Great compare and contrast of Buttigieg and Duffy. But the author makes the point so forcefully that Duffy's blame game isn't a joke when the issue is aviation safety.
There were no "true leaders" in the past administration or the MSM. Otherwise, we would have known about Biden's mental decline a lot sooner. For all their faults, conservative media got this one right but were savaged for it. Only now are the "tell all" books coming out - it's a little late, folks.
Joe Biden worked in public service for at least a half century instead of playing golf or running casinos and hotels into bankruptcy. He had a seasoned and accomplished staff and he possesses dignity, compassion and courage. I would take Biden on a bad day over any, any, any day the current occupier of the White House has.
"Joe Biden worked in public service for at least a half century..."
You're absolutely right. Joe was your quintessential career politician, which is a grift all its own. But guess what? He can't cash in now like Obama and the Clintons did post politics because Joe's been mentally out to lunch since the 2020 campaign. No speaking tours, no memoir (at least not by him).
"...instead of playing golf or running casinos and hotels into bankruptcy."
At least Trump has some actual "real world" experience that career politicians like Joe never had.
"He had a seasoned and accomplished staff and he possesses dignity, compassion and courage."
His "seasoned and accomplished staff", along with Joe's family, Kamala Harris, Democratic leadership and the media kept Joe's mental decline out of public view by keeping Joe pretty much out of public view as much as possible.
"I would take Biden on a bad day over any, any, any day the current occupier of the White House has."
You might, but after the June debate the Democratic Party didn't want him running again.
Aside from dodging blame this administration is constantly undermining agencies like the FAA. They have no leg to stand on these problems are all theirs now.
Why anybody would vote against funding the FAA and reinstating knowledgeable personnel is beyond me, but the responsible person in the Administration joining the "Not Me" choir while pocketing a substantial salary is insane. I wish all pilots would boycott to fly any of these people anywhere, stating 'not me' under the warning that flying is too dangerous now.
"Why anybody would vote against funding the FAA..."
Most times these are not "stand alone" bills but are part of a larger package. And it gets very partisan very fast. Probably there was some other part of the bill Duffy objected to - happens on both sides of the aisle.
The Felon's personnel in his administration are only following the Felon's lead: "when it's bad it's Biden's economy, when it's good it's mine (the Felon's)", "I don't know, the lawyers say", "I don't know about that, the State Dept handles this"...
Yeah, Trump is pretty bad about assigning blame to others, but that sounds like the typical politician. Have you seen Pelosi, Schumer or Obama admit how they forced Biden out of the race?
Never heard any President, other than the Felon, place the blame on others. Since Harry Truman it's been "the buck stops here". This has been the Felon's SOP forever. He's basically a bully, and like all bullies, he's a coward.
You could go back further, but hopefully you get the point.
As to the "Felon", understand that more people thought the twice-impeached convicted felon was a better choice than the walking word salad. Let that sink in.
The Felon negotiated with the Taliban to leave Afghanistan in May of 2021, this is a fact. This doesn’t in any way Biden handled leaving Afghanistan. It reminded me of watching helicopters leaving Saigon in 1975. Truly an American tragedy.
It is also a fact, the Felon added $7Trillion dollars to the federal debt.
That's the ticket, Nick. Just ignore the rebuttal on your "Never heard any President, other than the Felon, place the blame on others" claim and move smartly on to the next rabbit hole...
But to your point, how exactly do you think we should have withdrawn from Afghanistan? My personal view was that we should never have stayed once we determined bin Laden was no longer there, which was right after Tora Bora. We should have picked up our toys and left and never gotten involved in Iraq. Too much blood and treasure spent and for what?
"This doesn’t in any way Biden handled leaving Afghanistan."
Biden was advised that leaving during the "fighting season" would be a mistake and waiting until the winter was the better choice. We could still have used Bagram Air Base as the departure/evacuation point instead of Kabul. We all saw what happened as a result of Biden's insistence that we leave before the 20th anniversary of 9/11. I don't believe any President from Bush 43 to Biden had any coherent plan for either removing or destroying the billions of dollars worth of hardware we left behind. Now the Taliban have it and have probably sold some it to their allies.
"It is also a fact, the Felon added $7Trillion dollars to the federal debt."
No argument there...but our total debt isn't $7 trillion, is it? It's more like $36 trillion and growing. Just for context, when Jimmy Carter left office our debt was still under ONE trillion dollars. Both Dems and Repubs alike in Congress and the White House are to blame for this mess.
I'm not ready to blame Obama nor Biden for the debt. Both had to clean-up after GOP tax cuts that only resulted in the rich getting richer and the Middle Class becoming much smaller. When Clinton left office there was a surplus. I do agree both Dems and Repubs Congressional members are to blame for this mess.
Thank you for the education concerning Biden's leaving Afghanistan. As I said, it was so disgusting to see people falling off planes in the air.
Is it too much to expect that a writer for The Contrarian write grammatically? I am fed up with semi-literates at websites which presumably address intelligent, informed people.
To wit (first sentence): "my mother would ask my sister and I." I learned about the objective case in elementary school. This writer has yet to learn it.
I disagree. Semi-literates in this public domain deserve all the harshness they can get. Mollycoddling will not have any effect, if anything can have an effect.
Unfortunately, it seems that it may, indeed, be too much to expect. As an octogenarian university English major, I share your irritation about journalists who are careless with the use of the language on which their livelihood depends. In the cited example from the writer's article, if the words "my sister and" were removed, would she have written "...my mother would ask I" who was responsible? I think not. I suppose The Contrarian has little or no control over the content of outside articles it chooses to feature. Nevertheless, I fully agree with the premise of this commentary.
We have much in common. I, too, am an English undergraduate major as well as a Ph.D. in English. I have done a lot of teaching and know that the problem is that grammar has been scorned for so long that teachers no longer know it and thus do not teach it. The boundaries between written and oral communication have been obliterated. Semi-literacy abounds, along with defensiveness and resentment if errors are noted. The idea that precision in grammar encourages precision in thinking and communication is deemed antiquated.
Biden tried to do something about it. It’s called the Infrastructure Bill, and as I recall it got 17 Republican senators on board. This current “administration” is more worried about tearing down than building back better as Biden did. What a joke these fools have taken over our country.
So, 30 or 40 years, but the vulgarian can't come out and say, "We should have done something about this during my first term, and we didn't. We will fix it now." because nothing is ever HIS fault or responsibility. And the Republican Congress? They will blame the Democrats - even when they themselves were in charge. Duffy has his script handed to him.
The existential working definition of responsibility is to "hold yourself as cause in the matter. " The core value that enables being responsible is integrity. Given we have an administration without integrity, we'll never have responsibility. But it's not just on the Republican side of the aisle. Democrats could stop blaming Trump and be responsible for doing something about it.
Great compare and contrast of Buttigieg and Duffy. But the author makes the point so forcefully that Duffy's blame game isn't a joke when the issue is aviation safety.
To paraphrase Harry Truman, "The buck stops over there."
Sick of this shit. Pick a random person off the street and they would do a better job than any of trump's appointees.
"Step up like a true leader and take responsibility"???? I have news for you: There are NO true leaders in this forsaken Administration.
There were no "true leaders" in the past administration or the MSM. Otherwise, we would have known about Biden's mental decline a lot sooner. For all their faults, conservative media got this one right but were savaged for it. Only now are the "tell all" books coming out - it's a little late, folks.
Joe Biden worked in public service for at least a half century instead of playing golf or running casinos and hotels into bankruptcy. He had a seasoned and accomplished staff and he possesses dignity, compassion and courage. I would take Biden on a bad day over any, any, any day the current occupier of the White House has.
"Joe Biden worked in public service for at least a half century..."
You're absolutely right. Joe was your quintessential career politician, which is a grift all its own. But guess what? He can't cash in now like Obama and the Clintons did post politics because Joe's been mentally out to lunch since the 2020 campaign. No speaking tours, no memoir (at least not by him).
"...instead of playing golf or running casinos and hotels into bankruptcy."
At least Trump has some actual "real world" experience that career politicians like Joe never had.
"He had a seasoned and accomplished staff and he possesses dignity, compassion and courage."
His "seasoned and accomplished staff", along with Joe's family, Kamala Harris, Democratic leadership and the media kept Joe's mental decline out of public view by keeping Joe pretty much out of public view as much as possible.
"I would take Biden on a bad day over any, any, any day the current occupier of the White House has."
You might, but after the June debate the Democratic Party didn't want him running again.
Aside from dodging blame this administration is constantly undermining agencies like the FAA. They have no leg to stand on these problems are all theirs now.
Why anybody would vote against funding the FAA and reinstating knowledgeable personnel is beyond me, but the responsible person in the Administration joining the "Not Me" choir while pocketing a substantial salary is insane. I wish all pilots would boycott to fly any of these people anywhere, stating 'not me' under the warning that flying is too dangerous now.
"Why anybody would vote against funding the FAA..."
Most times these are not "stand alone" bills but are part of a larger package. And it gets very partisan very fast. Probably there was some other part of the bill Duffy objected to - happens on both sides of the aisle.
The Felon's personnel in his administration are only following the Felon's lead: "when it's bad it's Biden's economy, when it's good it's mine (the Felon's)", "I don't know, the lawyers say", "I don't know about that, the State Dept handles this"...
Yeah, Trump is pretty bad about assigning blame to others, but that sounds like the typical politician. Have you seen Pelosi, Schumer or Obama admit how they forced Biden out of the race?
Never heard any President, other than the Felon, place the blame on others. Since Harry Truman it's been "the buck stops here". This has been the Felon's SOP forever. He's basically a bully, and like all bullies, he's a coward.
"Never heard any President, other than the Felon, place the blame on others."
You don't get around much, do you?
"Biden White House largely blames Trump admin for troubled U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan"
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/pentagon-release-declassified-report-afghanistan-withdraw-rcna78559
"“One quarter” of today’s $31.4 trillion federal debt “was accumulated in the four years of my predecessor,” Donald Trump."
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/jan/25/joe-biden/joe-biden-blames-donald-trump-for-one-quarter-of-t/
"Obama Won't Abandon Blame Bush Strategy"
https://www.usnews.com/news/obama/articles/2010/02/09/obama-wont-abandon-blame-bush-strategy
"Obama reverts to 2008 plan: Blame Bush"
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/apr/19/obama-reverts-to-2008-plan-blame-bush/
You could go back further, but hopefully you get the point.
As to the "Felon", understand that more people thought the twice-impeached convicted felon was a better choice than the walking word salad. Let that sink in.
The Felon negotiated with the Taliban to leave Afghanistan in May of 2021, this is a fact. This doesn’t in any way Biden handled leaving Afghanistan. It reminded me of watching helicopters leaving Saigon in 1975. Truly an American tragedy.
It is also a fact, the Felon added $7Trillion dollars to the federal debt.
"The Felon negotiated with the Taliban..."
That's the ticket, Nick. Just ignore the rebuttal on your "Never heard any President, other than the Felon, place the blame on others" claim and move smartly on to the next rabbit hole...
But to your point, how exactly do you think we should have withdrawn from Afghanistan? My personal view was that we should never have stayed once we determined bin Laden was no longer there, which was right after Tora Bora. We should have picked up our toys and left and never gotten involved in Iraq. Too much blood and treasure spent and for what?
"This doesn’t in any way Biden handled leaving Afghanistan."
Biden was advised that leaving during the "fighting season" would be a mistake and waiting until the winter was the better choice. We could still have used Bagram Air Base as the departure/evacuation point instead of Kabul. We all saw what happened as a result of Biden's insistence that we leave before the 20th anniversary of 9/11. I don't believe any President from Bush 43 to Biden had any coherent plan for either removing or destroying the billions of dollars worth of hardware we left behind. Now the Taliban have it and have probably sold some it to their allies.
"It is also a fact, the Felon added $7Trillion dollars to the federal debt."
No argument there...but our total debt isn't $7 trillion, is it? It's more like $36 trillion and growing. Just for context, when Jimmy Carter left office our debt was still under ONE trillion dollars. Both Dems and Repubs alike in Congress and the White House are to blame for this mess.
I'm not ready to blame Obama nor Biden for the debt. Both had to clean-up after GOP tax cuts that only resulted in the rich getting richer and the Middle Class becoming much smaller. When Clinton left office there was a surplus. I do agree both Dems and Repubs Congressional members are to blame for this mess.
Thank you for the education concerning Biden's leaving Afghanistan. As I said, it was so disgusting to see people falling off planes in the air.
Is it too much to expect that a writer for The Contrarian write grammatically? I am fed up with semi-literates at websites which presumably address intelligent, informed people.
To wit (first sentence): "my mother would ask my sister and I." I learned about the objective case in elementary school. This writer has yet to learn it.
A bit harsh, Michael, but that is a major pet peeve of mine as well.
I disagree. Semi-literates in this public domain deserve all the harshness they can get. Mollycoddling will not have any effect, if anything can have an effect.
Unfortunately, it seems that it may, indeed, be too much to expect. As an octogenarian university English major, I share your irritation about journalists who are careless with the use of the language on which their livelihood depends. In the cited example from the writer's article, if the words "my sister and" were removed, would she have written "...my mother would ask I" who was responsible? I think not. I suppose The Contrarian has little or no control over the content of outside articles it chooses to feature. Nevertheless, I fully agree with the premise of this commentary.
We have much in common. I, too, am an English undergraduate major as well as a Ph.D. in English. I have done a lot of teaching and know that the problem is that grammar has been scorned for so long that teachers no longer know it and thus do not teach it. The boundaries between written and oral communication have been obliterated. Semi-literacy abounds, along with defensiveness and resentment if errors are noted. The idea that precision in grammar encourages precision in thinking and communication is deemed antiquated.
In the world of Agent Orange, it's always someone else's fault.
In the world at large, very few people own up to their mistakes.
And St. Ronnie's administration keeps on giving and giving..........
Biden tried to do something about it. It’s called the Infrastructure Bill, and as I recall it got 17 Republican senators on board. This current “administration” is more worried about tearing down than building back better as Biden did. What a joke these fools have taken over our country.
So, 30 or 40 years, but the vulgarian can't come out and say, "We should have done something about this during my first term, and we didn't. We will fix it now." because nothing is ever HIS fault or responsibility. And the Republican Congress? They will blame the Democrats - even when they themselves were in charge. Duffy has his script handed to him.
“Beats me” was my childhood scapegoat.
Great post, historical clarity is needed now more than ever.
The existential working definition of responsibility is to "hold yourself as cause in the matter. " The core value that enables being responsible is integrity. Given we have an administration without integrity, we'll never have responsibility. But it's not just on the Republican side of the aisle. Democrats could stop blaming Trump and be responsible for doing something about it.
We are all in serious jeopardy from these know-nothing sycophants.