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I'm Megna Chakra-Bardi, and this is the Jackpod, where on-point news analyst Jack Beattie helps us connect history, literature, and politics in a way that brings his unique clarity to the world we live in now.

Hello, Jack.

Hello, Magna.

And what a world it is.

We're at episode 58 of the jackpot.

What's your headline?

Intellectual disgrace stares from every Biden face.

Is that a line original to you or are you quoting someone?

No, I'm borrowing from W.H. Auden, who wrote a line, intellectual disgrace, stares from every human face in his poem, September 1939, looking back over the failures of will and intelligence and just decency in the decade of the 1930s.

And I'm applying it to the Biden administration, the intellectual disgrace.

Let's just explain.

U.S. law requires that weapon shipments be cut off to countries that are impeding

delivery of U.S. supported aid. A month ago, partly reacting to press reports of the U.N.

the U.N. said strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas of northern Gaza,

in testimony before the Senate burns, the CIA head, in answer to a senator's question,

said, yes, children are dying of starvation.

So, partly reacting to that pressure, the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense a month ago

...