Senator James Risch is so kooky he thinks President Biden is controlled by someone with a wireless device

boing
#53

This is what’s so effing maddening about Democratic leaders. They continue to behave as if the present battle between reality and lunacy is a simple disagreement between two groups of decent folks who deep down inside want to do the right thing. They refuse to acknowledge the Right’s deliberate poisoning of discourse and its nurturing of stupidity and paranoia in their target electorate. Even much-admired Jean Psaki responds to a Fox stooge’s loaded bullshit questions as if they were legitimate queries.

Until prominent Dem figures (president, press secretary, VP, you know) start coming out and saying, “What you just said is utter bullshit and you should be ashamed of yourself to have said it,” weaponized ignorance will continue to pay. This is assuming that the propaganda war can still be won. With virtually all media controlled by fascist, libertarian, and center-right opinion shapers, it may already be too late.

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#54

I think if the Dem’s did that, the Q-R response would be

a - why are they avoiding my questions?
&
b- they’re so uncivilized and rude!

and the hardcore republicans would keep falling for the bullshit, bc it ties into their worldview. Their voters don’t seem to really care about truth, facts, honesty, integrity, public decorum, science, etc.

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#55

My god I hope he never sees the news cut to another story or a commercial break. Then he’ll know for sure Biden has the ability to wink in and out of existence entirely

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#56

Malkovich.

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#57

…quietly lowers BiFi controller & tiptoes out of the room…

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#58

Who’s on first?

#59

Remote control for President Biden, now for sale for 99.5% off in the boingboing store!

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#60

he’ll know for sure Biden has the ability to wink in and out of existence entirely

Shh…don’t let him hear you. He still thinks that a tiny Biden lives inside his TV.

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#61

Wireless? Pshaw. The wires are clearly visible. /s

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#62

I am amazed that Blinken managed to stay calm during that exchange.
I would have lost it, early on…

Just once, I would like to see a response like:
'Senator, with all due respect, what the FUCK are you talking about? Have you lost your mind? Or did you even have a mind to lose in the first place?
'To even ask such an idiotic question speaks volumes about your profound ignorance of the subject, as well as your lack of competence to be on this committee, much less hold elective office.
‘Please go sit in the back of the room & drink a big glass of STFU, so you don’t embarass the fine citizens of your State further…’

Hey, ‘all due respect’, amirite?

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#63

yeah they scary mate.

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#64

Cutting the president’s video/audio was probably a system they were researching with Trump. It was badly needed after all…

How exactly you’d implement that is not really clear to me (after all not all news videos are routed through the white house) but I can understand Trumps handlers for having dearly wanted such a switch… :smiley:

edit:
Btw, the way it’s written here it looks like this senator believes Biden has an actual implanted chip which prevents him from speaking or something. And if you don’t look any further you could understand his questions like that. But he’s actually talking about a switch in the studios where he’s talking. which is a lot less far fetched and a lot less kooky. Still very implausible, because the WH would need to rewire every studio Biden speaks at without anybody noticing, but not actually technically impossible. Such censor switches are standard in all live event mixing desks I think, though normally it’s the director of the live show controlling it. You could theoretically make that remote controlled. Or you could plant a handler at every location where Biden is speaking. Very implausible that ‘they’ could do that without anybody noticing but still…
I think it is a distraction and dangerous to make the crazies look crazier for the wrong reasons. With the story as it is presented here it’s easy to think:‘nobody will take him seriously, because it’s just too far fetched.’ While someone ‘directing (like a film director, I’m not sure if this is the right word?)’ Biden is not really less believable than Trump being controlled by Putin, depending on what you have been told.

#65

“A button controlling the President, Senator? For gods sakes. This is 2021… we’ve got an app for that.” /s

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#66

That’s modern technology for you. Previous presidents were remotely controlled by wire – you could see the cord if you looked closely enough. Before that it was steam control and the pipes were really obvious.

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#67

Trump was gas powered

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#68

I’ve thought for some time (since the 2nd Bush administration) that the cardinal rule for republican politicians is that they need to avoid creating the impression that they’re any smarter than their base. So, they keep probing for what that might mean. If anyone reading this has a better explanation for this sort of behavior, I’d love to see it.

1 Like
#69

The first time I didn’t watch the exchange, but I heard the audio. Blinken sounded calm, composed and polite. I finally saw the video this morning and Blinken really looked amused, although his voice sounded neutral. A lot more context.

I could be wrong, but his amused facial response made me think he was laughing at the senator’s suggestion that the President is hardwired to the WH.

I agree with @cepheus42–the senator from Idaho may not have meant what he said, but he said it nonetheless.

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#70

This is literally the plot to the book Interface by Stephen Bury (a pseudonym for Neal Stephenson and his uncle.) President has stroke, is restored by a conspiracy that installs controls in his head and uses it to first win an election then install a president who’s under their control. Good book, but literally just a fantasy.

#71

Also reminds me (a bit) of Burroughs’ “The Coming of the Purple Better One.”

#72

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