No one would think of the Beltway as being a place of the naive innocents of our society. Washington is the only ecosystem composed entirely of apex predators. Yet, this week everyone seems to be eternally shocked by what has been obvious for years.
The press and pundits are coming off an embarrassing couple of weeks where the Hunter Biden laptop was authenticated in federal court as real. This occurred in the trial of the president’s son almost on the anniversary of a debunked letter of intelligence officials claiming that the laptop appeared to be Russian disinformation. Biden then repeated the claim in the last presidential debates to avoid answering questions over the massive influence peddling scheme of this family revealed by the laptop.
After the story was suppressed before the 2020 election, it took years for the media to admit that, oops, the laptop is surprisingly real.
For years, the press and pundits piled on experts who suggested that Covid 19 escaped from a Chinese lab. The New York Times reporter covering the area called it “racist” and implausible. Now, even W.H.O. accepts the lab theory as possible and federal agencies now believe it is the most likely explanation.
The response: surprise and spin.
This week, the Supreme Court ruled that the Justice Department has unlawfully charged hundreds of people with obstruction of an official proceeding after the January 6th riot. For years, objections to the excessive treatment of these cases were dismissed as the view of the radical right. Now, even Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson voted to toss out these convictions.
Surprise.
Whether it was the false story about agents whipping migrants in Texas or the photo op claim in Lafayette Park, false stories were disproven only to have a collective shrug from those who spread them.
For years, the press and pundits have repeated like gospel that Trump had called neo-Nazis “fine people.” At the time, most of us noted that Trump condemned the racists and neo-Nazis and made the statement about fine people on both sides of the controversy over the removal of historic statues.
Six years later, Snopes finally decided to do a fact check and, surprise, found that Trump never praised neo-Nazis as fine people. The only person not surprised was Biden who repeated the false story on Friday as true.
Heading into the presidential debate, the White House and the media attacked Fox News and other outlets for “cheap fake” videos designed to make the President look confused and feeble. For months, politicians and pundits have insisted that Biden is sharp and commanding in conversations even after Special Counsel Robert Hur cited his decline as a reason for not charging him criminally for the unlawful retention and mishandling of classified material.
On MSNBC, Joe Scarborough stated “start your tape right now because I’m about to tell you the truth. And F— you if you can’t handle the truth. This version of Biden intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever. Not a close second. And I have known him for years…If it weren’t the truth I wouldn’t say it.”
Then the presidential debate happened and, after years of being protected by staff, tens of millions of people watched the president struggle to stay focused and responsive.
After the debate, there was total surprise, if not shock, on CNN and MSNBC. Suddenly, it is not a cheap fake but reality.
Just seven days before the debate, the New York Times was running cheap fake articles on how Biden was being wrongly portrayed. The day after the debate, it was calling for him to withdraw from the race after expressing shock at his appearance.
On CNN, Biden biographer and CNN contributor Evan Osnos admitted that many Americans were likely “shocked” by Biden’s appearance: “I don’t think there’s any other way to put it. This was clearly a person who was diminished from where he was on the debate stage four years ago.”
Pro-Biden columnist Thomas Friedman wrote that he was floored by what he saw and that “heartbreaking” appearance of Biden made him “weep.”
Washington is now full of surprises. It is a city of people who display that practiced faux shock that you adopt when you learn in advance that your friends are throwing a surprise party. The key is to look stunned and then mingle.
It is a city of Claude Rains:
The laptop is real, the President is really old, and Washington is really really phony.
The only thing that would be more surprising is if pundits and the press started being a lot less shocked and more honest.
“The Art of Being Eternally Shocked: How the Press and Pundits are Again Mystified by the Obvious”
– Professor Turley
_____________________
MYSTIFIED BY THE OBVIOUS
The obvious and greatest eternal shock in American history: “Secession is Unconstitutional.”
That fallacy gave rise to “Crazy Abe” Lincoln’s wholly unconstitutional “Reign of Terror” and revolution to bring about Karl Marx’s “RECONSTRUCTION OF A SOCIAL WORLD.” Look around at communist America; you can’t disagree with that. Central planning, control of the means of production (i.e. unconstitutional regulation), redistribution of wealth, and social engineering are ubiquitous as communists take and give “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” Lincoln and Marx succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. The American thesis of Freedom and Self-Reliance persisted for a mere 71 years. Lincoln threw the baby out with the bathwater—the Constitution out with reprehensible slavery. Deplorable slavery was “withering on the vine,” southern states would have failed and reunited, and, per existing immigration law, the long-suffering abductees would have been compassionately repatriated and safely returned home for their own benefit, which is the fundamental desire of all kidnapping victims. America, once the “Home of the Brave and Land of the Free,” was “fundamentally transformed” into a communist “melting pot” of compulsory political emulsifiers (unconstitutional welfare, affirmative action, quotas, public housing, forced busing, unfair “fair housing” laws, discriminatory “non-discrimination” laws, Obamacare, etc.) designed to forcibly effect the “impossible mixture of water and oil” by the “dictatorship of the proletariat.”
In a society of laws, the laws must be strictly adhered to. They were not. After 50 years, Roe v. Wade was retroactively corrected. After 150 years, the Lincoln Debacle must be similarly retroactively corrected. America must be repealed back to its Constitution and Bill of Rights, to include maximal freedom for individuals with a severely limited and restricted, minimalist government.
________________
THANKS AND CONGRATULATIONS, ABE!
“Sir”:
“We congratulate the American people upon your [fixed] re-election by a large majority.”
“They consider…that it fell to the lot of Abraham Lincoln…to lead his country through the…RECONSTRUCTION OF A SOCIAL WORLD” [B].
– Karl Marx Letter to Abraham Lincoln, 1865
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/iwma/documents/1864/lincoln-letter.htm
Re The First Epistle of 51 Spies Who Lie: https://judiciary.house.gov/media/in-the-news/spies-who-lie-leader-cosigners-were-cia-payroll-when-they-falsely-claimed-hunter.
They cleverly wrote that emails in the laptop “ha[ve] all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation,” they have no evidence, but are “suspicious.” They never claimed that, in fact, the emails were such an operation and they could prove it. Lead signatory was James Clapper, who commented more than once on Russian genetics, including on Chuck Todd’s Meet The Press; Todd said nothing in response, but doubtless would have exploded if someone said, a la President Trump, “Chinese virus” or “Chinese lab.” But, the Epistle was sufficient to get Rachel Maddow screeching and shrieking as usual (presumed, as I cannot look at her), along with her MSNBC and CNN pals. Worse, media coverage of the letter, with its Duck Theory strategy, doubtless influenced a lot of Joe Schmow voters.
On a lighter note, love the Casablanca clip! Classic scene from a classic film.
Good vs Evil. Republicans aren’t even half as bad as the Dem’s. And they have now been outed by 1 of their own – J Biden. For instance law fare against Trump, and others, like Steve Bannon, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and hundreds of Jan 6 defendants, and many more as SCOTUS ruled on the DOJ use of the Enron law (I think it was) against Jan 6 defendants case calling it a gross overuse of a law that was never intended to be used like that. If this doesn’t show you how evil the Dem’s are, could you also be suffering from dementia? Or is it your RAGE? And you got caught.
Trump takes lead over Biden in New Jersey in new poll
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/polling/trump-takes-lead-over-biden-new-jersey-recent-coefficient-poll
Holy Schnikes! Look at that! NJ is as deep blue as they come, and the referenced poll was taken on June 26 & 27, presumably BEFORE Biden defined a new bottom for debate performances. Admittedly, the polling outfit is new and inexperienced, and could plausibly have made some errors, but for it even to have been close at that point is truly astounding to this NJ native. If Trump was truly competitive (no need to even consider “ahead”) in NJ prior to Biden’s debate failure, the fat lady is already singing at the top of her lungs.
You are ripe for a rude awakening.
“MICHELLE OBAMA 2024”
Will Larry Sinclair play deep throat in Obama’s Trumpgate version of Watergate? That would really crack me up and suck at the same time!
I am not sure about the first part but the day after comment is right on! What is going on that he looked good the day after! Something is amiss and nothing would surprise most people about the Dems. The arrogance of Biden to want another 4 years! It is not ‘love of country’ but love of power, privilege and hiding from prosecution!
JOnathan Turley has clearly never been to the Munch Museum is Oslo Norway to see “The Scream”. If he had done so he wsould never have used it to illustration anything so trivial as this post.
For Edvard Munch was stark crazy, seriously so, unlike the actors within the Beltway.
Evidently, you do not consider sociopaths to be crazy.
I think it’s a charade on Biden’s part. I think that Biden, under guidance of Soros people, have set the whole thing up to fool most everyone and to make the Republicans and supporters to become very over confident about the upcoming election. I wouldn’t be surprised that there isn’t a legal plan in place that would cause Trump to become, in some fashion, legally blocked just before the election.
Biden just looked too good on the day after the debate.
Highly implausible that his debate performance disaster was faked. How certain are you that they do not have a Biden “double” who could pass at the podium of a rally, but not in the CNN studio environment?
Wow, that’s some theory.
Anyone – voters or so-called journalists who pander to the left – who claim “surprise” at the state of biden’s mental deficiency on display on Thursday, June 27, on CNN … have their heads in the sand of lefty politics; think only hate-filled thoughts vs. DJTrump due to suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome; know that biden suffers from ever-worsening dementia (that was unmistakable as he hid in his cellar in 2020) but lie about the matter; never watch or read any “real” news but depend on print and broadcast media that pander to the Ds and lie for the Ds; have witnessed or lived with someone suffering from dementia but refuse to acknowledge it in this old white guy because he is an elected D; etc. BRING ON THE AUDIO OF THE HUR INTERVIEW; IT WILL NO LONGER BE A SURPRISE, BUT WILL BE CORROBORATION OF SOMEONE PRESENTLY UNFIT TO GOVERN AS PRESIDENT.
Jonathan: If we look only at the “optics” of Thursday night’s debate it definitely did not go well for Joe Biden. He showed his age–incoherent responses and many “Deer in the headlights” moments. For the “double haters” it confirmed their worst fears.
My quarrel is with the format for our presidential debates. Allowing only 2″ to answer a question and then only a 1″ response is not really a “debate” at all. Compare that with what happens in Great Britain when the PM has to go before the House of Commons and answer Qs from the “back benchers”. The PM is loaded for bear with a thick folder of facts and figures and talking points. He even gets to sit down and get more info from his advisors. Now those are real “debates”.
Frankly, our format for presidential debates is a disgrace. We need a better system where we don’t rely on 2′ or 1″ soundbites to really inform us about the issues that are important.
Too late to fix it in the US. 5 second attentions spans and click bait rule society now.
Democrats only need a short period to respond. As Erin Burnett said, “They already know the questions.”
She should explain her comment. Maybe in front of congress.
Surely, you would not have wanted Biden to fall further into his abyss.
No, Demac, everything is not OPTICS. Sometimes things just are what they are. You have cognitive dissonance in spades, assuming you are an honest commenter. Reality is telling you that Biden should be in a nursing home, but the Media has been telling you Biden is as sharp as ever. You desperately to believe in the Democrat Party, and the Media, and that Trump is evil, and FOXNews lies, and here it all gets disconfirmed, right in your face. Once again. For the umpteenth time.
There are two ways you can go. You can continue to tell yourself lies, and you can continue to try to avoid the cognitive dissonance, and you will have a ton of willing people to go along with you. My guess is, that is the path you will follow. You are old, and you have been living in delusions for years. It is unlikely you are capable of change.
But there is another path. It will be hard for you, and it will hurt at first. That path is called Reality, or maybe Honesty. Whichever, it is the path the UFO Cult members should have gone in the 1950s, when the Flood did not happen and the Aliens did not come. It is the path the Millerites should have taken in the 1850s, when the world did not end.
Start asking yourself questions about what you believe. Try to find where things do not make sense. Ask yourself why the January 6th Committee destroyed its records and evidence? Why they did not preserve the Evidence of the Greatest Crime in American History for the future? Ask yourself in anybody other that Trump would have been charged in the Hush Money case, or the crap in Engeron’s court. Ask yourself if Carroll’s BS case seems legit. You are a lawyer. You can do this.
And if you start to see a pattern, then you need to consider that you have been a dupe for a good portion of your life. That is where you start.
@Dennis: RE:”Frankly, our format for presidential debates is a disgrace. We need a better system ….” Other than the long standing classic debating format, are need individuals who possess polished public speaking skills, are in command of accurate facts and figures to support their positions, and can convert a cogent thought into a well-turned and carefully articulated statement. Trump’s bloviated hyperbole and Biden’s neurological impairments are hardly gifts.
Did Dennis coach Biden. Independent Bob.
The format was dictated by the Biden campaign. It was Biden’s preferences structured to his best advantage. Trump agreed to EVERYTHING that Biden wanted.
As he had previously said – anywhere, anytime, anyplace.
Biden got the most softball format possible. He got the most Trump disfavorable format possible.
He get the most dimensia favorable format possible.
And he failed.
Do you really think he would have held up better in any debate format that required more thinking on your feet ? More ability to parry debate directly from your opponent ?
Except it does not matter what you or I think might have been in a different format.
This was the debate Biden wanted. With the rules Biden wanted
If it is actually true that a different format would have favored Biden more – that too shows that he is not up to being president.
John Say: Your comment rings true.
You say, “Biden got the most softball format possible. He got the most Trump disfavorable format possible.”
I think we can comfortably add, “Biden got the most favorable left-wing network and moderators (CNN) to select the agenda and questions aimed to bring out the best in him.”
Agree with all you said, that it was meant to be favorable to Biden.
I think the muted mics helped Trump.
And the split screen helped Trump.
Biden looked awful, staring at Trump, his mouth hanging open, etc.
The split screen hurt Biden immensely, imo.
Moderators cut off Biden several times, at just the right time, saving him from himself.
I believe Biden had a bug in his ear, coaching him. You can see several instances of Biden touching his right ear, intently listening to something other than Trump. Biden had cheat notes on his podium as well.
I never cease to be amazed at the Trumpian whining. The CNN moderators could have been replaced by robots. They allowed Trump to lie over and over again, to evade giving straight answers to simple questions and to go back to previous questions instead of moving on and answering the new question.
Nothing was done to benefit Biden— the podiums were selected by chance. The time limits were maintained.
Now if Biden had given a performance similar to the SOTU, MAGA media would have accused him of being on drugs, which they did before the debate. Biden, coming off a hectic schedule with overseas trips, had a cold and had issues with his voice and made some gaffes. So now, MAGA media say he doesn’t know what planet he’s on.
Fortunately for the future of America, people are paying more attention to the substance of what they both said, and Trump reminded them of why most of us didn’t vote for him. The endless lying and arrogance came through, as did Biden’s empathy and dedication to continuing the progress he made in reversing the damage done by Trump and adding to his accomplishments, including preserving the right to reproductive freedom, consumer protection and environmental protection, help with the cost of childcare and preserving the solvency of Social Security and Medicare by making sure the wealthiest pay their fair share of taxes. Trump wants to cut taxes for the wealthy, which would cause the national debt to rise.
Americans are finding out about Project 2025 and they don’t like it. It also has come to light that a wealthy Jewish woman named Edelman is going to donate $100 million to Trump in exchange for him getting the US to endorse Israel’s takeover of the West Bank and moving 700,000 Israelis into Palestinian territory.
Americans don’t believe we have any right to endorse this move which had been condemned by the UN. This would only give rise to another Hamas and prolonged conflict. Biden supports a 2-state solution. Trump will be bought off. Edelman was behind moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem — millions spent that did not benefit America in any tangible way.
2″ is two seconds.
The illiberal elites who have screamed about misinformation the loudest have been revealed as the very ones who have been practicing it the most. And even when the truth is there for all to see, they tell us to ignore it.
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/0f/e4/d4/0fe4d471ba92e1d8a854b53a3501269f.jpg
DNC/Obama orchestrated Kabuki Theatre for BigMike’s benefit. May for Hillary’s or Gov Hairgel.
What about the people behind the scenes who have caused world wide disasters. Who used Biden to the edge of his abilities and now blame him. Biden was their willing water boy. Who made decisions to pull out of Iraq, and then Afghanistan and leave equipment, and to look the other way while Russia took Crimea and Belarus and then edged to the borders of Ukraine, and so on? Who made the decisions to destroy the US as quickly as possible. Who? It is not just sorry old Joe. There are plenty of others with evil intent.
Russia took Crimea after the U.S. engineered the Maidan coup in Ukraine, knowing that the U.S. would order the puppet regime it installed in Kiev to throw Russia out of its naval base in Sevastopol that it had occupied for over 200 years.
The U.S. under Obama, Trump and Biden also told Ukraine to ignore the Minsk 2 Accord it had signed with Russia in 2015 to end the hostilities in the Donbas.
ALL of the U.S. Presidents are willing fronts for the Warfare State. Note that Trump wants to shovel even more $Tens of Billions to the War Machine, using debt funded dollars of course.
You know
I know
We all know
WE WILL NEVER GET THAT INFORMATION.
It is time to face and accept the facts.
The country we have today is the country Americans want.
The bizarre tropes that Trump is a threat to Democracy, another narrative created by Hillary, is only surpassed by the narrative Biden was sharp 4 years ago. He wasn’t. He had dementia and was already shaking the hand of ghosts.
America has suffered 4 years of rule by agencies as Biden lay about the Delaware beach, dreaming of little girls and ice cream cones.
We have now learned what the real threat to Democracy is… vicious, corrupt, merciless incompetent Federal employees.
Speaking of ‘threats to democracy’…
Who is threatening and intimidating Supreme Court justices ahead of major rulings? Democrats — including President Biden (on stage at LA fundraiser with Obama) and Senator Schumer threatening them by name!
Which party is prosecuting and trying to imprison their political opponent during a presidential election?
Which party weaponized the justice system to unjustly, maliciously prosecute supporters of their political enemies?
The Democrat party rigged the 2016 primary for Hillary and screwed Bernie voters.
It was the Democrat party that rigged 2020 elections, unconstitutionally changed state voting laws, installed illegal drop boxes, mass mailing of ballots with no signature verification, etc!
But when California voters wanted to recall Gavin Newsom, or recall Soros DA’s, THAT required signature verification! How many signatures were tossed out to ensure Gavin stayed in his position? Because: Democracy!
Democrats rigged the 2024 primary — oh wait, they had no primary. They had no primary debates, either.
They rigged another primary for Biden.
Democrats are now trying to figure out what to do with their unlikable, incompetent, next-in-line, first female VP, first woman of color VP. How’s that DEI working out for ya?
Democrats are now trying to figure out how to bypass ‘democratic processes’ in order to swap out Biden at their convention for another candidate they think can beat Trump.
But of course, Trump is the threat to democracy.
The long knives for Biden are out both at the Washington Post and the NY Times. They no doubt coordinate with the DNC Elites. Biden is finished. It will be “Et tu, Brute?” like.
In 2020 and 2024, the best thing Biden had going for him was Trump, and the best thing that Trump had going for him was Biden. Swapping Biden out now with a rational moderate like Josh Shapiro is great for the Dems. The Trump cabal now gleeful about the June debate should have been careful about what they wished for.
Anyone selected outside the primary system would be viewed as illegitimate.
That’s OBE if Biden renounces the nomination or resigns outright. The Dem Elites will put the squeeze on Jill Biden, knowing that she controls Uncle Joe. Schumer will threaten Jill if he has to with a 25th Amendment motion which would put Joe through the ringer.
“Rational moderate Josh Shapiro” lol
“Pay no attention to the propagandists behind the curtain.”
So many DC leftists going to prison….
Now their blaming CNN for Joe’s terrible performance and throwing those at The New York Times under the bus because they are saying it would be morally wrong to keep Biden on the ticket. Oh how quickly there heroes fall from grace when they speak the unspeakable truth. Morally wrong is in fact the perfect description.
Can you believe it. Biden said that Trump wanted less police after the Democratic movement to defund the police. He said such a stupid thing because he knows that the Democrats are losing on the issue of crime in America. In his defense, maybe he just doesn’t know that mayors in sanctuary cities want to defund the police. My bet is that he just doesn’t know. Sad to say.
TIT: per “PolitiFact”:
“Echoing a common conservative media talking point, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., posted a video to X in which she said that crime had exploded under President Joe Biden.
“Since Joe Biden took office, crime has skyrocketed across our country,” Mace said in the March 30 post.
Federal data shows that the overall number of violent crimes, including homicide, have declined on Biden’s watch.
Nationally, property crimes are up — mostly driven by motor vehicle thefts — but have not “skyrocketed” under Biden.
“Reported crime has not surged since 2021, when Biden took office, and the best data on the subject shows declining reported violent crime and massively declining murder rates,” said Jeff Asher, a data analyst and co-founder of the firm AH Datalytics.
It’s possible to single out some types of crimes and certain cities for which the numbers have risen since Biden took office, but that isn’t what Mace said.”
“Defund the police” in some cities means that they want to divert funds to mental health and social worker professionals to address certain things like domestic violence, instead of arresting everyone in sight.
When soft on crime DAs, no cash bail, not prosecuting crimes, then yes, the numbers appear to go down. Because the criminals were not prosecuted. So there is no reporting.
It is all lies.
Just remember that Jonathan Turley is inside the Beltway and so is describing himself in all those universals…
Do you feel better now?
Perhaps Benson Hedges
There are some good people inside the beltway: Senator Ron Johnson and his work on the COVID debacle, Senators
Manchin and Sinema across the aisle. Our problem is an increasingly dysfunctional two party duopoly. A necessary,
though not sufficient, solution is voting reform to open up our political processes to responsible 3rd parties. See: the following
one page brochure at: http://www.nationalrenewal.org/ElectionReformFlier.pdf
Manchin and Sinema simply go where the grass seems greener, making noises about working with Rs and distancing themselves from the lefty left Ds – hoping to save their political lives. They spout printable and repeatable stuff so voters think they aren’t going to vote with the ultra left, dyed-in-the-wool Ds. When these imposters realize they aren’t fooling anyone … they decide to not run for elected office in an effort to go out on a good note.
“It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is”
– Bill Clinton
When Joseph Biden lies, which is whenever he speaks, the Left demures. The NY Times would rather call his lying something less brash and more endearing:
Biden Loves to Tell Tall Tales. We Cut Them Down to Size.
Mr. Biden persists in telling personal tales with rhetorical flourishes and factual liberty …
….emphasize his “middle-class Joe” persona and charm his audience.
…..these autobiographical embellishments ….
A White House spokesman, Andrew Bates, said that Mr. Biden had “brought honesty and integrity back to the White House” and that he shared life experiences that had shaped his outlook.
…president’s most repeated yarns.
NY Times June 9, 2024
The above is just from the first paragraph of the NYT article.
OTOH….When it comes to Donald Trump lying, the Left / DNC / MSM do not hesitate to unleash their inner-Hamas. They don their virtue signaling keffiyeh, whip out the cat o’ nine tails, and flail Trump with unbridled delight
51+ million people watched the CNN debate and they know what they saw. If a picture paints a thousand words, Americans now have a vivid imagery of a demented man they can not forget. They saw Biden utter embarrassing lies like:
PRESIDENT BIDEN:
Look, there’s so many young women who have been, including a young woman who just was murdered, and he went to the funeral. The idea that she was murdered by an immigrant coming in, they talk about that. But here’s the deal. There’s a lot of young women being raped by their in-laws, by their spouses, brothers and sisters, by, it’s just ridiculous. And they can do nothing about it. And they try to arrest them on the cross state line —
DANA BASH, CNN: Thank you.
Dana Bash responds to Biden’s multiple lies in one round of Q & A with politeness
Nobody listens to the DNC and MSM anymore. Elections are about winning. No Fortune 500 company would
retain a CEO if he / she showed evidence of cognitive decline before millions of stakeholders.
Democrats are going to lose with lying Biden and his incompetence. Trump will win by default, and Democrats will lose the Senate and lose seats in the House because their party leaders are lying to their constituents.
Their talking points have never worked under Biden and will not work now