Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
The president appeared on Thursday night as the shadow of a great public servant. He struggled to explain what he would accomplish in a second term. He struggled to respond to Mr. Trump’s provocations. He struggled to hold Mr. Trump accountable for his lies, his failures and his chilling plans. More than once, he struggled to make it to the end of a sentence.
Mr. Biden has been an admirable president. Under his leadership, the nation has prospered and begun to address a range of long-term challenges, and the wounds ripped open by Mr. Trump have begun to heal. But the greatest public service Mr. Biden can now perform is to announce that he will not continue to run for re-election.
As it stands, the president is engaged in a reckless gamble. There are Democratic leaders better equipped to present clear, compelling and energetic alternatives to a second Trump presidency. There is no reason for the party to risk the stability and security of the country by forcing voters to choose between Mr. Trump’s deficiencies and those of Mr. Biden. It’s too big a bet to simply hope Americans will overlook or discount Mr. Biden’s age and infirmity that they see with their own eyes.
If the race comes down to a choice between Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden, the sitting president would be this board’s unequivocal pick. That is how much of a danger Mr. Trump poses. But given that very danger, the stakes for the country and the uneven abilities of Mr. Biden, the United States needs a stronger opponent to the presumptive Republican nominee. To make a call for a new Democratic nominee this late in a campaign is a decision not taken lightly, but it reflects the scale and seriousness of Mr. Trump’s challenge to the values and institutions of this country and the inadequacy of Mr. Biden to confront him.
. . . Mr. Biden answered an urgent question on Thursday night. It was not the answer that he and his supporters were hoping for. But if the risk of a second Trump term is as great as he says it is — and we agree with him that the danger is enormous — then his dedication to this country leaves him and his party only one choice.
The clearest path for Democrats to defeat a candidate defined by his lies is to deal truthfully with the American public: acknowledge that Mr. Biden can’t continue his race, and create a process to select someone more capable to stand in his place to defeat Mr. Trump in November.
It is the best chance to protect the soul of the nation — the cause that drew Mr. Biden to run for the presidency in 2019 — from the malign warping of Mr. Trump. And it is the best service that Mr. Biden can provide to a country that he has nobly served for so long.
Will he withdraw? As Lyndon Johnson is reputed to have said when he heard that Walter Cronkite declared that the Vienam war was likely to end in a stalemate, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.” What about if you lose the New York Times?
The Oklahoma State Department of Education is mandating public school teachers use the Bible in classrooms, effective immediately.
Public school superintendents were sent a memo on Thursday announcing the new rule.
“The Bible is an indispensable historical and cultural touchstone,” said State Superintendent Ryan Walters. “Without basic knowledge of it, Oklahoma students are unable to properly contextualize the foundation of our nation which is why Oklahoma educational standards provide for its instruction. This is not merely an educational directive but a crucial step in ensuring our students grasp the core values and historical context of our country.”
The memo directs schools to “incorporate the Bible, which includes the Ten Commandments, as an instructional support into the curriculum.” The superintendent said the directive is in alignment with curriculum rules approved in May 2019 and all districts must comply.
The new policy takes effect right away and “adherence to this mandate is compulsory,” the memo states.
According to the Oklahoma Attorney General Oklahoma, law already allowed Bibles in the classroom and enabled teachers to use them in instruction.
Critics were already calling the move unconstitutional following Walters’ announcement Thursday.
“Public schools are not Sunday schools. Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters has repeatedly made clear that he is incapable of distinguishing the difference and is unfit for office. His latest scheme – to mandate use of the Bible in Oklahoma public schools’ curriculum – is a transparent, unconstitutional effort to indoctrinate and religiously coerce public school students,” said Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
This would appear on its face to be a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, but note how they try to circumvent that by arguing that the Bible is important in American history and education. Sorry, but if you want to do that, wait until graduate school when you can have a course on the Bible as History and Literature. There’s no doubt that this is just a sneaky way to insinuate religion (and Christianity; or are they teaching only the Old Testament?) into public schools. I believe the FFRF will sue the Dept. of Education.
*As always, I’ll steal three items from the estimable Nellie Bowles’s weekly news summary at the Free Press. This week’s in honor of Thursday’s debacle, is called “TGIF: The President has a cold.”
→ Jamaal accidentally ran for the wrong district: I feel terrible for Jamaal Bowman, the Squad member who just lost his race after accidentally running in the wrong district. To rally voters, he went to the South Bronx. He said things like: “We’re gonna show fucking AIPAC the power of the motherfucking South Bronx.” And: “We’re gonna show them who the fuck we are.” He said really mean things about folks to the north of the Bronx and their weird religious practices.
“In New York City we all live together. Westchester is segregated. There’s certain places where the Jews live and concentrate. Scarsdale, parts of White Plains, parts of New Rochelle, Riverdale. I’m sure they made a decision to do that for their own reasons,” he said. “We’ve been separated and segregated and miseducated for so long. We need to live together, play together, go to school together, learn together, work together.”
His district, however, includes Westchester. It also does not include the South Bronx! No one told Jamaal Bowman, and I honestly think that’s really mean.
And it was mean that the Jews didn’t vote for Jamaal Bowman, who celebrated the Hamas attacks and denied that any Israeli women were raped. And it’s mean that AIPAC helped boost his opponent. But Bowman had already been down by 17 points before AIPAC even got involved. Anyway, here’s how The New York Times initially described his loss:
Yes, he was doing great but for the Jews! It’s all that money. It’s exactly how they described abortion rights groups who spent ten times the amount of money on the most recent midterms. Pro-life groups fell, “overtaken by flood of pro-choice money,” I’m sure. Right? Right? That was ten times the amount! Weird, I can’t find a single NYT headline about thatnumber.
→ Oh, California: After a sweep of a Los Angeles homeless tent encampment, local businesses and residents put big planters on the sidewalk, hopeful that this might disrupt the tent city. But you cannot have random planters! Sidewalks are for fentanyl dens and taking naps naked. The city immediately removed the planters. Los Angeles cops respond faster to a new flower box than they do to a murder. You can park your car next to a group that includes a sex-trafficked teenager and enough fentanyl to kill an elephant, and oh, the police will come: to give you a ticket for parking too long in a loading zone.
As for California’s budget: it’s so hard to balance those old things. Even though our markets are hitting record highs and things seem good or should be, California has declared “a budget emergency.” The reasons given for the “emergency” are that the stock market went up but also down. And that there were a lot of winter storms. So the state is drawing down the reserves by $12 billion over the next two years.
→ The Taliban makes a good point about women, UN says: When Afghanistan’s representatives at the United Nations asked that no Afghan women be allowed in the conversation to discuss Afghanistan, the United Nations said of course, good sirs. Furious American feminists held rallies to—oh, oh, never mind, American feminists are totally and completely silent and maybe sort of into it. Taliban are so indigenous, so very anti-Zionist, they understand the power of layering loose fabrics. It’s so hot right now. Almost as hot as the Houthis. Women under Taliban rule need to just sit tight for one or two or three generations to pass, and then maybe worrying about your freedom will be cool again. Or maybe never! Either way, please don’t come into the room when men are in there!
*Here are, as of 7 a.m. today, the results from yesterday’s poll about who won the Presidential debate. The readers apparently agree with the NYT, CNN, and almost everyone else:
And from Bari Weiss at the Free Press, in an article called “They Knew“:
Rarely are so many lies dispelled in a single moment. Rarely are so many people exposed as liars and sycophants. Last night’s debate was a watershed on both counts.
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.
Anyone who committed the sin of using their own eyes on the 46th president were accused, variously, of being Trumpers; MAGA cult members who don’t want American democracy to survive; ageists; or just dummies easily duped by “disinformation,” “misinformation,” “fake news,” and, most recently, “cheap fakes.”
Cast your mind back to February, when Robert Hur, the Special Counsel appointed by the Department of Justice to look into Biden’s handling of classified documents, came out with his report that included details about Biden’s health, which explained why he would not prosecute the president.
“We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” Hur wrote. “It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him—by then a former president well into his eighties—of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”
Can anyone doubt that characterization after watching Biden’s debate performance?
Yet Eric Holder told us that Hur’s remarks were “gratuitous.” The former attorney general tweeted: “Had this report been subject to a normal DOJ review these remarks would undoubtedly have been excised.” Dan Pfeiffer, a former Obama adviser, said Hur’s report was a “partisan hit job.” Vice President Kamala Harris argued: “The way that the president’s demeanor in that report was characterized could not be more wrong on the facts, and clearly politically motivated, gratuitous.” The report does not “live in reality,” said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, stressing that the president was “sharp” and “on top of things.”
Shall I go on? Okay.
She goes on, but the point is made. Here’s a screenshot of yesterday’s NYT editorial headlines. Five of the seven columns—every column about the debate—urge Biden to drop out of the race. But who will replace him? Surely not Kamala Harris. I vote for Gretchen Whitmer now. (I’ve rethought my support for Mayor Pete.)
This is not a hard column to write. In fact, I wrote it twice already! But last night’s debate performance by Joe Biden is the end of his campaign. It’s over. Done. No sane person can possibly believe that this man is capable of being president now, let alone for another four years. No sane person can vote for him.
And watching him barely capable of finishing a sentence, staring vacantly into the middle distance, unable to deliver a single coherent message even when handed an ideal question, incapable of any serious rebuttals to Trump’s increasingly deranged lies … well, the first thing I felt was intense sadness. This was elder abuse — inflicted, in part, by his wife.
The second thing I felt was rage. His own people chose to do this. That alone reveals a campaign so divorced from reality, so devoid of a rationale or a message, so strategically incompetent, it too has no chance of winning. It is an insult to all of us that a mature political party would offer someone in this physical and mental state as president for the next four years. And it has always been an insult. That the Democrats would offer him as the only alternative to what they regard as the end of liberal democracy under Trump is proof that they are either lying about what they claim are the stakes or are utterly delusional. If Trump is that dangerous, why on earth are you putting forward a man clearly in the early stages of dementia against him? Have you decided to let Trump win by default because you’re too scared to tell an elderly man the truth?
And if they have not told him the truth on this, what else are they afraid to tell him?
The mainstream media also bears responsibility for once again being an arm of the DNC establishment, running countless stories about Biden’s acuity and sharpness from inside sources, while attacking the few journalists who actually dared write the most obvious truth about this election: Biden has deteriorated rapidly in the last four years, he is unrecognizable from the man who ran in 2020, and we’ll be lucky if he is able to function as president for the next six months, let alone four years.
. . .But there is a huge, gleaming, hopeful silver lining, as I’ve noted many times before. For the first time this year, we have a chance of keeping Trump out of the Oval Office with a new nominee from a younger generation. No, I don’t know who — except it obviously cannot be Kamala Harris, who would lose by an even bigger margin than the ambling cadaver. But that is what politics is for! There is time for a campaign before a convention that could now be must-see television. A future campaign already has a simple message that vibes with the moment and instantly puts Trump on defense: it’s time for the next generation to lead. We are choosing between the past (Trump) and the future, between the old and the young, between the insane versus the coherent.
All it takes is a credible Democrat of stature to say they are running against Biden. Then all the bets are off. He or she need not criticize Biden, and, in fact, should lionize his service. But they can say they’re running because beating Trump is the first and most important objective, and, at this point, it is obvious that Biden simply cannot beat Trump.
Does anyone have that courage? The person who shows it will instantly become the front-runner. Go for it.
Indeed, but then what will happen. Will there be two more debates? I agree about Harris not being suitable, but it’s really uncharitable for Sullivan to call Biden, a fellow human, “the ambling cadaver.” That’s bloody rude.
The debacle [of the debate] put a spotlight on a handful of Democrats who were once seen as 2028 presidential hopefuls, but are now being whispered about as potential contenders to replace Biden. They include Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Vice President Kamala Harris. Biden would need to step aside from the race in order for Democrats to replace him, given that he controls most of the party’s delegates headed into their August convention.
Whitmer, in a Friday statement, praised Biden: “Joe Biden is running to serve the American people. Donald Trump is running to serve Donald Trump.”
After the debate, Newsom was asked repeatedly whether he would consider replacing Biden on the ticket. He said that he didn’t believe the party should change nominees. “Our nominee is Joe Biden, I’m looking forward to voting for him in November,” he said, trailed by reporters as he walked through the debate spin room.
Harris gave interviews on cable news defending Biden after the debate. She will continue to back the president, keep up her travel schedule and be careful not to show in any way that she isn’t being loyal to Biden, according to people close to her.
Top White House and Biden campaign officials were holding one-on-one calls Friday with key Democratic elected officials, donors and supporters to describe what they argued was a gap between what pundits were saying about the debate and what voters took away from it.
“We think there’s going to be a lot of twists and turns here,” the senior Biden adviser said. The official said the campaign’s data showed that persuadable voters supported Biden’s agenda and remained concerned by Trump’s continued denial of the 2020 election results, his backing of the repeal of Roe v. Wade and his defense of Jan. 6, 2021, rioters at the Capitol.
Democratic donors and strategists said they were shocked by Biden’s showing. They acknowledged, however, that the chances of the president withdrawing remained slim.
Why didn’t I think of Whitmer? I prefer her to Newsom, but both would be acceptable replacements for Trump.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is posing prettily:
Hili: This is the right background for a cat who wants to look good.
A: That’s narcissism.
Hili: Really? I didn’t know.
In Polish:
Hili: To jest właściwe tło dla kota, który chce dobrze wyglądać.
Ja: To jest narcyzm.
Hili: Naprawdę? Nie wiedziałam.
And a picture of baby Kulka, sharing Malgorzata’s snack of yogurt:
*******************
From reader Pliny the in Between’s Far Corner Cafe, “The psychic hot line”
From Masih; more Iranian women remove their hijabs (check below for some English subtitles):
My heroes are Iranian women who refuse to vote for slavery, unlike those you see in the videos voting for their oppressors from West.
If your government denies you basic freedoms as a woman but lets you vote for those who oppress you, what will you do?pic.twitter.com/EOA3TuwQBW
From my feed. A really nice palace guard lets a blind girl feel his horse. Normally they’d be very strict, yell at the person, and even try to hit them with the horse’s head. But he moves the horse closer to the girl:
The last tweet (from Matthew) is a repeat of the previous one.
Yes, I see. I’ll either remove it or try to find the original.
I would be very bullish if my governor, Gretchen Whitmer, could take the nomination for the Democratic Party. There are various advantages. She really is presidential material, in my opinion, and she is a popular governor in a significant purple state, guaranteeing that my state will go blue this November. This will nicely counter a possible Trump VP pick from a purple state. Gavin Newsom from California is very charismatic, but for some reason he’s always rubbed me the wrong way as being too slick and he leans very left. Of course I would vote for him, and that far left-ward lean would sure attract the 20-something vote.
I’m not sure I could vote for Newsom. He also rubs me wrong, and I don’t trust him.
The biggest shock following the debate is how many people are shocked by Biden’s mental state.
That shows how narrow a worldview they have, and how constrained their choices of media and online activity.
Amen, Cederic.
There used to be a truism in American politics, “As Maine goes, so goes the nation.” Maine was a bellweather for nearly 100 years, until it wasn’t. In 1936 the only state to vote with Maine for Alf Landon was Vermont. Then the wags quipped, “As Maine goes, so goes Vermont.” So, to paraphrase Johnson, when you’ve lost the New York Times, you’ve lost the New York Times. Its day is now past.
People want to change the elected winner of the primary system, somebody who millions of people voted for in the primaries – without even a medical diagnosis of any alleged condition?
And this is to save democracy from Trump?
He was the only Democratic choice in the primaries. And if Biden keeps on this way (who needs a formal medical diagnosis?), then Trump WILL be elected.
Biden has not yet been nominated as President. Sorry, but I disagree with you.
In the California primary, there were two other people who got votes. Other primaries also had candidates standing up against Biden.
Biden won very easily. Just because he won by a landslide doesn’t mean he was the only choice that people could vote for.
It just means he was the preferred choice of voters who liked what they saw of President Biden on TV and on the Internet, and on social media.
And surely you need a formal medical diagnosis if you are going to force somebody out on the grounds of ill-health.
I agree that there are such grounds.
But I am not a doctor, and my opinion means nothing.
No you don’t need a formal diagnosis because no such examination will be allowed and all voters have to go on is what they are allowed to know and what they can see for themselves. This isn’t the justice system, it’s democracy.
Weiss is entirely correct about “They knew.” What she leaves out is, What else have they known? What else has this administration been lying about? With the Press more than ever our Fourth Estate, this Administration has lied about COVID vaccine efficacy, Afghanistan, and the Border, with the MSM boosting their message and suppressing inconvenient facts. It’s time people started asking hard questions and re-evaluating what they’ve been told for the last four years (or eight years or longer). The first question people should be asking is, If Biden has been like this all along, who has actually been running the country? Who’s been handling Joe, and who’s been making decisions?
Excellent point, sir. I think Biden’s handlers have been amazingly and scarily successful in hiding Biden. If we were allowed to see Thursday night (and other almost daily gaffes), imagine how things have been in private. Why are his puppetmasters fighting so hard to not release the tapes of the Hur interviews?
Once all becomes known in the years to come, the treachery of Biden’s team will be a true scandal. They’ve known for years he’s not fit for office but supported him anyway. This makes them no better than Trump’s people, who saw and heard awful things and supported him anyway.
Biden was ‘our boy in the White House’ who displaced Trump. Now that Biden is more obviously broken he will still have a use as ‘Official Scapegoat’ for all the things that the Administration (and media etc) got wrong ‘in his name’.
I can’t see how anyone can stomach reading the NYT. It’s the Fox News of the left. Trump is a terrible person, and we all know this. But Biden has been a “dangerous” president in many ways, raising inflation and presiding over the open southern border. He was been bad for America in that he chooses people for important positions based on skin color and gamete size rather than competence.
Trump is a real concern to me as a presidential candidate. But so is Biden–the fact that he hasn’t left the race emphasizes how dangerous he is by his poor judgement and hubris (and both those pejoratives apply to Trump is well).
Biden raised inflation? Come again? Did he raise inflation around the world? That’s nonsense. The US has one of the lowest inflation rates in the west and has had so since inflation spiked due to world wide trends at the time of the start of the pandemic. He obviously has done a poor job with the border but he didn’t open it-it has been open for some time. More migrants passed per year on average with Trump as president than with Obama for example. Despite some obvious affirmative action hires and choices (and look-Brown Jackson has actually been a pretty conservative Supreme Court justice, especially compared to Sotomayor), he is surrounded by far far more competent people that Trump was or will be. Trump surrounds himself with the worst most incompetent yes men and radical “destroy the system” acolytes.
Biden is a incompetent disaster. Trump is far worse.
You’re right. Trump did select Fauchi to head up the COVID team, which was a disaster. 🙂
Trump also set up the team for Project Warpspeed which led to the vaccine. In terms of SCOTUS justices, Barrett and Kavanaugh have been disappointing to conservative as they seem to favor government over individual rights.
DeVos did roll back some Title IX changes, but in my opinion those changes served to protect the rights of the accused and ensure due process and thus were a positive thing.
On the other hand, Trump also put in place large tariffs, and pledges to do more, which Biden rightly described as a tax. Customers ultimately pay tariffs and corporate taxes, not the corporations that are charged with them.
I don’t see how we objectively lost any democracy / freedoms when Trump was in office previously. If he truly had fascist tendencies, he certainly could have used the COVID situation to enact “emergency” powers to curtail freedom (such as Whitmer telling people they could only shop in half of Home Depot) but he didn’t, and so I can’t see how that’s a danger for the future.
Ask yourself, honestly, if Trump had behaved as Biden did, wouldn’t you see it as obvious that his supporters should support Biden, whatever his perceived faults, in order to have competency in the White House? “My candidate no matter what” is not logical. Then again, to each his/her own. People can vote how they want for whatever reason they want.
Trump also spent his time undercutting Fauci and downplaying the seriousness of the epidemic. Giving him credit for Project Warpspeed means acknowledging that he did what any president would be advised to do in the face of an epidemic. I don’t see how he could have used COVID to enact emergency powers to further curtail people’s freedom any more than lockdown already did, and we know how unpopular that (and even vaccines) was with his base. As for Barrett and Kavanaugh, they will forever have the gratitude of right-wingers for repealing Roe vs Wade.
As for issues of competency, Trump’s only major legislative accomplishment was a tax cut for the rich. His infrastructure week went nowhere. He tried repealing Obamacare without devising a replacement, an evil act that would have deprived millions of health insurance and probably resulted in hundreds of deaths. His solution to the border issue was the non-solution of letting ICE terroroize even peaceful and gainfully employed immigrants. And if re-elected he promises more tariffs, a “Project 2025” to replace competent civil servants with party hacks, and the persecution of his enemies.
Here’s what I wrote on 9/26/2023:
“I’m voting for Biden if he runs, but I’m a fan of Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer. Here’s a humble recommendation for Whitmer:
Hold a press conference or arrange to be interviewed by a major media outlet. State that you love your job as the governor of Michigan. But—and here is the important part—indicate that you would consider serving as President if you were called to do so. That’s it. Respectfully (to Biden) float the balloon and see what happens. The statement would create a media sensation. If there’s enough of a groundswell for her to run, maybe Biden would agree to defer to her. Biden, too, knows that his age is a massive liability and that he risks handing the Presidency to Trump. Biden does not want the re-election of Donald Trump to be his legacy.”
Most of what I wrote then still stands, but now that there is broad agreement that we need an alternative to Biden, Whitmer has an opening to signal that she is willing to serve. Newsom, too, should consider signaling the same thing. So far, none of the potential candidates have been brave enough to come out—and coming out immediately after the debate would be seen as too opportunistic, or even cruel. But in a week or so, as the gravity of the situation starts to sink in, the other potential candidates may be able to come forward.
What do you think about Gina Raimondo if not Whitmer? She might get support from Republicans as well as Democrats.
I don’t know about Raimondo’s record, but she may be a good candidate. There are probably quite a few out there. Other names are being bandied about as well, but my point is this: Wouldn’t we be better off if President Biden retired with dignity and let some of the other talented candidates step forward? There’s probably still time. Even if the decision took place as late as the convention, the Democrats would probably be willing to embrace their candidate. Short-term, Democrats will unite simply for the practical goal of beating Trump. Longer term, they will bring forth a new generation of leadership that the country needs.
It would be better if Biden decided to retire. I seem to remember that when he started his 2020 campaign, he said (I think) he would serve for one term only. Now is an opportunity for Democrats to make a change. I do think Trump will be elected if they don’t.
I remember a lot of talk about the 25th amendment by “patriots” when Trump was in office. Where are these patriots now?
I was thinking that exact thing.
Same with the “Trump is a narcissist” talk. You can’t get much more narcissistic than knowing that you have seriously declining mental competency and still remaining in the race. And I’m not talking about just the debate – this decline must have been obvious well before he declared his intention to run.
Was the NYT editorial accompanied by a Mea Culpa listing all the times when they denounced doubts about Biden’s capacity as just being “MAGA misinformation” and “cheap fakes”?
Are they sufficiently self-aware to realise that they, collectively, are pretty much responsible for the now-urgent need to switch candidates?
+1
Biden has a low raspy voice not a booming one, overcame a stutter, speaks in clear grammatical English though slow, answers questions directly/doesnt change the topic, a bit slow on his feet, doesnt boast about himself, doesnt lie, is only 3 years older than Trump.
Trump? Convicted felon, liar, sexual predator, narcissist, never answers the question, changes the topic every few seconds, exhibits growing dementia according to credible psychologists. But the media/interviewers somehow overlooked all this.
You dont have to be paranoid to imagine an unspoken agreement to get rid of Biden in favor of someone else. But who is in the back of their minds as they
assassinate their own and let Trump mental disturbance unmentioned? How about Hilary Clinton??????
Interesting to have a conspiracy that may not have ever talked to each other….
Oklahoma directive to “teach the Bible.” I would want to see how this is implemented before claiming it is a violation of Church and State. The directive from the superintendent directs that the Bible be incorporated “as an instructional support into the curriculum across specified grade levels. This directive is in alignment with the educational standards approved on or about May 2019.”
I searched those 2019 education standards for various terms: Bible, God, atheism, Christianity, theology, and religion. The first three terms do not appear. Here are the others:
Beginning in grade 5, the students are asked to “analyze the religious, economic, and political motivations of immigrants and indentured servants who migrated to Plymouth.” This is contrasted with the economic and political motivations of those at Jamestown. 5th graders must also “analyze the forms of self-government in the three colonial regions including the role of religion in the establishment of some colonial governments, the Virginia House of Burgesses, and New England town hall meetings.” I see no need to “teach the Bible” to achieve these objectives at this grade, but if one uses the words of the colonists, then one will inevitably run into scripture and dogma.
In 6th grade, the field broadens to the Western Hemisphere, about which students must “identify and describe cultural traits of language, ethnic heritage, religion, and traditions practiced among peoples.” In the following year, a comparable block for the Eastern Hemisphere is introduced. Here is where implementation will, of course, matter. Is instruction limited to selected excerpts from the Bible or does it include the Quran, Vedas, Upanishads, and other sacred texts of the world religions?
After grade 8, there are broad categories outlined, obviously for high school, but I couldn’t find grade distinctions. Religion appears in comparative focus in the Oklahoma history block, comparing the “cultural perspectives of American Indians and European Americans regarding land ownership, structure of self-government, religion, and trading practices.” In geography, it is part of the “regional variations of culture related to language, religion, ethnicity, and gender.” The world history block expands on instruction from the earlier grades. Regarding pre-1450 CE history, students must “evaluate the impact of geography and trade on the development of culture in Africa, Asia, and Europe including religion, philosophy, and political belief” and “describe the origins, major beliefs, spread and lasting impact of the world’s major religions and philosophies, including Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Confucianism, and Sikhism.” (Curiously, for such a conservative state, that CE usage versus AD is in the original.) Finally, instruction must “summarize the causes of and influence of the theological movements of the Reformation and how those movements subsequently transformed society.”
I have no objection to any of these standards, and I welcome the use of primary texts as illustration. Whether this will amount to “teaching the Bible,” as the headlines blare, is not yet clear.
I wonder if the Oklahoma powers that be will have a problem with a student bringing up Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson’s bible. And students wearing black arm bands in protest. (Re: School Board v. Tinker, 1965)
The Oklahoma State Department of Education :
“… incorporate the Bible, which includes the Ten Commandments, as an instructional support into the curriculum.”
This is a good example that violates existing juris prudence of Chief Justice Hughes :
“The essence of religion is belief in a relation to God involving duties superior to those arising from any human relation.” (1931)
Religions which construct a deity, daemon, or other supernatural entity or process out of ordinary matter such as energy or “any human relation” (i.e. as subversion) would not violate that 92 year old juris prudence, so a modern “God”-independent articulation of religion has been produced :
“… religion can be defined as a comprehensive belief system that addresses the fundamental questions of human existence, such as the meaning of life and death, man’s role in the universe, and the nature of good and evil, and that gives rise to duties of conscience.”
Cornell Law Review
Volume 74
Issue 3 March 1989 Defining Religion in the First Amendment: A Functional Approach
Ben Clements
The memo clearly violates both articulations, but only the latter can defend from, in the words of Tom Wolfe :
“Now is a great time for new religions to pop up. There are people who get religious about jogging, they get religious about sex…. Health foods have become the basis of a religion. ESP, of course, flying saucers, anything is fertile ground now. There’s a new messiah born every day.”
-Tom Wolfe (1980) 20 Years of Rolling Stone; What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been
Friendly Press
1987
Jann S. Wenner (ed)
1987
Well, I have no idea if Ceiling Cat looks at comments that stagger in a day late (or more). But regarding Gretchen Whitmer, she is also Chait’s choice. I disagree with him that her running mate should be Black or specifically Cory Booker. Though, to be fair, he only put this idea out there as an option, not a as a strong *should*.
(Does anyone know why we can’t just do away with political parties altogether? Wouldn’t it be better to just have a race where anyone who can afford to run runs, and then we vote amongst the top 5 or so? I’m sure there are reasons why this seemingly wouldn’t work. But what are they? Why do we need political parties????)
Andrew Sullivan needs to apologize for characterizing President Biden as “the ambling cadaver.” That too is elder abuse. It has tainted the important points he was trying to make in his article.
Ah, Sullivan, that good Christian. “Ambling cadaver”? Sounds like something Trump might say. (Well, I don’t know that Trump would use “ambling.”) Maybe he can come up with an excuse. Perhaps one toke too many? I assume he wants to live to at least Biden’s age. Is the issue age or mental acuity? They are not necessarily synonymous. Perhaps there should be a constitutional amendment establishing a maximum age. I suggest Sullivan’s age, going on 61. Surely, he would agree with that.
The last tweet (from Matthew) is a repeat of the previous one.
Yes, I see. I’ll either remove it or try to find the original.
I would be very bullish if my governor, Gretchen Whitmer, could take the nomination for the Democratic Party. There are various advantages. She really is presidential material, in my opinion, and she is a popular governor in a significant purple state, guaranteeing that my state will go blue this November. This will nicely counter a possible Trump VP pick from a purple state. Gavin Newsom from California is very charismatic, but for some reason he’s always rubbed me the wrong way as being too slick and he leans very left. Of course I would vote for him, and that far left-ward lean would sure attract the 20-something vote.
I’m not sure I could vote for Newsom. He also rubs me wrong, and I don’t trust him.
The biggest shock following the debate is how many people are shocked by Biden’s mental state.
That shows how narrow a worldview they have, and how constrained their choices of media and online activity.
Amen, Cederic.
There used to be a truism in American politics, “As Maine goes, so goes the nation.” Maine was a bellweather for nearly 100 years, until it wasn’t. In 1936 the only state to vote with Maine for Alf Landon was Vermont. Then the wags quipped, “As Maine goes, so goes Vermont.” So, to paraphrase Johnson, when you’ve lost the New York Times, you’ve lost the New York Times. Its day is now past.
People want to change the elected winner of the primary system, somebody who millions of people voted for in the primaries – without even a medical diagnosis of any alleged condition?
And this is to save democracy from Trump?
He was the only Democratic choice in the primaries. And if Biden keeps on this way (who needs a formal medical diagnosis?), then Trump WILL be elected.
Biden has not yet been nominated as President. Sorry, but I disagree with you.
In the California primary, there were two other people who got votes. Other primaries also had candidates standing up against Biden.
Biden won very easily. Just because he won by a landslide doesn’t mean he was the only choice that people could vote for.
It just means he was the preferred choice of voters who liked what they saw of President Biden on TV and on the Internet, and on social media.
And surely you need a formal medical diagnosis if you are going to force somebody out on the grounds of ill-health.
I agree that there are such grounds.
But I am not a doctor, and my opinion means nothing.
No you don’t need a formal diagnosis because no such examination will be allowed and all voters have to go on is what they are allowed to know and what they can see for themselves. This isn’t the justice system, it’s democracy.
Weiss is entirely correct about “They knew.” What she leaves out is, What else have they known? What else has this administration been lying about? With the Press more than ever our Fourth Estate, this Administration has lied about COVID vaccine efficacy, Afghanistan, and the Border, with the MSM boosting their message and suppressing inconvenient facts. It’s time people started asking hard questions and re-evaluating what they’ve been told for the last four years (or eight years or longer). The first question people should be asking is, If Biden has been like this all along, who has actually been running the country? Who’s been handling Joe, and who’s been making decisions?
Excellent point, sir. I think Biden’s handlers have been amazingly and scarily successful in hiding Biden. If we were allowed to see Thursday night (and other almost daily gaffes), imagine how things have been in private. Why are his puppetmasters fighting so hard to not release the tapes of the Hur interviews?
Once all becomes known in the years to come, the treachery of Biden’s team will be a true scandal. They’ve known for years he’s not fit for office but supported him anyway. This makes them no better than Trump’s people, who saw and heard awful things and supported him anyway.
Biden was ‘our boy in the White House’ who displaced Trump. Now that Biden is more obviously broken he will still have a use as ‘Official Scapegoat’ for all the things that the Administration (and media etc) got wrong ‘in his name’.
https://open.substack.com/pub/roberthubbell/p/2-of-2-debate-follow-up?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=cmjfg
I can’t see how anyone can stomach reading the NYT. It’s the Fox News of the left. Trump is a terrible person, and we all know this. But Biden has been a “dangerous” president in many ways, raising inflation and presiding over the open southern border. He was been bad for America in that he chooses people for important positions based on skin color and gamete size rather than competence.
Trump is a real concern to me as a presidential candidate. But so is Biden–the fact that he hasn’t left the race emphasizes how dangerous he is by his poor judgement and hubris (and both those pejoratives apply to Trump is well).
Biden raised inflation? Come again? Did he raise inflation around the world? That’s nonsense. The US has one of the lowest inflation rates in the west and has had so since inflation spiked due to world wide trends at the time of the start of the pandemic. He obviously has done a poor job with the border but he didn’t open it-it has been open for some time. More migrants passed per year on average with Trump as president than with Obama for example. Despite some obvious affirmative action hires and choices (and look-Brown Jackson has actually been a pretty conservative Supreme Court justice, especially compared to Sotomayor), he is surrounded by far far more competent people that Trump was or will be. Trump surrounds himself with the worst most incompetent yes men and radical “destroy the system” acolytes.
Biden is a incompetent disaster. Trump is far worse.
You’re right. Trump did select Fauchi to head up the COVID team, which was a disaster. 🙂
Trump also set up the team for Project Warpspeed which led to the vaccine. In terms of SCOTUS justices, Barrett and Kavanaugh have been disappointing to conservative as they seem to favor government over individual rights.
DeVos did roll back some Title IX changes, but in my opinion those changes served to protect the rights of the accused and ensure due process and thus were a positive thing.
On the other hand, Trump also put in place large tariffs, and pledges to do more, which Biden rightly described as a tax. Customers ultimately pay tariffs and corporate taxes, not the corporations that are charged with them.
I don’t see how we objectively lost any democracy / freedoms when Trump was in office previously. If he truly had fascist tendencies, he certainly could have used the COVID situation to enact “emergency” powers to curtail freedom (such as Whitmer telling people they could only shop in half of Home Depot) but he didn’t, and so I can’t see how that’s a danger for the future.
Ask yourself, honestly, if Trump had behaved as Biden did, wouldn’t you see it as obvious that his supporters should support Biden, whatever his perceived faults, in order to have competency in the White House? “My candidate no matter what” is not logical. Then again, to each his/her own. People can vote how they want for whatever reason they want.
Trump also spent his time undercutting Fauci and downplaying the seriousness of the epidemic. Giving him credit for Project Warpspeed means acknowledging that he did what any president would be advised to do in the face of an epidemic. I don’t see how he could have used COVID to enact emergency powers to further curtail people’s freedom any more than lockdown already did, and we know how unpopular that (and even vaccines) was with his base. As for Barrett and Kavanaugh, they will forever have the gratitude of right-wingers for repealing Roe vs Wade.
As for issues of competency, Trump’s only major legislative accomplishment was a tax cut for the rich. His infrastructure week went nowhere. He tried repealing Obamacare without devising a replacement, an evil act that would have deprived millions of health insurance and probably resulted in hundreds of deaths. His solution to the border issue was the non-solution of letting ICE terroroize even peaceful and gainfully employed immigrants. And if re-elected he promises more tariffs, a “Project 2025” to replace competent civil servants with party hacks, and the persecution of his enemies.
Here’s what I wrote on 9/26/2023:
“I’m voting for Biden if he runs, but I’m a fan of Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer. Here’s a humble recommendation for Whitmer:
Hold a press conference or arrange to be interviewed by a major media outlet. State that you love your job as the governor of Michigan. But—and here is the important part—indicate that you would consider serving as President if you were called to do so. That’s it. Respectfully (to Biden) float the balloon and see what happens. The statement would create a media sensation. If there’s enough of a groundswell for her to run, maybe Biden would agree to defer to her. Biden, too, knows that his age is a massive liability and that he risks handing the Presidency to Trump. Biden does not want the re-election of Donald Trump to be his legacy.”
Most of what I wrote then still stands, but now that there is broad agreement that we need an alternative to Biden, Whitmer has an opening to signal that she is willing to serve. Newsom, too, should consider signaling the same thing. So far, none of the potential candidates have been brave enough to come out—and coming out immediately after the debate would be seen as too opportunistic, or even cruel. But in a week or so, as the gravity of the situation starts to sink in, the other potential candidates may be able to come forward.
What do you think about Gina Raimondo if not Whitmer? She might get support from Republicans as well as Democrats.
I don’t know about Raimondo’s record, but she may be a good candidate. There are probably quite a few out there. Other names are being bandied about as well, but my point is this: Wouldn’t we be better off if President Biden retired with dignity and let some of the other talented candidates step forward? There’s probably still time. Even if the decision took place as late as the convention, the Democrats would probably be willing to embrace their candidate. Short-term, Democrats will unite simply for the practical goal of beating Trump. Longer term, they will bring forth a new generation of leadership that the country needs.
It would be better if Biden decided to retire. I seem to remember that when he started his 2020 campaign, he said (I think) he would serve for one term only. Now is an opportunity for Democrats to make a change. I do think Trump will be elected if they don’t.
I remember a lot of talk about the 25th amendment by “patriots” when Trump was in office. Where are these patriots now?
I was thinking that exact thing.
Same with the “Trump is a narcissist” talk. You can’t get much more narcissistic than knowing that you have seriously declining mental competency and still remaining in the race. And I’m not talking about just the debate – this decline must have been obvious well before he declared his intention to run.
Was the NYT editorial accompanied by a Mea Culpa listing all the times when they denounced doubts about Biden’s capacity as just being “MAGA misinformation” and “cheap fakes”?
Are they sufficiently self-aware to realise that they, collectively, are pretty much responsible for the now-urgent need to switch candidates?
+1
Biden has a low raspy voice not a booming one, overcame a stutter, speaks in clear grammatical English though slow, answers questions directly/doesnt change the topic, a bit slow on his feet, doesnt boast about himself, doesnt lie, is only 3 years older than Trump.
Trump? Convicted felon, liar, sexual predator, narcissist, never answers the question, changes the topic every few seconds, exhibits growing dementia according to credible psychologists. But the media/interviewers somehow overlooked all this.
You dont have to be paranoid to imagine an unspoken agreement to get rid of Biden in favor of someone else. But who is in the back of their minds as they
assassinate their own and let Trump mental disturbance unmentioned? How about Hilary Clinton??????
Interesting to have a conspiracy that may not have ever talked to each other….
Oklahoma directive to “teach the Bible.” I would want to see how this is implemented before claiming it is a violation of Church and State. The directive from the superintendent directs that the Bible be incorporated “as an instructional support into the curriculum across specified grade levels. This directive is in alignment with the educational standards approved on or about May 2019.”
I searched those 2019 education standards for various terms: Bible, God, atheism, Christianity, theology, and religion. The first three terms do not appear. Here are the others:
Beginning in grade 5, the students are asked to “analyze the religious, economic, and political motivations of immigrants and indentured servants who migrated to Plymouth.” This is contrasted with the economic and political motivations of those at Jamestown. 5th graders must also “analyze the forms of self-government in the three colonial regions including the role of religion in the establishment of some colonial governments, the Virginia House of Burgesses, and New England town hall meetings.” I see no need to “teach the Bible” to achieve these objectives at this grade, but if one uses the words of the colonists, then one will inevitably run into scripture and dogma.
In 6th grade, the field broadens to the Western Hemisphere, about which students must “identify and describe cultural traits of language, ethnic heritage, religion, and traditions practiced among peoples.” In the following year, a comparable block for the Eastern Hemisphere is introduced. Here is where implementation will, of course, matter. Is instruction limited to selected excerpts from the Bible or does it include the Quran, Vedas, Upanishads, and other sacred texts of the world religions?
After grade 8, there are broad categories outlined, obviously for high school, but I couldn’t find grade distinctions. Religion appears in comparative focus in the Oklahoma history block, comparing the “cultural perspectives of American Indians and European Americans regarding land ownership, structure of self-government, religion, and trading practices.” In geography, it is part of the “regional variations of culture related to language, religion, ethnicity, and gender.” The world history block expands on instruction from the earlier grades. Regarding pre-1450 CE history, students must “evaluate the impact of geography and trade on the development of culture in Africa, Asia, and Europe including religion, philosophy, and political belief” and “describe the origins, major beliefs, spread and lasting impact of the world’s major religions and philosophies, including Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Confucianism, and Sikhism.” (Curiously, for such a conservative state, that CE usage versus AD is in the original.) Finally, instruction must “summarize the causes of and influence of the theological movements of the Reformation and how those movements subsequently transformed society.”
I have no objection to any of these standards, and I welcome the use of primary texts as illustration. Whether this will amount to “teaching the Bible,” as the headlines blare, is not yet clear.
I wonder if the Oklahoma powers that be will have a problem with a student bringing up Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson’s bible. And students wearing black arm bands in protest. (Re: School Board v. Tinker, 1965)
The Oklahoma State Department of Education :
“… incorporate the Bible, which includes the Ten Commandments, as an instructional support into the curriculum.”
This is a good example that violates existing juris prudence of Chief Justice Hughes :
“The essence of religion is belief in a relation to God involving duties superior to those arising from any human relation.” (1931)
Religions which construct a deity, daemon, or other supernatural entity or process out of ordinary matter such as energy or “any human relation” (i.e. as subversion) would not violate that 92 year old juris prudence, so a modern “God”-independent articulation of religion has been produced :
“… religion can be defined as a comprehensive belief system that addresses the fundamental questions of human existence, such as the meaning of life and death, man’s role in the universe, and the nature of good and evil, and that gives rise to duties of conscience.”
Cornell Law Review
Volume 74
Issue 3 March 1989
Defining Religion in the First Amendment: A Functional Approach
Ben Clements
The memo clearly violates both articulations, but only the latter can defend from, in the words of Tom Wolfe :
“Now is a great time for new religions to pop up. There are people who get religious about jogging, they get religious about sex…. Health foods have become the basis of a religion. ESP, of course, flying saucers, anything is fertile ground now. There’s a new messiah born every day.”
-Tom Wolfe (1980)
20 Years of Rolling Stone; What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been
Friendly Press
1987
Jann S. Wenner (ed)
1987
Well, I have no idea if Ceiling Cat looks at comments that stagger in a day late (or more). But regarding Gretchen Whitmer, she is also Chait’s choice. I disagree with him that her running mate should be Black or specifically Cory Booker. Though, to be fair, he only put this idea out there as an option, not a as a strong *should*.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/biden-and-harris-absurd-case-for-post-debate-complacency.html
(Does anyone know why we can’t just do away with political parties altogether? Wouldn’t it be better to just have a race where anyone who can afford to run runs, and then we vote amongst the top 5 or so? I’m sure there are reasons why this seemingly wouldn’t work. But what are they? Why do we need political parties????)
Andrew Sullivan needs to apologize for characterizing President Biden as “the ambling cadaver.” That too is elder abuse. It has tainted the important points he was trying to make in his article.
Ah, Sullivan, that good Christian. “Ambling cadaver”? Sounds like something Trump might say. (Well, I don’t know that Trump would use “ambling.”) Maybe he can come up with an excuse. Perhaps one toke too many? I assume he wants to live to at least Biden’s age. Is the issue age or mental acuity? They are not necessarily synonymous. Perhaps there should be a constitutional amendment establishing a maximum age. I suggest Sullivan’s age, going on 61. Surely, he would agree with that.