The Biden Presidency

Metrics

Easy metrics to follow:

• China flu:
• vaccinations given
• in round numbers, on day of inauguration:
• total doses distributed: 40 million
• total number of doses given: 17 million
• three major indices; all three set all-time records on day he was inaugurated; closing:
• Dow: 31,188
  
• S&P 500: 3,852
  
• NASDAQ: 13,457
  
• atmospheric CO2: link here --
  
• December, 2020: 413.95
• gasoline: 
• price of gasoline, using EIA data at this link:
• 1/18/21: $2.464 / gallon
• gasoline demand: 
• 1/8/21: 7.6 million bbls / day, using EIA data at this link;
  
• MacDonald's, as tracked at this link:
• Big Mac: $3.99
• Misery index: wikipedia;
  
• Misc
• the average rent for an apartment in Albany, NY, at this link; $1,299 (last updated Jan 2021)

Reparations

President Biden: "environmental justice"
Janet Yellen: if there is one constant theme being voice by Janet Yellen, it's "reparations";
NY Times: link here;
Words matter: watch for articles discussing "equal, equity, equitable, and equality";

Thoughts

A reader asked me my thoughts on President Biden:

For all the anxiety Trump caused his detractors, it appears that Biden is a much more dangerous president: vindictive, capricious, extreme ideologue, a puppet, ignorant, a reptile in action, a dinosaur in thinking.

Although I really don't know how dinosaurs thought. I would have said "Neanderthal" but that would have been dissing the Neanderthals who were probably brighter than we think.

For those who were worried about Trump having the "nuclear code" they should be much more concerned with Biden having the "nuclear code."

I can't cite the source (for obvious reasons), but this is the password for the nuclear code that Trump kept in his pocket:

"as76%^4749&^aBC"

This is Biden's:

"password"

When push comes to shove, his advisors will tell Biden to type in the password and he will comply.

Updates

February 12, 2021: Biden has shown that he is more dangerous than Goldwater + Nixon + Trump all put together. 

February 2, 2021: under Trump, the "vaccine" was questionable, might not protect against variants, not thoroughly tested; under Biden, the "vaccine" just keeps getting better and better. 

January 20, 2021: a not-ready-for-prime-time reply to a reader regarding the state of the union with regard to the Biden presidency:

You mentioned earlier about the price of gasoline.

I've actually become quite cynical about the whole thing.

We now know we can drill our way to lower gasoline prices, but if the price of gasoline rises to $5.00/gallon in California, that's their problem. If they want/like $5.00 gasoline in California then that's fine with me.

It was huge for me to see that, yes, we (the US) could become energy independent, control our own destiny, have affordable energy, but if Californians want to go in another direction I no longer have a dog in that fight.

There's too much to enjoy in life to worry about such things.

It will be fascinating to watch if gasoline does trend toward $5.00 / gallon in California and how politicians / press respond to that. But as for me, I no longer care. What was important to me was just knowing we could do it. Like getting a man on the moon: getting there the first time was huge, but then the bureaucrats took over and the program never interested me much any more after that.

That's also true for pipelines. I no longer care. Shut down all pipelines if they want. All I wanted to see was whether we could do it, and it's obvious we could with the right leadership. But if New York wants to shut down their pipelines, that's fine with me. Texas will go its own way. It may become "blue" -- I expect it will but that doesn't bother me either. It's becoming less and less "blue" vs "red" and more and more "the elites" vs the "rest," or the "haves" vs the "have-nots." The gap will widen regardless, and there seems to be as many "elites" and "haves" in "red" states as in "blue" states. It appears the wealthiest men and women in the US are all Democrats. That speaks volumes.

Now, what fascinates me is if we really can pivot to EVs. There's a huge amount of infrastructure that needs to be put in place in a relatively short period of time. The cars are the easy part. Every auto maker (and computer companies -- Microsoft, Apple) are making EVs. It will be interesting to see the infrastructure that will be needed.

January 20, 2021: This is a great essay on why Trump lost; why he almost won. Over at the Claremont Review of Books. It may be behind a paywall. If so, it's too bad. They should make this available to everyone.

January 13, 2021: the US House voted for the second time asking the US Senate to determine whether President is guilty of specific charges with regard to "his supporters" storming the Capitol last week. I have real trouble with GOP House minority leader voting the way he did after his speech in the House. 

January 11, 2021: the whole twitter - Trump story is childish. Having said that, how is Trump missing the obvious? There is so much going on in the world, all he has to do is call his favorite reporter -- print or television -- doesn't matter and give that reporter a teaser: "If I had a media outlet, I would update Americans on the Mideast." "If I had a media outlet, I would update Americans on our plans to hit Iran if Israel needs back-up." "And, oh, by the way, I have completed my second to last list of pardons. Because of the risk of inciting more violence, I've issued an executive order to keep the pardons "confidential" until after January 20, 2021." "I'm working on my final list of pardons; it's quite a list; it will be released 11:30 a.m. January 20, 2021." Any of those, would give Trump immediate exposure. Reporters everywhere would be demanding Trump be allowed to post that information. 

January 10, 2021: to what extent this is true, I don't know. But I would love to hear Trump, Giuliani, Mo Brooks, Josh Hawley deny they said these things or did these things. 

January 10, 2021: at this level, politics is very, very ugly and very, very real. This is a chance for VP Pence to make incredible history. He has morality and "higher ground" on his side. He has to be asking himself: does he remain loyal to his boss, or does he remain loyal to the country? For me, this is not a difficult decision. He needs to be looking at the history books that haven't been written yet. Will history judge him harshly regardless of which decision he makes? I don't think so. I think one decision propels him into "Profiles In Courage," the other decision relegates him to an asterisk, at best.

December 13, 2020: tea leaves suggest mainstream media will push Joe Biden under the bus by the end of 2021; actual regime change, Biden out, Harris in; might not take place until early 2022. [Later, January 10 2021: no longer true; after the Capitol was stormed, Biden was seen as the last elder statesman.]

Original Post

I did this for the Trump presidency, and to some extent the Obama presidency. Now the Biden presidency. 

This will be linked at the sidebar at the right. This will be for the archives, to track the next chapter in US history.

The entire Biden presidency can be summed up in four words: Back to the Past. 

Obama will be running the show from the shadows. 

Expect more fireworks:

• in the Mideast
• Joe Biden will be starting his administration of with "no"troops in Iraq or Afghanistan; Trump will bring them home by January 15, 2021;
• Biden can recall Valerie Jarrett to provide advice on the Mideast
  
• Taiwan: this is China's best opportunity to "Hong Kong" Taiwan
• North Korea: has had four years to work on its rockets; unlikely to let an opportunity like a Biden-Harris administration go to waste;
  

Expect lots of social engineering:

• and it won't be all bad -- let's start with $50K student debt relief; is this any different than bailing out the airlines? or pre-packaged Bakken bankruptcies?

Monetary / fiscal policy:

• back to Janet Yellen 

20/20 hindsight on Trump:

• he could have and should have done more;