“I have spoken to the president over the weekend,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters outside the Capitol on Monday evening while voicing her support. “I have spoken with him extensively. He made clear then and he has made clear since that he is in this race.
“The matter is closed. He had reiterated that this morning. He has reiterated that to the public. Joe Biden is our nominee. He is not leaving this race. He is in this race, and I support him.”
After she made that statement, she immediately pivoted to attacking Trump. She joins the Congressional Black Caucus, Progressive Caucus Leader Pramila Jayapal and some others (I’ve seen varying reports) supporting Biden.
I want to make a few points about political power and the signaling of political power:
Let’s start with “I have spoken with him extensively.” If that isn’t a signal of power, I don’t know what is. It shows that when Biden needed her, she was there for him, but also that she talked to him long enough that she got something out of the conversation.
Next, silence and biding her time. It is absolutely unsurprising that she kept her mouth shut during Hakeem Jeffries’ Zoom call where Nadler, Joe Morelle and others expressed their wish that Biden quit. (She probably didn’t even attend.) I noted in the comments on yesterday’s post about Morelle (my MoC) that some media had mistaken Mark Takano (CA-39) for Ted Lieu. Lieu immediately went to Twitter and said that he didn’t say a word during that call.
Finally, the only way to get power is to boldly incur risk. It is a risk for her and the others to come out in support of Biden. He might be irreparably damaged by the last months of “Joe is old” talk, and he might lose. People might be upset with her for not supporting Harris instead. But if you want to advance as a politician, you need to risk bold moves. The people who were ready to abandon Biden also took a risk, but most of them weren’t ready to be bold: Schiff made a few noises about Biden being a great president while also spinning a bullshit theory about how the election should be a cakewalk for an Democrat. Nadler, Morelle and Takano talked at a meeting that they should have known would be leaked but made no public statement. Adam Smith and Raul Grijalva are the only Members of Congress who made unambiguous public statements, to my knowledge. So that Times’ meter above should really read 2/213.
Anyway, I know we’re all sick of this topic, but I thought the timing of her statement (and that of the others) plus Biden’s letter and statements, were all indicative of people who know how to gather and use power, which is something Democrats sometimes/often lack the skills and temperament to do.
O. Felix Culpa
THANK YOU!
rikyrah
The dismissiveness and contempt all in this tweet:
Heather Caygle (@heatherscope) posted at 7:59 PM on Mon, Jul 08, 2024:
CBC call with Biden sounds like a big cheerleading session, from readouts I’ve gotten. No one addressed the elephant in the room. Biden gave remarks about what he’s campaigning on for Black Americans and then took a few “safe” questions/comments that seemed pre-selected. (https://x.com/heatherscope/status/1810478740956438955?t=YYUu8qPGfmYDFRPvG0kjgA&s=03)
Tony Jay
1) Absolutely. It’s always been a nothing story flogged to death, beyond death, Undeath, second death, comic book resurrection, third death and beyond by a corporate media transparently desperate to shield Stench from coverage and hobble the post-Dobbs Democratic wave.
2) They will not stop. Pretty good odds are available that they’ll flip those numbers up top into the foundation for a “Is the Democratic Party an undemocratic cult where voices of dissent are pre-silenced by aides to a zoned-out leadership?”
3) Fuck them. Jobs. Abortion. Epstein. Project 25. Every day. Every microphone. Louder and louder.
different-church-lady
I just wish it hadn’t taken two fuckin’ weeks.
chemiclord
I understand the sentiment that a President’s accomplishments should hold weight over any concerns, and so if they aren’t that means the concerns are simply too great.
But it’s a sentiment that disregards history and our current society. For at least 40% of the population, NO accomplishments are going to penetrate their tribal identity. And no facts are going to matter in the face of narratives that the 24-hour news cycle demands be fashioned.
So, no, Mr. Schiff; NO Democrat would be running away with this race. You can sit down, and shut your sore winner’s mouth.
RandomMonster
I’m so ready for our side to move on to attacking Trump instead of our own.
Fair Economist
That’s a good point, that the people who understand power are standing with Biden. AOC, Jeffries, Schumer, even the most likely “beneficiaries” of a Biden withdrawal, Harris and Newsom (probably Whitmer too, but I haven’t heard.)
O. Felix Culpa
@different-church-lady:
I’m grateful the goddam debate took place in June. Enough time for the freakout to settle, even if it took too long, and move on. We gotta go on the offensive now.
@RandomMonster:
Cosigned.
Old School
But how many pundits, donors, and “Person With Access to White House” have called for Biden to step aside? Why don’t they get a counter?
hells littlest angel
Looks like soon I can go back to being proud to be a Democrat.
Fair Economist
Isn’t it down to 5 Representatives? I thought Nadler backpedaled?
different-church-lady
@O. Felix Culpa: Oh I doubt the freakout is settled, but at least we’re finally seeing someone do the smart things instead of eating paste laced with cyanide provided by the enemy.
randy khan
AOC has been showing she’s a smart, practical politician since about Day 1. The contrast between her and the poster children for the
moderncurrent Republican Party in that regard is really striking.Belafon
@rikyrah: Which one, Biden is old, or Trump is old (older than Biden was when he became president) and wants to destroy our democracy? I know which one she wants to address and which one she doesn’t.
Belafon
@chemiclord: It wasn’t the 40% you’re talking about that we’re worried about. It’s the large fraction of white Democrats that haven’t had to take a stand in their lives and don’t know how to do it. Hopefully they finally learned a lesson.
Trollhattan
@randy khan:
Yup. Ever since first showing up @ congress she’s had flare, self-awareness, and an ability to communicate lacking amongst most pols.
So naturally, she needed to be attacked at every turn. What if [gasp] she becomes successful?!?
moonbat
Well, that didn’t work…sigh.
Interesting factoid spotted on Spoutible just now:
Americans are now more interested in Project 2025 than in replacing Biden, abortion, immigration, and inflation combined. Democrats need to talk more about Project 2025.
h/t @cbouzy
In fact, Biden withdrawing from the race is now the lowest rated search on Google at present. People just aren’t interested in seeing him leave.
geg6
@rikyrah:
So she wasn’t on the call and her unnamed buddies are dissing the members of the CBC for supporting him. Got it. I don’t know who the hell she is and I never will be curious enough to find out.
Scout211
Let’s hope that the Democrats in Washington learn from this because there are four months left and the Republicans (and Russia’s digital army) will likely try something like this again.
They failed to make the “Biden crime family” smear into a real thing after four years of trying. This “Biden is old” thing started slowly and hit critical mass after the debate.
The Democrats’ rapid response team hopefully will work with the Dems in Washington to respond quickly and forcefully the next time.
We hope.
Randal Sexton
“Joe Biden is old” is the “but her emails” of “benghazis”. Or something.
Elizabelle
Well done, AOC. Stay and fight, Joe.
pluky
For all the pundit gossip about AOC and the Speaker Emerita being at odds, what’s not fully appreciated is the degree to which Ms. Pelosi saw significant potential in Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. The mentorship that followed is clearly bearing fruit.
BretH
@Scout211:
After ACORN, Al Franken, etc, etc I have pretty much given up hope on that. But AOC does strike me as a new breed, and she is MOST welcome!
different-church-lady
@Scout211: pick up my guitar and play
just like yesterday…
Ryan
Meanwhile, while the shify Squad consolidates, look at those loyal centrists…
O. Felix Culpa
@different-church-lady:
First, LOL. I never had a taste for paste, thank goodness.
Second, yes, there are some who are vested in keeping the freakout alive, and unfortunately too many have access to a microphone. However, I think they’re increasingly isolated and irrelevant. I see positive signs of consolidation among most of the people who matter.
I won’t argue that the well hasn’t been poisoned, which was the plan for a long time. I’m disappointed in some very close friends who have bought into FTFNYT and Ezra Klein fantasies of brokered conventions and new, improved candidates. I also know that they will vote for Biden when inevitable reality smacks them in the face and they have no other choice. Small blessings, I guess.
Hildebrand
Over the last two weeks I’ve been waiting for one of the ‘Biden has to go’ folks to provide some actual evidence that he is in cognitive decline. I mean, yes, he is physically not as spry as he used to be, but that has nothing to do with his mental capacity.
So, where is the proof of his supposed decline? Why is that none of these folks seem to have anything other than that he is old, not as spry as he used to be, and has always been a less than stellar public speaker?
And yes, the debate was a bad night – but while most focused on how he looked, how he sounded, and other physical observations, no one who has read the transcript has said his ideas or reasoning are off.
So, unless someone really starts proving the case (with actual evidence) that he has declined cognitively, they really should all just admit the undeniable fact they want to push him out onto the ice-floe because of his age.
TBone
@different-church-lady: 💙😍
M31
well the trolls have been practicing that here at Balloon Juice and only got pie
randy khan
@pluky:
That always was a sideshow. I suspect AOC and Pelosi understand and appreciate each other.
UncleEbeneezer
@different-church-lady: There have been a LOT of Dems doing the smart thing, right from the jump. The people trying to push this crap just refused to listen to them.
gwangung
All orchestrated by Biden. WHich is a concrete example of his continuing mental competency.
@BretH:
It strikes me that we won’t get rid of feckless Democrats until they literally die off and are supplanted by newer/younger Democrats who’ve learned a new way of coping.
UncleEbeneezer
$8 blue check mistermix
@Hildebrand:
Yes – I was (and still am) willing to have an open mind on Biden’s cognitive decline, if it exists.
“I waited for nothing, and nothing arrived.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDEzRraYgA8
Ned F.
But we need a new shiny candidate to fall in love with again, this contest of old guys is sooooo boring!
Llelldorin
@chemiclord: I think a lot of Democrats simply cannot accept that Donald Trump is an effective con artist. To us he’s such an obvious old fraud that it’s like being told that people find Snively Whiplash devastatingly attractive. When Trump nevertheless commands a huge vote share we assume it must be something wrong with our candidate.
No One of Consequence
I’m glad this place is here. I have one friend who is a PoliSci major of decades back, and we speak of politics often. He was apoplectic about the debate and Biden’s current state.I don’t like hard disagreeing with him, and he has several points and observations that I cannot argue with. So I agree with those.
However, just after the debate, he was in the jettison joe camp, stating that Trump would win in a landslide. That won’t happen, I am positive. Trump isn’t going to convince many people that aren’t already in is camp that he is the best bet for the nation going forward. Regardless of what he does. Even if he squeaks the Electoral College, he will again lose the popular vote by 7 million or more.
Just today, I think I made progress with my argument with him, stating that I don’t disagree with his observations, but I do with some of the opinions. It has to be Joe. Unless Joe bows out, of his own volition. Main reason is this: Courts. (But not in the way you might think, or at least in two ways.)
If Joe isn’t the nominee, when he was won the delegate in the primary process, then it is a mathematical certainty that Republican states will sue. My guess is that it will be several of them. Judicial Fuckery of the Second Order. Who knows what will come of that, or how any of that will shake out.
Things are close enough, Trump manages to get a case in front of the Supremes, and I don’t think anyone believes that 6 justices would not be MORE THAN WILLING to decide a Presidential Election AGAIN in less than a quarter century. Judicial Fuckery of the First Order which we have seen before (see the Year of our Pasta: 2000 A.D. (( al dente )) ).
Lastly, some ammo against the Joe should resign and Kamala become President and have 4 months to make her case idea. If something happens to Joe, I am more than happy with Kamala. But she will then need to choose a Vice President, which the 25th Amendment, Section 2 states must be approved by a majority vote in both houses of Congress. We can secure the Senate (I think), but do we believe that Representives Fuckery would not be afoot in Johnson’s House? Not willing to roll those dice.
I do not know, however, if the newly minted VP would necessarily need to be Kamala’s running mate, or how that would affect ballots/delegates/etc. I can conceive they could be different people, the new running mate and the newly-minted VP.
Let me know if anyone else finds this helpful, or if I am wrong, please let me know where, so I can get a solid, legal, logical argument prepared in advance for various politically incontinent types.
Love you people, (most of you), Peace.
-NOoC
zhena gogolia
I agree.
Tony Jay
@M31:
Hopefully when the FTFNYT tries it out they’ll get the same treatment in the form of cancelled subscriptions and huge billboards bearing images of pastry-shaped FUs.
Mike E
@different-church-lady: can’t satisfy everyone
It was super quick, measured and complete… two weeks is a flash
CaseyL
I continue to be impressed with AOC: her cogent, crisp delivery is a joy to listen to.
I wasn’t a big fan of The Squad when they first started out (and continue to be a big non-fan of some of the individual members) but AOC is very much AOK for me.
I’m also very happy and, frankly, relieved to see my own Rep, Jayapal, kept her mouth shut until she could stand with Biden. Jayapal is by turns impressive and deeply disappointing – her multiple missteps on Ukraine got on my very last nerve, to the point where I seriously thought about never ever voting for her again – so I’m glad she chose the smart move here.
(And yes, I did send Jayapal a message, asking/telling her to stand with Biden, when I heard there were Democratic voters telling their Reps the opposite. But I have no idea if that impacted her decision at all.)
Tony Jay
@Ned F.:
I put an add online for ‘Hot Young Thing to fill Old Man shaped space’ and, well, I won’t be doing that again.
Bupalos
I hung it up when AOC did, basically when Biden escalated, and I congratulate her for being consistently responsible with the party’s prospects throughout this phase. This is a pitch-perfect response from a savvy player. She is not chiming in on whether she thinks it was the right decision or the wrong decision and whether her extensive conversation involved giving Joe her reasons why she thinks he should retire, which he then dutifully filed in the drawer he thought was appropriate and loudly and publicly said “no one will force me out!” She is calling attention to reality and to moving forward in that reality. That’s where we need to be.
I think it’s (marginally) the wrong decision that Biden has made. But there were no good options, and all the options have ways they can go right and ways they can go wrong and it’s our job to help this one go right. I think this is the highest risk option with the highest downside but not the highest upside – but there are ways its potential can be maximized and risk can be minimized. And I do think it’s critical that Biden himself feels the unity and support that will allow him to campaign in a way that does so.
Elizabelle
Heather Caygle the disdainful seems to be Managing Editor of Punchbowl News; $300/year subscription covering Capitol Hill. She is a former Politico reporter who married a fellow Politico. Punchbowl’s co-founder Jake Sherman is also from Politico. There are four founders, all Politico alumni.
That said, their story “Why Joe Biden is Surviving Right Now” seemed accurate and sourced well. Kudos there. No paywall on it; you can find it on Punchbowl.News website. (Sorry I can’t link; on my iPhone.)
UncleEbeneezer
THIS!! Also the whole “blind loyalty” thing comes dangerously close to longstanding, racist tropes of “low information voters” and “on the Dem Plantation” used to ridicule Black Voters (and those who stand with them). White People should stay well away from these, in general.
Chris
@pluky:
The pundits wanted a designated girl fight.
Much as I dislike Colin Powell, this reminds me of one episode he mentions in his biography. Apparently Reverend Jackson had said a few uncomplimentary things about him when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and at the first opportunity, basically the entire DC punditariat just rushed to ask Powell if he’d seen it and what he thought about it and what he had to say about it and if he had a response and and and… The fact that they were all itching to see the two most prominent black men in politics having a slapfight wasn’t even concealed.
That’s the pundit take on Pelosi/AOC, I think. Substitute “women” for “black” as needed.
bbleh
@Hildebrand: @$8 blue check mistermix: of course, as noted previously, the Narrative is that BIDEN must prove he is NOT in (significant) cognitive decline, to the satisfaction of people with strong and multifold interests in NOT being satisfied. Ie, a sucker’s bet, and Biden don’t strike me as no sucker.
I really would like to see the frantic scramble on the Right if there were even a quarter as much noise about the Felon, he of “I aced that cognitive test, absolutely aced it, like nobody’s ever aced it,” proving HE’s not in cognitive decline (not to mention an explanation of why a doctor thought it necessary to administer the test in the first place).
O. Felix Culpa
@No One of Consequence:
I think you are spot-on with your concern about the courts and GOP
legal actionfuckery. I think we would likely land exactly where you describe: Bush v. Gore 2.0. And with this Extreme Court, we know how they’ll decide.That’s an event I’d prefer not to repeat. So time to FIDO for Biden.
P.S. Good on you for your thoughtful approach to your friend. I’d find it hard not to go in with guns blazing, but your strategy is better. :-)
Chris
@$8 blue check mistermix:
It’s not just that nothing arrived, it’s that they’re actively rushing in increasingly fantastical directions. In just two weeks we’ve gone from “Biden looked really bad at the debate, maybe he really is declining” to “Biden has Parkinsons and the doctor he’s had in at the website where they just happen to be discussing Parkinsons policy proves it!”
You don’t need to make shit up when you’ve got anything solid.
Geminid
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez likely did not attend the Sunday Zoom call. I think the Democrats’ “Ranking” committee members participated. Ocasio-Cortez is the second ranking member of the Government Oversight Committee, and Jaime Raskin is the Ranking Member.
When this Congress commenced in January of 2023, Democratic leadership jumped Raskin and Ocasio-Cortez over their senior, Gerry Connolly of Northern Virginia. Connolly seems to have gone along with this without complaint. Connolly is a shrewd politician and I think he could see the utility of letting Raskin and Ocasio-Cortez take the more prominent roles.
Yutsano
I’ll try to find it (lunch for my training class is over) but pollsters were finding that Biden is old is already baked in people’s minds. It’s not affecting much. But the more nuts Dolt45 sounds the more it’s sinking into normie brains. Add in the horror that is Project 2025 plus the fallout from Dobbs should make this a seminal election. But it’s not going to fall apart from one shaky performance.
I also think those wanting to dump Biden now never actually wanted him to run.
UncleEbeneezer
This! The fact that sticking with Biden is the stance that is most pissing off Republicans, Russian bots, Centrist Pundits and bitter Progressives, is all the evidence I need to know that it is the correct one.
O. Felix Culpa
@Geminid:
AOC is an unusual political talent. Haven’t agreed with her on everything, but so what. I was deeply impressed with her questioning of committee witnesses back in her freshman term. No grandstanding, thoughtful, well-prepared, and to the point. She actually elicited useful responses that way (imagine!). I could see her as Speaker some day, if she doesn’t seek higher office.
prostratedragon
What Rotwang* is up to these days:
Magdi Jacobs
John Scott-Railton
*In Metropolis, Rotwang maps the attributes of a real woman, Maria, onto a robot in order to manipulate the populace.
VOR
Absolutely. They will view it as justified retribution for the attempts to kick Trump off state ballots for fomenting insurrection.
AOC has always impressed me as a serious person. She does her homework and asks intelligent questions in hearings.
BTW, people on Twitter have apparently correlated the visits to the WH by the neurologist and Biden’s schedule. Biden was not present on several of the dates, in one case he was in Indonesia. Seems like a bit of fact checking the NYT could have done before running the story.
eclare
@O. Felix Culpa:
AOC was also thoughtful and well prepared when she was on Colbert maybe six months ago. She was very impressive.
CHETAN R MURTHY
@Hildebrand: I’ve been at the same place: if he’s in such decline, show us a concrete example of his fucking up, eh? And there never is one. Raw story had an article about this very subject yesterday … Can’t link to it bc I’m on my phone.
Kayla Rudbek
@gwangung: politics and science advance one funeral at a time?
bbleh
@Geminid: @O. Felix Culpa: @VOR: definitely agree AOC is future Speaker-level material. Smart, prepared, and knows when to open her mouth and when not to (which btw makes this appearance even more significant).
What I also like about her is, she’s Latina and she knows how to do cute in a classy way, and that just makes the MAGAts boil with rage.
UncleEbeneezer
It would be colossally stupid scenario to walk into, even if we had a replacement candidate polling with landslide-win numbers, which we emphatically don’t have.
geg6
@Chris:
Yes, LGM has lost its collective front page mind, with the exceptions of Rofer and Nexon.
Eolirin
@O. Felix Culpa: I think unless she starts focusing more on fundraising for the party as a whole, which she has historically avoided, she’s got no real chance of becoming speaker. It’s a big part of the job.
UncleEbeneezer
@CHETAN R MURTHY: Meanwhile he did 18 campaign events over 10 days so there should be tons of examples right? Right? Is this thing on?…
O. Felix Culpa
@Eolirin: Fair point, but she’s got time to grow into that role. Jeffries is our Speaker for the foreseeable future, and he’s plenty good.
ETA: I have no idea whether she even aspires to become Speaker. I just think she’s shown potential, if she’s interested.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@O. Felix Culpa:
I’ve seen her speak in person several times and once met her briefly. She’s the real deal.
I too haven’t agreed with her on everything, in at least one instance I’ve been left scratching my head trying to figure her out on that issue.
But, she’s clearly a *Democrat*, very talented from the gitgo, and forging a path within the party. Her behavior over the last two weeks has shown that.
It’s also telling that the Horseshoe Left hates her as much as all the GQP does if not more.
Baud
I believe, technically, only Anne Laurie cam officially declare a matter closed.
Nonetheless, I’m glad to hear people echoing the sentiment.
Suzanne
AOC is the best politician today at dealing with the media and her managing her public face. Many more senior politicians aren’t as good at it as she is.
Baud
@CHETAN R MURTHY:
I applaud your new nym. Much more professional.
O. Felix Culpa
@Baud: Hey you! Hope you’re having a nice time wherever you are.
Chris
@geg6:
[deleted]
To her credit, Abigail’s largely stayed out of the fray, but she did comment once on the rumors that Republicans are supposedly terrified of having to face someone other than Biden. To which her response is that if your enemies are putting that big and obvious a bait in front of you, maybe you shouldn’t take it at face value.
M31
this could be the comment on quite a few FTFNYT articles lately
Omnes Omnibus
Can we be done with it now as well?
Baud
@O. Felix Culpa:
Thank you, sir. Glad to see you guys are settling things in my absence.
Eolirin
@O. Felix Culpa: Sure, but her resistance to that has been at least partially ideological, so she’s gotta make a real choice to change there. Otherwise she’ll make a great member of the leadership team in a lower position and that’ll be fine. Even after Jeffries we’re not short on talent.
Eyeroller
@Chris: Oh, it’s actually worse than that. He is one of the clinicians that treat WH employees at the in-house clinic, and has been so at least since the Obama administration. He was there to examine *other employees*. Of course they can’t say who even if the press starts demanding names.
It was trivially easy to discredit that article just by correlating his visits with Biden’s travel schedule. But the FTFNYT couldn’t be arsed to do that because they had a Narrative, damnit! And they’ll never apologize and Peter Baker will not be fired, even though as somebody pointed out, Dan Rather was fired for less.
Eolirin
@Omnes Omnibus: Sadly, no.
(I am with you though)
Chris
@O. Felix Culpa:
@eclare:
It generally annoys me when every time an exciting new face pops up in politics, lots of people rush to proclaim “he/she should run for president!” (mostly because it’s a symptom of how many people think the only job that matters in politics is the presidency). But AOC strikes me as a case where it’s actually not unwarranted.
Sure, she’d have the sexism and the ageism to face, but I still don’t dismiss the possibility.
O. Felix Culpa
@M31:
We have more than enough data to conclude that their behavior is deliberately subversive. Enemy action. The FTFNYT is not about reporting the news, it’s about shaping it–and making it up, if necessary. It’s taken me a while to get there, but their political reporting should always be viewed through that lens.
Mike E
@Chris: don’t throw me into the briar patch!1!
UncleEbeneezer
Ugly shit:
M31
I think AOC’s time as a young female attractive bartender gave her the ability to listen to and see through dumb ass shit that for sure was manspouted in her direction daily, lol.
Love her questions during Congressional hearings, she’s on top of things in a way that is pretty rare
Chris
@Eolirin:
Ahh, that takes me back.
bbleh
@VOR: @M31: hmm, on the one hand digging out relevant information and presenting it in context in order to inform readers, or on the other stuffing cherry-picked nuggets into canned copy and slapping it up as fast as possible in order to entertain readers (and btw advance a political agenda).
Hmm … quite the dilemma for a World Class Newspaper …
Captain C
@VOR:
But the facts might contradict the agenda of the story and the paper. Also, it’s actual work, which the FTFNYT has proven very reluctant to do when it doesn’t fit their purposes, none of which are to report the news fairly and accurately (or if they do, bury it on page A23 with a contradictory front page story and an op-ed piece or two by someone who is totally not a lying Republican operative).
O. Felix Culpa
@Chris: Hehe. Me too.
eclare
Let’s go Les Bleus!
Trivia Man
Catchy slogans work. In 1972 McGovern got crushed. Not just because of the AAA smear but it didnt help,
In those days it meant Acid, Amnesty, and Abortion. Nowadays something similar might be:
Vote Biden because Abortion, Best economy, Courts. As easy as ABC
Old School
@UncleEbeneezer:
I hear Biden used the word “goodest” in his interview with Stephanopoulos.
TBone
And the work begins…
I’m still watching this every so often for the sugarsweet rush high it gives me every time.
Highly recommend visualizing US doing this.
https://x.com/Taniel/status/1810077369547321826
DougL
@Bupalos: your comment at 43 is where I’m at. In a world of bad options (when the chief critique against your candidate is at least somewhat true then you are in the land of bad options) Biden has made his choice. That becomes our choice so riding with Biden it is. Let’s win this thing because we can’t afford to lose.
M31
@O. Felix Culpa: absolutely
years and years ago I was on a college newspaper (big fancy famous Ivy League one, I will not be giving more details) and remember some of the student reporters talking about their futures, and at least one saying something like “I like this but I’d rather be making the news than reporting the news” so they were thinking of politics or policy or some other wonkish DC thing
but now, the NYT can loftily pretend to do the one while they smugly do the other, so fuck them, the fucking fuckers
O. Felix Culpa
@M31: Hmm, you’ve intrigued me. I went to a school that had a Daily. :)
UncleEbeneezer
Mike E
@eclare: Mbappe is such a good ambassador for the game… I’m neutral in both semis.
O. Felix Culpa
@M31:
More important than one’s alumni roots, is a reminder of FTFNYT editor Joe Kahn’s statement that defending democracy is a partisan act and he won’t do it.
More at the link.
M31
@O. Felix Culpa: lol hahaha not that one the other one
but that attitude, where reporting is actually reporting, is looong gone
maybe some college papers still have it, but the big MSMs certainly don’t
Chris
@O. Felix Culpa:
Never stopped them before.
Eolirin
@O. Felix Culpa: Every large media organization does this, and has done this since the advent of the newspaper. When times are less difficult and there’s nothing controversial going on its harder to notice, but they’re doing it all the time. It won’t always be directly political either. Things like the Satanic Panic of the 80s are really easy to see, but there’s a ton of subtler shit.
Just in recent memory they tried to will a recession, crime wave, and massive electoral victories for the Republicans in the midterms into being. With exactly the same kind of breathless fact free analysis and group think. We get all these migrant caravan stories too, never with any reporting on the real issues with our asylum or immigration systems.
I sometimes feel like everyone needs to rewatch Citizen Kane.
TBone
@UncleEbeneezer: 💙
🎶😍
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iYuldgIOelY
M31
and it’s definitely not about eyeballs and clicks — I figured that out in the run up Iraq war when MSNBC canceled their most popular show, Phil Donahue.
Captain C
@O. Felix Culpa: Joe Kahn would order his reporters to both-sides the story as the same reporters were getting fed through Stephen Miller’s personal woodchipper feet-first for insufficient fealty to Dear Leader.
gwangung
@Kayla Rudbek: Yup!
geg6
Sooooo…some good news…
Former Senator Snowball has died.
Eolirin
@M31: It never existed.
moonbat
I am becoming cautiously optimistic that the FTFNYT has overplayed its hand at time when few people but us political junkies were playing close attention (poorly watched debate, then Fourth of July long holiday weekend). Now people are tired of the topic and their pressure campaign did not yield the intraparty chaos they were shooting for. In the process they outed themselves to an embarrassing degree as an organization that ‘isn’t just asking questions’, but is hunting for the president’s scalp.
I said it in an almost dead thread the other day, but it bears repeating, I think Biden is also benefiting from his kindly, but cool grandpa vibe. He’s likeable and nonthreatening which makes him the perfect foil for Trump who has a crazy racist uncle vibe and is a walking threat to the American way of life.
Reagan was also good at projecting the kindly grandpa image which is why he was able to retain office long after Nancy was calling all the shots. Fortunately, Biden is still on top of things and if we win him another term I think he can be as transformative a president as Reagan was by putting an end to the Reagan ‘revolution’ and by continuing to bring back sane, competent and compassionate government.
Tony G
Heavens to Betsy. Professor Erik Loomis will NOT approve of this!
Trivia Man
@Trivia Man: I like my A and C, but need a good B to make it sing.
O. Felix Culpa
@Eolirin:
@M31:
You both make good points. So what might their agenda be? [Semi-rhetorical question, but feel free to share your thoughts anyway.]
randy khan
@rikyrah:
My conclusion is that the CBC has thought this through and knows what it wants (Biden as the candidate), so it’s working to make that happen. Someone who doesn’t get that either does not understand politics or is pushing an agenda rather than doing fair commentary.
Yutsano
@eclare: ALLEZ LES BLEUS!!
Am sad. At work so can’t watch.
rikyrah
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) posted at 11:55 AM on Tue, Jul 09, 2024:
Just asked Sen. Fetterman (D-Pa.) if he plans on speaking up for Biden at the Dem lunch in a bit. His response:
“I’m gonna suggest maybe we can encourage Joe Biden to bang a porn star or maybe he could become consumed with revenge and say crazy things and have a plan for 2025…”
(https://x.com/AndrewDesiderio/status/1810719353647595557?t=HLD4sJEMY7eTBJfauYUp-A&s=03)
Chris
@M31:
Hillary’s emails is another great example too. Secure email server management best practices is the definition of a snoozefest. There’s absolutely no universe in which a “clickbait” driven media decides to go all-in on that while ignoring the sex, gangsters, and Russian spies on the other side. There’s literally no explanation for 2016 that doesn’t lead to “they wanted to damage the Hillary Clinton campaign.”
Bupalos
Everyone on our team on all sides of this issue was desperate for the issue to go away. It isn’t going away. That’s a trap.
Comparatively energetic Biden appearances won’t make this go away, and statements of support won’t make it go away. What these things can do is push the issue out in front of us a little ways, and provide the space to maneuver to where we come back into it from a position of strength. The key to insulating ourselves from the real risk here I think is to embrace the idea of this administration as a well-constructed team, one that is competent, that has created success together. With different players all pulling together because we are united under a positive vision of expanding equality and freedom and building middle-out and bottom-up. These players have names that should be more prominent, like Harris, Buttigiege, Jeffries, Schumer. A competent team that can provide more stability in case of a transition than the omnishambles on the other side could ever provide – even if their candidate WASN’T a megalomaniacal boob with the moral sense of an alley cat. Even if their standard bearer WASN’T deliberately trying to rip up the wiring of our democracy for his own fun and profit. Even if he WASN’T just as compromised by age as Joe Biden.
Pulling together now and working for our ticket with the obvious reality that not everyone was unified about this decision can be a strong statement itself about our team. Pretending that diversity of opinion never happened or never should have happened- that essentially there was and is no issue here- That opens up massive risk.
M31
@geg6: went to LGM to see Loomis’s obit (no drop-Biden content, thankfully) and it didn’t disappoint
here’s the best part, after the OK City bombing, Inhofe’s first reaction was that probably not many people died “since these were government workers and so at 9:00 in the morning would be slacking off drinking coffee somewhere else rather than dying on the job”
holy shit what a total irredeemable asshole
rikyrah
Izzy![]()
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(@1zzyzyx1) posted at 9:15 AM on Tue, Jul 09, 2024:
Yes, the White House Press Corp owes @PressSec an apology. They were wrong, as @Lawrence told us on @TheLastWord. Where was this outrage in the last administration, when they were deliberately lied to daily?
#DemVoice1 #DemsUnited
https://t.co/lZg50adoUX
(https://x.com/1zzyzyx1/status/1810679062777709044?t=xnVwrSF09OZ1isqs0bm-Aw&s=03)
TBone
@UncleEbeneezer: I think I just had an orgasm watching that.
Mike E
1st goal in open play for France in this tourney, unbelievable
rikyrah
Rachel Bitecofer![]()
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(@RachelBitecofer) posted at 0:57 PM on Tue, Jul 09, 2024:
The fact that they failed the first is exactly why they created Project 2025. It wipes out all the guardrails that saved us from his first coup attempt.
(https://x.com/RachelBitecofer/status/1810735094845558908?t=ItFUeE3Hz2dXQvkac5GbiA&s=03)
Eolirin
@moonbat: Yeah, and honestly, most of the people willing to vote for Democrats don’t actually like bullies. That’s the base Republican voters. And that’s what the media is coming across as doing. They’ve already got a credibility problem with everyone (though for different reasons). This isn’t going to do them any favors.
geg6
@rikyrah:
I love my junior senator! LOL!
Yutsano
@Trivia Man: Try a B-flat.
TBone
@rikyrah: 😆😆😆😆🔥✊
rikyrah
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
MSNBC (@MSNBC) posted at 1:09 PM on Tue, Jul 09, 2024:
BREAKING: Nikki Haley is not invited to the 2024 RNC Convention, but has released 97 delegates. https://t.co/gDsi1cy30M
(https://x.com/MSNBC/status/1810737991943336410?t=aDfOXBfmbPVuGiFuKu3SCg&s=03)
Leto
@Mike E: sacre bleu!!!!! Baguette! 🥖
Gravenstone
Because that’s where we are today.
Chris
@M31:
Remember how Falwell and Robertson’s initial response to 9/11 was to share a giggle about how God had punished New York for having so many gays and feminists? There’s a trend.
O. Felix Culpa
@Bupalos:
A close friend who was on the freakout train suggested this approach too. It might be persuasive to folks who have the wobblies about Joe.
I think we have to fully support Biden AND laud his team AND highlight the dangers of a Felon presidency 2.0.
TBone
@rikyrah: just sent that one across the nation!
Eolirin
@O. Felix Culpa: It’s idiosyncratic based on the owners. All large media organizations have always been owned by very rich people, and their papers reflect their politics and interests.
Making money does matter, so that’s part of it, it just doesn’t overwhelm that fact.
Rusty
@Tony Jay: The NYT will definitely play Heads I win, Tails you lose. Dissent of any kind means Joe has to quit RIGHT NOW!!, lack of dissent means THEY ARE A CULT, and have no right to complain about Trump. They have shown their assessment and burned their credibility. They thought they could pull the same bullshit that ran the Havard and Penn presidents out of their jobs, but it failed because unlike universities and their boards, most voters don’t read NYT and weren’t going to be bullied by a bunch of preening snobs. There was some wavering I bet with some politicians, but once they heard from their voters that was over. Rank and file Dems stuck by Joe and the NYT and WP boards don’t vote in the next primary any of them will face. This was the grassroots making itself heard.
satby
Black women and senior citizens have watched the insulting shenanigans over the last week and I think both always reliable groups of voters will vote for Biden in blow-out ratios. All the middle aged white guys trying to push aside a clearly not cognitively impaired old man who was overwhelmingly elected to be the nominee has not landed well; a large number of formerly popular pundits and celebrities may never come all the way back from joining the mob.
Mike E
@geg6: he hasn’t got a chance in hell
Geminid
@M31: I wonder how much Watergate affected jounalism’s culture. Woodward and Bernstein were good reporters to be sure, but their stardom could have been a distraction. Reporters since seem to aspire to be Woodwards and Bernsteins, cracking the big Washington case.
I see that now in the obsession over Joe Biden’s health. I think Ida Tarbell could be a better model. Pro Publica seems to take Tarbell’s path.
M31
@O. Felix Culpa: sometimes I just dig down to the simple answer, that the owners of these big media empires will have lower taxes under Republicans
even though that’s so fucking dumb — if Trump’s policies were in effect, NO WAY would we have negotiated the soft landing economically that Biden managed, and the huge uptick in stock prices, lowering of inflation, etc. etc. has left these rich fuckers much better off, but they’d still rather the Trumpy alternative
but these aren’t smart people, just lucky and rapacious
Leto
@geg6: he was with Biden in Philly here, at the campaign office stop, and gave a full throated endorsement of Biden. Paraphrasing, “There’s only 1 person here who’s beat Trumpov’s ass, and only 1 person here who can do it again.” But yes, he did say “beat his ass” multiple times. I guess in Bizzaro Media World, that’s not enough of an endorsement.
rikyrah
@satby:
The ageism has been bitter to watch.
As the youngest child of older parents, who were the youngest of their families – I only grew up around OLDER people.
The ageism has been off the charts. And, so disrespectful.
O. Felix Culpa
@Eolirin:
Makes sense. I just wish otherwise intelligent, informed folks didn’t have such unquestioning faith in organs like FTFNYT and WaPo. I grew up devouring them from cover to cover and once thought they were beacons of journalism (Watergate, Pentagon Papers, etc.). It took a lot for me to realize that they aren’t all that far removed from Citizen Kane (which I think you alluded to).
Too many otherwise sound people I know get very defensive about these papers. I have to tread lightly on the topic, which is not my best skill. They hang tight to believing in these papers as authoritative, especially the NYT. Perhaps because there’s so little left to believe in these days.
edited.
Chris
@Geminid:
I think the fact that the media broke a legitimately huge and consequential story (if you can call “being used as a stenographer by the J. Edgar Hoover brigade” “breaking” a story) has basically given them a huge achievement that they’ve been able to dine out on ever since.
O. Felix Culpa
@M31:
No lie told.
Trivia Man
Why am I all in on Joe?
A
B
C
Abortion rights
Black jobs
Courts
End of story
Leto
@rikyrah: I grew up at my grandparents home for most of my childhood, but we also had very large family gatherings when I was child. My mother’s family came in from SC, NC, and GA at least every summer for family reunions, so I was always around older people. So there was very much a culture of “respect your elders”. Talk back? Go pick your switch, and meet me back here in 2 mins. Kids are meant to be seen, rarely, and def not heard. And omg, if you knocked over the metal Folgers’ can containing the dip spit? Your soul might belong to the lord, but your ass is grass.
All that is not to say they didn’t love us. They did, but respecting your elders was instilled very early
Chris
@M31:
Honestly I don’t even think they’re deep enough to have thought it through that deeply. The circles they run in are Republican (either functionally or literally), and they go with the flow for the same reason most of us did in middle school – what groupthink doesn’t do, peer pressure does.
satby
@rikyrah: The ageism, the not concealed at all racism (because if something happened to Biden, you know who…), the demands for fantasy saviors (all white folks who already voiced support of Biden); yeah, notes were taken.
geg6
@Mike E:
LOLOLOLOLOL!
bbleh
@Bupalos: concur it’s a mistake to think the “issue” will ever go away, first because the media won’t give up a chew-toy they’ve been working on for over a year, and second because it IS a genuine drawback for Biden, both practically (to a so far apparently minor / insignificant degree) and politically. To expect One Weird Trick to make it go away is delusional.
I also concur that Dems shouldn’t even TRY to pretend to be Republicans. Even if we agreed to goose-step in formation, we’d squabble endlessly over how high, and to what beat, and how many people per rank, and the distribution of groups in ranks and files, and and and …
The point is, and should always be, it’s a choice between Biden and the Felon, and Biden is morally and practically the superior of the two by miles. Dobbs, fraud, Agenda 2025, sexual assault, countless and continuous lies, and by the way an apparent cognitive inability to utter a coherent, complete and pertinent sentence rather than a disjointed series of fragments and images with only occasional connection to reality. To quote a well-known leader, “c’mon, man!”
Leto
Spain 2-1. France better settle that back line down.
BlueDWarrior
@satby: That’s the most strange thing about this whole episode to me. It really does keep me thinking that this is far more racialized than it’d look at first blush. Because way too many people who were or still are engaged in this wish-casting are trying to jump over the VP in the Room.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, …
Nitter.
Twitter version.
Cults fracture over purity battles. It’s what they do.
I’ve got 6 pounds of Yoder popcorn at home. I’m ready.
(via Fritschner)
Cheers,
Scott.
Eolirin
@Bupalos: Sharks and battery guy isn’t less impaired than Biden. He isn’t even as impaired than Biden. He’s more impaired.
He’s simply louder than Biden.
And he doesn’t have a stutter.
That we keep conflating this with functional capacity is a huge part of the damn problem. And I’m sorry for venting frustration at you, because it’s not really directed at you, but at the norms that we have as a society.
There really isn’t a problem except in appearance. Biden has a weaker affect. He exhibits more signs that are associated with being old. There’s zero evidence that he’s got any kind of issue with making decisions, or understanding what’s happening around him, despite all this reporting on the effects of his age.
That problem with appearance is a real electoral concern. It shouldn’t be. But it is. I’m not saying we have nothing to be concerned about. But the reasons why are such bullshit that they’re maddening.
There is a problem in how the electorate is viewing this whole situation. There’s an issue in how he’s polling. There’s an issue in that Trump’s base of support in the states that he needs to win puts him in range of being able to do so despite being a threat to democracy itself.
But every single one of those problems is with the voters. With our cultural norms. With our country. With our media. And not with Biden’s ability to be president. Not even with his ability to run the campaign. He’s able to do events. If he has to lean a little more heavily on Kamala also doing events than say Obama did him, that’s fine too. She seems pretty effective in that role.
But he’s gonna look old doing it. Because he is. If that’s enough for the election to go to Trump, we deserve the species death that’ll follow as we abandon any hope of containing the damage from climate change.
JAFD
@Chris: Well, AOC is young enough to be patient. Given the example of our current Presidential candidates, she could be in the White House when we celebrate the TriCentennial.
Leto
@Another Scott: couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of assholes.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby:
QFT. I hope that turnout by Democratic olds and Black people is overwhelming. Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z are encouraged to join us!
Don’t know if you saw the pictures of Marine Le Pen weeping after the French election surprise. I’d like the same outcome for our backstabbers.
moonbat
@Geminid: I know when I was a tender young thing who decided to go to J-school, the idea of holding the powerful accountable was a huge motivation so yeah, Woodward and Bernstein were role models.
Then once media started getting more corporatized in the 90s is when I decided to get out of the newspaper business and go back to grad school. I’m having a hard time believing now that back then working for the FTFNYT or WaPO was considered the pinnacle of a newswoman’s career.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@O. Felix Culpa:
We are only a couple years away from the only news sources will be WaPo, NYTimes, and hot babes with hot takes on Tik Tok, and that the hot babes will be doing the most credible journalism.
If I wasn’t convinced yet, the last two weeks have told me we’re probably at that point.
Bupalos
@O. Felix Culpa: All of the above, for sure. I’m speaking for the team part because that’s the part that is the casualty here. While it’s perfectly understandable and in many ways dictated by the atmosphere of attacks, Biden’s heightened defensive tone in response is at times bordering on Trumpish. It’s “I did this, I did that, no one else, my idea, I expanded NATO, I’m the only one who can win….”
I don’t expect Biden to be able to overcome what is essentially dictated by the atmosphere right now. But if this continued, and there’s a chance they just get fixated on the “rehabilitate Joe at any cost” stuff.it would be a big problem. It could open massive risk for the party. Hopefully changing the atmosphere helps other approaches open up.
Citizen Alan
@Geminid: I always wanted to meet Woodward and Bernstein so I could ask them if they regretted exposing Watergate in the Post because if they’d just sat on the story until Nixon was out of office, they could have just written a book and made a lot of money. Because that’s what journalism is all about, isn’t it?
rikyrah
Tim
@trouble_man90
The past 12 days has really shown who actually was hit hard by trump’s presidency and who wasn’t really negatively affected by it. You see mostly rich white liberals from blue states on one side, and the diverse base on the other. You can tell which side really wants to beat Trump and which side treats politics like fantasy football.
1:30 PM · Jul 9, 2024
https://x.com/trouble_man90/status/1810743353803174165
Eolirin
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Assuming we win and Trump doesn’t kill all non-state approved media, John Oliver will still be around (despite a comedy show being one of the only good sources of reporting being problematic in other ways). So will ProPublica. But yes the tiktok vids will 100% have taken over.
Steve in the ATL
@eclare: ref clearly isn’t a man of faith since he gave Jesus a yellow card
topclimber
@M31: The billionaires only got richer after the Great Recession (vs. everyone else). There’s always great deals to be had when you are liquid and everyone else is desperate for cash.
If, unfortunately, the economy is GOOD, you make money but you have to share it. So not seeing that much of an incentive for these folks to want a strong economy. Now, even lower taxes for people who pay the lowest share in decades–yeah, that’s the ticket.
Another Scott
ICYMI, Justice.gov:
Biden’s administration is doing the work.
Cheers,
Scott.
Citizen Alan
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I still remember being shocked during the Bush years to realize that Teen Vogue was the most credible print news source in America.
TBone
@Another Scott: noice! Cage match!
rikyrah
@BlueDWarrior:
And, those of us who voted for Biden, knew that the Black woman came along with him. So, the entire talk about ‘ what if something happens to him’….well, the VP would take over…DUH.
Tony Jay
@Rusty:
Yup.
The snobby little brats will tell people they want respect from that they’re just giving the Biden White House – some – of the ‘rough’ coverage the Trump campaign and the Trump White House received from ‘The Media’ (for a very broad definition of ‘The Media’, but they’ll take the unearned credit) and all they’ve done is expose hidden divisions within the Democratic Party that the Public deserve to know about before the Election.
In different cocktail parties they’ll tell people they want to impress that it’s a power move to show the Biden White House that snubbing the ‘credible media’ comes with a price, and its worth it (for the good of the country) if it results in Biden emerging from his bubble and allowing himself to be vetted in proper interviews with NYT big-dogs.
Amongst themselves they’ll admit that they’re doing it because they want a second Trump Administration for the clicks and the scandals and the sweet, sweet leaking that makes their weekends long and their book advances six figures long.
But at night, alone, they’ll admit to themselves that they’re doing this because people they’re afraid of want an end to the inconveniences of democratic government, and they want to pretend that those people might ‘need’ them, somehow.
Me? I just say fuck them.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@M31:
One of the people in our DOT mode was the IT guy there and died in the bombing. I knew him.
Total irredeemable asshole is being kind. I hope his last moments were irredeemably painful.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@moonbat:
Frame it to anybody who will listen this way:
“One candidate is an old man. The other candidate is an old *mad* man. Which would you prefer?”
Sister Golden Bear
@No One of Consequence: I’ll note that not only is there absolutely no way Republicans would let President Harris install her VP before the election—especially when doing so puts Speaker Johnson a heartbeat away from the presidency.
I’ll give them the (undoubtedly unwarranted) benefit of the doubt that they wouldn’t actively want her assassinated before inauguration. But I’m sure they’d be happy to see some “lone wolf” from doing so. Thus enabling President Johnson who appoints Trump as VP before immediately stepping down. All of which would be “official.”
But if your friend doesn’t indulge conspiracy theories, walk him through the cold hard math of state electoral laws (discussed downstairs) about how replacing Biden would surrender at least three battleground states to Trump. Hard to win when you hand Trump 32, or more, electoral votes.
satby
@BlueDWarrior: I’m positive that the Biden-Harris administration, as good as it’s been for the economy, has angered the MOTUs for empowering workers, encouraging unions, pulling manufacturing back onshore, working significantly to reduce climate change, and increasing upward mobility for POC. All those things cut into their bottom lines; even if the results make the country THEY live in too better and more globally competitive. This was the first time they ever had something that could split voters and turn the election and they went all in. They still are, and can’t believe that it looks like the old man outsmarted them again.
TBone
@Another Scott: there’s the baseball bat (made in America) I was talking about earlier. Right upside the head, leave ’em spitting their Chiclets.
Geminid
@Another Scott: This could be spillover from the Virginia 5th CD primary. I think Rep. Davidson backed state Senator John McGuire, who challenged Caucus Chairman Bob Good and won (pending a recount). The beady-eyed Good is meaner than a snake and he’s taking his revenge on Davidson.
My own analysis is that Good lost both because he’s an ideologue and because he’s a lazy bum. Good never seemed to put much effort into cultivating his own constituents, and instead focused on Republican caucus politics. Good thought his seat was safe so he didn’t build up the “Good will” that could have provided the few hundred votes he needed to turn back McGuire’s challenge. Good is blaming Davidson for his own incapacity.
Sister Golden Bear
@VOR: Republicans won’t even have to sue in Georgia, because their state electoral law explicitly states that if a candidate withdraws, no replacement candidate is allowed.
Sister Golden Bear
@Eolirin: Shorter FTFNYT: You provide the debate, we’ll provide the war.
Baud
@Another Scott:
👍
JAFD
@Leto: SWAG – ‘dip spit’ = bacon grease ?
M31
@Sister Golden Bear:
oh man, I really want the Trump/Epstein stuff to get more play, then we can watch GA republicans waver on whether to change that law
sweaty guy with two buttons.jpg
Baud
@Another Scott:
LGM?
Dorothy A. Winsor
A neighbor told me told me Biden had Parkinson’s today. She a D, so the “information” had penetrated that far.
I also overheard three old white guys talking about how the Ds had to give the nomination to Harris if Biden withdrew because if they didn’t, she’d rip the Black coalition apart. Their assumptions about Harris made me sick.
Baud
If Biden doesn’t bankrupt the NYT in his second term, I’ll be sorely disappointed.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
LGM?
lowtechcyclist
@O. Felix Culpa:
I’m reminded of Fiddler on the Roof, where Tevye repeatedly finds himself in situations where he does his “one the one hand…but on the other hand” bit. But finally he finds himself in a situation where he starts into that, and then realizes: “there IS no ‘other hand’!“.
I think Joe Kahn and the rest of that crew will realize there is no ‘other hand’ only after their hands get chopped off by the fascists.
O. Felix Culpa
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I hope you were able to disabuse her of that piece of misinformation. Argh. And double-argh about the old dudes and their nasty talk about MVP.
satby
@Eolirin: and, speaking personally as an old with compromised vision: my impairment doesn’t affect my cognitive ability, though when I look at something and mistake it for something else because I can’t really see it in detail I’m sure an observer might think so. Everyone starts watching for signs of dementia, but in reality only about 14% (as of 2019) of people past 70 have any form of it. The convict shows clear cognitive decline and has done so for years, he’s the one in the 14% that they should be looking at.
Bupalos
@Eolirin: I went with “compromised by age” which I think is maybe right. I’m not sure I’d call either of them “impaired” cognitively. That’s more a medical term measured against an average person of that age. They’ve both experienced some cognitive decline, they both seem pretty functional versus their past baseline, and neither of them is what they were by a fair margin, and they’re both capable of “yikes” moments. The difference is Biden declines from a pedestal to the street, Trump declines from a sewer to a sub-sewer. And yes, this is about electoral strategy and electoral realities.
For all that, I hear you. Of course all this is maddening, but maybe the maddening part should be waking up to the way we’ve squandered our prosperity and opportunities. And in an age of ease and enlightenment have done too little to counteract inequality and ignorance. Now brand new world-historical challenges land on doorsteps across the globe, and we find we’re unprovided.
I don’t know what we deserve. I know we need to get better.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: God knows where she got it, but I’m sure it wasn’t online. She’s not capable of that.
satby
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Fox watchers, huh?
Jay
@geg6:
Faux News/Daily Caller bimbo.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@O. Felix Culpa: Yeah, I told her about Biden’s February physical, and about the Parkinson’s bill. She knows Mr DAW has Parkinson’s. That’s how we got on the topic because she asked how he was doing. So I could go about how Biden had signed this great bill etc.
satby
@Baud: 👏👏
Hope you’re enjoying your trip. Though, you’re on here so….
Dorothy A. Winsor
@satby: The men for sure.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bupalos: I am really not sure what you mean by all that. How should we acknowledge this difference of opinion? Saying “I thought Biden should have stepped down, but I’ll still support him since he chose not to do that” doesn’t really sound like a good plan.
Eyeroller
@JAFD: Are you familiar with chewing tobacco?
Baud
@satby:
Just taking a break from taking a break from you people.
Mike E
@Steve in the ATL: heh.
@Citizen Alan: Teen Vogue has put other ‘serious’ pubs to shame. When the Boston Marathon bombing occurred (I was watching live) ESPN did such solid work that the other networks, sensational and breathless, paled by comparison. The real shock was how stellar Inside Edition was in their reporting.
Eyeroller
@Baud: FTFNYT articles permeate the media landscape. Almost certainly that was the source even if she didn’t read the paper. Of course it was a cheap, easily-discredited hit piece but they’ll never apologize or print a prominent retraction.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@satby: I agree totally! And I have read tweets (thank you Riyrah) which point out the Black community in general respects and admires its Elders, and the attacks on Joe REALLY haven’t gone over well.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
For future reference, the appropriate response in that situation is “You’re everything that’s wrong with America.”
Leto
@JAFD: @Eyeroller: like Eyeroller said, chewing tobacco. One of the nastiest things you’ll ever encounter. My grandparents had carpet, and if that tin can tipped over… I knocked it over once, and I’m pretty sure I had everyone in the room, plus all my ancestors, yelling at me to pick it up. Mind you, I was 5? 6 at the time? Didn’t understand what was going on. A little bit later my mom explained to me what all the fuss was about. That was 42~ish years ago? Core memory indeed.
satby
@Baud: Well, the crazy is beginning to die down around here. So you picked a
goodok daygeg6
@Baud:
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Baud
@Eyeroller:
I should subscribe so I can see what they do next! #USLibs
bbleh
@Omnes Omnibus: “I am not a member of any organized political party; I am a Democrat.” And as noted, “I’ll support any qualified Democrat against the fraudster-sexual-assaulter felon who brought us Dobbs and who knows how many future Dobbses, and who might be the end of real democracy in this country for decades if not for good. Biden may not be perfect, but he’s FULLY qualified and a FAR better choice.”
Jeffro
I just made myself a nice cocktail with plenty of ice – which is sort of a a snowball, right? – in it, in honor of former Senator Inhofe. Long may he roast in hell, since we’re all roasting up here this summer and for many to come.
Cocktail #2 is gonna be in honor of Dark Frickin’ Brandon, who knew he had all the cards, and knows what’s what with our blessed Beltway punditariat class.
I’m already picturing the Biden/Harris 2024 ads next week, when trumpov selects his next VP. “Hey…why does Donald Trump have to pick a new VP, anyway? What happened to the last guy?”
LOLOL
Eyeroller
@Leto: I played in the band for one year in high school in a goat-roper town and at breaks would see the FFA guys spitting over the fence behind the parking lot. So gross.
Anyway
Tech MOTUs hate the Biden admin’s FTC and esp FTC chair Khan and have setup PACs with beacoup $$$$ dedicated to subverting and blocking its efficacy. A lot of that PAC money goes to R candidates s at all levels.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@rikyrah: I just want to thank you for all you contribute to this blog. You have great comments and find great tweets to post. As an old white woman, I really appreciate your point of view and have learned a lot from you.
cain
You know the fact that Joe Biden spent a lot of time with AOC – basically ack’ing her as a power player and likely future leader of the Democratic Party.
The future leader of the democratic party says the matter is closed. And so shall it be.
Captain C
@lowtechcyclist:
After which, if there is any sort of press freedom at all, there will be 200 articles in a week about how Biden could have really prevented this if he had wanted to.
Jeffro
Up next: a great metaphor for the GOP’s immigration/voter ID BS
WE NEED TO PROTECT ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING FROM BEARS!
(yes really)
(and no, it’s not Petri! =)
Leto
@Eyeroller: Exactly. The only people I knew who dipped were the hicks in school, and they loved perpetuating the “country boy” stereotype. Just utter dipshits.
Baud
Deleted.
UncleEbeneezer
@Another Scott: Thanks Garland!
eclare
@Leto:
I carpooled with a guy maybe fifteen or so years ago who chewed tobacco. Had his cup in the cup holder. It’s nasty all the time, but especially first thing in the morning.
different-church-lady
@Baud: I will NOT be forgiving Campos for amplifying that shit. He’s really defining the idiot part of useful idiot.
hueyplong
Stepping in a for a moment to note my absolute delight at the news of former Sen. Inhofe’s death. Would that it had happened much earlier.
Jeffro
Scout211
Another poll, this one from AP NORC showing that support for legal abortions has increased since Dobbs.
This is why the RNC is pretending that they have “softened” their hard anti-abortion stance that Trump supposedly requested.
Reproductive rights.
Project 2025.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Anyway:
Thanks for pointing that out. The odious tech bros skate a lot of the time. One reason is that a lot of pols in CA with a (D) after their name, are in the bag for em. That’s different from the regulatory capture they’re attempting with the FTC but the underlying issue is billionaires funding everybody in order to get everything.
Every. Billionaire. Is. A. Policy Failure.
Baud
@hueyplong:
He’ll be holding up snowballs in hell.
TBone
Wow, just watched Michael Cohen on with Nicole Wallace warning everyone about Dotard’s planned retribution tour, how the Supremacists Court just greenlit the next Rump Whitehouse as the seat of criminal power of the future USA, and more.
Michael Cohen’s four year anniversary of Dotard’s using the DOJ in retaliation for his book writing and speaking out, in direct violation of his First Amendment rights, is today. He’s applied for a Writ of Cert at Supremacists Court and is suing. Great segment.
The warnings and details given are bone chilling.
MagdaInBlack
@Leto: My BIL knocked his spit cup over on my carpet once. The look on his face when I saw what he had done: Pure terror. He cleaned that mess up right quick.
dc
Who are the non Democrat members of the Democratic caucus in the Senate? The guy from Maine, Bernie, Sinema and who else? The Dems in the senate have 51, don’t they?
Baud
Just donated to Biden in all y’all’s honor.
Baud
@dc:
Those are the three.
cain
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes, the matter is settled.
Onward.
O. Felix Culpa
@Baud: Thanks. :-)
cain
@M31: We have an amazing deep bench of great people. The other side is grifters, sexual deviants, and racists – no policy other than cutting taxes on the rich and getting rid of social programs. They don’t have any other ideas.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Baud:
Mansion from WV is 4, well technically after he changed is party affiliation in WV to indie.
NotMax
@eclare
Snuff said.
//
Baud
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Yes, I forgot he changed as well. Thanks.
Mr. Bemused Senior
Can I haz kittehs?
p.a.
Fred Clark of slacktivist posts; Peter Baker gets owned.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2024/07/09/reality-bites/
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Oh please, oh please, oh please.
Picturing the Far Side cartoon with the signs now reading “PRESS FUD.”
;)
cain
@rikyrah: What a loser. Not invited and forced to give up her delegates and look like a weakling – good luck trying to run for president in 2028.
Trivia Man
Still workshopping ABC…
Abortion
Better judges
Cabinet positions
Vote Biden is easy as ABC
Mr. Bemused Senior
@NotMax: I thought it was “CAT FUD”
rikyrah
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan):
thanks. I learn a lot from this blog. So many differing views, but, folks doing interesting stuff.
satby
@Trivia Man: I’m liking it, good elevator speech.
rikyrah
@Trivia Man:
LOL
Love it.
O. Felix Culpa
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Good for you! Your example illustrates the reach of mis/disinformation and how crucial it is that we equip ourselves to recognize and combat it.
satby
@Baud: Gracias! I’ve done one yesterday and one Friday. Small donor donations are an important metric the media watches too.
SomeRandomGuy
The IQ of retired Republican Senators has, unbelievably, increased by a statistically significant amount, now that James Inhofe has died. One legend states that Ben Franklin suggested we replace muskets with the English longbow, and we find that to be an interesting display of his flexible thinking – indeed, a skilled longbowman had many advantages over the slower musketman. True? False? We used muskets and rifles in the Revolutionary War, but maybe Ben’s thinking caused people to think about advantages and disadvantages, in rate of fire, sturdiness, supply lines, etc., so it’s a fine, and fun, legend, one that makes us feel more like the unruly colonies, and less like a bunch of people dumb enough they think they can take on England.
Another legend states that James Inhofe threw a snowball – A SNOWBALL!!! – to try to claim ‘Global Warming’, which would increase precipitation, including snow, was not occurring. This, we must confess, is absolutely true. We’ve tried to figure out why Republicans were so dumb – homeschooling? Think hazardous waste adds to the fine flavor of well water? Still using hoarded supplies of leaded gas? – when Inhofe served, but, since science funding had to get past Republicans….
Anyway
@Trivia Man:
Build Back Better
Courts
cain
Apparently, Biden dive bombed Morning Joe this morning and basically told them that he’s running and there is no takesbacksies.
Chief Oshkosh
@M31: I am a huge Inhofe non-fan. Is there a link to this report? I’d love to show it to my family members who knew the guy back in the day (and uniformly loathe him).
jimmiraybob
@moonbat:
Project 2025, a 180-day plan, will be a Gish Gallop of Executive orders. It is 100% a plan to derail liberal democracy. I wouldn’t be surprised that Trump, owing to his constitutional duty to protect America, declares the communist socialist fascist Democrat Party a major threat and shuts it down.
On the other hand, what if Joe mispronounces a word or, lordy forbid, sneezes ………
Jay
@JAFD:
Chew,
eclare
@cain:
It was yesterday morning.
Baud
@satby:
Two bits for Biden.
cain
@jimmiraybob:
The press will look at these orders and run to the Dems to get a reaction and then write a ‘both sides’ article.
cain
@eclare: oh! I was wondering.. it seemed like everything was already over…
Steve in the ATL
@TBone:
That started that much earlier by (1) redefining corruption out if existence, and then (2) ruling that Dotard could not be prosecuted for exceedingly obvious violations of the emoluments clause.
eclare
@cain:
Yeah, I think the big push was yesterday with Biden’s memo to Congress and calling in to Morning Joe.
rikyrah
@Baud:
YES!!
Trivia Man
@Anyway: Even better!
Abortion
Build Back Better
Courts
Now we need it repeated 1,000 times
M31
@Chief Oshkosh:
Erik Loomis at LawyersGunsMoney’s obit:
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2024/07/senator-snowball
lots of more awful shit Inhofe did or said than the snowball, etc., it’s a lot even given the current crop of GOP slime turds
p.s. don’t read other articles on that site unless you really want to hear why Biden has to drop out right now
rikyrah
@eclare:
And the Congressional Black and Hispanic Caucuses coming out in complete support.
MisterForkbeard
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Amazing that the take isn’t “black folks would be really damn pissed off if white folks didn’t allow Biden’s explicitly chosen black successor to succeed him”, and more “Kamala will wreck everything!”
Christ, what numbnuts.
Bupalos
@Omnes Omnibus: There’s no need to reiterate the disagreement, the disagreement is obvious. Obvious enough that I think it’s a kind of mistake to specifically pretend it didn’t happen, focus on “it shouldn’t have happened,” or let any kind of recrimination overshadow unity going forward.
As in a primary, the onus is on those of us who didn’t prefer the route Biden chose to work like hell to make it work and put roads not taken behind us. There’s a corresponding responsibility for those who did prefer this route. But if folks largely meet their responsibilities, the spectacle of unity amid difference can be a plus beyond controversy never having happened.
Baud
@eclare:
FROM: Joe Biden
TO: Democratic Members of Congress
RE: The 2024 Election
Stop being pussies.
CaseyL
Not that Biden, or Harris, or anyone else had any reason to “respect” the national press before this – I mean, each time he gave an interview to Anyone But NYT (or WaPo) it was a middle finger to them – but it will be … interesting… to see how the WH treats the Press Corps* from here on out.
I’m pretty sure all the questions they ask will be gotchas, and asked in the same tone as that Deucey moron.
*aka WH Press Corpse, or WH Press Whores, as they have been called many times ere now by many people. Many fine people. Because they have been awful for a very, very long time… since the (Bill) Clinton wars, at least.
Captain C
@M31:
I pretty much haven’t been there since the debate and from what I’m hearing here, I don’t regret it at all. Based on the amount of gloom there, I’m surprised that Loomis hasn’t switched his listening tastes to all goth all the time.
Chief Oshkosh
@M31: Thanks!
dc
@Baud: 47 + 3 = 50
Don’t the Dems have 51 this congress?
Old School
@Trivia Man:
I’ll suggest “Climate”
O. Felix Culpa
@M31:
Nope. It’s official. We’re done with that.
Gloria DryGarden
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan):
ditto
your point of view is important. And helps me incorporate, include aspects of how situations affect people, different than me, but who matter. What you express here helps me see and understand things I might not have seen. You get around those pesky blinders white privilege left me with. I work to dismantle my blind spots
zhena gogolia
@Gloria DryGarden: rikyrah is the best! She has kept me sane these last days.
UncleEbeneezer
Statement from Director of National Intelligence:
Gloria DryGarden
A,BB,CCC
all of the proposed abcs..
NOW I know my ABCs
thinking of our old Patty cake chant, a sailor went to CCC….
Mai Naem mobile
@Chris: what po’d me about Hillary was that her husband was the former president. Do reporters really think a former president’s internet security at his residence is some two dollar operation? I guess I shouldn’t ask that because of Mar-A-Loco but still this was Clinton’s personal residence not some private club.
narya
@Gloria DryGarden: @zhena gogolia: @rikyrah:
Adding to the chorus of cheers for the work of rikyrah! Also like the website linked in the nym; if you haven’t checked it out, do so!
Chief Oshkosh
@M31: Unfortunately, Loomis provides no references for that. It tracks for something Inhofe would say, but I can’t find it anywhere on the intertoobes.
Bupalos
@Baud: Mmmm… I think it was a bit more hardball than that. “Challenge me at the convention if you want, I’m staying” is somewhere between “this is my ball, and I WILL go home” and “you’re the one who’s kindergartner attends at Oakmont and gets out at 2:45, right?”
lowtechcyclist
@Trivia Man:
Add D for Democracy
And seconding C for Climate
eclare
@Baud:
That was the essence. I like your version, very KISS.
eclare
@Old School:
I like climate. I think that would be more appealing to young people than courts. Plus with half of America under blistering heat, the climate is on a lot of people’s minds.
Abortion, Build Back Better, Climate
eclare
@Gloria DryGarden:
I second all of this.
Seeker
@Mai Naem mobile: You can’t imagine the double standard is anything but intentional now. Throughout the previous administration there were repeated security violations regarding cell phone usage. We have all seen the the document storage technique in the post-presidency.
If the the e-mail server was such a huge deal, why aren’t we seeing similar stories now?
trnc
If accompanied by a list of Biden’s accomplishments and details of Project 2025, then yes, that helps make the case.
different-church-lady
@M31: Fuck Inhofe AND Loomis.
O. Felix Culpa
@different-church-lady:
So say we all.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bupalos: It’s more, “If you have a problem with me, I will be in the A&P parking lot after school. We can settle it there.” Some times a direct challenge is the way to go.
different-church-lady
@Seeker:
Because republicans aren’t telling them to print them.
geg6
@M31:
Or how his anonymous neurologist friend who never met or examined Biden has concluded that he definitely has Parkinson’s and should release his Parkinson’s test results to confirm his awesome diagnostic brilliance. And even after he’s been pantsed by his commentariat for days on end, he will stand there, pantsless, screaming I’M RIGHT AND YOU ALL ARE WRONG! into the void where they all point and laugh at him. Even for him (and Lemieux and Campos, to be fair), this shit is over-the-top. Between this, their screeds against Sotomayor for refusing to step down when they told her to and their incredible disrespect and disdain for Ginsberg, that site has a sexist/ageist problem. Very toxic masculinity, but from the left. It’s gross and despicable.
trnc
@dc:
Plus Manchin since he left the party.
bbleh
@different-church-lady: I gotta admit, I usually donate to them, but this year, after his posts on donation day, I was so put off that I didn’t. And it wasn’t just one post. Disappointed
dc
@trnc:
Ah, I knew he was not running for reelection, but I didn’t know he left the party.
Fair Economist
@Omnes Omnibus:
“I got taken in by the outrageous bias in the media, constantly attacking an outstanding President for one debate, while covering up for Trump, a three-timing rapist running to get billions in bribes by giving trillions in your tax dollars to the ultrawealthy. I won’t fall for the media nonsense again, and I urge the voters of American to take the media’s bias with the grain of salt it deserves.”
Steve in the ATL
@dc: no no no—the party left him!
Baud
@Steve in the ATL:
Good for us.
geg6
@eclare:
She. Is. Awesome.
I learn so much.
Steve in the ATL
@different-church-lady: fuck Loomis with Imhofe’s rigor mortis-ified corpse?
Full disclosure: I have been watching season 4 of “The Boys” and may be in an unhealthy state of mind….
Gloria DryGarden
@O. Felix Culpa: I sure hope we’re done with all that.
gods
Just in case, I’m reworking the words to a catchy young tune, “drunk text me” by Lexi Jayde, to capture the sentiment. I’ll have to finish it, so I can sing it.
Not sure what the length limit is for singing a cover of someone else’s song..
highlights, to the chorus of drunk text me:
I want you to please stop that,
you just need to cut it out,
tell me you fucked it up
tell me you’ll back our guy,
it matters.”
https://youtu.be/gE7MIZK0OuY?si=QRwR0jvcdRut5981
Super catchy chorus, and something in the lyrics parallels this political situation, break up, get back together and be true to what matters..
O. Felix Culpa
@Steve in the ATL: May be?
SiubhanDuinne
Kamala is KILLING IT at a Nevada rally!!
Nelle
@rikyrah: I’m the youngest of the youngest. My grandfather was born in 1863, my father in 1912, me in 1951. I’m watching all of this in amazement. And it is a selective club, used against opponents and held back for people like Charles Grassley.
different-church-lady
@Steve in the ATL: I was reading LGM up until last Friday and I am DEFINITELY in an unhealthy state of mind.
UncleEbeneezer
@Fair Economist: * Must also include some backhanded compliment or criticism of Biden. Always!
Almost Retired
If there’s a silver lining to the last two weeks it’s that Kamala Harris has really shone. I know she initially got a bum assignment (please fix Central America), but she’s made her mark as the voice of Dobbs opposition and has been – in my opinion – nearly pitch perfect in handling the dump Joe noise. And now she’s banging on Project 2025 very effectively. Deep bench and all that .
Nelle
@Eolirin: If every accusation is a confession, what performance enhancing drugs was the strutting orange mango on during the debate?
O. Felix Culpa
OT: I’m a hiker of a certain age and developed a bad knee. My doctor recommended an MRI to see what was going on. The insurance company said no, xrays first. So, got the xrays, doctors saw osteoarthritis and recommend an MRI. What exactly did the insurance company save themselves?
SomeRandomGuy
@Eolirin: There’s another point. It’s *partly* that rich people tend to be more little-c conservative.
Part of it seems to be the nature of journalism, in its many facets.
For example, I saw some mucketymuck say “I hired $Liar_1 because Republicans use our site, too!” and that works, for fashion, or film, or sports, journalism.
“People want to hear about Caitlin Clark!” is a perfectly good reason to hire one of her favorite sports journos on a promotional basis. “I agree, Fart St. Stenchalot is an ugly designer, but everyfascist who is anyfascist wants to look like TFG, so, we have an FSS-feed,” is also reasonable.
Okay, but what about the truth? And that’s where things get crazy. In the end, even a fashion journalist should be promoting the hottest styles, not who bought the most advertising. But who gets to say what’s hot? One takeaway line from The Devil Wore Prada was where badBoss said “I bet you think *you* chose that color sweater!” and it made me think about how amorphous truth could be, even from a hard-core econ standpoint. Did people buy up huge dye lots, in anticipation of “fall fashions”?
With politics it gets even harder, because everyone hems, haws, shades the truth, slants, and, yes, lies. And publishers want to serve “the general public” which means they want to carry writers that will help sell. In the past 30 years, there’s been a challenge: a lot of Republicans have simply refused to say anything bad about a Republican, nor anything good about a Democrat.
Well, none of those Republicans can be expected to tell the truth, ever, except by accident, where the truth coincidentally fits their pre-generated statement. It’s not their fault – they put their party ahead of the truth, and when you put anything ahead of the truth, you are putting it in front of the good of the country, because you can only protect, and serve, America with the truth – not with lies intended to puff up some rightwing blowhard.
Israel’s government said they were safe from Hamas – they lied, and thousand of Israelis died. The truth would have served Israel well, don’t you think?
Now, we have too many goddamned rich idiots who don’t know the difference between right and wrong, and can’t tell the difference between movie critics and political reporters, much less the difference between truth and propaganda.
My humble opinion, anyway.
Nelle
@moonbat: My daughter had a front page byline on the NYTimes shortly after getting her MA in journalism. She was a stringer for about eight years and saw the way they operated. One of her last assignments, which she turned down, was to find women who had marched in the women’s march but were now unhappy with Biden. Go get them to say such and such.
Steve in the ATL
@O. Felix Culpa: every time I watch it I wonder how the writers have not been involuntarily institutionalized. And then I read that the show has had to tone down the comic books—holy %#@&!!!!
O. Felix Culpa
@SiubhanDuinne: She is good. People underestimate her at their peril.
Baud
@Nelle:
I always use that story as evidence of the NYT’s perfidy.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@rikyrah:
I dunno. I grew up with “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” Same as it ever was.
Captain C
@geg6:
FTFY
different-church-lady
@Bupalos: Just to be clear: I don’t advocate pretending everything went well or hand-waving. My position is: even if you think Biden should step aside, YOU DON’T TRY TO ACCOMPLISH THAT THROUGH PUBLICLY WITHDRAWING SUPPORT. Doing so is just idiotic.
If Biden loses the support of his party, then a smart party comes to that conclusion BEHIND THE SCENES, and then goes to him and tells him his support is gone, or weak, and tries to get him to drop out gracefully.
What a dumb party does is exactly what they did the past two weeks.
You support the presumptive nominee until he’s no longer the presumptive nominee, and NOT A MOMENT LESS.
Can’t anybody play this here game?
SiubhanDuinne
@O. Felix Culpa:
You really have to wonder. I expect David Anderson, Ph.D. (Dr. Anderson to his friends) could hazard a guess. But I’m afraid he’s off at Happy Hour right now, celebrating his brand new shiny Ph.D.
SiubhanDuinne
Biden up! NATO speech. He sounds clear, strong, and focused.
Sure Lurkalot
@Eolirin: Feel like it’s important to point out that while John Oliver has a way of reaching a receptive audience on a wide range of important topics near and dear to our hearts, true allies don’t say things like:
“And while I have a lot of problems with Biden, he’s clearly the better of the two options, which I recognize is a very low bar.”
It’s very hard to find voices with whose musings you do not have to take with a grain of salt.
Steve in the ATL
@SomeRandomGuy:
You could have just said “Hugo Boss”
NotMax
@Jay
“We don’t smoke and we don’t chew and we don’t go with the girls that do..”
:)
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Steve in the ATL:
Friends don’t let friends give LGM money much less clicks. Gloomis’s obits are no reason to go although I’d swear they did one on some, godawful GQP water carrier years ago that I should have bookmarked. It might have been a long-after screed about Lee Fucking Atwater but I can’t remember and they don’t organize the site in such a way that you can just scroll thru their obits from over the years.
Baud
@Sure Lurkalot:
Agree. I hate the hedging. Trying to stay in with the cool kids.
SomeRandomGuy
@O. Felix Culpa: Insurance companies are actually “public health” companies, in a sense. They’d rather pay for the 3 extra x-rays that showed an MRI was needed, than pay for 13 MRIs because doctors got lazy, and jumped to the MRI.
That’s not to say it isn’t extraordinarily flippin’ annoying to get caught up in “but sometimes, 24 weeks of careful physical therapy will shut up recalcitrant patients who continue to demand expensive treatments!” but it will happen, for reasons not meriting the ripping out of any throats.
At this stage of the negotiating process, at least!
Citizen Alan
@jimmiraybob:
Fucker won’t even need to go that far. President “Dictator for One Day” just needs a compliant AG who is willing to arrest just enough Dem legislators to give the GOP control of the House and a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and they can do whatever they like without restraint.
dc
@Nelle: That’s fishing, not journalism.
O. Felix Culpa
@Steve in the ATL: Sounds like a show for me to avoid. :)
Baud
@jimmiraybob:
Oh Lord. That would cause such a schism in the party.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Baud:
It needs something afterwards… ESQ., M.D., LMNOP or AKA Notorious Murth.
O. Felix Culpa
@different-church-lady:
To be fair, it wasn’t the party at large that had hysterics in public, it was mostly “unnamed Democrats” and a few named individuals of a certain gender and hue.
@SiubhanDuinne:
So very happy for Dr. Anderson. That Mayhew fellow too.
Another Scott
@SiubhanDuinne:
YouTube.com – WhiteHouse feed of Biden’s NATO speech.
Talking now, and he looks serious.
Cheers,
Scott.
O. Felix Culpa
@SomeRandomGuy:
You’re no fun. ;-)
different-church-lady
@O. Felix Culpa: Don’t get me started on the surrogates. “Friends” like these, indeed…
Eyeroller
@different-church-lady: We’re Democrats, we don’t seem to understand how politics works or how most people think.
I have to say that this is the worst Democratic meltdown I have ever seen and I can remember back to the Carter administration (I was alive before that but not paying attention at all). It is embarrassing.
Debate debate debate. It wasn’t all that bad if you take everything into consideration, including the immediate reaction of focus groups. This has been completely driven by media with an agenda (re-elect Trump) and stupid Democratic consultants/podcasters/electeds. Just saw a headline on my Alexa Show screaming “Can Biden Survive the Debate?”
Eyeroller
@Another Scott: But he may stumble over some words or lose his train of thought! Then the Senate Democrats would have to deeply consider whether they can support him.
NotMax
@Steve in the ATL
With much effort managed to get through season one and then vowed “Nope, no more.”
different-church-lady
@Eyeroller: Remember how we were all kicking around Cheryl R’s post about not obeying in advance?
There’s a whole lot of people who obeyed in advance.
UncleEbeneezer
@SiubhanDuinne: Fake News!!1!
Steve in the ATL
@O. Felix Culpa: Dr. Anderson and Mr. Mayhew. Has book potential….
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Nelle:
As has been mentioned, FTFNYT looks as itself as an opinion-shaper and while it does occasionally provide good reporting on a variety of non-political topics, your story highlights how it has done and continues to do grievous harm thru grossly slanted reporting that’s typically about Democrats but almost no coverage of terrible things by Republicans.
This has been a constant pattern, not an aberration and has had disastrous results for this country.
So, at what point does one stop rewarding them for their behavior? It’s gratifying to see people here cancel their subscriptions. Enough people do that and it gets attention, that is straight from a friend who was a WH correspondent for a major metro paper back in the aughts.
O. Felix Culpa
@different-church-lady:
Not only did they obey in advance, they ran into the streets screaming, butt-nekkid with their hair on fire. Thank goodness no one here did that. [True confession: my anxiety kicked in after the debate and took a while to get back to reasonable levels.]
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
FWIW, I subscribe to Joyce Vance’s substack, and a lot of commenters there were unsubscribing to the NYT too. Have no idea how many people or what portion of their subscriber base that represents, but it was interesting to see that we’re not the only ones.
NotMax
Heh. Movie running in the background. Gruff plainclothes male cop keeps introducing himself to those he questions with “My name is Sherrill.”
Without the aid of subtitles, each time it sounds like “My name is Cheryl.”
UncleEbeneezer
@Another Scott: I’m thirty years younger than Biden and I wouldn’t be able to speak so clearly in front of NATO, even with a teleprompter.
different-church-lady
@O. Felix Culpa:
[True confession: my anxiety is still off the freakin’ charts…]
O. Felix Culpa
@Steve in the ATL: Heh. Kind of an inverse Jekyll and Hyde.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: Surely you can’t be serious.
Sister Golden Bear
@Captain C: Baud 2028 — He’s never worn pants, so he can’t be pantsed by the jackalteriat!
Eyeroller
@zhena gogolia: I am, and don’t call me Shirley.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
From driftglass, trenchant as always:
https://twitter.com/Mr_Electrico/status/1810686238795391042
Anything with a Mr Bean reference is always great.
Mike S. (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@Another Scott: I just watched the excellent speech by President Biden live on NBC which interupted my local news. Joe did a great job and I’m happy. He was forceful and defiant about Putin nd positive about Ukraine’s independence and democracy. There were a few tiny hints at his speech impediment, but nothing for the msm commentariat to glom onto, despiste all of the preliminary talking-head angst in the introduction to the Special Report.
NotMax
@Steve in the ATL
Mayhew is a Dick.
//
Eyeroller
@Mike S. (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!): If he used a teleprompter it doesn’t count. It has to be extemporaneous to satisfy the press. I wish I were joking.
MisterForkbeard
@different-church-lady: Mine is mostly there – I basically just decided not to read any politics news for a week or two and let it all calm down.
That it hasn’t calmed down entirely is also anxiety inducing. But I combat that with rage, since there’s entirely too many opinion makers who spent the last two weeks screaming that Biden was obviously incompetent and everyone HAS to support him leaving, and now wondering “Some polls have Biden down, how did that happen? He should probably drop out, because this is a mystery”
Stupid AND evil.
O. Felix Culpa
@different-church-lady: I get it. These are parlous times. I’m glad for this virtual community, at least occasionally. :)
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Brilliant.
@MisterForkbeard: A news blackout for a while is good advice. Every now and then I check the headlines, and my rage-o-meter goes through the roof with yet another rafter of Biden is Old and Effectively Dead articles. Best to avoid the bullshit.
gwangung
@NotMax: Heh. I needed that.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
Hand to FSM. Back is to the screen so am listening only. Had to turn around to check the subtitles.
MisterForkbeard
@Eyeroller: It has to be extemporaneous AND really long AND about a topic they care about AND it has to be him announcing he’ll drop out or it’s ignorable
This is what I’ve gleaned from briefly watching reporter-twitter today
lowtechcyclist
@Sure Lurkalot:
Well it really IS a very low bar! It’s down where only the groundhogs can get under it.
laura
I like Loomis’ weekly list of records he listened to in the prior week- it’s always an eclectic list of artists and genres. I like Loomis’ morning dead guy report including today’s Johnny Otis. My dad was a HUGE West Coast Jazz lover. My dad and I used to go to Johnny Otis’ live radio record show on Saturday mornings in Sebastopol- Johnny carried his records in a milk crate. He discovered Etta James and her friend Sugar Pie DeSanto and he was a great artist as well. I’ve got a book of his art Colors and Chords and there’s one painting of a homeless women with all her worldly possessions in a push cart with an American flag flying from it. It’s seared into my amygdala just sums up the cruelty of Ronald Reagan- and how that cruelty has grown into an entire political party. I like Loomis’ dedication to organized and organizing labor. I loathe Loomis for his views on women in power and his jumping in and opining on my President
Turns out there’s a Johnny Otis Art Retrospective about to open in Santa Rosa on Saturday. I’ll be driving over to check it out and may submit as an On the Road if anyone’s interested.
Another Scott
@Eyeroller: Indeed. Biden is always doing it rong.
Because everyone knows that skillfully reading a teleprompter is something that anyone with Parkinson’s / Alzheimer’s / Ebola / Tuberculosis / Internal HR Giger Monster can do without problems.
🤡 🤡 🤡 🤡 🤡 🤡 🤡
Looking forward to hearing it tonight.
Hang in there, everyone.
Cheers,
Scott.
BellyCat
@No One of Consequence: Co-signed!
Jay
@SomeRandomGuy:
https://www.wonkette.com/p/nations-beloved-health-insurance
zhena gogolia
@Eyeroller: We’re watching it tonight.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: I was doing the Airplane! joke, as Eyeroller noted.
zhena gogolia
I haven’t looked up any news about polls, but I guess that’s why my friends still have chattering teeth. I have to believe they will go up again.
Ishmael
@Baud: According to my normie SO, CNN had a doctor on yesterday who “verified” that Biden has Parkinson’s.
I’m so very sick of this insanity.
No One of Consequence
@Sister Golden Bear: I thank you for your previous comment. It is at this point in this here full-service, top ten thousand blog, I must take issue with your post.
The rampant, negligent, publicly-endangering support for a Baud Presidency has been something of which tasteful company round these parts do not speak. For the last 20 years on this blog we have heard the calls. Some have even called for a Baud candidacy in perpetuity, like some common Vermin Supreme.
WELL, I PROTEST.
Baud has done nearly nothing for my support these last 20 years, other than providing some (rather regular) well-timed, often-humorous observations or political points.
I’ve written him in for political contests that don’t yet exist, and the nice officials always assure me that Baud won, whenever I later check back in with them about the outcomes, and to check on the status of my inquiries, and avail myself of the free cookies.
(Actually, fair question, can anyone here confirm that Baud *ISN’T* Vermin Supreme?)
Peace,
-NOoC
Captain C
@Ishmael:
Talking Head: “So, you examined him.”
“Doc”: “Well, not exactly.”
TH: “You looked at his medical records then?”
“D”: “Well, not really.”
TH: “So how are you arriving at this conclusion?”
“D”: “Well, it’s just obvious. I know. I’m a doctor.”
TH: “OK, let’s go to the phones. “Doctor,” on line 1 we have your local medical licensing board. Something about an emergency licensure hearing you need to be heading to right now on the grounds of unethical behavior and rank public incompetence.”
UncleEbeneezer
@laura: If I just want to find new music to check out, Loomis’ threads are great. But I have to completely ignore his opinions because he has pretty shitty taste, imo. He absolutely gushes over stuff I think is trash and trashes most of he stuff I find moving and brilliant. Whatever. To each their own. But he has that annoying music-snob attitude of arrogance that just makes him look ridiculous.
satby
@Jay: cool, sharing is caring, so I shared that on FB, with the tag that the expose was done “by that noted socialist rag, the Wall Street Journal”. Otherwise people who see the article is from wonkette might discount it because they don’t know/ trust that source.
Steve in the ATL
@Captain C: in which year of medical school do they learn to diagnose by “vibes”?
Captain C
@Steve in the ATL: I’m guessing first year, but only in an unaccredited new agey/wellness type of school that shuns things like ‘germ theory’ and ‘sterilization’.
Bokonon
I am already seeing the social media trolls start migrating back to their “Genocide Joe” attacks on Biden, where they typically say “I am a former very very loyal Democrat who has left the party over Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, COME ON AND FOLLOW ME AND REFUSE TO VOTE FOR JOE BIDEN.”
I mean, they are still attacking Biden’s age and mental state, but they are back to the usual depress-the-vote tactics. Which is an interesting pivot. Maybe they aren’t getting the responses they wanted.
SomeRandomGuy
@Comrade Scrutinizer: “Don’t trust anyone who has bought into the system,” is different from “OMG OLD MAN COOTIES!”
That *was* the idea of “don’t trust anyone over 30,” so you know. By that time, they have a wife, a mortgage, and they’d gladly dump toxic waste on public lands by signing the right papers, acknowledging it ain’t right, but, hey, *someone* is going to get paid for signing those papers.
Ageism of the form “OMG Biden looks old and General Greasepaint is a lying fascist BIDEN IS NO GOOD AND MUST STEP ASIDE!” is especially gross to me.
Republicans know the rumors about his disability are false; they started them, after all.
Democrats should know the rumors about his disability are false, because Republicans are making the claims. If they haven’t figured out Republicans will lie about *anything*, they shouldn’t be on the D-team.
So, “he looks OLD, that means HE IS INCOMPETENT” is far, far worse than “eh, by the time a man’s thirty, he has a wife, a mortgage, starts thinking about the status quo….”
NotMax
@No One of Consequence
Baud is the new Harold Stassen.
:)
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@UncleEbeneezer:
He’s an even worse Insufferable Music Snob that Amanda Marcotte was back in her Pandagon days. And that’s a really high bar to clear.
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: That is an insult to the late Mr Stassen.
Omnes Omnibus
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Marcotte’s taste was better.
Steve in the ATL
@Captain C: damn DO’s!
No One of Consequence
Had to read up on Stassen. Was unaware. Learn something every day.
I will however, admit this: If by some miracle, Baud becomes the Democratic candidate for Presidency of the United States in 2024, I WILL VOTE FOR HIM.
AND YOU SHOULD TOO.
Peace,
-NOoC
wjca
If we’re going for miracles, why not have him be the Republican nominee? Think how much more relaxing we would all find it.
Steve in the ATL
@No One of Consequence:
Can’t be a renaissance man without a thorough knowledge of inconsequential Minnesota governors!
laura
@UncleEbeneezer: you and me are on the same page UE! While I like Drive by Truckers I’m not In Love with Drive by Truckers. I try and emulate his “putting records on turntables” and had my old 80’s Technics turntable refurbished so I could listen to all my records starting from when I was a foolish young virgin, to old hag who haunts Record Store Day. His opinions move me not- esp when he craps on my President and my vote.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: Tell that to Sir Philip Sidney.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@zhena gogolia: Yes!
Steve in the ATL
@laura: have you tried this song? Though I’m too old and tired and hearing impaired from my rock n roll days to bother with turntables.
Gloria DryGarden
@UncleEbeneezer: beautifully said.
tears in my eyes
time to quit fucking around, and focus. QFAFo
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus: dude died of gangrene. What else is there to say?
Paul W.
Just wanted to say this is a relief in a way, because for AOC to hitch her cart to Joe means she doesn’t think he has a “secret” neurological disorder, and is able to at least carry on at the current pace for the rest of the campaign.
People want more, I know, and I hear it every 3rd day from the PSA guys who have turned this into just as much of a crusade as the NYT. However, this is what we’ve got and we should also be able to expect a better 2nd debate but that’s about it.
What does that mean? That the rest is on us! You don’t like Joe, fine! As my momma always said “if you can’t say something nice don’t say anything at all” – move on to talking about taking back the House (which PSA has not done at all since 2022), holding the Senate, and what the agenda of another Biden term would be since you feel he isn’t articulating it well enough!
Eyeroller
@Ishmael: It turns out that the “Biden has Parkinson’s” rumor was started by notorious liar Alex Berenson at the NY Post and quickly and uncritically picked up by the FTFNYT. Of course it was easily debunked based on Biden’s public travel schedule, but the NYT will never apologize.
Even if he did have it, Parkinson’s without Lewy body dementia does not affect cognitive function and can be treated for quite a while. Ask Michael J. Fox what he thinks about that.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@SomeRandomGuy: I had carpal tunnel in my right hand and the workman’s comp worked me step by step up to and including surgery, which fixed it. But it took roughly a year and a half to get to that point, by which time I had retired. Still got the surgery. My favorite was an electrical diagnostic test which confirmed, “yep, carpal tunnel “. Don’t know why they didn’t just skip to that step immediately, but it seems like they kept hoping it would fix itself, meanwhile having me leave work every couple of weeks to see the WC doctor to confirm it was still a problem.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Eyeroller:
Once again it proves that:
FTFNYT is just the NY Post with a thesaurus.
Eyeroller
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: And a fancier font, they didn’t mention that.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@No One of Consequence: You must be pretty young for this crowd. Stassen ran for president as late as 1992, and I certainly remember him as perennially running for POTUS all through high school and college. I just googled him to find out the last time he ran, and learned something myself: he was the close runner up to Tom Dewey for the R nomination in 1948.
Jcl
Now, we need for Merchan to lock his ass up in September. This has to happen and I believe it will. But I was wrong as hell about Mueller.
Slightly_peeved
@rikyrah:
his Adversary Bangs Children?
Sister Golden Bear
@Bokonon: I had one acquaintance on the Book of Faces who made a comment on one my post that she could never vote for Joe the Murderer of Palestinian Children. I know she’s autistic, so I didn’t bother arguing with her. (Nothing against autistics, it’s just I know from past experience that she can be rather… rigid… in her thinking.)
Someone else pointed out that Trump would be far worse and she replied that neither party was any different under our capitalistic fascism society. <sigh> Save us from the purity ponies.
NotMax
@Sister Golden Bear
Purity ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.
;)
anitamargarita
@randy khan: I was a bit skeptical of her at first, but she really seems to get all of “it”
laura
@Steve in the ATL: That’s a nifty for sure, but this is the one I can’t shake: https://youtu.be/Kak_LYG_0dU?si=QDly7gKI_zlkpPvO
TheMightyTrowel
@Trivia Man: abortion rights, better judges, climate policies
No One of Consequence
@wjca: I’m not a smart man Jenny, but I know a good idea when I hear it, and am ashamed to have not thought about it. My imagination has been so limited lately.
BAUD IS CLEARLY THE ONLY CHOICE TO SAVE THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, and HE SHOULD BE NOMINATED IN MILWAUKEE!!!
I see the light!
-NOoC
No One of Consequence
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): I still haven’t decided what I want to be when I grow up, but I’ve circled the sun more than 50 times on your spaceship. I admit to you readily, I didn’t know the name. Shame really, I’m only one state south.
I know a little bit about a lot of different things, and to know enough leading questions that I can usually to hide amongst the learned by distracting them with requests for explanation/elaboration/personalAnecdote.
In my experience, Honest Earnestness is hard to argue with. Throw in a decent helping of respect, and I’ve managed to not have anyone kill me, nor found the need to kill anyone else. Same thing for lawsuits thus far.
So, I dunno. I certainly don’t have all the answers, though I am typically good at trivia. Will readily admit, I did not know the name. Certainly didn’t know he ran a close second to the loser Dewey (who most folks went to bed thinking had won).
I started paying attention a bit to politics when I wrote a letter to Jimmy Carter telling him that I thought he was a good man, doing a hard job, and he should make sure he took time each day to spend some time with his daughter. His office wrote back, thanking me for my support, and I still have that correspondence.
I liked how Reagan handled the death of the shuttle crew, and The Wall, and felt badly when he was shot. It wasn’t until my knowledge of politics and history expanded further, before I realized just what kind of damage could be laid at Reagan’s feet. What kind of callous disregard.
Those are some of my earliest memories of political awareness and/or any kind of involvement.
Admittedly, I am far less wise than jackals here who I assume are far younger. Obviously less wise than our more seasoned veterans, but I’ve been lurking around here for years, shortly after Cole’s conversion.
Anywho, sorry this went far astray of where I was going to try to get, but I thought I would share what street cred I could.
Peace,
-NOoC
luc
Declarations that we heard today from multiple people, like the one from AOC, unfortunately are not convincing and sound pretty dumb. They are NOT inspiring. Mr Cleaver said something like “I have concluded that the president is not ripe for the retirement home”. That gets my hopes up?
The message is merely ” we have to continue with the horse that …. , there is no alternative, the case is closed, …”. I doubt this is convincing anyone.
When all these smart people run out of good arguments, we do have big problems.
You will likely hate it, but James Carville and Jamal Simmons are much more convincing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TBRUrRQm2I
Bupalos
@different-church-lady: Very few pols went public despite it being pretty clear a lot of them did want a different decision. AOC likely wasn’t talking with Joe about how stoked she was and how much she wanted him to stay in. And it’s unlikely that his team convinced her. This phase ended because Biden showed the costs he was willing to impose on the party, and those costs were unacceptable. That is likely what convinced whatever portion of the party was pushing on him to shut up and try rowing in the same direction. It doesn’t mean they agree, it means they can process reality. That Joe made the threat means he had to make the threat.
I think it was done about as quietly and cleanly as could be realistically hoped. Though folks who think this was all just a Media conspiracy of course are unlikely to see it that way.
wjca
Bless you, my child. :-)
Twainian
“The Matter is Closed.
It was made by those who are Dead, and the Dead keep it, until the time comes.
The Matter is Closed.”
(with apologies to J.R.R. Tolkien)