In which there's the Ughmann and the bromancer and splendid visions of the future ...

 

For its sins, the pond actually took time out and sat through the entirety of Joe's press conference, and some of the analysis afterwards, and was left with what might be called a Susan Glasser impression, as featured in her piece for The New Yorker, Joe Biden’s Less-Than-Awful Press Conference Does Not Mean Everything Is Now O.K., The political crisis over the President’s reëlection campaign enters its third week, very much unresolved. (paywall)

Inter alia:

...for those who listened to the full hour of Biden’s press conference, it wasn’t, in the end, the gaffe that made this a poor performance. It was Biden’s over-all halting, painful delivery. It was his struggle to find words, and the fact that when he did find them they were often not the right ones. Most important, it was his inability to make the case for himself—and his difficulty prosecuting the case against Trump.
This was nothing like the debacle of the debate, but a quieter sort of fail—that of an eighty-one-year-old who is struggling to stay onstage, who still thinks he has wisdom to impart and a job to finish. Biden insisted on Thursday, as he has before, that he is ready to continue in the world’s hardest job, and he protested when a reporter for the Financial Times suggested he had acknowledged in recent days some limits he might put on the twenty-four-hour-a-day responsibilities of the Presidency. But then he began to elaborate on the limits—a shorter workday, a more disciplined schedule—he ought to put in place. He proceeded to go on about his wife being mad at him for doing too much, about his staff sneaking new events into his already packed calendar. It was a painful answer, an old-man answer. Because it was less of a car crash than the debate, the moment somehow felt even more tragic.
All the more so because Biden is not Trump, whose vigorous projection at his speeches tends to mask their absurdity, incoherence, and flagrant incorrectness. Biden mixes up Putin’s name; Trump actually admires Putin...

And so on, but the pond's beat is the lizard Oz, and naturally reptiles like Killer Creighton and the bromancer were all over it at the top of the digital edition...

The pond needed to take a breather and so turned to the Ughmann for some uplifting thoughts, a genuine antidepressant in these troubled times ...

What on earth is he blathering about? The world is soon to be in the safest hands ...

Why peace is just around the corner... a piece for Vlad the sociopath, a piece for dictator Xi ...

Peaceniks together, what could go wrong? 

And yet here's the Ughmann trying to bung on a do of the kind you used to get on a Catholic retreat, where the endless talk was about the astonishing amount of sins and sinners in the world (Catholic priests fiddling with children excluded) and an eternity in hellfire... 

Talk about a killjoy deep in gloom ...

The pond simply can't understand the Ughmann's gloom. The orange Jesus has a plan to fix everything, though for the sake of modesty he has claimed he knows nothing about it ... and yet, per Salon ...

Such modesty, and yet still the Ughmann insists on being gloomy ...

But Vlad the sociopath is completely under control and the orange Jesus has the perfect answer ...

Indeed, indeed,  hand over Ukraine, hand over Taiwan, and yet the Ughmann persists in his diet of downers ...

The pond then had the choice between Killer and the bromancer doing an examination of turbulent US times, and naturally went with the bromancer, who strangely seemed to think that Joe should step down ...

The pond has no idea why the bromancer would want this. After all, if Joe stays in, it's likely the mango Mussolini would win in a canter, and then all Faux Noise's dreams would be realised, and the country could go full Taliban ... or fundamentalist Xian if you will ... surely everything the bro would want ...

Such weird ambivalence, mocking George and yet reverently quoting him ...

At that point the reptiles began a couple of visual distractions that littered the piece ...

 

All they did was get in the way of distilled essence of bromancer ...

Indeed, indeed, and indeed even the New York Times woke from its both siderist torpor ...(paywall)

Too little, too late, and such an ugly format ...

The Democrats are rightly engaged in their own debate about whether President Biden is the right person to carry the party’s nomination into the election, given widespread concerns among voters about his age-related fitness. This debate is so intense because of legitimate concerns that Mr. Trump may present a danger to the country, its strength, security and national character — and that a compelling Democratic alternative is the only thing that would prevent his return to power. It is a national tragedy that the Republicans have failed to have a similar debate about the manifest moral and temperamental unfitness of their standard-bearer, instead setting aside their longstanding values, closing ranks and choosing to overlook what those who worked most closely with the former president have described as his systematic dishonesty, corruption, cruelty and incompetence.

That task now falls to the American people. We urge voters to see the dangers of a second Trump term clearly and to reject it. The stakes and significance of the presidency demand a person who has essential qualities and values to earn our trust, and on each one, Donald Trump fails.

The LA Times was also in that editorial game... Editorial:  One candidate is patently unfit for the White House. It’s not Biden

It’s unbelievable that the nation is spending so much time on the question of Biden’s verbal acuity, when the greatest concern ought to be that his challenger is a self-aggrandizing felon and twice-impeached election-denier. Trump fomented the Jan. 6 insurrection, shows contempt for the rule of law and shamelessly lies in pursuit of more power. He’s an authoritarian who admires murderous despots, wants to jail his political enemies and has publicly flirted with declaring himself a dictator on his first day back in office.

With fervent support from the Republican Party, he peddles cruelty, racism and misogyny, demonizing immigrants as “poisoning the blood of our country,” demeaning women‘s looks and intelligence, and using disgustingly fascist language to criticize his opponents as “vermin.” He’s a man who lied about his wealth for years to cheat on his taxes, whose business was convicted of criminal tax fraud, and who’s been denounced by many former aides and Cabinet members as a “malignant narcissist” who recklessly puts himself before the American people.

Trump is the only man in the presidential race manifestly unworthy of holding a position of power, and has no business ever returning to the White House. If the GOP had any decency left, its members would be discussing whether to dump Trump for a candidate who isn’t out to bulldoze democratic institutions in favor of autocracy.

Voters should resist viewing this contest through the politics-as-usual lens of past elections. This November is not about dueling personalities, middle-of-the-road policy differences, or as some might see it, an 81-year-old man being the lesser of two evils compared with a 78-year-old man. It’s nothing short of a referendum on our 248-year democracy, and a choice between a trustworthy public servant who upholds American values and a serial liar who wants to push the country into authoritarianism.

And so on, and naturally the bromancer wasn't much interested in any of this ...

Surely not. Surely the bromancer is keen for Vlad the sociopath to win in Ukraine, and for Xi to take over Taiwan?

Surely he'd be happy with the 2025 Project? It's a dream project, fulfilling all his desires ... you know, get the 'leets and the leftists scribbling Project 2025 is terrifying ... (WaPo paywall)

There's a lot more - after all it runs some 900 pages and for some reason Drew Goins omitted to mention in that summary that it wouldn't just be the FBI under direct control of the orange Jesus, but also the Department of Justice, so that enemies of the state could be thrown into the clink licketty split ... like that dreadful Liz Cheney woman ...

Well yes, and the bromancer could also enjoy the odd 'toon ...

And yet for some inexplicable reason he wants Joe to go...

Ah yes, the left-wing agenda. 

Surely the bromancer would love the orange Jesus's not so cryptic fascist authoritarian agenda ... per Rolling Stone ...(soft paywall)

...The nearly 900 pages that comprise Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership tackle everything from abortion and immigration to the future of federal agencies and civil rights laws. 

Critical to Project 2025’s implementation is the notion that “personnel is policy.” The creators of the project have touted work on a database of hyper-conservative Trump loyalists that would “collect résumés and vet thousands of potential applicants in advance of Jan. 20, 2025, when the next president takes office.” This of course would require the forced ouster of thousands of current government employees. 

These appointees and staffers would be tasked with implementing the project’s wider agenda, which includes proposals that would overhaul America’s approach to several key issues, including:

Abortion: Project 2025 calls for using every governmental lever possible to torch access to abortion and restrict reproductive health care. The plan would rescind the FDA’s approval for commonly used abortion medication like mifepristone, or otherwise restrict its use; limit access to emergency contraceptive options such as the morning-after pills and IUDs; and dissolve the Reproductive Healthcare Access Task Force established by the Biden administration and replacing it with government-wide directives promoting anti-choice policies. 

Roger Severino, who served as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights under Trump, wrote in the chapter on the HHS that “the FDA is ethically and legally obliged to revisit and withdraw its initial approval” of mifepristone and that abortion pills are “the single greatest threat to unborn children.” The plan would also utilize federal government agencies for the purpose of “abortion surveillance.”

Climate: Project 2025 calls for rolling back emissions regulations and reversing all of the Biden administration’s progress in fighting the climate crisis. The plan would dismantle the Inflation Reduction Act, increase fossil-fuel extraction on public lands, eliminate clean-energy programs, gut the Environmental Protection Agency, and enact other measures that would supercharge America’s drive toward climate disaster. The plan says explicitly that the United States has an “obligation to develop vast oil and gas and coal resources,” and calls for ending “the focus on the climate crisis and green subsidies.” 

Immigration: Project 2025 also serves as a blueprint for cracking down on immigration. It calls for eliminating visas that grant legal status to immigrant victims of crime and human trafficking; the mass arrest and deportation of undocumented migrants; restricting eligibility for asylum claims and implementing fees for the application process; and finishing the border wall. The plan also suggests “a creative and aggressive approach” to taking on drug cartels. Rolling Stone reported earlier this year that Trump has proposed sending kill teams into Mexico to take out cartel leaders — regardless of whether the Mexican government is on board with the plan.

And those are just the toplines — virtually every aspect of the current functions of the federal government are covered by the policy package. Project 2025 would also codify policies advancing legal, social, and medical discrimination against LGBTQ+ Americans; slash corporate tax rates and significantly reduce the budget of the Internal Revenue Service; and fulfill plenty of other right-wing fantasies.

Critically, many of the powers currently distributed among government agencies would be placed under more direct control by the president. The Department of Education and Department of Homeland Security would be abolished, and the Justice Department would become a vehicle for retribution. The restructuring would advance a conservative ideology known as “unitary executive theory,” a legal theory holding that the American president has direct control over all policy made by agencies under the umbrella of the executive branch, and that significantly weakens other government branches’ abilities to check the powers of the presidency. 

What's not to like? It's a lizard Oz reptile wet dream (sorry, any wet dreams have now been banned, and wet dreamers will be locked up for life forthwith).

The bromancer sailed on, keen to target all those wretched heads, all those 'leets destined to be given the chop in the glorious revolution ...

Ah, that incredible self-discipline, but he's already roared back ... Trump airs list of false grievances at Florida rally: 'We don't eat bacon any more' ... (Graudian)

...His remarks on Tuesday were notable for adding the vice-president’s name to numerous attacks on Biden policies, and sprinkling in mentions of both Rubio and Byron Donalds, a Republican Florida congressman also believed to be on Trump’s shortlist for vice-president.

Otherwise, it was a standard Trump stump speech, full of evidence-free claims that his 2020 election defeat was fraudulent; baseless accusations that overseas nations were sending to the US “most of their prisoners”; and a laughable assertion that a gathering of supporters numbering in the hundreds was really a crowd of 45,000.

It also touched on the surreal. Biden, he insisted, had raised the price of bacon four-fold.

“We don’t eat bacon any more,” Trump said.

Electric cars, he said, “cheated” the US public because drivers had to stop for three hours to recharge their vehicles after every 45 minutes of driving. And, in an echo of one of the more bizarre debate exchanges with Biden over who was the better golfer, he challenged his White House successor to 18 holes over the Doral course while granting a 10-stroke concession.

“It will be among the most watched sporting events in history, maybe bigger than the Ryder Cup or even the Masters,” Trump said, pledging $1m to a charity of Biden’s choosing if he lost.

Returning to politics, Trump assailed Democrats for tax hikes he said they wanted to impose; criticized Biden for the US military’s chaotic 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan; and promised to build an “iron dome” missile defense system for the US, if he was elected in November.

Perhaps worn down by the energy-sapping humidity, the crowd appeared mostly subdued, including yawns in the bleachers behind him as Trump drew to a close with slow music playing, and others tapping disinterestedly on their phones.

Clearly the bromancer doesn't understand the dire situation in relation to bacon ...or much of anything else ...

Actually the pond is holding its breath, along with a few others ...

Finally the pond must confess to a failure of nerve. 

Nattering "Ned" was in full blown hagiographic mode this weekend, and it was simply too much for the pond.

The pond started on the read, which featured endless snaps of Lachy, young and older and visionary ...

The pond simply couldn't do it. For not the first time, the pond stumbled while attempting to climb the "Ned" Everest, but was relieved to discover that the reptiles were on a good wicket for scribbling and publishing this sort of hagiographic shit ... (SMH, paywall)

Yes, for all "Ned's" simpering sycophancy and pandering and blathering about Lachy being dinki-di, it's a "foreign-domiciled" company and his old man sold out his citizenship for a pot of US gold ...

The pond did make it past base camp.

The pond did think of making it a matter of reader request. 

If there were enough masochists interested, the pond might give the whole tawdry effort a run, but decided against it. It went on and on and on, in classic "Ned" style, full of toady verbiage and creepy crawly reverential obeisance. The full suck, if you like ...

No one should be exposed to it, and all the pond will do is provide evidence that it made it to the end, with yet another nauseatingly hagiographic snap hovering into view...

Sheer, undiluted nausea ... and as for looking to the future, why it's grand times for dragon lovers ... and with the house of Murdoch to thank for such fun ...