I caught a clip of that interview last night and my first thought was "Who's the big bad orange man now?" :D Two things kind of meet at this point in my head. One was "never listen to what people say, watch what they do." and the other is "me thinks thou doth protest too much". For a group of people who said Trump is a threat to democracy, team blue has done more of the things that, to me, look like they are trying to (and failing) to dismantle democracy. Getting him kicked off twitter, and everywhere else, the trials both in and out of office, the ballot bullshit here and there amongst many others. Then I see this clip and I am like ok so now you have a guy who people are BEGGING to hand over the reigns of power, and he isn't, he is spouting off lies and insults, and hilariously, he is now orange. Reminded me of that "becoming the clown" meme. Add that to the calling a guy Hitler and an existential threat for 8 years, then being shocked with some wacko tries to kill him and I just feel like we are at peak clown world at this point. Say what you will about the shooter, but its pretty clear to me he wanted Trump dead. I know this because he actually tried to kill the man. I am super stoked he got brained before he could do more damage, but I do not doubt the sincerity of his actions. I have no fucking idea what team blue actually wants or believes in other than power at this point. Just bonkers.
"For a group of people who said Trump is a threat to democracy, team blue has done more of the things that, to me, look like they are trying to (and failing) to dismantle democracy. Getting him kicked off twitter, and everywhere else, the trials both in and out of office, the ballot bullshit here and there amongst many others. "
Just bonkers.
Two things can be true at the same time. Trump can be a threat to democracy and Biden can be a feeble, cranky old man who needs to get out of his own way in the interest of protecting the nation from Trump, Vance, Project 2025 and the rest of MAGA.
That's funny because my buddy who actually watches the news just texted me that Biden has COVID now, if true this just can't get any weirder... Tho it almost certainly will 🤣
The story of the mainstream press covering for Biden until all of a sudden it couldn’t is why I can’t watch or read their drivel. And like no apologies.
I have been a active Democrat all my life. I was elected to the lowest political office possible - Precinct person for the Democratic Party - about 10 times - and served as a superdelegate to the 1996 Democratic National Convention.
As a DA and member of the national DA's organization I met Kamala Harris in 2008 when she joined our board as SF DA. She showed no interest in a "Prosecutors for Obama" group I was involved in and has always reminded me of what Jesse Jackson famously accused the Clintons of in the 1992 election - "they are all appetite."
I feel kind of dumb. Despite never having been a huge Biden fan and also despising his posture on Gaza I still fell for the ruse that his mishaps were right-wing disinfo. Or, that he had the physical appearance of an ancient person just because our culture is too youth-obsessed and we don't value the wisdom of the old blah blah.
Which is all to say, it's a tailspin, because it taps into 2 of the most primal human emotions 1. Feeling dumb for falling for it b) Most of all—virtually all Americans have in common having watched a relative fade, and they see Joe Biden in the most severe form of decline. My grandmother is healthy and sharp at 88, I don't see her in him, I see my grandfather a year before his death after he got hit with a hip break, countless blood infections, a failing heart, and blindness.
To be fair its not being dumb its more about taking things for granted. I too thought the whole "sleepy joe" thing was just politics and because I don't watch news coverage, and Biden was basically hidden from us for so long its not weird that we would not have noticed how bad it was, or thought it was all spin. Interestingly to me him being hidden might have made it worse. Like if you see a person everyday, it isn't as dramatic. But for me I vaguely recall him during the last election, and maybe once or twice that first year. Then I saw some clip about 6 months back and just visually it was shocking to me. Did not match what I remembered at all. Now that I think about it, if you take most presidents and look at their before and after shots they look like death. The difference is we were with them all the way through those 4 years, which makes it harder to notice the grey hair and dark circles coming in.
Yeah that's a great point. When you see someone regularly, you get used to it. There ARE milestones like "Oh shit Grandma shouldn't be driving" but overall it's a gradual slide. That said, I do actually suspect that he's sick with something like dementia or Parkinsons.
I know family/other people that went through that age, and while they may have had like .... sore joints or been felled by sudden problems like heart issues or Covid, the obvious, un-hideable mental decline didn't happen until much older than Biden is—and this is with handlers and bronzer!
"Martin Gurri (born April 17, 1949) is a former CIA analyst who writes about the relationship between politics and media. He is a visiting fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Virginia[1] and is a contributing writer to the center's Discourse magazine.[2] He served at the Director of National Intelligence Open Source Center in various senior positions, including director of research.[3] Gurri is the author of the book The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium, which he self-published in 2014 and then updated in 2018, when Stripe Publishing re-issued it with his "extensive analysis of Donald Trump’s improbable rise to the presidency and the electoral triumphs of 'Brexit'".[4]
In his blog, "The Fifth Wave," he states that "Information expands in great waves which sweep over the human landscape and leave little untouched. We stand at the earliest moment of what promises to be a cataclysmic expansion of information and communication technologies: the fifth wave."[5]
I caught a clip of that interview last night and my first thought was "Who's the big bad orange man now?" :D Two things kind of meet at this point in my head. One was "never listen to what people say, watch what they do." and the other is "me thinks thou doth protest too much". For a group of people who said Trump is a threat to democracy, team blue has done more of the things that, to me, look like they are trying to (and failing) to dismantle democracy. Getting him kicked off twitter, and everywhere else, the trials both in and out of office, the ballot bullshit here and there amongst many others. Then I see this clip and I am like ok so now you have a guy who people are BEGGING to hand over the reigns of power, and he isn't, he is spouting off lies and insults, and hilariously, he is now orange. Reminded me of that "becoming the clown" meme. Add that to the calling a guy Hitler and an existential threat for 8 years, then being shocked with some wacko tries to kill him and I just feel like we are at peak clown world at this point. Say what you will about the shooter, but its pretty clear to me he wanted Trump dead. I know this because he actually tried to kill the man. I am super stoked he got brained before he could do more damage, but I do not doubt the sincerity of his actions. I have no fucking idea what team blue actually wants or believes in other than power at this point. Just bonkers.
"For a group of people who said Trump is a threat to democracy, team blue has done more of the things that, to me, look like they are trying to (and failing) to dismantle democracy. Getting him kicked off twitter, and everywhere else, the trials both in and out of office, the ballot bullshit here and there amongst many others. "
Just bonkers.
Two things can be true at the same time. Trump can be a threat to democracy and Biden can be a feeble, cranky old man who needs to get out of his own way in the interest of protecting the nation from Trump, Vance, Project 2025 and the rest of MAGA.
That's funny because my buddy who actually watches the news just texted me that Biden has COVID now, if true this just can't get any weirder... Tho it almost certainly will 🤣
The story of the mainstream press covering for Biden until all of a sudden it couldn’t is why I can’t watch or read their drivel. And like no apologies.
I have been a active Democrat all my life. I was elected to the lowest political office possible - Precinct person for the Democratic Party - about 10 times - and served as a superdelegate to the 1996 Democratic National Convention.
As a DA and member of the national DA's organization I met Kamala Harris in 2008 when she joined our board as SF DA. She showed no interest in a "Prosecutors for Obama" group I was involved in and has always reminded me of what Jesse Jackson famously accused the Clintons of in the 1992 election - "they are all appetite."
I feel kind of dumb. Despite never having been a huge Biden fan and also despising his posture on Gaza I still fell for the ruse that his mishaps were right-wing disinfo. Or, that he had the physical appearance of an ancient person just because our culture is too youth-obsessed and we don't value the wisdom of the old blah blah.
Which is all to say, it's a tailspin, because it taps into 2 of the most primal human emotions 1. Feeling dumb for falling for it b) Most of all—virtually all Americans have in common having watched a relative fade, and they see Joe Biden in the most severe form of decline. My grandmother is healthy and sharp at 88, I don't see her in him, I see my grandfather a year before his death after he got hit with a hip break, countless blood infections, a failing heart, and blindness.
To be fair its not being dumb its more about taking things for granted. I too thought the whole "sleepy joe" thing was just politics and because I don't watch news coverage, and Biden was basically hidden from us for so long its not weird that we would not have noticed how bad it was, or thought it was all spin. Interestingly to me him being hidden might have made it worse. Like if you see a person everyday, it isn't as dramatic. But for me I vaguely recall him during the last election, and maybe once or twice that first year. Then I saw some clip about 6 months back and just visually it was shocking to me. Did not match what I remembered at all. Now that I think about it, if you take most presidents and look at their before and after shots they look like death. The difference is we were with them all the way through those 4 years, which makes it harder to notice the grey hair and dark circles coming in.
Yeah that's a great point. When you see someone regularly, you get used to it. There ARE milestones like "Oh shit Grandma shouldn't be driving" but overall it's a gradual slide. That said, I do actually suspect that he's sick with something like dementia or Parkinsons.
I know family/other people that went through that age, and while they may have had like .... sore joints or been felled by sudden problems like heart issues or Covid, the obvious, un-hideable mental decline didn't happen until much older than Biden is—and this is with handlers and bronzer!
Bronzer! That is what it is called! I kept saying spray tan or face paint. :)
The Human Weathervane moniker will soon be applied to Vance
Where did Ms. Rommelman find this Martin Gurri? He has a pretty lightweight CV:
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"Martin Gurri (born April 17, 1949) is a former CIA analyst who writes about the relationship between politics and media. He is a visiting fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Virginia[1] and is a contributing writer to the center's Discourse magazine.[2] He served at the Director of National Intelligence Open Source Center in various senior positions, including director of research.[3] Gurri is the author of the book The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium, which he self-published in 2014 and then updated in 2018, when Stripe Publishing re-issued it with his "extensive analysis of Donald Trump’s improbable rise to the presidency and the electoral triumphs of 'Brexit'".[4]
In his blog, "The Fifth Wave," he states that "Information expands in great waves which sweep over the human landscape and leave little untouched. We stand at the earliest moment of what promises to be a cataclysmic expansion of information and communication technologies: the fifth wave."[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gurri
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The Mercatus Center with which Gurri is associated is funded by Koch money and is enamored of government's greatest foe, Friedrich A. Hayek.