OpinionHow can Biden save America from Trump's return to the White House? Drop out of the race.Jeremy Mayer

Updated Mon, May 20, 2024 at 10:32

The November election is the rematch America doesn’t want: the two oldest and among the most unpopular candidates in our history.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Republicans are stuck with former President Donald Trump. Unless he dies or is incapacitated medically, he’s their nominee. He may have to win to stay out of jail.

But there is a way for President Joe Biden to step aside, to voluntarily remove himself for the good of the nation and the party.

Biden could announce, anytime this summer, that he’s out. He could use the same logic that got him the nomination in 2020. He sincerely and accurately believed that he was the Democrat with the best chance to beat Trump. Now, he is one of the few national Democrats who could get Trump reelected.

Battleground state polls look bad for Biden

Recent polling of Biden against Trump looks ugly. Biden has low support among young, Black and Hispanic voters, crucial votes in swing states. Biden is seen as too old to serve a second term by many voters.

Some perceptions of candidates can be changed. But voters are unlikely to decide that Biden is younger and more vigorous than they thought.

Biden's poll numbers are awful.America, brace for a Trump victory in November.

If Democrats were to nominate Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, he'd beat Trump like LeBron James posting up Kevin Hart. There are many others, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey. Trump would look old and unhinged next to their youthful competence and sober characters.

And while Vice President Kamala Harris, who polls worse against Trump than Biden does, would have been a serious threat to take the nomination in open primaries, there is no chance a convention of Biden delegates would select her. They want to beat Trump too badly to take that risk.

What about giving up all the advantages of incumbency? Truth be told, there aren’t many this year.

Biden has had, by most standard measures, a pretty successful presidency. But he’s being blamed for high inflation, the U.S. troops withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. A new face works better on intractable problems like the Middle East.

Wouldn’t an open national convention be a chaotic disaster for the Democrats?

Let’s learn from Trump. When his most prominent rival, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, refused to endorse him at the 2016 Republican convention, which had not happened in the modern era, Trump didn’t panic. He knew that drama makes great TV. He was right.

An open Democratic convention would make great TV

Modern conventions are scripted and boring affairs that struggle to get viewers. An open convention with delegates rooting for Harris, Whitmer, Shapiro and others would be amazing TV. The nation would be spellbound by great floor speeches, unexpected endorsements from politicians and celebrities, rallies, music and marches.

Mr. President, you’re one of the few Americans old enough to remember when conventions were fascinating and powerful. They’ve become predictable and almost pointless. Why not pull a surprise on the Republicans, and let the convention pick the nominee for the first time in decades?

Why not go down in history as the guy who beat Trump twice and saved our republic?

The first time you beat him by running. This second time, you can beat him by not running.

Jeremy Mayer is an associate professor in the Schar School of Policy and Governmentat George Mason University, where he also directs the master's and Ph.D. programs in political science.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/biden-save-america-trumps-return-080623200.html

Well, this will be weird! Maher on Gutfeld.

https://x.com/Gutfeldfox/status/1792696188254532047

Amber Rose Endorses Donald Trump.

In an unexpected move, model-turned-activist Amber Rose publicly endorsed Donald Trump for the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election on Monday.

Rose, known for her advocacy on “women’s rights” and “social issues,” shared a photo on Instagram alongside Donald and Melania Trump with a caption reading, “Trump 2024.”

Rose’s announcement ignited a firestorm in the comments section, with left-wing followers falsely claiming that Trump is anti-LGBT and anti-women.

Trump supporters however, warmly welcomed Rose’s comments.

https://thenationalpulse.com/2024/05/20/amber-rose-endorses-donald-trump/

D.C. Police Captain Shot 5 Blocks From His Station.

A Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department captain who oversees the 4th District Station in the nation’s capital was shot in the head while commuting to work on Monday afternoon.

The incident occurred as part of an apparent carjacking attempt around 12:10 PM in the area of 7th Street and Oneida Place Northwest, just five blocks from the police station.

According to D.C. police Chief Pamela Smith, the officer was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, with the gunshot wound reportedly being superficial.

The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department engaged in a car chase of the suspects. Two individuals were taken into custody in Prince George’s County after crashing and rolling the car they occupied.

https://thenationalpulse.com/2024/05/20/d-c-police-captain-shot-five-blocks-from-his-district-station/

Hall of Fame center Jim Otto, 'Mr. Raider,' dies at 86

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Paul Gutierrez, ESPN Staff Writer

May 19, 2024, 11:30 PM ET

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HENDERSON, Nev. – Jim Otto, a Pro Football Hall of Fame center whose iconic No. 00 jersey anchored the middle of the Oakland Raiders' offensive line for 15 seasons, has died at age 86.

The Raiders, who moved from Oakland to Las Vegas in 2020, announced his death Sunday night, calling him "The Original Raider." The cause of death was not immediately known.

Otto was the dominant center of his era many would argue of any era as he had a singular goal: "Never will they kick my butt."

Indeed, Otto did most of the kicking in a 15-year career that never saw him miss a game. From the AFL's initial season of 1960 through the 1970 AFL-NFL merger and his retirement following the 1974 season, Otto started 210 straight regular-season games, 223 including the playoffs, and was a Pro Bowler 12 times, a first-team All-Pro selection 10 times.

He was known later in life as "Pops" in the Raiders organization.

"I accept that," he said in 2014, "and cherish that."

Many have long suggested Otto's face should be the eye-patch-wearing logo on the side of the team's helmet, and Otto did not disagree.

"But with a broken nose," he joked at the time.

He was the only All-AFL center in the league's entire existence from 1960 to 1969, and he was one of only three players who played in all 140 AFL regular-season games (George Blanda and Gino Cappelletti were the others).

"Playing football was always a serious proposition for me," Otto said in 2021. "I wanted to put everyone on their backside and go home smiling, with my wife. So, it was a tough game for me. I had guys like Ray Nitschke. I wanted to get him and put him on his backside. He wanted to do the same to me. We had great times."

Otto said the hardest hit he ever received in a game came from Nitschke, in 1972.

"He broke my facemask in here, which broke my nose and set it over here," Otto said in 2014. "Broke my cheekbone, and my zygomatic arch bone here, and detached my retina in my left eye. … I was blind for six months in my left eye. It was really bad. It all swelled up, and I couldn't see, but I kept playing. I never went out of the game."

Despite a long list of injuries, Otto said he had no regrets. But those injuries did eventually come at a cost,as he endured 74 surgeries by his count, plus more than 20 concussions, and in 2007 he had to have his right leg amputated above the knee following two life-threatening infections. He also had prostate cancer.

His autobiography was titled "The Pain of Glory."

"I know that I went to war and I came out of the battle with what I got, and that's the way it is," Otto said on PBS' "Frontline" special "League of Denial: The NFL's Concussion Crisis."

"There were so many times that I would walk off the field and my eyes would be crossed. Or what about if you had amnesia for two days? When you looked at your wife and you didn't know who she was, like, 'Who's this chick?'"

Otto wore No. 50 during his first season in Oakland before switching to 00. He was also was selected to the Pro Bowl in the first three years after the AFL-NFL merger.

In his 15-year career, the Raiders won seven division titles and were AFL champions in 1967, losing to the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl II. Otto later returned to the Raiders to work in the front office…

(https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/40183412/hall-fame-center-jim-otto-mr-raider-dies-86

20 May, 2024 23:42

Ukraine ‘a classic failed state’ – Medvedev

Kiev is run by a lawless and criminal regime, the former Russian president has said

Vladimir Zelensky’s decision not to hold elections means the Kiev government has no legitimacy even on paper, according to Dmitry Medvedev, the head of Russia’s Security Council.

Zelensky’s five-year mandate expired on Tuesday but he has argued that the Ukrainian constitution does not allow him to call new presidential or parliamentary elections during martial law, which he declared in February 2022.

“All these manipulations with laws mean only one thing – the death of the failed state of Ukraine, its transformation into a classic failed state, to use American vocabulary,” Medvedev told TASS on Monday.

TheUS and its allieshavesupported Zelensky’s efforts to stay in powerbecause they feared “the shameful fall of his criminal regime,” Medvedev added.

“That’s why there is such a high probability that Zelensky would have lost this election miserably, and the citizens of his non-existent country would have wanted a new president in the hope that he would start peace negotiations with Russia,” said the former Russian president and prime minister.

Medvedev reminded reporters thatZelensky, “a political upstart,” won in 2019precisely because he campaigned “on the rhetoric of peace.” However, theWestern sponsorsof the regime in Kievcould not allow peacebecause “they make good money from the bloody bacchanalia,” he added.

The US and its allies have sought to portray the sending of weapons and ammunition to Kiev as an “investment” into their military-industrial complex worth hundreds of billions of dollars, and openly said most of that money would never reach Ukraine.

Medvedev dismissed the notion that anything substantial will change in Ukraine after May 21, however.Ukrainians “didn’t live in a rule-of-law state anyway,” he said, arguing that “law and justice were forgotten ten years ago,” with the US-backed coup in Kiev and the start of the Donbass conflict.

As for Zelensky, Medvedev said, he can either be captured and put on trial, or meet the same fate as his “spiritual teacher,” Stepan Bandera. The leader of Ukrainian nationalists, who sought to collaborate with Nazi Germany during WWII, was assassinated by Soviet operatives in Munich in 1959.

(He’s Right You Know!)

https://www.rt.com/russia/597954-ukraine-failed-state-zelensky/