This is how I think we survive the next 4 months – and win in November.
- We get used to living with uncertainty.
- We accept that everything that matters to us right now is uncertain.
- We accept the uncertainty and we get on with the fight.
We cannot continue to let our discomfort with uncertainty turn us upside down.
Not if we want to win in November.
We are the party with smarter people – we know how to spell, for instance.
- Conventional wisdom left the stage when Trump came on the scene.
- Quit watching the political pundits speculate about – well, everything!
- Quit reading what the political pundits write about – they don’t know anything more than we do!
We are the party of smarter people – let’s act like it. Right now it feels like we are being led along by the nose.
We are smart enough to know that if we continue to obsess about all the WHAT IFs, we cannot bring our A game to this fight. Hell, we are probably not even bringing our B game right now.
Uncertainty sucks. With everything that’s key to our way of life is on the line, it sucks even more. Let the other side run around like chickens with their heads cut off, while we do the work!
Speaking of which… at this point, we do not have an external match for Four Directions – Wisconsin. But we do have a Balloon Juice angel!
AND
If we can get the thermometer to $20,000 by midnight – currently roughly at $13,500 – we have another angel who will pop $5,000 into the thermometer to get us to $25,000.
We have a bunch more groups to support, can we get this done?
Apparently the answer is YES WE CAN!
Paul W.
Right on cue, Cannon dismisses immunity case. I expect it to go to 11th circuit now which is actually good
Edit – oh wow, my first 1st comment!
Belafon
Here’s a link to the Loose Cannon story: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/07/15/trump-classified-trial-dismisssed-cannon/
Old School
Special Counsels are illegal?
Who knew?
Eunicecycle
@Paul W.: so the guy investigating Bidens documents was illegal, too?
Mai Naem mobile
Aileen fucking Cannon needs to be impeached. At the least Dick Durbin need to drag this unqualified POS federalist Trumper judge in front of the Senate Judiciary committee. Honest to god this garbage judge thinks its okay for Putins candidate to have classified docs that he apparently used to get US assets killed abroad.
Eolirin
@Eunicecycle: Weren’t the charges brought against Hunter Biden also done this way? Or am I remembering incorrectly?
Belafon
@Eunicecycle: It was up until the moment Biden gave the documents back.
WereBear
Chop wood, carry water, dump Trump.
PaulWartenberg
Paul W stole my thunder regarding Aileen Cannon’s dismissal.
JFC.
I am going to be screaming for the next hour.
Please, no phone calls today.
Mike E
I take it you watched Beau of the 5th column who said exactly that! People here like to speculate on what went down Saturday and that’s also counterproductive. I think this week will be the turning point and illustrative of what we need to do and keep doing until November. Elect Dems!
PaulWartenberg
@Old School:
if Special Counsels are illegal then Hunter Biden has an appeal.
Mrs Ragbag
In for $25. Thanks for the reminder Watergirl.
Mai Naem mobile
Aileen Cannon thinks her decision will get ignored in the aftermath of DJTs shooting and the RNC convention.
prostratedragon
Cannon indeed, this was so loud I think it literally woke me up a dozen minutes ago. While people collect their wits, here’s a thread that Roger Parloff wrote 3 days ago:
Bex
@Mai Naem mobile: He’ll brag about it at the convention.
Eolirin
@Mai Naem mobile: I don’t think it’s going to play out that way.
WaterGirl
In less than a minute, I could list 10 big things that are on a knife’s edge right now.
They will come along in their own timeframe, and we simply cannot let ourselves be turned upside down. Over and over and over.
BenInNM
Just put in $25
TBone
Who is in charge of watching over the Espionage Fulfillment Center in Florida while Dotard is in Milwaukee is my question.
Dismissal can be appealed, so all is not yet lost, I guess?
At least she didn’t tank the case during the jury phase.
MinuteMan
Avoir the paralysis of analyses at all costs.
greengoblin
I’m in for $100.00. Helping all I can.
Elizabelle
Good advice, WG.
rikyrah
You are great, WG.
Thanks so much
Eolirin
@WaterGirl: I’d settle for things happening a little more slowly.
thruppence
I hope the 11th Circuit slaps her down so hard it leaves a mark. On her utterly worthless shameful toadying career
Jess
Thank you, WG!
Here’s something else to ponder: consider how long oppressed groups had to fight for basic rights in this country until they (more or less) won. They had to maintain their faith and commit to doing the right thing, whether or not they received immediate gratification for their efforts. Why should white liberals be exempt from this struggle? I constantly remind myself that I have no control over the other 8 billion people on this planet; I have to let go of that desire for control over the situation, and just focus on what I can control, my own attitude and actions. Whether or not we win this particular battle, nevertheless we must persist. We must have faith that we will win the war.
hueyplong
Well, we’ve finally got something ripe for appeal.
JFC, our system is so corrupt at present.
TBone
@thruppence: 👍
Harrison Wesley
When special prosecutors are made illegal, only illegals will be made special prosecutors. Or something like that.
WereBear
News reports that the deceased shooter was a “terrible shot” and was not able to join the high school rifle team.
Conspiracy dials set to eleven.
prostratedragon
@TBone: Everyone is saying it is appealable. I assume Jack Smith will, though he has to consider whether an eventual ruling might jeopardize other cases I should think. Probably best getting it over with, since it’s not like no one else will try.
Thomas still the Justice presiding over the 11th Circuit? He couln’t persuade any other Justice to go with him on this, so when it inevitably reaches the full Circuit I guess it’s not obvious a Smith appeal would be denied there. Beyong that, … ＼(^_^)／
CCL
Thanks for the push, @WaterGirl:
In for $75.00
ETA: Less panic; more work.
H.E.Wolf
Amen to this. It’s easy to forget that getting angry, which can feel so energizing, actually uses up energy that could be put to use elsewhere.
I can guarantee that Four Directions is putting their energy to excellent, practical, election-winning use. Let’s support them!
And let’s channel our emotions into positive action. Find one small, concrete thing to do, and do it. I’m going to spend an hour on the data-entry equivalent of sweeping and dusting, to make life easier for the Democratic field organizers in our state. :)
Eunicecycle
@hueyplong: mostly traced back to the most corrupt president we ever had. His appointments are going to bite us in the ass for a generation at least.
VFX Lurker
In for $100.
Thank you, WaterGirl and Balloon-Juice.
hueyplong
@prostratedragon: “Everyone is saying it is appealable. I assume Jack Smith will, though he has to consider whether an eventual ruling might jeopardize other cases I should think.”
Pretty sure he considers them jeopardized right now.
kindness
It’s odd. I’ve read some legal folk in Florida think Cannon is a smart person.
I really have yet to see any evidence of that. What she is is bought and paid for.
WereBear
@Eolirin: You ribtickler, you!
Strap in. It’s going to be a bumpy flight.
rk
I’m beginning to think that Trump is just incredibly lucky. His felonies made no dent in his popularity. The assassination attempt was a miserable failure. Two days later the case against him gets dismissed. Seems to be untouchable. He’s utterly vile and has been all his life, but nothing matters if you’re lucky.
Captain C
IANAL, but isn’t this obviously bullshit dismissal the kind of thing that Jack Smith could use to get Loose Cannon off the case
ETA: Also, how far does she have to go before the 11th suspends her from hearing any case, given her obvious to laypeople corruption?
M31
@Jess:
after Hilary’s loss in 2016 I heard something that was very powerful on the local black radio station, the woman announcer said something like “my white friends were all devastated and demoralized, and I told them, hey, when you work and work for something and then get handed a setback, remember, for Black people that’s Tuesday, and you get back to work”
WereBear
@hueyplong: Law nerds loved the trap Jack Smith set for Cannon, but I’m not enough of a law nerd to explain it.
If she ruled wrongly, as she did, she is eligible to be thrown off the case.
Relentless as Javert!
prostratedragon
Of course, when Biden wins the election it would be easier for the DOJ to pull the cases back into the regular USAttorney process. So there is also that.
Belafon
@thruppence: Popehat thinks the 11th will say “No, it doesn’t work that way” but probably won’t choose to replace her, so they’ll just send it back.
Randal Sexton
In for 25$
Soprano2
@WereBear: That doesn’t mean he hasn’t been practicing since then. Shooting is a skill people learn, not something they’re born knowing how to do.
M31
hey when is Trump’s sentencing in the Stormy Daniels fraud/election interference case? Would love to have Trump have to call in his acceptance speech from Rikers hahahahahahaha
TBone
@prostratedragon: if I were President Biden, I might be sorely tempted to officially sign an Executive Order stating that the appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith is hereby declared constitutional. All powers inured to the executive branch by the Supreme Court should be brought to bear.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/our-government/the-executive-branch/
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
The mission of the Department of Justice (DOJ) is to enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law; to ensure public safety against threats foreign and domestic; to provide federal leadership in preventing and controlling crime; to seek just punishment for those guilty of unlawful behavior; and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans.
Joy in FL
$13.73 to ActBlue.
I appreciate our focus.
prostratedragon
@hueyplong: Well, like I said …
M31
@Soprano2: the shooter came within 1 inch of killing Trump, and from what I’ve read elsewhere a cop had just climbed a ladder and surprised him, making him rush the shot
Trump is the luckiest piece of shit alive
brendancalling
@Mai Naem mobile: LOL, Dick Durbin. That guy reminds me of the principal and the deans at my school. No consequences for anything, not even the worst behavior.
Jess
@M31: Exactly.
WereBear
@Soprano2: Of course, but you are not thinking like a MAGA.
Old School
@WereBear:
“Terrible shot” misses target is a conspiracy?
Delk
I’d guess she got scared when the bullet was shot.
jonas
So is Cannon like *trying* to get thrown off the case or something? The Special Counsel statute is long-settled law (from what I’ve been told). I can’t fathom how she doesn’t think this is going to get overturned in like 3 seconds, but my expectations now for anything functioning remotely fairly in this country, particularly when it comes to Trump, have sunk so low that I don’t know what to think anymore.
ArchTeryx
Very difficult to just put uncertainty aside when your life, and the lives of everyone you are close to, are what are on the line. Combine that with my mental disabilities, and I’ve been living in a continuous state of terror for months, which will only escalate until this election is over… one way or another.
M31
@Jess: at 150 yards, the difference between grazing and killing Trump is probably less than a millimeter’s difference in the shooter’s aiming position
somebody with a degree in ballistics can do the math
JWR
DELETED
oldgold
Just scanned Cannon’s ruling.
Relies on Thomas’s concurrence in the immunity case. Where gratuitously and corruptly opined on the constitutionality of special counsel. An issue not raised by Trump, not briefed and/or argued by either side. It is well beyond effing outrageous.
The more I learn about this immunity case decision and its dire implications going forward, it may very well be the worst damn decision ever rendered by the Supreme Court.
jonas
@M31: Not until September. Remember the judge allowed Trump’s lawyers to file to have the conviction overturned based on the new immunity ruling. Again, wouldn’t be shocked to see him eventually skate on that conviction as well.
prostratedragon
rk:
Psssst! Don’t say that around the Lobster.
WereBear
First the dump of Chinese IPs on the Heritage Foundation site, and now the IRS wants to — you know — probe them.
Get another billion, IRS! And we will feed children with it.
Another Scott
Nitter (Twitter version.)
Smith is doing a great job. The courts are slow. Maybe they’ll speed up a little with Cannon removed (as I hope and ass-u-me will happen).
My bottom line is that 99% of the federal court system takes national security stuff deadly seriously – as they should. The whole system of protection of national security information will collapse if TCFFG is not prosecuted. The power he had was vested in the office – not his person. Everyone knows all this. Cannon is a clear outlier and this ruling will not stand.
IANAL.
Eyes on the prizes.
Thanks WG and everyone.
Cheers,
Scott.
hueyplong
@WereBear: I guess I’m kind of a law nerd myself.
You could argue that it’s win-win for everyone involved. Cannon shows the slavish loyalty required, Smith gets a clean appeal and chance to get her tossed from the case, and Trump knows he’s probably clear to the election anyway at this “late” date. The wild card is that, having lost all credibility, the Supreme Court now does as it pleases without regard for, well, anything. It’s as much a force of evil as is Trump, and its actors are less distracted by a mirror in the room.
Captain C
@Another Scott:
Is Cannon’s comportment in this case something that will get (or has already gotten) her observed by one of the Five Eyes? I know if I was a national security type I’d at this point be fairly convinced that she was working in the interests of someone not the USA (which I am anyway, though not being one of such people). And I know I’ve said this before, and will say it again, but if the Deep State of extremist fever dreams actually existed, I suspect Cannon would have had a convincing accident by now.
StringOnAStick
Just added $25.
mvr
OK, I just put in another $25, that I don’t have but my credit card company does.
On the uncertainty point. WaterGirl is right.
Uncertainty can be our friend. At least if you want to know who to listen to on Twitter. Anyone who speaks as though they know what is going to happen in the election (thinking of for example Matthew Yglesias) is probably doing more harm to listen to than those who offer hypotheses and possibilities with some epistemic humility. They don’t know and they should know they don’t know. But they can make one awfully anxious. Better to spend that energy elsewhere.
Mike E
Thank goodness for the Cannon ruling for distracting the Speculation Brigade (which deflected people from bleating on for the president to step down, which made all the I/P coverage go away…). Eyes on the prize!
prostratedragon
@Captain C: If I were any of the other 4, I know I’d be paying close attention.
Redshift
And as always, action is the antidote to worry! I was out for the first canvassing if the campaign, and (though most people weren’t home, as always), everyone I did talk to was completely solid. And at this point we weren’t talking to the base, we’re doing voter id on people who are probably supporters but don’t always vote, or we’re not sure they’re Ds.
Al Rennick
Mehdi Hasan absolutely nails it while Balloon Juice front pagers and their readers remain completely disconnected from reality:
h/t https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/15/democrats-joe-biden-maga
zhena gogolia
The words “Mehdi Hassan absolutely nails it” have never crossed my lips or brain.
laura
@Al Rennick: go shit in your hand and clap al.
WaterGirl
@Eolirin: Oh, we’re asking for things we would like to be different? :-)
Do you have a couple of hours, because I have a really long list.
VFX Lurker
Fixed.
Chris Johnson
@TBone: Certainly not lost. The big danger was that she’d do this after a jury was empanelled, invoking double jeopardy. Now, that can’t happen, and that was the worst case scenario.
It’s an appeal to a circuit who apparently tried very hard to get her to recuse on the grounds that she might do something crazy like just dismiss it without taking it seriously. Like the head judge apparently asked her to step down, and she refused.
I’m looking forward to Harry Litman’s take on this, he’ll be freaking out but he might be of the opinion that she has absolutely fucked herself by doing this. It’s a delaying tactic, and there’s no guarantee that a delaying tactic will get him off the hook.
Citizen Alan
@M31: I am seriously coming round to the idea that he might be the antichrist.
WaterGirl
@ArchTeryx: Then the rest of us who are more privileged need to work that much harder.
WereBear
@Citizen Alan:
WaterGirl
@mvr: I feel you. Not everyone has discretionary income, and no one should feel like they need to donate to anything on Balloon Juice.
I’ve been there, for sure.
In 2017 I sold my beautiful silk rug to get another $1,000 to donate to Barack Obama.
I don’t know that I would have done that for Biden, but then democracy wasn’t at stake back then in the way that it is now.
WaterGirl
@prostratedragon: other 4? I am missing the reference.
Eolirin
@WaterGirl: I’m always there to listen to you WG :)
Chris Johnson
@jonas: If Cannon is REALLY smart (citation needed) and fully aware of all the various fuckery going on, getting thrown off the case and becoming a footnote to history could be the smartest thing she could possibly do.
We’re heading into a time where the extremist wing of the Republicans, indeed of the MAGAs, is turning violent AT OTHER REPUBLICANS. They’re attacking everyone deemed insufficiently loyal to the goals, to include Donald Trump himself. The Congressional Republicans may not be claiming Trump is mind-controlled and calling for his head, but some of the crazies already are. And he’s reportedly going to try to pivot to ‘unity’, like the unutterable dumbass he is.
That’s the context.
If Cannon throws down her hand, is identified as obviously MAGA-loyal beyond question, and is then kicked off the case by the 11th circuit, the crazies will come for the 11th circuit and NOT HER. She can drop out of sight and it will be very unlikely that she’s targeted. It might be the smartest thing she could do.
If she does things that facilitate Jack Smith’s court case proceeding and leading to justice for Trump, she runs the risk of being targeted as someone in cahoots with Smith, or whatever. This may have already happened: I think there were some ambiguous rulings, stuff that wasn’t totally in the tank for Trump. It’s risky right now to be an obvious rightwinger and take any action that is not the craziest shit imaginable, because they are starting to come for their own people, and even Trump isn’t immune. Sure as shit Cannon isn’t safe, if she’s making choices that can be interpreted as ‘breaking faith with MAGA’.
Bupalos
@rk: To my taste, that’s silly mysticism. There are reason why Trump has the political winds at his back. And ways that can go right and wrong for him personally as well as for his post-truth right wing authoritarian movement.
Dmkingto
Just put in $100
Chris Johnson
We put people in jail, instead. You’re thinking of how another country handles that stuff, and they’re not welcome around here. And their ways tend to not sit well with Americans :)
Bupalos
@Citizen Alan: you people are fucking scaring me.
are you sure he’s not Krampus, Baba Yaga, or bizarro Easter Bunny?
Eyeroller
@M31: If Crooks supposedly wasn’t all that good a shot, I’m coming back around to the “flying sliver of glass” hypothesis. I was thinking that flying glass wouldn’t make a fairly clean line like seemed to happen, but if it was a pretty good-sized chunk it might well do so. Would be sort of like getting cut with a knife. That was the initial report, then Trump started screeching about “I felt the bullet rip through my ear” (if that had happened he wouldn’t still have an ear, and he’d have a real hole in his head to go with the metaphorical ones).
The media that demanded medical reports from Biden, and in an earlier campaign from Hillary, seem uninterested in what actually happened to Trump.
rikyrah
Marc E. Elias
@marceelias
NEW: Republican’s tried to purge voters in Nevada and they lost!
A big set back for the GOP and a big win for voters.
Watch.
https://x.com/marceelias/status/1812818728821608547
Captain C
@Chris Johnson: Hence why I described it as the “Deep State of extremist fever dreams.” :^)
Chris Johnson
@rikyrah: They’re gonna lose more and more as they start coming apart at the seams, broke with all their organizing outsourced to Turning Points USA.
Eyes on the prize! We got this <3
Captain C: I like reality better too :)
montanareddog
@zhena gogolia: Well said. And I notice that the Guardian has not opened up BTL comments for that piece. The Opinion editor clearly foresaw that it would be an epic shitstorm.
He tipped his hand with this para (my emphasis):
This is just a handful of anonymous sources being laundered and repeated ad infinitum by the usual suspects
Jackie
@jonas:
She’s *trying* to be anointed to the SC.
Simple as that.
Bupalos
@Eyeroller: I have no idea why anyone should be interested in whether it was a bullet or glass projected by a bullet.
Denali5
If the concerns about President Biden had surfaced months ago, there would have been time to work on how the Party would manage the election ballots. Now it is next to impossible, which is why I think the whole thing has been staged. We have to remember what President Biden achieved during his tenure, and we have to keep our eyes on the prize – winning the next election. I am proud to support President Biden.
SomeRandomGuy
@Captain C: Friend, the idea that this would get Cannon removed from the case was shattered when the SCOTUS issued the immunity ruling. After that, all bets are off.
@M31: September – has been for a couple weeks, after the SCROTUS immunity decision.
@ArchTeryx: Well, if you drain yourself by worrying too much before the election, you won’t have as much energy and resources to help win the election, which could cause your nightmare to become true. My advice is to remember, tomorrows problems will come in full time, so insofar as you *can*, don’t borrow trouble from tomorrow, so you can work on today’s trouble.
One thing you can do is to take those fears, and try to give them expression. People need to see the fears, and pains, caused by bigotry, because otherwise they don’t believe it’s real, not even if (or perhaps, especially not if) they are bigots themselves.
Elizabelle
@Denali5: Me too.
SomeRandomGuy
@Bupalos: Trump wants to swear he survived an assassin’s bullet, not that he got his ear cut by a teleprompter (of all things!).
WaterGirl
We are halfway toward the $1,000 anonymous angel match – which means there is still $500 left on that match to help us get to $20,000.
The usual rules apply – match up to $100 per person, tell us about your donation in the comments or by email to me.
Jackie
@WaterGirl: Off topic question, but did you successfully remove the blood stains from your capris? You may have already announced the results, but between dodging 🥧 and 🧁, I might have missed it.
Jackie
@rikyrah:
EXCELLENT NEWS on such an otherwise crappy morning!👍🏻
Maxim
In for $100. Thanks, WG.
Al Rennick
@montanareddog:
@zhena gogolia:
@laura:
Bless your hearts. Live long and prosper in your blissful ignorance.
Miss Bianca
@Al Rennick: tell me, how many campaigns for political office has Mehdi Hasan won? As opposed to, say, Joe Biden?
I’ll wait.
ETA: On second thought, nah, I won’t wait. We both know the answer. Fuck off, troll. And Mehdi Hasan can fuck off, too.
Sister Golden Bear
In for $25.
Also great advice. FWIW, I think it definitely relates to a comment FDRLincoln made a few days ago about how:
Folks like me who’ve never felt safe in this country had no alternate except living with the uncertainty, and learning to fight on regardless of it.
Jackie
Lotta pie popping up… I guess the 24 hr truce is over.
LNNVA
Just added $25 to the pot. Thanks for doing this.
Manyakitty
In for $100
JeanneT
I put another $25 in the kitty
Mercy
Just chipped in $25.
Sister Golden Bear
@Sister Golden Bear:
It does indeed. Welcome to the party pal.
Madeleine
In for $50.
Peke Daddy
@WereBear: Bullshit detectors set to 15.
jlowe
Why I’m not reading the political news these days. Spending more time reading about the health risks from Type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and antibiotic resistance (National Library of Medicine is awesome!) and sea level rise (NOAA is awesome!). Trumpers will succumb royally from these stressors. Our side will prevail once Nature thins the herd a bit. But it won’t be pleasant for any of us.
prostratedragon
Donated $25.
caphilldcne
Donated. I appreciate the message to fight, organize and GOTV. It’s a needed message now.
Babette
In for $100
Jesse
In for $25.
Emily B.
I’m in for $25.
Jess
@jlowe: But sadly, so will a lot of poor POC folks trapped in the low-lying areas and tornado alley without the means to relocate to more expensive, safer locations.
TEL
In for $25! Seems like one of the more positive ways to feel better is to do something concrete that will help team D win.
Coyoteville
Belatedly, I just donated $55
Go Four Directions!