The Month That Was - March 2019

Sydney M. Williams

swtotd.blogspot.com

The Month That Was – March 2019

March 31, 2019

“March is the month God created to show people who don’t drink what a hangover is like.”

                                                                                                            Garrison Keillor (1942-)

                                                                                                            Wobegon Boy1997

March is when we move from winter to spring. We had days with temperatures in the single digits and others when the thermometer approached seventy. Mark Twain once wrote about spring, “I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours.” Perhaps we weren’t that extreme, though it did snow here in southeastern Connecticut on the third full day of spring. And there were days when Robins must have thought they came north too early. March is when the clocks advance by an hour – an anachronism from a time when family farms were ubiquitous, and more daylight hours were important. In 1920, 27% of the U.S. population lived on farms. Today, 2% do. So, why do we still change our clocks?

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The month blossomed with news, if not with flora. A terrorist attack on two mosques in New Zealand; the release of the long-anticipated Mueller report; the fatal crash of a Boeing 737 Max 8 in Ethiopia; the fifteenth (or was it the sixteenth?) announced candidacy for the Democrat nomination for President; Brexit; a college admissions scandal that rocked Hollywood, Wall Street, law firms and some of our top universities; Nicolás Maduro gained traction in Venezuela, with help from China and especially Russia, while Juan Guaidó’s wife Fabiana Rosales visited the White House; President Trump acknowledged the reality of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and he issued his first veto (sustained) over Wall funding; the ISIS Caliphate in Syria was defeated; China enlisted a deeply indebted Italy into its Belt and Road Initiative; friends in high places, and hatred for Trump convinced the Cook County State’s Attorney to drop charges against Jussie Smollett for a feigned racial attack.

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Three events during the month said much about modern American culture – none of it positive, which should give us pause. The first was the revelation uncovered in the college admissions scandal, a scandal that said a lot about the values of so-called elites – how they lied and cheated to get their children into top colleges. Many of the accused are the same who are contemptuous toward ‘deplorables,’ their attitudes toward guns, God, immigrants and transgenders. The second was the reaction of many Democrats and much of the media to the Mueller report, which exonerated President Trump and his campaign team from any Russian collusion – their refusal to admit they had been wrong. The third was the Jussie Smollett affair, which saw a perpetrator rewarded for lying and evading personal responsibility.

While the William “Rick” Singer college admissions scandal will likely fade from the front pages, it should not; for it says a lot about us as a society and, should, therefore, continue to command our attention, especially the sense of entitlement displayed by elites. Universities fired culpable coaches; but did nothing to excuse the acceptance of a squash court for an otherwise unqualified candidate; they have never clarified why diversity of appearance (ethnicity) is more important than diversity of ideas. Colleges have taken advantage of a societal and government-induced demand, where society says college is for everyone, no matter the interest, the cost and no matter how little is learned. Government has guaranteed student loans, which give universities the ability to raise prices at double the rate of inflation. The consequence is that half of all students fail to graduate within six years yet are saddled with debt – an amount, collectively, approaching $1.5 trillion. In a collection of his sermons Strength to Love(1963), Martin Luther King wrote “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” The most elite of our universities would be better off instructing the basics, teaching wisdom and debating ideas, rather than protecting students from “hateful” speech and fostering victimhood. As Yuval Levin wrote during the month in National Review, no society is without elites. Ours now come from merit, but when rules get broken, society breaks down. Personal responsibility, not entitlement, should come with success, just as restraint, not pride, should come with victory. An honest university would forego some federal funding in exchange for more independence and would worry less about rankings in the annual “U.S. News and World Report” and more about creating an educated graduate.

For two years, Democrats in Washington told the American public that Mr. Trump colluded with Russians to win the 2016 Presidential election. House Intelligence Committee leader Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) repeatedly said they had “proof” that Mr. Trump colluded with Mr. Putin. So, where is it? Former CIA Director John Brennan called Mr. Trump’s actions “treasonous.” Will Mr. Brennan be held accountable for his comments? James Clapper said that Watergate “pales” beside the Trump-Russia allegations. Has he apologized? Congress still feels the need to for their own investigation, as though Mueller’s team had been sitting on their hands for the past two years. Mr. Mueller completed his work with the help of nineteen lawyers, forty FBI agents and 500 witnesses. He issued 2800 subpoenas, 500 search warrants and spent thirty million tax dollars. Does Congress need to do more? Where is the acknowledgment from the media and Democrats that they were wrong in their wilful accusations? 

Robert Mueller’s two-year investigation brought 34 indictments, but none for collusion with Russians, which was his mandate. The report suggested no more indictments. Any possible claims that Mr. Trump or his team obstructed justice was left to Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, both of whom said there were no charges worth pursuing. The truth is that the media, Democrats and some Republicans just don’t like Mr. Trump. After all, they are denizens of the swamp he promised to drain. They especially don’t like his character, and, certainly, he is no paragon of virtue. But, is he any worse than Hillary Clinton, his opponent in 2016? She lied about Benghazi, sold 20% of our uranium holdings to the Russians in exchange for a $145 million donation to the Clinton Foundation and hired opposition research firm Fusion GPS to find incriminating evidence against Mr. Trump, which, unverified, was accepted by FBI Director James Comey. Is Mr. Trump’s character worse than Mr. Comey’s, John Brennan’s, James Clapper’s, Andrew McCabe’s, Peter Strzok’s or Lisa Page’s? Is it worse than that of Eric Swalwell (D-CA) who repeated his claim this week that President Trump is an agent of the Russian government? To support his claim, Mr. Swalwell used false data about sanctions, Syria and NATO. Is Mr. Trump’s character worse than that of Jussie Smollett, the darling of the #HateTrumpMovement, who has yet to accept responsibility for the perfidious trick he pulled? Is it more flawed than those in the media who never investigated the alleged Obama-Clinton collusion with the Justice Department and FBI, those who reported what they wanted to believe? As one report put it: “Pursuing legal challenges against Mr. Trump has become something of a sport among Democratic attorneys general over the past two years…” Democrats have seemingly borrowed the playbook of Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

Joseph Magats, Cook County prosecutor, dropped sixteen felony charges against Jussie Smollett who was arrested for faking a racially motivated ‘hate’ attack. Both Chicago’s Police Department Superintendent Eddie Johnson and Mayor Rahm Emanuel were disgusted with the outcome, the latter calling it a “whitewash of justice.” The dropping of the case was not due to lack of proof or of innocence. It was attributed to a text message sent from Tina Tchen, once Michelle Obama’s chief of staff, to Kim Foxx, Cook County State’s Attorney. Ms. Tchen is a friend of the Smollett family, so used her influence.

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Elsewhere, President Trump’s issued an executive order denying federal funds to colleges that suppress student free-speech rights – an understandable wish, but one that makes the Executive the determinant of acceptable speech, which I find unacceptable. The month saw four more candidates throw their hats into an already-crowded 2020 Presidential ring – Robert “Beto” O’Rourke, 46, former House member from Texas; Bernie Sanders, 77, Senator from Vermont; Jay Inslee, 68, Governor of Washington, and John Hickenlooper, 67, former Governor of Colorado. They join eleven already-announced candidates. The list is expected to grow. Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses will be held February 3, 2020, and the first-in-the-nation primary is tentatively scheduled for February 11, 2020 in New Hampshire. The Democratic National Committee chose Milwaukee for their July 13-16, 2020 Convention. Ronald Sullivan Jr., a black Harvard Law school professor and dean of Winthrop House (an undergraduate residential dorm) was protested by Winthrop House residents who said they no longer “felt safe” with him in charge. The reason: Professor Sullivan agreed to join the Harvey Weinstein criminal-defense team. As Heather MacDonald wrote in a Wall Street Journalop-ed, student agitation could have been an opportunity for a lesson in the values of Western democracy…”that a lawyer who defends someone accused of a crime doesn’t thereby condone [the] crime…he is upholding the principles that all defendants, even guilty ones, have a right to legal representation and that the state may criminally punish someone only after proving his guilt in a rigorously contested adversarial process. History shows that without such a requirement, state power slides toward tyranny.” Harvard administrators took the easy and politically-correct way out, siding with students, whose ignorance was palpable. Thus, they worsened the divide and ignored the fact we are a nation of laws.    

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Horrific shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand dominated international news. A certified nut case, claiming roots in white supremacism, murdered fifty-one Muslims as they gathered for Friday morning prayers. While the attacks were despicable (and made more so as they were filmed and put on social media), perspective is needed. During the first two weeks of March – and virtually unreported by mainstream media – two hundred and fifty men, women and children were killed in fifty-five attacks in a dozen countries on five continents. All killed by Islamic extremists. Among the dead were 120 Christians in Nigeria, slaughtered by Boko Haram. To a parent, spouse, sibling or child, every person’s death is a tragedy. Not the color of the skin, the race or the religion of the victim makes any difference to loved ones left behind. It is death that is final. In Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, John Donne wrote: “Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind…”  And what was true for Donne four hundred years ago is true for all that value human life today. An Ethiopia Airlines jet, a Boeing 737 Max 8, went down shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa, killing all 157 aboard. As this was the second crash of this plane in six months. all 737 Max 8 and 9 planes were subsequently grounded. While such tragedies are sobering, we should keep in mind that over 100,000 flights take off around the world every day.

Britain staggered toward the exit. On the 12^th, Parliament voted to reject Theresa May’s second negotiated proposal. The next day, Parliament voted not to leave the EU without a deal, and on the 14^th, they voted to ask the EU for an extension to the Brexit process.  The latter was granted…conditionally. If Mrs. May’s new proposal (the third) would be acceptable to Parliament, departure will be delayed until May 22^nd. If not, Brexit will occur on April 12^th. On the 29^th, the day Britain was supposed to leave the European Union, Parliament voted to reject Mrs. May’s third proposal, so April 12^thnow seems to be the date. But there will be at least one more attempt. However, a “no-deal” Brexit has become more likely and Mrs. May’s days appear numbered. It is a shame, and consequences are unknown. What should have been a clean and respected divorce has become a Marx Brothers farce, except no one is laughing. Theresa May has not represented her constituents well and European leaders have become bureaucratic grandees. Emmanuel Macron struts around like a Bantam rooster, while Angela Merkel is but a shadow of the leader she had been before letting in a million migrants in 2015. The concept of an economically and militarily united Europe is a good thing. But too much centralized control and an abandonment of voters’ wishes, threaten to destroy what had been achieved. Already, we have seen a backlash from Eastern Europe, nations that know better than those in the West what it is like to live under authoritarianism.

Germany passed a budget that limits defense spending to no more than 1.25% of GDP. She did this, inexplicably, as Russia and China have become stronger and NATO has become weaker. U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell criticized the decision: “NATO members clearly pledged to move toward, not away, from 2% by 2024,” an accurate observation which upset German officials. That European unity is crumbling could be seen as Italy signed onto China’s Belt and Road infrastructure project, becoming the first member of the Group of Seven to do so. She joins other European nations like Greece, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Poland, Hungary and Portugal. As the New York Timesput it, “There is growing concern …that China has arrived in Europe not as an economic collaborator, but as a conqueror…” It should be a reminder that the world never sits still – not in terms of its climate and not in terms of its geo-politics. Everything is always in flux. U.S. backed fighters, along with the Kurdish-led SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) declared military victory over ISIS in Syria, with the destruction of the village of Al-Baghuz Fawqani. That ended a four-year battle against ISIS. However, its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi remains at large. ISIS is an outgrowth of al Qaeda. Like the mythological Hydra’s heads, expect new groups to form. Nevertheless, four years ago their caliphate in Syria-Iraq was home to eight million people; now it is gone. But, like the Phoenix, it is not dead. 

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Markets were relatively calm during the month (the VIX, a measure of volatility, declined 46% in the first quarter), at least until March 22 when the yield curve inverted, with Three-month Treasury Bills yielding 2.48% versus the 10-Year Bond at 2.44 percent. That day the DJIA dropped 1.8%, the first time since February 15^ththat the DJIA closed up or down more than 1.5 percent. (By the end of the month, stocks had recovered that loss.) If extended, an inverted yield curve can be a predictor of economic recession. But as one wag suggested an inverted yield curve has anticipated twelve of the last five recessions. Adding to concerns, new job growth of 20,000 was below expectations and the lowest since fall of 2017. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, in a speech on March 21, said the Fed had finished tightening, at least for the time being.

As to whether this marks the start of recession and the end of the ten-year bull market is not for me to say. My crystal ball is cloud-filled, wrapped in gauze and hidden beneath two feet of dirt. Nevertheless, I don’t sense the ebullience usually associated with the final days of a bull market. The legendary investor John Templeton once said: “Bull markets are born on pessimism, grow on skepticism, mature on optimism and die on euphoria.” However, one cannot ignore our national debt whose size is masked by very-low interest rates. One cannot ignore the substantial increase in student loan debt, which hinders young adults as they make their way into the job market. Nor can one ignore the long-term implications of declining births, as measured by total fertility rates. Europe, China, Japan and the U.S. are all experiencing births below replacement levels. (Sub-Sahara Africa and parts of the Middle East are the only places in the world where births are consistently above replacement levels.) Unchecked, the consequences will be aging populations and falling economic growth.

Stocks were essentially flat during the month. Bond prices and gold rose slightly. Crude oil was up 5% and Bitcoins rose 7.5%. Levi Strauss returned to the public market after a 34-year absence and Lyft went public. The former was valued around $8 billion on about $500 million in operating income. The latter was valued at about $24 billion (and rose to $30 billion on its first day of trading), on a loss in 2018 of $911.3 million. 

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For over two hundred and twenty years winning the Presidency has required winning the Electoral College. Some Democrats, like Elizabeth Warren, would like to change that, as Electoral College victory does not always equate to popular vote victory. In 2016, neither candidate won a majority of the popular vote. Hillary Clinton won a plurality (48.2%) to Donald Trump’s 46.1%. However, in the Electoral College Mr. Trump won 304 votes to Mrs. Clinton’s 237 votes. She was the fifth Presidential candidate to win the popular vote but lose the election, the last being Al Gore in 2000. In only one instance, the election of 1876, did the losing candidate actually win a majority of the popular vote. Now Democrats have put forth a National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, an agreement between states that says no matter which candidate wins a state, once votes nation-wide are tallied all its electoral votes would go to the candidate who won a plurality of the nation-wide popular vote. The Compact, which disregards the wishes of a state’s voters, would go into effect once enough states join that total 270 Electoral votes. The movement emerged in 2006. This past month Colorado, with nine Electoral votes, became the 13^thstate to join the Compact. Democrats are in the forefront of this movement to surreptitiously bypass the Constitution, with states like New York, California, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland and Washington having joined, while Texas, Florida, Ohio, Illinois and Virginia have not. The Compact, should it reach 270 Electoral votes will surely be challenged in courts. Our bicameral legislature, in which the people are represented by members of the House of Representatives and the states with Senators, has served the Country well for over two centuries. For one thing, abandonment would encourage minority candidates, suggesting the President could be one with just a third of the popular vote. The Electoral College is integral to our election process. It should not be abandoned. 

President Trump vetoed a Congressional effort to kill his emergency border funding bill. His veto was upheld. Gambino boss Francesco “Franky Boy” Cali was shot outside his Staten Island home. An “associate” arrived with a suitcase containing $45,000 to pay for the funeral. Presidential hopeful “Beto” O’Rourke admitted to having been a member of a computing hacking group – the Cult of the Dead Cow – while in Congress. This was before he had a video of his dental work placed on his Instagram account! Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) cited American Jews as being more loyal to Israel than to the U.S., saying they were driven by “Benjamins” – $100 bills. Her anti-Semitism received no reprimand from Democrat Congressional leadership. Instead, in another example of a perpetrator claiming victimhood, the House` passed a resolution condemning all hate speech, specifically including Islamophobia. In a case of sad news following dreadful news, two students from Parkland school in Florida committed suicide. The cause, we are told, was “survivor’s guilt.” And, so did the father of a young girl killed in the Newtown, Connecticut school shooting.

A tornado ripped through southeast Alabama killing at least twenty-three. Floods in Nebraska killed three and caused an estimated $3.0 billion in crop and livestock losses. At an event in New Hampshire, Presidential wannabe Mayor Bill De Blasio brought out all of six people to his “town Hall,” apart from members of his advance team. Baseball’s opening day was March 28. The Yankees won. The Red Sox lost. A debate has been joined as to whether the census should ask about citizenship – the objective being should non-citizens be counted in terms of Congressional seats? Michael Avenatti, a Democrat favorite when he represented “Stormy” Daniels in her suit against President Trump and when he claimed Brett Kavanaugh had run a gang-rape ring when in high school (termed “serious and credible” by Trump haters), was arrested for attempting to shake down Nike for $20 million. Connecticut’s new Democrat Governor Ned Lamont and the state’s all-Democrat Legislature proposed a number of new taxes: a one-mill statewide property tax; the establishment of a statewide automobile tax of between fifteen and nineteen mills; eighty-two electronic tolls on Connecticut highways; the permitting of a third casino to allow collection of a percent of slot machine takes; a tax on sugary drinks and electronic cigarettes; the taxing of services, like haircuts, dry cleaning, legal, boat repair and accounting, all at the same rate as goods; a ten cent tax on plastic bags at grocery stores, and the permitting of recreational marijuana. The State is even considering a bill that would impose a $15.00 fee on the purchase of a dog or cat from an animal shelter. Keep in mind, these taxes are regressive, as their impact falls most heavily on low and middle-income people. Like so many Democrat-controlled states, Connecticut is in financial distress. Reducing spending is never an alternative. Increasing taxes are the only answers they know.

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In other news overseas, Cyclone Idai left almost seven hundred dead, with an estimated three million people affected, principally in Mozambique but also in Zimbabwe and Malawi. Pro-democracy parties in Thailand may have won enough seats to form a majority government to replace the military junta that has been ruling the country since 2014. A cruise ship, the Viking Sky, lost one engine and began listing after leaving Tromso on Norway’s northwestern coast. Half the passengers were airlifted off the ship; the rest stayed aboard, as the ship was towed into port. Justin Trudeau, Canada’s Prime Minister, became embroiled in a scandal, as he allegedly interfered in a corruption case involving one of Canada’s biggest companies, SNC-Lavalin, a Montreal-based engineering company. President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, deemed “Brazil’s Trump” by the Financial Times, visited the White House in hopes of establishing closer relations with the U.S. This is an important step in countering an aggressive China that has already established Belt and Road Initiatives with Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia, along with a dozen smaller countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The U.S. State Department estimated that between eight-hundred thousand and two million Muslims have been forced into “internment camps” in Communist China where they are “re-educated” “to erase religious and ethnic identities.” A European Medial Literacy Week took place in various European cities March 18-22, to develop “critical thinking by the user” and to help “counter the effects of disinformation campaigns and fake news spreading through digital media.” As to who defines what is fake and what is appropriate was not identified, but there is no question that this is “Big Brother” imposing his will on the people. A South African photographer, Rainer Schimpf, while scuba diving off the coast of Port Elizabeth, was swallowed by a whale, and a few moments later spat out.

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Death struck. Charles McCarry, one of my favorite spy novelists, died at 88. Dan Jenkins, Sports Illustrated writer and author of Semi-Tough, died at 90. W.S. Merwin, Poet Laureate of the U.S. 2010-2011 and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, died at 91. And Julia Ruth Stevens, daughter of Babe Ruth, died at 102.

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A culture of divisiveness, driven by identity politics and political correctness, defines our Country. One had hoped the Mueller report would have had an ameliorating effect – that people would have been pleased that, while we knew there was Russian interference in our elections, at least no candidate had colluded with the enemy. But that was too much to hope for. Lines had been drawn and Trump derangement Syndrome persists. We should be careful, lest we think this divisiveness the fault of one man. It is not. Nor did this division originate in 2016. Its recent roots go back to the 2000 election. Personal animosity is a symptom of a society where the desire for power supersedes concepts of decency, responsibility and accountability. Unfortunately, it will not end soon or easily. As individuals, the best we can do is ensure that the culture in schools prioritizes learning and behavior. If our generation cannot (or will not) provide solutions, we should ensure that future generations understand that a free nation’s success depends upon civility, education, rule of law and a strong military. Unfortunately, these are not concepts being taught.

Welcome to April!

The Month That Was - February 2019

Sydney M. Williams

swtotd.blogspot.com

The Month That Was – February 2019

March 1, 2019

“There is always in February some one day, at least,

when one smells the yet distant, but surely coming, summer.”

                                                                                                Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932)

                                                                                                British horticulturist

Despite the harmonious influence of Valentine’s Day, hate filled the days of February, as they have for the two years of Mr. Trump’s Presidency. “Fear of something is at the root of hate for others, and hate will eventually destroy the hater,” wrote George Washington Carver, a thought we should all consider. President Trump is the focus of hate among smug elites whose sense of superior self-righteousness governs their behavior. Mr. Trump embodies all that coastal elites love to hate: He is white and male. He is not politically correct. He is coarse. His accent does not conform to an ivy league education. His words come out jumbled, even when using a teleprompter. In speech, he is in sharp contrast to the mellifluous tones of his predecessor. His orange hair, blue suits and red “power” ties compare poorly to the easy casualness of Mr. Obama. Not trained in politics nor encumbered with graciousness, Mr. Trump says what’s on his mind. He does not hide behind a veil of diplomacy or hew to pre-programmed messaging. All this is in contrast to politicians who say what is expected and who live in a world where style supersedes substance.

It was a month that offered clear distinctions for what voters might expect in November 2020. Mr. Trump is portrayed as being of the far-right, whereas his policies have been centrist: the economy is doing well, no wars have broken out overseas and his poll numbers have risen, though modestly. On the other side, Democrats have moved sharply to the left, with even former centrists like Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Cory Booker, following, pied-piper like, the siren call of socialism expressed by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, with her Green New Deal, and by Bernie Sanders, with his call for free public college and Medicare for all. And both, for their demagoguery of everything Trump. One is reminded of C.S. Lewis, whose posthumously published book God in the Dock: Essays on Theology included the lines: “Of all the tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive…those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” Think of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Mao.

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It is C.S. Lewis’ quote that leads me to believe that the most significant news in the month was not the silly Green New Deal; it was not the passing of the budget and the avoidance of another government shut-down, nor the subsequent exercise of emergency powers to fund a barricade along the U.S.-Mexico border; it was not progress on the China-U.S. trade deal, nor the sit-down in Hanoi between President Trump and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. It was not the withdrawal by the U.S. from the Nuclear Missile Treaty that Russia had already violated; nor was it the childish, ill-tempered behavior of the EU’s leadership towards Britain’s democratically-determined decision to leave the EU. It was not rising tensions in Kashmir. No. The most important news item of the month was the revelation that a small cabal of unelected senior law enforcement officials in Washington plotted to take the law into their own hands, to plan the removal of a duly elected President of the United States – a traitorous and unprecedented action.

Disclosure of the meetings came when Andrew McCabe, former (and fired) Deputy Director of the FBI appeared on 60 Minutes to talk up his new book. He spoke of gatherings in May 2017, following the firing of FBI Director James Comey, where he and a few others considered using the 25^th Amendment to remove Mr. Trump. They decided the President was impaired and thus unable to perform his duties, so subject to the 25^th Amendment. According to Mr. McCabe, discussions were held “in the context of thinking of how many other Cabinet officials might support such an effort.” Current FBI Director Rod Rosenstein offered to “wear a wire” when meeting with Mr. Trump. Keep in mind, Mr. Trump had not fallen ill. He was the same man who had been democratically elected six months earlier. The meetings reflected an outrageous violation of the democratic processes that have governed this nation for over two hundred years. We settle our political differences through elections, not coups.

McCabe claimed to have informed House and Senate leadership as to what he had done. That has not been confirmed. But if he did and they did nothing, they are equally complicit. Mr. Trump is not incapacitated; though he is reviled by some. He is frank, abrupt, crude and often inchoate in speech. It is not form that concerns him, but results. His politics differ from the landed bureaucracy in Washington whose personal advancements depend on an ever-expanding federal government. He had promised, during his 2016 campaign, to “drain the Swamp,” and, of course, all these people are denizens of that quagmire. The reaction by mainstream media has been disheartening, as they have abetted what seems to me to have been the traitorous action of Mr. McCabe and those who plotted with him. Media and political elites persist in their story that Mr. Trump is an illegitimate President. That Mr. Trump may be the victim of a disillusioned faction would contradict the narrative the Left has promoted and exploited since Mr. Trump defeated Mrs. Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. Ironically, if you recall, it was the progressive base of the Democrat Party, in the summer and fall of 2016, who warned that Mr. Trump and his supporters would not accept the election’s outcome. Now, it is those supercilious elites who have not accepted the election’s results. This should concern all who believe in freedom, the rule of law, mutual respect and civility.

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The month ended with President Trump meeting with North Korea’s Supreme Leader in Hanoi. There are those who expected the meeting to be reminiscent of Henry Kissinger’s meeting with North Vietnam’s Foreign Minister Le Duc Tho in Paris in 1973. Nobel Peace Awards were offered to both men, but the Peace Accords spelled doom for the South Vietnamese, as two years later they were overrun. This situation is different. Technically we are still at war with North Korea, but the “hot” war ended sixty-six years ago. Nevertheless, there is a concern as to which country would dominate should unification take place. We should not abandon our allies in Seoul, as we did those in Saigon forty-four years ago, nor should we forget our Japanese allies. After all, Tokyo is only 800 miles from Pyongyang. Perhaps President Reagan’s 1986 meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavik is the better analogy, as Mr. Reagan walked out of that meeting, only to see the collapse of the Soviet Union five years later. Time will tell.

Britain’s difficulty in disentangling itself from the EU highlights the problems in Europe. It is more than European Council president arrogantly saying there was a “special place in Hell” for the UK’s leading Euro-skeptics. In their understandable desire to avoid the devastation of the first half of the 20^th Century, Europeans have opted to pursue federalism, at the expense of national interests, customs and traditions, and at a cost of a loss in electoral representation. In atonement for past sins, Germans opened borders irresponsibly. In pursuing equality and providing a generous welfare state, bureaucrats in Brussels have loosened monetary policy, increased debt as a percent of GDP among those countries within the European Monetary Union, left themselves militarily defenseless, and, with increased regulations, abandoned a path toward faster economic growth. As noble as might be their intentions, they have swapped optimism for pessimism – democratic capitalism for social welfare. There has been a disinclination at universities to welcome opposing ideas. (In Berlin last week, I found it impossible to get a copy of the European edition of the Wall Street Journal, while the New York Times was readily available.) There has been a breakdown in the Judeo-Christian ethic, favoring a universal sense of moral relativism. Birthrates are below replacement levels, meaning populations are aging and will be shrinking. Using data from the ECB (European Central Bank), annual GDP growth in the EU was 0.6% between 2009 and 2016, about a third that of the U.S. They blame Mr. Trump for playing tough regarding NATO, yet they face an aroused Russia, an increase in Islamic terrorism and a strengthening (and dangerous) China, while spending less than two percent of GDP on defense. It is, as Walter Russell Mead wrote during the month in the Wall Street Journal, “decline, not the Donald, [that] is haunting Europe today.” Will Theresa May call for a second Brexit vote? Will she be forced to resign? Will Brexit be delayed? We do not know, but neither the Brits nor their European counterparts have served their people, or the cause of liberalism, well.

The Trump Administration altered its plans to pull all troops out of Syria and will leave four hundred. As I wrote last month, the decision to pull troops from Syria does not mean an abandonment of the Middle East. The U.S. will still have about 50,000 troops in a dozen Middle Eastern countries. Muhammadu Buhari was re-elected President of Nigeria, while more than fifty people were killed in incidents related to the election. After three and a half months, popularity for protests in France has begun to wane. The situation in Venezuela, on the other hand, has become worse. Nicolás Maduro clings to power through support from his three amigos: Vladimir Putin, Daniel Ortega and Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba. Tensions between two nuclear powers – India and Pakistan – intensified. A Pakistani suicide bomber in Kashmir killed forty Indian para-military police officers. India took revenge, with military jets striking militant targets in Pakistan – the first attack by India on Pakistani territory in fifty years. Pakistan, the next day, shot down two Indian military jets that had invaded their air space. The U.S. and the Taliban continued their talks in Afghanistan.

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When all the world can see what Socialism has done to the Venezuelan people it is hard to believe that the Democrat Party in the U.S. has tacked so definitively in that direction, but they have. Consider the ten or so candidates that have declared for the Democrat nomination, with all but Amy Klobuchar moving leftward. Seventy-seven-year-old Bernie Sanders has been advised to move even further left. Will he recommend a $20 minimum age, assuring rising unemployment for teenagers? Will he recommend a UK-style national health service, guaranteeing that the very wealthy will get their care in other countries? In his inaugural, John Kennedy spoke to the nation’s youth: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” Today’s Democrats are offering the reverse. Politicians offer no plan as to how to pay for the goods and services they promise, other than to say the rich will be taxed more heavily. It is estimated that Medicare for all would increase the federal budget by over 70%, or three trillion dollars a year. There are not enough rich people, and such policies would assure there would be fewer in the future. Voters are treated like irresponsible children. They are assumed to be economically illiterate, mathematically innumerate and incapable of caring for themselves. Their campaigns imply a disdain for the electorate that is mystifying to anyone raised on the rigors of self-reliance and respect for the nobility of work. The Green New Deal is frightening to anyone who honors individual liberty, as it ensures government will control all aspects of our lives. One of its authors, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez goes so far as to say that climate change (which has been a factor in the world for at least four and a half billion years) is a reason people should have no more children. Is that the sort of ignorant pessimism we want in our leaders?

With tax season coming, the Left has become vocal in their dislike for the section of the tax bill that limits the deductibility of SALT (State and Local Taxes) to $10,000. Democrats in high-taxed states like California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey and Connecticut claim to represent the poor, the afflicted and the disadvantaged, but their call to remove the cap on SALT deductions exposes their pretense, as such write-offs benefit the wealthy and allow states to spend more. New York’s budget, on a per-person basis, is twice that of Florida. Would you say New York is twice as well run as Florida? A government shut-down was avoided, but at the cost of declaring a national emergency for wall funding – an action designed to keep lawyers employed. The hypocrisy is, of course, that all major Democrats have supported tough immigration laws, including barriers, to stop the swell of illegal immigration, drugs and human trafficking – that is, they had done so until it became a promise of Mr. Trump’s to his constituents. The House voted to nullify the President’s emergency declaration (another act of hypocrisy), but not by enough votes to override a veto. Keep in mind, since the National Emergency Act was passed in 1976 fifty-nine emergencies have been declared. President Obama declared twelve during his eight years. This is President Trump’s third.

Mr. Trump began the month with a State of the Union that took Democrats by surprise, as anyone watching could see, as Nancy Pelosi flitted through her copy, trying to grasp all he was saying. His use of props – guests in the audience – and respectful, but disarming, comments to the ladies in white was masterful. His emphasis on the freedom of individuals in America to succeed was optimistic and traditional, especially when his competition, in promoting socialist ideas, is pessimistic by definition, as it implies that people need the benevolent hand of government to just get by.

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Bank mergers were in the news. In the U.S., the proposed deal between BB&T and SunTrustBanks would create the sixth-largest bank in the country. In Germany, the question is will two troubled banks – Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank – yield one good one? It is a concept put forward by government, not markets; thus offering, in my opinion, a less-than-rosy outcome. Amazon cancelled their plans for a second headquarters in Queens, as left-leaning politicians complained about tax incentives offered the company, the likelihood of a rise in apartment rentals and crowded streets and subways. Fourth quarter preliminary GDP numbers were reported at plus 2.6%, slightly better than expected. After declining 64% over the past year, the price of Bitcoin rose 10.4%. The DJIA was up 3.7% for the month – an unsustainable gain – while the yield on the Ten-year held essentially flat.  The curve between the Two-year and the Ten-year widened by three basis points. Treasury markets, and investors in general, appear to be ignoring mounting federal debt, which rose above $22 trillion during the month.

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In other news internationally, Ukraine comedian Volodymyr Zelensky is leading in the polls to unseat President Petro Poroshenko in the March 31 election. Should he succeed, will his humor help him with Mr. Putin? Prince Phillip, after his most recent accident, surrendered his license. Gibraltar, a British overseas territory since 1713, was referred to as a colony by the EU, causing an uproar in London. Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán was convicted on ten counts in a U.S. federal court in Brooklyn and sentenced to life in prison. A Black Panther, the first one seen in a hundred years, was caught on camera in Kenya. The magnetic north pole is shifting east at a rate of 30 miles per year, having accelerated in the past forty years, causing some navigation problems. Octopus was removed from the menu at Somerville College at Oxford, as it is “off-putting to disadvantaged students.” Students at Somerville also voted to ban kosher meats, because the animals are not stunned before being killed, but the College said kosher meats will continue to be available. A land-bridge that once connected Tintagel Castle in Cornwall (birthplace of King Arthur) to the mainland is being re-built. It vanished sometime between the 14^th and 17^th Centuries. A new book refutes fears raised initially by the Club of Rome in the 1970s, and still believed by many, that a population explosion is imminent. Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson, in Empty Planet argue, instead, that the planet faces a global population collapse. Consequences: aging societies, slower economic growth, rising inequality and calamitous government debt. If one looks at recent declines in total fertility rates (TFRs), one is inclined to believe them.

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Here at home, we were witness to a manifestation of the delusional fantasy that permeates Leftist governments and which is contrary to the natural law of economic determinants: California’s Governor Gavin Newsome axed the high-speed rail plan, which has already consumed billions of dollars, as being economically unfeasible, just as Representative Anastasia Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Senator Edward Markey (D-MA) were introducing the Green New Deal, which calls for – among other economically challenging concepts – high-speed rails. President Trump signed a directive to create another branch of the military – a space force. Kelly Knight Craft, currently U.S. Ambassador to Canada was nominated to be the United States’ U.N. Ambassador. Democrats in Virginia got hoisted on a petard of their own making. Governor Ralph Northan, who as the Democrat gubernatorial candidate called out his Republican opponent as a racist, was found to have dressed in black-face while in medical school. His Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, a black man, was accused of sexual misconduct. Third-in-line Attorney General Mark Herring also admitted to having dressed in black face. Fourth-in-line is Speaker of the House of Delegates Kirk Cox, a Republican. What are the odds that all three Democrats will resign? Zero. What are the odds that any one of them will resign? Zero. Moral outrage on the Left lasts only as long as is politically useful. Elizabeth Warren apologized to the Cherokee Nation, saying she was not a person of color and nor a member of a tribe. She did not, however, credit Mr. Trump for setting the record straight. Newly elected Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was rebuked by her own Party for anti-Semitic comments, but she stands by her patron CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations), a group with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and which is characterized as a terrorist organization by the UAE. An Amtrak train, traveling between Seattle and L.A. and carrying 183 passengers, was stranded in Oakridge, Oregon for thirty-six hours because of heavy snow.

Jussie Smollett, a self-centered, prejudiced, disrespectful, gay, black, actor on the TV show “Empire,” and a man who hates Donald Trump, told police he was attacked by two white men wearing red MAGA hats who called him a f***t and a n****r. He said they put a noose around his neck and threw bleach at him.  It turns out the event was staged. It was a hoax. Mr. Smollett had hired two Nigerian brothers to carry out the attack. Mainstream media fell for his story, because they wanted it to be true. Chicago’s black police chief was disgusted with Mr. Smollett for wasting his time and the city’s money. A shooting in Aurora, Illinois by a recently fired employee killed five and wounded seven. Bernie Sanders raised $5.9 million on the day he announced his candidacy, proving once again that fools and their money are easily parted. R&B singer Robert Kelly was charged with three counts of sexual offense, involving teen-age girls. A reporter for CNN, which loves to mock the President for his speech, said about trade talks with China: “We won’t know for certain until we know for certain.” I guess he’s right. The Patriots won the Super Bowl, beating the Rams 13-3. The Padres paid Manny Machado $300 million for ten years, “a can of Red Bull, with a shot of adrenaline,” as Bob Nightengale wrote in USA Today. A gust of wind on Mt. Washington was recorded at 171 mph, pretty high but below the record set in 1934 – 231 mph. Michael Cohen’s testimony in a public hearing to Congress does not merit comment, other than to observe that it was deliberately timed to distract from Mr. Trump’s meeting in Hanoi and that it was a hearing (‘circus’ is a better word) where Democrats, with visions of impeachment dancing in their heads, were seen salivating over lurid details told by a liar – a man none would invite into their homes. And, oh yes, the Academy Awards were held, but who cares?

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Death appeared. Albert Finney, who rose to fame as the title character in the 1963 film “Tom Jones,” died at 82. Frank Robinson, a racial pioneer as the first black manager and the only player to win Most Valuable Award Player in both leagues, died at 83. Bob Friend, a mainstay of the Pirates’ pitching staff, died at 88. Also dying at 88 was Jeffrey Hart, teacher and founder of the conservative student paper, The Dartmouth Review. Composer and conductor André Previn died at 89. John Dingell Junior, the longest serving Congressman in the nation’s history – 59 years – died at 92. He had succeeded his father in Michigan’s 12^th District, John Dingell Senior who was first elected in 1933. Debbie Dingell, wife of John Dingell Junior now represents the same district. All told, they have served in Congress for 86 years, more than a third the life of our nation! George Mendonsa who was memorialized in an August 14, 1945 photo kissing Greta Zimmer in New York’s Time Square, died at 95.

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We should not take lightly the attempt on the part of a small number of senior law officials to overthrow the government. Democracy is messy and results are often not what we, individually, prefer. “All good things are difficult to achieve, and bad things are easy to get,” as Confucius allegedly said. Imperfect as it may be, no form of government yet devised has given so much to so many as has democracy. Our founders were students of classical history and the enlightenment. While they recognized the necessity of government, they were wary of all-powerful, central governments. The Constitution they adopted was designed to withstand challenges, particularly from within. There are those on the Left who want to see the country do away with some of these safety features, like the Electoral College and go to direct elections for President. But they should be careful what they wish for. Like the U.S. Senate, the Electoral College was designed to give weight to less populated regions of the country, but it was also designed to help prevent the rise of demagogic populists.  Direct election of the President would give enormous weight to ten states that comprise half the population of the U.S. and make more possible the rise of a popular authoritarian, supported by mass media.

Enjoy March, the month of lions and lambs!