[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]

Ever since I found the AP Newsroom site where AP photographers upload their work, I’ve been following the presidential candidates’ campaigns through photos.

There’s something freakishly unsettling about JD Vance in these image collections.

First, let me show you a Voice of America post from Mastodon – VOA generally does straight reporting, not prone to leaning one way or the other which is appropriate for news media funded by U.S. taxpayers.

Note the two photos used in this post are fairly typical campaign material from a manufacturing facility; the photos are from the AP.

Thinking I’d take a closer look at the plant and its location in the AP Newroom feed, I did a search for “JD Vance” and scrolled through the results.

Those two photos VOA used are rather misleading, because that’s about it – what you see in those two photos are nearly the extent of the campaign appearance.

Look at this photo from the same event:

Here’s another angle of the same event:

There’s a couple rows of employees behind Vance and a bank of reporters and cameras in front of Vance.

That’s it.

There’s a void where the crowd of campaign rally attendees should be. Vance is speaking into cameras and nothing else. If you’ve attended campaign rallies including those held at manufacturing facilities, you already know there’s usually a crowd of employees and guests to which the candidate speaks. The press operates from the back of the crowd or on an elevated platform so they are able to get good crowd reaction coverage while not obstructing rally attendees’ view of the candidate.

That wasn’t the case in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, at this manufacturing facility’s campaign event.

How weird.

I scrolled back through the photos for “JD Vance” and I noticed there are zero, nada, no crowd shots for other recent events.

None.

Vance is trying to precede or follow the Harris-Walz campaign’s tour through swing states, like some stalker-y ex-boyfriend. It makes sense there’d be photos in AP Newsroom collection featuring the two campaigns in the same destinations regardless of Vance’s creepy campaign-by-stalking.

Except the photos of Vance are like Potemkin villages, all fronts and nothing back end behind the façade.

Here’s one of Vance speaking at the police department in Shelby Township, Michigan. The site is about a hour’s drive away from Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW), located in the white flight portion of the greater Detroit Metro area:

Where are the people who came to see Vance? There are more photos of Vance in Romulus but they’re all similarly void of a visible audience.

Compare and contrast to the Harris-Walz campaign rally held at DTW:

Note where this photo was taken from within the site – the back edge of the crowd. There’s overflow outside this hangar at the airport. My god, there’s a crowd, even before Harris and Walz disembark from the plane!

This isn’t fair, you might say; this is a combined event with Harris and Walz and not Walz alone so I’m unfairly comparing apples and an orange dude’s veep choice. But it’s early yet for Walz to have his own campaign events; he’ll finish the swing state series before he’s appearing on his own.

This still doesn’t explain the void where Vance appears, the lack of a crowd in attendance.

There’s chatter about Vance pulling a stunt on the tarmac, approaching Air Force 2 while remarking it’s his future plane.

Except this stunt had no audience, just reporters and photographers who don’t appear in the images.

Worse, the photos are meme-worthy for the lack of an audience – like this wisecrack about Vance and his entourage:

(source)

Who would want to hear this guy speak when he and his portion of the Trump-Vance campaign lack the awareness necessary to appear less weird and creepy and more human?

I have to ask, though: is the Trump-Vance campaign throttling photographers from taking photos of anything besides Vance at Vance’s campaign events? Are we seeing just the opposite – an awareness their faux hillbilly is awkward and as competent at public speaking as a sixth-grade student? Have they stripped away the crowds to avoid problematic interactions?

With or without a crowd, the answers don’t look good. Creepy and weird, even.

[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]

The last thread is getting unwieldy and there’s a lot to discuss after tonight’s first rally in Philadelphia.

Here’s the video if you didn’t get to watch it:

So many memes launched today as well; you have to imagine Team Trump shielding their fragile orange bawbag from the deluge.

I think this one might be my favorite so far:

source: https://mstdn.social/@[email protected]/112917576144993599

Heh. Share a link to your favorites in thread below.

[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]

In case you missed his remarks broadcast and streamed Wednesday evening, here is a video and a transcript.

Alternate source: https://www.c-span.org/video/?537306-1/president-biden-addresses-nation-decision-drop-2024-race
(Caveat: the transcript at C-SPAN is awful)

Transcript:

My fellow Americans, I’m speaking to you tonight from behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. In this sacred space, I’m surrounded by portraits of extraordinary American presidents. Thomas Jefferson wrote the immortal words that guide this nation. George Washington showed us presidents are not kings. Abraham Lincoln implored us to reject malice. Franklin Roosevelt inspired us to reject fear.

I revere this office, but I love my country more. It’s been the honor of my life to serve as your president. But in the defense of democracy, which is at stake, I think it’s more important than any title. I draw strength and find joy in working for the American people. But this sacred task of perfecting our union is not about me, it’s about you. Your families, your futures.

It’s about we the people. And we can never forget that. And I never have. I’ve made it clear that I believe America is at an inflection point. On those rare moments in history, when the decisions we make now determine our fate of our nation and the world for decades to come, America is going to have to choose between moving forward or backward, between hope and hate, between unity and division.

We have to decide: Do we still believe in honesty, decency, respect, freedom, justice and democracy. In this moment, we can see those we disagree with not as enemies but as, I mean, fellow Americans—can we do that? Does character in public life still matter? I believe you know the answer to these questions because I know you the American people, and I know this: We are a great nation because we are a good people. When you elected me to this office, I promised to always level with you, to tell you the truth. And the truth, the sacred cause of this country, is larger than any one of us. Those of us who cherish that cause cherish it so much, the cause of American democracy itself. We must unite to protect it.

In recent weeks, it has become clear to me that I need to unite my party in this critical endeavor. I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future, all merited a second term. But nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition.

So I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. It’s the best way to unite our nation. I know there was a time and a place for long years of experience in public life. There’s also a time and a place for new voices, fresh voices, yes, younger voices. And that time and place is now.

Over the next six months, I will be focused on doing my job as president. That means I will continue to lower costs for hard-working families, grow our economy. I will keep defending our personal freedoms and civil rights, from the right to vote to the right to choose. I will keep calling out hate and extremism, making it clear there is no place, no place in America for political violence or any violence ever, period. I’m going to keep speaking out to protect our kids from gun violence, our planet from climate crisis as an existential threat.

I will keep fighting for my Cancer Moonshot, so we can end cancer as we know it because we can do it. I’m going to call for Supreme Court reform because this is critical to our democracy—Supreme Court reform. You know, I will keep working to ensure American remains strong, secure and the leader of the free world.

I’m the first president of this century to report to the American people that the United States is not at war anywhere in the world. We will keep rallying a coalition of proud nations to stop Putin from taking over Ukraine and doing more damage. We’ll keep NATO stronger, and I will make it more powerful and more united than any time in all of our history. I will keep doing the same for our allies in the Pacific. You know, when I came to the office, the conventional wisdom was that China would inevitably pass, surpass the United States.

That’s not the case anymore. And I’m going to keep working to end the war in Gaza, bring home all the hostages and bring peace and security to the Middle East and end this war. We are also working around the clock to bring home Americans being unjustly detained all around the world.

You know, we’ve come so far since my inauguration. On that day, I told you as I stood in that winter—we are stood in a winter of peril and winter of possibilities. Peril and possibilities. We are in the group of, we were in the group of the worse pandemic in the century. The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War. We came together as Americans. We got through it. We emerged stronger, more prosperous and more secure.

Today we have the strongest economy in the world, creating nearly 16 million new jobs—a record. Wages are up, inflation continues to come down, the racial wealth gap is the lowest it’s been in 20 years. We are literally rebuilding our entire nation—urban, suburban and rural and tribal communities. Manufacturing has come back to America. We are leading the world again in chips and science and innovation. We finally beat Big Pharma after all these years to lower the cost of prescription drugs for seniors.

And I’m going to keep fighting to make sure we lower the cost for everyone, not just seniors. More people have health care today in America than ever before. I signed one of the most significant laws helping millions of veterans and their families who were exposed to toxic materials. You know, most significant climate law ever, ever in the history of the world. The first major gun safety law in 30 years.

And today, the violent crime rate is at a 50-year low. We are also securing our border. Border crossings are lower today than when the previous administration left office. I’ve kept my commitment to appoint the first Black woman to the Supreme Court of the United States of America. I also kept my commitment to have an administration that looks like America and be a president for all Americans. That’s what I’ve done.

I ran for president four years ago because I believed and still do that the soul of America was at stake. The very nature of who we are was at stake. That is still the case. America is an idea. An idea stronger than any army, bigger than any ocean, more powerful than any dictator or tyrant. It’s the most powerful idea in the history of the world. That idea is that we hold these truths to be self-evident.

We are all created equal, endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights: life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. We’ve never fully lived up to it—to this sacred idea—but we’ve never walked away from it either. And I do not believe the American people will walk away from it now.

In just a few months, the American people will choose the course of America’s future. I made my choice. I’ve made my views known. I would like to thank our great vice president, Kamala Harris. She is experienced, she is tough, she is capable. She’s been an incredible partner to me and a leader for our country.

Now the choice is up to you, the American people. When you make that choice, remember the words of Benjamin Franklin hanging on my wall here in the Oval Office, alongside the busts of Dr. King and Rosa Parks and Cesar Chavez.

When Ben Franklin was asked, as he emerged from the convention going on, whether the founders have given America a monarchy or a republic, Franklin’s response was: “A republic, if you can keep it.” A republic, if you can keep it. Whether we keep our republic is now in your hands. My fellow Americans, it’s been the privilege of my life to serve this nation for over 50 years.

Nowhere else on Earth could a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and in Claymont, Delaware, one day sit behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office as the president of the United States, but here I am.

That’s what’s so special about America. We are a nation of promise and possibilities. Of dreamers and doers. Of ordinary Americans doing extraordinary things. I’ve given my heart and my soul to our nation, like so many others. And I’ve been blessed a million times in return with the love and support of the American people. I hope you have some idea how grateful I am to all of you.

The great thing about America is, here kings and dictators do not rule—the people do. History is in your hands. The power’s in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands. You just have to keep faith—keep the faith—and remember who we are. We are the United States of America, and there are simply nothing, nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together. So let’s act together, preserve our democracy. God bless you all and may God protect our troops. Thank you.

~ ~ ~

This is an open thread.

[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]

When a distinguished professor of journalism calls out the Washington Post on its bullshit, you’d hope WaPo would take note and make a correction in its direction:

One Democratic senator who is noted for being to the right end of the Democrats’ political spectrum apparently constitutes a landslide in Democratic Party opinion.

If Democrats stood on Sen. Michael Bennet’s side of the boat we’d be Republican Lite sinking the boat.

What’s truly disgusting about WaPo’s skewed priorities is that another event of far more import than Bennet’s lone opinion took place last evening and hasn’t received the scrutiny it should have.

Laffy wrote a thread summarizing Donald Trump’s campaign rally. I’m not going to post the entire thread, just posts 2 and 3 from a 10-post thread:

The entire thread begins at this link.

This synopsis spares you Trump’s droning whine as he reels out over an hour of white Christian nationalist/supremacist grievance using an absurd number of lies.

I listened to this nauseating dreck this morning and it’s awful. If this man is elected and allowed to act on his hatred relying on the Roberts’ court’s presidential immunity, no one who is a person of color or LGBTQ+ will be safe let alone other marginalized groups.

The rotting cherry on the top of this ugliness: this was a campaign rally held at Trump National Doral Golf Club in Miami.

In other words, Trump laundered campaign funds which paid for this event, transferring it to his Trump org-owned golf course and eventually into his own pocket.

The Secret Service was surely charged by the course for what resources it used to protect him at the course — this money went directly to the course and into Trump’s pocket.

GOP presumptive presidential nominee Trump was grifting right under the noses of his supporters and what little media was present, while airing so much hateful screed as a campaign speech.

But a “landslide” of one Democratic senator was more important and featured on WaPo’s front page.

[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]

It’s a summer Saturday which has always been a golf day in Chez Rayne. Not that I’ve always played golf on this day of the week but I can count on my spouse hitting the links every Saturday from spring to fall.

Likewise you can bet your ass the orange-tinted former bawbag is playing golf.

Just as you could count on him playing golf while he was president, for more than 22% of his days he served in office.

What, you forgot that lard ass mooched off taxpayers this badly? Apparently the media has zero interest in reminding you.

Now imagine what an imperial president who can’t be restrained would do with their time if they could simply call their Florida home the Southern White House and their 18-holes of cheating an official act.

But Joe Biden is old.

Sadly, the Trump Golf Count website has been shuttered; it’s only available now in the Internet Archive. Would an imperial presidency permit a new golf count website if Trump is the imperial president?

Would we be able to learn just how badly Trump fucks taxpayers while cheating on his golf courses?

Will Trump screw with foreign and domestic policy by continuing Trump org’s relationship with LIV Golf, dispatching critics by bone saw as an official act?

Will the media accidentally video Trump saying, “Grab ’em by the wallet. They’ll let you do that if you’re king.”

This is an open thread.

[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]

The last batch of decisions will drop shortly — I think. Last week the Supreme Court didn’t deliver all of the remaining decisions it had on its plate and pushed them into a new month.

I hope these outstanding cases will be decided today:

NetChoice, LLC v. Paxton and Moody v. NetChoice, LLC (these are both about social media and may come as one or two decisions)

Corner Post, Inc. v. Board of Governors Of The Federal Rsrv. Sys.

Trump v. United States

Decisions released today follow in an update at the bottom of this post.

~ ~ ~

First decision: Corner Post, Inc. v. Board of Governors Of The Federal Rsrv. Sys.

Justice Barrett wrote the 6-3 decision; Justice Brown Jackson wrote the dissent joined by Sotomayor and Kagan.

This one could cause a lot of problems forcing reassessment of past rules and decisions by the Fed Reserve’s Board based on the dates used — the date an injury occurred due to a new Fed rule versus the date the new rule was first in force.

Second decision: NetChoice, LLC v. Paxton and Moody v. NetChoice, LLC

Justice Kagan wrote the unanimous decision on these consolidated cases, though there are concurrences:

KAGAN, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS, C. J.,
and SOTOMAYOR, KAVANAUGH, and BARRETT, JJ., joined in full, and in
which JACKSON, J., joined as to Parts I, II and III–A. BARRETT, J., filed a
concurring opinion. JACKSON, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and
concurring in the judgment. THOMAS, J., filed an opinion concurring in
the judgment. ALITO, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, in
which THOMAS and GORSUCH, JJ., joined.

Whew. I don’t see the word “dissent” in this, do you? It’s another smackdown of the Fifth Circuit as well.

Third decision: Trump v. United States

Justice Roberts wrote the 6-3 court decision; Justice Sotomayor wrote a dissent joined by Kagan and Brown Jackson. Justice Brown Jackson also wrote a dissent.

From SCOTUSBlog’s thread:

The court holds that a former president has absolute immunity for his core constitutional powers.

Former presidents are also entitled to at least a presumption of immunity for their official acts.

There is no immunity, the court holds, for unofficial acts.

The core constitutional powers are things like appointing ambassadors and foreign governments.

This is not all of the decision – Roberts was still reading his decision at 10:37 a.m. ET. It looks like this is being handed back to lower courts because of the lack of distinction between official and unofficial acts. It also looks like the rightwing of SCOTUS has extended immunity to Trump for his discussions with Department of Justice, which I assume means if he made any false statements to FBI or other DOJ personnel, those charges will be dropped.

~ ~ ~

This is an open thread. Any further updates related to these cases will appear at the bottom of this post.

[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]

Remember back in 2016 when Hillary Clinton’s emails were all The New York Times could write about? Flooding its front page instilled FUD – fear, uncertainty, and doubt, a well-known and frequently used tactic to undermine opposition.

(source: Vox, Study: Hillary Clinton’s emails got as much front-page coverage in 6 days as policy did in 69)

That. We’re watching a reprise of a FUD flood right now, this time with NYT’s uppermost management in on the effort.

In 2016 it was so bad it became a joke memorialized as a meme.

That was then, this is now. Welcome to NYT’s 2024 election FUD operation: “But His Debate.”

~ ~ ~

LOLGOP pointed out how bad the NYT’s front page was in a Mastodon post:

It’s far worse than LOLGOP shared, because the editorials also hammer on Biden’s debate performance:

Recall how the media bleated on for months about Clinton’s emails and how later after investigation her emails were a nothing burger. All that NYT energy trying to make fetch happen; but fetch wasn’t Clinton being prosecuted but losing her race to Trump

You can expect the same thing from here on forward, the entire NYT once again focused on making fetch happen.

Meanwhile, the one man crime spree goes on. Former Assistant AG for New York State and MSNBC commentator Tristan Snell nailed it:

This is what the NYT’s front page looked like the day after a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty on felony charges:

Two stories. That’s it. Nothing the day before about the trial.

NYT’s Editorial Board published an op-ed – Donald Trump, Felon – in which the NYT made no call for Trump to step down as the GOP candidate.

This is the last graf from that op-ed which summarizes the trial and the editorial board’s opinion:

In the end, the jury heard the evidence, deliberated for more than nine hours and came to a decision, which is how the system is designed to work. In the same way, elections allow voters to consider the choices before them with full information, then freely cast their ballots. Mr. Trump tried to sabotage elections and the criminal justice system — both of which are fundamental to American democracy — when he thought they might not produce the outcome he wanted. So far, they have proved resilient enough to withstand his attacks. The jurors have delivered their verdict, as the voters will in November. If the Republic is to survive, all of us — including Mr. Trump — should abide by both, regardless of the outcome.

That’s it. It’s on us, the voters. Don’t expect the NYT to sully itself with informing voters about candidate’s policy positions, they’ll be too busy trying to tank Biden’s candidacy for re-election.

~ ~ ~

It’s nearly impossible at this point to come to any conclusion except that the NYT has been and remains in the tank for Trump based on its history of coverage of Trump and his opponents Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2024.

This POS from October 2016 is still incredibly offensive:

We already lost a far better POTUS in 2016 with NYT’s help, resulting in the loss of many American lives thanks to Trump’s corruption and incompetence.

Now we may lose a candidate for re-election who’s managed to fix many of the fuck-ups Trump generated, who’s ensured the U.S. economy has thrived in spite of pandemic pressures.

It’d be laughable if the stakes weren’t so high.

Trump’s engaged in criminal behavior which included not only trying to overthrow an election but the willful unlawful retention of classified materials including national defense information?

NYT: *yawn*

Trump says he wants to be a dictator on Day One, ordering a concentration camp for undocumented immigrants?

NYT: *bigger yawn*

Biden, suffering from a cold, has a poor showing at the first debate?

NYT: Oh we can’t have that! Biden must step aside!

I really thought it was the Washington Post which was racing to the basement with its hiring of Will Lewis and abortive hiring of Robert Winnett.

Nope. WaPo has nothing on the NYT.

Listen on Spotify (transcripts available)

Listen on Apple (transcripts available)

[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]

It’s the last day* Supreme Court’s term, and the last batch of decisions will drop shortly

Decisions released today follow in an update at the bottom of this post.

*–No, it’s not the final day after all, but this post was written as a pre-scheduled draft back on June 25 and my psychic powers predicting how many cases would drop on which dates was at an ebb.

~ ~ ~

Time-killing observations:

One of the great tragedies of the red states’ push to ban abortion as reproductive care has been the threats to and loss of doctors and other health care workers who provide reproductive health services. If health care professionals are at risk of prosecution in red states for providing what may be essential lifesaving care, they are often electing to leave and practice elsewhere. With the loss of health care professionals due to the COVID pandemic, they won’t have difficulty finding a new place to practice even if it may not feel like the home they leave behind.

Health care professional Rory Cole wrote an op-ed about Idaho which was affected by SCOTUS’s handling of the Moyle v. Idaho case. Worth a read because her opinion is surely shared by other health care professionals in states like Texas and Florida.

I’m staying in Idaho to practice medicine after the U.S. Supreme Court’s EMTALA decision

~ ~ ~

Today’s decisions —

First decision: City of Grants Pass v. Johnson

Justice Gorsuch wrote the 6-3 decision; Justice Sotomayor wrote the dissent which she opened by noting, “Sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime.”

Grants Pass banned public camping — which really banned homeless persons from sleeping in public. What a piece of shit decision relying on the Eighth Amendment to punish the homeless.

As noted all too often about the so-called conservatives: the cruelty is the point.

Second decision: Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo

Justice Roberts wrote the 6-3 decision; Justice Kagan wrote the dissent. The court split along ideological lines as expected.

This case essentially undermines the unanimous Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. (1984) decision upon which federal agencies have relied for decades.

This is yet another swipe at the administrative state by the Roberts court and yet more evidence each of the recent GOP-appointed justices lied during their nomination hearings if they affirmed stare decisis. They are writing law from the bench.

Third decision: Fischer v. United States

Justice Roberts wrote the 6-3 decision; oddly, Justice Brown Jackson concurred. Justice Coney Barrett wrote the dissent joined by justices Sotomayor and Kagan.

This is the January 6 case in which accused insurrectionists were charged with 18 USC 1512(c); the majority narrowed the scope of the charge to impairment of record, document, or other objects in official proceedings. Aggravatingly, this appears to place focus on 18 USC 1512(c)(1) and not 18 USC 1512(c)(2) as you can see from the code itself:

(c) Whoever corruptly—

(1) alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding; or
(2) otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.

IANAL but this makes no sense to me because the entire point of the attack on the capitol was to obstruct the counting of votes and alter the outcome of the election’s certification.

~ ~ ~

This is an open thread. Any further updates related to these cases will appear at the bottom of this post.

[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]

I’m still furious after listening to and reading yesterday’s interview on NPR’s Fresh Air. I’ve already vented about it in the debate post so I’ll spare you a repeat.

But I’ll be candid and disclose that one of the reasons I was so goddamned upset was personal.

You see, yesterday morning when I couldn’t immediately post the SCOTUS decisions, I was caring for a family member who has dementia and Parkinson’s-like symptoms.

We spent the entire day together. I’m sure the people they ran into briefly while we went about errands thought she was fine. They made small purchases, ordered lunch, managed not to lose any personal belongings.

But they didn’t spend enough time with this person to know how damaged they are.

They have a stooped posture and shuffling gait which is common among Parkinson’s patients; they have difficulty with walking distances and have no grip strength. Forget about doing anything like riding a bike because they don’t have the strength or balance for it in spite of going to the gym to work out three days a week. They frequently need to hang onto to doorframes when there is a change in elevation entering a room.

They repeat themselves; I must have heard a variation of the same story four times inside a half hour, and on several occasions yesterday.

They can’t remember new material longer than fifteen minutes.

They have difficulty explaining concepts in which they were once expert.

They lie or confabulate to make up for gaps in their ability to retain new information or express concepts they once knew well.

They sundown, becoming anxious as the afternoon and evening progresses, losing orientation in time and location, becoming agitated when their unease exceeds their ability to hold themselves together. Rather like a toddler in need of a nap they act out.

After getting through dinner and handing this family member off to their regular caregivers, once out of my sight, they melted down.

This person can’t be left alone any longer; they have been struggling with their activities of daily living like remembering to take medications regularly and at the same time each day. Timers on medication bottles no longer work to this end.

There is no way this person could hold a full-time job let alone a part-time one. They can’t focus for long on any task.

This is stable behavior now after they’ve been put on medications for night-time seizures which affected their sleep and an Alzheimer’s medication which hasn’t improved their condition but leveled it off.

Reality Check

So while some folks panic about Joe Biden’s performance during the debate, I want to tell you to get a fucking clue and check in with reality. Biden was likely unwell and fatigued; imagine how well you’d perform under the same conditions, regardless of your age.

The former guy, however, no matter his performance last night…

This guy has had muscle coordination problems for years now, obvious during his term in office.

(source)

This guy has had problems walking over changes in elevation.

(see video and article at this link)

This guy has had difficulty walking distances, including the 700 yards G7 leaders walked in 2017.

(source)

This guy has experienced phonemic aphasia with increasing frequency.

Over the weekend, Donald delivered two speeches that left viewers shocked about his health. It wasn’t just the content of his speeches — the plethora of lies and the fascistic rhetoric — that made headlines: it was his apparent aphasia (or, to be technically accurate, phonemic paraphasias). That is the type of mental confusion that might leave one saying “Venzwhere” instead of “Venezuela” or “wall mongers” instead of “war mongers.”

“Putin has so little respect for Obama that he’s starting to throw around the nuclear word,” Donald said on Saturday night to a silent audience.

The silence likely stemmed from the fact that Obama hasn’t been president for over seven years.

(source: Mary L. Trump, Losing It)

This guy acts out violently when anxious and agitated.

~ ~ ~

I know which of the two candidates at last night’s debate is and has been suffering from cognitive and other neurological impairment, and whom I wouldn’t and couldn’t trust to tackle the nation’s most sensitive matters.

I also know I would not trust the candidate who during his first week in office ordered a ban on Muslims entering the U.S.

I would not trust the candidate who so carelessly and indifferently failed to respond appropriately in advance of and following a hurricane which eventually took thousands of American lives.

I would not trust the candidate who let his son-in-law deny federal COVID aid to blue states.

I would not trust the candidate who refuses to be pinned down on reproductive rights though his appointments to the Supreme Court have now resulted in the mounting loss of maternal and infant lives.

I would not trust the candidate who appointed so many persons who demonstrated bad faith, lousy judgment, and poor ethics during his term in office, and who removed or forced out so many good federal employees.

I cannot trust the candidate who refused to return presidential records and classified documents including national defense information, storing them improperly and even showing them off to unauthorized persons while in his possession.

Nor can I trust the future of this country, its democracy, and its very sovereignty to the candidate who has said he wants to be a dictator on Day One of his term in office, and who has been compromised by hostile foreign governments.

How you who are panicking after the debate have forgotten all this is beyond me. Has COVID sapped our nation’s collective ability to recall what happened during Trump’s term in office? Did you actually fall for the seasoned con man’s ability to gain your confidence once again because he managed to hold it together for a single carefully-managed appearance on stage?

Save your fucking panic and get to work because for some of us this is personal — our lives depend on it.