Archive for the ‘politics’ Category

by baldilocks

Just a reminder: I don’t give a bleep about manners.

However, I’m usually cordial because that’s my personality and because cordiality is more effective for communication most of the time.

But when those other times happen, I don’t hesitate to engage — with glee even and almost never with anger. (On my own blog, I’ll use the occasional obscenity, but Peter frowns upon unedited bleepers and this is his living room, not mine.)

So, when 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden told a Michigan autoworker that he was “full of sh*t” or that he was a “horse’s a**,” it didn’t offend my sensibilities in the least; I’m not one of these “thou shalt not be rude” Christians. My Lord and Savior was rude a few times when He was down here and He even hurled a epithet or two …

… but not at those who would presume to follow Him.

While I was pointing and laughing at Biden today, one of my Twitter followers thought I was condemning him for “bad words.” Leaving aside that I don’t have the power or authority to condemn anyone in any manner, if I were the Big Bad, I’d condemn Biden for being aggressive with someone who has much less power and authority that he does; for “punching down” — definition #5. (For the record, Biden was pretending to be a gun-rights champion and got all offended when the autoworker wasn’t buying it.)

There’s a lot of speculation that Biden is showing symptoms of dementia. Maybe, but who could tell? Biden has long had only a nodding acquaintance with the truth and has more than once been aggressive and insulting toward ordinary people among his own constituency who critically question him.

It’s one thing to insult your political opponent — your equal — but it’s a whole other thing to insult those you want to lead.

Will Biden steal the nomination from beat Bernie? That seems to be the direction in which we’re heading. Assuming that happens, we can look forward to some horizontal punching between the former vice president and President Trump. Biden’s cognitive state may be in question, but even if he’s merely the same old Biden who just pulls stuff out of his backside, the president is bound to make him angry — on purpose no doubt.

Lying dog-faced pony soldiers should go long on popcorn, as should everyone else.

Juliette Akinyi Ochieng has been blogging since 2003 as baldilocks. Her older blog is here.  She published her first novel, Tale of the Tigers: Love is Not a Game in 2012.

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By John Ruberry

In their quest to cure themselves of Trump Derangement Syndrome, Democrats have lined up, albeit sometimes briefly, behind several frontrunners for the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, including Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Michael Bloomberg, Bernie Sanders, and now, Joe Biden.

Also, for a bit, Beto O’Rourke and Kamala Harris were seen as top tier candidates.

Biden certainly had a fabulous Super Thursdayyes, the gaffe-prone former vice president said that. It really was Super Tuesday, but his rise was largely brought about by the endorsements of Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, who may have slipped yesterday by saying she’ll be on the ticket with Biden this fall. That of course can only mean Biden has already asked her to be his running mate.

I won’t be surprised if Klobuchar dresses up as Princess Leia and utters, “Help me Jobi-wan Biden, you’re my only hope.”

But what if Biden fails? Oh, sure, he’s the favorite to win the Democratic nomination. But the general election is eight months away. A lot can go wrong, especially when you are Joe Biden.

For years Biden has behaved like a Chicago ward boss engaging in influence peddling, benefitting not only he son, Hunter, but his brother, James. Hunter formerly sitting on the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings, despite having no experience in energy and not speaking Ukrainian, is the most egregious instance. And of course Joe bragged that he got a Ukrainian prosecutor fired who was looking into Burisma.

Then there are the Biden gaffes. They are so many of them that they can provide that material for a short book. Or maybe a long one, particularly when we figure in future gaffes.

Because, as Mark Levin phrased it on his show a few days ago–I hope I have the quote right, “Joe Biden’s best days are behind him,” quickly adding. “Then again, I don’t think he had any best days.”

If elected president Biden will be 78 on inauguration day. At age 77 Biden sometimes seems confused in his appearances. In its tepid endorsement of Biden last week, the Chicago Tribune touched on the gaffes and his mental state. “Biden is not the perfect candidate,” later adding, “He has demonstrated a propensity for gaffes and lack of clearheadedness on the campaign trail.”

So far in this campaign Biden has twice forgotten what state he was in. No where in the world, Levin explained in that same broadcast, do people vote on Thursday. Now that Biden is the frontrunner his upcoming gaffes will receive much more attention and yes, scrutiny. What if these upcoming verbal miscues and his, in the Trib’s words, “lack of clearheadedness,” turns Jobi-Wan Biden into Old Man Joe. 

Yesterday in St. Louis a shaky Biden said, “We can only re-elect Donald Trump.”

Yes, Donald Trump is the oldest man to be elected president in his first term. But few people half the president’s age can speak on the fly for over an hour as Trump does in his regular rallies. 

But if Old Man Joe and his twin–Influence Peddler Joe–becomes a liability to the Democrats, as Bernie Sanders’ socialism apparently has, where do the Dems turn for their next only hope? 

Is there anyone left on the Democrats’ bench? 

Maybe Al Gore. Or Hillary Clinton.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

To nobody’s surprise now that Tulsi Gabbard has managed to meet the standards for inclusion in the next rounds of Democrat debates, the Democrats have, you guessed it, changed the rules.

Now the Democrats would have a lot more credibility in their explaination that this is just the normal progression in how they are doing things if:

  1. The field was still too large to accommodate a third person running
  2. Tulsi Gabbard had not previously appeared in a debate
  3. They didn’t already change the rules to allow Mike (I bought the congress for you) Bloomberg onstage

Furthermore it’s worth noting that just two weeks ago the same conventional wisdom that say Gabbard has no prayer said that Joe Biden was finished.

However with the Democrat establishment firmly in the drivers seat and still angry that Gabbbard voted against one of the articles of impeachment and took out Kamala Harris of race there is virtually no change that this is going to change.

I think this is actually a sign of fear on their part. Gabbard single handedly turned Kamala Harris from a frontrunner in the Democrat race to a failure and if put on a stage next to two 70’s men, one a socialist and one who is shall we say “challenged mentally” is likely to destroy them.

That’s rather unfair but I look on the bright side, because while I think that Donald Trump has this in a walk, of Biden, Sanders and Gabbard only Tulsi has the best chance of the three to pull and upset, and it’s not close.

So by all means keep her off the stage.

The results of Tuesday’s primary has illustrated one of the most interesting things in the regular comparisons between the Bernie Sanders campaign of 2020 and the Donald Trump campaign of 2016.

Bernie Sanders had campaigned on Socialism

Donald Trump campaigned on Conservatism

There was a good chunk of the conservative base who hesitated to support Donald Trump (myself included) during the primary season because we weren’t sure that he actually meant what he said. At the time we didn’t know if we could believe him. (He’s sure made believers of us now).

On the other hand it turned out that there was a good chunk of the Democrat base who hesitated to support Bernie Sanders during the primary season for exactly the opposite reason.

They didn’t reject Sanders because the thought he was lying about supporting socialism, they rejected him because they thought he was telling the truth and wanted no part of it, at least not openly.

That’s the real irony here. Trump was mistrusted because voters weren’t sure who he was and what he believed but if Bernie loses the nomination it will be because voters were convinced he was exactly what he claimed to be.

Life is funny isn’t it?