Florida Governor Ron DeSantis threw his hat into the GOP presidential ring yesterday, but the hat had ideas of its own.
Not since then-candidate Jeb! Bush asked a New Hampshire audience to clap at the end of an impassioned speech has a campaign event flopped so clearly. Were it not for the writer’s strike, I am certain this debacle would have been Saturday Night Live’s opening sketch.
His hook up with Twitter’s Elon Mush (the “h” started life as a typo, I kept it for a giggle) was supposed to be an end run around the “woke” media. It ended up being a technical disaster as the live feed crashed browsers on Apple products, had audio drifting in and out of the “conversation,” and was eventually restarted at another user’s handle.
The half of the audience eventually viewing the announcement saw a wooden rehash of the Governor’s greatest hits, a mere hint about the Trumpian elephant in the room, and a man not smart enough to realize the potential for disaster in a campaign event he didn’t think needed controlling.
DeSantis shared the stage with Elon Musk and venture capitalist David Sacks (See: bailout of Silicon Valley Bank) in front of an audience of a few hundred people. The “questions” were a mélange of praise for Musk and unchallenging right-handed softballs for the Governor.
Here’s CNN’s Oliver Darcy:
Regardless, by then it didn't matter. The event had been savaged by commentators from across the ideological spectrum. DeSantis' announcement had become the worst thing a presidential announcement can become: a joke.
The trio claimed that they had effectively "broken the internet" because of mass interest in the event, but in reality that was not the case. The audience that assembled was not even close to epic proportions. At its peak, some six-hundred thousand listeners were awaiting DeSantis' remarks during the initial Twitter Spaces event, which is a run-of-the-mill cable news audience that figures such as DeSantis and Musk would normally mock as being tiny.
Here’s Kurt Bardella in the Los Angeles Times:
DeSantis regurgitated the laundry list of imaginary grievances that have become the hallmark of today’s Republican Party and while the GOP primary electorate might agree with every word he said, the reality is it is already getting that act from Trump. DeSantis just comes off as a cheap knockoff. The fact that DeSantis didn’t even directly take on his chief rival in his prepared remarks speaks volumes. Clearly, he doesn’t believe he can actually land a glove on Donald. It begs the question, how in the world could he possibly expect to beat him in a primary?
The Biden campaign took to social media to jab at the technical failures as they were in progress
Former president Donald J Trump didn’t disappoint with his brutal response as described at Huffpo:
And he shared a weird video mocking DeSantis’ entry via a glitchy Twitter event hosted by Elon Musk.
In Trump’s version, the participants include not just Musk and DeSantis but also Adolf Hitler, the devil, a coughing Dick Cheney, billionaire George Soros, World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab and an FBI agent openly plotting to “take out” Trump.
The video concludes with a fake ― perhaps AI ― Trump voice unleashing insults.
“The devil, I’m gonna kick your ass very soon. Hitler, you’re already dead. Dick Cheney, sounds like you’ll be joining Hitler very soon,” the Trump voice says. “Ron DeSanctimonious can kiss my big, beautiful 2024 presidential ass.”
Whew. DeSantis should have looked back to all the failed conventional Republican primary campaigns in 2016 and understood that bringing a teaspoon to a knife fight with Trump was a losing proposition.
The Florida Governor’s unique selling proposition was supposed to be him leading a competent government sans the drama of the former president. Somehow, he fails to understand GOP governance is no longer about policy, it’s about (sicko) entertainment.
There are apologists and “both-siders” who remain in DeSantis’ corner.
Ben Schreckinger at Politico prior to the launch:
Ron DeSantis has found a lane. Now he has to find out if it’s wide enough to drive a winning campaign through. With Donald Trump holding a lock on the populist right, and the remnants of the GOP establishment split between several low-polling alternatives, Ron DeSantis is casting in his lot with a third group: very online, anti-“woke” Silicon Valley moguls.
An op ed by National Review editor Rich Lowery gave the New York Times the opportunity to “both sides’ DeSantis’ candidacy:
The risk to Mr. DeSantis is that his candidacy takes on the feel of an establishment front-runner — lots of donor enthusiasm, an electability message — when he’s running from behind against an insurgent populist who happens to have once been president of the United States.
To counter that, Mr. DeSantis is obviously going to have to retain his hard edge on cultural issues. The continued fight against Disney, which has become a morass, may actually help him: With other candidates effectively taking the side of Disney out of principle or to score points against Mr. DeSantis, he can portray himself as the most committed warrior against woke corporations.
And he needs to attack Mr. Trump from the right, both on the former president’s record (Dr. Anthony Fauci, criminal justice reform, not building the border wall) and on current disputes. Even though it causes agita among some of his big donors, the issue of abortion is a clear opening for Mr. DeSantis. Mr. Trump is foggy, while Mr. DeSantis just signed a six-week ban. He should make maximum use of this contrast, especially in Iowa, where social-conservative voters are so important.
Psst– 61% of Iowans agree abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
The only way anybody is going to beat the former President in 2024 is to come right at him. He can still win, provided that the billionaire funded No Labels fields a candidate. That’s a story I hope not to have to cover next year.
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Deep Dives Explaining Stuff
Survivors of Solitary Confinement Face the California Governor’s Veto Pen Via Bolts Magazine. A maddening account about how the Prison Industrial Complex keeps torture as a disciplinary tool.
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Devil in the grooves: The case against forensic firearms analysis Via Radley Balko’s The Watch. Defense Attorneys especially should read this article.
For more than a century, forensic firearms analysts have been telling juries that they can match a specific bullet to a specific gun, to the exclusion of all other guns. This claimed ability has helped to put tens of thousands of people in prison, and in a nontrivial percentage of those cases, it’s safe to say that ballistics matching was the only evidence linking the accused to the crime.
But as with other forensic specialties collectively known as pattern matching fields, the claim is facing growing scrutiny. Scientists from outside of forensics point out that there’s no scientific basis for much of what firearms analysts say in court. These critics, backed by a growing body of research, make a pretty startling claim — one that could have profound effects on the criminal justice system: We don't actually know if it's possible to match a specific bullet to a specific gun. And even if it is, we don't know if forensic firearms analysts are any good at it.
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The mystery of climate-friendly beef Via Arielle Samuelson at HEATED.
Say What? “Tyson Foods is launching Brazen Beef, the first USDA-approved climate-friendly beef.”
Climate scientists have been saying for years that the world needs to eat less meat to slow global warming. One peer-reviewed study estimates that one pound of beef produces 15 times more CO2 than a pound of rice, and 60 times more than a pound of wheat or corn.
Tyson claims that Brazen Beef lowers cattle emissions by 10 percent. That’s a pretty hefty claim. It is possible to lower livestock emissions—the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that improved diet and manure management could cut methane emissions by 30 percent. So naturally, I wanted to know: is Tyson actually lowering their cattle emissions? Or is Brazen Beef a clever marketing scheme that greenwashes a major climate polluter?
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Investigators detail years of alleged misconduct by Texas AG Ken Paxton in stunning House committee hearing Via the Texas Tribune.
I’m sad to say this attempt by Republicans to police themselves is more than likely to fail, giving proof that crimes are no problem as long as a politician is extremists enough.
…investigators said they believe Paxton committed possible crimes and ignored subordinates who warned that what he was doing was illegal. Investigator Donna Cameron said these include the felony offenses of:
Abuse of official capacity, for allegedly diverting senior employees to perform work that benefited Paul, providing at least $72,000 in taxpayer-funded labor costs.
Misuse of public information, for allegedly providing Paul with an internal FBI file related to an investigation into the developer.
Misapplication of fiduciary property, for allegedly hiring an outside lawyer for $25,000 to work inside the attorney general’s office, without the knowledge or consent of senior staff, to perform work that principally benefited Paul.
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There is nothing impressive about Governor DeathSentence. Most Republican lawmakers appear to have embraced evil which is a bottomless abyss. I honestly believe that Republicans want people to die horrible deaths by guns, disease, starvation, or homelessness. They want to kill off their own constituents.