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Join Jim and Greg as they are glad to see a poll definitively showing Americans are paying close attention to some of our nation’s biggest problems and concluding the Biden administration is handling them poorly. They also fume as more evidence piles up, this time from Japan, that President Biden has no desire to assign responsibility for the outbreak of COVID-19 and made sure our intelligence review remained inconclusive. And they discuss John Kerry saying that President Biden had no idea the French were furious about the recent nuclear submarine deal with the UK and Australia and White Press Secretary Jen Psaki claim Kerry didn’t mean that.
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To those of us outside of the United States, it does seem that Americans are, for all their country’s involvement in the rest of world, quite inward-looking. Thus, I was surprised but pleased to hear the Japan Times mentioned. The JT is certainly the leading English-language newspaper here in Nihon. Half a century ago and more, it was run by Japanese. (I once worked as a translator with a former editor-in-chief, who happened to be in the US as a student at time of Pearl Harbor.) They tended to be both unabashedly loyal to their country and pro-American/anti-Communist–in contrast to much of the Japanese-language press. Over the years, Robert Conquest’s famous law came to apply. Expats, including academics and the usual left-wing malcontents began to have a markedly greater say in things. One conservative commentator, an American lawyer who speaks flawless Japanese, aptly described it as “The Japan-bashing Times.” Friends of mine have written for it, but on non-political topics, so some of it is still worth reading, and apparently there has been some sort of backlash against some of the more outrageous views expressed on the political front.
The Japanese need a wake-up call…Our new prime minister is promising to raise the defense budget. Good. Anyone who thinks that neo-militarists are skulking about, waiting for a chance to return to the bad old days, will likewise think that the greatest threat to American democracy is angry parents at school-board meetings.
My best wishes to GC and JG. I listen to the Three Martini Lunch five times a week, often as the last thing I do before retiring.
Better late than never, but I catch up on the TML on the weekend.
Biden’s poll numbers are fully earned. There isn’t an issue out there where Joe isn’t in bad shape, but he got here by deliberately, loudly and decisively doing the opposite of Trump. In a way we’re seeing a backhand endorsement of Trump policy reflected in Joe’s numbers.
Joe could have been on a glide path to a second term if he’d come into office and continued Trump’s policies. Just the change of White House Occupant would have magically transformed all of Trump’s policies into “common sense” and “consistant with the Democrat vision of the America that is who we are.” The economy would have recovered faster, there wouldn’t be horrific border scenes, our international foes would still be biding their time, inflation would be much lower, Covid spread would be about the same (’cause “Virus gonna virus”.)
This country could be on a serious roll. And with the MSM to tell the story of the unprecedented good times, Joe would be excused for not implementing Bernie’s economy or Ocasio-Cortez’ green new deal. He’s not them, it’s consistent with what he ran on and why he was nominated.
But as Obama noted, Joe has an “ability to ef (COC paraphrase) things up.”
More than an ability, it seems like a requirement.