The Dr. Jill Biden stories are preparing Americans for her rule?

by philg

A big selling point for the Democrats is the assertion that elite technocratic rule yields superior results compared to rule by ordinary folks. Democrats #FollowScience by citing experts with credentials while Republicans cite common sense. A Republican, for example, might remember “Rising Obesity in the United States Is a Public Health Crisis” (2018; “Obesity accounts for 18 percent of deaths among Americans ages 40 to 85…”) and conclude that denying children a year of gym class, making it illegal for kids to run around together, locking down adults next to their refrigerators (15 lb. weight gain typical), and shutting down activities that resulted in a few thousand steps per day of incidental walking would kill far more people than could conceivably be saved via a lockdown. The uncredentialed Republican wouldn’t need to try to run a calculation of lost life-years, but simply look around at obese neighbors and say “parking these folks next to the fridge for a year is the worst idea ever.”

The Ed.D that Jill Biden obtained is a credential “for certified teachers already possessing master’s degrees who seek to become administrators.” (maryville.edu) The master’s degrees themselves are worthless in terms of improving teaching ability and outcomes (Washington Monthly; Baltimore Sun; CPRE: “on average, master’s degrees in education bear no relation to student achievement”).

Why would Mx. Biden insist on being called “Dr.”? He/she/ze/they would not be referred to as Dr. under the conventional American newspaper style guide (MDs who support Donald Trump aren’t “Dr.” either; e.g., see this 2018 NYT article in which Ben Carson, MD, a neurosurgeon, is referred to as “Mr. Carson”).

What if the answer is that faithful Democrats are being prepared for Jill Biden’s rule? In order to be a legitimate ruler in Democrat voters’ eyes, she needs some sort of technocratic expertise and the Ed.D credential is a demonstration of that. “Smart enough to have sex with a married Congressman” is not an obvious qualification for managing a $5 trillion enterprise. With the EdD highlighted, American Democrats can feel comfortable being governed by a senile Joe Biden following Dr. Biden’s science-informed instructions. Joe won’t have to yield to President Harris, but can instead govern in the same sense that Woodrow Wilson governed following his stroke (see “When a secret president ran the country” (PBS)).

From March 2020, the factory of future primary care non-EdD “doctors” for the “underserved” (that’s what the M3s say that they’re planning to do; where the U.S. finds plastic surgeons and dermatologists is a mystery).

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39 thoughts on “The Dr. Jill Biden stories are preparing Americans for her rule?”

  1. Its perpetual conspiracy mindset is why U.S. Conservatism is now considered to be protofascism.

    This article is evidence that U.S. Conservatism is protofascist.

  2. As far as “Dr. Bill Cosby” is concerned, I know that in 2018 as a result of the guilty verdict, Johns Hopkins rescinded the honorary degree they awarded him in 2004. What most people do not remember, however, is that Cosby had actually pressured JHU to award him an honorary doctorate in exchange for a speaking engagement or something of that nature at an earlier time – and they refused his request, and the thing fell apart. I’m having a hard time finding the reference (it was pre-Internet) but my mole from JHU tells me he’s 100% positive there was an earlier kerfuffle over it, which was smoothed over in 2004 when they finally went ahead and did it. Cosby was very keen to collect honorary doctorates from as many colleges and universities as he could. At the time, my source tells me that Hopkins didn’t give very many of them – to anyone – and they refused to bend their policy in that instance. Later on, after many years when Cosby was a much bigger star, they changed their tune.

  3. > Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr.-Ing. E.h. Dr. h.c. Dieter Spath

    Awesome!

    1981 Doctorate “Performance-limiting influencing factors on metal band saw machines”

    Knuth (!!!) Band Saws:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyeXaTfwbcw

    I think this is what really happened to Jimmy Hoffa. It wasn’t a vat of lye. Check out the expression at 0:25…

  5. I like that Mayor Pete’s “husband” led the charge against 84 year old Joe Epstein (the guy who was cancelled by Northwestern because he had the temerity to question whether Jill Biden should in fact go by Dr. Biden) and then a few days later his husband, i.e., Mayor Pete, was rewarded with a cabinet level position since he (Mayor Pete) had done such a good job of running the fourth biggest city in Indiana (quick, what are 2 & 3?), could speak Norwegian, and had a Kennedy like was of rolling up his sleeve’s and dreaming big dreams of a better future.

    • can’t comment on his other languages, but Mayor Pete’s French is mediocre at best — getting most articles wrong (masculin v. féminin). However, the sheer no of languages and his ability to be understood in several of them is impressive, so his aptitude for foreign languages is far superior to average American, and closer to that of average European. Here’s a clip for those Spanish & Arabic speakers to judge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxtvXaRe2lg
      To run DOT, Spanish might be useful????

    • @Suzanne, @Jack: Let’s never forget the laughs Mayor Pete got when he used a real, live Latino as a prop to make fun of his accent on Jimmy Kimmel Live. He’s, like, a linguistic genius:

      3:55 on, you can watch linguist Mayor Pete ridicule Guillermo (pasted with stickers) calling him: “Pete Buttacheese.”

      “That’s better than most people can do.” It sure is. Go to a comedy club in New York (you can’t!) and try to make fun of Latino accents. But Pete Buttacheese got away with it on Jimmy Kimmel Live, presumably because he would give them more money.

    • He also joked that he “spent most of the day” teaching his prop Guillermo to mispronounce his name, but he didn’t really call him a retard wetback.

    • Mayor Pete takes not-so-veiled swipe at Tiffany Trump in that clip you posted, Alex. Weird. I have no particular opinion of Mayor Pete. But gf who hosted a fundraiser in her and her husband’s Chevy Chase, Maryland, home for him back in early 2020 (picture of Pete B. by her fireplace mantle) went into full-on meltdown on Nov 3 when Biden’s victory wasn’t as clear-cut as she hoped. Told me on Nov 7th she had not slept since Nov 3rd, and had been binge-eating ever since (we took a socially distanced walk 11/7 along the ocean when she came out to her second home in coastal Delaware — and she had put on weight since September, last time I’d seen her). She is a wonderful person, and is a Pete B. groupie in her late 50s. Go figure. I think the sleepless nights and binge-eating have subsided. Her aspiration on Nov 7 was for Pete to be Secretary of Defense. Will see her over the holidays (we take socially distanced walks along the Atlantic shore) and ask how she feels about DOT appt.

    • @Suzanne: Well, the meltdown makes some sense because at one time during the primaries, Buttigieg was the favorite and he was on track to win the nomination, in my opinion at the time. I thought he was doing very well and might be the nominee. Then things changed, Biden picked up a lot of steam, for a whole assortment of reasons too detailed to reprise, and as a result all the people who were devoted to Pete had to hitch their wagons to someone they really didn’t want and hadn’t devoted their energy to. Probably a lot of people felt that way about Cory Booker, too, and that’s why Jim Carville told everyone the day after election night to “Put the Ambien and the Razor Blades Back in the Medicine Cabinet”, anticipating the “red mirage” that would eventually disappear – miraculously – even as all the people who had begrudgingly coalesced around Biden were having violent 2016 flashbacks and panic attacks. Well, Jim Carville turned out to be correct, and the next time your friend walks along the beach, she should be very happy indeed because Pete Buttigieg’s future is secure.

      It may not be DoD or DoT, it could be ambassador to China, but I’m quite sure the Harris Administration is going to treat him very well and place him in a very powerful position. I really do hope your friend can help herself out of the doldrums and live a happier life. It’s not worth it to die for a politician, particularly not Pete Buttigieg.

    • @Suzanne: I have a hunch he will be the Ambassador to the United Nations, but it’s just a hunch.

    • @Suzanne: She may not be a big Barry Manilow fan, but tell her – I think if she listens to this song, she’ll feel a little better.

    • thanks for that saccharine Manilow blast from the past! Meantime, gotta say this gf is the only person I know who consistently brings gloves & plastic bags to pick up litter along the shoreline. I always join her, and after an hour or so, we have picked up quite a collection of detritus, mostly ice cream & French fry wrappers, but a good number of plastic bottles, too. Unlike summer 2019, we now bring a good supply of Lysol wipes with us to disinfect our hands afterward. (Last summer, just rinsed our hands in the salt water, and put our gloves in a separate bag to take home to launder.). We are not environmentalists like AOC claims to be, but we have picked up a lot of trash between Rehoboth Beach and Cape Henlopen State Park. We pass right through Biden’s North Shores enclave, a gated community, but since the beach itself is federal land, one is allowed to walk on the North Shores stretch. No parking allowed anywhere on the streets in the Bidens’ community, though, so the general public cannot use the North Shores beaches if they have a lot of gear to carry from almost a mile away in Rehoboth, and in practice, they don’t.

    • @Suzanne: Manilow may be saccharine and simplistic, but he definitely made the most of what he had when it came to arrangement. The stuff in his songs is simpler than Billy Joel’s stuff, but he was better at arrangement and orchestration than almost anyone. He knew his limitations and strengths very well and made the most of the latter, with a great touch. I can’t go full retard on Manilow and think of Brian Wilson in the same way. A perfect ear.

    • @Suzanne: I generally agree with mitigating the problem of keeping waterways and so forth clear of plastic (and other) waste, particularly because I have friends who are actual hunters, and they hate to see it too. Do it all the time where I live in the spring and summer, people can really be stupid. I live in a state where recycling is required, and things have to be sorted, which is one of the expenses a landlord has to incur, but you still have to pick things up off the ground and out of the water occasionally. “Would it take 1/2 second out of your life not to throw that out the window of your BMW as you pass through?”

    • @ScarletNumber:

      The big problem for the Heartland of America is that their biggest growth industries for the future are healthcare, marijuana, casinos, and porn. That’s what has become of the Heartland of this country, while the elites have concentrated themselves on our beautiful coastlines and moved to the suburbs of New Jersey. The great hollowing out of this country is continuing, to the point where we can’t even protect our own government. It’s a disaster, and it’s going to get worse. I told people this back in 2001 when China joined the WTO and everyone was listening to people like Robert Reich and Alan Krueger (who killed himself). Tech businesses don’t employ big countries. “Knowledge-based” industries create elite overproduction as a precondition for certification and credentialism. And we’re screwed, bigtime.

      “A casino has been proposed to be built on the east side of the city near U.S. Route 40/Indiana Route 46. A referendum in November 2019 on whether to allow the casino to be built passed overwhelmingly.[24]”

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terre_Haute,_Indiana

  6. “He/she/ze/they would not be referred to as Dr. under the conventional American newspaper style guide”

    This would seem to be incorrect, at least at the Wall Street Journal (I’m sure some of your readers will know why this is the most interesting paper in this regard). You can see the relevant part of the WSJ style guide at https://t.co/7IEkPaUTvh. It recommends the use “Dr.” for Ph.D.s in liberal arts, including, specifically, in education.

    I want to urgently add that I am not defending the quality of these degrees, nor of the entire field, nor, specifically, Dr. Biden’s thesis, which I have seen parts of and which does not appear to be of high quality. But such a degree from an accredited institution does make the “Dr. title appropriate, no matter what we think of it.

    • doesn’t this just mean that WSJ’s own copy editors aren’t reading and following their own “Elements of Style” rules??? My main takeaway is that the Bidens are laughing that this non-story is deflecting attention from the magnitude of the pay-for-play they’ve pulled off for years. Why did Hunter, Beau & Ashley Biden attend the elite Friends School in Wilmington, all on a Congressional salary? Why did they vacation in Martha’s Vineyard over Thanksgiving most years? (Rental rates are modest in November, but transportation to that island in the dead of winter isn’t — Jill mentions flying there in her 2019 book.) How did they rent a McLean, Virginia, estate with 20 parking spaces in January 2017 (book advances weren’t yet in the bank)? How did Hunter send his children to the elite Sidwell Friends School in DC (with Sasha & Malia Obama), all while going through messy divorce litigation? (Add to the mix expensive gambling, prostitution and drug habits according to ex-wife’s statements.) The Arkansas Baby Mama settled out-of-court, after judge demanded Hunter’s financial records. Hunter had told the AR court that he was “broke” even though Daily Mail got photos of him driving around LA in a Porsche early 2020, after closing on a $2M home which he shares with his second wife and and baby born March 2020. Follow the money! (not that it made any difference with the Clinton Global Initiative)

    • Lee: That’s funny about the WSJ style guide. I’m a NYT subscriber, not a WSJ subscriber, so my world is determined by the NYT Manual of Style and Usage. From the 2015 edition:

      Dr. should be used in all references for physicians, dentists and veterinarians whose practice is their primary current occupation, or who work in a closely related field, like medical writing, research or pharmaceutical manufacturing: Dr. Alex E. Baranek; Dr. Baranek; the doctor. (Those who practice only incidentally, or not at all, should be called Mr., Ms., Miss or Mrs.)
      Anyone else with an earned doctorate, like a Ph.D. degree, may get the title, but only if it is germane to the holder’s primary current occupation (academic, for example, or laboratory research). Reporters should confirm the degree holder’s preference. For a Ph.D., the title should appear only in second and later references.
      Do not use the title for someone whose doctorate is honorary.

      You can find a PDF version of the 2000 AP style guide online at https://coppelljournalism.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/ap-stylebook.pdf

      AP is a little more, um, liberal with “doctor” than the NYT. I think the WSJ book mostly copied the AP:

      doctor Use Dr. in first reference as a formal title before the
      name of an individual who holds
      a doctor of dental surgery, doctor
      of medicine, doctor of osteopathy,
      or doctor of podiatric medicine
      degree: Dr. Jonas Salk.
      The form Dr., or Drs., in a
      plural construction, applies to all
      first-reference uses before a
      name, including direct quotations.
      If appropriate in the context,
      Dr. also may be used on first reference before the names of individuals who hold other types of
      doctoral degrees

      ————- also helpful from the AP style guide

      abortion Use anti-abortion
      instead of pro-life and abortion
      rights instead of pro-abortion or
      pro-choice. Avoid abortionist,
      which connotes a person who
      performs clandestine abortions;
      use a term such as abortion doctor or abortion practitioner.

      black [not capitalized!] Preferred usage for
      those of the Negro race. (Use
      Negro only in names of organizations or in quotations.) Do not
      use colored as a synonym. See
      the colored entry.

    • Jill Biden does not have a Ph.D. in Education, she has a Ed.D., which is in general much much smaller, and does not include original research as a mandatory component. Which isn’t to say the “kiddo” editorial in the WSJ was anything short of gross. However it is a logical fallacy to conclude that because the “kiddo” editorial was reprehensible and poorly written and did not support its point, that its conclusion is incorrect and Jill Biden actually does deserve the title Dr.

      Until someone’s actually read through Jill Biden’s Ed.D. “dissertation/executive position paper” they might not want to choose this as their hill to die on. I read it, and um…you can too!

      http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/jill_biden_dissertation.pdf

    • @Barak: I think the 83 yo writer’s use of the moniker “kiddo” was mainly to echo what Joe Biden himself often says, in an endearing way, to many people when out working the crowds (pre-COVID). I heard Biden use the term “kiddo” outside Browseabout Books summer 2018. He was speaking to a neighbor of mine here in Rehoboth Beach. This neighbor is Medicare-eligible, for sure, and probably has been for a while like Joe Biden.

      https://www.facebook.com/browseabout/posts/what-an-amazing-book-signing-with-hoda-kotb-to-make-it-even-more-exciting-joe-ji/10156638076324874/

      Meantime, “kiddo” isn’t a problem to me, although it’s a bit old-fashioned. Many of my closest friends here in Rehoboth are gay men (mostly cuz they are a much greater percentage of the population than where I previously lived, the DC suburbs b/c of need for good public schools for my four kids – there were virtually no gays in my immediate area). One of them routinely calls me “kiddo” (I doubt he calls his long-term partner “kiddo” although said partner is easily 15 years his junior). Others call me or text me as “sister.” “Kiddo” distracts from the real issue anyway. Just annoying (to me) that this Ed.D. didn’t immediately have the modesty to stop Oprah and everyone else from fawning over her with the Dr. title. As SNL joked over the weekend, she has occasionally acted as a nurse toward Joe (cue picture of Jill guiding him with her arm). And she has kept some would-be attackers/protestors at bay (was a regular at SoulCycle in DC pre-pandemic, along with Michelle Obama, and those classes include a weight section toward the middle).

  8. With regards to the use of “Dr.” in someone’s title, I posted the following [1] which looks to be more relevant to this post:

    “No one should assign themselves or be given a “Dr.” title unless if the person is a real Dr., someone who graduated from medical school.

    Imagine if “Dr. Jill” was on a flight 35k ft up in the air and someone on the airplane needed medical attention, would everyone look at “Dr. Jill” for help? No. In fact, a pharmacist would most likely know far more than “Dr. Jill” would in this situation.”

    There is a reason why titles are given, they come with weight and responsibility.

    [1] https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2020/12/14/facebook-reminds-us-how-lucky-we-are/#comments

  9. My own internal guide conforms to the NYT style guide in large part: I’ve always prefaced anyone who was a medical doctor (including dentists and veterinarians) with “Dr.” because of the medical, flesh-and-blood connection. I’ve begrudgingly used it with osteopaths and podiatrists, because I don’t consider them to be physicians, but I’ve gone along with it. In formal academic titles, I’ve always addressed people with “Professor” or their university titles where applicable, never with “Doctor” unless someone was really a prima donna about it, because it’s just not worth the trouble, even if it’s technically wrong.

    Should we start calling lawyers “Doctors of Law”? They’re “Juris Doctors”, after all, at least formally. So if Jill Biden went to Kalamazoo College Law School and earned her JD, would we feel obligated to call her “Doctor Biden?” Joe Biden has a JD from Syracuse University: should we refer to him as “Doctor Biden” or “President Juris Doctor Biden” or just “Doctor Biden?”

    Same thing with Barack Obama! He’s got a JD from Harvard. Is he “Doctor Obama” or “Former President Obama?”

    I’m confused.

    • Shouldn’t pro-life people be referred to by their choice of terms, instead of the AP style guide’s? They all call themselves “pro-life.” As a simple matter of respect, wouldn’t etiquette dictate that the AP at least refer to them with their preferred nomenclature? Why aren’t abortionists referred to as “abortionists?” That’s what they do. Seems pretty clear to me.

    • And what do we do with French honors for members of the Légion d’Honneur? Do we mention them only when it’s germane to the context of the article or in a bibliographic reference? Melinda and Bill Gates are honorees, as are Barbra Streisand, Steven Spielberg, Manuel Noriega, and Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_foreign_recipients_of_the_L%C3%A9gion_d%27Honneur_by_decade

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4435266/Bill-Melinda-Gates-receive-L-gion-d-Honneur-medals.html

      Surely, receiving recognition in the Légion d’Honneur is more important and exclusive than any mediocre Ph.D., Ed.D or Psy.D., not to mention the thousands of newly-minted JDs that our law schools churn out every year, so why don’t they get more formal recognition?

      Whoopi Goldberg has not yet been inducted into the Légion d’Honneur, but if she eventually is, will they have a ceremony for her on The View? I guess The Young Turks are going to have to come up with their own titles:

      “Turkey Espléndido” perhaps?

    • If Whoopi Goldberg were to be considered down the road for internment in Le Panthéon, Paris 5ème, then all bets are off.

    • And I certainly don’t mean to denigrate the Légion d’Honneur and its recipients. There are an awful lot of Americans from WWII who liberated France. Including this one:

      William “Bill” Bruce Overstreet, Jr. (2009) (US), USAAF, WWII fighter pilot, with the 357th FG, 363rd FS. The “Yoxford Boys”. Flew a P-51 “Mustang”, named “Berlin Express”. Only known Allied fighter pilot to turn in a kill while flying under the “Eiffel Tower” in Paris chasing a German Me-109. Chevalier medal, presented by Ambassador to the US Pierre Vimont at the D-Day Memorial 8 December 2009, Bedford, VA US. Vimont said of Bill Overstreet in his speech that the Legion of Honour is “The sign of my country’s exceptional recognition of Captain Overstreet’s heroic contribution to the liberation of France.”

      http://www.cebudanderson.com/billoverstreet.htm

      It’s amazing he could fly that plane with the weight of his balls in it.

    • In fairness, former Second Lady Jill Biden is good role model to continue Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign to combat rising incidence of obesity. Runs 5 miles five times/week, and took an early-dawn SoulCycle class with one of her granddaughters. She was famous for the daily motorcade departing the VP’s mansion (former Navy Admiral’s digs) on Massachusetts Avenue for her yoga/Pilates/XXX class in Georgetown, followed by a stop at the WFM juice bar in Glover Park. She has also thwarted several would-be attackers/protestors who’ve gotten too close to Biden, especially in very early 2020 before his Secret Service protection resumed (having been dropped 6 mos after he left WH in Jan 2017). She may lift weights???? She has similar medical background to the buff fitness studio owner in woke NW DC who refused to allow Ivanka Trump to sign up for a class in Jan 2017, as owner thought a Trump presence would offend the other members. (A few days later, the Daily Mail featured a photo of a PTON bike being delivered to Ivanka & Jared’s Kalorama home.). I wish she had the humility not to have borrowed Oprah Winfrey’s fawning remark about “Dr. Jill Biden” and run with it, including in her 2019 memoir. But given the standard of living to which she became accustomed beginning in the late 1970s, her tastes are not modest. I am serious about the “Let’s Move” campaign — neighbors here in Reboboth Beach (DE) were at an Italian restaurant, DiFebo’s on First Street, in late 2017 or early 2018 with the Bidens at a corner table. Neighbors report that the couple are light eaters. Given their lithe frames, this is not exactly surprising, At least Jill Biden knows something about portion control — a main factor of most weight-reduction/control programs, and which deserves emphasis in “Let’s Move!”

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