The same misguided thinking that is destroying the City of Baltimore appears to be at play in the current Iran Nuclear negotiations.  You might think this quite a leap, but consider the very short term focus by those in charge against a certain long term loss. The same thinking that leads to the decision not to arrest lawbreaking young people because they’re young and disadvantaged and having only a limited pause (at best ten years) to a Iranian Atomic Bomb because the alternative is military action ensures longer term problems. Why would you show restraint to  lawbreakers when the result will in much dimmer future for the whole community?  By the same token, why would you forgo military action if the result is a future military situation is one of numerous Mideast nuclear powers possibly run by fanatics are at each others and our throats?  Just as enforcing the law on the first rioters increases faith that the community will be protected so people can continue to invest in it,  refusing to allow a rogue state to destabilize the Mideast might allow the area to sort itself out and ultimately progress to the benefit of its people while eliminating a great danger to humanity. Continue reading →

Could there be a greater waste of money than having a military or law enforcement and refusing to use them.  The lawlessness in Baltimore is a case in point.  Looting and attacks on police were allowed to proceed without much opposition on the mistaken idea that we have to let people let off steam before it escalates even further.  How many times does this thinking have to backfire before we wake up and remember why we have law enforcement to maintain public order?  Unless especially built as a political capitols such as Washington D.C. or Brasília, cities and towns exist to serve an economic purpose.  This means you have to try to maintain your current businesses while attracting new ones to replace those that are lost or your town will die. This takes money and money goes where it is treated well.  If you let people steal from your business community without consequence or worse letting them loot and then burn down a business, you’re not treating money with respect.  Why would any person invest in expansion or start a new business under those conditions?  More likely, if you own a business there you’d be looking to relocate where you’re treated better.  Where these riots have taken place, they either slow to or never recover.  Baltimore has been in decline ever since the MLK assassination riots.  Knowing this history, how could a civic leader not protect their city’s lifeblood?  Yet Baltimore Mayor Stephanie  Rawlings-Blake appears to have given stand down orders to the police in the face of rioting, looting and destruction.  She claims to have taken numerous economic courses but seems to be unaware of the enormous harm this would do to the very people she claims to help.  Makes you wonder what they are teaching at her Alma Mater Oberlin these days. Continue reading →

Hillary Clinton is under fire over a book about the Clinton Foundation donors and the Clintons speaking fees that hasn’t even come out yet.  The author appears to be right of center and we see unfavorable things about the Clintons all the time.  What’s different in this case is the play the book’s allegations are getting in the liberal press.  The New York Times and the Washington Post among others have run highly damaging pieces on the money trail covered by the book and posing difficult questions for her campaign.  These outlets would normally ignore or underplay a “conservative” authored book damaging to Democratic Party icons.  What gives?  Just good and fair journalism?  Maybe, but what if this is part of a well thought out plan.  We can almost see eyes rolling, another conspiracy theory.  We normally would be right with you, but bear with us.  Something else may be going on here.

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Like most people, we took the News of the Justice Dept. on Ferguson Mo. to have two findings: I. The officer involved in the shooting that originally brought the Justice Dept.(DOJ) to town was totally exonerated and 2. The Town was a cesspool of racism.  We took solace in some justice for the officer even as we realize his life is probably ruined and people in power were shown to be the owrst kind of  raciists.  After all even people on the right expressed their disapproval of the City Government and police Dept.  We probably wouldn’t have ever questioned the second finding if we hadn’t finally read a Washington Post article we had saved,  “The 12 Key Highlights from the DOJ’s Scathing Ferguson Report ” by Mark Berman and Wesley Lowery March 4.  As we read, it became apparent that the key point of the Report,was that even though the Blacks made up only 67% of the town’s population they accounted for 93% of arrests makes an open and shut case of racism.  It’s been a long time since any of us took statistics but the idea that you should always compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges and and you have to account for variables has stuck with us.  The 67.4% figure came from the 2010 census but the crime figures are from 2012-14.  You might think wouldn’t make a big difference but you would be wrong.

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Many stories of great sailing ship battles contain some reference to somebody telling the losing Admiral that the wind has changed but that leader just stuck to his original plan right into disaster.  We don’t know if any of these are true or maybe we read these in C.S. Forester’s Hornblower Series or was it Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series but one can easily see how a wind change might offer opportunity and ignoring it bring disaster.  A great wind change has occurred with the collapse of oil prices, but we may be led by an Admiral who refuses to acknowledge it.  Iran and Cuba suddenly want to sit down and talk.  That’s understandable.  Cuba lost it’s Venezuelan oil sugar daddy while Iran mired in wars in Syria, Yemen and Iraq has lost half of it’s financial resources.  They’re scurrying to get their good deals before everyone realizes the change.  A Nelson would instantly recognize the wind change and tact to cut the enemy’s line and annihilate him. Apparently, we aren’t being lead by a Nelson.  At a time when the sanctions on both that had once pinched now threaten to become disabling injuries, our leader acts if nothing has changed and we are negotiating from weakness.  This is nonsense. Continue reading →