When you can't live without bananas

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Monday, July 01, 2024

Links - 1st July 2024 (1 - Joe Biden)

Biden's presidential debate performance sends Democrats into a panic - "President Joe Biden was supposed to put the nation’s mind at ease over his physical and mental capacity with his debate showing Thursday night.   But from the onset of the debate, Biden, 81, seemingly struggled even to talk, mostly summoning a weak, raspy voice. In the opening minutes, he repeatedly tripped over his words, misspoke and lost his train of thought.    In one of the most notable moments, Biden ended a rambling statement that lacked focus by saying, “We finally beat Medicare,” before moderators cut him off and transitioned back to former President Donald Trump... Nearly an hour into the debate, a Biden aide and others familiar with his situation offered up an explanation for his hoarseness: He has a cold.  But there were problems aside from the shakiness of Biden's voice. When he wasn't talking, he often stared off into the distance. Trump frequently steamrolled over Biden, accusing him of being a criminal and of peddling misinformation — many times without a response from Biden, though he did fire back with a handful of one-liners throughout... The expectations for Biden were low, and by almost all estimates he was unable to clear them.  “Biden just had to beat himself; unfortunately the stumbling and diminished Joe Biden the world has come to know made Trump look competent and energetic,” said a former Trump campaign official who isn’t working for his campaign this year. “I expect there will be some loud calls from Democrats for a change on the top of the ticket.”"

Time to Go, Joe Biden - The Atlantic - "At least expectations for Biden were extremely low going in. At best, he met those expectations. At worst, well—when I surveyed the social-media chatter at 11:30 p.m., a large majority of people sympathetic to Biden seemed to be taking the under.  “At Least No One Is Accusing Biden of Using Drugs,” read one headline in New York magazine... There’s plenty to blame for this imbroglio—beginning with Biden and his hubris, but also the legions of Democrats who refused to say in public what they’ve all been saying in private for months: that they feared Biden was too old for this. Ideally, the process would have started a year ago, or 18 months ago. It would have been nice if one or three of them—other than Representative Dean Phillips—had actually dared to run against him in a primary. (Shout out to Phillips, by the way, the clear-cut winner of the I-told-you-so primary.)"

Biden Battles Age Doubts and a Trail of Misleading Videos - The New York Times (aka " How Misleading Videos Are Trailing Biden as He Battles Age Doubts")
From June, before the debate. The claimed "context" doesn't change the message
I guess the debate was "deceptively edited" too

Biden allies defend president as poll suggests growing age concern - "A CBS News/YouGov poll released on Sunday indicated that 72% of registered voters believe the president does not have the mental and cognitive health to serve as president - a sharp increase from the 65% who said the same in an earlier poll... Particularly alarming for the Biden campaign, 45% of registered Democrats who responded to the poll believe the president should step aside for another candidate."

The two Bidens: The night America saw the other one - "The public split screen isn't new to many inside the White House, where top aides have meticulously stage-managed minutiae such as Biden's sleep schedule, his orthopedic shoes, his walks to Marine One and his climb aboard Air Force One to try to blunt concerns about his age.      Internally, many aides have seen flashes of an absent-minded Biden, but typically brush them off as ordinary brain farts because they usually see him engaged, eight current and former Biden officials told Axios.  But Thursday's debate has shattered the White House's efforts to show Biden at his best: a president capable of serving until 2029, when he'd be 86...
In his debate against Donald Trump, Biden often looked lost or slack-jawed, and delivered meandering answers in a hoarse voice... Biden eased some of those concerns with a full-throated campaign rally, where he found a more comfortable setting with a cheering crowd and a Teleprompter...
   From 10am to 4pm, Biden is dependably engaged — and many of his public events in front of cameras are held within those hours.     Outside of that time range or while traveling abroad, Biden is more likely to have verbal miscues and become fatigued, aides told Axios."

End Wokeness on X - "MSNBC on Bidən's cognitive abilities: "Bidən is far beyond cogent. He is better than he has EVER been intellectually, analytically. He is the best ever." This was just 3 months ago."
"If it weren't the truth, I wouldn't say it"

Senator Tester Say's Biden is "100% With It," Doing a Good Job (August 2023) - "Sen. Tester: Joe Biden when I've been around him, and it's not every day, when I've been around him- when I've seen him on the news- he's absolutely 100% with it. And and he's got, his recall, his cognitive ability- whatever you want to call it...he's fine. He's doing a good job. I think folks are making a bigger deal out of it than it is."
Dem Gov Bill Walz Says His Mom (88) Still Drives So Biden's Age Is No Big Deal (January) - "Minnesota Democrat Gov. Tim Walz dismissed voter concerns about President Joe Biden’s age when asked about it on Meet The Press by claiming it’s “ageism” and arguing his mother is in Biden’s age group and she still “drives herself.”"
Biden campaign says idea president is unfit for office is ‘bucket of BS’ (February) - "[Mitch Landrieu said] “And I’m telling you, this guy is tough. He’s smart. He’s on his game …. when you go into brief the president, you’ve got to — you better have your big boy pants on. And this kind of sense that he’s not ready for this job is just a bucket of BS that’s so deep, your boots will get stuck in it,” he said."
Delusional Dem. Rep. Dan Goldman Claims Biden Is Actually "Sharper Than Anyone I've Spoken To" - YouTube (February)
Schumer: Biden’s mental acuity is ‘great’ (February)
Schumer blames Biden mental fitness worries on 'right-wing propaganda': 'He's fine'
John Hasson on X - ".@SenBobCasey in March 2024: “No question [Biden is] prepared to do this job today and would be were he re-elected.”"
Nancy Pelosi slams Wall Street Journal article on Joe Biden's mental acuity (June)
Joe Biden 'sharp and commanding' but has 'diminished energy,' Chris Coons says (June) - "Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), the co-chair of the Biden campaign, acknowledged in an interview that President Biden, who is 81 years old, has “diminished energy” compared to when he was a younger man but insisted the president shows no “mental feebleness” and remains “sharp and commanding.”   Coons, in an interview with Politico’s “Playbook Deep Dive” podcast, said he’s tired of the relentless media focus on Biden’s verbal slipups and speculation about whether he has experienced cognitive decline since winning the 2020 election."
Damn misinformation!
If you think being President is harder than driving a car, that's ageism

The Biden-Replacement Operation - The Atlantic - "When I reached the longtime Democratic strategist James Carville via text near the end of last night’s presidential debate, his despair virtually radiated through my phone.  “I tried, man, I tried,” Carville wrote to me.  A few minutes later, when the debate was over, we talked by phone. Carville has been one of the loudest and most persistent Democrats arguing that President Joe Biden was too old to run again. Carville, who managed Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign and is still, at 79, an influential political analyst, had tempered that criticism lately—though more out of resignation than conviction. His apprehension about Biden’s ability to beat Donald Trump had never really diminished in my previous conversations with him, but he’d seemed to accept as inevitable that the party would not reject a president who wanted to seek a second term... Another prominent Democratic strategist, who is considered one of Biden’s staunchest defenders in the party and did not want to be named for this report, told me his view last night that “there’s a very high likelihood that he’s not going to be the candidate.” Even so, the strategist added, “I don’t know how that happens.”... Trump’s evident vulnerabilities will probably compound the concern about Biden, because they showed that Democrats might still stop him if they had a candidate who was not laboring under so many painfully apparent vulnerabilities of his own. For Democrats fearful that Biden can’t win, the president’s showing last night was so bad that it might have been good—in the sense that it put the idea of replacing him as the nominee, which the White House had almost completely banished from conversation, back on the table. The pro-Biden strategist last night flatly predicted, “I do think that somebody is going to declare and challenge him.”... Most Democrats who want to replace Biden also remain extremely dubious that his incumbent running mate, Kamala Harris, could beat Trump—but if she sought the nomination, then denying that prize to the first woman of color who has served as vice president could tear apart the party. The fear that such a fight could practically ensure defeat in November is one reason Democrats who are uneasy about renominating Biden have held their tongue for so long. Still, the prospect of the party simply marching forward with Biden as if nothing happened last night seems difficult to imagine. Even before his disastrous performance, Democratic anxiety was rising with the release of a flurry of unsettling polls for Biden in the 48 hours before the CNN debate... Biden’s job-approval rating remained marooned below 40 percent—a level that, as Gallup pointedly noted, is much closer to the historical results at this point in the race for the recent incumbents who lost their reelection bids (Carter in 1980, George H. W. Bush in 1992, and Trump in 2020) than those who won a second term."

The end of the Biden era - The Atlantic - "I know that, for Biden loyalists, the gathering consensus around last night’s debate must feel like a betrayal: Friends and coalition partners now seem to be lining up with knives behind the back of the man who saved America from Trump in 2020. Political loyalty, although often useful and sometimes admirable, should not override practicality. Blind support of one man, after all, is the hallmark of Trump’s cult; the prodemocracy coalition is larger, and should be more resilient, than any single person in it... Biden supporters are raging away on social media about how the CNN moderators should have intervened with more fact-checking (read: debating Trump themselves and saving Biden)... Replacing Biden is going to be almost literally impossible unless he willingly steps down. Biden controls nearly all of the pledged Democratic delegates; to reopen the nomination process, he would have to end his candidacy and then release them. But release them to whom? And here, we run into the Kamala Harris problem.  Harris has been an unexceptional vice president, but I do not intend to debate her record, because in the general election her record wouldn’t matter. She, even more than Biden, has serious electability problems. Her approval numbers are lower than Biden’s and among the lowest of recent vice presidents’... iden abdicating in favor of Harris would convince many people—not all of them Trump supporters—that this was the plan all along, a way of giving the Democratic nomination, and perhaps the White House, to a woman (seen by some as a radical leftist) who ran a poor campaign in 2020 and could never have been nominated in her own right... Congressman Ro Khanna, a Biden campaign surrogate, said today: “We have a great team of people that will help govern. That is what I’m going to continue to make the case for.”  That is not a great case. In fact, it’s Trump’s 2016 argument about how he’d be inexperienced but bring “the best people” with him. And after the president’s stumbles and lapses last night, such arguments are like running on a Weekend at Bernie’s platform, as one of my friends put it, in which voters should somehow be reassured by the presence of good staff and the ultimate backstop of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment... The operatives out there trying to soothe nerves by invoking Reagan’s first disastrous debate in 1984 forget that Reagan was ahead in the polls at the time, with plenty of electoral cushion under him. Biden has no such margin. My friend Greg Sargent at The New Republic has argued that Joe and Jill Biden need to assure America that last night was the exception, not the rule. But I suspect that Biden has, at most, about a week to either make up his mind not to run or reassure America that he can take on Donald Trump and win. At this point, it’s very hard to imagine that such reassurance is possible."

A Biden-Appointed ‘Reality Czar’ - "if you’re trying to fight paranoia, belief in conspiracy theories, and distrust of verifiable official sources, a presidentially appointed “Reality Czar” leading a government-wide effort to stamp out perspectives and arguments that a federal panel has determined is not part of reality is like pouring gasoline on to a fire. This is more or less announcing to people who believe that the government is out to get them that yes, the government is indeed out to get them.  Some of us can remember “Attack Watch,” the widely-mocked Obama-era effort to “help stop the attacks on the President before they start.”
From 2021

President Pretending To Be Catholic Meets Pope Pretending To Be Catholic | Babylon Bee - "At publishing time, the Pope had announced he would be hosting Stephen Colbert so he could also meet a comedian who enjoys pretending to be Catholic."

Meme - "New LEGO Gollum. Old LEGO Gollum
Old one looks like gollum, new one looks like Biden - Cheesehead74"

Meme - Riley Gaines @Riley_Gaines_: "This you???"
"White House accused of US Flag Code violation over Pride Month display"
Joe Biden @JoeBiden: "One flag. One America."

Biden administration ends Trump-era ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy (2022) - "The Department of Homeland Security said Monday that it ended a Trump-era policy requiring asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court...   The policy “has endemic flaws, imposes unjustifiable human costs, and pulls resources and personnel away from other priority efforts to secure our border,” the department said."
White House tries to keep illegal border crossings down after Senate vote failure (2024) - "The executive order reportedly under consideration to be signed as soon as Tuesday would ban migrants who enter the U.S. illegally from claiming asylum and allowing them to quickly be deported back to Mexico or their home country"

Biden admin is standing in the way of a censure of Iran - "Not only is the Biden administration bent on turning a blind eye to terror-supporter Iran’s world-dominating nuclear ambitions, it’s pushing our allies to ignore them, too.  The Wall Street Journal reports that European diplomats say US officials have been trying to talk Britain and France out of censuring Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board meeting next week, though Iran has grown its stockpile of highly enriched uranium to record highs, on the brink of enough to fuel three nuclear weapons — a blatant middle finger to the West after the IAEA warned Iran to cool its nuke program and allow greater oversight.    US officials deny running cover for Iran, of course, but it fits right into President Biden’s “appeasement at all costs” strategy with Iran — national security be damned.  Since taking office, Biden has refused to enforce on-the-books sanctions against Iranian oil buyers, letting the regime amass billions and so freeing up cash to fund terrorist proxies and buy more uranium.  He all but ignored more than 160 attacks on US forces by Tehran proxies until an attack that killed three soldiers and injured 40 more forced him to respond — and then weeks later approved a sanctions waiver that gives Iran continued access to the $10 billion he released from previously inaccessible bank accounts in 2023. And he downplayed Iran’s attack of more than 300 drone and missile strikes on Israel in April, urging the Jewish state not to retaliate."

Meme - Biden: "TO REDUCE ILLEGAL CROSSINGS AT THE BORDER... I'VE FLOWN THEM OVER DIRECTLY."

Steve Guest on X - "Memorial Day news dump from the Biden admin: “The Biden administration is pressing European allies to back off plans to rebuke Iran for advances in its nuclear program as it seeks to keep tensions with Tehran from escalating before the autumn’s U.S. presidential election, according to diplomats involved in discussions.”"
Noah Pollak on X - "There is absolutely nothing more important to the Democratic Party than retaining its political power. Not even the national security of the United States."

Richard Hanania on X - "Biden: “What is democracy? Black men are being killed in the street…What does it mean to be a black man who loves his country even if it doesn’t love him back in equal measure?” Russian and Chinese anti-American propaganda can’t compare to Democrats trying to pander to blacks."

AG on X - "How many people are aware that all US troops were kicked out of Niger last month and Russian forces replaced ours? Giving up what was previously a key base for fighting terrorism in the area. Another Biden foreign policy success story."
It doesn't matter. According to the left, all the problems that Niger will face until the end of time will be due to US intervention and colonialism

Meme - Stephen L. Miller @redsteeze: "I will reverse his senseless policies"
Joe Biden @JoeBiden: "Yet more proof that Trump doesn't care about the farmers, workers, and consumers that are being crushed by his irresponsible tariff war with China. It's easy to act tough when someone else is feeling the pain. I will reverse his senseless policies."
President Biden @POTUS: "just imposed a series of tariffs on goods made in China: 25% on steel and aluminum, 50% on semiconductors, 100% on EVs,..."

Nate Silver on X - "You're supposed to be the candidate who stands up for norms and traditions and now you're ducking this tradition? "The President will not be participating in the Commission of Presidential Debates' announced debates.""
Stephen L. Miller on X - "This part seems newsy. They don't want Biden in front of live audience they don't have control over. But remember, norms."

Meme - Jo @JoJoFromJerz: "No MAGA, you addlepated dumbfucks, the stock market isn't hitting record highs because of your rotting gourd God's "poll numbers." It's because Pres. Biden's economy is kicking ass, inflation is cooling and consumer sentiment is soaring. My god you really are a cult of stupids."
Jo @JoJoFromJerz: "I know 1,000 times more about chicken stock than I know about the stock market."

Meme - Ed Krassenstein @Edkrassen: "Trump was literally accused of walking in on naked girls as they changed for his miss teen USA beauty pageants."
Ed Krassenstein @Edkrassen: "There are plenty of fathers who have been in the same shower as their young daughters. Virtually all Pediatricians and child psychologists support it up until a certain age."

Richard Hanania on X - "Biden and his team don’t believe the polls showing him getting clobbered in swing states because…there doesn’t seem to actually be a reason? Polls can be wrong, but predicting the direction of the error is hard, and you always would rather be ahead than behind."
Biden’s polling denial: Why he doesn't believe he's behind

Maine Man Investigated by Secret Service for Joking About Biden Wearing Depends - "According to the Secret Service, the federal law enforcement agency tasked with defending the President, the Maine man who drew their ire “posted statements of unusual interest towards the Biden family,” but was not accused of making any threats towards the president, his family, or any other government officials.  The investigation, which took place in 2022, was revealed by the Daily Caller after it acquired Secret Service documents.  The investigation was conducted by agent John Mazza, who sought to reveal the identity of an X, or Twitter, user who had posted jokes about President Biden... None of the posts cited by the Secret Service contained any direct threats from the man directed toward the president or other officials.  The only tweet in which the man claimed to have plans to commit a crime was a joking response to another tweet asking what criminal activities extremists were planning.  The man responded, saying that he was planning to “invade the white house [sic] and get pics of Biden in his ‘Depends,'” a brand of adult diapers.   Even in his joking response, the man did not suggest that he had any plan to commit any physical violence against the president.   The Secret Service is legally permitted to conduct investigations, but only if it can show that a threat of kidnapping, bodily harm, or death has been made against the president, or other officials in the line of presidential succession.  Mazza did not cite any such threats, or accuse the man of making any prior to launching his investigation, but did suggest that the man had made threatening posts with some of his 14 Twitter profiles.   He did not claim that those threats were made against the president or vice president.  Despite finding no threats against the president from the man after scouring his social media profiles, the Secret Service requested an extension for its investigation.  The request was granted and, after initially misidentifying the man, they discovered his blog, which also did not contain any threats.  After the man was identified, the Secret Service subpoenaed information on the man, despite having no evidence of criminal activity from him."
"Republicans want to take away your rights. Vote Blue, no matter who!"

MAZE on X = "Last night Biden said:
▪️Inflation was at 9% when he took office. It was at 1.4%
▪️He created over 15 million jobs during his presidency. The majority of those were jobs restarting after the pandemic, not jobs created
That he has never failed in creating jobs. One example, Ford and GM have laid off half the people Biden bragged about putting to work during his 2022 SOTU
A million people died during Covid. 75% of the people in America who died from Covid did so during his presidency, after he campaigned on "shutting down the virus."
Trump told people to inject bleach. That's a lie
Trump has promised to raise the cost of Medicare. That's a lie
65% of Americans think the economy is doing well. That's a lie
GDP didn't fall short of expectations. That's a lie
People have plenty of money to spend to cover the cost of inflation. That's a lie
He didn't believe that Iraq had nuclear weapons. From 1998 until 2002 Biden was the person trying to convince everyone that Saddam had WMDs and either had or was close to having a nuclear weapon
It made sense to go get bin Laden. He was the one person who opposed the mission to get bin Laden
He would stop supplying Israel with weapons after months of promising unwavering, unconditional support for Israel
That has to be a record for lies told during a 10 minute interview. Luckily for Biden the MSM has put its "fact checkers" on sabbatical during his Presidency."

Arynne Wexler on X - "“No one earning less than $400,000 will pay an additional penny in federal taxes—not one penny” - Joe Biden. 63% of new audits last year were taxpayers with income below $200k"

Stormy Daniels admits in court that Trump's $130K was no payoff: Letters - "President Biden gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rep. Nancy Pelosi, former Vice President Al Gore and former Secretary of State John Kerry (“Biden WH in heavy medal,” May 4).  I guess Larry, Moe and Curly couldn’t make it."
"The latest recipients of the Medal of Freedom prove that it has become nothing more than a participation trophy for all of the left’s cronies.  Among the honorees is a Vietnam war draft-dodger, a climate-change scammer and a politician who critics allege got rich on insider trading all while her district suffers.  The medal now has the value of the prize in a cereal box. Leave it to the Democrats to destroy everything good."

Biden says her name - Laken Riley - at the urging of GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene - "It was what the Republicans demanded but never expected.  President Joe Biden said her name: “Laken Riley.”"
Mother of murdered nursing student Laken Riley slams Biden for fumbling her name at State of the Union: 'Pathetic' - "Biden, 81, accidentally referred to the 22-year-old nursing student – who was murdered on the University of Georgia campus two weeks ago – as “Lincoln Riley” during the speech Thursday night.  The president named Riley when pressed by Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-Ga.), who yelled out, “Say her name!” from the audience.  “I know how to say her name,” Biden fired back at the rogue congresswoman."

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