Mythbusting

 I’m going to write a few things that will make some people uncomfortable.  So be it.  We’re well past the point of comfort now.  Most people understand that we are in a different place now, that many of our institutional safeguards have given way and many institutions such as the FBI and CDC, instituions that we expected to protect us and be nonpartisan about it, have become partisan tools.   To be sure, some of the erosion has been due to COVID, but much has been due to accepting as gospel myths that turned out to be false.  And I freely admit that to some extent and at one time or another, I bought into all of these. 

No longer.

We need to fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here. 

This pithy slogan of George W. Bush was used as the justification for invading Iraq and for the 20 year debacle in Afghanistan.  In the shadow of the horrors of 9/11, it seemed to make sense.  We all heard the last calls of the frightened people on flight 93 and those trapped on the upper floors of the World Trade Center.  We all got behind W’s rationale for doing anything it took not to have that happen again.  But it turned out to be a false choice.  

We spent billions in both Iraq and Afghanistan, only to erode our standing in the world, exhaust our military, increase Iran’s influence in the Middle East and leave the Taliban with a nation state and advanced weapons. 

Al Qaeda and the Taliban and Iraq deserved an appropriate response but our policymakers chose the highest cost option—in blood and treasure.  And an overlooked cost to these misadventures is that we gave our future adversaries a free look at our doctrines, strategies, tactics and technologies.  And in the case of Afghanistan, we actually turned our weapons over to them.

If we have free and open commercial trade with China, a more prosperous middle class will bubble up, demand more freedom and the CCP will be forced to moderate, and China will become more like us.

A mere 4 years ago, I sat in the audience while Nobel Laureate Eugene Fama proclaimed this and a year later, I had lunch with libertarian economist Deirdre McCloskey, who voiced similar sentiments.  Enriching China may turn out to be the biggest policy mistake in history.  Our politicians blithely overlooked Tiananmen Square for three decades, pretended it didn’t happen and kept waiting for this sea change to occur.  What we got was exactly the opposite of what was predicted by the “experts” – an aggressive, bullying dictatorship that abrogated its deal on Hong Kong,  is threatening Taiwan, lying and covering up the COVID outbreak, threatening us with hypersonic missiles, and exercising hegemony in the South China Sea.  Our political, cultural and business leaders grovel before the CCP.  The NBA fears being shut out and disciplines people that criticize China.  Congressman Eric Swalwell openly cavorts with Chinese spy Fang Fang without serious repercussions, and the leader of America’s largest banking institution, Jamie Dimon obsequiously issued a public apology for offending the CCP.  Pope Francis had no reservations about openly criticizing Donald Trump is silent about China’s Uygher concentration camps and did a secret deal that purportedly gave the CCP veto power over appointments in China.  University of Chicago’s John Mersheimer has a must read article, The Inevitable Rivalry  in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs and I highly recommend it.  All this will be very difficult, if not impossible to reverse.  Since allowing China to join the WTO, I would argue that we have become more like China, rather than the other way around.

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2021-10-19/inevitable-rivalry-cold-war

Mass incarceration is a problem.

Yes, we have been told that mass incarceration is a problem.  The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world, and a lot of it is due to our draconian drug laws, which affect minorities disproportionately.  Because they are poorer and can’t afford bail, they are condemned to sitting in prison.   This has been drummed into us for a couple of decades.

Well, we loosened or eliminated drug laws, went to cashless bail, and, in cities like Chicago, dramatically raised the standards for prosecution.   We are seeing the results of all this with the flow of blood on city streets and the ravaging of a retail industry by looters—an industry that is already reeling because of Amazon and COVID.

As with China, it turns out that mass incarceration was the solution, not the problem.  And this doesn’t mean harsh prison sentences for minor drug offenses.  This means keeping dangerous felons away from productive members of society.    I tweeted this comment:

“Exploring the ‘root causes’ is a useless academic debate and focuses on the needs of the perpetrator sometime off in the future, if ever, rather than the innocent victims today.”

Meanwhile, population will just bleed off, literally and figuratively.”

Ironically, it is the black community in places like Chicago that are bearing most of the suffering due to the propagation of this myth.

Immigration is an unalloyed positive for the country.

Our country needs immigration and I am hardly anti-immigrant, having been reared in a largely immigrant community. Yet, a sane immigration policy would take into account the needs of the country.  There are only 3 squares an immigrant can land on upon arrival:

1.      Employed, self sufficient and productive.

2.      The social welfare system.

3.      The criminal justice system.

That’s it.  We want lots of people on square number one.   We have plenty in squares 2 and 3 already, thank you very much.  A sane policy would filter out as many individuals likely to occupy squares 2 and 3 as possible.

Other factors which make unfettered immigration undesirable is that the demand for unskilled labor is projected to decrease in the future.  We simply do not need lots of people with strong backs and nothing else to bring to the table as we did a century ago.   Yet another problem is that our school systems and other institutions have gone Woke, which means that rather than being fully integrated into our society, new immigrants, particularly those of color, are being told that they are oppressed.  This is not good for a cohesive society.

Sticking blindly to these myths have wreaked tremendous damage to our nation and both Republicans and Democrats share blame for peddling them, along with the so-called “experts.”  We need to make adjustments to them and make them sooner, rather than later.   It’s past time to change course.

The Verdict

 There are plenty of op-eds on the verdict in the prosecution of Kyle Rittenhouse, so I will leave that to others.   Rather, I will comment on the comments and make an assessment of what this trial represented.

Of course, with social media, everyone has an opinion.  On the right, Rittenhouse is being hailed as a hero and his dismissal is a vindication of the 2^nd Amendment.  On the left, he is being smeared as a white supremacist and a murderer, mostly by the MSM, setting up a raft of defamation suits.

But I would focus on the reaction here locally from our political leaders--- the people that actually run the joint—J.B. Pritzker and Lori Lightfoot.   The links to their statements are posted below:

Pritzker

Governor JB Pritzker on Twitter: "Carrying a loaded gun into a community 20 miles from your home and shooting unarmed citizens is fundamentally wrong. Read my full statement on the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict: https://t.co/Buh585oblf" / Twitter

Lightfoot

Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot on Twitter: "Here's my statement on the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict. https://t.co/9jgE1eaZfo" / Twitter

 

First, that Pritzker and Lightfoot commented at all is problematic.  While blood flows weekly in the streets of their own major city, they are compelled to have an opinion on an occurrence in another jurisdiction.  Second, the contempt with which they view our judicial system in particular and the concept of separation of powers is simply breathtaking.   Whether or not you believe the case should have been brought in the first place, the charges were duly considered by a judge and jury of 12 and, despite the threats to both, the verdict came back “not guilty.”  Neither Pritzker nor Lightfoot sat through that trial, but they think they know better.

Even worse, their instincts are to side with the rioters that were causing mayhem and attacked Rittenhouse.  Pritker’s claim that Huber and Rosenbaum “deserve to be alive today” and “deserve justice” overlooks their role in this, that justice was served and, by the way, Rosenbaum was a repeat pedophile.   The reality is that Rittenhouse likely saved a number of children in the future from his dastardly acts.

But most bothersome is the hypocrisy of their statements.   Both Pritzker and Lightfoot have spent the bulk of their administrations attempting to remediate “systemic racism.”  But it was “the system” that put in motion the unfortunate set of circumstances that led to the incident in Kenosha.   It was the MSM condemning the police for attempting to protect children and others from the acts of Jacob Blake.  It was Wisconsin governor Evers who abdicated his responsibility to protect the Kenosha community from the rioters by not calling out the national guard and a mayor that had his force stand down.  These failures led young Kyle to believe that he needed to step into the void created by failed politicians.  You can’t ask a 17 year old to use good judgment when you don’t.

Lightfoot showed real chutzpah, a mere week after a 24 year old recent University of Chicago graduate was mercilessly slaughtered on the street in the middle of the day in Hyde Park, chirped, “What Kyle Rittenhouse did was reckless, dangerous, and showed an utter contempt for human life.”  She goes on to ask for prayers for rapist Jacob Blake.  Lightfoot’s sympathies are unambiguously with the criminal class—the rapists, looters, and pedophiles.  

With over 4,000 shot and 773 homicides this year, Pritzker and Lightfoot should be focused on cleaning up their own jurisdiction first.   What is reckless, dangerous and contemptuous of human life is their policing and criminal justice reform policies.

Like Wisconsin Governor Evers, Pritzker and Lightfoot, along with Kim Foxx have abdicated a primary role of government—that is to protect the persons and property of law abiding citizens.   

And as I write this, the governor of Illinois and mayor of the City of Chicago, who both were compelled to leap to the side of Antifa and take a position counter to a judge and jury in Kenosha now stand silent as we digest the mass casualty event in Waukesha.

Suddenly, the cat has got their tongues.  And it should make you question whether you want to live in a place where either is in charge of governing.

Remembrance- It's Worse Than You Think

 

I spent some time yesterday reflecting on the anniversary of Kristallnacht.  I participated in the observance of the event through the Illinois Holocaust Museum.  Later, I listened to Bari Weiss’s podcast interview with author Dara Horn, who discussed her book, “People Love Dead Jews,” a collection of essays about antisemitism.

I found it appropriate to do them together as the ceremony at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Bari Weiss’s interview with Dara Horn were perfect complements to each other.

Although I am not Jewish, I have had a strong interest in WWII, and, in particular, the Holocaust.  I have read widely on the topic, reviewed several excellent films, such as Son of Saul, and wrote a piece a few years ago in opposition to the proposed Polish law that would have made speaking of the “Polish Holocaust” or similar references illegal.

At bottom, I still seek to understand how citizens in a civilized Western country could have done such things.  And I am also seeking to relate those events to some of the things that are going on right here and now in the U.S. and wondering how concerned we should be.

The ceremony at the Illinois Holocaust Museum was appropriately solemn and dignified.  It had the Israeli Consulate General give some remarks as well as the granddaughter of one of the survivors.  Most moving was the lighting of the candles by some of the survivors and the mournful singing of the cantor.

I urge you to listen to the podcast interview of Dara Horn.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/weekend-extra-why-people-love-dead-jews/id1570872415?i=1000541010284

Perhaps the most important takeaway is Bari Weiss’s assertion that “The fate of Jews and the fate of liberty are intertwined,” a statement I agree with wholeheartedly.  Some of their conversation focused on the Tree of Life Synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh three years ago, as well as the self-erasure that some Jewish institutions engage in in an effort to be more “inclusive.”

Yet, given current events, I found the ceremony and the conversation a little incomplete.  The speakers at the Illinois Holocaust Museum, while remembering the past, did not spend a great deal of time on the most worrying aspect of the current expressions of antisemitism. 

By commission and omission, the State has been an ally to antisemitic forces.  On a national level, both Ilhan Omar have made clear antisemitic statements and the House of Representatives could not bring itself to censure them.   In New York, under the pretext of enforcing COVID restrictions, authorities bullied Hasidic Jews, stopped them from having funeral services and other gatherings.  Most egregiously, they chased young Jewish mothers with their children off playgrounds—even though children have almost no risk from COVID.   And in cities like New York and Los Angeles, Jews have been subjected to random attacks on the streets by African Americans, which attacks have been widely captured on video and disseminated on social media.  The passivity of law enforcement in these cities has been particularly harmful to the Jewish community.

So, yes, we are seeing a resurgence of anti-semitism here in the U.S.

It was a mere four years ago that I saw a flyer on a public bulletin board at the University of Illinois at Chicago that proclaimed, “White Supremacy starts with Jewish Supremacy.”  Now that we are seeing signs that the State is not unequivocally and forcefully pushing back against it, and may be tacitly ok with it, we should be very worried.

Dara Horn said that she objected to Jews being viewed as “canaries in the coal mine.”   I view it a little differently.  My Jewish brothers and sisters are on the front lines of liberty.  And we need to stand with them, even when some don’t see it yet.

Preying on Youth

 

Our society seems to be being pulled apart by a number of forces—our political divisions, urban crime, Cancel Culture, Woke ideology that seems to have taken hold in nearly every institution, the corrosion of our educational system, the corruption of our media.

But there is one development that worries me the most—and that is our society’s disregard for the safety of our young people, particularly when it comes to sexual assault and sexual exploitation.  Indeed, our institutions have been complicit in the most egregious violations of their personhood.  That our institutions look the other way.

Chicago Blackhawks
As more is coming to light about the sexual assault of Kyle Beach, the more we should be repulsed by an organization that swept this awful occurrence under the rug.  The offender, Brad Aldrich,  went on to coach in high school and assaulted a 16 year old, and who knows how many others.  The Blackhawks just obtained the resignation of general manager Scotty Bowman, issued a statement and asked that Aldrich’s name be removed from the Stanley Cup.  The league pressured Coach Quennville to resign from the Florida Panthers.

Yet, this is 10 years too late and, like the Catholic archdiocese, the Blackhawks remained silent and allowed Aldrich to move on when what happened to Beach was common knowledge.

That the organization covered up for Aldrich is hideous.  Whatever sins were committed by  the mismanagement of Bill Wirtz in comparison to what occurred under the aegis of his son, Rocky.

U.S. Gymnastics
It was hard not to rage as McKayla Maroney and others testified about the abuse they suffered at the hands of Larry Nasser.  Michigan State president Lou Ann Simon resigned in the wake of the scandal and her replacement, interim president John Engler resigned after he was quoted as saying that the victims seemed to be “enjoying the spotlight.”    Most incredibly, FBI agents changed Maroney’s statements, and were slow to pursue allegations against Nasser, which enabled him to abuse more victims.

Loudoun County
We learned that a 14 year old girl was raped in the girls’ bathroom by a boy wearing a skirt.  The school board covered up the crime, transferred the boy to another school, where he molested another victim.  The school board, which recently implemented a transgender friendly policy enabling a student that self identifies as a girl to have access to the girls’ bathroom.  In its eagerness to advance its trans agenda, the board and principal showed their eagerness to trample over the safety of adolescent girls and the result was a girl brutally raped and several others assaulted.   To date, no one has resigned.

For Kyle Beach, McKayla Maroney, Simone Biles and the other victims of Larry Nasser, Brad Aldrich, and the Loudoun County rapist, the assaults were defining moments  of their lives.  It was a horrible occurrence that forever changed the trajectory of their lives. 

These were outstanding young people.  In the case of the gymnasts and Kyle Beach, they were athletes that evidenced discipline to compete at the highest level of their sport. 

The outrage is not simply that these horrendous things happened to these beautiful, talented and innocent young people.   That is bad in and of itself.  But the grotesqueness of it all is that the structures and institutions PROTECTED THE PERPETRATORS, enabled them to go on to sexually abuse and exploit more young people.  These are organizations whose mission is, in part at least, to develop and showcase the talents of young people.  Instead, they actively colluded to coddle the predators.

It’s as if the people running these organizations learned nothing from Joe Paterno and learned nothing from the Boy Scouts and the Catholic Church. 

These awful collusions and cover-ups are very bad indicators for our society.

MIA

 

Woody Allen famously said, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.”

In the midst of multiple crises, the adults in charge simply don’t show up. 

The American people can be quite forgiving even if things go wrong if you are honest and forthright and look like you’re trying really hard to solve the problem.

In one of America’s capstone projects, the Apollo program, 3 of our astronauts were burned to a crisp in that horrible launchpad fire in January, 1967.   Two and a half years later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin proudly stepped onto the surface of the moon.

We overcome missteps.  But you gotta show up and own up.

Less than a year in, Team Biden has show that when the going gets tough, the tough go on paid leave.

Biden put Kamala Harris in charge of the border crisis.  Harris didn’t visit the border until Donald Trump shamed her into it by threatening to visit the border first.  The only concrete Harris initiative was to stand at the podium and plea to the immigrants not to come and pledge to address the “root causes” of illegal immigration.  To date, there has been no plan put forward to fortify the border, provide for more security, or disincentivize immigrants from pouring in.

With regard to Afghanistan, as the horror show unfolded with the Afghan military in collapse, the country overrun by Taliban, and as our military scooted out, leaving equipment, Americans and our allies behind, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki was unavailable because she was on vacation.  Secretary of State Anthony Blinken headed to the Hamptons.  And old Joe claimed success at the podium, turned and walked away.   Meanwhile, 13 of our service men and women were killed and Afghanis were falling from the skies after futilely clinging to airplanes, reminiscent of the Americans jumping to their deaths on 9/11.

And the latest absence is Mayor Pete Buttigieg, our gay Secretary of Transportation, who wears his gender preference like a badge of honor and has no inhibitions about using it as both a sword and a shield.  He was last seen getting out of a van loaded with his bicycle, so he could be seen as a “green” worker pedaling to work instead of using the old combustion engine.

In the midst of a supply chain crisis, with cargo ships backed up and companies unable to get important goods, it turns out that Mayor Pete is on parental leave, and has been for two months.

Now, it’s fine to have a vacation.  It’s ok to take some time to be with your new child.  But there are roles and times when it’s simply not possible.  As an attorney, I know how hard it is to completely get away from the office.  It’s sometimes nearly impossible, even when you have adequate colleagues to pick up the slack.  Most attorneys concede that it is a hazard of the profession.  Likewise, almost every business owner I know is required to handle things while they are out of the office.   A day off for farmers?  You’ve got to be kidding.   And if you are in the restaurant business, vacations or “time off” simply doesn’t happen for you.

In these jobs, in a national emergency, with peoples lives and livelihoods at stake, these people don’t have the luxury of time away.  It was abhorrent that Psaki just wasn’t around to answer question during the Afghanistan crisis.  In a democracy, she owed it to our 330 million citizens to explain exactly what was going on, and the policy choices behind it. 

Mayor Pete needs to be working 18 hour days to unclog our ports and clear these cargo ships.

Instead,  Mayor Pete and Psaki declare a “success” and called it a day.

This is why conspiracy theories start.  People aren’t stupid.  When they see that no one is in charge or the person that’s supposed to be in charge is MIA, they assume that things are the way they are because the administration wants them to be that way.  Otherwise they would have SOMEBODY in charge working tirelessly to change course.

We can differ about policies and approaches.

But you have to show up to work.

 

Fossilized Tyrants

 

At the time of his election, John Kennedy at 43 was the youngest person to hold the office of president of the United States.  While I was just a toddler when he was assassinated, Kennedy was still talked about and adored when I was in grade school.  In fact, the vestibule of my Catholic grade school had three portraits on the wall—JFK, FDR, and Pope Paul VI.   Who ranked the highest was not a settled matter.

JFK’s youthfulness, vision and energy propelled a nation in the early Cold War years.  Elected a mere 15 years after the Nazi defeat, Kennedy exemplified a forward looking and confident nation.  He faced down Khruschev in 1962 and, after the Soviets had taken the lead in the space race, Kennedy threw down the gauntlet and challenged the U.S. government to put a man on the moon within a decade, which we accomplished.

But that was the America of 60 years ago.

The leadership of America today—the people setting the tone, writing the rules, and prioritizing the challenges have quite a different profile.

President Joe Biden is an addled 78.  Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House is 81 and when she’s not drunk on power, she’s just, well, drunk.   Anthony Fauci, the face of the Administrative State is 80.  Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer is the young pup at 70. 

The age of our political leaders has a profound impact on their decision making and horizons.

Here are the facts.  Fauci’s life expectancy is 7 years. Nancy’s is 9.  Biden’s is about 9 ½ years.  And their timelines are much shorter when you consider how much longer each will be effectively functional—assuming you make the leap and consider Biden fully functional now.   This means that 3 of 4 of our branches of government (the Administrative State is a de facto 4^th branch) are led by individuals THAT HAVE VERY LITTLE VESTED INTEREST IN THE FUTURE.   Only one is expected to live more than a decade.

This explains a lot, and yet leaves a lot unexplained.

As we age, we necessarily become more focused on our legacy, on what we are going to leave behind, on the traditions, the structures and heritage we will leave to the next generation.  Yet this geriatric crew disconsonantly appears to be much more interested in accumulating and wielding power.   

The parallels to the waning years of the Soviet Union gnaws at me.  As the sun set on the Soviets, it would do well to recall the hoary succession of Secretary Generals that preceded Gorbachev and the collapse.  Leonid Brezhnev faded and died at 79.   Yuri Andropov lasted less than two years and died at 69.  Andrei Gromyko was still in power at age 79.  Konstantin Chernenko died at 73 after less than a year in office, prompting Ronald Reagan quip that he wanted to meet “face to face with a Soviet leader but they kept dying on me.”

Historian John Lewis Gaddis said Chernenko “was an enfeebled geriatric so zombie-like as to be beyond assessing intelligence reports, alarming or not.”

Many observers could say the same thing about Biden’s mental acuity.

Of all the circumstances that are swirling around, this is one that is most troubling to me. 

The Soviet Union collapsed about two years after its disgraceful withdrawal from Afghanistan, and after being led by a crusty, ossified series of rulers.

The echo should give us pause.

Exemptions from Accountability at the Top

 Last week, I wrote about the Barbell Theory of Exemptions, how the very top and the very bottom of our society escapes accountability for their actions, performance, and behavior, and how rules don’t apply to them.

General Mark Milley can make horrendous decisions and mistakes in judgment costing thousands of lives and billions of dollars.  Barack Obama can host hundreds for a birthday bash, unmasked without vaxx passports.

You can’t.

Antifa and BLM can smash windows, loot stores, and assault people and get away without any time in jail.

You can’t.

Young gangbanger Adam Toledo, shot by Chicago police earlier this summer after wielding a weapon has a virtual sanctuary to him at the National Museum of Mexican Art.  George Floyd has murals and statues.

When you pass, you will not be so honored.

But at the pinnacle of all this are the Bidens.

The son of our current president, singularly unaccomplished, has slipped the surly bonds of accountability at every turn. 

Most recently, it was disclosed that he received a $2 million “retainer” from Libya.  Then there was the whole controversy over his board position at Burisma, even though he had no business experience in the Ukraine and no energy experience.  The Secret Service apparently covered up for his violation of firearms laws.  He fought tooth and nail to avoid child support payments for a child that he had with an Arkansas stripper that was shown to be conclusively his with DNA testing.  And then there are the leaked photos of him with apparently underage girls and an FBI that still won’t reveal what they found on his laptop.

These are things that would bring any of us to ruin.  But not only has Hunter escaped any accountability, he keeps getting rewarded handsomely.  He received a $2 million book advance for his literary talent that sold less than 10,000 books.  Wink. Wink.  And now, having attended not a single art school—no toiling at the Rhode Island School of Design, Hunter is suddenly a famous painter whose artwork fetches upwards of $500,000 from undisclosed buyers.  Wink. Wink.  His genius is having to avoid any studios and the “starving artist” part.

Any business person, lawyer or other professional that engaged in this sort of monkey business would get driven out of their profession, exiled and perhaps jailed.

All of this is covered by the Barbell Exemption for Hunter.

Then we get to the “Big Guy,” Joe himself, who apparently got a 10% cut from some of Hunter’s shenanigans.

The people behind him have the biggest exemption of all.  If you are paying attention at all, you can see with clarity that the people that are REALLY running the country have made themselves invisible, that Joe is simply a figurehead reading lines provided to him, calling on reporters whose names have been provided to him and being cut short when asked incisive impromptu questions.   Biden, Blinken and Psaki have walked off the podium rather than answer hard questions.

It’s pretty clear that it isn’t Joe doing the actual decision making and there is lots of speculation as to who it might be----Obama, Susan Rice, Valerie Jarrett??  They are being cloaked to shield them from accountability for the rampant inflation, increased gas prices, shutdowns and mandates and the catastrophic failure in Afghanistan.

These people symbolize the worst of what I have called the Barbell Exempt from accountability—the very top.

Our country won’t get back on track until we ALL are accountable for our decisions.