This morning, Never Trump former Republican Bill Kristol chose as a topic for his first post of the new revised Bulwark newsletter Morning Shots, the idea that Biden must step aside for the good of the country to win the November election.
So Biden just has to grit his teeth & keep one foot ahead of the other while trying to ignore the jerks on both sides of the "aisle"? This "special" prosecutor should get a medal for the crap he pulled - but I have to say - Garland's leaning over backwards s**t needs to stop! ENOUGH already. I assume he was made aware & likely READ this little missive before it was made public? If so, he had to be aware of exactly what kind of a S**t storm it would cause for Biden!
Gee what an absolutely fantastic supreme court justice he would have made!
When I suggested (on another substack comment section, that Garland had chosen an exceptionally crappy way to thank the guy who gave him a job after McConnell ghosted his nomination by President Obama...I got all kinds of blowback from those who insist that Garland is bending over backwards to be unbiased and that he had a impeccable record and first rate this and exceptional that...yada, yada, yada.
So where is all this amazing talent? I haven't seen anything other than timidity, dawdling and a determination to cover the ass of the DoJ (and coincidentally his own, at the same time). He hasn't truly done a thing for President Biden and now he releases this report without insisting that Hur re-write it without the political hack job that currently contains. Nope. Garland is not Biden's friend. At all. He's not a friend of the U.S. either--not with his egregious delay in appointing Jack Smith and now this.
You weren’t the only one to make a big mistake on the first Tuesday of November, 1968. My parents, after much agonizing, voted for Nixon. The first time either voted for a Republican. When they got home from the polls, they turned on the TV and saw Humphrey taking questions from an audience (I don’t recall what the show was). After a few minutes they turned to each other and simultaneously (I kid you not-I was there) said, “What have we done?” They never voted Republican again.
Kristol is a Republican at heart. Like all Republicans he has a penchant for--how do you say it,Tom?--ratfucking. Truman was right. A reason I just can’t go all in on appreciating Stuart Stevens, for example. You can only trust them until you can’t.
Before Biden is asked to step aside, Trump needs to be drug tested: one NewsWeek article said:
“The medical records and interviews with former officials with the Trump Organization reveal that Greenberg gave Trump a prescription for amphetamine derivatives in 1982 to treat his metabolic problem; the records show that Trump continued taking the drugs for a number of years and the former officials said that Trump stopped using them in 1990 at the latest.
The derivatives were diethylpropion, known under its brand name as tenuate dospan. These drugs are designed for short-term use; studies have concluded that patients can avoid developing a dependence on the drug if they take it for 25 weeks or less. But Trump continued downing the pills for years. According to two people – someone who said Trump would consider him a friend and a former Trump executive – the then-real estate developer boasted that the diethylpropion gave him enormous energy and helped him concentrate. A former Trump executive claimed to have picked up the medication while running errands for the boss. This person said the prescription, for 75 milligrams of diethylpropion a day, was filled at least for a time at a Duane Reade drugstore on 57th Street in Manhattan, a few blocks from Trump Tower. The executive said, like many celebrities, Trump used an alias for the prescription.”
That business about grievance addiction sounds accurate, but the only compassion he'll get from me is I hope he dies in bed quietly, rather than some of the other ways I wish he would go that I consider on some days he's particularly the piece of shit he is.
Lord, does anybody keep their Schitt together. A never-trumper telling Joe to bail. Granted, he was a turd, but I thought he was a reformed one, sort of like Steve Schmidt. Snark. Joe is my man, Hubert was my man and I ain’t gonna be distracted by shinny objects…
It's sad to say this, but a couple of more like this morning's and The Bulwark will go the way of the Weekly Standard. Kristol's column was not well received by the regular readership, most of whom had spent last week bidding Charlie goodbye.
I plead innocent by reason of ineligibility in the '68 election, but Humphrey (a modest man who had a great deal to be modest about) was not a great candidate, and given that the Democrats were saddled with responsibility for the war, probably wasn't going to win anyway. I admit to guilt in thinking that once we'd gotten rid of Nixon we had also solved the problem he represented and will do whatever I can to ensure 4 more years of Biden-Harris. I wish there was more I could do to ensure 20 to life for the failed insurrectionist, but will have to leave that in the hands of Mr. Smith, Ms. Willis, and their teams.
Humphrey lost to Nixon by 511,944 votes. Nixon had 43.4% of the popular vote to Humprey's 42.7% - it was a close election. Like I say, if those of us who surrendered to self-righteousness had remembered that Nixon was always a crook, Humphrey would have won. He would definitely have won if a breakthrough in negotiations had been announced the week before the election as might have happened other than Nixon's treason.
To learn that Nixon and Kissinger were as immoral as we suspected and sabotaged peace negotiations was a blow. To learn it was kept secret for so long on the grounds that it would “tear the country apart,” ( or was it that it would destroy our Americans’ faith in government) was even worse.
Interesting that Humphrey lost IL and CA, both arguably Democratic strongholds via Daley and Pat Brown. I think you're right about the peace agreement, but a little better handling of the Convention might have made a difference in Illinois and you know better than I do what happened in California.
Mr. Conant, I'm feeling that way as well about Mr. Cillizza's sermons about the problems of President Biden's age and apparent frailty (blah, blah, blah). Yeah, President Biden is 81. He speaks very carefully and deliberately (because of his stutter, people). He stumbles (hey so do I and I'm more than a decade younger than President Biden). He occasionally mis-speaks because he has A LOT on his mind. I'd still far rather have Joe Biden at the helm, than the unhinged fascist dictator-in-the-making with his mysterious funk and his surrounding MAGA sycophants.
I read somewhere that President Biden's biggest liability (to the Repubbies) is that he may hand us our first female (and POC) President. The MAGAts are apparently in a panic at the very thought. Good.
You, me, and about 81 million other Americans at last count prefer Biden over the failed insurrectionist. With any luck at all, the panic will continue for another 10 months and build in intensity the whole time.
I agree.. so tired of this hand wringing. Go back in history and look at the reality of aging presidents - back when health care wasn't even as good as it is now - I'm thinking particularly of Roosevelt. Biden clearly is still capable. Yes, his energy is lower and we in the US are VERY intolerant and now unused to aging. My father was a stutterer, so I fully understand the way Biden has learned to speak slowly and sometimes a little hesitantly. It doesn't mean his mind is slow. The media is 99.99 percent to blame for the discomfort people feel and express and we are being told that because the media is not going to cover him fairly, he won't be able to win.. that's absurd. We need to find ways to show how capable Biden is, support him, appreciate him and respect him. We have no where else to go and the alternative is unthinkable, therefore we MUST stay united. Only thought I have is to find really good surrogates and lean on them and push on the media as hard as possible. It definitely does NOT help to have "friendly" people writing op-eds disparaging him. This is at best like Hillary 2016.
Nothing beats learning history from someone who lived it, even if he was attempting to kill brain cells at the time. Unsuccessfully, obviously, as those ones have survived to taunt him with the memories as history rhymes ringing in TC's ears. Thanks for sharing them Tom.
“All that is what “stepping aside for the good of the country” got us the last time it was tried by a U.S. president.” ⬅️ This!
TC, also great top post on Robert Hubbell today for those who need to get their “mojo back”.
The story of my minor role in supporting Nixon. I was young(13) in ‘72 when he campaigned in Providence, RI. My friend’s dad was chair of local Republican Party so we were recruited as “Nixonettes” ( Yes, they were a thing) I wore my sparkly, Nixon Now banner with the jumbo Nixon/Agnew button as we greeted him upon arrival at the airport with the appropriate prom-like wave. It would be many years..sigh…before I saw the light.
I was really pissed off when I read Kristol’s article this morning. I’m actually starting to think all of these ageist attacks on President Biden are coming from a well fertilized Russian troll farm.
Bill Kristol's a big boy and doesn't need me (or anyone else) defending him or his opinions. But I have a theory as to why he might have chosen to start his time at the Bulwark's "Morning Shots" with a "Joe needs to go" piece. Things may have gotten a bit, well, too routine and even a little stale under Charlie Sykes' able but long tenure in that space, and some of the furniture probably needed a really good dusting. And what better way to get that done on the cheap than to write a few lines that you know will cause a not insignificant number of readers to pick it all up and throw it at you.
The place ought to be pretty clean come tomorrow, since I checked in a few minutes ago just out of curiosity and they're still throwing things around over there 12 hours after post... to the tune of 900 plus comments and counting.
This spring when the dust in my barn needs cleaning, I may ask Kristol to do a guest post from there.
I too wrote in Eugene McCarthy in 1968, but it didn't take long for me to see what Nixon wrought. For those of us who did so, it pretty well cured us of being "one issue voters" even when that issue was as big as our friends getting killed in a war we ultimately lost. What Johnson was able to accomplish on Civil Rights turned out to be a much longer lasting legacy.
I've just posted on Hubbell's Substack how those of us of that generation who are still sharp and even reasonably mobile need to be on the front lines of contesting--of proving by our very selves--that old does not equal infirm. You do it, TC. I hope I am able to do it in at least some of my comments.
A subset of Get out The Vote should be Get Out the Seniors. Show, not tell, the kiddies what "old" has accomplished, is currently accomplishing, and still can accomplish. Tell the story of our "one-issue" lives that brought us Nixon and further chaos, not to mention corruption. The issue then was the war, not age, but it was still one issue, and one issue is not the way to insure that our country continues to prosper.
I don't agree with you entirely about JFK, though I recognize his own 40ish infirmities. The war was much more motivated by the "falling dominos" fear of the Soviets which was the result of Cold War hysteria that had gone on all my life. With Stalin there was some basis; after that we listened way to much to the rantings of the leaders and thought they represented the actual people. I visited Russia the month after JFK's assassination, not with an Intourist group, and realized that my student counterparts were willing to debate the differences between communism and capitalism intelligently. They were NOT monomaniacs.
Believing in ranting of the leaders is why we have MAGA. We need to start listening to the opinions of the actual people, those not enthralled by the leaders. That's why I am optimistic that, polls be damned, we have a good shot at winning in November with a leader who doesn't rant. We just have to work to encourage those who are not monomaniacs of the importance of this election.
Great points all. However, JFK's "40s infirmities" were his infirmities in his 20s and 30s also. His reputation is what it is because the Kennedy family has the resources to maintain an excellent PR machine, and too many of our generation still feel what we did about him when we were young enough to have the self-awareness of rocks. (Every "movement person" I knew in the 60s would tell you if asked that "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" was their original motivator) That and the fact he's been dead for 60 years has allowed too many liberals to hang their wishes about the way things should have been on him and invest him as the representative of those wishes.
Perhaps it's time to do a Hunter Biden on Trump and remind the country that Trump's father had Alzheimer's, a disease with a strong genetic component, and that's what killed him after years of living with it. Swipes at family members seem to be okay these days. Combine that with reports of Trump's use of uppers and a montage of his own babbling gaffs and you may strike some body blows.
And in a Newsweek publication: “The derivatives were diethylpropion, known under its brand name as tenuate dospan. These drugs are designed for short-term use; studies have concluded that patients can avoid developing a dependence on the drug if they take it for 25 weeks or less. But Trump continued downing the pills for years. According to two people – someone who said Trump would consider him a friend and a former Trump executive – the then-real estate developer boasted that the diethylpropion gave him enormous energy and helped him concentrate. A former Trump executive claimed to have picked up the medication while running errands for the boss. This person said the prescription, for 75 milligrams of diethylpropion a day, was filled at least for a time at a Duane Reade drugstore on 57th Street in Manhattan, a few blocks from Trump Tower. The executive said, like many celebrities, Trump used an alias for the prescription.”
whenever somebody parrots the thesis of Oliver Stone (a man who has a lot to apologize for...remember those Putin interviews?) in his ridiculous "JFK" movie, I remove my muzzle (that was a joke...I have a big fucking mouth) and try to tell them the truth. it is said that JFK was very upset when he heard that Diem's murder--which he PLANNED--was a done deal. my heart bleeds...
I just tried in my head to count how many times Nixon committed treason. I got to about four or five, but I bet there were more.
in Robert Caro's LBJ book (still unfinished, with its editor recently departed), there's a lot of stuff about the treatment LBJ got from the Kennedys ("Senator Cornpone" was a favorite), as well as the awe in which he held guys like the Bundy Boys and the Martini-chugging Schlesinger.
since I was only 19 in 1968, I have no vote to apologize for, but I would have voted for Humphrey because, in my family, that's what you did.
if I had a hundred bucks for every time I was sold "guaranteed Owsley acid" I would have had...at least a thousand bucks. I DID have some excellent acid, fifty tabs of which I hid in a refill-less ballpoint pen, in '69, when I did the European backpacking thing. a lot of folks all over that continent were very pleased I did that. three years later, on not such great acid, I ate some spoiled whitefish and ended up with a very mild three-day toxic psychosis (my own diagnosis) after being very sick in the usual disgusting ways. after that, I was out of the acid game.
and yes, pot was that cheap. my usual deal was to buy ten or twelve ounces for about $75.00, sell five at $15 each and have the rest to live on for however long it took to finish the rest. and THAT was my career as a drug dealer.
no head for business. as usual, the pun was accidental.
In Berkeley, in 1968, it wasn't hard to get the real thing, since Owsley was brewing it up right nearby. But yeah, anywhere else - particularly Haight-Ashbury by then - it was Momma Hold the Door.
some of the stuff on this coast could be gnarly as fuck. I remember a brief period in which some consumers decided that Strychnine could "enhance the experience," so dealers started to advertise the rat poison as a GOOD THING. maybe THAT's what happened with the bad Whitefish.
So Biden just has to grit his teeth & keep one foot ahead of the other while trying to ignore the jerks on both sides of the "aisle"? This "special" prosecutor should get a medal for the crap he pulled - but I have to say - Garland's leaning over backwards s**t needs to stop! ENOUGH already. I assume he was made aware & likely READ this little missive before it was made public? If so, he had to be aware of exactly what kind of a S**t storm it would cause for Biden!
Gee what an absolutely fantastic supreme court justice he would have made!
What a better Old Retired Guy he'll be.
Yeah - sarcasm!!
Actually - if only he was already retired & there was someone in that spot doing the job that should have been done in the first place!
When I suggested (on another substack comment section, that Garland had chosen an exceptionally crappy way to thank the guy who gave him a job after McConnell ghosted his nomination by President Obama...I got all kinds of blowback from those who insist that Garland is bending over backwards to be unbiased and that he had a impeccable record and first rate this and exceptional that...yada, yada, yada.
So where is all this amazing talent? I haven't seen anything other than timidity, dawdling and a determination to cover the ass of the DoJ (and coincidentally his own, at the same time). He hasn't truly done a thing for President Biden and now he releases this report without insisting that Hur re-write it without the political hack job that currently contains. Nope. Garland is not Biden's friend. At all. He's not a friend of the U.S. either--not with his egregious delay in appointing Jack Smith and now this.
I really wish we both were wrong but sure is the way it looks.
Being President is being like a jackass in a hailstorm. There is nothing to do but stand there and take it. Lyndon B. Johnson.
You weren’t the only one to make a big mistake on the first Tuesday of November, 1968. My parents, after much agonizing, voted for Nixon. The first time either voted for a Republican. When they got home from the polls, they turned on the TV and saw Humphrey taking questions from an audience (I don’t recall what the show was). After a few minutes they turned to each other and simultaneously (I kid you not-I was there) said, “What have we done?” They never voted Republican again.
Kristol is a Republican at heart. Like all Republicans he has a penchant for--how do you say it,Tom?--ratfucking. Truman was right. A reason I just can’t go all in on appreciating Stuart Stevens, for example. You can only trust them until you can’t.
I'll be simple, superb! Thank you!
Before Biden is asked to step aside, Trump needs to be drug tested: one NewsWeek article said:
“The medical records and interviews with former officials with the Trump Organization reveal that Greenberg gave Trump a prescription for amphetamine derivatives in 1982 to treat his metabolic problem; the records show that Trump continued taking the drugs for a number of years and the former officials said that Trump stopped using them in 1990 at the latest.
The derivatives were diethylpropion, known under its brand name as tenuate dospan. These drugs are designed for short-term use; studies have concluded that patients can avoid developing a dependence on the drug if they take it for 25 weeks or less. But Trump continued downing the pills for years. According to two people – someone who said Trump would consider him a friend and a former Trump executive – the then-real estate developer boasted that the diethylpropion gave him enormous energy and helped him concentrate. A former Trump executive claimed to have picked up the medication while running errands for the boss. This person said the prescription, for 75 milligrams of diethylpropion a day, was filled at least for a time at a Duane Reade drugstore on 57th Street in Manhattan, a few blocks from Trump Tower. The executive said, like many celebrities, Trump used an alias for the prescription.”
There are other reports:
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-white-house-pharmacy-improperly-provided-drugs-misused-funds-pentagon-2024-01-28/
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/12/12/trump-grievance-addiction-444570
So, remember that commercial, “ This is your brain on drugs”?
Trump’s brain is REELING .

That business about grievance addiction sounds accurate, but the only compassion he'll get from me is I hope he dies in bed quietly, rather than some of the other ways I wish he would go that I consider on some days he's particularly the piece of shit he is.
I don’t care if he goes quietly or howling—if there was a God, he’d be gone already—and he knows it.
Actually, neither do I.
And I also!
And the apparent addiction to Adderall? And what about cocaine?
Lord, does anybody keep their Schitt together. A never-trumper telling Joe to bail. Granted, he was a turd, but I thought he was a reformed one, sort of like Steve Schmidt. Snark. Joe is my man, Hubert was my man and I ain’t gonna be distracted by shinny objects…
It's sad to say this, but a couple of more like this morning's and The Bulwark will go the way of the Weekly Standard. Kristol's column was not well received by the regular readership, most of whom had spent last week bidding Charlie goodbye.
I plead innocent by reason of ineligibility in the '68 election, but Humphrey (a modest man who had a great deal to be modest about) was not a great candidate, and given that the Democrats were saddled with responsibility for the war, probably wasn't going to win anyway. I admit to guilt in thinking that once we'd gotten rid of Nixon we had also solved the problem he represented and will do whatever I can to ensure 4 more years of Biden-Harris. I wish there was more I could do to ensure 20 to life for the failed insurrectionist, but will have to leave that in the hands of Mr. Smith, Ms. Willis, and their teams.
Humphrey lost to Nixon by 511,944 votes. Nixon had 43.4% of the popular vote to Humprey's 42.7% - it was a close election. Like I say, if those of us who surrendered to self-righteousness had remembered that Nixon was always a crook, Humphrey would have won. He would definitely have won if a breakthrough in negotiations had been announced the week before the election as might have happened other than Nixon's treason.
To learn that Nixon and Kissinger were as immoral as we suspected and sabotaged peace negotiations was a blow. To learn it was kept secret for so long on the grounds that it would “tear the country apart,” ( or was it that it would destroy our Americans’ faith in government) was even worse.
Interesting that Humphrey lost IL and CA, both arguably Democratic strongholds via Daley and Pat Brown. I think you're right about the peace agreement, but a little better handling of the Convention might have made a difference in Illinois and you know better than I do what happened in California.
all true
Mr. Conant, I'm feeling that way as well about Mr. Cillizza's sermons about the problems of President Biden's age and apparent frailty (blah, blah, blah). Yeah, President Biden is 81. He speaks very carefully and deliberately (because of his stutter, people). He stumbles (hey so do I and I'm more than a decade younger than President Biden). He occasionally mis-speaks because he has A LOT on his mind. I'd still far rather have Joe Biden at the helm, than the unhinged fascist dictator-in-the-making with his mysterious funk and his surrounding MAGA sycophants.
I read somewhere that President Biden's biggest liability (to the Repubbies) is that he may hand us our first female (and POC) President. The MAGAts are apparently in a panic at the very thought. Good.
You, me, and about 81 million other Americans at last count prefer Biden over the failed insurrectionist. With any luck at all, the panic will continue for another 10 months and build in intensity the whole time.
I agree.. so tired of this hand wringing. Go back in history and look at the reality of aging presidents - back when health care wasn't even as good as it is now - I'm thinking particularly of Roosevelt. Biden clearly is still capable. Yes, his energy is lower and we in the US are VERY intolerant and now unused to aging. My father was a stutterer, so I fully understand the way Biden has learned to speak slowly and sometimes a little hesitantly. It doesn't mean his mind is slow. The media is 99.99 percent to blame for the discomfort people feel and express and we are being told that because the media is not going to cover him fairly, he won't be able to win.. that's absurd. We need to find ways to show how capable Biden is, support him, appreciate him and respect him. We have no where else to go and the alternative is unthinkable, therefore we MUST stay united. Only thought I have is to find really good surrogates and lean on them and push on the media as hard as possible. It definitely does NOT help to have "friendly" people writing op-eds disparaging him. This is at best like Hillary 2016.
Nothing beats learning history from someone who lived it, even if he was attempting to kill brain cells at the time. Unsuccessfully, obviously, as those ones have survived to taunt him with the memories as history rhymes ringing in TC's ears. Thanks for sharing them Tom.
“All that is what “stepping aside for the good of the country” got us the last time it was tried by a U.S. president.” ⬅️ This!
TC, also great top post on Robert Hubbell today for those who need to get their “mojo back”.
The story of my minor role in supporting Nixon. I was young(13) in ‘72 when he campaigned in Providence, RI. My friend’s dad was chair of local Republican Party so we were recruited as “Nixonettes” ( Yes, they were a thing) I wore my sparkly, Nixon Now banner with the jumbo Nixon/Agnew button as we greeted him upon arrival at the airport with the appropriate prom-like wave. It would be many years..sigh…before I saw the light.
💙
But you did see the light, which is good. And you probably didn't have to take part in a lie to start a war to finally see the light, like I did.
Thank you. Steam was coming from my ears as I read the crappy replacement’s comments this morning. At least JVL wrote sensibly.
Yes, JVL is always good. When I disagree with anything he says, it makes me think about why.
I was really pissed off when I read Kristol’s article this morning. I’m actually starting to think all of these ageist attacks on President Biden are coming from a well fertilized Russian troll farm.
Ooooo. Loved the nostalgic review on the economics of purchasing a “3 finger lid” of pot. Those were the “daze” in a lot of ways. Lol
Salud, TC!
🗽💜
soooo... you have had the "adventurous life" it seems you did. :-)
Those were the “daze” for sure…full of “Orange Sunshine” too!
Bill Kristol's a big boy and doesn't need me (or anyone else) defending him or his opinions. But I have a theory as to why he might have chosen to start his time at the Bulwark's "Morning Shots" with a "Joe needs to go" piece. Things may have gotten a bit, well, too routine and even a little stale under Charlie Sykes' able but long tenure in that space, and some of the furniture probably needed a really good dusting. And what better way to get that done on the cheap than to write a few lines that you know will cause a not insignificant number of readers to pick it all up and throw it at you.
The place ought to be pretty clean come tomorrow, since I checked in a few minutes ago just out of curiosity and they're still throwing things around over there 12 hours after post... to the tune of 900 plus comments and counting.
This spring when the dust in my barn needs cleaning, I may ask Kristol to do a guest post from there.
I too wrote in Eugene McCarthy in 1968, but it didn't take long for me to see what Nixon wrought. For those of us who did so, it pretty well cured us of being "one issue voters" even when that issue was as big as our friends getting killed in a war we ultimately lost. What Johnson was able to accomplish on Civil Rights turned out to be a much longer lasting legacy.
I've just posted on Hubbell's Substack how those of us of that generation who are still sharp and even reasonably mobile need to be on the front lines of contesting--of proving by our very selves--that old does not equal infirm. You do it, TC. I hope I am able to do it in at least some of my comments.
A subset of Get out The Vote should be Get Out the Seniors. Show, not tell, the kiddies what "old" has accomplished, is currently accomplishing, and still can accomplish. Tell the story of our "one-issue" lives that brought us Nixon and further chaos, not to mention corruption. The issue then was the war, not age, but it was still one issue, and one issue is not the way to insure that our country continues to prosper.
I don't agree with you entirely about JFK, though I recognize his own 40ish infirmities. The war was much more motivated by the "falling dominos" fear of the Soviets which was the result of Cold War hysteria that had gone on all my life. With Stalin there was some basis; after that we listened way to much to the rantings of the leaders and thought they represented the actual people. I visited Russia the month after JFK's assassination, not with an Intourist group, and realized that my student counterparts were willing to debate the differences between communism and capitalism intelligently. They were NOT monomaniacs.
Believing in ranting of the leaders is why we have MAGA. We need to start listening to the opinions of the actual people, those not enthralled by the leaders. That's why I am optimistic that, polls be damned, we have a good shot at winning in November with a leader who doesn't rant. We just have to work to encourage those who are not monomaniacs of the importance of this election.
Great points all. However, JFK's "40s infirmities" were his infirmities in his 20s and 30s also. His reputation is what it is because the Kennedy family has the resources to maintain an excellent PR machine, and too many of our generation still feel what we did about him when we were young enough to have the self-awareness of rocks. (Every "movement person" I knew in the 60s would tell you if asked that "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" was their original motivator) That and the fact he's been dead for 60 years has allowed too many liberals to hang their wishes about the way things should have been on him and invest him as the representative of those wishes.
Perhaps it's time to do a Hunter Biden on Trump and remind the country that Trump's father had Alzheimer's, a disease with a strong genetic component, and that's what killed him after years of living with it. Swipes at family members seem to be okay these days. Combine that with reports of Trump's use of uppers and a montage of his own babbling gaffs and you may strike some body blows.
Trumps brain is, as the song goes, REELING IN THE EAVES on longterm amphetamine abuse.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/12/12/trump-grievance-addiction-444570
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-white-house-pharmacy-improperly-provided-drugs-misused-funds-pentagon-2024-01-28/
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-snorted-adderall-apprentice-tom-arnold-noel-casler-1257787
And in a Newsweek publication: “The derivatives were diethylpropion, known under its brand name as tenuate dospan. These drugs are designed for short-term use; studies have concluded that patients can avoid developing a dependence on the drug if they take it for 25 weeks or less. But Trump continued downing the pills for years. According to two people – someone who said Trump would consider him a friend and a former Trump executive – the then-real estate developer boasted that the diethylpropion gave him enormous energy and helped him concentrate. A former Trump executive claimed to have picked up the medication while running errands for the boss. This person said the prescription, for 75 milligrams of diethylpropion a day, was filled at least for a time at a Duane Reade drugstore on 57th Street in Manhattan, a few blocks from Trump Tower. The executive said, like many celebrities, Trump used an alias for the prescription.”
whenever somebody parrots the thesis of Oliver Stone (a man who has a lot to apologize for...remember those Putin interviews?) in his ridiculous "JFK" movie, I remove my muzzle (that was a joke...I have a big fucking mouth) and try to tell them the truth. it is said that JFK was very upset when he heard that Diem's murder--which he PLANNED--was a done deal. my heart bleeds...
I just tried in my head to count how many times Nixon committed treason. I got to about four or five, but I bet there were more.
in Robert Caro's LBJ book (still unfinished, with its editor recently departed), there's a lot of stuff about the treatment LBJ got from the Kennedys ("Senator Cornpone" was a favorite), as well as the awe in which he held guys like the Bundy Boys and the Martini-chugging Schlesinger.
since I was only 19 in 1968, I have no vote to apologize for, but I would have voted for Humphrey because, in my family, that's what you did.
if I had a hundred bucks for every time I was sold "guaranteed Owsley acid" I would have had...at least a thousand bucks. I DID have some excellent acid, fifty tabs of which I hid in a refill-less ballpoint pen, in '69, when I did the European backpacking thing. a lot of folks all over that continent were very pleased I did that. three years later, on not such great acid, I ate some spoiled whitefish and ended up with a very mild three-day toxic psychosis (my own diagnosis) after being very sick in the usual disgusting ways. after that, I was out of the acid game.
and yes, pot was that cheap. my usual deal was to buy ten or twelve ounces for about $75.00, sell five at $15 each and have the rest to live on for however long it took to finish the rest. and THAT was my career as a drug dealer.
no head for business. as usual, the pun was accidental.
In Berkeley, in 1968, it wasn't hard to get the real thing, since Owsley was brewing it up right nearby. But yeah, anywhere else - particularly Haight-Ashbury by then - it was Momma Hold the Door.
some of the stuff on this coast could be gnarly as fuck. I remember a brief period in which some consumers decided that Strychnine could "enhance the experience," so dealers started to advertise the rat poison as a GOOD THING. maybe THAT's what happened with the bad Whitefish.