May
23
The New ‘Master of Disaster’
“Thankfully, we don’t have those mean tweets, all caps. Look out, they were really hurting us.” — Pete Hegseth, co-host of “Fox & Friends”
Fans of 1970s TV and cinema may be familiar with writer/director/producer Irwin Allen who earned the nickname “Master of Disaster” due to his work in the disaster film genre (e.g., The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, The Swarm). If you’re a fan of the Rocky movies, too, you may remember that “The Master of Disaster” was one of Apollo Creed’s nicknames. (As a fan of puns, my personal favorite was “The Count of Monte Fisto”.) And, of course, “Master of Disaster” has been the title of various songs by various rock and metal bands.
But, it appears we have a newly crowned “Master of Disaster”. Thanks to the phrase appearing in a New York Post editorial that was discussed on “Fox & Friends”, President Joe Biden now holds the title.
“[Biden] turned out to be a master of disaster, with self-inflicted crises across the board threatening to set America back to the 1970s — with that era’s infamous “stagflation” as well as a foreign policy in flames.”
Let’s look at a few points…
What Biden inherited from Trump:
• a strong pre-pandemic economy and record low unemployment rates (which had risen thanks to COVID-19), with policies in place that would aid recovery once we were able to end COVID-19 lockdowns and related issues
• a southern border largely under control, with a border wall being built/improved and record lows of illegal crossings; also, a “Remain in Mexico” agreement that kept asylum-seekers in Mexico until their cases were ruled on, as well as a public health order that kept migrants out while we dealt with COVID-19 and “public-charge” policies that barred immigrants from participating in welfare programs
• “energy independence”, in that we produced more energy than we used, thanks to hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling
• the Abraham Accords, the first deals in decades between Arab nations and Israel
What has happened in the first 4 months under Biden:
• “US consumer confidence fell unexpectedly this month as rising prices, a hiring slowdown and energy uncertainty hit hard”; “the unemployment rate rose to 6.1 percent”; “consumer prices rose 4.2 percent year-over-year in April,” the largest jump since Sep. 2008; “core inflation rose 0.8 percent from March to April, the biggest rise in nearly four decades”
• passing of the grossly-misnamed, $1.9 trillion COVID “relief” bill, which extended the $300 weekly federal unemployment supplement, so almost half those receiving the checks “make” more money staying home than getting a job
• “He put a moratorium on deportations his first day in office and ended the “Remain in Mexico” program as well as all construction on any border barriers. Border apprehensions were at a 20-year high last month, but deportations were at a record monthly low. And the feds have a record number of unaccompanied minors in custody — around 22,000 — because Biden ordered the public health rule keeping migrants out to be lifted for solo kids.” Also, no more “public-charge” policy. “Yet, when Biden isn’t blaming Donald Trump or seasonal migration patterns for the crisis on the border, he’s pretending nothing is wrong.”
• even before the cyberattack on Coastal Pipeline, Biden had closed the Keystone XL pipeline and declared war on fossil fuels, ergo the significant rise in prices per gallon at the pumps
• restored $235 million in U.S. aid to the corrupt and authoritarian Palestinian Authority without any preconditions; an emboldened Hamas (a proxy for Iran) attacked Israel, showering it with a barrage of over 3000 rockets over 10 days, which of course required a deadly response from Israel
SMH. As the Post editorial board put it,
“With long lines at the pumps, slowing growth, and rising inflation, it looks like the Jimmy Carter era – except that it took Carter years to produce the disasters this president fostered in some months.”
And, as David Harsanyi concludes his own piece:
“Our president has a habit of enthusiastically taking credit for the accomplishments of others – as he does with vaccine production and distribution – while denying responsibility for, or botching, the things over which he does have control.”
But, hey, no “mean tweets”, right?
