A Farewell to Joe…

After 50 years of public ‘service’ Mr. Biden’s farewell address reaffirmed Joe’s ineptitude and lack of integrity to the very end. Once the coalition’s youngest US senator (elected 1972 at age 30) from Delaware, I observed more of him than most as an impressionable youth in neighboring Maryland. Joking Joe was just another ‘17th Amendment Senator’ who would’ve never been sent to Congress by the Delaware legislature… we dubbed him, the ‘Dullard from Delaware.’ Biden illustrated why increasingly more money was dumped into US Senate races as this new unearned and poorly educated cohort of senators were installed under this deleterious amendment.

Perhaps the most ironic historical fact of Joe’s ‘service’ is failing to declare war/define an objective in Afghanistan as a senator to execute another Vietnam style exit as president following the poor stewardship of the predecessor he served as VP and the president he defeated who’d be reinstalled to a second, non-consecutive term via the vulgar Harris ‘switch-a-roo’ debacle. Biden is a ‘poster child’ for our uncompetitive/duopoly party elections. During the 2020 Iowa caucus (some claim staged) chaos, Klobuchar redirected enough of her caucusers for a ‘Biden bailout’ where Joe would’ve ‘crashed and burned’ at the start. This set the Kabuki stage for Clyburn’s save in SC. Some say Klobuchar’s pay-off was controlling all the wealth transfers associated with Biden’s inauguration day events.

Carter blocking Anderson from debates [the first election I was eligible to vote] compelled refusal to vote for either of the Democrats; one from GA, one from CA - yes, I know Reagan was wearing the Red jersey after all his decades as a modern Democrat. Similarly, I couldn’t in good conscious vote for either Democrat from DE or NY - yes I know Trump has also been wearing the Red jersey as a big government modern Democrat these past years. Alas, the same corrupt players (Clyburn, Klobuchar, Pelosi, Schumer, et al) who easily manipulate/overturn elections to install a candidate like Biden in our uncompetitive, duopoly system can also remove and install another politburo member like Harris. Unclear if modern Democrats can see themselves every bit as corrupt as Republicans they rebuke as threats to ‘democracy.’ Flabbergasting it took Joe doing the “Tim Conway Shuffle” for folks to acknowledge Biden’s lack of substance - the 2024 Dullard from Delaware was nothing new except for the blank stare and draggle step.

Nothing could illustrate how completely ‘out of touch’ to the bitter end Dullard Joe has been this past half century than listening to this oligarch complain about ‘oligarchs.’ The 1/15/25 Washington AP report by Megerian, Miller and Long included:

”President Joe Biden used his farewell address to the nation to deliver stark warnings about an ‘oligarchy’ of the ultra-wealthy taking root in the country and a ‘tech-industrial complex’ that is infringing on Americans’ rights and the future of democracy.

Speaking from the Oval Office as he prepares to hand over power to President-elect Donald Trump, Biden seized what is likely to be his final opportunity to address the country before he departs the White House to spotlight the accumulation of power and wealth in the U.S. among just a small few.

“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,” Biden said, drawing attention to “a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a few ultra-wealthy people and the dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked.”

Invoking President Dwight Eisenhower’s warnings about the rise of a military-industrial complex when he left office in 1961, Biden added, “I’m equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech-industrial complex that could pose real dangers to our country as well.”

Biden sounded the alarm about oligarchy as some of the world’s richest individuals and titans of its technology industry have flocked to Trump’s side in recent months, particularly after his November victory. Billionaire Elon Musk spent more than $100 million helping Trump get elected, and executives like Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos have donated to Trump’s inaugural committee and made pilgrimages to Trump’s private club in Florida for audiences with the president-elect as they seek to ingratiate themselves with his administration and shape its policies.

Biden offered his own set of solutions for the problems that he laid out: change the tax code to ensure billionaires “pay their fair share,” eliminate the flow of hidden sources of money into political campaigns, establish 18-year term limits for members of the Supreme Court and ban members of Congress from trading stocks. His policy prescriptions come as his political capital is at its nadir as Biden prepares to exit the national stage, and after he has done little to advance those causes during his four years in power at the White House.

Biden spoke from the Resolute desk, photos of his family visible behind him in the Oval Office. First lady Jill Biden, his son Hunter, some of his grandchildren, Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, sat watching.”

Much to unpack here. Biden excoriating Trump’s abuse of power while orchestrating family pardons with Joe’s photos in the ‘Kabuki Theatre’ backdrop was a bit much. Of course, those who’ve read and understood the Constitution would stand on the no corruption of blood clause, but that would have the issues litigated in courts to determine if politics are driving prosecutions. Furthermore, this 17th Amendment Senator won’t acknowledge the biggest purveyor of oligarchy, the unconstitutional 435 limit on the HoR where tax bills must originate. Last I checked and made abundantly clear working with Rep. Dick Armey on income tax reform (Hall/Rabushka Plan) the number one issue lobbied on Capitol Hill was the tax code. The appropriations side didn’t come close - i.e., those lobbying the oligarchs didn’t care how federal monies are spent… just make it someone ELSE’S money.

As more power concentrated to DC with increased population and a static HoR, the oligarchy grew more comfortable broking political theft for Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg, et al parasites. Sad so many consider corporate welfare queens of this sort ‘good businessmen’ instead of ‘Johns’ paying political prostitutes [oligarchs] for desired wealth transfers from productive taxpayers. Don’t expect a movement to disempower DC oligarchs by making the House Representative again: https://www.alabamagazette.com/story/2022/03/01/opinion/discrimination-via-poor-representation/2319.html. Long time column readers have suffered my lone voice in the wilderness these past 15 years w.r.t. our Constitutional [Art. 1, Sec. 2] design for the HoR. Disheartening to observe how far we’ve ‘progressed’ since the 435 limit was imposed (1929) by DC oligarchs from the one representative for every 30,000 (round-up) rule well argued in the Constitutional Convention. As population increased this past century, we now have one representative for about 800,000. Well over a 25 fold reduction in real representation. A very effective way to block ‘undesirables’ from Congress, enhancing gains from hyper-gerrymandering, restrictive ballot access laws and reducing the number of representatives further concentrating DC oligarchs’ power. Little wonder a 17th Amendment senate and a 435 limited house of representatives proffer such horrific approval ratings in our so-called ‘democracy.’

Concentration of wealth and other ills Biden’s farewell address denounced are a result of the DC oligarchy [rule by a corrupt few] Joe has aided, abetted and been an integral part of these past five decades. Bezos, et al are NOT rulers, they purchase these high-end political prostitutes in DC. Shame on those who support and vote for oligarchs of this sort. Shame also on sycophants heralding the parasites who pay corrupt oligarchs to broker their desired political theft… a cancer on the marrow of our economy. Why now cheer Musk sucking up to Trump when Elon was similarly despicable as an Obama/Biden suck-up?

THE VIEWS OF SUBMITTED EDITORIALS MAY NOT BE THE EXPRESS VIEWS OF THE ALABAMA GAZETTE.