tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62072482849964181532024-02-20T22:07:28.200-08:00Coloring The NewsWhere intelligence meets experience: Commentary on politics, media and international affairs from <b>William McGowan</b>, the award-winning author of <i>Coloring The News:</i> How Political Correctness Has Corrupted American Journalism.William McGowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02274145173711322404noreply@blogger.comBlogger180125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6207248284996418153.post-2900887517509647032022-09-04T12:37:00.003-07:002022-09-05T09:13:42.012-07:00Battle Not With Monsters: It’s Biden & The Dems Who Might Have the ‘Fascism’ Problem <p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8EpwmSz0YvWWoqr6hQheTIxX1HRIXGcmixMIAlXwuOlkfnlb38Wuj_qTe3UGis0Vzn5cEZuJoRWV5Egd87YBTVh-M5IZd5Jr_1eDJTbbCOchD0RkeUDm6tbhhvDLS22BttTYioPgjA7iEthg-4z_Z8Z9HX_GdqiaAE-jHvlnh-o0hrYBAK4zV0V7p/s1270/BIDEN%20SPEECH%20RANT-FISTS%20Screen%20Shot%202022-09-04%20at%204.07.40%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="946" data-original-width="1270" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8EpwmSz0YvWWoqr6hQheTIxX1HRIXGcmixMIAlXwuOlkfnlb38Wuj_qTe3UGis0Vzn5cEZuJoRWV5Egd87YBTVh-M5IZd5Jr_1eDJTbbCOchD0RkeUDm6tbhhvDLS22BttTYioPgjA7iEthg-4z_Z8Z9HX_GdqiaAE-jHvlnh-o0hrYBAK4zV0V7p/w400-h297/BIDEN%20SPEECH%20RANT-FISTS%20Screen%20Shot%202022-09-04%20at%204.07.40%20PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">“If there are fascists in America these days, they are apt to be found among the tribes of the left,” writes Lance Morrow, in a WSJ column headlined </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 24pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/bidens-speech-had-it-all-backward-fascist-democratic-party-trump-ideology-america-jan-6-democracy-11662161065?mod=opinion_lead_pos5" style="color: #954f72;">Biden’s Speech Had It All Backward</a></span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> that upends ideological labelling, political virtue-signaling and self-stroking liberal historical narratives about “hate” and “enemies.” You can argue with the way he equates Trumpist America First with that of Robert Taft, pre Pearl Harbor. But he does capture the moral projection at the center of what Biden called “The Battle For The Soul of the Nation.” As Nietzsche warned: “Be careful when hunting monsters, lest you become one.” </span></b><h1 style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></h1><h1 style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">According to Morrow:</span></h1><h1 style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></h1><div><h1 style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-weight: normal;">The Democrats have the “fascist” business wrong.<span class="apple-converted-space"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></h1><h1 style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-weight: normal;"> </span></h1><p class="css-xbvutc-paragraph" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://www.wsj.com/topics/person/donald-trump" style="color: #954f72;">Donald Trump</a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>isn’t a fascist, or even a semi-fascist, in President Biden’s term. Mr. Trump is an opportunist. His ideology is coextensive with his temperament: In both, he is an anarcho-narcissist. He is<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Elmer Gantry, or the Music Man, if<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Harold Hill<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>had been trained in the black arts by<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Roy Cohn. He is what you might get by crossing the Wizard of Oz with Willie Sutton, who explained that he robbed banks because “that’s where the money is.”<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="css-xbvutc-paragraph" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><span color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;">As for Mr. Trump’s followers, they belong to the Church of American Nostalgia. They are Norman Rockwellians, or Eisenhowerites. They regard themselves, not without reason, as the last sane Americans. You might think of them as American masculinity in exile; like James Fenimore Cooper’s</span><span class="apple-converted-space" color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;">Natty Bumppo, living in the forest has made their manners rough.</span></p><p class="css-xbvutc-paragraph" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><span color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;">If there are fascists in America these days, they are apt to be found among the tribes of the left. They are Mr. Biden and his people (including the lion’s share of the media), whose opinions have, since Jan. 6, 2021, hardened into absolute faith that any party or political belief system except their own is illegitimate—impermissible, inhuman, monstrous and (a nice touch) a threat to democracy. The evolution of their overprivileged emotions—their sentimentality gone fanatic—has led them, in 2022, to embrace Mussolini’s formula: “All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.” Or against the party. (People forget, if they ever knew it, that both Hitler and Mussolini began as socialists). The state and the Democratic Party must speak and act as one, suppressing all dissent. America must conform to the orthodoxy—to the Chinese finger-traps of diversity-or-else and open borders—and rejoice in mandatory drag shows and all such theater of “gender.” Meantime, their man in the White House invokes emergency powers to forgive student debt and their thinkers wonder whether the Constitution and the separation of powers are all they’re cracked up to be.</span><span class="apple-converted-space" color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="css-xbvutc-paragraph" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><span color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;">Mr. Trump and his followers, believe it or not, are essentially antifascists: They want the state to stand aside, to impose the least possible interference and allow market forces and entrepreneurial energies to work. Freedom isn’t fascism. Mr. Biden and his vast tribe are essentially enemies of freedom, although most of them haven’t thought the matter through. Freedom, the essential American value, isn’t on their minds. They desire maximum—that is, total—state or party control of all aspects of American life, including what people say and think. Seventy-four years after</span><span class="apple-converted-space" color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;">George Orwell</span><span class="apple-converted-space" color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;">wrote “1984,” such control (by way of surveillance cameras, social-media companies and the Internal Revenue Service, now to be shockingly augmented by 87,000 new employees) is entirely feasible. The left yearns for power and authoritarian order. It is Faust’s bargain; freedom is forfeit.</span></p><p class="css-xbvutc-paragraph" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><span color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;">Mr. Trump, the canniest showman in the White House since</span><span class="apple-converted-space" color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;">Franklin D. Roosevelt, introduced into 21st-century politics what seemed to be new idioms of hatred, a freestyle candor of the id. Doing so, he provoked his enemies—and finally Mr. Biden—to respond in kind: a big mistake. In the early 1950s, when Sen.</span><span class="apple-converted-space" color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;">Joseph McCarthy</span><span class="apple-converted-space" color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;">was loose in the land, and roughly half the country supported his anticommunist inquisition, President Eisenhower wisely decided, “I will not get into the gutter with this guy.” It took a while for McCarthy to implode.</span><span class="apple-converted-space" color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="css-xbvutc-paragraph" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><span color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;">When Mr. Biden spoke in Philadelphia the other night, he might have been thinking of FDR’s speech at Madison Square Garden on the night of Oct. 31, 1936, at the end of his presidential campaign against Alf Landon—and, by the way, three months before he tried to pack the Supreme Court. That night, Roosevelt boasted that his enemies (Republicans, plutocrats, et al.) “are unanimous in their hate for me.” With a flourish, he added, “I welcome their hatred!</span></p><p class="css-xbvutc-paragraph" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><span color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;">Americans, lamenting the divisions of 2022 and, some of them, entertaining fantasies of a new civil war, should refresh their historical memories. The country has been bitterly divided against itself any number of times. The hatreds and convulsions of the 1930s (the era of</span><span class="apple-converted-space" color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;">Huey Long</span><span class="apple-converted-space" color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;">and Father</span><span class="apple-converted-space" color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;">Charles Coughlin</span><span class="apple-converted-space" color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;">and the Silver Shirts, of homegrown tribes of Trotskyists and Stalinists) culminated in the ferocious battle between isolationists and internationalists that lasted until the Sunday morning of Pearl Harbor.</span><span class="apple-converted-space" color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="css-xbvutc-paragraph" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><span color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;">The motif of political hatred returned to America almost as soon as World War II ended. The</span><span class="apple-converted-space" color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;">Alger Hiss</span><span class="apple-converted-space" color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;">case of 1948 warmed up the enmities, and McCarthy blew on the coals and turned half of the country against the other half. Such hatred seems cyclical. The 1960s (assassinations, civil rights battles, urban riots, the Vietnam War) had Americans at one another’s throats again. Those eruptions of political rage occurred in the years when the baby boomers and Joe Biden (who was a few years older) came of age and acquired their idea of what America is all about.</span><span class="apple-converted-space" color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="css-xbvutc-paragraph" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><span color="var(--primary-text-color)" style="font-size: 13pt;">That night in 1936, Roosevelt, warming to the language of hatred, suggested that his enemies should get out of the country: “Let them emigrate and try their lot under some foreign flag.” Mr. Biden—who, as he spoke in Philadelphia, was bathed in a lurid red light that seemed, as it were, ineptly theological—was content to cast his foes into outer darkness.</span></p></div>William McGowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02274145173711322404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6207248284996418153.post-73362049274173044932022-06-20T17:52:00.010-07:002022-07-11T16:19:46.365-07:00Terrance McGowan, Morgan Stanley & The Problem of Family Embezzlement On Wall Street <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpUDWA5Afm621Q1GTjx5SRujbQW8FoVSM_fvTdkBgCC-3pxozUm5qB0OODmdJiQ_FD5dXXYgURPTextJj80JKZjrUAZSdalBDRr61fawDCkW4kjbRcmEtuHUbLldfTRmsVVIkojU2r1Jrbj2h0ls40A2CHy44O22h60VAJSbxL6w86CIYOLClk9X8I/s1142/PIC%20FOR%20POST-Screen%20Shot%202021-09-04%20at%2010.23.07%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="918" data-original-width="1142" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpUDWA5Afm621Q1GTjx5SRujbQW8FoVSM_fvTdkBgCC-3pxozUm5qB0OODmdJiQ_FD5dXXYgURPTextJj80JKZjrUAZSdalBDRr61fawDCkW4kjbRcmEtuHUbLldfTRmsVVIkojU2r1Jrbj2h0ls40A2CHy44O22h60VAJSbxL6w86CIYOLClk9X8I/w400-h321/PIC%20FOR%20POST-Screen%20Shot%202021-09-04%20at%2010.23.07%20PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">To: Attorneys for Terrance McGowan & Tim Moore, Morgan Stanley </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Fr: William McGowan Author/ Journalist </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Re: Family Embezzlement/ Lot 22 </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Date: June 19, 2022</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Dear Attorney of Record: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">I send this with sadness and disappointment but please regard this email as notice that I am withdrawing from the settlement agreement I made through legal representatives for my brother Terrance McGowan, in conjunction Matt Moore, in June 2019. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">This withdrawal stems from: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">1/ Your client’s failure to follow through on certain key pledges he made in that agreement.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">and </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">2/ The fact that the agreement was based on what turns out to erroneous financial information supplied to me and my 6 (six) siblings by your client in order to misinform, deceive, limit his financial exposure and manipulate family awareness & sentiment. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">and </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> 3/ That I was not represented by counsel at the time our stipulation negotiations took place. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">and</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">4/ That I was the target of undue psychological and emotional abuse, as well as bullying, degrading insouciance, contempt, insult and fecklessness, during the whole course of dealings with your client on this matter, which was as damaging as it was shocking. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">You should make your client aware that I reserve the right to pursue all rights and remedies available to me including all civil and criminal penalties in any and all relevant jurisdictions---county, state and federal. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Please also make your client aware that I reserve the right to pursue all institutional and journalistic avenues as well, specifically rejecting the notion of “controversy” as articulated in the now-voided stipulation, as an inappropriate infringement on First Amendment liberties tantamount to “prior restraint.” </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">In addition, please inform your client that it is my contention that he engaged in conduct that represents, at the very least, a significant violation of the </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="about://"><b><span style="color: #954f72;">Morgan Stanley Code of Ethics</span></b></a><b>, as well as the ethics code maintained by </b><a href="about://"><b><span style="color: #954f72;">Goldman, Sachs,</span></b></a><b> where your client worked at the time of the covert sale of the family property in question. (This is referred to in the now-voided stipulation agreement as “Lot 22” in the Village of Croton-on Hudson, New York.) </b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">At the center of these ethical codes, which your client surely knows from signing them, is the importance of acting with a sense of “propriety” at all times and in all dealings with clients, colleagues and the public, and to avoid all manners of “impropriety” up to and including anything that would even give the “appearance of impropriety.” </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">The Morgan Stanley code puts a particular emphasis on erring on the side of “Doing the Right Thing.” I’m absolutely sure this has very little to do with secretly selling family property, concealing that for NINE YEARS, and then taking refuge in legalisms, which were, and still are, spurious. As per these ethical lapses, I’m sure that if your client behaved toward a client in the same abusive, underhanded and manipulative way he acted toward me, he would be have been seriously chastised by Morgan Stanley and/ or Goldman Sachs and perhaps even terminated on violations of these firms’ ethics policies alone (apart from any and all criminal and civil transgressions.) </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">More importantly, it is my contention:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">a/ That your client very likely committed Embezzlement or Attempted Embezzlement, depending on the jurisdiction evaluating the actions, in the amount of $70 K. This is considered a D Level Felony in NYS and also, quite obviously, a violation of the aforementioned 2021 Morgan Stanley Ethical Guidelines. (Whether your client’s partners at the time at Goldman Sachs---Tim Moore and Alyson Theobald Russ, who are now his current partners at Morgan Stanley---knew about the funds associated with this embezzlement is still to be determined.) </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">and </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">b/ That his refusal, despite numerous requests, to provide documentation of what bank and trading accounts that sum both “landed in” and travelled through (both at both Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs) over the many intervening years suggests that the $70K funds may have been invested in a significantly “up” market, post-October 2010, to multiply substantially. This, I would contend, compounds the illegality, the financial damages that were incurred and the ethical violations on your client’s part. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Your client was given ample time and opportunity to supply needed information but did not. He also had more than enough time and opportunity to make the appropriate amount of restitution that the facts, the circumstances and the law would merit, but did not. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Instead, he chose to: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">a/ Lie about the timing of the sale, providing shifting and contradictory explanations to various family members as to the reason why he went through with the sale at that particular time, why he chose not to alert the family to the fact that the land had in fact been sold and what in truth he did with the funds over NINE YEARS of concealment. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">(In fact, on the evening of May 19, 2019, several hours after I discovered the land had been sold, I spoke to your client on the phone and asked if in fact he had sold the property, when he had sold it and why he had not informed me or any of my other siblings to that effect. To which he answered, as con men and criminals always seem to do: “Well, I don’t ever remember <i>not</i> telling you.” )</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">and </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">b/ Malign & gaslight me <i>and</i> manipulate family sentiment---all to avoid financial and ethical accountability and the just recovery of opportunity costs at the appropriate and lawful rate of interest at the time of, and subsequent to, the embezzlement over almost NINE YEARS of concealment, evasion, lying by omission and contempt. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">and </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">c/ Go on to negotiate this now-voided settlement in bad faith, refusing to acknowledge any opportunity costs associated with the sale as well as opportunity costs associated with the NINE YEAR concealment of these funds wherever these funds were parked ---or put to work. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">The recession of 2008-2010 left me in very bad financial shape. Had your client acknowledged the property sale instead of concealing it AND had he disbursed funds directly associated with that sale in October 2010, I would have been spared a series of cascading financial events that I am still digging my way out of today. There was also the matter of the interest rate your client insisted on, which was the Applicable Federated Rate, when a much more fair and just rate of interest over the NINE YEARS of concealment would have been more appropriate and ethical. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">At one point in the NINE YEARS of concealment your client maintained (back in the winter of 2015, if memory serves) your client and I had lunch in the cafeteria of Goldman Sachs. It was one of at least 10 face-to-face encounters I had with your client between Oct 2010 and May 2019, including family weddings, funerals &ad hoc beer-and-burger get togethers, these last several times <i>on his invitation.</i></span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">That lunch in 2015 was also one of my first visits to that Wall Street area since September 11, 2001 when I scrambled to get into Lower Manhattan as a volunteer first responder to assist emergency medical personnel at a triage unit near the Staten Island Ferry and later at Ground Zero itself. It was kind of unsettling and triggering being down in Lower Manhattan at all after that historic, traumatic event. But in hindsight, the lunch meeting with your client was even disturbing. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">In fact, during this lunch meeting, as his fellow Goldman Sachs <i>machers</i> swirled around us, your client gave me an earnest lecture on retirement savings. This instruction on retirement savings coming while my money AND my family members’ money was jingling in his pocket, so to speak. Or compounding in value in his Goldman trading account at that time (moving, of course a few years later when your client <i>and his partners</i> transitioned to Morgan Stanley. ) </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">In the time since I discovered the “family embezzlement” your client committed, I have read quite a bit on this subject. (This </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="about://"><b><span style="color: #954f72;">AARP article</span></b></a><b> is a good introduction if you need one.) But I have not encountered an anecdote in print which was as revealing, as incriminating or as perverse as the in-person, face-to-face duplicity I experienced over lunch that day at Goldman Sachs. Saving for retirement. Indeed! </b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Regards,</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">William McGowan</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b> </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>William McGowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02274145173711322404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6207248284996418153.post-71397437565586595802022-03-23T13:59:00.016-07:002022-04-06T19:47:38.114-07:00Annals Of Bunco: Skeptical Questions About Jeffrey Goldberg's 'Suckers & Losers' Story That 'The Atlantic' Just Can't Seem To Answer <p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSuhKtVGNQZlCHZOnUdh_sRbkPGQ56k5HHxPl_IaKk53YJv33t3bDPklb1rb9KLjA9gHRtdStgqjrFVlzT8v6FciheiuvogtRxiQMuavRsp4TkZ_9miLhXFj6v9rLxj8dZ0XKxU6kl3owGLwyc8tUF1RtM7fQwWDF5Uq52fDjo0BMRsUmu_VCjcP6V/s2034/Goldberg:%20Suckers%20Screen%20Shot%202022-03-23%20at%204.49.25%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1120" data-original-width="2034" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSuhKtVGNQZlCHZOnUdh_sRbkPGQ56k5HHxPl_IaKk53YJv33t3bDPklb1rb9KLjA9gHRtdStgqjrFVlzT8v6FciheiuvogtRxiQMuavRsp4TkZ_9miLhXFj6v9rLxj8dZ0XKxU6kl3owGLwyc8tUF1RtM7fQwWDF5Uq52fDjo0BMRsUmu_VCjcP6V/w400-h220/Goldberg:%20Suckers%20Screen%20Shot%202022-03-23%20at%204.49.25%20PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">To: Anna Bross, Director of Communications, <i>The Atlantic.</i><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Fr: William McGowan, <i>Coloring The News</i> blog<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Re: Jeffrey Goldberg’s <i>Suckers & Losers</i> Story 9/20 <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Date: March 23, 2022<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Hi Anna: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">As I’ve explained several times over the last year, I’m working on a book—<a href="http://williammcgowan.com/books.html">my fourth</a>—about intellectual dishonesty and repression in the time of Trump and Woke. (Working title at the moment is <i>The Captive Mind</i> as per Czeslaw Milosz or maybe <i>Battle Not With Monsters</i> from Nietzsche.) Part of the book is about “Resistance Journalism” and the collapse of norms and standards in the media during campaign 2020. As you may have noticed, we are still digging our way out of that wreckage. Case in point, the NYT’s admission last week that the emails on Hunter Biden’s laptop were authentic, not anything close to Russian disinformation. Likewise revelations about Kamala Harris’ experience and competence as well as Biden’s mental fitness. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">But many in the media resist accountability, still unready to acknowledge how far off the rails the press went in order to drive Trump from the White House. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Along these lines, I’m looking pretty closely at Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg’s<b> <i><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-who-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/" style="color: #954f72;">Suckers and Losers</a></i></b> piece from early September, 2020, and would really like answers to the questions I have been posing to you at regular intervals for more than a year now, but which you and others at the Atlantic I’ve reached out to---Don Peck, David Frum, Jim Fallows and Nicholas Thompson--- have refused to engage. Again: For more than a year now. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">The follow up reporting that Goldberg said would be forthcoming over 18 months ago has not materialized. I’m getting the feeling that Goldberg’s piece is not nearly as sturdy as he insisted when it first dropped. In fact, after much triangulated reading and re-reporting, I can’t dismiss that the piece may in fact be a “Deep State” dirty trick that Goldberg got suckered by, or that it might be a fabrication---a good-old, whole-cloth hoax. As the hacks on Fleet street used to say back in the day, “Make it early. Make it short. And if you have to make it up.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">So once again I’d ask you have a look my inquiries and come back with some kind of response. My questions are:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b>1/ </b>A few days after the piece dropped, Goldberg said he would have more reporting in the coming days to bolster the story; CNN characterized him as saying what we’d seen so far was just “the tip of the iceberg.” Addressing his reliance on four anonymous sources to make the claims he did about Trump’s reluctance to go to a World War I American military cemetery while in France, Goldberg told Jim Sciutto that he would be “continuing to make the effort to move this material directly on to the record.” </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">So, what happened to that reportorial effort to expose the rest of the iceberg by getting the unnamed sources to forgo their anonymity? (In fact, instead of an iceberg, there has been even less than a warm bucket of spit.) Why didn’t Goldberg have any luck in moving his sources onto the record as he assured us they would? And why was he so confident those anonymous sources were going to come forward; had they agreed to do so before and then pulled out after the piece came out, perhaps dismayed by the way the Atlantic seemed to have coordinated the publication of the piece with post-Labor Day Biden campaign schedule? Did Goldberg get out too far over his skis on this point, panicked maybe by the pressure that skeptics of the piece put on him? (I’m pretty sure I saw flop-sweat when Goldberg was on <i>CNN’s</i> Reliable Sources w Brian Stelter.) </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b>2/ </b>Goldberg’s piece maintained that Trump didn’t go to the military cemetery in France because he had contempt for the dead soldiers there and that the excuse he gave that the weather was too inclement to fly in a helicopter to the cemetery was a cover for not wanting to drive the 1.5+ hours each way it would take there, which might get his high-maintenance hairdo wet. On one cable interview, Goldberg added that Marine pilots were actually miffed at Trump blaming the weather, taking it as a slight to their flying skills. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Within days it was learned that the Navy had in fact determined that bad weather had made it too risky to fly and that documentation of that determination was sought and received in a 2018 FOIA request by Buzzfeed’s Jason Leopold, which Leopold had posted on Leopold’s Twitter account, which was not referenced in Goldberg’s story. This documentation would seem to have splintered a major plank of Goldberg’s story. And also raised more doubts about his heavy reliance on anonymous sources when more objective documentary evidence was not too hard to find. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">So why was there never a correction to the story, or at least an editorial clarification noting what the Navy said about the weather in France at the time and the decision to forego flying that day? Why did your fact checkers decide to go with what the anonymous sources said about the decision not to fly over what the Navy told Jason Leopold in 2018, presuming the fact checkers were aware of that FOIA request? What’s with this concealment? (Apologies for the trope.) </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b>3/ </b>The piece says that Goldberg’s relied on “four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day.”<b> </b>It distinctly does not say these people were actually on the line for these discussions and accurately heard what was being discussed first hand, perhaps by themselves or by others in the chain of command. This suggests to me that the sources of information about that phone call might have been from the national security personnel who routinely monitor presidential phone calls, either when the president is speaking with foreign leaders in the Oval office or when the president is travelling overseas. It also suggests that the “first-hand knowledge” of the substance of the discussions might have been distorted in the re-telling, as in a game of phone tag, either innocently or intentionally. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Could what Goldberg’s sources said was “first-hand knowledge” of the discussion actually have been something other than “first-hand?” Did the <i>Atlantic</i> make any effort to determine whether what Goldberg heard was actually “from the horse’s’ mouth?” </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b>4/ </b>Alex Marlow, editor of Breitbart and author of the NYT best-seller <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Breaking-News-Exposing-Establishment-Corruption/dp/1982160748" style="color: #954f72;">Breaking The News: Exposing the Media’s Hidden Deals and Secret Corruption</a>. (Threshold Editions, May 2021) </i> says the strongest reason for doubting the Goldberg story is the numerous for-the-record denials from various Trump aides who were on the trip and would have been in direct position to know because they were in the room when discussions were being conducted between the President’s entourage in France and the Secret Service in Washington. (pp 43-48) Why were these sources not contacted for the original piece? And why were their subsequent denials to other publications not noted in any follow up reporting once those denials were noted? Not all of the deniers were still working for Trump or even in his good graces at the point Goldberg published his piece, it should be noted. John Bolton, for example, had left the White House in a highly agitated, irritable state and had published a very negative book about Trump and his experience as National Security Director. Bolton said he never spoke to anyone from the Atlantic and certainly did not hear anything that Goldberg reports. Did you reach out to these Trump aides and officials and were rebuffed? Or did you not reach out? </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b>5/ </b>I noticed that Goldberg interviewed Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman shortly after the Suckers and Losers piece, posting that interview on September 14</span><span style="font-size: 13pt; position: relative; top: -4pt;">th</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">. Can’t help but ask: Was Vindman a source or did he help Goldberg locate a source, courtesy of the network of national security aides Vindman was part of before the Ukraine/Impeachment imbroglio and his subsequent retirement earlier this year? Was there any involvement from <a href="https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2019/10/30/whistleblower_exposed_close_to_biden_brennan_dnc_oppo_researcher_120996.html" style="color: #954f72;">Eric Ciaramella,</a> the CIA analyst who was te actual whistleblower on the Trump’s Ukraine impeachment phone call with whom Vindman colluded? Did Goldberg have any role in securing Vindman a <a href="https://global.upenn.edu/perryworldhouse/person/alexander-s-vindman" style="color: #954f72;">visiting fellowship</a> at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House this last year for his PhD? </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b>6/</b> Did Goldberg’s much-derided and debunked <i>New Yorker</i> piece about Saddam’s fictitious WMD program and Saddam’s equally fictitious ties to Al Qaeda (<i><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/03/25/the-great-terror" style="color: #954f72;">The Great Terror</a>,</i> March 25, 2002) cast a shadow over the fact checking process for the <i>Suckers and Losers</i> piece? Many of Goldberg’s sources on that effort---anonymous sources as well as sources who allowed themselves to be named---quite obviously lied to Goldberg, and inputs from intelligence sources--- American, German and Israeli---were unreliable. Were there a lot of “on author” notations on the Atlantic manuscript as a New Yorker fact checker told me there was on that 2002 WMD piece, meaning that the magazine had no documentation and had to rely on Goldberg’s word and that word alone? Are any of those fact checkers still working at the Atlantic? </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b>7/ </b>Could you comment on the account of Suckers and Losers in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Soul-Inside-Democrats-Campaigns/dp/1984878077" style="color: #954f72;">Battle for the Soul: Inside the Democrats’ Campaigns to Defeat Trump,</a> a book that was published in May of last year(2021) by former Atlantic writer Edward-Isaac Dovere who is now at CNN? (see pp 415-416)<b> </b> If you’ll recall, a day or so after the <i>Suckers and Losers</i> piece dropped, Dovere put a question to Biden at a press conference about it---the lead question in fact. What did Biden think about the story and what it said about Trump’s “soul,” Dovere wanted to know. So at that point in time, at the very beginning of the campaign’s final, post-Labor Day leg, I think it’s safe to assume that Dovere had no problem with the credibility of the piece.</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">But the way that Dovere’s book is worded in relation to the Goldberg piece leaves the impression that the author lost a bit of confidence in it since the time Goldberg’s piece dropped and the time the book went to the printer. (Note, again, that Dovere left the Atlantic and is now at CNN) It’s as if he’s trying to distance himself from it, that he developed the sense that it is tainted. Dovere doesn’t even mention the Goldberg piece by its title, instead referring to it as “an article in the Atlantic.” And his description of the text lacks detail, as if a fact-checker or a lawyer went through it and took out anything that could not be corroborated or verified independently. Anybody at the Atlantic notice this? Anyone from outside the magazine reviewing Dovere’s book or writing about it for publicity call in about this?<b></b></span><b><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b>8/</b> I have not done any kind of rigorous analysis of the frequency of Goldberg’s television appearances since <i>Suckers & Losers</i> but you as the magazine’s publicist probably have that information at the ready. Has the publicly-aired doubts about this article’s credibility and veracity led any TV bookers to bar or cancel Goldberg in places where he might have otherwise been invited? </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">9/ </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Goldberg’s story implies that Trump was less than patriotic---and that on that trip to France at least, he put his complicated hairdo first instead of valorizing honorably dead American soldiers.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">But is Goldberg the appropriate person to cast aspersions here about patriotism given his own complicated relationship to American patriotism? Many saw Goldberg’s erroneous WMD story as an example of “Israel First” journalism practiced by many neocons in the run-up to the Iraq Invasion: Which makes him an ironic defender of the honor of American troops, almost 5000 of whom perished in Iraq. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Could you help me understand why Goldberg was never held to account for that 2002 WMD story---neither by the <i>New Yorker</i> or by the <i>Atlantic</i>--- despite the WMD story representing one of the most salient journalistic blunders of all time? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Also, why Goldberg himself has never explained his reportorial failures here, and why he has been abusive and mean whenever he’s been pressed about it, most notably by the German war correspondent Carolin Emcke, author of <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Echoes-Violence-Letters-Reporter-Humanity-ebook/dp/B07DMWMQNH" style="color: #954f72;">Echoes of Violence</a></i>? It might be relevant here to know whether Goldberg still a dual US-Israeli citizen or has he given up the Israeli passport as he told Paul Starobin of the <i><a href="https://www.washingtonian.com/2013/01/29/jeffrey-goldberg-washingtons-most-pugnacious-journalist/" style="color: #954f72;">Washingtonian</a></i> he was about to do in 2013? And how did one of the most important magazines in America come to have someone as its editor-in-chief who has served in <i>Israel’s</i> military but not that of the United States? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><b><span style="font-size: 13pt;">10/</span></b><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> From April 6 to April 8<sup>th</sup> </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics and <i>The Atlantic </i>will jointly host a conference called <a href="https://news.uchicago.edu/story/institute-politics-co-host-conference-disinformation-and-erosion-democracy">“Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy.”</a> The gathering is being described as “a groundbreaking three-day event exploring the organized spread of disinformation and strategies to respond to it.” The conference will bring together “</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">a top-tier group of experts, policymakers, journalists and politicians to analyze this important phenomenon.” Among the participants are former President Barack Obama ( who will be interviewed by Goldberg), David Axelrod (who heads the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago) and Joan Donovan (of Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Policy). Joining them will be <i>New York Times</i> tech columnist Kara Swisher, former <i>Times</i> media critic Ben Smith, The <i>Atlantic’s</i> Anne Applebaum and Chris Krebs, former DHS cyber security director for elections. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Explaining the basis for the conference, Axelrod said that </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">disinformation and conspiracy theories “have become weapons with which to foment mistrust in our institutions, sow division and even political violence.” According to Goldberg: “Disinformation causes a great deal of stress on otherwise functioning democracies, and <i>The Atlantic</i>’s preoccupation, for 165 years, has been the state of American democracy, and the state of the democratic idea worldwide,” said Goldberg. <u> <o:p></o:p></u></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Th <i>Atlantic</i> has been an keen-eyed sentry on the disinformation watch all through the Trump years. But it has also been a victim of disinformation, its susceptibilities to it on display in the overzealous way its own "top-tier" scribes have gone about reporting on it. It dismissed the Hunter Biden laptop story, gave credence to the Russia Collusion hoax, was credulous about the Christopher Steele dossier at that hoax’s core and advanced Franklin Foer's completely bullshit Alpha Bank story which was planted by attorneys & operatives for Hillary Clinton's campaign-----including the hiring of Foer--- <i>after</i> the bogus story ran. It also pretended not to notice when its stories on these subjects came a cropper ---and that that Special Prosecutor John Durham is putting together a pretty good case against the Democratic National committee and its lawyers for lying to the FBI and to the CIA in order to get the government to surveil the Trump campaign in 2016. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Will there be a panel on the Atlantic’s own dysfunctional experience with disinformation, the Deep State dirty tricks it has been a part of <i>and</i> the erosion of its own </span><span style="font-size: 17.33333396911621px;">journalistic</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 17.33333396911621px;">credibility</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> this has caused? </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">If so, might you think about calling that panel “Suckers & Losers?”</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p></div><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>William McGowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02274145173711322404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6207248284996418153.post-73729353183371263542022-01-06T15:43:00.002-08:002022-01-06T15:51:32.209-08:00'A Problem From Hell:' US AID Director Samantha Power's Whiney Self-Pardoning January 6 Cliches <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhlRE4qzva72zxdyUZaSPKrVLpzr_zp8N5q-nDeH7attrPOU_Aksgqd6cVO2SnZdazku6W-Ag-JGqlo46Mi7VVI13e6XRpTbfMxlA5ZICJTL9f-D5LsDFlD_4q1JW3U5bp10YBNgMoxLEls1I952oJdnbfvCjlBnzLmwAklzhzNTBfSj4ulrmFAkR8E=s1274" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="906" data-original-width="1274" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhlRE4qzva72zxdyUZaSPKrVLpzr_zp8N5q-nDeH7attrPOU_Aksgqd6cVO2SnZdazku6W-Ag-JGqlo46Mi7VVI13e6XRpTbfMxlA5ZICJTL9f-D5LsDFlD_4q1JW3U5bp10YBNgMoxLEls1I952oJdnbfvCjlBnzLmwAklzhzNTBfSj4ulrmFAkR8E=w400-h285" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">From <i>Breitbart News:</i></span><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></i><i><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/01/06/usaid-chief-samantha-power-my-job-is-harder-today-than-it-was-before-january-6/" style="color: #954f72;">USAID Chief Samantha Power: My Job Is ‘Harder Today than It Was Before’ January 6</a></span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><i><br /></i></b></p></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) administrator Samantha Power claimed her agency’s work is “harder today than it was before” the January 6 Capitol riots on the anniversary of the event.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 9pt 0in; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 13pt;">Power characterized the Capitol riots as an attack on democracy and claimed that the lesson of the event was that “democracy must be defended,” according to a letter obtained by Breitbart News.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 9pt 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 13pt;">“A violent mob, consumed by lies and incited by peddlers of conspiracy theories, breached our nation’s Capitol in an attempt to overturn the will of the people and prevent a transfer of power that is a hallmark of our democracy,” Power wrote.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 9pt 0in; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 13pt;">Power said those involved in the riots did “grievous harm” to “confidence in the strength of American democracy.” She further claimed the event caused damage to the country’s global standing among other nations and the “importance of nonviolent political transitions.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 9pt 0in; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 13pt;">She emphasized the impact January 6 had on America’s global standing once more, claiming, “We have since seen autocrats wield the events of January 6 to diminish America’s leadership and delegitimize our efforts to support global democracy.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 9pt 0in; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 13pt;">As head of USAID, Power is one of America’s representatives on the world stage. Her duties include monitoring the United States’ response to “conflict and humanitarian crises; and democratic backsliding.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 9pt 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 13pt;">Power is a longtime diplomat who previously represented America internationally while serving as U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations during the Obama-Biden administration.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 13pt;">Powers’ views on January 6 mirror her former boss, former President Barack Obama. Obama <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/01/06/barack-obama-democracy-greater-risk-today-january-6/" style="color: #954f72; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #00749e;">claimed</span></a>, “our democracy is at greater risk today than it was back then,” on the event’s anniversary.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 9pt 0in; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 13pt;">Power similarly alleged that the events of January 6 made her job at USAID more challenging than it would otherwise be.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 9pt 0in; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 13pt;">“There is no question that our work at USAID to promote democratic processes and ideals is harder today than it was before the insurrection,” she wrote.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 9pt 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 13pt;">Power described democracy as an “ongoing journey,” then posited that the United States’ “divisions and setbacks” are good reasons for the country to address alleged domestic threats to democracy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-style: inherit; line-height: 14pt; margin: 9pt 0in; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 13pt;">Our own nation’s divisions and setbacks should encourage us to both confront the urgent threats to democracy at home and to approach others on the journey with humility. But we should never doubt the virtue of our pursuit.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 9pt 0in; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 13pt;">She commended Congress for certifying the 2020 election results following the breach of the Capitol. Power concluded her letter by claiming the lesson January 6 teaches us is “that democracy must be defended.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>William McGowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02274145173711322404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6207248284996418153.post-73664534709062314662021-12-25T10:06:00.003-08:002021-12-25T10:27:22.908-08:00On A Silent Retreat Along The Hudson, A Skeptic Quietly Looks For 'The Present Possibility of God' <p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjKAfGIR8j1fbSrBTv981CgvMrZWJ5tWuMgCfgbnEJOR9Lt_q4813HuvZbrSSBalNTwNTsjaQEGeDLPf1Wa9OlBpZdeECKDi6AQPrxsW3AlGTqXc9xbC8LBw1U4xXoXcUj9twfSG0T_JyIb6-NvYFbQI4_CFVeI0vWKMX-_PTq4rBuAp-xOI6rTGlWz=s1588" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1216" data-original-width="1588" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjKAfGIR8j1fbSrBTv981CgvMrZWJ5tWuMgCfgbnEJOR9Lt_q4813HuvZbrSSBalNTwNTsjaQEGeDLPf1Wa9OlBpZdeECKDi6AQPrxsW3AlGTqXc9xbC8LBw1U4xXoXcUj9twfSG0T_JyIb6-NvYFbQI4_CFVeI0vWKMX-_PTq4rBuAp-xOI6rTGlWz=w400-h306" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><b><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Here’s a Christmas story for the quietly faithful. From the <i>WSJ</i>, December, 1998: <i><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB91273692817564500" style="color: #954f72;">Quiet, Please</a>.</i><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">"An acre of woods or seashore is not necessary to meet God." So notes the Jesuit writer William Barry, pointing out that it was in the cosmopolitan tumult of 16th-century Paris, and not in some pastoral setting, that St. Ignatius of Loyola gave spiritual instruction to the men who helped him found the Society of Jesus. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">But standing on the grounds of the Linwood Spiritual Center in Rhinebeck, N.Y., I can't help thinking that, for the average spiritually challenged person, a little solitary contact with nature might be a good thing. Located 90 miles north of New York City, the center sits on a promontory at one of the Hudson River's most majestic points. By day, the river sparkles with late autumn sunlight. At night the landscape is wrapped in absolute darkness. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Apparently mine isn't the only soul that finds such a setting propitious. Around the country, men and women who hope to feel "the present possibility of God," as the theologians put it, are seeking out places like Linwood, drawn as much by the relief from urban stress as by the regimens of silence that are often imposed. "Sanctuaries: A Guide to Lodgings in Monasteries, Abbeys and Retreats" lists more than 1,200 retreat centers in the U.S. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Although most religious traditions value contemplation, it is generally the Roman Catholic religious orders that run such retreats. Linwood -- once a home of Jacob Rupert Schalk, a brewery magnate -- became the property of the Sisters of Ursula in 1963. Founded in France in 1606, the Sisters of Ursula, like their Jesuit brethren, try to fuse contemplative withdrawal with worldly engagement. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The nuns at Linwood have not taken lifelong vows of silence, but they do follow the precepts of Ignatian Spirituality, which commend periods of silence as a means of achieving the mystical recognition that God is in all things. Some of the nuns function as "spiritual directors" to visitors. In the course of a year, more than a 1,000 retreaters from all walks of life come to stay at Linwood, many spending their vacation time there. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">According to the Christian mystical tradition, silence is not just a pause between words but a medium that allows one to feel God "principally stirring and working," as the great Jesuit scholar William Johnston has written. There is a common misconception that silence is the means through which the contemplative achieves a oneness with God. In fact, the point of silence is to allow one to recognize that the oneness already exists, and that feelings of loneliness and despair are unfounded. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">As I made my own plans for Linwood, I thought that -- at the simplest level -- four or five days in retreat would be a break from the stress of a turbulent period in my life. But I also hoped for the kind of transformative experience that would reassure me that there was in fact A Plan and that God had included me in it. Abstractly, I believed in God, but it had been a long time since I could say I had felt his Presence. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">On the train I fretted over whether I'd find the experience of silence liberating or oppressive. I had read stories about people who had sought out the quiet of a monastic retreat only to flee, unnerved by the intensity of the introspection. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Once I settled into the routine, however -- hours of solitary walking, reading and exercising punctuated by basic meals and an hour a day in conference with my spiritual director -- silence seemed like the most natural thing in the world. Although there were plenty of people around, I found myself not really interested in conversation, except (once) to find out who won the D'Amato-Schumer Senate race. Hardly a hair shirt, the verbal deprivation and solitude seemed almost luxurious. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Sitting alone in the library one night, I seemed to sense the point "where something in the silence takes over and becomes active on its own," to borrow a phrase from the cleric Morton Kelsey. Touched by a feeling of surpassing contentment, I came about as close to a "still point" as I have ever come. The silence made the air lighter, more oxygenated -- clearer, even as it had become more richly textured. Silence really wasn't the absence of media, I began to sense. It was a medium unto itself, flooded with messages of subtle power. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Not that the regime of silence was all sweetness and light. The bliss of night-time library visits competed with alternating states of anger and frustration on my daily walks. Anger, in part, at living in a media culture that so readily marginalized anything to do with the sacred, a culture ready to drown authentic spiritual striving in an ocean of irony. (I could just hear my friends groaning as I talked to them about this piece.) Frustration over the fact that, no matter how hard I tried to convert the feeling of contentment into a transfiguring spiritual dividend, I couldn't. Listening to the honkings of the geese in the bogs below, I began to wonder whether I was being mocked. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Gradually, though, a new insight took hold, arriving from where I do not know. Although the Bible often presents spiritual transformation in dramatic terms -- the burning bush, the blinding light -- in fact for most people it does not come in blows. Spiritual apprehension is rather a subtle and incremental thing, in which an awareness of God develops slowly and deepens over time. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I had entered the retreat with the hope of being bowled over. It was only after I realized how unrealistic this expectation was that I began to feel the nonepiphany epiphany that made the trip worthwhile. Although the "present possibility of God" remained for me only that -- a possibility -- there was nevertheless a fortifying certainty of heart. No blinding light but a foundation to build on. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">After five days, breaking the silence was a bit of a let-down, although it did offer me a chance to explore another kind of mystery. On my first night at Linwood, one of the groundskeepers had urged me to try to get a look at an albino deer that they had started seeing a few months before, around the time that Sister Rosemary McNamara, an albino herself, had arrived from North Carolina. I thought the story was just a hazing ritual, but this didn't stop me from patrolling the grounds after dinner, squinting into the dark, looking for the unicorn, so to speak. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ending my silence, I couldn't help asking Sister Rosemary about the deer. "That would be my cousin, Belva," she said, smiling. "The name is Russian -- for white." As elating as it was to confirm the existence of this creature, the words that followed left a deeper impression. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I confided to her that I was worried that everything I had sensed that week was going to fade as soon as I left. She sat across the lunch table, the afternoon sun turning her into a pillar of blazing light. "You can either let this experience change your life, or you can say it was all a delusion," she said quite directly. "It's up to you." <o:p></o:p></span></p>William McGowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02274145173711322404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6207248284996418153.post-81552203146788913252021-11-01T08:11:00.013-07:002021-11-04T12:44:24.380-07:00The Captive Mind: Is Alice Still In 'Wonderland' Or Is She In The White House? <p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXczstiBAOItV5xiPOGxkpk0V1WGlz7NdhiQEmgUHEz7qE8rtlpJNSTe3iFRUlpfRf5gvEvl-ia9Q6k0DYUbylHvLig9SHvIluZoYJoGIZc__Ky6TvuOC0vetfG61j2Jsf5tYSHOG6tLI/s1826/ALICE-JEN+PSAKIScreen+Shot+2021-10-31+at+12.27.06+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1184" data-original-width="1826" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXczstiBAOItV5xiPOGxkpk0V1WGlz7NdhiQEmgUHEz7qE8rtlpJNSTe3iFRUlpfRf5gvEvl-ia9Q6k0DYUbylHvLig9SHvIluZoYJoGIZc__Ky6TvuOC0vetfG61j2Jsf5tYSHOG6tLI/w400-h259/ALICE-JEN+PSAKIScreen+Shot+2021-10-31+at+12.27.06+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Joe Biden campaigned on restoring the </span></b><b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Soul of America,</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> borrowing the title of a book by his friend & presidential historian Jon Meacham. The slogan, dripping in virtue and moral righteousness, implicitly promised he and his administration would be guided by the transparency and honesty that Donald Trump, often referred to as the nation’s “Liar in Chief,” so egregiously lacked. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">But as we have seen all too vividly recently, the president and his enablers are spectacular liars. They </span></span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">attempted to spin the debacle in Afghanizatan into “an extradordinary success,” to declare that the southern border with Mexico is “closed” even though 2 million migrants have poured over it this year and snipped that the supply chain crisis merely means that the well-to-do will have to be a little more patient about when their Stairmasters will arrive. In this administration White House press spokeswoman Jen Psaki is the penultimate gaslighter; she raises falsehood, obfuscation and concealment to an </span></span></span></b><b style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">art form</span></b><b style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> that is practically occult. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">As <i>WSJ</i> columnist Dan Henninger noted two weeks back we may have reached a tipping point in the way Americans conceive reality, citing the ways in which Team Biden has propelled us to this pass. “Ms. Psaki's skill at reordering reality for Mr. Biden is mesmerizing," Henninger wrote, "and I say without irony that she will be seen as an important figure in the transformation from believing what is real to believing what we're told is real .” </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">A few days later the <i>National Review’s</i> Charlie Cooke satirized the Psaki style in exactly the right literary idiom, placing her “in dialogue,” as the post modernists would have it, with the hallucinogenic fiction created by Lewis Carroll. </span></b><b><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">“Rumor has it that Alice (from <i>Through the Looking Glass</i> and <i>Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland</i>) is preparing to apply for a job in the White House press office,” Cooke noted. “If I had a world of my own,” Cooke quotes Alice as saying, perhaps lifting a line from the job interview notes she had prepared, “everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrariwise, what it is, it wouldn’t be, and what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?” </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">Cooke explained that Alice was certainly in the right place at the right time to apply for the “For having offered himself up as the savior of the American way, President Biden now finds himself in something of a pickle.” </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">The </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="about://"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #c60800; letter-spacing: -0.1pt; padding: 0in;">jobs reports are lackluster</span></a></span></i><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">. The border is a mess. </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="about://"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #c60800; letter-spacing: -0.1pt; padding: 0in;">Gas prices</span></a></span></i><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"> are sky high. Our supply chains are broken. Inflation, which was supposed to be “transitory,” looks more persistent by the day. Americans remain stranded in Afghanistan. </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="about://"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #c60800; letter-spacing: -0.1pt; padding: 0in;">China’s testing space nukes</span></a></span></i><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">. COVID is not only still with us; it’s making its way into the Good States. And, despite its having been given a jolly, catchy name — the “Build Back Better agenda” — all the public seems to know about the president’s gargantuan spending plan is that it will cost trillions upon trillions of dollars. </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">Down the rabbit hole, though, everything is still peachy. </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">Indeed, insofar as America has any problems to speak of, they’re held to be either nonexistent, inconsequential, or somehow your fault. You may think you watched in horror a few months ago as a </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="about://"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #c60800; letter-spacing: -0.1pt; padding: 0in;">generational debacle unfolded in Kabul</span></a></span></i><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">, but what you actually saw was “the largest US airlift in history.” Hurrah! </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">You may believe that the </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="about://"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #c60800; letter-spacing: -0.1pt; padding: 0in;">southern border has been in a perpetual state of crisis</span></a></span></i><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"> from the moment Biden took office, but this is merely the sort of quotidian “circumstance” that could have happened under any president and is only happening now due to the inexplicable vagaries of climate change. How unfair! </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">On first glance, you might think it more than a little startling that the Chinese Communist Party has managed to contrive a cache of </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="about://"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #c60800; letter-spacing: -0.1pt; padding: 0in;">hypersonic nuclear weapons</span></a></span></i><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"> that, if deployed correctly, would zip right past our defenses, but what you’re for some reason missing is that when it comes to the prospect of a nuclear apocalypse, </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="about://"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #c60800; letter-spacing: -0.1pt; padding: 0in;">“stiff competition” between nations is “welcome.”</span></a></span></i><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"> Natch. </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">That </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="about://"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #c60800; letter-spacing: -0.1pt; padding: 0in;">inflation you’re worried about</span></a></span></i><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">? It’s not going to happen, says the president. Or, at least, if it does happen, it’ll be because the government wasn’t permitted to spend enough of your cash. And anyhow, when you really think about it, inflation is a pretty </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="about://"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #c60800; letter-spacing: -0.1pt; padding: 0in;">“high-class problem”</span></a></span></i><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"> to have, isn’t it? In that sense, it’s a little like supply-chain disruptions, which you might well believe have the potential to seriously inconvenience you, but which, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg confirms, are really just the positive byproducts of Biden’s having “successfully guided this economy out of the teeth of a terrifying recession.” </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">Asked today about the potential impact that this successful economic guidance might have on the delivery of consumer products going forward, </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="about://"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #c60800; letter-spacing: -0.1pt; padding: 0in;">White House press secretary Jen Psaki explained </span></a></span></i><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">that we don’t really need a functioning market anyhow. No one, she sniffed, should shed any tears at “the tragedy of the treadmill that’s delayed.” </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">Bothered by this approach? There’s no need to be. Instead, relax into what the Washington Post’s Micheline Maynard submits should be your “new, more realistic expectations” for the future. “American consumers,” Maynard points out, have been “pampered and catered to for decades,” to such an extent that their first reaction to deteriorating economic conditions may well be to engage in an unacceptable and “spoiled” “whine” rather than to simply “make adjustments” so that the president’s feelings might be spared. </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">Oh, and while you’re at it, you might take a moment to appreciate the sheer ingenuity of the alchemy by which this administration has managed to </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="about://"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #c60800; letter-spacing: -0.1pt; padding: 0in;">transmute $3.5 trillion into $0 </span></a></span></i><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">through good intentions alone. Previous generations — the ones that sat around worrying about treadmills delayed in transit, no doubt — had to face hard questions, such as how best to raise the money they wanted to spend on public services. Our generation, by a striking piece of luck, can just insist those choices away with incantations. What a trick! </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">It’s so devilishly clever, in fact — and so terribly simple to boot — that one can’t help but wonder why it hadn’t been thought of until now. </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">All one must do to achieve the effect is respond to any criticisms whatsoever with an emphatic, “No, you absolute rotter, that isn’t happening at all; and if it is happening, it’s not too bad, really; and if it is bad, it won’t be bad for long; and if it is bad for long, well, that’ll be your fault.” </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">Then, having handily dispatched one’s enemies, one can simply move on to the next objection, which, yes, might be based on things that people are actually seeing, but which is equally ill-founded, for reasons that will be decided upon by Twitter within the next few days. </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">Alice, she says, is able to believe “six impossible things before breakfast.” Looks as if she’ll get the job. </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>William McGowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02274145173711322404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6207248284996418153.post-92190253521031669652021-10-31T08:03:00.002-07:002021-10-31T08:14:51.579-07:00First It Was Christmas. Then It Was Free Speech. Now the Grinch Wants To Steal Halloween! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj476Ndj_KzjNF3qCzlZAtU-9RlGzWRWo7sy5ElzJISPyJZWnglo8V2L8Y6LBi5hS0PsbE9uQJPJFiiP8O4iFrP9PB3uR2WQzrM87BxLsiqQWXswXcaPLMBS-WK9k3rlHqJYu-lJTYs-Ss/s1350/GRINCH%253A+ADL+Screen+Shot+2021-10-31+at+8.49.33+AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="476" data-original-width="1350" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj476Ndj_KzjNF3qCzlZAtU-9RlGzWRWo7sy5ElzJISPyJZWnglo8V2L8Y6LBi5hS0PsbE9uQJPJFiiP8O4iFrP9PB3uR2WQzrM87BxLsiqQWXswXcaPLMBS-WK9k3rlHqJYu-lJTYs-Ss/w400-h141/GRINCH%253A+ADL+Screen+Shot+2021-10-31+at+8.49.33+AM.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #0f0f0f; font-size: 13pt;"><b>From <i>Breitbart News</i>: </b></span><a href="https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/10/24/adl-tells-parents-to-avoid-culturally-insensitive-gender-conforming-halloween-costumes/" style="background-color: transparent; caret-color: rgb(149, 79, 114); color: #954f72; font-size: 17.33333396911621px; font-weight: bold;">ADL Warns: Avoid Culturally Insensitive, Gender-conforming Halloween Costumes </a></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #0f0f0f; font-size: 13pt;">The increasingly partisan Anti-Defamation League (ADL) interjected itself into the annual Halloween debate this week when the organization advised parents to avoid Halloween costumes that are culturally insensitive and perpetuate gender norms. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #0f0f0f; font-size: 13pt;">“Halloween is a week away and you and your family might be brainstorming costume ideas,” the ADL tweeted on Sunday. “Check out our resource for reminders about how and why to avoid cultural appropriation, cultural stereotypes, and costumes that perpetuate gender norms.” </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #0f0f0f; font-size: 13pt;">According to the </span><span style="color: #00729b; font-size: 13pt;">ADL</span><span style="color: #0f0f0f; font-size: 13pt;">, parents should not let their children indulge in their desired costume if it appropriates from any culture, most especially Native American. If the child asks to dress up as Pocahontas, the ADL advised that parents use it as a teaching opportunity to enlighten their child’s mind to the rich cultural heritage of Native Americans. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #0f0f0f; font-size: 13pt;"><i>Before Halloween, be proactive by addressing these issues in advance and use it as an educational opportunity to discuss stereotypes, bias and cultural appropriation. Many children and families don’t realize that their costume choices are potentially hurtful or offensive. For example, a child who may be interested in Native American stories and history wants to dress up as a Native American person. Consider it an opportunity to talk with them about how Native American dress is not a costume. Instead, it is an essential part of identity, unique to each different tribe with their own customs and ways of dress. </i></span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #0f0f0f; font-size: 13pt;">Help children understand that Halloween costumes are only fun or funny when they don’t hurt or make fun of other people or spread stereotypes. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #0f0f0f; font-size: 13pt;"><i>Beyond mere costumes that incorporate sombreros, hachimakis, or dashikis, the ADL also cautioned against costumes that offend people of lower economic status, such as “hobos,” “bums” or “rednecks.” </i></span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #0f0f0f; font-size: 13pt;">Of course, none of those offenses compare to the horrific social crime of perpetuating “restrictive social norms around gender and sexual orientation.” </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #0f0f0f; font-size: 13pt;">While costumes targeted to boys place heavy emphasis on superheroes and action figures, choices like these convey the message that boys should be scary and gruesome. Many children are attracted to traditional gendered costumes, think girls who love princesses or boys who are obsessed with action heroes. When that is the case, it is best not to reinforce that these are the only appropriate options available. Engage in conversations with young people about gender stereotypes and discuss messages that companies send through marketing and advertising. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #0f0f0f; font-size: 13pt;"><i>Many Halloween costumes perpetuate gender stereotypes and exclude those who don’t conform to traditional gender norms, especially those who are transgender, non-binary or gender non-conforming. Be mindful that you may have students who feel excluded and marginalized by the overly gendered way Halloween costumes are marketed. </i></span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #0f0f0f; font-size: 13pt;">Addressing teachers whose gender non-conforming students might feel ashamed in the presence of such gender-specific costumes, the ADL suggested schools tell the students that “there aren’t boy’s and girl’s costumes.” </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJYSRDmoIKdKC4Ac__tKLdh2dh7g241gcdJdJV9WivTJ6HQmP90_E2cn7Ab1gseGjYTi-Phd-MwvmUgjQNjP3jqhx_fi5ZzReqU-zTaTnQus-6PSsZ3r2tXVzZPJlSbORsEhNvRKMkQhg/s1264/COSTUMES_Screen+Shot+2021-10-31+at+11.12.35+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="904" data-original-width="1264" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJYSRDmoIKdKC4Ac__tKLdh2dh7g241gcdJdJV9WivTJ6HQmP90_E2cn7Ab1gseGjYTi-Phd-MwvmUgjQNjP3jqhx_fi5ZzReqU-zTaTnQus-6PSsZ3r2tXVzZPJlSbORsEhNvRKMkQhg/w320-h229/COSTUMES_Screen+Shot+2021-10-31+at+11.12.35+AM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span><p></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); font-size: 17.33333396911621px;"><b> </b></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); font-size: 17.33333396911621px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>William McGowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02274145173711322404noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6207248284996418153.post-77855135168511877862021-09-11T11:20:00.009-07:002021-10-10T08:07:45.711-07:00Day One In The Long War: Twenty Years After, 9/11 Feels Like Long Ago---And Only Yesterday<p style="text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA0m3T9_hq42QT4WbUoGRFEF1EOKZBhdnbKqH-bi5JnVIcNTggLjg-ezT1nqwFjC5AQlMPWC2fHsvtxtaXI6vLcNw5IpHuodVB1rS-4GdSVVPm0NGNOxLEDZ5h4bP5sn__bVRzXr3ZWTk/s1600/1-Screen+Shot+2018-09-11+at+5.17.13+PM.png" style="font-family: calibri; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1059" data-original-width="1600" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA0m3T9_hq42QT4WbUoGRFEF1EOKZBhdnbKqH-bi5JnVIcNTggLjg-ezT1nqwFjC5AQlMPWC2fHsvtxtaXI6vLcNw5IpHuodVB1rS-4GdSVVPm0NGNOxLEDZ5h4bP5sn__bVRzXr3ZWTk/s400/1-Screen+Shot+2018-09-11+at+5.17.13+PM.png" width="400" /></a></p><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: calibri; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 13pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "calibri";">From <i><a href="https://www.newsweek.com/bill-mcgowan-911-reporter-and-citizen-109601">Newsweek</a>, </i>As Citizen & Reporter: A 9/11 Memoir </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 15pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;">Tens of thousands of stunned, dust-covered office workers surged over the Brooklyn Bridge toward me, the devastated skyline at their backs. It was midmorning, September 11, 2001. The second World Trade Center tower had collapsed 20 minutes before; New York’s two tallest buildings reduced to rubble. I had heard on the radio that as many as six other planes had been hijacked. This later proved untrue. But at that moment, no one knew what might come next.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 14pt; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0in 0in 15pt; outline: none 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;">The impact of the second plane had rattled the windows of my Brooklyn Heights apartment so violently I had thought they might break. I’d rushed to my roof to see the towers first burn, then fall. The falling steel and shards of glass glinted in the glorious late-summer sun as a low volcanic roar swept across the water.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 14pt; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0in 0in 15pt; outline: none 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;">“You’re going the wrong way,” someone shouted. I kept walking, unable to say why. On the bridge were people of every race, ethnicity and social class, but they all wore the same look of terror. A wailing torrent of emergency vehicles set off dust swirls racing to the scene. The closer I got to Manhattan, the darker and smokier it became. As I walked closer, I had to pull my T shirt up over my mouth to breathe. I kept on going, as if the burning hole in the skyline was sucking me into itself.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGaOqxVhDOn46NU8UJBrBOd1s3DZVAwRn3cPWnm3_GP-iRczo0-XSD4OZy9IYQ4PWvT8RQtk69JKNjub0rVeDaIQzg-dOgX6KqJG7Ikvz27udB3WeA1fkv_eWR0bNglk9KEgMNsD9QNe8/s1600/2-Screen+Shot+2018-09-11+at+5.18.26+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1061" data-original-width="1600" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGaOqxVhDOn46NU8UJBrBOd1s3DZVAwRn3cPWnm3_GP-iRczo0-XSD4OZy9IYQ4PWvT8RQtk69JKNjub0rVeDaIQzg-dOgX6KqJG7Ikvz27udB3WeA1fkv_eWR0bNglk9KEgMNsD9QNe8/s400/2-Screen+Shot+2018-09-11+at+5.18.26+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 14pt; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0in 0in 15pt; outline: none 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf6eGl2GXAWsStQSsCPBGceHq5SMTg_fb5MROegdNHc51tcgjFU3AjKdcYKsIJ37vOezTmY74MunTxmzCus32suLIKhUV2SMQg2_BPebk-LIvJzj-1onkJR_ulWWG6nZ2vS0nqzGBWSx0/s1600/3-Screen+Shot+2018-09-11+at+5.17.58+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1047" data-original-width="1600" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf6eGl2GXAWsStQSsCPBGceHq5SMTg_fb5MROegdNHc51tcgjFU3AjKdcYKsIJ37vOezTmY74MunTxmzCus32suLIKhUV2SMQg2_BPebk-LIvJzj-1onkJR_ulWWG6nZ2vS0nqzGBWSx0/s400/3-Screen+Shot+2018-09-11+at+5.17.58+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;">Part of what was driving me was what Sebastian Junger has called an “amoral sense of awe” in the face of destruction, although after a few years as a young war correspondent in South Asia, I’d thought I’d gotten over this necessary journalistic evil. But as I passed police headquarters just over the bridge, I realized there was something else at work. New York is a big city, but for me, part of a family that has had four generations of New York City cops, it was a town, in distress as never before, and I was a townie. And so, for that day at least, “the ways of my people” eclipsed my reportorial instincts. I became a first responder, looking for some way, any way, to help.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 15pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoD3wq-rydXBGjV5oeUHwvjCK9DpBv8w6HzaFd_bX3RyGxCzq5yNFTplqwHWE2aLz8tLW2-v7NoZQMUT48Vr61ONxtLP6ruDHL3sQ0haQLBK0lE1JkDfAfKd__r8fd70dzVA27kjFuvs8/s1600/4-Screen+Shot+2018-09-11+at+5.18.47+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1054" data-original-width="1600" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoD3wq-rydXBGjV5oeUHwvjCK9DpBv8w6HzaFd_bX3RyGxCzq5yNFTplqwHWE2aLz8tLW2-v7NoZQMUT48Vr61ONxtLP6ruDHL3sQ0haQLBK0lE1JkDfAfKd__r8fd70dzVA27kjFuvs8/s400/4-Screen+Shot+2018-09-11+at+5.18.47+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Oao9xJ9jaF_uvxfKsOBwzQKtPULko68tWUY0MDhjafJe_Gkv-5-TGwuAaPn4JeXiukdVPnPCTZdIOX4wjDnLDJTqGboO753pl7sV97ZDgXQjOXVlzkIBMZFbMzUYxUur4dp34xkZBXs/s1600/5-Screen+Shot+2018-09-11+at+5.19.15+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1066" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Oao9xJ9jaF_uvxfKsOBwzQKtPULko68tWUY0MDhjafJe_Gkv-5-TGwuAaPn4JeXiukdVPnPCTZdIOX4wjDnLDJTqGboO753pl7sV97ZDgXQjOXVlzkIBMZFbMzUYxUur4dp34xkZBXs/s400/5-Screen+Shot+2018-09-11+at+5.19.15+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;">At 10:45 that morning, City Hall Park was dusted with four inches of ash. Clouds of smoke and dust choked the streets off lower Broadway. A couple of loud “BA-BOOMS” shook the air—exploding ordnance in the arsenal that the U.S. Secret Service kept in its World Trade Center bunker, I learned later. As I stood dumbstruck across from the Woolworth Building on Broadway, a maniacal, motley-clad man in his 30s came out of the clouds. Pushing a cart loaded with bottles of drinking water, he looked like an extra from the film “Mad Max.” He had pulled a red T shirt over his face, completely obscuring it, and was wearing a pair of outsized aviator glasses. I asked him where the Red Cross was and where volunteers should report. “Just pick up some water and give it out,” he shouted, handing me some water bottles and a paper facemask. “God bless you, sir,” he said over his shoulder as he disappeared into the smoke. “God bless you.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 14pt; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0in 0in 15pt; outline: none 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzDl_NM7edVA_pydl7_-NsLtEfZTaA07dbobxCDoDhAHA-w_lLFcqjF_nomu19hw_zhgwHPtDCz-ErBXuhbYxtD6R9yKlWT9nU1LitJwWR6VFXuU8IK5DrM8TT8_iks8NLHGi6iRnYnO8/s1600/6-Screen+Shot+2018-09-11+at+5.19.37+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzDl_NM7edVA_pydl7_-NsLtEfZTaA07dbobxCDoDhAHA-w_lLFcqjF_nomu19hw_zhgwHPtDCz-ErBXuhbYxtD6R9yKlWT9nU1LitJwWR6VFXuU8IK5DrM8TT8_iks8NLHGi6iRnYnO8/s400/6-Screen+Shot+2018-09-11+at+5.19.37+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;">Then another man, this one in late middle age, staggered out of the clouds, wheezing badly. Wearing a smudged brown suit, he was carrying a preposterous, bulging brown leather briefcase. Grabbing him beneath the arms, I walked him two blocks up Broadway to an oxygen station. The man said he was a senior manager for FEMA. “I dove behind a truck,” he gasped. “That’s the only reason I’m alive. There were people behind me, but I don’t think they made it. There was seven feet of debris on the street.” Nearby, regrouping cops were so covered in dust you could hardly tell their uniforms were blue. Along with battered helmets, they were wearing the proverbial “thousand-yard stare.” They had been among the first at the scene, hit hard by cascading concrete and steel. One, who couldn’t have been more than 22, had been blinded by the debris.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 14pt; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0in 0in 15pt; outline: none 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;">I joined up with several nurses and doctors, some in scrubs, and headed over to a triage center at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. The side streets there were even darker, the air even more noxious. As we double-timed it, a Fire Department paramedic supervisor walking with us took a quick survey. “What skills do we have? Who can do what?” he asked our group. “Who’s a doctor? Nurse? RN? NP? Paramedic? EMT?” First Aid and CPR, I volunteered, sheepishly, skills learned long before as a Central Park ranger.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 15pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;">We passed the Federal Reserve Bank, home to a few billion dollars in U.S. gold reserves. There, the acrid fog was so thick we literally bumped into a phalanx of guards with assault weapons at the ready. The adrenaline level was very high all around.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 14pt; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0in 0in 15pt; outline: none 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;">The chief of the New York Fire Department’s Emergency Medical Services briefed us at the terminal. Ours would be a standard triage with three zones: green for minor injuries, yellow for the next level and red for really serious cases. “There will be no freelancing,” the EMS commander ordered. “If you don’t know something, ask.” As we raced to assemble blood-pressure cuffs and blood-plasma trolleys, a couple of thirsty firemen used their emergency crowbars to try to open a couple of soda machines standing against a wall. They dented the machines but could not open them. Someone just brought down two of the world’s biggest buildings and somehow these soda machines were impregnable.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 14pt; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0in 0in 15pt; outline: none 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQwCnPwcQo-oBlPHJit00u-wYHJ8xfgXtsfu7L7JEm6FwcxJz9QKyRdmXZXGghk372M1F5_PxuhNUfLOKpt6pLJM5b3r-U0fUxwVTj0YzibsgDHLRwMAxd6TC_sUVhCvi24gSB8rTEO0I/s1600/7-Screen+Shot+2018-09-11+at+5.20.31+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1166" data-original-width="1420" height="327" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQwCnPwcQo-oBlPHJit00u-wYHJ8xfgXtsfu7L7JEm6FwcxJz9QKyRdmXZXGghk372M1F5_PxuhNUfLOKpt6pLJM5b3r-U0fUxwVTj0YzibsgDHLRwMAxd6TC_sUVhCvi24gSB8rTEO0I/s400/7-Screen+Shot+2018-09-11+at+5.20.31+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;">I was assigned to keep patients hydrated, to help wash out eyes and to keep track of names. “Got any Scotch?” asked one shaken elderly man when I handed him a cup of water. Almost everyone we treated spoke of ducking or diving into doorways to avoid debris and choking dust. Few had serious injuries; people either got away from the towers or they got killed. But the screams of the few in the red zone were chilling. Around 12:30 p.m., I heard two EMTs whispering to each other, not realizing I was in earshot. “We lost a lot of guys,” one said out of the side of his mouth. “They set up the command center right at the base of the South Tower and a lot of our guys got hit when the second plane went in.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 14pt; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0in 0in 15pt; outline: none 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;">“How many we talking about?” his colleague asked, blank-faced. “How many unaccounted for?”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 14pt; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0in 0in 15pt; outline: none 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;">“Don’t know,” the first one said, grimacing. “But we’re talking whole companies, whole squads. Rescue One. Ladder Three. Ladder Four. A whole bunch of chiefs. Some companies, they can’t find anyone.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 14pt; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0in 0in 15pt; outline: none 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;">In a corner, talking to a minister, a Russian woman in her early 20s was hysterical. Her younger sister, a very recent immigrant who had been working in the South Tower was missing. “I just feel like going there and digging, digging, digging with my bare hands to find her,” the woman sobbed, clawing the air.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 14pt; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0in 0in 15pt; outline: none 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;">Hardly anyone came in after 2:30. I decided to walk to another triage center, where I would make inquiries about the Russian woman’s younger sister. It was actually quite easy to get around. With a face mask and blue surgical gloves, no one stopped me.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 14pt; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0in 0in 15pt; outline: none 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi4R8L9O3ua8JkLk3_DEKOAeE7CPc7k6p86-T00oxKiFwxOEExW9AfAcgtqOmd1C62nVRWXsAUGZ7WcE7H4Tv6ESG38SvWiAibGyBkgBgwphMdN8QBNqzW5lHfg8jSZFqXdSulunC-Mes/s1600/9-Screen+Shot+2018-09-11+at+5.21.33+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1354" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi4R8L9O3ua8JkLk3_DEKOAeE7CPc7k6p86-T00oxKiFwxOEExW9AfAcgtqOmd1C62nVRWXsAUGZ7WcE7H4Tv6ESG38SvWiAibGyBkgBgwphMdN8QBNqzW5lHfg8jSZFqXdSulunC-Mes/s400/9-Screen+Shot+2018-09-11+at+5.21.33+PM.png" width="265" /></a></div><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;">Soon I was moving up the bottom of Broadway, passing Arturo Di Modica’s charging bull sculpture, which looked odd in the ashen desolation. Overhead, a few skyscrapers were on fire, burning debris sailing downward. Street-level was equally apocalyptic. Ambulances, fire trucks and police cars were scattered around, many crushed, without glass. A few of the fire trucks had their noses stuck in the debris with their backsides raised in the air. Some overturned cars were still burning, flames licking out of windshields and passenger windows. The sirens on some of the police and fire cars were still squealing, though in that weird sonic environment, the smoke muffled everything, as if it all was happening underwater.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 14pt; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0in 0in 15pt; outline: none 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;">Without the towers as markers, I was feeling lost. As it turned out, I was on the corner of Liberty Street and West Street: right at Ground Zero itself. There was only about 100 feet visibility. Occasionally the wind would shift. Then, eerily, like an iceberg breaking through the mist, the towers’ jagged facade would emerge. The break in the smoke would also allow a glimpse of rescuers on rubble, which was still burning in some spots. There was no sense of the scale of the devastation, which would only become apparent in coming days. Then the wind would shift again and the whiteout would resume.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 14pt; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0in 0in 15pt; outline: none 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;">Firemen were sitting on piles of wreckage, legs spread apart like uncomprehending 5-year-olds. Others had taken refuge in a darkened grocery store, sitting dazed and hollow-eyed in the dark. Rescue vehicles churned up muck as if it were snow in a blizzard. Huge padlocks had been placed on expensive, now evacuated, co-op buildings to secure them from looters. Around the marina at the World Financial Center, exhausted firemen sat in chairs usually reserved for cocktail-sipping bankers and brokers checking out the boats.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 14pt; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0in 0in 15pt; outline: none 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;">Finding it difficult to get to the other triage center, I made my way back to Ground Zero. More of the jagged facade of the collapsed towers was visible from this new angle, as was the burning hulk of 7 World Trade Center, flames roaring sideways out of that 50-story building before curling toward the blackened sky. The fire here now officially out of control, and fire supervisors were trying to clear the area before the now-inevitable collapse. “Get out of here! Go now!” one ordered.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 14pt; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0in 0in 15pt; outline: none 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;">Drifting over to a staging area along the West Side Highway, I found myself in a sea of firemen and rescue cops. Some were readying to go in, keeping the anxiety and stress at bay with jokes and verbal jabs, the air thick with New York accents. Others who had been there all day were cooling off, their overalls rolled down.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 14pt; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0in 0in 15pt; outline: none 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;">In the past seeing these kind of guys had prompted an awkward self-consciousness, my townie side being something that I often found difficult to acknowledge, especially in Manhattan’s snootier social and professional circles. But that day I felt nothing but pride both to be among them and to be one of them. I thought about the workings of fate: what if I had become a cop? By now I might be a captain or an inspector. I might be standing there formulating orders. Or I might be buried somewhere down the street, along with the first responders under my command.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGxM7FhEiFRKIaitkQsZeHfq1b2ZxWDlsc_V9gS1HaEN8yooCnFQm9Ks8_t71MOn3Srm7TbWhqYSOA2n4_Po_0fTQtPG4M_rBsYT3uI5FmyjIvPeaOtELFV7aDMffHmcXmki4uS7gixno/s1600/8-Screen+Shot+2018-09-11+at+5.20.59+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1358" data-original-width="902" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGxM7FhEiFRKIaitkQsZeHfq1b2ZxWDlsc_V9gS1HaEN8yooCnFQm9Ks8_t71MOn3Srm7TbWhqYSOA2n4_Po_0fTQtPG4M_rBsYT3uI5FmyjIvPeaOtELFV7aDMffHmcXmki4uS7gixno/s400/8-Screen+Shot+2018-09-11+at+5.20.59+PM.png" width="265" /></a></div><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 14pt; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0in 0in 15pt; outline: none 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;">On the far lip of the restricted zone, a young cop stood looking into the chaos. “I’m not supposed to be down here,” he explained, admitting he had left his assigned post further uptown. His dusty face was creased with sweat, and he stabbed his cell phone for what must have been the thousandth time that day. “But my brother’s a firemen and my mother just called me and said he might still be in there.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 14pt; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0in 0in 15pt; outline: none 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;">In a bar on my way home, people were cringing and yelping as a TV news anchor announced that 7 World Trade Center, burning all day, was about to come down. Outside the street was on the edge of anarchy, as the building collapsed and its roaring cloud of smoke and dust chased panicking onlookers further uptown. “Everything will be back to normal in a couple of days, don’t worry,” a doorman at the Tribeca Grand Hotel reassured tourists, convincing no one.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 14pt; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0in 0in 15pt; outline: none 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13pt;">With the Brooklyn Bridge now closed, and no trains running, I had to limp, sore-footed, across the Manhattan Bridge. The sunset sky was a beautiful aquamarine, streaked with red and purple. But the familiar skyline was now gouged, in a way that was almost human. It was as if somebody had had his nose ripped from his face or his teeth smashed from his mouth. A blood-orange sun sank into a black cloud of soot. Later that night, I looked into the mirror and saw a guy standing there with the same thousand-yard stare I’d seen all day long on the cops and firemen and medics I’d been with. I would wear that expression for more than a week.</span></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 14pt; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0in 0in 15pt; outline: none 0px;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: 17.33333396911621px;"><b>* All photographs by William McGowan</b></span></span></div>William McGowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02274145173711322404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6207248284996418153.post-1877177073346120762021-08-29T10:17:00.008-07:002021-08-29T10:31:08.241-07:00Tony Blinken, Afghanistan's Collapse And The Sorrows Of Beltway Credentialism <p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI3Nq0OYnkuZnnDBWqssWookhG72_VIZh00htgN5PQ7zbm6SqVZ11BotmjD3YgtECOEA_sxWrsBCExxtLeh5bLuxlWf9ySsiHZ5qbi5TGbPzOrwx9lZspeez71G6I_r5byxA6DrkKf2PY/s1452/Screen+Shot+2021-08-28+at+10.31.27+AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="966" data-original-width="1452" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI3Nq0OYnkuZnnDBWqssWookhG72_VIZh00htgN5PQ7zbm6SqVZ11BotmjD3YgtECOEA_sxWrsBCExxtLeh5bLuxlWf9ySsiHZ5qbi5TGbPzOrwx9lZspeez71G6I_r5byxA6DrkKf2PY/w400-h266/Screen+Shot+2021-08-28+at+10.31.27+AM.png" width="400" /></a></span></b></div><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">Wow! What a difference a year-and-a-half can make! <i><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">Biden To Nominate Antony Blinken For Secretary Of State</span></i><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/biden-transition-updates/2020/11/23/937850190/biden-reportedly-to-choose-antony-blinken-for-secretary-of-state" style="color: #954f72;">NPR <span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0pt;">November 23, 2020</span></a>. Blinken was going to “repair </span>relationships between Washington and foreign governments and allies that have been strained under President Trump's 'America First" policy?! And serve as a confirmable alternative to Susan Rice, she of the Benghazi disaster in 2012?! And boost morale at the State Department that had been left "beleaguered" by the prior administration!? </span></b><span face="-webkit-standard, serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">Considered while the biggest foreign policy debacle in American history continues to unfold in Afghanistan, the advance notices Blinken received from Beltway insiders and the media are as breathtakingly naïve as Blinken himself has proven himself to be. The fact that Blinken has not resigned yet is a tribute both to his own personal cluelessness--- and to the arrogance borne of the blind credentialism that put him in a place to do so much ruinous damage to the country---especially our international partners. Blinken needs to go. </span></b><span face="-webkit-standard, serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>NPR:</i></span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">President-elect Joe Biden will nominate Antony Blinken for the coveted secretary of state post.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">Blinken,<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;"> </span></b></span>58, has extensive foreign policy experience, serving as deputy secretary of state and deputy national security adviser under President Barack Obama.<span class="apple-converted-space"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.7rem; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 14.1pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">A graduate of Harvard University and Columbia Law School, Blinken began his foreign policy career during the Clinton administration. He worked as Democratic staff director for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008, where he worked closely with Biden. He went on to serve as then-Vice President Biden's national security adviser.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.7rem; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">Blinken is<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.fp4america.org/antony-blinken" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #954f72; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #5076b8; padding: 0in;">currently</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>managing partner at WestExec Advisors, a firm he co-founded.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.7rem; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 14.1pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">For Biden, choosing Blinken signals a return to a more traditional foreign policy that favors strong international relationships, NPR's Michele Kelemen says.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.7rem; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">Biden's secretary of state pick, which will require Senate confirmation, was first reported<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-23/biden-to-name-longtime-aide-blinken-as-secretary-of-state" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #954f72; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #5076b8; padding: 0in;">by Bloomberg News</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>and later confirmed by NPR.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">…If confirmed, Blinken's early work,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-cabinets-inaugurations-coronavirus-pandemic-ron-klain-11c3df0ec442854db8bb1e5da948f74e" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #954f72; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #5076b8; padding: 0in;">according to The Associated Press</span></a>, would be focused heavily on repairing relationships between Washington and foreign governments and allies that have been strained under President Trump's "America First" policy, in which long-held alliances have frequently been challenged.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 14.1pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">Blinken will also be tasked with boosting the beleaguered State Department, an agency that has experienced substantial turnover under Trump, with many longtime diplomats and career staffers leaving.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.7rem; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">An<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.stateoig.gov/system/files/fy_2019_ig_statement_on_department_management_challenges_0.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #954f72; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #5076b8; padding: 0in;">Office of Inspector General (OIG) report</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>from January found that, "Workforce management issues are pervasive, affecting programs and operations domestically and overseas and across functional areas and geographic regions."<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.7rem; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 14.1pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">A hiring freeze that was ordered by Trump in 2017 and that stretched until 2018 compounded the agency's ability to maintain staffing levels, the report went on to say.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.7rem; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 14.1pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">"Employees told OIG that the hiring freeze contributed to excessive workloads, and the lack of transparency about the objectives intended to be achieved by the hiring freeze caused some to be concerned about losing their jobs," the report said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.7rem; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 14.1pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">Susan Rice, the former national security adviser under Obama, was rumored to have been on the short list for the top State Department job. However, by choosing Blinken, Biden avoids what was likely to have been a Senate battle over her nomination.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><aside aria-label="advertisement" id="ad-secondary-wrap" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></aside><p style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.7rem; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">Rice would have faced criticism over the handling of the terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012. Under pressure that year, Rice<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/21/susan-biden-secretary-state-defense-400055" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #954f72; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #5076b8; padding: 0in;">took herself</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>out of consideration for the secretary of state's job after Clinton resigned the post. </span></b><b><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #767676; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>William McGowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02274145173711322404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6207248284996418153.post-62638698472109650572021-08-28T09:20:00.005-07:002021-08-29T08:53:42.141-07:00Tony Blinken, Elite Nepotism & The Cosmopolitan Delusions Forged In A Privileged Expat Youth <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQwLK6OjmUvQ0DtTCOBgQ1UJVY2pwpS41r4Jqv3hwijWwoWHxDXt9fuP1Zpi_oq0gBEnzpZxGUMg8MrD4CMafHQ6eHhgYBp8QzNovPlL8dAIQU3WO4WZMQKLx8Y2fQ6Lf-Vrt4LEGUViw/s1392/BLINKEN+NOSE-FT-Screen+Shot+2021-08-28+at+8.37.15+AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="780" data-original-width="1392" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQwLK6OjmUvQ0DtTCOBgQ1UJVY2pwpS41r4Jqv3hwijWwoWHxDXt9fuP1Zpi_oq0gBEnzpZxGUMg8MrD4CMafHQ6eHhgYBp8QzNovPlL8dAIQU3WO4WZMQKLx8Y2fQ6Lf-Vrt4LEGUViw/w400-h224/BLINKEN+NOSE-FT-Screen+Shot+2021-08-28+at+8.37.15+AM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Tony Blinken was practically Joe Biden’s “alter ego,” wrote the <i><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/99dc4c74-4292-4e34-b66a-82857918d151" style="color: #954f72;">Financial Times</a></i> in early 2020, describing his central role in what has come to be known as America’s “return” to the world stage. The FT profile was as revelatory of Blinken’s cosmopolitan mindset, which would come a cropper in Kabul, as it was just dead wrong in its assessments of Blinken’s alleged strengths as a diplomat and leader. “The foreign affairs veteran is son and nephew of US ambassadors to European capitals,” the FT writes, “and his return to the corridors of power comes as the US tries to recover from the battering it has taken on the world stage during 4 years of Donald Trump.” </span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><b><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Biden’s ‘alter ego’ Antony Blinken will try to rebuild alliances, </i>by </span></b><b><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">Demetri Sevastopulo, </span></b><b><span style="font-size: 13pt;">November 23, 2020: </span></b><b><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">When Joe Biden enters office in January, his closest foreign policy adviser will be a guitar- playing Beatles fanatic who first started promoting American values as a high school student in Paris during the cold war. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">On Monday, the president-elect said he had chosen Antony Blinken as secretary of state, elevating a three-decade fixture in Democratic foreign policy circles, who first worked with Mr Biden in the Senate. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">A former speech writer for President Bill Clinton, Mr Blinken was national security adviser to Mr Biden when he was vice-president, before becoming deputy national security adviser to Barack Obama and deputy secretary of state. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">Mr Blinken’s return to the corridors of power will come as the US tries to recover from the battering it has taken on the world stage during four years of Donald Trump’s </span><span style="color: #0c757f; font-size: 13pt;">international isolationism</span><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">Although some of the challenges will be familiar to Mr Blinken, he will also face new dilemmas such as dealing with an even more assertive China. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">Robert Malley, the head of International Crisis Group who was Mr Blinken’s high-school classmate, said the Washington veteran had the perfect background to restore American credibility. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">In addition to coming from a family with foreign policy pedigree — his father served as ambassador to Hungary and his uncle to Belgium — allies say he can put himself in the shoes of others because of his experience overseas. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">“Tony was an American in Paris — and both terms are key. He was very conscious of being an American and he believed in US values. But he also understood how US policy affects the rest of the world because he lived overseas and witnessed how others view America,” Mr Malley said. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">“At that time, the US was not particularly popular in Europe, and in France in particular. Tony navigated those two universes.” </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">In a recent Intelligence Matters </span><span style="color: #0c757f; font-size: 13pt;">podcast</span><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">, Mr Blinken said the US had to rebuild alliances to tackle the “democratic recession” enabled by Mr Trump that let “autocracies from Russia to China . . . exploit our difficulties”. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">Mr Blinken is a pragmatic realist who believes in US power but understands its limits. He will also have the most valuable currency in Washington — the ear of the president. He is so close to Mr Biden that some see him as his “alter ego”. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">Nick Burns, the former number three state department official who has known Mr Blinken since the Clinton administration, said his network of friends around the world is coupled with an incredible range of experience from his time in the Senate, state department, and White House. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">“He was at the table for all of the important meetings in the Obama administration for eight years and has unique insight into the full range of national security issues,” said Mr Burns. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">A soccer-playing 58-year-old, who has uploaded two of his songs on Spotify and sometimes has a guitar in the background during video calls, is widely liked for his unassuming manner and inclusive approach. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">In his high-school yearbook, the page with his photograph is inscribed with the Pink Floyd lyrics, “just another brick in the wall”, hinting at his willingness to eschew the traditional rigid hierarchy of Washington. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">A former top state department official said he was popular because he valued opinions regardless of how junior or senior the person was, and was confident enough to credit others. “It’s never about him or his ego.” </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">But some say his inclusive style meant his core beliefs were sometimes hard to ascertain. “I don’t have a good read on his foreign policy thinking because he did not impose himself,” says a former Biden Senate aide. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">One former Obama administration official said he also had a tendency to hold too many meetings and punt decisions. “As the big dog, will he drive towards decisions or needle issues to death?” they asked. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">Defenders said he simply wanted to avoid rushing into bad decisions. The former Senate aide added that he was good at ending meetings on time. “When someone tried to extend a meeting with extraneous comments, he would give them a yellow card. If you did it again . . . it was a red card.” </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">While some found his views opaque, others stress that he has long been clear about the importance of promoting democracy and human rights in American foreign policy. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">He advocated military action against Syria after the Assad regime used chemical weapons in 2013 — a path that Mr Obama did not follow — and applauded Mr Trump for striking Syria after the regime used sarin gas on citizens in 2017. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Russia, said Mr Blinken and other Democrats created a group called the “Phoenix Initiative” to debate whether the party needed a more robust national security approach after John Kerry lost to George W Bush in the 2004 election. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><b><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">He said that when the group held debates, Mr Blinken was also a strong proponent of using US power for good and advocating for human rights. “I was very struck that he was passionate about that,” he said. </span></b><b><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><b><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">Philip Gordon, a former Obama administration official, said that view was informed by his family history. His Polish-born stepfather Samuel Pisar survived Auschwitz and eventually wound up in the US, where he became a successful international lawyer, while other relatives entered the US as refugees. </span></b><b><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><b><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">“That has left him believing that the US can and should do good in the world,” said Mr Gordon. “But I would pair that with the notion that he is a real pragmatist who also understands the limits of American power. He is anything but an ideologue.” </span></b><b><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">The other former Obama official said Mr Blinken would probably take a tougher stance on human rights than the Obama White House. “Tony would be visibly tougher on Russia and more receptive to the idea of ideological competition with China, cranking up a few notches the democracy promotion and human rights dimension of foreign policy.” </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">Mr McFaul said Mr Blinken was also more decisive than some believe. When he argued that Mr Biden should meet Russian opposition figures after a meeting with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in 2011, “it took Tony about three seconds to say that is a really good idea”, in contrast to a much harder sell with the Obama team in 2009. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">Mr Blinken’s views on alliances and promoting democratic values fit with a growing view in Washington that the US needs to work more closely with allies to gain greater leverage to tackle China. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">One former European official, who has worked with Mr Blinken, said the fluent French speaker would be well received in Europe and would help repair the damage done over the past four years. But he said he would do so in a more low-key and more collegiate way than some predecessors. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><b><span style="color: #332d2d; font-size: 13pt;">“He’s not a man to make the front page,” he said. “He’s not Henry Kissinger, in a good and bad way.” </span></b><b><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="color: #454545; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></div>William McGowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02274145173711322404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6207248284996418153.post-19769706921349130672021-08-27T14:27:00.004-07:002021-08-27T14:33:40.618-07:00Kabul Catastrophe Is What Happens When Dems Rig An Election and The Media Pretends Not To Notice That Its Candidate Is Senile <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdtiBGOHSCjcrP5bFBLBlQiwIgA7xs4euGlPhjlHclYEAZ8HGZ8nR91mJpqbxhlhmuX9CnIh2FD_NiO5w5rfhrW0vjCH8WVPwel4cWQBw2yU7rLucxvpqsXWHgVbsQraIp-95za5BwPYs/s1634/BIDEN+FETAL+POSITION+AUG+26-Screen+Shot+2021-08-26+at+9.59.00+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1074" data-original-width="1634" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdtiBGOHSCjcrP5bFBLBlQiwIgA7xs4euGlPhjlHclYEAZ8HGZ8nR91mJpqbxhlhmuX9CnIh2FD_NiO5w5rfhrW0vjCH8WVPwel4cWQBw2yU7rLucxvpqsXWHgVbsQraIp-95za5BwPYs/w400-h263/BIDEN+FETAL+POSITION+AUG+26-Screen+Shot+2021-08-26+at+9.59.00+PM.png" width="400" /></a></b></div><b><br /><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></b><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">At yesterday’s White House press conference, Biden buried his head in his hands, looked close to tears and was completely unable to make </span></b><b><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">whatever his point was, </span></b><b><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">writes David Marcus in the Canadian<i> <a href="https://thepostmillennial.com/biden-is-not-leading-america" style="color: #954f72;">Post-Millennial</a>. </i></span></b><b><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">“There has never been an image of an American president that projects such abject weakness,</span></b><b><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">” Marcus notes. "</span></b><b><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">We do not have a president. We have a crumbling old man. OK. Now what?”</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 2pt;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">After wrapping up his <a href="https://thepostmillennial.com/biden-defends-afghan-withdrawal" style="color: #954f72;"><span style="color: #dca10d;">rambling remarks</span></a> about a terrorist attack that killed US Marines on Thursday, President Biden moved on to questions. He informed the American people, whom he was addressing, that he had been "instructed" as to who should get the first question.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 2pt;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 2pt;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Who exactly was instructing the President of the United States? What other instructions does he obey? Did the American people elect a president? Or is Joe Biden just an old, sleepy eyed talking head? On Thursday, Americans got our answer.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">The last question taken by Biden, we can only assume as a result of instruction, was granted to Fox News' <a href="https://thepostmillennial.com/watch-dinesh-dsouza-peter-doocy-stands-out-press-corps" style="color: #954f72;"><span style="color: #dca10d;">Peter Doocy</span></a>. Doocy asked Biden if he bears responsibility for the American lives lost in the terror attack. The President proceeded to engage in a bizarre back and forth with the reporter. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Then Biden buried his head in his hands, he looked close to tears, completely unable to make whatever his point was. There has never been an image of an American president that projects such abject weakness.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">The United States effectively has no president. That must be distinctly understood at this point. He admitted this. Asked by Phillip Wegmann, White House correspondent for Real Clear Politics, if he had made the call to close American airbases before evacuation occurred, Biden said that it was what his military advisers told him to do. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">The only decision Biden makes these days is what flavor ice cream he wants. Maybe.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Sen. Josh Hawley has <a href="https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-senator-josh-hawley-calls-for-president-joe-biden-to-resign" style="color: #954f72;"><span style="color: #dca10d;">called on Biden to resign</span></a> in the wake of his administration's Afghan withdrawal disaster. It's a reasonable call, but also pointless. Joe Biden no more leads the nation than George Washington or Abe Lincoln do. He's a presidential portrait painted before its time. Nothing more.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">But the country does need resignations. Not Biden's but resignations of cabinet secretaries, the well-credentialed fools who truly authored the administration's idiocy. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken must resign. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin must resign. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan must resign. But that's not enough.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Once they resign, moderate, serious minded Democrat senators must join Republicans in only confirming replacements that will reverse the horrendous foreign and national defense policies that have humiliated America on the world stage. Biden is president for three more years, Congress must act to ensure that the people instructing him are competent.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">This is an emergency, and it is one we have never experienced before. The image of Joe Biden bowing his head in quiet, sad frustration is alarming. If there is a silver lining to this sad display it is that maybe Congress will act to take back control of our foreign policy. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has called for the House to come back in session to get control of this situation. Of course, he is correct.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">The Biden presidency is over, but it never really began. Clearly his cabinet is in control. Clearly they have been in control since day one. That cabinet decided to trust the Taliban to protect Americans. They are relying on terrorists who blow themselves up to act in their own self-interest. It is a macabre comedy. Those who hold Biden's strings must go, and they must go now.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">All of this is much bigger than Afghanistan, as big as this humiliation is. This is the national security apparatus that is responsible for policies on Iran, North Korea, China, Ukraine, Yemen, everywhere. They blatantly cannot be trusted to protect American interests. That's not a hypothetical anymore. It's a tragedy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Joe Biden, the 46th president, elected to bring back norms is irrelevant. Utterly, completely irrelevant. But we have him for three more years anyway. With loud, piercing, clarion calls we must demand the removal of his handlers, let congress replace them, and let us do better in the election of 2024. We do not have a president. We have a crumbling old man. OK. Now what?<o:p></o:p></span></p>William McGowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02274145173711322404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6207248284996418153.post-26693070218962532412021-08-25T18:24:00.003-07:002021-08-27T11:18:59.838-07:00Brown Lives Don’t Matter, At Least In The Kabul Evacuation Plan Tony Blinken Has Thrown Together<p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj23Xlsd6_npD0h9Boxyv5rkJQxhTOka34gesHiyGoU_yGuUU7pMYkuP5eSzSxDs4TTBBu1K36uULvaBZpIchjvEptS8jaedICm2NDlS0uOUgE7LO2JvkTCdSYUyDCoyCiqh-rOO3fOLEk/s2012/Screen+Shot+2021-08-25+at+9.23.15+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1332" data-original-width="2012" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj23Xlsd6_npD0h9Boxyv5rkJQxhTOka34gesHiyGoU_yGuUU7pMYkuP5eSzSxDs4TTBBu1K36uULvaBZpIchjvEptS8jaedICm2NDlS0uOUgE7LO2JvkTCdSYUyDCoyCiqh-rOO3fOLEk/w400-h265/Screen+Shot+2021-08-25+at+9.23.15+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><b style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #121212; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/25/world/asia/afghanistan-taliban-united-states-evacuation.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage" style="color: #954f72;">NYT</a>: U.S. Says 1,500 Americans Remain in Afghanistan as Evacuation Enters Final Days</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Amazing what a difference a year can make, at least if there’s a Democrat in power. Alternative hedline could be: <i>Annals of Systemic Racism We Just Can’t Talk About. </i>As the <i>Times</i> put it<i>: “</i></span></b><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">The State Department is frantically trying to track down U.S. citizens. Tens of thousands of Afghan allies will all but certainly be left behind.”</span></b><b><i><span style="color: #121212; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">WASHINGTON — At least 1,500 American citizens remain in Afghanistan with just days left before the scheduled U.S. withdrawal from the country, <b>but officials on Wednesday acknowledged the reality that tens of thousands of Afghan allies and others at high risk of Taliban reprisals would be left behind.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">The sound of gunfire, and clouds of tear gas and black smoke, filled the air around the international airport in Kabul, the capital, as thousands of Afghans massed at the gates on Wednesday, desperate to escape ahead of the American military’s final departure on Aug. 31, after 20 years of war.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">As military and government charter flights took off every 45 minutes as part of an airlift, Biden administration officials said they had evacuated about 82,300 people since Aug. 14, the day before Kabul fell to the Taliban. Around 4,500 of them were American citizens, with 500 more expected to depart soon.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">But Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said the government was trying to track down around 1,000 American citizens still believed to be in Afghanistan who had not responded to a frantic flurry of emails, phone calls or other messages offering to evacuate them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>William McGowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02274145173711322404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6207248284996418153.post-91184802322803314092021-08-25T11:29:00.010-07:002021-08-25T16:42:52.935-07:00Washington Post: On Afghanistan, Biden Sounds All Too Much Like 'Baghdad Bob'<p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p><b><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilrLNOE4OklWzALOIB64GWMx9uJ44m5Tm1xDjAhhEjJyCRIiMMme3c4yzTNGZ_Gg6ki4Va744cp77PUam7gnGBIWwKw2kn5nrLtqHSCnycE_9b024p19wT9d-LU4NsvWK7gdp_e38mmbQ/s1638/BOB-Screen+Shot+2021-08-25+at+2.04.08+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="850" data-original-width="1638" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilrLNOE4OklWzALOIB64GWMx9uJ44m5Tm1xDjAhhEjJyCRIiMMme3c4yzTNGZ_Gg6ki4Va744cp77PUam7gnGBIWwKw2kn5nrLtqHSCnycE_9b024p19wT9d-LU4NsvWK7gdp_e38mmbQ/w400-h208/BOB-Screen+Shot+2021-08-25+at+2.04.08+PM.png" width="400" /></a></b></div><b><br /></b><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Al Qaeda is more than a remnant in Afghanistan, writes Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen, highlighting the disconnection from reality that Joe Biden seems to share with Saddam Hussein’s Minister of Media & Foreign Affairs Muhammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, aka “Baghdad Bob.” In fact Al Qaeda was pivotal in the Taliban’s blitz. The result is that “Biden has handed the global jihadist movement a new radical Islamic emirate in Afghanistan to replace it.”</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Remember “Baghdad Bob,” the Iraqi information minister who, as U.S. forces entered the capital, insisted that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ung95ORVUY&ab_channel=APArchive%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span style="color: #dca10d;">there were no Americans in Baghdad</span></a>? That’s what President Biden is beginning to sound like with his delusional insistence that no Americans were having trouble getting to the Kabul airport, no allies were calling into question the United States’ credibility, and that the United States had no interest in Afghanistan because al-Qaeda was “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/20/politics/fact-check-al-qaeda-gone-afghanistan-biden/index.html%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span style="color: #dca10d;">gone</span></a>.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Really? If that last claim were true, then how did the Afghan military manage to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/afghanistan-security-masri-idINKBN27A01Z%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span style="color: #dca10d;">kill</span></a> al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, Abu Muhsin al-Masri, in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province last October? Al-Masri was on the<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/25/afghanistan-al-qaeda-killed-432188%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span style="color: #dca10d;">FBI’s most wanted</span></a> list for conspiracy to kill Americans. If al-Qaeda poses <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2021/08/23/press-briefing-by-press-secretary-jen-psaki-and-national-security-advisor-jake-sullivan-august-23-2021/%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span style="color: #dca10d;">no threat</span></a> to the United States in Afghanistan, as Biden claims, what was a senior al-Qaeda leader focused on external operations doing there? And why is Sirajuddin Haqqani, an al-Qaeda-linked U.S.-designated terrorist with a <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/terrorinfo/sirajuddin-haqqani%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span style="color: #dca10d;">$5 million reward</span></a> for information leading to his capture, serving as the Taliban’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/02/21/nyt-taliban-haqqani/?itid=lk_inline_manual_4"><span style="color: #dca10d;">second-in-command</span></a>? His network was recently placed <a href="https://www.voanews.com/south-central-asia/hardline-haqqani-network-put-charge-kabul-security%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span style="color: #dca10d;">in charge of security in Kabul</span></a>. The fact is al-Qaeda is not only present in Afghanistan, but deeply embedded within the Taliban. <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/afghanistan-again-becomes-a-cradle-for-jihadism-and-al-qaeda%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span style="color: #dca10d;">According to the New Yorker’s Robin Wright</span></a>, there are actually more al-Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan now than there were before 9/11, and al-Qaeda “was pivotal in the Taliban’s sweep across Afghanistan.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Yet on Fox News Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken dismissed al-Qaeda’s Afghan presence as nothing more than “<a href="https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j.-blinken-with-chris-wallace-of-fox-news-sunday%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span style="color: #dca10d;">remnants</span></a>” posing no serious danger to the homeland. It’s not the first time he’s minimized a terrorist threat, only to be proved disastrously wrong. In December 2011, there were only about 700 Islamic State <a href="https://time.com/4114870/paris-attacks-cia-john-brennan/%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span style="color: #dca10d;">“remnants”</span></a> in Iraq when Biden presided over the disastrous U.S. withdrawal there — but by 2014, a CIA analysis <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2014/09/11/world/meast/isis-syria-iraq/%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span style="color: #dca10d;">found</span></a> that the Islamic State had grown to as many as 31,500 fighters. Yet Blinken — who was then serving as deputy national security adviser — continued to underestimate the danger these terrorists posed. In <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1408/08/cg.01.html%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span style="color: #dca10d;">an August 2014 interview</span></a>, he insisted that the Islamic State’s “focus is not on attacking the U.S. homeland or attacking our interests here in the United States or abroad. It’s focused intently on trying to create a caliphate now in Iraq.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Soon after he spoke those words, the Islamic State and those inspired by it launched a wave of attacks on the West — including January 2015 attacks on the Charlie Hebdo magazine offices and a Jewish deli in Paris; November 2015 attacks on a night club, soccer stadium and restaurants in Paris that killed 130 people; March 2016 bombings of the Brussels airport and subway station; and a July 2016 attack in Nice in which an Islamic State terrorist drove a truck into crowds celebrating Bastille Day, killing 84 people. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2015/12/17/world/mapping-isis-attacks-around-the-world/index.html%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span style="color: #dca10d;">According to CNN</span></a>, by July 2016, the Islamic State had carried out 143 attacks in 29 countries that killed more than 2,000 people. It was only after the group began to attack the West that the Obama administration finally sent U.S. forces back to Iraq to deal with the debacle it created.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Now, Biden and Blinken are underestimating the terrorist threat once again. But this time, the disaster they created in Afghanistan will be far more difficult to clean up. In Iraq, we left behind a friendly government and bases to which U.S. forces could return to from which to take on the terrorists. In Afghanistan, the Taliban is in full control, and we have no bases to which we can return when the terrorist danger inevitably reemerges.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Other terrorist hotspots — such as Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Somalia — have coastlines that allow us to project power from the sea. But Afghanistan is a landlocked country, surrounded by hostile states. The only viable routes in are over either Iranian or Pakistani airspace. We face not only a challenge of distance, but of topography — as the forbidding Hindu Kush mountains provide the perfect cover for terrorists. “We’re talking about the problem of finding terrorist needles in 15,000-foot haystacks, which was hard to do even when we had troops in country,” <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/wth-is-going-on-with-the-taliban-takeover-frederick/id1467993804?i=1000532371087%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span style="color: #dca10d;">explains</span></a> Fred Kagan, director of the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project. Even if we somehow manage to obtain intelligence on an al-Qaeda target and overflight permission, we’ll have to hope and pray that the target will still be there by the time our planes take off from bases in the Persian Gulf or a distant aircraft carrier. And without nearby bases, we have limited capability to extract American pilots if a mission goes wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">In other words, Biden’s claim that we have an “over the horizon” capability to combat an al-Qaeda resurgence is a joke. It took more than seven years for the United States to drive the Islamic State from the caliphate Biden handed them in 2011. Now, Biden has handed the global jihadist movement a new radical Islamic emirate in Afghanistan to replace it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p>William McGowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02274145173711322404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6207248284996418153.post-91879103979720291182021-08-24T13:56:00.007-07:002021-08-25T18:00:02.235-07:00Biden Team Projects An Equanimity That Is ‘The Definition Of Gaslighting,’ says Politico<p style="text-align: center;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimouw0R80NKzKMR1u_YvZDOm_Vl4AhoTgAcrh06gP0MqgDLRL3c_1KRP7OZx7FbqyO4t9dOBLNMTX9RnYL_dA8jlbqZuB0mZG1-quZs_rOEXErCtyJp_p9llJaeaDdpHa6O27Bazc3koE/s1434/JEN+PSAKI-Screen+Shot+2021-08-25+at+12.37.33+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1434" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimouw0R80NKzKMR1u_YvZDOm_Vl4AhoTgAcrh06gP0MqgDLRL3c_1KRP7OZx7FbqyO4t9dOBLNMTX9RnYL_dA8jlbqZuB0mZG1-quZs_rOEXErCtyJp_p9llJaeaDdpHa6O27Bazc3koE/w400-h224/JEN+PSAKI-Screen+Shot+2021-08-25+at+12.37.33+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">As chaos unfolds at Kabul airport, Team Biden projects calm, writes </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/24/biden-afghanistan-evacuation-chaos-506753" style="color: #954f72;">Politico</a></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">, while the President and his minions employ rhetoric completely disconnected from conditions on the ground.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></b></div></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Tens of thousands of Afghans awaiting U.S. visas and thousands of American citizens are still stuck in Kabul, unable to find safe passage through frantic crowds, Taliban checkpoints and Afghan guards stationed outside the airport. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Gunfire erupted outside of the north gate of Hamid Karzai International Airport on Monday, killing a number of Afghan security forces. American officials have repeatedly had to close the gates for extended periods, leading guards to turn away even U.S. passport holders.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Multiple sources point to deteriorating conditions inside the airport, including lack of power and sanitation. And tension has emerged between American troops on the ground and State Department officials trying to extract U.S. citizens and Afghan allies. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><b>Meanwhile, the West Wing is looking increasingly disconnected from reality as the Biden White House strives to project a sense of calm competence — even as the Taliban tighten their grip on Afghanistan. <o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><b>“We are actually overperforming in terms of the evacuation numbers,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Monday of the massive evacuation effort underway at Kabul airport to extract thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Afghan allies from the city. <o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><b>“If you look at what we're doing now and taking — evacuating thousands of people every day, it really has been a tremendous piece of work,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. </b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">While the evacuation has significantly ramped up in recent days, the reality on the ground belies the narrative that the situation is under control. The scenes around Kabul airport have been marked by violence, disorganization, bureaucratic in-fighting and delays, according to video and text exchanges viewed by POLITICO. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">The result is an administration that appears increasingly out of touch, as reports from Kabul continue to reflect a chaotic evacuation. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">“I don’t think the president’s rhetoric matches the conditions on the ground,” said Jenna Ben-Yehuda, a 12-year veteran of the Bush and Obama State Department and president of the Truman Center, which is coordinating with other groups to try to evacuate Afghan allies.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><b>“They keep saying this was inevitable, but there absolutely was a way to avoid this — if that’s not the definition of gaslighting I don’t what is,” said Chris Purdy, the project manager of the Veterans for American Ideals program at Human Rights First, which has been part of the coalition to help evacuate people from Afghanistan.</b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/24/biden-afghanistan-evacuation-chaos-506753" style="color: #954f72;">More…</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>William McGowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02274145173711322404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6207248284996418153.post-23928506098571421052021-08-24T13:18:00.002-07:002021-08-24T13:19:10.694-07:00Confucius Say: Jan. 6 Was 'A Riot' Of Lies---Jonathan Turley<p style="text-align: center;"><b style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinx39GOAahCxU9U-j4hexdod6EunGPCK4HNtWkas0YOrtaVkVJCgXWoaeso2oFP5mI40HOPPo38t4BjKTUSQOwVgW3Ru6NRSLV1KvVkF8rsrPnt83ypPKEwrseL23sAGncR45gQwCHJzQ/s1682/Screen+Shot+2021-08-24+at+4.15.57+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="878" data-original-width="1682" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinx39GOAahCxU9U-j4hexdod6EunGPCK4HNtWkas0YOrtaVkVJCgXWoaeso2oFP5mI40HOPPo38t4BjKTUSQOwVgW3Ru6NRSLV1KvVkF8rsrPnt83ypPKEwrseL23sAGncR45gQwCHJzQ/w400-h209/Screen+Shot+2021-08-24+at+4.15.57+PM.png" width="400" /></a> </b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></b></div><p></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><b><span style="color: #2b2b2b; font-size: 13pt;">The FBI comes up empty-handed its search for a Jan. 6 plot, according to GW law prof Jonathan Turley in the </span></b><a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/568842-the-fbi-comes-up-empty-handed-in-its-search-for-a-jan-6-plot" style="color: #954f72;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Hill</span></i></b></a><b><span style="color: #2b2b2b; font-size: 13pt;">. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">It may be true, as Confucius said, that “the beginning of wisdom is to call things by their </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">proper name</span><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">,” but it can also be the end of politics. For politicians, labeling controversies is often more important than addressing the controversies themselves. Even well-defined terms used in legislation must change to fit political needs, such as like “infrastructure.” When its real meaning proved too restrictive, Sen. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Kirsten Gillibrand </span><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">(D- N.Y.) </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">simply tweeted</span><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">, “Paid leave is infrastructure. Child care is infrastructure. Caregiving is infrastructure.” Done. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">The same is true with labeling political violence. When protests by Black Lives Matter and other groups turned violent last summer, some </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">media employees were expressly told </span><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">not to refer to “rioters” but rather “protesters.” Riots causing massive property damage were described by CNN as “</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">fiery but mostly peaceful protests</span><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">.” </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">Conversely, the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol could not be just a riot, let alone a “fiery” protest, but only an “insurrection.” Many in the media continue referring to “the insurrectionists” rather than the rioters. National Public Radio even ran a running account of the “</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Capitol insurrection</span><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">.” The term was further driven home by House Democrats by impeaching former </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">President Trump </span><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">for “incitement to insurrection” despite </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">undermining any chance for an actual conviction</span><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">. Members of Congress such as Rep. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Eric Swalwell </span><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">(D-Calif.) </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">are still in federal court </span><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">claiming a conspiracy of “</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">armed and organized insurrectionists</span><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">.” </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">The characterization of the attack as an insurrection served myriad political and personal purposes. First, it painted anyone associated with challenging the 2020 election results as supporting sedition and the country’s overthrow. Second, if this was a protest allowed to turn into a riot, there would be </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">more questions </span><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">about the </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">failure to properly protect the Capitol</span><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">It is easier to excuse a response to an insurrection than a violent protest. That point was expressly made by former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">who insisted</span><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">, “This was not a demonstration. This was not a failure to plan for a demonstration. This was a planned, coordinated attack on the United States Capitol.” </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">Despite the adoption of the term by many in the media, there has been a growing disconnect with the actual cases in court. Indeed, a new report from </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Reuters disclosed </span><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">that the FBI has apparently struggled to support the account of a coordinated “insurrection” on Jan. 6. Reuters’s FBI sources said that, despite months of intense investigation, they could find "scant evidence" of any "organized plot" and instead found that virtually all of the cases are “one-offs.” One agent explained, “Ninety to 95 percent of these are one-off cases. Then you have 5 percent, maybe, of these militia groups that were more closely organized. But there was no grand scheme with </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Roger Stone </span><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">and Alex Jones and all of these people to storm the Capitol and take hostages." </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">In other words, they found a protest that became a runaway riot as insu#icient security preparations quickly collapsed. While there clearly were those set upon trashing the Capitol, most people were shown milling about in the halls; many took selfies and actively described the scene on social media. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">More than 570 people have been arrested, but only 40 face conspiracy charges. Those charges are often based on prior discussions about trying to enter Congress or bringing material to use in the riot; some clearly came prepared for rioting with ropes, chemical irritants and other materials. Those cases, however, are a small group among the hundreds charged and an even smaller percentage among the tens of thousands of protesters on that day. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">After five months of dragnet arrests nationwide, a </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">few reporters have noted </span><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">that no one was actually charged with insurrection or sedition. The vast majority of people face charges such as simple trespass. For example, the latest guilty plea is from San Francisco real estate broker Jennifer Leigh Ryan, who posted an account on social media of how "we're gonna go down and storm the capitol." She pleaded guilty this week to "parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building" and faces a maximum sentence of six months in prison and a fine of $5,000. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">Yet the characterization of the “insurrection” has continued as a virtual article of faith for those reporting on or writing about Jan. 6. Moreover, the treatment of many has remained severe, if not draconian by design. Justice o#icial Michael Sherwin proudly </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">declared in a television interview </span><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">that “our o#ice wanted to ensure that there was shock and<br />awe. ... It worked because we saw through media posts that people were afraid to come back to D.C. because they’re like, ‘If we go there, we're gonna get charged.’ ... We wanted to take out those individuals that essentially were thumbing their noses at the public for what they did.” </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">That “shock and awe” included holding people without bail and imposing “restrictive housing” for no obvious reason. That includes some of the most notable figures from that day, such as Jacob Chansley (aka Jake Angeli), better known as “Chewbacca man” or the “QAnon shaman” for the distinctive horned headdress he wore during the riot. Angeli, 33, is not accused of attacking anyone while parading around the Senate floor in his bear skin. He always insisted he was </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">not trying to overthrow the nation </span><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">with his decorative outfit and spear-topped flagpole. While the government did not find that he engaged in sedition, it did learn that he has </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">an array of mental illnesses</span><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">, including transient schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety. Yet he has been held since the riot and is charged with six crimes, including violent entry, trespass and<br />parading, which collectively could yield up to 28 years in prison. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">There is a fair distinction between those who tried to stop the certification of a presidential election and those who burn police stations or businesses during protests. Yet there remains a striking contrast in how other riots are characterized or prosecuted. Most of those arrested for violent protests after the death of George Floyd saw their charges </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">dropped by state prosecutors</span><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">. For months, rioters sought to burn federal buildings or occupy state capitals and in some cases seized police stations and sections of cities or even a city hall. They were not declared insurrectionists; they were rioters before being set free after brief arrests. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">Many of us </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">remain disgusted and angered </span><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">by the Jan. 6 riot — but it was a riot. It also was </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">a desecration</span><span style="color: #282b2d; font-size: 13pt;">. These people deserve to be punished, particularly those who went with an intent to try to enter the Congress. The question is whether you can have an insurrection without anyone actually insurrecting. That Zen-like question may find its way into the hearings of some pending cases. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><span style="color: #282b2d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Calling these people “rioters" does not minimize what they did — or undermine the legitimacy of their punishment. However, there is wisdom and even the chance for resolution when we “call things by their proper name.”</span></div>William McGowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02274145173711322404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6207248284996418153.post-35768498594393340372021-08-24T11:01:00.007-07:002021-08-24T11:06:41.772-07:00We Gotta Talk About Dad: Brits Seem Capable Of Noticing The Obvious, So Why Can't Americans? <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0P0sG3HjPNfGgVMKVJvtykEZLeikwz9cd9L6p-5JT-xoJUgA3nE97FD4l5FAtafPk0T8m9Et8UA9G54Ic6ymancCLSM5yAkCBJ2bPnLuG1OUGgdYg7uaj0hB7ltk6XOmNfveSeyEttBw/s1098/Screen+Shot+2021-08-24+at+1.58.31+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="548" data-original-width="1098" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0P0sG3HjPNfGgVMKVJvtykEZLeikwz9cd9L6p-5JT-xoJUgA3nE97FD4l5FAtafPk0T8m9Et8UA9G54Ic6ymancCLSM5yAkCBJ2bPnLuG1OUGgdYg7uaj0hB7ltk6XOmNfveSeyEttBw/w400-h200/Screen+Shot+2021-08-24+at+1.58.31+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/08/23/unspoken-truth-joe-biden-just-old/" style="color: #954f72;">“The Unspoken Truth Is that Biden Is Just Too Old”</a> by Tim Stanley, <i>Telegraph (UK): </i></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">When Joe Biden addressed the press on Friday, slurring and stumbling over his words, I was reminded of the moment in 1985 when the Soviets dragged</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span><b style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Konstantin Chernenko,</b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">the terminally ill leader of the USSR, out of his hospital bed to vote in an election on TV. It wasn’t just desperate, it was cruel. </span></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.7rem; font-variation-settings: "wght" 300, "opsz" 9; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">Biden is too old to be president, which isn’t to say that an old person can’t lead. Donald Trump is only three years younger, Pope Francis six years older, and Moses’s death at 120 was considered premature. Rather, in his case Biden has simply exhausted his once formidable talent and energy, and attempts to pretend that he’s a spring chicken have become a bad joke. People are dying because of this man.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.7rem; font-variation-settings: "wght" 300, "opsz" 9; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">I happen to believe Biden did the necessary thing in Afghanistan in the worst possible way (<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/tucker-blasts-afghanistan-withdrawal-biden-did-necessary-thing-in-ugliest-possible-way" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; box-sizing: inherit; color: #954f72; text-decoration-color: rgb(92, 0, 0); text-decoration-skip: objects; touch-action: manipulation;"><span style="color: #5c0000;">as does Tucker Carlson</span></a>). The West should never have been there; proof of failure was the speed with which the state collapsed when we started to leave. It was not cheap (final price tag more than $2 trillion) or enlightened (grievances against the state included rape, corruption and torture), and if no US service personnel had died in 18 months, as claimed by war hawks, it’s probably because Trump had signed a peace deal with the Taliban. Biden is right: if he’d torn up that deal, it would have meant a shooting war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.7rem; font-variation-settings: "wght" 300, "opsz" 9; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">But why did Biden reject a conditions-based approach to withdrawal? Why was Bagram air base abandoned? Why leave behind vital supplies and equipment? Why did he hide away in Camp David? Why ignore phone calls from the PM for around 36 hours? And why take so long to take questions from the press? The latter is unsurprising given that Biden waited three months into his presidency before he gave a formal press conference (the media might have hated Trump but he was far more accessible, and tweeted his opinions from 4am onwards), an embarrassing affair navigated with a cheat sheet.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.7rem; font-variation-settings: "wght" 300, "opsz" 9; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">The president lacks the necessary acuity for this job, something brushed away during the election as a symptom of his lifelong stutter, an explanation I bought into because I didn’t want to be cruel. But go and watch videos of Biden when he first ran for president in 1987 and you’ll note the stutter is almost undetectable. He also had less hair, much of which has magically grown back. The president is ageing backwards. By the time he leaves the White House, he’ll probably look 18.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.7rem; font-variation-settings: "wght" 300, "opsz" 9; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">What we’ve seen in the last two weeks are the consequences of the Democratic Party’s cynical bargain in 2020. In a desperate bid to beat Trump, they nominated the least offensive candidate possible – either because they have no faith in the appeal of their own ideology or the alternatives were so unlikeable – and though the strategy paid off in the short term, it meant that when they needed transformative generational leadership, they merely added one more placeholder to the gerontocratic pantheon.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">The president is 78. The Senate Majority leader is 70. The House Speaker is 81. A striking element of this uncharismatic administration is that it’s hard to name off the top of one’s head anyone working in it – there is no Rahm Emanuel or James Carville – and its freshest face is Kamala Harris whose own ratings are down after she admitted in an interview that despite being in charge of fixing the migration crisis she hadn’t yet been to the border. “I haven’t been to Europe either,” she joked, to everyone’s confusion. Before the weekend, Harris boarded a plane for a tour that includes Vietnam. Kabul is such an embarrassment that Democrats are fleeing to Saigon to escape it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Back to Friday’s press conference, at which Biden reassured us that the Titanic might be sinking but the lifeboats were doing great. Americans were being allowed to get to the airport by the Taliban he said, which was contradicted by local media reports. I’ve heard “no question of our credibility” from allies he claimed, which was contradicted by Parliament.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Growing numbers of Republicans say Biden looked unwell or unfit for the job. It’s an open goal screaming for a good kick. Accusations that Ronald Reagan was over the hill were accentuated by innuendo; this man’s incompetence is displayed before our very eyes. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">The Democrats will deny it, of course, partly because they suspect that if they are forced to admit that this candidate was a terrible mistake, then they would have nothing else to offer – and their pitch that “at least we’re a safe pair of hands” is false because the old establishment, the Democrats and Republicans who intervened and surged in Afghanistan, are just not that competent. It was they who committed America to building a foreign democracy in the midst of a civil war – a tall order for a nation that can’t even free Britney Spears.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">You know what was one of the most radical, commented-upon aspects of Trump’s administration? He was the first president in memory not to have a dog. Biden turned up at the White House with two German Shepherds, as if to hammer home the point. Within weeks, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/09/joe-bidens-german-shepherds-return-delaware-rescue-major-bites/" style="color: #954f72;"><span style="color: #5c0000;">one of the dogs had bitten a member of staff</span></a>. <b>The return to normalcy has been a return to chaos.</b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p>William McGowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02274145173711322404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6207248284996418153.post-31702510268237478722021-08-04T18:01:00.002-07:002021-08-05T06:54:10.182-07:00Keeping An Open Mind About Diversity Is One Thing, But Why Are We So Readily Losing Our Heads About Illegal Immigrant Crime? <p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYH-d0dH_xCcU9OyfGIqBGTaeGBoLwzqCb3c-jjRzVw4-TI9ujoVEOd1ueseBb_JPcCw8ahOvW5c92fq9kanxz-e4BFwPnp5_7_KLmnqaDy4rcG6I_pwxwL4bMrZXbVFNaQG9Mf14S44Q/s1262/HEADLESS-Screen+Shot+2021-08-04+at+9.23.22+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="942" data-original-width="1262" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYH-d0dH_xCcU9OyfGIqBGTaeGBoLwzqCb3c-jjRzVw4-TI9ujoVEOd1ueseBb_JPcCw8ahOvW5c92fq9kanxz-e4BFwPnp5_7_KLmnqaDy4rcG6I_pwxwL4bMrZXbVFNaQG9Mf14S44Q/w400-h299/HEADLESS-Screen+Shot+2021-08-04+at+9.23.22+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ALTERNATE HED: When the Alt Right Ain’t All Wrong, Installment # 50429. </span></b></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b><span style="font-size: 13pt;">From <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2021/08/04/illegal-alien-freed-us-accused-beheading-legal-immigrant-daylight/">Breitbart News </a></span></b></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">An illegal alien the United States by the Department of Homeland Security released in 2012 now stands accused of beheading a Cuban-American woman in broad daylight in Shakopee, Minnesota.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Alexi Saborit-Viltres, a 42-year-old illegal alien from Cuba, was arrested last month </span><a href="https://archive.is/eZzb6" style="color: #954f72; font-size: 13pt;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #895400;">and charged</span></a><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> with second-degree murder after he allegedly beheaded 55-year-old America Mafalda Thayer, his girlfriend, and dumped her body on the street.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">In a statement to Breitbart News, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson Shawn Neudauer confirmed that Saborit-Viltres is an illegal alien.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">According to Neudauer, Saborit-Viltres’s criminal history includes multiple domestic assault, domestic abuse, and domestic battery convictions in Minnesota and Louisiana, drunk driving, and fleeing of a police officer. Saborit-Viltres has pending criminal charges against him for first-degree arson-dwelling, first-degree criminal damage to property, and obstruction to the legal process.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ICE agents had previously tried to deport Saborit-Viltres back to his native Cuba nearly a decade ago after a federal immigration judge ordered him deported, but were unable to obtain travel documents for him. Instead, Saborit-Viltres was released from ICE custody on an order of supervision in 2012.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCM9y7zpasCqdji-HbllcsMf0KeHhMyDSreMBwHYYfM5nwfM9ZJug3qLoO9DHczaBIBa3ofaQoz1YBOei4btAsOZAuC4RUlmNOZKKLIwMh1SSJMHQJoad0WN7KTRSPZXyuzLuQIccMitM/s792/DECAP+VIC+Screen+Shot+2021-08-05+at+9.51.05+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="766" data-original-width="792" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCM9y7zpasCqdji-HbllcsMf0KeHhMyDSreMBwHYYfM5nwfM9ZJug3qLoO9DHczaBIBa3ofaQoz1YBOei4btAsOZAuC4RUlmNOZKKLIwMh1SSJMHQJoad0WN7KTRSPZXyuzLuQIccMitM/w400-h386/DECAP+VIC+Screen+Shot+2021-08-05+at+9.51.05+AM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span><p></p>William McGowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02274145173711322404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6207248284996418153.post-30881506932688447382021-08-02T13:28:00.001-07:002021-08-02T13:28:23.560-07:00How Can A British Tabloid Do This Story About Horrifying Dysfunction in NYC's Criminal Justice System But The 'New York Times' Cannot? <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 17.33333396911621px; letter-spacing: -0.13333334028720856px;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglwgz44Rx2oZi7JtzsL3v0p_3odzUexYH0Baskz_gRZmsECYQUoONKWJLWHpLirSR1CF6gDHIa5oNmEhbumCe-6Vt68DkITX-XeaT3J7WS6f3fdg3GLhOObpiSxApV2RhXG4nXfYlXdL4/s1008/Screen+Shot+2021-08-02+at+4.04.25+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="744" data-original-width="1008" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglwgz44Rx2oZi7JtzsL3v0p_3odzUexYH0Baskz_gRZmsECYQUoONKWJLWHpLirSR1CF6gDHIa5oNmEhbumCe-6Vt68DkITX-XeaT3J7WS6f3fdg3GLhOObpiSxApV2RhXG4nXfYlXdL4/w400-h295/Screen+Shot+2021-08-02+at+4.04.25+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"><b>Another silent salvo in the NYT's "War On Noticing," as per the <i><a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9844967/Serial-burglar-19-arrests-Nov-freed-break-childs-home-molest-her.html">Daily Mail.</a></i> </b></span></p><p class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">A serial burglar in</span><span class="apple-converted-space" style="font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"> </span><a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/new_york/index.html" id="mol-c7e73f90-f179-11eb-aa13-09070dad7b5a" style="color: #954f72; cursor: pointer; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt; min-height: 1px;"><b><span style="color: #003580; text-decoration: none;">New York City</span></b></a><span class="apple-converted-space" style="font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">who has been arrested 19 times in the past eight months was free on bail when he broke into a child's bedroom and molested her this week. </span></p><p class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">Raymond Wilson, 31, was detained this week after allegedly breaking into a Greenwich Village home and rubbing his exposed genitals on a 10-year-old girl's feet while she slept. </span></p><p class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; min-height: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">NYPD Police Commissioner Dermot Shea slammed 'the failed policy' that allowed Wilson to be on the streets on Friday. Shea has been a vocal opponent of New York City's bail reform since it was enacted. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; min-height: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">He <a href="https://twitter.com/NYPDShea/status/1420880029848899584" style="color: #954f72; cursor: pointer; min-height: 1px;" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #003580; text-decoration: none;">tweeted</span></b></a>: 'A 10 year old girl traumatized and we are again left to pick up the pieces for a failed policy. How long must we wait? How many victims must suffer? Over and over NY'ers ask, 'How can they be released?' ……and there is no logical answer.' <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">Police say the assault happened on June 12 when Wilson allegedly got into the young girl's home at 1 am while she and her younger sister were home alone sleeping. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; min-height: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">'The victim felt something slimy on her feet and noticed the defendant was rubbing his penis against her toes,' said Assistant District Attorney Meghan McNulty. 'The victim screamed for her parents, but nobody was home except her younger sister, who was sleeping in another room.' <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">The disturbed man quickly redressed and fled the scene once the young girl woke up screaming. The terrified girl stared at the bedroom door for 15-20 minutes, worried that the guy might return, before calling her mother. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; min-height: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">Police later released surveillance images of the suspect and asked for the public's help identifying him. He left a cigarette lighter and a camera lens at the scene and stole a bicycle from the building hallway which he rode away on. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; min-height: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">Wilson fled the scene before officers arrived but was later connected to the crime from DNA from a stain left on the young girl's duvet cover. When police recovered his DNA and ran his name they realized he was also being sought for additional burglaries. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; min-height: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">The serial burglar and sexual assailant was arrested and jailed this week on $500,000 cash bail or $750,000 bond at a hearing in Manhattan Criminal Court on Thursday. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">'I'm requiring this defendant to return to court,' said Judge Anne Swern of the bail. 'Because of that criminal record. Because of the fact that he was not reachable by phone. Because I know he goes by a number of different names. Because he has 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ... a number of different Social Security numbers.'<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; min-height: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">'I think he faces a significant period of incarceration.'<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; min-height: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">Wilson's recent prior arrests include at least six burglaries, plus arrests on four successive days in May for lesser offenses since November. He was repeatedly released with no bail sometimes with no conditions, other times under terms of supervisory release such as addiction treatment or job training. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="mol-para-with-font" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; min-height: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">A spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. acknowledged bail was not sought in a number of cases where prosecutors had the option to do so, according to the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-serial-burglar-busted-10-year-old-girl-bedroom-feet-20210729-jidg4xzm2fglzdvv6qihktf5ua-story.html" style="color: #954f72; cursor: pointer; min-height: 1px;" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #003580; text-decoration: none;">Daily News</span></b></a>. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">New state reform laws enacted in 2020 demand that suspects in a long list of crimes go free without having to post bail. Shea has blamed New York's sharp rise in crime on New York's new bail reform laws. On July 7, Shea pointed to the sweeping bail reform measures when asked about the city's surge in crime. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">'I think you've got to get uncomfortable here, and the uncomfortable conversation for a lot of people is we have to address that law that was passed in 2019, and the implications that we're feeling today' referring to the bail reform. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">In February the <a href="http://criminaljustice.cityofnewyork.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Pretrial-Docketed-Rearrest%E2%80%94Contextual-Overview-thru-September-2020.pdf" style="color: #954f72;" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #003580;">Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice</span></b></a> released a report showing that, 97%, of the roughly 50,000 people awaiting trial monthly in 2020 haven't been re-arrested. While Judges have increasingly used supervised released as an alternative to jail, this trend existed before New York City reformed bail laws and continued afterward. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">A <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/07/08/nypds-own-stats-debunk-claims-about-bail-reform-link-to-shootings/" style="color: #954f72;" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #003580;">New York Post</span></b></a> analysis of NYPD's crime statistics data found that most people released under the criminal justice reforms were not connected to the surge of violent crimes. Criminal justice experts suggest that the cops focus on the flow of illegal guns into the city instead which the White House has announced plans to do. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>William McGowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02274145173711322404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6207248284996418153.post-77144911011951982662021-07-27T12:49:00.002-07:002021-07-27T12:57:33.815-07:00If You Still Think COVID-19 Couldn't Have Come From a Lab Leak In Wuhan, Maybe You're Bats! <p style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW69vYNGuaI3uYS6cR7i_h6LCwBYRWfix9mZUsZx3bKKWQ5oRHGbrpbYIKy6Mv1VruX_HhRobBu5Ltb36tMCZZWoFNkk2SbCeaMXNnXMuegNSAOlIn7xS422kvVl3_3rOF3TKjkDQOGMo/s1590/Screen+Shot+2021-07-27+at+3.45.43+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1012" data-original-width="1590" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW69vYNGuaI3uYS6cR7i_h6LCwBYRWfix9mZUsZx3bKKWQ5oRHGbrpbYIKy6Mv1VruX_HhRobBu5Ltb36tMCZZWoFNkk2SbCeaMXNnXMuegNSAOlIn7xS422kvVl3_3rOF3TKjkDQOGMo/w400-h255/Screen+Shot+2021-07-27+at+3.45.43+PM.png" width="400" /></a></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><b></b></b></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; display: inline; text-align: center;"><b style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; display: inline; text-align: center;"><b style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></b></div></div></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Opinion on the lab leak scenario, once seen as a fringe theory, has shifted dramatically, <i>Politico </i>reports, citing a new Harvard Poll which surveyed 1,009 adults from June 22-27. “Most Americans now believe that the coronavirus leaked from a laboratory in China,” the magazine explains, noting “a high level of public interest in investigating Covid-19’s origin, with almost two-thirds of Democrats and Republicans calling the issue “extremely” or “very” important.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span face="-webkit-standard, serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">According to <i><a href="about://"><span style="color: #954f72;">Politico</span></a></i>: </span></b><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">U.S. adults were almost twice as likely to say the virus was the result of a lab leak in China than human contact with an infected animal, which many scientists believe is the most likely scenario. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">The poll's findings show what was once a fringe belief held mainly among some on the political right has become accepted by most Republicans, as well as most Democrats, amid heightened scrutiny of the lab leak theory.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">In March 2020, a Pew Research Center poll found 29 percent of Americans believed the virus was made in a Chinese lab and released either accidentally or intentionally. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">The new survey shows 52 percent believe the virus came out of a lab, including 59 percent of Republicans and 52 percent of Democrats, while 28 percent said it was from an infected animal.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">The absence of a large partisan gap on the issue is particularly striking, said Robert Blendon, a professor of health policy and political analysis at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who designed the poll.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">“Usually, our polls find a big split between Republicans and Democrats, so this is unique,” he said. “More conservative media have been carrying the ‘lab leak’ issue, and it’s been a Trump talking point from the beginning, so we expected people who lean Democratic would say either ‘It’s not true’ or ‘I don’t know.’ But the belief is bipartisan.”</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Blendon said Democrats likely became more receptive to the idea after President Joe Biden’s recent order that intelligence agencies investigate the virus’ origin and comments from Anthony Fauci, the White House chief medical officer, that it's worth digging into. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Fauci and other scientists have cautioned the answer may never be known definitively.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">“That the president thought there was enough evidence to ask intelligence agencies to put together a report sends a signal to Democrats that there might be something there,” Blendon said.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Democratic lawmakers have also <a href="about://"><span style="color: #dca10d;">faced pressure to look more closely</span></a> at the lab leak scenario, though they worry Republicans will stoke uncertainty about the virus origin for political gain. Several congressional committees have launched inquiries, and the House Science Committee plans to hold its first hearing on the issue next week.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">The POLITICO-Harvard poll, which will be released next week, also found there’s a high level of public interest in investigating Covid-19’s origin, with almost two-thirds of Democrats and Republicans calling the issue “extremely” or “very” important. The finding also surprised Blendon, who said the public isn’t typically invested in such a scientific inquiry.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">The broad attention on the issue underscores the stakes for the Biden administration’s upcoming report on the virus origin, due in August. Even if the report concludes the virus came from nature, it could be hard to move public opinion, lawmakers and researchers like Blendon have noted.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVWiK7s4wpkAhVr_nTPmeQqGvBPZHPuklWFEG2a4by0JUUJMnt63LjnfaRiD0SJq7kEMPLiQ1XH2cRNIxbplIBKuEFzNGXNsMIv1xqLtgQf2Ucqsv5MCy3RZYlXNy-YSEcsKZbgDhzRRI/s1270/Screen+Shot+2021-07-27+at+3.56.20+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="702" data-original-width="1270" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVWiK7s4wpkAhVr_nTPmeQqGvBPZHPuklWFEG2a4by0JUUJMnt63LjnfaRiD0SJq7kEMPLiQ1XH2cRNIxbplIBKuEFzNGXNsMIv1xqLtgQf2Ucqsv5MCy3RZYlXNy-YSEcsKZbgDhzRRI/w400-h221/Screen+Shot+2021-07-27+at+3.56.20+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span><p></p></div>William McGowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02274145173711322404noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6207248284996418153.post-67381176374557114712021-07-12T06:59:00.000-07:002021-07-12T06:59:39.661-07:00Putting The Hitlerizers On The Couch: After Indulging Them For Years, WAPO Now Says No More 'Ignorant' Analogies <p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizPjH13eCKKv6_c2R264NyZZ9zI9DTkO8ZY42te8najISHPlIxBfKj7lC91vhW5p9TQtGAPemgPl-rvM2gx0YltJq2ujt8lspsmkDifexm0aPoOv3XKhVT1k2G2Nub_leiO_I9X_7oW0Y/s580/PIKERS-Screen+Shot+2021-07-12+at+9.47.32+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="580" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizPjH13eCKKv6_c2R264NyZZ9zI9DTkO8ZY42te8najISHPlIxBfKj7lC91vhW5p9TQtGAPemgPl-rvM2gx0YltJq2ujt8lspsmkDifexm0aPoOv3XKhVT1k2G2Nub_leiO_I9X_7oW0Y/s320/PIKERS-Screen+Shot+2021-07-12+at+9.47.32+AM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><p></p><p style="background-color: white; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: #282828; font-family: PostoniWide, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Tossing around </span></b><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: #282828; font-family: Times; font-size: 13pt;">‘</span></b><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: #282828; font-family: PostoniWide, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Nazi</span></b><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: #282828; font-family: Times; font-size: 13pt;">’ </span></b><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: #282828; font-family: PostoniWide, serif; font-size: 13pt;">and </span></b><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: #282828; font-family: Times; font-size: 13pt;">‘</span></b><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: #282828; font-family: PostoniWide, serif; font-size: 13pt;">fascist</span></b><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: #282828; font-family: Times; font-size: 13pt;">’ </span></b><b><span style="color: #282828; font-family: PostoniWide, serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">as insults is reckless and historically illiterate, says former Congressman Mitch Daniels in yesterday's <i><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/11/tossing-around-nazi-fascist-insults-is-reckless-historically-illiterate/">Washington </a></i></span><i><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/11/tossing-around-nazi-fascist-insults-is-reckless-historically-illiterate/"><span style="caret-color: rgb(40, 40, 40); font-size: 17.33333396911621px;">Post</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">. </span></a></i></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Inapt use of “Nazi” is not new but has proliferated in recent years, hurled by hands both left and right. It was thrown at Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. The term has been used to criticize immigration enforcement by one side and pandemic lockdowns by the other. Even in the early Internet days, in 1990, writer Mike Godwin formulated the theorem that “As an online discussion continues, the probability of a reference or comparison to Hitler or Nazis approaches 1.” </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Such reckless verbiage is, of course, not just grossly disproportionate and non-analogous to the real thing, it’s historically illiterate. The Anti-Defamation League has frequently had to issue reproaches such as, “Glib comparisons to Nazi Germany are offensive and a trivialization of the Holocaust.” </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13pt;">The term “fascist” is, if anything, even more absurdly misused, also by both of today’s tribes. From one side, fascist has been applied to proponents of gun control, mask mandates and speech codes. From the other side, at almost anyone who deviates from their various orthodoxies: people dubious about cutting police budgets during a crime and homicide surge, committed feminists who balk at today’s more extreme demands on gender issues, college presidents supportive of free expression, and so on. <b>A Christmas Day article on Salon attacked Hallmark movies as “fascist propaganda.” I’m not making that up. </b></span><b><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Here, too, ignorance reigns. The inventor of fascism a century ago, Benito Mussolini, also defined it: “Everything in the state, nothing against the state, nothing outside the state.” That sounds closer to one side of today’s arguments than the other, but let’s stipulate that neither really is advocating the complete eradication of voluntary, intermediating institutions or of all forms of personal freedom. At least not yet. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13pt;">The loosening of discipline around the terrible insults that “Nazi” and “fascist” represent has crept beyond the fevered denizens of Internet chat rooms and fringe “activists.” Thinkers I admire deeply, such as Michael Gerson and Jonah Goldberg, have launched the Other F-bomb — Gerson at the supporters of the previous president, Goldberg in his 2008 book “Liberal Fascism.” The New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg spat it at a U.S. senator for suggesting the use of federal troops in a public safety emergency. Good idea or not, it hardly merited the fascist slur, any more than it did in Little Rock 1958, Detroit 1967 or D.C. 2021. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13pt;">This is not an argument for either side of any of these issues. It isn’t a plea for “safe spaces” because of the hurtful character of such invective. They are, after all, only words. It’s just a suggestion that words packed with this much meaning not be thrown around so loosely, and ignorantly. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Somebody once said — maybe it was George Carlin, gee I miss him — “What’s another good word for synonym?” Instead of “Nazi” or “fascist,” how about “tyrannical,” “autocratic,” “coercive,” “despotic” or “dictatorial,” just for starters? </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Because, God forbid, we may one day need to use those other words accurately again, and if so, it would be important that we not have cheapened them and erased their actual meaning from memory. There are real concentration camps in this world, but they’re not in El Paso or Portland, Ore. Innocent people are executed for their ethnic background or religious beliefs, but not in Seattle or Tuscaloosa, Ala. As a people, we are nowhere near the kind of polity that produces such atrocities, and we ought not talk to each other as though we are. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>William McGowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02274145173711322404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6207248284996418153.post-51813923800968685882021-06-09T11:20:00.034-07:002021-06-13T13:13:31.543-07:00The Magic Of My Father's City: Remembering the 'Gendarmes Of The Generation Gap' <p style="text-align: center;"> <img border="0" data-original-height="884" data-original-width="892" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOgOtjEwm3VEXWcjP3gRozm44_vIw6ve2fKhEfClkxcDGR-CY0-prTwsixNBE9T0W-rBm71EIeafJIvWae91T0JoFZMN4yS9aAiwAEOOh01f_bvpK-X69MW_C8POZi3i7z43nH3CTlA14/w400-h396/*BEST-Screen%2BShot%2B2021-06-08%2Bat%2B6.18.50%2BPM.png" width="400" /></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">What did you do in the 1960s, Daddy?<o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">As Father's Day looms, this question might be on the lips of many a “woke” son or daughter curious about their Boomer parents' relationship to the Vietnam War, antiwar protest or countercultural experimentation with drugs or sex. My late father, a World War II Navy vet who retired as a Detective Captain after 27 years in the NYPD, always had a singular answer whenever one of his children or grandchildren made inquiry. It was a response most definitely shorn of the moral vanity and generational narcissism permeating novels, plays and movies evoking that period, as well as the self-stroking memories of those who lived through it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">"I ran the Hippie Squad," he would say with a sly grin. The natural raconteur in him was always eager for yet another chance to describe an earlier chapter in what everyone refers to now as "Re-Imagining the Police" which, curiously enough, has evolved into what the now uber-trendy <i><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/12/style/nyc-summer.html">New York Times</a></i> calls an "epic" youth scene where "the city streets are so teeming with fresh-faced pleasure seekers one might squint and think it 1967, the Summer of Love." <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">During his long police career, my father had many interesting experiences and assignments. He guarded Fidel Castro </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 17.33333396911621px;">in September 1960</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 17.33333396911621px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">during the Cuban leader's controversial trip to address the UN, led gambling investigations in Madame Sinclair's Harlem, made the first arrest in the infamous Harry Gross investigation, and held down the desk in the "Four-One" otherwise known as "Fort Apache," the arson-ravaged precinct in the South Bronx not too far from Yankee Stadium. He also claimed that he taught fellow </span><span style="font-size: 17.33333396911621px;"><i>baldino</i> </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Telly Savalas how to answer the phone like a real detective would in Midtown's "Manhattan South" for <i>Kojak. (</i>Unfortunately when I tried to confirm this with Savalas a few years before he passed away, <i>Lt. Kojak</i> didn't pick up the phone.) </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">But leading the twenty or so young undercover detectives in this little known, real-life <i>The Mod Squad </i>was his favorite command ---and his most satisfying. He was able to both police </span></span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">and</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> bridge the Generation Gap, helping several hundred underage runaway Flower Children escape the depredations of countercultural charlatans and exploiters. Good Morning, Starshine: the next time your parents wax nostalgic about how "hip" they all were then, remind them that there was a certain period on St Mark's Place when it was hard to tell who was actually a Merry Prankster and who really was "the Man."</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"></p><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6FOpeQGE_v0yvvSUhmuBdW-V6AKICmkDy7y-m2l3HWJ1dD4tdOzCCa7E5uRbJudqMPlD8iDdRJ3D120Lptblqqy0oD96ouoQOYCK556BigIQN52E70NYRtxOPi9vgSrhtme43EK8lasw/s882/*Screen%2BShot%2B2021-06-08%2Bat%2B6.04.25%2BPM.png"><img border="0" data-original-height="554" data-original-width="882" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6FOpeQGE_v0yvvSUhmuBdW-V6AKICmkDy7y-m2l3HWJ1dD4tdOzCCa7E5uRbJudqMPlD8iDdRJ3D120Lptblqqy0oD96ouoQOYCK556BigIQN52E70NYRtxOPi9vgSrhtme43EK8lasw/w400-h251/*Screen%2BShot%2B2021-06-08%2Bat%2B6.04.25%2BPM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Flashback, October 1967: As the Summer of Love fades into autumn in New York's East Village, runaway teenage Connecticut socialite Linda Fitzpatrick is found nude and bludgeoned to death along with her hippie celebrity boyfriend, James "Groovy" Hutchinson. Just a few months before Fitzpatrick graduated from Maryland’s prestigious Oldfields School. The proverbial "girl who had everything", she was on her way to an art college in that fall. But at the time of her death, she had become a "meth monster," last seen strung out on speed and panhandling on the street. Later that night, Fitzpatrick and Hutchinson were lured into the basement of a decrepit tenement off of Ave B by promises of a late-night LSD party.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Fitzpatrick was only one of many runaway flower children who had flocked to San Francisco's Haight Asbury and New York's East Village. But her murder, which became the basis of a Pulitzer Prize winning <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/10/26/home/luckas-fitzpatrick.html"><i>New York Times</i> account</a> written by J. Anthony Lukas, left parents and public officials everywhere desperate to understand the "forces at work on young people" who were, by the tens of thousands, "leaving middle class homes throughout the country for the 'mind-expanding' drug scene" in places like the East Village. Why would talented privileged teenagers like Fitzpatrick leave their gilded suburban lives ---and their guaranteed futures----for a life of "crash pads, acid trips, freaking out, psychedelic art, witches and warlocks." <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEjJKj3isl5sNBsGutJiYP5_PzVNMayJvRhnk4AaRO4ae_CKThdP336OLMEhMzilAstf-E_83LpgqS8_trTA3QuVqH_hIpHrG_USk5Z3zvzRZP8Kl1mLktiBr3ZD8qnsuXTrosMWvVEl0/s1268/Screen+Shot+2021-06-09+at+11.45.33+AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1268" data-original-width="1218" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEjJKj3isl5sNBsGutJiYP5_PzVNMayJvRhnk4AaRO4ae_CKThdP336OLMEhMzilAstf-E_83LpgqS8_trTA3QuVqH_hIpHrG_USk5Z3zvzRZP8Kl1mLktiBr3ZD8qnsuXTrosMWvVEl0/w384-h400/Screen+Shot+2021-06-09+at+11.45.33+AM.png" width="384" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Sociologists leapt into the void, invoking "the generation gap." Pastors, parents and psychologists all scrambled for a way to bridge that gap. My father, then an NYPD Detective Lieutenant did his bit too. With Mayor Lindsay breathing fire down the police commissioner's neck, my father accepted orders to form an undercover unit whose mission was to infiltrate the hippie scene, locate underage runaways, reunite them with their parents and put countercultural predators---drug dealers, racial hucksters and Hells Angels types---behind bars. The squad's mission statement was emphatic: "To regain control of </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">the Village: East and West."</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">At the time, the tide of runaway minors had completely overwhelmed law enforcement. According to former Squad Detective Greg O'Connell, who would later go on to become a major figure in the development of Brooklyn's Red Hook waterfront, "Before the Hippie Squad, parents of runaways were on their own." If the report they made to their local police department made it to the NYPD's Missing Persons squad at all, that squad was so overloaded with cases, all they could do was check the morgue. "There was just so much volume," O'Connell recalled.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Cambria, serif; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg41zR01fNeZGtgHY5Y-eQCUyhxl_psFnBrC1FNsErcCWowXqGtaN-qwiaHeGJIfh4b5uTup8TKZHZ9Mo0kZAODGPkDQIZfztjSBGAe1R8Q2pULjoenGq3R8UaQZyh4FhTQeGg6VGGkHTg/s988/Screen+Shot+2021-06-09+at+1.44.29+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="802" data-original-width="988" height="325" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg41zR01fNeZGtgHY5Y-eQCUyhxl_psFnBrC1FNsErcCWowXqGtaN-qwiaHeGJIfh4b5uTup8TKZHZ9Mo0kZAODGPkDQIZfztjSBGAe1R8Q2pULjoenGq3R8UaQZyh4FhTQeGg6VGGkHTg/w400-h325/Screen+Shot+2021-06-09+at+1.44.29+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 13pt; text-align: left;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt; text-align: left;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">In many cases, parents from Ohio, Wisconsin or Iowa would come to the city and walk the streets, carrying pictures of their kids asking random people if they had seen them. Empty storefronts, light poles and station houses were plastered with fliers, <i>a la</i> 9-11, describing the age, hair color, nicknames and "last seen" whereabouts of the missing. (At one point my father recalls having over 2000 displayed in or filed in his office.) Exploitation of parents by street hustlers and con artists was common, with an unmistakable racial edge. "A lot of the parents suspected they were being scammed," said O'Connell. "But if you were coming in from Minnesota, you'd take your shot." <o:p></o:p></span></p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Like Linda Fitzpatrick, many runaways came to roost in the decrepit and abandoned buildings of the far East Village, aka "Alphabet City" --- Avenues A, B, C and D. Narrow, dimly lit and urine-stinking hallways were filled with squats, communes and shooting galleries. In some crash pads, 15 to 20 dirty mattresses would be spread out on the floor; bathroom facilities were often nonexistent. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Free love, along with heroin and amphetamines had triggered an epidemic of VD, hepatitis and drug addiction, with junkies often involved in prostitution. Race relations between middle class hippies and impoverished local blacks and Puerto Ricans were bad, resulting in beatings, robberies, arson deaths and rapes. According to former Hippie Squad detective Robert Marshall, "rape was the norm for runaway girls." Linda Fitzpatrick's death got saturation coverage, but news reports of the day also told of a 13-year-old girl from Ohio raped and thrown off a rooftop and of a drug-addicted 17-year-old girl from New Jersey found in a steamer truck after floating in New York harbor. And I can tell you from having gone through the microfilm in the New York Public Library that these cases were not outliers. "</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">It was a very intense era, a sad era," recalled now-deceased East Village detective Edward Murphy. "A lot of kids got hurt.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">"<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Prior to that assignment, my father had experience in culturally restive areas of the city, such as Harlem and the </span><span style="font-size: 17.33333396911621px;">South</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> Bronx, and didn't mind working at night. He also had eight kids, which he used to joke, must have made his commanding officers think he knew something about youth. "I was good at running away from the bosses too" he said. "So, putting me in charge of runaway youth must have seemed like a natural for them." </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4hBO8LhIQJyX_g4SgnFci28r2Hj_-MZhICKqXx3F_ytDSvPyfLIiJRAWrbxqnq4Tq5_hjdfhNTMOJqkCSBbb9f6hPv_ts5Kc_lRJ5dHOzJK__uM9DK-qJSiXH3naUTFdWVO8KDRp8SXc/s990/COP+w+HIPPIE+CROWD+Screen+Shot+2021-06-09+at+2.15.34+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="634" data-original-width="990" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4hBO8LhIQJyX_g4SgnFci28r2Hj_-MZhICKqXx3F_ytDSvPyfLIiJRAWrbxqnq4Tq5_hjdfhNTMOJqkCSBbb9f6hPv_ts5Kc_lRJ5dHOzJK__uM9DK-qJSiXH3naUTFdWVO8KDRp8SXc/w400-h256/COP+w+HIPPIE+CROWD+Screen+Shot+2021-06-09+at+2.15.34+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Each detective squad in Manhattan was required to detail at least one of its members, preferably young. Many came from the narcotics squad and were familiar with undercover work. Although my father did not get to pick them personally, the Chief of Detectives promised there would be no deadweight, and he delivered, producing what police call a very "active" squad. The unit was also quite diverse---Irish, Italians, Blacks, Jews and Latinos---and forged a kind of family-like atmosphere, dining out together in ethnic restaurants downtown before beginning their 8PM to 4AM shift. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYUr5fMnyn-L_kY2M1bJyppDwCCQi-bc1UPcJJ3WfxvTiNhwEoKRIe1wyDWuWyCe-Pgrk-OVH5wUOR4r3ZNrpBQwdMAuRkYisdSmaRvz7lTPn6UiUFe5mbW6HDohZECzjRDU-rVch3UtM/s1358/STREET-Screen+Shot+2021-06-08+at+6.17.19+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="896" data-original-width="1358" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYUr5fMnyn-L_kY2M1bJyppDwCCQi-bc1UPcJJ3WfxvTiNhwEoKRIe1wyDWuWyCe-Pgrk-OVH5wUOR4r3ZNrpBQwdMAuRkYisdSmaRvz7lTPn6UiUFe5mbW6HDohZECzjRDU-rVch3UtM/w400-h264/STREET-Screen+Shot+2021-06-08+at+6.17.19+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">To pass, some of the squad members merely grew beards or long hair and wore old, wore ratty clothes, guns holstered at the ankle under bellbottoms. Others got deeper into the part, donning buckskin and leopard print vests or putting bones in their ears and studs in their noses. The mufti got particularly extravagant whenever someone form the mayor's office would come downtown around the time my father was turning the men out for the night. "Born actors," my father would say of the squad members. "Should have been on Broadway." For his part, my father, then 45 year's old, never went native, dressing in an older detective style, a la <i>Dragnet</i>: Good suit, sharp tie and a fedora hat. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">The undercover detectives worked in groups of two or three and traveled in unmarked cars. They had no radios, and were required to call into the Squad Room every hour. "Every night was busy," O'Connell recalled. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">In the cases referred by Missing Persons, they sought specific individuals, using a network of street informants ---"stoolies"---to locate them. Other runaways were picked up randomly on the street and taken in for identification, their tender ages and demeanor a giveaway. The bulk of the squads action though involved minors taken in as a result of "no knock" raids on crash pads, communes or parties where both kids actively being sought, and many others, congregated. This being the late 1960s when the legality of warrantless searches was unsettled, "It was easier to take a door off its hinges,'' former Detective O'Connell explained, adding: "We got results, that's all that mattered at the time. The situation had just gotten so bad."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Although many of the minors had fled abusive homes, many were simply naive "lost souls," according to Robert Marshall. "I don't believe they had the faintest idea what they had walked into and how they could be taken advantage of in such a short time," O'Connell added. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8RVw_-B93PJwgavQzwx1LBUMwNuWsQQiNIuCGxak_MI2JRqBhpTtP_pmKM60d1ZNgXszBZdGWbkW1ohcMxVni4l3J_RDPVl0yHGu3Wdc6uqcMvLb6DcVm2MuepkuONE2spcz_rTvxn-g/s1278/*BUBBLES%2BScreen%2BShot%2B2021-06-08%2Bat%2B6.03.37%2BPM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="848" data-original-width="1278" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8RVw_-B93PJwgavQzwx1LBUMwNuWsQQiNIuCGxak_MI2JRqBhpTtP_pmKM60d1ZNgXszBZdGWbkW1ohcMxVni4l3J_RDPVl0yHGu3Wdc6uqcMvLb6DcVm2MuepkuONE2spcz_rTvxn-g/w400-h265/*BUBBLES%2BScreen%2BShot%2B2021-06-08%2Bat%2B6.03.37%2BPM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Predators were arrested and charged, but as long as the apprehended runaway was not arrogant or verbally abusive to the detectives, the squad tried as much as possible to return them directly to their parents. This kept the kids from having an arrest record, which in those days was not as easy as now to erase and could affect their future prospects. It also spared families a stain on their reputation if news got out their child had been taken into the system formally. "We were looking for kids and trying to reconnect them to their families," O'Connell explained. "Ours was more a social mission than a law enforcement mission." </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Indeed, a lot of the kids had hit bottom, wanted to go home and just needed help in getting there. "We'd call the parents on their behalf and arrange tickets home, or a shower. If the kid was strung out on drugs, we'd take them to detox at Bellevue," said O'Connell. In one case, that of the daughter of a then well-known radio celebrity, detectives brought the girl home through the back door of the well-appointed uptown co-op, so newshounds and neighbors wouldn't see. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Parents who came to New York to either report a missing kid or pick one up were never made to feel embarrassed. "Sometimes parents would come into the Squad and tell us what their son or daughter was like," O'Connell recalled. "It was often the same sad story we had heard hundreds of times before. But they had taken the time and money to come to New York to look for their children and we felt it was our duty to listen. Your father having eight kids, he could relate to them, especially." The unit tied as much as possible to shield the parents from the conditions they found their children in. Upon seeing her dirty, drug-addled daughter, one middle-aged mother fainted as her brother, a priest, tried to explain that they were "a good family." <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Part of the squad's job was to help keep anarchy at bay in the streets. This wasn’t easy during the "long hot summer" of 1968. When the news would hit the underground press after a big "no knock" raid, hundreds of angry hippies would lay siege to the 9th Precinct---The Embassy" as it was called---- to protest, waving banners that said "Don't Bust Our Crash Pads" and "Join the Revolution." To have a station house taken over was the biggest fear any commanding officer could imagine, since it represented a profound embarrassment to the department. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">When such protests occurred therefore it would not be uncommon to see 50 mounted cops, a couple of busloads of riot police and 100 to 200 uniformed police ringing the precinct house itself. What was not so common to see, or to grasp if you did see it, were men from the Hippie Squad infiltrating the crowd in order to lead them off in other directions. Such operations the Squad used to call "cattle runs." <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">"I'd talk to the Inspector," my father explained, "and when he thought they all had had enough protest time, he'd give me the signal and say 'Yep. Time to break 'em up." Often, they would lead them toward another precinct elsewhere downtown but by the time they were halfway there the energy ---and the threat---would have faded. My father would instruct his men "Don't ever tell the captain over there we tried to send them over. The captain over there would have killed me if he knew."</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">This being the old NYPD, there was a definite political dimension to the job as well. My father often was asked to escort VIP's who wanted to see "the hippie scene" up close. He especially liked taking them to the Electric Circus on St. Mark's Place---"the Studio 54 of the Hippie Movement," as he called it when I interviewed him in 2000---and to the Rubber Room adjacent to it where most of the clientele was doing LSD and the pot smoke was so thick "you could get high just standing there." One night with an entourage from the Mayor's office, the experience got a little too mind-blowing. Standing on a balcony above a dance floor the group saw a woman and a man having sex. "Well, I guess we've seen enough for the time being," one of the mayor's aides said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYvAHjyerjfyV3kId05ZpXcg8IbWTEZx80q62MSgPcbfQ5ZOUcOpYHJTkq-tPhMc5YTmsMRsYuIQo3WKPoIIdDTnCWT10kAONH1rlf3ueOaSACa31rk8HF_t0SLm_EbBjfYCMiYusTAbg/s1332/Screen+Shot+2021-06-09+at+2.40.21+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="774" data-original-width="1332" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYvAHjyerjfyV3kId05ZpXcg8IbWTEZx80q62MSgPcbfQ5ZOUcOpYHJTkq-tPhMc5YTmsMRsYuIQo3WKPoIIdDTnCWT10kAONH1rlf3ueOaSACa31rk8HF_t0SLm_EbBjfYCMiYusTAbg/w400-h233/Screen+Shot+2021-06-09+at+2.40.21+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Another political aspect involved what police call "contracts"---non-remunerative favors arranged by senior-most department officials or City Hall politicos on behalf of celebrities, politicians or even their own relatives and friends whose children had run away. The Police Commissioner, the Chief Inspector, the Chief of Detectives---"God" as my father called him---all issued contracts which the Hippie Squad was bound to fulfill. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">One of the more interesting contracts that came down from on high involved the daughter of Maxie Levine, an old "tough Jew" who had been an enforcer for a mob family and who was owed a favor by someone, somewhere. Maxie's teenage daughter, a methamphetamine addict, had run away to the East Village and then had gone to Miami, taking the family cat along with her. With permission from on high, a Hippie Squad detective accompanied Maxie to Miami. According to the detective, they located the girl quite quickly. But Maxie wanted to party and they stayed at the Carlyle Hotel for three days, at one-point drinking with Jackie Gleason. Finally, Maxie gave the signal to pick her up where she was crashing. They whisked the girl by jet back to a private sanitarium in New York, the cat traveling in the girl's hatbox. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Another political favor involved assigning a detective to protect a female stalking victim whose mother had connections to the Greenwich Village political establishment. My father had ordered the detective not to let the girl out of his sight. But two days later, after travelling with the girl to Puerto Rico, maintaining that the mother had told him higher ups had okayed it, the Boss was livid. "Get back here right away," my father growled into the phone. "Don't even stop to breathe." <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">A few instances of rule-bending aside, the squad was definitely on the straight and narrow. This was a huge relief for my father given the potential for corruption that existed anywhere in the department at that time but particularly in the East Village and Lower East Side where gambling had always been rife and the influx of drugs and transients was as perfect recipe for shakedowns. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">"I told them right from the get-go, 'Don't fool around, it’s a small squad and a small village and you know it'll get back to me," my father explained. "And if you do fool around, and it does gets back to me, there'll be no mercy whatsoever. You'll go down." And then he told them: "And if you even hear I'm 'on' with someone, walk into my office and punch me in the nose before you even ask me about whether it’s true or not.' I was that sincere." <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">As it turned out, the relative youth of the men and their excitement for the squad's mission kept temptation at bay." They all did good work, my father said. "They knew they had a good job. They weren't just sitting there catching cases like they would be in other squads. It was amazing the appreciation they showed." In fact, the amount of autonomy given squad members and their responsible acceptance of it allowed my father, in the old department style, to occasionally helm the operation from the uptown comforts of watering holes like <i>Toots Shors</i>, where the banter was warm, the drinks were stiff and "Sinatra's "You Make Me Feel So Young" always seemed to be on the jukebox. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">As former Detective O'Connell: put it, "Your father knew the guys, knew who they were and what they were about. He felt comfortable with us. He knew we weren't going to jam him up or embarrass him." Of his relaxed management style, my Dad only said: "They knew where I was if they needed me. They had all the phone numbers." </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW36EUERepMCkHmkaHzUnEK3ciJ5DuERjwU5poE6m0D-3lWIKC7OiReFnjLVwWaOp8_eR1UmrrsJpzy0L9JOY548taNAxAdcIpqwWx88Oe1OuAk5S7RUNkVyjXmStu_Wm2FXhOAXeICx8/s1104/*TOOTS%2BScreen%2BShot%2B2021-06-09%2Bat%2B12.00.10%2BPM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1104" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW36EUERepMCkHmkaHzUnEK3ciJ5DuERjwU5poE6m0D-3lWIKC7OiReFnjLVwWaOp8_eR1UmrrsJpzy0L9JOY548taNAxAdcIpqwWx88Oe1OuAk5S7RUNkVyjXmStu_Wm2FXhOAXeICx8/w400-h313/*TOOTS%2BScreen%2BShot%2B2021-06-09%2Bat%2B12.00.10%2BPM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">By late 1968, the high tide of hippie-dom was ebbing and the number of runaways was on the decline. Tired of what the Village Voice called the "bad vibrations" of the East Village, many hippies were ready for the country. En masse, they headed "back to the land." </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBSpSicQVOjqpAowS3PPXKJ28LyP76f2UAyxt6_fRjIPf5XMnKIHmo_fYf6rtnn4Q3VXRp64u8ibaVtAV68gcjYlHKzamnWN8HE90lFyremYpkiALJDeo8HDGprU2wuXwS0TNoxUMJfvw/s1354/BACK+TO+LAND+Screen+Shot+2021-06-09+at+3.17.09+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1026" data-original-width="1354" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBSpSicQVOjqpAowS3PPXKJ28LyP76f2UAyxt6_fRjIPf5XMnKIHmo_fYf6rtnn4Q3VXRp64u8ibaVtAV68gcjYlHKzamnWN8HE90lFyremYpkiALJDeo8HDGprU2wuXwS0TNoxUMJfvw/w400-h303/BACK+TO+LAND+Screen+Shot+2021-06-09+at+3.17.09+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">One night, my Dad told his men that the squad had been disbanded and that they were to report back to their original commands. They did so with their resumes burnished and good recommendations, which helped many of them throughout the rest of the careers. The squad's arrest and conviction rate were high, and they had found and returned 350 underage runaways. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">For my father, running the Hippie Squad was a chance to use all the investigative, managerial and political skills he had honed for more than two decades on the force. For him the Summer of Love became a second spring, allowing him to do something fresh and original---not often easy in that button-down bureaucracy. And, upon soon passing the captain's promotional exam, it helped him stake out a spot for himself as a Detective Captain in prestigious Manhattan South, no small thing to have in your New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2000/07/08/nyregion/william-mcgowan-76-founded-irish-group.html">obituary</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">But the most satisfying thing about the assignment was the gratitude of the parents---and that of some of the hundreds of runaways the squad were able to return---letters from whom my father kept until he died. As these letters tell, being the boss of the Hippie Squad was a chance to play a real-world "Catcher in the Rye,” scooping up endangered kids before they fell off the cliff, into the clutches of the predators and those Holden Caulfield liked to call the “phonies. “<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">“Solid,” as Linc Hayes, the young black detective on the television version of <i>The</i> <i>Mod Squad</i> used to say. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitbchyBlpoSGE-KiEmD_U8WQcG4POECzIT5KCpg_p2ITytZNzZJU7wzw9_PcCRaDMSm0U4zNsjDpvA0LSQs27VLQCDGYtdWhqvKXqp7VpTW3T0CHGdTmbF_h7bVYYyOBz1ePap7YAY2XA/s1268/MOD+SQUAD+Screen+Shot+2021-06-09+at+3.07.32+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="582" data-original-width="1268" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitbchyBlpoSGE-KiEmD_U8WQcG4POECzIT5KCpg_p2ITytZNzZJU7wzw9_PcCRaDMSm0U4zNsjDpvA0LSQs27VLQCDGYtdWhqvKXqp7VpTW3T0CHGdTmbF_h7bVYYyOBz1ePap7YAY2XA/w400-h184/MOD+SQUAD+Screen+Shot+2021-06-09+at+3.07.32+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span><p></p></div><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>William McGowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02274145173711322404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6207248284996418153.post-54036730103397560352020-09-23T11:11:00.019-07:002020-10-02T12:11:04.586-07:00Heee's Back!!! Deranged Hitler Analogies Stage A 2020 Comeback After Failed 2016 Putsch <p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxjgl-JetNy3ms1MvlCQC2pOJ_y1MPOs0Y4Atp2uWBtkQ0ETN0qxmMcFRsQkcshlzFtTwvommD6TmYdB_s61zpHjjobeKXMJSQDEOGXClLLSBlqiUCkbUtUlJakF4zXaxpo4h_dgh63Vo/s848/FACE+WSJ-Screen+Shot+2016-10-16+at+11.19.34+AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="834" data-original-width="848" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxjgl-JetNy3ms1MvlCQC2pOJ_y1MPOs0Y4Atp2uWBtkQ0ETN0qxmMcFRsQkcshlzFtTwvommD6TmYdB_s61zpHjjobeKXMJSQDEOGXClLLSBlqiUCkbUtUlJakF4zXaxpo4h_dgh63Vo/s320/FACE+WSJ-Screen+Shot+2016-10-16+at+11.19.34+AM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 9pt 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I’ve always found it somewhat mystifying why </span></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donny_Deutsch" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Donny Deutsch</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> has had a presence in the world of broadcast journalism, since Deutsch has never actually functioned as a journalist, even in the most remote sense of the word. With this guest appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” earlier today, however, I think some of the reasonable suspicions I’ve had about Deutsch were reasonably confirmed when he upbraided his “Jewish friends” for not seeing the historical threat that Trump represents. Deutsch is the perfect voice of what has been called “Resistance Journalism." He's long on attitude, short on facts and with little historical perspective --- other than an exaggerated sense of the role </span><span style="font-size: 17.33333396911621px;">that</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> ethnocentric victimization narratives from mid-century Mitteleuropa should play in contemporary <i>American</i> political consciousness. As </span></span></span></b><a href="https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/09/23/deutsch-to-jewish-friends-how-dare-you-vote-for-trump-hes-preaching-like-hitler/" style="color: #954f72; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Breitbart News</span></i></b><b><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b></a><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 13pt;"> described Deutsch’s diatribe: <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><p style="caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 9pt 0in; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 13pt;">Discussing Trump’s Tuesday night rally in Pennsylvania, Deutsch said, “Look at that crowd… there’s not one person of a color. Anywhere. Like, usually behind him, he puts one kind of token in there, a token person, if you scan this crowd, this is stunning. If you go not even behind him, but through the thousands and thousands of people. And this, to me, looked like a rally from the early ’30s. You know, Joe, I was watching the first hour and as Jeh Johnson was talking about, comparing to Hitler. And you know, that’s something you cautiously do, because we can use the word fascist, but then when you go, Hitler, you can’t — oh, everybody starts to go —but what was going on in early 30s Germany?”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 9pt 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 13pt;">“Well, basically, you had a destruction of the belief in the free press, you had a blurring between the executive branch and the Justice Department, you have creating an other, whether it’s Muslims, whether it’s Mexicans, whether it’s congressmen who weren’t born in this country,” Deutsch continued. “And then you have the destruction of free elections. And we’re here. And what is the difference between Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump? I’m not saying there’s a Holocaust, but when you look at the tactics, and that is where we are right now.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 9pt 0in; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 13pt;">He added, “I on a personal level — Joe, please indulge me for a second —want to talk to my Jewish friends who are voting for Donald Trump. How dare you? How dare you, with what our people have gone through in history, and you see a man who is a dictator, and once you give them an absolute power, he is possible of anything, and if you are a Jew in this country and you are supporting Donald Trump, you are not looking back at our history. And you are blind, and you are walking like a lemming off a cliff. It is time to wake up. I’m sorry, this is where we are. There is no difference from what Donald Trump is preaching from what Adolf Hitler preached in the early 30s. Let’s just say it once and for all.”<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>William McGowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02274145173711322404noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6207248284996418153.post-10118191310154719742020-09-21T13:27:00.014-07:002020-09-21T16:57:47.437-07:00Sorrows of Woke: How 'Resistance Journalism' Might Re-Elect Trump <p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix3SPgjW1F0tfaB2w_ZvMel5900mJTr3STS5Rvl3vL3Ja51fX5CRB3-0GCR20eZjK03Hv-xMsUDzgFsFF2bvk1nDvP5Enx6WNXJfaI39yAQCUkaXId4ot9xYMCKkV8-rx8ikdkN4gvzoU/s1320/NY+POST+PIC+.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="932" data-original-width="1320" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix3SPgjW1F0tfaB2w_ZvMel5900mJTr3STS5Rvl3vL3Ja51fX5CRB3-0GCR20eZjK03Hv-xMsUDzgFsFF2bvk1nDvP5Enx6WNXJfaI39yAQCUkaXId4ot9xYMCKkV8-rx8ikdkN4gvzoU/w400-h283/NY+POST+PIC+.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div style="text-align: left;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">"Why Trump’s Negative Press Spurs Millions To Like Him Even More," by Augustus Howard, <i><a href="about://"><span style="color: blue;">New York Post</span></a> </i>September 19, 2020</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">The Covid-19 economy being what it is, a lot of people are between jobs these days. <i>New York Post </i>contributor Augustus Howard seems to be between advanced degrees; it’s as if he’s a one-man credentialism convention. A William College graduate, Howard went on to get a masters from Cambridge University, a law degree from Duke, and now a Cambridge PhD, punctuated somewhere along the line with a federal appellate court clerkship. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">But all that fancy book learnin’ hasn’t stopped him from developing a very grounded and incisive understanding of the politics of backlash operating in the 2020 Trump Biden race---and the media’s role in stoking it. Trump has kept a step ahead of the hounds baying behind not in spite of the media onslaught against him but because of it. Writes Howard: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">With Election Day in sight, the mainstream media is reaching a fever pitch in its quest to malign, discredit and defeat Donald Trump. The media’s disinformation campaign against Trump, however, may not be achieving the desired results. Joe Biden maintains a lead in public polls, but according to the Real Clear Politics polling averages, the gap is closing both </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="about://"><span style="color: #cc3333;">nationally</span></a></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> and in </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="about://"><span style="color: #cc3333;">battleground states</span></a></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">. Evidence of enthusiasm on the ground is also real: Thousands are again attending MAGA rallies, as Trump takes Air Force One on a “whistle-stop” tour of the country.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">One can almost hear the collective gasp from establishment-media quarters: Can this <i>really</i> be happening again? Won’t any of our Devastating Reporting ever catch up with the Donald?</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">In fact, Trump has succeeded — and will likely continue to succeed — not in spite of the media campaign against him, but, at least in part, because of it. Voters have grown wise to the media agenda, and recognize stories crafted to fit a certain mold rather than to follow the facts. They know what a smear looks like, and they don’t like it. At the same time, the ceaseless onslaught has made Trump a permanent underdog. And Americans identify with and cheer for underdogs — an aspect of the national psyche that media and political elites, detached as they are, forget.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Understood in this light, one can see why negative Trump coverage may boomerang, including recent “bombshells” from The Atlantic magazine and Bob Woodward. Citing unnamed sources, The Atlantic <a href="about://"><span style="color: #cc3333;">claimed</span></a> that Trump ridiculed American soldiers killed in war. The story, however, was soon undermined by reality. None of its sources came forward. Officials who did come forward — including former National Security Adviser John Bolton, a noted Trump critic — <a href="about://"><span style="color: #cc3333;">contradicted</span></a> the account. Voters were left to wonder: Is The Atlantic more interested in harming Trump, particularly with his military supporters, than it is in the truth?</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">As for Woodward, who taped hours of interviews with Trump for the book “Rage,” almost any statement can be grounds for scandal. Speaking to Woodward on March 19, the president <a href="about://"><span style="color: #cc3333;">said</span></a> of the novel coronavirus: “I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.” On <a href="about://"><span style="color: #cc3333;">“60 Minutes,”</span></a> Woodward, clearly eager to use the vocabulary of Watergate, suggested Trump was “going down the path of deceit and cover-up.” But attentive observers at the time intuited the president’s strategy — the fact that he <a href="about://"><span style="color: #cc3333;">wanted to take decisive action</span></a> against the virus while instilling calm in the nation. Where Woodward sees a tragic cover-up, others will find a common-sense approach to an unfolding crisis, and leadership in the context of often conflicting scientific information.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">While the Trump-bashing stories continue to mount, so, also, do Trump’s accomplishments. On Sept. 15, voters <a href="about://"><span style="color: #cc3333;">watched the signing</span></a> of the Abraham Accords at the White House: agreements, facilitated by the Trump administration, that normalize and improve ties between Israel and two Persian Gulf states — the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Democrats and the mainstream media may dismiss the importance of these historic pacts — legitimate steps toward peace in the Middle East — but the American people won’t.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Nor will they disregard a stock market recovery, good news that a vaccine is likely near, or the president’s pressure on obstinate Democrat leaders to conclude another coronavirus relief bill. Trump’s record of action plainly belies his media coverage.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Many Americans see through the negative reporting and agenda-driven commentary. Lacking elite connections and influence, many voters also know, from their own lives, how it feels to be on the wrong side of power — as when their jobs were offshored, or when their businesses were kept closed by the same governmental elites who endorsed non-socially distanced mass protests during the pandemic.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">These voters know, in other words, what it feels like to be the underdog, to go up against the establishment. They relate to their president.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;">It has been said before: Americans root for underdogs. Unfortunately for the nation’s media and political elites, they vote for them, too.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p></div>William McGowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02274145173711322404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6207248284996418153.post-31035961387418704992020-09-11T10:10:00.003-07:002020-09-11T10:12:04.723-07:00Sorrows of Woke: Bogus Black History Professor Fails 'Transcultural Negritude' At GWU <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13pt;">From <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-protests-for-racial-justice/2020/09/10/911391817/george-washington-professor-resigns-after-scandal-over-fake-racial-identity">NPR</a>: <i>George Washington Professor Resigns After Scandal Over Fake Racial Identity</i><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">George Washington University says associate professor Jessica A. Krug has resigned, after<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://medium.com/@jessakrug/the-truth-and-the-anti-black-violence-of-my-lies-9a9621401f85" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #954f72; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none; color: #5076b8; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;">a blog post</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>published under her name last week said she had invented several Black identities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">The blog post stated that Krug is actually a white, Jewish woman from the Midwest, who for years has "assumed identities within a Blackness that I had no right to claim: first North African Blackness, then US rooted Blackness, then Caribbean rooted Bronx Blackness."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">Krug's apparent fabrications garnered swift criticism from the academic community. Krug worked in GWU's history department, focusing on politics and cultural practices in Africa and the African diaspora. GWU said in an email to the university community on Wednesday afternoon that her resignation is effective immediately.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">"Her classes for this semester will be taught by other faculty members, and students in those courses will receive additional information this week," the university said. It encouraged students, faculty and staff impacted by the incident to seek support.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">"We hope that with this update our community can begin to heal and move forward," the GWU statement read.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">Krug has not responded to NPR requests for comment about her resignation or whether she actually wrote the blog post. However, it's worth noting that she has not publicly distanced herself from the post since it was published on Sept. 3.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">A day after the post was released,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://gwtoday.gwu.edu/update-regarding-jessica-krug" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #954f72; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none; color: #5076b8; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;">GWU said</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Krug "would not be teaching her classes this semester" while it reviewed the situation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">The post predicted that her apparent confession would cause pain: "People have fought together with me and have fought for me, and my continued appropriation of a Black Caribbean identity is not only, in the starkest terms, wrong — unethical, immoral, anti-Black, colonial — but it means that every step I've taken has gaslighted those whom I love."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">"I am not a culture vulture. I am a culture leech," the writer said, adding that mental health issues probably contribute to why she assumed a false identity.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">Some members of the academic community have demanded more than Krug's resignation.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://english.msu.edu/faculty/yomaira-figueroa/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #954f72; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none; color: #5076b8; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;">Yomaira Figueroa</span></a>, an assistant professor of global diaspora studies at Michigan State University, told NPR last week that she thinks Krug "took up some of the very few — very few — resources and spaces that there are available to Black and Latino scholars and use those to her advantage."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13pt;">"There absolutely has to be a form of restitution for the things that she took. It's egregious," Figueroa added.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Lisa Betty, a doctoral candidate at Fordham University, echoed that call<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://medium.com/@lbetty1/jessica-krugs-medium-post-is-not-an-apology-729d1b25b6f" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #954f72; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none; color: #5076b8; padding: 0in;">in a blog post</span></a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13pt;">. "Krug took up space, opportunity, time, and money. I call for reparations."</span><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b></div>
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William McGowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02274145173711322404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6207248284996418153.post-55504771411435681242020-08-30T17:19:00.000-07:002020-08-30T18:03:59.900-07:00Michelle Malkin Has Good Advice For Would-Be George Floyds & Jacob Blakes: 'Don't Wanna Be Dead By The Po-Po, Don't Fight With The Po-Po' <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The alternative headline for this post could as well be: 'When the Alt-Right Ain't All </span><span style="font-size: 17.33333396911621px;">Wrong,' by syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin, </span><i style="font-size: 17.33333396911621px;"><a href="https://www.amren.com/commentary/2020/08/blms-perpetual-fake-outrage-cycle/">American Renaissance:</a></i><span style="font-size: 17.33333396911621px;"> </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Here we go again: Manufacture. Rinse. Repeat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;">Everyone knows the cycle. Everyone knows it ends with false and incomplete narratives eventually being debunked by actual facts. Everyone knows that the racial mythmakers and political opportunists end up with fame, wealth and glory — but never any criminal punishments or moral accountability.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;">Everyone knows, yet on and on and on it goes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;">Step 1: Spread out-of-context video clip of Black man subdued or shot by white cops across national media airwaves and social media platforms.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;">Step 2: Riot.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;">Step 3: Accuse law enforcement and America of “systemic racism,” decry police brutality and demand “justice” for fill-in-the-blank “victim.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;">Step 4: Riot.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;">Step 5. Enter Al Sharpton, Benjamin Crump, Black Lives Matter chief propagandist Shaun King, and the rest of the racial hoax crime brigade.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;">Step 6: Persecute and prosecute involved police officers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;">Step 7: Burn, loot and maraud nationwide.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;">Step 8: Demand more funding for “restorative justice,” “alternative” policing, sensitivity training and “anti-racism” programs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;">Step 9: Bury all evidence of justified police action while screaming, “Racism!” ever louder.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;">Step 10: Lie in wait for the next opportunity to return to Step 1.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;">I’ve been covering this self-destructive ritual in American life since the very beginning of my journalism career in 1992, when the Rodney King beating video led to the acquittal of four Los Angeles police department officers, which led to the L.A. riots (60 killed, 2,000 injured, $1 billion in damages, $700 million in federal aid), which led to a federal civil rights settlement for King worth $4 million and prison sentences for two of the cops despite their previous acquittals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;">On Sunday night, Jacob Blake became the latest overnight cause celebre of the Black Lives Matter brigade. He’s black. The cops, captured on video shooting him in the back seven times after arriving at the scene of a domestic incident, were white. Like the cops in the Rodney King case, Kenosha, Wisconsin, officers were dealing with a career criminal who was young, strong and troubled. Blake’s name, age and neighborhood match court records of a Jacob Blake who had an outstanding warrant for misdemeanor criminal trespass, felony third-degree sexual assault and misdemeanor disorderly assault associated with domestic abuse charges. Like the cops in the Rodney King case, Kenosha cops were confronted with a suspect who brazenly resisted arrest. At least four officers can be seen trying to subdue him. Blake continues to evade arrest and climb into his vehicle, where his children were. At least seven shots rang out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;">The rest is a re-re-re-re-re-repeat of social justice history.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;">“Hands up, don’t shoot” was the foundational lie of the Michael Brown fatal cop encounter, as even the Obama Justice Department was forced to acknowledge. The primary perpetrator of that deception? Benjamin Crump.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;">The Trayvon Martin hoax, as exposed by investigative documentarian Joel Gilbert, was built on an astonishing key prosecution witness switch-a-roo involving Martin’s real girlfriend, Brittany Diamond Eugene (who was on the phone with Martin before he assaulted George Zimmerman) and a ridiculous impostor, Rachael Jeantel, who was barely literate and apparently manipulated into coached testimony by none other than Benjamin Crump.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;">Three months after the death of George Floyd in Minnesota, we now know this career criminal — who robbed and beat a pregnant woman in a brutal home invasion — refused to comply with police officers from initial contact. He acted erratically, invoked common “please don’t shoot me” and “I can’t breathe” excuses before was put on the ground, lied about being claustrophobic and was told by one of his own passengers to stop resisting. We now also know that officers believed Floyd was on drugs and swallowed a fatal overdose of fentanyl, compounding his preexisting heart conditions and positive COVID results.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;">Benjamin Crump, who filed multimillion-dollar lawsuits against the city of Minneapolis on behalf of the Floyd family last month, is now also the lawyer for Jacob Blake.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;">BLM leaders say what’s left of Kenosha after the weekend’s riots will burn to the ground unless cops are fired and arrested. Al Sharpton, Shaun King, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, LeBron James, NASCAR race agitator Bubba (Fake Noose) Wallace, Cardi B and Demi Lovato all immediately piled on as well, demanding “justice” and condemning police instead of the perps.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;">I’m reminded of what a black activist in Phoenix confessed to a local news station in 2015 upon seeing what it’s like to be in an officer’s shoes. Jarrett Maupin ended up being shot point-blank by one suspect and shooting another in the chest when both ignored his orders in life-or-death use-of-force scenarios. Maupin’s takeaway?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;">“I didn’t understand how important compliance was, but after going through this, yeah, my attitude has changed. This is all unfolding in ten to fifteen seconds. People need to comply with the orders of law enforcement officers for their own safety.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt;">That is the plain, simple truth. All else is racial extortion and deceit. How to save America and end this vicious cycle of smoke, mirrors and ashes? Stop the lies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
William McGowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02274145173711322404noreply@blogger.com0