This might be the first day in a long time I have nothing remotely original to write about politics

 

This might be the first day in a long time I have nothing remotely original to write about politics

Suppose you gave a party for all your mental muses and none of them came...

By Hal Brown

Archives on Right >

Why I was banned from Daily Kos

It's not like this is a slow news day. It's just that having read numerous articles about what's happening, both straight news and opinion, I couldn't find a topic about which I had a remotely original thought.

For example, here are the stories on RAWSTORY (click each image to enlarge).

Opinion writers like one of my favorites, Heather "Digby" Parton offered this take on an issue making the news big time:

Trump, Kanye and Nick Fuentes: Can we stop pretending that Republicans even care?

Look who came to dinner: Of course Trump has no problem with hardcore white supremacy, and neither does his base

Another writer, also on Salon, who I like is Chauncy DeVega:

Former Obama lawyer Ian Bassin: The coming indictment of Donald Trump will break his power

Former associate White House counsel says Garland, DOJ are going "by the book" and have a "rock solid" case

Ronald Reagan's daughter Patti Davis has a guest editorial in The New York Times:

If We Ignore Donald Trump, We Might See Who He Really Is

Excerpt:

What if there was a collective pledge among responsible news organizations to take Donald Trump off the front pages, to not talk about him every single day? He would huff and puff and try to blow the house down, but no one would be paying attention. Think of how much calmer the waters would be. Think of how many other stories would get the bandwidth they deserve.

It’s not easy ignoring someone who keeps barreling onto the world stage, determined to create chaos and eviscerate the democracy we depend on, but it is often the only remedy that will work. The person being ignored will find himself alone on a battlefield he created, with only his own voice bellowing around him. Linger on that image for a moment — Donald Trump all alone in the wilderness, with only his own voice to keep him company.

What's to say about this Elon Musk tweet, referenced in MTG and Jim Jordan see huge influx of Twitter followers after Musk takeover as Dem numbers plummet - Early data shows big shifts in followers among Republicans and Democrats weeks after Twitter deal that the two replies below don't already say:

Added: NYT subscription needed to read. Suffice to say that Alejandro Mayorkas should make sure the  situation is remedied. 

Thousands of Russians are crossing the U.S. southern border to claim asylum. Many are ending up in immigration prison. “I left Russia for a place just like Russia,” said one.

I just come up dry when I try think of a remotely original perspective on any of these subjects.

Oh well, to quote in a very different context as, Scarlet O'Hara's said in the very last line in Gone with the Wind, after all,  tomorrow is another day.

 What to expect from the Donald Trump Comeback Tour

by Hal Brown

Archives on Right >

Why I was banned from Daily Kos

First I read this on RawStory which led me to read the article it was based on:

I suggest reading the article which this is a summary of in The Guardian. The excerpts on RawStory didn't convince me Trump would eat DeSantis alive but the full article had so many good points now I lean towards thinking otherwise. Trump will clean his clock. However, if DeSantis puts aside his arrogance and gears up and prepares for what will come if he is the front runner against Trump he may prevail. He will need the equivalent a Navy SEAL training program to toughen up to beat Trump at the martial art he has mastered to the point his killer moves are instinctual. Just ask Hillary Clinton.

The only way I see the Republicans beating Trump in the primaries is for them to coalesce around the candidate who is most capable of taking him on. I doubt this would happen considering the egos involve in the quest to be on the primary debate stage.

Currently of course they are two likely GOP candidates for president in 2024 being discussed, Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis. Anybody but DeSantis seems like a long shot. In reverse order here's how The Washington Post ranked them last week.

10. Sen. Rick Scott

9. Gov. Chris Sununu 

8. Mike Pompeo

7. Nikki Haley

6. Sen. Ted Cruz

5. Sen. Tim Scott

4. Gov. Glenn Youngkin

3. Mike Pence

2. Donald Trump

1. Gov. Ron DeSantis

Honorable mentions: Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.), Sen. Tom Cotton (Ark.), Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, Donald Trump Jr.

 

Previously on this list, at No. 6: Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who — like many MAGA candidates this cycle — ultimately lost her very winnable race and lagged much of her party on the same ballot.

Even though Trump hates losers, he also might find Kari Lake to have charms he can't resist. Who would he want looking with adoration at him between Kari Lake, Nikki Haley, and Kristi Noem. They all might be in close competition with each other. After all Trump think's he's God's gift to women.

Forget about Ted Cruz who is a walking disaster and reputed to be the the  most, if not the most, disliked senator among his colleagues. How desperate is Cruz to get some national attention. Consider how close he's suddenly become to Herschel Walker:

I think Trump will pick a woman because he also thinks she would help him pick up the votes of suburban white women. Even though Nikki Haley is an Indian-American she has an appealing all-American looking family that isn't threatening to the bigots:

If I had to bet he'd chose one of these three women when it came time to announcing running mate. If history is any lesson, he'd make sure it is someone who had mastered the fine art of sucking up to him and also was a national figure. My bets would be on Kari Lake despite, or perhaps because of, her loss in Arizona.

As much as she probably wants to be Trump's running mate I doubt Trump really wants batshit crazy loose cannon Marjorie Taylor Greene to be his VP. I think she has other ambitions.

Of course he could decide on this guy, ya neva know with Trump:

Seriously: 

Trump is the only potential GOP candidate with a hardcore national following. DeSantis is well known but doesn't have large numbers loyal to him. No other potential GOP candidate does.

I predict the GOP primary season will be chaotic but not as chaotic as their convention will be if Trump doesn't come out at the sure winner. 

In that case it will be chaos on steroids with double-crossing dirty dealings going on in every nook and cranny.

If Trump doesn't win the primary I think he will run as an independent. He will wreak vengeance on those who didn't back him by assuring that President Biden, assuming he's the Democratic candidate, won.

Trump's legal status won't make any difference. He could even be in jail. In fact, I think that the more legal jeopardy he's in the more this will fuel his desire to stay in the spotlight and play the tried and true victim game while attacking his accusers.

Related more of less tongue in cheek story:

15 Seconds: That's how long it would have taken staff at Mar-a-Lago to find out who Nick Fuentes was

15 Seconds: That's how long it would have taken staff at Mar-a-Lago to find out who Nick Fuentes was 

Two updates below

By Hal Brown

Archives on Right >

Why I was banned from Daily Kos

Update 2:

Click above for article.

Here's the Wikipedia page for Milo Yiannopoulos

His speeches and writings often ridicule Islam, feminism, social justice, and political correctness. Yiannopoulos has been accused of advocating paedophilia. The allegation arose from several video clips in which he said that sexual relationships between 13-year-old boys and adult men and women can be "perfectly consensual" and positive experiences for the boys

Update 1:

Speaking with host Ali Velshi, (Dean) Obeidallah pointed out a major flaw in Trump's defense: his Secret Service protective detail.

"Donald Trump had a meal at Mar-a-Lago with Kanye West who has had a bunch of antisemitic outbursts recently, and with Nick Fuentes who is a Holocaust-denier among a library of other unsavory things," Velshi prompted. "For a guy who is running for president you think he would lay low and try and clean up its act a little bit but that does not seem to be of any interest to him."

.

"It's impossible to believe Trump did not know him [Fuentes]," he continued. "First of all, Trump has Secret service; you don't just wander up to Trump. Secondly, Nick Fuentes ran the America First Foundation that Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke at. There they were huge headlines Trump had to see."

I am not sure we can credit Trump with being able to remember who Fuentes was just by sight, or even by name. We don't know what headlines and articles he reads, let alone which stick in his memory.

Click above to enlarge image

The Nick Fuentes story has been in the news since it broke:

Lower right, Tweet from Trump's own ambassador to Israel: "Even a social visit from an antisemite like Kanye West and human scum like Nick Fuentes is unacceptable. I urge you to throw those bums out, disavow them and relegate them to the dustbin of history where they belong. Antisemites deserve no quarter among American leaders, right or left."

It's become a hackneyed observation to say that Trump thrives on doing things no mater how egregious and self-defeating as long as what he does puts him in the spotlight. This characteristic of his grandiose narcissism more than anything else explains why he decided to declare his candidacy for president and if he loses the primary to someone like DeSantis why he won't accept defeat quietly but will run as an independent even though it would assure President Biden or whoever the Democrats run win handily.

Trump doesn't have any so-called "friends" in show business with more star power than Ye. President Biden doesn't throw parties in some tacky resort where he can show off how many A-list celebrities support him. Here are few he could invite if he decided to have a star-studded gala. He'd never do this for attention because this isn't in his nature. Needless to say there are a lot more of them.

If Trump cared about being associated with a loose cannon like Ye he wouldn't invite him to a party which he knew would be covered by the media only because Ye was there. Whether or not Trump knew who Nick Fuentes was or ever heard of him, let alone could identify him by sight, he didn't give a damn about being associated with someone who would prompt even his allies to condemn him. He could have had staff simply screen everyone who comes to his events.

I don't mean having the Secret Service do a background check. A few staff with iPads or laptops could just do a quick Internet search. If they searched Nick Fuentes his Wikipedia page could come up instantly and be reviewed in 15 seconds.

How much of this would a savvy staffer have to read before deciding the optics of this would rule out having him within a mile of Trump?

Nicholas Joseph Fuentes (born August 18, 1998) is an American far-right, Christian nationalist, and white supremacist, political commentator and live streamer. A former YouTuber, his channel was permanently suspended in February 2020 for violating YouTube's hate speech policy. Fuentes has described himself as an American nationalist, Christian conservative, and paleoconservative. He has expressed antisemitic views, including Holocaust denial.

Fuentes has feuded with Turning Point USA and its founder, Charlie Kirk, for supporting views that Fuentes believes to be insufficiently conservative. On October 29, 2019, Fuentes' followers, known as Groypers, began to heckle Turning Point's Culture War Tour, including a speaking event for Donald Trump Jr., In 2020, seeking to rival CPAC, Fuentes began holding the annual America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC).

Fuentes was an attendee and speaker at events preceding the 2021 United States Capitol attack.  He also attended the 2017 Unite the Right rally.

Trump practices performance art, although I am reluctant to call what he does art even though if there are cameras there and he knows that if he does something outrageous it will most likely get media coverage. A rational politician would tell those in charge of an event that will be reported in the media to "keep the crazies out" but the key word is "rational" as defined here (not that you don't know what it means but in any way, shape, or form can you apply this to Donald Trump?)

 based on or in accordance with reason or logic: I'm sure there's a perfectly rational explanation. • (of a person) able to think clearly, sensibly, and logically: Andrea's upset—she's not being very rational. • endowed with the capacity to reason: man is a rational being.

Ye is in his own way a pathetic figure with psychiatric problems who is basking in the kind of attention he'd never have were he not in a relationship with Trump who is using him as much as Ye uses him.

Ye made noises about running for president himself until Trump told him not to do this:

Kanye ‘Ye’ West Asked Donald Trump to Be His Presidential Running Mate And It Did Not Go Well

Ye has one thing going for him that Trump doesn't. He admitted he was diagnosed as having the diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Trump would never admit that, whether you want to say he's a malignant narcissist or not, that he has a mental condition that impairs his judgment.

In a way Trump being able to judge who is mentally unbalanced is a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.  I don't mean this in any way to be a reference to Ye's race so I will put another way. it is like having the the person in charge of admissions to a psychiatric hospital being an unmedicated back ward patient.