Patterico's Pontifications

6/4/2021

Ahead of First Post-Presidential Rally, Republican Aides Still Can’t Corral Trump

Filed under: General — Dana @ 8:13 am



[guest post by Dana]

The Republican, er, Retrumplican Party continues to be exhausted by the former president who just can’t stop relitigating the past instead of looking to the future:

A cadre of aides and advisers working to tame Donald Trump’s obsession with the 2020 election, including his fixation with debunked voter fraud theories and ballot audits, are realizing the task at hand is much tougher than they thought.

Over the past few weeks, Trump has faced pleas from inside his orbit to move the ball forward as Republicans approach the 2022 midterm elections, when the party hopes to regain control of both congressional chambers, and brace for his high-profile return to the campaign trail. Several former advisers and allies still close to the 45th President said he is under mounting pressure to concentrate on promoting GOP policy priorities and defining his successor, rather than re-litigating his failed reelection campaign.

But the former President has brushed those voices aside, choosing instead to listen to a crowd of characters both on television and in his wider circle who have encouraged him to keep his focus on the 2020 election.

Trump’s preoccupation with the election is expected to take center stage on Saturday, when he kicks off his first post-presidential summer with an address to the North Carolina Republican Party. The speech, a preview of the campaign-style rallies he plans to start hosting next month, will signal to what degree he intends to ignore advice from those imploring him to redirect his message toward the future. Because it will be his first public appearance in three months, sources close to the former President said the tack he decides to take will be critical in setting the course going forward — not only for him, but for all Republicans on the ballot in 2022.

But wait. Didn’t Leader Kevin McCarthy himself excoriate Liz Cheney for relitigating the past rather than focusing on the future? Why, yes he did. And in fact, that was the basis of ousting her from her leadership position. However, Cheney was directly responding to Trump’s own and ongoing statements about the past election and calling him out for the Big Lie.

Unsurprisingly, Trump is apparently bored by the real issues of the day instead remains hyper-focused on relitigating the past:

Sources familiar with Trump’s thinking describe him as bored by the issues his advisers wish he would focus on — from threats to America’s energy infrastructure to increased inflation and other economic concerns. He is so obsessed with his unsuccessful quest for reelection, one ex-Trump official said, that he has been moving himself toward irrelevance.

“It’s like a slow leak of a balloon that is now laying on the floor,” is how the ex-Trump official described it.

But the real question is how will Trump’s MAGA base respond to a speech primarily focused on “Stop the Steal” grievances? Trump is counting on them to still be just as angry as he is about the alleged election fraud. So much so, that he has lately been indulging in “unhinged and false notions about being “reinstated” as commander-in-chief…claim[ing] the Arizona audit could lead to similar investigations in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Georgia that would ultimately prove he won the 2020 election…” According to his fantastical notions, Trump believes that he will be reinstated to office sometime this summer, as Charles C.W. Cooke at National Review confirmed:

I can attest, from speaking to an array of different sources, that Donald Trump does indeed believe quite genuinely that he — along with former senators David Perdue and Martha McSally — will be “reinstated” to office this summer after “audits” of the 2020 elections in Arizona, Georgia, and a handful of other states have been completed. I can attest, too, that Trump is trying hard to recruit journalists, politicians, and other influential figures to promulgate this belief — not as a fundraising tool or an infantile bit of trolling or a trial balloon, but as a fact.

It will be tempting for weary conservatives to dismiss this information as “old news” or as “an irrelevance.” It will be tempting, too, to downplay the enormity of what is being claimed, or to change the subject, or to attack the messengers by implying that they must “hate” Trump and his voters. But such temptations should be assiduously avoided. We are not talking here about a fringe figure within the Republican tent, but about a man who hopes to make support for his outlandish claims “a litmus test of sorts as he decides whom to endorse for state and federal contests in 2022 and 2024.” Conservatives understand why it mattered that the press lost its collective mind over Russia after Trump’s fair-and-square victory in 2016. They understand why it mattered that Hillary Clinton publicly described Trump as an “illegitimate president” who had “stolen” the election. And they understand why it mattered that Jimmy Carter insisted that Trump had “lost the election” and been “put into office because the Russians interfered.” They should understand why this matters, too.

The scale of Trump’s delusion is quite startling. This is not merely an eccentric interpretation of the facts or an interesting foible, nor is it an irrelevant example of anguished post-presidency chatter. It is a rejection of reality, a rejection of law, and, ultimately, a rejection of the entire system of American government.

Can America really handle another insane season of Trump? Or will Trump’s flight of fantasy fizzle out? Well, not if he has anything to say about it. He won’t give up, give in, or back down. If we’ve learned anything, it’s that when Trump is attacked, doesn’t get his way, or loses power, you better buckle up.

–Dana

63 Responses to “Ahead of First Post-Presidential Rally, Republican Aides Still Can’t Corral Trump”

  1. The rank hypocrisy of McCarthy and friends accusing Liz Cheney of relitigating the past while kissing the ring of the former president who can’t shut up about the past wholly reveals the lack of integrity in today’s Republican Party.

    Dana (fd537d)

  2. They say that history is written by the victors, but that doesn’t mean that losers can’t try too.

    nk (1d9030)

  3. Some posters here might consider Cooke’s piece as “propaganda” telling people how to think rather describing reality. 😉

    Rip Murdock (dd79dd)

  4. He was Narciso’s dude; went full whack but forgot he wasnt born/raised –

    https://news.yahoo.com/texas-gops-allen-west-resigns-15120

    urbanleftbehind (e601eb)

  5. He cares about NOTHING but himself.

    Dave (1542be)

  6. Trump is apparently bored by the real issues of the day instead remains hyper-focused on relitigating the past

    That’s because present issues aren’t about him. Yet.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  7. They say that history is written by the victors, but that doesn’t mean that losers can’t try too.

    Sooner or later the losers are dead, and the narrative passes them by.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  8. the lack of integrity in today’s Republican Party

    I think you beg the question here. What party, ever, has been known for integrity? Are the current Republicans less honest than today’s Democrats?

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  9. I very much doubt that Trump has any path to showing he “really won” no matter what the result is in AZ. While I expect that count to be confirmed, if it isn’t the SHTF pretty quickly. And I think it will hit a different fan that those AZ Republicans think.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  10. Sources familiar with Trump’s thinking describe him as bored by the issues his advisers wish he would focus on ….

    Gee, who could have expected that Mr. “Always Puts America First” would be obsessed with avenging injury to his ego rather than advancing policy?

    The scale of Trump’s delusion is quite startling.

    It’s really not startling to anyone who paid attention to his repeated pre-election statements that it was impossible for him to lose unless the other side cheated, or his many delusional claims to unmatched superiority in countless domains: “Nobody reads the Bible more than me!” “Nobody is less racist than me!” “I know more than all the generals!” “There would be no vaccine at all if I hadn’t been president!”

    Radegunda (ca133c)

  11. Worse than Trump being involved in the past, so are many conservatives. Meanwhile, Biden eats all their lunches. The roots of the Great Energy Shortage of 2023 (and the ensuing drastic measures) are being planted now.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  12. Both parties have their imbalances (places and people where integrity goes to die).
    Its clearer that Biden as VP enriched his family on the public’s dime and to the detriment of the US and lied about it. Trump had the Secret Service stay at his hotels and everyone lost their minds (at least they got a service for the charges).
    The DCCC is stuck with two horrible people at the top. Biden and Harris. The Democrats didn’t vote for Joe and Kamala. They voted against Trump

    The RNCC has Trump doing his usual s#it stirring and the RNCC has to contend with the fact that 70 million or so people voted for Trump and in a Trump vs Biden match up today most would vote Trump again. Part of blame there lies in the extreme agendas of the left. If the first 5 months of Biden are any indicator, and they are, we are screwed on everything from fuel prices, middle east, NK, China, Russia, the border, police, race relations, inflation, debt, Fauci-ites all the way to womens sports. The lone bright spot is Space X and that is because it is private and god knows they’d cancel Elon Musk if they could

    steveg (ebe7c1)

  13. He’s chumming… and you keep takin’ the bait.

    Glorious.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  14. He cares about NOTHING but himself.

    It’s amazing to me that so many people have failed to notice this, or refused to see it, when he often comes pretty close to saying it outright. Weirder is that some people think he was the most self-sacrificing president ever.

    Others aren’t quite so deluded, but they appear to think that if Trump’s self-interest happened to align with promoting policies they like and happened to have some results they like, then he must be a pure-hearted patriot, and therefore whatever he desires — e.g. to overturn an election he lost — is necessarily in the national interest, while any opposition to Trump’s wishes is a form of treachery or corruption.

    Radegunda (ca133c)

  15. Facebook suspends Trump for 2 years in response to Oversight Board ruling

    By that time both Trump and Facebook could be irrelevant.

    Rip Murdock (dd79dd)

  16. Its clearer that Biden as VP enriched his family on the public’s dime

    Trump enriched himself by pushing the cost of his failures onto other people in bankruptcy, cheating people out of what he had contracted to pay, setting up scams like “Trump University,” and probably lying about his assets to evade taxes. And by catching the eye of Mark Burnett, who cast him as a hugely successful, savvy entrepreneur (which he wasn’t) in the public eye.

    Biden is bad in many ways. It’s a tragedy that so many people decided that DJT is the only answer to the follies of the Democrat-left, and the essence of patriotic virtue, and then snuggled up to QAnon and the Proud Boys and started viewing Putin as a model of leadership to emulate — thus making the GOP toxic to many people who crave a serious alternative to the Dems.

    All the bad-faith takes on 1/6 from the GOP and the conservative commentariat don’t help in building a serious push-back either.

    Radegunda (ca133c)

  17. It’s amazing to me that so many people have failed to notice

    It’s amazing to me that so many people have failed to notice that this applies to politicians across the board. Weirder is that some people think their preferred avatar actually cares about them.

    frosty (f27e97)

  18. Trump could have pardoned every person involved in the 1/6 insurrection, but didn’t because it might rebound on him. So, they all go to jail for following him and he plans to run again, using other suckers.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  19. “Can America really handle another insane season of Trump? Or will Trump’s flight of fantasy fizzle out?

    I think we all have a bit of an unhealthy obsession with him. The media are the worst: They helped create him and are locked in a co-dependent relationship with him.

    But I’m complicit too. I click when I see his name. “Oh what’s he gone and said now.”

    JRH (52aed3)

  20. @19, if nothing else the man puts on a good show.

    Time123 (ca85c9)

  21. Sources familiar with Trump’s thinking describe him as bored by the issues his advisers wish he would focus on — from threats to America’s energy infrastructure to increased inflation and other economic concerns.

    What they want him to talk about doesn’t have any villains or fools – or any point to it. You could make it interesting by arguing that Joe Biden’s economic policies are absolutely crazy.

    The scale of Trump’s delusion is quite startling.

    Donald Trump, or his handlers, don’t want a live feed of the speech he will give in North Carolina. It may not be available after the fact.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  22. @19 the insane things he’s gone and said have an annoying habit of trending true a year later when all those sane people catch up

    JF (e1156d)

  23. You could make it factual by arguing that Joe Biden’s economic policies are absolutely crazy.

    FIFY.

    Only Trump cannot carry that message. It’s time for the marching band to leave the field.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  24. It’s amazing to me that so many people have failed to notice that this applies to politicians across the board

    It’s amazing to me that someone could not notice that Trump’s self-centeredness is far more flagrant and unabashed than virtually every other politician with any degree of prominence.

    Most people understand intellectually that self-interest should not be the highest moral standard. Trump displays no such understanding. On the contrary, he openly identifies what’s good for himself with what’s good, period.

    His preemptive refusal to accept the possibility that he could be defeated fairly in an election is also sui generis. Al Gore had far more reason to object to his loss in 2000, but he chose to put the good of the country first. Donald Trump cannot do that, because he does not recognize any difference between what he wants and what is morally right.

    It is simply not true that every politician is as self-centered as Trump. We’ve seen some Republicans making a stand for what they view as true and right, knowing that it will probably hurt them in a political landscape where fealty to Trump has become the cardinal virtue. It hurts them politically because most of the Trumpified GOP actually despise people with an ethical backbone.

    Radegunda (ca133c)

  25. Unintentional self-reference:

    (CNN)Political conservatives are more likely to believe untrue news reports than liberals are, researchers reported Wednesday.

    It’s the latest in a series of studies that show people on the political right tend to not only be targeted by fake news, but to believe it’s correct.

    The small but intensive study, conducted by communications specialists Kelly Garrett and Robert Bond at Ohio State University, shows more engaging but false stories tended to support beliefs held by conservatives, while viral news stories that were also true tended to support beliefs held by liberals.

    Liberals ted to believe this is correct, of course. Shorter: “I’m right. Your beliefs are lies!”

    Meanwhile their party embarks on a plan for economic recovery by jacking up taxes, cutting off energy supplies and maxxing all the credit cards.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  26. )Political conservatives are more likely to believe untrue news reports than liberals are, researchers reported Wednesday

    In 2021, and among the sample of stories they tried. (with CNN rating the stories as true or false)

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  27. > Can America really handle another insane season of Trump?

    Unfortunately, yes.

    I continue to believe the most likely path is the Republicans retake both houses of Congress in 2022, Trump runs in 2024, and Republican-controlled state legislatures combined with the Republican-controlled Congress use their power to throw the election to Trump despite the fact that a majority of voters will have voted to re-elect Biden, citing nebulous unproven claims of ‘fraud’ to justify it.

    aphrael (4c4719)

  28. i You could make it factual by arguing that Joe Biden’s economic policies are absolutely crazy. Well, no, You could give bad, or disputable, ARGUMENTS. They might not be factual, but the criticisms probably would be interesting.

    Biden’s economic policy seems to be that what is important is getting money out the door – billions – he doesn’t care so much what it is. He wants some Republican buy-in. I’m not sure why. Afraid the projects might be cancelled lqter? (Biden is looking for two bills – one bipartisan, one not. This also makes the size of the package he wants to pass with only Democratic votes smaller. Maybe he needs it it to be smaller for Manchin and others.)

    Biden projects that, with all that he is doing, the economy will get back to the place it would have been without the pandemic, but that, once it reaches that point, it will grow slowly at 2% annually.

    I noticed some inflation today in the appetizing department. (supermarket takeout)
    The climate and energy policies are just not thought through. (and the New York Times has an article saying that the greatest pollution and energy use is in international shipping)

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  29. steveg (ebe7c1) — 6/4/2021 @ 10:08 am

    Its clearer that Biden as VP enriched his family on the public’s dime and to the detriment of the US and lied about it.

    I don;t think he was the actor – A brother and and a son were the main actors.

    He insisted they not actually be corrupt, but if some foolish foreigners wanted to give them money, he would have no objections as long as they didn’t tell him what they had promised and as long as they didn’t break the law.

    Selling flour is legal, as long as you pay the taxes on it. So what if the buyer thought it was heroin?

    Trump had the Secret Service stay at his hotels and everyone lost their minds (at least they got a service for the charges).

    Some people are trying to make a federal case out of it. And they didn’t even stay at his hotels or golf courses mainly. A president has the right to go where he wants to go; the Secret Service will only object on grounds of safety, not cost.

    The lone bright spot is Space X and that is because it is private and god knows they’d cancel Elon Musk if they could

    It’s also Jeff Bezos. They both have space lasers, but not to fight each other with.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  30. 27. aphrael (4c4719) — 6/4/2021 @ 11:47 am

    I continue to believe the most likely path is the Republicans retake both houses of Congress in 2022, Trump runs in 2024, and Republican-controlled state legislatures combined with the Republican-controlled Congress use their power to throw the election to Trump despite the fact that a majority of voters will have voted to re-elect Biden, citing nebulous unproven claims of ‘fraud’ to justify it.

    Because people will see that coming, they won’t take both houses of Congress in 2022

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  31. Radegunda (ca133c) — 6/4/2021 @ 11:27 am

    It is simply not true that every politician is as self-centered as Trump.

    You’re sure about that? Seems like that would require some serious mind-reading skills. I suppose like Abraham you might be able to find one righteous man in Sodom.

    We’ve seen some Republicans making a stand for what they view as true and right, knowing that it will probably hurt them in a political landscape where fealty to Trump has become the cardinal virtue. It hurts them politically because most of the Trumpified GOP actually despise people with an ethical backbone.

    Hurt them (oh, you don’t really mean hurt-hurt)? True and right? Despise people with an ethical backbone? You know Santa isn’t real and the Easter Bunny doesn’t bring you candy right? You are reading a lot of virtue into actions that are just as self-centered.

    frosty (f27e97)

  32. “The lone bright spot is Space X and that is because it is private and god knows they’d cancel Elon Musk if they could”

    Elon is a con man like Trump, but less lazy. Fortunately he can’t be president.

    Davethulhu (69e65f)

  33. ……Its clearer that Biden as VP enriched his family on the public’s dime and to the detriment of the US and lied about it…….

    Assumes facts not in evidence. Please provide documentation.

    Rip Murdock (dd79dd)

  34. Most politicians have huge egos, how else can they go out in public every day and claim they right, their opponents are wrong, and then ask for money? However, Trump is in a class by himself, it was there right in front of us by literally selling his name to be placed on buildings and golf courses.

    Shrinking violets need not apply.

    Rip Murdock (dd79dd)

  35. The daily anti-trump screed. This and a quarter will get you what? The republican party has moved on from you. They don’t care what you think of them. This is called preaching to the anti-trump choir.

    asset (813773)

  36. “Can America really handle another insane season of Trump? Or will Trump’s flight of fantasy fizzle out?

    I think we all have a bit of an unhealthy obsession with him. The media are the worst: They helped create him and are locked in a co-dependent relationship with him.

    But I’m complicit too. I click when I see his name. “Oh what’s he gone and said now.”

    JRH (52aed3) — 6/4/2021 @ 10:59 am

    The reason he still matters, and I think you know this, is that he continues to have a stranglehold on the GOP, and at this point in time, unfortunately, is a viable candidate for 2024. With an election looming in 2024, this presents a dangerous proposition for the nation at large. He is now clealry unhinged and not dealing in reality, and yet one of the two major political parties support him, and continues to attempt to curry favor with him. How much of a clear and present danger could he present? It’s foolish to write him off as a harmless blowhard competing or bitter loser just for attention. There is far more to this than that. He attempts to throw out the Rule of Law, upend legitimate elections for his own gain, push a massive lie that he was the true winner of the election, and lives in a dangerously deluded world.

    Dana (fd537d)

  37. Asset —

    So what’s the positive result on concentrating on the 2020 election? How does this help America going forward?

    As our host notes, the Republican leaders have said they want to move on from both the contested election and the events of 1-6. Trump is stepping on that message. Why is that good?

    Appalled (1a17de)

  38. How does this help America going forward?

    By leaving the NeverTrumpers, Lincoln Project and National Review-types behind- like rocks in flowing stream.

    What goes around, comes around: welcome to 1964.

    Glorious.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  39. It is simply not true that every politician is as self-centered as Trump.

    Yes, but there are a lot that are over 0.5 Trumps. I must admit though, that as a unit of self-centeredness, the “Trump” is a fairly large one. Most people are in the milliTrumps, or even microTrumps.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  40. The republican party has moved on from you.

    Dear lemmings:

    Please come back. You are headed for a cliff.

    Sincerely,

    #nevertrump

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  41. 32.“The lone bright spot is Space X and that is because it is private and god knows they’d cancel Elon Musk if they could”

    Musk is heavily subsidized by government funding and contracting and risks as little of his own capital as possible. If he had to lay out his own $ to create the ground facilities– built on the taxpayer’s dime– which he currently leases at the Cape and Vandenberg– he’d never have gotten off the ground, especially given the low to no ROI on LEO space operations in a quarterly driven marketplace. Hence raising private investment capital for any such ventures remains harder today than crewed and uncrewed spaceflight itself. Much of what we’re seeing now is what Arthur C. Clarke predicted in 1969: the slow transfer of increasingly ‘routine’ LEO ops from government to select private firms– for cargo services, satellite deployment and so forth– freeing up civilian government space agencies to press on to BEO ops for crewed spacecraft and develop cislunar space hardware, methods an procedures to apply toward the inevitable manned Mars missions later this century.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  42. Dear lemmings:

    Please come back. You are headed for a cliff.

    Sincerely,

    Nelson Rockefeller

    FIFY

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  43. #38

    I imagine some old righty; hooting at Nelson Rockefeller in that convention back in 1964. “All this — this is for what you did to William Howard Taft”

    Appalled (1a17de)

  44. Do you ever wonder how bright, professional people manage to get caught up in cults like NXIVM (in which women were branded with the initials of the cult leader in their groin area) and Scientology?

    Look no further than the Trump supporters commenting here.

    The old saying is true. Love is blind. If one falls in love with a politician, one ends up rationalizing and justifying all kinds of sh!t.

    Never, ever, fall in love with a politician.

    norcal (409ba1)

  45. 31. frosty (f27e97) — 6/4/2021 @ 12:36 pm

    I suppose like Abraham you might be able to find one righteous man in Sodom.

    Abraham didn’t find one. He asked God not to destroy it if there were 10 righteous people – and bargained tit to down to 10 in 5 cities. But the only one (at least half good) was his nephew, Lot. So he was rescued, and for his sake, members of his family whom he could persuade to go and even one city – which he became afraid to stay in. And then his two youngest (surviving) daughters – but you know the story. It’s because how they would be treated in the remaining city.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  46. Elon: 1. needs better taste in women; or 2. tighten up on the (non-COVID related) masks:

    https://uproxx.com/indie/grimes-ai-communism-tiktok-video/

    urbanleftbehind (e601eb)

  47. norcal (409ba1) — 6/4/2021 @ 2:04 pm

    Another good question is how do people fall for things like RussiaGate, BLM, Marxism, MMT, Cops are killing 1000’s of unarmed black people per year, the covid lab leak hypothesis is a conspiracy theory, black entrepreneurs don’t have lawyers or accountants, etc.

    It’s truly a mystery and I wouldn’t suggest you look at anyone on this blog for examples of that.

    frosty (f27e97)

  48. 44.Do you ever wonder how bright, professional people manage to get caught up in cults like NXIVM (in which women were branded with the initials of the cult leader in their groin area) and Scientology?

    Look no further than the Birchers pushing sinister fluoridation plans, impeaching Earl Warren and declaring Eisenhower was a pinko… who floated the boats of extremists like Barry Goldwater… which spawned Reagan… who in turn, spawned Trump.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  49. frosty (f27e97) — 6/4/2021 @ 2:39 pm

    Another good question is how do people fall for things like RussiaGate, BLM, Marxism, MMT….

    Not all that many people fall for them.

    Russiagate was taken seriously by people in the media, but not necessarily believed. Partisan Democrats pretended to believe it. What also helped it along was kind of a like a game of telephone with not that many people getting into the weeds.

    BLM was basically people being intimidated or shamed into not challenging its premises If you thought Geirge Floyd was murdered, or were against murder in general, you couldn’t argue against it.

    Marxism I have no idea, except maybe the fact that people hate to lose money. This became a claim that people will do anything for money. A lot of lies, and some governments behind it, helped that along.

    MMT – nothing much wrong with it. But it is too dressed up. There really is such a thing as a free lunch.

    Cops are killing 1000’s of unarmed black people per year,

    Innumeracy. There was also disproportionate emphasis given to examples of that. And more than half maybe of the examples were wrong.

    the covid lab leak hypothesis is a conspiracy theory

    It is a conspiracy theory. It was Bill Clinton who started this campaign against conspiracy theories. Not all conspiracy theories are wrong.

    The existence of rhe Mafia, for instance, is a conspiracy theory.

    The question is: How did people sign on to this thing that if it’s a conspiracy theory, it’s wrong?

    True there were numerous false Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories. Or later, O.J. Simpson didn’t do it

    > From: Carol L Moore

    > To: LA-AGORA@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
    > Subject: Discrimination & Conspiracy Theories
    > Date: Friday, June 13, 1997 3:51 PM

    > As with many other things in life, one must
    > be discriminating in giving credence to
    > various conspiracy theories. Some are totally
    > on target, others off the wall, with a whole
    > range in between. Some are enragingly true,
    > some fun, some tedious,
    > some just plain annoying.

    > Carol Moore in D.C.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  50. Lots of more details about the lab leak theory, including some scientists who have disappeared (or the otside world has lost contact with) And scientific analysis as welll/

    Even people who write about this get things wrong. A WSJ op ed today still has the seafood market as a wet market.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  51. I look forward to August, now. For two reasons:
    1. How many GOP Congresscritters will push a bill to recount the Electoral Votes and reinstate Trump; and
    2. What new gimmick Trump will come up with to keep scamming the suckers and, believe you me, there will be one. “If a gimmick does not sell, find another; if a gimmick sells, find another” is the secret of both Ron Popeil’s and QVC’s success.

    nk (1d9030)

  52. About August, my best friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who’s going with the girl who saw Trump say this at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it’s pretty serious.

    frosty (f27e97)

  53. You only think you’re joking, frosty. It’s more reality than any Trump supporter has ever needed. Most of them just simply entrust their longings (and grudges) to him, in full faith that he will fulfill them.

    nk (1d9030)

  54. Another good question is how do people fall for things like RussiaGate, BLM, Marxism, MMT, Cops are killing 1000’s of unarmed black people per year, the covid lab leak hypothesis is a conspiracy theory, black entrepreneurs don’t have lawyers or accountants, etc.

    frosty (f27e97) — 6/4/2021 @ 2:39 pm

    That is a good question. However, I don’t see any one person commanding a cult on those fronts.

    norcal (ac1a98)

  55. What I’m more worried about is that over the next 15 years every single solitary hospital bed that exists will be occupied by an Alzheimer’s patient. We need to find this patient and prevent this occupation.

    frosty (f27e97)

  56. If that Alzheimers comment by Biden isn’t the textbook projection 101, I dont know what else could be.

    urbanleftbehind (6a5748)

  57. If the first 5 months of Biden are any indicator, and they are, we are screwed on everything from fuel prices, middle east, NK, China, Russia, the border, police, race relations, inflation, debt, Fauci-ites all the way to womens sports. The lone bright spot is Space X and that is because it is private and god knows they’d cancel Elon Musk if they could

    Good and hard, folks. We all got a Chicago lawyer’s chance in Heaven. Enjoy!

    Colonel Haiku (d10d9f)

  58. From those wonderful folks who produced Michael Flynn:

    US military UFO report ‘does not confirm or rule out aliens’ …

    news.yahoo.com/us-military-ufo-report-does…

    A US government report on sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) found no evidence of alien activity but does not rule it out, officials have told US media. The review of 120 incidents is expected to conclude that US technology was not involved in most cases.

    Idiots.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  59. By that time both Trump and Facebook could be irrelevant.
    Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 6/4/2021 @ 10:20 am

    Facebook is slowly going the way of the dodo. My teens and all their friends wouldn’t be caught dead with a Facebook account. That’s for “old people.”

    Hoi Polloi (b28058)

  60. “Well, first of all, the conference will decide but I don’t think anybody is questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election.”
    –Kevin McCarthy, 5/12/2021

    I can’t think of a worse House Minority Leader than that dipstick.

    Paul Montagu (a05eda)

  61. Facebook was already for women of a certain age who sent each other selfies to elicit a “Beautiful!” in return, as long as ten years ago. But guess who is considered an indispensable voting group?

    nk (1d9030)

  62. Tiananmen Square Massacre anniversary.

    NJRob (c1c35b)

  63. Questions getting asked, surprisingly not rhetorically:

    “Do you ever wonder how bright, professional people manage to get caught up in cults like NXIVM (in which women were branded with the initials of the cult leader in their groin area) and Scientology?”

    Uhhhh…because they’re rich upper-class professionals who made all their friends in their immediate social circle and believe whatever their immediate social circle tells them as surely as any Mormon or Orthodox Jew falling for an typical financial affinity scam?

    “He attempts to throw out the Rule of Law”

    Only people who get rich off of endless legal procedures ever capitalize that term, anyone who studied what the Democrats (party of 90% of the lawyers in this country right now) did to it would never venerate it like that. Talking about the “Rule of Law” is, as the kids say, cringe. Laws are for whoever owns the courts and the judge. (And people who recognize this early, i.e., the professionals, are more likely to assume the cults are the ones holding power behind the scenes.)

    “upend legitimate elections for his own gain”

    What evidence do you have of their legitimacy?

    “push a massive lie that he was the true winner of the election”

    What audit results do you have that he wasn’t? Which common procedures were followed that gives you this confidence? Are you really comfortable with essentially saying “I trust Democrat Party county precincts with the sanctity of my vote, especially in the midst of a pandemic where every legal and extralegal effort was made to spoil ballots, remove voting safeguards, and threaten everyone who spoke out?”

    “and lives in a dangerously deluded world.”

    Trump gets vindicated because he’s not dependent on your worlds delusions and cultural and social parasitism. And the biggest delusion of all is that the friend/enemy distinction does not matter in politics.

    Icarue (3adf66)


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