re: Post Mortem: Who Is To Blame For DeSantis’ Horrible Showing In Iowa?

I’ll continue to try to attempt to convey my sentiments in as a “professional” way as possible and do my best to avoid the playground communication…..and that’s not for my benefit, it’s intended to keep it respectful as possible to you the recipient. But in this case I guess I have to try again.

What I was saying was that no one really cares. Not to the extent that you seem to think.

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- Trump's base is not a truly conservative base. That is also true, and stating that doesn't require denial of the first bullet above...

The post includes the misleading claim that establishment donors backed DeSantis and then switched to Haley, when in reality many of the more GOPe donors or would be donors to DeSantis switched to Trump, often before making considerable donations to DeSantis.

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- They aren't "truly conservative" in that their principal allegiance is to Trump rather than conservative ideology?

- They aren't "truly conservative" in that their ideology is indistinct, nonexistent or altogether not of a conservative disposition?

- Define truly conservative – I'm assuming Rothbard and Buckley?

We can wait to discuss GOPe fundraising and Ron's early influx of cash from a litany of big-money donors whose contributions of over $50k made up the bulk of Ron's financial support. I'll grant you that the nature of the donations and overall fundraising efforts over time isn't as clear-cut, especially as the enthusiasm behind Desantis began to wane. That said, I think it's instructive to look at what initially propelled the DeSantis campaign and where that money came from. We should also probably define GOP establishment

His original stance was he wasn’t going to run if Trump did. But I think he didn’t think Trump would run and the timing was right for a run with Biden limping. Trump knew he was the biggest threat and so he went scorched earth on him. It worked, but he permanently damaged the guy who should've taken the America First mantle from 45 It’s not his nature to get down in the mud with other republicans, which would be admirable in any other primary environment than this one. It’s really sucky that it went down this way. I’m sure he wishes he would’ve waited. But it’s time for both sides to lay down the swords. (Including Trump guys to stop calling Disantis supporters Ronbots and obsessing over his every move. End of the day, Trump is the nominee, but he can’t win the general without the support of most of the former DeSantis supporters

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- They aren't "truly conservative" in that their principal allegiance is to Trump rather than conservative ideology?

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- They aren't "truly conservative" in that their ideology is indistinct, nonexistent or altogether not of a conservative disposition?

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Correct. The allegiance is to Trump and whatever Trump's ideology is on a given day. Hence, cheering a statement by Trump against woke/BLM stances one day and cheering Trump's BLM/CRT attacks on DeSantis a few months later.

I'll note that the "truly conservative" language is lifted/paraphrased from your original post. I typically talk about conservatism or traditionalism as a black or white thing, which isn't fair but probably isn't applicable to this dispute.

You're welcome to support the to-date unsupported claim that big money GOPe donors forced Ron to run, etc. or only stopped supporting DeSantis to back Haley. In reality, I expect you know that much of the GOPe never-Trump style money remained sidelined until Haley's rise and that a large amount of it still isn't in play. Regardless, I've yet to see a single Ron detractor provide an evidenced argument in support of those claims on this board.

The most commonly discussed saga was Griffin, who is only arguably in that category anyway and who now famously got uncomfortable with Ron's boldness on social positions/Disney. Which is notably excluded from the discussion of would-be Ron backers pulling support in favor of merely claiming that big donors demurred once Ron began to struggle (both are likely factors, of course).

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Christina Pushaw

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I need someone to connect the dots for me as to what this woman has done to be a freaking Bond villain. She just seems like a zealous press secretary to me.

I'm aware she's from eastern Europe and I saw the Ukraine tweet, yet to see this and other threads, she's Dr. Evil.

In this election if you are not first, your last.

To be #1 , he has got to change is plan to something that will appeal to more voters.

What does he plan on doing to head off a recession if one is coming?

What is a realistic plan to slow down illegal immigration?

What is your plan to bring peace of the Middle East?

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I need someone to connect the dots for me as to what this woman has done to be a freaking Bond villain. She just seems like a zealous press secretary to me.

I'm aware she's from eastern Europe and I saw the Ukraine tweet, yet to see this and other threads, she's Dr. Evil.

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There are two conclusions you can draw if you dive deep into Pushaw’s background in Eastern Europe: she was either a witting CIA asset or unwittingly a Deep State tool. And this statement is based on the documented history of the CIA’s clandestine activities in Eastern Europe since the end of the Cold War.

Here is an OP-ED written by Pushaw discussing the Maidan Revolution in the Ukraine. It reads like little more than a Foggy Bottom talking point about the 2014 CIA supported putsch.

Pushaw was also a director of New Leaders Initiative, a non-governmental organization in Georgia. Pushaw’s work for a NGO to educate and “empower Georgian youth” in a geopolitical hotspot is highly suspect:



facebook.com/WarsawForum

Below is a screenshot of additional op-eds Pushaw authored for the New Europe news outlet. These pages have now been scrubbed but I fortunately saved a screenshot of her various op-eds from the platform:

wayback machine: neweurope.eu/author/christina-pushaw/



The United States has used shadowy NGOs to covertly achieve foreign policy objectives — both benign and sinister — in geopolitical hotspots since the end of WWII. Determining the exact funding of a particular NGO is indeed by design a complex task since NGOs are often funded by an convoluted mishmash of private charities, corporations and government grants.

That Pushaw once directed a NGO in Eastern Europe should raise red flags for anyone who has even a cursory knowledge of the CIA’s repeated use of NGOs to stoke social instability and foment “street” revolutions in nations targeted for regime-change operations. Whatever Pushaw’s complicity in such schemes, this unfortunately is the geopolitical milieu that frames all foreign relations in that region and indeed must necessarily be included in any honest discussion of the current war in Eastern Europe.

Anyone who denies this reality is 1.) either ignorant or 2.) a Deep State propagandist.

Putting that issue aside, what exactly does Pushaw’s past political experience bring to the table for DeSantis? Read Pushaw’s quotes in this piece from a English-language Georgian news platform: Saakashvili As An Inspiration…..

Pushaw is talking about a CIA puppet in near messianic terms. If she really believes what she claims here, the bitch is delusional.

So maybe she is a “Bond villain” or perhaps she simply is a mindless neocon political hack. Of course, I may be splitting hairs here!

One could simply say he is good at governing and bad at politics. But at the end of the day, Trump is to blame. Until Trump is done with politics he is unstoppable. There is nothing he or anyone could have done to wrestle the 50+% from Trump.