The Conversation -- June 30, 2024
Presidential Race
Fritz Farrow, et al., of ABC News: "President Joe Biden's campaign on Saturday night, in a fundraising appeal to supporters, said the president dropping out would only 'lead to weeks of chaos' and leave the eventual replacement weakened ahead of a November faceoff with ... Donald Trump. 'The bedwetting brigade is calling for Joe Biden to "drop out." That is the best possible way for Donald Trump to win and us to lose,' Biden deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty argued in the email to supporters." MB: An ignorant, partisan, shortsighted POV. The Democratic convention could be the most exciting party convention in our lifetimes, and it would turn into "chaos" only if Biden and other party leaders and convention organizers planned it to be chaotic. The eventual winner should be ushered in like a hero on a white horse, saving the country from disaster. If Democrats can do anything right.
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Carol Lee, et al., of NBC: News: "President Joe Biden is expected to discuss the future of his re-election campaign with family at Camp David on Sunday, following a nationally televised debate Thursday that left many fellow Democrats worried about his ability to beat ... Donald Trump in November, according to five people familiar with the matter. Biden's trip was planned before Thursday's debate. He and first lady Jill Biden are scheduled to join their children and grandchildren there late Saturday.... One Democratic House member who believes Biden should drop out of the race -- but has yet to call for that publicly -- told NBC News that three colleagues expressed the same sentiment to him during votes on the House floor Friday."
Lisa Lerer, et al., of the New York Times: "The 48 hours after the debate were a frenzied campaign within a campaign to save [President] Biden's suddenly teetering candidacy, a multiday damage-control effort to pressure and plead with anxious Democratic lawmakers, surrogates, activists and donors to stand by the president.... His campaign has been criticized as insular and insistent, so the burst of activity signaled that the debate fallout had turned into a real crisis that spun those in his orbit into a frantic battle mode.... After a frenetic run of seven campaign events across four states since the debate, Mr. Biden himself is taking a pause for a preplanned family gathering at Camp David. He arrived late on Saturday and will be joined by his wife, Jill Biden..., as well as the Biden children and grandchildren, according to two people familiar with the scheduling.... But the timing and circumstances of Mr. Biden being surrounded by the very family members who have been crucial in his past decisions to run for the presidency -- or to sit out a race -- have heightened the stakes and scrutiny surrounding the Camp David retreat"
Toluse Olorunnipa & Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "... after a debate performance where his stumbles and meandering responses sent shock waves through the Democratic Party, [President] Biden's enormously consequential decision to run as an 81-year-old after initially saying he would be a transitional figure has come under harsher scrutiny, raising fresh questions about his small circle of advisers and the Democratic leaders who facilitated his unprecedented push to remain in office until age 86.... There were always warning signs. A Washington Post-ABC News poll in September 2022 showed that 56 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning Independents said the party should pick someone else as their nominee.... 'Obviously that debate was a [f----ing] disaster,' Jon Favreau, a former Obama speechwriter and podcast host, wrote on X afterward, suggesting that Democrats needed to have a 'serious discussion' about replacing Biden as their nominee." (Also linked yesterday.)
Kara Voght of the Washington Post: Jill Biden is still backing her husband's candidacy -- and providing cover. MB: Sounds like an intervention is required here, too.
Gregory Krieg, et al., of CNN: "... the Democratic donor class is in crisis, racked by anxiety over what -- if anything -- the party's wealthiest backers can do to reinvigorate or replace [President] Biden, whose campaign has commissioned new polling to assess the damage. The vast universe of wealthy Biden backers and their political whisperers has split along three lines. One faction is arguing that a pressure campaign urging the president -- who has been adamant he will not step aside -- to drop out would be a self-defeating nonstarter. Another is calling for a middle-of-the road approach, saying party leaders should consider drastic steps only after the fallout from Thursday night is more closely examined.... A third group of donors and advisers, with fewer direct ties to Biden world and less influence within it, is proactively calling on Democrats to quit wasting time and immediately begin the process of seeking out a new nominee...."
David Remnick of the New Yorker: "For the President to insist on remaining the Democratic candidate would be an act not only of self-delusion but of national endangerment.... At this point, for the Bidens to insist on defying biology, to think that a decent performance at one rally or speech can offset the indelible images of Thursday night, is folly.... So much -- perhaps too much -- now depends on one man, his family, and his very small inner circle coming to a painful and selfless conclusion. And yet Joe Biden always wanted to be thought of as human, vulnerable, someone like you and me.... There is no shame in growing old. There is honor in recognizing the hard demands of the moment." Firewalled.
Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "In Washington, people often become what they start out scorning. This has happened to Joe Biden. In his misguided quest for a second term that would end when he's 86, he has succumbed to behavior redolent of Trump. And he is jeopardizing the democracy he says he wants to save.... Jill Biden, lacking the detachment of a Melania and enjoying the role of first lady more, has been pushing -- and shielding -- her husband, beyond a reasonable point.... He has age-related issues, and those go in only one direction.... James Carville, who also said awhile back that the president should renounce a second term, told me Biden should call former Presidents Clinton and Obama to the White House and decide on five Democratic stars to address their convention in August." (Also linked yesterday.)
Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "Democratic voters and lawmakers keep backing much older candidates for president and congressional leadership posts, even though there are plenty of youthful up-and-comers." (Also linked yesterday.)
digby: "... it must be noted ... that as much as Biden blew the debate and missed his opportunity to dispel the concerns about his age, Donald Trump blew it too. He may have appeared more vigorous but he couldn't control himself and behaved once again like the undisciplined, lying, vulgarian who half the country already hates.... He spewed a torrent of lies, was rude and insulting and delivered what was probably the most memorable line in any presidential debate in history: ... 'I didn't have sex with a porn star.'... That's the least of his various crimes and sexual misbehavior but it's the one he felt compelled to deny.... He made faces and insulted Biden to his face, at one point calling him a criminal and a Manchurian candidate. If anyone had said 10 years ago that this would happen at a presidential debate they would have been laughed out of the room....
"Biden has been a successful president in my book and I have every expectation that his administration will continue on that path in a second term. But if he becomes convinced that this debate has ruined his chances and he decides to drop out, I just hope that the party can resist the temptation to devolve into a bloodletting free-for-all that empowers Trump even more. If there was ever a time to keep calm and carry on it's now." ~~~
~~~ Philadelphia Inquirer Editors: "... lost in the hand wringing [over President Biden's disastrous debate performance] was Donald Trump's usual bombastic litany of lies, hyperbole, bigotry, ignorance, and fear mongering. His performance demonstrated once again that he is a danger to democracy and unfit for office.... The only person who should withdraw from the race is Trump. Trump, 78, has been on the political stage for eight years marked by chaos, corruption, and incivility. Why go back to that?... He dodged the CNN moderators' questions, took no responsibility for his actions, and blamed others, mainly Biden, for everything that is wrong in the world. Trump's response to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection he fueled was farcical. The debate served as a reminder of what another four years of Trump would look like. More lies, grievance, narcissism, and hate. Supporters say they like Trump because he says whatever he thinks. But he mainly spews raw sewage.... During his last term..., Trump spent chunks of time watching TV, tweeting, and hanging out at his country clubs.... Trump didn't read the daily intelligence briefs. He continued to use his personal cell phone, allowing Chinese spies to listen to his calls.... Trump didn't read the daily intelligence briefs. He continued to use his personal cell phone, allowing Chinese spies to listen to his calls." ~~~
~~~ Cheryl Rofer in LG&$ is of the impression that this Inquirer editorial is not firewalled. MB: I was able to access the editorial. If you cannot, Rofer has a bit more of it here. The editorial is a summary of the Trump's Greatest Hits.
Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump's top advisers are planning to drastically scale back and simplify the official platform of the Republican Party, according to a memo sent to the party's platform committee.... The memo -- signed by Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, the former president's two lead advisers -- described their efforts to pare down the platform 'to ensure our policy commitments to the American people are clear, concise and easily digestible.' It dismissed past platforms as needlessly 'textbook-long' documents shaped by 'special interest influence' that had left the party and its nominee open to attacks from Democrats." ~~~
~~~ Marie: The follow-up memo -- which I have obtained in a Reality Chex Exclusive -- lays out the full text of the new platform: "Trump alone can fix it."
Maxiine Joselow of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration moved Friday to protect 28 million acres of public lands in Alaska from oil and gas drilling, mining and other industrial activities that could threaten Alaska Native communities, vulnerable wildlife and pristine ecosystems. The move bolsters President Biden's conservation record..., and it may help him court climate activists.... But his latest decision is certain to anger Alaska lawmakers, including Rep. Mary Peltola, a popular Democrat who faces a tough reelection race.... In a final environmental impact statement released Friday, the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management outlined several options for managing 28 million acres of public property across Alaska. The 'preferred alternative' calls for retaining protections for these lands that the Trump administration had proposed revoking. In a separate announcement Friday, the Bureau of Land Management finalized its decision to block a controversial road in northern Alaska. Although Ambler Road would be crucial to operating a planned copper and zinc mine, the agency determined that its construction would cause irreparable harm to Alaska Native communities and the already declining Western Arctic caribou herd." ~~~
~~~ Marie: No need to fret, Alaskans. With a new Trump presidency* on the horizon, "Drill, Baby, Drill" is just around the corner -- assuming potential miners sufficiently grease Trump's palms. I'm thinking a Trump-licensed fishing resort on federal lands. Featuring maybe an Alito Bar & Grill and a Clarence & Ginni Ballroom to make sure there are no Article III hiccups.
Scott Dance of the Washington Post: "The torrent of water pushing the Rapidan Dam to the brink of failure this week came from one of southern Minnesota's wettest stretches on record. For the second time in five years, near-record floods pounded the century-old structure and clogged it with trees that died during intervening years of drought.... Though this crisis didn't live up to [realistic] worries, it underscored ways that extreme precipitation could overwhelm infrastructure not designed to endure it -- and how other environmental, economic and social problems can cascade from there, experts said.... 'We're not prepared for this new climate regime,' said Whitney Clark, executive director of Friends of the Mississippi River.... Around the country, infrastructure is being tested by new precipitation extremes." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Not to worry. Trump alone can fix it. When he's president* again, we'll have Infrastructure Week every week, just like before. There's nothing quite like a Trump Infrastructure Week. Well, except for all the other Trump Infrastructure Weeks, when, on account of Article II, he does whatever the hell he wants. ~~~
** The Verge: "Since the New Deal era, the bulk of the functioning US government is the administrative state.... Even when Capitol Hill is not mired in deep dysfunction, the speed at which Congress and the courts operate no longer seems suitable for modern life. Both industry and ordinary people look to the administrative state, rather than legislators, for an immediate answer to their problems. And since 1984, the administrative state largely ran on one Supreme Court precedent: Chevron USA, Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).That decision has now been overturned.... The administrative state touches everything around us: net neutrality, climate change, clean air and water, and what scant consumer protections we have." Read on. Various Verge staff report on how the Court has weakened the administrative state and speculate on how overturning Chevron will further undermine federal government protections of American life. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Bear in mind that the new "deciders" will be federal judges with no expertise on the matters before them. Some are intelligent enough to recognize their ignorance, of course, and will go right ahead and defer to the agencies. But others, like some of those Trump appointees deemed unqualified by the ABA even to be judges at all, are ideologues whose judgments will always oppose any sort of effective regulation of business & industry or any sort of "meddling" by medical, scientific or safety experts. And the final arbiters will be those six winger Supremes who reckon the best analyses are to be found in friend-of-the-court briefs submitted by biased, corrupt, right-wing zealots.
** Dave Philipps of the New York Times: "At least a dozen Navy SEALs have died by suicide in the last 10 years, either while in the military or shortly after leaving. A grass-roots effort by grieving families delivered eight of their brains to the lab, an investigation by The New York Times has found. And after careful analysis, researchers discovered blast damage in every single one. It is a stunning pattern with important implications for how SEALs train and fight. But privacy guidelines at the lab and poor communication in the military bureaucracy kept the test results hidden. Five years after Lieutenant [David] Metcalf's death [by suicide], Navy leaders still did not know. Until The Times told the Navy of the lab's findings about the SEALs who died by suicide, the Navy had not been informed, the service confirmed in a statement.... The vast majority of blast exposure for Navy SEALs comes from firing their own weapons, not from enemy action. The damage pattern suggested that years of training intended to make SEALs exceptional was leaving some barely able to function." ~~~
~~~ Marie: This might be the most shocking instance of "failure to communicate" that I have ever read. My best guess is that this inexcusable failure is the result of rigid chain-of-command rules, wherein reports from "random agencies and facilities" have almost no way of reaching leadership. This is the great flaw in the testosterone-heavy top-down org chart and a military code that eschews rocking the boat. Here lives were lost, others ruined or diminished and families shattered because of it. And for no good reason.
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Oklahoma. Kate Selig of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked Oklahoma from enforcing its new immigration law that would make it a crime to enter the state without legal authorization to be in the United States. The ruling, issued just days before the law was set to go into effect on Monday, is the latest legal setback for Republican-controlled states that have tested the limits of their role in immigration by passing their own legislation meant to crack down on people who crossed the border illegally. The Justice Department maintains that only the federal government can regulate and enforce immigration." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Don't worry, Oklahomans. The Supremes will fix that right up for ya. They are totally into letting local communities decide whose very existence is criminal. You will soon be rid of the masses yearning to breathe free.
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Iran. Farnaz Fassihi, et al., of the New York Times: "A reformist candidate critical of many of the Iranian government's policies, including the mandatory head scarf law, will compete next week against a hard-line conservative in a runoff election for the country's presidency, Iran's interior ministry announced on Saturday. The runoff follows a special vote called after the death last month of the previous leader, Ebrahim Raisi, in a helicopter crash. A second round of voting, which will pit the reformist, Masoud Pezeshkian, against Saeed Jalili, an ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator, will take place on July 5."
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Joe Walsh on the right-wing
Michael Tae Sweeney - "The way the one-way ratchet of reactionary power works"
Defeat Project 2025 has a good rundown of some of the policies and consequences of Project 2025.
I wonder if Congress could write into the legislations that ambiguities in the laws or regulations should specifically be handled by the overseeing agency's experts. I know the current court would probably ignore or rule it unconstitutional, but if the deference to the regulators was written into the legislation it could give them some possible legal protection. And potentially keep the planes in the air.
A Sunday Sermon on Project 2025 written for the local paper but not yet delivered....
In the fall of 2016, on the sidewalk by Mt. Vernon's city hall, I had a brief conversation with an acquaintance about the upcoming election.
At the time, I was not enthusiastic about Hilary Clinton’s candidacy, but I was far less so about Donald Trump’s. There were already too many questions about his knowledge of how the world worked (his laughable claim that Mexico will pay for a border wall), his veracity and his shady business dealings. The man I was talking to disagreed with me. He said he’d vote for Trump because “it’s time for a change."
I wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but he did get what he wished for. The country has certainly changed in the last eight years. There were already signs that some of that change was coming, and not all because of Trump. During the Obama years, Republican Tea Partiers had mounted an angry campaign against the Affordable Care Act and tried to halt its passage. Beginning with his Obama birther lie, Trump defined himself as the Anti-Obama. He promised to repeal the ACA and replace it with a better, more affordable plan that, like his infrastructure promises, seemed constantly to recede into the distance during his four years in the White House. Instead, he scuttled the Paris Climate Accords and the Iran Nuclear Treaty, weakened the NATO alliance, and rolled back Obama-era taxes on corporations and the very wealthy.
There were other changes, too. From day one, Trump’s lying continued. The Washington Post counted 30,573 during his four years in the White House. That mountain of lies was quite a change. His promise to staff his administration with the “best people” redefined what “best” means. Dozens who worked closely with him in his administration or businesses have since been embroiled in either ethics or criminal investigations. Some resigned, some were criminally charged, and some were convicted. The Trump administration set records for corruption (crew.org), but his scheming to remain in office after losing the 2020 election had to count as the greatest change of all.
That was then. Now, as Trump runs for office again, the Heritage Foundation has published a 900 plus page blueprint for a Trump second term. Its Project 2025 (project2025.org) recommends even more remarkable changes. Most could be summarized this way: If you don’t like what most American citizens want, just ignore it. Attack democracy, question elections, call the government a name (communist, socialist, the deep or administrative state) and weaken or destroy it.
Project 2025 recommends changing the Social Security retirement age to 70, increasing the cost of prescription drugs for those on Medicare, hamstringing the Obama-era Consumer Protection Bureau that has already returned over 20 billion dollars to defrauded Americans, expunging climate change from the Environmental Protection Agency’s responsibilities, defunding improvements to the electric grid needed to deliver wind- and solar-generated electricity, removing most regulatory impediments to further fossil fuel extraction, and weakening workers’ power to organize.
To accomplish these and dozens of other Republican anti-government dreams, Project 2025 recommends expanding the powers of the president and replacing thousands of civil service employees who do the real work of government with party yes-men who will only to nod their heads and do what they’re told.
None of this should surprise anyone who checks the Heritage Foundation’s finances. Koch industries and other petrochemical giants contribute generously to its support, as do many corporations that desire less government oversight. Conservative foundations, themselves funded by wealthy corporations and families that would rather not pay taxes, also shower their tax-free largesse on Heritage (wikipedia.org), which now denies climate change, is allied with anti-vaccine forces, has forged ties with anti-immigrant Christian Nationalists, and has hopped on the Stolen Election bandwagon.
Many Project 2025 recommendations parallel Trump’s words and behavior. We know Trump thinks presidents should be able to dictate policy to every government department, even the Department of Justice—as long as he’s doing the dictating. We know he’s eager to give fossil fuel companies free rein over our public lands—if they contribute a billion dollars to his campaign (washingonpost.com). We know the oligarchic Mellon family that recently gave Trump’s campaign $50 million was the Heritage Foundation’s largest initial donor (philanthropydaily.com). We know Project 2025’s proposals are distinctly anti-democratic.
Eight years later, as the 248th anniversary of a nation born in the belief that “all men are created equal” approaches, I wonder if these are some of the changes that Trump supporter had in mind.
@RAS: Yes, that's the obvious solution. I think the courts would then have to defer to the experts -- except in cases where the Thomas-Alito Court could hold that the experts overreached (and overreach does happen, in reality). But still, the Supremes might get quasi-realistic & deny cert to a lot of challenges to regulations.
However, whatever the make-up of Congress, I doubt your suggested intelligent legislation would pass unless the Senate abandons the filibuster.
@Ken Winkes: Great Sunday Sermon. Here's mine. Well, okay, not a sermon, but a response to @Patrick's comment yesterday. Patrick wrote, in part,
"... Just to say, the Bible is not susceptible to reduction to K-12 syllabuses.... So, somewhere, some people are trying to put together a 'Bible syllabus' for Oklahoma, that is teachable material. At some point, the various people trying that will fall out over the meaning and importance of what they put together. There is no such thing as a non-sectarian catechism. They will give up and fall back on something like 'The Bible for Children', pretty stories with pictures including blue-eyed Jesus. And Oklahoma children will wonder why they have to do Sunday school on school days."
Quite right. I would say it is utterly impossible to put together a "Bible studies" curriculum for K-12 public schools. For instance, what could be more fundamental than the creation story? Well, okay, there's more than one creation story in the Bible, but let's not quibble.
Suppose Miss Athie Izzim teaches the kiddies, "This is a nice story, but it's like a fairy tale. It isn't real. It isn't true. The creation of the world and life on it took millions (billions??) of years. Every kind of life -- from dinosaurs and lizards to human beings -- evolved from other kinds of critters." Of course all the good church-going Christian parents will go nuts.
But suppose, on the other hand, Mr. Evan Jellikle teaches the kids that Earth is 6,000 years old (or whatever) and that women come from Adam's rib. And if it weren't for that serpent, we'd all be cavorting around naked and pure as the driven snow. If there's a sane adult in town, she will be outraged.
On a university level, professors can teach non-required courses on the history of & philosophy behind religious texts, including the Protestant Christian Bible. But even most high-school seniors aren't ready for such an intellectual exercise. Sadly, neither are many of their parents.
Interesting sermonette, Marie
What with all of the god stuff in the news lately (not just Louisiana and Oklahoma and their Ten Commandments commandments but states directing tax money to private religious schools), have been thinking of taking on the god business in my next short sermon. Might try it and test the limits of our local paper's editor's tolerance.
@Ken Winkes: The paper shouldn't object if you approach your opinion as an endorsement (or at least a healthy acknowledgment) of the First Amendment's establishment clause. After you're through writing, try reading it through the eyes of a person who would vehemently disagree with your POV. If you feel that person would be justifiably offended because of something you've suggested about their belief system, edit. Your goal here is to get published, not to express outrage.
@Marie
Good advice. Thanks.
Marie wrote:
"The Democratic convention could be the most exciting party convention in our lifetimes, and it would turn into "chaos" only if Biden and other party leaders and convention organizers planned it to be chaotic. The eventual winner should be ushered in like a hero on a white horse, saving the country from disaster. If Democrats can do anything right."
Well said! I completely agree.
Ezra Klein, writing in the New York Times expands on that idea.
What kind of party would be trying to make a change after Thursday night? A party that was doing its job.
I do wish that all the folks calling for Biden to step aside had some good ideas about who could successfully replace him.
And if trump can be beaten by just "any" Democrat, why not Biden?
My take on this is that the most logical candidate would be the present vice president. But I think we all know that is a stretch.
Who else comes to mind? And Gretchen Whitmore actually has some of Kamala's negatives and Sherrod Brown is 72 and I believe I read that Gavin Newsom has dyslexia.
Before you shove Biden off the ballot (because of one "debate"), have a serious thought about his replacement.
pat -
I would not push Biden off the ballot for one bad debate but think of Thursday as the latest (and most important) missed opportunity to explain (with clarity and passion) his administration's accomplishments and goals for the future. We are told issues such as immigration and inflation are important to voters, but what exactly is Biden's point of view on these subjects? (If he explained that on Thursday, I missed it.) Surely someone in the democratic orbit can better push back against the firehose of trump lies and also reassure voters and the all-important big money donors.
Biden’s accomplishments:
1 Passed the $1.2T bipartisan infrastructure
2 Stopped a 30-year streak of federal inaction on gun violence by signing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act
3 $369B investment in climate change
4 Provided $10K to $20K in college debt relief to those with loans who make under $125K a year.
5 Cut child poverty in half via the American Rescue Plan.
6 Capped prescript drug prices @ $2k per year for seniors on Medicare
7 Achieved historically low unemployment rates after the pandemic caused them to skyrocket.
8 Rejoined Paris Agreement.
9 Strengthened NATO
10 Gave Medicare the power to negotiate prescription drug prices
11 Boosted the budget of the Internal Revenue Service by nearly $80B
12 Created more jobs in one year (6.6M) than any other president in U.S. history. Overall 14.8M jobs, about 4.9M higher than befre Covid.
13 Reduced healthcare premiums under the Obamacare by $800 a year The number of people without health insurance has gone down; enrollment in ACA marketplace plans is at its highest point.
14 Signed the PACT Act to address service members’ exposure to burn pits and other toxins. 15 Signed the CHIPS and Science Act to strengthen American manufacturing and innovation.
16 Reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act through 2027.
17 Reaffirmed that elections matter
18 Reaffirmed that a woman’s right to choose matters
Sorry he didn't have time to mention all of this.