Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

“woke” is the new caravan.

I don’t recall signing up for living in a dystopian sci-fi novel.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Books are my comfort food!

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

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The Evergreen ‘Trump is Moderating’ Story

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The Evergreen 'Trump is Moderating' Story

Cheryl Rofer takes a careful look at the Trump platform plank regarding abortion and actually reads it, unlike most of the major media. One sentence says “no person can be denied Life or Liberty without Due Process, and that the States are, therefore, free to pass Laws protecting those Rights.”  Cheryl’s take:

If you want to believe that “no person” refers to the woman seeking an abortion, this is almost reasonable. That seems to be the way reporters are taking it, when they think about it at all. However.

If you believe that “no person” refers to everything after conception, then this describes fetal personhood. Those persons may not be deprived of life or liberty, which means no abortions ever and banning most contraceptives. Note that the last sentence says “Birth Control,” not contraceptives.

The people pushing fetal personhood have used very similar language and probably provided this paragraph.

Of course, the media (ABC News but there are others) fell for this and said that Trump is “moderating” his stance.

From the perspective of how to handle this, and other horseshit “moderating” stories, Democrats are currently in an unfortunate place.  The “Biden is old” debate coverage completely overshadowed Trump’s performance: he basically just babbled anything that came into his head.  And someone who will babble anything can only be judged by his actions, not his words.  His actions:  appointing the justices who overturned Roe.  His words: whatever he thinks will get him a sympathetic headline with the fools who write for the papers.

I know that “only a sap would believe that Trump won’t do what the Jesus humpers want him to do” isn’t great messaging, but the current task on the table is to convince would-be saps not to fall for the con.

Unrelated to this but important:   when I mentioned that  Tom Levenson, former FP and steady hand Cheryl Rofer and the asshole writing this post all have active accounts on Bluesky, I forgot to mention that Anne Laurie does, too.

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Letter, Translated (and Mostly Open Thread)

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You know how if all you talk about is your recent break-up or how awful your job is, people who were sympathetic at first don’t want to spend as much time with you?

Well, Biden – in his letter yesterday – told everyone to shut the fuck up and move on.  And I say everyone, and not just his detractors, but also his supporters, because he’s fucking running for President!   And when you run for president, you have to talk about your record and why you’re better than the other guy.

It’s so basic, it feels dumb to even have to write it.  But here we are.

I know it sounds crazy, but how about if we (the collective we, not every single person we) stop helping the other side kneecap our President?

In any case, President Biden now has his own anger translator!

Joey Jobs was so impressed with Tony Jay’s work on the NYT images this weekend, that Joe asked Tony Jay if he would translate yesterday’s letter.  (I understand that Joe may look to others, too, as the occasional arrises.)

(If you click the image, you can enlarge it in your browser.  Hoping for a higher resolution version soon.)

Having brought up the topic, I’m sure we’ll talk about the letter, but for this thread, let’s not talk about the recent breakup and how awful your job is, or what a big asshole your co-worker is.

Okay?

(Mostly) Open Thread

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Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Hair on Fire, Pants on Fire… And Elsewhere, the Grownups

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This is actually a good summary (of all the stuff we’ve been telling each other over the last week), if you have friends or loved ones who need updating. The Associated Press:

President Joe Biden insists that only “the Lord Almighty” can convince him to quit the presidential race. But should he change his mind, Vice President Kamala Harris is by far the best positioned to replace him.

Harris would have a head start over several of the most discussed Democratic alternatives like California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. She’s already been on a winning presidential ticket with Biden, has years of goodwill banked with core party constituencies and would likely control a huge campaign fund amassed by the Biden reelection…

She’d be Biden’s most natural endorsement
The president easily locked up the Democratic nomination and party rules prevent him from simply transferring the delegates he amassed during next month’s Democratic National Convention. But a number of delegates have already suggested they’d be loyal to Harris…

Challenging Harris as Biden’s alternative is risky
Harris is the first woman to serve as vice president as well as the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent. African Americans are Democrats’ largest and most loyal bloc of supporters.

Bypassing a historic No. 2 for anyone else — even a popular alternative from a key swing state — would already be difficult. Being seen as leading the charge against someone who broke gender and racial barriers could forever mark the challenger as disloyal in future Democratic primaries…

Democrats with national ambitions may not want a rushed campaign
Since Biden’s disastrous debate, Democrats have mentioned a parade of top alternatives who could run in the president’s place. In addition to Whitmer and Newsom, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker have been the subject of rumors. All of them have said they’ll continue to back Biden.

But, in dozens of interviews, Democratic operatives, pollsters and elected officials report that there has not been the kind of furious political jockeying for support for someone other than Harris at the convention that would be necessary if Biden were to step aside. Any such discussions have occurred quietly and preliminarily and would almost certainly be forced out in the open if Biden were to leave the race, making continuing them more difficult…

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On The Road – ema – A Parade, A Wrinkle, And A Few Rooftop Babies

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ema

Apparently, the city has a Dance Parade. What a great idea! I really liked the parade – the costumes, the energy, the many dance styles – and I recommend it, but I do have a few notes. (Clearly, I need to get into parade organizing. The city is missing out on my valuable input.)

 

(all links to YouTube videos)

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On The Road - ema - A Parade, A Wrinkle, And A Few Rooftop Babies 9

First, the parade route was too long. The staging area is on 15th St., between 5th and 6th Ave., then left on 6th Ave. to 8th St., left on 8th St., all the way down to Avenue A and Tompkins Square Park.

That’s a nice, leisurely walk for a regular person. It is not, however, a good parade route for people in elaborate costumes (20s), high heels and platform shoes, dancing their heart out on a humid day.

I would’ve shortened it to run just on 8th St. from maybe B’way to Ave. A.

Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Our Media’s *Particularly* Silly Season

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Before they are issued their expensive diplomas, new journalists should be warned — the ceremony may be treated as secret, if it helps — that ‘Woodward & Bernstein Save Democracy’ is only barely less a highly-colored childish fantasy than ‘Clark Kent Punches Hitler, Wins WWII’. Reporters are not (are not meant to be) highly esteemed Public Celebrities; they are workers as essential, and generally as little respected, as household plumbers or mortuary attendants.

It took both Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen to assemble this masterpiece, so you know it’s *IMPORTANT*:

… Behind the scenes: Axios’ Alex Thompson, the most deeply sourced reporter on the Biden beat, has chronicled, day after day, the number of longtime staff and top Democratic officials who feel deeply angry and misled. These are the president’s fans, many on his payroll…

The media might be Biden’s biggest problem of all. It is a fair conservative critique that many reporters ignored obvious signs of cognitive decline. Yes, there are exceptions: Axios, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal…

The big picture: Ask yourself: What turn of events would keep Democrats, media and voters from watching every public appearance for hints of decline? How could reporters ever trust Biden aides after they tried to shame reporters who dared point out the obvious changes? How do they reassure lawmakers who now see Biden’s age and White House denialism as their problem?

– A top Democrat and Biden backer, asked how the president gets credibility back, said: “Get out of the race.”

– “No one is going to take anything at face value, that’s for sure,” New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker told us…

The bottom line: Nervous Democrats and skeptical reporters will pick apart every answer in every public setting and dig deep into past meetings. It’s called their job. If Biden stays in, it’s his new reality.

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NYC Proof of Life (and Open Thread)

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Auto Draft 107

RedDirtGirl sent in a NYC proof of life photo!

We had a nice gathering this evening. Shown here is Emily B., JAFD, RedDirtGirl, Mr. Bemused Senior and strange visitor. We were also joined by a “complete lurker” who left before we remembered to take the picture. Maybe he will comment someday soon!

Maybe we should ask Betty Cracker to draw a lurker in the photo.  Lurkers represent!

Open thread.

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Monday Night Open Thread

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I have a lot to say but I’m not sure I have the energy to say it. I am fatigued by the bullshit. I am officially at the point I was in 2007 when we had to create the category “I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss the Clinton Campaign” back when they clearly had lost the primary and were trotting out rotating superdelegate options in which she could secure the nomination and NONE OF THOSE FUCKING OPTIONS was viable.

It’s maddening. And what is more maddening is this rush to throw out all sorts of ad hoc solutions. The Democratic party is not a monolith- there are lots of diverse factions that coalesce over the period of a campaign and someone acceptable to most everyone becomes the nominee. And because we are a diverse party with all these factions, we have a system in place. And that system has procedures and rules and smarter people than me have spent a lot of time creating this system just so that all members feel like they got a fair shake by the process, and so we aren’t just making shit up as we go.

It’s one of the reason the Bernie stans in 2016 were so fucking maddening, because many of them had literally never spent a moment in the Democratic party or involved in the process yet were all of a sudden furious that the rules they didn’t live under for years or help to create didn’t all of a sudden favor their guy because of reasons. “It’s rigged” they screamed whenever they met a rule or procedure that didn’t tickle Bernie’s glans, completely unaware that the procedure that was impeding their divine right was implemented decades ago and everyone fucking else had had to abide by it and they do, too.

I really fucking hate being a Democrat.

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