That Smell

 Something smelled bad from the beginning.  It was like the slight whiff that you pick up when your stove burner accidentally gets turned on and the pilot light hasn’t ignited the burner yet.   At first, you barely notice it, but gradually, the odor gets stronger and stronger until it becomes unmistakable and  you rush to the kitchen to turn off the stove before your kitchen blows up.

Vlodomor Zelenskyy emitted that odor pretty early on, but few picked it up.  

The first signs were the gushing press.  Not since Barack Obama had the media been so effusive in its praise, swooning over this two bit comedic actor cum courageous leader.  “Churchillian" was the word most frequently used to describe him.   Photos of him in his green shirt and combat helmet among his fighters were plastered all over the media.  It was all so believable.   The brave young inspirational warrior fighting back against the unprovoked attack from the dark and sinister ex-KGB totalitarian Vladimir Putin.     

But then things began to take a slight turn.  Rather than make a plea for help, Zelenskyy started making demands on the West.   Even conservative commentators found that a bit odd.  Then, like Dr. Fauci, the MSM began glamorize him and feature him on the cover of magazines, reaching unseemly levels with the Vogue photoshoot with his wife last summer.  All the while, the U.S. was shoveling billions into the war torn country. Certainly, we all have sympathy for the people of Ukraine, desire to see an end to the fighting and roll back Putin’s aggression.  But when Rand Paul had the temerity to even suggest that we ask for an accounting of where the money was being spent, he was shouted down by Democrats as a “Putin lover” and an “obstructionist.”

Zelenskyy started to take on the appearance of that ungrateful pro bono litigation client.  Pro bono litigants have NO incentive to make any concessions while someone else is paying the freight.

Most revealing of late was Zelenskyy’s demand that the West take action immediately after missiles fell in Poland, killing two people and injuring several others.   Without confirming with his own military, Zelenkyy recklessly attempted to bait the Western alliance into a hot war with Russia.   The missiles turned out not to be an attack on Polish soil by Russia but rather an anti-aircraft missile from Ukraine itself.  Those are the things you need to get right.

Grift is easy to bury within a moral imperative.  And what better moral imperative than to turn back the kleptomanic Vladimir Putin.  Yet, Zelenskyy shut down the opposition party.

Closely linked to the unending and unaccountable flow of funds to the corrupt Ukraine has been the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX.  Founder Sam Bankman Fried (SBF) learned from Elizabeth Holmes and Bernie Madoff and scaled it.   The facts are still unfolding but we do know that Ukraine placed some funds with FTX.  SBF was the second largest Democratic donor behind George Soros.  SBF’s parents were vocal leftists at the Stanford law school and SBF’s father had a close relationship with SEC chairman Gary Gensler.  SBF’s parents along with other FTX executives bought property in the Bahamas worth $121 million.  Caroline Ellison, SBF’s 28 year old ex-girlfriend, ran FTX’s trading arm, Alameda.  While we are unraveling the threads of this debacle, we know that SBF cloaked himself in virtue signaling—ESG, anti-racism, the whole lot.  He asserted that he only wanted to make money in order to give it away to pet progressive causes.   It gave him the smokescreen needed to enrich himself and his family and launder money back to the Democratic party which was providing air cover for him, rather than investigating his financial shenanigans.

Finally, there was BLM, which was showered with millions in the wake of the death of George Floyd (notice, I did not say murder).   Corporate America and wealthy individuals skipped over normal due diligence that is standard in the giving world to demonstrate their solidarity with the BLM movement.  Large corporate donations always have strings and a specific purpose attached.  Not this time.  The result was predictable.  Not a single project that attempted to better actual Black lives materialized.  Not a scholarship fund.  Not a health care center.  No endowments to HBCUs.  What did happen, just as with SBF, is that the leaders of BLM became wealthy beyond their wildest dreams.  To date, Patricia Cullors has not been indicted, or even seriously investigated for perpetrating this fraud.

The radical Left, camouflaged in virtue, has gotten very skilled at washing money, using tax dollars and charitable contributions to buy influence, fund its candidates, and enrich its leaders.

Rand Paul is one of the only ones that understands the scale of this.

The Problem With Whiteness

 Every time I see an article or a posting from the mainstream media now, my default reaction is “how am I being manipulated?” rather than “how am I being informed.”

So it was yesterday when I saw the lead article in the Chicago Sun Times about Rebecca Journey, the instructor at my alma mater, The University of Chicago, who postponed her class, The Problem of Whiteness after an outcry purportedly instigated by sophomore Daniel Schmidt, a student that brought this course to light in social media.

The Chicago Sun Times dutifully picked up the story and, without any critical analysis or questioning, posted it.   As is the case in most articles, a piece that should have been relegated to the opinion pages was out there on the front page, masquerading as news.  The tone and slant of the piece could have (and perhaps was) penned by Ms. Journey herself.

The response by Journey is a boringly predictable one from the neo-Marxist, operating under the camouflage of “scholarship.”

The first tactic of Leftists is exaggeration or outright prevarication.  Journey claims, without support, that she was subject to death threats, cyberbullying and that her inbox was flooded with “racist, misogynistic and antisemitic attacks and threats.”  No specifics, just the labels here.  I’m actually surprised she didn’t find a noose dangling from her office door handle.   It’s possible but it’s more likely she received a few  emails objecting to her nonsense and inflated them. Committed Leftists now have a track record of exaggerating, or flat out lying.  Just ask Jussie Smollett, Bubba Wallace or AOC about her whereabouts on 1/6.   I highly doubt that the Sun Times reporter asked to see the “flood” of emails, and simply took her word for it.

The second is obfuscation in academic jargon.   “The class is emphatically not about ‘the problem with white people’” Journey disingenuously claims, the class approaches whiteness as a problem in the philosophical sense of an open question—whiteness as an object of critical inquiry.”  Oh, ok, then.  Bury the intent in academic mumbo-jumbo.  In other words, you plebes are too dumb to understand.  Well, I have a simple test of symmetry.  Applying the Iron Law of Reciprocity, can we assume that Ms. Journey will be offering the companion course in the following academic quarter, “The Problem with Blackness?”  Because if not, her rationalization fails.  More bluntly, it smacks of unadulterated BS.

Most predictably, Journey then predictably positioned herself as the poor victim, “This was a malicious attack not just on me as a teacher, but on anti-racist pedagogy writ large.”   She attacks a sophomore in college for having a viewpoint and exposing her faux scholarship.  Oh, poor me.  Oh, the drama.  The 19 year kid is not only a threat to her but to a whole body of scholarship, a grave enough threat that Journey feels compelled to go to the press to express her fears.   Playing victim is a standard leftist tactic.  Here, the professor is attempting to portray herself as being victimized by a student.

Journey is an activist pretending to be a scholar.  She met with resistance to her attempted use of a once great university as her platform to preach Wokeness doctrine.  She may deceive some with her  artifice, but those of us that have spent any time at all listening to thinkers like James Lindsay or Jordan Peterson know EXACTLY what she is doing.

It has been very sad to see The University of Chicago succumb to Woke madness so quickly.  From the English Department’s decision to only accept students in its graduate program that  want to pursue Black studies to the establishment of an entire department devoted to Race, Diaspora and Indigeneity, Woke had gotten into its bones like leukemia. 

What Went Wrong

 The Red Wave that was eagerly awaited by us conservatives and libertarians after suffering through two years of the most radically socialist regime in American history fizzled out quickly and turned out to be red drizzle.  And as of this writing, as more ballots are found, trucked in and counted and recounted, it looks like Republicans will not take the Senate and may not even have a majority in the House.   Like most, I fell victim to unrealistic expectations.   The stage was set for a Democratic thrashing.  Gas prices were astronomical as were food prices as inflation raged.  The economy was contracting.  Our foreign policy was in disarray.   Violent crime was rampant in most American cities.  People were angry.  I felt sure that there would be a massive course correction.

It never materialized.

The talking heads are busy doing their most mortem analysis.  I’ll throw in my two cents but in the final analysis, the reason is quite simple--- there is a fundamental asymmetry at play and unless it gets cured fairly quickly and decisively, America will soon become Venezuela North.   When one side is committed to a vibrant, competitive two party system where candidates fully and and openly fully inform citizens of their positions, and the other side is ruthless, unprincipled and comfortable with deception, you know who will prevail in the end.

But I must do some finger pointing.   While the Democratic party is united in its lust for power (even saying the exact same lines in the weeks before the election, “Democracy is on the ballot this November.”), the Republican party is hopelessly divided. Mitch McConnell dissed several candidates and withheld funds from many while spooning out funds to demi-Democrats like Lisa Murkowski.  Trump damaged the cause by slamming DiSantis three days before the election and both DiSantis and Youngkin immediately after.  Even people that were generally supportive of Trump pounded our heads against the wall on this one.  At some point I knew his costs would outweigh his benefits and we seem to have crossed that line.  DiSantis and Youngkin ironically are the two candidates that explicitly took on Woke ideology head on.  And to say DiSantis was an “average” governor is simply not true.  He may be the most competent on the American stage right now.   I support leaders that put the country ahead of their own narrow interests.  Trump just demonstrated that he can’t put it above is own ego.

Then there is the phenomenon of Illinois, New York, and Michigan.   These three states carried out the most punishing, restrictive and civil liberties crushing COVID policies in the country.   Masking kids, closing schools, requiring vaxx passes, firing unvaccinated workers.  Governor Pritzker canceled the entire 2020 high school football season while no other contiguous state did.  Whitmer chased 70ish barber around for not complying with lockdown.   I assumed that enough anger would rise up to throw these people out of office.  But alas, each was rewarded with another term.  It is beyond comprehension.   Perhaps voters in these states are like abused spouses.  No matter how many beatings they incur, they inexplicably always go back.  And perhaps the net outflow of citizens has been enough to tip the elections.  People that would otherwise have voted against them have already left.

Several years ago, I heard outgoing Democratic leader Dick Gephardt speak at a function.  While I was no big fan of Gephardt in office, he said one thing that stuck with me, “In America, our democracy functions because losers accept the outcome.”   That is no longer the case.  The nonsense that the MAGA wing of the Republican party are election deniers ignores the blatant shenanigans that have been going on, were accelerated by COVID and mail-in ballots and have been perfected by Democrats.   If what is going on now in Arizona had been going on in any Latin American country 10,20, or 30 years ago, American leaders would be screaming for international monitors.   It began with the election of Al Franken in Minnesota, got tested with the election of Brad Schneider in the contested 10^th district in Illinois, where Schneider improbably got 85% of the absentee vote in 2012, just enough to put him over the top.  It is on full display now with ballot harvesting, mail in voting and changing rules to ensure that fraud is nearly undetectable.  The Democratic response was, “There is no evidence of massive fraud!!!”  Well, you don’t really need massive fraud.  You just need a little, coordinated fraud in the right places in close elections.   And there is enough monkey business to shatter faith in the system.

The cheating comes in several forms.  The ballot harvesting and drop boxes are bad enough.  But when Big Tech and the media are controlling information and actively preventing citizens from obtaining relevant information (i.e., hiding Hunter’s laptop and Fetterman’s condition), the system breaks down.  And now we see several avenues of money laundering to Democratic causes—from BLM to FTX (not to mention the Soros DA’s that are breaking down our cities), to 10% for the Big Guy,  the flow of funds is drowning our republic.

To be sure,  there were some small victories.  Beto O’Rourke and Stacey Abrams, creations of the media, have been taken off the game board.   Democrats spent a lot of money trying to get these two elected.  But Abrams served her purpose.  By constantly howling about the fiction of voter suppression, she helped institutionalize mail in voting and ballot harvesting, thus cementing the mechanisms by which Democrats will steer election outcomes for the foreseeable future.  She has been rewarded handsomely for it, going from deeply in debt to having a sizeable net worth in just a few years.

What I fear is really going on is national mitosis.  Mitosis, as you science geeks know, is the process by which a cell divides into two.  It doesn’t happen abruptly but is, in fact, a process.  It’s occurring with outmigration from New York, Illinois and California.  People who can are moving at an accelerating pace away from single party rule and the attendant crime, taxes and corruption.   If it were simply geographic, we’d probably be split by now.  Even Victor Davis Hanson admitted in his last podcast, “We are two nations now.”   Once enough of the population moves, then the optimal solution may be to negotiate a split as Czechoslovakia did under Vaclav Havel.   We do not need a destructive second civil war.

Hold Your Powder

 I learned by lesson in 2019, or at least I think I did.  I saw the headlines and the photos propagated by the New York Times and other mainstream media outlets depicting a smug teenager in a MAGA hat, seemingly harassing an old Native American man, who the mainstream media also said was a veteran that had done a tour in Vietnam.

The outrage on Facebook boiled up, some among friends of mine.  I also felt this surge of indignity about this punk.  Many celebrities weighed in, including Joe Biden, calling young Nicholas Sandmann  a white supremacist, and on and on.   Fortunately, I refrained from making any comment the matter on social media.

In the days that followed, as other recorded film clips became public, the truth began to emerge.  What had occurred was precisely the OPPOSITE of what the media had portrayed.  The Native American was an activist, a grifter, found out not to have seen combat in Vietnam, and he was the one that was in Sandmann’s face, harassing him.

Then there was the NASCAR noose, found by Bubba Wallace that triggered the dispatch of 15 FBI agents to investigate a purported hate crime.  The incident went viral in the MSM and social media, only to have the FBI determine that the “noose” was a garage pull.

But in the hysteria, Nikki Haley couldn’t help herself.  Before any of the facts could be determined, she tweeted out how much she deplored it, and racism in general, blah, blah, blah.  Her lurching impulsiveness and virtue mongering, among other things, has crossed her off my list for any serious national post.

Of course, there was Jussie Smollett.  “This is MAGA country” on a cold Chicago night was so implausible so as to be laughable.  Within hours, almost every thinking person smoked out the hoax.  That incident caused me to conclude that fake hate crimes were worse than real hate crimes, because while hate crimes target an individual, fake hate crimes tear at the fabric of society. 

We also had the incident at the border in which the media claimed that a border agent was taking a whip to border crossers.  That was demonstrably false, the photographer said it was false, Tyler Mayoras knew it was false.  Yet they perpetrated it anyway.

There have been a plethora of fake hate incidents, the most recent being the assertion of a young woman on the Duke volleyball team that someone had used a racial slur to taunt her.  There was no corroboration and no video of the purported incidents.  Like “hands up don’t shoot,” and the Bubba Wallace “noose,” many of these incidents simply didn’t happen. 

Which brings us to Paul Pelosi, who was purportedly attacked by an intruder and injured with a hammer this weekend while Nancy was away.  As of this writing, there appear to be a number of facts that just aren’t adding up,  The strange police call, “His name is David and he is a friend.” There are reports that a third person met the police at the door.  Yet we have no details about who this person was.  And the broken glass from the glass door was seen to be outside, not inside, leading one to believe that the glass was broken from the inside.  Police won’t release the bodycam video.  The details don’t add up and they keep changing.

Yet Hillary Clinton, Rob Reiner, Laurence Tribe, Reuters, among others immediately attributed the incident to “far right wing extremists, “ either directly or indirectly, without a full accounting of the facts.   Incredible.  We really don’t know what happened, and may never.

The lesson in all this is ----hold your powder when a news story breaks.  Do not accept narrative that  the media and the authorities.  It is especially  important  when the event either involves charges of racism a hate crime,  “far right extremism.”  Always be a little skeptical.  The truth is hard to come by these days.  But eventually it does come out.

 

 

Detachment

 If you’re like me, your world has been turned upside down over the past three years.  Institutions that you thought you could count on have gone rogue.  People that you counted on as friends abandoned you if you questioned the wisdom of the jab or masking.  If you did not genuflect to the image of Ibram X. Kendi, you were branded a racist.  Of course, if you showed any support for Trump at all, you were a fascist. If you questioned child pornography in middle school libraries, you were labeled a book banner.   If you dared raise questions about the 2020 election process, you were a conspiracy theorist and a threat to democracy.

It was as if someone had, in the middle of a chess game, kicked over the board and scattered all the pieces.

What is a rational person to do?

Having struggled with some of these things myself, I can offer a few tips, as to what to do with people and institutions as Woke madness grips the West.  

The answer, I think,  lies in detachment.  I have found that viewing Wokeness through the model of addiction is the most useful for managing relationships in this era.   Al-Anon and Hazelton teach detachment from the addicted person.  

Detachment is neither kind nor unkind.  It does not imply judgment of the person or situation from which we are detaching- it is simply a way we can protect ourselves.  By separating ourselves from the adverse effects of another’s personal addiction(s) [or Wokeness], it can be a means of detaching; this does not mean that we need to physically separate.  Detachment can help us look at our situations realistically and objectively.  

Viewing a person or institution gripped by Wokeness through the prism and model of addiction is the most useful way of managing your relationships.

First, is the easy part—institutions that go Woke.

 And so many went fully Woke.  And they went fast.  I was a charter member of the American Writers Museum when it opened in 2017 and started with programs featuring Ernest Hemmingway, Laura Ingalls Wilder and F. Scott Fitzgerald.  But within 3 years, it was featuring Kathy Griffin and an obscure transgender writer. I immediately dropped my membership, just as I dropped the Newberry Library as soon as it sponsored Drag Queen Story Hour for kids.

Those were the easy ones.  The University of Chicago was harder because I had such deep ties to the institution and because it had such an impact on my development and was part of my identity.  But when the school decided to admit into its graduate English program only students that were interested in “Black Studies,” and the business school sponsored a program on White Privilege, it was time to say goodbye.    Because some of my oldest friendships center on the University of Chicago, the trick has been to detach from the institution without detaching from my old friends.  I have asked to be removed from their email list and the alumni magazine.  Yet I will attend events where my friends are present.   So far, I have achieved a balance.

In general, detaching from institutions does not present too many difficulties.   You drop your memberships and donations and stop attending events or fundraisers and swap out.  I have substituted other non-Woke organization (Library of America, for instance) to become affiliated with. 

People are much harder—especially when they are closer to you.  As Jodie Shaw (formerly of Smith College) noted – your circles will contract considerably.  And she was correct.  Mine have.

Some, I had to simply let go of.  My great uncle sent me a blistering, nasty email when I civilly challenged his liberal orthodoxy on climate change.  I left my regular weekly golf foursome when they contracted a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome and could talk about nothing else for four hours at a crack.  Likewise, I disconnected from professional contacts that inappropriately used professional platforms like LinkedIn to spew their TDS or worship of Kamala Harris or registered their bellyaching over the Dobbs decision.   I either mute or delete contacts that put pronouns in their bios.  I figure if I don’t know you well enough to know what you are, it’s going to be hard to do business together.  I call it de-networking.  

The hard part involves the Woke that are either family members or with whom you have long term, valued relationships. I have had some success by having frank discussions with them about steering clear of topics involving politics.  I just tell them it’s something I would prefer not to discuss, that there are other things I’d rather talk about.  Usually, they will respect that position.

Coming to grips with the realization that a Woke individual or an institution captured by Wokeness is similar to having an alcoholic or drug addicted friend or relative.  Your best bet is detachment.  It’s hard, especially if these were people that were close to you. It’s disorienting.  But when reason, data and logic are ineffective, you have little other choice.  Arguing with the Woke is a complete and utter exercise in futility.  You will not persuade them, and the longer you exchange with them, the more you look foolish for even bothering to engage.  It will not be an intellectually honest exchange of views.  It is usually easy to figure it out pretty quickly because they inevitably resort to labeling early on.   You are called a “fascist,” “racist,” “bigot,” “Trumper” or such other slander.  On social media and in person, I have a simple rule—once someone engages in that, the conversation stops.

I continue to adjust to this new game, but I’m learning and I hope these suggestions will be helpful to you.

Detachment is never easy, but if you learn how to do it, it will help your own mental well being.

 

 

Quick Hits

 

I haven't had much time to post lately, but I wanted to at least jot down a few brief thoughts, so here are some questions and observations.

I have a few questions and observations.

-Five months after the leak of the Dobbs opinion, we still have no information on the leaker.  The MSM has long since dropped following it faster than they dropped the Las Vegas shooter or the Nashville Christmas bombing.  Why haven’t we heard from Chief Justice Roberts on the matter?

-Led by Iranian women, the country is experiencing the most serious rebellion against the mullahs since the Green Revolution.   After the death of Mahsa Amini (like the death of Neda Agha-Soltan in  at the hands of the “morality police,” Iran has exploded once again with young women protesting, burning their hijabs, cutting their hair.  Yet the MSM is almost totally silent.

-I predict that the next 18-24 months will witness a liberal/conservative convergence.  Tulsi Gabbard leaving the Democratic party was consequential.  It has already begun, mostly with Jewish progressives that have been canceled.  Maud Maron, Bari Weiss, Bret Weinstein, among other sensible progressives are leading the way in rejecting much of the Woke agenda.  I see much more of this coming.

-The biggest false phrases--- systemic racism, gender affirmation, voter suppression, toxic masculinity.  They describe nothing and are fraudulent labels placed on things that simply do not exist.  They are cute, clever and deceptive.  They describe nothing.

-BLM leader Patrisse Cullors absconded with millions of “donations” for her own enrichment.  No one can name a single scholarship or professor at an HBCU endowed by BLM, or any meaningful project whatsoever that actually improved black lives.  Why hasn’t a single attorney general gone after her? 

-We have lost the capability of learning from our mistakes.  In Iraq, we learned to our chagrin what happens when you leave a security gap.  Others quickly fill the void.  In Iraq’s case, ISIS occupied the space that a security force occupied.  Not content to blunder in someone else’s society, we decided to repeat the folly in our large cities by defunding the police.  What we got was warlords.   The lesson is that when you defund the police, you don’t get no police; you get different police.  And you won’t like them.

-At one time, I held college professors in higher esteem than I did farmers and truck drivers.  What a terrible mistake in judgment about who contributes more to society.

That’s all, folks.

 

Cruelty

 I should know better.  As someone who has read fairly extensively about the Third Reich and the Holocaust and who has frequently attended events at the Illinois Holocaust Museum, as well as having read a fair amount on Mao’s China and Stalin’s gulags and starvation of Ukraine, I should know what cruelty humans are capable of perpetrating.

Still, the cold indifference to human life is disquieting, even more so since it has become manifest here.

Iran.

The murder of young Mahsa Amini by the “morality police” of Iran has sparked widespread protests in Iran.  They are reminiscent of the Green Revolution of 2009, toward which the Obama administration was largely tight lipped.  The brutal killing of Amini echoes of the shooting of Neda Agha-Soltan, then 26 by Iranian security forces.  This time, the uprising seems more widespread and threatening to the mullahs.  Oddly, the American left feminists are strangely silent as courageous Iranian women take to the streets, burning their hijabs, cutting their hair and demanding freedom.   American congresswoman Ilan Omar, who has an opinion about all things oppressive, is pretty mum on the struggle of her Islamic sisters in Iran.

Russia

Whatever your views on Russia and Zelenskyy, the snuffing out of so many innocent lives in Ukraine by Putin is disquieting, particularly when Russia threatens the world with nuclear weapons.  There are no good guys in this picture.  Zelenskyy is like the pro bona litigation client that is ok with spending bottomless legal fees and unwilling to settle.  Putin, on the other hand, has utter disregard for human life. 

China

The situation with the Uyghers is abhorrent.  Its takeover of Hong Kong was despicable.  Its cover up and handling of COVID19 was horrendous.  It continues to let fentanyl pour in to the U.S. and kill 100,000 people a year.  Yet, big business, academia and entertainment are still deferential to the CCP, even as it threatens Taiwan. 

U.S.A.

Once the bastion and enforcer of human rights, the U.S., human rights now takes a back seat to Wokeness.  Its Democratic city mayors are satisfied with the killing and murders of thousands of innocent cities so they can advance their notion of social justice.  The leftist mayors and governors were happy to permanently arrest the development of children under the guise of COVID policies in schools.  When the Dobbs decision was rendered, blue state politicians went apoplectic.  In Illinois, governor Pritzker initiated a program of mobile abortion units, echoing the Nazi mobile extermination units.

Worse, by permitting the crime surge in U.S. cities, government officials are implicitly subordinating the lives of innocent citizens to the interests of violent criminals. 

It’s hard not to get depressed when faced with all this.  I always thought that the U.S. would never advance political and ideological interests ahead of the lives of this citizens.

This is no longer the case. The cold indifference to human life has come home.