Is last week’s Biden-Trump debate a game-changing moment or not?
Joe Biden at his February 2024 press conference
after Justice Department special counsel Robert Hur
revealed he could not indict Biden of criminal misuse
of classified materials because Biden was “an elder
man with poor memory.”
In my life I have seen three moments in politics that appeared to change everything. In two of those cases, the appearance turned out to be true. In the third, in the end nothing changed, to the sad detriment of our country.
Last week’s debate between president Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump appears to be another such potential game-changing event. The change however will not be whether Joe Biden will be the candidate when the election finally rolls around in November, or whether even if he will win or lose the election.
The change, should it happen, will be much more funadmental. I come at this from the point of view of a historian, so bear with me as I attempt to explain.
Of the previous three game-changing moments, the first was the Watergate hearings in 1973. For months prior to those hearings, Republican politicians from all levels of government fought aggressively and with some success the accusations that president Richard Nixon had been involved in the Watergate break-in and the planning of the “dirty tricks” campaign against George McGovern leading up to the 1972 election.
The Watergate hearings however were a game-changer. It forced the entire Republican party to end its unqualified support of Nixon. The hearings, which were televised live each day and covered extensively by the press, were seen by everyone, and showed without doubt the extensive nature of Nixon’s dirty trick activity. It also illustrated bluntly the amount of duplicity and lying that Nixon and his cohorts were willing to do to defend themselves.
Unlike today, in the 1970s the American public did not tolerate lying by their politicians. Though the hearings ended in late June 1973, and Nixon held on until August 1974 before resigning, it was those hearings that ended his popularity and creditability. It was also those hearings that destroyed the creditability of the Republican Party at that time. Too many of them had backed Nixon blindly before the hearings, and were exposed themselves by those hearings as sycophants and toadies. The result: The Republican Party was wiped-out in the 1974 elections, with the Democrats gaining 53 seats in the House, 4 seats in the Senate, and 4 additional governorships.
The second game-changer occurred during the Iran-Contra affair in 1987 against Ronald Reagan. The accusations in this case were never as obvious or as illegal as those against Nixon, but the Democrats still thought they had another Watergate, this time against Reagan. As they had done in 1973, they put together another committee to hold public hearings, which were then covered extensively by the press.
Oliver North testifying during 1987 Iran-Contra
hearings
That coverage however ended up rebounding back against the Democrats when Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North testified before it on July 9, 1987. His statements and blunt honesty about the entire affair punched a big hole in the scandal’s balloon. And because the press — by the 1980s much more in the bag for the Democrats — had hyped the hearings the public was watching.
After North’s testimony the entire Iran-Contra scandal faded as a political hammer against Reagan and the Republicans. And afterward, neither the Democrats or the press would ever allow another similar hearing to take place with similar coverage. If the Democrats couldn’t control all testimony, they would try to prevent a hearing from even occurring. And if one did occur, the now increasingly partisan media would decide such a hearing didn’t merit wall-to-wall coverage, as before.
The third game-changer — which ended up not changing much — was Bill Clinton’s press conference on January 26, 1998 when he claimed “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” Clinton also insisted harshly he did nothing wrong, that all accusations against him were false, and then ended the conference, refusing to take questions.
From that moment the press, decidedly biased in his favor up until then, suddenly began expressing real doubts about him. His blunt hostility and refusal to take questions came off as arrogant and self-serving and suggested in fact that he was guilty, and had acted badly.
This sudden weakened backing by the press, combined with the public’s own increased doubts about Clinton’s character and behavior, resulted in his eventual impeachment by the House in December 1998. However, unlike the previous two game-changers, this one ended up changing little. Clinton was not convicted, as too many Democrats — both politicians and voters — were willing to excuse his misdeeds in order to hold onto power.
In a sense, the only thing the Clinton event changed was our culture. Beforehand, getting caught doing dishonest and immoral things as well as lying about it would almost always destroy a politician’s career. Afterward, Clinton proved you could behave like a cad, even commit perjury before a grand jury, and the public (and press) would let you get away with it.
Of course, this leniency only applied to Democrats, as we have now seen in the ensuing quarter century.
The response by both the public and the press to Joe Biden’s disastrous debate with Donald Trump last week suggests we are seeing another game-changer. Before that debate the mainstream media — now decidedly nothing more than a propaganda wing of the Democratic Party — did everything it could to convince us that Joe Biden was still sharp as a tack. Watch:
Ladies and gentlemen, let’s revisit this supercut from 12 days ago.
Well done MSM! pic.twitter.com/pSrnmnoVMo
— MAZE (@mazemoore) June 28, 2024
The debate however revealed these fake journalists as the Democratic Party propagandists that they are, and have been since Clinton. Biden was not, as MSNBC hack Joe Scarborough insisted, “better than he has ever been intellectually, analytically.” He was not “the best ever.” He was instead a very old man with seriously declining mental capabilities that made it difficult for him to respond coherently to even the easiest questions or debate points.
Nor was this a surprise if you had been paying attention. Honest reporters, almost all on the right, have reported Biden’s growing mental health problems for years. I myself noted these issues in October 2020, prior to the last election, and said then that Biden was not qualified to be president. As I noted bluntly, after citing numerous examples, “Joe Biden is exhibiting clear symptoms of failing mental health. It is increasingly obvious he really is unaware of what is going on around him, and this condition appears to be worsening at a frightening pace.”
In the days immediately following the debate the leftist mainstream press piled on, calling repeatedly for Joe Biden to drop out of the campaign. This same press, which had spent the last month trying to convince everyone that the evidence of their own eyes was nothing more than “deep fake” manipulations, were now demanding that Biden go.
But it appears Biden will not go. Not only does it appear he and his family are determined to fight it out, the legal problems of replacing him at this point are so daunting as to make any change at the top of the Democrat ticket almost impossible.
But whether Biden sticks it out or gets dumped is not the game-changer to which I refer. The real game-changer is whether ordinary Democrats in the general public, which saw without question Biden’s growing mental incapacity during that debate, will excuse it and still vote Democrat, as they did for Clinton in 1998.
Will the general public finally recognize that the partisan mainstream media has been in the tank for the Democrats for years? Will the general public finally realize that this press has been lying to us repeatedly during that time to prop up this party of corrupt, dishonest, and incompetent hacks?
If the public finally recognizes this plain facts, then nothing Biden or the press will do in the coming few months will change anything. The public will see it for the lies they are, and ignore it. It will vote overwhelming to fire Biden, to an extent so overwhelming that the Democrats themselves will find it pointless or counter-productive to attempt any vote tampering, and even if they do, the vote turnout against Biden will be so high that such tampering won’t work.
If this game-changer does happen, it will signal a major and very positive change for our country. It will mean that the hold the left has had on the general public since Watergate will finally have been broken. It means we can finally begin getting back to holding all politicians, no matter what party they belong to, to standards of some decency and honest.
And if so, this will maybe be the biggest game-changer ever in the past century.
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THE DEBATE: WHY THE BAD CHESS?
“And the only question that has been ruminating in between my ears for a while now is: Why did the Republican party agree to accommodate the Democrat party in having a debate so early in the process and before the conventions when the candidates would be locked in? Why did the Republicans accommodate the Democrat party’s strategic political needs?”
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/the-debate-why-the-bad-chess
PRESIDENTS MUST HAVE IMMUNITY
“A president of the United States who believes that an election was contaminated with corruption, lies and cheating and the peoples will was denied. Which really characterizes any election that the Democrat party machine is involved in must based on his or her sworn fiduciary responsibilities and THEIR Subjective judgement must at least question if not take extreme actions in rectifying it. Note: Trust no politician of any political party.”
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/presidents-must-have-immunity
If the people that were reporting this stuff, and discussing on were honest, the game changer would have appeared months, maybe years ago.
All the talking heads want to ask, “Should Biden be replaced on the ballot”.
They ask this because they are cowards. They are afraid of the real question:
“If Joe Biden is really in this poor condition, who is really running the Executive Branch of the US Government”?
That question is a game changer, and they are avoiding it like the plague.
Great history lesson and analysis.
Few Democrats failed to recognize Biden’s cognitive and physical decline prior to the debate. It was always going to be a vote against Trump. Will some Democrats , women and the college ‘educated’ realize that they have been lied to regarding Trump? Some, a few will, but most will vote for the person that their taskmasters dictate. The few that wake-up will doom the Democratic Party this cycle.
Robert Zimmerman wrote: “Unlike today, in the 1970s the American public did not tolerate lying by their politicians.”
No, it was only the Republicans that did not tolerate lying or corruption by their own politicians. A few years earlier, Ted Kennedy killed a girl, and the Democrats were just fine with that, right down to the Democrat electorate, which always reelected Kennedy for the several decades of the rest of his life. Nixon may not have been above the law, but Kennedy was!
“Will the general public finally recognize that the partisan mainstream media has been in the tank for the Democrats for years?”
I’ve been hearing this for a decade and a half, and the answer has always been, “No.” Hillary Clinton can be declared a multi-felon, then not prosecuted, as though she alone is above the law (Kennedy had passed, by then), and nothing happens. Trump’s house can be raided by armed forces, and nothing happens. Trump can be found guilty on charges that never happened, and still nothing happens.
The Tyranny has been upon us for a decade and a half, yet still nothing happens.
If anything will ever happen, when is it supposed to happen?
We are now 93 hours from that terrible debate, and yet nothing has happened. No groundswell of upset Democrats. No complaints that the media have served them badly. Those who are calling for Biden being replaced as the Democrat Party’s nominee are in the leadership and the media, not among the Democrat voters.
No. The media are still in the tank for the Democrats, in a partisan way calling for a different Democrat nominee. This means that We the People will continue to be poorly served, and we, as a population, will still believe that Democrats can do no wrong and Republicans have done wrong even when they have done right. The press learned well from its fiasco with the Iran-Contra scandal. They cannot keep a phony scandal going if the truth comes out, and they have a hard time defending Democrats if the truth comes out. The defense of Democrats is to hush up scandals (e.g. Obama’s administration was scandal-free), ignore the truth (Hillary wasn’t constantly in the news like Nixon was, despite her multiple worse crimes (and yet she still wasn’t a scandal under Obama)); Biden was not indicted because he is “an elder man with poor memory,” therefore not capable of being President of the U.S.), and to outright lie (Hunter’s laptop was Russian disinformation, and Trump planned, executed, and aided an insurrection — even Biden, during the debate, still insisted this was true).
The game changer cannot happen until the media’s game is changed. They hold the news, they hold the culture (television, radio, sports), and they hold the social media. They are the Democrats’s version of the Soviets’s TASS agency, except on steroids.
As I see it, if Biden remains in the race and I the Democrat nominee, the impact will be a reduced enthusiasm on the part of Democrat voters. They will not switch their votes to Trump., but instead simply not vote at all.
As for the recognition of the extreme bias of the media in favor of the Democrat Party, I am doubtful. If such bias were not already so pervasive, existing in academia, entertainment, etc., there might be hope, but with children being brainwashed from a very young age, truth and objectivity have little chance.
Biden was selected partly and specifically because he was cognitively declining.
He was controllable and easily confused and would only get better as time went on.
They were just hoping he would last long enough for the next election and stay alive for the next term.
Now they do not think he will last and will the VP be just as controllable?
Lord help us if they select another to take his place.
Cotour,
I don’t know who wrote the linked article but I don’t recommend he or she try making a living as a chess critic. The debate looked like excellent chess to me. The new RNC leadership spotted the Dems pretty much everything they wanted and turnip-brained Joe still took a big steaming verbal dump in front of God and everybody.
There certainly are puppet masters pulling the near comatose Biden’s strings – and have been since the get-go in 2020. But if the debate really was some nefarious plot by them to cut loose what has now become an electoral dead weight, the fallout from that will be even more damaging to Dem chances, starting with the fact that even terminally dim Joe isn’t the sort to play nice and go quietly in advance of the actual election. If, as I suspect, Joe won’t go, I would advise Dr. Jill to hire him some food tasters pronto. “Arkancide” of some sort would solve too many problems for too many of Joe’s string-pullers absent any steps taken by someone not trying to get rid of Joe from taking suitable extra precautions.
Nor will any machinations to also replace the even less popular Kamala Harris gain the string-pullers any fans. The only person who could likely do so without epic quantities of metaphorical political blood being shed within the party is Michelle Obama. And all Trump needs to do to neutralize her is to start referring to her as “Lurleen” as soon as the idea is publicly broached.
If Harris won’t go quietly, the Dem’s nominating convention will most likely quickly degenerate into a steel cage death match among Harris and two or three others who fancy replacing her. The “optics” will be godawful.
The puppet master cabal will not realize any of this in advance, of course, because they are the same giant intellects who figured persecuting Trump in numerous show trials was a sure-fire way to both politically cripple him and count coup on him at the same time. We’ve all seen how well that isn’t working out. These people are, unquestionably, ruthless. What they are not is very bright.
They sure seems to be pushing a Jill Biden media blitz.
Col B:
My point is that Biden is not locked in as the candidate, the Republicans have provided the Democrats options. You do not give your opponent’s options. Not if you can help it anyway.
The Republicans by accommodating the Democrat need to test Joe and reveal his weakness or strength have been given the luxury of time in replacing him if they can manage it. And I believe that they can if push comes to shove.
Why do that?
You delay any premature debate that your opponent pushes for, and you shrink the Democrat party’s timeline and lock Biden in.
You agree to a debate after the conventions and the candidates are locked in.
Trump did not need to participate in an early debate, the Democrats needed that.
Does not make strategic sense to me.
I do wonder what Nixon would have found had Watergate been successful… that’s something Woodward and Bernstein never spoke about.
Today’s SCOTUS ruling today I hope ends the cycle of investigations and counter-investigations.
It hasn’t been Republican versus Democrat for a long time. It’s swamp versus patriots.
In 1961 President Eisenhower called it the “military-industrial complex”.
The debate… the recent Supreme Court rulings… moves and countermoves… the swamp is being systematically dismantled.
Apparently our side does have a plan.
https://t.ly/yZs4a
Cotour
July 1, 2024 at 7:01 pm
Col B:
Huh? I’ve made no comments on this thread. Who are you responding to.?
“nothing has happened. No groundswell of upset Democrats. No complaints that the media have served them badly. Those who are calling for Biden being replaced as the Democrat Party’s nominee are in the leadership and the media, not among the Democrat voters.”
I agree, the posts I have seen from Joe and Jane Democrat praise Bidumb, think he has done a wonderful job and see no reason to get rid of him – especially since the alternative to them is the BEELZEBUB INCARNATE, Trump. There may be a heck of fight internally if the leaderships dumps Bidumb, but the sheeple will vote for whoever is put in his place because of their hatred of The Donald
You guys are focused on the wrong demographic. My essay was not talking about the true believers, the hardcore partisan Democrat voters who consider Trump “the devil incarnate.”
I was focusing on the vast majority of voters who don’t pay much attention to this stuff normally and when they do, vaguely, they accept the drivel fed them by mainstream media sources. A very large number of those people however watched the debate, and discovered with their own eyes that the drivel they have been fed is worst that cow manure. You don’t think those voters are going to have a feeling of betrayal? You don’t think those voters might just reconsider their sources of information?
I think there is an excellent chance that a large number will. Witness what happened in France yesterday. The wipe-out of the leftist parties was glorious. And what happened in France is exactly what I am hoping will happen here.
I also do not dismiss the possibility that my general optimism is clouding my judgment. However, I think your pessimism could also be clouding yours.
I think the Dems have painted themselves into a corner, here.
Any attempt to replace Biden on the 2024 ballot that does not include his funeral is effectively a confession that his party perpetrated a swindle upon the American people in 2020. Party leadership had to KNOW that Mr. Biden was not up to the task, but pushed him forward anyway at the expense of, and risk to, the American people … including some of their own faction; i.e the Bernie Bros.
Add to that … is there any policy advocated or implemented by Biden that is substantially different than the policies that any possible replacement in the Democrat party have already advocated? The policies that have fueled inflation and racial strife, including his support of open borders?
Perhaps the people need to question the mental capacity of more than just the party’s standard-bearer, since they were so willing to swindle us regarding his capacity in order to get their way,
Sorry Col. B.
I saw Dick Eagleson and wrote Col. B.?
:)
Still IMO, accommodating and allowing your opposition options and time to become more palatable is, Bad Chess
The presidential race is over ….kind of, but
1 Judge Marchand could hobble Trump in an over-the-top sentencing or curtailment that the press calls “the rule of law”. This of course will enrage Trump supporters (they are dying for us to act out) and may truly backfire – or not.
“The hardest thing to explain is the glaring event no one has decided to see” – Ayn Rand
2 The Democrats may decide to concede the presidential race, giving Joe a respectable amount of support and lip-service while holding their true efforts for congressional races, especially the Senate. The Senate approves the Cabinet and if necessary holds impeachment trials. This could hobble Trump in ways better than his original first two years when many congressional Republicans ( esp RINOs) were questioning in support having believed the Russia Hoax or saw it as a way stay the changes of the outsider Trump.
3. I think that we may see a tremendous push to ram through federal judge appointments in the last few months while Biden still can. These judges can gum up all manner of reform efforts by a Trump return – everything from immigration reform and immigrant return to climate law suits to regulation reform. Judges can stop things – at least temporarily – with a simple stay. These may be ridiculous but they occur and very often have no repercussions.
4. The Democrats may increase their efforts in taking the small local or state elections that few worry about but can make a very big impact – state attorney’s general for example.
Nothing important will change no matter how the election ends up. Half the country will still hate the other half. It is a powder keg waiting for a spark.
Jeff Wright– Watergate
Highly suggest you start with:
America’s Untold Stories
Hunley / Groubert (June, 2024)
“Who was CIA Operative and Watergate Burglar Frank Sturgis?”
https://youtu.be/WP5Lh1YQXac
1:31:33
Hunley & Groubert just started going down the watergate rabbit hole a few months ago. This is one of multiple episodes focusing on the participants.
Depending on one’s perspective:
The CIA intended the Watergate burglars be caught. (various allegiances are in play but essentially (elements of…) the CIA want Nixon destroyed.)
America’s Untold Stories
Hunley / Groubert (May 2024)
“Who Really Is Bob Woodward?”
https://youtu.be/nDvOocYctiI
1:46:57
In Brief:
Woodward is CIA, Berstein was the actual working-reporter who wrote everything, but a hardcore marxist/communist Nixon-hater
Wayne, Woodward was CIA? How could that be?
The question remains, what will the Democrat party and or the CIA do to stop or hamstring Trump as November approaches? And that goes to X’s 10 if he somehow should prevail.
The CIA involved in media, politics and presidential elections and removals of troublesome presidents, how preposterous! Enjoying some of that recreational cannabis in Michigan, Wayne?
And the natural question also follows: What will Trump and his loyalists if they do attain power do to counter the efforts of the esoteric forces within government three letter agencies that will certainly oppose him and them?
51 security experts, Russian disinformation, NIST report, 19 Arabs, the lone gunman, The Warren Commision, swamp gas, moonlight and weather ballons, as a good friend continues to remind me.
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/what-is-really-going-on-strategy-over-morality
“as they did for Clinton in 2000.“
Wasn’t it Gore in 2000? Or did I miss something?
I think the most interesting and important thing that could result from all this is the response we get from the Democrats’ election fraud organization. If Trump is a decided favorite and the Democrats produce even more fraud than they did in 2020 to pull out another “win” in November, what happens?
We could get civil war. Probably should. Because the imposition of Big Brother tyranny that is already nearly finished by the Democrats will certainly be completed with another four years of Democrats in the White House.
The biggest wake up call for conservatives over the last four years has been the realization that the establishment is 100X more corrupt and traitorous than most ever imagined. People kept waiting for the system to address the blatant theft of the election. And it never happened. They won’t wait too long the next time.
It would be helpful if the public were educated on just how corrupt elections have been throughout history. They should know about LBJ’s blatant theft of his senate seat, JFK’s theft in 1960, the relentless fraud all over the country by inner city machines for over a century, the near theft in Fla in 2000 and a thorough explanation of ALL the ways cheating was implemented by the Left in 2020.
And they should know about the Battle of Athens.
Back to the topic at hand, some issues to consider
(editorial comment – Jill Biden is Edith Wilson, and obama continues as the guy-behind-the-curtain.)
Biden controls 95% of all democrat party delegates.
90% of all upscale black-female democrat activists, love Kamala
Under party rules- delegates cannot be assigned to another candidate. Biden must release them and then they can go with anyone they want.
Campaign finance issues- money raised for a specific candidate cannot be given, transferred, or spent on behalf of another candidate.
Ballot access issues-
This gets complicated, cumbersome, and time-limited very fast, depending on State. (Like’ start last year complicated. RFK jr. for example, will be lucky if he’s on the ballot in 10 States.)
-In about 20 States, Biden has already been designated as the presidential candidate on their respective ballot.
If he dropped out for any reason in those States, his name would be withdrawn, and no one else can take that place.
Andi: I should have typed 1998, as I was referring both to the impeachment hearings and the 1998 congressional elections.
For Gary H above, a quote from Barack Obama on what Democrats are supposed to do: “you don’t have to fall in love, you just have to fall in line.”
That quote is not original to him, of course, but it reminded Democrats a decade ago of their responsibilities. Vote party. The candidate matters less than the party. Vote party; the party elders will then figure it all out. Good prolé, good prolé.
This is not unusual; much of Europe votes this way. In some European states it’s explicit: you vote for the party and the party, based on a list, then decides who gets what seats in the parliament based on the votes they received.
This is why the events in France are so marvelous today: for the first time in a long time, a significant number of French voters are switching parties. The French establishment has no idea what hit them and no idea of how to counter.
The sad thing about the French election is that the new leadership wants to appease Putin.
At least that is what I have heard.
From your keyboard to G*d’s monitor.
I’m not optimistic, but a tipping point is coming. This is not that tipping point, but we do seem to be nearing the top of the curve. Anything and everything that creates doubt about the media is a good thing. This certainly does that.
I’m amused by these two comments:
after the conventions and the candidates are locked in.
and
If he dropped out for any reason in those [20] States, his name would be withdrawn, and no one else can take that place.
Since when do the rules apply to Democrats? Ohio has already jumped through hoops because Biden missed various deadlines. If Democrats want Biden replaced after the convention, Biden will be replaced after the convention.
BTW: Something is messing with WordPress and my name. I’m variously markedup, markedup2, Mark, mrsizer, and Mark Sizer.
markedup: 1. Ohio actually jumped through no hoops to accomodate the Democrats. The Democrats were forced to do a virtual vote to confirm Biden as the candidate so that they met with Ohio law. This has been done. He is now their candidate in Ohio.
2. I hadn’t realized you were using different nicknames. Please don’t. Pick one, and use it all the time so that people can have a sense of who they are talking to. I prefer people use their own name, but that’s your choice.
To encapsulate what others have said with more words, when talking about Democrats, “cannot” should always be followed by “(legally)” or “(Constitutionally)”.
Much as I applaud some recent halts or even minor retreats from the brink, I feel that the Marxists are correct; that history bends toward “World Socialism” – more properly identified as global feudalism – and that technology makes it so. I believe that effective, lasting counterrevolution of sufficient scope and scale is structurally impossible. Selfishly, I am glad that I am old, and childless.
OTOH, if some of us can escape this planet, and establish a frontier home where only those with clear, independent minds can flourish, . . . (The libertarian dreamer in me speaks up.)
Robert Zimmerman wrote: “I was focusing on the vast majority of voters who don’t pay much attention to this stuff normally and when they do, vaguely, they accept the drivel fed them by mainstream media sources. A very large number of those people however watched the debate, and discovered with their own eyes that the drivel they have been fed is worst that cow manure. You don’t think those voters are going to have a feeling of betrayal? You don’t think those voters might just reconsider their sources of information?”
That changes everything. For years, everyone was told by the media and the Democrat leadership about the wondrous new suit that tailors made for the emperor to wear, but we were rarely shown it. On occasion, the emperor gave speeches, exposing portions of his suit above the podium, but we were assured that his exposed chest was all part of the new suit and that we should be focusing more on all the gold chains and necklaces that he also wore, like some 1970s gigolo. This story was the original Gaslight story. ‘You didn’t see what you saw.’ And: ‘What you said you saw wasn’t there.’
‘Who are you going to believe? Me, or your lying eyes,?’ Many people believed “Me,” because the alternative would be a requirement to vote for El Diablo, “Literally Hitler” himself.
Now that the emperor has paraded down the street in this beautiful new suit, we all have seen it for what it is. We have also heard the boy, the media itself — the tailors themselves — exclaim: “but, the emperor has no clothes!”
Will the non-partisan part of the population finally admit that they are looking at a naked emperor, and will they laugh at the people who told us all about the wondrous clothing he is supposedly showing off. (Laughing at the emperor might constitute elder abuse, because it is clear that the emperor has no idea he is naked, insisting that he will run for emperor again.)
I suppose it could happen, this time. It is the news media that is running around shouting, “We’re shocked! Shocked to find that gambling is going on in here.” I’m also hearing echos of, “Badges? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need any badges. I don’t have to show you any stinking badges!”
Thus, the populace is having a hard time ignoring the reality, what with the media shouting over and over that Biden should drop out of the race. As reality takes hold in those willing to accept it, will they see the media as pointing out the truth or as having been bamboozled themselves?
So far, it looks like the latter.
Biden supporters are still all in for Biden. Trump supporters are still all in for Trump, and are feeling vindicated. Are the in-between going to acknowledge the reality of the media, or are they going to continue to be gaslit?
Maybe a miracle will occur and a majority will realize that, despite their feigned innocence, the media has been around Biden for five years and were watching him degrade over that time. Even if this miracle occurs, what alternate news sources can they rely upon? How do they find these news sources, now that all the sources appear innocent?
It is 140 hours later. Do we see signs of anger from the population or that people are seeking new news sources?
“Much as I applaud some recent halts or even minor retreats from the brink, I feel that the Marxists are correct; that history bends toward “World Socialism” – more properly identified as global feudalism – and that technology makes it so. ”
The trajectory of any Democracy / Democratic Republic tends to be more and more Liberal until government requires all production and wealth to be confiscated in order that it secures its legacy of power and control.
And that is just the way of the world regarding such things.
And that is what revolution either hot or cold rebalances.
And then it begins all over if the Democratic / Republic model is once again embraced.
And on and on it goes.
Unless of course the dictatorship or Monarchy is embraced, then there is no confusion. So, the Marxists as a general rule are correct.
The game changing moment came this past Saturday:
https://up-ship.com/blog/?p=53237
Where Gerald Ford getting yanked backwards from tiny Squeaky Fromme made him look weak—the Donald just had his Teddy Roosevelt moment that couldn’t have been planned better.
Now why wasn’t law enforcement on all the nearby roofs.
Luck? Or Providence?
Jeff it is being suggested that the details was short handed, and that requests to increase security was denied.
I am sure more info will come out to confirm or deny this info.
The press is making hay of him being a registered Republican (I guess Frum type Never-Trumpers have nuts too)—but that he donated funds to a blue-state type out-fit…who knows!
CNN was the big loser in the debate
https://nypost.com/2024/07/12/media/cnns-primetime-ratings-crater-92-day-after-presidential-debate/
I think the *immediate* juxtaposition of lines like “Cheap Fakes” followed by Biden actually stumbling like a fool caused folks to lose whatever trust they had in mainstream media.
Usually, retractions follow falsehoods up to a week and then only talk-radio jumps on it—but only after the story has cooled and folks moved on to other topics..
Timing is everything.
I see Mr. Z has done due diligence in not posting a blurb on the assassination attempt until more info came in.
Jeff Wright: BtB is not a general news site, it is focused on providing the news related to space and science. When I comment on major cultural or political news, it is very rarely on breaking stories, since few are coming here for that info. Instead, I intend to write a column taking the longer view, as is my habit and approach as an historian.
Just remember however, I predicted assassination as a very real possibility, though I thought it was a greater threat after the election should Trump win. If anything, this attempt now will make later attempts more difficult and unlikely.