Did you know there was a debate tonight?
That’s alright. I forgot, too.
It was absolutely wretched. The many examples there of what transpired are truly disturbing, but I’ll just highlight a few for now:
In the span of 10 seconds, Joe Biden:
– Mixes up the #coronavirus with the swine flu
– Mistakenly calls the H1N1 virus (swine flu) the "N1H1"
– Forgets the name of the Ebola virus, calling it "what happened in Africa"#DemDebate pic.twitter.com/O5cKNBPZSH
— Trump War Room – Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) March 16, 2020
Joe Biden would decimate American energy independence and destroy millions of jobs:
"No new fracking"
"Not another new coal plant"
"No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill. Period. Ends" pic.twitter.com/7ECql0cItQ
— America Rising (@AmericaRising) March 16, 2020
And he really does have a chance to win. God, we are “you know what” if he does. Does not what is going on penetrate his brain? Sure seems not.
Let me say that 30 years ago there wasn’t much difference between the parties. That was my perception at least. At election time I would study each candidate and choose the ones that most closely aligned with my beliefs. In my mind I picked the best candidates to lead America, a fairly even mix of R’s and D’s. Things turned ugly 20 years ago. The Democrat party is lost. I know old-time Democrat voters that can’t stand the party anymore.
?
The real race is whether or not Joe’s mental failure reaches a critical level before the date of the Milwaukee Misadventure. It is nip and tuck right now.
If he were to be nominated and then elected, then it would be a short time before VP Kamala Harris assumed the presidency.
Edwards is probably right. The only reason to run Biden is so he could be removed from office for being mentally incompetent and elevate his (female) Vice President. That’s who the DNC is really running for President. They don’t want Biden any more than the Republicans.
Expected, but sad.
Some wag said, reviewing the debate, “Dentures were flying.”
I watched the entire debate. Biden was shaky at times, and his mind was clearly not up to par, but on the whole, he hung in there for 2 hours. I was surprised by that.
Bernie hung on to his revolutionary credibility, but admitted the governments in Cuba, the old Soviet Union and China had committed “excesses.” Then he went on to say the communist ideology is still good. To his credit, he didn’t say “it has not been tried properly.” In the end, I thought he sounded like a white-haired old man standing on a box in the college quad shouting at freshmen walking by, who largely ignored him except when he promised to forgive their college loans.
Biden’s promise to destroy the petroleum industry will eventually need to be walked back unless he promises to speed up nuclear power generation. No one mentioned nuclear, BTW, everyone pretending glibly that wind turbines and photo voltaic grids are going to replace petroleum. That just will not happen in Joe’s lifetime. There’s a huge solar plant two hundred miles south of me that was shut down before it ever came on line because it was economically overtaken by cheaper Chinese photovoltaics. And before that there was the example of Solyndra. For CNN to ignore nuclear energy shows a terrible lack of economic awareness — or stunning lack of vision on their part.
This debate might have made sense in the fifties, but not today. And Biden’s promise to name a female running mate was an act of desperation. Now he’s locked into that, and Kamala Harris and Stacey Abrams are rubbing their hands in anticipation of that phone call. Either one of them would be disastrous, and one can just imagine them plotting behind the scenes (with full cooperation of the party) to push Biden out of the way before the end of next January.
God help the USA!
I just do not understand the intramural culture of the Democratic Party. They had a mess of state governors from which to choose, including one with a history in the business world (John Hickenlooper) and one who knows how to navigate a red-state electorate (Steve Bullock). They had John Delaney and they had Andrew Yang, men who had built handsome business from scratch. Yang got only a glance from their electorate and the others ginned-up no interest at all. Instead, you have these two antiques, both of whom have a slim resume outside of electoral politics, only one of whom has ever held an executive position, both of whom have age-related issues, and one of whom has family members who are pigs at the trough in addition to all their other transgressions. Given a choice between chicken salad and chicken sh!t, we can see what they find appetizing. This is so strange.
Let me say that 30 years ago there wasn’t much difference between the parties. That was my perception at least.
There were ample differences on policy, less on character and personality.
Recall the pre-Clinton era: Michael Dukakis, Walter Mondale, Jimmy Carter, and Hubert Humphrey all had a history in executive positions (George McGovern did as well, but not for very long). All had had military service. Mondale was too much the water carrier for the Democrats’ stable of pressure groups and had earned some do-re-mi as a lobbyist; Humphrey was tolerant of blatant corruption in others. Dukakis was a bit of a pluperfect poseur. That having been said, they were all more-or-less clean and none of them were given to lying in excess of the sort of social artifice people commonly practice (and people in public life are compelled to practice). The Democrats were wrong on policy questions, but they nominated satisfactory people (though not great people). They were wrong but not bizarre. (See ‘Abolish ICE’).
Yes, from now on voting for Biden in a democratic primary is really voting for the as-yet-unchosen vice president nominee to be president, someone who has yet to be officially picked by the democratic insiders. Presumably the as-yet-unchosen real candidate won’t be Bernie Sanders — or Hunter Biden — but at this point who can be sure? (Remember that JFK picked his own brother to be attorney general of the US, so there is that precedent for democrats picking family members for high political office.)
I will say this once again; the real danger in any representative democracy is the citizenry voting , in free and honest elections, for a national suicide, a la Venezuela.
Honestly how any sentient human believes that things will be better by having Biden or Sanders as president is truly frightening.
By the way Sander’s comment that there were “excesses” in the USSR is a DIRECT quote from Molotov; Stalin’s key associate and one of the signatories to the infamous Hitler-Stalin Pact.
Please recall that Stalin exterminated between 20 MILLION and 50 MILLION of his own citizens. Even Hitler’s Wehrmacht did not kill that many Russians.
And when Sanders honeymooned in Russia, in the late 1980s, their leadership was composed of those who earned their stripes during the murderous regime of “Uncle Joe” Stalin.
And Sanders is one of the two remaining democrat party contenders.
This should scare the s**t out of everybody.
Brian Morgan: “Things turned ugly 20 years ago. ”
Ugli*er*, I would say. That would be the beginning of Bush II’s administration. But things were very ugly in the 1990s, and in the ’80s. This may be a function of my having come of age in the late ’60s, but I think ’68 was the real turning point. People who weren’t around then are generally not aware of the intense Reagan-level, Bush-level, Trump-level hatred that was directed by the left toward Nixon. It really was on the “he’s a fascist, he’s setting up concentration camps, he is the incarnation of pure evil” level. It was pretty common (among left-liberals) to assert that Nixon was a sort of incarnation of something fundamentally evil at the heart of America. The biggest difference was that the people who felt that way didn’t dominate in the way that they began to do throughout the ’70s. Their numbers have just continued to grow since then, so that now those people pretty much *are* the Democratic party.
Debate? Oh, you mean that pillow fight at the old age home?
Ugli*er*, I would say. That would be the beginning of Bush II’s administration. But things were very ugly in the 1990s, and in the ’80s. This may be a function of my having come of age in the late ’60s, but I think ’68 was the real turning point. People who weren’t around then are generally not aware of the intense Reagan-level, Bush-level, Trump-level hatred that was directed by the left toward Nixon.
I think you may have seen that on campuses and (sub rosa) the media, but not among working politicians. What’s interesting about that is that to the extent he had actual policy preferences, Nixon tended to favor the Rockefeller wing of the Republican Party. Spiro Agnew was an acerbic critic of all the word-merchant sector admired, but he was also a protege of Theodore McKeldin and had arrived at the Republican National Convention in 1964 as a Rockefeller delegate; when he ran for Governor of Maryland in 1966, he flanked the Democratic candidate on the left (which is what Republican gubernatorial candidates in Maryland commonly did between 1930 and 1970). On substantive policy, Nixon wasn’t much of a challenge to the regnant liberalism of the time.
Contrast with Reagan, who mounted challenges across all fronts and had a discernable effect on the intramural culture of the Republican Party. In a historical sociology of the Republican Party, there’s before FDR and after and before Reagan and after.
Then contrast with the Bushes, father and son. These were men with commitments, not convictions. See Mitch Daniels on Bush II’s dispositions in the matter of domestic policy. He had no interest in disagreeable tangles with the Democratic Party on domestic questions and was always willing to split the difference on budgetary matters. Didn’t matter. He was loathed as thoroughly as any president in my lifetime.
Terrible policies. Lousy old white male candidates, tho Biden will choose some popular (-ish?) female as VP. Kamala coming? I actually think he’ll look for a better woman; maybe Michelle Obama? Oprah is probably too old.
The DNC goal is to avoid a socialist disaster of losing the House; they don’t really think they’ll beat Trump — unless this Covid-19 virus causes a big enough recession to hurt AND they’re able to pin the blame on Trump. Which might well happen.
Since so many college graduates have been indoctrinated in anti-Rep, anti-Christian, anti-Capitalism garbage.
I’m sure hoping there’s a LOT of on-line education to increase it and certification and reduce the hold of Dem college indoctrination centers.
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The 60s was a huge anti-gov’t break due to Johnson’s failed Vietnam war, with many broken promises. LBJ was hated, too, by young Dems. Who then transferred their hatred onto Nixon, and onto those traditional Christians against “free love” / promiscuity. Anti-abortion Catholics have continued to be in a precarious position in the Dem Party, to the extent of being more pro-abortion than Catholic to remain a Dem.
The polarization continues and has probably even increased among the top Dem institutions, with more anti-Rep policies. Which can be seen, it seems, in these debates.
Art Deco and Mac,
When I said “30 years ago there wasn’t much difference between the parties,” you need to understand where I was coming from. I grew up in deeply liberal Northern New Jersey. Bill Maher, as in “Real-time with…”, and David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker, were contemporaries of mine who graduated from the same school system at the same time. Curiously however I was steeped in the music of my grandparents (big band) and my parents (Stan Kenton, etc.) I played a brass instrument in every conceivable type of band. I didn’t much like Rock music. I heard about someone named Jimi Hendrix but I had no interest in his music.
So I grew up ultra-liberal but had conservative roots. As I got older I progressively shed the liberal because it no longer made sense. I didn’t start voting until my 30s because there were far more interesting things in life than politics. If truth be known I voted for Clinton in ’92, Perot in ’96, and then straight Republican ever since. Thirty years ago I was moving rapidly from left to right. There for a while the two parties looked the same so I voted to shake things up with Perot (I liked his charts and Texas style.)
JohnTyler
By the way Sander’s comment that there were “excesses” in the USSR is a DIRECT quote from Molotov; Stalin’s key associate and one of the signatories to the infamous Hitler-Stalin Pact.
Maybe Molotov did say something about “excesses,” but web pages about Molotov famous quotes cite nothing of the sort. Molotov Remembers: Inside Kremlin Politics has no mention of “excesses,” but there are numerous instances of Molotov’s talking about “errors.”
And when Sanders honeymooned in Russia, in the late 1980s, their leadership was composed of those who earned their stripes during the murderous regime of “Uncle Joe” Stalin.
No, they had already died off. Brezhnev, Andropov & Chernenko were dead. Gorbachev was born in the 1930s, and IIRC had a grandparent lost to the terrors of the 1390s.
Take a look at the birth dates of 27th Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union(1986-1990) Nearly all born in the 1920s and 1930s, and thus were children during the 1930s.
Sergei Sokolov was the only member of that Politburo who was an adult during the purge years, and was an army officer, not a politico. BTW, his father was an officer in the Tsar’s army.Pyotr Nilovich Demichev was born in 1917; as a politico he would have been more likely to have been involved in the terrors of the 1930s than Marshall Sokolov.Mikhail Solomentsev was born in 1913, so your charge stands with him. And Gromyko,born in 1909- yes indeed.Dinmukhamed Kunaev, botn 1912, yes.
Regarding the previous Politburo that Gorbachov inherited, your claim is much more plausible.
What I find truly terrifying is the mass hysteria due to corona, and its economic consequences, could cause Trump the election. That’s the chatter, anyway.
What I fail to see is how a near-tyrannical Democratic administration could be deemed to be a better alternative. How will it rebuild us better? By electing a demented Biden with a female Maduro as running mate?
I made a mistake in looking at the 27th Polituro’s composition- didn’t see the second column.
here is an updated tally
Date of birth
1909-1913 2
1917-1918 4
1920s 13
1930s 16
So, most of the 27th Politburo (1986-1990) were too young to have “earned their stripes” during the 1930s.
Waidmann:
Actually, they’re really running the Deep State and Obama 2. Joe (or Kamala or whoever) will be a figurehead for the usual suspects from the Obama administration, who will be plugged into the administrative and cabinet spots and proceed to veer more openly leftist than under Obama.
FWIW, last night was the first time I ever saw pro Biden /angry anti Bernie posts on Facebook. Up until now, it was all Bernie all the time.
My nice Warren supporting liberal female friends on Facebook were suddenly piping up “Bernie should get out of the race!” and expressing unhappiness that Bernie was being mean to Biden. “Stop fighting!”
Meanwhile, the Bernie Bros were calling Biden senile, as per usual.
”
“No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill. Period. Ends”
Note that the Dem/Prog assumtion is that the only reasons for oil & gas are to make money for energy companies. Not comprehension whatsoever of the value of energy to the people who actually *use* it.
See my post Of Energy and Slavery
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/42837.html
No more bricks. The world has enough bricks already. Glass? Enough! We don’t need any more stinking glass. Steel!? Quit. Just quit, we’ve got enough.
I can’t think of a possible woman VP that Biden might choose… that GOP PACs couldn’t eviscerate with video of them verbally asserting their positions. Warren would bankrupt the country. Among other things, Harris has strongly supported the NYT’s 1619 ‘project’. Oprah’s a billionaire and therefore “part of the problem”. Michelle, under attack would quickly reveal her hate for America.
Of course that assumes Biden can make it to November. If his campaign collapses after he gets the nomination, what might the dems do? Any guesses?
Slow Joe
“No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill. Period. Ends”
SlowJoe, a.k.a SenileJoe, should put his money where his mouth is and run his campaign without any fossil fuels. No campaign trips on jet planes for Joe, for example.
I dunno about potential “eviscerat[ion]”, but former Sen. Babbs Mikulski is still hanging in there, and in Obama’s demonstrated manner might just be the running mate to set Biden off to good advantage. He’s going to need all the help he can get where it comes to that.
sdferr:
Pretty high bar, requiring one to make Joe look good, Rep. Rashida Tlaib maybe?
Joe’d have to persuade her not to jump up and down, om. Can he do it?
I don’t know, she tops him regarding profanity in public.
Maybe Corn Pop is trans now?
The Democrat position appears to be that the only reason wind and solar aren’t being used is because there hasn’t been enough government emphasis on ramping it up. And, of course, the evil capitalist oil and gas companies are constantly lobbying against “clean” energy. They seem to have the illusion that wind and solar can do the job if only we would Just Do It. I don’t know who they turn to for engineering information, (climate scientists, political operatives, AOC, or ?) but the sources I read show that wind and solar are not now, and probably never will be, able to replace fossil, fuels.
So, the next thing you have to ask is whether or not this anti-fossil fuels agenda is really a ploy to take over the energy industry by the government. What better way to control the populace than to control their heat and lights? IMO, that’s their real agenda. No matter who the Democrat candidate is, the goal is going to be to take over the fossil fuel industry by demonizing it. Both Joe and Berne are on board with that. As would be any DNC approved candidate.
JJ…”The Democrat position appears to be that the only reason wind and solar aren’t being used is because there hasn’t been enough government emphasis on ramping it up. And, of course, the evil capitalist oil and gas companies are constantly lobbying against “clean” energy. They seem to have the illusion that wind and solar can do the job if only we would Just Do It. I don’t know who they turn to for engineering information, (climate scientists, political operatives, AOC, or ?) but the sources I read show that wind and solar are not now, and probably never will be, able to replace fossil, fuels.”
There are numbers being floated around by what should be respectable sources (major management consulting firms, etc) to the effect that the cost/kwh of solar and wind is in many cases lower than coal or nat gas. What these analyses neglect is the *time* factor…if you can generate solar electricity cheaply at 12 noon, but you need it at 7 PM, then that cheapness isn’t doing you a lot of good. Worse, if you have several days of overcast skies or no wind (as has happened in Germany)
It seems almost impossible to get people to understand….and this includes people who should know better…just how difficult and expensive it is to store electricity in large quantities. Again and again, I’ve seen articles in which the journalists…including business and “technology” journalists…clearly reveal that they don’t understand the difference between a kilowatt and a kilowatt-hour. Measuring the storage capability of a battery in kilowatts is like measuring the capacity of your car’s gas tank in horsepower.
David Foster — right on about the importance of storing electricity. And this confusion has been exacerbated by the fact that green power has used the existing grid for storage. That is, they pump unused green power into the existing grid at high noon, when they don’t need it, and take it back out when they do. Of course, “when they need it” is when the sun is not producing it, so they are relying on petroleum as the backup.
Biden’s proposal to do away with fossil fuels would do away with the storage system the greens have relied on from the very beginning. Without that, the average consumer’s ability to use electrical power (which Biden promises to use to power us all) would be severely reduced after about 5:00 pm. Ever seen what life is like without electricity (and air conditioning) in Texas or Florida or Georgia around 5:00 pm in August? Or even in Washington? Biden should commit to turning off A/C in the White House after 5:00 pm every day. We’ll see how far that goes.
F–here is what I think is probably going to actually happen. Subsidies and legitimately lower costs for solar panels will driven more and more ‘renewable’ electricity, and utilities will be required to take it and pay for it, regardless of whether it appears at a convenient time or not. Companies that are selling this ‘renewable’ energy and buying it back from the grid when they need it…large retailers, cloud computing companies, etc…will congratulate themselves on their virtue.
The utilities will be able to reasonably provide say, half an hour or even an hour of battery storage. But for longer requirements, they will have to operate gas-turbine plants which can start up while the batteries handle the load. This will lead to high capital costs which are amortized across a relatively small amount of electricity generated; hence, will drive up electricity prices considerably.
Electricity costs are not only a factor in consumer prices, but also in manufacturing competitiveness.
“What better way to control the populace than to control their heat and lights? IMO, that’s their real agenda. No matter who the Democrat candidate is, the goal is going to be to take over the fossil fuel industry by demonizing it.” – J J
You have no doubt noticed that the rallying cry of the Democrats right now is “nationalize everything so we won’t have empty shelves!!” — totally ignoring the fact that the government-controlled (aka nationalized) part of health care (FDA & CDC) did everything they could to prevent a rapid response in providing test kits, and had to be rescued by the private sector.
But socialism sounds so good in theory – as long as you never (What, never? No, never!) look at reality.
It really was that bad.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/03/their-islands-are-sinking.php