On Monday, the White House issued a lovely statement about a phone call between Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whom invited to Washington. The statement was careful to omit the fact that Biden will be meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin first, in a "summit" next week.
This is just the latest act of appeasement from Biden toward Russia. Since taking office, he has:
- Renewed the one-sided New START treaty
- Failed to stop Russian hackers to attack American infrastructure
- Given the green light to Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline
- Rewarded Putin with a "summit"
Biden has never stood up to Russia, and played along with the appeasement posture of the Obama Administration. The idea that Trump was too soft on Russia, or Putin's puppet, was a Hillary Clinton invention, as was the toxic "Russia collusion" conspiracy theory. Democrats never intended to get tough on Russia; they just liked the idea as a political ploy.
Meanwhile, it is dawning on Zelenskyy, and other critics of Russia, that they have been fooled -- or fooled themselves. Russian opposition figure and former international chess champion Garry Kasparov wrote last week (https://www.wsj.com/articles/has-biden-lost-his-nerve-with-putin-11622566741) that Biden seemed to have "lost his nerve" with Putin.
Biden never had a nerve to lose. Kasparov was taken in by Biden's bluff.
The story of Noah is familiar; the details, less so.
Noah is often seen as an ambivalent figure. He was righteous -- but only for his generation. What was his deficiency?
One answer suggests itself: knowing that the world was about to be flooded, he built an Ark for the animals and for his own family -- but did not try to save anyone else or to convince them to repent and change their ways (the prophet Jonah, later, would share that reluctance).
Abraham, later, would set himself apart by arguing with God -- with the Lord Himself! -- against the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that they should be saved if there were enough righteous people to be found (there were not).
Still, Noah was good enough -- and sometimes, that really is sufficient to save the world. We don't need heroes every time -- just ordinary decency.
Hi all -- as I noted last month, I'm going to be closing down my Locals page, at least for tips and subscriptions -- I may keep the page up and the posts as well, but I'm no longer going to be accepting any kind of payment.
Look for cancelation in the very near future. Thank you for your support!
An interesting weekend -- one of the last of Daylight Savings Time -- in which there is much to celebrate, much to contemplate, and a bit to worry about.
The Gaza peace deal is shaky, but holding, after the living hostages returned; the shutdown is still going on, with no end in sight; the China trade war is heating up; and the confrontation with Venezuela continues to escalate.
The "No Kings" protest was a dud, despite the media's attempt to inflate it. What I find fascinating is that the Democrats have basically stolen the rhetoric and the imagery of the Tea Party protests, circa 2009. They claim they are defending the Constitution -- just like the Tea Party did.
On the one hand, this is good. How wonderful to have a political system in which both sides, bitterly opposed though they are, articulate differences through the Constitution -- and not, as in so many other countries, outside it.
On the other, this is sheer hypocrisy for the Democrats. Not only did they malign the Tea Party as ...
