Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on special dispensation given Joe Biden by members of Congress, commentators, and the media. We previously discussed the muted media response to false legal comments from President Barack Obama and other Obama officialson the Flynn case. The pattern of media avoidance is more glaring with recent Biden controversies. Notably, the column ran when Biden gave his interview on the radio show “The Breakfast Club” that “if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.” This weekend, I was critical of segments on CNN and NBC’s Meet the Press which quoted Biden but cut off the line where he falsely claimed to have received multiple endorsements from the NAACP. CNN’s John King derisively referred to controversy as something people are “trying to make hay” out of and then played the interview. However, CNN clipped the tape to leave out the next line where Biden declared “The NAACP has endorsed me every time I’ve run. Come on, take a look at my record.” Despite that invitation to look at his record, CNN and other media routinely cut out the false statement and also omitted any discussion of the false claim linked to the NAACP. On a story about Biden’s claim that all black voters must vote for him (or not be truly black), it would seem material that he also falsely claimed endorsements from the leading organization in the African American community. However, it was routinely omitted from the tape and Biden has not been asked to respond to the rebuttal from the NAACP. It is precisely the type of crafting of the coverage to confine damage for Biden that is discussed in the column.
Here is the column:
One columnist declared that former Vice President Joe Biden could boil babies and she would still vote for him. Feminist leaders have said they believe Biden raped a Senate staffer but they still endorse him. Good government advocates have opposed any investigation into prior sexual harassment or corruption claims against Biden. It seems politicians and pundits alike have discovered the glory of the “presidential bull.” In this instance, Biden is akin to a papal indulgence that allows writers, members of Congress and journalists to forgive any sin in a holy crusade to retake Washington.
In the 11th century, Pope Urban II formalized the use of indulgences, which could be purchased to forgive sins. A papal bull of the Crusade accompanied those who fought in the Holy Land and committed atrocities in the name of a higher order. The practice was defended as essentially drawing from the “treasury of merit” created by Jesus Christ, the saints and the faithful.
Now the 2020 election has become the ultimate crusade, and President Trump’s critics seem to be enjoying indulgences in tossing aside moral and ethical considerations. The freedom that is Biden is nowhere more evident than in a recent column by The Nation’s Katha Pollitt, who wrote about the allegations of sexual assault made by former Biden staffer Tara Reade. Pollitt dispensed with any struggle over feminist or moral qualms, declaring, “I would vote for Joe Biden if he boiled babies and ate them.”
As Pollitt explained, “We do not have the luxury of sitting out the election to feel morally pure or send a message about sexual assault and #BelieveWomen.” Otherwise, Pollitt would have to deal with her column during the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, in which she denounced “some of his defenders [who] seem to be saying that even if the allegations are true, it shouldn’t really matter.”
For years, critics have expressed disgust at Trump’s statement that “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and wouldn’t lose any voters.” Yet they now afford Biden the same immunity even if he turns into the ancient god Cronus and starts snacking on boiled babies. The same indulgence has been claimed by politicians and commentators in dealing with other Biden allegations of sexual assault. Many of them demanded during the Kavanaugh controversy that all women must simply be believed when alleging sexual harassment. Those who questioned the allegations of Christine Blasey Ford were denounced for insensitivity, if not complicity, in the abuse of women.
Today, some of us have said that Biden has the stronger case thus far, but we still support an investigation. Yet many Kavanaugh critics quickly declared Biden to be innocent and opposed any search of his records — including those under lock and key at the University of Delaware — for any allegations of sexual abuse.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) simply cut off questions by testily declaring, “I don’t need a lecture” when confronted with her prior statements. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) declared she sees no need for an investigation because she knows Biden and believes him, adding that she resented being asked about it as a victim of sexual assault. She cut off questions from CNN’s Jake Tapper by saying, “And you know what? That’s all I’m going to say about it.”
Others have struggled with an answer until they discovered the presidential bull. Women’s rights attorney Lisa Bloom said she believes Biden did rape a female staffer and has lied about it publicly but she still will endorse him for president. She tweeted, “I believe you, Tara Reade … sorry.” To use Pollitt’s language, defending a rape victim is now a “luxury.” Likewise, Linda Hirshman wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times titled “I Believe Tara Reade. I’m Voting for Joe Biden Anyway.” She explained, “Democratic primary voters knew all about Mr. Biden’s membership in that boys’ club when there was still time to pick someone else. Alas … I’ll take one for the team. I believe Ms. Reade, and I’ll vote for Mr. Biden this fall.”
Then there is commentator Karine Jean Pierre, who declared three years ago that sexual misconduct allegations alone should disqualify candidates from running for office. In December 2017, she told CNN’s Tapper, “I think we’re at a point in time in this country where the ‘Me Too’ movement has really gotten some traction. We’re finally listening to victims … and I think if you’re running for office, you can’t have been accused of sexual harassment or assault.” She just joined Biden’s campaign as a senior adviser this week. The fact is that, without political indulgences, Washington’s thick, sulfuric hypocrisy would choke the life out of the city.
After his work on the atomic bomb, scientist Robert Oppenheimer observed that “the physicists have known sin; and this is a knowledge which they cannot lose.” If commentators have known sin (whether mortal or venial), it is in the abandonment of facts for a true faith. For legal analysts, the cardinal sin is the distortion of the law to fit a cause rather than apply the law to a given case. Many are still twisting the criminal code to come up with new crimes against Trump, regardless of future implications.
Some have said that Trump’s recent tweet about withholding funds from states over the use of mail-in voting is a crime in the making. Former prosecutor Richard Signorelli described the tweet as “the crime of extortion in plain sight” and the basis for a “new impeachment” — no matter that such an extortion charge would be utterly absurd and directly contradict controlling case law.
In the age of echo chamber journalism, legal experts are now selected according to their willingness to consistently declare that Trump or his associates are committing criminal or impeachable offenses. Any such theory, no matter how unhinged or unsupported, finds easy access to the pages of The Washington Post or segments on CNN or MSNBC. Most recently, allegations of prosecutorial abuse or judicial overreach in the Michael Flynn case have been ridiculed.
Some legal analysts have even encouraged the judge in that case, Emmet Sullivan, to take his own liberties with the law and use his courtroom to deliver a blow against Trump. The Los Angeles Times ran a recent column by former United States Attorney Harry Litman advising Sullivan how to “make trouble” for the administration. Litman admitted there is “very little leeway to reject the government’s decisions to dismiss charges” but encouraged Sullivan to “accomplish what Congress, multiple inspectors general, and a majority of the electorate have not been able to do — hold the president and his allies accountable for their contemptuous disregard for the rule of law.”
The liberating element of a presidential bull is that it relieves the bearer from justifying the means to the ends of a crusade. All sins are forgiven for that higher purpose. The defeat of Trump is that higher purpose: You can expressly support someone you believe to be a rapist. You can distort the criminal code or encourage raw forms of judicial activism. With the presidential bull, Biden will simply declare, “Ego te absolvo” — “I absolve you” — on Jan. 20, 2021, and all will be forgiven and forgotten.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. You can find his updates online @JonathanTurley.
In response to McCardle (since the “reply” feature isn’t working for me. Trump cheated his way into the White House. Most Americans: 1. did not vote for him; 2. have never approved of him (which is historic–he has never captured even a 50% approval) and 3. want him gone.
Trump lies more than any other politician in history, and it is important to put into context some of his lies, just about the pandemic and consider the import of such lies when uttered by the President: “it’s just one person coming from China” (actually, most US cases came from a European; Trumpy Bear’s travel ban did nothing to slow or stop the spread, because 40,000 people came from China even after the ban, which was not used to ban Europeans who had visited China), “15 cases will soon be 0 cases”; “we’ll have a vaccine ‘very quickly'”; “this will magically disappear in April”; “hydroxychloroquine is a ‘game changer'”; “what do you have to lose”?” “I inherited a mess”; “who could have predicted this?”(actually, the WHO and CDC warned Trump, who ignored the warnings).
If handling a pandemic is the job of the 50 governors, then why do we have a CDC? Is each governor supposed to send a representative to the WHO to keep up on morbidity and mortality of contagious diseases and plan accordingly? How about vaccine development–is it the responsibility of each governor to obtain virus samples, hire a vaccine manufacturer to culture the virus, extract it, put it into an injectable form and conduct testing? Can a governor order people arriving from outside the US into quarantine or block flights altogether? Nope. Claiming that it is the responsibility of each governor to handle a pandemic, instead of the POTUS, is a Fox News talking point. A pandemic requires a national response. One was put together first by the Bush Administration, and then the Obama administration, and Trump ignored it. He has since tried to bluff and lie his way out of his failures of leadership. Enacting a quarantine a mere 2 weeks earlier would have saved 85% of the lives that were lost.
Trump told many lies during the SOTU, especially taking credit for the economy. Job growth was higher under Obama. The economy grew more under JFK, Obama and Jimmy Carter. Real wages, adjusted for inflation, rose more lowly under Trump. The GDP was the same as under Obama, not better. The recovery started under Obama flattened under Trump even before he put us into the recession/depression we are in now. Trump did not create the most-successful economy in history.
The finger-rape accusation is nearly 30 years old. Why doesn’t the accuser have a copy of the complaint she filed? Why is there no record of it? Why doesn’t Biden have a reputation for this kind of conduct? Why has her story changed over the years? Why don’t those she claims to have reported this to recall it? Why did she claim, for decades, that she was fired for refusing to serve liquor at a fund raiser, instead of now changing her story that it was in retaliation for filing the complaint that appears not to exist?
You are a true-red Trumpster, immune to facts. America did not elect Trump, doesn’t like him and wants him gone.
Natacha – Queen of the Gish Gallop. Hillary Clinton and the DNC paid for a fake dossier to frame DJT. Most Americans did not 1. vote for her; 2. have never approved of her and 3. want her gone (even from her own party. Goodness, that was DJT’s opponent.
538
🚗
“Barack Obama in the Obamagate’ narrative”
“The evidence connecting President Obama to the Flynn operation is getting stronger,” one investigator with direct knowledge told me. “The bureau knew it did not have evidence to justify that Flynn was either a criminal or counterintelligence threat and should have shut the case down. But the perception that Obama and his team would not be happy with that outcome may have driven the FBI to keep the probe open without justification and to pivot to an interview that left some agents worried involved entrapment or a perjury trap.”
https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/fbi-documents-put-barack-obama-obamagate-narrative
Another recent Trump-Tweet about the JS garbage
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
The opening of a Cold Case against Psycho Joe Scarborough was not a Donald Trump original thought, this has been going on for years, long before I joined the chorus. In 2016 when Joe & his wacky future ex-wife, Mika, would endlessly interview me, I would always be thinking….
8:19 AM · May 26, 2020·Twitter for iPhone
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1265271275007721472
#MrBigMouth
#Psychological Issues
#NotPresidential
More of Turley trying to normalize the election cheater who does not belong in the White House. Here’s a clue, Turley: it’s not so much that Biden can’t do anything wrong. He is called out when he does. But there is so much proof that Trump is so outrageously unfit for the office he cheated to get that Trumpsters like you are trying to say that press coverage is biased. Not the case. All of the pettiness, name-calling, insults, conspiracy theories, arrogance and other personal faults are bad enough, but then you have the pattern of constant lying, about everything, and the child-like need for gratification in the form of praise and attention.
We are in the midst of the worst pandemic in over 100 years that was badly mishandled. Trump tried to bluff his way out of this crisis, then he downplayed it, lied about a vaccine, lied about testing, and pushed for an unproven drug that actually causes harm. Now, he’s encouraging people to violate guidelines put out by his own CDC, that he tries to muzzle and control, and which will lead to even more deaths and illness. Then, there’s the imprisoning of people for seeking asylum the racism, misogyny, insulting John McCain and the Khan families who served this country when he lied his way out of service, and his absolute decimation of the booming economy he inherited from Barak Obama. These topics of discussion are timely, and by putting the facts out there, which admittedly make Trump look bad, he is not being attacked by media and such coverage is not unfair or biased. In fact, when someone tries to hold him to account, he or she (mostly she) gets called names like “terrible reporter” and “rude”.
Trump doesn’t belong in our White House. America, as a nation, is better than Trump. His supporters are mostly motivate by feelings of racial resentment and misogyny against the accomplishments of college-educated people, especially woman. When Trump behaves like the petty ignoramus he really is, he isn’t punching back–he is displaying his mental illness, neediness and proof of his unfitness for office.
i smell a fart. Did she open her mouth?
You must be smelling your own foul scentl. Go away, please.
Sorry Natacha everything Turley said is accurate and correct. Maybe try being a little more objective. Try it. It actually feels good. Regardless of your political leanings if you can’t see the media trying to drag Biden over the finish line you are either blind or beyond biased.
If Biden was a Republican he would’ve been crushed by the media years ago and they would still be crushing him today. He’s incredibly flawed and is a gaffe machine. He’s a Democrat and is treated much different. Sorry those are the facts.
The article showed how Biden has not been called out, that his quotes are edited in his favor, etc. (Trump’s quotes are edited against him by the MSM.)
That’s quite a lot to process there. You start with Biden’s being “called out” when he screws up (or, say, allegedly finger-rapes a staffer), then move to Trump’s unfitness for office and personal foibles that are apparently his sole disqualification in your mind, since you don’t produce any actually disqualifying material; next you’re off to the races about all the things Trump has “lied” about, easily disregarding all the things every politician “lies” about.
Then it’s the pandemic in your sights and Trump’s “mishandling” of it, despite the fact that Trump was ahead of every governor and every Democrat on Congress in his response, and that he then behaved appropriately as the president of a federal republic and acknowledged the absolute right of each state to manage itself, while continuing to provide robust federal support. Look to your own governor if you’re unhappy with pandemic management.
Where’d you go next? Why, briefly to the wild claim that he inherited a “booming” economy from Obama, with a quick segue into how the press isn’t biased and is only doing its job when it reports on all his myriad failings (it’s true that it’s their job to report on his failings. It’s also their job to report on his successes, which it does with great reluctance when forced, and then only by presenting them as failings. It’s also their job to report on Democrats’ failings, which it only does under duress, and then only by trying to excuse them – see for instance said finger-rape, which I knew about for nearly a month before ANY mainstream press outlet began covering it, and which was then “reported on” by instantly dismissing the accuser’s claim and attacking her character). Then a complaint about Trump calling reporters “terrible.”
By now you’ve really hit your stride and turn your attention to Trump supporters, a subject about which you clearly know nothing, but you’ll never have to buy yourself a drink if you go into the right bar and call them deplorable, now, will you?
Everything you packed in to your comment won’t stick. Some of it might, and we might end up with an ACTUALLY racist, do-nothing, possibly mentally declining man with a decades-long record of personally enriching governmental corruption as president (meaning, that is, a New American Politburo, since he certainly won’t be where the buck stops). I myself will be casting my vote for Trump to try to forestall that disaster.
Your pretend moral high ground is make believe. In reality you’re refusing to accept the results of the election. We voted. You lost. Get over it. The peaceful transition of power is sacred, and you and other garbage people like you are violating our sacred traditions. Your ends justify the means garbage is not American and we’re not going to put up with it. Your ideas are terrible. If you want people to vote for your candidate you need something besides orange man bad. That’s not a policy that’s a tantrum.
This is the kind of answer given by abusive husbands who defend their brutality by blaming their wives fir @Making me do it”.
Because it’s the only choice since he’ll never measure up to the Constitutional Standards required to be ‘right.’
The same thing happened from the time Obama won his first primary until today. It is one of the reasons we have Trump. It is one of the reasons why we have Obamagate and nobody cares. Ask Ben Rhodes. The media is the Dems echo chamber.
‘Whatever’ is my new go- to word when reading some of the comments on here. The professor’s article posted could just as well have appeared on Hannity’s show on Fox News or Rush Limbaugh’s , the much decorated ‘patriot”s show. So, pardon me for saying: “Whatever, Professor”.
On another note, a recent article by a US Naval War professor is a pretty good read as to the “manliness” of the current President. It’s a fun read for those not out at the beach breaking distancing rules. today: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/donald-trump-the-most-unmanly-president/612031/
Really? “Manliness” is what you’re going for now? I would’ve thought that strictly defining manliness would be a no-no. (I understand that that op-ed to which you refer makes the argument that Trump isn’t manly enough by the standards of his own supporters. You may be surprised to learn that Trump supporters don’t care what Trump detractors think is manly, because they support him for better reasons than whether he has, say, soft hands.)
How about addressing the substance of Turley’s column?
Elsie:
” It’s a fun read for those not out at the beach breaking distancing rules.”
************************
Like our Royal Governor Blackface does even as he mandates those tyrannies for we commoners. On an employment note for you, I hear there’s job openings for serfs. Get your resume together!
I would vote for Biden even if he paid Russian hookers to piss in a bed Obama had once slept in.
I’d vote for him if he raped a gossip columnist in a department store dressing room.
I’d vote for him if he ripped off a bunch of gullible future real estate investors with his Biden University course and was forced to pay a 25 milly settlement over it.
I’d vote for him if he shook down a foreign goverment into illegaly helping in his reelection campaign…and was imipeached for it…
I’d vote for him because the ogange man is weak. Inept. Incompetent. Corrupt. Biden can do no wrong because he’s not Trump.
Hellvis:
Well then you’re a principleless lout who doesn’t know many facts but does know every Leftist talking point. In short, a Dimocrat
Nah, I just hate incompetence, ineptitude and corruption.
Hellvis, if you hate incompetence so much you may want to up your proofreading game: “*ogange* man”? I read your post and am sadly reminded: “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”
“.. incompetence, ineptitude and corruption.”
*******************************
Yeah Trump really sucks on the economy, foreign affairs, military preparedness, border security and judicial nominations.
Trump kept the Obama economy going, but only after a $1 trillion deficit tax cut for a 1 year sugar high. GDP was the same as Obama’s last 3 years for Trump’s 1st 3 years and his employment gains slightly worse. Have you looked lately?
Military preparedness – yes, we spent too much again and Congress loved it with the appropriations.
Border security – the number of illegal immigrants in the US has declined steadily since 2008 and continues in that trend.
Judicial nominations – yeah, must be hard picking from a Federalist Society list
Success on every front.
Staggering unemployment. America writes itself as world leader. Trump regularly taken to the woodshed by the Chinese and Russians. Winning.
Sure and the unemployment has nothing to do with the Wuhan “Plague.”
The US’s covid 19 death rates and now collapsing employment numbers were effected by Trump ignoring the threat for 2 months and then his half baked, on again-off again response since.
Here’s your great leader j…g o… in public.
https://twitter.com/funder/status/1258742453441617920
i understand that you believe it’s trump’s fault that either:
a) a coronovirus of statistically unlikely infectious properties would quickly jump from bats to pangolins to people and then infect the world with a pandemic
or maybe
b) the Chicom frankenstein epidemiologists were fiddling with the DNA of coronavirus in gain of function experiments that accidentally leaked
or maybe
c) Chicom frankenstein epidemiologists were fiddlign with the dna of rona in gain of function experiments that were actually dual purpose weapons research which leaked not accidentally but on purpose
but what ever its genesis–
then when China got sick, lied about it for months, hoarded PPEs, then the world got sick, and went the wrong direction in part because they trusted lying Chicom epidemiologists
but that’s Trump’s fault and everything flowing from it, the way American Democrat talkers reckon it. Chicoms have no responsibility the way they parse these things
https://www.amazon.com/Unrestricted-Warfare-Chinas-Destroy-America-ebook/dp/B074V69MWM
bookishly:
Yeah he ignored it so much that he banned travel from China in January while the lunatic WHO was saying “nothing to see here.” History is an issue for you, isn’t it?
Kurtz, don’t be sloppy. I didn’t accuse Trump of creating the virus. It is a fact he j…d o.f about it after being warned by his own advisors that the Chinese were hiding it’s severity and it would be a MFer. That was in January.. Here’s his repsonse:
https://twitter.com/funder/status/1258742453441617920
Yeah, blocked certain travel from China, then, his work done, he did nothing else and promised it would disappear. Here you go:
https://twitter.com/funder/status/1258742453441617920
book:
Well he was obviously following the party line from you Leftists (WHO, Pelosi, Cuomo et als.) to ignore the warnings. His only foible was believing known liars like these two:
“Pelosi, Feb. 24: Precautions have been taken by our city. We know that there is concern surrounding tourism, traveling all throughout the world, but we think it’s very safe to be in Chinatown and hope that others will come. It’s lovely here. The food is delicious, the shops are prospering, the parade was great. Walking tours continue. Please come and visit and enjoy Chinatown.” ~FactCheck
“Excuse our arrogance as New Yorkers — I speak for the mayor also on this one — we think we have the best health care system on the planet right here in New York,” Mr. Cuomo said on March 2. “So, when you’re saying, what happened in other countries versus what happened here, we don’t even think it’s going to be as bad as it was in other countries.” ~NYT (3/5/2020)
Trump’s leadership has been imperfect. In retrospect he should not have trusted Xi’s lying statements. And he should have banned travel from Europe. Perhaps there have been other mistakes.
But, it was a “kobayashi maru” moment for him as a leader. For those who are too young, this refers to a “star wars” academy simulation which “could not be won.” Ie, it was a matter of people dying one way or another, regardless.
Prospectively weighing expert advice from health officials predicting people would die from direct efffects, versus economic advice predicting that people would die, from indirect effects; was and still is no easy task
The COVID-19 disease is serious, dangerous, and public health measures must be taken. The degree of those restrictions is however going to come down to brass tacks as decided by governors due to the American system of federalism, which is constitutional, and Trump did not invent.
Our system allows for experimentation among the states. In Michigan for example, the idiotic Democrat governor Whitman, who supposedly was allowing agricultural workers to keep on working during the lock down, except that a lot of agricultural workers were actually not allowed to keep working. And many fields lie fallow after the spring planting should have occurred.
https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/what_is_the_best_time_to_plant_corn_in_michigan
Final plant day is about June 5. That’s ten days away. Michigan is in an economic disaster. it’s hard to blame Trump for this but you will try.
Mr. K:
“Trump’s leadership has been imperfect.”
************************
That’s got universal application.
sorry i meant to say star trek
No Kurtz, “imperfect” does not cover ignoring it, wishing it away, lying about it, and continuing to do the same today. “Imperfect” might describe not taking command when you are the only one in the solar system to have the power he has to actually lead a response, but “complete abdication of responsibility” and sabotage” better describes insisting that Governors are the ones to bear this responsibility and then undercutting them when they try to implement WH guidelines, or their own.
” Complete f….g disaster” probably sums it up best as the country has an infant in charge when the average adult human with a conscience might have been enough.
Watch this through the end and tell me it’s “imperfect”.
https://twitter.com/funder/status/1258742453441617920
book:
It’s a state issue numbbook! Not a federal one as you try so mightily to make it one. We’ve given you the SCOTUS opinion already. Try reading something besides Das Kapital.
book obviously doesn’t get the point about governors and federalism. then again you didn’t get the point the last time we talked about federalism either and you were arguing a black letter law point with username Young
federalism means that
a) the general police powers of the crown devolved upon states. that means, in all three branches: courts of original general jurisdiction not specific jurisdiction; general legislative powers including morals and health; and thirdly, the emergency powers of declaration held by governors
b) the federal government in all branches is a government of enumerated specific powers. limited powers. not unlimited. if there is any aspect of unlimited declaratory powers to be found in American govenrment, it is in the hands of state governors
this is black letter law we learned in law school. it still applies
to be sure the central federal government of the united states is very more powerful than it was in 1789 but it is still limited including by the tenth amendment which you can take a look see at for extra credit.
The PDA gives the President the power to marshal private businesses in the service of national defense and he has the FDA, CDC, FEMA, the military, and numerous other agencies available to help states and municipalities in times of emergencies. He als has the bully pulpit to marshal all citizens of good will toward the common goal he should help define and design.
He has done none of this and no one else has access to those resources and powers. He’s a failure who has now cost lives, jobs, and wealth.
Watch it and puke:
https://twitter.com/funder/status/1258742453441617920
“He has done none of this ”
That is another lie brought to us by Anon.
Kurtz, this isn’t some test case for federalism. It’s a GD disaster costing lives by the tens of thousands, jobs by the millions, and wealth in yet to be determined amounts. Your little “law school” BS isn’t working and for the reasons enumerated so many times by governors, you’d have to be an idiot to not understand. Your guy is a colossal failure, not the native genius you thought, and for reasons most Americans saw through from the beginning and that includes down to teenagers. Embarrassing for you to think he was even a serious person, let alone fit to lead anything but a Brooklyn fan club for The Apprentice.
federalism is the organic law of the nation
can’t change the law just because you say so, sorry
US has had epidemics before. viruses dont respect laws but they don’t write them either. sad situation, best not to over react. you’re overheated like so many Democrats keen on exploiting this epidemic clearly have become.
quit milking it. either we’re in it together or we’re not. clearly, we aren’t. you guys would leverage anything to win.
I’m an early advocate of social distancing, shutdowns, masks, you name it. but i can see now, that there isn’t any degree of economic harm that you guys don’t want to see happen– because you are monomaniacally obsessed with getting rid of Trump and you think the economic pain will automatically translate into a win for demented old joe.
very transparent and very sad turn for the US as a nation that it is not only afflicted by the COVID disease but so much blatant political opportunism
“federalism” is not a law, it’s your excuse for a failing response to a national and international disaster.
Keep your stupid comments to what I said, which did not include any wishes to go broke or die so Trump might lose. FY
Trump rode Obama’s recovery by leaning on the Fed not to raise interest rates. And then watched that recovery take a dive by his own hand. He *does* suck at the economy. His ineptitude played a large part in causing a depression.
Military preparedness and border security afre unchanged other than the warehousing of minors.
I’ll give you the judicial nominations. It’ll go down as one of the greatest gignaps of the Trump/McConnell era. It’s brought staggering incompetence into the judicial system…but it was indeed a successful coup.
So Trump inepted his way right into the White House. Gosh, I wish Romney had been more inept – just so after he’s been elected, I could hear what you had to say HE had done wrong.
Well fire forges iron and destroys impurities. Trump and his singular brand of nationalist populism is the fire the Left cannot fathom or tolerate. They will either get stronger or disintegrate. Given the instances of self-immolation JT chronicles, it’s a better than even bet it is the latter. You know, the Bible stories I read as a child were full of allegories. My favorite was the story of Cities of The Plain, Sodom and Gammorah, that were delivered divine judgment of fire and brimstone for utterly refusing to turn away from depravity. The hero of the tale is Lot who, being unable to find ten other virtuous people, is forced to flee and save his family while his city burns. He then starts a new community of virtue by some rather interesting maneuvers after his wife is turned to salt when she too refuses to obey the edicts of the avenging angels. I wonder if Lot had orange hair?
A friend of mine named his dog Lot.
interesting maneuvers all right. lot got into the bottle and voila you know the story
that OT is full of funny stuff
You betcha!
Paul, the Republican Party went with Trump very reluctantly. Your description is quit accurate.
Zucker, the head of CNN has a “personal vendetta” against Trump so what pbinca says is true: “These media execs simply cannot help themselves, veering far out of their lane”. The cure for the media is as pbinca says is to “discipline the political media back into a constructive role as neutrals.” Paint Chips doesn’t understand that we need honest news. Paint Chips likes to be fed spin and lies.
https://www.projectveritas.com/news/exposecnnpart1/ is one of the videos that reveals the dishonesty of the media and media execs. Paint Chips doesn’t want news. He is looking for someone to spin the truth for him. Paint Chips is too lazy to do it himself.
” CNN Insider Blows Whistle, Secretly Records Staff, Execs and Network President Jeff Zucker’s “Anti-Trump Crusade” and “Personal Vendetta” Against POTUS.”
Biden’s journalistic clones (acolytes) have rubber/wax noses that continually twist and shape progressive narratives. Lots-a Democrat nose twisting go-in these days re Biden’s bear hugs & his run for POTUS! jb
“The thirteenth rule of radical tactics: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”
“Men will act when they are convinced their cause is 100 percent on the side of the angels and that the opposition are 100 percent on the side of the devil.”
“The most effective means are whatever will achieve the desired results.”
— Saul Alinsky
From history, we know that one of the most effective means is control of the media.
A free and fair press is one where facts, news and issues are presented dispassionately and both sides of the argument are presented without favor. The reader reigns supreme.
As political power concentrates and consolidates, the media tends to undergo the following (d)evolution in stages:
Bias – Subtle at first (NYT >30 years ago?) but much more pronounced in later stages as the reader is more and more encouraged (through selective information skewing) to embrace a certain viewpoint as a “logical” outcome of what is presented By 2016, it was clear we were in latter stages of bias.
Narration – Facts and information are increasingly presented (in latter stages, almost exclusively) in support of a given and chosen narrative–narrative becomes synonymous with news. Media actively engages in counter-narrative to discredit facts and/or information that don’t support the given narrative.
Suppression – Beyond counter-narrative, the media simply suppresses (or severely downplays) facts and/or information that are deemed “detrimental” to a given narrative. Counter perspectives are actively discouraged and even ridiculed in later stages. Us versus them. There’s “nothing to see here” and “it happens all the time”.
Distortion – The reader is now increasingly encompassed with an almost singular and insular view of the world. More and more, there is only one “acceptable” viewpoint. Gaslighting and similar techniques start to become more commonplace. The end clearly justifies the means and facts, information and principles become secondary to ideological outcomes. Factual hypocrisy increasingly justified as “this is different” or “for the greater good”.
Dominance – Ostracization and other socio-political consequences for not embracing the “acceptable” viewpoint. Near complete polarization of issues. What was previously narrative is now accepted as fact. Extreme groupthink. Programming. Reader is actively conditioned what to think. Pravda.
No matter where you think we are on the above, one thing is abundantly clear: the trend is beyond worrisome and the stakes for our democracy couldn’t be higher.
100 percent correct!
O for a press that actually wants to be free! But I’m afraid you’re right: we are too far down the path to Pravda.
THIS is CNN: Don Lemon thought Malaysian Flight 370 may have vanished into a black hole. A CNN infobabe reported on geological activity detected on Mars and suggested it may have been caused by Global Warming on Earth. Nothing from CNN should be used for anything but background noise in the monkey cages at the zoo.
The WaPo, NYT, MSNBC and CNN are asking to “lose” the 2020 election in similar fashion to 2016. These media execs simply cannot help themselves, veering far out of their lane — daring the electorate to slap them back into place with a stinging defeat of their chosen candidate. One of the great unfinished tasks of the nation is to discipline the political media back into a constructive role as neutrals. I say, let the public once again crack the whip.
Yeah, pbinca, we need a ‘crackdown’ on the press.
No comment you have made so far stands out as sane or rational.
Actually, one thing we need is for Earl Warren’s little bouquet to the media – New York Times v. Sullivan – to go away. Britain’s tabloid press is more reliable and reportorial than The New York Times because they live under the threat of British libel law. Another thing from which we’d benefit would be Anti-trust actions to break up certain tech companies. A third thing would be revisions to federal law which would compel tech platforms to choose their role – publisher (and thus subject to defamation law) or common carrier (which means the ‘trust and safety council’ and millennial censors go away. They’re allowed both right now and they should not be. Another thing that state legislators could do is close the j-schools on state campuses. Another thing would revisions to statutory law which would allow opposing counsel to compel journalists in depositions and hearings to reveal the names of their anonymous sources, under pain of jailing for civil contempt. (Most of these sources, one might wager, are non-existent at this time).
The problem is that the media have privileges no one else does. Time to strip them of those privileges.