Readers know of my concerns about the competence of the Biden administration. In my March post, I noted in “The Dog Ate Biden’s Homework,’ the apparent lack of knowledge of “Project Warp Speed” led to out-of-touch pronouncements. Some people around the President should have been on top of everything Covid but dropped the ball. Now the capability problem is exposed across the board.

Can anybody put forward anyone, including the President, showing minimum ability in this administration. You know you have a losing roster when your go-to guy is Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. You know the guy who went on two-month maternity leave while the U.S. suffered through a massive supply chain snarl due in large part because to transport problems. As a small city mayor with no background in the field, he has yet to develop solutions.

The closest he’s come to any plan is to tell us to switch to Electric Vehicles for transport. After all, he informs us you’ll never worry about the price of gas again. He seems unaware that those running heavy trucks, buses, and ships looking at the weight and range of batteries might favor hydrogen. With a hardworking genius like this, how can we go wrong? Yet, he’s the one sent out to defend the administration across media.

South Africa reported a new Covid variant. The World Health Organization named it Omicron. Many countries, in panic, immediately blocked travel to South Africa and other African nations. Fear of a faster spreading and deadly Covid tanked markets. Instead of our Health and Human Services Secretary, Xavier Becerra, the administration sent out National Institute of Health (NIH)Doctors Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins to Sunday news shows. The former to most, while the latter went on Fox.

Several things have occurred that have struck me as strange or funny. Some commentators have called attention to Kyle Rittenhouse’s possession of an AR-15 rifle. They claim a seventeen-year-old should never have such a lethal weapon—way too much gun for someone so young. When one joins the U.S. Army, they’re assigned an AR-16, the automatic version of the semi-automatic AR-15. Of course, you can join up at seventeen. Isn’t Rittenhouse the type of young person rushing to sign up at the recruiting station in a crisis?

Listening to the repeated background gunshots on the videos of the night in question, it’s obvious Rittenhouse wasn’t the only one bringing and firing a firearm. 

Many qualified people have commented on the legal aspects of the case, and most concluded it was a fair trial with a just verdict. The only thing I’d like to add is that it creates a vacuum when you restrain law enforcement from protecting people and property. This situation draws in vigilantes to stem the chaos. Don’t want people taking the law into their own hands; let the people you hired to protect the community do their job. If the police had prevented the mass destruction of property, would any of this happen?

Is it me, or do the Administrations’s medical spokespeople sound panicked over an uptick in Covid cases? Has no one noticed hospitalizations have hardly moved, and deaths are flat? Remember, government intervention initially was to keep our medical facilities from being overwhelmed. We don’t panic over the common cold or the flu. Yet, they tell us unless we vaccinate everyone multiple times, we’re all doomed. 

Do moderate Democrats in the House and Senate think the Infrastructure Bill will save their jobs in the ’22 election? If they vote for the “Build Back Better” bill, they must think inflation is going away soon. With rents, wages, fuel, and housing costs still rising, the upward spiral is more likely to continue well into the new year and beyond. Voters will remember who threw another big log on the fire. Don’t these legislators know the generous unemployment benefits have ended?

The week proved to be more eventful than even I envisioned. One big takeaway for me, education is becoming a major battlefield. In Virginia, parents had a chance to see what and how teaching occurred in their schools during the pandemic. Many were shocked. Without in-person learning, parents had to jump in. They found teachers and administrators didn’t put their students first. The U.S. spends the most on education but lags behind our competitors. Parents want the best for their children, but the teacher’s unions and school administrators have very different interests. 

We could have endless trench warfare with the vested interests or put the power in the hands of the children’s best advocates -their parents. Now is the time to move to a voucher system. Educators competing with their best for the vouchers can foster innovation and better outcomes for our kids.

With so many of our children falling behind due to school closings, we can’t waste more time. Give parents the power to find the best solutions for their kids. Deregulate now with vouchers before we fall further behind. This problem is both a societal and national security crisis. Awareness is coming none too soon.

I sense the delicate hand of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnel at work in the House passing the long-delayed Infrastructure Bill. Surprisingly, Republicans provided the winning margin. Senator Joe Manchin holds a deciding vote in a 50-50 Senate. Without his approval, the filibuster stays. Any further legislation such as the wildly expensive “Build Back Better” is dead or greatly diminished without him. He wanted the Infrastructure Bill, and Mitch wanted to keep the filibuster and no more social engineering bills. If “Build Back Better” is either scuttled or cut down to a shell, it’s probably a sign of a deal between the two wily old two Senators. Both get what they want, and some Republicans in toss-up areas get to show their bipartisanship. 

The first week of November promises to be a political bellwether. The gubernatorial election in Virginia and maybe the one in New Jersey will give us some idea of the public’s reaction to the continued failures of the Biden Administration. Either Congress will vote this week on the President’s program or postpone forever. Vaccine mandates in significant areas will go into effect. Will it make our labor shortage even worse? How about safety?

While waiting for results, a couple of interesting things came up worth mentioning. The current narrow partisan focus of our media lets some critical news or ideas go largely unnoticed.

 The Wall Street Journal featured an article by an associate professor of chemical bioprocess engineering, Jacob R. Borden. The article reminded me of a piece I read probably in National Geographic many years ago. It revealed picturesque and strange Yellowstone is a massive volcanic area. One, if it erupted, could pretty much do in the U.S. and Canada. It was in my thoughts when we visited the Park. 

Prof. Borden points to a 1917 NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab(JPL) evaluation. It isn’t if, but when Yellowstone erupts, and it may be due. JPL has a potential solution, siphoning off excess energy. With the development of horizontal drilling, we can do it without disturbing the Park.