On January 21, 1950, Alger Hiss was convicted of perjury, with Whittaker Chambers being the main witness in Hiss’s prosecution. Chambers confessed to having been a Soviet spy, and accused Hiss as an accomplice, which Hiss denied to his dying day. Chambers gave a fascinating account of all this in his bestselling 1952 memoir, Witness.
Well, in style anyway, his bizarre farewell address striking ultra-familiar themes.
“Most Biden speeches are acknowledged (Lincoln, Obama) or unacknowledged (Neil Kinnock, John Kennedy) homages to other politicians,” explains Matt Taibbi. “This last Biden attempt at an Eisenhower impersonation offers an anti-insight. We’re warned about an ‘oligarchy,’ which Webster’s defines as ‘a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes.’”
And here the intelligent reader is already ahead of the author.
“He tries to tag disobedient billionaires like Elon Musk, Marc Andreessen and Mark Zuckerberg (as opposed to Reid Hoffman, Bill Gates, Steven Schwartzman, etc.) as this new oligarchy, but there’s one closer to home, which Biden referenced later in the speech: ‘In the years ahead . . . it is going to be up to the president, the presidency, the congress, the courts, the free press and the American people . . . I still believe in the idea for which this nation stands. . . . Now it’s your turn to stand guard.’
“Biden’s possibly ad-libbed distinction between ‘president’ and ‘presidency’ was the most inspired line of his career,” Taibbi quips.
And eerily defining . . . of Biden’s stint at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue . . . and various vacation hot spots.*
Taibbi contrasts the man — “stumbling, tumbling” — with the machinery of the office — run by a mostly-unseen cabal Taibbi defines with reference to H. G. Wells’s science fiction novel The Invisible Man.
Other sci-fi metaphors come to mind. In his penultimate paragraph, Taibbi mentions Frankenstein filmmaker James Whale, and then in his last line Richard Matheson’s The Shrinking Man. But didn’t Philip K. Dick provide a hundred examples of fake personae as presidents and tyrants?
Except that the Biden Administration, whatever it might have been, was limited in its power because it lacked legitimacy from half the population — and was as cognitively challenged as Biden himself.
Yesterday, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) told Meet the Press that our sleepy commander-in-chief had been manipulated by his staff into signing key executive orders under false pretenses. And running interference for this Democratic Party “presidency” were Vice President Kamala Harris, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.).
Thank goodness, the Age of “The Biden” is over.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* Biden spent 40 percent of his term in office “on vacation.”
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Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.
Ben Franklin’s recommended motto for the Great Seal of the United States, August 1776.
On January 20, 1920, the American Civil Liberties Union was founded.
The official state funeral for James Earl Carter, Jr., 39th President of the United States, was held in Washington, D.C., ten days ago. Afterwards, the body of the ex-president was transported to Plains, Georgia, for a funeral there, and internment.
What is most interesting about the Washington National Cathedral ceremony has to be the spectacle of seeing all members of that most prestigious of clubs, the Presidents’ Club gathered in one place, interacting.
Or not.
Many have noted a surprising feature: how chummy Barack Obama and Donald Trump seemed, chatting, in apparent conviviality. It is commonplace among commenters to note, as Chase Hughes put it, that “politics is theater,” and that these players are fooling us. They get along a lot better in private, or at least when not pitching for power.
But that is not quite right. The social aspect of the event showed some huge antagonisms and insecurities, especially amongst the women.
What did you see? (Not Michelle Obama, who did not attend.)
Parting question: Did Obama serve as Trump’s buffer from the other members of the Club?
All hereditary Government is in its nature tyranny. An heritable crown, or an heritable throne, or by what other fanciful name such things may be called, have no other significant explanation than that mankind are heritable property. To inherit a Government, is to inherit the people, as if they were flocks and herds.
Joseph Priestley, The Rights of Man (1791).
On January 19, 1808, Lysander Spooner was born.
Spooner’s achievements in American life, law, and political philosophy are among the most colorful of the 19th century. Studying law privately, he sued to practice without joining the bar, and won the suit. He set up a postal service that directly competed with the United States Postal Service, delivering mail at a fraction of the cost. He wrote The Unconstitutionality of Slavery, and convinced noted Garrisonian abolitionist Frederick Douglass of his argument. (The book became the centerpiece of intellectual ammunition for the Free Soil Party.) Later in life Spooner turned against constitutionalism itself, and penned some of the most radical political works of his day, including Vices Are Not Crimes and The Constitution of No Authority. Spooner also clearly articulated a “jury nullification” position in his classic treatise Trial by Jury.
He died in 1887.
Life in prison — two life sentences! Plus 40 years. That’s a long time incarcerated . . . for anyone. Especially for one so young as Ross Ulbricht, who, after all, did not kill anybody, or defraud anybody, or steal from anybody.
The operatives of the federal government, on the other hand, wanted to send a message.
Last year, Donald Trump sent a message to members of the Libertarian Party: support me and I’ll free Ross Ulbricht.
Paul Jacob, in these pages, has written about both Mr. Ulbricht and Mr. Trump. Now Mr. Trump is hours away from returning to office, the only public office he’s ever had. Will he exercise his pardon power in favor of Ulbricht?
A week ago, Bitcoin Magazine wondered about the possibility of a pardon. “Although most Bitcoiners admit that Ulbricht was probably aware of his legal violations while profiting from Silk Road transactions, many believe that his asset forfeiture and 11-year-and-counting prison stay have become a sufficient penalty.”
The next day, Nick Gillespie of Reason brought up the possibility: “Reminder: Donald Trump Promised To Free Ross Ulbricht on ‘Day One.’”
Protos figures the odds: “Polymarket, the world’s largest prediction market, hosts bets on a list of people Trump could pardon in his first 100 days in office. Unfortunately, no major prediction market lists binary options odds on a ‘day one’ pardon or commutation.”
An article today, in the Prescott eNews, quotes actor Keanu Reaves in Ulbricht’s favor: “The Silk Road and trial of Ross Ulbricht involve many important and complex issues that impact the life of Mr. Ulbricht and us all.” It may be a politically vague statement, but it is nevertheless true.
For his part, Ross Ulbricht insists upon his good intentions, not ill or evil ones: “I was trying to help us move forward.”
Donald Trump is scheduled to be sworn into office as the 47th President of the United States on Monday the 20th of January. We will see what Mr. Trump truly seeks to move forward, soon after.
Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power.
Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1738.
On January 18, 1689, Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu, French satirist and philosopher, was born.
His treatise The Spirit of the Laws was a major influence upon America’s founding generation. He is famous for his articulation of the theory of separation of powers, which is implemented in many constitutions throughout the world. He did more than any other author to secure the place of the word despotism in the political lexicon.
In 1811, former U.S. President Thomas Jefferson translated and published Destutt de Tracy’s Commentary and Review of Montesquieu’s ‘Spirit of Laws,’ a very popular review of republican principles — which helps demonstrate how important these French writers were to the American form of government.
Montesquieu died on February 10, 1755.