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MAY 24,  2022

THE TRAGEDY –– OVERNIGHT:  I have little to add to the coverage of the school shooting in Texas, which left 21 dead.  The media will go through the usual, required reactions and expressions of grief.  We will hear the ritualistic calls for gun control.  And in a week the story will fade.  We'll then wait for the next disaster. 

I have only three questions:

1) Isn't it time to demand that government agencies bow to common sense and harden every school in America?  Armed guards if necessary.  Buzzer systems that are commonly used to protect banks and jewelry stores.  Volunteer parents acting as lookouts at all entrances to the school.  Trained and armed teachers, where parents approve.  And a widespread recognition that the only thing that will work will be a safety protocol that prevents a shooter from getting into the school in the first place.  And an accompanying recognition that prevention, not weeping after the fact, is the first obligation of government.  These steps may not suit the ideological left, but when has the left ever cared about children?  These actions work.  They work every day in the protection of institutions from assault. 

2) Who are the "mental health professionals" who make so many comments after these events, and presumably spend their time evaluating dangerous kids?  Are they actually qualified?  What are their track records?  Time after time we learn that a shooter had been through a psychiatric evaluation and had been cleared.  Why?  What are the standards? 

We are a diploma-crazy nation.  Someone hangs his diploma on a wall, and he's automatically made a junior god.  But I wonder about all the misses by these "professionals."  We should accept no authority to guide us who hasn't had real experience, with an excellent record, and we should not be dazzled by that diploma, or the gold thing that hangs from the graduation cap.  If "professionals" had all the answers, we wouldn't need them any longer.

3)  Why can't we use modern tracking techniques to determine that a weapon is approaching a school?  We can track iPhones, even just to find them.  We should be able, electronically, to track guns in the vicinity of schools.  Sure, there may be privacy issues, but these can be overcome by strict protocols.  The police get search warrants.  They can get a warrant to track a suspicious signal.  We have not put our technical skills to work to protect against shooters.

May 24, 2022     Permalink

MAY 23,  2022

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

SIR, PLEASE BE QUIET – The president is speaking again.  That is a matter of regret.  From Fox:    President Biden said that the country is going through an "incredible transition" away from fossil fuels via the high gas prices being experienced nationwide.  Biden made the statement on gas prices during a joint press conference with Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday. "Here’s the situation. And when it comes to the gas prices, we’re going through an incredible transition that is taking place that, God willing, when it’s over, we’ll be stronger and the world will be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels when this is over," Biden said, seeming to justify or praise those sky-high prices Americans face at the pump.
Biden's comments come amid a stretch of record-high gas prices which the American Automobile Association says is "unprecedented."  Is the man serious, or even aware of what he's saying?  We won't have effective green energy for transportation for decades, if ever.  Is the president of the United States saying that we should pay these ridiculous gas prices until that day comes?  He seems to be saying that.  I can't believe what I'm hearing.

May 23, 2022       Permalink

A GRIM TRUMP – OVERNIGHT:  The former president may or may not run again in 2024, but he is increasingly speaking out on the issues, although rarely on foreign policy.  He has just broken that mold by speaking out very firmly, and very grimly, on world affairs.  He's not a happy man.  From the Washington Examiner: 

Former President Donald Trump said he believes the United States is now facing an unprecedented threat of nuclear war.

The explosive observation was made Monday during a phone interview with conservative radio talk show host John Fredericks during a discussion about this year's midterm primary contests, in particular those set to take place Tuesday in Georgia, the 2024 presidential election, and the state of the country under President Joe Biden.

"Our country has probably never been worse than it is right now. I think we’re in the greatest danger ever of a nuclear war," Trump said on Outside the Beltway.

The last time nuclear weapons were used in war was by the U.S. against Japan at the end of World War II. However, there have been periods of significantly heightened tensions between nuclear powers since then, such as the Cuban missile crisis between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in 1962.

At the moment, the U.S. and many other Western nations have rallied behind Ukraine as its forces try to fend off an invasion by Russia, leading to renewed apprehension about nuclear strikes of some variety. For instance, former Joint Chiefs Chairman and retired Adm. Mike Mullen warned over the weekend that the U.S. should prepare for the "possibility" of Russia using a nuclear weapon. There is also the Biden White House having to perform cleanup duty after the sitting president said the U.S. military would defend Taiwan if China invaded.

Fears of nuclear conflict also popped up during the Trump administration. The current chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who also served under Trump, Gen. Mark Milley, warned military leaders that Trump could "go rogue" and took steps to secure the nuclear launch process after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, according to the 2021 book Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa of the Washington Post. While president, Trump also sought to rein in North Korea's nuclear weapons program (after famously warning that threats by the hermit nation would be met with "fire and fury") and pulled the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal.

Trump said Monday that he "never thought" the imminent threat of nuclear war would happen. "We're in the greatest danger of a nuclear war where it’s just a great danger," he reiterated. "We’re not a respected country anymore."

COMMENT:  Well look, it's really hard to assess how accurate Trump's concerns are, but I think he's a man whose wisdom has been underestimated, and somewhat undermined by his personality.  He seems to be speaking about an international mood.  Before Ukraine, few thought we would ever see again a major land war in Europe.  We are seeing it, and it was started by Russia, a major nuclear power.  Once that "no land war" barrier was broken, people began to realize that other horribles could also happen – including nuclear warfare.

Our greatest obligation to ourselves and the world right now is to remain calm, but also to remain strong.  It is weakness that can bring on a miscalculation that could invite the use of nuclear weapons. 

We need far better leadership in this crisis than what we're getting.  Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are part of the reason that Americans are so apprehensive.

May 23, 2022       Permalink