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The Need for Speed and Other Petulant Tales
So much has already been said about President Biden’s dementia (no, I’m not going to use some other politically correct term) that I won’t belabor the fact that we can plainly see his limitations. But there is a larger issue that, coupled with his dementia, puts the country at serious risk.
The man is seriously immature.
Now many of us know people who lack immaturity into adulthood and they often make a mess of their lives. They are impatient, irrational, and petulant; they often lack the ability to weigh consequences or develop a long-term picture; they live in “the now.” They are idealists. They are disrespectful to others and demand that their needs and expectations be met.
Does this sound like someone we all know?
Joe Biden has demonstrated all these attributes (or drastic limitations) on multiple fronts. To enact 61 Executive Orders, many of them on his first day of office, shows his lack of patience; that several of the Orders reversed Trump orders shows a petulance of the first order. His impatience was also present in his insistence to hold to the August 31 deadline to leave Afghanistan, removing all troops and leaving behind the very people we promised to save. We also saw his impatience when flights left Afghanistan in such a disorganized fashion, removing unvetted Afghans and deserting our countrymen, just to “get people out.” (When General Milley proudly explained our extensive vetting through terrorist databases of the Afghans who mobbed the planes to leave, he neglected one detail: many of the terrorists may not have been apprehended by the government and therefore don’t appear in any database.)
Then there are Biden’s many distortions of and the confusion about the Covid-19 pandemic. He just couldn’t wait to impose mandates on the unvaccinated, when all the data suggests that most of the country is vaccinated; that according to the original criteria, herd immunity has been met; that many people (including many who’ve not been tested for antibodies) already have the more powerful natural immunity. But Biden was going to show us who was boss. So, all the unvaccinated needed to get in line for vaccination or risk losing their jobs.
When it comes to his being irrational and petulant, I propose that insisting on the August 31 deadline in Afghanistan fit both. He wasn’t about to change that date for anyone. I’m not convinced that he couldn’t have simply told the Taliban that he was going to cancel that deadline until everyone was evacuated. But of course, that would have taken too much time. (I guess I forgot “impatient” for this point.)
Looking at the reversal of the Keystone Pipeline approval, the canceling of the wait-in-Mexico law, and his insistence at reviving the Iran agreement, you could point to all the attributes identified: his reversals showed his immaturity, since they showed his petulance in reaction to Trump actions; that he didn’t weigh the long-term consequences of his actions was obvious, given that he didn’t plan for energy shortages or the alienation of Canada; to pursue an agreement with Iran in spite of their refusal to stop their efforts to produce a nuclear bomb, and their other aggressive actions, we demonstrated that nothing could deter us from working with them and that over time, they could betray any agreement.
* * * *
There’s a lot more evidence for Joe Biden’s immaturity and the role it plays in his decision-making. Some people will say that those attributes can also show up with dementia, and they can. Joe Biden, however, has shown these attributes in spades for most of his adult life, and in his new role, they’ve been exacerbated. And they have made the conditions in the United States more dangerous when you couple his behavior with his lack of mental capacity.
We are more at risk than ever before.
Published in Politics
Good post, Susan.
He has always been of average intellect, too.
Every one of the buffoons in the photo have been vaccinated…yet they all wear masks and pose far away from each other. This is theater. They are all frauds.
Susan nails it. The biggest surprise I had was the obvious fact that this withdrawal wasn’t something his advisers tricked him into; it’s pure him, all the way. He doesn’t have the acting talent to fake his indignant confusion that he isn’t being covered in rose petals for this.
That’s an excellent analogy. Ask a bunch of first-graders what they would do if they were President, and you’ll get a bunch of childishly naive responses like “Help poor people” or “End war”: ideas that are based on the idea that the government is basically omnipotent and capable of fixing any problem, if only there is the will to do it. This kind of thinking might be charming in a child, but it’s frightening to see the government in the hands of people who never outgrew it.
Very well put, as usual, @susanquinn. Thank you.
And you expanded on my comments beautifully. Even his idealism is child-like.
Oh Good Heavens! Has there ever been so much failure represented in one photo?
(Perhaps a team photo of the 1962 New York Mets but even they won a few games.)
P.S. Great Post Susan.
That is not patience, that is effectiveness. If was sworn into office, I would fire everyone and issue a 1000 executive orders before taking my 3pm nap. I would say that Joe Biden is an a–hole. When his first wife got into a traffic accident, he called the other driver a “drunk”. That is not petulant or immature–that is an a–hole move. Joe is backstabbing, dumb, corrupt, lying, race-baiting, mean and perverted. He is a bad human.
I’m glad my reason for picking that photo was so clear. Thanks, Brian.
But the lying doesn’t set him apart. I’m told all politicians lie.
Looks pretty ugly, doesn’t it? (Sigh) Beyond this I will decline to comment consistent with Ricochet Code of Conduct. Cause if I get started……
That was to appease his base. Describing the Democrats and the Never Trumpers as “petulant” speaks well of your diplomacy, Susan. I would sail right past the edge of the Code of Conduct if I tried that.
That’s okay. The FBI will start vetting them on the fly, just as soon as they’re done apologizing for covering up for a doctor molesting Olympic gymnasts.
Joe’s lies have always gone beyond even the norm for politicians.
I have heard an analysis from a commentator who does not believe Joe has dementia, that Joe is just old and his mind is showing the signs of age, which include petulance, impatience, and irrationality. There’s a reason for the stereotype of the crotchety old man.
I would counter that thesis with the observation that many of these attributes have been on display for his entire political life, and so are built in, which you attribute to immaturity. I do see aspects that he doesn’t really have 50 years’ experience in government, he has one year repeated 50 times. He never seems to learn or grow.
I resent that comment. Now, get off my lawn!
So what’s the point of the photo if they’re each going to cover 75% of their faces? It’s not like the photo helps us tell who’s there. Except for the woman in the print blouse, they all look the same. They might as well have put up a bunch of mannequins.
Good point. But it is his cabinet, sadly.
Oh, and let’s not forget the civilians who were killed because Biden was in such a hurry to kill some terrorists after our 13 members of the military were killed in Afghanistan. He needed to kill him some terrorists–or something like that . . . 10 innocent people . . .
They can’t hide behind those masks and who is that man in the middle? He looks familiar – could it be Blinken?? I’m sure they all dutifully got their shots and are still masked and chairs 6 feet apart. Those that actually think…… know B is ‘off the charts’ not there. His chair is in another room. This is beyond disturbing. I heard on the radio today briefly, Hannity commenting that Biden has given him high blood pressure. He’s become a bigger health hazard than Covid……..
Right on target. If a drone strike had hit while they were posing for this photograph there would not have been innocent casualties.
Well done. I wish I could do something … as I’m sure others do too. We were not prepared for this.
To be fair, they may have looked like they were wearing MAGA hats. That could explain a lot…
It is all a big puppet show. His foibles are a smoke screen. He has been wildly successful towards the main objective: Screw the country up as much as possible. He should be impeached then tried for treason.
Biden was never the Good Old Joe from scanton. If you have read Clarence Thomas’s auto biography he behaved the same way during those confirmation hearings.
Susan, I’m intrigued by the photo you used. Do you see anything strange about it?
Maybe it’s the lens and the camera angle, but on my monitor, Kamala Harris looks photo shopped in. Kamala’s chair looks noticeably wider than Joe’s. It’s position on the floor is the same, but it looks bigger and closer: the seat of the chair is pointed to the camera’s left, but the legs of the chair on the camera’s right are pointed to the right of the camera, and appear disjointed, like an Escher drawing. And Kamala’s body looks from head to toe looks 6″ or a foot closer to the camera. Plus, she looks to be floating above the chair,
And look at the poses. Kamala is the only one who has her legs crossed and who doesn’t look hunched, the only one who looks jaunty. Look at Biden’s pose: withdrawn and submissive.
Who’s president in this picture?
He’s always been a bully and a liar. “Petulant” is a good word to describe his demeanor.
I’m sure that, like almost all bullies, he’s also a coward, and that that aspect of his poor character is exacerbated by his mental decline and what look like increasing anger issues. His staff tries to cover all of that up by whisking him out of the room after he’s finished reading his speech; by instructing him not to answer questions from reporters-at-large; by staging what interactions he does have with journalists to make them as ‘soft’ and friendly as possible; and by cutting his mic when they think he’s about to go off script.
That doesn’t leave much for Biden to do except run away to Delaware for three and four day weekends, and eat ice cream. Something which, at this point in his life, he’s probably delighted to do.
What a dreary bunch. I don’t think Kamala is photoshopped. Someone set up her chair and Biden’s chair so they’re angled towards each other, and–because there are only two of them and they are closer together–if she sat square to the chair seat, she wouldn’t be head-on to the camera. So she’s turned in the seat, and that, and the fact that her legs are crossed, I think gives an odd perspective. The row behind has three seats, the spacing between them is much wider than those of Biden and Harris, and the effect is somewhat different. (I think they need a new set director.)
It’s a very depressing and joyless photo, and they look like hostages. I have no idea who most of them are, although I think the three behind Biden and Harris must be Yellen, Blinken, and Austin.
I agree that Harris is the only one who doesn’t look as if she, or he, was carried in from Madame Tussauds.
I imagine that Mayor Pete’s adoring fans think he is an imposing figure standing on the platform.
Ah. I see him. The Power Stance. He looks like one of the little men standing on the train platform on Mr. She’s O-Gauge model railroad. Come to think of it, several of them do. Perhaps I need to sew some tiny masks for a few of them to bring them into the 21st century….