Blame Biden

Chart courtesy of Ed Driscoll posting at Instapundit, showing gas prices went up long before Putin invaded Ukraine.

Perfection? Not Available

John Nolte who writes for Breitbart has decided that Fox News is as bad as the rest of them, meaning MSNBC and CNN. I agree Fox has made a few poor calls, ones I'd rather they'd skipped, but they are still the best of the bunch. I've tried watching the truly conservative upstarts but their production values don't make the cut. 

I believe Nolte is letting the perfect become the enemy of the good. Fox News mostly does a good job, they aren't perfect but then, who is? Would we want them to be the conservative version of MSNBC or CNN? I know I wouldn't.

I mostly watch Bret Baier's Special Report, which is the FN news hour. I tape it for watching during supper. He covers stuff the other cable news channels don't, like the border mess. And his panel normally has one or more solid conservative voices like Mollie Hemingway or Hugh Hewitt. Nolte doesn't convince me to skip Fox News.

An Unfair Cop

The pseudonymous Sundance who writes at The Conservative Treehouse criticizes President Biden for blaming the coming food shortage on Putin and the Russians. His (?) point is that many things have caused the food shortage, and in a complex world that is almost always true.

However, the major cause of a shortage of wheat is the Russian attack on Ukraine's south coast which has cut off their wheat exports, some of the largest in the world. Most of that wheat moves by ship and the Russian navy has blockaded the Ukraine ports. In normal years Ukrainian wheat feeds a lot of poor folk in the Middle East and Africa, not this year. 

We are unlikely to experience food shortages in the U.S. except for odd shortages caused by government meddling like the infant formula mix. We'll experience higher prices but in places where people are lucky to earn $1 a day higher prices equal skipped meals, famine, and perhaps death.

There are plenty of mistakes for which to legitimately criticize President Biden, but the world wheat shortage shouldn't be one of them. That really is on the Russians.

A Sour Public Mood

The Associated Press isn't known for being friendly to conservatives, in spite of which the Daily Mail (U.K.) runs an AP story concerning a public opinion survey of Americans. Here are the key 'graphs:

Eighty-five percent of U.S. adults say the country is on the wrong track, and 79 percent describe the economy as poor, according to a new survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Even among Democrats, 67 percent call economic conditions poor.

The poll shows only 39 percent of Americans approve of Biden's leadership overall, while 60 percent disapprove.

The national dissatisfaction is bipartisan, the poll shows. Ninety-two percent of Republicans and 78 percent of Democrats say the country is headed in the wrong direction. Since last month, the percentage of Democrats saying the country is headed in the wrong direction rose from 66 percent.

I give the AP credit for running a story that can't have been popular in their newsroom. Perhaps we'll have results we like in early November when the midterm ballots are counted. The way we defeat vote rigging is to win so big the rigging doesn't matter.

Fearing the Russian Bear

Appropos of the previous post, NBC News runs an opinion piece by a Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis who is probably retired as it omits the usual disclaimer "the opinion expressed is not that of the U.S. military." Davis argues that NATO should not accept Finland and Sweden as new members.

His argument is basically that they (a) face no threat by Russia, (b) risk being dragged into a conflict they could otherwise avoid by being neutral, and (c) paradoxically increase the risk faced by NATO's current members of having to defend them. Clearly for starters, (a) and (c) cannot both be correct.

What Davis entirely fails to explain in why two nations which have maintained a neutral stance for decades have suddenly decided that they are at risk of a Russian invasion? He presents no evidence of an 'epidemic' of paranoia in either nation.

It appears Putin's invasion of Ukraine has convinced a majority of people in both nations that, under its current leadership, Russia cannot be trusted to respect the integrity of neighboring sovereign nations. The invasion of Ukraine has been an object lesson illustrating the truth expressed in a Ronald Reagan campaign video, "there really is a bear in the woods" and it is dangerous.

Sweden, Finland to Join NATO

Turkey has withdrawn its opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO. It is likely both have given Turkey private assurances that they will be less supportive of Kurdish independence activities based on their soil.  

With all the hoo-hah about various Supreme Court decisions, not much attention has been paid to this change of heart. Potentially this is much the bigger deal, although how it will affect daily lives of Americans is less straightforward.

Membership for Finland and Sweden plugs a Baltic “hole” in the NATO bulwark and improves the security of NATO members Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Norway, Denmark, and Poland. Unlike some former joins, both of these new members have significant military resources and preparedness already in place.

Their decisions to join after decades of neutrality are reactions to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and another loss for Putin and Russia as they strengthen NATO. Once their membership is complete, any attack on either commits the members to come to their defense. 

Less Than Meets The Eye

An assistant to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, one Cassidy Hutchinson, testified Tuesday before the Jan. 6 show trial committee. She indicated that President Trump has a temper, reacts viscerally to bad news, and was taking his frustration at the outcome of the 2020 election out on those who worked for him. None of this is much of a surprise.

She also claimed he insisted on following the demonstrators to the Capitol and got physical with the Secret Service driver who refused to take him into a dangerous situation. This latter claim was hearsay, she wasn’t in the car with POTUS and the Secret Service agents. She claimed to be recounting what someone had told her.

A Daily Mail (U.K.) story reports there are Secret Service personnel who are reportedly ready to deny under oath that the latter claim is accurate. As several pundits have observed, her testimony broke little new ground and hardly justified calling a last-minute session of the show trial.

Tuesday Snark

Hat tip to Instapundit for this literally accurate insight into managerial reasoning.

A Worm … Turning

A local story I’m following is the long, slow slide Rep. Liz Cheney (RINO-WY) is taking out of politics. Following the Dobbs decision in which the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Cheney announced her longtime support for the pro-life side of this issue.

Whereupon Democrats, who have praised her anti-Trump antics on Pelosi’s hand-picked Jan. 6 show trial panel, turned on her like the proverbial fair weather friend she showed herself to be. That should put paid to her efforts to get WY Dems to change registration to vote for her in the primary.

Cheney’s energetic anti-Trump motivation seems to arise out of Trump’s disrespect for her daddy, former VP Dick Cheney, upon whose career she seems to have modeled her own. Trump doesn’t conceal his disdain for the whole George W. Bush presidency, which hindsight shows to have been rife with missed opportunities, wasted efforts and pointless wars.

Thoughts about SCOTUS

The Supreme Court has released its end-of-term decisions and much teeth-gnashing has occurred. I want to share some reactions and this is my forum for doing so.

The most recent three justices to join the Court were quizzed about Roe v. Wade during confirmation hearings. All answered that Roe was established precedent protected by the doctrine of stare decisis. 

None would answer how they would rule concerning it, but senators chose to believe the candidates considered the matter settled. Obviously, that was not the case. They told the truth, but wisely failed to elaborate.

The nominees answered out of their experience as appellate judges who probably rarely violate stare decisis. Rules for the Supreme Court are different. The lawyers at Power Line indicate stare decisis is important, but does get overturned from time to time. 

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The decision about a high school coach praying on-field after a football game appears to have upset some who are concerned the players might feel coerced to join in. Nonsense, I grew up among people who pray. All I ever had to do was tip my head forward and stand or sit quietly until they finished. I showed respect for their faith without ever sharing it. 

I was almost never quizzed about my faith or lack thereof. If something is important to people I otherwise like, I don't knock it, I let it slide. If they make it an issue, I tell the truth which is I don't share their belief.

Weird Immunological Science

The journal Medical Xpress reports research at the University of Texas, Houston, which finds getting an annual flu shot protects people against developing Alzheimer's disease. The findings will appear in the Aug. 2 issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. Hat tip to Instapundit for the link.

People who received at least one influenza vaccine were 40% less likely than their non-vaccinated peers to develop Alzheimer's disease over the course of four years, according to a new study from UTHealth Houston.

We found that flu vaccination in older adults reduces the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease for several years. The strength of this protective effect increased with the number of years that a person received an annual flu vaccine—in other words, the rate of developing Alzheimer's was lowest among those who consistently received the flu vaccine every year. (emphasis added)

Since there is evidence that several vaccines may protect from Alzheimer's disease, we are thinking that it isn't a specific effect of the flu vaccine.

This side effect is very welcome. The DrsC have gotten annual flu shots for a couple of decades, and plan to continue. Paraphrasing the Bene Gesserit litany against fear, Alzheimer's is the mind-killer.

Movin', Movin', Movin'

However - hat tip to Rawhide - these "dogies" aren't "disapprovin'," they're volunteers. The Washington Examiner reports Census Bureau data shows the exodus from big blue state cities continues.

All 15 of the 15 fastest-growing cities and towns between July 2020 and July 2021 are in states that Republicans govern: Arizona, Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and Idaho. And 14 out of the 15 fastest-declining cities during the same period were in states that Democrats governed at the time.

Amid skyrocketing crime and homelessness, the government-enforced destruction of children's innocence, and the gross enabling of political violence, cities such as New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago have had little to recommend themselves lately. That is one reason those four cities, the top four population losers in last year's data, lost on aggregate the equivalent of Miami's entire population.

The Washington Examiner's  editorial concludes this means:

The classic bread-and-butter services that governments are supposed to provide (sanitation, law enforcement, a judiciary) are more attractive to taxpayers than the performative wokeness that has replaced useful governance in such places. People want their tax dollars spent to repair roads, not to force depravity onto their own children.

That sounds about right to COTTonLINE. I'd add the caveat that at least a few of those moving to red states do so because their employers chose to move and they've elected to hang onto their jobs and go along.

Pelosi's Riot?

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee writes for RealClearPolitics as follows:

There is indeed a specter haunting our country that threatens to destroy American normalcy and tear the very fabric of our Republic’s democratic way of life.

The threat is coming from the Democratic Party, which is seeking to completely subvert American law and order and use it as a tool to suppress their political opponents.

Pelosi’s apparent refusal to act on knowledge that was widely available to her in the days leading to Jan. 6, 2021, and her subsequent decision to stage what is effectively a series of show trials trying to blame President Trump for what occurred that day, proves this.

Minority Leader McCarthy says Pelosi was offered National Guard troops when the planned rally that became the Jan. 6 incursion was announced. He says she had her minions turn down the offered troops, claiming "bad optics." 

Irrelevancy

The Washington Examiner reports the findings of a McLaughlin & Associates poll. They write:

While the Supreme Court’s decision overruling the 1973 Roe v. Wade right to abortion has dominated today’s network and cable coverage, the latest McLaughlin & Associates poll said just 5% of voters call it a top concern.

Just below abortion, at 1%, is reviewing the 2020 election, over which the media are also obsessing. By comparison, 54% cited the economy.

Media bias much? Topics the media obsesses about are things of secondary-at-best importance to voters. It turns out, for example, the Jan. 6 committee is preaching to a tiny subset of Democrats. 

Who believes a group of unarmed hooligans being a noisy nuisance in the Capitol threatened to topple our government? The idea seems preposterous to most people.

A Dobbs Afterthought

Few people are indifferent to the overturning of the Roe and Casey decisions legalizing abortion which was the outcome of the Dobbs decision released today. Whether you love or hate the decision, two men should get most of the credit or blame for it: former President Donald J. Trump and then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Trump for appointing truly conservative justices, as he promised to do while campaigning. McConnell for shepherding (sherpa-ing?) the nominations through Senate approval. The current conservative majority in the Supreme Court is very much the result of their efforts.

What is truly ironic is that the two men don't much like each other. Trump is a CEO outsider who often finds government systems ridiculous and frustrating. McConnell is the consummate insider who knows how to make those arcane systems produce results.

Update

Yesterday I wrote Putin might do something ugly in response to the EU accepting Ukraine and Moldova as candidates whose desire to join the EU will be under study by the existing members. Today I read that, in a speech in St. Petersburg he indicated it was not a big deal since, unlike NATO, “the EU is not a military alliance.” 

He sounds like a guy backed into a corner claiming he is there by choice, at least to me. His situation at home may be more precarious than it superficially appears.

A Hopeful Observation

Writing for New Statesman (U.K.), Lawrence Freedman concludes a survey of Putin's actions and options vis-a-vis Ukraine with this upbeat assessment.

From the start of this war, its most important feature has been the asymmetry of motivation. In the end the Ukrainians are fighting because they have no other choice. Russians have the option of going home.

I'm not certain his summary is correct in all its particulars, but I do like the hope implicit in the asymmetry it identifies. Hat tip to RealClearWorld for the link.

SCOTUS Snark

Power Line’s Steven Hayward, riffing on the Supreme Court’s big week of supporting the Second Amendment and overturning Roe and Casey.

When looking at the Court this week, sometimes you just have to take the sweet with the sweet. Or perhaps we should say that someone’s emanation just got clobbered by a penumbra.

Emanations and penumbras, very nice arcane terminology.

Roe v. Wade Overturned

It is widely reported that, as expected, the Supreme Court has today overturned the Roe v Wade decision that claimed to find the right of abortion in our Constitution, which document never mentions the practice. It is important to be clear about what this decision means.

It does not mean a Federal ban on abortion, although many reactions would have you believe that canard. What the ruling does is find that abortion is one of the many topics (including murder) which are subject to state legislation. 

As a consequence, there will be states where the procedure is legal, states where it is sometimes legal, and states where it is never legal. The battle moves from Washington DC to state capitals where state legislatures will decide. 

The really finicky bits will be efforts by some legislatures to penalize their citizens who choose to go to another state to obtain an abortion, and any who assist them to do so. It is even possible that extraditions will be attempted and resisted.

Believe it or not, expect the interstate commerce clause to become an issue in this tussle. And efforts to circumvent it with private party lawsuits as has been attempted in TX. 

One thing seems clear, the days when the Supreme Court could be counted on to provide “rights” that a minority of people wanted us to have, when legislatures wouldn’t enact them, are over. At least that is so with the current court membership.

Downstream, one can wonder to what extent the present “originalist” court will undo other decisions which discovered “rights” in the constitution which the framers never considered or mentioned. Will they stop here or forge ahead unspooling the Warrren and Burger court legacies? I’m guessing a halt, at least for now.

Expect trouble tonight, and maybe all weekend. The gnashing of teeth in the media will be cacophonous. Don’t we live in interesting times? 

Local Political News

Gateway Pundit reports Wyoming's one and only House member - Liz Cheney (Rino-WY) - is sending flyers to Wyoming Democrats asking them to change party affiliation so they can vote for her in the Republican primary. I guess the theory is that they might as well do it since whoever their party nominates is going nowhere in this very Republican state.

I don't actually know any WY Dems so I can't call one up and ask them if it's true. GP quotes the wording of the flyer as follows:

HOW DO I CHANGE MY PARTY AFFILIATION TO REGISTER AS A REPUBLICAN SO I CAN VOTE FOR LIZ? 

To change your party affiliation or to declare a new affiliation, complete the Wyoming Voter Registration Application & Change Form and submit it to your county clerk’s office not later than 14 days before the primary election. You may also change your party affiliation at your polling place on the day of the primary or general election, or when requesting an absentee ballot.

I suppose a few Ds will do so, probably most will not. With the exception of her opposition to Trump, her votes in the House have been mostly conservative. 

I've seen little anti-Trump agitation or sentiment locally. I figure Cheney is toast in WY politics, and knows it. Probably a fat K Street lobbying job awaits her; she won't miss the flights back to WY from her actual northern VA home.