The great delicious irony here is that when the MSM and DNC married each other, they guaranteed that when their ships sunk they would both sink to the bottom chained together.
If the Dems weren't able to fall asleep every night without knowing that, much like having an excellent maid or butler, whatever messes they may have made would be all cleaned up by their press lackeys first thing next morning, then maybe—
they wouldn't have pumped that last trillion into the economy and been able to level off inflation, instead of prices getting jacked up by at least 20%, which not even Pravda could have covered for;
they wouldn't have opened wide the border and flooded the country with tens of thousands of "migrants" every month, which they denied—"the border is secure" is this decade's Saddam had WMDs—until no one could walk around any major city and not see the truth for themselves (mostly thanks to Govs Abbot and DeSantis);
and, most blatantly, maybe they would have sat down with the boss of the Biden family in 2023 and explained to him that no matter how much Jill and Hunter were enjoying their royal lifestyles, there was no way he could be Prez from 2025-2029 and thus needed to step aside asap so they could have a primary, instead of getting stuck with his lamebrained understudy.
But instead they pledged omerta to the Big Lie that hid their little lies and thought they could keep the con going just into November—and they got close! If only Joe could have held it together for one debate!
Ooops! Couldn't have happened to a lamer bunch of aspiring totalitarians...
(Great job, and extra credit for "anoetic"—I hadda look that up.)
Nice summary of the final days of the shit show presidency. It is infuriating that Biden was just a front man, while the roadies behind the stacks were doing the actual singing.. That's not the case today. Love him or hate him, Trump's large and in charge! It's way better than what we had.
Because Brad mentions Franklin Foer, who he cites as authoring a favorable book on Biden (and this is less about Foer himself than an illustration of bias and narrative control within mainstream journalism):
Foer authored a 2016 story for Slate about a back-channel between Trump's company and a Russian bank called Alfa Bank. This will sound familiar to a lot of you.
According to Jeff Gerth, who authored the expansive, four-part, must-read "The Press vs. The President" for the Columbia Journalism Review, that story had been pitched to various MSM outlets by the investigation firm Fusion GPS, which had signed a research contract with the law firm that represented the DNC and the Clinton campaign. Basically, they wanted dirt on Trump.
Here's what Gerth says about that Slate article and its author, Foer:
"That piece’s author, Franklin Foer, worked closely with Fusion, forwarding drafts of his stories to the private investigative firm prior to their publication, according to court records. Foer, now at The Atlantic, declined to respond to an email seeking comment."
- You have a journalist writing a story that suggests Russians are secretly communicating with the Republican nominee for the presidency
- based on information promoted by the research firm hired by a lawyer for the Democratic campaign
- And that journalist is sharing his drafts with that same firm, which has a vested interest in the claims being true.
I just did a search of Foer's article -- nowhere does he mention Fusion GPS.
But if you want to read a risible tale of cybersecurity scientists, "spurred by a sense of shared idealism," who call themselves "The Union of Concerned Nerds" and just happened to care so hard about democracy that they started keeping logs of the Trump Organization's computer server's DNS activity to see if the Russians had hacked them just like they hacked the DNC, here it is:
This is why, when you read an MSM news article, consider it may not be the result of carefully vetted information, researched and analyzed by a team of intellectually curious journalists working to keep the public informed, wherever that information may lead, but as an exercise in narrative building that is done in compliance and with the approval of those who stand to benefit from its publication.
Very nicely done....."Potemkin Presidency", "extinction level event for the credibility of the journalist and pundit class", not to mention "anoetic" which I had to look up.....beautiful! Although we could possibly change "specific class of affluents" to "effluents"?
I rarely have to look up words, but anoetic had me stumped. Thank you. It was a perfect word for what’s going on, and thank God. Enough of us can see and understand what is going on to at least get Trump elected to perhaps put a brake on the evil takeover.
I really do feel bad for the children and young adults emotionally damaged via the various man-created, non-emergencies of climate, gender and the rest. They are true believers. Coming back from that will be devastating. Kids give their all to their passions. What is the solution? I don’t know.
But I do know that Trump speaks truth. He loves our republic and its founders and founding documents. If there is any hope for a path forward, this is it.
I agree with other commenters that this was an excellent summary of where we are now. Also agree with Goldberg's assessment that Biden's administration created new avenues of abuse for future presidencies, including Trump 47's.
That's also something that irks me tremendously. I'm recognizing slowly that if Trump continues playing by the rules that the Democrats routinely violate it's no wonder that Republicans always lose, this is after all what pretty much hamstrung Trumps first presidency. Perhaps the shameless abuse of (executive) power has to continue on until both sides realize that this is incredibly damaging to the country and perhaps then we'll see some more effective checks and balances.
Excellent piece! The sad thing is that so many satirical articles from the Babylon Bee seem plausible--Biden says certain things and gets ice cream. (For the record, I truly pity the man.) What a far cry from The Onion's Joe Biden in the 2000's.
But the about face from the media, not being allowed to question his mental facilities... Shameful.
I pity the country, not Biden. He deserves everything he gets, his legacy shattered and his name always being linked to corruption and being an international laughing stock and cautionary tale.
Brad, I'm sure you meant cabal... This was a Potemkin administration, George Orwell’s version of Weekend at Bernie’s in which a shadowy cable of scheming progressive technocrats teamed up with Democratic activists, loyalists, politicos, and legislators to .....
One big problem with the death of the press is that while X and other media in many regards is a substitute or at least a check on the corporate media there also needs to be a way to liberate inside operation. We still don't know who did what in the Biden administration since all the people who operated him like a meat marionette remain unnamed. It's pretty clear there are different camps with different priorities, some in the Biden family took delight in taking revenge on the Democrats while others tried pushing their pet issues. If those people could start leaking to something like wikileaks instead of corporate journalists who are often duped by their inside sources it would improve the landscape. At the very least they can't get away with this anymore.
Having the Potemkin presidency was so useful to some people that they never even thought about invoking the 25th, only as a tool to keep Biden in line. There probably needs to be another way to remove an incompetent president that doesn't rely on his political allies. Perhaps state governments should have some say in this, being removed from Washington and not part of the federal executive. Congress could potentially provide such a body under Section 4 of the 25th amendment.
Thanks for a great article. We absolutely cannot allow this shameful episode to be swept into the corner, where everyone knows about it but few are willing to really get to the bottom of the who, how, and why this happened.
The great delicious irony here is that when the MSM and DNC married each other, they guaranteed that when their ships sunk they would both sink to the bottom chained together.
If the Dems weren't able to fall asleep every night without knowing that, much like having an excellent maid or butler, whatever messes they may have made would be all cleaned up by their press lackeys first thing next morning, then maybe—
they wouldn't have pumped that last trillion into the economy and been able to level off inflation, instead of prices getting jacked up by at least 20%, which not even Pravda could have covered for;
they wouldn't have opened wide the border and flooded the country with tens of thousands of "migrants" every month, which they denied—"the border is secure" is this decade's Saddam had WMDs—until no one could walk around any major city and not see the truth for themselves (mostly thanks to Govs Abbot and DeSantis);
and, most blatantly, maybe they would have sat down with the boss of the Biden family in 2023 and explained to him that no matter how much Jill and Hunter were enjoying their royal lifestyles, there was no way he could be Prez from 2025-2029 and thus needed to step aside asap so they could have a primary, instead of getting stuck with his lamebrained understudy.
But instead they pledged omerta to the Big Lie that hid their little lies and thought they could keep the con going just into November—and they got close! If only Joe could have held it together for one debate!
Ooops! Couldn't have happened to a lamer bunch of aspiring totalitarians...
(Great job, and extra credit for "anoetic"—I hadda look that up.)
Agreed. Excellent opinion piece. Anoetic is a great word, evidently one generous step above brain-dead.
Nice summary of the final days of the shit show presidency. It is infuriating that Biden was just a front man, while the roadies behind the stacks were doing the actual singing.. That's not the case today. Love him or hate him, Trump's large and in charge! It's way better than what we had.
Easily your best summation of the events & how the news was manipulated yet. Congratulations Brad. Home run!
Because Brad mentions Franklin Foer, who he cites as authoring a favorable book on Biden (and this is less about Foer himself than an illustration of bias and narrative control within mainstream journalism):
Foer authored a 2016 story for Slate about a back-channel between Trump's company and a Russian bank called Alfa Bank. This will sound familiar to a lot of you.
According to Jeff Gerth, who authored the expansive, four-part, must-read "The Press vs. The President" for the Columbia Journalism Review, that story had been pitched to various MSM outlets by the investigation firm Fusion GPS, which had signed a research contract with the law firm that represented the DNC and the Clinton campaign. Basically, they wanted dirt on Trump.
Here's what Gerth says about that Slate article and its author, Foer:
"That piece’s author, Franklin Foer, worked closely with Fusion, forwarding drafts of his stories to the private investigative firm prior to their publication, according to court records. Foer, now at The Atlantic, declined to respond to an email seeking comment."
https://www.cjr.org/special_report/trumped-up-press-versus-president-part-1.php
To summarize:
- You have a journalist writing a story that suggests Russians are secretly communicating with the Republican nominee for the presidency
- based on information promoted by the research firm hired by a lawyer for the Democratic campaign
- And that journalist is sharing his drafts with that same firm, which has a vested interest in the claims being true.
I just did a search of Foer's article -- nowhere does he mention Fusion GPS.
But if you want to read a risible tale of cybersecurity scientists, "spurred by a sense of shared idealism," who call themselves "The Union of Concerned Nerds" and just happened to care so hard about democracy that they started keeping logs of the Trump Organization's computer server's DNS activity to see if the Russians had hacked them just like they hacked the DNC, here it is:
https://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/10/was_a_server_registered_to_the_trump_organization_communicating_with_russia.html
This is why, when you read an MSM news article, consider it may not be the result of carefully vetted information, researched and analyzed by a team of intellectually curious journalists working to keep the public informed, wherever that information may lead, but as an exercise in narrative building that is done in compliance and with the approval of those who stand to benefit from its publication.
Very nicely done....."Potemkin Presidency", "extinction level event for the credibility of the journalist and pundit class", not to mention "anoetic" which I had to look up.....beautiful! Although we could possibly change "specific class of affluents" to "effluents"?
Haha, both.
Perhaps affluent effluents?
I rarely have to look up words, but anoetic had me stumped. Thank you. It was a perfect word for what’s going on, and thank God. Enough of us can see and understand what is going on to at least get Trump elected to perhaps put a brake on the evil takeover.
I really do feel bad for the children and young adults emotionally damaged via the various man-created, non-emergencies of climate, gender and the rest. They are true believers. Coming back from that will be devastating. Kids give their all to their passions. What is the solution? I don’t know.
But I do know that Trump speaks truth. He loves our republic and its founders and founding documents. If there is any hope for a path forward, this is it.
Quick question - was Jake Sullivan pardoned?
Asking for a friend
I agree with other commenters that this was an excellent summary of where we are now. Also agree with Goldberg's assessment that Biden's administration created new avenues of abuse for future presidencies, including Trump 47's.
That's also something that irks me tremendously. I'm recognizing slowly that if Trump continues playing by the rules that the Democrats routinely violate it's no wonder that Republicans always lose, this is after all what pretty much hamstrung Trumps first presidency. Perhaps the shameless abuse of (executive) power has to continue on until both sides realize that this is incredibly damaging to the country and perhaps then we'll see some more effective checks and balances.
Excellent piece! The sad thing is that so many satirical articles from the Babylon Bee seem plausible--Biden says certain things and gets ice cream. (For the record, I truly pity the man.) What a far cry from The Onion's Joe Biden in the 2000's.
But the about face from the media, not being allowed to question his mental facilities... Shameful.
I pity the country, not Biden. He deserves everything he gets, his legacy shattered and his name always being linked to corruption and being an international laughing stock and cautionary tale.
Yeah, there's that too. Those last minute pardons spoke volumes.
Brad, I'm sure you meant cabal... This was a Potemkin administration, George Orwell’s version of Weekend at Bernie’s in which a shadowy cable of scheming progressive technocrats teamed up with Democratic activists, loyalists, politicos, and legislators to .....
Yes, thank you
Given what the MSM (MSNBC, CNN, etc) spew on cable, it's a near miss good pun.
Well said!
This is spectacular. Thank you.
One big problem with the death of the press is that while X and other media in many regards is a substitute or at least a check on the corporate media there also needs to be a way to liberate inside operation. We still don't know who did what in the Biden administration since all the people who operated him like a meat marionette remain unnamed. It's pretty clear there are different camps with different priorities, some in the Biden family took delight in taking revenge on the Democrats while others tried pushing their pet issues. If those people could start leaking to something like wikileaks instead of corporate journalists who are often duped by their inside sources it would improve the landscape. At the very least they can't get away with this anymore.
Having the Potemkin presidency was so useful to some people that they never even thought about invoking the 25th, only as a tool to keep Biden in line. There probably needs to be another way to remove an incompetent president that doesn't rely on his political allies. Perhaps state governments should have some say in this, being removed from Washington and not part of the federal executive. Congress could potentially provide such a body under Section 4 of the 25th amendment.
Superb summation!
Thanks for a great article. We absolutely cannot allow this shameful episode to be swept into the corner, where everyone knows about it but few are willing to really get to the bottom of the who, how, and why this happened.