The sad thing is, you can now show Trumpistas the actual footage of Biden saying "as President" and they will accuse YOU of using doctored material. Similarly, you can show them footage of Trump saying "I kept those classified documents because I think I have a right to them," and his followers will deny Trump ever saying any such thing.
Back during the Depression and WWII, Americans had their political disagreements but nearly everyone had some attachment to reality. Today, more than a third of our population lives in a complete fantasy land built of conspiracies and lies. And every time truth makes even a minor penetration into that fantasy land, yet more conspiracies are hatched to cover over that truth. Just ask JFK jr, who will be making an appearance ANY MINUTE now.
Benny Johnson is a clown, but the establishment media has been an invaluable ally to the Right in shaping the negative Biden narrative:
Step One: harp on and on about Biden’s age being a huge problem. Highlight all of his gaffes and stumbles. Ignore or play down the fact Trump is only 3 years younger than Biden, has an unhealthy lifestyle, tried to overthrow democracy, is facing 91 criminal charges, argues for the death of his enemies, and has the cognitive aptitude of a bowl of cream of wheat.
Step Two: breathlessly boost data that shows (surprise, surprise!) people are now perceiving Biden’s age to be a big problem.
Step Three (really, concurrent with Step One): insinuate that Kamala Harris, a former Attorney General/Senator of the most populous state and the current Vice President, is somehow not up to the job of stepping into Biden’s shoes Should Something Happen. Why? It’s not really clear – vague insinuations Biden doesn’t trust her, she’s not “well liked,” she’s just marking time, accusations you never see her accompanied by accusations you see her too much.
I swear, the legacy media and online sites like Politico and Axios want Trump back so bad they can taste it. Why wouldn’t they? He’s dynamite for engagement, and none of his policies will impact their own lives negatively enough to matter.
Triggering a memory here of the Trib (and Daily News) in its far right prime...
If only FDR was a good Republican, completely unfit for office, and suffering from cognitive decline and, as they said back then, senility. Bet they'd be happy with that, presuming the present is epilog to the past or something.
Sep 27, 2023·edited Sep 27, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso
Bravo!
I've been thinking of this analogy for a while. FDR was attacked mercilessly: heinous Racist asshole GA Gov. Eugene Talmadge said a couple of times "I think the President of the United States should be able to walk a 2x4" and was pretty much universally condemned, even in those times. . FDR ill and "crippled" was better than anyone else in his generation for moving the country forward, and, as they can't forgive ol' Joe for the things he's doing and attempting, they will call things normal and accepted under FDR "communism".
I remember enough about Kennedy to recall he sold as "young" "tanned""athletic"(I mean, he and Bobby and Teddy played footbalL) "vital", "virile" while rotten with Addison's disease, adrenal bronzing, hypersexuality and all.
We have had truly disabled Presidents, like Edith Wilson covering up for Woodrow: and the government kept right on going. As the Roman Empire functioned, through the mad Emperors of the preChristian years, our government would run ok, had we not an industry dedicated to making it not work, or to work only for the few, who find their expression in the sort of "news" like your Trib satire.
Fear of a black woman president is something the Dems of yesteryear didn't have to contend with.
I await Diaper Don's public meltdown: which will be spun as merely the acceptable rage of a thwarted tyrant...
I’m not surprised the Chicago Tribune was in bed with Hitler, so was the NYT’s; downplaying the anti-semitism and threat Hitler posed. Media was an old boys club back then, and now it’s new management, the same as the old management, except corporations have filled in for the oligarchs.
So much for “all the news that’s fit to print! You can count on the NYT’s, except when the stakes are high or democracy is in peril.
Nazi Sympathizers during the 1930’s
The Iraq War
Withholding a story on illegal NSA surveillance in 2005
The rise of Trump
The legitimizing of Trump
When it comes to the media, It always about the Benjamin’s.
I don’t know who this Benny Johnson guy is, but he’s not alone in legitimizing Trump, continuing to treat him as “fit for office” and justifying all of his indefensible positions and ludicrous agenda for Trump and his minions.
As for their treatment of Biden, his biggest problem is he’s boring, and boring doesn’t sell. He’s not charismatic like Trump (to those that don’t find him appalling like the rest of us), and he doesn’t command the stage.
However, not to quote the charlatans in the MAGA movement, but I will, since they only can comprehend slogans on bumper stickers:
Biden gets things done.
Trump sycophants say he does, but did he really? Unless you count not building a wall, which Mexico didn’t pay for. Not passing an infrastructure bill, even though we had an infrastructure month year after year.
And then of course, he did accomplish an insurrection, which ultimately failed. He did try to steal an election, which ultimately failed. He did monetize the Presidency. He did weaponize the DOJ and IRS to do his bidding against enemies real and perceived.
And finally, he did accomplish two things that no other president had ever done: he managed to get impeached twice, and add over $8 trillion to the national debt in just four years.
Perhaps his new slogan on bumper stickers should read:
“Vote for Trump, the king of debt. He’ll do to America what he did for his businesses; send them straight into bankruptcy!”
OK, just hear me out: What if we just flooded the zone with "Joe Biden is so old..." jokes? Yeah, he's old as shit, he's so old when he was a kid he didn't have candles on his birthday cake because they didn't have fire yet!
You know, like a guy with a larger-than-average nose, his pals nickname him Schnozzola, takes the sting off. After a while it's an endearing character trait.
A few years back I read a trilogy treating FDR’s record as a wartime leader. The books were adulatory to the point of fulsomeness (and, interestingly, raised Roosevelt’s monument on a towering plinth cemented together from the rubble of Churchill’s reputation), but by the author’s account, the president’s condition began a steep decline beginning at the end of 1943. He wasn’t gaga, but as the months wore on he wasn’t “there” much of the time. Aides learned that if there were critical decisions to be made they would have to be presented to him for the couple of hours each day that he was his old self.
Of course, by that time FDR had long since assembled an administrative apparatus that was running our nascent empire’s affairs (according to the diaries of Adolf Berle, one of his inner circle, his aides privately referred to their chief as “Augustus,” and wouldn’t 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 have made Colonel McCormick’s head explode) without the need of his punctilious oversight.
I've stopped reading at "much like a baby or an imbecile," to rush here to propose that as a terrific refrain for a romantic ballad, possibly in the bossa nova mold.
The MAGAts have one advantage. When you show them video of Trump saying "we would be in World War Two very quickly if we’re going to be relying on [Biden]", or that Americans need voter ID to buy bread, or how he beat Obama in the 2016 election, they won't see anything wrong since everyone knows it's all true. Besides, only commies would think the difference between WW Two and Three is a big deal -- he was only off by one.
Maybe my own reality is slipping away, but wasn't DJT falling & slipping like every week while in office. I remember there was shitposting about it, but it wasn't like a major point of big media reporting.
Maybe I'm wrong & need to get back to my 20-hour shift in the sugar mines of our giant ant overlords...
As always, amazingly well done!
Benny Johnson needs his ass beat. He'll get his once the Swift Revolution remakes the country.
The sad thing is, you can now show Trumpistas the actual footage of Biden saying "as President" and they will accuse YOU of using doctored material. Similarly, you can show them footage of Trump saying "I kept those classified documents because I think I have a right to them," and his followers will deny Trump ever saying any such thing.
Back during the Depression and WWII, Americans had their political disagreements but nearly everyone had some attachment to reality. Today, more than a third of our population lives in a complete fantasy land built of conspiracies and lies. And every time truth makes even a minor penetration into that fantasy land, yet more conspiracies are hatched to cover over that truth. Just ask JFK jr, who will be making an appearance ANY MINUTE now.
Benny Johnson is a clown, but the establishment media has been an invaluable ally to the Right in shaping the negative Biden narrative:
Step One: harp on and on about Biden’s age being a huge problem. Highlight all of his gaffes and stumbles. Ignore or play down the fact Trump is only 3 years younger than Biden, has an unhealthy lifestyle, tried to overthrow democracy, is facing 91 criminal charges, argues for the death of his enemies, and has the cognitive aptitude of a bowl of cream of wheat.
Step Two: breathlessly boost data that shows (surprise, surprise!) people are now perceiving Biden’s age to be a big problem.
Step Three (really, concurrent with Step One): insinuate that Kamala Harris, a former Attorney General/Senator of the most populous state and the current Vice President, is somehow not up to the job of stepping into Biden’s shoes Should Something Happen. Why? It’s not really clear – vague insinuations Biden doesn’t trust her, she’s not “well liked,” she’s just marking time, accusations you never see her accompanied by accusations you see her too much.
I swear, the legacy media and online sites like Politico and Axios want Trump back so bad they can taste it. Why wouldn’t they? He’s dynamite for engagement, and none of his policies will impact their own lives negatively enough to matter.
"wasters" clearly spell-doomed from "wastrels"?
Triggering a memory here of the Trib (and Daily News) in its far right prime...
If only FDR was a good Republican, completely unfit for office, and suffering from cognitive decline and, as they said back then, senility. Bet they'd be happy with that, presuming the present is epilog to the past or something.
Bravo!
I've been thinking of this analogy for a while. FDR was attacked mercilessly: heinous Racist asshole GA Gov. Eugene Talmadge said a couple of times "I think the President of the United States should be able to walk a 2x4" and was pretty much universally condemned, even in those times. . FDR ill and "crippled" was better than anyone else in his generation for moving the country forward, and, as they can't forgive ol' Joe for the things he's doing and attempting, they will call things normal and accepted under FDR "communism".
I remember enough about Kennedy to recall he sold as "young" "tanned""athletic"(I mean, he and Bobby and Teddy played footbalL) "vital", "virile" while rotten with Addison's disease, adrenal bronzing, hypersexuality and all.
We have had truly disabled Presidents, like Edith Wilson covering up for Woodrow: and the government kept right on going. As the Roman Empire functioned, through the mad Emperors of the preChristian years, our government would run ok, had we not an industry dedicated to making it not work, or to work only for the few, who find their expression in the sort of "news" like your Trib satire.
Fear of a black woman president is something the Dems of yesteryear didn't have to contend with.
I await Diaper Don's public meltdown: which will be spun as merely the acceptable rage of a thwarted tyrant...
I’m not surprised the Chicago Tribune was in bed with Hitler, so was the NYT’s; downplaying the anti-semitism and threat Hitler posed. Media was an old boys club back then, and now it’s new management, the same as the old management, except corporations have filled in for the oligarchs.
So much for “all the news that’s fit to print! You can count on the NYT’s, except when the stakes are high or democracy is in peril.
Nazi Sympathizers during the 1930’s
The Iraq War
Withholding a story on illegal NSA surveillance in 2005
The rise of Trump
The legitimizing of Trump
When it comes to the media, It always about the Benjamin’s.
I don’t know who this Benny Johnson guy is, but he’s not alone in legitimizing Trump, continuing to treat him as “fit for office” and justifying all of his indefensible positions and ludicrous agenda for Trump and his minions.
As for their treatment of Biden, his biggest problem is he’s boring, and boring doesn’t sell. He’s not charismatic like Trump (to those that don’t find him appalling like the rest of us), and he doesn’t command the stage.
However, not to quote the charlatans in the MAGA movement, but I will, since they only can comprehend slogans on bumper stickers:
Biden gets things done.
Trump sycophants say he does, but did he really? Unless you count not building a wall, which Mexico didn’t pay for. Not passing an infrastructure bill, even though we had an infrastructure month year after year.
And then of course, he did accomplish an insurrection, which ultimately failed. He did try to steal an election, which ultimately failed. He did monetize the Presidency. He did weaponize the DOJ and IRS to do his bidding against enemies real and perceived.
And finally, he did accomplish two things that no other president had ever done: he managed to get impeached twice, and add over $8 trillion to the national debt in just four years.
Perhaps his new slogan on bumper stickers should read:
“Vote for Trump, the king of debt. He’ll do to America what he did for his businesses; send them straight into bankruptcy!”
Thanks for the excellent links, especially to Olmstead's book.
OK, just hear me out: What if we just flooded the zone with "Joe Biden is so old..." jokes? Yeah, he's old as shit, he's so old when he was a kid he didn't have candles on his birthday cake because they didn't have fire yet!
You know, like a guy with a larger-than-average nose, his pals nickname him Schnozzola, takes the sting off. After a while it's an endearing character trait.
...but it is so well written!
A few years back I read a trilogy treating FDR’s record as a wartime leader. The books were adulatory to the point of fulsomeness (and, interestingly, raised Roosevelt’s monument on a towering plinth cemented together from the rubble of Churchill’s reputation), but by the author’s account, the president’s condition began a steep decline beginning at the end of 1943. He wasn’t gaga, but as the months wore on he wasn’t “there” much of the time. Aides learned that if there were critical decisions to be made they would have to be presented to him for the couple of hours each day that he was his old self.
Of course, by that time FDR had long since assembled an administrative apparatus that was running our nascent empire’s affairs (according to the diaries of Adolf Berle, one of his inner circle, his aides privately referred to their chief as “Augustus,” and wouldn’t 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 have made Colonel McCormick’s head explode) without the need of his punctilious oversight.
I've stopped reading at "much like a baby or an imbecile," to rush here to propose that as a terrific refrain for a romantic ballad, possibly in the bossa nova mold.
The MAGAts have one advantage. When you show them video of Trump saying "we would be in World War Two very quickly if we’re going to be relying on [Biden]", or that Americans need voter ID to buy bread, or how he beat Obama in the 2016 election, they won't see anything wrong since everyone knows it's all true. Besides, only commies would think the difference between WW Two and Three is a big deal -- he was only off by one.
Maybe my own reality is slipping away, but wasn't DJT falling & slipping like every week while in office. I remember there was shitposting about it, but it wasn't like a major point of big media reporting.
Maybe I'm wrong & need to get back to my 20-hour shift in the sugar mines of our giant ant overlords...
To what address should the soiled diaper drawings be sent? Asking for a friend.
>Ickes
The Colonel forgot Morgenthau, Baruch, and (to lighten things up) Wallace; perhaps he is getting old….
Fun fact: When F.D.R. died, the Colonel paid for pickup trucks to roam Chicago with young people in them whooping it up. Classy!