RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/06/05/americas-great-cities-are-gripped-by-decline-and-disorder/

For the past decade, America’s urban centres have been increasingly run by ‘progressive’ activists. Yet today, as US cities reel from collapsed economies, rising crime and pervasive corruption, there’s something of a revolt brewing, the success of which may well determine the role and trajectory of our great urban centres.

This emerging conflict is coming to a head next week in Los Angeles, the US’s second-largest city, in the Democratic primaries for LA mayor. Next week’s vote is likely to lead to a head-to-head between moderate billionaire developer Rick Caruso and progressive congressperson Karen Bass, once considered a potential vice-president for Joe Biden. On the same day, ultra-liberal San Francisco district attorney Chesa Boudin faces a potential recall amid rising crime rates.

The possible shift towards the centre reflects a move back to more traditional urban policies, particularly on crime and homelessness. It’s not Republicans leading the charge against ultra-progressive policies, either. It is African American, Democratic mayors like Houston’s Sylvester Turner and New York’s Eric Adams.

Even the denizens of left-leaning cities are rethinking progressivism. Last year, Austin – Texas’ blue capital – rescinded provisions, backed by progressives, that allowed vast homeless encampments to spring up across the city. Earlier this year, similarly left-leaning Seattle removed its ultra-progressive district attorney and Buffalo voters defeated a socialist-backed Democrat in favour of a moderate African American. Even in San Francisco, progressive school-board members were overwhelmingly defeated in February 2022 – an ominous development for Boudin’s chances next week.

We could be seeing the beginning of a sea change in urban politics.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/biden-failure-cabinet-yellen-mayorkas-buttigieg

Folks, it’s not all Joe Biden’s fault that our nation is in trouble. 

His utterly inept cabinet is also to blame. 

Let’s start with Janet Yellen. 

Yellen, the first female treasury secretary, appeared to be the most seasoned, the best credentialed and least political of all Biden’s cabinet appointees. Not so.  

The treasury secretary recently confessed that she blew it on inflation. She didn’t apologize or admit its real cause, but at least she admitted she goofed. 

She said, “I think I was wrong then about the path inflation would take … there have been unanticipated and large shocks to the economy … that I didn’t at the time fully understand.” 

Yellen’s pitch is, essentially, that inflation blew in because of completely unpredictable events that no one could have anticipated. Untrue. Most economists agree that the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan spilled too much money into the recovering economy at the same time that we had goods shortages, sparking rising prices.  

In fact, a new book out says Yellen agreed with Larry Summers, who warned that Biden’s spending spree would have just that effect, and argued for a smaller American Rescue Plan. Though she denies that account, it rings true. In other words, she knew better. Far from being the intellectual anchor of this administration, Yellen turns out to be yet another shill for Democrats’ left-wing policies. 

Next up: Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas, the first Latino in that role, who has permitted the worst-ever assault on our southern border, failed to deliver a plan to confront the crisis and who lied to Congress when he claimed our “border is secure.”   

https://www.newsweek.com/biden-administrations-five-stages-grief-opinion-1712728

There are five stages of grief, according to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, beginning with denial and ending with acceptance. The Biden administration must have learned from that sequence, since it regularly trots out five successive explanations for its mounting policy failures. Like Kübler-Ross, the administration begins with denial.

Here are the Biden administration’s five stages:

It’s not really a problem. You just think it is.
It’s only a problem for some people, especially rich people. It doesn’t affect ordinary folks.
It’s only a temporary problem. Although folks may be feeling some pain right now, it will go away soon, thanks to our policies.
The problem is lasting a little longer than expected, but none of the experts anticipated that. The president himself is working hard to fix everything.
It’s not our fault, and there’s nothing we can do to fix the problem. Who is to blame? (In 2021, it was Trump; in 2022, it is Putin.)

Voters aren’t buying it. They elect presidents to solve problems, and they hold them responsible when they fail. Polls show only about one-fifth of the country thinks we are “on the right track,” a catastrophic number for the party in power. They don’t blame Republicans, either, because Democrats control the White House, Senate and the House of Representatives. They point directly at Biden and his flailing party.