While eight R candidates got ready for last night’s, um, debate? Slangfest? Whine and cheesy anti-wokeness? Nine of the 19 indicted conspirators in Georgia have turned themselves in, and Trump is scheduled to do so today.
I hope none of you engaged in any drinking games during the 9 pm debate. You could really do yourself an injury that way. Or, if you did, you took the advice I have seen posted around here to limit yourself to one six-pack or one bottle of wine, and only drink to the FIRST instance of anything cringeworthy.
Live coverage: First Republican debate
One of the first things they did was run a clip on ooh, scary Bidenomics.
Joe Biden Brings Out His Creepy Whisper: "Guess What? [Bidenomics] Is Working!"
Well, then. If they are going to run ads for us rather than let the candidates speak bloviate, I have no worries about the rest.
- Ron DeSantis: America is in decline. Reverse Bidenomics.
- Chris Christie: We have to sell these ideas.
- Tim Scott: I voted against spending package after spending package. (But not the Trump tax cut, which he brags about supporting) He also lies about having low unemployment at the end of Trump’s term.
- Vivek Ramaswamy: Hand the keys of the car to a new generation. (Yes, the one that is two-thirds against Rs) Unlock American energy. Drill, frack, burn coal, and break nuclear. Go to war on the Federal administrative state. (and superPAC puppets)
- Nikki Haley: The $2 trillion covid bill is the problem. Republicans did this to us. Trump added $8 trillion to the debt. Our kids will never forgive us.
- Mike Pence: I am incredibly proud of the record of the Trump-Pence administration. (including 3 SCOTUS appointments for overturning Roe) Brags about attacking Social Security and Medicare.
- Doug Burgum: We’re spending too much on energy (gasoline) because of Biden policies (that actually lower energy costs) subsidizing Chinese battery makers. (four Pinocchios)
- Asa Hutchinson: I’m a pro-life governor. I cut taxes and “shrunk” the size of government.
Nearly all of this is Friedmanite Market Fundamentalism, as I am going to explain in one of my economics book Diaries next week. Except for the parts that are just racism and bigotry and such.
Questions to whole panel:
By a show of hands, if Trump is convicted but still becomes the nominee, which of you will support him in the general election?
Six said yes. Christie and Hutchinson said no, as expected.
Ramaswamy demanded that they all pledge to pardon Trump. Pence pointed out that that requires acceptance of guilt and contrition.
Polls consistently show that young people’s number one issue is Climate Change. How will you as both President of the United States and leader of the Republican Party calm their fears that the Republican Party doesn’t care about Climate Change?
Alexander Diaz, from Young America’s Foundation
Martha McCallum tried to ask for a show of hands on who believes that human behavior is causing Climate Change (aka Anthropogenic Global Warming). DeSantis barged in to bloviate about bias in corporate media, so there was no answer given to this challenge.
I’ve heard enough. The GQP lost this debate hands down. Abortion. Criminality. Climate and renewable energy. Social Security and Medicare. To Hell with Gen Z.
Conspirators Booked in Fulton County
- Ultra-crooked, disbarred lawyer Rudy Giuliani
- Legal fantasist Sidney Powell
- Coup plotter John Eastman
- Triple coup memo author Kenneth Chesebro
- Hapless lawyer but willing plotter Jenna Ellis
- GA Trump attorney Ray Smith jr.
- Former Coffee County party chair Cathleen Latham
- Fake elector and party official David Shafer
- Fake elector Scott Hall
Mug shots have been published, to much pointing and laughing.
That leaves nine more for today and Friday. Enjoy.
I’m passing over our usual sources of Good News, which I posted Tuesday in our Emergency Potluck GNR. Feel free to mine them yourselves. This is too good to pass up.
The Billboard Wars
Who says Democrats can’t message? I know, I know, the usual suspects. Well, we are learning that [Grokking Trumpists:] We are Not Helpless before These Losers, since we are no longer in the minority, while they put out some of the best ads going for us. I have collected a schadenfreudilicious selection for your edification and amusement today, and I expect you can find more.
Schadenfreude Götterfunken
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken
Himmliche dein Heiligtum.
Ours
These went up outside the Republican debate venue.
Aw, atheists hurt Christianist fee-fees. It just says
Keep God out of our public schools.
which has been the law since Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962).
Theirs
These are wonderful ads for activating more of our voters.
Dumb is code for “Woke Soshulist” in current R-speak.
Democrats don’t have to put up billboards on this. Every gas station in the country is doing the job for us.
Also
International News Notes
Both the Russian and Chinese economies are reported to be imploding through militaristic mismanagement.
Turmoil in China -- a Greater Threat to World Order Than Trump?
Argues that the military installed Xi, who turfed out everybody involved in Deng’s earlier economic reforms, so that nobody has the slightest idea what they are doing, and it’s all falling down now.
The BBC has reported that Wagner Group owner Prigozhin likely died in a plane crash in Russia. Or did he? Conspiracy theories abound.
Ukraine will get dozens of F-16 fighter jets. Numbers and timetable are uncertain, but some information is emerging.
Africa is preparing for a possible war on the coup plotters in Niger.
Niger, the military junta: "Two countries are preparing to attack". Mali and Burkina Faso express solidarity with the coup plotters
Science! Animals! Weirdness!
From the Very Large Telescope in Chile:
Nudibranchs are molluscs that lose their shells when they mature.
Funny or Fuggedaboudit
Support your local cartoonists and the striking writers and actors.