The Biden administration is all too predictable, and the consequences are already awful
Yet between 2017 and 2021 there was relatively little violence in Israel and on the West Bank. Whatever our ideologies and politics, we all know the one reason why there is chaos now and not then.
The Trump Administration assumed that whenever there is perceived distance between the United States and democratic Israel, then unsavory players exploit the void and try things they otherwise would not…
For such a supposedly provocative Trump Administration, peace, not war, followed from its initiatives…
But if we were looking to achieve the exact opposite, then calm can become war in five easy steps:
1) Revive Iran…
2) Discourage Arab moderates…
3) Reboot corrupt Palestinian dictatorships…
4) Adopt globalist moral equivalence…
5) Do the exact opposite of the Trump Administration. In Pavlovian fashion, if Trump was evil and coarse, then erase all his evil and coarse policies without exception. Just as border walls, fracking, pipelines, low inflation, and low unemployment are now inherently bad, so too are all of Trump’s policies in the Middle East.
In the article, Hanson fleshes out each of those five points in some detail. The strange thing is that, to any thinking person following current events, these observations should be obvious – but at least half the country disagrees with them, and/or some even think the current results are good. Hanson then adds [emphasis mine]:
Is such a scenario [Middle East war escalation] alarmist or fantastical?
No more than concluding that printing $5 trillion in new money, while discouraging employment and production, is inflationary.
No more than assuming that halting the southern border wall, rendering immigration law inert, and stopping border enforcement all encourage illegal immigration.
No more than believing that canceling pipelines, stopping new oil and gas leases on federal lands, promising to end fossil fuels in 20 years, and warning of new taxes and regulations, discourage oil producers from gearing up to meet demand, while encouraging foreign criminal hackers to take out our ability to deliver fossil fuels.
And no more than thinking that defunding the police and skipping arrests and indictments empower the lawbreakers and spike crime.
Historians will later calibrate whether in all these policies their authors were simply incompetent, misguided, and naïve, or else nihilists who equated ensuing chaos and pain as precursors to long-overdue equity and social justice.
The new American Middle East policy is an extension of the new American domestic policy. In both cases, malign naïveté leads to clueless hubris that ends in catastrophe.
Fools AND knaves.
The day Biden was elected – no, actually many many months before, when I perceived there was a good chance that Trump would lose and some leftist candidate would win – I saw the writing on the wall. As I’ve said many times, it didn’t take extreme brilliance to see it, either. It was obvious what any of the Democrats who had a chance of winning – Warren, Sanders, Biden, etc. – was going to do, and it was obvious what the results would be. We had a small preview during the Obama years, and this would be Obama redux times 10. Maybe times 100.
I don’t know whether a full-fledged Middle East war is in the cards. But I know that all of the already-terrible things that have occurred since Biden and company took office were utterly foreseeable, and yet were entered into anyway, and that most of the people I know either don’t pay attention, don’t see it, don’t care, or applaud what’s happened. I know that the effects of propaganda and groupthink are astoundingly large, and that the intelligent and well-meaning are not only not immune to them, but seem especially vulnerable.
“Elections have consequences” all right. But so do education, the MSM, entertainment, advertising, the legal system, and a host of other cultural and societal influences – and all of them affect elections and encourage certain results. And so here we are today.
This is the case whether you believe the 2020 election was fair or whether you believe it was not: here we are today. It is also true whether you believe that Joe Biden is in charge or not – or whether you believe, as I do, that he’s taking the advice of others but is still aware enough that he basically understands what he’s doing. Here we are today.
There was a NYT article a couple of days ago that was supposed to be a positive story about Biden that was actually pretty damning about how the extremes his staff has to go through to prepare him to appear in public and about his temper.
Good times.
Biden is aware of these policies in some basic sense of the word ‘aware’ but this is all Obama through Susan Rice and it’s actually brilliant in a destructive way because they can put it all on Biden when things go off the rails. All kinds of ‘sources’ will say ‘President’ Biden went against his advisors on some disastrous policy.
It is impossible to exaggerate the sheer awfulness of the illegitimate Harris/Biden administration, affecting every aspect of American life, from the chaos at the southern border, to the pernicious ubiquity of BLM/CRT/1619 propaganda, infiltrating all realms of public education and public discourse, to the corruption, through leftist ideology, of the intelligence agencies, of the DOJ, and even of the Pentagon, where a BLM-supporting race-hustler named Bishop Garrison is working as a “diversity consultant”, along with the incompetent Lloyd Austin, to purge all conservatives from the military.
And what about Taiwan and maybe even Japan? I fear for Taiwan. American weakness will encourage the Chinese. If they move against Taiwan, how would Biden react? If the Chinese perceive our response too weak, will they also go for broke and try to carve off at least part of Japan?
The Russians, Norks and Chinese can all see how weak Biden is. The attack on the Colonial Pipeline was just a trial balloon.
Things are going to get very bad in foreign affairs. In a way, a big dramatic fail by the Biden Adm might actually wake Americans up. I just hope too many people don’t get killed. I imagine Hong Kong will be completely absorbed.
I’m trying my best to avoid being pessimistic but it’s extremely difficult. To come up with something, anything, that might portend that our exceptional country is not finished.
One thing that has surprised me about the last four months is how fast they have been in their attempts at destruction. Executive orders have come furiously and about everything, both domestic and foreign. Optimistically, this tells me that they know they only have a very short window until the 2022 House elections so they are wrecking as much as they can in as short a time as possible. And, again optimistically, maybe they won’t be able to accomplish all they intend.
That’s what projection is for.
According to The New York Times:
Biden is taking his aides on “Socratic Journeys”.
Is that Kamala bringing in the hemlock ?
LeClerc,
I don’t care who ya are, that’s funny.
Well played
Socratic all right…
https://thenationalpulse.com/analysis/day-37-biden-asks-what-am-i-doing-here/
Here we are indeed. Just for the record, Trump did not lose the election. The Left with its political arm the democrat party committed the most massive electoral fraud in the history of this country and, in doing so committed treason.
Griffin,
“All kinds of ‘sources’ will say ‘President’ Biden went against his advisors on some disastrous policy.”
Bingo. That’s Xiden’s puppet masters’ “ace in the hole”.
j e,
Fundamental transformation of the military is absolutely essential to the Left’s totalitarian agenda.
jon baker,
Hong Kong is history and Taiwan living on borrowed time. The criminal Xiden administration will do nothing. I’m doubtful that the CCP will attack Japan before they’ve dealt with America.
Cornhead,
“In a way, a big dramatic fail by the Biden Adm might actually wake Americans up.”
No. Not those who voted for Xiden. They lack the moral courage necessary to face the mirror. So once again they’ll blame Trump.
Grandpagrumble,
“they know they only have a very short window until the 2022 House elections so they are wrecking as much as they can in as short a time as possible.”
I’m doubtful that the left is so incompetent as to fail to spread Dominion software more widely into House districts. Clearly they realize that it’s how and who counts the votes that determines “the winner”.
However, the country isn’t finished. The greater the democrat’s tyranny, the more fiercely the sentiments that lead to revolution percolate. When a no longer deniable nor avoidable choice is seen to exist between 1984 and 1776… good men and women will do what they’ve always done.
Those who are paying attention understand where we’re headed. Those of us on this blog pay attention. We see and can anticipate what’s coming. Many people don’t pay attention or get their news from the MSM, which is now completely agenda driven.
Basically, Biden’s actions so far have only affected me in the prices I’m paying for gas and groceries. The border situation, thus far hasn’t affected me, but I can see what the effect will be. Same with foreign policy. Same with economic and tax policy. At this point, for most people, day to day life is pretty much unchanged. They don’t see what’s coming. And, because a large percentage of the population are genetically closed minded, they will not see that the Biden policies are what caused inflation, job stagnation wage stagnation, energy shortages, loss of free speech, loss of due process, increased threats from foreign adversaries, and a general malaise. It will be blamed on Trump, bad luck, foreign powers, the banksters, or some other scape goat – anything or anyone other than Biden/Harris.
The surprising thing to me is how fast the Biden policies are heading us toward the ditch. I thought maybe a year or more before things would be so obviously spinning downward. But the knock on effects of the pandemic (shortages of basic materials mostly), coupled with the ambitions of our foreign adversaries, and the haste of the Biden/Harris crew to transform America have speeded things up. The next two years are going to be “interesting times.”
History is written by winners of conflicts, obviously.
We are preparing ourselves to be the losers. Only losers fight by the rules even though their losing the fight is obvious to all, while the winner ignores those same Marquis of Queensbury rules all too obviously.
Winning is the only thing that matters, and we are stacking up to be incredible self-willing losers.
J.J.,
The reason why they will blame Trump, rather than assign responsibility for the coming debacle to Biden/Harris is because that inescapably leads to looking into the mirror. When morality is subjective… better the world collapse than grave irresponsibility be faced.
Cicero,
RINOs and NeverTrumpers aside, the reason the conservative minded have held fast to the rules is because of loyalty to Constitutional governance. Facing the fact that Constitutional governance is gone leaves but one path, determining in whose gun shall political power reside. It leaves but one choice; accept the imposition of 1984 or realize that the actual choice is liberty or death.
@Cicero:
“History is written by winners of conflicts, obviously.”
Early days.
A lot of people will have to be wiped out socially, economically, or even biologically, before the tide begins to turn.
e.g. CivNats, QAnon types, MAGA Hat Morons, etc… Not that some of the aforementioned won’t make good Lessons for those who come later.. or even useful idiot ‘Heroes’ — part of winning is to write one’s own history and make it by deed become *the* History.
A lot of mistakes will have to be made. The smart hard men on our side hardly exist at present. The few who do exist and have experience and demonstrated capability most certainly are not posting stuff in forums — that would be insanity and a one-way ticket to a SWAT Team Stack outside front door at 4am.
There is no immediate grand strategy and there can’t be for a long while. Only thing a person can do at present is figure out how to keep himself and his family (such as are willing to see sense) safe — either in place or by relocation. Longer term, the USA is a big place and Future Winner Whitey would do well to find some Yan’an type redoubts and sit out much of what is to come, look to himself and his thinking and training, and then in fullness of time gazump everyone just before the Fat Lady Sings. I don’t think a Bier Hall Putsch will cut it.
Hi. Here is a link to some graphics showing the volume of rockets from Gaza over the past 8 days. It’s in Hebrew – the number crunching was done by the data guy at a major Israeli daily – but the graphical representation should be understandable.
This is based on alarms and warnings issued by the Home Front Command.
https://m.ynet.co.il/articles/59336490
“…looking into the mirror…”
Don’t believe they actually possess a mirror. (No doubt they’ve studied the classics assiduously and after declaring mirrors a potential threat to the nation’s security smashed them all to smithereens.)
+
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/05/report-kamala-keeps-list-of-journalists-who-dont-respect-her-life-experiences.php
But, as the country’s paper of record reports, there is the occasional angst:
https://babylonbee.com/news/kamala-harris-starting-to-worry-biden-will-fully-destroy-america-before-she-even-gets-a-chance
“1) Revive Iran… ”
I’m not sure that Prof. Hanson entirely understands just how much money and moral support Iran requires during these difficult times nor does he wish to admit—-no doubt for partisan reasons—that the Democratic Party always stands by its allies especially when they’re in need.
After all Iran’s cash outlays have been huge and the “Biden” administration has been stepping up to the challenge:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/hezbollah-has-dug-network-of-tunnels-from-beirut-to-southern-lebanon-report/
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/05/politics/us-houthis-terrorist-list/index.html
And while there are occasional “consequences”, it’s all for a good cause…
https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2021/03/09/biden-admin-alarmed-houthis-engaging-terrorism-removing-terrorist-list/
Barry Meislin,
Sociopaths and psychopaths aside, we all possess a mirror. Otherwise known as a conscience, many simply ignore it, some bury it so deeply that not even the faintest of whispers gets through. Were it not so, there would be no moral basis for asserting there to be egregious murders and war crimes.
“the Democratic Party always stands by its allies”
More often than not that’s true. But the democrat party’s support for Iran is temporary. As soon as the left is convinced that the right is no longer an obstacle, that support will be abandoned. Both the atheistic, Marxist Left and the Islamic death cult recognize the others predatory nature and view each other as their primary competitor.
If so, then I must conclude that the Democratic Party is the party of “sociopaths and psychopaths”.
(Actually, I think that’s pretty accurate…not to mention, at this point, obvious! Though they do make somewhat of an effort to disguise it—optics, etc…. Hold on, I guess that DOES mean they didn’t destroy all their mirrors!)
Regarding the Democratic Party’s support for the Mullahs, I would have to respectfully disagree: the Fundamental Transformation(TM) crowd are in it for the long haul, this only because both have the same set of enemies. (What, after all, are friends—not to mention allies—for? Especially ideological comrades!)
And so we’re left with bated breath: Can the Democratic Party (and their benighted allies) indeed fool (almost) all of the people all of the time? (Or at least all the people that they need to fool?)
Of course this may become a moot question…if the Democratic (sic) Party succeeds in changing the voting rules…”For the Pipple and Nothing but the Pipple”.
Speaking of friends, allies and ideological comrades…. (not terribly surprising, I realize, but maybe enough to evoke a big gulp or two…):
https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2021/05/17/exclusive-bombshell-photos-reveal-years-of-meetings-between-bloomberg-executives-and-chinese-propagandists-in-beijing/
H/T Powerline blog.
“graphics showing the volume of rockets from Gaza over the past 8 days” – BenDavid
This is my favorite so far.
https://i0.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-16-at-2.14.29-PM.png?resize=768%2C1086&ssl=1
Aesop – that now-iconic picture circulated in Israel without the lion-king stuff… The straight rockets on the right were labeled “when a man explains” and the more diffuse ones on the left were labeled “when a woman explains”.
Lotsa jewish humor at times like these…
One new development that is glossed over by foreign media – but which has riveted the attention of Israelis – is that this time Israeli Arabs have rioted and carried our lynches, pogroms, and synagogue burnings in major “ethnically mixed” cities.
This has shredded the illusion that prosperity, exposure to democracy, and “rational self interest” would keep this group from joining in violent Arab nationalism.
It turns out that not all cultures are alike… And what Western Lefties consider “rational self interest” is considered weakness by others… Who’d a thunk it?
Neo – i don’t see anyone reporting on this overseas. But our Hebrew facebook and twitter feeds are full of unprecedented in-your-face violent protests by Israeli Arabs in “coastal” Israel.
Barry Meislin,
The Marxist Left and Islam do have the same enemy, which would be we on the right and that 40% of those who self-identify as “strongly liberal” but who also take pride in America. Alan Dershowitz being a notable example. Both the Left and Islamists intend to eliminate the right and moderate democrats. Should they succeed, both will turn on the other because they will then see the other as the now primary obstacle to their domination.
Biden administration is filled with Hamas supporters such as Hady Amr and Maher Bitar. The democratic left is fully aligned with the terrorists including Iran. As they did in the Soviet Union, Jewish leftists have sold their souls to the Party. Schumer would not even endorse the arms package to Israel because he is so fearful of the hard left. Power is all he wants. I think at one time he would have been referred to as a Kapo.
Alank:
Please re-think that use of the word “kapo.” I have written a post on the subject that I suggest you read.
BenDavid:
I definitely read about those riots, but I don’t know where. I doubt it was in the regular MSM, but I’m not sure. Maybe in something like Tablet or perhaps Caroline Glick.
As the sociopathic, psychopathic “Biden” administration’s bald-faced lies continue….
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/white-house-trump-admin-middle-east-conflict
(One may well ask, “Why should they stop?”)
Meanwhile, “Biden” is showing us how a meaningful and long-lasting ME peace IS achieved….
Why is “Biden” doing this?
Because “he” is seriously deranged and, of course, wants even more and more power.
(And like many a poorly adjusted adolescent “adult”, “he” just loves to push “his” enemies’ buttons.)
…as “he” proceeds to demonstrate how a meaningful and lasting ME peace is REALLY achieved….