Well, “this was the week that was,” eh?
Yes, this first thing happened last Friday, but this national shitshow is conducive to writer’s block. Still we thought it was important for us to note this here, as it touches this county: Our South OC Congressman Mike Levin last Friday became the 18th (and far from last) Congressmember to call on Joe Biden to withdraw from the Presidential ticket and “pass the torch” (most certainly to VP Kamala Harris, for several compelling reasons.)
We confess that when Levin first ran in the 2018 primary, we didn’t trust him much, preferring progressive Doug Applegate, but he turned out to be a great Congressman and has been pretty easily re-elected twice, from his South-OC / north-SD district. And it’s ironic that we depicted him as a “courtier” when what he did last week was most decidedly un-courtier-like. The story of how he came to confront President Biden on Friday is actually pretty interesting and amusing, to those who follow OC politics.
It was supposed to be a very tightly controlled, Biden-loyal event – a “private” call between the President and BOLD PAC, which is a PAC that “supports strong Hispanic candidates and candidates who embrace bold policies.” The two gatekeepers, who were supposed to be the only ones talking to Biden, are well-known to us: OC’s Lou Correa and Linda Sanchez, who are Biden holdouts (I almost want to say “Biden dead-enders.”) After a little innocuous, positive, back-and-forth, the call was supposed to be over, but Levin wanted to talk, Biden gamely said, “Okay, one more question,” and Mike respectfully asked him to bow out and pass the torch.
Hey – sounds like something we would have done! Lou insists that Biden “answered Levin completely, and then the conversation ended,” and that Biden’s response was “eloquent.” According to CNN, the President’s response was:
“That’s why I’m going out and letting people touch me, poke me, ask me questions. I think I know what I’m doing – because the truth of the matter is – I’m going to say something outrageous – No President in three years has done what we have in 3 years other than Franklin Roosevelt, because of your help. That’s not hyperbole, that’s a fact. No President. And so that doesn’t answer the question. That’s – that was great when you were feeling good, Biden, are you okay now? That’s what’s underlying. That’s what people are worried about. ‘I’ve got a grandfather who’s 85 years old and he can’t walk.’ It’s a legitimate concern for people, but that’s why I think it’s important I gotta get out and show people everything from how well I move to how much I know and that I’m still in good charge.”
Grumbled Correa afterwards, “Everything was leaked. This thing went from just a molehill to a mountain.”
Congressman Levin released a statement later that day:
“Like so many of you, I was naturally concerned about President Biden’s performance in the recent debate.
“Since then, I’ve made my opinions known in the appropriate manner with House Democratic leadership and my colleagues. And I called upon all Americans to give the President a window to make an expeditious decision about his candidacy.
“In the two weeks since the debate, I’ve had a chance to connect with so many of you, our constituents and supporters. The response from literally several hundred of you has been overwhelming, and I’m very grateful for your candor.
“First, let me say that President Biden has been an outstanding leader, not only of our nation, but of the entire free world. Making this statement is not easy. I have deep respect for President Biden’s five plus decades of public service and incredible appreciation for the work we’ve done together these last three and a half years. But I believe the time has come for President Biden to pass the torch.
“We must prevail against the incalculable threat Donald Trump poses to the American institutions of freedom and democracy. Donald Trump actively seeks a bleak authoritarianism and the overthrow of the values which have guided us towards justice and prosperity for nearly two and a half centuries.
“Once again, our national mettle must be forged in the crucible of history. It is time to move forward. With a new leader. Together.”
Well said, Mike Levin!
***********
But that was six days ago,
and so much has happened since then:
2. MANY others call on Biden to pass the torch.
Adam Schiff now. Jon Tester. Jamie Raskin. Behind the scenes, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, and reportedly even Barack Obama. The excuses Biden gives for hanging in there these past three weeks are getting hard to count and sadder by the day – it’s ALL ABOUT JOE! The recriminations from his dead-enders are infuriating, and a lot of them are embarrassing themselves and squandering their credibility. Apparently all of us in America who want new blood in the race are “political elites.” And they scold us that we’re forgetting the real danger of Trump – no, Trump is EXACTLY why we can’t risk losing with Biden!
We are being MAJORLY GASLIT by BOTH Parties now.
Democrats who’ve been happy with him and are afraid of change cling to him like a pacifier and cry over Joe’s hurt feelings. Meanwhile the ten percent of independents and semi-informed voters we need to beat Trump won’t be inspired to get off their couches without an exciting choice. Most Americans have been saying for a year that they wish they had someone more inspiring, and younger, to vote for. Many (not all) of the politicians calling on Biden to drop out are Democrats running in close races, and I worry here about lack of enthusiasm for the election sinking the campaigns of Derek Tran and Dave Min. And the Trumpublicans hope Joe hangs in there, they WANT to run against him, that’s what they’ve prepared for!
It’s true when people say that Biden has been the best President of our lifetimes. Imagine the wave of respect and deep gratitude that will sweep over the nation when Joe Biden finally gives in and passes the torch! (I have my piece ready.) Nothing like this has ever happened before. But then, EVERYTHING is new these days.
It’s feeling right now that we’re reaching critical mass. I hope to start next week with a Kamala vs. Trump ticket. And then it’ll be a whole new world.
3. Some twerp shoots at Trump – were we being too mean?
The attempted assassination in Butler PA Saturday was a great pre-convention propaganda coup for Trump, making him look heroic, persecuted, immortal. But the misfit kid who did it wasn’t motivated by any anti-Trump ideas – I was about to write that this was the kind of character who woulda just as soon shot at Biden or Jodie Foster if they’d-a come to Butler, and SURE ENOUGH, now I see on the news that the FBI DID find pictures and schedules of Biden as well as Trump on his phone.
Still, that didn’t stop lots of prominent Republicans from blaming the shooting on Democrats, and on the generic “they” who “tried to kill Trump” (same as the “they” in the Lee Greenwood song who want to take away Lee’s flag, or Lee’s freedom, or Lee’s flag standing for freedom, or something.) And it didn’t stop Democrats from fretting guiltily that “Maybe our anti-Trump rhetoric is too harsh and divisive,” and pausing their advertisements (which they should immediately fucking restart right now.)
Well? HAVE we been going overboard? I know that MY head hurts every day thinking of the dangers of a second Trump Presidency. Are we exaggerating when we say that’d be the end of America and democracy? I submit mostly not. Democracy dies by degrees, just as it has mostly grown by degrees since our Revolution started in 1776. But the following things are true for sure:
- The Supreme Court, having waited till the last week of their term, gambled that Trump will be the next President, and throwing caution to the winds, showed themselves to be a wholly owned Trump Subsidiary, ruling over one branch of our government. The formerly lawless autocrat is now freed to be a “Law? WHAT law?” autocrat. From Fifth Avenue to Seal Team Six, a President Trump Mach II will now be free to do WHATEVER THE HELL HE WANTS, and do you think he won’t? (And one of the first things he’ll do is replace the aging turds Thomas and Alito with young promising turds, and maybe even stack the Court further with the excuse “Well Biden was thinking of doing the same thing!”)
- All the just legal cases against Trump – for inciting January 6, for stealing and hiding classified documents, and for trying to steal the election in Georgia – will be completely dead. No trials, no consequences. And the tyrant has promised REVENGE on everyone who tried to pursue justice for his undeniable crimes – hell, revenge on anyone who has looked at him sideways. While the thugs who tried to keep him in power on 1/6/21 by beating and killing cops and shitting in the Capitol Halls will be freed, exonerated, and celebrated as heroes! Just shoot me now.
- Nothing grabbed the enthusiasm of the freaks at the Convention like Trump’s repeated promises of mass deportations – mass deportations of the immigrants on whom these miserable bastards blame everything from an imagined lack of jobs to an imagined crime wave to the fentanyl epidemic. This is not a promise he can or will break. And who is in line for Trump’s mass deportations? Not just the undocumented. Not even just the non-citizens here legally with green cards. Citizens too, who were born here. Anna Drive will be empty. THE PLAN IS TO END BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP, PART OF THE CONSTITUTION’S 14TH AMENDMENT, probably by executive order justified by some imaginary “emergency.” Trump can’t do that? You’re gonna stop him? You and WHAT
ARMYSUPREME COURT?
- Project 2025 is really a thing. An extensive to-do list for Trump’s second term, put together by fascists who worked for him in the past and fully expect to again. It’s easy to believe that Trump’s mind wandered off halfway through trying to read the first page, but all this shit is gonna be on his tiny desk for his angular Sharpie signature and he’ll hold it all up proudly with a grin with his tiny hands for approval like a malevolent kindergartener as a nation of victims sits back and waits for it all to go into effect.
And as the Lincoln Project warns, that’ll look a lot like this:
In short, NO. We have NOT been exaggerating. A second Trump term WILL be this bad. And we need to unite behind someone who can beat him.
4. The Trump Convention pollutes our lives.
How did the Trump Convention (or Mass Deportation-Fest) pollute YOUR life this week? I’ll tell you one way it polluted mine: This past July 4 I had just finally started to perform that “Proud to be an American / God Bless the USA” (in a medley with “This Land is Your Land” and Rhapsody in Blue.) I’d discovered that I only had to change a few lines to make it a decent enough song, people loved it, and I’d been doing it everywhere all month. Until…
After seeing that senile, draft-dodging, redneck elf Lee Greenwood squeaking out that 1984 song, his only hit, EVERY NIGHT OF THE CONVENTION, FOR TRUMP, who beams when he hears it… I just CAN’T anymore.
5. JD Vance as Trump’s mini-me.
The choice of Vance, it’s been pointed out, shows that the Trump Party (counting on Biden as their weak opponent) thinks they have the election in the bag. So they picked someone both very extreme and unstable, who also adds nothing to the ticket, adds nothing to the chances of Trump’s winning.
Upside? Some wag on Twitter, in the context of how Trump seems to love how tall Vance makes him look, suggested, “Hold Me Closer Tiny Vancer.” That’s all it took, for me. What do you think? Should I write more verses? This is probably enough:
Hill—billy
El—egy
Now look how big I am!
Once I was critical
But I’m hy—pocritical
Now I kiss the Rotten Yam.
I’m Putin’s puppet –
Ukraine can suck it,
And I want an abortion ban!
Now I’m in there
With America’s Hitler –
Tiny Vancer in Trump’s hand!
Now it’s finally real,
Standing here for Peter Thiel, with Master Trump –
And I can hear him
As he brays softly,
Damply:
“HOLD ME CLOSER TINY VANCER!
COUNT THE AGE MARKS ON MY NECK FOLDS!
HELP ME BEND THIS LAND TO MY– WILL,
AND ONE DAY THIS THRONE WILL BE YOUR THRONE!”
(repeat)
(Great, NOW I hear that’s just another Democrat myth – Vance is almost as tall as Trump. Still, moral midget much? Like Rubio, Cruz, Graham and all the others who gave up their souls to hitch themselves to the Alpha Monster?)
Okay that’s all for now. Back to local stories.
“It is a daily struggle, to see what is right in front of one’s face.”
Adam Schiff joins the Biden has go to go bandwagon.
14 million Democrats elected Biden nominee in the primaries a few months ago . Do you really think they all agree with Schiff & Levin?
1. We’re gonna need a lot more than 14 million votes to beat Trump in November – we’ll need at least 80 million.
2. I was one of the 14 million who voted for Biden and Harris in the primary, so I have a voice in this too.
3. All of us who voted for Biden in the primary also voted for KAMALA HARRIS FOR VICE PRESIDENT, with the understanding that, as vice-presidents do, she would step in whenever he was unable to continue the job – which sadly and awkwardly seems to be about now.
4. One thing all 14 million of us Biden primary voters have in common is WE DON’T WANT TRUMP TO WIN. It is looking like Biden has a worse chance of beating Trump than Kamala does.
5. Many of us 14 million feel hoodwinked by Biden’s handlers, as they have kept his condition out of the public eye for a long time. Republicans have been saying that for years, but we didn’t listen because they’re fucking Republicans. But the first sign was how they wouldn’t let him out of his basement to speak at the Superbowl, for the second year in a row. At the June debate we saw why.
6. Huge majorities in surveys, for the past year or two, have said they wished they had a choice for President who wasn’t a rambling octogenarian past his prime – and I’m sure many of them are among the 14 million who reluctantly voted for Biden in the primary. Like me.
7. I’ll probably think of some more answers to that 14 million thing.
You voted for Biden because you didn’t have a choice. But why blame his handlers? He’s been showing overt signs of feebleness for several years. He isn’t Konrad Adenauer.
14 million democrats aren’t running for office down ballot. Did the party really ever care about what they thought. National appears to have dead ended the party for one election victory against the Orange one. Don’t you get it?
Here is a great current take on Ginsberg’s “Howl”. Hat tip to a law school buddy who shall remain anonymous to protect their reputation.
file:///var/mobile/Library/SMS/Attachments/ba/10/AF148B7D-F561-4970-B05F-E2204E7F0EC7/Gerry%20Doyle%20I%20saw%20the%20best%20minds%20of%20my%20generation%20destroyed%20by%20illegal%20immigrants%20starving%20hysterical%20naked%20as%20a%20Miss%20Teen%20con.heic
A Party that purports to save the Republic from authoritarianism and protect the people’s right to vote can’t consistently disregard that vote and impose another nominee at the whim of some.
Well for better or worse Biden will have the last say in this. AND as I mentioned everyone who voted for Joe also voted for Kamala.
AOC is flipping out because she thinks if Joe goes a lotta Dems are gonna push for an open convention. That can’t be true! That WOULD be crazy.
An open convention would be a ratings godsend for the Dems. Harris would have the upper hand but there could be enough resistance to keep a first ballot victory from happening.
There hasn’t been anything but coronations shows since 1972 when Humphrey tried to grab the nomination from McGovern.
Noted.
Except then Steve’s argument about the 14 million voters regains some validity.
Why? Harris was not at the top.
Anyway, Joe’s gotta go. ASAP and quit dicking around. If he’d run in 2016 he’d be winding up his second term now and the Rotting Yam would have vanished altogether back into his swamp.
And that’s his exact grievance — he SHOULD have been able to run in 2016, but Hillary and the Clinton machine convinced Obama that it was time for Hillary despite he deficiencies as a candidate — which include the deficiencies in careful analysis of the rules that allowed Obama to beat her in 2008.
Biden should be finishing his second term right now. It was “time for a woman” — and she could have been Biden’s VP. But she wouldn’t go along with it — and Biden cannot give up that grudge — so that’s what gets us where we are.
We did a fine job blowing up Roe v Wade/women’s privacy rights. What makes you think voting rights were anymore sacred? And “elitist” dems like Harris even less than Biden. Just ask Nancy. The national party chose the election to do a rewrite. Stunning leadership skills.
Biden would have to acquiesce, at least in the absence of circumstances akin to those that would allow imposition of the 25th amendment temporary removal.
We won’t, and probably can’t, have an open convention for President. It pretty much has to be Kamala to survive a court challenge to the Supremely political Court.
But I don’t think that anything prevents an open challenge for Vice-President. And that will very likely pull in high viewership and be a fantastic forum for the next generation (or two) of Democratic politicians.
AOC’s other point — damn, she’s so smart! — is that Biden brings in constituencies like the elderly and union members, which we really do need to come out to oppose Trump.
I expect that union members will do so, on balance, regardless of what their leadership says. Biden did walk the picket line, they’ll be reminded.
But the elderly are more dicey. I don’t think that they necessarily need Biden on the ticket, but they DO need to see him treated with respect rather than being put out to pasture kicking and screaming.
That insight is core to my “flip the ticket” proposal: putting him in place as the Al Gore to Bill Clinton in that “Co-Presidency” is just about the greatest show of confidence of his wisdom, even if not his ability to avoid mental lapses, that there could be. It’s a proper place for him in his 80s, as he still had his instincts and his contacts, and I don’t think that it will scare off swing voters.
If he really won’t do it, we’ll have to elect him anyway, but I don’t think we’ll have enough company in the swing states.
Steve, I’d support you for VP in a hot minute — so it’s not about age per se — but you’d have to move to Nevada or Arizona until after the election so you can get CA’s electoral votes.
… AND THE DAM JUST BROKE!
When I get home I’ll write my In Praise of Biden piece pt 2.
(I wrote a piece with that title here back in 2008.)
And the Yamster swine are reacting with their usual dollop of gracelessness.
Gotta give old Joe some credit here. Suddenly a path to rid the republic of the Rotting Squash once and for all seems much more possible, maybe even probable.
On second thought I probably won’t. Everyone else and their mother is gonna be doing the same thing.
I just gave a donation to the Democrats instead, for the first time this year. And now I’m a-back to focusing on our Anaheim crooks.
Sleepy Joe is not Jimmy Carter.
Listen to the money talk.
He delayed the inevitable at what peril to the party. Lost a month deliberating over his departure.
Now Kamala’s elevation is likely to rip the party apart for all
to see.
Since we started this piece with Mike Levin, I’ll print his statement from today:
“President Biden’s decision is incredibly patriotic and the right thing to do. He put country first. I want to thank President Biden for his decades of public service to our country and his historic presidency. He has led our country with unwavering courage, conviction and strength. Our nation, and the entire free world, is better off because of his leadership.
“Now, we must come together to prevail against the incalculable threat Donald Trump poses to the American institutions of freedom and democracy. Trump seeks to overthrow the values and principles that have guided us towards justice and prosperity for nearly two and a half centuries. We cannot let him do that.
“I’m proud to follow President Biden’s lead in endorsing Kamala Harris to be our Democratic Presidential nominee. Vice President Harris is the right person to lead our nation forward and defeat Donald Trump and his extremist policies.
“It is time to move forward with Kamala Harris as our new leader. Together.”
Obama agrees with moi says hell no to Mamala! Michelle O in the wings?
https://nypost.com/2024/07/21/us-news/barack-obama-doesnt-endorse-kamala-harris-says-dems-will-pick-outstanding-nominee/
The battle lines have been drawn.
Are you Team “I didn’t have sexual relations with that woman” or Team “when they go low, we go high”?
Let the games begin.
Handy cheat sheet for if people ask you what Kamala has done as VP:
Okay, she was on a bunch of junkets here and there.
Mamala is considering Pennsylvania governor for her vp. Yeah Jewish vp is tone deaf. Good luck with that in the swing states. We are gonna need more than Pennsylvania to right the ship. And pro American Israel lobby ticket ain’t gonna cut it. It’s 2024 not 1996.
Michelle and Michigan governor Gretchen are 16-1Newsom 15-1 and Pa governor Shapiro 7-4 to win nomination as dem vp candidate.
I see Lou Correa’s photo up there. I’d also seen it a few hours ago, in the New York Times, where he was included in a gallery of the dwindling number of elected Democrats who had refused to endorse Harris. Nice way to draw attention, Lou! Hope you reap your just reward!