TUESDAY, MAY 27, 2025
But what about President Trump? The fateful debate was held on June 27, 2024. Seven minutes into the session, one of the candidates made a striking misstatement.
He'd already made several other groaning misstatements. Now, at the seven-minute mark, this candidate made a statement which was just stunningly wrong.
For now, we'll skip past that misstatement! About two minutes later, the other candidate delivered the stumbling, incoherent presentation which would doom his search for a second term in the White House.
We were now roughly nine minutes into this fateful debate. At that point, moderator Jake Tapper tossed a question to Candidate Biden concerning the rapidly growing national debt—the topic with which he and moderator Dana Bash had decided to start the debate.
It was a perfectly valid topic. Candidate Donald J. Trump had already spoken to the issue. Now, Tapper turned to the sitting president of the United States.
As you can see on this videotape, here's what that candidate said:
TAPPER (6/27/24): President Biden, I want to give you an opportunity to respond to this question about the national debt.
BIDEN: He had the largest national debt of any president in a four-your period, number one. Number two, he—that $2 trillion tax cut benefited the very wealthy. I—what I'm going to do is fix the tax system. For example:
We have a thousand trillionaires in America—I mean, billionaires in America. And what's happening? They're in a situation where they, in fact, pay 8.2 percent in taxes.
If they just paid 24 percent or 25 percent, either one of those numbers, they'd raise 500 million dollars—billion dollars, I should say—in a 10-year period.
We'd be able to right—wipe out his debt. We'd be able to help make sure that all those things we need to do—child care, elder care, making sure that we continue to strengthen our health care system, making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been able to do with the, uh— with, with, with the COVID—
Excuse me, with, um, dealing with everything we have to do with— uh—
[PAUSE]
Look—
[PAUSE]
If— We finally beat Medicare!
TAPPER: Thank you, President Biden. President Trump?
So said President Biden! In the aftermath of that halting, stumbling statement, his candidacy came to an end.
(For a transcript of the full debate, click here.)
For the record, that statement by President (and Candidate) Biden started out like other statements by major Democratic Party candidates. As the president started, he seemed to be making a reasonably normal statement.
He did say "trillionaires" when he meant "billionaires"—and he did refer to "millions" of dollars when he meant to say "billions" of dollars. Also, his voice was notably weak.
That said, he seemed to be making standard pledges about such basic policy issues as child care, elder care and health care. Beyond that, he seemed to be proposing a large tax increase on billionaires to finance his programs in those areas—a set of programs he hadn't yet described,
(If that tax increase was going to be used to finance policy initiatives, then of course it wouldn't be used to address the national debt. Let's skip past that for now.)
On paper, the transcript of President Biden's statement seems recognizable as he starts. That said, his voice was soft and his voice was weak—and he soon lost his way altogether.
The president had started by making a recognizable type of pledge. He said he was going to make every citizen eligible for what he said he'd been able to do with some unspecified aspect of American life.
At that point, his presentation wholly broke down.
The president couldn't seem to remember what he'd been planning to say. A statement which was already fuzzy turned into a painful, halting series of starts and stops—and, by now, his voice was squeaking as he tried to gather his thoughts.
On paper, the presentation seems fairly normal as the president starts. On videotape, the presentation is painful to watch—and it ends with what may have been the most remarkable statement in the history of presidential debates:
"We finally beat Medicare," the sitting president weirdly said. Transparently, that statement made no earthly sense.
At that point, Tapper threw to Candidate Trump, who responded with this:
TRUMP (continuing directly): Well, he's right. He did beat Medicare. He beat it to death...
That didn't exactly make sense either. But so on from there.
Nine minutes into that fateful debate, President Biden's presentation had transformed a presidential race he already seemed to be losing. Today, a new book by Tapper and Alex Thompson is exploring the history of President Biden's apparent cognitive decline.
As that book is discussed, a basic question is being asked, sometimes (not always) in disingenuous ways:
Why didn't journalists in the mainstream press report on President Biden's apparent decline before that painful debate?
Why didn't journalists pursue that question before that fateful event? Pursued in a respectable way, that's a perfectly reasonable question.
Within our nation's sprawling propaganda media, the usual suspects are frequently placing their thumbs on the scales as they advance that question. That said, it's perfectly reasonable to ask that question about the political people around President Biden during his term in office.
Beyond that, it's a reasonable question to ask about the mainstream (and conservative) press.
Why didn't the mainstream press ask about President Biden? In our view, that's a perfectly reasonable question. At that June 27 debate, the bizarre presentation we've transcribed suddenly brought that question center stage.
Today, our flailing nation has a different sitting president. In the case of this current sitting president, he posted a remarkable holiday message yesterday morning.
Needless to say, he posted his message all caps. The sitting president posted this unusual holiday message bright and early yesterday morning, at 6:45 a.m.:
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY TO ALL, INCLUDING THE SCUM THAT SPENT THE LAST FOUR YEARS TRYING TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY THROUGH WARPED RADICAL LEFT MINDS, WHO ALLOWED 21,000,000 MILLION PEOPLE TO ILLEGALLY ENTER OUR COUNTRY, MANY OF THE BEING CRIMINALS AND THE MENTAO INSANE,THROUGH AN OPEN BORDER THAT ONLY AN INCOMPETENT PRESIDENT WOULD APPROVE, AND THROUGH JUDGES WHO ARE ON A MISSION TO KEEP MURDERERS, DRUG DEALERS, RAPISTS, GANG MEMBERS, AND RELEASED PRISONERS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD, IN OUR COUNTRY SO THEY CAN ROB, MURDERERS, AND RAPE AGAIN, PROTECTED BY THESE USA HATING JUDGES WHO SUFFER FROM AN IDEOLOGY THAT IS SICK, AND VERY DANGEROUS FOR OUR COUNTRY. HOPEFULLY THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, AND OTHER GOOD AND COMPASSIONATE JUDGES THROUGHOUT THE LAND, WILL SAVE US FROM THE DECISIONS OF THE MONSTERS WHO WANT OUR COUNTRY TO GO TO HELL.
Early on Memorial Day, he posted that unusual message, typos and all. Later, he reposted the message with the typos corrected and with a small addition at the end.
Happy Memorial Day to all, our current sitting president said. This current president said he was including THE SCUM THAT SPENT THE LAST FOUR YEARS TRYING TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY.
In the past, this president has posted other such furious, name-calling statements to mark other major holidays, Christmas and Easter included. Just last week, he reposted a screed from a QAnon-affiliated source saying that former president Barack Obama should face a public military tribunal for some unnamed offense.
Was something wrong with President Biden even as he sat in the Oval Office? Should major news orgs have pursued that question in a more assiduous way even before the June 27 debate?
Was "something wrong" with that sitting president? Should major news orgs have asked?
In the case of President Bidne, many people are now saying yes. But what about President Trump? Is it possible that something is also "wrong" with him?
As with President Biden, so too with President Trump! Whatever the answer to that question might turn out to be, our major news orgs have been ducking that fairly obvious question—and they've been ducking that question for years.
How did we ever get to this dangerous, unintelligent place—this place "now too much for us?" Many questions have gone unasked down through these dangerous years. Many of our nation's elites have played a part in this dangerous failure to serve.
Was something wrong with President Biden? Some news orgs failed to ask.
Is something—most likely, something different—currently "wrong with" President Trump? Once again, major news orgs are working hard to avoid that fairly obvious question.
We speak of news orgs of the left, the center and the right. In our view, the men and women of academia have also walked off their posts.
Many questions have gone unasked within our failing discourse. You might call them roads not taken. We'll try to explore them here.
Tomorrow: The border, the silence, the "woke"
Talk about beating something to death! Somerby is again trying to justify his own campaign against his party's nominee.
ReplyDelete1. Biden had a bad debate.
2. There was already an ongoing press campaign to portray him as too old, but it was not calling him demented.
3. Hur's report could find no wrongdoing so instead, it labeled him as too elderly, a nice old man with a poor memory.
4. The Washington Post ran videos of normal events edited to make it look like Biden was sitting on air or wandering aimlessly, pretending these were real and not fake.
5. The New York Times ran a relentless, unbalanced campaign portraying Biden as too old to run.
6. Some Democrats began calling for Biden to remove himself from the ticket.
7. Ultimately, for the good of the party and the nation, Biden stepped aside.
To date, no evidence of Biden failure or incompetence beyond that debate has been presented. No one has said his removal was due to any malfeasance in office. The objections of those supporting Biden were ignored. Many people who have interacted with Biden during and after his administration has stated he was competent and on top of the details of his job.
The book written by Tapper and Thompson is an extension of that campaign against Biden. It contains no solid examples of Biden's "decline" but anecdotes that several of the those quoted have said were fabricated, never happened. There is no medical evidence against Biden in that book. There are no examples of failure to do his job. Without such examples, real failures not just ignoring George Clooney at a party, this looks like a hit job for political reasons.
Somerby might have explained why he thinks it is necessary to go on kicking Biden after he has left office following a highly successful term. Why is this still an issue to anyone except the Republicans, whose motives are obvious?
"Biden had a bad debate."
DeleteNo. Biden had a debate after which the instantaneous, unfiltered reaction of Democrats was that he was unfit for office.
Stop lying.
No amount of gaslighting is going to convince this Democrat that I thought Biden was unfit for office.
DeleteAt least you seem to be able to differentiate between your own opinions and reality.
DeleteTrump also had a bad debate, in that it was nothing but a stream of lies and ignorance. but Republicans circle the wagons around their nominee. Also, the media did not proclaim that Trump had a bad debate. He was “energetic”. I was against dumping Biden also, and I think it is not clear that Biden would have lost had he stayed in.
DeleteThere are degrees of opinion about how bad Biden's debate was. Recall that Obama had a bad first debate too and that raised concerns, but he improved.
DeleteImmediately after the debate, Biden gave a speech at a rally that went fine. He has since given numerous speeches and unscripted interviews that contradict what happened at the debate. Those don't seem to count for those determined to call Biden unfit. Dementia gets worse. It doesn't get better. If Biden were cognitively impaired, he would be worse today than last year, but he isn't.
Those who were willing to listen to what Biden said instead of how fluently he said it, most of the debate makes better sense than what Trump said. He made a couple of gaffes and froze a few times. Trump nearly always does that too, but no one is calling for his removal except on the left (and for different reasons).
People who supported Biden then and who still think he is being treated badly are not "lying" but are interpreting the available evidence differently. It is a very serious thing to remove someone from a ticket, much less from office. A single bad debate (which is all it was) amidst otherwise strong performance, is not sufficient reason for the vendetta against Biden. That makes me think this is politically motivated and not a genuine response to any health condition.
For example, why didn't those well-meaning people who thought Biden was unfit call for cognitive testing, instead of his removal? Are they all gerontologist or cognitive neuroscientists or clinical psychologists who recognize symptoms? Of course not. These are political operatives like Nancy Pelosi who called for his removal because they wanted to support a different candidate and were worried Biden wouldn't beat Trump. Unfortunately, their actions ensured that Trump would win. A good % of the people who got Biden thrown off his own ticket wanted that outcome.
This was a highly unusual campaign against Biden that raises suspicions of manipulating the election behind the scenes, as occurred in 2016. Biden was not impaired and no one has presented any evidence he was, including you.
Did Biden mention the epidemic of non-existent "post-birth abortions" at the debate?
DeleteBecause that would clearly show he wasn't playing with a full deck.
When a child goes to school a little boy and comes home as a little girl who eats your cats and dogs at an illegal Mexican restaurant serving electric shark appetizers and she can't wash her hands with the drip, drip, drip; well that is a fcking problem man. Thrump and only turnip can solve this. Thank god we elected the sane way too old one!!!
DeleteAnonymouse 11:31am, Tapper isn’t campaigning against Biden, he’s covering for his industry. Tapper recently said that the Biden scandal could be as big as Watergate, but his book has not laid a glove on anyone in the WH other than Hunter. He gave anonymity to the WH people he interviewed.
DeleteTapper is protecting his industry …the Screenwriters Guild of America…and he’s laying down a pretext for going after Trump in the manner long advocated by Somerby.
In Tapper's defense, his book is fiction.
DeleteAnonymouse 3:19pm, if the claims in the book were fiction, Pelosi, Schumer and even Obama wouldn’t have leaned on Biden to step down. Tapper’s book is sleight of hand.
DeleteWhy the he'll did leading Rs let dementia Don keep running. Way more deranged than handsome old Joe.
DeleteAnonymouse 3:44pm, when Somerby says that you reply via 15 paragraphs of insults.
DeleteYou are the only one here who can't (or won't) tell one anonymous commenter from another.
DeleteAnonymouse 6:03pm, if you wish to be distinguished from every other anonymous, get a nym. Otherwise, rather than being completely unaccountable, you are utterly accountable. You are every anonymouse.
DeleteA nym is just a fake name, like yours, Cecelia (or whoever you really are). Fake names don't differentiate people -- their ideas and their unique voices do that. You trolls are perhaps non-native speakers, so it is hard for you to tell people apart by their words and ideas. That isn't our fault. Read more and talk less and you will develop a sense of how different people write.
DeleteIn college level literature classes, the final exam includes unidentified quotes from the assigned readings and the students must identify who wrote it and what it was about. It mainly requires paying attention to do that, but you are not here to listen to others, just to disrupt. So you can fuck right off.
When you post without the name Cecelia and call yourself anonymous, we can still tell it is you. You should be able to do that with others here yourself, unless you're a total idiot or don't care whether you annoy people or not.
DeleteCecelia says Democrats chide others, are scolds, but she is the one who is continually demanding that others have nyms. That is worse scolding than anyone else here ever does.
DeleteAnonymouse 7:09pm, why would you be anonymous and then expect anyone to discern your voice from all other anonymices? What if I had argued that I knew you were THE anonymouse who made the comment that you deny making? Would that have been more compelling to you or would you have questioned my level of discernment and were right back to where we started. You aren’t merely dumb as you can be, you’re a presumptuous as a three year old.
DeleteAnonymouse 7:10pm, I never intentionally post anonymously and if I do hit the drop-down box by mistake, I point it out. I want you to know that I have made any comment I make. There’s nothing I wouldn’t say to you in same room, let alone on a blogboard.
DeleteYou are such a liar.
DeleteI doubt Somerby has read Tapper and Thompson's new book.
ReplyDeleteDoes it discuss the very stable genius of 55 tariffs in 120 days? I would be interested in reading that as it actually impacts my life.
DeleteClaim: 200 deals in 90 days!
DeleteReality: 0 deals
Trump is a grifter and a snake oil salesman, but wait there's more, Trump is also a sexual predator, free of charge.
Somerby discusses Trump's odd Memorial Day message, but he might have commented on it yesterday, had he not been celebrating his own successful dodging of service with silence about the many who did their duty when called up.
ReplyDeleteOnce the Vietnam war ended and Somerby was no longer in jeopardy of being drafted, he didn't waste a single day more in the classroom but began his standup career, talking about consumer choices of breakfast cereal.
At least he didn't make a hypocrite of himself by remembering the fallen dead, including those who went in his place. But he did delete comments reminding his readers that he chose to turn his back when called upon for the service others gave and are appropriately remembered for.
Today, he is unhelpfully distorting history, pretending the media didn't help torpedo Biden's nomination when it was the Washington Post and the New York Times at the forefront of the smear campaign, with numerous articles every day about Biden's age. There is no more truth to Somerby's remarks today than there is in Tapper & Thompson's self-serving fabrication.
Biden served well and deserves to be thanked and applauded for his successful administration. Imagine if Trump had continued in office during covid! Biden handed Trump a solid economic recovery which Trump is now destroying. Biden has been the most pro-labor president in decades, building infrastructure, helping the poor, supporting science and medical progress. These are real achievements. Trump is ignoring the rule of law and violating the constitution, engaging in bribery and corruption, appointing incompetents to important posts and letting Musk and DOGE destroy a functioning govt.
This attack on Biden is a distraction, an attempt to rewrite history, an attack on competence to make Trump feel better in his own cognitive decline (which Somerby has never called anything but craziness, not dementia and incompetence).
Somerby should be ashamed of the stuff he is writing today, but his life is one of shame. Instead of preparing himself by learning to teach, he used those classrooms of black inner city kids as a human shield to protect himself from service other men his age were reluctantly performing. Now he uses the word "liberal" to pretend he is not doing a job for the most criminal president in our nation's history, "manufacturing ignorance" on behalf of Putin's puppet while Trump hurts the weak, tortures immigrants and citizens in foreign concentration camps, and enriches himself with Somerby's help.
Somerby is at the stage of life where one looks back to see what the sum total of one's activities has been. A good person can rest easy. What will Somerby's conclusions be? Don't worry, I doubt he has the courage to reflect on his own life's accomplishments. Biden will be thinking about his own life these days with his stage 4 cancer diagnosis, surrounding by family and close friends. His life will have meant something and that is perhaps the biggest reason why termites likes Somerby must smear him today.
Well said.
DeleteMaybe a tad overly long and boring though.
DeleteReminds me of the Duke's criticism of Mozart's opera: too many notes.
Delete"We'll try to explore them here." Hah! When has Somerby ever explored anything? Especially in the last year or two. The last time I can remember him digging into anything was when he tried to label MS improvement in reading scores false, because black kids don't learn dontcha know. He bungled that one. Since then he just quotes Gutfeld and fluffs Trump who luvs being called crazy, while not pointing out the incompetence, criminality, cruelty and illegitimacy of Trump's team and his actions in office.
ReplyDeleteThe closest Somerby has gotten to examining Trump is to say "something is wrong" with him. Has anyone ever been so vague with so much evidence to talk about?
Anonymouse 10:19am, Bob has expressly said that Trump needs a psychiatric evaluation. That Trump is not functioning on the level required for the highest office in the land. Your focus is on Bob. It’s in going after Bob. It’s in going after the people who defend Bob. Tapper and friends are going to show you what they could have been doing to Trump (as to his mental state) had they bern less sure of the 92% negative coverage they were already throwing at Trump. So just remember that you have been freaking wrong about everything and you are wasting your time on someone else’s grudge against Somerby.
DeleteCecelia, psychiatrists diagnose mental illness, not physical problems like dementia. Somerby has never differentiated between cognitive issues like dementia (which he never recognizes might be Trump's problem) and craziness (which the MAGAs seem to consider a virtue).
DeleteSomerby's claimed focus is not Trump but the mainstream media. My focus is not Trump either but Somerby because he is a liar who is spreading misinformation while claiming to be a Democrat.
Tapper is a Republican who worked on CNN. He is no friend of Biden and he has no insider Democrat info about Biden's cognitive abilities. He repeated self-serving nonsense from the faction that decided they would take Biden off the ticket after Democratic voters placed him there.
Anonymouse 6:09pm, no, your problem with Somerby is not that he hasn’t differentiated between cognitive disabilities and emotional and psychological ones. No, Bob doesn’t have to give a dissertation on what he thinks is Trump’s problem. That’s all deflection from the fact that you are not here to concur with Somerby on anything. You’re here to be stupid.You have now just halfway admitted that. Perhaps in some other dimension (any other blog) you would/could admit that it was/is a potentially damaging line of discussion that could have resulted in a type of detente between the candidates that kept Biden in the game. As it stands now, you’re not worth reading really. Particularly as to any beefs you have with TDH. It’s petty and it’s weird and cultish.
DeleteMore cultish than believing Haitian immigrants are eating pets, because bigotry is more important than facts?
DeleteExactly, Somerby only says that something is wrong with Trump, but he doesn't say what. Fetterman could be called crazy. Should he still hold his office? On the other hand, if Trump has dementia, that is a physical disability that makes him unable to serve as president because he cannot do the work.
DeleteYou are welcome to stop reading me and especially stop comment here whenever you want. You add nothing to any discussion.
Somerby writes something objectionable nearly every day. There is an oddness to someone who allows comments but never reads them. That makes this platform for his readers. Why shouldn't I, or anyone else, discuss whatever interests us here? If you don't want to read or participate (which it seems like you don't, given that you never say anything substantive) you can go away the same as Somerby does when he chooses not to read his comments.
I would love it if you were gone. There are half as many comments, much less nonsense, a highly level of positivity without so many attempted insults, and people can engage in interesting back-and-forth for a change. It is like the days when you are actually missing -- they are far better for the rest of us.
Constructive conversation results in greater cohesion and an increased agreement and unity among those who remain. The right doesn't want that, so they pay freaks like you to be disruptive. That makes you a force for evil not good.
Anonhmouse 7:04pm, oh, please. There has been no positivity here. Since November, the level of basic adult coping has been nonexistent. Not here. Gone. Not that I’m complaining. It’s been a hoot.
DeleteRead more closely. I said that trolls like you prevent positivity from developing, by your very presence and interference with constructive discourse (of the kind Somerby keeps yearning for).
DeleteAdult coping is gone but you think it's a hoot? There is that famous empathy again. Something bad has happened to others but you find it funny. Seriously, what is wrong with you?
Anonymouse 8:0@pm, I was off this site for a 1.5 weeks. Your problem is’nt me, although I wouldn’t mind that. Your problem is the election. Oh, well.
DeleteIt was better here when you were gone.
DeleteAndy Borowitz has it right:
ReplyDelete"WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—A man’s decision to spend months writing a book about the wrong president is a worrisome sign of cognitive slippage, brain health experts warned on Tuesday.
Devoting a 352-page book to unmasking a president who is no longer in office instead of the one currently sowing global chaos indicates serious mental impairment, the experts asserted.
Making matters worse, an inner circle of the man’s co-workers have been enthusiastically touting his book on television in a coordinated effort to conceal his cognitive decline.
“It’s sad that no one around him seems willing to tell him he’s slipping,” one cognitive specialist said. “Every day it becomes clearer that he’s no longer up to his job.”
On what basis could the press have pursued Biden's supposed decline before the debate, when there wasn't any evidence of decline?
ReplyDeleteTrump gets his own wife's name wrong in the course of giving a campaign speech but Somerby thinks that anecdotes about George Clooney being snubbed at a party indicate cognitive decline?
No one who worked closely with Biden had concerns about his cognitive ability, including opposition members of Congress who met with him, foreign leaders who discussed world problems with him, staff and cabinet members who worked closely with him. This is an orchestrated attempt to diminish Biden and tar the Democrats with some sort of collusion ahead of the midterms. Somerby is participating with the Republicans in this anti-Biden campaign. A couple of right-leaning media figures wrote a hit-piece in order to make money by attacking Biden and the Republicans bought enough copies of their book to put it to the top of the NY Times bestseller list before it was even released. That is a payoff to them.
But Somerby thinks this book is all true. What a moron Somerby has become. Somerby is touting right wing talking points again today. On behalf of Trump, the worst president in history who really does have dementia and routinely shows concerning symptoms in his public appearances while doing abominable things. But Somerby thinks the press has gone too easy on Biden!
"anecdotes about George Clooney being snubbed at a party"
DeleteExcept that the anecdote was that Biden didn't recognize Clooney, which is pretty much the opposite of snubbing him, so you mangled that one.
"No one who worked closely with Biden had concerns about his cognitive ability"
This is simply false. Stop lying.
There’s a lot of media bullshit, thanks to tapper’s self promoting book tour/apology tour. How much of his book is solid evidence of anything? Who are these people expressing “concerns” about Biden’s cognitive ability, and does this represent some undeniable truth?
DeleteOn the East Coast, people show their disdain for others by pretending they don't exist. That is what the word "snubbing" means. It is cutting someone dead in public. Clooney grew up in KY and spent time on the West Coast where social interactions are more direct.
DeleteBut if Biden was preoccupied and didn't give Clooney his expected attention, so what? Biden is the top dog and he doesn't have to pay attention to anyone he doesn't choose to notice. You would have to climb into Biden's head to know whether he "didn't recognize" him or was simply not interested in talking to him, given his presidential thoughts and duties and all. Clooney is important to Democrats because he donates money to them. If Biden was in office and doing his job, not in fund-raising mode, why would he have any need to "recognize" Clooney? Clooney sense of his own importance seems to have been wounded, i.e., this is about Clooney's ego.
Please cite an example of someone close to Biden, who worked with him, who has expressed concern about him doing his job. That does not include the staff who adjusted his working hours so that he could make important decisions when he was less physically tired. Getting tired is part of being old, part of normal aging. It does not indicate any cognitive deficit. There are no examples in that book of cognitive decline, just normal aging.
Are you aware that Trump in his first term had large blocks of time designed as "Executive Time" where he watched Fox News, made phone calls, napped, drank diet Cokes and otherwise relaxed? These were in the middle of the day. He also typically stopped working in the early evening. Add in his golf, and how is his schedule any more robust than Biden's, especially given that Trump was younger than Biden at the time.
Today, Trump has no activities listed on his public schedule, after spending the weekend golfing.
Trump spent no time reading and did away with those time-consuming briefings. No surprise that he cannot do the job and is so uninformed on every topic.
DeleteStill waiting for the evidence of a single person who worked closely with Biden who said he was unfit. We already know he was old. Where is the evidence that made him unfit?
Delete11:35 indeed the evidence shows the opposite, several straight-shooting journalists as well as people like Heather Cox Richardson, all interviewed Biden in his last year as president, and they all said Biden showed no sign of cognitive decline.
DeleteFocus on the present moment grasshopper.
DeleteTrump is off the scale corrupt, breaking his oath right and left, but the gop congress is talking about…investigating Biden.
DeleteJared Kushner is grifting $150+ million a year to "manage" a $3 billion fund of Saudi/UAE money, a fund that generates no return, other than Kushner's "compensation".
DeleteAnd that is just the tip of the iceberg, yet crickets from Republicans and their voters.
Kinda suggests Republicans have no integrity.
"But if Biden was preoccupied and didn't give Clooney his expected attention"
DeleteYou can't snub someone if you have no idea who they are. I explained that to you in a comment. Is something wrong with you?
Anonymouse 12:04pm, they lied to you. They lied to you in the manner that you insist is The Way that true Democratic party members should lie in order to be authentically liberal. You got what you require and that’s all you care about in the first place.
DeleteBeing lied to is awesome.
DeleteI've been reveling in the lie about their being a Republican voter who isn't a bigot, for over a decade now.
And i don't even work for the mainstream media.
Anonymouse 3:33pm, well, your boss, Mr. Soros, throws you a sardine now and again. You do what you can do.
DeleteCecelia and conservative cucks like him love being lied to as long as the right people are lying to them. For reference see the loving posts to the habitual liar.
DeleteAnonymouse 3:49pm, you don’t need anyone to lie to you, you very thoroughly do that to yourself.
DeleteFocus Cecelia, the question was whether Somerby is lying to people.
DeleteSomerby has never called bigots "economically anxious", as far as I recall.
DeleteAnonymouse 6:53pm, if you want to believe that everyone, but Heather Cox Richardson is lying to you have at it, Einstein. However, your field of liars has now expanded beyond Bob to most of the western world, including your party’s own big wigs. Fair enough. Duly noted.
DeleteNobody said that. What is wrong with you?
DeleteAlso, the CONTENT of Biden’s response was wrong. The US government cannot fix its fiscal problems by raising taxes on the very rich. That’s not enough money. Income Tax revenue would have to be doubled to balance the budget.
ReplyDeleteDavid's Make-Shit-UP-Monday comment.
DeleteWhen did Biden promise a balanced budget? Wouldn't it be an improvement over Trump to simply not blow up the budget?
DeleteToday's fiscal problems are related to the instability Trump has introduced with his on-again off-again tariff threats. Extending his tax cuts from his first administration will make matter even worse. Our credit rating has declined because of Trump, not Biden's prudent efforts (stymied by Republicans in Congress).
Biden handed Trump an economy that was the envy of the world, according to economists and financial experts. What has Trump done with it? He has gone crazy and destroyed expectations of a stable economy for the foreseeable future. Businesses and consumers are afraid to invest in anything. But you are complaining about a line in Biden's debate transcript, one that Democrats would not find troublesome and that is not evidence of decline, just of poor expression.
In David's defense, criticizing the United States of America is no more "anti-American", than criticizing Israel is "anti-Semitism".
DeleteDavid in Cal is correct.
DeleteThe United States of America has been a shit hole country, since Ronald Reagan ran it into a ditch. (That's more than 40 years, for those at home keeping track).
David in Cal,
DeleteIt's a shame you never learned 3rd Grade math.
If you had, you'd know doubling the highest income tax rate (currently at 37%) still leaves the very rich with 26% of their income.
Sending useless thoughts and prayers to those who can't afford to live off $158,000 a year.
DeleteSome are responding to this mortal problem with snark or by assigning blame. The US will go down the tubes in a few years if the spending isn't fixed. The challenge is to find a politically feasible way to save the country.
Delete11:32 further clarification, the top marginal tax rate is only applied to income above an already high amount, already an amount in excess of providing an extremely luxurious lifestyle.
DeleteYes, it is true, in America we have a marginal tax rate system, little understood, especially by folks like Brother David.
Too late DiC. A minority of US voters voted to destroy the nation last November. Their wishes are being delivered to Putin and Xi. It was a good run, but it is over. Thanks to DiCs like you.
DeleteDavid -- have you actually looked at how much money is sloshing at the top? I had this discussion with someone years ago. He was honestly wondering whether having a marginal tax rate at 100% would be enough to cover our deficit. And, yes, it pretty much would cover the deficit.
DeleteThe deficit/debt is primarily due to the Reagan/Bush/Trump tax cuts for the wealthy.
DeleteTrump alone in his first four years racked up nearly one third of our total debt. In a single term! Trump is historically incompetent.
This is a startling circumstance that should disqualify Trump from being elected to anything.
We do not have a spending problem, we are the richest nation in history, we have plenty of money for everything we need. No, the problem is we do not tax the wealthy their fair share.
In reality, this nation become incredibly powerful off a top marginal tax rate of 70-90%, which fueled unprecedented growth until 1981 when Reagan's neoliberalism took over, propagating the largest transfer of wealth in history, redistributing $50+ TRILLION, from the bottom 90% to the top 1%.
Republicans are deeply incompetent when it comes to our economy, they should never be allowed anywhere near the levers of power that control our economy.
12:26,
DeleteThey actually voted to put minorities back in their places. The destruction of the world's greatest representative democracy, and the suffering of mankind, is the price they are willing to pay.
David in Cal,
DeleteTry calling the CEOs of defense contractors, and explain that due to the deficit, the United States government will not be purchasing any products or services from them, until we get our fiscal house in order.
Most importantly, don't forget to report back how that goes for you.
David in Cal - so the answer is to lower taxes on those most able to pay more and blow up the deficit by another $4Billion? That is what these insane assholes are proposing, along with killing the infirm. Such a two faced Putz.
DeleteShit, making DiC errors again; $4 Trillion.
DeleteDIC doesn’t like assigning blame. This is likely because Trump added more to the deficit than any other president, and is a member of the party that has been chasing failed economic policy for decades. If blame was properly assigned, no one would rely on the ones most to blame for solutions that they have never provided. Spending cuts coupled with with taxing wealth fairly is the solution but the oligarchs will have no part of the latter and rubes like DiC are their targets and ultimately enablers.
DeleteIlya - A 100% tax rate would produce ZERO tax revenue. Sure, it would produce a lot of tax revenue IF people continued to earn just as much money. But, nobody would work if they couldn't keep any of the money they earned.
Delete@3:57 - I am less interested in assigning blame because our society is being destroyed by debt. I'm focused on survival.
DeleteI do blame an economic belief that we can continue to run large deficits. This belief is prevalent among poos of both parties. This needs to be changed. But each separate interest demands that no cuts be made in their area.
The belief is supported by the fact that we haven't had disaster yet. That's bad thinking. We won't have the disaster until it hits. Then it will be too late to go back in time and do the things that would have prevented the disaster.
What particularly frustrates me as an actuary is that this disaster is modeled and clear. Unlike an earthquake, we can reasonably project when the economic disaster will hit will hit. E.g., SS will go bankrupt around 2033. There is no good plan to deal with the problem by that time.
The function of Congress is to set priorities among competing demands for funding. If it were functional and not being manipulated by Trump, it would be doing that.
DeleteYour faith that some model can predict when disaster will hit, with someone unpredictable like Trump at the helm, is almost certainly wrong. Ironically, it was more true under Biden than now.
"Tomorrow: The border, the silence, the "woke"
ReplyDeleteAnother hit piece against Democrats. Tell me again how liberal Somerby is.
He's not liberal, he's a centrist Democrat. That's blindingly obvious.
DeleteHe calls himself Liberal. Are we to assume he doesn't know he's really a centrist Democrat?
DeleteI think that given how often Somerby advances right wing talking points, he isn't any kind of Democrat. He might be a never-Trumper because he quotes a bunch of them, but his embrace of right wing memes suggests he is further right than you think.
Centrist Democrats don't tend to be obsessed with ancient Troy and Rome (the way white supremacist bros are), nor do they wear their racism, sexism and xenophobia on their sleeves the way Somerby does. Tomorrow he is going to complain about the border and woke again. And they don't keep claiming that #metoo has died as a movement in the midst of another Harvey Weinstein trial, while people are still clamoring for the release of Epstein's party invite list. He may want people to think he's a centrist Democrat, but his messages are straight out of right-wing hell. He thinks Abrego Garcia is a gangbanger.
Labels like "conservative" and "liberal" refer to vague points along a spectrum; these terms convey very little meaning and are therefore not effective in rhetoric and discourse.
DeleteThe fundamental struggle in society for the past 10-12k years is "left" vs "right".
Somerby is clearly on the right.
Further, Somerby, typical of those on the right, seems quite angry and bitter, and focuses those emotions onto women, people of color, and immigrants.
Every day our hos harshly attacks Trump and Fox, substantively. Name one MAGA who does that? You people are idiotic. Apparently, his unforgiveable sin is to assert that the "blue" side has imperfections, and that Biden may not have been a hybrid of Washington, Lincoln & FDR wrapped up into one. Also, anyone with a moderate grasp of reality who saw Biden's debate performance knew his candidacy was a doomed, and it was a huge mistake for him to have run.
DeleteDon't be coy, AC/MA. Tell us exactly which group of people shouldn't have their rights protected, because that would be "woke".
DeleteEvery day our hos harshly attacks Trump and Fox, substantively. Name one MAGA who does that?
DeleteDickhead in Cal.
He (Somerby) calls himself Liberal."
DeleteI don't think that's true. He calls himself 'blue' which just means Democrat.
Somerby's thinking is "blue", which just means sad.
DeleteSo's Somerby's balls.
DeleteThe actual vote over whether Biden should run again was held during the Democratic primaries. Voters who thought he was too old could have picked someone else (Biden was not unopposed) or written in some other name). They didn't do that. That left Biden/Harris as the nominees of the people via election. Claiming that people wanted something else is specious when people had the chance to vote differently and voted for Biden. Along the same lines, Pelosi and Clooney and others could have organized behind an alternative candidate but didn't so do. Instead, they subverted the election process by pressuring Biden off the ticket via backroom tactics. That isn't democratic process.
DeleteThe failure of the Democrats to rally behind Harris after that was a partial contributor to her loss and Trump's current disastrous reign. They should be apologizing to the rest of us, but especially to those folks shipped off to El Salvador without recourse.
No, Somerby has referred to himself as Liberal and he has also said "Us liberals," implying that he is one with other liberals. He also refers to himself as Blue, but that doesn't mean he is any kind of lefty.
DeleteAfter that message Trump wrote on Memorial Day, is there anything to talk about except how to get Trump out of office without blowing anything up?
ReplyDeleteCompare that message to what Biden said on Memorial Day, as a true test of the cognitive ability of the last president.
The biggest lump of media malfeasance was the way the New York Times sanewashed Trump's remarks at Arlington Cemetary on Memorial Day (before he went golfing). Their headline was:
ReplyDelete"Trump Praises Military Service and Personal Achievements in Memorial Day Speech"
Jeff Tiedrich says:
"if you were watching Donny’s speech, you may have assumed you were witnessing a grandiose narcissist in the full bloom of cognitive decline rambling incoherently about a bunch of shit that never happened, but no — Donny was just praising some of his personal achievements.
thank God we have The New York Times to set us straight."
What did Trump say? Stuff like this:
“…immense and ultimate sacrifices they offer. only the faintest glimpse at the— infinite grace we— have received from all who laid down their lives for America over the last two hundred and fifty years, we’re gonna have a big, big celebration, two hundred and fifty years. in some ways, I’m glad I missed the second term where it was, because— I wouldn’t be your president— for that most important of all in addition we have the World Cup and we have— the Olympics. can you imagine? I missed that four years, and now, look what I have, I have everything. amazing the way things work out. God did that.”
oh great, Lord Fuckwit thinks he’s on a mission from God. [Tiedrich]"
Crickets from Somerby about that one.
Trump has found religion. Or more accurately, Trump has found that religion is a highly effective way to dupe people.
DeleteTrump is another great lesson in why atheists have it right. Maga's exemplify why white Christian evangelicals have no clue (or refuse to have a clue) about what Jesus was teaching.
DeleteOrganized religions do not exist without indoctrination.
DeleteWe are all born atheists.
Like breaking a horse in order to ride a horse, religious indoctrination, typically occurring in formative years, is a pernicious form of child abuse.
This abuse leaves children wounded and traumatized, thus more likely to develop personality traits centered on obsessions with hierarchy and dominance.
Storytelling, like the myths of religions, can be emotionally comforting, but more often than not, these stories are weaponized to keep the masses compliant, quietly living desperate lives.
It is a vicious cycle, just like the cycles of generational wealth/privilege and generational abuse that are so prevalent in our society.
If we returned to our innate egalitarian roots, were our lives less precarious, we would be less inclined to turn to these stories for comfort; storytelling would be fun, instead of a weapon.
anon 1:39 - Karl Marx in the Communist Manifesto averred that "religion is the opiate of the masses." His next line was "It is the heart of a heartless world."
DeleteDon't let ICE know you are reading that commie shit AC/MA.
DeleteSo the 2020 election was "rigged and stollen" by....God?
DeleteAC/MA, the point of the earlier comments was that Trump has not found religion but is using religion to con religious people, as a grift. That is very far from the heart of a heartless world and very far from religion as religious people experience it. Note that Marx did not say it was the ONLY heart of that heartless world. Europe had spend several millenia under the heel of an alliance between religious leaders and royalty that subject the people to a tyranny as bad as any dictator's. That is partly why we have separation of church and state in our Constitution. Organized religion has its downsides that make it as cruel as any heartlessness to be found in Marx's world. I doubt Marx intended his words to be used to whitewash religious abuses on the basis that anything non-religious must be heartless.
Deleteanon 6:27, the world is more complicated than you may think.
DeleteAC/ MA,
DeleteStill waiting for you to tell us exactly which group of people shouldn't have their rights protected, because that's "woke".
AC/MA, actually I think I am telling you that the world is more complicated than YOU think.
Deleteanon 7:20, yes you have asked this question several times, and it's not a very clever question. I answered it, or addressed it given that the question doesn't make sense, twice. There are a lot of rights" and different kinds of rights, and things that aren't rights now but maybe should be. Your reference to "rights' is vague and unclear. That said, here is no group of people who shouldn't have their "rights" "protected."
Deleteanon 7:54, think away. But you have no idea what I think.
DeleteAC/ MA,
DeleteThank you so much.
Follow-up question: When did you go "woke"?
AC/ MA is the woke person he warned us about.
DeleteSomerby kind of sort of sidles up to the idea that tapper, if he genuinely suspected that “ something was wrong” with Biden, said nothing at the time. Now comes out with a book and apologies, thus handing the republicans another avenue to harass Biden and distract from Trump. But now, Somerby suggests that tapper, endless shithead that he is, continues his dereliction of duty by refusing to investigate Trump’s cognitive issues. Thanks Jake!
ReplyDeleteTapper is a journalist, not a Biden staffer. He had no responsibility to say anything but report news. If Biden's supposed decline had ever caused any news beyond that one debate, Tapper might have been expected to express concerns (except that these are personal, not facts, not necessarily valid and thus not fodder for his reporting). Given that even unsympathetic folks like Tapper didn't report anything while Biden was in office, this seems more like a concocted political distraction than a real situation that someone like Tapper might have ignored. It is easy to ignore what doesn't exist.
DeleteThe public may not realize that those supposed videos of Biden wandering were fake, edited in order to portray Biden as having dementia. This editing was done by Russia-paid operatives and released via the mainstream media (Washington Post) which gave them the stamp of validity when they were not real. People who did not realize that (Somerby?) may have wondered why no one was doing anything about Biden, given such evidence, but those who follow politics or work in govt KNEW they were fake. Perhaps Tapper's negligence was in not reporting on that fraud more vigorously before Biden got kicked off his own ticket in a coup against his candidacy.
This is yet another Republican dirty trick that may have worked to change the course of the presidency. Somerby is worrying about the wrong thing, in my opinion.
Anonymouse 12:06pm the in an AP poll three-quarters of U.S. adults expressed concern that the 81-year-old Biden was too old to effectively serve another term. Annie Linskey and Siobhan Hughes caught hell for interviewing over 40 Democrats and Republicans who said that they feared Biden wasn’t able to do it. There were the “faked” videos of Biden being gently led back after wandering off during photo shoots.But no, there’s not a thing on earth that could convince you that Biden wasn’t fully up to snuff, even as you recalled Trump being unfit for office because he very carefully walked down a ramp.
DeleteOf course anyone would wish Biden was younger. But the electorate had a chance to selection someone other than Biden during the primaries and they chose Biden/Harris overwhelmingly. There is no provision in our system for replacing a duly nominated electoral candidate because of poll results.
DeleteTrump is unfit because he is incompetent. It distresses me that he won the election, but I wouldn't go around saying he isn't the president. I find it ludicrous that so many people voted for him and I have been wondering what is wrong with people these days that they don't see what Trump is.
Anonymouse 6:31pm, if Trump was cognitively impaired to the point where his own staff questioned whether he could handle a 2am phone call you most assuredly would have questions as to who is running the country. Stop blaming other people for being right.
DeleteCecilia - surely you must question Trump's sanity. . .
DeleteAC/MA, I don’t question his sanity, I do question his egotism and social judgment.
DeleteDo you question why they aren't worse?
DeleteAC/MA, I was…sadly…disappointed in your post at 1:36pm today. That first sentence is no way to refer to our anonymices.
DeleteWhat are you talking about? There is no comment by AC/MA at 1:36 in this thread.
DeleteA staff member would be doing the right thing if they told someone to call back at a normal hour, when it wasn't an emergency, instead of waking up their boss. Staff are paid to exercise judgment about what to wake someone up with and what to postpone. No one functions well with interrupted sleep, so staff would be preserving optimal functioning on the next day's work.
DeleteTrump seems to brag that he doesn't sleep well. Because he doesn't sleep at night, he naps during the day. His daily drowsiness is why he drinks constant diet cokes (for the caffeine) and perhaps takes adderall (or some other form of speed to stay awake). Look at the way he slept through his own trials, Jimmy Carter's funeral, and other important functions.
When you have disrupted sleep, it affects cognition to the point of producing symptoms like dementia. It isn't good for anyone to not sleep deeply (REM sleep) and to have insomnia, during which Trump posts bizarre and inappropriate messages to Truth Social. His napping means he is not focused during the day and misses some activities during prime time. Not sleeping would require that Trump sleep separately from Melania, which may be why she is no longer living with Trump.
So mocking Biden because his staff protects his sleep shows a lack of understanding of the importance of sleep to health and Trump's dysfunction. Of course he has temper tantrums, poor coordination, an inability to read or listen to briefings, a lack of judgment, and can't regulate his bowels. He is a physical mess, unlike Biden.
Cecilia, his sanity not in the clinical sense, but in the common vernacular, i.e, nuts. He's certainly crafty, it's not easy to get elected president, and seemingly completely amoral, and lots of people adore him, and lots think he's the lesser of 2 evils.
DeleteLeft, Right, Center, Democrat, Independent, Republican, Sane, Insane, Homeless, Billionaire, etc.
DeleteThese are all adjectives used to describe people who haven't been able to find a Republican voter who isn't a bigot.
A strong reminder that we're more alike than we like to admit.
I can't wait for Trump to die, so Tapper can release a book explaining how Trump wasn't fit to be the President of the United States of America.
ReplyDeleteGrading Tapper:
DeleteTapper as journalist - F
Tapper as grifter - A+++
I can't wait for Trump to die Yep. And I'll skip the book. I am plenty convinced on my own.
Delete
ReplyDeleteI had a cold. And my uncle was eaten by cannibals. Give me a break man.
Was the cold released from a Chinese laboratory, Boris?
DeleteBiden made a joke about his uncle who crashed a plane in New Guinea where there still existed tribes practising cannibalism during WW2. Taking someone’s joke seriously in order to portray them as foolish is an asshole move.
DeleteYes, my uncle was eaten by cannibals, Hillary. Really. And I had cold. Please don't try to help, sweetheart.
DeleteMusk: I'll give my million dollar McLaren F1 (that I crashed) to anyone willing to kiss me while I have a cold sore outbreak. Anyone?
ReplyDeleteEveryone: No thanks, and that's a hard no.
Musk: How about a kiss when my herpes is healed and dormant? Anyone? Anyone? Please!
Everyone: NO! You are ugly, gross, and disgusting. Nobody wants your stupid laminated face, pasty fat body, and man boobs. NO!
What you got against man boobs you sexist pig?
Delete@3:58 You think you’re funny but sexism is real and it hurts women.
DeleteActually, man boobs are “moobs”.
DeleteActually, no one thinks you are funny. Female breasts are not called foobs or woobs. Why don't you get off welfare and find a real job?
DeleteAnonymouse 6:32pm, how much are you offering, Woob.
DeleteSpoken just like Trump would have phrased it.
DeleteSorry about the M B comment. It's just after losing 40 lbs. I lost mine.
DeleteAnonymouse 6:51pm, Trump would have also recognized that you keep harping on female breasts when the joke/subject (Musk) was about fatty chest tissue on men.. You do this so you can go into scold mode. That’s your calling.
DeleteRight-wingers will take a bullet for an elite anytime.
DeleteYou didn't really believe they hated the people who they vote to give huge tax breaks, did you?
You silly cultist.
Anonymouse 7:24pm, personally, I could unhesitatingly take a bullet for a lot of people, just out of reflex. No matter their politics.
DeleteNo, Trump would not have recognized anything like that. He has dementia. All he notices is whether he gets his hamberders and diet coke quickly and whether people say "sir, sir, you are so great" with the right number of tears in their eyes.
DeleteMusk's problem is that he is not really sure whether he is a man or not. His own son decided to become a girl and he, in his heart of hearts, isn't sure whether he should do that too, given that 20% of autistic people are trans (gender dysphoric, uninterested in sex). Musk has no interest in women so he worries that maybe his man boobs are a sign he should transition the rest of himself too.
Cecelia is trying to advance the right wing meme that Democrats are all scoldish cat ladies, but as they said in Mean Girls, she'll never make "fetch" a thing.
Delete(If she doesn't understand these pop culture references, she is probably a spy. Somerby told us that from Manchurian Candidate.)
Trump doesn't recognize his own penis when he sees it in the mirror because it bends in the wrong direction.
DeleteAnonymouse 7:39pm, no, I don’t like to think of you as having cats. I like cats. But yeah, you’re always no more than 10 seconds from launching into an aggrieved screed. I’m sure that you sit in car at least once a week and film yourself screaming at the world for the benefit of X. Word of advice- brush your teeth.
DeleteSo, you don’t get pop culture references. How is the weather in Eastern Europe?
DeleteI am absolutely loving your gorgeous blog!I love this blog.Thanks for sharing...AO
ReplyDeleteExcellent Blog! I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this post...AO
ReplyDeleteI will be subscribing to your feeds or even I success you access consistently fast...AO
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ReplyDelete