I confess this does not make sense to me, perhaps just showing how out of touch I am with twenty-first-century social norms. Here’s a story about Raquel Evita Saraswati, who identified as a Muslim “woman of color” claiming Arab, Latina, and South Asian ancestry. Saraswati had a 20-year history of supporting Muslim women and girls, and was named Philadelphia NOW’s woman of the year in 2019. Now she’s been outed. It turns out that her birth name was Rachel Seidel and that, whatever her current religious beliefs, she’s actually white—“as white as the driven snow,” according to her mother who says her daughter’s ancestry is British, German, and Italian. Saraswati was living a lie, and was accused of cultural vulturism.

After two years in power, President Joe Biden doesn’t have many positive accomplishments to brag about.

Julie Su’s irresponsible record on unemployment fraud did not prevent her from confirmation as Deputy Labor Secretary by a vote of 50-47. With Biden now tapping Su for the top post, another matter should come into play. 

“Fed Remodel Keeps Inflating” by Andrew Ackerman and Nick Timiraos (Wall Street Journal, March 6, 2023, p. A1) reports that the cost of renovating the Federal Reserve System’s Great Depression-era headquarters building now stands at $2.5 billion. Beset by runups in the costs of building materials, predictable construction delays, and design changes demanded of architects along the way, the final price tag likely will be much higher.

President Joe Biden nominated Julie Su as the next Secretary of the Department of Labor on February 28, 2023. Su has served as a Deputy Secretary in the U.S. Labor Department since July 17, 2021. It is a highly troubling nomination, given Su’s poor track record as a top administrator.

Friedreich’s Ataxia (sometimes shortened to FA) is a disease that slowly damages the nervous system over time. Often, FA results in difficulty controlling muscle movements, impaired sensory function, spinal curvature, and a host of other serious health concerns. Symptoms of FA usually begin during early or late childhood and last the duration of the victim’s lifetime (which is often shortened). While FA is rare (about 5,000 Americans currently have it), those with it can only receive treatment for symptoms. 

The federal Energy Department has now concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic began with a leak from a laboratory in China. In a similar style, FBI Director Christopher Wray explains, “The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan. Here you are talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab.” And since the first case of COVID in the U.S. in January 2020, added Wray, China has tried to “thwart and obfuscate” investigations into the origin of the pandemic. 

The Congressional Budget Office creates a detailed 10-year budget projection of the U.S. government’s spending, revenues, and deficits every year. The CBO’s 10-year budget and economic outlook for 2023 are now out. This new report puts the lie to one of the most bizarre claims President Joe Biden made in his State of the Union address just ten days earlier.

“The FTC’s Antitrust Collusion” (Wall Street Journal editorial page, February 24) pieces together 628 pages of redacted emails revealing that the Federal Trade Commission coordinates with foreign antitrust officials to block mergers involving U.S. companies. (The emails were obtained by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in a lawsuit forcing the Commission to comply with the Chamber’s Freedom of Information Act request.)

Right before Christmas, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) issued his Festivus Report for 2022. Unfortunately, because the Senator also tweeted his own reworked version of Clement C. Moore’s A Visit from St. Nicholas at that time, I missed his annual Festivus Airing of Grievances over some of the federal government’s most wasteful spending.