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If Biden Makes a Gaffe, How Will Trump Know?

June 26, 2024
by Peter Feinman
The Thrilla in Manila (Neil Leifer for Sports Illustrated)

The thrilla in Manila is upon us. Or the Devil and Daniel Webster. Or Williams Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow. Or Earth 1 versus Earth 2.

We are at point which tonight may determine the outcome of the American Presidential race. For all the talk about it being too early, it really is not since the campaign for the 2020 election never ended. For one contestant, it may be his last chance to show he belongs in the ring. For the other candidate whose home is the professional political wrestling arena, it may be another chance to show that the real world cannot touch him.

Let’s consider some of key points over the debate which may be obscured.

1. Joe Biden is not dead. That is a funny way to begin a description of the confrontation. It attests the success of his opponent and Foxhub in painting Biden as someone still at death’s door after five years. Nothing Biden does seems to shake this image so even if he is still standing after the metaphorical 15 rounds it will be explained away that he was drugged like a Russian athlete to over perform. It also attests the stark reality that Donald Trump controls the narrative and not the President of the United States

2. Donald Trump is an elite stander. I am still not sure what it means to be an elite stander but if Biden is standing too that will be explained away. On the other hand, this absurd comment provides an opening in the match should Biden want to take advantage of it.

Was Franklin Delano Roosevelt an elite stander?
Is Texas Governor Greg Abbott an elite stander?
Are the participants in the Special Olympics all elite standers?
What about the wounded veterans who may not be able to stand? Besides being losers and suckers do they also fail to measure up?
What about for people with disabilities in general?

Here we see the limits of the mental necessities of the seventh-grade smart-aleck-dumb-aleck. It’s a funny line unless you stop to think about it. Then it is simple-minded at best and an example of someone and his staff who lack the mental necessities for the White House due to their inability to think things through.

3. Donald Trump is always the dumbest person in the room except at a MAGA rally. Suppose Biden discusses his foreign policy actions and mentions a slew of countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, and the Middle East. Then suppose he commits a gaffe in naming the country or its leader. How would Trump know? The usual way is denied him. Foxhub will have the opportunity to take Biden to task after the debate but will be unable to do so during the debate. This means the people who watch Foxhub will be able to laugh and laugh at the gaffe after it is spun to them. Meanwhile the people who watch CNN or MSNBC or who read the real morning papers will not. By that time, the Biden side will have the opportunity to issue a corrective. It won’t matter to MAGAs but it will to others.

4. Singing in the Shower – As everyone knows, in the shower, you are the world’s greatest singer. It is only when you leave the shower for the real world that the truth catches up with you. So as long as Trump is on Foxhub or in his professional political wrestling arena he is on safe grounds. He can say anything with fear or even awareness if what he is saying is true in the real world. However, he will not have that luxury in the CNN debate. No doubt he will do his best to transform the stage into an arena on Earth 2. But there will be no live audience to provide him the energy he needs to sustain himself. He will be muted if rambles on for too long. In short, the conditions of the debate are configured as best as is possible to keep Trump in the real world, a place where he is not very comfortable.

Think of his recent comments about Milwaukee. First, given his limited mental necessities, he is only capable of judging something in a strictly binary manner. It is either the greatest ever or the worst ever. The worst Secretary of State ever. The worst treaty ever. As if he has studied the history of the United States and can intelligibly make such an argument. He speaks in binary, apocalyptic terms about what would happen if various legal actions were taken.  On the one hand the President should have immunity if he sends seal team 6 after his opponents. On the other hand, Biden is condemned for sending armed FBI agents to violate his home with orders to kill him. But there is no contradiction there because Biden is not the real president anyway.

Second, Milwaukee is a city, therefore it is carnage. What else do you need to know?

Facts are meaningless to Donald Trump and to MAGA, so if Biden decides to speak in facts, he should be aiming for the national audience and not waste his time trying to convince Trump to leave his alternate world for Earth 1.

The issue will be not only what happens in the debate but how it is spun afterwards. Think of January 6. People saw the insurrection live on TV as it was happening. People saw elected officials running for their lives. People heard Republicans condemn the actions and inactions of the President of the United States in fomenting the action.

Then what happened?

There were FBI plants?
There were Antifa agitators.
It was peaceful political protest.
They are hostages.
They will be pardoned.

See how the description changes. Have the number of people who think the election was stolen from Trump instead of him trying to steal the election changed in more than two years. Now Trump is a champion of freedom in the United States!

No matter how people have been convicted; no matter how people have lost their license; no matter how people are waiting for their day in court, nothing has had any impact on MAGAs. And nothing ever will.

So even if Biden holds his own and wins in the same way Nixon won the debate on radio while Kennedy won the same debate on television, what will change in the American electorate? We are a storytelling species and the fact is Earth 2 has a superior story told by a persistent and robust storyteller even if he does not have the facts on his side and his mental necessities are deteriorating.

CNN New Hampshire and January 6, 2025

June 1, 2023
by Peter Feinman
Only the technology has changed (Sony tape recorder used to tape conversations in the White House, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives and Records Administration)

CNN has taken a lot of flack for providing free airtime to a person incapable of telling the truth except by accident. The ratings were not spectacular and there is no indication that this will be a repeat of 2016.

In many ways, CNN did the nation a favor. Think back to the trial which had just ended the day before. His own testimony under deposition helped hold him liable. No matter how well prepared his lawyers might have been, no one could have anticipated that he would confuse E. Jean Carroll with his second wife Marla Maples. The lesson to be learned is the more he talks the deeper into a hole he digs himself. CNN provided an opportunity for him to defame Carroll as a wack job whom he did not know. The result has been an increase in the amount of damages sought against him. Good thinking immature child with the emotional maturity of a three-year old, just keep talking.

And now there are tapes.

The same applies to one exchange that has not received the attention it deserves. He was asked if he would accept the results on the 2024 election if he lost. The answer was “No!” In his terms he replied only if he decided the election was honest. Translated in to English, that means if he loses again to Joe Biden (assuming he is the nominee) he will not accept the results.

So what? His Arizona gubernatorial candidate has not accepted the results that she lost and what impact has it had? Unfortunately it does mean a possible Senate candidacy for her. If she should win that then the Senate could have its own counterpart to Marjorie Taylor Greene.

HE’S A LOSER

One should keep in mind that the wannabees will be spending months tarnishing the image of Criminal Loser Liar Trump. They already have begun referring to the losses experienced by the Republican Party due to him. Every time they refer to the Republican Party as a loser party, they are indirectly attacking and rejecting his claims of being a winner.

He did not win the popular vote in 2016.
His party did lose the Congressional elections in 2018.
He did not win the popular vote or electoral vote in 2020.
Election deniers did not win in 2022.

In short, everything he touches dies. At some point, people in the Republican Party are going to place winning over fealty to The Donald. Survival trumps obedience. The story will not be the same everywhere. But the more Republicans face the threat of losing in a state despite all their efforts to suppress the vote – or because they have a conscience – the more resistant to blindly following the Criminal Loser Liar will. Certainly with all the presidential candidates, some will hammer home the message that The Donald is a loser. Especially if one wants to stand out on a crowded debate stage, the greater the likelihood of confronting the Criminal Loser Liar head on. Given the winner-take-all format of Republican primaries, such attacks may not be sufficient to prevent him from wining a plurality even if he is under multiple indictments. What it does mean it that Democrats don’t need to spend much effort attacking him until after the Republican convention, the Republicans will be doing it for them.

JANUARY 6, 2025    

Despite all the legal threats and attacks from Republican presidential candidates, he still could be the nominee. What are the options then if he loses again to Joe Biden? They would seem to be quite limited.

Will he unleash Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell on the state legislatures again? Unlikely since they are likely to be on trial for their efforts last time around.

Will he seize voting machines as he failed to do last time? No, he would have no power to do so?

Will he create alternate electors to stealthily cast votes on his behalf? No, the fake electors from last time will be on trial or have sought immunity deals for themselves for their actions. It seems unlikely that anyone would try that route again.

Will state legislatures with Republican super-majorities openly declare alternate electors if necessary? Meaning if they calculate the electoral votes needed and coordinate their actions with other states with Republican super-majorities sufficient to close the gap? Unlikely although it remains a possibility depending on how the Supreme Court rules. Even if it rules in their favor it would be such a brazen step to steal the election, I question whether such a maneuver would even work. Even as I write this the current Texas Attorney General who might be expected to lead the charge may find himself removed from office.

Will he call upon his patriotic tourists to assemble at the Capitol with the cry that “it will be wild”? Unlikely. This time the Capitol will be fully prepared for the arrival of his tourists, his good people whom he loves. Those people will have seen what happened last time. They have seen the arrests. They have seen the convictions. They have seen the sentencing. All this talk about pardoning the tourists from 2020 are a constant reminder of the consequences of their attempt to steal the election. Consider the outcry over his first indictment in New York. It was a big nothingburger.

As one examines the various options available to the two-time loser, one sees that they are quite limited. They are more in the style of Kari Lake. She can huff and puff all she wants but she cannot undo the election results. By this point, even his own followers expect him to be indicted.

In short, it is good to have on record on his unwillingness to accept the results in 2024 unless he wins. It is something his fellow Republican candidates can criticize the big baby for in their own campaigns. So the bottom line is if he calls for a national effort to steal the election in 2024 so he can win, nothing much will happen. He would just be a laughingstock as he continues to defend himself in court(s) from the last time he tried to steal the election.

At least this time he telegraphed his punches and CNN should be thanked for giving him that opportunity to expose himself.

Of course, it is also possible that he will win the election.

Covid: How CNN, MSNBC, and Fauci Failed America

October 19, 2020
by Peter Feinman
HOW MANY TIMES CAN YOU CRY "SUPERSPREADER"?

CNN, MSNBC, and Time Magazine’s Person of the Year have failed America on the coronavirus. Since Fauci is a government employee he gets a pass since he is more limited in what he can do. CNN and MSNBC aren’t so limited.

Your first reaction might be that’s crazy talk. How can CNN, MSNBC, and Fauci be responsible for the failure? Shouldn’t the self-designated “wartime president” be held accountable? Obviously the immature child lacks the mental necessities and cognitive skills to understand the severity and impact of the virus. Obviously the inept and incompetent failed businessman lacks the management skill to effectively handle the crisis if he had the ability to realize it existed in the first place. Obviously the person incapable of sympathy or empathy lacks the ability to care especially when weak people in Democrat-governed states are the ones dying from it. If anyone should pay the price for the 220,000+ and climbing deaths in the United States, shouldn’t the buck stop with the wartime president?

Now let’s consider the situation from a Trumpican point to view.

8 MILLION CASES AND 220,000 DEATHS

So far after nine months of this pandemic, the number of infected people in the country is just over 8 million. As commentators note, that is almost the population of New York City. True, but all 8 million people aren’t located in one city. They are scattered across a country of   approximately 330 million people. That means the number of cases from this horrendous virus is less than 3% of the population of the country.

There is about 97.5% chance as of now that you have not been effected. When Trumpicans look around at their family, friends, and co-workers, there is an excellent chance that they do not know anyone who has been infected. In terms of the lives they are living, Corvid-19 doesn’t exist as a medical emergency. Indeed, it scarcely even exists.

The fatality rate simply magnifies that awareness. Even if you get the virus, you may have no symptoms and not even know you have it except from a test. Even if you get the virus and have symptoms, you probably will not be hospitalized. So if you are one of the 2.5% of the people who are infected, it is still less than 3% of that already small number that you would die, less than 1% of the total population. At this point, the odds for Trumpicans is overwhelmingly that they will not have become infected, will not die from it, and don’t know anyone who did.

In the real world of the Trumpicans, it is a reasonable gamble that you will not get the virus yet alone die from it. Of course, in the real world it also is a reasonable gamble that if you don’t buckle up when driving you won’t die but you buckle up anyway.

SUPERSPREADER EVENTS

One year ago, who knew what a superspreader event was. The word doesn’t even appear in my spell-check vocabulary list. Now everyone has heard of it. Again, let’s examine superspreader events as brought to your attention by CNN and MSNBC.

The first major one I recall was the Memorial Day Weekend pool party in Arkansas. How many people died from it?

Then there was the multiple-day bigtime motorcycle rally in South Dakota. How many people died from it?

Who can forget the Tulsa rally? One person did die from it. How many others died?

Finally there were/are all the campaign events including where the wartime President himself was infected with the virus that was under control, had gone away like a miracle, and was behind us. How many people died from them?

How many of the professional and college athletes who were infected have died of it?

How many Secret Service agents who were infected have died of it?

How many people do you know personally who died of a stroke last year?

How many people do you known personally who died of the flu last year?

From a Trumpican perspective for their actual experiences these past nine months for the coronavirus, they have nothing to fear but fear itself so let’s open the economy.

CRYING WOLF

How many times can you cry wolf before people stop listening to you? Trumpicans have tuned out CNN, MSNBC, and Fauci. All these medical experts on show after show, day after day, warning people of the dangers to them and their loved ones from the coronavirus fall on deaf ears. In their own lives, Trumpicans don’t see it.

“People are tired of Covid. I have these huge rallies. People are saying whatever. Just leave us alone. They’re tired of it. People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots … Fauci is a nice guy. He’s been here for 500 years.”

 Once again, our immature child president has demonstrated a gut-instinct connection with exactly what Trumpicans are thinking, not the rest of Americans. He understands his audience even if CNN, MSNBC, and Fauci don’t. The only way to effectively communicate with someone is in the language the person understands. He speaks the language of Trumpicans, CNN and MSNBC mock and belittle it.

How many town halls have CNN and MSNBC held just with Trumpicans?

When CNN and MSNBC interview Trumpicans at the political rallies is it to understand them or to document their stupidity?

Look at the dumb Trumpicans, they think it’s a hoax. What can you do with such morons?

Look at the dumb Trumpicans, they think it’s like the flu. What can you do with such morons?

Look at the dumb Trumpicans, they think the total numbers of deceased are Fake News [and the CNN and MSNBC numbers never agree anyway]. What can you do with such morons?

CNN, MSNBC, and Fauci think they are providing the public with the information it needs to successfully deal with the crisis. Trumpicans don’t even listen to them. They know better based on what they have experienced in their own lives.

REPEATING 2016  

We are living through a repeat of the 2016 presidential election. Trumpicans, people in the flyover states, non-college educated white people, complain that condescending arrogant self-righteous elitists don’t listen to them, take them seriously, or really care about them. The mentally-and-morally superior people look down these inferiors as deplorable and disgusting. Now we are seeing a variation of that dynamic play out in the dismissal of Trumpicans for their ideas about the coronavirus.

Thomas Friedman suggested that Joe Biden spend some time campaigning among the Trumpicans. Biden didn’t follow that advice. It is probably too late now. Based on the polls Biden could win the popular vote by over 15 million people so he doesn’t need to meet with Trumpicans to win. He does however need to meet with them to govern successfully. His predecessor as President these past four years only spoke before crowds that adored him, who would provide him the adulation he craves and needs. He never tried to be President of the entire United States, just the people who were loyal to him, who accepted him as their Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name, who would believe anything he said. That won’t work for Biden. He is not that type of person. Still to be President of the United States, We the People need him to reach out to all the people. That includes people who think the coronavirus is a hoax, not worse the flu, and has scarcely killed anyone so far. The grim reality is that we are not rounding a corner but are in danger of falling off a cliff. As President, Joe Biden needs to talk to Trumpicans in their own communities and in their own language about what is happening in the real world and not the alternate world on Fox.