Open Mic for the week of 7/1/2024
Happy Canada Day!
There’s a phenomenon where someone writes an essay about this or that but someone else wants to discuss something that has not yet made it to the front page.
This is unfair to everybody involved. It’s unfair to the guy who wrote the original essay because, presumably, he wants to talk about his original essay. It’s unfair to the guy who wants to talk about his link because it looks like he’s trying to change the subject. It’s unfair to the people who go to the comments to read up on the thoughts of the commentariat for the original essay and now we’re talking about some other guy’s links.
So!
The intention is to have a new one of these every week. If you want to talk about a link, post it here! Or, heck, use it as an open thread.
And, if it rolls off, we’ll make a new one. With a preamble just like this one.
Dan Drezner is correct, it is either Biden or Harris as the 2024 Democratic nominee for President: https://danieldrezner.substack.com/p/the-choice-is-biden-or-harris
“First, sticking with Biden remains a very viable option. Despite his disastrous debate performance, it should be noted that the post-debate news has not been all that bad for Democrats. Biden raked in $27 million in campaign donations the day after the debate. Morning Consult’s morning-after poll showed that Biden did not lose any ground to Trump even though a majority believed that Trump won the debate. Biden’s poor performance might be causing many observers to overlook Trump’s uneven performance, with some undecided focus groups switching to Biden because they could tell that Trump was lying….”
“Biden resigning this summer would generate three political advantages. First, Kamala Harris being sworn in as the first lady president would be, to quote Biden, a big fucking deal. It would be a suitable final act in Biden’s distinguished political biography. Second, it would make the November election a choice between former president Trump and President Harris. The move would put Harris at Trump’s level and eliminate experience as a Trump argument during the campaign. Finally, Harris being president would remove the inherent awkwardness that sitting vice presidents have faced when running for the top job: being unable to disagree or disavow the sitting president’s policies. Anything that makes it easier for Kamala Harris to not resemble Al Gore is a good thing.
So, if you oppose Donald Trump’s re-election, your choice is sticking with Biden or opting for Harris in very short order. Everything else is stuff and nonsense.”Report
There aren’t a whole lot of really good options, that’s for sure.
I do think that if Biden is going to step down between now and November that it’s better for him to step down this week than in October. September is better than October and August is better than September.
“You’re saying that it’s a good idea for Biden to step down?!?”
“No. I’m not. I’m saying it’s a risky idea that has a lot of downsides.”
“So, therefore, you must think that it’s a better idea for Biden to stay in office!”
“Um… yeah, I’m not sure about that either. It’s more that I think that there aren’t a whole lot of good options and the best options, the ones that actually qualify as *GOOD*, all happened back in 2019, 2020, and 2022 at the latest.”Report
maybe I’m a cynic but I think 80% of the “he should step down” talk is newsies high on their own supply, who have discovered that this very brand of chaos keeps attention focused on them, and that’s what they want. 24 hour news channels were most likely a mistakeReport
Agreed 100%Report
The comparison I saw was to a fourth down conversion attempt.
Do we imagine that our opponents will be relieved when we say “we’re gonna punt”? If they’d be relieved, it’s probably a better play to go for a 1st down.
If we imagine that they’d be laughing and rubbing their hands together if we were going to go for a conversion, it might be better to punt.
How do we feel about our ability to get two yards?
“But you don’t *KNOW* what’s going to happen!”
“Neither do our opponents. But I’m willing to take how happy they’d be with our decision as a mild indicator.”Report
Also “Dems in disarray” is an axiom for them. The last three years must have been frustrating given the number of things Biden, Schumer, Pelosi, and Jeffries have finessed.Report
you can’t have a horse race when only one team has horses . . .Report
Liberal and left pundits are pushing for a brokered convention because it will give them oh so much to talk about. Their most intimate erotic fantasies come true.
Chuck Todd: “We are at this wild and crazy convention and are about to talk to Ezra Klein about what is going on…um Ezra, why is there a spot near your crotch?”
Ezra Klein: “Never mind, you have the same spot on your crotch as well, Chuck.”Report
And of course those newsies thought Biden was a bad idea the first time. Mostly because eh wasn’t interesting enough. People often talk about journalistic bias in terms of them being left-biased (because journalists tend to be liberals) or right-based (because media companies are corporations), but the media’s biggest biases are toward novelty and narrative.Report
Looks like Epstein’s ghost is not dead yet:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/07/01/jeffrey-epstein-grand-jury-records/Report
The GOP supports parents rights – except when it doesn’t:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/06/29/texas-supreme-court-transgender-care/Report
Everyone this side of ancient Rome supports parents’ rights except when they don’t, right?Report
The Harvard/Harris poll results are out (warning: PDF).
Stuff to look at:
Is the Country on the right/wrong track?
Is the Economy on the right/wrong track?
Is the Economy weak/strong?
How is your Personal Financial Situation?
Do you think your Personal Economic Situation is Excellent/Good/Fair/Poor?
Approval rating stuff for both Biden and Trump.
Polling on how Biden is doing on stuff like Jobs, the Middle East, Crime, Immigration and so on.
Approval rating of GOP and and Democratic Party.
Satisfaction level with Congress
And, of course, the whole “What is your Top Issue?” question.
Then it gets into the whole horserace questions that ask about Biden vs. Trump, Biden vs. Trump vs RFK, and the 5-way that includes the nuthouse parties.
There are also questions about the debate, the various trials of the last few months, Immigration, and Israel/Palestine.
Here’s a report from PBS about the problems with polling the public in 2022. I’m sure the problems have only gotten worse.Report
Biden has given a response to the Supreme Court ruling. You can catch it here.Report
Good speech, good delivery. Notice how our dumb journalists can’t ask anything substantive.Report
The Fourth Estate isn’t sending their best.Report
I understand that the columnists don’t write the headlines but…
The First Amendment Is Out of Control
Maybe we can finally put creches back in front of City Hall.Report
That isn’t even the worst opinion headline in the NY Times this morning….guess the author without looking
“France’s Far Right Is Bad. But Not as Hypocritical as MAGA.“Report
Um… Rubin?
(Clicks through)
DANGIT.
(I will allow others to play.)Report
Bad guess, Rubin is at WaPo.Report
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/07/02/biden-trump-policies-popularity-2024/Report
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/02/politics/rudy-giuliani-officially-disbarred-in-new-york/index.htmlReport
Igor Bobic, Senior Politics Reporter at Huffpo, reports:
Report
The Labour government of Wales has decided to make it illegal to lie in politics. This seems like an idea that is much better in theory than practice. Besides the difficulty of determining what is actually a lie, which in politics will be highly ideological, and who gets to determine what a lie is; this is basically good faith people giving bad faith people a new toy to play with. I really have no idea why so many really intelligent people can get so incredibly dumb on these issues.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jul/02/welsh-government-commits-to-making-lying-in-politicsReport
Yeah, there’s a reason the First Amendment doesn’t only protect true statements.Report
Also, what is a true statement and who gets to determine what is a true statement? Politics involves some tough choices that can be seen as a lie based on campaign promises and speeches.Report
From the AP: Taiwan says China’s coast guard has detained a Taiwanese fishing vessel and demands its release
Oh, good. Glad that the conflict wasn’t escalated.
Why in the world is China pulling this crap *NOW*?Report
Because China – like Russia and Israel – has looming domestic political problems of its own making, and so sabre rattling is a foregone conclusive way to distract. That and China is still unwilling to let Taiwan actually go.Report
Why in the world is China pulling this crap *NOW*?
The other large powers in the world are currently distracted. The US is distracted by the Supreme Court and election chaos. The UK is distracted by its elections (and possible extinction of the Conservative Party) tomorrow. France is distracted by its own set of elections. The EU and NATO are distracted by Ukraine. Israel/Gaza is distracting almost everyone.
If the PRC is looking to squeeze Taiwan a bit harder, rolling over the Kinmen islands is the obvious step.Report
Electric Amazon Delivery Vans Keep Burning Down, And Chargers May Be To Blame
https://jalopnik.com/electric-amazon-delivery-vans-keep-burning-down-and-ch-1851572774
” Posts in Amazon worker subreddits show a similar situation last August in Salt Lake City, where another set of vans burned in a distribution center parking lot.”
So is it the chargers, the trucks, the heat, some combo? Fear for your packages people…fear for your stuff. I wonder who’s paying to replace those trucks?Report
A fun headline from CNN: Biden’s mental fitness could have been better covered leading up to the debate, some White House reporters acknowledge
From the story:
It’s complicated, that’s for sure.Report
In all the discussions about what happens next, I’m not sure many people considered the possibility that Biden’s very public struggles would provide the permission for a lot of folks to reveal information that they had previously been sitting on. Seems like he’s going to be facing a flood of dammed-up and damning observations.Report
Just a couple weeks ago we were talking about how long it’s been since the press did one of their post-error soul-searching exercises.Report
Politico shows their true colors: ‘We’ve all enabled the situation’: Dems turn on Biden’s inner sanctum post debate
They’re all acting as if the kid who yelled “He’s naked!” was right. Is no one taking into account the possibility that the kid was just stupid and that’s why the kid didn’t see how fine the emperor’s outfit actually is?Report
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/07/02/justice-dept-trump-prosecute-after-election/Report
Until the inauguration, Joe Biden (or some other Democrat) will still be President. If and when Trump becomes President, things will change. Until then, not.Report
Okay. This one is funny
The New York Times put out this story: Biden Told Ally That He Is Weighing Whether to Continue in the Race. Brian Stelter tweeted the story out at 8:52.
Seven minutes later, at 8:57, White House Senior Deputy Press Secretary and Deputy Assistant to the President Andrew Bates tweeted out “That claim is absolutely false. If the New York Times had provided us with more than 7 minutes to comment we would have told them so.”
Since then, ABC News has run the same story with the correction that the NYT has now included in its story. Check out this headline: Biden privately signals ‘open mind’ on path forward, sees next few days as critical: Sources
Now check out this subhed: “This is false,” a White House spokesman said.
Be sure to trust the stories you read tomorrow, of course.Report
Last I heard, CNN was confirming the NYT story.Report
Biden’s in a no-win position. He can’t prove he’s of sound mind. His interview will be taped, probably between 10am and 4pm. ABC will show excerpts, then release the “full” excerpts. The only people who will be convinced are those who already believe. In everyone else’s eyes, he’ll be under scrutiny that I probably would fail under. “Look, at 4:28, you can see he looks confused.”Report
Here’s one from an hour ago:
Is it true? Is it not true? Who can say?
Tune in tomorrow to find out!Report
Back when it was still called “Twitter”, it was used by one young man to share with the world that he was looking forward to the day (which he figured would be about five years hence) when young ladies would be fighting amongst themselves to be impregnated by unvaccinated sperm, and he would be ready.
Wonder what hope keeps him going THESE days?Report
Here’s what is at stake in the election.
The Justice Department is investigating a corrupt police force and city government in rural Mississippi.
Under President Biden and President Barack Obama, the nation’s premier law enforcement agency has launched investigations of dozens of cities for unconstitutional policing since 2009, including New Orleans; Oakland, Calif.; and Louisville. When it finds a pattern and practice of wrongdoing, the civil rights division generally seeks a court-mandated compliance agreement. Justice Department civil rights officials may also recommend that the department’s criminal division consider bringing charges.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/07/03/lexington-mississippi-police-justice-abuse-julian/
Depending on which way the election goes, the people of these towns may find that the DOJ suddenly loses interest in their plight.Report
From New York Times Opinion: Why I Don’t Vote. (They changed the title from “Why I Don’t Vote. And Why Maybe You Shouldn’t Either.”)
Let’s hope that the Rethuglicans all read this one!Report
It’s a Republican psyops: https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2024/07/why-i-dont-vote-and-by-i-mean-you-and-by-dont-i-mean-shouldntReport
Now that is wild and ridiculous.Report
What is wild and ridiculous? Sulzberger is basically turning the Times Opinion page into the Concern Troll the Democrats PageReport
Butt hurt seems to be the new political theme of the decade doesn’t it?Report
They should totally James Bennet Sulzberger.Report
The guy voted in 2020 and 2022. He is a Hillsdale grad. This is Republican psyopsReport
When I saw it Thursday, I thought it was one of the worst opinion pieces I’ve ever read. I haven’t changed my mind.Report
Running it on July 4th was just malpracticeReport
I, for one, appreciate it when folks tell me what they are loudly, with bunting framing it.Report
When a Republican is paid to troll NY Times readers with psyops, I suggest Democrats should do the opposite: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/04/opinion/biden-democrats-polls-president.htmlReport
TFG’s attorneys are now claiming the fake electors his campaign created were ” official acts:
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-fake-electors-scheme-supreme-court-1919928Report
White Christian Nationalists march in Nashville, spouting Trumpist ideology:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/nashville/state-and-local-leaders-react-to-patriot-front-march-in-downtown-nashville/amp/Report