I’m not going to pretend that the debate was what we all wanted. I am not going to pretend that I wasn’t panicked on Thursday night.
There was a reason that the Biden folks asked for this first debate to be so early. They did so in case he had a bad night because incumbent Presidents FREQUENTLY have bad debate nights.
You can’t stop being President to prep for a debate. You can’t take yourself off the track that might give you a cold when you are President. You aren’t used to debating when you are President.
So they knew it might not go well (although, I am guessing, they hoped it would go better. Good lord, we all hoped it would go better!) Anyway, they knew if might not go well so they scheduled it in JUNE. We never have debates in June. So why in June?
Because the news cycle is fast fast fast. By November, June is a blip.
Look, I watched most of it too. And it was really hard to watch. Lying about what we saw won’t help anyone. Biden sounded hoarse and quiet and he stumbled some.
Trump sounded loud and confident. Of course, when you aren’t worried about actual facts and truth it is easy to be loud and confident. Doesn’t matter what you say. You are literally lying with every word anyway. Just be confident and loud!
So yes, on optics, it was a total disaster. No one can lie about that. But that isn’t all there is to these things. Here is Heather Cox Richardson
and here is Biden YESTERDAY. The day after the debate. See if YOU think he seems like he is unable to lead or just had a bad night? (the whole thing is great, but check it out from 15 minutes if you want to hear the age/debate stuff)
and remember: this was one bad night. We have had bad nights in the past. And, I am sorry to tell you, we will have more in the future. This happens.
Also, despite the entire left half of the country losing their collective minds about this, we don’t know that it changed anything:
AND there is no history of any debate in the modern era actually having a lasting impact on a race:
As for all the calls for Biden to drop out. He won’t and he shouldn’t. It would be an enormous mess and we would lose the benefits of the incumbency and they would tear into and destroy whomever else we put it. It is done. Biden is our candidate.
We have a guy who has been the best president of my lifetime, is one of the most decent human beings to be in office, AND is really old, and did really badly in Thursday’s debate.
He is the wall between us an Trump. That is how it is.
If the debate freaked you out: good. Do something about it. You can be upset (I was). You can worry (I did) but also ACT (I did).
Biden is the wall between us and another Trump term. Biden had a bad night in JUNE. There is another debate coming and over 4 more months of campaigning.
I’ve been writing a Boosting Biden post every weekday of this year and plan to continue to the election. You can share these every day (or some days) with Facebook groups or other groups via email with friends on other social media… anywhere!
You can use these to educate other people about what Biden has done and we can win!
Here are the posts so far. Not too late to read and SHARE:
Dark Brandon Saved us From a Recession: Boosting Biden Day 1
Dark Brandon Destroyed Crime: Boosting Biden Day 2
Dark Brandon Reduced Inflation: Boosting Biden Day 3
Dark Brandon Put the First Black Woman on the Supreme Court: Boosting Biden Day 4
Dark Brandon Cleaned up the Great Lakes: Boosting Biden Day 5
Dark Brandon's Stimulus Saved the Economy: Boosting Biden Day 6
Dark Brandon Created Workforce Hubs to Retrain Workers for Modern Jobs: Boosting Biden Day 7
Dark Brandon Expanded ACA so 10 States have (almost) universal health care! Boosting Biden Day 8
Dark Brandon went after cheating 1%ers AND WON: Boosting Biden Day 9
Dark Brandon Protected People with Disabilities: Boosting Biden Day 10
Dark Brandon Pardoned Thousands Convicted of Marijuana Use: Boosting Biden Day 11
Dark Brandon Created Jobs: Boosting Biden Day 12
Dark Brandon protected our soldiers from sexual harassment and assault: Boosting Biden Day 13
Dark Brandon Cancelled Billions in Student Loans: Boosting Biden Day 14
Dark Brandon OWNED the republicans at the State of the Union: Boosting Biden Day 15
Dark Brandon Caused a Black Small Business Boom! Boosting Biden Day 16
Dark Brandon Protected Veterans Health Care with over nine different Bills: Boosting Biden Day 17
Dark Brandon Saved The State of Virginia! Boosting Biden Day 18
Dark Brandon is Destroying Methane Emissions: Boosting Biden Day 19
Dark Brandon protects victims of sexual harassment and assault: Boosting Biden Day 20
The Dark Brandon Economy Is Remarkably Strong. Stop the Malarky!!! Boosting Biden Day 21
Dark Brandon Is a Snarky MFer: Boosting Biden Day 22
Dark Brandon Is Old. Get Over It. Boosting Biden Day 23
Dark Brandon is halting the biggest fossil fuel expansion on earth: Boosting Biden Day 24
Dark Brandon has done more for unions than any president ever: Boosting Biden Day 25
Dark Brandon made heat pumps and solar panels a national security issue: Boosting Biden Day 26
Dark Brandon Stopped 500 Illegal Gun Purchases: Boosting Biden Day 27
Dark Brandon Saved the State of Pennsylvania! Boosting Biden Day 28
Dark Brandon Made Lynching a Federal Crime: Boosting Biden Day 29
Dark Brandon Caused a BOOM in Small Businesses! Boosting Biden Day 30
Dark Brandon is saving the planet by plugging old oil and gas wells: Boosting Biden Day 31
Dark Brandon Feeds Hungry Kids! Boosting Biden Day 32
Dark Brandon is going to make your kids smarter! Boosting Biden Day 33
Dark Brandon Can Create Chains With His Bare Hands!!! Boosting Biden Day 34
Dark Brandon Is Fostering More Resilient Foods Systems Across the World: Boosting Biden Day 35
Dark Brandon Is Slashing Bank Overdraft Fees! Boosting Biden Day 36
Dark Brandon Ushered In a New Era of Tribal Self-Determination! Boosting Biden Day 37
Eight Ways Dark Brandon Has Lowered Health Care Costs: Boosting Biden Day 38
Dark Brandon Is Helping States Reduce Gun Violence: Boosting Biden Day 39
Dark Brandon Is Boosting Electric Cars: Boosting Biden Day 40
Dark Brandon Is Saving Salmon: Boosting Biden Day 41
Dark Brandon Brought Diversity to the Judicial Branch: Boosting Biden Day 42
Dark Brandon is increasing access to birth control: Boosting Biden Day 43
Biden Is Giving Farmers Big Bucks to Go "Climate Smart": Boosting Biden Day 44
President Biden is moving microchip production home! Boosting Biden Day 45
President Biden made it much cheaper to buy hearing aids: Boosting Biden Day 46
President Biden Helped Small Meat Producers Fight Against Giants! Boosting Biden Day 47
President Biden is making light bulbs more efficient: Boosting Biden Day 48
President Biden is modernizing airports: Boosting Biden Day 49
President Biden Reduced Climate Emissions from Cars: Boosting Biden Day 50
President Biden's Secret Plan to Get Better Judges: Boosting Biden Day 51
President Biden made the largest investment ever in indigenous communities: Boosting Biden Day 52
President Biden Saved Michigan! Boosting Biden Day 53
President Biden Put Putin in His Place: Boosting Biden Day 54
President Biden was the first president to recognize Indigenous Peoples' Day: Boosting Biden Day 55
President Biden's Stutter Made Him A Better Person: Boosting Biden Day 56
President Biden Breathed New Life into NATO: Boosting Biden Day 57
President Biden Saved the State of Illinois! Boosting Biden Day 58
President Biden Is Fighting Human Trafficking: Boosting Biden Day 59
President Biden Is Meeting His Commitment to Underserved Communities: Boosting Biden Day 60
President Biden Supports Trans Americans: Boosting Biden Day 61
President Biden Is Fixing Aging Bridges! Boosting Biden Day 62
President Biden Made Juneteenth a Holiday: Boosting Biden Day 63
President Biden Protects Victims of Domestic Abuse! Boosting Biden Day 64
President Biden Fights Domestic Terrorism! Boosting Biden Day 65
President Biden Saved Hundreds of Thousands of People from COVID Deaths: Boosting Biden Day 66
President Biden Expanded Public Transit for Those Who Need It Most: Boosting Biden Day 67
President Biden Ended the Forever War: Boosting Biden Day 68
President Biden Was an Early Supporter of Gay Marriage: Boosting Biden Day 69
President Biden Is a Mensch: Boosting Biden Day 70
President Biden Managed the Obama Economic Recovery: Boosting Biden Day 71
Biden Spent Four Hours a Day Commuting Because He Loves and Commits: Boosting Biden Day 72
President Biden Loves America: Boosting Biden Day 73
President Biden Has Felt Pain and Found Empathy: Boosting Biden Day 74
President Biden Was Loved By John Lewis: Boosting Biden Day 75
President Biden Supports LGBTQ+ Americans: Boosting Biden Day 76
President Biden Created Clean Energy Jobs: Boosting Biden Day 77
President Biden sponsored the very first climate change bill ever: Boosting Biden Day 78
President Biden's Policies Led to Record Number of Startups! Boosting Biden Day 79
President Biden Brings Decades of Foreign Policy Experience: Boosting Biden Day 80
President Biden Is a Person of Great Character: Boosting Biden Day 81
President Biden Protected Child Sex Abuse Victims: Boosting Biden Day 82
President Biden knows commitment, love, and patience: Boosting Biden Day 83
For the first time, real wage gains are going to those who need them most: Boosting Biden Day 84
President Biden Is Saving Trees: Boosting Biden Day 85
President Biden Is Firing Up Women's Health Research: Boosting Biden Day 86
President Biden Saved the Pensions of Over 1 Million Union Members: Boosting Biden Day 87
President Biden is a person of faith in his fellow humans and God: Boosting Biden Day 88
President Biden Saved the State of Wisconsin! Boosting Biden Day 89
President Biden Restored Health Protections for Gay and Transgender People: Boosting Biden Day 90
Biden Protects the Most Vulnerable — Nursing Home Residents: Boosting Biden Day 91
President Biden Restored Net Neutrality: Boosting Biden Day 92
President Biden Is Protecting the Privacy of Reproductive Health Care: Boosting Biden Day 93
President Biden Is Slashing Pollution from Coal! Boosting Biden Day 94
President Biden Even Made People Love the IRS! Boosting Biden Day 95
A (Partial) List of What Biden Has Already Done for the LGBTQ Communities: Boosting Biden Day 96
President Biden Has Yet ANOTHER Path to Saving the Planet! Boosting Biden Day 97
President Biden Is Saving Us From Surprise Junk Fees in Air Travel: Boosting Biden Day 98
President Biden Bolstered Overtime Pay and Retirement Security: Boosting Biden Day 99
Biden Put Workers Before Billionaires by Banning Noncompete Pacts: Boosting Biden Day 100
President Biden Cancelled Even MORE Student Loans! Boosting Biden Day 101
Biden Changed the Entire Way the Interior Department Works! Boosting Biden Day 102
President Biden Runs a Consistent Shop: Boosting Biden Day 103
President Biden was for civil rights when civil rights wasn't cool: Boosting Biden Day 104
Dark Brandon Has Harnessed the Power of Wind!! Boosting Biden Day 105
President Biden Is Out to End Tax Havens for the Mega-Rich: Boosting Biden Day 106
President Biden Saved the State of North Carolina! : Boosting Biden Day 109
Joe Biden Protected Us From Supreme Court Justice Bork: Boosting Biden Day 110
Dark Brandon's Super Power is Being Underestimated: Boosting Biden Day 111
Dark Brandon Increased Cybersecurity: Boosting Biden Day 112
President Biden is a Genuinely Kind Man: Boosting Biden Day 113
Dark Brandon United The World to Protect Ukraine from Russia: Boosting Biden Day 114
Joe Biden is a Strong Man Without Any Toxic Masculinity: Boosting Biden Day 115
Dark Brandon Supports Science! Boosting Biden Day 116
President Biden Is Respected Around the World: Boosting Biden Day 117
President Biden Is an Optimist: Boosting Biden Day 118
Dark Brandon Married Really Well: Boosting Biden Day 119
Dark Brandon Made Insulin Affordable: Boosting Biden Day 120
President Biden Knows How to Provide Comfort: Boosting Biden Day 121
Dark Brandon Is Replacing Dirty Water with Clean Water! Boosting Biden Day 122
Joe Biden Is an Amazing Friend Because He Is an Amazing Person: Boosting Biden Day 123
Dark Brandon Is Destroying the Barriers to Canceling Your Subscription: Boosting Biden Day 124
Other Good News
Adam Kinzinger becomes the latest Republican to back Biden
This morning, as NBC News reported, Kinzinger took a step that would’ve been exceedingly difficult to predict a decade ago.
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, the Illinois Republican who forcefully repudiated then-President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, endorsed Democratic President Joe Biden on Wednesday, blasting the presumptive GOP nominee as a “direct threat to every fundamental American value.”
“[W]hile I certainly don’t agree with President Biden on everything, and I never thought I’d be endorsing a Democrat for president, I know that he will always protect the very thing that makes America the best country in the world: our democracy,” Kinzinger said in a video message released this morning.
“Donald Trump poses a direct threat to every fundamental American value,” Kinzinger continued. “He doesn’t care about our country. He doesn’t care about you. He only cares about himself, and he will hurt anyone or anything in pursuit of power.”
“There is too much at stake to sit on the sidelines,” Kinzinger concluded. “So to every American of every political party and those of none, I say: Now is not the time to watch quietly as Donald Trump threatens the future of America. Now is the time to unite behind Joe Biden, and show Donald Trump off the stage once and for all.”
The Democratic incumbent was predictably pleased to get the backing. “This is what putting your country before your party looks like,” Biden wrote in a social media message. “I’m grateful for your endorsement, Adam.”
RNC bookings “underwhelming” and a “failure,” event venues and restaurants raise concerns
Milwaukee is preparing for a busy week with the RNC coming to town, but with just weeks to go before the convention begins, some are raising concerns about a lackluster level of events being booked during the convention, raising questions about whether the convention will deliver on promises of economic impact.
Gary Witt, president and CEO of the Pabst Theater Group, told The Recombobulation Area that the majority of the group’s venues will have no events booked for the RNC.
Two of downtown Milwaukee’s most iconic venues, the Pabst Theater and Riverside Theater, will likely sit empty during the convention, he said, as will the Vivarium and The Fitzgerald, which are both located on Milwaukee’s East Side. Turner Hall Ballroom will host a yet-to-be announced organization, but that arrangement was made for the DNC in 2020 before the convention went mostly virtual.
Witt characterized the RNC planning as “underwhelming” and a “failure.”
“It’s 100% a case of ‘overpromise, underdeliver,’ on all parts, by everybody,” he said.
“We were told it was going to be one way over and over and over and over again when (the RNC) was confirmed, and it has turned out to be almost anything but the way that we were told it was going to turn out,” Witt said. “We were sold a storyline of how this is going to go, and basically it didn't go anything at all like the storyline that we were sold.”
House Democrats Introduce Bill Enshrining the Right to Vote on Anniversary of Shelby County v. Holder Decision
U.S. House Democrats, led by Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), are pushing a bill to guarantee the right to vote in federal elections. It was introduced on June 25, the 11th anniversary of the Shelby County v. Holder decision, which weakened the Voting Rights Act.
“Ever since the passage of the Voting Rights Act, we’ve seen states across the country pass racist voting laws in order to carve us out of our collective democracy,” Lee said in a statement. “Any attempt to keep us from participating in our right to vote in federal elections must be challenged in court and brought to an end in order to preserve the fundamental values our country was founded upon.”
This bill, called the Right to Vote Act, is the House version of a Senate bill that Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) introduced in March.
The Right to Vote Act would establish a federal voting rights guarantee, prohibit state and local governments from enacting laws that restrict someone’s ability to vote in federal elections and authorize a civil right of action to allow Americans to challenge any policy in court that limits their access to the ballot.
Wisconsin Judge Expands Voter Accessibility for November General Election
Wisconsin voters with disabilities will be able to request and receive accessible absentee ballots via email during the November 2024 election due to a temporary injunction issued today by Dane County Judge Everett Mitchell.
As a result of the ruling, which Mitchell handed down following a hearing yesterday, Wisconsin election officials must facilitate the availability of electronically delivered, accessible absentee ballots requested by voters with print disabilities.
Print disabilities include blindness, visual impairment, intellectual disabilities and other impairments to manual dexterity that prevent certain voters from reading, marking or handling a paper ballot on their own.
The Greatest Story Never Told - The Democratic Winning Streak
Trump lost the popular vote by three million votes in 2016. However, Trump won the presidency with narrow victories in three key battleground states by a mere 77,000 votes. “Trump seemed to pull an inside straight by narrowly winning Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin while losing the popular vote by three million. We now know, Trump committed 34 felonies to win that election. Without these crimes, he seems almost certain to have lost to Hillary Clinton.” Marc Elias
The Republicans haven’t had a strong election cycle since 2016. That cycle was a fluke thanks to Trump’s crimes, the mainstream media, Putin and Comey. Trump just backed into the presidency when he expected to lose.
In 2017, the Democrats recaptured governor’s mansions in Virginia and New Jersey, as well as numerous legislative seats.
During a time of peace and prosperity ushered in by Obama’s policies, The MAGA-fied Republican Party lost the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018. The Democrats picked up a whopping 40 seats in the House. The Democrats achieved the biggest victory in the House elections since their triumph in 1974 in the wake of the Watergate scandal.
In 2019, Democratic candidates won gubernatorial races in Louisiana and Kentucky after Trump campaigned for the Republicans. In red Kentucky, the incumbent governor was knocked off after he adopted Trump’s toxic personality and tried to kick thousands of people off insurance.
Disaster struck for the world and the United States when the pandemic hit in 2020. The convicted felon blew the country’s response to the pandemic and was responsible for hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths. As a result, Trump lost the White House and the Republican Party lost the Senate in 2020–21. Trump was the first president since Herbert Hoover to preside over the loss of the White House, the House and the Senate in a single term.
The Democrats defied the Republican and mainstream press predictions of a red wave in 2022. Joe Biden and the Democrats had the best mid-term results of any president and incumbent party since 1962. The Democrats picked up a seat in the Senate and 7 governor’s mansions. The Republicans fearlessly predicted they would gain 60 seats in the U.S. House but only emerged with an unworkable and nightmarish two seat majority.
In 2022, Trump endorsed candidates lost competitive statewide elections in Georgia, Nevada, Arizona and Pennsylvania. Moreover, the Democrats secured governorships in Kansas, Michigan and Wisconsin, among other states.
Democrats overperformed again the following year in Kentucky, Virginia and Ohio. Democratic governor Andy Beshear was easily re-elected in ruby red Kentucky against a Trump anointed MAGA Republican. Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin staked his political future on a 15 week abortion ban in the hopes that victory would elevate him into a viable presidential candidate. Instead, the Virginia GOP was routed and lost control of both houses of the legislature.
Since 2016,” wrote Michael Podhorzer, a former political director for the A.F.L.-C.I.O., in a post for his newsletter in the summer of 2023, “Republicans have lost 23 of the 27 elections in the five states everyone agrees Democratic hopes in the Electoral College and the Senate depend on.” (Those five states are Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona and Georgia.)
This dynamic is something we’ve seen carry over to 2024. Tom Suozzi dramatically outperformed public polling in his big win in a U.S. House race in Long Island, New York. In Alabama, a Democrat won a state senate seat in the Birmingham area by 25 points in a legislative district that Trump carried by 1 point in 2020.
The pattern of Democratic over performance carries over to the present time. There was an Ohio U.S. House special election on June 11 in which the Republican won a red CD by 8 points. In contrast, Trump carried the same CD by 29 points in 2020. The Democrat in this race was outspent by a margin of $700,000 to $25,000.
Daniel Donner of Daily Kos found that “special elections have indeed proven to be useful in analyzing the election environment. There is still a good long-term correlation between the results of special elections and November elections.”
The Cleantech Revolution: It’s exponential, disruptive, and now
The energy system is being transformed by the exponential forces of renewables, electrification, and efficiency.•
The orthodox view of slow change is wrong. New clean technologies beat old fossil commodities because clean technologies' costs fall overtime on learning curves, they are universal, and they grow quickly.•
Exponential change has been remarkable in the past decade. Cleantech costs have fallen by up to 80 percent, while investment is up nearly tenfold and solar generation has risen twelvefold. Electricity has become the largest source of useful energy, and the deep force of efficiency has reduced energy demand by a fifth.
Red flags across the fossil fuel system. New fossil electricity capacity peaked in 2010, oil and gas capex in 2014, and internal combustion engine (ICE) car sales in 2017. Fossil demand peaked for industry in 2014,for buildings in 2018, most likely for electricity in 2023, and will shortly peak in transport.
• The drivers of growth are more powerful than the barriers. Falling cleantech costs, the energy security of eternal renewables, Chinese leadership, and a race to the top will continue to overwhelm a fragile fossil fuel system which wastes two-thirds of its primary energy and fails to pay for its externality costs.
So exponential growth of cleantech will continue. By 2030,we will be installing 1,000 GW of solar a year and selling 6,000GWh of batteries a year, making possible the COP goal of tripling renewable capacity. Electrification rates will double to 0.5% a year, and efficiency gains will increase to over 3% a year.
• The fossil fuel system faces inexorable decline. Renewables will drive fossil fuels out of electricity generation, electrification will push fossils out of final energy, and efficiency will reduce fossil waste. Some 75% of fossil fuel demand is exposed to rapidly growing cleantech alternatives, so stranded assets are inevitable.
• Wider implications of change. The goals of the Paris Agreement are feasible, and the Global South will continue to leapfrog to cleantech.
• This is the pivot decade. When cleantech costs become irresistible, the renewable capacity is built, fossil fuel demand reaches the end of its plateau, and the transition is priced into markets.
• Now is the time to act. We need to build out renewables and electrify energy use, make good bets on small modular technologies, and harvest the enormous efficiency opportunity. The direction of change is inevitable, but the speed is up to us.
On The Lighter Side
What can you do to save democracy
Take action. Nothing makes you feel better than action.
I wasn’t kidding about this — if you haven’t donated yet, donate. If you already donate, donate again.
Your donations will come bundled with others from our Good News community and will show the Democrats and the Biden team that there are many of us who support him and combine hard work with optimism in our battles for a better America!
Looking for something else? GREAT! Here are some other ideas:
I am so lucky and so proud to be in this with all of you 💓💚💛🧡✊🏻✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿✊❤️🧡💛💚