Where is the Rage?

 

My grief and anger has continued to rise as more photos of those beautiful young marines have been circulating on social media.  Any one of them could have been my son or daughter and it turns my stomach that 14 families have had to endure the awful experience of having two marines walk up to their door and ring the doorbell.   Their families will never be the same.

And it was all unnecessary. 

And this doesn’t take into account the 2,300 that went before them and the thousands more that were injured and maimed over the past 20 years, whose sacrifices are now being nullified by the reckless withdrawal of Team Biden.

Making matters worse, the Taliban ginned up a flag raising ceremony meant to mock the iconic image of the US soldiers pushing up the flag at Iwo Jima.   There have been other photos of Taliban sporting our confiscated equipment and joyriding in one of our Blackhawk helicopters.   Incredibly, the Taliban conducted a press conference before our own ossified president could get out of his pajamas.  This was all meant to humiliate us, to show that these throwbacks could bring the most powerful military force the world has ever seen to its knees, just as they did to the Soviets in 1989.

My blog this week, however, is a reaction to the reactions

Since the bombing, Twitter has been seething with rage with some notables like Jesse Kelly ranting on Tucker Carlson’s show.  He was hardly alone.  There were many, many calls for the resignations of Biden, Blinken, Austin and Milley.   Upon learning that we had left behind some $80 billion in US weaponry, turning the place into the most heavily armed terrorist hotspot and arms bazaar in the world overnight, many even called for court-martials and impeachment.

I listened carefully to the reactions of our political and military establishment, both to the words and the tone.

I was taken by what I didn’t hear—rage, or any real anger for that matter.  The responses were clinical and devoid of emotion. 

From Biden, we got the expected flat, bumbling speech, after waiting all day, blaming Trump and vowing not to exact revenge but to “complete the mission.”

From Milley and Austin, nothing.   They just lost 14 of our finest.  You’d think they’d have something to say. 

From Col. McKenzie, a clinical zoom call, incredulously talking about a “common purpose” with the Taliban.  We have no common purpose with the Taliban, you dolt.

Most curious was the silence from people who had a lot to say about a lot of things in the past.

Barack and Michelle Obama- Zilch.  We heard a lot about the Cambridge police, Trayvon Martin, and George Floyd from Barack.  Suddenly, the cat got his tongue.  Michelle suddenly mute on women’s rights and after spouting off about her fears she has that her daughters might get pulled over by the police.

General Jim Mattis- Mad Dog simply vanished.  After asserting that “Trump was a threat to the Constitution” during last summer’s near assault on the White House after Trump ordered up the 82^nd Airborne, the man who let bin Laden slip out of Tora Bora is nowhere to be found.  This is the same guy that resigned the Trump administration over Trump’s decision to pull US troops out of Syria because he thought we were betraying our Kurdish allies.  Now that Biden betrayed our Afghan allies as well as our European allies, the General of Pithy Quotes is nowhere to be found.

Pope Francis- His Holiness never missed an opportunity to take oblique shots at Trump and the US over capitalism, immigration, and climate change.  Scrolling through his tweets, he is also now a salesman for the jab.  Nothing about Afghanistan.  Nothing about the gross abuses of human rights and women’s rights in Afghanistan.  Francis had lots to say about “environmental sins” and “equity.”   Beheadings and child marriages—not so much.

Uncontrolled anger does not make for good decisions.  But there are times when rage is an appropriate response.  From the Establishment, we saw none, if we saw any response at all.

The response to the bombings in Kabul echoed the responses of our local people here in Chicago with the murder of police officer Ella French.  I did not see any anger in the responses from Mayor Lightfoot or Police Chief David Ward, neither of which could even get her name right.  No change in personnel.  No commitment to do things any differently.

Because they really don’t care.  In both places, on the streets of Chicago and in Kabul, the neo-Marxist  establishment virtually guaranteed this outcome.  Joe Biden and Mark Milley put these wonderful young people in this position.  Lori Lightfoot and David Ward put Ella French in the position she was in.

The silence and lack of emotion speak loudly.

 

The Real Import of Afghanistan

 

If none of this makes sense to you, it’s because it’s working.

Much is being said and written about the horrendous events unfolding in Afghanistan.  I will leave it to others to spin out their narratives.   My goal here is to put forward some observations of facts, and ask some questions.  I leave it to you to draw your own conclusions. 

Fact 1: Just weeks before the takeover of Afghanistan, General Milley was in front of Congress on a military budget hearing proclaiming “white supremacy” as the top security risk facing the nation, as he answered questions about teaching Critical Race Theory in the military.

“It is important that we train, and we understand…and I wanna understand white rage.  And I’m white.”

Fact 2:  Again, at about the same time, Obama held a birthday bash on Martha’s Vinyard with about 700 people—unmasked, while at the same time, the president and blue state governors are issuing mask mandates for school children.

Fact 3:   The Biden Administration, without consulting with any of our allies or the Afghan military (indeed, after issuing assurances to them concerning the security of Afghanistan), abruptly pulls our intelligence people and contractors supporting Afghan forces.  This has the effect of blinding the military and then Biden publicly berates the Afghan army for not fighting.

Fact 4:  The US simply walked away from Bagram Air Base, a very strategic airfield,  in the weeks before the Taliban takeover while thousands of American civilians were still in Afghanistan.  Bagram was under no real threat from the Taliban.

Fact 5:  Most damning, some $80-100 billion of US equipment was left behind, much in its original, pristine packaging, including 75,000 vehicles, 200 aircraft (including Blackhawk helicopters).  Horrifyingly, night vision equipment was left behind, taking away a huge advantage we would have if we have to do battle with the Taliban.

Fact 6:  While all this is going on, Joe Biden and his press secretary are “out of office” on vacation.  While Biden returns to speak, his answers were inconsistent with facts on the ground.  Inaccuracies include statements that no Americans are being harmed (they were being beaten and passports taken). 

Fact 7:  The administration immediately began making plans for evacuating 30,000 Afghan refugees (no vetting, no vaccine requirements), but told our citizens outside Kabul to “shelter in place” with no plans to extract them.  Neither the Defense Department or State Department could provide numbers of U.S. citizens marooned there.  So far, of the people evacuated, less than 7% are American citizens.

Fact 8:  Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar was released from a Pakistani prison under pressure from Barack Obama in the infamous prisoner swap for deserter Bowie Bergdahl.  Baradar was a trusted advisor to Mullah Omar.

Fact 9: CIA director had a secret meeting with Baradar.  Don’t be surprised if, in addition to the military equipment, there is a cash transfer to the Taliban.  Here come the pallets of cash again.

Fact 10:  There are 3 leaders that have lots to say about a lot of things:  General Jim Mattis (who allowed bin Laden to escape Tora Bora and famously called Trump a “threat to the Constitution” last summer), Pope Francis and Barack Obama.  Suddenly, all three have been muted.  Why the sudden silence?

Fact 11: In the style reminiscent of Baghdad Bob, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki, is most incredibly asserting that Americans aren’t stranded in Afghanistan. 

This all looks very fishy, especially when you consider that Obama was at the forefront of excusing, ignoring or explaining away militant Islam.  At each terrorist attack, his first instincts were to get in front of the cameras and urge people “not to rush to judgment.”  He was the only Western leader not to make the trip and walk in solidarity with world leaders after the Nice attacks in France.   Obama likewise made sure that “recognizing Muslim accomplishments in science” was specifically written into the mission statement of NASA, a courtesy not extended to any Christian or Jewish sect.  The transfer of cash to the mullahs of Iran in connection with the JCPOA was egregious and provided needed lifeblood to a regime that was staggered.

These are just facts as they exist today.   As with the origins of COVID19 and the strange facts around the 2020 election results, the governing elite has left a great deal of ambiguity and open questions that require answers.  If you begin to piece together the threads, you are vulnerable to being labelled a “conspiracy theorist.”  But the facts speak for themselves.  Afghanistan is either borne out of intent or is one of the worst strategic and military blunders in human history. 

I will leave you with this thought.  Our federal government is allowing our own citizens to be exposed to the brutality of the Taliban with no sense of urgency and no real plan for getting them out.  Indeed, it is putting Afghanis first.  Locally, in cities like Chicago, law abiding citizens are being brutally attacked, carjacked, beaten and shot every week and government isn’t lifting a finger to help.  Indeed, every law and mandate that has been issued has been to coddle, protect and empower criminals.

In other words, government, by its passivity in dealing with threats is causing harm to its own citizens.  Its omissions are telling all of us that we are on our own, that government is abdicating its most important function, that we are going to live in a Hobbesian society.

It should deeply concern you, because it’s only a half step from allowing us to be harmed through passivity to becoming more active.   If you are experiencing an uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach, you should.

 

Disrespecting Ella

 I’m going to write something that will be uncomfortable for most of you to read.   Because we don’t want to believe it.  We really don’t want to believe that people in leadership positions can be this callous, and this committed to the twisted righteousness of their cause.

In a stunning series of purported slips, the hierarchy of the Chicago Police Department continues to heap disrespect on to the slain young officer, Ella French.  It is tradition that bagpipes accompany the body of a slain officer but as her body was being taken to the morgue, First Deputy Superintendent Eric Carter was caught on tape saying, “We’re not waiting for bagpipes…We don’t have time for this shit.”

Really, Eric?  What else was more pressing?  What else was on your busy schedule?

Then, Chief of Police David Brown in his first public comments explicably flubbed her name and called her “Ella Fitzgerald.”  

Downtown David Brown, in these circumstances, you had one job.  Just one.  And you shockingly whiffed.

Not to be outdone, in a budget meeting,  Mayor Lightfoot referred to her as “Ella Franks” earlier this week.

The mayor and chief of police both botched her name.  Her name is not a long, difficult to pronounce ethnic name like mine.  It’s not Polish with a paucity of vowels.   It’s not Lithuanian or Czech.   A few Mexican names can be tough to handle.   Some Arabic names can get you tangled up.  No.  It is a simple, one syllable name,  a name any kindergartner could easily remember and enunciate.

And a mere week after allowing Lollapalooza to go on, she deep sixed the longstanding tradition of playing bagpipes for French, claiming it violated new COVID protocols- to which the medical examiner’s office immediately  responded that that claim was not true.  There have been no changes in protocols.  And two weeks after Lollapalooza, Lightfoot joined Pritzker in marching in the black-oriented Bud Billiken parade—another summer Chicago tradition.  Every step of the way, Lightfoot displayed her disingenuousness around the entire tragedy.

But wait, there’s more.   The suspect that sold the shooter, Emonte Morgan, the gun in a straw purchase was released by the judge.   And feckless prosecutor Kim Foxx declined to charge Morgan’s mother with a felony after she burst into the hospital where Morgan was being treated, screaming hysterically, recording the drama with her cell phone and assaulting officers.  Clearly, she was either hoping for a big payday or garnish national attention as Jacob Blake’s parents did.

Adding up all the messaging by the mayor and the top brass at the Chicago Police Department, you have to reach one conclusion:  The disrespect shown to Ella French by this cabal is intentional.  The mispronunciation of her name is intentional.  The refusal to honor her with a time honored tradition is intentional.

Here is the hard truth that we need to come to grips with:  The people in the chain of command are all black radicals (or sycophants) that are secretly pleased with her death.  They view this as payback for George Floyd, Michael Brown, Rayshard Brooks and Jacob Blake, and the false narratives that went along with each of those incidents—that the police are unjustly targeting African Americans.  If they could spit on French’s coffin, they would.  Deputy Chief Eric Carter came as close to doing so as you could.

This cabal reduced police manpower, forced officers to work 12 hour shifts, and assigned young, inexperienced officers like Ella and her partner to the toughest districts.  Worse, the politicians changed all the rules of engagement over the past year, adding another element of risk and complexity to an already stressed system.  It all virtually ensured that something like this would be the eventual result.  It was inevitable that an officer would get hurt or killed or that an officer would overreact or react badly to a situation.

This is the outcome they engineered and wanted, and I’m not ashamed of saying it out loud.  And when it did, they went out of their way to disrespect her.   It is something that you really do not want to believe that people in a leadership position could be so sinister, but it is reality.  Their actions belie their beliefs.

Woke Olympics

 This year’s Olympics was one of the strangest, most disquieting Olympics since the 1972 Olympics in which 11 Israeli athletes were murdered by the Palestinian terrorist group, Black September.  While nothing as wrenching took place this year, the Olympics were bitterly divisive.

For the first time, many Americans rooted against many of their teams and athletes.  Social Media lit up with glee as the favored but hopelessly Woke women’s soccer team, led by the insufferable Queen of Malcontent, Megan Rapinoe, got crushed by Sweden 3-0.   The Canadians then knocked them out of gold medal contention.

The U.S. men’s basketball team, a perennial juggernaut likewise went out with a whimper, losing to France.  Gone are the days of the Dream Team.  Again, the reaction was one of delight.

Similarly, Gwen Berry, another athlete that turned her back on the flag, failed to medal.  Raven Saunders also protested and then twerked for the cameras (although she did medal). 

For the athletes that failed, there was an incredible amount of schadenfreude and contempt in the air for them and their disrespect for the country.   It seems as though these athletes decided to turn their backs on their country and their countrymen returned the favor.  It was a most disturbing thing.

The strangest turn of events was the New Zealand transgender weightlifter, Laurel Hubbard, who competed in the women’s events though she was a biological male.  While the “breaking barriers” media crown swooned, much of the saner world stood perplexed as the Woke IOC opened the door to the destruction of women’s sports.

In the end, Hubbard failed to medal and in an almost comically embellished performance failed to snatch a weight that she should have easily handled.  She smiled and left the stage, almost as if it had been scripted to fail.  Indeed, several knowledgeable people, familiar with the sport were convinced that she took a dive so that the Woke crowd could say, “See, transgender athletes do not automatically have an insurmountable advantage.”

One of the few bright spots was Tamyra Mensah-Stock, winner of the gold medal in women’s wrestling.  Her beaming smile lit us all up as she draped herself in the American flag and proclaimed how proud she was to wrestle for the United States.

Meanwhile, viewer ratings of the Olympics dropped by nearly 50% and Subway franchisees are pushing Subway to drop pickle puss Rapinoe as their spokesperson.  Rapinoe whined that Trump was rooting against the U.S. women’s team.

I hate to break this to Megan, but a lot of us were rooting against you.

Because you root against us.  It’s a mutual thing.

Ella French

 

I’m writing this on about 3 hours of sleep.  Last night I saw the post on Twitter that 2 officers had been shot on the South Side.  Someone then posted the dispatcher call that responded to the shooting.  The call will haunt me for a long time.   It is not often that I am brought to tears anymore, but listening to this call did it.  You can find it easily on Twitter but I will not post it here as I prefer to spare my readers the pain.  Today, Officer French’s photo is on Twitter and it brought me to tears again.  The photo is of her in uniform, beaming, beautiful young smile while she is holding a small dog.  It crossed my mind that this could be my daughter.  Indeed, she was Chicago’s daughter.

A little while later, we learned that 29 year old Ella French had died and her partner was in the ICU at The University of Chicago hospital, struggling to stay alive, having been shot in the shoulder, back and eye.   Apparently, all three of the perpetrators are now in custody.  The incident occurred during a routine traffic stop.

Police Chief David Brown was in Dallas, attending his mother’s funeral and did not respond for several hours before sending out an email.  Mayor Lightfoot made some tepid, perfunctory comments last night, then took to Twitter to immediately begin to spin the narrative:

“Some say we don’t do enough for the police.  Others say we do too much.  All of this must stop.

We have a common enemy: it’s guns and the violence they bring.”

Lightfoot has it precisely backwards.  It’s the thugs and gangs that they’ve unleashed that bring the guns and violence.

Governor Pritzker has, to my knowledge, not bothered to comment but continues to blather on about keeping us safe by vaccine.

We do have a common enemy—it’s the feckless politicians chasing a false narrative and the despicable media that provides the spin.

Since coming into office, the triad of Pritzker, Lightfoot and prosecutor Kim Foxx have done everything in their power to handcuff law enforcement, empower criminals and gangs and turn Chicago into something that resembles Mogadishu rather than the great American city it once was.

Pritzker gleefully signed a criminal reform bill just a few months ago that eliminated cash bail, restricts officers from pursuing suspects, restricts officers from detaining individuals suspected of Class B and C misdemeanors, and allowed anonymous complaints against officers, among other things.  Lightfoot never missed a chance to deflect criticism of her handling of the crime wave in the city by calling for more gun control and pushed away Donald Trump’s offer of federal help.  When young gangbanger Adam Toledo was shot, she restricted the ability of officers to pursue suspects on foot, requiring them to call a supervisor first.  The laxity of Kim Foxx is now legendary.  Charges are dropped about 1/3 of the time and about 30 criminals out on felony bond have gone on to commit violent crimes.   Clueless Police Chief David Brown dissolved the gang crimes unit, among other things.

All of these things and more met young mother Ella French on 63^rd and Bell last night.  It’s on all of you, the entire lot.  It’s not about gun control.  It’s about savage control.  Weekend after weekend, it happens. Over 4^th of July, a University of Chicago student was murdered.  A few days before, a 9 year old girl was shot in the head and killed.  A few weeks ago, a young woman was stabbed to death a few blocks from Sears Tower.  It goes on and on.  Car jackings. Hold ups.  Shootings. And all they’ve done is shackle the police.  

But this started much earlier.  While Officer French was being shot in the face, former president Barack Obama was yukking it up with 700 of his closest friends at Martha’s Vinyard for his 60^th birthday party.  It was Barack that jumped on the Cambridge police for “acting stupidly” when they came upon professor Henry Louis Gates breaking into his own home and asked him for ID.   He famously asserted that if “he had a son, he’d look like Trayvon” after the young punk assaulted George Zimmerman and was shot in the altercation.   If you read firearms expert Massad Ayoob’s analysis of the case, you will see that it was a case that should never have been brought against Zimmerman.   Of course the worst affront was hosting BLM representatives in the White House only weeks after they were filmed marching through the streets chanting: “What do we want? Dead cops.  When do we want it? Now,” and “Pigs in a blanket. Fry ‘em like bacon.”  

At every level of government, the police were demonized and criminals empowered.

The media have been willing accomplices in this narrative.  It desperately wanted to crucify the officer that shot and killed little 13 year old gangbanger Adam Toledo, until the bodycam indisputably showed that the officer had used deadly force appropriately and legally on “Little Homicide.”   The wanted another show trial as they had with Officer Van Dyke to buttress their fact-free narrative that police are wantonly targeting minorities for mistreatment.  It had to give up on the Adam Toledo incident.

The murder of French and shooting of her partner is taking this to another level.  My heart aches for Ella’s family and her newborn baby.  

And it aches for this once great city that is rapidly descending into a Mad Max dystopian nightmare, willingly, knowingly and purposefully by Obama, his acolytes, the governor, mayor, and chief prosecutor.  It will soon be past the point of no return.

Bye Bye Biles

 

Simone Biles is being lionized for her withdrawal from the Olympics, citing “mental health issues” and that her “mind and body weren’t in synch.”  In her press conference, she bemoaned that she “wasn’t having fun.” Biles is to Olympic gymnastics what Tiger Woods is to golf and Tom Brady is to football.  She is the face of the sport and was expected to wow us all with a gold medal performance.   Her performance was much needed after the belly flops of the women’s soccer teams and the men’s basketball teams.

I have decidedly mixed views of her withdrawal, particularly since the MSM is gushing over her courage and “taking ownership of her mental health.”

Yes, there is a certain amount of bodily risk involved in gymnastics.  Slip ups have caused devastating, paralyzing injuries.   While some sports present more risks than others, gymnastics is not alone in presenting risks to athletes.  Hockey, downhill skiing, luge, ski jumping, among others present dangers to athletes. 

And Biles is not the first top level performer to take a pass.  Temperamental Bobby Fischer, it will be recalled, showed up late to the first game and lost and, after making ridiculous demands on the match organizers forfeited the second game with Boris Spassky before turning the match around and finally defeating Spassky.

Sure, it’s her body, her choice.  And, of course, I have a great deal of empathy toward her after she was victimized by the dastardly Dr. Nasser.  She made the best decision for her.

The media is all ablaze with support for her and her decision to withdraw.  “Thank you for finding your voice and staying true to yourself,” proclaimed one.  WaPo, of course, was compelled to racialize and genderize the whole affair, “Black women are apparently still expected to sacrifice themselves for a country that refuses to see them as fully human.”  Another opinion piece read, “Men could learn a thing or two about what it means to be truly strong.” 

But there’s another perspective.  Competitors compete.  Real competitors can’t be held back.  The sports world is replete with stories of athletes refusing to be held back by physical or emotional issues.  Many athletes have competed immediately following the death of a parent.  Michael Jordan famously turned in a stellar performance in the NBA finals despite having the flu.  Duncan Keith was smashed in the mouth with a puck, and despite losing several teeth, returned to play the same night.  Nolan Ryan continued to pitch even after being hit in the face with a line drive, blood splattered all over his jersey.  Ronnie Lott of the San Francisco 49ers had a part of his little finger amputated after it was severely dislocated so he could continue to play.  Of course, there were the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys who played in the famous Ice Bowl on the frozen tundra in Green Bay with a wind chill of minus 36 degrees.  Many players suffered frostbite.  Tiger Woods overcame age and personal issues to win the Masters two years ago.  Plenty of other athletes have competed when battling internal demons.  That’s what it’s all about.

It is in the overcoming and prevailing that makes the best sports stories.

Perhaps the greatest display of grit and will was by Babe Dietrich Zaharias.   Incredibly Babe won the 1954 U.S. Women’s Open Championship in golf a month after colon cancer surgery and while wearing a colostomy bag. 

Biles is a superb athlete and it’s a shame that she chose to duck out.   But the media shouldn’t be fawning over her decision.   If she didn’t wish to compete, she should have pulled out a long time ago and let someone else take her spot.   

Biles was the face of our team at the Olympics.  She let her team down and her country down.  When it was time to step up, she stepped aside.