Breakthrough?

New York state assemblyman and DSA member Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary for NYC mayor, defeating Andrew Cuomo. The disgraced former governor was supported by Wall Street and assholes like Bill Clinton and Michael Bloomberg. Disgraced current mayor Eric Adams is running for re-election as an independent. 

Robert Reich:

You have the Democratic establishment really making a kind of last ditch effort to do everything they possibly could for [Cuomo] and they failed miserably. If there's not a lesson here about people rising up, demanding what they want and what they need, and a new generation of Democrats ... talking to people authentically about what they need, I don't know what the lesson is.

Update (June 30):  From a YouTube comment:

Policy WAS a big part of [Mamdani's] appeal. More and more people are waking up to the ugly oligarchic nature of US politics, as well as the nefarious role ... lobbying groups like AIPAC hold on so many politicians -- both [Republicans and Democrats]. When politicians come along like him and reject corporate money, call out corporate influence on politicians, don't take lobbying money and offer genuinely new ideas ... people listen.

 

Lament for Posterity

I haven't paid attention to the news since the election. One might be forgiven eight years ago that maybe we didn't know exactly what to expect then for the new administration, but after all we know now it is simply unfathomable.

Of course, there are lessons to be learned. And they will almost certainly not be learned. Hopes for the future seem, at best, a cynical fantasy.

There's not much to say. It could be that those of us in the opposition are wrong and this administration's vision for the country will be a success. If, on the other hand, it turns out to be the expected spectacular failure, then we just might have an opportunity to move forward and begin to recover from the damage inflicted. But years will be lost.

May these New Dark Ages become our tragic path to the light.

We Are Better Than This

When two generals, John Kelly and Mark Milley, who worked for Dear Leader call him a dangerous fascist, shouldn't that be enough for all of us to make the right choice for president? Listen to the felon's own words:

As president, you have tremendous — it's called extreme power. You have extreme power. You can, just by the fact, you say, "Close the border," and the border's closed. That's it. Very, very simple. You don't need all of this nonsense that they talk about.

"The Enemy from Within"

In an interview with Maria Bartiromo, the felon answered a question about whether election day was going to be peaceful.

I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within, not even the people that have come in — and destroying our country and, by the way, totally destroying our country. The towns and villages, they're being inundated. But I don't think they have the problem in terms of Election Day. I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think. And it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard or if really necessary by the military, because they can't let that happen.

The Harris campaign condemned the remark.

[Von Clownstick] is suggesting that his fellow Americans are worse "enemies" than foreign adversaries, and he is saying he would use the military against them.

Ian Bassin adds:

There is not a case in American history where a presidential candidate has run for office on a promise that they would exact retribution against anyone they perceive as not supporting them in the campaign. It's so fundamentally, outrageously beyond the pale of how this country has worked that it's hard to articulate how insane it is.

The issue came up during Harris' interview on Fox during which Bret Baier showed a clip of the Orange Turd that conveniently left out a crucial part of his response.  Harris pointed that out and Baier later said he made a "mistake".

Brian Karem praises Harris' effort on Fox and characterizes this election as "Democracy vs. new-age nazis".

That [Fuckface] is still in this race is a testament to the poisonous nature of American politics, the gullibility of the American electorate, the greed of those in power and the influence that the rich and informed have over the poor and misinformed. And it shows just how badly the media is doing its job.

"So What?"

As if there weren't already a billion reasons to defeat the Orange Turd again, the 165 page filing by Jack Smith ought to be the final straw for any sane person.

This motion provides a comprehensive account of the defendant's private criminal conduct; sets forth the legal framework created by [the former guy] for resolving immunity claims; applies that framework to establish that none of the defendant’s charged conduct is immunized because it either was unofficial or any presumptive immunity is rebutted; and requests the relief the government seeks, which is, at bottom, this: that the court determine that the defendant must stand trial for his private crimes as would any other citizen.

Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein highlight eleven details from the document.

Much of Smith's brief focused on [Fuckface's] state of mind in the weeks leading up to the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. Smith described a slew of conversations suggesting that the then-president knew his claims of election fraud were spurious. And Smith laid out evidence that [the] sole objective was to stay in power — not, as he and his lawyers have claimed, to exercise legitimate authority over election integrity.

Alone with his phone

[Dear Leader] asked: "So what?"

Disregarding the results

Inventing statistics

Broken promises of evidence

Mocking Sidney Powell

[The] January 5 call to Steve Bannon

A preview of forensic evidence

"Make them riot"

Rudy's rise

Rudy's follies

A Damning Non-Answer

While the vice presidential debate is largely viewed as a draw, JD Vance's response about whether Dear Leader lost the 2020 election will be remembered.

Tim, I’m focused on the future.

Vance is pretty slick. I found a comment immediately after the debate from NBC telling--it was described as a good, old-fashioned policy debate and nothing weird happened. Vance lied his ass off, but made the Orange Turd look like a lunatic in comparsion.

Four more observations:

Vance Made The Case For Himself As [the felon's] Heir

Minnesota Nice

Walz Found His Footing On Abortion

Vance's Too-Slick Answer on Health Care

Second Debate Disaster

But this time the former guy was the scowling loser while a smiling Vice President Kamala Harris handled him with ease. To their credit, the ABC moderators didn't back down from tough questions. The orange turd just can't control himself and that's what makes him the worst choice. Nick Vesser offers six key outcomes.

Harris had [the felon] shake her hand during their first-ever meeting.

Harris effectively baited the former president on crowd sizes and his 2020 election loss.

[He] went on wild tangents focused on false claims.

The moderators fact-checked some of [Fuckface's] wildest claims.

Conservative pundits were not happy with [Dear Leader's] performance.

Harris wants a second debate. [He] hasn't committed.

Update (September 11):  Heather Digby Parton sums up the debacle.

[Von Clownstick] relentlessly hammered on migrants which will probably play well with his base, along with all the other lies and conspiracy theories, but to anyone else he sounded like a lunatic, surly, rude and out of his depth. His laziness and inability/unwillingness to learn anything new caught up with him last night. He lost this debate, as he would say, bigly.

And Amanda Marcotte says there's no way to "sanewash" this performance.

After last night's debate performance, hopefully, the questions about [his] basic brain functionality will grow even louder.