The View from Right Field

That Was the Team That Was: Cubs 2016

It was going to happen someday.  They were going to leave.  Maybe it was better they, or at least the three of them, left together.  They played together.  Maybe it’s right they left together.

This has happened before; I have seen teams leave.  Obviously, the late 60s and early 70s.  But 1977, too.  And ’84 and ’89.  1998.  2003.  It’s sad, but it’s what happens.  You have heroes, and it’s tough when they leave.  But those heroes, especially the real ones, they stay heroes.  Ernie, Ron, Billy, and Fergie.  The Reuschels.  Sut and Ryno.  Mark, Sammy, Woody.  And then the Boys of ’16. 

Teaching American History in an Age of Woke-ism*

The Wall Street Journal recently had a review of a new book about Berlin after World War II – and especially the Airlift.¹  It looks fascinating.  I have read other books about the Airlift and have been to Berlin to see the sights of it – more than once.  It is a great story: How we turned a former enemy into an enduring friend, while defending freedom in the heart of Europe.² 

But I wonder how the Airlift is taught in school today.  Well, it probably isn’t.  But I wonder how it would be taught, if it was.  Would it be taught as a triumph of American policy and determination.  As a success story in the early days of the Cold War.  Something for Americans to be proud of.

The End State in Afghanistan

Lt. General H.R. McMaster (ret.) and Bradley Bowman wrote in today’s Wall Street Journal about “How to Avert Disaster in Afghanistan” (July 27), but I fear it may be too late.  Afghanistan is beginning to look like South Vietnam in 1975.  When the North Vietnamese attacked in 1975, South Vietnam couldn’t defend all of its territory because of U.S. aid cutbacks.  So President Thieu tried to withdraw to what could be defended.  But once the retreat started, it developed a momentum of its own.

This may be occurring in Afghanistan now.  The Taliban probably isn’t as strong as the North Vietnamese, but once people lose faith in their government to protect them, as happened in South Vietnam and appears to be happening in Afghanistan, it is hard to get it back.

I Don’t Like Joe Biden and I’m Wearing a Mask. Here’s Why.

Actually, I’m not going to talk about why I don’t like Joe Biden.  And it’s not that I don’t like President Biden.  He seems like a nice person – unlike his predecessor.  It’s just that I don’t like his policies.  It’s important to note that the fact I don’t like his policies doesn’t mean I liked his predecessor’s policies.  You can dislike the policies of both of them, and I did/do.

What I am going to talk about is why I wear a mask when I go into stores, even though I am fully vaccinated.  Tim Harford explained it well in his column in the FT Weekend yesterday:

The Problem Climate Change Advocates Haven’t Solved

The difficulty in solving climate change can be seen in two articles in Saturday’s FT Weekend.  The first article, on the front page, was headlined “Germany fears climate change caused floods.”¹  I don’t need to say much about that article.  The point is clear from its headline.

The problem we are going to have in addressing climate change is in the second article, on page three: “EU climate policy runs into torrent of criticism.”²  Here are some excerpts from that article:

Dreamers – Again

The legal status of “Dreamers,” i.e., children who illegally entered the United States with their parent(s), generally before June, 2007 (though maybe that date would be pushed back by some), is in the news again.  A federal district court in Texas has held that Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, i.e., Dreamers, program is unlawful and has barred the Biden administration from adding new people to the program.  A good explanation of the decision, by Jonathan Adler, a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, can be found here. 

Several comments¹:

1. Former President Obama tweeted on Saturday that “[i]t’s long past time for Congress to act and give them the protection and certainty they deserve”, which is true.  It is too bad that former President Obama didn’t propose a Dreamers-only law when he was president.  He only wanted to do a comprehensive immigration bill.  After the 2010 election, that was a non-starter, whether for good or ill.  It is possible, however, that a Dreamers-only bill might have gotten enough Republican support to pass.  I don’t know.  But former President Obama didn’t try.  It may have been that there were not enough Democrats willing to pass a Dreamers-only bill.  Maybe there were so many Democrats who wanted a comprehensive immigration bill and were unwilling to break it into parts and vote on the parts individually, that a Dreamers-only wouldn’t have gotten enough Democratic votes to pass, even if some Republicans would have voted for it.  We’ll never know because former President Obama didn’t try.²

2. Also, the Obama administration merely issued an executive order on Dreamers.  It did not pursue t he formal rule-making processes for notice and comment under the Administrative Procedure Act.  I don’t know if that would have made a difference, but they didn’t try, which is unfortunate.  Following the proper procedures and process is always better.

3. If a Dreamers bill passes, it’s got to be the last one.  Ronald Reagan did immigration reform back in the 1980s, which included an amnesty on the basis that we would step up efforts on controlling illegal immigration and that it was a one-time only thing.  If we are going to do it again, and I would happily support a Dreamers-only bill, this has to be the last time – and we have to mean it.

4. Plus, we have to get our immigration system, both legal and illegal, under control.  Things are a disaster now.  I would like to think there are enough people of reasonably good will in Washington to try to do it, but I’m not sure.  It may be that the bases on both sides are so strong, or at least loud, that it is more important to beat the other side than to do something good for the country that might look like a bit of a victory for the other side.
--------
¹ Prior comments on this subject can be found here and here.
² Donald Trump was pretty much incompetent at governing, there is not much to say about his efforts.

Biden Has Defined Success in His Afghan Exit: Nobody Pulled Off an Embassy Roof By Helicopter

When Joe Biden was asked last week if there was any similarity between Kabul today and Saigon in 1975, he said no:

“None whatsoever.  Zero.  What you had is you had entire brigades breaking through the gates of our Embassy.  Six if I’m not mistaken.  The Taliban is not the South, the North Vietnamese army.  They’re not – they’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability.  There’s going to be no circumstance where you’re going to see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy [in Afghanistan].”

He also defended the withdrawal by asking:

Hunter Biden’s Paintings Tell Us How to Handle Disclosure of Contribution

Joe and Hunter Biden may have solved the problem of how we handle disclosure of contributions to political causes.  For Hunter Biden’s paintings, the Bidens are considering a plan whereby the paintings will be sold by a third-party art gallery.  The art gallery won’t tell Hunter or President Biden – or the public – who buys the paintings or even who bids on them.  Therefore, there is no possibility of corruption or improper influence.

Which seems like the solution to contributions to political causes, too.  California wanted to know the names of contributors to charities, including ones that take political positions, so it could ensure nothing untoward happened.  But the U.S. Supreme Court said no because of concerns about confidentiality and retaliation.  The Bidens may have given us the solution.

The Saving Grace of Donald Trump’s Presidency: Incompetence

With Donald Trump back on the campaign trail, now seems like a good time for this post.  For all the complaints about Donald Trump’s lack of competence as president, it was actually his incompetence that was the saving grace of his presidency.  Former President Trump was good at some things.  He knew how to energize those who supported him.  He identified people who had been ignored for years, if not decades, and spoke for them.  His skill at public relations and his ability to play the media in the 2016 campaign was impressive.  He didn’t need to spend as much as his opponents because he knew how to get free publicity from the media.

But, while he knew how to get elected, he didn’t know how to govern.  He was competent at getting elected president.  He was incompetent at being president.

Are Celebrations of America Acceptable These Days?

The Wall Street Journal had an article yesterday by Roger Bennett talking of how he fell in love with America as a teenager in England in the 1980s: Walter Payton, Ferris Buehler, Arby’s, and everything else.  John Ferling wrote of five best books on the American Revolution.  Among them was A Devil of a Whipping, about the Battle of Cowpens, a book I bought when we visited the Cowpens battlefield in 2001.

But, as I read – and enjoyed – the articles, I wondered whether such articles are appropriate among our coastal elites and other woke this year.  Most of what they seem to be talking about is how bad America is.  Slavery was our founding value.  Systemic racism affects all we do.  All the money goes to the rich.  Deeming half of those who supported Donald Trump, which was itself almost half of us, “deplorable” seems low for them today.  With all of that, what is for them to celebrate? 

“Root Causes” Are Easy. Solutions for Today Are Hard,

When Vice President Kamala Harris went to El Paso last week, she talked a lot about the need to address the “root causes” of illegal immigration

“My trip to Guatemala and Mexico was about addressing the root causes.  The stories that I heard and the interactions that we had today reinforce the nature of those root causes: a lack of economic opportunity; very often violence, corruption, and food insecurity; and basic needs not being met, including a fear of cartels and gang violence.”

Which sounds a lot like how Democrats talk about the increase in crime: We have to deal with the “root causes” of the problem.  And it may be that dealing with these root causes, whether of illegal immigration or crime, will address the problem – ten years from now.  But talking about root causes doesn’t tell you what we need to do to address the problem now.  

Biden Got the G7, NATO, and EU to Say What He Wanted. But Will They Follow Through?

With Joe Biden back from his “If it’s Tuesday, it must be NATO” tour of Europe, the question is: What did it accomplish?  President Biden told the G7: “America is back at the table.  America is back leading the world.”¹  The communiques and statements issued by the G7, NATO, and the meeting with the EU were reasonably strong.  They mentioned China, human rights, Russia, etc.  The NATO statement said that China posed “systemic challenges” to the rules-based international order.²  According to President Biden. while the G7 didn’t mention China in 2019, this year they did, “explicitly agree[ing] to call out human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.”  On Russia, the NATO statement said that in appropriate cases, co-ordinate cyber attacks could be a justification to invoke the collective defense provisions of Article 5 of the NATO agreement.³

The question is what countries will do now that the meetings are over and they are back to day-to-day considerations of politics and national interest.

Tony Campana, Thanks.

Tony Campana announced on Saturday that he was retiring from professional baseball with a classy announcement.  (Here.)  Tony played parts of two years with the Cubs, in 2011 and 2012, playing 184 games.  Tony got his only major league home run with the Cubs, which I think was smash down the third base line that bounced away from the left fielder while Tony rounded the bases.

But the thing I remember the most about Tony was the Cubs Convention in either 2012 or 2013.  When they introduced the players on Friday night, Tony got the most applause of any of the current players.  Because we liked him.  I recall reading afterwards that Theo Epstein was surprised because Tony wasn’t our best player.  But Theo shouldn’t have been surprised, and maybe he learned a little about Cubs fans from that.  Because we not only like the stars; we like the guys who try, and who give it their all, even if they don’t have the most talent. 

Tony was one of those players.  And anybody who saw him play will be glad they did.  I know I am.

Covid-19, Vaccines, and Systemic Racism

An article in The Washington Post notes the difficulty Washington, D.C., is having in getting younger Blacks vaccinated.  According to the article, young Blacks worry about side effects from the vaccine.  Also, some “are wary of the medical establishment" or don’t think they will get a severe case.

In addition, according to Ankoor Shah, the head of the city’s vaccine program:

“The solution is not only some program or initiative.  I think these are systematic and systemic and historical, structural problems that have happened for hundreds of years.  Institutional and structural racism that’s embedded through all parts of our society is making itself known.”

If that’s true, then it’s hopeless.  It’s already too late for this pandemic and maybe the next one, too.  I don’t know what the solution is.

The “Why Should Anybody Trust Us” Version of Leaving Afghanistan

As we leave Afghanistan, the question (or at least one of the questions) is what about the people who we are leaving behind.  Maine Senator Angus King (I, but really D), among others, is worried we aren’t going to be getting our Afghan translators and interpreters out with us.¹  These people helped us.  They worked with us.  They took a big risk in doing so, because the Taliban, who are not nice people, will come after them if they can.  They already have in some cases.  When we leave, they’ll do it more.

We promised these people we would get them to the United States, but guess what, it’s not going to happen.  Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told CNN:

“We’re determined to make good on our obligation to those who helped us, who put their lives on the line, put their families’ lives on the line working with our military, working with our diplomats”

Why Are Our Taxes So Messed Up? My Guess Is Spelled C-O-N-G-R-E-S-S

My previous post was about the amount of taxes rich people pay.  Based on leaks of confidential tax info (so much for secrecy of tax returns), the ProPublica website disclosed the absolutely shocking information (shocking to people who don’t pay attention) that rich people don’t pay any more taxes than the law requires.  And if the law lets them take deductions, claim credits, etc., they do it and, thereby, pay less taxes.  ProPublica was shocked.  I’m not.  I think it says more about the tax code – and the people who pass it – than it does about the amount of taxes people pay.

Which brings me to an example of the simplicity and ease¹ of our tax code: the deductions and credits for families and child care.  Before 2021, there were two basic credits: (i) a refundable tax credit of $2,000 for each child, which began to phase out when modified adjusted gross income exceeded $400,000 for a married couple; and (ii) a refundable child care credit of $3,000 per child, up to a maximum of $6,000 for two or more children, with a phaseout beginning at $125,000 for a married couple.

Are You Surprised Rich People Try to Pay as Little Tax as Possible?

The media has reported the shocking news that: (i) if you’re not vaccinated, you’re more likely to get Covid-19 than if you are vaccinated: and (ii) rich people don’t pay more taxes that they have to under the law.  Let me address the second.¹

The ProPublica website has published information about how much taxes people like Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, Warren Buffet,² etc., pay, information they got from IRS data that was leaked to them.  According to ProPublica, the information included more than fifteen years of tax data on thousands of people.  ProPublica says that it does not know where the information came from or who sent it to them, but they published it anyway.  Even though this information is supposed to be confidential and secret, not that many people seem upset about the disclosure.  The information is too much fun to care about confidentiality

What About That Covid-19 Lab Leak Theory?

Nothing has been proven yet with respect to the origins of Covid-19.  The theory that Covid-19 might have leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China, is only one possibility.  Much more research and investigation need to be done.  We don’t know yet.

Except, we do know.  We know that, instead of the lab leak theory being so absolutely false that Facebook wouldn’t even let it be mentioned and would take down posts that talked about it, it’s now a possibility.¹  It’s definitely not for sure.  But it is, apparently, something that could have happened.  Which means we know what we need to do.

“One Little, Two Little, Three Little Babies.” China Changes Its Policy Again.

Six years after abandoning its one-child policy for a two-child policy, China has now gone to a three-child policy.  The one-child policy, which began to be strictly enforced in 1980, was put in place to limit population growth in the world’s most populous country.  The problem was that it worked too well, and in 2015 China went to a two-child policy because its population was aging and its workforce was shrinking.

But the birth rate hasn’t rebounded.  Economic growth around the world has reduced the number of babies that women have, and China has been no exception.  As its middle class has grown, its birth rate has fallen.

We Defended Berlin. Will We Help Defend Taiwan?

Several years ago, we were on a tour of Morocco.  One of the couples in our group was of Chinese ancestry.  The wife said she had been born in Taiwan and had come to the United States when she was young.  I asked the husband when he had come to the United States.  I was embarrassed when he said that he had been born in the United States and that his ancestors had come to the United States in the 1800s, to help build the transcontinental railroad.  In other words, his ancestors may have come to the United States before mine.

One of the other people in the group asked them if they thought China, i.e., the People’s Republic of China, would invade Taiwan.  The wife said Beijing could take Taiwan anytime it wanted to.  The husband, however, who was a retired major general in the Army, merely mentioned the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 and did not say much else.