It’s Wednesday, March 30th, 2022…but before we begin, meet…
But unlike his namesake who cost the Sox the Series in ’86, Biden’s unabashed allies in the MSM will never report any error, however egregious, this demented old deviant commits as anything but a brilliant play, as detailed in this Kayleigh McEnany clip:
Kayleigh McEnany RIPS OPEN Hunter Biden’s laptop from HELL Live on AIR to show America the crimes of the Biden Family — this will give you CHILLS pic.twitter.com/s9jY1cDlHO
“You can make the case that Putin has proven himself too dangerous and reckless — to Ukraine, to NATO, to the Russian people themselves — to be left in power. After the mass suffering unleashed by the Russian invasion, few would dispute that Putin has an appetite for war, destruction, and conquest that will bring more and more chaos the longer he runs Russia.
You can also make the case that as much as the U.S. would prefer someone besides Putin run Russia — but based on that country’s history,we shouldn’t expect someone dramatically different— openly declaring our desire to see Putin gone simply verifies the dictator’s paranoia, offers more fodder for Russian state media about NATO’s alleged dreams of conquering Russia, wrecks any chance of a negotiated end to the invasion, and brings the U.S. closer to becoming a combatant in the conflict.
The case you can’t make is that U.S. policy should be both of these policies at once.There’s a place for strategic ambiguity, but this isn’t one of them. Alas, this weekend, President Biden exclaimed, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power!” and then his staff rushed to clarify that the president “was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change,” which is the opposite of what the president actually said.
As Andrew Stuttaford aptly summarized, “The ‘clarification’ was the right thing to do (there was no choice, really), but the net effect is that Biden can be portrayed by Moscow as bellicose, while simultaneously coming across as weak to nervous allies in the East, and hopelessly muddled to allies elsewhere and, of course, to adversaries and the undecided across the globe.”
But there’s a world of difference between the average American’s saying, “I wish someone would just kill Putin and end this whole thing,” and a U.S. lawmaker’s saying it. When a U.S. lawmaker says it out loud and on camera or social media, it persuades some people at home and abroad that this is our secret real policy, and that the U.S. policy of (generally) avoiding assassination as a tool of statecraft is just glossy public relations hiding a long and proud tradition of skullduggery in the name of defending the free world.
We wouldn’t mind seeing Putin dead or deposed, but we also want a stable Russia.We want Putin to meet an end like that of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s —a brutal comeuppance that left Putin “apoplectic” — but we also want him to take a deal that would end the conflict.We want to communicate our incandescent anger over Putin’s aggression and brutality, but we also want the Russian people to know that we mean no harm to them.
To govern is to choose, and what’s become abundantly clear is that Joe Biden doesn’t like making tough decisions. He wants it both ways. Oftentimes when a leader tries to take the middle path because he’s trying to achieve contradictory goals, he achieves neither.
The U.S. cannot kick the can down the road on the question of how to see and treat Putin. The Russian dictator has altered his country’s constitution so that he can remain in power until at least 2036 — when Putin will be 84, which is old even by Joe Biden’s standards. Barring some unexpected turn of events, Putin will rule Russia until the day he dies…”
On Tuesday, in response to 46* doubling down, the Jolt raised the threat level to DEFCON 2:
“…“I’m not walking anything back,” Mr. Biden said of his remarks on Saturday, in which he said of Mr. Putin: “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.” The White House said shortly after he made the comment that he wasn’t calling for regime change.
“I wasn’t then nor am I now articulating a policy change,” Mr. Biden said Monday. “I was expressing the moral outrage that I feel and I make no apologies for it.”He added those feelings were personal, reflecting emotions he felt during his trip to Europe, where he met with Ukrainian refugees.
Pressed on how the rest of the world is interpreting his words, Mr. Biden said it was “ridiculous” to view his comments as calling for regime change.“Nobody believes … I was talking about taking down Putin,” he said.
Mr. Biden said Monday he was “speaking to the Russian people” and that Mr. Putin would be increasingly isolated on the world stage if Moscow continued its onslaught in Ukraine…”
Unfortunately for America and the world, the sole individual who far more likely than not does believe it…
…is the only one who matters! It should also be noted the reality of Biden’s meaning certainly isn’t lost on Vlad, who Uncle Joe obviously believes to be just as stupid as he clearly considers the average American.
““For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”
Joe Biden said it about Vladimir Putin. Two seconds later, Joe Biden’s staff members were no doubt thinking it about Joe Biden.
Politics, particularly on the campaign side, is full of people who excel at verbal cleverness, and, as a result, it is full of people who believe that verbal cleverness is the height of intelligence. Cleverness is overrated. But there is a big difference between a policy of working toward “regime change” in Russia and a policy of talking about working toward regime change in Russia.Words matter, and the words of the president of the United States of America matter a great deal.
…The Biden administration has a tremendous opportunity in its hands — but it lacks the leadership at the top to make the most of it. The president is too diplomatically clumsy, too parochial in his political interests, too nickel-and-dime in his priorities, and too beholden to the left-wing elements in his party to do what needs doing, especially when it comes to energy policy. Joe Biden is no Vladimir Putin, but one might be forgiven for thinking in a moment of frustration: “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”“
This feckless fool’s latest catastrophic foreign foray can be summed up in this RNC tweet:
Biden’s foreign trip has been a complete disaster.
Biden called for regime change in Russia, said U.S. troops were being sent to Ukraine, and suggested he would use chemical weapons against Putin.
“The world may have gone crazy, but, at National Review, our answer remains steadfastly “No.” No, we don’t believe the nonsense we’re being sold.No, we won’t believe the nonsense we’re being sold. No, we don’t believe anyone else believes the nonsense we’re being sold, either.
It doesn’t matter if you throw a tantrum. The press may acquiesce, human resources may gather its forces — but our answer will still be “No.” Shout, complain, send an indignant Gish gallop, it’s “No.” We see the Emperor, we see that he’s naked as all hell, and we have no intention of pretending otherwise. This magazine was founded to say “Stop” to the purveyors of “modish fads and fallacies,” and it will continue to do so into the future. Maddy Kearns will continue to say “No.” Alexandra DeSanctis will continue to say “No.” Dan McLaughlin will continue to say “No.”
For this reason, we hope you’ll say “Yes” to our webathon appeal, and consider a donation. (We did, and hope you will as well!)
Told by Alice that “One can’t believe impossible things,” Lewis Carroll’s ludicrous White Queen responded that the key to the trick was “practice.” “When I was your age,” Her Majesty affirmed, “I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” National Review has the opposite habit. We wake up, read reams of the newly impossible, and set out to dismantle it with all we’ve got to give.
Frankly, at this point just “half-an-hour a day” of impossibility would be progress, for it is now the unwavering position of large swathes of the establishment that it is impossible for a layman to know what a woman is; that government expansions costing trillions of dollars are, in fact, “free”; that the murder of unborn children is routine and unremarkable “health care”; that, ad nauseam, the Treasury may print moneywithout consequence; that the meaningful history of the United States is to be found in slavery alone; that our foundational laws are “living” and should be reinterpreted at will; and that biological sex is determined by faith alone.
These are no mere abstractions. Consumers staring at inflation have been told that it is not happening, that it’s not happening much, and then that it started two weeks ago because of Russia. Spectators at sporting events are being informed that the men they see before their eyes are no such thing. Economists worried about the debt are being pointed only to magic beans. Line by line, departure by departure, reality has been rendered optional and its partisans rendered outré. Once, “What color is the sky in your world?” was a rhetorical question. Now, it may invite a ridiculous answer that, given the right ideological incentives, will become progressive orthodoxy within the month.
The advocates of this lunacy have a battery of reinforcements. They have groups that denounce, and acolytes who pronounce, and activists who take studied offense. And then there are the experts — well, the “experts” — who enjoy the imprimatur that conveys trustworthiness, but the flexibility that derives from chasing fashion. Together, this cadre pours scorn on the elucidators, and convenes to obscure, to bully, and to confuse. It creates nuance where none can exist. It substitutes clear, satisfactory words (“mother”) for daft political neologisms (“birthing person”). It plays judge, jury, and executioner — and revolutionary and historian, too.Nothing is constant, nowhere is off limits, nobody is immune from being thrown violently under the bus. Former favorite Ruth Bader Ginsburg had been dead for less than a year before the ACLU rewrote her most famous quote to mean the polar opposite of its intent.
The result is stupidity, incoherence, confusion, and caprice…”
In other words, the very essence of Progressivism.
Speaking of stupidity, incoherence, confusion and caprice, in the EnvironMental Moment, courtesy today of Jeff Foutch, the Daily Sceptic‘s Environmental Editor Chris Morrison wonders…
“In 1856, a 15 year-old child prophet called Nongqawuse is said to have heard voices telling the Xhosa tribe in southern Africa that it must kill all the cattle, stop cultivating the fields and destroy all supplies of food. In addition, people should destroy all their farming implements and cooking pots to help, it was said, ward off the threat of British colonialists. The junior soothsayer forecast that a magic day would dawn and everything necessary for life would arise from the earth. Of course, it didn’t.
By the end of 1858 the Xhosa population had dropped from 105,000 to just 26,000, with up to 50,000 deaths from starvation. The tribal culture was destroyed and the colonialists picked up the pieces.
Come amongst us today is a child prophet from the North who tells us that our house is on fire and we must remove the most efficient, reliable fuel we have, and harness our power from the wind and the sun. The child prophet Greta Thunberg claims superpowers, while her mother says she can see the demon carbon dioxide gas – invisible, of course, to the rest of us. National treasure and revered voiceover artist Sir David Attenborough produces mass entertainment programmes featuring images of fire, storm and desolation and tells us that too many people live on the planet and we have only a few years to mend our ways.
…It is more than likely that a growing number of people will start to laugh at the failed predictions, the shonky models that are always wrong, the ‘settled’ science notion that insults the intelligence, the constant virtue signalling from those with palaces and private planes, and the ignorant demonising of routine bad weather.
A new ‘Great Disappointment’ could be on the cards.
On April 18th 1844, Jesus Christ, along with the Saints in Heaven, failed to appear to cleanse and purify the Earth. The event had been predicted by the Baptist preacher William Miller, who had built up an enormous following across New England. A subsequent date also led to a JC no-show, following which the movement not surprisingly declined. But among Miller’s large number of followers, many of whom had donned white robes to prepare for their Ascension into the next world, there was recrimination. Shattered expectations led to what was termed the ‘Great Disappointment’.
In 1957, a group of psychologists led by Leon Festinger published an influential paper, “When Prophecy Fails“. This examined a small UFO religion in Chicago called the Seekers that believed in imminent apocalypse. Looking at other examples from the past, including the Millerites, they found that a failed prophecy actually led many believers to increase their commitment to the cause and attempt to recruit others into their belief system. In this way the pain of disconfirmation was lessened. “If more and more people can be persuaded that the system of belief is correct, then clearly it must after all be correct,” they wrote.
In the recent past, no matter what climate change scares were debunked, the movement went from strength to strength. In addition, the green cash running through subsidised technologies, countless public bodies including academia and well-funded activist groups is huge. Politicians like Boris Johnson have changed their mind once in the face of the relentless green propaganda onslaught; they are unlikely to want to do so again in the near future. The American novelist Upton Sinclair once wrote that it is “difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it”.
Maybe hold that disappointment for a little while longer.“
Here’s hoping…and praying…they…
Moving on, here’s another sextet of items specially selected for inquiring Conservative minds:
(1). In a must-read commentary courtesy of American Thinker via Uncle Cliffy, Christopher Monckton reveals the strategic threat from net-zero emissions, as well as the true nature and faces of the forces arrayed against freedom. Spoiler alert: Progressives are part…a HUGE part…of the problem.
“…But it is in the long term — say, a generation from now — that Russia is screwed . . . really, really screwed.
…The collapse of foreign investment, high inflation and interest rates, severe economic recession with lingering drags on growth, a shrinking population, greater strain on health-care systems, a declining demand for its exports, worsening environmental crises . . . on a variety of fronts, the Russia of 2030 is likely to be weaker than the Russia of today, and the Russia of 2040 weaker still. From this light, Vladimir Putin’s seemingly senseless decision to invade Ukraine makes a bit more sense, as perhaps he saw a window of opportunity slowly closing.“
(3). The Washington Free Beacon informs us the gunman suspected of killing two homeless men and wounding others in two East Coast cities in March would have been in prison at the time of the shootings if not for the work of Fairfax County, VA Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano, another Soros-sponsored Progressive prosecutor. Way to go, Steve!
(6). Just when you thought CNN couldn’t sink any lower, ANALyst Asha Rangappa blamed the bitch-slapping of Chris Rock by Will Smith during the Oscars on…drum roll please…The Donald!
Which brings us, appropriately enough, to The Lighter Side:
Then there’s these from Balls Cotton…
…and Ed Hickey:
Finally, we’ll call it a month with the Sports Section, as Townhall.com‘s Landon Mion provides us yet another reason never to watch another NFL offering:
“…The policy, which was adopted Monday by NFL owners during their annual meeting and will be paid for by a league-wide fund, states that the coach must work closely with a team’s head coach and offensive staff. The new rule was introduced with the intention of increasing minority participation among offensive coaches. The most coveted candidates for head-coaching positions tend to be offensive coaches…”
Seriously, what’s next? Every team must hire Black and White co-head coaches like Remember the Titans? Every team must have a transgendered coach or player? A gay coach or player? A female position player other than Tom Brady? Participation trophies? Every team makes the playoffs?
One things certain: Don’t hold your breath waiting for a requirement every team to play at least one White defensive back, running back and kick returner. Nor for owners to give away 20% of their franchises to females or minorities, ‘cuz here’s the juice: Ultimately, the owners will go along with this P.C. bullsh*t only until it starts impacting their bottom lines.
Magoo
Video of the Day
Parents: They’re mad as hell, and they’re not going to take this anymore! Watch as Cherokee County School District Chairwoman says a parent is “out of order” for reading sexually obscene material the district gives to students.
Tales of The Darkside
Charlie Hurt describes why Progressives problems can only deepen when the campaign finally kicks off.
On the Brighter Side
Courtesy of Jeff Foutch, we present an encore performance Michael Shellenberger’s must-see reasoned embrace of the only source of renewable energy which is both cost-effective AND realistic.
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