Cognitive Deficit

... ain't what it used to be (?)

Trouble Brewing

It's not like they didn't know this was coming - since it's been going on the whole time.

Right-Wingers Turn On Trump for Mocking DeSantis

The reaction was swift after the former president called the Florida governor “Ron DeSanctimonious.”

Former President Donald Trump mocked Ron DeSantis at his Saturday night rally—calling the Florida governor “Ron DeSanctimonious.”

And hours later, Trump found himself in hot water with fellow conservatives who weren’t pleased that he’d taken aim at the increasingly popular DeSantis.

During his rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, while touting his poll numbers (from a month ago), Trump found an opening to take a swing at DeSantis, who’s quickly turned into an unofficial 2024 Republican presidential rival.

“There it is, Trump at 71. Ron DeSanctimonious at 10 percent,” Trump said. “Mike Pence at 7–oh, Mike Pence doing better than I thought.” (It’s the first time Trump’s tried out the nickname, but longtime ally Roger Stone—a fierce DeSantis critic—posted the dig about a week ago.)

The reactions to the Trump name-calling weren’t favorable in conservative circles.

“Calling it now, DeSantis is going to run, and he’s going to beat Trump badly,” Will Chamberlain, the publisher of Human Events and a right-wing lawyer, said in response to the Trump jab. “This is just weak.”

Right-wing Daily Wire pundit Matt Walsh also expressed frustration at Trump over the “dumb nickname.”

“Trump isn’t going to be able to take this one [DeSantis] down with a dumb nickname. He better have more than that up his sleeve,” he wrote. “Also, nice job launching your public attack against the most popular conservative governor in America three days before the midterms when we’re all supposed to be showing a united front.”

It didn’t end there.

RedState editor Jennifer Van Laar commented, “Enough, Trump. Stop. Move on,” while a Townhall writer asked what DeSantis has “done to earn Trump’s scorn here right before an election?” “It’s inexcusable and just shows this has always been about him,” the writer added.

Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX) sided with DeSantis, too, writing: “Or… Ron De…SaidNoToFauci… that’s another angle.”

Even vigorous Trump defender and former Federalist co-founder Ben Domenech said the new Trump nickname needed some workshopping.

A Trump spokesperson didn’t return The Daily Beast’s request for comment on Saturday night.

The Daily Beast previously reported that Trump intends to hit DeSantis and isn’t backing down anytime soon.

“Trump’s going to end up doing to DeSantis and his wife what he did to Cruz and his wife,” a Trump adviser told The Daily Beast.

DeSantis and Trump plan to be in Florida on Sunday and hold competing rallies over 240 miles apart.

“Trump is going to try to destroy him,” an adviser said.

Two words, guys - Ted Cruz.

Trump: Wendy Cruz is ugly.

Ted: I'll kick your ass!

 

Trump: OK, Lyin' Ted - your wife is ugly.

Ted (2 months later): I didn't say "kick" - I said "kiss" - I'll kiss your ass.

Runnin' With Jeb

So Jeb Bush supporters are all up in arms because his "stuff happens" comment when asked about the dead college kids in Oregon prompted a landslide of snarky tweets, and of course, his communications team (and the usual Pundits and Press Poodles) are falling all over themselves trying to control the damage, saying he was quoted out of context and blah blah blah.

I could point out that he did actually say "stuff happens"; and even tho' it was contained in a  longer statement and he was trying to make the "larger point" about not rushing to do something in a rash reactionary way (which is easily seen as bullshit deflection), here's the thing: too fuckin' bad, cupcake.  

Your guys have been taking shit outa context and/or makin' shit up outa nothin' for a good 25 years. So cry me a river, muhthuhfuckuh.  Payback's a bitch, ain't it?

Via Facebook

I'm really trying to be a nicer guy - so I didn't post this on my facebook page in response to a "friend" who posted something pretty horrendous.

To wit:

What I didn't say on Facebook:

Yeah - OK - Biden totally laughed because people (people he might've actually known) died in the attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi.  And if you believe that, then you're a fucking idiot.

Like I said, I'm trying to be a nicer guy about this kinda shit.

The Dog Whistle

We hear a lot about the various dog whistle language that (particularly - tho' not exclusively) the GOP guys use to speak in public about the Southern Strategy items that can no longer be discussed openly.  It must be a constant struggle to come up with new ways to say "lazy scary uppity nigger" without actually saying the words themselves.

That's how we get to this latest one - Romney's "joke" about nobody asking for his birth certificate.  Which, BTW, was really just another of the standard plays intended to make a Democrat seem foreign and exotic and non-American blah blah blah.

Well, I've been wondering about all this and there's another one making the rounds.  And maybe it's just too subtle (these things do escape me with an annoying frequency), but it suddenly occurred to me that it's exactly the same kind of crap.

And here it is:

This junk goes right along with the big fluff the wingnuts have been putting up about "Obama's Victory Lap" and congratulating himself on the raid that got bin Laden etc.

And it's almost brilliant.  It downplays the facts:

• In spite of Dick Cheney's warnings, we didn't "get hit again" even tho' we elected a Democrat.
• As a political asset, Junior Bush decided Osama bin Laden was worth more alive than dead, so he stopped even looking for him - which left it up to Obama to get him, which of course he did, which now means that the "Repubs are better on Nat'l Security" thing is exposed as being total bullshit.

...but the main thing is this:  "conservatives" are pretending Obama is some kind of  braggart because they're trying to invite us to make a base-level inference - they want us to picture "the swaggering buck, struttin' his stuff, and showin' off his prowess".  

The bin Laden issue is the "My Dick's Bigger Than Your Dick" debate, and suddenly it's too painfully obvious that the GOP dick is a lot smaller than they've been telling us it is, and - holy fuck - the Democrat's a black guy.  This is gonna be real bad.

As Freudian and repressed as most of these bozos appear to be, I just don't have any real doubts about this.

Buncha sick fucks.

Connecting Dots

Ya gotta be careful with correlations (not everybody lying down with their eyes closed is dead), but when these things pop up, we need to take a good look to make sure there's no real causatives in motion.
This one really bugs me because the Consumer Product Safety Commission has been another one of those "bloated and evil bureaucracies" the Repubs are always complaining about, and trying to defund and defang.

From USA Today:

Children's product recalls dropped 24% in 2011, but injuries and other incidents associated with these recalls grew 7%, a report out today says.

The decline in recalls is likely due to companies' adherence to a new children's product safety law, according to Kids In Danger, which did the report. But the advocacy group says that the secrecy surrounding product safety recalls makes it difficult to draw conclusions.

Product liability is a big deal.  It's one of the mainstays of an appropriately regulated Free Market System because if the customers have the kind of recourse that can kill a company (one that's been proven grossly negligent and is thereby in for a much-deserved major ass-whupping), then companies have to be aware of the stick that goes with the profit carrot.  But if the companies can buy some coin-operated politicians and first, make it harder to get good safety info; and second, make it a lot harder for us to mete out those beatings, then they improve their profits and shift more of the risk onto the buyers.

Don't be fooled - this is exactly what Tort Reform is about.

John Kasich

...is a petty, vindictive prick.