DESPERATELY SEEKING DIOCLETIAN.

Incoming vice-president J. D. Vance faced the nation on Sunday and current moderator Margaret Brennan made a fool of herself.

MARGARET BRENNAN: A lot has happened in the past week.

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Yes, it has.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You campaigned on lowering prices for consumers. We've seen all of these executive orders. Which one lowers prices?

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Well, first of all, we have done a lot, and there have been a number of executive orders that have caused, already, jobs to start coming back into our country, which is a core part of lowering prices. More capital investment, more job creation in our economy, is one of the things that's going to drive down prices for all consumers, but also raise wages so that people can afford to buy the things that they need. If you look at our slate of executive orders--

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, grocery prices aren't going to come down?

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: No, Margaret, prices are going to come down, but it's going to take a little bit of time, right? The president has been president for all of five days. I think that in those five days, he's accomplished more than Joe Biden did in four years. It's been an incredible breakneck pace of activity. We're going to work with Congress. We're of course going to have more executive orders, and we're going to try- the way that you- you lower prices is that you encourage more capital investment into our country, and you asked specifically what executive order is going to help lower prices. All of the stuff that we've done on energy, to explore more energy reserves, to develop more energy resources in the United States of America. One of the main drivers of increased prices under the Biden Administration is that we had a massive increase in energy prices. Donald Trump has already taken multiple executive actions that are going to lower energy prices, and I do believe that means consumers are going to see lower prices at the pump and at the grocery store, but it's going to take a little bit of time. Rome wasn't built in a day--

I thought I was being funny last August when Kamala Harris was pushing her crackdowns on price gouging.

There's generally a recent Common Dreams column available to provide comic relief on what is turning into an unedifying election season.

They're going to be too busy fangirling over ¿Que mala? this week, but have no fear, dear reader, there's always the World Socialist Web Site.  "Kamala Harris outlines pro-corporate economic agenda at North Carolina campaign stop."

After that speech, the shade of Henry Wallace called, asking for his stump speech back, and Diocletian could be heard wandering the Boundary Waters crying, "Nikita Sergeyevich, where are my edicts?"  Panem et circenses, not so much.

Margaret's fact-checking skills leave a lot to be desired.  Apparently she thinks that Dementia Joe standing in front of a big screen with slogans like LOWERING COSTS whilst mumbling something about "bottom up and middle out" or maintaining price caps on insulin work to lower prices, or perhaps it was Flibbertigibbet with her calls for a federal ban on price gouging and unspecified investments in strengthening supply chains that would do the job.  The vice president, on the other hand, is noting that by doing less, the Trump administration will do more to revitalize competitive markets than all the good intentions of Obama or Biden or Harris or Walz or whoever comes next.

Pajamas Media's Matt Margolis concurs.

This exchange showcased Vance's ability to connect the dots for viewers, illustrating how lowering energy costs directly impacts consumers' grocery bills. “So if we lower energy prices, we are going to see lower prices for consumers,” he concluded, reinforcing the administration's commitment to tackling the root causes of inflation.

I still can’t get over the fact that the same people who insisted that everything was just fine with our economy and accused the public of being ignorant for not realizing it are now suddenly acknowledging high prices and are trying to blame Trump for not doing anything or enough about it. Credit goes to JD Vance for schoolinng Brennan on how things work.

I opened my post with excerpts from the official CBS News transcript of the interview.  News Busters' Jorge Bonilla offers his annotations thereto.  "Brennan never so much as laid a glove on Vance, who disarmed her questions with humor and logic. Those wondering why the Vice President would grant interview time to a media that hates him now have their answer. Think of an elite cage fighter who has to grapple and spar in between big-money fights, and you’ll understand."