Can We Let It Go?

For John, BLUF:  We, as a nation, need to find a way to move beyond the RussiaGate/ Crossfire Hurricane imbroglio and get back to trying to be one nation, under the Constitution.  Durham in this case is Feeral Attorney John Durham, who has been assigneed to track down th whole mess of Crossfire Hurricane.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Here Are the Senior Biden Officials Entangled in Durham’s Criminal Russiagate Probe

From The Epoch Times, by Reporter Paul Sperry, Updated 24 July 2022 .

Here is the lede plus two:

Several individuals connected to a 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign plot to cast Donald Trump as a covert Kremlin collaborator are working in high-level jobs within the Biden administration—including at least two senior Biden appointees cited by Special Counsel John Durham in his “active (and) ongoing” criminal investigation of the scheme, according to recently filed court documents.

Jake Sullivan, who now serves as Biden’s national security adviser, and Caroline Krass, a top lawyer at the Pentagon, were involved in efforts in 2016 and 2017 to advance the Clinton campaign’s false claims about Trump through the media and the federal government, documents show.  Other evidence shows that two other Biden officials—senior State Department official Dafna Rand and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler—also are entangled in the so-called Russiagate scandal.

It’s not known whether these Biden appointees have been interviewed by Durham’s investigators. But as the probe widens, some government ethics watchdogs anticipate that Biden’s presidency could be pulled into the scandal, which saw the FBI abuse its surveillance powers to spy on a Trump campaign adviser based on Clinton opposition research.

Add to this that FBI Agent Peter Strzok was really a sheep dipped CIA Agent.

Part of me wonders why smart people in our Nation’s Capitol won’t just let this go away quietly, which would be good for the Republic and good for the individuals.

Then I think about the monumental egos involved and I see how they can’t let go.  This ego problem is setting a bad precedent for the lesser politicians to follow.  We would all be better off to just let this mess drop and all shake hands and smile.  My limited experience tells me that proving you were right, especially when you weren’t, usually ends poorly.

What is really surprising is that we are so willing to jettison the history of our nation, an action that will leave us devoid of a basis for who we are, but we hang on to these recent bitter feuds, which fail to inform us as to who we should be.

Regards  —  Cliff

Housing the Poor

For John, BLUF:  Public Housing is a big deal in the United States and represent the efforts of progressive thinkers to provide better housing for the poor.  However there is a question of if the cure is worse than the disease.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Poor Side of Town: And Why We Need It
Author:  Howard A. Husock
Kindle Version:  Pages
Publisher:  Encounter Books
Language:  English
ASIN:  B08SKK7FGP
Publication Date:  21 September 2021

The theme of this book is that Public Housing, as understood in the united States from the 19th Century is not just a failure, but destructive of the individuals caught up in its web.  The author compares Public Housing with the City Slums it was supposed to clean up and concludes that more was lost than gained.

To be clear, those advocating Public Housing down over the decades had the best of intentions.  What they lacked was an understandihg of, and faith in, the working of small scale democracy and capitalism.  An Economist who undertands this is Peru's Hernando De Soto, who wrote about Peru (but could apply what he says to the Great Migration in the united States):

...“surprise revolution”—the movement of millions from the countryside to cities—has been choked in its potential for uplift, not because slum dwellers lack talent or energy but because the legal systems in their new locales don’t allow them to be secure in ownership and accumulate wealth.  New arrivals in slums, de Soto explains, face “an impenetrable wall” of rules that bar them from “legally established social and economic activities.”  Even when they begin to accumulate assets, those assets aren’t safe.  “Poor people save, but they hold these resources in defective forms:  houses built on land whose ownership rights are not adequately recorded and unincorporated businesses with undefined liability.  Without the formal legal institutions that allow one to accumulate wealth and borrow against it to build businesses, wealth cannot be put to full use, maintains de Soto.  It stays locked up, frozen.  It is 'dead capital.'”

Immigrants to the United States from Europe moved into slums and then worked their way into the middle class.  The slums, as inadequate as they were, provided commmunity and a place for small businesses and the chance to accumulate wealth.  This, in turn, allowed those immigrants to move into the Great American Middle Class.

The author mentions Levittown as an example of inexpensive housing providing a chance for people with jobs to move up to home ownership.  In 1955 my Parents moved to Levittown, PA, and it was exactly as the book states.  A mix of people, working to be neighbors and to improve themselves.  A year later, as an Eighth Grader I was angry that we were leaving for Southern California and a promotion for my Father.  But, that starter house, owned for about ten months, was the beginning of family wealth accumulation that, upon the passing of my Father, allowed me to use my one-third inheritance to pay off my own mortgage.

Where this did not work was for Black Americans who were part of the Great Migration.  The Great Migration was from 1910 to 1970.  People left the South, the Old South, and moved North.  But, they didn't get the chance to grow into home owners and independent business people.  Instead, the Do Gooders wished to enure runnning water and adequate toilet facilities, and adequate housing.  Thus the projects.

However, the Publilc Housing Projects did not allow for the accummulation of wealth.  In fact, in many cases rents were tied to inconme.  Further, the arrangements dicouraged co-habitation.  This worked against the building of family units, with its direct effect on child rearing.♠  It also worked against providing living space for family memembers or for renting out a room, which would allow the building of capital.

The author writes:

“Missing middle” housing—privately built and unsubsidized—should be seen as a substitute for the reform projects that have distorted housing markets, skewed the incentives of lower-income families, denied the poor the opportunity to accumulate assets, and leveled historic and vibrant poor sides of town, leaving sterility and despair behind.

One wonders if this analysis can be extended to the homeless problem.  Granted, homelessness is a cover term for a number of issues.  That said, is our approach to homelessness (not connected to mental health or domestic violence) not helping the homeless become productive members of society?

But, beyond Public Housing there is the issue of Zoning in helping or hurting the poor to achieve home ownership.  Zoning is not so much a Federal issue as it is a Local Government issue.  That level of government is thee and me and our influence on our local lawmakers and those they appoint to Boards and Commissions.  That means we need to be informed and we need to vote.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  There seems to be a certain bias against the baby father in these setups.  He was seen as not necessary by the reformers.

Morale

For John, BLUF:  Town employees want to think their civic leaders have their back, are there to support them as they do their job.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Out Of All Patience

From The Chicago Boyz, by Sgt. Mom, 25 July 2022.

Here is the lede plus one:

I read the various news and commentary about the regular police force; five full-time officers and a chief strong, and a couple of other city employees resigning in a body from their jobs in Kenly, North Carolina, in protest over the hostile work atmosphere generated through a new city manager hire.  Details on this are all obscure about the personalities and specific incidences of workplace hostility involved.  One can sort of fill in the empty spaces, just applying what can be deduced from the personal details and past employment record of the city manager involved, and suppositions regarding the civic employees who have resigned.  That and reading the comments appended to the news stories about this interesting happening from those who seem to be familiar. All the parties involved seem to be tight-lipped about what set the whole thing off.  The town council was supposed to have held a closed-door meeting on Friday to resolve the situation, but there has not been anything new in the news media that I can find.

I did not grow up in a small town like Kenly, but in a suburb on the distant outskirts of Los Angeles, a suburb so remote from the urban core when I grew up there, that it might just as well have been a small town.  There was only one high school – a largish one, as semi-urban/suburban consolidated high schools go – but otherwise a semi-isolated, tight, and cohesive community, a community only cracked, dispersed and amalgamated to the larger urban core when the 210 Highway went through, making the place an easy commute to the larger city.  I have since made a study of small towns, doing books about them, visiting such towns regularly, participating in regular celebrations (mostly book-oriented), absorbing local history, gaining a sense of places where everyone knows each other, or is related, even at one or two removes.  Look – these places are tightly-woven with personal and familial ties.  Screw around with them at your peril, as all those folk tales about the country folk and the city slicker will attest.

We need more information on what has been happening in the town of Kenly, North Carolina.  However, the signs point to a leadership problem within Town Government.  It could just be a case of racial prejudice, but I am doubtful.  It could be the introduction of CRT into the workplace.

It could be like Minneapolis School System, which has agreed with the Union to lay off Caucasian teachers first, violating both the Constitution and Title VII.  At best, this is disrespectful to a portion of the employees, both by the Union and by the School System.

Regards  —  Cliff

Loss of Objectivity

For John, BLUF:  I am disappoointed in The New Yorker in its selection of "experts" to interview.  Apparently Diogenes was not available.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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What the F.B.I.’s Raid of Mar-a-Lago Could Mean for Trump

Here is the sub-headline:

A former federal prosecutor and general counsel for the F.B.I. explains the process and implications of obtaining a search warrant on the home of a former President.

From The New Yorker, by Staff Writer Isaac Chotiner, 9 August 2022.

Here is the lede plus one:

On Monday, F.B.I. agents searched the Florida home of former President Donald Trump, possibly commencing a new phase in the legal scrutiny that he has faced since leaving office.  According to the Times, the search concerned classified material that Trump removed from the White House and took to Mar-a-Lago.  What remains unclear is whether they found any information related to attempts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential election.

To understand what the search might signal, I spoke by phone with Andrew Weissmann, a former federal prosecutor and F.B.I. general counsel who worked on the Mueller investigation.  He is currently in private practice and a professor at N.Y.U. School of Law.  During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed why Merrick Garland was almost certainly involved in the decision to order the search, what criteria the government uses for asking a judge for a warrant, and the quickening pace of the Department of Justice’s January 6th investigation.

I got to then mention of Mr Andrew Weissmann and stopped reading.  This is a fox guarding the hen house issue for me.  The article is totally discredited.

As for the raid, it was about the Dirty Dossier and Bureaucratic self-protection.

Where is Émile Zola when we neen him?

Regards  —  Cliff

Tulsi in for Tucker

For John, BLUF:  Remember, how during the 2020 campaign Candidate Joe Biden was going to bring us all together?  What happened?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Lefty Twitter Goes Delightfully Ballistic Over Tulsi Gabbard Filling In For Tucker Carlson

Here is the sub-headline:

From , by Scott Morefield, 13 August 2022, 2:30 PM.

Here is the lede plus one:

Amazing crossovers may be common occurrences in the Marvel universe, but they don't happen much anymore in media, where political differences often prove too entrenched even for civil discussions between a guest and a show host of different persuasions on hot-button issues.

But Fox News bucked the trend Friday night in a spectacular way. If you tuned in to "Tucker Carlson Tonight" knowing that host Tucker Carlson was out this week but expecting another Fox News-employed guest host like the always great Will Cain or even Brian Kilmeade, you would have been surprised to see none other than former Democratic Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard sitting in for Tucker.

Meanwhile, the Sunday edition of The Boston Globe has a letter with this concluding line:

While multiple factors have led to our dangerous polarization, it is right-wing media and Republican leaders who bear responsibility for sowing mistrust of science, pushing conspiracy theories, and egging on our current political and cultural divides.

So, to at least some of the Progressivews, Fox News reaching out to a Democrat is wrong, while to others the Republicans are not willing to reach out.  From my perspective the problem is on the Progressive side.  I remember in 2016 being told I didn't have anything to say until I denounced Candidate Donald Trump.  This does not engender dialogue.

We, as Americans, need to get back to what we have in common.  We have a system of give and take and need to work together to keep it, acknowledging that ech side needs to feel there are rewards as well as costs.

And, we need to work at being polite to each other.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Your Hurt vs My Republic

For John, BLUF:  What appears to be a Democratic Party sense of hurt feelings with regard to Donald Trump is playing out in DoJ investigations, actions that threaten the sense of one Republic amongst the politicians.  The sense that things are basically fair and one should wait for the next election.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The FBI And DOJ Criminalizing Opposition To The Regime Is How The Republic Ends

Here is the sub-headline:

A two-tier justice system is not a justice system. It is a totalitarian system.  Its purpose is not justice but population control.

From The Federalist, by Ms Joy Pullmann, 8 August 2022.

Here is the lede plus four:

On Thursday, Barack Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder decided it was the time to bring the subtext of the Jan. 6 show trials and related domestic security state activities into the open.

“My guess is that by the end of this process, you’re going to see indictments involving high-level people in the White House, you’re going to see indictments against people outside the White House who were advising them with regard to the attempt to steal the election, and I think ultimately you’re probably going to see the president, former president of the United States indicted as well,” Holder told SiriusXM host Joe Madison.

Holder noted that the U.S. Department of Justice he formerly headed is working with the illegally constituted Jan. 6 Commission towards this goal. We know these entities are also working with the FBI, whose head bit his thumb at congressional oversight repeatedly in a public hearing last week.

i believe Attorney General Eric Holder was, to me, the biggest disappointment of the Obama Administration.  He declared we needed a conversation on race and then failed to lead that conversation.

But, on to the longer term implications of the actions of the Department of Justice and the FBI:

An indictment of former President Donald Trump would be a breathtakingly authoritarian turn. It would amount to the U.S. security state refusing to accept “no” from America’s voters yet again. An indictment would be an unelected and unaccountable federal agency overruling voters’ two-time rejection of impeachment through their elected representatives.

This is the core danger of the administrative state:  Its now open propensity to go rogue. It is apparently hellbent now on turning the United States into a banana republic.

If President Trump turned out to be a modern day Aaron Burr (Former Vice President), then judicial action would be appropriate.  I am doubtful such is the case.  And, in the case of Aaron Burr, to the frustration of President Jefferson, there was no conviction.

I would hate to lose our Republic over the pique of certain Democrat office holders.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Energy Set Us Free

For John, BLUF:  The author's point is that the ability to extract energy, and the ability to use that energy to do work, were important to transforming the world economies from being based on slavery and serfdom to being based on the efforts of free men and women.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Samizdata quote of the day

From Samizdata, by Mr Johnathan Pearce (London), 7 August 2022.

Here is the lede plus one:

“When did you hear any public figure extol cheap energy as an agent of poverty alleviation? When did you hear any historian describe how coal, and later oil, liberated the mass of humanity from back-breaking drudgery and led to the elimination of slavery?  For 10,000 years, the primary source of energy was human muscle-power, and emperors on every continent found ways to harness and exploit their fellows.  But why bother with slaves when you can use a barrel of sticky black stuff to do the work of a hundred men – and without needing to be fed or housed?  The reason no one says these things (other than Matt Ridley) is to be blunt, that it is unfashionable. The high-status view is that we are brutalising Gaia, that politicians are in hock to Big Oil, and that we all ought to learn to get by with less – a view that is especially easy to take if you spend the lockdown being paid to stay in your garden, and have no desire to go back to commuting.”

– Dan Hannan

I remember reading TS Ashton’s book on the Industrial Revolution many years ago as an undergraduate, and it was emphatic that no serious civilisation lifts out of poverty without an Industrial Revolution.  Even Karl Marx, wrong as he was on so much around economics, gave grudging respect to the IR in his Communist Manifesto.  (Old Soviet propaganda posters would show pictures of rosy-cheeked workers in front of factories belching out smoke.)

Are we charging toward a major effort to limit energy use?  Are we charging toward a world where the production of food is limited?  Are our betters moving us toward a global planet popultion of 3 Billion people, vice the current 7.9 Billion?

As to that last point, one can read about it at A Planet of 3 Billion:  Mapping Humanity's Long History of Ecological Destruction and Finding Our Way to a Resilient Future | A Global Citizen's Guide to Saving the Planet, by Author Dr Chris Tucker.  I don't agree with Dr Tucker and we have exchanged friendly EMails.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Crushing Freedom

For John, BLUF:  This is an article about big government squashing thew initiative and well being of the little guy.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Biden's Department of Labor threatens to end me

Here is the sub-headline:

No, not me personally, but it's hard not to take it personally none the less

From Tilting At Windmills, by Freelance Writer Tom Knighton, 9 Aug 2022.

Here is the lede plus two:

OK, so the title has a smidge of hyperbole. They’re not targeting me directly or personally, at least so far as I know, but it seems the Department of Labor is looking at a rule that will directly screw me and hundreds of other people who are critical of the Biden administration over.

Which is why this one isn’t a premium post like they usually are on Tuesdays.

You see, I need people to see this, to know about it, because the Department of Labor looked at California’s AB5—a law that created all kinds of problems—and thought it was a good idea for the rest of the nation.

For those not familiar with California's AB-5, it is legislation that sharply restricts the number of people who classify themselves as independent contractors.  Examples include Uber Drivers, and free lance writers, like Mr Tom Knighton.  The way you are directly impacted is in the supply chain, where independent truckers used to clear the shipping containers out of Terminal Island so the goods imported could be moved to where they are needed.  Independent Truck Drivers have been key to making that work.  No more.  Those truck drivers now need to be employees of companies, with the associated benefits, which will increase our prices at the store.

This is an effort too suppress the inginuity and economic freedom of American residents.  This will not help struggling people, but it will harm the US Economy, both directly by restricting independent contractors and indirectly by squashing ingenuity.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Judging Talent

For John, BLUF:  How do we, in this age of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, pick for talent to do a job?  In New York City the Mayor is asking for photos of job applicants to ensure Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Merit system is unjust because it rewards productive individuals, professors argue

This item is from eleven months ago, but nothing suggests things are better.

From Campus Reform, by Kate Anderson, 8 September 2021, 11:07 AM.

Here is the lede plus three:

Professors at top American universities are criticizing the merit system in academia, arguing the concept is a 'barrier' to realizing DEI outcomes.

'Campus Reform' spoke with one professor who criticized merit pay for its effect on the 'gender gap in bonus pay.

Professors from the University of Arizona and the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs are arguing that "success and merit" are "barriers" to the equity agenda.

“Admitting that the normative definitions of success and merit are in and of themselves barriers to achieving the goals of justice, diversity, equity and inclusion is necessary but not sufficient to create change,” professors Beth Mitchneck and Jessi L. Smith recently wrote for Inside Higher Education.'

My question is, how do we wring progress from a system that does not reward excellence?  Would a system that accepted mediocracy have given us the Salk Polio Vaccine or Neil Armstrong on the Moon??  Would we today have Facebookr iPhones?

The companion question has to do with our form of government.  If our form of government is based on Western European (British) ideas of merit and hard work and majority rule, and is thus anathema, what is an acceptable replacement?  Is it the Chinese Social Credit System?♠  Perhaps it is the strong man system of an Idi Amin?  This is not a question we should stumble into blindly.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  The Wikipedia writeup seems to be downplaying the undesirable aspects of the system, perhaps to placate the Chinese Government.