The Month That Was - September 2018

Sydney M. Williams

swtotd.blogspot.com

The Month That Was – September 2018

September 30, 2018

“For it’s a long, long time

From May to September,

But the days grow short

When you reach September.”

                                                                                                      “September Song”

Kurt Weill & Maxwell Anderson

                                                                                                       Sung by Walter Huston

                                                                                                       “Knickerbocker Holiday,” 1938

Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister for Propaganda, once said, if a lie is repeated often enough it becomes truth. The anti-Trump crowd has mastered Goebbels’ advice. We have been told repeatedly, in increasingly shrill voices, that Mr. Trump is incompetent, self-obsessed, destructive, toxic, impulsive, petty, adversarial, ineffective. One U.S. Senator, Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), a woman who lied about her heritage, has urged Congress to remove him by invoking the 25^thAmendment. Another, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), a man who lied about his experience in the Marine Corps in Vietnam, called him “an unindicted co-conspirator,” questioning the legitimacy of his presidency. Two reporters from the Financial Times, in an article on Brazil, compared Mr. Trump to Philippine strongman Rodrigo Duterte, claiming him to be anti-gay, anti-women and anti-Black. So, the question is:given his successes:the 2017 tax bill, reducing regulation, lowering unemployment, returning the capital of Israel to Jerusalem, rendering ISIS less dangerous, bringing North Korea to the table, and getting European nations to up their payments for NATO. What would his achievements have been if he had been thoughtful, constructive and competent?

Increasingly, Democrats rely on hate. Hate needs a menace, as Shelby Steele noted in a recent Wall Street Journalop-ed. What started out by Democrats sixty years ago as a fight against injustice – especially racism and segregation – has morphed into fictional enemies, ones necessary for the Left to obtain and retain power. Like Machiavelli, means, no matter how insidious or dishonest, are justified because of the “noble” end sought. Mr. Steele suggests (optimistically?)that “the source of its angst and hatefulness is its own encroaching obsolescence.” I hope so. The use of personal smears to gain political advantage has become endemic to the Left, making imperative the need for at least one prominent Democrat to stand up, using words like those uttered  by Joseph Welch in 1954, in response to Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) attacking Army Secretary Robert T. Stevens: “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?Have you left no sense of decency?” Democrats are not alone in the willful destruction of people’s character, but they have taken the practice to new levels. Character assassination comes directly from the playbook of Joseph Goebbels.   

Partisanship grows deeper. Every time Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) opens his mouth, the gulf widens. In his farewell address to the nation, George Washington warned against what he called the “…baneful effects of the spirit of party…” rooted in “the strongest passions of the human mind.” But, could he have envisioned the priggish hyperbole of those like Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Kamala Harris (D-NY), as they interviewed Judge Brett Kavanaugh for a seat on the Supreme Court, or the sullying of his character by Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) who withheld until the last minute a letter from a woman alleging Judge Kavanaugh assaulted her as a teenager? Could President Washington have predicted the publication of a letter published in The New York Timesby “Anonymous,” disparaging the White House as an out-of-control fraternity house and the President as an impetuous, tempestuous idiot? Could the man who spoke the words, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports” have predicted a society where religion is disparaged, morality considered relative and students instructed to find their “own” truths? Could the Father of our Country have envisioned a time when his descendants would create a dystopian world where concepts of dignity and respect have become subordinated to victimization and identity politics? Have we fallen so far that rising again is not possible? Has partisanship made our legislative bodies dysfunctional? Do we no longer elect individuals who can think and act independently of party? Have we reached the end of civilization? I don’t think so, but it is easy to become discouraged. 

Now, that I’ve got that off my chest, let’s move on, or, rather, at first, backward, as the Kavanaugh plight has me thinking back more than a hundred years. In 1889, Emile Zola wrote a letter to a French newspaper accusing the government of false charges, charges based on discrimination because the accused was Jewish. This was the conviction of Alfred Dreyfus, an Army staff officer, for espionage. Zola titled his letter “J’Accuse,” as Dreyfus had no opportunity to rebut. The court’s decision was abetted in the kangaroo court of public opinion. Have we returned to that even earlier pre-Enlightenment time when Salem witch trials sent the accused, with no corroborating evidence, to the gallows? A core tenet of Anglo-American law says that an accused is presumed innocent until guilt is proven, that the burden of proof must be made by the one making the accusation, and that the credibility of the victim and accuser should not be influenced by race, religion, ethnicity or gender and that evidence must be gathered and substantiated. I worry about my granddaughters, but with allegations alone enough to permanently scar one’s reputation, what happens in thirty years to my teenage grandsons? Will they live in fear of any female acquaintance they once had? Men can be victims as well as women. It is principles of fairness, respect, civility and decency that should be in the forefront of our thinking. We live under the rule of law and within a code of rules. A civil society cannot be otherwise. It is what prevents chaos. In any event, as we well know, the political Left’s argument against Judge Kavanaugh is not about sexual harassment, it is for the soul of the Constitution. (The media, doing the Left’s bidding, is focused on the red herring of sexual assault.) The Founders believed in the separation of powers, that the role of the Court was to interpret the law and to ensure that laws passed met criteria embedded in the Constitution. The making of laws is reserved for the legislature, composed of those who are accountable to the electorate. This is what Judge Kavanaugh believes. The Left, in contrast, finds Courts convenient to make laws where and when legislatures choose not to do so.

In what amounted to a circus, a “sham” in the words of Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC), the Senate Judiciary Committee met last Thursday to hear the testimony of a lawyered-up Dr. Ford and to listen to the rebuttal by a passionate Judge Kavanaugh. On an emotional level, both were deemed credible, but Dr. Ford, the accuser, had no corroborating witnesses. For Democrats, the goal all along has been delay, no matter the despicable means. Both individuals and their families have been through an unnecessary and emotionally stressful wringer, none of which was necessary, as the allegations by Dr. Ford were uncovered by Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) in early July. The Judiciary Committee whose mission is to offer advise and consent to the President on judicial nominations has become, in the words of Judge Kavanaugh, a committee whose purpose is “to search and destroy.” However, the Committee, on a Party-line basis, did vote to send the nomination to the full Senate, where Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ), after being accosted by two women in an elevator, managed to convince Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to delay a full Senate vote for a week, to give the FBI time to conduct its seventh investigation into Judge Kavanaugh’s past. Democrats are simply more ruthless than their Republican counterparts. Give them an inch and they take a mile. Should the FBI return in a week with no new information, Democrats will demand more time. The whole sorry episode could have been scripted by the Marx brothers. 

Setting aside the rude, supercilious snickering at the start of the President’s speech, Mr. Trump spoke of America’s “policy of principled realism,” which means “we will not be held hostage to old dogmas, discredited ideologies, and so-called experts who have been proven wrong over the years, time and again.” He addressed myriad topics, from North Korea, Iran (the Iran deal was a windfall for Iran’s leaders”), Syria, ISIS, trade ( “fair and reciprocal”), energy ( “reliance on a single foreign supplier can leave a nation vulnerable to extortion and intimidation”) and Venezuela (“where socialism has bankrupted the oil-rich country and driven its people into abject poverty”). In explaining why the U.S. left the U.N. Human Rights Council, why the U. S. will not recognize the International Criminal Court and why the United States would not participate in the new Global Compact on Migration, he said: “We reject the ideology of globalism, and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism.” But it is wrong to conclude Mr. Trump is an isolationist: “We are standing up for America and for the American people. And we are also standing up for the world.” He added: “Sovereign and independent nations are the only vehicle where freedom has ever survived, democracy has ever endured, or peace has ever prospered.” The speech should be read it in its entirety, not left to interpretation by biased reporters and commentators.

Far-left candidates in at least three northeast states did not do well. Governor Gina Raimondo defeated challenger Matt Brown in Rhode Island’s Democrat primary. She will face Republican Allen Fung. In New York, despite multiple corruption charges, Governor Andrew Cuomo easily beat Cynthia Nixon in the Democrat primary. In Delaware, incumbent Senator Tom Carper, a moderate Democrat beat progressive newcomer Kerri Evelyn Harris for the U.S. Senate nomination. He will face Kevin Wade. However, Progressive Boston city councilwoman, Ayanna Pressley, did defeat incumbent Representative Michael Capuano, in the Democrat primary for a Congressional seat in that State’s Seventh Congressional District. Barring a fluke (there is no Republican challenger), Ms. Pressley will become the first Black individual to represent Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives. Hurricane Florence, downgraded to a category 1 when it hit the North Carolina shore, killed 47 and did at least $50 billion in damage, mostly in North and South Carolina. Additionally, it was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 5,500 hogs and between 3 and 4 million chickens and turkeys. Most of the damage was caused by flooding, due to heavy rainfall and the slow-moving nature of the storm. Some rivers, like Cape Fear River, did not crest until a week or more after the hurricane made landfall. In Micronesia, an Air Niugini flight on its approach into Weno’s airport crash-landed in a lagoon. All 47 passengers and crew were safely evacuated. 

Theresa May showed backbone after being humiliated by smug and insincere European elites, including Council President Donald Tusk and French President Emmanuel Macron, in Salzburg where she presented her Chequers plan for Brexit. It was rejected forthwith. “We are at an impasse,” said Mrs. May, upon returning to London where she stood ready to leave the EU without a deal. While Tory Eurosceptic MPs endorsed her, the Left claimed she was pandering to the Right. In a rebuke to Viktor Orban, Europe’s parliament voted to censure Hungary, warning against growing nationalism (by definition, a threat to the EU), but in fact reflective of immigration policies that have overwhelmed Europe. Sweden Democrats, a right-wing party, continued to gain ground, winning 17% of the vote, making it difficult for the Social Democrats to form a government. Viktor Orban and Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini pledged to obstruct Europe’s agenda on migration. (European elites, not being personally affected, have been impervious to the consequences of their immigration policies.) 

The world’s largest Muslim country, Indonesia, a country run by secularists, may be moving toward extremism. A radical cleric, 75-year-old Ma’ruf Amin, was chosen by President Joko Widodo to be his running mate in next year’s election. Syria, according to reports, has approved the use of Chlorine gas to cleanse the last rebel stronghold in Idlib, the northwest province that contains three million people, including 70,000 opposition fighters. If used, President Trump has promised retaliation. In Xinjiang Province, China’s gateway to Central Asia and a key part of its BRI initiative, over a million Uighur Muslims have been moved to re-education camps – a euphemism for jails. On the other end of the political spectrum, in the Maldives, democracy prevailed. Opposition candidate Ibrahim Mohamed defeated President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, who had been moving his country closer to China. Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula moved closer to reality, with Kim Jong-un’s offer to decommission a plant that makes fissile material for nuclear weapons, an offer contingent on unspecified concessions on the part of the U.S. The United States is defunding UN programs that aid Palestinian terrorists, closing the PLO office in Washington and threatening to impose sanctions against the International Criminal Court, as “ineffective and unaccountable,” a jurisdiction the U.S. does not recognize. 

The United States Census Bureau issued its annual report on the U. S. economy. It showed that real medium household income increased 1.8% to $61,372 between 2016 and 2017, while the poverty rate dropped 0.4% to 12.3%, with improvements across all sectors, including among Hispanics and Blacks. The share of people earning less than $15,000 fell to 10.7%, the lowest level since 2007. Households making more than $150,000 rose by 0.7% to 14.7%. Higher incomes lifted a million people out of poverty in 2017. Consumer confidence rose to a 17-year high. In contrast, between 2009 and 2014 median household incomes stagnated and poverty increased, as the expansion of welfare programs reduced the incentive to work. Unshackling regulation and a reduction in corporate and personal taxes have lifted animal spirits. On the negative side, an immediate effect has been an increase in the federal deficit. On the positive side, a one percent increase in GDP growth will increase annual GDP by about $190 billion and create about 1.5 million jobs. Faster GDP growth will, in time, increase federal tax revenues. The deficit is a spending problem, made worse by the fact that about 85% of all spending falls into three categories difficult to reduce: mandatory (61%), which includes Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other entitlement programs; defense (16%), and interest (8%). Higher interest costs are a given. A dangerous world means we cannot cut back on defense. Unless and until Congress tackles mandatory spending, the deficit will continue to grow. It is expected to rise from $665 billion in FY 2017 to $833 billion in FY 2018 and $985 billion in FY 2019 – a frightening prospect in a time of prosperity. The Federal Reserve raised the Fed Funds rate for the third time this year, to 2.25%. Concerns over Iran caused the spread between Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude prices to widen. For the month, the DJIA rose 1.9 percent. Volatility remained subdued. Yield spreads narrowed.

The European Central Bank announced plans to wind down its €2.5 trillion quantitative easing program, by halving its monthly bond purchases to €15 billion a month and phasing them out entirely by year-end. In his last State of the Union speech, Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, said he vowed to turn the Euro into a reserve currency to rival the U.S. Dollar. He was referring, particularly, to energy purchases, which are denominated in Dollars, on imports from Russia and the Middle East. A report from the U.S. Energy Information Agency on September 12 noted that the United States is now the largest producer of crude oil in the world, surpassing Russia and Saudi Arabia. NAFTA’s fate was unknown as this essay was published, but it appears that the U.S. and Mexico are close to a deal.

Typhoon Mangkhut killed sixty-nine people in the Philippines and Hong Kong. A 6.7 magnitude earthquake hit the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, killing thirty-nine. A Tsunami hit Indonesia, killing over 400. Seven were injured, including two British tourists in a knife attack in Paris. Youssef Najah was arrested, terrorism was not cited as a motive. Brazil’s Natural History Museum was destroyed by fire. The HMS Endeavor was discovered off the coast of Rhode Island. Captained by James Cook, the ship was the first European vessel to sail into Botany Bay, in what is now Sydney, Australia, in 1770. North Korea’s 70th Anniversary parade was noticeable for the absence of any intercontinental ballistic missiles. Of the 2.3 million Venezuelans who have fled their country, one million have arrived in Colombia, a country of 50 million. President Trump is considering further sanctions against the illiberal regime of Nicolas Maduro. Liberia is investigating the disappearance of more than one million newly printed bank notes, worth $104 million, or about five percent of the country’s GDP. According to a report in The New York Times, ISIS, which carried out fourteen successful attacks in North America and Europe in 2015, twenty-two in 2016 and twenty-seven in 2017, has only managed four in the first eight months of this year. The scale, in terms of deaths, has also fallen. An agreement between the Vatican and the Chinese government gives Beijing the authority to name Catholic Bishops in China. After an eighty-year run, Volkswagen AG said it was halting production of the Beetle. 

With politics hanging heavy, Senator Corey Booker (D-NJ) provided an unintended humorous interlude with his “Spartacus moment.” Atlanta’s Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms signed an executive order requiring all Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) detainees be transferred out of city custody immediately. California’s electric power prices have risen 25% since 2013, to a level 41% higher than the national average. Senator Elizabeth (Pocahontas) Warren (D-MA) proposed an Accountable Capitalism Act, which would mandate that every new and existing public corporation with over $1 billion in revenues be required to obtain a federal charter. (There are about 400 qualifying companies in the U.S.) Representatives of employees would have to fill forty percent of all board seats. And most of us thought shareholders elected directors to represent their ownership interests! Upsetting Beijing, the U.S. approved the sale of $330 million worth of military goods to Taiwan. Bill Cosby was sentenced to three to ten years in a Pennsylvania state penitentiary. Bob Woodward’s new book, “Fear: Trump in the White House,” was published. It prompted a one-word response from White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, as regards comments he is alleged to have made: “Bullshit.”

Two shootings in Alabama left one dead and eleven wounded. Two shootings in Bakersfield, California left seven dead and four wounded. Breaking with tradition, ex-President Obama re-entered the political arena, with a speech to students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He cast his net wide: “The politics of division and resentment and paranoia has unfortunately found a home in the Republican party…in an appeal to racial nationalism that’s barely veiled.” Really? Representative Chris Collins (R-NY), indicted on insider trading charges, decided to stay on the ballot, reversing an earlier decision. Fifty million Facebook accounts were hacked. Following a controversial penalty against her, Serena Williams lost to Naomi Osaka in the U.S. Open. In the men’s finals, Novak Djokovic defeated Juan Martin del Potro. Tiger Woods won his first major tournament in five years. In the movie “The First Man,” a story of Neil Armstrong and the first moon landing, Ryan Gosling, a Canadian, omits him carrying the American flag, which caused Chuck Yeager to say: “That’s not the Neil Armstrong I knew.” Rewriting history is fine for writers of fiction but does a disservice to those who are interested in the past, warts and all. At a memorial service for the victims of 9/11 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, President Trump spoke movingly of the forty crew and passengers aboard that doomed flight: “They boarded the plane as strangers and they entered eternity linked forever as heroes.”

Death made its appearance. Vietnam President Tran Dai Quang died at 61 after a serious illness. Actor Burt Reynolds died at 82. Richard DeVos, founder of Amway and father-in-law of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos died at 92. Also dying at 92 was Freddie Oversteegen, who as a brave, teenage Dutch resistant fighter lured Nazis into secluded wooded areas where she dispatched them. And I lost a good friend in Bob Wood, a gentle, gentleman who died at 89.

To return to my opening paragraphs: The Left wallows in hypocrisy. In a little over half a century, they have gone from advocates for sexual liberation to a preference for nunnery-like behavior.  The New York Timeshad an article in which they wrote that Trump had galvanized women to action, that “…the battle over his [Judge Kavanaugh’s] confirmation has swelled into an event of titanic consequences in the nation’s evolution on matters of gender and women’s equality.”Nothing was said about discovery of truth, or of the need for mutual respect between genders in civil society. They did not explain why women are more credible than men, nor did they wonder at the lack of corroborating evidence. They never asked why the more repugnant President Bill Clinton (in matters sexual)did not elicit similar responses from women twenty years ago. The answers lie in false narratives, perpetrated by Democrats who tell us that Republicans don’t support women’s rights. It is a lie repeated ad nauseum by those who believe words speak louder than actions. A lie becomes truth, as Goebbels noted. As President Trump would say, “sad.”

We move on to October, a time when nature prepares for months of hibernation. Let’s hope it also gives birth to peace and civility. But I fear that is more a wish than a hope.

The Month That Was - September 2017

Sydney M. Williams

swtotd.blogspot.com

The Month That Was

“September 2017”

October 1, 2017

“September: it was the most beautiful of words, he’d always felt,

evoking orange-flowers, swallows and regret.”

                                                                                                Alexander Theroux (1939-)

                                                                                                Darconville’s Cat, 1981

Hurricanes in the Caribbean and the U.S., earthquakes in Mexico and forest fires out west dominated the news. The New York Times, in reporting on the devastation and sounding like an Old Testament prophet, noted, people could be excused for believing that an angry God (perhaps Al Gore?) had let loose His wrath for destroying what He had created – God, that is, not Al Gore. Hyperbole sells news, so perhaps the folks at the Times could be excused for trying to make an extra buck out of other people’s misery.

Torrents were not limited to Mexico, the Caribbean and the Texas/Florida coasts. At the United Nations, President Trump gave a Reagan-like speech, as he did in Poland. He praised the work of the UN, and cited the principles on which it was founded: “pillars of peace, sovereignty, security and prosperity.” He spoke of its cooperation: “Strong sovereign nations let diverse countries with different values, different cultures and different dreams not just coexist, but work side by side, on the basis of mutual respect.”  He reminded those listening that Americans “have paid the ultimate price to defend our freedom and the freedom of many nations represented in this great hall.” He emphasized he was an American leader, not a world leader.

He warned that if the UN is to be an effective partner reform is necessary to confront those who would dismantle the world we know: “Too often the focus of this organization has not been on results, but on bureaucracy and process. In some cases, states that seek to subvert this institution’s noble ends have hijacked the very systems that are supposed to advance them.” He reminded his audience that “some governments with egregious human rights records sit on the Human Rights Council.”

President Trump called out North Korea for what they are, a country that impoverishes its people and risks catastrophe in the Pacific region. Bully’s intimidate, he asserted, and must be confronted. He did add a sentence, the last part of which became headline news in much of the media: “The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.” Most press accounts left off the final two sentences of the paragraph: “The United States is ready, willing and able, but hopefully this will not be necessary. That’s what the United Nations is all about. That’s what the United Nations is for. Let’s see how they do.” Mr. Trump spoke frankly of the Maduro regime in Venezuela, using two of the best sentences in the speech: “The problem in Venezuela is not that socialism has been poorly implemented, but that socialism has been faithfully implemented. From the Soviet Union to Cuba to Venezuela, whenever true socialism or communism has been adopted, it has delivered anguish and devastation and failure.”

As do many in politics, Mr. Trump has multiple personalities, like Joanne Woodward as Eve in, “Three Faces of Eve,” or the two faces of Janus. He reminds one of Dr. Doolittle’s Pushmi-Pullyu. We do not know which way he is headed. The weekend after his speech to the UN, he became embroiled in an argument with NFL players, who prefer to kneel rather than stand during the National Anthem.  Mr. Trump is right about the disrespect they show, but who cares what those morons do? Don’t we have bigger issues, like economic growth; addressing the inequities embedded in the miss-named Affordable Care Act; fixing Dodd-Frank, which has allowed “too-big-to-fail” banks to proliferate, or doing something about our unsustainable debt? Should not tax reform take priority, or the geopolitical concerns in the Middle East and Southeast Asia? Why take on the NFL? My father warned me: never argue with an idiot, for a passerby would be unable to distinguish between the two. The consequence for Mr. Trump was that a great speech disappeared into a miasma of kneeling, self-righteous, juvenile football players.

Like one of its rockets, North Korea rose in the news. In the first of the month they detonated an Atomic bomb estimated at 50 kilotons, four or five times larger than the one that destroyed Hiroshima. In the middle of the month, they launched a missile that flew to a height of 478 miles and traveled 2,300 miles, over Japan and into the Pacific – far enough to reach the U.S. airbase in Guam. In the last days of the month, a war of words broke out, with Donald Trump referring to Kim Jong-un as “Rocket Man,” and Mr. Kim describing Mr. Trump as a “dotard.” The good news was that the Chinese appear to be increasingly concerned about instability on the Korean Peninsula. They instructed their banks to halt new business with North Korea and to unwind old loans, and ordered closure of North Korean businesses in China. The Chinese, above all else, want stability. They do not want hordes of refugees crossing into their country. If they sense the Peninsula is becoming too volatile, they may force regime change.

Angela Merkel won a fourth term, but this time receiving 33% of the vote (versus 41% four years ago). The surprise winner was the far-right party, the AfD (Alternative for Germany), which picked up 13%, or three times what they received in 2013. Nationalism is alive. In Europe, it is seen in the success of far-left and far-right parties, as a reaction to an over-reaching Brussels. In Catalonia, separatists prepared for a possible referendum on October 1. Iraqi Kurds voted overwhelmingly for independence. In Myanmar, a refugee crisis developed, as thousands of Muslim Rohingya crossed into Bangladesh, fleeing their majority-Buddhist homeland. It is estimated that a million Rohingya live (or lived) in Myanmar, where they have been denied citizenship since 1982. Theresa May, giving a speech in Florence regarding Brexit, went “wobbly.” Two earthquakes hit Mexico, with the second killing hundreds in Mexico City.

The U.S. Senate failed to pass health care reform. Tom Price, Secretary of HHS, resigned for excessive use of private jets. Harvey hit the Texas gulf coast, and then Irma crossed over the Keys and swept up the west coast of Florida. Combined, they left 160 dead and an estimated $300 billion in damages. Among the dead in Florida were eight elderly patients who died of heat exhaustion in a nursing home. Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It seems Donald Trump was right when he complained that Trump Tower had been bugged. It turns out that Samantha Power, Mr. Obama’s Ambassador to the UN, “unmasked” hundreds of those on the Trump campaign and transition teams, and Susan Rice, former National Security Advisor and dissembler regarding Benghazi and Bowe Bergdahl, eavesdropped on opponents to the Iran deal. Valerie Plame, who rose to prominence on the mistaken accusation that she had been outed as a CIA agent by the Bush Administration, retweeted a “virulently anti-Semitic article by a well-known bigot,” according to Alan Dershowitz.

President Trump rescinded President Obama’s executive order that created DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), the “Dreamers.” The status of those who came as children, and who are now in school, college, the military or in jobs, remains unclear. Mr. Trump wants to have Mr. Obama’s executive order converted into Congress-passed legislation. Senator Bob Menendez’ (D-NJ) trial on corruption charges began and is expected to take two months. Former U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY) was found guilty of sexting a fifteen-year-old girl and sentenced to 21 months in prison. The New York Times described him as “teary and chastened.” Really? In Alabama, Ray Moore beat Senator Luther Strange, to win the Republican nomination for Senate.

The U.S. debt ceiling was extended for three months. The Federal Reserve announced they would begin to unwind their balance sheet, and Stanley Fischer resigned as the Fed’s Vice Chair. In a nine-page outline that disclosed little, Mr. Trump unveiled his tax reform package. The Economist reported that Australia had completed its 104^th consecutive quarter of economic growth – a modern record among OECD nations. Rolling Stone is being sold by Jann Wenner, the magazine’s founder and publisher. Toys ‘r Us filed for bankruptcy. Facebook, a company that last year had revenues of $27.6 billion, is facing charges that it accepted $150,000 in ad revenues from Russia. Second quarter GDP was revised up for the second time, to 3.1%. Household net worth in the U.S. rose two percent in the second quarter to a record $96.2 trillion. That sounds like a lot, until one realizes how concentrated it is. Median household net worth is $121,000. Bitcoin prices, which began the year at $968.23, began the month of September at $4,718.70. The price closed Friday at 4,165.51 – the first (I believe) down month this year. Stocks were modestly higher for the month – giving us the longest quarterly win-streak in twenty years. U.S. Treasuries were essentially flat. Gold, which has had a good year, closed the month with a small loss. Market volatility remained low.

At the U.S. Open, an unranked American, Sloane Stephens, defeated her team mate Madison Keys, in straight sets. Thirty-one-year old Rafael Nadal won in straight sets over South African Kevin Anderson. This was Nadal’s 16^th career grand slam and third U.S. Open win. The Cleveland Indians set an American League record with 22 consecutive wins. And Yankee, Aaron Judge set a record, on September 25^th, for the most home runs – 50 – for a rookie.

In other news, Jean-Claude Juncker unveiled his vision for a bigger, more powerful EU and said Britain would regret leaving. Of course, embedded in his braggadocio was the reason Britain voted to exit. The conservative mayor of the Belgian city of Mouscron was found in a cemetery with his throat slit. Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge and future Queen of England, announced she will be having a third child. Rare, white giraffes were cited in Kenya. The IOC selected Paris to host the 2024 Olympics. After thirteen years of exploring the moons around Saturn, NASA’s spacecraft Cassini, came to a planned end, in a blaze of burning plastic and aluminum, as it plunged into Saturn’s atmosphere. A report from Germany reflected the cultural challenges facing the West: Between 2010 and 2015, 1.4 million more Christians died in Germany than were born. In 2016, 537 Catholic parishes were closed. In contrast, the number of mosques rose from 700 in the 1980s to 2,300 in 2009. Muslims in Europe are younger, more religious and have higher birthrates than average Europeans. Saudi women were granted permission to drive, starting in June, but will still need their husband’s permission to open a bank account.

Transgender Chelsea Manning, former U.S. Army private and convicted felon for illegally releasing State and Defense Department documents, was named a “visiting fellow” at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. The offer was rescinded when his appointment outraged others. However, she was still invited to lecture. Hillary Clinton released her book What Happened? to yawns. Oberlin College, according to its student newspaper, is missing its enrollment target by about eighty students. Was that a testament to rising costs, diminishing returns for graduates, political correctness, or a lack of diversity of thought on college campuses? Mayor Bill de Blasio easily won re-nomination. Eleven-year-old Frank Giaccio wrote to the President, offering his lawn mowing services. Mr. Trump took him up, and Frank mowed the Rose Garden lawn. “A great job!’ Mr. Trump said.

Death took Liliane Bettencourt, the world’s richest woman (heiress to L’Oreal), at age 94. Penny Chenery, owner of Secretariat, died at 95.  Jake LaMotta, heavyweight champion from 1949-1951, also died at 95. We lost two writers – J.P. Donleavy, author of Ginger Man, who died at 91 and Lillian Ross, who wrote “Talk of the Town” pieces for The New Yorker, at 99. Playboy founder, Hugh Hefner, died at 91. And a good friend from Old Lyme, Ed Wolcott, World War II Army Air Corps pilot and hero, died at age 95.

We move on to October, a month that begins with leafs green and ends with limbs clean.