A stopped clock Not a big Bill Maher fan, but this week’s show had some moments. Digby noted a big one. Here are some others. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● For The Win, 5th Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide GOTV planning guide at ForTheWin.us.
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Trump is not being cared for by a licensed physician but rather by his former “gentleman of the stool.” (Ronny “Johnson” is no longer a licensed physician.) Here is a letter that rivals his former Dr. Feelgood who distributed a dictated statement from Trump himself: He is not a real Dr and It appears he wasn’t one even when he was licensed. He was a pill pusher. It’s a shocking fact that he was ever the White House doctor. We have not heard from any legitimate doctor about Trump’s “wound.” Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a neuro-surgeon, has said that we need to know if there was any neurological damage which could have happened if that was, in fact, a bullet wound. It appears they have no intention of doing that. And it also appears that the press has no intention of pushing for “transparency” on the issue. I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that they have held Joe Biden to a very different standard. The Parkinson’s “debate” is recent. Remember this one?
If you want to see all the highlights, you can see them at @atrupar on twitter. If you just want to read through a succinct recap, here’s a handy one from @artcandee:
James Fallows is a great writer and a professional speechwriter. His examination of Trump’s dumpster fire of a speech and the media’s reaction to it is well worth your while. Every journalist and opinion writer needs to read it . The piece begins like this: This post has one central point. It is that the press should give “fair and balanced” attention to what each of the major candidates is revealing about temperament, competence, and cognition, especially in their public performances. Right now we have these opposing, imbalanced narrative cycles: —For Joe Biden, every flub, freeze, slurred word, or physical-or-verbal misstep adds to the case against him. There’s an ever-mounting dossier, which can only grow in cumulative importance. “In another difficult moment for the President….” “Coming after his disastrous debate appearance…” —For Donald Trump, every flub, fantasy, non-sequitur, “Sir” story, or revelation of profound ignorance dulls and blunts the case against him. “That’s just Trump.” “Are you new here?
I thought this was satire at first. It’s not: The problem in the real world is that there isn’t a Democrat who is polling significantly better than Mr. Biden. And quitting, as heroic as it may be in this case, doesn’t really put a lump in our throats. But there’s something the Democrats can do that would not just put a lump in people’s throats with its appeal to stop-Donald-Trump-at-all-costs unity, but with its originality and sense of sacrifice. So here’s my pitch to the writers’ room: The Democratic Party should pick a Republican. At their convention next month, the Democrats should nominate Mitt Romney. You read that right. I guess Sorkin as lost his touch because that wouldn’t be a lump in the throat it would be a primal scream. Besides, Mitt Romney is 77 years old. Come on. He’s not the only one. Get a load of the “plan” that’s being circulated for the “mini-primary.” Uhm. No. We’re not doing this. Biden has endorsed Harris and I believe the party will coalesce around her as well. This fantasy football stuff is nonsense.
Sunday July 21st was one of those “where were you when you heard” days that you’ll remember for a long time to come. I was online and I saw the news that President Joe Biden was withdrawing from the presidential race come across my social media feed in real time. A friend texted me “You were right, it wasn’t going to happen until the moment it happened.” That’s what I’d been saying for the past couple of weeks when people would get anxious whenever Biden would say that he was absolutely not dropping out. No candidate would ever say “well, I’m thinking of giving up.” They’re all in until they’re not. Since the night of the debate I was fairly convinced that the Biden candidacy was over. I kept an open mind, thinking maybe he really was just under the weather that night but it had opened the floodgates of concerns that had been out there for a while. The presidency ages everyone who is in it, even the younger ones, and it has clearly taken a toll on the president.
This is not a drill Republicans and their allies “are engaged in an unprecedented legal campaign targeting the American voting system,” a “wide-ranging and methodical effort … to contest an election that they argue, falsely, is already being rigged against former President Donald J. Trump.” You heard multiple speakers claim that this week in Milwaukee. It’s not just rhetoric (gift article): But unlike the chaotic and improvised challenge four years ago, the new drive includes a systematic search for any vulnerability in the nation’s patchwork election system. Mr. Trump’s allies have followed a two-pronged approach: restricting voting for partisan advantage ahead of Election Day and short-circuiting the process of ratifying the winner afterward, if Mr. Trump loses. The latter strategy involves an ambitious — and legally dubious — attempt to reimagine decades of settled law dictating how results are officially certified in the weeks before the transfer of power. That’s on top of state legal challenges to Democrats changing candidates in midstream if thatn happens.
I had some hope last night while watching that dumpster fire of a convention speech by Donald Trump that the media was going to finally take a look at his cognitive abilities and give them the same obsessive focus as they have done with Joe Biden. In social media many of them were aghast at what they saw and weren’t being shy about saying it.l So imagine my surprise when I wake up this morning and find that the papers never changed their “unite headlines” in the face of his incoherent, divisive freak show of a speech and the news networks are back to the Biden deathwatch without even a moment’s pause. It’s just hopeless. Joe Alsop at Columbia Journalism review has some thoughts: Last weekend, Salena Zito became the first journalist to interview Donald Trump after a gunman tried to assassinate him at a rally in Pennsylvania, a conversation published in the Washington Examiner under the headline: “Trump rewrites Republican convention speech to focus on unity not Biden.” Trump told Zito that he had been preparing a “humdinger” of a speech, but that he’d ripped it up.
Panda-monium The public is getting its first video look at the San Diego Zoo’s new pair of pandas, just ahead of their first chance to see the pandas in person. Zoo officials on Friday released a video of the pandas, Yun Chuan and Xin Bao, playing in Panda Ridge, their home at the San Diego Zoo. Officials also announced that the pandas, who arrived to the zoo from China in June, will make their public debut on Thursday, Aug. 8. “We are delighted to introduce Yun Chuan and Xin Bao to our San Diego Zoo community,” Paul Baribault, president and CEO of San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, said in a statement. “Our newest residents will bring joy to our visitors and symbolize the enduring spirt of international conservation efforts.” The pandas are the first to enter the United States in over two decades, according to the San Diego Zoo. Here are some gratuitous panda videos just for fun: