Can Biden Be a Lame Duck President at the Second-Year Point?

 You can ask a lot of stupid questions over this lame duck situation, and it should not have come up over the past week.  But it's being asked a good bit.

If Biden says 'no'....he won't run....what happens?  Generally, people believe that Mayor-Pete and VP Harris are the top two for the 2024 election.

People thrilled about this?  On Harris, I suspect if you measured Iowa, South Carolina, New Hampshire and Nevada....I don't think she has much to hope for.  On Mayor Pete....he might have some standings in Nevada, but he's got the logistics mess on his accomplishments list.  

In simple terms, the Democrats don't need 2022 or 2023 with President Biden listed as a lame duck.  It hurts the mid-terms of 2022, and the House/Senate race in 2024. 

Stacey Abrams as a contender?  Well...over the weekend, I read two pieces that went at her odds.  She has no message that resonates much with Iowa or New Hampshire folks.  On making speeches....if she hired two or three competent people....she might get some traction.  But her chief problem....she has a 3 x 5 inch index card for a resume.  There's no accomplishments that show strength or character.

Cuomo from NY?  Totally out.

Newsome from California?  He says he's not in the running (I have my doubts it'll stay that way).

Bernie Sanders?  He says he's finished for Presidential campaigns.

Warren?  She kinda noticed from the 2020 campaign....there's just zero thrills over her efforts.

For lame duck thrills?  You really don't want to enter 2022....with people already hyping up lame duck status for Biden.  You'd have to hear at least one question every day at the press conference....if Biden thinks he's a lame duck guy.  

Did anyone really think much about this in November 2020?  No.  That's the curious part of this discussion.  It's like some guy waking up in some Twilight Zone episode and not recognizing much of anything familar.  

Afghan Woes

 Over the weekend, I watched BBC news.  They came to a new topic over the Taliban and Afghanistan....relating to TV productions.

After some review, the Taliban concluded that there was no decency in TV productions.  So there are some new rules.

1.  Foreign films shown on Afghan TV (Rambo for example), can't be shown, if they promote foreign lifestyles/cultures. Depending on how you interpret this.....about 90-percent of what used to be on Afghan TV.....can no longer be shown.  Alice in Wonderland, Little Shop of Horrors, Three Amigos.....out.  

2.  Any kind of show which might in some way....insult Islam....is forbidden.  

3.  Any show/movie which might show a bit of a guy's chest...is forbidden.  

4.  Any show/movie with women in a leading role....is forbidden.  It's ok to show them in the background, or demonstrate a woman preparing a meal for the husband.  Beyond that....no women in primary roles.

What'll happen to the TV networks?  I'm guessing that they will go to mostly scripted shows where Muhammad-Joe has transmission problems, and discusses this with Muhammad-Bob.  Or you might have four guys building a house, and discussing roofing strategies for an hour.  Or you might have a farmer discussing his foot fungus problem.

In simple terms....the DVD business is going to erupt and folks will be quietly renting the entire season of Amish Mafia, or the five Rambo movies.  

About a year or two into this....various Taliban members will comment to the top guy....it's just pretty boring at night....no one wants to watch three guys spend an hour cleaning rifles, or watch some 80-year-old guy tell one of his six snake stories over and over.

The senior Taliban guy will tell them to just shut up, and quietly go back to watching his 1982 DVD set of the Dynasty series.  He thinks that Joan Collins is 'hot'.  

Unique Business Idea

A couple of years ago, I spent some time in Den Haag, Netherlands.

Walking around the streets, I eventually came across this one business.

It's a combination vintage guitar shop and tattoo-piercing shop.

It's an odd combination.  Kinda like a chainsaw-and-muffin shop, or a fishing bait-and-barber shop.

Course, I should note that across the street is a Dutch coffee shop (meaning....joints or marijuana).  My guess is that the guy started off as one type of business, and after a while....he chilled out....going to a secondary business.

The Truth About Moderate Republicans

At some point around 2004, I remember watching some Sunday political chat show and some intellectual type journalist hyped up the idea that moderate Republicans were the way to go.  The idea was....if you just had some centralist GOP guy....things would go fine with Democrats supporting the guy.  For several years, I hear the expression repeated over and over.  At some point around 2012 (with Mitt Romney), I figured that the magic expression would finally work, and the general public would likely vote for Mitt...instead of Barrack.  Well....I was wrong.

In the last five years, I've come to this conclusion....Democrats vote for Democrats, and Republicans vote for Republicans, and independents are locked in for policy changes or particular reforms only.  The theme of a moderate Republican?  It is non-existent.  It's like a magic unicorn.

I will admit, it's a nifty catch-phrase, and folks can be led to believe that some Democrats might cross an imaginary line for a moderate Republican.  The problem is if you ask a hundred Democrats....there's probably only one or two who would fall into this strategy. 

So it's mostly just a gimmick of provocateurs, to keep convincing naive Republicans and independent voters....into thinking that there is such a person existing and that the public might vote for him.   

When people stand there and suggest to you about finding this mythical creature....the moderate Republican....ask them to identify the moderate Democrat instead.  The pause will last for a while.

Observations

 1.  People who identify (like trans) as vaccinated....are vaccinated (believing it is 99.9-percent of the 'game').....even if they aren't vaccinated.  

2.  Joe Biden has said that if you (as a company) pay no taxes....then his new gameplan would require you to pay 15-percent of your income. 

If you think about this, then you should avoid no-taxation, and pay $500....to say you do pay taxes, rather than pay $5-million as your tax requirement.

3.  The odds of Joe Biden's vaccination program reaching 70-percent of the nation?  I give it a 1-percent chance of happening.  

4.  If your kid wrapped up high school and graduated....then you found that he was marginally at the level of a 7th grade kid, should you blame the current system, or just accept it as part of the new bold world we live in?

How Alabama Fell into the RussiaGate/Trump Saga

 As things started to heat up in the 2016 primary season....it was painfully obvious for the 1 March 2016 primary in Alabama....that Trump would win (there was NOT a single county in the state where anyone other than Trump led).  So a couple of weeks prior....Senator Jeff Sessions came out and did an endorsement of Trump.

You can argue that Sessions really didn't need to do this.  He could have just kept quiet.  But this was an overwhelming vote for Trump anticipated, and Sessions needed to be in the 'wave'.  He'd won in 2014 and had four years on his Senate job. 

Right around this March period (the 22nd)....Governor Bentley went and Spencer Collier (the state Law Enforcement Agency 'boss'.  Chief reason, accusation of illegal spending of state funds.  I should state for the record, a complete audit was done after this firing....showing zero funds illegally spent.

Shortly after this firing (having nothing to do with the Sessions episode)....Collier came out and accused Bentley of an affair.  I should state for the record....Bentley was in his early 70s.  The player in this accusation?  Bentley's senior political adviser.....Rebekah Caldwell Mason.

About a week into this episode (front-page news in Alabama)....Mason resigned from her office.  Just prior to the resignation....an audio recording became public....with a lot of chatter between Mason and the Governor.

Around the first week of April, an effort was mounted by Ed Henry (Rep from the state) to impeach Bentley.  

So this odd thing comes up.  While the state constitution allows for impeachment....the House itself does not have this process written down.  In simple terms, no one knew how to impeach.  So they spent a fair amount of time talking over this, and writing a process.

November arrives, and the big shocker (even for Senator Sesions)....Trump wins.  

Very quickly, a list is developed for Trump and oddly enough....Sessions is listed for the Attorney General position.  

To be honest about Sessions....he's not a pure Republican.  Like Shelby (the 2nd Senator)....Sessions is mostly a pretender-Republican.

All the way to this pick, if you'd asked Sessions if he'd ever met a Russian in his entire life....he'd likely answer no.  I doubt if he could even count off one hand....the number of Mexicans he'd met in his life.

In January, Sessions walks into DC, and ends up as Attorney General....meaning his Senate seat is empty.

Governor Bentley?  Still around, and yet to be impeached (figure eight months now of chatter).

The Alabama Attorney General during this whole affair business (since 2011)?  Luther Strange, Republican.

The investigation led by Strange?  It can be said that it was done at a snail's speed.  Strange is oddly enough selected by Governor Bentley to be the replacement for Jeff Sessions.....taking the seat in early Feb of 2017.  

Sessions ends up being asked routine questions for his clearance, and now proclaims he met a Russian a while back.  There's almost no details to this, but it just stands out and is kinda admired as 'odd' by most Alabama folks.  

So when RussiaGate starts up....Sessions can't preside over this, and he has to go and appoint a Special Counsel. Choice?  Robert Mueller (mid-May 2017).  

For about a year, Mueller's team is drilling down into what will be a simple case of getting Trump into a room....getting a statement out of him, and then accusing him of a false statement.  

But this odd thing comes up around early 2018, with Deputy AG Rosenstein.  It comes out that he was almost ready at one point in 2017....to wear a wire into the White House (face-to-face meeting with Trump).  This was an effort to get Trump to say something....to be used to take him down. 

Once this gets out....Rosenstein now has a problem.  Just suggesting he might do this....makes him into a potential criminal.  All the way to this point....Rosenstein used almost no real control over Mueller and his team.  Things now change.

Within a month of this issue....Rosenstein has given strong directions to the Mueller team....the case needs to end.  Trump's cooperation?  Mueller's team is given only the chance of asking written questions, and getting written answers in return.  

The whole value of Sessions picking Mueller, and this getting rid of Trump?  Zero'ed out.  Along November of 2018, Sessions is fired by Trump.  

Bentley in this landscape?  Just as charges finally get handed to the House of Alabama (mid-April 2017)....he resigns.  

Strange at this point?  Feeling safe in his new job?  Well....come spring of 2017....the new governor (Ivey) has decided this was all a 'deal' made and routes the situation to a temp deal for Strange.  New election to come.

Strange is pitted against Roy Moore in the primary.  Strange by this point?  His 'deal' has added a burden to his campaign.....he can't win.  Maybe Ivey (the governor) knew this.  

Moore as the Republican in the December 2017 special election, again Jones (the Democrat)?  Moore is seen as a nutcase, and loses (only a 20-thousand vote difference though).

Somewhere in this whole two-year saga is a 700-page book waiting to be written, with serious politics, fake Republicans, an Alabamian who seems to have met one single Russian in his life, red-hot sex between a 70-year old Governor and some political handler, and some dimwit who thought he could wear  a wire into a meeting at the White House.  

Oh, and the plea deal for Bentley?  He basically has to accept the lifetime ban on political office....with strictly a misdemeanor situation.  As for this Mason gal and the Governor?  In mid-summer 2018....she was employed in some way for Bentley's medical practice.  In Alabamian terms.....they still hang out.

Oh, and one added note for Mueller.  By the time he wrapped up his two-investigation and gave a 'talk' at the Senate....it was obvious that he was starting to show serious dementia problems.  Just a humble opinion, but I'd say he was two years into the health decline.  I doubt that Rosenstein or Sessions knew this when they introduced him into the mess....but the twenty-odd people working for him....had to grasp that he was in a failing state of mind.  

Zimbabwe and Covid

 This is a little story over Covid and how things worked in an odd way.

So in Zimbabwe, Covid arrived in the spring of 2020.  They got all the way to July of 2020.....before Covid deaths started up (remember, their winter starts in July....at least to what you'd describe as just a rainy season).  Five deaths in one single day were confirmed.

For the record, Zimbabwe has a population of around 14-million, and size-wise....it's about the same as California in terms of size.

In terms of new cases?  They were averaging around 100-to-140 per day, in that first big wave of Jun-Jul-Aug.  Naturally, you'd say....it's a third world country, and they simply aren't testing at the same rate.  Around December of 2020, the rate bounced way up....with deaths reported daily at around 20 to 50 a day for the entire country.  

Shortly after Christmas of 2020....an unusual matter occurred where in a ten day period....three key ministers in the cabinet of Zimbabwe passed on, from Covid.  Then the government did this odd thing....they approved ivermectin as a Covid drug.  The death rate from 31 January to the end of February?  It dropped like a rock.  Five deaths were reported on 1 March 2021, from Covid.

They get all the way to June.....with an average of 1 to 3 deaths per day noted.

June sees a dramatic rise in Covid deaths....eventually rising to a max of 81.  Since 21 September 2021?  Well....its been around zero to four (on average) daily.  That's it.  

So here's the odd factor....if you asked the health folks about the vaccination rate?  it's around six to seven percent.  That's it.

Ivermectin alone doing this?  I doubt it.....there's probably a vitamin D angle to this, and some odd local practices.  

Getting Ivermectin?  Well....before this came along....this was a normal prescription drug....given out for a very cheap price.  After the approval for Covid....the price kinda escalated.  If you wanted a 'shot' of Ivermectin....that was going up to around $5 (US).....probably ten times of the previous price.  Yeah, some folks were still getting rich off what was a cheap drug.

Should you even bring the Zimbabwe thing up in conversation?  No.  An intellectual would say it's a 3rd-world 'hell-hole' and the data is all faked-up.  To be honest, before Covid came along...Zimbabwe averaged around 111 deaths per year per 100,000 residents....from the flu/pneumonia.  I would imagine that if you dug through the numbers....it was mostly older people who fell into the death numbers (just like Covid).