Leads (July 8th, 2024) (Patreon)

I'm withholding judgment until Jeffries and Schumer weigh in. Biden is hell-bent on staying in the race — he's good enough at politics to pull this off. But if Congressional leadership pulls its support, he's done. Let's call it 50-50.

Biden has always been a master of backdoor deals. He's less skilled at the public-facing aspect of politics. That's a more forgivable flaw in a senator or a vice president. As Commander-in-Chief, it's nearly fatal.

It wasn't always so. After four years of Trump, not thinking about the President everyday was heavenly. The White House dealt with Biden's poor public speaking by keeping him out of the limelight. That strategy does not work in an election year, so the Administration abandoned it. But Biden seems to be keeping the same hours he always did, which directly conflicts with his re-election campaign and advanced age.

I hope to God Trump doesn't come back. But we'll see. Read Chotiner about Biden.

The far-right has been taking a beating this week at least. Le Pen's failure and the fall of the Tories are a sign that ordinary people, who are by and large decent and don't like fascism very much, are fed up with white supremacism and austerity. That's not to say Macron or, lol, Starmer are effective alternatives. I'm still reeling from the phrase "Prime Minister-elect Keir Starmer." If democracy doesn't batten down the hatches and brace itself for the next fascist wave (or the resurgence of the ongoing one), we're in for an ugly future.

In happier news: on Saturday my home team, the Washington Nationals played a killer game. When the score was 9-0 at the bottom of the second, I knew we had this in the bag. James Wood (previously of the Rochester Red Wings!) is killing it. Anyway, let's ignore Sunday's game.

Most importantly, after 10 months and at least 38,153 murders, free Palestine.