"The Perils of Identity Politics"

Sydney M. Williams

Thought of the Day

“The Perils of Identity Politics”

January 13, 2019

“Contemporary politics is driven by a quest for equal recognition by

 groups that have been marginalized by their societies. But the desire for equal

 protection can easily slide over with a demand for recognition of the groups superiority.”

                                                                                                            Francis Fukuyama (1952-)

                                                                                                            American political scientist

Identity Politics is antithetical to everything for which America stands. It elevates the group as it diminishes the personal. It assumes we stay within the boundaries prescribed by the tribe and not wander off as individual warriors. It creates divisiveness, as it pits gay against straight, black against white and “elites” against “deplorables.” It encourages victimization rather than fostering responsibility. Membership in a tribe carries more weight than intellectual curiosity. Tribalism composes the script, a narrative that must be obeyed. Independent thinkers are condemned. Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin – as an Asian woman, an eligible tribal member – put it this way: “Minority conservatives hold a place of utter contempt in the minds of unhinged liberals, who can never accept the radical concept of a person who is rejecting identity politics.”  Identity Politics do not reflect an evolutionary process; they are the invention of politicians who find it easier to herd a flock than a sheep.

An article in a recent edition of The New York Timesmade conspicuous an unintended consequence of Identity Politics. Ninety-year-old Dr. James Watson, who won a Nobel Prize[1]for describing the double-helix structure of DNA in 1962, had made impolitic comments on race in a June 2007 interview with a British journalist. In the interview he allowed how he was “gloomy about the prospect for Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours, whereas all the testing says, not really.” His words were condemned by fellow geneticists, as “despicable,” and as “havingno place in science.” They represent, critics alleged, the ideas“of an old guy with old views.”

Most geneticists attribute differences in group IQ testing to environmental, not genetic differences. It is better to consider individual results regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation. Robert Plomin, a prominent American behavioral geneticist at King’s College in London, was quoted in the Times article: “There are powerful methods for studying the genetic and environmental origins of individual differences, but not for studying the causes of average differences between groups.” Dr. Plomin concluded that nature decisively trumps nurture when it comes to individuals. He rejected speculation about average racial differences. So should we. So should have Dr. Watson.

Identity Politics, along with its cousin Political Correctness, inundate the nation. They overwhelm common sense. They can lead to severe and permanent medical situations, like ROGD (rapid onset gender dysphoria), a social contagion that can come on suddenly in adolescents, mainly afflicting teenage girls. A recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journalby Abigail Shrier highlighted the problem. Colleges and universities too often give into demands by young female patients for testosterone injections and even double mastectomies, without requiring psychological evaluations, or even informing parents. As a society, we encourage delays in marriage. Should we not do the same as regards the physical alterations of our bodies? There are those, of course, who believe that “gender variance is a fundamental truth of human biology,” as Jennifer Finney Boylan put it in a rebuttal op-ed in The New York Times. Ms. Boylan may be correct; but the point Ms. Shrier was making is that life-long-affecting decision should be made after consultations with family and professionals. Have Identity Politics and Political Correctness played a role in the rise in this response to ROGD? I suspect they have.

We are a pluralistic society, composed of people whose looks, intelligence, and athleticism span the range from the challenged, to the mediocre, to the exceptional, regardless of race. We have myriad abilities and aspirations. Most of us fall somewhere toward the midpoint on the spectrum of intelligence and athleticism, where we find common ground with those of all races, genders and religions. We make friends of those whose interests and ideas are similar to our own. E Pluribus Unum does not mean we are molded to become a collection of separate groups. It means that from diversity a unified country emerges. It is a concept unique to America. Assimilation in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, as recent events tell us, is not the same as in the United States, which is why U.S. citizenship is sought after by so many. 

Identity Politics, it is claimed by those who believe in it, promotes equality, but that is a word whose definition has been warped by politicians. While we do have equal rights under the law as citizens, we are not – and never can be – equal. I cannot carry a tune or play a musical instrument. I cannot reach the top shelf of my kitchen cabinets without help of a ladder. My athleticism precluded sports as a vocation. I cannot draw or do mathematical equations in my head. My ability to write will never come close to the essayist I most admire – E.B. White. You are who you are, and “I yam what I yam,” as Popeye declared.

Nevertheless, we should all strive to use what assets and abilities we have. Above all, that demands a good education, which also serves as the best protection against forces that try democracies. Where one goes to school or college is less important than the courses one takes and the efforts made once there. We should never forget that it is the tyrant that prefers a divided nation and an uneducated citizenry – practices that elevate the few above the needs and desires of the many. It is ideas that stem from a classical education, which we should debate. Does one favor big or small government? What should our responsibilities be to those unable to care for themselves? Should we live within our means? Should we open our borders to all who wish to come, or should we proscribe limits? Should we enact policies that inspire independence and personal responsibility or ones that encourage dependency? 

Identity Politics is the institutionalization of segregation. It encourages separation, like the Ember Charter School in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn and gated communities in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights. It causes people to think inwardly, selfishly, not outwardly, altruistically. It emphasizes “group think” over individual innovation. It stifles the speech of conservatives on college campuses and on social media. It discourages assimilation and reduces the acknowledgement of individual imperfections. It draws generalized conclusions from limited samplings, as in the case of Professor Watson. It risks impetuosity that can have life-long consequences, as in the case of ROGD. It elevates the superficial over the specific. I am more complex than simply an aging, white male. So are you, more complex than the compartment(s) in which you have been placed by politicians eager for your support.

We are not cattle to be corralled. hogs to be penned, or chickens to be cooped. We are individual humans, each with our hopes for a better future. We understand the risks of anarchy, so willingly accept the boundaries imposed by civil society, but ones where the rule of law protects property and our right to assemble, speak and pray as we choose

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[1]The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was shared that year with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilson

"Hate Crimes"

Sixteen years ago, nineteen members of al Qaeda, an Islamic terrorist group, boarded four planes in three cities. Within minutes, three thousand people were dead. It was the first act of war by a foreign group on continental U.S. since the burning of Washington, D.C. in August 1814. More people died that bright sunny morning than American servicemen at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, or American soldiers on June 6, 1944.

The war against Islamic militants continues to this day. For anyone who does not believe they pose a threat to western civilization, your naivete is only exceeded by your ignorance. Since 9/11, tens of thousands lie dead in dozens of countries, on every continent except Antarctica, victims of the murderous rampage of Islamic extremists from numerous groups, like ISIS and Boko Haram. Make no mistake; it is religion that drives them. They believe they are serving God. Osama bin Laden is dead, thank goodness, but al Qaeda has quietly rebuilt. It is estimated that they have 20,000 fighters in Syria, 7,000 in Somalia and 4,000 in Yemen.

The end can only come when millions of moderate Muslims rise-up, against those who have hi-jacked their religion. 

But this day is also one my family celebrates, for it was on this day 51 years ago that our first child was born – a son and now husband to a beautiful and talented wife and father to four wonderful grandchildren.

These two events are reminders that in death there is birth, that life moves on. They are reminders that, while the past is all of ours, the future belongs to the young. And the greatest legacy we can leave is a knowledge of history, the willingness to face facts unafraid, and to love all those we hold dear.

Sydney M. Williams

swtotd.blogspot.com

Thought of the Day

“Hate Crimes”

September 11, 2017

“A misunderstanding arising from ignorance breeds fear,

and fear remains the greatest enemy of peace.”

                                                                                                Lester Pearson (1897-1972)

                                                                                                Nobel Peace Prize winner and PM of Canada

Social media platforms, when used to foist political views, show little respect for differing views. In that regard, these platforms are distinctly not social. Like most, I enjoy Facebook and Instagram for the opportunities they provide one to stay in touch with family and friends, but they have become vessels for messages of hate. Recently I saw on Instagram a photograph of a roll of stickers, with the logo “F**k Trump.” The photo was presumably in reaction to the President’s decision to abrogate President Obama’s executive order that created DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), and to have Congress determine its future. The mendacious caption under the photograph read: “Ultimately, this is about basic decency.” Really? And who is calling whom indecent?

While hatred is not one of the seven deadly sins, it should be. It is worse than anger, as it is calculated, not spontaneous. It is more intense than envy, and it is not victimless, like pride, gluttony or sloth. Hatred implies an intense loathing. It can be manifested in thought, speech and in criminal acts. While definitions of hate may depend on the accuser, most of us feel, as Justice Potter Stewart did when he was asked, in 1964, to define pornography: “I know it when I see it.”

In the U.S., hate crimes are prosecutable. Two laws apply: The Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990 and the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. The laws trace their roots to the Third Force Act (Ku Klux Klan Act) of 1871 and to the Civil Rights Act of 1968. The FBI defines a hate crime as “a criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin.” While all of us would agree that hatred and bias are common to many criminal acts, the concept of a hate crime is riddled with ambiguity. In an August 13th New York Times article “Was the Car Attack a Hate Crime?”, Charlie Savage, writing about Charlottesville, noted that section 245 of Title 18 of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 “makes it a crime to use force to willfully injure or intimidate any citizen because the victim was ‘participating lawfully in speech or peaceful assembly’ opposing the denial of certain civil rights to other people…” Antifa, it would seem, could be prosecuted for the violence they have caused on college campuses across the country.

According to Jack Levin and Jack McDevitt, authors of Hate Crimes: The Rising Tide of Bigotry and Bloodshed, a “hate” crime is not about hate, but about bias or prejudice. They raise questions: What is meant by prejudice? Which prejudices qualify for inclusion under the hate crime umbrella? Which crimes, when attributable to prejudice, become hate crimes? How strong must be the casual link between the perpetrator’s prejudice and the perpetrator’s criminal conduct? Some prejudices are considered good, like the biases of those who say ‘f**k you’ to the President, while others are thought of as harmless, like preferences for tall people over short people, or blonds versus brunettes.

To be a hate crime, intent and motivation should be clear and proven beyond a reasonable doubt. If a white policeman shoots a black man, did he do so because he thought he, or others, were in mortal danger, or did he do so because he hated blacks? If a black policeman shoots a white man, are the same questions asked, or is there an assumption that bias is not probable? Why was the burning of a mosque in Victoria, Texas a hate crime, but the slaughter by an Islamist extremist of thirteen soldiers at Fort Hood workplace violence? Was President Trump’s decision about “Dreamers” racist, and therefore hateful, or was he right that legislation is the purview of Congress?

When society functions with order and a distinct moral sense, such questions are mute. Morality and ethics are understood – we know unethical behavior when we see it, to paraphrase Justice Stewart. In such cases, civil behavior is standard. Laws are obeyed. Civil disobedience is allowed, but destruction of private property is not. But today, Western culture is in decline and multiculturalism is in ascendancy. Questions of right are wrong go unanswered, for fear of offending those whose cultures may be at odds with our Judeo-Christian heritage. Worse, political correctness and identity politics have become de rigueur among the elite. Victimhood is assumed, despite its humiliating implications. The sanctimonious supposition is that victims are unable to fend for themselves.

A government that yields to multicultural demands, but which leaves moral behavior in abeyance, fails its’ constituents. Jay Cost, in a recent Weekly Standard article, noted that James Madison, author of the Bill of Rights, felt government should proceed slowly and cautiously, but public discourse should be vigorous and unfettered. But we now expect government to act vigorously, and dissenters from orthodoxy to shut up. Mr. Cost wrote that, in Madison’s view, “for the people to rule wisely, they have to be able to communicate with one another – freely, without fear of reprisal.”

The irony is that hatred has become ubiquitous, in part, because it is an unintended consequence of identity politics. Its progeny, the concept of hate crimes, amplifies our political dissonance. A free people will disagree and disagreements should be aired without physical or legal retribution. Our country’s government is based on the idea that the people are sovereign – that we are not subject to the wishes of a small number of elites in Washington – and that the diverse and collective wishes of the people should prevail. Hatred of people because of their political or personal views is not mentioned in the law…nor should it be, yet the left-leaning SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center) has labeled the Alliance Defending Freedom, a “hate group,” because it adheres to traditional views about human sexuality and marriage. But they won’t cite Anifa as a hate group. How do we get this train back on track?

Criminals should be prosecuted. Bad guys should be punished. There is no question in my mind that there are those in our society for whom hate is the principal motivator behind crimes committed, but we must be careful lest the vagueness of what constitutes a hate crime is not defined by those seeking political advantage, and that the actual crime, therefore, goes unpunished.

The study of totalitarian governments, whether on the left or the right, show that granting federal governments police powers can lead to dangerous precedents; consider, for example, the Gestapo and the NKVD. We already have an FBI; do we want another, and more powerful, J. Edgar Hoover? Hate is a motivating factor in many crimes. But, since the definition is imprecise and judgments are subject to interpretation, is it worth the risk to our basic liberties if the wrong person occupies the White House and places the wrong person in charge of a federal police force? Can we not investigate, prosecute and punish those who are guilty of crimes, without adding another layer of bureaucratic, legal higgledy-piggledy?

"The Month That Was - August 2017"

Sydney M. Williams

swtotd.blogspot.com

The Month That Was – August 2017

September 1, 2017

“August, the summer’s last messenger, is a hollow actor.”

                                                                                                Henry Rollins (1961-)

                                                                                                American musician, actor and comedian

August 14, 1945 – the day Japan surrendered unconditionally – will always be etched in my mind. It was the day my father returned home from overseas. He had fought with the 10^th Mountain Division in Italy. My mother, brother, two sisters and I ran to him and hugged him, as he de-trained in Nashua, New Hampshire.

The world, this August, is a different place. While it may seem hard to believe, with the month’s mayhem so fresh in our minds, we are better off than seventy-two years ago. We were more unified then, because of the War and, perhaps, more respectful of one another’s political leanings. Economic inequality was not as stretched as it is today. But social equality is greater; there is less bigotry, and standards of living are higher; there is less poverty and less hunger. History is a work in progress, and the elusive Grail of peace and understanding, which moves deliberately, remains out of reach.

Charlottesville, Virginia, its ramifications and repercussions, dominated a month that began with a war of words between North Korea and the U.S. – words that threatened a maelstrom – and ended with devastating floods in Texas. Kim Jong-un backed off firing a missile into the sea off Guam, but he did, provocatively, fire one over Japan. The situation remains tenuous. Accommodating bad guys rarely works. An op-ed by Susan Rice in The Wall Street Journal, was a reminder that policy makers would be wise to re-read Aesop’s Fables’ tale of “The Scorpion and The Frog.”

Charlottesville reflected the dissonance between extremists, and the desire of politicians to seek crises to exploit. A march in Charlottesville, to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, was the excuse. A group of right-wing extremists – white supremacists, members of the KKK and Neo-Nazis – received city permission for a march. They were met by protestors, mostly members of Antifa (antifascist action), who wear masks to shield their identity. Both sides came armed, with fists, pepper spray, bricks, clubs, shields, tear gas and, in the case of at least one Antifa protestor, a flame thrower. Blows were exchanged. The police, apparently, had been asked to stand back, as though they wanted both sides to destroy one another, or perhaps it was the “Ferguson effect”? The demonstration ended with the death of an Antifa demonstrator, as a deranged white supremacist, James Alex Fields, Jr., allegedly drove his car into a crowd of protestors. Thirty-two-year-old Heather Heyer was killed and nineteen were injured.  

What gave this demonstration media-legs was when President Trump, in comments that same day, did not specifically, and solely, condemn neo-Nazis or white supremacists by name. He implied that blame belonged on both sides. “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides.” It was his words “on many sides” that drove the Left nuts. It was, after all, an Antifa demonstrator who was killed, not a Neo-Nazi. Yet, violence was not one-sided. The New York Daily News reported that Taylor Lorenz of The Hill was punched in the face by an Antifa for recording a fight between the two groups: she was told not to “snitch, media bitch.” Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times tweeted at the time – something she surely now regrets – “The hard-left seemed as hate-filled as [the] alt-right. I saw club wielding ‘antifa’ beating white nationalists being led out of the park.” Hatred and violence are pretty evenly dispersed among extremists on both sides - something that will have to be recognized, acknowledged and condemned before reconciliation can begin.

We can all agree that the KKK and neo-Nazis are evil, and Mr. Trump, in this era of hypersensitivity, should have singled them out for blame, (which he did two days later). But, there is no question that his depiction of hate-filled extremists being on both sides was accurate.[1] Who can forget Missouri state senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal saying on social media: “I hope Trump is assassinated”? Antifa has not received the media attention it deserves. While they have their origins as opponents (including Communists) to Germany’s Nazis of the 1920s and early 1930s, in the U.S. they rose to prominence and militancy during the punk rock-scene of the 1980s. They claim to stand for equality and freedom. But that is specious. Their tactics are as fascist as those they oppose. They disapprove of “bourgeois” behavior: raising children within marriage, civility, hard work, thrift, self-discipline, respect for authority and tolerance of those whose ideas are different. They believe speech they deem racist to be violence, so must be countered physically. They were behind the groups forcibly disrupting conservative speakers on college campuses, from Berkley to Middlebury, and interrupting right-wing rallies, from Portland, Oregon to Charlottesville. Peter Beinart questions, in the September 2017 issue of left-leaning The Atlantic: “The antifa activists say they are battling burgeoning authoritarianism on the American right. Are they fueling it instead?” He concludes: “…they are its unlikeliest allies.”

One consequence has been lemming-like mob decisions to tear down Confederate statues, and erase all reminders of that aspect of our history. The destruction of our past is not limited to statues of Confederate generals. Where do we stop? Will Washington, Jefferson and Madison be next? A bust of Lincoln was defaced in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago’s south side. It has been urged, and is being considered by Mayor de Blasio, that the 76-foot monument to Christopher Columbus in New York City be taken down. “How,” asks Victor Davis Hanson, in an article in right-leaning National Review, “did those obsessed with the past know so little of history?” A sliver of society that controls a community’s culture can prevail. Consider George Orwell’s slogans in 1984: “War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.”

A second consequence has been verbal outbursts that border on the inane: Nancy Pelosi joined the chorus, by proclaiming that Confederate statues in the Capitol “have always been reprehensible.” Ms. Pelosi has been in Congress for thirty years. She was Speaker for four years. Did she just notice the statutes? Then there was the decision by ESPN to relieve an Asian-American sports broadcaster from covering UVA football games because his name is Robert Lee. And Maxine Waters (D-CA), in a non-sequitur, called Dr. Ben Carson, an African-American Secretary of HUD, a white nationalist. Absent accusations of racism, Progressives are at a loss for issues.

Extremists are not illustrative of America, though. They are tiny segments. The media has accorded them outsized roles. A sense of perspective is wanted. The U.S. is a nation of 330 million people, and 130 million voted in last year’s election, with 63 million voting for Donald Trump. The number of extremists is difficult to quantify, but estimates are that the KKK has between 5,000 and 8,000 members. (Keep in mind, in 1925, when the Country had one third today’s population, there were an estimated four million KKK members.) There are, according to the Southern Party Law Center (SPLC – a far-Left outfit), about 90 far-Right groups, with the largest being the National Socialist Movement (Neo-Nazis), with about 400 members and the second largest, Vanguard America, with about 100 members. No matter how one cuts it, the numbers are small. As for Antifa, the numbers are harder to get. The alt-Left website “It’s Going Down” claims between 10,000 and 40,000 hits a day. Mr. Beinart, in the article quoted above, wrote that Antifa growth, in recent months, had been explosive, with their Twitter following exceeding 15,000 by early summer. If combined there are 200,000 extremists, that would be about 0.006% of the population. They are not representative of America. They should be treated as the radicals they are, but with the irrelevance they deserve.

As Peggy Noonan recently noted, all governments are struggles, and none are without sin. It is knowledge of our past and what we learn from that past that allow civilizations to advance. Statues of those with whom we disagree can be teaching moments for a fairer and more equitable society. Think of them as reflecting free speech – monuments to our differences, but ones by which and through which we forge a single people. Censoring ideas does not make them go away; it only makes us ignorant of their existence.   

However, leaders of the march (Richard Spencer, David Duke and Brad Griffin), along with Antifa leaders like Daryle Lamont Jenkins and others, should be held accountable. Mr. Fields should be tried for murder. An investigation should ask: why did the police stand aside? And Mr. Trump should use the moral authority of the Presidency to help bind our severed ties.

Elsewhere, Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas coast as a category 4 storm. The winds dropped, but it stuck around, with downpours creating catastrophic flooding in Houston, the nation’s fourth largest city, and surrounding areas. In terms of total rainfall, Harvey has exceeded any previous storm. But we should not forget the Johnstown Flood of 1889 that killed over 2,000. It’s too early to assess total damage, but it will be significant, with over 30 dead so far. James Damore of Google was fired for exposing the hypocrisy that passes for diversity at his company. Diversity, at businesses like Google and educational institutions, is what can be readily seen: race or sex. What it does not demand is diversity of ideas, or forums for debate and exchange of ideas. It is the natural outgrowth of identity politics. Was Mr. Damore right to speak out? Consider Martin Luther King: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

West Virginia Governor Jim Justice switched parties from Democrat to Republican, giving Republicans 34 governorships. Robert Mueller impaneled a Grand Jury for the Russian probe. In the August 15^th Alabama primary, Senator Luther Strange, a favorite of the establishment, failed to get 50% of the vote. He will face former State Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore in December. Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka, both with ties to the alt-right, left the White House. Like his predecessors who pardoned the unpardonable, President Trump did likewise with Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The USS John S. McCain, a guided-missile destroyer, collided with a Liberian-flagged tanker in the Strait of Malacca, leaving ten sailors dead. This was the fourth such accident this year for the 7^th Fleet. Admiral Joseph P. Aucoin, Commander of the 7^th Fleet, was dismissed. The U.S. witnessed its first total eclipse in 100 years across the breadth of the Country, with the viewing going diagonally from Oregon to North Carolina. News about Debby Wasserman Schultz and the Pakistani IT scanners began to emerge. Stay tuned.

Toward the end of the month, President Trump took the advice of his generals – going against his instincts and campaign promises – and agreed to increase troop strength in Afghanistan. That Country has gone from bad to worse, since Mr. Obama’s “surge” in December 2009, with a pre-announced withdrawal date. The Taliban now control about 40% of the land area. The biggest changes in policy were aimed at Pakistan, a nominal ally, but one that has harbored Islamic terrorists. Paul Kagame extended his seventeen-year rule in Rwanda, winning a third seven-year term, with 98.7% of the vote. In Kenya, President Uhuru Kenyatta won re-election, defeating former Prime Minister Raila Odinga. The UN Security Council voted 15-0 to impose $1 billion worth of sanctions on North Korea. South Korea and the U.S. proceeded with war games. Boko Haram ambushed and killed sixty-nine members of an oil exploration team in Nigeria. A deadly assault by al Qaeda on a popular café in Burkina Faso resulted in the deaths of at least eighteen. Australian security forces foiled a plot by Islamic extremists to take down a plane. In Spain, they were successful, when Younes Abou Yaaqoub drove a van into a crowd in Barcelona, killing sixteen. In the U.S., they used E-Bay to send cash to terrorists. In the first 28 days of August, according to Wikipedia, Islamists terrorists (excluding the Taliban) killed 588 people in eighteen countries. Mudslides in Sierra Leone killed 300. Riots erupted in India, killing dozens, when Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, leader of the Dera Sacha Sauda sect, was found guilty of two counts of rape. Conditions in Venezuela deteriorated further. Britain marches toward Brexit, but not in a straight line. What is needed is a Prime Minister who clearly and convincingly enunciates the benefits of a UK independent of the intoxicating effects of EU bureaucracy.

Central bankers gathered for their annual junket in the crystal-clear air of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. As they applauded their handling of the 2007-2008 financial crisis and warned against financial deregulation and protectionism, they were less than explicit as to future policy moves. One would expect they will continue the current trajectory, at least in the United States – a measured raising of interest rates, coupled with a gradual unwinding of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet. Keep in mind, a failure on the part of the previous Administration and Congresses to adopt fiscal reform measures after the financial crisis placed the burden on the Federal Reserve. Congress faces a new challenge (or rather an old one they re-visit every year or so): raising the debt ceiling – something that must be done by the end of September. Overseas, Iraq issued its first standalone bonds in over a decade, raising $1 billion in six-year notes with a 6.75% coupon. Argentina paid 8% for $2.75 billion in 100-year bonds. Second quarter US GDP growth was revised from up 2.6% to up 3.0%. The Bitcoin, which has risen 375% year-to-date, rose 65% in the month of August. Markets took this in stride. U.S. stock prices (as measured by the DJIA) showed modest gains; the Dollar was essentially unchanged. The VIX rose 1.5%. Treasuries were a little stronger, and gold higher by four percent.

In other news, the pilot of a small plane was attacked when he made a forced landing on a beach on Portugal, which resulted in the death of two sunbathers. Senator Cory Booker introduced a bill to legalize pot nationwide. J.K. Rowling apologized to President Trump, after she claimed he ignored a young boy in a wheel chair. In an Archie Bunker-like decision, Norman Lear refused an invitation to the White House. A consequence of the Trump Presidency has been an increase in demand for professional cuddling, with sessions priced at $80 per hour. The first human embryo gene editing was announced – the goal, to erase inherited heart conditions. Scientists created gene-edited piglets, which, when cleansed of viruses that might infect humans, are hoped to be used for human organ transplants. India will outlaw instant Islamic divorce. A 1956 Aston Martin DBR1 racecar sold for $22.5 million. Indicative of our cultural void, Colin Kaepernick, the NFL quarterback famous for kneeling during the playing of the National Anthem, made it into the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture’s ‘Black Lives Matter’ collection, an honor not accorded Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Canadians have a new way to identify their sex on their passports: ‘X’ will become an option for those uncomfortable with ‘Female’ or ‘Male.’ Big Ben fell silent, as a four-year refurbishment gets underway. In College Park, Maryland, a bill was presented that would allow non-citizens to vote in city elections. In England, two-thirds of the highest grades on A-level exams went to girls. (Reminding me that men risk losing the race toward gender equality, the other day I saw six joggers and one person walking two “designer” dogs. All six runners were women, while the dog walker was a man.)

The month was not without grief. At a point in our history when humor is in short supply – especially the self-deprecating kind that allows us to laugh at ourselves – we lost two of America’s funniest comedians: Jerry Lewis (91) and Dick Gregory (84). Also dying during the month were Ara Parseghian, longtime football coach at Notre Dame, at age 94, and American singer and songwriter Glen Campbell at 81.

August has come to end, and with it a return to routine: school, fall sports, cool nights and the harvesting of what we have sown. Welcome to September!

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[1] See my Thought of the Day, “A Culture of Hatred,” July 10, 2017.