Just A Memory

I don't know if the license plates from Quebec still say "Je me souviens" or not.  They used to some years back.  I was told that the French phrase translates roughly into "I remember".

I mention this because of recent developments among Democrats.  The party elites seem to think that no one in America remembers anything.  As a result, Tom Steyer, Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg have all dropped out of the presidential race and Amy and Pete are endorsing Joe Biden for president.  But here are just a few things that most Americans will remember:

1.  A corrupt Ukrainian billionaire with close ties to Vladimir Putin and the Russians had his natural gas company Burisma hire Joe Biden's son Hunter to sit on the board of directors.  Hunter had no experience with drilling for, buying or selling natural gas and he didn't even speak Ukrainian.  Nevertheless, Burisma gave Hunter Biden a director's salary more than twice as high as the directors' salaries paid by huge oil companies like Exxon Mobil.  Biden got over $1 million per year for a part time job that required him to do nothing.  And just coincidentally, within six weeks of Hunter getting this sweetheart job, his father Joe Biden threatened to cut off all aid to Ukraine unless it fired the prosecutor who was investigating Burisma for the Ukrainian government.  Old Joe Biden actually did employ a quid pro quo to force Ukraine to stop investigating his son's employer.

2.  While we're on the subject of Hunter Biden, remember that Old Joe took Hunter with him to China on Air Force two.  While there with his dad, Hunter managed to get an investment of 1.5 billion dollars for Hunter's investment firm directly from the Chinese government.  No other western firm of any sort got a similar investment.  Hunter had no particular expertise; the Chinese were just buying favor with Old Joe.

3.  Old Joe Biden has a history of making racist, sexist and other inappropriate comments.  Over the years he's said things like that Seven-Eleven only hires Indians.  He's told whoppers of all sorts; most recently he claimed to have been arrested with Nelson Mandela in South Africa.  That was just a blatant lie.

4.  Old Joe can't seem to remember where he is, who he is talking to, what his positions are on a particular issue, or even what day it is.  He speaks in half sentences, so his train of thought is nearly impossible to follow.  He should be the poster child for Alzheimer's disease.

5.  Old Joe is a typical Washington insider and an old white male to boot.  He's exactly the sort of person that the Democrats tell us they do not want to empower.  None of the Democrats have explained why he would make an appropriate president given that he seems to be the opposite of what "intersectionality" calls for.

6.  Biden is a terrible debaters.  Trump will destroy Biden in a debate.

Why are the Democrats forgetting all this?  Are they that afraid of Bernie Sanders?

Now Amy Drops Out - Klohuchar endorses Biden

Tomorrow is Super Tuesday with 14 primaries.  So what is Amy Klobuchar doing?  She's dropping out of the race and endorsing Joe Biden.  It's amazing.  Klobuchar campaigned for a year but on the day before the start of the biggest day in the race, she drops out.  And she endorses Old Joe.

It's all a bid to stop Bernie Sanders.  Klobuch, Steyer and Buttigieg all dropped out in the space of just two days.  All hope their votes go to Biden, although Amy is the only one to make her endorsement explicit.  Pete just did things like say that Sanders could never beat Trump.

According to recent polling, even the absence of these three musketeers make it unlikely that Biden will end Super Tuesday with more delegates than Sanders.  It may be closer, but Sanders should still be in the lead.

It remains to be seen what Mike Bloomberg gets for his billion dollars of ads.  He may surprise by exceeding the prospects that the media has assigned to him after the last two debates.

This whole sequence of events can only be called bizarre.  Remember, in many of the Super Tuesday states, half of the total vote is already in via early voting.  Those people can't change their votes now.  Something like a third of the votes will have been cast at a point at which the media still said Biden was washed up with no chance to win. 

It should be fun to see who wins these primaries.  I'm rooting for a surprise victory for "uncommitted".  Indeed, after watching this race, the only ones who need to be committed are the candidates.

Worth Noting -- last comment on Pete Buttigieg Pulling Out

It's worth making one last comment on the exist of Mayor Pete from the Dem nomination race.  After Pete's departure, the youngest man in the Democrat's contest for president is Joe Biden.  Seriously, JOE BIDEN!!!!

Assuming that Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren will be gone soon, that will leave Old Joe Biden, Cranky Bernie Sanders and billionaire Bloomberg as the only real candidates left.  Isn't it amazing that the Democrats have a choice of one of three old white men.  I guess it proves that intersectionality is really a thing.

Amazing.  They are all 78 or older.

It's likely that by 2025, when the next presidential term ends, one of the three Dems will likely have died.  (and I don't mean their campaigns.)

Once Again in Israel -- Election Day

Israeli voters are casting votes for the third time in a few months.  The prior two elections were inconclusive.  Despite fears of the corona virus and possible voter fatigue with repetitive elections, early reports say that turnout is higher than it was in the previous two votes.  That may just mean that more people voted in the morning and that it will tail off in the afternoon, or there could be an actual surge in the total turnout.  Late polling had shown a movement towards the Likud party of prime minister Netanyahu at the expense of the Blue and White party of his principal challenger Ganz, but by law no polls are allowed in the last days prior to the election.  Almost any outcome is possible.

Let's hope that this time, at least, there is a clear winner.  It's bad for the region if the Israeli government is stymied by these non-conclusive votes.

A Little Bit Of Sense

For the last month and a half, the corona virus has been in the news.  Apparently, for almost a month before that, the Chinese authorities knew about the virus but tried to keep it quiet.  In the last ten days, the virus has suddenly become big news in the USA as the stock market has tanked in fear of it.  So how bad is the virus right now?

Without consulting anything else do you think

A.  The virus has spread around the world, continues to accelerate its spread and is killing many people wherever it goes;

B.  The virus is still mainly in China but new cases are popping up with increasing frequency around the world; or

C.  The virus is still mainly in China with cases also around the world, but the rate of increase is slowing.

D.  It's clearly the end of human civilization as we know it.

If you watch much of the mainstream media, you may think that D is the proper choice, but it's not.  The actual reality is C.  According to statistics kept by the public health people at Johns Hopkins, there are 89,198 confirmed cases world wide of the virus.  Of these, over 80,000 are in mainland China.  That's just about 90% still in China.  Also as of this morning, Johns Hopkins reports 3048 deaths around the world attributed to the virus.  Of these, 2900 are in China.  The other areas with substantial numbers of deaths are Iran (54 dead), Italy (34 dead) and South Korea (26 dead).  That leaves 34 in the rest of the world.  The same statistics show that the virus is still spreading, but the rate of growth in new cases is slowing.

Let's not confuse things; the virus is a serious problem.  But let's try to focus on the virus with a little bit of sense.  While things will continue to get worse for a bit, this virus does not merit the panicked response it is getting.  The media ought to tone down their stories; it may not be the best for ratings, but it is essential for the sanity of many. 

Bye Pete B

Pete Buttigieg suspended his campaign today. If there ever were absolute proof that Pete is not fit to be president, this is it. Pete has been running for about a year. He has run in 4 primaries or caucuses and he has won two of them in virtual ties with Bernie Sanders. In two days it’s Super Tuesday with 14 separate primaries. Pete could have stayed in for that but chose to pull out. What a wimp.

Turkey and Syria At War

In the midst of all the other crises affecting the world, we have a new one, or the reawakening of an old one.  The problem is Syria.  In the last week, forces of the Assad regime and its allies attack Turkish troops in Idlib province in northern Syria.  Over 30 Turks were killed in the attack.  The response has been a counter-attack by the Turks which has supposedly resulted in over 100 Syrian troops being killed.  Things are ramping up in Idlib not returning to normal.

On top of the fighting, Turkey has opened its borders with the rest of Europe to the refugees camped in Turkey.  That's more than one million people who will now be free to move into Greece and other countries without any attempt by the Turks to stop them.  It remains to be seen if the Greeks and Bulgarians will block the way or shuttle them through on their way to places like Germany and Sweden.  The European refugee crisis is back.  One wonders how long it will be before some refugee comes down with corona virus and the refugee movement is blamed for spreading the disease across the continent.

In normal times, the Turks would make short work of the Syrian forces.  Even with Iranian assistance, Syria is no match for the Turkish army.  The Syrians, however, have Russian allies.  Were Russia to join in this fighting in a major way, the Turks would have their hands full.  No doubt, Turkey would call on NATO to defend it from a Russian attack.  That would be a cataclysmic disaster.  Since the attack could be blamed on a defense of Syria once the Turks moved into the northern part of that country, NATO countries might refuse to help on the ground that NATO calls for a common defense not support of offensive actions.  That would mean the end of Turkey as a NATO member.  On the other hand, were NATO to support Turkey, we could see a confrontation between Russia and NATO and nobody wants that, for obvious reasons.