Lying Down with the Dragon

Pope Benedict XVI has been snuggling up to China for some time. Yesterday he approved an expansion of a protocol with the CCP that expands the ability of the Communist government to have a say in the selection of Catholic bishops in China. One wonders if he read the new CCP vision of the Bible before for doing so.

Jack Fowler previewed the new "holey" book in his Weekend Jolt for National Review yesterday, October 3. As he notes, in doing so the CCP "... has taken more liberties than the crew of an aircraft carrier that’s been at sea for a year." Point taken. To illustrate his point, he gives the Red version of the story of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery. 

The moral of the original version is, of course, let he (or she - equal opportunity here) who is without sin throw the first stone. The CCP authorized version of the Bible transmogrifies this message, however, into:

"When the crowd disappeared, Jesus stoned the sinner to death saying, 'I too am a sinner. But if the law could only be executed by men without blemish, the law would be dead.' "

Gonna say close, but no cigar. Well, OK - not even by a country mile. Actually, I think you might agree that they turned the original meaning completely on its head. And that folks is the danger of giving the Red Chinese a bigger "voice" into how the Church does business in China. Will this become the authorized version for the Catholic Church in China. Will this be mandated in dioceses by the new bishops, even though the Vatican knows nothing of it? Who knows, but you can bet they are going to try. 

The Church has always been at its best historically when it lives counter-culturally to the prevailing orthodoxy. That's why the Framers in this country enshrined separation of Church and State in the First Amendment. The purpose was not to protect the State from the Church, but rather the other way around. They were very familiar with the distortions of the Christian faith that occurred in England with the Anglican Church as the official State-sanctioned church, justifying political and evil actions in the same of God. The same distortions and worse will happen in China. That being said, perhaps lying down with the Dragon is not the wisest course for the Pope to follow. 

https://news.yahoo.com/vatican-pope-benedict-xvi-approved-094449838.html

Gems in the Rubble

OK, the first Presidential debate was a goat rodeo. There was a lot of heat and not much light. A number of gems of hard information were present in the rubble, however, including this beauty from Biden about tax policy. He made his point unambiguously:

“That’s why I’m going to eliminate the Trump tax cuts. And I’m going to eliminate those tax cuts.”

That's pretty straightforward, but what is the impact. Good question.

The Trump tax cuts were a boon to the middle class:

"... doubled the standard deduction for singles from $6,350 in 2017 to $12,000 in 2018; nearly doubled the standard deduction for married couples from $12,700 to $24,400, and bumped up the child tax credit up from $1,000 in 2017 to $2,000 in 2018."

The impact of this on the average working couple is a tax INCREASE of $2,300. Do you have $2,300 more  to shell out to the Feds next year ? And at the same time, Biden can still play the shell game and say with a straight face that he wouldn't raise your taxes if elected. Moi? How so Joe? Well, he isn't proposing to raise the tax rate, ergo no new taxes. Oh no, he is just exposing more of your earned income to taxation by eliminating deductions. The net effect is the same and we need to see through the word games and see the reality - something that the Democrats are trying to avoid at all costs.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/09/30/nolte-biden-admits-in-debate-hell-raise-taxes-on-middle-class/

The Great Divide

Dennis Prager admitted that he has been wrong his whole life - the Left's moral compass isn't broken; it never had one. Prager made the mistake that most Americans make, namely that there really is such a thing as right and wrong. Americans have long seen the world from a Judeo-Christian viewpoint, whether or not they are believers in a formal faith. From Karl Marx on the Left, though, has never thought in these terms. 

Instead of seeing the world through the lens of objective right and wrong, the Left sees it through the eyes of class warfare and expressly rejects any external and objective standard of right and wrong. Prager quotes Lenin at a Soviet Party Congress:

"We say that our morality is entirely subordinated to the interests of the class struggle of the proletariat. ... We do not believe in an eternal morality. ... We repudiate all morality derived from non-human (i.e., God) and non-class concepts" (Address to the Third Congress of the Russian Young Communist League, Oct. 2, 1920)."

The only relevant question for a Marxist is whether a statement or action advances (as they see it) or sets back the class struggle. Thus, lying, destroying opponents, or even murder can be justified as "right" if it advances the class struggle. 

What is confusing to many is that the modern Left no longer speaks in terms of the old-fashioned "proletariat" of the USSR, but has added many other categories to the protected class, i.e. - race, women, immigrants, and basically any people group weaker than an opponent. Anything and everything from the New Left's standpoint that is said or done that advances the interests of a protected group in this class is therefore permissible. 

What are some examples of this in the real world? Well, U.S. bad/Communist and socialist countries (by definition) good, white bad/everyone else good, Males bad/females and the gender du jour good, Israel bad/Palestinians good, police bad/rioters good. If you are classified on the "bad" side, then any lie or action that they can get away with is justified. Do you see how it works? 

It is futile to think that any Leftist will ever admit they are wrong in any objective. This is the source of the Great Divide that we see in this country today and indeed in much of the world and the reason that it won't go away. It is a fundamental difference in how the world is seen: one is grounded ultimately in God and in the other,  in power and as vested in whoever is ruthless enough to rise to the top of the heap. We should be prepared to respond accordingly over the long haul. 

https://townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/2020/09/15/the-lefts-moral-compass-isnt-broken-n2576225

The Steelers are Winners

The Pittsburgh Steelers are winners, whether or not they make the playoffs! At a game this weekend they all stood for the national anthem and then unfurled a banner that says "Steelers Against Racism."  What genius - to be "for" the United States and "against" racism - sentiments which I share. Well done Steelers! You would think someone might have figured this out earlier, cough, cough, Roger Goodell. 

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/steelers-players-stand-national-anthem-banner

Never Forget!

 

You Have a Choice

One of the scenes I remember most vividly from the Minneapolis riots was a Black woman who lived in the neighborhood where the rioting took place. It was the day after rioters and looters had moved through and on to other areas of the city like a plague of locusts. She stood there looking at the burned out Target store and others in her area that had been torched and sadly lamented where would she now shop? Victor Davis Hanson apparently saw it too and is noticing a phenomena that is being ignored or suppressed in these urban areas where poor victims of the rioting abound and are shifting toward Trump. He asks a great question of undecideds in the Black community:

Most of the white Antifa mob and its wannabe thousands do not live with minorities and did not grow up with them or go to school with them. Do working-class African Americans enjoy watching white college kids or baristas in knee pads with umbrellas or teachers on full paid sabbaticals or Zoom half-days, ordering their local Target to be torched?

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/09/trump-race-and-class/

Cue the Violins - Rome is Burning

Back from a week's vacation and nothing much seems to have improved. Some observations during this last week of de facto summer before Labor Day:

• The Republican Convention was well done. I loved the statements from Americans from all backgrounds and colors. Many of their stories were truly moving and it came through loud and clear that these were people who loved freedom after experiencing a horrendous lack of it in their countries of birth. I also loved the stories of people coming slavery, severe handicaps, and other extremely difficult situations, who persevered and ultimately triumphed. I want all of them on my team!
• And the corollary - Why do so many people in this country crave living in a dictatorship? I propose that we simply cut to the chase and have Congress pass the "Don't let the Door Hit You in the Butt" Act that buys these folks a one way airfare to whatever s#@thole country they want to go and a $2,500 stipend. They have to renounce their American citizenship on the way out and their passports will be automatically void upon entry into the other country. Go live in a communist "paradise" and enjoy every minute of it. Please. 
• I keep reading this statement from mayors and police chiefs of cities where rioters are running amok, "We did not order our police officers to engage the situation for fear of aggravating it." Hell's bells - Rome has been burning for 90 days and you don't think the fire department should be called? Are all officials in these cities stoners? 
• People are starting to get killed. This is not a surprise. It is not an accident that gun and ammunition sales have been setting records these last few months. The word "vigilante" will come back into vogue and pretty soon, everyone will be walking around with a .45 on their hip. As H.P. Lovecraft said, "An armed society is a polite society." We'll see if we get to test the accuracy of his observation. 
• Am I the only one noticing what a colossal failure Gov. Kate Brown is as a manager of the state? The governor is the CEO of the executive branch of government and in one agency after another, it's one failure after another. The largest, of course, is the inability of the state to pay unemployment compensation to those qualified. Allegedly this is due to a computer failure. The Feds, however, gave Oregon $300M in 2013 to fix this and it still sits undone. Then there is DMV. Tried to get you Real ID driver's license yet? Good luck. My wife tried to, as hers had expired in April and the offices haven't been open much since then. She dutifully went in and despite the website saying you didn't need an appointment, and despite the fact that there were 4 people total in line, and despite the fact that she had all the requisite documents in hand, she was sent home to - wait for it - make an appointment. Of course, Do you know who I am Mr. Vidal?! When are Oregonians going to demand even a mediocre level of competence from government? 
• The CDC has quietly announced that only 9,700 of the deaths attributed to Covid-19 were solely the result of the virus. This is 6% of all U.S. Covid-19 deaths; the other 94% had an average of 2.6 other underlying conditions. We have shut down pretty much everything for 9,700 deaths, While these deaths are sad, of course, they need to be seen in perspective. For example, 38,800 lost their lives in auto accidents last year, 17,000 from slips and falls, and an estimated 606,880 deaths from cancer for 2019. The NY Times also dropped this weekend that as many as 90% of all supposedly positive Covid-19 tests were false positives. Arrggh!

It's a strange, strange world we live in Gunga Din. 

The Bigger Picture

Americans have taken a series of gut punches this year between Covid-19, the resulting shutdowns, and now the rioting. We aren't talking protests any longer, we are talking insurrection. 

Rioters in Chicago who trashed the highland Miracle Mile stores like Coach, Gucci, Apple, etc., said their booty was "reparations." For what - living in Chicago? Then we have Portland. Remember how the riots were going to go away after the Feds"provoking it" went away? Yeah, right. People have already been shot in Seattle and stabbed in Portland and it is likely this will be happening with more frequency. Right now it's ball bearings, frozen water bottles, and lasers, but the guns will come out and there will be blood.

These are not rioters, they are terrorists, and terrorists always have a political goal in mind. Dennis Prager looks at this bigger picture in a column today that lays it out well. Essentially, you have competing religions based on antithetical worldviews. 

The West was founded on a Judeo-Christian worldview: there is a God, man is made in His image and that is the basis for "unalienable rights" for all, regardless of race, creed  or color. Government is necessary to restrain evil since man has fallen, but it should be limited to allow free men to flourish.

Leftism denies there is a God. We are free to shape a perfect society of utopian goodness and government is seen as the agent to accomplish this. No existing society lives up to this perfect utopia and therefore must be demolished by any means necessary to usher in the Age of the Perfection. It is this religious faith that somewhere out there, the perfect society is possible, despite all the failed attempts like the USSR, Red China, Nazi Germany. It explains why the stock retort to people pointing out this inconvenient fact is always, "It has never really been tried." It must exist or my life is meaningless. 

Europe lost its faith in God in WWI and WWII finished off any residue. Prager points out that they had seen the dangers of fanaticism and became, "... more preoccupied with working less, traveling more and being taken care of than with ideological movements." He says that, "One might say that Europe was inoculated against fanaticism." Not so this country, although the secular Left was already hard at work undermining the the intellectual underpinnings of the American heritage. Like locusts swarming across the African continent destroying everything in their path, the Left has nearly completed its long march through American institutions toward a universal secularist understanding of man and the only objective left is the destruction of the current order and the rise of the Perfect State. To make it worse, unlike Europe, we have not been inoculated against fanaticism by the experience of two world wars that shattered them, and that fanaticism is what we are seeing in American cities right now. 

Benjamin Franklin was asked what kind of a government the founders had created in Philadelphia.He replied, "A republic, if you can keep it." Unless Americans wake up and act to keep it, I am afraid that the republic is going to be tossed on the ash heap of history and we will join all those serfs in fear of the State that have gone before us and exist in much of the world today. 

townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/2020/08/11/why-america-is-in-real-danger-n2574078

Antidote for All the Garbage

This is an article that you should read. It's written by Ryan Bomberger, a black man, adopted into and raised in a racially diverse family of 15, and it is a ringing endorsement of what makes America the greatest place on earth. Problems - sure. But have they been tackled and resolved before. Can we do it again? Absolutely! It starts with throwing paralyzing fear over the side and beginning to move with confidence again that we are one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And making it happen. Do yourself a favor at the end of a long week (year?) of crap, read the article, roll up your sleeves, and together let's get back in the game and make this country an even better place. Divided we fall; united we stand.

townhall.com/columnists/ryanbomberger/2020/08/07/stop-apologizing-for-america-

Geniuses at Work

Would you mistake this flag for the Confederate battle flag? Me neither. But that's exactly what a bunch of people did with a Norwegian flag flying at a B&B outside Lansing, MI, forcing the owners to take down the flag. And once again proving once again - you can't fix stupid.
www.dailywire.com/news/michigan-bed-and-breakfast-owners-remove-norwegian-flag-after-backlash

Pot Calling Kettle Black

Democratic Chair of House Committee Jerry Nadler accusing AG Bill Barr of endangering the Committee's health by not wearing a mask. You cannot make this stuff up. 

www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/07/28/jerry-nadlers-mask-meltdown-stop-violating-the-safety-of-the-members-of-the-committee/

WAT?! A Politician Does What He Promised to DO?

One thing coming out of the Covid-19 crisis that was glaringly exposed was the almost total reliance of the U.S. on China for prescription drugs - even the ingredients to make them. The obvious answer was to on-shore production again and President Trump promised to do just that.

It was just announced that a Defense Department Production Act loan of $765M is being made to Eastman Kodak to launch "Eastman Pharmaceuticals" to begin making the base ingredients for generic drugs. The company has seen hard times with the almost total transition to digital photography, but retains considerable expertise with chemicals. If the drug ingredients are made at Eastman's complex in Rochester, NY, it will also be a boon with new high-end jobs back in this country. A double win for all concerned. 

www.dailywire.com/news/trump-strikes-deal-to-produce-vital-drug-ingredients-in-u-s

I Mean It - I'll Shoot

Apparently the Feds, in trying to protect the Federal Courthouse in Portland by putting up a temporary fence, have encroached on a city bikeway WITHOUT A PERMIT! OMG!!!! The City of Portland, in a rare "get tough" moment (and not directed at the rioters, of course) has said that it's going to FINE the Feds $500 for every 15 minutes the heinous fence stays in place. President Trump is undoubtedly shaking in his boots. How about this? The Feds will start docking Federal aid to Portland in the same amount every 15 minutes? Better yet, the Feds will cut off Federal aid altogether. How 'bout them apples?! As the general handling the rescue efforts in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina said about some folks, "You can't fix stupid." Indeed. 

www.foxnews.com/politics/portland-maximum-fines-federal-government-fence-courthouse

Vipers - II

Black Marine veteran Gabriel Johnson waved an American flag during one of the now continuous Portland riots, was chased by fellow blacks in BLM garb with baseball bats, and then followed home by a woman who showed him a video of their path and told him that they knew where he lived and were keeping tabs on him. She had an Antifa pen and was talking on a walkie talkie. Oh, and he saw a 65-year old black man get the bejeepers beat out of him when he tried to stop the protesters from burning Johnson's flag. Black lives matter, except when they are black lives who disagree with the political agenda espoused by the vipers masquerading as protesters.

www.foxnews.com/media/flag-bearing-marine-veteran-recalls-horrific-experience-within-portland-riots

Camouflaged Vipers

To try to gain legitimacy, Antifa adopts the coloration of a host protest group, like those protesting George Floyd's murder, and at an opportune time emerges from their camouflage to begin wreaking mayhem and anarchy. The embedded video in the linked article clearly shows this tactic in living color. They march with other protesters dressed in shorts and t-shirts, break off to the side and change behind large BLM banners into their black "working" uniforms replete with brass knuckles, body armor, etc., and then emerge to push to the front of the crowd and attack Chicago police officers. This is undoubtedly going on in every other major American riot venue (f.k.a. "American cities under Democrat rule").

Interestingly, these same tactics are used by Leftists around the world to destabilize governments. They are not legitimate protests but are intended to destroy opposition by violence and intimidation. In so doing, they are walking in the footsteps of their Nazi Brownshirt predecessors of the 1930s and the CCP thugs currently in Hong Kong. And this political performance theater is all played out on the "stage" of American cities, inevitably run by Democrats, who are sacrificing their cities, businesses, and citizens, for the "greater good."  

For the rest of us who have never desired to live in places like Nazi Germany or Communist China, it is rapidly approaching critical decision time - do we go along to get along or do we start acting like Americans again and make robust use of the unalienable rights recognized by the Constitution? Many have said that the United States will never fall from a foreign enemy, it is only from within that it could happen. True - and they are knocking at the door. 


https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-chicago-police-release-video-of-antifa-using-protest-as-cover-changing-to-all-black-arming-against-cops

Happy Independence Day

“Critics say that America is a lie because its reality falls so short of its ideals. They are wrong. America is not a lie; it is a disappointment. But it can be a disappointment only because it is also a hope.”     Samuel Huntington

Despite all the riots, the lies, the perfidy by politicians, the United States still stands for hope. Stand with her this Independence Day and work toward more perfectly realizing her hope for all in the future. 

Defeating Real Tyranny - June 6, 1944/D-Day

Thank You

Probably Not

As you may know, the case against President Trump's first National Security Advisor has collapsed due to all sort of illegal legal behavior that is really beginning to have a rotten aroma. All of a sudden former President Obama has jumped into the fray, voicing concern about the very foundations of justice being shaken by this clear miscarriage of justice. Yeah right. 

Kyle Smith in National Review draws a pretty telling analogy to test the verity of the former President's alleged concerns:

Picture a racist white FBI agent who hates a black student and became enraged when that teen publicly insulted one of the agent’s close friends. Say the FBI sends two guys over to the teen’s house, claiming it suspects him of being involved in drug trafficking, and starts asking the kid questions in hopes that the kid will lie.

Suppose the FBI does not read the kid his rights before questioning him. Suppose the FBI discourages the kid from hiring a lawyer and tells the kid its investigation is friendly, not an effort to incriminate him. Suppose further that the FBI, after grilling the kid, still doesn’t think he lied (but merely that he forgot details of things he’d been asked about). Suppose the FBI then dragged out the case so long that the kid rang up $5 million in legal bills, then threatened to arrest the kid’s mother. Suppose the FBI withheld exculpatory evidence from the kid’s lawyers and agreed to leave the kid’s mother alone if he pleaded guilty — but didn’t tell the judge about this side deal.

If the teen finally pleaded guilty to a single count of making false statements, would Obama then say, “Aha! Justice is served! The kid admits being guilty!”? If the prosecutors, years later, finally dropped the case against the kid, would Obama say, “You begin to get worried that basic — not just institutional norms — but our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk” because he thought the kid deserved everything that had happened to him?

Justice you say? The ripe odor of a family of skunks moving into the neighborhood I say.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/05/dont-shrug-at-obamas-michael-flynn-scandal/

Our Friends in China

Jim Geraghty in National Review's Morning Jolt (4/23/20) commenting on Sen. Tom Cotton's take on where the Covid-19 virus originated:

"It will probably not surprise you to learn I think Senator Tom Cotton has the assessment of the likelihood of SARS-CoV-2 arising from an accidental exposure of a naturally occurring virus just about right:

While the Chinese government denies the possibility of a lab leak, its actions tell a different story. The Chinese military posted its top epidemiologist to the Institute of Virology in January. In February Chairman Xi Jinping urged swift implementation of new biosafety rules to govern pathogens in laboratory settings. Academic papers about the virus’s origins are now subject to prior restraint by the government.

In early January, enforcers threatened doctors who warned their colleagues about the virus. Among them was Li Wenliang, who died of Covid-19 in February. Laboratories working to sequence the virus’s genetic code were ordered to destroy their samples. The laboratory that first published the virus’s genome was shut down, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported in February.

This evidence is circumstantial, to be sure, but it all points toward the Wuhan labs. Thanks to the Chinese coverup, we may never have direct, conclusive evidence—intelligence rarely works that way—but Americans justifiably can use common sense to follow the inherent logic of events to their likely conclusion."

Sounds about right. Will this colossal debacle be enough to wean America from its addiction to cheap Chinese goods? Time will tell but we need to make noise or be assured that politicians and corporations will sneak back for more to line their own pockets instead of looking out for the best interests of the people of this country.

Starting to Think About Takeaways

With the exception of a few large hotspots around the country (NYC region, Detroit, New Orleans, Chicago) it's starting to look like we are turning the corner on the coronavirus plague. Oregon has continued to be relatively lightly impacted. The latest figures show 1,322 confirmed cases with a death rate of only 9 per million population. To give this number some perspective, Oregon had 509 deaths/100,000 population for auto accidents(2017), 160.4/100,000 for cancer (2015) and 134/100,000 for heart disease (2017). Dr. Bud Pierce has been posting a weekly update on how things are going in Oregon with the coronavirus and his most recent report is quite positive. https://youtu.be/fX7_kmmap3w

Taking all this into consideration, it's time to begin thinking about some takeaways:

• The Chinese statistics on coronavirus are baloney. As of this morning, the U.S. is reporting 475,749 confirmed cases. China says theirs hit 82,941and then stopped cold. China has a population 4 times that of the United States. Shanghai's public gathering places shut down completely this week, as did a city in northwestern China. I call bulls*&@#! Not possible. 
• The Chinese are nobody's friend.  From sitting on early reports of how contagious this virus is, to hoarding medical supplies, to threatening to cutoff medical supplies if the U.S. and others didn't sing the Chinese tune, these guys are not anyone's friend. They did the same to the Italians, actually even worse because they sold the Italians back medical supplies that they Italians had donated to China before Italy was hit. China is not delivering ventilators they contracted for to Brazil and the ones sold to England are breaking down frequently. The world's nations consequently need to follow through and make major adjustments in dealing with this government. 
• Governments stockpiling emergency items.  It's not just the Feds. Government down through at least the state level have a critical responsibility to maintain these stocks. Just do it!
• National plan to address a pandemic. My father-in-law worked for Westinghouse at the start of WW II. He told the story of how, on the day after Pearl Harbor, military officers walked through the plant's doors with plans to convert the factory to wartime production of entirely new items. The medical sector has responded well, by and large, in this current crisis, but WWII speed and comprehensiveness is necessary to implement a master plan if and when this situation recurs. 
• The U.S. needs to onshore manufacturing. We got caught with a huge percentage of our medical supplies from medicines to protective gear to equipment being made in China. They did threaten to cutoff our supply lines while we were in crisis and it is simply stupid beyond belief if we don't onshore this sector of manufacturing. We also need a comprehensive study of all manufacturing sectors to determine what is in the national interest to bring home. 
• Globalism is on life support.  And should be. The national interest trumps cheap prices when it comes to key items. There is no duty to make a few mega corporations/tycoons richer by letting them rely on cheap or even slave Chinese labor. We may have to pay a little more for key products made in this country, but when crunch time comes, it will have been a small price to pay.
• Urban density isn't such a good thing. There appears to be a high correlation between high urban density and high incidence of the disease, both here and in Europe. The more spread out we are, the resistant we are to a pandemic. We need to totally rethink land use planning from this new perspective. 

There are undoubtedly many more takeways that will be coming from this situation. It is critical, however, that we not only discuss and vet them, but that we make them. Quickly.

A Note of Hope

There is a video embedded in this Daily Wire article done by a pulmonologist at one of NYC's leading hospitals. He is seeing almost 100% Covid-19 cases during New York's meltdown, yet he brings a note of hope as to how avoid the virus, dealing with someone in your family who is sick, and the general treatment picture. It's long, but well worth watching. 


https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-this-video-from-a-doctor-on-the-frontline-of-the-coronavirus-will-make-you-feel-a-whole-lot-better

A Modest Proposal

The Democrats have now stalled a national economic relief bill twice today. Unbelievable! We have people and businesses just hanging on over the coronavirus crisis and they tank it because they want pork - solar power handouts, union goodies, abortion money. Grrrr...

Fine. Put the Senators who are self-quarantining  in hazmat suits with self-contained oxygen, fly them to DC in private jets, and have them come to the Senate so attired and vote. The Dems deserve to hang on this one. So push the lever and let them drop. 

A Post Coronavirus Hope

The end of the coronavirus crisis is not yet in sight, but there are some hopeful signs. New quick turnaround tests are being deployed in large scale trials, hydroxychloroquine is showing great early promise as a cure, and vaccines are 10 months to a year out. This being the case, it is not too early to begin learning lessons that we will carry with us as we enter the post-virus era. The one that I want to focus on here is summarized in two words: Slow Down!


We have been a "Go-Go" society pretty much across the board for a long while - too much work, kids over-scheduled with sports, extracurricular classes, even vacations so tightly scheduled in order to "see everything" that we come home and are exhausted. This has led to burnout at all levels, even kids. 

One of the things that I have been starting to hear is that the enforced slower pace that most of us are now living is actually kind of nice in allowing us to enjoy the luxury of time. As a lawyer, I was once told by an older hand to be sure to balance my life between career and family. After all he said, no lawyer's last words were, "Gee, I wish I had more billable hours!" Sage advice and I hope one of the points of recalibration in all of our lives that we act as we move into better times. 

Corporate Responsibility - Exhibit A

I posted a blog piece about corporate responsibility, or rather the lack thereof, in terms of gutting American industry in favor of cheap goods made in China by low wage or even slave labor. OregonLive posted an article just this morning with an excellent contemporary illustration of my point. 

American hospitals face a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks, gowns, booties, surgical caps, etc. Today's article explains that this is because about 97% of PPE items were made at one factory at a city in China. As China's own coronavirus crisis became more severe, the Chinese government diverted production internally. Shocker! Totally unforeseeable I'm sure - not. This illustrates the huge difference between the "national interest" and a narrow "corporate interest." 

The U.S. is 20+ years behind in doing a careful analysis of what manufacturing is of critical national interest to this country and then taking steps to insure that this manufacturing is not off-shored, especially to China. When we need something NOW, we cannot wait and we especially cannot allow ourselves to be held hostage by a potential enemy. For an excellent analysis of this whole situation, I recommend Stealth War by Brig. Gen. (ret.) Robert Spalding, who did in-depth research in this area for the National Security Council and China expert for the Joint Chiefs at the Pentagon. 

 https://www.oregonlive.com/coronavirus/2020/03/medical-supply-imports-to-us-plummet-as-demand-soars-amid-coronavirus-pandemic.html

Living Through the Current Crisis

CBN had a good post about what C.S. Lewis and Martin Luther would have to say about our current coronavirus situation. Both are astute and applicable, but as a Lewis aficionado, let me quote the trenchant parts of his comments which, although about living in the era of the atomic bomb, are equally applicable today:

In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.

This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.

Amen. Bad stuff has happened before and it will happen again. The bottom line is none of us get out of here alive, so it's best to live each day well, secure in the knowledge that if the worst should come, God doesn't leave us or abandon us but instead ushers into a life greater than we can ask or imagine. Be sensible, but fear not. And don't hog the TP. 

https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/cwn/2020/march/what-c-s-lewis-martin-luther-would-say-about-our-coronavirus-panic

Corporate Responsibility

Lest you misconstrue, I am not cultivating a "Bern for Bernie," but what responsibility, if any, does have a corporation have beyond it shareholders? This is not as theoretical question as it might seem at first blush. Specifically, the C-virus pandemic has brought to light the disturbing fact that 97% of antibiotics used in the U.S. are produced in China, as is 80+% of our medical equipment. How in the world did this happen? 

It happened because large U.S. corporations focused solely on maximizing profits, totally disregarding such other considerations as national security, the effect on lives in this country if meds were cut off by a cranky Chinese Communist government, and a host of other important policy considerations. Should greed have ruled the day to the exclusion of everything else? A very interesting article published recent in Aviation Week says "no."

Capitalism has always been about "risk/reward" and author Kevin Michaels makes clear that he agrees with that. He traces the whole narrow focus solely on profits to Jack Welch at GE in the early 1980s. Welch spun off disciples into other industries like Harry Stonecipher who went to Boeing. When asked if the only thing he was interested in was making money, he replied, "You're right, I am." We all now know how that worked out at Boeing, where a culture of bean counters, very unlike the previous engineering culture, produced that magnificent machine, the 737 Max. 

The end result of the Welch approach becoming generally accepted throughout U.S. business was the hollowing out of American manufacturing, even in industries critical to our national interest and lives. Quarterly revenues became God as the focus was bumping up stock values. Michaels then makes the point that many executives now receive the lion's share of their compensation via stock options and concentrate on those quarterly figures with a laser-like focus. No conflict of interest there. 

There are some business contrarians out there and a few are mentioned. The bigger point he makes, though, is to ask whether this approach to corporate responsibility is really even in the best interests of the shareholders or is it just for a chosen few executives and some mega-rich players? It is definitely not in the national interest of this country and its citizens as a whole and it has to change. 

https://aviationweek.com/aerospace/manufacturing-supply-chain/opinion-rethinking-shareholders-first

Time on My Hands

My first trip (tomorrow to the Midwest) was scrubbed this after due to the evolving situation with the coronavirus (CV). I had my bag packed and ready to go, checked the airports that I would be traveling through for CV stats, locked and loaded with hand sanitizer and totally mindful of "social distancing" and here I sit. Oh well. Spit happens. As I sit here and contemplate what is in all likelihood an overblown response, several thoughts occur. 

First, there may be a silver lining in this dark cloud. We are already seeing that our country's emergency response assets are not ready. The CDC did not have enough test kits ready, slowing down diagnosis and treatment for many. We discovered that 97% of U.S. antibiotics and much of our medical equipment comes from China. What could possibly go wrong? Information has been slow to be disseminated in some cases. We have seen panic buying in stores. Toilet paper stocks getting cleaned out? Seriously? In short, I think we have become greedy and sloppy and if we got hit with a really serious situation - say an EMP strike, or serious pandemic, we could get clobbered. We need to fix these things and many others to avoid that.

Secondly, just as a hypothesis, the U.S. has been putting a world of hurt on the Chinese economy. What if the Chinese were looking for a way to knock the U.S. economy down a notch or two? Perhaps engineering a virus like COVID-19 that would not necessarily be traceable back to them might be a way to strike back. It might also be beta test to see how America's systems would handle a test like this. But the Chinese got hit too, so it can't be. Maybe, but they are not overly concerned with losing someone here and there, so if Wuhan gets drilled - oh well, spit happens. Maybe a scientist working with the virus went out for lunch unknowingly contaminated and spread it through contact. Spit happens. But what have the Chinese gained in watching how we have responded in terms of their future strategy? 

These are reasons for us to get busy. If we get hit with a considerably more lethal agent or action, we had better be a lot more ready than we are now.