Music: Binkbeats — ‘Rhythmiconomy’
Kamala Harris and Gretchen Whitmer could make a winning ticket for Democrats
Julian Zelizer writes: If President Joe Biden decides to withdraw from the election, Democrats need not fear — they have a ticket in front of them that can still defeat presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. Not only would a ticket with Kamala Harris as president and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as her running mate have the best odds of getting the party through this moment of crisis, but also the potential to excite voters and produce a historic outcome. To…
Many Americans are now looking at Kamala Harris as if for the first time
Elaina Plott Calabro writes: When Ron Klain admitted to me a year ago that the White House could have worked harder to elevate Kamala Harris’s profile, he didn’t know that the Democratic Party, and perhaps American democracy itself, would soon be riding on her readiness to be president. But perhaps he should have. It was July 2023, and while interviewing President Joe Biden’s former chief of staff in his law office in downtown Washington, D.C., I’d asked if the administration…
Democrats start moving to Harris as Biden digs in
CNN reports: Amid the ongoing fallout from Joe Biden’s debate performance, talk in many top Democratic circles has already moved to who Kamala Harris’ running mate would be. That’s how certain a widening group of leading party officials, operatives and donors are that the president’s slow start to salvage his campaign just won’t work, with several close allies skeptical that he is up to the reelection campaign he has pledged to stay in, based on CNN’s conversations with two dozen…
Sen. Mark Warner works to gather Senate Democrats to ask Biden to exit race
The Washington Post reports: Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) is attempting to assemble a group of Democratic senators to ask President Biden to exit the presidential race, according to two people with direct knowledge of the effort. Warner is telling Democratic senators that Biden can no longer remain in the election in the wake of his faltering debate performance, according to the people familiar with private conversations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely. Warner has told…
Disney heiress, wealthy Democratic donors say they won’t finance the party until Joe Biden drops out
CNBC reports: President Joe Biden is facing an uprising from some his own party’s wealthy donors, including an heiress to the Disney family fortune, who say they will no longer fund the Democratic Party until Biden drops out of the presidential race following his disastrous debate performance. Abigail Disney, granddaughter of Roy O. Disney, who co-founded The Walt Disney Co., told CNBC on Thursday that she plans to withhold donations to the party she has funded for years until Biden…
Trump disavows Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, despite close MAGA ties
Axios reports: Former President Trump on Friday disavowed the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, which has sparked widespread news coverage about policy plans for a potential second Trump administration. Why it matters: Project 2025 has long annoyed Trump and his top campaign officials, despite the deep links and allies shared by the two entities. Lately, Democrats have been attacking Project 2025 as a proxy for the stakes of defeating “MAGA Republicans.” Trump’s disavowal comes two days after Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts drew outrage from Democrats…
‘We’re coming for Labour’: Reform’s small seat count conceals size of its threat
The Guardian reports: Shortly after 3.30am on Friday, as Nigel Farage was finally elected to Westminster at the eighth time of asking, the Reform UK leader stood to deliver a speech that was fully intended to interrupt Labour’s euphoric celebrations elsewhere. Having played a large part in the implosion of Conservative support, Reform would now be targeting Labour voters, the new member for Clacton said. “We’re coming for Labour – be in no doubt about that.” Vowing to build a…
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…