President Biden got a visit from a Christmas troll Friday when a father participating in the annual White House NORAD Santa-tracking call used the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon,” the slangy stand-in for “F— Joe Biden.”
The dad, identified only as Jared from Oregon, wished the president and first lady Jill Biden a merry Christmas before adding the anti-Biden phrase at the end of his family’s portion of the call. “Merry Christmas and let’s go Brandon,” the father said as he signed off.
“Let’s go Brandon, I agree,” Biden said without missing a beat.
Video below. Maybe Presidents shouldn't be doing these sentimental holiday shows, and obviously they're straining for good press, so they're kind of inviting trolls. You'd think the call screeners would ensure that nothing hateful or humiliating gets through. I suppose some of you roared with laughter when you saw this or cynically muttered that Biden deserved it because of whatever bad things you think he's done, but it just made me feel sorry for Biden.
If your question is whether Biden even knows what "Let’s Go Brandon" means, maybe you're the one who needs to get tested for dementia.
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I suppose some of you roared with laughter when you saw this or cynically muttered that Biden deserves this because of whatever bad things you think he's done, but it just made me feel sorry for Biden.
Yes. It is so uncivil to treat such a nice, caring and empathetic man like Brandon that way. He has never said a mean thing in his life, but those dastardly conservatives and libertarians just trash him.
There oughta be a law ...
Let's feel sorry for a man who was put in place, like Robert Mueller, as a 'moderate' figurehead who would be easily manipulated by his 'staff' because people are making fun of his obvious dementia, it may not be dementia that makes him not know what 'let's go Brandon' means, but the people around him apparently don't trust him with the knowledge, given their own judgement of the progression of his senescence.
The working class trusted the United States Government with the lives of their children in these foreign wars, even if they don't understand why we are fighting them. I don't know why we have troops in Syria, but my guess is that it has to do with the oil, and some financial patrons of people in our government who want their ability to recover and want it protected by the children of the US working class. The same kind of oil that we won't drill for in the United States even though we have vast untapped reserves of the stuff.
Joe Biden has earned the contempt. This is why he only appears during the middle of the day, during the week, and usually with Jill by his side, like Nancy was always with 'Ronnie' in his declining years. This man is in charge of the United States by the will of the billionaire class, and let's feel sorry for him because nobody around him trusts him with the facts.
By his own words, he should have resigned already over all of the COVID deaths on his watch, oh, that's right, nobody takes anything Babbling Joe says seriously! People sense weakness in the man, that's why this happened, and no doubt these people include Xi and Putin.
It was worth delaying the vaccine to get him elected, though, no matter the cost in lives, right?
Fuck Joe Biden.
BTW, I didn't laugh, I cringed for the United States that somehow this man is our president.
The problem is, it's impossible to know whether he's oblivious or trying to rise above a surprise insult. It's pretty clear he's familiar with the phrase, but he comes across as not quite remembering what it means.
but it just made me feel sorry for Biden.
Why?
I don't recall you ever expressing sorrow for the constant attacks on Trump and his family. Or Sandmann. Or Kavanaugh.
Yet more civility and "cruel neutrality" bullshit.
Ann, I am surprised you don't have any recall of Joe Biden's treatment of Clarence Thomas in Thomas' confirmation hearing. That episode sealed in my mind the fact that Biden was a dirtbag of the first order.
If your question is whether Biden even knows what "Let’s Go Brandon" means, maybe you're the one who needs to get tested for dementia.
One of these days Biden is literally going to shit himself on camera, and you and the MSM will immediately applaud, and then squat and make grunting noises.
I don’t like this for the same reason I don’t like kneeling at football games. Some things should be free of politics. Christmas is one of them.
Sadly, in this latest era, the right is starting to act as shamefully as the left. No, my fellow Americans, the personal is NOT political.
Blowback: the unintended adverse results of a political action or situation.
I don't hate him or anyone else in that position. They aren't worth that energy. But he is likewise unworthy of my pity or empathy.
And I trust these callers had the requisite humility to address Jill Biden as Doctor.
I have little sympathy for Biden the man (let alone the President), being all too aware of his decades of pettiness and self-promotion. Yet, Ann's civility BS tag notwithstanding, we have way too much gratuitous incivility in our country. Our nation would benefit from more adult gentlemen and ladies.
That poor poor man, who, if he had his druthers, would mandate that people who have done nothing wrong be treated as second or third class citizens, lose there job, denied healthcare or any common connection with the public,
I don't like Biden but I don't like trolling the feeble old fool either. He doesn't anyone's help to appear out of touch.
OMG! Using Althouse's criteria, I guess I'm the one who needs to be tested for dementia, since I did in fact question whether Brandon even knows what "Let's Go Brandon" means. Then again, I've questioned Brandon's mental acuity for some time, independent of him being trolled and not even knowing it.
cruel, yet...
He knew the job was dangerous when he took it. I blame Joe Biden for lacking the wisdom to acknowledge that he wasn't up to the demands of what might be the hardest job in the world at the age of 78.
THAT's hubris. God hates hubris. Look at what happened to Donald Trump last year.
From the way she lowered her head and grimaced, Dr Jill sure got it and knew Joe wouldn't. He didn't. (BTW, in my Medicare Advantage PPO everyone gets tested for dementia every year - my last test was in September, and I passed.) If Joe had been tested like he should have been, and if Dr Jill weren't totally committed to fooling all of us and dragging Joe over the finish line, maybe they would both get some sympathy from me. However, the people who need sympathy are the citizens of the country who depend on competent government to keep the wolves away from the door. The fact that the WH staff couldn't even keep the trolls off the phone is just another indication of the incompetence of this presidency. So, Let's Go Brandon!
Its a perfect encapsulation of the "Let's go Brandon" meme. We have to remember that "Let's go Brandon" started out as "Fuck Joe Biden". It's the media that created "Let's go Brandon" in trying to cover for Biden's failures. "Fuck Joe Biden" is an expression of those failures. "Let's go Brandon" is an expression of the emperor having no clothes.
I don't think Biden knows what it means. Jill does though, you can see it in her face. Biden looks like he doesn't know what it means, since he says "I agree". Which makes it look all the worst. It presents an image of who is in charge.
Ann, should anything happen to the Dad for being so uncouth?
Agree, Prof. A. Anybody still questioning whether Biden has dementia, should be tested for dementia.
I, for one, hope Old Joe sends out a sweet, kind tweet about this incident. Because nice tweets are the one true measure of a statesman, a leader, a man!
Feeling sorry is worse. We don't need a president whom we feel sorry for, because that indicates that he is weak. People don't want a weak president.
I suppose some of you roared with laughter when you saw this or cynically muttered that Biden deserved it because of whatever bad things you think he's done, but it just made me feel sorry for Biden.
That is perilously close to empathy bullshit.
For four years, every rude idiot who flipped off the President was lauded by the media. Now we are supposed to care and feel bad?
We've reached the point of Disgust Saturation in America. The left is disgusted with the right. The right is disgusted with the left. The 'progressives' are disgusted with the right, the mainstream left, Jews, Catholics, and white people. Blacks are disgusted with whites and Hispanics, Jews and Asians. Hispanics are disgusted with whites and blacks. Leftist whites are disgusted with themselves. And Jews. Leftist Jews are disgusted with themselves and whites. Conservatives are disgusted with centrist Republicans. Rinos are disgusted with the new Conservatives. Conservatives are disgusted with the media, Hollywood, Big Tech, and academia. "Right back at you", shouts the media, Hollywood, Big Tech, and academia. Banks are disgusted with crypto. Crypto is disgusted with central bankers. Everyone is disgusted with The Fed.
The NBA is disgusted with Conservatives. China is disgusted with US Conservatives. Conservatives are disgusted with the NBA, LeBron James, and China. New Yorkers are (finally) disgusted with Andrew Cuomo and Bill DeBlasio. Chicagoans are disgusted with Lori Lightfoot. But for some reason, Oregonians are not yet disgusted with Kate Brown.
Maga voters are disgusted with Joe Biden. Biden voters are disgusted with Maga people even existing. And everyone is disgusted with Hillary and Kamala. At least we can all agree on that.
So...this little dustup about Joe Biden fumbling over the line "Let's go Brandon" is nothing. He fumbles over a line every time a paragraph is held in front of him. We have enough disgust to go around. Can't we all just get along? Heh. Just kidding.
Merry Christmas everyone! May your life be filled with a bit less disgust in 2022.
Watch it, if you go any further some might think you are calling for civility.
Well, maybe for one day we can be civil to everyone.
Merry Christmas!
"If your question is whether Biden even knows what "Let’s Go Brandon" means, maybe you're the one who needs to get tested for dementia."
Biden knew what "Lets Go Brandon" meant before the phone call. Forgot what it meant during the call. Remembered it this morning when he woke up.
Alinsky rule number 5: "Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. There is no defense. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage."
Their rules, not ours.
The elites broke civil society and now bleat when the people follow their lead. Trump encountered resisters from the mandarin class for his entire presidency. But it was always going to end up worse for Biden than Trump because of demographics. Publicists want "regular" people from the heartland for these sorts of things so Trump can talk to kids and families from Iowa or Missouri or Wisconsin and things will go just fine. And at this point, being married and having children is a pretty good indicator for Republican voters. So Biden's people try these photo ops and are constantly being burned. Because there are a lot more Trump voters than Mandarins.
So the elites sow, while Biden reaps the consequences of their behavior.
"If your question is whether Biden even knows what "Let’s Go Brandon" means, maybe you're the one who needs to get tested for dementia."
I don't know if you mean that it's obvious the phrase is so ubiquitous that he has to know, or that it's so obvious he's out of it that he couldn't know.
The only one in the White House I would have felt sorry for in the last 20 years was Barron Trump. Yes, the Obama girls heard a lot of negative press (from the right) about their parents, but they also were far more off-limits to the press than even the Bush twins were.
In any effort they could find to "get Trump", Barron's life was dissected and discussed. HIs father is 6'3" and his mother nearly as tall, but some reporters still found time to question why he grew so tall.
Shutting Malania out of the things that FLOTUS usually does was petty and mean (and possibly Xenophobic), but she is an adult and chose to marry Trump. Jill chose to go through with the 2020 election knowing there were issues with Joe's cognitive abilities. (No, I am not a doctor but have 2 close family members who have been diagnosed and see some very familiar behavior from Biden.)
I personally don't think it was the time or place for the parent to say what he did. I also don't think the Tony Award Show was the place for Robert DeNiro to say "F-Trump" or that it deserved a standing ovation. Unfortunately it is the world we live in today and we all bear some responsibility for it.
...but it just made me feel sorry for Biden.
Sounds like civility bullshit to me.
The great struggle in life is to think not like Peggy Noonan. You are on the edge here, Althouse.
Yes. Joe Biden with his long track record of stupidity, cheap shots, mendacious self-praise, hypocrisy, and phony empathy deserves respect. We should treat this plagiarist crook with kid gloves, particularly now that he is POTUS.
He really stood up for those American citizens he left in Afghanistan, didn't he? Poor man, he was stuck with Trump's deal. He said so. But that's OK because he said he didn't leave any Americans behind who wanted to leave. How do we know they didn't want to leave? They did not show up at the airport.
By the way, Althouse did some nice trolling here herself, didn't she?
Let's go Brandon.
Poor widdle Joey Biden. This is soooo mean.
Althouse, this Brandon is not just a slam on Biden. It's a refutation of the media. They came up with it after all.
If somebody plays a trick on a old man, I feel sorry for the old man -- unless he's been playing a trick on everyone for years. This makes me feel less sorry for Biden than President Dementia's daily unforced errors, epic fails, and "own goals" do. This time it's at least a real "little guy" getting his own back against a fake "little guy."
When does Biden compassion fatigue set in? I feel sorry for the moronic old grifter. I also feel angry about being made to do so. I feel like Ted Koppel should be back on the air with "America Held Emotional Hostage, Day 337."
If Biden was a little more with it cognitively, I'd say his reaction was a good way to neuter and trivialize the phase by repeating it with good humor. Unfortunately, his wide eyed kind of blank gaze only confirms he's not 100% mentally present. Slipping the phrase in was kind of like kicking a puppy.
We sew told that 81 million Americans voted for this dementia-ridden person for president.
What does it say about those voters?
Let’s go Brandon!
Going the "some people" ("some of you") route usually doesn't end well.
Or maybe it was the "you people" route. I forget which.
Merry Christmas.
Not a Biden voter or fan, but this is wrong. Not because he deserves better, but because we all do.
If I had the chance to speak to the President on New Year's Eve, I'd say Merry Christmas, Mr. President, and good luck. The part I would keep firmly unspoken is, We'll all need it with you in charge.
Merry Christmas, everyone, and thanks, Prof. Althouse.
Althouse, I have to say that your sense of humor just keeps getting better and better. Thanks for the laugh today.
Seems like the same kind of election-loser trolling we saw in 2009. I took it more seriously back then but now I wish people would grow up.
He's an old man and good on 'im for blowing it off.
Joe obviously didn't get the reference, but Jill obviously did. Which raises the question of what else they're keeping from him--and beyond that, how they're doing it. There's something very snow globey about this.
As for lack of civility, this is the President of the United States. Seeing him unable to comprehend what just happened live on the air is actual cause for ridicule. Feel sorry for us that this old man who's spent his life in politics lying nearly every time he opens his mouth has achieved that position.
Test me, test me
Why don't you arrest me?
By the way—and the horse he rode in on
Every time a statist gets ridiculed, an angel gets its wings.
“If your question is whether Biden even knows what "Let’s Go Brandon" means, maybe you're the one who needs to get tested for dementia.”
So are you saying Biden’s response was a threat to the caller?
The corrupt, left-wing media will now say that Biden understood the "Let's Go Biden" and was just playing along, because he's such a good sport and wanted to show compassion and love to the caller.
>>but it just made me feel sorry for Biden.
I agree. It's not polite to make fun of the mentally ill.
But I really feel sorry for the guy who said it. I suspect the IRS, the EPA, and every other federal agency will be going through his life in great detail soon.
The tragedy is that no one will have to ask them to do so. They want to. An insult to any member of the American aristocracy cannot be allowed to go unpunished.
Merry Christmas to all on Althouse, and a happy new year as well!
(Geez, had my own moment at 8:28. If I wished the President a Merry Christmas on New Year's Eve, that could itself be a cruel trap.)
Biden could have said, "Fuck me".
Dr. Jill definitely knew what it meant- you can see the distaste on her face. However, Joe "Shit For Brains" probably didn't understand what the man said given the follow-up question he asked about whether or not the man was from Oregon.
@ Gahrie
but it just made me feel sorry for Biden.
Why?
I don't recall you ever expressing sorrow for the constant attacks on Trump...
But Althouse did complain about many of the attacks on Trump, tried to read what he had said fairly, tried to put things into perspective. She was more cruelly neutral than 99.44% of the people expressing themselves about current events.
What tim maguire 12/25/21, 6:42 AM said. For four years, the left had an acute case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. It feels good to turn the tables, but BDS is just as uncharitable. Morally wrong and often factually wrong.
I would feel sympathy for him if he were simply the former VP. Since he is the president, I don't feel sorry for him over this.
“Let’s go Brandon, I agree,” Biden said without missing a beat.
[snip]
If your question is whether Biden even knows what "Let’s Go Brandon" means, maybe you're the one who needs to get tested for dementia.
In my last comment, I ignored this part of the post, but since people are dwelling on it so much, I may as well throw my 2 cents in. Prof., what in Joe Biden’s history gives you the impression that he has the confidence and wit to respond to ridicule with self-deprecatory humor? I’ve never seen so much as a flash of the Joe Biden you seem certain any sane person would see here.
"One of these days Biden is literally going to shit himself on camera..."
No he won't, they will cut the feed with no explanation, just like they did at the Vatican.
"Watch it, if you go any further some might think you are calling for civility."
Thread winner here.
"Fuck me", says dear leader. The fascist chi com dictator.
My friend with dementia thinks that his wife is the one with dementia.
Biden should step down as President... or be forced to.
He is beyond incompetent. He is senile and endangering this country by being there...
Force him out after New Years. I don't care if Harris is president. He needs to go.
Maddow-Mueller. LOL. 3 years of that crap. How pathetic.
I'm surprised he didn't challenge the caller to a push-up contest!
I suppose some of you roared with laughter when you saw this or cynically muttered that Biden deserved it because of whatever bad things you think he's done, but it just made me feel sorry for Biden.
If your question is whether Biden even knows what "Let’s Go Brandon" means, maybe you're the one who needs to get tested for dementia.
Nice compassion, but sandwiching it in between snarkiness doesn't go over well. It's in the nature of dementia that sufferers don't always "know" what they "know." Memory comes and goes. And even people without dementia can be caught off guard.
So Joe doesn't know at the time. Then later he remembers. Then he forgets again. Dementia can be exasperating, both for those afflicted and for the people who have to deal with them.
"I think we lost him."
"Yeah..."
I'm not sure if she's agreeing with JoeMentia, or realizing how dire the situation is!!
I imagine that Biden did not understand what the caller was saying. Like he assumed it was the name of his kid or something, and was being nice.
Almost like the president of the US has better things to think about than the right-wing super-stupid-slogan of the moment. Funny that.
Watch a crowd react in joy when our fearless leader got punked on the bar's big screen. Maybe they should all be arrested for lesé-majisté.
https://twitter.com/NautPoso/status/1474542900109361155
"A good tactic is one your people enjoy." - Saul Alinsky
Alinsky, you magnificent bastard, we read your book!
I sense dementia may be a sore subject w/ the good professor.
He directed the Clarence Thomas lynching back when I was in college. He was mentally competent back then despite being a bombastic simpleton by nature. Screw him. When the dementia finally becomes too much for even the most ardent Progressive to ignore and the puppet masters cut his strings and put him in a home I might have some pity for him. Until then he gets as much sympathy from me as his grandson in Arkansas gets recognition.
It's also telling that is first reaction was to agree with a caller about something he knew nothing about. This is the President of the United States. He just lies as easily as he breathes, or he was doing something that senile people do, which is to pretend he knows what is happening as a sorry attempt to maintain his dignity.
He should be forced out of office, and then we can start making fun of his hapless replacement. Maybe she can get Build Back Broke passed by creating damsel in distress style sympathy!
Sadly, in this latest era, the right is starting to act as shamefully as the left. No, my fellow Americans, the personal is NOT political.
We tried turning the other cheek for SIXTY YEARS. It didn't work.
Yes, I felt sorry for the old man caught by age and cruelly mocked but he isn't just an old man being mocked.
Isn't this a kind of peek into how much The President of the United States knows about what's going on around him? Doesn't it show that his staff is shielding him and that he lives in bubble? He doesn't have the info he needs to do well and he can't be given it. That's the opinion of those closest to him and their response has been to seize power for themselves instead of helping him resign. So he isn't issuing mandates or executive orders, his unelected staff is. Remember that when "he" starts issuing executive orders in January.
Biden is a tool with a history of malicious behavior and grifting. In his dotage he has traded, or forgotten, the last vestige of decency remaining to him for the Presidency. Christian forgiveness is in order. Sympathy is not.
Of the few possible interpretations of the exchange open to us the most likely confirms our suspicions that he is a doddering old man kept upright by drugs and controlled by a cabal of left wing extremists. Pity us, not him.
The look on Jill's face - she immediately gets it but she's not fast enough to stop her dolt of a husband in time. And she can't acknowledge it after the fact.
Pete said...
"I don't like Biden but I don't like trolling the feeble old fool either. He doesn't anyone's help to appear out of touch."
Pete, Biden is the President Of The United States. He is now obviously senile and yet he has the 'Nuclear Button', controls the military, controls the borders of The United States. His position is extremely important to over 300 Million Citizens.
He needs to go. He is a danger to this country. We have many enemies in the world, China.. Communist China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, etc... and we need a sane competent President.
He needs to go... NOW.
I suppose some of you roared with laughter when you saw this or cynically muttered that Biden deserved it because of whatever bad things you think he's done, but it just made me feel sorry for Biden.
Joe Biden is a rapist.
Joe Biden has sold out our country for personal profit.
Joe Biden is the leader of the DC Regime that sent us to Afghanistan and tried to get as many of us killed as possible. He knowingly provided material arms and support to the Taliban and abandoned thousands of American citizens in that country.
Joe Biden is a complete piece of shit. He is on the same level as Hitler and his current ally Xi Jiangping. Joe Biden is fully supporting and enabling Genocide and violence all over the world right now. Millions of women are sex slaves in Afghanistan to the Taliban right now because of Joe Biden. Millions of their husbands were killed so they could claim those women.
Take your faux concern and stuff it. You are turning into a boring troll.
jim said...
I imagine that Biden did not understand what the caller was saying. Like he assumed it was the name of his kid or something, and was being nice.
Almost like the president of the US has better things to think about than the right-wing super-stupid-slogan of the moment. Funny that.
This is how stupid you have to be to be a Biden supporter.
You have to be dumber than Joe Biden to support him.
I don't feel sorry for Biden (this is what he signed up for), but I do feel sorry for the kids involved, and I am irritated on my own behalf. There is a time and place for politics, and this wasn't it. This was a ceremonial event with a public purpose, to make children happy, and some attention-seeking jackass had to make it all about himself. You shouldn't protest at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and you shouldn't protest on a call about Santa Claus.
For the unvaccinated, youre looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your family and the hospitals you overwhelm.
Merry Christmas from the Biden Whitehouse.
One would think I was making that up, but no.
FYB
Merry Christmas to everyone else.
" ... but it just made me feel sorry for Biden."
Why? Is it because making fun of the infirm is callous? This is either civility/empathy Bullshit or acknowledgement that the President is well under par.
And "they started it" is a terrible excuse. One of the fundamental differences between left and right is that the right recognizes that some spheres of life are not political (i.e. are not about the state). Don't become what you oppose; if you do, you're losing.
NOW you want civility. SMH
" ... but it just made me feel sorry for Biden."
Why though? Is it because it's bad form to troll the infirm.
In that sense is it an acknowledgement that the President is not up to the standard of the office.
I agree with Tim Maguire. A Christmas phone call is not the proper venue for trolling....Joe Biden isn't all that much of a hate magnet. LBJ and Nixon. Those two were the greats when it came to inspiring hate. The way puppies can inspire love, those two could inspire hate. In the hate worthy Presidential category as in so many other dimensions, Joe Biden will be recorded as uninspiring and ineffectual.
I saw this unfortunate episode. At first, I felt sorry for Joe and embarrassed for Jill. She looked down and then looked at Joe and I could see that she was thrown by Joe’s answer. However, I immediately was glad that this happened for the doubters to see how out of it Joe really is. Late in my husband’s life he developed dementia. I was very protective of him. But, no way would I let him be in charge of anything of importance. However, Dr. Jill is okay with her senile husband “acting” like the President of the United States. She is not to be admired but blamed for this disaster we are all witnessing. She is allowing Joe to put our country in peril because he is showing the world how weak and out of touch with the reality he is. Our enemies will take advantage of this. The Bidens are an awful bunch of people.
The episode was both humorous and sad. Humorous because it's the stereotypical brain dead politician agreeing with whatever the caller says thing. We've all seen it a million times, with the usual walk back by the politician's staff days later. In this case I doubt we'll see that as the WH would just as soon not bring the meme to the public's attention.
The sad part is that this isn't some random Senator Cleghorn Leghorn from no where in particular. This is the President of the United States. If he's that out of touch, it isn't just his problem anymore, it's ours too.
Danno wrote, “Joe Biden's treatment of Clarence Thomas in Thomas' confirmation hearing. That episode sealed in my mind the fact that Biden was a dirtbag of the first order.”
I have Joe Biden to thank for my party switch. Watching the Dems try and lynch my Creighton Law classmate’s husband was one of the worst thing ever.
Look fat. How about we dox you and audit you?
Gonna take you out behind the barn, you sunuvabitch.
Presidents, especially of the variety that are protected by the MSM, social media corporate giants and Wall Street banks, deserve more derision, not less.
My dementia screening (every six months) is 'draw the clock face, and remember three words for 180 second.
So far, so good. It's five o'clock somewhere, I tell'em.
BTW, the caller has posted a youtube video explainer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1ulpuUKI4Q&feature=youtu.be
I feel more sorry and worry for the person that said it.
Remember what happened to that Rodeo Clown that mocked Obama, his career was destroyed.
Twitter already stopped it from trending.
Has anyone here ever been to a Nascar race?
You, at least, have to realize that this slogan originated with a bunch of drunks exercising their god-given-right-to-party, in defiance of the satanic mask-cult.
I think that just about sums up what currently passes for "conservative".
"If your question is whether Biden even knows what "Let’s Go Brandon" means, maybe you're the one who needs to get tested for dementia."
I don't understand what you're saying here.
But if you mean that Biden understood the reference and that the call was a prank it's worth noting that his response was to try and find out where the caller lived.
That's the Bully Joe we all have come to know.
"Maybe Presidents shouldn't be doing these sentimental holiday shows, and obviously they're straining for good press, so they're kind of inviting trolls. You'd think the call screeners would ensure that nothing hateful or humiliating gets through."
I think these are the two most salient points. Presidents shouldn't be doing these sentimental events, trying to foster the notion "we're all in this together". The sentiment doesn't much work during the year, when your mechanic or home remodeler is gouging you, your employees are more interested in having jobs than doing them, your lawyer won't return your calls, etc, etc...This presidential theater is just that, and most people know it.
But, if a president insists on doing it, it should be arranged with the same professional quality that thousands of call-in shows use. Good call screening, the "bleep" edit delay, and so on. Did no one who organized this event even think of these things?
I vaguely understand feeling sorry for Biden. There has always been something about him that tugs a bit at my heart strings. Given his actual conduct over the years, I don't know if it is entirely cultivated or actually reflects some degree of real humanity within him. To the extent it's cultivated, Biden is to that extent contemptible.
"Sadly, in this latest era, the right is starting to act as shamefully as the left. No, my fellow Americans, the personal is NOT political."
One set of "rules" for everyone.
One set.
Anything else is unacceptable and rewards the left, which is precisely why all the "polite" "happy to lose with dignity" "republicans" adopt that position. They like rewarding the left. It means the invitations to all the right cocktail parties will still be received.
BTW, when is the next BLM march? Asking for Mitt Romney.......
LGB is a result of the Left trying to control narratives, discourse, even medicine.
That Dad's outburst, speaking in code, is at the low end of reasonable responses.
Biden knows what it means. At least he knew when he complained about the signs visible from his motorcade.
It does not appear that he recognized the insult last night.
Almost like the president of the US has better things to think about than the right-wing super-stupid-slogan of the moment. Funny that.
Yeah, like seasonal playlists of his favorite music or his collegiate basketball Final Four picks. There must be priorities.
At first I thought it was amusing, but when I saw it, it was just sad and scary. Sad to pick on an old man who's obviously quite ill, and scary because our opponents will see this and correctly gauge how weak this Administration is,
After four years of hearing "Orange Cheetoh", I'm sure the country can survive an occasional "Let's Go Brandon".
C'mon Man - why dispel instead of maintain the fantasy that Biden is fan of NASCAR and NASCAR is fan of Biden
I thought it was shamefully rude.
Biden can do many, many bad things to Americans, and he has been doing them with gleeful abandon.
All WE can do is mock him.
Seems a fair trade to me. Especially if it causes emotional pain to his pretentious harridan of a wife.
Gahrie said...
but it just made me feel sorry for Biden.
Why?
I don't recall you ever expressing sorrow for the constant attacks on Trump and his family. Or Sandmann. Or Kavanaugh.
Yet more civility and "cruel neutrality" bullshit.
-----------
+1 good point.
Professora can answer if she wishes >> are you one of people saying sort of "if only Biden knew? "
... in Soviet Union ...
When Comrade Stalin ruled in the Kremlin, his many apologists and admirers could never bring themselves to admit that he was responsible for the many terrible acts of the Soviet Union. Indeed, they often insisted that he could not possibly have known about such things as the deliberate starvation of millions of Ukrainians, the purge trials and executions of loyal communist officials, and the operation of the vast prison-camp system termed by writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as The Gulag Archipelago.
Joseph Stalin couldn't possibly have known, they said. If he had known, he'd have put a stop to it all. ...
“Let’s go Brandon, I agree,” Biden said without missing a beat.
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Audi should present him a car
Thanks Althouse, I saw that yesterday and had already forgotten about it. Now I feel sad again for our country.
On the other hand it's a glorious 73 degrees here in San Antonio and I am about to feast on a TexMex/Southern style Christmas dinner. Merry Christmas!
Sorry, Professor Althouse, but your analysis is off -- the time to feel sorry for a doddering politician has long departed.
I am 63 years old and consider myself fairly well read, even as a child. I read the front page of teh L.A. Times religiously each morning. I distinctly remember reading about Bobby Kennedy being shot by Sirhan Sirhan in 1968 even though I was only 9 years old.
The past 50 years have been nothing but one long parade of Democrats and leftists breaking sacrosanct political traditions of decency; one after another. In the 1970s I remember how they cheapened the presidency by calling Richard Nixon "Tricky Dick." I remember the 1980s when people mocked Ronald Reagan as "Raygun" for his initiative for a "Star Wars" missile defense. In the 1990s I remember the gleeful Borking" of both Robert Bork with respect to his Blockbuster video rentals and Clarence Thomas with "pubic hairs" on a Coke can.
Or how about the 2000s when Jimmy Carter broke two taboos of decency at once. Namely, when in Europe Carter openly took issue with George W. Bush's efforts to wage war in Iraq he (Carter) broke tradition against against former presidents criticizing a current president as well as the tradition of "politics ends at the waters' edge"?
I remember the tradition of a president getting a "honeymoon" of 100 days from the media. Where was that in 217 when Donald Trump was sworn in?
No one; I repeat no one today has the right to expect decency in politics. The Republicans should not expect it as long as leftists control the medial The Democrats/Leftists should not expect it because of their above-described decades-long march through American taboos against political indecency.
This all started with LBJ and Vietnam and Nixon and Watergate when the Democrats/Leftists realized they could hound presidents out of office by applying pressure through a media campaign.
Decency will return to the American polity only when one side is decisively exterminated from existence. The problem for Democrat/Leftists is that they have raised generations of children who want their Communist revolution and they WANT IT NOW! See, e.g., TrigglyPuff; AOC. The quiet part is now being said out loud and Americans see it.VIdemus quod es.
Barry Sullivan
Barry Sullivan
'If your question is whether Biden even knows what "Let’s Go Brandon" means, maybe you're the one who needs to get tested for dementia.'
What?
If he knows what it means then he's an idiot for repeating it.
If he doesn't know what it means then he is in a bubble.
Don't put it on us.
There are too many trolls out there. Back before mass media and the internet, if someone acted like a troll, they risked getting punched. (So there was an incentive to bite their tongue.) Now the internet is filled with trolls. I saw that MSNBC article where the author was slamming Norad's Santa Tracker. (And I felt that as a form of trolling.) And then I went to a youtube channel that was showing the Norad Santa Tracker feed and they had a real-time comment box at the right of the screen. This one guy kept posting over and over, "Santa Claus isn't real." There is a very real case to be made that mankind is evolving in the wrong direction. "Are we not men? We are DEVO."
Juvenile stunt + senile US president = trolling by Althouse.
I don't hate Joe personally, even though from what I've seen over the decades he does seem to be a low-IQ asshole.
But I hate what he and the left have done to this country.
And whether he knows it or not (Jill does), Joe is the symbol of an installed president whose strings are being pulled by a cabal of worldwide elites and gigantic businesses.
We are entering the age of 'Rollerball.'
"but it just made me feel sorry for Biden".
Agreed. He is a baffled pawn in the hands of a gang of unscrupulous criminals.
The Bidens were apparently making the calls from the recently constructed set instead of the White House.
Historically an "Oval Office address" was considered to be something of great importance. If the Bidens happened to be in Dallas for reasons of state or family, a set would make sense. Given they live in the White House, why don't they use the White House for things that are considered presidential?
"...but it just made me feel sorry for Biden."
I feel sorry for the citizens who suffer the consequences of his poor decisions. I feel sorry for the country as a whole, saddled with Biden/Harris. I feel contempt for the witless voters and corrupt politiqueros who foisted Biden/Harris on our once great nation.
I would have been super impressed if he laughed then said "Welcome to the party pal!" followed by Merry Christmas and have a happy New Year. Then I would know he is evil and in possession of his marbles instead of an old man who is senile with a crappy background. In a way I would prefer evil and in possession of his marbles as that would imply he is in charge and not the puppet of a cabal. Merry Christmas to all.
“And whether he knows it or not (Jill does), Joe is the symbol of an installed president whose strings are being pulled by a cabal of worldwide elites and gigantic businesses.“
And not just a symbol of an installed president. For real, installed—as the Dem party nominee and for real, installed—as POTUS. Biden’s actual real support is less than half of Trump’s. If you believe otherwise, I sincerely urge you to get you own head examined. And I say that with love to everyone who loves America and especially to everyone who hates America.
Tough love; it’s 2021, times are hard, God’s will be done.
Merry Christmas everyone and may God bless America.
"I feel sorry for the citizens who suffer the consequences of his poor decisions."
Does Joe Biden really look like someone who is making a lot of decisions?
I think we should all have better things to do on the feast of Our Lord's Nativity than scribble away about such things, as I sit here scribbling.
More seriously, a blessed and peaceful Christmas and Christmastide to everyone who writes and reads here.
Joe: "Hey, are you in Oregon?"
(Silence.)
Joe: "Where's your home?"
(Silence.)
Joe: "I think we lost him."
Jill: (Looking despondent) "Yeah."
That was pathetic, but I can't bring myself to feel sorry for him. On his good days (and I'm sure he still has some) he must be aware of the not-good days. But he's wanted the Oval Office for so long he's not willing to do the right thing and resign.
I agree with Althouse. I feel that, no matter your thoughts on Biden ( mine are usually uncharitable), there’s no reason to match his lack of civility with those whom he disagrees.
When they got home, Jill--sorry, DOCTOR Jill-- vented to Joe, "You know, politics aside, there are certain levels of decorum and civility all of us should follow. Don't you agree, Joe? Joe?!" Turns to find Joe already stripped to the buff, wanting to take a shower, and looking for his daughter so she can loofah his hiney.
When Joe Biden went to Iraq to negotiate a "status of forces" agreement, he failed spectacularly, as you may recall, but his brother James got a 1.5 billion dollar contract to rebuild the houses Joe had voted to bomb.
When Joe Biden went to China to negotiate over the Spratly Islands, he came back with nothing from the Chinese for the United States of America, but his son Hunter got 2 billion ChiCom dollars invested in his fledgeling hedge fund.
These are not merely things I "think" he did, but matters of public record.
Joe Biden flunked the third grade, so he was never that bright, and he has had is brain opened up to fix an aneurism, which can't have helped. He should be long retired.
Remember when his buddy George W Bush gave his just out of college son Hunter a $90K per year seat on the board of Amtrak? The Bushes knew how Washington worked, and who needed to be greased.
Remember when the banks gave his 20 something son a job as a Vice President and in return Joe pushed through the bill that makes students loans non dischargeable in bankruptcy? Now he's crying that he can't overturn the law with his pen and phone that he pushed through in Congress.
This is all public record, BTW, not something I am imagining.
#FJB
The democrat supporters I know thought the shoe thrower at Bush was OK. LGB seems a step or three down.
But I really feel sorry for the guy who said it.
I agree with DanTheMan. @Althouse, there are people on your side of the political center who are making noises about identifying this individual and determining his address, presumably with violence on their mind. But that’s how Lefties roll.
The Bidens should have had Hunter and Ashley there with them, to present a wholesome family image to the nation.
Maybe Presidents shouldn't be doing these sentimental holiday shows, and obviously they're straining for good press, so they're kind of inviting trolls
Well, Biden's been fuxking up every actual part of his job, thus he went for this supposedly easy part
I suppose some of you roared with laughter when you saw this or cynically muttered that Biden deserved it because of whatever bad things you think he's done, but it just made me feel sorry for Biden.
You've been repeatedly feeling sorry for Biden, no matter how legitimate the attack. So I think the "feeling sorry for Biden" is your problem, not ours.
If your question is whether Biden even knows what "Let’s Go Brandon" means, maybe you're the one who needs to get tested for dementia.
If you think Biden doesn't live in a complete bubble, you're definitely the one who needs to get tested for dementia.
If you think Biden is aware of the crowds in stadiums chanting "Fuck Joe Biden", you're either demented, or clueless.
used the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon,” the slangy stand-in for “F— Joe Biden.”
No, it's the slangy phrase for "Fuck Joe Biden, and all his media protectors, like the lying piece of shit who tried to pretend that the crowd chanting 'Fuck Joe Biden' was actually chanting 'Let's Go Brandon'"
I heard people cheering in public when Reagan got shot in 1981. I went through the early 2000s sing "BusHitler". the obsenities and attacks sent against Trump are too numerous and vile to mention.
If you'r whining about Biden getting "Let's Go Brandon" or "Fuck Joe Biden" shots, then you're engaging in utter civility bullshit.
You could have stood up and condemned the Democrats incivility to Trump and his supporters, and supported Trump in 2020. You didn't. You rewarded their incivility with your "cruel neutrality".
So, now you're getting more of it, going the other way. What gets rewarded gets repeated. Enjoy!
tim maguire said...
I don’t like this for the same reason I don’t like kneeling at football games. Some things should be free of politics. Christmas is one of them.
Sadly, in this latest era, the right is starting to act as shamefully as the left. No, my fellow Americans, the personal is NOT political
Wrong. Bullshit. Wrong
The Left makes everything full of politics. Everything the President does is full of politics.
There's only two options:
1: The Left gets their politics everywhere with no pushback
2: The Right pushes its politics everywhere in self defense
If your'e bitchign about #2, you're the bad guy
Did you stop watching any sport that allowed players to kneel during the national anthem? No?
Then you rewarded #1, and have no legitimate grounds for bitching about #2
I am not a fan of Biden at all and I think all of the pearl clutching over "Let's Go Brandon" is overwrought, but I felt this was inappropriate when I heard I and I still do. Not out of any sense of deference to the President or undue respect, but out of simple decency. It's Christmas time and it was the President doing one of those traditional presidential photo-oppy things. Light-hearted and low threat. A sense of decency would call for all concerned to treat it in the spirit in which it was intended. That used to be a "conservative" perspective.
Of course, this situation is likely to turn into some effort to "cancel"Jared (or whatever his name is) and ensure he is punished, because these situations have to escalate because "teams".
The whole thing is sick.
Oregon Dad now says he meant it in jest, not as an insult. He says he's not a "Trumper" but wishes Biden were doing a better job. That's the beauty of "Let's Go Brandon." It's not literally saying "Fuck Joe Biden." It can mean what you want it to mean. It fits the postmodern model of everything meaning one thing and its opposite. And if that's true, it makes the Washington Post and others complaining about incivility look all the sillier.
I'll grant that the bedrock here is that Biden is not to be taken seriously -- that he either is a joke or can take a joke -- but one can't assume that the phrase implies a hatred or insult or attack on Biden either. If Biden is fully in command of his faculties, he could even make it his own slogan. I wouldn't advise it, but stranger things have happened and succeeded.
Politics ain’t beanball. This is all “part of the process”, as he said when Sinema was followed into a bathroom. It’d be one thing if Joe Biden was an innocent lamb. But he’s not, and should not ever be mistaken for one.
Hi- read all the comments 1st. I love Althouse comments and always have.
My .02$ = I would never intentionally be rude and am the type to avert my eyes when someone is experiencing embarrassment. I’m kind of attuned that way. I do know that respect is something not many who motor around the public sphere seem to practice much these days- the LCD rules: in education and life. I read Twitter. It’s pretty low blow.
I wouldn’t do what the fella who called did.
But, I was gifted a Let’s Go Brandon ornament and I laughed in appreciation as I hung it front and center on my tree.
Hey, it’s not on my crèche!!
God bless America- please
tim in vermont
"When Joe Biden went to China to negotiate over the Spratly Islands, he came back with nothing from the Chinese for the United States of America"
Tiny Tim spending Christmas day bitching about the Spratly Islands.
If Joe Biden was the retired Professor next door suffering this way we would treat him with kindness and charity.
I know because just such a neighbor passed away about two years ago from a brain tumor. His decline was painful to see. ULTRA liberal, we could still talk politics, though there was not much common ground.
As he failed food was prepared. His lawn mowed, errands run for him and his wife. This continues for his widow.
No one made fun of him. Ever.
I think Biden is a nasty piece of work. But I don't laugh at him. I weep for the country. I curse those that prop this empty vessel up as POTUS. I pray the nation will not be harmed further.
Don't feel sorry for Biden, feel sorry for what Biden and his handlers are doing to America.
Until every senior Democrat gets the same treatment as Trump got, there won't be civility in public life, which, a crying shame.
If only Republicans get treated abominably then Democrats will see no need for change.
So, yes, as much derision and scorn as one can manage. And, don't feel sorry about Biden. Remember what he did to Clarence Thomas. I believe Tara Reade!
… but it just made me feel sorry for Biden.
This quote from your post was bothering me when I went to bed last night and it was still bothering me when I awoke this morning.
I have to ask why? Why sympathy for Biden? Did he not campaign for the job, shaking hands in garden spots like Iowa and New Hampshire in the winter?. After 40+ years in Washington how could he not know what the demands of the job are?
@Althouse, if you had any personal sense of empathy you might try feeling sorry for poor people in the face of high inflation. Biden’s inflation.
Remember when Joey called the young woman a lying dog faced pony soldier? Good times!
Anyway, I am in the camp assuming he has never been aware of the oft repeated slogan. Just as he is not aware that his Amtrac story and big rig story have been exposed as lies.
Civility among politicians and their supporters/detractos is almost always bullshit. Noted anti-Trump, former comedienne, D-list celebrity Kathy Griffin held up a fake but bloody decapitated head of the sitting US President in May 2017, to general lefty approval and overall condemnation by everyone else. She lost a few good jobs over her asinine jape.
She tweeted this image again in 2020 right after the election, apparently jubilant that she could stop with the civility bullshit she'd been punished into expressing. Such courage, such immaturity, such civility bullshit!
Let Brandon Go should be our next shouted insult. Loud. Often.
The Biden’s are horrible trashy people and hopefully this is the beginning of the end of this nightmare. I am still laughing.
Merry Christmas
Mutaman said...
Tiny Tim spending Christmas day bitching about the Spratly Islands.
Apparently Mutaman can't wait fo Tiny Tim to die, and decrease the surplus population
He should just say that he had no idea that "Let's go Brandon" was an insult; the Left would jump on it, yelling: "only an idiot wouldn't know what it meant... Oh wait..."
Mutaman: "Tiny Tim spending Christmas day bitching about the Spratly Islands."
Mutaman is very, very upset that there are people who can't help but notice how Biden's Earpiece and the Dems in general (along with some republicans) are heavily invested in letting the ChiCom's take total control of the South China Sea.
For obvious ChiCom/Democratical/Establishment alliance reasons.
Want to translate that into English, Sparky? Trump University education- can't do a thing about it.
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