March 19, 2021

Apparently, we need to be assured that Joe Biden is real.

92 comments:

Leland said...

Althouse morphed into producing Buzzfeed clickbait. It is jarring, but I won’t click the article’s bait.

rehajm said...

There's a good reason they need to nip any sort of investigating in the bud*.

*We're still on the weed theme, right?

tim in vermont said...

Imagine, if you will, a world in which every bullshit video about Trump were rigorously fact checked. Sometimes I expect to see bearded Spock in the world we are in now.

rehajm said...

Apparently there's suspicion he's not all there...

tim maguire said...

I don't know about the green screen fail (it did look like a green screen, but sometimes real video looks like that), but those microphones were definitely edited in. There's no chance that video wasn't doctored, even if not in that particular way.

Fernandinande said...

As they said at the end, "Who was that masked man?"

Imitating Biden's wooden gestures and dopey speech would be pretty easy.

rehajm said...

Fact Check: Video of Joe Biden Talking To Press on W.H. Lawn Does NOT Reveal A 'Green Screen Fail'

We now need to investigate further since the fact check includes the weasel words green screen and fact check...

Rob said...

Where is Abe Zapruder when we need him?

Iman said...

Well, now, you're the monkey in your family tree
You can’t remember the things that used to be
You're a drooling simp, you're the King of Clowns
You're the sleaziest fool ever wore the crown
Get out of our lives, don't come back
Get out of our lives, don't come back

Jersey Fled said...

Didn't Churchill have a double during WW II?

Known Unknown said...

It's certainly real, but the first angle of the video is remarkably odd and I can see how it fostered such conspiracies.

Tommy Duncan said...

The problem here is that what we know and have observed about Joe Biden makes this plausible.

rehajm said...

but those microphones were definitely edited in

They lifted them from 'Two Hours of Video Your Cat Will Love!!!!'

Brian said...

We're all just waiting for the 4th of July when he'll be swearing in Kamala.

Ralph L said...

The dead cats appear to have a life of their own.

Bob Boyd said...

I have no idea if this is fake or not. It seems very unlikely they would fake a video like this. For what? And if they had, that they'd use it after it came out so bad.
If they'd faked it, they'd have looked at it very carefully before releasing it. Why would they use a fake video so obviously flawed?
I suppose you could speculate the purpose would have to have been to get people to scream "fake" then call them paranoid conspiracy theorists, thus discrediting them on other Biden issues. Still, seems unlikely.
Whatever happened, that video of an "expert" putting his hands in front of a microphone in his back yard doesn't prove anything about what happened with Biden. It's silly, British accent not withstanding.

gilbar said...

but those microphones were definitely edited in

As Al Smith would say: Let's Take a Look, at the Record
Can anyone (ANYONE) find a case (a single case), where the President of the United States has microphones shoved SO CLOSE to him, that they are BETWEEN him and his hands?
I've watched the Actual video, and IF we are to believe that the microphones were Actually there, that's where they are; about three inches away from the Presidents Heart
y'all Might want to think about that? Sure, they are friendly reporters...
think that the Secret Service would let them get THAT friendly?

Ann Althouse said...

"There's a good reason they need to nip any sort of investigating in the bud."

Maybe you were just setting up your marijuana joke, but you made me think: Yes, they put this out, which looks fake but is easily shown not to be fake to create the belief that the people who cry fake are ridiculous conspiracy thinkers and that will deflect inquiry into the *truly* fake things.

Ann Althouse said...

It's a *fake* fake.

WK said...

Was on a zoom call the other day with one of our AI engineers. As a demo, he was running an application on his laptop that mapped the female hosts face onto his video feed. Put the windows side by side and it was his voice coming out of her mouth. Could you tell it was fake? Yes. But it was real time and very creepy. The deep fake stuff is only getting better and more difficult to determine what is real. Lots of cycles will be spent debunking.

Bob Boyd said...

It's not Biden's hand that I worry about. What I want to know is, who's hand is up Biden's ass and making his mouth move?

MayBee said...

Did anybody notice how Biden walks? He's very---- cautious or something. He's not ok.

DanTheMan said...

>>Yes, they put this out, which looks fake but is easily shown not to be fake to create the belief that the people who cry fake are ridiculous conspiracy thinkers and that will deflect inquiry into the *truly* fake things.

Down the rabbit hole we go... These people are just not that clever.
What struck me was not the microphones, but the way Biden walks.... he looks VERY OLD in that clip.

How much longer can we pretend he's competent?

Andrew said...

This is the most depressing political season in my lifetime. Biden is Jimmy Carter dialed up to 11.

Matt Sablan said...

"This is the most depressing political season in my lifetime. Biden is Jimmy Carter dialed up to 11."

-- More than the week of "Trump overfeeds fish" video doctoring?

DavidUW said...

Did anybody notice how Biden walks? He's very---- cautious or something. He's not ok.
>>
He's been walking like that for about a year or more now.
He's got the old person who's fallen a couple times shuffle. Of course the shuffle makes you MORE prone to tripping and falling but every old person I've seen (or been related to) has done that after falling.

One grandma did it after her first stroke. The other after she broke her hip.

CWJ said...

I think the funniest part of this is the banner across Biden in the top panel labeling him the "Real POTUS." Makes me think on so many levels "Is he? Who are they trying to convince?.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

The proportions are wrong and Biden’s sleeve is crisply in focus while the big fuzzy wind-screened mic out of focus. It does not look right and I don’t buy their explanation. Nothing this admin or their DNC-Media scribes say can be taken at face value. Only Bloomberg and The Hill ran these weird videos on Tuesday raising further questions.

William50 said...

Did anybody notice how Biden walks? He's very---- cautious or something. He's not ok.

What do you mean not OK. C'mon man, he can ride a bike and do push ups. What more can you want?

Ann Althouse said...

"but those microphones were definitely edited in. There's no chance that video wasn't doctored, even if not in that particular way."

It's safe to assume you didn't watch the YouTube video I put in the post.

Temujin said...

Yes it's true. The majority of the American people do not believe our President is actually taking part in life. They also believe that most of what we see out of our media are fake productions discussing fake crises or issues.

Where does this go from here? It will not get better, I assure you. Joe Biden is better today than he'll be tomorrow. Think about that. He's showing his peak performance right now.

Matt Sablan said...

"If they'd faked it, they'd have looked at it very carefully before releasing it. Why would they use a fake video so obviously flawed?"

-- Don't assume competence. The first thing you have to realize is most people are mediocre, at best. Remember also that "Like with a cloth" and smashing subpoenaed documents passed muster as far as "scrutiny" went for Democrat politicians. Claiming that Hunter's laptop was hacked, and therefore shouldn't be published, while also claiming it was totally fake, also passed muster. The left is not used to actually having the media or public be critical of their arguments put forward.

Still, I look at this and don't see it as fake so much as just awkward video. Maybe I just don't get it.

Barry Dauphin said...

Imagine what this video looked like to all the staffers smoking weed.

Levi Starks said...

I think the goal with a video like this is to encourage Republicans to demand that Biden be removed. Not because it’s a fake video, but rather because it shows how decrepit (near nursing home status) he is. You certainly wouldn’t want someone with that level of muscle control driving a motor vehicle.
End the end though, Democrats would prefer to let the Republicans do their dirty work.
He’ll resign soon enough and let Kamala assume her rightful position.
I would love to hear the leaked inside information of what Hilary’s response to all this is.

Tommy Duncan said...

Blogger MayBee said...

"Did anybody notice how Biden walks? He's very---- cautious or something. He's not ok."


IMHO, I think Biden has Parkinson’s disease that is more pronounced on the right side of his body. His hands have a claw-like curl. I’ve seen him do the characteristic “pill roll” movement with his right hand. They medicate him almost perfectly, but his arms don’t swing normally when he walks.

I offer these comments as one with intimate knowledge of Parkinson’s.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Still rather “unusual” to have crisply outlined cuff, then an out-of-focus “dead cat cover” then a sharp suit jacket behind the boom. Movie “magic” often relies on such forced perspective composed shots, so it is possible the video is unmanipulated but the current admin has already blown their own trustworthiness by constant lying and obfuscation. I welcome the current discussion of our virtual potus. In many ways he is undeniably fake and that fact alone makes all media about him suspect.

alfromchgo said...

Biden OK? read David Greenfield's assessment of this administration:

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/03/there-no-biden-administration-daniel-greenfield/

Rick said...

Possibly related: Biden refers to "President Harris".

Mr Wibble said...

I'll admit that I assume whenever Biden makes one of these controlled appearances while wearing a mask, that there's a good chance it's not actually Biden. He's old, his mind and body are going, why take the risk? The WH already likely has body doubles for security purposes, so why not hire another who can sound sort of like Joe to go out, make a few muffled comments, and then leave without answering questions?

narciso said...

There is no biden only zuul.

M Jordan said...

Yeah, Biden’s cautious walking is the biggest reason I think he’s in true decline. His speaking gaffes aren’t really much different than before. But the controlled movements, very little natural flow to his body, arms almost not moving while he walks strikes me as a real clue that he has declined quite much and quickly.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

From a guy with a lot of photoshop experience the weird appearance in the bottom photo on this blog is not easily explained away and I don’t know what to make of the inexplicable focal lengths apparent.

https://victorygirlsblog.com/is-clown-media-complicit-in-fake-biden-video/

Matt Sablan said...

"His speaking gaffes aren’t really much different than before."

-- I think his gaffes are getting worse, even if I'm not sold on the "Biden is going senile" narrative. What has he said in the past that was as bad as: "Salute the Marines" and "What am I doing here," and “I’m happy to take questions if that’s what you — I’m supposed to do, Nance Whatever you want me to do." The White House literally cut a live feed after the last one it was so bad.

Like I said, I'm not sold on the "Biden is going senile," but, I have to say that he's certainly not putting his best foot forward; it's going straight into his mouth as usual.

narciso said...


Does it matter

https://thenationalpulse.com/exclusive/westpoint-collabs-with-cusef-ccp-universities/

RoseAnne said...

While I found the microphone issue odd, what I truly wondered about was the lack of people around Biden. I have seen several versions of it and they all start with Biden walking down the driveway without a group of people around him. No aides or what looks likes a security detail. There are a few people in the distance but none immediately around him. You see an SUV on the roadway behind him and something that could be a guardhouse. After talking to the reporters, Biden turns and goes to Marine One.

In one version of the video I saw, after Biden turns to go to Marine One, the camera picks up several people coming out of the building around the guardhouse/SUV area (including Psaki) who then stop and wait for something. The video then ends.

Just struck me as odd - most likely means nothing.

Static Ping said...

I believe the "fact check" was of some random post on 4Chan and some obscure sites no one cares about. It's basically one step up from fact checking the guy on the street corner screaming about lizard people. There's no story here.

This is how desperate the media has become to protect Biden.

doctrev said...

Ann Althouse said...

It's safe to assume you didn't watch the YouTube video I put in the post.

3/19/21, 8:20 AM

Even before I watched it, I knew it would be a deceptive lie put forward for the pathetically credulous. Anyone who made it to 1:36 and didn't realize that the furry microphone is in two places at once can be persuaded of ANYTHING. "Oh, that young blonde was my sister who I have never spoken of before! Here's the Snopes page backing me up!"

narciso said...

https://asiatimes.com/2021/03/life-after-death-for-the-neoconservatives/

Browndog said...

Did Biden just try to hold Kamala's hand?

I saw this clip yesterday, and this was my initial take. Same 'press conference he called her President. As President, nobody is supposed to walk in front of Biden, but Kamala hurries to pass him and get in front of him. Maybe Biden thinks she's really the President.

Me thinks she hates him.

Matt Sablan said...

Now, now, now. There's no reason to think Harris doesn't like Biden. She just accused him of being a segregationist. Not being a racist. The AP fact checked it! https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-9244041620

Browndog said...

I know one thing for sure-

If you say the video looks weird, odd, or something isn't right--you're a conspiracy theorist!

I don't know what it is, but I know I've never seen that in a live video feed.

Levi Starks said...

You know that Biden will be lionized by the Left for allowing himself to be used as a puppet when he is in such a state of obvious decline.
In much the same way that FDR is for having had polio while in office. . The big difference is that even though Roosevelt’s health was in serious decline during the last term of his presidency (from both polio, and poor self control) there doesn’t seem to be much doubt that his mental faculties were ever called into question. Even by his political opponents.

Iman said...

Do the Biden shuffle
Hear the low rent hustle
See Joe speak and stumble
Feel the Dollar crumble

Bob Boyd said...

There's just something weird about Biden's hand, I guess.
I mean, this is exactly the same hand that confused Tara Reade so much.

Bob Boyd said...

Much like a dead cat, a pussy can have fuzzy edges, making it hard to tell if Biden's hand is between you and your pussy or if your pussy is between you and Biden's hand.

I have no plans to make a video in my back yard demonstrating this phenomenon.

Chuck said...

No one has yet mentioned it; the bogus and idiotic theory that Biden’s video appearance was a “montage” was being promoted by none other than our old buddy, Scott Adams.

Yes, it’s all laughably stupid as we can see. But it wasn’t stupid or funny for Scott Adams just a couple of days ago.

Which is why, today, it is Scott Adams who is so clearly laughable and stupid.

There were a handful of Scott Adams tweets and retweets on this subject; this was just one of them:

https://mobile.twitter.com/ScottAdamsSays/status/1372230933193977857

tcrosse said...

This must be what became of Max Headroom.

narciso said...

Whatever ever happened to matt frewer.

Michael K said...

It's safe to assume you didn't watch the YouTube video I put in the post.

I did. Several times and the Biden right hand and the microphone are not in a real relationship. It looks like the hand went into the microphone.

Fernandinande said...

Kamala hurries to pass him and get in front of him.

Well, to be fair, her body language was not much more hostile than my ex-wife's.

Joe Smith said...

"Yes, they put this out, which looks fake but is easily shown not to be fake to create the belief that the people who cry fake are ridiculous conspiracy thinkers and that will deflect inquiry into the *truly* fake things."

This is what Obama did with the birth certificate thing.

He gave a lot of people a lot of rope and then pulled the rug out (yeah, I know).

Except it was a kind of double-cross, as the 'real' birth certificate, once produced, caused even more speculation.

I am fairly proficient with PDFs and Photoshop, etc., and there was some fishy stuff going on caused either by incompetence (an intern scanning the document) or someone purposefully releasing a document that was certain to ignite a firestorm of controversy (which it did).

And last time I looked, the whole 'Conspiracy Theory' thing was a CIA invention...at least, that's what the conspiracy theory says : )

Bob Boyd said...

That's what I'm sayin', Doc!
Biden's hand and Tara Reade were not in a real relationship either, but it looks like the hand went into Tara Reade.
There's just something weird about that darn hand.

Joe Smith said...

"Kamala hurries to pass him and get in front of him."

Maybe he was breaking wind...all that pudding and oatmeal is bound to wreak havoc with the old digestive system...

DanTheMan said...

>>Did Biden just try to hold Kamala's hand? I saw this clip yesterday, and this was my initial take.

Hold her hand???
Oh for heaven's sake... Biden was being polite, with a gesture to indicate "ladies first".

Was it a violation of protocol? Sure. But it was just an old man being polite.
There are enough real things to detest Biden for. This isn't one.

Jupiter said...

Oh, he's real enough. He's just not really the President.

Chuck said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DavidUW said...

And just like I said. Biden falls 3 times walking up the stairs.

I'll just go out and take my victory lap now.

AZ Bob said...

We should be discussing the fake Stephanopoulos interview.

Gospace said...

If you read the post and especially scroll through the comments, you'll see a lot of people think the event was green screened. This is where I heard about it.

n.n said...

The fact checkers are back, signalling a return to the status quo.

Mark said...

Walk much, Joe?

Bob Boyd said...

Biden falls 3 times walking up the stairs.

Biden stayed in his basement for a year. He's out of practice.

Lurker21 said...


Biden trips going up the steps to his plane. More than once.

What are all those people who had "Any Functioning Adult 2020" bumper stickers on their cars thinking now?

Lurker21 said...

I don't understand why people make up stories when the reality is crazier than what they can come up with themselves.

All their doing is providing fodder for phony "factcheckers." Discrediting the nuttier, easily disproven rumors gives the mainstream media "factcheckers" a credibility that they don't deserve.

Mary Beth said...

Yeah, Biden’s cautious walking is the biggest reason I think he’s in true decline.

And it's ignored by the press while we had a slew of articles talking about how Trump walked down the ramp at West Point.

Lurker21 said...

“Look at how [Trump] steps and look at how I step,” Biden said while laughing. “Watch how I run up ramps and how he stumbles down ramps, okay?” -- Joe Biden, Sept. 7, 2020

Okay, Joe. I'm a watching.

Yancey Ward said...

That "debunking" is nothing of the kind. Watch the two videos, and if you can't see the difference in the two, then there is literally no help for you- you will willingly believe anything. Here is a clue- watch the difference in definition between Biden's hands and the microphones- Biden's hand is crisp, the mikes are not. Now watch the debunking video- the definitions are equivalent.

The mikes were definitely shopped into the video of Biden. I don't know for certain whether Biden was shopped into a video of him walking outside somewhere, but there are other problems with the video- in places the top of Biden's head disappears in the white sky- this could be an artifact of lighting. However, there is no good explanation of that video manipulation for the differences in definition between Biden hands and the boom mikes- especially given how Biden's hand appears in front of the mikes and closer to vhe alleged video camera rather than at a greater distance from the cameras.

Michael K said...

However, there is no good explanation of that video manipulation for the differences in definition between Biden hands and the boom mikes- especially given how Biden's hand appears in front of the mikes and closer to vhe alleged video camera rather than at a greater distance from the cameras.

Yup. I even showed it to my wife and she agrees.

Joe Smith said...

One of the problems is the horrible quality of the video, which if I were a conspiracy guy I would say is beneficial to pulling off the hoax.

It's like the video came from a Russian camcorder circa 1987, copied three or four times onto Betamax, uploaded to the web, and then downloaded with a dial-up modem.

Any cell phone less than 7 or 8 years old has better video quality : )

Yancey Ward said...

The innocent explanation would be that the video editors wanted to give a sense of Biden talking to the reporters close up, so the mikes were shopped into the video to give that illusion.

Here is a frame from the video that is conclusive as long as the video itself has been faked to produce the green screen illusion. There is no way that frame containing the mikes and Biden's arm came from the same video recording. I am sorry if you believe otherwise- you are at the point in not trusting your lying eyes.

Yancey Ward said...

Bruce Hayden could be right- this could have been a lure to get people talking about green screening Biden by his political enemies and then "debunking it". If so, then it is effective, but it doesn't change the fact that the mikes were shopped into the video, just the motive for doing so.

Darrell said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0139UytcR8&t=9s

Go to the 0:09 mark, pause it and use the "," and "." to rewind or advance by a single frame. Althouse won't do it, but you will.

Matt Sablan said...

Darrell: When I do that... it definitely looks faker. Something weird happens with the top of his head too. I just don't know (or care) enough to do a whole lot of work on this.

Matt Sablan said...

(Though, on a more serious note, there are other angles of Biden at the same event, so I don't think it is fake so much as just weird looking.)

Matt Sablan said...

Last comment on this for a bit: Notice how quick the media was to come out and say this was fake, and for even the people holding the camera/microphone to say what you were seeing wasn't real? How long did it take for people to admit that there was more to the Trump over feeding fish video? The media would be more believed if it stopped burning good will so freely.

rehajm said...

Maybe you were just setting up your marijuana joke, but you made me think: Yes, they put this out, which looks fake but is easily shown not to be fake to create the belief that the people who cry fake are ridiculous conspiracy thinkers and that will deflect inquiry into the *truly* fake things

I went for the cheap double. The video didn't look like a fake to me, just an interesting combination of overexposure, perspective and a weird way digital reproduces fuzzy things. My point was how quickly they jumped on 'correcting' the misconceptions. Now that you've extended that thought I think you're probably right!

Ken B said...

I saw this theory the other day and thought it the most brain dead thing of the week. Until I read Michael K's and Tim maguire's comments on this thread.

Moral: there is no hole than can’t be deeper.

iowan2 said...

I saw this theory the other day and thought it the most brain dead thing of the week. Until I read Michael K's and Tim maguire's comments on this thread.

From a troll that refuses to engage on the merits.

Ken B said...

Iowan2, Michael K, Tim McGuire, Yancey Ward: what you see is impossible!

Video guy: Actually it’s easy, watch me do it.

Iowan2, Michael K, Tim McGuire, Yancey Ward: But, but, but you weren’t there!

Amadeus 48 said...

Gaslighting by Team Biden?

They have to do something. He is dissolving in front of our eyes. I wonder if Joe Biden exists when he isn't in front of an audience. And he is fading, fading.

There is a great Henry James short story called "The Private Life" in which some of the characters have doppelgangers or weird disabilities. One of them, Lord Mellifont, an exemplar of tone in English public life, dissolves and disappears when he doesn't have an audience. His life is reduced to anecdotes which everyone tells about him--as if he were dead.

We are going to get a lot of distractions until Biden steps down or melts.

Yancey Ward said...

The "debunker" did not reproduce the effect. He didn't recreate that odd difference in definition, he just showed how a hand could be in front of the mike cover. If you want to debunk this, you have to explain that difference. I am willing to listen to someone who can explain how a digital camera can accidentally create this oddity as a part of its software rendition of the image itself, but no one has tried to do this. Maybe Karen B can explain it for us.

Ken B said...

“Admit it Ken B, I only got one thing wrong about covid. I said it was not dangerous. Like Neville Chamberlain, who misjudged one guy. Or like CNN who got one thing wrong about Trump and Putin.”