Biden gives Putin list of infrastructure entities off limits to cyberattacks. In the first meeting between U. S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Biden gave Putin a list of sixteen infrastructure entities that should be off limits to cyberattacks. Those entities include: energy, water, health care, emergency, chemical, nuclear, communications, government, defense, food, commercial facilities, IT, transportation, dams, manufacturing and financial services. Obama attempted the same type of negotiation with China. China initially agreed, but ultimately reneged on the agreement. Experts don’t expect Biden to have any more success with Putin.

Two things come to mind: First, doesn’t providing a list of things that are off limits to cyberattacks rather imply that there are some things open to cyberattacks? I don’t think that’s a message we want to give Russia. Second, this makes Biden look naive. Biden himself said that Putin was “a killer” who is “without a soul.” What makes him think Putin gives a rat’s patooty what Biden thinks ought to be off limits to cyberattacks? Also, isn’t giving Putin a list of those infrastructure entities most essential to the U. S. also giving him a pretty good idea of how best to cripple America? I can imagine Putin thinking, “What are you going to do about it?” That ought to be first and foremost in Biden’s mind. How will the U. S. defend itself against future cyberattacks, and how will the U. S. respond to such attacks?

All of this is especially disconcerting in light of other developments. First, was Biden’s lifting of sanctions against the company in charge of building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, clearing the way for the project. The pipeline will transport natural gas from Russia to Germany, enriching Russia and making Europe more dependent on the Euro-Asian bear for its energy needs. This decision on Biden’s part was particularly confusing considering his cancelling the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office, and his decision to suspend oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Both of these decisions cost thousands of American jobs and jeopardize America’s energy independence. Why is Biden cancelling U. S. energy projects while giving the go-ahead to Russia’s pipeline? Also, just before the meeting between Biden and Putin, Russia began conducting military exercises 300 to 500 miles from the Hawaiian Islands, prompting the U. S. Air Force to scramble their F-22 stealth fighters from Hawaii. It is the largest military exercises conducted by Russia since the Cold War ended, and an obvious show of strength by Putin. It seems that Putin thinks Biden is weak and he’s testing that hypothesis. Hopefully, Biden will soon give Putin reason to think differently. But, honestly, I don’t see Vladimir Putin shaking in his boots after his meeting with Uncle Joe.

Biden intent on making taxpayers pay for abortions. After years of explaining that he has no intention of forcing his pro-life Catholic beliefs on abortion on Americans who believe differently than he does, our “devout Catholic” president seems intent on forcing his pro-abortion policies on Americans who think differently than he does. Biden’s $6 trillion budget proposal does not include Hyde Amendment protections against taxpayer-funded abortions. This represents a significant shift in Biden’s position on taxpayer-funded abortion, though one consistent with this 2020 presidential campaign. For decades Biden supported the Hyde Amendment, which forbids taxpayer-funded abortion, even writing in a 1994 letter to constituents, “those of us who are opposed to abortions should not be compelled to pay for them.” Now, he is in favor of taxpayer-funded abortions, adopting the position of the majority of the Democrat party. It may be difficult for the Democrats to secure a budget without the Hyde Amendment, however, as the vast majority of Republicans support it and there are a handful of Democrats who still think Hyde is the best policy.

Biden cancels mothers. The Biden administration’s 2022 budget uses the phrase “birthing people” rather than “mothers” in the section on public health funding. The budget proposal says, “The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate among developed nations, with an unacceptably high mortality rate for Black, American Indian/Alaska Native, and other women of color. To help end this high rate of maternal mortality and race-based disparities in outcomes among birthing people — and in addition to the investment in maternal health included in the American Families Plan — the Budget includes more than $200 million” (emphasis added).

This is bizarre. The budget proposal includes the language of “women of color,” “maternal mortality,” and “maternal health.” So, why speak of “birthing people” when it’s clear we’re talking about women and mothers? How far are our political, social, cultural, and academic elites going to push this gender absurdity? Now, it is bigoted to recognize that only women can get pregnant and give birth? Apparently, this “movement” to replace “mothers” with “birthing people” found first seed at Harvard (‘natch!). A tweet from last November on the Harvard Med Postgraduate and Continuing Education thread announced a panel discussion on birthing outcomes. The tweet partially read: “Globally, ethnic minority pregnant and birthing people suffer worse outcomes and experiences during and after pregnancy and childbirth.” This was followed in May by a speech in Congress by Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), who spoke of “Black birthing people.”

I’m amazed that organizations that purport to fight for women’s rights and for greater respect for women are not raising their voices, condemning this cancelling of mothers. To reduce mothers to “birthing people” is reductionist. It emphasizes their value only as reproductive machines. It also cancels the unique role women have in the world. Do I really have to point out here that every person in the history of the world was born of a woman? Well, no more says Harvard, Cori Bush and now the Biden administration. Now men, along with those who claim one of the vast array and ever growing number of gender identities, can get pregnant and birth children. Is the demise of Western civilization far off? Considering who is leading this culture and what they are trying to do to it, that’s a serious question.

Is Biden’s romance with the press in danger? Most objective observers have long regarded the mainstream media as Biden sycophants willing to do all in their power to secure his election and then portray a happy, competent leader, and doing this by allowing Biden’s communications team to manage the narrative surrounding the 46th president. From unabashed compliments at his first presser to softball questions about his preferred ice cream flavor, no one could accuse the press of hitting Biden very hard. Now, however, some in the press seem to be getting tired of the mushy treatment and the expectation that the press will do the administration’s bidding. In a press conference after his meeting with Putin, Biden announced that he would only take questions from reporters pre-selected by his communications team, as was his pattern during the campaign and during his first presser as president. Biden did take questions from a couple of reporters not pre-selected, but became angry at CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and accused her of being “in the wrong business” when she asked him why he was so confident that Putin was going to “change his behavior.” Biden later apologized, but fellow CNN correspondent Jeff Zeleny said it was “classic Joe Biden” to bark at a reporter’s “perfectly legitimate question.” Zeleny also said, “What we have not seen him do is answer questions like that without his aides screaming at him to stop. I have never seen a president, covering the last four of them, who is so protected by his aides in terms of not wanting him to answer some questions.” Jen Psaki, Biden’s press secretary, has admitted that Biden’s team recommends that he not answer reporter’s questions.

Anyone who’s been reading this blog knows that I’m not a fan of Joe Biden. I think the “happy warrior” facade is just that — a facade. At heart, I think Biden is as corrupt and manipulative a politician as they come, at least during those moments when his thinking isn’t foggy. But, character aside, I think his policies are bad for the country. It’s my opinion that our allies, as well as our enemies, think Biden is weak and our enemies are only too willing to exploit that. He seems to have adopted, under pressure from those within his party, an agenda far more leftist than he would have supported even a decade ago. Perhaps he saw this as the price of winning his party’s nomination, which was looking pretty dismal until the South Carolina primary when the party establishment reacted in horror at the prospect of a socialist running against Trump and took matters into their own hands. His choice of a lightweight VP on racial and gender criteria, his plethora of Executive Orders, his disastrous border management, his spending the country into inflation, his mishandling of jobs and labor, his incomprehensible energy policy, and his weakness toward Russia and China — all of this and more cast a pall over the next three and a half years.

We need to pray for our president. We need to pray that he is converted to the fullness of God’s revelation in Christ, so that the Catholic faith he claims will be more than just a cultural accoutrement and will make a real difference in the policies he adopts. We need to pray that he will be able to stand up to those elements in his own party that want to push him farther left than he already is. We need to pray that he will come to his sense when it comes to his energy policy, spending, and jobs. We need to pray that his eyes are opened to the blood-letting that is abortion. We need to pray that he will be strong in response to efforts by Putin in Russia and Xi in China to dominate the world stage.

And we need to pray for our country that, if none of the above prayers are answered, according to God’s ineffable wisdom, we will find someone who can bring this country back from the brink we are speedily approaching.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.