Sunday, July 30, 2023

Easy Sunday: "Who ARE those guys?"

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ask: "Who ARE those guys?"


The video link is to a funny 25-second clip from the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Butch and Sundance are on the run, but they cannot shake the posse.

Trump leads the GOP nomination fight, but there are people in pursuit of him. Some are likely unfamiliar. Below are the names, faces, and very brief bio of candidates who appeared at the Iowa Lincoln Day Dinner multi-candidate event on Friday evening. The photos are from the  Des Moines Register's coverage of the event.


Vivek Ramaswami


Young multimillionaire. Revolution, not reform. End the deep state. Abolish the FBI, IRS, ATF, CDC, and Department of Education. Pardon Trump on day one.


Larry Elder


Talk show host. Black uplift by self help. Colorblind society.


Ryan Binkley


Texas pastor. Calls for spiritual revival and expanding the GOP.


Francis Suarez


Miami mayor. Law and order, Miami success. Calls himself a problem solver.


William Hurd


Former U.S. Rep. from Texas. Old-style, pre-Trump Republican. Voted for impeaching Trump. Said Trump is running for president to "stay out of prison" and got boos.

Mike Pence


Former Vice President. Traditional Christian conservative. Ban abortion nationally. Did not throw out electoral votes on Jan. 6. Gets boos from Republican crowds.


Doug Burgum


North Dakota governor. Software multimillionaire. Grow U.S. energy. Small town values. Signed strong anti-abortion and anti-trans laws.


Perry Johnson


75-year-old Michigan businessman. Abolish FBI. Pardon Trump. Impeach Biden.


Tim Scott


South Carolina U.S. Senator. Traditional GOP conservative. Doesn't oppose Trump. America is land of opportunity and not racist, saying he is proof.


Ron DeSantis

Florida Governor. Pivots from questions about Trump guilt to attacks on the various prosecutions of Trump. Anti-woke, anti-abortion, anti-trans. Takes on Disney and Bud Light beer. 

Asa Hutchinson

Former governor of Arkansas. Traditional Christian conservative. Condemns Trump's crimes.


Nikki Haley


Governor of South Carolina, former UN ambassador. Supports Ukraine. Questions competence of politicians over age 75 including Biden, Trump, and McConnell. U.S. is land of opportunity. Silent on Trump's crimes.



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34 comments:

Mike Steely said...

You left out my favorite. The leader of the real posse is Jack Smith, a DOJ veteran who has prosecuted corrupt politicians in the U.S. and war crimes internationally. Now he’s focused on Trump and his inner circle.

Anonymous said...

Gerontocracy: Biden, Feinstein, McConnell. Nikki is right.

Mike said...

Trump’s poll numbers are over 50%. Nothing says president to Republicans like an angry, belligerent, bigoted sociopath.
DeSantis panders to racists so at least he’s in the double digits, even if it’s the teens.
Pence refused a direct order to violate the Constitution, so he’s a non-starter.
Asa Hutchinson said, “Trump has done great harm to our rule of law.” Dead on arrival.

The other white guys have no name recognition, and you can forget about the women and people of color. God intended for the U.S. to be a White, Christian nation and for women to be subservient. That’s what “Christian” Nationalists say, and most Republicans are on board with it.

John F said...

Why isn't Chris Christie on your list of Republican presidential candidates?
Does he belong here?

Michael Trigoboff said...

Who are these guys?

Potential presidents who don’t have 1 foot in the grave.

If what I hope happens and neither Trump nor Biden runs in 2024 (for whatever reasons), most of them would have a good shot at beating the politically incompetent Kamala Harris.

Anonymous said...

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Health-Summary-2.16.pdf

Read it and weep, Michael. You can’t write Biden off with at crap. Maybe don’t comment with lies, damn lies, nor misleading statements! One foot in whose grave?

Take one foot out of your mouth, sir!

Sundance said...

You just keep thinking, Butch; that’s what you’re good at.

Michael Trigoboff said...

We’ll see, Anonymous. Those falls Biden has had recently aren’t a good sign.

“One foot in the grave” isn’t a precise medical diagnosis; it’s a colloquialism meaning, “too old.“

Mike said...

Kamala Harris may not be as politically incompetent as a lot of White-wingers might like to think. A theoretical match between her and the Republican runner-up, their aspiring racist-in-chief, shows him leading by only 2 points, which is within the margin of error.

Malcolm said...

Mike, 👍🏾

Michael Trigoboff said...

All we need to do is look at how “well“ Kamala Harris did in the 2020 primaries. She didn’t even make it to Iowa, despite her unconscionable race-baiting hit on Biden: ‘I was that little girl.”

Ed Cooper said...

You forgot mention Defendant Rapist # One.!

Michael Trigoboff said...

Mike apparently thinks “racist” is a magic word that will cause his “white” political opponents to disappear. The race card is all he’s got.

Mc said...

Go get 'em Jack!

Mc said...

Funny how Trump's age/metal health are seldom discussed by the GOPee.

Mc said...

Ha!

Mc said...

I'd vote for/donate to/work for Ms. Harris.

The Ds make America better!

Anonymous said...

To Live and Die in LA car chase the best ‘who are those guys’ in movie history.

Mike said...

Michael apparently thinks ignoring the racism that remains so systemic in our society is proof that it doesn't exist. As if.

Mike said...

Some folks may imagine that personal attacks on those they disagree with somehow negate their points, but in spite Michael's attempt to change the subject (which he brought up), Kamala Harris and Ron DeSantis remain essentially tied on FiveThirtyEight (which he claims to read).

Michael Trigoboff said...

I do not “ignore” racism. I just resist the unjustifiable accusations of those (like Ibram Kendi, Robin DiAngelo, and Mike Steely) who claim to see it everywhere, and use it as a bludgeon against their political opponents, just like Joe McCarthy used to do with “communism.”

“Racism” has to mean something more than “Mike Steely doesn’t like it.”

Mike said...

Michael -
Prejudice and racism remain very real, as so many commenters (not just me) tried to convince you on July 25. Ron Desantis' racist campaign and Black history curriculum are just two examples, but you pitch a fit when any are brought up. If it bothers you so much, call a waahmbulance.

Michael Trigoboff said...

Mike,

I don’t “pitch a fit”.

I just state my position logically. I don’t call other people names. I don’t make stupid puns on the words “white” or “ambulance”. I am willing to accept that other people may look at the same thing and not agree with me. I am open to the possibility that such disagreements can lead to deeper understanding on all sides, and certainly on mine.

I acknowledge that prejudice and racism still exist in this country, just not to the extreme degree that you seem to think they are. You seem to think that any disagreement with the tenets of left-wing racial identity politics can only be the result of racism and prejudice. I believe that is an error on your part.

I will continue to call you out for your injection of toxic animus and negativity Into these discussions. We would all be better off if you would just finally stop it and participate as though all sides had a right to be here and had something valuable to offer. Or, to put it another way, if you were willing to respect intellectual diversity.

Maybe it’s time for you to stop banging away on the racial McCarthyism. There’s enough of that around courtesy of Alan Sharpton and many others who are much better at it than you.

Michael Trigoboff said...

Kamala Harris and Ron DeSantis remain essentially tied on FiveThirtyEight (which he claims to read).

DeSantis’ campaign is currently going straight down the tubes. That Kamala Harris is “essentially tied“ with DeSantis is not a ringing endorsement of her political competence. The two of them are circling the same drain.

Mike said...

You claim I see racism everywhere. Wrong, as usual.

You have espoused “scientific racism,” railed against Affirmative Action, whined about Whites being discriminated against and defended DeSantis’ attempts to rewrite history. I do see racism there, but fortunately it’s not everywhere. In fact, you’re in the minority, which is one of the reasons DeSantis doesn’t have a chance.

Ibram Kendi has interesting things to say. He won the National Book Award, but perhaps they’re over your head.

Mike said...

"Racism” has to mean something more than “Mike Steely doesn’t like it.”

That's true. Racism would be imagining that the vast disparities between Blacks and Whites have nothing to do with the hundreds of years of brutal oppression Blacks have been subjected to and that they don’t deserve any special effort to address the inequities.

Michael Trigoboff said...

I don’t whine about anything. Mike’s use of the term is yet another example of his injection of invective into what could be a rational discussion. I object to racial discrimination in any direction, including the racial discrimination that underlies affirmative action.

Mike brings up the various disparities involving black people. I do not deny any of those disparities. What I have been insisting on is that we actually understand the mechanisms of those disparities, which might lead to some kind of affective action to ameliorate them. That would involve something cleverer than just invoking “racism“. Discrimination in the past can produce effects that are not necessarily maintained by discrimination in the present. You can’t fix a problem by attacking something that isn’t actually causing it.

The Florida document is there for anyone to read and determine what they think about it for themself.

Mike thinks I am in the minority. I guess we’ll see in 2024.

Ibram Kendi explicitly advocates discrimination against white people. Mike is correct, that is an interesting thought. Being Mike, includes a gratuitous insult about my intelligence; his usual toxic animus.

Michael Trigoboff said...

If the “wealth gap” were the complete explanation for ongoing problems/poverty in some parts of the black community, Mike would have to explain to us how immigrants (including black immigrants) continue to arrive here with nothing, and a generation later their children are in the middle class.

Slavery, Jim Crow, and other forms of discrimination in the past were probably the original cause of current problems in part of the black community. That does not mean that racial discrimination is responsible for maintaining those problems now. Generational cultural damage initially inflicted by slavery and Jim Crow may have rendered some black people incapable of taking advantage of the equality of opportunity that exists now. I am not saying I know that for certain; but the people who conflate what happened in the distant past for the continuation of problems in the present don’t know that for certain either.

You can’t fix a problem without actually understanding it. LBJ’s “war on poverty” failed; poverty won. What are you proposing, Mike? Spend even more money on ann approach that failed? Reverse discrimination until everything is equal? “Reparations“ paid for by people whose ancestors weren’t even here during the time of slavery and Jim Crow?

I am willing to help people with problems, but not at the cost of reverse racial discrimination or the lowering of standards of excellence and competence.

Have you got something specific to propose? Or are you content to just spew insults at anyone who dares to disagree with you?

Mike said...

The link I sent included some proposals, but if you prefer insults:
KMRIA

Michael Trigoboff said...

Mike didn’t mention any of the proposals in the Brookings link in his own post. So I didn’t think to look at them.

I just looked, and Brookings in the last two small paragraphs advocated for wealth transfer via taxation. I could support things like that if done properly and competently.

But Mike didn’t ask whether or not I had seen those Brookings proposals. He just chose to spew yet another insult, as is typical for him, this time in an abbreviated form in all caps.

Mike said...

Of course you didn't look at my reference before you spewed your criticism. The all-caps is a quote from Joyce I thought appropriate.

Michael Trigoboff said...

Guilty as charged. I will note, though, that the solutions proposed in the Brookings article do not include affirmative action, or any other form of reverse discrimination.

Regarding the Joyce quote, the K stands for “kick“ … right???

Mike said...

Since I was discussing the cause of disparites between Blacks and Whites, that was the subject of the article. It includes a few tax proposals but makes it clear that solutions "are largely outside the scope of this post."

Please try to get a clue.

Michael Trigoboff said...

Please try to get a clue.

A polite insult. I suppose that’s progress… 😀