scoobdog

I don't really see any gray area tactics: his only mandate as an elected commander-in-chief is to maintain his country's independence by any means possible and he hasn't veered off into internal politics to do it, at least not yet. His ability to narrate the war is how he's been able to hold the international coalition together, specifically because it eliminates the prospect of the United States, France, or Britain stepping in to dictate the war and creating the divisions that Putin intended. Presumably, this odd bit of discord is more a result of Poland and the United States speaking out ahead of the Ukraine rather than any attempt to deflect blame for what is obviously a blameless act on their part.

It's strange that Zelenskyy is insistent that the missile isn't Ukrainian, but there are plenty of more reasonable explanations as to why he would do that then a lame attempt at a false-flag operation. It would seem to me that the most likely explanation is that he is attempting to control the war's narration. Unquestionably, he's controlling how the message of his successes and failures are being presented, but, unlike Putin, he's also playing up strategic losses and using them to great benefit. It gives the impression that his presentation of the war is more accurate which tends to disguise the fact that he has a critical interest in controlling what information gets out there. It's also highly likely that one of the reasons why he would come out contrary to Poland's and the United States' explanation of the events is because he simply doesn't want to have anyone else providing that explanation. It might sound petty, but its not insignificant how important having a single voice offering the narration, especially when that single voice is internal and not an outsider.

I would agree, but.... ...there is some liability there. I'm sure, part of the reason Trump brought it up even as self-incriminating as it is was because he knew it could be used to tie DeSantis to his own problems. Right now, DeSantis has to wait until any potential investigation into Trump openly refutes Trump's assertion before he weighs in further. Besides, there are plenty of Democrats for him to hypocritically demonize without any chance of blowback in his own ranks.

Nothing Pim Tool says is real.

Like any company, including the GMs, Toyotas, Stellantis', and Daimlers of the world, Tesla needs to innovate and they've done relatively poorly at that as of late. The Cybertruck being the most recent visible failure, their industrial truck division has not produced notable results either and that's a fairly significant shortcoming given that other big names in that sector (Daimler, Peterbilt, Kenworth, Navistar International) have all been working on electric models. It's really only a matter of time before Tesla becomes middle of the pack in all or most of its various markets and the companies shortcomings start to become glaring.

DeSantis doesn’t have to do anything. He stays quiet while the investigations are going, like none of it is his business.

It’s only a matter of time before Elon Musk’s Twitter misadventures start to bleed into Tesla, especially since his ability to manage is being called into question.

They’re turning on Ted Cruz too? The conspiracy is so convoluted it’s turning on itself.

I’m sure he will try to sabotage the party. It will be interesting to see how he pulls it off.

I do to, but I really think he collapses at this point. That being said, i feel confident that DeSantis has more than enough time to implode on the national stage if Trump at least outs him as a candidate. He has no real credentials that work on a national stage outside of the MAGAtards he’s stealing from Trump, and he doesn’t have Trump’s… charm. Unless he reversed course and starts acting like a moderate, he’s not going to capture the same lightening like Trump did in ‘16.

It’s one of the largest southeastern Asian communities in the country, dating back to the Vietnam War. The rest are white Orange County folk that are happy to fuck over minorities. I wish I was still in Linda Sanchez’s distrust.

What Trump believe about himself is largely beside the point. Everyone else, including his idiotic voter base, is using him to further their own interests and his cult of personality begins (and ends) with his ability to get things done. It's surprisingly easy to get racists, bigots, misogynists and all around scumbags elected... if you do what you need to do to make sure the parts of your message you don't want independents hearing get ignored or just brushed off. Trump's big lie, in fact, relies heavily on the notion that he was denied a second term not because he himself deserved it but because he represented a cause that deserved it and was blocked by opponents that held a grudge against him. Obviously he thinks he deserves it because of who he is, but that's not going to be bought by his rabid fan base who elected him in the first place because he said the things they wanted to hear. That's why this epic Republican failure has an outsized impact on his approval. He's only as good a ringleader as the miscreants he can surround himself with, and his voters know that. Someone else picking up that message and who can show he's electable is going to get their attention faster than Trump claiming vaguely that he has the goods on that someone.

Damn, you beat @tsar4to the punch, man.

Everyone know AJ is an opportunist; he still would have been taken more seriously if he had waited until the blue breakwater had undercut the red wave. However, yes, the shit really is about to hit the fan because it will be far easier for the few Trump supported winners to distance themselves than for the losers to back off now that Trump's resume is essentially gutted. That one pundit timed to the tipping point of Trump's flagging popularity and, as was always going to be the case, Trump is on a backslide that he won't be able to recover from. Now, DeSantis is going to be the next headache and having Trump go after him would be a wish-come-true, but I have a sneaking suspicion that Trump is going be fangless fairly soon because he has nothing to back up his bravado anymore.

Well, not exactly. In CA45's case, Michelle Steele is a fucking cunt who knows how to exploit the Vietnamese and Southeast Asian communities i northwestern Orange County by red baiting. Those people are rightly afraid of "communist" authoritarianism and she exploited. Plus, she speaks like she's in a special ed class.

Excuse me… CA45 is my district as of the last census.

Ten years isn’t necessarily long enough to get over a lost significant others.

Don’t ask.

He needs the presidency if he wants to avoid prison. That’s all that really matters at this point.

I don't think you can take the election out of the equation. The point of being a political boss is to win races. Polls outside of that election mean nothing. To put it another way, the single "action" he took was to fail at getting enough wins.

That must have been embarrassing.

Given all of those are tangential / connected to the "stolen election" myth that ended up sinking high profile GOP campaigns, I would say the "blue breakwater" is what happened.

I think the implication is that those factors did, in fact, turn off some voters. It just encouraged them to vote a different way rather than not vote at all.

I would assume that's if a court challenge can negate a number of votes equal-to-or-greater than her margin of victory after the race is certified. They're not going to seat someone who's "won" a race that could be overturned in court.

At some point, you have to kind of figure it might not be the coach or the players that that are the problem.