Thanks for the clarification, that makes a rather meaningful difference.

Here’s the thing that kills me. This is what the presidency is kinda supposed to be like. He’s gotten a good amount of good (and bad) things done. We’ve gotten so used to lazy, ineffectual, malicious, and downright bad governance that a kind of normal presidency seems like “WOAH HOLY FUCK WOW” to some folks. Biden’s a solid statesman when it comes to the actual work of politics, but I wouldn’t say that he’s totally unique or a once-in-a-lifetime statesman. He’s not irreplaceable, we just haven’t been looking for someone to replace him because they did a good job hiding the fact that he needed replacing.

160 million? Th… That’s it? I mean, that’s cool, it’s not nothing, but the top Google search stat shows that US citizens owe a collective 1.77 trillion in student debt.

He cancelled (1.6x10^8 / 1.77x10^12) 0.00009% of student debt. That’s like… A homeopathic cancellation.

Fuckin tell me about it

I don’t think so. She’s no Joe from the 2012 vp debates, but she’s also no Joe from the first 2024 presidential debate.

More liberal and progressive than FDR? Interesting.

Look, this is what I would say to people who asked “who cares if Trump is an unprofessional ass?” The president represents all of us on the world stage. He’s the one American most of the world knows. It IS ALSO the president’s job to go and speak with anyone we need him to, to represent us faithfully as the most polished representation of the American people. If Biden can’t communicate, if he’s just going to mumble at other dead leaders at G7, then he literally can’t do the job.

Care to elaborate? Last I checked, HRC was hardly nobody.

That’s bullshit. There was not one debate, Biden didn’t even campaign, and now we know why; because the Biden campaign was deliberately obfuscating his condition until the “primary” was over. If they hadn’t lied to the voters, the primary would have actually happened and maybe looked a lot different.

Edit: and since when has the DNC cared about the will of the voters? They clearly haven’t given two shits about that since at least '16. Why suddenly care about it now unless it’s a bad faith argument?

There is no such thing as making “enough” money under the chicago-school dominated business thought. A business should always make as much money as it can for its investors, always. A friend who read Friedman’s works says that the Friedman doctrine makes room to say that a wise business will optimize investor outcomes by investing in its product, workforce, and other smart long-term choices, but in practice, nobody ever reads that deep into the Friedman doctrine. It’s just “philosophical” license to make (and demand, on the part of investors) the shallowest slash-and-burn business decisions possible to make line go up NOW. I will accept arguments about how it’s capitalism, but I’d like to point out that we experienced a very distinct culture shift in business leadership starting around the time that Chicago school thought became all the rage.

I would gladly have Trump drop out. It won’t happen. Trump is running to save his own ass. For my part, I have grave doubts about Biden’s ability to win that have been building for a few months but came sharply into focus during the first minute of that debate.

He knows, but the thing is that the Democrats are about as afraid of fascism as you are gasoline in your car. They use the threat of fascism to help scare people to the polls and to donate money, which is partly why they never seem to be in a big hurry to squash it. Problem being, of course, that people eventually get fear fatigue and stop paying attention. Kinda like how in the wake of 9/11, the government would announce terror threat levels, and they were always orange or red, indicating super double plus serious danger, and eventually people stopped caring because life must go on. Well, people get fatigued of it and then the fascists win again, which provides another big, though temporary, shot of support to the democrats. Meanwhile, the democrats don’t have to make any real, serious campaign or policy commitments besides “don’t be fascist”. Everything else they do (and don’t get me wrong, they do some good stuff sometimes) is just running up the score. So, for the centrist democrats that run the DNC and Biden campaign, this feels like a pretty good Wednesday for fundraising, even though we all see it as the literal end of the Republic. They’ve been walking on the ice so long, they’re convinced that while it is thin, they couldn’t possibly fall through.

The dark Brandon stuff is 98% fluff, talk, and meme. Biden has already said that they’re going to take the high road on the presidential immunity matter. So, we’re going to high road all the way to fascism while waiting for Biden to do the meme.

That’s fair. I’m more addressing a narrative that emerged within 48hrs of the debate that the debate prep team irresponsibly overworked Biden

I think that it isn’t unrealistic for the Biden campaign to transition to the Kamala campaign, or Whitmer campaign, or Newsom campaign etc etc. and recycle much of extent infrastructure there. It just requires Biden to do what’s right for the country and hand over the keys.

From the article:

Biden did make several trips in the weeks leading up to the debate. On June 13, the president joined other leaders for the Group of Seven summit in Apulia, Italy. Two days later, he flew to Los Angeles for a celebrity-filled fundraiser alongside former President Barack Obama, where his campaign said he raised at least $28 million, per a report from Politico.

Reuters reported that Biden headed to Camp David on June 21 to begin debate prep six days before he took the stage. White House aides who traveled with the president told Reuters that Biden was “in a good mood” on his way to prepare.

So, let me get this straight. Two-ish weeks before the debate, he travelled to Europe to visit our allies for two days. Then he visits LA for a day. Then, a week before the debate, he goes to Camp David to prepare. And that’s the strenuous schedule that made him almost fall asleep on stage? And that’s supposed to make me feel better? I read another article where it went into a little more detail and said that they didn’t even start debate prep until 11 am each day at Camp David, and included scheduled time for an afternoon nap, so it’s not exactly like they were working him like a rented mule. This makes it seem so much worse, imo. The president has to do a lot more strenuous stuff than debates, and if he’s worthless for weeks after two days of travel, that doesn’t bode well for the coming campaign season.

Holy shit, did we just establish a connection to the mirror universe?

Biden could, but he won’t. We’re just going to get more finger wagging and muttering at him about being a scoundrel and shit.

Yeah, I think you’ve got a good handle on it.

I imagine that Kamala could at least win an argument with a potted plant, which is more than you could say about Biden at this point.