I'm dizzy. 😵‍💫

so what everyone's
been telling us is that
Biden's head-to-head with
Eltrumpfster's gonna show US
who's Boss -- and oh so Sadly, it
looks like they may have been Correct.

if it's up to the "D"NC [LLC, by god!]
to pick another one will they be as
Inept as they've been recently?

irregardlessly
step Aside, Joe
you've done a Vastly
Better Job than Expected
but The Pasture now beckons -
heed its call and bask in Knowing
you Did the Right Thing. Kudos, Joe!

+1 on this caption: "Today we've witnessed the biggest judicial power-grab in a generation." The overturning of the Chevron doctrine is especially egregious and radical and puts the lie to the notion that John Roberts was ever any sort of moderate or institutionalist.

As for last night's debate, I take that as good news. It finally forces us to rip off the Band-Aid on the doomed Biden-Harris ticket. I'll put in my word for Whitmer-Obama. And yes, that's Barack Obama, not Michelle Obama. And as much as I look at the Gavinator as a total douchebro, I'd take a Newsom-Obama ticket as well.

speaking of Must See TeeVee:

nyt:
Jon Stewart
Is a Little Stressed
Out About That Debate

Hosting a live “Daily Show” after
the Biden-Trump spectacle,
Stewart said he needed
“to call a real estate
agent in New
Zealand.”

thee best reader’s
comment on the
article:

why has no one declared this to be the best thing the democratic party could have done by having biden debate trump on a public stage this early in the election cycle?

surely his aides and inner circle knew exactly what they were dealing with: a man of diminished faculties in his 81st year. and if they were unable to convince him to step down for the good of the country then maybe it would take the voice of the electorate to make that point forcefully enough.

thank you democratic party for making it clear, however painful the process might have been, that a new voice is needed at the top of the democratic ticket.
--riotta rigotta; manitoba

more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/28/arts/television/jon-stewart-debate-trump-biden.html#commentsContainer

Thanks again, Ralph.

Another horrible Scotus ruling that has been seriously under-reported is SEC vs. Jarkesy, which effectively will require all regulatory enforcement to run through the courts (which are nowhere near prepared to handle the tsunami of cases this will entail, especially in light of the Chevron decision). If it weren't for these other decisions (and the debate), SEC would be the sole topic of discussion right now.

As for Biden v. Trump, the only thing I'll add to my rather lengthy comment on yesterday's Slog is that "We finally beat Medicare" is precisely the campaign-ending gaffe I was half-expecting (more like three-quarters-expecting, TBH). While I'm not optimistic that Biden will listen to the many sympathetic voices now calling for him to step aside, I hope his die-hard supporters here and elsewhere will at least stop insisting there's nothing wrong with his campaign -- or with him.

Has it ever been more clear that the Democratic party establishment needs to be renewed? Between their apparent inability to locate a candidate who should easily mop the floor with Trump and their lack of response to the GOP packing the courts with corporatists more than 40 years after conservatives warned us they were going to drown government in a bathtub, one can only wonder if it's due to incompetence or ambivalence toward the goals of regressives (the Clintons AND Biden were in favor of massive deregulation after all)

Future land for sale at a LA synagogue:

"Israel destroys 11 homes in West Bank village amid spiralling violence
Fifty left homeless in remote hamlet of mainly shepherds, as beatings and demolitions in occupied territory increase"
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/28/israel-destroys-11-homes-in-west-bank-village-amid-spiralling-violence

Do Democrats recognize how fucked we are and they are SOLELY to blame? Who chose not to go after Traitor Trump and the members of Congress who refused to acknowledge Biden's win? Who thought it was a good idea to not go after the traitor and pretend it's normal to let him get anywhere near the White House again?

It's too late to change the ballot and the chances of a write-in candidate to replace Biden and WIN? Slim to none. The Biden administration was put in power to get Trump out of the White House and make sure he paid for his crimes. Instead, Biden and the Democrats are gaslighting the country, telling us only Biden can save democracy. Fuck Biden and Fuck the Democrats.

This fucking farce of a democracy was dead the minute Trump came down that elevator announcing he was running for president and PEOPLE ALLOWED TO HAPPEN. We are so unbelievably fucked. Republicans didn't do this, Democrats did. And they can gaslight us until the end of time, it does not change the facts.

xina @9: "It's too late to change the ballot and the chances of a write-in candidate to replace Biden and WIN? Slim to none."

xina, I see election law is one of your many areas of expertise.

@4 that commenter gives entirely too much credit to the strategic thinking ability of the Democratic Party. This is the party that force fed us Hillary and then made Trump their "pied piper" candidate. This is the party who had all their candidates coalesce around Biden just prior to Super Tuesday because defeating "the socialist" was their #1 goal. If they hadn't lucked into Obama (who successfully overcame the same Hillary force-feeding by sheer personal magnetism and political skill) and COVID hadn't happened (making it acceptable for Joe to campaign from his basement) we'd be about to enter the the seventh straight GOP Presidential term. @9 is right, we're all fucked and it's the Dems' fault.

Here's what's got me annoyed as fuck right now. Regardless of how I ever felt about his politics, up until just recently I'd always thought Biden's friendly grandpa image was well earned and deserved, and that he'd gotten into politics for something vaguely approaching the "right" reasons. Which is to say, a genuine desire to serve in the public sphere and make society a better place, as opposed to the relatively bloated salaries and/or ego resulting ego boost.

But his stubborn unwillingness to forego a second term shoots that theory into the freaking ocean. That shit is all about ego and the desire to avoid the indignity of going down as a single termer (i.e. the EXACT same shit motivating his opposition, quite possibly the most thin skinned and easily bruised ego in the history of American politics, who demonstrably couldn't handle such a footnote attached to his legacy.)

And it wouldn't have even been particularly damning for Joe! He'd have been voluntarily opting out and so not even suffering a defeat in the process. In fact, I'd have viewed it as a cool and noble act, something to bolster his reputation for dignified selflessness! He would have essentially been acknowledging that he got his chance late in life and made the absolute most of it while he could. You know who's probably quietly deriving a tiny bit of guilty satisfaction about this freaking shitshow is Hillary Clinton, who after nearly a decade of guilt-ridden angst in the wake of 2016, has finally got the spotlight of shame shining elsewhere.

What an asshole.

there is no way to broker an alternative to Biden/Harris that wouldn't leave the Ds more split than they are right now. If you are one of the D-voters who think someone else would be better than Biden/Harris now, you are still virtually guaranteed to be disappointed by whoever a brokered convention comes up with. I do think we are fucked, not that Biden will lose, but that he will have negative coattails, ie to the degree that less nihilistic republicans vote against Trump, they will still vote for their insane congressmen & senators so no change possible to the supreme court.

The NBA draft does not have 55 rounds.

@11,

Yeah, it absolutely wouldn't need to be a write-in candidate. As I noted last night, four months is a freaking eternity given modern news cycles. People seem to be viewing this (admittedly daunting, but very much realistic and achievable) task in the context of history, which is problematic. This isn't the early 1900's when it took a full day or more for something newsworthy to travel across the country, and into remotely populated enclaves. Shit, it's not even the 1980's, when we were forced to wait for a nightly news broadcast for updates, or a new episode of 60 Minutes or Time Magazine to get an in-depth interview or profile. The shit is easily and instantaneously accessible to us all, and a new candidate can and would be publicly vetted for worthiness within a matter of days, if not hours. The sooner we get started, the better the likelihood of success.

@17 "Even with a cold, he would have done better without surrounding himself with those awful people at Camp David."

Would he though?

I'm surprised no one has commented on Bronny James being overdrafted. It's pure nepotism and I'm not having it.

Xina how are you not incensed?

@20 I am much more NOT surprised by the lack of comments on so much bad news by "moderates" today.

@10 "the SCOTUS decision is correct"

I am thrilled at the thought of Gorsuch having to bone up on his extensive knowledge of chemistry so he can formulate his august opinion of pfa's or other pollution

"The fact that Congress is nothing but dysfunction, is on the voters"

Never mind the supreme court declaring that corporations and oligarchs were entitled to buy elections or the press being owned by the same interests that own congress.

@11 the primaries are over. It's not an area of expertise, it's understanding reality. And it includes the additional obstacle of Biden refusing to step aside and drop out and demand someone else be chosen as the candidate. My lack of expertise in any area doesn't change the fact that we are FUCKED and the Democrats don't get to blame the Republicans for it, they are responsible.

@8 Israel is having illegal real estate sales of settler plots in the West Bank in the United States - Los Angeles and New Jersey are two of the states doing most of these events. We truly are the United States of Israel. Israel has no right to build settlements in the West Bank. Israel has no right to donate hundreds of millions of dollars to politicians they want running our country. Israel has no right to slaughter the entire population of Palestine, using American taxpayer dollars and weapons.

If it isn't crystal clear yet, no one in power in the government of the United States cares about the law or morality. The deeply sick depraved indifference to all life to keep the most wealthy obtaining more wealth and those in power in power is why we're in the situation we're in and it's not going to be undone, it's never going to be undone. To quote another we are living in the apocalypse. The only thing that is not certain is how long it's going to take and my bet is 2050, if not before.

@14 In fairness I don’t think Biden necessarily wanted to run again, but after the midterms when it was clear that Trump was running again and every other viable candidate was polling either the same or worse against him than Biden was I don’t think he felt he had much of a choice. I mean he did just give a sharp and good state of the union just a few months ago, so there was some reason to believe that he was the best positioned. Nearly every alternative polls even worse than he does, they would have needed the last two years to try to build up their brand and campaign over the last two years to get into a competitive position which no alternative has. Biden is now stuck with the prospect where even if he does forfeit the nomination (which by the way is the only way that can happen, he would have to decide) he might feel he’s leaving the party in a lurch by not giving a new nominee the time to try to campaign into a competitive position. State by state strategies and spending plans have been set for months and would have to be totally tossed to the wind with a different nominee. There is no good option for him.

@15,

It truly is awe-inspiring (not sure if I could quite bring myself to call it "enviable" or not) the extent to which the GOP will utterly debase themselves to support a a candidate they're on record as despising. All four of the people said to be left in his VP candidate pool have said terrible things about Trump. That Vance dude called him "America's Hitler" ffs! And he could be on the ticket! To say nothing of Ted Cruz and others like him who spent months and months viciously attacking him before finally realizing that having a functioning moral compass is a detriment to excelling in his chosen career path.

Those idiots like Ahab and D13R who argue that our system isn't fundamentally broken have got their heads so far up their own asses it's coming out the other end.

@27 I don’t necessarily disagree the system is broken, where we diverge is the progressive desire to burn everything to the ground.

You have to assume many people are not just disheartened but actively feel lied to. Biden was visibly dying multiple times onstage. They're going to wonder who's been acrually making decisions/running the country! There need to be serious shakeups in the Democrat party during Trump's 2nd term to come back from this in 2028.

@26,

All fair and valid points for sure. I remember back in like 2019 or '20 or whatever thinking I could reluctantly support Biden on the condition he was emphatic and and unwavering as being one and done. Feel like if he'd maybe been up front and forthright with such a claim other candidates probably would have had an easier time generating support and momentum. Whatever though, not much sense in reliving it now. Given there seems to be near unanimous and bi-partisan support for an age limit restriction, I wonder if someone in Congress could/would at least initiate some legislation on that front.

@10- the Chevron/Loper Bright decision doesn’t deal with the right to a jury trial. It deals with cases reviewing agency action under the Administrative Procedure Act. It does, however, deal with the Republican desire to destroy any functioning government.

What folks are forgetting is waiting until the convention will be too late to place said nominee on several key state ballots (that’s the impetus behind the virtual roll-call prior to the convention). If Joe chooses not to step down, then congratulations - he’s your nominee.

And for the umpteenth time, Presidents are not monarchs - they oversee the executive branch but are not making all the decisions on their own (that’s why they have a cabinet). Genocide Joe is not singlehandedly deciding anything (just like Trump before him and Obama before him). We can all wish some hypothetical dream candidate would have won but they didn’t - Joe won. I suggest those on the far left steal a page from the republicans and realize it’s the party not the candidate.

@20 - basketball is slightly less important than the end of American civilization.

@20 Bonny James was a first round prospect on merits, his cardiac arrest and near death at USC is the only reason he fell to the second round.

We're screwed.
I expect Federal recognition of same-sex marriage to be invalidated by the end of 2025.
Steve Miller and other neo-Nazis will run domestic policy. The USA foreign policy is in shambles.
And all because the Democrats had 4 years to hand the ball off to someone more dynamic, and they couldn't do it.

Gavin Newsom + Liz Cheney Ticket. That would take care of it. Cross party lines. When 'Merica was first a thing, the president and the vp were always of on the opposite side of the aisle. First place got to be president, second place got to be VP ... now, clearly, I don't want THAT (trump as VP? lol.. biden as prez... even bigger lol - note: I like him, but he's too old now. Time for Jill and the kids to sit him down and take away the car keys.. nicely). Anyway, my point is that we gotta forgo what we would normally do and just shut this shit down. Newsom/Cheney '24. I'd vote for that. So would a lot of independents.

@36

I'd likely vote for that too*
tho I'd Prefer Sheldon
fucking Whitehouse
and maybe Cheney
but Whitmer's
got Serious
Chops too

Not getting
onto the Ballot's
gonna make it Fucking
Hard to defeat the Idiot
damn Dems just lay down

we Need some
Fucking Firebrands

is there No One
to Save us? let's hope
you're Wrong xina but it's Not
looking Good. maybe Eltrumpfster'll
choke onna motherfucking Cheesburgher

*my Favorite Episode
of The West Wing was
one called 'the Supremes'
where President Jedidiah did
something similar which Worked.

Michelle Obama.

Cop shot a guy?
Cop shot a homeless guy?
Cop shot a guy and it was dark out?

Wait a minute, lemme see :
. "He looked like he had a gun".
. "He looked like he was reaching for a weapon".
. "He tried to take my gun away".
. "He attacked me".
. "He had drugs in his system".
. "He fit the description".
. "There was an open warrant".
. "He moved too fast".
. "He didn't move fast enough".
. "He acted suspiciously".
. "He failed to obey a lawful order".

Some things never change.

So fascinating how people elected Trump in a white supremacist hissy fit to Obama's presidency and people believe the Obamas should somehow stand up and save us. Fuck that. I say leave them alone.

If white people gave a fuck about saving this country white people wouldn't be giving us Biden vs. Trump. We are going to get exactly what we deserve. Centuries of exploitation and dehumanization and people believe this country can ever overcome what it has done: to Native Americans, to Black people, to black and brown and poor people nationwide and worldwide in the name of more money and more power.

The only reason everyone is freaking the fuck out now is because they realize, FINALLY, that the wealthy and powerful don't give a fuck about anyone, not even all of the stupid poor white people who vote for them in the name of fascist hate. It's astonishing. The wealthy and the powerful will take everything they can take from everyone they can take it from (their utopia is a country of an entirely imprisoned population used as slaves to make the wealthy wealthier and never having to pay a cent in taxes to pay for anything). Poor white people and their dreams of fascism protecting them from everything they've been complicit in doing to everyone else since the beginning of time.

I can't fucking believe I have to witness this. I have no idea how long I will even live, so not sure exactly how much I will witness. What I have seen in my lifetime so far is enough. Human beings have not evolved one fucking bit. They crawled out of the muck violent as fuck and have done everything possible to destroy the planet on which they live and all life on it since that moment.

Humans literally could have been ANYTHING and we're nothing but greedy, soulless pigs who deserve miserable, horrifying deaths. And the wealthy and powerful will die just like everyone else, they'll just be the last ones. Good for them.

Good thing debates rarely sway voters. People already have strong opinions about both these chuckleheads. No one jumped to other side after last night.

omg:

nyt:
OPINION:
THE EDITORIAL BOARD:

To
Serve
His Country,
President Biden
Should Leave the Race

June fucking 28, 2024

more most Stunningly for this gray olde lady appehttps://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/28/opinion/biden-election-debate-trump.htmlaring repeatedly beyond him.

catchin’ Up’s
a Good Thing
Adios smokin’
Joe! You were

fucking
AAAMAZING!

however

It may be Time
for some
Grace,
Sir.

You
Remember her, sir

You shorely put on one Hellova
Show sir. And THANK YOU
FOR YOUR SERVICE!
HAPPY RETIREMENT!
YOU’VE EARNED IT!

SIR!!!

@36,

Oh man, that's batshit insane and freaking great, I genuinely love it. Shit, just about any dem and Liz would probably win convincingly. I could see my man Cory Booker and her being quite formidable.

I guess I will have lived to see 60.
I feel absolutely sick.

'Unfathomably Cruel': Billionaire-Backed Justices Rule in Favor of Criminalizing Homelessness

"Maybe the right-wing justices could empathize with the most vulnerable Americans if they spent less time jet-setting on luxury vacations on their wealthy benefactors' dime," said one critic.

"SCOTUS just criminalized homelessness."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/grants-pass-v-johnson

Why White supremacy is actually killing White people

A true racial reckoning includes, interrogates and eventually extinguishes all systems of oppression. That includes capitalism. That includes patriarchy. It’s not carpet cleansing. It’s carpet bombing.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/17/us/damon-young-race-reckoning-blake/index.html

10 ways white supremacy wounds white people: A tale of mutuality

White supremacy insidiously tricks white people not only into believing that we are supreme simply because we are white, but also that the end of white supremacy would mean an end to our own survival.

https://afsc.org/news/10-ways-white-supremacy-wounds-white-people-tale-mutuality

White males who are die-hard white supremacists and their fellow travelers have and will continue to create hypothetical hurts, slights, and people (especially theoretical children) to create their ideal nation-state. One that fully represents their worldview while fully denying the rights and humanity of everyone else. And while hate may be the trigger for white supremacists to commit their domestic terrorism, power and the pursuit of such is white supremacy’s everlasting fuel.

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/6/27/white-supremacys-hypothetical-harms-and-violent-delights

Why America can’t escape its racist roots

the nation needs to reject white supremacist ideology, bigotry in policing, and segregation

there needs to be a reckoning with the nation’s legacy of slavery and white supremacy

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/06/orlando-patterson-explains-why-america-cant-escape-its-racist-roots/

@1 stjerome: I share your feelings. I feel so overwhelmed.

@9, @24, @25, and @41 xina: We as a country certainly haven't learned anything from the rise of Adolf Hitler.
Or history---period.

Michelle Obama.

Kahless said, "Great [people] do not seek power. They have power thrust upon them."

https://youtu.be/1ZYI-xE_H1I?feature=shared

@59 "For Democrats to win, they would need to embrace someone less progressive than Biden."

No they just have to embrace someone who can complete a sentence. People aren't worried about Biden's policies being too progressive (other than people who would feel the same about Mitt Romney) they're worried he is no longer mentally or physically up to the challenge.

@Ahab: "For Democrats to win, they would need to embrace someone less progressive than Biden."
Conservatives always project that, all the time.
And I think they tried that, she was called Hillary, and while she was smarter, more experienced and more eloquent, the people said no (for various reasons, a lot having to do with her unlikeability, but her voting for wars and supporting Israel unconditionally definitely had something to do with it).
Hard to motivate people when your main campaign theme is: less of an asshole.
At least a (younger) Bernie type might fire people up. There could then be a debate about what we want for a country. Even the old Bernie wouldn't have allowed the Trumpster fire to lie for 90 minutes.

"For Democrats to win, they would need to embrace someone less progressive than Biden."

The Democratic party machine is a huge tent (from rightwing neoliberals/neocons to left wingers) but progressives make up a large fraction of its demography and its electoral appeal. Without progressives the party can't win and the overwhelming support of Democrats for medicare for all, progressive taxation, minimum wage laws, labor rights and unions, regulation of industry and finance, protection of the environment and combating climate change, proper funding of education and public services, inclusion of diversity in all its forms, etc .. underline the importance of progressive ideas for successfully turning out the vote for Democrats, probably most independents, and those who gave up on voting because it didn't change anything.

Picking a candidate less progressive than Biden, who is already far from being a progressive if you consider his political history (deregulation and outsourcing, end of personal bankruptcy as we knew it, Iraq war, immigration, gaza, and on) would probably reinforce the perception that Democrats are tone deaf to the plight of the majority of Americans for whom this economy isn't working and accordingly deflate voter turnout.

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/biden-to-discuss-future-of-his-re-election-campaign-with-family-at-camp-david-nbc-news/

@73 It's not about what I want. It's about what is best to energize the vote and win elections. Running another Clinton is pretty much certain to lose it for us. Someone further right would do worse. Picking someone middle of the road to retain the progressive vote is best.

@74 Number 1 issue is making the ends meet at the end of the month by far. Immigration/borders is only of significant consequence because there is no push back against corporate media's push to make it a big issue. Establishment Democrats are amplifying the right's discourse about immigration. This will cause a significant loss of the Latino vote whether we like it or not. I am not aware of any progressive running a campaign so these polls you are talking about (if they exist) are worthless. Last significant poll in that regard we had was when Sanders would handily defeat Trump.

@77 If you are denying that corporate media spent a huge amount of time covering "the border crisis" in terms favorable to right wing framing, there isn't much I can do for you.

“The Democratic Party is more invested in trying to maintain control than it is in trying to win an election in November,” said one DNC member.
https://theintercept.com/2024/06/28/biden-debate-dnc/

@73 "If progressives think Donald Trump better fits their values, they are free to stay home and not vote for Biden."

More than any other Presidential election in recent memory, if (when?) Biden loses it will clearly not be the fault of progressives. That said this line of argument has always been funny to me: pre-election Dems arrogantly threaten progressives "what are you gonna do, stay home?" then if they lose they cry about progressives staying home. Because of course giving progressives any reason to vote FOR their candidate would be way too crazy.

must be Challenging
stuck right 'twixt
Progressives &
Regressives

'specially with a Center
insidiously slipping
right into the
Abyss

whilst the water
Slowly comes
to a boil