NYTimes.com: George Clooney: I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee.

[John Clark]

Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription.

George Clooney: I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee.

I saw Biden three weeks ago at my fund-raiser for him. It’s devastating to say it, but he is not the same man he was, and he won’t win this fall.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/10/opinion/joe-biden-democratic-nominee.html?unlocked_article_code=1.6U0.9Odh.4XeaholChY4V&smid=em-share

[PGC]

Ok ok. It deserves another thread/conversation. So I'll repeat partially:

Why a part of the US electorate is non-zombie, is its ability - in principle - to denounce the bullshit coming from the campaign they support. Maga does not have this ability. They have the old loyalty system, renowned from middle ages and comparable cultures/times in history (and in the present!), which is what the Biden campaign is apparently aspiring towards lately. This could be such an opportunity to contrast the messy, but real ability, through democratic deliberation, critical discussion, and consensus finding to showcase what a living, breathing democracy is and contrast that with Maga stagnation and blind obedience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9LZXheHddI

It's such a cliché in fiction: Prospero knew better. King Lear fell for it tragically: When power obscures the ability of clear self-reference in the sense of viewing oneself in the mirror. But even for US popular tastes, where ambiguity in ethics is frowned upon and black and white ethics are prefered, with clear distinctions between good and evil, lots of guns, battles, magic, and special effects: Obi-Wan, Dumbledore, Denethor, and the list goes on. 

Stewart is right: "This can't be real life!". 

[John Clark]

On Thu, Jul 11, 2024 at 11:38 AM PGC <multipl...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Stewart is right: "This can't be real life!". 

If only I could wake up and realize it was all just a horrible dream!  But the reality is If Biden remains the Democratic candidate then Trump is going to win in a landslide, and the majority of the House and Senate will be Republican and incorporated into the Trump hive mind. And Trump already has the Supreme Court in his pocket. But if another Democrat, almost any other Democrat, is the candidate then American democracy would at least have a fighting chance of surviving.

John K Clark    See what's on my new list at  Extropolis

o8f

[PGC]

Waking up is indeed what is needed. Of course, the Dem candidate should be changed. But in game theory terms, perhaps Stewart and Clooney don't go far enough. Even if Biden or some Dem won in November, does anybody really believe that the other side would accept it, not contest the election with SCOTUS just waiting to hear the cases in an objective manner? Does anybody really believe that if Trump won, he wouldn't use the powers that SCOTUS just furnished him, to pursue retribution, authoritarian goals, and dismantling democracy for personal and political gain?

What we have right now is a novel SCOTUS-approved presidential superpower, as Sotomayor points out in her dissent. A President just has to make anything he wants to do "official." The slow but definite slide into authoritarianism is apparently underway. Game theory suggests seizing any advantage and initiative immediately, and with Trump immediately seeking relief from his conviction, based on the SCOTUS immunity ruling, I don’t see why Biden couldn’t make use of them now. Use the powers granted by SCOTUS to indict and arrest MagaMan as orchestrator, and SCOTUS justices Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Barrett for accomplice liability that led to Jan 6. Use the DOJ and make it an "official act" towards protecting democracy.

I know, I know: pitchforks, large risk, and perhaps a constitutional crisis. Yet, invoking such a move is proof of the vast overreach of those justices, the lack of respect for rule of law of that ruling, and the felon of the moment taking immediate advantage. Democrats should leverage this somehow.

[Brent Meeker]

I agree.  But I don't think Biden has the guts or the energy to do it.  He should just resign due to health reasons in favor of Harris who I think could do it.  But would she?

Brent

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-li...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/e8b21b22-3ee0-4535-8748-d2f240189b1bn%40googlegroups.com.

[John Clark]

On Fri, Jul 12, 2024 at 7:36 PM Brent Meeker <meeke...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I agree.  But I don't think Biden has the guts or the energy to do it. 

True, I don't think Biden is ready to start assassinating political opponents, but if he remains the nominee then he still has to debate Trump two more times. I'm certainly not looking forward to that but if I were Biden I'd look Trump straight in the eye and ask him one question:
"You've indicated that you approve of the recent Supreme Court ruling, therefore do you really think that because being Commander In Chief is part of my official duties it would be perfectly legal if right now on live TV I ordered Seal Team Six to put a bullet in your brain?" 

Incidentally I'd like to ask six of the nine justices on the Supreme Court a similar question.  

> He should just resign due to health reasons in favor of Harris who I think could do it.  

Yes, but even better would be if Biden simply released his delegates and the Democrats had an open convention which would decide who their presidential candidate would be. The world would be transfixed during those four days, and in this case I think that would be a good thing. 

 John K Clark

 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/f4e7ddef-e749-49b0-a8b9-21512d6eaaf2%40gmail.com.

[Brent Meeker]

On 7/13/2024 4:39 AM, John Clark wrote:

On Fri, Jul 12, 2024 at 7:36 PM Brent Meeker <meeke...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I agree.  But I don't think Biden has the guts or the energy to do it. 

True, I don't think Biden is ready to start assassinating political opponents, but if he remains the nominee then he still has to debate Trump two more times. I'm certainly not looking forward to that but if I were Biden I'd look Trump straight in the eye and ask him one question:
"You've indicated that you approve of the recent Supreme Court ruling, therefore do you really think that because being Commander In Chief is part of my official duties it would be perfectly legal if right now on live TV I ordered Seal Team Six to put a bullet in your brain?" 

Incidentally I'd like to ask six of the nine justices on the Supreme Court a similar question.  

> He should just resign due to health reasons in favor of Harris who I think could do it.  

Yes, but even better would be if Biden simply released his delegates and the Democrats had an open convention which would decide who their presidential candidate would be. The world would be transfixed during those four days, and in this case I think that would be a good thing.

 Yeah, I've thought about that too.  It would make for good TV.  But I'm not sure about the campaign money of Biden/Harris.  I don't think they can legally give it to anyone else or even to the DNC.

Brent

 John K Clark

 

Brent

On 7/12/2024 5:13 AM, PGC wrote:

Waking up is indeed what is needed. Of course, the Dem candidate should be changed. But in game theory terms, perhaps Stewart and Clooney don't go far enough. Even if Biden or some Dem won in November, does anybody really believe that the other side would accept it, not contest the election with SCOTUS just waiting to hear the cases in an objective manner? Does anybody really believe that if Trump won, he wouldn't use the powers that SCOTUS just furnished him, to pursue retribution, authoritarian goals, and dismantling democracy for personal and political gain?

What we have right now is a novel SCOTUS-approved presidential superpower, as Sotomayor points out in her dissent. A President just has to make anything he wants to do "official." The slow but definite slide into authoritarianism is apparently underway. Game theory suggests seizing any advantage and initiative immediately, and with Trump immediately seeking relief from his conviction, based on the SCOTUS immunity ruling, I don’t see why Biden couldn’t make use of them now. Use the powers granted by SCOTUS to indict and arrest MagaMan as orchestrator, and SCOTUS justices Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Barrett for accomplice liability that led to Jan 6. Use the DOJ and make it an "official act" towards protecting democracy.

I know, I know: pitchforks, large risk, and perhaps a constitutional crisis. Yet, invoking such a move is proof of the vast overreach of those justices, the lack of respect for rule of law of that ruling, and the felon of the moment taking immediate advantage. Democrats should leverage this somehow.

On Thursday, July 11, 2024 at 6:38:21 PM UTC+2 John Clark wrote:

On Thu, Jul 11, 2024 at 11:38 AM PGC <multipl...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Stewart is right: "This can't be real life!". 

If only I could wake up and realize it was all just a horrible dream!  But the reality is If Biden remains the Democratic candidate then Trump is going to win in a landslide, and the majority of the House and Senate will be Republican and incorporated into the Trump hive mind. And Trump already has the Supreme Court in his pocket. But if another Democrat, almost any other Democrat, is the candidate then American democracy would at least have a fighting chance of surviving.

John K Clark    See what's on my new list at  Extropolis

o8f

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-li...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/e8b21b22-3ee0-4535-8748-d2f240189b1bn%40googlegroups.com.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-li...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/f4e7ddef-e749-49b0-a8b9-21512d6eaaf2%40gmail.com.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-li...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAJPayv0zr1ht%2Bp%3DKozabDCbHrHqy67ONBK46ZxJ3Lrx8z%3DTHVw%40mail.gmail.com.