#578 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Wednesday February 8)
Good morning,
A few random observations today:
I’ll have more to say in coming days regarding President Biden’s State of the Union address last night. In the meantime, I note two things. The first is that this is one of Joe’s best speeches, as he summarized a pretty remarkable first two years and a blueprint for the next two. The second is that the interruptions from the floor have gotten distracting and disrespectful. Watching Marjorie Taylor Greene and her friends yelling “LIAR!” repeatedly during the President’s speech was appalling. Even if one disagrees, this is the moment for the president to express his position and programs. The Republicans have their turn after the speech. Show a little respect, if not for the president, then for the presidency.
I saw a panel on a Sunday morning that was comprised of three men and no women. It looked odd. Two thoughts on this: First, it now seems startling to see women not included, and that’s a good thing. Second, it is one of the few times I’ve seen only men on a panel, seemingly acknowledging that sometimes the best panelists on any given day might be male, and that’s OK too.
Every week, a police officer is killed on the job. Does it mean the job is dangerous? Sure. Does it explain the multiple incidents of police corruption, brutality and murder? Of course not.
We had one of the best jobs reports ever last month. 500,000 jobs were added and we stand at the startlingly low rate of only 3.4% unemployment.
Bill Maher noted a Trump insult of another politician, calling him a “RINO globalist.” Maher says we need to go to our English to Republican dictionary for translation. RINO means “not crazy enough” and globalist means “Jew.” That last bit sadly is too close to reality, when certain words are code for something insidious. Trump is sending a message to the far-right extremists. We have been trained, through repeated references, that when we hear the word “globalist” to see “George Soros” and, by extension, “Jewish industrialist/investor.” Antisemitism is alive and well.
The Republicans are aghast at the idea of raising the debt ceiling. Ironically, they voted repeatedly to increase the ceiling under the profligate Trump years. The last time they “got religion” on slowing down the national debt was when they last held the American economy hostage—back when Barak Obama was President. They were quick to raise the ceiling in order to fund the deficit occasioned by the large tax cuts during Donald Trump’s presidency. Our national debt increased by nearly 50% in the Trump years.
Under Trump, the annual budget deficit each year (from the $665B in Obama’s last year). The annual budget deficit has been reduced, by the way, has declined in Biden’s first two years.
I believe we have had institutionalized racism, both knowing and as the result of a system that disadvantages certain groups. Efforts to reduce these effects are important and will result in a kinder, fairer nation. That said, I don’t adhere to a fundamental precept of anti-racism, suggesting that any disproportionate result by definition means that the system that gave rise to the disproportional representation must be racist. Sometimes results are disproportionate. Today, Asians are disproportionately represented at many University of California campuses—because they had excelled in school and standardized tests. We cannot abandon the concept that merit matters and hard work is rewarded.
A way of measuring the health of the office real estate sector historically has been the vacancy rate. Eventually, people realized that the “real” measure of vacancy should include space on the market for sublease. Now there is an even more accurate barometer is “office utilization.” Basically, this is how much office space is actually regularly used and occupied. This percentage has been hovering in the 30-40% range. It now has reached 50% but the fact remains that office users are not using the space that they have been renting. We will find that most businesses will be shrinking their footprint when their leases are up for renewal. The economic devastation in the U.S. office sector has only just begun.
The AMA is now recommending that sex no longer be disclosed on birth certificates. While we can all be sensitive to, and supportive of, those who choose different gender identification as adults, it hardly seems legitimate to abandon biology at birth. That said, this metric hardly seems necessary to include on a birth certificate.
When we talk about diversity and inclusion, do we even think of Jews or Asians? We need to be reminded that, regardless of perceived success of any group, there is prejudice—sometimes expressed violently—against all minority groups in this country.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Finally, the words of Abraham Lincoln:
You can “…repeal all past history, but you still cannot repeal human nature.”
And John Lennon:
“You say you'll change the constitution
Well, you know
We'd all love to change your head
You tell me it's the institution
Well, you know
You better free your mind instead
But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao
You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow”
The era of “reeducation” we are in, the limitation of books we can read, the calling out of every seeming offense and demanding firings of academics seems eerily similar to the Cultural Revolution of Mao. We should be wary.
Have a good day,
Glenn
From the archives: