Appropriate Civility

A nice change from the rhetoric of recent years.

UPDATE: Jack Posobiec claims the article is fake, though he links to no evidence. 

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Refreshingly blunt, although I still cringe at not using the president's honorific. However, I'm not a state governor, either. I wonder if Governor DeSantis is (spiritually) related to a certain general at Bastogne?

LittleRed1

Tom said...

LR1, are you suggesting the Governor has gone "Nuts!"?

Grim said...

The proper use of titles is a part of the respect without which a political system is unworkable. Respect is a kind of honor, and all political systems are based on honor. Without respect, the system will fail.

If you go back through the archives, you’ll find that I’ve been carefully using titles especially for political figures with whom I disagree.

But respect is a two way street, and some political systems deserve to fail. A Federal government proposing to impose internal travel restrictions to override Federalism is engaged in worse disrespect; and these thieves and liars deserve none. If they can’t learn respect for all of us, they’re in no place to demand it. If that brings the system down, it’s on their heads.

David Foster said...

DeSantis is not a subordinate of the President, and while it would be courteous to use his title, Biden has no right to demand it.

I'm sorry, though, that DeSantis made the comment about vaccines and Fauci; it really undercut his position by making him look irrationally suspicious about vaccines and also propagating the theory (commonly asserted but for which I've never seen any evidence) that Fauci is somehow making $$$ from vaccines.

E Hines said...

The story is plausible for both sides of the alleged conversation. It's...interesting...though, that the author of the story provided no source for his claims, not even the mythical "person familiar with." I won't bother with the wholly unsubstantiated editorializing in which Baxter engaged as he pretended to report news.

I'm sorry, though, that DeSantis made the comment about vaccines and Fauci; it really undercut his position by making him look irrationally suspicious about vaccines

Not at all suspicious about vaccines when DeSantis said he trusted his own health officials--who are all in favor of the vaccines and of vaccination generally. I agree, though, about the claim regarding Fauci's financial incentive. The better remark here--entirely substantiated by Fauci himself--would have been how Fauci's word on anything can be trusted when he's said he lied to us all twice "for our own good?" How can DeSantis, or any of us, believe any of Fauci's claims on this telecon, assuming the telecon occurred and, if it did, assuming it's been accurately described?

Eric Hines

Texan99 said...

I'd be surprised if President Biden were dumb enough to threaten to withhold vaccines from Florida. I won't be surprised if the story proves to be fake.

The idea of ignoring Florida's good record on keeping hospitalizations and deaths low, and instead focusing on the danger that "variants" will justify further disastrous lockdowns, is unfortunately not so easy to dismiss as fake.

Grim said...

You know, it occurs to me that one exception to the rule I've followed in always using titles for politicians is Joe Biden. For years I've called him "Joltin' Joe Biden," and treated him as a figure of fun. Partly that was because he was VP for a while, a role that is rarely important; partly it's because of his habit of saying things like 'You can't walk into a convenience store there without a slight Indian accent'; partly it was the plagiarism; partly it was because of his habits of handling women and children publicly in ways that are wildly inappropriate for our current mores.

Mostly it was because of all of those things coupled with the fact that his team kept treating him as someone we should be expected to take seriously. "Joe the Six-term Senator," as McCain called him at the Al Smith dinner, contrasting him with "Joe the Plumber"; a joke, who somehow keeps being returned to positions of power.

Aggie said...

I doubt this happened for the simple reason that Joe Biden probably doesn't remember he's President. Call him 'Senator' and see what happens.

Grim said...

So far DeSantis himself hasn't denied it, but it could easily be fake.

If it's not fake, though, the most important thing that got said in the call was that he was preparing to use the National Guard to contest Federal officers attempting to enforce an internal travel ban. That's serious business. The Biden Administration would Federalize the Guard and order them to stand down, but there's just a chance they wouldn't -- and then you're at ground zero for the next civil war.

E Hines said...

So far DeSantis himself hasn't denied it, but it could easily be fake.

Some things aren't worth the dignity of denial. Plus, Real Raw News apparently began operations in 2020; it's new enough and small enough that it's possible that neither DeSantis nor anyone on his staff have seen either the article or RRN.

Eric Hines

Grim said...

Yeah, except that it got picked up by a lot of big accounts on Twitter today. DeSantis' people have almost surely seen it; they may not feel like it's worth denying, though.

E Hines said...

Well, aside from DeSantis' alleged crudity--not entirely unwarranted, IMNSHO, in the particular venue--the report, if accurate, paints him in a much better light than it does Biden--who'll cut off life saving supplies from Florida's citizens unless DeSantis bows down? Really? Sort of like terrorist hostage-taking, maybe.

Eric Hines

Texan99 said...

Whether or not the conversation is real, the new administration clearly has been flirting with the threat of sealing Florida's borders--which somehow is A-OK, even as we open up the border with Mexico. These people aren't even trying to make sense, it's all just vitriol and hysteria. Welcome to the restoration of norms after the long orange national nightmare.

Grim said...

True enough. But it does follow a clear logic. The important thing is that the populists in Florida are broken, while the megacorporations get their cheap labor. It’s about using the elected govt for transferring power from the nation and its citizens to the unelected international.

Texan99 said...

Yes, but the tone of their tweets is so much more civil now. Life is full of little trade-offs.

raven said...

OT
But somewhat relevant- The Holy Grail of bio warfare is a genetic target present in the enemy, but lacking in the aggressor population, therefore keeping the bug from boomeranging on the initiators.

Apparently the covid infection antibodies are different from the vaccine antibodies. So in theory, there may be a way to target only those who have received the vaccine, as for the first time, a potential enemy has a distinct target marker.

AFAIK, the Chinese are not using the mRNA vaccine......
Are we being set up for round 2 of a far more deadly attack?