Home » Open thread 8/13/22

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Open thread 8/13/22 — 38 Comments

  1. Well, well, well… Paul Sperry | FBI agents who raided Trump under criminal investigation by John Durham…”
    https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/paul-sperry-fbi-agents-who-raided-trump-under-criminal-investigation-by-john-durham/

    “Sen. Ron Johnson Calls For FBI, DOJ Employees To Come Forward With Info On Trump Mar-A-Lago Raid”
    https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fdailycaller.com%2F2022%2F08%2F11%2Fsenator-ron-johnson-letter-mar-a-lago-trump-raid-fbi-doj-whistleblower%2F

  2. Update on Rushdie’s stabbing: The perp “suspected of stabbing Salman Rushdie while on a lecture stage in upstate New York was arrested on a felony charge of second-degree attempted murder for the attack on the acclaimed novelist as well as second-degree assault for an injury to the event’s moderator, state police said Saturday. . . . Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey — was being held without bail in the Chautauqua County Jail.”

    Nonetheless, “Authorities [still] have not provided a motive in the attack.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/suspect-in-salman-rushdie-attack-arrested-on-charges-of-attempted-murder-and-assault/ar-AA10CZ1N

  3. Of course authorities can’t figure out why an admirer of Iranian mullahs would follow through on a fatwa older than he is.

  4. Thanks, Geoffrey, really important success in Uttar Pradesh with ivermectin.

    Steve Goodman doesn’t do it for me, neither musically nor lyrically. Tho his Banana Rep song including a line about US expats telling themselves the same lies they told back home is so sadly true.

  5. Sundance, over at Conservative Treehouse is sure Ron DeSantis is being repackaged as the GOPe candidate and beginning his move to the national stage.

    The strategy, according to Sundance:

    “Consistently present political messaging where the republican voter base can say “yes.” Keep the “yes” messaging at the forefront (social emphasis). Focus on values. Schools, kids, safety, woke pushback, media bias etc, keep the audiences nodding yes. Ultimately, it’s a sales technique. Identify with the target to influence their decisions.”

    “Issues around multinational & corporate economics, hard lines, foreign policy, all these things must be avoided – except in general terms. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is not to be challenged, not really….”

    While I certainly like DeSantis’ positions and tough stance on the wokeness madness, I have questions about the same things DeSantis will avoid if he actually is following the GOPe playbook.

    Understanding these issues is key, IMO, whether or not DeSantis is another iteration of W. Do remember that Dick Cheney was chosen as W’s running mate to provide the stability for Bush.

    Using the sage advice of The Who, “won’t get fooled again.”

    Reported support by some of the wealthy donors (Koch family member, among others) is cause for concern.

    A big advantage to someone like President Trump, whose wealth isn’t tied to the interests of CoC/Wall Street, is his bona fides as a true defender of national interests. It has upset the GOPe, as the Republican party, defined by President Trump, represents the interests of blue collar workers and traditional American middle class.

    It’s possible that DeSantis can define his foreign policy/national economic policies by who he adds to his orbit of advisors. Right now, it’s a question.

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/08/12/the-managing-of-desantis-five-days-in-the-bunker-and-a-new-press-secretary/#more-236488

  6. Brian E:

    As far as I’m concerned, De Santis has proven his bona fides as much as anyone in politics can.

  7. With all due respect to Sundance, the idea of DeSantis as an establishment GOP guy is not sensible. He is, at the moment, the governor of Florida, running for re-election, and his actions and statements are consistent with that.

  8. Brian E; Kate:

    That Sundance piece is clickbait garbage, by the way I don’t know exactly what his motive is, but it’s gossipy, destructive, speculation. Among other things, his assertion that DeSantis hann spoken out on the raid is a falsehood. DeSantis spoke early about it.

  9. I didn’t even read the Sundance link; the summary was enough for me. It’s not reasonable to look at DeSantis’s performance as governor and infer some deep anti-conservative bias.

  10. Neo,
    Sundance didn’t say that DeSantis never responded. He said DeSantis’ response was inappropriately weak: one tweet from his private account, not mentioning Trump by name. This is the tweet you referenced.

    Kate,
    Sundance didn’t say DeSantis had anti-conservative bias. He said the Establishment is grooming him to be their candidate, whom they will then control.

    Sundance is all-in for Trump. His only criticism of Trump which I have seen, was questioning his endorsement of Oz.

  11. DeSantis doesn’t strike me as malleable, so if they’re trying to groom him to be their guy, they may end up disappointed.

  12. Jordan Rivers:

    This is what Sundance wrote:

    The governor of the state has said nothing and avoided any opportunity where he may have been asked for comment. Instead, he has transmitted two pre-recorded statements from the bunker.

    The silence is deafening…

    Most readers will interpret that as “DeSantis didn’t respond.” He said nothing” “The silence is deafening” – and what Sundance actually means is he didn’t say it, with his mouth? DeSantis made several official statements and made them before most Republicans made them, and they were hard-hitting and not tepid.

    I gave a link that quoted some of what DeSantis said, such as this:

    “The raid of MAL (Mar-a-Lago) is another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime’s political opponents, while people like Hunter Biden get treated with kid gloves,” DeSantis tweeted, referring to the president’s son. “Now the Regime is getting another 87k IRS agents to wield against its adversaries? Banana Republic.”

    But Sundance says “the silence is deafening? Misleading, and purposely so.

    My guess is that Sundance is trying to turn people against DeSantis because he is worried people might turn to DeSantis instead of Trump. Underhanded tactic on Sundance’s part. Divisive, nasty, short-sighted, destructive.

  13. My guess is that Sundance is trying to turn people against DeSantis because he is worried people might turn to DeSantis instead of Trump.

    –neo

    I’m not getting DeSantis as GOPe guy either.

  14. Sundance did massive amounts of investigation of the Russia-Russia-Russia hoax, and should be commended for that.
    I don’t have any idea what his agenda is in respect to DeSantis, but remember that we also don’t have any idea who he really is.

    Some people in Washington DC know, because he took his evidence and deductions to someone in the inner circles, but he hasn’t revealed his identity to the masses AFAIK.

    Back in 2012, a blogger upset at his posts on the Martin-Zimmerman affair, said that an anonymous poster alleged that he is a certain resident of Florida (name redacted by me) but that was all the internet search turned up — a brief reference to a one-time anonymous poster.
    Of course, other sites immediately started using “his name: as if it was a proven fact.
    The internet is like that.
    Regardless of whether the original doxxer was correct or not, we don’t know anything about him other than what he posts on his Tree House door.

    FWIW, IMO, Sundance is very much “eleventy times burned, twice shy” about the GOPe or RINOs or Uniparty or whatever your preferred term is, and is letting that bias drive his response to DeSantis, as Neo pointed out (OR maybe he knows something we don’t; the doxxer alleges that he lives in Florida!).

    I’m willing to wait and watch before either committing to DeSantis or demonizing him.
    It’s a long time until November 2024.

  15. OK…folks, it’s official.
    Cast those sneaking suspicions aside.
    Deep six those hopeful feelings of…”Nah, they wouldn’t do that; this is America…”…
    The time, alas, has COME to worry seriously and profoundly…truly, madly, deeply…
    “Yellen: IRS Will Not Use $80B in Inflation Reduction Act to Target Middle-Class”—
    https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/janet-yellen-irs-inflation-reduction-act/2022/08/13/id/1082993/

    (My, but the Wise Owlita would make an absolutely terrible poker player…)

  16. I read Sundance’s posts some years ago when a hurricane devastated south Florida. He was, he said, actively involved in emergency help, so a Florida residence sounds likely.

    Basically, I view Trump and DeSantis as being on the same side politically, nor has DeSantis made any overt moves to upend Trump’s candidacy. I’m all in on Trump’s policies but not into making him an idol.

  17. Kate:

    If you read the comments at that post of Sundance’s, you’ll see plenty of people excoriating those who defend DeSantis, as well as people saying “I liked DeSantis until now, but I trust Sundance on this and so now I will never vote for DeSantis.”

    Are they trolls? Are they real? I don’t know, but there are a lot of them.

  18. That’s sad to hear, Neo. One thing that drove me nuts when Trump got elected was the number of elected representatives and senators who didn’t take advantage of having the House, Senate, and Presidency to work with Trump. Whose side is Sundance on, trying to foment an intra-party fight like this?

    My own theory is that DeSantis will not challenge Trump in 2024 if Trump is running — barring some Democrat dirty trick actually taking Trump out. If Trump wins, DeSantis and other conservatives have a clear field for 2028.

  19. I took a look at The Treehouse comments. Talk about a swamp. Like Twitter, it’s hard to tell how many of those people are for real. I read comments here because often your commenters have interesting information to add, or an insightful comment. Not so over there. I gave up reading Sundance posts quite some time ago; it was hard to see the forest for the trees.

    If he’s taking the line that Trump is the ONLY person who is “really” America First and all others are establishment captives, he’s got no hope. I like to think, instead, that numerous people have learned from Trump’s example and have ditched the idea that you’ve got to be approved by the Washington Post/NYT crowd to be credible.

  20. I read the first page or two of the comments about DeSantis and I think 99.44% were against him.

    Reading the comments on that site makes me appreciate the commenters on Neo’s site. Talk about wanting to take a shower (or a Tylenol)!

  21. If Congress CHARGES AND SENTENCES Donald Trump, for “having secret documents”, that the FBI + Congress knew he had for two years,

    OK…

    Please get ready for this:

    perhaps each President, after leaving office, will say- “FORGET ABOUT me making a library about my years in office”.

    “You fined Trump $10,000, or even $10, for having presidential documents, documents you OK-ed him to have, for no reason”.

    “So to keep from getting fines or jail times that I don’t deserve, you can FORGET about me, or any other President, from making a Presidential Library”.

    “[I’m not going to jail], for doing what every president does”.

  22. My musical find this week… I’ve raved here about the French pianist, Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

    Divine.

    Thibaudet has recorded all of Satie’s piano works and I discover they are as essential to me as Bach’s “Well-Tempered Clavier.” Not all pieces are riveting on either Bach’s or Satie’s side, but the respective wholes stand.

    Anyway. Here’s Thibaudet’s take on the magic “Gymnopédie No. 1” which everyone knows. I think production screwed-up and distorted the loud notes, but Thibaudet’s pace and touch are perfect enough.

    –Soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet plays “Gymnopédie No. 1”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1yBjMQsgbw

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