Our campaign against political hypocrisy continues. This has become a full-time avocation. The latest sad entry comes from Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley, one of the key architects of the November, 2013 change to the Senate filibuster rules. It seems that Senator Merkley, a strong proponent of eliminating the filibuster, has become the filibuster’s greatest champion. It took less than four years, and a change in the party of the presidency, for this remarkable turnaround. It’s another example of why faith in our political leaders is at an all-time low. When will anyone – anyone – stand up on consistent principles? It’s more political hypocrisy.
The principled Senator Merkley has a deep and enduring respect for his Constitutional responsibilities. So, according to Senator Merkley, should the filibuster be available to the minority side in the Senate? Well of course not – except when “we” are the minority. All of which somehow allows him to claim the moral high ground when it comes to U.S. Supreme Court nominations. Is there more political hypocrisy here? You be the judge. Continue reading “More Political Hypocrisy – The Sad Tale of Senator Jeff Merkley”
Will the sad decline of ethics in journalism ever end? There’s no mystery why the public doesn’t trust the media. It didn’t used to be this way. Journalists focus less on reporting facts and more on drawing attention. They frequently distort or omit relevant information. Sometimes, they use more indirect means to mislead, such as applying inaccurate labels to facts, or using inappropriate words to create false inferences or connotations. Truth and accuracy are sacrificed to sensationalism. They are victims of the competitive push for eyeballs and profits.
The Decline of Ethics in Journalism – The Trump Order on Immigration
Which brings us to the Huffington Post. On January 25, 2017 they published an article entitled “Read Draft Text Of Trump’s Executive Order Limiting Muslim Entry to The U.S. (EXCLUSIVE).” Now, that headline really got our attention. For one, it sure sounds like President Trump actually went ahead and limited Muslim entry into the U.S. We’ve got to read about that! The headline also emphasizes the word “exclusive” in bold print. The article must contain unique information that we really need to read because we won’t find it elsewhere. Continue reading “The Decline of Ethics in Journalism – The Huffington Post and Trump’s Immigration Order”
Pope Francis believes that growing populism threatens global stability. His fear, which seems to be widely echoed, is that populism will lead to irrationality. In turn, irrationality will lead to the election of another Hitler. Is he right? Should we fear populism? Did it previously lead to the election of Adolf Hitler? In today’s world does populism lead to Hitler? Continue reading “Does Populism Lead to Hitler – Pope Francis Thinks it Might”
It is time for a shift in U.S. policy towards Iran. We are not referring simply to the Iranian nuclear agreement, the subject of controversy and continuing debate. More importantly, America’s strategic Iranian policy requires a reorientation in order to reassert and defend American (and allied) interests in the Middle East.
U.S. Policy Towards Iran – President Obama’s Strategic Approach
It has been a remarkable, perhaps unprecedented, year in American politics. Rancor, if not outright fear and hatred, prevails. Half-truths, mis-truths, name calling and a litany of much worse. A centerpiece of this blog is that those who would lead can only lead with integrity. So we have taken up the tasks of identifying and exposing political hypocrisy. We have written about it here and now focus on it again with Donald Trump days away from the Presidency. The context here is the simple question, was the election result illegitimate?
The Third Presidential Debate and the Threat to Democracy
We recall the famous remark during the third Presidential debate. It sparked furious claims that the foundations of our democracy were being jeopardized.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump Debate
[Chris Wallace]: Will you absolutely accept the results of this election?
[Donald Trump]: I will look at it at the time.
And then came Mrs. Clinton’s equally famous reply:
That is not the way our democracy works. [The United States has been] around for 240 years. We’ve had free and fair elections. We’ve accepted the outcomes when we may not have liked them. And that is what must be expected [from a Presidential candidate].
Mr. Trump’s comment was claimed to be monumental. Some called it “a stunning moment that has never been seen in the weeks before a modern presidential election.” Mr. Trump’s position was so bad that it “threatens to cast doubt on one of the fundamental principles of American politics – the peaceful, undisputed transfer of power from one president to a successor who is recognized as legitimate after winning an election.”
So we’re stuck in a liquidity trap and there’s no way out. And we can’t get to full employment, no matter how low we drive interest rates. We may even have to jump down that rabbit hole of negative interest rates. Oh my! But wait – we’ve got Sir John Maynard Keynes’ magnum opus of modern economics, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. And even better, there’s Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman with his own take on Sir John’s theories to get us out of this mess! Krugman and Keynes; whew, what a relief! We need fiscal spending! But maybe that hoped-for infrastructure spending was unnecessary after all?
Thesis: Infrastructure Spending was Unnecessary
The state of the economy in January, 2017 proves that infrastructure spending was unnecessary to escape the Great Recession. It is not, per se, necessary to get out of a recession and create full employment. A liquidity trap, as defined by Mr. Krugman, can be escaped without a heavy dose of infrastructure spending. Large infrastructure spending programs are not a universal salve in all economic crises. Krugman and Keynes were wrong.
The preservation of the American Constitution and American freedom is the paramount duty of any American President. American foreign policy is the mechanism through which these goals are prosecuted. American leadership is the means through which American goals are accomplished. The challenge for each president is to take the measure of his times, learn from the mistakes of the past, and foster and apply policies that are most likely to enhance the probability of achieving these objectives.
The Constitution
Too often over the course of American history presidents have misunderstood their times. They have either drawn the wrong lessons from the past or failed to understand the mistakes made by their predecessors. The recent past contains a pair of guiding lessons.
American Leadership: A Lesson from George W. Bush
In the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001, President Bush determined to illustrate to the world that America would use its strength and power against any foe that it believed was a direct and immediate threat to American freedom and survival. But with this objective, his decision to invade Iraq became a stark example of a failure to apply lessons previously learned. Continue reading “American Leadership in the World – Lessons from Obama, Bush and JFK”
Thesis: The North Korean threat to the United States and its allies from North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile development is growing rapidly. There are increased risks to the United States. The risks cannot be understated. The direct danger to the U.S. mainland is growing amid increasing concerns to America’s pacific allies. Resolution of the dangers is complex and involves difficult issues with China, North Korea and others.
U.S. policy (sanctions) has failed to stop North Korea’s development efforts, which are accelerating. American must adjust its policy, and soon. If unchecked, North Korea development of nuclearized intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach the U.S. mainland is inevitable.
The U.S. China policy may well be affected as the result of revelations made last week by Thae Yong-ho. Thae is the most senior North Korean government official to defect to the west in almost twenty years. In his first interview since his August, 2016 defection, Thae shared insights that will likely have meaningful consequences to the future of the US-China relationship. Thae’s comments may well impact U.S. China policy under President-elect Trump.
North Korean Defector Thae Yong-Ho, Photo: Imgur
Thae indicated that North Korea believes China is fearful of a North Korean collapse. As a result, China’s ability to pressure North Korea over its nuclear program is limited. In the event of a North Korean collapse, Thae maintained, China would fear a unified, pro-Western Korea directly on its eastern border. As Thae put it, “North Korea knows this weakness of China. As long as Kim Jong Un is in power, North Korea will never give up its nuclear weapons, even if it’s offered $1 trillion or $10 trillion in rewards.”
Map of China and Korea, flatworldknowledge.com
Thae also stated that Kim would negotiate with the United States only after achieving his nuclear weapon objective. Kim does not view his nuclear weapon program as a simple bargaining chip with the United States. Of course, the U.S. goal has been to prevent North Korea from achieving its nuclear weapon objective.
Thae is a life-long diplomat and was North Korea’s number two person in London. The North Koreans branded him as “human scum”. Kim stated that “the North sees 2017 as the prime time for nuclear development” given the political changes in South Korea and the United States.
Implications for U.S. China Policy
Thae’s revelations explain the Obama Administration failure to gain China’s full cooperation to reign in North Korea. The Chinese have apparently been playing a duplicitous game. They have taken small steps to imply cooperation with the American policy. At the same time, they have never implemented the steps necessary to compel North Korean to abandon its program. The U.S. China policy thus becomes more nuanced.
Although China backed tough international sanctions against North Korea during 2016, the critical enforcement of penalties against North Korea remains an ongoing issue. The United States has long seen China as the key to force the North Koreans to abandon their nuclear program. Given Thae’s revelations regarding China’s concerns, seen from China’s perspective, a central premise of U.S. policy towards both China and North Korea is subject to full re-examination.
If China’s primary North Korean goal is to ensure the survivability of a North Korean government that remains a friendly ally and an indispensable buffer against the South Koreans, then the United States will face a policy restart in North Korea. The China-North Korea relationship may be more complex than U.S. officials have believed. By necessity, this will impact the U.S. China policy.
The North Korea Policy Dilemma Becomes Even More Difficult
The United States has pursued a variety of approaches to North Korea’s nuclear program over the past 24 years. Under President Obama, the U.S. policy took a definitive turn in 2012 when the North Koreans claimed to be committed to denuclearization and agreed to implement a moratorium on its ballistic missile launches. Two months later, continuing a long-standing approach whereby they say one thing and do another, the North Koreans violated the agreement. As a result, President Obama shifted his strategy and focused more heavily on a sanctions-based approach to North Korea. Obama’s new policy was known as “strategic patience”. The thrust of the policy was an attempt to bring the North Korean regime to its knees through crippling sanctions. The policy failed.
Kim Jong Un’s Nuclear and Missile Policies Are Aggressive and Provocative
As pointed out by Van Jackson, an Associate Professor at the U.S. Defense Department’s Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, Kim Jong Un has implemented a very aggressive policy:
Van Jackson, North Korea Policy Expert
The last four years under Kim Jong Un have already seen 35 missile launches and three nuclear tests. In word and deed, Kim Jong Un has laid bare his intentions to mate nuclear warheads to long-range missiles, pursue a hydrogen-based nuclear bomb, and develop a submarine-launched ballistic missile capability, which has long been considered the gold standard of an assured retaliatory capacity.
In Jackson’s view, North Korea has determined to complete its nuclear weapons program:
Gone are the days in which it is possible to speculate that North Korea’s nuclear weapons were mere symbols or bargaining chips, or that the threat of nuclear attack was deeply hypothetical. . .
North Korea’s nuclear program is now more accelerated, less constrained, and more openly linked to its missile program than at any point in its history. Pyongyang is rushing to deploy a nuclear force that can ensure the regime’s survival . . . But Washington and Seoul are dealing with North Korea is if it were still the 1980s.
U.S. Policy to North Korea Must Adapt to Changed Circumstances
The United States’ goal of a denuclearized North Korea remains perhaps its most difficult foreign policy objective. Negotiations and sanctions have both failed.
Jackson points out that an American approach that involves (1) making nuclear threats, (2) unifying Korea if war occurs, and (3) constant preparations to deploy large-scale forces to win such a war, “removes incentives for North Korean nuclear restraint in the event of conflict. By holding to its old ways, the [U.S.-South Korean] alliance is unintentionally making any conflict more likely to go nuclear.”
The Trump Administration will now have to craft a policy that will both reign in North Korea while insuring that China achieves its apparent objective of maintaining a viable and separate North Korea. With the North Korean nuclear and missile programs proceeding rapidly, developing such a policy will likely be an early and important initiative for Mr. Trump. Threading this needle will be a significant challenge. North Korea continues to show no interest in discussing either its nuclear weapons or missile programs.
What might this new policy look like? Jackson suggests that a new U.S. policy should be based upon two fundamental principles. First, reduce “the role of nukes in alliance military signaling.” Second, “planning and curbing the objectives and scope of conflicts that break out.” Indeed, Jackson believes that American nuclear threats serve no purpose and only incentivizes North Korea to continue its program.
Sports Records: The Unbreakable and the Insurmountable
We start with our bakers dozen of the greatest sports records and sports accomplishments of all time, American version. Here’s a first cut of the records/accomplishments that we believe have, and will, stand the test of time:
Horse Racing
1. No thoroughbred will ever match Secretariat’s accomplishment of holding the fastest time in each of the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes. Each of these three records still stand today. Secretariat’s combined time for the three races is six seconds faster than any other horse.
Major League Baseball
2. Consecutive Games With a Hit – Of the many sports records to consider, this consecutive games with a hit is held by the incomparable Joe DiMaggio, who hit in 56 consecutive games (need we say more). Willie Keeler, who at 5’4″ and all of 140 pounds was one of the smallest men to ever play in the major leagues (from 1892 until 1910) and who coined one of baseball’s greatest phrases, “hit ’em where they ain’t”, had his 45 consecutive game streak broken by DiMaggio in 1941. The modern-day consecutive games hit leader is Pete Rose with 44.
Hit ‘Em Where They Ain’t!
3. Career Wins – Cy Young won an astounding 512 games. The fabulous Walter “Big Train” Johnson is a distant second with 416 wins. The “modern” era leader is Greg Maddux, who checks in with 355 wins.
4. Consecutive Games Played – Sports record number four is the great accomplishment of Cal Ripken, Jr. who logged 2,632 consecutive games played (more than 16 full major league seasons), a total that will certainly never be overtaken. Hall-of-Famer Lou Gehrig’s prior record of 2,130 consecutive games lasted 59 years, but was then shattered by Ripken. Shortstop Everett Scott is an even more distant third, with 1,307 consecutive games.
Baseball’s “Iron Horse”
NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball
5. Single Season Scoring Average — LSU’s Pete Maravich averaged an incredible 44.5 points per game for the 1969-1970 college basketball season, a sports record that it is difficult to imagine could be overcome, even in the era of the three point shot. Remarkably, Maravich also holds the marks for the second and third highest single season scoring averages, at 44.2 points and 43.8 points, respectively.
6. Career Scoring Average — Pete Maravich holds this record as well, with a 44.2 points per game career average. Notre Dame’s Austin Carr stands second at 34.6 points per game, almost eight points per game less. The advent of the three point shot for the 1986-87 season did not lead to higher career scoring averages, as none of the top ten all-time scoring leaders played during the three-point era. Maravich’s incomparable sports record seems very likely indeed to stand for generations to come.
National Basketball Association
7. Single Game Points Record – Surely no one will ever touch Wilt Chamberlain’s astounding 100 points in a single game. Kobe Bryant stands in second place, but with “only” 81 points.
100 for Wilt!
8. Rebounds Per Game (Career) – Another Wilt Chamberlain mark at 22.9 rebounds per game (Bill Russell is second with 22.5 rebounds). Given today’s “modern” game, where the leader is Dennis Rodman at 13.1 rebounds per game (only 11th all-time), the probability of Chamberlain being surpassed seems infinitesimally small.
9. Assists Per Game (Career) – Magic Johnson’s career record stands at 11.2 assists per game, with John Stockton at 10.5 per game and Chris Paul at 9.9 per game, all significantly behind the Magic Man.
National Football League
9. Most Long Touchdown Passes Thrown (Career) – In the era before the west-coast offense innovation, quarterbacks threw farther down the field. Notwithstanding all of the great passing records achieved in the 2000’s, John Unitas holds these career touchdown records that neither Manning, Elway, nor Favre ever touched, and that Brady, Brees and the like will never break: Most 40+ yard touchdown passes (70), most 50+ yard touchdown passes (51), and most 60+ yard touchdown passes (29) — and all of this among his 290 total touchdown passes thrown. Almost 25% of Unitas’ touchdown passes were over 40 yards! Unitas was the master of the bomb. Unfortunately, the era of the deep ball is now long gone.
10. Most Seasons Leading the League in Rushing – The incomparable Jim Brown led the NFL in rushing in eight different seasons; no one else has led the league more than four times. Brown was a punishing yet explosive runner who retired after only nine years. He averaged 5.22 yards per carry over that entire career, also an NFL record for running backs. Brown later became an accomplished actor and important activist and leader.
11. Most Consecutive Games of 100 or More Yards Rushing – Barry Sanders rushed for more than 100 yards in 14 consecutive games. No other running back since 2000 has more than nine consecutive 100 yard games. In the modern game, Sanders’ record seems very safe indeed.
Barry Sanders on the run
Olympics
12. Most Career Gold Medals – This is another easy choice for our pantheon of all-time sports records that will never be overcome. America’s Michael Phelps won an amazing 23 gold medals over four different Olympiads. No one else has more than nine career gold medals. Phelps also holds the all-time count for total Olympic medals won with 28. Second place finisher Larisa Latylina logged 18 over her gymnastics career.
National Hockey League
13. All-Time Scoring Leader – The last of our sports records is another one that seems obvious to us. Wayne Gretzky amassed 2,857 points scored over his remarkable career. Gretzky stands almost 1,000 points ahead of second place finisher Mark Messier, who accumulated 1,887 points over his illustrious career. Naturally, Gretzky holds the career goals scored record with 894 (Gordie Howe is second at 801), and the career assists record at 1,963 (more than 700 ahead of Ron Francis in second place).
