Joe Biden is a walking dead man, politically. His approval ratings are in the tank, and a stunning 72 percent of Americans think the country is on the “wrong track,” according to a recent survey.

Biden’s cognitive decline is embarrassingly obvious. He is already 80 years old — the oldest president the country has ever had. He would be 86 at the end of a second term, assuming he lived that long, which troubles even his supporters. On top of all of this, he is surrounded by the stench of corruption.

Biden has become more of a liability than an asset. In such circumstances, a political party would normally search for a different presidential candidate.

But the Democrats are not a normal party, and they simply can’t ditch Biden — not even if running Biden again carries the risk that a third-party candidate might emerge, or that Donald Trump might be elected again. Why is this?

How can the U.S. simultaneously arm Ukraine in its fight against Russia and deter a Chinese invasion of Taiwan? It’s a false choice.

A critical look at the weapons that Washington has transferred to Kyiv, what is needed in the Pacific, and when new production might become available reveals that the U.S. has enough resources both to arm Ukraine and to bolster deterrence in Asia.  Ukraine and Taiwan don’t need the same things.

There is a large category of U.S. capabilities that are critical in the Pacific and that haven’t been provided to Ukraine. By the same token, many capabilities provided for Ukraine’s ground war aren’t at the top of the list of what Taiwan needs from the U.S., according to numerous unclassified expert analyses.

Aid to Taiwan and Ukraine isn’t zero-sum.  In fact, aid to Ukraine is of direct benefit for Taiwan’s defense.  Here’s why.

The bad economic news from China keeps coming.

Exports fell 12.4% in June. Between 2012 and 2022 China added at least $10 trillion more to its debt load than the U.S. Youth unemployment is at record levels, even as manufacturers report severe labor shortages. The residential property developers at the heart of China’s long boom look increasingly vulnerable, and local governments who have long relied on a red-hot real estate market for revenue are turning to Beijing with their hands out.

Some look at the troubling statistics and predict that China is headed for a catastrophic market bust. Such forecasts, for now, seem premature. The central government still has a lot of money to throw at its problems, and the increasingly totalitarian state that China is becoming has many policy tools at its disposal.

But while China’s economic outlook is as uncertain as its long boom is unprecedented, foreign-policy strategists should prepare for a world in which China’s era of superfast growth has come to an end.

[VDH here provides an eloquent must-read description of the connection between illegal immigration in the US/Western Europe and a spiritual sickness pervading them both.  For an explanation of the cause, the source, of this sickness, you’ll find it in the TTP Archive yesterday (7/10): The Root Cause of the Immigration Crisis.]

The usual suspects have weighed in on recent belated efforts to enforce U.S. immigration laws.

Our now bankrupt media, the corrupt government of Mexico, and the Diversity/Equity/Inclusion apparat have damned a series of laws recently passed by the Florida legislature and signed by Governor Ron DeSantis that enforce existing federal immigration laws.

Such critics seem oblivious to the current violence that is paralyzing Europe in general, and in particular France—as if such European chaos offers no lessons for the U.S. or any other salad-bowl, open-borders Western nation.

What is far more astounding are the actual illogical absurdities of illegal immigration as it is practiced in the West.

[I have known Paul Goble since we worked together on Soviet issues when he was a chief analyst at the RAND Corporation in the 1980s.  In the years since, he’s had an exceedingly distinguished career in academia, diplomacy, and scholarship, particularly in regard to Russia and the former Soviet space. He knows whereof he speaks. –JW]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has long promoted himself as the man who rebuilt the power of the Russian state after the chaos of the 1990s.

However, the Wagner Group mutiny highlights why that rings false—not only because it was an armed challenge to Putin’s authority but also because the relationship between the Kremlin leader and Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner “private military company” (PMC), is a model of how Putin has dealt with others in the Russian political elite across the board.

In case after case, the Russian president has destroyed the institutions of the Russian state and replaced them with others based on personal ties and private understandings, a situation that has led some observers to describe the Putin regime as a failed state.

This in turn amplifies worries about the coming post-Putin transition, where the absence of institutions linked together by law and transparent practice could easily lead to a war of all against all in which force alone will determine the outcome.

The New York Times has twice in one week run pieces raking Biden over the coals for denying the existence of his young granddaughter in Arkansas, while there have been numerous reports from mainstream outlets airing anonymous West Wing grievances over aides' inability to find prime times to schedule public events for the president who just isn't up to the rigors of a full day.

It's a far cry from the earlier mainstream reports seeking to cover for Biden's frequent gaffes (he's just so passionate!) and repetitious use of false stories (he's just trying to relate!). Still, the media have continued to try explaining away his comments such as "God save the Queen!"

Showing how even the mainstream media — which Biden has always griped about even when they generally provided uncritical, fawning coverage — might be growing inclined to shove him out to the retirement pasture, a blunt evaluation of Biden and how he treats White House aides popped up in Axios about angry Joe "Old Yeller" Biden.

Turns out he’s the abusive jerk of a boss we always knew he is.