3.6.22: How Far Is The West Willing To Go?

The question now is how far is the NATO alliance, the United States, Europe and the world willing to go to stop Putin's aggression in Ukraine. Mr. Putin has stated that the sanctions levied against his country are the equivalent of a declaration of war. 

Of the 4 main requests made by Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, two involve sanctioning and inflicting more pain on the Russian economy. These should be done as quickly as possible, embargoing Russian energy exports and withdraw their favored-nation trade status. Call the bluff and continue highlighting big asset seizures of Russian oligarchs. 

However, as Secretary of State Anthony Blinken explained, and confirmed later by The New Yorker's Robin Wright, a ban on Russian oil in the United States would strictly be symbolic if we do not do it in coordination with allies.

Call the bluff because as fmr. Allied CDR of NATO, James Stavridis explained, NATO outspends Russia 15-1 on its military. Putin knows too well that combined economic and military conflict with the west is a serious loser.

It's progress that the Poles will supply fighter jets to the Ukraines, but the import opf anti-aircraft munitions to the Ukrainians needs to be stepped up, and yes, the United States should backstop both efforts. In terms of a no-fly zone, frankly, does NATO, more specifically Western Europe have the stomach for the implications of what that would mean? As Secretary Blinken succinctly desribed, if NATO imposes a no-fly zone and a Russian Miig flies through it, then NATO would shoot it down, with the implications that the war would immediately expand across the continent.  Putin said the sanctions are a declaration of war.

Senator Joe Manchin disagreed that taking a no-fly zone off the table is a mistake, but to our point above, for now it should be because saber-rattling on this point only prompts action not well thought out. The saber-rattling, mind you, wouldn't come from Senator Manchin but potentially other irresponsible persons such as say... hmmmm... Lindsey Graham, maybe.

As for fmr. UN Secretary Nikki Haley saying that this would have never happened if the former president were in office, one would be inclined to call BS on that simply because it still would have happened but the Trump Administration would have not had the unified response we're seeing now. When Chuck Todd rattled off a list of items that Mr. Trump 'tried' to do to appease Putin, Ms. Haley's reply was that those we're the things he only 'tried,' to do, but not what he did. What?

Right, what did do, which was exhort President Zelenskyy for a political favor in exchange for supplying military assistance. As Fiona Hill explained, he did this at a critical juncture in the conflict in eastern Ukraine and it sent a signal of weakness in saying that Ukraine's defense didn't matter. 

Ms. Haley also suggested that we shouldn't engage with China diplomatically at all on Russia, which is also a mistake. This is exactly the time to use our soft power to weaken any support China has for Russia, and it sends a clear message that the United States isn't looking the other way.

So Ms. Haley... please. Take all that someplace else.

One last note with regard to the State of Union speech. Mr. Todd asked Princeton Professor Eddie Glaude, Jr. about the speech and the fact that President Biden stressed the point of freedom in Ukraine but didn't directly address defending democracy at home. Mr. Glaude said that he was shocked that Mr. Biden didn't bring it up and thought it a mistake.

While we agree with Mr. Glaude's sentiment, we disagree that it was a mistake because that it wouldn't have fit with what Joe Biden was trying to do with the speech which was to bring people together. Secondly, Mr. Biden in his speech while speaking about Ukraine referred the hall of the Capitol so the implied meaning of how Mr. Biden was speaking about Ukraine, listeners understood that he was referencing democracy at home as well. This implied meaning was not lost on the American people, and Mr. Biden did well in trying not to deliberately alienate Americans on the other side of the political spectrum. 

Panel: Robin Wright, The New Yorker; Hallie Jackson, NBC News; Eddie Glaude, Jr., Princeton University; Steven Hayes, The Dispatch

2.27.22: There's No Going Back from Democracy for Ukrainians

Should the U.S. and Europe have done more to help Ukraine defend themselves before the Putin Regime unlawfully invaded this sovereign country? The answer is, of course, but even amongst Ukrainians along with the rest of the world, it seemed unfathomable that Putin would actually go through with it. One day you're a computer programmer and the next you have a Kalishnikov in your hand is pretty incredible to even get your head around. Even for Putin.

The Russian leader has indeed been on his heels, surprised the unified response of NATO, pressure at the United Nations with 88 countries standing in solidarity against Russian action as the UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield described, and most importantly and not least of which is the resistence of the Ukrainian Army and its civilians. For twenty years, Ukrainians have decided they want democracy for their country and in the end no matter when that comes, they're not going back.

The unfortunate reality of now is that despite the announcement of Russian and Ukrainian delegations meeting tomorrow, those talks which Mr. Todd mislabeled as peace talks, will go no where. Putin, because of his isolation that fmr. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul described, has to go all-in at this point and send troops in for street-to-street fighting in urban centers. Anything less than the goal of folding Ukraine back into a 'soviet' empire is a failure for Putin.

There was debate on sanctions between all the guests feature on the program today, but they've seemed to all miss the point, which is that it's the threat of sanctions to deter malign action. Now, bring on the full sanctions for what they're designed to do, which is punish the Putin regime. As a side note: there has been a lot of talk about SWIFT and kicking Russian banks out of it. SWIFT is a European banking system that allow major banks to communicate and manage transactions worldwide. So kicking out Russian banks from this system along with U.S. banks freezing Russian assets and you're pretty much out of the international banking system.

In the last panel segment, the conversation became a bit testy discussing some in the Republican party being apologists for Putin, such as the fmr. president and notably fmr. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who has presidential aspirations. The American Enterprise Institute's Danielle Pletka felt that she was being ganged up on in her defense of Pompeo's comments, in which he said that he had a lot of respect for Vladimir Putin the very day before the invasion. Ms. Pletka said that his comments shouldn't be taken serious because she knows that Mr. Pompeo doesn't really believe that. She dismissed Andrea Mitchell's rebuttal that Mr. Pompeo's comments are being played on Russian state television and that's dangerous, which it is. Also, Ms. Pletka said she needed to be heard because she was the only Republican on the panel, which again Ms. Mitchell answered that she was neither Republican or Democrat, but a journalism. Ms. Pletka once again poo-poo'ed. 

The problem is Mr. Pompeo has made these statements several times and his words matter. So not to pile on her, but Ms. Pletka once again needs to take the shoe that was once up her butt about being ganged up on and remove it from her mouth. Frankly, there is no space in this column for Putin apologists neither the defense of them.

Just to give you some context on this, some in the news media (or whatever) ask why shouldn't we see Putin's point of view that he doesn't want NATO on his border. Just call bullshit on that. NATO was already on his border - Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia... and Poland (Kalingrad is a carve out part of Russia). This column has many friends in Poland who we communicate with frequently and without going into too much depth, Poles are worried. If Putin succeeds in Ukraine, what makes them think they're not Putin's next direct target for cyber and all the rest?

The isolation of Putin has only begun.

****

On another note, President couldn't have made a better choice for his Supreme Court nomination in Judge Kentanji Brown-Jackson. Already on the DC Circuit Court, once a public defender, impeccable credentials, endorsement from the Fraternal Order of Police, not a legislator from the bench. And yes, an African-American woman, which plays into this column's theory that it will be black women who come over time to save our nation domestically. Just another thought.

Panel: Kristen Welker, NBC News; Andrea Mitchell, NBC News; Danielle Pletka, American Enterprise Institute; Jeremy Bash, fmr. Pentagon Chief of Staff

2.20.22: Playing a Bad Hand from a Bad Deal in a Dangerous Game/ Democrats-Take a lesson from SF's Mayor

It's still difficult to imagine that the world is potentionally going to see the largest land war in Europe since WWII, but here we are on the brink of such an event in 2022. NATO and western allies in Europe have gotten it right in releasing intelligence about the Putin Regime's false flag operations, propaganda videos and other means to create the pretext for an invasion. In an age that illustrates that data and information are a weapon, the way to fight it is with more information from other counter sources. As Secretary of State Anthony Blinken accurately noted, every piece of intelligence that the Biden Administration has released, Putin has followed through on.

There's the notion that Mr. Putin is not a rational actor and that perhaps the isolation of the pandemic some how made him irrational that isn't the case at all. Without trying to get into the man's head, perhaps the isolation of the pandemic put in perspective from his point of view the growing isolation of Russia as countries like Ukraine, once under the thumb of Russia, are looking westward aspriring to become more democratic. Speculation on his lucidity also stemmed from his demand that NATO return to its pre-1997 borders, rolling back NATO membership for 14 countries, including Poland and Czech Republic and Hungary - members in that year. Not. Going. To. Happen. However, use the tactic of asking from the most outlandish concession and anything that follows from it could be a success. Unless...

Unless you use force to try and achieve your goals. As fmr. ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor said, Putin is running out of time to reinstate what he rightly believes is Russian sphere of influence over fmr. Soviet Republics. A 'legacy event' is what NBC's Courtney Kube astutely called it and as we wrote in a previous column, upsetting the world order in the way Russia is threatening could open a Pandora's Box of our countries taking the same initiatives. 

The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan explained that the west has played a bad hand as well as it can be played right now, but it should be clear that the west was dealt this hand by Putin and the dangerous game he is playing. As Mr. Todd touched the consequences of sanctions and support for Ukraine with Secretary Blinken, America will be succeptible to higher energy and gasoline costs as well as cyber attacks on our infrastructure. Make no mistake on the latter, if the United States imposes sanctions on Russia, Putin will give support and sanctuary to cyber-terrorism. In other words, all bets are off.

****

As for this school board brew haha in San Francisco it has to first be said that Mayor London Breed has our vote. She explained the recalled school board members put political agendas over the imperative issues facing San Francico's schools. To this end, Mayor Breed explained that she is going to appoint people who are not using the school board as a political stepping stone and that those individuals are qualified and motivated to improve conditions.

To the mayor's credit, she has also been vocal about San Francisco's District Attorney for not prosecuting (what we'll call here) quality of life crimes such as shoplifting and petty theft. She plainly spoke in a press conference that the district attorney's office need to be "less tolerant of the bullshit that is destroying our city."

The panel tossed around the idea that this school board recall could be a harbinger for backlash against progressives and Democrats. If that is the case then Democrats should take a lesson from Mayor London Breed. I think we can all acknowledge that stupid political agendas abound on the farther left and the farther right alike. Democrats should turn this around and say that given that, we're choosing competency and citizens' best interests over extreme political ideology like Republicans. Use it as a positive... Just a thought.

Panel: Ashley Parker, The Washington Post; Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal, Courtney Kube, NBC News; Yamiche Alcindor, PBS Newshour

2.6.22: In The Near Term And The Long Term, Time Is Not On Putin's Side

(Sorry about missing last week, back with a vengeance.)

Despite what Vladimir Putin says about security concerns, Russia in no victim in this diplomatic standoff with NATO when you have over 100,000 troops amassed on the Ukrainian border, on two fronts - the Russian and Belarusian borders. 

Putin's main gripe is that under no circumstances should Ukraine ever join NATO, and NATO's response is that they are not going to negotiate their open-door policy of countries wanting to join. (Wanting it and actually getting in are two completely different things.) The open-door policy is meant a right to a nation maintain its sovereignty and freedom for self-determination. 

The reality is that Ukraine could be twenty years off from even being considered for NATO and by that time, they may not even want to be a member. Finland which shares a very long border with Russia and it is not a NATO member, nor is Sweden for that matter. So it's not only that, it's deeper and you have to take Putin at his word when he spouts rhetoric about Ukraine belonging to Russia. 

But why now?

Putin wants to reconstitute some semblance of the former Soviet Union and that can not be done without Ukraine, it's the keystone. At this moment, the conditions are right for an invasion - it's winter so the ground is hard for tanks and historically as Chuck Todd noted, Putin invades when his country or China is hosting the Olympics (Beijing in 2008; Sochii in 2014) because it's when the world's attention is diverted and since it's an instance where countries should put aside their differences in observance, that's the best moment to go on the offense (think The Tet Offensive in Vietnam). 

But also time is running out on Putin's delusion of having Ukraine back into a 'Soviet' fold. Putin has made it so that he'll be in office until 2036, fourteen years from now. If Russia invades Ukraine, you can bet that at least 10 of years are going to be very bloody. 

The advance of the largest ground force gathered and readied since WWII would not only be rebuke of the world order since that time, you'll see other areas in Europe and the near east also possibly erupt in conflict - renewed fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan and Serbian nationalist in Bosnia. 

And, of course, a blatant disregard for a nation's sovereignty will embolden other countries to do the same, not the least of which China. Why else would President Xi stand by Putin and give his support on Ukraine. As National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said about the 5,000-word joint statement, Ukraine was not mentioned. 

However, one could conclude that part of the non-written agreement was if Putin wanted to advance into Ukraine, it would have to wait until after the Olympics in Beijing, but that only gives Putin about 3 weeks of hard winter on which to capitalize. As worth noting from Mr. Sullivan was that China will undoubtedly take a hit economically with the planned sanctions, which may be all right in the short term, but China's economy at this moment is fragile, which is real estate industry in utter turmoil. 

It is a thin red line.

Speaking of thin lines, Marc Short walked one in his interview today, namely when asked if Joe Biden was legitimately elected president, the ever-loyal former VP Chief of Staff said that Joe Biden is the "duly-elected president." But never once after Mr. Todd took different tacts, Mr. Short never once said the word legitimate in the context of the conversation.

Mr. Short did put himself on the right side of history by cooperating with the January 6th Committee and siding with his former boss that the vice president does not have the right to decertify state election results. His argument that the committee is not bipartisan doesn't hold water even if you don't agree the Speaker Pelosi's right to veto the minorities choices, especially since one of those choices was Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) who is actually a person of interest in the investigation.  And that bit about being proud to serve in the Trump Administration with negligible results is a historical stain that doesn't wash out. 

And for the record, we have to include the clip of fmr. Vice President Mike Pence at the Federalist Society rebuking his old boss.

 

Panel: Jeh Johnson, fmr. Secretary of Homeland Security; Amy Walter, The Cook Political Report; Matthew Continetti, American Enterprise Institute; Helene Cooper, The New York Times

1.23.22: In Terms of Shellacking, It's Still Premature for the Heavy Varnish

Representative Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) had it exactly right when she explained that families in her district, and this translates throughout the county writ large, are concerned about inflation and keeping their kids in school and the cost of healthcare, specifically on the point of prescription drug prices. She also said that the administration and Democrats should focus on a few things and do those few things well. Under promise and over deliver, she said, which is something that we all strive for in our jobs. However, that doesn't work if you're a politician these days. Your entire existence revolves around over-promising and under-delivering.  

President Biden has an overall approval of 43 percent, in which 'dismal' would be an understatement and 72 percent feel that the country is on the wrong track after his first year in office. Mr. Biden campaigned on bringing the country together and that simply hasn't panned out. The problem has been two pronged with Democrats trying to do too much at once and Republicans obstructing on any all legislation with the exception of tax cutting. 

Senator Bernie Sanders described it correctly that 5 months of fruitlessly negotiating with two senators in back rooms was a waste of time. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) isn't going to be for any climate legislation (and 'no,' don't give him the pen to write the legislation) and as NBC's Kristen Welker stated, no one knows what Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) is for (and 'no' she shouldn't have been censured). 

Senator Sanders advocated for a strategy, as did Representative Slotkin, of putting smaller bills on the floor for a vote, and in the case of the Senate, it's more of an imperative given the Democrats' slim majority.

With an issue like Medicare being able to negotiate prescription drug prices so that Americans will pay less is a no brainer. Why doesn't it get done? Because it's always included in bigger bills with provisions that have no way of passing, hence sinking the entire bill. 

Smaller wins to achieve incremental change is the course they're suggesting which makes complete sense but this is the United States of Attention Deficit Disorder and if we don't get it when we want there are bound to be some dissatisfied customers.

This brings us back to a bit of the 'why' as it pertains to President Biden's approval ratings. Chuck Todd explained that it was a coalition that elected Joe Biden and not the push from a large, passionate base. In electing Biden, it speaks to Americans' practical nature of government covering the basics moving the country forward. But in catering to and governing a coalition, it's inevitable that there will be over-promising and under-delivering because there are too many fragmented interests to placate everyone.

Politics is the art of compromise, but if politicians compromise one agenda for another in a coalition it will leave many dispirited and unenthused, which is what we're seeing now. "Shellacking" territory is where Mr. Todd put it in his mid-term tracking meter. We'll just say this to that, before everyone gets out their 5-gallon cans of varnish, there's a lot that can happen between now and November.

****

As we stated last week, you want to see Democrats and Republicans united? If Russia incurs into, invades, strikes, attacks or vacations in Ukraine, it will cut to the quick and you'll see a unified response. And make no mistake Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was correct in saying that it will have larger implications for world order. If the Putin Regime is allowed to invade Ukraine without repercussions, what's to stop China from doing the same to Taiwan? The secretary was also correct that what ever Putin's intention, diplomacy has to be completely exhausted in a way to find a way to avoid bloodshed.

It seems unthinkable the prospect of a land war in Europe in the year 2022. Then again, an archduke was assassinated and Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, from there...

Will it come to that? We certainly hope not and that hope lies within the fact that the fortunes of all countries are too intertwined that the ripple effect would be too great. That said, our eyes are wide open.

Panel: Symone Sanders, fmr. VP Chief of Staff; Kristen Welker, NBC News; Peter Baker, The New York Times; Carlos Carbello, fmr. Republican Congressman

1.16.22: It's A Slog And We're In The Mud

We'll get to Russia later in the column, but first much has been said today about President Biden's sagging poll numbers, a stalled agenda and his promise to govern with unity and not division. In this case, we have to take the last one first. To govern with unity, it takes two sides to cooperate and negotiate in good faith. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) has proven to be one Republican seeking bipartisanship. However, that can not be said for the rest of his Republican colleagues writ large. 

As Chuck Todd pointed out, there are 147 Republicans in the House who are on record saying that Joe Biden isn't the duly-elected president, hence making bipartisanship a complete nonstarter. Speaking about the group of 12 moderate Republicans in the Senate, Mr. Romney said that the president made no attempt of outreach on voting rights. Clearly a mistake as the administration should have made the attempt even if they were only to get the support of half of that group. It would have demonstrated the action of bipartisan outreach and then the onus would have been on Republicans. 

The problem is the Administration and Democrats are preoccupied, justifiably, with their two conservative senators who, let's face it, are singularly responsible for stalled agenda and hence the president's sagging poll numbers. Also responsible for his crappy approval rating is the wet blanket that is the covid pandemic. This week there are complaints about testing... we don't have enough... no one can buy them, etc. 

However, let's do a little math. The United States has a population of 330 million and 63 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, which is approximately 210 million people, leaving 110 million people unvaccinated. The politicization and misinformation of the vaccine is not something that any one person alone can fix. No, not even "Mr. I-alone-can-fix-it."

Also, what is all too obvious is the different standard by which we're holding Joe Biden compared to his predecessor. We complain that Mr. Biden did consult with Republicans, as Mitt Romney stated. But when did Mr. Biden's predecessor ever reach out to Democrats for bipartisan legislation? 

When asked about the January 6th commission, Mr. Romney explained that it was uncovering information that wasn't previously known and that it is an important and legitimate effort. However, the vast majority of Republicans in congress deny its importance or worse, that the horrors of that day didn't happen. 

So we ask, how do we get unity from that?

And on voting rights, we happen to agree wholeheartedly with Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) that a vote should be held and that the American people should see where people stand on this fundamental issue. We want to know! And to Mr. Todd's point that it could point out further divisions in the Democratic party, one could argue that the divisions will only get worse if there isn't the disinfectant of a vote.

As Mr. Clyburn said, "we have to press on." As per James Carville, "we have to 'soldier on.'" It's a slog and in we're in the mud.

And then there's Russia...

It was good that NBC's Andrea Mitchell set the record straight explaining that contrary to what Mr. Romney said, the Biden Administration has done a very good job in coordinating with NATO and its European allies. The current intelligence is that the Russians are planning a false flag operation with Russian troops dressed as saboteurs attacking other Russian troops to create the context for an invasion of Ukraine.

Cynically, and Russians can probably appreciate this, if Putin invades Ukraine it will refocus U.S. foreign policy to be hardline with the Putin regime, which will get bipartisan support. In other words, if Russia wants to stem the divisions in U.S. politics, invade. 

It's not a matter of if Russia will take action, only a matter of when.

Panel: Andrea Mitchell, NBC News; Amna Nawaz, NPR; Eugene Robinson, The Washington Post; Matthew Continetti, American Enterprise Institute

One more thing...

Senator Krysten Sinema (D-AZ) is emblematic of many of us Americans today in that she lacks grace and respect for others

1.9.22: Supply Chain of Confusion

 After this week's "Meet The Press," we couldn't stop thinking that we're in the midst of a supply chain of confusion. 

From the CDC's messaging problems to Chicago teachers walking out of schools to whether voting rights are important to how we govern ourselves to Republicans denying the actual events of January 6th to our general distrust of each other.

It's almost too much to swallow and as Democratic strategist Cornell Belcher mentioned, covid is like a wet blanket over the country making it difficult to move forward.

Specifically, when it comes to covid, and it should be caveated - if you care, the focus should be on hospitalizations and deaths as Dr. Celine Gounder explained but to mitigate those two factors, more Americans need to be vaccinated. And therein lies the rub as 70 percent of hospitalizations and deaths are among the unvaccinated. To go from the pandemic state to an endemic stage, Pennsylvania University's Ezekiel Emanuel explained that the only way to get there is with vaccine mandates that President Biden has put in place. However, the conservative Supreme Court seems to be poised to strike down those mandates. A decision striking down vaccine mandates will only serve to hamper progress for the public's general health, no two ways about it. We're not looking it as a political decision on the part of the court, but what is a political decision is what the Florida Surgeon General announced this week, which is that the DeSantis administration is rolling back testing, which puts people's lives in danger because it renders individual's to know the state of their own health.

The other wet blanket, if you will, is January 6th and the actions surrounding it. There is a fever that will not break as long as Republican leaders do not interdict and be truthful to their constituents as Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-OH) explained. There was a moment on January 7th, 2021 when congress came together to condemn what happened, however, as Mr. Kinzinger noted, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) went down to Mar-a-Lago two weeks after that to meet with the former president and in that instance, he brought back the former president to legitimacy within the party. The Republican party is left in a state of confusion with some totally on board with the big crime, some who know it's a big crime but won't say anyting and then there are the few who are standing up against the former president's wanton authoritarianism. 

Hence, the Democratic party is confused on how to approach Republicans because their actions in state legislatures is curtailing voting rights and Republican representatives refusing to even acknowledge that Joe Biden is president. Compounding Democrat's confusion is that the fact that they worked to get the majority only to see it thrown into turmoil by Democratic senators from West Virginia and Arizona respectively. 

And what doesn't make sense to us is that fact that State Senates can pass laws with a simply majority, but the U.S. Senate can not, blocking the majority of laws the majority wants.

Panel: Anna Palmer, Punchbowl News; Sara Fagen, Politic Director for the Bush Administration, Cornell Belcher, Democratic Strategist, Peter Alexander, NBC News

A little something to put a point on it:

1.2.22: Let's Stop Pulling Punches, The 'Big Lie' is the 'Big Crime'

With the one-year anniversary of the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol coming this week, this edition of "Meet The Press" focused on what we know and what can expect moving forward from the select committee.

As we know, the attempt to block the certification of electoral votes was not just what happened on the 6th but all the days from November 4th to that date. That includes the former president's phone to Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, where he asked the GA official to find 11,780 votes. That includes the 187 minutes on the 6th where the former president did nothing while there was an attack on the American people, as committee chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) described. 

There's no pulling punches here, the 'Big Lie' as it's called, is actually the 'Big Crime.' Donald Trump committed crimes against the Constitution of the United States. Period. Hard Stop. We know enough to factual conclude that that is the case. If one doesn't see that objectively then he or she is choosing to ignore these crimes.

As Chairman Thompson explained about the riot itself was that it was both spontaneous and in some instances coordinated. And yes, members of Congress were in the know about what the former president's lawyers and operatives [read: Michael Flynn and Steve Bannon] were doing to subvert the will of the American people. 

In fact, as far as the former president is concerned, these crimes were set in motion before election day with the former president's statements that if he didn't win, the election must have been rigged. It's time to stop taking democracy for granted, look at these actions objectively, and understand who was responsible. 

Most chilling, Barton Gellman of The Atlantic and former State Dept. Russia expert Fiona Hill described how the former president's Big Crime is still continuing with the help of what Ms. Hill called a 'compliant legislature.' Mr. Gellman explained that there has been an uprooting of the obstacles that would have keep the intergrity of the vote in place. In Republican controlled state legislatures over 400 new voting laws have passed that either make it more difficult to vote or change who is in charge of the certifying the votes, and in most cases both.

Yes, we are at a tipping point here is the United States. We can only hope that the January 6th Select Committee can provide clarity that cuts through the noise on what fully happened and who was responsible, lest we'll all fall down.

Panel: Jonah Goldberg, The Dispatch; Yamiche Alcindor, PBS; Garrett Haake, NBC News; Brandy Zadrozny, NBC News

Happy New Year, btw!

12.26.21: The Education of a Young Nation

First, we hope that all are having a safe, happy and healthy holiday season, this day after Christmas, Boxing Day for some. 

Today's program was a "Meet The Press" special edition focusing on schools in America, education and race, which of course included the 'controversial' critical race theory.(CRT). Our honest first reaction to all this 'controversy' about critical race theory is that it's a cynical, political red herring meant to further divide American communities. 

As Columbia University professor Jelani Cobb explained, critical race theory is not taught in high schools. Hard stop.

But what critical race theory is being used for rhetorically is the supression of teaching high school students about slavery and its influence on our society, despite the better, more open understanding we have of it on a societal level.

In the report by NBC's Antonia Hilton, the firing of principal Dr. James Whitfield from Colleyville Heritage High School in Fort Worth is the direct product of this cynical effort, and an all white school board unanimously voting him out confirmed its effectiveness, giving license, but not cover, for veiled bigotry. The residual effect is the ridiculousness you heard from a school board member in Colorado explaining to teachers that if you present the evils of the Holocaust you should also present an opposing view. Really? This does not provide for the argument that parents should final say on what professional educators should be teaching in schools. Should parents be able to see the circulae outlined for their children, of course, and raise concerns.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, author of the 1619 project, correctly explained that CRT and her journalism have been weaponized. With regard to Ms. Hannah-Jones's work, as a journalist she asked important questions that reveled uncomfortable answers. She explained that the 1619 Project starts with when the year the first slaves were brought to Virginia and putting slavery and its effect at the center of the American story. Should this be the sole basis of teaching American history? Of course not. It would be incomplete just as eliminating the teaching of slavery and racism in our history would also leave it incomplete.

But make no mistake, to teach American history is to teach the truimphs, the defeats, the struggles, the decents, the advocates, the freedom, the slavery, the racism, the equality warts and all. However, here would be our caveat, context. Understanding that the founders knew they were imperfect and that in our short history, no other country has accomplished what we have. No doubt that it has been difficult, tragically so many times, but the progress that we've made in living as a multi-cultural society is not happening in any other place on earth to the degree of this young nation.

One more thing... In the midst of the hour's discussion about education and race in America, Mr. Todd showed statistics about teacher and education professional shortages. The losing of educational professionals in high schools writ large is being exaserbated by unreasonable attacks by parents, but it's really because teaching as a profession is stretched to the limit in most of the country. There is a distinct shortage of male teachers in the schools. Teachers aren't only educators, but also counselors, life coaches and part-time parents in some cases with their students. And what are they paid? In most cases throughout the country, not enough to make this profession your only job. Most teachers supplement their income with part-time work and buy a lot of their own school supplies. We could be wrong, but that might have something to do with it.