Joe Biden’s…Politics

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Karl Rove had a piece in The Wall Street Journal, and he had this comment about the situation in which Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate Joe Biden finds himself:

Mr Biden must also decide soon whether to keep moving left or emphasize that he’s a more centrist [Progressive-]Democrat. Picking the first course would suggest that he believes victory this fall depends on mobilizing Senator Bernie Sanders’s [I,VT] backers by agreeing with many of the Vermonter’s views.
Picking the second would indicate that he thinks the key to victory lies with suburbanites who swung to Democrats in 2018, and that he’ll get the Bernie vote by being the alternative to Mr Trump, not the instrument to enact a socialist agenda.
But Mr Biden may already have moved too far left for some suburbanites….

This is a preview of Joe Biden’s…Politics. Read the full post (218 words, estimated 52 secs reading time)

America’s Olympic Sports Organizations are Losing Money?

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In spades, according to the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee:

…America’s amateur sports organizations stand to lose as much as $800 million from coronavirus-driven cancellations, including the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Games until next year.

Color me unsympathetic. At least not until after the various civil and criminal cases over the women and girl athlete sexual and child abuses so rampant in our sports scamps—especially our Olympic and Olympic-prep camps—have finished their trek through our courts, and convicted miscreants are paying their compensatory damages and/or are serving their times in jail.

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It Depends

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The Wall Street Journal‘s editors are stewing about the Wuhan Virus relief bill that just passed the Senate. To an extent, the WSJ is justified in its concern; $2 trillion isn’t chump change (the editorial was written before the Senate voted the bill up, so details at the link might differ from Senate-passed reality). Couple things about the paper’s concern, though.

The bill includes $250 billion for $1,200 payments to Americans whether or not they’re affected by the virus. The cash will do little or nothing to help an economy closed by government fiat.

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Supply Chain Disruption at the Source

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Retailers are beginning to suspend, or cancel outright, orders from their Asian factories and other suppliers.  So far, it’s intended to be temporary; for example:

Ulrika Isaksson, an H&M spokeswoman, said “our long-term commitment to suppliers will remain intact, but in this extreme situation we need to respond fast.”

The suspensions and cancelations might—might—seem warranted regarding Asian suppliers, but the temporary nature of them, to the extent they’re warranted at all, should be limited to South and East Asia—in the main, Vietnam, Republic of Korea, and Japan.

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Strings on Airline Emergency Support

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As we contemplate (what should be) a one-time support/subsidy for airlines in the midst of the present Wuhan Virus situation, a letter writer to The Wall Street Journal‘s Letters facility had a suggestion.

[I]f we the people are going to bail out the airlines then a caveat should be that senior executives take a pay cut and don’t receive their usual massive bonuses.

Agreed, but they’re not the only ones. The management teams of the various airline industry unions—national and Local—also should be required to take substantial pay cuts and forego their benefits, however the unions might couch the labels on those benefits.

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YGTBSM

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And now the Greens, the climatistas, have shown their true colors. Valentin Dupouey, Head of the Communications Unit at European Green Party, say this, as paraphrased by Eric Worrall, writing for Watts Up With That?:

[A] major overhaul of Democracy is required to force acceptance of the economic de-growth required to address the climate crisis.

Because we’re just too screamingly stupid to know what’s good for us, so to hell with us—the Greens will do democracy for us.

And this, a direct quote from the Right Reverend Dupouey [emphasis Dupouey’s]:

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Progressive-Democrats and their…Preferences

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has buried another item in her 1,400+ page demand list of “relief” supports that she is requiring in quid pro quo for her support for the Senate Wuhan Virus relief bill that her minions in the Senate are actively blocking: $35 million for operations and maintenance for New York’s JFK Center for the Performing Arts. Pelosi’s bill would provide funding for

…employee compensation and benefits, grants, contracts, payments for rent or utilities, fees for artists or performers….

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Government Ownership of Private Companies

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There is a move afloat that, as part of a (supposedly) temporary support measure during the current Wuhan Virus situation, the Federal government should inject money into troubled businesses by taking equity stakes—buying shares of stocks—in them.

As The Wall Street Journal pointed out, that’s a bad idea, and it illustrated the dangers by describing the failure of Japan’s moves in this regard.

As it happens, we have a domestic example of the dangers of governments buying private company stocks: CALPERS. That huge (State) government pension fund has, for all the best reasons, invested in a broad range of American companies, and it has invested in some of them heavily.

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Holding Some Back

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Forty-three million students are doing homework at home due to the current Wuhan virus situation.

Here’s the shocker about that:

Some public schools are calling online work “enrichment,” not part of the curriculum, because they can’t guarantee that all students will have access to it.

The work, which was part of the curriculum when school was in session, won’t be graded, won’t count.  This is another example of the Left’s view of equality: hold back the successful because the less successful don’t, or can’t, keep up.  Don’t take steps to help the less successful do better. No, that’s too hard.

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Progressive-Democrats and Crises

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We’re seeing their execution of Rahm Emanuel’s theory in spades these days.  The Republican-majority Senate has a proposal in the Senate, agreed in bipartisan fashion with Progressive-Democrat Senators that would aid average Americans and the small, medium, and large businesses—including our farmers and ranchers—weather the government-mandated shutdown of our economy in response to the present Wuhan Virus situation.

The bill would provide loans to businesses to help tide them over the current loss of revenue—many of the loans converted to grants if the businesses retain their employees on the payrolls.

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