A Bad Week for the West

It was a rough week for Western Civilization last week, and I hope things make a U-turn this week.  Otherwise, it could be head for the bunkers soon.  Freedom, human rights and representative democracy lost quite a bit of ground.

• ·        Topping the news was the sentencing of Larry Nassar, Michigan State physician that sexually abused dozens of girls over his tenure at the school.  This vermin apparently perpetrated his crimes under the auspices of “examinations” and complaints were dismissed or overlooked by the school, echoing the Penn State crimes of Jerry Sandusky.   The president of the school, athletic director and head athletic trainer all resigned in the wake of the scandal.  Ironically, an institution which should be protecting young women was being run by a woman.   And Pope Francis caused an uproar in Chile when he seemed to defend child abuse enabling bishop Juan Barros.  These two institutions should be primarily concerned with protecting children, and instead were protecting the perpetrators.      

•  A photograph with a smiling Barack Obama together with racist and anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan surfaced after years of being buried by a “journalist.”  The photo received scant attention in the mainstream media, only a couple of weeks after the MSM went into an uproar over Donald Trump’s use of the word “sh—thole.”  I’m old enough to remember the MSM criticizing Trump for not doing enough to disavow the Charlottesville white supremacists.

•       Donald Trump instituted tariffs on select Chinese goods.  Yes, I know that the Chinese do not always play fair, but trade restrictions will cool this economy down faster than interest rate increases.  So far, Trump’s policies have been a big boost to the economy (and the Dallas Fed even said so).  Bringing our corporate tax rates in line with the rest of the developed world and rolling back some of the massive regulatory expansion under Obama has made doing business great again.  Trump’s announcement that “America is open for business” was a welcome announcement.   Trade restrictions would be extremely counterproductive. 

•       The California attorney general announced that it would prosecute businesses that cooperated with ICE.   This is the worst instance of nullification since the Civil War.  The defiance of several cities and California to federal law is a real threat to the republic.  With freedom of movement between states, we cannot have states decide on their own who they will permit to stay. Likewise, several states have also decided that they will be pursuing “net neutrality” on their own. 
  
• In a breach of decorum, Ruth Bader Ginsburg announced that she will not attend the State of the Union address.   She has been an outspoken critic of Trump, calling him a “faker” and asserted that misogyny played a role in the election.   I objected to Barack Obama scolding the Supreme Court in his State of the Union address and Ginsburg should show some grace and attend.  Her old pal, Antonin Scalia didn’t miss any of Obama’s. 
  
• John Kerry, in blatant defiance of the Logan Act, met with Palestinian leader Abbas and told him not to give in to Trump, that Trump wouldn’t last long.  I don’t recall ever in my lifetime a former official so brazenly undercutting U.S. policy. 
  
• Things overseas didn’t look much better.   Russia jailed its opposition leader Alexei Navalny.  Venezuela accelerated its “elections” to ensure the iron grip of Nicolas Maduro.  And in a ghastly move, the Polish parliament on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day made it illegal to refer to Polish concentration camps or implicate Poles in the complicity with the Holocaust.  Rewriting and sanitizing history is very bad policy--- whether it involves tearing down Civil War statutes or official denial of events. 
  
•  And if that weren’t enough, riots broke out when Nutella cut its price in France.  Yes, there were riots over that chocolate hazelnut spread.  And in Paris, 50 baboons escaped the Paris Zoo, necessitating a shutdown of the zoo.  Best spoof headline: 50 Baboons Escape Paris Zoo: France Immediately Surrenders to the Baboons.

Taken together,  these items do not present a pretty picture for the West and Western culture.

Yet amidst the chaos,  there was at least one hopeful sign.  The people of Iran still yearn to be free.  The young woman that wave her hijab in defiance has been freed, although another woman has been jailed.  Protests continue.  The Iranians