Biden's Cognitive Shrinkflation

Plus: A listener asks if the state of Oregon’s policy on drug decriminalization should be viewed as a success.

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Biden's Cognitive Shrinkflation

In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Nick Gillespie, Peter Suderman, and special guest Emma Camp react to the announcement that President Joe Biden will not be prosecuted for mishandling classified documents and parse a fresh batch of speech gaffes underpinning his apparent cognitive decline.

00:29—Quick reactions to last night's Super Bowl LVIII

06:10—Special counsel will not prosecute Joe Biden in classified documents case.

26:06—House Republicans attempt to tie foreign aid spending bill to domestic border crisis.

35:12—Weekly Listener Question

44:48—Congressional Budget Office delivers latest bleak report on future U.S. economic outlook

52:26—This week's cultural recommendations

Mentioned in this podcast:

"Joe Biden's No Good, Very Bad Day," by J.D. Tuccille

"Nice Old Man," by Liz Wolfe

"Trump's Alleged Defiance and Deceit Distinguish His Handling of Secrets From Biden's," by Jacob Sullum

"Americans Unhappy With Politicians They'll Soon Vote Back Into Office," by J.D. Tuccille

"Biden's Bizarre 'Shrinkflation' Nonsense," by Eric Boehm

"Elizabeth Warren's 'Shrinkflation' Rant Is an Incredible Exercise in Blame Shifting," by Christian Britschgi

"The Real Student Loan Crisis Isn't From Undergraduate Degrees," by Emma Camp

"The Bankruptcy of Bidenomics," by Peter Suderman

"Border Bill Blows Up," by Robby Soave

"The Good and the Bad of the Senate Border Bill," by Fiona Harrigan

"'Zero Illegal Crossings' Is an Unattainable Goal for the Border," by Fiona Harrigan

"Peter Meijer: Can the GOP Change?" by Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe

"Can Free Markets Win Votes in the New GOP?" by Stephanie Slade

"How Oregon Became a Linchpin for the Country's Drug Policies," by Maia Szalavitz

"A Study Finds 'No Evidence' That Decriminalization Boosted Drug-Related Deaths in Oregon," by Jacob Sullum

"Alcohol Prohibition Was a Dress Rehearsal for the War on Drugs," by Nick Gillespie

"Federal Government Will Borrow Another $20 Trillion in the Next Decade," by Eric Boehm

"Surging Immigration Will Reduce Deficits by $1 Trillion," by Eric Boehm

"How Increasing Immigration Can Reduce the Deficit," by Eric Boehm

"Debate: The U.S. Should Increase Funding for the Defense of Ukraine," by Cathy Young and Will Ruger

Reason's archive on "border crossings"

"Open Borders in America: A Look Back and Forward," by Ed Krayewski

"Politicians Need To Stop Pretending the National Debt Is Sustainable," by Veronique de Rugy

"Requiem for a Redneck: Mojo Nixon, 1957–2024," by Michael J. Socolow

"Oh, Mojo," by Matt Welch

"A Joe Biden (War on) Christmas," by Nick Gillespie, Meredith Bragg, and Austin Bragg

Send your questions to [e-mail]. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.

Today's sponsor:

• A common misconception about relationships is that they have to be easy to be "right." But sometimes, the best ones happen when both people put in the work to make them great. Therapy can be a place to work through the challenges you face in all of your relationships—whether with friends, work, your significant other, or anyone. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online. Designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist, and switch therapists any time for no additional charge. Become your own soulmate, whether you're looking for one or not. Visit BetterHelp.com/roundtable today to get 10 percent off your first month.

Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.

Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve

• Producer: Hunt Beaty

What are we consuming this week?

Peter Suderman

• Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Nick Gillespie

• The Greatest Night in Pop

Emma Camp

• Princess Mononoke

Matt Welch

• "The Ballad of Mojo Nixon," Desert Oracle Radio

---

Comments

[Mother's Lament]

Last weeks MAGA conspiracy theory is always today’s widely accepted fact.

"MAGA" and "right-wing extremist" means people who noted the obvious.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

OT but .... are you happy? If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul. they/them)]

Happy wife... unhappy husband.

[Rob Misek]

Your feeble mind won’t save you from sharing the gallows with bibi.

Jews are currently committing a holocaust in Gaza and are denying it even though they’re on trial for genocide today in the United Nations international court of justice.

Biden is funding the genocide making him and the US complicit. How does that make you feel?

Netanyahu is responsible for telling the IDF to commit genocide by referencing the Jewish biblical genocide against women and children with the story of AMALEK. Clearly inciting genocide. With over 20,000 non combatant women and children intentionally targeted and killed and IDF soldiers on record rejoicing about it referencing amalek, the effect of Netanyahus instructions are clear.

Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said Israel was fighting “human animals” and that they will be “starved of food and water” which Israel has done and continues to do.

Amichay Eliyahu, the minister for heritage, who suggested dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza; Israel isn’t supposed to have nuclear weapons. Saddam Hussein was hung for crimes against humanity and he didn’t even have WMD much less threaten to use them.

The country’s mainly ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog, who described Palestinians as “an entire nation out there that is responsible” demonstrates the genocidal intention.

Biden also coordinated the 2014 coup in Ukraine putting the puppet comedian Jew Zelensky in as president resulting in years of bloody civil war before Russia moved in to stop it. Now Biden funds Zelensky’s Nazi AZOV battalions to do their dirty work.

The solution is simple and Jews are making it easy.

The world just needs to recognize what you really are, the perpetrators of a holocaust today.

You’ll never be able to say “antisemitism” without being laughed out of the room.

You’ll never be able to govern, terrorize anyone again. You just lost Israel.

You’re pariahs. Congratulations

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

Rob Misek is what Collectivism leads to.

[Rob Misek]

Do you mean like a kibbutz?

[Mother's Lament]

Rob Misek, kibbutznik. Yeah, that works.

[Mother's Lament]

"Your feeble mind won’t save you from sharing the gallows with bibi."

Planning on lynching some Jews again, huh.

Hey sarcasmic, this is what real eliminationist rhetoric actually looks like.

[Rob Misek]

“Planning on lynching some Jews again, huh“

Ones like bibi committing crimes against humanity, absolutely!

[Sevo]

Fuck off and die, Nazi shit. Your family will be proud.

[Thought about __ all my life]

"ALL JEWS" -- then you are a fool.

[Dillinger]

>>react to the announcement that President Joe Biden will not be prosecuted for mishandling classified documents

here's a reader question about part 2: how well are you guys sleeping knowing Mushmouth has the nuclear keys?

[MrMxyzptlk]

If he opens the football it will just spew out streamers and balloons while summoning a cadre of clowns to distract the moron in chief.

[Dillinger]

hopes are high this is what will happen.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul. they/them)]

Plus: A listener asks if the state of Oregon’s policy on drug decriminalization should be viewed as a success.

The progressives of Portland don't seem to think so.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul. they/them)]

PORTLAND, Ore. — Just before Portland’s city council approved a ban on public drug use last week, Mayor Ted Wheeler described what he’d observed on his way to work that afternoon: “The last time I saw somebody consuming what I believe to be fentanyl publicly on our streets was less than five minutes ago, three blocks from City Hall,” the Democrat said.

This guy’s like a weak version of Gavin Newsom.

“Oh my god, I went into a Target and saw people just walking out with stuff and not paying for it… WHAT’S GOING ON?!!”

[Diane Reynolds (Paul. they/them)]

Three years later, public drug use has wearied even the most tolerant of Oregonians. In recent months, Portland has reeled from a record number of opioid overdoses, bad press and a drop in convention and hotel bookings linked to the perception that the city is disorderly and unsafe.

Now, the Oregon law faces significant overhaul or repeal, a prospect likely to slow movements in other states to treat addiction as a public health matter, not a criminal one.

“If we don’t figure out how to get this right, efforts to try this approach in other states probably don’t launch,” said Oregon state Rep. Rob Nosse, a Democrat from Portland who worked on implementation of Measure 110 and who continues to support it.

Mike "Harm Reduction" Riggs hardest hit.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul. they/them)]

I like to think of it as "substance abuse upzoning". A YIMBY movement, but for drug addicts.

[mad.casual]

A YIMBY movement, but for drug addicts.

Our chief weapon is opiates... opiates and self-righteousness... self-righteousness and opiates... Our two weapons are self-righteousness and opiates... and ruthless tolerance.... Our three weapons are self-righteousness, and opiates, and ruthless tolerance... and an almost fanatical devotion to the Science... Our four... no... Amongst our weapons... Amongst our weaponry... are such elements as self-righteousness, opiates... I'll come in again.

None of that crack-cocaine 'religion is the opiate of the masses' bullshit, just pure, uncut self-righteousness and synthetic opioids.

[Mother's Lament]

"A listener asks if the state of Oregon’s policy on drug decriminalization should be viewed as a success."

That's a White Mike question if I ever heard one.

Doesn't he live near Portland now? or was it Seattle?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul. they/them)]

I dunno, I saw a little more neutral. But maybe I'm just not in a hostile mood today. I think a more "Reason/Simp" question would have been, "On a scale from 7-10, with 7 being fantastic and ten being orgasmically good, how awesome is Oregon's Policy on Drug Decriminalization, and where do I send my money?"

[Edmund Burke's Hastings spy]

Then first ask
1) If you don't live in Oregon why are you entitled to an opinion?
2) Neutral is a rather ugly place to be when death and destroyed lives are at stake
3) rating moral issues on a scale is about as heartless as you get. Pure Hillary. some things are wrong and that is it

[Fats of Fury]

I thought he californiacated Seattle and took his gospel to Montana or Idaho.

[Roberta]

This has been the dilemma of the "liberals" my whole lifetime. It was made fun of in West Side Story. They want to believe that abnormal behavior of which they disapprove is abnormal in some fundamental, possibly medical, sense, its perpetrators being victims. The "liberals" are right in that many of these abnormal behaviors are no force-imposing business of ours, but they're afraid to draw a hard line between those behaviors and what have become closely associated behaviors that we are justified in using force against.

What broke the "liberals" was pot and psychedelics. They were socially disapproved, but did not have the effects on mood that they'd seen in junkies. So right now they're totally discombobulated. Their ends cannot be achieved without using the means they've foresworn: criminalization and legalization of the business. They can't get off the road that leads between those poles.

[Mother's Lament]

Thanks for sticking "Liberals" in quotes.

[Roberta]

I frequently, but less often, do that for "conservatives" too, because so many of them aren't conserving anything. But some of them legitimately are — in fact these days, the most I've seen in nearly my lifetime.

[Thought about __ all my life]

To both of you, probably 90% of people you've met in your life had political leanings you were totally in the dark about. The checkout girl at the grocery store, the mailman, the couple who live down the street.

[Vernon Depner]

The problem is that there's no such thing as "drugs". That vague term is used to describe a wide range of substances and behaviors that are very different from each other and need to addressed by the government, if at all, in very different ways. The chemical warfare being waged against us with fentanyl has nothing to do with smoking weed.

[Edmund Burke's Hastings spy]

I saw the 60's and I was in a religious order (Catholic) run by ex-hippies. The order was dominated by psychology : Myers-Briggs, Enneagram,the book Sadhana. They thought sin was like a rash, you need someone who can look at it and say 'Yup, leprosy'

As to the liberals you refer to. They almost always felt that those people were sick.I was not a Grateful Dead fan but they have a famous quote about how disturbed many in their audience obviously were.

[JeremyR]

So the megachurch shooter was an El Salvadoran trans non-Hispanic white Muslim (at least wore a hijab) and had a Palestine sticker on its gun.

This is going to be memory holed so quickly

Also interesting that it seems like the cops were the only ones that actually hit anyone.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul. they/them)]

To memory hole something, it has to first exist above ground.

[Stuck in California]

Non-hispanic? That's interesting. Names, El Salvadoran, and pictures all point toward a hispanic background.

Whatever, it's a lot of friggen hyphens nobody will want to mention. Surprised they even mentioned that it was a trans, what with the recent history screwing up the spuriously pushed "only white males" narrative for mass shootings.

[JesseAz]

Don't worry. Police listed her as white for the stats.

https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1757079921414091105

[Mother's Lament]

Another white heterosexual Christian male... Time to round up all their guns.

[Stuck in California]

Wow. Good job guys.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland]

She brought a kid to use as a human shield, of course she loves palistien

[Vesicant]

How often do I have to explain the concept of a useful idiot? The scumBamas and Insane Left don't need to replace Dementia Joe, they just need to spackle him up a little and turn off the microphones.

[Vernon Depner]

They could DeepFake his entire second term.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul. they/them)]

Biden's Cognitive Shrinkflation

Amazing the stampede that happens once it's safe to talk about something.

"Biden's age! Biden's age! Biden's age!"

What about his cognitive decline?

"Biden's age! Biden's age! Biden's age!"

So if he were 20 years younger, but had the same mental acuity he does now, would that be ok?

"uhhh... QUIT BEING A TRUMPY MCTRUMPIST! YOU MAGAFACE!"

[Mother's Lament]

"YOU MAGAFACE!"

Sarcasmic says it is all about changing your mind.

[Medulla Oblongata]

So long as the menu stays the same, it's all good.

[NOYB2]

I think Biden has greatly improved.

He used to be a sociopath who would lie and cheat his way into power and engage in the high tech lynching of uppity negroes.

Now he is a sociopath whose senility and cognitive decline prevent him from harming other people.

[Ersatz]

he can still be used to harm other though, ... just not in ways he would have chosed.... if he only had a brain.

[Thought about __ all my life]

But his stupidity, dishonesty, laziness (bottom 10 of his law class) were on full display for 50 years.

[sarcasmic]

How dare people change their minds and come around to another point of view? Only the people who had that belief from the beginning count. They're the true believers. Everyone else is a convert.

[R Mac]

Are you just randomly barfing this stupid comment out now?

[Don't look at me!]

Facts changed!

[JesseAz]

It has been amusing watching you rationalize why you've been wrong on every fucking story the last 7 years because of your raging TDS.

Always defending yourself while attacking those who gave you the correct facts years ago.

[Mother's Lament]

"you’ve been wrong on every fucking story the last 7 years because of your raging TDS."

It really is every single story, and what's even more amazing is that there's absolutely no introspection, and absolutely no doubt the next time they lie to him. Just runs back here spouting their new horseshit.
Astonishing really.

If sarcasmic was a lab rat he would have died of constant electric shocks from grabbing the wired food pellet and never ever learning.

[Sevo]

"...It really is every single story, and what’s even more amazing is that there’s absolutely no introspection, and absolutely no doubt the next time they lie to him. Just runs back here spouting their new horseshit.
Astonishing really..."
This is the sort of gullible shit who bought Duranty's lies in the NYT; bulbs so dim a candle put them to shame, and proud to be such ignoramuses! Bragging about it!

[Ersatz]

Astonishing only if you accept the premise that he wasnt a shill to begin with.

One keeps the narrative until untenable. You find what fig leave you can when truth cant be reasonably twisted anymore.

[ravenshrike]

If it takes the functional equivalent of shoving your face in a ton of runny cat diarrhea in order for you to change your mind on something, your previous position was never an honest one in the first place.

[R Mac]

ENB’ bestie Matty Y:

Good reason to vote for Joe Biden, who will raise Elon Musk’s taxes to help address the problem, rather than Donald Trump, who will do the reverse with the opposite effect.

https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1757188161321435380

[Don't look at me!]

LOL

[NOYB2]

A listener asks if the state of Oregon’s policy on drug decriminalization should be viewed as a success.

Let’s see: the objective of the policy was to destroy civil society and the middle class, and it is accomplishing that.

Therefore: it has been a success.

[Public Entelectual]

The only problem with Joe's brain is a dodgy Neuralink chip ;
https://vvattsupwiththat.blogspot.com/2024/02/brain-implant-blamed-as-musk-confuses.html

[Don't look at me!]

Fake website

[Mother's Lament]

You mean 'fake vvebsite'.

[Sevo]

Well, or asshole faking intelligent comment.

[JesseAz]

Scam site.

[Sevo]

Stuff your fake website up your ass, scumbag. And then please make your family proud: Fuck off and die,

[LIBertrans]

Can you say pro-choice female veep?

[Truthfulness]

No thank you.

[MrMxyzptlk]

Biden is too pathetic to put on trial for violations of national security but not pathetic enough to throw out of office.

It must take a lot of effort to keep him at that precise state of being.

[Don't look at me!]

He brings balance to the force.

[28f1ca9]

A new low for Reason. Emma Stone describes Social Security as an "anti-equality" program; and that we should not "give" 70-year-old millionaires SS checks. My SS statement shows the (many) years that I worked, how much of the money I earned that was taken from me, and "saved" "for" me, and how much of that I will be getting back now that I am retired (probably not all of it, and definitely not after 2034 when the SS fund becomes insolvent and all SS checks get cut by 22%). Maybe Emma should take a look at one of her parents' SS statements. Or familiarize herself with the work of Reason's Pension Integrity Project. Reason is losing its mojo ...

[Truthfulness]

Social security is not applied fairly. The government is taking too much.

[LIBertrans]

Just as Justice Ginsburg' senior moments inadvertently made the return of female enslavement a fact, so Joe Biden could be the key to a first female president by the simple act of cashing in his chips. Picture the letter politely asking Palito, Long Dong, Gorbasuch, KKKavanaugh and Mutterkreus for their resignations. God's looters didn't like the Libertarian Roe solution. Harris will doubtless serve them up something different.

[Edmund Burke's Hastings spy]

Senator Claire McCaskill ( few are as dumb) really likes Biden but recently said

"McCaskill got in the requisite jab at Palin, suggesting the governor might not know much, the Star reports. Then, the senator said, ‘My friend Joe Biden has a tendency to talk forever and sometimes say stuff that’s kind of stupid.’ "

When a fool calls you a fool, --well, you know what your Mom said about that 🙂

[It's only a paper moon, Nominalists]

Let's admit that we do not trust our best sources at all.
Some here talk about the Fed,where is Biden's support for the completely ridiculous claim of 'shrinkflation" ?

A study by 3 Ph.D. economists at the San Francisco Fed has found that “price markups for goods and services” — aka, price gouging — has “not been a main driver” of recent inflation. Instead, the root causes are “large” federal government “fiscal transfers and increased unemployment benefits” (aka, social spending) and Federal Reserve policies like lowering “the federal funds rate target to essentially zero.”

The Fed study confirms that the real cause of inflation is the big government spending agenda that Warren, Biden, & Co. supported and enacted.