In which I de-Endorse Donald Trump for President

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.

― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

I have been at least a luke-warm supporter of Donald Trump for years.  Heck, there are over 200 posts there, mostly talking up  his virtues.  Go, read, if you don't believe me.

But I am no longer comfortable posting about how Donald Trump would make a good President, because I do not any longer think that he would.

The Donald has come out against Ron DeSantis, not that this is surprising - after all, they are opponents for the Republican nomination.  I don't have a problem with that.  What I do have a problem with is the dishonest way that this opposition has come out:

Donald Trump's people attacked Ron DeSantis for (a) not slavishly following The Donald's massively damaging lockdown recommendations and then for (b) being entirely correct in doing so.

Let me be clear: Ron DeSantis saved Florida's economy by ignoring advice from Donald Trump's administration.  I was here.  I saw this.  I had just moved here from The Democratic People's Socialist Republic of Maryland and know people whose lives were destroyed by the Covid lockdowns imposed by a Republican Governor there.  So where are the "Trump War Room" objections to the Covid-19 lockdowns from (Republican) Governor Larry Hogan?

[crickets]

Go ahead.  Amaze me.

[I'm waiting]

Yeah, that's what I thought.  Someone who was all up The Donald's butt is a-OK, but someone who did something positive for his State (even though it went against your flunky's advice) is the Worst Thing Ever.  Quite frankly, I'd have more respect for this if (a) their advice was worth a plug nickel and (b) if your flunkies weren't trying to undermine you at ever step and if (c) you had had a damn clue about (b).

You didn't, and still don't seem to.  Quite frankly, this is the biggest knock against you - you brought your enemies into your inner circle, and you won't recognize allies if they don't kiss your butt.

To The Donald (as if he'd pay attention); We thought you were on our side.  We trusted you.  Like Bluto in Annimal House, wef**ked up.  And now we see that someone who actually earned that trust is in your cross-hairs.  

And so while I think you accomplished a lot in your first term, I don't think you are earning a second one.  Your ego is too big to allow someone actually accomplished to join you in the Oval Office.  And so, adieu.  Good luck, because you're going to need it. 

You are in an election.  You are facing adversity.  Remember that Adversity does not build character, it reveals it.  You are revealing more than you should like.  Stop doing that, or keep losing supporters.

Sorry, you've lost a supporter here.  Don't come calling after the nomination.  You're not Presidential material.

Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?

― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Enough with the dishonesty

Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;
’twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.

- William Shakespeare, Othello

I'm with Mike from Cold Fury: Trump has to go.  The only thing I would add is that he has to go because he's too stupid to realize that his idiotic attacks on Ron DeSantis are trivially falsified by watching the video he posted.  Dumbass.

All that one gains by falsehood is, not to be believed when he speaks the truth.

- Aristotle

Musings on today's election

We continue to live in Claire Wolfe's "Awkward Time" - too late to vote ourselves out of this, too early to shoot the bastards in the face.  But in CHurchill's famous dictum, it's better to Jaw-Jaw than to War-War.  And so The Queen Of The World and I voted.  I know, I know ...

Turnout had been brisk all day.  I don't know if it's like this other places than here at the edge of Tampa suburbia.  If so, this likely means Republicans will do well.  If they do, I'm not sure what that will mean.  Certainly there are a bunch of Young Turks coming into the GOP, but the establishment will not willingly give up their perks, power, and riches.

I have no doubt about the outcome for the House of Representatives.  There are 438 House districts and self-sorting by the population combined with gerrymandering by the politicians means that it's really, really hard for a centralized voting fraud machine to swing more than a handful of districts.  So the Republicans will comfortably control the House, perhaps with their biggest majority ever.  Since the House is the ones that create the spending bills, this is an excellent position to cause all sorts of pain to the out of control Left in this Republic.

Republicans should continue their winning streak with Governor's races, and pick up some Senate seats.  But these races are State wide, and so a small number of Democratic controlled districts could (in theory) upset the vote via industrial level fraud.  We'll see how this looks tomorrow.  If the Red Wave means that Fulton County needs over 100% of the vote to reelect Raphael Warnock, then that is something that you can catch.  I'm not sanguine over this, at least in places like Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Georgia - in other words, the places where you can still smell the stench of the 2020 election.

So it's wait and see.  But tonight TQOTW and I are off to Ron DeSantis' victory rally in Tampa.  This will be the first political rally I will ever have attended.  Since Ron is going to smoke his opponents, it should be a fun time, and I'm interested to see if it's different seeing the man in Real Life rather than in Youtube clips.

And I'd be worried about rioters in the street except that Gov DeSantis has made his position on that crystal clear.  And this isn't Chicago or California.

Man, a lot of people sure hate Ron DeSantis

He's making the right enemies.  He has cleverly aligned himself with 80% of the voters in his battles against Covid lockdowns, pedophile teachers, and now Disney.  He had and has massive support in all of these.

It helps that he comes across as trying to protect children in each of these areas.  It also helps that his opponents are just so creepy and weird.  Both of those things will help him with the Minivan Mom voter demographic.

The Democratic Party has been intellectually out of gas for a long time now.  They've basically defined themselves by what they are not - not George W. Bush, not Donald Trump - rather than what they are.  They've had a lot of success doing this over the last 20 years.

But DeSantis is now shining the spotlight on what they are, like being the party that wants to teach weird sex fetishes to kindergartners.  This is exposing just how, well, weird the party is.  So weird that people don't want to be associated with it.

I guess we'll see how this plays out, but until the Democrats stop coming up with more creepy nonsense aimed at kittle kids, I expect that DeSantis will keep doing what he's been doing.

Florida leads the way again

I ranted about the Covid lockdowns, back in October of 2020:

So what does it take to make sure a death is not reported as from COVID?

When the death is caused not by the virus, but by the government's reaction to the virus.  COVID didn’t kill Rita at age 95, despair and loneliness did:

Rita Thomas was a victim of COVID-19, but she never had the disease.

The vivacious and outgoing 95-year-old, who lived independently until last year and celebrated her most recent birthday in February with friends at a Pasco County diner, willed herself to die two weeks ago because she could no longer handle the pandemic-imposed isolation.

“She said to me: ‘Linda. I’ve had a good life. I am ready to die. I don’t want to live this way anymore. I stopped eating,’ ’’ her daughter Linda Gardner said, recalling the conversation she had with her mother in August. Weeks later, her mother was hospitalized for complications from malnutrition.

 Remember, Florida had some of the least restrictive lockdown policies in the nation.  But this steamed me at the time, and it seems that I wasn't the only one as the Florida Legislature has passed a law prohibiting this in the future:

A Florida bill that would require the right to in-person visits at hospitals was sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis from the state legislature on April 5. He signed the bill, the “No Patient Left Alone Act,” on April 6.

Called the “No Patient Left Alone Act,” the bill would require hospitals, nursing facilities, hospices, assisted living facilities and care centers for the developmentally disabled to allow in-person visits.

I'm not sure if the lockdown restrictions were imposed by Florida (probably not), by the CDC (likely), or by someone else.  But it's good to see the Florida Powers That Be recognize just what a Charlie Foxtrot this all was. Better late than never, I guess.

The Queen Of The World and I have not regretted our move here for a microsecond.

Johnny and Donnie Van Zant - Sweet Florida

The Van Zant brothers hail from Jacksonville and they like Ron DeSantis a lot.  They wrote this song for him.

Pretty good song, and pretty funny.

The best summary of Joe Biden's State Of The Union Address

It's from Ron DeSantis, Florida's America's Governor: 

Joe Biden’s State of the Union address was full of lies, omissions, and delusions.   He didn’t mention the worst border crisis in our country’s history – a direct result of his failed policies – or 13 American service members losing their lives due to his blundering policies.   He took zero responsibility for the worst inflation in forty years due to his reckless spending. Americans are getting crushed with soaring prices at the pump and in the grocery store, and Biden’s solution is to keep spending OUR money! And as Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine, Biden is still buying oil from Russia to help fund their assault while stopping American energy independence.   Now, thanks to his slumping poll numbers, Biden is advocating for every COVID policy I implemented two years ago in Florida and acting like these are novel and breakthrough ideas. This, from a guy who called Republican governors, “Neanderthals,” and told me to “get out of the way” for employing the very same policies in Florida he is now adopting.   He never apologized for cutting our supply of monoclonal antibodies and depriving Floridians of access to life-saving treatment, and he said we need to stop looking at COVID as a “partisan dividing line.”     Biden’s speech made no mention of the skyrocketing homicides and violent crime we’re seeing in Democrat-run cities across the country, and he said that we need to “hold law enforcement accountable.” Meanwhile, the only people he DOESN’T seem to want to hold accountable are the Soros-funded, soft-on-crime prosecutors and the criminals he portrays as victims.   Make no mistake, these are not just Joe Biden’s policies. These are the policies of the radical left-wing socialists who now own the Democrat Party.   But as Florida’s governor, I will never allow this president to erode our freedom, destroy our economy, cripple our businesses, or tolerate violent criminals as he shames the men and women who keep us safe.   I am standing in the way of these woke leftists that have put our country and your family at risk. In Florida, we will always stand for freedom and liberty.

Hat tip: The Queen Of The World.

UPDATE 2 February 2022 18:35:  J.Kb has video from the wild of Florida's America's Governor opening a can of whoop ass on a bunch of idiots who deserved it.