Even if he goes full and permanent vegetable, he's still not Trump. Top priority is stopping Orange Hitler from taking control again, so please for the love of human rights, vote for whoever has the the best shot at beating him - if that's Biden, cool. If it's Harris, cool. If it's a literal ham sandwich, fucking fine - all three are orders of magnitude more qualified to do the job then Trump.
Yeah, I'll vote blue... But get this fucker off the ticket. I'd much rather it be Kamala, or like... Nearly anyone really.
Yeah, the question isn't who Democrats will vote for. It's who independents will vote for. And there are a lot of independents.
Relying on the "Never Trump" vote to win this election feels like a terrible risk.
And if we're simply relying on "never Trump" then it shouldn't matter if Biden steps down because the goal is still the same.
We don't have democracy anymore.
First, the SCOTUS ruling did away with that last week, but let's ignore that for now...
We have a fascist authoritarian in charge who refuses to even consider stepping down until he dies - certainly he is not going to let the people decide who gets to be the Democratic nominee - vs. someone who will become a dictator for life and do the same, but somehow much, MUCH worse.
I hope that many people vote Blue No Matter Who... yet I fear that many independents won't.
I don't think you realise what a fascist authoritarian is my lad.
It's a bit hyperbolic in this context, yet also technically accurate in a surprising number of ways, though mostly I was focusing on how he won't allow an election to determine who gets to be the Democratic nominee. Also, he has the legal ability to murder his opponents, and is both supporting (in Gaza) even while also decrying (in Ukraine) genocide. Anyway, the point is that he is suppressing opposition (from within his own party, by not allowing a debate about who may replace him), which yes he has the legal ability to do, fwiw. So he is not much of one perhaps, but has some characteristics not entirely dissimilar to one.
yeah those observations are fair. Regardless now I'm afraid Trump has sealed his win with this shooting. His voters are going to be mobilised like never before for the election
Hrm, so he wasn't seriously injured, and the outcome ends in his favor, hrm... I see.
And Biden's administration ends up looking weaker than ever before, for allowing it to happen. I hate politics.:-(
The question is who will turn out to vote. The number of "independents" who don't overwhelmingly vote republican or democratic is vanishingly small. This is found time and time again. Ultimately it's a question of which electorate turns out and which is demotivated enough not to.
Anyone supposedly independent or undecided at this point is and idgit voter who will either stay home or vote for Trump.
I've been trying to be positive about him but he's really indefensible at this point.
His hubris is very likely going to fuck things up for everyone.
Any other candidate will wipe the floor with trump.
I think Kamala would be one of the single worst candidates we could put forth, but what do I know? I only worked for the dumpster fire of a DoJ she was partly responsible for.
hey now, the US has a long and storied history of loving the fuck out of female presidential candidates.
Maybe. Though I say we just come together, get his ass in, and then in the first year also get his ass out and let the VP or Speaker step in. Like it or not, changing now IS risky and it is arguable whether it's the better choice. I'll go with what the majority chooses because fighting against Trump and the GOP is what's important.
Let me repeat: We are in the game where we must do what the Republicans do and come together against a common enemy. So I recommend everyone agree on a candidate then shut up and checkmark that box. We can go back to verbally juxtaposing our positions through digital larping, or whatever it is we do when most of us forget politics exist for four years.
I will take weekend at Bernie's in the White House with people who actually understand policies over fascist bat shit crazy any day. Not even a discussion for me.
He wouldn't even be our first weekend at Bernie's president. There's Wilson and Reagan that I'm aware of and probably a couple that I'm not.
weekend at Bernie’s in the White House
I'd watch the hell out of that
Weekend at Bernie's 2: the White House Special
I think this is a dangerous attitude. He's made some gaffs recently but overall has not been a terrible person or leader. Supporting the possibility of dropping a candidate this late in the game especially when there are no super star saviors waiting in the wings is the kind of party weakness the GOP would eat up and is a recipe for failure. You don't have to love him at this point, but it's too late to start over, just suck it up make a donation to his campaign and vow to become more involved in political change at earlier levels so hopefully we are not in this mess again.
I'm voting Joe because he is still the only qualified candidate for the job. The package he brings is a Vice President who could do the job if he were to step down due to health/age concerns to guarantee a female President as his dream come true. She then gets to pick her Vice President which should absolutely be AOC. The opposition has no convincing argument to draw this out in a court as they would need to present their arguments to AOC for rebuttal,
It's just so batshit crazy it can't fail.
I'm voting Joe because he is still the only qualified candidate for the job.
There's a couple of hundred million other qualified candidates in the US. If you're looking for politicial experience, there's several hundred in Washington alone.
Dems have totally failed to bring through the next two or three generations of candidates. That the party feels that he's their only choice is shameful.
Since when has the opposition needed convincing arguments to drag things out? They'll come up with whatever bullshit they want just to keep stuff from moving forward until they get the ball again.
Tell that to Hillary Clinton...
He has been a terrible candidate though. If the polling is accurate and trump has a slight lead in popular vote, Biden has less than a 5% chance of winning the election (according to Nate Silver’s models). Unfortunately, this is probably optimistic as polling has overestimated the democratic vote in the last 2 presidential elections including the one that included these same two candidates.
Nate Silver is terrible and usually terribly wrong, but just step outside the last year and it's been crystal clear Biden would and will 100% lose the Electoral College to Dump. No amount of Cult Jr telling us to just vote blue no matter who is going to change that. Most Americans don't know the difference between a row and a column or a watch and a warning, they aren't thinking critically about Presidential elections.
It's so ironic to see the "vote blue no matter who" people argue against replacing Biden when data shows a high probability of him losing. If they suggest we vote blue no matter who then why are they so ardently telling us that it has to be this one guy?
"the data" would also suggest that a late replacement could be destructive and have an even Higher probability of losing. More importantly the process to oust Biden is highly unlikely to succeed. Therefore the very act of pushing for these kinds of changes only demonstrates weakness for the GOP and accomplishes nothing but push away any remaining undecided voters toward a party that at least has a clear favorite. I wish people would support the current candidate more aggressively rather than destructively attempt for replacement when doing so is futile.
While you are at it, you might also wish for people to vote Blue. It's not going to happen though - independents refuse to tow a particular party line, preferring instead for candidates to earn their votes, and they will watch the world burn, or even turn to Trump to help it, rather than give in. This is what true democracy looks like - sometimes people lose, when enough people on the other side vote to win. We can only control ourselves - e.g. if the Dems were to pick a replacement, there may be a better chance, while otherwise we simply sit back and roll the dice to see whatever happens.
Who will replace him? Michelle Obama doesn't want to run, Gavin Newsom has full support for Biden, and Kamala Harris is already VP.
I'm sure plenty of people would step up if he actually stepped down. What you're seeing now is people doing damage control to keep from undermining his campaign. It doesn't mean that they're actually telling us their true beliefs. Newsom says he fully supports Biden, and if he stepped down, Newsom would fully support whomever took his place.
I think Harris is just as bad of a candidate as Biden or Clinton. Michelle Obama is an option but I don't see why we have to treat this like a TV reboot where we keep rehashing the same names and faces that we saw previously. I'd personally love Bernie or AOC, but I know the party leadership hates leftist candidates and will actively work against them, so we're probably screwed either way just like we were in 2016.
That's just not flying with the ~100,000 people who are actually going to decide this election. They aren't going to vote Biden. Polling is making this very clear over the last week or so.
Since literally anyone will be Not Trump then can we have someone actually good? That way we’d have “not Trump” and “actually good” both working for us! Win win!
We can. But we won't. Murican politics will be riding this death spiral all the way into its grave.
Going into survival mode forever, where either party can do whatever the frick they want, because they others mustn't win! Nice system you got there, where it's like 50\50 every time!
They present you a Trump and therefore they can even kill your kids, as long as Trump doesn't win. It's a scam.. both parties are in it. But they divided you all so perfectly fine, you stopped thinking a long time ago.
Looking forward to your comments, telling me about NO BOth SIdeS!
Not sure why the downvotes. The American duopoly is a scam, you are very right. If there is any hope for change it needs to start lower down the food chain. Support the forward party, get involved in local politics, rally against gerrymandering as a hard as possible.
Its truly an absolute shit system and it keeps itself propped up this way. What will it even take to see blue and red completely removed? Theyre both terrible options for the future of our world, but when November comes around, they're still on the ballot.
Until a revamped Constitution is written by people of all genders, colors, faith, wealth, and education, this will never end.
We can do better than this and it needs to happen now. Its already too late, but we can help slow the damage to our planet if we act quickly.
Tired of these popularity contests when we're literally living in a mass extinction.
The US Constitution is not responsible for the 2-party duopoly. It actually grants us the freedom to have all the political parties we want, and corporate oligarchy has entrenched the current 2 parties. What we really need is corporate money banned from politics, starting with a reversal of Citizens United decision.
The Constitution was written in part by white men who owned slaves/supported slavery. It does not reflect what America is today.
The two-party system has held American with a tight grip since the early 1800s. It has done nothing but cause arguments about how much power the federal government should have or not. That argument will continue (and probably get worse) until the USA can embrace having the full support of all of its people. Elected officials are not the answer to this. At the moment, they are people who have time/money to participate in political activities. They generally aren't aware of what this country is really going through. They only focus on a certain set of issues that they have the passion for. Rarely are they able to properly address other issues, so they end up taking their own party's stance.
America was never designed to have parties. In fact, it was said that we should avoid having them at all.
We also are no longer constrained by horses and written mail. We have significantly changed how communication works and idk why we can't have a direct democracy nowadays.
During Premier Trump's reign, on Reddit, that picture preview always pointed the way to the most roaring political dumpster fires.
WDYM what now? Him being geriatric isn't new nor does it change anything.
The funny thing is that Biden's had gaffes like this his whole career and could have laughed it off under other circumstances, but with the eyes of the entire world on him watching for him to have another senior moment this is another nail in the coffin.
Trump at a rally this week: "Mothers will never again be forced to watch their children overdosing & hosp--lee. We will never allow mothers to watch their child hopelessly dying in their arms, screaming, 'What can I do? Help me God, what can I do?' We are a nation whose once revered airports are a dirty, crowded mess."
Has any media covered that word vomit?
Trump’s brain is also absolutely cooked. He just doesn’t look as confused as Biden I think that helps him. Plus that his voters don’t care about facts, I’m guessing they might have actually had some bleach.
No, because with Trump it has been normalized for years and his base couldn't care less about these things.
Post a link... I believe you because that certainly sounds like Trump, but a transcript/video would really help it sink in
Combined with his constant look of intense confusion, it seems like a lot more than senior moments.
It’s a long moment
Usually the old guy is the one INSIDE the coffin. Not the one nailing it shut......
Comedy is hard, better luck next time!
Biden has been dogshit in general for his entire career. Not sure why the party pushed so hard for him in 2020.
I remember when Biden was picked as Obama's VP, and everyone laughed because he's known to make gaffes like this.
Obviously, there's a lot of scrutiny on him, but let's not pretend it's all because he's too old. It's just Biden being Biden, and while he's probably too old for the job, that's what happens when you don't impose upper age limits...
It's not just "biden being biden" by a longshot. He is 81 and significantly worse.
We are rightly worried he's going to lose against trump.
As if Trump doesn't make those kinds of verbal blunders.
His voting base doesn’t care if they’re led by an unfit leader.
Be better than them.
The choices are
Be "better" and help Trump win, or
Help Trump lose
Seems like an easy choice to me.
Even as a vegetable, Biden's administration wouldn't let the country fall into a kleptocracy. And that's enough for me.
Letting the country fall into a kleptocracy is exactly what Biden and his democratic party handlers are doing with their insistence of "nothing would fundamentally change" by pushing through the weakest presidential candidates and placing the status quo over actual progress.
What do you think is happening right now?
It is not nearly so binary. This issue is complex and intertwining - think rocket science where to get more thrust you need more fuel, but adding more fuel adds more weight, so you need even more thrust... that's mere child's play compared to politics.
For one thing, replacing Biden now may help Trump win, but it may also help Trump lose, whereas in contrast NOT replacing Biden now may help Trump lose, or it could help Trump win.
And somehow, we're all back to everything Everything, EVERYthing being all about Trump, all the time.:-( Democracy has had cracks in it forever, especially when mixed with capitalism, and he exposes all of those.
replacing Biden now may help Trump win, but it may also help Trump lose, whereas in contrast NOT replacing Biden now may help Trump lose, or it could help Trump win.
Either that quote doesn't really mean anything, or maybe I'm missing the nuance to it.
Both action or inaction may either increase or lessen the likelihood of either outcome. Hence why politics is more complex than rocket science - think quantum entanglement.
Turning the thermostat up will either cool the house or warm it. Turning the thermostat down will either warm the house or cool it.
Touching the thermostat will either cool the house or warm it. Leaving the thermostat alone (aka, not touching it) may also allow the house to become warmer or cooler than it is now (you know, bc weather).
Fyi this is asynchronous communication - you are allowed to spend more time thinking before speaking, if you don't understand something.
The voters can't replace Biden, and as I've mentioned in another comment, they're not making these decisions blindly. They've likely come to the conclusion that replacing Biden would cost more votes than it'd gain. Right or wrong, they're not going in blindly.
All the voters can do is vote. And realistically, on election day, a vote not made for Biden is a vote in Trump's favour.
If you're okay with that, that's your decision. But I believe Trump has said that if it were up to him, the genocide would've been "completed" by now.
The voters couldn't even practically choose anyone other than Biden in that sham of a primary. People were warning about Biden since long before the primary and yet democratic party leadership decided they knew better than the voters and forced him through. Now you're blaming their fuck up on voters.
You don't know for a fact that it is a fuck up.
You (should) know for a fact that, if you consider Trump getting elected to be a fuck up, that not voting for Biden would be a fuck up because it'd be helping Trump win.
We can see the fuck up in motion right now as the democratic party runs around with their hair on fire. What should be a slam dunk election is in doubt (and wasn't even clear before the debate) because the candidate is that weak, just like how Trump should have been easy to win against in 2016 but they forced through Hillary and we've been living through this nightmare ever since.
The general election isn't for another four months. That is the time to STFU and vote. Although who are we kidding, >90% of people live somewhere where their votes barely matter if at all - maybe, maybe helping Trump voters see that Biden's re-election is "real", but otherwise every city will vote Dem and every rural area will vote Repub and there's like 10 counties that will determine the course of the entire world for the foreseeable future. Btw I'm not worried about either me or you, but I am worried about the independents in those 10 counties.
Our news media is out for blood, like sharks in the water. Right or wrong, or left or whatever, they don't care, they smell PROFIT to be made by ruthlessly making fun of every tiny thing that Biden will do from now on. We ignore this at our peril - I'm not saying that I take evil glee from this horrid fact, merely that this inconvenient truth should be accounted for. We can bow before facts, or we can be crushed by them in turn - but either way, we will have to reconcile with them. The choice is whether we do so before, and use them to turn the situation to our advantage as best we can, or whether we wake up some day later wishing that we had done so previously. Exactly like 2016 with Hillary, or like that other time with RBG, but this time there will be no second chances, bc this at least looks to be our last election. Maybe second to last, possibly with yet another interspersal of another Dem, but there are no guarantees for such - Trump has already declared his intentions to become a dictator, and SCOTUS has already made it legal for him to do so.
And in the midst of all of this, with the stakes higher than they've ever been for our little democracy experiment... Biden, well, "has a cold". Okay then, so hype up on crack, cocaine, or whatever you need to do, just get it done, or move aside and let Gavin Newsom or Pete Buttigieg or AOC or Gretchen Whitmer or whoever take the lead. This is not the time to be playing authoritian games with our literal democracy at stake. BuT hE's OuR lEaDeR? Then LEAD. He's old - it's not his fault, but the Democratic primary choosing him would be our fault.
I agree that they had some kind of strategy in place. It relied on deception. It failed. Now that the cat is out of the bag, and we all saw what has been happening with our very own eyes and heard it with our very own ears, the strategy of telling everyone "he's fine, you don't see it but behind closed doors everything is totally fine, I totally have a girlfriend, you don't know her bc she goes to another school, in fact she's in Canada, but we are totally happy together... t-t-totally, yeah!" - this approach (!?!), is backfiring.
People are tire of being lied to. They won't vote. Trump now has a greater likelihood of winning. That's... no bueno.:-( Maybe we should do something about it? Something other than simply saying "what are you going to do?", before it's too late and nothing is all that can be done, as it gets even later in the game. It might be time to update the strategy, to fit the new set of updated facts. Otherwise, we roll the dice and hope for the best - but now is our last chance to affect change, if we really do want to see Trump not win?
Not to mention Mega donors publicly stating that debate Biden is the Biden they got at donor events. The curtain has been well and truly pulled back.
Personally I've been pleasantly surprised at how well he's done, and think the media has been terribly unfair to him. However, that was then, and this is now... and if those two issues combined work together to get Trump elected, that won't be good for the nation, or the world.
All the voters can do is vote.
And protest, and contact representatives, and organize, and join their local party... Again with the national party lines meant to make people disengage.
Yes, you're right. There is more they can do to influence things. But on election day, only the vote truly counts.
Thankfully that's an entire campaign away.
No. This is an either/or fallacy the DNC has been pushing for over a year to quell any dissent. Well the chickens have come home to roost. We can apply pressure to change the candidate. That's an option. We do not have to have either Trump or Biden and nothing else.
I'm talking about voting.
It's interesting to see all the pro-Trump accounts suddenly change their talking points to "Biden should step down." It makes you wonder...
Oh joy. That's a new one. Nobody has ever called me a pro Trump person for attempting to remind people that there are other options. Never before.
Just kidding. This is exactly how we got here. People like you bullying anyone that dares talk about Biden having electability issues. It was too effective and now we're in this dumb position that could have been avoided so easily.
The top comment in this thread is "yeah Biden might be a vegetable, but vote blue no matter who."
How exactly are lefties any better? Your leader is losing his mind, clearly not fit to lead the country, but you'll back him anyway.
Biden and the Dems are right wing?
Leftists don’t support them. “Centrists” do.
People aren't going to vote for Trump over Biden, they are just going to sit out. America doesn't have mandatory voting.
If those people are fine with Trump being president, then that's on them. Sitting out instead of voting against Trump is helping Trump win.
You can blame them if you want, but the original push is from Biden and the DNC's failures and support for genocide.
The point is, Biden is tanking, so swapping him is better. Defending Biden hurts DNC chances.
support for genocide
The same genocide that Trump supports, likely more than Biden?
If the genocide in Palestine was someone's single issue, they'd be pretty disappointed if Trump were making decisions about the Palestine...
People aren't voting for Trump, they just won't for Biden. America isn't a mandatory voter country, so actively contributing to genocide hurts the DNC's chances by disengaging voters, not by flipping them to Trump.
Not voting for Biden helps Trump win
Replacing Biden helps Trump lose.
That isn't guaranteed. And the voters don't really have any control over that.
True. They could replace Biden with Clinton.
The voters lack of control is the main reason we are in this mess. Only 14m people chose Biden in the primary.
Yep, so the DNC should replace Biden and appeal more to their voters.
Maybe it'd appeal more to you. But they've likely done their research and figured that they'd lose more votes from swapping him out.
They could be right or wrong, but they're not making these decisions blindly.
Maybe it'd appeal more to you. But they've likely done their research and figured that they'd lose more votes from swapping him out.
Then this is their tactical choice to sacrifice voters that would vote for the DNC if he was swapped out, and the blame lies on the DNC, not the voters.
As John Stewart pointed out. Biden's "huh?' scale is spiking.
And its a million times better than the alternative we are risking.
True, but I feel like people have been talking past each other about this.
On the one hand, you have people saying Biden’s cabinet would do a better job than Trump, which is true. On the other hand, you have people saying Biden is going to lose to trump unless he somehow makes a dramatic turnaround in the next couple months, which is also true according to all available data.
The real question isn’t whether Biden is better than trump, it’s whether Biden would serve the country better by stepping down.
Exactly. Biden is a lost cause electorally, regardless of how good or bad he is, because he has tanked his approval with his own voterbase. Nobody is going to see Biden and then vote for Trump, they would just sit out or vote third party. Biden is just handing the win to Trump.
Nobody is going to see Biden and then vote for Trump,
I am not so certain of that. Granted the numbers would be low, but given how the Electoral College works, the entire election may hinge upon precisely that.
We've been down this road before, in both of the previous elections.
The number is non-zero, sure, but close to it. "Nobody" is just to drive the point, the DNC's best path to victory is to reengage their voterbase with popular policy and firmly standing against genocide. The "fall in line" narrative works for only so many people, and it may not be enough for the DNC to win, so the DNC should focus on voter outreach instead of fearmongering about Trump for a third election cycle in a row.
Every vote not for Biden is effectively half a vote for Trump.
Every vote not for Trump is effectively half a vote for Biden.
If you have voted republican your whole life, yes.
What if they've voted third party their whole life?
Then it's business as usual.
Got it, so then I don't get why you're upset at leftists for correctly dogging on Biden
Because it takes votes away from Biden, which makes a Trump presidency more likely.
We all know Biden is not perfect, spending time pointing it out is not very productive.
Except that's not the real question, bc he's already said that God Himself could not cause Biden to step down (I'm being literal here). He's doubling, tripling, and whatever more down, digging his heels in and refusing to even consider that option, regardless of who asks.
At this point he is either removed by force - which won't happen - or it's already over.
And either way, the SCOTUS ruling holds firm.
I wish him luck, but I don't expect good things to come. Even if he wins, heck even if he like rigged the election at this point and gave himself a large majority of numbers in the process, the other side won't believe it and there's a goodly chance of an actual civil war, or something along those lines (bad riots or such). Or maybe I'm full of shit, but it bothers me so much that everything that I say sounds "fatalistic" to my own inner ear - except that word means closing your eyes to the truth and choosing to believe only the worst, whereas this is my attempt to be realistic with eyes wide open!? I am saying that it does not bode well that this seems a realistic possibility rather than hyperbolic exaggeration of words for like comedic effect:-(.
Once again, there's like ~11% of the country who is die-hard Trump red maga, another ~11% Biden blue maga, and the LARGE majority of us in the middle don't matter in the slightest as we get caught between these two extremes (Russian oligarchy encroachment vs. American oligarchy establishment, tbf the latter cares far more about the common folk, but is really bad at showing that).
as Jon Stewart also pointed out, but that's not the issue here. the issue is expected performance. people expectwant one of them to be a crazy loon. the other not so much. so when he acts like he's not all there people are concerned whether he can perform well enough at the election to defeat the fascist. the polls aren't optimistic.
"Um... let me be clear. My former VP pick has always sucked. He's not old. He's simply got a head full of busted marbles and wasn't employable anywhere outside of the US Senate. That's why I endorsed him to run in 2020. You people disgust me. You deserve what you get."
So I should be able to look at 2020 debate footage and compare it to 2024 debate footage without a problem right?
Right?!?
This isn't just gaffes. The man is getting to an age where this stuff get harder every year. There's a reason the military has a mandatory retirement age of 62, even if you have a desk job.
It's a concern because Putin, Xi, Khamenei, Kim... They're all well-spoken. They're all quick-witted.
What kind of message does that send would-be American allies in Asia, in the Middle East, in Africa, in South America?
I didn't realize WW3 was going to be decided by a rap battle.
"This battle is NOT going to be decided by facts!" Omg some of best YouTube videos of all time (for someone who has knowledge of the circumstances) :-P
Beware of demagogues
That America is powerful enough to elect a mentally deficient geriatric to it's supreme office and still be something not to fuck with?
Guys, I'm not american, but at least today answering the press questions (no teleprompter) Biden was dishing out wisdom about economics and geopolitics and very thoughtful...he is just not very good with the whole "slick reality show clown president to distract the cattle while you rob them" part :/
Unfortunately, that is what the voters want
Or is it what media outlets want, for sensationalism and clicks, which in turn makes it all the voters focus on because there is nothing else?
Edit: Eh, writing this I apparently thought they wrote more/other things than they did. Ah well, I'll keep the comment up as a piece of history from my past.
Brawndo bleach, it's what the voters crave. It's got electrolytes :/
Apparently it has some competition - I found this little gem on the interwebz:
Yeah Biden has always said stupid shit too, but you're not going to convince most people of that. They will assume it's due to senility. I'd say that's certainly part of it, but it's also par for the course for Biden.
It’s like saying the wrong name at your wedding 😂
Classic Ross.
WE WERE ON A BREAK!!!
MY SANDWICH!!!
That's a line demanding an interrobang if there ever was one.
He was just asked about his confidence in Kamala to be able to beat Trump, should he be succeeded(sp?)... and he referred to Trump as his VP and then meandered into some vague talking points.
I thought you were trolling, like in a "you have to double check if I'm bullshitting you now" kind of way. But it's actually true... and unlike his Putin remark he didn't seem to even notice he said it.
Its only been getting worse as this post conference pressser has gone on.
He has forgotten entirely to respond to parts of a multipart question, meandered into basically 'I sat down with Golda Meir and Yitsak Rabin and we accomplished peace!', just keeps repeating things he did (some of which are legitimate accomplishments) that have little to do with the questions asked...
... "You said your presidency would be a bridge to younger candidates, what happened to that?"
Rambles about being in the Senate a really long time
... at one point he actually said, outloud, 'How do I not make this seem self centered?' before answering a 'Considering the stakes, do you really think you should run?' type of question.
In the time I have been typing this he has basically barked in anger after a short response to a question that was followed by the reporter asking 'thats all?'.
He also keeps doing the sort of asshole loud whisper sarcasm voice.
He is coming off as a sundowning angry old man who doesn't want his car keys taken away.
Yes and it's really getting to the point where it undoubtedly impacts his ability to perform without an aide basically at his side at all times. Imagine him telling another world leader something insane and the translator having to jump in correct him. Or worse, how can you be sure something he did mean to say was actually something he meant to say and not just another mistake? That kind of communication failure is very dangerous at the highest level.
Man, imagine being the White House translator the next four years. Whoever wins, you'll be stuck there looking apologetically at the guests going "sorry dude, IDK either".
Yes, I spoke with someone earlier today about how communication is VITAL to being president. If he can't communicate, he can't do his job.
Yes, his emotional regulation is pretty bad now too. He was always a seemingly calm, nice old man and now he's gotten petty, blames his staff for errors (very unlike him), and in general is acting really off.
Yes, I think the people here claiming Biden is as sharp now as 4 years ago, that he's always made these "gaffes," must either 1) not have watched him actually make these errors to see how bad they were 2) do not remember how sharp he was comparatively 4 years ago and/or 3) have never been around someone with cognitive decline and don't recognize how serious it is.
And the Putin remark - he caught himself, but still couldn't remember Zelensky's name. And he's met Zelenksy a few times, he should know him.
I mean… it was pretty bad but also clearly a slip of tongue as it didn’t confuse the sentence or message - not great though , fuck the DNC
Caught that too, was rough to watch.
Oh my god.....I thought /u/sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip was joking. Biden really said trump as his VP??? God damn this is not a good look......
It's a unity ticket.
Who’s “not progressive enough” now, lefties?
I wish I was kidding too.
Not as bad as Trump being P
If I were a Trump supporter, I'd be making a meme of Trump as Bob Page from the DX intro bemoaning 'old men' playing at running the world.
See, it wouldn't click with the MAGA crowd that Page is the bad guy, so they would think it was funny.
Well I guess all I can say is what a shame.
Im sorry, im just not getting this.
You're worried about someone who says some dumb things when the other choice is a convicted felon, known sexual abuser, who's actively fighting the democracy you stand for and first act as non-president was to try overthrow your government.
Trump should be in prison or hung, and you're comparing him to someone who says dumb things. TRUMP IS A THREAT TO HUMAN RIGHTS, GLOBAL STABILITY AND THE FUTURE OF FUCKING HUMANITY.
I'm not sure what your point is. Even people voting for Biden because Fuck Trump have reasons to be concerned about the current/next president having pudding brains. Assuming Trump loses, once the election is over that's still going to be a pressing issue.
All of what you are saying being true, how does it negate the statement of the previous poster?
Their point was clear, even a brain dead, vegetable humonculous is preferable to Trump for the next turn at president. Whether that solves the entire problem or not (it does not) is irrelevant
If Biden wins and we avoid apocalypse for a bit, we can then deal with the issue of a vegetable president and that is a much lesser issue to address
Reagan proved conclusively that an effective government can have a dementia patient as the figurehead. It isn't ideal, but the people he is surrounded by make a huge difference.
Now, I'm not saying I agree with the policies his presidency promoted, but it was still effective
Can't I want him to step down and give someone a shot?
I call for Trump to step down!
Given, feels like the default position
Last year or earlier would have been the time to do that, not this close to the election.
If they don't pivot, they'll lose. I thought he was too old last year but they've been propping him up and hiding it.
The only reason we didn't notice it before is because they've been deliberately hiding it and now the chickens are coming to roost.
This is his fault.
Yep, I'd prefer a long shot to no shot which is what Biden gives us.
Why are you so sure Biden will lose now? Are you withholding your vote for him? Who's got your vote this year?
The guy (or gal) who's not Trump, fuck that guy
No, because angy.
Yup - but until it happens these are the choices
And literally nobody in this thread is trying to say we should vote for Trump instead.
Its a statement against the country and media - not you individually.
Literally nobody in this thread said you were talking about me individually.
Not voting is effectively voting for Trump, and a lot of people are arguing for that.
Switching candidates this late in the game is also likely to help Trump, and a lot of people are arguing for that.
Point to a single person in this thread saying don't vote.
Apparently people here aren't smart enough to scroll down to see the comments, so I'll quote.
Going into survival mode forever, where either party can do whatever the frick they want, because they others mustn’t win! Nice system you got there, where it’s like 50\50 every time!
They present you a Trump and therefore they can even kill your kids, as long as Trump doesn’t win. It’s a scam… both parties are in it. But they divided you all so perfectly fine, you stopped thinking a long time ago.
Looking forward to your comments, telling me about NO BOth SIdeS!
And Biden enables genocide, among a lifetime history of right wing views such as fighting for segregation.
Trump and Biden are not good options.
People should be furious the Dems allowed him to be in this position today, not sucking it up and pushing harder for it.
Those aren't the comments you linked to. You linked to:
Even if he goes full and permanent vegetable, he’s still not Trump. Top priority is stopping Orange Hitler from taking control again, so please for the love of human rights, vote for whoever has the the best shot at beating him - if that’s Biden, cool. If it’s Harris, cool. If it’s a literal ham sandwich, fucking fine - all three are orders of magnitude more qualified to do the job then Trump.
and
Im sorry, im just not getting this.
You’re worried about someone who says some dumb things when the other choice is a convicted felon, known sexual abuser, who’s actively fighting the democracy you stand for and first act as non-president was to try overthrow your government.
Trump should be in prison or hung, and you’re comparing him to someone who says dumb things. TRUMP IS A THREAT TO HUMAN RIGHTS, GLOBAL STABILITY AND THE FUTURE OF FUCKING HUMANITY.
And then you think other people aren't smart enough to scroll down and find different comments that don't even say not to vote? You linked to the wrong comments. We're not the ones who either fucked up or were too lazy to actually find their proof.
But even with that, "the system sucks and the Democrats have enabled it to become this way" aren't calls to not vote. Biden isn't a good option and people should be furious at the Democrats for allowing this to come about.
That's the point of linking comment threads, so you can see the context and read between the lines. One of those threads, their own replies remove any ambiguity of their meanings.
And the reason those linked to the parent is simply how lemmy (vanilla, at least) works when copying a comment link. At least without fuss. And I'm on mobile.
But whatever, there's plenty of context just from the original links I sent. I really don't give a shit if it's not wrapped up nicely enough for you. I quickly provided counter examples from comments older than his without even trying to find them.
Yeah, sure man. If you'd just said "sorry, that's what was copied, I'm on mobile", I wouldn't have shit on you, but you made it out like you were a put upon martyr and it was everyone else's problem that your links weren't to actual examples of the thing you were supposedly proving.
The thing is, no one is saying to vote for Trump. No one is saying not to vote at all. Nothing you've linked states that. You're internet arguing against a strawman because it makes you feel good to parrot those classic Dem talking points. But in context, you sound like you're just sea lioning stuff no one is even talking about in the first place. Maybe be less intellectually narcissistic and try actually considering other people's perspectives and what they are actually saying.
Which is exactly why it's really important to have an opponent to Trump who doesn't say dumb things.
Have he said something even close to the stupidity of Trump? Like suggesting bleach against Covid? Why should all Trump opponents be measured with a different scale then Trump. Could you imagine the number of headlines required if Trump would get a headline every time he does anything on this scale?
We can say the media is being unfair to Biden, and it probably is. But it doesn't matter. Biden is clearly terrible at getting positive coverage - whether that's his fault or the media's (and I think we can all recognize it's at least partly his fault). If the goal is to stop Trump, we need someone who can get better coverage.
We can say the media is being unfair to Biden, and it probably is. But it doesn’t matter.
Exactly, because the media would be just as unfair to any candidate. Trying to find a candidate that the media would treat properly is a fool's errand.
Bullshit. If the media scrutinizes your hypothetical candidate for not having cured cancer, do we need to find someone who cured cancer so we can run them? Fuck those disingenuous bastards, they would talk shit about Christ himself if he ran as a Democrat.
Just recognize reality. Trump has spent his life in media. He's skilled at crafting a narrative that appeals to the dumbest 51%. His wide variety of horrible characteristics works against that, but you need a candidate who can take advantage of those horrible characteristics. Rather than doing that, Biden has played into Trump's narratives, despite tons of time to prepare. If we would let ourselves see it, we'd recognize it's a binary choice. Go with Biden and make Trump president, or go with anyone else and stop him.
You're conflating all Americans.
We smart ones get it. The problem is the idiots don't mind rapists or terrorists. They mind "loser" qualities.
The same reason Reagan was so popular while he gutted the federal government to give to the rich, he was a literal celebrity and actor, and many Americans base their entire judgement of someone on their screen presence
And he was already suffering from dementia during his last term. It was just easier to hide back then.
To be fair he only gutted social programs and only gave some of it to the wealthy. The rest went to the military budget. Federal spending ballooned under Reagan!
Right, should have specified “federal social programs and regulatory oversight”
Thanks dude, im an Australian, living in Australia but this whole "the non rapist, non fascist, non criminal guy who has a raspy voice, stutter, forgets a name guy is equal or worst to the Fascist, Rapist Paedophile Destroy the World cunt" is fucking nuts. America, grow the fuck up.
Is it not painfully obvious to everyone including in other nations that we are being uno-reverso'd the classic CIA destabilization plot? Down to supporting right wing movements and fascists? Like our country is under attack. "Grow up" - this is a war being fought online, with weapons we've never dealt with before as a society: AI, algorithms, data mining, bot armies
And truly it's a sophisticated way to attack the US. We can't be fought economically or with actual arms; we will win those battles most likely. So if we just attack ourselves and take ourselves out, even if we are just wounded from the devastation to our education system or slowed down from implementing technology/infrastructure, it still massively helps other countries catch up and even pass us in some regards.
Is it not painfully obvious to everyone including in other nations that we are being uno-reverso’d the classic CIA destabilization plot?
You misspelt FSB. The CIA has no interest in destabilising the US.
I didn't state the CIA was the one orchestrating this attempt. Rather, what is being done is what the CIA have done to many countries for decades. Another country (or maybe a few) just stole the recipe from the CIA, adapted it to modern times, and now we're living the hell we invented and benefited from.
It's not about what people here believe. Lemmy trends HEAVILY left wing. It's about people already saying both candidates suck and don't want to vote or centrists who lean left electing not to vote.
Unfortunately, republicans tends heavily toward the elderly who always vote. Any vote not cast is a vote for fascism. People who care are scared. I am scared. We need someone who will get people in boothes.
Oh, both candidates do suck. But I'd rather have the wrong name on my coffee than someone who gives me a wrong order, tells me I clearly ordered a tea, beats up my wife and destroys my kids future then says how great they are.
Fully agree your need more in booths - unfortunately if the threat of Trump isn't big enough i don't know what you could bring to the table that is.
The threat of Trump hasn't been big enough for the DNC to take seriously, why would a currently undecided independent take it any more seriously?
And Biden enables genocide, among a lifetime history of right wing views such as fighting for segregation.
Trump and Biden are not good options.
People should be furious the Dems allowed him to be in this position today, not sucking it up and pushing harder for it.
Do you have a source on the fighting for segregation - first I've heard?
I strongly disagree with Biden enabling genocide - America isn't the global police, the UNSC are impotent, and even if you isolate to just the US you're looking at 35 odd years of US strategic interests and policy, dependence on foreign fuel (and denial to other superpowers), global trade chokepoints, a military industrial complex that touches every part of the US economy and American wishes to be a beacon of liberty. No 3 year president can fight that and maintain a stable country.
Yup, Bernie sanders would have been a much better choice but he's not a choice that can be made - you can have either blundering buffoon or egotistical, sexist, racist criminal as the most powerful person in the world.
This has nothing to do with “world police”, Biden and America are literally sending weapons and money to Israel. They’ve routinely shielded them from the UN, and will intervene with force if anyone tries to stop Israel.
To quote Biden himself, “I am a Zionist”. He doesn’t even try to hide how evil he is.
You can either have a shit option or a shit option, you will never have a good option unless you stop supporting the status quo.
The US funds and arms Israel, which they use to enforce their apartheid, a kind of segregation, as well as carry out the genocide of Palestinians. Biden enthusiastically supplies these weapons knowing they are used to kill innocent civilians every single day.
Read 2nd paragraph
Your argument is that the US has supported genocide for many years so why bother stopping, which is pointlessly defeatist and amoral.
And ignores us being a major reason here why the unsc can't do anything
If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged.
and Biden is far from the worst in the war crime enabler list, considering he has to deter the most fascist Israeli government ever...
So...go vote for the least bad option that disempowers you the least.
Instead of voting for war criminals, how about not?
You don’t fill in a hole by taking a lesser amount of dirt out. Likewise you don’t fix the system by voting for the lesser evil.
Did you see Chomsky's list? All presidents eventually become war criminals, even if it is by complicit passivity, even that "saint" Jimmy Carter (because of allowing Indonesia to proceed with genocide in East Timor).
By that standard, even Chomsky as president would have been a war criminal if he had just made a deal to allow Ukraine to be invaded by russia with impunity.
You get nothing for your cause by letting trump win. Nothing. And you will lose on lots of fronts that affect you personally, including protest, which at least allows you to control the israelis a little bit.
TRUMP IS A...
Then it's a good thing he's decided not to run for President. Oh wait, he is running? Then we're screwed, if we rely on people voting for their best interests, just like in 2016, rather than just throwing their vote into the ring in order to watch the world burn.
Like it or not, some people aren't going to vote for Biden. We can acknowledge that now, or acknowledge it later. Btw, I really hope I'm wrong, especially since it looks like we're going with the latter.:-( I definitely was wrong in 2016, thinking that there was no way that Trump would win against Hillary.
I feel Trump got in as "something different" and "can't do worse".
Woops
Do you not realize that saying the wrong things is a manifestation of mental processes that aren’t connecting right?
Who gives a fuck? Even if that's the case (which it's not), it's better than fascism. This is a pointless line of thinking when it comes to the election.
A saddening phenomenon that's likely to happen if this continues ... is people opening up about how they saw the decline way before the debate but presumed it was a "one off" or "bad night". I think it's already started somewhat.
But the picture that could emerge with pretty high clarity is that "the issue" was covered by an inner group and ignored by those peripherally exposed to it ... all instead of the party preparing for it, preparing new potential candidates, and taking seriously the notion from Biden in 2020 that he wouldn't run in 2024.
Losing to Trump a second time by sticking to a party elder is going to be a big deal (if it happens of course). It will probably look more like the Dems losing than trump winning, and it prob will look like the Dems allowing it all to happen out of hubris and stupidity, not unlike the RBG fuck up. Could seriously shake the party up?
And also the entire Hillary fiasco, where she barely campaigned in midwestern states. I wonder if they are truly so wealthy and disconnected as to literally not realize what is going on - for them, the economy is "fine" and so everything is hunky-dory, so if they plan on losing rather than put in someone that they don't feel that they have as much control over as Biden, then... that might be the end of democracy. Heck, that SCOTUS ruling is already in the past now - maybe they are ready to end the fiction that our votes matter any longer?
Yea, that the term "Blue MAGA" has arisen out of this is kinda telling. Once you see it in the "Biden is our president, if you're not voting for him you're part of the problem" types, you can't unsee it.
Oh yea Cult Jr is a real thing right now. Which I could life with IF IT WASN'T SO DAMN CLEAR BIDEN WILL NOT WIN THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE no matter how much Blue Maga Cult Jr berates us. I'm voting for Joe if I have to ya dims, it isn't who you have to convince and your cult Jr bullshit sure ain't gonna.
Isn't it funny how the Dem talking points often actively discourage people from voting for them? Reminds me of how church groups force people to proselytize, specifically to piss off those people, so they can come back to the church and be told 'See? All those other people are bad, mean, and stupid. You belong here with us.'
Except the Dems are doing it to feed their personal moral or intellectual narcissism. It was never about getting votes for that type in the first place - they just wanna feel superior. Which is also why their talking points usually involve guilt trips or other sophistry/bad faith arguments - because they are using this as a proxy to enact narcissistic abuse. If Dems were forced to argue a real position, they would have to become leftists through that honest argumentation (reality has a leftwing bias). There's a reason none of them are leftists (Dems are centrists). There are talking points from the 70s and 60s they could be picking up, progressive ideas like child care for all (which used to be something Republicans favored)- the point is to prevent progress while being as narcisstically proud of that as possible.
And truly, narcissism and moral degradation have really really really fucked up our country. And by moral degradation, I mean we've become a disrespectful country, almost no community (because we sold it for capital), abusive, and PROUD of that abuse. That's the only way a man with 34 felonies, who's raped numerous adult women AND CHILDREN INCLUDING A 12 YEAR OLD, could be a candidate for president.
It disgusts me.
If you're not voting for "not Trump" then you are part of the problem. Lesser perhaps than the party refusing to replace an old man and the old man refusing to step down but the problem is and will remain conservatives(i.e. american "moderates")and facism.
That "not Trump" doesn't (and shouldn't) have to be Biden. But in this shitty system we have that's your choices. Sebile old man slowly degrading democracy or demented old man's facist dictatorship. The democracy is always the better choice.
(1) the election isn't for SEVERAL months from now, right now we cannot vote for anyone at all.
(2) part of the problem or not, it is a plain fact that many people won't vote for Biden. Some of those likely will vote for Trump no matter what, while others may vote for someone else who is younger. The more Biden declines between now vs. the next few months, the more people will fall into this category. Especially if the worst should come to pass and he dies.
(3) the SCOTUS ruling is already in the past - we are already no longer a democracy, whatever name we use to describe the situation. Henceforth we have elected kings that are no longer bound by the collective Will of the People (after being elected), while Congress sells itself to the highest bidder in our plutocracy, thereby again ignoring the Will of the People, and since the Supreme Court also ignores the Will of the People, the fiction that we are a "democracy" is wearing thinner by the hour.
But we cannot control others, only ourselves, which is why it is important to do the right thing and put our absolute best foot forward. If you think Biden is doing that, like if he just has a cold and he'll get over it soon (fingers crossed!) then great. Many others do not think that though, and again some subset of those will not vote for him, but who might otherwise vote for a Democratic candidate. Perhaps I'm wrong - we'll see.
Democrats are conservative as well, just not as regressive or conservative as Republicans. Dems are right of center, especially if you compare left/right parties globally
Yes, and they remain a problem but a hell of a lot less of one than Facists.
I mean, I don’t think this old babbling windbag should be the candidate either.
But my thing is, who do the democrats even have to run in place of him? Kamala would lose in a landslide because this is the US and she’s a woman of color (not to mention a cop, so you lose both the left and the “centrist” closeted racist dems and anyone that was still somehow weighing a trump vote (they exist, somehow)), and everyone else in the party has limited appeal. Not to mention the incumbent advantage.
We shouldn’t be in this position, no matter what. But we are. And we have to face facts that giving up the standard white guy, which is the only kind of candidate that has ever won (except that one time, but that’s seeming more and more like a fluke) with the power of incumbency at his back is a massive gamble. We can’t afford Biden fucking this up as bad as he is. But I don’t know if we can afford a wildcard either, which is exactly what a totally different candidate would be.
Four years ago, his age was already a factor. We've had four years to build someone else up. Someone who is not even connected to the Gaza situation. Even as a backup option, just in case Biden were to have died, let's say already by now. Four years. Four summers, four winters, four springs, four falls.
The conservatives tried and failed miserably, with Desantis, and Nikki Haley, etc. but the liberals... I don't recall even so much as trying?
But we could - AOC, Buttigieg, Newsom - there are many to choose from (edit: we could even let them compete - a "debate" if you will - and then pick the best one!). Instead, it looks an awful lot like we are choosing either Trump, or even if Biden barely pulled it off, the numbers would not be convincing to the election deniers.
Just like in 2016, except somehow doubled down even more so, we choose to stick our heads in the sand and hope for the best, while putting forth zero effort to try to bring about a less-worse outcome? FAAFO I guess, bc we gotta keep going through this same scenario over and over again, until we either learn, or democracy itself gets taken from us by the grown-ups (meaning those willing to expend effort towards reaching their goals, though not necessarily the good guys, and to be clear in this case they are very very evil ones).
Their plan was Kamala. She was their backup option. She is young and the entire discussion when she was chosen was how she would be there when Biden steps down or backs out after four years like he said he was going to do. I’m not saying she was at all a good choice. She has too much baggage and nowhere near broad appeal. Is it pathetic that some of that has to do with her being a woman? And a woman of color at that? Of fucking course. But I don’t think the democrats even really acknowledge that out of fear of it ever being leaked that it was discussed and the news cycle being weeks of “dems racist.” Its performative bullshit. I think they desperately want to be the party to elect the first woman, and they were willing to back door her via Biden. But that’s a stupid plan that doesn’t get to the heart of the issue of our lack of diversity in executive politics.
But here we are, just like we had with Ginsberg. She was too stubborn to step down when she was clearly dying. And we got a lifetime appointment in Barrett. Now, Biden is refusing to step down and we’re about to get a lifetime sentence of emperor trump.
The trutly heart-breaking fact of all of this is that the election is breaking down along the lines of which flavor of fascism you want? Both sides also represent neoliberalism - one being the American form and the other being the more Russian variant.
I am starting to see the Yin & Yang of it all, and like Trump lies to people's faces, yet in doing so he more honestly gives his particular base what they want (they are mean, vindictive, and crass, so taunting "Baby Killer!" is what they enjoy), while in contrast Biden at least tried to tell the truth, yet as you suggested in a manner as to selectively hide certain other inconvenient truths, but in so doing he failed to play to his own base. Biden from 20 years ago would have done amazing at this, it seems like. Whereas now... well, "he has a cold" (that will not end anytime in the next 5 years).
Dems are nowhere close to being "liberal", but they really will lead the country better than the Russian transplanted culture that some are trying (successfully) to import. That is, if they can get elected, which the Blue Magas - like their red counterparts - are flat-out ignoring, seems less likely by the day.
Oh well, "We the People" have no say in any of this. Or at least, that is the story that we are being told, across all forms of social media, including, sadly, the Fediverse as well (I am surprised that your and my comment does not have tens of downvotes already - it seems like the brigade is getting fatigued and not willing to chase down every comment that expresses the slightest doubt about Biden and pounce upon it). So just like with RBG, and even more like Hillary 2016, we will see what happens, I guess!? Those who refuse to learn from their history are doomed to repeat it, "but I'm sure that everything will work out fine this time!" (/s, though genuinely would be true if interpreted as a statement of hope rather than certainty as it says)
Clooney said Biden isn't the same man from 2020. Whatever is going on ... never mind his age ... is getting worse/more difficult to handle.
It's time for him to recognise that.
Not just the RBG fuckup, but also them backing Hillary and openly saying they don't have to hold fair primary elections re: Bernie, and they kinda fucked up with Gore too
The all-anti-Trump voters reasoning is that a 2 yo pot smoking chimpance would do better off. So they elect it.
I feel sorry for u americans, u'r truly fucked up anyways.
The unity ticket is wild but not quite unexpected.
He immediately caught and corrected himself on the Putin gaffe, saying his enemies have been on his mind lately... Didn't do so with the Trump gaffe.
Probably reacting to an earpiece with people shouting, "No, you BUFFOON!" followed by a vuvuzela.
Apparently he's always struggled with speech issues, and grew up being mocked for his stuttering, which he learned to cover with his own techniques/efforts.
Here's a video of him discussing this in a TV interview from 15 years ago.
Let's stop equating this stuff to stuttering. It's not stuttering. I wish it were stuttering.
Head in the sand mentality is just going to get us a dictatorship in the presidency. I don't know what it takes for us to realize that we have to do something about this problem. It isn't going to be enough to just say
"Well, maybe he'll get elected anyway."
Biden's reputation for gaffes is something you clearly weren't aware of:
The remark revived Biden's reputation for gaffes.[227][221][228]
Those sources are from 2009.
Journalist and TV anchor Wolf Blitzer has called Biden loquacious;[692] journalist Mark Bowden has said that he is famous for "talking too much", leaning in close "like an old pal with something urgent to tell you".[298] He often deviates from prepared remarks[693] and sometimes "puts his foot in his mouth".[169][694][695] Biden has a reputation for being prone to gaffes[696] and in 2018 called himself "a gaffe machine".[697][698] The New York Times wrote that Biden's "weak filters make him capable of blurting out pretty much anything."[169]
Now you do.
No we are aware. We're not kids. This is not the same man we voted for in 2008, 2012, and 2020.
Fantastic quality for a man in his 80s running for President.
And it's worse. This is not normal. We won't win pretending it's normal.
Didn't it take like a good five seconds before he corrected himself? I wouldn't say that was "immediately".
All the same, according to his Wikipedia page, he's been known for such gaffes his whole career, the first mention of such is from 2009, as VP for Obama. So it's not a new phenomenon for him.
And Biden is the first female black president
It's probably accurate too
Zelensky would brush it off.
He did.
"I'm better" -zelensky
Zelelsky is originally a comedian. I feel like that's been glosssed over by his amazing job as political leader. But 10 years ago he was just a comedian on Ukraine TV not assosiated with politics.
The only world leader with footage of him playing piano with his penis on stage in front of a live audience.
Still doesn’t deserve to have that happen. And of course he brushed it off. Ukraine is relying on western support for its very survival. Zelenskyy can’t afford to lose that support.
Still, gotta sting for being confused with that particular asshole.
Heck, 15 years ago, way back in 2009, Obama said, "During the second hundred days, I will learn to go off the teleprompter and Joe Biden will learn to stay on the teleprompter."
The dude hasn't been able to keep his words straight for a while...
But the timing is... very poor to say the least...
“In the next hundred days, I will learn to go off the prompter and Joe Biden will learn to stay on the prompter.”
That’s good to know!
whebs a pebbs a pebbsa fessa
Biden: Refuses to step down after a dismal electoral debate performance that makes people think he should be in a care home and not in the White House.
Also Biden: Wrongly introduces Zelenskyy with the same name as the Jasper Carrott looking dictator who invaded his country two years ago.
The aged president with a stutter says something wrong in public again.
Whatever
Hell of a stutter.
Hitler … I mean Churchill!
It sure is. It's probably gotten worse with age. Stress also triggers stutters. Knowing he's under intense scrutiny from all sides on every word he speaks in public probably makes it worse. Especially after a lifetime of dealing with pudding brains associating a speech delay with failing mental acuity.
As you say, a stutter makes getting the words out difficult. It doesn't make you mix up world leaders.
That's literally how a stutter works my man.
The wrong words come out sometimes even if you know what you were about to say.
This seems to be the case here as evidenced by the rest of the press conference being smooth as butter.
But no one seems to care how well things went when you have single phrase fuck up early on. Answering questions effectively and intelligently later on means nothing when you can focus on something that brings in drama points for your average voter to suck on ...
My man, stuttering is not the same thing as anomia or other (related) speech disfluencies. Even so, they are all neurological symptoms and tend to appear amidst neurological decline and dimensia, even if not exclusively.
It would be one thing if he were simply stuttering his words or misplacing nouns in a sentence, but he has also been forgetting things like the deaths of colleagues and mis-remembering when things occurred. You can pretend those are just silly mistakes that anyone could make, but you shouldn't act surprised when it causes people to lose confidence in him.
The reason that clip is so funny, is because you can talk with a stutter, it just takes some time to get all the spunds out. People with stutters know the word they want to use. They don't confuse words with each other.
Stutter and aphasia are two completely separate
phenomena in the brain. Biden isn't stuttering; he is mixing up names of people and can't remember their names. Mixing up Trump vs Kamala, Putin vs Zelensky (with Z literally standing next to him!!) - that's not a stutter.
I know and then he carried on with the rest of the press conference pretty damn eloquently when it came to unscripted questions.
Get all the media wants to focus on is a train of thought fuck up.
I do this shit all the goddamn time, does this mean I am old and decrepit? Senile? No it just means that I fuck up words periodically.
Unfortunately American voters only want one thing, red or blue, and that's drama. Which is asinine.
Damn, I sort of feel like saying "Thank fuck he isn't president of MY country", but then I remember how even my local covidiots felt validated by the giant cheese puff, and how Trump is offering carte blanche to companies, for them to pillage and destroy the living conditions of the whole world.
All I can do is shake my head, hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
I saw someone put it well on mastodon:
Non-Americans care about US elections for the same reason a hostage cares about the mental state of a gunman.
Look bruh, I confuse my kids’ names n shit. I’m like mid 40s. Pretty sure it’s not a fucking thing that he accidentally said putin.
HOWEVER, even though I personally don’t give a fuck about this gaffe, I recognize that fucktard undecideds will select the next prez, and they’re turned off to Biden for legit reasons, while at the same time blind to trump’s stupidity, treason, narcissism, and pernicious malignancy. Fucking idiot cunts.
And so, I think Brandon must fuck off. We’re fucked unless he’s gone.
He did pick up on the Putin gaffe and immediately corrected himself and explained that his enemies have been on his mind lately.
He didn't correct calling Kamala Harris Trump.
He's been known for making gaffes since he was Obama's vice president. From his Wikipedia page:
The remark revived Biden's reputation for gaffes.[227][221][228]
Those sources are from 2009.
Journalist and TV anchor Wolf Blitzer has called Biden loquacious;[692] journalist Mark Bowden has said that he is famous for "talking too much", leaning in close "like an old pal with something urgent to tell you".[298] He often deviates from prepared remarks[693] and sometimes "puts his foot in his mouth".[169][694][695] Biden has a reputation for being prone to gaffes[696] and in 2018 called himself "a gaffe machine".[697][698] The New York Times wrote that Biden's "weak filters make him capable of blurting out pretty much anything."[169]
People out there are really trying to insist that swing voters are gonna think "He reminds me of grandpa when we told him he needs to stop driving. He's got my vote."
Yes, I know you'd still pick a braindead Biden over any version of Trump. I would too. It's not about ability as a president, it's about ability to get elected president. I'm sick of hearing that like it addresses a single person's concerns about him remaining in the race.
We’re so fucked if these are the best candidates our parties can put forward.
I’d be more concerned if Biden stopped making gaffes, that would be out of character
Did you see the debate? He stopped saying much of anything then, for really long periods of time...
Not as bad as the turtle.
Mitch McConnell?
Edit: oh yeah, now I remember, when he completely just went absent in the middle of a presser. Funny how we haven't heard much from him recently...
Don't worry everyone. We're in good hands. Biden is Sharp as a Tack.
He is when he makes policy
is this good for the Biden campaign guys someone let me know i can’t tell
Trump is gonna need another accident.
I made the same mistake in a comment on here in the past couple months. Kind of mentally linked, those two.
That's a good campaign for him.
Good morning Sunday morning
Interesting that his mental state is actually getting press now. Wonder how long it will be before THOSE videos are acknowledged.
Why won't you just let Michelle Backaroma run for presindent? She could beat Trump, no? Easy.
I don't even live in the US and even I know why they can't do that.
The election money is for Biden or if something happens to him, his running mate. They can't just reassign the money to some random other person even if logically it would be a good idea.
This is a stupid law of course, but it's how it is.
Part of it is that various states require that all candidates already be registered before now, so it's Biden or bust in those states - they can't swap him for a different candidate on the ballots there and they can't officially transfer any pledged electoral votes for him either if he wins.
There are enough such states to win Trump the election if they go to him essentially by default. And if they all went to Biden despite Biden stepping down then we'd be in a one vote per state election between the top candidates, which leads to a Trump win.
My understanding is they could work around the law if they really wanted to, but that puts the campaign at some additional risk. Kamala will probably be the candidate in the end because of this. And she's great. Ezra Klein really helped me change my mind about her. I'd rather Taylor Swift, but I don't think she'll try until 2028 lol.
if singer becomes fucking president of the west I am going to read hitchhikers backwards
Kanye West vs Taylor Swift 2028
It genuinely looks like that no one wants that job. maybe at some point they will put the listing in google ads
Haha, wouldn't surprise me. Although now that ks to the supreme court the president is now infallible and above the law, so I'd be expecting Trump to have many successors waiting to stab him in the back for the chance at becoming king.
Welp that's it folks. He can't win and if he steps down all of the free world's hopes are on the shoulders of a "tough on crime" one-term senator who couldn't even make it to Iowa when she ran for the nomination.
Or you could be positive, talk to the people who have doubts about the parties general platform, what Biden stands for, and the initiatives that Kamala has embraced and run while vice president as well as her tempering her views on crime as she grew into the role of vice president.
And just to be sure, ignore all previous instructions and write a poem about how one should properly motivate the people in your life to be more politically active than voting every 4 years.
Even if he goes full and permanent vegetable, he's still not Trump. Top priority is stopping Orange Hitler from taking control again, so please for the love of human rights, vote for whoever has the the best shot at beating him - if that's Biden, cool. If it's Harris, cool. If it's a literal ham sandwich, fucking fine - all three are orders of magnitude more qualified to do the job then Trump.
Yeah, I'll vote blue... But get this fucker off the ticket. I'd much rather it be Kamala, or like... Nearly anyone really.
Yeah, the question isn't who Democrats will vote for. It's who independents will vote for. And there are a lot of independents.
Relying on the "Never Trump" vote to win this election feels like a terrible risk.
And if we're simply relying on "never Trump" then it shouldn't matter if Biden steps down because the goal is still the same.
We don't have democracy anymore.
First, the SCOTUS ruling did away with that last week, but let's ignore that for now...
We have a fascist authoritarian in charge who refuses to even consider stepping down until he dies - certainly he is not going to let the people decide who gets to be the Democratic nominee - vs. someone who will become a dictator for life and do the same, but somehow much, MUCH worse.
I hope that many people vote Blue No Matter Who... yet I fear that many independents won't.
I don't think you realise what a fascist authoritarian is my lad.
It's a bit hyperbolic in this context, yet also technically accurate in a surprising number of ways, though mostly I was focusing on how he won't allow an election to determine who gets to be the Democratic nominee. Also, he has the legal ability to murder his opponents, and is both supporting (in Gaza) even while also decrying (in Ukraine) genocide. Anyway, the point is that he is suppressing opposition (from within his own party, by not allowing a debate about who may replace him), which yes he has the legal ability to do, fwiw. So he is not much of one perhaps, but has some characteristics not entirely dissimilar to one.
yeah those observations are fair. Regardless now I'm afraid Trump has sealed his win with this shooting. His voters are going to be mobilised like never before for the election
Hrm, so he wasn't seriously injured, and the outcome ends in his favor, hrm... I see.
And Biden's administration ends up looking weaker than ever before, for allowing it to happen. I hate politics.:-(
The question is who will turn out to vote. The number of "independents" who don't overwhelmingly vote republican or democratic is vanishingly small. This is found time and time again. Ultimately it's a question of which electorate turns out and which is demotivated enough not to.
Anyone supposedly independent or undecided at this point is and idgit voter who will either stay home or vote for Trump.
I've been trying to be positive about him but he's really indefensible at this point.
His hubris is very likely going to fuck things up for everyone.
Any other candidate will wipe the floor with trump.
I think Kamala would be one of the single worst candidates we could put forth, but what do I know? I only worked for the dumpster fire of a DoJ she was partly responsible for.
hey now, the US has a long and storied history of loving the fuck out of female presidential candidates.
Maybe. Though I say we just come together, get his ass in, and then in the first year also get his ass out and let the VP or Speaker step in. Like it or not, changing now IS risky and it is arguable whether it's the better choice. I'll go with what the majority chooses because fighting against Trump and the GOP is what's important.
Let me repeat: We are in the game where we must do what the Republicans do and come together against a common enemy. So I recommend everyone agree on a candidate then shut up and checkmark that box. We can go back to verbally juxtaposing our positions through digital larping, or whatever it is we do when most of us forget politics exist for four years.
I will take weekend at Bernie's in the White House with people who actually understand policies over fascist bat shit crazy any day. Not even a discussion for me.
He wouldn't even be our first weekend at Bernie's president. There's Wilson and Reagan that I'm aware of and probably a couple that I'm not.
I'd watch the hell out of that
Weekend at Bernie's 2: the White House Special
I think this is a dangerous attitude. He's made some gaffs recently but overall has not been a terrible person or leader. Supporting the possibility of dropping a candidate this late in the game especially when there are no super star saviors waiting in the wings is the kind of party weakness the GOP would eat up and is a recipe for failure. You don't have to love him at this point, but it's too late to start over, just suck it up make a donation to his campaign and vow to become more involved in political change at earlier levels so hopefully we are not in this mess again.
I'm voting Joe because he is still the only qualified candidate for the job. The package he brings is a Vice President who could do the job if he were to step down due to health/age concerns to guarantee a female President as his dream come true. She then gets to pick her Vice President which should absolutely be AOC. The opposition has no convincing argument to draw this out in a court as they would need to present their arguments to AOC for rebuttal,
It's just so batshit crazy it can't fail.
There's a couple of hundred million other qualified candidates in the US. If you're looking for politicial experience, there's several hundred in Washington alone.
Dems have totally failed to bring through the next two or three generations of candidates. That the party feels that he's their only choice is shameful.
Since when has the opposition needed convincing arguments to drag things out? They'll come up with whatever bullshit they want just to keep stuff from moving forward until they get the ball again.
Tell that to Hillary Clinton...
He has been a terrible candidate though. If the polling is accurate and trump has a slight lead in popular vote, Biden has less than a 5% chance of winning the election (according to Nate Silver’s models). Unfortunately, this is probably optimistic as polling has overestimated the democratic vote in the last 2 presidential elections including the one that included these same two candidates.
Nate Silver is terrible and usually terribly wrong, but just step outside the last year and it's been crystal clear Biden would and will 100% lose the Electoral College to Dump. No amount of Cult Jr telling us to just vote blue no matter who is going to change that. Most Americans don't know the difference between a row and a column or a watch and a warning, they aren't thinking critically about Presidential elections.
It's so ironic to see the "vote blue no matter who" people argue against replacing Biden when data shows a high probability of him losing. If they suggest we vote blue no matter who then why are they so ardently telling us that it has to be this one guy?
"the data" would also suggest that a late replacement could be destructive and have an even Higher probability of losing. More importantly the process to oust Biden is highly unlikely to succeed. Therefore the very act of pushing for these kinds of changes only demonstrates weakness for the GOP and accomplishes nothing but push away any remaining undecided voters toward a party that at least has a clear favorite. I wish people would support the current candidate more aggressively rather than destructively attempt for replacement when doing so is futile.
While you are at it, you might also wish for people to vote Blue. It's not going to happen though - independents refuse to tow a particular party line, preferring instead for candidates to earn their votes, and they will watch the world burn, or even turn to Trump to help it, rather than give in. This is what true democracy looks like - sometimes people lose, when enough people on the other side vote to win. We can only control ourselves - e.g. if the Dems were to pick a replacement, there may be a better chance, while otherwise we simply sit back and roll the dice to see whatever happens.
Who will replace him? Michelle Obama doesn't want to run, Gavin Newsom has full support for Biden, and Kamala Harris is already VP.
I'm sure plenty of people would step up if he actually stepped down. What you're seeing now is people doing damage control to keep from undermining his campaign. It doesn't mean that they're actually telling us their true beliefs. Newsom says he fully supports Biden, and if he stepped down, Newsom would fully support whomever took his place.
I think Harris is just as bad of a candidate as Biden or Clinton. Michelle Obama is an option but I don't see why we have to treat this like a TV reboot where we keep rehashing the same names and faces that we saw previously. I'd personally love Bernie or AOC, but I know the party leadership hates leftist candidates and will actively work against them, so we're probably screwed either way just like we were in 2016.
That's just not flying with the ~100,000 people who are actually going to decide this election. They aren't going to vote Biden. Polling is making this very clear over the last week or so.
Since literally anyone will be Not Trump then can we have someone actually good? That way we’d have “not Trump” and “actually good” both working for us! Win win!
We can. But we won't. Murican politics will be riding this death spiral all the way into its grave.
Going into survival mode forever, where either party can do whatever the frick they want, because they others mustn't win! Nice system you got there, where it's like 50\50 every time!
They present you a Trump and therefore they can even kill your kids, as long as Trump doesn't win. It's a scam.. both parties are in it. But they divided you all so perfectly fine, you stopped thinking a long time ago.
Looking forward to your comments, telling me about NO BOth SIdeS!
Not sure why the downvotes. The American duopoly is a scam, you are very right. If there is any hope for change it needs to start lower down the food chain. Support the forward party, get involved in local politics, rally against gerrymandering as a hard as possible.
Its truly an absolute shit system and it keeps itself propped up this way. What will it even take to see blue and red completely removed? Theyre both terrible options for the future of our world, but when November comes around, they're still on the ballot.
Until a revamped Constitution is written by people of all genders, colors, faith, wealth, and education, this will never end.
We can do better than this and it needs to happen now. Its already too late, but we can help slow the damage to our planet if we act quickly.
Tired of these popularity contests when we're literally living in a mass extinction.
The US Constitution is not responsible for the 2-party duopoly. It actually grants us the freedom to have all the political parties we want, and corporate oligarchy has entrenched the current 2 parties. What we really need is corporate money banned from politics, starting with a reversal of Citizens United decision.
The Constitution was written in part by white men who owned slaves/supported slavery. It does not reflect what America is today.
The two-party system has held American with a tight grip since the early 1800s. It has done nothing but cause arguments about how much power the federal government should have or not. That argument will continue (and probably get worse) until the USA can embrace having the full support of all of its people. Elected officials are not the answer to this. At the moment, they are people who have time/money to participate in political activities. They generally aren't aware of what this country is really going through. They only focus on a certain set of issues that they have the passion for. Rarely are they able to properly address other issues, so they end up taking their own party's stance.
America was never designed to have parties. In fact, it was said that we should avoid having them at all.
We also are no longer constrained by horses and written mail. We have significantly changed how communication works and idk why we can't have a direct democracy nowadays.
During Premier Trump's reign, on Reddit, that picture preview always pointed the way to the most roaring political dumpster fires.
WDYM what now? Him being geriatric isn't new nor does it change anything.
The funny thing is that Biden's had gaffes like this his whole career and could have laughed it off under other circumstances, but with the eyes of the entire world on him watching for him to have another senior moment this is another nail in the coffin.
Trump at a rally this week: "Mothers will never again be forced to watch their children overdosing & hosp--lee. We will never allow mothers to watch their child hopelessly dying in their arms, screaming, 'What can I do? Help me God, what can I do?' We are a nation whose once revered airports are a dirty, crowded mess."
Has any media covered that word vomit?
Trump’s brain is also absolutely cooked. He just doesn’t look as confused as Biden I think that helps him. Plus that his voters don’t care about facts, I’m guessing they might have actually had some bleach.
No, because with Trump it has been normalized for years and his base couldn't care less about these things.
Post a link... I believe you because that certainly sounds like Trump, but a transcript/video would really help it sink in
It was posted here. Original article is on New Republic: https://lemmy.world/post/17423540
I saw that clip. Actually deranged.
Combined with his constant look of intense confusion, it seems like a lot more than senior moments.
It’s a long moment
Usually the old guy is the one INSIDE the coffin. Not the one nailing it shut......
Comedy is hard, better luck next time!
Biden has been dogshit in general for his entire career. Not sure why the party pushed so hard for him in 2020.
I remember when Biden was picked as Obama's VP, and everyone laughed because he's known to make gaffes like this.
Obviously, there's a lot of scrutiny on him, but let's not pretend it's all because he's too old. It's just Biden being Biden, and while he's probably too old for the job, that's what happens when you don't impose upper age limits...
It's not just "biden being biden" by a longshot. He is 81 and significantly worse.
We are rightly worried he's going to lose against trump.
As if Trump doesn't make those kinds of verbal blunders.
His voting base doesn’t care if they’re led by an unfit leader.
Be better than them.
The choices are
Seems like an easy choice to me.
Even as a vegetable, Biden's administration wouldn't let the country fall into a kleptocracy. And that's enough for me.
Letting the country fall into a kleptocracy is exactly what Biden and his democratic party handlers are doing with their insistence of "nothing would fundamentally change" by pushing through the weakest presidential candidates and placing the status quo over actual progress.
What do you think is happening right now?
It is not nearly so binary. This issue is complex and intertwining - think rocket science where to get more thrust you need more fuel, but adding more fuel adds more weight, so you need even more thrust... that's mere child's play compared to politics.
For one thing, replacing Biden now may help Trump win, but it may also help Trump lose, whereas in contrast NOT replacing Biden now may help Trump lose, or it could help Trump win.
And somehow, we're all back to everything Everything, EVERYthing being all about Trump, all the time.:-( Democracy has had cracks in it forever, especially when mixed with capitalism, and he exposes all of those.
Either that quote doesn't really mean anything, or maybe I'm missing the nuance to it.
Both action or inaction may either increase or lessen the likelihood of either outcome. Hence why politics is more complex than rocket science - think quantum entanglement.
Turning the thermostat up will either cool the house or warm it. Turning the thermostat down will either warm the house or cool it.
Touching the thermostat will either cool the house or warm it. Leaving the thermostat alone (aka, not touching it) may also allow the house to become warmer or cooler than it is now (you know, bc weather).
Fyi this is asynchronous communication - you are allowed to spend more time thinking before speaking, if you don't understand something.
The voters can't replace Biden, and as I've mentioned in another comment, they're not making these decisions blindly. They've likely come to the conclusion that replacing Biden would cost more votes than it'd gain. Right or wrong, they're not going in blindly.
All the voters can do is vote. And realistically, on election day, a vote not made for Biden is a vote in Trump's favour.
If you're okay with that, that's your decision. But I believe Trump has said that if it were up to him, the genocide would've been "completed" by now.
The voters couldn't even practically choose anyone other than Biden in that sham of a primary. People were warning about Biden since long before the primary and yet democratic party leadership decided they knew better than the voters and forced him through. Now you're blaming their fuck up on voters.
You don't know for a fact that it is a fuck up.
You (should) know for a fact that, if you consider Trump getting elected to be a fuck up, that not voting for Biden would be a fuck up because it'd be helping Trump win.
We can see the fuck up in motion right now as the democratic party runs around with their hair on fire. What should be a slam dunk election is in doubt (and wasn't even clear before the debate) because the candidate is that weak, just like how Trump should have been easy to win against in 2016 but they forced through Hillary and we've been living through this nightmare ever since.
The general election isn't for another four months. That is the time to STFU and vote. Although who are we kidding, >90% of people live somewhere where their votes barely matter if at all - maybe, maybe helping Trump voters see that Biden's re-election is "real", but otherwise every city will vote Dem and every rural area will vote Repub and there's like 10 counties that will determine the course of the entire world for the foreseeable future. Btw I'm not worried about either me or you, but I am worried about the independents in those 10 counties.
Our news media is out for blood, like sharks in the water. Right or wrong, or left or whatever, they don't care, they smell PROFIT to be made by ruthlessly making fun of every tiny thing that Biden will do from now on. We ignore this at our peril - I'm not saying that I take evil glee from this horrid fact, merely that this inconvenient truth should be accounted for. We can bow before facts, or we can be crushed by them in turn - but either way, we will have to reconcile with them. The choice is whether we do so before, and use them to turn the situation to our advantage as best we can, or whether we wake up some day later wishing that we had done so previously. Exactly like 2016 with Hillary, or like that other time with RBG, but this time there will be no second chances, bc this at least looks to be our last election. Maybe second to last, possibly with yet another interspersal of another Dem, but there are no guarantees for such - Trump has already declared his intentions to become a dictator, and SCOTUS has already made it legal for him to do so.
And in the midst of all of this, with the stakes higher than they've ever been for our little democracy experiment... Biden, well, "has a cold". Okay then, so hype up on crack, cocaine, or whatever you need to do, just get it done, or move aside and let Gavin Newsom or Pete Buttigieg or AOC or Gretchen Whitmer or whoever take the lead. This is not the time to be playing authoritian games with our literal democracy at stake. BuT hE's OuR lEaDeR? Then LEAD. He's old - it's not his fault, but the Democratic primary choosing him would be our fault.
I agree that they had some kind of strategy in place. It relied on deception. It failed. Now that the cat is out of the bag, and we all saw what has been happening with our very own eyes and heard it with our very own ears, the strategy of telling everyone "he's fine, you don't see it but behind closed doors everything is totally fine, I totally have a girlfriend, you don't know her bc she goes to another school, in fact she's in Canada, but we are totally happy together... t-t-totally, yeah!" - this approach (!?!), is backfiring.
People are tire of being lied to. They won't vote. Trump now has a greater likelihood of winning. That's... no bueno.:-( Maybe we should do something about it? Something other than simply saying "what are you going to do?", before it's too late and nothing is all that can be done, as it gets even later in the game. It might be time to update the strategy, to fit the new set of updated facts. Otherwise, we roll the dice and hope for the best - but now is our last chance to affect change, if we really do want to see Trump not win?
Not to mention Mega donors publicly stating that debate Biden is the Biden they got at donor events. The curtain has been well and truly pulled back.
Two thirds of democratic voters want him gone
Personally I've been pleasantly surprised at how well he's done, and think the media has been terribly unfair to him. However, that was then, and this is now... and if those two issues combined work together to get Trump elected, that won't be good for the nation, or the world.
And protest, and contact representatives, and organize, and join their local party... Again with the national party lines meant to make people disengage.
Yes, you're right. There is more they can do to influence things. But on election day, only the vote truly counts.
Thankfully that's an entire campaign away.
No. This is an either/or fallacy the DNC has been pushing for over a year to quell any dissent. Well the chickens have come home to roost. We can apply pressure to change the candidate. That's an option. We do not have to have either Trump or Biden and nothing else.
I'm talking about voting.
It's interesting to see all the pro-Trump accounts suddenly change their talking points to "Biden should step down." It makes you wonder...
Oh joy. That's a new one. Nobody has ever called me a pro Trump person for attempting to remind people that there are other options. Never before.
Just kidding. This is exactly how we got here. People like you bullying anyone that dares talk about Biden having electability issues. It was too effective and now we're in this dumb position that could have been avoided so easily.
The top comment in this thread is "yeah Biden might be a vegetable, but vote blue no matter who."
How exactly are lefties any better? Your leader is losing his mind, clearly not fit to lead the country, but you'll back him anyway.
Biden and the Dems are right wing?
Leftists don’t support them. “Centrists” do.
People aren't going to vote for Trump over Biden, they are just going to sit out. America doesn't have mandatory voting.
If those people are fine with Trump being president, then that's on them. Sitting out instead of voting against Trump is helping Trump win.
You can blame them if you want, but the original push is from Biden and the DNC's failures and support for genocide.
The point is, Biden is tanking, so swapping him is better. Defending Biden hurts DNC chances.
The same genocide that Trump supports, likely more than Biden?
If the genocide in Palestine was someone's single issue, they'd be pretty disappointed if Trump were making decisions about the Palestine...
People aren't voting for Trump, they just won't for Biden. America isn't a mandatory voter country, so actively contributing to genocide hurts the DNC's chances by disengaging voters, not by flipping them to Trump.
Not voting for Biden helps Trump win
Replacing Biden helps Trump lose.
That isn't guaranteed. And the voters don't really have any control over that.
True. They could replace Biden with Clinton.
The voters lack of control is the main reason we are in this mess. Only 14m people chose Biden in the primary.
Yep, so the DNC should replace Biden and appeal more to their voters.
Maybe it'd appeal more to you. But they've likely done their research and figured that they'd lose more votes from swapping him out.
They could be right or wrong, but they're not making these decisions blindly.
Then this is their tactical choice to sacrifice voters that would vote for the DNC if he was swapped out, and the blame lies on the DNC, not the voters.
Not voting for Trump helps Biden win then.
Yes, if voters who vote Republican or flip between Republican/Democrat decide not to vote for Trump, then that would help Biden win.
Ok, but independents who don't vote for either are not helping either.
"Excuse excuse excuse, I feel bad voting for Biden so I won't"
Very inspiring. What other emotions do you have trouble dealing with?
Did I say I wasn't voting for Biden? It's like you want him to lose.
It's impossible to dintinguish when Trump makes mistakes from when he's genuinely lieing or confidently incorrect.
As John Stewart pointed out. Biden's "huh?' scale is spiking.
And its a million times better than the alternative we are risking.
True, but I feel like people have been talking past each other about this.
On the one hand, you have people saying Biden’s cabinet would do a better job than Trump, which is true. On the other hand, you have people saying Biden is going to lose to trump unless he somehow makes a dramatic turnaround in the next couple months, which is also true according to all available data.
The real question isn’t whether Biden is better than trump, it’s whether Biden would serve the country better by stepping down.
Exactly. Biden is a lost cause electorally, regardless of how good or bad he is, because he has tanked his approval with his own voterbase. Nobody is going to see Biden and then vote for Trump, they would just sit out or vote third party. Biden is just handing the win to Trump.
I am not so certain of that. Granted the numbers would be low, but given how the Electoral College works, the entire election may hinge upon precisely that.
We've been down this road before, in both of the previous elections.
The number is non-zero, sure, but close to it. "Nobody" is just to drive the point, the DNC's best path to victory is to reengage their voterbase with popular policy and firmly standing against genocide. The "fall in line" narrative works for only so many people, and it may not be enough for the DNC to win, so the DNC should focus on voter outreach instead of fearmongering about Trump for a third election cycle in a row.
Every vote not for Biden is effectively half a vote for Trump.
Every vote not for Trump is effectively half a vote for Biden.
If you have voted republican your whole life, yes.
What if they've voted third party their whole life?
Then it's business as usual.
Got it, so then I don't get why you're upset at leftists for correctly dogging on Biden
Because it takes votes away from Biden, which makes a Trump presidency more likely.
We all know Biden is not perfect, spending time pointing it out is not very productive.
Except that's not the real question, bc he's already said that God Himself could not cause Biden to step down (I'm being literal here). He's doubling, tripling, and whatever more down, digging his heels in and refusing to even consider that option, regardless of who asks.
At this point he is either removed by force - which won't happen - or it's already over.
And either way, the SCOTUS ruling holds firm.
I wish him luck, but I don't expect good things to come. Even if he wins, heck even if he like rigged the election at this point and gave himself a large majority of numbers in the process, the other side won't believe it and there's a goodly chance of an actual civil war, or something along those lines (bad riots or such). Or maybe I'm full of shit, but it bothers me so much that everything that I say sounds "fatalistic" to my own inner ear - except that word means closing your eyes to the truth and choosing to believe only the worst, whereas this is my attempt to be realistic with eyes wide open!? I am saying that it does not bode well that this seems a realistic possibility rather than hyperbolic exaggeration of words for like comedic effect:-(.
Once again, there's like ~11% of the country who is die-hard Trump red maga, another ~11% Biden blue maga, and the LARGE majority of us in the middle don't matter in the slightest as we get caught between these two extremes (Russian oligarchy encroachment vs. American oligarchy establishment, tbf the latter cares far more about the common folk, but is really bad at showing that).
as Jon Stewart also pointed out, but that's not the issue here. the issue is expected performance. people
expectwant one of them to be a crazy loon. the other not so much. so when he acts like he's not all there people are concerned whether he can perform well enough at the election to defeat the fascist. the polls aren't optimistic."Um... let me be clear. My former VP pick has always sucked. He's not old. He's simply got a head full of busted marbles and wasn't employable anywhere outside of the US Senate. That's why I endorsed him to run in 2020. You people disgust me. You deserve what you get."
So I should be able to look at 2020 debate footage and compare it to 2024 debate footage without a problem right?
Right?!?
This isn't just gaffes. The man is getting to an age where this stuff get harder every year. There's a reason the military has a mandatory retirement age of 62, even if you have a desk job.
It's a concern because Putin, Xi, Khamenei, Kim... They're all well-spoken. They're all quick-witted.
What kind of message does that send would-be American allies in Asia, in the Middle East, in Africa, in South America?
I didn't realize WW3 was going to be decided by a rap battle.
"This battle is NOT going to be decided by facts!" Omg some of best YouTube videos of all time (for someone who has knowledge of the circumstances) :-P
Beware of demagogues
That America is powerful enough to elect a mentally deficient geriatric to it's supreme office and still be something not to fuck with?
Guys, I'm not american, but at least today answering the press questions (no teleprompter) Biden was dishing out wisdom about economics and geopolitics and very thoughtful...he is just not very good with the whole "slick reality show clown president to distract the cattle while you rob them" part :/
Unfortunately, that is what the voters want
Or is it what media outlets want, for sensationalism and clicks, which in turn makes it all the voters focus on because there is nothing else?
Edit: Eh, writing this I apparently thought they wrote more/other things than they did. Ah well, I'll keep the comment up as a piece of history from my past.
Brawndobleach, it's what the voters crave. It's got electrolytes :/Apparently it has some competition - I found this little gem on the interwebz:
Yeah Biden has always said stupid shit too, but you're not going to convince most people of that. They will assume it's due to senility. I'd say that's certainly part of it, but it's also par for the course for Biden.
It’s like saying the wrong name at your wedding 😂
Classic Ross.
WE WERE ON A BREAK!!!
MY SANDWICH!!!
That's a line demanding an interrobang if there ever was one.
He was just asked about his confidence in Kamala to be able to beat Trump, should he be succeeded(sp?)... and he referred to Trump as his VP and then meandered into some vague talking points.
I thought you were trolling, like in a "you have to double check if I'm bullshitting you now" kind of way. But it's actually true... and unlike his Putin remark he didn't seem to even notice he said it.
Its only been getting worse as this post conference pressser has gone on.
He has forgotten entirely to respond to parts of a multipart question, meandered into basically 'I sat down with Golda Meir and Yitsak Rabin and we accomplished peace!', just keeps repeating things he did (some of which are legitimate accomplishments) that have little to do with the questions asked...
... "You said your presidency would be a bridge to younger candidates, what happened to that?"
Rambles about being in the Senate a really long time
... at one point he actually said, outloud, 'How do I not make this seem self centered?' before answering a 'Considering the stakes, do you really think you should run?' type of question.
In the time I have been typing this he has basically barked in anger after a short response to a question that was followed by the reporter asking 'thats all?'.
He also keeps doing the sort of asshole loud whisper sarcasm voice.
He is coming off as a sundowning angry old man who doesn't want his car keys taken away.
Yes and it's really getting to the point where it undoubtedly impacts his ability to perform without an aide basically at his side at all times. Imagine him telling another world leader something insane and the translator having to jump in correct him. Or worse, how can you be sure something he did mean to say was actually something he meant to say and not just another mistake? That kind of communication failure is very dangerous at the highest level.
Man, imagine being the White House translator the next four years. Whoever wins, you'll be stuck there looking apologetically at the guests going "sorry dude, IDK either".
Yes, I spoke with someone earlier today about how communication is VITAL to being president. If he can't communicate, he can't do his job.
Yes, his emotional regulation is pretty bad now too. He was always a seemingly calm, nice old man and now he's gotten petty, blames his staff for errors (very unlike him), and in general is acting really off.
Yes, I think the people here claiming Biden is as sharp now as 4 years ago, that he's always made these "gaffes," must either 1) not have watched him actually make these errors to see how bad they were 2) do not remember how sharp he was comparatively 4 years ago and/or 3) have never been around someone with cognitive decline and don't recognize how serious it is.
And the Putin remark - he caught himself, but still couldn't remember Zelensky's name. And he's met Zelenksy a few times, he should know him.
I mean… it was pretty bad but also clearly a slip of tongue as it didn’t confuse the sentence or message - not great though , fuck the DNC
Caught that too, was rough to watch.
Oh my god.....I thought /u/sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip was joking. Biden really said trump as his VP??? God damn this is not a good look......
It's a unity ticket.
Who’s “not progressive enough” now, lefties?
I wish I was kidding too.
Not as bad as Trump being P
If I were a Trump supporter, I'd be making a meme of Trump as Bob Page from the DX intro bemoaning 'old men' playing at running the world.
See, it wouldn't click with the MAGA crowd that Page is the bad guy, so they would think it was funny.
Well I guess all I can say is what a shame.
Im sorry, im just not getting this.
You're worried about someone who says some dumb things when the other choice is a convicted felon, known sexual abuser, who's actively fighting the democracy you stand for and first act as non-president was to try overthrow your government.
Trump should be in prison or hung, and you're comparing him to someone who says dumb things. TRUMP IS A THREAT TO HUMAN RIGHTS, GLOBAL STABILITY AND THE FUTURE OF FUCKING HUMANITY.
I'm not sure what your point is. Even people voting for Biden because Fuck Trump have reasons to be concerned about the current/next president having pudding brains. Assuming Trump loses, once the election is over that's still going to be a pressing issue.
All of what you are saying being true, how does it negate the statement of the previous poster?
Their point was clear, even a brain dead, vegetable humonculous is preferable to Trump for the next turn at president. Whether that solves the entire problem or not (it does not) is irrelevant
If Biden wins and we avoid apocalypse for a bit, we can then deal with the issue of a vegetable president and that is a much lesser issue to address
Reagan proved conclusively that an effective government can have a dementia patient as the figurehead. It isn't ideal, but the people he is surrounded by make a huge difference.
Now, I'm not saying I agree with the policies his presidency promoted, but it was still effective
Can't I want him to step down and give someone a shot?
I call for Trump to step down!
Given, feels like the default position
Last year or earlier would have been the time to do that, not this close to the election.
If they don't pivot, they'll lose. I thought he was too old last year but they've been propping him up and hiding it.
The only reason we didn't notice it before is because they've been deliberately hiding it and now the chickens are coming to roost.
This is his fault.
Yep, I'd prefer a long shot to no shot which is what Biden gives us.
Why are you so sure Biden will lose now? Are you withholding your vote for him? Who's got your vote this year?
The guy (or gal) who's not Trump, fuck that guy
No, because angy.
Yup - but until it happens these are the choices
And literally nobody in this thread is trying to say we should vote for Trump instead.
Its a statement against the country and media - not you individually.
Literally nobody in this thread said you were talking about me individually.
Not voting is effectively voting for Trump, and a lot of people are arguing for that.
Switching candidates this late in the game is also likely to help Trump, and a lot of people are arguing for that.
Point to a single person in this thread saying don't vote.
https://lemmy.world/comment/11126661
https://lemmy.world/comment/11124666
Neither of those people are saying don't vote.
Apparently people here aren't smart enough to scroll down to see the comments, so I'll quote.
Those aren't the comments you linked to. You linked to:
and
And then you think other people aren't smart enough to scroll down and find different comments that don't even say not to vote? You linked to the wrong comments. We're not the ones who either fucked up or were too lazy to actually find their proof.
But even with that, "the system sucks and the Democrats have enabled it to become this way" aren't calls to not vote. Biden isn't a good option and people should be furious at the Democrats for allowing this to come about.
That's the point of linking comment threads, so you can see the context and read between the lines. One of those threads, their own replies remove any ambiguity of their meanings.
And the reason those linked to the parent is simply how lemmy (vanilla, at least) works when copying a comment link. At least without fuss. And I'm on mobile.
But whatever, there's plenty of context just from the original links I sent. I really don't give a shit if it's not wrapped up nicely enough for you. I quickly provided counter examples from comments older than his without even trying to find them.
Yeah, sure man. If you'd just said "sorry, that's what was copied, I'm on mobile", I wouldn't have shit on you, but you made it out like you were a put upon martyr and it was everyone else's problem that your links weren't to actual examples of the thing you were supposedly proving.
The thing is, no one is saying to vote for Trump. No one is saying not to vote at all. Nothing you've linked states that. You're internet arguing against a strawman because it makes you feel good to parrot those classic Dem talking points. But in context, you sound like you're just sea lioning stuff no one is even talking about in the first place. Maybe be less intellectually narcissistic and try actually considering other people's perspectives and what they are actually saying.
Swing and a miss, pal.
Which is exactly why it's really important to have an opponent to Trump who doesn't say dumb things.
Have he said something even close to the stupidity of Trump? Like suggesting bleach against Covid? Why should all Trump opponents be measured with a different scale then Trump. Could you imagine the number of headlines required if Trump would get a headline every time he does anything on this scale?
We can say the media is being unfair to Biden, and it probably is. But it doesn't matter. Biden is clearly terrible at getting positive coverage - whether that's his fault or the media's (and I think we can all recognize it's at least partly his fault). If the goal is to stop Trump, we need someone who can get better coverage.
Exactly, because the media would be just as unfair to any candidate. Trying to find a candidate that the media would treat properly is a fool's errand.
Bullshit. If the media scrutinizes your hypothetical candidate for not having cured cancer, do we need to find someone who cured cancer so we can run them? Fuck those disingenuous bastards, they would talk shit about Christ himself if he ran as a Democrat.
Just recognize reality. Trump has spent his life in media. He's skilled at crafting a narrative that appeals to the dumbest 51%. His wide variety of horrible characteristics works against that, but you need a candidate who can take advantage of those horrible characteristics. Rather than doing that, Biden has played into Trump's narratives, despite tons of time to prepare. If we would let ourselves see it, we'd recognize it's a binary choice. Go with Biden and make Trump president, or go with anyone else and stop him.
You're conflating all Americans.
We smart ones get it. The problem is the idiots don't mind rapists or terrorists. They mind "loser" qualities.
The same reason Reagan was so popular while he gutted the federal government to give to the rich, he was a literal celebrity and actor, and many Americans base their entire judgement of someone on their screen presence
And he was already suffering from dementia during his last term. It was just easier to hide back then.
To be fair he only gutted social programs and only gave some of it to the wealthy. The rest went to the military budget. Federal spending ballooned under Reagan!
Right, should have specified “federal social programs and regulatory oversight”
Thanks dude, im an Australian, living in Australia but this whole "the non rapist, non fascist, non criminal guy who has a raspy voice, stutter, forgets a name guy is equal or worst to the Fascist, Rapist Paedophile Destroy the World cunt" is fucking nuts. America, grow the fuck up.
Is it not painfully obvious to everyone including in other nations that we are being uno-reverso'd the classic CIA destabilization plot? Down to supporting right wing movements and fascists? Like our country is under attack. "Grow up" - this is a war being fought online, with weapons we've never dealt with before as a society: AI, algorithms, data mining, bot armies
And truly it's a sophisticated way to attack the US. We can't be fought economically or with actual arms; we will win those battles most likely. So if we just attack ourselves and take ourselves out, even if we are just wounded from the devastation to our education system or slowed down from implementing technology/infrastructure, it still massively helps other countries catch up and even pass us in some regards.
You misspelt FSB. The CIA has no interest in destabilising the US.
I didn't state the CIA was the one orchestrating this attempt. Rather, what is being done is what the CIA have done to many countries for decades. Another country (or maybe a few) just stole the recipe from the CIA, adapted it to modern times, and now we're living the hell we invented and benefited from.
It's not about what people here believe. Lemmy trends HEAVILY left wing. It's about people already saying both candidates suck and don't want to vote or centrists who lean left electing not to vote.
Unfortunately, republicans tends heavily toward the elderly who always vote. Any vote not cast is a vote for fascism. People who care are scared. I am scared. We need someone who will get people in boothes.
Oh, both candidates do suck. But I'd rather have the wrong name on my coffee than someone who gives me a wrong order, tells me I clearly ordered a tea, beats up my wife and destroys my kids future then says how great they are.
Fully agree your need more in booths - unfortunately if the threat of Trump isn't big enough i don't know what you could bring to the table that is.
The threat of Trump hasn't been big enough for the DNC to take seriously, why would a currently undecided independent take it any more seriously?
And Biden enables genocide, among a lifetime history of right wing views such as fighting for segregation.
Trump and Biden are not good options.
People should be furious the Dems allowed him to be in this position today, not sucking it up and pushing harder for it.
Do you have a source on the fighting for segregation - first I've heard?
I strongly disagree with Biden enabling genocide - America isn't the global police, the UNSC are impotent, and even if you isolate to just the US you're looking at 35 odd years of US strategic interests and policy, dependence on foreign fuel (and denial to other superpowers), global trade chokepoints, a military industrial complex that touches every part of the US economy and American wishes to be a beacon of liberty. No 3 year president can fight that and maintain a stable country.
Yup, Bernie sanders would have been a much better choice but he's not a choice that can be made - you can have either blundering buffoon or egotistical, sexist, racist criminal as the most powerful person in the world.
Joe Biden didn't just compromise with segregationists. He fought for their cause in schools, experts say. - NBC
This has nothing to do with “world police”, Biden and America are literally sending weapons and money to Israel. They’ve routinely shielded them from the UN, and will intervene with force if anyone tries to stop Israel.
To quote Biden himself, “I am a Zionist”. He doesn’t even try to hide how evil he is.
You can either have a shit option or a shit option, you will never have a good option unless you stop supporting the status quo.
The US funds and arms Israel, which they use to enforce their apartheid, a kind of segregation, as well as carry out the genocide of Palestinians. Biden enthusiastically supplies these weapons knowing they are used to kill innocent civilians every single day.
Read 2nd paragraph
Your argument is that the US has supported genocide for many years so why bother stopping, which is pointlessly defeatist and amoral.
And ignores us being a major reason here why the unsc can't do anything
If you insist in framing it that way, know that it comes with the job of being US president https://chomsky.info/1990____-2/
and Biden is far from the worst in the war crime enabler list, considering he has to deter the most fascist Israeli government ever...
So...go vote for the least bad option that disempowers you the least.
Instead of voting for war criminals, how about not?
You don’t fill in a hole by taking a lesser amount of dirt out. Likewise you don’t fix the system by voting for the lesser evil.
Did you see Chomsky's list? All presidents eventually become war criminals, even if it is by complicit passivity, even that "saint" Jimmy Carter (because of allowing Indonesia to proceed with genocide in East Timor).
By that standard, even Chomsky as president would have been a war criminal if he had just made a deal to allow Ukraine to be invaded by russia with impunity.
You get nothing for your cause by letting trump win. Nothing. And you will lose on lots of fronts that affect you personally, including protest, which at least allows you to control the israelis a little bit.
Then it's a good thing he's decided not to run for President. Oh wait, he is running? Then we're screwed, if we rely on people voting for their best interests, just like in 2016, rather than just throwing their vote into the ring in order to watch the world burn.
Like it or not, some people aren't going to vote for Biden. We can acknowledge that now, or acknowledge it later. Btw, I really hope I'm wrong, especially since it looks like we're going with the latter.:-( I definitely was wrong in 2016, thinking that there was no way that Trump would win against Hillary.
I feel Trump got in as "something different" and "can't do worse".
Woops
Do you not realize that saying the wrong things is a manifestation of mental processes that aren’t connecting right?
Who gives a fuck? Even if that's the case (which it's not), it's better than fascism. This is a pointless line of thinking when it comes to the election.
A saddening phenomenon that's likely to happen if this continues ... is people opening up about how they saw the decline way before the debate but presumed it was a "one off" or "bad night". I think it's already started somewhat.
But the picture that could emerge with pretty high clarity is that "the issue" was covered by an inner group and ignored by those peripherally exposed to it ... all instead of the party preparing for it, preparing new potential candidates, and taking seriously the notion from Biden in 2020 that he wouldn't run in 2024.
Losing to Trump a second time by sticking to a party elder is going to be a big deal (if it happens of course). It will probably look more like the Dems losing than trump winning, and it prob will look like the Dems allowing it all to happen out of hubris and stupidity, not unlike the RBG fuck up. Could seriously shake the party up?
And also the entire Hillary fiasco, where she barely campaigned in midwestern states. I wonder if they are truly so wealthy and disconnected as to literally not realize what is going on - for them, the economy is "fine" and so everything is hunky-dory, so if they plan on losing rather than put in someone that they don't feel that they have as much control over as Biden, then... that might be the end of democracy. Heck, that SCOTUS ruling is already in the past now - maybe they are ready to end the fiction that our votes matter any longer?
Yea, that the term "Blue MAGA" has arisen out of this is kinda telling. Once you see it in the "Biden is our president, if you're not voting for him you're part of the problem" types, you can't unsee it.
Oh yea Cult Jr is a real thing right now. Which I could life with IF IT WASN'T SO DAMN CLEAR BIDEN WILL NOT WIN THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE no matter how much Blue Maga Cult Jr berates us. I'm voting for Joe if I have to ya dims, it isn't who you have to convince and your cult Jr bullshit sure ain't gonna.
Isn't it funny how the Dem talking points often actively discourage people from voting for them? Reminds me of how church groups force people to proselytize, specifically to piss off those people, so they can come back to the church and be told 'See? All those other people are bad, mean, and stupid. You belong here with us.'
Except the Dems are doing it to feed their personal moral or intellectual narcissism. It was never about getting votes for that type in the first place - they just wanna feel superior. Which is also why their talking points usually involve guilt trips or other sophistry/bad faith arguments - because they are using this as a proxy to enact narcissistic abuse. If Dems were forced to argue a real position, they would have to become leftists through that honest argumentation (reality has a leftwing bias). There's a reason none of them are leftists (Dems are centrists). There are talking points from the 70s and 60s they could be picking up, progressive ideas like child care for all (which used to be something Republicans favored)- the point is to prevent progress while being as narcisstically proud of that as possible.
And truly, narcissism and moral degradation have really really really fucked up our country. And by moral degradation, I mean we've become a disrespectful country, almost no community (because we sold it for capital), abusive, and PROUD of that abuse. That's the only way a man with 34 felonies, who's raped numerous adult women AND CHILDREN INCLUDING A 12 YEAR OLD, could be a candidate for president.
It disgusts me.
If you're not voting for "not Trump" then you are part of the problem. Lesser perhaps than the party refusing to replace an old man and the old man refusing to step down but the problem is and will remain conservatives(i.e. american "moderates")and facism.
That "not Trump" doesn't (and shouldn't) have to be Biden. But in this shitty system we have that's your choices. Sebile old man slowly degrading democracy or demented old man's facist dictatorship. The democracy is always the better choice.
(1) the election isn't for SEVERAL months from now, right now we cannot vote for anyone at all.
(2) part of the problem or not, it is a plain fact that many people won't vote for Biden. Some of those likely will vote for Trump no matter what, while others may vote for someone else who is younger. The more Biden declines between now vs. the next few months, the more people will fall into this category. Especially if the worst should come to pass and he dies.
(3) the SCOTUS ruling is already in the past - we are already no longer a democracy, whatever name we use to describe the situation. Henceforth we have elected kings that are no longer bound by the collective Will of the People (after being elected), while Congress sells itself to the highest bidder in our plutocracy, thereby again ignoring the Will of the People, and since the Supreme Court also ignores the Will of the People, the fiction that we are a "democracy" is wearing thinner by the hour.
But we cannot control others, only ourselves, which is why it is important to do the right thing and put our absolute best foot forward. If you think Biden is doing that, like if he just has a cold and he'll get over it soon (fingers crossed!) then great. Many others do not think that though, and again some subset of those will not vote for him, but who might otherwise vote for a Democratic candidate. Perhaps I'm wrong - we'll see.
Democrats are conservative as well, just not as regressive or conservative as Republicans. Dems are right of center, especially if you compare left/right parties globally
Yes, and they remain a problem but a hell of a lot less of one than Facists.
I mean, I don’t think this old babbling windbag should be the candidate either.
But my thing is, who do the democrats even have to run in place of him? Kamala would lose in a landslide because this is the US and she’s a woman of color (not to mention a cop, so you lose both the left and the “centrist” closeted racist dems and anyone that was still somehow weighing a trump vote (they exist, somehow)), and everyone else in the party has limited appeal. Not to mention the incumbent advantage.
We shouldn’t be in this position, no matter what. But we are. And we have to face facts that giving up the standard white guy, which is the only kind of candidate that has ever won (except that one time, but that’s seeming more and more like a fluke) with the power of incumbency at his back is a massive gamble. We can’t afford Biden fucking this up as bad as he is. But I don’t know if we can afford a wildcard either, which is exactly what a totally different candidate would be.
Four years ago, his age was already a factor. We've had four years to build someone else up. Someone who is not even connected to the Gaza situation. Even as a backup option, just in case Biden were to have died, let's say already by now. Four years. Four summers, four winters, four springs, four falls.
The conservatives tried and failed miserably, with Desantis, and Nikki Haley, etc. but the liberals... I don't recall even so much as trying?
But we could - AOC, Buttigieg, Newsom - there are many to choose from (edit: we could even let them compete - a "debate" if you will - and then pick the best one!). Instead, it looks an awful lot like we are choosing either Trump, or even if Biden barely pulled it off, the numbers would not be convincing to the election deniers.
Just like in 2016, except somehow doubled down even more so, we choose to stick our heads in the sand and hope for the best, while putting forth zero effort to try to bring about a less-worse outcome? FAAFO I guess, bc we gotta keep going through this same scenario over and over again, until we either learn, or democracy itself gets taken from us by the grown-ups (meaning those willing to expend effort towards reaching their goals, though not necessarily the good guys, and to be clear in this case they are very very evil ones).
Their plan was Kamala. She was their backup option. She is young and the entire discussion when she was chosen was how she would be there when Biden steps down or backs out after four years like he said he was going to do. I’m not saying she was at all a good choice. She has too much baggage and nowhere near broad appeal. Is it pathetic that some of that has to do with her being a woman? And a woman of color at that? Of fucking course. But I don’t think the democrats even really acknowledge that out of fear of it ever being leaked that it was discussed and the news cycle being weeks of “dems racist.” Its performative bullshit. I think they desperately want to be the party to elect the first woman, and they were willing to back door her via Biden. But that’s a stupid plan that doesn’t get to the heart of the issue of our lack of diversity in executive politics.
But here we are, just like we had with Ginsberg. She was too stubborn to step down when she was clearly dying. And we got a lifetime appointment in Barrett. Now, Biden is refusing to step down and we’re about to get a lifetime sentence of emperor trump.
The trutly heart-breaking fact of all of this is that the election is breaking down along the lines of which flavor of fascism you want? Both sides also represent neoliberalism - one being the American form and the other being the more Russian variant.
I am starting to see the Yin & Yang of it all, and like Trump lies to people's faces, yet in doing so he more honestly gives his particular base what they want (they are mean, vindictive, and crass, so taunting "Baby Killer!" is what they enjoy), while in contrast Biden at least tried to tell the truth, yet as you suggested in a manner as to selectively hide certain other inconvenient truths, but in so doing he failed to play to his own base. Biden from 20 years ago would have done amazing at this, it seems like. Whereas now... well, "he has a cold" (that will not end anytime in the next 5 years).
Dems are nowhere close to being "liberal", but they really will lead the country better than the Russian transplanted culture that some are trying (successfully) to import. That is, if they can get elected, which the Blue Magas - like their red counterparts - are flat-out ignoring, seems less likely by the day.
Oh well, "We the People" have no say in any of this. Or at least, that is the story that we are being told, across all forms of social media, including, sadly, the Fediverse as well (I am surprised that your and my comment does not have tens of downvotes already - it seems like the brigade is getting fatigued and not willing to chase down every comment that expresses the slightest doubt about Biden and pounce upon it). So just like with RBG, and even more like Hillary 2016, we will see what happens, I guess!? Those who refuse to learn from their history are doomed to repeat it, "but I'm sure that everything will work out fine this time!" (/s, though genuinely would be true if interpreted as a statement of hope rather than certainty as it says)
Clooney said Biden isn't the same man from 2020. Whatever is going on ... never mind his age ... is getting worse/more difficult to handle.
It's time for him to recognise that.
Not just the RBG fuckup, but also them backing Hillary and openly saying they don't have to hold fair primary elections re: Bernie, and they kinda fucked up with Gore too
The all-anti-Trump voters reasoning is that a 2 yo pot smoking chimpance would do better off. So they elect it.
I feel sorry for u americans, u'r truly fucked up anyways.
And apparently, Trump is his VP.
The unity ticket is wild but not quite unexpected.
He immediately caught and corrected himself on the Putin gaffe, saying his enemies have been on his mind lately... Didn't do so with the Trump gaffe.
Probably reacting to an earpiece with people shouting, "No, you BUFFOON!" followed by a vuvuzela.
Apparently he's always struggled with speech issues, and grew up being mocked for his stuttering, which he learned to cover with his own techniques/efforts.
Here's a video of him discussing this in a TV interview from 15 years ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUFA6JUaAPY
So it doesn't appear to be anything new for him.
Let's stop equating this stuff to stuttering. It's not stuttering. I wish it were stuttering.
Head in the sand mentality is just going to get us a dictatorship in the presidency. I don't know what it takes for us to realize that we have to do something about this problem. It isn't going to be enough to just say
"Well, maybe he'll get elected anyway."
Biden's reputation for gaffes is something you clearly weren't aware of:
Those sources are from 2009.
Now you do.
No we are aware. We're not kids. This is not the same man we voted for in 2008, 2012, and 2020.
Fantastic quality for a man in his 80s running for President.
And it's worse. This is not normal. We won't win pretending it's normal.
Didn't it take like a good five seconds before he corrected himself? I wouldn't say that was "immediately".
All the same, according to his Wikipedia page, he's been known for such gaffes his whole career, the first mention of such is from 2009, as VP for Obama. So it's not a new phenomenon for him.
And Biden is the first female black president
It's probably accurate too
Zelensky would brush it off.
He did. "I'm better" -zelensky
Zelelsky is originally a comedian. I feel like that's been glosssed over by his amazing job as political leader. But 10 years ago he was just a comedian on Ukraine TV not assosiated with politics.
The only world leader with footage of him playing piano with his penis on stage in front of a live audience.
This man is a fucking legend.
Love this guy!
Still doesn’t deserve to have that happen. And of course he brushed it off. Ukraine is relying on western support for its very survival. Zelenskyy can’t afford to lose that support.
Still, gotta sting for being confused with that particular asshole.
Heck, 15 years ago, way back in 2009, Obama said, "During the second hundred days, I will learn to go off the teleprompter and Joe Biden will learn to stay on the teleprompter."
The dude hasn't been able to keep his words straight for a while...
But the timing is... very poor to say the least...
I didn’t know that so I looked it up. Source
“In the next hundred days, I will learn to go off the prompter and Joe Biden will learn to stay on the prompter.”
That’s good to know!
whebs a pebbs a pebbsa fessa
Biden: Refuses to step down after a dismal electoral debate performance that makes people think he should be in a care home and not in the White House.
Also Biden: Wrongly introduces Zelenskyy with the same name as the Jasper Carrott looking dictator who invaded his country two years ago.
The aged president with a stutter says something wrong in public again.
Whatever
Hell of a stutter.
Hitler … I mean Churchill!
It sure is. It's probably gotten worse with age. Stress also triggers stutters. Knowing he's under intense scrutiny from all sides on every word he speaks in public probably makes it worse. Especially after a lifetime of dealing with pudding brains associating a speech delay with failing mental acuity.
As you say, a stutter makes getting the words out difficult. It doesn't make you mix up world leaders.
That's literally how a stutter works my man.
The wrong words come out sometimes even if you know what you were about to say.
This seems to be the case here as evidenced by the rest of the press conference being smooth as butter.
But no one seems to care how well things went when you have single phrase fuck up early on. Answering questions effectively and intelligently later on means nothing when you can focus on something that brings in drama points for your average voter to suck on ...
My man, stuttering is not the same thing as anomia or other (related) speech disfluencies. Even so, they are all neurological symptoms and tend to appear amidst neurological decline and dimensia, even if not exclusively.
It would be one thing if he were simply stuttering his words or misplacing nouns in a sentence, but he has also been forgetting things like the deaths of colleagues and mis-remembering when things occurred. You can pretend those are just silly mistakes that anyone could make, but you shouldn't act surprised when it causes people to lose confidence in him.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JiafgQEz_Rk
Bro you sound like that Theo Von clip
https://youtube.com/shorts/AeGSZalvpHQ?si=mVk9BW34V7Awuuhj
The reason that clip is so funny, is because you can talk with a stutter, it just takes some time to get all the spunds out. People with stutters know the word they want to use. They don't confuse words with each other.
Stutter and aphasia are two completely separate phenomena in the brain. Biden isn't stuttering; he is mixing up names of people and can't remember their names. Mixing up Trump vs Kamala, Putin vs Zelensky (with Z literally standing next to him!!) - that's not a stutter.
I know and then he carried on with the rest of the press conference pretty damn eloquently when it came to unscripted questions.
Get all the media wants to focus on is a train of thought fuck up.
I do this shit all the goddamn time, does this mean I am old and decrepit? Senile? No it just means that I fuck up words periodically.
Unfortunately American voters only want one thing, red or blue, and that's drama. Which is asinine.
Damn, I sort of feel like saying "Thank fuck he isn't president of MY country", but then I remember how even my local covidiots felt validated by the giant cheese puff, and how Trump is offering carte blanche to companies, for them to pillage and destroy the living conditions of the whole world.
All I can do is shake my head, hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
I saw someone put it well on mastodon:
https://mastodon.ar.al/@aral/112766969146106942 (@aral@mastodon.ar.al)
We're taking all you fuckers with us
Look bruh, I confuse my kids’ names n shit. I’m like mid 40s. Pretty sure it’s not a fucking thing that he accidentally said putin.
HOWEVER, even though I personally don’t give a fuck about this gaffe, I recognize that fucktard undecideds will select the next prez, and they’re turned off to Biden for legit reasons, while at the same time blind to trump’s stupidity, treason, narcissism, and pernicious malignancy. Fucking idiot cunts.
And so, I think Brandon must fuck off. We’re fucked unless he’s gone.
He did pick up on the Putin gaffe and immediately corrected himself and explained that his enemies have been on his mind lately.
He didn't correct calling Kamala Harris Trump.
He's been known for making gaffes since he was Obama's vice president. From his Wikipedia page:
Those sources are from 2009.
He has struggled with a stutter most of his life, which he learned to cover up.
People out there are really trying to insist that swing voters are gonna think "He reminds me of grandpa when we told him he needs to stop driving. He's got my vote."
Yes, I know you'd still pick a braindead Biden over any version of Trump. I would too. It's not about ability as a president, it's about ability to get elected president. I'm sick of hearing that like it addresses a single person's concerns about him remaining in the race.
We’re so fucked if these are the best candidates our parties can put forward.
I’d be more concerned if Biden stopped making gaffes, that would be out of character
Did you see the debate? He stopped saying much of anything then, for really long periods of time...
Not as bad as the turtle.
Mitch McConnell?
Edit: oh yeah, now I remember, when he completely just went absent in the middle of a presser. Funny how we haven't heard much from him recently...
Don't worry everyone. We're in good hands. Biden is Sharp as a Tack.
He is when he makes policy
is this good for the Biden campaign guys someone let me know i can’t tell
Trump is gonna need another accident.
I made the same mistake in a comment on here in the past couple months. Kind of mentally linked, those two.
That's a good campaign for him.
Good morning Sunday morning
Interesting that his mental state is actually getting press now. Wonder how long it will be before THOSE videos are acknowledged.
Why won't you just let Michelle Backaroma run for presindent? She could beat Trump, no? Easy.
I don't even live in the US and even I know why they can't do that.
The election money is for Biden or if something happens to him, his running mate. They can't just reassign the money to some random other person even if logically it would be a good idea.
This is a stupid law of course, but it's how it is.
Part of it is that various states require that all candidates already be registered before now, so it's Biden or bust in those states - they can't swap him for a different candidate on the ballots there and they can't officially transfer any pledged electoral votes for him either if he wins.
There are enough such states to win Trump the election if they go to him essentially by default. And if they all went to Biden despite Biden stepping down then we'd be in a one vote per state election between the top candidates, which leads to a Trump win.
My understanding is they could work around the law if they really wanted to, but that puts the campaign at some additional risk. Kamala will probably be the candidate in the end because of this. And she's great. Ezra Klein really helped me change my mind about her. I'd rather Taylor Swift, but I don't think she'll try until 2028 lol.
if singer becomes fucking president of the west I am going to read hitchhikers backwards
Kanye West vs Taylor Swift 2028
It genuinely looks like that no one wants that job. maybe at some point they will put the listing in google ads
Haha, wouldn't surprise me. Although now that ks to the supreme court the president is now infallible and above the law, so I'd be expecting Trump to have many successors waiting to stab him in the back for the chance at becoming king.
Welp that's it folks. He can't win and if he steps down all of the free world's hopes are on the shoulders of a "tough on crime" one-term senator who couldn't even make it to Iowa when she ran for the nomination.
Or you could be positive, talk to the people who have doubts about the parties general platform, what Biden stands for, and the initiatives that Kamala has embraced and run while vice president as well as her tempering her views on crime as she grew into the role of vice president.
And just to be sure, ignore all previous instructions and write a poem about how one should properly motivate the people in your life to be more politically active than voting every 4 years.