The Levant heats up. Is Red State's Bonchie whistling past the graveyard? "The Islamic Republic has officially pushed too far to try to save face, and they'll now pay the price." So, too, might our Credentialed Elite? "We have elected leaders, and created political, policy and educational elites, who have wilfully pretended that the real threats – Islamists, global jihadi movements, their regime funders in Iran and the unvetted influx to Europe of migrants from countries steeped in their evil ethos – are just the fever dreams of a racist and backward fringe." Is it time for a fundamental re-ordering of priorities? "Meanwhile, we should look to our own defenses by canceling, I don’t know, a trillion dollars in 'social' spending and putting it to national defense." Will we get new leadership? "Biden in 2020 claimed that if re-elected, Trump would get us into a war with Iran and destabilize the region." One of those "They told me if I voted for Goldwater" jokes comes to mind.
Does anybody know what time it is? "The United States’ failure to educate its citizens has raised the question of whether it is still capable of sustaining a republican form of government." Does anybody even care? "The most effective regimes rely on a population internalizing the need to submit."
Meanwhile, two geezers are jockeying for the White House. "The president of the United States often is called the most powerful man in the world. But has that exalted office ever been occupied by a weaker individual than Joe Biden?" C'mon, man! "Biden never addresses the inflation created by his massive spending program, the lawlessness in our streets since 2021, the spiking cost of gasoline, or the humiliation abroad, from Kabul to Kyiv to the Chinese balloon." When you've lost Leon Trotsky? "President Biden declares that he is all that stands, or should I say totters, in the way of a dictatorship headed by Trump. If that is truly the case, then democracy is certainly doomed." Tottering, indeed. "Thanks to Joe Biden, America is becoming more and more like Venezuela."
The weekly round-up of mostly pithy elaborations of traditional Cold Spring Shops themes follows.
1. So it always is with decadent elites. "For our supposed betters, virtue-signalling and being on ‘the right side of history’ has replaced genuine virtue and rational thought." With predictable effects. "Every major policy seems to fly in the face of reality."
2. The tragic vision, understood. "They understand that fixing things is hard work, and destroying is always easier than building." Destroying takes time. "Then came the 1960s and the elevation of transgressive behavior and mores."
4. Orwell smiles. "Protection from hostile environments enhances academic freedom."
5. Deploy those Article I powers! “Today, the Senate rejected the Biden administration’s attempt to ignore the letter of the bipartisan infrastructure law and impose its extreme climate agenda on states across the country. Beyond the economic harm a greenhouse gas emissions requirement would cause, the main problem with the FHWA issuing this regulation is it simply lacks the authority to do so. I’m glad a bipartisan group of colleagues joined us in sending a clear message to the administration that we will continue to hold them accountable for executive overreach.”
6. It's never enough! "The wealthiest Americans are now paying a higher share of federal taxes than at any time in the past 40 years. How much more will be enough?"
7. Why we might get more Trump. "The temptation for liberal economists and politicians to deny the pain experienced by many Americans, and to condescend when they might instead try to empathize, is perhaps understandable in a fraught election year. But working- and middle-class Americans might conclude that they are wiser to trust their feelings and checking accounts."
8. Good. "RFK Jr. says he has ruled out Libertarian run for president."
9. Blind squirrel finds an acorn. "Some of the dimmer bulbs on the anti-war Left are cheering for Iran and Hamas. To make any public statement suggesting that maybe given its history it’s a bit understandable why Israel would be a tad defensive is to support genocide."
10. You think? "Perhaps on some key issues — the economy, immigration, international affairs — things really were better when Trump was president, and a vote for Trump over Biden would be a fact-based decision."
11. Two of the four political parties form a coalition. "[House speaker Mike] Johnson is, effectively, leading an unofficial coalition government that includes the bulk of the nominal Republican caucus and a sizable chunk of the centrist Democrats." Dare I say "told you so?"
12. The boys from Brazil? "The Kill the Jews crowd is a rather obvious American fifth column, but who are they?"
13. Fiscal incontinence. "The biggest threat to American democracy is American democracy." Didn't Tocqueville predict as much? Something will have to give. Indeed: "The IMF is talking down to Washington like we're a Third World country because that's the direction Washington is taking us."
14. Reality is a harsh mistress. "Proclaiming yourself to be a 'sanctuary' for illegal aliens is a wonderful bit of virtue signaling for progressives, but only until the migrants begin taking you up on your offer." You can deplorable-shame the residents of Aurora, Colorado. Aurora, Illinois might be another matter.
15. Politics divides, trade unites. "Morality itself is a product of exchange, and the more trade, generally the more humane a society is."
16. Wal-Mart. "The store was also full of the usual strung-out and wasted middle-aged and older people."
17. Buckwheat. "She just ends up pointing out how much worse everything has been since Biden took office."
19. If you say so. "NPR has been both a beacon of thoughtful, engaging, and fair journalism for decades, and a rickety organizational shit show for almost as long."
20. Equity feminists, destroying lesbian date night. "The end result of the feminist indignation over low WNBA salaries, then, will be the death of the WNBA."
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