VDH: The Left Should Be Happy with Biden.

The Left should be ecstatic that Joe Biden has given them everything they wanted.

The Left likes inflation. It reduces the value of old money by printing lots of new money. Those richer who have it, lose the value of their money; those poorer who don’t have any money, suddenly do.

When combined with low interest rates, inflation roars even louder. Not since Jimmy Carter has a Democrat been so insistent on inflating the money supply.

For decades, the Left has amplified former Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s 2008 dream that the government must spike fuel costs up to European levels. That was seen as the best way to force unsophisticated Americans to quit burning gas and transition to renewable energy. Biden took that sermon seriously.

He canceled federal energy leases. He shut down ANWR. He canceled pipelines and warned the oil industry its days were numbered. Biden has done more than any other Democrat to ensure fossil fuels were unaffordable, forcing America’s supposedly unthinking consumers to drive less or consider ditching their gas-engine cars altogether.

The hard American Left always wanted unlimited illegal immigration. Biden agreed and destroyed the southern border as we knew it.

The result is that in less than two years, nearly 3 million illegal aliens have surged into the United States. Nearly all of them arrived unvaccinated, untested, and unaudited at a time of a COVID pandemic.

Biden worries little that record numbers of Americans are dying from drugs that now pour across the border. Cartels became richer and more powerful than ever under his watch, while child traffickers were freed from worries.

Biden did more than any prior Democrat to ensure massive illegal immigration as part of the leftist dream of flipping red states blue by changing the demography.

Well yes, but illegal immigrants are now going to the “wrong” places:

● Texas Bussing Migrants: NYC Mayor Says City Being Overwhelmed.

● ‘Tricked Into Getting On Buses:’ DC’s Bowser Tries To Explain Why Homeless Shelters Are Filling Up With Asylum Seekers.

Why, it’s as if: Libs ‘All for Open Borders’ Until Crisis Hits Home.

WATCH: JOE BIDEN HAS INCREDIBLE ‘RULES FOR THEE’ MOMENT DURING CLIMATE CHANGE SPECTACLE.

President Biden on Friday cruised through Rome with an 85-vehicle motorcade — drawing criticism for the poor optics ahead of a global warming summit in Glasgow, Scotland, to which Biden is bringing about a dozen top US officials.

“Biden arriving at the Vatican. His motorcade is lonnnnnng,” tweeted Washington Post reporter Chico Harlan, along with a video of the procession.

“#Decarbonize this,” one person captioned the video.

“America’s Marie Antoinette class is Washington’s elites – and that shows it,” another person responded.

Speaking of which: Climate buster: Biden ‘green czar’ John Kerry’s jet unleashes tons of CO2.

I’d be more willing to believe that the “climate crisis” actually is a crisis, when the people who tell me it’s a crisis start to act that way themselves, to coin an Insta-phrase. In the meantime, I don’t want to hear another word about Glenn Reynolds’ carbon footprint.

BLOOMBERG HEADLINE: The Earth Wants Biden to Keep Gas Prices High.

While consistently high gas prices would encourage more drilling over the long term — not quite the desired outcome from a climate change perspective — imposing a tax to boost the retail price at the pump would eat into consumer demand without incentivizing further supply. Economists Gilbert Metcalf from Tufts and Jason Bordoff from Columbia proposed a tax along these lines in 2007 to stabilize the price of oil. Today, Metcalf argues, “rather than a price-cap on Russian oil, let’s put a $50 tax on it.” Russia would suffer lower revenues, and oil prices would not fall.

Higher energy prices will eat into consumers’ pocketbooks and slow the economy. What’s important for the president to understand is we have no choice. Fossil fuels must become more expensive. Lacking perfect zero-carbon alternatives that we could switch to cheaply at scale, we must recognize that higher energy prices are an inescapable component of any strategy to mitigate climate change.

Related: Let them pump gas: Elitist environmentalists have contempt for working class.

JOHN NOLTE: One Year Ago Today, Joe Biden Said Vaccinated Cannot Get COVID.

EVERGREEN HEADLINE: Republicans Just Might Find a Way to Blow It for November.

DISNEY’S LOVE OF THE CCP ROLLS ON: ESPN Awards Turncoat Chinese Skier Eileen Gu ‘Breakthrough Athlete’ ESPY After She Apparently Gave Up Her U.S. Citizenship.

Flashback: Disney Defends Mulan Filming Near [Uighur] Internment Camps In China.

And then there’s the Shanghai Disneyland itself:

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:

● Shot: Joe Biden: I’m going to ‘shut down the virus’, not the US.

—The Grauniad, October 20^th, 2020.

● Chaser: President Biden Tests Positive for Covid-19.

—National Review, today.

● Hangover: Watch: Joe Biden Says He Has Cancer (Updated).

—Paula Bolyard, PJ Media.com, yesterday.

FLASHBACK: Biden: ‘This continues to be a pandemic of the unvaccinated.’

—The Irish Times, January 5th.

WHEN THE PRE-2020 CONSENSUS IS SHATTERED:

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT AND LIBERAL MEDIA ARE AWOL* ON HUNTER BIDEN’S LAPTOP:

With new revelations regularly emerging about seemingly illegal activity by presidential son Hunter Biden, the failure of the Justice Department to file an indictment is beginning to look scandalous.

And with so much information from Biden’s laptop now showing that he and President Joe Biden were financially entangled despite the president’s denials, the continuing lack of coverage from establishment Big Media outlets also looks scandalous.

The Washington Examiner’s Jerry Dunleavy reported on Monday that Chinese records filed just last month still list a company founded by the younger Biden, called Skaneateles, as holding a 10% interest in the Chinese investment firm BHR Partners. In turn, that firm “has invested in multiple controversial Chinese companies, including facial recognition company Megvii, which was slapped with U.S. sanctions for its alleged participation in China’s repression of Uyghur Muslims.”

Public records still list Hunter Biden as the sole owner of Skaneateles. Representatives for the president’s son have not answered questions about whether and how “Hunter had divested from BHR or Skaneateles, if he had sold his stake, and whether he had made money from the Chinese business effort.”

* The Media Awol? DNC-MSM staffers are all on the job, doing what they do best:

TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE! White House Forced to Walk Back Biden’s Statement That He Has Cancer.

UPDATE: Joe’s speechwriters are in summer rerun mode:

We've heard this story before…

BIDEN IN APRIL: "I have asthma and 80% of the people who, in fact, we grew up with have asthma."

BIDEN TODAY: "That's why I and so damn many other people I grew up with have cancer." pic.twitter.com/8farOJVAfl

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 20, 2022

(Updated and bumped.)

JESSE SINGAL: Privileged, Highly Educated People Are Rapidly Colonizing The Racial-Justice Conversation.

It’s also undeniably the case that there is a long history of anti-Asian racism in the U.S. No one is questioning that, or claiming that stereotypes widely held 30 years ago have somehow been entirely snuffed out in the intervening period.

What I’m questioning is the importance of focusing so intently, and so repeatedly, on the complaints of very privileged people who, whether or not they are victims of racial discrimination, have been at worst very lightly dinged by it.

After all, this is a trend. In the New York Times alone, there have been recent articles about alleged racism within the wine world, at Condé Nast, at Bon Appetit, within top medical journals, and at Gimlet Media. Some of these institutions surely have genuine race issues, but in certain cases the allegations are questionable at best. The Condé Nast article includes a young staffer offended she was given a copy of a style guide, because she was apparently unaware that this is a common gift for editorial higher-ups to give to their subordinates (she interpreted it as a racist implication that she didn’t speak good enough English). No one has any freaking clue exactly what happened at Gimlet, and despite so many media folks’ evident eagerness to present it as a race-related controversy, the closest anyone can get to a coherent argument in favor of this storyline is “Two staffers, one of them herself a woman of color, initially opposed a unionization drive favored by many staffers of color.” This is not exactly fodder for a pattern-or-practice investigation.

What all these institutions have in common is that they are the domains of highly privileged, college educated people. If you are in the wine world, or publishing or food writing or medical research, there is an overwhelming likelihood you have a college degree, probably a good one, and that you did not come from a poor family. Here and there are exceptions, of course, but they prove the rule. deBoer is right that this conversation is increasingly about microaggressions committed by and inflicted upon very, very privileged people. People who are likely to be only a couple steps removed, at most, from the sorts of journalists who write for The New York Times and other elite outlets, and who can raise awareness of their plight.

Read the whole thing.

THE SQUAD’S PHONY ARREST AGITPROP:

Within moments, outlets such as ABC News had published stories blaring that the congresspersons had been arrested. In a tweet, the network featured two photographs, one of Ocasio-Cortez shot from the front with her hands behind her being led away by an officer, the other of Omar in the same position. If your sole source of information on this event was ABC News, you would have the impression that the representatives were led away to the slammer in handcuffs.

In a way, it’s surprising that Ocasio-Cortez has yet to fake handcuff bruises or claim police abuse while making margaritas on Instagram Live. People on the right should have their fun over these theatrics — but there are lessons to be learned here too. Donald Trump used to set off four-day news cycles over the most anodyne of political exaggerations. Yet members of the Squad can do Rodney King cosplay for an eager and willing flock of cameras without ever being held accountable.

Since the DNC-MSM won’t hold AOC and Omar accountable: Enjoy the internet’s best roasts of AOC for faking handcuffs when she was arrested at the Supreme Court.

GREAT MOMENTS IN MESSAGE DISCIPLINE:

Shot: Buttigieg Whines About Americans Not Wanting Electric Cars.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg made an appearance on CNBC Wednesday morning and whined about Americans not wanting to give up their gas fueled vehicles for electric alternatives.

Pete Buttigieg says he’s “astonished” that “some folks seem to really struggle to let go” of their gas-powered vehicles in favor of electric vehicles.

Worse, when asked about the dire consequences of the Biden administration’s war on oil and gas, Buttigieg justified the potential for deaths as simply part of the transition to alternative energy.

Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg dismisses concerns over “green” policies leaving homes powerless: “This is what a transition looks like”

—Katie Pavlich, Townhall, today.

Chaser:

Related: Let them pump gas: Elitist environmentalists have contempt for working class.

ONE GIANT LEAP: 53 years ago today, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first men to walk on the moon.

UPDATE NEWSPEAK DICTIONARIES ACCORDINGLY: Merriam-Webster Changes the Definition of ‘Female.’

GREAT MOMENTS IN MESSAGE DISCIPLINE:

Shot: Pete Buttigieg blasted for touting ‘benefit’ for electric vehicle owners from ‘pain’ of high gas prices.

Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was once again blasted for pushing for electric vehicles on Tuesday, this time for saying, “The more pain” Americans feel at the pump, “the more benefit there is for” EV owners.

Buttigieg testified before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on the transition to “domestic clean energy production” by the Biden administration, which launched an initiative to ensure 50% of all auto sales are electric vehicles by 2030.

The topic soon turned to gas prices, which reached record levels in June. House Republicans questioned Buttigieg on how Americans struggling to pay $5 per gallon for gas could afford to purchase an electric vehicle.

Buttigieg then reiterated that the “pain” at the pump could be offset by using an electric vehicle.

“The more pain we are all experiencing from the high price of gas, the more benefit there is for those who can access electric vehicle,” Buttigieg said.

—Fox News, yesterday.

Chaser: Also yesterday, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain was retweeting announcements of (slightly) lower gas prices:

As Matthew Continetti of the Washington Free Beacon asked at the start of the month: Who’s In Charge?

Every time I speak to a conservative audience, I am asked who is really in charge in the White House. My answer has been that the president is in command. After all, institutions take on the character of their leaders. If all the White House has to offer is excuses, if decisions are made either slowly or randomly, if the communications team and the president and vice president seem to live on different planets, if incompetence and mismanagement appear throughout the government, it is because the chief executive allows it. No conspiracy is required to explain the ineptitude. This is Joe Biden we are talking about.

Lately, though, I have been having second thoughts. Not that Barack Obama or Ron Klain or Dr. Jill are running the show in secret. What I have been wondering, instead, is whether anyone is leading the government at all. There is no power, either overt or covert, in or behind the throne. The throne is empty.

Think of the economy, the border, and Ukraine. From time to time, Biden addresses these issues. He may even answer questions about them. The White House sends out press releases describing its latest initiatives. Vice President Harris or the second gentleman pops up somewhere to talk about all the good she and he are doing.

Yet each of these elements—the president, his staff, his spokesperson, his vice president, his policy—comes across as disconnected, discombobulated, as if each inhabits a separate sphere of activity. Whether because of Biden’s age, or his weekend trips to Delaware, or years of remote work, or lower-level staff turnover, or a painstakingly slow decision-making process, or ideological stubbornness, or a lack of a strategic plan, this administration drifts from crisis to crisis, and from one bad headline to the next. And nothing improves.

Of course, Buttigieg’s quote above is a reminder that high gas prices are entirely a crisis of team Biden’s making: Why Team Biden might be purposefully grinding down the middle class.

UPDATE:

(Updated and bumped.)

ROBERT REICH: Perhaps it’s time to kick Joe Manchin out of the Democratic party.

Yes, your terms are acceptable:

STEVE HAYWARD: Net-Zero and the Fall of Boris Johnson.

The hot race to replace Boris Johnson as Prime Minister of Britain coincides with a record-breaking (though brief) heat wave that is summoning all of the usual clichés about climate change. But most Britons seem to be treating the heat with a shrug, understanding that heat waves sometimes come with what used to be known as “summer.”

Less recognized in the heat of the moment is the role extreme climate policy has played in the downfall of Johnson. The dominant narrative is that Johnson alienated his Tory colleagues in the cabinet and on the back benches with his hypocritical violation of Covid rules in his private parties, along with some scandal-ridden appointments, while the larger public soured on Johnson’s foolish embrace of draconian lockdown restrictions, along with a tax and fiscal policy one might have thought Johnson pinched from the Labour Party.

But the media, and even most Tory leaders, are reserving hushed tones for the role of Johnson’s fanatical embrace of “Net-Zero” energy policy (meaning a carbon-free energy supply by the year 2050). The energy policy of the Johnson government was indistinguishable from what Jeremy Corbyn’s Labourites would have imposed had they won the 2019 election.

Possibly because Britain was on tap to host the U.N.’s annual climate shakedown (known as COP 26) in Glasgow in 2021, Johnson somehow thought he had to be a “climate leader,” pledging among other reckless things to close all of Britain’s coal-fired power plants by 2024. Coal plants scheduled for closure this fall are now going to be kept online, even as the International Energy Agency in Paris recommended this week that Europe as a whole burn more coal on account of the soaring price and scarcity of natural gas—a scarcity that is entirely the political creation of western European nations that thought Russia was an honest and reliable partner that would supply the right amount of natural gas while Europe persisted in its fanciful green dreams of running their economies on windmills.

It’s quite a fall for Boris Johnson, who spent his salad days writing car reviews for Britain’s edition of GQ magazine and making guest appearances on the BBC’s motoring-themed show until last year, when he “spelt out the revolt against modernity that lies at the heart of climate-change alarmism when he used his speech at COP to complain about the invention of the steam engine. That contraption, which gave rise to the Industrial Revolution itself, was a ‘doomsday device’ that started the clock ticking on the eco-calamity we currently face, he madly said. And this is a PM who claims to stand up for British history and British greatness.”

DISPATCHES FROM THE INTERSECTION OF ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY AND PORTLANDIA: Portland Lesbian bar shuts down one week after opening because they weren’t woke enough.

Doc Marie’s is a lesbian bar that opened on July 1st of this year with the hope of bringing more inclusivity to the city of Portland. But just one week after their grand opening they were forced to shut down because of complaints that the bar was not a “safe space.” Similar to the story I wrote a few weeks ago about the queer-owned cafe in Philadelphia that was shut down by employees for not being woke enough, Doc Marie’s was cannibalized by the woke mob.

The crowd on opening day was huge. One woman said that the line for entry on opening night was “wrapped around the block” with “literally 200 lesbians” waiting to get in.

But the excitement about a new progressive hangout dissipated quickly. Within days, Doc Marie’s found itself on the receiving end of accusations of not being inclusive enough for trans people and people of color. Despite mask mandates being lifted in Portland, patrons accused the bar of not implementing enough COVID safety measures. Patrons also claimed that Doc Marie’s had “culturally appropriative art” on the walls.

Exit quote: “Surrendering to the woke mob doesn’t appear to be working out in Doc Marie’s favor, as the bar remains closed with no public plan to reopen.”

HOW IT STARTED: Next mayor wants NYC to be even more of a ‘sanctuary’ for illegal immigrants.

Every single one of the eight Democrats running for mayor vowed to protect illegal immigrants from deportation, solidifying the Big Apple’s often infamous status as a “sanctuary city.”

* * * * * * * *

Entrepreneur Andrew Yang, the son of legal Taiwanese immigrants, said, “I appreciate anyone who comes to this country or New York City for a better life.”

And Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said migrants were his neighbors growing up in Queens.

“My mother worked two jobs to provide for the six of us and we had a group of undocumented residents that lived in our community,” Adams said.

The other candidates — city comptroller Scott Stringer, former Obama housing secretary Shaun Donovan and nonprofit leader Dianne Morales — also voiced their support for the Big Apple as a sanctuary city.

—The New York Post, June 2nd, 2021.

How it’s going: Texas Bussing Migrants: NYC Mayor Says City Being Overwhelmed.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday demanded the federal government help pay for what he said was a wave of asylum seekers pouring into the city, claiming its safety net was being strained by busloads of people coming from border states and elsewhere.

Adams’ comments echo those of Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who took to national TV Sunday morning to say her city’s homeless shelters were filling up because of buses being sent en masse to the city from Texas and Arizona.

But as opposed to D.C., the problem in New York City is exacerbated by its “right to shelter” mandate, which means any homeless asylum seeker who comes to town, by any means, has to be put in a bed somewhere.

“Currently, New York City is experiencing a marked increase in the number of asylum seekers who are arriving from Latin America and other regions. In some instances, families are arriving on buses sent by the Texas and Arizona governments, while in other cases, it appears that individuals are being sent by the federal government,” Adams said in a statement, adding that more than 2,800 asylum seekers had entered the shelter system in recent weeks.

But the offices of both Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey denied Adams’ claim, saying in separate statements that they were in fact sending asylum seekers to Washington — but not to New York City.

—WNBC, NBC’s Manhattan affiliate, yesterday.

FAR LEFT PHONIES! AOC and Ilhan Omar Pretend to be Handcuffed as They’re Taken Away from Supreme Court by Police.

Naturally, the DNC-MSM are amplifying the two’s performance art:

UPDATE: Heh, indeed:

MORE: America’s Newspaper of Record: AOC Sits In Invisible Police Car Awaiting Transport To Invisible Jail.

(Updated and bumped.)

IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN’T DO? Beer could help you survive a heatwave, doctor says.

HOOVER DAM TRANSFORMER EXPLODES; NO ONE HURT.

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: Sesame Place to undergo bias training after calls of racism.

Why is the Children’s Television Workshop such a cesspit of racism?

https://twitter.com/LeslieMac/status/1548727928476901376

DEMOCRATIC PARTY OPERATIVE WITH BYLINE EXPLAINS WHY HE HAS FAILED HIS BOSS: WaPo Columnist Explains Why the Media Is to Blame for Biden’s Downfall.

I realize it’s his job, but it can’t be easy for a reporter to defend a president who loathes them. Even before Biden’s brain decomposed into tapioca, he’s had a notoriously punitive relationship with journalists, despite the vast majority of them being members of his own party:

● Joe Biden Snaps at Another Female Reporter.

● Biden Snaps At Reporter For Asking About Bombshell New York Post Reports, Does Not Deny.

● President Wise Guy: “Joe Biden is playing hard to get. He’s involved in an unrequited love affair: The media adore him, but he hates them.”

● ‘Classy:’ Joe Biden Snaps At Reporter After Being Asked About Hunter’s Paternity Test.

● Bullying Biden Yells at Fox’s Doocy: ‘Ask the Right Questions!’

● Biden Accused of Sexism After Remarks to Female Moderator.

● Biden Explodes When Confronted On Lying About Charlottesville. Video Proves Biden Wrong.

And these classics from the Obama era:

● VP Biden’s Office Apologizes For Locking Reporter In Storage Closet During Fundraiser.

● Vengeance: Biden’s Office Seeks Investigation Into Unfriendly Journalist.

And of course, ground zero, from 1988: Why Joe Biden’s First Campaign for President Collapsed After Just 3 Months.