Bucky

Bucky's Journal

August 19, 2024

Speaker Schedule for DNC '24. Monday: Joe Biden Jill Biden Hillary Clinton and LET'S GO BRANDON!!!

from Axios

Monday, "For the People": Biden and Dr. Jill Biden speak, along with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a welcome from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.

Tuesday, "A Bold Vision for America's Future": Former President Obama plus second gentleman Doug Emhoff, with a welcome from Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.

Wednesday, "A Fight for Our Freedoms": Vice presidential nominee Tim Walz delivers his acceptance speech, preceded by former President Clinton, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (per CNN).

Thursday, "For Our Future": Harris accepts the convention's nomination for president.

August 18, 2024

Biden heads to Chicago for a hero's goodbye

Biden heads to Chicago for a hero’s goodbye

This is not the Democratic convention that President Joe Biden envisioned just a month ago.

Stepping onto the stage in Chicago was supposed to be the capstone of a half-century electoral career, a triumphant recognition of his prolific first term and hard-earned validation of the belief that he alone could once again defeat former President Donald Trump.

But a week that Biden once saw as his political pinnacle will now last just a few hours, overtaken by an extraordinary series of events that has reenergized the president’s party at the expense of his own ambitions. The deafening roars Biden receives at the United Center Monday night will communicate just as much relief as reverence from a party grateful he’s stepped away, further signaling that Biden’s exit from the race is the only reason Democrats are confident they have a shot to win in November.

“He’s going to get an incredible reception,” Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), a staunch Biden ally, said ahead of his convention-opening speech Monday that will now effectively double as the president’s pass-the-torch moment. “But I’m sure it’s very complicated. I know it’s very complicated.”

August 18, 2024

We have to win & keep on winning for a decade

Trump & JD are acting like toddlers and yet 43.8% of the public still supports them to lead the country. That is the 538.com polling average.

Harris and Walz are performing flawlessly. It's like there's a debate going on whether Mom or stoned Cornholio should drive a busload of orphans and puppies to the park for a Sunday playdate and 43.8% of Americans are sucking on a tank of nitrous oxide and giggling, "Yeah, yeah -- heh-heh -- let Cornholio drive. That'll be kewl!"

Setting this country's ship off state right will take a generation. Do you have a sibling who's a drug user? Have you ever been married to an out-of-control alcoholic? Cause Uncle Sam has. We're living that reality right now. The situation is barely contained because Republicans are actively sabotaging their chances in November just to keep the cult together. And that cult floats at around 43.8% of the voting public. Sheesh

If they ever sober up they have a hell of a good chance of winning and implementing their long list of terrible ideas. Fox will cheer them on through the March to border fascism. WSJ will cheer them on to the next young point of climate denial. Musk and the Xitter mobs will cheer them on to full bore voter suppression. Alito and Thomas will resign their posts and get replaced by 32 year olds pledged to mandate Bible classes and institute a national condom ban.

Because 43.8% of Americans are full on nutz. We have to win every election for the next two decades just to contain this werewolf in our kitchen.

This has been your Sunday morning despair rant.

August 17, 2024

WaPo Columnist Who Hammered Harris Over 'Price Controls' Does Full 180 After Hearing Speech: "I Support It"

from Mediaite

‘I Support It’: WaPo Columnist Who Hammered Harris Over Call For ‘Price Controls’ Does Full 180 After Hearing Speech
Kipp Jones || Aug 16th, 2024

Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell said Friday afternoon she supported Vice President Kamala Harris’s take on lowering prices after she made headlines earlier in the day for criticizing the presumptive Democratic party nominee.

In an early morning piece for the Post, Rampell criticized Harris in an opinion piece that was headlined, “When your opponent calls you ‘communist,’ maybe don’t propose price controls?” Rampell wrote:

{snip}

Harris did not outright call for the Federal Trade Commission to intervene during her speech in North Carolina, a fact that was highlighted on social media by Bloomberg columnist Matthew Yglesias:

https://x.com/crampell/status/1824543886468845912

So Matt Yglesias points out: "After all the tweets, I'm pretty sure Harris did not in fact propose price controls on groceries — just kind of vaguely said that antitrust enforcement is good (it is good)."

And then Catherine "Quickdraw" Rampell concurs, Xitting out: "Yes there was still some silliness in her speech, but her comments on prices were more toned down than campaign factsheet sent to reporters (punishing companies that raise prices above their costs etc). A generic call to increase antitrust enforcement is fine and I support it."

But the factsheet ALSO didn't call for price caps. Quickdraw just made that part up in her head. *Sigh* Ya gotta do better, WaPo. There's this concept your former editor Ben Bradley always insisted on: verify your facts before you publish. It was a major plot point in All the President's Men.

August 17, 2024

Scaramucci says Trump's 'coming to grips' with losing, but I doubt it

https://www.thedailybeast.com/anthony-scaramucci-trump-is-coming-to-grips-with-losing-the-election

Scaramucci: Trump Is ‘Coming to Grips’ With Losing the Election

Anthony Scaramucci, Donald Trump’s one-time White House communications director, thinks his former boss is “coming to grips” with the possibility that he’ll lose the election and is consequently “growing darker.”

“Will be a rough 81 days,” Scaramucci added in an X post Thursday, referring to the time left until Election Day in November. His comment came as Trump spoke at an hour-long press conference at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, in which the Republican nominee explicitly rejected pleas from others in his party to stop personally attacking Vice President Kamala Harris.

But ya know, you don't get to be top level in the delusional lying narcissist field like Trump without having your denial game on fucking point. So call me a little skep that Trump even suspects he might not be destined for Retribution City. He might still overthrow democracy and make his daddy finally proud of him, smiling up at his boy from beyond the veil. Our antihero ain't giving into reality without a fight.

August 16, 2024

Startling footage from the war in Ukraine

it's truly all whizbang over there!

August 14, 2024

Helpful reminder

A vote against the Republicans is a vote against concentration camps. Both Trump and the project 2025 promise to round up "illegal" undocumented immigrants and deport them en mass.

Of course no country has facilities like these, including us, and there would be mountains on international paperwork involved. So as the mass round ups continue the roundupees would rot in whatever facilities the Trump Admin cooks up.

It's a nightmare recipe. When people call Trump a fascist, it's not an exaggeration. His plans literally require concentration camps

August 14, 2024