WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2026
Compagno does it again: In our view, Emily Compagno belongs on major "cable news" shows the way a flounder belongs on a bicycle.
That doesn't mean that she's a bad person. By normal standards, the vast majority of people, ourselves included, would be un- or under-qualified for the prominent role afforded to Compagno by the gruesome corporate tools who run the Fox News Channel.
Having said that, whatever! Last night, there the reliable firebrand sat, part of the stunningly undistinguished panel which had been assembled for the Gutfeld! show.
(For the record, Gutfeld! isn't a "late-night comedy show," as the channel likes to pretend. It's a propaganda messaging program which airs in classic primetime slots—at 10 p.m. in the East, at 9 o'clock in the Central time zone, at 7 p.m. on the coast.)
Last night, the usual collection of droogs had been assembled to pretend to discuss news topics—and before long, there she went again! During the program's second segment, Compagno piped up with this outburst—with an outburst we'll explain below.
She spoke with guest host Tom Shillue:
SHILLUE (8/18/26): Has the corner finally turned on Fauci?
COMPAGNO: I mean, it must have. Look, when I first saw this—
First of all, none of us are surprised, and we've been covering it here—the abject fraud and corruption that that horrific shell of a human Fauci was wielding during Covid to really destroy our lives and lose lives.
As you can see if you click that link, she ranted on, in this dangerous way, as she routinely does, attacking "that horrific shell of a human."
According to Compagno, Dr. Fauci had been wielding power during Covid "to destroy our lives." Given the world we're all living in, that of course is dangerous talk.
For the record, we don't doubt Compagno's sincerity for a moment. Here's what she was talking about:
Last week, Terry Moran described a report about the possible origin of Covid which he said he once prepared for ABC News. As Mediaite reports, Moran said this, along the way, about his own personal conclusion:
Terry Moran Says ABC Gutted His Covid Lab Leak Investigation...
[...]
Moran pitched the story to Nightline, which producers accepted enthusiastically, and said the resulting investigation included interviews with molecular virologists and former Trump administration officials. He also claimed the reporting “broke a little news” that the Wuhan lab had received funding from the Chinese military, citing information from a U.S. intelligence source.
Moran said his reporting left him personally believing a natural origin was “probably a little bit more likely,” while adding that he would not have been surprised if the virus had escaped from a laboratory.
“But I didn’t reach that conclusion. I just laid it out,” he said.
Maybe a lab leak, more probably not. That was Moran's impression at the time.
Needless to say, that part of Moran's recollection wasn't mentioned by Compagno or by anyone else last night. On the Gutfeld! program, the Covid virus will only be said to have come from the lab. Gutfeld! viewers are constantly told that everybody "knows" that.
According to Moran, he created this report for Nightline in early 2021. On the very day it was slated to air, the report was heavily edited—was made "incomprehensible," Moran says—by ABC's lawyers and standards officials.
Moran said he was told that the lawyers and standards officials had run the original transcript by Dr. Fauci. He stressed the fact that he doesn't know that for a fact.
At this site, we're not sure why the network officials wouldn't have done that. Moran isn't sure that they did.
Moran didn't like the "incomprehensible" finished product. His judgment may have been good. But that podcast presentation by Moran formed the basis for the second segment of last night's Gutfeld! program. In the first segment, the obedient panelists wasted everyone's time pretending to discuss the latest pointless remarks by the irrelevant Hunter Biden, who's easy for MAGA to mock.
With respect to Dr. Fauci, Compagno engaged in her typical dangerous talk. These were the mutts on hand as she sounded off:
Gutfeld!: Tuesday, August 18, 2026
Rob O'Neill: Former member, Seal Team Six
Kat Timpf: Comedian
Tom Shillue: Guest host, comedian
Emily Compagno: Co-host, Outnumbered
Rich Vos: Comedian
We ourselves know Rich from long ago. We think of him as a very good guy—a very good guy who has no earthly business being on a major "cable news" program, pretending to discuss major, life-and-death topics.
As for the ongoing attacks on Dr. Fauci manufactured by mutts like these, we direct your attention to the following recent articles:
On August 16, print editions of the New York Times contained the following article. Online, the article was published three days earlier:
Trump Officials Falsely Connect Covid Vaccines to Miscarriage
Trump administration officials and other prominent Republicans falsely suggested this week that Covid-19 vaccines were linked to miscarriage, seizing misleadingly on old text messages of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s that were recently released by Republican senators.
In January 2021, when Covid vaccines had just been released, Dr. Fauci and other Biden administration officials discussed the limitations of the data then available about vaccination during pregnancy, as well as the theoretical risks for pregnant women based on information available at the time. Since then, studies of hundreds of thousands of women have shown that Covid vaccination is not linked to an increased risk of miscarriage, stillbirth or preterm birth.
While those specific conversations were not public, health officials did not hide the uncertainty in early 2021. There was limited data because of a longstanding practice of excluding pregnant women from clinical trials. What was known then was based on women who happened to become pregnant while enrolled in a vaccine trial and on animal testing.
But pregnant women were becoming critically ill and dying from Covid infections, so the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that they talk to their doctors about vaccination, weighing the known risks of Covid itself—which, along with severe illness and death, included miscarriage and stillbirth—and the vaccine safety data that existed.
The report continued from there. This is not the topic which Moran discussed, but it was an examination of the misrepresentations which have continued to emerge from within the MAGA world—and from the profoundly irresponsible if well-intentioned Compagno.
On August 15, The Atlantic published a lengthy, nuanced report about the irresponsible MAGA behavior. We won't attempt to walk you through the whole thing, but Daniel Engber's lengthy report started like this:
Anthony Fauci’s Group Chat Is Making People Lose Their Minds
...Senator Ron Johnson announced this week that he’d retrieved tens of thousands of messages and hundreds of voicemails from Fauci’s government-issued device and made them fully searchable. In the meantime, though, Johnson has shared just a single set of texts: a Fauci group chat that he considered so explosive in its implications that it had to be released forthwith. “This is a blockbuster revelation,” the senator said on Tuesday. The public had to know.
The texts in question were from a short exchange that Fauci had with two other public-health officials—former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and former CDC Director Rochelle Walensky—in January 2021. Murthy had asked whether either of them knew of “any data or theoretical reason” why an expectant mother might choose to vaccinate early versus late in pregnancy. Walensky answered no, that this was all “data free.”
Fauci agreed, but a couple of hours later, he followed up. After asking around, he’d heard about a theoretical concern: A second dose of the vaccine could lead to fever and cytokine storm—an overactivation of the immune system, also linked to COVID itself—which in turn might lead to early-term miscarriage. In an interview that Fauci gave just one week later, he alluded to the need for balanced thinking on vaccination during pregnancy, given the lack of clinical-trial data. But he noted that thousands of expectant mothers had already gotten shots by then, and no issues had arisen. “We’ve got to be careful,” he said, but “I would rather take my chances with a vaccine than getting infected while I’m pregnant.”
Fauci’s critics now assert that this was tantamount to murder. Fauci knew that COVID shots were killing babies, they argue—he said so in a private text—and then he went out and pretended that the shots were safe. Representative Anna Paulina Luna called this “a crime against humanity and the most evil thing that could’ve ever been done.” Meghan McCain demanded that the 85-year-old be handcuffed, perp-walked, and put in a jail cell for the rest of his life. (“This is not hyperbole,” she noted, rather unconvincingly.) Senator Roger Marshall called for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the matter—either that, he said, or “a full 9/11-style commission.”
...In fact, the new material is unremarkable, unrevealing, and—worst of all—maddeningly irrelevant to the many, far more interesting questions that still surround one of our most important public-health leader’s behavior and decision making during the pandemic...
And so on, at length, from there. Crazy accusation is easy. Establishing facts is hard.
(For additional Republican bungling, click here.)
As Mark Twain once never said, accusations of murder get halfway around the world before nuanced assessment can get its boots on. And then, up will jump the well-intentioned Compagno with her latest irresponsible language, toying with life and death on a mutt-rich national stage.
Our own Blue American journalists refuse to discuss the conduct of this "cable news channel." All too plainly, any society which functions this way has already become a failed state.
Tomorrow: Woke/Not Especially Fruitful
ReplyDeleteWhoa, man. Your Dumbocrat enthusiasm in defending Dr. "I'm The Science!" Mengele is unshakable.
Comparing Fauci to Mengele shows crass disregard for the atrocities of the Holocaust, or a deep ignorance of history, or both. At least this guy uses his own personal nym (calling Dems "Dumbocrat") so DG can come around and chastise him. Oh, wait, DG never focuses on guys like this. He only attacks people who say something substantive here.
DeleteWhy reply to this no-rent troll at all? Let it try to fill the empty hole of its life elsewhere.
DeleteFauci never said "I'm the science." He said, "I represent the science" which in a debate with knuckle-draggers like yourself is true.
DeleteSay what you will about Right-wingers, but you can't honestly say they have any problem at all withy children being raped.
DeleteWhoa man, anon 11:24 - what are you - in the 7th grade, with your habitual childish reference to "Dumbocrats"?. And your brainless enthusiasm for the Goebbels-style propaganda attacks on the 85-year-old Fauci. Apparently, the effort it would have taken for you to have actually read TDH's post would be too hard for your adolescent level brain to handle.
DeleteLots of people find reading Somerby tiresome. Especially when he repeats himself. Can't really blame this guy.
DeleteSomerby led the pitchfork wielding mob chasing Biden out of office for being too old. No science wanted then either, even though it was easy to establish Biden's mental competence and those closest to him, including doctors, attested to his ability to do the job. Somerby ignored the facts and insisted that he be removed from the ticket, then he criticized Harris repeatedly for her border policies, which he misrepresented using right wing propaganda, not the facts of what she and Biden had been doing to address immigration concerns.
ReplyDeleteThis "Biden is too old" issue is coming back to bite the Republicans because of Trump's age and his obvious inability to do the job of president. Whatever else she might be, Natalie Harp is a crutch to Trump when he cannot remember. Speculation is that she attends to his nursing needs. Biden never required a constant nurse-attendant in his daily performance but Trump apparently does. Rawstory reports:
"President Donald Trump was photographed clutching a briefing "cheat sheet" that Republicans once called irrefutable proof of Joe Biden's dementia.
During a Tuesday podcast episode, progressive commentator David Pakman seized on the image and hammered at what he framed as a bottomless well of Republican hypocrisy over presidential fitness. The photo was taken on Monday in the Oval Office, where Trump honored a sixteen-year-old lifeguard from California and the ten-year-old he rescued.
"There are legitimate reasons to examine Donald Trump's fitness," Pakman said. "60 percent of voters don't think he has the mental sharpness to be president."
This is an ongoing story that affects all of us. Meanwhile, Somerby is distracting attention from Trump's age by focusing on Fauci, an irrelevance with no other purpose than to distract attention from this Harp scandal and whatever Epstein revelation appears next.
Somerby should be ashamed to participate in these coverups by Republicans, letting Gutman lead him in his misdirection. Trump is too damned old. He needs to be replaced ASAP.
"Somerby led the pitchfork wielding mob chasing Biden out of office for being too old."
DeleteBiden was too old.
Prove it,
DeleteEven worse for Somerby and his right-wing fanboys, Biden threatened to tax the elites.
Deleteanon, your first sentence - that it was TDH himself who "led the pitchfork wielding mob who chased Biden out of office" is utterly ridiculous. After Biden's abysmal, cringe-inducing debate performance, there was no choice. And any influence TDH had on Biden's dropping out was somewhere between zero and microscopic. (I stopped reading your post after that).
DeleteAgree, AC/ MA,
DeleteAfter Trump ranted about "post-birth abortions" at that cringe-inducing debate, Somerby had no choice other than questioning Biden's cognitive abilities for weeks on end.
Anyone reading TDH for the last dozen years could see that coming down Broadway from a mile away.
OK, he joined the mob. But he was so aggressive in promoting Biden's age problem (when he is habitually evasive and unenthusiastic about anything he says) that he seemed to be at the forefront of that mob.
DeleteSomerby role here is not to push Biden to drop out, but to normalize right wing talking points, to attack blue America, and to undermine public faith in the press and democracy generally. He has knocked every single Democratic candidate since Al Gore (who could do no wrong).
Somerby's job was not to affect Biden, but to get blue voters to accept Biden's removal from his own ticket. Somerby may have influenced that opinion among voters. Look at the others here who have also argued that Biden was too old. Either Somerby convinced them, or he is being supported by troll peddling that line, or he is effective as an influencer.
You propose that Somerby may have convinced someone of something about Biden on his own. The right wing's social media attack on the left includes a lot of money paid to a large number of influencers, bots and trolls with deep fake videos of a supposedly senile Biden wandering around, all attacking social media sites with a consistent set of right wing talking points. We know this campaign exists because not only has it been studied and documented, but the role of Russia in paying for it has been documented too. And this has been going on since Trump entered the race in 2015, which is when Somerby abruptly shifted viewpoints to push right wing talking points.
Influencers influence. Biden ultimately abandoned his campaign because big money Democratic donors pulled their support from his campaign. Influencers like Somerby created an environment of public support for his withdrawal. You cannot run a campaign without money. Nancy Pelosi helped engineer that.
Now, there is a rift among Democrats between the progressives and the corporate centrists and moderate Democrats (the party establishment). This is a continuation of the struggle that took down Biden (who was too progressive), except that the grassroots is fighting back against the party establishment with young, aggressive candidates. Both the right and the Dem establishment are going to lose to them, but they are calling the left too commie, too socialist in a single voice, just like Somerby, the Pelosi cohort, and the right did against Biden. But the voters are fed up and I don't believe they can stop what is happening among voters.
AC/MA, if you think I said Somerby made Biden drop out, and then you stop reading what I actually said, you are not discussing in good faith.
No doubt Somerby was chomping at the bit to go after Biden's cognitive abilities, once he heard Trump rant about the imaginary epidemic of post-birth abortions, Trump was ranting about at that cringe-worthy debate.
DeleteAnyone arguing otherwise is gas-lighting us.
Somerby didn't even tease questioning Trump's cognitive abilities (without any follow-through) for week's on end, like he usually does when he wants to fool his fanboys into believing he might have a point to make at some time in the future.
Delete"After Biden's abysmal, cringe-inducing debate performance, there was no choice. "
DeleteThis didn't happen in a vacuum. It happened after years of the "Biden old" narrative being pushed by the media. Contrast that with the rank insanity that has been the hallmark of Trump's time in office, and what ought to leap out is the utter LACK of a "Trump is too mentally unwell for the job" narrative. In the old days, Somerby would have likely drawn this contrast, but nowadays, even though he does talk about Trump's manifest mental illness, he doesn't point out how the media has dealt with it, compared to the way they dealt with Biden's age. And yet, this blog is supposed to be about media criticism.
Somerby runs a right wing vanity blog.
DeleteWhich attracts right wing trolls.
Deletemh, I get what you are saying. Poor Biden totally tanks in the debate, and is pushed out of the race. (No one knows how the election would have gone if Biden stayed after that, but I would suggest that most think he would have been crushed). I think the anon above (who obsessively posts here, and unremittingly and blatantly distorts what TDH says) is delusional. I don't think you are. I get that Trump lies or makes things up as easily as he breathes -and gets away with it enough to have been elected, and quite likely has some type of psychological condition or personality disorder or whatever. But the issues with Biden and Trump, cognitively-wise are apples and oranges. And in defense of TDH, he, like most all democrats, wanted Biden out, for the reason that would help the dems win. You'd like TDH, though he is now pretty much constantly, diagnosing Trump as mentally nuts, to contrast the unfairness of how Biden was treated and how Trump is now treated. I'm not sure what good that would accomplish.
DeleteAC,
DeleteI'd like to see Somerby contrast how HE treated Biden with how HE treated Trump after the debate where Trump imagined an epidemic of post-birth abortions in front of the world.
AC,
DeleteYou are selling short wha Somerby writing the words, "I apologize. The Left were correct about Trump and the Republican Party all along," will accomplish.
AC, most Dems did not want Biden out. That anger about how Biden was treated is part of the current progressive surge.
DeleteSo, to keep everyone straight, AC/MA that was is now AC, and MG is actually mh?
Delete"Poor Biden totally tanks in the debate, and is pushed out of the race. "
DeleteI have no idea where "poor Biden" comes from. This is about the media, not Biden, who is merely a character in a drama. It's poor US, who have to live with the likes of Trump and a country that is failing before our eyes.
"As Mark Twain once never said, accusations of murder get halfway around the world before nuanced assessment can get its boots on."
ReplyDeleteSomerby is trying to be cute, but how would he like it if we made up quotes and attributed them to him, casually inserting the word "never" and changing the famous words to ones of our own choosing? I will try that next time DG demands some quotes. Anyone can play this game.
And then Somerby damns an old acquaintance with faint praise:
"We ourselves know Rich from long ago. We think of him as a very good guy—a very good guy who has no earthly business being on a major "cable news" program, pretending to discuss major, life-and-death topics. "
Did Somerby actually discuss any life-and-death topics with Rich in the old days (Somerby used to manage a comedy club and presumably book acts)? How much solid opinion can be assessed while waiting in the wings or over a coffee after a show? Aside from guys like Bill Maher, how much life-and-death opinion does any standup put into their act?
Or is this Somerby's way of calling Rich stupid? It sounds like it. And if you cannot know someone's politics under such circumstances, how on earth would Somerby know whether Rich is a good guy, much less a very good guy? It sounds like he loaned Somerby money or did him a solid. But given that he is apparently Republican, I wouldn't base a political endorsement on that experience. Too many guys endorsed on the right are turning out to be not very good guys at all, with police records and domestic violence charges. Republicans need to be vetted, the right is discovering.
Lets not follow Somerby into the weeds on Fauci again. It is boring and has absolutely no relevance to today, except as a right wing distraction from their own legal problems. Here is a better one -- Lauren Boebert says people should have to take a Bible literacy test to become citizens. What does Bill Maher have to say about that? What does Somerby have to say about it -- or does he too have no opinions about life-and-death-and-afterlife issues?
You're kind of dopey.
DeleteYou're kind of mopey.
Delete"but how would he like it if we made up quotes and attributed them to him"
DeleteAre you aware that the remark about how rapidly truth and lies travel is widely attributed to Twain?
Pretty sure 11:55 is aware, they make it clear in their comment.
DeleteMaybe you just wanted everyone to know that you too knew of the origin of the quote?
Good boy! Gold star!
Of course. And I am aware he never said it.
DeleteAre you aware that Twain has nothing to do with any discussion today or with the rapidity or slowness of any info traveling? Are you aware that Somerby dragged Hillary into the situation with that "murder" reference, and she has nothing to do with any of this either, except that someone once said something untrue about her -- pretty sure it wasn't Mark Twain.
There was no reason to bring Twain into this, because Compagno is not telling lies but spreading partisan misinformation in a political attack to distract from other issues. That Twain comment is about gossip, not propaganda. The attacks on Fauci are politically motivated attempts to discredit his reputation and make him a scapegoat while throwing red meat to the Republcian base. That has absolutely nothing to do with anything Mark Twain wrote about.
The implication of the statement about speed of transmission is that lies are more plausible than the truth. I think that depends on the content of the lie or truth and the context in which the statements occur. Unless Somerby were discussing the plausibility of Fauci's remarks or Compagno's, there is only the superficiality of the word "lie" to justify Somerby grabbing that quote (and deforming it).
I don't find it cute or funny. I find it distracting and annoying when Somerby does this grabbing of irrelevant quotes and sticking them in were they contribute nothing. It can't be that he thinks this makes him sound educated or thoughtful, because they so often do not work well. This quote is no better than when he inserts a Bob Dylan quote with vague meaning or tacks on a My Antonia quote just to make his essay long enough. But then, who is counting his output? If he were being paid by the word, it would make sense to do this. Is he? He is behaving like a 13 year old who stuffs tissues down her underwear to look better developed.
"how would [Somerby] like it if we made up quotes and attributed them to him"
DeleteThat's rich. You folks are constantly making up shit and pretending that Somerby said it. That's what you do. That's your essence.
A current example: Somerby says Gutfeld! is bad for Republican branding. Totally made-up shit.
And you say you believe this made-up shit because you experience aspects of reality that transcend the literal word.
DeleteWhere's the proof Somerby believes anything?
DeleteI love Somerby but he clearly says Gutfeld is bad for Republican branding, it is weird to deny it.
DeleteAs a Republican I think Trump is terrible, although yes I did vote for him. I appreciate the way Somerby tries to move the GOP away from Trump while at the same time attacking Democrats and in effect discouraging people to vote for them.
The only time I put a statement of Somerby's in quotes is when it comes directly from his blog as something he wrote. Paraphrasing and interpreting are not quoting. I won't answer for what anyone else writes here.
DeleteIf something is not enclosed in quote marks, it is not a quote. If you have a beef with someone Anonymous, please use their time code to make it clear who you are talking to. This means you, DG.
Meaning transcends the literal word. It is derived from the combination of that word plus the context in which it occurs. If you don't use context to interpret meaning, you are disabled and that is sad, but you cannot be the arbiter of what is being said or not said around here.
DeleteI agree with @3:20 about Gutfeld being bad for Republican branding. Somerby even sounds embarrassed about Gutfeld being a comedian and behaving as he does, like it casts all comedians in a bad light. This is so obviously an ongoing theme of Somerby's that I am surprised that DG wants to die on that hill (that's an expression, not intended literally).
Delete3:28 is right. Paraphrasing and interpreting are not quoting. "Deriving meaning from context" is pretty darn close to "making shit up." If you want to tell us that Somerby said something, quote him. Otherwise, you're just telling us about the deluded fabrications that are going on in your own head.
DeleteEven North Korea knows Trumps is full of shit:
ReplyDeletehttps://apnews.com/article/korea-us-military-drills-313e01e4ee305b4c9b1b8bf12643fb17
"And so on, at length, from there. Crazy accusation is easy. Establishing facts is hard."
ReplyDeleteRemember when Somerby made that crazy accusation against Biden, calling him too old? Good times!
And remember when Somerby made that crazy accusation against Trump without any evidence, calling him insane, mentally ill (but don't use the word bonkers -- bad blue media). Good times!
Why does Somerby suddenly become dainty today, when women are being used as pawns in a "you're killing the babies" fake accusation against Fauci? A mensch would point out that Fauci did things right and the vaccine didn't kill pregnant women or their babies but helped save them. Is it too much work to provide a fact check along with Compagno's false accusations?
None of this can have any impact on Fauci or anyone else, so what is the point of discussing it at length here today? To distract from Natalie Harp. Somerby obviously doesn't want to talk about her, even though it supports his own theory about Trump's craziness (but lack of beauty). SHE is evidence but Somerby won't touch it. Why not? Not his marching orders, obviously.
"Remember when Somerby made that crazy accusation against Biden, calling him too old?"
DeleteWhy was that a crazy accusation?
Does Somerby or anyone consider Natalie Harp beautiful? She is 35 years old. Way too old to even be pleasant looking, according to the bros.
DeleteGiven Somerby's heading, who is crazy and who is irresponsible (or both)? When Somerby referred to the film, the main character who was crazy/beautiful was a troubled, wealthy, white teenage girl who was acting out by partying too much. Her difficulties seem almost quaint compared to what modern teens have done, so she is intended to be good at heart, just mixed up.
Does any of that apply to anyone in our current situation? Not Natalie Harp. She is as crazy as Trump, without redeeming family troubles. Not Trump himself. The character in the film was not really crazy (just troubled) but Trump is the opposite, he is actually diagnosably insane (at the very least with dementia) and has no circumstances to justify his bad behavior. He is a very evil man who has done a lot of bad things to hurt other people, unlike the movie character. He is far from beautiful, even in his bizarre memes. So there is no possible comparison there. Did Somerby intend Compagno to be the crazy person? Who knows what she actually believes and what she is willing to say for money. But if she is crazy, aren't all of the MAGAs crazy too? Can Somerby single out one person for being crazy on a TV show when the rest are crazy in the voting booth, at rallies, and in everyday life?
And what resonsibility do these comedians and frauds have toward the viewing public? I would say none, given that Somerby too seems to have no responsiblity to his own readers here and passes along the same propaganda that Gutfeld generates.
The word "irresponsible" is the least of the Republican sins. They are actively harming people by destroying important govt services that people depend on, causing preventable deaths (from Salmonella and cyclospora and measles), through deliberate acts of corruption and stupidity. That is far from irresponsible. It is evil.
@12:28 Because it was unsupported by evidence, untrue, not grounded in reality.
DeleteBiden was examined by medical staff every morning, who administered mental status tests and certified him fit to perform the job. Every single morning. The people working with Biden, including members of congress, foreign leaders, officials working in govt, said he was competent and sharp, fit to do the job. Those are FACTS. His performance as president supports this, whether you agree with his policies or not.
People age at different rates, depending not just on their years on earth but on their health and lifestyle. We have no upper limit on the president's age that could have been applied to disqualify him. Biden was not showing dysfunction in office, nor was he showing cognitive difficulties that impaired his decision-making and judgment. There was no evidence.
122:43,
DeleteYou're omitting the part about the Biden-Trump Presidential debate, where the mentally-deficient, and brain-addled Republican candidate imagined an epidemic of post-birth abortions.
Obama had a bad debate too. He recovered and won the presidency. Biden was not given the chance for a second debate because Trump refused. Given the weirdness on the right, future historians may discover that Biden was drugged. His subsequent speeches and extemporaneous speaking were normal, including the State of the Union. All of Trump's speaking events show that he has lost it. None of them resemble Biden's bad debate at all. That is because Trump actually is senile, whereas Biden was having a temporary problem due to (1) cold medicine, (2) fatigue and lack of sleep, (3) Trump's stunningly weird statements and figuring out how to address them in such short time bites, (4) his lifelong speech defect which was worsened by 1-3 above. These are reasonable explanations, especially given that the debate problems did not reoccur.
Delete1:09. That performance was pathetic. Biden promised to be a 1 term President. He had no business reneging on that. Way too old and feeble (but far better than Trump) and now known to have had advanced cancer*.He and the people who shielded him from the public failed badly. It was a good presidency. He will not be remembered for it, unfortunately.
Delete* which begs the question: when did he know?
1:09. Read your last sentence. Then read your third sentence.
Delete“pathetic. Biden promised to be a 1 term President. “
DeleteI don’t think that is true
@1:25 They problems did not reoccur in his numerous other speaking engagements, including the State of the Union speech, other speeches, interactions with people before and after those events, spontaneous interactions with press at public appearances. In other words, there was nothing like that debate during the remainder of his presidency, including during speaking events.
DeleteIn contrast, Trump is impaired at EVERY speaking opportunity. He cannot follow a train of thought. He mistakes names and places in every speech. He slurs his words. He cannot put together a coherent sentence from beginning to end. He makes up facts that are impossible, without realizing they cannot occur. He makes up his own numbers, changing them (increasing them) from day to day. He doesn't know the most basic facts about the world (such as that Africa is not a country). He goes off on long digressions. He thinks Hannibal Lector was a real person. He says inappropriate things about women to audiences of boy scouts, and in front of children.
Trump is now and was in 2024 a mess and he is getting worse. But Biden is too old? That is ridiculous.
Delete"Way too old and feeble (but far better than Trump)."
Always good to hear a TDH reader push back on Somerby's nonsense beliefs.
AI is very helpful about questions like this:
Delete"No, Joe Biden never officially or publicly promised to be a one-term president during his 2020 campaign.
Origins of the Rumor
Media Reports: In late 2019, anonymous sources and advisers told media outlets like Politico that Biden was internally discussing a single-term pledge or viewing his presidency as a bridge.
Campaign Denials: Biden and his official campaign staff explicitly denied these reports, stating he had not made any such commitment or held plans to limit himself to one term.
Key Statements by Biden
The "Transition" Comment: Biden occasionally referred to himself during the 2020 campaign as a "transition president" or a "bridge" to a new generation of leaders, which led many voters and critics to assume he would only serve four years.
Direct Rejections: When directly asked by reporters if he would pledge to serve only one term, Biden repeatedly answered "No" or stated that he was not making any such promise."
Biden's prostate cancer was discovered after he had already resigned from the ticket. Most prostate cancer is slow-growing and men die from some other cause before the cancer is bad enough to produce symptoms. That is not true for Biden, whose cancer is aggressive (fast growing) and has spread to other parts of his body. Rather than assume he was covering it up, it is more likely the symptoms were noticed after his latest presidential medical exam, when they became more severe.
DeleteWhining about Biden being too old is just something right wingers/ Republicans do to try to tear down Dems.
DeleteBiden has stage 4 prostate cancer, in his bones and elsewhere. I am a physician. You would like to make his condition sound benign. It is not. People die from cancer this advanced, sometimes quickly.
Delete1:33. Yes, Biden and Trump are both too old and impaired to be president. Both of them.
DeleteYou believe the narrative that Biden’s cancer was discovered when it was stage 4. That is very generous of you.
DeletePresidents have the best health care. Why wouldn't he be tested and treated? It isn't anything that would have affected his ability to be president, if it were the slow-growing kind. It affects how you pee. The idea that Biden would have an aggressive cancer and not treat it is ridiculous.
DeleteNo one is suggesting that Biden should be president now. He is too ill, not too old. He is dying. Trump is also dying (of other things, likely heart problems and dementia). Trump needs to be removed ASAP.
Simple minded idiots refused to get vaccinated in 2020. They would show up in the ER infected, threatening litigation if they weren’t given ivermectin on demand, and were more often than not dead within 2-3 weeks. I saw it up close many times. Fox viewership killed many, an inept president who lied about the virus (as he admitted to Woodward) early on took his share of lives. And good faith advice was given as the science of the virus was sorted out. The attacks on Fauci can be seen as a part of the right’s war on science. The Chinese may always have been destined to eat our lunch scientifically but this administration has made that process far easier than it should have been, cutting scientific funding and attacking premier academic institutions. Fucking bunch of knuckle dragging troglodytes.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/holy-shit-dear-leaders-diaper-nurse
ReplyDeleteTiedrich today points out that Natalie Harp is even weirder than has been reported. She allegedly had a screaming fit and then threw herself into the trunk of an SUV because Trump's staff said there was no room in the car to travel with him to his trial. As Tiedrich notes, the trip went from the Trump Tower to the Manhattan Court House, about 4 miles. A normal person could have taken a cab. An actual Manhattanite could have walked that distance.
Tiedrich also mentions and quotes the story from Michael Wolff, Trump's official biographer, about Natalie sleeping in the women's locker room during an entire summer in order to be close to Trump should he need her, when his staff failed to assign her accommodations at his Bedminster golf club.
Trump's own secret service staff was concerned about her stalking to the point where they warned him against encouraging her. In response, Trump gave her a job as his personal assistant.
This is weird stuff.
This is perhaps how the Russian court felt about Rasputin when he was manipulating Nicholas II during the last years of the Russian Empire. She is able to get Trump to do things because Trump is incompetent. Perhaps Somerby should be worrying about how crazy Natalie is, not Trump's obvious dementia. She wouldn't be his go-to girl if he weren't crazy too.
Calling someone "a horrific shell of a human" because you disagree with their health policies makes no sense at all. Yes, being a shell sounds really bad, but what does that phrase even mean? Is there any kind of non-horrific shell? What is horrifying about being a shell? If someone were frail and in hospice, they might be a shell, but that is sad not horrifying. If someone were a "shell of their former self" as people say, they might be diminished, but again why is that not sad? Perhaps shell implies emptiness, but when you open a peanut shell, there is something inside; same with oysters and even hermit crabs. I am absolutely certain that there is more inside Fauci than there is inside Compagno, or Gutfeld, or Somerby or Trump. But why not actually discuss medical ethics or responsibility -- after all Somerby raised the topic?
ReplyDeleteThis is the problem with name-calling by people who don't think, even under the best of circumstances. Why does Somerby bother quoting this crap?
Oh yeah, Emily Compagno, I remember her, she is the one that lied about her background and completely made up her resume.
ReplyDeleteNo, Somerby, Emily Compagno is definitely a bad person.
Somerby today is desperately trying to revive controversy about Fauci.
ReplyDeleteTrump, Fox News et al. tried to use fear mongering and misinformation about Fauci to distract from Epstein and Iran.
It didn't work.
But Somerby is dutifully trying to keep it alive.
Fauci did nothing wrong, Covid had a zoonotic origin, the science is clear, one can look up Professor Dave on Youtube for a solid explanation and debunking of this sliming of Fauci.
https://youtu.be/wWxqBaWt5uY?si=3XZwD9KuoynsxNFZ
Thank you for linking to Professor Dave. People should know about him.
DeleteOh look, Somerby is back to whining about how Gutfeld is bad for Republican branding.
ReplyDeleteWho knew?
anon 2:08, I wonder how many of the deranged posts and demented trolling to the effect that TDH is a Trump supporter come from the same person. Possibly, even probably, it's all the same person. No way to tell for sure, given it's all from an anon.
DeleteAC/ MA,
DeleteI wouldn't bet on it.
For example, only a handful of the anon posts note Somerby repeats Right-wing grievances on the daily.
This is like saying that AC/MA writes all of the Dumbocrat comments.
DeleteIt is not just Trump that is full of shit, so is his diaper.
ReplyDeleteAnd nobody knows that better than the ghoulish Natalie Harp.
Some say Natalie's superpower and true value is that she has no sense of smell.
"In our view, Emily Compagno belongs on major "cable news" shows the way a flounder belongs on a bicycle.
ReplyDeleteThat doesn't mean that she's a bad person."
Of course that means she's a bad person. She is spreading right wing manure at a time when the truth is more important than ever, people's lives are at stake, our nation's future is in peril.
Bob always likes to give himself a little wiggle room.
DeleteHow can someone (such as Somerby) talk about the right wing media without being willing to use the word "stupid"? I think Somerby is not serious about his purpose here.
ReplyDelete