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

Lagoon, Harris as a candidate in a busy primary field was relatively unknown and not surrounded by a huge support team.

As VP, chosen successor and nominee, she would, presumably, be backed by the muscle and resources of the Biden campaign, plus the national party apparatus. That would include all the training and prep and spinners and spokespeople and such.

Beshear is worth picking just to debate Vance. His state is actual Appalachia. (Though Shapiro would give the same advantage there I guess.)

Look I’m just going to be excited by somebody who is not going to die soon. So what if she says weird stuff sometimes, the guy she’ll be running against is 24/7 weirdness.

Lagoon, Harris as a candidate in a busy primary field was relatively unknown and not surrounded by a huge support team.

As VP, chosen successor and nominee, she would, presumably, be backed by the muscle and resources of the Biden campaign, plus the national party apparatus. That would include all the training and prep and spinners and spokespeople and such.

― Millennium Falco (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, July 18, 2024 4:24 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

thats nice

That Harris article with the "fweedom" anecdote has me spooked. Reminds me of Eric Adams.

Harris's weird shit like fweedom and listening to Tupac in college (circa 1984) reminds me of Hillary's bottle of hot sauce, a liberal lizard person trying to be relatable (where Adams is more like a prosperity gospel megachurch pastor trying to be relatable). Off-putting but not the thing that lost 2016 so whatever.

Her past sucks, her politics suck (as Senator she was showing early signs of being willing to make accommodations with the leftish wing of the party at least), she has a strange affect half the time... but like, her entire brain works so I'm even willing to promise god I'll cast my meaningless vote for her in November if it puts Joe to pasture.

Doug Emhoff, proud Einstürzende Neubauten fan.

Kamala's stepdaughter was raising money for Gaza relief so by default she becomes the best first child in memory.

If we get Harris elected we can immediately hate her, it's fine.

Imagine you injure your ear this week and have to wear a bandage and now everyone thinks you’re the kind of Trump voter who would wear a bandage on your ear because he did.

— Franklin Leonard (@franklinleonard) July 18, 2024

LOL

I have some questions about that bandage. As in, y'know, is it legitimate, and did an actual doctor dress it, and is it perhaps being played up a little (or a lot) more than necessary? I had a cat literally tear clean through the cartilage in my ear once and even that only necessitated a band-aid.

Speaking of: political reporters are such easy makes.

There have been many moments since Trump first entered the presidential conversation in 2015 that political observers have predicted a pivot in his fundamentally bombastic political persona — after his election in 2016, after his first speech to Congress in 2017, or at points during the Covid pandemic. And at this particular juncture, Republicans would seem to have a vested interest in projecting Trump as a more reflective, subdued version of himself, after his polarizing rhetoric during his presidency turned off many swing voters.

But GOP allies, in roughly a dozen interviews, used words like “emotional” and “serene” — even “spiritual” — to describe Trump in the days since the attempt on his life. A person close to the former president’s family described him taking on “humility, in the biblical sense.” In moment after moment at the Republican National Convention this week, Trump’s usual resting face — a scowl with squinted eyes — was replaced by a more subtle expression. One Republican who spoke with Trump, granted anonymity to describe private discussions, said he seemed “existential.”

A question remains of whether Trump’s personal response to his near-death experience will last — and if his calls for national unity will mark any real, enduring shift within the GOP.

Nothing will help you finally become presidential like an assassination attempt.

A question remains of whether Trump’s personal response to his near-death experience will last — and if his calls for national unity will mark any real, enduring shift within the GOP.

Who is asking this remaining question, and have they been formally declared braindead yet

McKinley was never more presidential.

I don't know if it was a consideration (or even a possibility) to try to get Biden to step aside today, hoping to crowd out Trump's speech, but besides being gimmicky, I have to believe that not yet having your opponent 100% clarified has to make it just a little bit awkard for Trump. (My guess is they'll just assume Harris and proceed from there.)

Speaking of: political reporters are such easy makes.

There have been many moments since Trump first entered the presidential conversation in 2015 that political observers have predicted a pivot in his fundamentally bombastic political persona — after his election in 2016, after his first speech to Congress in 2017, or at points during the Covid pandemic. And at this particular juncture, Republicans would seem to have a vested interest in projecting Trump as a more reflective, subdued version of himself, after his polarizing rhetoric during his presidency turned off many swing voters.

But GOP allies, in roughly a dozen interviews, used words like “emotional” and “serene” — even “spiritual” — to describe Trump in the days since the attempt on his life. A person close to the former president’s family described him taking on “humility, in the biblical sense.” In moment after moment at the Republican National Convention this week, Trump’s usual resting face — a scowl with squinted eyes — was replaced by a more subtle expression. One Republican who spoke with Trump, granted anonymity to describe private discussions, said he seemed “existential.”

A question remains of whether Trump’s personal response to his near-death experience will last — and if his calls for national unity will mark any real, enduring shift within the GOP.

― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, July 18, 2024 4:18 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzUKcXxbU4U

RE: the ear bandage, I'm sure they're aware that it superficially evokes (at least to an older generation) the revolutionary fife player with the head bandage

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/69415/69415-h/images/frontis.jpg

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/69415/69415-h/images/frontis.jpg

Reading some diehard ridin'-with-Biden Twitter accounts is pretty interesting. It's all an inside job, the "rich assholes" taking away "the people's choice." I get the framing, it's not too dissimilar from complaints of Sanders supporters 4 and 8 years ago, and maybe that's what it ultimately connects to. It's just weird for Biden to be the focus of that.

I have some questions about that bandage. As in, y'know, is it legitimate, and did an actual doctor dress it, and is it perhaps being played up a little (or a lot) more than necessary?

Rep. Ronny Jackson, who was Donald Trump's White House doctor, told The New York Times that "the bullet took a little bit off the top of his ear in an area that, just by nature, bleeds like crazy."

Jackson replaced the former president's ear dressing during a flight to the Republican convention on Sunday, the Times reported.

"The dressing's bulked up a bit because you need a bit of absorbent," he said. "You don't want to be walking around with bloody gauze on his ear."

re: "Imagine you injure your ear this week and have to wear a bandage and now everyone thinks you’re the kind of Trump voter who would wear a bandage on your ear because he did."

i imagine decorating my ear bandage with a drawing of tom cruise eating shit

I have to admit that if someone had narrowly missed blasting my head off a few days ago I'd be a gibbering wreck. Then again I'm not a psychopath, maybe they just take it all in their stride. Serious medication helps too, which probably explains the serenity.

unless something additional came out today, i think the news about the injury is that it's not certain that it was from a bullet. initial reports included suggestions that he was hit by glass (from the teleprompters, was an early thought), and the only person who has confirmed what the injury is was trump himself, who said later that he'd been hit by a bullet. but 1) he's a fucking liar and 2) how would he know? he just knows his ear suddenly hurt badly. i don't think there's been any official news on what actually hit him, other than reporting based on what trump himself guessed at in the immediate aftermath. snopes.com did some sleuthing on the teleprompter part (and found the teleprompters were intact after the shooting). but anyway, they're being really weird about not releasing any confirmed info on what happened.

conspiracy theory bullshit:

i think the most obvious answer for why they haven't released information is they're incompetent and just don't care about releasing accurate info to the public, but some 11th dimension shit is maybe they want to leave some obvious things unanswered that so conspiracy theory minded people can distract themselves with total BS for the next few months instead of paying attention to important things. i know multiple people who are suspicious that it was an inside job, that trump cut himself with a razor, etc. i think the obvious answer to that is that ...why would you do an incredibly risky thing like fake an assassination on yourself or deploy fake blood when there millions of cameras on you from every angle, especially when trump was already seen as the frontrunner and the biden campaign was hanging itself with its own rope?

I don't much like Ezra Klein but he's as insider-y as it gets, I suppose:

Where things stand:

1. Top Dems who believed even a week ago Biden would stay now believe he’ll go.

2. House and Senate Dems have lost faith in his ability to win and there’s no way to win them back. His calls and interviews have hurt him badly. Confirmed debate wasn't a…

— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) July 18, 2024

Maybe it actually was a mosquito, he said it sounded like one

xpost

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJUTZQ38hEA

9. Democratic Party is acting like an…actual party? Quite a thing to watch.

lol get em

xp to Z

Why would Nixon order a DNC break in when McGovern was essentially circling the drain? But he did it

It's rare that I think someone deserves a bullet in the face more than Donald Trump, but...

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:uwpwffxyhm3jcdaggliez4tz/bafkreidp64eirsbyrjmta6c7yj25vzslkwv7f2jtc6nqgqgogcw6radzn4@jpeg

The convention bandages reminded me of the purple fingertips, which I thought was at the 2004 Republican convention mocking Kerry, but googling isn't leading me anywhere.

xp it's not really Biden's choice who replaces him, is it?

A person who'd say that about Vance's wife knows nothing about aspects of Indian culture.

Jindal, Haley, and a whole bunch of dudes I used to work with two jobs ago back this up

kamala harris is running for AG, she is awful. newsom is a douche but seems particularly suited to the douchey job of junior fake governor of nothing

― akm, Thursday, May 6, 2010

14 years ago seems like 60 years ago now

As with Bernie and the Squad going hard for Biden, I wonder if centrist dipshits like Ezra and Matty crying for anyone-but-Kamala is borne of an unconscious desire to make her more palatable to the left.

mark halperin (i know, i know) saying that biden won't endorse harris if/when he decides to step down

seems like Matty's writing like an early '80s Soviet apparatchik again

and Mark Halperin can endorse a dick.

I was just reading Harris' wikibio - I knew she was born in Oakland (!!) but didn't realize how cosmopolitan her upbringing was, she was all over the place in her youth, including Quebec

There was a local radio show about her parents' lefty activities here in the East Bay awhile ago, they ran around with a wild crew

halperins still around

xp andy very true! this is a good reminder that it's difficult to understand the actions of people who run for president or are adjacent to that world because they are all dealing with incredible personal issues

https://i.imgur.com/nsCwjG0.jpg

Just clicked on a New Yorker article about Trump as messiah figure and saw that it's written by Christopher Hitchens' daughter. Nice work if you can get it — but you can't, unless your parents were in the club.

the fucked up thing about his messiah / cyrus thing is that it fits what white evangelicals have been searching for signs of for their whole lives: the end, the rapture, apocalypse, punishment, rewards, fighting, action, love, peace. if trump ends up being really bad and evil, that means he's a false prophet or antichrist, and frankly, chandler from friends voice, could trump BE any more antichrist than he already is? he's so fucking evil he makes even me want to convert back to white evangelicalism again. on the other hand, i think of his glossolaliac buddies really do believe in him and think he's some sort of new chosen nu-testament figure. either way, it's apocalypse baby

the video of trump shouting "fight! fight!" was really chilling because it means one things to his paramilitary troll army and another to fundamentalist christians looking for signs of the rapture, matt 24 style

Eazy, it was the 2005 State of the Union. Shortly after the first Iraqi election. Republicans wanted to claim the W for spreading democracy with their stupid bloody war. Neener neener, liberals - give war a chance.

https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/stateoftheunion/2005/photoessay3/04.html

i think it has to be harris and it will go to her, but there are plenty of alternative community-driven systems to choosing a leader. for example,

mx. america
under this system, a new presidential candidate would be chosen via a series of ms america-style political contests, all onstage, on camera, evening shows with unknown faces and names, and the audience/judges just have to make a decision based on what happens that night. to start, each candidate would have to parade onto the stage, smile and wave. each candidate would also have a chance to display a talent or skill. finally, they'd have to answer exactly one difficult political question. each state would take 2 weeks to hold their events and choose a representative, and then the final mx. america competition would be 2 weeks later (in tribute to the 2-week break before the superbowl). whoever wins runs against trump. i don't know what kind of candidate would emerge from this process, but it would be way more representative of what people want than the current system, it would take 4 weeks total, and it would potentially usher in a new age of tv reality government that you'll have to see to believe

BREAKING: CNN reports that President Biden is in the 'contemplative stage' regarding his political future

— The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) July 18, 2024

nice

I'd vote for this lady.

VP: In recent days, they have been trying to portray themselves as the party of unity. But here is the thing. If you claim to stand for unity, you need to do more than just use the word. pic.twitter.com/tJrVRdOagH

— Acyn (@Acyn) July 18, 2024