We went to see Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 on the big screen yesterday. Very mixed feelings. Glad we went, but. Okay, after a shaky start to his career, Costner has found his way as an actor, and put in a good performance. Beautiful cinematography. But a muddled story and way too many historical inaccuracies. Meh, yeah, we’ll probably go see Chapter 2 when it comes out.
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Politics:
Trump Freaks Out Over Biden Leaving Race
Joe Biden’s exit from the 2024 campaign and the rise of Vice President Kamala Harris as the leading contender for the Democratic ticket has provoked a nuclear-level meltdown from the right — especially from Donald Trump.
In a series of Truth Social posts, Trump also complained that he had been unfairly forced to spend money campaigning against Biden, and even suggested that ‘the Republican Party be reimbursed for fraud’ now that he wouldn’t be running against the president.
Trump even hinted that he may back out of the scheduled presidential debate in September, unless major changes are made in his favor.
Trump’s musings became more unhinged as the night went on. In another post, he suggested that Biden was faking a recent Covid-19 diagnosis. The rant extended into the early hours of Monday morning, when Trump accused Democrats of having stolen the nomination from Biden.
This Is Exactly What the Trump Team Feared
Biden’s departure from the presidential race this afternoon—hours after his top surrogates had insisted that he would carry on—is the culmination of a remarkable pressure campaign, launched after his calamitous June 27 debate performance and aimed at pushing the president into retirement. On the Republican side, it caps a frenetic four-month stretch in which Trump’s campaign went from cocky about Biden’s deficiencies to fearful of his ouster to stunned at the sudden letter from Biden doing the thing Republicans thought he’d never do.
Republicans I spoke with today, some of them still hungover from celebrating what felt to many like a victory-night celebration in Milwaukee, registered shock at the news of Biden’s departure. Party officials had left town believing the race was all but over. Now they were confronting the reality of reimagining a campaign—one that had been optimized, in every way, to defeat Biden—against a new and unknown challenger…
For months, in talking with Wiles and LaCivita, I was struck by their concern about the potential of a dramatic switch—Democratic leaders pushing out Biden in favor of a younger nominee. They told me that Trump’s campaign was readying contingency plans and studying the weaknesses of would-be alternatives, beginning with Vice President Kamala Harris. By the time of the debate, however, they believed that Democrats’ window had all but closed.
Donald Trump and his allies confronted a new electoral landscape on Sunday as President Biden ended his bid for reelection, a move that upended a period of steady political gains for the Republican nominee and forced his campaign to regroup with a new blueprint less than four months before the election.
Fresh off weeks of mounting confidence over Biden’s stumbles and reams of polling showing the former president ahead in key swing states, Trump at one point appeared frustrated at Biden’s exit, writing on social media that he was ‘forced to spend time and money’ against Biden and now has to ‘start all over again.’
Biden’s Exit Leads to Avalanche of New Donations
Democrats greeted President Biden’s departure from the presidential race with an avalanche of cash, donating more than $50 million online on Sunday and making it the single biggest day for online Democratic contributions since the 2020 election — with hours to go.
Wall Street Donors Line Up Behind Harris
Wall Street’s Democrats are lining up behind Kamala Harris with a mixture of relief and genuine enthusiasm for a politician many of them supported in 2020.
Finance executives’ money and convening power between now and the Democratic convention will be key to Harris’ plans to ‘earn and win’ her party’s nomination. Several donors said Sunday they were prepared to break out checkbooks that had sat untouched since Joe Biden’s debate performance.
Not sure that double negative worked, but yeah.
Joe Manchin Mulls Run for President
Sources close to Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia independent, said he’s considering re-registering as a Democrat and throwing his hat into the ring to run for president.
Oh, please. Manchin is about as popular among Democrats as herpes is. Mull all you want, but not happening.
Every Democratic State Party Chair Backs Harris
All 50 Democratic party state chairs have thrown their weight behind Vice President Kamala Harris to be the party’s new presidential nominee.
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