Notes on the Way

Milestone, fog of war, document dementia, pardon me, BHO bloviates

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When publishing my last article, I noted that it was number 199 for “Un-Woke in Indiana.” So this one is number 200. Time—and the words—do fly when you’re having fun. Anyhow, let me take this opportunity to recognize my small but growing cohort of subscribers. Writers without readers soon cease to write and so, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for reading. I’ll do my best to keep things interesting. You also have my pledge to keep this Substack free because (a) I don’t really need the money and (b) my trenchant commentary is beyond price anyway.

The long-anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive has commenced—or has it? From the fragmentary media reports I’ve seen, that’s a doubtful question. Even in these days of high-tech surveillance and the twenty-four-hour news cycle, the fog of war persists. So far, it seems, Ukrainian attacks have been small in scale. My impression is that their objective at this stage of the battle is to disrupt and confuse the deployment of Russian reserves by launching probing attacks in various sectors. That accomplished, the full counteroffensive will commence. Well, we shall see…

A fool can always find bigger fools to admire him. Case in point: Donald Trump and his core supporters. The former president’s indictment on charges of misappropriating and mishandling classified documents has called forth a barrage of MAGA hysteria, truly comical in its stupidity. When it comes to classified documents, MAGA insists, his word is law. Now this is correct as far as it goes, but since Trump is now a former president it’s also irrelevant. There happens to be no evidence or testimony, e.g. a signed executive order, that during his tenure in office he declassified any of the documents in question. Ah, but we’re just supposed to take his word for it because…well, because…oh, just shut up, you Deep State RINO Globalist Biden Hugger!

In related Trump news, the Republican National Committee has demanded that all GOP presidential candidates sign a formal pledge to support the party’s eventual nominee—even if it’s Donald Trump, convicted felon. Any candidate who fails to do so will be disqualified from participation in party-sanctioned primary debates. Sure, why not? Trump has done so much for the Republican Party, after all—in the 2018 midterm elections, in the 2020 presidential election, in the 2021 Georgia senatorial runoff elections, across the country in the 2022 midterm elections. And let us not forget January 6, 2021. That surely was the high point of his service to nation and party! But wait, it gets better. Trump himself signed such a pledge in 2015, only to say later that nah, he had no intention of honoring it. Which is to say: The RNC is demanding a loyalty oath in support of a guy with a demonstrated record of zero loyalty to anybody or anything.

Speaking of former presidents, Barack Hussein Obama deigned recently to cast a pearl before the swine—as he regards the American people, whose president he was for eight years. Reacting to comments from GOP presidential candidates Tim Scott and Nikki Haley, he corrected them for opining that America is an opportunity society. The fact that Scott and Haley are successful BIPOCs cuts no ice with Obama: Their success brands them as white adjacent, maybe even facilitators of systemic racism. His message is that “people of color” in America are screwed: They can never expect to rise on their own merits but only by leave of progressive government. Our former president seems incapable of overhearing himself. Did he not realize that his supercilious criticism of Scott and Haley is also a stinging critique of his own rise? For no successful BIPOC politician has ever been more adjacent to white than BHO. White progressives supported him for precisely that reason: He was just like them, only black!