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Winning?
I have no idea what is happening in Iraq except that the more chaos, the more likely that power will wind up in the hands of Iranian puppets. That would be the culmination of the James Baker/Barack Obama goal of handing regional dominance over to Iran as if the nature of Iranian leadership was somehow beside the point.
The Taliban is more firmly in control in Afghanistan and now vastly better armed than when 9/11 was being planned. Iran is expanding its regional control and moving towards nuclear weapons. China is becoming more brazen. Putin is still grabbing the territory of neighboring states.
Isn’t it such a relief that the grownups are back in charge of American foreign policy and everybody respects us again?
Published in General
I was at a party this weekend, I’d had a few too many, and somebody was going on about how great it was that we had gotten rid of Trump. I asked her what she thought was Biden’s greatest triumph- foreign policy or domestic policy? She looked confused, like she didn’t understand the question.
The only thing Joe Biden has managed to do is improve the presidential standing of Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama. I don’t think he can improve Buchanan and Wilson but he has two years left to try.
Just another one of those “unfortunate” missteps that are worth the price of removing the bad orange man from office, I guess.
There’s your typical Biden voter. A perfect reflection of who she voted for…
Yup, just listening to Antony Blinken and his spokesman Ned Price, along with WH advisor Jake Sullivan, gives me a warm feeling.
And then I dash for the bathroom…
Whether or not one is Winning depends on who one thinks one’s opponent is.
The late and very great blogger Neptunus Lex, reflecting on the thoughts of his favorite professor at the Naval Academy, said:
The innate character flaw of the political right, with its thrumming appeals to the logic of blood and soil, is its lamentable tendency to go in search of enemies abroad. The left, on the other hand, with its own appeals to the politics of envy and class warfare, is content to find mortal enemies closer to hand.
I don’t think the American right today is as focused on ‘enemies abroad’ as it was when Lex wrote the above in 2008…but the Left is certainly all-in on the second point.
As long as it’s just warm and not a burning feeling. That you probably should get checked out.
Every bad idea has been tried before, and results never change. Just like good ideas. Yet, here we are once more.
We have intentionally entered an economic depression. That has got to move Biden up the list. What did Buchanan do that was worse? If Wilson was alive today, he would have the same policies as Biden.
Transferred military assets of the Union to the Confederate states prior to the Civil War. He is possible the one president one could make a colorable case for treason on. At least thus far.
To paraphrase Chris Matthews – “A trickle down the leg”?
Next time don’t wait til you’ve had too many. Ask them what element of civilization she wants to give up to get their fossil fuel free green economy. An example might be – depending on the sex of the individual – a blow dryer, air conditioning, joint replacements, Patagonia fleece or their phone….. And what will replace the plastic in all the cars? Don’t hold back. Leave an impression.
Added: while I’m cooking dinner. How about giving up the Cuisinart bowl that you use allllll the time for making marinades for steak tips. (That’s a key implement for tonight’s dinner in case you wonder where that thought came from.)
FDR kept his going for years.
Personally, I see little reason to be concerned about anything happening in Afghanistan, Iraq, or Ukraine.
President Trump’s positions on various foreign policy issues led me to reconsider my views, and I ultimately rejected my former neoconservatism in foreign policy, and adopted a much more isolationist, “America First” approach. I was uncomfortable with this initially, but have become used to it.
I’ve observed a number of conservatives who seem to go along with President Trump’s general principle of reducing our foreign commitments, but then have regrets when bad things happen overseas. I just don’t think that these bad things affect us much, if at all.
China is a potential exception. As far as I know, China hasn’t taken any foreign territory lately. I suppose that they might, but who knows. Their principal interest seems to be Taiwan, but they don’t seem to be in any hurry. I don’t consider Taiwan to be very important to us, though I think that it would be prudent to find another source for microchips.
Biden supporters really need protective bubbles to ward off cognitive dissonance. A female family member simply declares that voting for a Republican can only be motivated by racism and pure hate. She then adjusts her halo and walks away lest anything be discussed.
I provided a correspondent on Facebook with a litany of Trump actions and policies that were contrary to Putin’s interests. The response was that this was a cherry-picked list of exceptions because everybody knows Trump favors Putin.
The horror show of our COVID response, energy policy and the economic fiasco comprise a tsunami of evidence of ideological failure but the bubbles just get thicker.
How about Clinton?
Well, we are reaping the harvest of raising enough self-absorbed and entitled morons that eventually found themselves in government as both elected officials and government employees. Unfortunately, they have also infested school boards, local government and state governments.
We are not quite Venezuela yet, but we are on that road. We will achieve equity. No one will have any heat, no gas, no electricity, and no health care. No one will be safe in their home, their business, or outside their home. We will all be equal in our misery.
Like Russia, China, and many nations in Africa, and South America political retribution will become a normal way of life in the United States.
Like the Occupy camps that collapsed because there was nothing left to steal in them there will be nothing left to steal, including individual liberty in the New Venezuela.
FDR’s court packing scheme also gave us the Filburn decision that has ruined our governance more than anything else.
Most of them don’t, in themselves, but some of them do – and you don’t always know which ones those will be – and in terms of impact together they are more than the sum o[f] their parts.
Also – I know it isn’t a popular position but the strength of the US dollar, and its impact on US living standards, depends on the US dominating many parts of the world – not least to stamp out any currency competitors. For eg if the US wasn’t present in the Gulf ensuring the monarchies’ security why would Saudi etc. have spent decades requiring US dollars for oil (rather than Swiss Francs, or Gold, or whatever) even while the US printed money which de facto devalued their deposits in the US?
To be honest the dependency on one source for most microchips is a vulnerability similar to Europe’s dependence on Russian energy.
To paraphrase Robert Heinlein, all this is just “bad luck”.
Much as I am loathed to admit it Clinton was a fairly successful president. I think on a foreign policy side he sowed the seeds of many of the later problems, so maybe he should be downgraded for that; however, some of that is arguable. We certainly had a decent economy, a major scaling back of the wellfare state, and generally a peaceful time during his presidency. He did have an affair in the oval office and lied to cover it up, but that was adjudicated ultimately in his favor. In my view he is in the middle of the pack as far as presidencies go.
I didn’t like the Greater East Asian Coprosperity Sphere take one. I don’t think I will like the redux of it under new management. I suspect if we aren’t careful we will see a repeat of what happened the first time.
OK. He was successful in the ways you mentioned, but he corrupted the American political system beyond repair. For that I put him down as the worst by far.
and we are not even saved from mean tweets
That is fair. I am not sure how much he corrupted the system, or if he inherited a corrupt system. I think the system became much more corrupt after Clinton. This started with the broad increases in authority of Federal law enforcement under Bush and then was further weaponized by Obama. Clinton seemed more like the relatively normal level of corruption at least at the time.
But the economy was more about Gingrich, et al., than Clinton. “You think I raised your taxes too much?”
Other than on campaign funding. Remember “no controlling legal authority?”
That is true. That was the era when divided government was the key to happiness. Unfortunately that solution is no longer viable since we have moved too far to the left. Pity.
I had forgotten about that one. Clinton’s presidential standing is falling even as we speak.
Ah Geez, I had almost forgotten that one.