All these “this has to be the nail in the coffin for Biden” tweets seem to posit that Biden cannot simply tell them to go fuck themselves and there’s nothing they can do about it. https://t.co/0z1V1mwQF4
— Thomas (@tcstephenson818) July 7, 2024
Before he nearly died of an autoimmune disease, Dana Houle ran Democratic campaigns for a living. I’ve been holding onto this thread to see how things shook out over the weekend, and it’s become abundantly clear that you can’t set up a whole circus overnight based around a few professional clowns and a plethora of would-be ringmasters…
This tweet (starting a thread) got over 1.1m views. Not one person said it was wrong. (A few ppl disagreed but cited examples that don’t pertain to our current situation.)
It’s Biden or maybe Harris, nobody else https://t.co/iGZ6jPrTbT https://t.co/JQkLuK3nq6
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) July 7, 2024
2/It’s possible I’m missing something, but I don’t think so. Here’s why the Democrats can nominate Joe Biden, or possibly Kamala Harris, but nobody else.
There’s only one candidate with a 2024 presidential campaign committee registered with the Federal Election Commission.
3/Some of the “stuff” of the Biden campaign can probably be transferred to the DNC (and maybe state parties), but most of it can’t. Another candidate can’t just take over Biden’s campaign.
So, think about it.
A new nominee would not have a campaign. Like, not a tax ID…
4/Not a bank account, not a website or address. There would be nothing. They would start out largely paralyzed for weeks.
First and most obviously, there would be no staff. And there would be no HR process for hiring staff, no payroll process. So a new campaign trying to…
5/…rapidly expand would have to focus on staffing. They could probably hire people from the Biden campaign, but not all would want to work for the new candidate.
Among the first people needed would be compliance and legal staff, because a new campaign would be immediately…
6/…challenged on ballot access and all kinds of other stuff. Compliance would be needed to deal with the massive influx of immediate cash and to be sure everything meets FEC rules.
But to get cash they’d need banking/accounting as well. So that needs to be set up…
7/And since most of the money would come in online, they’d need to immediately set up a web operation robust enough to handle to load, and secure enough to handle the obvious cyberattacks that would happen. So they’d need contracts for servers, support staff, etc…
8/This new campaign would also be immediately inundated with calls and emails from press, potential volunteers and donors, other campaigns/party orgs, orgs inviting the candidate to events, etc.. So they would immediately need staff for press, scheduling, political, etc
9/Some of these people could probably slide over from the DNC or state parties. But that leaves holes at the DNC and state parties.
But let’s say they could immediately staff up. Where does everyone work? Office leases prob can’t be automatically transferred to the…
10/…new campaign, so all of those would need to be renegotiated, and some may not be available to the new campaign. They’d also have to deal with utilities.
Then, how does everyone communicate? As we know from 2016, security breeches can be fatal. So it’s not something…
11/…that can be tossed together in a day or so.
But let’s say all the staff and infrastructure can be conjured from the ether. What about the data? Some could probably be transferred, but some of the lists would probably need to be purchased at fair market value from…
12/…Biden/Harris 2024. The new campaign would be starting out with no email lists, no volunteer lists, no fundraising lists, etc.
They’d also be starting with no contracts with vendors. All those contracts would have to be negotiated (think of the staff time needed to do…
13/…all of that at once). Some vendors wouldn’t sign with the new campaign, so they would need to be replaced.
There’s also the issue of advertising. The Biden campaign has already reserved tens of millions of dollars of TV ad time from the last few weeks of the campaign…
14/…when the inventory is low and what’s left is expensive. The new campaign probably wouldn’t be able to get the same volume, or get it at the same price. There would be similar problems with digital, with mail houses, etc.
Then there’s voter/targeting data. A lot of that…
15/…is probably used through the DNC. But what about the plans on how to use it? Analytics/targeting would need to be recalibrated for the new candidate, who would not have the same traits/strengths & weaknesses, etc as Biden/Harris.
As for money, well, there are a lot of…
16/…challenges there as well. A new candidate who hadn’t recently run for President (which, since Dean Phillips doesn’t count, is anyone) wouldn’t have much of a finance committee. They’d have no events scheduled/booked. And they wouldn’t have any fundraising agreements…
17/…with other campaigns, state parties, etc.
But let’s say all of that is in place. What’s the plan? The new candidate would start without a campaign plan or budget. They’d have done no polling. No data work. No research. No policy.
Then they’d have to vet and choose a VP.
18/So, even if we live in a fantasy world where there would be no issues with ballot access/state laws, DNC delegate/nomination rules, the political chaos of Biden not running and the first woman & African/Asian-American VP being passed over, the new candidate being untested…
19/…in a primary season and thrown in to the craziest campaign in modern US history, the ceding of the advantages of incumbency, the fact that they’d unexpectedly have to effectively abandon their day job…in the fantasy world where none of those problems would exist…
20/…it would still be impossible–if I’m correct that the Biden campaign is not transferrable to anyone but Harris (and even that would be challenged–it would still be impossible for Democrats to replace Joe Biden unless they tried to win without a campaign.
Now, some may…
21/…point out that Trump didn’t have much of a campaign in 2016. That’s true. But by July he had all of the legal/financial arrangements needed to have a campaign. He had a lot of the physical infrastructure. The RNC wasn’t in chaos the way the DNC would be if Biden…
22/…is replaced. Plus, even before he ran for President he had nearly complete name recognition. And despite the help of the Russians and James Comey, he lost the popular vote. So Trump’s campaign doesn’t show campaign apparatus doesn’t matter.
23/So what does all of this mean?
It means unless he quits that Joe Biden is the nominee, and that if it’s not him, anyone other than Kamala Harris would be starting from nothing & be completely overwhelmed & ineffective & would almost certainly lose.
24/It means talking about replacing Biden is a fantasy, bc it’s impossible, & continuing to talk about it like it’s a possibility is stupid & destructive & people who want to win should stop it, & everyone else should be shut down because they’re making shit up that’s not real
25/Correction: TV reservations would prob be OK bc they’re from the Biden/Harris-DNC joint committee.
But I may have understated the problems w state ballot access. It may be impossible to get anyone else’s name on some ballots except Harris (& I’m not even sure RE her)
And yet.https://t.co/4rL6Eae7TO
— David Mongan (@LawyerDave1) July 7, 2024
Meanwhile, Bill Kristol reverts to type…
Not very savvy, given that there may be no way to replace Biden except maybe with Kamala Harris. https://t.co/Z6bcb2b01q
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) July 8, 2024
War for Ukraine Day 865: All of Ukraine is Under Air Raid Alert & Russian Missiles Are Inbound!
Shalimar
This is what pisses me off about Campos, Lemieux, and Loomis at LGM. They’re smart people and they really want Democrats to win in November. Why don’t they realize that replacing Biden this late would be a disaster?
West of the Rockies
Regarding point 21, Trump had a shitty campaign but a media obsessed with his every belch and Farr. Left ’em enraptured, it did.
SpaceUnit
Christ, I’m so very over this. Wake me up in November. Going to bed.
Shalimar
Also, too if that tweet about Dem committee ranking members are true, those idiots are damned lucky they have Biden for a party leader instead of Trump. Because Trump would absolutely cut all of them loose and say everything he could to denigrate them. And also make sure they get no resources from the party.
eversor
Biden is the only option. We can debate Harris in 2028. I don’t think she will win as she tanked last time and we are blessed with a deep bench, but for now she is the back up if Biden dies and is qualified.
Even if Biden dropped out there is no great white hope. Pete will be too gay, Newsom too Cali and on and on.
These fuckers need scalps to justify their existence.
Dangerman
@SpaceUnit: Join me at the Rip Van Winkle room.
Mai Naem mobile
The media has spent 10 days on Biden’s debate performance but TFG and SCOTUS doesn’t even get a single news cycle. Aileen Cannon is busy trying to get rid of the docs case and the MSM is busy talking about unnamed WH,Congressional and big money Dem donors asking Biden to step aside. I am so done with this. if TFG wins, you damn well know there will be a big hisotrical story several years from now on how TFG sold highly classified info to our adversaries. I am so done with this shit.
West of the Rockies
@eversor:
Spot on.
Ruckus
Main stream media is wholly out of touch with where the Democratic base is.
Gee that somehow doesn’t seem to be all that strange a sentence….
Most main stream media seems to be owned by, at the very least, semi conservative wealthy types. The one’s that really wanted taxes lowered, especially their taxes. You know, the upper end of the tax brackets. Because most everything else means doodly squat, or close to it to them. Because overall, money and less taxes for all that money is a constant goal for those of the rather rich variety.
Splitting Image
Dana Houle’s summary is excellent, but there needs to be one or two more points…
26/ The Republicans are aware of all of this, even if the news media are not.
27/ It is very unlikely the news media are less informed than the Republicans.
Ruckus
@Mai Naem mobile:
I am so done with this shit.
YEP!
You said everything that needs to be said.
So as it’s a political blog I’ll add my 2 cents…..
It is a a shit show and it really is getting rather tiering to have to read and or think about it every day. ShitForBrains is only 3 yrs younger than President Biden, not 10 or 20, and he has not aged well. And President Biden, who had done a rather fine job of working out his speech, and is a lot of IQ points above ShitForBrains, who is basically the best example of the need for birth control ever seen or imagined.
Aussie Sheila
@Splitting Image:
Precisely my thinking. The whole shemozzle has been a confluence of media fuckwits, thumbsucking ‘knowers’, idiot savants like Ezra Klein and the usual maga/russian mischief makers.
Pedal to the metal.
Biden/Harris are a go.
Christ if the French Left can get it together to stop fascists, so can the US.
Viva BrisVegas
@Mai Naem mobile: The MSM seems completely uninterested in delving into the disgusting reports of Trump’s sexual proclivities with regards to teenage girls that have surfaced recently.
Too much like hard work to bother with?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Shalimar: This thing reminds me of McCarthy’s plan when he became Speaker of the House that he would simply take over Pelosi’s team until he found out it doesn’t work that way.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Speaking of shit the MSM considers bummers that harsh their Summer Anti-Biden boner, that Bolivian Coupe attempt. Here is a video from Chines dissidents claiming the coupe failed because the troupes involved were using crappy Chinies copy of the Humvee.
https://youtu.be/gU1BZY-_orc?si=_cYb8YmxUCAqdyNQ
Jay
DMC has introduced an electric DeLorean,
Sadly, no flux capacitor or time travel,
LanceThruster
K-hive FTW, as far as I’m concerned. It shows proper and justified respect for the community that so regularly delivers for the Dems, often to be forgotten shortly afterwards it hurts to note. It can rightly be argued the validity of VBNMW at this point. Pros outweigh the cons on quite a number of levels here. Her “I was that little girl” in the primaries was actually pretty damn badass (having the tees follow so quickly was a sign it was in the chamber at the ready. Booyah!)
The future has already happened, as the reel now unspools. Kind of exciting to be at the crossroads. Wasn’t where I was at before. Seemed more a case of whistling past the graveyard as a means to deny reality.
:—-:
“Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber?” “Yes.” Billy, in fact, had a paperweight in his office which was a blob of polished amber with three lady-bugs embedded in it. “Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why.”
― Kurt Vonnegut
Splitting Image
@Viva BrisVegas:
I think they are very interested in the reports. It’s one of the reasons they are keeping the focus on Biden.
Nukular Biskits
I can’t argue with a single point Houle makes here.
Aussie Sheila
@Nukular Biskits:
No, because he was/is a professional campaigner. Any idiot that is spinning fantasies of dumping the selected Dem nominees for P and VP for some kind of west wing fantasia comprising Johnnie unbeatable and his charismatic mate, should be shot out of the airlock.
Christ almighty. Eyes on the prize.
Nukular Biskits
@Aussie Sheila:
I mean, he lays it out point-by-point.
Those pushing for Joe Biden to bow out and then to also completely pass over Harris are either living in a fantasy world or are working for Trump.
Or both.
matt
@Shalimar: My theory is that those guys aren’t actually all that smart. It kind of hurts since I’ve wasted a lot of time on their website over the years.
lowtechcyclist
@SpaceUnit:
Same here. A week and a half of this shit is so far past ENOUGH that I don’t have words for it.
Still, I appreciate the enumeration of all the difficulties a new candidate would face, and all the hoops they’d have to jump through, before they got a single ad on the air. Maybe now that that’s been front-paged, we can all move on.
p.a.
That’s an interesting view of their job the MSM has: at all cost deflect attention from the very candidate threatening to prosecute us or encourage his supporters to physically attack us. Wheeeeee!
Also too, any elected Dems that can actually be shown to be on the “dump Joe” bandwagon: next election cycle- primary challenge. We need good politicians with backbone.
satby
@SpaceUnit: We’re all over it, and yet we still get treated to stupid people gassing about it infesting every thread. Being tired of it and frustrated with it doesn’t actually fight it. This is the reality we’re in.
Anne Laurie, between the chicken littles and the “I’m sick of this subject” ostriches, thank you for still putting it in front of people just like you’ve kept on with the covid updates. Ignorance is not bliss, and bullshit hopium /rage farming is not helpful either.
satby
@Viva BrisVegas: it was first reported in 2015/6 when the minor in question, then a young adult, filed suit against the convict and several others, but then withdrew her suit after only a couple of days. The perps said it was a false story, the girl’s lawyer said her client had been threatened, everyone at the time clammed up and the news media said they couldn’t independently verify the girl’s story. So it died until this latest batch of documents were published. And that’s why it’s still not being revisited: old news. Plus fear of the Russian mob is probably another factor.
Princess
Look at the French elections. A huge chunk of the people voting for the Macron party and the socialist coalition weren’t doing it because they loved and admired Macron or Melechon. Faaaaar from it. They voted to stop the fascists. People voted who never usually vote. don’t care if people don’t love Joe, or think he’s Gaga. (He’s not). All I care about is getting the stakes of this election out and getting voters to reject Trump.
MariedeGournay
@Shalimar: I had to abandon LGM because of those three’s relentless posting about it, especially Loomis’s trolling. His moral preening obscures any points he wants to make.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
lowtechcyclist
@satby:
I agree. But an early morning respite thread each day until this bullshit shitstorm passes would really be nice. Somewhere else here to talk about anything else besides this nonsense while waking up. And I’d feel bad about hijacking the OTR posts.
Princess
WaPo says Ted Lieu is among those demanding Biden resign. I was shocked so I checked. It’s not true and Lieu has denied it forcefully. They’re just making things up now. WaPo and NYT are not just bad papers; they are actively interfering in the election.
rikyrah
The thought that Hakeem Jeffries.. .protege of Nancy Smash… Would turn his back on the Biden/Harris team….😒😒😒
FOH
Another Scott
Kindler at Blue Virginia.US:
Hang in there, everyone.
Do more, worry less.
Cheers,
Scott.
rikyrah
@Princess:
They literally did the “All Asians look alike” nonsense.
Conflating Lieu with another Asian congressman😠😠😠
satby
@Princess: And it’s going to be a hard slog with bullshit thrown at Biden /Harris every day for the next 4 months. Opting out, not really an option. Funny photoshops are a version of amusing ourselves to
deathfascism. They don’t care, they’re in it to win; and the threat about their second American revolution will be bloodless “if the left allows it to be” was a direct threat to all of us, just like the R candidate for NC governor’s “some folks need killing” speech. The target is on our backs.satby
@lowtechcyclist: oh fuck no. Go look at birds.
Seriously, if you need respite, close your web browser and go do something else. I’m not a child, no one reading this is, and that adults need to be diapered and burped because the news is so unsettling is ridiculous. This place started as a news/political blog. Time is urgent, and short. Less than 4 months and this election is over.
rikyrah
Will take this morning to reiterate that this is all about preventing Kamala Harris from being in a position for the Presidency in 2028. Period.
Ramalama
@Jay: Do you mean the DNC (Democratic National Communtards)? I mean I just learned about the pie filter very recently so you likely did mean the DMC. But who are they?
rikyrah
jarrett, chill 🫶🏽✨🍉 (@jarretthill) posted at 4:51 PM on Sun, Jul 07, 2024:
sunday they were calling @tarajiphenson’s election statement at the bet awards “unhinged.”
then them google search numbers came out, the terms got to trending, and trump had to start denying #project2025 and now taraji’s about to save the republic.
(https://x.com/jarretthill/status/1810069027064271176?s=02)
rikyrah
philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) posted at 4:19 PM on Sun, Jul 07, 2024:
In walking back its diversity and climate initiatives, Tractor Supply cited customer feedback, saying it has “heard from customers that we have disappointed them. We have taken this feedback to heart” https://t.co/htOiK2THTW
(https://x.com/Phil_Lewis_/status/1810061222789652839?s=02)
Abnormal Hiker
@Ramalama: DMC is DeLorean Motor Company
Ramalama
I only know of Josh Barro’s work via Popehat, who I enjoy reading from time to time.
Stopped listening to his Popecasts with Barro because … Barro tends to compress all things coming out of his mouth so that I have to stop and listen and think (maybe not a bad thing) but then respond almost 94% of the time with equal parts…”NO.” and “WTF.” So all that work to break down what he’s talking about and then having to listen to him with that smug bastard tone? No thanks.
Even when I don’t like what Popehat’s saying, I never have the same reaction. I may have read a few things Barro has written. Again, NOOOOOO.
Does he think he’s Christopher Hitchens?
rikyrah
C.W. (The Jedi Master DISSENTS) (@CWJediMaster) posted at 6:12 PM on Sun, Jul 07, 2024:
The real reason Republicans want Biden to step down is so there will be chaos at the convention, leading to potential legal issues, at which point – you guessed it – the Supreme Court could step in to “resolve” it.
(https://x.com/CWJediMaster/status/1810089493598515496?s=02)
Ramalama
@Abnormal Hiker: Thank you!
A pie in the face for yours truly.
rikyrah
👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Veronica McDonald🗣 (@Purify_toast17) posted at 11:21 PM on Sun, Jul 07, 2024:
It’s a choice to blame Biden for not crushing Trump in the polls instead of blaming your racist family & friends for why Trump even has a chance.
(https://x.com/Purify_toast17/status/1810167242820129019?s=02)
Aussie Sheila
@p.a.:
You’re talking my kind of language. This shit show is unbelievable. Any endorsed Dem pol/candidate who has been part of this disgrace needs to be primaried/disendorsed/never selected.
It’s one thing to have lively preselection contests. Been there, done that. Lotsa fun, lotsa smash face.
Once your Party candidate is locked in however you feel about it, so are you, unless the candidate says otherwise.
I am gobsmacked that Party professionals and maybe a few rank and file activists would let themselves be swayed by an always hostile media. FFS, media hostility is an unerring sign that a left/centre left candidate party is on course to win.
Fuck them, and fuck the idiots listening.
Go Joe and Kamala!
Soprano2
I think this is a couple of things. The D’s who have come out against Biden seem to be more conservative centrists. I think he’s been too liberal for their taste, and they don’t like Harris.
As for the press, I can’t say it enough – THEY WANT TCFG BACK! They are bored with covering the Biden administration, and they see this as a golden opportunity to mortally wound him. Plus, they see TCFG as good for their bottom line, both personally and professionally. They should know at least some of that stuff in the tweet thread, yet when they interview people about replacing Biden they don’t ask about any of it. That’s because they don’t care, the whole point is to mortally wound Biden, not to replace him. It’s emails all over again. They ran that once and it was successful, now they’re trying it again.
rikyrah
ProPublica (@propublica) posted at 10:00 PM on Sun, Jul 07, 2024:
Leonard Leo didn’t just cultivate friendships with Supreme Court justices, arranging private jet trips and joining them on vacation. He also drew on his network to place Federalist Society protégés in clerkships, judgeships and the White House.
https://t.co/qHeOJJMMDI
(https://x.com/propublica/status/1810146792840859971?s=02)
matt
@Ramalama: he’s the son of a Harvard economics professor, i.e. born to be a master of the universe.
satby
Heather Cox Richardson (more at rhe link):
The U.K. also has been similarly flooded with Russian disinformation for years now. Russian trolls lie on social media websites and populate the comments sections of popular websites both to end support for Ukraine and to exploit wedge issues to split people apart.
These efforts were part of what Russian political theorists called “political technology”: the construction of a virtual political reality through modern media. Political theorists developed several techniques in this approach to politics: blackmailing opponents, abusing state power to help favored candidates, sponsoring “double” candidates with names similar to those of opponents in order to confuse voters on the other side and thus open the way for their own candidates, creating false parties to split the opposition, and, finally, creating a false narrative around an election or other event in order to control public debate.
These techniques perverted democracy, turning it from the concept of voters choosing their leaders into the concept of voters rubber-stamping the leaders they had been manipulated into backing.
This system made sense in former Soviet republics, where it enabled leaders to avoid the censorship that voters would recoil from by instead creating a firehose of news until people became overwhelmed by the task of trying to figure out what was real and simply tuned out. But those techniques dovetailed with the rhetoric of homegrown far-right figures as well… The United States has had a similarly contentious relationship with political technology, Russian disinformation, and far-right leaders echoing that disinformation as they seek to take power by dividing the American people.
Jay
@Ramalama:
The company known as DMC, the Delorian Motor Company, bought the remains of the origional DMC, but the cocaine stash was never found.
They have made a few retro Delorians,
Now, they are offering a retro Delorian EV.
Princess
@rikyrah: I think they’re hoping we’ll blink and dump Biden, and take an incredibly weakened ( because of the drama, the speed, the transition) Harris into 2024, destroying both their careers and potential to make the changes we want and need that they fear. It’s two in one blow and we should all be extremely concerned that our major news organizations are the ones leading the charge.
We have no highest court and no news media worthy of that name. One by one they’re taking down the central organs of democracy.
PJ
@Ramalama: Josh Barro is a Republican.
rikyrah
DrDinD🟧🇺🇲🇺🇦 He/Him (@DrDinD) posted at 1:25 AM on Wed, Jun 26, 2024:
Besides Project 2025, there is Agenda 47, right on the Trump website. This video gives a crash course in its awful design to make Trump a dictator and strip away critical thinking from the land https://t.co/Bk1DPB9R7T
(https://x.com/DrDinD/status/1805849849570771087?s=02)
TBone
Nobody is going to trash my vote in the primary. I voted for President Biden. He got the delegates based upon our votes. No one is gonna disenfranchise me without a dust-up.
prufrock
@Shalimar: I’ve not been over there in two weeks, and I’m not sure I’ll ever go back.
WereBear
@satby: Much like the Republican party, our corporate media touched Trump… and the rot gets revealed.
That’s the purpose Trump has in this timeline. He’s going to fall down with so much of that “Wizard of Oz curtain” in his hands.
Look at what is no longer being successfully hidden. Everybody knew this… but the rubes did not, and that is what keeps the gravy train running on time.
Ramalama
@Jay: I thought you were making a DNC is clearly stuck in the “Back” part of “Back to the Future” kind of point.
satby
@rikyrah: It’s that, but Biden and his team have started to prove that good government is powerful, can get things done for ALL the people, and that the most effective economy is using the levers of government in targeted ways to boost manufacturing here, and support workers here via supporting unions. ALL of that is fatal to the Republican efforts ti drown government in a bathtub.
Kamala is under attack, and so are we all because Biden works for all of us.
rikyrah
@Princess:
Until this guy put it into literal numbers, I didn’t fully comprehend the fear they have about the Vice President
The Rev. Dr. Auntie Michelle (@iamn0tthe1) posted at 10:54 PM on Sun, Jul 07, 2024:
That part. White democrats are giving themselves away. It’s not that they don’t want Papa Joe to run again. It’s that they don’t want to see a Black woman in the Oval Office when the inevitable happens & he gives up the those when he’s already 5 years past average life expectancy
(https://x.com/iamn0tthe1/status/1810160571905417298?s=02)
TBone
@WereBear: nailed it
rikyrah
@satby:
satby, that is the GOP reason for it….but not the Democratic reasons for it
WereBear
@rikyrah: So true.
BellyCat
Good summary. Thankful that ProPublica is the one exception in the media and that we have three sane justices on the USSC.
Ramalama
@matt: Funny I didn’t know that. I just kept thinking, “He’s gay! Why is he not making any sense?”
I, a lesbo, lived in a house chock-full of gay men way back when. All kinds of politics (since many of them had money), but they were fun to talk with even when I did not agree. You could say that at one time I knew all of the gay men in Boulder. I never talked to a single guy as smug and incoherent as Josh Wheel Barrow.
But different times. Different vibes and different locations (East coast vs Rocky Mountains).
And different dads.
rikyrah
The Vice President went to the Essence Fest in New Orleans this weekend. Did a sit down session. Talked about all kinds of topics. Look at the ridiculous coordination about the Vice President’s time at the session.😒😒
Cassandra the Anti-Nihilist (@WriterWarrior) posted at 0:06 AM on Mon, Jul 08, 2024:
Yeah, this is weird. https://t.co/FS9hcvx7cO
(https://x.com/WriterWarrior/status/1810178532813017305?s=02)
Tony Jay
Every single Democrat within grabbing distance of a microphone needs to be cutting right through the corporate media chaff and demanding that the journalists ask them about the devastating revelations coming out about Trump’s close and sinister relationship with Epstein.
No fucking about. No ‘acknowledging concerns’. Just “The President has dealt with this nonsense in detail and the Democratic Party is looking forward to serving the country during his second term in office. Let’s move on to your questions about the Republican candidate’s close friendship with an acknowledged sexual offender and pimp to the rich and powerful. Let me start by saying that like all Americans, I am disgusted by these revelations and call on the Republican Party to explain why they think it’s acceptable that Donald Trump, himself a convicted felon and sex offender, should remain their Party’s standard bearer and leader.”
Over and over. Every chance they get. If they have to chase fleeing journalists down the steps of the Capitol building demanding to be asked questions about the Trump/Epstein Circle they should do that. Make the GOP and their Media chums own their attempt to cover this up.
A few weeks of that should make for interesting polling.
Raven
I’m waiting to get my heart shocked! Wake me when it’s over!
TBone
Fascists are scared. Good.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-7-2024
Reminder: the more trolls, the greater the fear. I love the smell of their fear in the morning.
I see England, I see France, and I can see your underpants!
satby
@rikyrah: life expectancy is an average, Joe Biden’s mom was 11 years older when she died after a short illness. He’s had excellent health care his entire life, he’ll probably live nearly as long or even longer. Not that they aren’t afraid of another black, female President either, but some of this us also meant as a splitting tactic too. It’s the whole Democratic package they’re at war with. After FDR, they changed the rules so Presidents got termed out. When people see their government working effectively, they like it. We get divided and stay divided when we have to fight each other for scraps that fall off the millionaires’ table.
edit after seeing your comment: it’s not either or, it’s both.
rikyrah
uché blackstock, md (@uche_blackstock) posted at 6:51 PM on Sat, Jul 06, 2024:
Mississippi has the highest percentage of Black people of any state – 1.1 million Black people – but only 660 Black physicians.
Two state representatives have introduced separate bills to restrict how universities could spend money on DEI initiatives. https://t.co/fuooXtjjXT
(https://x.com/uche_blackstock/status/1809736847934816755?s=02)
WereBear
I’ll tell you what white America refuses to look at. The Confederacy. And its continuing work through the Republican Party, until now they might as well campaign with the Battle Flag and be done.
You know they want to, and they already do. This SHOULD be the easiest roll up since Hannibal took a shortcut.
rikyrah
Cliff Schecter (@cliffschecter) posted at 1:02 AM on Mon, Jul 08, 2024:
How nostalgic! They’re bringing back their bleach blonde, badly built Birtherism. I can’t figure out what the common factor is here w Obama?
PS Our shitty, career-humping MSM will never call this what it is. We must https://t.co/hKhGNbvnFu
(https://x.com/cliffschecter/status/1810192764518175152?s=02)
satby
@Raven: good luck!
TBone
Ears up, nose to the ground.
https://www.justsecurity.org/92714/american-autocracy-threat-tracker/#post-92714-_2sduzqf7pglh
TBone
@Raven: hoping your reset takes! Best wishes for success.
rikyrah
Popular Liberal 🇺🇸 (@PopularLiberal) posted at 10:15 PM on Sun, Jul 07, 2024:
BOOM: Wesly Hunt and Byron Donalds, also known as the “GOP Butlers,” faced a tough challenge as they attempted to sway black men towards conservative beliefs, only to be met with embarrassment and humiliation.
Donald said, ‘I know I said Jim Crow.’
The Republican woman is seeking security after a man in the audience pushed back against the GOP’s gaslighting.
… https://t.co/sO3eOA9oP0
(https://x.com/PopularLiberal/status/1810150585263329406?s=02)
trnc
I can’t find this poll, and it’s weird that there’s no link to it in the tweet that makes the claim. I did find something that says 91% of voters see a big difference between the 2 candidates, but that’s a mixed bag at best.
If anyone can point me to the 91% Dem enthusiasm poll, please share.
Ohio Mom
@Raven: Ohio Dad needed an inversion a few days after his valve replacement.
I waited outside the room and watched a steady stream of patients go in, get shocked and walk out as if they had just completed an errand — maybe made a deposit at the bank or dropped off their dry cleaning.
Finally there was a break to fit Ohio Dad in. He said the staff were joking around and well, jolly (it was December).
After that, he was set, no more Afib. Modern western medicine is good stuff.
Keep us posted.
zhena gogolia
@eversor: thank you!
zhena gogolia
@Viva BrisVegas: under orders from above to ignore it
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Shalimar:
Because they are never wrong. Never. Ever. They and what they say never fails, it can only be failed.
Per matt at #22: As many have said, they are each highly edumacated and have a narrow field of expertise. Get them outside of that and they’re not smarter than most people on an Almost Top 10000 blog.
Per MariedeGournay at #28: “Preening” applies to all three, just depends on what topic they’re preening about. Push back on LeMeow when he makes one of his neoliberal, Reaganomic screeds and he’ll outdo Gloomis in the preening department.
trnc
I’ll never understand “Harris is qualified to take over if Biden dies but not right now.” Also, Biden performing at his peak and then dying suddenly is no more likely than gradually declining and creating some chaos around when he should resign.
Ohio Mom
I have been saying ever since this dust-up started that if nothing else, it’s just not practical to change candidates. It takes years to set up the infrastructure, cajole big donors, and the like, there is a lot of behind the scenes work. Which of course Biden’s team has been doing all along.
Anyway, I was talking through my ass, I don’t know anything about how campaigns are put together. This post fills in tne details for me.
zhena gogolia
@Raven: good luck 👍
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
No kidding.
//
zhena gogolia
@trnc: I saw the source last night, the first person who mentioned it linked it. I don’t have the link, but it was on CNN and it was about enthusiasm for Biden.
Spanky
@Raven: BOO!
That probably didn’t work. Here’s hoping it settles that ticker down!
matt
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: What’s disappointing to me is the inability of those fellas to think 1 move ahead. They’re saps.
Steve Crickmore
@Aussie Sheila: A different but unwelcome to many view, but I think it should be remade otherwise we are just singing from the same song sheet. Yes, the ‘pedal to the metal’ approach for Biden’s supporters to mount a full court press against those raise a concern about his stamina, while he should take more deserved rest, rising later in the day with more managed naps. That seems to be a cognitive disconnect.
This furore and its almost predictable direction of events reminds me of what happened to Liz Truss after her disastrous mini-budget and her race to exceed the shelf life of a lettuce. After giving a defiant,”I am fighter not a quitter” statement to applause at the despatch box, on the House of Commons floor, she resigned the next day and the lettuce won.
I dislike, being a Cassandra, but I think this crisis does give Dems an opportinity. A fresh Kamala Harris candidacy has strong positives, and I believe, though not without risk of the unknown, (I suppose most of you would say enormous risk) it gives the Democrats a better chance of knocking off Trump, in November, the main goal. I recall the passionate debates we had on Balloon Juice about the wisdom of choosing either Hillary or Obama in 2007- 2008. A slight majority of the posters here led by the inimitable Scotian, sided with Hillary over Obama whom I supported, because she knew where ‘the bodies were buried’, but there was a real animated debate on these pages ….and no one was shunned or mocked.
What if you are wrong and good old Joe’s giving it ‘the old college try’ is praiseworthy… but falls short? In sports analogy, it is staying with or signing a veteran quarterback, one season too many past his prime, such as a Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers who end up getting crushed or injured.
The unintended (positive) consequences, assuming the nomination falls to Harris, are that Trump and his scary alt-right surrogates will display and ooze their nasty sexism, bigotry and racism, at every turn, that they are incapable of disguising ..which should fire up or scare the Democrats’ base, and independents more than the GOP attacks on ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ did. Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennslyvania must win swing states, surely won’t abide Trump and his re-energized George Wallace MAGA campaign that may work in Texas and the Deep South, but not too many places elsewhere. Or we could ignore all this and stay with Biden and the hand the Dems have been dealt? At this moment, the polling looks bad. This is what the Democrat House members and leaders must decide, as to how much they defer to President Biden? He has earned a lot of respect..but eventually, everyone (but I guess Trump or the King or Queen) retires. Even the great Roger Staubach had too many concussions, 20, and his Cornell doctor advised he do so after 11 seasons, which he did, when he had just had a career year.
Spanky
@Steve Crickmore: tl,dr
matt
@Steve Crickmore: Biden reminds you of Liz Truss? That’s dumb.
TBone
Krusty Gnome, R-puppykiller, has deleted most of her social media accounts.
trnc
Maybe because they’re smart people, we should not dismiss them out of hand.
They are extremely bitter about Ginsburg not retiring when it became clear that she was having some health issues and that the likely future republican senate would not let Obama replace her. After that happened, I thought for a long time that it was just Monday Morning quarterbacking but decided a couple of years ago that they were, in fact, prescient.
This is Ginsburg 2.0 on steroids for them.
TBone
@matt: I love the smell of their fear in the morning.
🤡 🍄
trnc
@Splitting Image:
I think they are very interested in burying the reports. It’s one of the reasons they are keeping the focus on Biden.
A Good Woman
@trnc: I can’t find it either, and I have pretty good Google skills. This is a poll you want to shout from the rooftops, but I need the receipt.
Eyeroller
@Princess: Some idiot apparently confused Lieu with Mark Takano–I guess all those Asians look alike amirite? Poor Ted.
stinger
I believe, I believe, I believe I’ve fallen in love — with the Biden-Harris ticket! Great post title, Anne Laurie!
But I wish to Dog we could get over The World’s Greatest Catastrophe — that a known stammerer stammered for a few minutes when directly exposed to the barrage of lies firehosing from the mouth of a man he despises, to the point that for years he avoided saying his name.
We ought to be having post after post and comment after comment on how a convicted felon is escaping justice thanks largely to judges he appointed. Or at least continually reminding ourselves and the world of the impressive liberal policy wins racked up by a doddering, decrepit president.
It’s not as if Biden hadn’t spoken in public recently. He’s talking to media outlets and to average people in ice cream shops all the time. Ugh. I want a change of subject!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Want to bet the question he was asked was “If Biden resigns, would you support Harris?” and he answered “Yes” and then the person who asked that question turned around as said “Ted Lieu supports replacing Biden with Harris!”
Steve Crickmore
@matt: Not her, but the firestorm after really one bad action, the mini-budget her Tory Finance minister presented to the House which spooked the markets. She fired him pretty quickly afterwards but that didn’t quell the markets. The financial markets kept falling and the public discontent just kept rising, and she had to resign, shortly afterwards because of ceaseless pressure. There have have been many paradigms like this. In Britain, Boris Johnson recently too.
matt
@Steve Crickmore: I think the different nature of the political systems makes it a tough analogy to land. Prime Ministers come and go on demand. Our system has fixed terms baked in, and there are chains of dependent tasks leading up to elections – primaries, building field orgs, etc. – that make it much tougher just to jettison someone who is already in position. Biden already won the primary.
Eyeroller
@satby: There’s also a difference between life expectancy at birth, which is what everybody thinks is “life expectancy,” and life expectancy at a particular age. Basically, the older you get the longer your life expectancy because you’ve outlived things that tend to kill younger people. But hardly anybody seems to understand this distinction. Of course as you age your number of remaining years shrinks, but your expected age at death keeps increasing for a surprisingly long time.
Plus in the US, sadly we must differentiate life expectancy by race when talking about an individual. Although it’s true that white life expectancy has been going down lately while black and Hispanic continue to rise, white LE is still higher. The standard figure cited is the average over the entire population.
Eyeroller
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: As mentioned above but I’m going to repeat it for skimmers, Ted is innocent of the charge entirely. Some source the WaPo used confused Ted with Mark Takano and WaPo ran with it.
The Red Pen
Houle makes some good points, but I’ve recently come across this very compelling and surprisingly simple plan:
Aussie Sheila
@Steve Crickmore:
Neither you, I or anyone else here has Biden’s medical reports at hand. I trust Biden and the people around him to know whether or not he is fit to run and win the Presidency. Unless and until I read/hear otherwise I trust him and the people around him to know what they are doing.
Far, far more than a bunch of pundits and pearl clutchers who’ve never run for anything, let alone high office.
Leave it alone.
If he needs to resign he will. If not, he won’t. If he does, Kamala Harris, an immensely capable person will be the nominee. If not, she will be his VP like she is now.
If you trust Biden because you think he’s a good person, why don’t you trust him to make the right decision in these circumstances?
FFS.
WereBear
And no one is talking about the AGEISM going on, when President Biden is not performing surgery or can’t keep up on the high wire.
Maybe that cold medicine should be labeled “do not operate heavy machinery or debate a fascist.”
WereBear
@Aussie Sheila: Exactly. Our current President is a principled person.
I was told, as a child, that is the important thing. Now I just laugh and laugh.
Liminal Owl
@TBone: LOL at “Krusty Gnome”! Thank you, for that, as well as the hope that she’s disappearing.
artem1s
funny how calling sane, realistic people ostriches and claim they are living in a bubble if they don’t concede “Joe must go” is OK but if the 91% who support Joe tell the doomers that we made up our minds and have already voted to take it elsewhere, we’re the ones being rude. This is flat out helping the GOP suppress the vote.
BTW, none of this shit is going on in the comments over at Wonkette. Trolls suggesting underpants gnomes are the answer to the Biden/Harris problem are being soundly and properly ridiculed. They know what’s at stake and that every.single.second spent on this ridiculous speculation is an excuse for the MSM to ignore the 2025 dumpster fire over at the GOP.
Helena Montana
And early voting starts in several states in just a little over 2 months. I don’t know if anybody has pointed that out, but that fact alone makes running anybody but Biden/Harris an impossibility. No way any other candidate could do it. So massive amounts of time being wasted on people just beating their gums instead of talking about trump the pervert maniac, also Project 2025.
Steve Crickmore
@matt: Yes, I meant the strong public pressure. Many of us remember when Nixon finally resigned in August ,1974. Republican Senators finally went to him and said he did not have support from their side of the chamber to vote against his impeachment, which was the decisive factor in his decision to retire after slow but mounting public presure. I was working on a small CBC national radio program at the time about 12 staffers, ‘As It Happens’ and no one else would have Bernstein and Woodward on regularly every week, for fifty dollars, but us, in 1974. Certainly not the MSM. The scandal developed very slowly but inexorably as more evidence (particularly the tapes) was uncovered, but eventually the dam broke as I think will happen on Tuesday when Hakeem Jeffries meets Biden after canvassing his members.
Soprano2
I see we have yet another new one. I can’t believe anyone thinks we’re that important. Maybe this is a top 1,000 blog.
Liminal Owl
After I followed the link to read Heather Cox Richardson, algorithms sent me to a blog I hadn’t seen before. I commend it now to your attention: “Five Things That Happen To Your Body in an Abusive Interaction”, i.e. looking at The Debate (and the media discourse at large) through a DV/IPV lens.
The Thin Black Duke
@Liminal Owl: This is a fascinating essay that needs to be reposted.
matt
@Liminal Owl: People I guess forget what happened to Obama in his first debate against Romney, where his debate prep had been too gentlemanly and a buzzsaw of lies left him flat footed and lame seeming. He recovered handily, though this is a necessary point – instrumental to the turnaround was moderator Candy Crowley fact checking Romney at a key moment.
SiubhanDuinne
@Raven:
Good luck to you! My brother is having hip replacement surgery today, so between the two of you, the class I’m teaching later today, and Zooming in to watch Dave Anderson defend his dissertation, I’m going to have a lot on my mind!
EarthWindFire
Not so sure about that. My congressman, Gerry Connolly, is pretty liberal, worked for Joe Biden at one point, and spent a lot of time on CNN this weekend downtalking him. I’ll be calling his office this morning to express my displeasure with his behavior and to inform his staff that my monthly donation got canceled Sunday. I already feel bad for the staffer who gets my call.
satby
@The Thin Black Duke: @Liminal Owl: wow, great find, thanks!
Aussie Sheila
@WereBear:
Why? I’ve seen nothing from Biden that would make me doubt his commitment to doing the best thing in the circumstances.
If you are being a political nihilist you aren’t any better than the magats. If you doubt Biden’s bona fides it’s clearly too late.
That doubt should have been acted upon during the Primaries. He’s the candidate unless he decides otherwise, and that being so he and the VP and the ticket everywhere should be supported.
Sorry to be so Stalinist.
But that’s the way you win. Focus and unity is a force multiplier
stinger
@Aussie Sheila:
I agree with your comment, although we do have this.
Not “medical records” per se, but less obviously faked up to please the President than the utter nonsense we get from Trump’s physician.
Old School
Here’s the CNN poll showing Democratic support of Biden at 91%.
Timill
@Aussie Sheila: Here you go:
Biden Health Summary on whitehouse.gov
zhena gogolia
@Spanky: A new one has entered the chat.
stinger
@Timill:
Great minds! 😊
satby
@artem1s: and you completely misread what I said.
I can tell because you’re agreeing with the point of my comment. Which was not at all obscure.
matt
@Old School: The framing of this article pisses me off so much.. You have to get to this in paragraph 7 to see that result: ‘Biden’s support among Democratic voters has inched up to 91% from 85% in April’
Betty
Has anyone asked Kamala what she thinks? Are you ready to do a coup on your boss, Madam VP?
satby
@matt: lol, yes. “Inched” up 6 %age points?
zhena gogolia
@matt: And they don’t ask, “Would you vote for him?” They ask, “Would other people vote for him?” (That’s what “would he have a chance” means.) IT’S RIDICULOUS
Eyeroller
@EarthWindFire: I’m a broken record on this (we’re all old so we understand that reference) but this crap does not make us look like we “respect different viewpoints” or “are independent minded” in our electeds. It makes us look disorganized and weak. The “Dems in disarray” trope comes from somewhere. People like Connolly are undermining not just Biden’s candidacy but his Presidency.
Geminid
@EarthWindFire: I think the behavior of various Democratic office holders in this affair is more a matter of character than of ideology.
Eyeroller
@Geminid: Some have been from marginal constituencies (I love that term, yes I have watched Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister multiple times) and I suppose that they imagine this will help them in their districts. Some are in the group that took a run at Nancy Pelosi a few years ago; quite a coincidence huh? Some are clearly just jerks and attention whores (not mutually exclusive with other factors).
satby
@Eyeroller: well, it’s stupid and a waste of time and energy, but in Timothy Snyder’s link I shared yesterday On Fascism and Fear he said this, and I think it’s something else we should lean into heavily:
Bolding mine. We know that’s not true of our opposition.
Aussie Sheila
@Timill:
Ok, I’m not a doctor, but from my reading it’s sleep apnea and gastric reflux and some skeletal/bone stiffness.
Big whoop.
I have gastric reflux and I swim 2 ks 3x a week.
Sleep apnea has many solutions as I understand it.
Stiffness in the bones I don’t know, but presumably there is something to relieve it. In any case, if not, who cares. People don’t think and exercise judgement through their skeletons FFS. So long as he has medication to relieve any pain if needed.
I am gobsmacked at the idiotic, almost Hapsburgian courtly officialdom of it. Most people, like me, who read the report know FA about any details that might be a problem. It’s ludicrous, simply ludicrous.
zhena gogolia
@Eyeroller: Sorry to say that my Sen. Murphy has been similarly spineless. Blumenthal, on the other hand, has said all the right things. I’ve written to both of them.
Aussie Sheila
@Steve Crickmore:
Yeah no. I’m certain Biden will be the nominee. Unless and until he decides otherwise.
Eyeroller
@satby: I saw that excerpt and I agree except that this is absolutely not the time to dissent. It shows extremely poor political judgement.
zhena gogolia
In contrast, Murphy ran to the microphones.
lowtechcyclist
@satby:
I’d certainly thought better of you than someone who would take someone else’s words and twist them all out of shape. You may have noticed that we’ve been having the same damned conversation here, over and over again, for the past ten and a half days. Immersing oneself in that conversation doesn’t do jack shit about the urgency. But part of the appeal of this blog has been the bits and pieces of their lives that commenters share here. There’s a certain amount of that mixed in with the political threads usually, but right now it would be an improvement to have a place for that that didn’t involve having to read this same damned conversation for the fifty-third time since Thursday before last.
If you think that’s “needing to be diapered and burped,” well, screw you.
Eyeroller
@zhena gogolia: I would pity you except that Warner is one of mine :-(. Kaine has at least kept his damned mouth shut as far as I know.
Ohio Mom
@Steve Crickmore: Your analogy breaks down because Biden has done nothing illegal. If anyone should step down because he has done egregious things, it’s Trump.
Nixon may have been the last of his party not covered by It’s okay if you’re a Republican.
Aussie Sheila
@zhena gogolia:
I’ll never get over the ill discipline of elected Dems when there’s a crisis like this. Whether it’s confected by the Press or it’s something else, no one seems to understand that unless and until the Candidate makes a public statement, everyone should sit down and shut up. By all means convey a viewpoint in private, but this showboating to the media is gobsmacking .
The Primary is over.
Biden Is The Nominee.
Unless he decides otherwise.
satby
@lowtechcyclist: and the bird thread is still one ahead. Have at it.
O. Felix Culpa
@Liminal Owl:
Thank you for linking to that article. I can personally attest to its truth.
EarthWindFire
@zhena gogolia: If only the rest of the party behaved like Blumenthal. As it is, we’ve put ourselves in an untenable position. Early voting begins in roughly 8 weeks and no one who’s publicly stated “dump Biden” has an answer to, “and then what?”
Wilson Heath
Even if the thought is for Biden to step aside, it looks like all the practical factors for him doing so make the time to do so no later than his second inauguration.
Which makes all the current flutter all the stupider.
stinger
I feel like Putin is winning.
Steve Crickmore
@Aussie Sheila: I think every one is entitled to a little eccentricity about their own value. Yes, Biden feels he is the best person to beat Trump, he is certainly the most experienced, at passing legislation, most knowledgeable about foreign policy and national security (though like Hillary, and unlike the then inexperienced Obama he voted for the 2003 Iraqi invasion). And it would be unfair for another possible serious candidate to challenge him after the primaries have run their course. Why didn’t, the Congressional House leaders raise their concerns in 2023? My best guess, his health and capablities have just declined a little over the last 3 years as one would anticipate in someone 78, now 81 naturally…nothing dramatic.
I got into a hot water last September, on this site when I wondered why Biden wasn’t excoriating Trump with more vigour, other than at private fundraisers? He is certainly doing that now i.e. The State of the Union speech and other forums. I am just suggesting what the consequences could be if doesn’t run? Yes, if I were Biden I would say I know I can be competitive with Trump. Trust me. I don’t know about any other candidates. That’s what I would expect him to declare.
kindness
Last week the MSM smelled blood in the water and went all in on the feeding frenzy. Looks like this week the MSM might be seeing the weakness of it’s propaganda and so it hedges a bit and doubles down a bit.
The modern MSM is not a 4th Estate. It’s owned and controlled by the same oligarchs that run the Republican Party and it shows it.
O. Felix Culpa
@kindness:
The 4th Estate has become the 5th Column. By their fruits ye shall know them.
TBone
@stinger: he’s not. That’s why the wedge issue narrative is being driven by the MSM, some dumb pols, and various commenters all over the Internets. The fascists are scared.
They’ll come come up with a new wedge every week. Stay strong, don’t listen to the doomers!
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: He’s been a bit problematic since he started mouthing Bobo Brooks wisdom about lost young men.
schrodingers_cat
@O. Felix Culpa: They have become cheerleaders of the fascists and are doing their dirty work for them.
No One You Know
@satby: Humans need emotional co-regulation and socialization.
There’s no help, no charity, and no humanity in telling someone to do without, especially if this is the place where friends are.
Slightly_peeved
@trnc:
To quote the blogger dsquared from many years ago, good ideas do not need lies told about them. And Erik and Paul have been habitually and unrepentantly dishonest the last two weeks. So I’m good not taking advice from them on anything going forward.
Chris Johnson
@satby: I mean, that’s normal for Democrats. That’s where the ‘circular firing squad’ thing comes from.
It’s intrinsic to the Democratic ideal. The assumption is that you’ve got a body politic, and people argue it out knowing that they will NOT all see things the same way. You can get mad! You can think Joe is an asshole and be certain he’s up to no good.
But he’s not gonna make you secretly disappear in the night.
Run with fascists, and that’s how they roll. Not even all Republicans are down with that… but these days the ones who aren’t are like the Lincoln Project. Still not our friends, but serving a democratic system (small-D democratic, under our Constitution) and in that they are powerful allies.
They can go back to fucking us over later, within reasonable boundaries :)
No One You Know
@trnc: Gonna have trouble buying it after he tried to kiss his very young introducer at an event and she jerked away from him decisively. He just bribed and shrugged at the audience.
Bettencourt
@MariedeGournay: He just posted a new one along the same lines, so I may have to keep my distance for a while as well.
RobertS
@Shalimar: I don’t think that the scope of this change is widely understood. Dana H has laid it out in a way that’s pretty unmissable – There’s no way to stand up an effective presidential campaign in a month. There’s just too much to do.
KSinMA
@TBone: THIS!
Jinchi
Thanks for that Dana Houle thread.
It’s really telling that in all the hindreds if columns that were published in the last 10 days, none of these counter arguments were raised, despite several being transparently obvious even to an outside observer like myself and most of which should have been obvious to every political pundit and news editor.
satby
@No One You Know: seriously? Did I say do without, or did I say there’s already other threads in place and we don’t need a morning respite thread, including the one immediately after this one? And that was inhumane?
Renie
@Old School: did you read the article?
Dan B
@rikyrah: Taking down Biden / Harris is a twofer for the right and center right. Biden is a race, gender, and sexual orientation, traitor. Harris is a traitor simply by accident of birth. There are far too many straight white men who feel they will have zero power if any minority group advances. They view advancement as a brush fire that must be extinguished. First comes the rhetorical violence. When some remaining embers are discovered the organized violence will be condoned as “necessary”.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@rikyrah: I want to thank you for all you contribute to this blog! I consistently see you find great posts to “retweet”, and I (as an old white woman), appreciate and value your black woman POV. Your posts are always worth reading.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Jay: Thanks for clarifying. All I could think of was RUN-DMC, which didn’t make a lot of sense LOL.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@rikyrah: She’s a hero – used her moment to spread the word about Project 2025.
Dan B
@Geminid: Adam Smith is our Rep. The district has many immigrants. I’m appalled that his straight, white, upper middle class, male bubble has him clueless to the jeopardy his stance represents to his constituents. Will he be there to wave goodbye / farewell as the boxcars are loaded? It may be a few years before that builds to full steam ahead but the mysterious disappearances and gang violence will be chilling.
SomeRandomGuy
I think the real problem is, the journalistic corps has forgotten that language actually means something, and you don’t just put a word in a sentence because it forms a grammatically correct (even if factually baseless) sentence.
So, calling an operative “savvy” doesn’t just mean “I don’t want to sound like a total tool, or fool, or whatever that word is, by repeating BS that anyone with a male bovine can get, fresher, and better fertilizing, so I’ll say that it was a *savvy* operative!”
I’ve noticed they don’t believe that “dictatorship” or “draconian” or “authoritarian” mean anything. “Oh, yeah, Biden’s a dictator,” should invite the instant followup “…by which you mean, he’s a Democratic President, and you’ll call him a dictator no matter what he does?”
“Well, then, what dictatorial steps has he taken? You can’t just say ‘dictator’ because people are legitimately saying TFG wants dictatorial powers. I’m sorry – that’s political advertising, not journalism.”
Dan B
@zhena gogolia: Bluementhal has also pointed out that the settlement with Boeing should be just the beginning salvo of addressing the culture of greed and corruption. I live a few miles from the first Boeing plant and can see the 737 plant by walking three blocks from our house. Boeing needs strong medicine.
Manyakitty
@eversor: too late to a dead thread, but FUCK YES. ALL OF THIS.
LanceThruster
I think “[T]ell them to go fuck themselves [… ] there’s nothing they can do about it.” is the opposite of flex. It’s more “It’s my bat and ball and I’m taking it with me!”
The concern is not just over impairment, it’s over how much impairment, how much worse might it get, and what would be the proper response if the impairment was such that Biden could not be expected the accurately gauge his level of impairment.
His handlers seemed to have coached him to release Shouty Biden more often. He seems a little more on message when it’s delivered in mannerisms most familiar to him. Biden regularly becomes a bit of a bully when he gets challenged. He was with Lester Holt tonight. If Joe thinks the doyens at MSNBC are not on his side, he really isn’t seeing reality clearly. He trotted out his go-to fillers… “C’mon man, look… ” and then talked down to him and chided “Next time why don’t you ask some decent questions.”
Quite a difference from a panel some time before the debate around the time Biden’s poll numbers showed he was losing youth and minority support. I think it was Symone Sanders suggesting, the Vice President needs to start calling him “Uncle Joe” because that’s how people relate to him. He has that ability to connect with people that way she said.
There’s other elderly uncle connotations as well, but I doubt t that was her inten
t.