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Why All the Shock and Outrage?
I guess I’m mystified a bit by the shock and outrage at Biden’s betrayal of Israel. Biden has always been a slug, and one who associates with slugs. He and all of his associates continually traffic in lies. I don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble, but this aspect of Biden and his cronies is not exactly some kind of national secret. So what wise national leader is there, anywhere, who would ever actually trust Joe Biden for anything?
I have to believe that Israel is not surprised by these events. At all. I suspect they have alternatives. If they went into Gaza wholly dependent on Joe Biden, of all people, to achieve their strategic goals and without any plan B, then they are both incompetent and infantile. I don’t think they’re either of those things.
So I will be more than a little surprised if Israel doesn’t proceed, undaunted, to crush Hamas. After which Biden will probably be blamed by Israel’s enemies for not betraying Israel sooner, while also now being blamed by Israel’s friends, for betraying Israel at all. Thus Biden will have achieved a politically imbecilic kind of hat trick. A maneuver that has turned into kind of a signature move.
Time will tell, I suppose. I myself would prefer to live in uninteresting times. But, to paraphrase Gandalf, “That is not for me to decide”.
Published in General
That is precisely how things will unfold: Israel will destroy Hamas in Rafah. If they don’t get the precision bombs because Biden refuses to send them, then they will bomb Hamas to kingdom come. So be it.
Kind of reminds me of people who are shocked by widespread anti-semitic campus riots by the Left after the BLM and Antifa riots of 2020.
Look for more nations to align with the Russo-Chinese & BRICS sphere. I wouldn’t blame them at all.
I agree what this says about Biden, which I have long known. What does it say about others who hold our foreign policy fate in their hands?
CIA and NSA
Defense Department
State Department
Perhaps we should talk more about the Biden Administration. We need to roust each and everyone out of any position of public trust for the rest of their lives.
Not wanting to align with weakness and/or idiocy, or some other reason? Even when the less evil is stupid, I still blame nations and people for aligning with the more evil.
Nothing. It is all on Biden. Unfortunately, the agencies you listed have all been staffed by Obama and Biden.
There’s more going on within those permanent bureaucracies than you acknowledge here, @ekentgolding
Outrage can always be appropriate, but nobody should be shocked any more. Especially not the Andy McCarthys and Peter Robinsons.
This is where we mislead ourselves as conservatives who believe in honoring our Constitutional roots.
I was at a senior level in the old Civil Service prior to the creation of the Senior Executive Service (SES) to replace management level grades GS-16,17, and 18. At that time, political appointees at these levels were designated Schedule C, and had no permanent civil service status. They were customarily terminated with a change in administration.
When the SES was created, some were permanent CS employees and some were political appointees. I suspect many normal civil service status positions were taken over by Obama appointees being converted and much the same process took place in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and in State Department Foreign Service Positions. Likely the same in the CIA and the NSA. These are the posts that run the federal bureaucracy as we saw during President Trump’s tenure. It is also what I think I see with Biden, augmented by other appointees.
Very, very true.
I wasn’t aware that there was any shock and outrage at which to be mystified. Where are you seeing this?
Mostly in the media and on X/Twitter.
Perfect summary. A man with no principles finally backed into a corner. Everyone in his life has used him and he has always been too stupid to see it. Currently it’s BHO and his evil wife. Who don’t even use him for the same thing, but will use him until he is used up. It should be a classic play about hubris and integrity; almost too unreal to be true.
I’m curious about the media. Which media? The WSJ editorial page is opposed to this move, as I would expect, but I wouldn’t call it shock and outrage.
Edit: Here’s the URL.
And here’s a Letter to the Editor. Not sure that I’d call it sh0ck and outrage, either.
And here’s the WSJ asking where the shock and outrage is on a completely separate issue.
I find the use of the the phrase to be very confusing.
Daily Wire, any number of politicians (both Democrats and Republicans), also various special interest groups.
OK, the New York Post. Can they do anything that isn’t shock and outrage?
Don’t deny the man agency. He’s a politician. A not very bright politician. Anyone familiar with his 1988 presidential campaign should not be surprised.
Unfortunately for us, he’s risen beyond his level of competence.
Biden’s not smart enough to pull off an Obama-like “I’ll have more flexibility after the election” ploy, either. Of course, Bibi would see right through it anyway.
If they are more reliable as an ally, maybe.
Obama took a specific series of actions (in all agencies) to convert previously appointed and political positions to permanent civil service positions for the very reason you cite. He wanted his minions left in positions to thwart Trump and continue executing any positions initiated during his administration. They did that admirably with the help offered by ERepublican anti-Trump partisans. They remain there today. The ERepubs discouraged capable people from working in the T admin and actively worked against his policies. Bad stuff.
I’d be interested in hearing from you and/or Bob Thompson as to what could be done (or undone) about this?
Reform the Civil Service. It’s been done before, in response to its overt politicization, so there’s precedent.
Educate me. I won’t ackowledge what I am not aware of.
He did that in the womb.
I’m not knowledgeable in the procedures so cannot answer to that point. I know Trump reclassified a variety of positions at the end of his tenure and Biden summarily reversed that action. I think the more fundamental issue is the gross number of agencies (and hence political and civil employees) which contribute nothing to the taxpayers’ well being. That large number of agencies should be eliminated, long with their partisan employee lists.
As a benchmark, I’d first target any agency which is horrified at the possibility that Chevron may be reversed and that agency’s expansive intrusion (or use for political activism) into taxpayer life may be restricted or eliminated.
The first major stroke would be to consider moving every person holding any SES position to a new position. When I was there this was a perfectly legitimate move and I was moved twice. Many of these moves would require geographical relocation and likely would result in many retirements or terminations. There should be a complete review of all operating procedures in OPM and OMB. A clean-out of the intelligence agencies may need to go even lower in the bureaucracy.
When Trump is elected I think he should really make sure his first three top people in each organization are true MAGA people who will not be working against him.
Yes, but what reform? There are always reforms available that will make things worse.
That happened his first day of law school.