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Art's avatar

It would be interesting to hear Matt and Walter opine on the revelation that someone other than the elected president has been running the country for nearly four years. Who is the acting president and has the average voter comprehended that we have had something akin to a puppet leader all this time?

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Selenti's avatar

It's not exactly new is it? Various state organs were proudly proclaiming that Trump wasn't in charge when he was President, that they took shit off his desk and outright ignored his orders, and the military brass bragged about that after he was gone. I think people are just going, "Huh, so we were right again? Funny how that works."

There's a reason we have near zero trust in all institutions. It's not because most people still believe them.

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SimulationCommander's avatar

This is what a real media would be asking today -- this is how we know the MSM is still just as captured as it was yesterday, just with different orders.

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Julinthecrown's avatar

🎯

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GMT1969's avatar

Media is already circling the wagons and declaring that Biden just had a slightly bad night. He's the best version of himself.

Actually, maybe they are right. Heh, heh, heh.

But then, I've had a strong dislike for Biden ever since 1985 when he was the commencement speaker at my law school graduation.

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Boris Petrov's avatar

Obama (CIA) or Hillary (Pentagon) pulled most of the DNC strings?

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Zork (the) Hun's avatar

My vote (on this question) goes for Obama (CIA)

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SimulationCommander's avatar

It's the old Obama gang, now with more neocons!

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Boris Petrov's avatar

We agree 😀

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William Whitten's avatar

I think it is pretty obvious that there is a cabal of DNC big-shots led by Barack Obama that have been the behind the curtain force driving policy ever since bumbling stumbling Joe Biden was elected president.

\\][//

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Evans W's avatar

Hey Matt, what do you think the odds are of having any of the mainstream media talking heads apologize for gaslighting all those that dared question Joe Biden‘s cognitive abilities for the past 3 years?

Asking for a friend.

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DMC's avatar

Slim and none and slim just left town

Quoting my late Dad

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earthy.bookworm's avatar

Quoting my dad: "Want in one hand and $*!t in the other, and see which one fills up first." We want (and even deserve) an apology, but we're never gonna get one.

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Bryan J. B.'s avatar

Quoting your dad? Or quoting Jack Lemmon in "My Fellow Americans"?

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earthy.bookworm's avatar

Hmmm... I've never seen that! Maybe my dad lifted the quotation!

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One After 909's avatar

No problem with that.

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earthy.bookworm's avatar

I'm starting to think "Life isn't fair" may not have been an original dad-quote either!

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bestuvall's avatar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDXN7T3-Jrg. the best explanation. shit/shiniola. and he still steps in shit.. gotta love steve martin

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Evans W's avatar

Word.

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SimulationCommander's avatar

LOL no. Just like covid, they will just say we were conspiracy theorists and they were correct based on the information they had at the time.

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Spax RaCer's avatar

Hey, hold on a minute! That man is as sharp as a tack!

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rob's avatar

Zero

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norica's avatar

Wasn't it a deep cheap fake? Was that performance real?

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VR's avatar

Please include TheRealDebate in your analysis. Otherwise, you are contributing to CNNs censorship of presidential candidates.

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Alien Velour's avatar

Seconded. Also, would you cover the idea that DNC chose to wait until now to perform the coup and not have an open primary so that the party leaders could choose the replacement, and not risk someone like RFK Jr. winning the open primary.

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Anti-Hip's avatar

Worse, this is not simply Biden being unqualified for the 2024 election, so just sweep him away and move on. This incident opens, under floodlights, the Pandora's box of who has been running -- and who now continues to run -- the country.

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One After 909's avatar

This!!

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Chilblain Edward Olmos's avatar

I dig a pigmy

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Grateful Nana's avatar

Exactly

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Grateful Nana's avatar

Totally

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Boris Petrov's avatar

Yes RFK Jr was excellent !! He definitely won the debate …

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Bill Rice, Jr.'s avatar

Anyone think ABC (Disney) will allow Kennedy to participate in the next debate?

Nah.

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Disa sacks's avatar

Please stop focusing on Senile Biden. The real story is the Treason committed by The Democrat Machine led by Obama, Hillary, Jill, the Cabinet, congressional leadership, MSM( Tom Friedman, CNN, Odonell etc), his Doctors. prescribe whatever drugs he’s loaded up with( Parkinson drugs and uppers) . The Dems can’t be allowed to run another candidate. They are treasonous to the core. If this isn’t a conspiracy then what is?..

This makes Watergate look like Jaywalking

Please speak up now.

Kudos to Ramaswamy for saying it clearly on the debate stage in November of 23 .

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Lisa's avatar

Spot on. Why does a cabal called the Democratic Party get to censor RFK Jr., hold no primary, kick people off ballots, pursue outrageous and unprecedented lawfare, and then offer no choice but a senile puppet? After all this, they have the nerve to serve up that they are “preserving democracy “. Enough already. These party hacks are the new mafia.

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Boris Petrov's avatar

Because they are sooo democratic…

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Bill Rice, Jr.'s avatar

You know, all those doctors who prescribed all those drugs to Elvis later got charged with crimes or at least had their medical licenses revoked.

Anyone think the team of doctors who have been "caring" for our president will get their medical licenses taken away?

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One After 909's avatar

Only George Nichopoulos had his Tennessee license lifted and lathough he was indicted on 14 counts of overprescribing drugs to Elvis and other patients he was acquitted on all counts because the state couldn’t prove he prescribed with malice. I guess negligence is OK and there is the similarity: what we saw last night was Negligence.

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Bill Rice, Jr.'s avatar

I wonder how many doctors have "prescribed" uppers to Joe Biden in the last four years?

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Grateful Nana's avatar

They should

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Grateful Nana's avatar

100%

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Grateful Nana's avatar

100%

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Susan Steffner's avatar

So very sadly true....

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Gnome Chonky's avatar

The most shocking thing to me about the debate is how everyone has reacted. Each of the two candidates performed pretty much exactly as I expected them to.

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Selenti's avatar

You see these irruptions of cognitive dissonance with how strong the media brainwashing is sometimes. We saw it with the covid crisis for a day or two once upon a time--people realized they were lied to completely about the vaccine "fixing" the lockdowns and meaning society could open up again, but people turned around and memoryholed it in short order. They'll do the same here. This is just one of those moments where the cognitive model that millions of people have of the world snaps close to the point of breaking, only to quickly snap back into place to where it was before. They'll come up with some excuse and it'll be back to the races of denial.

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DaveL's avatar

Just another form of Pravda, the State information organ. Only difference here it has multiple outlets.

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Gnome Chonky's avatar

That was my assumption prior to the debate: that no matter how badly either candidate performed, everything would snap back into place within days. But I was surprised to see so many pundits talking up the "step aside Joe" narrative, when his performance was exactly in a straight (if downward-sloping) line from the 2020 debates through his public speaking opportunities of the last few years.

The commentariat energy only implies to me that the DNC inside team is really trying in earnest to make a switch happen. So they're working through their media contacts. Sy Hersh had a piece a few days ago about how yeah, this is the talk on the "inside" lately.

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Selenti's avatar

That's not to say they won't terminate Joe's candidacy. Politics is politics, and it can be ruthless. I just don't think the narrative will ever "break", so to speak. They'll come up with the excuse that keeps them angels, instead of horrible propagandists lying to millions of people, or vice versa, the poor rubes believing said propaganda over and over again.

It was the same thing in 2016... did they admit fault and just say they did a bad campaign, and reform the DNC to better answer voters needs? No, of course not. Instead, they went with the narrative that unnecessarily demonizes half the country as racists, because it was the narrative that preserved their image of self-righteousness. That's cognitive dissonance, and the mind reacting to preserve its sense of homeostasis.

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Bill Rice, Jr.'s avatar

Biden actually did much better than I thought he would. The drugs worked a little.

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Gnome Chonky's avatar

Agree, but again this was pretty much what I expected: he'd be juiced up. I was more surprised in his 2020 debate with Bernie.

"I'll have whatever he's having" :)

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Bill Rice, Jr.'s avatar

He didn't start speaking in tongues and he didn't bring up his late uncle who was eaten by cannibals in WWII.

He actually made it to his assigned podium. (I did see from some bootleg footage that Jill had to walk him off stage).

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One After 909's avatar

But they were miss-timed - he peeked too soon.

Perhaps they micordosed him?

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Elliott's avatar

All establishment press has jumped ship in the last 12 hours. That doesn't happen without tacit agreement...

I think by the time the convention comes, when there's a new nominee, new campaign branding, and a whole new list of disposable 24-hour news cycle campaign trail narratives, this Biden era will seem like ancient history.

And sadly, the Democratic electorate, out of excitement for a less shitty candidate, will completely overlook the fact that their party threw away their primary votes to pick a candidate for them. All in the name of saving democracy! How can our country be this stupid?

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Bill Rice, Jr.'s avatar

Whoever the "replacement" candidate is will, almost certainly, "win" this "election."

I mean that's the only logical conclusion if one happens to believe (like I do) that every important organization in the country is completely captured (and corrupt). That is, "they" HAVE to rig this election (too).

What really scares the hell out of them is not Trump winning. He probably won't do anything to "drain the swamp." (He didn't even throw "Crooked Hillary" in the pen when he had the chance.) What scares them is the possibility of Robert Kennedy winning ... because he MIGHT drain a good portion of the Science Industrial/Big Pharma Complex, the Military Industrial Complex, The Censorship Industrial Complex and the 25 "intelligence" agencies that perhaps conspired to kill his uncle.

... There's a reason Kennedy wasn't on that debate stage last night.

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norica's avatar

I haden't looked at it that way, but that could be spot on. Especially with RFK'S willingness to expose the criminal drug and poison/ bioweapon distributors .

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Elliott's avatar

Agree 100%

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nobody's avatar

Yup, on CNN homepage this morning I counted at least three headlines suggesting or implying that Biden should be replaced (while, on my computer at least, hilariously being displayed under a massive Biden/Harris banner ad at the top). No points for subtlety there

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Grateful Nana's avatar

Please cover the responsibility of the cabinet invoking the 25th Amendment. After last night, they can no longer hide behind what we have been saying for two years: he's a puppet and we are being ruled not governed by a shadow government. God help us, Kamala will be president for 6 months before the DNC runs the Hilary/Newsome ticket.

If the RNC doesn't pose the question of who is really running the country and why they don't want Kamala to step in now as she logicalky, truthfully,legally should, they are complicit in that and whatever our adversaries choose to do to us during the next 6 months.

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Spiderbaby's avatar

Hillary could sweep onto The Rachel Maddow Show, fully Mu-Mu-ed, piously and humbly denying that she wants the presidency, but willing to accept the party's nomination in order to save America from the insurrectionist/Putinist threat of Donald Trump.

America loves 2nd chances & this could be Hillary's 2nd chance at throttling the Trump/Putin beast before it eats democracy like a scone.

Crowds of brain addled Democrats, each of them near a total cognitive collapse from spending years loyally believing DNC gabble instead of their own eyes, will erupt in cheers of relief & vindication.

It could be epic.

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DaveL's avatar

Nightmare scenario. America’s version of Pol Pot, it appears.

Talk about the banality of evil!!

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Chilblain Edward Olmos's avatar

She saw ( Ghadaffi experience rifle sodomy ), He died. She came.

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One After 909's avatar

I get it but can’t you see the basic flaw in that argument?

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Spiderbaby's avatar

Sure the basic flaw is I made the whole thing up & then pulled it out of my ass.

Doesn't mean it wouldn't be funny if it happened.

It also doesn't mean that it's beyond the brain addled brand name loving predilections of your average dingbat American voter.

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One After 909's avatar

No, no, no, I am agreeing with you but what will their base do if they pull Harris? Biden didn’t want her in the first place but, despite her horrible primary run, she checks certain boxes. Replacing Kamala with an old Woman who doesn’t check those boxes and everyone hates after what she did to Bernie, might even make it worse.

No offense meant. At this point anything is plausible but whatever happens will be out of desperation. I used to think these people were smart.

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Han's avatar

Go look around on The Free Press.

Those allegedly smart journalists openly adore Fat Hillz even though they are fully aware she’s a thief, liar and a cheat and the war criminal of Libya and Syria.

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Spiderbaby's avatar

No offense ever taken.

Don't know how that will play out but I am totally sure it will be completely hypocritical, completely self serving for the DNC's own interests & funny as hell.

Don't forget the DNC managed to get Sanders to fall to his knees and plant a big wet one on Hillary's backdoor even though he had to know she & the DNC screwed him. Then he did the same smoochy-smoochy job on Joe's hindquarters just 4 years later.

I saw him at Jamaal Bowman's Bronx wake where Sanders still gabbled on & on about the billionaires as if it still has meaning.

Maybe some photos of Kamala scissoring on Epstein Island will come to light.

Or maybe there is some hidden camera footage of Kamala repeatedly hiding Joe's bathroom key.

In the immortal words of Jimi Hendrix, "Time will tell about the circus & wishing well."

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Boris Petrov's avatar

Well - Kamala is “ready to serve” — do you really hate women?

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Madjack's avatar

Unfortunately we are on the brink of a nuclear war at this time. American soldiers have fired American weapons into Russia and killed Russian citizens. Casus Belli.

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Hayden Sumlin's avatar

I regret participating in Matt’s game last night.

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Scuba Cat's avatar

I thought I would feel worse, actually.

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Susan Steffner's avatar

I don't....by the way...alcohol is a carcinogen in any amount or form Matt and Walter....et al....more lies from the adult beverage industry....

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Chilblain Edward Olmos's avatar

Air is a carcinogen. EVERYTHING is a carcinogen. Give it a rest lady.

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Susan Steffner's avatar

Yes, of course, you are so right with 2.5 carbon particulates, but we don't have a choice, but to breathe, so I do have a choice as to what to imbibe or eat and I will exercise that choice as long as I am able. I simply don't like those commercial industries lying constantly to us as to the reality of the relative health of their products.

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BBB's avatar

The uni-party establishment (the establishment elite of Dems, Republicans, the media, and bureaucrat swamp/deep state) who have all been yelling that our democracy is in danger because of Donald Trump (who was elected the Republican nominee by the majority of voters in the preliminaries out of a pool of two handfuls of candidates) and has known and lied about the cognitive decline of Joe Biden for much of his current presidency, prevented any primary challenge to Biden and is now seriously considering selecting a replacement in a most undemocratic fashion in an effort to “save democracy”.

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earthy.bookworm's avatar

The presidential race didn't end last night. The presidential race started last night. Now it's Trump vs. Kennedy vs. ???.

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Matt H's avatar

Well, last night I learned that we had the cleanest water and air ever under Trump. I also learned that Putin personally told Trump that it was his dream to invade Ukraine, but he wasn’t going to do it so long as Trump was president. This is all according to Trump and is complete horse shit.

I didn’t learn anything from Biden because he couldn’t form a compete sentence. That “stutter” has gotten bad.

I weep for my country.

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norica's avatar

Trump was shortchanged time for a full explanation on many of his statements. As far as the Ukraine goes, maybe Trump would have encouraged a negotiation rather than imposing the notion that Putin must be stopped at any cost. Because that cost could end up at our shores. Either way, Trump would not have allowed NATO to piss Russia off by lying and breaking deals and blowing up pipelines "after the fact". It would have never even gotten to an invasion in the Ukraine in the first place, had Trump been president.

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Matt H's avatar

Would he have negotiated with Russia? I mean maybe, we’ll never know now, but there are some important details to keep in mind:

1) Trump strengthened NATO by forcing member countries to pay their requisite percentage of GDP on weapons.

2) Russia invaded Ukraine in an attempt strong arm diplomacy, one key issue being NATO expansion according to Putin.

3) Trump tore up the INF nuclear treaty with Russia.

4) Trump was shipping more advanced weapons to Ukraine than even Obama was comfortable with. Which many have concluded contributed to the invasion of Ukraine.

5) Trump recently whipped the Republicans in congress into shape about signing off on more billions of taxpayer dollars to Ukraine.

This leads me to conclude that the only difference between Trump’s and Biden’s policy on Ukraine is that Trump wants more assurances that Wall Street will get to fleece the country after it’s been turned to rubble. After all, his only hang up with the way Biden has been handling it is that he wants the aid to be in the form of loans.

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Bill Rice, Jr.'s avatar

Not to brag, but I think I win the Substack trophy for most "Biden-has-dementia" stories in the last two years (at least 7) ... Eight if you count this story - where I just summarize my other seven articles on this taboo topic.

I hope more people are "getting" the real scandal here. It's not that "Our Emperor has no brain." Anyone with a brain knew that four years ago. The real scandal is that everyone who "matters" in America KNEW THIS for four years. They either covered this up, lied about it ... or didn't care a lick.

https://billricejr.substack.com/p/all-this-stuff-ties-into-together

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DaveL's avatar

“ They either covered this up, lied about it ... or didn't care a lick.”

All of the above…

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Bonnie Blodgett's avatar

I just submitted this comment to the NY Times in response to Tom Friedman's latest lousy excuse for journalism. I'm referring to his column this morning lamenting that iu's time for Joe to go. (They won't publish it, of course.) Here goes:

What is wrong with our country is everywhere apparent in this column. 1) An American president's job is not to "lead the world," and many of us thought we'd learned that lesson from the consequences of our disastrous "unipolar" foreign policy, which has turned the U.S. from the world's most admired nation post 9/11 (and especially post WWII), to the most reviled. See BRICS and the rise of peace-minded multipolarity if you don't get my point. 2) Journalists used to keep their distance from powerful politicians in order to maintain objectivity, not suck up to them. I am a journalist myself and am appalled at Friedman's sycophancy. Being close to power doesn't even get a reporter scoops—rather, it makes him a useful conduit for whatever the current administration wants Americans to believe. His close friendship and deep affection for the president going back decades and including the horrific decision to invade Iraq, has turned Tom into a toady for the DNC. Its callous criminality was on display last night. Who KNOWINGLY sends a feeble old man to public slaughter at the hands of a psychopath as the DNC insiders did? Everyone close to our president (including Tom) knew he had long since been unsuitable, which accounts for the unbridled power of neocons like Blinken to "lead the world" right off the cliff.

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Lisa's avatar

Poor old victim Biden! At the hands of a psychopath who could hurt him! Remember Biden fired thousands of American citizens for not taking a bogus vaccine that is now likely responsible for thousands of “excess deaths” including cardiac events in young people. Meanwhile he allowed thousands of migrants to enter the country and flew them all over the country under the cover of darkness during a pandemic. They were not required to be vaccinated. Who is the psychopath here?

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Anon's avatar

I'm telling you, you should watch the REAL debate, the one that includes RFK: https://rumble.com/v545lnn-the-real-debate.html

We as Americans have gotten too acclimatized to Idiocracy level politics. It's not until you listen to someone running who actually answers the debate questions, acknowledges just how bad things have gotten, and has coherent concrete ideas about what to do about it and how to do it, that you realize it doesn't have to be this way

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Tom Potts's avatar

RK Jr is a psychopathic greenie who would destroy our country

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Boris Petrov's avatar

?? Did you really think this though ?

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Tom Potts's avatar

Yes. What did he do his entire adult life? Rage on and on and on about climate change scams. The green warming hoax is explicitly a demonic plan to depopulate the earth of human beings. Run by the World Economic Forum and stupid politicians in Western Europe and North America. A pox on the entire bunch of them. Drill, baby, drill. Nuke baby nuke.

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Ike's avatar

Thanks to Matt and Walter. You guys are as close as we have to Cronkite and Lehrer. And it's close enough.

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LOUMCKENZIE's avatar

....so, I'm a little disappointed in the fact that you two did not mention "The Real Debate" with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. that was going on simultaneously. Not only did The Real Debate put THIS debate in perspective, it was worth my time watching, it dealt with the issues these two were avoiding, and the Independent candidate, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is definitely my man now. Not that there was any doubt before....but it amazed me watching these two goons that as a voter

I voted for Biden, just so trump would not get it. I'll have to live with that for the rest of my life, but I will attempt to make amends in November by voting for Independent Candidate, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

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