One last, fond glimpse of the man we'd have loved to beat

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They’ve shuffled their pumpkin off the stage and under his Rehoboth basement’s Cone of Silence for what is ostensibly being called “a two-week period of self-isolation”, but we all know it’s over. Joe’s gone, and he’s not coming back. Before we leave him, though, and move on to discussing whoever they replace him with, here’s a fitting finale, selected from the final radio interview he gave in Nevada just before his handlers pulled the plug and shipped him home to oblivion:

Biden insists he’s ‘in better physical shape’ than Trump as he forgets Herbert Hoover’s name in BET interview

Biden has called his rival “Donald ‘Herbert Hoover’ Trump” in campaign speeches — but grasped unsuccessfully for the name.

“You know, there’s only two presidents in American history who have come to office and left with fewer jobs,” Biden said.

“And the other was a guy we all know very well — um, so uh, I, I call — anyway. Trump is one of them.”

I’m going to miss the daily diet of Biden blunders that the flying monkeys of the press have fed us during the post-debate period while their masters put the final touches on the DNC removal project, because now we’ll be returned to our regularly scheduled programming, the Hitler/Trump/Vance cycle.

Sad.

UPDATE: The Daily Mail has video of the man barely making it down the short-steps used for his egress from Air Force One, and then struggling for 15 seconds to get inside the presidential limousine. If he weren’t such an evil, awful man, I’d pity him in his senescence.

The Junior Senator from Oklahoma raises an interesting question

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It’s looking increasingly likely that his bosses are going to toss Biden overboard and bring in Kampalla Walla to finish his term, but there have also been rumors bruited about that they’ll let the old fool decline his scheduled nomination, but remain in office until the next inauguration. If the latter comes true, Senator Markwayne Mullin (who, to my surprise and Elizabeth Warren’s envy, is a real, genuine Cherokee Indian) asks how the Democrats could declare him unfit to run for reelection but perfectly capable of running the country for the next six months?

Certainly, the Democrats have repeatedly demonstrated an ability to spin the most preposterous, illogical lies and pass them off to the public as “common sense”, but it would still be an embarrassing situation to explain were Biden refuse to leave and they refused to invoke the 25th Amendment removal process.

So, maybe that increases the odds that we’ll see the old man ushered out of the White House sooner, rather than later.

Reading tea leaves, but this seems plausible

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NEW: Joe Biden Says He'd Drop Out If Doctors Told Him to, Sets Up a 'Dignified' Exit (Updated)

By Bonchie | 2:15 PM on July 17, 2024

“After weeks of defiance over calls for him to drop out of the presidential race, Joe Biden just gave the first real hint that he might be willing to do so. 

“In several past interviews, Biden insisted that he was the nominee and that nothing but God could force him to withdraw. Yet, in a new interview with BET, the president directly stated that he would drop out if medical professionals advised him to.”

The 81-year-old president made the remark in a BET interview taped Tuesday when asked what it would take to prompt him to reconsider his candidacy.

“If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if doctors came to me and said, you got this problem and that problem,” Biden said in an excerpt released Wednesday.

“Video of the exchange was not available as of this writing, but the released excerpt has set the internet on fire. Is Biden creating a path for a "dignified" exit? As I've opined before, he very likely has Parkinson's disease, and that's backed not just by reporting that a Parkinson's expert visited the White House ten times but also by the president's physical appearance. In other words, it's not like they'd have to make up an ailment.”*

And then there’s this:

Biden’s call with Dems was ‘even worse than the debate’ - as Schiff now joins chorus calling for him to leave

President Joe Biden held a call with moderate Democrats that was “even worse than the debate” just an hour before the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on Saturday, it has been revealed.

The report by Puck citing people on the Zoom call comes as House Democratic heavyweight and California Senate nominee Adam Schiff called on Biden to step aside on Wednesday.

Like in the debate, Biden is reported to have lost his train of thought during the Zoom call with moderate Democrats. One anonymous source told Puck that had the assassination attempt not taken place, as many as “50 people on that Zoom were ready to come out publicly against him.”

One person who took part in the conversation told the outlet, “The call was even worse than the debate. He was rambling – he’d start an answer then lose his train of thought, then would just say ‘whatever.’ I lost a ton of respect for him.”

A second person confirmed this version of events. A member of Congress told Puck that Biden “was rambling, dismissive of concerns, unable or unprepared to present a campaign strategy, and had a particularly troubling exchange with [Colorado Democratic Rep] Jason Crow, saying to him, ‘Tell me something you’ve never done with your Bronze Star like my son.’”

Biden’s son Beau Biden, the attorney general of Delaware between 2007 and 2015, died of brain cancer shortly after leaving office. The president believes that a possible reason behind the cancer diagnosis is the burn pits his son was exposed to during his time serving in Iraq.

The call came amid increasing pressure on Biden to step aside over concerns about his age and mental acuity after a disastrous debate. Biden appeared confused and frail during the CNN showdown with Trump and he lost his train of thought on several occasions.

But the assassination attempt against Trump and the start of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee has removed the spotlight from the president. However, Democratic concerns about his campaign have not gone away.

Fox News’ Jimmy Fiala, who predicted back in May, when Biden’s handlers scheduled a debate before the Democrat convention, that it was an audition, to see whether the old man could perform well enough to convince them that he’d make it through the election (spoiler alert: he didn’t), now points out that those same handlers have scheduled Kampallawalla Ding Dong for her own audition. Of the three debate dates they’ve offered J.D. Vance, all are before the Democratic convention. Faila says a pre-convention, pre-nomination debate between vide-presidential nominees has never occurred before, so, he predicts, it’s being done this time to see if they can dump Biden and slot her in without complete disaster. Watch for developments.

*UPDATE: Here’s the video

As corporations are waking up and ditching DIE*, our own buffoon is going whole hog in the other direction

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take an axe to the budget? Not when there are neighbors’ trees to molest!

Governor Lamont Establishes New State Office: CT Office of Equity & Opportunity

Governor Ned Lamont on Tuesday announced that he has signed an executive order directing the establishment of the CT Office of Equity and Opportunity – a new state office that will be responsible for leading Connecticut’s efforts to ensure that state government is a leader in equity and inclusion with the goals of eliminating institutional and systemic barriers and creating opportunity and access for all those it serves and employs.

Administratively held within the Office of the Governor and funded through existing appropriations, the Office of Equity and Opportunity will be led by a chief equity and opportunity officer who will be appointed by the governor and responsible for coordinating a number of activities prescribed in the executive order related to ensuring that state government offices are representative of the people they serve and that people from different racial, ethnic, gender, geographic, and socioeconomic backgrounds have a voice in the decision-making processes concerning the policies and practices of state government.

[Blah blah blah} …. By doing everything we can to create a fair, equitable, and inclusive environment representative of the people who live in our state, we can address historical and ongoing disparities and promote social justice.”

The executive order directs the chief equity and opportunity officer to:

  • Serve as the coordinator of the state’s diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy;

  • Support equity-oriented efforts throughout the state to ensure services and resources are available and accessible to all in Connecticut;

  • Conduct comprehensive assessments of current and proposed policies and practices of state agencies to identify areas where disparities exist, and where underserved communities may face barriers to accessing services;

  • Develop a formal process for the development and implementation of agency equity plans;

  • Coordinate the publication of agency equity plans on a centralized and easily accessible website;

  • Develop equity-oriented systems, policies, and procedures that operationalize diversity, equity, inclusion and support sustainable practices within state agencies;

  • Identify diversity, equity, and inclusion trainings opportunities for all state employees;

  • Develop statewide diversity, equity, and inclusion benchmarks and measures of progress;

  • Oversee and provide guidance to state agencies on how to engage and incorporate the perspectives of underserved communities;

  • Partner with state agencies to ensure communications with residents are culturally and linguistically appropriate and accessible;

  • Integrate equity considerations into the budget process and assess the impact of budget decisions; and

  • Provide strategies to promote equitable contracting and purchasing practices.

Additionally, the executive order directs all state employees to participate in trainings [sic] focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion as coordinated by the chief equity and opportunity officer. It also directs all state agencies to develop an agency equity plan with the assistance of the chief equity and opportunity officer.

So millions of dollars diverted from, say, infrastructure maintenance, dozens — hundreds? — of new state union employees added to the taxpayers’ burden, and thousands of state workers wasting hours (assuming they would otherwise be engaged in constructive activities, to believe in which would represent a triumph of hope over experience) spent in diversity classes learning that they’re racists. This will improve state government, how?

*John Deere Writes “Dear John” Letter to DEI.

John Hineraker, Powerline: I guess John Deere decided it can’t let Tractor Supply outflank them when it comes to respecting the values of its customer base, and today John Deere released a ‘Dear John’ letter to DEI nonsense (though you have to read between the lines a bit to see that’s what’s happening):

Equally notable today is that Microsoft is apparently disbanding its entire DEI apparatus:

Microsoft recently laid off its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) team. According to an internal email sent by the team’s leader first spotted by Business Insider, the former team lead indicated the department was disbanded due to “changing business needs.”

In the email, the former team lead further accused Microsoft’s top management of “investigated and evidenced discrimination, harassment, and toxicity.” The email also details the DEI’s efforts at Microsoft which help move “impossible mountains” and foster “brilliant, ethical, and world-class strategists at the company, helping to make the world a better place.”

When progressive Microsoft throws DEI under the bus, you know that a preference cascade is building in corporate America to get rid of this insidious nonsense. More and more corporations are going to decide that they don’t want to be outliers facing the wrath of customers and shareholders for coddling this divisive and expensive elite luxury belief.

A modest price cut in Cos Cob

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26 Valleywood Road has shaved 5% off its asking price and now invites offers beginning at $1.795 million instead of $1.895. The owners “won” a price war in 2022 for this house, paying $1.465 million during a battle that began at $1.395. I might have taken a larger price cut here, considering the apparent lack of interest in this house during what continues to be a torrid sellers’ market, but who asked for my advice?

Speaking of real estate ...

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Interior Secretary Haaland: “It’s time to return to the stone age”

Feds Want To Eat 700,000 Acres of Texas/New Mexico Land

Under the guise of “land protection,” the federal government aims to acquire 700,000 acres of private land in the Southern High Plains region—which sits along the Texas-New Mexico border.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently finalized its Land Protection Plan. The plan aims to acquire 700,000 acres of privately owned land and put it under federal control for “protection” in “perpetuity.” This is part of the federal government’s efforts to expand the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge—which feeds into the broader aim of the Biden administration: fulfilling the “30×30” initiative.

Through the “30×30” initiative, the Biden administration decided that 30 percent of the nation’s land and waters must be under federal control and management by 2030. President Biden launched the agenda via Executive Order 14008 on January 27, 2021.

However, American Stewards of Liberty explains that the initiative was rebranded as “America the Beautiful” after facing public backlash.

As the American Stewards highlight, the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge is attempting to expand the “acquisition boundary” from 6,440 acres in Texas and New Mexico to 7,000,000 acres—all without congressional authority. After they acquire more land, they plan to federalize 700,000 acres through buying the land or obtaining permanent conservation easements.

“Federally acquiring nearly three-quarter million acres from this region is a direct attack on the oil, gas, and mineral industries, agriculture production, and local economies,” the American Stewards write.

They also claim counties were not notified of the expansion.

“No direct notice was given to the counties or local governing authorities. The USFWS [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service] failed to coordinate this plan with the local governments as required by law.”

The expanded area grabs land in 15 Texas counties including Bailey, Castro, Cochran, Crosby, Dawson, Gaines, Garza, Hale, Hockley, Lamb, Lubbock, Lynn, Parmer, Terry, and Yoakum. The expansion into five counties in New Mexico includes land from Chaves, Curry, De Baca, Lea, and Roosevelt counties.

All is going according to (Joe’s) plan

January 28, 2021:

Biden Makes Sweeping Changes to Oil and Gas Policy

President Joe Biden has followed through on a campaign pledge by introducing a moratorium on new oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters. With nearly 25 percent of U.S. oil and gas production coming from federal lands, the policy shift may have significant implications for future investment and production. The backlash from oil and gas producing states will be fierce and lawsuits have already begun, but the Biden administration views this policy as a key part of its climate agenda and is unlikely to change course.

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A permanent ban on new leases would affect numerous states with oil and gas resources. New Mexico—home to the prolific Delaware Basin—is an exception to the rule that most shale oil and gas resources are found on private lands, and the state accounts for more than 60 percent of existing federal drilling permits. Rocky Mountain states including Wyoming, Colorado, and Montana would take a hit from a permanent leasing ban. The Gulf States would be harmed by declining exploration and production due to lower royalties, as well as the impact on the oilfield services sector and related industries. In general, a leasing ban on public lands would drive more investors to private and state land.

June 2, 2021:

Biden orders 20-year ban on oil, gas drilling to protect tribal sites outside New Mexico’s Chaco

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Hundreds of square miles in New Mexico will be withdrawn from further oil and gas production for the next 20 years on the outskirts of Chaco Culture National Historical Park that tribal communities consider sacred, the Biden administration ordered Friday.

The new order from Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland applies to public lands and associated mineral rights within a 10-mile (16-kilometer) radius of the park. It does not apply to entities that are privately, state- or tribal-owned. Existing leases won’t be impacted either.

The New Mexico Oil and Gas Association has argued that the plan would leave additional leases on Navajo land or allotments owned by individual Navajos landlocked by taking federal mineral holdings off the board.

Navajo Nation officials have made similar arguments, saying millions of dollars in annual oil and gas revenues benefit the tribe and individual tribal members. The Navajo Nation completed its own study last year and advocated for a smaller area to be set aside given the economic impacts a withdrawal would have on the tribe.

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Federal officials have billed the Chaco initiative as a novel effort that could provide a roadmap and lessons learned for future collaborations with tribes.

In addition to the approved withdrawal, Haaland — who is from Laguna Pueblo and is the first Native American to lead a Cabinet agency — has committed to taking a broader look at how federal land across the region can be better managed while taking into account environmental effects and cultural preservation.

July 13, 2024:

Biden Proposes New Protections From Oil and Gas Drilling in Western Arctic

While applauding the proposal, climate advocates said they would "keep fighting to ensure there's no new oil extraction on a single acre" of the region.

The announcement comes three months after the Biden administration unveiled protections for 13 million acres of the 23 million-acre reserve, barring oil and gas companies from extraction there.