I’ll have to admit my productivity was off this week, as it was a bit hard to pay attention to the everyday grind of blocking and tackling on the business front while history is playing out in front of our eyes.
While not quite a Constitutional Crisis, it certainly borders on the absurd as we’re watching the journalistic Berlin Wall of lies, obfuscation and propaganda fall in real time courtesy of the Cadaver-in-Chief.
While the Schadenfreude and “told ya so” remains thick, it’s also important to remember that the fate of the country and possibly the rest of the world is at stake as this real-life Game of Thrones (minus all the interesting characters, plot and loyalty to country) plays out before our eyes.
The only real analogy in our political history is the soft coup the security state ran against Nixon, when he lost confidence after Watergate and refused to step down.
In the end, everything I wrote last weekend stands unassailable and summed up famously by Solzhenitsyn’s memorable quote.
These journalists, campaign aides and politicians are doing everything they can to change the script, not for Biden, but for themselves.
Because the truth means they lose whatever smidgen of credibility and reputation they still had left forever.
The spin that they’re ‘concerns’ were deepened last week, not initiated means one of two things.
They’re inveterate liars.
Or more likely, they were operating not as journalists or honest brokers, but as Democratic activists and propagandists doing their best to cover up a massive scandal - that the President was a demented old fool in order to maintain their preferred party’s grip on power.
Either option leaves them scarred and forever tarnished.
But the latter is spin they could use to falsely claim they voiced concerns about his condition, but he was still the ‘better option’ (as if it’s the job of the press to choose the better option for us rather than unbiased reporting on what’s happening).
The revisionism we're observing post-Covid mirrors the earlier disinformation, where figures like Fauci and the mainstream media, among other responsible parties, are now claiming, "We never said the vaccine was safe and effective!"
This is in stark contrast to the countless recordings asserting just that. Similarly, claims that vaccinated individuals wouldn't contract or transmit Covid, or that masks and social distancing were scientifically grounded and effective, are being contested despite their initial presentation as facts. Furthermore, the arbitrary responses, such as shutting down small businesses while keeping major chains like Target and Walmart open—along with liquor stores—and closing schools despite minimal risk to children, are now, in retrospect, hard to justify or defend.
That’s another reason why the entire Covid fiasco was so damn important. This perpetual and ongoing absence of accountability continues to damage our country and further shatter the social contract.
When politicians and journalists can blatantly lie to the face of the American people about the most important things in the world (the deadliness and origin of a novel virus/pandemic and the cognitive fitness of the President and man behind the curtain actually running the country), all bets are off.
You get the disintegration of a society and the social compact that we’ve had for 250 years.
It has become Common Knowledge that Biden is a demented mess, and that genie is hard to put back in the bottle (see Ben Hunt’s excellent article on Common Knowledge below in ‘What I’m Watching and Reading…”).
The chessboard we are seeing now is almost unprecedented in American history. The only semi comparable is the Nixon soft coup we saw post-Watergate by the intelligence community.1
Like the Nixon saga, it’s the collapse of internal support and the implicit threat by security state actors (hey we know you and your family broke the law numerous times, be a shame if we actually looked into this and something happened to them unless…you step down).
That’s where we are right now.
Like most media manufactured crises, if you can survive the initial week or so, there’s a good chance you can survive, albeit wounded.
In this case, even a badly wounded Biden may escape the political gallows because the heir apparent is despised by both parties and the stakes are too high (all sides appropriately recognize that this election is for ALL the marbles).
The internal political strife within the Democratic Party is a real-life Game of Thrones (minus the interesting characters, and any sense of loyalty towards country or a bigger cause).
If Biden can make it through Wednesday, I’d expect he survives for the time being (at least until his next undeniable and embarrassing public gaffe restarts the chatter).
Until the Convention in August, there’s still a chance to ‘yank’ him from the ticket.
If the concerted push we’re seeing from donors, journalists and some insiders continues to pick up steam, they will likely remove and replace him.
I don’t know the format, but a ‘health emergency’ appears to be the probable strategy. This allows all complicit parties to save a semblance of dignity even if it doesn’t pass the Straight Face Test.
The spin will be laughable. That this ‘condition’ has ‘worsened’ over the last few months and hasn’t been eminently obvious from Day one of this cursed presidency.
Regardless, Republicans in swing states and nationally should hold them to the standard they’ve been held to. If legal and permissible, do not let them replace Biden on the ballot except for the enumerated exceptions (death or incapacity).
After all, Biden’s incapacity isn’t new. It was known to all since Day One of his Presidency and it was certainly known to all Democrats when they decided to prevent an actual primary and give the American people a say in the Democratic candidate.
The Biden administration and partisan prosecutors tried to keep Trump off the ballot in numerous states for insurrection under the 14th Amendment, a crime he was neither charged with nor committed. They’ve also engaged in unprecedented lawfare to keep Trump off the ballot by charging him with a series of made up crimes in no less than 4 separate jurisdictions.
Whomever Biden’s replacement is should have to navigate the established legal playing field that was designed so no last minute, unvetted subs could be added to the roster in the 9th inning.
And if he’s really impaired as all of the Democratic party hacks, activists, and media propagandists have suddenly discovered, then he should step down immediately. We can’t have the guy who has run our nation into the ground with his hands on the nuclear codes if he can’t put together a sentence or walk off a stage without a dogwalker leashing and leading him.
And if he won’t step down, then take your best shot with the 25th Amendment.
Either option means Kamala is President from TODAY until they select the actual candidate at the Convention, which may in fact end up being Kamala as it’s awfully tough if you’re a party that worships before the DEI God of Wokeness to replace the first Black, Female President (especially with a white male, cough cough Newsom).
Amidst the overwhelming noise and scarce clarity, sovereigns and patriots must remain focused on the ultimate objective: electing a more rational and moderate leader to the White House. Faced with the options of Donald Trump, Joe Biden, or any potential successors who have endorsed and defended the extreme, anti-American policies of the last four (or even twenty) years, Donald Trump emerges as the solitary choice for restoring a degree of sanity to our governance.
Part of me can hardly believe I’m saying that, but you go to war with the army you have, not the one you want.
So while the fluff, embarrassment and joy at the misfortune of these anti-American miscreants will be enjoyable, don’t lose sight of the target.
And understand that the current mess comes with extreme danger. When the leader is wounded or impaired, other enemies are emboldened. Now would be a perfect time for China to take Taiwan, for Iran to create more mischief, for any of our enemies to press us as it has become common kjnpwledge that a badly wounded village idiot is in the top spot.
Brace for it, keep up the ground game pressure where this election will be won or lost (safeguarding election integrity & registering voters)…and save your receipts.
Every one of these lying journalists at the NYT, NPR, CNN, MSNBC, WaPo and elsewhere will try to change history and say they had ‘concerns’ or were ‘kept in the dark’ when in reality, all we got was 24/7 propaganda and being slandered as ‘far right conspiracy theorists’ for daring to suggest what was obvious to anyone with 2 eyes and 2 ears - the Emperor NEVER had any clothes.
The scandal isn’t that the Ivy League educated journalists were duped and didn’t know the same thing that every single person with clear eyes and a Tik-Tok, Twitter or social media account knew; it’s that journalists, aides, congressmen all knew…and said nothing. Party over country. Party over truth.
The entire charade begs the important question Vivek highlights below (the same Vivek that was called a far right conspiracy theorist from day one for voicing what most of us with clear eyes and functioning ears could see/hear - there is a walking corpse for President):
“If they lied for this long about Biden’s fitness, what else are they also lying to us about now?”
Any journalist who claims to have been oblivious to a massive cover-up by the White House ought to be dismissed from their position. Similarly, those who were aware yet chose to collude with the White House—such as by accepting presubmitted questions on notecards—should also face professional termination.
The truth is, this knowledge was widespread, akin to the belated exposure of long-standing stories about Harvey Weinstein and Jeff Epstein that only surfaced publicly after the situation had already escalated irreversibly. They all knew.
All you’re seeing now is the CYA, spin and re-positioning as well as journo-bots execute their orders from above. The only thing left to discern is whether the ‘hatchet’ side or the ‘largesse’ side of those who have their mouth on the government teat win out.
Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect
Most of the world (and certainly those who don’t read Sovereign Sunday) suffer repeatedly from Gell-Mann-Amnesia which I’ve written about numerous times.
It’s the paradoxical condition that permits a reader to read something in the press that they know something first hand about, and discover that the press story is absolutely and ludicrously false. Yet, when they turn the page to an article on a topic they are less familiar with, they assume the reporting is accurate.
It’s a strange and sticky brand of cognitive dissonance that seems to plague much of our country.
The important takeaway, as usual, is these aren’t journalists or members of the press. They are regime apparatchiks, professional liars. And you’re better off not believing a single word they say than ever assuming there is any truth, honesty or objective fact-based reporting in anything they do.
Overall, this letter is a hopefully smart, time-collapsing recap of what’s taken place paired with an ace handicap prognosis of what’s to come.
What’s playing out now is a good old fashioned palace coup, and only time will tell if Biden still has enough support from the inner sanctum and security state to run out the shot clock until the Convention.
With his back agains the wall and the press corps and political adjacent sharpening their knives, Team Biden’s hail mary was to subject the President to an interview with former Bill Clinton hatchet man and journalist DNC representative George Stephanopoulos to convince the Plebs that the President is in tip-top shape and was just jet lagged, sick, stuttering suffering from an ‘off night’.
The Interview™️ is the Biden regime’s perhaps last chance to quell the fears around the President and stave off a political regime change.
On its face, that narrative is a bit laughable.
Doing a 22 minute, pre-taped, edited sit down interview with one of the biggest regime hacks out there to ‘set the record straight’ and convince every American that what they saw with their own 2 eyes last week wasn’t real and assuage the fears of the laptop class isn’t exactly confidence inducing.
Remember Stephanopoulos is a ‘journalist’ in name only. This was Bill Clinton’s personal attack dog when his pattern of sexual harassment/assault began to leak into the public. He’s also been Obama’s representative on the ABC news desk for more than a decade.
For those that can barely stand to look at our decrepit, corrupt President who can’t stop lying every other time he opens his mouth, I’ll save you the meager 22 minutes it would take to watch the actual interview.
Ignore the spin on both sides. Biden did fine, or about as good as he could do.
And that still, is not enough. For those who have tired of this mumbling, bumbling POS, there was still plenty not to like even with Biden’s relatively decent appearance (for him).
Biden fans will tell you Stephanopolous was ‘too harsh’ and probing - meaning, he acted like an actual journalist for the first time with respect to this Administration.
From the right, here were the lowlights. Biden:
Didn’t understand what a cognitive test is; claimed he takes one every day.
Didn’t remember if he watched a replay of the Trump debate.
Claimed success for his Middle East peace plan (the mideast is on fire, and in the worst shape in a long time)
Claimed he formed NATO (NATO was formed in 1948).
Expanded NATO, as if that’s something to brag about. Trying to expand NATO to Ukraine is the exact reason we are in a war in Ukraine.
Shut Putin down. Putin is more powerful than ever, and won the war in Ukraine over 2 years ago mostly because we shut down a peace plan in early 2022 that would have preserved 500K Ukrainian lives and saved that nation.
Confused South Korea with Taiwan.
Sounded out of breath and stumbled over his words multiple times.
Said only “God Almighty” could get him out of this race.
Most of the mercifully brief interview was an embarrassing mish-mosh of delusion coming from the mouth of a puppet President that doesn’t even remember he has strings.
Remember, even the Best Biden, is an incompetent, corrupt lifetime politician with a horrendous track record.
Additional details will continue to leak out now that some members of the press have gotten the directive from above that it’s ok to tell the truth (from who? Obama? Others?)
Such as the expose from Alex Berenson that a Parkinson’s expert has visited the White House residence at least 9 times since July 2023.
The scenarios before us are getting increasingly interesting and spicy.
And the Democrats have only themselves to blame. Since 2016, they have manipulated every primary election. Recall how Hillary Clinton's operatives physically intimidated Bernie Sanders, who was then leading, into withdrawing from the primaries.
This behavior starkly contrasts with their professed adulation of 'Democracy,' under which they claim to serve the people's will, yet consistently deny them a genuine choice.
An actual DNC primary would have exposed Biden for the demented nursing home patient he is and there were a half dozen far superior candidates from RFK Jr to Dean Philips available.
But they chose not to travel the appropriate path and gave a big FU to Democratic registered voters.
And now they get to reap the whirlwind.
To paraphrase Jerry Garcia, “How sweet it is.”
The important thing to remember with all of this is that regardless of the outcome, Biden’s obvious lack of competence and the newfound realization by most of the press and the Democratic establishment is a massive catalyst/accelerator for potential volatility and unwind.
Just as markets are based on confidence, so is politics. And Biden has lost the confidence of his own party and any kind of thin veneer of competence or capability on the global stage.
As witnessed with the escalation of regional chaos and conflict across the Middle East, Ukraine, Afghanistan, and beyond following Trump’s departure from office, this past week’s acknowledgement that the Emperor Has No Cognition only emboldens malign actors worldwide. Whether it tempts China to assert itself over Taiwan, spurs Russia to intensify its actions, or encourages Iran and Hezbollah to escalate their terroristic endeavors, one thing becomes glaringly apparent: the world is a dangerous place when a retard is in charge.
Cialdini’s 6 Principles of Persuasion
Robert Cialdini is a renowned psychologist and author, best known for his groundbreaking book, "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion." In it, Cialdini outlines six key principles of persuasion: reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity. These principles have become fundamental to understanding how and why people say "yes" and are considered seminal in the fields of marketing, psychology, and negotiation. His work is often referred to as the "bible" of persuasive techniques because it combines rigorous scientific research with practical real-world application, making it indispensable for professionals aiming to master the art of influence.
Here’s a simple infographic for your reference.
What I’m Watching and Reading…
Victor Davis Hanson nails it again on Biden, journalists and the Dems.
Ben Hunt on Common Knowledge. Money quote:
Common Knowledge is what everyone knows that everyone knows.
Common knowledge is why coronations and executions are held in public – not so a crowd can see the new king or the hanged man, but so a crowd can see a crowd seeing the new king or the hanged man. Common knowledge is why sitcoms have laugh tracks, why American Idol has a live studio audience, and why professional sports teams pipe in crowd noise. Common knowledge is why the Egyptian government fell in 2011 after a televised protest in Tahrir Square, why the Romanian government fell in 1989 after a televised protest in Palace Square, and why the Chinese government will arrest you today if you distribute pictures of a 35-year-old protest in Tiananmen Square. Common knowledge is why inflation has been non-transitory and persistent, why the US withdrawal from Afghanistan was a fiasco, and why the US response to Covid was so heavy-handed and ineffective. Common knowledge is also why the 2024 Biden/Harris campaign has collapsed.
Make no mistake about it, the Biden campaign HAS collapsed in the wake of Thursday’s ‘debate’, even if – like the proverbial chicken with its head cut off – it continues to run around for a few weeks or months. At some point, whether from bad internal polls or donations drying up or the next inevitable gaffe or maybe even the November vote, the carcass falls to the ground. But the moment of death was 9:05pm EDT on Thursday, June 27th. That’s the moment where we all saw what we all saw, that Joe Biden is not mentally competent to be president of the United States.
The dynamics of common knowledge formation are called the common knowledge game. Like all games it has rules. Like all games it has an equilibrium, which is a ten-dollar word that means it has a stopping point. Maybe not an end but a stopping point. Let me review those rules so you can see why I say the stopping point for this chapter in the common knowledge game we call American politics is the collapse of the 2024 Biden/Harris campaign.
You already know how the common knowledge game works, probably from the Hans Christian Anderson story about the Emperor’s New Clothes, maybe from the John Maynard Keynes story about the Newspaper Beauty Contest. The purest version of the common knowledge game is the story of the Island of the Green-Eyed Tribe, which I’ve written about four times at Epsilon Theory, starting in the original Manifesto and continuing in A Game of Sentiment, When Does the Story Break, and Sheep Logic. But I think it’s the real-life examples of the common knowledge game that really make it come alive, like I wrote about in Harvey Weinstein and the Common Knowledge Game.
Pretty much everyone in Hollywood knew that Harvey Weinstein was a rapist and a really bad guy, including his wife and his business partners and all the actors who wanted a role in one of his movies. It was widespread private knowledge, verging on public knowledge. I mean, if you’re making jokes about it on 30 Rock, it’s out there.
But it didn’t matter that everyone in Hollywood knew that Harvey Weinstein was a rapist. No one’s behavior changed. No one shunned the guy. No actor turned down a role. No politician turned down a donation. His wife didn’t leave him, and his business partners just upped the D&O insurance and paid out settlements. They all knew, and I’m sure they cared a little and shook their heads in a tsk-tsk sort of way, but they didn’t care enough to change their transactional relationships with Harvey Weinstein. Because that’s the thing about private information, no matter how widespread. Even if everyone in the world believes a certain piece of private information, no one will alter their behavior. Behavior changes ONLY when we believe that everyone else believes the information. THAT’S what changes behavior.
Just like with the Emperor’s New Clothes. Everyone in the crowd possesses the same private information — the Emperor is walking around as naked as a jaybird. But no one’s behavior changes just because the private information is so widespread and so public. Nor does behavior change just because a couple of people whisper their doubts to each other. No, the only thing that changes behavior is when the little girl (what game theory would call a Missionary) announces the Emperor’s nakedness SO loudly that the entire crowd believes that everyone else in the crowd heard the news. That’s when behavior changes.
Just like with Harvey Weinstein. Rose McGowan shouted out his evil so loudly and so publicly that everyone in Hollywood knew that everyone else knew, too. Harvey-Weinstein-is-a-rapist became common knowledge. And once that common knowledge was created, once all the private holders of all of Weinstein’s dirty secrets believed that everyone else believed that he was a rapist, then everyone’s behavior changed on a dime.
Best of Twitter
This is the moral clarity Biden should have put forth every single day since October 7th. If so, the war would be over, the hostages (both American and Israeli, would be home).
Memetic Warfare
Parting Words…
That’s it for this week folks! Hope you enjoyed. If you did, share it with a friend as there is strength in numbers. 🙏
https://whowhatwhy.org/culture/journalism-media/watergate-revelations-the-coup-against-nixon-part-2-of-3/
https://www.americanheritage.com/secret-coup-white-house