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@chamath
US Census data just released:

Incomes: US incomes have fallen every year of the Biden Presidency thus far.

Median incomes: The median income last year fell to $74,580. 90th percentile fell to $216,000, and the bottom 10th was $17,100.

Poverty rate - the supplemental poverty measure - based on post-tax income and includes government-transfer payments like stimulus checks - rose to 12.4% . It was the first increase since 2010.

Joe Biden’s controlled demolition is almost over. We are now entering the final, macabre phase of his “Weekend at Bernie’s” presidency. It is difficult to imagine how they can possibly continue the charade much longer, as exemplified by two of Joe’s indescribably humiliating moments this week.

— Yesterday, Fox News ran a story with a Babylon Bee-style headline, “Biden repeats same story twice almost 'word for word' within minutes, sparking concern online: 'Elder abuse’.”

“Concern online” is a pretty good one. It would be more accurate to say that social media enjoyed a memetic field day after someone noticed a Politico reporter’s press pool report from a Wednesday evening fundraiser. The report bluntly admitted that President Robert L. Peters’ brain skipped its tracks, and the ancient politician told the exact same made-up story about how he decided to run for president back in the day.

He repeated the same story, just moments apart, nearly word for word. Blip!

Politico’s Jonathan Lemire, who was traveling with the president on Wednesday, wrote in a quick update about Biden’s comments: “After briefly touting his economic record, POTUS reflected on his decision to seek the presidency. He told the story about the events of Charlottesville in 2017 as the reason for his campaign. A few minutes later, he told the story again, nearly word for word.”

I bet the audience was enthralled.

Fox’s article quoted a bunch of sarcastic tweets about the State of Joe’s rapidly-declining mental Union, and then delved into his horrible polling. One interesting nugget was the article reported that MSNBC's Joe Scarborough admitted last week that he and his wife, co-host Mika Brzezinski, often talk with democrats and other politicos — and "every discussion" about Biden included “anxiety” about his age. "When I say every discussion, I don’t mean 99% of the discussion — every discussion," Scarborough emphasized.

In other words, democrats know. They just don’t know what to do about it.

— Anyway, hard as this is to believe about someone being held out as the President of the United States of America, it got even worse. In its “US News” section, top Spanish paper Marca ran a story yesterday headlined, “Joe Biden's latest public blunder at the UN with Brazil's president Lula.” The sub-headline added, “The president had another unfortunate moment as the world was watching on.”

Haha! It was “another unfortunate moment!” No kidding. That’s gold, Jerry, gold. My only question is whether Marca’s hilarious euphemism was unintentionally farcical, or are they mocking us?

Probably mocking.

Here’s how Marca accurately described the appalling spectacle of Biden acting utterly clueless on the world’s stage:

"Biden's list of public blunders just keeps getting longer. In his latest unfortunate incident, 'Potus' stumbled into a giant Brazil flag on the stage at the UN before completely forgetting to shake hands with Brazil's president Lula.

As Biden made his way up on stage, he somehow managed to walk straight into the giant seven-foot pole standing right in front of him. The audience held its breath as the flag wobbled but were relieved to see it stand firm.

That was just the beginning."

Next, after President Lula took the podium to begin speaking, Biden, standing stiff as a board, started fiddling with his UN translator earpiece and receiver. Lula was speaking in English. First, Lula waited respectfully for Biden to finish, but as the long, silent seconds uncomfortably elongated, finally Lula, sounding a mite teched, asked "Can you hear me, President Biden? This is a historic moment for Brazil and for the US.”

Biden was standing three feet away. Lula was speaking into an amplified microphone. In English.

But Biden didn’t seem to recognize his own name. He neither looked up or seemed to notice Lula at all. He just kept fiddling with the headset. After an extended pause, with everyone in the audience and online mesmerized watching Biden turned the receiver around and around in his hands, waiting to see if the Resident would ever find the on/off switch or whatever he was searching for, Lula asked again: "President Biden, can you hear me?" Eventually, without looking up, Biden grunted and nodded before, like a dog with a chew toy, he continued to fumble around with the headset.

Lula delivered his speech, followed by comments from Labor Organization Director-General Gilbert Huongbo. When Huongbo finished, he shook hands with Biden and shook hands with Lula. Then Lula started crossing over to shake hands with Biden, who was distracted, saluting the audience for some reason. After his salute, Biden turned the other way and ambled offstage, leaving Lula hanging, looking like a fool with his hand sticking out. Lula snatched his hand back, clearly disgusted, in a motion that locals said was an obscene gesture in Brazil.

Watch for yourself. Here’s Lula, thirty-six inches away, asking Biden “can “you hear me?”:

https://twitter.com/simonateba/status/1704582723342360781

Here’s the clip of Biden forgetting to shake hands with President Lula:

https://twitter.com/ThePollLady/status/1704684729348350252

The social media fallout was wildly amusing, as you can imagine. Democrats coped by suggesting that Biden was actually playing 4-D political chess, and deliberately snubbed Lula by pretending to be an Alzheimer’s patient having a bad day.

It seems to me that politicians have better ways of slipping an unhappy message to another leader apart from looking like they are past their expiration date, which might passive-aggressively snub the other leader but is also a sort of self-inflicted injury, if you see what I mean.

What do you think? Was it Biden’s mistake, or was the mistake actually made by whoever was barking orders at Biden through that earpiece?

At publishing time, members of the Squad were seen gathered in their Hamas soccer jerseys with bags of popcorn.

The triumph of British Storm Shadow missiles in Ukraine shames Joe Biden

18th September 2023

Article published in The Daily Telegraph, 14 September 2023. © Richard Kemp

British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles were the key element of a highly sophisticated Ukrainian air and sea attack this week that represented the most powerful strike against Crimea since the war began. The missiles hit a Kilo Class attack submarine and a large amphibious landing ship in the Russian-occupied port of Sevastopol, and likely caused significant damage to dock facilities. Disabling of the latter vessel was a particular blow for Moscow as these ships are critical for supply from Russia into Crimea following successive attacks on the Kerch Bridge.

When the UK first sent Storm Shadows to Ukraine, armchair experts derided their capabilities, suggesting they were only second best to US equivalents. That is certainly not the view in Kyiv. Most people I have met here in recent days – from senior military commanders and politicians to the man in the street – are hugely grateful for Britain’s support in their war effort. ‘Storm Shadow’ is now a familiar phrase in the Ukrainian lexicon.

Nor is it the view in Moscow, which has been targeting runways and air bases utilised by the planes that are used to launch Storm Shadow. These missiles have inflicted severe damage to Russian command posts and logistics dumps deep behind the front lines. And last month they were used to strike key bridges linking the Russian land corridor in occupied Ukraine to Crimea, disrupting supply lines.

With a range of 150 miles, Storm Shadow and its French equivalent, Scalp, are rare in being Western-supplied weapons that can reach into Crimea from behind current Ukrainian lines. This is believed to be the first strike on the peninsula itself by Storm Shadow. Along with previous attacks against Russian naval facilities on the Black Sea and on the Kerch Bridge, it has caused serious disruption to Putin’s strategy. Moscow will now have to redeploy scarce air defence assets to Crimea to protect against future attacks, increasing vulnerability in other critical areas.

With the Ukrainian counter-offensive moving slowly and few prospects of major advances before the winter mud bogs down assaulting forces, depth strikes against Russian-occupied land as well as its sovereign territory have become crucial. Their value cannot be overstated for Ukraine, whose civilian population, ports and infrastructure are under constant vicious attack by cruise missiles and Iranian Shahed drones.

It makes America’s reluctance to provide long-range weaponry all the more shameful. Months ago President Zelensky asked the US to send much-needed ATACAM missiles, with a range of 185 miles. They have yet to arrive. There has also been a great deal of talk about supplying F-16s, but so far little action.

Most urgently, Ukraine needs new attack drones, as well as the capability to reduce the vulnerability of Kyiv’s current drones to Russian air defences. But again, this will require a level of support that is not guaranteed.

If Kyiv is unable to penetrate Russian defensive lines this year or even next, the only other realistic option is a peace agreement that leaves Moscow in control of the Ukrainian land it has seized. Sadly, I now suspect that ending the war on any terms in advance of the 2024 election, where it would be a wedge issue, is on Joe Biden’s agenda. This would account for his continued, and dangerous, heel-dragging.

It was more bad news for Biden yesterday. His public show of Israel “support” doesn’t seem to be helping his numbers any. CNBC ran the latest in a string of similar polling stories yesterday headlined “Biden would lose in matchup vs. Trump, according to CNBC survey; Israel funding has strong support.”

In the presidential matchup part of its poll, responses showed Trump enjoying a +4% lead over Biden (46% to 42%). But there was more bad news in the poll, like Biden’s miniscule job approval rating, now mired in the low thirties.




The muddy water is swirling out of the bribery bathtub. Biden’s shocking 32% approval rating on the economy is the lowest since he infested the White House, while his 63% economic rating is tied for highest disapproval.

And just wait till gas prices skyrocket because of the war.

It’s not just Republicans who are unhappy with Biden. “You don’t get sub-40 approval ratings without losing large chunks of your base. And that’s what’s happening here,″ explained Micah Roberts, partner at Public Opinion Strategies, which ran the survey. He called the data “distressing numbers for a president facing reelection.”

Yes, but is he facing re-election?

In another part of the poll, Republicans and independents prioritized securing the border with Mexico followed by military funding for Israel. Democrats prioritized military funding for Ukraine, if you can believe that, followed by foreign humanitarian aid. Which tees Biden up nicely for a massively unaffordable, budget-busting, inflation-inflaming Congressional authorization request for aid to all four parts: Israel, Ukraine, Gaza, and a little for our own border. Expect Biden to ask for all that at his national address tonight.

I would give a lot to understand the mind of a democrat voter who thinks the country’s biggest problem right now is low Ukraine funding. I’d also like to sell them some carbon credits.

I would give a lot to understand the mind of a democrat voter who thinks the country’s biggest problem right now is low Ukraine funding.

With friends like these, we don’t even need Hamas. In a similar story yesterday, Fox ran an article headlined, “Biden administration admits it doxxed US special forces soldiers in Israel, apologizes.” You’d better sit down for this one.

While Biden was in Israel, he “encouraged” U.S. special forces members with a personal visit. Our soldiers were there secretly to help retrieve over a dozen American hostages. But then Biden’s team posted the unredacted photos — which clearly showed four of the soldiers’ faces and their tattoos — on Instagram:




This is the redacted version. Biden posted a clear photo.

Biden deleted the photo an hour later — too late, after hundreds of thousands of views — and only after people started pointing out the terrorists will soon identify these soldiers and then target them and their families. A White House spokesperson told Fox News, "As soon as this was brought to our attention, we immediately deleted the photo. We regret the error and any issues this may have caused."

Biden regrets the error. Is a statement of regret an apology?

Since I’m piling on, the New York Times, which did not report the Biden doxxing story at all, not thinking it newsworthy that Biden doxxed four in-theatre, active-duty special forces soldiers. But the Grey Lady did fret about the poor pro-Hamas Harvard students being doxxed...




Seasoned C&Cers will recall that like Biden, the U.S.’s other worst president, James “Jimmy” Carter, also faced a Middle-East hostage crisis, and also bungled the rescue attempt. It’s like Biden is trying to beat Jimmy Carter.

As Mark Twain said, history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.