Is Joe Biden dying?

Is this such an extreme question?  In case you missed it, Biden's campaign called their ninth "lid" on the day this month, so Sleepy Joe could rest.  When Biden does appear in public, it's in tightly controlled scenarios to minimal crowds, that are not advertised ahead of time in case they need a quick retreat:

There is scant physical evidence that the former vice president and Democratic nominee is in town. His visits are scarcely publicized beforehand, logistical details are closely held and his event venues serve as much as video studios as places of gathering. Barely anyone is allowed near the candidate.

The most significant recent high-wire act for Biden was the CNN town hall where he was served up countless softballs in a forum that even Politico called a "kid-gloves" treatment.  On the few times he was challenged, he either ignored the questions or went into a weird jag about chicken manure. 

Michael Dougherty asks "Seriously, Can We Talk about Joe Biden Now?"

Usually, a party tries to avoid making the same mistakes that recent losing campaigns made. But Biden’s operation seems to be leaning into dangers that should be obvious. Hillary Clinton’s campaign was dogged by conspiracy theories about her health, ones that were dismissed by her cheerleading journalists until the very moment she seemed to collapse at a public event, and was thrown into the side of a van by her handlers.

Joe Biden has had two aneurysms, he lashes out when he gets the slightest bit of pushback ("Listen, fat"), and now he's spending a third of his time in hiding and the rest of the time led around by his puppeteers.  What, indeed, is going on with this guy?

Two other clues: the Democrats are pivoting away from mail-in voting, perhaps because of the high disqualification factor, but maybe because it locks voters into candidate who may not make it to election day.  Second, Kamala Harris is incommunicado:

“A reminder that it has been 42 days since Harris was tapped as the VP pick. There are 42 days until election day,” NBC News reporter Deepa Shivaram tweeted. “The senator has not once formally taken questions from the press.”

Isn't this weird?  Why isn't she out there promoting Joe Biden?  Maybe it's because she knows Joe is in a downward spiral and it's only a matter of time before she'll be forced to step in.  Until then, the campaign has one goal: hide the decline.

Today's least-surprising news

Daily Wire: "Ruth Bader Ginsburg Didn’t Retire Because She Wanted Hillary Clinton To ‘Name Her Successor,’ Daughter Says."

Please oh please oh please let it be Amy: "Trump Supreme Court favorite Amy Coney Barrett would be the ultimate insult to RBG."

Coolio.

Hunter loves coke and hookers

If you're hankering for another weaselly non-denial after Biden spokesman TJ Ducklo's epic performance, you're in luck: "Biden campaign spokesman addresses report on Hunter Biden by pivoting to coronavirus, denies nothing."  

Hygiene theater

Reason: "Can the CDC Get Anything Right?"  "As the coronavirus pandemic rages on, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) can't stop proving itself useless and incompetent."  

You know, I thought traffic was light today

Ace: "Sundown Joe Biden: Covid Has Killed Two Hundred Million Americans."

Relevant source: Did Joe Biden kill me?  

Ready for the battle

Bring it on.  Red State: "Lindsey Graham 2.0 Returns, Flames the Dems on SCOTUS in Brand New Statement."  Here's the key part:

“After the treatment of Justice Kavanaugh I now have a different view of the judicial-confirmation process,” Graham said. “Compare the treatment of Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh to that of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan, and it’s clear that there is already one set of rules for a Republican president and one set of rules for a Democrat president. I therefor think it is important that we proceed expeditiously to process any nomination made by President Trump to fill this vacancy. I am certain if the shoe was on the other foot, you would do the same.”

Speaking of Elena Kagan, I remember the vicious grilling Lindsey Graham gave Kagan after she was nominated by Obama in 2010.  Avert your eyes from this partisan cruelty:

Extra - PJ Media: "Dems Are About to Learn How Much Republicans Are Still Seething 2 Years After Kavanaugh Hearings." 

Because of course

 

Washington Post headlines on Scalia's passing and Ginsburg's passing pic.twitter.com/VQlWwphlXa

— Joe Bishop-Henchman (@jbhenchman) September 19, 2020

Why is the steering wheel on the right?

Gateway Pundit: "Liberal Woman Posts Selfie Video of Hysterical Meltdown Over Death of Justice Ginsburg."  When politics is your religion.  

RBG's activism engendered the current mood

Bookworm Room has a detailed review on Ruth Bader Ginsberg and I could not agree more with point #7:

7. Ginsburg’s politicizing the Court is part of why we’re at the situation we are today, where a Justice’s death can throw an upcoming election into an uproar. When judges legislate, as she and her fellow leftists on the Court have been doing, the Court takes on oversized importance. For decades, leftists who couldn’t get their fellow citizens to vote on their policies were able to use the Court as a super-legislative body. This is not what the Constitution intended, and it means that we Americans are being ruled by a cabal of 9 people who hold their positions for life. They are, in essence, a form of non-democratic absolute monarchy.

To this I would point to her dissent in the 7-2 decision for Masterpiece Cakeshop, a.k.a. the "bake me a cake, hater" case (joined by the worst justice on the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor).  As Bookworm notes, Ginsberg was always portrayed as a "fighter" which means she was a politician and not a jurist sworn to uphold the Constitution.  I'll go a step further: I think RBG got caught up in the hagiography around her and simply tailored legal decisions to burnish her leftist bona fides.  The result was judicial activism that led to decisions away from freedom and towards compulsion.  This is why everybody is up in arms about the Supreme Court and now the election is going to be super-mega-insane.

For contrast, look at the legal reasoning of the late Antonin Scalia who leaned towards individual rights ("go ahead and burn that flag!") and often wondered why the Supreme Court was ruling on issues that should be decided by the people:

The States may, if they wish, permit abortion on demand, but the Constitution does not require them to do so. The permissibility of abortion, and the limitations upon it, are to be resolved like most important questions in our democracy: by citizens trying to persuade one another and then voting.

People voting?  Like in a democracy?  Scalia and Ginsberg were friends, it's said, but I wonder what Nino would have thought about his good friend forcing a baker to create a cake at the barrel of a gun.

RBG has died

Huge news tonight: "Ruth Bader Ginsberg has died." 

Sleepy Joe on CNN

Joe Biden did a town hall with Anderson Cooper on CNN tonight.  Here's his answer to every question:

"I'm not Trump who is bad."

And, man, he lied a lot, including the anonymous Atlantic lie, the fracking flip-flop, and the Charlottesville lie.  I'm sure our brave Candy Crowley firefighters will set the record straight.

To paraphrase Obama: "Yes he does"

Don't Walk, Run! - "Does Joe Biden use a Teleprompter to answer questions?"

You gotta be cruel to be kind

Reason: "Federal Regulations Have Made Western Wildfires Worse - Controlled, prescribed burns can stop wildfires from spreading. Too bad they are effectively prohibited by rules like the Clean Air Act."  If you guessed that the environmental whackos in California are making a bad situation much worse, you're correct:

"What you'll often find," Wood says, "is that there are projects which have been extremely well-vetted, which have been years in the work, there will be a 5,000-page document, which no one could conceivably ever read because it's so long and complicated, but then the project will still get put on hold for an indefinite period of time, because some special interest group filed a lawsuit." So much time is spent considering the ramifications of an action; little is spent considering the impact of doing nothing.

From 1999 to 2017, an average of 13,000 acres of California were subjected to controlled burns each year. In February 2020, Nature Sustainability published a report arguing that California needs to burn 20 million acres of forest in order to restore forest health.

But the owls! 

That was two or three hoaxes ago

Red State: "That ‘Bombshell’ Russian Bounty Story Was Just Officially Shown to Be Garbage."