From 1986 TNR: Shut Up Senator Biden!

March 2, 2020, Brit Hume tweeted:

My article on Joe Biden as he was about to run for president 33 years ago, in which I told him he’s a “windbag.” He took that with good humor. I think it’s a balanced piece, though the editor promoted it on the cover with the line: “Shut up Senator Biden.”

I remember that essay. It shook me up that a national political correspondent for ABC News could write something so lively. It left an indelible profession. I never forgot the headline. It has been the primary prism through which I understand Joe Biden and it has never been refuted.

Another TNR article that stick in my memory from this time was on the idiocy of urban life and then a rejoinder on the idiocy of rural life.

Here are some excerpts:

the rhetorical fervor of his stump speeches and debating style have earned him the reputation of a man whose mouth often runs—and runs, and runs—well ahead of his mind.

Indeed, Biden gives the impression of utter spontaneity. It is an uncommon and in some ways charming quality, but it frequently gets him into trouble in the Senate.

… when he first learned this article had been commissioned, to a reporter not known, as his longtime press secretary Pete Smith put it, “as one of Biden’s greatest fans,” the senator telephoned the editor in chief of this magazine and tried to have the assignment called off. When that failed, he at first refused to sit for an interview, agreeing only to a preliminary informal chat over coffee, after which he would decide whether to cooperate. “I just want to find out why you don’t like me,” he said at the beginning of that chat in the Senate dining room. It was an awkward and extraordinary conversation, in which Biden finally asked if the reporter harbored any “deep personal antipathy.” He was assured that there was none. “Then what is it you don’t like?” he asked. “Senator,” came the reluctant reply, “I think you’re a windbag.” Biden seemed greatly relieved, laughed, and said he thought there was truth to that. He agreed to cooperate fully.

Biden has long had a considerable reputation among Capitol Hill reporters for enjoying the sound of his own voice. On the first day of the highly publicized confirmation hearing of Alexander Haig as secretary of state, for example, Biden took his entire first turn—ten minutes—to ask a single question, and when he was finished it was unclear what the question was. Everyone laughed, Biden included. In another Foreign Relations hearing a year later, he went on at such length late in a long session that broadcast correspondents at the press table fashioned a white flag from a napkin and a microphone pole and waved it in the air. The chairman, Charles Percy, howled with laughter, as did Democrat Alan Cranston. Biden seemed not to notice. Reminded of the incident, Biden said he knew he had a tendency to go on too long but had now curbed it.

… the impression of Biden as a man who does much of his thinking out loud and sometimes has difficulty figuring out what he thinks. And that, ultimately, is the most enduring impression Biden leaves. It suggests that a Biden campaign for the presidency would be colorful, newsworthy, and, unlike his oratory, brief.

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Decoding Unlimited Intimacy (6-5-24)

01:00 New fungus attacking gay men, https://nypost.com/2024/06/05/lifestyle/new-sexually-transmitted-fungal-infection-detected-in-nyc/
02:00 Unlimited Intimacy: Reflections on the Subculture of Barebacking, https://www.amazon.com/Unlimited-Intimacy-Reflections-Subculture-Barebacking/dp/0226139395
05:00 Video: How I Treated HPV – Full Timeline
16:30 WHO recommends gay and bisexual men limit their sexual partners amid the Monkeypox outbreak
18:30 Why Are Gay Men at Greater Risk for HIV?
28:00 The secrets of the Stasi, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/06/03/piecing-together-the-secrets-of-the-stasi
32:20 WSJ: Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping, https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/joe-biden-age-election-2024-8ee15246?mod=hp_lead_pos7
37:00 When whites are the other, objects rather than subjects, https://www.aporiamagazine.com/p/the-white-man-has-no-friends
1:01:30 Donald Trump is asked about his relationship with God
1:03:40 WSJ: Biden’s Border Election Gambit, https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-biden-border-executive-order-immigration-b1d681f8?mod=opinion_feat1_editorials_pos1
1:06:30 WP: Rep. Byron Donalds says Black families were stronger during Jim Crow era, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/05/byron-donalds-black-families-jim-crow/
1:09:00 Black economist points out the black family was stronger under Jim Crow, https://www.nvdaily.com/nvdaily/walter-e-williams-blacks-of-yesteryear-and-today/article_054c3856-c5b0-5c29-943d-112307d2e072.html
1:11:00 Hakeem Jeffries LIES About Byron Donalds “Jim Crow” Comments!
1:12:00 Dr Delgado’s anti-White scholarship, https://www.aporiamagazine.com/p/dr-delgados-anti-white-scholarship
1:13:50 The Coming Race War: And Other Apocalyptic Tales of America after Affirmative Action and Welfare by Richard Delgado, https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Race-War-Apocalyptic-Affirmative/dp/0814718779
1:18:00 What Is Critical Race Theory?, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Zy6DQoRYQw
1:22:10 Is Fascism Right Or Left?, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6bSsaVL6gA
1:23:40 ‘2000 Mules’ distributor pulls the plug on election conspiracy movie, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azG5AeiITVc
1:29:45 TOTAL SHAM! Conservative Studio FORCED to Retract 2000 Mules!, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pDFPrBsBFY
1:31:50 WP: Israeli detention center faces legal challenge after ‘unimaginable abuses’, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/06/05/sde-teiman-israel-detention-palestinian-detainees/
1:33:20 WSJ: Psychiatrist Henry Jarecki Says Relationship With Epstein Accuser Was Consensual, https://www.wsj.com/us-news/psychiatrist-henry-jarecki-says-relationship-with-epstein-accuser-was-consensual-30b21790
1:36:00 FT: Nationalism threatens the world order, https://on.ft.com/4ca1HDI

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Decoding The Lab Leak (6-4-24)

01:00 Three anecdotes
07:00 Unlike the fall of 2000, Republican legal elites are lined up behind Trump
13:20 Steve Sailer says this is his best interview, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fitLTIwao3Y
16:20 Women questioning their sexuality, https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/television/am-i-ok-review-dakota-johnson-tig-notaro-max-7ec20ba2?mod=arts-culture_lead_pos2
18:30 Joe Biden’s border crackdown
29:00 Paul Gottfried talks to Joseph Cotto about the Trump conviction, https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1rmGPMgEnydJN
31:00 The Atlantic: Pat McAfee and the Threat to Sports Journalism, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/05/pat-mcafee-threat-sports-journalism/678480/
33:45 Why are the experts arguing for natural origins of Covid?
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/06/03/opinion/covid-lab-leak.html
1:05:45 Alina Chan on the lab leak, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC-eQmzZnqM
1:28:00 Elliott Blatt joins to discuss the lab leak
1:46:40 Republicans have lined up behind Trump regarding his felony convictions

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Decoding Reactions to the Trump Conviction (6-3-24)

01:00 Young men looking for a fight
05:00 One moron destroys the public space
08:00 Caitlin Clark getting pounded by the lesbian WNBA
17:45 Why is the left more effective than the right?
21:30 ‘War will break out’ | Alan Dershowitz reacts to Trump’s felony
23:30 Pride month in the U.S. military
54:00 The Unprotected Class: How Anti-White Racism Is Tearing America Apart by Jeremy Carl, https://www.aporiamagazine.com/p/call-it-anti-white-racism-jeremy
1:46:00 The devastating impact of disparate impact ruling and legislation
https://www.vox.com/world-politics/353134/israel-gaza-rafah-argument
https://www.richardhanania.com/p/how-maga-enables-corruption
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-attack-intelligence.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/03/opinion/mexico-new-president-violence.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/03/us/politics/medicaid-reenrollment-black-hispanic.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/03/world/americas/mexico-election-morena-results.html
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-06-03/do-you-return-your-shopping-cart-this-psycologists-answer-enraged-thousands
How is the Trump trial different from Watergate? It wasn’t televised live. https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=143174
https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/is-israel-defensible/
The naked state, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=140282
https://www.latimes.com/la-influential/story/2024-06-02/the-creators
Science Envy in Theories of Religion, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=155267
Max Weber and the Two Universities, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=155263

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Decoding The Trump Conviction, Ukraine, Israel, Science, Liberalism, Academy (6-2-24)

01:00 Liberal catharsis after law does what politics can’t — constrain Trump, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NweVBH_QLtg
07:00 Male sex drive is stronger than the female sex drive, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/15/well/family/sex-myths.html,
21:00 More Americans identify as Republican than Democrat
31:00 Robert Barnes on the Donald Trump Conviction, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB0UtOpoq8A
37:00 Hitler and Abductive Logic: The Strategy of a Tyrant, https://www.amazon.com/Hitler-Abductive-Logic-Strategy-Tyrant/dp/0739194615
40:00 Science Envy in Theories of Religion, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=155267
Is a Second Civil War INEVITABLE?, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCogKGV2NDw
The Axis of Chaos, with Matt Pottinger, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBhL1kV1EeQ
Prof. John Mearsheimer on the Israel Lobby’s Grip on U.S. Politics, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKXSReKRWaQ
Hypervigilance and diversity, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py0lBpkSyHM
Secure attachment, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTd6SyKLFH4
Why Civilisations Collapse Into Dust, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTd6SyKLFH4

01:00 My livestream keeps getting shutting down after I make a point about politicians and public officials lying
03:00 The Axis of Chaos, with Matt Pottinger, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBhL1kV1EeQ
11:45 Israel enters Rafah
15:00 How do RW academics make it? Should they diversify to podcasts?
18:00 Prof. John Mearsheimer on the Israel Lobby’s Grip on U.S. Politics, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKXSReKRWaQ
25:00 Vali Nasr: Iran, Israel, and America’s Future in the Middle East | Foreign Affairs Interview, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVM0HRx5Wss
36:00 Christopher Caldwell: Is Israel Defensible? The cruel geostrategic logic of the Holy Land, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=155305
55:00 Unanswered Threats: Political Constraints on the Balance of Power by Randall Schweller, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=155281
1:02:00 CRITICAL THINKING – Fundamentals: Abductive Arguments, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vflZuk-_Hz4
1:09:00 Max Weber and the Two Universities, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=155263
1:13:50 Why Civilisations Collapse Into Dust, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTd6SyKLFH4
1:20:20 Sometimes dictatorship is the most effective way to get things done
1:28:00 NYT: Extremely Inappropriate, A Show That Makes Young Japanese Pine for the ‘Inappropriate’ 1980s, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/29/world/asia/japan-extremely-inappropriate.html
1:35:00 The naked state, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=140282
2:04:00 Young men tilt conservative
2:15:20 Is a Second Civil War INEVITABLE?, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCogKGV2NDw
2:30:40 Big Tech Bans Alex Jones, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id4C9k06jcs
2:32:00 Elliott Blatt joins
2:50:00 The dissident right has become tedious
3:11:45 The adaptive use of illness and depression
3:18:00 Colds v flu, https://www.cdc.gov/flu/symptoms/coldflu.htm
2:29:40 Big Tech Bans Alex Jones, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id4C9k06jcs
3:33:25 The Atlantic: Why Is Charlie Kirk Selling Me Food Rations?, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/05/charlie-kirk-podcast-ads/678450/
3:35:00 The Long Con by Rick Pearlstein, https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-long-con

Posted in America | Comments Off on Decoding The Trump Conviction, Ukraine, Israel, Science, Liberalism, Academy (6-2-24)