Here's the headline on a Jim Geraghty post at National Review:
President Biden to Time Magazine: ‘(Unintelligible)’
What is with these people? Geraghty isn't one of the insane ones at NR, but here he is trying to push the conservative narrative of Biden's mental decline by pointing to (a) one word (b) during a one-hour interview (c) while Biden had a cold and had apologized for his voice.
But maybe Geraghty should have pointed out something else: Time's fact check of their interview with Donald Trump was seven times longer than their fact check of Biden (about 4,000 words vs. 600 words). Time had to correct 33 Trump claims compared to seven for Biden. And a large number of the Trump claims were serious lies designed to mislead. Biden's were exclusively small misstatements.
I dunno. Maybe that's more important.
He may not be insane, but when I see his work in The Washington Post, i avoid it.
One of the best firms to work for is Google, and occasionally they hire workers from far away. sp Go to the Google Careers area and select the "Work" interface. All you have to do to win money is work directly with this company.Within this user interface https://shorturl.re/7dzpp
THERE IT IS. TODAY'S UNMODERATED SPAM.
What does this tell you?
It tells me that they are all, even the "sane" ones, dishonest hacks. They cannot make a case for their desired political outcomes honestly. And they want power more than they respect their readers, or maybe they just view their jobs as pursuing that power.
They're have no arguments if they didn't have dishonest ones.
+1
The press is the problem,
an article in Salon by Brian Karem.
Some excerpts below
https://www.salon.com/2024/06/06/the-press-is-the-problem/
"The biggest problem we (the press) have is that we put profit ahead of content, we have no idea what we’re doing and we shout at the top of our lungs while doing it. We try to predict the future, don’t understand the present and misinterpret the past."
"We (the press) treat the convicted felon Donald Trump as if he’s a normal presidential candidate. He is not. We treat this election year as if it is normal. It is not. We have no idea how to present and report the news. And if someone calls this into question, they are often shunned."
"H.L. Mencken warned us nearly a century ago about “chain-store” methods of journalism and the “eager swallowing” of propaganda done by journalists “in the face of the plainest evidence of its falsity.”"
"Convicted felon Donald Trump is a liar. The media is complicit in his dangerous grift to control and own the soul of our nation. Good Christians, atheists, poor, rich and what’s left of the middle class have given their money and time to this grifter. Their efforts are legitimized by a complacent media powerless to do anything."
Media grade curve for Democrats: *picture of Mt. Everest*
Media grade curve for Republicans: *picture of interstate fwy through Texas panhandle*
I’ve used this analogy a few times. Say Democrats and Republicans are both selling printers.
The Demoract’s ad will say “This printer has the best print quality in its class” then have a footnote explaining that that claim is based on a survey of customers who viewed output from all the printers and the majority said this printer was the best. The media fact checkers would say “while the claim is supported by survey data print quality is still a subjective thing so you can’t really say which one is the best.
The Republican’s ad will say “This printer cures cancer”
The media fact checkers will say both sides have issues with misleading ads.
Also, 80% of Republicans agree that the printer cures cancer, which will be dutifully reported.
That was just about perfect.
Mud slinging is normal politics now. Has been for a while. Trump is a despicable pig who rapes women and should be in prison. That’s the response. But we can’t do that because it might put off some dumbass undecided voter. Hilarious.
Mudslinging is standard Republican politics and has been since the Republicans not only accused the Clintons of murdering Vince Foster, one of their closest friends, who had sadly committed suicide, but also spent millions of our tax dollars on Republican-led investigations of that viciously cruel slander.
Brett Kavanaugh’s investigation for Ken Starr alone cost over $2million. Before that there had been the investigation by Special Prosecutor Republican Robert Fiske (FIske cleared the Clintons of wrongdoing for Whitewater, Travelgate, Filegate and Foster’s death but Republicans demanded the appointment of and Independent Counsel anyway). Next came a Senate banking committee investigation and a House investigation complete with forensic evidence “proving” Foster had been murdered. That “evidence” was provided by Indiana’s Dan Burton — evidence he obtained by shooting melons in his backyard.
That slimy pseudo-scandal was ginned up by that good Christian Jerry Falwell who travelled around the country peddling the video “Clinton Chronicles” which accused Clinton of drug running and multiple murders in addition to Foster’s. It drove me nuts that even after that egregious behavior Falwell was treated with respect by the mainstream media as a spokesperson for Christians in the US. Tim Russert, who disdainfully called Clinton “Bubba” practically bowed down to Falwell during his frequent guest appearances on MTP.
There. Are. No. Good. Republicans. Despite how nice or sane they seem over lunch in Orange County. Hopefully Kevin learns this someday.
I agree with this argument. It’s like debating which members of the Nazi Party are basically “good people”. We’re far enough down the road to know that all Republicans are Nazis or, at a minimum, are okay with being a member of the Nazi Party.
The “good Nazis” still voted for Hitler and the “good” Republicans are voting for Trump and against America.
Exactly. The media is desperate to find the Republican equivalent of Albert Speer, a seemingly well educated, urbane and civilized man who is often described as "merely" Hitler's favorite architect. He cultivated a much better reputation than the other Nazi heavyweights and received a relatively light twenty year prison sentence at Nuremberg. After his release in 1966, he and his apologists sought to present him as only a technocrat and "the good Nazi." (Or, if you will, the Nazi with the furrowed brow.) This, much like the South's decades long campaign to revise, cover-up, and whitewash the history of secession and the Civil War, was quite successful for a time. Of course, unreconstructed history tells a different story. And Speer, who inter alia oversaw Germany's vast slave labor empire during WWII, is now recognized as pretty much every bit a monster like Himmler, Goebbels, and Goering.
That would make Speer a sort of a German Nazi version of Susan Collins.
Yeah, that was intended. Collins dropped her furrowed brow mask and let her MAGA flag fly (which really should but won't end her faux moderate status with the both sides media) by not only echoing the ridiculous cultist GQP line on Drumpf's convictions but by fabricating easily debunked lies that Alvin Bragg ran on a platform of "getting" Drumpf.
I read Speer’s book years ago. He was more honest about his complicity than Collins will ever be. He showed some self awareness but Collins never does.
If you really want a really high dose of insanity try reading the comments to the article.
The comment section under Geraghty's piece appears to be made up of 100% Russian trolls. Well, maybe with a sprinkling of good ol' US-based no-info MAGAts.
the main-stream media have a false-equivalence they'd like you to buy
+1
What infuriates me about all this obsessing about Biden’s age is that journalists are refusing to cover the clear evidence that Trump is slipping. During campaign speeches Trump has repeatedly lost his train of thought then started garbling words before drifting off but the media just shrugs that off. Biden garbles one word and it’s a headline. Clearly the media is dropping the false equivalency in favor of blatant rightwing bias.
Then there is the travesty from the WSJ. An article quoting Republicans like Mike Johnson and Kevin McCarthy who claim Biden is showing his age in meetings but refusing to print denials from Democrats who have also met with Biden recently. You know it’s bad when even CNN slams you:
“ The Wall Street Journal’s story about Biden’s mental acuity suffers from glaring problems”
https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/06/media/wall-street-journal-biden-mental-acuity/index.html
What is with these people?
What's with these people is that it's all hands on deck to help Trump win.
uh, this was Geraghty in 2008. Definition of an insane hack
"Obama was bitter. Clinging, I guess you could say... Having said that, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if Obama won. He's promising the moon, the sun, the stars... Sometimes, the American people have to see that ideas that sound too good to be true always are, and that command-and-control big government doesn't work."
In this period of Total War being waged by MAGA et al, you strive to be perfect in politics. Why the hell did a very old man prone to stuttering and *suffering from a cold* agree to do the interview, instead of waiting until he got better?
Denial by the Biden organization of how he's perceived is a serious problem. Example: Recently Biden was seen on a bicycle - and he looked like an old man on a bicycle. Biden supporters are guffawing, saying, "Trump couldn't ride a bicycle, Ha Ha!"
Would they be similarly enthused if Biden hopped on a stage and performed a few ballet moves? By their logic, yes.
Here on Planet Earth, where appearances matter, Trump went to a sweaty UFC match (basically cockfighting where the animal is a human). In the common parlance, "Who is more macho?" Guy at raucous sports event, or guy sitting upright, pedaling a bike?
I get a strong Notorious RBG vibe from many Democrats. Face reality. Biden should have stepped aside post 2022 midterms, but what's done is done, and we have a candidate with a serious image problem. Don't make it worse.
Yes yes, the incumbent President should have "stepped aside," to make room for the Perfect Candidate, who is ... who, exactly? Oh wait, let me guess, you don't know, but The Primary Process something something Convention something surely would have identified him or her. And being Perfect (although as yet strangely unknown), said candidate would have no "image problem," despite the best efforts of both Republicans and horse-race-hungry media, and we could all finally ring in the Day of Jubilee.
We would welcome you to Planet Reality if you'd ever care to visit!
Is DD for real? I always thought he was a parody of the ridiculously overconfident no-nothing pundit, a Stan Kelly type parody account. Like who doesn’t know cock-fighting is to the death? So, no UFC for all its violence is not CF in human form. Perhaps, Joe Rogan’s brain death in the 1990s confused him?
I don’t think getting dissed by Aaron Rogers at the event is the alpha move DD pretends it is. When I think of manly, no one under 60 uses the term macho anymore, not sure if I think of an old fart in a business suit dripping flop sweat desperately searching to shake anyone’s hand that will allow it. However, I don’t have my finger on the pulse of America like our good old DD!
And if Biden had stepped aside in 2023 then Harris would be the incumbent and odds on favorite. Which Dem would want to run against her? Even if they won, the party would lose 20% of their strongest supporters. All these Johnny Unbeatable supporters just glide right over that.
Biden may be old, but Trump's whore and the spawn of the devil recently emerged from their lair.
"On Tuesday evening, the New York Post reported that Melania and her son, Barron, had been spotted for the first time since Donald Trump’s conviction in his Manhattan hush-money trial on Thursday, May 30."
The MAGA cult responds to this news:
"And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration."
Melania is the Whore of Babylon! Come on, Mr. Drum, take the gloves off!
unintelligible?
he was clearly saying 'fuck jim geraghty'
That was my interpretation as well.
Bill Kristol or Rich Lowry?
The Bulwark or National Review?
Pragmatism or Dogmatism?
Biden or Trump?
Pick.
"Geraghty isn't one of the insane ones"
Who are the insane ones? Define insanity. Never mind ... I'll do it.
If you are sanely acting based on the assumption that the intrinsic value of any one human being is equal to the intrinsic value of every other human being, then you are intentionally supporting Biden-Harris.
Alternatively, you are insanely acting based on the assumption that some people are more important whereas other people are less important, and you are intentionally or unintentionally supporting the idea that your life and mine should be placed into the hands of people who care about us the way that we care about cardboard boxes (not relevant unless useful or in the way, and then to be respectively used or disposed of).
Geraghty is one of the insane ones.
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein
Anyone want to share KD's question and ask Jim Geraghty why he said that. I'd like to hear the response.
It's not insane because it works. And what makes it worse is that, even if a Dem grew a spine, channeled the inner Joseph Welch and said "Have you no sense of decency, sir?" the response nowadays would be to contemptuously laugh: "What for?" Aside from Barack Obama and Amy Klobuchar I haven't really seen any Dem able to handle it well.
I fear the debates will go badly. Welch squashed the real Roy Cohn but I'm not convinced Biden can win against his ghost, especially in these times.
The early post -kangaroo court polls:
Emerson: Trump +6
The Economist: Tie