Perhaps many of you simply assume this at this point. But it’s worth saying out loud before we get too much further into the election season. The government of Saudi Arabia is ecstatic about the possible return to power of Donald Trump. And there’s every reason to believe they will use their disproportionate power over oil prices to smooth his return to the White House. Indeed, it’s not just Saudi Arabia. It’s Russia too. The two countries are in a production alliance Bloomberg aptly calls a “crude, inflationary alliance.”

Ever since she managed to get reelected last year by only a few hundred votes, words been out that she’d have to put some time into securing her seat if she wanted to remain in Congress. Indeed, I know that when her team was looking for someone to run her next campaign they had to promise that Boebert would stop acting like such a weirdo in the lead up to the 2024 campaign. Indeed, just days ago Politico ran a piece about how for all her Trumpy antics in D.C., back in her far flung Colorado district she’s taken a newfound interest in constituent service. Sorta Trumpy in the streets, normie in the sheets, if you will. But then this week news broke that Boebert and a new boyfriend had been kicked out of a performance of the musical Beetlejuice in Denver for “causing a disturbance.” Apparently Boebert had been singing along and rocking out like some 70s-era female metalhead cheering on Ozzy at a Black Sabbath concert back in the day.

Last night I wrote this bit of tough love for those of us who are perhaps understanding that Joe Biden definitely positively will be the Democratic nominee in 2024 and yet still want to agonize over his age and perseverate over the potential electoral consequences. Now I’d like to shift gear and discuss why it is exactly that there has been such a freak out about this now. After all Biden has been as old as he is … well, forever. Literally, forever. Think about it. Not long ago social media was filled with Dark Brandon memes. His campaign was actually making big money selling Dark Brandon merch. So what happened exactly? Why now rather than in the Spring or last winter?

I was sitting here tonight thinking about things. And it occurs to me that I’ve written the ‘Biden ain’t stepping aside so just suck it up and move on’ post a few times. But I left something out.

You getting all angsty about Biden’s age and worrying about it and coming back to it – you’re the problem. You need to grow up. I mean this not in an intemperate or judgmental spirit but in one of kindness and compassion. But seriously, you need to grow up.

I want to follow up on David’s post below about Hunter Biden being hit with federal gun charges. Tax charges are presumably coming in another jurisdiction. But the gun charges are frankly weird. As David notes, it is very uncommon, perhaps as much as unheard of, for someone to be charged with lying about substance abuse when buying a gun unless it’s part of prosecution for some other felony. So maybe you buy a gun, use it to commit a felony and then prosecutors charge you for that felony and also hit you for lying about your drug use when you bought the gun. I haven’t spoken to anyone who can think of another example. Former DOJ Inspector General Michael Bromwich said simply today, “It doesn’t happen. DOJ will need to produce data in discovery, which will show this is the most selective of prosecutions.”

In a way we’ve gone down a bit of a rabbit hole in our recent discussions of Starlink, Elon Musk and Ukraine. But it’s a fascinating one and – unlike a rabbit hole proper, which is judged to be beguiling yet ultimately pointless – it actually connects up with many of the most critical issues of our time. TPM Reader VN followed up with more about Starlink and its very real military applications even for the United States. The subject matter gets dense and sometimes technical below. But it’s worth following along. Because it touches on some really big, big issues.

Freshman Rep. Mary Peltola’s husband Eugene died this morning in a plane crash in Alaska. He was the only pilot and there were no passengers. He was 57.

Any premature death is tragic. But it is hard to overstate how many Alaska politicians and their spouses have died in plane accidents. And that’s just a particular window into the dangers of air transportation in the state. Peltola was elected after the death of long serving Rep. Don Young (R). Young was elected after his predecessor, Rep. Nick Begich (D) died in a plane crash in 1972. Also killed in that crash was then-House Majority Leader Hale Boggs. In fact, while “crash” is basically certain neither the plane nor any of its four occupants were ever found, even after one of the biggest searches in US history.

We have a new Quinnipiac poll out today. No big surprises. About where the rest of recent polls have been: Biden 47%, Trump 46%. But it’s this paragraph down in the poll release that has my attention.

Half of voters think Joe Biden was involved in Hunter Biden’s business dealings with China and Ukraine, while 40 percent think Joe Biden was not involved. Thirty-five percent of voters believe Joe Biden was involved and did something illegal, while 13 percent believe he was involved and did something unethical but nothing illegal, 1 percent believe he was involved but he did not do anything wrong, 11 percent did not offer an opinion, and 40 percent of voters believe Joe Biden was not involved.

At the risk of stating the obvious, Republicans have produced no evidence whatsoever to show that President Biden was involved in any of his son’s business dealings and there’s quite a bit of contrary evidence. But by simply repeating the accusations often enough it shapes public opinion in clear and damaging ways.

We know this but it never stops being worth noting it.

Back on July 28th I wrote about Eliot Cohen’s piece in The Atlantic arguing Biden should step aside and let another Democrat be the nominee for 2024. That Cohen piece seems to have become almost a genre in itself, a set piece even down to the same outline making the same point. David Ignatius wrote almost the identical piece last night in the Post.

It’s become a latter-day wise man formula: Biden has done a great job. He had a historic achievement in stopping Trump in 2020. But now because he’s so old he could squander that achievement by losing to Trump. So he should bow out and let someone else run.

Since it’s basically the identical piece, albeit brisker and to the point, you can see my take from July. But I wanted to note one addition Ignatius makes to the argument. While first suggesting the absurd idea that Biden should soft-heave-ho Kamala Harris and “encourage a more open vice-presidential selection process” he has a realization: “breaking up the ticket would be a free-for-all that could alienate Black women, a key constituency. Biden might end up more vulnerable.”

Ya think?

I have been so pleased by the way TPM Readers have allowed me to expand on the complexities of the Musk/Ukraine/Starlink question. As TPM Reader JS explains, it’s actually not true that the US military doesn’t need Starlink or isn’t using it. It’s true that the US military has a whole system of secure satellite communications. The US wouldn’t have found itself in the situation the Ukrainian military did when Musk blocked the use of his satellites over the Crimean coastline. But that’s not the whole story.