"When Did ‘Shylock’ Become a Slur?... the term was, not too long ago, considered by many to be appropriate for public usage...."

You may have seen that President Trump said that under his Big Beautiful Bill there would be "no death tax, no estate tax, no going to the banks and borrowing from, in some cases, a fine banker, and in some cases shylocks and bad people."

So I'm reading "When Did ‘Shylock’ Become a Slur?" 

This is a Time Magazine article from September 14, 2014:

On Tuesday, Vice President Joseph Biden referred to those who make bad loans to members of the military, to take advantage of them while they’re overseas, as “Shylocks.”...

The word “shylock,” which has been used to refer to loan sharks, is an eponym from a Jewish character in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. Jewish Americans have publicly challenged the portrayal as an insult to Jews for more than 50 years, according to a review of TIME’s archive, even as it remained a fixture of the modern lexicon. Today, “shylock” is considered an antisemitic slur and, after being called out by the Anti-Defamation League, Biden apologized for his “poor choice of words.”

But the vice president’s apology has confused some — perhaps because the term was, not too long ago, considered by many to be appropriate for public usage. 

Joe Biden — who declared Juneteenth a federal holiday — celebrates Juneteenth.

At the Reedy Church, yesterday, in Galveston, Texas:

"Delaware is a strange state. Delaware is the first state, but it also is a state that was a slave state, by great shame. But it fought on the side of the North, and it didn't get to the South like Maryland and two other states. And so even when the when we did Juneteenth, didn't affect people in Delaware because they weren't they weren't in the Confederacy nor the Confederate. Wasn't until the Emancipation Proclamation was occurred. What I'm trying to say is that uh I uh I I just learned a lot in the community and uh that's where I worked on East Side that's why I worked as a lawyer and that's why I got involved in public life...."

The actual fact he didn't even approach is that the Emancipation Proclamation didn't abolish slavery in Delaware. It took the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery in Delaware, so on Juneteenth — June 19, 1865 — the Delaware slaves were still slaves. The Thirteenth Amendment was not ratified until December 6, 1865. 

But here's Joe Biden in Galveston on Juneteenth, talking about Delaware, calling it a strange state, and not getting anywhere near what's so strange about Delaware that relates to Juneteenth.

Meanwhile, President Trump "celebrated" Juneteenth by writing this on Truth Social: "Too many non-working holidays in America. It is costing our Country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to keep all of these businesses closed. The workers don’t want it either! Soon we’ll end up having a holiday for every once working day of the year. It must change if we are going to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

Joe Biden speaks to the press — a bit mumblingly — for 3 1/2 minutes.

"You can see that I'm mentally incompetent, I can't walk," he wisecracks. "And I could beat the hell out of both of them," he says — about Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, the co-authors of that book about Biden's decline.

Another addition to the list of quotes of Biden threatening to or bragging about beating somebody up — "If we were in high school, I’d take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him," etc.

By the way, I'm seeing reports that Tapper's book — despite the onslaught of publicity — isn't doing very well. I know I won't buy it. I think he shouldn't be rewarded for sitting on the information, apparently in the hope of helping Democrats win the election, and now trying to profit from revealing it. And it's absurd the way he's been going around acting as though he has just learned that journalists ought to do journalism and report events as they happen without toadying to the powerful.

AND: Why does Biden lean into the faces of female reporters? I think it's a grandpa move that has worked to delight little girls. The femaleness of the reporters makes them more like little girls to him than like what they are, adults engaged in professional work. He can't help it, just like he can't help threatening to "beat the hell out of" male antagonists. 

Donald Trump presents — without a word of commentary — Joe Biden, saying "colored kids."

pic.twitter.com/Y6OFeGKS4l

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2025

What do we think of Joe here? It can't be that he's racist for saying "colored kids." It's not as though Biden is attempting to revive the old expression. It's not like what the other Joe — Joe Rogan — has been doing with the word "retarded." Biden is painting a picture of the past, when he was boy: "I remember seeing kids going by — at the time, called 'colored kids' — on a bus going by." Part of the memory is the memory of what the black children were called. It was the completely common speech of that time and, I believe, the preferred term. Not racist. To cling to it, after the 1950s, became problematic, but Biden isn't clinging to it. He's recreating his boyhood experience, sensing and learning. I think Trump knows all that, and by merely showing the speech and saying nothing, he avoids criticism. He just hangs it out there for people to react to, as if Biden's mere voicing of the now-disfavored words is the same as his actually using the word as his go-to way to refer to black people today. Many will take the bait.

"There’s this saying that Biden, and then Harris, both repeated... 'building a middle class from the bottom up and the middle out.' What the hell does that mean?"

"So the first thing is there’s this kind of consultant language that just needs to go away. That was always annoying to people. But when your opponent, Donald Trump, is clearly not on any consultant-speak, it just makes it more glaring that you seem like the typical politicians."

Said Ben Rhodes, who's recommending "authenticity." He's quoted in "Obama’s Not Going to Save Democrats, but This Might/Michelle Cottle and Ben Rhodes on what Democrats misunderstand about authenticity" (NYT).

And then there’s a second piece of this, which is, Democrats have these public debates that astound me where it’s like, “Maybe we need to go on TikTok” or “We need to go on that manosphere podcast.” If you can do that, if you can make a cool TikTok video and whatever your thing is that allows you to do that, that’s great. If you can’t, then please don’t. Please don’t go there. If you can go on “Joe Rogan” because you are up to speed on the conspiracy theories or you have a background in standup comedy or you know something about ultimate fighting, that’s great. But don’t go on “Joe Rogan” to talk about building an economy from the bottom up to the middle out. That will make his audience hate Democrats more. 

And so I think what Democrats miss about authenticity — it’s not like what platform I’m on. The point is that authenticity is about being yourself. It’s not about being what you think this demographic wants a politician to be.... [M]y point is essentially, Democrats love to, for instance, sit around and be like, “What’s the policy agenda that will win back America?” I — nobody cares. There’s great ideas out there — the abundance agenda and all the rest of it — but nobody is going to read that right now. That’s a great idea for Democrats if they actually win back power or maybe if they’re in power now.

Rhodes has his "a" word for saving Democrats — "authenticity" — and I see him glancing over at Ezra Klein's "a" word for saving Democrats — "abundance." What are some other longish "a" words that could be used by an elite commentator bullshitting about reinvigorating the Democratic Party? 

Well, you know what to do with a question like that, and that's just what I did. Do not read any further if you don't want to read something written by Grok:

1. Adaptability - Emphasizing the party’s need to evolve with changing times and voter priorities.
2. Aspiration - Focusing on inspiring voters with bold, forward-looking goals.
3. Accountability - Highlighting a commitment to transparency and responsibility to rebuild trust.
4. Altruism - Advocating for a selfless dedication to the public good over partisan gain.
5. Ambition - Calling for grand, unapologetic plans to energize the base and attract new supporters.
6. Articulation - Stressing the need for clearer, more compelling communication of values and policies.
7. Audacity - Urging the party to embrace fearless, unconventional strategies.
8. Atonement - Suggesting a reckoning with past missteps to reconnect with disillusioned voters.
9. Assimilation - Proposing a broader, more inclusive coalition that absorbs diverse perspectives.
10. Ascendancy - Framing the party’s path as one of rising dominance through moral and strategic clarity.

Obama already used #7, but now I feel like dabbling in crappy book titles, like "The Audacity of Altruism." Let's see... "The Articulation of Adaptablity," "The Assimilation of Atonement," "The Ambition of Accountability," "The Ascendancy of Aspiration."

Are we authentic yet?

"You know, in his farewell address, President Eisenhower spoke of the dangers of the military-industrial complex...."

"Six days — six decades later, I’m equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech-industrial complex that could pose real dangers for our country as well. Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation enabling the abuse of power."

Said President Joe Biden, in his farewell address last night. 

There's a big difference between "military-industrial complex" and "tech-industrial complex." Eisenhower's phrase warns about the government and not merely private business. Biden's phrase only warns about private business. The "abuse of power" Biden identifies takes place outside of government, and he looks to government as a victim of abuse by private actors — citizens, speaking — and, potentially, as a cure — government, regulating speech.

The free press is crumbling. Editors are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact-checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit.

What about all the lies you told for power and for profit?! 

We must hold the social platforms accountable to protect our children, our families and our very democracy from the abuse of power.

What about your abuse of power squeezing the "social platforms" to follow the narrative that served your interests?

MEANWHILE: On the NYT home page, we see Trump swooping in as the savior of TikTok:

"A traditionalist to his bones, Mr. Biden has opted for the grace and reticence he believes are befitting the departing president of a defeated party..."

"... even as the incoming president threatens to imprison opponents and tries to install conspiracy-minded acolytes in positions of power.... At this stage of Mr. Biden’s presidency... his public messaging is targeted and restrained. Once Washington’s most loquacious chatterbox, Mr. Biden these days barely engages with the reporters who follow him everywhere. He has held no news conferences and conducted no interviews with the traditional news media since the election, though he has done some podcasts. His only reply to shouted questions from journalists during his entire Africa trip added up to 14 words. In South America, it was just a single word. As a result, Mr. Biden has not once publicly addressed his much-criticized decision to pardon his son since the written statement he released, nor has he discussed his consideration of blanket pardons for adversaries of Mr. Trump to protect them from his promised campaign of 'retribution' once he takes office...."

From "A Weary Biden Heads for the Exit/Still stinging from the election, President Biden is pushing for his final priorities but has absented himself from the national conversation about Donald Trump after warning repeatedly that he was a threat to American democracy" (NYT).

"In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me"/"And guess what, we broke them and now they’re whining like little children"/"Hitler knows that he will have to break us...."

This blog has a theme today.

The quotes in the post headline are from the first 2 posts of the day, below. The Bannon article has 2 more quotes about breakage:

• Spoken in a new interview: "Somebody’s got to break the system so somebody else can come in and build it. People have roles in life, right?"

• Spoken on January 5, 2021: "All hell is going to break loose tomorrow."

"The media is doing its best to play down Joe Biden’s casual insult of half of America as 'garbage'.... Why on earth would anyone assume Mr. Biden would..."

"... again show derision for voters he’s labeled 'semi-fascists,' 'MAGA extremists' and proponents of 'Jim Crow 2.0'? Of course it wasn’t a gaffe. It’s the latest injection of toxic Democratic arrogance—and it explains the party’s electoral struggles. It’s of a piece with the open dismissal by the media and elites of critics as idiots, yokels, deplorables. The men accused of 'toxic masculinity.' The women written off as 'handmaids.' The religious 'fanatics.' The millions the left scorn with a long list of 'ist' and 'phobe' words. If you don’t bow to progressive dogma, you are a fascist. Sexist. Racist. Nationalist. Insurrectionist. Domestic terrorist. Extremist. 'Far' rightist. And a homophobe. And a Nazi. Who is bitter. And clinging to a gun and a religion...."

Writes Kimberley A. Strassel, in "Democrats Trash-Talk the Voters/From ‘deplorables’ to ‘garbage,’ contempt doesn’t seem to be a winning message" (Wall Street Journal)(no subscription needed).

And thanks to Strassel for giving me the push I needed to actually watch the ad they got Julia Roberts to do the voice-over for. I laughed a lot:

You can really see how stupid they think the ordinary men and women of America are. I guess it's possible that they meant to exaggerate their low opinion in an ironic way that could make everybody laugh. 

Maybe somewhere in America women have been under men's thumb. I think of P. Diddy parties, things like that.

But also, why would you insult the people you want to influence?

And another thing: I don't believe many men are bullying their wives about voting the "right" way. I think it's a lot more likely that a woman might see how important the election is to her husband and simply choose not to cast a vote that effectively cancels his vote.

"Just moments ago, Joe Biden stated that our supporters are garbage."

"He's talking about the border patrol, he's talking about nurses, he's talking about teachers, he's talking about everyday Americans who love their country and want to dream big again and support you, Mr. President. And I hope their campaign is about to apologize for what Joe Biden just said. We are not garbage. We are patriots who love America and thank you for running Mr. President."

Said Marco Rubio to Donald Trump, on stage at Trump's rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania last night. Click the video below, which is cued up to the spot. Trump appears to be hearing this news of President Biden's statement for the first time.

Trump reacts: "Wow. That's terrible.... Remember Hillary? She said 'deplorable' and then she said 'irredeemable.' Right? But she said 'deplorable.' That didn't work out. 'Garbage,' I think is worse. Right? But he doesn't know. You have to please forgive him. Please forgive him! For he not knoweth what he said."

I believe that last bit was an attempt to evoke the words of Jesus: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." 

Trump continues: "These people. Terrible terrible terrible — to say a thing like that, but he really doesn't know. He really, honestly, he doesn't. And I'm convinced that he likes me more than he likes Kamala. Convinced. But that's a terrible thing."

It was a terrible thing to say, but you can see that Trump knows that Biden's rhetoric — like Hillary's "deplorable" — was an excellent gift to his campaign. And it came just as Kamala Harris was delivering her big closing-argument speech that was supposed to reach out to all Americans and to characterize her as the one who, unlike Trump, embraced everybody.

Here's the NYT article about that: "Harris’s Mission: Disqualify Trump, but Extend a Hand to His Voters/Kamala Harris, in her closing argument to voters, acknowledged an inescapable political reality: Donald Trump is not a fringe figure within his own party or the nation" (free-access link):

"Well, she’s — I’m in constant contact with her. She’s aware of where — we all — we’re singing from the same song sheet."

"We — she helped pass the l- — all the laws that are being employed now. She was a major player in everything we’ve done, including passage of legislation, which we were told we could never pass. And so, she’s been — and her — her staff is interlocked with mine in terms of all the things we’re doing."

Said President Biden, at the end of his press conference today, when he was asked what role Kamala Harris has played working on the "crises" of the last few days.

It almost seems designed to hurt her, but perhaps we can credit him with being so out of touch that he thought this was helpful. Has he not noticed that she's been trying to appear unattached to the Biden administration?

"Our task, our test is to make sure that the forces holding us together are stronger than those that are pulling us apart."

"I truly believe we’re in another inflection point of world history. For the choices we make today will determine our future for decades to come."

Said Biden this morning, addressing the United Nations. That's the only quote I have at the moment. It's not something I went looking for, in some hare-brained quest for banality. That's what the NYT highlighted.

ADDED: Here is the full text of the speech. Video:

"Remember: No eatin' dogs and cats!"

NEW: Full exchange of the incident leading up to Joe Biden putting on a Trump 2024 hat.

Biden: "Sure, I'll autograph [a hat]."

Man: "You remember your name?"

Biden: "I don't remember my name... I'm slow."

Man: "You're an old fart."

Biden: "Yeah, I'm an old guy... You would… pic.twitter.com/yQcCXmtzIZ

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 12, 2024

Arlington Cemetery — "It is not a place for politics.... And I will never politicize them."

I've avoided discussing the topic, because I can see that to talk about it is to violate the principle that the military dead should not be politicized. And yet to follow that principle is to cramp political debate about war, and political debate about war should be central to every presidential campaign. And the assertion that this is no place for politics is itself political debate.

But the main reason I'm going to start talking about this issue is because the Kamala Harris X account put up this long tweet yesterday. I've boldfaced the quotes I used for the post title:

As Vice President, I have had the privilege of visiting Arlington National Cemetery several times. It is a solemn place; a place where we come together to honor American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service of this nation. It is not a place for politics. And yet, as was reported this week, Donald Trump’s team chose to film a video there, resulting in an altercation with cemetery staff. Let me be clear: the former president disrespected sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt. This is nothing new from Donald Trump. This is a man who has called our fallen service members “suckers” and “losers” and disparaged Medal of Honor recipients. A man who, during a previous visit to the cemetery, reportedly said of fallen service members, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?” This is a man who is unable to comprehend anything other than service to himself. If there is one thing on which we as Americans can all agree, it is that our veterans, military families, and service members should be honored, never disparaged, and treated with nothing less than our highest respect and gratitude. And it is my belief that someone who cannot meet this simple, sacred duty should never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States of America. I will always honor the service and sacrifice of all of America’s fallen heroes, who made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of our beloved nation and our cherished freedoms. I mourn them and salute them. And I will never politicize them.

Those cannot be words straight from the mind of Kamala Harris. They sound like words written for Joe Biden to read off a teleprompter, replete with his oft-repeated claim that Trump said  “suckers” and “losers” and “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?” It's entirely political, including, of course, the assertion that it is not political.

Trump's visit to the cemetery was also political. It was a first move in a political game that Harris ought to have chosen not to play. But she couldn't get all her supporters to refrain from playing, and in the end, she jumped in. She made the obvious move, and it is an awful blunder. You knew it was a blunder — didn't you? (I hope you are at least that savvy) — but you just had to do it. 

If only you'd had the sense and the restraint to delete most of the words. Let me help retrospectively and uselessly:

"And let us choose inclusion over retribution. Let us choose common sense over nonsense...."

"And let us choose the sweet promise of tomorrow over the bitter return to yesterday. We won't go back. We won't be set back, bullied back, kicked back. We're not going back."

Oprah at the DNC:

It's a familiar Democratic Party trope: We go forward and Republicans go back. Back where? I remember when Joe Biden came out with "They're going to put y'all back in chains." So: back to slavery times. Who was that dreaded Republican racist who was "going to put y'all back in chains"? It wasn't that terrible ogre Donald Trump. It was Mitt Romney. 

"Women are not without electrical power."

Women aren't without what? pic.twitter.com/MZVeVK6DxN

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) August 20, 2024

President Biden was attempting to reference this passage in the Dobbs opinion, which took abortion out of the realm of individual rights and put it in play in the political processes:

Our decision returns the issue of abortion to those legislative bodies, and it allows women on both sides of the abortion issue to seek to affect the legislative process by influencing public opinion, lobbying legislators, voting, and running for office. Women are not without electoral or political power. It is noteworthy that the percentage of women who register to vote and cast ballots is consistently higher than the percentage of men who do so. In the last election in November 2020, women, who make up around 51.5 percent of the population of Mississippi, constituted 55.5 percent of the voters who cast ballots.

Biden was making a good point but garbled it badly. He went on to say: 

Women are not without electoral power or political power — no kidding. Republicans found out the power of women in 2022, and Trump is going to find out the power of women in 2024.

A very well-written line that had a hard time traveling from Teleprompter to vocalization. 

By the way, Biden has found out the power of women in 2024. Nancy... Kamala... they ousted him.

"There's nothing beyond our capacity when we act together. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Remember who the hell we are. We are the United States of America."

Said President Biden, next to the plane out of which emerged those freed by Russia in the prisoner exchange.

I'm glad the erstwhile prisoners are home, and I'm glad Joe Biden still walks and talks among the living, but I don't believe "There's nothing beyond our capacity when we act together," I don't believe we are "working together," I think it's interesting that a President said "Nothing. Nothing. Nothing," and I don't approve of the intensifier "the hell" on this occasion.

Most importantly, I want to muse over the announcement "We are the United States of America." It's not just a Bidenism. It's very widespread. It's "American exceptionalism." But the Russians got their prisoners back too. Is Putin out there saying «Мы — Россия»?

I get a Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair vibe. But what is grand about a prisoner exchange?

"There is speculation among social media users that President Joe Biden's recent speech was pre-recorded rather than live."

"This speculation is based on observations that the time displayed on Biden's watch during the speech did not match the actual time of the broadcast. Some users have expressed skepticism and questioned the authenticity of the speech, suggesting that it may have been edited or manipulated."

Grok summarizes the buzz on line.

Here's the image everyone is displaying. The diagram in the upper left corner shows the time of broadcast. The image on the watch, which is harder to see and upside down, shows a time around 6:07.

Great catch on the watch, but what did you expect? Why would he do it live? Yes, we have questions about his competence, but it would have been incompetent to do this live. He couldn't even really do it properly on the video that we saw, presumably pre-recorded and the best of several attempts to get it right. It was, of course, incompetent to allow the watch to show the wrong time, but someone else should have seen to that.

But why did they make the speech so long? If they needed to use pre-recording, why did they make the task of getting it right so hard? I'm thinking this was the only take, and they decided that it was good enough because it was impossible to believe it would get better. It was very poorly articulated and I (and others I talked to) found what we did hear hard to understand because it seemed to have been said by a person who did not understand the words. It was an effort to listen to that even for 11 minutes, which was all it took. Plus, it meandered through unnecessary material (while not covering the actual issue in any depth). 

It should have been half as long. Or less. A lot less. Something he could understand and say. 

Was that the last we'll ever hear from him?

ADDED: Whatever the time, we know the season. It is the winter of his possibilities:

OMG — 😂😂😂

pic.twitter.com/QnDTNXeQIw

— Catturd ™ (@catturd2) July 25, 2024

AND: The words, according to the transcript, are: "We’ve come so far since my inauguration. On that day, I told you as I stood in that winter — we stood in a winter of peril and a winter of possibilities, peril and possibilities." I listened to that repeatedly before reading the transcript and I listened after reading the transcript, and every single time I hear "winter apparel."

IN THE COMMENTS: rehajm said:

As someone who takes many pictures of watches...I took one look at the photo and thought something is amiss...

I don't care about Joe's watch collection but others seem to be and they claim he wears couple Omegas- a Seamaster and a Moonwatch and also a Rolex Datejust. The only one of these this watch could be is the blue dial Rolex Datejust. I believe moden Datejust has lumed sword style hands and the inset photo looks like dauphine or dagger hands- not the same. It looks 'off'...

I went to find high-res of the address video. I'm watching but it is hard to tell- lots of refraction caused by bright lights. I sometimes believe I see the absence of hands between the five and seven markers- no hour hand between the six and seven markers and sometimes think I see the time reads about five after eight early in the video...

I'll look some more but I put a place marker on fake...

Biden, in strange heavy makeup, just struggled through saying the words on a teleprompter.

And the news is he thinks he can continue as President. He's just fine, and, in fact, he'd still be in the race for reelection if he didn't put the power of the Democratic Party first, and the Party has told him that he cannot win. We're called to celebrate him for subordinating "personal ambition" to the Party's ambition. 

Drew what up?

Just like we drew it up. pic.twitter.com/9NBvc5nVZE

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) February 12, 2024

That was really tweeted by Joe Biden's official X account, last February 11th. Here's a screen shot, in case it disappears: