I wanna start this post by saying we are all stressed out, tired, scared, angry, overworked, underpaid, and anxious. All of us. Any sentient human being would be, so it is understandable. So keep that in mind in the comments and try to keep in mind the people here are not the enemy, and to be kind.
New shirt for the summer arrived:
Despite my cautionary note to everyone at the top of this post, I would like to note that I have been in a frothing fucking rage all god damned day, and scanning the headlines it looks like I am going to be that way for quite some time. I don’t know what to say about the fucking Supreme Court, who decided in the past 48 hours that being broke is a crime, keeping poison out of food, water, and the air is a crime, while at the same time deciding that a little bribery is ok. Fuck these motherfuckers. I’m gonna watch the Pelican Brief on repeat this weekend.
The majority of my anger is directed, however, at the media, the bobbleheads, and the fauxgressives all screaming about Biden’s debate performance. I only watched about ten to fifteen minutes last night because the mere sound of Trump’s voice sends me into a rage, but I caught it all this morning on replay, and the reactions are absurd. I think Mistermix is about right- what you all witnessed was a normal, healthy, 81 year old man. There were no signs of dementia, no signs of failing judgment, no lies. Just an old guy looking, well, old.
This should not surprise you, because Biden is fucking old. So is Trump. I personally don’t think ANYONE should be running for President over the age of 70, but I also feel that way about the House, the Senate, and every other branch of government. But I don’t get to make the fucking rules, so here we are.
It’s become distressingly clear to me that the vast majority of this nation has never really spent any time with older people. At all. All the things you see in Joe Biden are just the signs of aging that hit us all. Lots of physical things happen- your skin gets thinner and less supple. You lose muscle mass. You lose fat in a lot of places like your face and your feet, leaving you with a drawn and gaunter looking face, and your feet hurt because there is less padding so you become more interested in things like comfortable socks and shoes. There are literally billion dollar industries focused just on shoes for seniors. Your skin, tendons, ligaments and most everything else becomes less elastic. You get stiffer. Your hearing isn’t as good. You might have mild cataracts. Your bones do not have the same density so falls are more dangerous. Your response latency is worse. You’re slower and everything hurts.
And every last fucking bit of this is 100% normal. We will all go through it. There is nothing you can do about it. Time comes for us all. I remember telling all the younger guys in my World of Warcraft guild over a decade or more ago “that one of these days as you get older, you are going to sit on one of your balls, and when it happens after the pain and shock subsides you will think of me.” Lo and behold, it happened to one of them the first time this spring:
I love that I said this fifteen years ago and he remembered to reach out to me on discord. Too funny.
All of these things happen. It’s unavoidable. It’s the normal aging process.
But what it isn’t is demonstration of cognitive decline. It isn’t dementia. It isn’t incompetence. It isn’t a moral failing. It isn’t the result of decades of drug abuse. If you want to see that, don’t look at Joe Biden. Look at the other fucking guy that was on stage last night lying his ass off and generally ranting about everything and making no sense.
Fuck him and the people fluffing and enabling him.
The other thing driving me fucking insane is this whole “Biden should step down” stuff that has taken hold in certain quarters. I know I am about to show my age here by using an internet and pop culture reference older than this year’s graduating college seniors, but this is the underpants gnome theory being applied to Presidential selection. So Biden steps down. Then what?
Who takes over? I know it isn’t Kamala you want in there because you fuckers on the far left spent the last election calling her a cop and saying she’s not a real black person because she’s West Indian and Jamaican and whatever else. So I know you don’t think that is what will happen.
So who will it be? How will we pick them? How will we get the millions of people who voted for Joe in the primary to support your new choice? How will we get them on the ballot, considering Ohio just had to pass a special bill to get Biden on the ballot.
Just shut the fuck up.
Biden is our candidate, and there ain’t no changing that. So either you’re riding with Biden or you’re with the other fucking guy, and there really is no in between. This country will not survive another Trump Presidency or three more right wing Supreme Court Justices. So either strap in and work harder to get Biden and his team elected, or just sit back and wait for the mandatory Brawndo drinking sessions coming down the pike.
I am so fucking tired of no one ever remembering anything. The memory of this nation is the length of a fucking Ramones song.
I’m going to go watch tv and eat watermelon. Fuck everything.
Baud
👍
Eh.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
To quote Driftglass: Pretty sure the debate didn’t permanently move the needle much one way or another. OTOH, it did definitively confirm that journalism is dead at CNN.
Per cain in the other thread, the people saying that are the people who never wanted Joe in the first place. Again from this morning’s thread, look at how the *base* of the Dem party, ie., black folks reacted:
Fuck that bum. Go get em, Joe!
That should be everybody’s reaction. Everyfuckingbody.
That’s being generous.
Anoniminous
(ahem)
Splitting Image
Fixed that for you.
Anne Laurie
Well said, Mr. Cole!
different-church-lady
A reminder that they pulled this same shit with Hillary: “She’s old and weak and tired” and then she actually got pneumonia and that was proof.
The useful idiots got set up so that the first little struggle would be seen as proof that Biden was senile, and man, some of them swallowed the hook, line, sinker, reel, rod, and the whole fuckin’ boat.
satby
Oh, that’s way longer than the average memory of Americans. And none of them know even what happened in their own lifetimes if it happened when they were younger than teenaged. Fucking ridiculous.
satby
@Baud: some are.
different-church-lady
@satby:
Certainly not the vast majority of the regulars.
But these day-old irregulars…
Kay
This is from The 19th, a new media outlet – I was shocked anyone in media thought to talk to rank and file Democrats:
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@satby:
Yup.
Another Scott
Thank you.
$1050 to go on the midnight goal for the Worker Power Leadership School seat, to get another $500.
Let’s direct that Doooomm and anger and frustration into something positive, eh?
Cheers,
Scott.
satby
@different-church-lady: 😂
FDRLincoln
Damn strait.
Baud
@Kay:
I hope they don’t get their First Amendment license revoked.
prostratedragon
Meant to put this up on Dobbs anniversary day but it slipped by me. Feisty enough for the present moment: “Stay Outta My Business,” Tami Neilson
SpaceUnit
I didn’t watch the debate and I haven’t paid much attention to the news today. I already knew who I would be voting for, and there wasn’t anything that could change that.
I also realized years ago that when one party in a debate is allowed to lie while the other is bound to the truth by both principle and the media, it really ain’t much of a debate. It’s just a formula for stress and rage. No thanks.
satby
@Another Scott: I’m donating to the Biden campaign, especially important to show support there now, IMO. Plus, they have the infrastructure in place and regional offices already open..
Kay
@Baud:
I genuinely thought “did they talk to Democrats?”
I can’t remember the last time I saw that.
lowtechcyclist
@Splitting Image:
Having never previously heard of Calhoun Tubbs, and being an old, I was going to suggest “Her Majesty” from Abbey Road.
But though I’m 70 years old and of the male persuasion, this is the first I’ve even heard of the notion that one might sit on one’s own balls, and it’s certainly never happened to me. Maybe my balls don’t hang quite low enough.
Kristine
Thank you, John.
Had to stay away from Facebook today because of all the defensive crouches. I should’ve left links to some Black Twitter accounts because damn.
TBone
In honor of the O. G. Girlz pictured 🎶
youtu.be/nVAFjvRBswY
Over the hill? What hill? I don’t remember any fukn hill!
Scout211
Yes.
But they did do one thing good today. They denied Bannon’s appeal so he is going to prison on Monday.
I guess Bannon should have taken a few of them on a fishing trip or showered them with other gratuities but apparently he just felt his fame and celebrity were enough to sway them. LOLOL.
Chris Johnson
@different-church-lady: And some of the predictables.
Kay
I’m going out to weed my front bed before it gets dark. You guys let me know what we decide on Joe Biden. I’m fine with anyone.
EXCEPT Baud.
ceece
Today is a good day to DO SOMETHING. Every time I cuss out the former guy or his media enablers, I try to do something productive with my energy. I don’t have a ton of money to donate, but I can afford some stamps and a highlighter pen.
today I am WRITING MORE POSTCARDS !
This week’s batch is going to a Black community in North Carolina. Next week’s batch is going to to a Native community in Arizona.
please check the Center for Common Ground site at:
centerforcommonground.org/actions
if you want to textbank or phonebank or postcard or volunteer in person to help GOTV in communities of color in various states. They are starting up a huge outreach to Black women in Florida.
oh, and FTFNYT
Adam Lang
What really gets me about this whole situation is the giant pack of ‘radical centrist’ pundits piously intoning that Biden should step down because he is oooold, with not a single one of them realizing that if he were 25 years younger, then something other than his age would have been what Fox used to dupe them into thinking that he’s unqualified, and that they would be saying the exact same thing about how he should step aside for the good of the country.
It’s what they do now. It’s their entire reason for living.
Yet, although people are rightly calling them out about the whole ‘brokered convention’ thing, nobody seems to be making the broader point that the age thing is just today’s excuse, just like Hillary’s emails were last time. I just don’t get that.
Nukular Biskits
I second that. And what mistermix said.
Adam Lang
@lowtechcyclist: Yeah. I think I’ve sat on someone else’s balls more than once in my younger and more frisky days, but I am not sure how I’d go about sitting on my own.
Slightly_peeved
The New and improved 538 (now with 100% less Nate Silver!) has Post-debate polling that showed very little change in voting intention: projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-trump-june-debate-poll/
Scout211
They were established in 2020 and many commenters here have posted links from their site.
Mai Naem mobile
It this was the GOP and TFG had a bad debate they would all be out there braying about awesome TFG was and how he had to go up against the liberal MSM wahhhhh.
xephyr
All I have to say is Amen John!
Frankensteinbeck
That t-shirt is beyond glorious.
Kerry
Thank you for your thoughts, John Cole! I feel better after reading them. I hope there are many people thinking the way you are.
PJ
I find it funny that someone’s idea of “Thug Life” is a picture of Minor Threat, a straight-edge band. I know the “humor” is that it’s the Golden Girls’ faces superimposed over their bodies, but the idea that Minor Threat were thuggish is “shrug emoji”. If the text were “Hardcore” it would make some sense . . .
Mai Naem mobile
@Adam Lang: the centrists think his legislation has been too much to the left. They’re the old DLCrs who were against throwing crumbs to the poor but okay with opportunity zones for wealthy developers.
Seanly
Concur, John. Shit is fucked up and shit.
I should get that shirt for my life. She loves Golden Girls…
jonas
Yeah, I don’t really know how our pundit overlords have gamed this out…
1. Force Biden aside
2. ???
3. Profit!
The reason Biden stayed in the game is because he knew that a long, brutal Democratic primary process to choose his successor would only blow up the party and benefit Trump. And he was right. We’d be in a *way* worse position than we are now if Harris, Newsom, Whitmer, Pritzger, Booker, Buttigeig and whoever else had spent the past 18 months tearing each other down rather than focusing on Trump being a lying, coup-ing, felonious, unfit-for-office son of a bitch. I don’t know how this whole farrago over the debate performance will play out, but the Monday-morning quarterbacking over Biden’s decision to press ahead against Trump once it became clear that he was not going to release his grip on the Republican party is a mug’s game.
lowtechcyclist
Since John mentioned his new t-shirt, here’s the one I was wearing today:
shirt.woot.com/offers/starcheology?ref=cnt_ctlg_dgn_0
lowtechcyclist
@jonas:
From their perspective, pretty much whatever replaced the ??? in step 2 would be profitable for them.
Until the leopards came to eat their faces, anyway.
JMG
My beloved wife, who did not watch the debate, told me Biden had to step down because THE NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD said so. She only reads the Times for the word games and recipes. I had many many responses on my tongue, but since she was muttering “he’s in denial” loud enough for me to hear, and since I do love and cherish her, I kept silent.
I’d rather be married than right, I guess.
NotMax
Speaking for myself, nope, not even a wee bit.
Momentary setbacks are just that — momentary. Keep focus on the big picture, not on the individual pixels.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Off topic but the local Kroger affiliate has been a shitshow for the last couple of days. As in toilets backed up and closed except for one barely kept filthy toilet in a back closet. As in brown liquid matter dripping on goods including bagged pet food. As in brown water-swamped areas of the store. As in not closing or bringing in chem toilets. As in telling employees to use the facilities at the Taco Bell across the street. Oh, and clock out when you do so.
Kroger runs their operations close to the bone, no fat at all. Fat like on site building maintenance personnel to actually maintain the facilities and deal with situations like this instead of eventually calling in some out of the area operation to come in and repair the latest disaster. They do have a few “fix it” guys who go from store to store to stamp out the smaller disasters after the fact. It blows my mind that Kroger doesn’t maintain the escalators or elevator nor any other building machinery, preferring to call in repair people when things break.
The executive board doesn’t give a shit about what happens at the local stores as long as the store manager keeps things running and the product/cash moving. The worst part is they reprimanded an employee for putting a sign at the front door stating that the public toilets were closed due to problems. That message was quickly taken down.
Too big to fail? More like too big to care. Pay attention Albertson’s, Kroger wants to do this to you.
mrmoshpotato
Well put, John. Especially the “Who the fuck would they replace Biden with?” part.
I was at my parents’ house last night watching the “debate” and even both of my parents were going “What the fuck is Trump talking about?” repeatedly. It was such a shitshow.
J. Arthur Crank
Ow! My balls!
gene108
My mom is 77.
Her opinion after last night’s debate is Biden has early onset dementia. My adult niece, a doctor, thinks it might be early onset Parkinson’s.
Fear of Trump is the biggest motivation people have to vote for Biden. Only political junkies like us care about policy, Normies are disappointed their choices are the two old men who ran in 2020, just older.
One thing we need to accept is things don’t usually change much from one administration to next, unless there’s a plague or terrorist attack. For most people what matters is “vibes” and “feelings” about a candidate on superficial grounds like the energy a president displays.
hervevillechaizelounge
@PJ:
I know, right? Senior Threat was right there!
NotMax
Admit freely to not “getting” the point of the shirt.
Thug is a word with zero positive connotations.
dexwood
Thanks, Cole. Knew I could count on you for a righteous, honest take on things. One so-so debate does not negate his accomplishments in the Oval Office. Democracy or Fascism. Should be simple enough to choose, but all bets are off.
Ishiyama
@gene108: Yeah, but who they gonna vote for?
Patricia Kayden
@Scout211: Yes!! Bannon going to prison made my day!! Nice way to end a rough week. I do sympathize with his cell mates though.
gene108
@Adam Lang:
No one thinks Trump should step down because he’s a convicted felon. He’s going to have a sentencing hearing in two weeks.
Yet this isn’t a reason for Trump to step aside.
hells littlest angel
That is fucked up. On the other hand, in November last night’s debate will be ancient history.
HinTN
I agree with all the positive sentiment expressed above. I’m riding with Biden, we’re riding with Biden, and we have got to do the work. I’m headed for the thermometer but first, you’re exactly right, John Cole,
It’s part and parcel of the youth and glitz view of the world pushed by the entertainment biz. It’s also that people generally cannot face the fullness of life as it manifests in a long life. Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden ought to be fucking heroes to us!
lowtechcyclist
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Clock out to go to the bathroom??? That’s got to run afoul (appropriate word here) of labor law.
But more seriously, ecch. Just ecch.
So are they on sewer or a septic system, or what? Not that it makes a difference in their response; the whole store should be shut down until it’s fixed. Somebody needs to call the county health authorities.
stinger
My candidate is an older man who as a lifelong stammerer struggled to express himself one evening. The other candidate is awaiting sentencing for 34 felonies. Why is this even a contest?
TBone
@NotMax:
m.youtube.com/watch?v=vdFvndmM_8I
Pandora
Thank you! I’ve been looking for a place where the pearls were unclutched and the fainting couches were still in storage; so I am absolutely thrilled to have found this. Yes, we all wanted Buffy to put a stake through the heart of Trumpism and all it stands for last night, but we also knew it will take more than one “debate” to accomplish that. Pres Biden will need all of us to back him up so I’m Ridin’ with Biden and f*ck that other guy.
HinTN
Hello WaterGirl, I’m in for $100 on the Leadership School. Cheers.
WaterGirl
@HinTN: Thank you!
Villago Delenda Est
Fuck the motherfucking Vichy Times.
That is all at this time.
Starfish
@NotMax: Thug Life is a 2Pac Shakur album, and they have juxtaposed that album name with the Golden Girls.
In the 2Pac Shakur universe, “Thug Life” stands for “The Hate U Give Little Infants Fs Everyone,” and it was a critique of how society reaps what it sows.
Villago Delenda Est
@Odie Hugh Manatee: These are the incompetents who want to merge with Albertson’s and totally dominate the US grocery business? Fuck that shit.
zhena gogolia
Bravo, John.
Redshift
I saw a headline that “major donors are pressing Biden to step down,” and my first thought was “yeah, I’m sure people like that have our interests at heart” and my second was to go donate to the Biden campaign because fuck them.
stinger
@satby: Good reminder, I just did. Thanks!
NotMax
@Patricia Kayden
“The rule here is one shirt at a time. No exceptions.”
//
Eyeroller
@gene108: Sorry, your mom is wrong. There is absolutely no evidence Biden has dementia. I don’t know about your niece, but unless she’s a neurologist she isn’t particularly qualified to diagnose Parkinson’s. Biden does not have tremors or other signs. A “soft voice” is not diagnostic.
NotMax
@Starfsh
Not on my radar.
Mai Naem mobile
Gorsuch, the environmental expert, in his Chevron opinion has nitrous oxide(laughing gas) confused with nitric oxide. Two totally different chemicals but ofcourse he should be making decisions about pollution because he’s so smart.
sukabi
and THIS, John Cole is why I love you!
Couldn’t have said it better…
(except the sitting on the balls part… I’m not equipped that way. lol)
cmorenc
Not saying that panic or despair is the right reaction for progressives – but at the same time only some of the negative buzz is from fauxgressives or media eager for a horserace and a more “interesting” Trump Admin etc. Much of it comes from visceral, realistic fear of true progressives of the broad, dark, regressive, corrupt, RW authoritarian changes to this country’s fundamental fabric if Trump wins – the intent of the GOP if they win is to burn the foundations of progressive America all the way to the ground, all the way back to the New Deal, and salt the earth so thoroughly it will be decades before there is any possibility of any restoration. And replace it with a combination of Christofascism and a new Gilded Age in which Galtian titans of commerce will prevail as the most heroic figures in society. Like Trump imagines himself to be.
Eyeroller
@Mai Naem mobile: Hey, they have the same molecules, shouldn’t that be enough?
Gorsuch has dreamed of destroying the administrative state since he was 15 years old.
B1naryS3rf
Another FTFNYT from moi. At least this editorial notes they never respected Biden and Sulzberger et al never got over their butthurt that Joe didn’t kiss it:
deadline.com/2024/06/new-york-times-biden-leave-race-1235986482/
I get free access to their site (thanks local library – my tax dollars at magnificent work), otherwise I’d never even bother to read and gift their scheisse to anyone.
Mai Naem mobile
@Eyeroller: I agree with you. I just wonder if she’s looking at his gait. To me it just looks an old person stiff gait which if you’re paying attention you’ll see everywhere. Also he bikes miles. I don’t see Parkinson’s person biking like he does. And I definitely don’t see dementia. He’s had a few longer interviews where he discusses complicated stuff. That is not a sign of somebody with dementia.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@lowtechcyclist:
They’re on a city sewer and the problem is customers flush all kinds of stuff that shouldn’t be flushed. This is an ongoing problem that Kroger could equip the store to deal with (on site maintenance people) but choose not to so to provide the best in shareholder returns and executive compensation.
Kroger’s motto is “Feed the human spirit” when it should really be “We feed on human spirits”.
Frankensteinbeck
@Redshift:
There is a fine journalistic tradition of sources being ‘I’m sure someone must be saying this so I’ll just say I heard it’ and those sources are talking nonstop right now.
zhena gogolia
@B1naryS3rf: Oh, but the day after Trump was convicted of 34 felonies, they said “the voters should decide.”
cmorenc
@Eyeroller:
He inherited that dream from his mother Anne Gorsuch, EPA head under Reagan, who tried mightily to destroy the agency she headed from within, but fortunately failed. On SCOTUS, he is much better placed than his mother to actually potentially succeed at it.
NotMax
@Mai Naem mobile
If they were really originalists, they’d be out riding the circuits as the framers intended.
Eyeroller
@Mai Naem mobile: My late father-in-law had Parkinson’s with Lewy body dementia. That is what they are implying. It isn’t even close.
Glidwrith
@satby: I donated too, fuck ‘em, the spineless jellyfish.
Mai Naem mobile
@cmorenc: the corporate media is losing eyeballs due to the internet and cord cutting. Their viewers skew old. I think they’re willing to pretty much do anything to get eyeballs. I’m pretty sure there’s a bunch of non big time famous influencers who make more than Jake Tapper or Dana Bash.
hervevillechaizelounge
@Starfish:
The photo is the iconic cover of punk band Minor Threat’s Salad Days record.
Minor Threat
Gen-X for the win!
RevRick
In response to all the pundit bedwetting I donated $1,000 to the Biden/Harris campaign.
zhena gogolia
@RevRick: Good for you! I did $50 today, not as impressive (but I have had a monthly donation set up forever).
zhena gogolia
I went to the NYT editorial to see what the comments were like. Unfortunately, they’re all in with the Grey Lady. A few people ask why they haven’t called for Trump to step down. The replies? “They know Trump wouldn’t listen to them.” Oh, but Biden will.
schrodingers_cat
NYT is far more dangerous to the functioning of democracy than Fox News, Twitter run by Musk and OANN combined. They are stealth Republican operatives.
Lynn Dee
Hear hear! (That’s to John Cole’s remarks.)
I’ve been running an obstacle course all day avoiding the NYT pundits and whatnot. So far, mostly good. I think another 3 or 4 days ought to do it.
Eyeroller
@schrodingers_cat: And trusted by liberals.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Villago Delenda Est:
Yup. The same company whose executive board recommended that the shareholders approve the executive compensation package and vote down paying a living wage to their employees at the shareholder voting last month. If you go into a Kroger affiliate and find the employees not too engaged, that’s because most of the few employees there barely work there since they are almost all part time 12, 16 or 20 hours and their departments are all deliberately understaffed.
Here’s a little fun bit of info. Want to use Kroger’s convenient pick up service to shop? The employees have 26 seconds to locate each item and are expected to maintain a 96% shop success rate per order. If items are in stock and not on the shelf then the employee still has to find it in that 26 seconds or come up with a suitable substitute (if allowed in that order). Combine that with understaffed freight movers that put the goods out for the customer and it’s another shitshow. The employees have found ways to cheat the system (with store director approval) and corporate keeps trying to stop it…lol!
Check out the Kroger subReddit for some really crazy shit. No wonder Kroger bans Reddit on their networks.
Delk
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Kroger gives Elaine Chao $500,000.00 to sit on their board. We stopped shopping there.
schrodingers_cat
@Eyeroller: That’s why they are more dangerous.
Another Scott
@satby: I donated to the Biden campaign tonight as well. Indeed it’s a good reminder.
There’s lots of work to be done before voting starts.
Many a mickle makes a muckle.Many hands make light work.;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Jackie
I love you, John Cole.
Now, I’ll read the comments. Maybe. My pie filter is bursting right now.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Delk:
You must have options! Ours is the only big store in a small town. There’s a couple of small grocery stores but nothing that really competes with the local Kroger affiliate (Fred Meyer). It’s that or Wally World 30 miles south in Cali and that means paying retail taxes.
BettyPageisaBlonde
You’re a gem, Cole. Thanks for that.
And please don’t sit on your balls again.
satby
@Redshift: Exactly.
Mike in Pasadena
Hello, Juicers,
I’m disappointed Biden didn’t get some makeup so he didn’t look so totally white on my screen. Having said that, someone with dementia could not have recited the facts and policies he had full command of. I would have hoped that Democrats might have learned something in the 64 years since Nixon refused makeup to cover his beard that made him look like a thug. I have appeared in court opposite an attorney who vomited up a gish gallop of lies almost as comprehensive as Trump’s, but I was the beneficiary of a judge who held up his hand when I began to speak. He turned to opposing counsel and ripped him a new a-hole, then recited the facts and law from my brief from memory and ruled right from the bench for my client. I said, “Thank you, your honor,” the only words I said in the hearing other than my own name at the beginning. Biden had no help from the supine “moderators.” I’m donating $500 to Biden’s campaign tonight. As Joe said today, when you’re down, you get up and fight again. Shame on Pelosi and Jeffries for not answering, “I stand with President Biden. Period.” Instead, they refused to comment when asked this morning. I’m still steamed about that.
UncleEbeneezer
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: This is the part that enrages me. I look at my timeline and not a single Black Dem that I follow is panicking. They are 100% behind Biden. No asterisks or qualifiers. No “holding-my-nose” bullshit. No fantasizing about who could replace him. Then I see White People talking constant shit about our President. So much for their commitment to Stand With/Listen To Black People.
This is the time to take our cues from the Democratic Party Base, follow their lead and get in freakin’ line for the sake of our Coalition.
Eyeroller
@Mike in Pasadena: Pelosi and Jeffries didn’t have his back? I am distraught. They should know better. Maybe they thought a comment would just feed the firestorm.
NotMax
After a short-lived bump upwards (which I suspect was insider investors bloating the price by trading back and forth amongst themselves) DJT stock down nearly 11% the day after the debate.
mrmoshpotato
@Mike in Pasadena:
Wow! Shame on them!
Only one podium had a shitshow standing behind it last night, and it wasn’t Biden’s podium.
Delk
@Odie Hugh Manatee: yeah, we have options, lol. When we were looking for a new condo I had a whole lot of “must haves” within walking distance. So, Mariano’s (Kroger) , Jewel, and two local grocery stores are all an easy walk. Four hospitals and all my doctors are a short walk!
Leto
@UncleEbeneezer: Part of the reason I’m ride or die with Biden is because I remember that black people saved his ass in SC. Jim Clyburn, my former rep, did that. When I hear people say that he should step down, or any nonsense like that, I simply think about all the black people who brought his campaign back to life, and what a fucking insult it would be. Tell me you don’t give a shit about our core constituency without saying it.
K-Mo
Wow. I was out all day and just checked in on BJ to get the informed takes it usually has. Surprised to find a lot of belligerently defensive takes, not many well-reasoned reactions, and literally no one saying what the people in my life (none of them anti-Biden folks or fauxgressives, and some of them quite the opposite on both counts) have been saying today:
We have a problem. Biden’s first half hour of that debate were easily the worst Presidential debate performance I’ve ever seen or heard of. He hunkered down with top staff and debate experts for a week and then came out and couldn’t finish a few coherent sentences on the topics that everyone knew he’d have to weigh in on?
Of course we’ll keep working for Biden in any way we can, because Trump is unspeakably bad, but this performance shook me. I don’t remember ever having this reaction before and my need has been dry since I hit nursery school, so it’s bizarre to read the repeated accusations on here that I and everyone I know is just doing what we always do. No we’re not.
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
::cough:: Lectern ::cough::
Podium is what one stands on, lectern is what stands behind.
/pedant
Leto
@mrmoshpotato: only 1 podium tried to state he didn’t have sex with a porn star, which is an adjudicated lie. Fucking rapist and felon. That’s the GOP standard bearer. Never let them forget that. Coming up on almost decade now, but I told a former boss I’d vote for a damned lamp before I’d vote for a Republican. Nothing has changed that.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Ok.
NotMax
@Leto
Did someone say damned lamp?
:)
mrmoshpotato
@Leto:
Hehehe!
Another Scott
@Mike in Pasadena:
re Pelosi – eh??
Horse’s mouth (0:22 video clip)
Cheers,
Scott.
zhena gogolia
@Another Scott: That’s pretty definitive
stinger
@gene108:
All due deference to your mom and your doctor niece, but Biden is 81. Whatever he gets at this point wouldn’t be “early onset” anything.
@gene108:
different-church-lady
@gene108:
This bullshit looks familiar from yesterday.
becca
All this talk about Biden stepping aside…. Why haven’t these pundits ever called for trump to step aside?
The yam man is a convicted sexual predator with more skeletons in his closet than Forest Lawn. Big fat national security risk, anyone? He is for sale to the highest bidder. He is a pathological liar and uses the Constitution for toilet paper. He panders to despots and tyrants. He is racist, homophonic, misogynistic and he HATES DOGS. He is thin skinned and retributive. He has the IQ and mental capacity of my piggy toe.
Anyone who listened to that debate and focused solely on Biden’s stumbles and overlooked the gobbledyshit that trump spews… jfc, that is some crazy pretzel logic.
I suspect many pundits, having to have words to print, take the safe way out and focus on the Democrat. Criticizing a Republican or trump gets you bombs sent in the mail and credible violent death threats against you and your family. Democrats don’t do that, but trump chumps sure do.
Another Scott
@stinger: I hear he’s already registered the Biden-Harris ’44 campaign slogan:
“102 years of Joe! Here’s to the second hundred years!”
:-D
Cheers,
Scott.
different-church-lady
@becca:
Murc’s Law.
topclimber
A most righteous rant.
Ohio Mom
@gene108: And what has your family dxed Trump with?
Rolling my eyes.
Chet Murthy
A-fuckin-men, John. Amen.
NotMax
@Another Scott
♬ “And that’s Uncle Joe, he’s a-movin’ kinda slow – at the junction.”
:)
Jackie
@Patricia Kayden:
Not me! Bannon’s going to receive a RUDE WELCOME AND AWAKENING! 😂
Papa Boyle
The same panicky pundits freaking out about Biden’s not awesome performance last night have, at some point, pontificated about the importance of maintaing an even strain.
I won’t reward nor forget their opportunistic cowardice.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@NotMax:
TOOT! TOOT! chuggachuggachugga…
Ruckus
@UncleEbeneezer:
I am an old white dude not a whole lot younger than Joe Biden. I still look about 10 yrs younger than I am, but then I’ve looked younger than I am for most of my adult life. When I get asked my age no one thinks I’m as old as I actually am. Am I showing signs of being an old fart? Sure, everyone does when they get to be this old. But I still remember things from when I was still in single digits. Dates, names, places, experiences. I live in a federal program seniors apartment complex, one has to be over 55 to rent here, so I’m among others and many have no idea that I’m actually older than they are. But I also see people older than Joe Biden all the time and many of them are still mentally capable. There is one woman who is 97-98 and up until about a year ago she still rode around on her electric 4 wheeler and could hold conversations that many people half her age couldn’t do. We all age, I had a cousin that made 6 MONTHS and know people fully mentally functional well into their 90s.
My point is that Joe Biden being his age doesn’t bother me because his brain still functions.
@Mike in Pasadena:
They may have refused to comment because no matter what they actually say they may be misquoted and that misquote would be the story that many would repeat. Also everyone is entitled to their opinions about old farts. And believe me many people have them.
Another Scott
@NotMax: Ooh. That tickled some ancient memory cells. But I couldn’t place it…
D’Oh! (0:53)
:-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Ohio Mom
@Odie Hugh Manatee: The local Board of Health is cool with this?
I’ll add, I know from Kroger’s, Cincinnati is where they started and where their headquarters are. They are part of the cabal of big businesses that run many aspects of downtown while City Council play acts.
Jackie
@Mai Naem mobile:
Biden’s had a stiff gait ever since his bike spill and injured his foot. That could happen to any bicyclist at ANY AGE.
Leto
@Jackie: and Biden will still do a full round of golf, carrying his own clubs.
chopper
that is the raddest shirt i have ever seen
geg6
@gene108:
THIS.
E.
You know, I don’t often see the Times any more, and as I don’t subscribe I don’t see much of their stuff. As a consequence I have been a little agnostic on the whole question of whether or not they are 100% pure evil. So it’s nice to have that cleared up now.
geg6
@Pandora:
And THIS.
karen marie
@gene108: I think your mother’s got early onset dementia and your sister has a bad case of know-it-all.
Sorry for being rude about your family but for fuck’s sake. They’re just another couple of indistinguishable assholes for whom nothing matters until it literally touches them personally, and then they’ll both blame Biden and the Democratic party because Individual-1 was reelected and this country turns into an actual shithole.
NotMax
@chopper
Still funny after all these years.
:)
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Ohio Mom:
I have no idea but they are staying open in a small town, it stinks all to high hell and people are talking about it. I just found out from a neighbor who is a pharmacy tech there that have to deal with this literal shit every time the toilets upchuck because they are right next to the bathrooms. The room that they do vaccinations in smells like raw sewage, it’s gotten into the carpets and even mildewed some of them. Corporate refuses to replace it.
I was also told that one of their pharmacy printers has been going bonkers since last year and the company finally approved and sent a replacement printer to them in December. Great, right? Nope. They’ve been waiting for it to be installed since then as the company only has one person for all of their stores that handles printer setups and they are buried in work. They wll eventually get to it though!
Corporate greed is turning these companies into bare bones shelled out operations that are slowly run into the ground as cheaply as possible, all to extract that $$$$ for themselves.
geg6
@UncleEbeneezer:
Absolutely right.
Another Scott
There’s almost no such thing as unbiased media. (Maybe C-Span comes close when they have no commentary. Maybe). Always remember that someone made the deliberate choice of what questions to ask, what camera views to show, how to adjust microphone and mic levels, and all the rest.
Hang in there, everyone.
Forward!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Jackie
@Leto: Absolutely! Didn’t Joe challenge TCFG to a golf match under those conditions?
Jackie
@Another Scott: If there’s a second debate in Sept, it’ll be interesting/telling how ABC moderates – and who sets the rules.
ETA: It’s my witching hour. Every night at approx this time, I have to manually ID myself – no matter which thread. Weird.
<insert Twilight Zone music 🎶🎵>
Leto
@Jackie: he absolutely did. He also made fun of him for being 6’ 4” and “235lbs”, haha
Slightly_peeved
I didn’t realise this clinical test of dementia was now answering questions on domestic policy without losing one’s train of thought. I remember back when my parents made the decision to put my grandma in a home. After she was scoring under $3000 in Double Jeopardy she clearly couldn’t look after herself anymore.
I’ve dealt with some relatives that had dementia. They forgot who I was. They completely lost the train of a discussion within a few minutes. They didn’t respond to questions. The comparison of Biden to that is really dumb.
Leto
Way OT: the officiating in most of the COPA America games I’ve watched has been absolute trash. The Paraguay/Brazil game is no exception.
B1naryS3rf
CNN has definitely lost me for life. I thought they were awful and annoying before this already but my tolerance is over. They’re worse than Fox because they pretend to be balanced – at least Fox gave that pretense up many years back. They’re salivating at the prospect of Trump returning to lift their pathetic ratings – they’re a distant third and I hope the distance increases greatly.
Wombat Probability Cloud
Brav–fuckin-O for the rant. Couldn’t agree more.
wjca
It’s sort of possible with the wrong bicycle saddle. But otherwise, no.
Leto
@wjca: I’m going to chalk this up to being an Army, possibly including Marine, problem. :P
sab
@Slightly_peeved: Not answering questions on policy while losing one’s train of thought when one’s stammer reflex kicks in, so everything you say you need to come up with alternative wording that conveys the same information and that your brain-to-mouth will process.
I have always been kind of in awe of people who overcome stammering. Talk about multi-tasking!
sab
@B1naryS3rf: Same for me. I feel like my Mom. When late in their marriage his slowly progressing dementia led him to watch the sexy girls and ranting men on Fox. Mom would get furious and stomp off to the kitchen (with her walker) to habe a calming smoke under the kitchen exhaust fan.
My husband doesn’t have dementia, but he still flips to CNN when MSNBC pisses him off. I don’t want to see CNN at all, so I always bitch about it. Watch whatever sports channel you want, but please skip CNN.
Captain C
The people who seem to think the most important thing to do is to teach the Democrats a lesson appear to have a very difficult time learning lessons themselves.
rikyrah
Tell it, Cole✊🏾
Soprano2
@Odie Hugh Manatee: This is every store, trust me. Disposable wipes were invented by the devil…….
NotoriousJRT
Once again, I am reminded of one of the primary reasons I keep returning here. Bless your curmudgeonly soul, John Cole. This post should be posted on the refrigerator of every person who recognizes both the danger Trump poses AND all the stuff Biden has accomplished despite the fact that his opposition is populated by Kool-Aid swilling cranks. I sent money to Biden today as a hearty FU to all those panic stricken pundits who have decided that being unhelpful is a good way to fix things. As you so eloquently said, “Fuck every last one of them.”
PJ
@hervevillechaizelounge: That’s even better!
burritoboy
“1. Force Biden aside
2. ???
3. Profit!”
The people doing this then go on to name…….people who have repeatedly and explicitly refused to run, some of them refusing (again!) within the last 24 hours. The refusers are most of the best political operators in the USA (besides perhaps Obama or whatever extremely small number of people whom you want to except, most of whom are retired or not eligible for the Presidency for various reasons)…..nobody wanted to enter this race bad enough to challenge Biden. They may just as well state they want Donald Duck or Batman or something. It’s not a serious discussion. You can’t just randomly run for President (particularly as a Democrat), you have to have been preparing to do it for (minimum) several years.
wjca
Force him to cut his hair. (Lice, you know.) And mandatory daily showers. Hot water, and strong lye soap. Required redo, if necessary.
Still rough on his cellmates. But not as bad.
UncleEbeneezer
About to go to bed, but I really appreciate everyone who is pushing back on the pants-wetting.
Villago Delenda Est
@wjca: Blanket parties, and plenty of them.
CatFacts
Now that’s what I call a righteous rant, John!
Gloria DryGarden
@Eyeroller: good. Thank you.
John, I relished every word and turn of phrase in your post. Yup. Frothing fucking rage on fried French hens in a fat furious fire truck! On Friday!
Jinchi
I agree with pretty much everything you said re Biden, but how is it that the “far left” always gets the blame from the BJ commentariat?
It isn’t AOC and the squad who are demanding Biden quit so the nominee can be picked by insiders at the Chicago convention.
It’s David F’king Axelrod, David Ignatius, and the NYT editorial board. All of whom should know what an incredibly stupid strategic move that would be and how their reaction to it is causing far more damage to the party than Biden flubbing a debate that had particularly low viewership.
Barney
“what you all witnessed was a normal, healthy, 81 year old man. There were no signs of dementia, no signs of failing judgment, no lies. Just an old guy looking, well, old.”
Well, this section on the national debt was worrying:
“What I’m going to do is fix the taxes.
For example, we have a thousand trillionaires in America – I mean, billionaires in America. And what’s happening? They’re in a situation where they, in fact, pay 8.2 percent in taxes. If they just paid 24 percent or 25 percent, either one of those numbers, they’d raised $500 million – billion dollars, I should say, in a 10-year period.
We’d be able to right – wipe out his debt. We’d be able to help make sure that – all those things we need to do, childcare, elder care, making sure that we continue to strengthen our healthcare system, making sure that we’re able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I’ve been able to do with the COVID – excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with.
Look, if – we finally beat Medicare.”
The President’s sudden pivot from abortion to the murders of young girls, allegedly by immigrants, was strange too.
lowtechcyclist
@zhena gogolia:
And it isn’t about whether Trump or Biden will listen to them, it’s that a shitload of other people do listen to them. If they say Trump should step down, or at least consider stepping down, it gets it into the national discussion.
If they just say that about Biden, it leaves the impression that Trump’s A-OK with them but Biden’s not. Which may of course be exactly where they’re coming from, but they wouldn’t want to say that part out loud.
Barry
@jonas: ”
Yeah, I don’t really know how our pundit overlords have gamed this out…
1. Force Biden aside
2. ???
3. Profit!”
Simple: They want Trump.
TerryC
@lowtechcyclist: Last winter I bought an extra-high toilet seat to avoid the occasional wetting of the balls on hot, humid days. So relaxing to just sit down and not worry about dipping in.
O. Felix Culpa
@JMG: Late late late to the show, but Ms. O was the same as your wife. Unlike you, I engaged. It was exhausting. The articles by Ezra Klein and his ilk helped pave the way for this. Almost as if it were planned.
UncleEbeneezer
@Jinchi: “Kamala’s a cop” was pushed non-stop by Berniebros (and many Warren supporters too), Police Abolitionists, SJW’s etc. It came directly from the far left in their efforts to try and make Kamala unelectable.
So did the Biden’s-So-Old bullshit. Which has stuck around and is now the narrative that won’t go away.
Social Media (especially Twitter) has been dominated by Very Online Progressives for a while now. And since Very Online Leftists have nothing better to do than regurgitate smears against any mainstream Democrat, Fascist ratfuckers like Putin, Elon Musk, Bannon are always looking to amplify them and the MSM takes most of its’ cues from Twitter, the result is that all of these Dem-bashing smears like Her Emailz, Kamala the Kop and Biden Is Too Old never fucking die and always stay around to create major problems for our candidates.
Whether you frame it as “Biden is too old and needs to step down” or “I’m worried that other voters think Biden is too old so maybe he should step down” you are doing the same damage either way by keeping the idea alive and giving it legitimacy.
Far Leftists have been whining about replacing Biden since the moment he took the lead in SC in 2020. They’ve been relentlessly airing their worries about his age, non-stop, for four years. They’ve been doing it right here at BJ and everywhere else. Except, of course, for the brief detours when they would pivot to Student Loans, GreenNewDeal, M4All, Afghanistan, Train Derailments, Gaza etc., as the reason he needs to be replaced.
Do you seriously think none of us have noticed the fact that y’all have been calling for him to step down, non-stop, since before he was even elected? We pushed back and told you that this endless whining was only going to hurt us. Now it might.
Toxic smears of every electable Democrat stay alive because the Far Left repeat them ad nauseam until the MSM can’t resist buying into their legitimacy.
We have the most Progressive and successful President in nearly a century but y’all just couldn’t stop talking shit about him at every opportunity. So yeah, some of us are a bit pissed right now because Leftists left this kindling out just waiting for the inevitable match despite our warnings. And now they have the audacity to gaslight us about how we got here.
Of course shitty Centrist pundits are part of the problem. But just like the obsession with Hillary’s emails, Progressives are/were extremely instrumental in giving this bullshit traction. If you can’t see that you are in complete denial about the role that Progressives/TheFarLeft play in Anti-Dem dis/misinformation campaigns and supplying a steady stream of fuel to our Dem-hating MSM.
UncleEbeneezer
@O. Felix Culpa: Ezra and David Sachs are only repeating Centrist variations of what Progressives have been pushing since Biden became the 2020 Nominee. They didn’t start this. They use Progressive-dominated Twitter to inform their own bullshit. Centrist idiots are absolutely buying into the panic, but they only jumped in recently. The whole Biden’s-Too-Old critique has been the dogma of Bernie-Bros going back to 2019 and has been repeated constantly here by people who take pride in pushing Dems to the left.
Bupalos
@K-Mo: It’s an understandable reaction. For my part I’m a little hopeful about “just one debate can’t lose an election” and “long way out.”
Most of the rest scares me, the level of denial and a kind of paralyzed fatalism. I’m marginally in the camp that it’s probably too damaging for Joe to step aside now because primaries are done. But I’m uncomfortable with the idea that we can’t discuss it. It really may be our best shot. The voters that determine the election are not represented here, except by report. I had the same experience as you with their reaction.
jame
Thanks, John Cole, for expressing what I feel about this whole Dem turncoat mess. Going in to the debate the impossible advice to Biden was “Don’t be old”. Well, he is old, but he’s exceeded expectations in his presidency. Why are so many of his people calling for him to leave? I’m ashamed of those Democrats. Where is party loyalty? Surely Biden’s earned ours.
dnfree
@K-Mo: Thank you. Well said.
dnfree
@Bupalos: and thank you too.
dnfree
@UncleEbeneezer: I’m not a far left or Bernie-bro kind of person. I’m a couple of months older than Donald Trump. I supported Biden. I think Biden has done an excellent job.
I also watched the debate. I know people my age with dementia. Trump has also shown signs of it. But ON THAT NIGHT, Biden did show signs of dementia. We can’t just ignore that. Maybe it’s too late to do anything but stick with him, but the signs were real.
Before the debate, some people here mentioned that maybe Trump would show signs of “sundowning”. Unfortunately, Biden was the one who did. He should have acknowledged his cold or whatever at the beginning. He should have had simple, clearer answers. There were things he could have done differently, but he didn’t. This is the reality we have.
Edited to add that I don’t know the solution to the problem. I’m waiting to see if any brilliant ideas pop up.
Paul in NC
All the bad stuff that happens when you get older? Only if you’re lucky.
Jinchi
“Y’all”?
Where have I ever called for Biden to step down or berated Kamala for being “a cop”.
I’m not really concerned with random comments you read on social media, that is not the world most people live in, and it’s specifically designed to piss you off.
If you want to know who is responsible for the “Biden must go” BS, just make a list of the authors of all the mainstream articles that were written in the last two days. It’s filled with the names of Democratic “strategists” and centrist pundits, the same people who should have known enough not to pile on after a bad performance if they truly want to help Democrats win the next election.
Not everything is the fault of “far left radicals” no matter how much you hate them.
wjca
It’s not that you can’t discuss it. It’s that, if you want to discuss it, you need to bring to the table, right at the beginning, a viable plan for getting from now to a workable campaign with a viable alternative candidate.
I have yet to see such a plan. All I see are “plans” which include a step, or perhaps several steps, which can be summarized as “and then a miracle occurs”. (Or “and then a majority of voters are suddenly persuaded to vote differently than their repeatedly expressed preference” — which amounts to the same thing.)