The executive branch of our federal government is a ship of fools, a fact reinforced almost on a daily basis.
Already this week there have been a pair of notable examples.
On Wednesday, while Clueless Joe Biden was taking a victory lap at a conference on food and nutrition, the Clueless one sought to acknowledge a Republican member of the House of Representatives for helping organize the event.
“Jackie are you here? Where’s Jackie?” Biden asked while scanning the crowd with his patented blank stare.
The Jackie in question, Jackie Walorski of Indiana, died in a car crash Aug. 3.
So, surely Biden could be forgiven for not knowing that.
Not exactly, considering within hours of Walorski’s death, a statement under the name of Clueless Joe and his co-president DR. JILL BIDEN!!!!!!!! was released mourning the late member of Congress.
Media people surprised by Biden’s confusion asked the current White House press mouthpiece about it and she seemed to indicate Biden hadn’t made a mistake, he was just noting he was going to see Walorski’s family in coming days.
No one said it’s easy trying to make the gaffe-master Biden seem lucid. Let’s hope Biden doesn’t ask the family why Jackie isn’t there when he meets them.
A day later, Kamala Harris, already noted by some as the dumbest person ever to hold the vice-president office, made a high-profile visit to Korea’s demilitarized zone.
There she gave a surprising speech in which she said, and we quote, “The United States shares a very important relationship, which is an alliance with the Republic of North Korea.”
Some people think she just misspoke and meant to say South Korea. Others considered it somewhat Freudian. Most viewed it as more of the same from an administration long on goofs and short on coherency.
They are fools who produce foolish policy and statements. No need to expect better from them.
But Biden and Harris are not alone. The world is awash with morons in charge.
Central banks, both around the world and here at home, are doing their best to roil economies and investment markets with ham-handed policy.
Having spent years, even decades, keeping interest rates historically low and rates of money creation historically high, all in the pursuit of mirage prosperity, now they are trying to change course.
The historic metaphor used for the US. central bankers in such situations is taking away the punch bowl just when the party is getting going.
Things deteriorated so quickly in England that the central bank there had to halt its austerity moves and fire liquidity into the system as bond markets threw a tantrum and traditional fixtures such as pension funds threatened to collapse.
In Japan, that country’s central bank is working fervently to halt the decline of the Yen, with poor results.
Here in the U.S., our Federal Open Mouth committee sent some high-profile speakers out on the stump Thursday after the Bank of England pivot a day earlier had led to rallies in investment markets, including a 500-plus point run-up in the Dow Jones average.
The market predictably tanked under the Thursday reiteration of threats to keep interest rates higher longer and the Dow was down more than 400 points.
There are so many areas of life in which seemingly the people in charge are clueless. It’s a recipe for train wrecks, in many respects. Fasten your seatbelts.
Sam Ross Jr's site 