For years, people have been assuring me that after a half century in Washington, decrepit old Joe Biden is just a puppet being manipulated by his “handlers.”
KJP and Kamala are intersectionality shields. If you criticize them and their regime, you are racist. Debate prep for president teleprompter and vice President word salad must be fun.
The causality of all this flows both ways, but this is something of a last gasp for the old guard. Jews and especially Catholics do not represent the future of the Democratic party. Jews because they cannot invoke a superpositional identity of white/minority depending on context (the rising tide is incapable of nuance of those they are replacing, so they are caught up in decolonization) and Catholics because the liberal boil off will leave only conservatives, with a substantial brain drain (and as their best Uni's become ever more secular as those of the Methodists and other WASPy types).
I think your last sentence, while totally correct, fails to appreciate how little there is left in the cognitive tank for 46. Month by month it has been more of "when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.”
All that bloviating aside, I think your point is a good one as most of the would be cognoscenti have a poor idea of who exactly these would be masters of the universe are. If we get a Weekend at Bernies sequel, it would probably be a good topic of study for purposes of prediction.
A lot of my conservative friends keep saying that "they" will replace Biden before the DNC. And I always ask who the "they" is. The more banal likely-reality is that there's no great conspiracy. There are surely behind-the-scenes movers and shakers, but Biden is the nominee and if he wants the nomination, there's nothing anybody can do
He's not gonna be replaced. This isn't Metal Gear Solid. Even if Obama is doing the heavy lifting, which there's some evidence for, Biden is still the President of the United States. As long as he's above catatonic, his word is final, and it's not like there's actually that much difference politically between him and Obama anyway. Their differences are primarily tempermental.
Part of it's also inherent to the nature of the presidency. Even the best of them are surrounded by kissasses and sycophants. They're not the sort of people who are inclined to make use of the 25th. Much as it would be wonderful if this were just a problem of the Trump administration, on this matter, there's no meaningful difference between parties.
What if Obama and Schumer get mean? They tell Biden if he doesn't quit, he will lose the presidency, Hunter will be prosecuted for new crimes, and there will be no pardon coming?
I doubt he'd listen. The more you decline cognitively, the more stubborn you tend to become in your decisionmaking, and this is someone who was already noted for his stubbornness in his prime.
Really, a responsible administration would've 25th'd a man in this shape before he embarrassed himself publicly to this degree. Sure, that'd mean picking Harris, but this is why candidates should stop picking VPs they don't think are good candidates for their replacement, and at least Harris can tell the numbers "millions", "billions", and "trillions" apart from eachother.
Seems like the US Govt is set up to run without the need for much input from the chief executive. Maybe there is no cabal using Biden to run the country. Maybe the Leviathan doesn’t need anything more than a ceremonial figurehead to keep chugging along. The administrative state will keep doing what it does regardless who is POTUS. The generals/CIA/FBI showed under Trump that they don’t actually work for the president anyway.
Perhaps the establishment hates Trump so much because he doesn’t get that he is supposed to just be a figurehead like Obama was, and Biden is. Trump actually thinks the president is in charge and is supposed to make decisions, and acts according to that belief
Accurate synopsis. Although it would be misleading to view current events through prosaic lenses. We dwell in a time where some entity is attempting to force civilizational change whether we approve or not. Steve applies network analysis to the gaggle of bureaucrats in the Executive which is helpful. Better still is to understand the race/gender/climate ideology that has infected what appears to be all Western governments, certainly those of the Five Eyes. And the composition of the entity that has planted this totalitarian thought virus.
I witnessed the five eyes countries moving in lockstep during Covid (although Australia seemed the scariest about lockdowns), and now I feel totally estranged from the Anglosphere countries that I thought were my people. Their governments all worship the pride flag and believe in St George Floyd like he’s Jesus.
Seeing the liberal democracies all behaving in this way has made me question whether I even support “liberal democracy” any more.
I don’t know what to replace it with, but at this point I’m open to a lot of things
When I saw the video of Obama leading Biden off the stage away from the obsequious Jimmy Kimmel like he was a puppy on a leash I knew it wasn’t a deep fake but the reality of an addled elderly man. BTW, I am his age and fully understand that many of my contemporaries have fucking lost it.
That may be all true, but the role of a president like Biden isn’t to *do* anything. In fact, in a coalition-of-fringes party, the less he does the better.
His role is to be as inoffensive as possible while the various departments and programs and interest groups are given free rein. In that sense, his rather feeble state may even be an electoral asset.
No one has complained about access to Biden or his decision process, not even that it's a black box. Weirdest administration ever. BO's was just a warmup for getting the forces and people and media aligned and stumm. Doesn't anyone want to write a book?
This still leaves the big question unanswered. If the handlers are in control, why don't they pick a new puppet? Why are they yielding to his stubbornness?
"When I’d say, “Really? Obama didn’t seem all that excited about running things when he was in the White House. Didn’t he play golf 333 times as President?”"
Really? Nobody's brought up Obama's quote to Stephen Colbert to you?
“I used to say if I can make an arrangement where I had a stand-in or front-man or front-woman and they had an earpiece in and I was just in my basement in my sweats looking through the stuff and I could sort of deliver the lines while someone was doing all the talking and ceremony, I’d be fine with that because I found the work fascinating,” Obama quipped.
Exactly what sort of role Obama has is ambiguous, but it can't be dismissed as nothing, given Biden's noticeable decline,* Obama's refusal to leave DC in the entirety of his post-Presidency, the fact that Obama himself said his dream job was to be a shadow PotUS both before and after leaving office, and the fact that many of the bumblings of this admin were exactly the sort of bumblings Obama himself would've done had this been his third term:
The above Samuels interview of Garrow is the first place I saw it outlined. Samuels makes a good case for it in the pre-interview essay. Sure, Obama is also known for his hedonism, but plenty of chief executives are. Putin lives in decabillion-dollar palaces and has TVs installed in every room he inhabits, even on trains. Compared to that, popping marijuana gummies, hobnobbing with celebrities, and lounging on Hawaiian beaches is modest and attainable. Especially when you can't just steal anything you want like a proper Asiatic despot.
* Trump has also noticeably declined, but his supporters don't care about it, whereas Biden was supposed to be the Return of Normalcy, so he's undercut far more.
But what explains the bleeding-edge woke policies? Those feel more like Team Obama's coterie of recent grads and Chicagoland gangsters. Wouldn't Joe's Old Crew, as listed, be tossing out center-left, "lunchpail" policies like they've done for 40 years? Or are they ALL phony?
-- (1.) Joe Biden has been hijacked by the "Woke Left" and has the demagogue's instinct to slip in near the front of the mob and march onward at its head;
--- (2.) Joe Biden's views genuinely changed and he now hates White-Christian America, is a Migrant-supremacist ethnomasochist, despises the heterosexual-family ideal, and goes for other the other parts of the Wokeness package; or
--- (3.) There is a secret cabal controlling Biden's agenda and pronouncements.
It seems all three things could be true. But Steve Sailer doesn't like the 'sound' or 'feel' of (3.) and wants a list of names.
Sorry, I just can't agree with you. Yes they are his day-to-day handlers.
But everyone you mentioned is a dimwit. They are babysitters, not the policy makers.
The hamfisted speeches and decrees we've been seeing for the past four years have clearly coming from long term administrative folks who have no regard for anyone who lives outside of the beltway.
KJP and Kamala are intersectionality shields. If you criticize them and their regime, you are racist. Debate prep for president teleprompter and vice President word salad must be fun.
The causality of all this flows both ways, but this is something of a last gasp for the old guard. Jews and especially Catholics do not represent the future of the Democratic party. Jews because they cannot invoke a superpositional identity of white/minority depending on context (the rising tide is incapable of nuance of those they are replacing, so they are caught up in decolonization) and Catholics because the liberal boil off will leave only conservatives, with a substantial brain drain (and as their best Uni's become ever more secular as those of the Methodists and other WASPy types).
I think your last sentence, while totally correct, fails to appreciate how little there is left in the cognitive tank for 46. Month by month it has been more of "when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.”
All that bloviating aside, I think your point is a good one as most of the would be cognoscenti have a poor idea of who exactly these would be masters of the universe are. If we get a Weekend at Bernies sequel, it would probably be a good topic of study for purposes of prediction.
A lot of my conservative friends keep saying that "they" will replace Biden before the DNC. And I always ask who the "they" is. The more banal likely-reality is that there's no great conspiracy. There are surely behind-the-scenes movers and shakers, but Biden is the nominee and if he wants the nomination, there's nothing anybody can do
He's not gonna be replaced. This isn't Metal Gear Solid. Even if Obama is doing the heavy lifting, which there's some evidence for, Biden is still the President of the United States. As long as he's above catatonic, his word is final, and it's not like there's actually that much difference politically between him and Obama anyway. Their differences are primarily tempermental.
Part of it's also inherent to the nature of the presidency. Even the best of them are surrounded by kissasses and sycophants. They're not the sort of people who are inclined to make use of the 25th. Much as it would be wonderful if this were just a problem of the Trump administration, on this matter, there's no meaningful difference between parties.
What if Obama and Schumer get mean? They tell Biden if he doesn't quit, he will lose the presidency, Hunter will be prosecuted for new crimes, and there will be no pardon coming?
I doubt he'd listen. The more you decline cognitively, the more stubborn you tend to become in your decisionmaking, and this is someone who was already noted for his stubbornness in his prime.
Really, a responsible administration would've 25th'd a man in this shape before he embarrassed himself publicly to this degree. Sure, that'd mean picking Harris, but this is why candidates should stop picking VPs they don't think are good candidates for their replacement, and at least Harris can tell the numbers "millions", "billions", and "trillions" apart from eachother.
I guess Democrat leaders will have to talk to or issue an ultimatium to Jill Biden
what's important is to analyse each of their "share of ear"
who are the most influential of his advisors?
Probably Mike Donilon.
This is assuming Biden enjoys moments of lucidity.
Seems like the US Govt is set up to run without the need for much input from the chief executive. Maybe there is no cabal using Biden to run the country. Maybe the Leviathan doesn’t need anything more than a ceremonial figurehead to keep chugging along. The administrative state will keep doing what it does regardless who is POTUS. The generals/CIA/FBI showed under Trump that they don’t actually work for the president anyway.
Perhaps the establishment hates Trump so much because he doesn’t get that he is supposed to just be a figurehead like Obama was, and Biden is. Trump actually thinks the president is in charge and is supposed to make decisions, and acts according to that belief
Accurate synopsis. Although it would be misleading to view current events through prosaic lenses. We dwell in a time where some entity is attempting to force civilizational change whether we approve or not. Steve applies network analysis to the gaggle of bureaucrats in the Executive which is helpful. Better still is to understand the race/gender/climate ideology that has infected what appears to be all Western governments, certainly those of the Five Eyes. And the composition of the entity that has planted this totalitarian thought virus.
I witnessed the five eyes countries moving in lockstep during Covid (although Australia seemed the scariest about lockdowns), and now I feel totally estranged from the Anglosphere countries that I thought were my people. Their governments all worship the pride flag and believe in St George Floyd like he’s Jesus.
Seeing the liberal democracies all behaving in this way has made me question whether I even support “liberal democracy” any more.
I don’t know what to replace it with, but at this point I’m open to a lot of things
When I saw the video of Obama leading Biden off the stage away from the obsequious Jimmy Kimmel like he was a puppy on a leash I knew it wasn’t a deep fake but the reality of an addled elderly man. BTW, I am his age and fully understand that many of my contemporaries have fucking lost it.
That may be all true, but the role of a president like Biden isn’t to *do* anything. In fact, in a coalition-of-fringes party, the less he does the better.
His role is to be as inoffensive as possible while the various departments and programs and interest groups are given free rein. In that sense, his rather feeble state may even be an electoral asset.
Where is Bob Woodward when you need him?
No one has complained about access to Biden or his decision process, not even that it's a black box. Weirdest administration ever. BO's was just a warmup for getting the forces and people and media aligned and stumm. Doesn't anyone want to write a book?
This still leaves the big question unanswered. If the handlers are in control, why don't they pick a new puppet? Why are they yielding to his stubbornness?
"When I’d say, “Really? Obama didn’t seem all that excited about running things when he was in the White House. Didn’t he play golf 333 times as President?”"
Really? Nobody's brought up Obama's quote to Stephen Colbert to you?
“I used to say if I can make an arrangement where I had a stand-in or front-man or front-woman and they had an earpiece in and I was just in my basement in my sweats looking through the stuff and I could sort of deliver the lines while someone was doing all the talking and ceremony, I’d be fine with that because I found the work fascinating,” Obama quipped.
-Source: https://deadline.com/2020/11/barack-obama-stephen-colbert-president-third-term-1234635491/
Exactly what sort of role Obama has is ambiguous, but it can't be dismissed as nothing, given Biden's noticeable decline,* Obama's refusal to leave DC in the entirety of his post-Presidency, the fact that Obama himself said his dream job was to be a shadow PotUS both before and after leaving office, and the fact that many of the bumblings of this admin were exactly the sort of bumblings Obama himself would've done had this been his third term:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/david-garrow-interview-obama
The above Samuels interview of Garrow is the first place I saw it outlined. Samuels makes a good case for it in the pre-interview essay. Sure, Obama is also known for his hedonism, but plenty of chief executives are. Putin lives in decabillion-dollar palaces and has TVs installed in every room he inhabits, even on trains. Compared to that, popping marijuana gummies, hobnobbing with celebrities, and lounging on Hawaiian beaches is modest and attainable. Especially when you can't just steal anything you want like a proper Asiatic despot.
* Trump has also noticeably declined, but his supporters don't care about it, whereas Biden was supposed to be the Return of Normalcy, so he's undercut far more.
Doesn't seem unreasonable
But what explains the bleeding-edge woke policies? Those feel more like Team Obama's coterie of recent grads and Chicagoland gangsters. Wouldn't Joe's Old Crew, as listed, be tossing out center-left, "lunchpail" policies like they've done for 40 years? Or are they ALL phony?
Which is more likely:
-- (1.) Joe Biden has been hijacked by the "Woke Left" and has the demagogue's instinct to slip in near the front of the mob and march onward at its head;
--- (2.) Joe Biden's views genuinely changed and he now hates White-Christian America, is a Migrant-supremacist ethnomasochist, despises the heterosexual-family ideal, and goes for other the other parts of the Wokeness package; or
--- (3.) There is a secret cabal controlling Biden's agenda and pronouncements.
It seems all three things could be true. But Steve Sailer doesn't like the 'sound' or 'feel' of (3.) and wants a list of names.
Why not (1)?
I kind of assumed it was a team effort form everyone that worked at the White House.
The worst and the dullest?
Sorry, I just can't agree with you. Yes they are his day-to-day handlers.
But everyone you mentioned is a dimwit. They are babysitters, not the policy makers.
The hamfisted speeches and decrees we've been seeing for the past four years have clearly coming from long term administrative folks who have no regard for anyone who lives outside of the beltway.
The same ones that stole the election for him.