Pinned Thought: I wish someone would ask Donald Trump what he loves about America. (April 22, 2024)
Pinned Thought II:
October 14, 2017
I've said it before and I will keep saying it - banks fail when faith in banks is destroyed, currencies fail when faith in the currency is destroyed and democracy fails when faith in the pillars of democracy - a free press, an independent judiciary, elections themselves - is destroyed. Our president is working tirelessly to destroy faith in all these and more. (in response to a Facebook post by Dave Mathis. See also this blog post dated Feb 2, 2018)
[note: this appeared in the October 11, 2024 edition of the NY Times: "Donald Trump doesn’t [understand the importance of government stability]. He has attempted to destroy our faith in the institutions that keep us safe — the courts, the F.B.I., the intelligence community, the diplomatic corps, the military, even our electoral process and, this week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/11/opinion/kamala-harris-donald-trump.html]
December 20, 2024
I still need to write my predictions for Trump 2.0 (second verse, worse than the first?), but if the attempts to pass a spending bill to avoid a government shutdown are any indication, it's going to be a doozy. Here's what folks are saying after the past and future president derailed a proposed plan - and these are Republicans talking:
“It’s a total dumpster fire,” Rep. Eric Burlison (Missouri) told reporters.
“It’s a fascinating mess,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) told CNN’s Manu Raju.
“This is ridiculous,” Sen. Josh Hawley (Missouri) told Semafor’s Burgess Everett. “This is how you want your government to run? I mean, these guys can’t manage their way out of a paper bag.”
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (Florida) was so baffled by the happenings that she walked over to the speaker’s office to investigate. “I’m actually over here because no one’s returning my phone calls,” she told reporters. “I was trying to figure out what’s going on.”
She left without an answer — because House GOP leaders had no plan.
Rep. Victoria Spartz (Indiana) declared she would no longer “participate in the caucus until I see that Republican leadership in Congress is governing. I do not need to be involved in circuses.”
It's going to be an interesting four years.
December 8, 2024
Most are familiar with Edmund Burke's quote that all that's necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. Of course, we all think we wouldn't stand idly by. Surely, we would be among those who would step in and do something, even if it's to lend our voices in support of those fighting the righteous fight.
But are we so sure? Today, when asked about the House committee that investigated the January 6th attempt to thwart the certification of the 2020 presidential election, the incoming president of the United States said “Everybody on that committee … for what they did, yeah, honestly, they should go to jail."
If you consider yourself a good person, how are you reacting to that statement? If you're letting it slide because you missed it, or because it doesn't really bother you, or because it doesn't concern you, or because you don't think it will really happen, or because you want to wait and see, or because you figure someone else will step in if it comes to pass, or you figure you'll act when something REALLY bad happens, well, that's how Edmund Burke is proved correct. Jailing political opponents for following a process defined by law is antithetical to American ideals. And yet, most of us will probably stand by and do nothing as a president calls for exactly that.
If nothing else, call, write or email your senators and House representative. I have.
December 8, 2024
Sadly, the murder of United Healthcare's CEO offers an opportunity to discuss the role insurers play in our healthcare cost and delivery. It has become accepted fact that free markets are the best way to ensure optimum delivery of any good or service. This narrative has taken such hold that few question it. However, we must remember that the overarching objective of private enterprise, as defined by economist Milton Friedman, is to deliver maximum value to shareholders. Nothing more, nothing less. To do that, businesses seek to maximize revenue and minimize costs. In the case of health insurers, that means maximizing premiums and minimizing what they cover.
It doesn't take a genius to see how this can lead to a situation that is not in the consumer's best interest - especially regarding a service with demand as inelastic as healthcare, where folks are willing to bankrupt themselves in order to get the care they need for themselves or loved ones. Exacerbating the problem is that consumers are rarely the ones who make the insurance buying decision. Instead, employers, who have their own shareholders to satisfy, are the ones who make that decision. Insurers thus entice employers with plans that require substantial deductibles, out-of-pocket maximums, 80/20, 70/30 or even 50/50 coverage and network restrictions, then turn to contract fine print to approve or deny coverage in specific instances. The end result works for shareholders, less so for consumers.
Ironically, Milton Friedman was a product of the University of Chicago School of Economics, where free market economics took hold in the United States. The irony is that Friedrich Hayek, who was the soul of Chicago's free market ethos, wrote the following in his free-market bible The Road to Serfdom:
“Where, in the case of sickness and accident, neither the desire to avoid such calamities nor the efforts to overcome their consequences are weakened by the provision of assistance, the case for the state’s helping to organize a comprehensive system of social insurance is quite strong.”
When even the godfather of free markets argues for government-sponsored healthcare, perhaps it's time to revisit the idea. I have lots more to say on this, so stay tuned.
December 6, 2024
Conservative NY Times columnist David French ends a frightening column about the use of the Insurrection Act and governors' rights to call out the militia with this comment:
"We have long trusted presidents not to abuse their power, and most presidents have proven worthy of that trust. Trump is not. While we can hope that the courts and Congress will restrain him in his second term, American law gives him more power than he should rightfully possess."
You can read the column here.
December 1, 2024
No pick better embodies Hannah Arendt's observation about totalitarianism in power than Donald Trump's pick of Kash Patel to replace Christopher Wray as head the FBI. Patel's fealty to Donald Trump far outweighs both his legal accomplishments, which are negligible, and his law enforcement experience, which is nonexistent. To refresh everyone's memory, here is Ms. Arendt's take:
"Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first rate talent, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty." - Hannah Arendt, author of "The Origins of Totalitarianism" (1951)
November 22, 2024
Inflation, which was one of two driving factors behind Donald Trump's recent victory (immigration was the other), was a deceptive bogeyman - and one Kamala Harris played poorly. There are two very real but very different ways that inflation can be viewed. One - the inflation rate - mimics an accordion, measuring how prices change month-over-month (MoM) or year-over-year (YoY). This expands and contracts as the inflation rate spikes and falls. The other is more like a ratchet, looking at what prices are today versus what they were at some point in memory. As an example, say a can of Coke has cost one dollar for the past thirteen months. If one looks at today's price versus a year ago, the inflation rate is zero. But say the price goes to $1.10 today and stays there for the next thirteen months. Compared to last November, the price is up 10% - and will remain at 10% every month through next October. But next November, the price of $1.10 will be compared against this month's price of $1.10 and the inflation rate will be zero. However, people will remember when they used to pay $1.00 so that psychologically, inflation is still at 10%. This will remain the case until $1.10 becomes the new normal.
Inflation across the economy is not nearly so clean but the concept remains the same, as can be seen in the chart below, where the YoY inflation that spiked to over 8% has fallen back to a much more manageable and historic rate of around 2.5 percent, whereas prices remain historically high, reflecting the compounding effect of inflation. For the general public, that is how inflation is perceived - what am I paying now versus what I was paying back in "the good old days." It's a tough reality to fight, but I think Harris would have been better served owning what happened, attributing it to hard choices in the wake of Covid, and pointing out that inflation has been tamed and the worst is now behind us. Sadly, too few of us have either the patience or the critical thinking skills to evaluate such an argument, but I can pretty much guarantee you that if inflation remains right where it is today, the incoming president will claim credit for the conquest as the new normal takes hold.
November 20, 2024
Demonstrating again that every accusation is a confession, Donald Trump continues to name administration candidates who range from wholly unqualified to outright charlatans, proving where the enemy within that he warned us about really resides. Rome fell not at the hands of an outside enemy, but from incompetence within. It is in that way that Trump resembles Caligula, an amoral hedonist who named his horse a Roman Senator.
It was ten years from Beer Hall Putsch to Enabling Act, whereby the German Reichstag relinquished all responsibility and authority to a once rather insignificant rabble-rouser. If the U.S. Senate rubber stamps these picks, they will effectively be doing the same in less than half the time (January 6, 2021 to January 2025). Our founding fathers fought tooth-and-nail to prevent consolidation of power in one man's hands. The Senate's failure to undertake their constitutional responsibility to rigorously advise and consent would be to undermine the protections against both tyranny and ineptitude that our founders bestowed upon us.
November 7, 2024
We face four crises that threaten to upend our world:
- Debt
- Climate
- Demographics
- Geopolitics
- Bonus: A proliferation of assault-style weapons in a nation with an unhealthy fixation on patriotic revolution
November 5, 2024
I believe we're going to face rough waters over the next four years, regardless who wins tonight. Therefore, I have mixed feelings about how I want tonight to turn out. Whoever wins will be blamed for tough times to come, and given that we tend to see tectonic shifts in policy about every fifty years (FDR replaced laissez faire government with an activist one, which was replaced 48 years later by Reagan's supply side revolution). The upcoming presidential term will end 48 years after Reagan's ascent. Whether the next shift swings further right or back towards the left may well be decided tonight.
October 28, 2024
When a party revels in making their opponents uneasy, behavior inevitably takes on the nature of an addict who requires ever stronger doses to get the same high. Thus, what we witnessed last night during Donald Trump's closing argument at Madison Square Garden. The important and most frightening questions are how far can this go and where does it stop?
October 11, 2024
If 2016 was the Flight 93 election, then 2024 is the China Syndrome election - just because the core didn't melt down last time doesn't mean it won't. Many are taking comfort in the fact that our constitutional guardrails held last time when contemplating a possible return to the White House by Donald Trump, but that ignores that those guardrails have been severely weakened since 2016 and there is no guarantee they'll withstand another onslaught.
In another similarity, when the plant employee who discovers the unit's flaws has the opportunity to go public on live TV, there are so many moving parts that he becomes scattered and comes across as what those with a vested interest in keeping the plant open describe as "disturbed." One might call it Meltdown Derangement Syndrome. It's how many of us who try to pin down the multitude of flaws, lies and dangers inherent in a Donald Trump presidency feel, leading some to refer to it as Trump Derangement Syndrome.
October 6, 2024
The economy is is driven by human nature (there's a reason Behavioral economics has become a Nobel-worthy endeavor). This explains why mankind has progressed through war and peace, liberal and conservative. It may be slow and halting at times, but our ingenuity keeps pushing us forward. What has held us back, and threatens to do so in the future, is pestilence, famine and reliance on religious faith to the exclusion of science. The Dark Ages, the plague, drought and famine did more to thwart progress than any policy. Likewise, climate change and fundamentalism are likely to do more harm than taxes or regulation.
September 20, 2024
Chris and I met a couple about our age in France who, upon hearing we'd visited the Normandy landing beaches, thanked us ("Merci, merci, les Americains ont aidé sauvre la France. N'oublier jamais, n'oublier jamais." - Thank you, thank you, the Americans helped save France. Never forget, never forget.) . Decades from now, Ukrainians will feel the same way about us - if we do not abandon them.
September 17, 2024
I think folks should revisit The Grapes of Wrath, seeking to view the plight of Haitians in Springfield OH through the eyes of the Okie's in John Steinbeck's classic, then read Matthew 25: 31-46 and ask themselves not what Jesus would do, but what Jesus would have us do. We've always been resentful of outsiders, whether the Irish, Chinese, Okies or others. Heck, I even felt it when I, along with thousands of other Michiganders, moved to Texas during the oil boom/auto bust of 1983. I was harassed by cops and locals in ways that were both amusing and troubling, though nothing serious ever came of it. That is not always true and it is often the native who is the source of trouble.
August 6, 2024
An article in the NY Times about "zombie pharmacies" raises an interesting question about whether market forces are always best at resolving civic and economic issues. In this case, major chains have shut down hundreds of locations in New York City, leaving numerous vacancies in an otherwise thriving retail real estate market. Yet these spaces remain vacant, creating eyesores and attracting illegal activity, which in some cases is actually making retail space less attractive to potential renters. So, why don't landlord re-rent the properties? Because many of them are on long-term leases backed by financially viable giants like Walgreens that pay better than what the market supports today. So what is in the neighborhood's best interest interest is not in the landlord's. A case where perhaps incentives may need to be changed by government action, such as a tax on vacant properties that would be otherwise filled?
June 13, 2024
The Supreme Court has not yet ruled on a president's immunity, but it is hard to fathom how they could possibly argue that he should be immune in a case where one would try to remain in power, which would open the door to seeking to remain in power by any means necessary with impunity. The only way to justly determine if such a president should remain in power is via the judicial process, and that becomes suspect if a president can do anything - including disregarding the legal system - without fear of prosecution. I can think of no more dangerous ruling.
[Well, I can think of no more dangerous ruling than the one the Court handed down on July 1, 2024. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf.
June 11, 2024
There were two kinds of people who stormed the Capitol on January 6 - sheep and traitors. Traitors were those who stormed the Capitol, breaking through barricades, attacking law enforcement, busting windows, knocking down doors and climbing through broken windows knowing there were armed guards defending them from the other side (I'm talking to you, Ashli Babbitt). The sheep were those who wandered through those open doors fully aware of the chaos that had forced them open. Blindly faith is the textbook definition of the descriptive term "sheep."
[Footnote - I was visited by FBI agents investigating January 6, following up on a lead involving an old acquaintance of mine. The agents assured me they were only interested in those who acted violently, stole or vandalized government property or threatened individuals. Nothing suggested a "witch hunt."]
June 4, 2024
There have long been two opposing views of freedom in this country - one that seeks to allow others the freedom to do as they please and and one that seeks the freedom to allow some to force others to do as they please.
It should be noted that the latter has an advantage in that by nature they are more comfortable enforcing ideological adherence, whereas those in the former, also by nature, are opposed to enforcing such rigidity. Though there are certainly those extremists on the left enforcing woke culture rules, the left and center is far more fractured. To the degree that the extreme left mirrors the ideological rigidity of the right, it serves as an example that ideology is more a cylinder than a flat plane, where one can travel so far east that they end up where east meets west.
May 31, 2024
In the wake of his supporters' response to Donald Trump's conviction on all 34 counts in the Stormy Daniels hush money trial, and in light of my pinned post of October 14, 2017 that the health of democracy is as dependent on faith as are the health of banks and currencies, I keep coming back to the explanation for last year's failure of Silicon Valley Bank that said it was with due either to a bank run by idiots, or, a bank run by idiots. In this case, the former president would be running the bank and his supporters would be causing the run. Only it is not a bank that is suffering the run by idiots, it is our country and our 246 year-old form of government.
May 24, 2024
Once the NCAA begins paying athletes directly, it will only be a matter of time before they become direct competition for traditional professional sports leagues. NIL was just the beginning.
May 22, 2024
I told my book club this evening that I predict high school football will not exist in ten years because lawsuits surrounding CTE will make insurance too expensive for schools to justify it. Some disagreed it will ever go away. I may be off in my timing, but I am confident in my view that Friday Night Lights as we know it will become a thing of the past.
February 18, 2024
It wasn’t until last week that it finally dawned on me how Republicans - my long time but now former party - could tolerate candidates as flawed, as awful, as Donald Trump, Paul Gosar or Marjorie Taylor Greene. Then, as Herschel Walker’s Senate prospects actually improved in the wake of revelations he had coerced a woman into having an abortion that he apparently paid for, it hit me. Republicans don’t support such candidates despite such behavior, they support them because of such behavior. If something drives liberals crazy, then conservatives are all in - and nothing drives liberals crazier than dog whistles, unfounded conspiracy theories, misogyny, sexual assault or hypocrisy. It’s a new twist on the adage that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, except that it’s now the behavior that causes my enemy pain brings me joy. But as mom used to say, it’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye. Or takes a hammer to the skull.
Before anyone heads down the whataboutism path - what about the softball shooter who hit Steve Scalise or the plot against Brett Kavanaugh - let’s point out that no one on the left sought to dismiss the seriousness of these event, let alone revel in them. Only one side revels in anything that pains the other side, and that's the GOP.
January 9, 2024
A couple of interesting stats that probably go a long way in explaining why Americans haven't felt good about the economy in a long time. Since 1970, per capita healthcare spending has gone from $353 ($2,866 in constant 2022 dollars) to $13,493, while per capita GDP has gone from $5,234 ($42,500 in constant 2022 dollars) to $76,399, driving healthcare costs from 6.7% of GDP to 17.7% of GDP.
Now, while I love numbers, I hate narratives that are filled with them, but it's hard to avoid them here. Bottom line, whereas about 1 in 15 dollars went to healthcare in 1970, today it's more than 1 in six. Or to look at it another way, for every three dollars in growth, one third of it went to healthcare.
GDP data: https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/gdp-gross-domestic-product
December 28, 2023
We are a nation of immigrants, born of rebellion - and what better way to honor our legacy of revolution than to continually refresh our energy than to renew the blood of our people with those possessing the same energy and fearlessness that brought our ancestors to these shores.
December 2023
Well, what did I tell you. It makes me question Donny Duetsch's validity as a reader of markets or human psychology. From the official Donald Trump store - his mug shot even made wrapping paper.
December 20, 2023
Donald Trump says that immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country." I'm sorry, but Donald Trump is poisoning the heart of our country. We can try to dismiss it, as Lindsey Graham has tried, as "just talk," but that is how folks justified support for Hitler in the 1930's. The talk could be overlooked because of the "good things" he was doing. The problem is, you can't separate the wheat from the chaff and eventually no amount of "good" can justify ignoring what should never be ignored.
December 16, 2023
What does a pickup-loving, gun-soaked, alpha male society look like? This. Sprinkle in American, Gadsden and Trump flags and you've got a MAGA wet dream.
December 9, 2023
I believe it is only a matter of time before high school football as we know it becomes a thing of the past. With revelations that children who never played beyond high school developing CTE, it is only a matter of time until lawsuits against schools and coaches make liability insurance unaffordable and passing those costs on to local taxpayers untenable.
Footnote: I remember thinking that footballs days were numbered when I first saw the movie Running Man in the late 1980's. I had no idea that CTE might be its downfall, but I thought then that it would follow boxing's path - a brutal sport seen as a way for impoverished youth to escape bleak futures by providing vicarious entertainment for dwindling masses. We may not lose our appetite for football, and its financial clout may overwhelm the medical and human cost of playing it, but that says more about us than it does the sport. And I will confess to being as guilty as anyone.
November 21, 2023
Ever notice that those gun rights advocates who believe thoughts and prayers can protect our children don't trust thoughts and prayers to protect their gun rights?
November 17, 2023
Following on the November 13 post below, we are witnessing the "frog in a warming pot" normalization of the unthinkable. As mentioned, tyrants behind atrocities never arrive fully formed - not Lenin, not Mao, not Hitler. Yes, they all made clear their hatred of the "other," whether the intelligentsia, the cultural elite or the Jews, but the manifestation of that hatred in the form of gulags, cultural revolutions and the final solution only appeared once each was fully in power. Trump is not there. Yet. But he's made clear his hatred of the other going all the way back to the Central Park Five. He made it clear when he played the "us vs. them card in his original announcement speech, saying Mexico isn't "sending you," instead suggesting portraying migrants as rapists and drug dealers. He made it clear with his proposed ban on travel from Muslim countries, followed by his bemoaning that we must accept people from shithole countries, rather than places like Norway. But as happened in the past, he is now warning us of the manifestation of that hatred as he promises retribution. And as has also always happened in the past, it is certain that he'll seek to impose that retribution on more than those "others" he used to seduce the unwary to his side.
November 13, 2023
Authoritarianism and tyrants never arrive with full support. Instead they begin in hidden crevices, with tiny followings and ideas that turn off the majority. The reasonable center waits for the sure-to-come moment when supporters see the tyrant for who he (never a she?) really is, but that moment never comes. Instead, what was yesterday's outrage becomes today's norm, until one day those in the reasonable center either fall for the seductive lure of being part of the "inside," are cowed (or beaten) into silence or become part of the vermin that must be vanquished, however that is to be achieved.
November 2, 2023
Venture capitalist and Netscape founder Marc Andreesen recently posted a manifesto on his blog arguing that people like him should be given free reign to build as they want without the restraint of oversight. In other words, capitalism on steroids. In his free market religious fervor, he betrays the same shortcoming suffered by Marxists - a failure to understand human nature. Just as Marxists believe that people will perform to the best of their ability without incentive, Andreesen and his ilk believe people will behave their best without restraints. Both are dangerously misguided. The truth is that self interest, which is at the heart of human nature, encourages us to minimize our effort for desired returns. This would include both slacking off on the factory floor if it means I get the same as the guy who works his butt off, and cutting corners on safety, pay, workers rights, the environment or paying taxes if given the chance to do so. Lack of incentives ensures the former, lack of regulation ensures the latter. Yes, there will always be exceptions, but lack of incentive and regulation empowers the lazy and the corrupt. A healthy society requires a healthy balance.
October 24, 2023
The U.S. Constitution was designed to allow a minority to thwart the desire of the majority specifically to protect the enslavement of others, to ensure the dominion of an amoral few over a moral majority and a helpless many. That, quite likely, will turn out to be its fatal flaw.
August 23, 2023
I have to disagree with Donnie Duetsch, who said today that Donald Trump would be forever haunted by the mug shot to be taken tomorrow in Fulton County, GA. I think it is quite possible that the former president will use it to promote his martyrdom. We shall see.
August 9, 2023
The events involving the Weaver family at Ruby Ridge, the Branch Davidians in Waco and Cliven Bundy in Nevada may foretell what the aftermath of a Donald Trump conviction in any of the cases against him might look like. In each of the aforementioned cases, government opposition to adversaries deemed by supporters to be righteous foes of an overbearing government fueled further anti-government fervor that seems to be self-perpetuating as such anti-government forces seek out grievances to further fuel their anger. A conviction of Donald Trump may become the most explosive of such confrontations, seen as proof positive that the government is out of control. If there are violent outbursts that provoke a like response from law enforcement, we may see a tipping point. Just look at the martyrdom of January 6th rioter Ashli Babbitt. Now imagine a slew of Trump supporters gunned down by government forces. Fuel, meet fire.
August 8, 2023
In their zeal to own said libs, conservatives do things to gleefully irritate their opposition. Thus we have the odd sight of conservatives attacking things like the FBI (out of control), the Pentagon (too woke), elections (corrupt), the Constitution (calls for convention of states, termination), the media (fake news), Disney (way too woke) and Bud Light (beyond woke). The irony is that the side claiming the other side "hates our country" seems to hate a lot of what makes our country our country.
[Note: And now, on September 6, 2024, we have conservatives suggesting Hitler may have gotten a bad rap. How far will these folks go in trying to irritate their opposition (or do they really believe this)?]
August 1, 2023
Ronald Reagan introduced the idea of supply-side economics, arguing that increased capital availability would lead to greater production, thus driving growth in the economy and tax revenues. An argument could also be made that labor is just as important as capital in driving economic growth. In fact, a shortage of either is likely to restrain growth, yet labor shortages are likely to lead to inflation as Supply is constrained and wages grow. Conversely, excess capital can also result in inflation. Therefore, increasing the labor pool may be our best hope at growing the economy, increasing output (supply) and thus reducing inflation. And the fastest source of labor supply is to increase immigration.
July 22, 2023
It is easier to quell dissent than it is to quell corruption because the payoff for dissent is far more intangible and less immediate than it is for corruption. Thus the incentive to dissent is more easily quashed than is the incentive to be corrupt. This works to the advantage of the corrupt because corruption has a freer rein absent dissent.
June 16, 2023
We are in perilous times. The indictment of Donald Trump on federal charges of violating the Espionage Act has led to the wholly expected reflexive defense of his actions by member of the GOP - or deflection by comparing them to Hillary Clinton's emails or Mike Pence's or Joe Biden's possession of classified material. Many of these folks know that Donald Trump was not just wrong in taking and retaining them, but dangerously wrong in how he handled and shared them. And yet they defend him, not out of fear of Trump, but of his base. As Hannah Arendt noted in "The Origins of Totalitarianism," it is not unusual to see men stand up to the king, but it is rare for them to stand up to the mob. That is what we are witnessing here, made all the more troublesome because in forgoing the opportunity to stand up for what's right, they both normalize what is wrong and miss the opportunity to teach the next generation of voters and leaders what real patriotism looks like. And just like other skills and traditions lost to the ages, once it's gone it will likely be gone for good, to the detriment of our nation and our global standing.
May 6, 2023
Simon Sinek once spoke on how the Navy Seals evaluate members using performance and trust scales, with high trust being more important than high performance. The video below is a worthwhile two and a half minute watch on how this has made Seal Team Six the highest performing unit on the planet, bar none. Bottom line, they weed out what Sinek refers to as the a**holes. One way they do that is via self-policing and holding each other accountable in order to maintain the integrity of the unit.
One such example involved Eddie Gallagher, who killed a teenage prisoner with a hunting knife, then posed with the body and subsequently held a bizarre "re-enlistment ceremony" over the body, forcing team members to pose with the corpse. He had previously killed a schoolgirl and elderly man from a sniper's nest, leading a fellow team member to tell investigators that "the guy is freaking evil." The U.S. eventually found him guilty of war crimes and removed him from active duty.
Donald Trump not only pardoned Gallagher, but lauded him as a great warrior, before inviting him to join him on the campaign trail. Another clear example that Donald Trump has no idea what makes America great (I'm reminded of the Oscar Wilde quote that a fool is one who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing).
May 2, 2023
I had the opportunity to visit Normandy this year. Of all the sites we visited, none was more moving than the American cemetery off Omaha Beach. And nothing spoke more about American ideals and the morality of our cause than this inscription at the entry to the cemetery:
 |
| Inscription at Normandy American Cemetery |
"If ever proof were needed that we fought for a cause and not for conquest it could be found in these cemeteries. Here was our only conquest, all we asked... was enough soil in which to bury our gallant dead." - General Mark W. Clark, inscribed at Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France
Unfortunately, today there is this:
Donald Trump: "We should have taken the oil."
October 18, 2022
Michelle Goldberg writes in today's NY Times that Mike Collins, a Georgia Republican who has promised to be a “great teammate” for Greene, has a campaign video in which he shoots a gun at what looks like a garbage can full of explosives marked “Voting Machine.”
Let me be perfectly clear - one who views guns as political tools and voting machines as electoral evils is neither a believer in democracy (or representative government, to satisfy the "republic, not a democracy" crowd), nor American principles. We are on a very dark path and I fear it will not end well. We have so twisted the idea of patriotism and what constitute American ideals that I fear we may never find them again.
August 30, 2022
The requirement to sign an NDA to retain severance pay is just one example of the need to rebalance the relationship between employer and employee in favor of the latter. From binding arbitration to requiring everyone from coders to plumbers to sign non-compete agreements in order to get a job, the pendulum has swung too far in employers' favor.
August 24, 2022
There's an old cliche that says just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you. A corollary to that, apropos of a certain ex-president is that just because they are out to get you doesn't mean you're not guilty.
June 25, 2022
I fear the U.S..is becoming the next Middle East - an overly-armed region of disaffected young men with a warped, militaristic theocracy at its center.
June 25, 2022
Some are saying the overturning of Roe v Wade is the first time the Supreme Court has taken away a right it had previously found in the Constitution. I would argue otherwise. The Court once found a right to discriminate via the separate but equal finding in Plessy v Ferguson, then found that right unconstitutional in Brown v. The Board of Education. Yes, one can argue that the Court did not rule affirmatively in support of discrimination, instead finding that separate but equal was not a violation of individual rights, but that is a matter more of semantics than reality.
May 3, 2022
Abortion threatens to be to the 21st century what slavery was to the 19th - the wedge issue that drives a wedge through the heart of America.
April 26, 2022
The text message below from a sitting member of Congress suggesting martial law to overturn an election result upheld in numerous courts of law (which is how the rule of law works) should on its own be enough to drive her from office. There was a time when it would have. That it is not is evidence of how close to the precipice we are. I will add one more sign of the tipping point - when members of the conservative mainstream no longer decry the actions of Timothy McVeigh, but begin to rationalize his terrorist attack without political repercussion, we can take it as the likely point of no return.
“In our private chat with only Members, several are saying the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call for Marshall law." - Marjorie Taylor-Green (R-GA)
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