On the Brink of Self Destruction

Does Fuckface von Clownstick even want a second term? Amanda Marcotte speculates that Chief Justice John Roberts is almost single-handedly saving Dear Leader from his deeply unpopular postions on LGBTQ+ rights and immigration.

It is no exaggeration to say that if [Manbaby] ends up winning what promises to be another agonizingly narrow race in 2020, it's because Roberts took one for the conservative team and issued rulings that allowed Republican voters who were feeling pangs of doubt an excuse to stay on board.

A test of this theory will come soon in a case about burdensome regulations placed on abortion clinics.

If negative rulings on LGBTQ rights or immigrant rights could have awakened election-year fury, that goes double or triple for a backdoor ban on abortion. In an election year, that would do immense harm to [Orangeman's] already shaky re-election chances, not to mention those of numerous down-ticket Republicans on the ballot in November. To save both [Fuckface] and the Republican Party from themselves, the chief justice may conclude he needs to save abortion rights.

Update (June 19):  Nancy LeTourneau has a different take and quotes Neera Tanden.

[T]he Courts have been a rallying cry for the arch conservatives for decades. If they can’t win there even when they’ve packed the Courts, that is a demobilizing event. Why go out and vote for a guy who kinda embarrasses you if you don’t even get the rulings you want?

Update (June 21):  The first campaign rally since March turns out to be a low attended bust. Matt Lewis doesn't pull any punches.

[E]ven the crowd who did show up seemed to be more subdued than normal. Sure, they applauded. Sure, they cheered. But it seemed like they were going through the motions.

More than 120,000 Americans are dead on his watch, and [Fuckface von Clownstick] endangered the lives of thousands of people by deciding to hold this Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally on Saturday night, where the virus was an afterthought in his speech. The very least he could have done was not be so boring.

Update (June 22):  Heather Digby Parton thinks the lesson from his flop of a campaign rally might be sinking in.

That event was sparsely attended because this country is still in the middle of this crisis and it isn't getting much better. It seems that some of his voters know this too and decided to stay home, regardless of his exhortations to get back out there for his sake. He had hoped to spin the pandemic as being in the past and promote an economic boom with his big comeback tour. All those empty seats in that arena showed him that it's not working. Even his devoted followers aren't buying it.

Amanda Marcotte notes that advisors understand a referendum on Fuckface is a losing strategy.

Instead, the campaign would like to make the election about something else, and clearly [they] believe that "something else" can be about convincing broad swaths of white America to feel angry and fearful about the Black Lives Matter protests.

[But] racist fear-mongering, at least for the moment, isn't working for [him]. So why does he keep trying? Part of it is that he's a narcissist surrounded by yes men, who is certain that his own racist obsessions are more widespread among voters than they actually are. Part of it is that he doesn't have any other tricks in his bag. Getting more people to like him is pretty much out of the question. Campaigning on the economy, which was the original plan, is a no-go in the face of the worst unemployment since the Great Depression.

[Dear Leader] is fresh out of ideas. So we can expect he'll spend the next four months doing more of the same: Racist provocations and efforts to pump adrenaline into the culture war, in hopes that he can get white voters in middle America to hate liberals, progressives and people of color more than they hate him. So far, it seems not only to be failing but backfiring big time, making voters even sicker of this incompetent loser than they were already.

Update (June 23):  Bob Cesca argues Dear Leader always makes things worse for himself.

His deadly laziness in responding to coronavirus, his horrendously dictator-friendly foreign policy, his blindingly obvious racism and the myriad other examples of his ineptitude aside, he constantly paints himself into political corners.

The problem is that this same degree of rank incompetence and self-defeating capriciousness is also evident in his governance. In this respect, as well as too many others to list here, [Fuckface] continues to be a threat to the stability of the republic and a danger to the future of both democracy and, even more harrowingly, reality itself.

Update (June 24):  Heather Digby Parton notes Manbaby is bleeding support.

It's understandable that women, many of whom are overtaxed in this crisis with jobs, full-time child care and vulnerable elderly parents, would be specifically turned off by [Dear Leader's] self-centered obsession with his "numbers" and the single-minded focus on opening up the economy. Most people understand it isn't safe to resume normal life while a dangerous virus is stalking the population. They want serious leadership, not bluster and posturing.

[Fuckface] is the ultimate chaos agent, lurching from one catastrophe to another, unable to discipline himself in even the smallest ways. That may have worked well enough for him when we were dealing with political battles and palace intrigue, all of which was important but didn't bear directly on the everyday lives of Americans. The coronavirus crisis does and it's brought home the fact that his narcissism and emotional incontinence makes everything worse. He is a walking disaster, and that's the last man you want in charge during a real crisis.

Update (June 26):  You would think that a real leader could set aside campaigning and actually focus on the problem at hand. Heather Digby Parton says some Sun Belt governors are learning a tough lesson.

[A]ll these Republican state executives are stuck in the [Manbaby] maelstrom in which he continues to insist that the pandemic is "fading away" while they have to face the sickness and death that's crashing all around them. He is an albatross around their necks.

Update (June 29):  Amanda Marcotte was correct in predicting Chief Justice Roberts would vote to strike down the restrictive Louisiana abortion law. A Texas case from four years ago served as precedent. Justice Kavanaugh could have swung the decision had Roberts not changed his vote. Senator Collins must be proud.

Update (July 4):  Lucian Truscott notes that the Russian bounties story keeps growing.

[H]e's surrounded by people in important, powerful positions who are privy to big, important secrets, and they want him out of office. With their leaks about the Russian bounties, they have in effect put a bounty on [Dear Leader's] head. He has been wounded by the coronavirus, he's wounded by the economy, he's wounded by Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the streets and he's getting grievously wounded by this.

You know he's desperate when he starts calling a real threat to the lives of our soldiers fighting on foreign soil a "hoax." [Fuckface] is a threat to our national security. He's not a president. He's a co-conspirator with dictators who are enemies of this country. He's a traitor, and he needs to go.

Update (July 15):  Heather Digby Parton recounts what was, even for Dear Leader, a truly bizarre press conference.

Most galling of all, he took credit for saving millions of lives, dishonestly asserting again that the U.S. has the lowest mortality rate in the world. (It does not.) To him the loss of more than 136,000 Americans, with thousands more seriously ill, and families everywhere grieving, is nothing compared to the great pride we should have in our president for allegedly saving us from something worse.

Remember when [Fuckface] used to say we'd get tired of all the winning and we'd beg him to stop because we couldn't take it and he'd insist that we had to keep winning whether we liked it or not? This, apparently, is what he was talking about.  

Update (August 10):  Amanda Marcotte notes how the press loves to play up the failure of Congress to address pandemic relief when it's all for show--they only want to look like they're doing something.

If the president seriously wanted to get relief to people, he could pressure the Republican-controlled Senate into voting on the bill Democrats have already passed, with a promise to sign it. Waving pieces of paper around in front of the cameras shouldn't distract from that fact, and yet here we are.

Heather Digby Parton says Fuckface wants to play "savior"--at least until he can get past the election.

His orders are so economically destructive and the power grab so blatant that it's possible Republican senators will come back to the table and negotiate, instead of just trying to dictate terms. Their majority is at stake too.

But let's be clear about what happened here. The man who sold himself to America as the greatest dealmaker the world has ever known can't bargain his way out of a paper bag. He walks away, holds his breath until he turns blue and then lets the other side decide if they're going to let him take the country down with him.

That's the art of the tantrum, not the art of the deal. He's quite good at it. Let's just hope the Republicans in Congress still have some sense of self-preservation and are willing to work something out to save the country. Otherwise we are in for a simply disastrous fall.

Update (August 11):  Bob Cesca explains why Fuckface's shithead idea of a payroll tax "holiday" is (hopefully) political suicide.

Republicans know they can't get away with killing Social Security and Medicare outright. The political repercussions would be catastrophic. Instead, they've been practicing the "starve the beast" strategy, in which they manufacture budget shortfalls in order to pitch various cuts to the programs, including partial privatization. They pretend to feel bad about it, but they really don't. They want voters to believe they have no choice but to cut the programs, even though they have plenty of options for maintaining solvency.

Update (September 8):  Amanda Marcotte enjoys watching the Agent Orange campaign fall apart.

[W]e all need a laugh in these dark times, so don't feel the slightest bit guilty for making fun of all these rich, immoral monsters who kept writing checks to [Dear Leader], even though it was obvious he would either waste their money or steal it. [He] still needs to get a good deal closer to Biden in the polls than he is right now to get the election within stealing range. If he fails to snag a second illegitimate term in office, his own greed and incompetence will have played a role in his downfall. That will be poetic justice, and we can all take pleasure in that.

Update (September 10):  So Bob Woodward is joining a long list of people publishing books with unfavorable views of Dear Leader. The books won't change any votes, but sure, let's get the full picture of what a disgusting piece of shit he is. His lies about the novel coronavirus now appear to be essentially premeditated murder.

Woodward himself has gotten some flack for holding onto these "bombshells" to sell his book. And Fuckface ... defends Woodward?

Bob Woodward had my quotes for many months. If he thought they were so bad or dangerous, why didn’t he immediately report them in an effort to save lives? Didn’t he have an obligation to do so? No, because he knew they were good and proper answers. Calm, no panic!

Agent Orange thinks his lies and deception were the right thing to do. And he thinks it worked!

Update (September 11):  Heather Digby Parton points out the "panic" Fuckface wanted to prevent was at the stock market.