US Politics, July 2024 - "Will you just drop out, man?"

Project 2525 is made from people!

Already knew RFK jnr was beyond awful, but didn't know just how awful:

Mary found Robert’s diaries. In the back pages were lists of women with whom Robert had had flings. The book elaborates: “He ranked them from one to ten, as if he were a teenager. Ten, Mary knew, was for full-on intercourse. ‘My lust demons,’ he wrote, were his greatest failing.

“He used the word ‘mugged’ a lot – women who, he wrote, just came up to him on the street and said, How about it? If they had sex, he considered himself mugged, a passive victim of aggressive women.

“There were so many – astronomical numbers, Mary said, and she knew a lot of them: The celebrated actress who came to their house and went on vacations with her family. The older model who was always around. The socialite whose husband was one of Bobby’s good friends. A gorgeous royal. The wife of a very famous man. A lawyer. A doctor. An environmental activist. All these beautiful, accomplished women. How could Mary compete?”

Mary became distraught, weeping and drinking and struggling to get out of bed, the book says. Robert tried to forcibly hospitalise her, telling her that she would be “better off dead”. Callahan interviewed Mary’s therapist, Sheenah Hankin. When Robert asked for Mary to be diagnosed as mentally ill, Hankin refused, telling him: “Your wife isn’t mentally ill. She is angry and depressed, but she is not ill.”

Robert began dating the actor Cheryl Hines, who played Larry David’s wife on Curb Your Enthusiasm. He cut off Mary’s credit card and access to cash. Broke, she had to ask other mothers for an extra $20 so she could buy petrol and groceries.

Finally, she hanged herself at home. The book recounts how Mary had put on her yoga clothes and sandals, and walked out to her barn. “When she was found that afternoon, Mary’s fingers were stuck inside the rope around her neck. She had changed her mind. She had tried to save herself.”

Mary’s siblings insisted that her depression had been a direct result of her husband’s cheating and neglect, his threats to take the children and leave her with nothing, “bringing the full weight of the Kennedy family to bear against her”.

Robert, however, portrayed Mary to the world as a disconsolate alcoholic. In his eulogy, he took no responsibility for the anguish that his adultery had caused her. He said: “I know I did everything I could to help her.”

https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/jul/02/maureen-callahan-kennedy-family-women

xp
i wondered why heritage and conservatives were being so open with their administrative fascism plans, because why not just keep it under wraps and unveil it when it's time to end the republic once and for all? but right now it seems like another cruel game, because it works for them on both sides of reality. on one side, they use it to enflame trump voters that their man has a plan to root out the deep state whatever and replace them with loyal henchmen. then, after the election, they can deny everything, enact the plan differently, pull a few different levers (barf on me for typing that) and hold back on 1 or 2 of the most wretched things, and mock anyone who opposed them for believing in the project 2025 conspiracy theory.(in fall 2029, propublica will publish a brilliant exposé showing how project 2025 was implemented in plain sight in 2025)

also you can see how so much of the world is engulfed in authoritarian states and conspiracy theories - some of them are true, some of them aren't, but almost everything is plausible because the people in charge demonstrably don't care about the wellbeing of normal people

it still pisses me off so much that Trump got a really bad case of Covid and likely would've died a painful death had lifesaving drugs not been invented just in time to save his life

― frogbs, Tuesday, July 2, 2024 6:20 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

dirty secret of medicine is that the very best medical therapies we have for anything reduce mortality by at most 20-25%, early covid being no exception

can't we just bioengineer a virus that is only lethal to him

I mean his DNA is probably 75% Big Mac by now

President Biden tomorrow is having lunch with Vice President Harris, and will be meeting in the Roosevelt Room at 6:30pm with Democratic governors.

— Matt Viser (@mviser) July 3, 2024

JUST IN: Governor Gavin Newsom is heading to DC tomorrow to meet with President Biden and other democratic governors.

— Daniela Pardo (@danielapardotv) July 3, 2024

just run six people for President as one hybrid Prez

all hail hydra

agree Mr Shandling

I was out for four or five hours earlier today; felt like 2008 or 2016, wondering what news I'd come back to. Guess nothing much has changed.

I thought that congressman bailing was important because I assume that's something someone--not a Joe Manchin, but a party regular--does with some risk in terms of campaign support from the DNC. I thought he'd only speak up if he'd already sounded out other people beforehand. But I didn't know he's 77; maybe he's not running this year, and that's not a consideration.

I don't know, those kinds of things are always coordinated to some degree. He's obviously not the only one who thinks that, but having a fellow septuagenarian be the first one helps protect against the appearance of some ageist conspiracy against the throne.

The call to DC, hmm. Either the plan is to have them all give him their full public support like in some yakuza movie, or ... anything other than that would be interesting (and possibly not as depressing).

lol "fellow septuagenarian," if only.

fellow old guy, I mean

Newsom walks out of the West Wing missing a pinky

tbh I thought the "Biden should step down" story wouldn't last more than a couple days, it does seem like there are some legs

Feel like this clip of Raskin is revealing. He's obviously in a position to know what's going on. He evades the question about whether he agrees with Doggett — which is to say, he doesn't disagree — and instead talks about "massive unity" after things that are "happening very fast."

That doesn't exactly sound like circling the wagons around Joe.

.@RepRaskin on the Democratic ticket: "I know this is a moving target. It's got to happen quickly. But I can guarantee you—there will be massive unity and focus on that task when we get to the end of this process. And it's happening very quickly." pic.twitter.com/vXqLd4DMNz

— All In with Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) July 3, 2024

jesus fucking christ. this is the org that gave Trump his Supreme Court picks

Heritage Foundation president celebrates Supreme Court presidential immunity ruling: "We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be" https://t.co/ndMJlNlUKH

— Media Matters (@mmfa) July 3, 2024

wow @ that Raskin quote, that's the exact language you hear from NFL teams who are about to bench their starting quarterback

He truly thinks we’re fucking idiots

https://deadline.com/2024/07/biden-debate-trump-travel-schedule-1236000406/

Isn't that just acknowledging that he's too old? Hope there aren't any global emergencies when he hasn't had a nap.

Can't see Biden surviving this. On top of everything else, there's now four days' (and counting) worth of soundbites of what seems like half the party coming at him, from all directions, that would be hard to explain away down the road; they'd be running non-stop all through October on cable news, in commercials, etc. (I know: Trump says anything that pops into his head without consequence.)

Starting to lean that way as well. At first I thought they'd ride it out, after all everyone thinks he''s in this condition already anyway how much does it really matter if it's eventually become true or not. But momentum is a powerful thing, and if that starts to fall on the side of twist rather than double down and stick, will be difficult to turn around

Having said that, Democrats often exist in a limbo state of indecision, uncertainty, and procrastination, which means there might not be enough momentum in any particular direction, the worst of both worlds

'intelligence sources' and campaign hacks (probably mad about getting blamed) have also started leaking about Biden - the former that he's seemed loopy in intelligence briefings for more than a year, the latter that his debate prep started at lunch and left him time for an afternoon nap

Dropping out is bad ("hey, sorry Americans, he's not competent to run the country and we've been protecting him for a while now hoping you didn't notice - ooopsie!") and staying in is worse once the leaks and intraparty criticism have started, don't know where Democrats could find a silver lining here.

Staying in and doubling down, and dropping out with sudden issue are both exponentially better than the current worst of both worlds strategy which appears to be staying in while talking about how it would be better not to.

Pick a lane! The indecision is far worse than either path

pic.twitter.com/sG8QBHe1d7

— MAGGIE マギー 🕊️ 📿 (@MaggieAustenx) July 2, 2024

I’m all in

The first woke toddler

I have a dweam...

The question is more who doesn't agree with Congressman Doggett. The sooner the better.

NY Times playing a pretty dangerous game here trying to push him out

They played some pretty dangerous games in 2016 too iirc

“Pick a lane! The indecision is far worse than either path”

This is the thing.

The NY Times became Bush II’s free propaganda machine for America’s genocide in Iraq and Afghanistan, so you know they’re always on the right side

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2ukXcDCrfE

xp kevin, i don't think it matters that harris is corny and insane

this could be spun as a charming thing. she reminds me of some kooky professors i had. they were still competent in their areas of expertise.

The indecision is far worse than either path

I disagree with this pretty strongly! It's a big decision, with a lot of complex political, legal, and financial consequences, and I don't want it done in a snap way. Doesn't matter to me if it gets decided in August, but it DOES matter to me if it's decided tomorrow because "we have to act swiftly and decisively" and then there's a massive fuckup about ballot access or who can spend what money or some previously undisclosed skeleton in the closet or whatever. You only get one chance at this, do it right.

I'm a KHiver now because it's somehow both the soberly correct stance and the funny irony-poisoned stance.

— David Klion (@DavidKlion) July 2, 2024

Carville and others on call with big Dem donors. Sounds kinda like this thread.

https://www.semafor.com/article/07/03/2024/on-private-call-democrats-weigh-comatose-or-dead-biden-and-alternatives

I disagree with this pretty strongly! It's a big decision, with a lot of complex political, legal, and financial consequences, and I don't want it done in a snap way.

I think if there were an unexpected situation due to an assassination or plane crash I would agree, rushing such a decision with no prep would be a big mistake. But I think in this scenario you would expect that the wargaming for such a situation has already been done, perhaps the timing came as a surprise but this kind of eventuality has been predicted for a while now to arrive at some point

Unless its the case that no preparation or contingency measure were previously thought out and ready to go, but that probably just exacerbates the seeming appearance of inertia and indecision

Non-US lurker here but I've been following the debate here, bewildered by how people have such strong opinions about whether he should drop out or not, because it seemed to me there are no great options and therefore no strong opinions make sense to me, and the stakes are so high that every consideration is terrifying.

However when I was watching that Raskin clip, I realized that if I woke up tomorrow and saw that Harris is replacing Biden, I would feel relief. If the speculation continues indefinitely, I suspect I will feel a growing sense of dread.

Anvil, we’re taking about the Democrats here, I’m sure they had no preparation for this.

Non-US here too, just overwhelmed by dread over it all for the last week. Seems insurmountable, esp after SCOTUS intervention. Hoping against hope Dems win both houses and presidency in November and find some way to overcome the corrupt SCOTUS, and/or something awful befalls Trump and 6/9ths of SCOTUS.

bewildered by how people have such strong opinions about whether he should drop out or not, because it seemed to me there are no great options and therefore no strong opinions make sense to me, and the stakes are so high that every consideration is terrifying.

To my surprise this has gradually become my position (as of 9:15 a.m. EST) too.

If the debate had really been just a one-off bad day and not a sign of cognitive impairment, Biden would be out giving press conferences and unscripted interviews left right and center to prove it. He hasn't. He's given one teleprompter performance. There's no way he can keep that up for another four months.

The indecision is far worse than either path

They're following Yogi Berra's advice: when you come to a fork in the road, take it. It sounds like it might be less indecision than intransigence/digging-in on one side vs. acceptance of the inevitable (reluctant or otherwise) on the other.

I realized that if I woke up tomorrow and saw that Harris is replacing Biden, I would feel relief

I had that reaction yesterday just at Doggett and what seemed like the possibility that something might change. I was surprised to find myself thinking, "Yeah, Kamala!" — not a thought I've ever had in my life til yesterday. So I'm going with that. It doesn't mean I have some great confidence in her abilities or prospects, more a measure of how grim and sad the prospect of a forced Biden march thru November seems to me. At least with Harris it's like, we could have an actual campaign with an actual candidate! She could go places and say stuff!

If the debate had really been just a one-off bad day and not a sign of cognitive impairment, Biden would be out giving press conferences and unscripted interviews left right and center to prove it. He hasn't. He's given one teleprompter performance. There's no way he can keep that up for another four months.

― Zelda Zonk,

He responded to the SCOTUS decision and has got an interview with George Snuffleupagus on Friday.

CNN was a solid drumbeat for Biden leaving last night. Just relentless. They've made up there minds over there!