I thought this article rated a separate thread. Very good read from one of the MSM pack who was a little too honest in 2020 and actually likes Jill Biden.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/...ngNewsSerp

Just a few highlights. Well worth the read:


"...In January, I began hearing similar stories from Democratic officials, activists, and donors. All people who supported the president and were working to help reelect him to a second term in office. Following encounters with the president, they had arrived at the same concern: Could he really do this for another four years? Could he even make it to Election Day?

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Uniformly, these people were of a similar social strata. They lived and socialized in Washington, New York, and Los Angeles. They did not wish to come forward with their stories. They did not want to blow a whistle....

I followed the First Lady’s gaze and found the president. Now I understood her panicked expression.

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Up close, the president does not look quite plausible. It’s not that he’s old. We all know what old looks like. Bernie Sanders is old. Mitch McConnell is old. Most of the ruling class is old. The president was something stranger, something not of this earth.

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This was true even in 2020. His face had then an uncanny valley quality that injectable aficionados call “low trust” — if only by millimeters, his cosmetically altered proportions knocked his overall facial harmony into the realm of the improbable. His thin skin, long a figurative problem and now a literal one, was pulled tightly over cheeks that seemed to vary month to month in volume. Under artificial light and in the sunshine, he took on an unnatural gleam. He looked, well, inflated. His eyes were half-shut or open very wide. They appeared darker than they once had, his pupils dilated. He did not blink at regular intervals. The White House often did not engage when questioned about the president’s stare, which sometimes raised alarm on social media when documented in official videos produced by the White House. The administration was above conspiratorial chitchat that entertained seriously scenarios in which the president was suffering from a shocking decline most Americans were not seeing....

My heart stopped as I extended my hand to greet the president. I tried to make eye contact, but it was like his eyes, though open, were not on. His face had a waxy quality. He smiled. It was a sweet smile. It made me sad in a way I can’t fully convey. I always thought — and I wrote — that he was a decent man. If ambition was his only sin, and it seemed to be, he had committed no sin at all, by the standards of most politicians I had covered. He took my hand in his and I was startled by how it felt. Not cold but cool. The basement was so warm that people were sweating and complaining that they were sweating. This was a silly black tie affair. I said hello. His sweet smile stayed frozen. He spoke very slowly and in a very soft voice. “And what’s your name?” he asked...."

This is their whole message and no one in the media every calls Biden on it.

Quote:“In fact,” Biden went on, “the big takeaway are Trump’s lies… The point is, I didn’t have a great night and neither did he.”

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He returned to the central message of his campaign: “The fact is that Donald Trump is a genuine threat to democracy, and that’s not hyperbole. He’s a genuine threat. He’s a threat to our freedom, he’s a threat to our democracy, he’s literally a threat to America and what we stand for… Ask yourself the question: If not for America, who would lead the world?”

Tell the country those lies and what he did as President, that was a threat? Then hold Biden to the very same standards that they hold Trump.

No one questions Biden when he says...

"No American Soldiers died on my watch"
"Trump let more people into this country illegally, than I have"
"The police backs me"
"all border patrol backs me"
"Suckers and Losers"
"Great people on both sides"

I think that list could grow to at least 40 things Biden said just during the debate. But he never gets called out on it. Reading the below is almost like a joke from PBS. If you take this on face value its saying Biden said nothing false

Quote:Geoff Bennett:

Last night's debate may be the first time that millions of Americans have paid attention to the presidential campaign this year, and they heard a lot of claims that have been familiar refrains on the campaign trail, not all of them true.

To help put it into context. We turn to Samantha Putterman of PolitiFact.

Sam, thanks so much for being here with us.

Samantha Putterman, PolitiFact:

Thanks for having me.

Geoff Bennett:

So let's take some of these debate topics one by one, starting with the economy and inflation.

Donald Trump said that President Biden caused inflation and that the cost of food doubled and tripled and quadrupled, while President Biden says that Trump's proposed 10 percent tariffs would cost the average American $2,500 a year. Help us understand what's true.

Samantha Putterman:

So, on Trump's claim that Biden inherited inflation, that's mostly false. When Biden was inaugurated, inflation was about 1.4 percent, but that was shaped by the still weak economy during the pandemic.

As pandemic conditions improved, the economy accelerated, leading to inflation peaking at 9 percent about a year-and-a-half into his presidency. That was the highest in about four decades. But economists say that his relief plan did exasperate inflation, but he didn't single-handedly cause it.

And on Trump's claim that food costs has doubled, tripled and quadrupled, we found that to be false. Food costs have risen faster under Biden, but the 21 percent increase is nowhere near what Trump claimed. That would need to be about 300 percent, which is 10 times larger than what Trump said.

And Biden's claim about Trump's proposed tariffs costing Americans $2,500, we found that to be mostly true. Economists expect that Trump's proposed 10 percent across-the-board tariff on foreign products will force consumers to pay more and ride around that range between about $1,700 and $2,500.

Geoff Bennett:

Got it.

So let's turn to immigration. Donald Trump said that President Biden has allowed in 18 million people and that they're coming from — quote — "prisons, jails and mental institutions." President Biden says there are 40 percent fewer people coming across the border illegally. What do we know about the situation on the southern border?

Samantha Putterman:

Right.

So Trump's claim about the millions of people coming from prisons and mental institutions, we found that to be our worst rating, Pants on Fire. Data shows that officials have arrested a little over 100,000 noncitizens with criminal convictions from 2021 to 2024. Not everyone was let in.

The data reflects the people that the government knows about, but it's inexhaustive. So immigration experts did say that, despite these limitations, there's no evidence to support his statement. And also we rated false his statement that Biden has allowed in 18 million people.

Immigration officials have encountered immigrants illegally around 9.7 million times under Biden's presidency. While counting for got-aways, that number rises to about 11.4 million. But encounters do not equal admissions. Encounters represent events, not people. So one person who tried to cross the border twice counts for two encounters.

And a lot of these also led to expulsions. And on Biden, he was more accurate on immigration. His 40 percent claim is mostly true. DHS announced that encounters dropped by 40 percent to fewer than 2,400 per day in the weeks after Biden announced his policy on June 4.

Geoff Bennett:

On abortion, Mr. Trump repeated a false claim that he's made before that Democrats, in his words, will take the life of a child in the eighth month, the ninth month, and even after birth.

Help us understand this, because willfully terminating the life of a newborn is illegal in every state.

Samantha Putterman:

Right, right. So we did find this to be false.

Most elected Democrats who have spoken publicly about this, they have said that they support abortion under Roe v. Wade's standard, which provided access up to fetal viability, typically considered around 24 weeks of pregnancy. And many of these Democrats have also said that they support abortions past this point if the treating physician deems it necessary.

So medical experts say situations resulting in fetal death in the third trimester are rare. It's less than 1 percent of abortions that occur after 21 weeks. And these cases typically involve fatal fetal anomalies or life-threatening emergencies affecting the pregnant women.

Geoff Bennett:

You know, the CNN moderators last night did not provide real time fact-checking. The network said that they didn't view that as their role. Their role was to facilitate an exchange of ideas, and it was up to the candidates to challenge one another.

That was an approach that both campaigns agreed to. What's the consequence when a torrent of lies and mistruths delivered with verve and vigor go unchallenged as they were last night?

Samantha Putterman:

Yes, I think that the consequences are quite high.

This was on the biggest political stage thus far in this presidency. And, of course, I would say that fact-checking is important. I understand the moderators wanted to make sure that the candidates got their say in and to not appear like they were unfairly interfering or favoring one side over the other.

But as journalists, it's also their job to hold powerful people accountable and check them when they are being inaccurate with the American people, especially during a high-stakes presidential election. I don't think they could have fact-checked every false or misleading claim made last night, but they could have done their due diligence to correct for the record frequently false claims made on incredibly important topics like abortion, economy, and immigration.

The American people deserve to know when a presidential candidate is spreading falsehoods, especially on issues they will be voting on.

Geoff Bennett:

That is Samantha Putterman of PolitiFact.

Sam, thanks so much.

Samantha Putterman:

Thank you.

Moderators are to impartially moderate the debate, not to take sides, not to enter the debate.

Politilie would be a better title for her garbage.

Note that they never give specifics for any of their emotional charges against Trump (except for their repeated lies). If he is such a threat, why did he abide by the decisions about the 2020 election?
He has always followed the courts, unlike Joe Biden.

Quote:I keep waiting for the news surrounding Joe Biden's mental collapse to peak, but there doesn't appear to be an end on the horizon. You can't go more than an hour without a new detail being added to the ever-growing scandal, and perhaps the biggest story so far dropped while Americans were celebrating the Fourth of July.

In an absolute bombshell report, which began taking shape over half a year ago, Biden's condition is laid bare, as is the ongoing cover-up that led to so many denying it for so long. According to New York Magazine, friends of the president recalled encounters with him where he couldn't even remember their names. The quotes and descriptions of events within the article are absolutely wild.

Those who encountered the president in social settings sometimes left their interactions disturbed. Longtime friends of the Biden family, who spoke to me on the condition of anonymity, were shocked to find that the president did not remember their names. At a White House event last year, a guest recalled, with horror, realizing that the president would not be able to stay for the reception because, it was clear, he would not be able to make it through the reception. The guest wasn’t sure they could vote for Biden, since the guest was now open to an idea that they had previously dismissed as right-wing propaganda: The president may not really be the acting president after all.

Becoming oblivious to friends and other long-running aspects of one's life is a telltale sign of dementia. Anyone who has dealt with someone suffering from the condition knows exactly what is being described in that excerpt. Throughout the report, Biden is described as completely aloof at times, unable to finish events and forgetting things that no normal, functioning human would forget.

Olivia Nuzzi, the author of the piece, also described one of her encounters with the president.

My heart stopped as I extended my hand to greet the president. I tried to make eye contact, but it was like his eyes, though open, were not on. His face had a waxy quality. He smiled. It was a sweet smile. It made me sad in a way I can’t fully convey. I always thought — and I wrote — that he was a decent man. If ambition was his only sin, and it seemed to be, he had committed no sin at all by the standards of most politicians I had covered. He took my hand in his, and I was startled by how it felt. Not cold but cool. The basement was so warm that people were sweating and complaining that they were sweating. This was a silly black-tie affair. I said “hello.” His sweet smile stayed frozen. He spoke very slowly and in a very soft voice. “And what’s your name?” he asked.

The news isn't just that Biden's senile, though. RedState has been reporting on that reality for years, providing ample evidence along the way. Not believing one's eyes and ears was always a requirement for believing the president was in good health. We all knew, and that's the thing. They all knew as well.

When they discussed what they knew, what they had seen, what they had heard, they literally whispered. They were scared and horrified. But they were also burdened. They needed to talk about it (though not on the record). They needed to know that they were not alone and not crazy. Things were bad, and they knew things were bad, and they knew others must also know things were bad, and yet they would need to pretend, outwardly, that things were fine. The president was fine. The election would be fine. They would be fine. To admit otherwise would mean jeopardizing the future of the country and, well, nobody wanted to be responsible personally or socially for that.

As the article's headline indicates, there was quite literally a "conspiracy of silence" protecting Joe Biden. Democrats justified to themselves that the threat of Donald Trump overshadowed any care for whether the President of the United States was mentally competent to fulfill the duties of his office. That takes this well past just arguments about the 2024 election. This is a genuine scandal in its own right, and the list of accessories is a mile long.

Forget Donald Trump for a moment. The country does not have a president right now. This can't just be swept under the rug because Jill Biden says her husband is fine. There need to be repercussions. There need to be resignations. More immediately, though, the 25th Amendment needs to be invoked. This can't be ignored anymore.

Link

Quote:Reporting takes time. I started to hear from these sources in January. This piece is about a conspiracy of silence that made people reluctant to talk. The reporting process is talking to sources and corroborating information and getting more information and corroborating that. Debate changed some people’s calculations about how candid they would be, and even then not on the record. Most of my stories take months and months.

One thing is true, Trump is a threat to democracy, IF you define democracy as a Deep State run nation that does give people control over their towns, sometimes states, school boards etc.

Little, if anything with the world Federal in it, can truly be affected much by the election of mainstream politicians. Sure, they’ll put different icing on the surface to deflect, but it doesn’t go very deep. And Deep is the trouble we’re in. In many ways.

I remember running into Robert Byrd about 20 years ago during the end of his time in Congress. It amazes me how fake he looked in person, much more like a wax statue than a real person. Sounds like Joe is looking like his idol.