Nota Bene: The ‘Vicious Animal’ in the White House
Plus, Biden’s ‘unsustainable debt’ and America’s overwhelmed immigration courts.

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley notes Thursday that if President Biden and his family were anyone else in America, they would be on the legal hook for the numerous dog bites that their German shepherds have inflicted on members of the Secret Service and, now, one of the White House staffers. Because of who they are, however, it may be the taxpayers who are on the hook instead.
The first culprit was Major, who was sent into exile at a family friend’s house at Delaware in 2021 after he bit several of the agents charged with protecting the president. Major was replaced by Commander, then a puppy, later that year, and Commander has continued his predecessor’s habit by biting at least 12 people at the White House since moving in, the latest just last month. At least one of the victims had to be treated medically, and another escaped injury only by fighting the animal off with a chair. The president’s handlers have said the victimized agents’ “unfriendly expressions” encouraged the dogs’ behavior.
Whatever the cause, the Bidens are liable for the behavior of their dogs. Both animals long ago passed the — mistaken, it turns out — threshold of being immune from liability until their animal bites one person. And they allowed it for not one, but two separate animals. Under common law, both would be considered “vicious animals” by a court or relevant authority and more than likely removed from the owners’ home, perhaps even euthanized.
“You cannot just continue to feed federal employees to a president’s dog like they are landing at Normandy as a matter of attrition,” Mr. Turley says. Federal employees, including secret service agents, “are not required to assume the role of chew toys for presidential pets. The Bidens are well beyond their one free bite. They are now clearly in possession of a vicious animal under the common law and can be held strictly liable as a result.”
‘Unsustainable Debt’
In announcing his latest dodge of the Supreme Court ruling against him on student loans, Mr. Biden said Wednesday that he is unilaterally forgiving some $9 billion in loans held by 125,000 Americans. Among those who will benefit, he said, are 53,000 borrowers employed by government or non-profits participating in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. He said $5.2 billion is being set aside for that group, an amount that totals just less than $100,000 a borrower. “Americans who are saddled with unsustainable debt in exchange for a college degree has become the norm,” the president lamented.
There’s another “unsustainable debt” out there that Mr. Biden ought to be thinking about as well, but apparently isn’t — the country’s $33 trillion national debt, which is on tap to increase by $7 trillion under this president’s watch. That debt has increased by more than $300 billion in the last two days alone and by more than $500 billion since the country crossed the $33 trillion mark 15 days ago. “That’s an average of $1.4 billion per hour for the last 15 days straight,” the Kobeissi Letter notes, and about $3,000 for every man, woman, and child in America.
America’s Overwhelmed Immigration Courts
Thanks to the Biden administration’s open-door asylum policies at the border, America’s already overwhelmed immigration courts have more than 180,000 new cases to contend with in the coming years. The figure for August represents a 19 percent increase over the number of new cases added in July. There are now more than 2.6 million cases pending in the courts.
Also Noteworthy:
- Mortgage rates are the highest they have been in a generation.
- The Airbnb bubble is starting to burst, and the housing market could soon be flooded with short-term rental units.
- The collapse in Treasury bonds now ranks among the worst market crashes in American history.
- The United Nations wants the world to stop exploring for oil by 2030 and start paying the Global South $200 billion to $400 billion a year to offset the cost of climate change.
- Another teenage Iranian girl manhandled by the regime’s morality police for violating Islamic dress code is in the hospital in serious condition.
- One of the Vindman twins who worked at the National Security Council during the Trump administration is considering running for Congress as a Democrat in Virginia.