Teleprompters and other bad stuff

I only wish our aunts, uncles, and cousins had kept the family circle going. Then Jeff Zients and I would actually know each other, and maybe, just maybe, I’d have a bit of clout with him.

I’m a Zients, an easily traceable relative of Jeff’s, maybe a fourth or fifth cousin, but close enough that my grandmother and his were sisters in the old country. My grandmother was Rifka Zaentz (spelling changed at the immigration to America). And Jeff, he’s Joe Biden’s chief of staff.

Lately, I’ve got plenty to say to my cousin Jeffrey. Much of it is not complimentary.

He’s one of what I call the fencers. He keeps the fence around Biden so that we, the voters, the citizenry, are pretty much clueless as to the president’s state of health. Lately, this has arisen as a serious concern. All the myriad clues that we see are simply terrifying. The debate, which had most Americans shivering in their boots, was an absolute nightmare, from the very first minute, when the emails started crossing America. Literally, it was less than a minute into it when all of us saw that bad stuff was coming.

I can only hope that by the time you read this, it will be history, no longer reality. It’s way more than only my opinion that Joe, dear nice man Joe, must go, and that his advisers, definitely including Jeff, are treating America like some third world country, where the citizens are never given honesty as an option.

When you and I finally hear, through the pretty reliable grapevine, and even from the president’s own mouth, that he needs to be in bed by 8 p.m. and furthermore, when he admits to jet lag from a trip that took place almost two weeks before the debate, and that debate prep at Camp David began at 11 a.m. and also included an afternoon nap, and when there are confusing statements about him seeing a doctor after the debate, some yes and some no, and when one of his lead family members to whom he goes for advice is his son, the convicted drug abuser and liar Hunter, we really need to worry!

Not to mention the State of the Union address. There seems to have been a collective sigh of relief when an increasingly secluded president gave a strong, rousing speech on March 7, 2024. It was proof that Biden was who we the people elected. Was it ever mentioned, were we ever told, that the address was delivered from a teleprompter. That he was reading it, every bit of it? And that most of his remarks to his constituents are similarly read from a teleprompter, often in formats where one would not expect it?

Yeah!!! I know that this ubiquitous device is pretty much what most politicians use as a crib-sheet when they deliver speeches. I wasn’t born yesterday. (Hardly!) But I fail to understand the value of praising someone for doing little more than reading well. My great-grandson in second grade also reads well.

Teleprompters cover up a politician’s reality and prevent us from seeing that person as he actually is. I propose that when we listen to speeches, we know if they’ve been teleprompted or edited after delivery. We cannot credit adequate reading skills as sufficient to evaluate a candidate for high office. Conspicuously, Biden has recently rarely been available for live interviews and has done fewer than any president in memory. He was shielded during his first campaign by covid, and now he’s an old man, just not up to the job. At the debate his wandering mind and aimless speech were painful to watch. And I’m his fan!

Biden’s health is unfortunately only one of many major problems facing this nation.

Look at the opposition candidate. Do so with adequate fear and horror if this criminal is elected. He is so terrifying as he lies his way to the uneducated amongst us. Can we really even consider him for the highest office in our land? He is in a league of his own. Even his wives want nothing to do with him. Where is Melania these days? If only she would share what she knows, there’d be no candidacy left, but pre-nups remain powerful, so don’t expect a tell-all from Melania. Ivana accused him of marital rape but then recanted, most probably out of fear. And not a word from Marla.

Or his former presidential staff, practically all of whom have ended their support of this man, who is so totally unfit for the presidency. It’s incumbent on us, as Jews, to see him for what he is, a vengeful, petty, ignorant liar with no qualifications for the presidency whatsoever, a convicted molester of women, multiple times, a convicted criminal and a repeated racist. His raison d’etre is hatred of minorities, of immigrants, of women.

His aspirations be damned. He is a danger to us all.

If I am diatribing (to coin a word), dare I forget the Supreme Court? And is it any coincidence that Trump’s appointees are bringing us back to lawlessness as they mesh with abominable people like Roberts, Alito (and his wife), and Thomas (and his wife)? Did we really need to legalize bump stocks, making dangerous weapons dreadfully, insanely more dangerous? Did we really need to provide presidents, especially Trump-like presidents, yemach shmo, with king-like power, giving them the right to commit criminal acts? Did we really need for women to pay the price, often with their lives, for criminalizing abortion again?

This court, with the obvious exclusion of Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson, has shown no wisdom, only disdain, as most of these so-called justices abuse a system that allows them to steal and bring dishonor to us all with no oversight and lifetime contracts.

America, we’re in trouble!

Rosanne Skopp of West Orange is a wife, mother of four, grandmother of 14, and great-grandmother of seven. She is a graduate of Rutgers University and a dual citizen of the United States and Israel. She is a lifelong blogger, writing blogs before anyone knew what a blog was! She welcomes email at rosanne.skopp@gmail.com

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