Remember that brief moment?
The man has dropped out.
…15 months later, after botching his presidential campaign launch, throwing about $130 million dollars down the drain, and sustaining ruthless attacks from Trumpworld, it’s brutally clear that DeSantis was on the precipice of a different political fate: hubris.
On Sunday, two days before the New Hampshire primary, DeSantis ended his presidential campaign in a taped message he posted to X, the same social media platform where he started his campaign with a host of technical difficulties.
The Republicans must now embrace the reality that a corrupt serial rapist and wanna-be dictator is going to be their candidate (no one believes Nikki Haley is going to pull off an upset.) The rest of us have to focus on defeating the orange turdblossom.
The only path DumbSantis ever had to the White House was over TFG’s dead body, and that hasn’t changed one tiny bit.
(I’m betting that ‘getting out of the race’ is just ‘put the campaign in hibernation’, so if TFG drops dead, it can be revived)
…and now DumbSantis can concentrate on getting a coral snake down TFGs pants.
Well well well. Look who’s bent the knee and kissed the ring. As well as the pasty orange ass.
Bad news, Ron: All the Preparation H lipgloss in the world isn’t going to get you a nomination for a Cabinet position OR an endorsement for senator. Your time as FL governor is coming to an end and you have nowhere else to go.
You decided to run with the rabid Republican dogs; you doubled down on anti-science, transphobic, misogynist and racist positions only to find out that the Republicans are taking someone else to prom who’s even more racist/transphobic/misogynist/anti-science than you; that they never had any intention of taking you, and now all you have to show for it is the fleas you picked up from running with the rabid dogs.
HA HA
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/01/21/ron-desantis-drops-out/
Don’t bet against Haley yet. It is a long time to November. What if Trump ends up getting busted in court cases? Or has a stroke or heart attack? Or gets finally booted from ballots?
@3 Personally, I’m hoping he goes choking to death on a fast food hamburger or finally succumbs to a massive myocardial infarction from years of junk food/fast food diet, but against all odds, it hasn’t happened yet.
In the event that he (finally!) kicks the bucket, expect all those “suspended” campaigns to come roaring back to life. Haley is by no means the default choice if TFG finally kicks the bucket.
He should be forced to carry his campaign to term.
My concern about DeSantis being the Republican nominee was that he’s smarter than Trump.
Or so I thought. The guys has shitty political instincts and got as popular with conservatives as he did because he took a huge dump all over “woke” people and did a lot of work instituting fascism in Florida, and didn’t give a crap about people dying of Covid. I didn’t expect to ever see a politician with less charisma than Ted Cruz, but holy shit the Republicans managed to find one.
Now I wish he would have won the nomination.
Nobody believes she can do it, but 1) there’s still the matter of Trump even being on the ballot in some states (esp if the Court just punts it to the states to decide), and 2) the possibility of a conviction if any of the cases can actually get started before, say, Super Tuesday which would be her drop-dead time.
She’s got a lot of money, given Koch.
She’s also dangerous because in spite of being extremely far right herself, she’s passing off an image of moderation because she’s not presenting herself as an authoritarian.
This is the tactic Youngkin used to get /just/ enough support in Northern Virginia to win. The main thing protecting Virginia right now is the Senate didn’t flip.
She may not be an authoritarian, but the authoritarians will use her to get things passed (if enough Congress seats also flip) to be able to install one over her head in ’28.
As for D.S. – his attack on Disney did kill him in the end: the point of corporate donations is building trust for the secret quid pro quo that they all say doesn’t exist. Attacking Disney and imposing government rule over a corporation’s internal dealings was a total betrayal of that back-door agreement that’s been part of the system for decades.
Right-wing corporate American wants the “great again” of the 1870s when corporations could monopolize and execute union leadership with government-supported hired hands. DeSantis’s quest for the authoritarian for its own sake broke that trust.
… throwing about $130 million dollars down the drain…
All of it, unfortunately, Other People’s Money. Worse yet, Other People with even more to spare for other monsters.
Except that cartoon makes him look human, rather than the space alien wearing a poorly fitted human suit he normally appears like.
Its still a long way out and a lot could still happen so I don’t think either Trump or Biden are absolute certaintiies for nominations. Both are elderly and in questionable – or at least questioned – mental and physical health – Biden despite being healthier physically facing the onslaught of Murdoch and far reichwing lies about his verbal stumbles. Trump’s mental decline becoming increasingly obvious.
Trump’s legal issues and the possibility that he may not be on all the ballots and here’s hoping enough US states do the right thing and kick him off.
Then there’s the factor that most Americans are sick of both of them and don’t want a rematch but some new candidates and options so I gather. Trump kultists are a horrid nminority with undue influence and even many on their own side of politics secretly or not so secretly despise them. Biden is, well, look at some of the veiws of people here on him. A lot of Democratic people wish he’d stand aside.
I’m glad the fascist DeathSantis has ended his campaign and been exposed for the charmless, uncharismatic, one gimmick anti-woke sick pony that he is.
FWIW, Aussie ABC news article on this here :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-22/ron-desantis-withdraws-from-the-republican-nomination-race/103374170
I’m guessing both that DeSantis’ campaign has sunk him in his own state, and that criminal convictions for Trump will cost Trump enough votes in enough counties for a clear loss. The most damnable thing for the Republican party now is Trump himself, so the longer they keep holding that sinking anchor, the better.
This could be a huge boost for Haley if the DeSantis votes were mostly anti-Trump votes. Last election, Biden didn’t win a popularity contest, Trump lost an unpopularity contest.
larpar @5: LOL!
If Trump wins the primary contest and is subsequently unable to run for president before the roll call at the Republican Convention, his former delegates will be free to vote for anyone who puts their name in the ring. They’re not going to vote for Haley.
If Trump is incapacitated after receiving the nomination but before election day, the RNC will meet to choose their replacement candidate. It won’t be Haley.
Trump’s legal woes aren’t going to stop him from running — even if he’s convicted and sentenced to prison for something, it’s likely he’ll remain out of jail pending appeal, and as a continuation of the courts’ extreme reluctance to do anything that can be seen as interfering with the election campaign even with Trump’s extreme provocation at every turn.
So if he can’t run, he’ll either be dead or seriously ill, and I simply don’t see the Republican Party selecting anyone who isn’t already fully on board the Trump Train, and especially someone who dared to run against him in the primaries, otherwise the MAGA faithful will be in full revolt. The MAGA base will continue to be in control of the party for years yet.
What makes you think Trump is unpopular with a majority of Republican primary voters? Even if they grow tired of his constant whining and mounting legal troubles, Super Tuesday is only six weeks away, and 80% of the delegates will be allocated by April 2nd. There’s not a lot of time for sentiment to swing against Trump unless he completely loses the plot, and I’m not even sure his supporters would care if he did.
It’s all over in 10 weeks.
acroyear@7–
The big problem with hoping for Trump to be struck off ballots is that this is only happening in states he was never going to win anyway. The two states so far are Colorado and Maine. Last election they went to Biden 55:42 and 53:44 respectively. Trump was never getting those colleges. Meanwhile, can anyone imagine Trump being struck off the ballot in deep red states like Wyoming, Kentucky, or the Dakotas?
(Historical note: Lincoln didn’t bother nominating in the southern states and convincingly won the 1860 election anyway.)
Heh, he closed out his speech closing out his campaign with a quote he misattributed to Churchill, but actually originated in a Budweiser advertisement from 1938.
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/09/03/success-final/
Talk about the gang that never could shoot straight!
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/jan/21/ron-desantis/desantis-ended-his-2024-presidential-campaign-quot/
Now, to really bake the noodle. What would happen if Trump actually won the election, but was convicted and sentenced before inauguration?
Guys, don’t count on Trump getting convicted to change anything. He will appeal and it will make him more popular. The timelines do not work. There is no universe in which Trump gets convicted, appeals and all of this wraps up before he wins the presidency.
@18. wzrd1 : Answer to your last sentence – a shitshow. An absolute fucking shitshow.
A lot of threats of and actual violence from the Trump cultists.
Then Biden probly pardons Trump to “spare the nation” and stop a civil war and “take the huigher road”and then things over in the states go to shit even more..
.. & I shudder to imagine what next. A lot of good and innocent people dead almost certainly.. That civil war round two that some keep threatening?
What do you think the US military will do amd will they do it as one or as rival factions?
Putin and Xi will exploit the fuck outta it of course. USA’s allies like Oz will be stunned and react .. dunno how?
World changes massively for the worse.
Please don’t let this scenario happen..
lotharloo #19
He has two federal cases starting in the Spring — election obstruction and classified documents. I’m not sure how long they’ll drag on but I doubt he could just brush them off just by winning the election, even in a country with a justice system as biased as this one has.
@Walter Solomon:
Yeah but assuming he gets convicted, he will just appeal. I just don’t see it wrapping up before the election and if he gets elected, it’s going to be a major constitutional crisis and I don’t think anyone knows what the hell is going to happen.
Do I need to add anything about how much I hope my suggested scenario here does NOT come true? How much I hope I’m wrong? I probly am.
@ silvrhalide :
Trump dying of covid would be karma. So much karma and so apt. So, it probly won’t happen but please, please, please..
Preferably when he’ssitting in jail & utterly discredited & (even more) disgraced at that..
DeSantis was every inch a wanna-be dictator. The book bans, the hostile takeover of a college board, the feud with Disney…
wcaryk @10
“Except that cartoon makes him look human, rather than the space alien wearing a poorly fitted human suit he normally appears like.”
Ah, first time seeing drawings of fascists through Ben Garrison-coloured glasses? Even with the Hamberdler on the losing side in a comic, he can’t help but depict the orange buffoon as portrayed in those fictions that keep getting passed off as medical reports.
People in the comments who think Nikki Haley has some sort of long odds chance are forgetting that she’s a Republican, and while they allowed her to be governor there’s no way that party is ever going to allow a woman of colour to be their nominee for president.
@ ^ Tabby Lavalamp : Ya coulda stopped at women there.
Not even Sarah palin..
Beau of the 6th column says that “Trump can’t lose the nomination, but he can’t win the general.”
I sure hope he’s right. As someone who follows all the legal maneuverings, I am convinced Trump is guilty and any jury will send him to prison for the rest of his life. I wish I could believe the rest of the electorate are as sick of republicans as I am.
I’m not so sure of that part. I would agree that any fair and impartial jury would send him to prison for life.
What I love is watching these self-abnegating republicans taking schoolyard insults from Trump then dropping to their knees to tongue-bath his shoes and endorse him. Nothing captures their love of power more clearly.
@Reginald Selkirk:
He’s already been losing massively to juries for years, on these very issues. Remember, there are citizen grand juries voting unanimously to indict him, based on the bare facts of the situation, repeatedly.
Since Trump has been offering mostly affirmative defenses, the juries won’t actually have much to do. I don’t expect hangs or splits. And Trump has already been found liable in the defamation cases, and to be an insurrectionist in Colorado and Maine. The people making those decisions are sober jurists, coming to the same conclusion juries will.
Trump knows how it’s going to go down. So do the lawyers he keeps shedding. Everyone on both sides is operating on the acceptance of his guilt and that juries will convict him.
Also – beating DOJ is insanely hard because they will bring mountains of irrefutable facts. We have already seen the tip of that iceberg and it made 3 of Trump’s coconspirators plead guilty. Trump’s recent “exonerating document” is the best he’s got and he’s going to be crushed like a grape. Even jurors on the Georgia grand juries that voted to indict him admitted they were maga but the evidence is that good.
All these Alpha Male repubs still haven’t come to the realization that there can only be one Alpha Male. And it ain’t them.
@ wzrd1, # 18: Leslie Nielsen impression: “From now on, if Trump wants to lie, cheat, steal, and vilify the disenfranchised, he’ll have to do it from a prison cell.” (Insert idiotic grin and uproarious laughter here)
I’ve never been too impressed with DeSantis.
He is a small “m” monster that the GOP raises up way too often.
AFAICT, his main accomplishments were to:
.1 Pick a fight with Mickey Mouse and while he didn’t lose, he didn’t win much either.
Fortune: “May 9, 2023 — Florida’s largest employer, The Walt Disney Company, and Governor Ron DeSantis are currently embroiled in a never-ending, no-win dispute.”
The GOP used to claim to be pro-business but no longer. Disney is the largest employer in Florida.
.2. Beat up on Trans school children and Drag Queens.
Vanity Fair: On Thursday, SCOTUS declined to allow the enforcement of the DeSantis-championed Florida law that bans children from attending drag shows, which kept in place a lower court ruling”
The Drag Queens won.
.3. Ban Books
ABC “Book ban lawsuit moves forward as Florida district removes …
Jan 11, 2024 — A judge has ruled that a lawsuit challenging book bans in Escambia County, Florida, can move forward as the county reveals more books have …”
The Book Ban is undecided.
In other states, these laws have been thrown out, recently in Texas.
So DeSantis is 0 for 2 with one attack on books undecided at this point.
The other thing that is striking about DeSantis is that none of his issues would make any real difference in my life, assuming I lived in Florida.
If I lived in Florida, I suppose I would be worrying about real issues such as Global Warming and the sea levels rising to put parts of the state under water, the next hurricanes and tornadoes, giant Burmese python snakes, and what lunatic fringe issues the monster governor Ron DeSantis will come up with next.
StevoR @ #23, the judge in Trump’s defamation-damages trial adjourned the court this morning after Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said she was feverish and feeling sick after being exposed to COVID by her parents; her co-counsel also reported feeling sick; and, separately, one of the jurors was sick this morning on their way to the courthouse and was told to go back home rather than come in. Everyone’s testing tonight. Trump was in the courtroom this morning with his unmasked lawyers on either side of him, so he (among others) might have been exposed as well. My guess is he’s had all of the boosters. Like Rupert Murdoch, he doesn’t care about his followers, but will protect himself. On the other hand, he’s foolish and lazy, so maybe not…
Florida’s legislature is now laser focused on getting Pride flags out of government buildings:
https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/florida-gop-lawmakers-seek-ban-rainbow-flags-schools-saying-re-bad-stu-rcna134475
The Senate version adds this slam against current flag protest jurisprudence (as I understand it):
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2024/1120/BillText/Filed/HTML
They are chipping away at Jefferson’s wall some more as Florida slips more down into the abyss of religious authoritarianism:
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2024/931
And did anyone say pronouns.
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2024/599
Note the “from providing” part. In the bill’s text:
Woke won!
@Walter Solomon #21:
The documents case judge is wholly-unfit-to-be-a-federal-judge Trump appointee Aileen Cannon who has not only demonstrated her incompetence, she has bent over backwards to help the defense team with unprecedented rulings placing obstacles in the way of the prosecution and thus delaying the trial. Not only that, but she’s refused to push back the trial date even though her actions had made the scheduled date unrealistic, which prevents any other pending trial from making use of that timeframe, thus holding them up too.
So unless Judge Cannon is brought into line or removed by her superiors, the documents case is almost certainly going to be pushed out beyond the end of the year, and if he wins, Trump’s DOJ will no doubt find a way to drop the charges. There are already some right-wing lawyers claiming that Jack Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional since he was a private citizen and not vetted by Congress.
As for the prospect of Trump being convicted in the Georgia case and winning the election, we’re in unprecedented territory, and do you really believe the far-right majority in the Supreme Court won’t find a way to rule that the will of the people is more important than a criminal conviction, and that if he’s truly unfit for office, Congress can remedy that by impeaching him? And round we go again…
That may be illegal.
A violation of the First Amendment US Constitution free speech laws.
The christofascists tried that in Oregon.
The right wingnut school board in Newberg banned Black Lives Matters and Rainbow flags in the schools.
They got taken to court and lost big time.
“Court strikes down Newberg schools ban on political signs”
The headline of this article is misleading. They did reverse their ban because they had to after they lost in court.
One complication here.
The Yamhill county judge based their ruling on the Oregon constitution.
Which is the same as the Federal constitution here as well though.
“NEWBERG – A Yamhill County court has struck down the Newberg school board’s 2021 ban on political signs, declaring it a violation of the state constitution’s guarantees of free speech.
Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Easterday granted a summary judgment…”
Summary judgement means that it wasn’t even close.
Thanks for the information, Hemidactylus @ #36.
I’m sure that’ll pass Constitutional muster! I wonder if there’s a section on preventing the use of the flag to attack cops protecting government buildings…
Interesting. I listened to this episode of Straight White American Jesus about similar policies in Texas last month – “In Texas, It All Goes Back to Christian Nationalism”:
This volunteer school chaplain bullshit appears to be the latest rightwing oligarch astroturf offensive.
LOL.
In England, schools have had religion courses for decades. The result? Christianity is all but dead in England. The problem now is the internet. The Bible is well critiqued by atheists on line. Putting religion back in the schools may cause curious students to check out the Bible online, which will hold many surprises for many. It is no secret that many ministers have lost faith reading the Bible. The Bible, carefully read, does that. The trick will be to have just enough religion in schools to indoctrinate, not enough to the problems of Christianity start becoming apparent. Which translates to religious ignorance in America’s school children.
Another cockamamie thing happening now is banning dictionaries. Because they have cuss words and sexual terms. Everybody knows good America children don,t need to know about things like clitoruses (clitori?) until they are 18. And without dictionaries, they will never learn those bad curse words.
StevoR, I disagree. Just as Thatcher was the first female PM in the UK, there’s a good chance the first female president of the US will probably be a Republican if she’s awful enough.
@Tabby Lavalamp, #42
As an aside, it is rather amusing that Trump’s ascension to Republican sainthood has all but erased all memory of the twin saints of Anglo-American capitalism — St Ronald and St Margaret.
@cheerfulcharlie: #41
I am proud to be part of the first generation of the mass exodus from Christianity in the UK during the late 70s/early 80s, though it took me another decade or so to personally disengage. I do vividly recall all the bored faces of my schoolmates as we stood through the daily ritual of morning assembly — hymn, prayer, Bible reading, Lord’s prayer, and blessing. I can’t imagine how headmaster didn’t notice that sea of vacant expressions staring back at him from his place on the stage, but he didn’t care. No doubt he thought it would do us some good.
Many of my friends were also dragged to Sunday school by parents who hadn’t been to church in the years before they started a family, and they well knew their required attendance was merely so their parents could check the box for having given their children a moral education in the family faith tradition. It was a cynical exercise most of my peers did not feel obliged to repeat with their own children when the time came.
When I moved to the US thirty years ago, it was like I had stepped back a generation, with many of my US friends suddenly rediscovering religion after getting married and starting a family — for the sake of the children. Now those children are starting to have families of their own, and as in the UK in the 1990s, I see little sign that they’re going to follow in their parent’s religious footsteps either. The decoupling may have been delayed a generation in the US, but it’s very much happening.
Sheesh P Z. Your followers dont half post long comments.
@Tacitus
There has been a recent study over at Pew Research on religious beliefs of young Americans. Sad to say, there is a lot of woo woo, mysticism and other weirdness. Many of these are dropping organized religion, but are not becoming discerning in their beliefs. Lots of spiritual but not religious. Belief in some higher power, but not the God of the Bible or Quran. It is getting weird out there. No telling where this is going to go over the next few decades. Check it out for some sobering reading.
PZ will hate this.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/01/17/around-4-in-10-americans-have-become-more-spiritual-over-time-fewer-have-become-more-religious/
cheerfulcharlie, meh. Same old, same old.
Wooism is bad, but religion is worse. So, no biggie.
Also, that sort of reporting is fraught.
Here’s something that has always amused me:
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/religious-family/atheist/
cheerfulcharlie @ #46, thank you for the link. That poll isn’t limited to young people. They even discuss age differences:
This was interesting:
I find the whole idea of “spiritual” pretty amusing.
@cheerfulcharlie
I would only add that better a hodge-podge of spiritual beliefs than organized religion. For one, in most cases, they’re much less likely to inform their political beliefs or even have that much impact on their secular lifestyle.
But in the end, I don’t have much faith in the decline of organized religion will help much. We’ve seen over the last decade that bigotry and grievance politics don’t need religion to drive it. The crusade against trans people barely even leans into the religious rhetoric at all, especially in the UK. Regressive populist conservatism will long outlive the power of Christianity to do harm.
@35. SC (Salty Current) : “My guess is he’s (Trump) had all of the boosters. Like Rupert Murdoch, he doesn’t care about his followers, but will protect himself. On the other hand, he’s foolish and lazy, so maybe not…”
Here’s hoping..
Trump definitely has had all the boosters. Also to give rare credit to him, he has been speaking positively about the vaccines which is one of the few positive things about Trump. Obviously, he does it because he wants to take credit for them but we take whatever wins we can get.