Dr Will Jones: Facebook Dumps “Politically Biased” Fact-Checkers That Have “Destroyed More Trust Than They’ve Created”

Facebook is to scrap its fact-checkers after founder Mark Zuckerberg said they have “been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they have created” as he pledged to “restore free expression” on the social network. The Telegraph has more.

Dave Patterson: Biden Relents, Authorizing Ukraine’s Use of Long-Range Missiles

After more than two years of persistent pleading to permit Ukraine to use long-range missiles provided by the West to strike targets deep inside Russia, the West agrees. As with nearly all of the weapon systems the US and NATO allies eventually supplied to Ukraine, the Biden administration dragged its feet in giving the Ukrainian military long-range precision tactical missiles for fear the weapons would escalate the conflict.

Biden Backs Off Restricting Use of Long-Range Missiles

JC: Kamala Odds On to Lose

In a Trump v Harris match up, Harris is doing worse in the crucial Rust Belt swing states than Biden.

The media can drool over Kamala Harris as much as they like but, as with the denial of Biden’s dementia, the public are once again having the wool pulled over their eyes. The only positive she has over Trump is her age. In terms of ability, if she has any, she’s keeping it well hidden. Her most distinctive traits are her ability to accrue failures, and her maniacal laugh. She stood for president in 2020 and pulled out early on due to the lack of support. Tulsi Gabbard, also a contender, exposed Harris for who she really is: someone who exhibits far-left tendencies.

Brendan O'Neill: There is nothing ‘graceful’ about Biden’s withdrawal from the race

This whole unsightly circus has exposed the moral rot of the Democratic establishment.

And so the spin begins. Within minutes of Joe Biden announcing that he was dropping out of the presidential race, his sycophants were gushing over his ‘grace’. The New York Times marvelled like a wide-eyed idiot at the ‘historical rarity’ and ‘fundamental humility’ of a president bowing out for the good of the nation. Celebs lauded his ‘integrity’ in stepping down to ‘save democracy’. He has restored ‘honesty’ to politics after years of ‘scandal and chaos’, said Mark Hamill, as if Old Joe was Obi-Wan Kenobi to Trump’s Darth Vader. One Democratic governor hailed Biden for setting the ‘ultimate example’ to the American people. That example being what, exactly? That you should stubbornly stay in your job even when you know you can’t do it any more?

Ele Ludemann: Biden – jumped or pushed?

Joe Biden has finally pulled out of his attempt to win a second term as President:

President Biden, 81, abandoned his bid for re-election and threw the 2024 presidential contest into chaos on Sunday, caving to relentless pressure from his closest allies to drop out of the race amid deep concerns that he is too old and frail to defeat former President Donald J. Trump. After calling Vice President Kamala Harris an “extraordinary partner,” he endorsed her to take his place atop the ticket.

Richard Hargy: Donald Trump and the gathering darkness threatening US politics

In America, we resolve our differences at the ballot box … not with bullets. The power to change America should always rest in the hands of the people, not in the hands of a would-be assassin.

So said the US president, Joe Biden, in an Oval Office address to the nation the day after the attempted assassination of his rival in November’s presidential election.
US president, Joe Biden, calls on America to ‘lower the temperature’ in US politics.

Guest Post: The lie that all 2020 election fraud cases failed

Kiwi in America writes on Kiwiblog:

I’m interrupting my series on the Trump lawfare to cover this topic. One of the most frequent refrains from President Donald Trump is that the 2020 US Presidential election was stolen by electoral fraud perpetrated by the Democrats. The Democrats, anti-Trump Republicans, RINOs and almost all of the media wholeheartedly reject the claim and call Trump (and his supporters and a section of conservative media) perpetrators of “The Great Lie” about the 2020 election.

Sir Bob Jones: Joe Biden - time to go

Five years back on this Blog I wrote about the American Democrat party primaries, then underway.

I expressed amazement that Joe Biden was the front runner in the 19 candidate field as for me, the standout candidate was the then 37 year old Indiana mayor Peter Buttigieg. As I wrote, Buttigieg has money pouring into his campaign funding and he brings a Kennedyish youthful optimism, in raw contrast to Biden.

Brendan O'Neill: Why the Democrats lied about Joe Biden’s frailty

The presidential debate has exposed the ruthlessness of the American establishment.

So this is how republics die. Not with a bang but with the hoarse ramblings of their ageing leaders. Few events have shone a light on ‘American decline’ as much as Joe Biden’s sad, impassive performance in last night’s CNN presidential debate. Here was the leader of the free world speaking in faint, broken tones, and struggling to stay focussed, and at points seeming to blank out entirely. Before the eyes of the world, it became clear: this man is too old, too frail and too infirm to be at the helm of America.

Brendan O'Neill: Biden’s creeping betrayal of Israel

Sacrificing an ally to appease the activist class? That’s low, Joe.

‘Just call for a ceasefire…’ It was the offhand nature of Joe Biden’s haughty instruction to Israel this week, the insouciance of it, that felt most jarring. Just call for a ceasefire, he told ‘the Israelis’, like it was no big deal. Like it’s an easy thing to do to lay down arms against an army of racist terrorists that has already slain a thousand of your citizens and promises to slay thousands more. Like it’s a simple decision to pause a war for your very survival against a medieval movement that was founded with the express intention of wiping you from the face of the Earth. ‘Relax, stop fighting, it will be fine’, Biden was essentially saying, taking his geopolitical idiocy to dizzying new heights.

Roger Partridge: Joe Biden's new deal threatens global prosperity

Sometimes change is sudden. At other times, it creeps up slowly and is only obvious looking back. Yet such change can be no less profound.

The demise of the Washington consensus is a change of this second type. But its implications may be even more significant than last year’s abrupt return of war to Europe or the Covid-19 pandemic that enveloped the world a year earlier. Indeed, a speech late last month from President Biden's National Security Adviser, Jack Sullivan, to the Brookings Institute signals a fundamental dismantling of world’s established economic order.

Brendan O'Neill: The shallowness of anti-Trumpism

Joe Biden’s flip-flopping over the US-Mexico border reveals an elite bereft of principles.

Have you noticed that when Donald Trump does something, it’s ‘fascism’, yet when Joe Biden does the same thing, it’s ‘politics’?

Consider troop deployments to the US-Mexico border. In October 2018, President Trump caused hair-tearing angst among liberals across Christendom when he sent 5,000 troops to the border to deal with what he called an ‘invasion’ of illegal immigrants.

Point of Order: America - for an introvert

This week US President Joe Biden issued a video message to say he was joining former President Donald Trump in offering to renew his employment in 2024.

For different reasons, both men consider themselves eminently qualified. An important reason for both is that they are not the other.

Recent disclosures in the Fox News defamation case suggest that some who once had access to Trump are unenthusiastic about his candidacy.

Whereas the Democratic party apparatchiks who enjoy Biden’s hazy approach to policy and administration probably take an opposite view of their man.

So how about a wonk in the White House?

Don Brash: We are in grave danger

Not since the Cuban missile crisis exactly 60 years ago has the world been in such danger.

And that’s not just my own view: early in October, US President Joe Biden said that the risk of nuclear Armageddon is at the highest level since the Cuban missile crisis. He was right.

As I write, Russia’s conventional military forces are being forced to retreat on many fronts and Ukrainian forces have destroyed a key bridge linking Russia to Crimea. Russian conventional weapons are proving no match for the weapons supplied to Ukraine by the US and other NATO allies. Russia is having to field relatively inexperienced troops following an unpopular conscription.

Point of Order: Unlike our leader, Joe Biden is a bloke and he is much older

But another big difference is that he is a Democrat

Point of Order’s attention was drawn to a post on The Standard headed Labour’s Ardern and Democrats’ Biden: Learnings.

Written under the pseudonym Advantage, the article kicks off:

Clive Bibby: When all else fails, bail out while you're ahead.

When reading the latest news about the war in Ukraine, I couldn't help noticing the contrasting leadership styles of the main participants.

It doesn't require a military strategist to work out the main contributing factors to either success or failure on the battlefield.

But we need to understand the ramifications of domestic policies in the respective countries before we rush to judgement on which side holds the upper hand and who has the most to lose.

Bryce Edwards: Jacinda Ardern’s “critical” trip a success

It came at a “critical moment” according to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, referring to her meeting yesterday with US President Joe Biden. She was talking about the need for New Zealand and its superpower ally to have dialogue in the midst of their panic over China’s increasing diplomatic presence in the Pacific region.

In fact, Ardern’s whole US trip came at a “critical moment” for her own government. She desperately needed a decent good news story, given that things have gone so badly for Labour in recent months. Ardern will be hoping that the trip resets the public’s increasingly unfavourable view of her leadership and the competence of her colleagues. She will also be hoping that it illustrates that Labour are dealing with the China-Pacific issue, given that Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has been missing in action.

Geoffrey Miller: Jacinda Ardern continues to forge a more US-friendly foreign policy

Jacinda Ardern is slowly but surely shifting New Zealand’s foreign policy towards the West.

That was the underlying theme of a keynote address by New Zealand’s Prime Minister this week.

Ardern mentioned China only once by name when she spoke to the US business summit in Auckland on Monday, but Beijing was clearly on her mind throughout the 3000-word address.

Some of the hardest-hitting passages came early in the speech and appeared deliberately indirect and oblique, leaving it up to listeners to make up their own minds on the intended likely target of the PM’s words.

Mike Hosking: Joe Biden looking more and more like a one term President

 

A one term President is reasonably uncommon in the United States. Of the 45 pre Joe Biden, 10 were single termers. 

Biden will be the 11th. He almost certainly won't run for a second term. If he does, he will almost certainly lose. 

It's more than fair, I think, at this point in his first term, one year in, to suggest that most people are disappointed. The numbers certainly back it up. Every poll you can sight has the numbers going the wrong way and the numbers saying those who disapprove of what he's doing far outweigh those that think the opposite. 

Kate Hawkesby: Donald Trump isn't doing himself any favours

 

What a triumphant hopeful day yesterday was watching Biden and Harris.

So much optimism, much of it misplaced, I know. It’s a long hard road ahead unifying such a divided nation.

But seeing them on stage, with their families, representing values and decency, it was refreshing.

Refreshing because by contrast what have we seen from Trump? Acrimony, bitterness, denial.

It’s been sad watching this all unfold so chaotically for America.