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Elizabeth M. (Massachusetts)'s avatar

Thanks for another barn burner of a post, Tom. I knew the general meaning of "crossing the Rubicon" but not the specific meaning nor the history behind it. How great that they returned the river to that name!

As for your last paragraph, I wake up every morning and first thing I check the NYTimes hoping to see that The Ultimate Self-Own you describe has finally occurred:

"I can sit back and daydream just how wonderful it would be if Old Uncle Thin Skin got the Zinger of Zingers, the one that really made him explode in the Ultimate Public Self-Own: the arrival of the massive fatal myocardial infarction that’s been on his “to do list” for years, coming mid-rant at a hatealong, in front of the adoring Inadequates, as he hits the floor behind the podium face first."

I suspect that as the onslaught of what you or Lucian Truscott IV referred to as "the cascade of s**t effect" from the trial swarm has to be pushing The Donald further and further into a permanent state of brain-fry. Not only that, we know he has never slept well, and that self-image-puncturing intrusions keep him up at night, given his habit of firing off volleys of all-caps raves and grade-school insults in the wee hours at whomever has most recently failed the Adoring Loyal Lackey test. Poor sleep is cited everywhere these days as one of the top risk factors for cognitive deterioration in later life.

Do you think that no matter how inappropriate, incoherent, and deranged he becomes, the no longer Grand Ole Party will still give him the nomination?

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TCinLA's avatar

I certainly wish they wouldn't, but then I can't think of any replacement who wouldn't be their own kind of Very Bad.

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Elizabeth M. (Massachusetts)'s avatar

Exactly. I can't decide what's worse, Trump as the nominee, which preserves the possibility however it may be diminishing that he could win (or steal) the election? Or Haley as the nominee, who could do her chameleon act again for the general, and attract a lot of voters who don't start paying attention until September or October.

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Ellen's avatar

This made my day. And then James Carville came on MSNBC and iced the cake!

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JDinTX's avatar

Any Repub is evil incarnate

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David Levine's avatar

I've decided that what bugs me the most about Nikki Haley (aside from the fact--beyond her control, to be sure--that she looks like a death's head) is that she has not thus far been able to express any actual idea of any kind. I'm putting aside all questions of honesty, candor, the rules of American politics, etc. in other words, just looking at the semantic weight of ANY of her answers to genuine questions, after about ten seconds that weight more and more resembles that of cotton candy. I have no idea what she "stands for." I mean, she's not even competent at getting across what she stands AGAINST. I mean, aside from "Joe Biden," which has now obviously become a sort of CODE. but I'm not even sure that THEY know what that "code" is encoding.

in other words, the Shitshow Saga Continues...

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JDinTX's avatar

Yes they will, if only so that they can initiate a 25th amendment case shortly thereafter. See who RNC wants for VP, or who cadre of billionaires push

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Judith Matlock's avatar

I think the big dark money has already met with Haley. They may have calculated that Biden will beat Trump again, and the US will be in chaos mode once more. Haley can win because she's younger. Of course she'll have reactionary handlers, and we'll just be in a different kind of mess.

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JDinTX's avatar

She is chump at the core, all "republicans" are.

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MaryPat's avatar

Nikki has been Koched.

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Judith Matlock's avatar

True that, and the Wall Street bankers want to stop chafing under the one or two banking regulations still on the books and perhaps even being enforced.

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David Levine's avatar

it's funny...I was sitting here trying to figure out what Nikki Haley could have to do with Ed Koch. then I got it.

you can take the boy out of NYC, but...

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JDinTX's avatar

Democracy needs capitalism, but capitalism does not need democracy. We are screwed. Will listen to the whole thing later, but no time now. Capitalism tried on the cloak of fascism and Nazism if my knowledge of lead up to WW2 correct. How did that work, Ford, IBM, etc. Do people even remember that you were traitors?

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