Dems Appear Frail, Incoherent in Debate Debate
July 3: Dems post-debate performance … Hurricane Beryl … Jack Smith cases … RFK Jr. assault claim …
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Media commentary and grim new polling strongly suggest that the Democratic Party came off scattered, disjointed, and at times incoherent in its post-debate performance.
In this week’s post-debate debate about last week’s debate, the party at times seemed lost, unsure of itself, and unable to give coherent answers to the simple question of whether its incumbent and presumptive nominee should drop out. Some Democrats haven’t even been audible in the debate debate.
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (R-DTX), whose district includes progressive Austin, yesterday became the first congressional Democrat to call on Pres. Joe Biden to call it a day, writing, “President Biden saved our democracy by delivering us from Trump in 2020. He must not deliver us to Trump in 2024.”
But Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) said Biden should stay in. Further jumbling the Democratic message, Clyburn threw in a non sequitur, letting folks know Vice President Kamala Harris had his support “if [Biden] were to step aside.” (In 2020, Clyburn helped Biden win the South Carolina primary, reversing the campaign’s losing course.)
Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) was so disoriented that he couldn’t figure out whether to go on TV last Sunday and share his concerns. Biden ally and fellow Delawareianerite Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) intervened and gently led Manchin out of a scheduled appearance on The Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart.
In one sign of the party’s weakened cognitive state, Biden’s top aides held a meeting about the issue earlier this week…with Republicans. According to the New York Times, Biden campaign chief Jen O’Malley Dillon and White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients met with unnamed Never Trump Republicans, who said Biden should drop out of the race. Hearing Republican voices is a well-documented symptom of Democratic mental instability.
Forecasters say it’s unusually early in the election season for media to develop into a category five storm for Democrats. That’s due in part to the storm being fueled by man-made sources of heat, primarily the passionate belief media have that they should be listened to when a synaptic blurp feels like An Important Thought.
Polls after the debate showed little voter movement. Polls during the media freakout in the debate debate show voters shifting away from Biden.
The party leaders’ leaders — rich people — are also debating what to do about the debate, the New York Times reports because that’s who the Times reports on/for. Rich Democrats are said to be deciding how to save democracy, to whatever extent you can still call it a democracy when rich people are deciding shit.
Some big donors reportedly eyed pressure campaigns to get Biden to step down, but those efforts fizzled because rich people are notoriously bad at politics, and arguing that Biden doesn’t see the problem because he’s surrounded by sycophants would be difficult for wealthy people, whose only advice and counsel comes from sycophants.
Nevertheless, hedge fund leaders are still discussing and exploring how they can save the party and the presidency with the same skills and experience they used to hollow out America’s economy and turn Main Street, USA, into a depressing, half-vacant strip mall where the only vegetation is a Dollar Tree.
What to do about Biden is also expected to be a prominent and heated topic at that bastion of democratic political engagement, the annual Allen & Company summit of chief executives next week.
But nothing’s worked so far. Even Mika Brzezinski’s attempt to shock Democrats with an electric rant Monday failed to stabilize erratic Democratic hearts.
The party’s conflicting internal dialogue is so jumbled that Pixar is said1 to want the rights for Inside Out 3. And the party’s health now appears so fragile that the White House put out a 911 call to some Democratic governors.
They’re arriving at the White House today because their response time is really slow. Some will participate remotely because something something telehealth. The point of today’s meeting is to address the Dem governors’ concerns, shared amongst themselves in a call of their own on Monday that yielded a mixed diagnosis.
Among those racing to deliver mouth-to-ear resuscitation today to Biden’s campaign is Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA).
One of the top “what about that guy” guys mentioned as a Biden replacement, Newsom will be at the White House in person today. “To stand with the president,” a Newsom spokesperson said, probably fueling Democratic fears that Biden has trouble standing.
Biden is expected to seek second opinions about his political health in the coming days, and treat the persistent, nagging doubts plaguing the party. He’s got campaign events in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin later this week, an interview with George Stephanopoulos Friday, and an actual by God news conference next week.
Wow, a grueling schedule like that could kill a guy! Politically, of course! Because in those appearances, the appearance of any significant symptoms could lead to a dire new prognosis for the campaign and party.
Keep in mind, Democrats always have doom-spirals, even on the way to ultimate victory. So why is it we never see Republican freakouts like this? Two (2) reasons. At least.
The GOP can’t signal that they think they’re losing, because then they can’t claim it was stolen.
Tor the media it’s no fun spending hours to tell a party what to do if that party doesn’t give a shit. Democrats care way too much, so media can’t resist.
No one delivers tirades telling former Pres. Donald Trump what to do because they already know he’s not capable of understanding it anyway.
We don’t get to know whether things will be better off with or without Biden atop the ticket. But we can say who does need to drop out, and that’s the Trump who appears in Democratic fever dreams, because that’s not who most voters see.
And who really needs to stop panicking are the end-of-democracy folks. Trump may represent a quantum leap away from democracy, but he’s not reversing a pro-democracy trend. There is no bright democratic/not-democratic line between Trump and the long-standing Washington culture of secrecy around everything from national security to how bills are written (by lobbyists).
The good but annoying and scary and counter-intuitive news is that the Democrats’ current cognitive mess is the democracy that’s at stake. With the exception of the rich donors thinking (correctly) that they get to decide shit, messy debate is why we’re here, what we’re fighting for. With each other!
So, I don’t fault Democrats for having this debate, the debate Republicans never had about Ronald Reagan or Bush The Younger. I do fault the party for not having this debate in 2020. Or 2023. And for squelching a robust primary. Everything, in other words, that wasn’t democratic, everything that facilitated this late-in-the-game post-debate debate.
The way Democrats and democrats can start winning reliably, comfortably, is by championing this mess, publicly loving it because this is how everyone gets heard. That’s democracy.
Beryl Barrels Through Caribbean
Hurricane Beryl is now the strongest, most damaging storm to hit this early in the season since the chaos and casualties caused by Pres. Joe Biden’s debate performance.
Beryl has gone back and forth from Category 5 and 4. Both are dangerous and life-threatening.
It’s expected to miss Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the rest of the U.S., although earlier forecasts anticipated a possible Texas landfall. But today it’s forecast to hit Jamaica and, later this week, Mexico, although it’s hoped Beryl will weaken by then.
Fatalities have been reported in Grenada, Venezuela, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
If you’re wondering whether Beryl is stronger and earlier due to man-made climate change, yes. And there’s more to come, especially for people too poor to have changed the climate.
Washington Erects Heat Shield for Nation’s Workers
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration yesterday proposed new rules, the first ever, to give workers explicit, specific protections from the heat.
The rule would require corporations not to boil workers to death more than absolutely necessary as sacrifices to please Mammon. Specifically, companies will have to develop methods of preventing extreme heat exposure, train workers to that end, monitor workers in extreme heat, and improve responses to high temperatures.
Some requirements will kick in when the heat index hits 80°. More kick in at 90°. And at 100°, any surviving workers will have no recourse but to take shelter in Scandinavian-style socialism.
The new rules will benefit farmworkers, delivery drivers, builders, road-workers, construction-workers, and others who labor outdoors but will vote for Donald Trump anyway even though it will kill them because Democrats won’t talk about this rule because they know media won’t talk about them talking about this rule.
And people ask why they should share The Fucking News!
If finalized, the rules are expected to be implemented in time for Trump to undo them for all five months of Summer 2025.
Jack’s Heart Will Go On
Special counsel Jack Smith will continue to pursue his two criminal cases against former Pres. Donald Trump even past Election Day, even if Trump wins, even though the Supreme Court just gave Trump a crown, and even though Trump will have Smith drawn and quartered by four Cybertrucks.
Smith is prosecuting Trump for stealing government documents and trying to steal the government.
The New York Times reports that Smith will continue those prosecutions all the way to Inauguration Day, even if Pres. Joe Biden decides to violate the 14th Amendment by letting a known insurrectionist take public office.
Citing an unnamed person who knows Smith’s thinking but definitely isn’t named Smith, the Times says Smith believes the Justice Department mandate and authority for his prosecutions doesn’t end on Election Day. Which, duh. In fact, they also doesn’t end on Inauguration Day. So let’s hope Smith forces hypothetical re-President Trump to openly politicize the DOJ — by shutting the cases down himself — which Smith can only do if he keeps going after Inauguration Day.
Presumably working remotely from Brazil.
Great News for Great Britain
With the Supreme Court sending back the founding fathers’ gift of representative democracy for being too restrictive on Donald Trump, the United Kingdom is poised to try it on for size tomorrow.
Tomorrow is Independence Day in the U.S. and therefore the world, like it or not, and to celebrate the U.S. declaring its independence from overweening, despotic rulers, Brits are expected to do the same.
That’s right, while it may feel as though much of the U.S. and Europe are succumbing to right-wing autocracy kleptocracy, Great Britain is bucking the tide.
Polls show that the British Conservative Party, aka the Tories, is expected to lose in parliamentary voting tomorrow. Lose so bad it’s being called an “extinction-level” event, which seems only fair as right-wing policies extinct lots of other species.
The anticipated losses mean Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will join the many other recent Conservative prime ministers in the “footnotes of history” category.
The Tories currently hold 365 seats in the House of Commons. But they’re forecast to become a lot less common, and hold only 53 after tomorrow. That’s an almost-literal decimation.
The Labour Party is expected to end up with 516 seats. Unfortunately for Britain, the Tories have managed to pull Labour to the right, so expected new Prime Minister Keir Starmer is no British Bernard Saunderres.
Turnout is expected to be low, given dissatisfaction with both parties. Starmer, for instance, has backed Israel’s extended field trip in Gaza. Where Labour stands on the National Health Service (NHS) — the once-beloved working example of socialist medicine which is in not-great health after 14 years of Conservative un-leadership — is unclear.
But Labour reportedly has pledged an NHS reset. And Starmer’s wife is a nurse. In the National Health Service.
Today, RFK Jr. Truly Became a Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the former… uh, I guess he’s never actually done anything? … the current leading spoiler candidate for either Pres. Joe Biden or former Pres. Donald Trump, in a podcast yesterday responded to an accusation of sexual assault by saying “I am not a church boy.” Which is a little confusing, because a lot of church boys commit sexual assault.
Kennedy’s former babysitter told Vanity Fair that Kennedy assaulted her in his home in 1998. Eliza Cooney was a live-in nanny for Kennedy and his wife at their home in Mt. Kisco, NY.
Cooney described numerous inappropriate encounters and said that Kennedy ultimately “began groping her,” as Vanity Fair wrote.
“[H]e came up behind me,” Cooney said. “I was frozen. Shocked.”
In a podcast yesterday, Kennedy said:
“The article is a lot of garbage” [not a denial].
“I have said this from the beginning. I am not a church boy’ [definitely not a denial].
“I had a very, very rambunctious youth” [admission of something].
“I have so many skeletons in my closet that if, if they could all vote, I could run for king of the world” [admission of serial somethings].
“Vanity Fair is recycling 30-year-old stories. And, I’m not, you know, going to comment on the details of any of them. But it’s, you know, I am who I am” [plagiarism of Popeye and admission he not only did what he did but is who he is].
“I’m not going to comment on it” [admission of non-denial and a lie since he did comment on it].
Kennedy already has a documented, public record of repeat assaults on multiple vaccines and the scientific method. His new, semi-admission of sexual violence was widely seen as an attempt to peel off voters who dislike Trump personally but approve of his violence against women.
Five Quickies
The Islamic leaders of Afghanistan have been doing what devout religious extremist men of any faith do when they establish a theocracy: Raping people. A videotape of armed men raping an Afghan human-rights worker in a Taliban prison is being used as a threat — not against the men or the Taliban, but against her. They’re threatening to release the tape unless she stops criticizing the Taliban, not even understanding that the Taliban are the ones who should be shamed — and imprisoned — for what they do in the video. She’s fled Afghanistan. And she’s still speaking out.
On a totally related topic, Republican voters have successfully eliminated all Republican women from the state Senate in Ofsouthcarolina. The final solution of the GOP’s gender-cide in the state chamber was accomplished via primary voting last month. The three (3) surviving Republican women in the state Senate all lost their primaries, after joining arms with Democrats to block a total abortion ban. Their departure means that Republicans will finally be able to concentrate on banning IVF without getting distracted by thoughts of tampons, menstruation, or what women are wearing.
On the other hand, the Republican Party is increasing its pushback against the abortion foes who are going to cost them at the polls in November. The Republican National Committee, now controlled by
LaraDonald Trump, terminated the terms of two anti-abortion hardliners on the platform committee, even though they were just one week away from delivering…their opinions at next week’s committee meeting.Former Pres. Donald Trump’s sentencing — for deceiving 2016 voters by concealing hush-money payments before he realized voters would love that he cheated on his wife with a porn star — has been delayed until Sept. 18. The judge ruled that the court needs time to consider whether Monday’s Supreme Court immunity ruling obviates the conviction. I know, I know, it sucks, but this also means the case will still be relevant a lot closer to Election Day and the final presidential debate, putting Trump’s crimes front and center and, ideally, provoking Trump into being more cartoonish than he was at last week’s debate.
After cutting prices, Tesla sales fell in the second quarter of 2024. Again.
Long-Weekend Beach Reading!
Need some meaty weekend newsfucking reading to lose yourself in? If you haven’t read them yet:
TFN on Trump’s immunity ruling.
You might have missed my latest reporting on Ukraine (I didn’t email it because I get the sense it ticks off some otherwise-discerning Newsfuckers, who sometimes unsubscribd!) If you are interested, despite its lack of snark or even editorializing, I’d love for you to check it out here. Feels like kinda a big deal if Ukraine, with a 2% evangelical population, falls to a non-violent invasion of the Christian right.
TCB
I know, I’m late today. Since I’m taking off until Monday, I wanted to make sure I had plenty of newsfucking in today’s TFN. I’m tempted to say I’ll do a bonus TFN over the long weekend if enough folks upgrade to paid or make a one-time donation, but that would be wrong.
Besides, you know I probably won’t be able to help myself and will bang one out regardless!
Either way, you can let me know what you want on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, Mastodon, Spoutible, and/or Threads.
Now go give yourself a good, restful, rejuvenating long weekend. And, if you have to work, know that the rest of us will be back fighting for you on Monday…
Go get ‘em, kids. You got this.
By me, for the sole purpose of this joke, not to reflect reality.
“…where the only vegetation is a Dollar Tree.” 🤣 (I definitely inherited my father’s love of clever lines.)
The VF article on old brain worms rehashed so much ick. It would be swell if this is the last time we have to put up with a Kennedy nepo-jerk in the immediate future.
I wish I could be as brave as the Afghan women that are still fighting. When all you have left to lose is your life I imagine it seems like a good bargain. We’re too soft here - which is how we all want it for our children. I’m hopeful that our kids will save us.