Just imagine where we would be right now if instead of The Great Pants-Shitting we had THIS instead:

[Deek1935]

Just imagine if THIS had happened, as it should have, instead of The Great Pants-Shitting over one frigging debate.

* After the debate EVERYONE said what Gavin Newsom said and NOTHING else: "Joe Biden won this debate on SUBSTANCE but not on style. He was obviously under the weather, but he did address the questions whereas Trump just stood there and riffed out lie, after lie, after lie. But remember, at the end of the day people don't vote on debates. They vote on GOVERNANCE, and Joe Biden has done a MASTERCLASS of GOVERNING as president."

* If over these last weeks EVERYONE out there said: "Look at how great Joe is doing in his rallies with enthusiastic crowds. Look at the press conference which was yet another MASTERCLASS on foreign policy. Look at how he handled the Trump rally incident. Look at how he handled the NATO summit. Look at how he schooled Lester Holt. What more do you need to see?"

* If EVERYONE closed ranks and constantly spread the good news of Biden's GREAT accomplishments like Newsom, Jasmine Crockett, Jaime Harrison, and Bernie Sanders are doing.

* If EVERYONE talked about how there is no FANTASY CANDIDATE out there that can suddenly fly down from on high and beat Trump in a fantasy landslide, how polls are non-predictive and mean NOTHING four months from an election, how close this was always going to be with such a polarized electorate, and how messy, divisive, and chaotic it would be to try to change candidates now, and how we would lose INCUMBENCY and PARTY UNITY keys almost certainly handing the election to Trump.

* If EVERYONE trained their negativity on TRUMP and his MAGA CULT and how ROTTEN they are instead of on our very own candidate.

* If EVERYONE said: "We had a primary. Anyone could have run. Only a few others chose to. Biden won overwhelmingly. The voters spoke. He is the nominee."

* If EVERYONE said: "At the end of the day it's a binary choice between Biden and Trump. And the voters will choose BIden."

Imagine if that happened. And it COULD have happened and COULD be happening right now, rather than the self-created manufactured pants-shitting that has happened over ONE debate, polls four months out (which are tied), and pressure from rich donors.

This whole insane episode is nothing but a self-inflicted pile of SHIT based on fallacies, conjecture, meaningless polls, and hysterical self-imposed pants-shitting. It is a giant display of COWARDICE and WEAKNESS and BULLSHIT and it is simply SICKENING.

[ms liberty]

1. So true. K&R n/t

[The_Counsel]

2. Of "Bad Debate," "Poll Numbers," and "Rich Donors..."

….”rich donors” is the driving force here.

Apparently, the money is drying up, and they won’t listen to us peon voters because we won’t/can’t give enough to save down-ballot D candidates.

As for me, my take remains the same: if you’re going to force Biden out, HAVE A DAMN PLAN! I’ve yet to see that and that’s what’s so infuriating. It’s almost like they’re TRYING to lose…

[intheflow]

3. Exactly.

What’s the plan? I really really want a pony but have no plan or ability to care for it in my apartment.

PONY! PONY! PONY!

Like toddlers, are the folks calling for him to step down.

[Deek1935]

4. Yes, I know. Pants-shitting over money. Gee, really "Democratic" isn't it? Blow up our nominee over money. What SHIT.

[luvtheGWN]

13. "Have a damn plan". Exactly!

As one of your northern neighbours, I just cannot understand dems like Schiff asking Biden to step down…and to be replaced by…….WHO?

[Bluethroughu]

14. Rich donors...do they care about our country or tax cuts?

King Biden should declare Citizens United overturned by executive over, right now.

[Tweedy]

53. Wouldn't that be lovely😁?

That isn’t how any of this works though

We need an amendment to the constitution to rid ourselves of the open sore that is Citizens United and before we do that we need desperately to reform the Supreme Court

If we do not reform the Court first, the 6 partisan jurists will simply rewrite the amendment in the image of Savonarola as they have the 14th amendment already.

[Bluethroughu]

55. I'm concered that our country has until January 6, 2025.

That court could Bush v Gore us.

[Tweedy]

56. Because of the butterfly ballot the state was lost

Always remember the confusing ballot came before the Brooks Brothers’ riot, which was a precursor to January 6.

Without the butterfly ballot, Vice President Gore wins Florida by more than 50,000. That was the first election when it became clear the gop was unconcerned with mandates, the people or majority rule. Our fourth estate did not appear to care too much about the people’s will either.

If we win the house and the senate, we can negate the 6.

[Bluethroughu]

57. I'm afraid for the precedent of the Supreme Court calling a contested election.

That was a first. The 4th Estate is no longer doing it's job of news, just money, entertainment, and a propaganda machine for billionaire interests.

[Tweedy]

58. Yes

The supreme court corrupted republicans also used the 14th amendment due process clause to hand the win to George W Bush in spite of the butterfly ballot kerfuffle. The radical jurists who have nothing in common with Thaddeus Stevens used the same civil war amendment meant to guarantee the rights of citizenship to freed slaves to hand George Bush an election everyone knew he had lost.

The fourth estate who bothered to notice proclaimed wow! what an excellent strategy to win and said nothing about the obvious “rot within the system.”*. Revealing much of the MSM liked something about might makes right.

Everybody knew Al Gore won the popular vote and he won the electoral college. None of this mattered to the radical republicans in Congress, in the country or on the Supreme Court.

Let nobody tell you Sandra Day O’Connor is some kind of judicial hero and certainly deny with facts and evidence that Antonin Scalia was anything but a partisan hack.

The farther right kleptocratic-jurists who sit now have almost written all of the civil rights amendments straight into oblivion. They have negated the best and brightest days of their own political party in doing so. The red states are working on the 13th amendment now. They have already reinstituted illegal! child labor of the dangerous and seriously exploitative kind.

It is a shame and a travesty.

It is not an inevitable fall for our country though.

We can amend the constitution
We can reform the corrupt cons
We can elect Biden/Harris come November and give them a democratic house and senate.

As for the press, we need to remove advertising from the hands of those who grift with neat algorithms and hand ads back to the Madmen and women who hail fellow well met while actually getting their clients customers.

* Monty Python, the Holy Grail

[Bluethroughu]

59. Oh I'm Biden/ Harris all the way...President Biden has been the best

President in modern history, for the working class. He will win the votes, it's the "throw it back to the states B.S." I'm concerned about.

These Republican hacks are just an easy cheap buy for the lobbies, and I'm including the 6 traitors on the SCOTUS.

[lees1975]

31. Absolutely.

Either Trump is an existential threat to American democracy, in which case everyone who isn't a Republican should be uniting to send him away for good, to enjoy is felony prison terms, or the money down ballot candidates get to run for office is more important.

We know the answer to that. But apparently Democratic party leadership doesn't.

[Farmer-Rick]

33. No the money is not drying up

Putin has like 10 years of reserve funding. And if that's not enough he will merely increase all of Russia's taxes. Yeah the majority of people in Russia may have impoverished lives but he's got a golden palace and an entire nation's wealth to plunder.

And make no mistake, the majority of the funding is coming from Putin. The filthy-rich Americans who are gleefully rubbing their hands over the possibility of a fascist dictatorship are also pitching in. They want to plunder our national wealth too and they think Pedo Trump will give it to them. But the driving force is Putin.

Any Dem who comes out and says Biden needs to step down for some imaginary hero Dem, is buying into Russian propaganda. Dems are being manipulated again.

TYT and all their bull crap over replacing Biden are pushing Putin's propaganda. They are so easily manipulated. They did the same kind of thing with Hillary. It depresses Liberal and Democratic turnout and makes them tools of the fascists.

Oh and the little journalist come out with their worshipping words for Pedo Trump are also taking laundered Russian bribes.

And for f*ck sake don't believe the polls. The polls are broken because no one is answering their phones. So they take 5 people's answers and blow it up to represent 150 million.

The smaller the sample the more skewed the results. Here's a thought lazy journalists, - do in person polling. It's rare and costs more but it is much more accurate....if you get a large enough sample.

This media frenzy has legs and is being fed by Russian trolls, bots and money. It's like watching 2016 all over again as Putin manipulates all the fools.

[PortTack]

45. Nailed it!

[Moostache]

41. I will be keeping receipts on them...

Rich people who use money for power and power for their own pleasure or comfort need to be taught a lesson on life - we do not OWN ANYTHING...we RENT ALL OF IT!!!

When you die, your existence dies with you...think I'm wrong? Just another cranky guy getting old and yelling alternately at clouds and people on his lawn?

Go out and find anyone under the age of 30.
Show them pictures of a Rockefeller, Carnegie, Mellon or Ford.
Then show them Trump, Musk, Bezos or Branson.

They will know the recent ones and have no clue of who the old fogies are.
At all.

In July of 2124, the EXACT SAME THING will be true of these current asshats who think money and power can be used to extend them into immortality.

It can't.
It can and will make them infamous.
In the here and now, their money buys them undue influence; and they wield it indiscriminately because the populace has been trained like Pavlovian dogs to salivate at the mere mention of rich people and crass consumerism-centric lifestyles. We collectively give rich people a pass on all of their foibles and ignorance. We assume that rich people work hard (they DO NOT...they get money from other people's work, period, across the board...not one man can work hard enough or long enough to earn the sums they command)...yet the outrage is directed at a good-hearted man, approaching the end of his life and sacrificing his rest and enjoyment to fight on for others who cannot garner the spotlight or marshall the resources to fight for others.

Flash has replaced substance.
Greed has replaced honor.
Stupidity has replaced intelligence.
Cruelty has replaced compassion.

The whole thing is spiraling towards another inflection point before our eyes. Billions of people are going to die in the next 25 years; and if society allows the rich to avoid that fate disproportionally, then shame on us all.

Climate cataclysms are imminent.
Social and political ones are already at hand.
What we do now in response, how we either collapse into despair and resignation or tune out the cash and fight for each other and a better common future will be how posterity remembers us. Fondly or disgusted? Keep pushing out the most decent man of the last 11 years of politics and see where we end up...it won't be on the side of justice or the bending arc of history, that much I guarantee.

[love_katz]

43. Your post needs to be an OP.

[LiberalArkie]

47. The big difference is old money Rockefeller, Carnegie, Mellon or Ford gave back. They built museums, libraries

foundations to improve society. New money - not so much for others.

[dlk]

5. This is what will get Trump elected

If fundraising is drying up, everyone saying Biden should step down is making that happen.

[Deek1935]

10. Yup. It is the great self-fulfilling prophecy going round and round the mulberry bush. Sheer political SUICIDE.

[2naSalit]

20. Which is why...

AOC is correct, we're swallowing the propaganda.

Don't think for even a microsecond that the opposition won't stoop to lows we have never even thought possible in this country. And I suspect this step down thing could be so convincing that too many buy it which is a win for pootin.

Just sayin.

[dchill]

36. Well, WE'RE not swallowing the propaganda...

...but the press sure is. This plays PERFECTLY into their desperate need to pump out another spastic diarrhea nail-biter HORSE RACE. The fact that they're putting it on democracy's credit card is just one more incredibly irresponsible move they're utterly willing to make.

[Stargazer99]

6. You bet the rich are in a panic over Biden's decisions to help the middle class

wake up! You have been had-the rich, corp America, are scared. Remeber the rich dude who said we (meaning the rich, etc) have to start vast unemployment. The rich shut him up in 2 days. I noticed afterward many of the major corps started laying off thousands of workers....maybe it is time to start kicking some rich/corporate a**

[still-prayin4rain]

7. Totally agree. Just ridiculous. nt

[sinkingfeeling]

8. My take as well.

[myohmy2]

9. +1...

...

[Bettie]

11. Yep. Very well said

and it may be the end of our party. How can you trust a party with "leaders" that will force a sititng, incumbent president out because he's working for the people rather than solely for the donors. The debate was an excuse.

[BonnieJW]

12. I wish Mark Cuban stepped up.

He fully endorsed Joe and can certainly donate some mega bucks.

Now is the time, Mark. Show the love.

[stage left]

46. And where is

George Soros? Tell me he didn't die. He still owes me for all the protests I went to during Trump's last reign of terror.

[NoMoreRepugs]

15. Righteous Rant. These are NOT people u want next to u in battle.

[dchill]

37. Well, RIGHT. Because we're IN that battle now..

...and they're NOT right there next to us or Joe or democracy. They're next to Shadowy Candidate X.

[orangecrush]

16. KICK

[mountain grammy]

17. Couldn't agree more.

[sop]

18. Never underestimate how invested corporate media is in creating horserace elections.

It's corporate media's job to create false equivalence, manipulate polling and sell their "neck-and-neck, down-to-the-wire" bullshit. With a truly horrible candidate like Trump on one side, Biden must be brought down to his level to equalize things. Ageism is the obvious solution..

[DENVERPOPS]

42. And don't forget:

The head of U.S> Intelligence saying: Russia is exerting a ton of mis-truths, and anti-Biden propaganda, far exceeding all that Russia did in the 2016 and 2020 election. And add in China, North Korea, Iran, etc.......

[Kaleva]

19. Use the trash by keyword function

Look for keywords in the OPs raging about Biden being replaced.

That'll clean up GD for you

[Susan Calvin]

23. Oh, I want to see the garbage, at least as much of it as I can stomach.

I want to know what's going on there.

[lees1975]

21. k & r

[ffr]

22. I find it hard to believe that EVERYONE isn't talking about how successful the Biden-Harris presidency has been

Image for one second the war in Europe out of control and the U.S. just sitting on the sidelines. Just imagine you're dead because COVID-19 vaccine distribution wasn't made a national priority.

Biden has surprised even me. Everything he does the pundits disagree with and yet he's right and they're wrong when he goes from success to success.

There's no way anyone in my family of voting age votes for anyone other than Biden. You can force him off the ballot, but I'll pencil his name back in. I WANT BIDEN to win in 2024!

[sinkingfeeling]

24. May we 'steal' your post to send to our Senators and Reps?

[flying_wahini]

25. Well said Deek. Especially the self inflicted pile of shit part.

I’m hoping that the Dems nay sayers have a change of heart. We need people who can speak out loudly and beat the drums for Biden. Louder and louder.

[The Magistrate]

26. Hear Hear, Sir

[LymphocyteLover]

27. THERE WAS A PRE-PLANNED ATTACK BY THE MEDIA. THIS WASN'T DEMS AFTER THE DEBATE.

[lees1975]

30. I fully agree. The media has been waiting for a moment like the debate to pounce and prove their theories.

It may wind up backfiring, though. It has ignited an level of enthusiasm among rank and file, grassroots Democrats like I haven't seen since Carter ran against Ford. It's opening up doors to expose stuff like Project 2025, and it has also caused donations to Biden to surge. Perhaps not the big, corporate kind, though so far witholding that has just been threatened, not done. Biden is the guy who has connected to the Democratic party's base as well as Barack Obama did, and better than anyone else, at least since Bill Clinton.

This tempest in a teapot may just be exactly what this party needed to kick it in the pants and take Trump down for good.

[dchill]

38. It's actually a tempest CREATED in a teapot...

...but it's turned into a REAL tempest now. And even if some of the creators wanted to back down now, they can't. Their REPUTATIONS are pinned to Biden being forced out. They just can't see what they're going to be held responsible for. But their tax cuts will be renewed.

[chouchou]

28. I must say that the overwhelming people on this forum think exactly like the poster.

Unfortunately, in the lying USA/media/people next door/stupid assholes/right wing uneducated trash still believe that the crap-father won the debate. Grrrrrr.
At least, we know better.

[Enola]

29. This post is

Amazing, marvelous, wonderful, and stupendous! Love it!!

[lees1975]

32. This whole discussion is hitting the nail right on the head.

Gee, could we copy it and send it to the party's congressional leadership?

This is winning election strategy right here.

[CaptainTruth]

34. Also: Trump lied 28 times during the debate. We should say it!

Say it, repeat it, list all the lies, hammer on how dishonest he was & is!

Why have I not seen 50 threads about Trump's lies? Why are we letting him off the hook?

[bikes and bunnies]

35. I Agree 100%

They're Frankin' Joe Biden.

Hope Joe doesn't cave to the pressure the way Al Franken did.

Franken was forced out by Kirsten Gillibrand, from whom we've heard nothing for 8 years.
A big zero.

Unlike the man she railroaded out of office, Al Franken, who actually stood up to Trump.

#@%&!!!

[dchill]

39. Kirsten Gillibrand - the magician who mastered the trick...

...of simultaneously putting the nails in her own coffin, along with Al Franken's. I think she actually believed she could become President if Al was out of the picture.

[charliea]

40. Well said.

It's pretty much what I tell my friends who are fretting about Joe. I'm retired (and a little younger than him) but I can see a steady, compassionate, skillful leader with a now proven track record of success and I want more of that.

I wonder if the PTB want Trump elected because Joe's programs help people so (too) much.

[duhneece]

44. YES!! nt

[uponit7771]

48. EXACTLY!!!

[bagimin]

49. If you have something to say

just spit it out, Deek!

[Ranting Randy]

50. I couldn't have said it better myself!

Excellent

[samnsara]

51. I think a lot of them are very VERY fearful that they will be jailed

..if trump wins

[OAITW r.2.0]

52. Magnificent Op-Ed. You should send to the NYFT and the FWaPo.

Powerful summery that lays out the reality. Ridin' with Biden.

[Desert grandma]

54. I second this suggestion!

Let's see if the NY Times and the Washington Post will dare to publish a letter from a grass roots Democratic supporter. We need to see more of this nationally. Please let us know if you submit your letter and what type of response you get.