(The video referencing this pic appears below.)
No, I didn’t see the debate. I haven’t watched presidential candidates’ debates for years, probably ever since Poppy Bush got rid of the League of Women Voters. Besides, my opinion (for what it’s worth) has always been that, if you need a debate to make up your mind about a candidate, then that’s a big problem right there because it means you haven’t bothered to inform yourself on the person you claim to favor (what legislation they support or pass, what policy they want to see enacted, what their public statements are, who aligns with them, etc.).
That being said, what I’m reading is that Biden was factually correct in his answers, but he was slow and halting in his presentation most of the time, and now people on our side are losing their minds (the dumbest take I’ve seen so far has come from John Iadarola, which is actually shocking to me; he said on Xitter that, if Biden still runs, the SCOTUS balance will end up 7-2 or 8-1 or words to that effect, envisioning every single terrible scenario at once...anything is possible, but if that isn’t an example of the left eating itself, I don’t know what is). Some have even suggested that Biden needs to step aside for Kamala Harris. If that happens, then (God forbid) Trump just won the election.
Oh, and speaking of Mango Mussolini, he did what he always does, and that is to lie like crazy. The kids use the term “gish galloping,” which I believe means to throw any manner of falsehood out there and see if anything sticks, and #45 did that of course. That by itself is why I refuse to watch any debate in which he’s involved. This human misery has already been coddled way too much by people with power and influence despite ANYTHING that he has said or done, and that has a lot to do with leading us to our current sorry state.
Also, heckuva job, CNN, to allow Our Treasonous Orange Pustule to lie unchallenged in real time (and kudos to Mark Hamill for this - Update 6/29/24: I'm hearing that the "no fact checking" thing might have been a condition from either the Biden or Trump people, to be fair, so it's possible that that wasn't CNN's decision...if I find out more, I'll update this post.).
I saw a video by David Pakman on this last night that I thought was a pretty honest look at the debate, and this one by Beau seems to capture the situation well also...
Update 1: Yeah, I think this comment from Biden is spot-on.
Update 2: Howie Klein, to his great credit, takes the long view, as we all should (here).
Update 3: Words from a guy who knows something about winning presidential campaigns (here).
Update 4: I think he's dead wrong on Israel, but otherwise, kudos to John Fetterman (here).
...and ZOMG! Why, Ross Douthat, Ezra Klein, Michelle Cottle, Frank Bruni, “The Moustache of Understanding” and Nicholas Kristof all want Biden to drop out. Gosh, that settles it, doesn’t it?(here).
I wonder if Friedman is going to ask any French-African cab drivers what they think of the debate (here)?
Our corporate media helped to legitimize Former President Fergus Laing’s every lie, screwup, paranoid ranting and attack against a real or perceived adversary, so to say that they’ve lost credibility at this point is a cosmic understatement.
Update 5: Some more perspectives that I would say are sane are here and here.
Update 7/5/24: Of course, the Times has no problem giving precious column space to assclowns like this guy.
...and while we’re wringing our hands over the debate, I’d like for everyone to keep in mind this clip from More Perfect Union about how President Biden is taking on neoliberalism and reshaping our economy...”as long as share prices were going up and consumer prices were going down, there was no problem” about neoliberalism at first, and “The pie got bigger, but fewer people got a slice of it” indeed...pretty comprehensive look back at our economy going back to The Sainted Ronnie R...I also didn’t know about Jake Sullivan’s report on the decimated middle class in this country and how that was foundational to Biden’s economic policy...as the video tells us, it’s taken a long time for neoliberalism to play out, and it will take awhile for post-neoliberalism to play out also (but if, God forbid, Combover Caligula gets back in, all of that progress will stop dead in its tracks)...
...now, onto other stuff (referencing the pic at the top)...Steve Schmidt of The Warning talks with Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, running against Lex Luthor Scott in “the sunshine state”...I wish she’d been a little more forceful about the voters who were entrapped by Ron #DeathSantis, but kudos for bringing it up...the whole disgusting story of those tricked into thinking they could vote is here (and she’s right about legalizing recreational weed...I’ve been a little squishy on that issue to be honest, but I’m tired of reading about people’s lives being ruined over this)...not too comfortable with Schmidt’s “normal people” phrasing, I must say, and I don’t think he’s correct about Tim Ryan in Ohio – I read that Ryan turned away help from D.C. Democrats, though I will acknowledge Schmidt’s implied belief that the national “D” party establishment is largely incompetent, unfortunately (and by the way, I wish she’d bothered to work in some info from here on how Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act has benefitted, and will benefit, Florida...example 4,218 of Democrats screwing up on messaging again!)...
...and staying in that location pretty much, Farron Cousins tells us that Trumpster judge Aileen Cannon actually did something right; she rejected Trump’s legal team’s request that they throw out FBI evidence gathered at Mar-a-Lago, with said evidence being pretty damn central to the case (as Cousins says, though, we shouldn’t get our hopes up too high because, given Cannon’s track record, she’s likely to do some more awful stuff again)...
...and Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg gives another master class in blowing up BS wingnut talking points, this time on EV vehicle sales, when confronted by PA’s useless Repug, subpoena-defying U.S. House Rep Scott Perry (any proof on "bribes"? Naah, didn't think so.)...between Perry, Dan Meuser, and Mike Kelly, it’s really hard to pick who’s the worst from "Pennsyltucky," but Perry is right there in the mix (Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about it; more on the Climate Corps is here...NSFW/H)...
...and in the matter of the veep pick for Our Ochre Abomination, Sam Seder of The Majority Report tells us that J.D. Vance of Ohio has apparently positioned himself pretty well (with Vance giving a totally nothing answer in response to a softball question on Fix Noise...more here and here)...
...and lest we forget, our friends across the pond will hold “snap” elections on 7/4, oddly enough, and with that in mind, Jonathan Pie gives us his take on Liz Truss and the Tories (NSFW/H also)...
...and I need a newer tune for a bit of escapism, to tell you the truth...I’m not sure how much I communicated my disgust above with voters who think that politics are a WWWF steel cage match as opposed to the careful crafting of legislation and policy in the hope of achieving a consensus to help the majority of this country, but yeah, it gets pretty infuriating and deflating to deal with individuals who care only about the train wreck as opposed to supporting the candidate who’s done the most good (with our corporate media cousins cheering on the freak show as opposed to doing their jobs of educating and informing their viewers)...at least the weekend is nearly here.
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