the average Republican, not the average American.

What's 'the average American' in a two-party system? The undecide centrist?

That’s a good take, thanks.

Sleepy Joe is (again) a day late and dollar short. Here's more disingenuous grist for your MAGA-grievance mill, NOS: a late-2020 post of mine on equitable 'SCOTUS reform' ...

https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/461370

I’m beginning to think Tim Waltz is the best choice for Harris after hearing him interviewed. Supposedly it’s down to Kelly, Shapiro, and him. I was thinking Shapiro because he’d potentially lock up PA. But I’m leaning towards Waltz now…which probably means Harris will pick Kelly.

That’s a good take, thanks. — NOS4A2

Could you explain how misinformation works? Is it supposed to be picked up by bots? Is it supposed to become part of a cloud of misinformation so that people don't trust anything anymore?

Could you explain how misinformation works? Is it supposed to be picked up by bots? Is it supposed to become part of a cloud of misinformation so that people don't trust anything anymore?

It doesn’t work. Those with some modicum of governing power use the phrase as an excuse to censor information, which does work. But it does have some technical use insofar as it distinguishes between various types of information, for instance false info, knowingly false info with intent to mislead, and so on.

I still think Gretchen Whitmer would be the best VP candidate: an attractive white woman, popular governor of a large swing state, target of a wingnut Trumper/MAGA-affiliated kidnapping conspiracy in 2020; very smart politician, pro-civil rights, pro-labor & pro-choice. Checks more boxes than the other prospects. Makes too much sense and that's why Harris & her team probably won't pick Whitmer.

survivor of an operationalized Trumper/MAGA-affiliated kidnapping & execution conspiracy in 2020

Survivor of an FBI entrapment case, more like it. It was planned by paid FBI informants. More deep state crooks elevated by deep state dupes.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2022/4/13/23023950/michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer-kidnapping-plot-acquittal-fbi-entrapment-jacob-sullum-column

https://theintercept.com/2024/03/06/gretchen-whitmer-kidnapping-informant/

Survivor of an FBI entrapment case, more like it. It was planned by paid FBI informants. More deep state crooks elevated by deep state dupes. — NOS4A2

:lol: The only "deep state" is Project 2025 (i.e. The Heritage Foundation + The Federalist Society). Take your meds, dude. Roevember is coming! :victory:

Spread the propaganda as far and wide as you can, friend. But one day you’ll get tired of being lied to. Count on it.

Two women on the ticket is, unfortunately, a loser.

He wasn’t removed at all. He decided not to run. — Wayfarer

LOL. Like Caesar decided not to be head of the Roman empire.

Where do you get such nonsense? Seriously, you actually believe what you wrote? That Biden, the great statesman, woke up and decided not to run of his own volition? At the end of the USSR, the people stopped believing Pravda. You still believe.

Famed investigative reporter Seymour Hersh has reported that Obama called Biden and told him that Kamala was on board using the 25th Amendment to remove him from office.

Hersh's Substack is behind a paywall, but his information has been widely repeated.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/obama-instigated-anti-biden-coup-25th-amendment-threat-sy-hersh-reports

https://thepostmillennial.com/seymour-hersh-obama-and-kamala-threatened-to-invoke-the-25th-amendment-on-biden-before-he-dropped-out#google_vignette

https://x.com/RandyEBarnett/status/1818033920845431113

Hersh's original paywalled article is here.

https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/leaving-las-vegas

The only "deep state" is Project 2025 (i.e. The Heritage Foundation + The Federalist Society). Take your meds, dude. Roevember is coming! :victory: — 180 Proof

Two women on the ticket is, unfortunately, a loser. — Mikie

IMO, not "a loser" versus two misogynists who advocate a National Abortion Ban (i.e. criminalizing women's reproductive healthcare) if elected.

It's too much estrogen for men to handle. Need to balance it out with Scott Kelly, a man's man.

Rachel Maddow points out that Trump has said on a number of recent occasions that ‘I don’t need your votes, we have plenty of votes’. She also notes around 70 known 2020 election deniers have found their way into management positions in electoral offices in swing states. Trump/MAGA has form trying to stitch up or throw elections and will have had plenty of time to work on it this time around. I wouldn’t like to believe it, but I also wouldn’t put it past them.

That's silly.

At some point his public speaking style changed from that of a fifth grader struggling to do a report on a book he had not read to that of a third rate comic doing borscht belt shtick.

Famed investigative reporter Seymour Hersh has reported that Obama called Biden and told him that Kamala was on board using the 25th Amendment to remove him from office. — fishfry

Unfortunately Seymour Hersh has been on a downward trend for 10 years now, with increasingly fanciful takes on events which, unlike his previous work, have not later been corroborated. I would not take his word as gospel these days.

Unfortunately Seymour Hersh has been on a downward trend for 10 years now, with increasingly fanciful takes on events which, unlike his previous work, have not later been corroborated. I would not take his word as gospel these days. — Echarmion

I take your point that Hersh, for all his achievements, has had some misfires over the years. He's certainly no spring chicken. He broke the story of the My Lai massacre in 1969.

I mentioned Hersh to show that there is an alternative narrative in the news to @Wayfarer's claim, stated as fact though it's nothing of the kind, that Biden left of his own free will.

But I don't need Hersh to make my point. Biden was forced out. Wayfarer's claim that "He wasn’t removed at all. He decided not to run," is opinion, not fact. And on its face, it's not even a particularly well-informed opinion. The facts reported by the mainstream outlets like the NYT and WaPo support the forced out narrative.

Following the debate debacle, first the low-level Dems came out against Joe. Then George Clooney. I don't remember voting for George Clooney to be the arbiter of when the duly nominated candidate may be shoved aside. But he looks good on camera and speaks words written by others. Good enough for me.

Then the big dogs, Jeffries and Schumer. And in the end, the REALLY big dogs. Pelosi and Obama. And Joe finally gave in.

If he even did give in. On Saturday he reiterated that he was dug in and staying. Then they announced he had covid. There were unconfirmed reports that he suffered a medical emergency.

Then on Sunday someone posted to X a letter bearing a signature clearly not Biden's, saying he was dropping out of the race. And then a few minutes later another letter endorsing Kamala.

Can we even convince ourselves that he knew he was dropping out? More likely they posted the letters then presented Joe the facts of life as a fait accompli.

Five days then go by with no sighting. Then he shows up for his 11 minute hostage video. And since then, if what little we've seen of Biden is supposed to constitute proof of life, I would not pay the ransom.

The day after the greatest humiliation of his political life, his wife flits off to Paris to lead the US Olympic delegation. She's been all over the news cozying up to hunky athletes and hobnobbing with the Macrons and the other beautiful people.

And we're supposed to sit back and accept all this. The Democrats do, but that's only because they've abandoned their critical thinking in favor of momentary political gain.

I think it's perfectly fair to say Joe was forced out. I don't claim to know what really happened behind the scenes. Only that the evidence that's been reported supports what Josh Hammer, writing in Newsweek, called a "bloodless coup."

The Democratic Party ruling class's bloodless coup of their own democratically elected presidential nominee, who also happens to be the nominal sitting president of the United States, is one of the most astonishing political developments of my lifetime. Joe Biden, though clearly physically and mentally impaired, has sought the presidency for quite literally longer than I have been alive. Biden had been defiant ever since the June 27 presidential debate debacle that he was not going anywhere, despite overwhelming pressure from party elites and sycophantic media lapdogs demanding he do precisely that. He has a Lady Macbeth-like wife who craves power, and he has a felonious son in desperate need of a presidential pardon. — Newsweek

https://www.newsweek.com/bloodless-coup-joe-biden-will-not-work-out-well-democrats-opinion-1930493

Overwhelming pressure from party elites and sycophantic media lapdogs. That's what it means that Joe was forced out. Whether there was a little good-old fashioned extortion at the end, and exactly what that extortion consisted of, seems beside the point.

I did say earlier that Biden's exit was not by "lawful means." I retract that. It was lawful. At least they didn't give him the Julius Caesar treatment on the floor of the Senate. Unless they already have and we just don't know it. Perhaps Wayfarer was only reacting to that over-statement of mine, in which case he's right. But he said, "He wasn’t removed at all. He decided not to run."

Nobody believes that.

And not that it matters, what with a hot war between Israel and Hezbollah about to break out ... but where's the President? Who's minding the store? And why isn't anyone but me worried?

You think Anthony Blinken has a freaking clue? You're more sanguine than I.

31July24

DonOLD The Clown – adjudicated¹ ra[c/p]ist, MAGA-GOP candidate for "dictator-for-a-day"– who is very afraid of a much younger & stronger, incredibly smarter, and charismatic black woman (who happens to be the current VPOTUS) and too chickenshit – must be them ol' "bonespurs" – to debate her in the fall.

¹1973 & 2023 respectively

Roevermber is coming for you, Bonespurs! :victory: :mask:

This is as usual written by people who barely understand what a democracy is and what a political party is. Biden was the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party not the "democratically elected presidential nominee". The Party is not a democracy and has its own process for nominating the nominee and had every option available to it to not nominate Biden at the upcoming convention. Biden could either leave on his own, or get booted during the convention. In fact, it would be a breach of trust towards Democratic voters to allow an incompetent, senile grey-tufted old fogey to run as the nominee all but ensuring Democratic values would not be pursued for 4 years due to losing the presidency.

The Party is not a democracy and has its own process for nominating the nominee and had every option available to it to not nominate Biden at the upcoming convention. — Benkei

:100: Exactly.

The worst is they lied and covered for Biden’s condition for years. So not only did they nullify the primaries and deny the votes of tens of millions of people with their palace coup, they did so only because they couldn’t keep up the charade any longer.

Votes and elections and so-called democratic institutions mean very little to them in principle. It’s probably why they dropped the “threat to democracy” schtick and went with calling their opponents “weird”. But remember all this when they avail you of the sanctity of elections.

went with calling their opponents “weird” — NOS4A2

I think that one works. It doesn't come off as bullying because Trump is such a bully himself. Plus it's true, Trump and JD are weird.

I don’t think it sticks because it implies those who say it are in some way normal. For instance they just had a whites-only Harris rally. The years of child-sniffing and gender ideology and hoaxes kind of renders it hilarious.

But the speed with which the phrase was downloaded and installed in pliant brains was quite extraordinary. It’s like Skynet.

You're right on both counts. It highlights the way Harris is normal compared to Trump and Vance. And it's catchy. Trump is probably secretly applauding it. It's something he'd be proud of.

The dropping of Biden does indeed seem like a coup from within the party. I’m glad the DNC can move quickly and efficiently, as long as another milquetoast neoliberal career politician is waiting in the wings. They rallied against Bernie too, very effectively. Good for them. It’s as admirable as the Republicans turning themselves into slobbering slaves for a degenerate con man in 8 years. The groupthink and loyalty is off the charts. Cultists, every one of them.

The whole “weird” thing was fine, coming out of Waltz’s mouth. Now that it’s become a “thing,” it’s cringey and pathetic.

Trump just had a glorious interview in hostile territory with the NABJ (The National Association of Black Journalists). Gold mine.