MAGA spreads rumors of a DeSantis affair with Kim Reynolds

[the OlLine Rebel]

So what? Will that negate anything positive he does?

Oh yeah, the “everyone sins” argument.

Sorry, there are clinical narcissists, and people with a smidgeon of narcissism or moments.  Just as probably all of us are autistic to some degree.  But having your moments is not the same as being narcissist, or autistic, or anything under the mental/emotional umbrella.

Trump shows every sign of pure arrogant flippant narcissism.  Not moments, but chronic.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Any president cares how history judges them. Biden probably believes he’s doing a bang up job and history will be kind to him

The point is WHY does Trump care?  Mostly because he thinks very, very highly of himself.  He was himself the greatest This, That and The Other as the president.  He wants to be in the books and wants to be called as he himself has declared it.  Better than Washington, Lincoln, everyone.

As for Biden, he’s just an obvious moronic dementia patient.  Anyone making positive out of what he’s been doing is an idiot.

[Kamaji]

Oh yeah, the “everyone sins” argument.

Sorry, there are clinical narcissists, and people with a smidgeon of narcissism or moments.  Just as probably all of us are autistic to some degree.  But having your moments is not the same as being narcissist, or autistic, or anything under the mental/emotional umbrella.

Trump shows every sign of pure arrogant flippant narcissism.  Not moments, but chronic.

[bigheadfred]

That's quite an insult to Forest Gump. 

I knew someone would say something like that. Forrest Gump was a moron that led a highly remarkable life.

Biden is a moron that claims to have led a highly remarkable life. He "literally" convinced Thurmond to vote for the Civil Rights Act. He was at ground zero the day after 9/11, etc.

[LMAO]

.  Anyone making positive out of what he’s been doing is an idiot.

Oh, they’re out there. It’s actually fairly easy to find the 30 some percent that approval him.

[Maj. Bill Martin]

So what? Will that negate anything positive he does?

No.  It'll just prevent him from accomplishing much that is positive, and make it more likely he'll screw up and accomplish things that are negative.

Ever work for or be commanded by someone who believes they're always 100% right about everything?  Who never listens to advice from people with more knowledge or experience, and who gets angry if any subordinate suggests that what they are saying or doing is a bad idea?

The most important thing beaten into our heads as Marine second lieutenants was to listen to our staff NCO's.  To do more listening than talking so that we wouldn't sound like jackasses.  Some followed that better than others.  The ones who didn't were the ones who made the most mistakes, and who lost the respect of their troops.

That's how I see Trump, except he started off with all the power of a general but none of the experience.  The guy so certain of his own genius that he refuses to take any advice even from the people he appointed.  The more experienced, competent, and respected the appointee, the more likely Trump will refuse to listen, and will get pissed when told something he doesn't want to hear.

Most lieutenants who make that same mistake learn, and are better captains than they were lieutenants.   Trump has actually gotten worse.

[Kamaji]

No.  It'll just prevent him from accomplishing much that is positive, and make it more likely he'll screw up and accomplish things that are negative.

Ever work for or be commanded by someone who believes they're always 100% right about everything?  Who never listens to advice from people with more knowledge or experience, and who gets angry if any subordinate suggests that what they are saying or doing is a bad idea?

The most important thing beaten into our heads as Marine second lieutenants was to listen to our staff NCO's.  To do more listening than talking so that we wouldn't sound like jackasses.  Some followed that better than others.  The ones who didn't were the ones who made the most mistakes, and who lost the respect of their troops.

That's how I see Trump, except he started off with all the power of a general but none of the experience.  The guy so certain of his own genius that he refuses to take any advice even from the people he appointed.  The more experienced, competent, and respected the appointee, the more likely Trump will refuse to listen, and will get pissed when told something he doesn't want to hear.

Most lieutenants who make that same mistake learn, and are better captains than they were lieutenants.   Trump has actually gotten worse.

[corbe]

Pedro L. Gonzalez
@emeriticus
13h

The only reason I've been loath to be critical of the DeSantis campaign is that MAGA grifters seize on whatever straws they can grasp. But it's fair to say DeSantis *needs* to attack Trump more aggressively now. These clips are good. But it needs to come from him and more often. Trump needs to be completely discredited and exposed as a fraud no matter what.

Trump did not finish the wall. DeSantis needs to press that point. Chad Wolf was funding sanctuary cities under Trump's watch—the administration was moving toward *expanding* legal immigration and proposing amnesty right up until COVID hit. Trump used laid-off Disney tech workers as stage props and abandoned them after vowing to end the H-1B visa program that was used to replace them. But he didn't do that. DeSantis should track those workers down and have them talk about how Trump used them and failed them.

It took the Biden administration maybe a week to undo virtually all of Trump's immigration accomplishments because he was never actually serious about the issue. People in the White House told me they were shocked by how serious Biden's landing teams were, in contrast to how clownish the Trump administration had been. Trump got so little done on his signature issue that it seems like he was never president.

Trump is also remarkably vulnerable on his other signature issue: economic nationalism. Offshoring continued apace under Trump. He didn't stop it at all; data from the Labor Department indicates that it actually *accelerated* under Trump's watch. Which is why he did absurd things like blame the leadership of the United Auto Workers for factories that closed under his watch after he promised to bring manufacturing back. That's also the reason UAW leadership recently told him to get lost after he said he would try to use them as campaign props like he did Disney workers.

What few benefits the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act—Trump's gift to Paul Ryan—provided Middle Americans will begin to expire in 2025, but Trump ensured that the tax cuts for corporations are *permanent.*

The big companies his supporters view as promoting values inimical to their own? Trump guaranteed they would permanently benefit from his tax cuts—but not the average American.

Nobody talks about that. DeSantis should be drilling Trump on that. Why did he leave Middle America behind?

Similarly, DeSantis has a relationship with RFK Jr., and he knows, like RFK Jr. knows, that Trump sold out Americans to pharmaceutical companies. Pfizer was the largest health company donor to Trump's inauguration. Trump not only staffed his administration with their henchmen. He also gave them a windfall with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. To date, Trump's act has slashed the average tax rates of Big Pharma companies by more than 40 percent. There is almost no type of corporation more loathsome than these. Trump was their biggest boon and created incentives for them to keep their profits, investments, and jobs abroad.

That was a theme of the Trump administration: ignore Republicans/throw them crumbs while doing things that benefit their enemies. Right now, the most relevant example is that Trump's DOJ dropped a corruption case against Bob Menendez in 2018, then commuted the sentence of Menedez's biggest benefactor, a corrupt Democrat megadonor convicted of Medicare fraud, in his final hours as president. DeSantis should kill Trump on this.

DeSantis is the only person running who can show people who are willing to listen that Trump was not only a failure but a catastrophe for Republicans because he failed them while managing to convince them otherwise. All the money, energy, and resources that go to Trump are wasted on someone who systematically betrayed the people who elected him in 2016. The most important thing DeSantis can do is help people see.

[LMAO]

Pedro L. Gonzalez
@emeriticus
13h

Agree

Trump can’t hide from voters forever. He needs to be held accountable for his conduct while president.

I tend to be a little bit more lenient when it comes to how he handled Covid. But I see no indication that he’s found religion on that either. And he’s promising even more spending and more government.

MAGAs are like the socialist who think that an expanded, centralized government will work when they run it

[Maj. Bill Martin]

MAGAs are like the socialist who think that an expanded, centralized government will work when they run it

Agree completely.

They're also like Democrats in that they essentially believe in buying votes.   Whenever you talk about the need to cut spending, or address entitlements, etc, they'll accuse you of being stuck in the '80s, and not understanding there are more important things at stake - like winning elections.  In other words, spend as much money as you need to to keep the support of the working class.

I refuse to be a part of that by voting for MAGA candidates.

[DCPatriot]

MAGAs are like the socialist who think that an expanded, centralized government will work when they run it

And NTs are like little piss-pots who think by balancing the budget and cutting spending will win them elections every two years...with a tenacious unfriendly media and academia.

RIIIIGHT!  That's the ticket!

[Maj. Bill Martin]

And NTs are like little piss-pots who think by balancing the budget and cutting spending will win them elections every two years...with a tenacious unfriendly media and academia.

RIIIIGHT!  That's the ticket!

Damn - right on cue you just proved my point.  Thanks!

[LMAO]

And NTs are like little piss-pots who think by balancing the budget and cutting spending will win them elections every two years...with a tenacious unfriendly media and academia.

RIIIIGHT!  That's the ticket!

No

We know how difficult cunning spending is going to be. Every spending program has a constituency.

But unlike Trump, we don’t support making the fiscal situation worse

A centralized government has never worked. And it won’t work better just because Donald Trump is in charge of it.

And if what you’re saying was true, why are some of the most successful  and popular republican governors running surpluses in their states and winning elections and reelections despite hostile media?

[Idiot]

Pedro L. Gonzalez
@emeriticus
13h

If DeSantis is in a no win situation.  If he pisses off the Maga people, they'll never vote for him in the general election, kind of like some of us who won't vote for Trump in the general.  Bottom line is the infighting amongst the republicans assures a democrat victory.

[DCPatriot]

No

We know how difficult cunning spending is going to be. Every spending program has a constituency.

But unlike Trump, we don’t support making the fiscal situation worse

A centralized government has never worked. And it won’t work better just because Donald Trump is in charge of it.

And if what you’re saying was true, why are some of the most successful  and popular republican governors running surpluses in their states and winning elections and reelections despite hostile media?

Haven't gotten the message that President Trump is calling for a Centralized Government.

He deregulated the energy sector and he's a pure free-market capitalist.

[Bigun]

This little backwater is an almost perfect microcosm of the Republican party in general.

Blah! Blah! Blah! continually and nothing much ever accomplished. 

[Maj. Bill Martin]

Haven't gotten the message that President Trump is calling for a Centralized Government.

What do you call wanting to build 10 government-planned cities with all sorts of high-tech amenities.

[LMAO]

What do you call wanting to build 10 government-planned cities with all sorts of high-tech amenities.

And paying people to have babies.

The breeding money, and the MAGA cities will probably never happen. But it’s a reflection of what Donald Trump believes the role of the federal government is.

Or it could be simply him just throwing red meat to his base

After forcing taxpayers to bail out farmers harmed as a result of his policy, it’s probably a little bit of both. Bailouts are not free market capitalism, especially when those bail outs are done to cover up bad government policy

Trump may not be as left leaning when it comes to economic and fiscal policy as an AOC or Bernie. But, except on the energy issue, he’s closer to Biden.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Blah! Blah! Blah! continually and nothing much ever accomplished.[/size]

Kinda like Trump.

[Maj. Bill Martin]

This little backwater is an almost perfect microcosm of the Republican party in general.

Blah! Blah! Blah! continually and nothing much ever accomplished. 

It's a discussion forum.  Exactly what is there to be "accomplished"?

[DCPatriot]

This little backwater is an almost perfect microcosm of the Republican party in general.

Blah! Blah! Blah! continually and nothing much ever accomplished. 

@Bigun

  

It reminds me of a baseball team on which I was a member.

Todd Vogel.  There was no bigger a-hole in the league...he was the tough kid on the bike in "SANDLOT".  Everybody that had personal contact with him shuttered.  Showed up for practice late and left early.

But the SOB was hitting .750 after a dozen games.

Baseball being the "Game about Life", Todd taught me a valuable life lesson.

Thus, taking emotion out of it, there's nobody better to lead this country right now than Donald J. Trump.
 

[DefiantMassRINO]

We did successfully move from one hosting provider to another in August, 2021.

Keeping this site up and running is an accomplishment.

I'd love to bring the GOP back to sanity, but the Establishment would rather act like they are in high school.

[Maj. Bill Martin]

@Bigun

  

It reminds me of a baseball team on which I was a member.

Todd Vogel.  There was no bigger a-hole in the league...he was the tough kid on the bike in "SANDLOT".  Everybody that had personal contact with him shuttered.  Showed up for practice late and left early.

But the SOB was hitting .750 after a dozen games.

Baseball being the "Game about Life", Todd taught me a valuable life lesson.

Thus, taking emotion out of it, there's nobody better to lead this country right now than Donald J. Trump.

Trump is more like the mouthy kid who keeps grounding out to first.  After awhile, you figure out it is just empty noise.

[Bigun]

Kinda like Trump.

I'm 75 years old as of this coming Saturday and have been heavily involved in politics for more than 50 of those years. The first election I got to vote in was in 1968. Never voted anything but Republican in all those years except for 2016 when I could not bring myself to vote for Trump and went third party.  Trump, virtually single handedly, moved the ball further in my direction than any other in my lifetime and I would have crawled over a mile of broken glass to vote for him in 2020 when the election was flat out stolen from him. That was done because ALL the swamp critters knew that a second Trump term would rain hell fire down on their playground.

IF I cast my vote for Trump in the upcoming primary it will be because he damned well earned it!

[Bigun]

@Bigun

  

It reminds me of a baseball team on which I was a member.

Todd Vogel.  There was no bigger a-hole in the league...he was the tough kid on the bike in "SANDLOT".  Everybody that had personal contact with him shuttered.  Showed up for practice late and left early.

But the SOB was hitting .750 after a dozen games.

Baseball being the "Game about Life", Todd taught me a valuable life lesson.

Thus, taking emotion out of it, there's nobody better to lead this country right now than Donald J. Trump.

See my post below yours @DCPatriot