President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

Governor of Florida.

 

Obama should have invited People Magazine in for a photo shoot. I mean, where is the transparency?
George W. Bush and Laura Celebrate Their 70th Birthdays

 

Is the middle ground “I don’t give a fuck about his birthday party?” Because I’ve not clicked on a single story about it.

 

I have not either. I don't much give a damn about a rich/influential person throwing themselves a stupidly expensive birthday or wedding party.

My problem with this one is doing in the in the middle of a pandemic when the D's are trying to be the responsible party and make a good example. I don't doubt that 97% of the people there were at the front of the line for the vax. It's still a bad look.

That said, I'm not losing any sleep over it.

 

Libertarian has problem with how private citizen conducts his private life.

Knock me over with a feather.

 

To the left, to the left
To the left, to the left
To the left, to the left

Ol' Barack was never that far to the left
In the law is the ACA, yes
With Medicare please don't touch
And keep talking about the website, that's fine
But could you expand Medicaid at the same time?

 

Like if you wanted to drag Obama for his foreign policy choices and low-key willingness to let the military blow shit up - physically and metaphorically - with little regard to long-term consequences, this would be a hell of a weekend to do so.

But let the man throw himself a birthday party and all the usual stank-faced “concerned” folks come scurrying out of the woodwork. Why is he less entitled to this than Poppy Bush was to running his speedboat up and down the Maine coast?

 

BECAUSE THE COOLS!, or something ...

 

Taking a shift as a visitor this morning. It wasn't because I didn't want to be here - I did ... in the worst way - but because of the pandemic, he's allowed only two different visitors a day. One of those spots has gone to his partner, naturally. The other has gone to my mother, his sister and a clinician who can get to the bottom of the issues, especially with some cooperation from staffers. My other uncle, Dan's twin brother, has been in town the last couple of days, so he has taken a turn in the lineup.

I am taking one, this morning. Gladly. No church jokes, either. You-know-who might not care for that.

He seems to be in decent spirits, understandable given that he has been here since Wednesday. Seems to be largely a rest-and-recovery period while we wait for results from the biopsy and making sure they have the issues pinpointed.

The only thing that worries me is that the hierarchy seems to value my feedback and opinion clinically second behind only my mother. (Note: Three years in a hospital and a lifetime of being around a clinician does not make one an expert.) One time, Dan vomited and his partner texted me, concerned and obviously on edge. When I asked if he had an IV and explained that no clinical staff - unless it was collectively callous and/or off-the-charts stupid - would ever let a patient dehydrate or starve to death, he quickly apologized and admitted he panicked.

I want to claim I'm making some sort of difference, but that's self-delusion. Mainly, I'm here for support, to text the others of any serious changes, to ask the occasional question if one of the staffers does something that seems interesting and otherwise let the staff do its work, lets the rest of the family and friends try to do some normal life and be merely a communication channel.

For example, we found out that his solid food intake needs to stay slow, if it at all exists. There are enough nutrients in the IVs for now, and the mere thought of food or much of anything even liquid is just not appealing to him. Better yet, a specialist stopped in to tell us that his kidneys have improved remarkably. While that doesn't mean everything is cured, he can go home and we can just forget about this, that is good news.

Keep Pounding, Dan.

 

Count me among those who love the product and am fairly apathetic when it comes to the producers of entertainment. A lot of them start out chasing the ability to focus all of their energy on doing what they love. Some -many- end up chasing fame as much as they chase the practice of their craft. Having spent a chunk of my adult working life around the Grand Ole Opry and professional sports ("Which laminate do I wear tonight, one with a sparkly logo or the one with the mag key to the locking security doors?") I've seen firsthand that there are some perks to being a public figure. Thing is, there is a certain kind of personality that thrives on it and then there are introverts who see how being famous can suck.

The thing that should be borne in mind is when it comes to being president or being David Geffin's latest chew toy, it's a choice those people made. There were plenty of precedents to have a good idea of what their lives would be like during and after their tenures. So while I understand Michelle Obama missing open windows and runs to CVS, I don't feel much sympathy because that was a tradeoff she chose. Having said that, I don't dislike the Obamas. At worst, I was unimpressed by their time in the White House. They weren't terrible, but they weren't particularly great, either.

What rubs some of us the wrong way is the wounded shrieks toward those who do not share culty adoration of every president with a D after his name. Maybe it's a response to the weird thrall the Reagans held over the Right for so long.

I finished my undergraduate degree during the Clinton Administration. Having transferred from Memphis, where I ran with a diverse group when it came to identity-type stuff, it was a shock to encounter professors and peers who were downright tribal in their demands for declarations of party allegiance. In some classrooms and social circles there was no tolerance of any criticism of the Clintons. None. One professor actually told a student to leave her classroom when they suggested that tying up a runway at Dulles for his n' hers onboard spa days was excessive. The instructor sputtered like a cartoon duck while pointing to the door.

This happened at a university in Kentucky. Kentucky. Did she not think there would be Republicans in her classroom? Someone needed to get a job at a school in a Blue state.

But I digress. There are probably many people with similar circumstances to the Obamas doing things that are just as wretched considering the times. And yes, I think the party was beyond tone-deaf. They chose to put themselves in a position of leadership and the concomitant roles of arbiters of what is best for the greater good. Culty devotion is culty devotion is culty devotion. Declaring anyone deserving of being above criticism is a hair off from zealotry whether it's Orange Cheeto Jesus or the guy who reminds me of the deacon everyone warned you not to get cornered by in the choir robe room.