Monitoring Biden and other Contemporary Events

JESSE WATTERS (CO-HOST): Barack Obama, still the godfather of this machine. He gave us Joe Biden, his VP. He gave us Hillary, his secretary of state. Then he couped Joe, put all his boys with Kamala's team, and had his wingman Holder vet Walz. Now, the guy's a young 63, he's going to be doing this for the next 25 years.

He's definitely going to interfere in this election. That's why we'll be sending Johnny to Hawaii to get the truth about the birth certificate. This time, we will dig deep and find out what really happened.

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That's why we'll be sending Johnny to Hawaii to get the truth about the birth certificate. This time, we will dig deep and find out what really happened.

It's a typo, I left the w off now.

This piece by Thomas Edsall at the NYT is too extended to copy/paste here but I've never seen a better analysis of the dangers a second Trump administration would present. This is definitely a must-read piece. It's here.

This piece by Thomas Edsall at the NYT is too extended to copy/paste here but I've never seen a better analysis of the dangers a second Trump administration would present. This is definitely a must-read piece. It's here.

I think what actually is going to happen is...

Quote:

I think what actually is going to happen is...

This is a rather tough one to figure how it will play out. The size of a Dem win (if that happens) will likely be a big factor. Then there's the matter of how his court cases will go and to what degree the majority on the SC will provide him aid and comfort (not actually for him personally but for the goals of the conservative movement). Likewise, it seems certain that some GOP legal challenges by states around the election results will come up to that same court.

The party and its leaders along with RW media have made a huge, almost total, investment in Trump as figurehead for (and driving force behind) the modern movement. Turning that ship around won't be easy. As I've argued before, the people who now control the GOP and those who fund them are acutely aware of how close they've come to one-party authoritarian rule aren't just going to quit. Consider how quickly their criticisms of Trump after Jan 6 disappeared and how they came back on board in a matter of weeks.

At this point, every indication is that wherever they can mount challenges to the election, they will do that. If they win the House or Senate, all effort will be put towards crippling Harris' agenda just as they did with Clinton, Obama and with Biden. Even if Harris wins a trifecta, they will mount a concentrated campaign to propagandize every move she makes (as they did in Obama's first term). For these extremists, this is war. And let's not forget there are many billions of corporate dollars at stake (fossil fuels, banking, tech, etc).

But you're right, I think, to predict that many will wish to remove Trump from history and that sooner or later (unless things go really crazy) they'll have to shift to some new PR gambit that pushes Trump/MAGA out of the picture as was done with the Tea Party.

I don't mean to sound negative here. Ridding the world of Trump is a very good and very necessary step. But there's a larger problem which will remain. And here's where I'm hoping that the mainstream media grasps the threat that is posed by the deep corruption that marks the modern GOP and its media/propaganda system and how dire of a threat it is.

i say do something really egregious and force their hand

Kyle Griffin@kylegriffin1
The Harris campaign has assembled an expansive senior legal team — 10 times the size of the Biden 2020 operation — to address Republican efforts to challenge and undermine the 2024 election results.

Marc Elias is coming on board to focus on potential recounts.
https://nytimes.com/2024/08/17/us/elections/democrats-election-legal-challenges.html

In 1974, music writer Jon Landau saw a relatively unknown musician in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and wrote for an alternative paper: "Last Thursday, at the Harvard Square theater, I saw rock'n'roll past flash before my eyes. And I saw something else: I saw rock and roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time." The review helped to catapult Springsteen to stardom.

After three days at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, I feel like I have seen the political future and its name is the Democratic Party. But rather than feeling like I’m hearing politics for the first time, I am hearing the echo of political themes embraced in the best moments of America’s past.

The theme of the third day of the Democratic National Convention, held in the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, was “A Fight for Our Freedoms.” But the speeches were less about fighting than they were about recovering the roots of American democracy.

The Democrats have not lost their conviction that the reelection of Donald Trump and the enactment of Project 2025 are an existential threat both to democracy and to Americans themselves. Speakers throughout the convention have condemned Trump and highlighted Project 2025, a blueprint written by the Heritage Foundation and other right-wing organizations for a second Trump term. Although Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota governor Tim Walz, who was a high school football coach, notes that no one bothers to write a playbook if they’re not going to use it.

Tonight, comedian and actor Kenan Thompson illustrated the dangers of Project 2025 with humor, bringing home the horror of it as only humor can do. With a giant copy of the plan as a prop, he gave a woman married for eight years to her wife the bad news that Project 2025 would end protections for LGBTQ+ Americans, informed a woman who pays $35 a month for her insulin that the plan would overturn the law that makes drugs more affordable, notified an OBGYN that the plan would ban abortion nationwide and throw abortion providers into jail, and put a woman who called herself a proud civil servant on notice that Project 2025 would guarantee she would be fired unless she is a MAGA loyalist.

But the dark dangers of the assault of Trump and the MAGA Republicans on the country have finally pushed the party to move away from its customary caution and focus on policy to embrace the possibilities of a new future. The convention is electric, packed with young people who push jokey memes and poke fun at themselves, much as Walz and presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris are doing to deflect criticism, and who are sharing homemade politically-themed friendship bracelets that echo the homemade paraphernalia of singer Taylor Swift’s Eras tour.

And, after decades in which Republicans claimed the mantle of patriotism, now that the fate of democracy itself is on the line, Democrats are joyfully claiming the symbols and the principles of American democracy for their own.

During the Vietnam War in the 1960s and early 1970s, many Democrats shied away from symbols of patriotism because they seemed to support imperialism. Then, in the 1980s, Reagan and his supporters wrapped themselves in the flag and claimed it for their own. That impulse to define “Americans” as those who vote for Republicans has led us to a place where a small minority claims the right to rule over the rest of us.

The Democratic National Convention has powerfully illustrated that the rest of us are finally reclaiming the country and its symbols. The convention has been full of references to the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the American Revolution, the national anthem, and the pledge of allegiance. Tonight, attendees chanting “USA” waved signs emblazoned with the letters. Speakers, many of whom are military veterans, have testified that they are proud to be Americans. The theme of patriotism was even in one of tonight’s afterparties: Haitian-born rapper Wyclef Jean played The Star Spangled Banner with an interpretation that recalled Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock. “America is the best place to be,” he said. “I’m the best of the American dream. Welcome to America…. You know what makes America great? We’re a bunch of immigrants.”

As Jean indicated, that embrace of our history does not come with the exceptionalism of MAGA Republicans, who maintain that the U.S. has a perfect past that it must reclaim to become great again. Indeed, speakers have emphasized that honoring our history means remembering the nation’s failures as well as its triumphs. The Democrats’ patriotism means recognizing that despite the fact that the U.S. has never fully realized the principles laid out in the Declaration of Independence, it has never abandoned them either—a statement paraphrased from President Joe Biden, who has said it repeatedly.

Speakers have highlighted that the imperfect version of those principles has enabled their personal success stories. Speaker after speaker, from Harris and Walz, of course, to tonight’s speakers Maryland governor Wes Moore, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and journalist and television personality Oprah Winfrey, have recounted their own process of rising from humble beginnings to their current prominence,

Winfrey is an Independent who generally stays out of politics, but tonight she spoke passionately during prime time about electing Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Walz. When a reporter asked her why she was willing to make a political statement, she said: "Because I really care about this country. And there couldn't have been a life like mine, a career like mine, a success like mine, without a country like America. Only in America could there be a me."

The many stories in which ordinary Americans rise from adversity through hard work, decency, and service to others implicitly conflates those individual struggles with the struggles of the United States itself. Running through the stories told at the convention is the theme of working hard through a time of darkness to come out into the light. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning,” speakers have quoted the Biblical psalm, and they have referred to the vision of the American flag still flying after a night of bombardment during the War of 1812, captured by Francis Scott Key in the national anthem, promising that after our time of national darkness, there will be light.

The DNC has called not just for reasserting patriotism, but for reclaiming America with joy. It has showcased a deep bench of politicians, some of whom are great orators, repeatedly calling for joy in the work of saving democracy, and it has shown poets like Amanda Gorman and a wide range of musicians, from Stevie Wonder to Lil Jon to D.J. Cassidy to John Legend. The convention is designed to appeal to different generations—tonight actress Mindy Kaling helpfully explained to older attendees who she is—and younger attendees have handed out friendship bracelets saying things like “Madam Prez” to older people in an echo of the exchange of bracelets among Taylor Swift’s fans.

After an era in which politicians have seemed to lie to the American people, the convention has emphasized authenticity. It has featured testimonials about the candidates with speakers ranging from the candidates’ children and grandchildren, to extended family and, tonight, to members of the football team Walz coached. There have been stories of Harris’s cooking and how Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff awkwardly called her for a date, and fond memories of Walz pulling a student out of a snowbank, hunting, and caring for his children. The convention has emphasized that the American government is made up of individuals and that the character of the people we put into leadership will determine what that government does.

Further, the Democrats have made their points with the stories of individual Americans who have overcome dark hours in order to move forward. In that storytelling, individuals represent the nation itself.

The message of joy as we protect democracy, backed as that message is with four years of extraordinary accomplishments that have bolstered the middle class and spread opportunity among poorer Americans, has taken off. The convention has heard from three Democratic presidents and a range of other speakers, including a number of Republicans who have turned against Trump and are backing Harris and Walz. In July, Harris raised four times the money Trump did: $204 million to $48 million, much of it from small donors.

The palpable energy and enthusiasm in Chicago, based as it is in a celebration of American values—especially in the idea of American freedom—reminds me of the enthusiasm of 1860 or 1932. It is about ending the darkness, not indulging in it, and it requires the hard work of everyone who believes that we deserve the freedom to determine our own lives.

Tonight, after his acceptance speech, Walz walked off stage to a favorite song of his: Neil Young’s “Rockin‘ in the Free World.” Neil Young personally allowed the campaign to use the song. When the Trump campaign used it, Young sued to make them stop.

Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR) reposted
Miranda Yaver, PhD@mirandayaver
9h
Tim Walz: We can sleep when we’re dead.

NYT fact check: We do not sleep after we die.

And here's where I'm hoping that the mainstream media grasps the threat that is posed by the deep corruption that marks the modern GOP and its media/propaganda system and how dire of a threat it is.