Here’s what I’ve found interesting: honoring Joe Biden’s sacrifice; there has been an open and transparent process to make Kamala Harris the Democratic nominee; a guide to countering the dishonest attacks coming for Harris; reporters were once again fooled by a fake Trump unity pivot; Trump cannot be the sole source of information about his ear injury; JD Vance, Menstrual Surveillance Hawk; remembering reporter Evan Gershkovich after his false conviction in Russia; the Port Chicago 50 sailors are finally exonerated; Congress accidentally legalized weed; and you’ll never believe to whom Donald Trump made a donation in September 2011.
#1
Biden can go down as an American hero — but only if Harris can beat Trump (Will Bunch, The Philadelphia Inquirer)
One of our earliest political legends is the tale of the ancient Roman leader Cincinnatus. It’s believed that in the year 458 B.C., Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, a former senator — considered an old man for his time — was plowing his small farm when a delegation from Rome pleaded with him to return to the capital and put down a popular insurrection and vanquish the city-state’s restive neighbors.
Cincinnatus donned a toga, returned to Rome, crushed the various uprisings in just 15 days, and — mission accomplished — happily surrendered power and went back to his farm. His story is still told, 25 centuries later, as a parable of civic virtue and selflessness.
At 1:46 p.m. on the languid Sunday afternoon of July 21, 2024 — a date now etched in American history — President Joe Biden made his bid to become the American Cincinnatus.
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
President Biden became the rare political leader who chose to put the nation ahead of his ambition and relinquish power by choice. As Biden once said about the passage of the Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act, that decision is “a big fucking deal.”
I think one has to go back to George Washington’s two Cincinnatus moments (when he returned to private life rather than demanding political power after resigning as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army in 1783 and when he declined to seek a third presidential term in 1796) to find something comparable in our nation’s history.
While Lyndon Johnson ended his presidential campaign in 1968, the presidential primary process had just begun. Biden had the delegates required to secure the nomination. Only he could stop that process.
The media and many fellow Democrats treated Biden unfairly in the wake of his disastrous debate performance. His first 15 minutes were the worst ever recorded by a presidential or vice presidential candidate in a debate. He then improved but needed to be more. Meanwhile, former President Trump lied and lied and lied, although that apparently doesn’t matter so much since he did it with a loud voice.
Biden’s performance was a legitimate issue. However, pundits and reporters should have covered Trump’s failures with a similar focus. Democrats should have gone on the record with their concerns about Biden rather than providing a death-by-a-thousand-cuts drip of cowardly anonymous comments.
After three weeks of pummelling, Biden faced a horrible choice after a response that was not as vigorous as it had to be to stop the political body blows. He could keep going and likely lose—or serve as the bridge to a new generation of leaders.
It may seem like Biden chose the obvious path, but we didn’t have 3,896 delegates pledged to vote for us on the first Democratic National Convention ballot nor the ego required to seek the nation’s highest office in the first place.
Biden has given Vice President Kamala Harris a real shot at winning this election. I hope everyone who cares about our democracy will honor this BFD sacrifice by fighting hard to support Harris’ campaign.
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#2
AP survey shows Kamala Harris backed by enough delegates to become Democratic nominee (Zeke Miller, Leah Askarinam, Maya Sweedler, and Chad Day, The Associated Press)
Vice President Kamala Harris has secured the support of enough Democratic delegates to become her party’s nominee against RepublicanDonald Trump, according to an Associated Press survey, as top Democrats rallied to her in the aftermath of President Joe Biden’s decision to drop his bid for reelection.
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
There is a bunch of social media whining on right now about how the Democrats should have had a process and a fight at the Convention to determine the party’s new nominee.
But let’s be clear: there was an open nomination process to replace President Biden. All of his delegates had the freedom to support the candidate of their choice on the first ballot. Politicians decided of their own free will not to run against her because of their internal calculations.
It’s just that this open Convention did not deteriorate into a contested one. Alas, for our reporter and pundit friends.
Vice President Harris did the work. She called people and earned endorsements. Delegates quickly announced that they supported her succession to the top of the ticket. We call that campaigning in the real world.
Some people seem shocked (and disappointed) that Harris has locked in overwhelming delegate support so quickly. But Democrats had been mulling over this decision for weeks—since the debate. It was not a surprise that they may need to vote for a new nominee. So many were ready to decide quickly.
I know many reporters and pundits wanted a contested Convention so they could enjoy higher ratings and cover some political chaos from their hotel bars. The Democratic Party does not owe the media an episode of chaotic disarray.
#3
A guide to the coming attacks on Kamala Harris (Judd Legum, Popular Information)
Some of the attacks on Harris were predictable. For example, shortly after Biden’s announcement, the Trump campaign blamed Harris for a “migrant crime wave” over the last three years. This was also the centerpiece of Trump’s campaign against Biden, but the “migrant crime wave” does not exist. Violent crime has decreased every year since Biden took office — and is down sharply again in 2024. (The last time violent crime increased was 2020, when Trump was president.) Further, a study of the 14 Texas counties along the border with Mexico by crime analyst Jeff Asher found “no evidence of increasing violent crime along the US border with Mexico.” In fact, border counties “have seen a relatively steady violent crime rate below that of the rest of their state and the nation as a whole.”
Other attacks include those that seem to pop up any time a woman seeks a position of power. The RNC Research X account, which attacks Trump’s opponents on behalf of his campaign and the Republican National Committee, posted a video attacking Harris for being “annoying.” The post features a video of Harris saying a short phrase — “what can be, unburdened by what has been” — in various settings for four minutes. This is only a slight variation of the common complaint that ambitious women are “shrill.”
Other criticisms, however, were more specific to Harris. They will be featured in millions of dollars of campaign advertisements, incorporated into Trump’s stump speech, and discussed frequently on Fox News. Here is a brief guide to some of the attacks that will be used to define Harris in the weeks ahead.
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
I hope Democrats have learned that they must loudly defend their candidate from unfair charges after what happened to John Kerry in 2004, Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2016, and President Biden in 2024.
So now is an excellent time to learn what actually happened so we can immediately counter when Trump or Republicans bring up Jaleel Stallings (he’s a military veteran who was the victim of police brutality), bans on red meat (nope), crimes committed by undocumented people Harris freed (there’s important context where she reformed a program after a mistake), or ending private health insurance (I wish).
The Trump-Vance campaign, the Republican National Committee, and MAGA media are already trying to define Harris with lies about these situations. They have been successful before.
But we know that, too. So we can fight back. Legum has done the background work to explain the real stories. Harris’ supporters need to be quick and relentless in explaining the truth—starting today.
#4
The Pivot That Never Was: How Trump’s ‘Unity’ Speech Fooled the Press Again (Parker Malloy, The Present Age)
The media’s reaction to Trump’s RNC speech presents a troubling picture of journalistic responsibility and the dangers of premature narrative-setting. Perhaps most alarming is the number of newspapers that ran headlines seemingly written before Trump actually delivered his speech, focusing almost exclusively on his calls for unity while ignoring the divisive content that made up the bulk of his remarks.
Consider these headlines from major newspapers:The Detroit News: “Trump: We must heal discord”Pioneer Press: “Trump takes a unity tone”The Dallas Morning News: “Trump emphasizes unity”The Boston Globe: “In a departure, Trump calls for unity, healing in America”
These headlines, and others like them, paint a picture of a dramatically transformed Trump that simply did not match the reality of his speech. They appear to be based more on pre-speech expectations and perhaps early excerpts than on the full content of Trump’s address.
This disconnect between headlines and content raises serious questions about journalistic practices. Are deadlines and the pressure to be first trumping accuracy and comprehensive reporting? Are news outlets so invested in the “pivot” narrative that they’re willing to ignore contradictory evidence?
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
We must not let what happened with the coverage of former President Trump’s nomination acceptance speech get lost in the chaos of all the news that subsequently occurred.
How many times must reporters and editors be fooled by claims that Trump has finally learned his lesson and will pivot toward responsibility? As Taylor Swift wrote in her song Exile: “I think I’ve seen this film before // And I didn’t like the ending.”
Why do so many in the media still give Trump the benefit of the doubt after everything we’ve experienced in the nine years since he drifted down that golden escalator?
The problem is that too many in the media have accepted that what Trump does is (ick) “normal.”
Take, for example, this recent conversation between Zeteo’s Mehdi Hassan and Washington Post Editorial Board member Shadi Hamid.
Hamid: “I don’t think the speech in the RNC that he gave was ‘batshit crazy’. A lot of it was just normal Trump.”
Hasan: “But normal Trump is batshit crazy. This is the mistake you’re making.”
Say it again for the people in the back of the room.
This has been the dyanmic of the Trump political era. He gets away with so much because people expect him to be so batshit crazy.
We don’t have to accept this framing. We don’t have to accept this kind of activity from a major party presidential candidate.
Saving our democracy requires rejecting it.
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#5
Donald Trump cannot be the sole medical source on the ear injury (Jennifer Schulze, Heartland Signal)
Let’s be honest: Trusting Donald Trump about anything, even his own injury, is not a smart move. Trump — who infamously told over 30,473 documented lies during his presidency — should not be the sole medical source on his ear injury.
Yes, his ear was clearly injured. But how? How was it treated? What are the resulting health issues, if any? Will there be medical follow-ups? Voters deserve answers to these questions so where are the briefings, official statements and medical reports?
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
It has now been 11 days since the assassination attempt against former President Trump, and we still have no official information about his injury.
Where is the medical briefing? Did a bullet hit him, as he claims, or was it glass fragments, as some of the reports suggest? Why did he have such a prominent bandage throughout the Republican National Convention? Did he suffer any additional head or brain injuries as a result?
Donald Trump and Rep. Ronny Jackson (the guy demoted from admiral to captain by the Navy for improper conduct and allowed his medical license to expire) are not credible sources.
A couple of weeks ago, the White House press corps attempted to become experts in Parkinson’s disease diagnosis because of a misinterpretation of the White House visitor logs. Doesn’t the aftermath of injuries suffered by a former president in an assassination attempt demand equal energy?
#6
JD Vance, Menstrual Surveillance Hawk (Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo)
This spring, HHS finalized new regulations under HIPAA to limit law enforcement access to medical records tied to reproductive health. The rule was first proposed in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision as a way to limit the ability of state and local law enforcement agencies to access medical records to stymie or criminalize access to legal reproductive health services, most specifically abortions, but not only abortions. It also applies to contraception and the full range of other endangered reproductive care.
So for instance, consider the ability of a woman from an abortion-ban state to travel to another state to get a legal abortion, or her ability to receive legal abortion drugs through the mail. The news has been filled with proposed or actual laws which would attempt to restrict travel to receive abortions in other states, charge those who travel or criminalize those who might facilitate such travel or facilitate the legal shipment of prescribed abortion drugs through the mail. Of course, local police agencies might simply take it upon themselves to pull records to see who had unexplained disruptions to their menstrual cycles.
Your local sheriff might just want to know.
And so does JD Vance, it turns out.
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
Folks, I wish that headline were an exaggeration. But we have only begun to scratch the surface of how anti-woman JD Vance is as an elected official.
(Also, yes: JD Vance’s office confirmed that he prefers that we do not use periods for his name. As someone on social media said—and I am so sorry I cannot find the original post to give proper credit—this shows just how extreme Vance is about anything involving a period.)
How is tracking menstrual cycles consistent with a small government or conservative philosophy? Oh, that’s right. It’s not. But it is consistent with Trump’s Project 2025 and Trump’s abortion ban.
Vance and Trump aren’t small government proponents. They aren’t conservatives.
I suspect Vice President Kamala Harris will focus on this insanity between now and election day. I am here for it.
#7
For Years, Evan Gershkovich Saw Those He Knew Convicted and Imprisoned in Russia. Now It Has Happened to Him. (Eliot Brown, Wall Street Journal)
Evan Gershkovich thrived while reporting on Russia. He camped in a forest for days to cover wildfires that were ravaging Siberia, he delved into the opaque world of Vladimir Putin’s wartime decision-making and he watched as dissidents and journalists were increasingly jailed.
Writing on Russia, he tweeted in July 2022 that it had become “a regular practice of watching people you know get locked away for years.”
On Friday, it happened to him.
Evan, falsely accused of espionage, was convicted by a Yekaterinburg court after a brief closed-door trial that the U.S. government has condemned as a sham and sentenced to 16 years in a high-security penal colony.
It was another blow for the gregarious, energetic, ever-smiling 32-year-old who has devoted much of his career to telling the story of Russia—and has spent more than a year in Russian prisons since he was detained by the security services in March 2023.
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
We need to remember that the Putin regime has falsely imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
Which is an odd thing to say. And it seems like that should be something worthy of conversation and follow-up by our esteemed members of the political media.
How does Trump know this? Has he made an October Surprise kind of deal with Putin? Has Trump violated the Logan Act by conducting a private foreign policy? Is he making it all up because he figures no one will hold him accountable?
#8
Exonerated: Bay Area leaders react after Navy clears Black sailors convicted in World War II Port Chicago explosion (Katie Lauer, Bay Area News Group)
Hundreds of Black sailors charged with mutiny and disobeying wartime orders in the wake of a deadly explosion at Contra Costa County’s Port Chicago in 1944 have been fully exonerated, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro announced Wednesday.
The decision comes 80 years after the blast that killed 320 sailors and civilians; almost two-thirds of the victims were Black. It clears the names of 258 Black servicemen who were court-martialed, jailed and threatened for refusing to return to work loading munitions in the disaster’s aftermath — citing the dangerous conditions, lack of proper training and segregation of Black sailors who were given hazardous assignments on the naval base, which is tucked along the shores of Suisun Bay.
“The Port Chicago 50, and the hundreds who stood with them, may not be with us today, but their story lives on, a testament to the enduring power of courage and the unwavering pursuit of justice,” Del Toro said in a statement. “They stand as a beacon of hope, forever reminding us that even in the face of overwhelming odds, the fight for what’s right can and will prevail.”
For several community leaders who have pushed for exoneration for decades, the Navy’s decision addresses a historic injustice by restoring equity to the treatment of these men — both on the naval base and in the courtroom.
…
The blast shot a massive fireball into the night sky, sent a shock wave of flying shrapnel that flattened Port Chicago and measured 3.4 on the Richter scale in nearby Berkeley.
While the exact cause of the explosion was never determined, historical records put the blame on Navy leaders for circumventing proper protocol while training the majority of African American sailors to load munitions at Port Chicago.
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
The events described here happened less than 10 miles from where I live in the San Francisco East Bay. I’ve been monitoring this situation for several years.
So, I celebrate this exoneration! But yet, it is well past due. I hope it provides some solace to the families of the sailors impacted by one of World War II’s most racist actions.
Future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall tried to defend these sailors from the injustice they faced for demanding the same safety measures as their caucasian colleagues.
No one should have been punished for fighting for their lives. It is a travesty that it took 80 years for the Navy to clear their names.
#9
Congress Accidentally Legalized Weed Six Years Ago (Mike Riggs, The Atlantic)
In fact, neither medical nor recreational marijuana is legal in North Carolina. Technically, we’re getting high on hemp.
This is probably not what Congress had in mind when it passed the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018, commonly called the 2018 Farm Bill, which made the production of hemp—cannabis’s traditionally nonpsychoactive cousin—legal for the first time in nearly a century. Lawmakers who backed hemp legalization expected the plant to be used for textiles and nonintoxicating supplements, such as CBD oil and shelled hemp seeds (great on an acai bowl). They didn’t realize that, with some chemistry and creativity, hemp can get you just as high as the dankest marijuana plant.
The upshot is that although recreational marijuana use is allowed in only 24 states and Washington, D.C., people anywhere in the U.S. can get intoxicated on hemp-derived THC without breaking federal law. These hemp-based highs are every bit as potent as those derived from the marijuana available in legalization states. I know this because I’ve tried recreational pot in California and Colorado, as well as 11 different hemp-derived intoxicants legally available here in North Carolina. I am not exaggerating when I say that they are indistinguishable in effect. In other words, six years ago, Congress inadvertently legalized weed across the entire United States.
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
Thank you to Jeff, one of my awesome paid subscribers, for sharing this story. It is the epitome of unintended consequences, in which chemists proved smarter than the lawmakers who drafted the law.
This is one reason we should be troubled by the Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn the Chevron deference doctrine. The doctrine allowed the executive branch’s scientific experts to make regulatory decisions consistent with the often vague laws passed through legislative sausage-making.
The real-world impacts created by this loophole are harming legalized cannabis markets across the nation. Hemp companies can use banks and credit cards, systems not open to cannabis businesses, given that they are still illegal at the federal level.
I hope we can have a rational conversation about this next year with a new Congress and a new president. A bunch needs to go right, though, to make that possible.
The Closer
Yep! Donald Trump made donations to Kamala Harris during her Attorney General re-election campaign. $6,000 worth. Seems relevant. You can find the confirmation of the donation here on page 3 of the donations summary.
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