Donald Is Desperate

"Cheap fakes" and what they reveal

NOT a Cheap fake

Donald is scared—more than usual, I mean.

How do I know? The rise of cheap fakes.

Donald’s minions at the Republican National Committee and Fox have started deceptively editing and clipping videos to make it look like President Joe Biden is wandering off in a daze or freezing up. The videos have been going viral (while the debunking of them has not) and right-wing extremists are posting them on social media to paint Biden as a cognitively impaired old man who is losing touch with reality.

Apparently, Fox hasn’t learned a damn thing from having to fork over $787 million for lying to the American people about the 2020 election while defaming Dominion Voting Systems, because they’re doubling down on their dishonesty.

And the cheap fakes aren’t just dishonest—they’re dirty. Even for politics. Even for the paid propagandists at Fox. Even for the Republican Party. They’re right up Donald’s alley, though—an effective low-blow strategy (and we can’t underestimate how much influence they’re having, especially among younger voters) that underscores just how desperate Donald and his enablers have become. And they are desperate. But not because he’s losing—or not only because he’s losing—but also because he’s losing it. They know it and, on some level, he knows it, too.

In a way, the cheap fakes are just another form of projection. Everything we know to be true about Donald—his tendency to wander off aimlessly, literally and rhetorically, his propensity for waving to people who aren’t there—we’re suddenly seeing Biden doing in manipulated videos. Of course, we know that only the Republican nominee is suffering from the impairments and lapses they accuse Biden of, and there’s only one solution:

For the good of the Republican Party, and the country, Donald needs to step aside and let some other authoritarian, America-hating extremist take over the nomination.

Let’s review the facts.

First, Donald is a convicted felon. That is a very big deal, and it matters to a large percentage of the electorate regardless of what the corporate media says. He’s the first occupant of the Oval Office to be convicted of a crime and the crime for which he was convicted is an extremely serious one: interfering in the 2016 presidential election through the falsification of business records in order to cover hush money payments to Stormy Daniels with whom he had extra-marital sex.

Second, he was found liable for rape. Judge Kaplan, who oversaw the E. Jean Carroll trial, made that clear. 

And, if the Supreme Court and his personal pocket judge Aileen Cannon weren’t doing everything in their power to run interference for him, he would also likely have been found guilty of stealing highly classified government documents and inciting an insurrection against his own government—because we saw him do both of these things.

In short, he is a criminal and a traitor. 

Second, as Biden likes to say, the guy snapped when he lost in 2020. Since last month’s conviction, Donald’s deterioration seems to be accelerating. During his really in Las Vegas last week he gave an extended monologue on sharks, electrocution, and heavy boats if you want a sense of what that looks like.

Third, he’s losing. Even the latest Fox poll, shows Biden beating Donald 50 percent to 48 percent.

But you don’t have to believe the polls. (And really you shouldn’t anyway—as you know, I don’t typically put much stock in them, especially this far out from an election, but this is a seven-point swing since March.)

The massive flood of cheap fakes is its own kind of evidence. A winning candidate doesn’t have to doctor videos; a winning candidate doesn’t need his allies to cheat and lie on his behalf.

But Donald is a loser—and he’s flailing. 

Plus, he’s old! Which, according to many serious commentators, appears to be the worst thing a presidential candidate can be—or maybe that only applies to Pres. Biden. Personally, I think attempting a coup against the United States, being a rapist and a racist are all worse, but I’m not a corporate media pundit.

So, Donald, it’s time to drop out. For the good of the Republican Party—and the rest of us.