There is zero chance Biden debates Trump, or any political opponent for that matter, ever again. We all know the lazy excuses they'll use, the sames once CNN is already using to censor Trump. The only mystery, and it isn't much of one, is what percentage of Democrats will swallow the lie. Over/under is at 95%.
No only did Trump conduct almost 4x as many interviews as Biden up until this point in his presidency - 273 to 74 - Trump would eagerly go toe-to-toe with journalists who proudly boasted about making it their mission to take Trump down. Conversely, Biden's interviewers' sychophancy is stomach-turning. Setting him up for a lame one-liner and then cackling at his jokes, and asking softball questions that essentially boil down to "explain why criticism of you is misinformation".
In Joe Biden's particular case I think he is an habitual liar. I think he literally doesn't care what the truth is, and likely never has. It is simply getting harder for him to tell PLAUSIBLE lies, because he can't remember anything.
And as Abraham Lincoln pointed out, it takes a good memory to be a good liar.
Joe Biden wouldn't last five minutes as a Republican.
This is a little off topic. It has been around for while but it is funny but true:
The Biker and the Lion
A little girl was leaning into a lion's cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the collar of her jacket and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the eyes of her screaming parents.
A biker jumps off his Harley, runs to the cage and hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch. Whimpering from the pain the lion jumps back letting go of the girl, and the biker brings the girl to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly.
A reporter has watched the whole event.
The reporter addressing the Harley rider says, 'Sir, this was the most gallant and bravest thing I've seen a man do in my whole life.
The Harley rider replies, "Why, it was nothing, really. The lion was behind bars, I just saw this little kid in danger, and acted as I felt right".
The reporter says, "Well, I'll make sure this won't go unnoticed. I'm a journalist, you know, and tomorrow's paper will have this story on the front page.
So, what do you do for a living, and what political affiliation do you have?"
The biker replies "I'm a U.S. Marine, a Republican and I voted for Trump".
The journalist leaves. The following morning the biker buys the paper to see if it indeed brings news of his actions, and reads on the front page:
U.S. MARINE ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH.
And THAT pretty much sums up the media's approach to the news these days!
The senile old fart can't string words together to form a sentence. The DNC knew he was senile when they ran him for president. They put our nation in danger. What if our nation is threatened with a nuclear attack? And the ever senile Joe is asked to make a life or death decision? How do you think that will go?
Most politicians are whores and will do anything to maintain power, even if it means selling the country out and that is exactly what the DNC did. Treason!
Who do you have your money on as the replacement candidate? Newsome, Whitmer, Michelle Obama? My money's on Newsome, and he'll pick a non-Kamala woman to run with him.
"During Biden’s campaign rally in Las Vegas on Sunday evening, Biden recounted meeting leaders of G7 countries in 2021 in Cornwall, England. He mentioned speaking to “Mitterand from Germany,” who was president of France from 1981 to 1995 before passing away in 1996.
“I sat down, and I said, ‘America is back,’ and Mitterand from Germany — I mean France — looked at me and said, said, ‘You know, why, how long you back for?'”
My comment
It was right after he had croissants with Napoleon and De Gaulle. He also said he got a call from Jimmy Hoffa who promised him the unions support. But to be nice, this is actually more believable than a lot of things he says."
I’m sticking with my prediction that Biden won’t be the name on the ticket by the time Election Day arrives, which is why he won’t be debating Trump (and why he won’t be interviewed before the Super Bowl). Democrats are much too smart not to do something when they see his poll numbers, as well as his dementia, continuing to plummet. I’m not necessarily a fan of all party members voting as a party all the time…but they sure know what to do to get what they want. McConnell is a fake Republican who won’t even stick up for our country before Ukraine.
McConnell is in the same cognitive decline as Biden. He can barely get a sentence out these days without slurring or showing seizure like pauses. It is time we consider that mental fitness should be a requirement to hold that much power on either side of the aisle.
Senator Chuck Grassley is 90. While he's had health problems, he is still quite coherent and doesn't see dead people. Dr. Thomas Sowell is 93, published his 40th book last year, and is smarter than all the President's economic advisors put together. It's not a matter of age but of competency.
My point isn’t that one is worse than the other. McConnell has a very powerful position as leader of the Senate. Currently, critical legislation is before the Senate regarding the border catastrophe. It is being offered as a border solution but includes funding for the war in Ukraine. Any sane Republican minority leader would give that a big fat “No way”, but he seems initially at least, to be embracing it. He’s giving cover to every Rhino senator who may be inclined to vote with the democrats. He is no longer mentally fit to hold the line.
Or, you know, he knows that he is not the leader of the Senate, as you stated, and he has an opinion that's different from yours. Has nothing to do with his fitness to "hold the line", he just disagrees with you. I would gather he is not the only person to do that.
“he knows that he is not the leader of the Senate”
And for him, that isn’t a bad thing. He can pretend to be a republican while working behind the scenes to make sure that only likeminded corporate flunkies get elected to his caucus. He and Chuckie Schumer are two peas from the same uniparty pod.
I’m sorry, you are correct that he may have a different opinion. However, when an elected public leader can no longer stand at a podium before the public and the press without slurring his speech or diminishing into a cognitive freeze, the public notices and has every right to ask questions about his/her ability to uphold their oath. That oath being an agreed upon contract with the people via the constitution.
The problem with requiring tests of "mental fitness" for high political office is that inevitably the decisions about what kinds of tests to use and to whom and under what conditions they should be administered will be hashed out politically, with each side trying to make them easy to pass for their candidates and hard to pass for their opponents.
This may sound a bit jaded, but befitting my profile description as "a grumpy old mansplainer" I believe that an "unpolitical scientific consensus" has always been hard to find, whether in the U.S. or elsewhere.
My opinion is that they are already setting up to allow party elites to nominate who they want at the convention. No need to do it now and deal with the messy primaries where mere voters have a say. Too much risk of a moderate getting too much attention - let alone enough delegates to actually impact far Leftist plans for a socialist society where the Left Elite get to do whatever they want while telling the rest of us what to do.
If my digging is correct if the nominated candidate is unable to complete the race, the DNC makes the selection. Behind closed doors so to speak. Much neater than hashing it out at the convention. No public histrionics from.those who think Kamala Harris matters.
I’m not sure if it’s behind closed doors. The only precedent was in 1972 when George McGovern threw Thomas Eagleton under the bus. The difference being the candidate was still there to nominate a replacement. The vote was televised. If it’s behind closed doors Kamala is dead in the water, opening the door for other relics like Clinton and Kerry.
I don't the Democrats are willing to put Hillary in the ring, no matter how she screams and threatens. With age being such a huge factor at the moment, their best bet is someone younger than 60.
I agree. They are just waiting as long as possible, probably in hopes that alternative media won't be able to tarnish their candidate before election day.
That is exactly what it is. No chance for debate, no time to poke holes in whatever platitudes they trot out. Its clever really. The whole process is meant to tear down candidates. Tis person will be fresh and exciting, likely a POC and/or woman so they will check boxes and get credit for it regardless of their actual qualifications.
Yes, but I’ve also heard they (because it’s not just Michelle of course) don’t want it. If this were to happen, she’d win in a heartbeat with all the fools who love her. Trump would be a racist and misogynist before he opened his mouth at a debate with her!
It may have to be a woman, though. And one who is still fertile. The only thing that the D party can hang its hat on is abortion these days.
Which is why the Republicans have put up Mazi Pilip, a black woman, to run for the Santos seat in NY - against a white male D, Tom Suozzi.
The Suozzi/Pilip race is all about two issues. Migrants and Abortion. The propaganda from both sides is insane.
The PAC ad that dings Pilip is only about her once saying she was Pro-Life, followed by "her party is against all abortions" completely distorting the issue and the candidate. The PAC ad that dings Suozzi talks about how the D party is for illegal immigration, when Suozzi is less permissive than his peers.
Fuck all of these PACs and the people who work for them with a chainsaw.
Unfortunately, their most high-profile female option is Gretchen, who made such an authoritarian mess of Covid in Michigan that the memes skewering her have already been made and could be posted within moments of her replacing Biden.
A lot of people are saying Michele Obama, but I don't think she would accept. She hates this country (and the receipts to prove it are readily available), and don't think she would want to tarnish herself by being its leader.
Yes but at least the issues are properly placed in that race. Right now, in the face of Congressional inaction on abortion, there is not a damn thing a president can do about it. Kudos to the first presidential candidate to say it out loud.
Use to think that it would be Newsom but CA's current situation makes him a liabilty not an asset. It may be the Josh Shapiro, the current governor of PA
Kamala has lost most of her POC credentials, and she has proven to be an idiot whose only talent seems to be throwing together word salads. I'm not convinced that the DNC is going to be considering a POC for anything except the VP spot, and they would be smartest, at this point, to choose a Hispanic person.
It looks that way. I don’t understand why they think that would sell. Sure many will vote for her, but they tried that with Hillary Clinton. I know Michele is a lawyer, but does she have any kind of executive leadership experience in private business or government? I know that won’t deter some voters either. I’m not sure she would want to go through the dirty nasty campaign that would ensue. I don’t think the democrats are in lockstep as much as others do. The spectacle of taking out Biden and skipping over Harris won’t be a minor dust up. It would be something to see, but I think there would be an angry fracture there. Also Biden has been governing on the master plan set out by the Obama administration. A lot of folks are unhappy with the results and can see there isn’t much personal return for their loyalty to the democrat party. Who knows what will happen, but it’s not going to be that simple to put MO in place of Biden or Harris.
Well said E. I agree. In essence the Democratic party is a road map for their vision of the nation - a top down structure with power in the hands of a select few making decisions for the rest of us. For our own good because we are too stupid to know what is good for us. The Democrat voters are just misinformed enough to believe they have a say.
I think it would be that simple. Tons of people simply vote R or D, down the line. So the main goal is simply a candidate that people don't dislike so much they don't bother voting. You don't actually need someone with skill or experience or talent. They just need to be able to speak, not be 70+ years old. PoC and female are icing on that cake.
Not saying they are choosing her, just that I feel like you are overthinking it. Biden barely campaigned last time and he avoided interviews and debates. And he won. So obviously competency is not an important factor.
Well there were irregularities with that vote the impact of which remain unexplored. My big fear is what will they orchestrate this time. Are we kidding ourselves that votes matter?
They might want her thinking she'll bring in independent women and "the Black vote," as if all women and Blacks are in lock step and incapable of analyzing issues.
I agree with others here that Newsom is also being groomed, God help us all. Could be true that Michelle doesn't want it.
My husband and I have the same thought- I theorized he would have had a fall, or a cancer scare, or another brain issue or some reason by the end of January. Perhaps they’re going to get him through the State if the Union THEN he’ll have a “health issue”. But the question remains…who will the powers to at be pick?
They'll wait to the last possible moment to replace him. They'll want their replacement protected from the revelation of negative information as much as possible before the election.
I'm currently betting on Newsom as the replacement.
You could well be right. He certainly is trying to appear more moderate these days. He definitely appears ambitious and willing to tow party line. One would think that a glance at California would scare people off of him, but, sadly, many people have short memories and will point to his recent moves.
Biden will be the nominee unless he becomes further incapacitated before the DNC convention in Chicago. The DNC is already doing all it can to make sure that there are no challengers. The problem the DNC has is that if it allowed other democrats to attack Biden for his abysmal presidency, he would have even less support by the average voter. The DNC would go for that if it had a potential winner to tout instead of Biden. But who would that be? Schummer? AOC? Schiff? Jeffries? Harris? The whole reason that Biden was picked by the DNC in 2020 was because they knew that all of the wild-eyed progressives running for the nomination had zero chance in a general national election. Remember that? Biden was the great unifier. The seasoned pro who would work with the GOP to get things done. And no doubt, the DNC will still be trying to play that card even though the American public has now seen that Biden is an inept liar who is spending us into bankruptcy.
I think Biden will be the nominee. The Democrat leaders are happy when they can do anything they like and the president won't even know about it. They are not worried about the election. They know the fix in in.
True-believer Democrats are a crazy, fanatical bunch who will believe and do whatever they’re told. Just read the comments section on any absurd article in NYT. It’s exactly the same on the other side - any Republican who doesn’t toe the most extreme and absurd positions of the “new right” is accused of being a “Rhino” and is to be excluded from the cultist heaven of MAGA on the orders of the great Messiah Trump. Intolerance, ignorance of history and world politics, tribalism, histrionics, lack of any real principles under the disguise of extreme positions, that's the poison that destroys America from the inside. Elect the demagogue to replace the nursing home patient and you’ll get the same gridlock, no laws passed by Congress, same inaction but more toxic noise, because that’s really all the extremists want. All the people peddling pricey newsletters here will get a few hundred more subscribers, while those of us hoping to get rid of woke domination will get nada.
I agree. Biden will step aside and they will coronate his replacement at the Convention this summer. The only question is who ? Michelle Obama is high on the list.
I predict Michelle Obama. She ticks many of the Identity Politics boxes, promotes Identity Politics, and can continue to faithfully apply Obama policies.
The correct response to any attempt, foreign or domestic, to revoke the social contract, and dismantle human civilization, is not polite rebuttal. The only possible response is a fight for your life.
The whole “Trump is a threat to democracy” is going to be used to not debate him. Biden is waiting to see if there is enough COVID to use as an excuse and if not the ‘he’s a threat to democracy so I won’t debate him’ will be his fall back excuse.
What many people don’t see is why Biden’s handlers are limiting access to him. They know more definitively than anyone that Biden is in severe cognitive decline so they are shielding him from any unnecessary media exposure. The fact that they protect him is a dead giveaway that he’s gone far downhill.
If he is re-elected and survives a few years into a second term democrats will try to invoke the 25th amendment and remove him to install the VP. What’s happening with his being hidden, Trumps legal charges, media censorship, sue to blue, etc., are all ways to manipulate the people, the media and the world to get Biden a second term and for democrats to hold on to power.
The democrats have been perfectly clear what their end goal is: radical transformation of the country. But they know it’s not popular except for academic lounges, fringe activist groups, socialists and a few radical, left wing anarchists. So they ram it through while destroying society in the process. But to them destroying current society is the goal, not a drawback or unintended consequence. ‘Norms’ to them are the problem and must be destroyed.
The fact that mainstream democrats are going along with this is what’s so perplexing. The Liberal Patriot, a Substack contributor, wrote a great piece the other day on this very subject. The Liberal Patriot is written from the lefts perspective, of which I am not, but it at least seems to be written with common sense and not radicalism (although DTS is alive and well). What the traditional democrat seems to misunderstand is that eventually these radical leftists will also come for them. Almost no one will be pure enough for the far left.
Ask yourself this: if none of this manipulation were going on, would Biden have a snowballs chance in h*#ll of winning? My opinion, not 1%.
Yes - what you will get will be like Michigan during Covid where the Governor is telling everyone to lock down even the tiniest activity while her husband and family are boating on their lake in northern Michigan.
Oh, that one. I began life at the very northern point of the lake, but I'm partial to Lake Huron now. I've been sailing those waters for nearly 40 years.
I have always said we should do it like a school debate. Where they are actually scored and someone may actually fact check the rhetoric they spit out.
Oh I do not like that. I think that is what the media types think they are doing now. I say just give them the same questions, give them a set time to respond, turn the mic off, and move on. Let the listener do the fact-checking and decide.
But I think that is the problem now, people don't check. They get asked a questions, spew a bunch of rhetoric and people cheer. If people actually did their homework, half the politicians we have now wouldn't have been elected.
I agree with that. But the moderators are no better. I guess the real trick is to convince people that independent thought is necessary. I shudder every time I hear/read "hive".
That is a fair point. Any debate by the MSM is gonna suck regardless. You would have to find people with integrity and I doubt the candidates would agree on who that is.
We really have to start facing the realization that it's not gonna be Biden- Michelle will replace him at the most opportune time.
Dems & most Independents will find her to be a much better pill to swallow than Joe. Most will not have the intellect nor understanding that she will just be a newer puppet for the Political Establishment.
Trump will have no chance- and Republican Establishment in Washington will be thrilled as well.
We need to understand that it's all just one big chess game for all the people at the Top to remain in Power - the Media plays their part by pitting Right against Left with fear, anger , Sensationalism- and we all continue to play the game as well with all our brilliant comments that do Absolutely nothing to change the current situation.
Maybe I am naive but I think our commentary IS important. This, and sites like it, is where the meaningful dialogue is occurring, where ideas are exchanged and consensus forged. My vote is certainly informed here. The question is, do votes matter?
You are informed, and a good citizen for taking the time. I promise you, your effort to be informed is rare. The majority of people don’t want to take the time, nor invest the effort to understand the issues. Under this scenario, votes matter, but they are not informed. Just aligned. And that’s what the elites want.
I agree. People say her Bc he’s popular but she LITERALLY has zero record managing anything significant nor doing anything internationally except planning parties at Martha’s Vineyard
Is she really still that popular? and will the DNC really want to run her? I think they will go w/ a man- prob. Newsome. They can get the all important Progressive women 's vote w/ his hair!
What scrutiny do you expect her to receive, other than from Fox News and some conservative blogs? Negative information about her will get the Hunter Biden laptop treatment.
They’re both unfit for office. Trump go toe to toe? He runs to Fox News to do softball interviews, and he never answers any of the controversial questions, if they’re asked. Instead, he babbles on about another topic or blames other people for his mistakes. He’s never wanted to debate, so why the hell should Joe Biden debate him? Shit, he doesn’t even want to debate Nikki Haley. The question is how many Republicans are going to swallow his horseshit? I mean, look at those poor souls that smoked DT’s crack and went to Washington DC on January 6.
As for old Joe, he has MSNBC and CNN, networks Republicans don’t even watch. He’s old and slow and should retire. You’re correct, he can’t debate because he doesn’t have the stamina, nor the quick wittedness to do it. Personally, I’d love to see a debate between these two. One is old and feeble and the other is flat out crazy. I suspect I’ll be going to the polls in November to scribble down a write-in candidate…for the third straight presidential election. Nearly 350,000,000 people in this country and these are two choices. That’s fucking sad.
Most of what you say about both Trump and Biden is true- Trump came to be, out of sheer frustration of a Corrupt Govt that has been inefficient & un accountable for decades & it was getting progressively worse. Almost ALL the "poor souls" as you call them- went to Washington to PEACEFULLY protest which was their RIGHT .
I can list a multitude of ways that people might interpret "the Election was stolen" - manipulation of Social Media sites, censorship, MSM spin on Trump , stifling the Hunter Biden Story, mail in Ballots, ballot harvesting, etc
THAT'S what many of those "poor souls " were protesting.
The 350,000,000 of us in this Country don't control who we get to vote for - the Corrupt Establishment "bestows " those choices on us and yes, it is fucking sad. We need an outsider - Trump was just our 1st shot at it.
But do you think those violent protestors would have harmed a lawmaker who was a Democrat, say, Nancy Pelosi, if they got their hands on her? Of course, they would have. Maybe that would have changed the minds of Trump voters. But I'm not so sure.
Yes, our government needs an enema. Where are we headed? Who knows?
You're asking me a hypothetical? Here are FACTS- without emotion- as I see them:
1) There we 10's of thousands protestors there.
2) A few hundred breached the Capitol.
3) Of ALL those "Violent Insurrectionists" that are a 'threat to our democracy' how many people did they kill ? ZERO
4) 5 people died - the ONE that was shot and killed was a protestor shot by a police officer. The other 4 died of heart attack, or other medical illness.
5) would you like me to send you a montage of democrats holding Political Office , calling for and justifying violence against Trump and Trump Supporters?
6) Ray Eapes caught on tape NUMEROUS times aggravating and encouraging people to bust through and go in- yet he gets off with a slap on the wrist while others languish in prison
7) people being harassed by the Feds- just because they were in attendance at the rally
8) I like to Contextualize things so I listen to a variety of news / opinion sources because Traditional News media is Captured & maybe
I don't advocate for violence in any way. Crimes are crimes. It’s sad that this is where our country is at. Violence committed is now almost justified by the major networks depending on their political allegiances. It only takes one to do irreparable damage. My God, the military at least taught me that. The BLM protests turned violent and destructive were crimes, too. I condemned them as I condemn Democrats calling for violence against DT. They should be voted out of office.
We agree that violence is not the answer. And, yes, traditional media is politically driven.
At this point in Trump's presidency, Covid had been raging for more than two years. He had a lot of press conferences and interviews, but they were full of lies and drivel.
Two *years*? Covid had been present in the U.S. for perhaps two *months*, although the Democrats and their tame press refused to acknowledge it until early March.
Cognitively Biden can't debate, all Trump would have to do is fire a string of questions/statements at him and Biden would be stumbling down a rat hole. Trump, during this whole election, has no reason to debate.
To the commenters who would like to have real time fact checkers present at a Presidential debate, here’s an illustration of what it would probably look like.
I’ll give you odds that Biden not only does agree to a debate but that he agrees to two, or even three. Why? Because he doesn’t even have to “win” them to blow up the ad nauseum Republican line that he’s senile, an imbecile and too old - he merely has to show up and be sane. And he will. And it will drive Trump up the wall, especially if the debate rules prevent him from hijacking them, which Biden will demand.
If there are no debates that will be one good thing that comes out of this shit show. These debates are not only useless to determining the best candidate but they are actively harmful.
An Islamist making a threat on someones life is more than speech. It should be treated and punished as a crime until publicly removed by the threatener.
A country that cannot protect its politicians and children is a failed state. Adherents of the religion of peace forced Freer out and killed Amess. They groomed British girls in Rochdale and bombed them in Manchester. Authorities did not intervene until it was too late because they were scared to be called racist.
In an Orwellian twist, they are quick to knock on the doors of anyone accused of Islamophobia like this comment. Both the Labour and Conservative parties support continued mass migration. Will anyone try to save Britannia?
I hate saying this because I love my country but the hard truth is that Britain is a basket case. Worse than any other place in the West. All three of its major political parties are the same "socially liberal" quasi-woke. This includes 90% of its college 'educated' middle class whose virtue-signalling fashionable beliefs are paid for by ugly mayhem further down the social scale. Even if a decent government ever got 'into power' they'd be hobbled by the 90% lefty civil service. Why did Britain become so out in front of the rest of the West in this regard? I don't entirely know but I suspect that 5 decades of its supposedely 'impartial' BBC media hegemony is a big part of the answer. https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/invasion-of-the-virtue-signallers
As long as the left continues to preach the false narrative that Islam is the religion of peace and damn anyone who say it isn't as an Islamophobe we are going to have this problem.
Only an ignoramus, asshole calls Islam the religion of peace. Islam is anything but peaceful. It is the religion of hate and violence and it has been this way since its inception. If there is a left wing nut case on this BBS that believes the lie, read a history book. Educate yourself. Read the historian Will Durant on what Islam did to India. He called the massacre of Indians by Islamic armies probably the bloodiest period in the history of man. He wrote this before WW II.
The left falsely claims they are the feminist party, a blatant lie. They praise Islam, a religion that allows and encourages the brutalizing of women, practices slavery and murders homosexuals.
Call me an Islamophobe and I will say hell yes I am and you should be one too.
Don't let them call you an Islamophobe. Tell them you are an Islamonauseate. Don't fear them, but do be disgusted by their doctrines of violence. Even so, Islamists are one of many historical organized religions that have wrought havoc, death and indoctrination throughout history. Most of the rest are more peaceful now, but that was not always the case.
Given that most people have been religious throughout history and people are inherently too warlike, I don't think it is correct to claim that "religions" have wrought havoc, death, and indoctrination throughout history. Just in the preceding century WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, none of these were caused by "religion". And atheist regimes are hardly peaceful. Stalinist Russia. N Korea. Etc.
It is not "religion", it is Islam that is the problem.
But what fills the vacuum left by lack of religion is far from impressive. Demean religion as you will, religions were the organizing principles that brought us out of the caves and launched us into space.
There is a difference.... a big one. America is half crazy-woke but it also still retains a large traditional conservative constituency. America is in a Culture War....in Britain it's been a cultural surrender long since
I am one of the original Jimmy Buffet fans. Seriously from the High Cumberland Jubilee days. He has written and performed the music of my life. You should see what some of his albums and CDs are going for.
They either deport them or eliminate them. Short of that Britain will fail. The only good news is everyone with money will come to America, leaving the rest to burn.
Tracy Chapman stood unadorned and joyously open with Luke Combs, clearly humbled and honored to be blessed to share this powerful performance. Two humans with such varied identities that I will not label because it was irrelevant, joined in presenting Chapmans art which entwined them emotionally/deeply by representing a life anthem for both. This performance stands as the gold standard of what can be.
The only sourness (for me, at least) was that the Grammy voters practically snubbed Combs' work giving him only a Country Vocal nomination (which he lost to 10 x Grammy winner Chris Stapleton) and no general category nomination for Record of the Year. I hope that the industry sees the joy that people took out of this simple, stunning performance and that if affects both the music they choose to celebrate and even the way a lot of the performances are staged to be bigger than life. This performance succeeded by being scaled to a human dimension and it was beautiful.
The other guys mentioned have post-1945 birth dates. However, there are still many people in the Senate and House of Representatives who were born in the 1930s.
I don't know. You would think they would be tired and want to go relax on a tropical island or spend time with their great-great-grandchildren.
I read most of Bibi Netanyahu's autobiography, and I think he genuinely believes that he is irreplaceable. I admire his many accomplishments over his long career, but I don't believe Israel would be doomed if he retired today. However, it's not insane to believe that he was a critical figure, especially in the economic liberalization of Israel in the 80s/90s.
On the other hand, nonagenarian Senator Chuck Grassley? How could he possibly believe that his place in the Senate couldn't be filled by Random Republican Guy who would vote exactly the same way?
Oh please. Being in the senate is a retirement job anyway. They have people to do everything for them. All they have to do is go on tv once in a while, take junkets, spend other people's money etc. They do nothing except insider trade, get kickbacks and amass money.
Some do. But Congressional power is concentrated in those who have served the longest. Sure the rookies get attention based on their committee appointments but that is just flash. The real power is in chairing the committees. So the longer you serve the more pork you can steer to your district. It has been this way for at least a century. If you have never done so read Senator David Crockett's remarks in response to a bill proposing federal monies be expended to aid victims of a devastating fire in Baltimore.
Brought me to tears. I am SO SO SO tired of these ginned up controversies and performative outrage, and the Combs and Chapman duet reminded me of a time when we sought out commonalities and came together to celebrate excellence.
"Fast Car" is such a refreshing song in today's context. A song about personal responsibility, working hard to make a better life, pitfalls of addiction. And with a focus on beautiful vocals For the last couple of decades, music has promoted heavy drug use, crime, violence and treating women terribly. All set to blaring music and a singer screaming obscenities.
Ollie didn't share the worst of it. Here's the founder of Woke Kindergarten in her own words: "I believe Israel has no right to exist. I believe the United States has no right to exist. I believe every settler colony who has committed genocide against native peoples has no right to exist."
Go to her website and watch "they" read a book. It is toe curling and a how NOT to share books with students. What is shocking is that without credentials, she was able to make the diversity, equity, appeal to a school system that is dealing with serious issues. It is also damning that a school system that desperately needs interventions and additional resources for their students selects to put the money not in the classroom but for another admin in diversity and equity.
Not providing an education to the students who are below poverty is incorporating inequity because illiteratacy is a burden that keeps people in poverty. There has got to be a special place in hell for the inequity charlatans.
There is a grass root movement in California where parents are demanding better education are being run by Democrats. There is an accountability demand when schools wanted to take down a mural rather than address the needs students that cost school board members in election. The demand of parents to keep entrance into a gifted and talented high school as merit based. The condemnation of Woke Kindergarten.
This movement is putting Democrats and liberals in office, CA is almost a one party state, but Democrat candidatess are recognizing that they may need to inch towards a more center view point. It is why Newsom faced a recall and why Price is facing a recall...people are demanding better government and a step-away-from-the-cliff candidates.
Newsom was able to win the recall because the National Republican party selected Larry Elder instead of Kevin Faulconer. It was a huge bumble to select Elder who did not really reside in California and was not up on the important issue in California. How many times the Republican party is able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory is amazing and disgusting.
There are many things that make one fear that California once so vibrant is not going to come back.
Pirate Wires had a realistic, yet hopeful piece about Garry Tan’s pushback against SF’s psychotic city council. I’m a pessimist, but if anyone can take on the octopus of Wokeism, it *might* be the tech innovators…
Naw, Randi advocated for keeping schools open remember. Her, Slow Joe, and Mitterrand all wanted to keep schools open. Plus, Randi has spotted a new buffet line to join.
There is huge push back against woke kindergarten by actual "in the trenches" teachers. If the choice is the ability to attend meetings where questions are received as being hostile or having the opportunity to have a reading specialist to help with students, the choice is the latter.
Woke Kindergarten (the founders credentials are what?) was hired by the school's diversity admin.
Understand your disappointment in teachers' union. Notice that unions thrive in school districts with the lowest scores and the poorest students. In California, Oaklands' teachers union made a formal endorsement of Palestine and urged a pro-Palestine teach-in. Since when do teachers make classes unsafe for students? Is it any surprise that there is an exodus of Jewish students from Oakland schools? Are these teachers a 2024 version of the 1942 teachers that expelled Japanese students and never even wrote to their students?
Share your outrage about the unions and then some! These teachers who endorse all the alphabet groups and "to the sea' except the ABCs are the teachers left in the worst school districts to teach the most vulnerable children. It is a savage educational policy. This circles back to the movie now almost 15 years old, Waiting for Superman.
SF Chronicle wrote an article about Woke Kindergarten where they interviewed teachers at that school. Teachers were not allowed to ask questions at trainings and there was a demand for a reading specialist which was ignored for the Woke program. The article also wrote how other schools with similar challenges had put in successful intervention programs that raised test scores. Not being given the opportunity for a known successful programs that worked in similar schools but an expensive non-teacher program had to be discouraging and frustrating. My belief is that most workers want workable solutions whether they are a fry cook or a teacher and this was broken equipment which makes a hard job harder. Listen to "they" read a book and it is so incredibly apparent that this is a ridiculous delivery for a lesson to 5 or 6 year old even if one actually agreed politically with "they."
The article that was negative about the program appeared in the SF Chronicle. This is the Chron that praised the SF resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza and never once mentioned the treatment of the Jewish speakers or the failure of the supervisors to halt the pig noises. This is the Chron that proposes safe injection sites as a way to control the fentanyl epidemic. This is a left wing paper that should have loved this program and found teachers that supported it and it did not.
There is a point where old, young, conservative, and liberal teachers who are in the classroom want real help for themselves and their students. There is often a disconnect between the administration which want to create pretty political ponies to parade and the school staff that have are in the stable dealing with the ponies and the muck. The impetus for this program came not from the teachers but from the administration, specifically, the equity administrator.
The problems with immigration in the US are vast, but children play to that of Europe. The historical and intellectual stupidity of the left is on prime display throughout the continent. Anyone who is historically minded understands that along with race and ethnicity, Religion is a dominant driver of violence and oppression. There are battles of the tribe but also the battles of how one thinks and behaves.
Europe has purged itself mostly of organized Christianity, with the state taking over responsibility for the poor and allowing its citizens to be protected from the consequences of the state. Thus, rules on behavior are not something that many think about until you start letting people whose Religion is all they think about. The modern left in the US detests the religious right for their rules but is so blinded by their obsession with race that they don't see the threat the Isalm poses. They are the religious right on steroids.
It's not that they are people of color, but instead, they believe fervently in Religion and have no clue nor care about the tolerance that comes from an Enlightened world. Any test for immigration must have a religious test, not one of what you believe but rather one to tolerate what others think and behave. Europe did not do that, and the problems they are going to face will be stagging. Left-wing stupidity at its height, and it will be terrible to see how it continues to unfold.
Europe has long been phony. They let threats enter and bend to the ways of foreigners and wonder why they are losing their identity. Maybe Europeans could immigrate to the countries the invaders are coming from. Then they could make those countries prosperous and better and in the mean time, the immigrants will turn Europe into what they left; desperate, crappy, hopeless hell holes.
There is no assimilation anymore, because that's "intolerant, racist, hierarchical, judgmental etc." I have a lefty lesbian friend who (a few years ago when the border crisis was not nearly as bad as it is now) literally said- " I love Mexican food! Bring in more Mexicans!" I warned her that their culture is not as gay-friendly as ours is. She pooh-poohed me until the Latina women who worked in the kitchen of the restaurant she worked in mocked her and laughed at her for dating a woman. When I pointed out that they have not been assimilated and she should expect more of the same w/ the influx of illegals, she replied ," well the rednecks in Oklahoma are way worse!"
Tell your friend that anything we call Mexican food in the US is not actually food that Mexicans eat. And the rednecks in Oklahoma could care less if she’s a lesbian. 🙄
At least the older (40-years plus) Europeans are mostly in that postliberal frame of mind in which every person should be treated as a completely atomized individual without cultural ties. They are therefore extremely critical of any of their own citizens who show cultural solidarity (calling them "far-right extremists" and passing laws to demonize and remove their voices), and yet are completely unaware or baffled when other ethnic groups or religions they import would show cultural solidarity with one another.
For example, Swedish politicans importing two Iraqis into Sweden is afraid if two other Swedes show solidarity with each other and think that's a thing that needs to be prevented, but is simply bemused when the two Iraqis show solidarity with one another.
Religion is one unifying factor, and Islam is a particularly unifying religion. However, I don't think Islam itself is the problem.
Thank you for the great points - It baffles me how they can get mad at their own group but can't bring themselves to say something to another group. Some part of me thinks its a moral superiority where the other thinks plain stupidity or a blend of both.
Did you read yesterday's column regarding "gender dysphoria"? A trained therapist, talking about a "Furrie" saw nothing wrong with a kid using a litter box with the quote "not my life". THIS is the perfect example of how the leftards think - the overeducated but underexperienced class, that yes, is morally superior because they are part of the "everyone gets a trophy" upbringing and nobody's ever told them they're wrong or to sit down, shut up and listen....
Well, that's the end state of Marxism. The atomization of the individual and the transformation of humans into easily managed numbers. Although, that's kind of the end state of capitalism as well, just you can choose what to buy.
“Any test for immigration must have a religious test, not one of what you believe but rather one to tolerate what others think and behave.”
Back in 2001, I spent a month in Morocco. Since I am bilingual (English/French) I was able to have extensive conversations with many Moroccans (virtually all speak French as a second language). The bellhop at my fancy Marrakesh hotel was partway through the immigration process to live in Canada. One of the most interesting things he said about the process was that the immigration officer in the interview said to him, “Monsieur, your wife will have a lot more freedom in Canada than she does here. How do you feel about that?”
Unfortunately, Canada has lost its marbles as much or more than the US and the UK, so I doubt Canadian immigration asks such relevant and intelligent questions these days. But they SHOULD.
When my son was 5 back in 2001, his lifelong friends were a Chinese girl "S," a Mexican girl "M," and a Jewish girl "E." I was good friends with their mothers, and we were just friends and Americans, not races or religions. Literally NEVER came up.
He started kindergarten at a bilingual Spanish/English school. Half my son's class was comprised of kids from south of the border who couldn't speak English. They were just kids, and they played together.
His kindergarten had a "Reading to End Racism" day where a Mexican-American came in and read a story to the children about white kids attacking a little Mexican girl by throwing paint on her, and he talked about white oppression in America. My 5-yr-old son came home and asked me, "Does this mean I can't be friends with M anymore?"
How heartbreaking is that? Even worse, those kids in his class never played together the same way anymore.
I'm sure the man who came in and read that to the kids thought he was making the world a better place, but he was just dumping his baggage and creating the very problem he said he was trying to solve.
My kindergarten daughter has two best friends at school - black brothers who live nearby. Never ever have we discussed anyone’s differences. Her class recently celebrated MLK day and she came home telling detailed stories of what she learned about whites and blacks and killings and hatred. These were things she’s never heard of before! I felt so sick. The innocence was over. I think (in kindergarten at least) race lessons should be treated the same as sex ed …need a parent’s permission first! A heartbreaking day in our house.
My daughter was in 1st grade when she came home and asked the innocence-crushing question: "Mom, why are the brown kids so mean?"
She had happily played with the black kids on our street. She had never heard a racist word from any member of our family. She didn't even know that the "brown kids" (the only description she could invent on her own) were commonly called "black." But she had noticed something about the way the "brown kids" in her school treated her.
I had to explain, as simply as possible, about slavery and racist mistreatment of black people, and why that might cause lingering resentment. That was a far more difficult conversation than any conversation I ever had with her about sex.
I definitely did, but it was district wide after that first year. From then on out until they graduated, I took my kids to the mountains on "Reading to End Racism Day," and it was known in our house as "Reading to Promote Racism Day."
I like to think that I have rhythm, and I do when sitting. The problem I have is when I stand up and try. My daughter hides her face in embarrassed shame.
We’re snarking, not making a serious comment. Since they’re so for DEI, why aren’t there quotas of Asian musicians? What about EQUITY? Music is besides the point. There needs to be inclusion and equity!!!
Joeys handlers don’t trust him to do a three minute Super Bowl interview. How in hell could he do a 1-2 hour debate. Although it would be hilarious to see him stumble on and off stage, probably poop his depends, start yelling profanity then whispering creepily, and no doubt taking his clothes off. It would certainly be instructive to the oblivious left and the dem plantation denizens
Yup, there is no way Biden will debate. Whether COVID, “threat to democracy” or screaming Trump is a criminal, Biden’s handlers will find an excuse to not debate. Biden isn’t capable of doing friendly media interviews, let alone a debate.
Think about that. The “leader of the free world” and president of the most powerful country in the world isn’t cognitively capable of debating or even giving media interviews or press conferences. And democrats and radical leftists (but I repeat myself) prefer that to any other candidates. To them ideology is more important than what’s best for the country and the world.
Can we expect these mini-TGIFs each Tuesday? I noted Nellie’s comment that she’d been criticized for making TGIF overlong. I just want to say I love a big honking Christmas-sized TGIF every week. Although I like this Tuesday amuse bouche as well. Is something else going on? Is Tuesday now a New Haven run for Friday’s Broadway?
Agreed, I am in favor of extended TGIFs. The one feature I don't care for is the photos of where people read the column, but I imagine that promotes viewer loyalty.
The west's approach to radical Islam has been appeasement and this misguided guided view that they will assimilate if given the chance. Islamists understand one thing, death. I say give it to them.
I didn't watch the Grammys but I did watch that clip. Love the song. It's an anthem to those that are born into dysfunction and want to "Be Someone". Always brings a tear to my eye.
She ran a Draw Mo contest in Texas a few years back. Two Islamist pukes showed up looking to myrder her. Both shot dead. Elegant solution . Justice served.
There is zero chance Biden debates Trump, or any political opponent for that matter, ever again. We all know the lazy excuses they'll use, the sames once CNN is already using to censor Trump. The only mystery, and it isn't much of one, is what percentage of Democrats will swallow the lie. Over/under is at 95%.
No only did Trump conduct almost 4x as many interviews as Biden up until this point in his presidency - 273 to 74 - Trump would eagerly go toe-to-toe with journalists who proudly boasted about making it their mission to take Trump down. Conversely, Biden's interviewers' sychophancy is stomach-turning. Setting him up for a lame one-liner and then cackling at his jokes, and asking softball questions that essentially boil down to "explain why criticism of you is misinformation".
However, Biden is open to debating Mitterrand….
He sees dead people
The civilized must bring Islamists to heel before it’s too late.
That's what happens as you approach death.
It’s also called “dementia” . . . Hallucinations are a common occurrence.
In Joe Biden's particular case I think he is an habitual liar. I think he literally doesn't care what the truth is, and likely never has. It is simply getting harder for him to tell PLAUSIBLE lies, because he can't remember anything.
And as Abraham Lincoln pointed out, it takes a good memory to be a good liar.
Joe Biden wouldn't last five minutes as a Republican.
That is true. I can't believe I did not make the connection.
This is a little off topic. It has been around for while but it is funny but true:
The Biker and the Lion
A little girl was leaning into a lion's cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the collar of her jacket and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the eyes of her screaming parents.
A biker jumps off his Harley, runs to the cage and hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch. Whimpering from the pain the lion jumps back letting go of the girl, and the biker brings the girl to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly.
A reporter has watched the whole event.
The reporter addressing the Harley rider says, 'Sir, this was the most gallant and bravest thing I've seen a man do in my whole life.
The Harley rider replies, "Why, it was nothing, really. The lion was behind bars, I just saw this little kid in danger, and acted as I felt right".
The reporter says, "Well, I'll make sure this won't go unnoticed. I'm a journalist, you know, and tomorrow's paper will have this story on the front page.
So, what do you do for a living, and what political affiliation do you have?"
The biker replies "I'm a U.S. Marine, a Republican and I voted for Trump".
The journalist leaves. The following morning the biker buys the paper to see if it indeed brings news of his actions, and reads on the front page:
U.S. MARINE ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH.
And THAT pretty much sums up the media's approach to the news these days!
That made me laugh. And I needed it. Thanks. The coverage on this border bill, which is outrageous, is exactly as in your story.
Yea there called, Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, Berni Sanders, Charles E Grassley, Mitch McConnell ………………………………
Well he is a dead man walking in that he’s imprisoned in a bunker in the Beltway
The senile old fart can't string words together to form a sentence. The DNC knew he was senile when they ran him for president. They put our nation in danger. What if our nation is threatened with a nuclear attack? And the ever senile Joe is asked to make a life or death decision? How do you think that will go?
Most politicians are whores and will do anything to maintain power, even if it means selling the country out and that is exactly what the DNC did. Treason!
Who do you have your money on as the replacement candidate? Newsome, Whitmer, Michelle Obama? My money's on Newsome, and he'll pick a non-Kamala woman to run with him.
This was sent to me by a friend:
"During Biden’s campaign rally in Las Vegas on Sunday evening, Biden recounted meeting leaders of G7 countries in 2021 in Cornwall, England. He mentioned speaking to “Mitterand from Germany,” who was president of France from 1981 to 1995 before passing away in 1996.
“I sat down, and I said, ‘America is back,’ and Mitterand from Germany — I mean France — looked at me and said, said, ‘You know, why, how long you back for?'”
My comment
It was right after he had croissants with Napoleon and De Gaulle. He also said he got a call from Jimmy Hoffa who promised him the unions support. But to be nice, this is actually more believable than a lot of things he says."
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://gazette.com/news/wex/sacre-bleu-biden-mixes-up-french-leader-macron-with-mitterrand-who-has-been-dead-for/article_bb27c0c6-e507-5ef4-9ce4-81364efc58b4.amp.html&ved=2ahUKEwjIs_exyJWEAxVlhYkEHSU_AUwQFnoECCMQAQ&usg=AOvVaw21-tkYoMXULVoYDYDU8Zok
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.mediaite.com/politics/biden-confuses-french-president-with-guy-whos-been-dead-since-1996-in-rambling-anecdote/amp/&ved=2ahUKEwjIs_exyJWEAxVlhYkEHSU_AUwQFnoECCIQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0FCRaGxSupIAB-2B4hJYBN
Holy. Crap. What’s the plan when Biden cannot speak?
He is an embarrassment.
why is there no laugh emoji?
Good one. How many under 40 even know that name?
Mitterrand was President of France from 1981 to 1995. So those who are now 40 were 11 when Mitterrand last held office.
Biden is cerebral succotash.
And Gorbachev... and...
That’s a good one. 😂
In French even!
😂😂😂
Or Germany’s President “Adolf Schnitzel”
And francly, cough, who wouldn’t be?
I’m sticking with my prediction that Biden won’t be the name on the ticket by the time Election Day arrives, which is why he won’t be debating Trump (and why he won’t be interviewed before the Super Bowl). Democrats are much too smart not to do something when they see his poll numbers, as well as his dementia, continuing to plummet. I’m not necessarily a fan of all party members voting as a party all the time…but they sure know what to do to get what they want. McConnell is a fake Republican who won’t even stick up for our country before Ukraine.
McConnell is in the same cognitive decline as Biden. He can barely get a sentence out these days without slurring or showing seizure like pauses. It is time we consider that mental fitness should be a requirement to hold that much power on either side of the aisle.
We have age limits for some professions, like airline pilots.
Seniors have to be tested to retain their driver's license.
Why not Congressmen/women?
Like the youngins don't have cognitive problems of their own (ie MTG and AOC)?
Senator Chuck Grassley is 90. While he's had health problems, he is still quite coherent and doesn't see dead people. Dr. Thomas Sowell is 93, published his 40th book last year, and is smarter than all the President's economic advisors put together. It's not a matter of age but of competency.
McConnell is not the President, and he does not have the nuclear button.
My point isn’t that one is worse than the other. McConnell has a very powerful position as leader of the Senate. Currently, critical legislation is before the Senate regarding the border catastrophe. It is being offered as a border solution but includes funding for the war in Ukraine. Any sane Republican minority leader would give that a big fat “No way”, but he seems initially at least, to be embracing it. He’s giving cover to every Rhino senator who may be inclined to vote with the democrats. He is no longer mentally fit to hold the line.
Or, you know, he knows that he is not the leader of the Senate, as you stated, and he has an opinion that's different from yours. Has nothing to do with his fitness to "hold the line", he just disagrees with you. I would gather he is not the only person to do that.
“he knows that he is not the leader of the Senate”
And for him, that isn’t a bad thing. He can pretend to be a republican while working behind the scenes to make sure that only likeminded corporate flunkies get elected to his caucus. He and Chuckie Schumer are two peas from the same uniparty pod.
I’m sorry, you are correct that he may have a different opinion. However, when an elected public leader can no longer stand at a podium before the public and the press without slurring his speech or diminishing into a cognitive freeze, the public notices and has every right to ask questions about his/her ability to uphold their oath. That oath being an agreed upon contract with the people via the constitution.
He disagrees with the person who changes his diapers.
It doesn’t mean he’s above this type of criticism. He holds enough power to cause damage if misused, so…
True. But so is Linda in MIs statement.
The problem with requiring tests of "mental fitness" for high political office is that inevitably the decisions about what kinds of tests to use and to whom and under what conditions they should be administered will be hashed out politically, with each side trying to make them easy to pass for their candidates and hard to pass for their opponents.
I agree Dave. Seems there is no longer any kind of unpolitical scientific consensus to be found in this country.
This may sound a bit jaded, but befitting my profile description as "a grumpy old mansplainer" I believe that an "unpolitical scientific consensus" has always been hard to find, whether in the U.S. or elsewhere.
My opinion is that they are already setting up to allow party elites to nominate who they want at the convention. No need to do it now and deal with the messy primaries where mere voters have a say. Too much risk of a moderate getting too much attention - let alone enough delegates to actually impact far Leftist plans for a socialist society where the Left Elite get to do whatever they want while telling the rest of us what to do.
If my digging is correct if the nominated candidate is unable to complete the race, the DNC makes the selection. Behind closed doors so to speak. Much neater than hashing it out at the convention. No public histrionics from.those who think Kamala Harris matters.
No input from voters. That's the key aspect.
Best way to disenfranchise the voters is to ignore them.
Dems are masters of this.
So we know when the white smoke appears from the chimney of the DNC? Cool.
That made me giggle. Thanks.
I’m not sure if it’s behind closed doors. The only precedent was in 1972 when George McGovern threw Thomas Eagleton under the bus. The difference being the candidate was still there to nominate a replacement. The vote was televised. If it’s behind closed doors Kamala is dead in the water, opening the door for other relics like Clinton and Kerry.
I don't the Democrats are willing to put Hillary in the ring, no matter how she screams and threatens. With age being such a huge factor at the moment, their best bet is someone younger than 60.
Michelle Obama.
Correct.
I agree.
The plan is already in place.
I agree. They are just waiting as long as possible, probably in hopes that alternative media won't be able to tarnish their candidate before election day.
That is exactly what it is. No chance for debate, no time to poke holes in whatever platitudes they trot out. Its clever really. The whole process is meant to tear down candidates. Tis person will be fresh and exciting, likely a POC and/or woman so they will check boxes and get credit for it regardless of their actual qualifications.
And they'll keep an "October Surprise" at the ready, though they've already made Trump a rapist and traitor, so it'll have to be a whopper!
Correct.
Looks to me like they are grooming Michelle Obama to step in.
Yes, but I’ve also heard they (because it’s not just Michelle of course) don’t want it. If this were to happen, she’d win in a heartbeat with all the fools who love her. Trump would be a racist and misogynist before he opened his mouth at a debate with her!
According to a WH insider, secretly taped by James O’Keefe, Mooch doesn’t want to run.
She’s a perfect progressive candidate. She’s never run anything but her mouth.
I think it's far more likely to be Newsom.
It may have to be a woman, though. And one who is still fertile. The only thing that the D party can hang its hat on is abortion these days.
Which is why the Republicans have put up Mazi Pilip, a black woman, to run for the Santos seat in NY - against a white male D, Tom Suozzi.
The Suozzi/Pilip race is all about two issues. Migrants and Abortion. The propaganda from both sides is insane.
The PAC ad that dings Pilip is only about her once saying she was Pro-Life, followed by "her party is against all abortions" completely distorting the issue and the candidate. The PAC ad that dings Suozzi talks about how the D party is for illegal immigration, when Suozzi is less permissive than his peers.
Fuck all of these PACs and the people who work for them with a chainsaw.
Unfortunately, their most high-profile female option is Gretchen, who made such an authoritarian mess of Covid in Michigan that the memes skewering her have already been made and could be posted within moments of her replacing Biden.
A lot of people are saying Michele Obama, but I don't think she would accept. She hates this country (and the receipts to prove it are readily available), and don't think she would want to tarnish herself by being its leader.
Yes but at least the issues are properly placed in that race. Right now, in the face of Congressional inaction on abortion, there is not a damn thing a president can do about it. Kudos to the first presidential candidate to say it out loud.
Use to think that it would be Newsom but CA's current situation makes him a liabilty not an asset. It may be the Josh Shapiro, the current governor of PA
Nah, Michelle Obama. The only way to push Kamala Harris aside is with a POC. Newsom doesn’t work. He will run in ‘28.
I disagree Michelle is extremely lazy. And her role in Rev. Wright’s church might finally be revealed.
Only way to push Kamala Harris aside is to replace her with a POC, hence Michelle Obama.
Kamala has lost most of her POC credentials, and she has proven to be an idiot whose only talent seems to be throwing together word salads. I'm not convinced that the DNC is going to be considering a POC for anything except the VP spot, and they would be smartest, at this point, to choose a Hispanic person.
Yes, but word salad and all, democrats will vote for Kamala.
It looks that way. I don’t understand why they think that would sell. Sure many will vote for her, but they tried that with Hillary Clinton. I know Michele is a lawyer, but does she have any kind of executive leadership experience in private business or government? I know that won’t deter some voters either. I’m not sure she would want to go through the dirty nasty campaign that would ensue. I don’t think the democrats are in lockstep as much as others do. The spectacle of taking out Biden and skipping over Harris won’t be a minor dust up. It would be something to see, but I think there would be an angry fracture there. Also Biden has been governing on the master plan set out by the Obama administration. A lot of folks are unhappy with the results and can see there isn’t much personal return for their loyalty to the democrat party. Who knows what will happen, but it’s not going to be that simple to put MO in place of Biden or Harris.
Well said E. I agree. In essence the Democratic party is a road map for their vision of the nation - a top down structure with power in the hands of a select few making decisions for the rest of us. For our own good because we are too stupid to know what is good for us. The Democrat voters are just misinformed enough to believe they have a say.
I agree.
I think it would be that simple. Tons of people simply vote R or D, down the line. So the main goal is simply a candidate that people don't dislike so much they don't bother voting. You don't actually need someone with skill or experience or talent. They just need to be able to speak, not be 70+ years old. PoC and female are icing on that cake.
Not saying they are choosing her, just that I feel like you are overthinking it. Biden barely campaigned last time and he avoided interviews and debates. And he won. So obviously competency is not an important factor.
Well there were irregularities with that vote the impact of which remain unexplored. My big fear is what will they orchestrate this time. Are we kidding ourselves that votes matter?
I debated putting "Won" in quotes :)
I say we garner the illegal immigrant vote.
They might want her thinking she'll bring in independent women and "the Black vote," as if all women and Blacks are in lock step and incapable of analyzing issues.
I agree with others here that Newsom is also being groomed, God help us all. Could be true that Michelle doesn't want it.
Agreed
My husband and I have the same thought- I theorized he would have had a fall, or a cancer scare, or another brain issue or some reason by the end of January. Perhaps they’re going to get him through the State if the Union THEN he’ll have a “health issue”. But the question remains…who will the powers to at be pick?
They'll wait to the last possible moment to replace him. They'll want their replacement protected from the revelation of negative information as much as possible before the election.
I'm currently betting on Newsom as the replacement.
You could well be right. He certainly is trying to appear more moderate these days. He definitely appears ambitious and willing to tow party line. One would think that a glance at California would scare people off of him, but, sadly, many people have short memories and will point to his recent moves.
I think that a great many Democrats would happily rush to pull the lever for ANY Democrat who isn't Biden.
I think you're right.
👍👍
Biden will be the nominee unless he becomes further incapacitated before the DNC convention in Chicago. The DNC is already doing all it can to make sure that there are no challengers. The problem the DNC has is that if it allowed other democrats to attack Biden for his abysmal presidency, he would have even less support by the average voter. The DNC would go for that if it had a potential winner to tout instead of Biden. But who would that be? Schummer? AOC? Schiff? Jeffries? Harris? The whole reason that Biden was picked by the DNC in 2020 was because they knew that all of the wild-eyed progressives running for the nomination had zero chance in a general national election. Remember that? Biden was the great unifier. The seasoned pro who would work with the GOP to get things done. And no doubt, the DNC will still be trying to play that card even though the American public has now seen that Biden is an inept liar who is spending us into bankruptcy.
I think Biden will be the nominee. The Democrat leaders are happy when they can do anything they like and the president won't even know about it. They are not worried about the election. They know the fix in in.
True-believer Democrats are a crazy, fanatical bunch who will believe and do whatever they’re told. Just read the comments section on any absurd article in NYT. It’s exactly the same on the other side - any Republican who doesn’t toe the most extreme and absurd positions of the “new right” is accused of being a “Rhino” and is to be excluded from the cultist heaven of MAGA on the orders of the great Messiah Trump. Intolerance, ignorance of history and world politics, tribalism, histrionics, lack of any real principles under the disguise of extreme positions, that's the poison that destroys America from the inside. Elect the demagogue to replace the nursing home patient and you’ll get the same gridlock, no laws passed by Congress, same inaction but more toxic noise, because that’s really all the extremists want. All the people peddling pricey newsletters here will get a few hundred more subscribers, while those of us hoping to get rid of woke domination will get nada.
I agree. Biden will step aside and they will coronate his replacement at the Convention this summer. The only question is who ? Michelle Obama is high on the list.
I predict Michelle Obama. She ticks many of the Identity Politics boxes, promotes Identity Politics, and can continue to faithfully apply Obama policies.
The correct response to any attempt, foreign or domestic, to revoke the social contract, and dismantle human civilization, is not polite rebuttal. The only possible response is a fight for your life.
The whole “Trump is a threat to democracy” is going to be used to not debate him. Biden is waiting to see if there is enough COVID to use as an excuse and if not the ‘he’s a threat to democracy so I won’t debate him’ will be his fall back excuse.
What many people don’t see is why Biden’s handlers are limiting access to him. They know more definitively than anyone that Biden is in severe cognitive decline so they are shielding him from any unnecessary media exposure. The fact that they protect him is a dead giveaway that he’s gone far downhill.
If he is re-elected and survives a few years into a second term democrats will try to invoke the 25th amendment and remove him to install the VP. What’s happening with his being hidden, Trumps legal charges, media censorship, sue to blue, etc., are all ways to manipulate the people, the media and the world to get Biden a second term and for democrats to hold on to power.
The democrats have been perfectly clear what their end goal is: radical transformation of the country. But they know it’s not popular except for academic lounges, fringe activist groups, socialists and a few radical, left wing anarchists. So they ram it through while destroying society in the process. But to them destroying current society is the goal, not a drawback or unintended consequence. ‘Norms’ to them are the problem and must be destroyed.
The fact that mainstream democrats are going along with this is what’s so perplexing. The Liberal Patriot, a Substack contributor, wrote a great piece the other day on this very subject. The Liberal Patriot is written from the lefts perspective, of which I am not, but it at least seems to be written with common sense and not radicalism (although DTS is alive and well). What the traditional democrat seems to misunderstand is that eventually these radical leftists will also come for them. Almost no one will be pure enough for the far left.
Ask yourself this: if none of this manipulation were going on, would Biden have a snowballs chance in h*#ll of winning? My opinion, not 1%.
Yes - what you will get will be like Michigan during Covid where the Governor is telling everyone to lock down even the tiniest activity while her husband and family are boating on their lake in northern Michigan.
Pretty impressive private lake you gotta admit.
Which one?
Lake Michigan.
Oh, that one. I began life at the very northern point of the lake, but I'm partial to Lake Huron now. I've been sailing those waters for nearly 40 years.
Sue to blue?
Until the format is changed, there should never be another debate between candidates.
It's evolved into a free-for-all food fight. The moderators think it's all about themselves.
The most important questions in the world are only given 60 seconds to respond.
The only reason I would tune in is to see Biden go full dementia 'Weekend @ Bernies.'
I have always said we should do it like a school debate. Where they are actually scored and someone may actually fact check the rhetoric they spit out.
Oh I do not like that. I think that is what the media types think they are doing now. I say just give them the same questions, give them a set time to respond, turn the mic off, and move on. Let the listener do the fact-checking and decide.
But I think that is the problem now, people don't check. They get asked a questions, spew a bunch of rhetoric and people cheer. If people actually did their homework, half the politicians we have now wouldn't have been elected.
I agree with that. But the moderators are no better. I guess the real trick is to convince people that independent thought is necessary. I shudder every time I hear/read "hive".
That is a fair point. Any debate by the MSM is gonna suck regardless. You would have to find people with integrity and I doubt the candidates would agree on who that is.
Oh I like that. They lost me with the talking over each other.
We really have to start facing the realization that it's not gonna be Biden- Michelle will replace him at the most opportune time.
Dems & most Independents will find her to be a much better pill to swallow than Joe. Most will not have the intellect nor understanding that she will just be a newer puppet for the Political Establishment.
Trump will have no chance- and Republican Establishment in Washington will be thrilled as well.
We need to understand that it's all just one big chess game for all the people at the Top to remain in Power - the Media plays their part by pitting Right against Left with fear, anger , Sensationalism- and we all continue to play the game as well with all our brilliant comments that do Absolutely nothing to change the current situation.
Maybe I am naive but I think our commentary IS important. This, and sites like it, is where the meaningful dialogue is occurring, where ideas are exchanged and consensus forged. My vote is certainly informed here. The question is, do votes matter?
You are informed, and a good citizen for taking the time. I promise you, your effort to be informed is rare. The majority of people don’t want to take the time, nor invest the effort to understand the issues. Under this scenario, votes matter, but they are not informed. Just aligned. And that’s what the elites want.
I don't believe Michelle is up to the scrutiny that would entail.
I agree. People say her Bc he’s popular but she LITERALLY has zero record managing anything significant nor doing anything internationally except planning parties at Martha’s Vineyard
Like that matters. Most of the politicians have zero managerial experience. It's not about policies. It's about popularity.
Is she really still that popular? and will the DNC really want to run her? I think they will go w/ a man- prob. Newsome. They can get the all important Progressive women 's vote w/ his hair!
Progressive women apparently will vote for anyone who says I am for abortion.
That's what I think too. But I never underestimate their commitment to "Our Democracy"
What scrutiny do you expect her to receive, other than from Fox News and some conservative blogs? Negative information about her will get the Hunter Biden laptop treatment.
Can you stomach the thought of MO as commander-in-chief?
🤮🤮🤮🤮
This is my stomach on MB.
She would be when the entire corporate media protects her and plays defense for her. Just like what they've been doing with Biden.
Correct, the Washington Establishment will protect itself, no matter which party.
They’re both unfit for office. Trump go toe to toe? He runs to Fox News to do softball interviews, and he never answers any of the controversial questions, if they’re asked. Instead, he babbles on about another topic or blames other people for his mistakes. He’s never wanted to debate, so why the hell should Joe Biden debate him? Shit, he doesn’t even want to debate Nikki Haley. The question is how many Republicans are going to swallow his horseshit? I mean, look at those poor souls that smoked DT’s crack and went to Washington DC on January 6.
As for old Joe, he has MSNBC and CNN, networks Republicans don’t even watch. He’s old and slow and should retire. You’re correct, he can’t debate because he doesn’t have the stamina, nor the quick wittedness to do it. Personally, I’d love to see a debate between these two. One is old and feeble and the other is flat out crazy. I suspect I’ll be going to the polls in November to scribble down a write-in candidate…for the third straight presidential election. Nearly 350,000,000 people in this country and these are two choices. That’s fucking sad.
Most of what you say about both Trump and Biden is true- Trump came to be, out of sheer frustration of a Corrupt Govt that has been inefficient & un accountable for decades & it was getting progressively worse. Almost ALL the "poor souls" as you call them- went to Washington to PEACEFULLY protest which was their RIGHT .
I can list a multitude of ways that people might interpret "the Election was stolen" - manipulation of Social Media sites, censorship, MSM spin on Trump , stifling the Hunter Biden Story, mail in Ballots, ballot harvesting, etc
THAT'S what many of those "poor souls " were protesting.
The 350,000,000 of us in this Country don't control who we get to vote for - the Corrupt Establishment "bestows " those choices on us and yes, it is fucking sad. We need an outsider - Trump was just our 1st shot at it.
Who will be next & When, are the questions
You have to realize that the
I agree.
But do you think those violent protestors would have harmed a lawmaker who was a Democrat, say, Nancy Pelosi, if they got their hands on her? Of course, they would have. Maybe that would have changed the minds of Trump voters. But I'm not so sure.
Yes, our government needs an enema. Where are we headed? Who knows?
You're asking me a hypothetical? Here are FACTS- without emotion- as I see them:
1) There we 10's of thousands protestors there.
2) A few hundred breached the Capitol.
3) Of ALL those "Violent Insurrectionists" that are a 'threat to our democracy' how many people did they kill ? ZERO
4) 5 people died - the ONE that was shot and killed was a protestor shot by a police officer. The other 4 died of heart attack, or other medical illness.
5) would you like me to send you a montage of democrats holding Political Office , calling for and justifying violence against Trump and Trump Supporters?
Here ya go....
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2Mm3jrt8ij/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA
6) Ray Eapes caught on tape NUMEROUS times aggravating and encouraging people to bust through and go in- yet he gets off with a slap on the wrist while others languish in prison
7) people being harassed by the Feds- just because they were in attendance at the rally
8) I like to Contextualize things so I listen to a variety of news / opinion sources because Traditional News media is Captured & maybe
I don't advocate for violence in any way. Crimes are crimes. It’s sad that this is where our country is at. Violence committed is now almost justified by the major networks depending on their political allegiances. It only takes one to do irreparable damage. My God, the military at least taught me that. The BLM protests turned violent and destructive were crimes, too. I condemned them as I condemn Democrats calling for violence against DT. They should be voted out of office.
We agree that violence is not the answer. And, yes, traditional media is politically driven.
At this point in Trump's presidency, Covid had been raging for more than two years. He had a lot of press conferences and interviews, but they were full of lies and drivel.
Two *years*? Covid had been present in the U.S. for perhaps two *months*, although the Democrats and their tame press refused to acknowledge it until early March.
Sorry! That's right. I shouldn't comment until later in the day, I guess.
Caffeination is vital to brain function for many of us!
While complaining about lies and drivel.
😊
Cognitively Biden can't debate, all Trump would have to do is fire a string of questions/statements at him and Biden would be stumbling down a rat hole. Trump, during this whole election, has no reason to debate.
"Running the country? When he's in private, who can imagine Biden doing anything but preparing for the next gaffe?" - Steve Hilton.
To the commenters who would like to have real time fact checkers present at a Presidential debate, here’s an illustration of what it would probably look like.
https://youtu.be/K3axU2b0dDk?si=3JQqtDIDyOQA3GIM
I’ll give you odds that Biden not only does agree to a debate but that he agrees to two, or even three. Why? Because he doesn’t even have to “win” them to blow up the ad nauseum Republican line that he’s senile, an imbecile and too old - he merely has to show up and be sane. And he will. And it will drive Trump up the wall, especially if the debate rules prevent him from hijacking them, which Biden will demand.
Well this isn’t going to age well when they debate for the presidential debates.
Also, why does Biden get slammed but Trump just excused himself from the Republican primary debates and not a peep from any one of his boot lickers?
Both men just need to bow out of public view and when that day comes, good riddance.
If there are no debates that will be one good thing that comes out of this shit show. These debates are not only useless to determining the best candidate but they are actively harmful.
An Islamist making a threat on someones life is more than speech. It should be treated and punished as a crime until publicly removed by the threatener.
A country that cannot protect its politicians and children is a failed state. Adherents of the religion of peace forced Freer out and killed Amess. They groomed British girls in Rochdale and bombed them in Manchester. Authorities did not intervene until it was too late because they were scared to be called racist.
In an Orwellian twist, they are quick to knock on the doors of anyone accused of Islamophobia like this comment. Both the Labour and Conservative parties support continued mass migration. Will anyone try to save Britannia?
I hate saying this because I love my country but the hard truth is that Britain is a basket case. Worse than any other place in the West. All three of its major political parties are the same "socially liberal" quasi-woke. This includes 90% of its college 'educated' middle class whose virtue-signalling fashionable beliefs are paid for by ugly mayhem further down the social scale. Even if a decent government ever got 'into power' they'd be hobbled by the 90% lefty civil service. Why did Britain become so out in front of the rest of the West in this regard? I don't entirely know but I suspect that 5 decades of its supposedely 'impartial' BBC media hegemony is a big part of the answer. https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/invasion-of-the-virtue-signallers
As long as the left continues to preach the false narrative that Islam is the religion of peace and damn anyone who say it isn't as an Islamophobe we are going to have this problem.
Only an ignoramus, asshole calls Islam the religion of peace. Islam is anything but peaceful. It is the religion of hate and violence and it has been this way since its inception. If there is a left wing nut case on this BBS that believes the lie, read a history book. Educate yourself. Read the historian Will Durant on what Islam did to India. He called the massacre of Indians by Islamic armies probably the bloodiest period in the history of man. He wrote this before WW II.
The left falsely claims they are the feminist party, a blatant lie. They praise Islam, a religion that allows and encourages the brutalizing of women, practices slavery and murders homosexuals.
Call me an Islamophobe and I will say hell yes I am and you should be one too.
Don't let them call you an Islamophobe. Tell them you are an Islamonauseate. Don't fear them, but do be disgusted by their doctrines of violence. Even so, Islamists are one of many historical organized religions that have wrought havoc, death and indoctrination throughout history. Most of the rest are more peaceful now, but that was not always the case.
Given that most people have been religious throughout history and people are inherently too warlike, I don't think it is correct to claim that "religions" have wrought havoc, death, and indoctrination throughout history. Just in the preceding century WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, none of these were caused by "religion". And atheist regimes are hardly peaceful. Stalinist Russia. N Korea. Etc.
It is not "religion", it is Islam that is the problem.
But what fills the vacuum left by lack of religion is far from impressive. Demean religion as you will, religions were the organizing principles that brought us out of the caves and launched us into space.
I am not demeaning religion. I am telling the truth about Islam.
Brother please. Hold our beer.
Que?
It is an American saying. Here is how bull riding originated. "Hold my beer."
LP is correct. Nowadays it is used to mean you have nothing on me. IOW the UK has nothing on the mess that is the USA.
There is a difference.... a big one. America is half crazy-woke but it also still retains a large traditional conservative constituency. America is in a Culture War....in Britain it's been a cultural surrender long since
Here is one of my favorite songs. It applies to the vast majority of Democrats and left wing nutz:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sybrZXnWx60
I should have dedicated the song to compro. It fits him to a T.
🤣😂👏🛎️🔨 That song is just perfect.
God, I miss Jimmy.
I am one of the original Jimmy Buffet fans. Seriously from the High Cumberland Jubilee days. He has written and performed the music of my life. You should see what some of his albums and CDs are going for.
I have a few of those. Saw him in St Pete in '77 or '78, before he got so big.
Canada has the same problem with the CBC. It’s all victims, all the time. I call it Victim Radio. Unlistenable.
They need a Churchill, but they don't have one.
That is even more unlikely to happen than another Churchill. The British have tamely allowed themselves to be neutered.
They either deport them or eliminate them. Short of that Britain will fail. The only good news is everyone with money will come to America, leaving the rest to burn.
I am fairly confident that threatening to kill an MP is a criminal act.
Tracy Chapman stood unadorned and joyously open with Luke Combs, clearly humbled and honored to be blessed to share this powerful performance. Two humans with such varied identities that I will not label because it was irrelevant, joined in presenting Chapmans art which entwined them emotionally/deeply by representing a life anthem for both. This performance stands as the gold standard of what can be.
Totally agree.
The only sourness (for me, at least) was that the Grammy voters practically snubbed Combs' work giving him only a Country Vocal nomination (which he lost to 10 x Grammy winner Chris Stapleton) and no general category nomination for Record of the Year. I hope that the industry sees the joy that people took out of this simple, stunning performance and that if affects both the music they choose to celebrate and even the way a lot of the performances are staged to be bigger than life. This performance succeeded by being scaled to a human dimension and it was beautiful.
The only thing jihadi Islamists understand is deadly force. If we can’t do that, we need to mass deport.
Joe Biden was born in 1942. He is not a "boomer." Best wishes to King Charles III for a full recovery.
Beat me to it.
The other guys mentioned have post-1945 birth dates. However, there are still many people in the Senate and House of Representatives who were born in the 1930s.
Why don't people have the good sense to know when it's time to exit the stage? I guess the gig is too good to let go of...
I don't know. You would think they would be tired and want to go relax on a tropical island or spend time with their great-great-grandchildren.
I read most of Bibi Netanyahu's autobiography, and I think he genuinely believes that he is irreplaceable. I admire his many accomplishments over his long career, but I don't believe Israel would be doomed if he retired today. However, it's not insane to believe that he was a critical figure, especially in the economic liberalization of Israel in the 80s/90s.
On the other hand, nonagenarian Senator Chuck Grassley? How could he possibly believe that his place in the Senate couldn't be filled by Random Republican Guy who would vote exactly the same way?
Oh please. Being in the senate is a retirement job anyway. They have people to do everything for them. All they have to do is go on tv once in a while, take junkets, spend other people's money etc. They do nothing except insider trade, get kickbacks and amass money.
Sure, but Grassley doesn't need more money, and he could pay for his own travel if he wants to go somewhere.
The motivation must be psychological.
Some do. But Congressional power is concentrated in those who have served the longest. Sure the rookies get attention based on their committee appointments but that is just flash. The real power is in chairing the committees. So the longer you serve the more pork you can steer to your district. It has been this way for at least a century. If you have never done so read Senator David Crockett's remarks in response to a bill proposing federal monies be expended to aid victims of a devastating fire in Baltimore.
I don't think so. I think only one senator is left born in the 1930s. There are only a handful in their 80s.
https://fiscalnote.com/blog/how-old-118th-congress
Yeah, you're right. There's a big gap between the super-oldest and the ones born in the 1940s.
Snark is unbecoming. You made a sloppy statement. I pointed it out.
That was not snark. It was an acknowledgement that you were right and I was in error.
Chapman and Combs ❤️
BEAUTIFUL!
Brought me to tears. I am SO SO SO tired of these ginned up controversies and performative outrage, and the Combs and Chapman duet reminded me of a time when we sought out commonalities and came together to celebrate excellence.
So moving!
"Fast Car" is such a refreshing song in today's context. A song about personal responsibility, working hard to make a better life, pitfalls of addiction. And with a focus on beautiful vocals For the last couple of decades, music has promoted heavy drug use, crime, violence and treating women terribly. All set to blaring music and a singer screaming obscenities.
Right. And no talents like Jayz are the reason why. His music is hateful, obscene, ugly and hard on the ears. What a load!
How many teachers across America share the views of the woke kindergarten princess? Would love to hear a reaction from Grand Master Randi?
Ollie didn't share the worst of it. Here's the founder of Woke Kindergarten in her own words: "I believe Israel has no right to exist. I believe the United States has no right to exist. I believe every settler colony who has committed genocide against native peoples has no right to exist."
Go to her website and watch "they" read a book. It is toe curling and a how NOT to share books with students. What is shocking is that without credentials, she was able to make the diversity, equity, appeal to a school system that is dealing with serious issues. It is also damning that a school system that desperately needs interventions and additional resources for their students selects to put the money not in the classroom but for another admin in diversity and equity.
Not providing an education to the students who are below poverty is incorporating inequity because illiteratacy is a burden that keeps people in poverty. There has got to be a special place in hell for the inequity charlatans.
This is clearly what Democrats want in our schools.
There is a grass root movement in California where parents are demanding better education are being run by Democrats. There is an accountability demand when schools wanted to take down a mural rather than address the needs students that cost school board members in election. The demand of parents to keep entrance into a gifted and talented high school as merit based. The condemnation of Woke Kindergarten.
This movement is putting Democrats and liberals in office, CA is almost a one party state, but Democrat candidatess are recognizing that they may need to inch towards a more center view point. It is why Newsom faced a recall and why Price is facing a recall...people are demanding better government and a step-away-from-the-cliff candidates.
Newsom won the recall. I don't think a few sane Democrats in CA is enough to break the back of Woke, Inc.
Newsom was able to win the recall because the National Republican party selected Larry Elder instead of Kevin Faulconer. It was a huge bumble to select Elder who did not really reside in California and was not up on the important issue in California. How many times the Republican party is able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory is amazing and disgusting.
There are many things that make one fear that California once so vibrant is not going to come back.
Pirate Wires had a realistic, yet hopeful piece about Garry Tan’s pushback against SF’s psychotic city council. I’m a pessimist, but if anyone can take on the octopus of Wokeism, it *might* be the tech innovators…
https://www.piratewires.com/p/garry-tan-over-the-target
Islam provided the blueprint for conquest.
There was conquest for millennia before Islam existed.
Not spread by a die or convert faith.
We don't know whether, say, the Bell Beaker culture had a "die or convert" faith.
Does the last sentence include Spain given its past glorious history in the New World?
Probably, but since most Hispanics have indigenous ancestry, they get a pass.
Their ancestors did not speak Spanish!
That quote is spoken like a true colonizer looking to assume control of and plow somebody else's field.
More and more every year. Gotta get 'em young. That's how you make a revolution happen.
Naw, Randi advocated for keeping schools open remember. Her, Slow Joe, and Mitterrand all wanted to keep schools open. Plus, Randi has spotted a new buffet line to join.
There is huge push back against woke kindergarten by actual "in the trenches" teachers. If the choice is the ability to attend meetings where questions are received as being hostile or having the opportunity to have a reading specialist to help with students, the choice is the latter.
Woke Kindergarten (the founders credentials are what?) was hired by the school's diversity admin.
And yet they vote overwhelmingly for Randi Weingarten and Betsy Pringle as union leaders.
Until teachers stop voting for these woke leaders, I will refuse to believe that woke isn’t exactly what they want.
Understand your disappointment in teachers' union. Notice that unions thrive in school districts with the lowest scores and the poorest students. In California, Oaklands' teachers union made a formal endorsement of Palestine and urged a pro-Palestine teach-in. Since when do teachers make classes unsafe for students? Is it any surprise that there is an exodus of Jewish students from Oakland schools? Are these teachers a 2024 version of the 1942 teachers that expelled Japanese students and never even wrote to their students?
Share your outrage about the unions and then some! These teachers who endorse all the alphabet groups and "to the sea' except the ABCs are the teachers left in the worst school districts to teach the most vulnerable children. It is a savage educational policy. This circles back to the movie now almost 15 years old, Waiting for Superman.
Can you elaborate more on what you've observed that makes you sure teachers don't want this?
SF Chronicle wrote an article about Woke Kindergarten where they interviewed teachers at that school. Teachers were not allowed to ask questions at trainings and there was a demand for a reading specialist which was ignored for the Woke program. The article also wrote how other schools with similar challenges had put in successful intervention programs that raised test scores. Not being given the opportunity for a known successful programs that worked in similar schools but an expensive non-teacher program had to be discouraging and frustrating. My belief is that most workers want workable solutions whether they are a fry cook or a teacher and this was broken equipment which makes a hard job harder. Listen to "they" read a book and it is so incredibly apparent that this is a ridiculous delivery for a lesson to 5 or 6 year old even if one actually agreed politically with "they."
The article that was negative about the program appeared in the SF Chronicle. This is the Chron that praised the SF resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza and never once mentioned the treatment of the Jewish speakers or the failure of the supervisors to halt the pig noises. This is the Chron that proposes safe injection sites as a way to control the fentanyl epidemic. This is a left wing paper that should have loved this program and found teachers that supported it and it did not.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/woke-kindergarten-glassbrook-hayward-18635504.php
There is a point where old, young, conservative, and liberal teachers who are in the classroom want real help for themselves and their students. There is often a disconnect between the administration which want to create pretty political ponies to parade and the school staff that have are in the stable dealing with the ponies and the muck. The impetus for this program came not from the teachers but from the administration, specifically, the equity administrator.
G-M Randi!! I love it!! I'm sure she's all over that tripe!! Those poor kids!!
Randi must be quite old by now.
I went to HS w/ her, and yes we are OLD!!! Total Boomers! Time to retire and get out the way!!
You can stay Kate, but Randi needs to get the heck out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Randi
This is the Randi I was thinking of. A great debunker of BS.
The problems with immigration in the US are vast, but children play to that of Europe. The historical and intellectual stupidity of the left is on prime display throughout the continent. Anyone who is historically minded understands that along with race and ethnicity, Religion is a dominant driver of violence and oppression. There are battles of the tribe but also the battles of how one thinks and behaves.
Europe has purged itself mostly of organized Christianity, with the state taking over responsibility for the poor and allowing its citizens to be protected from the consequences of the state. Thus, rules on behavior are not something that many think about until you start letting people whose Religion is all they think about. The modern left in the US detests the religious right for their rules but is so blinded by their obsession with race that they don't see the threat the Isalm poses. They are the religious right on steroids.
It's not that they are people of color, but instead, they believe fervently in Religion and have no clue nor care about the tolerance that comes from an Enlightened world. Any test for immigration must have a religious test, not one of what you believe but rather one to tolerate what others think and behave. Europe did not do that, and the problems they are going to face will be stagging. Left-wing stupidity at its height, and it will be terrible to see how it continues to unfold.
Europe has long been phony. They let threats enter and bend to the ways of foreigners and wonder why they are losing their identity. Maybe Europeans could immigrate to the countries the invaders are coming from. Then they could make those countries prosperous and better and in the mean time, the immigrants will turn Europe into what they left; desperate, crappy, hopeless hell holes.
Sounds like a similar refrain with a different outcome when Californian's move into a red state neighborhood!
That's colonialism Terry!!!
Yeah, too bad that never happens -- that last half of your last sentence. Unless you count North Korea.
There is no assimilation anymore, because that's "intolerant, racist, hierarchical, judgmental etc." I have a lefty lesbian friend who (a few years ago when the border crisis was not nearly as bad as it is now) literally said- " I love Mexican food! Bring in more Mexicans!" I warned her that their culture is not as gay-friendly as ours is. She pooh-poohed me until the Latina women who worked in the kitchen of the restaurant she worked in mocked her and laughed at her for dating a woman. When I pointed out that they have not been assimilated and she should expect more of the same w/ the influx of illegals, she replied ," well the rednecks in Oklahoma are way worse!"
The white working class is the one demographic that's still socially acceptable to mock.
Tell your friend that anything we call Mexican food in the US is not actually food that Mexicans eat. And the rednecks in Oklahoma could care less if she’s a lesbian. 🙄
That tolerance was in large part derived from Christian ethics. See parts of the world where Christianity never reigned.
At least the older (40-years plus) Europeans are mostly in that postliberal frame of mind in which every person should be treated as a completely atomized individual without cultural ties. They are therefore extremely critical of any of their own citizens who show cultural solidarity (calling them "far-right extremists" and passing laws to demonize and remove their voices), and yet are completely unaware or baffled when other ethnic groups or religions they import would show cultural solidarity with one another.
For example, Swedish politicans importing two Iraqis into Sweden is afraid if two other Swedes show solidarity with each other and think that's a thing that needs to be prevented, but is simply bemused when the two Iraqis show solidarity with one another.
Religion is one unifying factor, and Islam is a particularly unifying religion. However, I don't think Islam itself is the problem.
Thank you for the great points - It baffles me how they can get mad at their own group but can't bring themselves to say something to another group. Some part of me thinks its a moral superiority where the other thinks plain stupidity or a blend of both.
Did you read yesterday's column regarding "gender dysphoria"? A trained therapist, talking about a "Furrie" saw nothing wrong with a kid using a litter box with the quote "not my life". THIS is the perfect example of how the leftards think - the overeducated but underexperienced class, that yes, is morally superior because they are part of the "everyone gets a trophy" upbringing and nobody's ever told them they're wrong or to sit down, shut up and listen....
Yeah, like Marxism itself is never the problem. Yeah.
Well, that's the end state of Marxism. The atomization of the individual and the transformation of humans into easily managed numbers. Although, that's kind of the end state of capitalism as well, just you can choose what to buy.
Many on the woke left would likely fail that tolerance test these days!!
“Any test for immigration must have a religious test, not one of what you believe but rather one to tolerate what others think and behave.”
Back in 2001, I spent a month in Morocco. Since I am bilingual (English/French) I was able to have extensive conversations with many Moroccans (virtually all speak French as a second language). The bellhop at my fancy Marrakesh hotel was partway through the immigration process to live in Canada. One of the most interesting things he said about the process was that the immigration officer in the interview said to him, “Monsieur, your wife will have a lot more freedom in Canada than she does here. How do you feel about that?”
Unfortunately, Canada has lost its marbles as much or more than the US and the UK, so I doubt Canadian immigration asks such relevant and intelligent questions these days. But they SHOULD.
The reason there is nothing to fear from the American form of Christianity is that it's all talk.
Woke Kindergarten isn't new.
When my son was 5 back in 2001, his lifelong friends were a Chinese girl "S," a Mexican girl "M," and a Jewish girl "E." I was good friends with their mothers, and we were just friends and Americans, not races or religions. Literally NEVER came up.
He started kindergarten at a bilingual Spanish/English school. Half my son's class was comprised of kids from south of the border who couldn't speak English. They were just kids, and they played together.
His kindergarten had a "Reading to End Racism" day where a Mexican-American came in and read a story to the children about white kids attacking a little Mexican girl by throwing paint on her, and he talked about white oppression in America. My 5-yr-old son came home and asked me, "Does this mean I can't be friends with M anymore?"
How heartbreaking is that? Even worse, those kids in his class never played together the same way anymore.
I'm sure the man who came in and read that to the kids thought he was making the world a better place, but he was just dumping his baggage and creating the very problem he said he was trying to solve.
My kindergarten daughter has two best friends at school - black brothers who live nearby. Never ever have we discussed anyone’s differences. Her class recently celebrated MLK day and she came home telling detailed stories of what she learned about whites and blacks and killings and hatred. These were things she’s never heard of before! I felt so sick. The innocence was over. I think (in kindergarten at least) race lessons should be treated the same as sex ed …need a parent’s permission first! A heartbreaking day in our house.
My daughter was in 1st grade when she came home and asked the innocence-crushing question: "Mom, why are the brown kids so mean?"
She had happily played with the black kids on our street. She had never heard a racist word from any member of our family. She didn't even know that the "brown kids" (the only description she could invent on her own) were commonly called "black." But she had noticed something about the way the "brown kids" in her school treated her.
I had to explain, as simply as possible, about slavery and racist mistreatment of black people, and why that might cause lingering resentment. That was a far more difficult conversation than any conversation I ever had with her about sex.
Please tell me you took your child out of that school.
I definitely did, but it was district wide after that first year. From then on out until they graduated, I took my kids to the mountains on "Reading to End Racism Day," and it was known in our house as "Reading to Promote Racism Day."
Blacks don't get enough music awards. Talk about crying wolf. Could we please collectively agree to ignore these people?
Funny how no one mentions the lack of Asian representations there.
Or Native Americans.
Exactly! Where were all the indigenous musicians???!!!
Another question is, who is higher on the intersectionality grievance scale. The indigenous or the black's?
What about people who can't sing or don't have a sense of rhythm? Dammit, I want to see people like me get recognized!
I like to think that I have rhythm, and I do when sitting. The problem I have is when I stand up and try. My daughter hides her face in embarrassed shame.
Yeah. Apparently, even Buffy Saint Marie wasn’t actually indigenous, it turns out…
There are not that many Asians in the music biz as far as I can tell, though I could name a few great guitarists.
We’re snarking, not making a serious comment. Since they’re so for DEI, why aren’t there quotas of Asian musicians? What about EQUITY? Music is besides the point. There needs to be inclusion and equity!!!
I know! And maybe Beyonce's albums are just not up to par w/ her singles??
Joeys handlers don’t trust him to do a three minute Super Bowl interview. How in hell could he do a 1-2 hour debate. Although it would be hilarious to see him stumble on and off stage, probably poop his depends, start yelling profanity then whispering creepily, and no doubt taking his clothes off. It would certainly be instructive to the oblivious left and the dem plantation denizens
Yup, there is no way Biden will debate. Whether COVID, “threat to democracy” or screaming Trump is a criminal, Biden’s handlers will find an excuse to not debate. Biden isn’t capable of doing friendly media interviews, let alone a debate.
Think about that. The “leader of the free world” and president of the most powerful country in the world isn’t cognitively capable of debating or even giving media interviews or press conferences. And democrats and radical leftists (but I repeat myself) prefer that to any other candidates. To them ideology is more important than what’s best for the country and the world.
But he had a nice conversation with Mitterrand a year or so ago.
https://twitter.com/RaheemKassam/status/1754606767898849444?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1754606767898849444%7Ctwgr%5E6dae6d7f60b12f7f7a0d6a6557d52ccc811a99c4%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.powerlineblog.com%2Farchives%2F2024%2F02%2Fthe-biden-countdown.php
It really is elder abuse that they let him out! He should be in a rocking chair on a porch somewhere!
It's only 6 AM in Nevada and already I've laughed my full day quota,,,thank you, that was hilarious.
Yes but they have been advertising blow out diapers now, so Joe could possibly make an hour debate.
Over 42000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria
Why nothing
The assassin's veto
Over 80000 blacks have been killed in Nigeria
Why nothing
The assassin's veto
College campuses do nothing to stop the Muslim hate of Jews on campuses
Why nothing
The assassin's veto
Thank you I now have a name
UK Scandinavian countries eastern Europe the EU south Africa. Harvard Yale MIT U Penn
The assassin's veto.
Can we expect these mini-TGIFs each Tuesday? I noted Nellie’s comment that she’d been criticized for making TGIF overlong. I just want to say I love a big honking Christmas-sized TGIF every week. Although I like this Tuesday amuse bouche as well. Is something else going on? Is Tuesday now a New Haven run for Friday’s Broadway?
I like how many of us show personal care for our TFP. It's just like a Democratic Republic used to be.
Agreed, I am in favor of extended TGIFs. The one feature I don't care for is the photos of where people read the column, but I imagine that promotes viewer loyalty.
I want both. An enormous TGIF + this Tuesday sum-up.
The west's approach to radical Islam has been appeasement and this misguided guided view that they will assimilate if given the chance. Islamists understand one thing, death. I say give it to them.
I didn't watch the Grammys but I did watch that clip. Love the song. It's an anthem to those that are born into dysfunction and want to "Be Someone". Always brings a tear to my eye.
If you want to know how to deal with these, Islamist freaks, google Pamela Geller.
No civilized country should put up with these barbarian ghouls.
Huh? I checked her Wikipedia, but don’t understand.
She ran a Draw Mo contest in Texas a few years back. Two Islamist pukes showed up looking to myrder her. Both shot dead. Elegant solution . Justice served.
Wasn't that where the FBI recruited and drove the islamists to the venue?
Not sure but would it surprise anyone?