Original Sin

"Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again": https://shorturl.at/ICCaY

This is a riveting read.

But I didn't learn much. Regarding the facts. But aging and personalities?

Maybe it's my personality, always looking for the negative in myself. Seeing where I falter. This makes me strive to be better, but whatever I do it will never satisfy my mother. At least she's dead, which is a big psychological relief.

Everybody dies. But what is the attrition beforehand?

I mean you can get killed in a car accident. Pow! Wham! But assuming you live a long life and die of natural causes, or some kind of disease or cancer in your eighties and nineties, what are the odds you're going to have all your marbles?

Not high.

Everybody fades. Sure, occasionally you find someone nearing a hundred who retains all their faculties, but...

They move slower.

They talk slower, and probably softer.

And their voice changes and...

When is this going to happen to me?

That's what I took most from this book. Otherwise, I was stunned how closely I follow the news. There was very little I didn't know. Sure, there was this conversation and that, but almost all of this was published in the ensuing years leading up to Biden removing himself from the race. But to see it all in one place...

Sure, you've seen the headlines, you know the essence of the book.

However, you really don't know how cloistered Biden was, how little access anybody but his insider group had to him, and that was only a handful of people. Cabinet members? They barely saw him. There was a cabal running the country. And they massaged the info so as to not only keep Biden happy, but sometimes out of the loop.

The other big takeaway for me was what wimps the elected officials were. I can see why Trump is appealing. And Bernie too. They're not playing the game. And when you don't, they don't like it. They made sure Bernie didn't win the nomination and they made sure no one primaried Biden in the run-up to the 2024 election. It was all about knowing your place, tippy-toeing around people who might get offended.

We see this not only in politics, but in business too. Unless the CEO commits truly egregious behavior, they endorse him. After all, he probably installed them on the board to begin with.

And the rest of us sit at home and ask how this could have happened.

Well, what do you have at risk? No one in America wants to risk their job, their status and their income. That's why we revered the rock stars of yore and the techies after them. They weren't playing by the traditional rules. Sure, Americans admire money, but even more they cotton to personality. And it's always lone riders, outsiders. And those playing the game hate them.

As far as our country?

If a fading man can be in charge, even though the hoi polloi can admit what he and his handlers cannot, how in the hell can we move forward and accomplish anything?

Trump is hell-bent on destruction.

Did you see what I did there? I put my livelihood at risk. I'll get e-mail castigating me for inserting a jab at Trump. They want to keep me in line. Some will unsubscribe. Others will continue to work the refs, try to make me afraid.

Are you afraid?

Seemingly everybody in America is. They'll bloviate about this or that, but when they have anything at risk, they shut up.

That's why we'll never see anybody with any money stand up to Trump. Even the law firms caved. No, only those without portfolio seem to be able to speak truth to power.

I don't know what happens with the Democrats going forward. Not only did Biden single-handedly put Trump back in office, the party lost touch with the public. Everybody in the party was afraid to offend anyone. Therefore we got pronouns, an insistence that trans women should be able to play in all women's sports... And if you crossed the line, there was an army of people to shut you down. George Carlin would be laughing. Seven dirty words? There are a slew of words you can't use anymore because they're going to offend someone. Where is the line? Well, the funny thing is both parties think it doesn't exist. On the right they believe in absolute free speech, which the Constitution never guaranteed, never mind Musk blocking those on X who take a shot at him. On the left you need a cheat sheet to know how to behave, what to say, knowing that you're going to be trashed if you get the tiniest thing wrong.

So most people tune out of politics. Believing they're powerless. Hell, the stockholders voted against Zaslav's exorbitant pay, but it made no difference, the board didn't and won't cut it.

The aforementioned Carlin said your vote doesn't make a difference, because the owners of this country will never let you have control.

And I don't wholly agree with George, but the elected officials are beholden to the money and...

The Democrats were supposed to be different. The Republicans were the party of let me keep mine and you're on your own, stand on your own two feet. The Democrats were supposed to be the big compassionate tent. But they ended up self-dealing and losing touch with the public at large. What's that old saying, sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me? But in the Democratic party everybody's moaning and crying that someone said something negative. Everybody in this book was afraid of Biden, never mind attacking his wife who was delusionally protecting him.

So do I advise you read this book?

What you've got to know is most people don't read ANY books. And most people are not comprehensive in their reading anyway. Both the Democrats and the Republicans have their preferred news outlets, cable channels, blogs, they don't really want to know that which might upset them or undercut their beliefs.

And for that reason alone "Original Sin" should be read.

Are you aware of the Ukraine drone attack on Russian sites/planes? Maybe the headlines, but if you dig just a bit deeper, it turns out the drones themselves were extremely inexpensive, but the science, the technology behind them? That's what America used to specialize in, and by getting rid of scientific research the whole country is now at risk.

Hate the libs all you want. Decry delusional MAGA-ites.

But you're so busy playing the game that you're losing the plot.

"Original Sin" will tell you how the game is really played. While those involved ignored the plot.

It's downright scary.


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