Scripted and Shallow

Seven is usually the lucky number.  But for President Joe Biden, the dice roll in month seven of his presidency has come up snake eyes.

Major storm clouds gathered rapidly both internationally and domestically.  One storm was named the Taliban, the other Ida.  Both have had devastating effects.

What could the man in the highest office in all of the land done to minimize the damage in both of them?  The answer is plenty more in the former and nothing in the latter.  But, you see in the political blame game, the answer is way more complicated than it should be.

One of BBR’s staffers is a staunch conservative on several issues.  He is frequently asked why many decisions at the federal government level disappoint/anger him so.  That answer is grounded in reality and transparency.  Or, should we say a lack thereof?

Category 4 hurricane Ida roared ashore in Louisiana yesterday.

It was a strong one.  But, make no mistake about it, it wasn’t the first, and it won’t be the last.  Hurricanes have hit the Louisiana coast since long, long before man settled there.  The world-famous Pat O’Brien’s Bar mixes a drink called a “Hurricane” for a reason.

But after a day of thoughts, prayers, and kumbaya, the left will use the moment to remind us that climate change is the greatest existential threat we face. We’re all going to die if we don’t throw 50 trillion bucks trying to fix what we can’t fix.

In Afghanistan unrest has plagued the country for a long, long time ever since man settled there.  And, it was there that we attempted to fix what we broke.  A troop withdrawal without a citizen withdrawal left Emperor Biden without any clothes on when the Afghanistan, ahem, Army folded like a cheap suit.  Who could have predicted that?  At least we had a contingency plan for, ahem, all outcomes.

What to do, what to do?  Send troops back in to save the day and blame it all on that loser Donald Trump.  He’s the one that signed the treaty with the Taliban to be out by May 1, Biden said.  My hands were tied on this, Biden said.

The not-so-funny thing is, they weren’t tied.  Biden undid Trump’s shoelaces on the Keystone XL pipeline, the border wall construction, the Paris Peace Accord, the desire to withdraw from the WHO, and on and on.  Do you know that you are currently paying hundreds of millions for construction companies to not construct the border wall?  We digress.

We’re America.  If we want to rewrite a deal, we do so.  Everything’s negotiable.

But, now tragically, 13 marines are dead.  They went, left, came back, and wanted to leave again, but not in body bags.

Like clockwork, Biden will head to New Orleans later this week to survey the damage from Ida, tell civic leaders that the federal government is here to help, kiss a baby or two, talk about getting real funding for climate change initiatives, and get back on Air Force One.  All presidents engage in this symbolic, worthless task.  We care.

Hopefully, he’ll fake it better than he did Sunday. He is facing stark criticism, while in Dover, MD after a video emerged of him looking at his watch multiple times during a dignified transfer ceremony of Marines slain in Afghanistan by twin suicide bombers.  Maybe “call a lid” time was fast approaching?

Further, The Washington Post reported that Jiennah McCollum, the pregnant wife of one of the slain Marines met with Biden, but was disappointed by Biden’s words to her, finding them “scripted and shallow.”  ‘He kept talking about his son Beau.”  We care.

If we could just get rid of climate change and Trump all would be well.

“Scripted and shallow,” Mrs. McCollum said.

Her child will grow up without a father, but with a very perceptive mother.