Monitoring Biden and other Contemporary Events

Totally off the subject, I really encourage everyone to watch the Nick Hornby penned State of the Union series season 2. It's absolutely brilliant in the writing, acting and directing. A total joy. It's available on Sundance Now. Trust me in this.

I am going to go ahead and admit I am hoping Biden does the right thing and changes his mind about running again. I wish someone would come along of whom we would like just because of his or her abilities and political objectives, someone we could really get behind on the left. Biden is really too old now to be serving in as President, I know that is not popular, but, be honest, he is not the same as he was just 15 or twenty years ago, nevertheless still be better than Trump. But is that what we are left with in this country? Just beating Trump and all those who are doing their level best to out trump, Trump? If it came down to it, I would have no choice but to vote democrat no matter who it is just to try and keep our countries democratic freedoms from disappearing all together, but I am still hoping for someone to come along such as I described.

Since it has been slow here, I thought I would just post here what I have been thinking.

How do you feel about Gavin Newsome?

I think Pete Buttigieg would make a good president. I only wish I believed that he could get the support he would need to mount a viable candidacy.

Well, he is a democrat from California. Right off the bat, the campaign becomes about him because the crazies MAGA will go straight for him. I haven't really read too much about him or California of late, so, I don't know.

I like our Governor of KY, Andy Beshear. He won in a red state, so that might be something good (or not.)

https://governor.ky.gov/About-Us/Pages/Governor-Andy-Beshear.aspx

I completely agree.

If Tim Ryan manages to beat J.D.Vance in Ohio he'll be in a strong position. And I agree that Beshear would be a good candidate. Both these guys are from red states and I see that as a strong point – as long as it's not their only strong point.

Hello Frank. Unfortunately I don't see the irony to which you are referring, while at the same time I don't see the end of our republic either. We have overcome worse situations in our history, and, as I indicated, the forthcoming elections are likely to mark the the beginning of the end of the dominance of the far Left Ideologs in the contemporary political scene. They have enjoyed complete control of our Government for the past two years, with the Presidency, both houses of Congress and the continuing support of a permanent Executive bureaucracy, which over the past few decades has assumed large elements of both the legislative & judicial branches of our government. With little effective opposition, they have implemented many of their their policy goals, and in the process confronted our people with the reality of their fast rising and destructive economic and social consequences, something that will likely likely lasting changes.

Hard to know how fast(or slowly) our recovery from it may proceed. To some extent our contemporary scene also reflects ongoing trends throughout the Western world. Happily, events in Ukraine have wiped away formerly widespread illusions (particularly in Germany) about the possibility of luring Putin and the oligarch who have supported his regime for the past decades into meaningful cooperation with the EU, and confronting Europeans directly with the consequences of both their dependence on Russia for gas & petroleum and the folly of their green energy policies. (Even that esteemed energy scientist and engineer Greta Thunberg has urged Germany to keep its remaining Nuclear Power plants in operation.)

As an aside I truly wonder what country or countries were behind the recently established detonations that destroyed the Nordstrom Pipeline in the Baltic? Hard to establish credible motives for anyone here.

Amusingly, Like American Democrats, European "Liberal" political groups stunned by the recent emergence of real opposition have taken to similar projection of their own undemocratic and authoritarian faults on rising opponents who challenge them, most recently in Italy.

As I indicated, we're still at an early stage (indeed the election hasn't yet occurred), however the prospects look very favorable. Lib. Dem. policies have yielded only economic decline, sustained high inflation, rampant crime and social disorder (San Francisco is a very far cry from the colorful, many faceted and beautiful place it once was - increasingly unsafe streets littered with human waste, tents, debris and sad -looking bums shooting up and harassing passers by: shuttered stores, smashed windows on parked cars and crime everywhere.. I haven't been to New York in a couple of years, but from what I read it is more or less the same there.

While the international situation looks grim it appears that Chairman Xi of China has fully revealed his Communist colors (the scene of his security people forcibly escorting his Predecessor (in his new role) out of the conference as it concluded, was instructive. Xi is imposing political controls on China's economy and social life worthy of Mao, and, which in the long run are likely to yield, the same stagnant fate that befell the USSR.

He's bright as hell, well-spoken, hard-working, charismatic, honest and ethical. But of course he's gay and therefore the equivalent of Satan.

No they haven't. They've been forced to compromise again and again. And they certainly don't control the judiciary. What sloppy thinking on display.


Gee, you mean Biden isn't solely to blame for global inflation?


Oh, how cute – and snarky. There have always been environmentalists who see the value of nuclear power as part of the mix of no-carbon energy sources.


It's not difficult at all and several members have provided credible motives – but none of them have been proven to be the case. We still require evidence; a believable motive isn't sufficient.


It's not. But there is a housing crisis, fueled by busloads of immigrant and asylum seekers arriving courtesy of southern governors.


No he hasn't; he's merely continued to reveal more autocratic tendencies. None of his policies have anything to do with "communism". You should be able to handle that – as one who tirelessly repeats the conservative dogma about the "Democrat Party" not being "democratic", you might be expected to have a slightly more sophisticated understanding of political branding.

When asked about the issue of nuclear power in an interview, Thurnberg reacted pragmatically. "Personally, I think it is a bad idea to rely on coal as long as the nuclear power plants are still running," Thunberg said. "But of course this is a very heated debate," she added. Asked whether the NPPs should be shut down at all after the current crisis phase, Thunberg said: "It depends on what happens."

The "anti-nuclear movement in Germany" has existed since 1970 and to this day has various causes and supporters from the most diverse camps.
The strength of this support had diminished in the 1980s as well as at present.


Xi is the new Mao and for this he stages himself as leader in a way that reminds us of Hitler, Franco and Mussolini in Europe.
The way he has the military and police swear in and serve him, the military parades that show him at the centre, he is ruling the People's Republic today with a "Chinese-style fascism".

Interesting commentary

My responses in sequence:
1. As established in our Constitution, neither party controls the judiciary, and it is entirely removed from our legislative and executive processes: That should be obvious to you. There was nothing sloppy about my logic.

2. I have never suggested that Biden was responsible for the moderate global inflation that now affects most of the world. However the fact remains that inflation is significantly higher here, and the difference is clearly attributable to Biden's excessive, and unnecessarily) continued COVID social welfare payments, which pumped excessive liquidity into a still recovering (from COVID) economy. These payments also stalled the reopening of several sectors of the economy. Biden's truly stupid and still growing restrictions on our petroleum production are doing the rest. Consider how things would be for the US and our allies, had Biden not cancelled planned pipelines; restored NEPA impediments to the construction of needed infrastructure of all kinds (including planned LNG plants) restricted access to Federal lands for fracking ; cancelled new access leases; and started slow walking the renewal of existing ones, thus retaining the then, 6%, and still growing, surplus of our production over our consumption. We then would not need need expensive foreign imports; enjoyed significant export income, lower energy prices; significantly reduced inflation; and the ability to replace a large portion of the requirements of our European allies lost to Putin's war.
Look at the details & subcategories in the government CPI. Petroleum and energy cost increases lead all the others by a wide margin and are themselves the drivers for the increases in the second highest category, food products. Diesel fuel prices are up over 70% - a major factor in the cost of everything, and a contributor to current supply chain issues. These are the reasons why inflation here is higher than Europe's. Moreover none of these actions would have themselves increased petroleum consumption - only source of supply. Without Biden's slavish adherence to AGW zealots we would likely have continued much lower inflation than that which prevails in Europe.

3. Some environmentalists have indeed supported nuclear power, but the fact remain that most don't, and that is why we are letting our own nuclear base (formerly the producer of ~ 38% 0f our power) fade away in the breathtaking illusion that we can somehow, with wind & solar alone increase our electrical power production by the 45% required to meet the needs of the all electric transportation system (mandated in California, and a goal of Biden's) in the next 15 years. Now that is a real example of "sloppy thinking".

4. My problem with the Nordstream pipeline sabotage is not who has the ability to do it (a fairly large number of possibilities there as we both evidently agree) but who has a rational motivation for doing it. I agree motives aren't always either wise or rational, but that is what bewilders me.

5. If in the midst of a mass exodus of New Yorkers to Florida a couple of thousand bussed immigrants are causing a "crisis" in New York, then what must be the effect in Florida from similar transport of immigrants by the Federal government to Florida? More to the point, what is the crisis effect on the border cities in Texas and Arizona which are getting orders of magnitude grater numbers in much smaller cities. That too appears to be rather sloppy thinking on your part.

5. The policies of the late, unlamented (except by Putin) USSR weren't Communist either. Both it and Xi's evolving state were/are simply totalitarian & Bureaucratic Autocracies that enjoyed the illusions of freedom and equality (recall the old Samizdat motto "We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us" (I hope that satisfies your evident need for sophistication).

The key question is: who else but Russia would have the capability and the opportunity to destroy these four pipelines - and would leave one of them intact?
The USA, Ukraine or any other country that wants to harm Russia would certainly have destroyed all four connections as part of such a high-risk operation. Because only Russia can profit from maintaining a connection.

Parties aren't even mentioned in the constitution. If you are going to state that one party enjoys complete control of the government and then exclude the judicial branch your reasoning is sloppy.



Immigrants have been arriving on the southern border for years, and housed temporarily while awaiting a hearing. I'm not a fan of our immigration policies but lying to these vulnerable people and shipping them to perceived "Democratic" cities and states with the false promise of jobs and housing is particularly revolting.

Wrong. You're defending georbeob1's opinions as if they were facts and logic. His opinions are severely illogical and false assertions of cause and effect, e.g. US immigration policy and the drug smuggling at the US southern border. Referring to decreased oil production, less restrictive immigration policies, and the seeking of an agreement with Iran as liberal authoritarian failures is purely a matter of opinion, politically partisan and ideological, and are not examples of facts and logic.

Inflation rates around the world:

Turkey: 83.45%
Argentina: 83%
Netherlands: 14.5%
Russia: 13.7%
UK: 10.1%
Germany: 10%
Europe: 9.9%
Spain: 8.9%
Italy: 8.9%
Mexico: 8.7%
United States: 8.2%

(per @tEconomics)

Nobody ever mentions Canada...

We're at 7% for Aug 2022.

Nobody mentions what?

Impossible! 7 years of Liberal party rule, by axioms revealed on this thread, could not produce such a result!

Maybe that’s because there always seems to be a Canadian around to tell Americans how great Canada is.