I agree, Matt. Orange Julius Trump will be taken out by Marcus Brutus DeSantis. Not in the Senate, but probably in Iowa or New Hampshire near the Ides of January.
First, thanks for taking all those slings, arrows and “balls” comments. If they are busy with you, they leave us alone.
Second, No Roll, just SLACK, TIDE. Just the Imperative Mood, encouraging the TIDE to SLACK.
Third, for colors I was thinking we could appropriate the TIDE Detergent Logo and go with Red and Yellow with Blue letters.
Finally, DeSantis he has a track record as a Governor and a Congressman. Trump was a Real Estate developer and a Reality TV Show Host. DeSantis graduated from Yale and Harvard Law. He served six years in the Navy and was the Legal Advisor to Seal Team One before being deployed to Iraq. He is 44. Trump is 76. The Tide is Turning, not Slacking.
Peggy Noonan in today’s Wall Street Journal:
“Mr. Trump is already essentially trying to blackmail the governor—“I know more about him than anybody other than perhaps his wife.” Mr. DeSantis has wisely refrained from responding.
He should continue holding his fire, not try to laugh it off or respond in kind. He should concentrate on governing and reaching out. If he decides to run, at that point he should answer—in a cool and deadly way, not a personal way. A way that acknowledges Mr. Trump was a breakthrough figure, changed the party in some healthy ways, but got lost in obsessions and bitterness, in petty feuds—in an All About Me-ness that came at the expense of policy and party. All About Me is a losing game, because politics is all about us.”
Gov. DeSantis can hire one of The Flying Wendellas as a campaign advisor.
Perhaps the outcome of this election will finally show all those Trump supporters/apologists and especially his ever-obedient, sycophant, lieutenant politicians, that hitching your wagon to the endless Trump lunacy is a high-speed ticket to loserville! And, while we're dreaming, perhaps that same block of unhinged Trump supporting voters/politicians will also realize that the conservative voter and our pipe-dream ideology of small government and fiscal constraint will never be served unless and until a thoughtful, intelligent, articulate, pragmatic, non-narcissus, non-conspiracy theory Conservative party leader emerges to lead the way. Alas, those few who would likely be best for such an assignment are understandably not interested in such masochist pursuits.
Matt, I like yelling “SLACK, TIDE” like the Alabama cheer as I read your substack. What are our team colors?
I think Trump is a looser, a political looser in 2020, a popular vote looser in 2016 and now as a political anointer. His anointment gives off a smell. I agree he is 30% +10% of the GOP and now the 10% is gone and some of the 30% will quietly drift away. Until we GOP folks get that Trump smell off of us, we will struggle. He won’t go away, so I do think DeSantis will have to “slay” him in the 2024 primaries. By that I mean defeat him strongly and clearly in the primaries. I think DeSantis will do the “rope-a-dope” like Ali in Manila until the primaries. Trump will end up acting like Andy Griffith in the final scene of “A Face in the Crowd.”
I won't defend his personal actions, like forsaking his wife who had cancer. His *legislative* achievements were, by my measure, beneficial to the country.
He wasn't alone. Remember Wilbur Mills, Chmn of House Ways and Means? I think he and Fannie Fox somehow were in a fountain in D C together. Actually, he was a reasonably good steward of the taxpayers' money.
I care about their performance in office. That is why the Orange Buffoon falls short. He did some good things, but his personal shortcomings (!) way overwhelmed most of the good things his leadership actually did.
“bullet-headed-seditionist-dildo“. That’s the best description of Mastriano I’ve heard all election season. I’m from PA & can’t understand his campaign strategy. Did he really think God was going to deliver the victory to him? Securing the nomination & not campaigning beyond that seems like a disservice to the people who nominated him in the first place.
Trump has a floor of about 30% of the GOP and -- at best -- had a ceiling of around 40% of the GOP. That's why people still care about him. He leads a cult of personality and that makes him kind of a kingmaker still. If someone told me in 2016 that I'd be voting straight Democrat tickets in 2022 I would've laughed. But here we are.
Nice take on Keri Fake by Cecily Strong. Thanks, Matt.
Almost has me wishing I could vote for her. Ms. Strong, not Ms. Flake. (Sorry, Jeff. Havin' a little trouble with names today. No offense toward Cheryl intended. But I'm sure the good folks out there in Western Florida know the difference.)
A pessimist is never disappointed I guess, but before you draw too many conclusions from those head-to-head polls on Trump vs DeSantis, I’d wait for some post-election polling. Meanwhile, a more sober view of DeSantis’s thumping of Crist is in order. Trump wouldn’t have won without Hillary, and I think at least some of DeSanti’s 19 point margin has to be owed to Crist.
Gotta agree with you Matt. Actually, happy to agree with you. Politics is the best grift that Trump ever found. Even better than getting paid to pretend to be an astute businessman on TV. He gives voice to America's id, or at least American rednecks' id, and people throw money at him just for his asking.
Even if you detest Trump you have to admit that the man can read a crowd and entertain it. DeSantis on the other hand is about as entertaining as toenail fungus and not not nearly as lovable. He'll stay away if Trump runs because he'd be competing for Trump's voters and Trump will ridicule him mercilessly. That, of course, would tarnish his image among the core group that keeps him in Tallahassee. And he might be smart enough to figure out that if Trump can't win a national election with Trump voters then DeSantis ain't going to win it with them either and he has done nothing to expand his appeal beyond people who wear drool cups and MAGGOT caps. Better to be a big fish in a small swamp than Ron Who?
So, Matt-a-palooza. My 23 year old daughter asked me how I felt about the election results and if we should prepare to take the Oregon trail to another country splashing in the Democracy kiddy pool.
I asked her for a couple of days to suss it out before we broke bread over the topic.
Here's the pile of turds I'm currently sitting on. I'm over the shock of the actual number or reptile brained, human like meat sacks, that a Republic based on Democratic principles, allows to punch a chit, color in a dot, or scratch an itch. I know the sane out number the insane and the, "I don't give two sh!ts about my responsibilities as a citizen of Democracy, so I don't vote - unless it's at the end of the Wendy's drive through."
However, I'm still wondering if the Power-Over, Hungry Puppet Masters have rigged the slots. Michigan proved that if you don't partisan Gerrymander the majority voice can be heard & $56 Million (most of it dark money) to buy a Senate seat and you can still loose? Damn Bro! I want to live in a Democracy and I was hoping these midterms would show me if that was on this slab-O-oil-covering turf we call the U. S. of A.
Matt, did I just buy the Democrats messaging that this election was about keeping Democracy alive or am I right, Democracy is still on the ropes?
Can't be bothered with Trump and the election analysis, sorry. That was already two days ago.
Instead I read your Fall Guy essay, thinking, "What is Matt going to say about that insufferable douche, Thoreau? Can't wait to join in the corpse-kicking."
See, I read "On Golden Pond" or "A Walk in the Woods," or whatever the eff Thoreau called his fake fan-fiction travelogue, and hated it. I was reminded of that unpleasant episode a few weeks ago when my 17-year-old (the gimlet-eyed realist who announced he was an atheist at 14 because he had read all the arguments and they were "flimsy at best, if not downright absurd") came home from school complaining about Walden and how crappy it was. "The guy is a rich hypocrite who's pretending to camp, but sneaks home whenever he needs to. Plus, he contradicts himself in the space of a single paragraph. The rest is pablum." (The 17-year-old has always had a great vocabulary.) I told him I wholeheartedly agreed, but maybe it would be wise to fake it for the grade? "What, and be like Thoreau?" (His path in life will be different than mine, but it will be honest.)
But your essay didn't go there. And the parts you quoted from Thoreau's elegiac essay were beautiful and kind of how I think about the world ("when men, with their boasted faith in immortality, will lie down as gracefully and as ripe, – with such an Indian-summer serenity will shed their bodies, as they do their hair and nails."). Plus, I miss the New England fall.
So I'll read Autumnal Tints when I get a chance. Even if Thoreau is an insufferable douche.
I agree, Matt. Orange Julius Trump will be taken out by Marcus Brutus DeSantis. Not in the Senate, but probably in Iowa or New Hampshire near the Ides of January.
“But Trump is not Charlie Crist – and he is still beating DeSantis by 30 points in 2024 primary polls.”
Update: Latest YouGov poll has DeSantis over Trump, 42-35
Matt,
First, thanks for taking all those slings, arrows and “balls” comments. If they are busy with you, they leave us alone.
Second, No Roll, just SLACK, TIDE. Just the Imperative Mood, encouraging the TIDE to SLACK.
Third, for colors I was thinking we could appropriate the TIDE Detergent Logo and go with Red and Yellow with Blue letters.
Finally, DeSantis he has a track record as a Governor and a Congressman. Trump was a Real Estate developer and a Reality TV Show Host. DeSantis graduated from Yale and Harvard Law. He served six years in the Navy and was the Legal Advisor to Seal Team One before being deployed to Iraq. He is 44. Trump is 76. The Tide is Turning, not Slacking.
Peggy Noonan in today’s Wall Street Journal:
“Mr. Trump is already essentially trying to blackmail the governor—“I know more about him than anybody other than perhaps his wife.” Mr. DeSantis has wisely refrained from responding.
He should continue holding his fire, not try to laugh it off or respond in kind. He should concentrate on governing and reaching out. If he decides to run, at that point he should answer—in a cool and deadly way, not a personal way. A way that acknowledges Mr. Trump was a breakthrough figure, changed the party in some healthy ways, but got lost in obsessions and bitterness, in petty feuds—in an All About Me-ness that came at the expense of policy and party. All About Me is a losing game, because politics is all about us.”
Gov. DeSantis can hire one of The Flying Wendellas as a campaign advisor.
Love your style and appreciate your talent,
Bob Kellam
Perhaps the outcome of this election will finally show all those Trump supporters/apologists and especially his ever-obedient, sycophant, lieutenant politicians, that hitching your wagon to the endless Trump lunacy is a high-speed ticket to loserville! And, while we're dreaming, perhaps that same block of unhinged Trump supporting voters/politicians will also realize that the conservative voter and our pipe-dream ideology of small government and fiscal constraint will never be served unless and until a thoughtful, intelligent, articulate, pragmatic, non-narcissus, non-conspiracy theory Conservative party leader emerges to lead the way. Alas, those few who would likely be best for such an assignment are understandably not interested in such masochist pursuits.
Matt, I like yelling “SLACK, TIDE” like the Alabama cheer as I read your substack. What are our team colors?
I think Trump is a looser, a political looser in 2020, a popular vote looser in 2016 and now as a political anointer. His anointment gives off a smell. I agree he is 30% +10% of the GOP and now the 10% is gone and some of the 30% will quietly drift away. Until we GOP folks get that Trump smell off of us, we will struggle. He won’t go away, so I do think DeSantis will have to “slay” him in the 2024 primaries. By that I mean defeat him strongly and clearly in the primaries. I think DeSantis will do the “rope-a-dope” like Ali in Manila until the primaries. Trump will end up acting like Andy Griffith in the final scene of “A Face in the Crowd.”
A Chicago Golfer,
Bob Kellam
I won't defend his personal actions, like forsaking his wife who had cancer. His *legislative* achievements were, by my measure, beneficial to the country.
He wasn't alone. Remember Wilbur Mills, Chmn of House Ways and Means? I think he and Fannie Fox somehow were in a fountain in D C together. Actually, he was a reasonably good steward of the taxpayers' money.
I care about their performance in office. That is why the Orange Buffoon falls short. He did some good things, but his personal shortcomings (!) way overwhelmed most of the good things his leadership actually did.
“bullet-headed-seditionist-dildo“. That’s the best description of Mastriano I’ve heard all election season. I’m from PA & can’t understand his campaign strategy. Did he really think God was going to deliver the victory to him? Securing the nomination & not campaigning beyond that seems like a disservice to the people who nominated him in the first place.
DeSantis is more dangerous than Trump, because he has a brain & vocabulary greater than 300 words.
A fascist with two Ivy League degrees is still a fascist.
Trump has a floor of about 30% of the GOP and -- at best -- had a ceiling of around 40% of the GOP. That's why people still care about him. He leads a cult of personality and that makes him kind of a kingmaker still. If someone told me in 2016 that I'd be voting straight Democrat tickets in 2022 I would've laughed. But here we are.
Nice take on Keri Fake by Cecily Strong. Thanks, Matt.
Almost has me wishing I could vote for her. Ms. Strong, not Ms. Flake. (Sorry, Jeff. Havin' a little trouble with names today. No offense toward Cheryl intended. But I'm sure the good folks out there in Western Florida know the difference.)
Unfortunately, common sense is in short supply in the House. Trump the Gump has turned both parties into raisin-brains.
I miss Newt.
A pessimist is never disappointed I guess, but before you draw too many conclusions from those head-to-head polls on Trump vs DeSantis, I’d wait for some post-election polling. Meanwhile, a more sober view of DeSantis’s thumping of Crist is in order. Trump wouldn’t have won without Hillary, and I think at least some of DeSanti’s 19 point margin has to be owed to Crist.
Gotta agree with you Matt. Actually, happy to agree with you. Politics is the best grift that Trump ever found. Even better than getting paid to pretend to be an astute businessman on TV. He gives voice to America's id, or at least American rednecks' id, and people throw money at him just for his asking.
Even if you detest Trump you have to admit that the man can read a crowd and entertain it. DeSantis on the other hand is about as entertaining as toenail fungus and not not nearly as lovable. He'll stay away if Trump runs because he'd be competing for Trump's voters and Trump will ridicule him mercilessly. That, of course, would tarnish his image among the core group that keeps him in Tallahassee. And he might be smart enough to figure out that if Trump can't win a national election with Trump voters then DeSantis ain't going to win it with them either and he has done nothing to expand his appeal beyond people who wear drool cups and MAGGOT caps. Better to be a big fish in a small swamp than Ron Who?
So, Matt-a-palooza. My 23 year old daughter asked me how I felt about the election results and if we should prepare to take the Oregon trail to another country splashing in the Democracy kiddy pool.
I asked her for a couple of days to suss it out before we broke bread over the topic.
Here's the pile of turds I'm currently sitting on. I'm over the shock of the actual number or reptile brained, human like meat sacks, that a Republic based on Democratic principles, allows to punch a chit, color in a dot, or scratch an itch. I know the sane out number the insane and the, "I don't give two sh!ts about my responsibilities as a citizen of Democracy, so I don't vote - unless it's at the end of the Wendy's drive through."
However, I'm still wondering if the Power-Over, Hungry Puppet Masters have rigged the slots. Michigan proved that if you don't partisan Gerrymander the majority voice can be heard & $56 Million (most of it dark money) to buy a Senate seat and you can still loose? Damn Bro! I want to live in a Democracy and I was hoping these midterms would show me if that was on this slab-O-oil-covering turf we call the U. S. of A.
Matt, did I just buy the Democrats messaging that this election was about keeping Democracy alive or am I right, Democracy is still on the ropes?
Can't be bothered with Trump and the election analysis, sorry. That was already two days ago.
Instead I read your Fall Guy essay, thinking, "What is Matt going to say about that insufferable douche, Thoreau? Can't wait to join in the corpse-kicking."
See, I read "On Golden Pond" or "A Walk in the Woods," or whatever the eff Thoreau called his fake fan-fiction travelogue, and hated it. I was reminded of that unpleasant episode a few weeks ago when my 17-year-old (the gimlet-eyed realist who announced he was an atheist at 14 because he had read all the arguments and they were "flimsy at best, if not downright absurd") came home from school complaining about Walden and how crappy it was. "The guy is a rich hypocrite who's pretending to camp, but sneaks home whenever he needs to. Plus, he contradicts himself in the space of a single paragraph. The rest is pablum." (The 17-year-old has always had a great vocabulary.) I told him I wholeheartedly agreed, but maybe it would be wise to fake it for the grade? "What, and be like Thoreau?" (His path in life will be different than mine, but it will be honest.)
But your essay didn't go there. And the parts you quoted from Thoreau's elegiac essay were beautiful and kind of how I think about the world ("when men, with their boasted faith in immortality, will lie down as gracefully and as ripe, – with such an Indian-summer serenity will shed their bodies, as they do their hair and nails."). Plus, I miss the New England fall.
So I'll read Autumnal Tints when I get a chance. Even if Thoreau is an insufferable douche.
I think a more appropriate track here would be Depeche Mode’s “Master and Servant”.