Sunday, March 19, 2023

THREAT LEVEL BLACK WATCH PLAID!!!😱

(I just needed the picture.)

So a funny thing happened yesterday:

Tout le Twitter saw that Trump had posted to Truth Social that his arrest was coming Tuesday and "BE THERE!  WILL BE WILD!", and completely freaked out.

People were dirtying their pants (in different ways) screaming 'OMIGODOMIGOD IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING AND IT'S BETTER THAN I EVER IMAGINED!!!!' until they read the fine print and screamed 'OMIGODOMIGOD IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING!  THE CIVIL WAR HAS BEGUN AND WE'RE ALL GOING TO MURDERED IN OUR BEDS AND BLOOD WILL RUN KNEE DEEP IN THE STREETS WE'RE DONE FOR! WE'RE DONE FOR!'

And even risible Chuck Todd this morning dismissed Trump's prediction with "We don't know when it's happening, we have no idea," offhandedly, in the middle of another conversation entirely.  As for riots in the streets?  Meh, he indicated.  We'll have a camera crew standing by, he implied.  Now let's get back to what Marjorie said about Kevin at recess today....

It was a violent eruption of fear and panic and terror and 'I TOLD YOU SO!!  I TOLD YOU SO!!!! I SO DID!!!!!' on Twitter but IRL:  *crickets.*

Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  Maggie Haberman (or was it CNN?) on Twitter noticed that nobody knew where this "Tuesday" deadline came from; that there was at least one more witness being called before the grand jury expected to indict Trump, and even Trump's people didn't have a clue where he got that date.  And with that meatspace went back to watching March Madness and paid no further attention to the clown we were all assured on Twitter was back sucking up all the newsy oxygen the press could supply.
Sorry, Marcy, but the press that got played (not Maggie Haberman, who always knew better) was entirely on Twitter. IRL, nobody bit; nobody even jumped up and down. They certainly didn't launch themselves headfirst into wild speculation about WHAT IT ALL MEANS!  Because there was no there, there.  It was just Trump being Trump.

I can forgive emptywheel.  She's in Ireland, all her U.S. news comes via the internet (or not.  She gives no indication she has a live feed of CNN/MSNBC/FoxNews, so I'm guessing here).  I think the stuff even played on cable, for a bit.  But this morning?  Mike Pence made an ass of himself on "This Week."
Chris Sununu is always an ass: Fox&Friends was predictably incoherent: And as I say, even Chuck Todd wasn't fearing for the future of the republic.  He barely mentioned Trump at all. Twitter went batshit.  Meatspace said:  "MY BRACKETS!!! MY BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL BRACKETS!!!! 😩”

But yesterday Twitter assured me (it wasn't just emptywheel) that Trump had once again bent the forces of the media to his imperious will.  Except the forces of the media not involving a handful of people on Twitter (and their followers) didn't seem to notice Trump at all.

Huh.  How 'bout that?  I mean, NYT had a story.  WaPo had a story (I saw the tweets!).  Probably other major papers did, too.  But nobody outside Twitter's bubble seemed to think there was any there, there.

Sort of like Oakland, California, back in Gertrude's day.

"...what was the use of my having come from Twitter it was not natural to have come from there yes write about it if I like or anything if I like but not there, there is no there there."

No there here, either.
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1 comment:

  1. rustypickup1:08 PM

    It's a bit surprising that Sununu is defending Trump, only weeks ago he was commenting that Trump's popularity is fading in New Hampshire and that if the primary was held today that DeSantis would be the winner. Sununu has been fluffing DeSantis at every opportunity. Sununu himself has been tossing out feelers about running for president in 2024, which is just delusional. He seems to think that because he won a third term in NH, the rest of the country wants his right wing, but not too right wing to feel icky, politics.

    However, even in NH he really doesn't have the Republican base. Given a choice, the conservative primary voters want reactionary, right wing culture warriors. For the US senate and house seats, the primary winners were a bunch of extremists, wanting to ban abortion under all circumstances, cut or eliminate social security, anti-CRT, anti-public schools and more. They easily beat out their more establishment and experienced primary challengers. Thankfully they all lost in the general election. Sununu didn't have any real competition in the primary, and has a lot of goodwill that carries over from his father as governor. He won the general on the same name recognition, appearing less conservative than the state legislatures and the certainty that he will never, ever raise taxes. That will never win him a presidential primary anywhere else (and probably not even in NH up against DeSantis). I think he gets this, trying to burnish is conservative qualifications. He is all in on school vouchers. The state house has expanded them to families making $100K, ballooning the budget line for them to $30 million a year. That doesn't sound like much but in a state that gives anemic amounts of money to run local schools and absolutely nothing for school construction, that counts as real money out of the public education system. He also called last week for Biden to protect the NH border with Canada, and proposed a few million to spend of state money. A quick look at a map shows how laughable Sununu is on this topic. The border is tiny, consisting of one rural town of 800 residents on spread across the largest town area of any New England state. One road crosses into Canada, and the border is a bunch of woods. None of this is going to help him in a Republican primary, he is a squish on abortion, wanting limits but not outright bans, and he has opposed some of the anti-trans legislation, pushing the blame on the state attorney general who thinks it violates state anti-discrimination laws.

    In the end Sununu will sign whatever the state legislatures spit up. At the moment they are expressing their "New Hampshire independence" but pushing the exact same cultural issues that are being pushed in dozens of other red states. It's particularly painful to watch since we actually aren't red. The Democrats got more votes than the Republicans for house, senate and executive committee, but because of gerrymandering the Republicans control all three. It's actual minority controlled government. But since they have the power we will be getting a parents bill of rights bill that is anti-trans, anti-CRT and is likely to come with criminal misdemeanor class A charges for violations. It's all an effort to destroy the public schools, and they are succeeding.

    Maybe in the end this is all a mash note from Sununu to DeSantis, with the hope that DeSantis will pick him for VP. Even there, I've got to think DeSantis isn't going to pick someone who is by appearance more moderate.

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