and run it obsessively. If it fails they double down with a surer thing.

I was right about the DeSantis campaign, though I’m relieved to say probably not right about DeSantis.

What do I mean by that? Well, the reasons I didn’t throw in behind DeSantis as all the commenters online were hailing him as the second coming of Trump but with less uncouth were three fold.

Number 1 and the most important was that I didn’t think it would do any good. Right-of-Lenin commenters online are its own little micro-cosmos and they can turn into a bit of an echo chamber. To them/us DeSantis looked good, because they/we were diving down on politics and looking at what he’d done, etc.

But that’s not how the average person votes. Not even those who aren’t LIVs. They vote on gut, sympathy, being swept up. But MOSTLY and this is mostly the LIVs, but also those who simply don’t care enough for politics but want to change things, they vote on name recognition. And name recognition is a huge, powerful factor. I bet you — not now. My cohort is diminishing rapidly — 20 years ago a GOP contender named Reagan would have a huge leg up, provided he could breathe and had a face in the shape of a face.

Trump not only has name recognition — I think The Apprentice is why he won in 16 and the left are morons not to have seen it coming — but he was president before, and people remember until the Covidiocy they were better off. This gives him an enormous advantage, should he choose to run (this was before he said he would. BTW I suspect he wouldn’t have if they’d let him alone. But the lawfare made it clear to him that if he let himself sink into anonymity neither him nor his family would survive.)

Also we’ve driven a lot. A lot a lot. Since 2020 road trips have become our main form of travel. There are various reasons, some of them personal, but well… we’ve driven a lot. In the highways and byways of America, you saw Trump signs still everywhere. You still do. Some have been up since 2020. Speaking to our handymen and plumbers and people who came by to trim trees and dig whatever up (this house had almost no maintenance for 20 years and we’re now paying for it) Trump got a smile, DeSantis got a “Dewho?” Or for the more informed “Isn’t he the Florida guy?” Yes, that could change with time, but it was a hell of a lot to come back from behind on.

Number 2 while everyone online on the right-ish was screaming about how Trump was attacking DeSantis for no reason whatsoever, I could see the ah prods being extended by DeSantis surrogates to make Trump scream.

While I realize that’s politics and whatever, I grew up in rough playgrounds and people who did that — the underhanded poking and prodding to make the person scream or pound so the other person would be in trouble — were the ones I sought out after school to give a good beating to, until they mended their ways. I held it against no one if they came at you wanting to smack you, but the underhanded sneaks who looked like butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths while trying to get other people in trouble were the worst kind of bullies and frankly outright evil.

Now even then I wasn’t sure if this was DeSantis or his campaign, but in either case, well… call me infantile, but lessons from the playground stuck. I’d rather back the guy who was brash and outspoken than the underhanded hitter.

I also noticed as the campaign went on that the campaign, and the scripted stuff for DeSantis was more about hitting Trump than the left. Now, while that is understandable in the primary, it really was almost exclusive and… well, you have to sell yourself to the right, so it seemed odd.

Number Three – His “but he doesn’t have the Trump negatives” was a bullshit sales pitch. Trump has negatives because he’s been under steady attack for… almost eight years now. I saw the left make Romney “I tried to hire women over men” into a misogynistic “binders full of women” thing, which never made any sense, but they sold it as a negative, anyway.

I’ve seen Trump’s “Women are hypergamic” saying that if you’re rich women let you grab them however into “He did this.”

And boy, howdy, I knew they’d already done that to DeSantis IN FLORIDA WHERE HE WAS KNOWN. Half the people there are convinced he’s DeDevil.

So once the mass media got going? Yeah. Devil.

Now, I don’t want those points jumped on in the comments before you read the rest, okay. Because what you say is probably moot, considering what I came to realize.

Anyway, given all that, the crazy enthusiasm for DeSantis in the talking heads made me suspect we were being played.

Now, I will grant you I’m paranoid as all get out. But that’s what made me see through Covidiocy. And long before that, it kept me alive a number of times.

So I thought “Uh. Given all that, why is DeSantis running NOW?” And “Why are a lot of people who are — ahem — at best RINOS throwing money at him.” And “Why his campaign messaging mainly aiming to destroy Trump’s image.”

And the smell I got was “Why indeedy, he’s Ross Perot.” (I’m going to say right now, I don’t know if Ross Perot was manipulated into running, etc. But we all know the result of his run.)

I thought that the left realized a straight up repeat of 2020 is impossible. People WILL notice, and the herd is restive.

On the other hand, drum up the “no one really likes Trump” (note they’re still doing that) and run DeSantis as the plausible candidate people like. Then when Trump barely won the primary (the left are such elitists. They counted on the online commenters to pull that off) DeSantis would refuse to concede and run as an independent. And then, split three ways, with a little fraud (yes I think fraud would still be needed) the Biden-corpse could squeak a victory, and anyone saying there was fraud would be stomped with “idiot” and “irrational” because obviously, Trump’s negatives were just so great, it split the vote.

Well, I might have been — still think I am — right about DeSantis campaign, but I wasn’t right (I’ll admit it) about Ron DeSantis.

Whatever made him run (and I understand it can be heady, also when he started the first moves, Trump hadn’t announced) he saw the writing on the wall, and probably figured out it smelled, eventually. So he conceded early. Because he’s an honorable man. And yes, there are ways to work around the same state thing, and if Trump chooses him as VP I’ll vote for that ticket with no qualms and — a miracle happening — I’ll vote for DeSantis in 2028 when he steps into the prime slot with no problems. (Note that this would be best for him, too, as Trump will take the hits for straightening the mess he’ll inherit, and DeSantis will have a much less fierce battle. And can be more of a uniter.)

I’ll note when DeSantis threw in the towel there followed a very amusing spate of panic on the left, but the panic now seems to have calmed down. Weirdly. Or is it?

Well, the left really only has one play. So there’s Nikki Haley. Second to None Nikki. Who is being financed with the big bucks, and who will not give up. No way no how.

So, Nikki….

You guys say she’s hoping Trump gets killed. And note, it’s not even needed to be an assassination. The man is taking hits from friends and people he thought were his friends, and the place he called home and loved most of his life, his homeland, has turned on him. I know — TRUST ME I KNOW — what that does to a person. And I’m much, much younger. I’ve seen what it did to my friends, too. It’s dangerous from a health POV. Or you guys say she’s hoping his legal troubles will take him out, and that’s possible too.

But… But… If none of those happen, the ultimate plan is to have Nikki run as an independent.

And then to say she took votes away from Trump. Trump is so unlikable, you know, that Second to NONE Nikki will steal votes from him.

She will too. Those Venezuelan-designed machines can do wonderful arithmetic, I tell you.

I’d like to tell you — boy would I — that the American people won’t fall for it. That they’ll know the fraud is there and dancing naked in our faces.

I can’t begin to tell you how much I’d like to believe the people as one will say “Second to None Nikki took half of Trump’s vote? Pull the other one, it plays jingle bells and lights up.”

Oh, maybe it will happen. I give it maybe 25% of chance, just on gut feel.

The problem though? If you say that and see it, you have to do something, even if it’s just a general strike or something equally strange.

… And people really, really, really want things to be normal. Hence the chorus of people on our side saying the fraud is small and it wasn’t the deciding factor. (They’re also worse at math than I and that hurts, particularly when I know they aren’t, or their profession calls for them not to be.)

I’m very afraid the Nikki play will have people upset, but shrugging and thinking “Yeah, it was a three way split, and that’s why we have the corpse again and he’s going to kill us” and not being able to say there was fraud or hound the fraudsters from office.

And that–

That means it will be the hard landing and the blood on the streets when it comes. And the breaking of everything at once, before we can rebuild.

I think that’s the play being run. And I wish to G-d I could tell you it will not work.

220 thoughts on “The Plausible Decoy”

  2. I think DeSantis probably thought early on that he could be this year’s candidate. And if Trump hadn’t run I think he would’ve been. But even with Trump running, DeSantis running this year helps him ’28. There aren’t very many candidates who can win their primary and the White House first time out. So running this year gets him name recognition for next term.

    And while I preferred DeSantis early on, once the lawfare started in on Trump it cemented me as one of his voters. The fact that so far, the civil trials have been so egregiously obvious political stunts that it might turn a bunch of undecideds for him.

    1. Point to remember is that Trump did a couple of trial runs before going all out in 2016. That alone says the man plays a far longer game than most politicians, who are only concerned with the current election cycle, and none of whom actually think about long term effects of legislation.

  3. Ever since Dewey, every Republican candidate has been painted as “the next incarnation of Hitler”. Talk about a limited playbook.

    1. Further than that. One of the Democrats’ campaign lines from 1940, Roosevelt vs. Wendell Willkie, was “Don’t put Hitler in the White House.”

      DeSantis certainly would have gotten the same treatment. He was starting to get it in early-mid 2023, when he was looking like the main challenger in the ’24 primary. Media outlets were building up to make him “Literallier Hitlerer.” But then his numbers began their glide path, and they went back to the devil they knew with that rhetoric. This is why I was never concerned that DeSantis was some kind of secret Blob agent. That, and doing distinctly un-Blobbish things.

      Republica restituendae
      et
      Hamas delenda est.

      1. Which is rather ironic, given that – according to Amity Schlaes – one of the reasons why FDR started the big pre-War build-up was because of Wilkie drawing attention to the need for it during his presidential campaign.

      2. The only two things that raised yellow flags for me about DeSantis were his service at Gitmo and some of his backers. Countering that were a mountain of other things: his enemies (Disney, MSM, etc.), his anti-Woke policies, his tenacity, COVID handling (except for initially going along with the “Two weeks to stop the spread”), etc. I think Sarah makes strong arguments why Trump is a much stronger candidate, though.

        Not that it makes much difference if the Dems pull the same stuff in the same half-dozen counties, yet again.

  4. Well, honestly not sure what can be done about that. We’re not yet at the point where the maps get all arrowy, but one can feel it on the horizon. But whoever goes off first (or is perceived to go off first), loses.

    Kind of not sure what else to do in the interim except keep doing, and living, and watch for when hinge points start bending?

    Fun times…

    1. I think we have reached the “arrowy” stage, actually. It can still be nipped in the bud before it gets much further. But the chances of that happening are growing increasingly dim. And it definitely won’t happen if Trump loses this year.

  5. Personally, I don’t think the folks funding Haley will be able to convince her to run third party. But she’ll acquire a lot of “campaign donations” leading them on while simultaneously indulging her disdain of Trump by “campaigning” against him.
    A bit like Bernie Sanders’ scam but less ideological.

  6. This is a real danger. I know quite a few very intelligent conservative-leaning people who think Haley is the candidate we all need, Trump has too many “negatives,” and election fraud is a myth. Most of them are my parents’ generation (boomers) and see so many negatives because they’re nostalgic for the patina of decorum that covers long-ago political races, but some are my generation (X), who really ought to know better. If she stays in, she WILL suck votes away from Trump. Enough to flip any given state away from Trump? Maybe, maybe not…but enough to give cover to the inevitable fraudulent votes and vote-adjustment algorithms.

    1. Haley might appeal to such folk, and to the old establishment. Some of them, sure.

      But, and bear with me on this one- I think that there is a slow shift going on, unnoticed by most. Think back for a moment, back to the 80s and early nineties. The era of the golden mic and EIB. The era when Reagan’s tenure ended, and Clinton’s began.

      Dot coms popping up everywhere. The birth of the early internet. Technology in general leaping forward. Prosperity practically showering down all over. More work than workers.

      But there was the politics. Even back then, balanced budgets were not a thing. Even back then, the political class was doing us dirty. But they were getting away with it, and most people didn’t think it was too bad. Didn’t suspect much of what we now know.

      The uniparty wasn’t a saying I heard back then. And both sides of the aisle cooperated on the regular- bipartisanship was, if not common, at least not unknown. It happened every now and again. There were the fiscal conservative Dems and so on, then the neocon hawks.

      Of course, the rampant thievery and looting under cover of “law” of today had its roots somewhere. Not the root causes- those I’d argue are more civilizational than generational- but the things a man can understand within the time frame of a single lifetime.

      The old establishment had power of a sort today’s do not enjoy. They were backed almost unquestionably. News sources were rarely questioned. Drudge was a violent upset that they still haven’t gotten over. Those old men did not make very drastic moves- no fundamental transformations.

      Today though, more folks are aware of politics than I’ve ever seen in my life. Forty years ago, politics were rarely discussed outside of certain events- and never in mixed or unknown company. You likely couldn’t say who your boss or coworkers voted for in a lot of cases.

      I am glad that more folks are taking an interest. Rather it wasn’t the way it is now, but better that they know more. Because what we’ve got now at the highest levels is shameful.

      If you listen to the radio and the talking heads, lots of folks immediately put down any drastic suggestions from our side. Perhaps “our” side, as some of the talking heads strike me as more sympathetic to their “opponents” than is proper and right.

      Things like the border wall- which before was scoffed at, before it was actually in process. Things like defunding agencies which is near and dear to my heart, and gutting the budget of bloat with a chainsaw. Things like getting the fed out of 99.98% of places it is currently.

      I want candidates that will cut spending. I want candidates that will rip out regulations. I want candidates that will stand the eff up for me and mine when companies grovel and snivel for leftist causes, I want them smacked down, as the banks were when they lost entire states worth of business for their cowardice.

      I want lawmakers that will take a good hard look at the laws, and start asking why we need so damned many and why the legal system ain’t working like it’s supposed to. I want law enders that remove and repeal rather than “makers” that produce naught but burden and bureaucracy.

      I want representatives that have the intestinal fortitude to say NO and stick with it. I want them to know deep in their guts that the money they are allocating is NOT theirs, but taken from their people under threat of death. I want them to defend the natural, Heaven given rights of Man with all the fire and fury they would in protecting their wives and children.

      Back in the day, the actions of Trump, Milei, even DeSantis would have been damn near unthinkable. It ain’t enough, and the goblins and bandits of the world haven’t gotten any more timid or peaceful. The defense of liberty must never fall.

      But today, things are possible that weren’t before. I would take a thousand MTGs over a single more standard Republican. We need courage. Audacity. Even a bit of craziness, sure.

      And it is possible. Possible to eclipse the fraud. Possible to ram through some common sense. Possible to do so over the howls and outrage of the left- they’d do that anyway.

      Why not have the balls to enact some REAL change for the betterment of the country?

    2. Boomer here, with a Boomer husband. We both think that Trump’s brash, bull in a china shop approach are exactly what is needed to get the country back on the right track. Sort of like what Javier Millei has done in Argentina.

        1. Let Washington sink! Split up the departments we might want to keep. Scatter the rest to the four winds. Move the capital out of DC. Pick up the White House and stick it in the middle of Kansas or something. Do it like we did the embassy in Israel.

          Just leave all the keptocratic lobbyists and hangers on behind. Let the swamp take the capital back. Maybe the greenies would be all for it? Can we plant a few there to see if we can convince Gaia to summon a typhoon or a tidal wave?

          Let Washington Sink!

          1. Wherever we put the center of power, the leeches will follow. It is their nature.

            The only solution is to decentralize power. Take that chainsaw and prune off 95% of the federal government, starting with the Department Of (Mal)Education and the IRS. Repeal the 16th Amendment. Etc.

  7. Of course Kennedy is already running as an independent for the general election, so already there is someone that can be spun to minimize the fraud (as compared to Haley who has turned out to be a complete fraud).

    Haley has said enough to alienate both conservative/libertarians and the commies, as she expressed support earlier this week for Alabama’s Supreme Court decision that said frozen embryos are children, which of course means non-frozen embryos are also children entitled to legal protection (duh) and thereby enraged the pro-abortion crowd. This goes on top of the Romney like RINO stuff she has been saying since she started her campaign and her totalitarian idea regarding registration of internet users.

    Of course there is the presumption that the cabal isn’t going to keep working to egg on Putin and the Jihadists to start WW3, or at least use a nuke or two, so the regime here can use it to go after domestic political opponents, “postpone” the election, and essentially effectively declare a dictatorship. They are ruling by decree already and have utter disdain for the Constitution, and the CCP Virus lockdowns were very much a test-run for the bigger power grab. They know people won’t buy the “virus of doom” line again, even as the mad scientists try to outdo Blofeld in concocting lethal viruses through gain of function work. Thus, they need the next step up beyond the “virus of doom” which is use of nukes and the threat of widespread nuclear war.

    Yes, they are idiots, but idiots with dreams of absolute power can get a lot of people killed before their idiocy does them in.

  8. Deep State Nikki lost to None of the Above.

    She’s going to lose her home state, and badly.

    I do not see a way to make her a plausible drain on votes for Trump. For Biden, sure, but not Trump.

    1. That’s an easy argument. Claim that Trump only won the primaries because of all of the right-wingers. Once he got to the General Election, where the non-Republican moderates could vote, Haley pulled away the anti-Biden voters.

  9. As to DeSantis… the scuttlebutt I’ve heard from sources I trust on political machinations is that he was basically suckered into running on two fronts, neither of them from the left particularly. First, his wife wanted to be First Lady, desperately. Second, he got a book deal from the Murdoch family that essentially set him up for life, with the string attached that he would take on Trump. The Murdochs apparently despise Trump and the fact that he appeals to the flyover people (this had a bit to do with Tucker Carlson’s firing, as well, and boy isn’t that backfiring on them?).

    Between those pressures and incentives, and a string of people appealing to his vanity and telling him it was his time, assuring him he had more support than he did, he bought into it and ran. That he saw his mistake, eventually, and didn’t ride the bomb down all the way is to his credit, but his judgement is less than perfect (and his lack of personality is always going to be a drag on him). Hopefully he learns from this and grows a bit.

    1. Considering how much of the MSM the Murdochs control, I’m not surprised they despise Trump. And that raises a question of how much of a hook they have in DeSantis.

      1. Desantis has his money, and it would seem that he has some understanding that he got duped and used by the Murdochs. Questions are fair, but given how thinks have shaken out so far, I think it’s also fair to give him a chance in the future.

        1. I think that DeSantis is deep into his war vs. Disney. They have torqued him off on every level, and it is a just cause.

          I also think he takes pride in being able to defend his state and run his state, and to tell the rest of the world off, when justified. Which is good, because Florida does need some love.

          1. Unfortunately, iirc, DeSantis is term-limited out after this term as governor (which I think ends in 2026). Someone else has to serve before DeSantis can run for governor again.

            1. Didn’t DeSantis have to resign as governor in order to run for POTUS? That’s what I thought that one Florida law required. Was I mistaken?

          2. Actually, the beautiful part is that once he got the process started, he can be totally hands off. In fact, it’s to his advantage, because Disney keeps making massive legal blunders, like trying to sue him personally for something that was, one, done by the state legislature, and, two, legally entirely within the legislature’s purview. So one of the reasons that suit got bounced was simply that Disney Legal named the wrong defendant in an effort to “get” him.

            1. Lacking standing didn’t help, either.

              And Disney now has a whole bunch of viable lawsuits against them, from many, many different directions. Mostly labor law and discrimination cases, arising from their DEI policies, COVID vaccine policies, and sexual discrimination.

              1. Disney has far worse than lawsuits coming down the pike. There is almost unavoidable prison time for executives due to shit that’s come to light following the dissolution of Reedy Creek Improvement District. Might take a few years, but no way to sweep it all under the rug at this point.

                1. Yeah, the CFTOD audits show what RCID was doing went beyond shady. I am not sure if Disney execs will see jailtime, but it wouldn’t surprise me.

                  And hiring Harvey Weinstein’s personal assistant to run their new Star Wars series isn’t exactly a sign of clean hands, either.

                  1. Using bond money for the benefit of Disney only, and not the whole community, is going to put multiple people in prison. Including the executives at Disney with fiduciary responsibility. They built a power plant that generates no power and never has, AND prevented CFTOD auditors from even inspecting it despite it belonging to the government and not Disney. They lied in SEC filings, Disney not Reedy Creek.

                    Again, it may not happen this year, but folks are going down for this stuff, and it won’t only be the former RCID board members. And there’s no statute of limitations on most of it.

                    1. The next Donk governor of Florida will tidy things up for the culprits. And they still have enough loot and clout to perhaps tip the scales against DeSantis. This is especially likely if Trump and DeSantis continue to fall for “lets you and him fight” antics from the Donks.

                    4. Hunter is one person. We’re talking DECADES of misreporting (and willfully and knowingly so) bonuses so that they would not be taxed. Too many people involved, and not enough of them have a Presidential daddy.

                    5. I know. I’ve been following this by watching Valliant Renegade, The Legal Mindset, and company. It will still take action by federal prosecutors to put people in prison for some of those crimes, and we have seen the two tier justice system has been working over the past decade or so, so I will not be holding breathe on federal charges. State prosecution for some of the crimes might be more likely.

  10. Sarah, totally off topic. I’m thinking of going to Confinment 2024. Is it too late? Anyone interesting besides you on the schedule?

    On topic. I’m hoping that RFK jr. Is the Ross Perot of 2024. Haley won’t make a difference.

    1. According to pollster Rich Baris (aka The People’s Pundit), RFK Jr. is the only candidate who could pull votes from Trump in any significant way. It’s not party alignment, but the fact that the Establishment is so clearly set against him (see the refusal to give him Secret Service protection for the most obvious sign).

          1. If Trump weren’t running, RFK Jr. might have gotten support from Trump’s voters. But Trump is running – who would settle for an imitation when the real thing is available?

            1. The operative phrase was “in any significant way”. The voters Baris was talking about (going from memory, this was a bit ago) are the voters who usually don’t vote, but will absolutely vote for Trump when they can. RFK Jr. appeals to the same group and, if on the ticket in all 50 states, will pull some numbers from those “rarely vote but will vote for Trump” people who are anti-establishment but not notably on the right.

              Enough to weaken the landslide that’s shaping up? No, but not Libertarian Party numbers either.

            2. Or, to put it another way, RFK being on the ticket is an insurance policy for Trump against the deep state assassinating him. Because those voters won’t vote Biden, but WILL vote RFK. (One of the reasons the cathedral has been so hostile to him.)

          2. A friend says the support from working class hispanic and black guys is solid for trump. ROCK solid. On the basis of “his presidency was good for us.”

            2. That and the Teamsters Union gave a max donation to the Republicans one day after a meeting with Trump. I suspect a lot of rank and file private sector union members see what has happened to the economy under the cabal and will not vote for the Democrats. On the other hand the government employee unions are all in on the Democrats and act as their foot soldiers, and are the ones who in most states control the vote counting, so who the Teamsters or anyone else votes for in the key states and districts likely won’t matter anyway.

            3. If there is one US culture where “indicted” and “legal woes” grants credit, it is Gangsta. If they ever perp-walk Trump, or imprison him, it will be a disaster for the Donks.

              Trump could freaking unite the Crips and the Bloods for politics. And would not -that- just soil some drawers?

              1. That has already been shown in interviews in inner city neighborhoods, where the interviews show support for Trump with a “if they are going after him that much, he must be doing something right” attitude.

        2. Really doesn’t matter as long as key states can be manipulated through things like fraud by mail:

          https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2024/02/21/the-theory-that-mail-in-voting-is-secure-just-died-a-horrible-death-n4926623

          When Democrats can cast votes for people without their knowledge or consent, even those who no longer live in a state, the genuine votes don’t matter except to define the margin of fraud Democrats need. Given what they were willing to do in 2020, and given the level of rhetoric now as to Trump and “MAGA Republicans” being an existential threat to democracy, i.e. Democratic Party power, the question people should be asking is “what wouldn’t they do?”

            1. The real reason for the zombie apocalypse: all of the dead rising out of their graves because they are angry that votes were cast in their name for people they never would have voted for while alive.

              2. “Our dead voters have risen from their graves and they’re pissed!” 😀
                ———————————
                Grandpa voted Republican until the day he died — but he’s been voting Democrat ever since.

            2. The cabal has taken further steps in its quest to help the Jihadists in their quest to destroy Israel and commit mass murder of Jews:

              https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2024/02/23/biden-to-appease-palestinians-reverses-trump-policy-on-legality-of-settlements/

              The cabal is now supporting the effort to remove Jews from lands which even the Romans acknowledged Jews were native to, given the name Judea means :Land of the Jews. The ONLY indigenous people that the left doesn’t want to see in their homeland are Jews and there is a reason for that. The left, especially the woke left, HATES Jews. Period.

              At this point the Democratic Party symbol should just put a Swastika on its donkey symbol, as that what they have truly become.

                1. In reality, they don’t want anyone in their homelands. Nationalism is a tool they use, nothing more. If people are in their homelands, they won’t be loyal to their lords and masters.

                  Many ancient empires did the same, relocating entire populations if necessary to keep control.

                  They do not want anyone’s loyalty to homeland to over-rule their loyalty to the idiots who think they’re in charge.

    2. I don’t think it’s too late at all. And we will both be there, plus the younger kids.
      Don’t know about anyone else but you can hang with us. Just you’ll have to say who you are.

      1. I like Tennessee in general and it’s an excuse to visit a nephew there. Small cons can be good. I’m leaning towards going.

          1. But moving gives you so MUCH grist for the blog, Sarah!

            (Since I’ve been reading here, I don’t think a full year has gone by when you weren’t about to move, just moved, moving, saying you need to move…)

              1. Looking back at the dates on the web pages I pulled from the PJM days – I guess it has been just a bit less than 10 years since I started coming here.

                Lord, I was still on the “good” side of my fifties then. Now (as of tomorrow) I’m heading for the exact middle of the sixties. Yech.

                1. I’m only slightly behind. Ten years ago I still had…. three? four years in the original place. We were looking at moving, eventually. When the boys moved out.

    3. Not too late at all. Mike Williamson, Stephanie Osborne, Richard Weyland and William Webb among others.

  11. I suspect the mega-donors see Haley as being, “pragmatic,” and, “flexible,” meaning she would be easier to bend while being conservative enough to appeal to “centrist,” and “Never Trump,” voters.
    I’ll also add it might be my timeline, but I saw considerably more nasty, juvenile and outright stupid attacks on DeSantis from Trump supporters.
    As for DeSantis for VP, I’d like it, but at this point I think it’s unlikely. I think the big donors’ best play if they wanted a handle on Trump would be to help out with his legal fees, on condition he take Haley as his VP.
    Truthfully, I have no idea how it’s going to work out. But so far as the stress of betrayal goes, my bet is when Trump leaves us, it will be suddenly, not a slow decline.

    1. I’ll also add it might be my timeline, but I saw considerably more nasty, juvenile and outright stupid attacks on DeSantis from Trump supporters.

      Your timeline. On Facebook. Which has been caught manipulating timelines the past two elections in order to defeat Trump.

      And you expect that you’re going to get a realistic view of people’s views there this time around?

            1. Okay to explain, The code is rigged, so that Elon said taking it all down would destroy the site. He’s trying to get alternate software scripted to be installed all at once.

              1. Listen to Sarah. A software suite like Twitter is a Jenga tower. Pull the wrong piece and the whole thing breaks. And that’s when there aren’t people TRYING to put in weak points that only they know about.

    2. I heard some silly stuff as well, and I wasn’t sure if it was a case of “You go low so I’ll go lower,” or “I claim to be a Trump supporter but I’m paid by someone,” or “Heh heh, you’re a p00pyhead, heh heh heh.”[think Bevis and Butthead-level maturity and actual political acumen.] I have no idea which was which, so I tune all insults out unless I hear them from the person him/her/whateverself.

    3. Trump supporters, yes. Official Trump campaign, no. it was all reactive.
      And weirdly a lot of huber “Trump Supporters” are peddling the “Putin ain’t done nothing wrong.” …. I think they’re plants.

      2. Very much so. Pelosi today once again tried to push the debunked Russia-collusion hoax that the Obama and Hillary folks cooked up to smear Trump. They are so delusional they believe their own BS.

      3. If you want to know what the cabal really thinks of Israel and Jews, their ambassador to the UN, in vetoing Algeria’s resolution demanding a cease fire, said that the administration was looking for a FINAL SOLUTION.

        https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/02/giving-rational-ignorance-a-bad-name.php

        Yes, they really use the same term the Nazis used with regard to the Holocaust to describe what their end game is with regards to the Hamas attack on Israel.

      4. The really ugly Twitter slur was Laura Loomer suggesting Casey DeSantis faked having breast cancer. Because of course, everybody KNOWS….
        There are definitely people working really hard to make sure Republican factions hate each other.
        OTOH, the tension between Jewish donors and the raving antisemites on the other side must be, um, interesting too.

        4. Blink. Sigh. Well, there were crazy things about Trump that I saw, because I wasn’t identified as either side. (And while suspicious of DeSantis, I would have voted for either.)
          Shrug. But Laura Lomer seemed way out there. she seems associated with Whatfingernews, and though I do check them now and then, they are…. odd.

  12. Honestly, at this point I’m just looking for something to go wonky in the next six months.

    Could be Biden dying. Could be Trump dying. Could be something else entirely. At this point, it’s just like looking at a house on the edge of an undercut cliff, wondering when it’s going to fall.

    1. At least the attempt to gin up hysteria over Disease X!!!! went over like a lead balloon.

      If Biden checks out, we’ll see some real panic from the cathedral class, because all of their backups are even less believable vote-winners than Dementia Joe.

      But yeah, the WEFers are going to try something. Probably lots of things.

    2. I expect an overseas something that will catch the PTB and their backers so off-guard that it will be funny.

      Funny in distant “we survived it” hindsight, that is.

          1. If you treat it like a cartoon, and manage to ignore it was real human beings involved, it had a certain Keystone Kops quality to it.

            Yeah, you have to be a psychopath actually to laugh, but…

    3. Same here … expecting an ink-black swan to fly in the next six months or so. Upsetting all predictions and expectations.
      Interesting times, interesting times, indeed. I’m hoping that I live long enough to read all the ‘tell-all’ documents regarding current events.

      2. One of the fun ways things could go pop, that Whatifalthist points out is most of the young male population basically expects and has been told to expect to have zero future in the current system.

        And the folks in charge remember that every president who started a war won re-election. And given all the global crazy, there are plenty of opportunities for one.

        Combined with the recruitment crisis, that would mean a draft. Which is a lot more effective if the people you are trying to draft have more to lose by lighting the recruiter on fire than they do by signing up.

        List of things I would really not like to be in the middle of in my lifetime #532….

      3. I’m not expecting a black swan. I’m expecting one of the many pure-as-snow swans to land unexpectedly.

        There are so many balls in the air (to mix metaphors), right now, that one of them dropping and turning out to be a hand grenade is almost inevitable. The question of course is: Which one?

        China implodes? Invades Taiwan? Russia nukes something out of pique? Ukraine does something well inside Russia, then Russia nukes something? India sinks a Chinese ship? A US Navy ship gets sunk in the Red Sea? Iran nukes Israel? Israel nukes Iran? Both?

        The list is nearly endless, let alone what could happen internally. The number of things that could go drastically sideways that involve just the FBI is gigantic.

    4. George Floyd worked for them in 2024; they were all prepped for “Peaceful (Mayhem) Protests (pallets strategically by the Brick Fairy, etc.) . Seen some talk from the really far left that this year’s Peaceful Protests might be even more widespread and energetic than in 2020. If sufficiently so might kick off Glowie counter protests of equal vivacity. Might trigger martial law which might finally kick off the Boogaloo and cancel the election. Or not, who can say?

      I’m willing to wager a ham sandwich on this piece of short fiction.

  13. The left will do whatever is the stupidest thing to do, then they will do it even harder until people start hanging them in the town square, then and only then will they stop.

    1. Alas, they will never stop. They will only pause, until they think they can get away with it again. And it’s not “the left” per se (though right at this moment, it is mostly them), but those who lust for power over all else.

        1. Looks like Israel has decided that if there is to be a “war to the knife”, they will be the ones holding it.

          .

          Point – Israel is about to start drafting the previously-untouchable ultra orthodox folks.

          Point – The ultra orthodox folks are -enlisting- in the IDF in record and shocking numbers.

          Point – Israel just announced building 3000 more homes in areas others demand be kept judenfrei.

          Point – Israel is not meaningfully negotiating an -end- to the current war, just about the sideshows.

          .

          Hamas -totally- screwed the pooch. Israel is about to rediscover the joys of beating your foes like a rented mule, and the military principle of “annihilation”. This may trigger further such joys against other deserving dickheads, plus perhaps a post-victory baby boom.

          1. Heck, if I weren’t over sixty or had a useable specialty of support, I’d have gone to help already. Because I recognize existential threat. And while I’m not of the faith, I am, as the expression goes “Jewish enough for Hitler.” So are my sons. And therefore they’re fighting for us as well.

            1. “useable specialty of support”?

              (gobsmacked)

              Seriously?

              You are a wordsmith battleaxe, a literary archer. Wield the weapons you were given. My max proven range is about 540m. You have intercontinenta reach.

  15. I’ve become convinced that I owe Perot an apology.
    When it looked like he was going to win the whole thing walking away, he abruptly canceled his campaign for a week or two, then came back with a take off getting braced by the FBI and threatened about what would happen if he continued.

    At the time, it seemed unbelievable. Ridiculous. Preposterous.
    Now, though…

    1. Granting that the FBI managed to seem not-corrupt for most of the 1980s, the fact is, it was corrupt from inception. Hoover played power games (most notably against the Kennedy brothers in the ’60s), and part of the Watergate scandal was the fact that Deep Throat was a venal man angry at Nixon for not appointing him to replace Hoover after Hoover’s death. (No, not even remotely the biggest part of what went down, but a significant factor even so.)

      Then they managed to appear clean and pure in the ’80s, right up to the point they started entrapping Americans (along with the ATF) and targeting them for execution (Ruby Ridge, Waco). The fact that FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi has never faced any consequences for killing Vicki Weaver, who was armed with a dangerous assault infant and nothing else, tarnishes the Bureau from that day to this.

      1. And it was Bob Barr who made sure that he walked free.

        (I haven’t forgotten. But it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize why the name of Trump’s second AG sounded so familiar.)

        (Shrug) Operation Mockingbird was a huge success.
        It set conventional wisdom, and that had a ton of inertia.

      2. Some time (a couple of years, maybe) after Ruby Ridge and Waco, a company making synthetic rifle stocks did an advert in one of the gun magazines (might have been Rifle, can’t remember) with an endorsement from Lon Horiuchi. I gather LH also had some role in the Waco fiasco, but the responses to the company’s advertisement was quite strong, and incredibly heated. I wish I could remember which company it was, if only to see if it survived.

        1. HS Precision. That was a kerfuffle on par with the Audi “Green Police” ad fallout during the 2010 Superbowl.

      1. Is there really a Republic? Or is it a skin that the CIA and ilk wear that’s falling off?

          1. My bad, I was thinking as the administration and politician lackeys as the Republic, not the people and States.

            Feeling very much like the protagonist in “They Live” today. More crappy info rolled in today and I may need to see a priest tomorrow.

            Plus I’ve been replying with some other choice phrases besides “STOP” to all the Primary Election text messages.

            “So why did this spare win the primary?”

            “They were the only mf-er that didn’t spam the shit out the regular voters.”

  16. I have a feeling Biden won’t be removed from the ticket until the convention, because he has to win all 50 states. At the convention, all bets are off.

    DeSantis looked like he was being groomed to run for president last year starting with that book deal, but then not enough people went for him, just like they wouldn’t go for Jeb Bush. The Republican power brokers then moved to Haley because she was the only one left with any national recognition.

    Will she stay in to become the Perot splitter? I think it is a definite possibility, but I think she would actually have to run as a write-in candidate as she hasn’t been running under a different party. I don’t remember enough about how Perot ran to be sure, but it seems he always ran as a separate party candidate, not as a Republican. That eliminates Haley from doing the same, I think.

    1. Yes, he ran under the Reform(?) party. I recall a bike ride I was doing at the time. Was about 15 miles south of Downtown San Jose, where Perot was supposed to be speaking. Some guy waved me down and asked where the rally was. I was a bit dumbfounded, because Sumdood would have had to have missed all of downtown SJ and gotten to the very southern edge of the city. (Even if he had come from points south, where that conversation took place in the most unlikely portion of San Jose you could find. It took work to get there from the main highways.)

      “You’re not from around here, it seems.”

    2. “That eliminates Haley from doing the same, I think.”

      Are there enough RINO / Democrat SecStates to waive the ballot rules and let her on? That’s the only question that has to be answered.

  17. Biden to the Convention. Drops out/pushed out/something happens. Nikki changes parties, comes in with Kamala as VP for “continuity” , Gives the plausible deniability to fraud.

    Or maybe Kamala as Pres w/ Nikki as vice and camel gets a “you bow out after in office for 2 years or else” package.

    1. I can’t see No-Talent Kamala allowing anybody to take the spotlight from her a second time. Her narcissism is in direct proportion to how utterly bereft of skill she is.

      1. Agreed.

        Though is such a deal did somehow get worked out, it would be amusing (in a very black humor way) watching Harris get super catty and jealous about her subordinate Haley’s obviously superior talent.

      2. Holman in the WSJ actually wrote a straight-faced column extolling the potential virtues(??) of a President Harris. I wanna know what he’s smoking- I don’t smoke, and I wanna stay far away from whatever it is.

      3. The thoughts came to mind as to her known skills (I’m being charitable and assuming more than one), and I’m already fresh out of brain bleach. Eww!

  18. I do wish I could remember the short story of the guy fighting insects armed with weapons and defended by arachnids… Maybe Alan Dean Foster…

    Anyway, this life isn’t everything, the “good guys” had to suffer through Rome using Christians as torches to light the streets at night.

    Read Psalm 91. We’ll be okay if we place our trust correctly. Even if we’re the ones torched.

      1. Frodo: “I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.”

        Gandalf: “So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”

        — J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

        1. Then he took the ring to Mordor and almost died in the process. He didn’t sit there waiting for God to do whatever it was God was going to do. He did HIS part.

    2. “I do wish I could remember the short story of the guy fighting insects armed with weapons and defended by arachnids… Maybe Alan Dean Foster…”
      Try “Expendable” by Philip K. Dick. I hope this helps.

      1. THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    3. Psalm 91 indeed. He has His thumb on this scale somehow. We may not save the Republic that was, but we will save something, and it will be good.

      I like St. Augustine: pray like it all depends on God, work like it all depends on you.

  19. No idea what’s going to happen. The Author either has a wicked sense of humor, or has been sampling the cosmic mushroom garden. Maybe someone has stolen the Plot Stone.

    Now we need to build a wall on the Vermont border too. And the administration just shredded Title 5 Chapter I Subchapter B Part 734

    Investing in more metal, not the gold and silver type.

  20. I’ve been thinking about it, and I have to argue with your analysis.

    Having DeSantis run third party was a distant Plan C.
    At best.

    The thing to realize is that the Republican primaries have been rigged at an institutional level since Buchanan embarrassed Bush I (if not before).
    You’ll note that the early primaries are almost entirely Blue or Purple (with the outliers of Iowa—where ethanol subsidies have a lot of weight, and South Carolina—which is fabulously corrupt). This is absolutely intentional.
    The play has always been to split the conservative vote, have the squish with name recognition rack up pluralities, and present a fait accompli to the red states. (2016 was the first presidential primary I actually got to cast a meaningful vote in. All seven others were decided well before I ever got a say.)

    Until 2016, when Trump grabbed the loaded dice and Jeb! crapped out. (And oh, how I loved rubbing it in the face of the establishmentarians that they’d been hoist by their own petard.)

    You’re right that name recognition is YUGE.
    Between media and money, the GOPe is used to having that in a headlock.
    They ran the standard play, and expected it to work.
    It didn’t.
    Nimrata proving to be a horrible candidate is just icing on this epic cake o’ crap.
    And I’ve got popcorn.

    1. Local primaries are a mess since my GOPe congress critter is retiring. Plus the whole Paxton impeachment thing revealed to many how many worthless GOPe skunk up the Texas House.

      Voting for the lesser of two or more weevils in a primary is no fun. It’s hard measuring evil in microGates with poor intel.

      The only fun today was getting Googles Gemini AI to write politically incorrect Marxist feline poetry.

    2. “The thing to realize is that the Republican primaries have been rigged at an institutional level since Buchanan embarrassed Bush I (if not before).”

      All you have to look at to see that is see how many of them are “open”. When you make it easy for Democrats to pick your candidates….

  23. Nimrata is only there to drain money. Or for insurance. Or for the deep state to say: “We gave you choices.”

    “Do you want white wine contaminated with sewage or red wine contaminated with sewage?

  24. Have you ever seen that stunt where they stretch rubber bands around a watermelon? You never know when it’s going to happen, but eventually they put on one too many rubber bands and watermelon go kablooey.

    The Leftroids just keep stretching those rubber bands…
    ———————————
    The Democrats are so steeped in corruption they don’t notice it any more than a fish notices water. They would only notice an absence of corruption, like fish out of water.

  25. There’s a big problem and a big question coming up to this election-

    The big problem-if anything happens to Trump, there are going to be enough people that will decide it’s time to start Civil War II:The Balkains Were Amateurs and their FBI handlers are not going to be able to stop them. The worse things that “happen” to Trump, the bigger the explosion is going to be. Especially if there’s violent “spontaneous protests” running up to the election.
    (A Trump/DeSantis campaign would be loads of fun, especially if DeSantis uses it as a way to get himself ready for a 2028 Presidental campaign.)

    The big question? If Biden can run and does run? I know that Jill Biden will do anything she can to keep him going, but everybody else is starting to see that Joe is not exactly up for the task. But who replaces him on the Democratic bench?
    Harris wants to be Theodora and is vicious enough but isn’t as pretty and nowhere near as smart. And definitely won’t follow orders.
    Newsom? Outside of the Pacific states and hard-blue enclaves, he has zero electability. If he was to win, nobody could doubt that it was due to blatantfraud.
    Dean Phillips? I only learned of him looking him up on Ballotpedia.

    It doesn’t help (for values of help) that media outlets are starting to fall apart. I suspect that if we have half the newspapers out there by the end of the year than the start, it’ll be a shock. Ad rates are going insane, and a lot of news “websites” that were living on venture capital cash floats are sinking. And nobody trusts major network news TV these days. They’re going to try and set up the most dramatic election possible, because that gets eyeballs on the TV screens and monitors and cell phones, and that makes them money.

    1. Newsome?

      Heh… heh… BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

      The announcement was just made today that the California state budget deficit is even worse than had been projected earlier. Newsome would need to run with that albatross around his neck, at minimum.

      1. In a world of elections managed to predetermined conclusions albatrosses are just decorations.

    2. Don’t forget Cruella in Michigan, Whitmer. She easily matches theirs needs. and please don’t bother listing her negatives, only our crowd will ever be aware of them.

      1. I occasionally run into articles about how popular Witchmer is and I’m always shocked. What is there to like? I just don’t get the typical Democrat voter (most of my sibs and friends included).

        2. Then there’s JB the Hutt Pritzker in Illinois, who has been tossing his money around like it’s going out of style (which it hopefully is). I keep seeing him “mentioned” as a future POTUS candidate but I don’t see how he can pull it off, even with all his moolah and his undying commitment to unlimited abortion, transgenderism for all ages, giving away the store to illegal aliens and LGBTQ+++ books in schools. He doesn’t have any charisma except possibly to hardcore Chicagoans, plus he’s now too white and Jewish for a good chunk of the Democrat Party. That hasn’t stopped him from trying to be Newsom’s Maxi-Me, though.

    3. “Harris wants to be Theodora and is vicious enough but isn’t as pretty and nowhere near as smart.”

      You have a definite genius for understatement. Harris’ intellect (actually, “intellect”) compares to Theodora’s approximately as Biden’s compares to Justinian’s; “nowhere near” doesn’t begin to cover it..

  27. We interrupt this conversation to report that Intuitive Machines has announced that their Odysseus lander has successfully landed on the Moon, and is transmitting a faint, but definite, signal.

    Congratulations! Both to American returning to the Moon, and to the first private Moon landing (something that still has not yet been accomplished by the majority of countries that have attempted it).

    4. There’s been landings(crashes, whatever) by other countries, just not very survivable ones for the landers. But yes a successful landing! Yay!

  28. I hate to say it, but my gut reaction to your post was, “Bingo. Yep.”

    Then I ran it past my “what cluster Bs do when they want to hurt someone badly” filter, and the reaction was “bingo”, again.

    So… yeah. This is not looking good for the good guys.

    (Oh Great Author, please let all my research into fortified cities/non-gunpowder weapons be needed for book use only. But if not…

    At least let me carve out time to keep writing anyway. I’ll need it for the sanity.)

    1. Er. If it helps, all my research/writing has been about rebuilding, healing, knights returning in new guises to block Fae horrors from encroaching on the world, and just today I might have figured out how to fix a superhero universe I’ve had kicking around for a while. At least, the major throughline is there.

      I’ve also got to figure out how to set a trial scene for a self-defense action taken and “how to avoid people actively trying to kill you,” though. But that comes after the self-defense action. So…maybe we can balance each other out? :fingers crossed:

      1. Let’s hope so. I have a day off work Sat, hoping to get more edits done on Colors… and now the bunnies are throwing a “librarian surviving a few years after Earth gets System’d, running into a librarian from one of the other worlds who’s in Acquisitions and wants to open interlibrary loans….”

            1. LOL. It’s just the bathroom is up the stairs. Son Installed weird industrial handles on the wall to hang things from. Dan’s exercise machines are there. AND it’s next to his “recording studio.”
              The upstairs guest room, lined with my fiction library is a better bet.

            2. Shoot. I just realized musically inclined Huns are lining up outside my door as we speak. Or would be, if my address were known.
              I have “recording studio” in quotes because he hasn’t used it as that yet. He does do a lot of programming there, though. There are… um… computers. (And younger DIL’s musical instruments, too.)
              At one time while working down there he and younger son were discussing a new idea for…. time travel? I don’t know if it had anything to do with what they were doing. I don’t speak math, much less math genius.
              So– look. It’s dangerous down there, okay?

                1. I haven’t gone through their pockets…. 😉
                  Sorry, the phrase “Going through his pockets for loose singularities” presented itself. Hopefully it leaves me alone in the future.

  30. I’m old and I remember things. We have been manipulated for most, maybe all of my 87 years. Looking back I think of four little children, my older brother, my older sister and my twin and me, collecting junk for the “war effort.” Before Pearl Harbor. Why were we doing that, I don’t know how it started I was very young, but I remember it.
    During school years the Weekly Reader was sent to all school, I suppose, and after WWII, very pro UN,
    When I see people who are conservative, say on Facebook, bring back Walter Kronkite, I always stop and rant about his world views and slanted reporting. I wish Harry Reasoner had been a bigger name at the time.
    About DeSantis, i don’t see him as a strong person. Some of his thinking seems good, but in truth we elect leaders for a number of reasons and a strong voice is one of them. DeSantis has a very weak voice.
    So how did we get Biden, you ask? Fraud, I will go down knowing we were robbed in that election and the world along with USA is paying dearly for it.

    2. DeSantis is an intelligent man. Prideful, as such men in his position often are. He’d be a good man to put in a place like SecState (clean up that dept by firing everybody. Hire some crusty old vets with no giveadamn left). Or interior. Something like that.

      He’s not the guy you follow into battle. Trump’s that guy. He fights.

  31. If Haley doesn’t wind up running as an independent, has she had the effect of sucking money away from Dems? Or is that well so deep that it just doesn’t matter?

      1. An interesting bit of research I did a while back regarding a particular .gov pension fund with lower than expected returns.

        On looking at the pattern (public records) it appears that the fund is almost emptied before each presidential election, then paid back with “intetest” just before the end of the quarter. Sometimes mid-terms as well. The interest paid can be anywhere in a range from 0 to full, but it brings the total returns down over time.

        If I remember correctly, the pattern of small withdrawals started around 2010ish? Always paid back before the end of the quarter.

        My opinion is that this is probably not isolated, and that someone has figured out how to tap federal money, likely paid back after the election by big donors who can’t be seen to fund political causes.

  32. So stating my position. I think DeSantis gave it a shot but quickly realized that if Trump was running it was a REALLY hard haul. If Trump hadn’t been so thin-skinned and nasty DeSantis could have been an asset. VP is problematic due to the 12th amendment and IF Trump manages to win it’ll be a nail-biter probably 5-15 Electoral votes maximum. Florida is 30 Electoral votes for this cycle, so the Florida Electors either have to throw their votes to the president or to the vice president (and then throw their votes for the other to someone besides the D candidate). This either puts the Presidential election into the House (by state, Who tie breaks?) or the VP into the Senate. so that gets real interesting real fast. He’d have been an asset in campaigning. Not sure if any of the Cabinet positions he might be suited for are enough to act as a jumping off point to 2028 presidency.

    Haley has less brains than either Kamala or AOC if she thinks she has a paper dog’s chance in hell of winning or even mattering either in Republican primary or as 3rd party candidate. She’s Stupid but not that stupid, so is she bitter enough at trump to go for it. I don’t think so.

    The only Third party Candidate to get Electoral votes in my Lifetime (and I was 7 mind you, 60+ now) was George wallce (46) and hit split the solid South. Humphrey STILL would have lost as Nixon had 301 EV. Third Parties tend to be spoilers Like Perot who stole enough votes to ruin Bush the Elders chance at 1992. RFK is going to steal minimal Trump votes, as someone else noted Trump voters tend towards liking the PERSON of trump, and RFK has a few similar ideas, but in general is looney left. I think he’ll steal some bitter Bernie Bro votes but they really weren’t going to vote for Biden OR trump anyhow.

    Trump Needs to get a Grip. First of all he needs a GOOD trustworthy confidant to tell him no when he is about to play into the MSM’s hands and keep his trap shut EXCEPT when he is on message. Also Rona Mcdaniel stepping down we need a serious hard ass who will play for keeps. This is going to be the political equivalent of war to the knife. We need EVERY house seat we can get AND we need a Senate majority. The GOP needs to spend on these races like there is no tomorrow because if they don’t there won’t be one. Last of all Trump needs a plan for every fricking appointee that he can appoint. all the current useless idiots hit the pavement at 15:00 EST after the inauguration if he wins. And that EO for dumping the recalcitrant dept heads etc is signed at 15:01 EST.

    As our Hostess noted there seems to be a LOT of Blue Collar support for Trump especially “Minority”. This is a weakness in the D coalition. Trump doesn’t need to win the minority blue collar, but he needs them to NOT vote Dem as the D depends on a 90% win in the minorities. Push the border issue ESPECIALLY how the D are trying to displace the Blue Collar minorities out of their jobs. Make the welkin ring on the good old Law and Order note ESPECIALLY in Democrat cities with large Blue collar demographics and stores where the crime has been rampant. This hits them hard and should be on the airwaves starting ASAP using PACs and Primary Money. Waste no time or money attacking Haley she’s history, everything should show how much the D management of cities and government in general sucks.

    Finally, we need to get the young unmarried women either voting for Trump (HARD) or sitting out in disgust. The attack here has to be on two fronts 1) Give lots of play time to Biden getting touchy-feely with young girls. This needs to be like Revolt in 2100 from PACs pointing out how much Biden LOVES young women in over the top terms. Other campaigns should run statements from Bidens daughter’s diaries especially the creepy shower thing and anything else sexually incriminating. And lastly (and this is really nasty but deserved) It should be pointed out WITH images/video from the Palestinian attackers that Biden (and every DEM Pol calling for Palestinian support) is supporting/in favor of the violent rape of young women at music festivals(with gut wrenching illustrations). Also worth running this kind of stuff with a focus on the antisemitism angle (ignored in the stuff targeted at young women) in strong Jewish areas maybe it will keep some of the moderate Jewish voters home or move their vote off Biden.

    Will this Win? Without some real restraints on mail in voting maybe not. But in any case at least the bastards will know they’ve been in a fight, and the people will be pissed and more ungovernable than they are. Will the GOP or Trump do any of it? I doubt it, I suspect they’ll come on the same old way and fail peaceably in the great GOP tradition.

    1. “If Trump hadn’t been so thin-skinned and nasty DeSantis could have been an asset.”

      Am I the only one who remembers 2016 and Trump vs Cruz? Donald Trump fights to win…. and he’s hardly unique in American politics since George Washington started his own distillery so he could liquor up the voters.

      1. Even when Trump was supporting Democrats in his developer days, he was very much one who would not let the establishment bully him, and would fight back. Trump is a negotiator, yes, but he is also fighter, which is what his appeal was in 2016, 2020 and for 2024. Work with him and he will work with you. Try to run him over and he will, to borrow a phrase, “punch back twice as hard”.

      3. Trump would fit in very well with any of our Presidents before we started voting for a pretty face. Which means that putting any two of them in the same room would be two bulls in a china shop with a pretty heifer.

        1. If people vote for their wallet, it will be Trump all the way, if they vote for some other reason, not so much. Right now, Biden has no chance what so ever. So, they will wait until their lawfare fails, and then kill Trump, (They really don’t want to, because that will start the Boog, and that they will lose) or they all retire with their ill-gotten gains on the condition there is no trials. If they do start the boog, the exodus out of America will make their heads spin. They will be left with no one to fight for them, so they lose. Then their only choice is nuke the world, it’s either that, or get their necks stretched.

              1. Trump likes to say they are coming after him to get to us. So he is protecting us from them.
                That’s not quite true, I think he is protecting them from us. Without Trump there is nothing stopping us from Boogie Nights.

                    1. No. BS. There have been that sort of political prisoner a lot of times in our history. we just didn’t know.
                      I mean they are coming for all of us, not just a few unfortunate victims. See the destruction of energy, attacking the appliances, etc. etc etc.

              2. BRRRRR so that’s some part of what you see Dear Hostess( or shall I refer to you as Cassandra). I’ll get my bindlestiff, burlap robe and rope belt ready and put A.O.L. after my name and find some casks to store books. The farkin’ idiots WOULD choose that future. Of all the Dystopias on all the shelves they have to trudge into that one…

      4. Fighting the opposition is one thing. But Reagan’s 11th Commandment (Thou shall speak no ill of a fellow Republican) should be your standard albeit perhaps with the Pharisaical addition “Unless they assault you first, at that point all is fair in love and war”. Essentially Don’t Start none and there won’t be none. You should NOT go all catty (apologies to cats everywhere) on people that may be of use to you later. One of the major faults I see in Trump is he has serious Narcissistic tendencies that no one has put a curb on for many a year and has been useful (for TV things like the Apprentice). This is not a fatal flaw in a candidate (unless taken to extremes like Obama and Clinton) but it leads to prideful behavior and there is a reason Pride is one of the seven deadly sins.

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