SATURDAY, MAY 17, 2025
But mainly, those tapes of President Biden: Long ago and far away—it was July 11, 2022—Michelle Goldberg wrote a column expressing the view found right there in her headline:
Joe Biden Is Too Old to Be President Again
President Biden was too old to run for a second term!
Repeat: It was July 2022. President Biden had been in office for only eighteen months, but here's the way Goldberg described him:
As a recent New York Times/Siena College poll found, 64 percent of Democrats want a different presidential nominee in 2024. Those Democrats cite Biden’s age more than any other factor, though job performance is close behind. Their concern isn’t surprising. Biden has always been given to gaffes and malapropisms, but there is a painful suspense in watching him speak now, like seeing someone wobble on a tightrope. (Some of his misspeaking can be explained by the stutter he overcame as a child, but not all.) His staff often seems to be keeping him out of view; as The Times reported, he’s participated “in fewer than half as many news conferences or interviews as recent predecessors.”
For the record:
In that Times/Siena poll, only three percent of Democrats who wanted a different candidate were said to have cited Biden's "mental acuity" as the reason for their view.
(33 percent of such Democrats were said to have cited his age. 32 percent were said to have cited his job performance.)
At that point, only three percent of dissatisfied Dems cited "mental acuity." That said, Goldberg's description seemed to suggest that she was already seeing some such problem on the relatively rare occasions when President Biden appeared in public.
In February 2023, Goldberg revisited this topic. This time, she displayed a remarkably upbeat tone—but once again, she said he shouldn't run:
Biden’s a Great President. He Should Not Run Again.
When President Biden gives his State of the Union address on Tuesday, he will have a lot to boast about.
He’s presided over record job creation and the lowest unemployment rate in over 50 years. Whereas Donald Trump’s infrastructure weeks were a running joke, Biden signed the largest infusion of federal funds into infrastructure in more than a decade. His Inflation Reduction Act made a historic investment in clean energy; the head of the International Energy Agency called it the most important climate action since the 2015 Paris climate accord. (And incidentally, inflation is finally coming down.)...
Biden can also take a victory lap for Trump’s declining influence. ...[T]he loss of Trumpist candidates like Arizona’s Kari Lake and Georgia’s Herschel Walker in 2022 convinced many Republicans they need to move on from their onetime hero.
Borrowing from Twain, rumors of Trump's "declining influence" turned out to be greatly exaggerated. So too with the way inflation seemed to be falling in line.
Also, President Biden was "slightly ahead [of Trump] in a hypothetical matchup," Goldberg added. But regarding the question of mental acuity, she was now saying this:
It’s hard to ignore the toll of Biden’s years, no matter how hard elected Democrats try. In some ways, the more sympathetic you are to Biden, the harder it can be to watch him stumble over his words, a tendency that can’t be entirely explained by his stutter. [Anti-Trump pollster Sarah] Longwell said Democrats in her focus group talked about holding their breath every time he speaks...
Biden was "slightly ahead [of Trump]," she accurately said. But by now, there were reports of horrified Democrats holding their breath whenever the president spoke.
We can't recall what we thought about this matter at that point in time. In August of 2023, we were shocked by the first speech President Biden gave at the site of the Hawaii fires.
From that point on, we found it hard to believe that he could stage a normal presidential campaign. In our view, Candidate Trump also seemed to be un-electable. We saw that as Blue America's principal hope.
That flickering hope crashed and burned at the June 2024 debate. At that event, Candidate Trump's performance was stunningly bad. It was hard to miss the fact that President Biden's performance was worse.
Within a month, Biden was out and Harris was in. It was very late in the game, and the rest is electoral history.
This morning, Goldberg visits this topic again. Also, audiotapes are airing today. You can listen to them here.
Those audiotapes are potent stuff. The highlighted parts of Goldberg's new column strike us as painfully accurate:
How Did So Many Elected Democrats Miss Biden’s Infirmity?
[...]
For many people, Republicans especially, the Democratic Party’s ongoing insistence that Biden was basically fine looks like a fraud committed against the electorate. In “Original Sin,” Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s explosive new book about Biden’s deterioration, they call the widespread refusal to admit how bad he had become a “cover-up.”
There was certainly some covering up going on, especially among Biden’s insular inner circle. But more than lying to the public about Biden’s increasing infirmity, I think too many Democrats were lying to themselves...
For the record, "frauds against the electorate" are committed on cable news programs on a daily basis. However, this possible fraud and cover-up is one that's easy to define and discuss. It may prove hard to wish away.
Is a knockout in our long tribal fight possibly lingering here? As those audiotapes get played—as Fox News Channel messengers deliver their channel's messaging—it seems to us that we denizens of Blue America may have lost a long stupid war in a way which may prove hard to reverse.
At the start of this morning's Fox & Friends Weekend, we saw a trio of friends playing those Biden audiotapes. It would be hard to disagree with the assessments they were offering.
Could this be a knock-out blow for us in Blue America? Norman O. Brown said it long ago as part of a Phi Beta Kappa address. We have no idea what he meant—except to the extent that we almost possibly might:
BROWN (5/31/60): I sometimes think I see that societies originate in the discovery of some secret, some mystery; and end in exhaustion when there is no longer any secret, when the mystery has been divulged, that is to say profaned...
And so there comes a time—I believe we are in such a time—when civilization has to be renewed by the discovery of some new mysteries, by the undemocratic but sovereign power of the imagination, by the undemocratic power which makes poets the unacknowledged legislators of all mankind, the power which makes all things new.
The power which makes all things new is magic. What our time needs is mystery: what our time needs is magic. Who would not say that only a miracle can save us?
Magic, don't fail us now!
Way back then, Professor Brown seemed to think that our civilization, such as it was, was somehow in the process of "ending in exhaustion." He said we needed to discover some secret, some new mystery, which would let us renew our societal quest.
That was then, and this is now—but that strikes us as a metaphor for the remarkably stupid tribal war in which we've been engaged for at least the past three decades. It seems to us that we Blues have utterly failed to create a new spark of life—a magical mystery which would let us move forward, as a people, in some new, renewed way.
The Springsteens and the Comeys just keep making things worse. There's simply no way to stop them! But on the whole, we anti-Trumpers aren't the brilliantly insightful people we've always claimed to be, and we never really were.
Also, we seem to be completely unable to understand this fact about ourselves.
We Blues! It seems to us that things have changed. We may offer more detail about this gloomy perspective as we move down the road.
Frauds against the electorate are committed every day, but this apparent act of fraud hits quite close to home. It's easy to hear on those audiotapes, and it's easy to explain. It may prove to be quite hard to cover up.
Books are being released about Biden and his inner circle and what led up to his debate performance and subsequent decision to return to private life.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteIt's in the past, who cares, fuhgeddaboudit. The only lesson of the Brendon story is that Democrat technocracy doesn't need and doesn't want any functioning elected representatives, including presidents.
"Brendon" LOL!
DeleteDefective bot.
“ The Springsteens and the Comeys just keep making things worse.”
ReplyDeleteOf course. In Somerby’s world, the only allowable public criticism of trump is Somerby’s, which is to call trump mentally ill.
Otherwise, Heaven forbid anyone should express an opinion that might upset or offend a right wing snowflake. especially the Snowflake-in-chief.
What an insidious thing for Somerby to say.
It never made sense that he had a cold. Now we are finding out why.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't make sense that a person has a cold? In what universe?
DeleteHere is the full description of Biden's condition at the debate: (1) he had jet lag, (2) he had a cold, (3) he was taking cold meds in order to do the debate without sniffling, (4) he did not do a lot of debate prep because he was busy dealing with international concerns from which he had just returned, (5) he was a bit sleep deprived due to the travel and work.
Does any of that make sense? It is well established that all of these factors can affect cognitive functioning and resemble decline that is reversed when someone is restored to normal functioning. Dementia is a degenerative disease that cannot be reversed, it just gets worse not better. When Biden performed well in several interviews immediately after that bad debate, it showed that whatever was bothering him was not permanent but transitory, ruling out cognitive decline (aka dementia). That contradicts the thesis of the book Original Sin, as do the two interviews given in the last month, in which he was fine.
Right after the bad debate, the White House released health information concerning Biden's cognitive functioning. It said that he was unimpaired and competent to do the duties of president, that he had passed several cognitive functioning tests, that he was examined daily by White House medical staff to rule out strocks or other physical impairment during the night, and that he was healthy and not in decline.
If you want to assume that the medical staff who treat those working in the White House, who are not under Biden's command but work independently are part of some political conspiracy, then you are climbing out on a limb. That would be a violation of their oaths and against the law, as is the conspiracy now circulating via Comer that Hunter or Jill or Michelle Obama was actually signing presidential orders using an autopen. That is stupidity beyond the usual trolling.
Biden doesn't deserve this. Somerby should be ashamed of furthering this kind of propaganda.
strocks = strokes
Deleteanon 2:51 - you're in complete denial of reality. almost every sees it, but no you. He had a cold??? good god!
DeletePeople who have actually had colds (i.e. everyone) know what it feels like. You seem motivated to gaslight people about what colds (and cold meds) can do to make your brain fuzzy. Fortunately it is a widespread experience and others will have been there themselves.
DeleteBiden wasn't exhibiting any the symptoms of a cold.
DeleteWhat do you think cold medication does?
DeleteAC/MA,
DeleteAll one has to do is say "obviously, Biden had a cold."
The word "obviously" is all the proof one needs. Like how "obviously not all Republican voters are bigots" is all the proof needed to show that not all Republican voters are bigots.
anon 11:25, I've answered this question from you before. The question isn't all that clear. which "rights are you asking about? There are all kinds of rights. However, I would answer that all groups of people are entitled to rights under applicable laws, applied equally. Beyond that, your question is wide open and is too vague.
DeleteHow about all of their rights? Why should any rights ever be ignored under our constitution? See, this is why people don't believe you're a lawyer.
DeleteI participated in a barnstorming week long business trip that took us to 6 European cities and 9 high level meetings in five days. On Friday afternoon our CEO's brain turned to mush. He was sleep talking his bullet points. In complete shambles. After a brief nap back to normal. He was 48. People are uninformed and nasty. Trump (Miller & Musk) are a menace, Biden was good. Get over yourselves and concentrate on the present moment. It is fucking ugly and quickly degenerating.
DeleteYet another post-bowl-of-shit-breakfast screed.
ReplyDeleteSomerby urges the Blue press to get more involved in the distractions provided by the right, especially Gutfeld. That is a push in the direction the right wants our attention to go. Somerby is pushing, not resisting, as he urges us to feel more outrage over Gutfeld's rehash of daily right wing distractions.
ReplyDeleteIf we want to resist the right, it begins with not letting ourselves be taken in by Somerby's own contribution to the right wing distraction machine, their narrative domination. The same applies to not participating in the controversy over renewed right wing attacks on Biden over his age. It is just noise. Our focus must be on Trump's wrongdoing and his attempts to subvert democracy by violating Constitutional rights. We need to keep our eye on the ball.
Biden’s mental decline was obvious. Questions:
ReplyDelete1. Why did Dems deny it?
2. Why did mainstream media cover it up?
3. Who really made Presidential decisions ? Especially those signed with the auto pen?
The answer to (2) is that the mainstream media IS the Democrats IMO.
Biden's "mental decline" was not obvious to people like: (1) members of congress who met with him, (2) foreign leaders and their staff who interacted with him during negotiations and other meetings, (3) his close staff and aides who interacted with him daily on highly technical and detailed matters. They all contradict these stories about Biden. Some comment that he had a depth of knowledge in their talks that showed he was informed and thinking about the topics at hand.
DeleteBecause your first premise is bunk, the premises you heap on that are bullshit too. Far from covering for Biden, the NY Times and the Washington Post engaged in a right wing attack on Biden based on his age. At the time I listed the headlines and counted the stories, comparing them to the number of stories about Trump, showing the bias and motivated nature of the campaign against Biden.
Unless you are prepared to disbelieve everyone, the answer is that Biden made those Presidential decisions (no doubt in consultation with his advisors and staff, as all presidents make decisions).
You are ignoring that Trump has been letting his staff sign his executive orders and statements using Trump's autopen, because Trump has appeared both surprised and uninformed by several of them, himself saying "who signed that?" about them when asked by press.
So this appears to be another case of projecting Republican malfeasance, Trump's own disorder, onto Biden to deflect accusations that might be made against Trump. Who is making decisions for Trump? We know it is likely to be Bannon, Miller, Loomer, Musk, or Sean Hannity. It clearly is not Trump himself.
The mainstream media consists of corporations run by executives who are not Democrats. Who are Tapper and Thompson? Tapper worked as a conservative host on CNN. Thompson runs Axios, which participated in the campaign against Biden based on his age during the presidential campaign. The founders of Axios came from the Washington Post, which presented the fake videos of Biden wandering or sitting on air (edited to appear that way, while Biden was doing what everyone else was at the time) as if they were valid and not edited.
These guys have an axe to grind, aside from making money off their book. Their book won't be released until 5/20 yet it reached #1 on the NY Times bestseller list last week (before the NewYorker article). Who bought all those copies?
anon 3:50. I'm a lawyer, and I represent clients in lawsuits. It is crucial for any litigator to study the other side's positions, their strengths and weaknesses, Client's often don't like to her the weaknesses of their own case, but they should be told. This type of thing has to be done in many spheres - an example - a football team preparing for a game needs to study the opposition, to understand its strengths and their own weaknesses. Certainly in wars, and geopolitical battles. You advocate a head in the sand, sure to lose, strategy.
ReplyDeleteNo, I do not. Biden was tested immediately after his bad debate, by his own medical staff. How is that "head in sand?" All political candidates conduct oppo research on their own guys, to find out what they may not be telling their own staff. The idea that Biden could be faking competence while interacting with so many people in the White House, makes no sense given the openness of his administration.
ReplyDeleteThe right sits there and manufactures endless ugly smears against its political opponents. It is then up to us to refute them while they create the next set of lies. We know from the Mueller Report that Russia was involved in spreading these conspiracy theories and smears all over social media, including Twitter. We know that this is now part of campaigning on the right because we have seen it happen repeatedly. The endless funding the right receives from parties who should not be involved in our politics enables them to run the left in circles responding to their garbage. Acknowledging that problem is part of solving it.
I do not agree that there is any truth in this campaign against Biden, any more than there was in the attacks on Hillary over her e-mails or Benghazi or the "book" written to smear her (Clinton Cash) which is just like this one, Original Sin, with its unsubstantiated claims about Biden's mental state.
You cannot seriously be suggesting that we must investigate to make sure Haitians are not actually eating pets, or follow Hunter around to make sure he has no autopen stains on his fingers, etc. These claims are so unlikely they can be dismissed on their face, but surely the burden of proof is not on Democrats but on Republicans when they say these outrageous things, immediately echoed by MAGAs everywhere and repeated ad nauseum. Soceity is not a court of law. It is a world that is routinely assessed by evaluating probabilities and likelihoods. Biden is a man of character, which he has demonstrated repeatedly throughout his career (while Trump is not). How likely is it that he would, upon being told he isn't thinking well, concoct an elaborate conspiracy to stay in an office he cannot perform. Look how readily he stepped aside for Harris when his own party asked him to. Look at the way he backed her in her campaign. (Bernie didn't do the same for Hillary.) This is not someone who would do what is being suggested by the right. On the other hand, the right has shown over and over that it will say and do anything, without compunction. If you are actually a lawyer, I doubt you would be saying stuff like this. You would value reason and justice and truth, and you would reject what the right keeps peddling, instead of coming here and attacking those who actually do hold those values.
If I had any doubts that you are right-leaning, AC/MA, you have dispelled them. I also do not believe you are or were ever a lawyer. You don't think well enough and you definitely don't write well enough either.
ReplyDeleteAccording to D. Earl Stephens, Jake Tapper helped promote Jared Kushner's book, back when he was working for CNN and supposedly being objective and unbiased.
ReplyDeletehttps://dearlstephens.substack.com/p/planes-brains-and-autocrats
When a guy who ignores professional ethics suggests that failure to recognize George Clooney constitutes evidence of cognitive decline in our President, there are ulterior motives at play.
Somerby used to worry about the decline of news reporting standards. This is an excellent example of that ongoing problem, but Somerby appears distracted by calling Biden old, just as he was during the 2024 election, when Kamala Harris's smile was too happy (or something).
Somerby spoke very positively of Kamala's smile.
DeleteDo you think that praising a woman's looks is the highest praise she can receive? He over-praised her smile and denigrated everything else about her. He entirely ignored her efforts to reduce the influx of immigrants at the border by dealing with problems in the donor nations sending immigrants our way. If he truly cared about immigration, he would have been aware of her efforts instead of saying that Biden paid no attention to the border.
DeleteGangbangers are, definitionally, right wing, and so are their customers.
DeleteIllegal drug activity is driven by demand, Southern and Midwestern White males are depressed as fuck over how Republicans have made their lives so shitty, and they lack any coping skills, so they turn to drugs.
Why did Trump welcome the family members of jailed cartel leaders this past week?
DeleteWhat are Michelle Goldberg's qualifications for assessing someone's mental acuity? Are polls a diagnostic tool? Not last time I talked to a neuropsychologist (as a colleague, not patient).
ReplyDeleteIs stuttering a sign of lack of mental acuity. If someone stutters, might it be difficult for him to give a speech or interview, perhaps more difficult than for someone without a speech defect? Certainly people who stutter spend their lives dealing with idiots who think they are stupid (mentally defective) because of their speech. In youth, Biden probably encountered people who thought that, but he persevered and didn't let it damage his self-esteem (thanks to kind teachers and good parents, no doubt). Watch the film "The King's Speech" for a snapshot of what it is like as a stutterer, even when royalty.
When someone has a physical defect that they must compensate for, doing so can be tiring all by itself. Being tired for other reasons can exacerbate the difficulty. Yet no one seems to be willing to give Biden the benefit of the doubt. Were there scandals or gaffes that afflicted Biden's administration, causing misunderstandings or difficulties in doing his job? Did it produce identifiable mistakes or damage to our nation's goals, or even his own performance (beyond a bad debate)? Why then would this cause anyone to call for his removal?
Well, we know why the Republicans would want him off the ticket. They too may have thought he would be harder to beat than Harris (with her female blackness and that smile). How better to get him off the ticket than to call him demented and use his obvious stuttering and fatigue-related pauses as an excuse. The president is too far gone to run again, the right shouted, producing a series of fake videos of him wandering around (when he was actually just doing the same as everyone else, as could be plainly seen from the original, unedited video). People looked at that stuff and said, "too bad, it must be true, he's just standing there gawking at something, like grandpa before he went into the nursing home". It was easy, because people are much less familiar with what competent old age looks like and less familiar with the struggles of people with physical disabilities, even small ones like stuttering. Especially Michelle Goldberg, who reveals to the world that she doesn't know anything about mental competence.
Trump is manifestly in middle stages of dementia. His impairment is severe. His wife has left him, his doctor tells obvious lies (even about his height) and people are now Trump-splaining what he actually meant when he is not making any sense any more. Taylor Swift isn't HOT? Give me a break! She's hot even when she has a cold, unlike the rest of us.
Biden in 2028!
Delete"In August of 2023, we were shocked by the first speech President Biden gave at the site of the Hawaii fires."
ReplyDeleteWhen Somerby wrote about this, I searched for the video of Biden's speech to watch it for myself. I couldn't understand what Somerby thought was wrong with it, and said so at the time, in comments. I mark this as the beginning of the right's anti-Biden campaign to portray him as too old to be effective as president.
I thought Biden's debate was bad, but I also heard the parts of it that made sense and were sound and responsive (more responsive than anything Trump said). He didn't deal effectively with Trump's gish gallop but it wasn't like he didn't try. And he didn't wander off or say anything idiotic, nothing about sharks or Hannibal Lecter. He had long pauses and he tried to show his astonishment at Trump's remarks by staring at him with his mouth open (which is an appropriate expression of astonishment) but I fear that was misinterpreted as vacuity by Biden haters and ageists. More debate prep would have cured that response, but he was too busy doing his job as president.
After the debate, they published a transcript. Those who viewed the transcript without the video thought his responses were much less troubling than viewers. The problem was that those who did not want to see Biden run again immediately attacked him with this age complaint. This followed on the heels of a similar age-related criticism based on Hur's inappropriate remark about Biden's demeanor during his questioning (which should never have been said, given there were no charges, just as his tape shouldn't have been leaked this week in support of Tapper's book-driven anti-Biden crusade).
If you just absorbed these events and didn't question or think about them, you might consider Biden too old yourself, especially after the literal years of repetition of the claims. But consider also that beyond these speech-related difficulties, there is absolutely no evidence of Biden's supposed cognitive decline. None. No doctor's reports, no test failures, no job-performance complaints (except by Republicans over policies). This is not what dementia or cognitive decline look like. It is what an orchestrated Republican anti-Biden crusade looks like, and it worked. First against Biden and then against Harris, who shouldn't have found herself on the ticket without preparation or full support of her party.
If Biden can be railroaded this way, any random immigrant can be portrayed as a member of Tren de Aragua and disappeared for life. It could even happen to someone like you, especially if you have a speech defect or tattoo.
It is no surprise that Somerby is participating in this. It is what he does.
"If Biden can be railroaded this way, any random immigrant can be portrayed as a member of Tren de Aragua and disappeared for life."
DeleteDo you have a cold that is affecting your cognitive ability?
Do you actually read Corby's word-salads, 9:32 AM?
DeleteSpringsteen is making things better. He is a role model for resisting Trump and speaking out in defense of our democracy. Comey made an unfortunate post of some seashells, without explanation. He says he was teasing a novel he wrote that is just about to be released. He has written half a dozen books about investigators, with plots described as "ripped from the headlines".
ReplyDeleteThe new one is about this: "A threat is building in the city, with far right extremism powered by internet demagogues and funded by shadowy organizations. Together with legendary investigator Benny Dugan and aided by colleagues at the FBI, Nora builds a case against one of the key players in this burgeoning movement, arguing before a jury that some speech is actually a deadly crime. But the menace taking root is far bigger than any courtroom, and as the militants target an upcoming United Nations rally, Nora and her team must race to disrupt the plans and minimize casualties.
At once a fast-paced legal thriller and a close look at the very real perils of political extremism, FDR Drive harnesses former FBI director James Comey’s life experience to tell an authentic and compelling narrative that readers won’t soon forget."
This explanation for his picture makes more sense than that he would be involved in an assassination plot against Trump (who is arguably in the process of self-destructing). If you haven't heard this explanation, consider where you are getting your news.
People who produce cold medications have an instruction on the label about not driving or operating heavy machinery. They don't want to be sued if you get hurt or have a bad debate. Seriously though, why would such a warning be necessary if having a cold doesn't cause any symptoms?
ReplyDeleteRight. The 'cold' Biden caught 12 days before the debate that affected his performance but didn't keep him from getting all amped up at a rally the next day. That cold.
DeleteHow do you know the cold was 12 days before the debate? Because right wing propaganda told you so. All doing a better job at a rally needed was a good night's sleep. If he could do that at all, it shows he doesn't have dementia. Dementia doesn't suddenly recover after a day like that. It is permanent and it gets worse with time, not better. Biden was fine in his last two interviews last month. That shows he does not have dementia -- he just had a bad debate, for whatever reason.
DeleteMeanwhile Trump's dementia is getting worse.
DeleteNorman O. Brown died in 2002. Somerby has no clue what he meant in the passage quoted because Brown was highly educated in subjects Somerby has no exposure to. Thus Somerby has no foundation for understanding how Brown uses words and ideas.
ReplyDeleteIt is unclear why Somerby is quoting someone he doesn't understand, except to lend credibility to Somerby's own statements that they don't deserve, having no relation to anything Brown said.
"Brown's commentary on Hesiod's Theogony and his first monograph, Hermes the Thief: The Evolution of a Myth, showed a Marxist tendency. Brown supported Henry A. Wallace's Progressive Party candidacy for president in 1948.[4] Following Brown's disenchantment with politics in the wake of the 1948 presidential election, he studied the works of Sigmund Freud. This culminated in his classic 1959 work, Life Against Death. The book's fame grew when Norman Podhoretz recommended it to Lionel Trilling.[13] In May 1960 Brown, who was then teaching at Wesleyan University, delivered a Phi Beta Kappa Address to Columbia University." [Wikipedia] He went on to explore a great deal more.
Out of respect for their memories, Somerby should leave these guys alone. The way he uses them makes Somerby a ridiculous figure, and a word thief.
This is what Somerby and Trump and Tapper and Thompson are trying to distract us from knowing about:
ReplyDelete"Vought talked about traumatizing federal workers, and has done so, but the cuts have also traumatized Americans who depend on the programs that DOGE tried to cut. Cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) meant about $2 billion less in contracts for American farmers, while close to $100 million worth of food that could feed 3.5 million people rots in government warehouses.
Cuts to the Federal Aviation Administration have left airports without adequate numbers of air traffic controllers. After two 90-second blackouts at Newark Liberty International Airport when air traffic controllers lost control with airplanes, yesterday the air traffic controllers at Denver International Airport lost contact with planes for 2 minutes.
Cuts to a program that funds the healthcare of first responders and survivors of the September 11 World Trade Center terror attacks are leaving thousands of patients unclear whether their cancer treatments, for example, will be covered. Yesterday, acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) David Richardson told staff that FEMA is not prepared for hurricane season, which starts on June 1, and will work to return responsibility for the response to emergencies to the states. A document prepared for Richardson and obtained by Luke Barr of ABC News said: “As FEMA transforms to a smaller footprint, the intent for this hurricane season is not well understood, thus FEMA is not ready.”
Yesterday, news broke that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has been in talks with the producers of the reality show Duck Dynasty for a new reality show in which immigrants compete against each other in cultural contests to win the chance to move their U.S. citizenship applications ahead faster. It is made-for-TV, just like so many of the performances this administration uses to distract Americans from the unpopular policies that are stripping the government of benefits for ordinary Americans and moving wealth upward."
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-16-2025
I have read that the aviation cuts did not cut any actual controllers.
DeleteThe main problem is shitty, obsolete system that should have been replaced years ago.
Some of the disruption was due to interference with the in-place plans to replace aging equipment and update the control systems. This occurred because Musk wanted to introduce Starlink instead of the existing update plans. There remains a shortage of air traffic controllers. When the Newark blackout occurred, it was so stressful to cope with that many controllers went on health leave with stress-related illness and trauma. Musk is indirectly to blame for these problems.
DeleteAI says this (based on multiple news reports):
Delete"Elon Musk's DOGE team reportedly attempted to fire air traffic controllers at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), but this was blocked by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
Duffy intervened during a heated exchange with Musk, arguing that firing controllers amidst ongoing plane crashes would be dangerous.
Musk denied the claim that he intended to fire controllers.
While air traffic controllers weren't fired, DOGE did oversee the dismissal of other FAA employees, including maintenance mechanics and environmental protection specialists. "
"The main problem is shitty, obsolete system that should have been replaced years ago."
DeleteI blame General Mills for not including aviation systems in their cereal boxes.
Biden had just gotten a little too old for the job.
ReplyDelete" But on the whole, we anti-Trumpers aren't the brilliantly insightful people we've always claimed to be, and we never really were. "
ReplyDeleteSpoken by that fabulous liberal Bob Somerby.
I suppose the excerpt from Norman O. Brown was supposed to make Somerby himself seem brilliantly insightful, but Somerby just comes across like Cecelia when she uses a big word she cannot spell.
Then again, you don't have to be brilliant to recognize what is wrong with Trump. But something is wrong with a man who doesn't appreciate Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift.
DiC and Cecelia are Somerby's version of the Baileys, they are his trolls pushing his agenda of manufacturing ignorance.
Delete"Frauds against the electorate are committed every day, but this apparent act of fraud hits quite close to home. It's easy to hear on those audiotapes, and it's easy to explain. It may prove to be quite hard to cover up."
ReplyDeleteThis is very harsh language against Biden. Considering that no one has presented any evidence of Biden's cognitive decline, accusing anyone of fraud seems premature and unjustified. If they start naming names, libel charges would be justified given that no one has shown that Biden is not cognitively normal (with only normal aging symptoms). There are people who cannot do a debate on their best, youngest, smartest day, yet who are cognitive normal. So a bad debate is not evidence of cognitive decline. I am virtually certain that Biden's doctor has results of his cognitive tests, which were released to the public at the time of the debate. Proving that there has been any fraud is a large stretch under those circumstances. His recent normal interviews stand in stark contrast to this accusation. Sonerby has uncharacteristically taken a stand on a matter with no evidence, much less proof.
It cannot be argued that a fraud has been committed when the debate itself was public, a White House statement was released, Biden continued to appear in public, make speeches and give interviews, and continued to function well in his job without failures, and continued to meet with the public in various venues. What then is hidden?
This is an outrageous attack on Biden that Somerby is helping along with his own remarks. That puts Somerby firmly in the right wing, abetting Trump's anti-Biden crusade and joining in libel of one of our best Democratic presidents. Somerby is a bad person, a liar, and fraud himself (to the extent that he is nothing like a liberal).
What I hear on those tapes is a bad debate, not a fraud against the American people. Somerby is out over his skiis with this.
DeleteNew books are saying many Democrats thought Biden too old to win again.
DeleteThere are multiple hit books on Biden. This is what happens because they couldn’t pin anything on Hunter. There are some very nasty people on the right.
DeleteThe Right's obsession with Hunter Biden has always been 100% jealousy over the size of his penis.
Delete'What then is hidden?"
DeleteBiden's cognitive decline. There are entire books on the subject.
Republicans suffer from many issues, two of which are:
Delete_they are embarrassed about their undersized penises
_latent homosexuality
Prove it.
ReplyDeleteThe proof is he was 81.
ReplyDeleteHow quickly Republicans forget:
ReplyDelete"Helmore recalls, "The number 86 has also been used by Republicans calling for the impeachment of Joe Biden — for example, t-shirts sold on Amazon reading '8646,' indicating a call to impeach Biden, the 46th president…. Some liberals (are) accusing the right of deliberately misunderstanding Comey's intent to score political points."
Anonymouse 7:24pm, everybody in the country has linked those t-shirts. Comey did not get that formulation from Amazon.
DeleteAnd that's not proof...
ReplyDeleteDiscrimination against a person for a job based on their age is illegal
ReplyDelete“After Cuts, a Kentucky Weather Office Scrambles for Staffing as Severe Storms Bear Down
ReplyDeleteThe office in Jackson, Ky., is one of several left without an overnight forecaster after hundreds of jobs were recently cut from the National Weather Service.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/weather/nws-cuts-kentucky-tornado.html?unlocked_article_code=1.H08.JO7y.v74qaSyMgHjo&smid=url-share#
Thank you, Trump and musk, sir.
Winning…
From former Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, interviewed by Christine Amanpour on Biden impairment:
ReplyDelete“ Like many officials now finally being asked these questions by the previously reluctant press, Sherman mostly pleaded ignorance, saying that she wasn’t “in the inner circle in the White House” and that she can’t “speak to some of what has been written” on the story.
“My own experience was a positive one,” Sherman said. “I didn’t stay until the end of the administration, but up until the time that I left in 2023, I did not see any impairment when it came to the tough decisions that had to be made.”
That denial on the record, Sherman then went on to attack the story as inconsequential and advised the American people to just move on.”
It is a waste of money.
DeleteIt makes Democrats look dishonest.
DeleteThe book makes Republicans look dishonest. Biden has dementia because he didn't fawn over George Clooney? That makes Clooney look foolish and the folks taking that as a sign of Biden's dementia even more foolish.
DeleteWhy would Democrats shoot themselves in the foot with a book like this? They wouldn't. This is a Republican attempt to smear Biden after an excellent presidency. Republicans are goons for trying to make a big deal out of nothing. Biden is retired now. Leave him alone.
Maybe the Pope has dementia too. He only gave JD Vance 17 seconds in a receiving line.
DeleteAnonymouse 4:46pm, the Pope’s brother would have slipped out to a pub with Vance.
DeleteRight, they both have no class and are irrelevant to anything happening in the world.
DeleteAnonymouse 6:43pm, unlike you.
DeleteToday Trump posted a conspiracy theory video to Truth Social without explanation. It accused Bill & Hillary Clinton of a long list of murders. But Biden has cognitive decline? This is not normal or acceptable behavior in a president (Trump’s — no one seriously thinks Clintons murdered anyone).
ReplyDelete"no one seriously thinks Clintons murdered anyone"
DeleteReally? I've seen a whole bunch of lists of people they reportedly murdered, in the last 30 years or so.
How do you know that "no one seriously thinks Clintons murdered anyone"?
They have been neither investigated nor charged with murder.
DeleteThis topic received a lot of coverage…in TDH back in the day. He excoriated the media for repeating these slanderous allegations.
DeleteThe book from Toobin says there was a solid lack of enthusiasm for Biden's candidacy. Insiders suggested he drop out.
ReplyDeleteThat isn’t the same thing as claiming Biden was incapacitated and there was a coverup. Toobin is another right winger.
ReplyDeleteThe book says Biden had become too frail and slow to be president.
ReplyDeleteAnyone interested in learning about Biden's mental deterioration can read the entire link, It's full of disturbing details. https://instapundit.com/720226/
ReplyDeleteThis isn’t what David says it is.
DeleteThere's a big, new book out about this topic.
DeleteThis link is about video edits in the 2020 campaign.
DeleteThe book isn’t out until 5/20. This is trolling.
DeleteTrump's approval ratings are up according to articles. Americans are reevaluating their positions on Biden's age.
DeleteReviews are saying the book uncovers a scandal.
DeleteHere again is the list of books proving there is a Republican voter who isn't a bigot.
DeleteTrump's approval ratings are worse than his first term.
Deletewomp womp
Frail and slow has nothing to do with being president. Being president is about wisdom, experience, knowledge, dealing with all kinds of people, problem solving, listening to ideas and decision making. These are skills honed by life experience that grow stronger with age.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't matter if you're a genius, or cognitively impaired. You still can't tell Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and the "fine people" on the Right apart from each other.
ReplyDeleteMSNBC still trying to gloss over that horrendous audio tape from a brain-dead Biden. WOW.
ReplyDeleteWhy was Trump carted off to Walter Reed 6 years ago for a Montreal dementia test and what was his score? You can score zero, 50 or 100% for answering this 2 part question. It's open book and you will need to back up your answers with references.
DeleteYou score "braindead dementia, 100%", Soros-bot. Just like every other Soros-bot.
DeleteHilarious, trumptard. You've still got it.
Delete8:38. Nice work, MAGA. Dog eat your homework? you score zero.
DeleteSuffering from multiple personality disorder, Soros-trained-monkey @9:16-17?
DeleteThe Biden Impairment books are turning into a major scandal Democrats,
ReplyDeleteScandal? I never thought I'd say this but the billions that the Trump family has pocketed from the Arabs may finally be putting us on the right side of history regarding the support of Israel's genocide of the Palestinians. Nice work, Donald! No matter how many Americans Sharaa may have killed, go ahead and give him his kudos. Seems like a nice guy.
DeleteIf any pro-Trump public figure did anything even close to the "8647" stunt, Democrat squeal would be deafening. Insufferable.
ReplyDeleteOne would have to plug one's ears and go off the grid to survive.
It’s a given that they desire for Trump to be assassinated. They don’t turn a hair over that. Only over their sense of urgency for it. It would take far less than the likes of Trump to inspire that sentiment in them. That impulse is tied up in their own sense of goodness and the paramountcy of their ideas. It’s an entire package.
Delete"You're the puppet!"
DeleteThere is MAGA merchandise still being sold that says “8646.”
DeleteTrue dat, 7:46 AM. "It's for the children!" Contemptible to the extreme, self-righteous scum.
DeleteFatal explosion outside fertility clinic was 'intentional,' police say
DeleteGee, I wonder who could be responsible for this.
Anonymouse 8:06am, some kook who doesn’t like people being able to save embryos for future transplantation. Nothing to do with nothing I said.
DeleteAnonymouse 7:53am, no one was aware of that. You did t see that pridefully posted all over Twitter and other social media. Comey, a former, law enforcement chief…posted 8647 and someone else did 8645 and it exploded as a declaration/middle-finger.
DeleteOne person tweets something (comey, a Republican), and Cecelia falls in line to accuse all liberals/Democrats (“they”) of having exactly the same sentiment, and also redefines 86, which has been heavily used by MAGA world directed against Biden.
DeleteGotta have your daily MAGA dose of hating Democrats, eh, Cecelia? All while commenting at a blog where the blogger urges liberals not to stereotype Trump voters.
“86” doesn’t mean assassinate, Cecelia. But thanks for playing along in maga’s propaganda. Do you do it for free?
DeleteAnonymices, it’s been said here. You do have secondary roles as anonymouse flying monkeys. The same thing happened with the health care exec. It was brand-new news and anonymices were in the blissful throes of the freshness of the deed and there were no stops.
Delete“86” does mean to get rid someone or something and has often been used in the context of making simeone dead and getting rid of the body. Liberals had a concussion over Trump using the term “bloodbath” as to the market , where it is frequently employed, but to “86” something is now innocuous. As used by a man in government agency that has arranged such things. The irony is that none your tittering matters. You would like Trump to be assassinated in order to save the country. People have felt the same about leaders all over the world. Generally for much better reasons, but, anyway, you , and your vast self-regard are THERE.
DeleteListen, 9:15, if you maggots want to send republican jackass Comey on a one-way trip to Guantanamo, be my guest. I will even contribute to the airfare.
Delete(86) "has often been used in the context of making someone dead"
DeleteBullshit. Give a single example.
"If any pro-Trump public figure did anything even close to the "8647" stunt, Democrat (sic) squeal would be deafening."
DeletePossibly. But only a Trump administration would be batty enough to assign Secret Service agents to interview Comey and open an 'investigation.'
Those are your tax dollars at work.
Why, 9:58 AM? Threats of this sort are always investigated.
DeleteDo you feel people named "Comey" should have some special status? Why?
In disputing the meaning of a term, on-line dictionaries can be helpful:
Delete"Eighty-six is slang meaning "to throw out," "to get rid of," or "to refuse service to." It comes from 1930s soda-counter slang meaning that an item was sold out."
"The term "86" is used to indicate that something is unavailable or that a person is no longer welcome."
"In restaurant and bar slang, "86" means to remove someone or something, either by refusing service to a customer or by removing an item from the menu because it's out of stock. It can also refer to ejecting someone from a premises."
"Threats of this sort are always investigated."
DeleteExcept that it wasn't a threat, as 10:05's post nicely establishes.
Are you gonna pretend, along with the rest of Soros-bots here, that "eighty-six" doesn't mean what it means, 10:06 AM?
DeleteHow would a real threat look like, in your opinion?
I misspoke. It was not a threat of assassination. Such a threat would have used a term other than '86.'
DeleteFine. Soros-bots have the right to post their idiotic talking points.
DeleteAnd Secret Service agents have the right to investigate those who they consider a threat.
It isn't the Secret Service's 'right' to investigate I am disputing. It is the carrying out of cosplay to a feverish extreme, the attempt to inject fascist fantasy into reality, to distort the plain meaning of a term as a way to convince the easily convinced that an actual threat of assassination was made.
DeleteCecilia, you are getting carried away with your right wing feelings of grievance. I'm not aware of any anonymice here, deranged as some of them are, who have advocated for trump's assassination. I don't care for Comey, but I doubt he wants Trump to be assassinated, or that is what he meant. Both sides tend to make mountains out of mole hills, and this another example of it. there are some things that are mountains, like Trump's uber-propaganda that he was cheated out of victory in 2020.
Delete
DeleteYeah, it's horrible, positively horrible, 10:41 AM.
We're all outraged, let's squeal louder.
The Republicans were selling 8646 t-shirts during Biden's term. No one on the left made a big fuss about it.
DeleteAC/MA, take note that it’s not my tendency to make mountains out of molehills or to position myself and my fellow conservatives as being the best and the brightest. Politics is not my religion and not my guiding star for the perfection of mankind. That some person from one side or the other may blow away somebody, is not the point. That’s nothing new. What Comey did is new and it is a a seismic shift in the culture. It is a biggie.
DeleteAs to anonymices, if one of their opponents here on this board were murdered tomorrow they’d cavalierly argue the ways in which it was that person’s fault. They’d have as much horror over a political assassination of a Republican than they did for that executive. They know it and when the thing with Comey goes away, will be back to flaunting it.
In a just universe Comey would've been sent to prison 6-7 years ago. If they get him now for, like, "lying to a federal officer" or some such, that would be perfect. Poetic justice. Let's hope they will.
DeleteThis is more trolling. Why is Somerby's blog infested with these guys/bots?
DeleteWho says something like this: "That some person from one side or the other may blow away somebody, is not the point. That’s nothing new."
DeleteWe do not have routine political assassinations in our country. When they occur, they are serious and receive a lot of attention. This has to be one of the more outrageous things Cecelia has said here, but it does indicate her lack of empathy when she says and perhaps truly believes that no one really cares who shoots who in our politics.
And then Cecelia suggests that Comey's picture of rocks arranged to say 8647 is "new" when as Comey said, he was just trying to promote his new novel and took the photo down immediately when it attracted unanticipated uproar. His intention was not to enable the right to may hay off a photo that in no way implied anyone should attack Trump.
Comey helped Trump get elected by attacking Hillary Clinton right before the 2016 election. He broke the rules of the FBI about public communication to help put Trump into office. Why would he now want Trump to be harmed. Why is he on the wrong side, just because Republicans want to capitalize on his publicity for his book? This has to be the stupidest faux outrage in years of stupid accusations by the right.
Of course the left reacts to assassination attempts with horror. ALL GOOD DECENT PEOPLE DO, YOU ASSHOLE.
"What Comey did is new and it is a seismic shift in the culture. It is a biggie."
DeleteNot according to the dictionary, but then who looks at that any more?
It pains me that media and pubic are talking so much about a few rocks when there are so many vital issues: Ukraine, Gaza, National Debt & deficit, racism and antisemitism, illegal immigration, etc.
DeleteConsidering the Biden coverup, the Comey surge coupled with Democrats stating strongly that our govt is under attack from within, Alien Enemies, and Dem also felt there was an insurrection on J6 so perhaps military court action on Comey, rogue judges, deportation issues. The Democrats are waging legal warfare just as a smoke screen same as Coney! What we really want to know is who was running the country during the Biden administration? And who was using the auto pen?
DeleteI … agree with David?
DeleteGiven Comey's anti-gay bias, the 86 46 shirts literally say "impeach Biden". Was there a Biden assassination attempt I missed?
Delete"so much about a few rocks "
DeleteWhy, we've now discovered that Democrat VIPs are not only fans of illegal gangbangers and government waste fraud and abuse, but also of political assassinations!
That's an important discovery, ain't it?
Discoveries made only in the cavernous space between your ears.
DeleteTriggered, Soros-bot? Learn to cope.
DeleteHa! Good one trumptard! You're on top of your game.
DeleteAnonymouse 11:37am, Comey had to reopen (and promptly reclose) the Crossfire Hurricane because of the info on Anthony Weiner’s laptop. Yes, you do actually know that crazy people try to 86 presidents. Most recently two of them tried to do that to Trump and perhaps you should google the names Squeaky Fromm and John Hinkley.
DeleteYes, I know I’m supposed to think that Comey was merely promoting a book, and in light of two attempts on Trump’s life, it would never occur to him that someone might read a more sinister meaning into his art display. I realize that I’m also supposed to assume that the people who read his books never make dire assumptions, let alone such a babe-in-arms as the author himself.
As always, thank you for your cogency and honesty and your ironclad sense of fair-play. Now go and make someone else’s eyes roll out of their head.
12:55: When a Republican posts ‘8647’ after two republicans attempt to kill the Republican nominee last year, it’s clearly the fault of democrats.
DeleteOh, a new talking point? How does it coordinate with the previous one: that "eighty-six" means "to give flowers"?
DeleteNo, 1:18, but Cecelia is dead set in equating 86 with kill.
DeleteThe Biden scandal leaves scant room for Democrats to accuses anyone else of lying. A trust, once sacrosanct, has been violated.
DeleteTrump had two "assassins" that appeared to attempt to cause Trump physical harm.
DeleteBoth were White male gun enthusiast Republicans.
In the first case, Trump was slightly injured by flying shrapnel, likely a shard of glass or plastic from his teleprompter, the assassin having missed Trump by a mile, killing a local Trumper instead.
In the second case, a supposed lone nut somehow knew inside information about Trump's sudden change in schedule.
Meanwhile, Trump killed various people during his first reign, and is now helping Netanyahu carry out a genocide of Palestinians and bombing children in Yemen and cutting off food for starving people and medical care for people with diseases.
"Yes, you do actually know that crazy people try to 86 presidents."
DeleteNo. You don't know that. You're still unclear on the most fundamental aspect of this 'issue'.
To '86' a president does not mean to assassinate him. It means to throw him out, as in throw him out of office. At worst, it could mean, quite improbably, to march into the Oval Office and toss him out into the street but it most emphatically does not mean murder.
I know this because I know how to use a dictionary.
Hector, no, I’m clear that you believe that and I’m clear too that you would have your doubts about that chiseled-in-titanium FACT, if a former fed had done this to Biden.
Delete
Delete"I know this because I know how to use a dictionary."
So, you're not American, then? Nor are you familiar with American culture: The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Goodfellas, etc., etc., etc. Correct?
cecilia, until it blew on from "red" media, like things do on both sides, i doubt anyone would have known about Comey's provocative post. You're going off the rails here, that it's some type of "seismic shift." I won't go into what-aboutism, but if i wanted to fill up lots of space I could go on and on. I am pretty sure no deranged assassin would be motivated by Comey's post to carry out an assassination, since such a person would never have seen it, but for it being raised as a source of fake outrage.. I don't know how the pile of shells depicting the seismically shifting image came to be. Did Comey set them u himself? was he simply walking along the beach and snapped a picture of the shell formation left by some unknown rapscallion? Or did the "8647" image miraculously appear, something like Jesus' image of the shroud of Turin?
DeleteThe Republicans sold t-shirts with 8646 on them. That takes the wind out of any sail they are trying to put up over this nothing-burger.
DeleteAC/MA, Comey may have gotten Joseph Mifsud to set those stones into that message. Misfud would be marginally more accountable than Comey and he isn’t busy selling a book, or breathing.
DeleteWhat are you talking about? Don't you have something useful to do today? Go away.
DeleteAnonymouse 4:18pm, not when I can stay here and compel you to read my posts. No way!
Delete"I’m clear too that you would have your doubts about that chiseled-in-titanium FACT, if a former fed had done this to Biden."
DeleteA powerful rebuttal. 'I have no argument against what you're saying but it pleases me to assert you're a hypocrite even though nothing you've ever said establishes this.'
Hector, you’ve labeled people as being far worse based upon their reaction to a photograph that was posted in order to garner attention and emotion.
DeleteI think you’re getting off far better with me
Wrong again. I labeled people as far worse because of their refusal to acknoweldge the realities of the English language, and I was right to do so.
DeleteAnd you didn't refute a thing I said in my post.
Hector, we disagree on this and it’s NOT a cut and dry argument. You DO know that. I may live in a town where everyone is wearing the popular t-shirt that says “86 DA2023”. I’m a district attorney and I took office in 2023. During the course of tenure I have obviously pissed off some fellow citizens. However, I’m out and about and walking down the street and I see the retired, but still highly-connected Municipal Court Judge wearing that same shirt. That’s going to send a bigger message than Sandy at supermarket can send. Not just to Sandy and her fellow townsmen, but to all the pals of the old judge. You get huffy as much as you want, bro. . But the former head of the FBI has never been a “choir boy” under any administration, and never will be.
DeleteBeing president also requires addressing the nation without coming across as a dottering old fool.
ReplyDeleteanon 4:37, I didn't say anything that was either right wing or left wing, just an observation, the merits of which you don't address. You are such a nitwit. I'm the one who knows whether I'm a lawyer. You don't know me. I could just as easily say you're a loser who lives in his mother's basement - but I wouldn't say that because I have no evidence that it is true.
ReplyDelete@9:39 -- In that case, Trump has failed.
ReplyDeleteIt is now undeniable that the White House staff actively hid Biden's incompetence from the American public. That includes the midget White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki with her bad, white trash, eye makeup.
ReplyDeleteUSAID fraud example
ReplyDeleteA former U.S. Agency for International Development official admitted in federal court this week that he accepted bribes from a Towson-based consultant and other contractors to steer agency decisions on $552.5 million’s worth of government contracts.
https://foxbaltimore.com/news/local/towson-consultant-usaid-official-plead-guilty-in-bribery-scheme-involving-550m-in-contracts
Reminds me, does anyone have a list of all the fraud indictments resulting from DOGE investigation?
DeleteAs I recall there was hundreds of billions in fraud, so it must be a pretty long list by now.
Anyone?
More USAID fraud
DeleteThe African Development Foundation’s employees have been sounding the alarm for years about self-dealing, cruelty, and anti-white discrimination. Money sent to Africa was then wired to the personal bank accounts of bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. An official promoted his for-profit, multi-level marketing scheme to poor Africans. Law enforcement identified possible criminal kickbacks. And those who now lament DOGE’s shuttering of the agency did nothing to fix it when they had a chance.
“It was so hard to see ADF being used as a beacon of hope and resistance against DOGE because I knew they were actually covering up horrible things…the doors were being kept locked for a reason,” one former employee said. “The hero of the story is actually the villain.”
https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-foreign-aid-agency-locked-its-doors-to-keep-doge-out-now-we-know-why
You mean more allegations of USAID fraud, according to a story in the Daily Wire. We'll see if there's ever an indictment.
DeleteHector, same with those bogus stories about Biden’s memory issues. For just about 3.5 years there wasn’t a reliable news source in the country that would take a look into that. Not worth their time a day. As with, Hunter’s laptop, the media will tell YOU what you need to know.
DeleteWhat the hell do you need a news source for, C? You control all levers of government. FBI and DOJ have enough time to go after Letetia James, straight up kickbacks like described should be a slam dunk.
DeleteKind of like no news source wants to examine Trump’s mental issues for the past 8.5 years, since somethings clearly wrong with him. And I’ve also heard from TDH that chainsaw wielding Musk might be nuts. Where’s that investigation?
DeleteDiC and Cecelia are trolls, nothing they say is sincere or in good faith. There is no point in engaging with them, it does no good at all.
DeleteJust id/label them as trolls and move on.
Anonymices, yes, I read all news sources, so, as compared you, I’m much more advantaged in doing it. I’m even here allowing myself to be exposed to Bob Somerby’s opinions about Trump, and unlike anonymices, my door actually let’s me in and can let me out if I wished to go. You’re so right. Life is pretty damn free where I live.
DeleteSo the fact that certain Democrats disputed certain stories about Biden's mental competence means every allegation made in the Daily Wire will result in an indictment? Flawless logic.
DeleteHector - there has been so much government misbehavior in recent years that the burden of proof in now on the government IMO. I tend to believe any allegation of government wrongdoing unless the government disproves it. BTW that includes both parties, such as the Trump family's profits and the Biden family's profits.
DeleteHector, every allegation in the NYT as to a bad governance. doesn’t end up in an indictment.
DeleteCecilia,
Deletethanks for the apology.
Hector, it wasnt the line of logic that I was using.
DeleteWho the heck was making presidential decisions, writing EOs, etc? Remember, Trump posted an image of President Biden hogtied. I wouldn’t be remotely surprised if we find out James Comey was a player in the assassination attempts on President Trump. Comey knew exactly what he was doing.
Delete
Delete"Who the heck was making presidential decisions, writing EOs, etc?"
Could it be the junkie son? He was selling paintings made of his excrement for $500K a piece, so obviously there had to be some serious quid-pro-quos.
Who wrote Trump's EOs? Trump didn't. They came from Project 2025 (the Heritage Foundation) and Steven Miller and those around Trump. He appears to have not even read them before they were signed by autopen, given that he has expressed surprise about their content and asked "who wrote that?"
Deleteac/ma, nobody thinks you are a lawyer, and nobody thinks you are not a right winger.
ReplyDeleteSorry if this causes you consternation.
Democrats are going to have to come clean in order to restore the trust that has been lost.
ReplyDeleteToo late. That party is dead. It 86ed itself. .
DeleteThe deception from the Biden White House was far greater than many suspected.
DeleteIt may be dead now.
Delete
DeleteThey hope that fake Socialist Bernie pontificating will save them, but they already used this trick. People remember. Not to mention that it didn't work back then either.
It's tantamount to a conspiracy against the voters that support them.
Deleteanon 12:49, wrong - you are the only one who "thinks" that.
ReplyDeleteNo, I think it too and I am not @12:49.
ReplyDelete"Former President Joe Biden was diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer, according to a statement from his personal office Sunday, and it has spread to his bones, CNN reports.
ReplyDeleteBiden and his family “are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.” [Political Wire]
This has nothing to do with dementia but it might explain fatigue and decreased strength. I hope you guys are all proud of yourselves for hounding him as you have been doing. But Republicans have no shame.
?? Cancer-related fatigue and cognitive decline can coexist. One does not rule out the other.
DeleteHe does not have cognitive decline because he has been performing fine cognitively in his most recent interviews. People don't get better when they have dementia, they get worse. The book is wrong and mean-spirited, as most things coming from the right tend to be. Leave Biden alone.
DeleteTo anonymouse thinking barbed wire and Kevlar vests would be empathy. They’ve redefined self-protection and being self-servicing as empathy. As you see at 4:16pm, they’ll use this awful news as they see fit, while telling other people to shut up.
DeleteYou have no empathy. You are just trying to think of some way to use Biden's cancer diagnosis against him. Perhaps you think he was hiding that, even though he has just been diagnosed. If you were smart you would wind this up for the day and go spend some time with your family. No one is in the mood to play with you when you don't enough when to show some damned respect for a former president (whether you voted for him or not).
DeleteRight wing assholes are already suggesting he knew about his cancer and covered that up too. What is wrong with you people?
DeleteAnonymouse 6:40pm, no, I know that Biden is unfortunately very ill. I know that people all over the world are praying and wishing him the very best. I know your main impetus now is to use Biden’s illness as a means to stifle discussion on Pres Biden and his administration that you find objectionable. I know that to you “empathy” means “you’re a terrible person if you don’t hold my views”. Here’s a pre-emptive response to your upcoming nonsense: “Stick that where the sun don’t shine, sister.”
DeleteYou are going too eat all of your words when the right is forced to admit Trump has dementia.
DeleteWhy? Anyone Trump’s age or younger can have dementia. That condition is not diagnosed by a panel of ditzy anonymices. If Trump, for any reason, must step down from office, I feel certain that Vance can take over.
DeleteBecause of how crazy Trump has been for so long, covered up by Republicans, while Trump has destroyed our country and caused deaths.
DeleteAs my father used to say, “We’ll pick up that axe when the whistle blows,”
Deleteanon 3:51 good for you! - another nitwit.
ReplyDeleteAny lawyer knows that name-calling is not an argument.
ReplyDeletehttps://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2025/05/its-good-to-be-able-to-criticize-your.html
ReplyDeleteDemocrats are not buying what this book has to sell (at our expense).
"It simply cannot be the case that the president of the United States of America is, to use the technical term from the relevant political science scholarly literature, a complete fucking idiot. Because if that were the case, that would suggest something indescribably horrible about not only our entire political system, but about the broader culture within which that system exists."
ReplyDeleteSo true.
Well, anonymices have always slimed both of the U.S. political and cultural system.. What’s with the vapors now?
DeleteWell, Bob Somerby, the blog you post such such “edifying” (lol) comments to, Cecelia, believes Trump is seriously mentally impaired and that the media refuses to cover this. What is fucking wrong with you?
DeleteAnonymouse 7:45pm, that’s Bob’s opinion. I’m not here to hear only my opinions. Bob has the ability to separate regular people from people with enormous influence and power. You don’t have that ability. You hate everyone who disagrees with you. That’s why you’re an anonymouse.
DeleteTrump has enormous influence and power. And I believe there is something majorly wrong with him. You do not. You are deluded.
DeleteAnonymouse 8:10pm, I think there’s lots of things wrong with Trump. We have a failure to communicate that’s based upon your militancy, not mine.
ReplyDelete