Thank You, President Biden. Now Do the Right Thing.

Wow — what a powerful article! Each time I hear, read, watch someone speak the truth loudly and clearly and courageously, it give me hope. And I agree 100%: "If Biden stays in, we get Trump. If a younger Democrat becomes the nominee, Trump will get crushed." — Molly

U.S. President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden step off Air Force One upon arrival at Hagerstown Regional Airport in Hagerstown, Maryland en route Camp David on June 29, 2024. Biden is heading to the Camp David presidential retreat where he was expected to spend the rest of the weekend.

(Photo by Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

 

Don't let history fool you. Trump can be destroyed, but only if those in a position of power show the courage that's needed. It’s now up to Biden's inner circle and the leaders of the Democratic Party to make the correct decision.

By LES LEOPOLD

By showing his age and fragility in the debate, President Joe Biden did us all a big favor. There now is a possibility, still slight but higher than before, that he will bow out of the race and not run again.

On November 20, 2023, I wrote a column—titled "Who Has the Courage to Tell Joe Biden Not to Run?"—that asked Biden to drop out. I took heat for that, even from my friends and colleagues. I heard all kinds of arguments, ranging from “He’s a great president and deserves another term,” to “It’s too late to do anything about it.” I was also accused of being a defeatist and some said that my attitude would weaken Biden and help Trump win.

After Biden gave his energetic State of the Union address, the finger wagging accelerated: “See, Biden clearly has the wherewithal to crush Trump,” friends said. I was not convinced. But, after Biden’s Thursday night debate performance, a lot more people became unconvinced. He looked old and spoke even older, that was undeniable.

It's now up to Biden and the leaders of the Democratic Party. Do they have the guts to tell Biden not to run? Do any of the younger presidential hopefuls have the nerve to speak out? Does Biden have the guts to withdraw? 

It is past time to listen to what the Democratic rank and file have been saying all along. They want someone younger to do combat with Trump. While I’m usually a poll skeptic, Biden’s approval numbers are pathetic. The president stood at just 37 percent as of June 24, and that number hardly budged even after the surprisingly strong SOTU address. That polling weakness, I believe, reflects less on the president’s job performance than on how he looks and acts on the job.

Unfortunately, the primaries have been completed and no significant Democrat has showed the nerve to oppose him. That leaves it up to Biden to decide, and in the aftermath of the debate debacle, he and his team say they’re running harder than ever... right over the cliff!

But that could change if his poll numbers further deteriorate and if enough Democratic leaders feel they might lose as well in the fall if Biden heads the ticket.

Misreading History

Pundits have encouraged the Democrat’s cowardice by claiming that defeat always follows when a sitting president is challenged by one of his own party. The poster child for this story is 1968, when Democratic Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota took on President Lyndon Johnson in the primaries. McCarthy’s strength led Johnson to withdraw, and for party regulars to engineer the nomination of Vice President Hubert Humphrey. This ended with the victory of Richard Nixon in the general election.

That’s not the way I see it. I challenge all comers to a historical duel about 1968 politics. I think that election was entirely winnable by Humphrey had he taken a mild anti-Vietnam War position a bit sooner during his fall campaign.

That pivotal year is worth reviewing. In 1968, there were 536,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam killing and being killed in large numbers. The Tet Offensive showed the American public that the Johnson administration had been lying when describing our success conducting the war. It was clear that America was not winning. McCarthy challenged the sitting president with a strong anti-war message, appealing to the support of young people in the growing anti-war movement. (About one million men were drafted into the armed forces from 1965 to 1968.) Thousands flocked to his campaign, going door-to-door in New Hampshire where McCarthy gained 42 percent of the Democratic primary vote. The next primary was to take place in Wisconsin and following his New Hampshire scare Johnson knew he was sure to lose. On March 30, LBJ dropped out of the race, and on April 2 McCarthy won Wisconsin by 57 to 35 percent.

With Johnson out, Humphrey became the Democratic Party establishment candidate, but then Robert Kennedy jumped in, making it a three-man race. On April 4, Dr. Martin King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis and riots broke out in 100 cities across the country, leading to 43 deaths and the mobilization of National Guard units and the military occupation of several U.S. cities. Disruption and chaos had the upper hand, and by the time of the California primary, on June 4, it was clear that Kennedy, would defeat McCarthy and become the leader of the anti-war Democrats. Sadly, he was assassinated that night in Los Angeles, greatly weakening the anti-war electoral efforts.

The August 26-29 Democratic convention, held in Chicago, turned into a riot, a police riot, as the Chicago police—under the control of Mayor Richard Daley—viciously attacked the generally peaceful anti-war demonstrators. Anti-war convention delegates, and even CBS’s Dan Rather, were beaten as Daley turned his political machine into a ramrod for the Humphrey campaign. The carnage was broadcast live on TV.

After Kennedy’s murder it was a forgone conclusion that Humphrey would become the Democratic nominee. But the key political event at the tumultuous convention turned out to be the vote on a rather mild peace plank for the Democratic Party platform, something that the Kennedy and McCarthy delegates hoped to salvage for their efforts. But LBJ, pulling the strings, refused to compromise and the plank was narrowly defeated.

I try to avoid the prediction game, but I am willing to go out on a limb on this one: If Biden stays in, we get Trump. If a younger Democrat becomes the nominee, Trump will get crushed.

That fall, Vice President Humphrey ran against the former Vice President Nixon, who based his campaign on law and order, scaring the newly concocted “Silent Majority,” and criticizing the riots and anti-war demonstrations that were ripping through the country. Nixon also claimed to have a plan to end the war in Vietnam that he would reveal at his inauguration, which turned out to be an appealing lie. Humphrey, an organization man nearly to the end, stayed loyal to the unpopular LBJ positions and fell behind by 44 to 27 percent in a September 27 Gallop poll.

On September 30, 1968, Humphrey finally broke ranks with LBJ in a nationwide speech. He announced that he would put an end to the bombing in Vietnam and would call for a ceasefire. This brought McCarthy and many of his supporters, as well as Kennedy supporters, into the Humphrey campaign, quickly narrowing the gap. But with only a month to go Humphrey didn’t quite get there: Nixon won 43.4 percent to Humphrey’s 42.7 percent, with segregationist George Wallace netting 15.5 percent.

I believe any objective analyst would conclude that had Democrats supported the peace plank at the convention or had Humphrey offered his peace plan sooner, he would have won. So please don’t use 1968 to tell us that if Biden withdraws, the Democrats are sure to lose, (which is what Kaitlin Collins said on CNN the night after the debate.)

I try to avoid the prediction game, but I am willing to go out on a limb on this one: If Biden stays in, we get Trump. If a younger Democrat becomes the nominee, Trump will get crushed.

It’s now up to Biden and the leaders of the Democratic Party. Do they have the guts to tell Biden not to run? Do any of the younger presidential hopefuls have the nerve to speak out? Does Biden have the guts to withdraw?

President Biden, we thank you for your service. Now give us the chance to thank you again for protecting democracy by stepping aside.

Please go here for the original article: https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/will-joe-biden-drop-out

Can Anything Stop the Democratic National Convention From Being a Biden Coronation?

Eight years ago when the DNC forced Bernie Sanders out and pitted the neoliberal Hillary Clinton against the malignant narcissist Donald Trump, the coming Trump presidency became inevitable. I am still angry.

Meanwhile, my thoughts and emotions are shifting and changing and swinging back and forth between hope and dread. This article highlights how it may be groundhog day once again with the DNC orchestrating the toxic and powerful sabotage of its own party and thus guaranteeing a second Trump presidency. This terrifies me. And infuriates me. 

I keep praying that Biden will courageously step up and step down, giving us the only chance that we have of avoiding the worst of our nightmares from becoming a reality. May Joe Biden please do the right thing for the well-being of our country, other nations, and the planet. It is time to pass the baton, which I believe is our only hope. — Molly

President Joe Biden speaks at a post-debate campaign rally on June 28, 2024, in Raleigh, North Carolina. Photo: Allison Joyce/Getty Images

“The Democratic Party is more invested in trying to maintain control than it is in trying to win an election in November,” said one DNC member.

By Akela Lacy

PEOPLE HAVE BEEN talking behind closed doors about President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline for the past several years. After the Wall Street Journal published a story earlier this month raising concerns about Biden’s health, Democrats slammed the article, deflected the criticism, and characterized it as a hit piece. But after his performance in the first presidential debate on Thursday night, party operatives were no longer able to hide the problem. 

Now, as Democrats scramble to assess the damage, the question has turned to how – or if – the party will address Biden’s candidacy crisis at the Democratic National Convention in August. 

“They’ve just been trying to skate to the general election with as minimal exposure as possible to the public. And now it’s blown up on them,” said Thomas Kennedy, a former delegate to the Democratic National Committee who resigned in January over Biden’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza. “The delegates knew, the electeds knew, the donors knew, obviously the staffers know,” he said. “Everybody knew.” 

Efforts to raise concerns within the DNC about Biden’s health have been definitively shut down for years, Kennedy said. One DNC member who suggested that another candidate should run in 2024 said he was attacked by other members and faced with a vote to remove him from the committee. “That’s the sort of pushback that any sort of — not just dissent, but any sort of mentioning of this topic — has been happening for two years,” Kennedy said. 

Biden’s campaign, for its part, made clear on Friday that he has no intention of backing down. Asked about his debate performance, campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt emphasized that Biden would not be stepping down and pointed to the campaign’s $14 million fundraising haul after the debate and a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday. “He just gave a very forceful speech at a rally in NC with a fired up crowd,” Hitt wrote to The Intercept. In comments made on Air Force One on Friday afternoon, Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler doubled down: “Joe Biden is the nominee,” Tyler said. 

Current and former delegates told The Intercept there is little chance that the DNC would change course. The convention, the delegates said, would likely follow the same pro forma processes that have sidelined reform efforts and with them, the party’s progressive wing. The convention has already moved the vote for the presidential nomination online, weeks before the actual convention is held in person in Chicago. 

There are mechanisms to allow for an open convention to nominate another candidate, but the party has avoided that option as a last resort and it would be too late at this point, said Nadia Ahmad, a DNC member in Florida. Biden would have to decide to step aside on his own accord. Or, delegates would have to organize themselves quickly to commit to another candidate. Given that the nomination vote will take place ahead of the convention, Ahmad said that any open nomination process would have to take place online too, which is unlikely. 

“There’s definitely an appetite for what I would call the combustion factor,” Ahmad said. “People are willing to burn things down to maybe get them to work. That’s where you see the rise of a third party.”

The convention has long stopped serving as a place for democratic decision-making, she added. “The Democratic Party is more invested in trying to maintain control than it is in trying to win an election in November.” 

Another DNC member who requested anonymity to avoid reprisal said the debate only emphasized what progressives have been saying about the DNC in recent cycles. “Unless Biden withdraws, the convention is a stage managed coronation.” 

Kennedy noted that the days of action-packed political conventions are far behind us. “These are not the conventions of 1968 or 1972 that we read about,” he said. “They’re just highly choreographed top-down affairs where there’s not a lot of room for political maneuvering or opposing sides, or anything that strays away from the establishment. And the delegates are carefully chosen and funneled in a way that they’re part of the party machinery and hackery.” 

Days before the debate, the New York Times published a story about how the president was battling “misleading videos” showing his age-related deterioration. Very quickly into the debate on Thursday evening, Biden’s campaign was battling on another front: how to stop the bleeding as coverage swirled about how the performance would affect his chances at winning the November election. During a routine, post-debate call with surrogates last night, campaign staff acknowledged that the debate was rocky, according to a source who attended. By the next day, the party apparatus was back to normal messaging.

Please go here for the original article: https://theintercept.com/2024/06/28/biden-debate-dnc/#:~:text=There%20are%20mechanisms%20to%20allow,aside%20on%20his%20own%20accord.

The Reckoning of Joe Biden

This is another excellent, well articulated, spot on, 

and incredibly important article. — Molly

Photograph by Thea Traff for The New Yorker

For the President to insist on remaining the Democratic 

candidate would be an act not only of self-delusion 

but of national endangerment.

By David Remnick

There is an immense bounty of bunk about the wisdom of age available to all of us who require it from time to time, but, as the pitiless Mark Twain put it in his autobiography, “It is sad to go to pieces like this, but we all have to do it.”

On Thursday night, it was Joe Biden’s turn. But, unlike the rest of us, he went to pieces on CNN, in front of tens of millions of his compatriots. At some level, Biden’s supporters were hoping that he would defy the realities of time, the better to puncture the vanities and malevolence of his felonious opponent. And so there was a distinct cruelty to it all, the spectacle of a man of eighty-one, struggling terribly with memory, syntax, nerves, and fragility, his visage slack with the dawning sense that his mind was letting him down and that, as a result, he was letting the country down. It must be said, with fellow-feeling, but it must be said: This was an event that, if unremedied, could bring the country closer to another Trump Presidency and with it a diminishment of liberal democracy.

The question is: What will Joe Biden do about it?

We have long known that Biden, no matter what issue you might take with one policy or another, is no longer a fluid or effective communicator of those policies. Asked about his decline, the Biden communications team and his understandably protective surrogates and advisers would deliver responses to journalists that sounded an awful lot like what we all, sooner or later, tell acquaintances when asked about aging parents: they have good days and bad days. Accurate, perhaps, but discreet and stinting in the details. In Biden’s case, there certainly were times where he could pull off a decent interview or an even better State of the Union. If he worked a shorter day, well, that was forgivable; if he stumbled up the stairs or shuffled from the limo to the plane, a little neuropathy in the feet was nothing compared to F.D.R. in a wheelchair. The prospect of Donald Trump’s return permitted, or demanded, a measure of cognitive dissonance. And wasn’t Trump’s own rhetorical insanity even worse? To say nothing of thirty-four felony convictions, a set of dangerous policy goals, and an undeniably authoritarian personality?

But watching Thursday’s debate, observing Biden wander into senselessness onstage, was an agonizing experience, and it is bound to obliterate forever all those vague and qualified descriptions from White House insiders about good days and bad days. You watched it, and, on the most basic human level, you could only feel pity for the man and, more, fear for the country.

In the aftermath, Jill Biden, who had led her husband off the stage, dismissed the night as an aberration, as did Barack Obama, and a cluster of loyalists. He’d had a “bad debate.” He was sure to get better, grow more agile. Such loyalty can be excused, at least momentarily. They did what they felt they had to do to fend off an immediate implosion of Biden’s campaign, a potentially irreversible cratering of his poll numbers, an evaporation of his fund-raising, and the looming threat of Trump Redux.

But meanwhile the tide is roaring at Biden’s feet. He is increasingly unsteady. It is not just the political class or the commentariat who were unnerved by the debate. Most people with eyes to see were unnerved. At this point, for the Bidens to insist on defying biology, to think that a decent performance at one rally or speech can offset the indelible images of Thursday night, is folly.

Biden has rightly asserted that the voters regard this election not only as a debate about global affairs, the environment, civil rights, women’s rights, and other matters of policy but as a referendum on democracy itself. For him to remain the Democratic candidate, the central actor in that referendum, would be an act not only of self-delusion but of national endangerment. It is entirely possible that the debate will not much change the polls; it is entirely possible that Biden could have a much stronger debate in September; it is not impossible to imagine that Trump will find a way to lose. But, at this point, should Biden engage the country in that level of jeopardy? To step aside and unleash the admittedly complicated process of locating and nominating a more robust and promising ticket seems the more rational course and would be an act of patriotism. To refuse to do so, to go on contending that his good days are more plentiful than the bad, to ignore the inevitability of time and aging, doesn’t merely risk his legacy—it risks the election and, most important, puts in peril the very issues and principles that Biden has framed as central to his Presidency and essential to the future.

Trump went into the debate with one distinct advantage. No matter how cynical and deceitful he might be, no one expected anything else. His qualities are well known. In contrast, Biden’s voters and potential voters might disagree with him on particular issues—on immigration, on the Middle East, you name it—but they are, at minimum, adamant that he not be a figure of concealment or cynicism. To stay in the race would be pure vanity, uncharacteristic of someone whom most have come to view as decent and devoted to public service. To stay in the race, at this post-debate point, would also suggest that it is impossible to imagine a more vital ticket. In fact, Gretchen Whitmer, Raphael Warnock, Josh Shapiro, and Wes Moore are just a few of the office-holders in the Party who could energize Democrats and independents, inspire more younger voters, and beat Trump.

So much—perhaps too much—now depends on one man, his family, and his very small inner circle coming to a painful and selfless conclusion. And yet Joe Biden always wanted to be thought of as human, vulnerable, someone like you and me. All of us are like him in at least one way. It is sad to go to pieces like this, but we all have to do it. There is no shame in growing old. There is honor in recognizing the hard demands of the moment. ♦

Please go here for the original: https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-reckoning-of-joe-biden

SEYMOUR HERSH: WHO IS RUNNING THE COUNTRY?

This is an excellent and deeply important article by Seymour Hersh. We all need to be informed about the behind the scenes deep concerns of so many, including those closest to Biden. Half the solution is first deeply understanding the problem. And I believe that this understanding is critical to the welfare of us all. The stakes have never been higher. Biden must step down. There are potential alternative candidates who would energize millions. This is what is vitally needed. NOW. — Molly

Former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden during last night’s debate in Atlanta. / Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images.

Biden’s decline has been known to friends and insiders for months

By SEYMOUR HERSH

JUN 28

Readers of this column know that President Joe Biden’s drift into blankness has been ongoing for months, as he and his foreign policy aides have been urging a ceasefire that will not happen in Gaza while continuing to supply the weapons that make a ceasefire less likely. There’s a similar paradox in Ukraine, where Biden has been financing a war that cannot be won and refusing to participate in negotiations that could end the slaughter.

The reality behind all of this, as I’ve been told for months, is that the president is simply no longer there, in terms of understanding the contradictions of the policies he and his foreign policy advisers have been carrying out. America should not have a president who does not know what he has signed off on. People in power have to be responsible for what they do, and last night showed America and the world that we have a president who clearly is not in that position today.

The real disgrace is not only Biden’s, but those of the men and women around him who have kept him more and more under wraps. He is a captive, and as he rapidly diminished over the past six months. I have been hearing for months about the increasing isolation of the president, from his one-time pals in the Senate, who find that he is unable to return their calls. Another old family friend, whose help has been sought by Biden on key issues since his days as vice president, told me of a plaintive call from the president many months ago. Biden said the White House was in chaos and he needed his friend’s help. The friend said he begged off and then told me, with a laugh: “I would rather have a root canal procedure every day than go to work there.” A long retired Senate colleague was invited by Biden to join him on a foreign trip, and the two played cards and shared a drink or two on the Air Force One flight going out. The senator was barred by Biden’s staff from joining the return flight home.

I have been told the increasing isolation of the president on foreign policy issues has been in part the doing of Tom Donilon, whose younger brother, Michael, a key pollster and adviser in Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign and in the current re-election effort, was part of the team that spent much of the week briefing Biden for last night's debate. Tom Donilon, who is 69, was President Biden's national security adviser from 2010 to 2013 and sought unsuccessfully to be named as Biden's director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He remains very much an insider. 

Given Biden’s obvious decline in recent months, it is impossible for an outsider to understand why the White House agreed to any debates with Donald Trump before the election, let alone committing to the earliest presidential debate, the first of two, in modern history. One thought, I was told, was that if Biden performed well, as he had in his State of the Union speech in March, the issue of his mental capacity would be tabled. A poor performance would give the Biden campaign time to do a better prep job for the scheduled second debate.

There also was pressure from the major Democratic fundraisers, many of them in New York City, for the campaign to do something to counter the perception of the president’s obvious growing impairment, as reported and filmed by major media. I have been told that at least one foreign leader, after a closed meeting with Biden, told others that the president’s decline was so visible that it was hard to understand how, as it was put to me, “he could go through the rigors” of a re-election campaign. Such warnings were ignored.

What now? One of Washington political savants told me today that the Democratic Party is now facing “a national security crisis.” The nation is backing two devastating wars with a president who clearly is not up to it, he said, and it might be time to start drafting a resignation speech that would match or outdo the one given in March of 1968 by President Lyndon Johnson after his narrow victory over Senator Eugene McCarthy in the New Hampshire primary.

“They’re trapped,” he said of the senior advisers in the White House who hoped that Biden would somehow do well enough in last night’s debates to carry on, with the much-needed support of the more skeptical financial supporters in New York City. 

Not everyone I talked to today agreed that it is time to force a Biden resignation and hope for the best at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August—to dump the ticket and seek new candidates. “My humble opinion,” one longtime contributor to the Democratic Party told me, “is to let the dust settle. Must examine the realistic options before some quick reaction creates an internal Democratic Party split with far-reaching consequences beyond 2024. Accept reality . . . 2024 is likely beyond recovery at this point. Too steep a hill to climb. Plan and execute a long-term plan to counter Mr. Orange and build a moderate platform for the recovery . . . and let Biden wander off to the Jersey Pine Barrens.”

A differing view was expressed by another political guru. “This is the age of social media—TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and X—and a political campaign can go very far very fast.”

Whatever happens, we have a president—now fully unveiled—who just may not be responsible for what he does in the coming campaign, not to mention his actions in the Middle East and Ukraine.

Whatever happened to the 25th Amendment that authorizes the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to declare the president incompetent? What is going on in the Biden White House?

Please go here for the original article: https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/who-is-running-the-country

'Truly Horrifying': Trump Allies Already Making List of Federal Employees to Target

It can never be overstated the extreme danger Trump poses to us all. This will be, I believe, the most consequential presidential election in US history. Everyone needs to be informed about Project 2025. The madness must be stopped. — Molly

Then-U.S. President Donald Trump shushed journalists before signing legislation in the Rose Garden at the White House June 5, 2020 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

"This is an intimidation tactic to try to menace federal workers and sow fear," said the American Federation of Government Employees.

By JAKE JOHNSON

A right-wing organization allied with presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and funded by the group behind Project 2025 has reportedly begun assembling a list of federal employees deemed potentially disloyal to the former president, an effort that is drawing comparisons to the McCarthyite crusades of the 1950s.

The American Accountability Foundation (AAF), headed by former Republican Senate staffer Tom Jones, is "digging into the backgrounds, social media posts, and commentary of key high-ranking government employees, starting with the Department of Homeland Security," The Associated Pressreported Monday.

The group, according to AP, is "relying in part on tips from his network of conservative contacts, including workers." AAF, which received a $100,000 grant from the Heritage Foundation—the right-wing group spearheading Project 2025—intends to publish its list online once it's completed.

In its announcement of the $100,000 "innovation prize," the Heritage Foundation said the award would support AAF researchers as they work to "alert Congress, a conservative administration, and the American people to the presence of anti-American bad actors burrowed into the administrative state and ensure appropriate action is taken." Heritage proudly noted that AAF contributed to the smear campaign that derailed Gigi Sohn, President Joe Biden's erstwhile nominee to serve on the Federal Communications Commission.

This is a truly horrifying story about MAGA hunting federal workers. ⤵️ One complaint: the piece falls for the ruse that Heritage is doing this separate from trump but the two are joined at the hip on project 2025. News coverage should clearly say that. https://t.co/4XqkLxd6QX pic.twitter.com/H5dOHpIm3g
— Jennifer Schulze (@NewsJennifer) June 24, 2024

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the nation's largest federal workers union, condemned AAF's initiative as "an intimidation tactic to try to menace federal workers and sow fear."

"Civil servants are required take an oath to the Constitution—not a loyalty test to a president," the union wrote on social media.

During his final weeks in office, Trump signed an executive order establishing an entirely new category of federal employees known as "Schedule F." Before Biden rescinded the order shortly after taking office in 2021, tens of thousands of federal workers were to be reassigned to the new category, under which they would lose employment protections typically afforded to career civil servants—making them far easier to fire.

Trump has made clear that, if he beats Biden in November, he intends to revive the Schedule F order as part of a broader effort to bend the federal government to his will and target his political enemies.

"We will pass critical reforms making every executive branch employee fireable by the president of the United States," Trump said during a rally in South Carolina in March 2022, before he formally launched his 2024 campaign. "The deep state must and will be brought to heel."

Axios has reported that Trump's "top allies are preparing to radically reshape the federal government if he is reelected, purging potentially thousands of civil servants and filling career posts with loyalists to him and his 'America First' ideology."

"The public list-making conjures for some the era of Joseph McCarthy, the senator who conducted grueling hearings into suspected communist sympathizers during the Cold War," AP reported. "The hearings were orchestrated by a top staffer, Roy Cohn, who became a confidant of a younger Trump."

AP noted that while AAF "won't necessarily be recommending whether to fire or reassign the federal workers it lists," the group's work "aligns with Heritage's far-reaching Project 2025 blueprint for a conservative administration." The blueprint states that Trump's Schedule F order "must be reinstituted."

Skye Perryman, CEO of the watchdog group Democracy Forward, told the outlet that AAF's plans recall some of "the darker parts of American history."

Echoing AFGE, Perryman said Trump's allies are trying to "chill the work of these civil servants" as part of a "retribution agenda."

"They're seeking to undermine our democracy," she added.

Please go here for the original article: https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-schedule-f

Some Hopeful Thoughts On What May Arise In the Aftermath of the Presidential Debate

Photo by Molly

Opening to Hope and Opportunity

As today is unfolding, I am mindful that my perspectives and thoughts and emotions are transforming. 

Yesterday was hard. In the aftermath of Thursday's devastating debate, I am aware that I was among millions of Americans and others worldwide who were experiencing a great deal of trauma and pain and shock and fear. The extreme trepidation related to any possible second Trump presidency is very real. Millions of us recognize this candidate and all that he represents — malignant narcissism, authoritarianism, fascism, greed, Project 2025, reversing all policies and actions which would address the climate crisis, hatred and vengeance and viciousness, an endless stream of pathological lies and projections, dehumanization and disinformation and polarization, and on and on. There is a profound understanding in our country and nations around the world that another Trump presidency would be catastrophic for everyone.

That said, the trauma I was experiencing is now shifting into hope, real hope. Because maybe, just maybe, what happened Thursday night was something that needed to happen. Because it is highly probable that Biden truly had no real hope of beating Trump. If Biden were to remain on the ticket, our worst nightmare was most likely to become a reality.

I am now hearing countless strong voices from all over the country saying that it is time for Joe Biden to step down. Many are framing it as the most patriotic thing our current president can do. And this pressure is also coming from a diversity of people and resources who up until now had been fervent Biden supporters. But now their eyes are open. Now they can see.

And Joe Biden is being asked, "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country."

As I am reading and watching and listening to these voices affirming that Biden must hand over the baton, I am also seeing new possible candidates who would be an incredible breath of fresh air and who would truly give us all someone to gather around and support and fight for. And this is our greatest opportunity to truly end the madness of any possible second Trump presidency — and to ultimately also address, reverse, and transform some of Biden's policies that were causing so much harm. 

This is about more than Trump alone. It is also about claiming our rights to a much more sustainable, peaceful, and caring nation and world. A second Biden term was not going to bring us closer to realizing our deepest aspirations and visions, hopes and dreams, and consciousness of true progress and justice and peace.

The horror of Thursday night may have actually been a blessing in disguise, a gift to all of us who care so deeply about our loved ones, our country, other nations, and all beings on the Earth. May it be so. 🙏

— Molly

Something My Husband Wrote in the Aftermath of the Presidential Debate

I am moved to share Ron's words that he wrote 

the morning after the debate. Spot on.

There is an opportunity at hand.

May we seize it.

— Molly

I am terrified, and sick at heart this morning. Biden showed himself to be clearly impaired, frail and not up to the job, whereas Trump's ignorance, lack of intelligence, viciousness, and lack of any qualification for the job is a PLUS for his supporters and all the neo-fascists waiting to use this useful idiot to methodically destroy what little democracy we have left (learn about Project 2025).

To continue to support Biden at this point is madness. Biden, and all Democrats in Congress must face the reality we all watched for 90 excruciating minutes last night, and speak the truth, and for the good of the country step aside and put forward a capable candidate that will satisfy no one completely but give everyone despairing over this absurd “choice” thrust on us, something to fight for.

To do so would make Biden a hero in my eyes. After all his years of service (and I’m very much aware of the shameful actions too), this would be his final, and most courageous act of patriotism.

— Ron Matela

EXCELLENT — Bill McKibben: Give Joe Some Room

I've known for some time that Bill McKibben has remained a strong supporter of Joe Biden. His support did not waiver even through Biden's ongoing collusion with Netanyahu and our government's funding of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the genocide of the Palestinian people. This disturbed me. 

That said, I also understood Bill McKibben's perspective, very much including his lifelong advocacy for the welfare of life on Earth and his fierce activism to illuminate the vital need for deep comprehensive actions to address the climate crisis — which is indeed the most existential threat that humanity has ever faced. And, as Bill and as we all know, Trump represents the greatest danger to our planet and to all life on Earth — very much including his utter denial of the human caused warming of our planet and his blatant intentions to drill baby drill us all into oblivion. This awareness enables me to understand the imperative that we elect anyone but Trump. Add onto that Project 2025 and on and on. Terrifying. It cannot be overstated how enormous the stakes are.

What I did not know was what would Bill McKibben's response be to what happened in the debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. This article brings me great relief and hope. So well articulated, spot on, nuanced, and a greatly needed and illuminating part of the crucial conversation that is now happening in our country. What occurred on Thursday night might just be the opportunity that has long been needed to open a new door of hope and opportunity. I pray that it will be so. — Molly

Photo by Wolfgang Schmidt

If it's time to withdraw he will—

and in the process perhaps reshape our politics

By BILL MCKIBBEN

I said two things in yesterday’s newsletter—that I was feeling ‘existential angst’ at the prospect of the debate, and that this year’s contest was the election of our lives. My guess would have been that I’d feel the same today—that we’d witness an inconclusive 90 minutes that would change nothing about the race and keep us suspended in the kind of limbo/dread that’s been the mood of people who care about the country and the planet for many months now.

But that’s not what happened. Instead, the tectonic plates shifted. And in ways that open up the possibility not just of decisively defeating Trumpism, but of pulling the country out of the polarized death spiral we’ve fallen into. But it’s going to take a while to play out, I think—time that we should grant Joe Biden, who’s at one of those hard, interesting, decisive points that come in the course of a life and of a nation.

What happened of course was that Biden looked feeble. Yes, Trump lied with his usual feral energy, and yes the CNN moderators were utterly inept. But both those things were givens. What wasn’t a given was Biden’s performance. He lacked the agility and the poise to handle Trump’s onslaught, and it wasn’t close. The single easiest question for Biden should be abortion—polling shows people detest the end of Roe. But here’s how Biden handled it:

“I supported Roe v Wade, which had three trimesters. First time is between a woman and a doctor. Second time is between the doctor and an extreme situation. And a third time is between the doctor – I mean, it’d be between the woman and the state.”

That’s not okay.

I’m a Biden supporter, I helped write Third Act’s endorsement of Biden, if Biden is the nominee I’ll work as hard as I can to make sure he wins—I spent yesterday afternoon planning out campaigning trips to Nevada, Arizona, and Pennsylvania in the final weeks of the election, because I think older voters will be key, and that we can rally them to defeat Trump. (And nothing I write here speaks for Third Act, or anyone else but me). An ineffective Biden would be a hundred times better (and a hundred times less worse, which might be more important) than any version of Donald Trump.

But again, that’s not enough. Politics is about changing people’s minds, channeling their intuitions, organizing their moods. Communication is the main tool for that. And Biden is no longer a consistently effective communicator. He’s got good people around him, he can and has made wise decisions, I am not worried about the operation of the Republic under his care. But clearly he can no longer count on his ability to rally Americans. He can no longer reliably summon people to action, appeal to their better angels, let them share a vision of a workable future.

There’s no shame in that. Most people never have that ability. Biden himself has never been a great speechifier, but across his long career he has always been able to communicate an effective in-your-corner regular-guy I’ve-got-this message. He’s been reassuring. He’s been a father figure, trending towards cool grandfather. But eventually you’re a great grandfather, and your hard-working days are behind you. Which is fine. You still have plenty to contribute, but that contribution is in the form of counsel, not leadership; it’s in the form of support, not of dominance.

He’ll be reluctant to admit it, because we all are reluctant to admit, even to ourselves, the things we lose as we age. (One of the odd secrets of aging is that you really don’t feel older from the inside). And perhaps he doesn’t need to admit it yet—we can wait a few days for the polling data to emerge, and perhaps it will show nothing. But I doubt it.

And I think Biden will get this. He’s a patriot, he’s spent his life in service, he clearly understands that the country is more important than any person. So he will steel himself to the task of watching the tape of last night’s debate, and he won’t make excuses. And then he may say ‘I’ve done my part well—I rescued America from Trump and from covid. And now I have one great duty left, which is to pass on the reins. So I’m freeing up my delegates to choose someone else.’ That’s not easy to do—save for the sad example of LBJ, no one’s ever really had to. It will take courage, and self-knowledge, and it will take time. But there is some time, thank heaven. Give him some time. It’s not that far from someone deciding that they need to leave their home and move into a retirement community; it’s an admission that one time is past and another coming.

But there’s the chance for this to be not just a defensive decision, but a proud and game-changing one—perhaps our best chance for getting out of the wearying rut of our contemporary politics.

Let’s say those delegates (perhaps with a bit of prodding from Biden) choose someone who America doesn’t know particularly well. There’s plenty of possibilities, but just for the sake of the argument my choice would be Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, because she’s progressive and normal at the same time, and because she’s very popular in her upper Midwest state. She’d carry it, and likely she’d play well in the demographically similar states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, and that will be that.

But there’s more. She, or someone like her, could be an actual new voice—a new chance, a new door opening. And it feels like that is what we desperately need—our politics have grown stale and brittle and carping; the same people at the forefront. (That’s why, by the way, I think it would be noble of Kamala Harris to take a pass too—we need something new). Whitmer, for instance, could say—’these MAGA guys literally tried to kidnap and kill me. But I stood them down easily, and I didn’t let it get to me. Because we have work to do.’ That would be exciting. We need exciting. We need new. We need a door out of the emotional prison that our country has become. And now we have, unexpectedly, a moment that might give us that door.

It’s not like we won’t have time to adjust to someone new—our current news cycle guarantees we’d know all about a Whitmer or a whoever within days, and we wouldn’t have time to grow tired of her before November. She or someone like her would unleash the energy of the possible, at a moment when in fact we have huge possibilities. On energy, for instance: Biden has done a beautiful job of working the IRA through Congress, but the polling shows he’s never managed to make its importance sink in. He couldn’t explain its power last night, couldn’t summon people to a future that runs on the sun. That’s a crucial task, a way of giving young people hope as they face a daunting future. Not just young people—really, most Americans keep saying they’d like a fresher choice for our future. Suddenly there’s a moment when that could happen.

People keep saying ‘Biden won’t step aside, so we need to support him.’ And if he doesn’t we must. But the very thing that make him worth supporting—an old-fashioned commitment to something more than himself—is the thing that may convince him (and his wife, who actually loves him) to do the bold and interesting thing. To do the thing that could mark a new moment in our political life. If Biden chooses to stay in, so be it—I’ll work my heart out for him, and ungrudgingly. But even if he manages to win, we’ll still be stuck in the same poisonous paralysis we inhabit now. Someone sometime has to break us out of this stalemate, and it might as well be that right man for this moment, good old Joe Biden.

Trumpism is selfishness—that is its parts and that is its sum. With a powerful act of selflessness Biden can break the evil spell that selfishness has cast. It would be a remarkable thing for an old man to do, and a hell of a way to cap a career that began in the 1960s. Ask what you can do for your country!

Please go here for this article: https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/give-joe-some-room