the state of our (dis)union

Instapundit quotes a passage that pretty much sums up how things are:

A specter is haunting America—the specter of freedom.

How else to explain the weekly chants from hundreds of thousands of sports fans, packing into football stadiums and other large venues the way real American used to do in the days Before Fauci, chanting an obscene suggestion to the current resident of the White House.

Eleven months ago, gas prices were low, and the United States was energy independent. Unemployment was also low, and minorities had never fared better in the job market. The southern border was relatively secure, the useless war in Afghanistan was bumping along, enriching the Pentagon but not troubling anybody overmuch, and the future looked bright.

Then came the highly questionable election of 2020, one rendered nearly meaningless by last-minute, COVID-driven, illegal changes in state election laws that made a mockery of our democratic traditions and procedures in the name of a chimerical “safety” from a form of the flu. And presto—Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., who’d been in Washington for more than half a century, was suddenly president of the United States.

Today, the economy is in chaos, supply chains have been disrupted, inflation is soaring, race relations are poisonous, crime including murder is way up, the energy business is assaulted on all fronts even as the industrialized nations face the prospect of a winter without reliable power, and China is rattling its plastic sabers.

And yet the befuddled Biden’s principal concern is forcing a thoroughly anti-American, unconstitutional series of vaccination “mandates” on the American work force that has—thankfully—finally brought the country to its boiling point.

Let’s go, Brandon!

In Florida, Southwest Airlines has had to cancel hundreds of flights, ostensibly because of the weather (in mild October?) but more than likely because its pilots are staging a sickout in defiance of their company’s buckling to administration pressure. The pilot’s union has already gone to court to block the mandate, which applies to private companies doing business with the feds, and there have also been reports of a slowdown by FAA air-traffic controllers in Jacksonville as well.

Biden’s misbegotten mandate also applies to American troops, who must be inoculated against the Chinese-manufactured, Fauci-funded virus in stages over the next month or so—but so far hundreds of thousands of servicemen, including members of elite units, have refused.

Meanwhile, states like New York are firing hospital workers who decline to submit to replacement governor Kathy Hochul’s September vaccination order, further disrupting an already overstressed medical system.

Other resistance has developed among Amtrak workers, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which will refuse to enforce the mandate, and even some NBA stars. This week, a federal appeals court agreed with 16 student athletes at Western Michigan University who’ve challenged the school’s vaccine mandate on religious grounds, and upheld a lower court ruling than enjoined the university.

In case you've been living in a hole, "Let's Go, Brandon!" is one desperate reporter's attempt to reinterpret a crowd's chanted "Fuck Joe Biden!" as something else, in the spirit of damage control. "Let's Go, Brandon!" has since become the surrogate for "Fuck Joe Biden." It's part of the Zeitgeist now. There are stickers, mugs, and tee shirts.