Schumers Spin is a Dance Around Biden's Mental Acuity

I get it. Politicians have a knack for speaking in a way that only politicians can. It's either in their DNA, or they undergo a rigorous orientation upon taking office, complete with courses on the art of "communication."

How to dodge questions while appearing to answer them. How to create the illusion of transparency. How to lie convincingly and make it seem like you're being truthful. How to craft intricate riddles that no one can truly solve, yet make you sound ingenius.

It is literally an art form.

Remember when Chuck Schumer and his fellow Democrats dismissed claims about Biden's mental acuity as right wing conspiracies? Then came that infamous debate performance, leaving Democrats visibly stunned.

"Oh, God. We can't possibly spin this anymore. Can we?"

They couldn't spin it anymore. The writing was on the wall, clear as day. But to be fair, they're still dodging the question, doing their best to find creative ways to deny the truth. This was evident once again when Chuck Schumer was recently asked on Meet the Press if he felt he misled the American people with his comments.

He didn't answer the question. Instead, he rambled on about Biden's "record," his supposed accomplishments, claiming he achieved more than any other president in history, and highlighting achievements that marked a very successful presidency. 

Beyond none of that being true, it was a relatively simple question. "Did you and the Democrat party mislead the American people about President Joe Biden's health?" Of course, answering that question truthfully would have posed another important question that no one really wants to address.

If Joe Biden's mental acuity was in decline, then who was making the decisions? Who was truly running the country? And whoever that was, how much power did they amass in Biden's mental absence? Could they have controlled Harris? Were they controlling Harris? Was she merely a Manchurian candidate?

During Trump's first term, without any doubt, he posed an existential threat to The Establishment. Were Joe Biden and Kamala Harris the ultimate opportunity for them to reaffirm and cement their power indefinitely?

Conspiratorial, I admit. Crazy? Maybe. Possible? You never know. But I digress.

When Chuck Schumer skillfully dodged the question, the follow-up might have been even more revealing. "Do you believe Biden could have served another four years?" Schumer's response was that he didn't want to speculate. For all intents and purposes, that's a no, which circles back to the original question.

If Joe Biden wasn't in mental decline, why did he debate performance essentially seal the deal for calls for him to drop out of the race? If he was fit to lead, wouldn't that have outweighed the impact of the debate? And if it were true that he wasn't experiencing any mental decline at all, and it was nothing more than a bad night at the podium, why couldn't that be easily conveyed after the debate to change the Democrat's minds?

I understand Chuck Schumer's going to speak like he does. He's seasoned. The real question is whether the American people buy his answer, and I believe the answer is no. Beyond that, if the Democratic party continues to blatantly mislead the American people and dodge the truth, how will they ever restore the trust they lost in the last election?

Not that I'm rooting for them to do that, mind you. I'm just making an observation and asking, what else were they hiding?

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© 2025 Jim Bauer

Biden Blocks Nippon Steel Deal: The Uncertain Future of U.S. Steel and Granite City Works

Driving through the streets of Granite City, Illinois, you might notice that the city appears a bit worn down. This is largely due to the presence of the steel mill, Granite City Works, which is part of U.S. Steel, and SunCoke Energy, a separate entity, both of which involve demanding and gritty work environments. However, despite their rugged nature, and the fact that driving past these facilities is quite a bit of an eyesore, these operations play a crucial role in holding the community together.

Without these industries, Granite City might risk becoming a ghost town.

It's no secret that U.S. Steel has faced several financial challenges, putting Granite City Works in jeopardy. Even as negotiations with Nippon Steel to acquire U.S. Steel for an estimated $14.9 billion were underway, Nippon pledged to enhance steel mills in Gary, Indiana and Pittsburgh. However, they remained silent about their plans for Granite City.

In 2023, the plant had to shut down its only operational blast furnace, resulting in layoffs. Additionally, there have been other temporary layoffs and shutdowns, leaving unions frustrated and workers uncertain about their job security. 

These jobs are well-paying, with the average worker earning around $75,000 a year, and certainly these are important, family supporting wages. That's something any community wants to keep around. At one time, about 900 people were employed there. But recent cuts in production and layoffs have reduced that number to around 300.

Typically, if there's an opportunity for new leadership to bring in innovative ideas and operational efficiencies, potentially increasing profitability and securing jobs, people would support the sale. However, steel is different. It's a critical resource for national security, making it understandable that selling to a foreign company could pose certain risks.

Even the unions preferred the initial offer from American based Cleveland Cliffs over Nippon Steel's, despite it being half of what Nippon ultimately offered. This was true even while Cleveland Cliffs never provided details about its plans for any of the U.S. Steel mills involved in the transaction.

President Joe Biden ultimately blocked the deal, and incoming President-Elect Donald Trump likely would have done the same, as he said as much on the campaign trail. Personally, I support the decision for the same reasons they cited.

National security.

The question becomes, are we in a damned if we do, damned if we don't situation? U.S. Steel continues to face financial difficulties, and regardless of the outcome of the Nippon Steel deal, the company will still need to make decisions in its best interest. This means that even if we prioritize national security interests, it doesn't guarantee that the workers at Granite City Works will be better off with a sale to either Cleveland Cliffs or Nippon Steel.

Moreover, if U.S. Steel cannot fix its problems, mills will potentially have to be closed anyway, or even the entire company could cease to exist—defeating the purpose of blocking the Nippon Steel deal anyway for national security interests to protect a valuable commodity. 

This raises the question, should the federal government step in and offer assistance, similar to the bailout provided to automakers? Unlike the financial issues faced by automakers, if the government's decision to block the deal creates additional hardships for the company, does it have an obligation to provide some support?

It's reminiscent of the Covid shutdowns mandated by governors and mayors. If the government decides to close business' doors, regardless of the reasons or the societal impact, offering relief seems like a reasonable thing to do. These businesses did not make decisions to close on their own. They were forced to operate under government directives rather than according to their best interests, and unable to make decisions on their own how to operate within the environment they were in.

While I generally do not support government intervention, I believe a case can be made for a situation like the one regarding U.S. Steel. If the goal is to protect an essential commodity, then we must take steps to also ensure its protection.

Moreover, amid all this uncertainty, I think the workers of Granite City Works, and all of U.S. Steel's mills, deserve some clarity about their futures. The people of Granite City also deserve transparency, as decisions made could have long-lasting impacts on their community. High paying jobs like those at Granite City Works are crucial—they are part of the glue that keeps the city whole.

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© 2025 Jim Bauer

American Manufacturing Is About More Than Just Jobs
Bringing back American manufacturing is critical to American society in more ways than just economic ones. In order for America to succeed it needs the ability to make things, not only for the stability and good jobs it provides, but for national security as well.

From Rejection to Reelection: What Changed?

I don't want to rehash my thoughts on the unresolved questions surrounding the 2020 election results. However, there are questions worth exploring without necessarily having to dive directly into the big question. If Joe Biden won the election in 2020, and we have no real evidence to prove otherwise at this point, Joe Biden's election was essentially a rejection of Trump, right?

Without any evidence to suggest otherwise, that's all we can go with. Despite Trump's numerous achievements—unless you ask Democrats, who are deeply riddled with Trump Derangement Syndrome—there was apparently something about Trump that didn't sit well enough with voters to give him a second term.

Until now, of course. Trump's reelection was clearly a decisive rejection of Biden. Or at least, voters rejected his agenda. Biden conceded his nomination to Harris after that abysmal debate performance, which confirmed what the right had been saying all along that the left vehemently denied.

Joe Biden was suffering a serious mental decline.

And what was the agenda laid out by Kamala Harris on the campaign trail? Basically, it was Joe Biden part two with some extra liberal policy thrown in for good measure.

So, one has to ask. What just happened here? How did we come full circle?

Did Trump's stage presence or demeanor change? No. Did he offer different policies than those in his first term? No. Is his vision for America different this time? No. Are the prospects for America's future different than they were at the end of his first term? No. 

So, if it wasn't good enough then, why did voters sing his praises so decisively now? What changed? Aside from Biden's abysmal term in office, which sent the country backwards 40 years with skyrocketing gas and energy prices, inflation through the roof, and the world at war. What happened?

Did voters see the light and have a change of heart? Did we suddenly realize a colossal mistake? When we look back at Biden's election, we're not talking about small numbers. He received 81 million votes, the highest number of votes a president has ever been elected with in American history. In that context, voters' rejection of Trump was equally on a historical level we've never seen before.

Granted, it makes his comeback quite remarkably historic as well, all things considered.

It would be one thing if Trump's presidency would have been laden with disasters and failures. But that wasn't the case. So, are we to presume Trump was rejected simply because people didn't like him, despite his highly successful policies? Is that why people came out to vote in such high numbers?

Let's not discount the fact that Trump's popularity did not wane. In fact, it grew by 11 million votes. That's right. Trump got 11 million more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016—a feat that, for any president before him, would have guaranteed a second term without question.

I will grant that in the beginning, we may have had doubts about Trump's running again. For a while Ron DeSantis seemed to be the Knight in Shining Armor to save us. But his popularity quickly waned, and before you knew it, Trump was front and center again. 

This, despite all the added baggage thrown into the muck pile by the media, the left, and the courts, indicting him with anything they could find, trying to slice and dice him the court of public opinion, even convicting him. 

Trump's reelection almost forces us to believe, once again, something the left has vehemently denied. That the election was stolen. Trump never wavered from that belief. He continued to say it on the campaign trail, even telling the American people to make sure 2024 was too big to rig. And as the American people watched the Trump drama unfold before their eyes, it almost seems to suggest, considering his win, that more people agree with Trump about the possibility of a stolen election than disagree with him. 

Something was up. Even if we can't point directly at what that something was. It's there. Lurking in the shadows. Especially when you consider that, again, Trump never lost popularity once throughout any of this. 

He got 62.9 million votes in 2016. He got 74.2 million votes in 2020. And he won with 77.2 million votes in 2024. Regardless of what the truth is here, the only question I have is, how did Biden ever win in the first place against a man whose support has only been on an upward trend since day one?

Really. I am truly asking. What changed?

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© 2024 Jim Bauer

The Chicken Gadget You Didn't Know You Needed

It's chicken taco or burrito night, so what's the plan? Typically, I boil some boneless, skinless chicken breasts and use a couple of forks to shred them in a bowl. I bet that's how most people do it, unless they have some fancy meat shredders. But hey, I'm all about simplicity, so forks work just fine for me.

Introducing the latest must have kitchen gadget: the chicken shredder. 

A wise businessman once told me, "You can sell anything to anyone if you can convince them they need it." It seems obvious, right? Remember that funny Far Side cartoon where the salesman in a boat waved goodbye to Eskimos he just sold refrigerators to? 

I worked in sales myself and was quite successful at it. I always understood the power of a good gimmick, even though I was selling business-to-business products that were genuinely essential to their success. We weren't selling anything nobody else had. I just had to convince the customer I was the guy to buy it from.

So, a gadget just for shredding chicken? Really? I guess, why not. People have all sorts of kitchen gadgets that promise to make life easier. Imagine the thoughts someone had when they saw the first blender invented.

You have to hand it to the inventor. Perhaps he (or she) was like me, using forks to shred their chicken and thought, "There must be a better, easier way to do this." Ah, the mother of all inventions, right? Because as it turns out, this simple gadget is flying off the shelves faster than hotcakes at an IHOP.

Okay, that was a stupid joke, but since I'm not trying to win any comedy awards, I'm just going with it, thank you very much.

I would not call this gadget necessarily necessary, yet at the same time I can see why it would have any appeal at all. It's a unique way to shred chicken, and perhaps if someone suffers with arthritis, this would certainly be an easier way to accomplish the task than with just forks, or even a fancy meat shredder.

My wife and I like to make taco salads often, and lots of times we opt for shredded chicken to cook up with some taco seasoning to put in them. We like making crunchy taco bowls out of flour tortillas that we put in taco bowl forms, bake, and are absolutely awesome and delicious.

Now, there's an invention.

But with that being said, because we use shredded chicken often enough for a variety of dishes we enjoy, as silly as this gadget seems to me, considering it does something I can already do pretty easily, maybe it would still be worth trying.

Besides, for a mere $10, it's not like we'd be out much.

The author of this post fully admits this is a sad attempt to write about a product complete with several Amazon links in the hopes some sales may occur. That being said, it is also intended to be tongue in cheek, for whatever that's worth, and just for fun, and to afford readers a short departure from the usual, more serious political rants and fare found here. But of course, clicking on a link and buying any of the products highlighted here also helps to bring in a little extra dough to keep the content coming, and is greatly appreciated. 

© 2024 Jim Bauer

Trump's Victory May Be a Turning Point for Democrats

The war is over. But which war, you ask? The relentless battle between the Democratic party and Donald Trump that began the moment he descended the escalator at Trump Tower to announce his presidential run.

It's over. Finally. After a long and tumultuous struggle, it's no more. The American people have spoken, and the result is crystal clear. The Democrats did not win anything, and there's no question about the popular vote.

Trump won it all. The Republican party won it all.

This isn't meant to gloat, but to highlight an important takeaway for the Democrats: their policies simply aren't resonating with the public. Their role isn't just to push an agenda, but to support the wishes and best interests of the people they serve.

That means it's time to get back to work. While it's naive to think that all infighting will cease just because the war is over, Democrats still want to win elections. It's been made clear they can't achieve that by pushing agendas that are unpopular.

This isn't to suggest I am suddenly rooting for Democrats. It's simply to say that there needs to be a realization on the part of the Democratic party that too much time has been wasted. We have myriad problems that need solving, and the American people have made it clear what those problems are. The only solution is to get to work on those issues and make them the primary focus.

In other words, it's time for the Democrats to support the Republican agenda and work to accomplish what the American people have clearly mandated.

The idea that some Democrats feel the need to double down seems both counterintuitive and counterproductive. They had their chance to present their case and deliver results, but the American people rejected it. As I have become fond of saying lately, "If you don't know why you lost, you can't know why you weren't winning." If they continue to push policies that costs them elections, how can they expect to win future ones?

This likely means we will actually see less infighting and less resistance to Trump's agenda and Republican initiatives. Democrats should closely monitor how the American people respond to what gets passed, and act accordingly.

Isn't that the essence of representative government? To represent the interest of The People, not to impose the values of those in power. Trump won because he promised to do what Americans want to see done.

Think of it this way; a body shop won't satisfy a customer by painting their car blue when they asked for red. Similarly, you won't make the American people happy by pushing policies that the Democrats want but the People don't.

Some Democrats are already shifting their stance on their own issues or are at least softening their opposition to Trump, with many saying, "It's time to get on with things and support the decision of the American people."

Interestingly, Senator John Fetterman, who it alarms me a bit to say, I find myself agreeing with more often than I might care to admit, on a variety of issues, happens to be one of those Democrats saying, "We need to support this president."

This isn't to suggest that the road ahead will be a smooth one. There will still be those who want to continue the fight. However, the path forward has never been clearer. Democrats who want to stay in favor and win elections will need to adapt and focus on moving the country forward, rather than steering it towards a direction the People have clearly rejected.

The People have become weary of the constant fighting. They're exhausted by a media they no longer trust to deliver honest news. They're tired of being told what to believe or being called names if they disagree. They're tired of being told how good things are when clearly things are bad. What they want are sensible policies that honor the values and traditions that made America great. 

Things have become too radical recently. People are ready to move forward, make the country great again, and restore it to one they can more easily recognize. Now that the war is over, we have a much better chance of achieving that. I believe the more thoughtful Democrats understand this too. If they only continue to fight the will of The People, they risk losing their place in office.

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© 2024 Jim Bauer