A Conspiracy to Keep Joe Biden in Office?
A book about a past president’s cognitive decline when we have a fascist with cognitive decline currently sitting in the oval office doesn’t make much sense.
So much news…so little time. As the Trump administration continues its ‘flood the media’ game plan, it becomes increasingly hard to pick topics for my daily musings.
So let me clear the log jam with a couple of short takes, starting with The Democrats and The Conspiracy to foist Joe Biden on us for another four years.
Coming next week…DC journos Alex Thompson and Jake Tapper have authored “Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” a book on former President Joe Biden’s ‘condition.’ As is normal for deeply concerning political analysis, there have been leaks and previews in all the right places to ensure a number one spot on best seller lists.
The upshot of this book is that Biden’s inner-inner-inner circle (the words deep state are not used, but…) conspired to disguise his mental and physical deterioration, starting way before the poorly reviewed June 2024 debate with Donald Trump.
From an excerpt, in The New Yorker:
“What the public saw of his functioning was concerning. What was going on in private was worse. While Biden on a day-in, day-out basis could certainly make decisions and assert wisdom and act as President, there were several significant issues that complicated his Presidency: a limit to the hours in which he could reliably function and an increasing number of moments when he seemed to freeze up, lose his train of thought, forget the names of top aides, or momentarily not remember friends he’d known for decades. Not to mention impairments to his ability to communicate.”
My big question is why? The answers have to involve a desire to maintain a political status quo, already compromised in countless small ways thanks to the Supreme Court’s money-is-free-speech Citizens United ruling. Or… you can take a look at the history of the authors’ reporting, which mostly views politics as a horse race rather than as a reflection of the economic dominance of our ultra-wealthy class.
Finally, the limited hours and reliably function assertion from the New Yorker quote could reasonably be made about our current President.
The book, which was fact-checked prior to publication (a rare event for a political tome), seeks to assert that Trump’s victory is solely attributable to the cover-up of Biden’s health. (See next item.)
***
San Diegans who pay rent every month need to make nearly $50 per hour to afford the average monthly asking rent ($2,571), according to the recently released annual housing report by the California Housing Partnership. (Via Axios San Diego)
I don’t envision seeing retail/hospitality positions being advertised at that wage. I also remember–from personal experience– being able to afford rent in Hillcrest as a warehouse worker on near-minimum wage. So what gives?
Could it be that solutions to our housing crisis don’t lie with curing moral turpitude or mandating a higher minimum wage?
***
Performer/artist Bruce Springsteen is giving the Trump administration bad reviews as an opening act in his European tour.
“The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock and roll, in dangerous times. In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, and has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration. Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experience to rise with us, raise your voices against the authoritarianism, and let freedom ring. This is ‘Land of Hope and Dreams.”
This is all wonderful and I’ll always love the man and his music, but I’m pretty sure the Europeans already better understand what’s transpiring in the United States. Believing in ‘the best of our American experience’ means convincing the domestic audience that matters that there is a better way forward… and it doesn’t involve reversing the clock or simply shutting down the mean machine.
It would not surprise me, given that a US citizen “content creator” was pulled aside for questioning after a visit to Europe, if Springsteen’s band encounters certain difficulties as the tour concludes.
Charles Jay’s commentary at The Journal of Uncharted Blue Places gives substance to the intensity of The Boss Man’s passion on the European tour.
***
Stephen Colbert spent six minutes on the chariot with golden wings on Wednesday, equating it to a penis-measuring contest. Even Fox News personalities are trashing the Qatari gift, which for practical reasons couldn’t be used as a presidential conveyance. (Maybe shouldn’t is a better word.)
Via CNN:
It has been estimated the jet is worth $400 million, but a person familiar with the details of the potential plan said the value of the Qatari aircraft is closer to $250 million. Overhauling it, according to administration estimates the person has been briefed on, could cost as much as three times that, or more.
Even if used temporarily as Trump has said he would, US agencies would need to ensure there were no security vulnerabilities by essentially stripping the aircraft down to its frame and rebuilding it with the necessary communications and security equipment.
The faux-glittering Boeing 747 might be ready for use by the time that the already contracted replacement jet becomes available at the end of Trump’s second term.
But, hey, it’s the spectacle that counts, right? Just don’t put too much effort into thinking about the purported accomplishments of Trump’s current Middle East tour. Trump’s corruption is public for a reason.
Not that it matters, but this “gift” would need a congressional nod (US Constitution: Art. I Sec. 9) of some sort, says Rep. Jamie Raskin: Well, you can rob a bank in broad daylight but it’s still bank robbery.
The Israeli Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Gaza by Ruth Margalit in The New Yorker
In unit after unit, the Israeli military is seeing the attendance rates of reservists plummet. Among the resisters is a small but growing group of veterans, like Tamir, who openly express dissent and outrage. In March, a former intelligence officer named Michael Majer wrote on social media that he had “joined the Army to protect my people” but found that the current war was “in total contradiction to the interests of the Israeli people.” Nearly a thousand current and former pilots and airmen signed a petition last month calling for the release of the remaining hostages, “even at the cost of ending the war.” (The signatories stopped short of forthrightly calling for their peers to refuse call-ups, but the Air Force said that petition’s endorsers could no longer serve in the reserves.) Hundreds of current and former intelligence soldiers from the élite Unit 8200 and doctors in the Army reserves have signed similar letters.
While these protesters announce their moral objections, thousands of other reservists are engaging in what has become known as “quiet refusal”—simply not showing up for duty. Israel’s reserve forces make up about seventy per cent of its military. Former soldiers typically serve a maximum of fifty-four days, spread across three years. Attendance has always been overwhelming; military service, which is mandatory for both men and women, is coded into Israelis’ DNA. Now soldiers are arguing that it serves the country better—or at least serves their families better—if they don’t fight.
The Israel Defense Forces would not comment on the percentage of abstentions. In a recent briefing, an Army spokesperson said that the I.D.F. has “sufficient manpower to carry out its missions.” But, according to reporting in the newspaper Yediot Aharonot, the I.D.F. chief of staff warned ministers in a closed-door meeting that he had a significant shortage of soldiers and could not deliver on the government’s goals in Gaza. One lieutenant colonel said, “Entire companies have been disbanded.” A recruiter told Israel’s Channel 12 that she was in a “state of desperation.”
***
4th Democrat joins race to oust Rep. Issa: ‘This ain’t a campaign. It’s an intervention’ by Ken Stone at Times of San Diego
A more hopeful take comes from Democrat Ray Lutz, who in 2010 lost his own East County Congress race to young Republican Duncan D. Hunter 63.1% to 32.1%.
“Issa won’t be easy to beat,” Lutz said via email. “But 2026 may offer the perfect storm — economic fallout, cultural fatigue and an electorate hungry for authenticity over ideology. If one of these challengers can unify Democrats, independents and, yes, even some quiet Republicans, this district could flip.”
El Cajon’s Lutz, who leads an effort that encourages more public involvement in local governmental meetings, says: “The key will be clear vision, fearless outreach and relentless presence — in communities, on platforms and at the doors.”
***
White South African ‘Refugee’ Brought to U.S. by Trump Says ‘Jews Are Untrustworthy’ and ‘Dangerous’ by Sarah Rumpf at Mediaite
Last and Sommer noted in their commentary that Kleinhaus was entitled to his First Amendment rights — yes, even as an immigrant despite claims by Stephen Miller and others to the contrary — and to have his claim for refugee status “adjudicated fairly.”
And yet, Kleinhaus’ clearly voiced antisemitic views seemed to be eliciting shrugs from the Trump administration even as it cites the need to combat antisemitism in how it conducts immigration and foreign policy.
“Maybe the difference is that Kleinhaus is ostentatiously Christian—his feed is full of retweeted Bible verses, Christian exhortations, and memes of Trump walking with angels,” wrote Last and Sommer. “Or maybe the difference is that he’s white. Who can say. It’s a mystery!”
The issue was broader than Kleinhaus, they concluded. This was the Trump administration admitting that their claims about fighting antisemitism were “all just cover for getting rid of, you know, the wrong kind of people.”
