New Developments III

[Sabin]

Last week went about as poorly for Biden as a week could go. His cleanest line to knocking Trump off the ballot dissipated, the Hur report dropped, and Biden's immediate response (while not IMO pointing to senility) did nothing to help him. And the return of Jon Stewart didn't spare Biden an inch save for saying "Hey, Trump is an old forgetful guy too."

This week... Trump has to pay $350m (!) and gave Biden a clip we are going to see non-stop ("I'll encourage Russia to do whatever the hell they want.") the same week that Navalny died in prison. We don't know for sure if Putin killed him ("for sure" is doing a lot of heavy-lifting) but it makes Trump look dangerous at worst, recklessly naive at best.

Have we been here before? Of course, although I don't recall Trump's comments ever been so tragically rebuked in real time. And of course, we're long past the point where anyone can get through to his people. Truly, we're just going to have to cycle through them. But this week is a good reminder that it ain't over till it's over.

[Sonic Youth]

Once I built a tower up to the sun.
Brick and rivet and lime.
Once I built a tower. Now it's done.
Brother, can you spare a dime?

[Sabin]

I'm posting this because literally months ago, a friend asked me under what circumstances at this point would someone other than Biden be the nominee and I basically laid out these scenarios.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/ ... e-00140790

I'm a bit mixed on the "Biden's losing it" issue. I definitely think he's lost a few steps, but I don't think he's senile or anything. On the other hand, there's a perception out there that he is. I think part of that has to do with the fact that Biden doesn't think the President needs to be front and center every minute of the day and wants to go back to a pre-Trump/pre-social media presidency. That's not going to happen. Sadly, a President has to be some kind of a present messenger. He's not fantastic in that regard. So, if Biden wants to stay in, he's going to have to fight that perception.

If not, then he releases his delegates and it goes to a blue state governor.

There is only reason why I think Biden would go this route if he wasn't intending on being the nominee and that is that he and folks in Washington don't think that Kamala is up for it.

If this happens, it'll be messy as hell, almost unprecedented... and kind of exciting. Except for the nomination contest key, right?

[Sabin]

Congratulations to Joe Biden for winning South Carolina with an estimated 96.5% of the vote. That's an insane victory and yet it's also a total non-event. But more importantly, the Democratic path to the nomination has now changed today. It's easy to speculate on how the primaries might have shook out differently in races prior (and how different today's political landscape might look) but starting this year we're probably going to see less raucous Democratic primaries moving forward.

[Greg]

The U.S. Supreme Court will start hearing oral arguments this coming Thursday on whether or not Donald Trump should be barred form the ballot this November. This involves the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution barring insurrectionists from holding office and Trump's involvement with the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

[danfrank]

At the risk of appearing superficial, E. Jean Carroll looks amazing for being 80. she could very well have a few decades left in her.

There’s an expression: Looking good is the best revenge.

80+ million dollars is effective, too.

[Greg]

At the risk of appearing superficial, E. Jean Carroll looks amazing for being 80. she could very well have a few decades left in her.

[Big Magilla]

Meanwhile back in New York, a jury just awarded E. Jean Carroll $83 million in her defamation suit against Orange Hitler.

[OscarGuy]

They already lost one Civil War...are they really willing to lose another?

[Sonic Youth]

I don't think what's going on in Texas represents the start of a civil war, like my feed is freaking out about. That said, someone is going to file a (certainly unsuccessful) lawsuit attempting to disqualify those states' electoral votes, right?

Or this will be used as a reason to get Biden off state ballots.

[Sabin]

I don't think what's going on in Texas represents the start of a civil war, like my feed is freaking out about. That said, someone is going to file a (certainly unsuccessful) lawsuit attempting to disqualify those states' electoral votes, right?

[Big Magilla]

Sununu and Judge Judy are Haley's biggest supporters right now.

Sununu said, when pressured, on yesterday's Meet the Press that if the race came down to Biden vs. Trump that he would support Trump.

Judge Judy said she didn't know what she would do.

[Sonic Youth]

Shows how much I know. It was more a wish than a prediction, but I honestly believed he (and Haley) would stick it out through Super Tuesday. The backers must've been pulling out faster than we realised. He was only polling about 5% in the N.H. polls. If Trump wins within that margin, DeS can claim some bragging rights. And of course Haley quitting after S.C. - at the latest - is a safe bet.... giving Trump plenty of time to tour America's historic court-houses without interruption.

BTW, while watching the Buffalo Bills disaster, Part LIII, it was amusing to see the latest Nikki Haley campaign ad cut by N.H. gov Sununu mentioning that now that DiSantis dropped out, there was only one viable candidate left to support. This was just a few hours after DeS announcement. He was out on a frozen lake while endorsing Haley, all hale and hardy N.H. style. He may have very well been ice fishing when the news broke, cut the ad, then went back to scavenging for brook trout without breaking stride.

(Of course, one look at Sununu is enough to tell you he never ice-fished in his life.)

[Bog]

What feels like 14 seconds ago:

“You can be the most worthless Republican in America, if you kiss the ring, Trump will say you are wonderful.”

Now drops out and piles on Haley like he never even was "in the running"....what a fucking country in which many of us live

[Sabin]

DeSantis drops out, endorses Trump.