ABC makes a change and the FULL Biden/Stephanopoulos interview is airing as a special on Friday, 8 PM. https://t.co/e3Ab4R4dhY
— Eugene Daniels (@EugeneDaniels2) July 4, 2024
It’s simple: Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy and fundamental freedoms.
With your vote, we will stop him this November. pic.twitter.com/8ThNfBjar8
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) July 3, 2024
Los Angeles to pay $21M to settle claims over botched fireworks detonation by police 3 years ago https://t.co/ZWcXHh6RC6
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 3, 2024
Blast from the past… I remember posting about this at the time, but my google-fu is not up to the task of confirmation. Per the Associated Presss, “Los Angeles to pay $21M to settle claims over botched fireworks detonation by police 3 years ago”:
Los Angeles will pay more than $21 million to settle claims by residents of a neighborhood where police bungled the detonation of a cache of illegal fireworks three years ago, injuring 17 people and displacing dozens of others.
The City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved the payments, and the settlements will now go to Mayor Karen Bass for approval, the Los Angeles Times reported…
The settlement awards range from $100,000 to $2.8 million for the 17 claimants, according to the Times.
Police found an estimated 32,000 pounds (14,500 kilograms) of illegal commercial and homemade fireworks and other explosive materials at a home on East 27th Street on June 30, 2021.
The LAPD bomb squad packed nearly 40 pounds (18 kilograms) of the most volatile and dangerous homemade fireworks into an armored containment vessel that was rated for only 33 pounds (14 kilograms), according to a federal report.
The fireworks were supposed to be detonated safely at the scene because they were too unstable to move, but the vessel exploded and debris rained down on scores of homes, businesses and vehicles.
The explosion injured 10 law enforcement officers and seven residents, and damaged 22 homes, 13 businesses and 37 cars and trucks. About 80 people were displaced.
Federal investigators said that bomb squad technicians underestimated the weight of the explosive material because they gauged it by sight instead of using a scale, and also ignored the warnings of a team member who said the explosive material should be broken into smaller loads…
Preach @TarajiPHenson!
Project 2025 is a REAL threat to all of us. Every part of it is a wrecking ball for our lives, our families, and our rights. #BETAwards pic.twitter.com/D0ovXno6xo
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) July 1, 2024
This was my favorite response. https://t.co/VTcadWB5KV
— 2x Indicted, 34x Convicted LOSER (@HalloweenBlogs) July 4, 2024
prostratedragon
“Banner,” Jessie Montgomry; Los Angeles Philharmonic. Complete with baton drop by Dudamel.
NotMax
Holiday listen.
A July 4th tale well told.
;)
YY_Sima Qian
Yeah, if Trump becomes King (in effect), Jan. 20 becomes Coronation Day. However, the reactionaries will cynically call it Independence Day, in the sense that they will claim that Trump made the US truly independent from whichever globalist cabal(s) that populate their feverish, conspiracy addled imagination.
stinger
I can’t make out the goldfish’s sign. Happy XXXX Day??
SiubhanDuinne
@stinger:
Was just going to ask if anyone could read it. I can’t make it out.
Nice touch with the clock radio, though.
NotMax
Something nice. Very, very nice: Harmonium.
YY_Sima Qian
@SiubhanDuinne:
@stinger:
It says “Happy Fourth of July”. I think.
Josie
@stinger:
Yeah, I can see the Happy and Day. Can’t make out the middle word.
zhena gogolia
@Josie: The last word is definitely “July.”
comrade scotts agenda of rage
You mean Terror Boom Bomb Time will be a thing of the past come next Jan?
In terms of neighborhood activity, it’s been significantly subdued thus far and that’s a continuation of last year, not sure why. I’ve wondered if the inflationary period impacted Terror Boom spending. I know that a crapton of people here have typically bought a crapton of pretty damn fancy Terror Booms, so what might have cost a grand in 2020 now costs $1500? Hell if I know but it’s definitely been down since 2021.
That year, because of the Plague restrictions of the previous year, the ‘hood went nuts on individual Terror Booms.
Last year, we had a shooting a couple of blocks from us. We were out scoping out various Terror Booms and were standing there when it happened. And yes kids, gunshots have a distinctly different sound from your average Terror Boom.
Kirk
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Mostly. There’s are a few that, particularly after bouncing around housing walls, are close enough to raise memories.
Hildebrand
Considering that Biden ate McCarthy’s lunch in every negotiation, it’s nice he gave him cookies.
Mathguy
McCarthy’s remark on the GOP propaganda network is a good reminder of what humorless assholes these people are.
TBone
Thank you AL! I needed that belly laugh about cookies VERY MUCH today!
LAUGH OUT LOUD
Thank gawd hubby brought new vape cartridges home along with the hard copy of the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday.
Oh and cheesesteaks with REAL Philly rolls. Big big ones so we have leftovers for breakfast today.
Baud
🇺🇲🎆
Dorothy A. Winsor
Why is it depressing that Biden gave him a cookie? Is it a manly thing? Maybe Biden should have poured him a scotch?
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
It’s a made up thing for the cult to intonate.
TBone
@Hildebrand: 😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆
Shalimar
@Hildebrand: That’s what I don’t get about the “Biden has to withdraw because of that debate” freakout. Whether you want to credit Biden himself or his staff, his actual job performance in every situation where he has negotiated with anyone has been far better than average. Debating isn’t something presidents have to do.
Eyeroller
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Women make you cookies and serve them to you. Red-blooded he-men would expect, uh, well I guess scotch is as good a guess as any.
OzarkHillbilly
Anyone who gets depressed by cookies is broken.
zhena gogolia
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Reagan had the fucking jelly beans we had to hear about ad nauseam.
TBone
I am visualizing myself shoving an M80 with a long, lit fuse down Dotard’s diapers. RUN!!!
OzarkHillbilly
@TBone: The idea that you would go anywhere near his diapers is kinda scary.
Hildebrand
@Shalimar: Yep – the debates have always felt really strange to me for that very reason, there is no organic corollary to what an elected official does in the course of their work.
geg6
Can someone please explain what is objectionable about being offered a cookie? Puzzled, I am.
prostratedragon
@NotMax:
Not your everyday busker: Evelyn Glennie on snare drum in Grand Central.
lowtechcyclist
@zhena gogolia:
Yeppers. And the middle line begins with an ‘F’ and ends with ‘OF’ which appears to be a separate word.
I couldn’t clearly make out the rest of the word beginning with ‘F’ but I’m going to WAG that it’s ‘FOURTH.’
So “Happy Fourth of July” from the goldfish. Whatever else today may or may not be, it’s still the Fourth of July. So happy Fourth of July from me too.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Hildebrand: Not that Trump has any idea what a president is supposed to do as part of the job. Watching TV doesn’t count, even if you call it “executive time.”
sab
@geg6: Cookie is a bribe not a gratuity.
ETA //
Dorothy A. Winsor
At a BBQ last night, we ran into friends who share our political views but don’t follow politics as much. They wanted to know what we thought about the cries for Biden to step down. They thought it was uncalled for and were relieved when we said that too. The hue and cry for Biden’s removal is out there loud and clear. It’s very reminiscent of the way the press hounded HRC.
Eyeroller
@lowtechcyclist: I downloaded the image and zoomed in, but it’s too low-resolution for me to make out the word. It just pixelates when enlarged. But “fourth of July” makes sense if the theme of the cartoon is that it isn’t Independence Day anymore.
Steeplejack
@geg6:
I took it that McCarthy was depressed because Biden went to get the cookies himself instead of yelling at a minion to do it. Or having a special “bring cookies” button on his desk, à la Trump’s “bring Diet Coke” button.
trnc
Plenty of other places, too.
lowtechcyclist
@OzarkHillbilly:
Indeed! I wouldn’t mind a cookie or three with the ice cream I’ll surely be enjoying later in the day.
NotMax
Meanwhile. for Old Blighty, Happy Torxit Day.
Another Scott
@stinger:
@YY_Sima Qian: +1
The original is higher resolution.
Cheers,
Scott.
geg6
@lowtechcyclist:
A cookie would go well with the cup of coffee I’m sipping right now.
More seriously, what is depressing about good manners in a host? It’s just weird. But it’s McCarthy. He’s pretty weird himself.
Eyeroller
@Dorothy A. Winsor: It certainly doesn’t help that several named operatives and a few electeds have joined in. Mostly, apparently, because they’re worried about what other people are going to think. So by putting it out there they make other people start to think about it. Funny how that works.
In the Wednesday night thread Another Scott posted a tweet by Angry Staffer in which the “Staffer” showed a montage of screenshots of hysterical headlines like “What happens if Hillary drops out due to being diagnosed with..” (rest is cut off). This was from when she had a mild case of pneumonia from which she recovered, but the press response was another bout of over-the-top insanity and wild speculation.
Shalimar
@Another Scott: So it says “Happy Fish of July”
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Good friends.
Gñad you coiuld reassure them.
SiubhanDuinne
@OzarkHillbilly:
Nominating this!
A Librarian
@prostratedragon: Can’t help but think of her Sesame Street appearance, which was both adorable and impressive.
Baud
@NotMax:
Yes. We can raise a glass to the motherland tonight.
BlueDWarrior
@Eyeroller: it’s another case of the Democrats have to be perfect and the Republicans have to at least vaguely pretend to be human.
H.E.Wolf
@Another Scott:
[looking at the higher-resolution image, with my nose practically on the screen]:
“Happy Fish of July”… and a very sad-faced fish.
Cartoons or no cartoons, we still have the vote and we still have the option to do the work. I’m in.
Josie
@zhena gogolia:
You’re right. If I hold the laptop up to my face I can see it. Still can’t make out the middle. Have to assume it’s the 4th.
SiubhanDuinne
@Another Scott:
So it says “Happy Fish of July.”
okay….
ETA: Dammit, Shalimar!
Eyeroller
@Another Scott: I can’t download that one (at least not so easily) but with a magnifying glass it looks like “Happy Fish of July”. Edit: as others have determined. Maybe it was intended to be a hidden joke.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Eyeroller: The common factor is Trump. His presence in any situation really does seem to wreck other people.
prostratedragon
@Shalimar: The happy fish of July are the ones that don’t get caught. (Sounds like the title of an avant garde jazz piece.)
trnc
I’ve read in a few different places that, because of the immunity ruling, Judge Chutkan will hold a public hearing in the Jan 6 case in which the prosecutors will be able to air all of the evidence. That sounds great, but how does that work since the ruling declared that none of a president’s communications and notes can even be examined to consider as evidence? I understand that staffers are not covered by the ruling (so far, but the calvinball game is not over), so I’m sure there’s some evidence there, but that still eliminates evidence that clearly links him. Eg, a Meadows memo that says “The president told me we need to trap Pence in the parking deck and send in a kill team” is still hearsay.
Obviously, enough staffers having the same information would make it pretty clear that it’s true. Maybe it’s along the lines of the evidence in the hush money case. IE, all evidence from 3rd party sources.
Is that it, or am I missing something else?
Eyeroller
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Nah, the common factor is a Democrat the press especially doesn’t like.
Josie
@H.E.Wolf:
Yes! it’s fish.
ETA: As many others have already confirmed.
Another Scott
An important, behind the curtain, thread by Fritschner (a congressional staffer for my Rep Don Beyer)
Here (or https://x.com/Fritschner/status/1808706963720577109>here, for folks where Nitter doesn’t always work):
(Lightly edited to remove extra headers.)
(See the original for embedded images.)
People who don’t keep their head don’t survive.
Hang in there, everyone.
Cheers,
Scott.
Layer8Problem
So I’m spending this national holiday transporting a kid and his two cats up to the new digs he and his inamorata have in the Hub of the Universe. The car is small but all the other stuff’s already there, just a litter box and two adorable gray carrier-bound felines meowing piteously in the back seat.
trnc
@Baud:
It sounds like the kind of thing that soulless assholes will chuckle over but most people will recognize as being completely human, a la hugging his son and visiting the other son’s grave.
Starfish
@Eyeroller: This one has better resolution.
Steeplejack
Martina McBride, “Independence Day.” A tart power ballad about abusive relationships—food for thought on this 4th of July. I think we can all think of one that we need to get rid of. Maybe in November?
TBone
@OzarkHillbilly: taking one for the team!
prostratedragon
@A Librarian:
She can make one think, too: “Listening is about looking at a person.”
Baud
@BlueDWarrior:
Correct. Absent perfection, the default is Republican.
NotMax
@Eyeroller
On Winders machines, holding down a the ALT button followed with pressing the Print Screen button will copy the entirety of what’s on the screen to the internal clipboard. Thenceforth it can be pasted into the graphics editor of your choice for trimming so only the image you are desirous of remains.
Eyeroller
@Another Scott: One way to try to put the brakes on this is not to click on those stories, and to cancel one’s FTFNYT subscription, but other than that I am not sure what we can do.
TBone
@sab: 💙❤️💙
Eyeroller
@NotMax: A screenshot has its own resolution. One could screenshot the window only but same thing, it may or may not be as good as the original (and if it’s better that doesn’t help). The image at GoComics was good enough to read with either adequate eyesight or a magnifying glass. I still don’t totally get the joke (“Happy Fish of July”) but it’s likely it was meant by the cartoonist to be hidden.
Baud
@Another Scott:
It’s like my thoughts written down and fleshed out.
Baud
@Eyeroller:
We can be wiser about understanding the process and communicating that to others who don’t.
TBone
@NotMax:
Jonathan Pie for the WIN
https://youtu.be/cKAeO-5saqQ
For anyone who hasn’t yet had the pleasure of contrasting this with our current administration and policies 🌊💜
stinger
@YY_Sima Qian: @SiubhanDuinne: I can now make out “of” at the end of the middle line, so FOURTH OF/JULY it is! Thanks for the discernment boost!
And yes, the clock is great.
Eyeroller
@Baud: Unfortunately I don’t have any opportunities to communicate this to others. To me what is happening is completely obvious. But it’s stampeding some “professionals” who should know better. That is heading towards making it a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Eyeroller
@stinger: As several of us noted upthread, careful examination of a reasonably high-resolution image showed it was “Happy Fish of July.” No I don’t really get it either.
stinger
@Another Scott: Well, now, that looks like Happy Fish of July.
Baud
@Eyeroller:
When you come across who’s freaked out about a story, you can point out that it’s an anonymous source and not that credible.
If someone is freaked out about a quote, you can point out the full quote and show that the reporter has misrepresented what was said.
And in doing so, gently advise them to look out for these things in the future.
stinger
@Hildebrand:
LOLOL
TBone
Is the fish in a blender? With MAGA holding the electrical plug?
satby
@Another Scott: and now it looks like “Happy Fish of July” 😂
Elizabelle
@Another Scott: Thank you. And actually, the reporters ARE doing a terrible job, for bad reasons. But I guess a Capitol Hill aide can’t actually say that, and so he appeals to their better angels. Who have been obliterated in the stampede.
Fuck Putz Sulzberger and editor Joe Klein and the Fuck the Fucking Lying New York Times.
TBone
@NotMax:
fucking A
A plus
3Sice
Kevin McCarthy is the box-wine to Nancy Pelosi’s vintage cab.
Some questions for Ol’ Kev:
How is the counter-purge going? How’s life among the plebes? Why are you flogging this junk on TV? You do realize you are done in politics, right?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I suppose McCarthy was to upset he got a cookie he didn’t pay attention to what he was agreeing too.
From what I recall Ryan couldn’t get shit done for Trump and Trump ended up going along with Pelosi.
Another Scott
@Baud: +1
The world is complex now, much more complex than when we were primarily worried about not getting eaten by a smilodon.
If we see something in the “news”, it’s because a big team of people decided to put it there. (As we learned in English class when studying poetry or novels – the writer made a choice to use that particular word there. Why?) We need to remind people to think about what they are seeing and reading. What’s the motivation – is it to inform, or is it to create panic and “engagement”? And all the rest of Fritschner’s questions.
THINK
Cheers,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
I wish the GOP actually was this stupid and immature, but it’s all an act – a tiresome, tiresome act.
UncleEbeneezer
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The bright side is that I think way more people are rightly responding “This is stupid. Biden is our guy” and going about their day. Whereas EVERYONE, including normies were endlessly fretting about Emailz, now it seems to be mostly hyper-online political types. And even with them, it’s still WAY LESS people. Like, my FB feed is a lot of organizer/activist and very online politics people, and yet I have seen almost NOBODY panicking or saying Biden needs to step down. I think a lot of people actually did learn the lesson from Emails not to jump in and spread this bullshit.
Elizabelle
@Another Scott: I know. And the big problem there is having to pay attention to and parse the egregious reporting, so that we can point out the errors. Win win for the media. They still get eyeballs.
”Engagement” analytics is going to take down our democracy.
Baud
Here’s a general rule.
If a story makes a Dem or the Dems look bad in your eyes, do a little digging before spreading the news as fact. Good rule for tweets too. I sometimes fail this test in my haste, but the elites have an agenda that isn’t ours, and we should recognize that.
Mike in NC
Not looking forward to Fat Bastard’s bloated ugly face adorning the dollar bill and his fucking birthday declared a national holiday.
Baud
@UncleEbeneezer:
There is more awareness now. Not nearly enough.
UncleEbeneezer
You see the same thing here where it’s really only like four commenters freaking out but doing it very loudly and repeatedly.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@UncleEbeneezer:
White liberals taking their cue from the base of the Democratic Party? Finally? Crossing my fingers.
And predictably moving goal posts.
True but it’s been less than a week. Assuming the campaign learned from the “debate” and has their shit together, that will change as things move forward.
prostratedragon
Melodically, works for both US and UK: Five variations on “America,” Charles Ives. Variation 5 is marked “Allegro — as fast as the pedals can go“.
Steeplejack
Refreshing my nym.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
It’s been pretty obvious to me for a while that reporters in general are doom porn addicts. Like the Flat Earthers, Doom Porn started as cynical way to get an audience, and like the Falt Earthers, these reporters lied long enough they believe their own lies.
Even the press who haven’t fallen into this trap are sounded by peers who have and are under constant pressure to join the group.
Eyeroller
@UncleEbeneezer: I hope you’re right. I wish I could remember, or ever knew, who really got this train rolling. There is no evidence that “normies” thought Biden’s debate performance was all that bad and what evidence we have is the opposite–they thought both Biden and Trump did poorly but were appalled by Trump. But somebody started this panic. Was it entirely pundit-driven at first? Could be. If that’s the case, Democrats listen to them and need to stop it.
Baud
@Steeplejack:
Looks like new.
Another Scott
@Steeplejack: 👍
Cheers,
Scott.
oldgold
I have not read the Declaration of Independence in its entirety since the 8th grade. This morning, motivated by the treacherous nonsense proclaimed by the Supreme Court last week in Trump v.US, I did.
Reading through Bill of Particulars against King George III in the Indictment Section of the Declaration, it could not be clearer that the concept of absolute immunity for the sovereign’s core authority was the very thing the founding Fathers were claiming independence from.
Yet, these
Justicesblack-robed clowns, who claim to be originalists with a deference for history, issued this abomination establishing absolute immunity in connection with exercise of core powers by the POTUS.My reaction to this enshrinement of tyranny is captured exceedingly well by Thomas Payne’s introductory paragraph in Common Sense.
“These are the times that try men’s souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”[
Matt McIrvin
@UncleEbeneezer: My FB feed is panicking.
UncleEbeneezer
@Baud: The fact that none of this has significantly moved polls of who people want to vote for in November gives me hope that we collectively are handling it much better this time around. The forceful “NOPE” from Black Twitter, and the number of people echoing it here, has been great to see.
stinger
Apologies if this defense of Biden has already been noted. As with the fish in the cartoon, I’m like the butcher who accidentally backed into his meat grinder — he got a little behind in his work.
Chief Oshkosh
@geg6: Maybe it was a Pavlovian response? Since every time McCarthy went to the WH to negotiate, he was first offered cookies, and then later got his ass handed to him, maybe he associates cookies with being butt-hurt?
Another Scott
@Eyeroller: I ass-u-me it was some live-blogger who let their lizard brain take over and a switch was flipped.
But it really doesn’t matter.
All of the FTFNYT-primed press was looking for Biden to be oooolllddd, and then it was off-to-the-races.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
So stop posting.
pthomas745
That scrappy hometown paper,the Los Angeles Times, has covered the fireworks disposal disaster in long form articles since it happened.
The scrappy LA Times web page and search functions suck so badly, so it is no wonder their stories are so hard to find. This ran on July 2.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-07-02/l-a-city-officials-fireworks-explosion-settlement
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Consider this, people are social animals. They instinctively seek to find compromise with people about them. For a political junkie, that social group is going to be a bunch of talking heads on the magic TV box in a one way conservation.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone 😊 😊 😊
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@stinger:
That one is new to me. Excellent piece with some great points, many of which have been made by many people here over the last 5 days.
Thanks for sharing.
zhena gogolia
@Dorothy A. Winsor: This is kind of my experience too. But who knows?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Of course it was, the MSM telegraphed that it’s going to be “Biden is senile, we must discuss this, ignore Trump” for a year now.
Matt McIrvin
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: One of the most alienating spectacles of recent years was news reporters talking nostalgically about the end of the Trump era–“yeah, he was terrible, but won’t you kind of miss the clown show when he’s gone?”
I know of NOBODY in real life who wasn’t a Trump supporter having that sentiment. Not normie Democrats, not science-fiction Communists, not Very Online liberal weirdos. Nobody was going to miss him. (For one thing, how can we miss him when he won’t go away?)
But these political media people who claimed to oppose him all had that feeling. And it really speaks to their incentives. Trump was terrific for the political media–he drove ratings and subscriptions; he was an easy target for snark; he provided a firehose of crazy stories to report on that hardly took any effort at all.
I thought he’d suppress all criticism of him by force, but Trump was smarter than that (maybe by accident). He just kept the clown show coming. He made reporters want him in there even if they thought he was appalling, BECAUSE he was appalling. Any alternative to Trump seems like a gray bore, like eating your peas.
Eyeroller
@Matt McIrvin: You’ve already told us about your friends, Matt.
zhena gogolia
@Another Scott: Is it “Happy Fish of July”?
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Chris
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Obligatory repeat that people who have political opinions but don’t obsessively follow politics are by far the most rational people: their brains don’t end up crammed with media bullshit, and they don’t end up stampeded by whatever narrative the media is currently selling. Of course, the people who do obsessively follow politics get a vote too, and they have a disproportionate impact on their fellow citizens. Alas.
Eyeroller
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: It really was excellent, especially this:
If the Democratic Party demonstrates that it can be scared off so easily, the GOP and Democratic faithful will take note. Do our votes count? Do our donations count? Does our labor count? The answer better not be, “Yes, until the press tells us otherwise.”
At a time when there seems to be precious little courage and leadership in the Democratic Party, I don’t know what to say other than, “I am not giving up on Joe Biden. You shouldn’t either.”
TBone
In case you missed it yesterday, video of President Biden doing Medal of Honor for UNION soldiers:
https://www.wonkette.com/p/here-is-the-president-doing-a-medal
We salute you today, Joe!
suzanne
Happy Election Day! (This is me, trying to focus on likely good news today.)
If you haven’t been listening, the podcast “Past Present Future” with David Runciman has been doing a fantastic series on critical UK elections in history. Today’s episode was about the last one. Listened to it on my run this morning. Highly recommended.
zhena gogolia
@Eyeroller: Okay, in the shower this morning I had a blinding flash of logical thought (not typical for me).
Most people would agree with most of us that a mere 20 minutes of bad debating when a person has a cold and a speech impediment are not grounds for abandoning an incumbent candidate with a stellar record as President.
What gives people pause are the stories with anonymous sources, and Viktor Orbán (sorry, “anonymous European leader”) claiming that Biden is in cognitive decline, and the people in his inner circle are hiding it from us.
If that is true, then please answer me this: If the people in his inner circle are so wily and calculating that they’ve managed to hide this alarming cognitive decline from us for three and a half years, why would they volunteer to have him go on a live televised debate for 90 minutes? They could say, “The POTUS is not going to debate a convicted felon.” End of story. At the very least, they wouldn’t initiate the debate. Am I missing something?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Exactly this, that’s their addiction right there in action. It’s likely reporting on Biden is physically painful for these reporters because that adrenaline rush isn’t there.
Another Scott
@stinger: Thanks for the pointer.
Cheers,
Scott.
Chris
@Eyeroller:
You mean a Democrat?
lowtechcyclist
@Shalimar:
And the clock-radio says “1775”
Lapassionara
Here’s something I have wondered about, re “evidence of official acts” or whatever the phrase was.
We all have heard that Trump used a personal cell phone for calls (always? Sometimes?) while Presidenting. Is there any requirement that he use the official White House phone for official acts? If so, then calls he made on his personal phone should be available as evidence that the act was not an official one.
I had the impression from the campaign that phone and e-mail security was of utmost importance and that Hillary’s use of her personal server was the worst thing ever. So surely there is some way that Trump’s use of his personal phone while in office can be a way to avoid that part of the immunity decision.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Nope. You’re using your brain the way God intended.
YY_Sima Qian
@Eyeroller: At this point, the media coverage has been such that Biden cannot withdraw at all, w/o doing much more damage by validating all of the damaging coverage, & this is above & beyond the chaos the scramble for a successor would create. & how could it be anyone but Harris in that situation?
We’ll just have to trust that the Biden’s team has not been protecting him or mischaracterizing his physical & mental condition. Then again, I am voting against the Rs up & down the ballot this election, so whatever happens on the Dem side (short of embracing the Herrenvolk reactionary ideology) doesn’t really matter.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I will say this again, the language the SCOTUS douchbag six are using sounds and awful lot like what Charles the II was using.
It’s like the revolution they really want to undo is the English Glorious Revolution.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Eyeroller:
It’s full of great observations. I’m gonna hack and slash it a bit:
Everybody should read the entire thing.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Matt McIrvin:
I think, if he wins this time, that’s what he’ll do. He didn’t before because of all the guardrails in place back when he was in office. I mean, if you’re talking about military tribunals for your political opponents, that’s going to include the media too.
What gets me, is that apparently he was wanting to do the above all throughout his term but had to be talked out of it repeatedly. We should’ve been told about that back then by somebody in Trump’s WH. And yet Bill fucking Barr endorsed him.
I remember there was a US diplomat he threatened many years ago, that “she would ge going through some things” that is cast in a new light
Enhanced Voting Techniques
NYT “Biden debate no-show raises concerns over his mental state”
Also, keep in mind that debate was one of the few times the general public gets to see how loathsome Trump is without the media filter.
Skippy-san
There is nothing to celebrate today, and I am not going to wish you any happy greetings. July 4th, 2024, is a day of mourning. Nothing else. We mourn the death of the American dream and national experiment, which was murdered by our selfishness and stupidity as a nation, coupled with our refusal to adopt relatively straightforward solutions to our many problems.
Baud
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
They wouldn’t have proposed the debate in the first place if they were hiding something.
zhena gogolia
@stinger: That is terrific!
Skippy-san
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): There will not be any decent people to stop him. Chris Miller, Stephen Miller, John McEntee, Kash Patel , Michael Flynn and the rest of the herd will gladly kill anyone and everyone. They won’t hesitate.
Spanky
@Hildebrand:
Just coming online this morning, so I assume this is already a rotating tag.
Elizabelle
@Chief Oshkosh: Laughing.
Chris
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Yeah, but it’s Doom Porn with an agenda.
There’s lots of things on the political scene that could be feeding Doom Porn right now. They could just as easily be running headlines back to back going “OMG THE SUPREME COURT JUST SAID NOTHING THE PRESIDENT DOES IS ILLEGAL! THE AMERICAN EXPERIMENT IS OVER AND THERE’S NOTHING WE CAN DO TO FIX IT!!!” for example. But no, it has to be specifically “Joe Biden is lost!” because they’ve trying to convince a specific audience about a specific kind of doom.
UncleEbeneezer
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I remember the days when nothing really mattered until the conventions. Biden’s already doing more press and will undoubtedly continue to do so. The campaign machine of Biden’s advocates getting out and making the case for reelecting him, is only just starting. And Trump is going to get worse and worse, and much more public about it. If the polls really didn’t budge at the worst time (right after the debate) I doubt they are going to do so later.
3Sice
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
John King at CNN was on it like stink on shit. Quoting non-existent panicked democrats was the first thing out of his mouth.
They walked Biden into a political hit. The talking points, shitty camera angles and sound were all laid out beforehand.
Shame on Joe and his team for not sniffing things out, but water under the bridge now.
Baud
@Chris:
Agreed 100%.
JPL
The ad should play from now to election day. Biden should hold a press conference and explain that he felt off during the debate and saw his doctor afterwards. He’s fine! Then he should challenge trump to a two mile walk. trump is notarious for taking a golf cart for a block. He could even take questions and answer everytime about trump and is inability to walk a block nevermind two miles.
zhena gogolia
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: That would be much less damaging than this has been.
Not mention, it wouldn’t be a “no-show” if they didn’t initiate it.
Eyeroller
@zhena gogolia: Biden carried out a perfectly cogent interview with Howard Stern in April. You know, about two months ago.
I never heard of this Hot Ones show either until commenters here started talking about it, but he ought to do that one too.
Y.Y. named Donald Tusk of Poland as one of the. “concerned” leaders but he’s only been (back as) PM since 2023 so I don’t see how he can claim that Biden has deteriorated over the past four years.
Another Scott
The optimist in me sees one good thing about the post-debate discussions is that there’s been more push-back on the framing and the obvious herding (a great term I hadn’t seen before) stampede that everything has to Fit The Narrative or it doesn’t get headlines and attention. Normies still aren’t paying attention – it’s the summer Silly Season after all (or was in the Before Times) – but excessively on-line folks are getting the panic out of their system early and getting push-back from people saying “hey, wait a minute….”
Not a prediction, mind you. But lots of big news is still coming up in coming days/weeks and “old news” is toxic to the all powerful “Engagement” god.
Cheers,
Scott.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
I’m just so over the 4th of July. The “free press” – supposedly one of the pillars of our freedom – has become a wall to wall disaster. One of our three branches of government is filled with active domestic enemies of the Constitution. The bullworks of Democracy are failing at the slightest pressure.
Also I’ve grown to hate fireworks because they terrify my sweet wonderful doggy who we love so much. Most years it’s fine – it’s a few nights of terror. But this year she’s in her final days and fucking morons are keeping her up terrified all night setting off fireworks until like 3 AM.
This is all happening so fast…she seemed fine and full of health for a 12 year old dog last Saturday – romped with the neighbor’s dog for a bit and took us on a couple long walks. Then while taking her out on another long walk on Sunday morning her stomach looked bloated, which I googled and read about GDV, and since she wasn’t in any distress yet I figured take her to the animal hospital and get it treated before it turns into a surgical situation.
Well they saw her quickly but it wasn’t GDV, her abdomen was filling with fluid and that fluid was blood. So we got the news that she probably has a type of aggressive sarcoma that causes the spleen to rupture and they can remove the spleen and put her on chemo but if they do that her life expectancy is about 6 months…but they don’t recommend that if it has spread elsewhere so they need to do a chest x ray to see if it’s in the lungs and an abdominal ultrasound to look to see if it’s in other organs.
Chest x ray (done Sunday afternoon) was normal and the ultrasound (done Monday morning) was somewhat encouraging – it showed that the bleeding was coming from a mass on her liver. Those are much less likely to be an aggressive form of cancer so surgery might give her a few more years. So we decided to move ahead with that on Monday, but they need to do a CT to see if the growth is operable first. So on Tuesday morning they image her but have noticed some unexplained bruising on her abdomen. So they tested for blood clotting issues which came back negative and do the CT. Unfortunately the CT shows the mass is up against a major blood vessel so the surgery would be really tricky. On top of that, the CT showed fluid around the lungs that wasn’t there on Monday’s x ray and no tumor on the spleen but that looked abnormal. Then there were some other abnormalities – possibly leaking blood vessels, which could explain the bruising.
Anyway, given the directions things seem to be heading in with all these other factors and the location of the mass the critical care doctor didn’t think she was a good candidate for abdominal surgery. So we brought her home and are monitoring things. She still seems comfortable and bright but her energy level is fading.
Unfortunately her final days are going to be filled with fireworks – she was up on and off frightened until 3 AM last night. Tonight will be worse, then I’m sure Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights will still be full of people setting off the leftovers. So four of her final days will be married by this shit. All to celebrate a country that appears to be full of people that want to flush democracy and the rule of law down the tubes. So fuck it. I’m going to grill something because she still has a healthy appetite and loves when she gets stuff off the grill, but I’m not going to do the patriotic America bullshit this year, and maybe never again the way things are heading.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@3Sice: Oh Biden’s team knew that, they flat out said this why Biden wasn’t giving interviews to groups like the NYT for a while.
Baud
@Another Scott:
If there’s a sliver lining, going through this adversity will hopefully give us the grit to fight together in the months ahead.
zhena gogolia
@Eyeroller: Tusk is an asshole of the first water. Better than the previous Polish leader-assholes, but that’s not saying much.
Citizen Alan
@Another Scott:
This stops just short of the “I was just following orders” defense. Am I supposed to be relieved that not all reporters are willing fascist propaganda agents, some are just doing their jobs as assigned by their fascist editors and owners because they want to get paid?
JPL
@stinger: I now get his newsletter after someone on this very famous blog, linked to him. Is it you that I thank?
Eyeroller
@JPL: ”If you’re explaining you’re losing.” But he should make a lot of appearances and do more interviews (just not with the FTFNYT). Show, not tell, in other words.
stinger
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
He openly called the media “the enemy of the people”. Why they so badly want him back in power is beyond my ken.
UncleEbeneezer
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: This is where I’m at. We have a process. I voted for Biden. I’m not panicking. Why the F do you (not you, person who wants him to be pushed aside) get to nullify MY GODDAMN VOTE?!!! Especially if you’re one of those people who never wanted Biden in the first place. For all the talk of “Rigged Primaries” this would be effectively stealing the nomination from the rightful winner. You don’t get to demand a do-over just because you’re scared and the media is manipulating your fear. Fuck that anti-Democratic bullshit and anyone pushing it or making excuses for it. Full stop.
stinger
@JPL: No, and I probably need to thank the same person, if you find out who that was. :-)
JPL
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: That is so heartbreaking and I’m so sorry.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
Minty fresh!
Started reading BJ on my iPad and still getting the little details nailed down.
Baud
@Eyeroller:
Agree. Biden is Biden’s best advocate.
Baud
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:
I’m sorry.
Geminid
@3Sice: Kraven McCarthy got some revenge in when John McGuire defeated Bob Good in the Virginia 5th CD primary. And Matt Rosendale won’t contest his Montana seat because of a personal scandal. I think the other 6 Republicans who voted McCarthy out are safe though, so Dollar Store Ahab goes 1 for 7 with a walk.
McCarthy’s ouster could have some consequences in this year’s California House races. Politico Magazine had an article about this some months ago. Republicans have as many as 6 Representatives at risk in California, including Duarte, Calvert, Valadeo and Garcia.
McCarthy used to help his Californians as much as he could through legislation and fundraising, but now he doesn’t have anywhere near the clout he had. Plus, McCarthy is making enemies within the party, and that could blow back on his allies.
MazeDancer
Every year, on the Fourth, I read the Declaration out loud.
Sometimes with friends. Sometimes, just to my cats.
Always tear up at the “sacred honor” ending paragraph.
This year, will try, but might cry from the beginning.
But the patriots fought. And won. So can we.
JPL
@Eyeroller: Mediate has a radio interview he just did. IMO the line about Putin is the best.
link
kalakal
The Fourth of July is a special day for me.
It’s when I first met Mrs kalakal.
It was in NYC and with hindsight I think it was jolly nice of the locals to put on a fireworks display to celebrate the occasion
Another Scott
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: I’m sorry. :-(
We lost two of our doggies to hemangiosarcoma. It’s terrible. But any similar illness is bad as well.
Peace and comfort to you and your pooch. Remember the good times.
Cheers,
Scott.
Sure Lurkalot
Remember the Jeremiah Wright controversy? He was “just a bit” prescient here:
Jackie
OT sorta: Any ET zone jackals planning to watch Biden’s ABC interview tomorrow night? It’s being aired 8 pm ET/PT – SO by the time I get to watch, it’ll be three hrs OLD NEWS! I guess the good news is we can expect Joe NOT to declare he’s hanging it up…
O. Felix Culpa
@Hildebrand: Nice to “see” you in the comments again!
Torrey
@Another Scott:
This is excellent, and, handwringing being an entertaining sport but not particularly useful, I’m trying to think of a way to amplify it. The problem is that it’s not accessible to a lot of people. (The link didn’t work for me, for example, so you can’t just refer people to it.) It’s also too long for most to read. However, it should be possible for those on various social media sites to summarize it and post it on their sites.
I’d also like those of us who are comfortable doing so to consider taking a couple of minutes and writing a note to a sane editorialist or reporter–most of us can think of one or two. (Sadly, we’re stuck with that, since most newspapers have gotten rid of their ombudsperson or public editor or whatever they were called) I immediately thought of Eugene Robinson and Jen Rubin. They have emails: write them a note, direct them to Fritschner’s text, or reference it and make the points briefly, and ask them to please help calm down the feeding frenzy by their colleagues.
For example, in an open question session, Robinson answered the question as follows:
I’m glad to see that, and I notice the care in his wording. Other journalists “report” having had such conversations; waiting for “high-quality” polls.
And, finally, can anyone who has access to Fritschner via X or other means get in touch with him and suggest he put that statement out on a more accessible platform? He makes an important point, and I’m not seeing it made sufficiently strongly elsewhere.
Just my $0.02. I really would like to see some pushback against the reportorial/editorial feeding frenzy. I’m under no delusion that it can be easily turned around, but doing something is at least doing something.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: I rarely talk about electoral politics at all on Facebook and when I do it’s very general and anodyne, not this strategy-genius second-guessing stuff. I usually stick to advocating values and policies because that’s what I feel is likely to do the most good and the least damage
Right now, most of the worrying is coming from more or less normie family members and personal friends, not the horseshoe-left-curious people I sometimes follow elsewhere.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Another Scott: Yeah it sucks. I suspect that’s what this is even though it presented in the liver rather than spleen. That can cause blood vessels to leak anywhere so explains the bruising etc.
Thanks for the kind words… I’m remembering the good times though they bring on the waterworks. Not going to lie, the past several days have been full of more than a little gentle weeping.
Despite my rant we’re enjoying our last days with her as much as we can.
Kelly
Welp we’re really hiring a team when we vote for a president. If the team has managed to get all those good works done while presenting a doddering wreck as a calmly competent leader they are a team worth keeping.
EarthWindFire
First, nine month Speaker dude says what?
@Torrey: What a pantload of crap. If they need high quality polls, they can go to Simon Rosenberg. He has several pointing to a race that hasn’t changed.
NotMax
Obligatory and eternally uplifting.
EarthWindFire
@Matt McIrvin: Guess YMMV, my normie friends are pissed at the democratic party for leaving Biden high and dry when so much is at stake.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: The people freaked out about the debate never wanted Joe Biden in the first place. They are using this as a stick to beat him. Just like they used Gaza. Which has completely disappeared from the front pages. Amazing coincidence isn’t it?
Elizabelle
@3Sice: John King is Dana Bash’s ex-husband.
BlueGuitarist
Love all y’all
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
The key is to prevent the worry from becoming endemic. Express confidence and give them something productive to do (donate, postcards, whatever, posting positive messages on social media, whatever).
Liberals can become prisoners in their own heads.
Matt McIrvin
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: The thing is, the Democrats I know who are most down on Biden want the nominee to be someone who didn’t even run in the primary–Johnny Unbeatable for them is Pete Buttigieg or Gretchen Whitmer, who in real life are supporting Biden and always have. They wanted one of them to primary Biden (which would never have happened–Biden would have to voluntarily step down) and don’t feel like they were given the chance to vote for the person they really wanted. So these media stories are sparking these fantasies and frustrations again.
Baud
@EarthWindFire:
Excellent.
O. Felix Culpa
@Baud:
That’s how I feel about it. Determination to fight, with hope that we will win this despite the media’s
bestworst efforts to choose our candidates for us.Another Scott
@UncleEbeneezer: +1
As Kay says (e.g. in relation to Comey) – There’s a process. It’s all written down. Follow the process. Don’t do things that aren’t your job. Etc.
Cheers,
Scott.
UncleEbeneezer
@Matt McIrvin: I guess you just gotta take a personalized approach to talk them down, based on the lines of argument they usually respond to.
suzanne
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: I’m so sorry. Best wishes to your pupper.
Kay
@stinger:
They’re not scared because they know Trump won’t go after them.Why would he? They created his celebrity and promote him. The relationship is reciprocal – they promote him, he makes them money.
Trump has already destroyed them. They serve him now.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
That’s not really being worried then. That’s having an ulterior motive to express worry.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: Yes, I’ve noticed that.
O. Felix Culpa
@Matt McIrvin:
I
havehad normie Dem friends and family panicking too. Using compelling points posted or linked to on this here almost top-10K blog, I was able to talk them down from the ledge. Or at least to wait and see. Consider doing the same, if you haven’t already.Another Scott
@Torrey: Sorry about fumble-fingering the links again.
Fritscher’s thread on Twitter.
Nitter.poast.org version
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
How veddy germane, Returned to the middle of a program left off watching yesterday and what was the first dialogue I was greeted with?
“A lot of them are mediocrities or psychopaths or some combination of the two. It’s time for bright, decent people to take over.”
Baud
@O. Felix Culpa:
Good man.
Baud
@NotMax:
Nominated!
Kay
@stinger:
What work would Donald Trump imprison US journalists for?
With the exception of ProPublica, they don’t do anything an authoritarian would consider worth censoring. Much better to have them out there providing the favorable coverage they now provide while we all play act that we have an independent media.
Trump LOVES them.
Baud
@O. Felix Culpa:
I don’t know. Maybe more people will step up now that they feel they have an important job to do and aren’t just a cog in the campaign machinery. 🤞
schrodingers_cat
Happy 4th everyone!
Happy becoming a citizen day to me! A milestone in my journey that I still cherish.
UncleEbeneezer
@Matt McIrvin: The whole thing is one big (kid’s voice) “But I don’t WANNA vote for Biden again…” It’s so fucking selfish and immature. The vast majority of us, rarely if ever get our fave candidate as an option. That’s just politics (and life). These people need to grow the fuck up and stop insisting that their precious feelings justify throwing out the votes of millions of Americans.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
👍🇺🇸
CaseyL
@Another Scott:
Thank you! I am spreading that Twitter thread as far and wide as I can.
O. Felix Culpa
@schrodingers_cat:
Happy 4th to you too! I remember your Citizenship Day well. I’ve been to several of those in person with friends, and still get a little misty-eyed about it. It’s a surprisingly and wonderfully moving secular event.
UncleEbeneezer
@Baud: FACTS! And I suspect there is a lot of that going on. Gross opportunism (to replace Biden, who they never liked) at the worst possible time. Not everyone, but definitely some…
Hildebrand
@O. Felix Culpa: My thanks – good to have the opportunity to do a bit more than quick reads around here. I love my job, but it’s sure nice when it doesn’t chew up the whole clock.
Layer8Problem
@Kay:
CapnMubbers
@lowtechcyclist: Late to the party; I came here to post what you said at 122.
Happy Fish of July 1775.
UncleEbeneezer
Damn I love Taraji :) :) :)
Another Scott
@NotMax: :-)
Thanks very much.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
There’s lots of news out of Gaza – 90% foreign sources
you just won’t find any of it on Balloon Juice
It’s horrible to say that catastrophe is all about Joe Biden and US politics. It erases the tens of thousands of people who have died. They exist apart from the United States and our (self created) political problems.
cmorenc
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
True, there is a media feeding frenzy regarding Biden’s debate performance a week ago. I voted for Biden in the NC Presidential Primary back on 3/5/24, I get that Biden swept the Primary phase in every state.
The crucial issue after last Thursday night is that what the public saw of Biden cannot be unseen, and played into his greatest potential weakness with the voting public. Can Biden do enough going forward to override that impression? THAT is the crucial concern. Let’s give Biden a chance to do that, but if it doesn’t appear to be working, this is a must-win election and it may be time to consider plan B, with Harris as the most plausible alternative. Where we are at was unimaginable a week ago, but here we are.
Almost Retired
Happy to see that today’s Los Angeles Times has an article focused on Project 2025 and Kevin Robert’s chilling statement about a bloodless revolution “if the left allows it.” Not front page, but front section. It’s a start.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Thanks
@O. Felix Culpa: Thanks
TBone
https://x.com/AndrewFeinberg/status/1806356192475721912
This makes me LOL every damn day! 🦈🦈Sarah Cooper
stinger
@Torrey: Eugene Robinson: “other journalists report having had such conversations.” The layers of non-attribution are dense there!
Robinson these days is an opinion columnist, not a reporter. What he actually can report (“no member of Congress has told me… that he or she believes Biden should be replaced on the ticket”) gets lost in the subsequent verbiage: “No one wants”, “might”, “I think”.
Journalists and even members of Congress each have exactly one vote in an election. If they can’t come up with some substantial reason — and make it public — why Biden won’t continue to be the excellent president he has been, their opinion doesn’t sway me in the least.
Kay
Palestinians exist only in relation to Joe Biden’s Michigan polling and our various domestic political enemies.
There is no objective reality in that conflict – it’s 100% about… harming Joe Biden. He’s the real victim here.
PJ
@zhena gogolia: Logical thought has nothing to do with journalists’ call for Biden to stop running. They just hate him (or at best dislike him – how dare he go visit his son’s grave?!!), and want Trump to win.
TBone
@TBone: this sent a VERY strenuous message to me. The Great Locomotive Chase UNION soldiers being awarded Medals of Honor posthumously.
Union
I just made hubby change out of the dark gray shorts he’d chosen to go with his garish Flag shirt today. He’s in dark blue now 💙
In his defense, he’s color blind about clothes.
schrodingers_cat
Has the press interfered in the Republican nomination process or criticized their nominee or their President or asked them to resign like they have done with every Democratic nominee? I have been here since the 90s and seen how they have treated Bill Clinton, Gore, Kerry, Obama, HRC and now Joe Biden.
The press thinks its primary duty is to bully Democrats why are we still their captive audience?
YY_Sima Qian
@Kay: +1 wrt your comment on Gaza at #204. We might see a high intensity war in Southern Lebanon before long, too. & Bibi will continue to try to knife Biden & the Dems in the back all the way to Election Day, & beyond.
satby
@Eyeroller: no, he shouldn’t do Hot Ones, in which the guest answers questions while eating insanely hot to almost dangerous Scoville levels of hot sauce on wings.
Let’s shoot for some dignity.
Baud
@cmorenc:
The problem with the wait and see approach is that it will encourage people to wait and see instead of being active, or worse, to continue hand wringing about Biden or try to get people to sour on him so they can get him thrown off the ticket.
Baud
@satby:
Nominated!
206inKY
@JPL: The reason he isn’t doing this is because he can’t. It’s been a full week and virtually all reassurance has been done by aides. Elected officials and donors are on the record complaining of no communication from Biden himself, just senior legislative aides etc. If there’s truly no problem, it’s the easiest thing in the world to show the world you’re capable of unscripted speech in a crisis like this, and this is why there is so much anger toward Biden’s aides for hiding his condition.
The real fight will be ensuring a smooth transition to Harris. The NYT is up with a piece salivating over a contested convention.
satby
@UncleEbeneezer: not just Black Twitter, but old Twitter, disabled Twitter, liberal Twitter, and some independent journalists. It’s been way more positive to see than several threads here.
Kay
@YY_Sima Qian:
US media barely covered it anyway. They went from 3% of coverage to 1%
The only reason they weighed in at all was to cheer on the police and college administrators silencing students. We could help slaughter a million Palestinians – as long as there’s no icky protestors drawing attention to it US media wouldn’t even show up.
stinger
@zhena gogolia:
Is Orbán who is meant when I read (non-attributed) claims that “European leaders” are concerned, post-debate, about Biden? Because the photos and videos I’ve seen of Biden with foreign leaders show them happy and relieved. Biden, like Obama, is just a pleasant person to be with, and he’s not constantly threatening to break treaties for no reason.
Baud
@satby:
For the first time ever, I hope Twitter is real life.
stinger
@Kelly:
QFT
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Actually most people in RL are ignoring this issue as far as I can tell. They are still not in the general election mode.
catclub
Democrats have to be perfect and Republicans are excused with ‘they don’t really mean it.’
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: Congratulations! We’re lucky to have you.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: Good.
O. Felix Culpa
@schrodingers_cat:
Excellent observation. The press seem inclined to tear down D candidates, but fluff R candidates (see: DeSantis) until those individuals sink under the weight of their own incompetence. Then it’s crickets from the press while they cast about for the next
whitesaviorR candidate to fluff.cmorenc
@Baud:
All the available options are problematic, unless Biden can do enough to override the public impression of his diminished capabilities from last Thur night. There is no way to stop the hand-wringing absent that, unless he can pull that off, and fairly soon.
Kay
@YY_Sima Qian:
Agree about the Right in Israel knifing Biden, too.
Jesus. No good deed goes unpunished. He bent over backward to give them everything they wanted, including the huge land grab they’re pulling off in the West Bank and they work as hard as they can to elect Trump.
”largest land seizure in three decades”
This past week.
NotMax
@satby
Case in point, Matt Damon.
:)
Baud
@cmorenc:
We can stop the hand wringing ourselves. It’s not written in law that we have to do it. Republicans don’t do it. Black Twitter isn’t doing it. Our problem is that a lot of people on our side believe expressing their feelings is paramount over everything else.
Chris
@cmorenc:
The problem is that “let’s give him a chance to do that.” The people screaming for his head have no intention of waiting and seeing how the few weeks after the debate shake out or what the party leaders think. The media definitely doesn’t. Which effectively means the narrative is being created with zero interest in objective conditions, and, in fact, with an eye to overruling them.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby: Agree.
schrodingers_cat
@O. Felix Culpa: The press does it because it works on Democrats. Especially white Democrats who Baud pointed out are minority of their cohort. Or as black Twitter has dubbed them, the weakest link.
It takes strength to stand alone in your peer group. It is exhausting. It is easier to go along to get along. I have been there (in the context of Indian politics).
So its easy to bash the Ds to prove that you are independent and prove to your peer group that you are not like those other icky mindless automaton Ds. You are pure of intent and questioning of spirit. All this is happening at the subconscious level.
CaseyL
@cmorenc:
He’s been doing public events, and he’s been fine. Maybe you just haven’t seen them.
EarthWindFire
@206inKY: So the congresscritters and donors aren’t capable of pulling up the day after debate rally on YouTube? Fuck them sideways.
Baud
@EarthWindFire:
He met with Dem governors yesterday.
O. Felix Culpa
@schrodingers_cat:
FWIW, this white Dem refuses to go along with the baying of the feral press hounds, and I’m doing my darndest to stiffen the spines of those in my acquaintanceship circle.
schrodingers_cat
@O. Felix Culpa: I know. I am so glad for you and many others like you. You give me strength.
Kay
@YY_Sima Qian:
Netanyahu gives carefully planned statements, in English, absolutely trashing Joe Biden. It’s a coordinated campaign by the Right in Israel – it’s state funded and intended to influence the US public. Israel didn’t deny it when it was reported because it’s true.
cmorenc
@Chris:
Can’t tell from your wording whether the bottom line of your argument is:
a) therefore stick with Biden all the way to November, in hopes that he can override the narrative dynamic between now and then;
or
b) therefore Biden should step aside quickly, cause there is no way to otherwise cut off the negative narrative that’s being reinforced.
Gvg
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: Do you have a friend with a really well insulated house or a basement, something really noiseproof? Think about it. I used to retreat with my sisters nervous rescue to an interior walk-in closet. That house had really good modern insulation including double paned windows and if we did that, we couldn’t hear a thing. I too know a book and a sleeping bag and just settled in until it was over those nights with the dog. Also a lamp to read by.
O. Felix Culpa
@schrodingers_cat:
We’re in this together. That’s how we win.
EarthWindFire
@Baud: I know he met with the governors. I was addressing a complaint that donors and congresscritters haven’t had their hands or other body part of choice stroked sufficiently by Joe Biden himself.
UncleEbeneezer
@Chris: Exactly. Biden has emphatically said he’s all-in to win. There’s no point to push for discussions about other options at this point and doing so only divides our coalition and hurts voter enthusiasm for November.
Steeplejack
@schrodingers_cat:
Happy anniversary, citizen!
Kay
@YY_Sima Qian:
I mean, we have our own problems with Democratic collapse so I’m not judging Israel’s but the Israeli government (current, not some hoped-for better government) is not on the side of Joe Biden. They’re working against him.
schrodingers_cat
@Steeplejack: Thanks, Happy 4th fellow citizen.
jonas
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Like Charles I, too:
If you haven’t seen it already, Josh Marshall had a great column up yesterday on how the framers intended the Chief Executive (i.e. President) to have a lot of power, of course, but understood much more keenly than we do how that was different from a monarch.
Chris
@cmorenc:
Oh, I’m still with Biden. Well, I’m on “wait and see” – I trust him to step aside if he really doesn’t think he can turn this around and the senior party leaders and Jill Biden to encourage him to if they think it’s needed. I’m just noting that a lot of people seem unwilling to Wait And See, and the media is doing their damnedest to stampede him.
I have no idea what the best play is. My instinct is for Biden to stay in because anything else would cause even more damage. As I said, I’m open to being convinced otherwise – but not by some guy on the Internet and not by the op ed page of the NYT.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: Aww thanks. I am flattered. Happy 4th.
O. Felix Culpa
@jonas:
Which the Extreme 6 know full well. They are corrupt and evil, not stupid.
cmorenc
@Chris:
This is exactly where I am at on the matter.
West of the Rockies
Super late to the thread, but bizarre that Republicans are “saddened” by Biden offering cookies to WH visitors, but they celebrated Pig Trump having two scoops of ice cream (I guess it was alright for him to like ice cream) while everyone else only got one scoop.
3Sice
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Yes on the FTFNYT; seems like they thought CNN still had a modicum of modesty. Warner is past the point of no return. They would have gotten a fairer shake out of FOX.
Steve in the ATL
1. We are fluid to TBogg this thread with posts saying “it says happy fish of July!!!!!”
2. I can’t believe people are still on Facebook.
Ella in New Mexico
Pretty sad and disgusting to link to any of Kamala’s posts and see that on a daily basis, the same Shitter Blue Checkmark accounts post the most vile, racist and sexist things in response to her.
More proof that the Anti-Biden/Harris ProTrump cabal is clearly driven by international bad actors. This HAS to be being coordinated and paid for somewhere, aint none of the grass roots American haters out there got or money time for that amount of focus and dedication.
Kay
@Chris:
Agree. His polling is bad though. I think as long as it doesn’t bleed to congressional Democrats polling – which is quite good- they’ll all stay onboard. If the bottom really were falling out you’d see congressional Democrats start to tank. In 2010, the bloodbath year, every single Democrat was endangered.
I hope he does lots of unscripted appearances.
Tenar Arha
@Hildebrand: lmao
O. Felix Culpa
@cmorenc:
I’m on “full steam ahead with Biden,” and will change that only in the unlikely event that he steps down and Harris becomes our candidate.
We are seeing another psy-ops by the FTFNYT and others who do not have our best interests at heart playing out in real time. For me at least, I have to ignore their small-d anti-democratic witch hunt and commit to the one and only Democratic candidate we have, and his name is Joe Biden.
ETA: As others have pointed out, the NYT and other media bosses and unnamed Dem operatives (if they even exist) do not get to pick or evict our candidate for us. The voters have already spoken. And fie on “his polling numbers are bad.” So what? The voters have already spoken. Our job now is to GOTV and prove the polls wrong.
Mo MacArbie
Hi, everybody! Infrequent nym here with some un-asked-for observations.
Happy Birthday, America. You’re kinda dopey, kinda panicky, and you don’t know your own strength, but I love you all the same, ya big galoot.
UncleEbeneezer
@cmorenc: If you are really “with Biden” stop throwing fuel on this bullshit fire and start helping to extinguish it.
zhena gogolia
@Mo MacArbie:
I know, right???
Matt McIrvin
@Mo MacArbie:
We have known knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns. Hey, maybe we should be looking for the WMD!
lowtechcyclist
@schrodingers_cat:
Happy 4th, fellow citizen! We may disagree on a great deal of things, but I am glad you’re part of this crazy country!
Another Scott
@cmorenc: One can’t “win” a bad-faith argument – it’s a category error. There’s no satisfying those screaming for Biden’s head, because the point isn’t to get Biden’s head. They would be doing the same screaming against MVP or anyone else on the Democratic ticket.
The point is to drive down Democratic turnout so that the monsters – beyond TCFFG – win. They know that they cannot win fair elections, so they put their thumbs on the scale.
It’s what they do.
Eyes on the prizes.
Cheers,
Scott.
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin: Nah, we should just stuff the WMD down TCFG’s pants!
schrodingers_cat
@lowtechcyclist: Thanks. It really is the best in the world. For all its flaws. And the best thing about America is American people. I realize how much I love being here when I am elsewhere especially while visiting the country of my birth, which I also love.
TrainedWreck
@Eyeroller: red blooded republicans just pick out all the pink starbursts in fealty their orange made up clownshow
Kay
@Chris:
I also think the best way to change the subject for Democrats is to do a big push on the immunity decision. That’s politically damaging to them and media isn’t going to cover it. They didn’t cover Dobbs initially either. The Dobbs phenom was bottom up.
I saw three House members are doing “opposition” things on it – I called Marcy Kaptur’s office to ask her to step up – this is right in her wheelhouse. I’ll try Sherrod too although senators are always more cautious. The decision was immediately unpopular with the public. They reacted with no coaching. I’m convinced it’s potent.
O. Felix Culpa
@Another Scott:
QFT. They’ve done this to every Dem candidate in my aging memory, starting at least with Jimmy Carter and the stupid, made-up story of the killer rabbit in order to make him look weak and ridiculous. It’s what they do.
Maybe, just maybe, it’s time for our side to develop a bit of pattern recognition, and along with it, a healthy dollop of skepticism towards our Fifth Columnist Press.
Kay
@Chris:
Immunity goes directly to a pro Biden argument too. We don’t even have to tell them that – they’ll get it.
“Do you want Donald Trump as King?” We don’t even have to go to Biden. Let them get there themselves. They will.
japa21
One of the interesting things I keep hearing and reading is that all the people expressing concern (I am speaking about normies I know and that others have talked about here) are also saying that they will vote for Biden despite everything.
An interesting point was made here yesterday by someone. It was that the debate was to improve Biden’s standing against Trump. In that sense it failed. However, it, at least so far, despite every attempt to make it do so by media, has not hurt his standing against Trump. The key will be in the next couple weeks. Biden is out there and, so far, has been the complete opposite of what people saw in the first 20 minutes of the debate (and only in the first 20 minutes).
I have a hunch that the reason ABC changed its mind on the televising of the interview is that the Biden campaign basically said they had to. They didn’t want ABC to selectively edit the interview. This way, if Biden has a slight slip, it can be readily made up with the rest of the interview.
UncleEbeneezer
@O. Felix Culpa: Me too! I’m 100% with Biden. If that changes I’ll be 100% Kamala. And I’m not gonna contribute to pushing good Dems who are willing and eager to fight, aside. I’m not gonna give Trump, Putin, Media assholes and Burn-It-All-Down Progressives their wish of dividing our coalition on some Flawed Candidate, Johnny Unbeatable bullshit.
japa21
@Kay:
I agree. The immunity decision is a big one. And it needs to be pointed out that the decision doesn’t mean anything Trump would do is legal, it means he can do anything he wants legal or otherwise, without any fear of consequences.
wjca
Fixed that for you.
Because the voting public (as opposed to the press, or even some folks here) came away with an amazingly different experience. Perhaps because they didn’t start with the same preconceptions and/or agendas.
Eyeroller
@japa21:
Good point. Biden is well known to make gaffes and have minor fluency issues. Could easily be forced into this narrative by selective editing.
Kay
Fancy suburban Republicans, the kind of Republicans who go to Lake Michigan yacht clubs, are defensive on the immunity decision. They know it’s bad and unamerican and makes them look like dumb rubes who follow Dear Leader. They think of themselves as smarter and better than that. So lets just do blanket events on how Republicans installed a King. It will take grass roots Democrats off defense (which is no fun for anyone) and put them on the right side of “democracy” and “patriotism”. They’ll love that.
Baud
@japa21:
Good. Don’t trust the media.
UncleEbeneezer
THANK YOU!!! And this is why the fantasy, hypothetical discussions about replacing him are completely pointless.
gene108
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
My take is it shows Biden as a sad old man, all alone in his office with nobody around him, and he has to hobble around to give McCarthy a cookie.
Kay
@japa21:
Yup. Except let’s do no explaining. About ten years into law practice I stopped explaining law and process to clients because they don’t care. They’re paying me to care. They have their own jobs.
“They made Donald Trump a King”. Just fucking shout it over them. Let them do some explaining.
Kristine
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: Hemangiosarcoma, I assume—lost my GSD-Lab King to that back in 2013. It had already moved to his liver—he had some tricky surgery to remove part of his liver and his spleen. That and chemo (not like people chemo—two tablets, forgot the frequency, no ill effects) bought him 5 months. He almost made it to 13yo, but it wasn’t to be.
It’s nasty. At least I received a warning—King went from romping around a toy that morning like a canine Baryshnikov to standing still and dazed later in the afternoon as though he was afraid to move. Sometimes dogs just collapse and die because a lesion in the spleen ruptures and they succumb to internal bleeding.
I am sorry.
Kay
@japa21:
Really just keep the lawyers off tv. I’m not kidding. They’ll kill this for us. We say “They made Donald Trump a King” and then media and Republicans have to start explaining why that’s technically incorrect. Works for me.
Another Scott
New 30 second Biden ad.
Good, good.
More, please.
Cheers,
Scott.
Tenar Arha
@Layer8Problem: Nice. Hope the drive isn’t too bad. Hope kitties settle okay.
UncleEbeneezer
@gene108: That’s my interpretation too. Grandparents offer kids cookies. So it’s an attempt to keep stoking that Biden’s Old fire that so many even on our side, can’t resist fueling.
Ella in New Mexico
@Mo MacArbie: Amen!!
catothedog
@Eyeroller:
Irrespective of what Biden does, no Dem/lib should be paying a single cent to the Times – by subscribing or ad revenue (clicking on their links)
It should already have been clear after “but her emails”.
And after this with Biden, there should not an iota of doubt left, that the NYT is an enemy of Dems and libs.
Bill Arnold
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
It might even have been a full mismatch of culture.
“Have a cookie” is often used vs somebody who is stating the obvious.
Here’s another one from Urban Dictionary.
When engaging in a debate and the opposition is too dim witted to grasp the concept so you politely suggest they, “Have a cookie.”
Most effective in public places or in mixed polite company.
Also,
Chief Oshkosh
@schrodingers_cat: Thanks, we needed you! :)
sab
My husband just got back from his weekly coffee klatch with his parochial scholl classmates (class of ’69.) They are mostly slightly left of center normies. In Ohio. Like actual versions of the Ohio voters the MSM claims to talk to. The klatch folks watched the debate, agreed it was not a good performance, and do not see what the big fuss is about since the incumbent president often blows the first debate. And Trump is a repulsive, ignorant nutcase.
So I feel better.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I like that idea. One of our real advantages is that most voters don’t like or trust Donald Trump, independent of how they feel about Joe Biden. So framing a vote for Democrats as a way to prevent Trump from returning to the White House with monarchical powers could be a powerful incentive.
CaseyL
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:
I am so sorry! You have done right by her in not subjecting her to the trauma of a surgery that would likely not have any benefits.
Is there any way you could go somewhere else for the next few days? Stay at a hotel somewhere quiet? I don’t know how good she is at being somewhere other than her own home, but it might be a possibility to ensure she doesn’t have to endure the fireworks.
BarcaChicago
Here is what I posted to my circles on social media:
Our vote is our power. The panic narrative (we’re doomed!) and the fantasy solution narrative (why don’t we just ____!)both serve to demoralize us and to distract us from understanding that the way we solve this is by voting in great numbers. The higher the number of voters, the more the left wins. That’s true in this country and in all countries (I lived in Spain for many years, and it was my Spanish ex who enlightened me on that point). Wisconsin is a perfect example: it was the historically high turnout in blue Dane and Milwaukee counties that gave us fair maps. We didn’t need to convince anyone else – just get all of our people to the polls. Don’t let them manipulate you – they want us to lose faith in the democratic system so that we don’t vote. That’s how they win.
It got a lot of shares and likes FWIW.
Bill Arnold
@Eyeroller:
Re-upping this episode from the 2016 election cycle:
Republican operatives tried a dementia hoax in 2016, with a forged document.
The claim was that Hillary Clinton was quickly dying of ‘subcortical vascular dementia”.
Hillary Clinton Medical Records ‘Leaked’ – Right after the name of Hillary Clinton’s physician appeared in the news, suspect medical records attributed to that doctor were “leaked” online. (Snopes, 10 August 2016)
By the Rule of Republican Accusations, this means that Trump expected to die of some form of dementia.
Soprano2
@Another Scott: I’ve started to believe the press is trying to create a reality where Biden steps aside because that’s more exciting for them.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Betty Cracker:
What this election is all about: Hair Furor’s massive threat to US democracy, now given a stamp of approval by the Extreme Court.
And Dobbs. I repeat myself, Roe v Wade is a martyr. We should use it like the French did after the English burned Joan of Arc at the stake.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Thanks! I’m planning on boring Marcy Kaptur’s extremely patient aide with it.
She was great at these broad arguments during Bush II. She opposed the Iraq invasion – framed is as the public being bamboozled into war by unelected think tanks and media people (which, as we found out, was true).
This is one time where the self interest and survival instincts of congressional Democrats work in our favor. It’s an issue that’s good for everyone.
trollhattan
Is this live or taped and edited?
Asking for a friend.
Soprano2
@Eyeroller: I watched the debate on CNN. The first comment was about how bad it was for Biden, and they all chimed in. The only person who didn’t do that was the black man on the panel (don’t know his name) who said “TCFG looked strong but he lied about everything and his policies are terrible. Biden looked weak but told the truth and has good policies”. The rest of them ignored him. One man on the panel said he was getting panicked texts from Democrats. So if you want to know how it started, it was stupid Democrats texting their panic to reporters.
delphinium
@Another Scott: That is good-short and to the point. Love how it clearly stated “Trump asked for this”. Leave him no wiggle room.
Kristine
@Soprano2:
They’ve trained themselves to ignore the outcomes of their actions (and inactions). It’s all academic to them.
CaseyL
@Kristine: They’ll all be Maggie Haberman if the GOP wins this year. Courtiers and polishers.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@BarcaChicago:
When we vote, we win. It’s always about GOTV.
Nice to see you’re hanging around to comment.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Our base don’t want to work to defend Biden. Damage control sucks as a job. Let the people we pay with our small donor giant piles of cash do that.
Give them something they want to do – they’re volunteers and we love them – offense on democracy. They’ll love that.
O. Felix Culpa
@Kay:
Check out the ad Another Scott linked to at #286. Fits the bill perfectly. I’m sure more will be forthcoming.
Eyeroller
@sab: That was exactly the response of the “normies” and undecideds based on focus groups and flash polling. This did not arise from an organic response by ordinary people thinking “disaster! dementia!” rather than “distracted, tired/has cold, not great debate” which is why I am wondering who started it. I avoid conspiratorial thinking but somebody upthread suggested John King of CNN seemed to have this ready to go immediately. Convenient that it plays into the Narrative. Of course we know that once somebody in media went there the FTFNYT would dive in and drag the rest of the media with them.
Mr. Bemused Senior
One of three Rumsfeld songs: As We Know
Lapassionara
@Bill Arnold: Trump definitely has signs of dementia. He has trouble pronouncing words of more than 2 syllables, he had to be helped to walk down a ramp, and he tells bizarre stories of sharks and electric boats. He is definitely afflicted. That’s why I want him in front of the public as much as possible.
Villago Delenda Est
A vote for the convicted felon makes one an accessory to treason. It’s really quite simple. TCFFG/PAB is an enemy of the Constitution of the United States, as are the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation.
Scout211
A (surprisingly) interesting commentary on CNN.
Still, the media would like to pretend that they can game this out with their special knowledge and anonymous sources close to _______. But it’s the first commentary I have read that seems to be more balanced. Or should I say “balanced?” The fact that the Trump campaign (and the media) has been pushing the Biden is old and feeble smear for months but the Trump campaign is really not yet prepared for it to actually happen, is news that is not really reported in the MSM.
And you just know that Trump hates not being in the spotlight right now. I wonder how long he can wait in the shadows.
Eyeroller
@Soprano2: I’d sure like to know who these “Democrats” were. I won’t come right out and say the pundits were lying, but we have no context as to who was sending the texts and why.”We can’t burn our sources or they won’t feed us rumors and bullshit anymore!”You would think that a “professional Democrat” who actually wanted us to win would have enough brain cells to know better than to feed a juicy storyline like that to the media. But I have lost what little respect I ever had for the “professional Democrat” class.
Edit: Hmm, what “professional Democrats” appear on CNN regularly as “analysts, not supporters” and would naturally have their colleagues’ cell numbers? I can guess at least a few names; those of you who consume more media than I probably can guess more.
Sister Golden Bear
Downstair RevRick said:
All this is true.
That said, trans people have been feeling this for years now, as we’ve watched Republicans literally take away our rights.
The way we trans people keep going is by fighting back. Even when it’s seemed impossible, even when it seemed hopeless. We’ve ended up winning more victories that I thought we would, but it’s a fight we’ll be fighting for at least the rest of my life. And that sucks — especially as only a few years ago it looked like we were finally on a path to equality. But fight we must, and fight we will. Fight with hope, fight without hope, but fight absolutely.
(I won’t presume to speak for Black folks, but they’ve endured similar circumstances, and far far longer than we trans people have, which is why I assume Black Twitter isn’t giving up either.)
EarthWindFire
Is more likely to be a lie than a fact. The only truth in that article imo is the chaos is our friend quote. That’s been the case with every authoritarian movement.
Another Scott
Speaking of FTFNYT…
(via EclecticBrotha)
Cheers,
Scott.
O. Felix Culpa
@Sister Golden Bear:
Black Twitter isn’t giving up either. And neither should we. Which Founding Father was it who said, “We either hang together or we hang separately”?
I remind myself that the Founding Fathers and Lincoln and the many unnamed citizens who fought for us in the past didn’t know the outcome of their battles, and were afraid at times too. Nevertheless, they persisted because it was right and necessary to do so. It’s incumbent upon us to fight this battle before us, in their honor, for ourselves, and for the sake of those who will come after us.
E.
@oldgold: It took me a while to understand why, for me, the immunity case landed so much harder than the others, including Dobbs. The reason is it goes to the utter core of my Americanness. The Declaration of Independence is as close to a Holy document that I will ever have, and those assholes just told me its contents don’t matter. I’m furious.
Ruckus
@Mathguy:
Not humorless – humor free.
They are serious about every thing they say or even seemingly think, (damn that is a word that really doesn’t fit in any discussion of them – think) because it’s not a thought process, at least not any kind of actually thought out process, it is a methodology of believing they are thinking when all they are doing is expressing hate. Live and let live? Nah, that’s not their concept, their’s is “We get to live and fuck everyone else!” Part of a democratic collection of humans – nope – they are a collection of humans that can’t see the possibility of difference, of humanity as a whole, they are the shinning light of humanity, just ask them. And everyone else is at best scum.
Kay
And because we love our activists base and they’re volunteers we’re not going to give them the shitty “debate damage control” job. Professionals don’t even want that. Professionals fucked it up- let them fix it. God knows we pay them enough. Anita Dunn probably makes half a million a year.
We’re going to give our cherished volunteers “They made Trump a King” and for the more in your face among them, “Donald Trump raped two little girls”. They’ll promote those two. Because we love them and want them to enjoy their work.
JWR
@Kay:
This is the story out of Israel I’ve been following. It’s like a fire sale over there.
Also, there was a huge firestorm here in Los Angeles a few weeks ago because Code Pink staged an “antisemitic” demonstration outside a synagogue, which had staged its own demo, and which was being used for land sales in the friggin’ West Bank. But every CA state leader, and even the WH, weighed in against the Palestinians.
I know how I feel about my government when it does wrong. I truly don’t know how Israelis sleep at night while this is going on.
From The Guardian:
jimmiraybob
@Sister Golden Bear: “…I assume Black Twitter isn’t giving up either.”
I keep hearing about “black twitter” and I never had a chance to explore before twitter blew up and my unaffiliated access was denied.
I miss the people that I used to follow but did not want to go down the X path. I’m starting to think that signing up to have access is going to be necessary in the near future. And, I will certainly look for the “Black Twitter” community.
Does a person have to be a paid subscriber for access?
Geminid
There’s a Republican Ukraine Hawk, Randy Mott, whose Twitter account I sometimes check out. Today Mott led with:
Mott went on to explain how this would be a terrible policy, and said in bold type:
Mott warned that “this would create the biggest threat of WW3 since 1945.
Mott’s an ex-Army officer, current businessman who was a strong Haley supporter throughout the primaries. Then he switched to Trump. Mott seems to think Trump will win, but so do a lot of other people.
Mott is a Reagan Republican through and through though, and he believes a policy of appeasement in Ukraine will end up discrediting his party. Mott still might not cross over because of this issue, but I think some other Republicans and Independents who would otherwise vote for the Republican candidate will defect because of Ukraine.
Votes from Americans of Ukrainian, Polish and other Eastern European heritage could also turn on this issue, especially if Democrats push it.
For my part, I replied to Mott that when I read what Trump said about Ukraine during the debate, it was obvious that he was “running up the white flag.”
Eyeroller
@Kay: I am not a professional communicator, but from what I’ve seen most “damage control” is a mug’s game and rarely accomplishes much. Just go on offense. Hard. We have plenty of material.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Kay: Speaking of that. Over at Facebook all the Right Wing Trolls are throwing hissy fits over the “Trump is king now” narrative right now. This is not something conservatives are comfortable with.
Another Scott
@jimmiraybob: Use Nitter to have Melon’s place act like “old Twitter”.
Replace “x.com” with “nitter.poast.org” to get it to work. (You may need to be patient and refresh it a time or two.)
https://nitter.poast.org/eclecticbrotha
seems to be a good “black twitter” place to start.
HTH a little.
Cheers,
Scott.
Juju
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I remember Hillary was dying and had cognitive issues and balance issues and she passed out because it was hot and she had pneumonia and she was deemed not fit enough to be president. She certainly seems fine now. Trump, not so much.
UncleEbeneezer
@BarcaChicago: This is great. Thanks for sharing it.
Kay
@Eyeroller:
Plus, no one wants to do it. No one wants to argue with other Democrats over Joe Biden’s competency. It’s miserable.
Give them something they want to do already. That’s all organizing is. You don’t give the volunteers the worst job on the roster. That’s why we pay professionals. To do shit like (ugh) damage control.
E.
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set today a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.
—Emerson, Concord Hymn
Kay
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Suburban Republicans – better off Republicans – want to think they’re better than the Newsmax base. They’re defensive on it because it’s weak and bad to ass kiss that pig.
Juju
@Another Scott: It looks like it may be fish or flush of July.
Sister Golden Bear
@jimmiraybob:
I honestly don’t know about access. I assume you can still read Twitter for free. But you can also find “Black Twitter” folks on Bluesky, which is free, as well as Nitter.
ETA: @Another Scott: beat me to it. As far as Bluesky, some folks to look for are Imani Gandy @angryblacklady.bsky.social,
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I will point to out to everyone who’s upset about Biden being old, from my conversations with the small c conservatives I know, the typical comment is “Did you see those two old guys scream at each other last Tuesday?”. That debate didn’t move the anti-Trumper right to Trump and Trump needs those people.
But of course we have our own problem with the white left who won’t accept anything less than a candidate of whom meets their demanding standards.
Eyeroller
@Another Scott: I scrolled down as far as I could and got to the tweet about the FTFNYT’s opinion piece published today, Independence Day, by a Michigan resident arguing against voting, and I was struck by the extreme punchability of the face of the dude who wrote it. White, maybe thirty-something(?), mustache, fringe beard. Gaa.
Villago Delenda Est
@Geminid: The worship of the shitty grade Z movie star got us into this mess. Mott’s right about Ukraine, but wrong in every other way possible.
Villago Delenda Est
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: The perfect is the mortal enemy of the good.
MagdaInBlack
@Eyeroller: Chicago progressive radio has a morning drive host, Richard Chew, who has been saying this ever since the debate. Go on offense, plenty of material. He certainly turned me from worried sick to angry as hell, and gave me ammunition.
WCPT 820 AM.
BlueGuitarist
@Kay:
In Federalist 77, Hamilton says presidents are
the immunity decision is a mockery of the revolution, constitution, federalist papers, and everything decent in our political tradition.
The Republican hacks on the Leo Court are not conservatives.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Yes, my bet is they figure they can hold their nose as Trump as a place holder until 2028, but Trump until he Trumps off and dies is beyond the pale for them.
BR
@Kay:
Biden has a new ad on just that (I know, ads don’t get seen widely these days, but they aren’t pulling punches):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-gY2e4j1jg
Geminid
@jimmiraybob: Rikrah reposts a lot of good people from Black Twitter. Many of them can be found on Mastodon, Blue Sky and other platforms.
This might involve a little searching but maybe people here can help. I can’t because I use Twitter and I’m too lazy to develop access to other platforms. Plus Twitter is still the best site for foreign news and there is a lot going in the Middle East and Black Sea regions right now.
BR
Any discussion of replacing Biden with Harris (who is really the only option anyway) also fails to recognize that the “Kamala is a cop” stuff will come back instantly plus an attack on her husband for having met with so many Israeli and American Jewish leaders over the last 9 months — that will be “Kamala’s bad on Gaza” and with that she’ll inherit all the negatives baked into Biden’s campaign.
There’s talk about how only Michelle Obama can beat Trump, and maybe that’s true in the polls, so I saw a good way for her to frame it on the stump: “A vote for Joe is a vote for me.” And everyone can say that: “a vote for Joe is a vote for me” and it really means something when coming from people of demographics that will be persecuted under authoritarian rule.
Another Scott
@Eyeroller: Totally on-brand for FTFNYT.
Yeah, not voting is no big deal. That's why the GQP is trying to take the franchise away from young people, talking about repealing the 19th Amendment, making the vote restricted to property owners, saying people born here aren't citizens, and all the rest. Because not voting is no big deal and maybe everyone who reads the FTFNYT should not do it.
Sure.
//
They explicitly say in their 2023 corporate financial report that one of their big jobs is to “engage with [our] passions”. They want to rile people up for clicks and visits and subscriptions. If “don’t vote” OpEds disillusion people who think that, say, the wealthy have too much power in the USA, well, so much the better.
(Oh, ICYMI, there’s a faint centered “Load more” button at the bottom of the list of tweets, to see more of Ragnarok Lobster’s timeline. :-) )
Grr…,
Scott.
JWR
@Another Scott:
Isn’t there an app or extension to do this automatically? I have an extension called “Nitter Redirect” but haven’t used it since Melon Husk started messing with things to make it harder for “scrapers” to do their thing.
Sister Golden Bear
@Geminid:
Rikrah is a definitely a good source of people to follow.
prostratedragon
“Song of the Banner,” William Schuman; Grant Park people.
Geminid
@Villago Delenda Est: Well, I wasn’t trying to validate Randy Mott’s world view, just using him to illustrate a wedge issue for Republicans. These Ukraine Hawk/ Internationalists may not be a majority within their party at large, but they are still a substantial minority in the House as the voting on the foreign package showed.
I think Mott and most of his peers will hang with Trump, and a smaller portion will defect. But these are traditional Republican “base” voters and I wonder if the Party can afford to lose them.
Another Scott
@JWR: That used to work, when there were many nitter mirrors. It doesn’t work now.
The “nitter.poast.org” thing works differently.
More details here.
HTH!
Cheers,
Scott.
BlueGuitarist
@oldgold:
Pedantry alert: that’s the first paragraph of “The American Crisis #1,”
In which Thomas Paine also wrote
“I call not upon a few, but upon all…
up and help us; lay your shoulders to the wheel”
And
”I love the [person] that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection.”
Another July 4 patriot quote moment
prostratedragon
@JWR: The firefox extension ‘Nitter’ does this on android. At least one nitter extension works on the desktop/laptop version (not at my machine at the moment), so you might try out a couple.
JWR
@Another Scott: Got it, and thanks for the info and the link!
ETA @prostratedragon: Thanks, but I actually have Twitter, (TLDR I clicked the wrong place and there I was. Oh well), and so no longer need one of those things.
Kay
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
They should release all the Epstein evidence – Trumps in that up to his ears
Its brutal but it’s time to be brutal
I’d also like to know if the DOJ betrayed those girls. I mean, I know they did, but I’d like to know the extent of it.
different-church-lady
@Soprano2: Democrats are constantly accused of being spineless.
It seems like a lot of them are choosing this election to prove it.
schrodingers_cat
@BR: Check out the memes BS bros were making about Kamala Harris and tell me that they will be supportive of her candidacy.
different-church-lady
@BR: Going negative on Trump and GOP makes perfect sense right now, because it’s effective no matter how it shakes out on our side.
UncleEbeneezer
@Another Scott: WaPo isn’t much better. Just saw that they have an article up about the various scenarios which could result in Biden stepping aside.
jimmiraybob
@Another Scott: Thanks Scott. I have an unusually quite weekend to be flummoxed.
prostratedragon
Ragnarok Lobster:
Soprano2
@3Sice: Oh no, I believe they exist.
jimmiraybob
@Sister Golden Bear:
“…Imani Gandy…”
Yes, I used to find her on Twitter. Wasn’t it in these hallowed halls that I first met her?
lowtechcyclist
@jimmiraybob: Yeppers. She was a front pager here.
UncleEbeneezer
@different-church-lady:
Dem-haters: Why won’t Dems FIGHT?!!
Biden/Harris/DemParty: We’re ready to fight!
Dem-haters: No, No, not like that…
It really shows just how much the “if only Dems had a spine” complaints that are so pervasive in every political space (including here) are not worth listening to.
jimmiraybob
@Geminid:
“Rikrah reposts a lot of good people from Black Twitter. Many of them can be found on Mastodon, Blue Sky and other platforms.”
[insert big “thumbs up” emoji]
Soprano2
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: I’m so sorry, it’s hard when they get sick suddenly like that. Hope you can make her final days good ones. She might surprise you.
jimmiraybob
@lowtechcyclist:
Seems like a billion years ago when the doors to BJ were left unlocked and I wondered in.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
This what I find personally so infuriating about what’s going on the left right. Not only is election winnable because so much of even the Right loathes Trump, this election one of those moments when a lot of Republicans votes are starting think think “You know what, the GOP is full of shit”. I mean the stark fact that an ill Biden is better than Trump at his best is going to get many of them thinking. And our fucking voters are about throw it all away because they would rather have dictator than the liberal president who they aren’t 110% comfortable with.
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: Yeah, I noticed that too. Suddenly we aren’t hearing about Biden’s “Gaza problem” anymore.
UncleEbeneezer
@BR: Kamala the Cop is so 2019…
She will be smeared for being too Pro-Israel. The narrative is already set and all the haters have to do is substitute “Harris” for “Biden” in their justifications for people to abstain from voting to save Democracy/The World.
Soprano2
QFT
Soprano2
@Kay: That’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is that the “Biden will be destroyed by Gaza” stories seem to be gone because they’ve found a new thing they think they can use to destroy him.
Elizabelle
Another thing that gets me. It’s known that Biden had a stutter, and some issues with fluency of speech.
All of this is so cruel. Stupidly cruel. It’s an attempted political assassination in real time.
AG Sulzberger, nepo baby publisher of the FTF NY Times, and rich kid editor Joe Klein, belong in a circle of hell. And may they get there soonest.
O. Felix Culpa
@Soprano2: Bingo.
Elizabelle
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: are these “our voters” though? I get that they are our detractors.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
CNN:
“Biden faces what may be the most critical 48 hours of his career.”
Still not letting go, comparing 30 minutes to decades of work not to mention that pesky “really good at presidenting” bit. Then issue a time frame for him to make things right again. Just like the people (some here) who say “Biden should do blah, blah, blah. You mean that takes more than a day to accomplish?”
FTFNYT is simply the NY Post with a thesaurus. CNN is basically the National Enquirer with better photos.
schrodingers_cat
@Soprano2: Instead now its don’t defend Biden, defend democracy by pretending he doesn’t exist and focus on other races.
O. Felix Culpa
@Elizabelle: No lie told. :)
schrodingers_cat
@UncleEbeneezer: Plus she cackles, just like I snipe unlike genteel ww who merely disagree.
zhena gogolia
@UncleEbeneezer: I can’t believe people aren’t getting bored by this.
O. Felix Culpa
@schrodingers_cat:
Oh, I dunno. Hillary was shrill. ;-)
Soprano2
@Kay: I agree with this. I’ve seen mostly apolitical people on FB commenting on it. It resonates with people.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: I am mad not bored. Why have primaries at all if we are going to let these editorial pages of Vichy Times and Pravda on the Potomac bully us to jettison our strongest candidate.
zhena gogolia
@Elizabelle: Joe Kahn. Joe Klein was some other asshole.
schrodingers_cat
@O. Felix Culpa: Genteel progressive women on this blog. I should have been more specific.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: I’m mad too. I was trying to channel the feelings of the average reader.
Ben Cisco
Happy Fifteenth Day Since Juneteenth for all who celebrate.
Also, remembering Papa Cisco on his birthday.
schrodingers_cat
@Ben Cisco: That’s cool, he had a July 4th birthday.
Betty Cracker
@Eyeroller: They could have been reading the live debate thread at Balloon Juice or social media comments from Democrats who were rooting for Biden when he stepped onto the stage. Plenty of people were genuinely shocked and freaked out and rightly so, given the stakes.
I think it’s fair game to criticize the (predictable!) media frenzy, but it’s insulting and inaccurate — and counterproductive — to imply that people who were appalled by the debate performance are media dupes or fair weather Dems. They saw what they saw.
One of our side’s virtues is we don’t regularly demand that people disbelieve their lying eyes. Let’s leave that to the MAGA dopes.
Elizabelle
@zhena gogolia: Thank you. To hell with Joe Kahn!
KSinMA
@BarcaChicago: This!
Eyeroller
@schrodingers_cat: Hillary cackled also. It’s not a racial thing, it’s a female thing. Google “hillary cackle” if you don’t mind wallowing in mud for a while. Oh and a burning question some assholes have is whether Hillary’s or Kamala’s cackle is worse.
Eyeroller
@Betty Cracker: Instead we’ll make medical diagnoses based on what we see on TV for 20 minutes.
Kristine
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Nominated
JWR
@zhena gogolia:
Over at the now deceased Firedoglake, Joe Klein was referred to as Joke Lein. (Ha ha nudge nudge wink wink. Get it? Joke Line?)
Yeah, I never care for that one either. ;)
Betty Cracker
@Eyeroller: Well, scolding Dems who freaked out is one response, but I don’t think it’s an effective one, at least for campaign officials. Their task is to demonstrate that the debate was an anomaly and highlight the threat of Trump.
Sounds like they understand that, hence the planned ABC interview and hopefully more unscripted events. It’s an unfortunate situation, and I get the anger at the media, I really do. But they didn’t manufacture this out of whole cloth.
Eyeroller
@Betty Cracker: Sure they did, in the following sense: The media, in particular the CNN panel, pretty clearly were looking for any hook into the “Biden is senile” pre-existing narrative. So they of course would start talking about it. What really fed the flames was all those unnamed “panicked Democrats” texting them. Who the hell were those people? It’s OK to be concerned, but at that point the job of Democrats is to keep their goddamn mouths shut while waiting for further information or confirmation. Especially since Biden improved during the second part. If a pattern started to form with subsequent appearances/interviews and such, then we might have reason for serious worry. With just a 20-minute lapse you cannot make any such snap judgement about a person’s capacity, especially if one does not take all circumstances into account (stutter, cold, cold medicine, stress, etc). That’s true even for a much younger person, but especially for an older person.
But clearly a lot of people were expecting a knockout and didn’t get it and went berserk.
The media (led, of course, by the FTFNYT) would still have gone nuts but they should not have gotten any help. Republicans would never have done that.
Villago Delenda Est
@Kay: His base won’t care that he’s raped girls. Especially the fundigelicals.
SomeRandomGuy
No, it’s not that they’d prefer a dictator, it’s because Republicans have been planning for Biden to have a problem, and because so many people have seen so many “problems” turn into election day horrors, a lot of D voters (and a metric fuckload of R voters) are willing to speculate that maybe it would be better to switch.
Now, remember: in 2020, we had Republican operatives who got racial justice protestors to chant “DEFUND THE POLICE” and that didn’t sink Biden. And the average person watching the debate DID NOT SEE A PROBLEM. It’s only the arrogant blowhards who think their opinion on Biden’s “old man cooties” is dispositive. Ordinary people get that he’s old.
Soprano2
@Eyeroller: It was the first thing out of his mouth.
Sister Golden Bear
@Villago Delenda Est:
The Christofascists will see raping girls as a feature not a bug.
Bill Arnold
@zhena gogolia:
Viktor Orbán was a bagman for the(a) Russian mafia (allegedly, but the evidence is reasonable), and is current a fluffer-of-V.Putin. He should be treated as such. His opinions should be treated as the opinions of lifelong pro-Russia person.
UncleEbeneezer
@Eyeroller: The other thing that is so frustrating about all of this is that the debate format is largely for political theater/entertainment. There’s nothing in the actual job of being President that this scenario simulates. If Biden went into a meeting with Putin (which he wouldn’t do alone, for starters) and Putin did nothing but spew falsehoods Biden would (rightfully) walk out like “Okay Vlad, nice seeing you. My people will be in touch.” Asking Biden to effectively counter all of Trumps lies (or convincingly pivot from them) is like asking him to juggle a dozen spinning plates. It’s a terrible metric for someone’s mental acuity, and one that doesn’t translate at all to the actual job of Prezidentin’. Moreover, had Biden refused to do the debate, I’m 100% certain the people complaining/worrying now, would’ve bashed him for that too. It would’ve been “What’s he hiding? What’s he afraid of?” ad nauseam.
TEL
@Skippy-san: If there were simple solutions, we would have done them. If you want to give up on the American experiment, you do you. I’m fighting on.
catclub
@jimmiraybob: “…Imani Gandy…” aka Angry Black lady
wjca
I suppose it depends on your audience. But in general, the label “the left” is nearly as negative as positive. Sorry, but that’s the real world.** So it’s probable more effective, for general audiences, to go with something like:
“Our vote is our power. The higher the number of voters, the more our country wins.”
** See the number of voters who supported people like Bush II. See how anomalous, for his state, Senator Brown is. Feel free to sing the praises of “the left” later. Right now, we’ve got an election to win.
Bill Arnold
@Sister Golden Bear:
AngryBlackLady is also very active on twitter/X, as @angryblacklady. (I see her retweeted/embed tweeted a lot, as well, from many places in political space.)
Bill Arnold
@Kay:
Yes. Honing and ruthlessly using lines of attack against convicted felon Trump will be helpful no matter what.
LadySuzy
@Soprano2: He’s too “middle-class” for them, he doesn’t belong in the East Coast Elite…
They’ve never really respected him. Oh to hear what they are saying behind the scenes… What they’ve been saying for years…
They’ve praised him for his resilience after tragedy hit him, they’ve praised him for his empathy. But nothing else. When it became evident he would get the nomination in 2020, they didn’t have anything else to say about him. WHEN have they praised him for his knowledge and experience ? And his efficiency as a politician ?
They just can’t wait for someone else.
BarcaChicago
@wjca: Valid point, however this was for my solidly left circles. For a more general audience, absolutely.
brantl
@BlueDWarrior: We’ve still got them beat, they can’t possibly do that.
brantl
@Skippy-san: Stop wringing your hands already, the bones are showing. Take that bony, potent hand, and punch a vote into the ballot box, and on the way to the box, let it punch a Nazi!
brantl
@Matt McIrvin: What are “the horseshoe-left-curious people”?