Kent Nishimura/AFP via Getty Images

Dear Commons Community,

Washington erupted yesterday as President Joe Biden announced that he would not be the nominee for the Democratic Party in 2024.

Statements from politicians on both sides of the aisle poured in as the 81-year-old Biden said that he would bow to the wishes of Democrats who feared that his campaign was heading for a historic collapse which would have dragged down-ballot Democrats into defeat this fall. Members of the president’s party applauded him and spoke glowingly of his legacy while Republicans, coming of their own nominating contest last week, called for him to step down as president immediately. Many also condemned their rivals for supposedly ignoring the will of the voters, who in actuality were never offered a real primary challenge to Biden this year. Here are comments courtesy of The Independent.

“Joe Biden has earned his place among the best and most consequential presidents in American history,” wrote Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “I am so proud to serve under his leadership, and thankful for his unwavering focus on what is best for our country.”

Hillary and former President Bill Clinton released a joint statement endorsing Harris for the nomination.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s initial statement did not mention Harris at all, but in a subsequent press release he revealed that after speaking with both Biden and Harris he’d decided to throw his support behind the vice president.

“Kamala Harris is a patriot worthy of our support and she will continue the work of generations of Americans who came before us to perfect our union, protect our democracy, and advance real freedom. She has served the country honorably as Vice President and she is ready to be President,” he said. “The best path forward for the Democratic Party is to quickly unite behind Vice President Harris and refocus on winning the presidency.”

Bernie Sanders, who had defended Biden amid calls for the president to drop out, said he has “served our country with honor and dignity.”

“As the first president to ever walk on a picket line with striking workers, he has been the most pro-working class president in modern American history,” he wrote. “Thank you, Mr. President, for all you’ve done.”

Speaker Mike Johnson and former President Donald Trump led the charge for Republicans.

“At this unprecedented juncture in American history, we must be clear about what just happened. The Democrat Party forced the Democrat nominee off the ballot, just over 100 days before the election,” said Johnson. “If Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President. He must resign the office immediately. November 5 cannot arrive soon enough.”

Trump, who officially secured the GOP nomination last week, wrote on Truth Social: “Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve – And never was! He only attained the position of President by lies, Fake News, and not leaving his Basement.”

“All those around him, including his Doctor and the Media, knew that he wasn’t capable of being President, and he wasn’t – And now, look what he’s done to our Country, with millions of people coming across our Border, totally unchecked and unvetted, many from prisons, mental institutions, and record numbers of terrorists. We will suffer greatly because of his presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” the ex-president’s post concluded.

Reactions from overseas were favorable to Biden, whom European allies were reported to have been worried about having been unable to beat Trump, a well-known skeptic of NATO and foreign engagement.

“I respect President Biden’s decision and I look forward to us working together during the remainder of his presidency,” wrote British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, still in his first month in office. “I know that, as he has done throughout his remarkable career, he will have made his decision based on what he believes is best for the American people.”

“I heard the news of President Biden’s decision with both sadness & admiration. He has been an abiding friend of Ireland, providing invaluable support for peace & prosperity on this island. His visit last year will long be remembered as a powerful & joyous celebration of our relationship with the US This has no doubt been the toughest of calls, but one done, as ever, with dignity & class. I know that the people of Ireland will wish President Biden the very best,” wrote Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin on Twitter.

“I respect Joe Biden’s decision not to run for re-election. That justification deserves respect,” Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told broadcaster NRK.“Biden has been one of America’s most prominent politicians over several decades, and a president who has carried out several important reforms.”

“I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to @POTUS Joe Biden for his friendship and steadfast support for the Israeli people over his decades long career,” wrote Israeli President Isaac Herzog on X. “As the first US President to visit Israel in wartime, as a recipient of the Israeli Presidential Medal of Honor, and as a true ally of the Jewish people, he is a symbol of the unbreakable bond between our two peoples.”

“I send him, @FLOTUS Jill Biden, and all his family, my warmest wishes from Jerusalem.”

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

President Joe Biden said earlier this afternoon that he is ending his bid for reelection

The president’s historic withdrawal throws the 2024 race into uncertain territory, with Vice President Kamala Harris widely seen as the Democrat most likely to take Biden’s place atop the party’s ticket.

Biden made the announcement from his home in Rehoboth Beach, Del., where he’s self-isolated since testing positive for COVID-19 Thursday night.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” Biden said in a letter addressed to Americans. “And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and my country for me to stand down and to focus solely on my duties as President for the rest of my term.”

Biden quickly endorsed Harris as the Democratic nominee in a separate statement on X. He said he would speak to the nation later this week to provide more details about his decision.

In his statement, Biden reflected fondly on his four years in office, saying the U.S. has built the “strongest economy in the world” while touting efforts to lower prescription drug prices, expand health care, tackle climate change and appointing the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

The decision upends the 2024 election less than 110 days before Election Day, with Democratic National Committee members now tasked with choosing an alternative nominee to take on Trump, whose polling lead has swelled while Democrats have fought internally.

Biden’s departure will soon mean the end of a five-decade career in Washington that began in 1972 with an upset victory for U.S. Senate in Delaware. He served as a senator for 36 years, then as Obama’s vice president from 2009 to 2017. Biden returned to public life to run against Trump in the 2020 presidential election. He framed the race as a “battle for the soul of the nation” and defeated Trump 51%-47% in the popular vote.

We owe him our gratitude for putting the country ahead of his own personal interests.

May God bless him!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

A new study from UCLA found that an AI tool identified prostate cancer with 84% accuracy — compared to 67% accuracy for cases detected by physicians, according to a press release from the university.

Unfold AI, made by Avenda Health in California — a software recently cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — uses an AI algorithm to visualize the likelihood of cancer based on various types of clinical data.

In the study, a team of seven urologists and three radiologists analyzed 50 cases where tumors had been removed, looking for signs of residual cancer.

A few months later, the AI software performed the same analysis.

The “negative margin rate” — a medical term that describes the absence of cancer cells surrounding the removed tissue — was 45 times greater in AI-detected cases, so the chances of cancer being left behind was far less.  Here is reporting courtesy of Fox News Digital.

Ali Kasraeian, M.D., a urologist at Kasraeian Urology in Jacksonville, Florida, said he uses the Unfold AI technology in his consultations with patients about managing their prostate cancer.

“The AI takes the information that we currently have about a patient’s prostate cancer — like their pathology, imaging and biopsy results — and creates a 3D cancer estimation map,” he told Fox News Digital via email.

“The results we get from Unfold AI tell us if a patient will be better suited for focal therapy or more radical therapy, such as radical prostatectomy, or radiation therapy, ensuring we optimize their cancer cure, the personalization of their cancer care, and their quality of life goals.”

Based on these findings, the AI could lead to more accurate diagnoses and more targeted treatments, reducing the need for full-gland removal and the side effects that can come with it, such as incontinence and impotence, the researchers wrote.

Joshua Trachenberg, PhD, is a professor of neurobiology at UCLA — and also a prostate cancer patient himself. After doctors found a slow-growing tumor on his prostate, they recommended removing the gland surgically — but he decided to explore other options.

“I got in touch with a team at UCLA, where I also am a faculty member, that was exploring alternate treatments to total gland removal,” Trachenberg, 56, told Fox News Digital via email.

The “negative margin rate” — a medical term that describes the absence of cancer cells surrounding the removed tissue — was 45 times greater in AI-detected cases, so the chances of cancer being left behind was far less.

The UCLA researchers were testing an approach that uses ultrasound to heat tissue and is “focally guided” by MRI to destroy the cancerous tissue without damaging the rest of the gland, he said.

After some imaging scans, it was determined that Trachenberg was a candidate for the experimental therapy.

“The 3D map created by Unfold AI enabled this team to identify precise margins, target the cancerous area and avoid any functional structures of the gland,” he said.

“It was truly able to visualize my cancer and it gave me a much better understanding of my case.”

Trachenberg is now cancer-free and was able to avoid a radical prostatectomy.

“I would recommend to any prostate cancer patient who is told they need a radical prostatectomy that they take some time to look at all their options, [including] AI technologies,” said a doctor and patient (not pictured).

“So many men are afraid of treatment because of the risks associated with gland removal, and Unfold AI enables therapies that don’t put men through the meat grinder,” he said.

This type of AI technology gives Trachenberg hope for the future of prostate cancer treatment, he told Fox News Digital.

“Too often, we are given only two options: Watch and wait for it to get worse, or take the entire gland out, which often leaves men with lifelong side effects that strain their physical health, emotional health and even their marriages,” he said.

“I would recommend to any prostate cancer patient who is told they need a radical prostatectomy that they take some time to look at all their options, [including] AI technologies.”

AI will likely become the diagnostic tool of choice for most major diseases.

Tony

Photo courtesy of The Telegraph.

Dear Commons Community,

Roland Oliphant of The Telegraph, has an article this morning entitled, “Why Nancy Pelosi is on a final mission to oust Joe Biden,” in which he analyzes the role the former Democratic Speaker of the House, is playing in trying to persuade Biden to give up their party’s presidential nomination.  It is an insightful review of the situation between the two major figures in the Democratic Party. 

Below is the article in its entirety.

Tony

——————————————————————————————————————

When Nancy Pelosi rang Joe Biden to warn him of dire opinion polling, suggesting he could not win the next election to Donald Trump, the president insisted he had data saying the opposite.

The 84-year-old ex-speaker did something few others would have dared: she demanded to speak to the advisers telling him so and implied they were not telling the president the truth.

“Put Donilon on the phone,” she said, referring to long-time Biden aide and strategist Mike Donilon. “Show me what polls.”

Openly challenging the president and implying that his aides have been lying to him would be bold coming from anyone. From Mrs. Pelosi, it must have been especially wounding.

Mrs. Pelosi and Mr. Biden go way back.

A fellow devout Catholic (Mr. Biden used to call her “my Catholic sister”), she delivered him win after win in the House until her second term as speaker ended in 2022. Although they have clashed in the past, he has let it be known that he considered her the best House speaker ever.

And they share the same instinctive institutional political instincts and fears about what Trump could do to US democracy.

Mrs.. Pelosi was Trump’s most implacable foe during his 2016-2020 presidency.

But she also has a reputation as the Democrats’ hardest, cleverest, and most strategic thinker. And she seems to have come to the conclusion that to stop Trump this time, she must first stop Mr. Biden.

Mrs.. Pelosi has avoided calling directly for him to step down. But she is now thought to be working the phones behind the scenes to ratchet up pressure on Mr. Biden to step aside.

Her strategy appears to have three strands: first, private appeals to the president; second, when they are ignored, leaks about those conversations to the press (the appearance in the New York Times of her remarks about Mr. Donilon is a classic example), and the third strand which involves rare but decisive public remarks designed to keep the rebellion alive.

Rekindling embers of dissent

Twice since his disastrous debate performance, Mr. Biden seemed to have dowsed the embers of dissent. It is Mrs.. Pelosi who rekindled them both times.

By July 10, Mr. Biden’s vows that only the “Lord Almighty” could convince him to stand aside had quelled most public criticism from elected Democrats. They did not want to put their heads above the parapet, endangering their careers by angering the White House.

But then Mrs.. Pelosi appeared on Mr. Biden’s favourite morning show to give a very pointed message.

“It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run. We’re all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short,” she said.

That would have been scrupulously neutral if Mr. Biden had not obviously already made that decision. The flames of rebellion immediately leapt back into life.

The race took a shock turn on July 13 when Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania. Democrats briefed out that they believed the ensuing furore would end the campaign to oust Mr. Biden, which was running short of time in any case.

But again, Mrs. Pelosi applied herself to the cause, calling Mr. Biden shortly after to say she saw very little chance of him winning re-election.

With Mr. Biden still defiant several days later, representatives Adam Schiff of California and Jamie Raskin of Maryland, two close allies of Mrs. Pelosi, both called on Mr. Biden to quit. Mr. Schiff was described by one Democrat as Mrs. Pelosi’s “drone”.

On Thursday Barack Obama, the former president, let it be known via intermediaries that he too harbours doubts about Mr. Biden’s ability to win the election.

But the president remained defiant. When he responded on Friday that he was “looking forward” to returning to the campaign trail next week, more of Mrs. Pelosi’s allies called on him to stand down.

Every time Mr. Biden looks like he has found a moment’s peace, the pressure is upped on him again with strategic defections.

Record of getting big calls right

It should worry the president that Mrs. Pelosi has a track record of getting the big calls right.

For Republicans, she is the epitome of the Californian champagne liberal (literally: she and her husband own a vineyard in the Napa Valley that supplies grapes to several wineries). The couple live in a nice place in Presidio Heights, one of San Francisco’s most exclusive districts. She has an estimated net worth north of $100 million, making her among the richest members of Congress.

But she has proved her political nous – and reading of the electorate – time and again.

She was one of very few Democrats to oppose the invasion of Iraq.

Mrs. Pelosi long resisted calls to impeach Trump because she was not convinced that it would succeed – and that if he survived, he would emerge strengthened.

She could remember Bill Clinton emerging from his own brush with impeachment with a surge of popularity.

And Richard Nixon, she pointed out, was only forced out because once the Watergate tapes emerged, even Republicans could see he had to go. There was no similar shift of sentiment about Trump in the modern Republican party, so expecting success would be naive.

‘Most effective speaker of all time’

Her superpower as a politician has been the ability to assess support and opposition down to the last vote, and knowing what to offer representatives to pass legislation despite the narrowest of margins.

That skill was key to the House passing Mr. Obama’s flagship Affordable Care Act in March 2010 by a knife-edge 219-212 vote.

She pulled off the same trick for Mr. Biden in 2021 when she ushered through his infrastructure act despite the Democrats having just a three-seat majority. The bill eventually passed by a 228-206 margin, with the support of 16 Republicans.

Bruce Melman, a Republican lobbyist, called her “the most effective speaker of all time” after that vote.

Much of that work has outraged the alt-Right. On January 6 2021 Capitol rioters went looking for her office. Those jailed in the aftermath included a woman who had said: “We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the friggin’ brain, but we didn’t find her.”

Mrs. Pelosi withdrew from front-line politics not long after her husband was attacked in their home by a Canadian conspiracy theorist.

But she appears to be making one last effort to thwart Trump – by ensuring Mr. Biden is not the Democrat candidate on Nov 5.

While the president has spoken openly of needing to get more rest, Mrs. Pelosi is indefatigable in pursuit of her goals.

“People get tired,” she has said of the art of negotiation. “You can’t get tired. You can never get tired.”

It is now Mr. Biden on the receiving end of that doggedness.

(Noam Galai/WireImage/Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Dear Commons Community,

CNN’s Chris Wallace gave a blistering review of Donald Trump’s “rambling” Republican National Convention speech on Thursday night, expressing disappointment at the former president’s failure to deliver the more unifying tone his campaign had been promising.

“The Trump campaign had talked so much about how we were going to see a softer, more reflective Donald Trump,” the former Fox News host said during a CNN panel discussion.

He said he momentarily believed it would be “a different Donald Trump” early on in the address when Trump said, “I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America.”

Wallace added, “But then, for all of that, it seemed as if he couldn’t keep up the act.”

Trump’s more subdued tone lasted 17 minutes. Then, he began attacking the criminal cases against him as “partisan witch hunts,” called Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “crazy,” and complained that the 2020 election was rigged, among other lies over the course of the 92-minute-long spiel.

“Frankly, it was a long speech. It was a rambling speech. It was a speech by an older man and I couldn’t help but think that the people that are going to be happiest tonight are not the people at Trump headquarters, but the people, the Democrats, maybe at Biden headquarters,” Wallace said.

Earlier, Wallace was among numerous media figures who speculated that viewers might see a gentler and more moderate Trump following Saturday’s attempt on his life, as “The Daily Show” pointed out in a roundup captioned, “No way the media fell for ‘Trump’s New Tone’ again, right??”

I have a lot of respect for Chris Wallace.  He is a non-partisan straight-shooter.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

A massive tech failure has caused chaos around the world, with airline, banking and healthcare services badly hit.

Cyber-security firm Crowdstrike has admitted that the problem was caused by an update to its antivirus software, which is designed to protect Microsoft Windows devices from malicious attacks.

Microsoft has said it is taking “mitigation action” to deal with “the lingering impact” of the outage.  As reported by the BBC and other news media.

What caused the outage?

This is a little unclear.

Crowdstrike is known for producing antivirus software, intended to prevent hackers from causing this very type of disruption. 

According to Crowdstrike boss George Kurtz, the issues are only impacting Windows PCs and no other operating systems, and were caused by a defect in a recent update. 

“The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed,” he said.

“This is not a security incident or cyber-attack.”

What exactly was wrong with the update is yet to be revealed, but as a potential fix involves deleting a single file, it is possible that just one rogue file could be at the root of all the mayhem.

When will it be fixed?

It could be some time.

Crowdstrike’s Mr Kurtz, speaking to NBC News, said it was the firm’s “mission” to make sure every one of its customers recovered completely from the outage.

“We’re deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travellers, to anyone affected by this, including our companies,” he said.

He has since told CNBC that while some systems can be fixed quickly, for others it “could be hours, could be a bit longer”.

Crowdstrike has issued its fix. But according to those in the know, it will have to be applied separately to each and every device affected.

Computers will require a manual reboot in safe mode – causing a massive headache for IT departments everywhere.

What’s the solution?

Something important to note here, is that personal devices like your home computer or mobile phone are unlikely to have been affected – this outage is impacting businesses.

Microsoft is advising clients to try a classic method to get things working – turning it off and on again – in some cases up to 15 times.

The tech giant said this has worked for some users of virtual machines – PCs where the computer is not in the same place as the screen.

“Several reboots (as many as 15 have been reported) may be required, but overall feedback is that reboots are an effective troubleshooting step at this stage,” it said.

It is also telling customers with more in-depth computing knowledge that they should delete a certain file – the same solution one CrowdStrike employee has been sharing on social media.

But this fix is intended for experts and IT professionals, not regular users.

Which airports have been affected?

The problems have emerged across the world, but were first noticed in Australia, and possibly felt most severely in the air travel industry, with more than 3,300 flights cancelled globally.

• UK airports saw delays, with long queues at London’s Stansted and Gatwick.
• Ryanair said it had been “forced to cancel a small number of flights today (19 July)” and advised passengers to log-on to their Ryanair account, once it was back online, to see what their options are.
• British Airways also cancelled several flights.
• Several US airlines, notably United, Delta and American Airlines, grounded their flights around the globe for much of Friday. Australian carriers Virgin Australia and Jetstar also had to delay or cancel flights.
• Airports in Tokyo, Amsterdam and Delhi were also impacted.

Meanwhile, the problems have also hit payment systems, banking and healthcare providers around the world.

Railway companies, including Britain’s biggest which runs Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern, warned passengers to expect delays.

In Alaska, the 911 emergency service was affected, while Sky News was off air for several hours on Friday morning, unable to broadcast.

How could it affect me?

The outage might also impact people getting paid on time.

Melanie Pizzey, head of the Global Payroll Association, told PA news agency that she’d been contacted by “numerous clients” who couldn’t access their payroll software.

She said the outage could mean firms are unable to process staff payments this week, but there may be a knock-on effect too.

“We could see a backlog with regard to processing payrolls for the coming month end, which may delay employees from receiving their monthly wage,” she said.

If you’re worried about your own, personal devices, we have some good news.

The software at the centre of this outage is generally used by businesses, which means that most people’s personal computers won’t be impacted.

That means if you’re wondering whether you need to delete a certain file to avoid your computer restarting constantly, the simple answer is no, you don’t.

What is Crowdstrike?

It’s a reminder of the complexity of our modern digital infrastructure that Crowdstrike, a company that’s not exactly a household name, can be at the heart of such worldwide disarray.

The US firm, based in Austin, Texas, is a listed company on the US stock exchange, featuring in both the S&P 500 and the high-tech Nasdaq indexes.

Like a lot of modern technology companies, it hasn’t been around that long. It was founded a mere 13 years ago, but has grown to employ nearly 8,500 people.

As a provider of cyber-security services, it tends to get called in to deal with the aftermath of hack attacks.

It has been involved in investigations of several high-profile cyber-attacks, such as when Sony Pictures had its computer system hacked in 2014.

But this time, because of a flawed update to its software, a firm that is normally part of the solution to IT problems has instead caused one.

In its last earnings report, Crowdstrike declared a total of nearly 24,000 customers. That’s an indication not just of the size of the issue, but also the difficulties that could be involved in fixing it.

Each of those customers is a huge operation in itself, so the number of individual computers affected is hard to estimate.

Sad that so many people, businesses, and organizations have been effected.

A real kerfuffle for Crowdstrike and Microsoft.

Tony

Courtesy of the Boston Globe. Leon Neal/Getty

Dear Commons Community,

I watched Donald Trump’s acceptance speech of the Republican nomination for president last night and I found it long (about ninety minutes), repetitive, and rambling.  For the first few minutes, he focused on last Saturday’s assassination attempt.  He appeared  humbler and vowed to unify the divisions in our country. He promised during his next term, everyone (Republicans and Democrats, Whites and Blacks, Asians and Hispanics) would be welcome. His portrayals of unity sought to erase the image of a man whose presidency often swirled in chaos and infighting and ended with a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

His new tone lasted about fifteen minutes.

Then, he called on state and federal prosecutors to drop all four criminal cases against him, including the one in which he was convicted of 34 felony counts in May.

“The Democrat party should immediately stop weaponizing the justice system and labeling their political opponent as an enemy of democracy,” he said.

He called former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “crazy.” A few minutes later, he accused Democrats of cheating in elections. Four minutes later, he insulted the news media, referring to the CBS News program “Face the Nation” as “Deface the Nation.”

He repeated the lie that he used to incite the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol — that the 2020 election had been stolen from him through cheating. Immediately after that, he made liars out of staffers who had told reporters that he would never mention the name of the man who had defeated him, claiming Biden, by name, was worse than the previous 10 worst presidents combined.

The speech devolved from there into Trump’s standard, oft-used lies from his rally speeches — that the economy on his watch was the best ever; that his trade agreements were marked improvements over the previous ones; that crime is currently out of control; and so on.

He also repeated promises and warnings with no basis in fact: that he would be able to balance the budget merely by increasing oil and gas production, or that an ongoing influx of illegal migrants would bankrupt Social Security and Medicare.

Below is a New York Times recap of the best and worst moments of Trump’s speech representing a variety of political views.

Tony

——————————————————————————————-

New York Times

July 19, 2024

Welcome to Opinion’s commentary for Night 4 of the Republican National Convention. Here’s what our columnists and contributors thought of the event, which culminated in Trump’s acceptance speech.

Best Moment

Kristen Soltis Anderson, contributing Opinion writer Donald Trump gave a compelling and moving description of what it was like to be under fire and pledged to represent all of America, not just half of America. That may be easier said than done.

David Brooks, Times columnist The first 20 minutes of the Trump speech. If he’d done the story about the assassination attempt and then added 15 minutes of policy, he would be cruising toward victory. He could have plausibly argued that he is a changed man.

Jane Coaston, contributing Opinion writer Hulk Hogan’s speech was his best performance since he beat Macho Man Randy Savage at WrestleMania V.

Matthew Continetti, fellow at the American Enterprise Institute Trump’s account of the attempt on his life was gripping. He displayed a vulnerability and humility that most people had never seen before. And when he kissed the fireman’s helmet of Corey Comperatore, the husband and father who was killed during last weekend’s shooting, Trump created yet another indelible image. It won’t be soon forgotten.

David French, Times columnist Trump’s tribute to Comperatore was touching and appropriate. Placing his uniform on the stage was a powerful visual reminder of the loss.

Matt Labash, author of the newsletter Slack Tide Trump was somewhat muted, nice and gracious. At least while on script. Very un-Trumpy. He almost seemed humbled by being shot. Can it endure? This is Trump. Of course it can’t. It didn’t even last one-fifth of his speech. Humility is for losers in the Trumpverse. So enjoy it while it lasts. Or lasted, since it’s already over.

Katherine Mangu-Ward, editor of Reason Trump’s decision to tear up his first speech and instead open on a note of unity was the right one: “It would be very bad if I got up and started going wild about how horrible everybody is and how corrupt and crooked, even if it’s true,” he said the day after the shooting. As the speech dragged on, he drifted from that resolution.

Dan McCarthy, editor of the periodical Modern Age Eric Trump stepped into the role normally played by his father and delivered galvanizing remarks, hitting all the campaign’s key themes. With the former president resolved to show his comparatively genial and gentler side, his son had the opportunity to lead the rhetorical charge, and he excelled.

Pamela Paul, Times columnist Trump defended the Secret Service men and women who protected him after the assassination attempt, refusing to give fodder to those far-right extremists who have attacked the people risking their lives in service of public figures. This was a rare moment when Trump did the right thing.

Zeynep Tufekci, Times columnist Great evening for golf and professional wrestling! Speakers included John Nieporte, a golf professional who caddied for Trump; Carrie Ruiz, the general manager of a Trump-owned golf course; Hogan (who ripped his shirt off); and Dana White, president of the U.F.C., a mixed martial arts promotion company.

Peter Wehner, contributing Opinion writer The beginning of Trump’s speech, when he recounted the assassination attempt. Parts of it were compelling. There seemed to be genuine gratitude in him, which heretofore had been an alien emotion to Trump.

Worst Moment

Anderson Not long into Trump’s speech, the momentum slowed, and he started playing the hits, only it was the acoustic version. His whole performance felt unusually low energy and unfocused.

Charles M. Blow, Times columnist I was nearly suffocated under all the lies and gaslighting during this convention, culminating Thursday in Trump’s attempt at a tear-jerker. They all tried to convince us he was a teddy bear and not a grizzly. They tried to make us empathize with a person who lacks that impulse, who trades in deceit, cruelty and vengeance. But Trump couldn’t resist returning to his familiar darkness, thus wiping out the entire effort to rehabilitate — and hide — the real him.

Brooks The rest of the Trump speech. There is no cure for narcissism. The part after the assassination-attempt story was one of the truly awful and self-indulgent political performances of our time. My brain has been bludgeoned into soporific exhaustion.

Coaston Every political convention feels uncannily like a sporting event for people who tell others how much they hate sports. This one was no different.

Continetti Trump’s acceptance speech was incredibly compelling — for the first 30 minutes or so. Then he began to ramble. The address lost much of its focus and power, but the audience didn’t seem to mind.

French After the first few minutes, the rest of the speech was just as long, rambling and disjointed as a typical Trump rally. It was a greatest-hits collection of Trump talking points, but the delivery was subdued. At times, the speech was actually boring. Trump has many flaws, but he’s rarely boring. On the last night of the convention, he was.

Labash Too many to choose from. All political conventions are cringe-worthy idolatry fests. But even by those low standards, there was so much abject Trump flattery going on among his cultish speakers that if this had been Kim Jong-un’s convention, he’d have told his propagandists, “Hey, fellas, dial it back a little.”

Mangu-Ward Trump made many false claims about immigration throughout his remarks, but the most absurd was: “You know who’s taking the jobs, the jobs that are created? One hundred and seven percent of those jobs are taken by illegal aliens.”

McCarthy Mike Pompeo was not a rousing speaker. And while he faithfully recited Trump’s foreign policy accomplishments, his presence was a reminder that the last administration included many hawkish old-guard Republicans who would have been equally comfortable serving under a president named Bush.

Paul Trump’s effort to convey vulnerability rang entirely opportunist and wholly insincere. It’s hard to imagine a near-death experience could be told in a way that evoked so little emotion. Something tells me this will not, in fact, be the last time he tells the story.

Tufekci Tucker Carlson, who abruptly left Fox News amid its lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for airing false claims about election stealing, showed up with a joke about stolen elections.

Wehner Once Trump really got going, his speech was rambling and narcissistic, filled with lies and nearly endless. It was a fusion of his stump speech and a text speech, making it incoherent and exceedingly boring. I experienced a feeling I was previously unfamiliar with: the desire to bring back Hulk Hogan.

What Else Caught Your Eye?

Anderson Trump was subdued in demeanor in the V.I.P. box. Hogan’s time onstage elicited the biggest smile all week.

Brooks Both parties are clearly working hard to lose this election. Trump’s speech has got to increase the chances that President Biden stays in the race.

Coaston Carlson described Trump as the “funniest person I’ve ever met in my life,” after saying in a text message, in 2021, “I hate him passionately,” because comedy is tragedy plus time.

Continetti The double bill of Hogan and Kid Rock made this Xennial smile.

French The Trump campaign is going hard for the male vote. After hearing from Hogan, Kid Rock and White, I half expected a Call of Duty streamer to come out and bring down the house.

Labash The fall-down funniest line of the night belonged to the Trump lawyer Alina Habba — resplendent in a white pantsuit — who said, “The only crime President Trump has committed is loving America.” She apparently hadn’t seen the Trump Village People “Y.M.C.A.” dance-video montage. Which made for at least two crimes.

Mangu-Ward Carlson’s dark vision of the political psyche. He riffed that Trump “turned down the most obvious opportunity in politics — to inflame the nation after being shot,” which he then called “an opportunity that almost every other politician I’ve ever met, and certainly his opponents, would have taken instantly.” Trying to keep the nation calm after an assassination attempt is the bare minimum.

McCarthy This was the convention that made pop culture great again. Hogan and Kid Rock, both in top form, brought back the cockiness that characterized the mass entertainment of a nation far less neurotic than America has lately become. Trump recognizes the power in that.

Paul The word “fight” was uttered frequently in the run-up to Trump’s speech, evoking his call to “Fight! Fight! Fight!” after a bullet grazed his ear and echoing a frequent theme in Trump’s rhetoric, as my colleague Carlos Lozada just noted. Trump rarely talks about working for America or serving it; he talks about fighting.

Tufekci The band had to play four songs to fill the dead time before Hogan’s appearance. Maybe Trump needed to invite more golf buddies. There were almost no Republican Party heavy hitters. If he wins again, few of the traditional Republicans who populated his first administration will be left to act as a brake.

Wehner Compared with Trump’s acceptance speeches in 2016 and 2020, which were unusual enough, this one was unrestrained, self-indulgent and undisciplined, radiating a sense of grievance. It was Trump untethered, which is the right way to understand what his second term would be. We can’t say we haven’t been warned.

Charles M. Blow, David Brooks, David French, Pamela Paul and Zeynep Tufekci are Times columnists.

Kristen Soltis Anderson is a contributing Opinion writer, a Republican pollster and the author of “The Selfie Vote.”

Jane Coaston is a contributing Opinion writer.

Matthew Continetti is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of “The Right: The Hundred Year War for American Conservatism.”

Matt Labash, formerly a national correspondent at The Weekly Standard, is the author of “Fly Fishing With Darth Vader” and writes the newsletter Slack Tide.

Katherine Mangu-Ward (@kmanguward) is the editor in chief of Reason magazine.

Dan McCarthy is the editor of Modern Age: A Conservative Review.

Peter Wehner is a contributing Opinion writer and the author, most recently, of “The Death of Politics.”

Courtesy of Martin Schoeller.

Dear Commons Community,

Dear Commons Community,

Days after Donald Trump was shot with an AR-15-style weapon, at a campaign rally, attendees at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee can get their hands on one for free.

The assault weapon is part of a giveaway at a booth for the U.S. Concealed Carry Association, an advocacy organization that promotes gun ownership for safety purposes.  As reported by The independent and other media.

On their table, the group had a flyer promoting the AR-15 giveaway from Daniel Defense, an arms manufacturer whose firearms were used in the 2022 Robb Elementary School mass shooting and found in the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooter’s stockpile.

Those interested can enter the giveaway by following the QR code on the flyer to a browser that asks for an email and phone number, according to Rolling Stone.

A representative at the booth told Rolling Stone that “some people” expressed surprise at the giveaway but defended the firearm as “one of the most effective and important tools that we have.”

The U.S. Concealed Carry Association said in a statement after the shooting that they were “heartbroken” by the attempted assassination of Trump and that “political violence is abhorrent and has no place in America.”

The group says they “oppose any legislative efforts at the state and federal level that week to strip law-abiding Americans of their Second Amendment right without due process.”

On June 13, Thomas Matthew Crooks shot Trump using a semi-automatic AR-15 style rifle at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Federal law enforcement has not released the exact make and model of the firearm.

The former president suffered a minor injury to his right ear. Rally-goer Michael Comperatore, 50, was killed and two other men were injured.

The AR-15 was first developed for military use in the 1950s by the company ArmaLite Rifle before the patent was sold to Colt’s Manufacturing Company. Other gun manufacturers have based their own version of the AR-15 on the original design.

Over the last 20 years, AR-15-style rifles have become extremely popular with roughly one in every 20 American adults owning one. The lightweight firearms are easy to use, have little recoil and can be customized with accessories.

But it is also one of the deadliest weapons. It has been used in five of the 10 deadliest mass shootings since 2002.

Nine states have passed laws banning the sale and possession of the AR-15.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

President Biden tested positive for Covid yesterday, forcing him to cancel a campaign event in Las Vegas and likely sidelining him for days following the conclusion of former President Donald J. Trump’s nominating convention on Thursday.

The illness, which the president’s doctor said had produced only mild symptoms so far, was diagnosed even as the Democratic revolt over his candidacy got louder, with more of Mr. Biden’s allies and supporters calling on him to drop out of the race, citing concerns about his ability to defeat Mr. Trump. As reported by The New York Times.

Mr. Biden told reporters, “I feel good,” as he boarded Air Force One in Las Vegas to fly back to his beach house in Delaware, where he plans to recuperate. He was not wearing a mask, nor were the people closest to him on the tarmac.

But having Covid is all but certain to complicate the president’s ability to answer his critics, many of whom have said they want him to show that he still has the vigor and energy to prosecute the case against Mr. Trump in campaign rallies, interviews and other events.

If Mr. Biden continues to test positive for the next week or more, it could keep him off the campaign trail. And if he continues to have congestion and a cough, as his doctor reported on Wednesday, it could hamper his ability to perform well in any interviews that his campaign could schedule from his home.

The president and his campaign strategists had hoped to use a two-day visit to Las Vegas to sell his economic and immigration policies to Latino voters in the crucial battleground state of Nevada as he tries to re-energize his campaign after three weeks of instability. In a parallel effort to reach Black voters, on Tuesday he spoke at an N.A.A.C.P. conference and sat for an interview with BET News that was released on Wednesday.

He was scheduled to speak at the annual conference for UnidosUS, a Latino civil rights and advocacy organization, but canceled after an hourlong delay when his Covid test came back positive.

Mr. Biden is trying desperately to end the conversation about his cognitive capacity and address what polls suggest are three of his biggest political weaknesses: immigration, the economy and slipping support among Latinos. But the Covid diagnosis means he will not be able to mount an aggressive campaign push in the coming days.

Covid is making its way back into our lives.  We need to make sure we are up to date with our booster shots.

Tony