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Ron DeSantis

Abbott, DeSantis, Johnson, and Scott: The Race to the Bottom

August 24, 2021
by Peter Feinman
The Race for the 2024 Republican Presidential Nomination Heats Up

The race is on. It seems like every day another contestant in the race to the bottom is making some outlandish claim. One day it is the Covid Governor of Texas. Another day it is the Covid Governor of Florida. Then it is the former governor of Florida and current Senator who thinks New York is not part of America. Meanwhile the will-he-or-won’t-he run Senator from Wisconsin has become the comic gift that gives continuously. What is going on?

THE 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Even as the fight over the 2020 election continues to energize the Trumpican Party, the jockeying for position for the 2024 nomination is underway. While it might seem a tad early to be engaged in this competition, smarter people than me evidently have decided that it is never to soon. We are witnessing the pre-starting gate maneuvers of racing yachts angling for the best position for when the race officially begins in 2023.

Each contestant constantly surveys the field to see what the others a doing. If someone in Florida has an early lead in some polls, then someone in Texas must rush to build a wall to counter that popularity. Everybody knows how popular the slogan of build a wall is to Trumpicans. And if you can wrangle some donations/contributions out of it, so much the better.

Let’s not forget the 25th! It seems like only yesterday when people seriously considered invoking the 25th Amendment to remove the immature simpleminded in-over-his-head-person from the position of President. Think of how many more Americans would be alive today if that effort had any traction and was more than wishful thinking. Since Pillow Head’s cyber symposium was a nothingburger and the Cyber Ninjas remain a now-Covid joke who do not know when to leave the stage, perhaps the 25th Amendment will succeed where all other efforts to “Stop the Steal” have failed. Not likely. The obvious counter is, “So Trumpicans want Kamala Harris to be President.” Obviously that is not true. It demonstrates that the ploy is a stunt to get airtime on Foxhub and to have some fun.

How else to make sense in the perpetual nonsense from Wisconsin. It serves no purpose there. Joe Biden won the state and the governor is a Democrat. Being a laughingstock does not help in a re-election campaign. Senate is a state election and not a gerrymandered one. The national grandstanding serves no constructive purpose in a Wisconsin state election. Plus if he loses a re-election campaign, then it is the end of the political line for him. So he must be thinking about 2024, too.

These alpha males are not stupid people; they just act like ones for Foxhub. Seriously, they do know what they are doing. Their stars are aligned for 2024. Their moment will have passed by 2028. It is now or never if they want to be elected President. They have made calculated decisions that to win the nomination requires them to win the race to the bottom. They are all in right now.

THE 2024 VICE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

So far, the smarter play is for the vice-presidential slot in 2024. A female candidate opposite the Democratic one provides a better opportunity to regain the white suburban Republican women who preferred Biden to a “Cuomo.” The Vice-Presidential position in 2024 with a presidential slot in 2028 offers a reasonable path to becoming the historic first female President of the United States. There is no upside to going out on limb now to wrest the presidential nomination in 2024 when that position already is taken.

In the meantime Kristi Noem is having some fun at the expense of Ron DeSantis and Gregg Abbott.

“Now, I’m not picking fights with Republican governors. All I’m saying is that we need leaders with grit. That their first instinct is the right instinct.”

Gosh, I wonder what she means when she mocks these would-be alpha males for not having “grit.”

However, one action of the South Dakota Governor is puzzling. She concluded one of her Trumpican-style rallies with a song. Not a pre-recorded standard at such a rally, but a song she actually sung. Strangely the song was the Battle Hymn of the Republic. The song is a stirring anthem much beloved by Abraham Lincoln during America’s second civil war. It was memorably sung in 1963 by Judy Garland in honor of the recently-assassinated John Fitzgerald Kennedy. While it is quite possible that South Dakotans fought on the Union side, that is a strange position to showcase in a party that prefers Lee to Lincoln.

2024 NOW

These maneuverings for 2024 overlook the stark political reality. There are two problems with the energetic effort to win the race to the Trumpican bottom. The gusto of Abbot, DeSantis, Johnson, and Scott is misplaced. The bottom already is occupied. Secondly, there is no opening in 2024, that is a wishful thinking, a mirage. The occupier of the bottom has his course laid out. He is pursuing the three V’s: Victimization leading to victory leading to vengeance.

Strangely enough, the main Trumpican threat comes from the Trumpicans themselves. A long time ago on August 2, I wrote that

Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump are not leaders. They are channellers. They feel your pain to exploit their gain. They do not cause your grievance but they are skilled enough to sense its existence. Then they can amplify it, use it, profit from it. However, they do not cause the grievance or pain in the first place.

One might think that the former President would be campaigning full-stop to have his followers be vaccinated. After all, he sometimes like to take credit for the development of the vaccines under his Warp Speed program. Sometimes the vaccine even is called the Trump vaccine so as not to give Biden any credit. And he was vaccinated himself. So why hasn’t he been championing the use of the vaccine? Do Tucker/Trump Oppose the Socialist Chlorination of Water?

Lo and behold, look what then happened a few days later in Alabama. He called on his followers to be vaccinated, they booed him, and he retreated as Hannity had after he called on his viewers to be vaccinated. One wonders after this brief foray into leadership, if he will ever try that again.

The question then is “Who is driving the Trumpican train?” He is not the leader. He is not steering the people. They are telling him where they want to go and he amplifies it. That has been the pattern from when he switched from being a fake Democrat and Clinton supporter to being a fake Republican.

Think of what his favorite candidate for the Senate in Alabama has said.

Although this terrorist’s motivation is not yet publicly known, and generally speaking, I understand citizenry anger directed at dictatorial Socialism and its threat to liberty, freedom and the very fabric of society. The way to stop Socialism’s march is for patriotic Americans to fight back in the 2022 and 2024 elections. (Mo Brooks on a recent Washington terrorist event)

Trump does not control the crazies, the crazies control him. Where they go all, he goes one right behind them. The Marjorie Taylor Airheads, the right-wing radio talk show hosts, the lone wolf insurrectionists/terrorists, and the “No mask, No Vaccine, No Slavery” people drive the conversation. The challenge for Donald Trump will be to keep up with how extreme and combative his followers have and will become. If he fails to follow them, then they will dump him for someone else. It’s Looney Tunes time.

 

Florida Covid Governor Bans Halloween Masks as Child Abuse

August 10, 2021
by Peter Feinman
No Vaccination Now. No Vaccination Tomorrow. No Vaccination Ever! (Courtesy of The University of Alabama)

In a stunning move, the Florida Covid Governor threw his hat into the ring as a candidate for president in 2024 on the Republican line. He did so with his heroic channeling of another southern governor by blocking his state from a federal invasion. His words update those of the 1968 presidential candidate:

If you are coming after the rights in Florida, I am standing in your way.

And I can tell you: Florida, we’re a free state. People are going to be free to choose to make their own decisions.

Times have changed. This time the southern governor defying the federal government will not have to run as an independent. Instead he can run as a Republican.

END SOCIALIST SLAVERY

The Florida Covid Governor is campaigning on the standard southern message of ending slavery. He has identified multiple ways in which the socialist slave government deprives individuals of their freedom of choice. And if there is one thing that southern Republicans champion above all else including their right to be packing any weapon anywhere, then it is freedom of choice for each and every individual. The idea of the government making the choice for you is abhorrent. Florida Covid intends to leverage the freedom of choice mantra right straight to the White House in the 2024 election.

The following items have been, are being, or should be removed from the mandatory compulsion list by the government. Henceforth, they are to be considered optional at the discretion of adult individuals who are free to make their own decisions.

Covid masks
Catcher masks
Goalie masks
Football helmets
Surgeon masks
Motorcycle helmets.

People are free to wear such items if they so choose but are under no obligation to do so. The socialist slave state does not rule in Florida.

Other items where freedom to choose trumps all other considerations include:

Seat belts in cars
Child torture contraptions in car backseats which could be considered child abuse
Seat belts in planes over Florida air space
Obtaining a driver’s license
Having automobile insurance
Having automobile inspections
Obeying stop signs, traffic lights, or any other traffic sign
Obeying speed limits
Obeying speed limits by schools
Obeying school bus signs to stop
No drinking and driving
No texting and driving
No left turn on red
No driving through red lights.

As one can see, many of the infringements on our right to be free relate to driving.  People should be free to drive wherever they want at whatever speed they want based on any rules and regulations they want without consideration for anyone else.

Again as a reminder, Florida Covid Governor is not saying that you do not have the freedom to obey these rules and regulations. He simply is saying you have the right not to follow the rules imposed by a socialist slave state. Informed adults can make intelligent decisions about what rules to obey and which ones to ignore. And even if the decision is not an intelligent one, it still is up to each individual to make that decision and not for a socialist slave to make it for you for the supposed “common good.” The “common good” is for free individual choice. The Florida Covid Governor will be asking people to take the pledge to say “No to Socialist Slavery.”

A complete list of removal of socialist slavery rules and actions is not available at this time.  Other actions contemplated at this point are

Elimination the chlorination of water
Elimination of the fluoridation of water
Elimination of the certificate of occupancy.

And where Florida Covid Governor goes, Texas Covid Governor goes too.

JEB BUSH VERSUS RON DEGENERATE

 Times have changed. It is not that long ago when people expected another Clinton-Bush presidential showdown. Think of how different the world would be today if low-energy Bush with his Mexican-American wife had been the standard bearer for the Republican Party. Their son would not have sold his soul and for nothing for one thing.

For another, House frat-boy Matt Gaetz would still be a Bush loyalist. His has no values beyond playing the game of power. In a sense he is like the proverbial canary in the mine. He recognized that Bush was going nowhere and switched to the winning side. Now that he faces his own legal trouble, he aligned with the popular Marjorie Taylor-Airhead (MTA). He knows that MTA has a national audience whom she can rally to his cause in the event he needs help against the justice system.

Florida today is not the Florida of only a few years ago. Times have changed. Instead of a governor leading the charge for vaccination, the Covid Governor is an obstacle to safety.

CAMPAIGN STRATEGY 

 Florda Covid Governor is not a stupid person. He is not a simpleminded immature person with the emotional maturity of a three-year old. He fully recognizes that Trumpicans are the key to his political success at the national level. He knows that Woke Democrats will continue to alienate white people and there is little Joe Biden can do to stop them. He knows that Trumpicans prefer image to substance and have limited reasoning skills. One only has to observe MTA’s performance in Alabama or Pillow Head’s analysis of how the election was stolen to know that there is no limit to what Trumpicans will believe in support of their view of the real world and to oppose Woke Socialism. For the Covid Governor being denounced on CNN pales in importance before being praised on Foxhub.

One should note that Florida Covid is aiming for 2024 and not 2028. No matter what, he will not be the vice-presidential candidate in 2024.  Whoever is that vice-presidential candidate in 2024 will have the inside track to the presidential candidacy in 2028. This analysis is based on the presumption that Republicans will not take back their party no matter what happens in the 2022 and 2024 elections. America’s third civil war will only intensify. Trumpicans will be seeking a candidate who defies and challenges the Woke socialist state.

To be the candidate in 2024, Florida Covid needs to be able to push his former mentor aside. He needs the January 6 Committee and the Department of Justice to bring criminal charges of sedition against all those who participated in the attempt to steal the election and overthrow constitutional government in the United States. Only then can Florida Covid step into the opening created in the Trumpican Party with the decapitation of its criminal layer. Only then can he push the criminals aside and stand tall as the true practitioner of Trumpism without the legal baggage. Only then can he be the candidate of revenge.

Florida Covid is fighting the good fight with a goal in mind. If people die as result, then that is the price he is willing to have them pay. They are collateral damage on his hopeful path to the presidency in 2024.

The Three Taxeteers: Al Capone, Leona Helmsley, and Donald Trump

July 8, 2021
by Peter Feinman

This image of Al Capone, Leona Helmsley, and Donald Trump comes from a blog dated October 2, 2016. While I would love to take credit for it, the author was Jordan Zoot. At that time he wrote:

Helmsley….perhaps the most notorious and self righteous criminal tax evader in the history of the United States. I will never forget her quote “We don’t pay taxes, only little people pay taxes” which rightfully caused her to get “hung by her own tongue” and sent to prison….which is more likely than not the proper answer for Donald Trump.

As a CPA with thirty five years of involvement with our tax system, the disclosures in the New York Times make me want to throw up. I would absolutely no [sic] respect of anyone that would actually vote for this mentally defective, vile animal to be POTUS. Why would we elect a person that is truly a hater of our government and way of life.

Donald Trump joins Leona Helmsley and Al Capone on the list of the WORST CRIMINAL TAX CHEATS IN US HISTORY

Jordan Zoot was ahead of his time.

We know that once upon a time, Helmsley’s real estate rival, Donald Trump, castigated her in his usual delicate manner as scum of the earth and rejoiced in her conviction. His comments about her undoubtedly will be played at the upcoming trial(s) where he and others will be charged with doing the same.

Those trials and his legal shenanigans are sure to provide continuous humor and outrage for months if not years to come. He is firm believer that when you are in a hole, keep digging.

THROWN UNDER THE BUS

Michael Cohen, the attorney who did not take a bullet for the client he still calls “Mr. Trump,” has been consistent on this point. The accused always looks out for himself first, foremost, and only and he will throw everyone else under the bus. Apparently, Cohen has seen a mighty long bus in his career serving Person #1.

Recently, we have seen another lawyer of the unindicted conspirator thrown under the bus. Rudy Giuliani has received the “treatment” and not the money he needs. He has mounting legal expenses and minimal income. Naturally he turned to the person he served for assistance and naturally he was rebuffed.

His actions on behalf of his client have rendered him a permanent laughingstock on path to being disbarred. In exchange for making the most ridiculous claims in court he has received nothing. Obviously his client has complete confidence that he can stiff Giuliani and suffer no consequences.

The former hero of 9/11 claimed during the Ukrainian extortion attempt that in the end he would be the hero. So far it has not worked out that way. Instead he is alone, losing his money, his law license, and his freedom. As it turns out he does have the opportunity to be the hero. He could do what Michael Cohen did – tell the truth.

The same choices are or will face other people involved in the audacious 15-year tax fraud. The CFO, the children, and the CEO all will have moments of truth. No one can say for sure what these people will do when that time comes. Actually we can say. The CEO already has said that everyone (including Capone and Helmsley) does it. Yes, the actions the Trump Organization are accused of did happen, but so what? Only fools pay taxes and serve in the military. What are you going to do about it? I am sure that Weisselberg is comforted by the fact that his Hitler-admiring boss just threw him under the bus. It’s almost as if Trump is working for the prosecution.

SUING SOCIAL MEDIA

One can only hope and pray that the stunt of suing social media companies proceeds through the legal system. Over the past few years, the most corrupt President in the history of the United States has done everything he can to avoid testifying under oath. He is not capable of telling the truth except by accident. Therefore his own lawyers wisely attempt to prevent him from entering a perjury trap.

That approach works well when you are a defendant but not so well when you are the one who initiates the prosecution. Then the process of discovery occurs. Since he was removed from social media for his actions instigating the assault on America on January 6, guess what evidence the defendants are going to request? Everything that Congressional Trumpicans have sought to squash and keep hidden from being investigated by Congress now will become fair game if the lawsuit is allowed to proceed. Most likely it was just a stunt that was not thought through. But such stunts can take on a life of their own.

IDES OF MARCH

In a previous blog, I suggested that the Howard Baker moment from Watergate would be an “Et tu Brute” moment instead. Everyone knows who Brutus will be. For that moment to occur, Ron DeSantis has to win re-election for governor in Florida. To be elected, DeSantis required the assistance of the then-President. To be re-elected, he does not. After the 2022 election he will be in the driver’s seat.

The exact details of the transition depend in part on the election results elsewhere. If Democrats retain control of the Senate that in itself will not be a game changer. If Democrats retain control of the House despite voter suppression, rigging the certification process, gerrymandering, Congressional reapportionment of House seats, and the traditional out-of-power party pickup in the first mid-term election, then there will be hell to pay. At that point, the Loser will be the one thrown under the bus.

A lot will happen between now and the 2022 elections. There will be more lawsuits. Investigations will continue. The economy will continue to get better. The unvaccinated red-states will continue to experience coronavirus variants. Many of his followers admire him precisely as a potential American Hitler who will execute all those Jewish Satan-worshiping pedophile globalists when he is returned to power, jurors may not. Then he may get to join Capone and Helmsley not under the bus but up the river and in the slammer.