Irritants 2

The Debt Limit

Democrats in the U.S. Congress are treating the nation’s “debt limit” on inflationary borrowing in the same manner they have treated the southern U.S. border. The border has now become a term of political art. It exists presently only as a demarcation line on a map.

The “debt limit” has been delimited by presidents and the U.S. Congress no fewer than 78 times since 1960 - 49 times under Republican presidents and 29 times under Democratic presidents. Initially, the debt ceiling was “a fix that enabled bonds to be issued without requiring repeated congressional approvals,” according to the Associated Press.  The debt ceiling, in other words, is a “workaround” that relieves the U.S. Congress of its constitutional oversight obligation to control every dollar spent by the executive department.

The ‘”debt limit” has become a term of art deployed by artful politicians who have no intention of reducing debt by cuts in long-term spending. In reality – that is, in the real world that sometime impinges uncomfortably upon the romantic visions of visionary politicians such as U.S. Congressional leaders Chuck Schumer and recently dethroned U.S. Representative Nancy Pelosi – there should be no limit to borrowing and spending – ever. Neither is there a real southern border. Democrats, who find it politically useful to wink at the hordes of illegal aliens crossing the southern border, have talked the border out of existence.

News

News is what happened today. Old news is what happened yesterday. And no news is what happened the day before yesterday. On the past side of the day before yesterday stretches a foggy politically purposeful cloud of unknowing, a territory inhabited by witchery and useless historical documentation such as the U.S. Constitution.  The past, as Orwell taught us, can always be reshaped to suit present political purposes, usually nefarious.

Should We Take Comedy Seriously?

The Greek playwright Aristophanes, so the story goes, was approached by Cleon brown-shirts who asked him, menacingly, “Don’t you take anything seriously?” Cleon was a famous general in Greece during the Peloponnesian wars between Athens and Sparta, mercilessly satirized in plays by Aristophanes, along with other targets such as Socrates.

“Of course,” Aristophanes was said to have replied. “I take comedy seriously.”

The brown-shirts, one supposes, were not amused by the comic turn of phrase.

But Aristophanes was right: We should take seriously comedy of the kind practiced by Old Comedy writers in Greece, who specialized in political and cultural satire. The New Comedy that followed the Peloponnesian Wars, won by Sparta, was less politically biting, for obvious reasons.

Satire should flash like the serrated edge of a razor-sharp knife. “Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand,” Mark Twain said, which is why humorless tyrants the world over will forever persecute comedians.

Connecticut, the Euthanasia State?

Connecticut has now become a destination state for questionable – but rarely questioned -- items on a growing “to do” list got up by cultural progressives. We are, progressive cultural anarchists proudly boast: 1) the abortion state, 2) the gambling state, 3) the safe-state for illegal immigrants, 4) the highest taxed state in the union, and soon, thanks to abortion enthusiast U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal, the euthanasia state.

George Orwell warned us all about the corruption of language. The euthanasia bill is titled by its promoters the “medically assisted aid-in-dying” bill, more euphonious and more acceptable to those who favor abortion, gambling, sanctuaries for illegal immigrants, high taxes, and – coming soon to a hospital near you -- euthanasia.

Overheard at the Diner

Diner 1: It’s definite, Biden will run again.

Diner 2: Run from what?

A Tale of Two Presidents

A clumsy, post-election attempt by the Biden administration to bury a story concerning top secret files sequestered in several places – including the President’s unsecured garage at his domicile – has failed, according to a recent New York Times story, “Silent strategy backfired on Biden.”

The story’s lede points to a suddenly “woke” news media: “The decision by President Joe Biden and his top advisors to keep the discovery of classified documents secret from the public and even most of the White House staff for 68 days was driven by what turned out to be a futile hope that the incident could be quietly disposed of without broader implications for Biden and his presidency.”

A handful of advisors, according to the Times story, “were aware of the initial discovery on November 2 – six days before the midterm elections…”

The implication is – had voters been aware prior to the election of Biden’s successful attempt to snuff the story before Election Day, the voting pattern may have changed.

There are numerous ways, this writer has always insisted, to defraud the American public that have little to do with ballot fraud.

An instance in point is the successful effort of Bidenists to pass off as “Russian disinformation” highly incriminating evidence on Presidential son Hunter Biden’s “mislaid” laptop computer. Indeed, the many pictures on the laptop showing Hunter’s not so private Satyricon might alone have spiked his dad’s presidential ambitions. Note: The Satyricon was written by Petronius during the reign of Imperial Emperor Nero but, unlike the Hunter laptop, the riotously erotic work, does not contain documentation suggesting that Nero or his close relatives were in the pay of the enemies of Rome.