GAY TALESE, CALL YOUR OFFICE! Biden Caught a Cold That Made Him 1,000 Years Old.

After about 15 minutes, I’d seen enough. I can’t stand to listen to either of them for more than that, but at least Trump seemed like he still knew where and who he was. He’s old, but he’s not Biden old.

Yet.

Even with the sound off, the optics were horrible: Trump gesticulating and yammering about whatever, and Biden just staring at him like a slack-jawed zombie.

And when Joe had to talk… oh boy…

Look, I never said Trump wasn’t funny.

Online, the journos and other Democrats were hanging in there, trying to make excuses for Biden’s excruciating debate performance. Before it was even over, they started reporting the “breaking news” that oh, by the way, Joe has a cold.

No, he has 81 years behind him. He cannot speak in public anymore unless everything is written down for him, and he can barely even manage that.

It’s Schrodinger’s Cough — a “cold” so bad that it wrecked his debate performance, but not so bad that he couldn’t meet with supporters after the debate last night and campaign the next day: Biden to hold campaign rally in North Carolina hours after faltering debate performance.

(Classical allusion in headline.)

THE NEW SPACE RACE: SpaceX Launched 1000 Starlink Satellites in First Half of 2024 and Direct to Cell Starting in the Fall.

BLAMING THE REFS: Dems Blame CNN Moderators After Biden Debate Disaster: “Unforgivable.”

You can always tell who lost a presidential debate by which party is slamming the moderators afterwards. And in the wake of Joe Biden and Donald Trump‘s first 2024 presidential debate, many progressives are focusing their fire on CNN‘s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, calling out the duo for not fact-checking Trump in real time during the 90-minute face off.

Thursday’s clash featured a performance by President Joe Biden that many are calling disastrous for his reelection chances, with CNN’s own post-debate panelists suggesting the president should consider withdrawing from the race.

As Mark Steyn spotted this morning, Dana certainly tried to steer Biden in the right direction:

The moderators did their best. Here’s Dana Bash signaling to Joe the direction in which to point his head:

Watch CNN anchor hand signal Joe on where to look pic.twitter.com/QDhyZ2SNJ6

— TacoBill's Pic of the Day (@JerseyBillz) June 28, 2024

Was there anyone else on the stage? Not so’s you’d know from the headlines. Biden lost to himself. And considering that the object was to make the debate all about Trump that’s quite an accomplishment.

So what’s going on? Why did whoever’s running the show allow this to happen?

* * * * * * * *

As my former GB News colleague Neil Oliver observed long ago on The Mark Steyn Show, formulating a useful rule of contemporary politics:

This is happening because they want it to happen.

Why would that be? Well, maybe because they’ve decided it’s time to move on to the next plot twist. Never-Trumper Michael Brendan Dougherty at National Review:

Trump May Have Done Too Much Winning Tonight

Oh, no! They laid the trap and he walked right into it!

Right now, MSNBC and CNN post-debate panels are openly talking about options for pressuring Biden to withdraw, or party officials conspiring to replace him at the convention anyway …and the selection between Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom would allow Democrats to feel like the party of the future again…

At NRO’s Corner, Mark Antonio Wright notes that there’s only man who can remove Brandon from the stage, his boss: Only Barack Obama Could Push Joe Biden Aside.

So if anything is going to happen to turn the great Democratic swap-out parlor game on Earth II into something approaching reality, it will necessitate Barack Obama’s publicly and forcefully calling on Joe Biden, his former veep, to step aside.

Obama is the only Democrat with the stature and the coalition-wide credibility to give cover to all the rest of them. If there is going to be a groundswell of public and private pressure on Biden to withdraw, it’s going to have to start with Obama.

Democrats can dream — but it’s not going to happen. Obama is no more interested than Newsom in rolling the dice on a party civil war that could be blamed on him. And no combination of Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, or Nancy Pelosi has the heft.

If this story making the rounds is true, it could indicate why Barry is hesitant to make the call: Why Michelle Obama hasn’t campaigned for Biden and has been ‘frustrated’ with his family over messy drama that resurfaced during Hunter’s trial.

Michelle Obama has steered clear of campaigning for Joe Biden over her private frustration with how the family treated friend Kathleen Buhle during her messy divorce from Hunter Biden, a new report claims.

The former first lady, one of the most popular figures in the Democratic party, hasn’t posted about the 81-year-old president’s re-election bid.

Buhle and Hunter split in 2017 and details of the divorce resurfaced when she testified at his recent federal gun trial in Delaware.

Axios reported that Michelle told others that her friend had been wronged by the Biden family who have blamed Buhle for some of the lurid details of Hunter’s behavior becoming public.

But hey, this is all academic, right? Joe insists he’ll be at the next debate in September! Biden vows to return for second debate against Trump after disastrous performance.

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: The Great Big Monster Fire Truck That Could. “It’s time for your much-needed break from the serious news and this week we have the Florida Man… er, Woman… no, Man who tried to burn down a motel, a steal of a monster truck, and the mystery of whether Texas Woman meant to steal that corpse.”

HMM: Shopping app Temu is “dangerous malware,” spying on your texts, lawsuit claims.

OH GOODY: FEDERAL ‘SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY TASK FORCE’ TO POLICE RESEARCH MISCONDUCT. Brought to you by the same folks who punished and silenced those who suggested COVID might have leaked from a lab.

BIDEN PUMPED THE ECONOMY WITH TRILLIONS IN FUNNY-MONEY BUT IT MIGHT ALREADY BE RUNNING OUT OF JUICE: US weekly jobless claims, equipment spending data point to slowing economy.

DISPATCHES FROM THE TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE DEBATE: The Trump Campaign Released an Ad After the Debate. It’s ‘Devastating.’

Trump just released a 95 second ad. And it’s brutal. He didn’t even need to say anything. All he did was let Biden talk.pic.twitter.com/KBKBK6UYQ7

— Alana Mastrangelo (@ARmastrangelo) June 28, 2024

As Bari Weiss writes: They Knew.

The debate was not just a catastrophe for President Biden. And boy—oy—was it ever.

But it was more than that. It was a catastrophe for an entire class of experts, journalists, and pundits, who have, since 2020, insisted that Biden was sharp as a tack, on top of his game, basically doing handstands while peppering his staff with tough questions about care for migrant children and aid to Ukraine.

When you’ve lost Biden’s favorite chat show: Sad Scarborough Suggests: Time For Dems To Tell Biden It’s ‘Over’

WELL, GOOD: Common blood pressure drug may make leukemia more responsive to chemotherapy while protecting heart.

SUPREME COURT PARES BACK FEDERAL REGULATORY POWER:

The Supreme Court upended the federal regulatory framework in place for 40 years, expanding the power of federal judges to second-guess agency decisions over environmental, consumer and workplace safety policy, among other areas.

The 6-3 decision, along ideological lines, discards a 1984 precedent directing federal courts to defer to agency legal interpretations when the statutory language passed by Congress is ambiguous. Conservative legal activists, Republican-led states and some business groups have argued in recent years that the 1984 case, Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, allows agenda-driven regulators to push the limits of their power.

WHAT DID THE PRESIDENT KNOW AND WHO TOLD HIM? CNN Host: Biden Knew ‘Every One of These Questions Was Coming’ and Still Blew the Debate.

EVEN IF THEY REPLACE HIM AS CANDIDATE, WE’RE PROBABLY STUCK WITH HIM FOR NEARLY 7 MONTHS: Six Tips for Surviving in Biden’s America.

Though I can imagine a deal where he resigns now in favor of Kamala, giving her several months as the first black, female president in exchange for her not running.

CALL ME CRAZY, BUT I AGREE: Staying fit may decrease men’s risk of ALS.

HMM: Yale Buckley Institute’s National Law Student Survey: Undecided (28%) Leads Presidential Race, Topping Biden (27%), Trump (17%), And RFK (16%).

Disturbing for future employers: “this same group of future lawyers care more about social justice than they do about delivering a favorable result for their potential clients.”

ANOTHER BIG WIN FOR THE NCLA: In Landmark Victory for Civil Liberties, NCLA Persuades Supreme Court to Overturn Chevron Deference. “Today, the U.S. Supreme Court decided 6-3 to overturn the 1984 Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council case and with it the unconstitutional Chevron doctrine. It did so in the New Civil Liberties Alliance’s case, Relentless Inc. v. Dept. of Commerce, argued in tandem with Loper Bright Enterprises, et al. v. Raimondo. The Court vacated and remanded the First Circuit’s decision that upheld a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Marine Fisheries Service rule requiring fishing companies like NCLA’s clients to pay for at-sea government monitors on their fishing boats. NCLA celebrates this monumental victory, which will curtail abuses of administrative power for years to come. . . . Concurring opinions discussed two core constitutional problems with Chevron deference that NCLA founder Philip Hamburger has long emphasized. First, employing such deference abandons a judge’s duty to provide independent judgment. Second, when a federal court defers to an agency’s legal interpretation, the litigants opposing that agency—like the fishermen opposing NOAA in Relentless—do not have their case judged by an impartial adjudicator, which violates the core constitutional promise of due process.”

Reminder/disclosure: I’m on the NCLA’s advisory board.

IN THE MAIL: The Gouge!: How to Be Smarter Than the Situation You Are In.

Given the situation we’re in now, that shouldn’t be hard. And yet. . . .

DAVID AXELROD: Biden Is The Nominee Of The Democratic Party, ‘This Isn’t The 60s.’

UPDATE: A friend comments:

Democrats simply did not accept the result of November 2016. Since then, every piece of their power has been leveraged for short-term political gain through elections in 2018, 20, and 22, and they have incredibly sustained their political power at the cost of discrediting the lion’s share of the institutions they control and upon which the nation once depended.

Until 15 hours ago, those institutions were still gaslighting us that Joe Biden was in tip-top shape.

Now even the densest people know they lied.

LIMITED TIME DEAL: 2024 Newest Tesla Model Y Sunshade Roof. #CommissionEarned

LAST ONE FOR TODAY, I THINK: SCOTUS Hands Down J6 Decision Affecting Hundreds of Capitol Protestors.

I FEEL LIKE AMAZON KNOWS TOO MUCH ABOUT ME ALREADY: Amazon Health Announces $49 Telehealth Service, Consolidating Clinic Into One Medical.

DEAR DEMS: We Told You Do, We Told You So, and We Told You So Some More. “If Denial were a river in Egypt, somebody just bombed the Aswan Dam.”

THIS BOOK LOOKS INTERESTING: Lies I Taught in Medical School: How Conventional Medicine Is Making You Sicker and What You Can Do to Save Your Own Life. #CommissionEarned

BREAKING: SCOTUS Deals a MAJOR Blow to the Big Government.

OF COURSE IT IS: New U. Arizona DEI course requirement hit with criticism: ‘academically unserious.’

REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER: Another 80 Pro-Palestinian Protesters Have the Chargers Against Them Dropped.