Not Looking Back in Anger

 

The Biden Administration wasn't perfect, but it was professional. You want the most benign, bloodless take I can make on it--there you go. We'll be asking ourselves for a long time what else could have been done:

Did they do all they could to prevent Trump 2.0 and bring him to any kind of justice? Did they try hard enough to whip inflation--or at least, leave a bigger impression that's what they were doing? Did they do enough for Ukraine? Could they have done less for Israel and prevent the worst of the suffering in Gaza?

Here's what I do know; hindsight is 20/20. The Biden Administration, like Biden himself, weren't perfect and weren't able to do everything they wanted to do. Biden himself would say, "Don't compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative." You can pick apart what might have been different, in terms of policy, in terms of politics, that might have given us a second Democratic term. You can ask if Biden should have, oh, right about after the midterms, said that he wanted to concentrate on seeing out his term and promoting a new candidate to lead his party. 

A Reckless TrumpWorld Round-Up

 

I'm trying to take a moment of Christmas clarity to see the good in the world around me, and while I've never been a Suzy Silverlinings, I did notice the SEC seems to have decided to pay attention to some of Elon Musk's financial shenanigans regarding the purchase of Twitter. Basically, everyone who was wide awake in 2016 saw that social media was a powerful tool in shaping world events, and Elon bought in. Comms for his worldview is an expense in general, but he gets back what he's lost financially in DOGE and influence. 

It's a neat thing, using money to buy influence to get more influence to get more money. Here's a David Bowie song:

It's All Right

 

President Biden has announced that he is issuing a pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, and for one thing--good. 

Although he had previously said he wasn't going to, I rather hoped he would and am not one bit disappointed. If the power of the pardon is supposed to be for the sake of mercy--why not one's own son? Is his son less deserving by virtue of blood? And if the father seriously believes that the son was persecuted and prosecuted for his political sake, is that not something he can at least do for him?

Some are calling it an "abuse of power." A pardon is an official act. I don't even understand what that argument is supposed to mean. Is he gaining something other than his son not being further punished? 

Is it a norm? Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother, Roger. George H. W. Bush granted clemency to his son. Neil. Trump pardoned his daughter's father-in-law, Charles Kushner, and has now appointed him to an ambassadorship. You tell me: what is a norm, here? 

If someone wants to say it enrages MAGAs, again: good. They can bite their My Pillows in rage. They are outraged by things all the time. It's what they do. I don't care.

Bad Vibes

 

I woke up Wednesday morning in the same world I woke up in the day before. I wasn't sad, not disappointed or even depressed. I checked my pulse to see if I died or something and considered I might be dissociating or something, but that wasn't it, either. I had wanted to be optimistic and keep a positive face and try to believe that who and what Trump was and did mattered leading up to the election, but I didn't have to do that anymore, and honestly, that part was almost a relief.

He got the popular vote, you guys. This wasn't echoes of 2016 for me, this was echoes of 2004, when I was positive that people might realize the Bush was not a really great president in a lot of ways, and look past all that Swift Boat shit and just...

And then some farkakteh "security moms" who were really, really concerned about terrorism got him a second term. Or so the narrative went. But anyway, John Kerry was basically Jane Fonda and....

Whatever. 

Anyway, the thing that made me feel like Oh shit wasn't the election--it was an SNL skit featuring Tim Kaine. 

Who Are You Going to Listen To?

 

Several hours before this tweet, North Carolina was declared a federal major disaster, which means @FEMA will rush federal aid to 25+ affected counties and reimburse local governments + nonprofits for restoring facilities and infrastructure.

👉🏻 https://t.co/NkRaj6EJ73 https://t.co/JLeTgiYzyq

— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) September 29, 2024

Well, uh, let's hear it for a fact-check from Frank Luntz, because open-faced lying to struggling people is, my God, why do we have to explain this?  Completely wrong and unnecessarily divisive and totally unhelpful. 

And also, what Trump is stunting about right now. He did a little photo-op in Valdosta and lied behind a tiny brick wall someone had to stop everything and make for His Nibs. And he had an emotional support evangelical by his side to sanctify his lying. Who prayed for HIM and his election because of course. 

People have died. Some of the survivors have lost everything they had. They have family photo albums and keepsake Bibles and all kinds of records of their life they can't get back. They are going to be homeless for a while. And Trump shows up in his MAGA hat like this was a campaign event. Costing local security. Taking away resources from search and rescue or whatever else for his hot minute criticizing the Biden Administration for--what they already are doing. 

What they ARE ALREADY DOING. 

TWGB: The Failing Man

 

Trump's having a weird week--yesterday, he gave an answer to the question of how to make childcare more affordable that made JD Vance sound like Mr. Policy King by giving us nothing and landing on we're a "failing country". He was applauded when he finished his rambling response which did not go into policy details (sorry to Chris Sununu) and didn't even contain a complete sentence (sorry to Bobo Kennedy) but because he finished talking, which was all anyone wanted him to do at that point. 

Then, earlier today, he decided that the best way to handle his appeal of the first civil case judgment of defamation for his sexual assault victim would be to give a press conference where he defamed her(again!) and mentioned other (alleged) sexual assault victims of his. And he referred one of the women as not "the chosen one" as if to indicate sometimes he does pick out potential assault victims, but in his long career of doing this, she does not meet his exacting standards. 

He followed this up with another rally thing where he forgot he wasn't running against Joe Biden and also made a weird non-joke about Nancy Pelosi's house having walls that did not stop the man who attacked her husband and gravely injured him. (Which says something about walls not working. An odd thing to note about a crucial gimmick of his political career.) 

This is why Joe Biden nailed Trump today, calling him "a failing man." 

Biden: My predecessor believes America is a failing nation. He is a failing president and a failing man pic.twitter.com/ZTnez17ImR

— Acyn (@Acyn) September 6, 2024

And that sums it up--Trump projects: nothing is his fault, his blame, his fuckup.  But the more he casts his insulting, perverse, negative view of the world, the more you can understand the sickness in him. 

TWGB: He'll Dance to Anything

 

Wow. This is a new low, even for Trump.

“It Was a Setup,” “Could have been the parents” Trump tries to blame Gold Star families for the Arlington incident
pic.twitter.com/7eO9CZ3tag

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) August 31, 2024

Maybe the Gold Star families, who invited him and have signed statements to the effect that they think his being there was cool and totally legal--fucked him over by posting pictures and videos. That's what HE SAID, babies, not me. He tried to suggest the people who were there to back his ass up backed his ass over. So he suggested he didn't know anything about the strategy of his dumb stunt and maybe he was stunted upon. Maybe it was the White House that he was going to claim bailed on a solemn event they totally were clued into.  Kamala Harris called him on it, and now that stunt is supposed to be "he said and she said". 

I'm not here to belittle the Gold Star families because their grief is real and how they feel is real regardless of the facts on the ground. Their loved ones saved people in assisting the evacuation that day and died in a suicide bombing from ISIS-K. Nearly 170 Afghan people also were killed by that blast. The war had been 20 years long. And many servicepeople cycled through that assignment.  They can cast their blame any and everywhere it feels valid. But we all know that serving in the armed services can mean being placed in danger. Their safety was not guaranteed, they guaranteed the safety of others and that was their great sacrifice and why Section 60 is hallowed ground. 

Nothing I can say makes that right. Throughout the war on terror, we have not stopped the tactic of extraordinary violence. The results are appalling and personal. I demur from politicizing it. I have my own ideas about why the withdrawal sucked, but it was a group effort. And yet, for the Abbey Gate tragedy, I still blame ISIS. There was one airport, and there were so many people who were running out of time to be safe.   It was time to leave, and the crowd itself was an exploit. An opportunity for terror. One last kick in the slats before leaving. One demonstration of the ideology that faced the country we tried to rehabilitate into something like a Western image.

What Makes us Great

 

Crowd chanting USA at the DNC pic.twitter.com/zNh8WBPNRM

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 19, 2024

The above clip is from a full house at the DNC showing pride in the USA. They aren't calling for mass deportations. They don't want a day-one dictator to make America great by looking towards some mythologized past. They don't want some parade of demagogues to tell them horror stories about an imagined dystopia in the hopes they will trade today's freedoms for a false promise of security in a less-free tomorrow.

They want to move forward. Time's arrow goes in one direction, and they want that trajectory to bend towards justice. 

This diverse crowd has come together to do the work, to put in the sweat equity of democracy. The first night of the DNC was a crowded stage and at times, I felt something in my heart swelling about that. Unity through inclusion. Strength in protecting and defending one another's freedoms and hearing one another's stories. Standing up for what is right and even great about this country. 

TWGB: Fall of the House of Trump?

 

Trump, looking mad as a coot and wheezing faintly, made up for the lack of public appearances he has made lately by offering an hour of his time to reporters at Mar-A-Lago. It was awkward. Usually, Trump is one burnt-ochre joker, projecting bravado and landing insults--even if he's vague on policy or leery of answering questions directly. Here, he seemed pale, tired, sandbagged by recent events. 

Among weird damn things he said: he might have confused Jerry Brown and Willie Brown in a story about a helicopter ride. Both gentlemen have the same last name and are longstanding figures in California politics but there are some differences. Trump never told Willie Brown to rake the damn forest to prevent fires, for example. (I know Trump alleges he has survivor's guilt over a tragic helicopter ride from like 30 years ago or so, but that's about another coast entirely.) 

He sadly whinged on about how President Joe Biden must be feeling--with his "presidency stollen" (I swear!) from him. Shades of this post on his FAILING! Truth Social:

A Cause for Celebration

 

The deal we made to bring home wrongfully detained Americans would not have been possible without our allies.

They stepped up and stood by us.

So for anyone who questions whether allies matter, today is a powerful example of why it’s vital to have friends in this world. pic.twitter.com/KSikbcgnUA

— President Biden (@POTUS) August 2, 2024

In an historic multinational effort months in the making, 16 prisoners detained in Russia were exchanged for eight people held in the US, Germany, Poland and Slovenia. It is a testament to the power of diplomatic relationships and teamwork, and a great day for the former prisoners and their loved ones. 

The above message from President Biden acknowledges our allies, but let's give him his due--this is his expertise and dedication in negotiations finalized while he was making the decision to end his candidacy, knowing there was yet more things he wanted to accomplish and irons that might be left in the fire. This is a man who may be old, but doesn't live in the past and has done his part to try to shape the future. 

A swap like this doesn't occur overnight, and Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, and Alsu Kurmasheva would not have been released without Russia getting prisoners of their own in exchange. It speaks volumes about the nature of the negotiations that Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian dissident was part of the exchange, and that Alexei Navalny could have been (was he murdered so as never to be released--one can't help but wonder). It shows the concern for Russia's pro-democracy possibility.

This diplomatic success is a cause for celebration.

The Inflection Point

The presidency of Joseph Robinette Biden in one term has given so much to this country, and the simple message of this speech, that the idea of America is bigger than any one man's ambition, is the simple reason why. This man loves his country and believes in us as a people because of what we can be. This speech shows a faith in us, in "We, the People", that is touching and heartfelt. 

This faith in our future and admiration for our best values as a creedal nation are what we need going forward--there can be no turning back. Biden understands that that future doesn't depend on himself alone, but on all of us.

I also know who doesn't understand that and rejected it when presented with that choice--even with violence.  

I am even more determined to support Kamala Harris because we cannot go back. We cannot go back.

It's Up to Us

 

I spent the last few days putting off writing about the "Pass the Torch" movement. Oh, I was getting ready. I was going to sit down and take names and call out the fuckery. People didn't start one minute from the first question during the debate before I think the "drop Biden" movement started, in a way that felt coordinated and desperately shitty to me. 

Who the fuck treats a decent man who just gave us an astonishingly successful 3.5 years like this? Why are Democrats even airing our laundry in public? I'm a fan of transparency on one hand, but on the other it felt disrespectful to the man and his honorable public service. 

Every dumb horserace "Here's what a contested convention would look like" article, every "who might we see in a blitz primary?" thumbsucker, seemed to be a repudiation of the primaries we just had. 

The last straw wasn't the has-been campaign mahoffs of yesteryear who have displayed the political savvy of brain-damaged lemmings in the rush to shaft the incumbent Democratic president, though, that was going to make me bleed my frustration all over the internet--it was the distilled self-parody of Sorkinism: suggesting Democrats nominate Mitt Romney. 

Big "not The Onion" energy, but why did my eyes water? 

Because much as my feelings about Mitt Romney have moderated from 2012--he still isn't a Democrat, and it felt defeatist. One major party is captured by racist, violent authoritarianism, and the other is consigned to irrelevance and mere "Never Trumpism"?  Fuck that. 

And We Never Mention 1/6 Again?

 

Donald Trump was shot at. I guess. Luckily, he only got a bloody ear out of it. One Trump fan died protecting his children. It's a terrible thing. A 20-year-old registered Republican with an AR-15 climbed up to a shed roof, was not stopped by local law enforcement, and fired in the direction of the stage.

That's very certainly a terrible thing. We have a problem with gun violence in this country. Senseless deaths and horrific injuries occur all the time. 

The knee-jerk response of many Trump Republicans was to immediately blame "The Left", President Biden, DEI, CRT, the Jews and Ukraine, because all the money intended for the Secret Service apparently went to missiles and now they have to hire dumb girls, or something. That's right, before they even knew who the shooter was or had any idea why he was shooting (which we still don't know).

Oh, and one more thing: we better not criticize Fearless Leader or bring up January 6th ever again. 

Needless to say, that's not something I'm about to do. Donald Trump getting shot at isn't going to make him a better person and this shooting certainly doesn't cancel out what happened on January 6th. I still believe he has no business being president and the reckless lying about election fraud that led up to the massive violence of that day, the bloodshed, the Confederate flag being led through the Capitol, the violence intended to our political system. is something the Republican party must atone for--

A Little Foreign Policy Discussion?

 

Forgive me if I'm disregarding "the discourse" about President Biden's press conference regarding foreign policy--it's very stupid. Biden is exceptionally knowledgeable about world affairs and has simply done a fine job as president in fraught times. He isn't going to make everyone happy. A press conference isn't going to rescue him from a fickle media or self-aggrandizing "smart guys".  They want bumper stickers, he's got volumes of actual experience, just with a few "typos". 

While this pivotal/not pivotal press conference has been taking place, the former president has been sitting down with Viktor Orban, who had just been enjoying the company of Putin and Xi. Orban is pretending he's on a peace mission. Let me show you the Russian definition of peace:

It's not just that they want to keep Crimea, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson. They don't want Ukraine to be a country. This is not peace. It's the ragged bloody end of genocide. (Actually, why should they be rewarded by keeping anything they stole via murder? ) This is the "peace" Trump says out loud where people can hear that he would resolve "before inauguration". Oh and get back WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich. 

The Medical Rabbit Hole

 

President Biden has not seen a neurologist outside his annual physicals, White House physician Kevin O’Connor said in a letter released Monday night addressing visits to the White House by a Parkinson’s disease expert. https://t.co/eXNQBIAePZ

— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) July 9, 2024

The White House released a letter from President Biden's physician explaining that he has no signs of Parkisonism and that has had no neurological exams outside of his regular physicals. You might think that would be enough, but as it happens--nothing is ever enough. James Comer will need to examine what dealings the doctors may have had with the "the Biden crime family."  Armchair experts will determine what news spots show video of "real Biden" and when there is a double with a Biden mask being used (this is a real Qanon thing already).

People will make jokes like "Cannard--there's a quack." Etc. The "fine people" who brought us Swift boating, Benghazi, "but her emails..." etc. just don't sleep. The effort spent "debunking" half the time spreads the bunk. Like Obama's birth certificate didn't "really" end birtherism, once rumor and lies get spread about anything, it's hard to get the toothpaste back in the tube.

There's something for the people who diagnosed Biden from their mainstream media jobs to chew on. 

Madame VP Harris Has a Word

 

Vice President Harris: This is the most significant election of our lifetime. The United States Supreme Court just essentially told Donald Trump, who has been convicted of 34 felonies, that he will be immune from the activity he has told us he is prepared to engage in if he gets… pic.twitter.com/E9Jee1Fpx9

— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) July 7, 2024

Donald Trump very recently tried to deny that he has anything to do with Project 2025, even though it has an awful lot to do with him. To use the analogy of a very intelligent person, Trump didn't just fall out of a coconut tree, and NEITHER DID YOU, so when he says things like that, in the context of all that has gone before, you know he's lying. 

This election isn't just about Trump being an awful person (he really, really is though) but what he, in all his awfulness, is planning to do. Consider this--the stories to tear down President Biden's running mate are about to take off--some subtle, and some very much not. 

It hardly seems fair for Republicans to beat up on the Democratic running mate when Trump doesn't have one yet, having tried to get the last one lynched. 

This Isn't Good Journalism or Good Politics

 

On last night's exclusive ABC interview with the president of the United States, we saw a very confused man ask a question, lose track of the answer, then ask that same question moments later as if he didn't ask it at all. Many, many times. (See how this works?)

I'm talking about George Stephanopoulos, of course, who sounded like he trying to take the car keys away from Daddy while Pops was trying to win the Indianapolis 500.  I don't know what it did for ABC's ratings, but I know what it did for my opinion of journalism today.  That's right--my priors were reinforced. And if you thought Biden was an old man in denial about the approach of time, you probably came away the same way, and if you thought he was doing a good job as president and to leave him the hell alone about one debate, you probably didn't see anything that worried you--

Except for the fact that this wasn't journalism. It was a staged event with false stakes imposed on it--every bit as much a media presentation as a softball interview. It didn't have to be "adversarial" in tone to keep the question of whether the Reaper was playing keepsies with the Commander in Chief's marbles. If Biden sounded confident, he was too confident. If he sounded dismissive.... etc. 

But how you deny you've lost it without sounding in denial? (A-hah! A "Non-denial denial"!) How do you dismiss the results of a debate vs. the results of a strong legislative agenda? (The time for dismissing the debate and pointing to the scoreboard was probably before the debate, but then we would have had chin-stroking about "Why is Biden avoiding a debate?" Bad faith is bottomless when the floor is shame, and people stop having any.) 

A Republic--If You Can Keep It

 

This is what the New York Times chose to publish on Independence Day just one week after the Supreme Court ruled that Republican presidents are above the law. pic.twitter.com/URoJg6ohru

— @StephenWolf.bsky.social (@PoliticsWolf) July 4, 2024

The New York Times, which has been going out of their way to promote "Biden is too old and must drop out" editorials this week, decided the way to follow up on that terrible trend was to platform some mook who wants to pretend voting is a bit of hogwash. Well...not just some mook. Matthew Walther is a Catholic conservative (although it's hard to say if he just sort of is a hater in general--he calls the Constitution a "231-year old piece of toilet paper" in this screed against the Tea Party libertarians) --just like Leonard Leo and Steve Bannon and the derpsticks who ruled Trump is kind of/sort of a monarch.

Encouraging people not to vote (especially if one does, in fact, vote--possibly for Tulsi Gabbard which feels like fuckery) is a kind of voter suppression. Which is weirdly in line with Russian active measures to undermine confidence in voting. 

Democracy depends upon an engaged, informed population. The press can be a valuable part of that process of informing and engaging citizens--or it can do whatever this is. The chattering classes who write about politics are, when not encouraging apathy, so stuck on horserace politics that in the discussion of possibly replacing President Biden on the ticket have invented a fantasy horserace to write about. 

Is there nothing else to write about? Maybe how often Trump was mentioned in Epstein court documents? His new Saudi project? What Ivanka and Jared are up to in Albania and with whom? Anything to do about Project 2025--but especially how it would permit foreign nasties to interfere in our elections? (I remember when Trump wanted to cooperate with Russia on "the cyber"--do you?)

TWGB: With Fear for Our Democracy

 

I will respect the limits of presidential powers that I have for three and a half years. But any president, including Donald Trump, will now be free to ignore the law.

I concur with what Justice Sotomayor wrote today:

"With fear for our democracy—I dissent."

So do I. pic.twitter.com/YmrPBMQhgY

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 2, 2024

I took a weekend-sized break from commenting on the "replacing Biden" discourse in advance of this actual decision.  Chief Justice Roberts can pretend he limited the immunity of a deranged and/or criminally intentioned officeholder to their "official acts", but I fail to see a brightline or obvious test for what that actually means. It is the decision of Humpty-Dumpty: When the court uses a word (or a phrase) it means what they chose it to mean, neither more nor less.   

The contentiousness of the debate over whether Biden. finding himself tongue-tied and twisted in a 90-minute fact-free-for all against a serpent-tongued bigot, misogynist, traitor, rapist, and white collar fraud, should step down pales before this--of course Trump is a bad man and Joe Biden is a good man. But who the fuck among them believes in the American experiment of a country of the people, by the people and for the people?  Because don't be mistaken, and far too many were in 2000 and in 2016:

You aren't just voting for a person, you are voting for a government. Will that administration care about good government that tries to lift us all up because it is the right thing to do? Or are you getting a petty tyrant and corruption? (Please ask yourselves what legalizing bribes and inviting everyone to go on ahead and sue to get the law you like, the congress be damned means--draining the swamp my fat ass.) 

Our talking heads and assorted media jackals aren't up to this shit. If Trump has a political enemies list, then the press-the folks he has called "enemies of the people" are going to be on it, it's just a question of when.  And they want to talk about whether an old man with a cold who has won back our allies, stands up to our enemies, and has reinvigorated our economy glitched during a dog and pony show? 

Are they not up to this historical moment? Do they have no read on the failures of history? Are they entranced by the notion that It Can't Happen Here? 

Not Much of a Debate

 

Disclaimer: I hate debates. They are a stupid formality that are somehow supposed to educate voters about the candidates--and they don't do that. The first (and possibly only?) 2024 presidential debate reflected everything I hate about debates, regardless of format. One candidate lied relentlessly, one candidate tried to talk policy, and the moderators were basically useless. No one is learning anything from it. It was brutal to watch, and I had the sound off and relied on closed caption because the sound of Trump's voice lying makes me a little irrational. 

That said, two huuuugge Trump lies got debunked right off the bat: the first being that Biden would be on some kind of uppers or super-soldier drugs, and the second being that the CNN moderators were out to tank Trump.  Biden seemed hoarse and a bit subdued. Tapper and Bash started off with inflation, and the debate somehow went 44 minutes before the convicted felon insurrectionist's weak point (being a convicted felon insurrectionist) came up. 

That was...inauspicious. 

Now, it is a lot to expect real-time fact checking against Trump's farrago of nonsense, but major howlers, like whether ANYONE supports post-birth abortion, probably begged for some pushback--but since the media barely tries to do that in interviews, why expect it? Even if it's literally an accusation of murder. Of course, there will be ample fact-checking stories to come--but you know who is going to read/or watch those?

That's right--people who are already pretty informed. Your uninformed voter probably tuned out the debate about 30 minutes in and is gone forever.