Winter of Our Discontent

As winter drags on and refuses to loosen its grip, it gets a little harder to remain optimistic.  As February closed out, we were faced with a barrage of disappointing (but not unexpected) news last week.  Spring may be just around the corner, but as a second polar vortex descends on us,  green shoots seem farther away, both metaphorically and otherwise.

North Korea Summit

President Trump’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jung Un ended as predicted---early and with no progress.  While Trump’s approach of engagement and treating the North Korean dictator with respect and even lavishing sickening praise on Dear Leader (“We fell in love.”), Kim Jung Un has not varied one inch from his position that he will only commence denuclearization 

simultaneously with a drawdown in sanctions.  We have played this game over and over for 25 years and we remain stuck in the same place.  Trump wisely folded his briefcase and went home.   So far, we have achieved a temporary cessation of testing and missile launches.  But Kim has achieved recognition and a cessation of military exercises on the Korean peninsula.  Worse, Trump indicated that he took Kim Jung Un “at his word” when Kim Jung Un claimed he did not know about the abuse and torture of Otto Wambier.

Vatican summit on clergy sex abuse

Like the summit between Trump and Kim Jung Un, the Vatican summit on clergy sex abuse resulted in no real progress.  I had hoped for specific and bold measures to combat the crisis in the Catholic Church, especially after the defrocking of Cardinal McCarrick and the conviction of Cardinal Pell.  Crises often give organizations latitude to make changes that they would not otherwise make, but this Pope squelched the U.S. bishops from developing their own plan, and instead convened his own summit.  Unsurprisingly, no new concrete measures came out of it.   Pope Francis is more concerned with climate change and immigration than fixing his own sick organization.

Michael Cohen hearings

And this week we were treated to the Michael Cohen hearings.  As with the summit with North Korea and the Vatican, nothing happened except that Cohen affirmed for us what we suspected all along—that he looks something that looks like you cleaned out of your drain trap.  Just listening to him makes you want to take a shower with disinfectant soap.  Cohen’s opening statement was clearly written by Lanny Davis, longtime Clinton consigliere and opened by asserting that Trump was “a bigot, a con man and a cheat.”  Cohen tried to position himself as the victim of Trump’s misdeeds, and while he made headlines, Cohen brought out no new revelations and probably persuaded no one to change their views—of him or Trump.

Transgender Athletes

The LGBT community continued to throw its weight around as transgender athletes won the girls state indoor championships in the sprint events in New Jersey and the Olympic Committee announced that transgender athletes that have not completed sex reassignment surgery may compete in the Olympics. Women’s sports are now in grave danger, and will likely be set back to pre-Title IX levels unless this absurdity stops.  The phrase “tyranny of the majority” is often used in politics, but here we have the tyranny of the minority.  A tiny fraction of the population is going to ruin things for all girls and women athletes.

Twitter Outrage

It wouldn’t be a week without yet another outrage from Facebook or Twitter.  This week, Twitter sent conservative pundit Michelle Malkin a letter saying that she needed to obtain counsel because her transmission of Muhammed cartoons violated Pakistani blasphemy laws which are punishable by imprisonment or death and the Pakistanis were complaining about it.  This set off the predictable response from the self-described “angry brown woman.”  I tweeted out, “Well there goes spring break in beautiful Islamabad for the Malkin family.”  I don’t think the Pakistanis know quite who they are tangling with.

Bibi

Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of our closest ally in the Middle East has been indicted on corruption charges.  While Bibi has not yet been convicted, it certainly is not helpful for us to have one of our staunches allies under pressure.

Those were not the only setbacks this week, but just the top half dozen.  Before you come to the conclusion that Western Civilization is lost completely, there were a couple of things that gave me a faint glimmer of hope.

First, The Washington Post in an Editor’s Note began to walk back its account of the confrontation between Nathan Phillips and the Covington boys.  The sting of a $250 million lawsuit has evidently gotten its attention and there is some hope that the MSM will be forced to report a little more responsibly in the future.

Second, Donald Trump at CPAC announced that he will be signing an executive order requiring colleges and universities to support free speech and  that cuts of federal funding for colleges and universities that do not.   The University of Chicago has set the standard in that regard and several schools have adopted the “Chicago Principles” which establishes wide latitude for free speech.   Trump makes us all crazy sometimes but sometimes he hits the ball squarely.  The issue of free speech on campus (and otherwise)  is vital to the existence of the West.  It has eroded on campus and in Europe.  It is encouraging to see Donald Trump take a huge step in the right direction on this issue.

Last week was a tough week, but all hope is not lost.