When CNN reports discontent with the Jarrett regency as "Rudderless, aimless and hopeless;" when Matthew Continetti says the regents have bugged out, "There is no power, either overt or covert, in or behind the throne;" this is probably not the time to be proposing more refinements of Federal Power. "Why are you so good at calling for new laws and so bad at enforcing the ones you have on the books?" That is, when they're not exhorting the people to get used to the suffering. "White House begs oil companies to improve situation. Can we drill? We’d rather you not. Can we build a refinery? We’d rather you not. Can we build a pipeline? We’d rather you not. Just make it better."
They're not going to. "Since when did the welfare of 90 percent of the American people not matter to [the Jarrett regency's] party anymore?" It never did, the reality is only being revealed now. "Beyond the hauteur is the deceit." Reality, though, might be on the side of emergence. "[T]he more expansive government is, the more people are likely to feel that it is imposing someone else’s beliefs on them. The less government, the more opportunity for people to go their own way." Complexity overwhelms the Men of System. "[T]op-down bureaucracy is not equipped for the level of complexity, nuance, and personalization necessary to really get at the problem."
It's become a global phenomenon. "The governments of virtually all the nations of Western Civ have become enemies of their people." It's not the usual right-populist suspects noticing, either. "Biden's chief flaw: his inherent lameness. He's playing president rather than being one."
The weekly roundup of pithy elaborations of traditional Cold Spring Shops themes follows.
1. At a loss to explain. "The disclosures raised questions about the adequacy of [Illinois's] 'red flag' laws even as a prosecutor lauded the system as 'strong' during a news conference announcing seven first-degree murder charges."
2. The fundamental lesson of economics. "And that’s the problem with inflation! It F***S UP relative prices."
3. The president proposes, Congress disposes. "Stop thinking of the annual federal budget as an executive branch management blueprint." Brookings used to publish an annual Setting National Priorities discussion of the proposed budget; I wonder if that's been gone longer than regular order appropriations have been.
4. Not not war.
5. Don't say you weren't warned. "For both sexes, it means an interpersonal landscape marinaded in pornography, actively hostile to intimacy, and governed by a false belief that male and female sexuality are the same."
6. Buckwheat: "picked to make Kamala Harris look good by comparison."
7. It's good to be the nomenklatura. "You can’t eat the Liberal World Order."
8. Try governing without any central principles. "The hard feelings over 2020 would never have happened if it had been impossible to just make up the rules."
10. Neither do I. "I don’t buy that. Maybe there isn’t absolute and definitive truth, but some things are a lot truthier than others."
11. By their fruits ... "The truth is that you have brought the public’s trust in you to an unprecedented low, and you have eroded your status as a source of authority." Now throw the rotten fruit away! "The Washington elite and the administrative state that serves it can only be defeated when the people arise in rebellion against it."
12. And disregard Crazy Bernie. Bet on emergence. "[I]t's not Sanders who will pull all this off—it's market forces, quietly at work, that should be trusted, not messed with."
13. In six thousand years, maybe we got a few things right. "It’s the Culture, Stupid. And the Families, Too."
14. The counterculture, on the other hand, brings wreckage. "'Pajama Boy' was likely the sort that 'Julia' had no intention of marrying." Well, he might have been her anonymous sperm donor.
15. Predictably. "SUVs Are Indeed Death Machines for Children, Blacks."
16. Civcs: "We elect people who then nominate and confirm judges who then rule." It's schadenfreudelicious. "The Democrats are losing in every governmental arena – executive, legislative and judicial – and they are not going to be limited in their hysterical, girlish pouting by bourgeois concepts like coherence. They want their power back, and they can’t have it. Let them cry – but don’t let up."
17. Two lies for the price of one. "The Affordable Care Act, on its own, had not made coverage more affordable." But government is the one endeavor where you can create a mess and ask for more power to undo the mess you created. "It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Democrats are proposing to try to solve problems they created by making them worse."
18. When somebody tells you who he is, believe him. "People are tweeting that July 4th sucks, because America is a bad place. Those people clearly have no interest in winning elections."
19. Marinate in the smug. "The best part about the Dallas Cowboys is making fun of them." Yes, particularly if you're in Packer Nation, and you know who the real America's Team is. The link, however, takes you to commentary on Cowboy business partnerships, and it is a paradigm of cosmopolitan condescension for your weekend amusement.
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