Roundup
So much news.
(1) Another Now It Can Be Told story:
Joe Biden’s physical deterioration was so severe in 2023 and 2024 that advisers privately discussed the possibility he’d need to use a wheelchair if he won re-election, CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson write in their new book, “Original Sin,” out May 20.
Why it matters: The discussions reflected the extent of the president’s declining health — particularly the significant degeneration of his spine — and his aides’ alarm over it as Biden sought a second term at age 81.
The conversations also reveal the White House’s determination to conceal the reality of Biden’s condition, at the risk of his own health, while he faced a tough re-election bid against Donald Trump.
Big deal. Yes, the optics would have been bad if Biden was is a wheelchair, but physical deterioration and its coverup is nearly irrelevant compared to his mental deterioration and its coverup.
It is some sort of deeply ironic joke that Jake Tapper wrote this book, but irony is the coin of the realm in recent politics.
(2) Inflation sinks to lowest level in four years.
The consumer price index, which measures the costs for a broad range of goods and services, rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2% for the month, putting the 12-month inflation rate at 2.3%, its lowest since February 2021, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said. The monthly reading was in line with the Dow Jones consensus estimate while the 12-month was a bit below the forecast for 2.4%.
Fancy that. Trump’s such a lucky son-of-a-gun.
(3) Democrat strategists blame Biden for just about everything – in particular their 2024 loss. But they had four long years to speak out and were silent. They didn’t mind dragging him over the finish line in 2020, propping him up for four years, promoting policies like men in women’s sports, trying to destroy Trump with lawfare, and pretending Harris was a great replacement. But when they lost in 2024, it was the old man’s fault. “He totally screwed us” says David Plouffe, one of Harris’ key advisors.
No, you screwed yourself, and tried to screw the American people. And you’ll keep trying.
(4) Trump talks on the phone with released hostage Edan Alexander, whose grandmother has called Trump a “good messenger of the Holy One.”
(5) Trump signs a $600 billion investment deal with the Saudis. He’s going to be going to Qatar and the UAE next, probably to announce other deals? The Qatar part in particular makes me uneasy, but I await details.
“[Biden] totally screwed us” says David Plouffe
I take some schadenfreude that Biden with anger and malice aforethought did screw Obama, Pelosi et al. by immediately endorsing Harris, instead of letting the coup group do so behind an open convention.
Such nice people. They deserve each other.
“Mental deterioration and its coverup”. My mother-in law, my mother, and my wife all passed away in “memory units”, aka, nursing facilities for people with serious mental deterioration. Because of that I’ve seen a lot of elderly people who had mental difficulties. It was obvious to me that Biden was unfit mentally to be President. I’m certain that there were many, many people with elderly relatives with metal problems who observed the same in Biden as well.
Of course they knew…but officially, the Democratic Party’s Ministry of Sanity (MiniSan), spearheaded, it seems, by Dr. J., had to reassure the country that it was clearly in the best of hands…
Always.
Forever.
I thought they wouldnt go john gill but apparently
But he was always a third rate functionary braggart soviet tool so it was hard to tell the difference
I thought qatar had acquired significant naval and air assets from turkey not to mention whatever they got from the taliban
After their four years of barefaced lies, no one should believe a word from Democrats and the Democrat Media!
Concerning Biden and the corporate media’s late-to-the-party confessionals, it is beginning to sink in that what they are doing is bragging, not repenting. By divulging all the “insider’s” trepidations about Biden now that it is too late for America to have done something about it, like not vote for him in 2020 when his early onset dementia was already quite evident, they are simply doing a “nanner-nanner” to all of us. They are actually bragging, in a roundabout way that they successfully controlled the messaging long enough for Biden to be selected and spend four long, disastrous years destroying the nation. Kind of like when Harry Reid, that scurvy mongrel, told America that Romney hadn’t paid taxes in a decade, and later, when that was shown to be a lie, smiled and said, “He didn’t get elected, did he?” or something to that effect. And about Trump in the Middle East, it appears that he is creating an entirely new narrative, one in which the Palestinians no longer matter, but cordial relations between the House of Saud and Israel do, and Iran will never obtain a nuclear weapon, even if it means a war, in which Israel will “take the lead,” but America will also participate, albeit “we’ll do what we want.” By being so obviously bellicose, Trump is telling the Saudis and the rest of the Sunni moslem world (UAE especially) that he has their backs; he will not let Iran continue to seek their overthrow and replacement by a Shia regime. So it would not surprise me if Saudi Arbia actually does sign on to the Abraham Accords and also recognize Israel as he has requested. He is definitely seeking to create a new alignment of nations against Iran and he might just be successful. As only Nixon could go to China, only Trump could go to Saudi Arabia.
First I must say that I have thought Joe Biden to be an evil and miserable political grifter and power hungry POS for as long as he has been on the national stage. But what was done to him by his handlers, staff, and, even, his wife over the past several years is quite simply elder abuse. They should all be imprisoned.
As for Trump and our relations with Qatar: Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
#6
COVID.
“The Deep State Goes Viral”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/deep-state-goes-viral
Key grafs:
Something was clearly wrong with Biden on the campaign trail in 2020. Not wrong enough to say he was incompetent to serve, or for anyone to fall on his sword to force his immediate replacement–but enough to cause serious concern if one’s eyes were open. What happened over the next years was not a shocking deterioration but a predictable trend.
Paul in Boston,
I am so sorry. I have minimal experience with dementia but I imagine it must be incredibly difficult to witness your loved ones suffer from dementia, especially one’s spouse.
Some ignorant, stupid Dem is trying to have Trump investigated over the free gift of the 747. Trump has said it is going to the DOD.
And, I am not sure which MSM did this. They framed the slight increase in inflation as if it was a huge raise, and the fault of Trump.
I am getting very tired of the Left and their lies.
Some may find this of interest:
“This health startup is harnessing AI for quick, free diagnoses — with shocking accuracy”—
https://nypost.com/2025/05/14/business/doctronic-startup-is-using-ai-to-cut-doctor-wait-times/
(…with an option to consult with an actual physician….)
In re Tapper’s lying book, a brief catalog: https://thefederalist.com/2025/05/14/9-times-jake-tapper-dismissed-bidens-decline-claimed-hes-sharp-mentally/
The Dems always immediately jump into attack mode. It seems they feel the need to set the narrative, but then they get it wrong and look like idiots to anyone with a memory of over 10 minutes.
“I trust Qatar like I trust a rest stop bathroom—with those guys, you know, trust in God, but tie up your camel.” – Sen John Kennedy (R) Louisiana
Rod Dreher included this quote in his Substack today. The warning not to believe the media about “fill in the blank” has been prevalent for a long, long time.
“Same with journalism. The late novelist Michael Crichton coined a term, the “Gell-Mann amnesia effect” to describe the way all of us consume journalism. In a 2002 speech, Crichton said:
Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them.
In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.
That is the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. I’d point out it does not operate in other arenas of life. In ordinary life, if somebody consistently exaggerates or lies to you, you soon discount everything they say. In court, there is the legal doctrine of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, which means untruthful in one part, untruthful in all. But when it comes to the media, we believe against evidence that it is probably worth our time to read other parts of the paper. When, in fact, it almost certainly isn’t. The only possible explanation for our behavior is amnesia.”
The Gell-Mann Amnesia effect was originally described by G-M himself, in one of his books, which I have downstairs in my library but can’t get to it right now because there are too many boxes stored in front of it, but I have read the relevant passage.
Props to Crichton for promoting the effect.
I would extend the effect from newspapers to any computer-based or broadcast medium as well. The show “60 Minutes” is a notorious example.