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I wouldn't have thought that Citizens United and whether billionaires control elections would be debatable concepts here, but, there you go. Or maybe we've just thrown up our hands, given up and let cynicism win. After all, looking cynical does make you super cool.

I’m pulling back from her personal tree and focusing on the “billionaires control the election process with their money” forest. I don’t think that’s wrong. That’s what Citizens United was all about.

Boiling down her tweet to its basic contents, is she wrong?

Yes, it’s this, but also, and it sounds a little weird coming from me in this forum, but: Trump has charisma. By which I don’t mean, everybody loves him. That’s obviously not true. But the people who do love him really, really love him for that. So the question becomes, once the charismatic Trump moves off the scene, who picks up the baton for the movement? I agree that Trump won’t be able to simply wave his magic wand over Ivanka or Donnie or Eric (lol) and make them the equivalent of him, because they just don’t have the charisma. So none of them can be the next leader. But we also know that Trump did not create this way of thinking among his mist fervent fans. It was already there before him, and it will be there after him. If Trump can tap into it with his charisma, then certainly someone else could come along and do so. The next leader of the red hat movement has to be someone in alignment with the thinking, as well as have the charisma all those red hats need to get fired up and act on the leader’s behalf to Make American Great Again. Someone like … Joe Rogan. He may or may not be fully MAGA, but he is certainly MAGA-adjacent, and unlike all the true-red MAGA lieutenants, Rogan has the charismatic reach to move people. I don’t know if he’s next up for sure, but if Trump does shuffle off in the next year or two, I think Joe Rogan could step up and take the wheel if he wants to.

It does come off like sour grapes due to the timing, but boiling down her tweet to its basic contents, is she wrong?

I don’t know if that would apply to Americans, at least right out of the chute. Unlike actual tinpot dictator countries, Americans are socialized to expect to be free and be able to do anything they want. I think it would take at least a couple generations of fascist conditioning and indoctrination to finally break Americans’ spirit, and I’d bet a lot of blood would have to be spilled in the process.

Buried Lede Alert: ”BIDEN IS THE ENEMY. HE IS DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY.” Stayed tuned to Logical Progression Theater for: “Democrat politicians are the enemy. They are destroying our country.” “Democrat voters are the enemy. They are destroying our country.” “Your Democrat-voting neighbors are the enemy. They are destroying our country.” “Your Democrat-voting family is the enemy. They are destroying our country.” “Kill the enemy. Save our country.”

I’m not sure even that GOP candidate is parsing this own thinking nearly as carefully as you are parsing it for him.

“He’s one of the good ones.”

One unfortunate but probably unavoidable side effect of this whole sordid affair is that it is no longer considered deranged and unqualifying to announce that you will go after former presidents on the flimsiest of evidence. In fact, millions will vote for Trump just for vowing that. A high percentage of red hats seek only punishment of people they despise, because take that and see how you like it.

Who’s Joel Reuter?

Shortstop putouts?

Fielding percentage! Man, I haven’t thought of that one for a long time …

And all those guys standing around Trump, officials of some sort I suppose, and saying to themselves, yup, this is completely normal.

That’s fine, we can believe that the Republican Party are becoming too far gone and that it will be 100% MAGA and that it’s never coming back, but that doesn’t mean all that relentless fire-breathing is going to start winning votes from moderates all of a sudden.

So funny because some Trumpy Newsweek writer was on Maher angrily defending Trump and barking at him, do you really think you’re better off now than you were four years ago? And Maher says well four years ago we were in a pandemic, and she says, I **** you not: “I mean 2018, are you better off now than you were four years ago?” The Trumpy Newsweek writer might or might not be actually stupid, but she sure was lazy.

And with Trump he gets both!

Javier Baez is not going to take a penny less than $98 million, so if the Tigers want Baez to just go away, that’s what it’s gonna cost. The bigger question is, who do you replace Baez with? Eddys Leonard is a darling right now, but he’s still an unknown quantity you can’t just hand the everyday shortstop job to right now. Otherwise, you’re looking at Ryan Kreisler, and when he comes in fielding worse and hitting worse than Javy, then what?

Maybe it’s as simple as, it’s just icky to say a human being was bought for cash.

Noice!

The difference between Cheney, Kinzinger, Flake, and Corker is that they broke hard and with finality from Trump, and Nikki has not, or at least not yet. Nikki may be a woman, but when it comes to Trump, she is no Liz Cheney. I grant that Trump might yet destroy her completely, as you appear to predict, and you don't have to grant at all that there's any chance that she comes back to Trump and he gives her some role in his administration. But just because you don't, that doesn't mean it can't happen. I think it could, I think she's trying, I bet Trump is at least listening, and who knows what will finally come from that.

And timely move. I like it!

So, Nikki is probably asking for nothing, but she'll just cave in because she hates herself? Well, I guess in a world where literally anything is possible ...

Agree, it's not helpful, per se, but again, the public pronunciations mean nothing here. And it means nothing that Nikki Haley is still leveling any criticism at the notoriously thin-skinned Cheeto. It's what they're talking about behind the door that's important. After all, how many RINO politicos have we seen Trump trash in public before he magically accepted them back into the fold? I would be frankly surprised to see Nikki Haley exiled completely from the Republican Party despite whatever her efforts may be. There's a way back for her, and I'm betting she is working on that at this very minute.

I didn't say Trump doesn't need her at all. I said she needs Trump more than Trump needs her. It's not an all-or-nothing thing. Also, if she's back-channeling with the Trump people for a role in the administration—which, she'd be a complete dope if she weren't—then it doesn't matter what Trump proxies say in public about her. The important part is what they're talking about out of view. And regardless of Trump's and his proxies' public pronunciations about her, she is useful to him as a bridge between him and polite society, which still counts for something, at least until that point when he completely destroys polite society altogether.