I Watched Biden’s Farewell Address


He didn’t spend all his time bragging on himself as Trump would have done.  He mentioned some of the good things that have happened during his administration, but that wasn’t the main part of the speech.

About ten minutes in, he started to go after the wannabe oligarchs and even briefly likened them to the late 19th century robber barons.  He warned about the rising influence of social media and its spreading of misinformation; and he warned about what he called the “tech-industrial complex” as an analogy to Eisenhower’s “military-industrial complex’.  This part was encouraging.

The next important election in the U.S., one in which you and I don’t get to vote, will happen on Saturday, Feb. 1, when the Democratic National Committee will elect their next chair.  We’ll find out then whether the Democrats will want to be a real opposition party and go after the 21st century robber barons, or if it’ll just be more of the same.  (I’m rooting for Ben Wikler who made the Wisconsin Democratic Party actually effective and who has Chuck Schumer’s endorsement at least.)

Comments

  1. Dunc says

    The other thing that strikes me as analogous with Eisenhower’s warnings about the “military-industrial complex’ is that it’s clearly too late for a mere warning. Oligarchy is not “taking shape” – that was 20 years ago. It’s now well established and firmly in charge. We don’t need to worry about “the potential rise of a tech industrial complex” when a handful of gigantic tech monopolists are have driven all the growth in the S&P500 for the last few years, and dominate nearly all aspects of day to day life for most people.

  2. Katydid says

    We had a choice this time around of “fine” and “flaming malignant dumpster fire that’s already promising to harm us that’s surrounded itself with hangers-on who have also vowed to harm us”, and a slight majority of people chose the harm.

    It doesn’t really matter what one side says and does when the other is self-deluded and suicidal and won’t hear a word unless it is spoken by their cult leader.

  3. Katydid says

    Well, sure, let’s throw a tantrum about the shade of ivory of the napkins in the staff dining table of the Titanic as it’s going down, that’s a productive use of time and energy.

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