PRESIDENT TRUMP’S SPEECH ON AFGHANISTAN
I wish we could get out, but how we get out is as important as that we get out…sooner rather than later…but leaving a country that we can “police” but not rebuild. The USA must get out of nation building. We cannot be the Police force or Humanitarian aid force for the entire world. We have our own problems to solve—and they are many—and they need investment and much of the USA needs renovation and upgrading. Physical, social and moral…
I hope we don’t make Afghanistan into another South Korea, but I fear that will be the outcome due to it’s location and geography/geology. The Taliban will reemerge as soon as the US is not there to stop it—but who says it is our job to determine who’s in control of countries around the world? We just need to make it clear that IF it becomes a terrorist haven again, we will come in and demolish those terrorist enclaves, no matter who let them exist. Stopping big money giveaways (like Pakistan) in hopes of buying loyalty is a different misguided and foolish approach. Bribes are temporary at best, insidious at worst.
AFGHANISTAN IS NOT THE WHOLE STORY (See the web link page below).
Finally, having 35-40,000 American military forces each in Germany & Japan, a vestige of WW-II which has been over for 70 years, to have 75,000 American forces there is simply ridiculous—and needs to be ended. IF we need a sizable presence, why? If there is a good reason, what is the minimum number that will suffice. The rest can be either brought home or re-deployed to meet other needs. Do we really need 200,000 people in the US armed forces scattered around the world?
A COUPLE OF FACTS FACTS FOR AN UPCOMING EDITION
Mandatory Spending now consumes 69% of the Federal Budget. Just since 2011, Social Security has grown 17%, Medicare is up 15% and Medicaid is skyrocketing, up 25% with now relief in sight. (Only one is a higher % increase—spending on Veterans—up 29.5%. Even if /Congress was fully functional, it's hard to make spending reduction progress when working with only 30% of the total pie, and the other 70% is growing, growing, growing.
IT SEEMS THAT EVERYTHING SAID AND DONE IS WRONG ABOUT CHARLOTTESVILLE—ACCORDING TO SOMEONE
EXPLOSION OF APARTMENTS AND CONDOS IS OVERLOADING ROADS AND OTHER FACILITIES
IT SEEMS THAT EVERYTHING SAID AND DONE IS WRONG ABOUT CHARLOTTESVILLE—ACCORDING TO SOMEONE
I spoke with a member of Congress this past week. His brief public statements about the Charlottesville situation were simply factual. He said,
"Our country is a beacon of hope & opportunity for all. We must condemn the hate and bigotry that is fueling the violence in Charlottesville. POTUS deflected from the fact that a young woman was killed & others were injured by a bigoted follower of the white supremacist movement.”
"Our country is a beacon of hope & opportunity for all. We must condemn the hate and bigotry that is fueling the violence in Charlottesville. POTUS deflected from the fact that a young woman was killed & others were injured by a bigoted follower of the white supremacist movement.”
Factually accurate, and calmly rational statements. He was attacked in comments by both Democrats and Republicans.
One group thought he understated the situation and the other thought he overstated the situation. Conclusion: even level-headed leaders can’t say anything acceptable in this polarized environment. Thus, when Trump spoke out, no matter what he said, he would be crucified by his liberal enemies (but still supported by his base. What is sickening, is that like dogs fighting over a bone, the media—left, of course and even the right—blew this out of all proportion. Yes, it was sad, awful, sickening to see a person die. It was equally sad and sickening to see a crowd behave like that. Read Dan Henninger’s column posted below…it puts things in scary perspective.
IRONICALLY, THE SAME OLD LIBERAL VOICES ARE SPOUTING VITRIOL
"If you want to vote for a racist in the White House, then you better vote for Republicans," —Howard Dean the former governor of Vermont said on MSNBC on Saturday. Nancy Pelosi and Elizabeth Warren joined the chorus of extreme Democratic critics—which was no surprise—since neither has uttered an unbiased opinion since losing to Republicans across the board in 2016. I guess the same people who agree with them, share their biased views. We probably also need to redo much of our paper money because it has pictures of political figures who were slave owners back in the day!
FIRST LET’S UNDERSTAND THINGS BETTER. WATCH THIS VIDEO
Some people think D’Souza is a right wing shill. He’s not; he is a political conservative (right), but facts are facts and logical conclusions are logical conclusions.
IF THAT DIDN’T ELEVATE YOUR PARTISAN PULSE, CHECK OUT THIS SIMPLE STATEMENT
THE SAD, SCARY FACT IS THAT THE LIBERAL MEDIA AND POLITICIANS (DEMOCRATS) ARE RANTING MADLY
Donald Trump is a “target rich environment” for the manic media, because he starts speaking about the same time he finishing thinking about his topic. He was never trained in politico-speak, parsing every sentence so any meaning that can be taken from it is harmless and useless. (Obama mastered that.) That’s a bad habit for a successful businessman, but worse for a sitting POTUS who is under constant and vehement attack by his Democratic opponents! The best advice for Trump is for General Kelly to institute a “time delay” on his Twitter account, and one on his spoken statements—allowing Trump time to read them and think them over again—and then say what he intended/meant (not what he spontaneously said.)
They still cannot imagine that their "chosen one”—Hillary Clinton—lost to the reprehensible Donald Trump. So, they do everything legal and illegal to oppose and obstruct Trump at every turn, giving little concern to the fact that when they tear him down, they are also damaging the USA and at least half (or maybe more) of the American people. The major networks give no thought at all to misquoting, out of context words spoken to fit their needs. For example: Ohio Gov. John Kasich termed the Charlottesville riots as “pathetic,” so CNN simply placed the word (totally out of context) and claimed Kasich used the word to describe Trump. That is simply lying propaganda, and is wrong on so many levels it is mind-boggling.
This just reinforces one of my tenets: “No matter what you say or do to please everyone, somebody won’t like it.”
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ON TO OTHER TOPICS:
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Have you looked around? Apartments (or condos, or nursing homes) are springing up everywhere. It is unbelievable. New home sales are not bad, but not good either. Student loan debt, part of Obama’s legacy, is stifling the formation of new homes and households. A lack of confidence in continuing prosperity amidst rampant uncertainty and mass media hysteria, is freezing the plans of millions to invest in a home. So, they rent. The density of these new dwellings, like so many building blocks piled upon one another (3 to 30 stories high) leads to so many problems.
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TRAFFIC JAMS NOW AND A FUTURE OR URBAN “SLUMS" IN 20-30 YEARS?
Cars—which most of the apartment dwellers still have (in spite of Uber, Lyft, et. al.)—are clustered around the blocks—a 1.5 ton car for each resident. Roads are crammed. Traffic in “hot areas” is intractable. Mass transit is decades behind, and will likely never catch up. In some areas parking fees sound like rental rates of old. City planners are equally frozen, not knowing how to accommodate this explosion of development. Urban sprawl had evolved to urban piling one/piling up. I am old enough that I probably won’t live to see when these hastily thrown up boxes get old and deteriorate. Can you spell Urban slums? No trees, little grass, few parks, just concrete or asphalt and boxes of people and their cars. I wonder what aliens watching this from outer space would make of it?
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ARE THESE NEW MONOPOLIES A CONCERN? IN THE PAST MONOPOLIES WERE LARGE CONCERNS (pun intended)
Excerpts derived from THE WEEK.COM, AUG. 4, 2017: Are Google, Facebook, and Amazon becoming too powerful.
Are they as dominant as Standard Oil, Carnegie Steel, and American Tobacco in the 19th century? Yes. Google has 88 percent of search advertising in the U.S. Facebook & subsidiaries — Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger — 77 percent of mobile social media traffic. ...Almost $1 of every $2 in online retail sales goes through Amazon. Google dominates video (through YouTube), mapping, and personal email; Facebook is building consumer drones and virtual reality sets; Amazon recently bought the upscale grocery chain Whole Foods for $13.4 billion. …When a few firms have such dominant market shares, it's almost impossible to compete with them.
When companies control a market, they tend to use their power to eliminate competition — to the detriment of consumers. They force suppliers to lower prices, cutting profits, and can bankrupt their rivals by undercutting them — or simply buy them. Massive companies can also use economies of scale to eliminate jobs — particularly in the digital era, when work can be automated. All this results in less consumer choice, lower wages, and a concentration of wealth in fewer people/companies.
Here’s the proof, Amazon: 52 percent of U.S. book sales, 43 percent of online commerce, & 45 percent of cloud-computing, and online sales six times more than a combination of Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Nordstrom, Home Depot, Macy's, Kohl's, and Costco. Facebook: 2 billion active users — more than a quarter of the human race. Google's parent Alphabet, acquires an average of one company/week. More than 1 billion people worldwide use Gmail. The domination of these tech giants also has produced plenty of losers.
The newspaper industry. Facebook and Google control more than 70 percent of the $73 billion digital advertising market in the U.S. Many of those dollars used to go to other media companies: Between 2006 and 2016, U.S. newspaper advertising revenue dropped from $50 billion to $18 billion, and jobs in the industry fell by over half, from 411,000 in 2001 to 174,000 in 2016. Journalism websites, too, are struggling to survive. Facebook and Google consume the online ad dollars. Another example: department stores and malls’ retail stores have shut their doors because of online shopping, and many malls have gone dark or are being repurposed into something else. That, in turn, has damaged the vitality of communities, and they never come back.
In the U.S., there’s not much resistance. The government generally has done little to regulate tech companies, to stifle innovation and growth in our fastest-growing industry. Facebook, Google, and Amazon argue that they're not true monopolies, because their much smaller competitors are only a click away. And Big Tech spends vast sums keeping lawmakers on their side: Facebook: $3.2 million in federal lobbying in just the first quarter of 2017. Ultimately, consumers would have to rebel against these companies before U.S. lawmakers or regulators would take action — and there's no sign of that. Google does whatever it wants without asking permission.
The tech industry isn't the only one consolidating. More 75 percent plus of U.S. industries have experienced concentration over the past two decades—Eighty percent of plane seats sold by four airlines: American, Delta, Southwest, and United. The drugstore and pharmacy industry—dominated by CVS and Walgreens. Americans noway more than double what Europeans do for high-speed broadband. When there is less competition, consumers inevitably pay the price.
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IS COMPETITIVE FOOTBALL DESTINED TO BE BANNED? OR CAN TECHNOLOGY SAVE IT?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/abigailtracy/2016/02/04/nfl-cte-football-concussions-injuries-helmet-vicis-zero1-super-bowl/amp/
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/abigailtracy/2016/02/04/nfl-cte-football-concussions-injuries-helmet-vicis-zero1-super-bowl/amp/
We can put men and satellites into orbit, and design self-driving cars, but not make helmets that keep the human brain from bouncing around in the skull like a ping-pong ball in a shower stall. Maybe helmets are not the only solution, but if football has any hope of surviving as a mainstream sport, technology must come to the rescue. That still won’t eliminate other injuries from a violent sport (e.g., boxing and cage fighting). Strong, fast young athletes running and colliding at full speed will break bones, sprain joints, and tear ligaments. That’s lots harder to remedy due to the diversity of collisions. It also leads to longer term health problems. Simple watch old football players walk around. But…when it happens to the brain…that’s bad. Next issue: Heading the ball in soccer! Watch for it.
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IS THE SPORTS RETAIL INDUSTRY SELF-DESTRUCTING?
American government in a crisis of Leadership—a lack thereof
American government in a crisis of Perspective—a lack thereof
American government in a crisis of Character & Integrity—a lack thereof
BUT...Who will that somebody be? Who will have the courage and the character to lead in a time of crisis?
The president of Target stores, speaking to me over 25 years ago, said that national sporting goods chains were destined to struggle—always. Why? Because sporting goods is regional or local, not national in consumers’ taste & style preferences, teams (college & pro), and kind of activity (warm vs. cold, fresh water vs. salt water, etc.).
It is a never ending struggle to find products (shoes, fashions, etc.) with high enough margins that will turn inventory quickly enough vs. things that simply don’t (canoes, big ticket items, etc.) It’s a no win proposition. So, for the past 25 years, sporting goods chains have struggled and stumbled and reorganized and merged and still can’t find the way out. Go into a Dick’s or a Cabela’s or any other sporting goods superstore and ask yourself for any given item, what is the likely profit margin % and inventory turn rate.
A 25% margin item must turn 5-6 timed per year; hard for seasonal goods. An item that only turns 2-3 times per year, demands at 50% margin +/-. Just multiply the margin times the turns and if the answer is not over 125, trouble for that category is not far off.
Test this concept yourself: Warehouse Clubs only get 11-15% margins, but turn inventory 12 times or more.Department stores like Macy’s can choose regular pricing at 50-60% margins and 2-3 turns or “Sale Pricing at 30% off” for a 30% margin at 4-5 turns.
FOOTLOCKER IS THE LATEST TO STUMBLE:
The sports retail industry is reeling on Friday as Foot Locker Inc. (FL) became the latest athletic-wear outlet to see its shares crater after subpar quarterly earnings. “We are obviously disappointed in the results for the quarter, and our team is working quickly to adjust our operations to a changed retail landscape in which we are seeing our consumers move faster than ever from one source of inspiration or influence to another,” Foot Locker CEO Richard Johnson said in a statement. Foot Locker’s same-store sales declined a whopping 6% in the second-quarter.
Company executives blamed the decline in part on rapidly shifting consumer tastes and a lack of product innovation from vendors, with sales of top footwear and apparel styles falling far short of expectations. The same-store sales decline marked Foot Locker’s first negative comp since its fourth quarter of fiscal 2009, according to Citi Research. Traditional brick-and-mortar retailers are struggling to maintain sales as more and more customers turn to e-commerce options like Amazon (AMZN) to do their shopping.
Foot Locker shares plunged 25% after the major earnings miss. Johnson told analysts that recent disruption to the retail industry is “the most significant I’ve seen in my quarter-century” in the athletic-wear business, adding that the rise of mobile retail has accelerated fashion trends and made it difficult for brick-and-mortar outlets to keep up.
Other sports retailers are also struggling. Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS) shares plummeted earlier this week after reporting similarly disappointing earnings results, including comp sales growth of just 0.1%. Shares of Hibbett Sports (HIBB) and Finish Line (FINL), as well as vendors like Nike (NKE) and Under Armour (UAA) were also down in early trading. Dick’s Sporting Goods CEO Edward Stack also bemoaned the state of the retail industry this week, as the Pittsburgh-based retailer slashed its full-year financial guidance. As more retailers and vendors turn promotional to lure customers, Stack said product pricing has been “unpredictable and, at times, irrational,” which has cut into sales.
Foot Locker’s problems were compounded last June when Nike, one of its key vendors, announced a deal to begin selling some of its products through Amazon. Johnson downplayed the threat Amazon poses to Foot Locker’s business, arguing that Amazon won’t be selling the premium footwear products that Foot Locker relies on to boost sales. “We do not believe our vendors selling product directly on Amazon is an imminent threat,” Johnson said. “There is no indication that any of our vendors intend to sell premium athletic product, $100-plus sneakers that we offer, directly via that sort of distribution channel.” While Foot Locker remains committed to its physical store locations, Johnson said the company is focusing on accelerating its commitment to digital retail while also working with vendors to speed up the product development cycle. Executives said the company now plans to shutter up to 135 store locations by the end of the year, up from earlier estimates of roughly 100 stores. The company expects comp sales to continue their downward trend, with a projected 3% to 4% decline in each of the next two quarters.
=====================
FINALLY: NOTES FROM WHAT I TOLD A SITTING MEMBER OF CONGRESS THIS PAST WEEK—HOW AMERICANS FEEL RIGHT NOW.NOTE: I’M FORTUNATE…I HAVE A GOOD MAN REPRESENTING ME IN CONGRESS (REP. PAT TIBERI)…AND RIGHT NEXT DOOR, ANOTHER GOOD MAN I KNOW, ALSO "MAKES ME PROUD” IN CONGRESS (REP. STEVE STIVERS).
THERE ARE MORE GOOD PEOPLE—LIKE THESE TWO—IN CONGRESS, AND MANY OF THEM ARE AS FRUSTRATED AS WE ARE!
American government in a crisis of Leadership—a lack thereof
American government in a crisis of Perspective—a lack thereof
American government in a crisis of Character & Integrity—a lack thereof
American government is in a crisis of Unity…for the greater good of the people of the USA.
GOP Members of the House and Senate were elected to majorities in both bodies. GOP President was elected to the White House
GOP Members of the House and Senate were elected to majorities in both bodies. GOP President was elected to the White House
They can’t get anything done, because they can’t agree on what to do — or how to do it, and are being tied in knots by their self-serving discord.
IS IT PRESIDENT TRUMP’S FAULT? —YES, BUT NOT ONLY HIS FAULT...
IS IT PAUL RYAN’S & MITCH MC CONNELL’S FAULT? —ONLY PARTLY...
IS IT THE ENTIRE 535 MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AT FAULT? —YES, ABSOLUTELY !
IS IT THE GOP MEMBERS OF CONGRESS FAULT—YES—FOR FAILURE TO REACH UNIFIED POSITIONS—(SHAME ON THEM!)
IS IT THE DEMOCRATIC MEMBERS OF CONGRESS FAULT—YES—BY OBSTRUCTING PROGRESS IN GOVERNMENT—(SHAME ON THEM!)
See article: (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-trump-nominees-senate-confirmations-20170804-story.html)
The GOP (factions) have paralyzed Congress aided and abetted by Democrat rampant obstruction, but worse, by both of them losing sight of the greater good, their actions obscured by elected officials bickering/fighting for their own selfish agendas, and disregarding what the American people elected them to do. Make American better for all of us!
Democratic obstructionism is rampant and defies even the existing rules in Congress. The one-sided liberal media-mania, madness … and myopia make everything worse. The Senate is even more paralyzed than the House, which isn’t saying much for either body.
This is SHAMEFUL; and it is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE. SOMEBODY NEEDS TO STEP UP AND DO SOMETHING, IN FACT, MANY THINGS.
The GOP (factions) have paralyzed Congress aided and abetted by Democrat rampant obstruction, but worse, by both of them losing sight of the greater good, their actions obscured by elected officials bickering/fighting for their own selfish agendas, and disregarding what the American people elected them to do. Make American better for all of us!
Democratic obstructionism is rampant and defies even the existing rules in Congress. The one-sided liberal media-mania, madness … and myopia make everything worse. The Senate is even more paralyzed than the House, which isn’t saying much for either body.
This is SHAMEFUL; and it is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE. SOMEBODY NEEDS TO STEP UP AND DO SOMETHING, IN FACT, MANY THINGS.
BUT...Who will that somebody be? Who will have the courage and the character to lead in a time of crisis?
Can a Congressional coalition be formed that is large enough, strong enough to recover the government’s footing?
Or will voters have to once again throw out "entrenched politicians," (who understand how the system is supposed to work—but cannot make it work), and replace them with "undisciplined rebels" (Sort of like Trump, but maybe worse!)—leading to still more chaos?
CONTACT YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES AND TELL THEM HOW YOU FEEL;
THEN HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE FOR RESULTS THAT SERVE “THE GREATER GOOD,” —NOT JUST THEIR OWN “AGENDA."
WHEW, THAT’S PLENTY FOR ONE DAY.
JOHN
Bonus Reading Too good to leave out..
THE POLITICS OF POINTLESSNESS ...By Daniel Henninger, WSJ August 17, 2017Charlottesville was a warning. The warning is that America’s politics is steadily disconnecting from reality. Our politics is starting to seem psychotic.Generally people get into politics to accomplish something concrete or achievable—the passage of a piece of legislation or of identifiable public policies whose purpose is to make things better. In a word, progress.The right and the left have disagreed for centuries on what works, but they at least shared a belief that the point of their political activity was to accomplish something realCharlottesville was a political riot. Is Charlottesville the future?Some may say the Charlottesville riot was the lunatic fringe of the right and left, with no particular relevance to what falls in between. But I think Charlottesville may be a prototype of a politics that is drifting away from traditional norms of behavior and purpose.Street protest has become the politics du jour. Groups form constantly in the streets to chant slogans. America’s campuses live amid perpetual protest.The protests no doubt are based in belief or sentiment of some sort, but it is more often than not difficult to recognize any political goal normally associated with conservatism, liberalism or progressivism. Much of it looks like acting out or pleas for attention.In January the weekend that Donald Trump was inaugurated, I watched a group of protesters sit down and block traffic at a main intersection in Santa Barbara, Calif. It seemed like a play date. The cops watched like bemused adults.Charlottesville wasn’t a play date. It was a pitched battle between two organized mobs—the white nationalist groups on the right and the badly underreported Antifa, or “antifascist,” groups on the hard-as-stone left. Stories about Antifa’s organized violence are trickling out now, but there is no conceivable journalistic defense for having waited so long to inform the public about this dangerous movement.The phenomenon that enables politics without purpose is the internet. It is the group-organizing tool for psychologically disassociated young people on the left and on the right, like James Alex Fields Jr. , who allegedly drove his car into a crowd, killing Heather Heyer. She won’t be the last casualty.Fields makes me think of the lone-wolf jihadists here and in Europe who explode out of the general population in a homicidal rage. These are people who sit endlessly in front of a computer screen, brainwashing themselves with online propaganda until they snap to make a “political statement.” The internet—websites, social media, message boards—is elevating political paranoia and delegitimizing normal politics.Earlier this week, Britain’s head of counterterrorism policing, Mark Rowley, described the new reality: “What we’re wrestling with today is something which is more of a cultish movement where they are putting out propaganda and saying ‘anybody and everybody, act in our name and you’re part of our terrorist campaign.’ ”But, the argument goes, these behavioral extremes have no relevance to or effect on the rest of public life. I’m not so sure. There have been a series of events lately that suggest the most basic requirements of intellectual or political seriousness are losing ground inside institutions that once provided ballast against the extremes.The Google firing of James Damore was one of these big events. Its meaning was that the goal of diversity, whatever its original intent, has become mostly a totem. Mr. Damore was the little boy in the folk tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” who shouts, “But he doesn’t have anything on!” Google’s emperors banished James Damore for unmasking their diversity conceit.Also certain to enter the era’s annals of anti-politics is the Republican party’s health-care meltdown.All the endless hours that pour into political organizing, fundraising and campaigning are meant to win elections and then exercise political power. After winning control of Congress in the 2016 election, Republicans degenerated into what was essentially a traffic-blocking protest—against their own majority!A young person new to politics and paying attention to what the Republicans did with ObamaCare reform, or to the Democrats’ content-free “resistance,” could reasonably conclude Congress is no longer about politics, but about something else. TV face-time or maybe Twitter , but not politics.Traditional politics is being overtaken by a cult of self-referencing. From the nonstop street protests to what is going on in Washington—everything now is just a selfie.Amid this torrent, an odd paradox emerges: People are consuming more content and detail about politics than ever, and more people than ever are saying, “I have no idea what is going on.” Someone is at fault here, and it is not the confused absorbers of information.Charlottesville is being pounded into the national psyche this week as a paroxysm of white nationalism. On current course, the flight from politics is going to look like rational behavior.Generally people get into politics to accomplish something concrete or achievable—the passage of a piece of legislation or of identifiable public policies whose purpose is to make things better. In a word, progress.The right and the left have disagreed for centuries on what works, but they at least shared a belief that the point of their political activity was to accomplish something realCharlottesville was a political riot. Is Charlottesville the future?Some may say the Charlottesville riot was the lunatic fringe of the right and left, with no particular relevance to what falls in between. But I think Charlottesville may be a prototype of a politics that is drifting away from traditional norms of behavior and purpose.Street protest has become the politics du jour. Groups form constantly in the streets to chant slogans. America’s campuses live amid perpetual protest.The protests no doubt are based in belief or sentiment of some sort, but it is more often than not difficult to recognize any political goal normally associated with conservatism, liberalism or progressivism. Much of it looks like acting out or pleas for attention.In January the weekend that Donald Trump was inaugurated, I watched a group of protesters sit down and block traffic at a main intersection in Santa Barbara, Calif. It seemed like a play date. The cops watched like bemused adults.Charlottesville wasn’t a play date. It was a pitched battle between two organized mobs—the white nationalist groups on the right and the badly underreported Antifa, or “antifascist,” groups on the hard-as-stone left. Stories about Antifa’s organized violence are trickling out now, but there is no conceivable journalistic defense for having waited so long to inform the public about this dangerous movement.The phenomenon that enables politics without purpose is the internet. It is the group-organizing tool for psychologically disassociated young people on the left and on the right, like James Alex Fields Jr. , who allegedly drove his car into a crowd, killing Heather Heyer. She won’t be the last casualty.Fields makes me think of the lone-wolf jihadists here and in Europe who explode out of the general population in a homicidal rage. These are people who sit endlessly in front of a computer screen, brainwashing themselves with online propaganda until they snap to make a “political statement.” The internet—websites, social media, message boards—is elevating political paranoia and delegitimizing normal politics.Earlier this week, Britain’s head of counterterrorism policing, Mark Rowley, described the new reality: “What we’re wrestling with today is something which is more of a cultish movement where they are putting out propaganda and saying ‘anybody and everybody, act in our name and you’re part of our terrorist campaign.’ ”But, the argument goes, these behavioral extremes have no relevance to or effect on the rest of public life. I’m not so sure. There have been a series of events lately that suggest the most basic requirements of intellectual or political seriousness are losing ground inside institutions that once provided ballast against the extremes.The Google firing of James Damore was one of these big events. Its meaning was that the goal of diversity, whatever its original intent, has become mostly a totem. Mr. Damore was the little boy in the folk tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” who shouts, “But he doesn’t have anything on!” Google’s emperors banished James Damore for unmasking their diversity conceit.Also certain to enter the era’s annals of anti-politics is the Republican party’s health-care meltdown.All the endless hours that pour into political organizing, fundraising and campaigning are meant to win elections and then exercise political power. After winning control of Congress in the 2016 election, Republicans degenerated into what was essentially a traffic-blocking protest—against their own majority!A young person new to politics and paying attention to what the Republicans did with ObamaCare reform, or to the Democrats’ content-free “resistance,” could reasonably conclude Congress is no longer about politics, but about something else. TV face-time or maybe Twitter , but not politics.Traditional politics is being overtaken by a cult of self-referencing. From the nonstop street protests to what is going on in Washington—everything now is just a selfie.Amid this torrent, an odd paradox emerges: People are consuming more content and detail about politics than ever, and more people than ever are saying, “I have no idea what is going on.” Someone is at fault here, and it is not the confused absorbers of information.Charlottesville is being pounded into the national psyche this week as a paroxysm of white nationalism. On current course, the flight from politics is going to look like rational behavior.
http://mariotti.blogs.com/my_weblog/
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