On one hand, you're not allowed to say that Biden is obviously, evidently suffering from dementia because you are not An Expert and therefore have no ability to tell when someone slurs words or repeatedly confuses people.

When Republicans are in office, everybody in the MSM is a neuroscientist, psychologist, and oracle capable of and required to opine on the mental fitness of the president and to predict exactly the disastrous consequences of their decisions.

When a Democrat is in office, no matter how obvious a Democrat's corruption or disability, it takes a (Left-leaning) "expert" to tell you that what you see before your eyes is false.

In that spirit, Americans are being gaslit once again on Joe Biden's obvious lawbreaking, double-dealing, influence peddling, and most importantly his manifest inability to perform his duties as president.

Given that Biden's White House is claiming that only An Expert can render an opinion on Biden's mental acuity, you'd think they'd welcome the opportunity presented at Biden's next physical to have such An Expert conduct a cognitive test so that we all know his expert medical opinion.

But Biden says, "Nah, dog. I don't trust your voodoo 'science,' bro."

Fox News:

Biden won't take cognitive test in physical exam: White House

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday said that President Biden will not be taking a cognitive test during his regular physical exam.

President Biden will not take a cognitive test as part of his upcoming physical exam, the White House confirmed Monday.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated that Biden's physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, does not believe a cognitive test is necessary. She said O'Connor believes Biden proves his cognitive ability "every day [in] how he operates and how he thinks."

Reporters pressed Jean-Pierre on the issue due to last week's report from Special Counsel Robert Hur that found Biden has significant memory issues.

"Does the White House think that the idea of the president taking a cognitive test as a part of this physical is a legitimate idea?" a reporter asked.

"I'm just gonna say what Dr. O'Connor said to me about a year ago when [Biden's physical] was released," Jean-Pierre responded. "The president proves every day [in] how he operates and how he thinks, by dealing with world leaders, by making difficult decisions on behalf of the American people -- whether it's domestic or it's national security."

"That is how Dr. O'Connor sees it, and that is how I'm going to leave it," she added.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 01:04 PM | Comments (480) | Trackbacks (Suck)

I. Don't. Care.

Should they have left the hostages in the hands of terrorists, forever, AP?

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Israeli forces rescued two hostages early Monday, storming a heavily guarded apartment in a densely packed town in the Gaza Strip as airstrikes carried out to cover the raid killed more than 60 Palestinians, including women and children.

The rescue in Rafah briefly lifted the spirits of Israelis shaken by the plight of the dozens of hostages held by Hamas. The nation is still reeling from the militant group's cross-border raid last year that started the war.

The overnight bombardment brought devastation in Rafah, which is packed with some 1.4 million people, most of whom fled their homes elsewhere in Gaza to escape fighting. Associated Press footage showed a large area of flattened houses, tattered tents and lines of bloodied bodies brought into nearby hospitals.

Israel's offensive has killed more than 28,000 Palestinians in the territory, displaced over 80% of the population and set off a massive humanitarian crisis.

LOL. Cite? Oh right, you don't want to identify the source, because it's Hamas.

Joe Federman, AP News Director for Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan, reports the hostage rescue took place in Rafah.

More than 12,300 Palestinian children and young teens have been killed in the conflict, Gaza's Health Ministry said Monday. About 8,400 women were also among those killed. That means children and young teens make up about 43% of the dead, and women and minors together make up three quarters.

Oh, Gaza's Health Ministry says? The one that claimed that 900 people were killed by an "Israeli rocket" that "hit a hospital"?

And who controls Gaza's Health Ministry, AP? Would that be... Hamas?

Why is a "news" organization so determined to hide actual information from us?

The ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, provided the breakdown at the request of the AP. Israel claims to have killed about 10,000 Hamas fighters but has not provided evidence.

...
Israel has described Rafah as the last remaining Hamas stronghold in the territory and signaled that its ground offensive may soon target the town on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip.

...
Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said special forces broke into a second-floor apartment in Rafah under fire at 1:49 a.m. Monday, accompanied a minute later by airstrikes on surrounding areas. He said Hamas militants were guarding the captives and that members of the rescue team shielded the hostages with their bodies as the battle erupted.

The army identified those rescued as Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Har, 70, who were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak on Oct. 7. They also hold Argentinian citizenship. They are among just three hostages to be rescued; a female soldier was rescued in November.

This is great: AP says they corrected the erroneous fake numbers they published earlier, to reflect the correct fake numbers that Hamas is pushing:

This story has been updated to correct that the number of minors killed is about 43% of the overall death toll in Gaza, not 47%.

Israel also captured a senior Hamas terror commander.

Israeli forces from the Shin Bet, Border Police, and the IDF on Tuesday arrested Omar Faid, a senior Hamas official in charge of the terrorist organization's military infrastructure in Jenin, according to Israeli media.

The raid killed 23,000 civilians, including 94,000 women and 117,000 children.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:00 PM | Comments (431) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Fani Willis and her use of taxpayer's money as a personal slush fund for sexcapades and Caribbean cruises, and then claiming racism when caught, is just the latest example of a shameless society that has lost much of its sense of morality, responsibility, correct behavior, and simple honor.

Drooling Joe Biden hysterically blames Trump for the current border crisis, and the bald-heading freak in charge of the Department of Homeland Security refuses to take responsibility for the catastrophe for which he has personal control.

Merrick Garland sends SWAT teams to arrest abortion clinic protestors who have already offered to surrender themselves, then fails to take responsibility for his decision...blaming procedures, and the safety of officers!

Boeing builds planes that can't fly without complex software, then screws up the coding. Then they simply fail to build those same planes correctly, but the CEO who is responsible for the continued decline of a famed company chugs along and blames others for his failure, while enjoying his $22,400,000 salary.

Norfolk Southern ran trains that were unsafe, and decimated East Palestine PA. The federal government regulators failed to do their jobs, and the emergency response was pathetic. Yet no one was held accountable!

The FIU bridge collapse was a colossal engineering and construction screw-up, but the company responsible just keeps on truckin', leveraging political clout to cover up its failures. Broward County Awards $29 Million Contract to Builder Behind FIU Bridge Collapse sounds like a joke, but it isn't.

I could spend the rest of my life listing recent failures that caused real pain and suffering. And next to each event there will be a name or a company that avoided the simple response that we all know to be correct.

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

America does not demand perfection, but until recently we did demand responsibility for one's actions, and a clear and unequivocal acceptance of the results of those actions. We have moved far away from that simple requirement, and whether that is cause or effect of our current existential issues is a distinction without a difference.

As a friend pointed out, we do not expect ritual suicide over a cost overrun building a widget, but we do desire a society in which the default is not avoiding all responsibility in a fanatical attempt to retain power and prestige and wealth. The word "honor" has lost its power, and is used too often in the breach.

Can we blame the progressive movement and the slide toward socialism as the root cause? No...there are too many examples of this degradation across the political spectrum. Apparently, "Yes, this is my fault" is no longer a part of American speech! It has been replaced with a smug arrogance that every action by our elites is, a priori, perfect.

But they aren't, and until the American people no longer accept the arrant nonsense that all decisions made above a certain level are beyond reproach, we will continue to slide down into mediocrity...or worse. We have to hold them accountable until they are replaced by people who, with prodding, hold themselves accountable.

That's a sea change in our current culture that will not occur without pain, but do we have a choice?

Posted by: CBD at 11:00 AM | Comments (303) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (435) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Good morning, kids. Went to bed early feeling very out of sorts and woke up with little improvement, so I'm going to shine the editorial and just leave you with links. Apologies in advance.

Hasta mañana.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• "In it he discusses his 8-year-old lawsuit in Texas challenging the constitutionality of taxpayer funds being used to pay the salaries of union officials who represent public employees unions. It's not even union dues paying the union leaders' salaries, it's taxpayer money. Not only has the lawsuit drug out for 8 years, but left wing judges in blue Texas counties have fined the plaintiffs for filing the suit!' (Hat tip to Buck Throckmoron-jjs0
  Union Time on the Taxpayer Dime
• "Indigenous knowledge" posits that native peoples possess hidden wisdom about the workings of the universe and has been widely dismissed by experts as pseudoscience. The proposed guidelines point to other "non-traditional modes of science," including "citizen science, community-engaged research, participatory science, and crowdsourcing." Including these methods is part of the agency's "support" for "equity, justice, and trust," the document states.
  FDA and CDC Could Soon Employ 'Indigenous Knowledge,' Documents Show
  
• Dennis Prager: "Chaos is the normal state of the world. The second verse of the Bible states that the world was in a chaotic state. God then made order. Which is why the Left is undoing it.'
  The Left and Chaos Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:00 AM | Comments (596) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Top Story

• The leopard did it: Bank of America has announced a data breach after systems at technical services provider Infosys were breached. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  They could have just offered the leopard a job in tech support, but no. (The Register)
  
  
  
  

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (218) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Quote I

“I can tell you voted for Biden. You already bought that VIP ticket. I already got that $42.”

“Buy a t-shirt on the way out too. I got a Make America Roast Again shirt in the style of Trump,” Comedian David Lucas

Quote II

“Things can become an eyesore quickly. And the being in the center of the village like that, you can’t just let it go.” Michael Disotelle, historian at Ilion's public library

Quote III

“The DNC wants to deny millions of people their basic constitutional voting rights in a relentless onslaught against democracy." American Values 2024 co-chair Tony Lyons

Quote IV

“The big difference is that there’s nothing in the world that lowers your blood alcohol content like our patented beverage,” Safety Shot’s CEO, Brian John

Quote V

"So y'all can stop texting me and emailing me and saying that I'm a white girl and that I don't deserve reparations." The View panelist Sunny Hostin.
Oh you deserve something alright.....

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 10:00 PM | Comments (471) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Oregon
via @explore.the.usa

Penguins chasing a butterfly.

Easter's coming.

Cute arctic fox.

Pouncing, non-feline division.

So happy.

Someone got the audio from the 7-Eleven down the street from me.

I've heard this argument from the couple next door.

Healing a puppy with malformed front legs.

One dog doesn't know how to use the stairs, so another dog comes down to show him the way.

Chubby little guy doesn't want to get weighed.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 07:20 PM | Comments (257) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Biden complained about "shrinkflation" -- reducing the amount of chips or cookies in a bag, while keeping the package the same size.

Companies are doing this because of Biden's inflation. They can either charge more, which customers hate, or disguise the fact that prices are higher by offering somewhat less product for the same price.

Biden once again pretended that companies are "gouging" customers, taking no responsibility for the inflation he's flooded the country with.

President Biden celebrated Super Bowl Sunday in what many saw as a bizarre and ironic video attacking snack companies for inflation.

Though the president skipped out on the traditional pre-game interview, the White House's X account posted a pre-recorded video of Biden talking about "Shrinkflation."

"While you were Super Bowl shopping, did you notice smaller-than-usual products where the price stays the same? Folks are calling it Shrinkflation and it means companies are giving you less for every dollar you spend. I'm calling on the big consumer brands to put a stop to it," the post read.

In the video, Biden said, "It's Super Bowl Sunday, and if you're anything like me, you like to be surrounded by a snack or two while watching the big game. You know, when buying snacks for the game, you might have noticed one thing: sports drinks bottles are smaller, [a] bag of chips has fewer chips, but they're still charging just as much."

He continued, "As an ice cream lover, what makes me the most angry is that ice cream cartons have actually shrunk in size but not in price. I've had enough of what they call Shrinkflation. It's a rip off. Some companies are trying to pull a fast one by shrinking the products little by little and hoping you won't notice. Give me a break. The American public is tired of being played for suckers. I'm calling on companies to put a stop to this. Let's make sure businesses do the right thing now."

The video and its focus on inflation struck many social media users as ridiculous and ironic considering the Biden administration's track record.

"Imagine how little respect you must have for voters to try this," National Review senior writer Charles C.W. Cooke remarked.

Outkick columnist Mary Katherine Ham commented, "I did not predict leaning into the aging issue with an Andy-Rooney-on-quaaludes rant about how chip bags used to be fuller."

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 06:09 PM | Comments (299) | Trackbacks (Suck)

At the hearing, the judge announced that the affair was no longer merely "speculative," and said that if there's evidence of money flowing from Sweetdick to Fani, that "could result in disqualification," so they're going to have a full evidentiary hearing about money going back and forth.

Obviously, Fani wanted the judge to just say there could be no reason for disqualification and then deny the motion to disqualify.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 04:57 PM | Comments (300) | Trackbacks (Suck)

I think this very private man will soon exit to the private sector.

Is anyone in the Biden Administration fit for office?

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is moved to the critical care unit at Walter Reed after tests on 'emergent bladder issues' as he passes duties to his deputy for second time in a month following his prostate cancer surgery

Lloyd Austin, 70, was admitted to a critical care unit late on Sunday evening

He has been hospitalized for 'symptoms suggesting an emergent bladder issue'

Austin was taken to Walter Reed Hospital after thesymptoms emerged Sunday

By Stephen M. Lepore and Katelyn Caralle, U.S. Political Reporter For Dailymail.com

Lloyd Austin has been admitted to a critical care unit at Walter Reed Medical Center 'for supportive care and close monitoring' after he was hospitalized for 'symptoms suggesting an emergent bladder issue.'

The Defense Secretary, 70, was transported to military hospital after the symptoms emerged Sunday afternoon.

According to a hospital official, Austin was admitted to the critical care unit 'after a series of tests and evaluations.'

'At this time, it is not clear how long Secretary Austin will remain hospitalized. The current bladder issue is not expected to change his anticipated full recovery. His cancer prognosis remains excellent,' Dr. John Maddox said in a statement.

Earlier Sunday, it was announced Austin has had his duties stripped and transferred to deputy Kathleen Hicks.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 03:48 PM | Comments (452) | Trackbacks (Suck)

All at once, the media turned off the Protective Force Shield they were maintaining around Grandpa Fingerbang.

Bill Melugin read the piece and digested it (so that I don't have to

Bill Melugin
@BillMelugin_

NEW: Brutal new reporting from @axios in article titled "How Biden Botched the Border".

- Biden exploded w/ rage at his team aboard AF1 on the way to border last year.

- Susan Rice called HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra a "bitch ass"& "idiot".

- VP Harris' team made it clear her responsibilities "began and ended" w/ root causes in just the 3 Northern Triangle counties & Mexico, w/ a former Biden admin official saying Harris has been "at best, ineffective".

- Mayorkas disagreed with Biden's 100 day halt on deportations.

- Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall displayed inexperience, asked for a memo explaining the difference between refugees & asylum seekers.

- Biden admin has listened to "vocal immigration advocates outside the administration".

- "The White House generally didn't want to talk publicly about immigration or the border for much of Biden's first three years, feeling it would draw attention to a political vulnerability."

- "Publicly, the White House also initially downplayed jumps in illegal border crossings as normal "ebbs and flows" -- even as some internally pushed to acknowledge that the problem was significant."

The article highlights a combination of infighting, incompetence, and indifference regarding the administration's handling of the border over the last 3 years.

The article is here.

Related: Jonathan Turley explain that removal of the president under 25th Amendment is a long, cumbersome process which Biden and the Democrats can easily defeat.

It is Section 4 that allows the removal of a president. One option is what I have called the "mutiny option." It requires a vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to declare that the president is "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office," and notify Congress that the vice president intends to take over. If Vice President Kamala Harris could get eight Cabinet officers to go along with a letter to Congress, her status as the "Acting President" would likely be short-lived. Joe Biden (who yesterday declared, "I'm elderly and know what the hell I'm doing") would only have to declare to Congress that "no inability exists." Biden would then resume his powers.

Harris would have to send another declaration with the Cabinet members within four days to the president pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House, rejecting Biden's claims.

With that second declaration, Congress would have 48 hours to assemble to debate the issue. It would then have 21 days to vote on the removal. However, that would require two-thirds majorities in both houses. If Congress did not vote within 21 days, the president would resume and keep power.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 02:52 PM | Comments (371) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The story is Narratively Unhelpful, so it won't be around long.

A woman who walked into a popular Texas megachurch Sunday afternoon with a long gun and a young child opened fire before she was killed by law enforcement officers on scene. The gunfire left the child in critical condition and another man injured, officials said.

Authorities are now probing the shooting at televangelist and pastor Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church -- roughly 6 miles from downtown Houston.

The woman, estimated to be between 30 and 35 years old, entered the church shortly before 2 p.m. wearing a trench coat and backpack and opened fire, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said in a Sunday afternoon news conference.

The shooter died at the scene after two law enforcement officers intervened and she was shot, Finner said.

The young child was hit during the shooting and is in the hospital in critical condition, the police chief said. It's unclear who fired the shot that injured the child. CNN has reached out to police for more information.

Police have not shared details about a possible motive in the shooting or said what the woman's relationship is to the child who accompanied her.

There are some vague hints about her motive:

...

The shooter used an AR-15 that had "Free Palestine" written on it, according to a federal law enforcement source. Investigators are trying to determine whether she was politically motivated or a disturbed individual, the source said.

Here's another hint that authorities will not follow up on:

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 01:48 PM | Comments (520) | Trackbacks (Suck)

That's as much agreement on a political issue as you'll ever have.

Quick Hit:

A recent ABC News/Ipsos poll reveals that 86%--nearly all Americans--believe President Joe Biden, at 81, is too old for another term.

Key Details:

86% of Americans consider Biden too old for another term, with 62% expressing the same about Trump.

There is a notable partisan divide, with 73% of Democrats seeing Biden as too old, while only 35% of Republicans think the same about Trump.

The release of Special Counsel Robert Hur's report, which did not recommend charges against Biden but commented on his mental fitness, has intensified calls for invoking the 25th Amendment.

Americans show more trust in Trump over Biden on issues like immigration, the economy, and crime, but Biden leads on healthcare and climate change.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:57 PM | Comments (375) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Just a quick throwaway while I catch up.

Explanation: There's some kind of (silly) conspiracy theory going around that the White House rigged the Super Bowl to raise Taylor Swift's profile still higher in time for her to endorse the Alzheimer's victim Joe Biden.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:10 PM | Comments (346) | Trackbacks (Suck)

In my circles of childhood friends – be they from school, church, or in the neighborhood - there were a few who stood out as being either goody-two-shoes (boys) or prim and proper scolds (girls). There was no better Sunday School student - or tattletale - than these momma’s boys and junior church ladies. Yet the ones I’ve kept up with have long since abandoned religion, or to be more specific, they’ve abandoned Christianity. Instead, they have religiously embraced the eco-leftist agenda and all its various tentacles, or what I refer to as “The Sustainable Organic Church of the Carbon Apocalypse.” Here they have found an outlet to continue evangelizing for a form of grim puritanism.

For simplicity’s sake, I am going to refer to all of these humorless people in their adult form as “Church Ladies of the Left,” whether they are male, female, or one of their many other genders.

Society would be much better off if these Church Ladies of the Left participated in an actual local church congregation as an outlet for their judgment and scolding, rather than seeking to re-organize society in a way that ensures everyone lives an equally joyless life.

Senator Marco Rubio wrote an interesting piece that was published in Compact magazine a few days ago, titled “Against Progressive Pseudo-Religion”.

Last December, The Washington Post ran an article about “spiritual collectives” emerging across America. These progressive, post-Christian alternatives to church sing Beatles and Bono tracks, rather than hymns. They welcome “people of all faiths and no faiths.” Most important, they preach questions instead of answers. According to the Post, “spiritual collectives” are defined—and distinguished from churches—by their resistance to dogma.

But are they really? A closer read makes it abundantly clear that these communities are united by articles of faith. They just happen to be articles of progressive politics, rather than of traditional religion.

Correct. Humans are hard-wired to be religious. Just because there are some among us who have repudiated Christianity and other established religions, they still cannot escape the innate religiosity that is part of our existence. The left-wing belief that bad weather and natural disasters are caused by sinners in our midst is the most primitive of religious beliefs.

In a recent post of mine, I noted that “People are inherently religious. It was almost certainly a factor in our evolution and survival as a species, helping to create family units, parenting structures, agricultural practices, forbidden destructive behaviors, etc. which allowed humans to flourish. But being inherently religious, we’ll rapidly adopt evil religious practices where there is a void from good religions. Anti-humanity death cults (the Church of Climate, radical Islam) have filled the void where Judeo-Christianity has retreated.”

In that piece, I discussed Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s conversion to Christianity and how she makes the persuasive case that a Christian revival is necessary. Ms. Hirsi Ali wrote that, “We can’t fight off these formidable forces unless we can answer the question: what is it that unites us? The response that “God is dead!” seems insufficient. So, too, does the attempt to find solace in “the rules-based liberal international order”. The only credible answer, I believe, lies in our desire to uphold the legacy of the Judeo-Christian tradition.” She added, “We can’t fight woke ideology if we can’t defend the civilisation that it is determined to destroy. And we can’t counter Islamism with purely secular tools.”

While Christianity is needed to fight global evil, it can also help civilization by providing a venue for moral busybodies to do their thing locally rather than globally.

Like traditional protestant church ladies, the typical Church Lady of the Left is obsessed with regulating the behavior of others. For those who engage in behaviors that violate her strict moral compass, she will seek to inflict her moral guidance upon them, shaming and canceling them as necessary, while also striving to establish rules that forbid such transgressions.

It is an unfortunate burden on clergy when they have a particularly assertive church lady in their flock, but providing an outlet for these zealots is a service unto all society. It is better for us all if “Bertha-Better-Than-You” (see Ray Stevens video below) is all worked up about Deacon Johnson spending too much time assisting the widow Harris, than Bertha obsessing that there are climate sinners among us driving SUVs, and demanding obedience to the gospel of Net Zero.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (382) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (376) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Good morning, kids. If you actually watched "The Big Game" yesterday, why? It would be one thing if professional sports, like every other aspect of society, was an actual escape from the tyrants, fiends, monsters and scum who are dragging us down into a hell of their creation. But it's not. And considering over the past five years or longer, having to endure everything from overpaid, steroid-engorged pituitary case troglodytes kneeling during the National Anthem, to a transvestite psycho squealing with glee while fisting itself with a Bud Lite can up the can, it's anything but an escape.

The singing of this so-called "Black National Anthem" is proof positive, as if we needed any more, that you will be made to care. The only appropriate response from the audience would've been boos, hisses, catcalls followed by a mass exodus from Che Stadium, or wherever the hell this bastard cousin of Wrestlemania was enacted. That and every damn white player on the field taking a knee. Wouldn't that have been a sight to see – right before they'd have been benched by the coaches. Also, what the fuck is going on with this refugee from a Jerzy Kozinski novel known as Taylor Strumpet?

Her career seemed to be more or less over five years ago, yet within the last couple of months she's become bigger than the Beatles, Elvis and Slim Whitman combined in the blink of an eye. Of course, her sudden coming out on the side of the Einsatz-groupies cheering on the slaughter of Israelis and more or less endorsing Joey Sponge-Brain Shits-Pants is merely a coincidence, right? Maybe it's about time for Kanye West to reappear and rip the microphone from her hand, but then again, he's completely gone off the deep end. But I digress.

Speaking of the Bovine Spongiform Encephelopath-in-Chief, about the only thing his Ed Muskie-esque crying on national TV disaster has done is exposed yet another major rift in the Left, this time among those at the head of the snake.

After he went down in flames in Thursday evening’s ill-advised and unscheduled press conference, the whole world knows (if it didn’t know already) that Old Joe Biden is not fit to be president of the United States. But like the Japanese soldier Hiroo Onoda, who refused to believe that World War II was over and held out for nearly third years in the Philippines jungle, there is one holdout who still insists that Biden is fit, competent, and ready to wreak more havoc upon the nation until Jan. 20, 2029: Rachel Maddow. . .

. . . But aa far as Maddow and her MSNBC co-host Chris Hayes were concerned, anyone who suggested that these were just the latest signs, among a large number of others, that Biden is unable to discharge the duties of the presidency was guilty of “ageism.” That’s not quite as bad as racism in the left’s hierarchy of major sins, but as long as the people who are running the Biden regime want to keep Old Joe around as a figurehead, it’s plenty bad.

Hayes accordingly complained that concerns over Biden’s advanced age and vastly diminished competence (magnified by the fact that he was hardly an intellectual giant in the first place) were cheap shots, for there was no remedy: “If someone says, ‘You’re too far left,’ you can tack to the center, but there’s nothing you can do if someone says you’re too old.”

That was when Maddow gave us her all-purpose refutation of claims that Biden is not competent to be president: “He rides a bike.” Yes, she really said that. Is she suffering from memory issues of her own? Has she forgotten the most famous incident involving Old Joe and a bicycle? . . . the Post had the temerity to remind us that “during one sunny day in Delaware back in 2022, Biden fell off his bicycle — and social media users pounced on the opportunity to create a slew of memes spoofing the presidential pratfall.”

There isn’t anything that Biden could do that would make Maddow and Hayes and people like them go off the reservation. They’re lifers. They’re convinced and amply compensated party apparatchiks. The only thing that could get them to turn on Old Joe would be a signal from those who are really running things that the sinister old corruptocrat has outlived his usefulness. That signal hasn’t been given yet.

The only reason it hasn't been given yet is because the Junta is walking a very fine tightrope of not wanting to admit Biden has indeed lost his mind – which as is likely the case is not a latent issue – lest it redounds badly on the ones who pimped him in the first place and worse, that his unmitigated disastrous reign as Obama's puppet is the actual problem. The party and above all its policies/platform must be protected at all costs.

At this point, Alejandro Mayorkas and Karine Jean-Pierre can shriek that there is no border crisis and the economy is going gangbusters all they want, but no one with even one more non-diseased brain cell than Joey knows this is an abject crock of shit. Especially since in their collective next breath, they blame Trump and the GOP for the crises they just claimed didn't exist.

It's all fun and games until somebody loses a nation.

. . . to summarize Hur’s report to that point, Biden’s likely defense would be that he moved classified documents into his garage while he was still Vice President, and then was so senile when he left office that he forgot all about it. This defense would be risible from a more obviously competent man, but Hur clearly believes that if Biden were actually to be put on the stand, the jury would have to believe he was just this much of a doddering old fool. Again, quote:

“We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory. Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt.”

Translated in a less diplomatic way, this clearly means that under sustained questioning, Biden would come off as…well, “Sleepy Joe,” as President Trump might put it. Now ask yourself this: if a man can’t even handle questioning from a lawyer about his own behavior, how are we supposed to believe he’s actually executing the office of President of the United States? The plain words of Hur’s report indirectly confirm every single theory that conservatives have posited about Biden’s status as a mentally defective puppet for his woke, globalist staff.

It only gets worse from there, as Hur admits that Biden also likely kept notebooks and notecards full of classified information – which also makes Biden look terrible -- only to go on and admit that actually, this, too, is fairly common among presidents and vice presidents, despite its being technically illegal (Hur cites Ronald Reagan’s diaries as an example). Which, naturally enough, might make you wonder: if this is such a common way that former presidents and vice presidents bend the law, then why is President Trump on trial? And Hur, bless him, anticipates this:

“With one exception, there is no record of the Department of Justice prosecuting a former president or vice president for mishandling classified documents from his own administration. The exception is former President Trump.”

. . . it’s the second reason Hur gives where his report descends into naked cynicism. “In reaching our decision, we did not consider every circumstance in which criminal charges against a former president or vice president for mishandling classified information may be warranted. But on the facts of this case, ‘the fundamental interests of society’ do not ‘require’ criminal charges against Mr. Biden.”

By implication, therefore, since Hur does not dissent from the charges against President Trump, one must conclude that according to his report, the “fundamental interests of society” do require a trial of President Trump. Or, at least, that a jury could be convinced that it does.

And here, we have to admit, Hur is actually being honest not in a funny way but in a depressingly frank way. Because once you read that line, you understand the rest of the document through entirely new eyes: That is to say, Hur’s essential argument when it comes to senility is not so much that Biden is a doddering old fool, as that a jury would believe he is.

Given that if Biden were charged for his crimes, he would likely be tried before a DC jury, this is almost certainly correct: a DC jury would likely exonerate a Democratic president even for shooting someone in the middle of Farragut Square.

But just as a DC jury would exonerate Biden no matter what, Hur is also correct that, if a prosecutor did want to convict a president for mishandling classified information, there is no easier target for a DC jury to convict than President Trump. In the eyes of a DC jury, in fact, President Trump’s prosecution would serve “the fundamental interests of society.” Therefore, reading between the lines, the real reason why Hur suggests against prosecuting Biden while excusing the persecution of Trump is simply that a prosecutor can win one case and not the other. There is no matter of legal principle involved – Biden is just as guilty as Trump. They’re coming after Trump – and his supporters -- not because the law requires it, but simply because they can. Because to a DC jury, conservatives and threats to the Swamp’s gravy train have no rights which the constitution is bound to respect.

So, is Robert Hur a duplicitous scumbag a la James Comey with his "no reasonable prosecutor" vomitus regarding the overwhelmingly provably guilty on multiple mass counts of fraud and perhaps treasonous Hillary Clinton for her illegal server farms? Or is Hur being pragmatic, as the author seems to suggest by issuing a report that in essence not only indicts Biden but the now completely corrupt justice system?

Comey's bullshit report was an obviously naked, ham-fisted attempt to clear Clinton of any wrongdoing just before an election. The Dems could make the case that what Hur did is exactly the same thing. But for the most part, they're not. They can't because he is indeed guilty or at least in a fair and sane world be charged with the crimes that Hur elucidates. So, all they can do is bang their Khrushchev clown shoe on the MSNSDAP stage set as loud as they can in faux outrage.

Except, if he really is as sharp as a razor, then shouldn't he have to face the music? Obviously that's a loaded question given the abject corruption from top to bottom that is our government and judicial system.

Need further proof, here is probably an even more disgusting story that is otherwise getting lost in the sauce:

The headlines say Michael Mann has won his defamation case and was awarded one million dollars in punitive damages. This suggests that the jury found he did not manipulate the data in his hockey stick graph which asserts that global warming is anthropogenic—that is, caused by man— is so frequently cited by "climate change" proponents. That’s not quite the whole story.

The jury seems to have focused on the fact that the writers compared his work to another Penn State employee who had engaged in child molestation which the university had covered up. The defamation the jury found was not in the critique of his research and the amount awarded seems unlikely to be received, but in the language used.

Some have questioned why this case even went to trial; after all there’s nothing inherently defamatory about questioning a scientist’s findings. That’s a feature of good science: the ability to dispute and make the proponent of an issue defend his work. And certainly the First Amendment doesn’t bar criticism, even of the work of those currently in favor.  The answer, sadly, is this is the District of Columbia where judges seem to have lost their way once again. . .

. . . Awarded the sum of one dollar in compensatory damages, Mann couldn't point to any real injury. But the D.C. jury found that the pair made their statements with “maliciousness, spite, ill will, vengeance or deliberate intent to harm,” and on that basis awarded punitive damages of one thousand dollars from Simberg and one million dollars from Steyn.

The punitive damages, however, seems to be contrary to the Supreme Court ruling in State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Campbell, which held that the due process clause generally limits punitive damage awards to less than ten times the size of the compensatory damages awarded and that punitive damage awards of four times the compensatory damage award is "close to the line of constitutional impropriety." On his own, the judge could enter a judgment notwithstanding verdict to align the award with the State Farm ruling. In any event, the defendants have expressed an intent to appeal.

As we mentioned on the latest episode of the podcast, compensatory damages cannot exceed 10 times the amount of the punitive fine. But the judge clacked his gavel down without blinking when the jury came back and awarded the fraudster Mann one million times that amount?

I imagine by the time the appeal gets to SCOTUS, the entire bench will likely be chock full o' Maoists. Remember, people like Steyn, Trump, the J-6 political prisoners aren't being tried. "They're being disposed of," as Dr. Zaius would say.

It is a madhouse.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• "How is the Biden [junta] using psychology on Americans to advance the Biden-Harris agenda or a swiftly chosen replacement candidate." (The proper response to a nudge is to show them through a wall - jjs)
  The Obama "Nudge Unit" Rides Again
  
• Clarice Feldman: "Some have questioned why this case even went to trial; after all there’s nothing inherently defamatory about questioning a scientist’s findings. That’s a feature of good science: the ability to dispute and make the proponent of an issue defend his work. And certainly the First Amendment doesn’t bar criticism, even of the work of those currently in favor.  The answer, sadly, is this is the District of Columbia where judges seem to have lost their way once again."
  Mann v. Steyn, Free-Speech Travesty
  
• Roger Kimball: "A leitmotif in Putin’s remarks to Tucker in that marathon interview was, as he saw it, the serial betrayal of Russia by the West."
  Examining the Controversy Surrounding Tucker Carlson’s Interview with Putin
  
• Victor Davis Hanson: "In 2024—an election year—the left is trying to undo what it created without explaining why and what they did to us and themselves as well."
  Do Leftists Now Believe Leftism Doesn’t Work?
  
• Daniel Greenfield: ". . . And brought Obama’s father to America."
  How the Kennedy Family Caused Today’s Immigration Crisis

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 08:02 AM | Comments (377) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Top Story

• How Venus got its Zoozve back. (Sky and Telescope)
  
  Back in the dim, dusty reaches of two weeks ago, a cute and amusing story appeared on Twitter about how a children's poster of the Solar System came out with a moon of Venus mistakenly labelled Zoozve.
  
  Mistakenly because (a) Venus doesn't have any moons - not exactly, anyway - and because the designation of the asteroid so labelled is actually 2002VE 68. The creation of Zoozve was an accident of the artist's bad handwriting.
  
  But 2002VE 68 is not just any asteroid, but what is known as a quasi-moon; it doesn't orbit Venus the way the Moon orbits the Earth, but dances a intricate gavotte around both Venus and the Sun that is expected to last several hundred years before the partners part ways.
  
  It was the first such quasi-moon discovered; since 2002 another eight have been found, seven of them around Earth.
  
  And since all it had - until now - was a catalog number, it was eligible to be named if someone could (a) submit a formal proposal and (b) convince enough members of the relevant IAU committee to vote for it.
  
  So they did, and now the poster is retroactively correct.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (203) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Quote I

“I wonder if there’s a more efficient way to create jobs than printing $61 billion and sending some of the weapons it buys to Ukraine.” U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH)

Quote II

"It's terribly easy to be lead away on some sort of romantic notion of living fossils.

"I'm not going to make any bones about this, I think that Professor Tan's description of this family as "devolution", as an evolutionary throwback, is not only scientifically irresponsible but deeply insulting to this family." British psychologist Nicholas Humphrey

Quote III

“So, what we need to see in the Middle East, in particular in relation to Palestine, is that we need to see a ceasefire now. And we need the international community to be singing in chorus and harmony in terms of ceasefire now.” Michelle O’Neill, the new First Minister of Northern Ireland
I do believe her hair coloring has affected her intellectual capacity

Once again The Horde demonstrates they are the best..........

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 10:00 PM | Comments (377) | Trackbacks (Suck)