Q: Mr. President, do you think it’s a good idea for Speaker Pelosi to travel to Taiwan this summer?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I — I think that — the military thinks it’s not a good idea right now, but I don’t know what the status of it is.
And then Biden moved on to another question about declaring a public-health emergency for abortion.
As the Wall Street Journal notes, Pelosi’s trip would have symbolic significance, as she would be the first House speaker to visit Taiwan in 25 years, and this is one of the rare issues where the typical Republican is likely to say, “Go, Pelosi, go!” The Chinese government is rattling its sabers and attempting to intimidate the U.S. government. The Chinese government has no authority to deny American officials the right to visit Taiwan.
The question is, will the Biden administration allow itself to be intimidated? The Journal’s editors conclude, “If China can stop a senior U.S. official from visiting Taiwan, how resolute is America going to be in a shooting war?”
Notice that Biden doesn’t say whether he thinks it’s a good idea. He just says “the military” — Who? When did they say this? Why did they say this? — thinks it’s not a good idea right now. He doesn’t argue that Pelosi shouldn’t go, exactly, but he doesn’t say she should go, either. He just ominously implies that the Pentagon sees some sort of threat afoot and moves on to another subject.
In the most recent issue of NR, our Andy McCarthydescribes Biden as the “confounder in chief” – a man who uses confusing jumbles of words that are often de facto retracted.“Biden’s words are meaningless.Of that, there is no better testament than the soles of his advisers’ shoes, worn away by the speed and regularity with which those words are walked back.”
Does Biden not want Pelosi to go to Taiwan?Who knows?We shouldn’t expect too much from him; he’s only the president.
NRO offers additional details on the ChiCom’s saber-rattling:
“A Chinese government spokesman reissued his warning to the U.S. on Monday about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s planned visit to Taiwan, saying “China will take strong measures to resolutely respond and counteract” if the Democrat visits the island. “We are seriously prepared,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters in a meeting, according to Reuters.
Lijian was responding to a Saturday report from the Financial Times, which stated the Chinese warnings to the U.S. are stronger than they have been in the past.
“If the U.S. side is bent on going its own way, China will take strong measures to resolutely respond and counteract,” he continued, when asked if China would act militarily or diplomatically. “The United States should be held responsible for any serious consequences,” he added, according to Reuters.
…“If Speaker Pelosi visits Taiwan, it would seriously violate the one-China principle and the stipulations in the three China-US joint communiqués and harm China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. It will have a severe negative impact on the political foundation of China-US relations, and send a gravely wrong signal to ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces,” Lijian said in a press conference last week. “Should the U.S. side insist on doing otherwise, China will take strong and resolute measures to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Lijian added.
President Joe Biden told reporters on Wednesday he didn’t know about the status of Pelosi’s trip. “I think that the military thinks it’s not a good idea right now, but I don’t know what the status of it is,” Biden said.
Pelosi responded to Biden’s comments on Thursday, saying “maybe the military was afraid our plane would get shot down.”…”
We should BE so lucky!
Here’s the juice: If the ChiComs can take out Pelosi on her way to Taipei…
…their capabilities are far more advanced than we imagined.
Speaking of the ChiComs capabilities, in an “exclusive” which, as the subject matter has evidently been known for some years,, is “late-breaking to say the least, CNN details how an…
FBI investigation determined Chinese-made Huawei equipment could disrupt US nuclear arsenal communications
“On paper, it looked like a fantastic deal. In 2017, the Chinese government was offering to spend $100 million to build an ornate Chinese garden at the National Arboretum in Washington DC. Complete with temples, pavilions and a 70-foot white pagoda, the project thrilled local officials, who hoped it would attract thousands of tourists every year.
But when US counterintelligence officials began digging into the details, they found numerous red flags. The pagoda, they noted, would have been strategically placed on one of the highest points in Washington DC, just two miles from the US Capitol, a perfect spot for signals intelligence collection, multiple sources familiar with the episode told CNN. Also alarming was that Chinese officials wanted to build the pagoda with materials shipped to the US in diplomatic pouches, which US Customs officials are barred from examining, the sources said.
Federal officials quietly killed the project before construction was underway. The Wall Street Journal first reported about the security concerns in 2018.
The canceled garden is part of a frenzy of counterintelligence activity by the FBI and other federal agencies focused on what career US security officials say has been a dramatic escalation of Chinese espionage on US soil over the past decade. Since at least 2017, federal officials have investigated Chinese land purchases near critical infrastructure, shut down a high-profile regional consulate believed by the US government to be a hotbed of Chinese spies and stonewalled what they saw as clear efforts to plant listening devices near sensitive military and government facilities.
Among the most alarming things the FBI uncovered pertains to Chinese-made Huawei equipment atop cell towers near US military bases in the rural Midwest. According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, the FBI determined the equipment was capable of capturing and disrupting highly restricted Defense Department communications, including those used by US Strategic Command, which oversees the country’s nuclear weapons.
While broad concerns about Huawei equipment near US military installations have been well known, the existence of this investigation and its findings have never been reported. Its origins stretch back to at least the Obama administration. It was described to CNN by more than a dozen sources, including current and former national security officials, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly…”
No worries, America. Provided the Big Guy is getting his 10%…
Now, here’s The Gouge!
First up, since even a blind man can see all is NOT well…not by a d*mn sight…writing at NRO, Jim Geraghty welcomes us to “It’s NOT a Recession, We SWEAR!” Week, as the…
“Politico’s Ben White characterizes this week as a “Category 5 economic storm,” but I think the dominant theme will be, “It’s not a recession, we swear!”
As much as economy-watchers will be studying the Consumer Confidence Index numbers on Tuesday and the Federal Reserve meeting and decision on interest rates Wednesday, the biggest deal will be the numbers for second-quarter economic growth, announced at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Thursday morning. We don’t know what the second-quarter economic numbers are going to be, but they’re probably not going to be good. The Atlanta Fed thinks it will show that the U.S. GDP shrank 1.6 percent in the last quarter. The previous quarter was a decline of 1.6 percent as well — so if the Atlanta Fed projection is correct, Thursday will bring news that the U.S. is now in a recession, at least by the traditional definition. (Even if it doesn’t, and it shows GDP growth at 0.0 or slightly higher, the U.S. is still in lousy near-recessionary conditions.)
Biden and his team will argue that, despite the numbers, the U.S. isn’t really in a recession. In fact, White writes that if Republicans declare we’re in recession, “It will not be true. At least not yet. But President Joe Biden and Democratic candidates across the country will face a daunting and possibly impossible challenge explaining to people why it’s not true.”
…The reason it will be so difficult for Biden to explain that this isn’t really a recession is because in the American public’s mind, a recession is a de facto synonym for “economic bad times.” With inflation at 9.1 percent, Americans are feeling an intense financial squeeze because everything is more expensive now. The price hikes aren’t gradual; they’re sudden and noticeable. And these aren’t price hikes that a person notices for once-in-a-while purchases, like a new home purchase or a new car purchase.These are noticeable price hikes in everything they buy, particularly groceries and gasoline.
There’s a curious trend in economic journalism(spelled “p-r-o-p-a-g-a-n-d-a”!) lately, contending that Americans are just too pessimistic, and that most Americans are doing much better than they are willing to admit.
This New York Times write-up of a survey in mid July is a good example: “Just 10 percent of registered voters say the U.S. economy is ‘good’ or ‘excellent,’ according to a New York Times/Siena College poll — a remarkable degree of pessimism at a time when wages are rising and the unemployment rate is near a 50-year low.”
At the same time, the average driver was paying nearly $275 a month at the pump, up from $167 in June 2021, when a gallon of gas was $3.07, according to Kelley Blue Book’s calculations. Rents, too, are escalating. The median monthly rent was nearly $1,850 in May, according to Realtor.com, up 26 percent from 2019, before the pandemic.
This morning, the Wall Street Journal serves up an article on upper-middle-class Americans who are watching their economic gains of 2020 and 2021 erode in 2022. The article notes that, “Upper-middle-class households are defined here as those earning between $75,301 and $127,300 a year.” (In parts of the country with high costs of living, that doesn’t seem all that upper!) Lots of people, particularly on the left, are likely to scoff that these Americans are sufficiently well-off that they need no sympathy — which illuminates just how conditional their much-touted empathy is. Upper-middle-class families must pay their mortgages, grocery bills, and gas bills, and for college educations and retirement, too.
Many economic writers — who I suspect are sympathetic to the administration — keep asking, “Why do the American people keep demonstrating this remarkable degree of pessimism?” And the American people keep answering, “Because everything is so flippin’ expensive these days!”
Between now and the midterms, Yellin, Biden, and the rest of the Democrats will be trying to convince Americans that they’re more prosperous than they feel. I suspect you would have an easier time convincing Americans that they’re taller than they feel.“
Here’s the juice, courtesy of Speed:
Then again, what should one expect from a clown car whose Climate Czar clings to the claim wasting trillions of dollars fighting a non-existent foe would somehow be “anti-inflationary”?!?
Next up, another octet of items specially selected for inquiring Conservative minds:
(1). Kevin Williamson explores The Circle of Corporate Life, observing Facebook‘s recent stumbles should serve as a reminder free-market competition works.
(3). Following almost immediately on the heels of the WHO declaring Monkeypox…a virus almost exclusively affecting gay men having close sexual contact with other gay men…a global health emergency, the discredited Dr. Faux Chi said if he could change anything about his response to the WuFlu scamdemic, he’d have recommended the government impose “much, much more stringent restrictions”, adding if he “knew in 2020 what I know now, we would do a lot differently.” No doubt The Donald echoes that sentiment.
(4). Courtesy of American Greatness via the Nickel, Julie Kelly wonders what is Adam Schiff hiding, having tucked an amendment into the National Defense Authorization Act prohibiting any evidence collected in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act from being used in investigations of government misconduct. Why indeed?!?
(5). Since we’re on the subject of out-of-control criminal activity, not only was the Black teenager captured on Saturday in this 54-second clip throwing more than 20 punches at an officer released without bail in Manhattan Criminal Court, just three days earlierthe SAME 16-year-old was arrested…and AGAIN sprung without bail…after viciously beating a man in the course of a robbery. Sorry, but these days, choosing to walk the streets of New York…or Chicago…or any other urban center in America…is, quite literally, a life-or-death decision. And we’re choosing life.
(6). As Catherine Herridge reports for CBS, the MSM appears not to have been the only powerful institution actively working to suppress news about Biden crime family in the run-up to the 2020 election.
(7). By even hinting he hasn’t ruled out the possibility of charging The Donald in connection with the January 6 riot, Merrick Garland confirms his unfitness for any government office higher than dog catcher.
(8). Since we’re on the subject of the rankly political refusing to rule out the highly improbable, Townhall.com informs us Liz Cheney hasn’t ruled out a 2024 presidential run. Yeah, Liz’ll run; She’ll run when pigs…
…learn to fly! Hat tip to the incomparable Stilton Jarlsberg for the artwork.
Which brings us, appropriately enough, to The Lighter Side:
Then there’s these from Balls Cotton…
…and the lovely Shannon:
Finally, courtesy of James Patrick, we’ll call it a day with yet another sordid story straight from the pages of The Crime Blotter, as The Daily Caller tells us a…
Bishop Robbed At Gunpoint During Livestreamed Sermon
“Masked gunmen stormed a New York church Sunday and robbed the bishop of jewelry worth hundreds of thousands of dollars as he delivered his sermon.
The assailants entered the church as Bishop Lamor Whitehead addressed congregants at the Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministry in Canarsie, a neighborhood in Brooklyn. The gunmen apparently ordered Whitehead to the floor and then proceeded to remove various pieces of jewelry from the bishop and his wife while brandishing firearms, livestream footage posted to Twitter shows.
The thieves fled with the bishop’s ceremonial and personal jewelry. They also stole jewelry from Whitehead’s wife, the bishop explained in an Instagram video posted after the incident. The New York Police Department (NYPD) initially estimated that the thieves got away with approximately $400,000 in valuables, according to FOX 5 NY. Other sources suggest that the value of the stolen goods actually amounts to over $1 million, according to the same report.
…Whitehead’s Instagram account features many videos in which the bishop can be seen sporting luxury clothing and driving a Rolls-Royce. Online commenters noted that the bishop’s outward displays of wealth may have made him a target for such a robbery. “It’s not about me being flashy.It’s my prerogative to purchase what I want to purchase,” Whitehead said in the same Instagram video.
The suspects escaped the scene of the robbery in a white Mercedes Benz…”
$1,000,000 in jewelry…luxury clothing…Rolls-Royce…white Mercedes-Benz?!? Seems like we picked the wrong profession!
Magoo
Video of the Day
If you can stomach them, lies are all the defenders of the indefensible can muster.
Tales of The Darkside
Laura Ingraham asks what inquiring Conservative minds want to know: What DO you do about a problem like Kommielas?!?
On the Lighter Side
For those too young to remember…a group to which we don’t belong…take a walk down Memory Lane and meet possibly, probably the greatest pitcher ever to throw a baseball.
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