Barack Obama is meddling in the upcoming election
Barack Obama was never a traditional American president. After all, he was the only president ever to come to the White House manifestly disliking and being embarrassed by the country he was elected to lead. With that as a background, maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that he’s publicly meddling in the upcoming election in a way that even Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton didn’t try. (Former Republican presidents have more graciously stayed out of the fray.)
Both of Obama’s lines of attack are serious. First, he’s explicitly saying that Trump is trying to throw the election by putting his managerial skills to work to address a postal system that is in complete disarray. Second, he’s attacking his own former Vice President, who is now waiting in the wings to be officially crowned as the Democrat party’s presidential candidate.
The United States Post Office is a mess. In 2018, the Post Office had a net loss of $3.91 billion. In 2019, the net loss had more than doubled, reaching a staggering $8.81 billion. Even considering the claim that some of that money was a result of bookkeeping changes, the net loss was still almost $2 billion greater than in 2018.
Thanks to the Wuhan virus, 2020 is promising to be the worst year ever. At the end of April, the Post Office said that its first-quarter losses were already $4.5 billion. In the second quarter, the Post Office lost another $2.2 billion. It is a barely functional institution.
Nevertheless, Democrats are insisting that, come November, all voting in America must be done via the U.S. Mail, with states mailing ballots to every registered voter and the voters mailing them back. Others have pointed out that this will be a disaster, so I won’t belabor the point. It’s enough to say that the possibilities of fraud on a hitherto unknown scale are enormous. Moreover, with the Postal union just having endorsed Joe Biden, if Trump voters are forced to vote by mail, they'll have a reasonable fear that their ballots will never get counted.
Donald Trump, looking at this mess, decided to do what he’s done for decades: Install new management to make a business better. This isn’t just his avocation; it’s also his constitutional job.
In June, Trump appointed Louis DeJoy, an experienced businessman, as his Postmaster General. DeJoy immediately set about trying to slow the financial bleeding. Democrats, of course, complained. Things really went “postal,” though, on August 7, when DeJoy reassigned or removed 23 senior postal officials. Management shuffles are a logical step to take when an organization is dysfunctional.
In our politicized age, this was going to be a hot potato under any circumstances. Still, Obama, who should be staying out of things, turned it into a nuclear potato by accusing Trump of deliberately sabotaging the election:
Barack Obama slammed President Donald Trump for trying to ‘actively kneecap’ the postal service to disenfranchise voters.
Obama did not say Trump’s name but did refer to the ‘president’ in his interview on the podcast of David Plouffe, his former campaign manager, in some of his harshest, direct criticism of Trump to date.
‘What we’ve seen in a way that is unique to modern political history is a President who is explicit in trying to discourage people from voting,’ Obama said. ‘What we’ve never seen before is a President say, ‘I’m going to try to actively kneecap the postal service to encourage voting and I will be explicit about the reason I’m doing it.’’
‘That’s sort of unheard of,’ he added.
Ironically, Obama meddled on the same day that Dr. Fauci finally admitted that, if people could shop, they could also do in-person voting.
But that wasn’t the end of Obama’s meddling. There was a leak on Friday (that Obama might have planted) that Obama is unhappy with Biden’s candidacy:
[A] number of anonymously sourced quotes from Obama leaked out throughout the 2020 Biden campaign where the former president allegedly expressed doubts about his former running mates’ fitness for office.
“Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f--k things up,” one Democrat who spoke to the former president recalled him saying.
When lamenting his own diminishing relationship with the current Democratic electorate, particularly in Iowa, Obama reportedly told one 2020 candidate: “And you know who really doesn’t have it? Joe Biden.”
It sounds to me as if, with Kamala Harris now in place in the campaign, Obama is attempting to remove Biden from the picture entirely. Obama was never really going to let a senile man head the Democrat party ticket, and he may now be getting his ducks in a row to ease Biden out.
Put simply, Russia couldn’t have done a better job at interfering with a presidential election than Obama has done. Four years ago, his interference was covert and illegal. This year, it’s overt and disgusting.
Image: Obama and Biden, by Obama White House; U.S. Government work, public domain.
Maybe they just hope to defeat Trump by any means necessary and plan to invoke the 25th Amendment elevating Kamala Harris to the presidency -- someone who couldn’t convince more than 2% of the primary voters to consider her for the nomination.
The Real Problem with Joe's Dementia
Many Americans seem to have understandably concluded that Joe Biden has dementia based on his very public displays of confusion, aphasia, and incoherence. But the question we should actually be asking is What is going on with Joe out of public view?
Like many Americans who have cared for parents with dementia, I witnessed my father’s decline firsthand and, sadly, Joe Biden is presenting exactly as my father did in the early stages -- right down to the vacant look in his eyes. While I am neither doctor nor expert, physicians and other medical professionals rely heavily on caregiver observations because they monitor the disease’s progression 24/7 over the long haul, and can add valuable input that is not always obvious at an appointment or measurable with a cognitive test. I am relying on my experience as my father’s caregiver, corroborated by medical professionals, health consultants, literature, research, and the shared experiences of others. Of course, not every dementia victim will experience every symptom, but the commonalities are significant.
As the disease grabs hold of one’s faculties, men like Biden and my father continue to view themselves as experienced executives -- in control, commanding, and coherent; holding court as the family patriarch; the old dude who’s seen it all. They don’t doubt their ability to express complex ideas with the right words. And so, they conduct business as usual and, for the most part, things go fine until they stammer over a word, get frustrated, then confused, and either babble their way out or shut down. It isn’t long before lost words, forgotten names, and elusive ideas are replaced by whatchamacallit, whosimajig, whatshername, and the thing.
These lapses can be easily hidden during the early stages. It’s not uncommon for loved ones, spouses in particular, to make excuses for the afflicted, cover up the messes, and run interference with others. In those embarrassing moments when a dementia patient fails to recognize someone he should know, the dutiful spouse (often in denial) will swoop down, rush to his side, and handle the mishap. Of course X remembers you. He’s just very tired from our trip. Can you excuse us for a second? She will answer the phone and put the caller on speaker to assist with answering questions her spouse might find confounding. She will accompany him everywhere and serve as backup if he starts to frazzle. But for those occasional “senior moments,” he seems put together to the outside world.
That’s because sub rosa the dutiful spouse makes sure medicine is taken, hygiene and grooming are attended to, and meals are provided and eaten. She controls his schedule and prepares him for the day’s events. She learns mornings are best, he tires and gets confused as the day ensues, and that crowds and noise are triggers. If she doesn’t manage his life, he won’t be able to manage it. But the charade can only last so long -- she cannot anticipate everything and the effects of the disease can be unpredictable.
As stress incidents accumulate over time, anxiety increases. As anxiety builds, confusion mounts. Eventually, it seems none of the brain’s electrical impulses can get where they need to go and the individual devolves into delusions and hallucinations. It can happen at the end of a “normal” day where the patient decompensates and becomes disoriented, confused, anxious, belligerent, or agitated (“sundowning”) or amass over months and give way to hallucinations. I call it the anxiety-confusion-delusion loop but I honestly don’t recall if I coined that caring for my father or if I read it somewhere.
What should give every voter pause is the likelihood that Biden is already experiencing or, due to high stress levels, has a very high risk of experiencing disorientation, crippling anxiety, paranoia, serious behavioral changes, delusions, and intense cognitive decline. Dementia cannot be reversed and will only worsen. He might deliver a short speech and take a few questions without incident, but he invariably falters as he tires -- indicia of other symptoms that will intensify with the hourly rigors of a campaign.
It isn’t far-fetched to anticipate a president in the White House who forgets to dress, thinks night is day, wanders aimlessly in the middle of the night looking out windows, opening drawers, trying to get somewhere else. The laundry list of behavioral changes is vast and not conducive to a functioning presidency. However, he will be propped up by Jill and his handlers, groomed, medicated, and fed, and might appear just fine at the next day’s events, even reading from notes and teleprompters… until he forgets how to read, what the notes are for, or how the teleprompter works. Forget about multitasking, handling complex economic or geopolitical issues, and running the country 24/7.
With today’s technology, deep fake videos, and a COVID-inspired virtual presidency, perhaps the DNC is confident they can pull a fast one on the American people, run a shadow government with Joe as the face of the presidency, and cover up his infirmity and ineptitude with the aid of the press -- think Woodrow Wilson and FDR. Maybe they just hope to defeat Trump by any means necessary and plan to invoke the 25th Amendment elevating Kamala Harris to the presidency -- someone who couldn’t convince more than 2% of the primary voters to consider her for the nomination. Or, they could be running Biden-Harris knowing they’re unwinnable, but fully intending to contest the election, accuse Trump of stealing it, calling (again) for his impeachment/removal, and causing just enough bedlam to destroy his second term.
The Democrat-Media Complex has been explicit about taking Trump down by any means necessary so none of this is overblown or hyperbole. In fact, these tactics have either been deployed during Trump’s first term (i.e., impeachment) or suggested as potential tools against him in another context (i.e., 25th Amendment).
Fortunately for Jill Biden and Joe’s political handlers, COVID has played right into their hands, requiring limited exposure to crowds, a controlled schedule, and scaled-back social interactions. But lurking behind those senior moment-y, Joe Biden-y gaffes is his inability to function independently for a full day at peak performance. Of course they don’t want a normal campaign season. They just need to get Joe to the finish line and, if they’re lucky, over it.
Image: Goodfreephotos
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