Notes on the Way
Rightful Governor update, inflation woes, stroke politics, BIPOC discord, cabinet rat
So now she tells us! Stacey Abrams has finally conceded the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election. “I know I’m not the governor,” she said through gritted teeth in an obvious attempt to shed her image as an election truther to rival Donald Trump. But Abrams still insists that billions and billions of BIPOC Georgians are effectively disenfranchised by the Peach State’s Jim Crow-on-steroids election law. Which is to say, this ridiculous poseur is trying to have it both ways. Sure, Abrams admits that she lost in 2018—but only because—racism! Why is it, incidentally, that the Democratic politicians most highly touted by the media turn out, like Abrams, to be such duds…?
Somehow, our absurd president’s Inflation Reduction Act isn’t working as advertised: This week’s inflation report contained nothing but bad news. The Consumer Price Index jumped 0.4% in September, while the year-over-year inflation rate clocked in at 8.2%. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, rose by 0.6% last month, for a year-over-year increase of 6.6%—the fastest rate since 1982. All these dismal numbers exceeded economists’ predictions. They signify continued pain for consumers, trouble on Wall Street, an inevitable recession, and an end to Joe Biden’s fantasy life as the second coming of FDR/LBJ. Sorry, Brandon—but there’s always Herbert Hoover!
Even before he suffered a debilitating stroke, Pennsylvania lieutenant governor and senatorial candidate John Fetterman was one weird guy. The hoodie, the tats, the zany left-wing politics—all in all, he hardly fit the profile of a moderate Senate candidate in a purple state. But he got lucky when the Pennsylvania GOP picked the problematical Dr. Mehmet Oz as its senatorial candidate. This boosted Fetterman into what looked like a comfortable lead. But then he was felled by a stroke, questions arose concerning his fitness to serve, and the Democratic Party’s summer surge went into reverse. Now the race is neck and neck, with a slight tilt toward Fetterman. But in a recent interview, his halting performance gave more cause for concern that he’s not up to the job. Oz has been hitting this issue hard, to the outrage of Democrats who accuse him and other critics as “ableist” & etc. Let’s just say that it’s not good news for American politics that voters in the Keystone State are stuck with a choice between two such marginal candidates.
BIPOC is a progressive acronym denoting the feelings of solidarity and fellowship that bind together all peoples who are Unwhite: blacks, Latinxs (?), indigenous folks, Asians, etc., etc. Apparently, however, three Latinx members of the Los Angeles City Council didn’t get the memo. In a recording posted on Redditt, then deleted, but later authenticated by the Los Angeles Times, Nury Martinez, Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo are heard making racist comments about the adopted black son of a white council member. Martinez, the council president, sneered that the boy is an “accessory” and went on to opine that he behaved parece changuito: “like a monkey.” These charming comments occurred in the context of a discussion about LA City Council redistricting. In the ensuing uproar, Martinez, de León and Cedillo all resigned. It just goes to show that big-city governance based on a racial spoils system is not necessarily compatible with the doctrine of BIPOC solidarity.
Joe Biden’s cabinet is stuffed with a collection of comic figures and dubious characters, such that you’d be hard pressed to finger one of them as the worst of the lot. But Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas has broken out of the pack. Last year when photos surfaced allegedly showing mounted Border Patrol agents whipping Haitian illegals on the US southern border, the Biden Administration and most of the media erupted into a fine fit of outrage. The President condemned the agents as racist thugs and vowed, “They will pay.” Echoing his boss, Mayorkas denounced the incident as a reprise of America’s horrific racist past. But it soon became clear that the story was false, and Biden’s promise of swift and condign justice was consigned to the memory hole. This week, however, we learned that there’s more to this story than the usual rush to judgement. Two hours before his statement to the press, Mayorkas was informed by his own assistant secretary of public affairs that the whipping story was a lie. Then he went to the podium and repeated the lie. There’s a term for a guy who’d do something like that to the people who work for him: rat bastard.