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.

 

The Barbell of Exemptions from Accountability

 

I think most would agree that something is out of kilter in our society right now.  It feels raw, unstable and unsettled.   Many of us don’t quite know what to make of it.   Our political system is being stretched in ways we never imagined.  COVID19 rules seem totalitarian and arbitrary.  Crime is ascendant in major cities and shows no signs of abating.  Race relations are worse than they have been in more than a half century.   The U.S. is abandoning some allies, ignoring others and coddling totalitarian regimes.

At the top of the list is General Mark Milley.  Leading a catastrophic and abrupt withdrawal from Afghanistan that resulted in the deaths of 13 marines and untold other Afghani allies, while leaving U.S. citizens behind, Milley still has a job.

Under Milley, a family was droned, which included 7 children, and Milley had days before considered it a “righteous strike.”  And if the reports by Bob Woodward are true, Milley subverted the chain of command and had unauthorized conversations with our principal geopolitical adversary.   In an earlier era, Milley would have faced a firing squad. 

Anthony Fauci is still employed and spouting off recommendations even though Rand Paul caught him in a flat out lie about his role in funding “gain of function” research at the Wuhan Lab.  Despite inconsistent and flawed projections and recommendations, Fauci still graces the covers of magazines and is lauded as an “expert” by the mainstream media.  In any other venue, someone with Fauci’s track record would have gotten the heave-ho long ago.

Then, there are the real sewer rats-  people like Eric Slawell and Ilhan Omar.   Slawell slept with Chinese spy Fang Fang.  Omar purportedly married her brother to flout immigration rules, funneled campaign money to her lover’s consulting firm, and made breathtaking antisemitic pronouncement.  In neither case were they held accountable in any way.

The entire F.B.I. deserves its own essay on accountability, beginning with the fabrication of the Steele dossier used to “trump up” the collusion charge with the FISA court (as an aside, there were no consequences or reforms proposed by Chief Justice John Roberts for this, either).  But worse was the F.B.I.’s handling of the sexual abuse of the Olympic gymnasts.   McKayla Maroney’s testimony last week was particularly heartbreaking as she made clear that the F.B.I. not only failed to protect these girls, but actively enabled Nasser to continue to abuse them.  To my knowledge, not a single person has suffered a consequence as a result.

At the bottom of our society, criminals are no longer accountable.   SF can’t be prosecuted for shoplifting for under $950.   In cities like Chicago, murderers are not prosecuted or are released on no cash bail.   Disturbing the peace and public nuisances aren’t dealt with at all.  Violent criminals in Chicago go free on cashless bail.  The Antifa and BLM melees last summer resulted in few arrests and even few perpetrators that spent time in prison, even though deaths, injuries and billions in property damage resulted.

The rest of us are always accountable—abiding by the law, paying our taxes, performing at work, living up to our familial obligations.    We are accountable to our employers, to all the government rules and regulations, and to our families.

But what is completely out of kilter is that the elites exempt themselves and the bottom of our society from accountability.  We cannot have a society in which the very top and very bottom escape accountability while the rest of us are held accountable.

This cannot go on much longer.   It is the stuff that populism is made of…and if things do not change, rebellions.

The Hallmarks of a Communist or Fascist Regime

 

There are demonstrable, legitimate reasons to be deeply concerned about our society at the present time.    As I discussed in my post on May 31, the radical movement that seems to have gripped the nation doesn’t look exactly like other socialist/communist movements (https://commonsense-mark.blogspot.com/2021/05/who-are-fascists.html).  I argued that it is more of a hybrid between a communist movement and national socialism and has borrowed features from each. 

But in any event, I believe that the radical Left that has gained control of our federal government and many states and municipalities is as dangerous as anything we’ve witnessed since the end of the Cold War.  Because the New Left doesn’t look exactly like Bolshevism or National Socialism, many are confused about it.   Here’s why you should be concerned.

Its Callous Disregard for Human Life

Like its Communist and National Socialist antecedents, the New Left has a callous disregard for human life.   James Lindsay, in his New Discourses podcast of April 23, 2021, Communism Doesn’t Know How   (https://newdiscourses.com/2021/04/communism-doesnt-know-how/) argues that the Neo Marxists are in a hurry to dismantle the current system but are vague on what is to replace it.  I would add to that an assertion that Communism Doesn’t Care (and neither does fascism). 

And it doesn’t.  Mao starved out millions, as did Stalin.  And we know about Hitler.  And Pol Pot.

Are today’s Neo-Marxists any better?  Not much.  They are evidencing a lack of inhibition about breaking a few eggs to advance their agenda.

Whatever your views on abortion, the cheering and glee that we witnessed in New York and Illinois over passing laws permitting unrestricted abortion until birth was grotesque.   Ending the life of an almost-to-be-born fetus would be a somber and serious thing, no matter what.  But what we saw were all cheers, smiles and backslapping. 

Likewise, in cities like Chicago, the violent crime rate continues to escalate.  In Chicago, 280 children have been shot so far this year.  A 24 year old bank employee was stabbed to death in the middle of the day a few weeks ago, and earlier this summer, a 31 year old woman was stabbed to death just blocks from Sears Tower.  A University of Chicago student was shot to death on his way home from his internship this summer.  A 70 year old former special ed teacher was slain on her way home from a White Sox game.  Dozens of black children have been murdered, and I have repeatedly asked the question of why I seem to care about the senseless slaughter of black children more than the black city management does.  There has been no effort, no urgency, no mandate, no personnel changes.  The Neo-Marxists in charge are apparently ok with the status quo.  The death toll is an acceptable level to advance their agenda…or they would do something different.

Similarly, the abrupt withdrawal from Afghanistan cost us 13 young marines, and an untold number of Afghan allies and people that assisted the U.S.  Even more egregious, we left Americans behind.   The images of Afghans falling from airplanes that they were clinging to will be seared in our memories for a long time.  There are reports that U.S. intelligence knew of the suicide bomber and actually had him locked on with a drone but did not disrupt it because we were negotiating with the Taliban.  The photos of Biden checking his watch as he met the parents showed just how much he cared.

Marxists and Nazis simply do not care.  The loss of human life is incidental to their drive to power. 

 

Lies and Deceits

The second marker of a Communist or Nazi is the willingness to propagate  falsehoods.  And where to even start with this bunch?   From the Christmas bombing of Nashville in which the entire investigation was wrapped up in 48 hours to Anthony Fauci’s lies about funding “gain of function” research at the Wuhan Lab to the Pentagon’s claim that they had killed ISIS-K leaders when in fact, they had mistakenly droned a family, the government has gotten bigger, bolder and more brazen putting out falsehoods.

Then there are the “do you think we’re that stupid” lies like Hunter Biden selling his “artwork” for upwards of $500,000 when he had no previous history of artistic inclinations.  

Then there is the 1/6 “deadly invasion of the capitol” except that the only death was at the hands of the Capitol Police and the “insurrection” looked suspiciously more like the Reichstag Fire than and actual insurrection. 

And just today, the government announced that it was sending $64 million in “humanitarian aid” to Afghanistan, but assures us that none of it is going to the Taliban, but rather will be administered by NGO’s and not-for-profits.

Right.

The lies and deceits that are painfully obvious to anyone with a functioning central nervous system are a hallmark of communism/national socialism.

These are the things that concern me most.  I do not recall a time in my lifetime when a government evidenced such a callous disregard for human life and was so willing to look us in the eye and lie.

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.