Most fun they've had in four years. https://t.co/KAUkdLU3b1
— Shadow Of The Nerdtree (@agraybee) July 6, 2024
Everyone in the media calling for Biden to step down understands this, they're just pretending not to because they want the chaos that would come with a sudden transition and if it drags out too long they can't plausibly take the credit for pushing him out
— The Angry Internet (@Angry__Internet) July 6, 2024
I am not usually one to offer diagnoses of people I’ve never met, but it does seem like the pundit class of the American media is suffering from severe memory loss. Because they’re doing exactly what they did in the 2016 presidential race…. https://t.co/Grrngz7Iyc
— Rebecca Solnit (@RebeccaSolnit) July 6, 2024
The News Gnus stampede… From the Guardian, “Why is the pundit class so desperate to push Biden out of the race?”:
… They have become a stampeding herd producing an avalanche of stories suggesting Biden is unfit, will lose and should go away, at a point in the campaign in which replacing him would likely be somewhere between extremely difficult and utterly catastrophic. They do this while ignoring something every scholar and critic of journalism knows well and every journalist should. As Nikole Hannah-Jones put it: “As media we consistently proclaim that we are just reporting the news when in fact we are driving it. What we cover, how we cover it, determines often what Americans think is important and how they perceive these issues yet we keep pretending it’s not so.” They are not reporting that he is a loser; they are making him one.
According to one journalist’s tally, the New York Times has run 192 stories on the subject since the debate, including 50 editorials and 142 news stories. The Washington Post, which has also gone for saturation coverage, published a resignation speech they wrote for him. Not to be outdone, the New Yorker’s editor-in-chief declared that Biden not going away “would be an act not only of self-delusion but of national endangerment” and had a staff writer suggest that Democrats should use the never-before-deployed 25th amendment.
Since this would have to be led by Vice-President Kamala Harris, it would be a sort of insider coup. And so it goes with what appears to be a journalistic competition to outdo each other in the aggressiveness of the attacks and the unreality of the proposals. It’s a dogpile and a panic, and there is no one more unable to understand their own emotional life, biases and motives than people who are utterly convinced of their own ironclad rationality and objectivity, AKA most of these pundits…
“Why aren’t we talking about Trump’s fascism?” demands the headline of Jeet Heer’s piece in the Nation, to which the answer might be a piece by the Nation’s own editor-in-chief titled “Biden’s patriotic duty” that proposes his duty is to get lost. Sometimes I wonder if all this coverage is because the media knows how to cover a normal problem like a sub-par candidate; they don’t know how to cover something as abnormal and unprecedented as the end of the republic. So for the most part they don’t…
Although the Biden administration seems to have run extremely well for three and a half years, with a strong cabinet, few scandals and little turnover, a thriving economy and some major legislative accomplishments, the narrative the punditocracy has created suggest we should ignore this record and decide on the basis of the 90-minute debate and reference to newly surfaced swarms of anonymous sources that Biden is incompetent. Quite a lot of them have been running magical-realism fantasy-football scenarios in which it is fun and easy to swap in your favorite substitute candidate. The reality is that it is hard and quite likely to be a terrible mess. Nevertheless, this pretense is supposed to mean that telling a presidential candidate in mid-campaign to get lost is fine…
which is why the dem electeds should calm down and air their grievances to the admin, not the media.
— Fat Tea. (@Fat_DTEA) July 6, 2024
They probably are. No one important appears to be talking to the media, that's why we're getting sources like "person with access to the White House."
— Shadow Of The Nerdtree (@agraybee) July 6, 2024
If anything, that almost proves it won’t happen. Once people realize how much WORK and TIME it will take, they may back out.
Doesn’t make it impossible, but people are picturing some glorious, dramatic, instant transfer of power. And then everyone clapped.
— The Nerd the Size of a Man (@LeftyPuppetMan) July 6, 2024
You don’t destroy hundreds of already operating field offices just bc Beltway insiders have a fantasy that Republicans will treat the next person nicer.
It’s not Biden, folks it’s the D brand against the R propaganda machine.
Fix it or lose. https://t.co/nXHupz9S3x
— Rachel Bitecofer ???????? (@RachelBitecofer) July 6, 2024
The FTFNYT Challenge Open Thread
piratedan
Ishiyama
Meanwhile, Trump will be the one to have a stroke before November. Ha.
eclare
Fuck it I voted for Joe in the primary. People are talking about taking my vote away? I thought that’s what they did. Fuck anyone who tries.
Thor Heyerdahl
Media, you wanna get Joe energized?
Piss him off and he’ll turn his inner Irish up to 11.
“You’ve got all these upper class pundits telling you that your votes for me don’t matter. Get a load of that absolute malarkey!”
Splitting Image
Several people have pointed out since 2022 that when abortion is on the ballot, Democrats win.
Every day the news media spends saturating coverage with talk about Biden dropping out is a day the Democrats can’t get their message out on abortion. Or the fact that the country is effectively at war with Russia and electing Trump means switching sides and betraying Ukraine. Or the fact that Trump is already on trial for stealing classified documents and will certainly steal more if he is given a chance. And a good many other things besides.
There are only 100 days and a bit left in the campaign. If Democrats are able to spend most of these days talking about abortion and women’s rights, they win. Replacing Biden will wipe away weeks of that time, allowing the quislings to dog the replacement candidate with questions about their fitness and air the grievances of supporters of the other candidates who will invariably complain about Democrat elites (sic) clearing the field for the winner.
Eyes on the prize. The Republicans want to fight the election on the issue of Biden’s age because they don’t want to fight it on what Trump will do if he gets back in power. They know they lose if they do that.
SectionH
@piratedan: 👍
mrmoshpotato
Why am I up at this hour reading more of this crap?
Tony Jay
Biden isn’t going anywhere. He already lives at the White House.
This is what concerns the corporate media. Which is satisfying.
Stench won’t willingly stay under house arrest for much longer. The franchised-out hit on Biden isn’t working and in the meantime he’s denied the headline coverage he craves.
The corporate media campaign could end with a whimper, but it’s more likely it’ll be with a frustrated boom.
Also, trolls have oddly designed genitals. Proper Geigeresque freak shows like someone flayed open a purple carrot and jammed it through a picture of an acid burn. They hate it when people mention this in passing even more than they hate being completely ignored and not responded to at all, though both work almost as well as the pastry setting.
After all, Would I Lie?
Jay
@Tony Jay:
you know we love you, right?
Tony Jay
@Jay:
(Sobs) Then why don’t you look me in the eye when we make love anymore?!?
Oopsie, this isn’t the annual Anthony Scalia In Memorium thread, is it? My mistake.
Gretchen
@Tony Jay: I second Jay. We love you.
Gretchen
@Tony Jay: Let’s not get carried away.
Tony Jay
@Gretchen:
My thoughts exactly. This isn’t Buckingham Palace, let’s all maintain some decorum.
Geoduck
It’s a hopeful sign that this Bade person is getting savaged in her replies.
gene108
@piratedan:
If they learned about it from Trump, it’s they may be okay. It might be covered under a president’s new found absolute immunity for official acts.
TBone
This is a fun read. Inspires me to use my imagination today. What should King Brandon the First do with his new powers?
Ideas (more better at link):
More ideas at link, some smartass and some just plain perfect. Also I took the meme right off the top.
crooksandliars.com/2024/07/what-if-king-joe-biden-just-rolled-it
TBone
Uh oh. I’m outside, but even with all the windows shut tight, I can hear hubby yelling at the TV. Gawd I love that man.
lowtechcyclist
I am SO ready to talk about something besides this whole brouhaha about Biden supposedly dropping out.
My wife, who got hit much harder by her case of Covid than I did, just came downstairs, says she feels almost normal for the first time in two weeks.
She also said that before coming down, she’d put away the laundry I’d done for her yesterday. She is NOT a morning person, she’d never do that no matter how good she felt. I used to go to a summer camp where they showed Invasion of the Body Snatchers every summer, and this is feeling awfully familiar – has my wife been replaced by one of the pod people?? ;-)
sab
@lowtechcyclist: I forget: which time zone are you in?
lowtechcyclist
@sab:
Eastern. I’m in southern Maryland.
TBone
@lowtechcyclist: tell her she shouldn’t overdo it, she might get a reverse rebound if she pushes it. Speaking from experience.
TBone
I’m so old I remember him getting arrested on live TV (despite his press pass) during the BLM protests.
Credit where credit is due:
digbysblog.net/2024/07/06/velshi-ftw/
Video at link 🔥
lowtechcyclist
The tricky part about Biden using his new powers is that he really only has the same powers he always did, just that if he uses them in illegal ways, he should be safe from prosecution.
So here’s my thought about what Biden should do: he should steal $170B from the Treasury and send $500 to every man, woman, and child in America. Since the means of his theft would be to order the Secretary of the Treasury to take the money out and distribute the money accordingly, it would be an official act, and he could issue a blanket pardon to everyone who had a hand in carrying out his order.
It wouldn’t be a life-changing event for the recipients, but I’m sure there are many people out there who could use a little help with the groceries and a bill or two. And if it influenced a few people to be more disposed to vote for him, well so much the better.
eversor
Our court jesters aren’t even jesters. They are stuck up morons.
wil
Congress comes back in session tomorrow, so expect a great many more stories, leaks, statements on and off the record from this or that congresscritter.
Notice the Republicans have been deliberately quiet so far.
Thor Heyerdahl
@eversor: hoping you and family are doing as best as possible given your last few months
Thor Heyerdahl
Apropos of nothing of substance:
I made tried apple pie recipes from Gordon Ramsay, Ree Drummond, and Alton Brown. The best was the easiest to make.
TBone
Dr. Tracy A. Pearson (Shero of the Day) tells the pundits and the attention whore pols who need to hear it to STFU (much more eloquently than I just did):
youtu.be/2acbmSjSvvI
Topic of this post 🎯
Mapaghimagsik
Even my troll friends are big on the excitement. First it was “Well, so he did help with student loans, but *I* didn’t get any help.”
Then it was Biden was personally dropping bombs in Gaza
Now its this. Its like there’s a part of his entire desire for attention that has to do with disaster — even when he knows things would be worse with the Orange Disaster. He just needs a disaster to talk about, I guess.
Ohio Mom
@lowtechcyclist: Your wife is doing well. It took me six weeks to get to normal the first time I had Covid. I spent those weeks coughing and napping away the afternoons.
satby
@mrmoshpotato: because it’s still going on and it’s still important we fight back?
You know what’s been lit? Twitter, where these pundits are being read for filth. In the thousands.
TBone
Mood music
m.youtube.com/watch?v=sJq2YsoSHk0
satby
@wil: unlike dumbshits like you, doing their work for them. He’s not quitting. Cry harder.
TBone
@TBone: I hope people will take about 15 minutes to WATCH this woman. Listen up! It’s a good way to gird your loins during the onslaught. Points acquired, target vanquished.
wil
@satby: Well, you don’t know that. Cry harder.
TBone
@wil: sorry about your tiny penis. Lips flapping can’t hide it.
🍄
WereBear
MMMMM, pie. Mixed berry from the look of it. A fave.
So now Trump is trying to run from Project 2025. Bad luck with that, Convicted Felon.
trnc
@Gretchen:
If TJ didn’t get carried away, would we even need him around anymore? :-)
wil
@TBone: Sorry about your tiny penis, son.
Thanks for commenting.
You must be an example of the ‘higher discourse’ some people around here think happens at this site.
LOL
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Geoduck: I didn’t know who she was either, so here’s her twitter bio:
WereBear
@satby: There is a use for Twitter. :)
TBone
Why does a dog lick his own balls? Because he can.
But you, and you know who you are, look silly contorting yourself in such fashion.
What’s the difference between a dick and a bonus check? Someone is always down to blow your bonus.
trnc
@TBone:
Biden should either go big with his new immunity and eliminate some threats, or he should run completely the other way and continue to say “I don’t need immunity because I’m not committing any crimes, and I don’t recognize the court’s power grab from congress.” I know it’s a long shot, but there may be a chance here for citizens to learn things again about how the separation of powers is supposed to work. Bonus of being able to say every time that the only reason TCF needs immunity is because he committed crimes.
WereBear
@trnc: The right wing has been strangling teaching civics in the public schools. People need the lessons.
TBone
@trnc: 👍 a demand for immunity is an admission of guilt on its very face.
lowtechcyclist
@Ohio Mom:
Yeah, my wife’s first time was in December 2022, and it was a lot worse. This time still seriously sucked, but not nearly as badly as the first time. It’s good to see her actually feeling well at last – I got Covid too, but I had just one bad day, and after that I felt fine as long as I didn’t push it.
trnc
@TBone: Yup. It needs to be said over and over, just like the media do when they push anti-dem narratives.
TBone
I dedicate this song to you know who 😆
m.youtube.com/watch?v=M-Jndkyunv8
slightly_peeved
@TBone:
I think he should appoint 10 new Supreme Court Justices on November 9th. Nominating judges is one of his jobs according to the Constitution, and as Roberts said in the decision it’s neither Congress or the Court’s business to gainsay him. I’m sure the new Justices Obama and Obama, among others, would agree if it comes up.
TBone
@slightly_peeved: I like that! Barack and Michelle on the court would explode some RWNJ heads! ✊🤣
Frank Wilhoit
There are a couple of different things going on here. One is that the Press want to be the power behind the scenes. This is not new. Right parties have always been willing to play that game, left parties no. When anyone says something like “DC is wired for Republicans”, that is what they are trying to point to. Here and now, the Press have a particular animus against Biden because he defied them on Afghanistan; they have been trying to tear him down ever since.
But the other thing is that Biden has evidently not been spending the last few years keeping the Party happy; a lot of grudges are coming out of the woodwork. “A lot” may be, from one perspective, a handful; but any is too many. This is deadly and nothing can be done about it.
One of Lichtman’s keys is support within the Party — meaning, not the grassroots, but the Party machine. Biden sailed through uncontested primaries, but all of a sudden it is as if he hadn’t. This is of course profoundly self-indulgent and irresponsible, and it comes from 44 years of heads-in-the-sand. If you minimized Reagan, you must minimize Trump.
We must hope that the rebellion fizzles, and that very quickly, but some damage has been done.
slightly_peeved
@TBone:
If Jack Smith is happy to hand over to someone else on the team put him in there too. Oh – and how’d Hillary feel about a Supreme Court seat?
Seriously, I don’t know how this gets fixed without court packing, given the Sinister Six will probably ignore any Constitutional Amendments that pass. I’m not sure if Biden should campaign on it, but I think he might have to do it regardless.
rikyrah
Maudi63 🌼🌸🪻🌺💐 (@maudi63) posted at 0:40 AM on Sun, Jul 07, 2024:
Everyone one of the people that made side book money 👇off of him can’t be seen as being subjective. He was such a cash cow for so many journalists when he was in office. You can’t tell me some of them aren’t hoping he gets back in office.💵 📕 💵📕 t.co/Tc97XhCPZX
(x.com/maudi63/status/1809824814644723765?t=GuylsDmSGEGdXk9GvXrmjQ&s=03)
prostratedragon
@TBone: I remember Two-ton Baker! He rode in the Bud Billiken parade at least one year.
satby
@WereBear: and the pushback is slowly working:
TBone
@prostratedragon: 💜
raven
@prostratedragon: Laugh your troubles away!
sdhays
@lowtechcyclist: I’ve been rolling my eyes about all the “suggestions” people have been giving to Biden regarding his new “immunity”, but this is pretty good. Supposedly, some people actually voted for Trump in 2020 just because the COVID checks had his stupid name on them.
satby
And another, with over 2k retweets
John Pavlovitz @johnpavlovitz
13h
Joe Biden needs a lozenge. Donald Trump needs an exorcism. Next
Eyeroller
@Frank Wilhoit: Probably a dead thread but anyway, as far as I can tell, there are two groups of backstabbers. In the House and with former House members, the largest seems to be backbenchers in what the Brits might call marginal constituencies who imagine this will make them more popular in their districts. (Golden, though, apparently worked for Susan Collins so I don’t think that guy would be a loyal Democrat under any circumstances.) Some are the same clowns who came after Nancy Pelosi because she was too liberal and might hurt them in their districts.
The other group that seems to be smaller is “progressives.” I don’t know exactly what they’re after but I suspect them of being Bernie or Bust types. Doggett apparently explicitly said he wouldn’t accept Harris either.
In the Senate I’ve only heard about Warner, and I can tell you that Warner is completely spineless and leans Republican-lite.
sdhays
I posted this last night, but I think it’s important for people to know:
Contrary to Tony Jay’s predictions, the Orange Turd may stay low for a bit longer.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby:
This is my surprised face.
satby
@sdhays: the knives out media would have endless stories about old Biden trying to bribe voters.
This joint really has gone way too far into fanfic. Michelle Obama, who has said for years she’s not interested in a political office, as a Supreme Court judge? As if she’d agree to that.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby:
My version of immunity president fanfic would be an all-expenses-paid extended vacation for the Extreme 6 at Gitmo. Sadly, not gonna happen.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
The NYT apparently isn’t wasting any time going after the person they are demanding Biden be replaced with. And they don’t care who that is.
“Who even the Democrat nominee is, America has already lost”
I think it’s pretty clear the MSM has lot their shit.
kalakal
@Frank Wilhoit:
Stanley Baldwin* had it right when he took on the press of his day
*The line was given to him by his cousin, R. Kipling
satby
@O. Felix Culpa: Schuster used to be on MSNBC, no idea why he left. But he gets it:
David Shuster@DavidShuster
10h
I am not sure if President Biden is weaker or stronger than other dems against Trump. But I do know that Biden telling the media and nervous democrats to f*ck off has a certain pluckiness that is quite appealing. Americans love it when people knocked down get back up…and win.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Here is my theory, the MSM knows they enabled Trump to get this country to this point, and they are terrified their audience will realize it.
Layer8Problem
@satby: My first impulse normally would be to respond with a clever comment about how Michelle shouldn’t have a problem, the Supreme Court isn’t political, not a bit of it, just ask them, but either the coffee hasn’t kicked in or I’m just becoming too pissed off at the intellectual/political post-apocalyptic Australian Outback hellscape metaphor we’re living in.
Eyeroller
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: The NYT never had it to begin with. They want to exert their power and get another Democratic scalp. I know a lot of us have cancelled subscriptions (I have, finally) but they would need to lose many thousands to start to get a message. “Feedback” will not work, they ignore it.
I have been looking at Ragnarok Lobster on Nitter (I still do not want to get an X account) and from some retweets, it seems Josh Marshall is still on the “Biden will have to step down” train. Just who is going to force that? Abigail Disney? Only Biden and Harris have that power and they’ve both pretty forcefully said no.
But if “America has already lost” it’s because of a totally bogus crusade ginned up by CNN and the NYT so pretty clearly the press is anti-American.
Layer8Problem
@kalakal: Damn, that’s a good one.
Eyeroller
@satby: Absolutely. People respond to strength and disdain weakness. Biden stepping down would absolutely be seen as weakness.
Tony Jay
@sdhays:
You may have a point.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby:
I certainly applaud Joe for telling them to fuck off and hope he continues doing it. Can’t wait to see the ratfuckers’ faces when we win in November.
kalakal
@satby:
I like this. “Joe, fighting for you. And he won’t let the New York Times stop him” sort of messaging. The FTFNYT exemplifies ‘the elites’, they’re actually an easy target for popular revulsion. And it’s not as if their closest allies, the WSJ, are the voice of the lumpen proletariat
sdhays
@Tony Jay: This is chef’s kiss:
O. Felix Culpa
@kalakal:
ROTFL
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Yes, but they are outright trying to get the Scalp of Generic Democrat now. That pretty much undercuts their effort to get Biden to resign since they are making it impossible to replace him.
Another Scott
@satby: Speaking of which…
Keep an eye on the woman in the orange shirt and blue shorts (5:08)
Cheers,
Scott.
snoey
@Eyeroller: As I read him, Josh Marshall is being descriptive not perscriptive on Biden stepping down. He’s not saying it’s a good idea, just that his informed guess is that it’s likely to happen.
sdhays
@Another Scott: Wow.
Tony Jay
@sdhays:
“It’s the little touches that give me the greatest pleasure.”
“Goddam it, Mister President!”
satby
@Eyeroller: I follow both of them, and I don’t think Marshall is in the “Biden step down” camp as much as he’s trying to analyze the outcomes either way.
And like it or not, the biggest megaphone is still Twitter, and so many of our side walking off the field after the first down (Elon buying it) has let the other side gain ground without hearing much push back. They’re hearing it now, in the 10s of thousands. And though some say it’s an imaginary statistic, it’s a real one used in business decisions all the time: approximately 10 people feel the same way as the one person Customer Service gets the angry letter from.
Eyeroller
@satby: Stating that it’s inevitable is read as support. I like Josh and have read him off and on for 15 or more years (never gave him any money, probably should have) but he’s one of us eggheads with bad political instincts.
I know people have memory-holed this, but Obama had a very tough re-election campaign in 2012. Josh was one of the worst Nervous Nellies. Made me feel much more anxious to read him.
Eyeroller
@snoey: Again, how would it happen if Biden and Harris reject it? Who can force them out? Despite the talk about wealthy donors, we have far fewer of them and they have much less influence in the Democratic party than in the Republican party.
O. Felix Culpa
@Another Scott: That’s an impressive comeback. Grit and determination. Joe has it, and it’s up to us [writ large] to back him up.
trnc
Agreed. It reads to me more like “If Biden is going to drop out, it would be better for him to resign so that Kamala can run as the incumbent.” Which is also my take, although I probably felt more proactive about it for a few days.
Eyeroller
@satby: As to Twitter/X/Whatever, I’ve never been on social media other than blogs and, going back to ancient history, Usenet. I joined Reddit for one particular sub and rarely stray from that. Never joined Facebook. Never had a Twitter account. But those who do seem to be putting up a good fight.
sdhays
@satby: Sure, but I’m not sure most voters would be offended by thought of Biden trying to bribe them.
Just to be clear, my position is that the Supremacist Court’s immunity decision clearly applies only to Republicans since the gaps in their “partial presumption of immunity” is whatever they say it is, just like the rest of the law nowadays.
Biden isn’t a king, no matter how much the Supremacist Court claims he is.
ETA: And he doesn’t want to destroy the rule of law like the court is pleased to do, so he can’t abuse power to make a mockery of their decisions. It’s the constraint we operate under as the good guys.
Eyeroller
@trnc: As many have pointed out, under those circumstances her choice of a Vice President would have to be approved by both houses of Congress. How would that work out? Would we be ready for Vice President Mike Johnson?
By far the best option, really the only one, is to stand and fight. Running against the “elite media” could actually be good. And going around them to get the word out about Project 2025 and the Epstein Files.
Scout211
Wiki:
Elizabelle
@kalakal: @satby:
proud of satby and others for pushing back against the FTF NYTimes’ political assassination attempt.
Putz Repulseberger isn’t afraid Biden will lose. He’s actually afraid Biden will win, and do something long overdue about the rentier class,
MinuteMan
Expecting objectivity from the press is like expecting justice from the Supreme Court: naive, at best.
O. Felix Culpa
@Elizabelle:
Perfect description of what they’re doing. 192 “Biden must go” articles in one week. Shameless.
Eyeroller
@Elizabelle: And now (again via eclecticbrotha, whom I always misremember as electricbrotha) there is a report that DHS withheld a report on a Russian scheme to push disinformation about Biden’s mental health.
This needs to be pushed hard now. I don’t know whether our new troll is part of this effort. Could be?
Elizabelle
@Eyeroller: why would DHS do that? But yes, that may be what’s going on and what the Quisling NY Times and others have seized upon.
trnc
Biden is obviously only going to resign if there is some other disastrous public appearance and/or significant decline in the next month, so the inherent subtext is that we’re better off with President Harris with no VP for a few months than for Biden to remain in office. That obviously risks the speaker becoming president if something happens to Kamala, but there’s no universe in which she nominates a republican for VP.
Tom Hamill
Long time reader here, thinking of quitting this blog. The groupthink here distresses me.
I saw Joe Biden look like a deer in the headlights in that debate. I changed my mind and no longer think he has what it takes for the next four years; the nature of his difficulties is that they tend to get worse, not be stable or get better. A lot of Americans apparently share this viewpoint, and that’s not because the NY Times says so but because we saw it with our own eyes. When doing something more than read from a teleprompter, he couldn’t do it. And this against one of the most easy targets in the history of American politics.
On this blog, we share a general belief that the D party offers better solutions to our problems than R’s. But please, don’t assume that because someone differs in opinion on this subject, we’re in thrall to nefarious forces.
Elizabelle
@Eyeroller: Now I’m thinking DHS should release that report and point out how easily propaganda works. Blow it up in Sulzberger and Nuzzi’s villager faces.
If the DHS report exists at all. It may be a rumor or untruth, too.
Elizabelle
@Tom Hamill: Did you watch the whole debate Tom? Have you seen previous interviews this year? Have you ever been out of it with a terrible cold, and had to show for a debate? Have you paid any attention to President Biden’s accomplishments these three years? Do you think just anyone could get that legislation through a hostile Senate?
Do you think that Trump is stronger than in 2020?
If you need to leave this blog, so it goes.
Another Scott
@Elizabelle:
DHS.gov – Homeland Security Advisory Council Disinformation Subcommittee Final Report (from 8/2022)
I haven’t read the links myself.
HTH!
Cheers,
Scott.
slightly_peeved
@satby:
I wouldn’t expect either of them to take it, to be honest (maybe Barack?) it’s just hilarious imagining how the Republicans would react.
mrmoshpotato
@satby:
I was more scolding myself. :)
That’s actually very good to hear. Any and all pundits who think Biden should drop out deserve every that’s coming at them on Twitter.
slightly_peeved
@Tom Hamill:
He’s done this repeatedly since, including the very night the debate happened, so the idea this is part of some ongoing decline isn’t supported.
Sounds like Lawyers, Guns and Money may be more your speed if you’re unhappy with the discourse here.
Elizabelle
@Another Scott: Thank you!! You always come through.
Gloria DryGarden
@Eyeroller: the Epstein files? Is something coming out about them? An interesting list of names, and data? Aware of proj 2025…
Tom Hamill
@Elizabelle:
Not buying it. He stumbled through the Stephanopoulos interview; reports are he’s forgetting names.
When you are president and head of the party, you tend to co-opt potential aspirants. Dean Phillips wasn’t a serious aspirant. Pete Buttigieg or Kamala or Gretchen Whitmer or Josh Shapiro or Gavin Newsom would have been. We never saw, during the primary process, a debate against a serious rival that would have facilitated us grasping the extent of his mental decline. Now we’re past the primary, in this horrible situation. We need to seriously look at the facts, and quickly, not stick our heads in the sand. To do so is to gift Trump the presidency.
piratedan
@Tom Hamill: it’s a free country (for now).
Peeps around here have noted that post debate, Biden has done interviews on both Radio and TV, made multiple rally appearances, some scripted, some not. None of the issues that you cite appear to be in evidence other than his already accounted for stutter. He’s had meetings with Democratic Governors, who do not dwell within the Beltway, not much of a complaint from them.
perhaps the groupthink you cite is more in line with the constant output from CNN and the NYT that refuses to acknowledge that reality and instead are busy crafting and adhering to their own.
scav
Elizabelle: I’d personally jump to a solid chorus of So Long! Farewell! auf Wiedersehen, Good-bye! Somehow increasingly the combo of long term reader / lurker, Good-bye cruel world threats combined with assertions of speaking for all real normal Democrats is smelling of canned fish. Granted, there are a few people who may legitimately think and talk like stale tinned tuna, but ah! well. There are indeed other virtual fishbowls with other welcome mats. Sometimes, Usually in fact, to get anything actually fucking done in a group or singular endeavor, you have to decide on a direction and get on with it and move past catering to each and every bespoke opinion/option and continuously whitter after single past circumstances. Events are already marching past. He’s said he’s not going, there’s a limited window and it’s not a one magic trick option in any case. Fine, move on. They’ll be another spinning plate incoming soon.
Layer8Problem
@Tom Hamill: I understand that “many people are saying . . . ” this.
trnc
@Tom Hamill:
We have until the convention to see how it goes, and that’s a month away. If he has any more really bad appearances before that, I’m 100% for him resigning so that Kamala can be the incumbent candidate.
I didn’t love some of the hesitation I saw in the ABC interview and I REALLY don’t like shifting excuses, but I’m not sure we’ve hit the tipping point that makes Kamala decidedly more electable so I’m curious to see how the next couple of weeks go.
Yutsano
@scav:
Nominated!
Kristine
@Thor Heyerdahl: Oh, I like the idea of caramelizing the apples first. Ramsey for the win.
I recall the Food Network episode in which Brown made that pie. It struck me as more of a “looks” pie than a “flavor” pie. But I still ordered grains of paradise just to see what they were about. My verdict (which is worth exactly what you paid for it)? Overrated.
wjca
Come on guys, get it right! We’re talking about Court UNpacking here.
Bill Arnold
@Elizabelle:
Another way to look at it is that the press worries about revenge, even it just manifests as organized harassment[1], including legal harassment, and not something worse, potentially much worse in an authoritarian state. In other words, they are cowards. Practical cowards, but cowards nonetheless.
Cross convicted felon Donald J. Trump, and expect revenge, especially if he wins. There are 3+ decades of history backing this. Also, it is included in his campaign rhetoric.
Cross Joe Biden and/or any other Democrat, and expect no revenge, even if they win.
[1] “flak” in Manufacturing Consent,, Herman/Chomsky
Bill Arnold
@Eyeroller:
Something like that happened with the DHS, but in 2020.
ABC News: DHS withheld intelligence bulletin warning about Russian misinformation attack on Biden’s mental health (Chandelis Duster and Geneva Sands, CNN, September 2, 2020)
Russian outward-focused propagandists generally work with available fault lines in target countries, so one would expect that they are working the same one in 2020
Elizabelle
@wjca: Make that Imperial Court actually fair and balanced.
Bill Arnold
@Tom Hamill:
I listened to the George Stephanopoulos interview, and my characterization of it is wildly different from yours.
Consider a scene where Biden had had a combat shotgun in his lap and had started fondling the trigger the third time the same question was asked, and then threatened (official duty) death to GS and an instant self-pardon at the fifth time he asked the same fucking question.
That would capture my attitude towards Mr. GS and the people in his circles.
The only redeeming part of GS’s interrogation was the mention at the end, which most people did not see, that Donald Trump did not accept an offer to be
interrogated“interviewed”. Until such an interrogation of convicted felon Donald J. Trump happens, they are less than dirt to me.But I have not forgiven GS for letting Roger Stone slide from mistake he made in an interview with GS in 2017. That could have blown up big.
Skippy-san
@Elizabelle: I think there is merit in saying Trump is stronger than in 2020. For one thing, there is no backdrop of COVID that everyday people could see and have to deal with. Trump should be weaker because of his criminality, but it’s not having any effect. People are not paying attention.
And his fascism? Trumpers want in on that action. And a lot of Americans just refuse to accept it.
It would have been better for the country if Trump had been dispatched from his mortal coil in October of 2020 due to COVID. He didn’t and here we are.
emjayay
@lowtechcyclist: COVID is known to have long term effects on the brain, but not usually good ones.
LanceThruster
“Confidence — it’s the food of the wise man, but the liquor of the fool.” – Vikram, The Office
VOR
As I keep saying, the Media has a bias for Trump. Management likes him because he drives lots of ad spending and lots of clicks on their websites. Money and the promise of tax cuts.
The White House Press Corps like Trump because he makes their job easy. There is a new atrocity, I mean story, every day. And the place leaks like a sieve with all the backstabbing so the story comes right to the press, no need to work for them. Everything is personality-driven so no need to learn anything about policy.
In contrast, the Biden administration is competent, which is boring. The administration doesn’t have major scandals.