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.
…………………………………………………………….
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 25th
Amendment to remove Mr. Trump. They decided the President was impaired and thus
unable to perform his duties, so subject to the 25th 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.
……………………………………………………………
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 20th
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.
……………………………………………………………….
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.
……………………………………………………….
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.
………………………………………………………..
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 14th
and 17th 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.
………………………………………………………….
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?
…………………………………………………………
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 12th 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.
………………………………………………………….
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!
