January 29, 2024

"After months of languid buildup in which he held only a single public campaign event, Mr. Biden has thrown a series of rallies across battleground states, warning that democracy itself is at stake in 2024."

"He sent two of his most trusted White House operatives to take the helm of his re-election campaign in Wilmington, Del., after Mr. Trump seized control of the Republican primary race more rapidly than Mr. Biden’s advisers had initially expected. And other Biden aides are drafting wish lists of potential surrogates, including elected officials, social media influencers and the endorsement of their wildest dreams: the global superstar Taylor Swift."


What insipid puffery! Biden has not done enough. He never had to justify his death grip on the Democratic nomination, and it's outrageous that the country is left with the Trump-or-Biden choice once again. But 4 New York Times reporters toss out the name Taylor Swift as a sop. Disgusting!

But it's not as though the 4 reporters generated the Taylor Swift plan themselves:
The chatter around Ms. Swift and the potential of reaching her 279 million Instagram followers reached such intensity that the Biden team urged applicants in a job posting for a social media position not to describe their Taylor Swift strategy — the campaign had enough suggestions already.

I guess all the job applicants were saying here's my brilliant idea: Get Taylor Swift to endorse him.

108 comments:

chuck said...

I'd be happy is Biden were as smart as Taylor Swift. Heck, make her the candidate.

Esteban said...

As many an internet meme has said: Is it a positive for Biden to receive an endorsement from a woman who has made her career on picking the wrong man?

Kate said...

Four reporters and not one of them noticed the word "reach" used twice in the same sentence.

RideSpaceMountain said...

"But 4 New York Times reporters toss out the name Taylor Swift as a sop. Disgusting!"

That's what your betters @ NYT think of you.

Bob Boyd said...

Joes plan is to get close enough to Taylor Swift that he can lock on with his pecker tongs and jam his nose into her hair.

gilbar said...

who's Taylor Swift? Who Cares? What votes does she bring to the table?

If you look at demographics: (saw this yesterday on X.. couldn't find the link, so call me a liar)
married males are Overwhelmingly republican (66%?)
married females are republican (51%?)
single males are republican (53%?)
single females are OVERWHELMINGLY democrat (80%?)

Again.. What votes does Taylor Swift bring to the table?

n.n said...

Minorities are ruled in a democracy.

The President dictates the terms of surrender.

A Spring surge in a climate of violence.

EdwdLny said...

Well, incompetence is not unsurprisingly common with simps. Joey bidet and all of those around him demonstrate it nonstop.

Dave Begley said...

This is what the Dems have come to: A Taylor Swift endorsement.

Just ignore those 8-10 million illegal aliens that Biden has let into the country.

The Dems have contempt for American voters; probably well deserved.

In any event, Joe will drop out and Michelle will be the candidate. And the illegal alien votes and other cheating won't be so obvious because of the historic nature of Michelle's candidacy.

Yancey Ward said...

Why stop at an endorsement- Taylor Swift for Vice-President!!

Let's be honest- she would be a magnitude improvement over Harris and Biden.

n.n said...

Languid rhymes with, to coin a term, sanguid.

gilbar said...

the democrats used say they were the party of the bluecollar worker..
then the democrats said they were the party of the Black MAN..
WHO are the democrats NOW?

The democrats are the party of the government worker.. Which now means: the party of the single woman
professors
DOT clerks
el-hi teachers

and they're all (well, nearly ALL) single women. Middle aged single women.

Yancey Ward said...

And how many people showed up for these rallies Biden has given? I never saw any photos at all other than those of Biden mumbling stuff.

Anthony said...

Weird how you can seize control by. . . . .people voting for you. Let's save Our Democracy!

gilbar said...

sorry!
i forgot to mention the democrats BIGGEST constituency..
"news" reporters
which is to say: single women that work for the goverment

Marty said...

"Mr. Trump seized control of the Republican primary race": oh, yes, those pesky voters in Iowa and New Hampshire had nothing to do with it. Four reporters (and/or their editor) mindlessly pushing the Biden "Trump-as-dictator" line.

Wilbur said...

I generally have no opinion of or interest in some celebrity's political views; it's their business as far as I'm concerned.

But when a celebrity ventures out into the public eye with explicit and overt campaigning for a political candidate or cause, the risk to their entertainment career is evident.

Ask the NBA how they've done since they publicly threw in with Black Lives Matter. You won't get a response, because they would ignore the query or would deflect it away.

Taylor Swift may think she's untouchably above criticism or backlash. She may be in for a surprise.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

I believe TIME magazine (or a glossy like it)
recently had photos of Biden and Taylor Swift next to each other on the cover. The framing was very purposeful. (Fawning over both... and placing them in the democrat propaganda zone. )

The democrats would love to get their hands on her fans.

Jamie said...

"Languid buildup" is an interesting euphemism for "doing nothing almost all the time, but claiming the imminent apocalypse occasionally."

Iman said...

Democracy Dies in Feckless Incompetence…

They got the beat, baby. And they can keep it.

Sebastian said...

"warning that democracy itself is at stake in 2024."

It is in the sense that Dems may cheat again, and the ongoing invasion may make future votes moot. But presumably that's not what Dems mean. What, then? Just that voters voting for the wrong person endangers their democracy.

"He sent two of his most trusted White House operatives to take the helm"

He did, did he? I want to see proof of Joe doing anything, besides vacationing and mumbling in public.

"What insipid puffery! Biden has not done enough."

Which is fine for Dems, as long as the nice moderate people in the middle don't vote against him.

"He never had to justify his death grip on the Democratic nomination"

"His" death grip? Again, what evidence do we have of Joe gripping anything?

"Taylor Swift as a sop. Disgusting!"

Appreciate the sentiment, but the sop is likely to work with core Dem female voters. Smart politics.

hombre said...

Would we be surprised if he announced that Kamala will retire and Taylor Swift is his choice for VP? Baby killers, open border beneficiaries, Iran funded terrorists. All he needs now are Taylor Swifties and another rigged election.

We're toast.

Freder Frederson said...

I guess it is preferable to get Taylor Swift to endorse you rather than seek the endorsement of Sammy "The Bull" Gravano.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

most of her fans are teens age girls.

Are they voting now?

RideSpaceMountain said...

"pecker tongs"

That's not an official medical term for the male Pelvic Fundus, but I don't care. I like it!

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Democracy dies with shallow celebrity endorsements of a mob husk-puppet.

John henry said...

Gateway Pundit has 2 interesting Taylor Swift stories:

One laments her lack of drawing power pointing out that only about 20% of TS fans will vote for Brandon based on her recommendation.

Media Hypes Taylor Swift’s Potential Influence on 2024 Election Outcome, Despite Polls Showing Just 18% More Likely to Support Her Endorsed Candidate


The other is a "What is this country coming to? story pointing out that 20% of TS fans will vote for Biden on her recommendation.

What the Heck? New Poll Finds NEARLY A FIFTH of Voters ‘Likely’ to Back Candidate Endorsed by Taylor Swift


I thought the juxtaposition of the stories was a hoot.

John Henry

Temujin said...

I'll simply say that your two first posts of the day show the level that our formerly two most important news sources have lowered themselves to. Both the NY Times and WaPo are today sources of more head shakes than actual news, providers of click bait at best, misinformation when at their worst. And they do their worst quite regularly.

Why do we even give these sources the time of day any longer? I wonder if anyone will once my generation is gone.

Birches said...

They're just trying to do enough to make a win plausible. I wouldn't have picked Trump to get the GOP nomination either, but all a rematch does is make their arrangements seem more likely to the general population.

This was front paged at RCP this morning: Some think Biden’s win in Georgia was a perfect storm...a coronavirus pandemic that gave way to more permissive voting laws...

Only some of those conditions remain in Georgia... rules around the 2024 election in Georgia are expected to be far less open than they were four years ago.

It goes on to mention that North Carolina is more likely to go blue. They don't mention any reasons, but I have one: their governor is a Dem who can facilitate ballot harvesting policies easier.

Ice Nine said...

The polls have noted that there has been a surprising increase in the people in Taylor Swift's age group, and especially younger, that are favoring Trump. This group includes her most fervid fans. Of course her endorsement would be sought by and would be beneficial to Biden. He would assuredly pick up some number of votes from it that he otherwise wouldn't get. Pathetic but true.

OTOH, Taylor would be a fool to meddle in this political stuff since all she would get out of it would be some number of alienated conservative fans.

mikee said...

I, for one, am awaiting the much more determinative endorsement of one candidate or the other by Kim Kardashian, the Housewives of New Jersey, and maybe Kevin Spacey. Because that's just how this election is rolling - right down the hill and directly towards the hazardous waste dump.

Bob Boyd said...

Does Taylor think we should bomb Iran? Or no?

n.n said...

NYT Swiftly Taylors a Handmade Tale in Order to Sustain Biden's Viability. Extra! Extra!

rastajenk said...

So is the NFL an accessory to the Biden campaign? 'Cause the only explanation for the Ravens' poor performance is that it was scripted for more Taylor.

n.n said...

Would we be surprised if he announced that Kamala will retire

Kamala takes a knee for progress? Say it ain't so, Joe.

mezzrow said...

While reading this, it struck me that we are all possibly living as characters within an all-powerful Richard Condon novel we never knew existed. Perhaps our existence is not "reality" at all, but instead a simulation set up from an unpublished and unknown masterwork that was retrieved by artificial intelligence then cast into our future, making us simple characters living out a simulation of the outcome running downstream from the plot.

It's as good an explanation as anything I've seen recently.

If true, I suspect the next debate would consist of when this all began.

2015? 2005? 1991? 2024 beckons. Here we go.

Wince said...

Is the Biden campaign is so arrogant as to drop Swift's name in such a fashion without her assent?

I believe Biden himself is that delusional about his favorability, believing his problem is simply a comms issue.

Lloyd W. Robertson said...

Reminds me that Frank Sinatra was gung ho about JFK. Even had some kind of helicopter landing pad prepared for an event that JFK's people cancelled at the last minute. No mob ties, please. Twenty years later, Frank was gung ho about Reagan and he was treated somewhat better. Nancy Reagan said something like "we've heard the rumors about Frank, and we hope they're not true."

The left thinks Frank got older and crazier. Was Reagan basically an older version of JFK? Didn't care as much about the poor and the marginalized? Less likely to wage endless wars?

Aretha and Clinton, Aretha and Obama. Good times.

rastajenk said...

Also, this part caught my attention right away: 'after Mr. Trump seized control of the Republican primary race more rapidly than Mr. Biden’s advisers had initially expected.'

He must have terrible advisers; what are they looking at? They must still believe that the lawfare approach to defeating the Don is a good idea.

lamech said...

The following strategy outlook from the Biden Campaign should be concerning

NYTimes (same article):

"the president and his team believe that the end of the election will not be in November but on Jan. 6, 2025, when Congress will count the Electoral College votes.
Mr. Biden’s team is building out a legal strike force in battleground states to prepare for a range of challenges — including matters of basic voting rights but extending to the certification of the election under the Electoral Count Reform Act, the 2022 federal law that was meant to stave off any repeat of Mr. Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election."


Among other novel lawfare-enabling provisions, the Electoral Count Reform Act contains the following unconstitutional provision, attempting to bind future Congresses to abdicate Congress' role as a coequal branch of government:

"The determination of Federal courts on questions arising under the Constitution or laws of
the United States with respect to a certificate of ascertainment of appointment of electors shall be conclusive in Congress."

pages 1934 to 1968 of the omnibus 2023 appropriations bill
https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/JRQ121922.PDF



Eva Marie said...

One of Taylor Swift’s bodyguards left to join the IDF immediately after Oct 7. I wouldn’t assume she is in the Biden camp.

donald said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Breezy said...

I wonder what Taylor thinks of the war on Hamas. Allot of young people are protesting that so TayTay may be a hard sell for Joe. She wouldn’t want to alienate her fans. It’d be interesting to see.

Also, Michelle would be a disaster as Commander-in-Chief. It’s not like we don’t have fires ablaze here, most of which abetted by her husband and her husband’s merry band of people. Her biggest and most potent weakness is her husband’s fingerprints all over the new and unnecessary challenges we face today.

Quaestor said...

Celebrity endorsements... how revolting. Nothing proclaims greater fear of democracy than neutering the primary system except appealing to celebrity entertainers.

If democracy is in danger, then the presidential campaign of Joseph Robinette Biden is the principal threat.

rcocean said...

Death grip? More like love embrace. The Democrats work differently from Republicans. Their "Base" is made up of some the stupidist, out of touch voters in the USA, along with a ton of people who vote their identity or want some graft.

They don't really care who is President or what he does. you could nominate Joe Manchin or even Sarah Palin and they would all vote for them, if they had D after their name. To the Democrats, their leaders are interchangable. In the Senate, the D's vote as a bloc, even the "rebels" like Syiema (?) and Manchin vote with Schumer 95 percent of the time. Same with the SCOTUS - the 3 democrat justices vote as a bloc.

That's why you had the Hillary cornoation in 2016, and the fake primary race in 2020 where everyone refused to go after Biden hard, and dropped out after he won SC.

rcocean said...

Biden doesn't have to campaign. The MSM are his press agents, and are pumping out Pro-Biden propaganda and attacking Trump 24/7.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Democracy is at stake again? I Thought we had settled that in 1964...and 68...

Whenever a politician tells you that this is the most important election in your lifetime, it means it's the most important election in their career.

Mr Wibble said...

Again.. What votes does Taylor Swift bring to the table?

53% of women ages 18-24 who were U.S. citizens reported voting in the 2020 elections, which is the lowest participation of any age group of women. Even a small increase pays large dividends for the Dems, especially for Biden, who only barely scraped by with a victory in 2020. There are a lot of Taylor Swift fans in AZ, GA, and WI, and I'd imagine that many of them are not particularly interested in politics.

SoLastMillennium said...

"But 4 New York Times reporters toss out the name Taylor Swift as a sop. Disgusting!"

I'm so old I remember when Swifties were fans of Tom Swift, not Taylor Swift..

Leland said...

What does Taylor Swift get out of such an endorsement? I know her she has been more outspoken in her politics, but I don’t see what she gets out of endorsement, and I can see plenty of negatives. What if she rather endorse Harris?

wendybar said...

Joe Biden Is Corrupt said...
most of her fans are teens age girls.

Are they voting now?

1/29/24, 9:20 AM

Democrats are trying to get 16 year olds to vote, so don't count the Democrats out. They'll find a way like the cheaters they are.

Rich said...

The Biden team believes that reestablishing American global preeminence is the way forward to a more peaceful and prosperous rules-based global order. Stated that way, the proposition is obviously problematic. Much of the rest of the world is not interested in the reestablishment of such an American-centric geopolitics, even among the democratic allies .

The future global alignment of power is unlikely to be either American-led or democratically rules-based. If so, the US would be better off consolidating power with other advanced democracies in Europe and the Far East and developing a collective leadership that would allow the democracies as a bloc to negotiate and interact with other power blocs in what is likely to be a highly fractious but highly interacting global society. Power, not rules, will ultimately prevail (as always).

Divided government in Washington and decentralization of power across the very disparate states and regions of the United States has been the motive power behind shaping American insular, isolationist, and sovereignty-first attitudes and postures. That power distribution is returning to America; the coming weak Biden victory will further it--and a Trump victory will supercharge fracture, division, and irresolution internationally. In short, the United States is going to be more insular and almost surely the American public will not support further fighting by the US in the Greater Middle East in what it now regards as other people's wars.

US foreign policy across the Greater Middle East has been failing for over two decades and now appears heading for collapse. Ezra Klein in the NYT reports that 75 percent of Israelis are opposed to a two-state solution—the centerpiece of US policy for three decades—and that a majority would be willing to forego American support to maintain a unilateralist posture. The WSJ news feature on the Houthis emphasizes that they are heroes to the Arab public across the region and undoubtedly to Muslims beyond. What is America's relevance to the future lives of 1.8 billion Muslims? More Biden foreign policy strutting American preeminence?

Does it require a Trump victory for America to finally exit from entangling arrangements across the Greater Middle East and Muslim world? What if exiting the Middle East costs Ukrainian independence and a re-powering of despotic Russian expansionism? This would be an America resembling the isolationism of 1937 and a Europe resembling August 1939. Why die for Danzig?

The reason not to repeat the caviling and equivocation of the 1930s is to avoid the reckonings of the 1940s. The road after an appeasement-based Trump peace might be a very hard road indeed.

Where are the alternatives the young people ask?

Dogma and Pony Show said...

"Their" democracy is a system so rigged that even a POS like Biden can win.

Butkus51 said...

Pretty f'd up that people actually think scatterbrains is in charge of his bowels much less the country.

There is nothing there. Nothing.

Jupiter said...

You realize that Taylor Swift has exactly one male fan. That football player.

Readering said...

Don't blame the NYTimes that 3 of the 4 reporters were working to uncover the psy ops operation to ensure the Chiefs win the Superbowl but came up empty. They probably wasted a lot of time on the Eagles angle.

JAORE said...

I'm waiting on the Wierd Al endorsement before I make my final decision.

Freder Frederson said...

Democrats are trying to get 16 year olds to vote, so don't count the Democrats out. They'll find a way like the cheaters they are.

Lowering the voting age for Federal elections to 16 would require a constitutional amendment. That ain't gonna happen in the foreseeable future.

Allowing 16 year olds or even legal residents to vote in local elections (especially those that are particularly relevant, e.g., School Boards), I have no problem with. What is your problem with it other than it might get more Democrats elected (which is mere speculation at this point)?

Maybe you weren't, but at 16 I was certainly interested in both local and national politics.

n.n said...

TaylorMade clubs are the bomb. Fore!

Bob Boyd said...

@ Ride Space Mountain

The pecker tongs aren't technically part of the pelvic fundus or pecker carrier group, if you will.
When I was just out of high school, I had a job at a full-service gas station. I worked with this older, former army mechanic. Great guy. Loved him. Funny as hell too. Anyway, sometimes he called his hands pecker tongs, as in, "Ah be right with ya. Ah gotta go wash muh pecker tongs."
He's still kickin'. Still run into him once in a while.

Dogma and Pony Show said...

I'm not buying any of the Michelle Obama speculation. If the dems were planning on making a last-minute substitution, it wouldn't be her. What segment of the voters would she pull away from Trump? Also, it would just look completely farcical. Nobody who's not already drunk on the dem kool-aid regards her as presidential material, so the most charitable interpretation of her candidacy would be that Barack would be the real decisionmaker and Michelle's role would just be to rubberstamp whatever he decided. I really think that'd be too large a leap toward Idiocracy than Americans are ready to take, even in these strange times. We'll probably get there, but not in 2024. Even Hillary had the good sense to serve in the Senate before trying to be president.

I also think that what's lacking in all of these alternative-nominee scenarios on the dem side is that there's no explanation of whether or how the new candidate would differ from Biden in terms of issues and policies. Is simply subbing in a younger body and mind to replace Biden going to be enough to defeat what Trump is offering to swing-state voters? If the country were doing as well under FJB as it was under Trump, I don't think Biden's age and decrepitude would be at all fatal to his electoral chances in 2024. The problem is not that he's an old president, it's that he's a godawful president, largely because he is about 97% in the grip of the extreme left, and every one of the left's policies is godawful for the country. Unless the hypothetical new candidate comes in announces a radical departure from Biden's policies, I don't see how they can win back the normal people.

Oligonicella said...

"After months of languid buildup in which he held only a single public campaign event, Mr. Biden has thrown a series of rallies across battleground states, warning that democracy itself is at stake in 2024."

Yeah... Right message, wrong target.

Oligonicella said...

EdwdLny:
Joey bidet

Joe Bidet... I shall use that going forward.

Bruce Hayden said...

“"the president and his team believe that the end of the election will not be in November but on Jan. 6, 2025, when Congress will count the Electoral College votes.”
“Mr. Biden’s team is building out a legal strike force in battleground states to prepare for a range of challenges — including matters of basic voting rights but extending to the certification of the election under the Electoral Count Reform Act, the 2022 federal law that was meant to stave off any repeat of Mr. Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election."”

They are telling us their strategy - they intend to cheat their way to victory using massive LawFare. And I think that you have to take them seriously. Katy Hobbs, in 2022, she told the AZ electorate that she had a different approach than campaigning. She had set up the Big Steal, and had it well fortified by Election Day. Knowing that she (as Sec State) in 2020 had helped engineer massive acceptance of illegal votes using drop off boxes, Republicans started monitoring them in 2022. The Dems went into court, and got a judge to agree that this intimidated a couple of snowflakes, and banned it. Hobbs and crew then engaged in industrial level ballot stuffing of the drop off boxes up through the election. The Republicans were able to ultimately document it through cell phone traffic records, that the same phone numbers would make circuits through a series of drop off boxes, day in, and day out. By by then, Hobbs had moved into the Governor’s Mansion, and the courts couldn’t/wouldn’t do anything.

Rusty said...

RCP poll. 66% of the people polled think the country is heading in the wrong direction.
Taylor Swift isn't going to change that.

Rich said...
"The Biden team believes that reestablishing American global preeminence is the way forward to a more peaceful and prosperous rules-based global order."

Prior to 2020 We weren't in a proxy war with Russia. Prior to 2020 China wasn't threatening Taiwan. Prior to 2020 we weren't in a proxy war with Iran.
Here's a tip, Rich. Try not posting as if the rest of us weren't as molar grindingly simple as you are.

PM said...

Trump'll see your Taylor Swift and raise you Asian Doll.

JAORE said...

"...an appeasement-based Trump peace..."

Oh dear God.

MayBee said...

Getting involved in Dem politics seems not to have done a lot for Lena Dunham and Amy Schumer. Taylor should probably not indulge the Biden's fantasy.

tim maguire said...

I guess all the job applicants were saying here's my brilliant idea: Get Taylor Swift to endorse him.

Reminds me of this exchange from Elf:

Eugene: Morris and I have been brainstorming, and we've come up with what I think is a pretty big idea.
Walter: Great, what?
Morris: You're gonna love it, it's fantastic.
Walter: What?
Morris: Okay, picture this... We bring in Miles Finch.
Walter: The miles finch?
Morris: The golden ghost. We bring him in! He's written more classics than Dr. Seuss. It ain't gonna be easy, But I think it's worth a shot.
Walter: My two top writers, my crack team, my fun squad... you came in here pitching me, the idea of hiring another writer?
Morris: Yeah.
Walter: I like it.

Patrick Driscoll said...

If the meat puppet Biden had any shame or self awareness, he would step aside. He's won't do that because he's always been a lying, evil sack of shit, always sniffing around for the next payoff. I oughta know, I'm from Delaware. Our country is in big trouble if this decrepit mummy actually received eighty million votes.

n.n said...

Biden strikes a pose with sanguid (sic) expectations.

Freder Frederson said...

"Their" democracy is a system so rigged that even a POS like Biden can win.

It is amazing that a comment like this is written by the same people who complain about TDS.

Even as much as I despise Donald Trump, I would not call him a piece of shit.

stlcdr said...

That would be a thing to see: Biden gets 200 million votes, all because of Taylor Swift.

stlcdr said...

Tell me more about this "democracy at stake" thing....

Quaestor said...

"I'm waiting on the Wierd Al endorsement before I make my final decision."

The inconvenient resemblance of the lower-case 12th letter and the upper-case 9th led my mind astray to this probably imminent question, will the digital manifestation of Alfred Matthew Yankovic be more entertaining than the organic version?

Hassayamper said...

In short, the United States is going to be more insular and almost surely the American public will not support further fighting by the US in the Greater Middle East in what it now regards as other people's wars.

I hope this analysis is correct. I do not wish for my young adult son to shed one drop of blood for the Israelis, Saudis, Ukrainians, or anyone else outside our borders.

It's very peculiar for a child of the Reagan era to see how the Democrats have become the party of warmongers and international meddlers again, with most of the Republicans, save the Lindsey Graham/Nikki Haley neocon rump wing, returning to an isolationist posture. One more way we are recapitulating the first half of the 20th century.

Another big difference from the post-Vietnam years is that the Democrats are now the unabashed handmaiden of billionaires, bankers, and gigantic multinational corporations, not to mention slavish idolaters of the FBI secret police and spy agencies. Shades of Woodrow Wilson...

Paddy O said...

Taylor Swift is the new Miles Finch.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Richard X Bove has some relevant insight...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13019067/Richard-x-bove-dollar-collapse-china-money-superpower.html

Does it matter ?

BUMBLE BEE said...

BTW where does she get her poodle clipped?

Quaestor said...

"The Biden team believes that reestablishing American global preeminence is the way forward..."

Rich evidently put a shitload of effort into his 10:18 AM polemic. One hundred and twenty-three words is a comparatively herculean labor next to his typical output. There's only one flaw in his otherwise praiseworthy postulation, it's complete ballocks. American voters neither agree nor disagree with the Biden foreign policy for the simple reason that such an entity does not exist. Rich might as well spin theories about the destiny of the Blue Wizards for all the relevance to reality his "global preeminence" screed contains.

Here's a rhetorical principle all embryonic web pundits ought to learn and embrace before their first bounding stride out of the starting gate: Whenever global appears in your writing, healthily skeptical readers reflexively engage their bullshit detectors. Global means the writer is pushing a proposition unsupported by anything more substantial than hot air. If you set out to be Sisyphus, choose a smaller boulder.

RMc said...

What insipid puffery!

...and you'll like it, you racist! Bow down...!

Quaestor said...

I must apologize to Rich. He pushed his Plutonian burden uphill with an epic of 427 words. How I miscounted is entirely due to my lazy reliance on software I haven't used often enough.

Freder Frederson said...

I'm waiting on the Wierd Al endorsement before I make my final decision.

You could do a whole lot worse than crediting the endorsement of Weird Al. Have you ever heard an interview with him? He is extremely intelligent, self depreciating and humble. He knows that his career, fame, and wealth is a complete fluke. He is also, apparently, a hell of a nice guy.

Howard said...

It's pantload versus pantload 2024. Life as we know it on planet earth depends on which of these two elderly has beens is successful in winning the electoral college bowl.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

john mosby said...

Rich, what would have been so wrong with a second-half 20th century where:

- half a million young American men didn’t die?
- for that matter, nearly half a million British Empire young men also didn’t die? (I.e., no significant fighting after Dunkirk)
- Nazis and Communists killed each other even more furiously, with no Western Front?
- German and Japanese young men, instead of American and European young men, died trying to put down wars of national liberation in the global South? (And probably a lot fewer of them, because their methods would be faster than ours - imagine Mandela in the hands of Reinhard Heydrich, or Gandhi brought out every once in a while for Toni’s amusement?)
- Saner German leaders would eventually take out Hitler?
- no Communist China? Probably no unified China of any sort - just a collection of Manchukuos being farmed by Japan?
- Americans made things and sold them to each other, within our borders, in peace?

Your comment supposes that we would need to respond to “the reckonings of the 1940s.” I reckon we could have just watched them happen.

JSM

gilbar said...

Jupiter said...
You realize that Taylor Swift has exactly one male fan. That football player.

i have her 1st 4 albums. if you actually think, that no males buy her albums, you are Literally the stupidest idiot that was ever on this earth

Joe Biden Is Corrupt said...
most of her fans are teens age girls.

her 1st album cam out in 2006 (7X platinum), with a multi-platinum album ever 2 years since..
So, her teen age fans from 2010 are HOW OLD now? (hint: add fourteen MORE years.. so at least 27y)

gilbar said...

Biden Blackmail Intensifies: Won't Shut Border Until Congress Coughs Up Ukraine, Israel Funds

Blackmail.. Just like what he did TO the Ukraine. HOW is this NOT Treason?

rehajm said...

If after all the hinting Taylor Swift doesn't voluntarily come forward they'll just threaten her like they do everyone else...

Howard said...

Tailor Tinker Soldier Swift has enough FU money for dozens of lifetimes that music boycott threats are not even impotent.

To be a devotee of Donald Trump the reality TV WWE wannabe entertainer, cognitive dissonance is non-negotiable.

Blogger Wilbur said...
I generally have no opinion of or interest in some celebrity's political views; it's their business as far as I'm concerned.

Blogger Quaestor said...
Celebrity endorsements... how revolting. Nothing proclaims greater fear of democracy than neutering the primary system except appealing to celebrity entertainers.

Jim at said...

Maybe you weren't, but at 16 I was certainly interested in both local and national politics.

Yeah. And look how that turned out.

Robert Cook said...

"Another big difference from the post-Vietnam years is that the Democrats are now the unabashed handmaiden of billionaires, bankers, and gigantic multinational corporations, not to mention slavish idolaters of the FBI secret police and spy agencies. Shades of Woodrow Wilson...."

That they are. But so, still, are the Republicans. We have nowhere to turn to effect substantive change in our national representation and direction. We may be at the decadent and decrepit stage all empire states ultimately reach, when all collapses.

Robert Cook said...

"The Democrats work differently from Republicans. Their 'Base' is made up of some the stupidist, out of touch voters in the USA, along with a ton of people who vote their identity or want some graft."

Where is the difference in how the parties work?

Howard said...

Bedtime for Bonzo... You fans of famed actor Dutch Reagan are in good company with simian celebrity endorsements.

Owen said...

"...What insipid puffery! Biden has not done enough. He never had to justify his death grip on the Democratic nomination, and it's outrageous that the country is left with the Trump-or-Biden choice once again. But 4 New York Times reporters toss out the name Taylor Swift as a sop. Disgusting!..."

Professora, I am divided in my interpretation of your tone in the foregoing. Are you trolling? Or are you truly peeved?

Or is it rude to ask?

Iman said...

“Even as much as I despise Donald Trump, I would not call him a piece of shit.”

Do you think it pleases people to call POTATUS Biden a “piece of shit”? It is a horrible thing to know, as it puts Americans in harm’s way and qualifies as a national embarrassment.

Jim at said...

489-49 and 525-13, Howard.

Get over it.

Mutaman said...

Dave Begley said...

"This is what the Dems have come to: A Taylor Swift endorsement."

This is what the Know Nothings have come to: Nominating a candidate who pays 3.5 million dollars to an attorney who doesn't know how to mark a document for identification.

Mutaman said...

Wince said...

Hey Vince: Great shot of Tucco, but you are aware that Sergio was a Marxist aren't you?

Bunkypotatohead said...

He can use Don't Blame Me for his campaign theme song.
Maybe Blank Space might be more appropriate.

effinayright said...

I can see the usual celebrity endorsement bullshit from her:

"Bidenomics! It worked for ME!"

Very effective.

typingtalker said...

"But 4 New York Times reporters toss out the name Taylor Swift as a sop. Disgusting!"

The job of the New York Times is to sell advertising. To do that they need readers. Taylor Swift attracts readers like ants to honey.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

"Democracy is at stake" Is leftist code for - how dare anyone try to stop our white left crusade for a one-party state.

Witness said...

'He never had to justify his death grip on the Democratic nomination...'

incumbent presidents generally don't have to, and in his case he won the first primary without even being on the ballot. plus, he's the only person with better than 0 in the "victories against the opposing party's frontrunner" column

Bruce Hayden said...

“Allowing 16 year olds or even legal residents to vote in local elections (especially those that are particularly relevant, e.g., School Boards), I have no problem with. What is your problem with it other than it might get more Democrats elected (which is mere speculation at this point)?”

Of course, it would elect more Democrats. That’s why you and other Dembots are doing it. Kids don’t have the intellectual or emotional maturity to be allowed to vote. Given my druthers, I would raise the voting age to 25, when brains are mostly fully developed. Dems want to lower the voting age, because the kids they want to enfranchise are more easily led and manipulated.

And, no, giving HS students the right to vote in school board elections is not a good idea. They sit all day in class listening to, and being indoctrinated by, unionized teachers, who have a direct interest in more pay, less work, and less accountability. Those kids, electing school boards amendable to the teachers and their interests, wouldn’t be paying for their pay raises. They are living at home, and their parents are paying.

typingtalker said...

"But 4 New York Times reporters toss out the name Taylor Swift as a sop. Disgusting!"

The job of the New York Times is to sell advertising. To do that they need readers. Taylor Swift attracts readers like ants to honey.

Bruce Hayden said...

“I'm not buying any of the Michelle Obama speculation. If the dems were planning on making a last-minute substitution, it wouldn't be her. What segment of the voters would she pull away from Trump? Also, it would just look completely farcical. Nobody who's not already drunk on the dem kool-aid regards her as presidential material, so the most charitable interpretation of her candidacy would be that Barack would be the real decisionmaker and Michelle's role would just be to rubberstamp whatever he decided. I really think that'd be too large a leap toward Idiocracy than Americans are ready to take, even in these strange times. We'll probably get there, but not in 2024. Even Hillary had the good sense to serve in the Senate before trying to be president.”

I think that it may be the nostalgia. Barack Hussein Obama II was the Light Bringer. Objectively, he was a horrible President, but not maybe as bad as FJB. For the left, there was always something magical about his Presidency. FJB doesn’t have that. He’s a grifting senile octogenarian. After him, they seem to want someone they can put their hopes and dreams in, and Barack, and his wife as a proxy, seems to be the one.

PM said...

No group has more political energy than under-30 white women.
YGGs!

walter said...

Biden still knows how to shake it off...maybe.