What is in evidence in the previous few posts is permitted, misogynistic elder abuse. What an unenlightened bunch of hypocritical commentators!
Have you observed how several long-time posters at times come here to defend me, or present some support for conservative issues, but they are quickly criticized by the Boys Club jand resident trolls and soon step away from the personal attacks?
Incidentally, when the 80 year old leader of the free world, who intends to run again, misspeaks frequently, stumbles, and regularly seems confused, concern is warranted. Way too much is stake!
I pray that, at 91, you are all still capable of giving a damn about the world around you!
What is in evidence in the previous few posts is permitted, misogynistic elder abuse.
This is simply absurd. I specifically said that your dementia (a condition that you have repeatedly suggested President Biden suffers from, thus demonstrating your ageism) and your derangement (something you have accused all of us ad nauseam, thus demonstrating your rudeness) were due to your thoughtless partisanship, not your age. I certainly have NEVER suggested that the reason you act like a depraved halfwit is because of your gender.
Trolls on the internet are a dime a dozen but trolls that spend as much time as you do whining are a rare breed.
Oh, I didn't mean that she literally has dementia. That would be the sort of aegist insult that she routinely hurdles at President Biden and I would like to think I am above that.
I just meant to say that her mindless partisanship (as opposed to age) has left her effectively addled, demented and deranged.
Just a repost for the sake of those who have incredibly poor reading comprehension (emphasis added).
What is in evidence in the previous few posts is permitted, misogynistic elder abuse. What an unenlightened bunch of hypocritical commentators!
Have you observed how several long-time posters at times come here to defend me, or present some support for conservative issues, but they are quickly criticized by the Boys Club jand resident trolls and soon step away from the personal attacks?
Incidentally, when the 80 year old leader of the free world, who intends to run again, misspeaks frequently, stumbles, and regularly seems confused, concern is warranted. Way too much is stake!
I pray that, at 91, you are all still capable of giving a damn about the world around you!
it has nothing to do with your age or gender. It has everything to do with you watching and reading too much right wing news, and spewing back their headlines. It's like you're a blender, taking in all the right wing nonsense, and flinging it back out in random combinations.
Just two years into the Joe Biden presidency, it has become abundantly clear that the only people actively trying to destroy this country are the Democrats and the cult that has overtaken them.
Ms. Sasha Stone is an unreliable narrator. Quote: "Trump supporters might have chanted “lock her up” at rallies, and that alone was meant to be fascism. Now, the Biden administration actually does it, locking up protesters for years by now ..." The "protesters" she's referring to are people who committed acts of violence, such as attacking law enforcement officers, at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2001.
Apparently, "soft on crime" is okay if the criminals are MAGAs.
seriously though, Sasha Stone is insane. That article is such complete and total projection. It's a complete 180 degrees opposite fun house mirror depiction of this country.
Ms. Sasha Stone is an unreliable narrator. Quote: "Trump supporters might have chanted “lock her up” at rallies, and that alone was meant to be fascism. Now, the Biden administration actually does it, locking up protesters for years by now ..." The "protesters" she's referring to are people who committed acts of violence, such as attacking law enforcement officers, at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2001.
Apparently, "soft on crime" is okay if the criminals are MAGAs.
"Secessionists might have called for the dissolution of the union, and that alone was meant to be treason. Now, the Lincoln administration is sending massive armies to destroy southern cities and kill Americans who simply are standing up for their private property rights..."
(Full disclosure: I had always admired Kirby’s poise and wit, along with his straight-talking, sans press hack style, explanation of what’s happening. Not any more)
From the link:
“John Kirby’s pre-holiday whitewash continues a pattern of Biden hiding behind his handlers.
As the nation headed out for the Easter holiday last week, President Biden sent his National Security Council spokesman to the White House podium to roll out a newly released report shifting blame for his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. In refusing to defend his own record on the pullout, Biden continued a pattern of hiding behind handlers who embarrass both themselves and the White House.
In any other administration, the secretaries of state and defense, if not the president himself, would release such an important review, not a White House flack. Yet it was radio silence from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin Thursday afternoon. And President Biden left the White House for a weekend at Camp David without comment. So John Kirby was left to walk the plank in front of reporters about the twelve-page report.
Kirby’s embarrassing defense of the withdrawal channeled Saddam Hussein’s own mouthpiece, the infamous “Baghdad Bob,” who 20 years ago this weekend insisted at a press briefing that “there are no American troops in Baghdad” as U.S. tanks rolled into the city in the background. For his part, Kirby said Biden was “proud” of the pullout that cost 13 brave American servicemen and women their lives and left the Taliban with billions in NATO-supplied military hardware, including Black Hawk helicopters and thousands of armored vehicles. Downplaying images of Afghans clinging to military jets scrambling out of Kabul airport in the hasty withdrawal, Kirby said, “For all this talk of chaos, I just didn’t see it, not from my perch.” About any failings, he pointed to the report and reverted to the shopworn dodge of blaming President Trump.
Biden’s hiding behind spokespeople is nothing new. Compared with his most recent predecessors, he has held the fewest number of media interviews by far. In the rare times when he does talk to the press, he generally reads from a teleprompter without taking questions.
Even when he was in the Senate, Biden was known as a weak communicator. When he first ran for president 36 years ago, Senator Biden deflected and reverted to exaggerations when questioned by reporters on his qualifications for office. Four years later, he dropped the ball in a clear media layup as chairman of the Judiciary Committee during the Clarence Thomas–Anita Hill dustup. Now, Biden’s problem is worsened by the simple fact that he has little or no good news to communicate, especially on foreign policy. As a result, he punts any defense of his wanting record to mouthpieces, diminishing them and the power of the White House podium in the process.
Like him or not, Donald Trump never hid behind spokespeople — just the opposite. A former reality-show TV host, Trump talked routinely to the press, taking questions almost every time, and sparred openly with a famously hostile media. If anything, some argue at times he over-communicated. But on every issue of consequence, from the al-Baghdadi raid to China to the pandemic, Trump was at the podium.
Biden’s spokespeople admittedly have a tough client. Yet they forfeit their own credibility — and that of the White House podium — when they fail to acknowledge clear missteps in defending the president’s record. Biden demonstrates his own lack of leadership by putting them in that position.
(Full disclosure: I had always admired Kirby’s poise and wit, along with his straight-talking, sans press hack style, explanation of what’s happening. Not any more)
From the link:
“John Kirby’s pre-holiday whitewash continues a pattern of Biden hiding behind his handlers.
As the nation headed out for the Easter holiday last week, President Biden sent his National Security Council spokesman to the White House podium to roll out a newly released report shifting blame for his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. In refusing to defend his own record on the pullout, Biden continued a pattern of hiding behind handlers who embarrass both themselves and the White House.
In any other administration, the secretaries of state and defense, if not the president himself, would release such an important review, not a White House flack. Yet it was radio silence from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin Thursday afternoon. And President Biden left the White House for a weekend at Camp David without comment. So John Kirby was left to walk the plank in front of reporters about the twelve-page report.
Kirby’s embarrassing defense of the withdrawal channeled Saddam Hussein’s own mouthpiece, the infamous “Baghdad Bob,” who 20 years ago this weekend insisted at a press briefing that “there are no American troops in Baghdad” as U.S. tanks rolled into the city in the background. For his part, Kirby said Biden was “proud” of the pullout that cost 13 brave American servicemen and women their lives and left the Taliban with billions in NATO-supplied military hardware, including Black Hawk helicopters and thousands of armored vehicles. Downplaying images of Afghans clinging to military jets scrambling out of Kabul airport in the hasty withdrawal, Kirby said, “For all this talk of chaos, I just didn’t see it, not from my perch.” About any failings, he pointed to the report and reverted to the shopworn dodge of blaming President Trump.
Biden’s hiding behind spokespeople is nothing new. Compared with his most recent predecessors, he has held the fewest number of media interviews by far. In the rare times when he does talk to the press, he generally reads from a teleprompter without taking questions.
Even when he was in the Senate, Biden was known as a weak communicator. When he first ran for president 36 years ago, Senator Biden deflected and reverted to exaggerations when questioned by reporters on his qualifications for office. Four years later, he dropped the ball in a clear media layup as chairman of the Judiciary Committee during the Clarence Thomas–Anita Hill dustup. Now, Biden’s problem is worsened by the simple fact that he has little or no good news to communicate, especially on foreign policy. As a result, he punts any defense of his wanting record to mouthpieces, diminishing them and the power of the White House podium in the process.
Like him or not, Donald Trump never hid behind spokespeople — just the opposite. A former reality-show TV host, Trump talked routinely to the press, taking questions almost every time, and sparred openly with a famously hostile media. If anything, some argue at times he over-communicated. But on every issue of consequence, from the al-Baghdadi raid to China to the pandemic, Trump was at the podium.
Biden’s spokespeople admittedly have a tough client. Yet they forfeit their own credibility — and that of the White House podium — when they fail to acknowledge clear missteps in defending the president’s record. Biden demonstrates his own lack of leadership by putting them in that position.
so you are on record as believing that the U.S. should still be occupying Afghanistan. Any guesses on how many more U.S. personnel and Afghan civilians would have lost their lives in the past two years? Probably a **** ton more than 13 I'd wager.
Merits or demerits of the critique aside, you have absolutely zero credibility to be making them.
I have my own criticisms of how Biden handled the Afghanistan disaster Trump left him, but I'm under no illusion that you have the slightest interest in a real discussion on the issue.
and since you seem to have little or no interest in Biden's trip to Northern Ireland this week, I'll link to the story.
The precariousness of the peace process there, and the continued diplomatic efforts of the U.S., is a more important story IMHO than rehashing the necessary withdrawal from Afghanistan.
And fwiw, Biden will be visiting County Mayo this week. It was the desperately poor section of Ireland from which his maternal great-grandfather and my paternal grandfather both emigrated in the mid 19th century, settling in Lackawanna County, PA.
I'm part way through Fintan O'Toole's book We Don’t Know Ourselves, which is his personal history of Ireland over the past six decades. Really eye-opening to be reminded of how recently Ireland remained very poor, very backward, and suffocated by the iron grip of the Church. The fact that the country is now considerably more progressive in many ways than the U.S. seems like a miracle.
ml1 was talking about the Republic of Ireland, which does not have a monarchy.
ETA - though the first paragraph is about Northern Ireland, the last paragraph of his post, specifically, was clearly referencing the republic. Which would make sense as clearly the Catholic Church does not and did not exercise anything like an "iron grip" on the parts of the island ruled by the protestant British monarchy.
Merits or demerits of the critique aside, you have absolutely zero credibility to be making them.
I have my own criticisms of how Biden handled the Afghanistan disaster Trump left him, but I'm under no illusion that you have the slightest interest in a real discussion on the issue.
I have gotten the message over the years that you fancy yourself the guru of all things, everywhere, all the time. There is no topic that cannot command your full knowledge and expertise. Bloviation is your cup of tea — but who is buying it?
One thing is certain, however: You are not the of judge my credibility.
I have gotten the message over the years that you fancy yourself the guru of all things, everywhere, all the time. There is no topic that cannot command your full knowledge and expertise. Bloviation is your cup of tea — but who is buying it?
On the contrary, I’ve gotten the message that PVW’s primary aim is to expand his understanding. His cup is always less than full, and I’ll share one with him any time.
“iron grip of the church?” Change that word to throne and you have some credibility.
you'd have some credibility if you knew the difference between Ireland and Northern Ireland. Ireland has not been in the grip of the throne during Fintan O'Toole's lifetime.
Merits or demerits of the critique aside, you have absolutely zero credibility to be making them.
I have my own criticisms of how Biden handled the Afghanistan disaster Trump left him, but I'm under no illusion that you have the slightest interest in a real discussion on the issue.
I have gotten the message over the years that you fancy yourself the guru of all things, everywhere, all the time. There is no topic that cannot command your full knowledge and expertise. Bloviation is your cup of tea — but who is buying it?
One thing is certain, however: You are not the of judge my credibility.
I’ll have a pint — anyone else?
my observation is the PVW comments on topics on which he has knowledge. Not "all things."
“iron grip of the church?” Change that word to throne and you have some credibility.
you'd have some credibility if you knew the difference between Ireland and Northern Ireland. Ireland has not been in the grip of the throne during Fintan O'Toole's lifetime.
and I'll also add that mtierney of all people, you'd probably get a lot from reading O'Toole's book. If you could deal with the cognitive dissonance it might be as eye-opening for you as it's been for me.
On the contrary, I’ve gotten the message that PVW’s primary aim is to expand his understanding. His cup is always less than full, and I’ll share one with him any time.
I've been toying with the idea of just announcing that I'll be at some bar or restaurant in SO or Maplewood within walking distance of the train station some evening after work for anyone who wants to show up. After all these years, might be nice to talk to some people IRL.
On the contrary, I’ve gotten the message that PVW’s primary aim is to expand his understanding. His cup is always less than full, and I’ll share one with him any time.
I've been toying with the idea of just announcing that I'll be at some bar or restaurant in SO or Maplewood within walking distance of the train station some evening after work for anyone who wants to show up. After all these years, might be nice to talk to some people IRL.
that would be fun. I can disabuse a couple of people of the notion that I'm humorless
Just ordered one of O’Toole’s books. One issue on this fascinating topic is the generational gap.
My Irish forebearers left because of the devastating potato famine. My father managed to get born in NYC in 1888. He fought in WW1, drafted at the age of 30 when his mother died. He didn’t get back home until the year after Armistice Day due to his being under French command. My Pop always said his five older Irish born brothers and sisters weren’t that thrilled to see him back alive! He met my immigrant Austrian mom in Greenwich Village shortly after his return, they married and moved out of Manhattan to Brooklyn in the early ‘20s.
Another WW later, When the Irish troubles began, it was in 1950s, I was married and busy building a future. My father died in 1956.
What I knew of the turmoil going on in Ireland during the middle of the 20th century was by watching newsreels at the movies.
Just ordered one of O’Toole’s books. One issue on this fascinating topic is the generational gap.
My Irish forebearers left because of the devastating potato famine. My father managed to get born in NYC in 1888. He fought in WW1, drafted at the age of 30 when his mother died. He didn’t get back home until the year after Armistice Day due to his being under French command. My Pop always said his five older Irish born brothers and sisters weren’t that thrilled to see him back alive! He met my immigrant Austrian mom in Greenwich Village shortly after his return, they married and moved out of Manhattan to Brooklyn in the early ‘20s.
Another WW later, When the Irish troubles began, it was in 1950s, I was married and busy building a future. My father died in 1956.
What I knew of the turmoil going on in Ireland during the middle of the 20th century was by watching newsreels at the movies.
the violence in Northern Ireland in the last century mainly started in the late 60s and really increased in the 70s and 80s. It was shown on TV in this country.
the violence in Northern Ireland in the last century mainly started in the late 60s and really increased in the 70s and 80s. It was shown on TV in this country.
Don’t doubt that for a second, however we had four kids — 1962, 64, 66 and 67** — only things on our single 13” black & white TV with channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13 (tell me if I forgot one) were cartoons and a really great line up of comedy shows which even the kids could watch!
** full disclosure: when we had 3 in diapers, we used a diaper service. No disposables invented yet! But we couldn’t have afforded them anyway!
Don’t remember the year we got color TV, but believe it was a 19” Sony!!
What is in evidence in the previous few posts is permitted, misogynistic elder abuse. What an unenlightened bunch of hypocritical commentators!
Have you observed how several long-time posters at times come here to defend me, or present some support for conservative issues, but they are quickly criticized by the Boys Club jand resident trolls and soon step away from the personal attacks?
Incidentally, when the 80 year old leader of the free world, who intends to run again, misspeaks frequently, stumbles, and regularly seems confused, concern is warranted. Way too much is stake!
I pray that, at 91, you are all still capable of giving a damn about the world around you!