Something I've been angry about for quite a while - beyond the Democrats' enthusiastic support for eugenics and genocide - has been that in terms of the next administration, all the Democrats are offering is the stick. "It is going to be very bad if they win," and no carrot, no promises about their future administration. The most they will do is promise to do things they are NOT doing right now. Last night Biden promised to protect abortion in his second term. You're president NOW, what the fuck will you do next term? Say specifically what you'll do and then explain why you didn't do it yesterday.
After hearing a lot about Project 2025, I went and just did a quick twitter search of the Democratic party's account, Biden's account, Harris's account; these clowns haven't said a word about it. We're supposed to be worried but what are they doing?
Even if Biden wins (he won't), I am completely confident that the wishlist laid out by the fascists who penned Project 2025 will become part of the Democratic party's platform within ten years. The Heritage Foundation provided the template for Obamacare. We didn't get single payer because the Democrats adopted a right-wing proposal. Then the right wing disavowed and began campaigning against it.
Look at Biden going to bat for "Bibi" and Zionism and then immediately being thanked with Netanyahu openly campaigning for Trump. The Democrats are losing this election intentionally so they can blame the left for the collapse of the American experiment, for the fascists' gaining power. And those idiots actually expect they'll receive mercy from the fascist death squads. Proud Boys deputized as federal agents are going to be dragging Democratic members of Congress out into the street to be shot, and it will be shocked pikachu faces all around.
I wish desperately that there could have been just one single country on Earth that successfully resisted the eugenicist policy of "infect everyone, continually, forever, until they all die." I'll learn another language, screw it. I'll learn Flemish if they're still trying to protect people from the pandemic. The only positive I see in all of this mess is just the simple fact that fascism is not going to be our biggest problem in the next few decades; it will be the famines caused by climate change.
Bleak but true. And sorry to pile on but I think we are going to see significant aspects of social collapse & disasters this decade, and much worse to come. I had fascism and climate chaos on my bingo card but not so damn soon
I agree I'm completely blown away at the Democratic Party's and Biden's lack of addressing Project 2025 other than trying to scare us with it. But the thing about Project 2025, in case people haven't noticed the last couple of weeks with scotus rulings, it's already in motion. Fascism is already in this country. We are entering a dangerous time in this country and the Democrats have zero acknowledgment or plan for it. Meanwhile the Republicans have been working towards the goal since Reagan's years. Instead of fighting back, we get empty promises and complicity such as masked bans. It's a weird position for us voters to be in. Either we let the openly fascist wanna be dictator become president or we put someone who's less awful but not stopping the rising fascism and takeover in this country.
If Biden wins, what then? Do you think tRump will go away or well see less of the Republican takeover by Conservatives and fascists?
Hi, Mickey. I wrote a book (the only one I know) showing what happens then in real life: "Mona" on Amazon (sorry, but no publisher will ever allow such a story in this country). Excerpt:
Mona stood, stunned and disoriented, with the remote still in her hand. Alone. Questions assaulted her, and she wished there were adults in the house to say something.
* * *
“People want to see a strong leader,” said Alexander.
The family room was flooded with the somber but passionate commentaries and images aired by Fox 3. Dinner had been rushed; all were garbed in mourning. Toadies inched around the president embalmed for all eternity, and laid in state in the Capitol Rotunda. Sobs, harrowing cries of despair, lamentations, sodden tissue paper, and black sunglasses. Each celebrity in politics, business, or the arts was singled out and commented on with a voice pitched between a catacomb tour and the Academy Awards ceremony. The son of the mummy, the future president, pronounced the eulogy.
“Little did I know that we‘d experience such a thing,” declared Jacqueline, a wee bit sheepishly, interrupting the president-in-waiting. “I wasn’t raised to believe that…that…it’s all changing so quickly.”
Her father coughed or scoffed; Mona wasn’t sure. “I can’t believe you say that. Are you talking about your father, that retarded activist and anarchist, an example for our children, a radical socialist? Sorry for not being sorry. I don’t mean to be mean. We need to be careful here. We’re not in la-la land anymore; suck it up!”
Mona had seen the president, a man crouching forward in a chair, his legs parted in a weird position. She’d seen him advance with little steps, unsteady, like some aged person off-balance you would want to give a cane to—unhinged was the irreverent title of the video on the site—and she’d heard him slurring his words, forgetting them, or making no sense at all even for the most attentive of worshippers. You’d never see it on TV. She rather counted on the dark web and was suspicious of the “stunning strength and stamina” of the president in her modest schoolgirl capacity of judgment. She was also doubtful about the whole story—the unforeseen stroke during the observation night at the military hospital, or the myocardial infarction as it had been said on another Fox.
“…shall be honored for his bravery and love for our Great Fatherland,” the vice president carried on, surmounting the blond, rejuvenated head in the open casket, speaking in his unique way of bullets from the mouth, dotted by sniffles, ending with—despising? Outraged? Disappointed huffs? Mona was intrigued by her parents’ discussion turning into acrimony. They’d never forayed into poli-tics over the last few years.
“No such Great Man has ever served the Country, selfless, generous, respectful of the cherished institutions and traditions of our Great Republic” The next president flung his arms asunder, forming a big, black embracing cross of himself. “Yes! Let’s not be shy of affirming that he was the Great Savior from the dark ages of American Marxism”—he joined his fists, hiding his face that was shaking terribly, then propelled his arms up in a “V,” fingers splayed, roaring, “Encircled by hordes of invaders killing and raping our Good Real American People. The constant object of hatred from the elites, communists…”
Because, of course, they are not, themselves, “elites.” They don’t have influence; they don’t live in luxury mansions; they don’t own yachts; and they don’t play in the most exclusive country clubs. Nah! They buy their clothes at Walmart; they live in project apartments; and their kids can’t afford college. Elite is somebody drinking a latte at Starbucks. And, ah, oh! “Communists!” Pretty much everyone else is a communist.
“I have doubts.” Jacqueline looked around, as if someone were listening. The portrait of the dead president was posing in the dining room for the pledge; he couldn’t observe her. It wasn’t a rebellion; she was shriveling rather, but words kept coming. “You think it’s normal? People disappearing…these poisoned journalists last year, and these generals…”
Alexander retorted, “We will be able to look back upon these times and ask ourselves: What was the trouble? What is it with you people? Fretting when we have unity, security, and a prosperous economy. They get things done!”
“I don’t buy it,” snarled Mona’s mother in the lower octave.
In times long gone that she could remember, in all the time she’d known him as a child and was not attentive to typical grown-up matters, Mona’s father was not a believer; he was just not committed. Trusting the system—no questions asked—a system that was going to roll as bulletproof as it had always been. Sporadically critical, in the dampening way, with the conviction, necessity, or convenience that one had to be positive, optimistic, united behind the flag (which implied supporting the regime), that things were to turn out well by themselves, and any proof to the contrary he dismissed.
It was different now, Mona felt. He conducted himself as if there weren’t this choice of disregard any longer, as if neutrality had become dangerous. Indifference and self-reassurance had paralyzed reason and action, while something else was rising: the slow tide of fear in the occiput. And one day, within one heartbeat, fear became commander of his conscience, prompting thoughts more efficiently than willful blindness.
Jacqueline swiped the remote from the low table and punched in Channel Denver By The Edge, a local station, the only independent one they could get with a semblance of critical, fact-based thinking. The message popped up: “Apologies, we are experiencing technical issues.”
In the Fall of 2020, I read Honigsbaum and Krishnan's coverage of the history of the 1895 Russian flu (which was most likely the first outbreak of the "common cold" coronavirus OC43)
Various political leaders across Europe were suddenly struck insensate and the continent was plunged into the fin de siècle malaise that set the stage for WW-I. I found the story terrifying in 2020. Watching the horror show of last night's debate reawakened the terror.
I'm a fan of Louis Pasteur's famous quote, "chance favors the prepared mind." We need to prepare ourselves for the highly plausible possibility that Biden and other world leaders have been playing out Honigsbaum's prophecy. Putin's violent coughing fits just before he invaded Ukraine? Did anybody else notice this datapoint? Chance disfavors unprepared minds, I guess.
The covidbrain hypothesis could also account for another mystery that's been vexing the pundits: why the hell would Jill Biden and the rest of the campaign team allow Joe to go on stage in such a state? They did a week of debate prep at Camp David! Surely somebody must have noticed - and sought to remediate - the problem that standing slackjawed with drool glistening at the corner of your mouth while staring unblinkingly into the middle distance really is not a good look. "Resting 25th Amendment face," as The Daily Show called it.
Covid for sure has long-term impacts on cognition, but friends have also euphemistically reported feeling transient so-called "brain fog" for a day or two during the early part of acute infection. My sense is that transient brain fog is pretty common. My husband and I play a little game where we see if we can predict our county's bi-weekly wastewater data based on the observed frequency of space-case driving behaviors on area roads. Stuff like slowly drifting through stopsigns and traffic lights or meandering from lane to lane, as though wondering: "Where am I going... is this my turn?" The space-case/wastewater correlations seem pretty good. With the inference being that some amount of transient brain fog appears to come and go with acute infections.
The overall idea is that Biden might have done OK in debate prep all week, but then he got infected by one of the preppers and the day he went on stage he happened to be way more acutely zonked than the day before.
One little bit of pushback on the main article: I think we can reasonably wonder about this stuff even if the "cold" Biden's advisors reported is something other than Covid. SARS-CoV-2 isn't the only virus doing this stuff:
COVID sprang to my mind when reading that Biden was suffering from a cough and sore throat in one of the "New York Times" accounts of the debate. The tenor of the coverage seemed more suited to the obituary section.
Really, it should now be obvious whom Western governments serve. It is not you nor is it me. The waste of resources for the sole purpose of enhancing billionaires' revenue streams includes the multitudes of those stricken with long COVID. As Nate ominously portends, the diminishing mental acuity inflicted by a COVID infection is unevenly distributed. With our luck the fat tail of that distribution lies within our political class.
In the history of malignant behavior, our politicians will replace Nero as the exemplar of callous and indifferent leadership.
Delegates are already pledged to Biden from the majority of primaries that are already complete. He would have to formally release these delegates for anyone else to be nominated.
At this point, it is Biden's decision, no longer the voters' or the Democratic Party's.
And what would it say if Biden decided to endorse anybody but Harris as his replacement?
First, it would admit he already can no longer do the job and has been lying about this for some time. Calls for his 25th Amendment removal would immediately follow any such announcement.
Second, failing to endorse Harris would show HER to be thought unqualified for her current VP slot, hence for the presidency, adding to the headwinds she already faces in an open primary.
Both times sitting presidents declined to run again, the party lost. The added complexity of managing the perception of cognitive decline does not bode well for the Democrats' chances, whatever the decision.
Of course Biden has presided over more deaths than Trump. Pandemic not declared until 2020. Trump out of office early 2021.
Thanks for article. It is incredible that matters have reached this point. So much for checks and balances. Is the putative free world really doomed to be ruled by either a mentally incompetent old man or a narcissistic lying old man?
Read up on "Chronic Wasting Disease" in deer. So far it probably isn't able to spread to humans, but this may change as the cross-species infectivity of this prion disease can alter as it passes through the digestive tracts of other animals. e360.yale.edu/features/chronic-wasting-disease-deer
So true. I didn’t realise he’d had it a couple times. It’s so apt and so devastating if he has undone himself (and the rest of us) with covid induced cognitive decline.
Something I've been angry about for quite a while - beyond the Democrats' enthusiastic support for eugenics and genocide - has been that in terms of the next administration, all the Democrats are offering is the stick. "It is going to be very bad if they win," and no carrot, no promises about their future administration. The most they will do is promise to do things they are NOT doing right now. Last night Biden promised to protect abortion in his second term. You're president NOW, what the fuck will you do next term? Say specifically what you'll do and then explain why you didn't do it yesterday.
After hearing a lot about Project 2025, I went and just did a quick twitter search of the Democratic party's account, Biden's account, Harris's account; these clowns haven't said a word about it. We're supposed to be worried but what are they doing?
Even if Biden wins (he won't), I am completely confident that the wishlist laid out by the fascists who penned Project 2025 will become part of the Democratic party's platform within ten years. The Heritage Foundation provided the template for Obamacare. We didn't get single payer because the Democrats adopted a right-wing proposal. Then the right wing disavowed and began campaigning against it.
Look at Biden going to bat for "Bibi" and Zionism and then immediately being thanked with Netanyahu openly campaigning for Trump. The Democrats are losing this election intentionally so they can blame the left for the collapse of the American experiment, for the fascists' gaining power. And those idiots actually expect they'll receive mercy from the fascist death squads. Proud Boys deputized as federal agents are going to be dragging Democratic members of Congress out into the street to be shot, and it will be shocked pikachu faces all around.
I wish desperately that there could have been just one single country on Earth that successfully resisted the eugenicist policy of "infect everyone, continually, forever, until they all die." I'll learn another language, screw it. I'll learn Flemish if they're still trying to protect people from the pandemic. The only positive I see in all of this mess is just the simple fact that fascism is not going to be our biggest problem in the next few decades; it will be the famines caused by climate change.
Bleak but true. And sorry to pile on but I think we are going to see significant aspects of social collapse & disasters this decade, and much worse to come. I had fascism and climate chaos on my bingo card but not so damn soon
I agree I'm completely blown away at the Democratic Party's and Biden's lack of addressing Project 2025 other than trying to scare us with it. But the thing about Project 2025, in case people haven't noticed the last couple of weeks with scotus rulings, it's already in motion. Fascism is already in this country. We are entering a dangerous time in this country and the Democrats have zero acknowledgment or plan for it. Meanwhile the Republicans have been working towards the goal since Reagan's years. Instead of fighting back, we get empty promises and complicity such as masked bans. It's a weird position for us voters to be in. Either we let the openly fascist wanna be dictator become president or we put someone who's less awful but not stopping the rising fascism and takeover in this country.
If Biden wins, what then? Do you think tRump will go away or well see less of the Republican takeover by Conservatives and fascists?
Hi, Mickey. I wrote a book (the only one I know) showing what happens then in real life: "Mona" on Amazon (sorry, but no publisher will ever allow such a story in this country). Excerpt:
Mona stood, stunned and disoriented, with the remote still in her hand. Alone. Questions assaulted her, and she wished there were adults in the house to say something.
* * *
“People want to see a strong leader,” said Alexander.
The family room was flooded with the somber but passionate commentaries and images aired by Fox 3. Dinner had been rushed; all were garbed in mourning. Toadies inched around the president embalmed for all eternity, and laid in state in the Capitol Rotunda. Sobs, harrowing cries of despair, lamentations, sodden tissue paper, and black sunglasses. Each celebrity in politics, business, or the arts was singled out and commented on with a voice pitched between a catacomb tour and the Academy Awards ceremony. The son of the mummy, the future president, pronounced the eulogy.
“Little did I know that we‘d experience such a thing,” declared Jacqueline, a wee bit sheepishly, interrupting the president-in-waiting. “I wasn’t raised to believe that…that…it’s all changing so quickly.”
Her father coughed or scoffed; Mona wasn’t sure. “I can’t believe you say that. Are you talking about your father, that retarded activist and anarchist, an example for our children, a radical socialist? Sorry for not being sorry. I don’t mean to be mean. We need to be careful here. We’re not in la-la land anymore; suck it up!”
Mona had seen the president, a man crouching forward in a chair, his legs parted in a weird position. She’d seen him advance with little steps, unsteady, like some aged person off-balance you would want to give a cane to—unhinged was the irreverent title of the video on the site—and she’d heard him slurring his words, forgetting them, or making no sense at all even for the most attentive of worshippers. You’d never see it on TV. She rather counted on the dark web and was suspicious of the “stunning strength and stamina” of the president in her modest schoolgirl capacity of judgment. She was also doubtful about the whole story—the unforeseen stroke during the observation night at the military hospital, or the myocardial infarction as it had been said on another Fox.
“…shall be honored for his bravery and love for our Great Fatherland,” the vice president carried on, surmounting the blond, rejuvenated head in the open casket, speaking in his unique way of bullets from the mouth, dotted by sniffles, ending with—despising? Outraged? Disappointed huffs? Mona was intrigued by her parents’ discussion turning into acrimony. They’d never forayed into poli-tics over the last few years.
“No such Great Man has ever served the Country, selfless, generous, respectful of the cherished institutions and traditions of our Great Republic” The next president flung his arms asunder, forming a big, black embracing cross of himself. “Yes! Let’s not be shy of affirming that he was the Great Savior from the dark ages of American Marxism”—he joined his fists, hiding his face that was shaking terribly, then propelled his arms up in a “V,” fingers splayed, roaring, “Encircled by hordes of invaders killing and raping our Good Real American People. The constant object of hatred from the elites, communists…”
Because, of course, they are not, themselves, “elites.” They don’t have influence; they don’t live in luxury mansions; they don’t own yachts; and they don’t play in the most exclusive country clubs. Nah! They buy their clothes at Walmart; they live in project apartments; and their kids can’t afford college. Elite is somebody drinking a latte at Starbucks. And, ah, oh! “Communists!” Pretty much everyone else is a communist.
“I have doubts.” Jacqueline looked around, as if someone were listening. The portrait of the dead president was posing in the dining room for the pledge; he couldn’t observe her. It wasn’t a rebellion; she was shriveling rather, but words kept coming. “You think it’s normal? People disappearing…these poisoned journalists last year, and these generals…”
Alexander retorted, “We will be able to look back upon these times and ask ourselves: What was the trouble? What is it with you people? Fretting when we have unity, security, and a prosperous economy. They get things done!”
“I don’t buy it,” snarled Mona’s mother in the lower octave.
In times long gone that she could remember, in all the time she’d known him as a child and was not attentive to typical grown-up matters, Mona’s father was not a believer; he was just not committed. Trusting the system—no questions asked—a system that was going to roll as bulletproof as it had always been. Sporadically critical, in the dampening way, with the conviction, necessity, or convenience that one had to be positive, optimistic, united behind the flag (which implied supporting the regime), that things were to turn out well by themselves, and any proof to the contrary he dismissed.
It was different now, Mona felt. He conducted himself as if there weren’t this choice of disregard any longer, as if neutrality had become dangerous. Indifference and self-reassurance had paralyzed reason and action, while something else was rising: the slow tide of fear in the occiput. And one day, within one heartbeat, fear became commander of his conscience, prompting thoughts more efficiently than willful blindness.
Jacqueline swiped the remote from the low table and punched in Channel Denver By The Edge, a local station, the only independent one they could get with a semblance of critical, fact-based thinking. The message popped up: “Apologies, we are experiencing technical issues.”
In the Fall of 2020, I read Honigsbaum and Krishnan's coverage of the history of the 1895 Russian flu (which was most likely the first outbreak of the "common cold" coronavirus OC43)
https://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140-6736(20)32134-6/fulltext
Various political leaders across Europe were suddenly struck insensate and the continent was plunged into the fin de siècle malaise that set the stage for WW-I. I found the story terrifying in 2020. Watching the horror show of last night's debate reawakened the terror.
I'm a fan of Louis Pasteur's famous quote, "chance favors the prepared mind." We need to prepare ourselves for the highly plausible possibility that Biden and other world leaders have been playing out Honigsbaum's prophecy. Putin's violent coughing fits just before he invaded Ukraine? Did anybody else notice this datapoint? Chance disfavors unprepared minds, I guess.
The covidbrain hypothesis could also account for another mystery that's been vexing the pundits: why the hell would Jill Biden and the rest of the campaign team allow Joe to go on stage in such a state? They did a week of debate prep at Camp David! Surely somebody must have noticed - and sought to remediate - the problem that standing slackjawed with drool glistening at the corner of your mouth while staring unblinkingly into the middle distance really is not a good look. "Resting 25th Amendment face," as The Daily Show called it.
Covid for sure has long-term impacts on cognition, but friends have also euphemistically reported feeling transient so-called "brain fog" for a day or two during the early part of acute infection. My sense is that transient brain fog is pretty common. My husband and I play a little game where we see if we can predict our county's bi-weekly wastewater data based on the observed frequency of space-case driving behaviors on area roads. Stuff like slowly drifting through stopsigns and traffic lights or meandering from lane to lane, as though wondering: "Where am I going... is this my turn?" The space-case/wastewater correlations seem pretty good. With the inference being that some amount of transient brain fog appears to come and go with acute infections.
The overall idea is that Biden might have done OK in debate prep all week, but then he got infected by one of the preppers and the day he went on stage he happened to be way more acutely zonked than the day before.
One little bit of pushback on the main article: I think we can reasonably wonder about this stuff even if the "cold" Biden's advisors reported is something other than Covid. SARS-CoV-2 isn't the only virus doing this stuff:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35723106/
https://cbuck.substack.com/p/tv-review-live-to-100-secrets-of
Thank you so much for adding that 2019 bit. It’s like he’s a completely different person now. Like a shell.
COVID sprang to my mind when reading that Biden was suffering from a cough and sore throat in one of the "New York Times" accounts of the debate. The tenor of the coverage seemed more suited to the obituary section.
Really, it should now be obvious whom Western governments serve. It is not you nor is it me. The waste of resources for the sole purpose of enhancing billionaires' revenue streams includes the multitudes of those stricken with long COVID. As Nate ominously portends, the diminishing mental acuity inflicted by a COVID infection is unevenly distributed. With our luck the fat tail of that distribution lies within our political class.
In the history of malignant behavior, our politicians will replace Nero as the exemplar of callous and indifferent leadership.
Delegates are already pledged to Biden from the majority of primaries that are already complete. He would have to formally release these delegates for anyone else to be nominated.
At this point, it is Biden's decision, no longer the voters' or the Democratic Party's.
And what would it say if Biden decided to endorse anybody but Harris as his replacement?
First, it would admit he already can no longer do the job and has been lying about this for some time. Calls for his 25th Amendment removal would immediately follow any such announcement.
Second, failing to endorse Harris would show HER to be thought unqualified for her current VP slot, hence for the presidency, adding to the headwinds she already faces in an open primary.
Both times sitting presidents declined to run again, the party lost. The added complexity of managing the perception of cognitive decline does not bode well for the Democrats' chances, whatever the decision.
Of course Biden has presided over more deaths than Trump. Pandemic not declared until 2020. Trump out of office early 2021.
Thanks for article. It is incredible that matters have reached this point. So much for checks and balances. Is the putative free world really doomed to be ruled by either a mentally incompetent old man or a narcissistic lying old man?
Thanks to the Dems, apparently yes.
Thank you I can’t vote for Trump
Today I was thinking about bse and how we would all be living with that nowadays if it had happened this decade and not the 90s.
Read up on "Chronic Wasting Disease" in deer. So far it probably isn't able to spread to humans, but this may change as the cross-species infectivity of this prion disease can alter as it passes through the digestive tracts of other animals. e360.yale.edu/features/chronic-wasting-disease-deer
.. ‘Expectations re Trump flatlined long ago - he stood there & confirmed them - nothin newsworthy about an apex Parasite being Parasitic
.. MainStream ‘Media ‘Decides to tell ‘US - what we ‘saw & heard .. as if I give a fuck what ‘they Decide’ .. ie ‘refine & magnify’ for ‘Attention
So true. I didn’t realise he’d had it a couple times. It’s so apt and so devastating if he has undone himself (and the rest of us) with covid induced cognitive decline.
Behold! You are Cassandra, prophet of doom!
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/17/politics/joe-biden-tests-positive-covid-19/index.html
Here I am singing in your choir at the top of my lungs:
https://open.substack.com/pub/cbuck/p/covid-causes-brain-damage
Man, I hope we can re-introduce this important problem into the mainstream media narrative.
Sadly fucking true.