U.S. Politics, November 2022: “I don’t know, you hear the same things I do”

I’m gonna have remember to unfollow Aaron Rupar tomorrow

If President Trump continues this tone and delivers this message on a consistent basis, he will be hard to beat.

His speech tonight, contrasting his policies and results against the Biden Administration, charts a winning path for him in the primaries and general election.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) November 16, 2022

Goddamn whatever Trump has on him must be goooood, this is embarrassing even for Graham.

Anytime Graham speaks, I can vividly see someone discreetly jiggling that manilla envelope full of incriminating photographs just within the range of his peripheral vision and reminding him of what his next carefully chosen words need to be.

Graham’s utter lack of power at this point means that whoever is holding whatever incriminating evidence none of the rest of the world gives a shit about are simply bullying him for the fun of it.

Good.

Perfect setting to announce AZ Governor Elect Kari Lake as running mate

I used to think that Graham was a real Senator that did things, but now he's just a husk of a Rubio.

Husk of a Rubio? I think I saw them open for Puddle of Mudd back in '96.

National Review has been and remains a nevertrump haven; true maganauts tuned out NR/NRO/Corner long ago.

Only influential to the McMullin crowd, unless I am severely misremembering. Which is of course likely. I have never kept a comprehensive database of who's in/who's out in DonWorld.

The White House has largely given up hope of Congress raising the nation’s debt limit during the lame-duck session that runs through late December, increasing the risk of a highly partisan, market-rattling fiscal confrontation next year.

Senior administration officials see little chance of attracting any Republican votes for a bipartisan debt limit hike during the short session. And they don’t believe they have the 50 Democratic Senate votes needed to slam through a hike using the budget reconciliation process that would allow them to avoid a Republican filibuster.

The administration has determined that if it were to go the reconciliation route on the debt limit, it would face likely opposition from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). And there could be other defectors. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said he wants a bipartisan vote to raise the borrowing cap during the lame-duck session. But Republicans, many of whom are eager to use the limit as leverage to extract legislative concessions from Democrats in the next Congress, have shown no appetite for any such bipartisan approach.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/16/lame-duck-debt-ceiling-deal-00067123

time for Dark Brandon

The New York Post put the former president's "I'm-coming-back!" announcement on page 26:

NY Post: Florida Man Makes Announcement —> story deep inside on page 26. pic.twitter.com/rccr3OcD1P

— Christine Romans (@ChristineRomans) November 16, 2022

Full text:

Been there, Don that

With just 720 days to go before the next election, a Florida retiree made the surprise announcement Tuesday night that he was running for president.

In a move no political pundit saw coming, avid golfer Donald J. Trump kicked things off at Mar-a-Lago, his resort and classified-documents library.

Trump, famous for gold-plated lobbies and for firing people on reality television, will be 78 in 2024. If elected, Trump would tie Joe Biden as the oldest president to take office. His cholesterol levels are unknown, but his favorite food is a charred steak with ketchup.

He has stated that his qualifications for office include being a "stable genius."

Trump also served as the 45th president.

damn does anyone believe in ol donnie anymore

NBC News: Ivanka Trump didn't attend her father's announcement and says she won't be participating in his campaign. @MSNBC

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 16, 2022

Her social life can't take it. She's probably just now getting invited to the Hamptons again.

i imagine capping her legal troubles at their current level prob has something to do with it too

With any luck, Trump will read that Post article and have a massive myocardial infarction.

More like infartion.

At the risk of adding more content about the Florida retiree, this is just a rerun of 2016. He’s the most popular figure with the base. They’ll all fall in line eventually.

“They” being GOP elites, donors, media.

this is just a rerun of 2016

Look, I don't want to tempt fate here, because who the fuck knows anymore, but I don't see this as a 2016 rerun. There are several significant factors that make this quite different. It's only going to feel like 2016 to the fewer diehards that are left, following him around the country, gleefully stomping on DeSantis signs. I have a hard time seeing the full GOP fall in line, or if they do, it's going to be too late to lead to the same result as 2016.

But maybe I'm huffing hopium again.

i'm probably just similarly naive, j/v/c, but the NYPost burying him like that gives me hope, they're reading the tea leaves of which way their readership will go

Roughly 35% of the entire electorate (translating to roughly 65% of the base) have been brainwashed into thinking of him as the one, the only winner on their side

Fox News has their work cut out for them

in 2016 he was a celebrity outsider whom most assumed was actually successful at business, and therefore could apply his Art of the Deal bullshit to the federal government

in 2022 he's a historically unpopular, twice-impeached ex-President who literally tried to force his way back to power when he lost re-election. he's also under investigation for fraud and tax evasion and nobody who isn't a sycophant believes he's actually any good at business. there are also very few people out there willing to work for him anymore.

not saying the media learned a lesson or that he can't win, but the situation is clearly much different now

Then again, this is the quality of GOP stars lining up to lift him up:

Leaving Mar-a-Lago, failed congressman Madison Cawthorn lectures Rs who won’t get behind his hero: “I will follow this man until the day I die. This man has bled for us, fought for us. I want a president who people are terrified of, who’s gonna push people out of the way.” pic.twitter.com/AiivV5Tp8a

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) November 16, 2022

https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Max-Headroom.jpg

That's being kind tbh

Roughly 35% of the entire electorate (translating to roughly 65% of the base) have been brainwashed into thinking of him as the one, the only winner on their side

― ex-McKinsey wonk who looks like a human version of a rat (Eric H.), Wednesday, November 16, 2022 1:26 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah i feel like as long as he holds up his end of the bargain and keeps the zings flowing he prob still has enough support to make the gop establishment kiss the ring, a lot of people are pretty religious about him, do fox news really want him out there telling people to not watch fox news, but if hes low energy he might just fade out, should be an interesting contrast between the first time he ran where he was up against a bunch of establishment stiffs, now hell be running against a bunch of guys trying to steal his routine

trump's appeal to his base has more to do with pro-wrestling than politics

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FhsxmGSWIAEFdkj?format=jpg&name=small

the thing is there is still an establishment GOP out there, all of whom are opportunists who can and have turned their back on him when it benefitted them to do so. they go along with the pro-wrestling shit because they want to cultivate that base. now that they've gotten wrecked in 3 straight elections they may change their tune a bit

they tried to take him down the first time around and it simply did not work

I mean, look, I have to hope that a lot of the GOP establishment is turning their backs on him because... well, the alternative is too fucking bleak to consider atm.

airhorn.aiff

So hard to assess Trump's chances if DeSantis actually gets in. Gotta remember there were a dozen Republicans in the 2016 primary (and even more in the early going), and Trump never won more than like 35 percent in any state (at least until most of them got out). A one-on-one with DeSantis would be a really different race. I'm sure he's been lining up potential donors to try to figure out how strong a position he can put himself in, wouldn't be at all surprised if he can outraise Trump at least among the deep pockets. Or maybe he decides to bide his time. But tbh if I were him, now feels like the time to run. He's coming off a huge reelection win, and he gets to run as governor of one of the largest states in the country rather than former governor (which would be the case in 2028).

Sorry, the "he" in "I'm sure he's been lining up" is DeSantis.

wow, mcconnell managed to secure the senate leadership again, somehow turning back the challenge from dr. charisma, rick scott

McConnell prevailed on a 37-10 vote, with one senator voting present, according to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.).

yeah that is a very good point. I think DeSantis is gonna be a pretty garbage candidate but the people who want the GOP to win for financial/business reasons rather than culture war junk are probably not gonna be thrilled about donating to a guy who's getting his ass kicked over and over again. obviously it's a much different story if say, Dr. Oz won

maybe worth nothing that the media wasn't entirely wrong when they speculated in 2016 that the Trump takeover was potentially very bad for the GOP and the sort of deal with the devil that you can't just back out of, since the crazies won't cede any ground to the moderates and just may drive enough people to vote for the opposition that you can't win anymore. if the Comey letter didn't happen maybe they'd still be beating the same drum.

Yeah and I mean, I muttered this the other day but given how utterly obvious Trump was wanting to get 'his' people in place in the states that bedevilled him last time and how that turned out, exactly how does that give him a boost? And when you've got him still pushing the 'vote on the day' stuff, which he did again last night and which absolutely contributed to all the fucking-themselves-over foolishness -- and when good ol' Ron can point to Florida and go "We do early voting and we owned it" -- how exactly does that improve his chances?

the big thing is if he is running straight up head to head against desantis i think the party elites will rally to him to beat trump, if there’s a bunch of guys like abbott and cruz and rubio trying their hand, then trump can replicate his 2016 run to a degree

And just to add one more wire to the suicide vest, he has apparently declared that a vote for Herschel Walker is a vote for Trump.

shit xps i’m on zing tipsy otm

i can feel the monkey paw curling as a say this but trump v desantis straight up could get crazy, good chance trump will sabotage the situation if its not going his way, dont think theres really anything he wont stoop to

I mean, hell yes, if the remainder of our crumbling democracy wasn't what was at stake, I would absolutely enjoy the fuck out of a WWE style Trump/DeSantis feud, especially since Ron showed he's isn't cowed by Trump at all. That little clip of MAGAts gleefully stomping all over the signs of people ostensibly on their own side gave me some life last night.

if DeSantis wins the nom I can totally see him just telling his supporters to stay home and wait patently for MAGAAA in 2028

i mean trump desantis wrestlemania is prob good for democracy in the sense that whoever wins is in worse shape than when they started

H. Ross Trump

if DeSantis wins the nom I can totally see him just telling his supporters to stay home and wait patently for MAGAAA in 2028

― frogbs, Wednesday, November 16, 2022 2:21 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

there have been rumors that hes said as much, but nothing he says is worth anything of course

or yeah he could do third party

I think I’ll be giggling over “dr. charisma, Rick Scott” until Thanksgiving at lesst

Trump is like LaRouche Redux, he's just going to keep running until he dies.