The Sun Rises

            I’m an early riser, up before the sun during winter months. That gives me a chance to check out the sunrise, and on some mornings my spirits also rise as I am treated to a spectacular display of nature’s palette of yellows, oranges, pinks, and purples spread across the sky. Last Tuesday was one such morning, whose brilliance coincided with the renewed optimism for our country’s economic future. With Senate Republicans falling into line, we learned that the tax bill was sure to pass. In spite of the false rhetoric coming from Democrats, this bill is bound to grow our economy and add to a picture that is already rosy. I expect that the voting public will soon realize how much better off we are under this Administration’s economic policies.

            Unemployment, at 4.1%, is at a 17-year low. Black unemployment is also at a 17-year low, and Latino unemployment is at its lowest ever. With 171,000 new manufacturing jobs created this year, unemployment in the manufacturing sector is down to 2.6%, also the lowest ever. Participation in the job market is inching up, as people who had stopped looking for work are now encouraged to re-enter the workplace by Help Wanted signs popping up all over.

            After two straight quarters of 3% real economic growth, the fourth quarter looks like it might hit 4%. Compare that to the anemic 1-2% under the previous Administration. Consumer spending is up, a sure sign of confidence in the country’s economic future. The stock market is booming, also a sign of confidence in the future.

            Why the optimism? Because this Administration and the Republican-controlled Congress are focused on growth, not income redistribution favored by Democrats. They know that reducing taxes on business and individuals is sure to stimulate growth even further.

Yet, all the Schumer-led partisans on the Left can do is protest the tax bill’s favorable treatment of business and the rich. These tax-and- spend hypocrites cry that the tax bill will increase our national debt, when they and President Obama added over $9 trillion in debt in the last eight years. They adamantly refuse to accept that growth is the best way out of debt.

            As we begin this new year, let us rejoice that the rising sun of capitalism and free enterprise is once again painting this country’s economic fortunes in brilliant colors.

Our Human Family

            At this time of year I sit down to write my Christmas letter to distant relatives, friends, and former neighbors that I don’t get to see much anymore. When I drafted this year’s letter, I had to tear it up, because I couldn’t send out a letter that was mainly full of good news. Not when 2017 has been a year of disasters affecting so many people. Not when a letter from my wife’s cousin Ronald in Puerto Rico detailed the horrors inflicted on his family by Hurricane Maria. Not when images of fire-ravaged California fill our TV screens every day.

            We all strive for happiness in our lives. We naturally feel blessed when we are free of pain, of debt, of sorrow. But even the most fortunate cannot be blind to the tragedies suffered by victims of natural disasters, crippling diseases, senseless killings, and human-inflicted cruelties. The holidays should be a time to enjoy the loving bonds of family, to share with the less fortunate, and to give thanks for all our blessings. But we should also be mindful that we are part of a universal family; that we join hands with allies against those who would do us harm; that we deplore depravity and corruption wherever it exists; that suffering and death near and far affect us all. If it is in our nature to love those close to us, the Christmas spirit must also extend to our entire human family.

Scandals and Corruption

            On a single day last week newspapers reported on an NFL Steelers-Bengals game that got ugly with deliberately-inflicted injuries, a suspension of a Patriots star for a gratuitous body-slam of a defenseless opponent, and an entire country (Russia) being barred from the upcoming Winter Olympics for government-sponsored doping. This came on the heels of the on-going sagas of NFL players disrespecting our flag and three incredibly stupid UCLA basketball players caught shoplifting in China, of all places. Sports are supposed to be for our entertainment. This is entertainment?

            In Washington, Congressional sex abusers continue to be outed. So far, it has been an equal opportunity debacle with three Democrats (John Conyers, Al Franken, and Ruben Kihuen) and three Republicans (Joe Barton, Trent Franks, and Blake Farenthold) facing an ignominious end to their legislative careers. The word is that as many as 40 more will follow.

            Fighting for space on the front pages is another scandal of even greater consequence for the nation, the growing evidence of corruption in the FBI and the Justice Department. People like Peter Strzok, Jeannie Rhee, Andrew Weissmann, and Bruce Ohr (not to mention James Comey himself) have already been identified as having played a role in the exoneration of Hillary Clinton, the production of the salacious Trump dossier, and the unmasking and persecution of Trump supporters. Further, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation has been totally compromised by the extreme bias of its agents. Critics go so far as to accuse the FBI of having become a shadow government accountable to no one. Judging by the FBI’s refusal to cooperate with Congressional investigative committees and Mueller’s use of the agency as a political weapon, they may be right.

            What is most worrisome is that the abhorrent behavior in sports, the exploding sex scandals in Congress, and the corruption in the FBI all have one thing in common: the shredding of our country’s moral fiber. Unfortunately, I don’t see our President, himself tainted by multiple accusations of abuse and addicted to hyperbolic slogans and malicious tweets, as the one to lead our nation out of the morass. Who will?

             

Flushing the Swamp

            Situational ethics has for a long time now been the governing standard of morality in Washington. For the last 30 years politicians and their supporters have assumed that whatever helped their situation was ethical. This has been especially true in how they judged people who were guilty of sexual transgressions. Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy were sexual predators, but liberals excused their behavior because they were on the right side of the issues. “Politics outweigh the personal,” said the feminists, because, as reprehensible as their behavior might have been, the cads advanced their interests. If any of the victims spoke up, they were defamed, degraded, and trashed (Mary Jo Kopechne, of course, could not speak up—she had lost her voice forever in Chappaquiddick). Situational ethics defined morality.

            Not anymore. Victims of sexual assault are speaking out, even after 20 or 30 years, even longer in the case of Judge Moore. And the stalwart defenders of abusers are changing their tune. When Nancy Pelosi was crucified in the press for defending John Conyers and calling him an icon, she quickly discovered that situational ethics no longer prevailed: after several members of the House called for his resignation, Pelosi was forced to reverse herself and also call for his resignation. Conyers, as of this writing, still has not gotten the message and vows to fight on. But he’s fighting a losing battle.

            The Congressional Swamp is just beginning to be drained of men who, like Conyers, were confident they were immune to the consequences of their actions by virtue of their position of power. One by one they are finding out that they were wrong. For years abusers were protected by rules contrived by their fellow-members to discourage victims from filing complaints or to purchase their silence with slush funds paid for by the taxpayers. Victims, however, are finding they do have a voice. So far, only a few abusers have been identified. But once Congress finally gives in to the public’s outcry and grudgingly reveals all their names, the Swamp’s drain plug will be pulled and the malfeasants will be flushed out.

            Personally, I don’t care who gets flushed from which side of the aisle of which chamber. I say Good Riddance and take your situational ethics with you.

Sex in the Swamp

            Has there ever been a greater volcanic eruption of news on a single topic than the one on sexual abuse in Hollywood, the media, and the Washington Swamp? To use an apt metaphor, the lights have come on and the cockroaches are scurrying for cover in all directions.

            We’ve always known, I suppose, that the movie producer’s couch was used for more than interviewing star-struck ingenues.  But did we know that the abusers in the media included so many of our trusted icons?  Rose, Halperin, Zimmerman, Oreskes, Steele, Fish, Wieseltier, Thrush, Ailes, O’Reilly, Bolling.  The list grows every day and will keep growing, as victims of abuse now realize they can speak out without fear of being ridiculed, disparaged, or fired.

            Scandals in Hollywood and the media are bad enough. But now the sex-abuse volcano is about to blow the lid off the Capitol Dome. Revelations that Congress has shelled out $15.1 million in taxpayer money to shut up victims of its members’ predations have produced outrage across the land, and the people demand answers. Who were these guys? What did they do? Who were the victims? Will they be allowed to come forward now? Why did taxpayers have to foot the bill?    

            At the heart of this scandal is a system of rules designed to shield culprits from accountability by first preventing victims from filing timely complaints and then maintaining strict secrecy on who the abusers were and how much hush money was paid to keep victims quiet. Who designed that system? Who, among the sitting senators and representatives signed on to it? The answers to these questions should be made a matter of public record, and the guilty should be made to reimburse the taxpayers.

            And more. Congressman Conyers is the first to have been caught with his pants down (figuratively and literally). He should resign immediately, followed by Senator Franken and every other member of Congress unmasked by this scandal. Open the books! Drain the Swamp!

Stop Digging

            An old adage says that if you’re in a hole, stop digging. Democrat politicians don’t seem to get the essence of this simple truth.

            A November 14 editorial in the Wall Street Journal starkly demonstrated how Connecticut, New Jersey, and Illinois, all Deep Blue states with high taxes, have driven high income earners out of their states. These taxpayers, fed up with soak-the-rich policies, have escaped in droves to low-tax states. With revenues from millionaire taxpayers falling, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Illinois have all chosen to get themselves out the revenue hole by doing the one thing that got them in the hole in the first place: raising taxes even higher.

            Now, high-tax states want Congress to get them out of the hole. They favor a clause in the tax-reform bill that would allow their citizens to continue to deduct high state income taxes and mortgage interest from their federal income taxes. This, in effect, would have low-tax states subsidize high-tax states. Instead of encouraging high-tax state profligacy, Congress should say No: It’s time you learned that when you’re in a hole you should stop digging.

            Common sense can be applied to other parts of the tax reform bill. Lowering the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20% will stem the outflow of corporations to countries with lower taxes and put out a welcome mat for those companies that would like to come home. Similarly, lowering tax rates on small businesses, who create 80% of the new jobs in this country, will help them grow and prosper.

            One thing that Chuck Schumer and his cohorts on the Democrat side of the aisle still don’t seem to understand is that, in the end, raising taxes even higher on high-income earners does not result in greater revenues for our Treasury. When rich people keep less of their income, they have less to invest in new businesses that create more jobs and “raise all boats.” Wealth redistribution policies preferred by the Democrat party can never lead to greater prosperity: it can only stifle growth and make the hole deeper.

            Growth is the only way out of the hole. But first you have to stop digging.  

The Swamp

            Is it any surprise that American voters are disgusted with both political parties? Washington is truly a swamp.

            Look at what is dominating the news these days. Republicans, one after the other, are disowning a holier-than-thou Senate candidate who is facing credible accusations of sexually molesting teenagers. Many other sitting senators and representatives have chosen to retire rather than face a furious electorate that sees Republicans as incapable of passing any meaningful legislation.

            On the other side of the aisle, Democrats are grimacing at their lowest popularity ratings ever, as facts emerge about their party paying for and distributing a pre-election dossier packed with lies about a tawdry Trump escapade in Moscow. Worse, party darlings Bill and Hillary Clinton are being investigated for their role in the scandal that gave Russia control of 20% of our country’s uranium, a deal that got the stamp of approval from then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, while millions were flowing into the Clinton Foundation. Even Special Counsel Robert Mueller, FBI Director at the time, may be implicated for turning a blind eye to what was going on.

            Can a swamp so full of liars, crooks, and incompetents ever be drained?

Keeping Paris Secure

           

           When I was in Paris last week I learned of the terrorist attack in New York—not from a news announcement on television, but from a Frenchman who was eager to communicate his sympathy for our loss. Parisians, of course, have suffered much more from terrorism than we have. And they are doing much more about it than we are.

            Paris is the most visited city in the world, and that presents special problems for those charged with protection against terrorists. Soldiers armed with automatic weapons are present near all popular attractions, ready to respond forcefully to any emergency; tourists entering all museums and government buildings go through metal detectors and bag checks; some buildings, like the Hotel de Ville, are closed altogether to tourists “for security reasons.” Worse, entry gates are shut at the least hint of trouble, as we saw at Versailles and the Pantheon, which were closed as a precaution against possible actions by strikers. When 200-300 bikers threatened to demonstrate in front of the Madeleine, 60 members of the French National Guard showed up…just in case. Parisians are serious about protecting their city.

            After incidents in other cities like London and Brussels, authorities know that subway systems are very vulnerable: you simply can’t bag-check every passenger without bringing the system to a grinding halt. Instead, Paris has installed monitored security cameras everywhere in Le Metro. Heightened security seems to produce other benefits, as well. Stations are virtually trash-free, and graffiti artists don’t dare spray station walls. In fact, many stations have bright, colorful artwork on their walls. One station near the Louvre even features niches with Greek and Roman statuary. Best yet, music often fills Le Metro, as amateur musicians serenade commuters; I heard enough musical instruments on the cars and in the passageways to assemble a small orchestra: a jazz trumpet, a saxophone, a violin, a flute, a baritone, several guitars, two accordions playing “La Vie en Rose,” and lots of singers with little boxes of recorded background music.

            The daily commute may be drudgery. But for Parisians it doesn’t have to be entirely unpleasant.

           

On Kneeling

            The reverberations caused by President Trump’s tirade against football players kneeling during the National Anthem are not going to die down anytime soon. It is hard for anyone in this country not to be affected, whatever side they’re on. On a personal level, I find the actions of the protesting players to be disrespectful of our flag and the ideals it represents, including the freedom for them to make ignorant asses of themselves. Judging by the boos they continue to receive, I’m not alone.

            Two of my sons, retired naval officers, both served this country honorably for over 20 years. One of them who lives in Jacksonville was particularly incensed by the Jacksonville Jaguars’ behavior in London. Here is part of what he wrote to the president of the Jaguars:

            “The players and coaches who took a knee during the national anthem are not only a disgrace, their choice to do it on foreign soil takes it to another level. It is beyond inexcusable, indefensible and reprehensible. It is an insult to the men and women who are serving our nation today, and to those veterans who have served in the past…a selfish, disrespectful act and an absolute dishonor to the men and women who have shed their blood and given their lives to defend the freedom that we all enjoy as Americans…The Jacksonville Jaguars have insulted the mothers and fathers who have lost a son or daughter on the battlefield, insulted the widows who lost a spouse, insulted the children who are growing up without a father or mother who was killed in action. They have insulted not just their fans, but every patriotic American who believes that our flag and National Anthem stands for something.… I know I speak for my entire family, many of them now ex-Jaguar and ex-NFL fans. I know I speak for my brothers in arms who served alongside of me. I know I speak for the average American who believes that the flag stands for freedom and for who we are as a nation.”

            Hard feelings? You bet.

Devastation

            I took a little tour around the house yesterday, just to see how dependent I am on electricity. The kitchen has appliances: stove, refrigerator, oven, microwave, and toaster, not to mention smaller things like a blender, a griddle, and can opener. In the living room there’s the TV and attached components and speakers, plus table lamps. My office has my computer and printer, a pencil sharpener, a cell phone charger, and more lamps. Bedrooms have lamps, too, and radio alarm clocks. There’s the washer and dryer in the laundry room, and let’s not forget the vacuum cleaner hidden away in a closet. And there’s the power that runs my heating and air conditioning and opens my garage door. These and more are the conveniences of a modern American home. And they all run on electricity.

            And now consider the island of Puerto Rico. The entire island is without power and will be for weeks and months to come. Stores shuttered, food markets shelves empty, garbage piling up outside, unrepaired roofs leaking, indoors insufferably hot, services of all kinds non-existent. The people can’t even charge their cell phones to maintain communications, except in their cars, which will stop running when the tank reads Empty, because gas stations, except the few with generators, need electricity to pump gas. Waiting for help that doesn’t come. Hope fading. Alive, but not living.

            Yabucoa, hit head-on by Maria’s 155 mph winds and 25-foot waves, no longer exists. My father-in-law, who was born there, would not recognize it. My wife, who has relatives in Puerto Rico, was able to reach her cousin Mary Joan in San Juan before her cell phone died. She was emotionally drained, desperation in her voice. None of the other relatives could be reached. Are they safe?

            Relief efforts are on the way, a trickle in a flood. Three and a half million people in Puerto Rico and thousands more in the Virgin Islands wait. How many can be reached with food and water? How will the sick and injured get help? My wife looks at the devastation on her TV screen and mumbles, “Oh, the poor people,” knowing her own people are among them. God help them.

Good Guys and Bad Guys

            Like any other person concerned for the welfare of people facing the destructive impact of Irma, I was glued to my television during the hurricane’s march through the Caribbean and up the Florida peninsula. I was personally worried about my brother André, who lives in Oldsmar at the head of Tampa Bay, and my son Marc, our three grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren hunkered down in Jacksonville. Thankfully, they all survived with no major damage to their health or their property.

            Relieved that it could have been so much worse for my family, I still have several images etched in my memory. One is of the total destruction inflicted by the storm on the Virgin Islands. How will they ever recover? A second is of the intrepid reporters who stayed behind in places like Naples and Miami to bring us live images of the fury of Irma. A third is of the rescuers and the volunteers who displayed not only an indomitable spirit in the face of catastrophy, but also a boundless devotion to the victims, especially the aged and the infirm. A fourth, regrettably, is of looters whose despicable behavior in taking advantage of a disaster to enrich themselves left me fuming at such depravity.

            This is not the first time we’ve seen looters carrying merchandise from stores; scenes of ransacking in Ferguson and Baltimore are still fresh in our memories. But rather than condemning such behavior, some on the left excused it, like journalist Sarah Jaffe who posted a picture of imprisoned looters and tweeted, “The carceral state exists to protect private property and is inseparable from white supremacy.” One critic jumped on that ridiculous comment with, “You’re saying that non-whites can’t help but steal?” After a flood of negative comments like that one, Jaffe responded, “That s—t’s full of Nazis.” Sadly, moral depravity takes many forms.

Two Clowns and a Button

            Floods in Texas, fires in California, a Category 5 hurricane targeting Florida—what more destruction can we take? There’s worse, I’m afraid, because we have two clowns with bad haircuts threatening nuclear holocaust. God forbid one of them decides to push the button first.

            Kim Jong Un’s objective is a reunited Korea under his control, and he is playing a dangerous game of chicken to reach it. He is wagering that the United States will abandon South Korea rather than start a nuclear war. That’s why he’s raising the ante with more tests of missiles capable of delivering a hydrogen bomb to Japan or even a U.S. territory. In response, President Trump threatens fire and fury. But what kind?

            The debate in the bowels of the Pentagon is on whether or not to carry out a preventive strike. It is doubtful that the U.S. would use nukes to vaporize North Korea without a first strike by the renegade regime, no matter how grave the threats from Pyongyang. Short of a nuclear strike, the options are a matter of degree: do we try to send a message by going after North Korea’s launch sites, or do we target all of its military facilities, including Kim’s headquarters? In either case our actions would likely trigger a retaliation that could vaporize Seoul and kill thousands of American soldiers. That’s not a responsibility that our President and his military advisors want to bear.

            Does this mean that Kim’s strategy is working? Maybe. But we have other means of persuading him to back off, like severe economic, financial, and trade sanctions and cutting off any country that does business with North Korea. But sanctions have never worked in the past and are not likely to work now. And cutting business ties with China and others has enormous implications on many levels, none of which are good for us. So where are we now?

            Hoping for a resolution to this conflict is much like waiting to see where Hurricane Irma will hit. The only certainty: devastation. 

Hypocrisy Exposed

            The shameless hypocrisy of the Democrats and their sycophantic enablers in the media is catching up with them. The delicious irony is that the hypocrisy is being exposed by Antifa, a group that until just recently Democrats considered part of their loyal base.

            For weeks and months now, TV news programs have been showing us Antifa thugs smashing windows, starting fires, and clubbing people senseless. But as long as their targeted victims were conservative speakers at Berkeley or white supremacists in Charlottesville, the Democrats said nothing. The leftist media, true to form, celebrated these anarchists, as long as they targeted the neo-Nazi purveyors of racism.

            But something is happening on Main Street America. People have begun to realize that the violence used by Antifa to advance their radical agenda is by definition un-American. Americans are now asking themselves why Democrats and their media allies have not been condemning this violence, why it was all right for them to condemn the KKK and denounce President Trump at every turn, but not proper to denounce Antifa and its violent tactics.

            Suddenly, some Democrats realized that Antifa was handing their Republican opponents a tailor-made issue for exposing leftist hypocrisy. On Tuesday, August 29, Nancy Pelosi finally spoke up: “The violent actions of people calling themselves Antifa in Berkeley this weekend deserve unequivocal condemnation.” Wonderful. But where was she after Charlottesville? Or after February 1^st, March 4^th, April 15^th and April 27^th when masked and black-clad Antifa thugs attacked Trump supporters and prevented Conservatives from speaking?

            Like the Democrats in Congress, the elite media has down-played the violence. What it should have done is press the Democrats to disavow Antifa? Why didn’t it do that? Because it was too busy trashing President Trump and right-wing groups to condemn violence on the left.

            Americans are not stupid. They don’t like bias and hypocrisy, and they abhor violence. It’s about time the Trump bashers wake up and pay attention. Antifa is not going away unless we all take a stand and put an end to its thuggery.

           

Monuments, Idiots, and Antifa

            I was glad to read in our local paper last week that our elected leaders will not push for the removal of Civil War monuments in Hertford (NC). Perquimans County Commissioner Kyle Jones was right when he said that monuments are not what’s driving America’s problems. Their presence, he suggested, is no more the cause of racism than their removal would solve it. Happily, common sense prevails in our small town.

            It was not so long ago that we were treated to scenes of ISIS fanatics destroying precious monuments and artifacts in Palmyra, in a senseless, symbolic destruction of ancient Mesopotamian history. How different is that from the idiots who think that erasing links to the past by toppling statues of Confederate generals is a justified way to exact punishment for racism in this country?  

            The kids in Durham who tore down, kicked, stomped, and spat on a memorial to fallen Confederate soldiers may have thought they were protesting neo-Nazis, the KKK, and President Trump. In reality, they were demonstrating their ignorance of history. They were morons.

            Much more dangerous were the Antifa rioters who wielded clubs in Charlottesville as they had in protests against conservative speakers in Berkeley and other academic institutions. The white supremacists in Charlottesville may have been racists, but the Antifa thugs were not fighting racism: their ultimate objective is the destruction of the values and institutions that define America.

            Antifa is a violent, radical, hard-left organization of revolutionaries looking to tear down this country. It urges destruction of property, violence against police, and all-out anarchy. Its black-clad and masked cowards are the ones who threaten America, not the idiots like the ones in Durham. I wouldn’t worry about these kids: one of these days there’s a chance they may grow up and acquire some common sense. But do worry if they join the masked men in black.

Barcelona Is Not Charlottesville

            Last Thursday a terrorist plowed his van into a crowded street in Barcelona, killing 13 and injuring over 100. CNN correspondent Jim Sciutto, in his in-depth report on the tragedy, suggested that the terrorist, who used a vehicle to kill innocent people, was a copycat of the madman who killed a young woman when he drove his car into protesters in Charlottesville a few days earlier. CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer concurred: “There will be questions about copycats….They used the same killing device, a vehicle.”

            I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read about this. How could any respectable journalist make such an absurd connection? How could Sciutto and Blitzer conveniently forget the massacres in Nice, Berlin, London, and many other cities in which terrorists have used vehicles to massacre bystanders? The connection between these atrocities and Barcelona is radical Islamic terrorism. The common denominator is ISIS, not white supremacists or neo-Nazis.

            What is evident—and outrageous—is that CNN has used a non-existent link between Charlottesville and Barcelona to promote its leftist agenda. It is nothing less than shameless propaganda. Let’s not forget that our mainstream media has beaten to death President Trump’s response to Charlottesville. The President deserved the criticism, but he doesn’t deserve the implied connection to Barcelona.

            If there are any copycats in this sordid business, they reside in a biased media that will do anything to damage the President. It is high time for all fair-minded people to echo Boston lawyer Joseph Welsh’s question of Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings, “Have you no sense of decency?” Indeed, Messrs. Sciutto and Blitzer and your copycats in the media, “Have you no sense of decency?”

Cuba and Venezuela

           

           It’s almost impossible to stay focused on a single news story these days, because there seems to be an explosion of new stories every day. Russia is big one day, then North Korea, then Isis. At home, our Texter-in Chief moves from immigration to transgenders, to health care, to tax reform, and whatever else pops into his mind at 3 o’clock in the morning. If that’s not enough we have the story of James Damore getting fired by Google eclipsed by the more gruesome story of a car plowing into protesters in Charlottesville.

            Mentioned only in passing is one story that I believe will produce many headlines in the weeks and months to come. And that is the story of what is happening in Venezuela, and what may happen if the United States tries to affect a regime change there.

            Let’s remember that Venezuela is in our backyard. And let’s remember that ever since America adopted the Monroe Doctrine as national policy, the United States has used this policy to justify armed intervention in Cuba, Panama, and Grenada. It may very well do so again in Venezuela.

            There is very good reason for the U.S. to be concerned with Venezuela. With its economy in shambles and its people starving, President Maduro has moved to establish a dictatorship and is meeting protestors with brutal force. He has been able to do this because of the full support of Cuba, which for years has been infiltrating Venezuela’s social and educational institutions and is now in control of its military. Let’s not kid ourselves: Cuba is de facto in charge of the Venezuelan government. Maduro is no more than Cuba’s puppet.

            There’s more than the fate of Venezuela at stake here. Cuba has already sunk its fangs into Bolivia, Ecuador, and Nicaragua and is looking to control all of Latin America. That’s why Cuba’s ambitions must be stopped in Venezuela. President Trump’s generals know this and are formulating plans for military intervention in that country.

            Stay tuned. This may be the next big story, one that puts all the others on the back page.           

Leakers and Publishers

            Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats held a press conference last week to announce that the Department of Justice is tripling its efforts to identify and prosecute leakers of classified and sensitive information. Stopping leakers, they said, was necessary to protect our national security and to tell the leakers, whatever their motivation ,to Stop It.

            Fine. Let’s throw those criminal leakers in jail. But I have a question: if leaking classified and sensitive information to the press is a criminal act, why wouldn’t printing that information not also constitute a criminal act? If a journalist prints leaked information that damages the security of the United States, why shouldn’t that journalist be as liable to criminal prosecution as the leaker?

            The answer, we assume, is that the journalist is protected by the Constitutional guarantee of the freedom of the press. Now, a journalist can be sued for libel if he intentionally publishes false information that he knows is false. But if what he publishes happens to be factual, irrespective of the damage its release might cause, he would be protected by the First Amendment. But should that amount to blanket immunity from prosecution?

            The Justice Department has always been reluctant to force journalists to reveal their sources. But Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein refused last week to rule out the possibility that journalists would be prosecuted for publishing information obtained through criminal leaks. This at least suggests that the Department of Justice is considering it.

            I think that leaks have become so numerous and so damaging to the nation’s security, that the Justice Department will be forced at some point to prosecute the publishers of the leaked information. If that happens, it would challenge the Supreme Court to reexamine the Constitution on the very meaning of Freedom of the Press.

            I think it’s time for that to happen.

A Lot of Maybes

            On any given day it is possible to scan the nation’s major newspapers and find a virtual thesaurus of derogatory terms applied to President Trump. In just one such exercise I found: impetuous, brash, naïve, crude, sniveling, whiny, shrill, weak, self-pitying, and finger-pointing drama queen. And these were from a Republican.

            Of course, his opponents were worse: sadistic, paranoid, demeaning, humiliating, obsessed, mean, cruel, vindictive, cynical, impulsive, inept, immodest, and the all-too-familiar sexist pig. The list goes on, even without quoting Maxine Waters and others who have called for Trump’s impeachment.

            This gross disrespect points to a President Trump who has become isolated by his ill-conceived decisions and unrestrained communications. He has enough enemies who thoroughly despise him; he doesn’t need to antagonize his friends and loyal supporters. He began his presidency by surrounding himself with very good people. Now Spicer and Priebus are gone, Sessions is mortally wounded, Tillerson is rumored to be on the verge of quitting, as is Price, and his defense chiefs are wondering what’s next after being undercut by the President on transgender policy?

            We can forgive President Trump for his political inexperience; we can put up with his strutting braggadocio; we can survive his poor judgment on major domestic issues. But we should be extremely concerned about his dangerous lack of self-control in an increasingly dangerous world. Russia, Iran, and North Korea grew in strength and in contempt for America as a result of Obama’s whimpering withdrawal from the world stage. Is a maladroit and impetuous leader what we need to meet the challenges this country now faces?

            All is not lost. Maybe the appointment of General John Kelly as the new Chief-of-Staff will bring order and discipline to the chaotic White House. Maybe congressional Republicans will rise from the ashes of their humiliating defeat on healthcare to pass meaningful legislation on tax reform. Maybe China will finally realize that an unrestrained North Korea is not in their best interest. Maybe Donald Trump will concede that he is not as cool and tough and smart as he thought he was.

            That’s a lot of maybes.

Red Sox and Republicans

            I was born and raised only forty miles from Boston’s Fenway Park. Naturally, I became a Red Sox fan. During those early years, the Yankees always seemed to beat the Red Sox and win the World Series. I grew to hate them.

            After college, I was an immature idealist with liberal convictions. I even voted for Lyndon Johnson. But after realizing that his Great Society was doing more harm than good and was really a vote-buying scam, I became a Republican. Like the old saying says, “If you aren’t a liberal when you’re young, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative when you’re older, you have no head.”

            The parallel between this year’s Red Sox and Republican politicians is uncanny. After a slow start, the Red Sox began to play well and rose to the top of the division by the All-Star break. The Republicans, all but doomed by pollsters, captured both houses of Congress and the Presidency in the last elections and found themselves in a commanding position to reshape the country, and they actually got off to a good start. But since the All-Star break, the punchless Red Sox have surrendered the lead back to the Yankees, while In Washington, Congressional Republicans have proven that they cannot govern. Worse, the chaos in a White House presided over by a clueless pretender is making any course correction improbable if not impossible.

            Here’s what has to happen. The Red Sox need to start winning again, and they won’t do that until they start swinging bats that don’t have holes in them. The Republicans need to start winning again, too. With healthcare reform dead in the water, tax reform has become an imperative. And winning again won’t happen—not for the Red Sox nor for the Republicans— unless they work as a team.

            To win their division the Red Sox shouldn’t count on the Yankees losing. And for the Republicans to deliver on their promises, they shouldn’t expect any help from the obstructionist Democrats. In both cases someone has to step up to the plate and carry the team. Who will that be?

Three Freedoms

            Celebrations on the 4^th of July bring back memories, one of them from half a lifetime ago when I was asked to give the commencement address at my local school district’s graduation ceremony. I took advantage of this special honor to deliver a simple message to the graduates: cherish and protect the freedom this great nation has given you. At the same time, I cautioned the students to protect freedom from abuse. I think if I were to give a commencement address today, I might repeat the same message, because I see our Constitutional freedoms under assault today in ways I could not have imagined 40 years ago.

            Freedom of religion is under attack by secularists who mock people of faith whose lives are guided by their belief in a Supreme Being rather than by “enlightened” principles embraced by the favored elite. Ironically, many of these same secularists scream Islamophobia at those who oppose the extreme ideology of radical Muslims.

            Freedom of the press is eroding from within at the hands of those who use its protection to report and opine dishonestly to advance a biased agenda. This is not new; the press has been used for political propaganda since the founding of our republic. Today’s abuse of this freedom, however, is much worse. The irresponsible and cowardly use of unnamed sources and leaks, and the repetition of known falsehoods by a press almost uniformly dedicated to the removal of a sitting president it despises, is far more corrosive of this freedom.

            Freedom of speech is probably in greatest jeopardy. It is denied to Conservative speakers at campuses radicalized by Leftist professors and governed by administrators more concerned with offense to the sensitivities of their snowflakes than with the benefits of vigorous debate. Outside ivy-covered walls, “victimized” groups appropriate loaded words like sexist, racist, homophobe, and fascist to deny the very expression of contrary opinion.

            “These are the times that try men’s souls,” said the great patriot Thomas Paine of our fight for independence. If he were alive today, I’m sure he would recognize the growing threats to our precious freedoms and challenge us to fight those who would destroy them. As we celebrate this Independence Day, we should all think about what we are willing to fight for.

Complaints

            Should I complain about the crabgrass that has taken over my lawn in this hot and wet weather, when most people don’t even have lawns?

            Should I complain about the goose poop on my golf course’s fairways, when the only fairways most people ever see is on television?

            Should I complain about having to take out the trash in the rain, when people in some countries go through trash dumps to find enough food to survive another day?

            Should I complain about the tick that gave me this disease I can’t even pronounce, when so many children die because they don’t have access to health care?

            Should I complain about growing old, when so many victims of violence will never get to be my age?

            I’ve been blessed with a long life and reasonably good health—ticks notwithstanding. I’ve never known real hunger or been without a roof over my head. I’ve been so lucky to have had had my wife and best friend by my side for over a half-century and for us to now enjoy playing patriarch and matriarch to our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

            Life has been good to me, so I shouldn’t complain. At least not about crabgrass, geese, and ticks. But I will never stop complaining about those hypocrites and buffoons in Washington who are doing their best to ruin the greatest country in the world. One side controls both houses of Congress and the Presidency, but can’t get anything done. They stand in a firing-squad circle, as one wag put it, while the “Just Say No” Democrats cheer at the mutual executions.

            At a recent Mets baseball game, New Jersey’s Chris Christie, perhaps the most unpopular governor on the planet, was sitting in the third row when he caught a foul ball. The crowd booed lustily. Had they been sitting in the Senate gallery when Republicans self-immolated, the Mets crowd would have given them the same well-deserved treatment.

           

           

           

It's Treason!

            The Constitution of the United States of America, Article III, Section 3, states: “Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” The operative word here is “only.” There’s a reason the Founders wrote it that way. While under the thumb of George III, any infraction by the colonists was viewed as treason against the Crown. The Founders knew that unless treason were narrowly and specifically defined in the Constitution, it would lead to chaos.

            How many Americans, I wonder, have read the Constitution. Probably not many. Among those who have not is Senator Tim Kaine. Otherwise, he would not have suggested that Donald Trump, Jr. had committed treason by meeting with Russians during his father’s campaign. Call it naïve, clueless, ill-advised—even monumentally stupid. But the meeting wasn’t treason. It wasn’t even a crime.

            By suggesting it was treason, the former Democratic candidate for the vice-presidency may have been demonstrating his ignorance of the Constitution. But what if he knew better? What if he was consciously using treason to raise Trump-hating hysteria to the ultimate level? What if he was betting on others on the Left picking up the baton and running with it? Enter Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, and a media wild at the scent of fresh blood.

            Like a mad scientist who thinks he has found the “theory to everything,” John Harwood of CNBC proclaims he has found the key to the Trump-Russia connection. As Holman Jenkins of the Wall Street Journal reads Harwood’s insight, “President Trump’s every word and deed…must now be understood as payback to Russia for helping him get elected.” How cynical and over-the-top is that? And how far is that from redefining treason?

            Jenkins adds that it’s high time for the press and on-air media to rein in their supercritical hysteria. He’s right. As we used to say as kids, “Enough already.”

           

Trum[ Nails It in Poland

            One of the best trips I’ve ever taken was a two-week visit to Poland a dozen years ago. Two weeks may not be long enough to really get to know a country, but I remember how I came away impressed by the wholesome and friendly attitude of the Polish people.

            Poland is a country with a long history of foreign invasion, occupation, and oppression.  After losing its independence in 1795, it was successively overrun by Prussians, Russians, and Austrians before regaining its independence in 1918. That lasted until 1939, when Germany invaded Poland to launch World War II.  When the Nazis were finally driven out in 1945, it was only to see Russians move in.  

            Poland is also a country of resistance and rebirth. In 1979 Pope John Paul II was allowed to visit his homeland and speak to millions about the spiritual unity of Poland. Without mentioning the Soviet Union, he was telling his people that their faith would deliver them from their Communist oppressors. Twelve years later the Soviet Union collapsed and Poland was free once again.

            My hat’s off to the speechwriter who crafted Trump’s speech in Warsaw last week. When the President recalled the response of the crowd to the pope’s speech 1979, he nailed it. “We want God,” the millions had shouted. When the crowd heard the President speak these magic words once again, they knew they had a friend in Donald Trump.    

            Another word that resonated in the President’s speech was “culture.” Culture is what binds a nation together. Conversely, when culture breaks down, so does the fabric of society. Poland is one of several Eastern European countries that have resisted the invasion of Muslims. For good reason. These countries have seen what can happen when a country opens its doors to people who have no desire to assimilate and to adopt the culture of the country that received them. The Muslim invaders of Germany, France, Great Britain, and Sweden are waging war on the West, not by the sword but by corroding the culture of their hosts, followed by conversion to their own culture and ideology.

            Through the centuries Poland has experienced wars of invasion and subjugation. This is one war they want no part of.

Mean and Heartless

 Although no longer recommended to induce vomiting, ipecac still finds its way onto crossword puzzles. Whenever I see the word, I immediately think of one much more efficient emetic: the sight of a smug, unctuous Chuck Schumer peddling his moralistic snake oil from the floor of the Senate. His over-the-top hypocrisy and cavalier disregard for facts should be enough to make anyone gag.

 

Schumer’s latest show of divisive demagoguery is leading a Democrat chorus branding the latest Republican senators’ health care proposal as mean and heartless, when its intent is to fix the problems of the disastrous ObamaCare that he and his Democrat cohorts foisted upon the American public.     

The Republican proposed legislation (ACA) is far from perfect; it must improve to earn the support of holdout senators. It needs to remove insurance subsidies, for instance. But even in its current form it is far better than ObamaCare. It removes job-killing employer mandates and fines on young people for not enrolling in the program; it eliminates mandates to buy coverages people don’t need or want; it retains coverage for pre-existing conditions; it reduces taxes and allows markets to work. That does not, in my view, meet the definition of mean and heartless.

What would be mean and heartless is leaving the shattered remnants of ObamaCare in place, a system that has broken its promises to the American people (If you like your plan, you can keep your plan….), increased premiums and deductibles by over 100% for many, and left an increasing number of states with no insurers at all.

ObamaCare is collapsing because its numbers are unsustainable and depressing the economy. Yet, when Republicans offer a plan to control the expansion of Medicaid, they are called “killers” by Democrats and the liberal media. When they look to cut costs, Senator Warren calls the cuts “blood money.” And the smarmy snake oil peddler from Brooklyn continues to smile and lie.

Hate, Rage, andd Violence

            Our country is in trouble. It is descending into a polarized climate of hate and rage, and, as we have seen so often in the recent past, violence. We have witnessed wanton destruction in Ferguson, Baltimore, and Milwaukee; we have seen anti-police riots and killings; we have watched masked thugs vandalize and burn to prevent free speech.

            Whatever happened to civil dialog? To friendly persuasion? To fair and honest debate? Instead we are treated to the bloodied head of a decapitated Trump and a play featuring the assassination of the President disguised as Julius Caesar? Is there no limit to the vulgarities and the outrageous lies?                       

            Last week a Bernie Sanders supporter and fan of Rachel Maddow fired his rifle into Republicans practicing baseball and almost succeeded in assassinating Congressman Scalise. For one day Democrats and Republicans condemned the violence and called for unity. But not two days passed before the New York Times resurrected the debunked canard of the assault on Gabby Gifford to direct the blame on Republicans. Right on cue, Congressional Democrats resumed their attack on President Trump, and the President fired back with a barrage of tweets to further inflame the Left. The war hardly took a breath.

            In this case, as in so many others, we can draw a straight line between hate, rage, and violence. What is truly appalling, in my view, is that this mindless assault on the fabric of our society is abetted by a biased mainstream media that has abandoned investigative journalism in favor of leftist propaganda.

            For the most part, the Left is focused on what it believes to be the illegitimate presidency of Donald Trump. It may very well be that nothing will change until he leaves (or is forced out of) office. What then? Will our Constitution have survived? Or will we be kicking around its ashes? The haters should think about that.

Killers

                        The greatest killers in the history of this earth have been: 1. Natural disasters (tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and giant meteors like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs 60 million years ago); 2. Pestilence (the 14^th century Black Death that killed up to half of some European countries’ populations, and the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic that claimed 50 million victims; 3. Disease (cancer, heart disease, malaria, tuberculosis, cholera, and the small pox that decimated Native-American peoples); 4. Famine (many examples, but the tens of millions starved by Stalin and Mao probably the most extreme); 5. War.

            Of these killers, war is the worst because war is a conscious and deliberate act. From the beginning of recorded history, men have warred on each other for any number of reasons: conquest, power, subjugation, revenge, independence, self-defense, etc. Yet, the most irrational cause of many of history’s wars has been religion and its inherent bias.

            Would there have been an invasion of Canaan had the Hebrews not felt entitled to the land as God’s Chosen People? Would there have been multiple Christian Crusades if the Holy Land had not been occupied by Muslims? Would Catholics and Protestants have fought each other in the Hundred Years War without claims and counterclaims to divine approbation? Would there have been genocide in Armenia or holocaust in World War II absent bias against Christians and Jews? Would we be having massacres today in the name of Allah?

            The jihadist murders in London on June 3^rd remind us that religious fervor and malevolence have coexisted hand in hand for millennia. These two contradictions have given us persecution, torture, Inquisitions, beheadings, and exterminations on a ghastly scale. But none of the world’s religious wars have been as tenacious and unrelenting as Islam’s war of conquest of the Infidel.

            The civilized world is in a quandary. What are we to do about a religion whose large majority of adherents are people who only wish to worship in peace guided by Quranic precepts handed down by a loving God, while a minority find justification for terror in the same scriptures? How can we effectively excise this cancer from our midst while political correctness and accusations of Islamophobia prevent us from condemning the carnage as radical Islamic extremism and taking the measures necessary to end it?

            That is the defining question of our age.

Lies and More Lies

            Interesting coincidence.  The day I received my June issue of National Geographic in the mail was the same day Hillary Clinton delivered her commencement address at Wellesley College, her alma mater.  Why interesting?  Because the cover story in National Geographic was “Why We Lie,” while the theme of Hillary’s speech, as summarized by the Boston Globe, was “Clinton urges graduates to fight for truth.”  What brazenness: a speech about truth by the greatest pathological liar of our time.

            Hillary couldn’t help herself.  She wanted to disparage President Trump so badly—describing his budget, for instance, as “an act of unimaginable cruelty on the most vulnerable among us”—that she drew a parallel between him and President Nixon.  But she got it wrong by describing Nixon as “a man whose presidency would eventually end in disgrace with his impeachment.”  Except that Nixon was never impeached; the only president impeached since Andrew Johnson was her own husband!

            I love National Geographic. It’s a great magazine. But its writers are far too susceptible to Leftist propaganda, especially on environmental issues.  In this same June issue, it offers that sea levels will rise by 22 to 30 inches by 2100 according to some projections, a totally irresponsible claim ignoring scientific evidence to the contrary.

            On the subject of lying, National Geographic lists some of history’s most notorious liars.  Among them are Lance Armstrong (“I have never doped.”), Rosie Ruiz (“I ran the race. I really did.”), and Charles Ponzi.  When it comes to presidential politics, however, it gives us only Richard Nixon, Donald Trump, and Bill Clinton (!), but not Barack Obama (“If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.”), and not Hillary, the most prolific liar of them all.  So much for the magazine’s balance and objectivity.

Shape Up Or Get Out

            Republicans in Congress are starting to panic. And with good reason. President Trump is under siege by Democrats, Progressives, a legion of anonymous sources, and a media that a recent Harvard analysis shows is 93% anti-Trump. Worse, Trump’s base is wavering; his popularity polls among Republicans has fallen to around 70% and with the nation overall to the mid-30s. This is unprecedented for a president who should be enjoying a honeymoon, especially after an arguably superior start in delivering on the promises that got him elected.

            This means that even the President’s most ardent supporters are increasingly disillusioned. Congressmen facing re-election know that if the President’s base doesn’t show up at the polls in 2018, Democrats will take control of the House. They will blame Trump. And they will be right.

            What can the President do to halt this precipitous decline? Pulitzer Prize winner Peggy Noonan says in the Wall Street Journal that it would be a good idea if top Hill Republicans went en masse to the president and said: “Stop it. Clean up your act. Shut your mouth. Do your job. Stop tweeting. Stop seething. Stop wasting time. You lost the thread and don’t even know what you were elected to do anymore.” She goes on and ends with this: “Act like a president or leave the presidency.”

            Wow! It’s one thing for a rabid Maxine Waters to call for Trump’s impeachment. It’s quite another for a Republican advocate like Noonan to tell the President to shape up or get out. Or is she just putting into words what many his supporters are beginning to think?

Fulminations

            President Trump’s heart is in the right place, but his mouth keeps getting him in trouble.  He has done many good things in his avowed commitment to “Make America Great Again,” but his intemperate tweets have his most loyal staff members running for cover.  The President’s threat to discontinue daily press briefings may be the only way to save Sean Spicer’s dignity if not his sanity.

            Trump haters in Congress and the media are giddy with the daily fodder he provides them for their daily cannonades.  The sad consequence is that unrelenting, one-sided criticism is ultimately destructive of our democratic institutions.

            The obstructionism of Chuck Schumer and congressional Democrats—their opposition to anything Trump—is devoid of any consideration of truth and civility.  A perfect example was their monumental hypocrisy in the wake of the President’s firing of FBI Director Comey, the man whose decapitation they had called for incessantly in retribution for Hillary’s defeat.

            Some argue that Democrats are feeding the frenzy in the mass media, especially the hysterical fulminations of cable TV stations like MSNBC.  Others argue that the media are legitimizing the hyper-partisanship in Congress.  Either way, this symbiotic relationship of the Left is proving very harmful to what should be a constructive national dialog.  Worse, it is infecting other aspects of society, particularly among the young.

            We have had many examples of institutions of higher learning like UC Berkeley denying First Amendment rights to Conservative speakers.  Now we have the graduating class of black Bethune-Cookman University hissing, booing, and turning their backs on commencement speaker Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos for no apparent reason other than her association with Donald Trump.  This rudeness was an undeserved and misguided insult to a woman who is dedicated to improving the education of inner-city black youths through her advocacy of school choice. 

            Will the madness ever end?