A bit late on this, but seemed worth noting - John may have taken back his remarks wishing for a Trump assassination, but it's telling that someone usually as even-keeled as him ("I'm too arrogant to let racist interactions affect me", etc.) was moved to play fast and loose with that kind of rhetoric...someone just tried to kill Trump and missed by about an inch, and killed at least one bystander in the bargain.
1. I do NOT like John's notion of "Biden should speak from the teleprompter". Why not just have Siri read it? Is that really what the President's public persona is about: Reading aloud something written by a speech writer? I suspect we could get a better performance from an AI with Biden's voice.
2. Sure, Trump lied. While I don't think it was as one-sided as John suggests (Trump didn't *always* lie, nor did Biden *always* tell the truth), as Bill Maher said: "Wow, Trump lied. It's too bad Joe Biden wasn't there to stop him." Part of the role of President is to be the face of the Nation to foreign dignitaries. Can you imagine a Biden/Putin summit? Putin would eat Biden for lunch.
I'm not sure how useful debates are either, but they do provide (perhaps) the best assessment of the person's actual capabilities. It's the only stress-test we have. (I guess Biden could give some interviews to hostile reporters. Or the DOJ could release the tapes from Hur's interview with Biden.)
3. Why was anyone surprised by Biden's performance? His failings have been pretty obvious to those of us on the right. Anyone who was surprised should be asking themselves -- why was this hidden from me? What else has MSM attempted to cover up in their defense of Biden?
Previously I respected John McWhorter who seemed rather sensible over a lot of issues for a liberal. Unfortunately, he has a severe case of Trump Derange Syndrome. He blithely states that Trump lied throughout the debate without providing any evidence - what, specifically did he lie about and what was the truth? He has also expressed a desire for Trump"s assassination, which is pretty extreme. Sadly, I have lost respect.
I agree with most of the informed conservative commentary expressed. However, there is another unpalatable angle that should not be ignored. Many years ago, and the reason I locked on to Glenn Loury was because I wanted to understand the African-American mentality. I wanted to hear them debating the issues. The fact that inter alia, Glenn invited people like Charles Murray and Amy Wax on to the show intrigued me. I was impressed. Nevertheless, I could see that African-American benign racism festered below the surface. I could see Glenn internally calculating, rejecting and recalculating his own prejudices and biases. It was okay because all human beings possess some evolutionary biases. John McWhorter was another story, his prejudice and outright racism towards Donald J. Trump is disguised under the cloak of Democrat Party dishonesty and corruption. When McWhorter called for the assassination of Trump he crossed over to the darkside. The fact that Glenn Loury retains John as his show partner is extremely telling and not to his credit. Glenn, addresses the National Conservative Conference and gets a standing ovation, he articulates an intelligence that he knows is right but that he can barely tolerate. He apologises for saying the ‘unsayable’ and forces himself to acknowledge what he is preaching. My advice to Glenn Loury: “stay in touch with yourself but don’t think you have fooled everyone. I reiterate we like and respect Glenn Loury he is just another human-being trying to exist in a complicated world. My request is that he show us the same courtesy.”
Here's what it says about our country. The Dems have been hyperbolic about Trump's being a Nazi, a racist, a criminal and a threat to democracy. They were able to beat him in 2020 with Biden, who at his age and with his now admitted mental decline should have been a one-term president. Yet instead of working on a replacement who might steer more centrist and actually unify the country, they have persisted in policies that almost 2/3 of the country is not in favor of, and tried to keep Biden "alive" and run him and his inept VP for another 4 years. If Trump was such a threat, why persist in this manner? There is probably 30-35% of the voting populace that will vote for Biden (Kamala) and the regime regardless. There is probably another 5-15% that will not vote or vote for a 3rd party. There is probably a 30-35% hardcore MAGA group and another 10% that will hold their noses and vote for Trump, who will again become president. Then we will see if he jails all the Democrats, starts WWIII and causes death and destruction worldwide. Probably not.
I guess I’m just amazed that people are stunned by what they saw at the debate. It’s been obvious since before the election when I wondered just who people thought they were voting for, pulling the lever for Biden. It was so clear why they hid him in the basement, why they ushered him in and out of press conferences so he couldn’t take questions, why he kept saying ‘they’re going to be mad at me’, why he spent 40% of his time in Delaware resting, why he called lids at 10:30 a.m. There’s a 2019 picture of him on a stage putting his wife’s hand in his mouth like a toddler. To say I’m disappointed in Mr. Loury saying he is shocked to know it now doesn’t even come close. Almost beyond belief to not have known this. Yeah disappointed is not the word I’m looking for.
We don't see what we're conditioned to not see....because seeing it, seeing Biden for what he was and was not, even 4 years ago, would have forced an awful lot of people to rethink priorities which were fundamental their sense of self.
Kinda reminds me of that psych experiment on selective perception .... asking the audience to count the number of times the ball is passed in a group of people, when a man in a gorilla suit enters the group. You can see the original test here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo
Excellent example. I’ve always believed people have been conditioned by the media to ‘hate trump’. Even when their reasons are blatant (and easily debunked!) lies: Russia, Charlottesville , etc. The man was president for 4 years. Which of his policies were so awful? Strong borders? Strong economy? Low unemployment? No foreign wars?
But no! Media says hate trump, people fall in line. And completely ignore the incoherent, corrupt midwit in the gorilla suit, wandering through the White House. Just appalling.
Weird, even after admitting Biden is dissociated, incoherent and operating w/ childlike mental capacity, a false equivalence has to be drawn between the president and Donald Trump. Biden was the closest thing the Democrats had to a regular-guy populist they could control. It would make it less obvious that they were out to destroy, at any cost, populists and self-sufficient revilers of big government. Now it’s bitten them on the ass. Oh what a tangled web and all that crap.
Ignore the debate itself (and 'debate' is too strong a word)...ignore the back & forth, and the typical trotting-out of hyperbole, exaggeration, posturing, and voguing.
Let us speak, rather, to the large & increasingly dangerous elephant in the room.
Would any of us trust Joe with the car keys? Would any of us accept his offer to give us a ride home after work? Would we ask him to pick-up the grandkids after practice.....or go to the store to get some milk? If he volunteered to water our flowers while we're on vacation, does anyone actually believe they'd be alive when we came home?
Would we want grandpa to babysit the kids?
Would we trust him to get on a riding lawnmower and mow the lawn?
The answer to all these question is an absolute NO.
We'd take his car keys (would have taken them, in fact 4 years ago, when the decline, and creeping incapacity first became obvious). We would not hire him as a WalMart Greeter (those people have to look alert and answer questions in a voice that can be heard). We wouldn't trust him with sharp objects or power tools.
What some of us have been saying for years (ever since the bunkered candidacy in '20) was painfully, and unmissably revealed in that sad & pathetic performance on the world stage just a few days ago. And what makes it all infinitely worse is that we're not talking about taking awat Grandpa's keys to the family car...we're talking about the fact that right now he has the keys to the country tucked away in his jacket pocket. He has the codes to the nuclear 'football' at arm's reach. He's responsible for the largest military...the largest economy in the world. And NONE OF US would trust him with our kids, our car, or a trip to the grocery store.
And THAT is horrific.
Sadly, many of us have already been there with our own parents. Many of us have already removed the car keys, taken away the sharp knives, and permanently borrowed the power tools. We've taken them to the doctor and translated their problems and the prescription solutions back and forth. We've apologized to the nurses for the inappropriate comments, the too loud voice saying, "Why are you so fat?"
Dementia (no matter its cause) is a terrible, vicious, debilitating thing. Elvis 'leaves the building' before he actually leaves the building....and all the surrounding family bears the cost even as Elvis himself becomes less and less aware.
It's bad enough when it's your Dad or your Mom...it's 10,000X worse when it's the President of the United States who has been given a job that he is absolutely incapable of executing. Anyone of the 50M people who watched the show know...so do our Friends...so do our Enemies. And that makes Today way, way more dangerous than it has any right to be.
He needs to leave the office. And if he refuses (as dear, old Dad refused) then he must be removed. The time for half-assing our way down the road of deceit and misdirection is long past. Shame on those who perpetrated this scam. Something must be done and it begins with a different President. We cannot afford to wait until November.
To be fair to the American voter, I think they are both generally considered degrees of terrible except among the most devoted. My real concern is that our political system presents us only these two choices, and there is nothing we can do about it. And it's not a one-off! 4 years later, after a series of social catastrophes, in a time of serious conflict, with one of the candidates barely able to speak let alone come up with his own cogent sentences - out of the machine comes the same binary choice.
A bit late on this, but seemed worth noting - John may have taken back his remarks wishing for a Trump assassination, but it's telling that someone usually as even-keeled as him ("I'm too arrogant to let racist interactions affect me", etc.) was moved to play fast and loose with that kind of rhetoric...someone just tried to kill Trump and missed by about an inch, and killed at least one bystander in the bargain.
1. I do NOT like John's notion of "Biden should speak from the teleprompter". Why not just have Siri read it? Is that really what the President's public persona is about: Reading aloud something written by a speech writer? I suspect we could get a better performance from an AI with Biden's voice.
2. Sure, Trump lied. While I don't think it was as one-sided as John suggests (Trump didn't *always* lie, nor did Biden *always* tell the truth), as Bill Maher said: "Wow, Trump lied. It's too bad Joe Biden wasn't there to stop him." Part of the role of President is to be the face of the Nation to foreign dignitaries. Can you imagine a Biden/Putin summit? Putin would eat Biden for lunch.
I'm not sure how useful debates are either, but they do provide (perhaps) the best assessment of the person's actual capabilities. It's the only stress-test we have. (I guess Biden could give some interviews to hostile reporters. Or the DOJ could release the tapes from Hur's interview with Biden.)
3. Why was anyone surprised by Biden's performance? His failings have been pretty obvious to those of us on the right. Anyone who was surprised should be asking themselves -- why was this hidden from me? What else has MSM attempted to cover up in their defense of Biden?
Previously I respected John McWhorter who seemed rather sensible over a lot of issues for a liberal. Unfortunately, he has a severe case of Trump Derange Syndrome. He blithely states that Trump lied throughout the debate without providing any evidence - what, specifically did he lie about and what was the truth? He has also expressed a desire for Trump"s assassination, which is pretty extreme. Sadly, I have lost respect.
BTW, I think Biden has been a disaster for this country but I don't support his assassination.
I agree with most of the informed conservative commentary expressed. However, there is another unpalatable angle that should not be ignored. Many years ago, and the reason I locked on to Glenn Loury was because I wanted to understand the African-American mentality. I wanted to hear them debating the issues. The fact that inter alia, Glenn invited people like Charles Murray and Amy Wax on to the show intrigued me. I was impressed. Nevertheless, I could see that African-American benign racism festered below the surface. I could see Glenn internally calculating, rejecting and recalculating his own prejudices and biases. It was okay because all human beings possess some evolutionary biases. John McWhorter was another story, his prejudice and outright racism towards Donald J. Trump is disguised under the cloak of Democrat Party dishonesty and corruption. When McWhorter called for the assassination of Trump he crossed over to the darkside. The fact that Glenn Loury retains John as his show partner is extremely telling and not to his credit. Glenn, addresses the National Conservative Conference and gets a standing ovation, he articulates an intelligence that he knows is right but that he can barely tolerate. He apologises for saying the ‘unsayable’ and forces himself to acknowledge what he is preaching. My advice to Glenn Loury: “stay in touch with yourself but don’t think you have fooled everyone. I reiterate we like and respect Glenn Loury he is just another human-being trying to exist in a complicated world. My request is that he show us the same courtesy.”
Thanks for this. I have been searching for these words.
Here's what it says about our country. The Dems have been hyperbolic about Trump's being a Nazi, a racist, a criminal and a threat to democracy. They were able to beat him in 2020 with Biden, who at his age and with his now admitted mental decline should have been a one-term president. Yet instead of working on a replacement who might steer more centrist and actually unify the country, they have persisted in policies that almost 2/3 of the country is not in favor of, and tried to keep Biden "alive" and run him and his inept VP for another 4 years. If Trump was such a threat, why persist in this manner? There is probably 30-35% of the voting populace that will vote for Biden (Kamala) and the regime regardless. There is probably another 5-15% that will not vote or vote for a 3rd party. There is probably a 30-35% hardcore MAGA group and another 10% that will hold their noses and vote for Trump, who will again become president. Then we will see if he jails all the Democrats, starts WWIII and causes death and destruction worldwide. Probably not.
I guess I’m just amazed that people are stunned by what they saw at the debate. It’s been obvious since before the election when I wondered just who people thought they were voting for, pulling the lever for Biden. It was so clear why they hid him in the basement, why they ushered him in and out of press conferences so he couldn’t take questions, why he kept saying ‘they’re going to be mad at me’, why he spent 40% of his time in Delaware resting, why he called lids at 10:30 a.m. There’s a 2019 picture of him on a stage putting his wife’s hand in his mouth like a toddler. To say I’m disappointed in Mr. Loury saying he is shocked to know it now doesn’t even come close. Almost beyond belief to not have known this. Yeah disappointed is not the word I’m looking for.
See no evil; hear no evil; speak no evil.
We don't see what we're conditioned to not see....because seeing it, seeing Biden for what he was and was not, even 4 years ago, would have forced an awful lot of people to rethink priorities which were fundamental their sense of self.
Kinda reminds me of that psych experiment on selective perception .... asking the audience to count the number of times the ball is passed in a group of people, when a man in a gorilla suit enters the group. You can see the original test here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo
Excellent example. I’ve always believed people have been conditioned by the media to ‘hate trump’. Even when their reasons are blatant (and easily debunked!) lies: Russia, Charlottesville , etc. The man was president for 4 years. Which of his policies were so awful? Strong borders? Strong economy? Low unemployment? No foreign wars?
But no! Media says hate trump, people fall in line. And completely ignore the incoherent, corrupt midwit in the gorilla suit, wandering through the White House. Just appalling.
Weird, even after admitting Biden is dissociated, incoherent and operating w/ childlike mental capacity, a false equivalence has to be drawn between the president and Donald Trump. Biden was the closest thing the Democrats had to a regular-guy populist they could control. It would make it less obvious that they were out to destroy, at any cost, populists and self-sufficient revilers of big government. Now it’s bitten them on the ass. Oh what a tangled web and all that crap.
The REACTION to Trump has always been the issue. And WHY that is the case should be front & center of EVERYBODY'S attention.
Ignore the debate itself (and 'debate' is too strong a word)...ignore the back & forth, and the typical trotting-out of hyperbole, exaggeration, posturing, and voguing.
Let us speak, rather, to the large & increasingly dangerous elephant in the room.
Would any of us trust Joe with the car keys? Would any of us accept his offer to give us a ride home after work? Would we ask him to pick-up the grandkids after practice.....or go to the store to get some milk? If he volunteered to water our flowers while we're on vacation, does anyone actually believe they'd be alive when we came home?
Would we want grandpa to babysit the kids?
Would we trust him to get on a riding lawnmower and mow the lawn?
The answer to all these question is an absolute NO.
We'd take his car keys (would have taken them, in fact 4 years ago, when the decline, and creeping incapacity first became obvious). We would not hire him as a WalMart Greeter (those people have to look alert and answer questions in a voice that can be heard). We wouldn't trust him with sharp objects or power tools.
What some of us have been saying for years (ever since the bunkered candidacy in '20) was painfully, and unmissably revealed in that sad & pathetic performance on the world stage just a few days ago. And what makes it all infinitely worse is that we're not talking about taking awat Grandpa's keys to the family car...we're talking about the fact that right now he has the keys to the country tucked away in his jacket pocket. He has the codes to the nuclear 'football' at arm's reach. He's responsible for the largest military...the largest economy in the world. And NONE OF US would trust him with our kids, our car, or a trip to the grocery store.
And THAT is horrific.
Sadly, many of us have already been there with our own parents. Many of us have already removed the car keys, taken away the sharp knives, and permanently borrowed the power tools. We've taken them to the doctor and translated their problems and the prescription solutions back and forth. We've apologized to the nurses for the inappropriate comments, the too loud voice saying, "Why are you so fat?"
Dementia (no matter its cause) is a terrible, vicious, debilitating thing. Elvis 'leaves the building' before he actually leaves the building....and all the surrounding family bears the cost even as Elvis himself becomes less and less aware.
It's bad enough when it's your Dad or your Mom...it's 10,000X worse when it's the President of the United States who has been given a job that he is absolutely incapable of executing. Anyone of the 50M people who watched the show know...so do our Friends...so do our Enemies. And that makes Today way, way more dangerous than it has any right to be.
He needs to leave the office. And if he refuses (as dear, old Dad refused) then he must be removed. The time for half-assing our way down the road of deceit and misdirection is long past. Shame on those who perpetrated this scam. Something must be done and it begins with a different President. We cannot afford to wait until November.
Most appalling to me is that these two men are considered the best choices in our country to serve as its leader.
To be fair to the American voter, I think they are both generally considered degrees of terrible except among the most devoted. My real concern is that our political system presents us only these two choices, and there is nothing we can do about it. And it's not a one-off! 4 years later, after a series of social catastrophes, in a time of serious conflict, with one of the candidates barely able to speak let alone come up with his own cogent sentences - out of the machine comes the same binary choice.
Never get into a pissing contest with a skunk