The Daly Weekly (2/13)
The Pam Bondi hearing, the Nancy Guthrie kidnapping, RFK Jr., and more!
Hi everyone.
Welcome to this week’s Daly Weekly, where I answer whatever questions you throw my way.
Before I get started this week, I noticed last night that my first book “From a Dead Sleep” is currently just $1.99 on Kindle! It’s the first novel in my Sean Coleman Thriller series, and I hope you check it out at this great price (if you haven’t already).
Now, let’s get to your questions…
John: I’m reading an interesting book about the history of commodities trading (sexy, right?) and it struck me how many collectivist economies were saved by old fashioned capitalism. In Cuba once the USSR collapsed in the early 90’s, Castro was quietly saved by oil traders shipping crude from faraway places, replenishing their energy supply. A decade later, China opened up their economy to trade from throughout the world, and their standard of living has grown by leaps and bounds. Today, Venezuela tells its own tragic tale of the closed system of socialism. These socialist/communists don’t even believe their own BS about collectivism. Why should we believe their DSA cousins now in fashion in deep blue America? — Steve R.
You shouldn’t believe anyone who’s trying to sell you on socialism, Steve, whether its Democratic Socialists or Republican populists doing it by another name. Socialism sucks. It fails every time it’s tried, and yet people still let themselves be seduced by the idea. Go figure.
What is the purpose of Congressional Hearings. They’ve turned into a SNL skit. Is it to actually get answers. Or is it for each member of Congress to raise money. It’s ideological target practice. And Pam Bondi wasn’t any better. I want to have confidence in our elected lawmakers, and feel like our country is on the right track. But their embarrassing conduct gives me none. It all seems contrived and scripted as well. Like they are auditioning for a movie part. — Rob O.
Well, Rob, the original purpose of these types of hearings was oversight, transparency, and information-gathering. But as you say, they’ve become largely performative, and are often used to raise political donations and rally the base. Bondi’s motivation was a bit different. She was trying to impress Trump, and she probably did.
I have lots of political differences with Congressman Tom Massie, but I cracked up at his take afterwards on how Bondi conducted herself (because it was clearly true).
Anyway, there is a simple solution for making these hearings meaningful and constructive again, and that’s to stop recording and televising them. Going back to simply releasing transcripts afterwards what disincentivize the showmanship, and compel people to act like adults rather than children. Unfortunately, I highly doubt there will ever be enough congressional support to make that happen. Politicians love to grandstand, and a lot of political enthusiasts like watching it.
This week, our HHS Secretary RFK Jr. said, “I am not scared of a germ. I used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats.” Thoughts? — Ben G.
Thoughts? Lol. Well, first of all, I believe him. Second, I don’t think he’s any more enlightened on health topics now than he was then. RFK Jr. has been an absolute disaster as HHS Secretary, on everything from vaccines, to cancer research, to health technology. Just about every decision he’s made has been guided by fact-averse anecdotes and personal hunches. The phrase “anti-science” has been thrown around way too loosely over the decades when it comes to politics, but RFK Jr. truly is, by any objective measure, anti-science. And that makes him dangerous in the office he holds.
Do you have any hot takes (or general thoughts) on the Nancy Guthrie kidnapping? — Alex D.
Not really. I’ve pretty much avoided it (yes, it is possible), beyond some headlines that pop up in my news feed. I understand why it’s a huge story, and I hope (against the odds) that it ends well, but I never really get drawn into true crime stories, nor the pop-culture interest that surrounds them. I’m much more of a fake crime guy, I guess.
I will say that I think some of the worst people in society are those who impede active, time-sensitive criminal cases like this, with fake information and false testimony. I can’t imagine how painful that has to be for the victim’s family and friends (not to mention the investigating officers).
Again, my best wishes go out to the Guthrie family.
Greetings Sir John: The right says that Obama was the Deporter-In-Chief” and that he got rid of more illegals (with help from Tom Homan) than Trump did, which begs the question of why do the liberal Dems resist immigration laws being enforced by Trump when they had no problem back when Obama (AND Clinton) did it.
The left says that ICE under Obama didn’t use the heavy - handed tactics currently used in Minneapolis and other areas. The right responds that Bush didn’t declare open borders and told the Border Patrol to do its job, whereas Biden did the exact opposite, thus flooding the nation with illegals. Furthermore, the right says that originally iCE was simply requesting that anybody arrested for other crimes that happened to be undocumented as well, should be turned over to ICE, but Walz, Frey, and the city of Minneapolis REFUSE to do that, thus calling for the large neighborhood sweeps that wouldn’t be necessary if only local authorities would turn over people already under arrest, many of whom have posted bail and have been released. SO—-where is the truth in alll of this? And why do Walz & Frey & the people of Minnesota want criminal illegals in their state, especially after they’ve been arrested for other crimes ? —“Friday The 13th Part 2: ICE FISHING!” regards from The Emperor
There’s a lot to unpack there, Emperor. Lol. I’ll try address each point you made.
Yes, Obama did, in fact, deport more people than Trump. Democrats were broadly more tolerant of Obama doing it, because:
Obama’s a Democrat
Obama did it far more discreetly, to the point that I don’t think a lot of people even realized the extent to which the deportations were taking place (until he was gone from office)
One can certainly blame the media for downplaying deportations under Obama, and I think that’s a valid criticism. That said, the Trump administration has purposely made these ICE operations very public, very in-your-face, and very performative. And of course, two American citizens were recently shot and killed by ICE officers, on video, which naturally made it a huge national news story. The administration reflexively labeling the dead individuals “domestic terrorists” only made matters (including the publicity) worse.
You’re absolutely right that Biden handled the southern border terribly, and millions illegally entered our country as a result. No doubt about that. I think that’s a good argument for the need for extensive ICE operations, but I don’t think it’s a good argument for — as I said earlier — making these operations very public, in-your-face, and performative. There are more effective (and lower-profile) ways of achieving the stated goal.
I think the local Democratic leaders in Minnesota have handled this situation quite badly as well, further inflaming the situation with careless, sometimes misleading rhetoric. However, I don’t think your depiction of what led to the neighborhood sweeps is accurate. From what little I’ve read on that particular part of the story, the neighborhood sweeps were always going to be part of the plan.
Thanks everyone! You can send me questions for next week by leaving a comment in the comment section.