Notes on the Way
Beloved they ain't, play it again Dems, liar-in-chief, Mideast blitz, a grim anniversary
Not So Beloved (One): “Antiracism” activists and their media accomplices have been retailing a sad, sweet story of beloved Michael Jackson impersonator Jordan Neely, whose quirky street and subway performances captivated New Yorkers before he was murdered by a white racist former Marine. John Podhoretz begs to differ. Toward the end of last Monday’s Commentary Podcast he remarked that New Yorkers detest all street and subway performers, who are annoying, disruptive, aggressive, and sometimes violent. “Every impersonator in Times Square is hated by every New Yorker,” he assured his audience. (Start listening at minute 55 to hear the whole—quite entertaining!—rant.)
Not So Beloved (Two): Hey, Joe Biden! We really, really don’t like you! That’s the message that was delivered to the White House by the April 28-May 3 Washington Post-ABC News poll. Headline: “Biden faces broad negative ratings at start of campaign.” No matter where you look, the news is bad for Biden. Not only does the President get an emphatic thumbs-down on a range of issues, but people are very doubtful about his physical health and mental competence. The unkindest cut of all: The poll shows him losing in 2024 to both a generic Republican and Donald Trump. Democrats were quick to dismiss the poll as an “outlier.” But if so, it’s an outlier as a matter of degree, not as a matter of fact. There can be no doubt that Joe Biden is unpopular. There’s only question remaining to be answered: Just how unpopular is he—a little or a lot?
Debt Ceiling Delusions: You can’t fight something with nothing—but try explaining that to the Democrats. The supposedly dysfunctional GOP House majority flummoxed them by passing a bill that would raise the debt ceiling in exchange for various spending reductions. There it sits on the table, but our absurd president and his congressional allies are pretending that they don’t see it. They insist that a debt ceiling bill must be “clean,” i.e. a bill that would not oblige them to negotiate with the other side. Otherwise, the President will weaponize the Fourteenth Amendment! The GOP’s refusal to go along with this notion is decried as “obstructionist.” Biden’s meandering remarks after his meeting with congressional leaders was merely a recitation out of that old playbook. Ho-hum…
Ask Him No Questions: Because if you do ask him a question, Joe Biden will lie to you. A case in point is Fiscal Hawk Joe’s oft-repeated claim (brought forward again in the remarks referenced above) that he has reduced the federal debt by $1.7 trillion. Well, no. When Biden took office, the national debt stood at $28.4 trillion. Today, it’s $31.4 trillion. I know that math is hard for progressives, but even so they must see that since 2021, the national debt has gone up by a cool $3 trillion. Even Democrat-friendly fact checkers have called Biden out on this. And of course, dozens more examples of the President’s risible mendacity could be cited. Who knows, though? Perhaps his mental confusion has progressed to a point where the dividing line between truth and falsehood has dissolved…
Rocket’s Red Glare: Think America has problems? How’d you like to live in a country whose enemies are hell-bent on its extermination? That country would be Israel, currently enduring a barrage of rockets, launched by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an Iranian proxy group based in the Gaza Strip. Yesterday, some 500 rockets were fired; over 300 landed in Israel. The rest were either intercepted or landed in Gaza—but what’s a little collateral damage when you’re waging genocidal war? Israel retaliated, of course, killing two PIJ leaders and, unfortunately, their families. Naturally it was this, not the blitz on Israel, which drew the condemnation of the usual Western suspects. They called the Israeli strike “disproportionate.” But as General William Tecumseh Sherman said: “War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it.” I would add: Those who provoke war have no grounds for complaint when its cruelty rebounds on them.
Today in History: On May 11, 1960, former SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann, a prime architect of the Final Solution, was captured in Argentina by Israeli intelligence agents. He was spirited out of the country and taken to Israel where he was tried on fifteen counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against the Jewish people. The trial lasted from April to December 1961; Eichmann was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. This sentence was carried just after midnight on June 1, 1962. His body was cremated, and the ashes were scattered at sea.
Whatever Americans tell pollsters about what they think about Joe Biden and Republican would-be candidates, in the coming tussle over raising the debt ceiling there will probably be a universal backlash against all concerned if government goes into "shut-down mode." The last time this happened, Republicans got the blame for being obstinate. Is there any reason to think that this time things would be different? And of course there is the small issue of deciding what programs get are cut, and by how much (aka whose ox gets gored). Taking an ax to Social Security and Medicare would be wildly unpopular even to the Republican base, which skews older. Another point: a large part of the deficit growth and decline in the past 3 years was related to the extraordinary measures taken to mitigate COVID impacts. Those programs have ended or are soon to end. Biden was mistaken in claiming credit for the post-COVID reduction but the 15% minimum corporate income tax will, ostensibly, lead to increased revenue for 2023 onwards. Of course, arguing the finer points of deficits, taxation and discretionary versus mandatory spending does not make for good campaign rhetoric, so voters should prepare to activate their hyperbole filters.