WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2024
Plus, a question from Michael Steele: Just this once, we're going to ask you to think about President Biden's "mental acuity" again.
We start with Michelle Goldberg's assessment, as reported in these passages from her most recent column for the New York Times. As of this morning, the column hasn't been published in print editions of the Times:
GOLDBERG (2/12/24): Last fall I found myself at a dinner party that included a former Biden administration official and a Democratic donor, and the conversation turned, naturally, to President Biden’s age and his prospects for re-election. The ex-official said that from inside the White House, where people experience the policymaking process firsthand, Biden was overwhelmingly seen as an effective leader who should run again. The donor, on the other hand, saw Biden mostly at the fund-raisers where watching the president’s meandering speeches left him terrified about the upcoming campaign. The gulf in their perceptions, I think, speaks to the fact that Biden’s age has impaired his ability to campaign much more than his ability to govern, which has created an impossible dilemma for the Democratic Party.
[...]
Because Biden has delivered on many Democratic priorities, there was never any real push within the party to get him to step aside, forfeiting the advantages of incumbency in favor of a potentially bruising primary contest. But it’s obvious to most people watching the president from afar that he looks fragile and diminished and that his well-known propensity for gaffes has gotten worse. Poll after poll shows that voters are very concerned about his age. That’s why the special counsel Robert Hur’s gratuitous swipes at Biden as someone who might seem to a jury like a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” have caused an epic freakout among Democrats. [Hur's] words brought to the surface deep, terrifying doubts about Biden’s ability to do the one part of his job that matters above all others, which is beating Donald Trump.
In that first passage, Goldberg suggests that Biden works effectively inside the White House but tends to deliver "meandering speeches" at fund-raisers—meandering speeches which have left one of Goldberg's sources "terrified about the upcoming campaign."
In the second passage, Goldberg delivers her own assessment of the ways in which Biden has been--her term--"impaired." In the past few weeks, we've amazed to see people aggressively disagreeing with the general thrust of this assessment:
It’s obvious to most people watching the president from afar that he looks fragile and diminished and that his well-known propensity for gaffes has gotten worse.
Has the president's "propensity for gaffes" actually gotten worse? That wouldn't be our impression. We don't think it's a question of "gaffes."
That said, we agree with the general thrust of that comment. In our view, it does seem obvious that the president frequently "looks [significantly] frail and diminished" when he appears in public.
It's even worse if you watch the Fox News Channel, where they play oodles of videotape in which the president seems to be painfully lost and confused during his public appearances.
Blue tribe voters may not be familiar with the episodes to which we refer. They play these tapes on the Fox News Channel but not on MSNBC, the "cable news" channel built upon the profit-making task of keeping us blue voters pleased.
Goldberg says "it's obvious to most people" that the president looks diminished. We would have assumed that was true, until we started seeing blue tribe pundits insisting that this is all some sort of pipedream—that there's really nothing to look at here, and that it's really Candidate Trump who keeps seeming to be confused.
We've seen the tapes on the Fox News Channel, and then we've seen them again. Yesterday morning, we also saw Michael Steele, on Morning Joe, wondering why in the world the Biden team didn't put the president out for that Super Bowl interview last weekend.
Steele, who is very sharp, said he was utterly baffled by this political error. We were amazed that someone so sharp couldn't seem to think of one obvious possible reason for the decision to hold Biden back.
Steele is every bit as sharp as anyone needs to be. To see him expressing his puzzlement yesterday morning, you can start by clicking here.
At this site, we've been seeing what Goldberg seems to say she has seen. She thinks the situation is "obvious to most people."
If so, some of those people aren't rushing to tell, not even when they're asked.
ReplyDeleteI am a well-meaning elderly man with poor memory. I love children. I would like to retire, but my genius son's beautiful paintings won't sell themselves. I am Dorby.
Thank you. This makes it clear how silly it is to think that President Biden would have the time or interest to help Hunter sell paintings. People wouldn't buy the paintings if they were not good. If you look at Hunter's paintings, you will see that he is talented enough to be taken seriously as an artist:
Deletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/05/arts/design/hunter-biden-art-buyers.html
I’m voting for Biden.
DeleteIf I could afford it, I’d buy a Hunter painting, they are quite good.
Hunter’s penis does nothing for me, but it drives Republicans crazy because it’s not a shriveled up feckless runt of a blunt like their own penises.
Where I agree with Republicans is that Hunter’s wife is super hot, way hotter than any of their wives.
Jealous much?
@4:03 the accusation is that people buying Hunter’s paintings are actually bribing the Biden family.
Delete@4:03 are you aware that Trump and his family, while he served as president (before losing in 2020), received hundreds of millions from China and $2 billion from Saudi Arabia?
DeleteSince your comment is fairly lucid, you probably are aware, unlike other commenters.
You need a quid pro quo to allege bribery but there is none. Buyers are supposed to be anonymous but some are known to the Bidens as longtime friends or campaign donors. So they’ve already contributed. But you need a favor done to allege bribery. There is nothing. It is not fair to expect a president’s son to stop all financial activity because there could be unknown bribery. You find the proof, then accuse, not vice versa. Trump grifts off everything, so we understand your suspicions.
Delete@7:09 the quid pro quo from Burisma was glaringly obvious. Biden said he would withhold foreign aid to Ukraine unless they dumped the prosecutor who was investigation.
Delete10:43,
DeleteNo offense, but you sound like someone who wants to fuck their own daughter.
This is confusing. Hunter is selling paintings so his dad will or won’t do what for Burisma?
Delete@@11:34 Are you not aware of all the money Burisma paid to Hunter?
DeleteThe prosecutor,Shokin, was also under scrutiny of multiple European governments for the fact that he was NOT ACTIVELY PURSUING corruption cases in the Ukrainian government. None of these governments, that likewise threatened to withhold money due to this corruption, were blood relatives to Hunter Biden. An assistant prosecutor to Shokin stated that at that time there was no active file on Burisma that was being pursued by the prosecutor. We desperately need to hear about the quid pro that European diplomats were engaged in here, as there appears to be a widespread conspiracy that took place. The other alternative, that DIC is either a misinformed troll or purposely spewing right wing lies is of course, unacceptable.
DeleteThe White House will brief Congress on a serious national-security threat involving Russia.
ReplyDeleteThe Russians are coming!!!
DeleteThis is another Republican stunt designed to undermine confidence in Biden.
DeleteAs described by Jake Sullivan in today's press briefing, a White House briefing was planned for tomorrow with the House Intelligence Committe. This is routine. The chairman of that committee jumped the gun by issuing a scary public statement:
"The House Intelligence Committee chairman warned of a "national security threat" related to a "destabilizing foreign military capability" so serious that President Joe Biden should declassify "all information" about it."
He did not say what it was but the implication is that Biden has been hiding info from the public that could make the situation in Ukraine worse or undermine relations with Putin (such as they are).
Jake Sullivan, Whte House National Security Advisor, suggested that it would have been better for Rep Miller (R) to wait until the briefing before going public. I think that is obviously what a person without political motivations would have done.
It astonishes me that Republicans are willing to themselves raise tensions with Russia and destablize foreign relations with such a sensationalized announcement, for the sake of counting political coup. Or perhaps they are attempting to maneuver Biden into some position by mobilizing public fears. Republicans in particular will become panicked by this kind of thing.
Surely there must be repercussions for Miller of violating security himself to make a public announcement of something that is surely classified if it is as earthshaking as Miller says. Clearly, he does not care about nationa security as much as he cares about advancing Republican goals to harm Biden in his reelection campaign. And that strikes me as treasonous and a violation of his oath of office. Perhaps he believe Trump will win and pardon him for this irresponsible stunt, or perhaps there is no danger and Putin himself suggested this to Trump to help him get reelected. In that case, there is a different danger, one we are already familiar with from Trump's previous term.
I’m insecure.
DeleteIt could be about Israel or Iran instead of Russia. The foreign military capability is not being mentioned. Some situations should not be declassified and others could be, but that is not for the House Intelligence Committee Chairman to decide. It is Biden's decision (just as it was Trump's before him). Trying to maneuver the president into doing something like that is obviously wrong, if not illegal. It usurps the president's power and responsibility to manage both the military and our nation's foreign relations.
Delete
DeleteOf course it's about the Russkies. It always is. They've got nothing else as scary as the Russkies. I'm already shaking. Protect me, the congress, please. Give more money to the president.
Don't worry. We are all going to fund Biden's reelection campaign. But Biden isn't behind this particular stunt. This came from House Republicans, who have nothing better to do than play dirty tricks on the Dems instead of doing their actual jobs.
DeleteHere is more info about Turner's actions:
Delete"House Intel Chair Warns of National Security Threat
February 14, 2024 at 2:16 pm EST By Taegan Goddard
House Intelligence Chair Mike Turner (R-OH) made a cryptic call for President Biden to declassify information about a “serious national security threat” to allow for public discussions about how the U.S. should respond, The Hill reports.
The ranking member on the panel, Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), however, cautioned the matter was not one of great urgency and that “people should not panic.”
CNN reports one of the sources who has seen the intelligence confirmed that it is “a highly concerning and destabilizing’ Russian capability ‘that we were recently made aware of.'"
Russia has a long history of engaging in right wing fascist imperialism, going back hundreds of years.
DeleteRussia historically has been a major threat to peace and harmony, and is now run by a right wing fascist that uses Trump as his puppet.
Some will face the onslaught of right wing fascism like Somerby does, figuratively flying down south and putting his head in the sand, just another sad old man, all alone and dying of cancer.
Somerby is dying of cancer? Where did you hear that?
Delete
DeleteI am Boris. I am a commie right wing fascist imperialist, going back millions of years.
I nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki and I massacred Vietnamese in My Lai. I am Che, Fidel, Osama, and Saddam in one.
I am a major threat to peace and harmony, and I am a right wing fascist that uses Trump as his puppet.
Hitler and the DNC were right to attack me.
I am Horby.
Somerby is framing things like this:
ReplyDeleteDo we want a president who governs well but campaigns poorly, or...
Do we want a president wh campaigns slightly better but who cannot govern without gravely threatening both our democracy and the well-being of our nation?
What fool would pick the screw-up instead of the competent president?
And why does Somerby even have to ask which is better?
I'm hoping Americans are smart enough to see when you are voting for a Biden white house, you're getting his staff and advisors too. His federal reserve and jobs policy is better than Trump who can't even find a real union to take a picture with it seems.
ReplyDeleteEven on issues where Biden is actively harming people like Palestine and immigration, the Republican party will also actively harm on these issues and it's easier to organize under Biden than Trump as awful as it sounds. But I have no pretensions that I'm a higher moral authority for this reason. Democrats don't get to have it both ways. If they bomb Palestine more, they're going to alienate some Muslim voters no doubt. If they drag their feet on college student debt and offshore oil drilling they'll lose youth vote. They can't chase votes for the lobbyist favor while demanding politics simply crawl to a standstill while they take their seat.
So I'm waiting to see Biden do what usually brings the country together and try to give a shit about people. If he can do that, I think he will have a shot at beating Trump. If he keeps tweeting Elmo pictures while people are being genocided, I don't think people are going to take him seriously.
Nobody really cares about the border as much as the economy anyway. They dont have to be such big nationalists, they're stirring up our jealousy of foreigners to cover for their lack of progress to show for us.
Need we remind you that Trump and Netanyahu are good buddies? Why do you think Trump would have bombed Palestine less (not that either president bombed Palestine personally). Biden has been working to limit retribution by Israel and restore peace while allowng access to humanitarian aid. What do you think Trump would do, as Netanyahu's cheerleader.
DeletePersonally, I think Biden really cares about people and our country and isn't just going through any motions, as you suggest, after pretending to be a reluctant Biden supporter while saying lots of negative right-wing stuff about Biden.
The giveaway is your pretense that Biden's economy is bad when that is his strength. Go find a different blog to troll, right wing asshole.
Your reply contains several straw men. I said the jobs picture is better not worse under Biden. I said the Republican party are as bad on Israel as Biden.
DeleteThe first part was simple misreading on your part. I agree the economy is doing well under Biden, but it doesnt feel good for people who still have debt, and rents are also going up as well. It's still a rough economy even if it's generally stable at the macro level at the moment.
Biden is an avowed Zionist who said Israel would have to be invented by America if it didn't exist. I'm quoting him almost verbatim. He sent weapons to aid the killing of 28,000 Palestinian people and 70% of those were women and children. He is trying to position Netanyahu as the person who is solely responsible for it, but the US might even go as far as blocking the UN from officially declaring the genocide to be happening.
I have no illusions that the either party will repeat
at the mistake of standing up to AIPAC. George H.W. Bush tried to pushback on West Bank settlements and got swept out of power by Israel-hawk Clinton.
Weapons are sent by the US to Israel (regardless of who has been president) in order to enable Israel to protect itself against the ongoing attacks by Arab and Muslim countries, most recently Hamas on 10/7. Biden's goal has never been to kill any Palestinians. It is sad that was not also the goal of Hamas with respect to Israel. Trying to position Biden as the instigator of anything in the Middle East is an attack on Biden, a pretty obvious one.
DeleteYour asshole comment about Bush being defeated by Clinton ignores everything else going on at the time, including Bush going back on his promise of no new taxes (read my lips) and Clinton's charisma. Israel had nothing to do with that election, nor did AIPAC which no doubt matters a lot to those of you who believe the Jews have a global conspiracy, but wasn't on anyone else's radar during that election.
But you have given yourself away as that creepy Q-Anon guy who was here a day or so ago. Are you going to talk about reptilians next?
Biden doesn't have to listen to any lobbyists if he doesn't want to, but there are people who would get really mad at him if he didn't.
DeleteAIPAC actively campaigned against HW Bush and called him an anti-Semite. It worked.
DeleteQuoting the Times of Israel:
"The 41st president beat AIPAC, but lost 24% of his Jewish backing after confronting Israel over the settlements"
https://www.timesofisrael.com/how-lonely-little-george-h-w-bush-changed-the-us-israel-relationship/
@ 4:16 PM
DeleteDon't try to confuse us. You're a faithful servant of alien reptiloids, not reptilians.
The only reptillian here is the cortex of your brain tattooing a toxic grandiosity about your power of guessing the who is in an anonymous comment section.
DeleteHere I was trying to have a serious conversation about politics and you are regressing to animal metaphors. Well, that's the 4th stage of genocide usually, to dehumanize people. I think you'll find that Palestinians are really human beings not animals or insects.
DeleteI am a reptilian.
DeleteOnce you read a book you'll be human again. Try this one:
Deletehttps://www.amazon.com/BIRTH-ISRAEL-MYTHS-Simha-Flapan/dp/0679720987
It's not just Netanyahu cheerleading the genocide. It's basically the entire political structure of the Israeli state at this point all the way up to the president and the prime minister.
Delete“no innocent civilians in Gaza” while
Delete“human animals”
“horrible, inhuman animals”
“Gaza will become a place where no human being can exist.”
“We have no counterstrategy that safely and efficiently kills the wasp without setting fire to the whole jungle.”
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/01/30/opinion/thepoint#friedman-middle-east-animals
https://bridge.georgetown.edu/research/report-anti-palestinian-racism-islamophobia-in-gaza-war-coverage/
4th stage of genocide, dehumanization:
4. Dehumanisation
The diminished value of the discriminated group is communicated through propaganda. Parallels are drawn with animals, insects or diseases.
https://museeholocauste.ca/en/resources-training/ten-stages-genocide/
https://www.genocidewatch.com/tenstages
This is what the fever swamp looks like.
DeleteI have reptile dysfunction.
DeleteNetanyahu, Qatar, and Russia helped set up and fund Hamas.
DeleteMost Palestinians reject Hamas.
The Hamas attack was a boon for Netanyahu and Russia as it serves their goals of wanting to murder as many innocent Palestinian civilians as possible, and discourage funding of Ukraine’s defense.
Zionism is an anti Jewish stance as it set up an ethnostate that functioned to purge countries of their Jewish population.
Zionism was so unappealing to most Jews, that most Jews refused to move there, and in fact most Jews now reside in the US, where they live in peace and comfort, as opposed to Jews in Israel that live in constant turmoil, mostly of their own making.
Those people were already purged and homeless. What do you think the holocaust was?
DeleteZionism long predates the Holocaust, with the pertinent time period being the aftermath of WW1 and the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Russia at the time was attempting to purge Jews via pogroms, but the countries behind Zionism were mainly Western Europe and the US. Originally the Nazis wanted to relocate Jews to another geographic area (leftists were the first to be sent to the camps), but no other country was willing to take them, so they threw their hands up in the air and went about murdering them all; after the Holocaust, Israel was a way to keep surviving Jews out of other countries. Your comment is ahistorical.
DeletePersecution and expulsion of Jews predates Zionism. We are disagreeing over whether a persecuted people should have a homeland where they cannot be expelled. Now you will say the Palestinians are such a people, but they are not. They are arabs no different than those living in adjacent arab nations.
DeleteThe commenter at 5:55 PM is somewhat confused.
DeleteBoth East and West lent weapons and people to the colonial takeover of Palestine.
Besides that he's correct that Zionism predates the Holocaust and in many ways was not able to anticipate the repetition of genocide in Palestine because it couldn't see German state colonialism as a problem. It simply wanted to reproduce it under a new ethnic banner.
Keep in mind that even in the Holocaust, the strong base of German-American patriots did not want to take sides between people in the camps and a nice country like Germany. Both sides can be bad.
DeleteNowadays Israel demands equal blindness, that both sides can be bad, so we shouldn't use nasty words like genocide when entire Palestinian families are obliterated off the map every 5 years.
It's precisely because it would hurt white German American feelings that nobody ever talks about German genocide in Africa.
Deleteit's precisely because it only hurts Palestinians that Zionism isn't a dirty word in America but it is across the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark_Island_concentration_camp
The UN said Israel is not engaged in genocide. You had your day in court and lost. Stop attacking Israel. You brought this on yourself.
DeleteThe UN is effectively an organ of US imperialism and isn't coming to the rescue of anyone
DeleteAll of those UN nations are corrupt? And Nikki Haley too I suppose.
DeleteUse simple logic. Why would the US join an organization that tells it what to to? The answer is the UN can't tell the US what to do because it has a veto.
DeleteEvery time the UN tries to hold Israel accountable they cry anti semitism and the US buries the criticism
A nation is being crushed before our eyes, entire families wiped off the map, and you stupid Americans offer red tape and bureaucracy as peace of mind
DeleteI think you forgot to say "former Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele" wondering about Biden. That might be relevant information!
ReplyDeleteMichael Steele is a rare Republican with a modicum of integrity.
DeleteHe recently had a decent interview with Heather Cox Richardson, who herself interviewed Biden recently and found his cognitive state to be sharp and not in decline. Heather has a long history of not being a propagandist, she tells it straight.
"GOP Lawmaker Blames Biden Using Photo Taken in 2018
ReplyDeleteFebruary 14, 2024 at 3:53 pm EST By Taegan Goddard
Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) posted a photo of a road filled with a large crowd of people, implied to be seeking asylum in the U.S. because President Biden was not tough on border security, the HuffPost reports.
Overlaid on the photo was a little image of Biden seemingly exclaiming “I Did That!”
Unfortunately, Edwards was using a photo taken in 2018, when Donald Trump was president."
What is the point of this? It illustrates that Republicans are dishonest in their attacks on Biden.
Somerby likes to put his thumb on the scale to tip it towards his right wing agenda.
ReplyDeleteThose Biden “gaffes” he likes to tout turn out to mostly be jokes Biden told, that the audience understood and responded to, but that Somerby supposedly misunderstands. (He doesn’t, he’s just playing his readers for suckers)
Pointedly, Somerby ignores the sharp decline in Trump’s cognitive abilities, which are more troubling in nature, and occur daily.
Regardless, the US wasn’t born yesterday, we have robust policies and procedures in place to deal with an incapacitated president, and even the death of a president. It’s happened several times in the past, and it’s never been a real concern.
This is a fake issue Somerby is pushing.
Not all of the attacks on Biden are partisan. Some may be due to ageism, one of the prejudices that our society has yet to address but one that disadvantages citizens who are less likely to have the means to protect themselves from it.
ReplyDelete"Ageism is pervasive. “Everyone loves their own parents. But as a society, we don’t value older adults or the people who care for them,” said Robert Kramer, 74, co-founder and strategic adviser at the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care.
Kramer thinks boomers are reaping what they have sown. “We have chased youth and glorified youth. When you spend billions of dollars trying to stay young, look young, act young, you build in an automatic fear and prejudice of the opposite.”
Combine the fear of diminishment, decline, and death that can accompany growing older with the trauma and fear that arose during the pandemic, and “I think covid has pushed us back in whatever progress we were making in addressing the needs of our rapidly aging society. It has further stigmatized aging,” said John Rowe, 79, professor of health policy and aging at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
“The message to older adults is: ‘Your time has passed, give up your seat at the table, stop consuming resources, fall in line,’” said Anne Montgomery, 65, a health policy expert at the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. She believes, however, that baby boomers can “rewrite and flip that script if we want to and if we work to change systems that embody the values of a deeply ageist society.”
Integration, not separation, is needed. The best way to overcome stigma is “to get to know the people you are stigmatizing,” said G. Allen Power, 70, a geriatrician and the chair in aging and dementia innovation at the Schlegel-University of Waterloo Research Institute for Aging in Canada. “But we separate ourselves from older people so we don’t have to think about our own aging and our own mortality.”
The solution: “We have to find ways to better integrate older adults in the community as opposed to moving them to campuses where they are apart from the rest of us,” Power said. “We need to stop seeing older people only through the lens of what services they might need and think instead of all they have to offer society.”
That point is a core precept of the National Academy of Medicine’s 2022 report Global Roadmap for Healthy Longevity. Older people are a “natural resource” who “make substantial contributions to their families and communities,” the report’s authors write in introducing their findings.
Those contributions include financial support to families, caregiving assistance, volunteering, and ongoing participation in the workforce, among other things.
“When older people thrive, all people thrive,” the report concludes.
Future generations will get their turn. That’s a message Kramer conveys in classes he teaches at the University of Southern California, Cornell, and other institutions. “You have far more at stake in changing the way we approach aging than I do,” he tells his students. “You are far more likely, statistically, to live past 100 than I am. If you don’t change society’s attitudes about aging, you will be condemned to lead the last third of your life in social, economic, and cultural irrelevance.”
From https://www.alternet.org/old-people/
Used with permission
This is why people are reacting to Biden emotionally, as a frail, doddering old man. They are not seeing the person inside the wrinkles and gray hair and stooped shoulders.
DeleteWhy do old people appear doddering? For one thing, the spaces between the vertebrae shrink, shortening the spine and eliminating erect posture. For another, old people may be experiencing joint pain when they move, which restricts confident action. For yet another, nearly all old people fear falling down. With more brittle bones, falling can be more damaging to those who are older.
It has nothing to do with lack of confidence in other respects, such as thinking or decision-making. It amounts to being careful and recognizing one's physical limitations. But physical and mental or cognitive are not the same. Those who have spent time around people with disabilities know that something like ALS or cerebral palsy can be accompanied by genius IQ. It depends on the disorder, but aging is not a disorder, it is an inevitability if you are lucky enough to escape early death.
Stereotypes about aging are unfair when applied to an individual without considering their specific capacities. That is just as true for elderly people as for those who are stereotype by race or gender.
It is distressing when Democrats, who should understand such things, display ageist attitudes towards Biden (or other aging politicians or people in any field of work) when we should know better. It is especially distressing to think that prejudice may result in Trump winning another term. We need to get our act together and stop obsessing over something that cannot be changed (whether it is race, gender, or age).
Age is not a real issue for politicians, we have contingency plans for cases where an elected official can no longer function appropriately.
DeleteSure, ageism is a real issue, but this article frames it where the main concern is what value we can extract from the elderly, which is an unhealthy way to view the issue. We should be more worried about people living fulfilling lives, not worrying about what value they contribute.
Spoken like a conservative, who worries about what he gets. Democrats are concerned about other people and thus what we give, leave behind, build together during our time on earth. Worrying about others is better for mental health than worrying about whether you are getting as much as you can.
DeleteConservatives are the ones worried about extracting value over fulfilling lives. You may have had a brain fart, or just operating in bad faith.
DeleteSo you think people only work because someone extracts value from them? Who is extracting value from Biden?
DeleteYour value is being extracted by the business class.
DeleteI would hope a politician used their power to make sure that fight between the working class and the business class doesn't get too ugly and that it's a fair fight. But we still have people cutting off their own dad's heads over Trump's insanity. I think Trump is really kept around to make people too afraid to make change in the first place.
Trump is “kept around?” It isn’t because the Democrats didn’t try to get rid of him, I can tell you that.
DeleteLiberals asked for Trump and called him a easily beatable candidate then lost to him.
DeleteThey “asked” for Trump? Ok. Forget the Republican primary voters, who actually asked, er, voted for him. But you like the tired idea that republicans have no agency. Only liberals have that.
DeleteIt may not just be his age or his stammering and doddering. American people may be feeling even unconsciously that the situation is wrong. It could be unconscious or hard to articulate but it may come from deep inside a question like "why is this 81 year old man the only person that Democrats can come up with to run? Why is he running?" Something about the situation just doesn't feel right.
DeleteAnd there's another issue of how much people dislike him on a basic level even no matter what his age. It's very clear that people do. not. like. Biden. Whatever it is he is selling, people ain't buying it. He does not appeal to most Americans. I think more and more Americans are actually starting to hate him. The DNC is trying desperately to market him but it doesn't work. For Democrats, there could hardly be a worse candidate. But he does still have a good chance of pulling it off despite being an obvious sleaze bag liar and one of history's most unpopular and unliked presidents. We'll see.
8:21 This shows a copy of the DNC memo outlining their plan to run against Trump.
Deletehttps://www.salon.com/2016/11/09/the-hillary-clinton-campaign-intentionally-created-donald-trump-with-its-pied-piper-strategy/
You can’t make the DNC a bogeyman when most voters have never heard of it. I suggest you switch talking points.
DeleteHow many popular votes did Biden get over Trump? Wasn’t it 7 million? People Do.Not.Like.Trump. And Trump is old too, but not in a good way.
DeleteAgree that no one should care a whit about Republican voters. Now, to get the mainstream media's buy-in.
Delete11:27:
DeleteThis shows a copy of the DNC memo outlining their plan to run against Trump.
https://www.salon.com/2016/11/09/the-hillary-clinton-campaign-intentionally-created-donald-trump-with-its-pied-piper-strategy/
11:30 - Biden is one of the most unpopular presidents in the history of our country. All unpopular unsuccessful and unliked presidents like Biden were at one point elected by a majority. Their victories and associated margins of victory do not guarantee they will be popular. People voted for Dark Brandon over Trump. They tried him and three years later the results are in. The do. not..like. him. I'm sure you would never dispute this as it is obvious. Who would they like him? The corrupt liars at the DNC do fool some people into liking him because he wears Ray Bans and isn't Trump. You may be one of them. That's cool. But that's not going to help us in November.
DeleteWhen the media says, "Not all Republican voters are bigots", they are using hyperbole. I'm sure you would never dispute that as it is obvious.
DeleteThe acts I can see, namely Biden’s public appearances, show declining mentality. The acts I can’t see, how Joe Biden governs, supposedly show no decline. Accepting this requires a leap of faith.
ReplyDeleteDeclining mentality is in the eye of the beholder.
DeleteDavid in Cal - Trump told Putin to go ahead and attack NATO countries when he is President, and he won't do shit to stop it. (No collusion of course.) Trump is promising to put millions in camps and to ship them out. With no care for the economic and social catastrophe it would create. Trump is promising to fire any federal workers who don't take an oath to Trump. FFS Trump had his staff coordinate and execute an autogolpe. He is an adjudicated rapist, serial fraudster, and deadbeat. There was a time when this would be disqualifying. So I thought, you seem smart. Maybe I can crack the cult's hold on you. But no. You are just another garden variety fascist. So I am done responding Dave in Cal. Plus Somerby has been sucking balls for a long time now. Done here.
DeleteDavid in Cal's obsession with black people is why he can't think straight. The poor thing.
DeleteBiden is frail but otherwise healthy appearing, looks like he has early Parkinson's or some other movement disorder, and has cognitive impairment that occurs with age in some people. Trump is fat, apparently smells bad (personal hygiene is commonly affected by dementia), and has publicly said some of the most inexplicable things ever recorded by a would be presidential candidate. It is very hard not to arrive at the conclusion that dementia is an issue here. Die hard Trump supporters like DIC have developed torticollis from forever turning their heads away from the obvious. Explain why Trump would tell an audience that an ID is required to buy a loaf of bread. Explain why he was carted off to Walter Reed for an unscheduled visit 3 years ago to have a dementia test. There are numerous bizarre statements from him which do not fall under the simple explanation of forgetfulness. These are descriptions of a world that does not exist. So, when DIC remarks about Biden's cognition, bear in mind that no one who has worked with Biden has had the scathing criticisms of his mental capacity that Trump has received from numerous members of his former administration, including multiple former colleagues bluntly stating that he has the mind of a child. That DIC and others of his ilk do not address this issue is because they are dishonest. Democrats openly worry about Biden and his missteps. Trump supporters choose to completely ignore the obvious: that his public statements frequently make no sense.
DeleteJohn Bolton stated in a memo that Trump was close to pulling out of NATO in 2018. Trump apparently does not know how NATO works, or misrepresents it to his followers. It is not a country club with members paying 2% into it. However it is that 1:49 would like to portray Trump's comment, it was received with alarm by NATO members overseas who well understand that Putin most certainly welcomes his disparagement of an organization that works to keep him in check. Hence Putin will favor Trump in the upcoming election. 1:49 clearly misrepresents the situation if he portrays Trump as the innocent victim of left wing propaganda. He has a well established animosity towards NATO and has misrepresented himself as the first president to have admonished members for not funding their self defense enough (Obama and Bush did so). And there is no good reason to think that his verbal posturing motivated them insofar as the self funding increased after the Crimea invasion. So what he said is that he would encourage Putin to do whatever he wants to any country not paying up 2%. Remember this: when Putin invaded Ukraine in 2014, Trump sided with him, and when Russians shot down a commercial airliner in 2014, killing 298 people, Trump again aligned himself with Putin's denials. Likewise, Trump engaged in a smear campaign against Zelensky's Ukraine. So he is not some innocent here, playing an "art of the deal" game to encourage NATO to strengthen up using a big stick. His support of Putin goes way back. That is fact, like it or not 1:49.
Delete1:49: Has Trump ever talked tough to Putin, the way he did to our supposed allies?
DeleteWhat do you think Putin thinks when trump bullies NATO, 1:49?
DeleteHi 7:50. I don't know what Putin thinks about that. I do know that Trump did not tell Putin to go ahead and attack NATO countries when he is President. And that making such a claim is a huge gift to Trump.
DeleteHi 7:49. I don't know if Trump ever talked tough to Putin the way he did to our supposed allies. I do know that Trump did not tell Putin to go ahead and attack NATO countries when he is President. And that making such a claim is a huge gift to Trump.
DeleteEveryone should be typing "trump" with small "t".
DeleteThis is how we win!
8:36, right, he only said he'd "encourage" Putin to do "whatever the hell he wants" if they fail to pay their dues. LOL, good point, jackass.
DeleteThe time for fact-checking Trump and asking if he's "crossed the line" seems to be over. Politics for people right now is emotional, especially the half of America that has turned to Trump because of his emotional message. Again and again Democrats keep showing up for wonk class, and it's baffling that they cannot seem to speak simply to Americans.
Delete8:47 AM Feel free to keep telling people Trump told Putin to go ahead and attack NATO countries when he is President.🤟🏼
Delete
DeleteTDS is a serious mental illness.
I know many friends - seasoned democratic voters - who are watching what’s happening in Palestine and saying they will not vote for Biden again.
Delete2024 is going to be a rude awakening.
8:58,
DeleteI'm not 8:47, but will you let me tell the truth about Putin's blackmail of Trump being the real reason Trump is Putin's bitch?
I promise to say it each and every day right up until the election.
Thanks in advance.
9:16 - How has saying Trump is Putin's bitch worked for you in the past?
Delete8:47 AM Feel free to keep telling people Trump told Putin to go ahead and attack NATO countries when he is President.🤟🏼
DeleteCan't you read, magat trollboy? He said he would "encourage" Putin to do "whatever the hell he wants." Sorry if you can't understand plain english, shit for brains.
Trump wears diapers because he has a problem with pooping his pants, when he’s not sexually assaulting a woman or hobnobbing with fascist dictators. He leaves a wake of Trump Stench wherever he walks.
ReplyDeleteBiden is clean, still jogs, and fucks his wife, all while governing as our best president since FDR.
This isn’t even a contest.
No shit.
Delete
DeleteI thought Obama was clean: "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy." At least in 2007 he was clean.
But Obama is much younger. Are you sure you sniffed Mr Biden real well?
The second amendment is evil.
ReplyDeleteThe neoliberal shitlibs want to disarm hard working Americans.
DeleteOr, the neoliberal shitlibs have capitulated to the gun lobby.
Take your pick, I guess.
Guns are great.
DeleteGuns are good.
Let us thank them for shooting our children.
Amen.
Note to self: write post saying a Biden victory is an impossible dream, part 46.
ReplyDeleteBreaking news: Dow Jones up only 100 points, after dropping 500 points yesterday, out of … checks notes … 38,000 points, an all time record high set Monday. Why this is bad for Biden and the Democrats.
ReplyDeleteAlso, why do neoliberal shitlibs care about the corporatist stock market, when they should be dismantling capitalism?
Haha
DeleteSomeone is having a normal day
DeleteApparently the Russians are developing some kind of nuclear anti satellite capability.
ReplyDeleteBreaking news: suozzi voters might have responded to suozzi’s “right turn” on immigration. Many are saying this.
ReplyDeleteEven though his opponent went harder right on immigration.
Also, let’s not discuss the possibility that Suozzi’s voters, some of whom were republicans (gasp! Breaking news!), might have supported aid to Ukraine. I know, I know a topic never once mentioned at this blog. Anything is possible, though.
Or, maybe the voters of NY 3 would prefer a Congress and a political party that can actually govern. Wild idea, I know.
But let’s chalk it up as a victory for Fox’s obsession with the border. See, shitlibs, when you craft the narrative just right, it’s always the republicans who really win.
Biden is doomed, DOOMED I say.
I’ll just post this link:
ReplyDeletehttps://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2024/02/new-york-special-election-media-said-it.html?m=1
It discusses how the media prior to the election predicted a close race, that Democrats should be worried, because the district was increasingly republican, and THE BORDER.
Then, after the election, they changed their tune. Same as it ever was.
It’s called media criticism.