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Who Is the Real President? Serious Question.
It may have become a trite and overused phrase, but we do live in very strange times. A painfully stricken person not in command of whatever cognitive abilities he may have left has the title “President of the United States of America.” Meanwhile, every person with a functioning mind knows he cannot possibly be making decisions as serious as that involving bombing another sovereign nation.
I have tried doing some perhaps-not-rigorous-enough research to find any serious analyses making at least an educated guess as to who is pulling the big lever(s) behind the curtain, but have come up empty-handed. Like many of us, I have winced at the clips of “The President” mumbling and stumbling through public remarks, like those he made yesterday in Houston. The pain and embarrassment one feels has nothing to do with partisan politics and everything to do with simple humanity. Also, a feeling approaching rage at how family members can be so power-hungry as to put one of their elders through this public humiliation.
I have seen it suggested, and have suggested it myself, that Susan Rice is the major force either making, or behind, the major decisions. I also saw recently suggestions that Ron Klain, Chief of Staff, was in the thick of some of the decision-making.
I have been struck by the somewhat benign attitude about what I consider an extremely dangerous and perilous vacuum in what our Founding Fathers designed to be the “energetic Executive” with jokes and nicknames (the gentleman from Madame Tussaud’s) about a situation over which Xi and Putin are assuredly licking their murderous chops.
Does anyone have anything to offer on who is actually occupying the most powerful office in the world?
Serious question.
Published in General
Oops. Too late.
Mattis is nowhere near anything in the administration. Democrats would never trust him now.
Trump is four years younger than Joe Biden. Pelosi is two years older than Biden.
The point may have been that in 4 years, Trump will be as old as Biden is NOW, and therefore unfit to be elected again.
But mostly, there’s no sense in expecting sense or consistency from the left.
I think the people in charge are the entrenched bureaucrats of the administrative state. I am pretty sure, for example, that EPA and Department of Energy officials did all the necessary paperwork to block the Keystone Pipeline. Biden just needed to add his signature. I am pretty sure that some Department of Labor official had the $15 federal minimum wage legislation already written just waiting for it to be stuffed into a stimulus bill by anonymous Democratic Congressional staffers.
The suggestion of Davos men is likely close to the truth, but people who want the 25th amendment applied want to wait 2 years + 1 day, so the controllers could keep Kamala in power for 10 more years, if they use the rest of this term to fix the adjusted election rules into place, so no person with an R by their name can be elected assistant dog catcher anywhere they control, but not sure she is who they would want with hands-on the control levers of the white house, she might have an independent thought or two. Biden, as long as he can stand up, and mumble won’t.
What is most scariest, is how this was hidden from the majority of Americans until after he took office, now it can’t be, but who cares, they have the power now. The rapid switch from policies that benefited US citizens, to a consistent policy that harms all of them has been breathtaking in its speed of application. Meanwhile, the loss of all of our freedoms has been extreme and is accelerating. The power vacuum will be filled.
It’s the Sage of Kalorama — Susan Rice is simply his main proxy/envoy to the West Wing.
It follows that we’re very screwed, absent dramatic developments.
I highly recommend looking through Lee Smith’s analyses and prognostications both at The Epoch Times and Tablet Magazine — as well as what he has to say (and what/whom he re-tweets) on his Twitter feed at @LeeSmithDC.
I was hoping someone else would chime in, but not seeing anyone do it, I guess I’ll be the one. Here goes.
Yes, Biden is in decline, but the right has seriously exaggerated his condition. Remember how he was not going to be able to debate Trump? Yeah, that didn’t turn out so well. I believe he is in charge, if more susceptible to his inner circle than is desirable, especially when one looks at who’s in that circle.
Believing that some eminence grise is operating behind the façade of a placeholder president is unhelpfully conspiratorial. The right is already a little too paranoid. Let’s leave that sort of thing to the QAnon nutters.
At the very least, it doesn’t much matter. Actions are being taken and it makes no difference who is pulling the strings. It only matters what the result is.
I think I hope you’re right. But I’m not sure.
I know the feeling.
See the movie “Vice.” It highlighted a little known legal theory supported by Samuel Alito to Dick Cheney. When Bush and Cheney came to power, Cheney, who was much better connected than Bush, was able to field his own set of officers alongside the Bushies, who were comparative lightweights. Cheney’s team, because they were on all the same email distribution lists as Bush’s team, and because they acted closely and understood the urgency through the early years of the Bush presidency (9/11), were able to wield considerable influence, effectively being the drivers of foreign policy and defense of the country. So if I had to bet, I would say Biden’s team would be more heavily laden with handlers, but
Kamela’s Karmela’s Kammiela’sKamala’s team might have more of the heavyweights on it, acting but nevertheless staying out of the limelight so as not to overshadow either of their bosses. Wrt foreign policy, I’d say Rice might be a good guess.I seriously doubt the Evil BAck Room Cabal (EBRAC) is currently manipulating long strings attached to Biden’s mouth and signing hand. That’s a little goofy.
What’s not goofy is the fact that there are a zillion people, states, nations, and organizations, that would benefit or not benefit based on decisions made by the administration – leave alone Congress. Note that the gov’t itself is self-interested; it wants to propagate (expand budgets), hire more people, and basically increase the stakeholder base that would get behind any policy that benefits them.
I don’t think Biden’s in as rough shape as is often cariacatured, but he’s certainly diminished, which would mean he’s likely more susceptible to manipulation, or much more easily gone around, administratively and procedurally. Because how would he know? How would any president know? As Russiagate demonstrated, the entire gov’t enterprise can act in ways that are blatantly illegal, the knowledge of that would be limited internally, and there are zero consequences for it for those who actually perpetrated what to me looks like the crime of fraud, if not offenses that would rise to impeachment levels, if the people were still in office.
I go back to the old idea of — who am I going to believe, you or my lying eyes? I certainly agree that many of us, definitely including myself and almost everyone I know who are interested in who is going to occupy the most powerful office in the world, did not believe he was going to be able to attend, much less participate in, the debates. However, when I see video of him telling an aide, while signing EO # 830, words to the effect of “I’m not sure what I’m signing here” or his recent pathetic appearance in Houston, slurring his words but rather clearly saying words like “I might mess this up” or “I don’t know where to go with this” –please do not hold me to the exact wording as this is just my admittedly faulty memory I’m relying on — I think all Americans would be clearly justified in wondering who is “pulling the strings”.
By the way, and I’ll be the first to admit if I have done insufficient research or not kept as current as I should have, but what in the Sam Hill is QAnon and just how many QAnon “nutters” are there? I really don’t know, but I do know they, whoever they are, sure do get a lot of press for a group which is to me, and perhaps others as insufficiently up to date as I am, very mysterious, to put it mildly!
By the way, I thank all who chimed in on this topic, which I termed a serious question, with many thoughtful responses. Merci!
Sincerely, Jim