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Samizdata quote of the day Mr. Biden forgives half-a-trillion dollars in student debt without the assent of Congress. White House aides collude with tech platforms to silence dissenting voices on Covid. His regulators stretch the law beyond previous understanding to impose more control over the private economy. And that’s before they get the votes to break the Senate filibuster, add new U.S. states, override 50 state voting laws, and pack the Supreme Court. Mr. Biden has become his foe’s polarizing mirror image. It is exactly what he promised as a candidate he wouldn’t do.
Wall Street Journal ($), from which I have quoted quite a lot lately.
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Not sure who I dislike more. Biden, or the people who bought into the idea he was moderate, unifier Uncle Joe. They had to be completely blind and dumb to wilfully believe that.And not paying attention to Biden’s history. Got more time for the radical leftists who (correctly) thought they could push Biden to pander to them. They’re awful but have a better sense of reality.
Martin, Biden is also, among other things, a racist. And yet the mainstream media has mostly covered for him. He’s been in politics his entire adult life; he hasn’t done a stroke of honest work, ever.
Another thing: his anger and prickliness today is, in my understanding of these things, a sign of how mentally decayed he is. The problems of aggression, rudeness and so on among those with dementia is a well-observed fact. If the person is already a bit of a jerk, then it is even more pronounced.
A question is how on earth does the US move on from this situation and get a POTUS who appears a grounded, benevolent, intelligent and wise person. America is a big place. There must be someone.
Who would want to be that president? Trump wasn’t a political insider and he was hounded by the press, the Democrats, and his own party from the day he was elected until now. The lesson to be learned is “be a part of the political machine and pay your dues or we will destroy you.” They might as well hang a sign outside of the White House that reads “No Dogs or Irish or Political Outsiders Allowed.”
Biden is a demented (as in has dementia) puppet and Harris is so goddamned stupid it is physically painful to watch. They are also just patsies with no power. The kingmakers in smoke-filled backrooms who run the DNC and GOP don’t need or want someone who is grounded, benevolent, intelligent, or wise in the White House because that person might actually try to get things done that doesn’t fit with the ruling elite’s agenda.
And we certainly wouldn’t want that.
Looking back, it’s amazing that Trump prevailed in 2016. Hillary dominated in money, media support, Deep State support, and ground game with African American, Wall Street, K Street and Teacher’s union support, as a given.
Anyway, we know any person, no matter how decent, will get the Trump treatment.
I think TPTB just underestimated just how unlikable Hillary is (her normal pathological lying and calling half the nation deplorables, that kind of thing) and how she came off to people in the flyover states. Throw in Trump’s bombastic rhetoric and he was saying things normal people had been saying for years. Michael Moore was right about something when he said Trump was going to win because normal people saw him as the chance to send the middle finger to Wall Street and our political betters.
The only way they won in 2020 was to rig the elections by using COVID to stuff the ballot boxes with mail in ballots and then tinkering with the counting process, but there was no one in DC who was going to come to Trump’s side. The establishment type, Republican and Democrat, wanted Trump gone so they could go back to business as usual.
I have said it before that we dodged a real bullet with Clinton. Ignore her personality her politics, her scandals, her track record, all of it and just look at her reaction on election night. When it was clear the count wasn’t going her way she couldn’t even come out and address her supporters. She couldn’t even look them in the eye and say, “thanks for all the hard work, we’ll get them next time, keep on fighting the good fight, remember the sun will rise in the morning.” She just went into hiding, sending Podesta out to say something. That is not the mark of a leader.
All those media people were backstage for The Moment she won and yet none of them have ever said what was going on as it all fell apart, no footage has ever surfaced, nothing.
Trump’s policies aren’t all that radical just standard centrist fare. As a business man, Trump did bring some pluses to the table, managing a lot of moving parts. The ability to asses and manage risk, to envision a project and take it to reality, to pitch the concept and negotiate the financing, to get the most out of assets and resources, to juggle and coordinate hundreds of operations, to manage hundreds of employees, to coordinate JIT labor and materials, to navigate the mine field of political and governmental obstruction, to market the end product, to accomplish a goal on time and on budget is an accomplishment and requires some smarts, including street smarts, not to mention energy and focus. I will take a doer over a GLIB wonk any day. The trouble with Wonks is that they often live cocooned lives, don’t have “real world” experience, and can’t see the forest through the trees.
I think it may be a good political strategy. He makes this promise of Uncle Joe’s generosity, then, after the election of course, the “Extreme MAGA Supreme Court” may well strike it down. It is far worse to be promised money and not get it, than not to have been promised at all, even if, in both scenarios you end up with the same. Since the Republican party seems somewhat determined to lose this election then it could well be a useful excuse to expand the Supreme Court via extinuishing the senate filibuster, which will enable them to add a couple of states, give citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants, impose national election “standards” and so forth. At which point it is effectively game over for the United States.
Rather than imagining Pollyanna will save us it seems more prudent to prepare for such a future. And if you live outside the US you’ll no doubt hear the echoes of this in your own country: 是时候学习说普通话了
I’ve said this before so apologies.
Trump won in 2016 because the elites thought he wouldn’t, so they took no steps to make sure of things.
They won’t make that mistake again; indeed, they didn’t in 2020.
Even before Mr Biden became senile (he has short periods of lucidity when given powerful drugs – but they do not last more than about an hour, and the time period is getting short and less lucid) he was a Collectivist – anyone who thought he was a “moderate” never checked his Senate voting record.
Mr Biden’s “religion” (he has always considered himself a theologian) has nothing to do with God or individual life after death, his “religion” is “government must help the people” – “give them the cash” as Mr Johnson put it today, and also impose endless regulations to “help the poor” – Mr Biden always hated Milton Friedman and, indeed, any economist who pointed out that Big Government hurts (not helps) the poor.
The fanatical Collectivists (mostly loyal to Barack Obama – who the Economist magazine supported from 2008 onwards, thus destroying the last scrap of respect one could have for the Economist magazine) in the Administration, do not have to “manipulate senile Biden” – as even in his non senile youth, he agreed with them (he-is-also-a-fanatical-Collectivist – just one with fake Irish charm). Essentially the current President of the United States is “Mayor Curley” (the infamous Mayor of Boston in the early 20th century – after whom the “Curley Effect” in local government is named).
As for the people who “fortified” (i.e. RIGGED) the 2020 Presidential Election, such as Mr Mark Zuckerberg who (via various “charitable groups”) spent almost half a Billion Dollars on the voting process – voting and the counting of votes. They have done a terrible thing – indeed they may have destroyed what was left of the American Republic.
All the basic liberties – the 1st Amendment (“Hate Speech”), the 2nd Amendment (“you gun nut”), the 4th and the 5th Amendments (“nothing to hide nothing to fear – and if the Justice Department says you are guilty you are GUILTY and should admit it!”) and the 10th Amendment (“there are no limits on the Federal Government – we must HELP THE POOR!”) will be gone if Mr Joseph Biden (who whoever controls this puppet) appoints a couple more Justices of the Supreme Court.
The situation is indeed that serious.
Re: Peter MacFarlane
“Trump won in 2016 because the elites thought…”
Pres Obama withheld OFA’s operational support from Clinton in 2016. That’s why she lost.
It was a deliberate move, calculated to promote 4 years of civil unrest, hate-filled strife, constitutional turmoil (via multiple impeachments), etc. A Trump presidency achieved significant socio-political objectives that a Clinton presidency could not.
Just as machinations were wrought in 2006-08 to give Obama Democratic super-majorities, 2020’s covid-connected machinations delivered Team Obama a simple majority clearing the path for EO and legislative victories.
Just as Team Obama thumbed its nose at GOP strategists in 2012 by capturing every single battleground state (it didn’t need all of them to win – just because it could), it is on course to capture every contested Senate election in 2022.
Obama has 2 years of presidential eligibility left. After the mid-terms, there’s not much stopping him from accepting an invitation to finish out Biden’s term as the solution-to-all-problems and healer-of-all-wounds (à la Hayek’s model in Road to Serfdom) … and then secure passage of an Enabling Act.
No Tod Turley – the establishment never thought that Donald John Trump would win 2016, that is why they did not engage in social media censorship and blatant election rigging to prevent him winning.
And President Trump did do quite a lot of good – for example removing the power grab ty the EPA to control all land with water on it (i.e. essentially every farm and ranch in the United States).
Nor are the midterms lost. Let us see what happens.
By the way – people are not allowed to be even more paranoid than me. I am Captain Paranoid around here.
Paull,
Agreed: Pres Trump did do ‘a lot of good.’ At the same time, his term advanced Team Obama’s goals further than Hillary’s would have.
It’s pure conjecture to state that overconfidence caused a national campaign to restrict its questionable activities. It’s just as valid to assert that a politically powerful organization approved or rejected a campaign’s questionable activities to achieve its own strategic purposes.
Further, to argue that we know establishment-types were overconfident, otherwise they would have done more to defeat Trump, smacks of post hoc reasoning. Even if you’re right, a post hoc syllogism cannot validate the argument.
Why did Team Obama deny Hillary use of the OFA network? Why did Team Obama leak this rejection to the media? Coupled with a series of damaging federal agency actions under Obama, Team Obama’s leaks to the media about Weiner’s laptop and other ‘deplorable’ issues, US intelligence agencies’ failures(?) under Obama to stop Guccifer (allegedly) from hacking her private server and Wikileaks from publishing her campaign emails, and more – these indicate Team Obama’s preference on 11/8/2016.
Wait and see: You’re right, results of the 2022 midterms are indeterminate, at this point. I hope I’m wrong.
Personal notes: I’m not a young man; therefore, skeptical. I’m a Christian; thus, not paranoid. My hope is rock solid, and my joy unabated.
You posted recently about Kettering (I believe). As a teen, I lived in Oundle. Every time we exited the A1 and turned right in Thrapston, there was the sign pointing left to Kettering.