I honestly don't know whether Biden should stay in or drop out, but the one thing I DO know is that Democrats will start panicking and wetting the bed at the first hint of adversity. That train is never late.
I have been trying to avoid the Biden drops out/Biden stays in furor, because nobody knows what the best path is right now, every choice is fraught, so I’m staying in the political equivalent of the fetal position until the situation breaks in one direction or the other.
But I will note that Roy’s image at the top of the post is one of the purest examples of generic clickbait I’ve ever seen: “It’s Happening Again!…Here’s What Happened (Click Here!)” should be framed and put in the Smithsonian when they create their The Age Of The Internet museum.
In a sane world, he’d put the issue to bed by having a gerontology work up and releasing it. You know, transparency.
But we’re in insane times with ever growing insanity, led by a leadership caste that’s far beyond normal greed and is, as a group, insane, maybe worse.
As we’re seeing, maybe correctly, the masses don’t give a shit about this. If one’s not a political junky, it’s Dems and the media going crazy about a really old guy being old.
So a reasonably clean bill of health might stanch the hysteria
Me, if I was Biden, I’d use some of that fine new immunity from SCOTGOP and have Sulzberger and Kahn whacked
You mean the fake gerontology report put out by the nefarious Dems to trick the True Patriotic American People? Because that's how it would be reported in the wingnut media.
Too, his age without the hysteria would normally make it an issue, no?
OTOH, Reagan proved that a POTUS doesn't actually need a functioning intellect. Trump likewise but differently. Of course, different rules and standards for Ds...
Good point. The story of Mr. Smithson's fortune is pretty wild.
In 1836 President Jackson sent Richard Rush, former Treasury Secretary, to England as Commissioner to proceed in Chancery Court to secure the funds. In 1838 he was successful and returned, accompanied by 104,960 gold sovereigns (in eleven crates) and Smithson's personal items, scientific notes, minerals, and library.[23][24] The gold was transferred to the treasury in Philadelphia and was reminted into $508,318.46.
And that was one big chunk of change. I can't find the reference, but part of the story involved a real estate deal funded by "The Little Rock Land Bank". Yeah, MY Little Rock. Smithson had no part in the fraud (and boy howdy it was a fraud), but he benefited from it in a large manner.
I’m so old, I remember when Hugh Carey, NY governor/drinker of certified carcinogens a/k/a water direct from the Hudson/Fred Trump tool shut down state mental hospitals. Saw some of the evicted marching down Second Avenue after eviction from Manhattan Psychiatric.
I’m so old that I remember when sick fucks like the hardcore here target audience were locked away in state institutions. Nowadays they influence public policy in a way truly decent people* cannot. (*Thats the rule; as such of course there are exceptions.)
Meanwhile, I’ve been thinking (or whatever) that since Sodom and Gomorrah was a proven failure, no god is interested in doing the world a solid albeit maybe an undeserved one and smiting all Republicans.
About once every three or four months I wake up and think "how?" You know when you are first coming out of sleep, your defenses are down, and something will just hit you in a raw way? I think "how is it possible this guy is running again as the GOP nominee, and how is it REMOTELY possible he is leading in the polls?" We live in demented times.
Oh no . . . if you have painful feet Crocs are great. I don't know if they still make them, but I have two pair of very cute Croc thong sandals with sparkly accents that I can actually walk in. The thick, cushy soles with a molded arch hit the balance between resilient and firm. Not for hiking of course but very comfortable for a short errand or a visit to a museum.
Crocs get a bad rap because there are so many cheap and uncomfortable imitations, and because the clogs are ubiquitous. I have a couple pairs of sandals from the Brooklyn collection which I wear constantly.
We still love you Steve. Reasonable people can disagree! The country is divided enough, if we fall out amongst ourselves over shoes and pie filling, it will be bad news for Joe Biden.
From the ads I got the one time I followed a hardcore link from Roy, She shouldn't have a problem getting what she's waiting for -
It popped in in my head the other day that substack was " Only Fans " for aspiring authors. That made me laugh at first and then I started to feel bad.
It is, indeed, shocking that an elderly man with spinal stenosis would have a stiff gait. It is only through my ties to the Deep Medical State (and the fact that I also have spinal stenosis) that I can reveal this little-known medical mystery!
It is also stunning that Joe Biden, a man with a lifelong stutter, should suddenly start stuttering. I mean, it's not like he's had a lifelong stutter all his life, you know?
But I guess the only way for Biden to prove he's fit for the office is for him to give an hour-long speech about sharks and batteries and electric boats.
I love to mess with Mrs. LP about that movie. She didn't eat for four days - for reals. It really got to her. The slurp, just the slurp, results in blows around my person. Damn. Good. Movie. I think what scares her is I am only three steps away.... Was I cheering for Hannibal? Oh hell yeah. We sociopaths have to stick together. Tee hee, when she's watching Monk, "You know Stottlemeyer was Buffalo Bill, right?" Then I duck
The hardcore grifters aren’t on the same page as Republican strategists. The hardcore grifters just want the rubes’ money and don’t care if the damage they do should somehow force Biden out of the race. Meanwhile, Republican strategists and politicians *definitely* want to run against Biden. They’re already using debate clips in commercials against Democratic candidates in swing states.
And all of us here are going to vote anyway, and for some of us our vote won’t matter (per usual), and in any event we have no way to affect what’s going on or make the madness stop. What a time to be alive!
Well, kinda. Like if you’re in Pennsylvania with a close senate race, they tie the presidential candidate to the senate candidate, with the intent of motivating their own voters and depressing Democratic turnout among more marginal voters.
I did see a YouTube ad against Baldwin, "Career politician for 40 years" combined with the most unattractive photos of Baldwin that google image search could find. In grainy black and white, of course - she's so OLD they didn't have color back then!
Also stuff's really expensive, hear California banker Eric Hovde's 5-point plan to bring down the price of eggs! (I kid, nobody - not even their own voters - expects these fuckers to have a plan for anything except the further immiseration of the poor.)
Who’d a thought a political party could be viable by offering only to hurt all the people you hate—and literally nothing else. Also, I demand Hovde be stripped of his Nordic name and reassigned something like “Limbaugh.”
A plan to totally eliminate income taxes and replace them with tariffs would accomplish both. But we just have him saying that once in a private meeting with rich people, so it's like it never happened.
This kerfluffle seems an interesting tactical response to the fact that Biden-Harris's ground game is universes more organized than their opponents, that they've raised so much more money from the public, & that they're all around ready to play these last couple months the right way. The GOP has nothing but big donors, as they melted down the RNC for legal fee money.
I'm just glad the NYT & WaPo are so eager to carry the fascist's water & march to Trump's tune. Imagine if we didn't have a "liberal press"?
A fact hardly mentioned is that there are probably 70 million Americans who'd crawl through the trenches of Verdun, 1916 to keep Trump out of the White House. No, it's not the 80 million Biden needs, but it's damn close and it's solid. Let's go get the other 10.
These Hardcore dopes got nothin' on Politico, which headlined "Poll: Biden hurt by debate" when the poll in question has Trump ahead 42-41. I want to beat these fuckers over the head with a copy of Sullivan, Basic Statistics, 5th ed.
I get all my political Hardcore from the NYT, WaPo and Good Morning America (no comma after America 'cause semi-illiteracy is a thing now). After many years of reading I.F. Stone, I've learned to look behind the headlines and here's some thoughts: 1) Biden looked bad at the debate. If it was because he suffers from a long-term health/neurological issue, it has to have been going on a while and he shouldn't have been an effective president. But he was, with several successes in pushing through policies. Could it be the policies his critics don't like? Support of unions - what could Bezos and Murdoch dislike about that? Pwning Big Pharma and Big Hydocarbons - any Dem politicians who will miss those drug and oil dollars? 2) NYT analyzed some recent polls. In Wisconsin, Biden is behind by 4 points and Tammy Baldwin is ahead of California Banker Dude by 5. Do Dems vote next November for Baldwin and skip voting for president or choose Trump or RFKjr? Seems unlikely. So the current polls suggest some Dems don't like Biden. Is it his policies? Methinks not, it's his age. And what has been the big media attack on him? Hmmm... But come November, will that 4 point group vote Biden, I think so. 3) The absence of any mention of Trump's 2 week vanishing act, deranged rally comments, Epstein trips, pending sentencing, review of the January 6th evidence by Chutkan in open court to comply with the Supreme Court's immunity ruling - is it because there's too much other news to report? There are heat domes, hurricanes and floods to occupy the news space, it's true, but oddly no mention then of climate change. No, it seems more likely that the horse race would turn into a Dem landslide if the media displayed Trump in all his glory, and horse race is the default approach to elections that captures eyeballs and ad bucks. (No wonder the NYT editor said it isn't their job to point out one party is anti-democracy - that would be partisan.)
I can only hope that Dem politicians stop feeding the horse race with sound bites and turn to answering every question with some version of "I'm concerned about women dying" or "I'm waiting to see how many years Trump has to spend in prison," then go on to cite a favorite part of Project 2024. The election has to be about Trump, Republican fascism and Biden's successful policies. The media will only focus on that if no one feeds the current "Biden old, Dems in disarray, don't vote!" frenzy except David Brooks and whatever pseudoconservative choads the legacy press pays to bloviate.
Do the Democrats have an actual base, imperturbable and steady, ready to turn out for the D no matter what happens? Why of course not, this goes against all my well-worn metaphors involving the herding of cats and circular firing squads. And let's not forget "Dems fall in love, Republicans fall in line" too! No, the evidence is clear. Only Republicans demonstrate ironclad party loyalty. Democrats are all daring freethinkers, every last one.
The thing that still gets me is that after years of these bullshit clickbate (yes, you read that right) fables, the MAGAts still hunger for more.
It's exactly like the not only Evangelicals' hunger for the Apocalypse, and credulity when their favorite shaman tells 'em it's gonna happen on a date certain, and it doesn't...and they still send money.
I know I saw the mercifully late Pat Robertson calling time at least 4-5 times.
The non event didn't hurt his bottom line the least..
Anyone else remember when the world ended 21/12/2021?
Regarding FDR, I found it very telling that in an interview with Fucker Carlson in what presumably was his office, he had a framed newspaper article. The headline: ROOSEVELT DEAD.
Oh yeah. Class traitor. A scion of the Swanson fortune would think that way.
"Gozer the Traveler wil come in one of the pre-chosen forms. Durring the rectification of the Vuldrenaii, the Traveler came as a very large and moving Torb. Then of coarse in the third reconciliation of the last of the Meketrix Supplicants, they chose a new form for him, that of a gaint Slor! Many Shrubs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the he-depths of the Slor that day I can tell you."
that covers what he's found out about the debate bumfeezle - Biden exhausted himself on his trip to Europe, they went through with the debate because it'd look bad if they rescheduled, he started out bad but forced himself to improve as it went on, he was fine after getting rest, and the fucking media KNEW all this and decided to run with it because "news". And Biden has trouble walking sometimes because he has neuropathy in his feet.
Jared Yates Sexton was having a convo yesterday with Danielle Moodie of the WokeAF Daily podcast and said (roughly) the following, which I agree with: the media is covering this election not in a serious way, but as celebrity gossip. Totally frivolous. I mean, look at CNN's debate opening, where they had fucking MUSIC and announced it like it was a goddamn sportsball game. It's even less serious to them than ragebait is to the Hardcore crowd. Just a fucking grift for profits.
Gott in Himmel! They're talking about putting Hillary in.
NO.NO.NO.NO.NO.NO. Look, she's sharp as a tack. I think she would make a really good President. BUT. I've known this woman since 1978. She has the political instincts of a turnip. Total tin ear. She tried to do healthcare with the Arkansas Lege, and pissed them off royally. Now, I get why she's polling well, because people are antsy (though Joe did great at the NATO summit). But she is the kiss of political death. No. If Joe should step down, Kamala is the answer. She's on the ballot, no reprints required. She drives the right absolutely insane - I saw where Sebastian Gorka called her "colored". Colored? Really? At my local theater as a kid, upstairs there was a sign. "Colored Balcony". I stuck my head in there to see what color it was. Made my mom cry - what did I do wrong? Colored? Seriously.
My best friend pointed something out to me a few years back. You know how there is a missing four feet on the left side of the theater? I had noticed that, of course, we're both autistic as fuck, you don't miss things like that. That was where the colored stairs were. Blinding light revelation. The theater owner integrated in the early 1960's, and my appreciation of Jack Lowrey went up 1000%. That was ballsy. Jack was flamboyantly gay even then, so I get where he was coming from. Respect.
But Kamala will make the right lose their shit. Oh, you thought Obama drove 'em nuts, well-ell Jerry. Now to be clear, I'm ridin' with Biden. But dear God, don't let Hillary anywhere near the nomination. She can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory like no one else. She ain't a politician. No sin in that, it takes a particular kind of weirdo to be one. But for all that's holy, PLEASE don't do that.
I honestly don't know whether Biden should stay in or drop out, but the one thing I DO know is that Democrats will start panicking and wetting the bed at the first hint of adversity. That train is never late.
Who would have thought that AOC would be the one tower of strength standing up for Biden?
What worries me is John Fetterman is also strongly backing Biden. That means the knife between the shoulder blades could come any day now.
He's easy to predict if you just follow the universal principle of What Gets Attention for John Fetterman
Not surprising to me. She's a serious person who understands the stakes. (Compare and contrast with any shallow careerist Dem you can think of.)
"So you're telling me yes. How about no?"
I have it on good authority from a serving Supreme Court Justice that "no" means "yes." Don't ask me what "yes" means.
"Yes" means the bribe was substantial enough.
The bribe was big enough, and also anal.
This is great.
So stealing this, with attribution and link
I have been trying to avoid the Biden drops out/Biden stays in furor, because nobody knows what the best path is right now, every choice is fraught, so I’m staying in the political equivalent of the fetal position until the situation breaks in one direction or the other.
But I will note that Roy’s image at the top of the post is one of the purest examples of generic clickbait I’ve ever seen: “It’s Happening Again!…Here’s What Happened (Click Here!)” should be framed and put in the Smithsonian when they create their The Age Of The Internet museum.
In a sane world, he’d put the issue to bed by having a gerontology work up and releasing it. You know, transparency.
But we’re in insane times with ever growing insanity, led by a leadership caste that’s far beyond normal greed and is, as a group, insane, maybe worse.
So, what you're saying is, there should be an invitation-only society for fading geniuses called DeMensia.
Maybe, but OOF.
As we’re seeing, maybe correctly, the masses don’t give a shit about this. If one’s not a political junky, it’s Dems and the media going crazy about a really old guy being old.
So a reasonably clean bill of health might stanch the hysteria
Me, if I was Biden, I’d use some of that fine new immunity from SCOTGOP and have Sulzberger and Kahn whacked
Re your latter point: at least Sulzberger and Kahn would be dead. And Biden's going to be jailed by Trump anyway so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
He's Biden his crime...
I see what you did there. In 2020 I thought of, but did nothing about, this pro-Biden slogan:
I'm BIDEN: My time!
All this talk about the Soccer Moms and Office Park Dads, but when do Fans of 30's Musicals get the attention they deserve and crave? Never.
Really! Who doesn't want to meet those dancing feet?
If only I lived on 42nd St.
Clearly you have to Meet them in St. Louis
Like the long-form birth certificate silenced critics of Obama?
Amazing how everyone forgets that Donald and Melania Trumpov being birthers started them on the March To The White House.
You mean the fake gerontology report put out by the nefarious Dems to trick the True Patriotic American People? Because that's how it would be reported in the wingnut media.
You mean wingnut media like the NYT and CNN? Yeah, I thought that's what you meant. Because you'd be right.
"Questions Remain" Oh boy, do Questions Remain.
Couldn't hurt.
Of course, the mainstream news media tsunami of sewage is, if not large, influential so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You really think that would stop all of those that don't want Biden to win? I don't
Couldn't hurt.
Too, his age without the hysteria would normally make it an issue, no?
OTOH, Reagan proved that a POTUS doesn't actually need a functioning intellect. Trump likewise but differently. Of course, different rules and standards for Ds...
"staying in the political equivalent of the fetal position"
Oh, that's perfect. Consider it stolen.
And since I lack all conviction, I'm going to officially declare myself one of "the best."
Bwahahahaha. LIke they'll still be a Smithsonian after the coming Dark Age. You just tickle me to death. P'shaw.
They'll probably demolish it. They'll need that space -- a large, flat area in DC -- to build their amphitheater for the public executions.
It'll be useful for their Nuremberg rallies.
Smithsonian Memorial Colosseum.
Tonight: Messicans v Lions, with halftime show by the J6 choir.
Slight edit: Trump Memorial Colosseum.
Because he makes his money by getting you to pay him to put his name on your stuff.
Good point. The story of Mr. Smithson's fortune is pretty wild.
In 1836 President Jackson sent Richard Rush, former Treasury Secretary, to England as Commissioner to proceed in Chancery Court to secure the funds. In 1838 he was successful and returned, accompanied by 104,960 gold sovereigns (in eleven crates) and Smithson's personal items, scientific notes, minerals, and library.[23][24] The gold was transferred to the treasury in Philadelphia and was reminted into $508,318.46.
And that was one big chunk of change. I can't find the reference, but part of the story involved a real estate deal funded by "The Little Rock Land Bank". Yeah, MY Little Rock. Smithson had no part in the fraud (and boy howdy it was a fraud), but he benefited from it in a large manner.
And then not paying the laborers.
It reminds me of "The Nothing To Report Report" from the Boonta Vista podcast.
(singing) "What happened?
"Nothing!
*wolf howl*
"So you should just mind your fucking business"
Meanwhile the other pic reminds me of Criswell's intro to Plan Nine From Outer Space.
"Im Westen Nichts Neues"
I’m so old, I remember when Hugh Carey, NY governor/drinker of certified carcinogens a/k/a water direct from the Hudson/Fred Trump tool shut down state mental hospitals. Saw some of the evicted marching down Second Avenue after eviction from Manhattan Psychiatric.
I’m so old that I remember when sick fucks like the hardcore here target audience were locked away in state institutions. Nowadays they influence public policy in a way truly decent people* cannot. (*Thats the rule; as such of course there are exceptions.)
Meanwhile, I’ve been thinking (or whatever) that since Sodom and Gomorrah was a proven failure, no god is interested in doing the world a solid albeit maybe an undeserved one and smiting all Republicans.
Gott ist todt, as proven by Trump's continued presence in public life.
Put like that, the whole world is Sodom and Gomorrah.
You say that like it's a BAD thing.
"Gott ist todt". And I didn't even know he was sick!
Alternatively, thanks for Mr. Brooks, "Never mind that shit, here comes Mongo!"
About once every three or four months I wake up and think "how?" You know when you are first coming out of sleep, your defenses are down, and something will just hit you in a raw way? I think "how is it possible this guy is running again as the GOP nominee, and how is it REMOTELY possible he is leading in the polls?" We live in demented times.
Demented times call for a demented leader. Who can we turn to in these demented times? One man has the answer;
"Do I jump over by the shark, or do I get electrocuted? I'll take electrocution every time, lemme tell you!"
If only we could assist him in realizing his dream!
Instead we have a legal system that's the equivalent of a tank of ill-tempered sea bass. Let the nibbling commence!
I remember Carey declaring he would drink "a glass of PCBs" to prove they were safe but can't find a record online.
It’s been memory-holed or whatever it’s called??
But it happened.
Didn’t you get a look at Ricard’s shoes?
I demand rigorous analysis!
When I saw "rubber shoes" I thought they were going to claim Biden was wearing Crocs, and yeah, if that was true of course he should drop out.
Oh no . . . if you have painful feet Crocs are great. I don't know if they still make them, but I have two pair of very cute Croc thong sandals with sparkly accents that I can actually walk in. The thick, cushy soles with a molded arch hit the balance between resilient and firm. Not for hiking of course but very comfortable for a short errand or a visit to a museum.
Crocs get a bad rap because there are so many cheap and uncomfortable imitations, and because the clogs are ubiquitous. I have a couple pairs of sandals from the Brooklyn collection which I wear constantly.
I don't think I've been so strongly ratioed here since when I took a firm stance against rhubarb pie.
We still love you Steve. Reasonable people can disagree! The country is divided enough, if we fall out amongst ourselves over shoes and pie filling, it will be bad news for Joe Biden.
Ehh, I'm with you on Crocs. Just don't care for 'em. If others want to wear them, fine. That's their choice. Not me, though.
Medical personnel like the clogs because they let your feet breathe but still have some protection from stumbles, falling objects, etc.
(Spouse needed a pair after foot surgery, liked them, and insisted I try a pair. "I'm not wearing those," I said. Six pairs later. . .)
I shall not stand here and have my Crocs demeaned!
"She's been tellin' me all night long"
From the ads I got the one time I followed a hardcore link from Roy, She shouldn't have a problem getting what she's waiting for -
It popped in in my head the other day that substack was " Only Fans " for aspiring authors. That made me laugh at first and then I started to feel bad.
Really bad.
"If the Hays office would only let me...."
It is, indeed, shocking that an elderly man with spinal stenosis would have a stiff gait. It is only through my ties to the Deep Medical State (and the fact that I also have spinal stenosis) that I can reveal this little-known medical mystery!
It is also stunning that Joe Biden, a man with a lifelong stutter, should suddenly start stuttering. I mean, it's not like he's had a lifelong stutter all his life, you know?
But I guess the only way for Biden to prove he's fit for the office is for him to give an hour-long speech about sharks and batteries and electric boats.
If he forgets to work Hannibal Lecter in, that'll be proof of his unfitness.
Every time that asshole says, "The late great Hannibal Lecter", I have to check. Yes, Anthony Hopkins is quite alive.
Not to my knowledge, though I'm not an expert.
I love to mess with Mrs. LP about that movie. She didn't eat for four days - for reals. It really got to her. The slurp, just the slurp, results in blows around my person. Damn. Good. Movie. I think what scares her is I am only three steps away.... Was I cheering for Hannibal? Oh hell yeah. We sociopaths have to stick together. Tee hee, when she's watching Monk, "You know Stottlemeyer was Buffalo Bill, right?" Then I duck
Elderly + stenosis: I resemble your remarks.
I AM SPAR-- STENOSIS!!!
I got your back!
Thanks! But what about the damn neck?!
Spouse has it, so we nicknamed it Nikos, as in "Is Nikos bothering you?"
The hardcore grifters aren’t on the same page as Republican strategists. The hardcore grifters just want the rubes’ money and don’t care if the damage they do should somehow force Biden out of the race. Meanwhile, Republican strategists and politicians *definitely* want to run against Biden. They’re already using debate clips in commercials against Democratic candidates in swing states.
And all of us here are going to vote anyway, and for some of us our vote won’t matter (per usual), and in any event we have no way to affect what’s going on or make the madness stop. What a time to be alive!
"using debate clips in commercials against Democratic candidates in swing states"
How does that work? "Biden is senile, so don't vote for Tammy Baldwin, who is senile-adjacent"?
Well, kinda. Like if you’re in Pennsylvania with a close senate race, they tie the presidential candidate to the senate candidate, with the intent of motivating their own voters and depressing Democratic turnout among more marginal voters.
I did see a YouTube ad against Baldwin, "Career politician for 40 years" combined with the most unattractive photos of Baldwin that google image search could find. In grainy black and white, of course - she's so OLD they didn't have color back then!
Also stuff's really expensive, hear California banker Eric Hovde's 5-point plan to bring down the price of eggs! (I kid, nobody - not even their own voters - expects these fuckers to have a plan for anything except the further immiseration of the poor.)
Who’d a thought a political party could be viable by offering only to hurt all the people you hate—and literally nothing else. Also, I demand Hovde be stripped of his Nordic name and reassigned something like “Limbaugh.”
With his cowardly acquiescence to fascism, the guy's a regular Quisling.
Call him Vidkun!
Let me guess - the plan includes lowering taxes on rich people or increasing them on poor people. One or the other or in combination.
A plan to totally eliminate income taxes and replace them with tariffs would accomplish both. But we just have him saying that once in a private meeting with rich people, so it's like it never happened.
They already want to repeal the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, so why not the Sixteenth?
This kerfluffle seems an interesting tactical response to the fact that Biden-Harris's ground game is universes more organized than their opponents, that they've raised so much more money from the public, & that they're all around ready to play these last couple months the right way. The GOP has nothing but big donors, as they melted down the RNC for legal fee money.
I'm just glad the NYT & WaPo are so eager to carry the fascist's water & march to Trump's tune. Imagine if we didn't have a "liberal press"?
A fact hardly mentioned is that there are probably 70 million Americans who'd crawl through the trenches of Verdun, 1916 to keep Trump out of the White House. No, it's not the 80 million Biden needs, but it's damn close and it's solid. Let's go get the other 10.
And, as I keep reminding, all of the GOP election fund is going straight to CF Donald, because he's the only one that matters.
These Hardcore dopes got nothin' on Politico, which headlined "Poll: Biden hurt by debate" when the poll in question has Trump ahead 42-41. I want to beat these fuckers over the head with a copy of Sullivan, Basic Statistics, 5th ed.
I get all my political Hardcore from the NYT, WaPo and Good Morning America (no comma after America 'cause semi-illiteracy is a thing now). After many years of reading I.F. Stone, I've learned to look behind the headlines and here's some thoughts: 1) Biden looked bad at the debate. If it was because he suffers from a long-term health/neurological issue, it has to have been going on a while and he shouldn't have been an effective president. But he was, with several successes in pushing through policies. Could it be the policies his critics don't like? Support of unions - what could Bezos and Murdoch dislike about that? Pwning Big Pharma and Big Hydocarbons - any Dem politicians who will miss those drug and oil dollars? 2) NYT analyzed some recent polls. In Wisconsin, Biden is behind by 4 points and Tammy Baldwin is ahead of California Banker Dude by 5. Do Dems vote next November for Baldwin and skip voting for president or choose Trump or RFKjr? Seems unlikely. So the current polls suggest some Dems don't like Biden. Is it his policies? Methinks not, it's his age. And what has been the big media attack on him? Hmmm... But come November, will that 4 point group vote Biden, I think so. 3) The absence of any mention of Trump's 2 week vanishing act, deranged rally comments, Epstein trips, pending sentencing, review of the January 6th evidence by Chutkan in open court to comply with the Supreme Court's immunity ruling - is it because there's too much other news to report? There are heat domes, hurricanes and floods to occupy the news space, it's true, but oddly no mention then of climate change. No, it seems more likely that the horse race would turn into a Dem landslide if the media displayed Trump in all his glory, and horse race is the default approach to elections that captures eyeballs and ad bucks. (No wonder the NYT editor said it isn't their job to point out one party is anti-democracy - that would be partisan.)
I can only hope that Dem politicians stop feeding the horse race with sound bites and turn to answering every question with some version of "I'm concerned about women dying" or "I'm waiting to see how many years Trump has to spend in prison," then go on to cite a favorite part of Project 2024. The election has to be about Trump, Republican fascism and Biden's successful policies. The media will only focus on that if no one feeds the current "Biden old, Dems in disarray, don't vote!" frenzy except David Brooks and whatever pseudoconservative choads the legacy press pays to bloviate.
Damn, that's good. I won't say it's easy, but it's not impossible if you're willing to make the effort.
Do the Democrats have an actual base, imperturbable and steady, ready to turn out for the D no matter what happens? Why of course not, this goes against all my well-worn metaphors involving the herding of cats and circular firing squads. And let's not forget "Dems fall in love, Republicans fall in line" too! No, the evidence is clear. Only Republicans demonstrate ironclad party loyalty. Democrats are all daring freethinkers, every last one.
The thing that still gets me is that after years of these bullshit clickbate (yes, you read that right) fables, the MAGAts still hunger for more.
It's exactly like the not only Evangelicals' hunger for the Apocalypse, and credulity when their favorite shaman tells 'em it's gonna happen on a date certain, and it doesn't...and they still send money.
I know I saw the mercifully late Pat Robertson calling time at least 4-5 times.
The non event didn't hurt his bottom line the least..
Anyone else remember when the world ended 21/12/2021?
"when the world ended 21/12/2021"
It only ended in Europe. America was saved because we put the month first.
Regarding FDR, I found it very telling that in an interview with Fucker Carlson in what presumably was his office, he had a framed newspaper article. The headline: ROOSEVELT DEAD.
Oh yeah. Class traitor. A scion of the Swanson fortune would think that way.
That's funny, you know who else had that headline framed in his bunker?
Austrian paperhanger, as I recall. I think the name was Shickelgruber....
Oh, they were crackin' open the bottles of looted French champagne that day, you can be sure.
Dammit. "that day". I was triggered.
"Gozer the Traveler wil come in one of the pre-chosen forms. Durring the rectification of the Vuldrenaii, the Traveler came as a very large and moving Torb. Then of coarse in the third reconciliation of the last of the Meketrix Supplicants, they chose a new form for him, that of a gaint Slor! Many Shrubs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the he-depths of the Slor that day I can tell you."
And that name, I love a great name. Vinz Clortho. Damn that's good.
Right up there with my favorite (voiced by Jon Favreau of Iron Man director fame)....Crumford Lorak. I mean, wow.
There's a big report from Seth Abramson here on Substack:
https://open.substack.com/pub/sethabramson/p/we-now-know-what-really-happened
that covers what he's found out about the debate bumfeezle - Biden exhausted himself on his trip to Europe, they went through with the debate because it'd look bad if they rescheduled, he started out bad but forced himself to improve as it went on, he was fine after getting rest, and the fucking media KNEW all this and decided to run with it because "news". And Biden has trouble walking sometimes because he has neuropathy in his feet.
Jared Yates Sexton was having a convo yesterday with Danielle Moodie of the WokeAF Daily podcast and said (roughly) the following, which I agree with: the media is covering this election not in a serious way, but as celebrity gossip. Totally frivolous. I mean, look at CNN's debate opening, where they had fucking MUSIC and announced it like it was a goddamn sportsball game. It's even less serious to them than ragebait is to the Hardcore crowd. Just a fucking grift for profits.
Big time thanks for this.
Yes. Remember 2016--they covered Hillary Clinton like a politician but Trumpov like a celebrity.
And which of the two do Americans love more? 🤔
What good is having a whole lot of money in a total societal collapse?
I don't judge folks for their kinks.
But... but... the number in my bank account was a really big number right before we stopped having banks!
Just make sure it's all in Bitcoin so it's easily transferred to the leather clad biker's digital wallets.
Trust me, this seemingly random string of letters and numbers is REAL MONEY, it's not something I just made up!
(I call it "Bullshitcoin" for a reason.)
Gott in Himmel! They're talking about putting Hillary in.
NO.NO.NO.NO.NO.NO. Look, she's sharp as a tack. I think she would make a really good President. BUT. I've known this woman since 1978. She has the political instincts of a turnip. Total tin ear. She tried to do healthcare with the Arkansas Lege, and pissed them off royally. Now, I get why she's polling well, because people are antsy (though Joe did great at the NATO summit). But she is the kiss of political death. No. If Joe should step down, Kamala is the answer. She's on the ballot, no reprints required. She drives the right absolutely insane - I saw where Sebastian Gorka called her "colored". Colored? Really? At my local theater as a kid, upstairs there was a sign. "Colored Balcony". I stuck my head in there to see what color it was. Made my mom cry - what did I do wrong? Colored? Seriously.
My best friend pointed something out to me a few years back. You know how there is a missing four feet on the left side of the theater? I had noticed that, of course, we're both autistic as fuck, you don't miss things like that. That was where the colored stairs were. Blinding light revelation. The theater owner integrated in the early 1960's, and my appreciation of Jack Lowrey went up 1000%. That was ballsy. Jack was flamboyantly gay even then, so I get where he was coming from. Respect.
But Kamala will make the right lose their shit. Oh, you thought Obama drove 'em nuts, well-ell Jerry. Now to be clear, I'm ridin' with Biden. But dear God, don't let Hillary anywhere near the nomination. She can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory like no one else. She ain't a politician. No sin in that, it takes a particular kind of weirdo to be one. But for all that's holy, PLEASE don't do that.