This column over at TH doesn’t really break any new ground, or really says anything most of us don’t already know, but I thought does a great job of summarizing the situation. Unfortunately, no solutions offered. And I wish I could think of some that would actually work.
Is there any government agency whose data you trust?
well no, it just wants to make the offspring hardier, which is a prerequisite for australias harsh climate, now the residents seem to have less and less survival instinct,
Vivek.
Rufus, yes, he’s my current favorite. I know, he has no chance.
I’d just as soon keep DeSantis here in Florida. I also am a bit turned off by the pissing contest DeSantis and Iger are currently doing.
I also am a bit turned off by the pissing contest DeSantis and Iger are currently doing.
==
Iger deserves to be drowned in piss.
Is there any government agency whose data you trust?
==
If the alternative is trusting Zero Hedge or Mr. Shadowstats, all of them.
Iger is burning his boats, because reasons, curiously he seems to have learned nothing from his earlier stint at paramount
zoology was my interest, as a wee lad, then astronomy, I had the whole time and life set,
physicsguy,
I have seen Vivek Ramaswamy in at least three interviews in the past, several weeks and I’ve never seen a candidate adjust so adroitly to the interviewer and audience. At the same time he is incredibly honest and always on message. He doesn’t change his message to suit the interviewer or audience, but he comprehends the interviewer’s style and motives and uses verbal jiu jitsu to dominate the conversation and sell his views. I don’t recall ever seeing a politician as intelligent and adept at communicating a message.
He has accomplished nearly incomprehensible things in 37 years; Summa cum laude in Biology at Harvard, then Yale Law, then onto Wall Street where he killed it in finance then onto Biotech where he killed it as a CEO. He has already invested 7 figures of his own cash into his campaign and has a lot more where that came from.
He knows the Constitution inside and out. He can talk in depth on any topic that comes up. And, he appears to be a very talented strategist. I think he has already figured out how to game the primaries and the ground game. And, equally important, he is indefatigable. And he has the pure, patriotic love of America that many first generation immigrants adopt. I think he really believes what he is saying and that sincerity comes through when he speaks.
The GOP is going to have to deal with him whether they want to, or not.
Would Vivek Ramaswamy be able to overcome the back-stabbing and betrayal of the entrenched bureaucrats, that is the question.
Worth noting the sliver of daylight between the Republican plan to raise the debt ceiling and the Democrat plan to raise the debt ceiling.
Is it better, yes, by something like 1-2% of GDP which is real money, but it is nowhere near what is fiscally responsible, it’s still at least 50% in excess of projected revenue, and this state is to persist over the next ten years, so we will be hitting the debt ceiling again and again. The first priority remains to see to it that the cronies get paid with our money, just with a little less of our money.
So if they do make it happen, and if we really want to see meaningful change, we need to treat it as the first step in a long pilgrimage of reform, and continue to expect improvement from them. That means being willing to punish as well as praise.
@Fullmoon:Would Vivek Ramaswamy be able to overcome the back-stabbing and betrayal of the entrenched bureaucrats, that is the question.
No, but we’ll never find out, because the media will make him look ridiculous, and it will stick because no one has heard of him outside the aging nerds* who populate blog comments. The nationalists are not going to be excited by him. And the fortified elections will be sure to deliver the right number of ballots to elect Biden’s shambling corpse in any event.
*Obviously I include myself.
Reminder to Patriots -*- Reminder to Patriots -*- Reminder to Patriots
At the time of the American Revolution, the founding fathers led a faction that was by no means the majority of colonists.
There were lots of loyalists, non-political opportunists, and folks not interested in rocking the boat.
Sound familiar?
And that was without mass media indoctrination…
We are going through the same thing here in Israel – the still-idealistic patriotic folks are battling gravy-licking apparatchiks, the confused, the fearful, those without the psychic bandwidth for yet another struggle.
Our struggle for physical survival is actually a tonic of sorts… many MOR Israelis have been slapped awake as Oslo and other Left-wing brainstorms fell violently apart.
In my own social segment (Smotrich-BenGvir country) many starrry-eyed idealists have wised up. When the Jews were being forcibly evicted from Gaza many of these “Religious Zionist” Rabbis went on about how “we must win over the hearts of our countrymen”…. there’s a lot less talk like that now. The children turned out of their homes, and savaged by Pali terror, are now adults – and many of them are leading the center-Right reform movement.
Many patriots will have to get used to 2 things:
1. We will have to go beyond our comfort zone and be willing to speak out, and be accustomed to being unpopular. No point in looking over your shoulder – many folks who agree with you are not going to show up. Your public confidence in the face of that counts a lot.
2. We will have to remain politically aware and involved For The Rest Of Our Lives… the Reagan-era conservatives thought they could go back to polishing their boats and fixing up their cabins… Our opponents are by nature political critters. There must be constant vigilance – and active presence – to dismantle what they’ve built, and make sure it is not rebuilt.
When “Don’t Tread On Me” conservatives think they can go back home, the Marxist rats come swarming back.
VE Day, lest we forget.
Planned Joey (PJ)?
Is there any government agency whose data you trust?
Data, probably, when fully characterized. Conclusions, probably not.
Last I checked, the running mate spot is still open. He’s young, brilliant, and if you don’t like him you’re a racist!
Rufus – I appreciate every interview that Vivek does. I will even grant that his business background is much more suited to governance that Trump’s. Finance and pharmaceuticals are both highly regulated businesses, so Ramasawmy already has intimate knowledge of how the entrenched bureaucrats operate.
Even so, is the presidency really an entry-level position? Putting capabilities aside, the GOP nominated a first time candidate in 2016 and had some success, but have now lost three consecutive elections, to a large extent because of the shortcomings of that first time candidate. (I would throw Peter Thiel in to a similar category of non-politicians who have been disasterously involved in GOP politics over the past decade or so.)
Ramaswamy is from Ohio. There’s a Senate seat up in Ohio in 2024 and Sherrod Brown looks vulnerable. I’ll keep an open mind, but I wonder if that would be a better race for him. Maybe we could have a higher sense of comfort with him after seeing how he operates in office (although he wouldn’t be the only Ohio Senator with designs on the White House).
@Bauxite
Rufus – I appreciate every interview that Vivek does. I will even grant that his business background is much more suited to governance that Trump’s. Finance and pharmaceuticals are both highly regulated businesses, so Ramasawmy already has intimate knowledge of how the entrenched bureaucrats operate.
We’ll certainly see.
Even so, is the presidency really an entry-level position?
To ask is to answer. No, it shouldn’t be. But the US is not exactly lush with choices, which is one reason the endless Trump v. DeSantis argument keeps popping up. Desperate times require desperate measures.
Putting capabilities aside, the GOP nominated a first time candidate in 2016 and had some success, but have now lost three consecutive elections, to a large extent because of the shortcomings of that first time candidate.
Assuming you believe the results from Baltimore and Milwaukee. For obvious reasons, I have already stated why I do not, and why in many cases (especially Milwaukee) no sane person should. Trump underperformed in preventive maintenance and getting ready for the Fraud, and his enabling of the lockdowns helped shoot himself in the foot, but he was by no means the only or even worst person to fall victim to that. Just look at Kemp in Georgia (who has largely enabled it) or Maricopa County in Arizona. But the root of the problem is harder to deal with and while we can agree Trump could have done better, the willingness to fight as Trump did when others such as Nixon did not is something we need, whether from Trump or someone else.
We do ourselves no favors by ignoring it. And the fact that the Left had to lawyer extensively to avoid hearing of evidence and declare “No Standing” Underlines the feebleness of it.
(I would throw Peter Thiel in to a similar category of non-politicians who have been disasterously involved in GOP politics over the past decade or so.)
I have mixed feelings about Thiel to be honest, and the world owes him a debt of gratitude for destroying Gawker, but he is too swampy for my tastes.
Ramaswamy is from Ohio. There’s a Senate seat up in Ohio in 2024 and Sherrod Brown looks vulnerable. I’ll keep an open mind, but I wonder if that would be a better race for him.
It’s something I’d consider, though frankly we could also do with getting rid of Lockdown RINO DeWine. If nothing else Ohio will be a crucial middle ground to secure if worst comes to worst and things break up; we’ve been the crossroads of the continent and the Republic’s history for centuries, and holding Ohio will be crucial to breaking up the power of the Left between DC and Chicago.
Maybe we could have a higher sense of comfort with him after seeing how he operates in office (although he wouldn’t be the only Ohio Senator with designs on the White House).
Maybe, but that also brings us to the fact that the time is desperate and so we will need to at least consider people who do not have the depths of experience we’d like but who can preform or at least indicate it. And above all those who can fight.
PS: You claim you will not read my post (as you did not before you made that announcement, as I had to catch out) but it’s worth underlining. Acting like this is the world of 2000 does us few favors, and I am not even a Trump Cultist (though you may disagree).
But being so afflicted with TDS you will abdicate your faculties to analyze a deposition evenhandedly and believe the likes of Milwaukee on their figures does no favors for your judgement.
@Frederick
Well said. If and when we get into talks about LOWERING the debt ceiling is when I’ll believe the critters in Congress are serious about safeguarding our economy and the stability of our currency. But how many people will even broach that topic, even as a possibility well into the intermediate future? Not many I fear.
Even so, is the presidency really an entry-level position?
==
Chuckles. The following occupants had zero executive experience in any venue:
Joseph Biden
Barack Obama
Gerald Ford
Richard Nixon
John F. Kennedy
Lyndon Johnson’s time as an executive consisted of two years as a 2d echelon official at the Works Progress Administration.
Shouldn’t it be “The Insane Biology of Ketanji Brown Jackson”?
“If nothing else Ohio will be a crucial middle ground to secure if worst comes to worst and things break up.”
WTF
There will be nothing left but smoking ruins if this country breaks up. Our military power will vanish.
“Nixon commanded the SCAT forward detachments at Vella Lavella, Bougainville, and finally at Green Island (Nissan Island)”.
“[JFK’s] first command was PT-101 from December 7, 1942, until February 23, 1943:[46] It was a patrol torpedo (PT) boat used for training while Kennedy was an instructor at Melville.[51] He then led three Huckins PT boats—PT-98, PT-99, and PT-101, which were being relocated from MTBRON 4 in Melville, Rhode Island, back to Jacksonville, Florida, and the new MTBRON 14 (formed February 17, 1943). During the trip south, he was hospitalized briefly in Jacksonville after diving into the cold water to unfoul a propeller. Thereafter, Kennedy was assigned duty in Panama and later in the Pacific theater, where he eventually commanded two more PT boats.[52]
“Ford served as the assistant navigator, Athletic Officer, and antiaircraft battery officer on board the Monterey [CVL-26].”
Of all those president’s listed BHO was the least qualified and historically the worst; fundamentally transforming the country to become prey to a seething mass of race-hustling and sex-obsessed grifters (Democrat politicians and NGOs).
Don’t forget that Ford was an all-star center on the University of Michigan football team.
That’s got to count for something.
Moreover, all those concussions and semi-concussions were tremendously useful later on in his political life…as apt excuses for…practically everything! (We should all be so lucky….)
I think Vivek’s outsider status and no political experience to be a big plus. Goes along with my idea of term limits where every few years we can get some new faces into DC and maybe break the corruption cycle. He seems highly intelligent and I suspect a very quick learner.
Given his relative youth, he could easily pick up some millennial and GenZ votes with more exposure; especially after they hear him speak.
@physicsguy:, he could easily pick up some millennial and GenZ votes with more exposure; especially after they hear him speak.
He says the words you want to hear, which may not be the words THEY want to hear; and the votes from blacks and Hispanics that Trump gained seem unlikely to follow Vivek.
This guy is looking more and more like a Right-leaning, Indian Obama, which is electoral poison to the extent voters are going to matter. “Right-leaning” means the media will make him Hitler and/or a buffoon, or anything else they want him to be since no one has heard of him, “Indian” means you’ll get no support from blacks, Hispanics, or nationalist whites, and “Obama” because he has no accomplishments and no one heard of him, but he sure talks well.
I don’t have anything against the guy. I’m just dismayed by this gush of support for someone who’s only relevant accomplishment is giving interviews that repeat our talking points back to us. Just setting ourselves up for huge disappointment. Disappointment saps energy and dries up money that can be used for something constructive.
DeSantis, whatever else you want to say, is in fact running one of the most populous and consequential states. Trump, whatever you else you want to say, has actually been President, and only 3 other living humans can say that.
Come November 2024, if he’s* the guy, I’ll Vote my Hardest for him along with the rest of you, but come December 31 when the ballots are finally counted and we get Zombie Biden we better have a strong plan B.
*You can insert literally any “he” here, doesn’t change my position: the 2024 Presidential election is a huge waste of our time and energy. The banana republic is already here.
I have no idea if Ramaswamy could step into the head office of the Executive Branch in January of 2025 and be effective. Way too many variables and way too far off. I simply do not know.
However, I think he can have a significant impact on the campaign itself, and its outcome.
For those of you who think he can be easily crushed by Left wing media watch his interviews with Don Lemon and Chuck Todd. Both assumed they were more clever and more media savvy than Ramaswamy and both ended up looking like fools.
Even more importantly, left wing media will want to prop Ramaswamy up, at least through much of the primaries. Contention and discord in the ranks of the GOP primaries are net positives for the Dems. That is why Trump was given so much free press in the 2016 campaign. The Left assumed Trump was unelectable and feared candidates like Cruz, Walker, Paul, Fiorina, Carson, Bush, Kasich, Rubio, Huckabee… (It was generally acknowledged to be one of the strongest GOP primary classes in history.) So they propped Trump up to sow discord in the GOP. They are likely to do the same with Ramaswamy in this primary. He already seems to be getting a lot of free airtime.
And, like Trump, Ramaswamy has a lot of personal money available.
And, he is such a go-getter I’ll bet he is already very engaged with getting ground teams going in key, primary states. I can’t see him pulling a Giuliani in the primary.
Could make it interesting.
like bobby jindal, but with a sharper edge, I saw what they have done to larry elder, or ben carson an actual brain surgeon, or henry cain an actual rocket scientist, we’ll see how they do, you can’t decide the match before the game is played,
Art Deco:
Depends what is meant by “executive.” LBJ was Senate Majority Leader for a while, and Obama was – for what it’s worth – president of the Harvard Law Review and then the director of Illinois’ Project Vote. The latter was a get-out-the-vote group, a position which I think shows how concerned he was with that extremely important aspect of politics. He also was chairman of the board of directors and founding president of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge for four years. That group was the one that Bill Ayers was a big part of, as well. The Gramscian March.
@Rufus T. Firefly:those of you who think he can be easily crushed by Left wing media watch his interviews
Once he’s a threat, there will be no interviews where he gets to speak for himself. They will edit, misinterpret, and censor anything he says. Ever watch a conservative on the Daily Show? They refined the tactic there, and the whole media is like that now.
It’s like the Men In Black have been by with neuralyzers and we all forget the last 8 years. How about all those media lies about things Trump said*? They never let Trump make his own case in his own words and he was already thousands of times more famous than this guy will ever be.
They are never going to fight fair and they will control how he is portrayed and he no celebrity of his own with which to counter that.
For those of you who think he can be easily crushed by Left wing media watch his interviews with Don Lemon and Chuck Todd. Both assumed they were more clever and more media savvy than Ramaswamy and both ended up looking like fools.
I believe the likes of Lemon and Todd are in fact fools. But we all know that just because someone is a fool doesn’t mean they can’t still be charming, persuasive, and appealing to some. I’m reminded of the events of the 2012 Vice Presidential debate between Paul Ryan and Joe Biden. Paul Ryan was clearly far more astute than Biden. He came off as more calm, collected, and empiracle to me anyway. And Biden bumbled, bellowed, and gaffowed insufferably (so like he always is). But somehow I remeber a lot of viewers seemed to still prefer Biden’s performance to Paul Ryan.
Depends what is meant by “executive.”
==
Obama was chairman of the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which proved to be a failure. A ‘get out the vote’ operation has a two digit staff and an ephemeral mission. As for his position at The Harvard Law Review, it was an office political position, not analogous to an editor at an ordinary law review. Recall the view of a Law Review editor who knew him: he was more interested in being the law review President than in doing anything with the job.
In re Johnson: A legislative caucus leader is not an executive, nor is any other member of Congress. The only people working under them are their to serve their personal interests, full stop. The Librarian of Congress is an executive. He has a much larger staff and his agency has an abiding institutional mission.
Obama had fewer responsibilities and less actual control in all of his positions throughout his life leading up to the presidency than Biden has now in the White House.
Art Deco:
Obama’s executive position with the Annenberg Challenge was a failure in terms of what we might consider accomplishments. But I never argued that it was any sort of success. However, you wrote he had zero executive experience in any venue. I merely pointed out that that’s not the case – he had more than zero executive experience.
The LBJ experience has to do – as I already noted – with the definition of “executive” experience. Obviously, the legislature is not the executive branch of government, nor did I allege it was. But being Senate Majority Leader is an executive position within the legislature, and as such I would argue that it comes under the broad definition of executive, which is, “a person or group responsible for the administration of a project, activity, or business.”
you vote for you want, i picked guiliani, gingrich and cruz in that order,
The Truth Really Sucks(TM)
So BAN IT!!
(Along with the Truth-Tellers!!!)
Yea, even as “YOU” shout from the rooftops how “YOUR” administration cherishes democracy (and stolen elections), strives to protect democracy from all its enemies (i.e., those who disagree with “YOU” and resist “YOUR” policies of DESTRUCTION), is determined to strengthen democracy (by kneecapping all “YOUR” political opponents) and aims to spread democracy around the world (even as you do “YOUR” damnedest to destroy the USA).
Indeed a shining light unto the nations!!…though more like a glaring interrogation lamp, as “YOU” embark on a wild-eyed mission of mass entrapment, false arrest and wall-to-wall prevarication.
So reassuring to know “YOU” really want Americans to let you “finish the job”…that is, finish them off, rather.
Hilarious, actually!
Are we seriously having a debate about “executive experience” … and finding Vivek lacking in that department?
Just be honest and say you’d prefer another candidate (and say why).
AMartel:
My points about executive experience had nothing to do with Vivek.
But I’ll mention anyway that I happen to think Vivek doesn’t have a chance of winning the nomination. I just don’t think he’ll catch on with the public. Too many voters are already committed to Trump, or prefer DeSantis. There would have to be some major upheavals for that to change.
you wrote he had zero executive experience in any venue.
==
The chairman is not the executive, the staff director is.
== But being Senate Majority Leader is an executive position within the legislature,
==
Nope.
One of the benefits of aging is that you get to enjoy this:
As I said at the outset, it depends on the definition of “executive.” If your definition is a narrow one, you’re welcome to exclude those positions – and obviously you do. I do not, and I leave it for other readers to decide what they think.
@Chase Eagles
There will be nothing left but smoking ruins if this country breaks up. Our military power will vanish.
Our military power would be crippled massively but be unlikely to vanish. And unless one or both sides started flinging WMDs like it is a game about nuking people there would be a lot left than Smoking Ruins. Hell even if the left is as ruthless as Milosevic and Karadzic were in fighting over Yugoslavia’s ruins there’d still be more than said smoking ruins left.
Ohio is a breadbasket state in the steel belt and has important connections to the Great Lakes and the rail network. Simply put we’d be what helps prevent a junction between NYC and Chicago, which might be more important than we think.
To clarify, I genuinely like Vivek Ramaswamy and what I’ve heard of his philosophy and plans,
However,
My current interest in him is what he has the potential to do in the Republican primary, especially to Trump. I think Ramaswamy will be very clever with his strategy and will work very hard to do well in New Hampshire and Iowa.
He’s not like a Bloomberg. He has a real campaign and a lot of energy. Smart, smart guy.
Ohio has produced more Presidents than any other state.
“Hell even if the left is as ruthless as Milosevic and Karadzic were in fighting over Yugoslavia’s ruins there’d still be more than said smoking ruins left.”
No USA, no one to stop Milosevic.
Great conversation about Vivek. I have no clue how he will do in the primary, but like Rufus T., I really like his positions and the way he handles himself. I think he will add to the primary debates. He may be a future prospect for high office if this doesn’t work out.
Time will tell.
And notably Sarajevo was sieged for years before NATO really intervened, hence my point.
Barry Meislin says, “Don’t forget that Ford was an all-star center on the University of Michigan football team. That’s got to count for something.”
Two other things about Ford that should count for something: 1) He is the only U.S. President to date who was an Eagle Scout during his years as a Boy Scout; 2) He paid his way through Yale Law School by working as a boxing coach and head junior varsity football coach for the Yale undergrads. He graduated from YLS in 1941 in the top third of his class. He enlisted in the Navy after Pearl Harbor.
(Yes, I know: the Boy Scouts, YLS, and the Navy aren’t what they used to be. But they mattered in the 1940s.)
Hey, Woodrow Wilson coached the Wesleyan football team.
Betcha didn’t know that.
Turtler, regarding the industrial aspect, one can also think of the steel plants around Cleveland and the shipyards (bulk transport!!). Big strategic assets. I agree that Ohio is rather important, big-picture-wise. I wonder how it stacks up for agriculture these days; I ask only because I’m thinking of northwest Ohio, which is really the only part of the state that I see at all regularly.
My brother once called me from Sarajevo during the siege asking me if II could send him body armor as his had been stolen. He was flying back and forth to Italy to bring food to his friends.
huxley–
When WW was president of Princeton, a local reporter once asked him how many students there were at Princeton. Wilson replied, “About half.” At that time, Princeton was the only Ivy school considered appropriate for Southern “gentlemen,” so it’s not surprising that it was the closest thing to a party school in the Ivies.
PS. I’d be surprised if there were any black students at Wesleyan when Wilson was there, let alone on the football team.
If someone wants to propose a scenario for how the USA breaks up, I would love to hear it. Bottom line is if I (as a separate country) have nukes and you (as a separate country) don’t, I am ruling you. Because who is going to stop me?
PA Cat,
Wasn’t James Earl Carter also an Eagle Scout?
Just checked the Internet. Apparently not.
Turtler, I completely concur about Milwaukee. It is a completely owned subsidiary of the Chicago Democratic Machine. They are to be completely distrusted.
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This column over at TH doesn’t really break any new ground, or really says anything most of us don’t already know, but I thought does a great job of summarizing the situation. Unfortunately, no solutions offered. And I wish I could think of some that would actually work.
https://townhall.com/columnists/marklewis/2023/05/08/all-this-failure-is-deliberate-n2622942
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/ignore-noise-job-market-cracking-birth-death-model-adds-near-record-378000-jobs
Is there any government agency whose data you trust?
well no, it just wants to make the offspring hardier, which is a prerequisite for australias harsh climate, now the residents seem to have less and less survival instinct,
Vivek.
Rufus, yes, he’s my current favorite. I know, he has no chance.
I’d just as soon keep DeSantis here in Florida. I also am a bit turned off by the pissing contest DeSantis and Iger are currently doing.
I also am a bit turned off by the pissing contest DeSantis and Iger are currently doing.
==
Iger deserves to be drowned in piss.
Is there any government agency whose data you trust?
==
If the alternative is trusting Zero Hedge or Mr. Shadowstats, all of them.
Iger is burning his boats, because reasons, curiously he seems to have learned nothing from his earlier stint at paramount
zoology was my interest, as a wee lad, then astronomy, I had the whole time and life set,
physicsguy,
I have seen Vivek Ramaswamy in at least three interviews in the past, several weeks and I’ve never seen a candidate adjust so adroitly to the interviewer and audience. At the same time he is incredibly honest and always on message. He doesn’t change his message to suit the interviewer or audience, but he comprehends the interviewer’s style and motives and uses verbal jiu jitsu to dominate the conversation and sell his views. I don’t recall ever seeing a politician as intelligent and adept at communicating a message.
He has accomplished nearly incomprehensible things in 37 years; Summa cum laude in Biology at Harvard, then Yale Law, then onto Wall Street where he killed it in finance then onto Biotech where he killed it as a CEO. He has already invested 7 figures of his own cash into his campaign and has a lot more where that came from.
He knows the Constitution inside and out. He can talk in depth on any topic that comes up. And, he appears to be a very talented strategist. I think he has already figured out how to game the primaries and the ground game. And, equally important, he is indefatigable. And he has the pure, patriotic love of America that many first generation immigrants adopt. I think he really believes what he is saying and that sincerity comes through when he speaks.
The GOP is going to have to deal with him whether they want to, or not.
Would Vivek Ramaswamy be able to overcome the back-stabbing and betrayal of the entrenched bureaucrats, that is the question.
Worth noting the sliver of daylight between the Republican plan to raise the debt ceiling and the Democrat plan to raise the debt ceiling.
Is it better, yes, by something like 1-2% of GDP which is real money, but it is nowhere near what is fiscally responsible, it’s still at least 50% in excess of projected revenue, and this state is to persist over the next ten years, so we will be hitting the debt ceiling again and again. The first priority remains to see to it that the cronies get paid with our money, just with a little less of our money.
So if they do make it happen, and if we really want to see meaningful change, we need to treat it as the first step in a long pilgrimage of reform, and continue to expect improvement from them. That means being willing to punish as well as praise.
@Fullmoon:Would Vivek Ramaswamy be able to overcome the back-stabbing and betrayal of the entrenched bureaucrats, that is the question.
No, but we’ll never find out, because the media will make him look ridiculous, and it will stick because no one has heard of him outside the aging nerds* who populate blog comments. The nationalists are not going to be excited by him. And the fortified elections will be sure to deliver the right number of ballots to elect Biden’s shambling corpse in any event.
*Obviously I include myself.
Reminder to Patriots -*- Reminder to Patriots -*- Reminder to Patriots
At the time of the American Revolution, the founding fathers led a faction that was by no means the majority of colonists.
There were lots of loyalists, non-political opportunists, and folks not interested in rocking the boat.
Sound familiar?
And that was without mass media indoctrination…
We are going through the same thing here in Israel – the still-idealistic patriotic folks are battling gravy-licking apparatchiks, the confused, the fearful, those without the psychic bandwidth for yet another struggle.
Our struggle for physical survival is actually a tonic of sorts… many MOR Israelis have been slapped awake as Oslo and other Left-wing brainstorms fell violently apart.
In my own social segment (Smotrich-BenGvir country) many starrry-eyed idealists have wised up. When the Jews were being forcibly evicted from Gaza many of these “Religious Zionist” Rabbis went on about how “we must win over the hearts of our countrymen”…. there’s a lot less talk like that now. The children turned out of their homes, and savaged by Pali terror, are now adults – and many of them are leading the center-Right reform movement.
Many patriots will have to get used to 2 things:
1. We will have to go beyond our comfort zone and be willing to speak out, and be accustomed to being unpopular. No point in looking over your shoulder – many folks who agree with you are not going to show up. Your public confidence in the face of that counts a lot.
2. We will have to remain politically aware and involved For The Rest Of Our Lives… the Reagan-era conservatives thought they could go back to polishing their boats and fixing up their cabins… Our opponents are by nature political critters. There must be constant vigilance – and active presence – to dismantle what they’ve built, and make sure it is not rebuilt.
When “Don’t Tread On Me” conservatives think they can go back home, the Marxist rats come swarming back.
VE Day, lest we forget.
Planned Joey (PJ)?
Is there any government agency whose data you trust?
Data, probably, when fully characterized. Conclusions, probably not.
Speaking of Vivek (hat tip to Barry Meislin):
It’s a myth that Joe Biden is actually running for President. He’s not. It’s just the managerial class using Joe Biden as a front to advance its own agenda. To them Biden’s cognitive impairment isn’t a bug. It’s a feature. The Administrative state more effectively controls its puppets when they are hollowed-out husks of themselves.
Last I checked, the running mate spot is still open. He’s young, brilliant, and if you don’t like him you’re a racist!
Rufus – I appreciate every interview that Vivek does. I will even grant that his business background is much more suited to governance that Trump’s. Finance and pharmaceuticals are both highly regulated businesses, so Ramasawmy already has intimate knowledge of how the entrenched bureaucrats operate.
Even so, is the presidency really an entry-level position? Putting capabilities aside, the GOP nominated a first time candidate in 2016 and had some success, but have now lost three consecutive elections, to a large extent because of the shortcomings of that first time candidate. (I would throw Peter Thiel in to a similar category of non-politicians who have been disasterously involved in GOP politics over the past decade or so.)
Ramaswamy is from Ohio. There’s a Senate seat up in Ohio in 2024 and Sherrod Brown looks vulnerable. I’ll keep an open mind, but I wonder if that would be a better race for him. Maybe we could have a higher sense of comfort with him after seeing how he operates in office (although he wouldn’t be the only Ohio Senator with designs on the White House).
@Bauxite
We’ll certainly see.
To ask is to answer. No, it shouldn’t be. But the US is not exactly lush with choices, which is one reason the endless Trump v. DeSantis argument keeps popping up. Desperate times require desperate measures.
Assuming you believe the results from Baltimore and Milwaukee. For obvious reasons, I have already stated why I do not, and why in many cases (especially Milwaukee) no sane person should. Trump underperformed in preventive maintenance and getting ready for the Fraud, and his enabling of the lockdowns helped shoot himself in the foot, but he was by no means the only or even worst person to fall victim to that. Just look at Kemp in Georgia (who has largely enabled it) or Maricopa County in Arizona. But the root of the problem is harder to deal with and while we can agree Trump could have done better, the willingness to fight as Trump did when others such as Nixon did not is something we need, whether from Trump or someone else.
We do ourselves no favors by ignoring it. And the fact that the Left had to lawyer extensively to avoid hearing of evidence and declare “No Standing” Underlines the feebleness of it.
I have mixed feelings about Thiel to be honest, and the world owes him a debt of gratitude for destroying Gawker, but he is too swampy for my tastes.
It’s something I’d consider, though frankly we could also do with getting rid of Lockdown RINO DeWine. If nothing else Ohio will be a crucial middle ground to secure if worst comes to worst and things break up; we’ve been the crossroads of the continent and the Republic’s history for centuries, and holding Ohio will be crucial to breaking up the power of the Left between DC and Chicago.
Maybe, but that also brings us to the fact that the time is desperate and so we will need to at least consider people who do not have the depths of experience we’d like but who can preform or at least indicate it. And above all those who can fight.
PS: You claim you will not read my post (as you did not before you made that announcement, as I had to catch out) but it’s worth underlining. Acting like this is the world of 2000 does us few favors, and I am not even a Trump Cultist (though you may disagree).
But being so afflicted with TDS you will abdicate your faculties to analyze a deposition evenhandedly and believe the likes of Milwaukee on their figures does no favors for your judgement.
@Frederick
Well said. If and when we get into talks about LOWERING the debt ceiling is when I’ll believe the critters in Congress are serious about safeguarding our economy and the stability of our currency. But how many people will even broach that topic, even as a possibility well into the intermediate future? Not many I fear.
Even so, is the presidency really an entry-level position?
==
Chuckles. The following occupants had zero executive experience in any venue:
Joseph Biden
Barack Obama
Gerald Ford
Richard Nixon
John F. Kennedy
Lyndon Johnson’s time as an executive consisted of two years as a 2d echelon official at the Works Progress Administration.
Shouldn’t it be “The Insane Biology of Ketanji Brown Jackson”?
“If nothing else Ohio will be a crucial middle ground to secure if worst comes to worst and things break up.”
WTF
There will be nothing left but smoking ruins if this country breaks up. Our military power will vanish.
“Nixon commanded the SCAT forward detachments at Vella Lavella, Bougainville, and finally at Green Island (Nissan Island)”.
“[JFK’s] first command was PT-101 from December 7, 1942, until February 23, 1943:[46] It was a patrol torpedo (PT) boat used for training while Kennedy was an instructor at Melville.[51] He then led three Huckins PT boats—PT-98, PT-99, and PT-101, which were being relocated from MTBRON 4 in Melville, Rhode Island, back to Jacksonville, Florida, and the new MTBRON 14 (formed February 17, 1943). During the trip south, he was hospitalized briefly in Jacksonville after diving into the cold water to unfoul a propeller. Thereafter, Kennedy was assigned duty in Panama and later in the Pacific theater, where he eventually commanded two more PT boats.[52]
“Ford served as the assistant navigator, Athletic Officer, and antiaircraft battery officer on board the Monterey [CVL-26].”
Of all those president’s listed BHO was the least qualified and historically the worst; fundamentally transforming the country to become prey to a seething mass of race-hustling and sex-obsessed grifters (Democrat politicians and NGOs).
Don’t forget that Ford was an all-star center on the University of Michigan football team.
That’s got to count for something.
Moreover, all those concussions and semi-concussions were tremendously useful later on in his political life…as apt excuses for…practically everything! (We should all be so lucky….)
I think Vivek’s outsider status and no political experience to be a big plus. Goes along with my idea of term limits where every few years we can get some new faces into DC and maybe break the corruption cycle. He seems highly intelligent and I suspect a very quick learner.
Given his relative youth, he could easily pick up some millennial and GenZ votes with more exposure; especially after they hear him speak.
@physicsguy:, he could easily pick up some millennial and GenZ votes with more exposure; especially after they hear him speak.
He says the words you want to hear, which may not be the words THEY want to hear; and the votes from blacks and Hispanics that Trump gained seem unlikely to follow Vivek.
This guy is looking more and more like a Right-leaning, Indian Obama, which is electoral poison to the extent voters are going to matter. “Right-leaning” means the media will make him Hitler and/or a buffoon, or anything else they want him to be since no one has heard of him, “Indian” means you’ll get no support from blacks, Hispanics, or nationalist whites, and “Obama” because he has no accomplishments and no one heard of him, but he sure talks well.
I don’t have anything against the guy. I’m just dismayed by this gush of support for someone who’s only relevant accomplishment is giving interviews that repeat our talking points back to us. Just setting ourselves up for huge disappointment. Disappointment saps energy and dries up money that can be used for something constructive.
DeSantis, whatever else you want to say, is in fact running one of the most populous and consequential states. Trump, whatever you else you want to say, has actually been President, and only 3 other living humans can say that.
Come November 2024, if he’s* the guy, I’ll Vote my Hardest for him along with the rest of you, but come December 31 when the ballots are finally counted and we get Zombie Biden we better have a strong plan B.
*You can insert literally any “he” here, doesn’t change my position: the 2024 Presidential election is a huge waste of our time and energy. The banana republic is already here.
I have no idea if Ramaswamy could step into the head office of the Executive Branch in January of 2025 and be effective. Way too many variables and way too far off. I simply do not know.
However, I think he can have a significant impact on the campaign itself, and its outcome.
For those of you who think he can be easily crushed by Left wing media watch his interviews with Don Lemon and Chuck Todd. Both assumed they were more clever and more media savvy than Ramaswamy and both ended up looking like fools.
Even more importantly, left wing media will want to prop Ramaswamy up, at least through much of the primaries. Contention and discord in the ranks of the GOP primaries are net positives for the Dems. That is why Trump was given so much free press in the 2016 campaign. The Left assumed Trump was unelectable and feared candidates like Cruz, Walker, Paul, Fiorina, Carson, Bush, Kasich, Rubio, Huckabee… (It was generally acknowledged to be one of the strongest GOP primary classes in history.) So they propped Trump up to sow discord in the GOP. They are likely to do the same with Ramaswamy in this primary. He already seems to be getting a lot of free airtime.
And, like Trump, Ramaswamy has a lot of personal money available.
And, he is such a go-getter I’ll bet he is already very engaged with getting ground teams going in key, primary states. I can’t see him pulling a Giuliani in the primary.
Could make it interesting.
like bobby jindal, but with a sharper edge, I saw what they have done to larry elder, or ben carson an actual brain surgeon, or henry cain an actual rocket scientist, we’ll see how they do, you can’t decide the match before the game is played,
Art Deco:
Depends what is meant by “executive.” LBJ was Senate Majority Leader for a while, and Obama was – for what it’s worth – president of the Harvard Law Review and then the director of Illinois’ Project Vote. The latter was a get-out-the-vote group, a position which I think shows how concerned he was with that extremely important aspect of politics. He also was chairman of the board of directors and founding president of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge for four years. That group was the one that Bill Ayers was a big part of, as well. The Gramscian March.
@Rufus T. Firefly:those of you who think he can be easily crushed by Left wing media watch his interviews
Once he’s a threat, there will be no interviews where he gets to speak for himself. They will edit, misinterpret, and censor anything he says. Ever watch a conservative on the Daily Show? They refined the tactic there, and the whole media is like that now.
It’s like the Men In Black have been by with neuralyzers and we all forget the last 8 years. How about all those media lies about things Trump said*? They never let Trump make his own case in his own words and he was already thousands of times more famous than this guy will ever be.
They are never going to fight fair and they will control how he is portrayed and he no celebrity of his own with which to counter that.
*”It’s been exactly one year since Trump suggested injecting bleach.”
I believe the likes of Lemon and Todd are in fact fools. But we all know that just because someone is a fool doesn’t mean they can’t still be charming, persuasive, and appealing to some. I’m reminded of the events of the 2012 Vice Presidential debate between Paul Ryan and Joe Biden. Paul Ryan was clearly far more astute than Biden. He came off as more calm, collected, and empiracle to me anyway. And Biden bumbled, bellowed, and gaffowed insufferably (so like he always is). But somehow I remeber a lot of viewers seemed to still prefer Biden’s performance to Paul Ryan.
Depends what is meant by “executive.”
==
Obama was chairman of the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which proved to be a failure. A ‘get out the vote’ operation has a two digit staff and an ephemeral mission. As for his position at The Harvard Law Review, it was an office political position, not analogous to an editor at an ordinary law review. Recall the view of a Law Review editor who knew him: he was more interested in being the law review President than in doing anything with the job.
In re Johnson: A legislative caucus leader is not an executive, nor is any other member of Congress. The only people working under them are their to serve their personal interests, full stop. The Librarian of Congress is an executive. He has a much larger staff and his agency has an abiding institutional mission.
Obama had fewer responsibilities and less actual control in all of his positions throughout his life leading up to the presidency than Biden has now in the White House.
Art Deco:
Obama’s executive position with the Annenberg Challenge was a failure in terms of what we might consider accomplishments. But I never argued that it was any sort of success. However, you wrote he had zero executive experience in any venue. I merely pointed out that that’s not the case – he had more than zero executive experience.
The LBJ experience has to do – as I already noted – with the definition of “executive” experience. Obviously, the legislature is not the executive branch of government, nor did I allege it was. But being Senate Majority Leader is an executive position within the legislature, and as such I would argue that it comes under the broad definition of executive, which is, “a person or group responsible for the administration of a project, activity, or business.”
you vote for you want, i picked guiliani, gingrich and cruz in that order,
The Truth Really Sucks(TM)
So BAN IT!!
(Along with the Truth-Tellers!!!)
From the You-Can’t-Make-This-Up Files…
“White House blocks New York Post from Biden event amid Hunter Biden investigation”—
https://justthenews.com/accountability/media/white-house-blocks-new-york-post-biden-event-amid-hunter-biden-investigation
Yea, even as “YOU” shout from the rooftops how “YOUR” administration cherishes democracy (and stolen elections), strives to protect democracy from all its enemies (i.e., those who disagree with “YOU” and resist “YOUR” policies of DESTRUCTION), is determined to strengthen democracy (by kneecapping all “YOUR” political opponents) and aims to spread democracy around the world (even as you do “YOUR” damnedest to destroy the USA).
Indeed a shining light unto the nations!!…though more like a glaring interrogation lamp, as “YOU” embark on a wild-eyed mission of mass entrapment, false arrest and wall-to-wall prevarication.
So reassuring to know “YOU” really want Americans to let you “finish the job”…that is, finish them off, rather.
Hilarious, actually!
Are we seriously having a debate about “executive experience” … and finding Vivek lacking in that department?
Just be honest and say you’d prefer another candidate (and say why).
AMartel:
My points about executive experience had nothing to do with Vivek.
But I’ll mention anyway that I happen to think Vivek doesn’t have a chance of winning the nomination. I just don’t think he’ll catch on with the public. Too many voters are already committed to Trump, or prefer DeSantis. There would have to be some major upheavals for that to change.
you wrote he had zero executive experience in any venue.
==
The chairman is not the executive, the staff director is.
==
But being Senate Majority Leader is an executive position within the legislature,
==
Nope.
One of the benefits of aging is that you get to enjoy this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeDfgUvyKHk
Art Deco:
“Nope” doesn’t cut it.
As I said at the outset, it depends on the definition of “executive.” If your definition is a narrow one, you’re welcome to exclude those positions – and obviously you do. I do not, and I leave it for other readers to decide what they think.
@Chase Eagles
Our military power would be crippled massively but be unlikely to vanish. And unless one or both sides started flinging WMDs like it is a game about nuking people there would be a lot left than Smoking Ruins. Hell even if the left is as ruthless as Milosevic and Karadzic were in fighting over Yugoslavia’s ruins there’d still be more than said smoking ruins left.
Ohio is a breadbasket state in the steel belt and has important connections to the Great Lakes and the rail network. Simply put we’d be what helps prevent a junction between NYC and Chicago, which might be more important than we think.
To clarify, I genuinely like Vivek Ramaswamy and what I’ve heard of his philosophy and plans,
However,
My current interest in him is what he has the potential to do in the Republican primary, especially to Trump. I think Ramaswamy will be very clever with his strategy and will work very hard to do well in New Hampshire and Iowa.
He’s not like a Bloomberg. He has a real campaign and a lot of energy. Smart, smart guy.
Ohio has produced more Presidents than any other state.
“Hell even if the left is as ruthless as Milosevic and Karadzic were in fighting over Yugoslavia’s ruins there’d still be more than said smoking ruins left.”
No USA, no one to stop Milosevic.
Great conversation about Vivek. I have no clue how he will do in the primary, but like Rufus T., I really like his positions and the way he handles himself. I think he will add to the primary debates. He may be a future prospect for high office if this doesn’t work out.
Time will tell.
hmm
https://naomiwolf.substack.com/p/weird-things-about-king-charles-coronation
@Chases Eagles
And notably Sarajevo was sieged for years before NATO really intervened, hence my point.
Barry Meislin says, “Don’t forget that Ford was an all-star center on the University of Michigan football team. That’s got to count for something.”
Two other things about Ford that should count for something: 1) He is the only U.S. President to date who was an Eagle Scout during his years as a Boy Scout; 2) He paid his way through Yale Law School by working as a boxing coach and head junior varsity football coach for the Yale undergrads. He graduated from YLS in 1941 in the top third of his class. He enlisted in the Navy after Pearl Harbor.
(Yes, I know: the Boy Scouts, YLS, and the Navy aren’t what they used to be. But they mattered in the 1940s.)
Hey, Woodrow Wilson coached the Wesleyan football team.
Betcha didn’t know that.
Turtler, regarding the industrial aspect, one can also think of the steel plants around Cleveland and the shipyards (bulk transport!!). Big strategic assets. I agree that Ohio is rather important, big-picture-wise. I wonder how it stacks up for agriculture these days; I ask only because I’m thinking of northwest Ohio, which is really the only part of the state that I see at all regularly.
My brother once called me from Sarajevo during the siege asking me if II could send him body armor as his had been stolen. He was flying back and forth to Italy to bring food to his friends.
huxley–
When WW was president of Princeton, a local reporter once asked him how many students there were at Princeton. Wilson replied, “About half.” At that time, Princeton was the only Ivy school considered appropriate for Southern “gentlemen,” so it’s not surprising that it was the closest thing to a party school in the Ivies.
PS. I’d be surprised if there were any black students at Wesleyan when Wilson was there, let alone on the football team.
If someone wants to propose a scenario for how the USA breaks up, I would love to hear it. Bottom line is if I (as a separate country) have nukes and you (as a separate country) don’t, I am ruling you. Because who is going to stop me?
PA Cat,
Wasn’t James Earl Carter also an Eagle Scout?
Just checked the Internet. Apparently not.
Turtler, I completely concur about Milwaukee. It is a completely owned subsidiary of the Chicago Democratic Machine. They are to be completely distrusted.