Brilliant.

“I don’t like that this is a fact of life,” Vance said. “But if you are a psycho and you want to make headlines, you realize that our golf courses are soft targets. And we have got to bolster security at our golf courses. We’ve got to bolster security so if a psycho wants to hide in the bushes and kill an ex-president they’re not able.”

See how much sense that makes, Senator Vance?

“One has ambitious but controversial plans for healthcare, housing, and education. The other proposes a bloody removal of tens of millions of people, admires dictators, and refuses to accept the results of legitimate elections. We’ll help YOU decide which is better for America”
https://press.coop/@nytimes/113120007041148914

Well, Chet, the steaming pile of filth delivered as expected, in fact, it was almost a Greatest Hits of steaming filth, delivered in an even more intensely spittle-flecked rage than normal. At the other lectern, the overly competent lifetime public servant struggled to contain her amazement, pity, and all-too-human joy, which is something we don’t normally see on the debate stage and may have shocked some viewers. So I’d say it was a draw, all in all. Our advertisers want this to stay close.

The soft bigotry of negative expectations
https://toad.social/@wdlindsy/113073597454618081

“Only people whom I deem worthy based on their hormone levels should be able to vote” is a nakedly explicit fascist statement.

I was occupied during The Speech and watching it now. Only a few minutes into it and I’m amazed, proud, vindicated, humbled, thrilled.

The thing is that I’ve known this woman for a decade, from her first AG run, and have chatted with her in people’s living rooms and sat across from her at restaurants and heard her in very, very small rooms.

The woman speaking to 25,000 people is exactly the same person. What you saw tonight is her authentic self.

#DNC2024

Tonight was pretty important, for a quiet reason.

Pete and Doug and Tim and Gus and Cole are showing America a masculinity that works. Based in love. Honoring others. Caring as strength. Willing to cry. Standing up to bullies, not being one.

“This is the moment you will remember to tell your children where you were and what you did…We need to choose joy over anger and peace over war EVERY TIME. We must choose to be above the ugly words, the hateful anger, and the division those words and anger create. And then we will reach the higher ground.”

— Stevie Wonder

He’s worrying the Wall Street Journal.

WE HAVENT EVEN HAD THE DNC YET

I’m wondering whether people are aware that Benjamin Netanyahu is currently on trial for three separate corruption indictments for bribery, fraud, and breach of public trust. The trial has been going on for years, slowed by COVID, appeals, and the Gaza war.

I want elections to come down to policy and ability and they rarely do.

I’m fine if elections come down to the zeitgeist and larger trends, which they often do.

It pains me when elections come down to personalities, but they do more often than I like.

If this one comes down to crass vs. sass, though, I AM HERE FOR IT.

It made objective sense to pick the primary’s VP choice over any other candidate, for fiscal and logistical reasons, but it was never a given. Biden could have had suspicions, or spite, or just been too battered to do the sensible thing. And even then having one or more party luminaries pull the reins could have thrown everything into chaos. Chaos was staring us in the face. It’s the narrative the GOP and press wanted, and it was a high probability.

Which is why what’s happened is astonishing.

And I expected that a floor fight in Chicago is what the GOP wanted (because the Ds wouldn’t recover) and what the press wanted (feel-good coronations don’t draw eyeballs or win Pulitzers).

I felt we had a chance with Biden, though it was risky, and that there was still plenty of room for a blow-up on the R side. I didn’t trust the Democratic leadership and the Democrat party regulars to not screw up a replacement. It’s not that I didn’t trust Kamala—I didn’t think she’d be given a chance.

The press focus on Biden’s poor debate performance, and the extrapolation that a gravely voice and tripping over words indicated declining competence, pissed me off. Because true incompetence—gish-gallop lies and non-sequitirs—was right there, five feet away.

I wasn’t blind to Joe’s age, but would take him in whatever state over a) the other candidate or b) the Democratic party’s penchant for petty self-destruction.

A floor fight in Chicago would have been a freaking disaster.

The humility and decency it took for Biden to step off the ticket, after repeatedly saying he wouldn’t, was a surprise. Not unexpected but not guaranteed. To endorse Harris was also sensible but not foregone.

The surprising thing was how effective Harris was in the next ten hours.
She leveraged Biden’s endorsement into top-tier concurrences.
She wiped the field clear of competition.
She got big-donor pledges to calm down the finance team.
She got a huge grassroots boost on the 40K-person Zoom.

Peter Thiel was CEO of PayPal when they acquired fincom startup X.com and with it Elon Musk.

Peter Thiel was the first outside investor in Facebook and was on the Board when Cambridge Analytica exploited that platform to spread targeted disinformation in the 2016 election.

Peter Thiel was a member of the transition team in 2016-2017 for the incoming administration.

Peter Thiel invested in and co-founded Narya Capital with J. D. Vance, who two years later won a Senate seat.

High-Powered Rifle Used By Suspected Neofascist in Assassination Attempt Heightens Focus On Biden’s Age

One problem we’re going to have is that any identification of the shooter’s identity, affiliation, and motive are going to come from the FBI and the press, and a lot of people are going to be predisposed to disbelieve what they hear from either of those sources