The PsyOp Collapses: Biden is Exposed

Make no mistake about it, the Biden campaign HAS collapsed in the wake of the ‘debate’, even if – like the proverbial chicken with its head cut off – it continues to run around for a few weeks or months. At some point, whether from bad internal polls, donations drying up, the next inevitable gaffe, or maybe even the November vote, the carcass falls to the ground. But the moment of death was Thursday, June 27th. That’s the moment where we all saw what we all saw, that Joe Biden is not mentally competent to be president of the United States.

BY BEN HUNT FOR EPSILON THEORY

Common Knowledge is what everyone knows that everyone knows.

Common knowledge is why coronations and executions are held in public – not so a crowd can see the new king or the hanged man, but so a crowd can see a crowd seeing the new king or the hanged man. Common knowledge is why sitcoms have laugh tracks, why American Idol has a live studio audience, and why professional sports teams pipe in crowd noise. Common knowledge is why the Egyptian government fell in 2011 after a televised protest in Tahrir Square, why the Romanian government fell in 1989 after a televised protest in Palace Square, and why the Chinese government will arrest you today if you distribute pictures of a 35-year-old protest in Tiananmen Square. Common knowledge is why inflation has been non-transitory and persistent, why the US withdrawal from Afghanistan collapsed into a fiasco, and why the US response to Covid was so heavy-handed and ineffectiveCommon knowledge is why the 2024 Biden/Harris campaign has collapsed.

Make no mistake about it, the Biden campaign HAS collapsed in the wake of Thursday’s ‘debate’, even if – like the proverbial chicken with its head cut off – it continues to run around for a few weeks or months. At some point, whether from bad internal polls or donations drying up or the next inevitable gaffe or maybe even the November vote, the carcass falls to the ground. But the moment of death was 9:05pm EDT on Thursday, June 27thThat’s the moment where we all saw what we all saw, that Joe Biden is not mentally competent to be president of the United States.

The dynamics of common knowledge formation are called the common knowledge game. Like all games it has rules. Like all games it has an equilibrium, which is a ten-dollar word that means it has a stopping point. Maybe not an end but a stopping point. Let me review those rules so you can see why I say the stopping point for this chapter in the common knowledge game we call American politics is the collapse of the 2024 Biden/Harris campaign.

You already know how the common knowledge game works, probably from the Hans Christian Anderson story about the Emperor’s New Clothes, maybe from the John Maynard Keynes story about the Newspaper Beauty Contest. The purest version of the common knowledge game is the story of the Island of the Green-Eyed Tribe, which I’ve written about four times at Epsilon Theory, starting in the original Manifesto and continuing in A Game of SentimentWhen Does the Story Break, and Sheep Logic. But I think it’s the real-life examples of the common knowledge game that really make it come alive, like I wrote about in Harvey Weinstein and the Common Knowledge Game.

Pretty much everyone in Hollywood knew that Harvey Weinstein was a rapist and a really bad guy, including his wife and his business partners and all the actors who wanted a role in one of his movies. It was widespread private knowledge, verging on public knowledge. I mean, if you’re making jokes about it on 30 Rock, it’s out there.

But it didn’t matter that everyone in Hollywood knew that Harvey Weinstein was a rapist. No one’s behavior changed. No one shunned the guy. No actor turned down a role. No politician turned down a donation. His wife didn’t leave him, and his business partners just upped the D&O insurance and paid out settlements. They all knew, and I’m sure they cared a little and shook their heads in a tsk-tsk sort of way, but they didn’t care enough to change their transactional relationships with Harvey Weinstein. Because that’s the thing about private information, no matter how widespread. Even if everyone in the world believes a certain piece of private information, no one will alter their behavior. Behavior changes ONLY when we believe that everyone else believes the information. THAT’S what changes behavior.

Just like with the Emperor’s New Clothes. Everyone in the crowd possesses the same private information — the Emperor is walking around as naked as a jaybird. But no one’s behavior changes just because the private information is so widespread and so public. Nor does behavior change just because a couple of people whisper their doubts to each other. No, the only thing that changes behavior is when the little girl (what game theory would call a Missionary) announces the Emperor’s nakedness SO loudly that the entire crowd believes that everyone else in the crowd heard the news. That’s when behavior changes.

Just like with Harvey Weinstein. Rose McGowan shouted out his evil so loudly and so publicly that everyone in Hollywood knew that everyone else knew, too. Harvey-Weinstein-is-a-rapist became common knowledge. And once that common knowledge was created, once all the private holders of all of Weinstein’s dirty secrets believed that everyone else believed that he was a rapist, then everyone’s behavior changed on a dime. His publicists and lawyers and partners and colleagues and board of directors and wife were shocked … shocked! … to hear of his behavior, and certainly would no longer be representing him or working with him or associating with him or married to him ever again, even though NOTHING had changed in the information they already possessed. Ditto with Weinstein’s other victims. Their behavior changed, as well. That’s not a knock or a slam on them. In the absence of common knowledge, staying quiet  whether you’re an abettor or a victim — is the rational thing to do. In fact, this is what Weinstein and his abettors count on, that their threats and shaming and bribes will set up a Hobson’s Choice for victims. Sure you can go public, but no one will believe you and then we will ruin you. So yeah, go ahead. It’s your choice. Of course no one goes public, because a Hobson’s Choice is not a real choice. Only a victim with Missionary power (and that’s a really rare thing) has the option to not just go public with the story — because simply going public is not enough to change behavior — but to create common knowledge with the story by going SO public and SO loud.

Joe Biden was his own Missionary. Joe Biden was his own little girl who yells out SO loudly that the Emperor has no clothes.

Honestly, I think Biden is the only person with enough juice to pull it off. Maybe Obama. No one else could have been the Missionary here.

It was hard to watch, wasn’t it? Excruciating, really, because we all knew exactly what we were seeing. We’ve all had parents or grandparents where we’ve seen exactly this sort of decline, and there’s no lecturing us about a ‘raspy voice’ or ‘a cold’ that can make us deny our own lived experience with our own loved ones. We know Joe Biden has a stutter. We also know that this wasn’t that. Politicians love to talk about ‘folks’ who ‘sit around their kitchen table’ and have a ‘real talk about what matters’. Well, all us folks have had that real talk about a failing parent or grandparent. We’ve all been there.

Two things turned this shared perception into common knowledge formation.

First, we all knew that we were part of an enormous crowd watching this debacle on TV, and most of us watched the television performance as part of a small crowd of family or friends.

Josh Edelson, AFP Via Getty Images, Detroit Free Press

Second, we immediately started hearing the crowds, large and small, roar their anguish and shock.

Maybe you heard the crowd respond on Twitter or whatever your social media of choice might be. Maybe you started to get texts like “hey, are you watching this?”. Maybe you heard your watch party start to murmur and squirm. Maybe you got the immediate feedback post-debate from the CNN panel, leading off with John King saying what we were all thinking.

By the way, those panel conversations on CNN are highly scripted and meticulously produced. Everyone on set knew what John King was going to say and how he was going to say it. And did you notice how he said it? It wasn’t what he personally thought, but was a recounting of the reactions of the people who were texting and DMing him. It’s always the crowd watching the crowd that changes what everyone knows that everyone knows.

And once that common knowledge is formed … well, I can’t emphasize this next point strongly enough.

Common knowledge formation is an equilibrium outcome. It is impossible to unring this bell. 

This poll will never get better. Never. It will only get worse.

I mean, when you lose Brian Stelter …

You cannot ‘restore confidence’ by reading a speech off a freakin’ teleprompter! There is no ‘confidence’ to be restored!

Everything Joe Biden does for the rest of his life will be seen through the lens of last Thursday night. Every step in public, every word spoken in public, every facial expression in public … everything he does in public for the rest of his life will be watched and examined and measured for signs of increasing decrepitude. Can you imagine? It’s already happening, like with the CNN cameras lingering after the debate concluded to look for a frail moment as he left the stage. Do you think that was an accident, that the cameras stayed on? And of course Biden delivered the frail moment. Of course he did. Because that’s who he is now. There will be another disaster moment. You know it. I know it. Everyone knows that everyone knows it. This isn’t a John Fetterman thing where you can imagine a future where his health improves. This only gets worse from here.

And not only will every future public action be put under a microscope, with the entire world waiting for the accident to happen, but all of Biden’s past public actions will be put under renewed scrutiny.

You think Attorney General Merrick Garland hasn’t compared the audio recording of Biden’s deposition with special prosecutor Robert Hur to the written transcript? You think there might be some … ummmm … discrepancies between the audio recording and the transcript? You think Garland is feeling all warm and fuzzy right now about his very public vouching for Biden’s mental acuity? LOL. Biden’s cabinet officers are now in exactly the same spot as Harvey Weinstein’s business partners. Of course they knew. But now they know that everyone knows, and that puts their careers in danger. They can’t be seen as the courtiers insisting that the Emperor is wearing a fine suit of clothes now that we all know that we all know he’s naked, but they also can’t be seen publicly sticking a knife into Biden’s back. So what do they do? They bail. They distance themselves. They start waffling. They are ‘busy with crucial departmental business’ when the campaign asks for a photo shoot in the Rose Garden. They say nice things about Biden to his face, and in private they start talking on background to disavow him.

Like this guy.

Obama saying it was a ‘bad night’ is a classic limited hangout, where you confess truthfully to a small thing to stop the questioning on a big thing. Obama can’t be seen as the guy with the knife, but he can absolutely give his boys Jon Favreau and Ben Rhodes the green light to, if not stab away, then at least to distance themselves, their social media and their fundraising from the Biden campaign.

No Democrat who sees a future for themselves in politics is going to commit wholeheartedly to the Biden/Harris campaign now. It’s the Hillary 2016 campaign all over again. It’s empty virtue signaling just as far as the eye can see, with the Obamas and the Newsoms and the Whitmers and the Warnocks of the world all licking their chops for 2028, secure in the knowledge that Kamala and Pete are going to be permanently damaged from their proximity to this radioactive campaign. It’s the entirely rational way to play the game.

All that remains is the cope.

I knew Heather Cox Richardson when we were in grad school at Harvard. To see her descend to this level of party apparatchik cope at this point in our lives … ugh. Jeff Sonnenfeld is a professor and dean at the Yale Business School. He also runs an ‘executive leadership’ company that’s affiliated with Yale, sort of a WEF wannabe thing. Barf. But if you think the cope and the recriminations are bad now, just wait until after the election. Man, it’s going to be QAnon-level stuff flowing from the true-believers.

Could the Democrats actually jettison Biden and run a mentally competent candidate for president of the United States at this stage in the electoral process? I dunno. You’d think Biden would also have to resign as president today if he does that, and hand over the reins to Kamala for 6 months in a caretaker role. Which actually isn’t a crazy idea. Let Harris be the first woman president as a consolation prize for not being the 2024 candidate, allowing her to position herself for a 2028 run? I think that could work, actually. But it also requires the political leadership of the Democratic Party to have at least a couple of people who aren’t high-functioning sociopaths, who would actually put the country above party and above ego. Sadly, I am certain that it’s a solid bloc of high-functioning sociopaths at the top of the Republican Party, and I strongly suspect that’s the case with the Dems, too. So in all likelihood we’re going to get a chicken-with-its-head-cut-off of a campaign running around for a few weeks or months before it finally collapses in a heap, at which point it really will be too late to do anything about it. I hope I’m wrong. I hope that non-sociopathic leaders emerge who recognize the dynamics of the common knowledge game and the fact that this disastrous situation does not and cannot ever get better. But I wouldn’t bet on it.
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Biden, Age, and Elder Abuse

By Brian C. Joondeph, M.D.  for American Thinker
Elder abuse plagues 1 of 6 people 60 years of age and older, according to the World Health Organization.

It’s nice to see the WHO looking at real public health issues rather than pushing a “pandemic treaty” that would de facto make them king of the world.

The WHO definition of elder abuse includes “single or repeated acts causing harm or distress to an older person.” This includes “psychological and emotional abuse and serious loss of dignity and respect.”

Anyone watching the Joe Biden presidency, especially recently, culminating in his embarrassing performance in the June 27 debate against Donald Trump cannot conclude that this was anything other than elder abuse.

Biden and Jill

YouTube screen grab

The debate began with Biden’s stilted walk to the podium followed by half a minute of gibberish concluding with the inscrutable comment, “We beat Medicare.”

It only got worse, with Biden staring at the empty room devoid of audience, mouth agape, looking lost and pitiful.

What is remarkable is that this was Joe Biden at his best. He had over a week of debate prep, rest, and an unknown potpourri of medicinal cocktails designed to maximize his alertness, cognition, and appropriate behavior.

Imagine the normal Biden, his day-to-day persona, without all the above prep. Or at his worst, which must be a regular occurrence due to travel, lack of sleep, and the demands of the presidency, even scaled back for him.

And we know how badly he performed at his absolute best, with friends, foes, media, and an international audience, including foreign adversaries, watching his 90-minute crash and burn session, side by side with a calm, cool, and presidential-appearing Donald Trump.

What are Putin, Xi, Kim, and Khamenei thinking? Or strategizing?

Should age be a factor or consideration for our elected leaders, especially the president? Biden is 81, Trump is 78. Both are old men.

So is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, aged 82, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, aged 84. Both appear cognitively challenged, especially McConnell who could be another Joe Biden.

Then again, Mick Jagger is 80 years old, Keith Richards is 79, and Ronnie Wood is 76. I missed them on their recent tour, but watch the Rolling Stones in action, Jagger skipping, prancing, and dancing across the stage, looking fitter than many men half his age.

The American president doesn’t ride into battle like Alexander the Great, so physical prowess is not essential. Instead, mental clarity, cognition, and judgment are far more important. After watching the debate, Trump is mentally light years ahead of Biden.

Physically, Trump is also far more vigorous. During the debate, he claimed to have recently won two club championships at his many golf clubs. Biden claimed to have a 6 handicap. Debate observers can decide which assertion is more likely true.

I doubt Biden could walk a single hole on a golf course without the assistance of his wife keeping him from wandering off into the woods and talking to a tree. Could Biden even handle a round of miniature golf?

Being president of the United States is probably the most consequential job in the world. So is being an airline pilot, charged with transporting hundreds of passengers at 500 miles per hour, six miles up in the air.

Pilots face mandatory retirement at age 65, air traffic controllers at age 56, many state judges at 70. While the American College of Surgeons sets no age limit, they have concern over “age-related deterioration” in surgeons after age 60.

For reference, the mean age of U.S. House members is 58 years and U.S. Senators 65 years. U.S. Supreme Court justices range in age from 52 to 75 years.

Where does 82-year-old Joe Biden fit in? Should there be age limits on politicians? Or should they and their families realize when it’s time to retire?

Hunter Biden knew in 2019 that his father had dementia. Yet he encouraged his father to run for president. Dr Jill knew it as well, as did his advisors, handlers, and Democrat colleagues.

Hunter Biden’s psychiatrist, Keith Ablow, believed Joe Biden may have had dementia as far back as 2012 based on his performance in the vice presidential debate.

Is it abusive to prop up an elderly man with dementia, subverting the electoral system to place him in the White House, as a president in name only? Not for the elderly man’s benefit but for control of America and much of the world?

Imagine Joe Biden’s distress, in his moments of lucidness, realizing his position and perhaps his inability to perform the duties of the job. Or is this full-on narcissism, Biden and his family believing, as did the media prior to the debate, that Joe is smart as a whip and a fully competent and capable president?

It’s likely the latter scenario as Biden is channeling the late Tom Petty, who died at the relatively young age of 66 years, telling the world, “I won’t back down.” Biden and his handlers say, “Of course he’s not dropping out.”

Then again, a recent report from NBC News suggest a reality check of self-reflection for Biden:

Biden was described by one person familiar with his mood as humiliated, devoid of confidence and painfully aware that the physical images of him at the debate — eyes staring into the distance, mouth agape — will live beyond his presidency, along with a performance that at times was meandering, incoherent and difficult to hear.

Even narcissists can have moments of self-awareness. Perhaps Biden has “imposter syndrome,” which Psychology Today describes,

People who struggle with imposter syndrome believe that they are undeserving of their achievements and the high esteem in which they are, in fact, generally held. They feel that they aren’t as competent or intelligent as others might think—and that soon enough, people will discover the truth about them. Those with imposter syndrome—which is not an official diagnosis—are often well accomplished; they may hold high office or have numerous academic degrees.

Does Joe ever realize he is an imposter, undeserving of his current position?

The Alzheimer’s Society website describes those with dementia, “They may also have limited or no awareness of their symptoms and the difficulties they are having, even when these are obvious to those around them.”

What do White House staffers think? What if Joe doesn’t realize how bad he is, and appears to the world? Who would put a family member in this position?

Talk about emotional abuse. Is his family clueless or is this about their narcissism and living vicariously through their shell of a father and husband?

Even the now-left-wing Drudge Report ran this headline, “Cruel Jill clings to power.”

Is the presidency about Joe or an effort to protect the Biden Crime Family by controlling the justice system?

Shades of Eva Peron?

Is Joe aware of his obvious deficits? Imagine his loss of dignity knowing he is not capable of doing his job, now the focus of memes and jokes in front of the world.

This fits the definition of “elder abuse” quite well.

Far left Cenk Uygur agrees:

Last night was elder abuse, and it was elder abuse by the entire democratic leadership, the DNC, and yes, sorry, but Jill Biden. If Jill Biden wants to run for president, she should do it. But, I mean, there’s no way that a loving spouse lets that happen and thinks, ‘Oh, great. Push him out there. Push him out there. We got this.’ You don’t have it. This is absurd.

Then there is the media, guardians of truth, asking the difficult questions, holding those in power to account. At least that’s their delusional view of themselves.

Morning Joe Scarborough, claimed just three months ago, that this is “the best Biden ever.” He went on, “He’s far beyond cogent. In fact, he’s better than he’s ever been intellectually, analytically. Because he’s been around for 50 years.”

Eighty-two years actually.

This is magical thinking. I wonder if Morning Joe wants to double down on his recent assessment after last Thursday evening’s debate. Talk about gaslighting.

Last Wednesday, and for the preceding decade, Joe Biden was sharp as a tack, brilliant, more than capable as president. Yet late Thursday evening Biden was a vegetable and had to go according to virtually every previously sycophantic media outlet.

What changed in that one day? Not Biden. His debate performance was his normal behavior for many years, as any honest observer would attest.

Instead, the Democrat and media charade was over, plain for the world to see. The little boy announced that the emperor was naked. Now the media and Biden’s enablers are in damage control and will soon spin this as if they knew of his declining mental status all along.

Special Counsel Robert Hur was far more honest than the mockingbird media. In his report he, “Described the 81-year-old Democrat’s memory as ‘hazy,’ ‘fuzzy,’ ‘faulty,’ ‘poor’ and having ‘significant limitations.’”

No wonder AG Merrick Garland adamantly refuses to release the actual interviews. Perhaps he is holding off until the Democrat establishment wants Biden gone in favor of a more palatable candidate.

Sure, Biden is old. So is Mick Jagger. But the latter can perform his job in exemplary fashion, the former not so much. Yet he continues, aided, and abetted by his wife, family, handlers, fellow Democrats, and the sycophantic media.

This is elder abuse. If Biden’s (or his handlers’) policies and objectives weren’t so destructive to America and the world, one might feel sympathy toward Joe.

This is fraud on America, placing a puppet placeholder in the White House as a scapegoat for a far-left agenda of open borders, economic ruin, foreign wars, cultural rot, and weaponized government, destroying families, costing untold lives and treasure.

This is the real hoax, a true insurrection. We have a PINO – President In Name Only, clearly with dementia, used as a prop while an unelected and unaccountable cabal are running the country, contrary to the will of the people or the Constitution.

To those perpetrating this charade, shame on you. Have more respect for your husband, father, friend, and colleague. And for America.

Brian C. Joondeph, M.D., is a physician and writer. Follow on Substack Dr. Brian’s Substack, Truth Social @BrianJoondeph, and LinkedIn @Brian Joondeph.