Commentary on Current Events

 

   There is so much going on during the traditionally "slow" Summer months, when nobody's paying attention to politics, I had to make this a multiple topics post. I definitely can't cover everything, but I hope to highlight a few important stories. Where I can, I will try to combine related stories into one narrative.

   The "Inflation Reduction Act" is the biggest news out of Congress this week, and it comes on the heels of the huge semiconductor bill that has passed both the House and Senate, and is supposed to be signed by Pres. Biden next week. Sen. Joe Manchin announced that he found a compromise with Sen. Majority Leader Schumer on this new bill, which some are calling a light, rebranded version of "Build Back Better," which Sen. Manchin, and Sen. Sinema famously killed. Sen. Manchin's support hinges on a separate bill, which is supposed to remove the hurdles for a pipeline in his home state of West Virginia. However, it looks as if that bill won't do anything to deter the legal court challenges that are holding up the pipeline.

   There is also the question of Sen. Sinema, who is just now entering the debate over this "Inflation Reduction Act" bill. She will undoubtedly have her own concerns that must be addressed. While all this negotiating is going on, the CBO, and other independent sources have said that any anti-inflationary impact the bill will have won't happen for at least five years. This does not address the inflation that is crushing voters today, in the least. I don't know how the Democrat leadership came up with this, or why Sen. Manchin signed on, but besides being bad policy, it's bad politics.

   Next, there is the ongoing debate about Democrats supporting criminals over crime victims, and their efforts to dispel that image. Pres. Biden is trying hard to sound like the "tough on crime" Democrat he was in the '90's, but unfortunately, that's not where his party is, today. NYS Gov. Kathy Hochul, who calls herself a "Biden Democrat," is a prime example. Her opponent in this year's gubenatorial race, Lee Zeldin, was attacked with a bladed weapon at a campaign event, and the attacker was back on the streets a day later. This is on top of more outrageous examples of criminals being prioritized over victims of crime, and general public safety to count, here.

   New York is not the only example. Democrats across the country are still promoting anti-law enforcement policies, and trying to paint criminals as victims of "systemic racism." While no one can dispute that racism may factor into some law enforcement statistics, where are these advocates, when looking at the percentages of crime victims that are minorities? The overwhelming majority of children killed by guns are not in random "mass shootings," but individuals, shot on inner city streets by criminals.

   Further, Democrats like to keep limiting the right to legally own a firearm, but the Democratic prosecutors they elect seem to turn a blind eye to criminals convicted of gun crimes. How does that work, exactly? A criminal caught with an illegal gun is released without bail, but they want to expand the definition of "illegal gun," as if that's going to reduce gun crimes? This is primarily a state and local issue, so all of Pres. Biden's efforts are just talking points, and not very good ones.

   This brings us to the more important issue of federal law enforcement, specifically the FBI. The political corruption in the FBI has never been worse that since the days of J. Edgar Hoover, and that may be an understatement. In the information age, these guys can't be allowed to get away with what they are doing. It's not new, either: James Comey's ham-handed attempts to be "balanced" by announcing the Hillary email investigation was reopened gave the game away. He had it in for Pres. Trump, and it continued after Trump won the election.

   In the runup to the 2020 election, the FBI ignored devastating evidence that they had about candidate Biden being possibly compromised by China, Ukraine, and others. It even goes back to Pres. Trump's first impeachment, over a phone call with the Ukrainian persident. There was a supposed "quid pro quo" in that call. However, there was a video of VP Biden, saying openly that he would withold 2 billion in US aid if Ukraine didn't fire the prosecutor looking into Burisma. What the FBI knew, but the public didn;t, at that time, was that Burisma was paying Hunter Biden $80,000 a month as a board member. So the FBI has a lot to answer for, over the past 10 years.

   FBI director Christopher Wray was on Capitol Hill, for a grilling by the Senate. From the little I saw, he dodged all pertinent questions, citing "ongoing investigations." There were other lines of questioning, including citing parents at school board meetings as "domestic terrorists," and why the people who attacked the Arizona statehouse after Roe v. Wade was overturned aren't being treated like the Jan. 6th Capitol rioters. I would include the Summer of 2020 rioters, and the protesters outside of the SCOTUS justices' homes. This gets back to AG Merrick Garland, and what a political hack he is. Thank goodness he was never considered for being a SCOTUS justice.

   A final note: Ian Millheiser, a "senior VOX correspondent" published an obituary for Justice Samuel Alito, and then deleted it. This is not how journalists are supposed to act. I'm an amateur, and I've been writing political commentary for a long time. This blog started in 2004, and I've learned a lot about what is appropriate to publish, since then. In the age of social media, I had to relearn ettiquette about that. I've deleted posts, but I can't understand the mindset of this person, except that he was wishing that Justice Alito was dead. I'm reminded of the comment that Julianne Malveaux made about Clarence Thomas, many years ago: "I hope his wife feeds him lots of eggs and butter, and he dies early." I saw that, and was shocked by it, but all of the people on the panel with her laughed. Why do liberals think it's okay to wish death on their political opponents?

   I truly despise many left wing politicians and commentators. However, I couldn't imagine wishing for them to die, publicly. To be brutally honest, when those thoughts come into my head privately, I am ashamed, and pray that God forgives me. I understand that people can't control the thoughts that pop into their head, but any professional journalist, especially a senior correspondent, should have better judgement than to share such a hateful thing as a "pre-obituary." Ms. Malveaux has moved on to becoming a college president, so she isn't out there publicly calling for people to die, anymore. Maybe this "senior VOX correspondent" can find a new line of work, as well.