{"id":100546,"date":"2022-03-06T19:06:26","date_gmt":"2022-03-07T00:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=100546"},"modified":"2022-03-06T19:06:42","modified_gmt":"2022-03-07T00:06:42","slug":"the-daily-gouge-archive-friday-march-4th-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=100546","title":{"rendered":"The Daily Gouge Archive, Friday, March 4th, 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s Friday, March 4th, 2022…but before we begin, upon TLJ showing us an Instagram of Pelosi’s bizarre dancing, we realized what was the scariest aspect of Biden’s State of Disunion address:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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These three complete clowns effectively control the country, and none of them have the faintest grasp about anything but accumulating personal wealth and power.\u00a0 Case in point, the following Jen Psake quote forwarded by Speed:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“We don’t have a strategic interest in reducing the global supply of energy and that would raise prices at the gas pump for the American people around the world because it would reduce the supply available. And it’s as\u00a0simple\u00a0as less\u00a0supply\u00a0raises prices, and that is\u00a0certainly\u00a0a big factor for the president at this moment. It also has the potential to pad the pockets of President Putin, which is exactly what we are not trying to do<\/em>.<\/strong>“<\/p>\n

Yet, that is, in fact, what they actually ARE and HAVE BEEN doing!!!\u00a0\u00a0Heaven help the United States of America. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, here’s The Gouge<\/em>!<\/strong><\/p>\n

First up, since we’re on the subject of 46*, in Charlie Cooke’s exceptional post-SOTU address analysis entitled…<\/strong><\/p>\n

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All the President\u2019s Incoherence<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n
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Biden\u2019s State of the Union address stayed the course of failure, delivered with nothing resembling panache or basic diction<\/span><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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…we found this piece of prose particularly notable:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“…Simply put, Joe Biden can no longer speak properly.<\/span> He slurs and mangles his words; he struggles mightily to distinguish between concepts \u2014 and contexts; his memory cannot keep up with his folksy off-script digressions, which now end with a trail-off or a pivot or an involuntary Kerouacian riff.<\/span> Unable to read or process the contents of the Teleprompter, Biden talked last night about \u201ca pound of Ukrainian people,\u201d confused \u201cUkrainian\u201d with \u201cIranian\u201d (provoking a<\/span><\/span>\u00a0mouthed correction<\/a><\/em><\/span>\u00a0from Kamala Harris), referenced \u201cother freedee loving nations,\u201d and praised the Ukrainian \u201cmall of strength.\u201d<\/span> And those<\/em><\/span> were just the highlights<\/span><\/em>.<\/span> Throughout<\/span><\/em>, Biden exhibited the talent for compressing full sentences into single words that brought us his<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>campaign-trail commitment<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/span>\u00a0to \u201ctruindenashendduvbapresser.\u201d<\/span> No wonder Nancy Pelosi looked so nervous.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

So no, there was no attempt to \u201creset his presidency,\u201d because this<\/em><\/span> is a presidency that cannot be reset<\/span><\/em>.<\/span> I spent the first year of the last administration wondering when Donald Trump would realize that this was no longer a game and consent to be shaped by his office<\/em><\/span>, before recognizing to my dismay that the answer, alas<\/span><\/em>, was \u201cnever<\/em><\/span>.\u201d<\/span> So it is with Joe Biden.<\/span> This<\/span><\/em> is who he is<\/em><\/span>, and what<\/em><\/span> his presidency will be like<\/em><\/span>.<\/span> It\u2019s not<\/em><\/span> an act or a calculation or a bout of 3D chess.<\/span> He won\u2019t change<\/em><\/span> on the advice of the wise or the circumspect.<\/span> This<\/em><\/span> is it<\/em><\/span>.<\/span> The man\u2019s an oblivious, ignorant, overconfident blowhard<\/em><\/span>.<\/span> Corrections will be brought only by the clock.<\/span><\/strong><\/span>“<\/p>\n

We’d add evil, corrupt, perverted and a sorry excuse for a human being.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since we’re on the subject of evil, corrupt, perverted sorry excuses for a human being, the WSJ<\/em>‘s Holman Jenkins explores…<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Putin Endgame<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/h1>\n

His regime is destroying itself over a fictional threat of NATO aggression<\/span><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/h3>\n

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“…I\u2019ve been wondering for weeks now how Mr. Putin can survive his Ukraine gambit. His basic bet failed a month ago, when Volodymyr Zelensky,<\/span>\u00a0Joe Biden\u00a0and Olaf Scholz refused to concede Ukraine\u2019s independence to appease the Russian dictator.<\/span> That ended any chance of an outcome that actually strengthens him.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A military victory in Ukraine now will be indistinguishable from defeat.<\/span> If Mr. Putin is sentient, he will look for ways to limit the costs of his miscalculation, which I doubt the U.S and its allies will afford him. He will have to slaughter his way to Kyiv and Western public opinion will make sure economic sanctions are a one-way ratchet.<\/span> Ukrainians will fight on and suffer more, with the consolation that a great nation is being born. (Meanwhile, if you thought China, which could have prevented all this, was ready for global responsibility, you\u2019re over that now.)<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

…Events can be momentous without meriting grandiloquent description. There can\u2019t be a new cold war because the Russia of today can\u2019t sustain a cold war.<\/span> It\u2019s not the U.S.S.R. Economically, it\u2019s not even Spain.<\/span> Operative all along hasn\u2019t been Russia\u2019s historical and geographic imperatives, but the grotty nature of the current regime. A kleptocracy is reaching its natural ending.<\/span> It couldn\u2019t create a stable governance model any more than the one-man 1970s African dictatorships it resembles. Mr. Putin\u2019s geopolitical posturing is absurd.<\/span> His regime is destroying itself<\/em><\/span> over an entirely fictional threat<\/em><\/span> of NATO aggression from Ukraine<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The sanction that might help Kremlin decision makers come to the right decision today is the truth.<\/span> Open the CIA\u2019s files about his regime\u2019s murders and thefts and bizarre corruption. Open the files about Ryazan<\/span><\/em>.<\/span> That\u2019s the city where a spate of murderous apartment-block bombings by Chechen terrorists<\/em><\/span> came to an end in 1999. They stopped after then-presidential candidate Putin\u2019s own intelligence agents were caught unloading sacks of explosive into the basement of a large apartment complex<\/em><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/strong><\/span>“<\/p>\n

In other words, these guys don’t<\/span><\/em> play nice, nor<\/em><\/span> do they play by the Marquis of Queensbury’s rules.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a second offering from\u00a0Charlie Cooke, the author cautions us to…<\/strong><\/p>\n

Beware Wishful Thinking in Evaluating the Ukraine Crisis<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/h1>\n

Manichean cheerleading alone won\u2019t win the day for the West; sober analysis of the state of play is needed, too<\/span><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/h3>\n
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<\/span>“H<\/strong><\/span><\/span>ere<\/span>\u00a0is what I would\u00a0like<\/em>\u00a0to happen in Ukraine:<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n

Outraged by Russia\u2019s aggression, armed Ukrainians in both the country\u2019s military and its spontaneously formed civilian militias are able to fight hard enough in all regions that the demoralized and confused Russian army retreats with its tail between its legs.<\/span> Appalled by the spectacle, and vowing \u201cnever again,\u201d the international community comes together to turn Russia into a pariah state \u2014 limiting its access to international institutions, weakening its economy, draining the country of talent, and making Vladimir Putin\u2019s position untenable even within his own circle. Alarmed by their vulnerability, previously unreliable nations such as Germany commit to increasing defense spending and to taking NATO more seriously.<\/span> In the West, the tales of Ukrainian bravery become the stuff of legend, and in Ukraine, President Zelensky cruises to reelection as the new symbol of national resolve. In casual conversation, \u201cZelensky\u201d and \u201cPutin\u201d become avatars of Good and Evil, while \u201cinvading Ukraine\u201d becomes colloquial shorthand for \u201cdoing something stupid.\u201d<\/span> Putin is forced out of office, and Russia reforms itself. The experiment is universally deemed to have been a failure, and we learn that, despite all odds, the world has changed substantially since the mid 20th century.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s what I\u2019d\u00a0like<\/em>\u00a0to happen. It\u2019s also what I\u2019m being led to believe, by social media and the hive that sustains it,\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0happening.<\/span> Unfortunately, I\u2019m not sure that anything ever turns out that neatly, and I\u2019m not sure that the crisis in Ukraine will, either. As a country, we would do well to remember that, and so to ask some meaningful follow-up questions beyond \u201cWhich team do we like?\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The sad truth is that \u2014\u00a0myself included, of course \u2014 we really do not know as much about what is happening in Ukraine as we\u2019d like to. Some of the things we thought we knew \u2014 that 13 soldiers<\/span>\u00a0were killed<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/span>\u00a0heroically on Snake Island; that<\/span>\u00a0a mysterious flying ace<\/a><\/em><\/span>\u00a0was downing Russian planes; that random women<\/span>\u00a0are carrying rifles<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/span>\u00a0on public transport \u2014 turned out not to be true<\/em><\/span>.<\/span> Some of the things we have simply assumed \u2014 that because Russia\u2019s invasion seems to have made slower progress than the Kremlin anticipated, the Russian military is on the verge of giving up rather than of changing tactics \u2014 are as much wishful thinking as they are analysis. And some of the things that we seem to have forgotten \u2014 that the world is full of extremely complex systems that usually cannot be altered overnight \u2014 will soon become as apparent as ever.<\/span> If Russia loses<\/em><\/span> this war, Noah Rothman\u00a0notes<\/a><\/em><\/span>\u00a0over at\u00a0Commentary<\/em>, many of the results will be \u201cof material benefit to the West\u201d \u2014 but also<\/em><\/span> \u201cextremely dangerous.\u201d As the ultimate stewards of our government, we would profit from ensuring that our national conversation covers these specifics as much as it is covering the generalities<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span>…”<\/p>\n

Put another way, forewarned is forearmed.\u00a0 And, given all the misinformation flowing from a variety of fake news outlets out there, we need all the facts we can gather.\u00a0 Unfortunately, in this case, it pains us to include Tucker in the sources of fake news, as Mr. Carlson attempts to avoid his culpability:<\/strong><\/p>\n