Saturday Miscellany

First, in order to bid President Biden a safe trip to the Normandie beaches, the Wall Street Journal published an extensively researched article wherein multiple sources claimed that senile Joe is losing it.

When President Biden met with congressional leaders in the West Wing in January to negotiate a Ukraine funding deal, he spoke so softly at times that some participants struggled to hear him, according to five people familiar with the meeting. He read from notes to make obvious points, paused for extended periods and sometimes closed his eyes for so long that some in the room wondered whether he had tuned out.

In a February one-on-one chat in the Oval Office with House Speaker Mike Johnson, the president said a recent policy change by his administration that jeopardizes some big energy projects was just a study, according to six people told at the time about what Johnson said had happened. Johnson worried the president’s memory had slipped about the details of his own policy.

Last year, when Biden was negotiating with House Republicans to lift the debt ceiling, his demeanor and command of the details seemed to shift from one day to the next, according to then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and two others familiar with the talks. On some days, he had loose and spontaneous exchanges with Republicans, and on others he mumbled and appeared to rely on notes.

The White House and the Democratic campaign machine is up in arms over this, issuing denial after denial. For his part, Joe Biden took the opportunity of the D-Day celebration to embarrass himself by trying to sit down at the wrong time. One commenter said that Biden was “shuffling like a robot.”

The problem with the Journal story is that the Journal does not make stuff up. As Noam Chomsky once averred-- what differs the Journal from the New York Times is that, with the Wall Street Journal you can trust the facts. 

Among the more astute analyses is this one from Nellie Bowles at The Free Press, in her TGIF column:

At this point my theory is that Biden and his team know he cannot govern anymore and cannot even be an effective figurehead for staff machinations. So the theory: if Biden wins, he resigns, citing new health information, and Kamala Harris becomes president. In fact, I’d bet money on that. 

Second, in the matter of civilian casualties…. As the world rails against Israel for causing the civilian casualties that Hamas has been causing, the Journal reminds us of the civilian casualties during World War II:

More than 50,000 French civilians were killed in U.S. and British air raids during World War II

Were the allies denounced for their “genocide?”

Third, in the meantime, Gaza inhabitants are suffering from an excess of food.

Elliot Kaufman, from the Wall Street Journal, reports:

A new study finds that more food is being delivered to Gaza today than before the war. The humanitarian supply has provided an average of 3,374 calories per person daily, well above the 2,100 minimum standard, while meeting the protein and fat benchmarks.

Fourth, on the propaganda front, Hamas has been scoring some points. It’s hard to believe but young Brits now believe that the state of Israel should not exist.

What with the mealy-mouthed Biden administration, the weak-kneed European potentates, and the United Nations, more and more young people are becoming anti-Semitic. These groups have made it respectable to be anti-Semitic:

From Unherd:

A majority of Britain’s young people do not believe Israel should exist, a new UnHerd poll has revealed.

A preliminary finding of an exclusive survey of 1,012 voters about foreign policy, conducted by Focaldata and due to be released tomorrow on UnHerd, found that a striking 54% of 18-24-year-olds agreed with the statement that “the state of Israel should not exist.” Just 21% disagreed.

This finding dovetails with other UnHerd polling on the same issue. In a separate question, young respondents were asked who was more to blame for the war in Gaza. Half blamed the Israeli government, while a quarter answered Hamas. Only 19% responded “all equally”.

Fifth, now that the International Criminal Court has declared an equivalence between the elected leaders of the democratic state of Israel and the terrorist despots who run Hamas, Congressional Republicans want to sanction members of the Court, including notable civil rights attorney and wife of A-lister George Clooney-- Amal Clooney.

Apparently, when the Biden administration denounced the ICC, George Clooney called the White House to tell them that they were not allowed to speak ill of his wife.

So, the administration walked back its criticism. After all, George is hosting  a fundraiser for Joe… and we cannot allow anything to get in the way of that.

Sixth, the bloom is off the ESG funds. It was not too long ago, so you surely remember the promise of environmentally sensitive stock funds. Their proponents promised that by investing in them you could get rich and save the planet. What was not to like.

It turns out that the promise was a lie. Performance lagged and investors started pulling their money out of ESG funds.

The Financial Times has the story:

Investors are turn­ing their backs on sus­tain­ably focused stock funds, as poor per­form­ance, scan­dals and attacks from rightwing US politi­cians hit a sec­tor that has pulled in tril­lions of dol­lars of assets.

A net $40bn has been with­drawn from envir­on­mental, social and gov­ernance equity funds this year, accord­ing to research from Barclays, the first year that flows have trended neg­at­ive.

Redemp­tions, which include a record monthly net out­flow of about $14bn in April, have hit all main regions.

The out­flows are a sig­ni­fic­ant reversal for a sec­tor to which investors have flocked in recent years, attrac­ted by the claim that such funds could help change the world for the bet­ter while also mak­ing as much — or even more — money as tra­di­tional stock port­fo­lios.

The markets had the last word.

Seventh, you recall that we as a nation decided to punish China by sanctioning sales of certain semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

And you will also recall that China responded with a policy called: Delete America. 

The Wall Street Journal reports:

The Biden administration, and some U.S. allies such as Japan and the Netherlands, have introduced targeted export curbs that have undercut China’s ability to make high-end chips. But those measures have also served as a rallying call for China’s homegrown industry to develop more quickly, leading to big spending, experimentation and even some breakthroughs.

Eighth, and then there is Philipp Wong, chief scientist at Taiwan Semiconductor and Stanford University professor, who commented on China’s progress in semiconductor manufacturing:

This is absolutely incredible. If you're still under the illusion that the US has any hope of stopping China's progress in semiconductors, you have to watch this.

This is Philipp Wong, Chief Scientist at TSMC and legendary Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. He's undoubtedly one of the, if not THE world's leading scientific figure in the field of semiconductors.

Here's what he says:

"Years ago we had technical conferences and we see papers from China. Ah forget it! Just... Quality is so bad it's not even competitive. That was probably in the 80s and the 90s. Now they're better than us. They're better than us! 

If you look at papers, publications, data from key conferences in the chips business. [...] You basically flipped. Years ago the US had the majority of the papers. I remember there were roughly about 40 to 50% of the papers from the US. And China, maybe 20-30 years ago, they were nowhere to be found. Today, China and Asia, the papers, are more than 40%, almost close to 50%. And the US has steadily declined from 40-50% to 30 to 40%. And the rest of the world, principally Europe and Japan has basically fallen off a cliff.

So the research and development, the research capability in Asian countries, China, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and so on have really become the strongest region. In terms of producing good quality research. I'm not just talking about quantity, it's quality. 

The only thing that I see... What the US is still a little bit ahead is in coming up with the new ideas. What the Chinese always say: going from zero to 1. Namely starting from nowhere, nothing, and come up with this really new idea. And if I look at what I would call new idea that has not been discussed before, the US still is the principal place where these new ideas come from. But once these new ideas become known, then... I feel it in my everyday research with my students. Any new ideas that we come up, once they become known... that this is a good idea. The next week it will show up in China. It will show up in China, only that they do it better than you. 

I can't, cannot compete anymore. They have better resources, they have more students. They have more, more funding from the government. I cannot compete anymore. I have to get out of that field!"

We recall that the Biden administration is throwing vast amounts of money at home-based semiconductor manufacturing. We also recall that production has been delayed by bureaucratic red tape and the lack of sufficient human capital. Apparently, the armies of social justice warriors that we are producing are not competent in the high tech world.

Eighth, aside from the vagaries of elections in India, serious people have been saying that India is about to surpass China, not just in population, but in economic output.

You see, we believe in democracy and we believe that democratic countries are going to outperform autocracies.

To which David Goldman replies, taking a cue from the New York Times, on Twitter:

India has 1 billion people of working age and 430 million jobs. Most Indians are stuck in the "informal" sector, i.e., with no capital and no prospects. Manufacturing is a smaller share of GDP today than when Modi first took office. It's many leaps away from offering competition to China. 

Ninth, Christopher Rufo has the latest news from Portland, Oregon. It seems that the teachers union in that deep blue city has decided to begin indoctrinating children in anti-Semitism, in kindergarten.

Rufo wrote on Twitter:

EXCLUSIVE: The teachers union in Portland, Oregon, has created a curriculum that teaches kindergarteners that "Jewish people" are "settler-colonial" oppressors, prepares them to attend "protests," and celebrates Palestinian "martyrs."

Tenth, from Nellie Bowles at TGIF in The Free Press. You recall that the government of Spain decided to recognize the Palestinian state. One recalls that Spain expelled all of its Jewish subjects in 1492. Old habits die hard.

The Spanish government decision provoked a strange reaction in the diplomats who had previously been stationed in Israel and who will now be stationed in Ramallah. They do not not want to move.

In a show of solidarity with the Palestinian cause, Spain announced a new embassy would form in Ramallah. But it’s running into trouble right off the bat. Because the Spanish diplomats based in Israel are refusing to move there. The Spaniards cited “safety and quality of life” concerns, according to Spanish news site Okdiario. All the Spanish ambassadors got so comfortable saying Israel should be abolished, they never considered having to live in another area of the Middle East. Now the hot Spanish embassy workers, accustomed to Tel Aviv, are being told they have to wake up in Ramallah? There’s no gay bar here, Señor!

Finally, I have several open consulting hours in my life coaching practice. If you are interested, please email me at StuartSchneiderman@gmail.com

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