Law, Power, and Justice

Morning News Notes:

Marc Elias recommends every one of us do something, anything, to spread the word that electing Donald Trump is not O.K.  Each one of us has to do everything we can.  I can write.  At 73, there’s not a lot more I can do, but I can write. 

Our cardinals have been exquisite this year.  And, after changing the bird/squirrel seed in the feeder we have had many more titmice (plural of titmouse?) and even a red-winged black bird.  The cats love watching them.  The titmice are the only ones who will peck at the greedy squirrels and drive them off the feeder.

Every joint in my body hurts and I have a hand tremor this morning.  Also, kitty treats were evidently left (note the passive) in my pajama pocket and now they have formed a rock hard ball inside the pocket I cannot remove.

Richard Haas is on Newsmax saying Biden should get out of the race, as is James Carville[1] (who should have gotten out of public life years, decades ago).  AMVO (Steve Bannon’s channel) is having various low-lifes fill in for Bannon on his nightly show (named The War Room, of course).  Bannon, in case you missed it, is in federal prison.  Someone tweeted on Friday that they resented the Supreme Court’s decision about presidential immunity on Friday partly because he didn’t get to enjoy Bannon’s imprisonment enough.  I agree.  Also, my partner informed me that the infamous Eric Prince was there with Bannon lecturing, or actually threatening prison officials about any mistreatment of Bannon inside.

Don’t get me wrong.  I will vote for Joe Biden, but the Democratic Party establishment has the blood of Ukrainians on their hands, especially if they lose this coming presidential election for us.

Later:

Just got home from yet another doctor’s office.  My friend Kitty has it right.  There’s no point in going to a doctor unless you have done all the research yourself, diagnosed yourself, and decided conclusively what you want.  They get shirty if you do the research online, but you have no choice.  They are hopeless.  The shoulder replacement surgeon now wants me to go to the neck doctor to make sure of what needs to be done with my neck before he will give me anything to deal with the shoulder pain before surgery.  I don’t like being 73.  My life has turned into an endless medical consultation.  I’ve even had doctors get angry with me because I hurt their feelings by saying that doctors treated tiny bits of bodies rather than the entire person.  He took it personally. 

Sorry to go on, but I just looked up and that POS senator, Manchin is pictured on the screen.  I don’t want to know, do not care what Manchin has to say about anything.  I wouldn’t care if I were standing in front of him and he desperately needed care.  I would not listen.  What a low life, yacht living narcissistic piece of human garbage.  No cat would ever willingly live with him.[2]

While I’m on a roll, I walked into the bedroom, shedding clothes, to hear Karime Jean Pierre doing a press briefing at the White House.[3] I have no idea who hired her for this job or why they keep her in it.  She is dreadful, just dreadful.  You know, when you get hired as press secretary, your job is to listen to and answer questions from the press.  Their job is to ask those questions.  There is no earthly reason to get mad about it.  So, why does every press secretary feel it is incumbent upon them to participate in the process with maximum attitude?  She acts like it’s a personal insult every time someone asks her a question.  She acts like it is an enormous burden for her to stand up there and answer questions.  I don’t get it.

And, now, questions about Joe Biden’s health seem to be both predictable and necessary.  She had to have known when she went out there that there would be questions about Biden’s health.  She must have had answers ready, so why does she act like the reporters are being the most intolerable people in the world for asking?  I just don’t get it.  At act defensive, angry, burdened, insulted, frustrated, impatient (and a whole host of other words) is exactly the wrong way to respond to these questions.  If anything is going to make the press ask more questions, suspect more evasion, than defensive behavior I don’t know what it is.

[4]

Random News Notes:

• In France, the political left and the center have actually managed to make this strategic voting thing work to edge out Marine Le Pen’s far-right political movement.  In a number of races, either the center or the left candidate dropped out of the race to combine the center and left vote.  The second round of voting took place on Sunday.
• The New York Times (NYT) is reporting that a Parkinson’s expert visited the white house eight times in eight months.
• Paul, Pamela (7/8/24) The Second-Worst Decision Democrats Could Make Right Now.  I was an early and enthusiastic fan of Kamala Harris when she first ran for president. She had an inspiring personal story and an impressive résumé. Here was someone who had been a senator, an attorney general and a prosecutor. She had been an advocate for recidivism reduction and other measures of criminal justice reform, and had proved she could be tough in the Senate, where her questioning was described as “prosecutorial.” She seemed gutsy and capable and a fine candidate for national office.
•  
• Wow, was I wrong. Look, it’s hard to shine as vice president — as John Adams put it, “the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.” But Harris has also proved how easy it is to sink.
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• Between her high staff turnover, her ineffectiveness on migration and the border, her chronically low approval ratings and her often embarrassing public experiences — remember, Harris chose to subject herself to the cringe on “The Drew Barrymore Show” — she has not exuded competence or inspired confidence.
•  
• Yet despite Joe Biden insisting he can still drive, dagnabbit, talk of anointing Harris as his replacement has started to take hold. Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina said he would support Harris if Biden drops out, also proposing a mini-primary. “The Democratic Nominee in 2024 should be Kamala Harris,” the former congressman Tim Ryan wrote in Newsweek last week. “She is brilliant, compassionate, engaging, funny and totally down to earth,” he wrote, and “more importantly, she deserves a chance to go to the American people and show us her mettle.”
•  
• Choosing a presidential candidate should not be about someone proving herself or “deserving a chance.” It should be about who has the best chance. This should not be about advancing women, Black people or people of South Asian descent. It should be about beating back Donald Trump with the most electable and capable candidate possible.
•  
• That Harris leads Biden slightly in polls as a possible replacement candidate only shows how low that bar is. Those same polls suggest she would still lose against Trump.
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• If some racist or sexist Americans wouldn’t vote for Harris based on her ethnicity, race or sex, shame on them. But to argue against Harris is not inherently racist or sexist.
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• If Democrats are serious about not wanting to lose this election — and most important, preventing Trump from resuming power — they need to stop trying to make Harris happen and allow an open primary. Americans need a candidate who will win.

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[1] Carville, James (7/8/24) JamesCarville: Biden Won’t win. Democrats Need a plan.  Here’s One. New York Times.  “Joe Biden is going to be out of the 2024 presidential race. Whether he is ready to admit it or not.”  Carville argues that it is only a matter of time before “Democratic pressure and pubic and private polling” lead him to exit the race.  But, Carville argues, we cannot do this by “anointing” Harris or anybody else.  “We’ve got to do it out in the open.”  Trump needs the Democrats to “blow it” by appearing to “rig the nomination for a fading president or the sitting vice president or some other heir apparent.”  Two of the least notable people in the world (Ezra Klein and Jim Clyburn) have advanced ideas about an open mini-primary.  Carville is building on this idea.  Carville is arguing for mini “town halls” run by Obama and Bill Clinton like “high-stakes job interviews.”  (Note: Anybody who mentions Taylor Swift in a column about the presidency should be deported).  The two    should select eight contenders (including Harris).  Carville is proposing that the delegates select the ticket.  He says that Biden “isn’t going to win.” 

[2] Joe Manchin, now an Independent, considered running as a third party candidate for president.

[3] Dowd, Maureen (7/8/24) Joe Biden, in the Goodest Bunker Ever. New York Times.  “A panicky White House is going to be persnickety, acting as though journalists are unfairly picking on the president about every gaffe, berating them when they don’t properly interpret the president’s elisions and jumbles. Joe Scarborough, a supporter and confidant of the president, took to X to mock the “breathless NYT syntax blogs.”  While accurately describing what appears to be the White House press office’s state, this article maintains that Biden’s misuse of a word could mean the end of the world: (“how the president puts words together — or doesn’t — happens to be a life and death matter.”).

[4] Dowd: Biden’s line to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, about how he would feel if Trump were sworn in as president because he refused to step aside: “I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about.”  “Whatever the president meant, his answer to that question went over like a lead balloon. No one cares if he feels good about himself in a losing cause.”