Over at the velvet rope publication Puck, Peter Hamby has a good post puncturing the inane chatter that Kamala Harris will be or should be replaced as Joe Biden’s vice presidential running mate. This is a kind of sub-genre of “Biden stand down” discourse, a kind of thinking man’s artisanal small batch whiskey of definitely-not-going-to-happen ideas. Hamby actually finds that there is a political scientist, George Sirgiovanni, who has done a formal study of the history of Dump the Veep talk: the gist is that the chatter happens basically every time things look shaky for the incumbent and the Veep absolutely never gets dumped. Yes, it’s happened in the distant past. But not in the modern history of the presidency or vice presidency. It doesn’t happen. So stop trying to make fetch a thing.

Everyone is aflutter today over news that Donald Trump suddenly thinks Ron DeSantis’s six week abortion ban in Florida is “a terrible thing and a terrible mistake.” Hapless reporters and commentators are running around asking whether Trump is now pro-choice, whether he’s going to steal Democrats’ big issue out from under them. At least some Democrats seem to be worried about this too.

I couldn’t figure out why Wisconsin Republicans wouldn’t impeach newly elected Justice Janet Protasiewicz since their epic gerrymander basically makes them immune from whatever voters think. Then I saw state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos surprise every one with a purported proposal for “non-partisan” redistricting. It certainly seemed like a show of weakness. Like they weren’t so confident in their ability to impeach her after all. So I talked to the head of the state Democratic Party Ben Wikler to see what he thinks is going on.

Last we checked in on the Reality TV scandal of Rep. Lauren Boebert (R) of Colorado she was shown to have straight up lied when she denied vaping at a performance of Beetlejuice in Denver and refusing to stop after the pregnant woman behind her asked her to. Now it gets better, or worse, depending on your point of view. Over the weekend, a new snippet of video of Boebert at the performance started circulating which appears to show Boebert’s friend aggressively fondling her breasts. I’m not even sure what to call it. He doesn’t so much seem like he’s feeling her up as trying to see how big her boobs are. Weak game, if nothing else. Meanwhile, Boebert … well, lets say the video shows her rhythmically massaging the man’s crotch. And yes, I’m trying to keep this family friendly but look what I have to work with! Judge me on a curve.

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.