Australian Reporter: Biden 'Weakening America's Standing' & 'Emboldening Her Enemies'

Neon Nettle 

Journalist James Morrow raises global concerns as US enemies become more aggressive

"A top Australian reporter has raised global-level concerns about Joe Biden's leadership, warning that the Democrat seems "determined to weaken America's standing" while enemies of the free world grow increasingly more aggressive.

"Sky News Australia host James Morrow blasted Biden's recent moves that appear to be weakening the United States’ military strength which is "emboldening" America’s and Australia’s common enemies.

"Morrow made the remarks Sunday on Anzac Day - a national day where Australians commemorate those in their military who gave their lives for freedom.. . . 

" 'Which is why today, it is so depressing to look at what is happening to the U.S. under Joe Biden, who seems, for whatever reason, determined to weaken America’s standing, her military, and emboldening her and our enemies, making a mockery of a century’s worth of shared sacrifice.

" 'Now, we’ve all seen the silly side of Joe Biden’s green eco-warrior posturing, which this week included the bizarre spectacle of the U.S. president wearing his face mask on a zoom call to discuss climate talks as bemused world leaders looked on.” . . .

Biden's electric vehicle plan is a road to nowhere

Washington Examiner   "President Joe Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal calls for spending $174 billion for a network of 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations. Does this make sense?

"In 2020, only about 296,000 electric vehicles were sold in the United States, about 2% of the new car market. After all the electric vehicle hype, climate alarm, and generous taxpayer subsidies ($7,500 per car) of the past 30 years, there are now only about 1.7 million electric vehicles out of a total of about 290 million total vehicles on U.S. roads.

"In other words, Biden wants to spend more than $100,000 per car for a national charging network. Sure, the $100,000-per-car figure will come down in the future as more electric vehicles sell. But even if there were 10 times as many electric vehicles on the road, that would still be an outrageous spend rate of more than $10,000 per electric vehicle just to make charging more available." . . .

Biden administration will impose new regulations on meat industry, expert warns

 Fox Business

. . . "The Biden administration is focusing on “re-regulation,” a large shift away from the Trump administration’s deregulation push, Andrew Harig, a policy expert at the Food Industry Association, told attendees at the virtual 2021 Annual Meat Conference on Wednesday." . . .

The Academy Awards are this weekend. Almost no one has even heard of the movies up for Best Picture.

 

Reason  . . . "It's funny I should mention that movie, since it's about how Hollywood is smug, cynical, self-absorbed, and completely deluded about its own political relevance and purity. Of all the explanations for why the Oscars has failed to capture the public imagination in recent decades, this is the one that has received the most attention. 

"And not without reason either. The films in contention have, by at least one count, become more political in recent years, and it's probably true that the discussion around those films has become more political, at least for the Extremely Online. Movies have become grist for the culture-war-take mill; I've ground out a few in my time. 

"And then there are the speeches themselves, about which The New York Times recently had this to say: "Increasingly, the ceremonies are less about entertainment honors and more about progressive politics, which inevitably annoys those in the audience who disagree. One recent producer of the Oscars, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential metrics, said minute-by-minute post-show ratings analysis indicated that 'vast swaths' of people turned off their televisions when celebrities started to opine on politics."

"Fair enough. People love to hate celebrity politics; at this point, hating celebrity politics may well be more popular than the Oscars." . . .

Any awards release with political overtones faces a conundrum: To win the Academy Award, it must court Hollywood liberals, which can mean alienating the ticket-buying public at large.

"The Oscars Sink To New Level of Ridiculous (Had me laughing)"

An airport brawl seems like a microcosm of America

 Andrea Widburg  "A few videos are making the rounds showing a wild brawl taking place at one of the gates in Miami International Airport.  We don't know what started the brawl, although the media are reporting that the police did eventually arrest one person for disorderly conduct.  The primary victim, however, does not want to press charges, so the matter will almost certainly disappear.

"What makes one of the videos so compelling is the fact that it seemingly represents the breakdown of law and order across American cities." . . .

. . . "This is what America seems to have become in 2021: a place unconstrained by any societal norms, in which even once peaceful venues become the setting for wildly antisocial behavior.  Moreover, there are almost no men with chests to step in and make things right.

"If you're not familiar with the phrase "men without chests," it's from C.S. Lewis's 1943 book, The Abolition of Man.  In it, Lewis writes,

We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.

"It's a densely written book, which makes it hard to read because it begins by attacking what we've come to know as moral relativism or postmodernism — that is, denying objective facts
and values and replacing everything with subjective feelings.  In that context, his men without chests weren't weaklings.  They were, instead, men who no longer stood for anything because moral relativism left them without values they could hang on to as guides through life.  Notions such as bravery, honor, decency, loyalty, and chivalry are meaningless if everything is supplanted by feelings.

"And so, at the airport, brutal men fought because they've been raised in a world without objective values of decency and morality. " . . .

Pictured, right: Amazon "In the classic The Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis, the most important Christian writer of the 20th century, sets out to persuade his audience of the importance and relevance of universal values such as courage and honor in contemporary society. Both astonishing and prophetic, The Abolition of Man is one of the most debated of Lewis's extraordinary works. National Review chose it as number seven on their 100 Best Nonfiction Books of the Twentieth Century."

Joy Behar of "The View" solves the issue of guns

 "Idiot Joy Behar Suggests Columbus Cops Shoot ‘Shot in the Air,’ Police Union Slams Her for Being an Idiot"  . . . "Leftists have made it clear there is NOTHING police can do that will get in the way of their political agenda. Let’s say police did fire a warning shot. Instead of Bryant being stopped, it would be the other girl who was stabbed to death. Then the shrill yaks on The View would be attacking the cop for NOT stopping the murder. It would probably be the cops’ fault for not stepping in the way of the knife.

"A combination of politics and not wanting to admit they screwed up is making media personalities side with someone who was about to kill someone else. Just because that’s the anti-cop side. These are the idiots who control our “national” discussion." . . .

Joy Behar: Don't tell Americans before you take their guns "Politicians seeking to confiscate guns from Americans shouldn't share their plans with the public beforehand and should seek to maintain an element of surprise, Joy Behar said on "The View" Monday." . . .

Fraternal Order of Police VP blasts Joy Behar's comments about policing: 'not grounded in any facts'

Why don't we have a discussion about warning shots, Joy? They're prohibited in every single police agency and, oh yeah, a simple law of physics: what goes up must come down. So those bullets are going to come down somewhere. And this other idea of shooting someone in the leg, first of all, someone had the femoral artery in their leg. Not only that, we shoot center mass because that is the largest target. If that officer misses and hits the girl next door and the one who is the actual victim in all of this, how is that going to play out?

Behar does have a verbal track record:  ‘The View’ star Joy Behar mocks Mike Pence’s Christian faith: ‘That’s called mental illness’

You can say anything stupid as long as the guy who controls the Applause machine works for you. TD