I expect a number of folks at the inauguration, including the inauguree himself - especially the inauguree himself - were raising a hearty cheer as well...
You’re a patient man, Kurt. Thanks for the China insight. I’m not too inclined to leave my bed this am. My 2AM bathroom break had me spinning, another bout of vertigo. The last bout was almost a year ago and only lasted 4 hours. It’s definitely improved since last night. Good thing the hubs is home to take care of the dogs.
Thanks for helping me out into words a skill I badly need: letting “my facial muscles relax into jowly unsmiling acceptance.” Let’s just say I don’t have a good poker face. As a larger point I think this is an advantage many of the US’s adversaries have over us. They’re expert at playing the long game and waiting us out, for decades if necessary. We’re obviously not.
Thank you, Kurt, for another wonderful post. You have a great talent for picking out the details that convey meaning. Plus I really enjoy your writing - simple, clear, organized - and so evocative of things unspoken.
The concept of “middle class” might make for some interesting conversation. It is as well much in American minds (we are told that it is disappearing), but other than “middle income," what does it in fact mean?
Thank you back! The body...I could go back and forth on several parts of it, with the meaning for "middle class" being defined in some manner that I'm still not sure how to phrase. I have no idea what it means in America any more. I know what it means here....it means being able to afford a "condo" (they don't call them condos, hence the quotes) in a new tower, own a car, getting married, and generally making it. The China where I hang out is still kinda like 1950's America. Lots of people bought their first place, their first car even if they're in their 40's or 50's,, and are reimagining their lives as they move from abject poverty to something resembling modern life. It's kinda refreshing in all sorts of ways.
Something so simple as going to Sam's Club, where citizens are seeing what abundance means and being amazed and thrilled at all the choices. Or, standing in front of the refrigerated cheese shelves, where there are 4 (4!) kinds of cheese, and helping folks understand the difference between American slices (best for hamburgers) and cheddar (which the average Chinese gags on). They're so thrilled to get advice from an American, it makes me appreciate our country and what it means in the minds of (what I think are) the vast majority of Chinese citizens.
"On one hand, the middle class is supposed to usher in an age of domestically driven consumption, driving the economy’s expansion. On the other hand, an ever-increasing list of off-limit topics — political, economic, social — seems designed to empty out the minds of the middle class."
The first part sounds right. The irony of the second part, at least in the US, is that the mind of the middle class finally coalesced around political/economic/social issues and voted for Donald Trump. There’s a lesson there somewhere.
Is it in fact accurate to define the middle class as an enlightened group characterized by reasoning ability, creativity, and personal initiative in pursuit of one’s self interest within the larger society?
Could it be that the middle class in America saw the beginning of its end in the 1950,s? If it is still a useful concept, does it need to be redefined to suit the times? With lots of other things - families and gender are all over the map, everyone is educated but no one reads or thinks for himself, God is dead (or next best thing, defined by the spiritual self). I wonder if the very concept of “standard,” except in engineering (hope springs eternal), is outmoded.
No one will ever convince me that any cheese other than an American slice is appropriate for a cheeseburger. I've tried the Gorgonzola burgers, and all the rest. Awful.
Outside of cheeseburgers, when it comes to cheese, I'm a snob. I like the really stinky stuff, and real English Stilton is my absolute favorite.
On cheeseburgers? I completely agree. I thought it was a general snubbing of Cheddar. There are some great cheeses being made in Vermont now, and they are decidedly NOT cheddar. Many are actually raw milk cheeses. Jasper Hill Farm makes an Alpine style cheese called Alpha Tolman that is truly one of the greatest I've had. On the stinky cheese side, their Harbison and Willoughby are excellent (though I have a limit on how much stinky cheese I can stand). When you are back in the States, you should order some.
I don’t know if it’s a southern thing but I like pepper jack on a burger. Who am I kidding, I can’t think of any type that I don’t love on a burger. Blue might be at the top of my list. Don’t hate me.
I don't hate you. I feel pity...just kidding. Actually, any cheese that has the necessary and appropriate goo factor is OK on a cheeseburger. Jack cheese can get gooey. It can work.
Thank you! I had a lot of fun writing the waiting part. It is a testament to what editing an rewriting can do. I agonized over several parts, and that sentence was one of them. The other was the last one, where I wrote "obviousness of my experience", instead of "my obvious inexperience". "Obviousness" gave it a snooty feel that I was looking for. The whole waiting thing was intended to be a type of satirical whine about nothing by a dilettante.
My other favorite sentence is the last one in the first paragraph...."...small scale depiction of the sorts of power struggles that are the foundation of all idiotic behavior". I was trying to encapsulate the smallness of comments sections arguments in as concise a manner as possible. I think I did. That sentence makes me laugh every time I read it.
"small scale depiction of the sorts of power struggles that are the foundation of all idiotic behavior"
I liked that, too, although I also thought it was something MarqueG might have written. Then I said, "Wait a minute," and scrolled up to see the author's name.
Good morning. Our temp is 2 degrees and will likely not get higher than the teens. We had a dusting of snow last night half inch to an inch.
I haven’t read it yet, but the mothership reports n “Turning the Page on the Biden Era”.
My Substack feed has other stories about Biden. the Silver Bulletin has one entitled “Why Biden Failed”. I don’t subscribe to Michael Medved’s newsletter, but his article showed up in my feed, opining (I think, correctly) that had Biden run in 2016, he would now be wrapping up his second term.
You reminded me that it's been a long time since I've seen or heard Michael Medved, and I feared that he might have been body-snatched, but I'm relieved to find that he has not. I shouldn't have worried, given that values and morality were always central to his worldview. A column from about a month ago has some thoughts from him on what the "right road for resistance" might look like. I think he and I are on the same page.
I used to listen to Michael Medved on Salem Radio, until they booted him in 2018 for not being Trumpy, giving his afternoon drive-time slot to that Trumpy blowhard. Sebestian Gorka.
He still has a radio program on only a few stations, and a podcast that has only part of his program.
I'll have to investigate his Substack (even though I'm seeing too many Substacks).
Thanks for the tip. I used to listen to him in the old days too. I did more poking around than I really have time for today, and found that one can listen to part of each day's program, on a delay of several days. But I can probably work that into my podcast listening.
I received a low temperature alert from the cabin. It’s -16 up there and my boiler must be struggling to keep the house at 55, the interior temp is down to 50.
My outdoor thermometer rose briefly to around 50 degrees, but observation showed me that's probably due to direct sunlight hitting it in an otherwise shaded location, with the sun's path so low in the sky this time of year. When I got up this morning it was a much more plausible 5 degrees.
More turning the page on Biden, except those who can't because the harm was permanent: Emily Yoffe has a column in the Free Press today about Trump's executive order on Male/Female. One of the comments linked to PITT.substack.com (Parents with Inconvenient Truths About Trans substack). I don,t know whether the stories are more heartbreaking or infuriating. I couldn,t read more than a few.
Many of those EOs will be hobbled in lawsuits. And where there are administrative regulations involved, they can't simply be annulled by an EO. They would have to be changed, with a notice-and-comments period, as outlined in the Administrative Procesures Act.
As much as I like a lot of these EOs, they will initially amount to virtue signaling to the MAGA base.
Rule by pen and phone is Obama's gift that keeps on giving. EOs should not be used to circumvent the will and responsibility of Congress. They have enabled a vicious circle of congressional atrophy.
Congress is just as responsible for its own atrophying of powers, having for years and years steadily ducked its responsibilities in favor of political expediency by sloughing responsibilities off onto the Executive branch and then not seriously reigning in presidents when needed.
Except in matters concerning straight-up Commander in Chief responsibilities, the executive branch, in my opinion, should be the absolute weakest of the three branches of our government, instead of the be-all-end-all virtually untouchable and unaccountable near-rogue operative it's become over time, and thanks now in no small part to the recent SCOTUS decision on presidential immunity which only augments executive power and the potential for abuse even more.
A plague on congress for being political cowards and a plague on the Executive branch for all the stupid partisan over-reach that comes vis a vie executive orders. And while I'm plaguing things, a plague on the judiciary for its now apparently accepted ability to practice naked partisanship in favor of the rule of law.
I know "pox" is the "standard" to hurl for such purposes as these, but I went with plague rather than pox because according to my info, #1 deadliest disease in history is bubonic plague and #2 is smallpox. Something about the thought of Black Death just seems to suit my black mood about this a bit more, I suppose. 😠😉
I stopped at one story. Affirming medical personnel DISGUST me. My husband tells of a nurse who returned to our rural hospital because she couldn’t stand what she was witnessing in the university system with respect to gender affirming care.
I’m sure there are angrier rants out there that I would agree with in large part. I’m just done with the whole topic. (I don’t even much believe in the Biden Crime Family theory.)
If he really thinks he could have performed better than Harris, it merely serves as more evidence that his pig-headed, bloody-mindedness has only ever gotten worse. He couldn’t even take friendly and helpful advice from his own ideological allies—not if they didn’t buy into his narcissistic belief that he was always indispensable.
In his attempt to ratify the ERA by Presidential fiat, in his stated non-enforcement of the TIk Tok ban, a law he supported and signed, and in many other ways, Joe Biden is leaving office a bitter man, as disrespectful of the law and the Constitution as the man who will replace him.
"had Biden run in 2016, he would now be wrapping up his second term"
I think it's reasonable to believe Biden could have won in 2016. He did not, at that time, inspire the visceral revulsion that surrounds Hillary Clinton like a cloud of sulfur gas.
Second term? I don't know. Many of us knew in 2020 that his mental acuity was in sharp decline. Depending on how his first term had gone, the media-Democratic Party coalition might not have covered that up with such comprehensive smothering. I still hope that everyone who ever said it was "mean" to observe THEN that Biden had dementia steps on a Lego ... because it was true, and they were either factually in error or lying.
I got really annoyed ready the Larry Sabato insider piece. It tells me he has no values, but seeks only power. He knew Biden couldn't do it, yet he stayed quiet. Quiet at a time that if people such as himself had any courage, might have made a difference.
It was obvious Biden was in decline, that people had been propping him up. Ironically, had he not run, I wouldn't have been as upset about it; it would have been viewed as being nice to the geezer on his way out. Biden didn't want to leave, until it was too late.
After last night's sportball game, Biden will be remembered as the "Mark Andrews of presidents"...Doh!
He published a self-puff piece, claiming he had insider knowledge of Biden's decline (which apparently the Dems had done a masterful job of hiding). But he's releasing it now so everyone knows he had real insider power.
'Course, had he spoken up then, I don't think a moderate but youthful Dem would have lost to Trump (no offense to Harris, but all Boomers are old; in normal times She'd been seen as an older candidate as well).
It is amazing how many Dems think it will make them look good to say they had evidence of his decline...and hid it, going along with the silly narrative. In the story of "the Emperor has no clothes", there are courtiers "holding" the edges of his clothes, looking all the more silly for doing so.
The bottom line is the Dems lost an election that should have been easily winnable given Trump’s many negatives. But I see so many of them still blaming stupid American voters for their loss. They’d better take an honest look at some point.
Biden beat Trump once. He could have beaten him 4 years earlier, 4 years less senile and before Trump had a solid MAGA fan base as he did in 2020 and 2024.
There was a rumor reported that, it wan't his son Beau's death that caused Biden to sit out 2016, but pressure from Barack Obama, who backed Clinton. I don't think there was any love lost between Obama and Biden either.
Perhaps he would not have won a second term. But Donald Trump would not have been his opponent. Trump would simply have been another failed GOP nominee, albeit one very different from Mitt Romney. And we would not now dreading Trump 2.0.
I’m not dreading it. I didn’t want him, but I expect he’ll be like most Presidents, a mix of good and bad. He’ll say lots of stupid stuff but I can easily ignore it or laugh it off. The sky isn’t falling and neither is the republic. I seem to be in the minority on that.
I think of it more as what I've come to call "hospital time," waiting because there is nothing else to do, on an outcome 100% out of your control. It's a state where time flattens and might as well not exist.
I might have waited too long. Now it’s down to five degrees and it’s four to six inches of snow I have to remove. One way to get my cardio in, I guess…
Yeah… But you people don’t do *artisanal* snow clearing: by hand, the old-fashioned way, like grandma used to make. You probably hop on your DeereCat with a heated cab and use advanced hydraulic earth-moving gear, spewing diesel exhaust and urea NOx suppressants: all that jazz. There’s no TLC in that.
I’ve come upon the solution: Use a 24” push broom. It works on most snows, if they’re not too deep. Any packed, frozen stuff underneath isn’t jarring, doesn’t throw your back out.
Thanks for asking. I’ll be sure to write up a 5,000-word explainer in a future newsletter!
Manul!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5-QFNzl0AE
I suggest you watch this with the sound off.
Heads up: don"t miss the Naval Academy's Battle Hymn of the Republic. It brought this house to tears.
Very fun reading this Kurt. Waiting is an interesting term.
One can wait impatiently I would say.
Is Waiting the Control over Impatience?
Is this a real goal on the one? Maybe of some?
The world is turning away from the coexistence of opposing philosophies to dominance of just one over others.
"How can China advance into the world order with a healthy functioning economic and social order"
It must be said: There is something (I would argue) more important than the Inauguration -- the National Football Championship!
GO BUCKS!
(I suspect incoming VP, JD Vance, 2009 BA from Ohio State, would secretly agree with me).
I expect a number of folks at the inauguration, including the inauguree himself - especially the inauguree himself - were raising a hearty cheer as well...
MO BUCKS!
You’re a patient man, Kurt. Thanks for the China insight. I’m not too inclined to leave my bed this am. My 2AM bathroom break had me spinning, another bout of vertigo. The last bout was almost a year ago and only lasted 4 hours. It’s definitely improved since last night. Good thing the hubs is home to take care of the dogs.
Hope it passes soon. My late mother-in-law used to suffer bouts of that. She was absolutely miserable until it subsided.
I hope you feel much better soon. Do you use peppermint oil?
Thanks for helping me out into words a skill I badly need: letting “my facial muscles relax into jowly unsmiling acceptance.” Let’s just say I don’t have a good poker face. As a larger point I think this is an advantage many of the US’s adversaries have over us. They’re expert at playing the long game and waiting us out, for decades if necessary. We’re obviously not.
That was one of my favorite passages.
Thank you, Kurt, for another wonderful post. You have a great talent for picking out the details that convey meaning. Plus I really enjoy your writing - simple, clear, organized - and so evocative of things unspoken.
The concept of “middle class” might make for some interesting conversation. It is as well much in American minds (we are told that it is disappearing), but other than “middle income," what does it in fact mean?
Thank you back! The body...I could go back and forth on several parts of it, with the meaning for "middle class" being defined in some manner that I'm still not sure how to phrase. I have no idea what it means in America any more. I know what it means here....it means being able to afford a "condo" (they don't call them condos, hence the quotes) in a new tower, own a car, getting married, and generally making it. The China where I hang out is still kinda like 1950's America. Lots of people bought their first place, their first car even if they're in their 40's or 50's,, and are reimagining their lives as they move from abject poverty to something resembling modern life. It's kinda refreshing in all sorts of ways.
Something so simple as going to Sam's Club, where citizens are seeing what abundance means and being amazed and thrilled at all the choices. Or, standing in front of the refrigerated cheese shelves, where there are 4 (4!) kinds of cheese, and helping folks understand the difference between American slices (best for hamburgers) and cheddar (which the average Chinese gags on). They're so thrilled to get advice from an American, it makes me appreciate our country and what it means in the minds of (what I think are) the vast majority of Chinese citizens.
Do the Chinese like cheeseburgers with American Cheese?
"On one hand, the middle class is supposed to usher in an age of domestically driven consumption, driving the economy’s expansion. On the other hand, an ever-increasing list of off-limit topics — political, economic, social — seems designed to empty out the minds of the middle class."
The first part sounds right. The irony of the second part, at least in the US, is that the mind of the middle class finally coalesced around political/economic/social issues and voted for Donald Trump. There’s a lesson there somewhere.
Is it in fact accurate to define the middle class as an enlightened group characterized by reasoning ability, creativity, and personal initiative in pursuit of one’s self interest within the larger society?
Could it be that the middle class in America saw the beginning of its end in the 1950,s? If it is still a useful concept, does it need to be redefined to suit the times? With lots of other things - families and gender are all over the map, everyone is educated but no one reads or thinks for himself, God is dead (or next best thing, defined by the spiritual self). I wonder if the very concept of “standard,” except in engineering (hope springs eternal), is outmoded.
Wow. Good thoughts that parallel my own. In America, middle class is an abstraction at this point.
The Trump part, within which there's a lesson...I don't know. I know I'm not worried about it. China makes everything in America look like gravy.
"...difference between American slices (best for hamburgers) and cheddar (which the average Chinese gags on)."
Vermont could not be reached for comment.
No one will ever convince me that any cheese other than an American slice is appropriate for a cheeseburger. I've tried the Gorgonzola burgers, and all the rest. Awful.
Outside of cheeseburgers, when it comes to cheese, I'm a snob. I like the really stinky stuff, and real English Stilton is my absolute favorite.
On cheeseburgers? I completely agree. I thought it was a general snubbing of Cheddar. There are some great cheeses being made in Vermont now, and they are decidedly NOT cheddar. Many are actually raw milk cheeses. Jasper Hill Farm makes an Alpine style cheese called Alpha Tolman that is truly one of the greatest I've had. On the stinky cheese side, their Harbison and Willoughby are excellent (though I have a limit on how much stinky cheese I can stand). When you are back in the States, you should order some.
I don’t know if it’s a southern thing but I like pepper jack on a burger. Who am I kidding, I can’t think of any type that I don’t love on a burger. Blue might be at the top of my list. Don’t hate me.
I don't hate you. I feel pity...just kidding. Actually, any cheese that has the necessary and appropriate goo factor is OK on a cheeseburger. Jack cheese can get gooey. It can work.
I won’t hate you, but I don’t care for blue cheese.
The casomorphin in dairy apparently works similarly to plain morphine. 😵💫😵💫😵💫
Raw milk cheese is delicious - cow, sheep, goat. Raw milk ricotta, of all things, tastes like the grass the animal grazed.
Exactly right. Good raw milk cheese...you can smell and taste the meadow.
I'll look into it. There's some good artisanal cheese makers in Wisconsin too. Excellent stuff.
I enjoyed living in Curdistan. The natives are amiable.
Many of them from my county! American “cheese” should be called what it is, pasteurized cheese product, ie PCP.
Yes there are.
I like brie on a burger.
Sometimes I really like just a plain ol' burger. Nothing fancy.
So, like the song says... I let it brie, let it brie.
It does have the proper goo factor.
"Generally, my friends and family are impressed with my waiting, but I lack experience, resulting in rough, poorly formed waiting."
Excellent phrasing followed by good illustrations of your inadequate waiting skills. I could see your tacky breaches of waiting protocol.
Cynthia, agree - that was such a great sentence!!
Thank you! I had a lot of fun writing the waiting part. It is a testament to what editing an rewriting can do. I agonized over several parts, and that sentence was one of them. The other was the last one, where I wrote "obviousness of my experience", instead of "my obvious inexperience". "Obviousness" gave it a snooty feel that I was looking for. The whole waiting thing was intended to be a type of satirical whine about nothing by a dilettante.
My other favorite sentence is the last one in the first paragraph...."...small scale depiction of the sorts of power struggles that are the foundation of all idiotic behavior". I was trying to encapsulate the smallness of comments sections arguments in as concise a manner as possible. I think I did. That sentence makes me laugh every time I read it.
"small scale depiction of the sorts of power struggles that are the foundation of all idiotic behavior"
I liked that, too, although I also thought it was something MarqueG might have written. Then I said, "Wait a minute," and scrolled up to see the author's name.
So now I guess you're waiting for Phil to respond to that last...
I'm always happy to hear from Phil H.
As are we all. But shhhh!! Don't tell him that.
Your wit is not only dryly clever, but also lol funny. That,s unusual.
Good morning. Our temp is 2 degrees and will likely not get higher than the teens. We had a dusting of snow last night half inch to an inch.
I haven’t read it yet, but the mothership reports n “Turning the Page on the Biden Era”.
My Substack feed has other stories about Biden. the Silver Bulletin has one entitled “Why Biden Failed”. I don’t subscribe to Michael Medved’s newsletter, but his article showed up in my feed, opining (I think, correctly) that had Biden run in 2016, he would now be wrapping up his second term.
You reminded me that it's been a long time since I've seen or heard Michael Medved, and I feared that he might have been body-snatched, but I'm relieved to find that he has not. I shouldn't have worried, given that values and morality were always central to his worldview. A column from about a month ago has some thoughts from him on what the "right road for resistance" might look like. I think he and I are on the same page.
https://michaelmedved.com/column/for-trumps-implacable-adversaries-the-right-road-for-resistance/
I used to listen to Michael Medved on Salem Radio, until they booted him in 2018 for not being Trumpy, giving his afternoon drive-time slot to that Trumpy blowhard. Sebestian Gorka.
He still has a radio program on only a few stations, and a podcast that has only part of his program.
I'll have to investigate his Substack (even though I'm seeing too many Substacks).
Thanks for the tip. I used to listen to him in the old days too. I did more poking around than I really have time for today, and found that one can listen to part of each day's program, on a delay of several days. But I can probably work that into my podcast listening.
I received a low temperature alert from the cabin. It’s -16 up there and my boiler must be struggling to keep the house at 55, the interior temp is down to 50.
My outdoor thermometer rose briefly to around 50 degrees, but observation showed me that's probably due to direct sunlight hitting it in an otherwise shaded location, with the sun's path so low in the sky this time of year. When I got up this morning it was a much more plausible 5 degrees.
More turning the page on Biden, except those who can't because the harm was permanent: Emily Yoffe has a column in the Free Press today about Trump's executive order on Male/Female. One of the comments linked to PITT.substack.com (Parents with Inconvenient Truths About Trans substack). I don,t know whether the stories are more heartbreaking or infuriating. I couldn,t read more than a few.
The story on that Executive order (and others planned): https://www.thefp.com/p/trumps-day-one-executive-order-male-female-gender-ideology-pronouns
Many of those EOs will be hobbled in lawsuits. And where there are administrative regulations involved, they can't simply be annulled by an EO. They would have to be changed, with a notice-and-comments period, as outlined in the Administrative Procesures Act.
As much as I like a lot of these EOs, they will initially amount to virtue signaling to the MAGA base.
Rule by pen and phone is Obama's gift that keeps on giving. EOs should not be used to circumvent the will and responsibility of Congress. They have enabled a vicious circle of congressional atrophy.
Congress is just as responsible for its own atrophying of powers, having for years and years steadily ducked its responsibilities in favor of political expediency by sloughing responsibilities off onto the Executive branch and then not seriously reigning in presidents when needed.
Except in matters concerning straight-up Commander in Chief responsibilities, the executive branch, in my opinion, should be the absolute weakest of the three branches of our government, instead of the be-all-end-all virtually untouchable and unaccountable near-rogue operative it's become over time, and thanks now in no small part to the recent SCOTUS decision on presidential immunity which only augments executive power and the potential for abuse even more.
A plague on congress for being political cowards and a plague on the Executive branch for all the stupid partisan over-reach that comes vis a vie executive orders. And while I'm plaguing things, a plague on the judiciary for its now apparently accepted ability to practice naked partisanship in favor of the rule of law.
Agree 100%. EO gives an easy excuse to do nothing. The executive and courts have leapt into the legislative vacuum. A pox on Congress.
I know "pox" is the "standard" to hurl for such purposes as these, but I went with plague rather than pox because according to my info, #1 deadliest disease in history is bubonic plague and #2 is smallpox. Something about the thought of Black Death just seems to suit my black mood about this a bit more, I suppose. 😠😉
Yes, I know. Biden unleashed and legitimatized some real devils that won't be easy to put back in the cage.
I stopped at one story. Affirming medical personnel DISGUST me. My husband tells of a nurse who returned to our rural hospital because she couldn’t stand what she was witnessing in the university system with respect to gender affirming care.
Evil is evil. i know it when I see it.
My dislike for Biden has only deepened over time, I have to admit.
This latest round of weird-to-irresponsible actions on his way out the door, though…
The best on his shameless attempt to rewrite the Constitution was from Robert P. George:
https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/keystone-kops-konstitutionalism/
A good retelling of the Biden-Pelosi rupture was from Jonathan Martin at Politico:
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/01/19/lady-mcbiden-alexandra-pelosi-first-lady-00199164
I’m sure there are angrier rants out there that I would agree with in large part. I’m just done with the whole topic. (I don’t even much believe in the Biden Crime Family theory.)
If he really thinks he could have performed better than Harris, it merely serves as more evidence that his pig-headed, bloody-mindedness has only ever gotten worse. He couldn’t even take friendly and helpful advice from his own ideological allies—not if they didn’t buy into his narcissistic belief that he was always indispensable.
In his attempt to ratify the ERA by Presidential fiat, in his stated non-enforcement of the TIk Tok ban, a law he supported and signed, and in many other ways, Joe Biden is leaving office a bitter man, as disrespectful of the law and the Constitution as the man who will replace him.
Yup. His exit is as inelegant as can be. Good riddance.
I'm with you on this. Good riddance.
Me three.
"had Biden run in 2016, he would now be wrapping up his second term"
I think it's reasonable to believe Biden could have won in 2016. He did not, at that time, inspire the visceral revulsion that surrounds Hillary Clinton like a cloud of sulfur gas.
Second term? I don't know. Many of us knew in 2020 that his mental acuity was in sharp decline. Depending on how his first term had gone, the media-Democratic Party coalition might not have covered that up with such comprehensive smothering. I still hope that everyone who ever said it was "mean" to observe THEN that Biden had dementia steps on a Lego ... because it was true, and they were either factually in error or lying.
I got really annoyed ready the Larry Sabato insider piece. It tells me he has no values, but seeks only power. He knew Biden couldn't do it, yet he stayed quiet. Quiet at a time that if people such as himself had any courage, might have made a difference.
It was obvious Biden was in decline, that people had been propping him up. Ironically, had he not run, I wouldn't have been as upset about it; it would have been viewed as being nice to the geezer on his way out. Biden didn't want to leave, until it was too late.
After last night's sportball game, Biden will be remembered as the "Mark Andrews of presidents"...Doh!
Yeah. Sabato's a small time weasel.
What did Sabato do?
He published a self-puff piece, claiming he had insider knowledge of Biden's decline (which apparently the Dems had done a masterful job of hiding). But he's releasing it now so everyone knows he had real insider power.
'Course, had he spoken up then, I don't think a moderate but youthful Dem would have lost to Trump (no offense to Harris, but all Boomers are old; in normal times She'd been seen as an older candidate as well).
It is amazing how many Dems think it will make them look good to say they had evidence of his decline...and hid it, going along with the silly narrative. In the story of "the Emperor has no clothes", there are courtiers "holding" the edges of his clothes, looking all the more silly for doing so.
The bottom line is the Dems lost an election that should have been easily winnable given Trump’s many negatives. But I see so many of them still blaming stupid American voters for their loss. They’d better take an honest look at some point.
And they should be looking further back in time than many (even on our side) are suggesting. This goes back several cycles.
Yup. The top folks are still talking about improving their messaging, but not changing the message. I'm not sure they're on the same planet as us.
".....inspire the visceral revulsion that surrounds Hillary Clinton like a cloud of sulfur gas."
That made me laugh so hard, because it's true.
I'm not buying the prediction of Biden winning in 2016 either.
Biden beat Trump once. He could have beaten him 4 years earlier, 4 years less senile and before Trump had a solid MAGA fan base as he did in 2020 and 2024.
There was a rumor reported that, it wan't his son Beau's death that caused Biden to sit out 2016, but pressure from Barack Obama, who backed Clinton. I don't think there was any love lost between Obama and Biden either.
Obama's contempt for Biden was no secret. Biden was too dumb to do contempt - I expect his final response was simple, senile, inchoate hatred
Nope. They're both weasels.
Perhaps he would not have won a second term. But Donald Trump would not have been his opponent. Trump would simply have been another failed GOP nominee, albeit one very different from Mitt Romney. And we would not now dreading Trump 2.0.
I’m not dreading it. I didn’t want him, but I expect he’ll be like most Presidents, a mix of good and bad. He’ll say lots of stupid stuff but I can easily ignore it or laugh it off. The sky isn’t falling and neither is the republic. I seem to be in the minority on that.
I don't think it's a minority. Reporting from lousy media makes it seem that way sometimes, but I don't think it's a minority.
In some very weird way, I'm almost looking forward to it. Mostly shrugging, but kinda looking forward.
I'm not dreading. I'm shrugging.
#MeToo.
While we all wait for better weather, regime changes, news of the future, etc., here’s some relevant career advice from our friends at TMBG:
https://youtu.be/sUdoDhLZ9-Q?si=_Ousc7DjnKA75fl7
Its almost like waiting for waiting's sake.
I think of it more as what I've come to call "hospital time," waiting because there is nothing else to do, on an outcome 100% out of your control. It's a state where time flattens and might as well not exist.
I might have waited too long. Now it’s down to five degrees and it’s four to six inches of snow I have to remove. One way to get my cardio in, I guess…
5*?
4-6"??
phhhtttt!!
Cardio, schmardio.
I don't even get off the couch for those kind of numbers. 🙄😉
Yeah… But you people don’t do *artisanal* snow clearing: by hand, the old-fashioned way, like grandma used to make. You probably hop on your DeereCat with a heated cab and use advanced hydraulic earth-moving gear, spewing diesel exhaust and urea NOx suppressants: all that jazz. There’s no TLC in that.
Yeah. But there's no sweat either. Can't help it if you're a winter weather Luddite.
Be careful if you're shoveling, a man of your age and all...
I’ve come upon the solution: Use a 24” push broom. It works on most snows, if they’re not too deep. Any packed, frozen stuff underneath isn’t jarring, doesn’t throw your back out.
Thanks for asking. I’ll be sure to write up a 5,000-word explainer in a future newsletter!
The best $750 I've ever spent is on a Troy Bilt 2 stage snow blower.
Would be a waste of space here, tbh. We can go several years at a stretch without any measurable snow.
Meaning several years at a stretch without any measurable cardio?
Not insinuating anything. Just askin'...
Yeah, I'm Chicago, where some years there's several feet of snow drift to move.
WHAT HAVE I DONE??? 😳
How many times do you have to be told not to encourage him in any way, if even only by trying to discourage him?
I know, I know. Its like getting a Gremlin wet...
🤣🤣🤣🤣
*flashback*
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1978-amc-gremlin-3/