Biden

Open Thread

Mark Noonan35 Comments

Taking into consideration what Democrats are saying and doing in the aftermath of Trump’s re-open plan, I can only conclude that the Democrats have war-gamed this out and figure that the more pain there is, the better for them. They seem determined to shut down as much of the economy as they can and keep it shut down for months. They know – they must know – this will be catastrophic. Not just in economic losses, but in lives lost…people who have nothing to do and are fearful are subject to all sorts of maladies; and as things stay entirely concentrated on Coronavirus, other health care needs are kept to the side, which will also cause death. Democrats want all that – they want everyone perfectly miserable so that they, the Democrats, can ride to their rescue in November.

Would it work? Meaning – if they got their way, would it ensure Trump’s defeat? I’d have to suspect as much…we’re miserable enough as it is, but if we lacked all hope then lots of people probably would turn on Trump. But Trump is not a fool – and so he’s offering hope. I think people will grasp it.

Watching Biden interviews – and they’re all done in extremely friendly circumstances – is getting painful. You start to feel sorry for the old man – he’s clearly not mentally or physically up to the task and was only propelled to the nomination because the Powers That Be felt that Warren or Bernie would have been a certain disaster. The real question: how is this guy going to compete with Trump? The Energizer Bunny of Presidents? And as for the Tara Reade accusations – the MSM is doing Biden no favors by suppressing it…it just means that for a lot of middle of the road voters, they won’t hear about it until Trump tells them. At length. In debates and on TV commercials. Trump will make Biden’s handsiness an issue – with reams of video to back up the claims that Biden is a weirdo.

Beef processors are having some trouble – and it is bad news as we rely on beef. Buuuuut…they are largely having a trouble because they are dependent upon illegal labor. Make things better and I’ll bet they could attract high quality labor…sure, I’d pay an extra buck a pound for my steak, but I’m ok with that. And it would only be until someone really got into the nitty gritty of it all and found a faster, cheaper way of getting it done. Competition isn’t a panacea – what sometimes has to happen is a rap on the knuckles to concentrate the mind.

RSM – maybe this bug isn’t as deadly as we thought?

Open Thread

Mark Noonan59 Comments

China has a debt problem:

China’s consumer loans are shrinking at an unprecedented pace after a decade of breakneck expansion, a blow to the government’s strategy of relying on spending as a growth engine amid the worst public health crisis
in a generation.

The net balance of consumer loans – made up of short-term and credit card loans from banks and online lenders – plunged by a quarter in the first two months of this year to 7.4 trillion yuan (US$1 trillion), according to data published by the People’s Bank of China. Some microlenders are staring at 20 cents on a dollar in bad loans.

China is fundamentally weak because China’s government does not have the consent of the governed – it is really as simple as that. Governments like that of China can, for a while, make things seem to work – but only seem. China is a honeycomb of bad debts, corrupt deals, crime and poverty masked by showpiece cities. Not only did China’s economy take a massive hit from the virus, it is going to keep on taking hits as foreign nations move their supply chains out of China. People are at last awake to how dangerous it is to have their supplies come out of China because of the sort of government China has. We’ll see how China weathers the storm…but it will be a very difficult time for them.

Related: Bloomberg killed a story about the corruption of China’s ruling class. One of the most astonishing things about Coronavirus is how it revealed the extent of China’s corruption of American institutions. They’re all bought, to one degree or another. Our supposed Expert Elite betters seem to have one thing in common – they’ll sell their country out for a few bucks.

Obama finally got around to endorsing Biden.

Don Surber’s plan to reopen America.

Ace rips into the New York Times over their stealth-editing of a Biden story at the behest of the Biden campaign. The story, of course, was about the sexual assault allegations launched against Biden. The bottom line is the accusation is far more credible than that made against Kavanaugh – but the MSM is determined to cover up for Ol’ Joe…because he’s a Democrat, and there’s an end on it.

Rumor mill has it that AG Barr is still rolling steadily along on the investigations with Brennan said to be a large target. We’ll see.

Happy New Years!

Mark Noonan49 Comments

Some folks are wondering what we should bring back from the previous 20’s. I’m going with Cab Calloway:

Iranians tried to attack our embassy in Baghdad. Trump sent Marines. All is calm, now. Marines are good at that. Democrats – proving they are monumentally stupid – are trying to make this out as “Trump’s Benghazi”. They wish. I can’t be emphasized enough (and count on it: Team Trump will emphasize this all through the campaign) the difference between Benghazi and Baghdad. Obama was nowhere to be seen while Americans were left to die and then a bullsh** story was cooked up to cover it up…Trump was front and center and got the Marines rolling right away. This is basic Executive competence, and Obama did not have it.

Even CNN is pointing out that the Democrat’s impeachment thing is absurd.

Biden suggests that the miner’s his policies will throw out of work should learn to code. There goes PA and Michigan if Biden is the nominee. Of course, not sure Biden will drag his was through…I’m starting to pay attention to Buttigieg; he might be about to pull a Carter: win the IA contest and then just roll to the nomination against a bunch of old guard has-beens.

I’m sure you’ve by now heard of Based Grandpa who blew away a guy working up a church massacre. The Left hates this – they mostly hate that its on video and can’t be denied. Totally blows their anti-gun Narrative.

The North Korea situation is still murky – in the end, it will come down to what the NK leadership wants…to continue to preside over a dead society armed with nuclear weapons, or cut a deal with us and come alive? We’ll see what they pick.