THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY’S ICE FLOE POLITICS:

The Democratic leadership is also very old. The average age of the Democratic House leadership is 70 (compared to 53 for Republicans); Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is 80; her lieutenants Steny Hoyer and James Clyburn are 81 and 80, respectively. Senator Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is a comparatively spry 70.

The liberal mainstream media occasionally comments on the age of Democratic leaders: New York magazine lamented the “Gerontocracy of Democratic Party Leadership” back in 2016, as did The New Republic in 2019 (“The Democrats are Too Old”), but they did so as part of an effort to paint Feinstein as senile and thus incapable of doing activists’ bidding during Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings, not as a matter of general concern.

“Republicans were stealing another seat” on the high court, TNR claimed, and “Feinstein conducted the hearings as if they were occurring in a normal political environment.” She even had the temerity to hug her colleague Lindsey Graham, which was, in the liberal media’s eyes, a clear sign of senility.

In other words, Democrats prefer to ignore the age issue until it becomes useful as a justification for pushing out someone who is no longer useful to the party.

It’s a cynical tactic that will continue to create odd political moments, such as Nancy Pelosi shimmying after the passage of the recent COVID relief bill or older Democratic leaders kneeling in kente cloth in support of Black Lives Matter (and struggling to get up afterward). Those displays make older Democrats paradoxically seem less like vigorous leaders and more like advertisements for assisted living communities that strenuously highlight all of the things “active seniors” can still do.

The next time a Democratic politician makes an anonymous observation about the age or vigor of a colleague with whom they disagree, be skeptical. The remarks are made to reporters as if in sorrow, but the message is about as subtle as a shiv in the prison yard.

In 2010, Obama used that sort of language in an effort to toss fellow Democrat Charlie Rangel under the bus:

President Barack Obama has kept mum on the fate of Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) for days — but he tells CBS News that it’s time for the embattled 80-year-old former Ways and Means Chairman to end his career “with dignity.”

“I think Charlie Rangel served a very long time and served– his constituents very well. But these– allegations are very troubling,” Obama told Harry Smith in an interview to be aired on the “Early Show.” and first broadcast on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.

“And he’ll– he’s somebody who’s at the end of his career. Eighty years old. I’m sure that– what he wants is to be able to– end his career with dignity. And my hope is that– it happens.”

Rangel hung on for another six years in office, retiring at the age 86.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): AP: The progressive project of throwing Justice Breyer under the bus is real, and it’s spectacular.

WELL, THAT’S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN: Putin challenges Biden to live, public debate: ‘Without any delays and directly.’

MICROBIOME NEWS: Study may explain the microbiome-immunotherapy connection. “Cancer immunotherapy may get a boost from an unexpected direction: bacteria residing within tumor cells. In a new study published in Nature, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science and their collaborators have discovered that the immune system ‘sees’ these bacteria and shown they can be harnessed to provoke an immune reaction against the tumor.” Faster, please.

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: Mask face-off: Rand Paul spars with Dr. Fauci at Senate hearing.

During a Senate hearing, Paul, an eye doctor, questioned recommendations from health specialists that people who have the vaccine should continue to wear face coverings in public.

“You’ve been vaccinated and you parade around in two masks for show,” Paul told Fauci. “You can’t get it again there’s almost zero percent chance you’re going to get it.”

“And you’re telling people that have had the vaccine who have immunity — you’re defying everything we know about immunity by telling people to wear masks who have been vaccinated,” he continued.

“You want to get rid of vaccine hesitancy? Tell people to quit wearing their masks after they get the vaccine,” Paul added.

In response, Fauci quipped, “Here we go again with the theater.”

“Let me just state for the record that masks are not theater, masks are protective,” Fauci said.

Paul snapped back: “If you have immunity they’re theater. If you already have immunity you’re wearing a mask to give comfort to others.”

“I totally disagree with you,” Fauci responded.

Flashback: “There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask,’ infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci told 60 Minutes. While masks may block some droplets, Fauci said, they do not provide the level of protection people think they do. Wearing a mask may also have unintended consequences: People who wear masks tend to touch their face more often to adjust them, which can spread germs from their hands.”

—“Preventing coronavirus: Should you wear a face mask?”, CBS News, March 8, 2020.

CHUTZPAH ALERT: Elizabeth Warren* claims the filibuster is racist amid calls to eliminate it.

Via an Insta-reader who asks: If the filibuster is racist, why did the Democrats insist on using it so often from 2015-2021?

* No really, that Elizabeth Warren.

SHOCKING: Study: Wearable fitness trackers, step counters help users lose weight.

GOVERNMENT WORKERS? Why is it so hard to build government technology? Compare Operation Warp Speed with, say, SLS.

INMATES IN CHARGE OF THE ASYLUM: Prof undergoes mandatory training for Tupac reference. Students say that’s not enough. “A professor will undergo mandatory sensitivity training after she wrote a racial slur in an educational context.”

WHAT A GREAT LADY: Elderly San Francisco Asian Woman Gives Attacker the Street Justice He Deserves.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Home Security Layer 2: Home Improvement Tips.

JOANNE JACOBS: ‘We don’t need no education.’ “If this nation is going to spend billions of dollars on public schooling, surely we want more than day-care centers with breakfast, lunch, snacks and copies of Anti-Racist Baby.”

LIVE: ‘Five O’Clock Somewhere’ with Kruiser, Preston, VodkaPundit.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Tennessee Senate passes legislation to allow eliminate carry permits. “The bill will now be considered by the state House. It will be heard by the House Finance, Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday.”

I LIKE THE CUT OF HIS JIB: Watch Rand Paul Destroy Dr. Fauci Over Mask Wearing: ‘You Parade Around in Two Masks for Show.’

MAYBE IT COULD START BY BLOCKING CNN, MSNBC, THE WASHINGTON POST, AND THE NEW YORK TIMES: Can AI Stop People From Believing Fake News?

THE ELECTION IS OVER, BUT leftists are still going after Trump’s businesses. They’re basically just mean people. The chief attraction of their politics is that it lets them feel virtuous and important about being mean.

“CLARIFIES”: Biden tax hike could hit people earning $200K, White House clarifies.

LONGEVITY: Frailties of old age just hit some people earlier than others. Find out why and fix it.

TEXANS IN A FOUR-SHIP FORMATION: USAF pilots and students fly U.S. Navy T-6B Texan trainers in a 4-ship formation over south Texas. Photo taken March 5, 2021. This article from April 2020 discusses Tunisia’s decision to purchase the AT-6C Texan and use it as a strike and recon aircraft. The T-6 variants are inexpensive, reliable and relatively easy to maintain. Other nations have used various T-6 models as trainers and strike aircraft. An update from 2009 discussed Iraq’s purchase of T-6A and T-6B trainers, with the stated intent of equipping some for combat operations.

GOOD: Montana, Texas, 19 Other States Sue Biden for Canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline.

BEIJING’S AND MOSCOW’S BIG LIES NEVER END: Russia Joins China’s Wuhan Virus Lie Campaign

In early 2020, Chinese propagandists began blaming the U.S. for the virus. One agit-prop anti-America howler accused a U.S. Army reservist of bringing the disease to China in October 2019. China’s 2020 lie mimicked a Cold War-era Soviet KGB lie about the origin of the AIDS virus. Kremlin communists claimed U.S. biological warfare scientists created AIDS in 1973. The KGB lie appeared circa 1983. Over time, the lie mutated, as all sick gossip does. A 1986 version I read in a Southeast Asian paper claimed that the virus was engineered to kill black and brown people. In 2002, while visiting east Africa, I heard this version again.

Twenty-first-century Chinese and Russian lies have become both more pervasive and more sophisticated in targeting audiences with disinformation that seeds fear, doubt, despair, anger and confusion.

In fall 2020, China’s virus disinformation campaign added another target: Western-manufactured vaccines, particularly the U.S.-backed Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

Check it out.

DARN THAT MIES VAN DER ROHE AND HIS SEXIST SKYSCRAPERS! ‘Upward-thrusting buildings ejaculating into the sky’ – do cities have to be so sexist?

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): This sounds like Phallophobia to me. Shut up, bigots!

IT’S ABOUT TIME: Military may soon be using jet packs on the battlefield.

SHOCKING…OH WAIT: Former Pres. of Drag Queen Story Hour Fdn. and Children’s Court Judge arrested on seven counts of child porn.

SPACE JUNK: 2.9-ton battery pallet becomes largest object discharged from space station.