From day one, Donald Trump has been focused on the stock market and delivering for his wealthy friends and big corporations.
As president, I will be laser-focused on working families and small businesses. pic.twitter.com/3gFMqw4nk6
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 16, 2020
NEWS: Biden says he’s now receiving intelligence briefings as the Democratic presidential nominee. And he warns about Russian, Chinese and other foreign interference in the 2020 election. https://t.co/TwQfJUjF1s
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) July 18, 2020
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said he is receiving intelligence briefings and warned Friday about Russian interference in the 2020 election.
“We know from before and I guarantee you I know now because now I get briefings again — the Russians are still engaged in trying to delegitimize our electoral process. Fact,” the former vice president said during a fundraiser organized by lawyers that included general counsels from roughly 100 companies.
“China and others are engaged as well in activities designed for us to lose confidence in the outcome” of the November election, Biden added.
A Biden campaign official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the briefings had begun and said the candidate also receives advice from his team of national security experts.
Biden had not been briefed as recently as June 30, when he said at a press conference that he “very well may” ask for access to intelligence about reports that Russia had offered bounties for the killing of American troops in Afghanistan…
Biden has repeatedly criticized Donald Trump after reports that the president doesn’t read the Presidential Daily Brief and receives only infrequent verbal briefings. On the Russian bounty reports, Biden said “the idea that somehow he didn’t know, or isn’t being briefed, it is a dereliction of duty, if that’s the case.” He added that if Trump “was briefed and nothing was done about this, that’s a dereliction of duty.”
.
Because the current Maladministration just ain’t up to the job, folks!
American cities are allegedly "under siege," and yet we still don't have a duly confirmed, non-"acting" Homeland Security secretary — just like we haven't for 460 days. https://t.co/U2wi6cUb9q
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) July 17, 2020
i'm no political expert, nor do i think biden has it in the bag, but just from a gadfly standpoint, i have to admit that the marketing genius behind "EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE AND IF YOU RE-ELECT THE PRESIDENT WHO CAUSED IT TO BE TERRIBLE HE MIGHT FIX IT" really escapes me.
— golikehellmachine (@golikehellmachi) July 16, 2020
OzarkHillbilly
Blech.
WereBear
Apparently there are things marketing can’t fix. Hoocoodanode?!?!?
Baud
Woke up to the John Lewis news. Very sad he couldn’t make it to see election day.
I’m glad that someone responsible is getting security briefings.
NotMax
Need a breather? A few minutes of positive diversion, courtesy of times past.
How do you construct a world? Start with the South Pole.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I’m glad someone is finally receiving them.
Jeffro
“Re-elect me to fix the problems that I created” is a novel campaign pitch, true.
NotMax
@Jeffro
Hey, hey, forty-five.
How many more must lose their lives?
.
OzarkHillbilly
White House portraits of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush moved from prominent space to rarely used room
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: Me too. I am so sad!
And if Biden is getting security briefings, he now knows more than Trump does about what’s happening, since Trump can neither read nor listen.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: the horror
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
In the future when his own portrait is added (*shudder*), maybe find a home for it in the broom closet of the bunker?
//
JPL
Hi Imma, in case you are lurking just wanted to let you know we miss your wisdom.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
rikyrah
I am very happy that Biden is receiving those briefings.
Jeffro
@NotMax: that was pretty cool!
There was a slightly smaller (but still large) version in someone’s backyard for decades in Springfield, VA…you could see it as you drove by on the main road. Odd little landmark.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: I find it funny.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: me too
prostratedragon
@NotMax: Surely it would take the artist at least a couple of decades to get the color palette just so. And that’s before the drafting would begin.
Matt McIrvin
@NotMax: In the bottom of the toilet, like the 19th century British chamber pots with Napoleon’s face inside.
Chyron HR
@NotMax:
Why? Do we put Jeff Davis’s portrait up in the White House?
Dorothy A. Winsor
I caught myself thinking about what a massive tribute John Lewis’s funeral will be and then I realized we can’t do it because of the virus.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Why would China do this? Shouldn’t they want sanity to return? Aren’t we one of their biggest markets?
Not that I disbelieve Biden. I’m just a little confused
Jeffro
@Dorothy A. Winsor: a virtual national vigil of some kind? A (socially distant, masked) march would be great too.
I know I plan on celebrating quite loudly and publicly and socially distant-ly for Biden’s inauguration. I hope the DNC gets creative about how to do it nationwide, in every town.
But first things first: I do hope they find a way to honor Rep. Lewis in a way befitting such a giant of a man.
SFAW
@NotMax:
Fuck that. I want (FSM willing) President Biden to have an outhouse installed on the National Mall, probably a three-holer, with the Murderer-in-Chief’s portrait at the bottom of each “stall.”
Actually, I’d like the Murderer-in-Chief to be at the bottom of the three-holer, but that idea is less practical, because making the Secret Service be there is not fair to them. Maybe they can substitute Uday, Qusay, and Jarvanka for him
ETA: I see Matt McIrvin has a similar suggestion.
Matt McIrvin
@Jeffro: There’s also a smaller replica of the Unisphere at Universal Studios Florida, in the area themed after Men in Black. It’s kind of amazing to think the ’64 World’s Fair was so influential that there are echoes of it at Universal and Walt Disney World (since It’s A Small World and the Carousel of Progress both originated there).
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Fixed, because the Traitor-in-Chief receives them, he just doesn’t understand them.
prostratedragon
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Maybe they have the same interest as Russia in keeping the US ineffectual internationally. Also, a lot of what they sell is bought by individual consumers.
SFAW
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
A weakened USA makes it easier for China to establish its 1000-year hegemony. Or were you under the impression that China is all “Hey, USA, let’s lead the world into a future together!”
ETA: Rebuilding manufacturing power to the US will be difficult, even with a strong leadership team in place. With the current bunch of traitors, grifters, and morons — no way it can happen.
rikyrah
@JPL:
Imma,
I will add to those who are missing you. I hope that all is well with you and Little Imma ????
Auntie Anne
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I know . . . I wondered about his funeral last night, hoping Obama would speak, and then was even more sad when I realized there will be no funeral.
Amir Khalid
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I’m sure someone is planning an online memorial service, and will announce it shortly.
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
?????
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@SFAW:
Not quite, but I am pissed that the GOP has such an asymmetric “advantage”
Amir Khalid
@Chyron HR:
Maybe there’s a Dunce’s Corner where Trump’s portrait can hang alongside Hoover’s and Buchanan’s.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@prostratedragon:
It’s just you’d think they’d understand that destabilizing a country as influential as ours is bad for them because of issues like climate change as well as the global economy.
I guess it goes to show these guys aren’t very smart and have no actual long-term vision that benefits anybody but their own narrow interests
ThresherK
Okay, Bill Clinton, I understand: Trump doesn’t consider Obama as legit because Obama was…you know. So, last Dem prez: Trump is threatened by Clinton’s peace, prosperity, esteem, equanimity, and (if Trump were smart enough, which I’m not saying he is) that Clinton got
impeachedhunted like an animal and yet it made him look great. “They impeached me, and I beat them (politically) like a yard dog,” Bill said.But the idea that “big shoes to fill” includes George W. Bush? That’s hilarious.
Butter Emails
@OzarkHillbilly:
On the plus side, now that Trump’s broken with the tradition there’s no reason for the next couple of President’s not to park Velveetamort’s portrait in the Lincoln Bedroom closet.
debbie
@JPL:
Seconded. Thirded.OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: I doubt very much he receives them. They surely give it to him, but just like leading the proverbial horse to water, they can’t make him listen.
Ken
Can Biden also get past intelligence briefings? That is, copies of the actual pieces of paper that were put in front of Trump? That would definitely establish whether he was ever briefed about the Russian bounties.
rikyrah
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump controls what they share with Biden.
rikyrah
???
Jeffro
and Springfield ;)
Jeffro
@rikyrah: Biden knows she’s no “centrist”. What planet is Kapur on? We need every Dem Senator we can get.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@rikyrah: Agreed. I worry a little about the Immp.
Jeffro
@Ken: He can certainly ask to be briefed now about what the intelligence agencies know re: bounties/Russia. I don’t think he can get a copy of the president*s previous PDBs.
SiubhanDuinne
@OzarkHillbilly:
Wow. There’s just nothing too petty for these folks, is there?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@rikyrah: That’s because she will obstruct his agenda.
debbie
@rikyrah:
I can’t imagine their hero would be celebrating. I don’t understand this.
rikyrah
gene108
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
A non-virulently racist Administration, even with COVID19, would figure out someway to acknowledge and honor Rep. Lewis’s contributions in making America better.
Even if it is just a speech in his honor, but I think more likely would be a speech and ordering flags lowered to half-mast.
This administration will not even acknowledge his passing, not even so much as a tweet with something anodyne like “condolences to Rep. Lewis and his family”.
rikyrah
Dorothy A. Winsor
Last week, I saw a map on which states were color-coded to show how well they were doing against COVID. Illinois was yellow, but our bordering states (all governed by Rs) were blood red, so I knew it couldn’t last. And sure enough, this morning, we’re orange.
We are allowing an aggressive minority to ruin life for the rest of us.
OzarkHillbilly
Heh:
Uncle Cosmo
@Matt McIrvin: Not so amazing at Universal, since the climactic scene of the first MiB takes place at the original Unisphere in Flushing.
But yeah, it is kinda iconic. (These days “ironic” may come closer, as Trumpmurkkka turns its back on the rest of the planet.)
zhena gogolia
@Butter Emails:
I like the way you think! You just cheered me up.
Uncle Cosmo
@OzarkHillbilly: And how many were bought en masse by a wingnut bazillionaire to artificially pump up sales?
(Narrator: Even George Soros is waiting for a library copy.)
Dorothy A. Winsor
From a PRRI poll cited on twitter (I’m not embedding the tweet because there’s a picture of Trump). I thought it was interesting that the younger group is slightly more approving of Trump. I wouldn’t have predicted that.
debbie
@gene108:
“He was never very nice to me.” ??
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Trump must not realize TR championed conservation. As for McKinley, huh?
OzarkHillbilly
Pictures of the memo at the link.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: He’s got a lot more in common with Hoover.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
So were was Trump in the last four years if our cities were as bad as this?
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
I was expecting Andrew Johnson at the very least. //
Just One More Canuck
@Butter Emails: when they do Trump’s portrait, it should be printed on toilet paper
Wapiti
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It’s not like the US was doing anything about climate change when it was more stable. Not with 51+ Republican Senators.
germy
OMG. That means Trump was receiving intelligence briefings back when he was the Republican nominee…
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Out-STANDING!!!
Salty Sam
Wow! I was the AV nerd in junior high (nope, not callin’ it middle school)- I was the one who wheeled the projector in and threaded the 16mm film for those science and health films we got to watch. I sat through HOURS of the same music, and narrator, as this piece you posted. Thanks, I think…
Matt McIrvin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: That kind of difference is small enough to be statistical noise, but I also think that teenagers’ political worldview can be strongly shaped by that of their parents, who in this case are GenXers and youngest Boomers.
germy
So Trump is running on the “Throw The Bums Out” ticket.
Smart.
Matt McIrvin
Over the past week, the state of Massachusetts sent all registered voters in the state a postage-paid vote-by-mail application, for both the state primary on September 1 and the general election. Mine arrived in the mail yesterday. I’d been meaning to print one out off the Secretary of State’s website ever since the PDF appeared there, but getting the paper one, and then hearing about John Lewis’s passing, spurred me to fill it out and drop it in this morning.
I hate being uncertain that the Postal Service will be operating well enough to use for this purpose when the time comes. But Massachusetts, unlike some states, actually does want everyone to vote, so I figure they’ll find a way one way or another.
catclub
No, but there is still a county in Mississippi named after him.
Also Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Mississippi goddam keeps on keeping on.
Fester Addams
@Just One More Canuck:
Impractical. How would you know when you were done?
Matt McIrvin
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Republicans continue to insist that even in the red states, even COVID-19 is only a problem in the blue cities that are all run by Democrats, which are also full of rioters and crime because they’re run by Democrats, etc. They hammer that talking point really hard when anyone says something about Trump’s failures. It feels like ancient white-flight rhetoric from the 1970s, and of course that’s what Donald Trump grew up with.
Betty Cracker
Woke up to the news of John Lewis’s passing. I feel fortunate to have lived in the same time as a giant like Rep. Lewis, but losing him right now is especially hard. One of the things that was special about him was that he was a hero, but he was so human at the same time.
An old man and his cats. A lion of American history. Same guy.
The very least we citizens can do to honor him now is to rename the Edmund Pettus Bridge the John Lewis Bridge. The most we can do? Work hard to make this country worthy of a man like John Lewis.
narya
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I’ve been digging a little into the FYNYT data each day, and, despite a little increase (statewide) over the past month, it does not seem to be increasing dramatically; even the hot spots (e.g. Kankakee) seem to be leveling off. No reason to take off the mask, for sure.
raven
@Betty Cracker:
But Alan Reese isn’t pushing for the bridge to be named after his grandfather.
Kristine
@Dorothy A. Winsor: We’re asking folks from those states to self-quarantine, but we’re not enforcing it so I doubt many are. States with decreasing numbers would have to close their borders to save themselves, and that’s not going to happen. I’m not sure it can.
Dorothy A. Winsor
My old-old-people book club met yesterday, FTF for the first time in months. (My young-old-people club meets Monday. They’re discussing The Wysman. :-)) They’re all very dismayed by how badly the pandemic is going. Also one old guy said he was reading Bolton’s book and was unhappy about what he was learning.
I’d guess almost all of them are traditional Rs. They probably didn’t vote for Clinton, but they may not have voted for Trump either. Just my guess, but I suspect they could vote for Biden.
Jeffro
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I think GenXers (aka Reagan babies, aka my own selfish cohort) are responsible for his support being higher right around age 50.
The support from younger voters could well be the kids of those GenXers
Sure Lurkalot
@Matt McIrvin: In Colorado, there are 24 hour lock boxes in very convenient locations. The closest one to me is at a rec center that I can walk to. You can still vote in person, early or on Election Day. Signing up for Ballot Trace, you are notified when your ballot is mailed and when it’s been approved for counting. There is no reason it shouldn’t be thus in every state.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: watching the video of him crowd surfing during the Stephen Colbert show is making me laugh and tear up at the same time.
and yes, they sure ought to rename that bridge
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Percysowner
@rikyrah: God knows, I think the Bernie Stans are capable of anything, but I really need more than a tweet from someone I’ve never heard of, with no supporting links, to believe that they are celebrating his death. Partly because I can’t see why they would. Lewis didn’t make the endorsement that put Biden over the top In South Carolina.
I’m not saying it didn’t happen. I’m just saying I want more proof that it happened AND I want proof that it’s widespread in the Bernie or Bust camp, not just a few dipwads and/or Russian bots spouting off.
I also suspect that the MAGA folk won’t continue to be respectful of John Lewis. They DO, after all, have a contingent that is willing to drive into people asking for fair treatment of POC’s so I don’t think they can shut their mouth for that log.
germy
Living statues of Trump:
Baud
What happened to Imm?
Betty Cracker
Trump has been silent on John Lewis’s passing, which is just as well because anything he said would be insincere or offensive. But he was whining on Twitter last night about Mary Trump’s book:
I’m not sure why he thinks telling everyone his “wonderful parents” disliked their own granddaughter in any way refutes Mary Trump’s account of their fucked up family dynamics.
Spanky
@Just One More Canuck: I would like to see his portrait depicting him doing a perp walk, with Federal officers flanking him and hands cuffed in front.
Aleta
@Baud: I was wondering if he’s been helping the application to the SC to stay the execution of Wesley Purkey. The application argued he was mentally unfit, the ruling was 5-4 and he was put to death Thursday.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: He ain’t been here.
Eunicecycle
@NotMax: I know this won’t be a popular opinion, but maybe we need Trump’s portrait hung up prominently to remind us of how badly we as a country f*cked up. That it can happen here.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Spanky: I’m good with a mug shot.
Doug R
@NotMax:
Visitor restroom, over the toilets?
dnfree
@Salty Sam: there is a difference. A middle school is generally grades 6-7-8, and a junior high is grades 7-8. Except my junior high, in the 1950s. It was 7-8-9 and our high school was three years also.
Doug R
Is this thread accepting comments from me? The refresh count stays the same, no naked links-what gives?
Kropacetic
Trump not know history? Unpossible…
WaterGirl
@Doug R: It looks like you were added to the ban list by mistake. Someone must have clicked the wrong thing by mistake!
Thanks for submitting the missing comments through the Site Feedback form!
You are all good now. :-
edit: by the way, naked links are fine. more than 7 links gets you thrown into spam – until someone marks you not spam and releases it. neither of those is what happened today.
Yutsano
@rikyrah: I think Holder is wrong here. It’s only the worst possible moment if we despair at his passing and give up. If anything losing Rep. Lewis has made my resolve to see the world he and so many others were fighting for even stronger. We can’t lose this momentum. We have to get our democracy back. We need to win it for John. It’s what his spirit would want.
And the Angel of Death better not even THINK about coming anywhere near Rep. Clyburn!
Ruckus
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
There are 6 or 7 billion people in the world. Approx 1/3 of one billion live in the US, give or take at least a couple hundred thousand in six months or so. So that leaves a pretty healthy market for Chinese goods in the world without us. Hell their home market is nothing to sneeze at. And our current president has made it pretty clear that he’s not willing to live with anyone else in the world, or even a large portion of his own citizens. So really, how much is the loss of us as a market, especially as our “leader” is actively killing off his own citizens, has added tariffs to a lot of goods – making them less attractive, is a stark raving lunatic, and we elected him knowing that he is? I mean, is the smart play to actually attempt to remain a player in the US market? Or write us off as too far gone to bother…
Ruckus
@Doug R:
Visitor restroom, the wall behind the pee trough. Everyone gets a shot. See if you can make it look as if he’s crying…..
Uncle Cosmo
(sigh) Most (if not all) of what’s been going down over the last few decades is readily comprehensible once one postulates that GOP stands for Global Oligarchy Putsch [1].
This GOP isn’t out to destroy government, or even take it over for longer than needed to install a permanent complaisant autocracy. The goal is to destroy liberal democratic governance in the most powerful nations as the only movement that can possibly stand up to them.
In a Global Oligarchy, the “gummint’s” only roles are tax collector and military/cop. Citizens pay up & get minimal services in return while the Global Oligarchs use national treasuries as their private ATMs [2]; they are encouraged to battle other “tribes” for more of an ever-diminishing pie to deflect blame from the Global Oligarchs raiding national treasuries as their private ATMs. The cops & military are there to enforce the GOs’ extraterritorial rights (e.g., the right not to obey any laws they don’t like [3, 4]) in-country and out-, & slap down the proles down hard if they get “uppity”.
(Tl; dr version: Capital moves at the speed of light; The Club travels at jet speed; the lower classes can’t move at all.)
State actors such as Putin’s mafiyacracy and the Chinese collective leadership have been grandfathered, or maybe godfathered, into The Club (the one that, per George Carlin, you & me ain’t in), because Vlad the Paler and the Xi-ites are doing the Lord’s, i.e., the GOP’s work as they strive to destabilize & delegitimize any form of responsible, responsive US government. As far as the GOs are concerned, Vlad and Xi are not really different from them, & they can all share the Global Oligarchy once it’s set in concrete….
Except of course that these are the types of guys who don’t share willingly – & they have at their beck & call nuclear arsenals and death squads. And our putative Global Oligarchs, who grew up cossetted in the comfy bosom of the liberal democratic tradition, are odds-on to find out the hard way that they will not shrink from using either.
Final point: The GOs are fine with Trump as an agent of destabilization – they don’t mind him “wetting his beak” in the gummint birdbath (it’s chump change to them) – but now that he looks to be headed for an epic trouncing, they’ll also be fine with him pulling out all the stops to snatch a second term of destruction. But if they end up with Uncle Joe, who sure as hell sound like he isn’t going to get with the
pogromprogram, they’ll have no problem with Agolf Twitler smashing/grabbing/trashing everything in sight on the way out so long as they can snatch any remaining levers of power while he’s distracting us. They’re waaaaay too close to cementing their grip on power already.Were I any one of the four liberal Justices, or the Speaker and the rest of the House Democratic leadership, I would be very, very careful about letting anyone not thoroughly vetted get within sneezing distance – & I wouldn’t go above the 3rd floor in any building with balconies or windows that open.
/rant (flame away)
[1] We will also accept Project or Plutocrats.
[2] An extension of the theft of worker productivity to fill the oligarchs’ Money Bins that’s been going on since Reagan.
[3] Daddy Warbucks’ little Annie in a family way from the wrong father & abortion’s illegal here? Time for a European holiday & a quiet rest cure in some Dutch retroactive birth control facility.
[4] Fundanazis and Opus-Deitripper Catholics have free reign [5] to dictate public morality & enforce heavy penalties for noncompliance – but membership in The Club (or in a pinch, sufficient $$$ in the right places) is a Get Out Of Consequences card.
[5] I’m fully aware it’s “rein” but couldn’t resist the pun, sorry.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
Understand, he thinks that he is the center of the family, that everyone else is fucked up and he is normal. Isn’t delusion fun?
artem1s
@Dorothy A. Winsor: the most impressive thing I remember about Ted Kennedy’s funeral was the processions. Thousands lined up along the road to watch the motorcade go by. from the family compound to the church and then to the cemetery. I think this would be possible and a fitting way of honoring John Lewis.
WaterGirl
@Yutsano: If you haven’t yet watched the video from Adam’s thread last night, you will be amazed by how much of what he talked about is still happening today.
Listening to him speak was inspirational. We have to pick up his share of the fight.
JustRuss
Trump has his family bound by NDAs??! Dear god that man is so, so twisted.