Two white-haired septuagenarians paired off in cage match in Washington, DC on Sunday night. Their outlandish pandering and promises while proposing nothing but federal government “solutions” for every problem was difficult to absorb. These guys are socialists to the bone; Bernie is overtly so while Biden practices “stealth socialism” and won’t admit what he really is. Parts I and II of my analysis and commentary can be found here. Let’s get going.

Bernie Sanders went after Joe Biden on the topic of Biden’s past public support for cuts in Social Security (there are a number of Youtube videos of Biden on the Senate floor for proof). Biden played rope-a-dope and fudged his way out of the argument without ever admitting he supported those cuts by claiming that “everything was on the table” during annual budget negotiations, but that he “never really supported the cuts.”

Sensing that Biden had sustained a blow from Bernie, CNN moderator Dana Bash came to Biden’s rescue by asking this question of Sanders: “I want to ask you about something that you wrote in 1996. You were a member of the House, and you wrote an op-ed that said, ‘It is clear we will have to make incremental adjustments in Social Security, taxes and benefits.’ Why are your past comments any less relevant than the vice president’s?”

Bernie responded: Incremental adjustments are what I advocated. Adjustments that I advocated and have advocated for years, is among other things, increasing the cost of living assistance. No, you’re not going to find me ever calling for cuts to Social Security. Right now for example, we determine COLAs by looking at inflation for the general population rather than segregating the higher costs that seniors are paying for prescription drugs and for healthcare. That’s what I was talking about.

Me: Dana Bash was able to fuzz up the issue because Bernie’s explanation had nothing to do with that 1996 quote, in which the “adjustments” amount to “cuts” just as Bash stated.

Then Bernie and Biden went after each other on who voted for what bills in the past, some of which are big deals among Democrat identity groups in 2020. Here is what they said as they talked past each other without addressing any of the points each made in the “debate”:

Bernie: Gay marriage today is considered a little bit differently than it was 25 years ago. I remember that vote. It was a very hard vote. I voted against the Defense of Marriage Act. You voted for it. I voted against the Bankruptcy Bill. You voted for it. I voted against the war in Iraq, which was also a tough vote. You voted for. I voted against disastrous trade agreements like NAFTA and PNT all with China, which costs this country over four million good paying jobs. You voted for it. I voted against the Hyde Amendment, which denies low income women the right to get an abortion. You have consistently voted for it.

Biden: We can argue about the past and the future. This man voted against the Brady Bill five times. Background checks, background checks. Five times, number one. Number two, this man is the only… one of the few Democrats I know who voted to exempt the gun industry from being able to be sued. Talk about a special, special interest. We should be able to sue drug companies. We should be able to sue tobacco companies. We cannot sue the gun manufacturers, because he voted for that years ago. He says it was a mistake now. I’m prepared to accept he says it’s a mistake. … I’m the first person to go on national television in any administration and say, I supported gay marriage. I supported gay marriage when asked. It started a ripple effect for gay marriage on national television.

Bernie: For 30 years, I have stood with the working families of this country. I have taken on every special interest there is out there, and that is what I will do in the White House. That’s a very different record than Joe’s.

Me: The bottom line is that Bernie has consistently been a leftwing socialist and supported every far-left political issue throughout his entire time in Congress where, incidentally, he has been completely ineffective, as he has never had a single piece of legislation he sponsored get signed into law. As for Biden, he spent most of his Senate career as a moderately-left US Senator but changed his positions in recent years – especially while serving as Obama’s Vice President – as the Democrat Party moved leftward. In short, he is a political weather vane on the Left’s issues whereas Bernie has always been a “true believer” in socialism and cultural Marxism.

CNN moderator Jake Tapper then got to the real purpose of the debate, from CNN’s point of view, which is trying to help Biden get over the finish line and build a coalition big enough to win in November. He asked Biden this question.

Tapper: If you become the Democratic Presidential nominee, how will you appeal to supporters of Senator Sanders when you do disagree on so many issues?

Biden’s response: He’s making it hard for me right now. I was trying to give him credit for some things. He won’t even take the credit for things he wants to do. Look, I think that I want to make it clear that Bernie as a nominee, I will not only support him, I will campaign for him. I believe the people who support me will do the same thing. Because the existential threat to the United States of America is Donald Trump. It’s critical. I would hope that Bernie would do the same thing if I am the nominee, and encourage all of his followers to in fact, support me as well. Because it’s much bigger than either of us. Character of the nation is on the ballot. It goes well beyond whether or not Senator Sanders and I both agree, we need medic… healthcare should be a right, not a privilege. We both agree we have to deal with student debt. We both agree we have to deal with education and access to education. We both agree that we have a new Green Deal to deal with the existential threat that faces humanity. We disagree on the detail of how we do it, but we don’t disagree on the principle. We fundamentally disagree with this president on everything. This is a man who wants to cut Social Security, cut Medicare. Not Bernie, the President of the United States. So this is much bigger than whether or not I’m the nominee or Bernie’s the nominee. We must defeat Donald Trump. He is the… Four more years of Donald Trump will fundamentally change the nature of who we are as a nation. We’ve got to restore this country’s soul, that’s essential. As long as this president is there, we’re not going to be able to that.

Me: “He’s making it hard for me right now” is a shot across Bernie’s bow for challenging him on his prior Senate votes. LMAO! President Trump – the first “America First” president we’ve had in over a generation – is an “existential threat to the US”? Ridiculous. What Biden really means is that President Trump is an existential threat to the Democrat Party and their decades-long schemes for defrauding the nation, including Biden family corruption and nepotism. And what the heck does he mean by “the character of the nation” being on the ballot in November? Apparently Biden doesn’t like the end of leftwing lawfare and a return of the federal judiciary to constitutional conservatism. That puts a stake in the heart of the Left’s use of the federal judiciary to enact cultural Marxism that would never be legislated through the courts. Of course, they disagree with the President on everything! They’re socialists, and he is for free enterprise and capitalism! It is also a lie that President Trump wants to cut Social Security and Medicare, but they both repeat that big lie endlessly. And damn straight another four years of the President will “fundamentally change the nature of who we are as a nation” – for the better and away from the socialist abyss toward which the Democrat Party has been pushing the country for the past 100 years.

The insane Bernie then added his 2 cents: On day one, when I announced my candidacy, what I said is… This country cannot deal with a president who is a pathological liar, was running a corrupt administration or obviously doesn’t know the Constitution of the United States, who believes he’s above law, was a racist and a sexist and a homophobe. He is the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country.

Me: The usual sweeping statements and accusations from a hardcore socialist who sees President Trump destroying Bernie’s lifelong dream of turning the country into a Euro-socialist swamp. A corrupt administration? How so, Bernie? Do tell us specifically instead of lying out the wazoo! The President is “above the law”? Absurd. He operates entirely within the law and within the Constitution and is noted for “letting the process play out,” as he has said on MANY occasions. And then the labels of “racist, sexist and a homophobe.” That phrase has become a cliché for leftists like Bernie over the years as they seek to shut conservatives up. Sorry, Bernie, that’s like crying wolf too many times. When you have to resort to those insults, you have already lost the argument. “The most dangerous president” ever? That would be Barack Obama, and thank God that President Trump is undoing the mess that you helped Obama enable for eight years.

Bernie continued: But let me respond to something that Joe said. We talk about the Green New Deal and all of these things in general terms, but details make a difference. What I have said throughout this campaign, and I don’t think I’ve heard you say this yet, Joe… is that if we’re going to save this planet for our kids and future generations, we need to have the courage to take on the greed of the fossil fuel industry and make it clear to them that their short-term profits are not more important than the future of this planet. We have a very detailed planet, a detailed proposal. Happy to get the endorsement of the Sunrise Movement.

Me: Bernie edged into the Green New Deal at the end without saying the words. That’s what “save this planet for our kids” is all about. Which is complete blarney. The Green New Deal is nothing but green socialism aimed at government control of the total economy and destroying America as we know it. I wish I could have asked him how many of the climate alarmists’ predictions over the past 50 years have come true and then watched his tap-dance non-answer because the fact of the matter is, ALL of their wild predictions have been wrong. Refer to this article (among many) for a discussion of 50 years-worth of their false predictions. Bernie is a lifelong politician and knows zip, zero, nada about the physical sciences, let alone the “environment.”

Here ends Part III.  I will tackle more outlandish claims and statements by these two clowns in Part IV (assuming I can persuade myself to do the necessary drudge work!).

The end.