foolish watcher

Alright, let’s talk about that debate. And what comes next.

Therese Odell
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On a day like today, the only thing that can make me feel patriotic at all is Simone Biles:

@nbcolympics

SIMONE. BILES. DID. THAT. 💥 #USAGTrials24 #ParisOlympics #gymnastics #floor #simonebiles

♬ original sound – NBC Olympics & Paralympics

Fine, let’s talk about it. BUT I warn you, it’s going to be long.

The debate, it was bad. There’s no point in trying to spin it: President Biden’s one job on Thursday night was to project both strength and coherence. We all know he’s old; President Biden is the oldest person to ever run for President. And his age has been used as a cudgel against him, mostly by a media who seems to want to turn this election — one that pits a conventional moderate who believes in governing through democracy and consensus against a man who has promised to be a “dictator” on day one — into a run-of-the-mill presidential horse race whose stakes are not literally democracy itself. So President Joe needed to come out on Thursday with the same energy and vigor that he rallied for the State of the Union address: he needed to look fierce, confident, and competent.

Instead, we saw an 81-year-old man who looked like he had lived every single day of those years pitted against a jeering, lying bully. And I have to admit, my heart sank.

For most Americans — especially these so-called “undecided voters” (because who the hell is undecided in 2024 for fuck’s sake), these debates are not about the details and nitty-gritty of policy. They’re about optics; they are about who looks like they won. And if you watched that debate with the sound off, there was one clear winner. I know Former President Liesalot spent the entire debate lying about everything from post-birth abortion (not a thing), an influx of crime attributable to immigrants (crime is at an all-time low) to President Biden being behind his convictions (impossible, that was in state court), and evading questions about January 6th. But CNN made the irresponsible choice to not fact check the debaters in real-time, which meant that these lies were fed unfiltered to the viewers who had no mechanism to discern what was true and what wasn’t. And so for the voters who matter — who really matter — these undecided and/or independent voters, one person appeared to win and the other seemed tired and needing of a nap.

The hysterics were immediate: pundits, consultants, journalists, and some Democratic big-money donors began the hand-wringing and pants-wetting five minutes into the debate. Calls for President Biden to not just take himself off of the ticket in November, but to actually resign ahead of the convention in August came pouring in, and by Saturday, The New York Times had printed an editorial calling for President Biden to leave the race, — nevermind there was no such call from the “paper of record” for Former President Joffrey First of His Name to remove himself from the Republican ticket after he was convicted of 34 fucking felonies.

It’s lopsided, it’s awful, it’s disheartening. One side of our politics is expected to uphold the law, to play by the rules, and to abandon their leaders at the first sign of frailty; while the other side is held to exactly zero standards, has no limitations on how low and dirty they can play, and they are expected to obey only one rule: remain faithful to Former President Dear Leader at all costs.

 

 
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But I’m getting off-track. The question, then, was should President Biden remove himself from the ticket with four months to go until Election Day. And as the weekend wore on, it seemed the consensus was that it is ultimately and singularly his choice. President Biden cannot be legally removed from the ticket — he won enough delegates during the primary season to lock the nomination up, so if he is going to leave the ticket, it will be only his decision to do so as there is no mechanism to remove him. According to reports, he and his family spent the weekend at Camp David, where they urged him to stay on, and from what I know about the man and his record, I suspect he’s inclined to do so.

Besides, any changes to the ticket this late in the game could cause chaos: deep, unsettling, perhaps unconquerable chaos. The question of Kamala or Not Kamala, and if Not Kamala, Who? would potentially render the party into pieces mere months ahead of the election itself, and potentially shake the confidence of an entire electorate. Of course, the argument to that is that President Biden’s performance on Thursday was an earthquake to the confidence of the electorate and the party must ask itself what it has to lose by trying something else.

This was a lot of words for me to say: I don’t know what’s going to happen or what should happen. Political science is a misnomer in this day and age: it’s an art form, subject to multiple interpretations and no singular “truth.”

That said, I do know these things to be true:

Former President Donald Trump is an existential threat to our system of government and our country as a whole, especially after today’s insane decision by the Supreme Court to give any President immunity for what they deem an “official act,” and Friday’s decision to gut civil regulatory authority. That’s an entirely different rant that I have neither the time nor the energy to get into at the moment, but rest assured, a President Convicted Felon and his minions with their Project 2025 plan would gut democracy as we know it if he wins the White House in November.

 

 
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The Supreme Court, as always, is on the line. Former President Abolished Roe put three justices on the court last term, and just look how much damage they have wrought. If he has another swing at appointing more justices, far-right-wing lunatics will have control of the Supreme Court for decades to come, and rights that we have taken for granted, including IVF, access to birth control, gay marriage and the right to be gay without being prosecuted as a criminal, would be up for grabs.

Former President Retribution has explicitly said his next go-round at the White House would be a revenge tour, threatening his perceived enemies with administrative investigation, criminal persecution, and worse. And this time around, there wouldn’t be any John Kellys or John Boltons or Paul Ryans or Rex Tillersons or even Mike Pences, there wouldn’t be any grownups in the building — or restrictions on executive power, thanks to today’s decision in the Supreme Court — to stop him. It wouldn’t be a slippery slope into fascism; we would find ourselves in the deep end of the pool on January 20, 2025.

Banning abortion, IVF, and birth control on a federal level; removing all social safety nets including Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, and social security; eliminating union rights; eliminating civil rights; dismantling any movement towards solving the climate crisis; eliminating no-fault divorce and preventing single parents or gay parents from adopting or fostering kids; eliminating the Department of Education; rounding up immigrants and separating families; criminalizing homosexuality and taking trans kids away from not just medical care, but from their families; abandoning our allies in Ukraine and NATO and giving Putin free reign over Eastern Europe; rigging elections so that no Republican can ever lose again; cracking down on dissenting voices in politics, the media and the public at large: these aren’t crazy left-wing conspiracy fantasies about what the right will do under another Former President Dictator from Day One term — it’s their wish list, and they’ve made it explicit over and over again.

And this is why ultimately I don’t have an opinion on whether or not President Biden should remain on the ticket after Thursday night’s performance because I am going to vote for whomever the Democrats offer me, it absolutely does not matter. I am not voting for a person — in fact, we are never voting for a single person when we elect a President. We are voting for an entire administration and a set of policies and moral beliefs. And I have faith in whoever is on that ballot as the Democratic nominee, whether it be President Biden, Vice President Kamala, or any of the other young Democrats the chattering class is busy fantasizing about, just so they can write about something other than the extinction-level threat Former President Shitstain poses to our entire system of government.

I see the hypocrisy in my mocking the Republicans for being blindly loyal to a singular candidate while I am out here saying with my full chest that I am going to vote for whomever the Democrats put on that ticket. But the difference is I am loyal not to a man, but to a set of values that the Democratic party represents: values of equality, in freedom of speech and of belief, bodily autonomy, democracy, and a trust in science. So go ahead, give me a candidate who believes in those things, too, and I’ll vote for them, no matter who they are, how old they are, or how they performed in a single 90-minute debate.

And whoever that person is? We all have to spend the next four months believing in them and convincing the rest of the country, those undecided and independent voters, that they are worth voting for, too. It’s too important to lose sight of everything that is on the line.

Here’s A BUNCH OF TV News

The BET Awards took place last night and they had some … moments.

In the good column: Taraji P. Henson warning viewers about Project 2025, and urging people to vote:

 

 
Post by @britpinnock
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In the ??? column, Usher’s Lifetime Achievement Speech was muted for several minutes due to an “audio malfunction.” Or maybe it was because he dropped an F-bomb early on and the censors got nervous.

And in the “OH NO” column, they included O.J. Simpson in the In Memoriam montage …

As you might imagine, the Brown and Goldman families are outraged.

And just to add insult to injury, they left out Andre Braugher:

NOT A GREAT LOOK, GUYS.

Jenn Tran might have spoiled (a little about) the ending of The Bachelorette. I won’t say what here, except to say she doesn’t name the winner.

Sometimes we all need to learn to be happy with the gifts we’ve received and stop trying to go back in time. A Sherlock reboot starring Cumberbatch and Martin is unlikely to happen AND THAT’S FINE. Go rewatch the original series and be happy it happened.

Eddie Murphy says that David Spade making a joke about Murphy’s career fading on Saturday Night Live in 1995 was not just disrespectful after Murphy saved the show, it was also racist. While I agree the joke was disrespectful, I admit I looked sideways at the racism charge. But then I remembered I am a middle-aged white lady and I don’t get to decide what is racist or feels racist to someone else.

In the same interview, Murphy revealed that he was a fan of The Golden Bachelor, and added something that I can’t argue with: “I watched that, I was like, ‘This is so nice, they found love in the second part of their life.’ Then I find out these motherfuckers broke up three months later! What kind of shit is that?” Indeed, Eddie Murphy.

In Bravo news:

The way The Price is Right contestants are chosen? It’s mostly based on vibes, but it helps to have a favorite game.

A reminder on its 10th anniversary that The Leftovers is Damon Lindelof’s best show. I said what I said.

OK, but the original title for A Family Affair is much better.

Hunter Biden is suing Fox News for airing revenge porn. GOOD.

Oh no, a little whinging fucker had her feelings hurt and is whinging about it.

I haven’t been spending a lot of time on the Ben Affleck/Jennifer Lopez breakup story because it all felt very gossipy and unconfirmed and also I don’t care, but when People Magazine is reporting that he’s moved his stuff out of their mansion while she was vacationing in Italy without him … 👀

Wishing “Wild” Bill Wichrowski well in his battle with prostate cancer.

I hope everyone had a lovely Pride but especially Amber Ruffin:

Cancellations

In Development

Casting News

Mark Your Calendar

R.I.P.

Martin Mull, Brilliant comedy icon known for Fernwood 2 Night, Arrested Development, Veep, Roseanne, Two and a Half Men, Clue and so many others

Stephanie Leifer, Former head of current programming at ABC Signature and executive in development at ABC who helped bring us Lost, Ugly Betty, Grey’s Anatomy,  and Private Practice

Renauld White, Actor on Guiding Light and pioneering Black model

Lizzy Musi, Drag racer featured on Street Outlaws: No Prep Kings

Bud S. Smith, Oscar-nominated editor on The Exorcist and Flashdance among many others

Orlando Cepeda, Baseball hall of fame member for this time with the San Francisco Giants, former teammate of Willie Mays 

Andrew Jury, Married at First Sight New Zealand star

WATCH THIS

Lost: It’s back on Netflix! Go binge! Netflix

The Wall: Summer premiere. 9 p.m., NBC

SharkFest: Someone is out here trying to overshadow Discovery’s summer staple, Shark Week with seven new shark specials. Two of those specials, Sharks Gone Viral and Supersized Sharks, will debut on National Geographic at 7 p.m. Disney+ & Hulu

Star Trek: Prodigy: The animated series returns, but don’t look for it on Paramount+, it’s now over on Netflix. Netflix

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