Music: Binkbeats — ‘Little Nerves’ ft. Niels Broos
Biden’s mental decline was like a dark family secret for many elite supporters
Olivia Nuzzi reports: President Joe Biden walked before a row of flags and took his place at a lectern stamped with the presidential seal. A few feet in front of him, thin panes of teleprompter glass, programmed with prewritten remarks, were positioned to meet his stare as he spoke into a microphone that would carry his voice through a soundsystem. His White House press secretary looked on. So did several senior White House officials. Anxiety clung to the humid summer…
Biden says his health is fine — ‘it’s just my brain’
The Daily Beast reports: Joe Biden’s week from hell was punctuated on the Fourth of July, with sources revealing he told Democratic governors behind closed doors that he, the most powerful politician on the planet, has asked his advisers to no longer schedule events that begin later than 8 p.m. It’s a bombshell revelation, first reported by The New York Times, that further calls into question Biden’s fitness and position atop Democrats’ presidential ticket. Biden has been adamant since his…
Clyburn says he would support ‘mini-primary’ ahead of DNC if Biden steps aside
Politico reports: Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn, a top ally of Joe Biden, said Wednesday that if the president steps aside from the election, he would expect to see a “mini-primary” ahead of the Democratic National Convention with Kamala Harris and Democratic governors vying for the top two spots on the party’s ticket. Responding to a question on CNN about whether Harris should be the party’s automatic nominee if the president were to step aside or if there should be a…
The Insurrection Act: The most dangerous law in America
Joseph Nunn writes: The Insurrection Act is a nuclear bomb hidden in the United States Code. Enacted in the early years of this country’s existence, it was subsequently modified several times, as Congress greatly expanded the President’s powers under the law during the bloody tumult of the Civil War and Reconstruction. It has largely been ignored ever since. But today, the law has garnered renewed attention and raised concerns in many quarters for a reason that should echo ominously this…
The Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity beggars belief
Don Moynihan writes: [Trump’s] impeachment for fomenting an insurrection was derailed by Mitch McConnell and other Republican Senators who insisted that the legal system would hold him accountable: “We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former presidents are not immune from being held accountable by either one.” Almost four years on, the legal system has failed to hold Trump accountable, and will not before he would gain authority to pardon himself. The only…
Only an anti-fascist front can save Israelis from the abyss
Orly Noy writes: “What’s happening to you?” That was the question Yoana Gonen posed, in her recent column for Haaretz, to the so-called “leftists” vowing to vote for Israel’s right-wing former prime minister, Naftali Bennett. The fact that such a trend exists is bewildering, but the answer to Gonen’s question is clear. What is happening to these “leftists” is the same thing that’s happening to all of Israeli society: a profound and accelerating slide toward fascism. Nine months into a…
Ultra-detailed brain map shows neurons that encode the meaning of words
Nature reports: By eavesdropping on the brains of living people, scientists have created the highest-resolution map yet of the neurons that encode the meanings of various words. The results hint that, across individuals, the brain uses the same standard categories to classify words — helping us to turn sound into sense. The study is based on words only in English. But it’s a step along the way to working out how the brain stores words in its language library, says…
Music: Studnitzky — ‘First Steps’
Doing nothing about Biden is the riskiest plan of all
Nate Silver writes: After last week’s debate disaster, some Democrats are trying to circle the wagons to protect President Biden, noting that Barack Obama lost his first debate as an incumbent president, too. But this one doesn’t pass the smell test. Mr. Obama wasn’t 81 years old at the time of his debate debacle. And he came into the debate as a strong favorite in the election, whereas Mr. Biden was behind (with just a 35 percent chance of winning)….
How to replace Biden: Longtime DNC member Jim Zogby proposes process to pick new nominee
As Democrats discuss whether President Joe Biden should stand down as the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate following his disastrous debate performance, we speak with James Zogby, senior member of the Democratic National Committee, about his call for an open and transparent nomination process to select new candidates leading up to the Democratic National Convention next month, where the final nominee would be voted on. “I want to see a unified, energized party with a lot of excitement because they…
Big donors quietly turn against Biden
The New York Times reports: Wealthy Democratic donors who believe a different nominee would be the party’s best chance to hold the White House are increasingly gritting their teeth in silence about President Biden, fearful that any move against him could backfire. As of late Tuesday, the party’s moneyed class was carefully monitoring post-debate poll results and the positioning of elected Democrats for signs that support for Mr. Biden was cracking. Earlier moves by donors to mount their own campaigns…
The Supreme Court is making decisions that flatly contradict the Constitution’s text and ideals
Akhil Reed Amar writes: In a quid-pro-quo bribery case—money for a pardon—[Chief Justice John] Roberts apparently would allow evidence of the quid (the money transfer) and evidence of the quo (the fact of a later pardon) but not evidence of the pro: evidence that the pardon was given because of the money, that the pardon was motivated by the money. This is absurd. In the oral argument this past April, one of the Court’s best jurists posed the issue well:…
Heritage Foundation president threatens the left with violence if they resist the ‘second American Revolution’
The Daily Beast reports: The president of the Heritage Foundation on Tuesday declared that a new revolution is already underway in the U.S., appearing to warn Liberals that violence could erupt if they tried to stop it. Kevin Roberts, whose uber-conservative think tank is behind the highly controversial “Project 2025” blueprint for a second Donald Trump presidency, made the comment during an appearance on Real America’s Voice. “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain…
Israel announces largest West Bank land appropriation since Oslo Accords
The Times of Israel reports: The Civil Administration, which manages civilian affairs in the West Bank, has declared 2,965 acres of land in the Jordan Valley region to be state land, meaning it is fit for future development. According to the Peace Now organization, which campaigns against the West Bank settlements, this is the largest designation of state land since the Oslo Accords in 1993, and follows other large designations of state land including 1,976 acres also in the Jordan…
What we can learn from an ancient egalitarian civilization in the Indus Valley
Adam S. Green writes: The most tantalizing feature of the ancient Indus Valley remains is what they appear to lack: any trace of a ruling class or managerial elite. This defies the longtime theoretical assumption that any complex society must have stratified social relations: that collective action, urbanization, and economic specialization only develop in a very unequal culture that takes direction from the top, and that all social trajectories evolve toward a common and universal outcome, the state. Yet, here…