UK Daily Mail "Amy Klobuchar quit the presidential race Monday - and will throw her endorsement behind Joe Biden. "The Minnesota senator quit on the eve ofSuper Tuesday, making her the third to leave the race in 36 hours, following billionaire Tom Steyer and former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg. "She is the first of the three to indicate that she will endorse a rival.
"This is a developing story, check back for updates "
Joe Biden, The Comeback Geezer. . . "But no matter what happens on Super Tuesday, Democrats seeking to oust President Donald Trump in November who are happy about Saturday are celebrating a Pyrrhic – or maybe more accurately geriatric– victory. "Buttigieg’s campaign is telling reporters that he departed the race for the sake of party unity and the need to settle on a nominee who will win a little more than eight months from now. The subtext, however, is to stop the far-left Sanders from leading the entire Democratic slate on a kamikaze mission while there remains time to do so. In last week’s CBS debate, Buttigiegwarned, “we’re not going to win these critical, critical House and Senate races if people in those races have to explain why the nominee of the Democratic Party is telling people to look at the bright side of the Castro regime.” "The continued candidacy of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who finished behind even the fourth-place Buttigieg in the Palmetto State on Saturday, also helps in the anti-Sanders mission since her votes would almost all belong to the Vermont socialist were she to drop out." . . . Stumbles Or Senility?
Trump’s laugh line at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday that “Joe’s not going to be running the government” is actually a realistic and grave concern that will be fully fleshed out by the Trump campaign if Biden wins the nomination. A Democrat president in 2021 and beyond who is fatigued and strained by age, and possibly dementia, will be dominated and manipulated by whoever is around him, in this case the increasingly dominant and aggressive left of the party.
NY Post"Unprecedented, unprecedented. Everything is unprecedented. Nothing like this has ever happened before. "Except it pretty much has. Whenever you see the word “unprecedented” in the media, you should ask yourself: Has this reporter ever read a history book? Make the case against Trump if you want to, but if you pretend the sorts of things he does are without precedent, you simply make yourself look ignorant. "Virtually any presidency you examine is guilty of far worse acts than whatever you think is the worst thingTrump has ever done, from John Adams’ Alien and Sedition Acts, a breathtaking offense against freedom that was meant to punish political resistance, to Millard Fillmore’s Fugitive Slave Act, which made it so the evil tentacles of the South’s slavery regime could reach up North and pluck back people who had successfully made it to freedom. Even Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus and did nothing to stop his troops from shutting down newspapers they didn’t like. "Think Trump is more vulgar than anyone who’s held the office before him? In 2016, when Marco Rubio once implied he had a small dingle-dongle, Trump responded, “I guarantee you there’s no problem” — and everyone got the vapors. But Lyndon B. Johnson actually liked to show off his Johnson, peeing in the open air outside the House Office Building. When reporters once asked Johnson why the US was in Vietnam, he pulled out his todger and exclaimed, “This is why!' ” . . .
Franklin D. Roosevelt threw 120,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans into prison camps during WWII.
. . . By "suspending" his campaign there's more latitude in how to deal with campaign donations.
In South Carolina, Buttigieg came in behind billionaire Tom Steyer, who has also dropped out of the race.
Political Twitter urged the Democrat and veteran to get out. "Drop Out Pete" was trending on Twitter until news leaked, and then "Thank You, Pete" became a trending hashtag.
"The thank you's for Buttigieg were an endorsement of him getting out to make room for Bernie Sanders, Michael Bloomberg, Elizabeth Warren, and Joe Biden. Many people thought a brokered convention was a very real possibility.
"Expect more dropouts as the March 3 Super Tuesday gauntlet gets closer."
This Fox video is a bit too CNN-ish for me, but gives an interesting comparison of Pete-Obama speeches:
. . . "Barnett, reached Sunday night, told True Pundit that Buttigieg left a message for Biden on his voicemail asking the vice president to call him back to discuss Buttigieg’s “plans” for his campaign — about five hours before Mayor Pete announced he was dropping out of the presidential race late Sunday. Buttigieg had apparently called the wrong number." . . .
"President Trump has been outrageously lied about by Democrats, who invented a claim that he called the illness a 'hoax,' and he's also been subject to assorted howls of 'chaos' and unreadiness and doing nothing-ness from other quarters of the pious left.
"Turns out none of this was true. Here's what is true, in Trump's own tweet:. . . "
If you think Democrats and the media are politicizing coronavirus, you’re right"The media routinely call Trump divisive and controversial, forgetting that they are the ones stirring up the divisions and the controversy. Looked at objectively, Trump’s presidency is consistent with the American mainstream through Reagan. Indeed, even though some values have changed since Reagan’s time, Trump is still well within American norms. It's the media that's advocating for divisive and controversial policies, both at home and abroad.
"Mostly, the media’s name-calling has been merely irritating. After all, people who wish to do so have been able to separate the wheat from the chaff. The habit, however, went from irritating to dangerous with coronavirus’s appearance on the scene. From the first day, the media decided to use coronavirus as a way to destroy Trump’s reelection chances." . . .
Fact-Check: Obama Waited Until 'Millions' Infected and 1000 Dead in U.S. Before Declaring H1N1 Emergency" 'Let's call it Trumpvirus," urged a New York Times opinion writer conspiratorially. Nancy Pelosi groused that President Trump waited too long to attack the coronavirus (COVID-19) and then impetuously declared he couldn't have leftover and unspent Ebola virus money to fight it, while Senator Chuck Schumer looked down his nose and over his glasses to intone that it was the end of the world and the president hadn't spent enough money to stop the scourge. Joe Biden and Michael Bloomberg have both been called out for politicizing the virus." . . .
Seven of these "nine years" came after Biden had deliberately ignored Thurmond's warning about the importance of the Security and Terrorism Subcommittee. By the time Ames was doing serious damage to U.S. national security -- in addition to causing the murder of the ten sources cited by Clinton, Ames betrayed at least 100 American intelligence operations -- Biden had long since shut down precisely the tool Thurmond intended to discover spies like Ames.
Jeffrey Lord "Can we talk judgment? "In spite of a warning from his Republican predecessor, one of Senator Joseph Biden's first acts as the new chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1987 was to abolish the Committee's Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism. Biden's action came just as one of the most famous spies in American history had begun leaking secrets to the Soviet Union. The spy -- Soviet CIA mole Aldrich Ames -- went undiscovered for nine years, almost the entire period of Biden's chairmanship of the Committee. Biden relinquished his post after Republicans re-captured the Senate in 1994. Ames was finally arrested that year.
"The Subcommittee had been established by the GOP's South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond within a month of the Republican takeover of the Senate in the 1980 Reagan landslide. The election brought 12 new Republicans to the upper chamber, handing control of the Senate to the GOP for the first time in 26 years. "On December 14, 1980, the New York Times featured Thurmond in an article spotlighting his new role as the incoming chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Saying that Thurmond was "ready to take the offensive" after the GOP's decades in the minority, the very first major change the Times cited was Thurmond's decision to move on national security issues. "Just created," wrote concerned Timesman Tom Wicker, "is a subcommittee on 'Security and Terrorism' which has the obvious possibility of reincarnating the old Communist-hunting Internal Security subcommittee. Chairing it will be the ex-admiral, ex-POW and new Senator from Alabama Jeremiah Denton…"
"In a statement Thurmond brushed aside liberal concerns that the subcommittee would somehow bring Joe McCarthy back to life, warning "that if we don't know who the enemies of this country are then we're in real trouble." An aide to Denton, the ex-POW who had been held captive in North Vietnam along with John McCain, said that Denton "wants to get a better handle on the matter. He wants to talk to the FBI about what it sees as security dangers." As an added insult to liberals, Thurmond abolished a liberal favorite, or as Wicker described it, the "important Subcommittee on Anti-Trust and Monopoly." This jewel had been headed by Ohio's liberal Democrat Howard Metzenbaum and was scheduled to be run by a GOP liberal, Maryland's Charles Mathias. Thurmond, exercising his new power, simply abolished the subcommittee targeted at capitalists and replaced it with the new Security and Terrorism Subcommittee that would investigate Communists. This meant that the staff, research and investigative resources of the Senate Judiciary Committee could now be directed at various perceived threats to U.S. national security -- such as Soviet penetration of U.S. intelligence agencies." . . .More
UK Guardian "A major Republican donor has purchased a stake in Twitter and is reportedly seeking to oust its chief executive, Jack Dorsey.
Bloomberg News first reported that Elliott Management has taken a “sizable stake” and “and plans to push for changes at the social media company, including replacing Dorsey”.
After a White House visit in February 2017, Trump said Singer “was very much involved with the anti-Trump or, as they say, ‘Never Trump’, and Paul just left, and he’s given us his total support and it’s all about unification”.
Trump famously communicates with the public largely through Twitter, at the expense of traditional media strategy.
Aside from the fact that Bernie’s lying when he says Denmark is his goal, the reality is that Denmark is not an exceptionally happy or well-run country.
"Now that Bernie’s the frontrunner, Bernie and his supporters are assuring us that he’s not a real socialist. He just wants us to be like Denmark. First of all, Bernie is lying when he says Denmark is his goal. His entire political goal, for his entire career, has been to bring true communism to America. Second — and this is the topic I cover in the post — not only are Bernie & the Bros wrong that we can be like Denmark, the important point is that we wouldn’t want to be like Denmark in any event.
"At the Nevada debate, when Bloomberg, in one of his few good moments, called out communism as a failure, Bernie sidestepped the accusation (a perfectly accurate one) by raising Denmark:
Let’s talk about democratic socialism. Not communism, Mr. Bloomberg. That’s a cheap shot. Let’s talk about — let’s talk about what goes on in countries like Denmark, where Pete correctly pointed out they have a much higher quality of life in many respects than we do.
"Both Buttigieg and Bernie are wrong. First, According to Løkke Rasmussen, Denmark’s former prime minister, Denmark’s not socialist:
I know that some people in the US associate the Nordic model with some sort of socialism. Therefore I would like to make one thing clear. Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market economy,” Rasmussen said.
. . . *The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia "Journalist Michael Booth has lived among the Scandinavians for more than ten years, and he has grown increasingly frustrated with the rose-tinted view of this part of the world offered up by the Western media. In this timely book he leaves his adopted home of Denmark and embarks on a journey through all five of the Nordic countries to discover who these curious tribes are, the secrets of their success, and, most intriguing of all, what they think of one another. "Why are the Danes so happy, despite having the highest taxes? Do the Finns really have the best education system? Are the Icelanders as feral as they sometimes appear? How are the Norwegians spending their fantastic oil wealth? And why do all of them hate the Swedes? In The Almost Nearly Perfect People Michael Booth explains who the Scandinavians are, how they differ and why, and what their quirks and foibles are, and he explores why these societies have become so successful and models for the world. Along the way a more nuanced, often darker picture emerges of a region plagued by taboos, characterized by suffocating parochialism, and populated by extremists of various shades. They may very well be almost nearly perfect, but it isn't easy being Scandinavian."
Leftists are turning on each other as their ineffective rage against Trump fails to score any victories. Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit calls these circular firing squads “Annals of Leftist autophagy.” I think he has another item for his list.
"Last night, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews was nowhere to be seen on that network’s South Carolina primary coverage, lending substance to Don Surber’s contention that he is being “purged” for “being a counter-revolutionary and having impure thoughts.”
"Matthews, a former aide to Speaker Tip O’Neill, triggered a cascade of denunciations from the Left after using an analogy to the Fall of France while commenting on Bernie Sanders’s Nevada caucuses victory. Via Don Surber:
Matthews said on the air, "I'm reading last night about the fall of France in the summer of 1940. And the general calls up Churchill and says, ‘It’s over,’ and Churchill says, ‘How can it be? You got the greatest army in Europe. How can it be over?’ He said, ‘It's over.'"
"I think it is pretty clear that he was referring to a sudden and unexpected victory leading to the unpleasant realization that an enemy was stronger than realized, and an ally was weaker. Surber notes that analogies to France under the Nazis have been rather prominent on the Left of late:
The network -- which has promoted a French Resistance against American President Donald John Trump for more than 3 years -- made Matthews beg forgiveness on television for a very remote reference to the Wehrmacht.
Victor Davis Hanson Trump’s greatest advantage in 2020 may be his most likely opponent, the unapologetic socialist Senator Bernie Sanders.
Donald Trump has at least five strong historical arguments for his reelection. One, he is an incumbent. Incumbent presidents have won 14 of 19 reelection bids since 1900. "The few who lost did not enjoy positive approval ratings. In a Gallup poll from earlier this month, Trump enjoyed his highest approval rating since his inauguration, squeezing out a 49 percent favorable rating vs. 50 percent unfavorable. "Two, the public perception of the economy usually determines any presidential election — as incumbents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, and Herbert Hoover learned the hard way. Currently, the U.S. is enjoying low inflation, low interest rates, positive economic growth, near-record low unemployment, rising workers’ wages, and record gas and oil production. "Three, unpopular optional wars derail incumbent presidencies. "The quagmire in Vietnam convinced Lyndon Johnson not to run for reelection in 1968. "Jimmy Carter was tarnished by the seemingly never-ending Iranian hostage crisis of 1979–1981. The Iraq War drove down George W. Bush’s second-term approval ratings and helped derail his would-be Republican successor, John McCain." "Four, scandals also can destroy a presidency, as when Watergate forced the resignation of Richard Nixon. "Five, the opponent matters. Barry Goldwater was caricatured as an out-of-touch extremist and made incumbent Lyndon Johnson’s election a sure thing in 1964. George McGovern’s radicalism ensured that Richard Nixon would be reelected in 1972. Ronald Reagan was assured of a second term by Walter Mondale’s anemic candidacy. "How does Trump stack up on all such criteria?" . . . But I can't forget this from election 2016: HILLARY CLINTON PULLS PLUG ON ELECTION NIGHT FIREWORKS
It involves Obama talking about how Democratic politicians treated the black community — and, as it plays, captions describe exactly how Biden’s treated the black community in the same disingenuous way Obama was describing.
Western Journalism"Joe Biden and his former boss have apparently never heard of the Streisand effect. If they have, it’s one of the many things they appear to have forgotten along the way to the 2020 campaign trail. "If you’re unfamiliar, let me elucidate. Many years ago, in the early days of the internet, Barbra Streisand was annoyed that a photo of her beachfront house had appeared on the internet as part of a study of California coastal erosion. She sued for $50 million to have it removed. Before the suit, not even 10 people had viewed the image online. After the 2003 suit, that number quickly grew to420,000. Seventeen years later, that number has to be in the millions. "The object lesson was clear: Don’t draw attention to stuff people weren’t likely to pay much attention to on their own. "This isn’t a lesson the former president and vice president have taken to heart." . . .
"Only the poor, after all, see their quality of life fall when they are told to pay for their own plastic bags, or foot exorbitant electricity bills, see their long commutes get costlier with gas hikes, and lose their straws, all so that guys like Steyer and his set can feel virtuous."
Monica Showalter "A couple of years and $250 million later, Tom Steyer's presidential run has left him exactly where he started in the presidential race, at zero.
"The poor wretched monomaniac of greenie virtue now goes the way of Jay Inslee*, the qualified, but leftist, governor of Washington state who, like Steyer, was also global warming bore and washed out because of it. You'd think maybe Steyer would have noticed how unimportant this 'sky is falling' greenie cause was with voters by that point, but nope, Steyer continued to sell that snake oil to voters, thinking a barrage of television ads would make them catch on. He never had a clue.
"Now he has his clue, $250 million dollars later, no delegates, a pathetic third place finish in South Carolina, prompting him to finally cut his losses, and exit the race.
"Actually, he probably had some clues, given that he changed his tune to South Carolina's voters from global warming to 'racial justice,' something he claimed "not enough people" cared about but, trust him, he did, in what was an obvious pander for the black vote in South Carolina. Turns out another old white guy, Joe Biden, got there first, succeeding in that machine pol way of his, through endorsements from old-line black politicians such as Rep. James Clyburn -- gaffes, exaggerations, and all." . . .
Another fool that departed: *Jay Inslee: I'll Ask Megan Rapinoe To Be My Secretary of StateSome called the US women's soccer team "ugly Americans" because of their abrasive behavior during the World Cup last year, including dragging the American flag on the ground.
. . . "Rapinoe urged Americans to treat each other with respect after a parade for the women’s national team in New York earlier this month.
Megan's love
“We have to be better,” she said. “We have to love more, hate less. We got to listen more and talk less. We got to know that this is everybody’s responsibility. Every single person here, every single person who’s not here, every single person who doesn’t want to be here. Every single person who agrees and doesn’t agree. It’s our responsibility to make this world a better place,” she said.
