Joe Biden signs whatever’s put in front of him

M*A*S*H was an American television comedy that ran from 1972 through 1983.  Set in the Korean War, it followed the exploits of a U.S. Army field surgical hospital (the “4077th”) as they dealt with the hardships of war, the bureaucratic inefficiencies that hindered their medical efforts, and the many characters and personalities they encountered along the way.  Although the series had a constant subtle undertone of anti-Americanism and took veiled jabs at the military establishment and conservative thought, the series itself was well acted and entertaining, as borne out by its remarkable eleven-year run.

For the first three seasons, the 4077th was commanded by the character Lt. Colonel Henry Blake.  Blake was a kindly, bumbling sort, who never quite knew what he was doing and was blissfully unaware of the shenanigans continually being pulled off by the mischievous doctors and staff under his supervision.  One particularly funny character was the company clerk, Corporal Walter “Radar” O’Reilly.  It was O’Reilly’s task to get Col. Blake to sign the authorization orders and requisitions.

On many occasions, O’Reilly would put multiple requests on Blake’s desk and wait impatiently for them to be signed.  The hapless, oft-confused Blake would say, “Radar, what the heck am I signing?”

 The clever O’Reilly would reply, “Oh, don’t worry, sir. You want this.”  ”Okay, Radar.  If you say so.”

Joe Biden is this country’s Lt. Colonel Henry Blake.

To begin his largely symbolic, retribution-based term of office, “President” Biden issued 17 executive orders on his first day.  There can’t be any real doubt in peoples’ minds that Biden didn’t write or conceive any of these.  The 17 E.O.s presented to him in a painfully choreographed, ostentatiously grandiose fashion on his opening day in office were quite obviously prepared by his Progressive-minded operatives well in advance, his group of unelected, unaccountable sycophants who will control the puppet strings for as long as Biden is able to sit upright and remain awake behind the desk.  Biden dutifully and unthinkingly signed each one, as his minions of O’Reillys looked on, satisfied with knowing they had put one over on the big guy, much as the 4077th’s clerk consistently hoodwinked the oblivious Col. Blake.

Looking at the list of orders, one is struck by their uniformity, their sameness: every one of them is a pander to a voting bloc, a cave to a Progressive constituency for the sake of political correctness or to further the appearance of compassion or a supposed enlightened understanding of humanity.

Missing from all of them is any concrete action that makes America safer or more prosperous or enhances our national security or improves our position of energy independence or creates jobs or reduces the tax burden on the average wage-earner or moves to strengthen our fundamental constitutional rights of free speech, self-protection, and the right to peacefully assemble.  Not a single executive order redounds to the concrete benefit of the country as a whole.  Instead, all of them amount to nothing more than political sleight-of-hand, smoke and mirrors, activity and movement without meaning.

To look at just one example, the executive order to revoke the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline is especially risible.  The pipeline is there to carry Canadian crude oil through the Western mountain states down to refineries in the Gulf, off Texas.  Currently, Canadian oil comes into America by tanker truck.  This method is costly and inefficient.  Trucks emit copious amounts of carbon pollution from their engines.  They have limited load-carrying capacity.  They are subject to crashes, causing bodily harm and spilling their contents all over the countryside.  The pipeline corrects all of these shortfalls.  Construction and maintenance would’ve created 42,000 good jobs, which Biden eliminated with a pen stroke, obviously gambling that he’ll pick up more green votes than he’ll lose union construction votes.

Ignorant green-minded Progressives think stopping Keystone means we won’t import oil from Canada, so we’d be forced to replace the oil with a so-called “renewable” energy that is more to their liking.  That’s wrong.  The oil comes in from Canada anyway, pipeline or no pipeline, just slower, less efficient, more polluting, and more dangerously.  Stopping Keystone is the typical liberal knee-jerk reaction policy: it’s all for show, to impress the uneducated, unknowing, emotionally dominated throngs.  The details — the truth — are too far beneath the surface for the typical ADD Progressive, dominated as he always is by misplaced, distorted emotion.

If a reporter, knowledgeable about details such as these, were to ask Biden at a press conference how he’d respond as to why the present-day use of oil tanker trucks is preferable in his view to the Keystone Pipeline, does anyone think Biden could articulate a convincing, coherent argument?  Does anyone think Biden has command of the intricacies and minute details of the subject?  Obviously not.

Keystone is just one example.  That these executive orders were drafted and signed strictly out of spite, for the sheer unhinged joy of publicly reversing some of President Trump’s policies instead of being thoughtfully formulated for the betterment of the entire country, should give any intelligent, loyal American serious pause.

This type of vindictive, retaliatory governance will dominate the new administration’s actions.  These 17 Day One executive orders have set their standard.  This is how it will be throughout his entire presidency.  Even if the embarrassingly diminished Biden is forced off of the top spot, a Harris tenure would very likely be even more vengeful and unforgiving of political opponents.  Hold on to your hats.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.