Odds and Sods
A cornucopia of topics, and no real closure. I am getting old. I am as horrified by the debate as anyone. I might have bested my prior record for footnotes. It's been a complicated week.
It sucks to get old. I helped my kid sister with a Costco run (we have the card, they needed supplies for a family reunion on my brother inlaw’s side) and I pulled a muscle in my upper back that makes my neck hurt.
Then, today I go to log into my music site, and it asks me a series of questions when this hits me like a 2x4 in the face:
Fuck, I am at the top end of their spectrum. That isn’t good.
The Debate
I purposely chose to not watch it, and I have avoided most of the punditry around it, but my brief post Friday seemed to sum it up well. Biden shit the bed (yeah, make all the excuses about the firehose of logorrhea1 from the tangerine rhinoceros, his cold, and being over prepared. Also save the criticisms of Bash and Tapper, they did what they told us they were going to do, fuck-all2.)
But the chorus of punditry on the major news sites, as well as the Never Trump ecosystem was predictable and wrong. I did watch about half of Rick Wilson’s vid on this, that he and TLP were still all in on working to defeat the Donald. But the hair on fire, fantasy politics that I saw from dipping my toe into The Bulwark was discouraging.
Look, I get it, you’re on the side of righteousness, that you are working to defeat Trumpism. But the alacrity with which they latched onto the disaster of a performance it was by Biden with the chance to swap for one of their favored dems was really disgusting.
I am sure you all (the NT cohort, not my awesome readers) think that (Whitmer/Shapiro/Newsom/???3) is going to give you a chubby that you can then flash to your friends before you wank off, but I tend to agree with Daniel Drezner:
The question, for those of us who do not want to see a second Trump term, is: “what now?” And this is where there some cold water is called for, because there are really only two viable choices:
Stick with Joe Biden; or
Have Biden resign the presidency sometime this summer, Kamala Harris sworn in as President, and have Harris be the Democratic Party nominee.
That’s it, those are your options. Everything else is nonsense.
I highly recommend reading this post, and subscribing, he is great:
Look, I think that Harris would make a fine president, but if you think that the Democratic party, a notably inchoate caucus with several factions would stand for sidelining a woman, and an African American woman for a pasty white middle aged dude, or at best a white woman (in Gretchen Whitmer) you really need to put the bong down, because that would hand the election to Trump in spades.
If Biden does decide to step aside, you get Harris as the nominee. Does that stir your loins?4
Didn’t think so. But it is what will have to happen. And any thoughts of a contested convention is just a fever dream.
Mainstream Media
It seems that every time I post something from the Post, or the Times, or even The Atlantic, I get a handful of people telling me that it is trash, and that I should cancel my subs. They invariably tell me that they did, and often that they fired off a snarky message to their support team about their disappointment in their paper.
But this is wrong. First, there are really only a handful of news organizations that field reporters and fund reporting nation wide, and indeed worldwide. In the US, that is mostly the NY Times, and the Washington Post.
While I agree that their editorial direction is dogshit, and that their desire to balance between liberal and conservative viewpoints in their opinion area leads to platforming some ridiculous and odious bipeds, there is still a ton of great reporting. That is worth paying for.
Outside of the US, The Economist5 is worth reading, especially if you work in any business, as their reportage is fantastic. When I traveled internationally a lot, I caught a fair dinkum of BBC and CNN International. At least until my international travel abated in the early 2010’s, CNN International was heard and shoulders above their stateside dreck.
If you cancel the Post and the Times, and you find yourself ensconced into a cocoon of MSNBC, and YT sources like Meidas Touch Network, Palmer Report, and Brian Tyler Cohen, you are just as bad as those who gravitate to Fox, OANN, and Newsmax.
Use your brains, and sift through the crud to find the worthy reporting.
I will admit that we need no more journalists visiting diners in middle America to suss out what motivates Trump voters. We know they are beyond salvage, and one more chicken fried steak isn’t going to give that “Aha!” moment.
Go ahead and rage quit the Times and the Post if it makes you feel better, but you are losing something6, and all the pontificating about how good it made you feel to deprive them of your ducats isn’t helpful.
At some point in the future, I need t expand on why I think that the proliferation of micro news sites via platforms like Substack can’t be the future, but today isn’t that day.
What now?
Suddenly the DNC (or some other related group) seems to have hoovered my cell number, because in the aftermath of the debate, I got my first batch of begging for donations from the Biden team. I know goddamn well that I never gave them my cell number, so they are fucking spamming me.
That pisses me off7.
But that is a dodge. Look, in any rational world, Trump would be persona non-grata, and the Republican establishment would have kicked him to the curb, but we don’t live in that world.
Furthermore, a convicted felon, with more charges over his head would be shunned by the electorate, but clearly there is enough appetite in the general population for a proto-dictator criminal twat-waffle that Trump is a coin flip from winning.
About 6 months ago, I mentioned that it was likely that Trump was going to win, and today, in the aftermath of the debate, that remains the case. I would be remarkably surprised if Trump’s polls don’t swing enough in the crucial states where a few thousand votes being switched will lead to an electoral college victory by the mandarine hippo.
Sucks, but no matter how many of you swear you can’t believe that to be the case, or that we as a country can’t possibly elevate Trump to the presidency again, we can, and we are far too likely to do it.
I listened to yesterday’s “Focus Group” podcast and while it was pre-debate, it was an audience of Clinton-Biden voters who are looking hard at Trump because eggs are expensive or some such bullshit.
And their mental gymnastics that would make Simone Biles blush to get to Trump was disheartening.
Nope, if we elect Trump to the presidency, it is because that is who we are as a nation, and we will deserve all that is on deck to fuck the vulnerable communities. Marriage equality? Expect that to be wiped out. Expect reversals on Griswald, Lawrence v. Texas, and Obergefell, as we return to an era where it was great to be a white male, but pretty much sucked to be dark skinned, or to lack a Y chromosome.
It is a bleak time my folks, and I am not sure how this ends.
But I do know that political fan-fiction daydreams about swapping in a Never Trump favorite son is not going to work. It is Biden, or Harris, and that is where I will throw my support.
Ridin’ with Biden. Because the deplorables are just fucking awful.
I just love this word, a tasteful way to describe verbal diarrhea. Perfection!
Seriously, if you are expecting the media to be a bulwark against the burst dam of falsehoods, you might be special.
I even saw someone pitch that the Dems should drop Biden and loop in Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger as President/Veep. This is not wish casting, this is fucking delusional, and they need help. Badly.
Oh, and there is a cohort of my liberal friends who think that Joe steps aside and anoints Gavin Newsom, because he’s a progressive god, but I swear that will ensure not only that Trump wins the EC, but he will likely win an out and out majority of the vote.
When I traveled frequently, I took The Economist as a physical delivery, because I would read each weekly issue cover to cover while I was on airplanes and in hotel rooms.
And if you lament the loss of real journalism, but aren’t willing to pay for the few outlets that still populate a reasonable number of beat reporters, then I got nothing.
Mainly because I guard my cell number, and my wife does all the donations. And hoo-boy, does she get an avalanche of pleas for money from all quarters.
What Charlotte said.
Also, wait until you hit 64 - then you are happy to hit 65 and start getting Medicare coverage. I retired from practicing law at 55 and individual health insurance was almost as much as my mortgage 🙄. But last year, Pres Biden gave me a health insurance subsidy and that made it much more affordable. I know that he personally didn’t do it, but it sure didn’t happen under the orange moron!
My Thoughts: Keep the Biden/Harris Ticket through the Election THEN Biden Retires and BOOM… We Have Our First Female Black President who Is Not a Moderate! If I remember correctly SHE Ran for President and now has had 4 Years of Practice!
PS: You Aren’t Old Until You Have To KEEP SPINNING THAT WHEEL LONGER TO GET TO YOUR BIRTH YEAR…!