On Guns And Politics

One of the mainstays of Daddy State politics is playing the Opposites Game - a slight variation on 'Every accusation is a confession'.

It's very useful to make sure your audience is distracted and fooled so they don't see the impossible contradiction inherent in the propaganda.

Case in point: Guns.

"We need our guns in case it becomes necessary to fight an oppressive government!"

What if the oppressive government is actually made up of the people who are telling you to fight? What if they're co-opting you into fighting on behalf of the oppressive government they intend to install once you've killed enough of your neighbors to impose their will on all of us?

Just a thought.

Ballistic Podiatry

Trump has been a spoiled pre-schooler his whole friggin' life.

The impulse to lash out is reflexive.

And it's just possible some people have finally caught on, and are starting to play him with it.

Trump’s Mob Boss Threat Against Nikki Haley Donors Blows Up in His Face

Sir, you are running in an election. Why the hell are you threatening your own party’s donors?

Donald Trump’s plan to threaten Nikki Haley’s financial backers immediately backfired on him on Wednesday, as several prominent people in the MAGA camp proceeded to donate to the GOP front-runner’s primary opponent, launching a spontaneous fundraising drive for the South Carolina governor.

“When I ran for office and won, I noticed that the losing candidate’s ‘donors’ would immediately come to me, and want to ‘help out.’ This is standard in politics, but no longer with me,” Trump posted during a late-night social media tantrum.

“Anybody that makes a ‘contribution’ to Birdbrain, from this moment forth, will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp,” he added, derogatorily referring to Haley, whom he put in his own presidential Cabinet as ambassador to the U.N.

But then several of Trump’s former staffers chimed in on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, apparently hard-withdrawing their MAGA cards in favor of sending some money to the ambassador.

“Done,” posted Trump’s former deputy press secretary, Sarah Matthews.

Haley caught on quickly, posting a link to her donation page.

That set the stage for other voters to gleefully join in the fundraising fray.

Others noted that the mob boss–style threat seemed particularly on edge for a candidate who just won the New Hampshire primary by double digits, and questioned the legitimacy of the financial threat from a man facing several pricy upcoming criminal trials and a potential $370 million fine for committing bank fraud to expand his real estate empire.

Despite the local drive’s overnight popularity, it will hardly replace some of Haley’s biggest backers—like venture capitalist Reid Hoffman—who began pausing donations to the campaign after Haley’s lackluster results on Tuesday.

Today's Daddy State

It's dressed up in normal-sounding language (most of it), but he's telling us exactly how he intends to go about dismantling democratic self-government - ie: checks and balances.

Putin has got to be doing cartwheels hearing this…..pic.twitter.com/xJ79Tr8mUm

— Mark 🍁 (@Markfry809) January 25, 2024

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Today's Beau

The fuckery:

Arizona GOP chair resigns, alleges pressure from Kari Lake team

The chair of the Arizona Republican Party announced he will resign Wednesday after leaked audio appeared to show him attempting to pay Senate candidate Kari Lake not to run for office in 2024.

Jeff DeWit said that the audio was “selectively edited.” He explained, however, that he chose to resign because he was threatened by members of Lake’s team that more tapes would be released if he did not step down. Lake’s campaign has denied the allegation.

Lake publicly demanded DeWit resign over the audio Tuesday, calling him “corrupt” and “compromised.”

The audio recording was first reported by The Daily Mail.

“There are very powerful people who want to keep you out,” DeWit reportedly told the Senate hopeful in the recording, saying only that these figures were from the “east.”

“Just say, is there a number at which,” DeWit begins, before being cut off.

“I can be bought? That’s what it’s about,” Lake retorted.

DeWit allegedly responded, “You can take a pause for a couple of years … You can go right back to what you’re doing.”

Lake — who ran an unsuccessful bid for Arizona governor in 2022 — said she would not accept a billion dollars to leave the Senate race.

On Wednesday, DeWit said the call was not a form of bribe, but rather a conversation about hiring Lake at his personal company. He said she was already an employee when the recording was made early last year.

“Contrary to accusations of bribery, my discussions were transparent and intended to offer perspective, not coercion,” the outgoing GOP chair wrote in a statement. “Our relationship was based on friendship, and the conversation that is now being scrutinized was open, unguarded exchange between friends in the living room of her house.”

“I genuinely believed I was offering a helpful perspective to someone I considered a friend,” he added.

He continued, saying Lake has been “on a mission to destroy” him since the conversation, and condemned her “disturbing tendency” to record interactions without the other party’s consent.

“This is obviously a concern given how much interaction she has with high profile people including President Trump,” DeWit argued. “I question how effective a United States Senator can be when they can not be trusted to engage in private and confidential conversations.”

He also alleged that the conversation was a “set up,” adding that Lake “orchestrated this entire situation to have control over the state party.”

“This morning, I was determined to fight for my position,” he continued. “However, a few hours ago, I received an ultimatum from Lake’s team: resign today or face the release of a new, more damaging recording.”

“I am truly unsure of its contents, but considering our numerous past open conversations as friends, I have decided not to take the risk,” he added.

In response to DeWit’s resignation and allegations of threats, Lake’s campaign said the “tape speaks for itself.”

“No one from the Kari Lake campaign threatened or blackmailed DeWit. It is unfortunate that Dewit hasn’t recognized how unethical his behavior was and still hasn’t apologized to Arizona Republicans,” senior advisors Caroline Wren and Garrett Ventry said in a statement.

“DeWit’s false claims are just par for the course,” they continued. “The Arizona GOP must be relieved to have his resignation. Now we can focus on getting ethical leadership and win big in 2024.”

DeWit served as the state party chair since January 2023, after working as the chief operating officer for Trump’s 2016 and 2020 White House bids.

Lake, a former news anchor, has faced pushback against her Senate bid. She has been a leading booster of former President Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of election fraud in the 2020 election, and fought her own legal battle after the gubernatorial loss in 2022.

She said Tuesday that she didn’t have anyone in mind to replace DeWit.

“I haven’t given it a lot of thought. What I want to do is make sure we get the corrupt people out,” she said.

It’s not the first time Lake has been accused of recording others without consent. Last year, she recorded an impromptu airport lounge conversation with Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) — the presumptive Democratic nominee for the Senate seat — confronting him over policy issues.

Lake, DeWit and the Arizona GOP have not responded to a previous request for comment on the recording.

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Today's Nerd Thing

Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched about a month apart in 1977.

They're about 15 billion miles away, and while V1 went quiet this past December, the nerds are hoping to get a fix for it, and V2 seems to be doin' fine and goin' strong.

By golly, I love me some nerds.

In only 40,000 years, the Voyagers

will be closer to another star

than they are to our sun.

Voyager's 15 Billion Mile Software Update

Today's Tweext

NRA membership is shrinking, last year they raised about half the money they usually do, and now their victims are finally getting a chance to sue them into oblivion.

BOOM - The Mexican government wins their appeal in U.S. court and is able to proceed with the lawsuit against U.S. gun companies for supplying weapons to cartels that fuels the bloodshed south of the border.

An important legal step, but more court battles to come. pic.twitter.com/mib4GErS8f

— Ioan Grillo (@ioangrillo) January 22, 2024