"Ashes to Ashes"
Biden's memory turns to dust, Putin weighs in on US elections,
the brief miracle of life and more...
by Bill Bonner
"From the sins of thought, word and deed,
From the lusts of the flesh,
From the deceits of the world and the snares of the devil
…save us, good Lord."
~ Prayer at Ash Wednesday service
Youghal, Ireland - "Yesterday, the US president got an unexpected boost – from Vladimir Putin. The Financial Times: "Vladimir Putin has said Joe Biden would be a better US president for Russia than Donald Trump and dismissed concerns over his counterpart’s age and acuity for the role. Putin suggested on Wednesday that concerns over Biden’s age and mental acuity were part of the US election campaign “getting more and more vicious” and said he had seen no evidence his counterpart was not fit for office. At their last meeting in Geneva in 2021, Putin recalled, “they were already saying Biden wasn’t competent but I saw nothing of the sort. Yes, he looked at his notes, and to be honest, I looked at mine. No big deal. So he banged his head on the helicopter when he was getting out of it - who of us hasn’t banged their head on something?”
Against this assessment from a sober foreigner, we have a report from Biden’s own troops, telling the world that his mind isn’t working properly. Robert Hur, special counsel for the Justice Department, who oversaw Biden’s handling of classified documents: In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden’s memory was worse. He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (“if it was 2013, when did I stop being Vice President?”), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (“in 2009, am I still Vice president?”). He did not remember even within several years, when his son Beau died. And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him.”
All God’s Creatures: Poor Joe Biden. The whole world watches as he stumbles on steps and fumbles his speeches. Like all of God’s creatures, he is getting old. But rather than slide gracefully into old age, he desperately clings to the deceits of the world – power…prestige…and status. He could be bouncing grandchildren on his knee…and, wearing a flannel shirt and a sweater with holes in the elbows; he could be working in his woodshop, making Christmas presents. And then occasionally, he could put on a tie and use his accumulated wisdom, such as it is, to guide his family…and himself…in the remaining years of his life, with gravity and poise. Consulting with local hospitals, advising school boards…and giving tips to pizza delivery boys and politicians – those are the proper jobs for a man his age.
‘Here is what you should do,’ he might say to a candidate for town counsel. ‘Pretend to be an American Indian, like that Pocahantas woman…what was her name…from up North somewhere…that’ll get you the ethnic vote. And I remember that advice I got when I ran for the senate: don’t get caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy. Or was it the other way around? And did I tell you the joke about the Irishman and the Polack? I didn’t? Well an Irishman enters a bar. And…and…well, it was very funny.”
A Brief Miracle: We arrived at the ferry terminal at Rosslare, Ireland, on Ash Wednesday. It was so foggy that we could barely make out the dock even when we were tied up to it. The officer at passport control had cinders on his forehead. He was marked as one of God’s own with the sign of the cross. From dust…to dust we go, happily celebrating that brief miracle that is life itself.
Nietszche referred to an “amor fati,” loosely translated as ‘the love of fate.’ As to the ‘whyfors’ and the ‘what’s nexts’ we are all fog-bound forever. All we can do is accept…with as much appetite as we can and muster…whatever God dishes out for us, and watch – for instruction as well as amusement – as the devil snares his own.
Joe Biden, for example. He could have retired with some residual dignity. Instead, he craved power so much he wouldn’t let it go. And now it won’t be too many years before he meets his maker; he’ll have some tough questions to answer. Did he not aid and abet the murder of 28,000 civilians in Gaza…and sacrifice hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians in order to continue his proxy war with Russia ?
We don’t know the verdict; who knows which side God is on? But we’d love to see the trial. And while no Vegas odds-maker will let us put money on it, our guess is that odds against acquittal run more than 2-1.
Election Disputes: Yes…the poor president is headed for that bourne from which no traveler returns… along with the rest of us. There, he’ll have some ‘splaining to do. And with his diminished mental faculties, it won’t be easy. But for now, he remains in the nation’s highest office…the president of all the Americans…and the world’s laughingstock.
Our sympathies are with him. He is just a few years older than we are. Already, we search the clutter of our own brains…looking for a single word amid 75 years of accumulated sales jingles, hit songs from 1965, and recipes for curing hams. Often, we come up empty handed. And last weekend, we slipped on the steps and fell hard onto the ground. Then again, we are not so vain as to think we would make the best president America could find. And if by some fluke of bad judgment on the part of voters, we were chosen president…like Donald Trump himself, we would dispute the election results."
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