Notes on the Way
Special "Biden Administration in disarray" edition
He flips! He flops! He never stops! That’s how our ridiculous president and his shameless minions are preparing the ground of his 2024 run. (1) All of a sudden, Bash the Badge Joe morphed into Law and Order Joe. Never mind home rule and statehood for the District of Columbia—the Prez needs to polish his badly tarnished tough-on-crime credentials. So he said he’d sign a bill passed by Congress to reverse the District of Columbia city council’s insane criminal justice “reform” law. Take that, progressives! (2) With equal suddenness, Wind Farm Joe transformed before our eyes into Big Oil Joe, giving the go-ahead to a big oil development project up in Alaska. Environmentalists had a fit. And I am laughing so hard…
Diplomacy by dementia: You may recall that Joe Biden entered office promising to punish and ostracize Saudi Arabia and its de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, for the admittedly heinous murder of a dissident journalist. But once he became president, Biden forgot that promise. Then came the inflation crisis, with a particularly painful upsurge in gas prices, and the President felt compelled to visit Saudi Arabia, begging for assistance on energy prices. The trip was accompanied by much breathless media speculation: Would Biden shake the bloodstained hand of Crown Prince Pariah? He tried to thread that needle with a fist bump—and in return received a nice big serving of baloney on a stick. But the Saudis weren’t finished. This week, the news broke that a rapprochement between the Kingdom and the Islamic Republic of Iran has been brokered by—China! And while it remains to be seen what the long-term fallout will be, this diplomatic revolution portends nothing good for US interests. Joe, you’re no Otto von Bismarck…
Biden knows best: While the President deserves some credit for assisting Ukraine in its battle for survival in the face of unprovoked Russian aggression, his continual nickel-and-diming over military aid is becoming ridiculous. Again and again, Ukraine has requested some weapons system, only to be denied on grounds that to supply such weapons would risk “escalation,” but eventually getting those weapons eventually. The current weapon that Ukraine “doesn’t need” according to Biden, is the F-16 Fighting Falcon, a versatile fighter and strike aircraft of which the US possesses 2,256, many of which are surplus to current requirements. The arguments against providing the F-16 to Ukraine are laughably bogus. But this dithering and indecision is only to be expected from the guy who advised President Obama against taking out Osama bin Laden…
It leaves a painful impression: When a toxic train derailment upended the lives of a few thousand Trump voters in East Palestine, Ohio, the Biden Administration’s response was lackadaisical at best. Whether fairly or not, the President and his people were criticized for their lack of attention to the problems of people whom Hillary Clinton once so charmingly characterized as the Deplorable. This was an own goal and a black eye for the White House communications shop, as personified by the embarrassingly incoherent Karine Jean-Pierre. And the Administration just made things worse. The alacrity with which it sprang into action to bail out the high-rolling depositors (also generous contributors to the Democratic Party and the usual progressive causes) of the failed Silicon Valley Bank created a study in contrasts that practically invited Republicans to pounce. Not a good look at all…
Like it’s a good thing: The latest jobs report—very positive—led the President and his media apologists to proclaim that the President’s economic plan is working! Um, what economic plan is that exactly? Anyhow, the jobs numbers constitute a small island of positivity in a sea of economic troubles. Inflation still rages; it’s so high, in fact, that American workers continue to lose ground. A 3% salary bump may sound nice—but measured against a 6% inflation rate it means that your family has lost ground. This explains what Democrats affect to find inexplicable: that Americans are not at all happy about the state of the economy. And on that score, there’s plenty of potential for more unhappiness. The employment numbers are sending a signal to the Federal Reserve that the economy is still running too hot, and that further interest rate hikes will be necessary to tame inflation. On the other hand, the possibility of more trouble in the banking sector may lead the Fed to suspend or abandon its anti-inflation rate hikes. Either way, there’s economic trouble ahead as America heads into 2024…which just happens to be a presidential election year…
Border madness: It’s the crisis that just won’t go away. Joe Biden took office two years ago, the US southern border with Mexico is still a mess, American cities like New York are being overrun with “migrants” (the progressive term of art for illegal aliens), the President of Mexico is openly mocking America—and the Biden Administration’s still blaming the whole thing on Donald Trump! Last Friday evening in an interview with MSNBC, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre served up a heaping bowl of her signature word salad in a pathetic attempt to defend the Administration’s sorry record. And even accepting for the sake of argument the dubious claim that Biden & Co, inherited the problem—what have they been doing since January 2021 to solve it? Not one damn thing…
I want an order of word salad with a side of pommes frites. Not a deplorable. Please put that in the order ;-)