How much did Joe know?

Silvio Canto, Jr.  

"As Mr. Penn points out, President Biden left his party in “ruins.”  Mr. Penn is hoping for a Bill Clinton in the party’s future.  Let’s see what happens, but I’d love to know who was calling the shots, or managing the “autopen.”  I fear that someone was the puppet master, and I’d like to know who it was."

Uncle Paul's Parodies.

"The autopen story and all of the talk about Biden’s cognitive decline raises a question.  How much did President Biden know?  Did he understand just how far to the left he was being pushed?  I am not trying to make excuses for Mr. Biden, but this leftist tilt was not what I thought would happen.  Maybe I’m alone, but I actually did think that President Biden would be more centrist and stay away from extremes.

"I am thinking about all of this because of an article by Mark Penn and just how far left the Biden presidency went.  This is what he wrote:

Back in the late 90s, Democrats stood for a balanced budget, expanded health care benefits, tough immigration policies, and smaller government. Bill Clinton declared “the era of big government is over.” Boy was he wrong.

Step by step, Democrats drifted from these policies that produced near 75% approval ratings for Clinton. Tax and spend came back in the Obama years as tax rates went up and Obamacare kicked in, and he moved decisively to the left in the last two years of his presidency. 

The groundwork for DEI was laid with the attacks on the police and calling out other institutions as racist. Climate change moved up to the top of the agenda as pipelines were shut down and regulations were issued to slow energy producers and the idea took root that climate change, not ISIS, was the biggest “existential” threat we faced. 

The emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement and the election of Donald Trump pushed Democrats further to the left on cultural and economic issues as the chief goal of the party was to lay down resistance to Trump and everything he stood for. The point was to rip it all down and prevent him from shifting away from the Obama policies. . . . 

More here...

The Terrorists Among Us

Issues & Insights  

"Have you heard any prominent Democrats coming out and condemning the violence, as many Republicans did after the Jan. 6 riots?"

"Whenever the far left in the U.S. loses an argument — called an election — it suddenly decides it’s time to take to the streets and get violent. Now is just such a time, as America experiences a new spasm of home-grown anti-Trump, anti-Musk terrorism. It shouldn’t be tolerated.

"Whether it’s taking pot shots at the president, violently demonstrating in support of murderous terrorists, “swatting” people they don’t like, or destroying cars made by a person they now despise, our country once again finds extremists threatening us and our liberty.

"And, no surprise, it’s nearly all from the far left side of the political spectrum, organized by supposedly “nonviolent” groups, quietly supported by the Democratic Party, and excused by the ultra-biased Big Media.

"President Donald Trump’s reelection seems to have brought out even more extremist violence, which had already surged. A report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies recently found “domestic terrorist attacks and plots against government targets motivated by partisan political beliefs in the past five years is nearly triple the number of such incidents in the previous 25 years combined.”

"So, yes, it’s very real.

"As noted, we’re in the midst of a domestic terrorism outbreak right now, after a spate of what at first appeared to be lone-wolf crimes against Tesla owners and dealers, who only a year ago were the darlings of the so-called progressive movement.

"But that was before Tesla chief executive Elon Musk joined Trump’s administration.

"Today, Tesla dealerships and electric vehicles are being torched, bombed with Molotov cocktails, or vandalized and damaged beyond repair by people angry that Musk is helping to reduce government waste.

"Imagine that: People committing terrorist acts to keep others from cutting government waste.

"As if there’s any doubt, Attorney General Pam Biondi has declared the attacks against Tesla “domestic terrorism.” And she’s right." . . .

Ward Clark; RedState  

"And Bernie - the aforementioned daffy old Bolshevik from Vermont - remember when he used to run his yap about millionaires? Nowadays, he yaps about billionaires because now he's a millionaire himself, with three houses to boot." 

"Sometimes you just have to shake your head.

"The MSNBC show "The Weekend," on Saturday, in their infinite wisdom (yes, I'm being facetious), decided to provide the Democratic Party with some valuable advice as to what they ought to do next, in order to start winning elections. While they did get one thing right, the balance of their advice was pretty ludicrous.

On Saturday's edition of MSNBC's The Weekend, the panel had few ideas on what theme Democrats should run on.

But there was consensus on one thing: "Fighting Oligarchy," the name of the national tour by Bernie Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, ain't it.

Co-host Michael Steele: "The 'oligarchy tour,' I think, kind of misses middle America. Folks  sitting at the local pub aren't using the term oligarchy."

This brings a pithy observation to mind, one that begins with the word "No" and ends with the word, "Sherlock." But here's where things went off the rails.

But what should the message be? Daniels delivered the grim news:

"The problem now, though, is that Democrats don't have an alternative. You have to be able to say, OK, this is what we can offer you that Republicans can't. And that's what they have yet to do." . . .