The mystery deepens!

Red State: "What Are the Odds? Burned Fetterman Sign Was on Farm of DNC Speaker." 

Since the secret Saudi deal fell through

It's time to move to Plan B: "Biden paints oil firms as war profiteers, talks windfall tax."

Evergreen:

Photo credit: Jussie Smollett

Hot Air:  "Talk we must about Fetterman's burning yard sign."

Let’s just call this what it was. It was a staged event. It was a hoax designed to try to profit off of the liberal wave of accusations about violent attacks by “MAGA extremists.” But it wasn’t even a good hoax.

You'd think this extraordinary event of mega-MAGA hate would bring the media running to cover this story but instead: crickets.

They know.

The basement strategy for the mentally compromised

NY Post: "Are we living through ‘Weekend at Biden’s’? America needs to know, but the complicit media won’t ask."

Are staffers covering up for President Joe Biden the way they did for Senate candidate John Fetterman?

Tuesday night’s debate revealed Fetterman’s debilitated post-stroke condition — and thus also exposed both the campaign staff who’d hidden the truth and the Dem-loving members of the media who for months covered for the progressive politico, even stomping on any reporters who raised doubts.

Like Fetterman, Biden keeps the media at arm’s length — vastly more so than any recent prez. He did only nine formal press conferences in all of 2021, and eight so far this year. He’s done just 20 sit-down interviews (many of them softball) through the first year-and-a-half of his presidency.

It's a mystery why the mainstream media keeps losing credibility.  An absolute enigma.

He only has one speech

Fox News: "Biden spends little time talking about Fetterman during Pennsylvania rally."

That's because Dementia Joe only has one speech to give.  He gives it over and over and over and over and over again.  The only thing that ever changes is the random interjection of "not a joke" or "that's not hyperbole."

Dementia Joe has done exactly one solo press conference in all of 2022, back in January.  When he does sit down with a friendly interviewer, he inevitably commits a gaffe.

This is normal:

Heh, that's pretty good

Babylon Bee: "Babylon Bee Writers Struggling To Think Of Joke Worth $44 Billion."

Yeah, I saw that

NY Post: "New ad blasting Biden over immigration airs during World Series: ‘No mas’." 

It's funny because it's true

Babylon Bee: "Heartbroken Progressives Forced To Resort To Old-Fashioned Technique Of Just Not Reading Tweets They Don't Like."

Remember how we were told "it's a private company, they can censor who they want?"  Good times, good times.

Yeah, let's throw down gloves

Tweet of the day:

You can read most WaPo articles by copying the url into https://t.co/xxXkhQYzpa

That will get you around their paywall so you won't be giving them any ad revenue or feeding their tracking software with your data https://t.co/9fCPC5pr0G

— PoliMath (@politicalmath) October 28, 2022

Red tsunami rising

Hot Air: "USA Today poll: GOP getting 40% of the Hispanic vote and 21% of Black vote."

Throw the damn towel

Guy Benson: "An Excruciating, Disqualifying Debate in Pennsylvania." 

Must be nice

Dementia Joe has a single event today and then it's off to Delaware for a long weekend.

How does Fetterman happen? The media

Here's Jim Geraghty on how the mainstream media facilitates candidates like John Fetterman:

Allow me to offer a controversial theory: A lot of Democratic Party candidates and strategists have bad judgment because they’ve grown used to a usually friendly media bailing them out of the consequences of their bad decisions.

...

I don’t know that Democratic candidates or campaign strategists consciously think, “Oh, we’ll be fine, the media is on our side and will cover for us.” I think they just get used to having the consequences of every mistake and dumb decision mitigated by generous media coverage. They walk around with the wind constantly at their backs, convinced that they are wiser and better at their jobs than they really are. And when that wind at their backs stops blowing, they’re stunned — suddenly everything is much harder.

So very true, and confirmed by post-debate coverage.  I was watching the evening news tonight and Andrea Mitchell (*spit*) said that this debate was not Fetterman's "forum."  WTF does that mean?  What kind of fora is acceptable for a United States Senator?

Roll out the excuses and disopprobrium, Democrats and media (I repeat myself).  There's no way normal Americans are going to look at that debate and vote for Fetterman.  It's done.

Apology due

The Corner: "Gisele Fetterman Owes Dasha Burns an Apology"

John Fetterman was a monumental disaster at this evening’s debate. I’ve never seen anything like it. He’s badly incapacitated, and those who are pretending otherwise must stop immediately. A lot of people — including Fetterman’s wife — owe public apologies to NBC’s Dasha Burns, who reported a couple of weeks ago that Fetterman could not understand her small talk, and was smeared and lambasted for her troubles.

Red State: "John Fetterman's Debate Was Much Worse Than Expected"

The debate between John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz is in the book, and I’m going to make the most non-hyperbolic statement ever made on this site. That debate was the worst, most disturbing thing I’ve ever seen in politics.

I watched the whole debate it was unlike anything I've ever seen in my 50+ years.  Fetterman is done.  Congratulations, Senator Oz.

Extra - Before this debate, there was only a 3-cent difference in the PredictIt political market between Oz and Fetterman.  Post-debate?  Twenty-three.  

The Oz-Fetterman debate in a nutshell

 

What just happened? #PASen pic.twitter.com/aJRDZVFU2x

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 26, 2022

Gaffe then have a laugh

Red State: "Clean-Up on Aisle Biden By His Handlers Just Makes Things All the Worse."

The lies are just getting lazier and lazier. I mean, I know that Karine Jean-Pierre is the worst press secretary in modern history, but you’d think she could get a few people around here with some sense of creativity. If you are going to tell a falsehood, at least make it somewhat believable, otherwise, it just mimics parody.

This was a variation of the "top of mind" fiasco, where the White House Press Office needed to scramble to come up with some kind of explanation for Dementia Joe's latest lie.  They simply cannot say anything approximating the truth that Biden is losing it.

Say...where is Jackie?

Extra - Hot Air: "So Biden got confused and the White House is lying to cover for him."

More - Powerline: "Who is our President?"

No oil for Joe

Wall Street Journal: "Biden Pitches Plan to Refill Oil Reserves, but Producers Are Skeptical - U.S. companies are wary of boosting output even though the government is offering to buy oil at fixed prices."

Gee, I wonder why.  Oh, wait, I remember: the pledge to end fossil fuels.

Standing and fall

The Corner: "Eighth Circuit Slams the Brakes on Biden Student-Loan Debt Cancellation."

This article contends that the Biden administration is putting 100% of its effort into preventing a party from finding standing in a lawsuit because it's so blatantly unconstitutional it will surely fail in court. 

Extra - "Here’s proof Biden knows his student loan bailout is illegal." 

Illegal plan stopped...for now

National Review: "Appeals Court Temporarily Blocks Biden’s Student-Loan ‘Forgiveness’ Plan." 

No comment

Red State: "Dazed and Confused Joe Biden Campaigns With Dazed and Confused John Fetterman." - "Joe Biden’s handlers let him out of the basement on Thursday, and things went about as well as you could expect. That is to say that things went terribly."

Fetterman did not address the event and, when questioned by a reporter, his wife ran interference.

Extra - Twitchy: "What a mess." 

The calls are coming from inside the house!

Hot Air: "BOOM! 59% of voters think MSM is a "major threat" to Democracy: NYT/Siena Poll."

Old and Busted: "Democracy dies in darkness" - Washington Post

New and Shiny: "You are the darkness, Washington Post." - America

I like this Kari Lake

More than any other candidate, Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake knows how to handle the biased media: "Lake to reporters: Wanna talk about "election deniers"? I've got a few receipts."

"So it’s okay for Democrats to question elections but it’s not okay for Republicans? It’s crock of BS, everyone knows it, we have our freedom of speech and we’re not going relinquish it to a bunch of fake news propagandists. If you want a copy of these I’m sure Anthony will help you get a copy and help you learn how to journalist but look it up. It has been happening for a long time."

No kidding: the mainstream media are absolute White Knights for Democrats like Joe Biden and John Fetterman but every Republican needs to answer for their sins.

Kari Lake is done pretending the media is objective and even-balanced.  Judging from this most recent Gallup poll, so is most of America:

Americans' distrust in the media is at a record high, as for the first time ever, the percentage of Americans with no trust at all in the media is higher than the percentage of those with a great deal or fair amount combined, according to a recent Gallup poll.

Keep an eye out for a load of Seymour Skinner memes after the midterms.

100%

Bloomberg: "Forecast for US Recession Within Year Hits 100% in Blow to Biden."

Good thing I invested my hot dog savings:

Kari rising

The Corner: "Arizona Democrats Begin to Recognize the Consequences of Their Actions." 

If it wasn't for these meddling kids!

Fear of Republican pouncing

Hot Air: "Liberal columnist freaks out over ad showing actual crime in America." 

He did the meme

Fox News: "Biden blasted for telling reporter the economy is 'strong as hell' while eating ice cream."

Look, Jack: not a joke.

Literally this meme brought to life https://t.co/0INisSEOM4 pic.twitter.com/s7JFRX2Pif

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) October 16, 2022

Why would Warren G. Harding do this?

I caught this misstep from Dementia Joe yesterday:

Look, in 1922, the price for one blood pressure drug that millions of Medicare patients — beneficiaries rely on went up one — went up by 500 percent. 

Harding did this even before Medicare existed.

Everything old is new again!

Fox News: "China’s Xi Jinping grabs more power, pushing Asia closer to war"

War in Europe?  Check.

War in Asia?  Check.

Gas rationing?  Check.

Polio?  Check.

A President with a disability?  Check.

Boondoggle

Reason: "We Told You Why and How California's High-Speed Rail Wouldn't Work. You Chose Not To Listen. - "The New York Times newsroom illustrates what happens when you listen to the New York Times editorial board."

Must see TV

According to the daily presidential schedule, Biden is going to give a speech "on lowering costs for American families."

Since he only ever repeats the same talking points over and over, let me tell you what he'll say at 6:10 EST.  The Inflation Reduction Act will lower the cost on drugs (in two years) and Tim Scott wants put Social Security up for a vote every 5 years but there this guy in Wisconsin Ron Johnson who wants to vote every year and my dad used to say "do you have any breathing room?"

Update - Boy, did I call this one.

I've been told this is serious

PJ Media: "Did Joe Biden Try to Blackmail the Saudis To Interfere With the Midterms?" 

Another day, another lie

Hey, it's a good thing the Washington Post took down their Presidential lie counter, huh?  Twitchy: "President Joe Biden tells crowd in Colorado that his son Beau ‘lost his life in Iraq’."

LIke I said:

“Incorrectly said”
As he’s been “incorrectly saying” for decades that his first wife was killed by a drunk driver.
He’s always been a fraud.

— Gibbsville Man (@GibbsvilleMan) October 12, 2022

Joe Biden is a pathological liar

Only a day after the NY Times wrote an article noting that Dementia Joe makes up a lot of stories that just aren't true, Biden said "hold my beer."

This was a comment he made today to firefighters:

Firefighters have saved my life and the life of my family.  I want to just tell you for a moment — I know a lot of you know from — if anyone is from Delaware there knows — you know, way back in 1972, before I got sworn in, my family — my wife was Christmas shopping with my three children and — and a tractor trailer — they got in an accident — broadsided, and killed my wife, killed my daughter.  And my two boys, who were then almost three and almost four, were on top of their dead sister and mother.  And it took the Jaws of Life from my local fire department volunteers to get them out and get them to the hospital.  And it saved their lives.

Emphasis added for the active voice used here.  For not the first time, Biden used this story to smear truck driver Curtis Dunn who was completely faultless for this accident:

Joe's calling card is decency, an affable man without a malicious bone in his body. Yet he allowed Dunn, who died in 1999, to go to his grave having been falsely shamed by Biden as a drunk driver responsible for the death of Biden's wife and newborn daughter. What "decent" man does that.

Back in 2019, Jack Fowler called Biden's sickening embellishment - for personal or political gain - "the most disturbing thing about Joe Biden."  Joe has learned exactly nothing over the years and proved it again today.

It was all lies

CNN: "FBI offered Christopher Steele $1 million to prove dossier claims, senior FBI analyst testifies."

These stories appeared hours apart

NY Post: "PayPal says policy to fine customers for ‘misinformation’ was an ‘error’."

Reason: "PayPal Says It Won't Fine Users $2,500 for Misinformation, but It Will Fine Them for 'Intolerance'."

Time to short Paypal.  Get woke, go broke.

Everything to everyone

Not much of a sanctuary city

NY Post: "Migrants bused to NYC hotel going door-to-door asking for help." 

Trolling level: master

Red State: "'Unhinged' Katie Hobbs Freaks When Kari Lake Shows up in Town Hall Audience."

The tl;dr is that the two candidates for the Arizona's governors race were supposed to appear in separate town hall meetings but the Republican candidate sat in the front row of the audience and the Democrat hid in the green room until she left.

How ya like them apples, Big Apple?

Hot Air: "New York's emergency: getting what they asked for." - "If you voted for Joe Biden, you voted for this. And if you voted for it, you should have to deal with it. If I had my druthers every single illegal alien would be sent to a sanctuary city."

When woke self-preening meets reality

Martha's Vineyard vibe:

The Saudi rug pull

Hot Air: "WaPo, AP: On further review, it sure looks like the Saudis f'd with a Biden, no?" - "This week, however, the Saudi and OPEC+ decision to yank back on production when Biden clearly wanted his fist-bump buddy to increase it paints the meeting in an entirely new light. In fact, as the Washington Post concedes, it now looks like a deliberate humiliation, and even the White House agrees." 

You laugh but Gronk would do it

The Onion: "Tom Brady Urges Rob Gronkowski To Join Him For Last Year Of Marriage." 

Where are the factcheckers?

Here's Joe Biden, lying:

For example, it’s one thing to have inflation go up because of the price of gasoline — even now, it’s still coming down — but, you know, beyond the basic things, what are the things that really matter to people?

Absolutely false.  Completely untrue.  Let's get to work, factcheckers.

Failure to learn history

I found some dark humor in this article: "Lessons Not Learned: OPEC+ and the Financial Times."

Some of us are old enough to remember 1973 and 1979. If it has taken half a century to realize that our “partners” in the Gulf are not reliable, well . . .

Yes, some of us are, what's the word?  "Old."  I remember gas lines that stretched around the block and winters that required a lot of blankets at night.

The reality, however, is that we have long understood that neither these countries nor their associates are reliable suppliers, which is why the U.S.’s reestablishing its energy independence in the last decade was widely understood to be such a big deal. Thanks to ill-timed and reckless climate policies (which are unlikely to have much of an impact on the climate), that advantage is now being thrown away, with consequences that we are already beginning to see.

This the energy version of "good times make weak men."  Energy has been an affordable and accessible commodity for so long, people forgot what it meant when it wasn't so accessible.  Europe is about to learn a hard lesson, one they should have prepared for. 

Oh so *now* crime is a problem

NBC News: "In key battlegrounds, GOP onslaught of crime ads tightens Senate races" - "The strategy, while not new, appears to be resonating particularly in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, alarming some Wisconsin Democrats." 

Walter Mitty visits IBM

This is on Dementia Joe's schedule today:

The President delivers remarks on creating jobs in the Hudson Valley, lowering costs, and ensuring the future is made in America

So that means either we're going to get the story about how the price of gasoline was a discussion around the kitchen table or the story about how Young Joe Biden designed integrated circuits in his early career before he became a truck driver.

The definition of insanity

Fox Business: "Biden to release 10M more barrels from Strategic Petroleum Reserve in November in wake of OPEC+ cuts."

This is fine:

October surprise

Fox Business: "OPEC+ ministers agree to cut production by 2M barrels per day."

Looks like that fist bump didn't work, Joey: "White House 'Having a Spasm and Panicking' Over OPEC Oil Cut." 

Extra - OPEC to Biden: drop dead.  "In a further humiliation for the administration, this move comes after a “full court press” from the administration against OPEC+ countries, warning them not to cut production."

Biden: “Saudis will pump more oil”

Saudis: “Biden doesn’t speak for OPEC”

OPEC: “We’re pumping less oil now” pic.twitter.com/pYW5UIy92p

— John Hasson (@SonofHas) October 4, 2022

Self-own at the Times

Twitchy: "Mollie Hemingway spots NY Times debunking their own election ‘conspiracy theory’ debunking just a day earlier."

Journalism 2022.

A template to follow

Red State: "Kari Lake Takes 'Unhinged' Katie Hobbs Apart, Gives Masterclass in Handling the Press."

Look at her go.  She asks why her opponent refuses to debate, just like John Fetterman in PA.  You go, girl!

We all saw this coming

Hot Air: "WaPo: The Dem narrative on gas prices will return to "presidents don't control" ... again."

Update - Right on cue: "Karine Jean-Pierre explains to Peter Doocy that it’s unfair to blame Biden for rising gas prices because ‘it’s a lot more nuanced than that’."  Oh, the nuance, the nuance.

Evergreen:

There is literally video, "factchecker"

Twitchy: "PolitiFact comes to Kamala Harris’ rescue after she said that hurricane relief resources should be based on equity." 

Making it up as they go along

NY Post: "Biden’s rollback of student-loan-forgiveness plan pulls up the curtain on his Potemkin White House." 

Extra - Federalist: "What You Need To Know About This Lawsuit Against Biden’s $1 Trillion Student Loan Giveaway" - "The fact that the administration announced this “forgiveness” via a Q&A on a website speaks to the slapdash nature of this entire process." 

$7/gallon

Power Line: "California apparently didn’t get the Biden Administration memo about the good news of falling gasoline prices."

I've been to California many times and, man, I don't get it.  Housing is crazy, traffic is insane, homelessness, high taxes, drugs, and gas prices that swallow your income driving to work.  I don't get why Republicans can't make inroads in state that used to be led by Reagan.

Let's just say I strongly disagree with Randy Newman.

Womp womp

Hot Air: "Stacey Abrams loses Georgia voting rights lawsuit on all counts." 

Imagine being this much of a toady

Here's Jill Lawrence at USA Today: "What Joe Biden's memory lapse about the late Jackie Walorski really told us"

It’s unfortunate that he made the mistake. At the same time, it demonstrated a generosity and professionalism that was also present in Biden’s Tuesday conversation with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a frequent and harsh Biden critic, as Hurricane Ian bore down on his state. 

This is some amazing gaslighting, as if Biden didn't compare Americans to George Wallace and call half of Americans "semi-fascists," whatever that means.

So much unity.  Such healing.

Stock market plunge

Red State: "Past Statements Come Back With a Vengeance to Haunt Joe Biden and Ron Klain."

Must be time to bring out the old "jobs coming back" crutch, the answer to every piece of bad financial news.

ICYMI - We're now officially in a recession.  

Time to impeach

The Corner: ‘This Is a Constitutional Crisis’

“I consider this to be a constitutional crisis,” he said. “I think that from start to finish, we are witnessing a president test the established legal order of the United States. . . . His broader party know that he’s not allowed to. But he went ahead and willfully did it anyway.”

Biden YOLO'd into this student debt plan, which is now being changed on the fly to avoid the eventual lawsuits.