As cynical as you think you are about Washington, after all that’s happened the past three years, you probably aren’t even halfway where you should be.
It’s a frightening feeling when the world feels out of control and you can’t trust the people in charge.
A reader this week put his finger on this central truth of politics.
“I don’t think the average voter comprehends that some politicians will sacrifice peoples’ lives and risk national destruction for personal political gain,” he said.
Our conversation was about the catastrophic consequences of President Biden’s decision to lift sanctions on Iranian oil sales, giving Tehran billions of dollars to arm the enemies of Israel — and the US.
This was the catalyst for the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the subsequent turmoil that resulted in last week’s drone attack on a US base in Jordan that killed three US soldiers — and who knows what misery to come.
According to the woman who impersonates a White House press secretary, they died “fighting for this administration.”
Slipping on oil
But the reason for Biden’s dangerous Iran concession was utterly cynical. It was driven by the domestic political calculus that he needed to lower the skyrocketing price of oil by increasing the worldwide supply — or voters would desert him.
In other words, the president would rather we buy oil from terrorists, who will use the money to attack America and its allies, than increase domestic oil production and risk upsetting his party’s feral climate wing. He also lifted sanctions on the communists in Venezuela.
And the reason he had to turn to global pariahs Iran and Venezuela was because he had needlessly alienated our usual ally Saudi Arabia by calling it a global pariah. The Saudis could no longer be relied on to pump more oil because Biden was feigning outrage over the murder of a Saudi dissident whose demise had become a boutique cause in fashionable DC circles due to the fact he wrote a column for The Washington Post.
Biden trash-talked the Saudis and insulted the Crown Prince so he could play act at being a Human Rights Activist. Sure. Then why does he suck up to China?
So hellbent on snubbing the Saudis and pandering to Iran was Biden that when he got into the Oval Office he postponed a scheduled arms sale to Riyadh, ended US support for the Saudi war against the Iran-backed Houthi terrorist army in Yemen, and removed the Houthis’ terrorist designation. That worked out well.
Soon enough, faced with skyrocketing oil prices and record inflation, Biden was forced to go cap in hand to the Saudis and beg them to pump more oil.
But so enamored was he with his new self-image as Human Rights Activist that he couldn’t quite bring himself to shake the Crown Prince’s hand. Naturally, the Saudis rebuffed him and got into bed with China.
And now Iran’s friends the Houthis are hijacking commercial ships in the Red Sea and firing ballistic missiles and kamikaze drones at US warships, while other Iran-backed militias have been attacking US bases in Iraq, Syria and Jordan, with Sunday’s fatal result. To try to keep a lid on the inflation his lavish spending unleashed, Biden’s minions also keep draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is supposed to be used only in emergencies, not to get a president reelected.
Then they refill it, again at great expense, all to temporarily suppress oil prices and hope to pacify voters.
‘Bidenomics’ fantasy
Albert Marko, partner in Mavarinas Management Group, a Florida-based hedge fund, has been sounding the alarm on the Biden administration’s costly manipulation of oil prices. He says the New York Federal Reserve has been secretly buying and selling oil futures to suppress the price, at a cost so far of $1 trillion.
So, to recap, Biden is hampering US production for the climate vote, letting terrorists and communists pump oil for us to buy, and wasting over a trillion dollars to suppress the oil price and prop up the markets to get himself reelected. It’s a mirage in aid of a fantasy.
Unfortunately for him, while the optics and talking points may convince MSNBC that the economy is booming, out in the real world voters paying real prices haven’t yet bought the illusion. Hence Biden had to scrap his “Bidenomics” fantasy which had become a joke synonymous with falling living standards.
That’s not to say the gaslighting won’t eventually work in time for the election. People do get worn down by constant deception.
What kind of a president, you might ask, would sacrifice national security and the welfare of America for base political advantage?
What kind of president would enrich the world’s greatest sponsor of terrorism to bring oil prices down, so he didn’t lose elections?
The same kind of president who would doom the Afghanistan withdrawal by demanding the symbolic razzle dazzle of a Sept. 11 pullout and the nonsensical closure of Bagram Air Base. And then, when it all fell apart, call the mission a “success.”
The same kind of president who would paint himself as Mr. Empathy and yet be too busy looking at his watch on the tarmac at Dover Air Base to pay his respects to 13 fallen service members killed in the chaos of his fecklessness.
The same kind of president so intent on LARPing as a make-believe Gold Star Dad that, instead of heeding the grief of the bereaved relatives, he talked about himself. “Burn in hell!” one yelled at him when he left.
Effortless lies
The same kind of president who uses the war in Ukraine to play act at being a World Statesman and Foreign Affairs Expert, while hundreds of thousands are killed in a conflict enabled by his fecklessness. “America’s back!”
The same kind of president whose fantasy self-image as Compassionate Humanitarian caused him to fling open the southern border to millions of military aged men from across the world with no concern for who they are or what they might do. No concern, either, for the impoverishment of Americans who can least afford it, as their wages are undercut by a new slave labor force, their schools and hospitals are overwhelmed, and crime and discontent spread.
“I’ve done all I can do,” says Biden.
If only that were true.
“A normal person would be wracked with guilt,” said the reader who started this conversation. “Biden? Not a trace.”
Biden can’t feel guilt because he creates his own reality. He shakes his fist at the Villain Trump for the sins he commits himself.
He has no core. His absurd, effortless lies come from the fantasy roles he creates for himself inside his head.
He play acts at being President like he play acted at being Erudite Senator quizzing Clarence Thomas, like he play acted at Civil Rights Activist or Moot-Court Champion or Moderate Democrat or Tractor Trailer Driver or College Professor or Devout Catholic or Varsity Football Star or Devoted Father.
It’s all make-believe. Just him on a stage in his mind being admired by multitudes, creating new scenes in which he always is the hero.
The worldwide carnage and growing peril his actions cause is meaningless to him.
