The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Living in Interesting Times

Posted on | July 25, 2024 | 2 Comments

Early this morning, I found myself researching the British industrialist and politician Joseph Chamberlain, whose son Neville became the Prime Minister ruined by appeasement. It was apparently from Joseph Chamberlain that his other son, Austen (Nevill[e’s half-brother) derived the idea of “may you live in interesting times” as being, as is often said, an ancient Chinese curse. Whatever the origins of the phrase may be, certainly we are now living in interesting times, although as Sarah Hoyt notes, bizarre and weird are suitable synonyms for “interesting.”

Wednesday night, our alleged president gave a prime time televised speech from the White House in which, amid much slurring and stumbling, he avowed his devotion to “the sacred cause of this country . . . the cause of American democracy itself.” Was this a tautology or a non sequitur? Forget it, Biden was rolling:

The cause of American democracy itself. We must unite to protect it.
In recent weeks, it has become clear to me that I need to unite my party in this critical endeavor. I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future, all merited a second term. But nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition.
So I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. It’s the best way to unite our nation. I know there was a time and a place for long years of experience in public life. There’s also a time and a place for new voices, fresh voices, yes, younger voices. And that time and place is now.

What do you notice about that? First, that it’s an outright lie — Joe did not “decide to pass the torch.” That decision was imposed on him by the big-money donors and Democratic Party power brokers who, after his June 27 debate debacle, spent three weeks organizing a pressure campaign to boot Biden off the ticket. Second, at no point during this speech did Biden actually explain why this decision was made:

So, Biden has to drop out because his record is so good? His record is so good that the only way to unite everyone is for him to drop out.
The most popular, noble, and spectacular president ever just has to pass the torch to a new generation.
Um, what? That makes no sense. That does not explain why he had to drop out. .

Go through the whole transcript of the speech and see if you can find anything other than this vague “sacred cause of democracy itself” stuff as a justification for Biden’s withdrawal from the campaign. But giving the American people an honest explanation wasn’t really what this speech was about. It was actually a 10-minute campaign speech, and the TV time allotted to it ought to be counted as an in-kind contribution from the networks, none of which offered anything other than undiluted praise for the speech. The premise — that “American democracy itself” is at stake — is never questioned by the TV talking heads, all of whom apparently share Biden’s belief that “American democracy” will abruptly end the next time Republicans win an election. As for the “new generation” to whom Biden has “decided to pass the torch,” that would be 59-year-old Kamala Harris.

Since Biden ended his reelection bid on Sunday, as Matt Vespa says, there has been “a gaslighting operation, unlike anything we’ve seen, where the establishment media is re-writing history,” including the attempt to deny that Harris was ever appointed as Biden’s “border czar.” In fact, Harris “was tapped by President Biden to handle the migrant crisis” in March 2021 and while “border czar” was not her official title, it was widely used in media reports at the time.

It is truly Orwellian, the revisionism that the media are now doing in their effort to sell Kamala to a resistant electorate. By the way, MSNBC and CNN will tell you that it’s sexist and/or racist to refer to Kamala by her first name, even though such familiarity is commonplace — Bill, Joe, Bernie, Dubya, etc. — in political discussion. Furthermore, you will be told by the media, the way you pronounce her name may be racist, if you say “ku-MAH-luh” instead of the preferred “KAH-muh-luh.”

Be patient, my friends. After Nov. 5, you can just call her loser.



 

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Category: Election, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Media Bias

Comments

2 Responses to “Living in Interesting Times”

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    July 26th, 2024 @ 8:56 pm

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