I wrote about Paul Ryan retiring back in April, when he announced he would not be running for reelection to the House of Representatives. With Speaker Ryan’s term ending January 2, let me add a few final thoughts.
If you want to know why Paul Ryan is leaving, I would refer you to two things. First, a column by Megan McArdle at the end of November:
“‘It’s such a depressing time for people like you and me,’ said my dinner companion on Thursday. I raised a querying eyebrow.
‘We’re policy people,’ he explained. ‘And policy is dead.’
Charlie Brown: "Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?"
Linus: "Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is all about. Lights, please?
"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them. And they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, good will toward men.’
"That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”
---------- PS: "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is also to be treasured because it is one of the few places today where you can hear the story of our Savior's birth in the King James Version, which has a magnificence to its language that is timeless.
President Donald Trump has moved up Defense Secretary James Mattis’s termination date from February 28 to January 1. In other words, he fired a man who has already quit. And President Trump did it in his own, very classy and dignified, way.1
President Trump concluded his tweet about Secretary Mattis with a response to the Secretary’s comment, in his resignation statement, on the importance of our allies: “Allies are very important – but not when they take advantage of U.S.”
While President Trump’s phrasing was more crass than the way most people would probably say it, the fact is isolationism is a legitimate approach to U.S. foreign policy. I think it is wrong, and it is not an approach that has had as much support since World War II as it did before. But staying out of the world’s problems is something America did for a long time. It was, for example, why we stayed out of both World War I and World War II for over two years.
Today is the 50th wedding anniversary of Julie and David Eisenhower. The grandson of a President marrying the daughter of a President (President-elect, at that point). They were married on December 22, 1968, at Marble Collegiate Church in New York City, the Rev. Norman Vincent Peale presiding. The Richard Nixon Foundation has a special on-line exhibit on the courtship and wedding of Julie and David Eisenhower here.
Donald Trump has unilaterally, and apparently without consultation with our local allies, decided to pull all of our forces out of Syria, where they were helping local Kurdish forces fight ISIS. And to do so almost immediately. We are doing this, President Trump says, because ISIS has been defeated in Syria, but then people say lots of things
There are also reports that President Trump has decided to cut our presence in Afghanistan by up to half and, once again, to do so quickly. This will take a little longer because Afghanistan is a NATO fight and we have to do some consultation with our NATO allies before pulling our troops out – unlike Syria where we can leave our Kurdish allies high and dry and tough luck on them.
I have pretty much stopped commenting on Donald Trump’s foreign policy mess-ups for a couple of reasons. One, it was becoming a full-time job and there are other things to do in life. Two, I wasn’t sure complaining about yet another mess-up was really adding anything to the point that President Trump doesn’t know what he is doing. But President Trump has perhaps topped himself last week, so let me comment one more time.
On December 1, Canada, acting on a U.S. extradition warrant, arrested Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei corporation (and daughter of the company’s founder, Ren Zhengfei), on charges that she had lied to banks about Huawei’s ownership of a Hong Kong company that violated U.S. sanctions on Iran by selling U.S. technology to Iran. To say the least, China was upset. They demanded Ms. Meng’s release, claiming it was a political act, and in retaliation detained two Canadians on bogus charges.
I would say probably not – unless the Cubs make it to the World Series in 2019. I say “make” it to the World Series because winning the National League pennant is probably enough to get Maddon re-hired, unless the Cubs lose the World Series because Maddon has another Aroldis Chapman-like brain cramp. (Note I should have said “because Maddon has what some people see as another Aroldis Chapman-like brain cramp” because I think Joe Maddon made the right moves in Game 7 {see here}. Game 6 is another question.)
Consider what has happened since the end of the 2018 season:
I think I can say, without needing to provide a link, that the consensus among Democratic (and many Republican) politicians, most scientists, and the almost all of the media is that Donald Trump’s views, and the views and policies of his Administration, on climate change are beyond being just wrong. They are almost maliciously wrong. The facts are clear, the consequences are grave, and we need to start doing something now.
One question, though. Even if the facts are clear and the consequences grave, what do you do if the voters won’t approve “what needs to be done”? While the protests of the gilets jaunes, or yellow vests, in France seem to have morphed into all-around protests against French President Emmanuel Macron, it is important to remember the issue that ignited them: an increase in fuel taxes that was part of France’s plan to reduce its carbon emissions.
“You wouldn’t always know it, but it [oil production] went up every year I was president. … [S]uddenly America’s like the biggest oil producer and the biggest gas [producer] — that was me, people."
Two comments. First, separate from whether it’s true (it’s not, see below), could you imagine George H.W. Bush ever bragging about himself like this? I can’t either.
“If enough politicians and others in the public sphere would take a lesson from the former president’s honorable conduct, Americans would have more respect for their governments – and for each other.”
While I agree that our politicians should take a decency lesson from George H.W. Bush, it would be even better if all of us took a lesson from former President Bush. If we would act honorably. If we would have more respect for those who disagree with us. If we would post on social media, only things that we are willing to say to somebody in person.
If we want our politicians to be more decent and more honorable (which is something to keep in mind when we go to the polls), the first thing we need is to be more decent and more honorable ourselves.
Recent Comments