Notes on the Way
Inflation nation, natcon ninnies, it isn’t easy being Vlad, red wave revival, the clown prince of Florida
Whatever else may be said of the Biden Administration, its comic timing is impeccable. Who else but our hapless president and his dim-bulb minions would have chosen to stage an Inflation Reduction Act pep rally in the White House Rose Garden on the very day that another disastrous inflation report was released, sending the stock market into a 1,900-point nosedive? You can’t help laughing—even at a time when a pound of ground sirloin costs nearly as much as a kilogram of plutonium…
It's a sad time for nationalist conservatives. Why, just recently Tucker Carlson was assuring his audience that V. Putin was winning the war in Ukraine—while meanwhile the aid money that the US was sending to Ukraine was disappearing into a black hole of neo-Nazi graft and corruption. Then suddenly the Russian Army on the Kharkiv front collapsed in the face of a Ukrainian counteroffensive, so maybe the money was well spent after all. For months we endured the puerile bloviations of the natcons: Putin is invincible, Ukraine is corrupt, NATO is a threat to Russia, those who support aid to Ukraine are warmongers, etc., etc. Well, anybody can make a mistake—but what we have here is a case of willful self-delusion.
Speaking of V. Putin, some are voicing fears that with his back to the wall, the Russian despot might resort to the use of nuclear weapons against Ukraine. Anything is possible, of course, but it seems doubtful that he’d push that big red button. Such a fast jump up the ladder of escalation risks direct NATO intervention in Ukraine—with disastrous consequences for both Russia and Putin personally. Anyhow, he has nothing to gain militarily from such a desperate ploy The Russian Army has shot its bolt; it’s in no condition to follow up a nuclear strike with a ground counteroffensive. So for Putin, going nuclear is all downside and over the cliff.
What a difference a couple of weeks can make! Before Labor Day, the Democratic Party was giddy with happy talk concerning the midterm elections. The much-feared Red Wave was a mirage after all! Joe Biden, our latter-day FDR, had turned things around! Why, the Dems might even manage to hang on to their House majority! But now there seem to be…second thoughts…about that. The President’s approval rating is still underwater—lower than whale crap, in fact, and that’s on the bottom of the ocean. Inflation rages on; a strong majority of Americans think the economy’s in recession. Interest rates are up, the stock market is down. The southern border is a total mess. Public education has fallen into disrepute. Violent crime and general lawlessness ravage America’s big cities. In short, the political climate strongly favors the Republican Party—Trump and abortion notwithstanding.
Charlie Crist, the Democratic candidate for Governor of Florida, has identified with Jesus Christ and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky while reviling his opponent, incumbent Governor Ron DeSantis as “Governor DeSatan”—this while declaring himself to be the “candidate of love.” Earlier, Crist informed millions of Floridians—those who’d supported DeSantis in the last election—that he didn’t want the votes of “haters” like them. I seem to recall that once upon a time, Crist was deemed to be a serious public figure. How did he get to be such a clown? I blame Joe Biden’s endorsement…