Back in the early-mid '90s, I still had a Type 01 Federal Firearms License — a retail seller's license — and so had the habit of keeping a table at the big Denver-area Tanner Gun Shows that were held more or less monthly. Among the regular attendees of that show in those days was a wild-eyed character who generally went around in batted old Army battle dress (BDUs) despite never having served a day in uniform. This guy was fond of the prevalent conspiracy theories of the day, including black UN helicopters and secret UN concentration camps set up in southwest Colorado. He was known as the "black helicopter guy."

The one time I got tired of listening to him and (against my better judgment) engaged him was on the topic of those camps. When asked such things as "Where is all the lumber, concrete, and so on coming from?" and "Where are they getting all the people to build these camps, and how come not one of those people has blown the UN's cover?" He would counter with increasingly nonsensical claims until, finally, he grew enraged and stomped off.

The moral of that story? Reality is no bar to a good conspiracy theory. That includes some of President Joe BIden's few remaining fans, some of whom are 1) cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs and 2) not doing him any favors.

So, let's have a look at some of the loonier ideas these folks are putting forth.

A television producer named Zev Shalev dedicated an hour long “special report” to the idea that the CNN debate was rigged. In it, he claims that Biden’s voice was digitally manipulated during the debate, and that “if you are pushing a replace Biden narrative at this stage, you’re basically just functioning as a functionary of the Russian intelligence services that have been pushing the same narrative for over a year and a half now.” His report has been viewed almost 10,000 times, and while the theory that Russian intelligence was working with Trump and CNN to rig the debate feels like it’s plucked from thin air, many of the people reacting to the video are insisting that other news organizations like MSNBC should be looking into Shalev’s ideas.

Let's leave Russia out of this for a moment and just look at CNN. CNN is not exactly friendly to Republicans in general and Trump in particular. How did CNN become embroiled in a conspiracy to make Trump look cool, confident, and qualified while making Joe Biden look befuddled, confused, and lost? Because that's what happened. And why, out of the hundreds or thousands of CNN employees who would have had to have been involved, did not one of them assure themselves of a great career with, say, MSNBC, by going over to them and blowing the deal?

See Related: Democrat Mayor Claims Attempted Assassination of Donald Trump Was Staged 

'Staged Theatrics to Get the Votes of Idiots': Clownish Professor Declares Trump Shooting 'Faked'

Then there's this nut:

Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a fashion and entertainment executive who once produced the Met Gala and the author of the book “Melania and Me: The Rise & Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady,” wrote on X that “NO ONE HAD TO SAY A WORD. CNN’s carefully considered FRAMING & LIGHTING design effectively conveyed the intended perceptions of fragility [Biden] vs. dominance [Trump] in visual composition.” Her post dwarfed Shalev’s reach; it was viewed over 6 million times.

The same questions above apply, along with this: Framing and lighting can't create or conceal Joe Biden's obvious mental and physical deterioration, which was the primary problem with his debate performance. That debate, along with events since then, have revealed very clearly that Joe Biden shouldn't be in the White House, much less running for re-election. To suggest that framing and lighting could have created this impression is well to the left of ridiculous.

From there, the nuts got nuttier.

An X user with over 80,000 followers who goes by the handle “@IvanasStairCam,” an apparent reference to Trump’s former wife falling down the stairs at her home, posted, “My guess is some top media owners were on Epstein Island. They’re taking down Biden and democracy to save their own skin.” This one had almost 500,000 views.

And this accusation is based on...what? Does this "@IvanasStairCam" have a list of Epstein Island visitors that includes these top media owners? Or is he, as I suspect, just pulling this assertion out of his fourth point of contact? Given his screen name, I'm guessing this person is not a non-partisan reporter; based on his post presented here, I'm guessing he's a nut.

And here's the thing: How can any tricks of lighting, staging, digital manipulation, and so on somehow explain the thousands of feet of film (yes, yes, I know, they don't use film anymore, just bear with me) showing, very clearly, all of Joe Biden's failings? The weak, stilted walk, the bouts of confusion, the garbled ends of sentences he can't finish, the trouble with word finding, the sudden bursts of unwarranted anger, and the creepy old man whisper?

It can't. As is so often the case, Occam's Razor applies: Joe Biden is not fit for the presidency and has not been for some time.

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