Can A Hack Sportswriter Resuscitate A Failing Newspaper?

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1] 

Some of us grew up in Los Angeles, and became fans of the UCLA football program at an early age.  From the home that my parents built a mile or so west of the university, we could hear the campus chimes when they played.  My friends and I would ride our Schwinn bikes into Westwood on Saturdays to watch movies at the Village or Bruin theaters. 

Years later I became a UCLA graduate; and even later, I had season tickets at the Rose Bowl on the 50 yard line, right below the press box. Growing up, my father had the Los Angeles Times delivered to our home; and the “classified ads” section alone was thicker than the newspapers in most large American cities.

Fast forward to today, and the Times is a mere shadow of its former self. The Chandler family that had owned it are long gone, and each edition is “paper thin.” Newspapers generally are dinosaurs, and became a dying breed when the Internet gained traction. Now one can read newspapers from around the world for free.[2]

With so many sources of news at our fingertips via our smartphones that are mini-computers, one wonders how or why the Times exists today, much less has the money to pay its reporters. For many years, UCLA football was covered by a fine writer, Bill Plaschke, who received national recognition.[3] Today, it is followed by a “Staff Writer” named Ben Bolch, who is crusading to get UCLA’s football coach Chip Kelly fired.

Bolch’s latest ad nauseam attack reads as follows:

Martin Jarmond constantly talks about being elite. The word reflects the ideals of a UCLA athletic department that uses excellence as a baseline for everything it does.

Then there’s what’s happening with Chip Kelly and the football program. Elite never enters the conversation.

Elite is not going 15-25, a .375 winning percentage that is the worst in school history for any coach who did not hold an interim tag.

Elite is not hoping to finish with a record above .500 for the first time in Year Four.

Elite is not keeping a failed defensive coordinator, at $700,000 per year, because of loyalty to a friend.

Elite is not losing three consecutive home games, failing to reward fans who show up before dawn for ESPN’s “College GameDay” because they’re desperate to support a winner.

Elite is not hoping to make the Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl.

Elite is not touting how your team never gives up and intends to correct the same mistakes it makes week after week.

Elite is not talking about having a really good Wednesday when Saturdays are all that matter in college football.

Elite is not Chip Kelly.

Forty games into the most expensive experiment in UCLA football history, the evidence is incontrovertible. Kelly is guilty of fleecing the Bruins for $16.7 million since his arrival. You don’t need a degree from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management to know that this is not an acceptable return on investment.

The Bruins are eating lavishly, they are getting enough sleep and they are staying hydrated. That’s all great and admirable. They are not winning nearly enough games to justify another season of this madness.

UCLA’s 44-24 loss to Utah on Saturday night at Rice-Eccles Stadium was the latest referendum on Kelly’s failures. The Bruins gave up touchdowns on each of the Utes’ first four possessions. They surrendered 290 rushing yards. They were undisciplined, snapping the ball before quarterback Ethan Garbers was ready and failing to even momentarily deter a Utah defender who surged into the backfield to smash Garbers into the turf for a safety.

Given a chance to take sole possession of first place in the Pac-12 South, UCLA (5-4, 3-3 ) instead fell into a tie with USC for third place during a season in which the Trojans are operating with an interim coach.

Kelly was crabbier than usual afterward, refusing to address the one constant stain on his time in Westwood: defensive coordinator Jerry Azzinaro. Kelly deflected a question about how he could justify keeping Azzinaro given the team’s ongoing defensive struggles.

“Yeah, well, I’ll just talk about tonight,” Kelly said. “We didn’t do a good job in the run game. We played — even this year — very well on the defensive side of the ball and I think our defense has improved. Our defense improved last year and when you look at some of the games we did early in the year, I thought we played really well.

“Tonight, we did not play well in the rush category to give up that many yards.”

Kelly was also unnecessarily difficult when addressing the status of injured quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson, saying he wasn’t trying to evade questions while doing exactly that.

Reporter: “How close was Dorian to being able to go?”

Kelly: “He was unavailable.”

Reporter: “When did you find out he was unavailable?”

Kelly: “We talk about all the things and when the doctors and Dorian put their heads together in terms of where we are, made a decision today that he was unavailable.”

Reporter: “Was the decision made earlier today, after warmups?”

Kelly: “Just, we just talk it through as a group and they told me he was unavailable.”

Reporter: “The question is because we saw him warming up.”

Kelly: “You saw him practice this week too.”

Reporter: “Was it after warmups, before the game?

Kelly: “He was unavailable.”

Reporter: “Do you expect him back next game?”

Kelly: “I don’t expect anybody back. I don’t have any answers to the crystal ball, so we will see how the week goes and how our training session goes and then we’ll get ready.”

UCLA’s latest loss likely ended its bid to contend in the Pac-12 South and any hopes of extinguishing a 22-year Rose Bowl drought. It may not matter that the Bruins are about to hit a soft pocket in the schedule with games against Colorado, USC and California given their continued stumbles.

Kelly sounded almost defiant when asked if fighting hard and coming close was enough.

“We still got a lot of football to be played this season,” he said. “But I wouldn’t bet against that group in that room there, that group in that room there’s awesome and I love those kids. So we’ll be right back at it, those guys will get in on Monday for film and lifting, we’ll be back on the field on Wednesday and Friday next week and then get ready to go play our next game.”

Even with Jarmond’s heroic marketing efforts, the Bruins could play before a record-low crowd when they face Colorado at the Rose Bowl on Nov. 13. Karl Dorrell, the Buffaloes’ coach, might leave longtime UCLA fans wistful for the days when he guided the Bruins to a succession of Silicon Valley and Las Vegas bowls.

There will be those who point to Kelly’s $9-million buyout that expires Jan. 15. as a possible saving grace allowing him to finish out the final season of his contract in 2022. No way. If the amount can’t be negotiated to a negligible figure, if not abandoned altogether, Kelly can’t be allowed to further sully a decaying brand.

You want elite? It’s time to look elsewhere.[4]  

I have tried to watch each of Kelly’s post-game interviews online; and it is clear that Bolch has been “gunning” for Kelly, and there is antagonism between them. The other sportswriters who ask questions are respectful, but not Bolch. Presumably he views the article above as his “crowning achievement”: the ultimate “hit piece,” which is intended to get Kelly sacked, and have the University pay him a paltry sum, instead of what is owed under his employment contract. And by writing a flattering article about UCLA’s Athletic Director Martin Jarmond, who was a former basketball player at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, Bolch is trying to achieve his goal of being a “giant killer.”

College and professional sports are brutal in terms of coaches’ longevity; and the fans often release their frustrations accordingly, even in “normal,” pre-Covid times. Ed Orgeron is a perfect example. Having been fired unceremoniously by the Bruins’ crosstown archrival USC, “Coach O”—as the Cajun with a gravely voice is affectionately known—went to LSU where he won a national championship in 2019, and his quarterback Joe Burrow won the Heisman Trophy.

Afterward, and predictably, many of Orgeron’s players left for lucrative deals in the NFL, and his coaches left for other opportunities. Hence, the school’s pathetic Athletic Director Scott Woodward pushed Orgeron out, albeit reaching a deal whereby he would be paid approximately $17 million pursuant to his contract with LSU, and he would coach through the end of this season.

Now the hack Bolch is appealing to Jarmond to fire Kelly and pay him “peanuts” instead of what is owed contractually. At USC, its football coach Clay Helton was fired earlier this season because the school’s alums and fans seek a return to its long-gone glory years, which Orgeron achieved almost overnight at LSU.

Americans have been living through stressful and horrendous times, as the Chinese-launched Coronavirus pandemic has killed or hurt so many: physically, psychologically and economically. Only now are sports fans attending stadium events as they did pre-Covid, with precautions such as masks and social distancing being lifted or ignored inside the stadiums, and proof of vaccinations being honored in the breach.

If the Times had any integrity at all, it would terminate Bolch now. But since it is struggling to survive, a hack like Bolch is retained to fan the flames of controversy, in the hopes of reviving its readership.  Bolch has never accomplished even a tiny fraction of what Chip Kelly has accomplished thus far in his life.  That much is crystal clear and undeniable.[5] And the word “elite” will never appear in a sentence describing Bolch, yet jealousy vis-a-vis Kelly may be eating him alive.

 

 

© 2021, Timothy D. Naegele

_____

 

[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/accomplishments/  He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/ and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams; and he can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com   

[2] See https://thehill.com/homenews/media/545004-la-times-san-diego-union-tribune-lose-north-of-50-million-in-2020-revenue (“LA Times, San Diego Union-Tribune lost ‘north of $50 million’ in 2020 revenue: report”); see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Times (“Los Angeles Times”)

[3] See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Plaschke (“Bill Plaschke”)

[4] See https://www.latimes.com/sports/ucla/story/2021-10-31/commentary-chip-kelly-is-nowhere-close-to-elite-and-ucla-can-do-much-better (“Chip Kelly is nowhere close to elite, and UCLA can do much better”)

[5] See, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_Kelly (“Chip Kelly”)

U.S. Citizen With No Legs, And 30 Million Other Americans: Where’s Our $1,400?

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

In an article entitled “Stimulus checks: Payment blockage resolved for nearly 30 million Social Security recipients,” Denitsa Tsekova has written at Yahoo!Money:

The blockage of nearly 30 million stimulus checks for Social Security and other federal benefits recipients has been resolved after the Social Security Administration sent relevant files to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on Thursday morning, according to the House Ways and Means Committee.

“We are gratified that the SSA leadership finally recognized the urgency of the moment and acted swiftly on our ultimatum,” members of the committee said in a press release on Thursday. “Now the IRS needs to do its job and get these overdue payments out to suffering Americans.”

The delay affects Social Security recipients and other beneficiaries who did not file their 2019 or 2020 taxes or did not use the IRS ‘Non-Filer’ tool for direct payments. The IRS is now working on updating the information for the rest of the eligible federal benefit recipients. The IRS did not respond to a request by Yahoo Money on exact timing of the delayed payments.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-MA) and other Democrats blamed Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, for the delay.

“The delays imposed by Commissioner Saul defied congressional intent and imposed needless anxiety and pain on taxpayers,” the lawmakers said.

A total of 127 million payments worth $325 billion — more than 70% of the $450 billion earmarked for stimulus payments — have been disbursed as part of the first two batches of the latest stimulus direct payments. More batches of payments will be issued in the coming weeks as direct deposits or as mailed checks and prepaid debit cards. The majority of the third round of stimulus checks will be directly deposited in Americans’ bank accounts.

This round is $1,400 per eligible individual plus a $1,400 bonus per dependent. Around 158.5 million households are expected to receive a payment under the new stimulus deal, according to the White House.

Here’s more of what you need to know about the third round of stimulus checks.

Who gets a stimulus check?

Under the latest amended bill, a single filer making up to $75,000 will receive the full payment, while those earning up to $80,000 will get a reduced amount. Joint filers making up to $150,000 will get the full $2,800, while those earning up to $160,000 will receive a smaller amount. Previously, the phase-out thresholds were $100,000 for single filers and $200,000 for joint filers in the House version.

Eligibility will be based on your most recent tax return and your adjusted gross income. For the third round of checks, the IRS will use your 2019 or 2020 tax return to determine if you qualify for the direct payment.

Social Security beneficiaries, Disability Insurance beneficiaries, Supplemental Security Income recipients, Railroad Retirement Board beneficiaries, and Veterans Administration beneficiaries all are eligible for the payment even if they didn’t file a 2019 or 2020 tax return.

Eligible taxpayers who used the IRS Non-Filer tool for the first round of checks will be treated as providing returns and will also receive payments.

Additionally, Americans who qualify for the stimulus payment and have dependents will get an additional $1,400 per dependent. The bonus can be claimed for college students, disabled adults, and other adults who are dependents. Previously, parents or guardians could only claim the bonus for child dependents under 17.

Deceased people may also receive a payment. Checks will go to all eligible taxpayers who were alive as of Jan. 1, 2021.

Who doesn’t get a check?

Those without a Social Security number and nonresident aliens — those who aren’t U.S. citizens or U.S. nationals and don’t have a green card or have not passed the substantial presence test — are not eligible for the direct payment.

Married taxpayers who file jointly where one spouse has a Social Security number and the other doesn’t will get one $1,400 payment, in addition to $1,400 for any child with a Social Security number.

Taxpayers with Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITIN) aren’t eligible for the payments.

How will the government send you the stimulus check?

The IRS will use the direct deposit information you provided from the taxes you’ve filed for 2019 or 2020.

You may be able to use the IRS’ Non-Filers tool to provide your information like the first round. But so far, the IRS has not announced whether that tool will be available if this stimulus bill is passed.

The tool was for eligible U.S. citizens or permanent residents who had gross income below $12,200 ($24,400 for married couples) for 2019 and weren’t required to file a 2019 federal tax return.

If you have no direct deposit information on file or if the account provided is now closed, the IRS will mail you a check or pre-paid debit card instead.

If you received no payment and you think you’re eligible or you got the wrong amount, you’ll be able to claim it on your 2021 tax return.

How can I track my payment?

Americans can now check the status of their third stimulus check using the IRS’s online tracking tool ‘Get My Payment.’

The tool allows Americans to follow the scheduled payment date for either a direct deposit or mailed payment. It’s an online app that works on desktops, phones, and tablets and doesn’t need to be downloaded from an app store. To use the tool, you need to provide basic information:

Social Security number or Individual Tax ID Number (ITIN)

Date of birth

Mailing address

The tracking tool will no longer show the status of the first or second round of stimulus checks — the $1,200 payment under the CARES Act and the $600 payments under the December $900 billion stimulus deal. To find the status of those previous rounds, you must create an account.

If your payment is delivered by direct deposit, the tool will show when the direct deposit is expected to be made or when it was delivered along with the bank account it went into.

If you receive the message “Payment Status Not Available,” the IRS may not have processed your payment yet or you may not be eligible for a payment.

Will I get the dependent bonus for a newborn?

If you had a baby in 2021 and meet the rest of the eligibility criteria, you can claim the additional $1,400 per child when you file your 2021 taxes.

If you had a child in 2020 and your return has been processed, you should automatically get the additional payment. If you haven’t yet filed your 2020 taxes or they haven’t been processed by the IRS by the time the payments are issued, you can claim the dependent bonus on your 2021 taxes

Do you have to pay back the stimulus check?

No, you don’t have to pay it back. It also doesn’t reduce any refund you would otherwise receive.

“No, there is no provision in the law requiring repayment of an Economic Impact Payment,” the IRS website said about the first round of checks.

If your income dropped in 2020 compared with 2019, you may now be eligible for the payment or a bigger payment if you have already filed your taxes and they have been processed by the IRS.

If your payment is too high based on your 2020 income and you still haven’t filed your 2020 taxes, you’re not responsible for paying back the difference.[2]

Despite the assertion made in this informative article, approximately 30 million Americans have not received their $1,400, and the blockage has not been resolved.  Many if not most of these Americans are senior citizens who barely exist on their Social Security retirement and other similar benefits.  They are suffering greatly, with some on the edge of giving up, if not committing suicide.  China’s deadly Coronavirus has devastated their lives: physically, psychologically and economically.[3]  They were hanging by a thread already, and now this.  Many don’t have money for food, shelter, medical care or the like.  Many are living day-by-day, hour-by-hour at best.

A few examples of the comments beneath the Yahoo!Money article tell the tale:

•   “I’m a US natural born citizen receiving the smallest possible amount of Social Security since I lost both legs in 1998.  I got married in 2003 and disability was no longer available to me.  Since becoming separated in September of 2019, do you think that money is available to me, now?  You would think it is.  Nope… and no I never received any stimulus check. Not the first second or third so far” (Jamye)

•  “‘The IRS did not respond to a request by Yahoo Money on exact timing of the delayed payments.’  Why not???? Are they mentally challenged???  In the mean while, the first two checks went out without a problem and ‘they’ obviously had the information needed.  What did they do with that information???  Lose it??  I am angry with this whole system.  Repubs, Dems, it doesn’t matter any more.  I am sick and tired of all of them.  My mere existence is at stake and they are playing games with each other” (chrisw)

•  “First one came relatively fast, the second even faster, but yet here I sit still waiting on 3/25/21 and no clue when.. Tho my landlord is seriously tired of waiting, and I’M HUNGRY..Having a fixed income does have its drawbacks, specially for food costs..” (Nobody)

•  “I remind you that we all could have gotten the 2000 dollars in december but Pelosi blocked it to get more pork in the system. 1.4 trillion extra” (Russell)

•  “If this had happened under Trump, Pelosi would be screaming her head off.” (Retired_LC)

•  “I think 2022 would be a great time to show this administration exactly how SS recipients feel about this obvious slight!!!!” (Hamster Fodder)

With all due respect to those who might blame the Trump administration, the fact is that the legislation was proposed and enacted by the Biden administration and the Democrats, which is where the buck stops.  Having spent most of my professional career working in and with the U.S. Congress, I have seen many administrations come and go, and transitions take place.  Even before presidential elections, staff members of the challenging candidate are assigned to the major federal agencies to coordinate such transitions and make sure they run smoothly.  Certainly after the 2020 elections, this took place; and it surely took place when the Biden administration took office and fashioned the new legislation that included the $1,400 payments.  Thus, there is no excuse for “glitches,” and for the nonpayment of those who arguably need the money most—just to survive.

Some of the readers of this article might argue: “Why is this important or relevant to me?  The $1,400 payments are peanuts, and do not affect me at all.”  The answer is that the Biden administration is fashioning follow-on legislation[4]; and if the $1,400 payments can be denied, or postponed, so can the benefits of their future legislation.

 

PHILADELPHIA – MAY 8: Economic stimulus checks are printed at the Philadelphia Financial Center May 8, 2008 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One hundred and thirty million households are eligible to receive a tax rebate check under the $168 billion economic stimulus plan. (Photo by Jeff Fusco/Getty Images)

 

© 2021, Timothy D. Naegele

_____

 

[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass). He and his firm, Timothy D. Naegele & Associates, specialize in Banking and Financial Institutions Law, Internet Law, Litigation and other matters (see, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-20-6-30). He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University. He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., www.naegele.com/whats_new.html#articles and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/), and can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com

[2]  See https://money.yahoo.com/stimulus-checks-payment-blockage-resolved-for-nearly-30-million-social-security-recipients-183112988.html (“Stimulus checks: Payment blockage resolved for nearly 30 million Social Security recipients”)

[3]  See Timothy D. Naegele, The Coronavirus and Similar Global Issues: How to Address Them, 137 BANKING L. J. 285 (June 2020) (Naegele June 2020) (Timothy D. Naegele) [NOTE: To download The Banking Law Journal article, please click on the link to the left of this note] 

[4]  See https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9411849/Biden-roll-COVID-relief-April-separate-4-trillion-infrastructure-package.html (“Biden will roll out another COVID relief plan in April on top of $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, Jen Psaki reveals”)

Race Relations In America Have Gone Berserk

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

Americans of all colors, ethnic backgrounds and religious preferences owe the present tragic state of affairs to the un-American racist and anti-Semite Barack Obama.  Indeed, If one person could be singled out for having exacerbated race relations in the United States, it is Obama who has torn our great nation asunder.  

He has done far more than any President in our great nation’s history to sow racism, strife and discord.  And he has done this at a time when China’s Coronavirus has killed or hurt so many Americans, physically, psychologically and economically.[2]  Aside from trying the destroy the candidacy and presidency of Donald Trump from Day One—which is treason—Obama has produced a racial divide that may take years if not generations to heal.

Obama should be in prison today, for his many crimes.  Indeed, this was all predictable if Americans had read his book, “Dreams from My Father,” before he was elected to national offices.  It sets out his racism explicitly and in his own words, which have withstood the test of time.[3]

Pat Buchanan—an adviser to Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford, and a former GOP presidential aspirant himself—has written an article entitled “Who and What Killed George Floyd?” as follows:

Friday, as the jury was being empaneled for the trial of fired police officer Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis City Council voted 13-0 to approve a record $27 million civil settlement with the family of George Floyd over his death in police custody.

The jury will not likely miss this message sent by the city fathers:

I.e., an atrocity was perpetrated by our police, and we are admitting our responsibility and doing our duty by offering these reparations for Floyd’s cruel and unjustified death and the suffering visited on his family.

Most Americans who saw the nine-minute tape of Chauvin with his knee on the neck of George Floyd as he pleaded, “I can’t breathe,” will probably concur with the charge of criminal culpability of Chauvin.

Yet, over the months, new facts and factors have emerged.

George Floyd was not choked to death. He was not asphyxiated. He was not killed by Chauvin’s knee on the side of his neck. An autopsy showed Floyd’s neck muscles were not even bruised.

Floyd died when his heart stopped. Yet, he was already suffering from an enlarged heart with constricted arteries, one of five of which was 90% blocked and two others were 75% blocked.

An autopsy found heavy concentrations of fentanyl in Floyd’s system and traces of methamphetamines. If Floyd had collapsed and died in the street while being wrested into the squad car, his death would have been attributed to a drug overdose and a bad heart.

Also, a videotape of the minutes prior to Floyd’s being put on the pavement, his neck under Chauvin’s knee, shows Floyd crying, repeatedly, “I can’t breathe,” while resisting the two rookie cops trying to put him in the patrol car.

Moreover, there is testimony from those with Floyd when he was stopped for passing an allegedly phony $20 bill, that he had passed out in the car before the cops arrived. And the arresting cops claim he was foaming at the mouth before being restrained.

In short, Chauvin’s defense attorneys will likely make a credible case, backed by evidence, that Floyd’s death was not caused by the knee on his neck but by the battered condition of his heart, the near-lethal dose of fentanyl in his system, and his anxiety and panic at being arrested and fearing, as he wailed, that he was going to be shot.

The prosecution will counter-claim that Chauvin’s knee on Floyd’s neck, and the two other cops sitting on him, precipitated the stopping of his heart.

But the prosecution faces other questions.

How could Chauvin, who arrived late to the scene, know Floyd was a drug addict with a serious heart condition and a large amount of fentanyl in his system, before using the restraint technique of sitting on him and putting a knee on the side of his neck?

What was Chauvin trying to do when he arrived to see two rookie cops trying to cope with a powerfully built, six-foot-four-inch, 220-pound man violently resisting arrest?

Did Chauvin put his knee on Floyd’s neck to kill him? To torture or injure him? Or did he use the technique to restrain him?

Prosecutors will contend that the knee on the neck was criminal assault, a felony that caused Floyd to black out and his heart to stop?

But that raises another question:

Is placing a knee on the side of the neck an outlawed or a prohibited procedure for police to use to restrain a suspect violently resisting arrest, as a chokehold is in some precincts?

Or is it a procedure some police use legally at times?

Chauvin was clearly familiar with the technique. Had he used it before without injury to a suspect?

In a motion to dismiss the charges he himself faces in the death of Floyd, former police officer Thomas Lane included 30 pages of Minneapolis PD training materials including information on the “maximal restraint technique.” Lane included a photo of an officer with a knee on a suspect’s neck, similar to the hold used by Chauvin.

In preparing for the trial of Chauvin, Minneapolis has fortified, with concrete barriers, fences and razor wire, the courthouse where it will be held. Understandably, for any acquittal of Chauvin, or conviction on a lesser charge than murder, could trigger a riot like those that plagued the city through the summer of 2020.

And if a mob does take to the streets in Minneapolis, as it did all last summer, the national reaction will be telling.

How does one accurately describe a crowd that gathers outside a courthouse to demand, on the threat of a riot, a verdict of guilty?

And should a riot occur — and violent protests in Louisville, Seattle and Portland over the weekend seem to point to another such long hot summer — may we expect our new national leaders (Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer) to denounce the mob and stand up unequivocally for the rule of law?[4]

The thugs, slugs, hoods and mongrels of “Black Lives Matter,” Antifa and other far-Left groups have burned our cities; killed or hurt innocent Americans including our police; and destroyed black and other businesses.  Instead of being coddled or embraced by Joe Biden and his Democrats, they should be put down like rabid animals.

America’s blacks constitute less than 14 percent of our population.[5]  Yet, turn on TV any given day, and one might think that they are the dominant group in our population. This overcompensation permeates and distorts our society; and it is creating anger and revulsion among non-blacks.  Rather than improving race relations, it is exacerbating them.

Preferences have been given in academics, which the voters of far-Left California have rejected.[6]  On men’s professional football and basketball teams, there are very few white players.  When the football players take a knee as our flag is saluted and/or our national anthem is played, more and more of white America tunes out and refuses to watch. And when this occurs, they are branded as racists by the Democrats and the Left.

But it must never be forgotten that the Democrats gave us slavery, and perpetuated it after our Civil War with the KKK, segregation and later Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” programs that destroyed black families and consigned them to economic servitude.  Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans ended slavery.

Many on America’s Left do not want inclusion or equality; they want racial preferences, which would distort the United States forever.  Of course the idea of reparations is patently absurd, but it has become the mantra for many on the Left.  Like Barack Obama, they hate America and believe its history is fundamentally flawed and racist.

Unlike the first black to serve in the U.S. Senate after Reconstruction, Edward W. Brooke—who came from a loving family, and served as an Army officer during World War II—Obama came from a broken family.  He was raised in Hawaii and Indonesia, and never lived on the American mainland until he attended Occidental College in Los Angeles.  And on some level, he hates the United States, its history and its values.[7]

Lastly, as I have stated previously:

I believe in this country, and I believe in Americans of all colors, faiths and backgrounds. The United States is the only true melting pot in the world, with its populace representing a United Nations of the world’s peoples. Yes, we fight and we even discriminate, but when times are tough—like after 9/11—we come together as one nation, which makes this country so great and special. Also, all of us or our ancestors came here from somewhere else. Even the American Indians are descended from those who crossed the Bering Strait—or the “Bering land bridge”—according to anthropologists.[8]

I believe this fervently.  All of us are equal in the eyes of God.

 

 

© 2021, Timothy D. Naegele

_____

 

[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass). He and his firm, Timothy D. Naegele & Associates, specialize in Banking and Financial Institutions Law, Internet Law, Litigation and other matters (see, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-20-6-30). He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University. He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., www.naegele.com/whats_new.html#articles and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/), and can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com

[2]  See Timothy D. Naegele, The Coronavirus and Similar Global Issues: How to Address Them, 137 BANKING L. J. 285 (June 2020) (Naegele June 2020) (Timothy D. Naegele) [NOTE: To download The Banking Law Journal article, please click on the link to the left of this note] 

[3] See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/is-barack-obama-a-racist/ (“Is Barack Obama A Racist?”); see also https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2019/07/29/barack-obama-is-responsible-for-americas-tragic-racial-divide/ (“Barack Obama Is Responsible For America’s Tragic Racial Divide”) 

[4]  See https://buchanan.org/blog/who-and-what-killed-george-floyd-142867 (“Who and What Killed George Floyd?”)

[5]  See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/06/26/american-blacks-constitute-less-than-14-percent/ (“American Blacks Constitute Less Than 14 Percent”)

[6]  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_California_Proposition_16 (“2020 California Proposition 16”)

[7]  See supra n.3.

[8] See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/america-a-rich-tapestry-of-life/ (“America: A Rich Tapestry Of Life”) (quoting http://www.philstockworld.com/2009/10/11/greenspan’s-legacy-more-suffering-to-come/ and http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/2951-ilene/31177-interview-with-timothy-d-naegele) 

Biden Is Brain Dead

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

The first time that I came into contact with Joe Biden was when I had just left the U.S. Senate in January of 1973.  I attended his first committee hearing before the Senate Banking Committee—where I had served as a staff attorney, before heading the staff of the late Senator Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts.[2]

In a very real sense, it was a tragic occasion because one month before—on December 18, 1972—Biden’s first wife Neilia and their one-year-old daughter Naomi were killed in an automobile accident while Christmas shopping in Delaware:

Neilia Biden’s station wagon was hit by a tractor-trailer truck carrying corn cobs as she pulled out from an intersection. Biden’s sons Beau and Hunter survived the accident and were taken to the hospital in fair condition, Beau with a broken leg and other wounds, and Hunter with a minor skull fracture and other head injuries.  Doctors soon said both would make full recoveries.  Biden considered resigning to care for them, but Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield persuaded him not to.[3]  

Yet that day in the Senate, Biden was courageous and all smiles; and his colleagues in the Senate welcomed him graciously, as a newly-minted U.S. Senator.

Thereafter, I attended many Senate hearings, as I had when I worked there.  However, it seems that I will always remember that one day.  Biden was doing his best—and life had to go on.  Many if not most of us might have gone into near- or complete-isolation following such a tragedy; and I admired Biden after that.

I came to the Senate as a Democrat, having been raised in a devoutly-Republican family, where giants like Dwight Eisenhower and Douglas MacArthur—and Richard Nixon—were lionized.[4]  Indeed, my mother had a framed photo of Pat and Dick Nixon on our living room table.

Fast forward to my post-Senate beliefs, and I had seen enough not to believe in either political party, so I became an Independent and have been one ever since.  I learned that the Kennedys were the very worst of American politics[5]; and Lyndon Johnson was responsible for the tragic Vietnam War, in which friends of mine were killed for nothing.

Indeed, when I left the Senate, I concluded that the Democrats were “evil” but smart, while the Republicans were “Neanderthals” and dumb.  I have never changed that opinion.

Joe Biden went through “vanity” hair transplants, just as one of my Senate “heroes” Bill Proxmire did[6]; and I did not pay much attention to Biden until Barack Obama picked him as a running mate.  Also, I have not paid much attention to the scandals surrounding Biden and his son Hunter, or to claims of Biden’s womanizing—which are “standard fare” in Hollywood, Washington and other power centers of this world.

While I have commented about Biden sporadically[7], the issue before the American people now and in the days and months to come is whether he has the mental capacity to be President of the United States.  These are not normal times, with the Coronavius sweeping the world and people dying—or at least being hurt and perhaps never recovering (e.g., economically).  And there appears to be no end in sight, with the virus’ “state sponsor” China seeking global domination.[8]

It goes without saying that Americans of all colors, religions and political persuasions cannot have a President who is “asleep at the switch,” quite literally.  And Biden has endured multiple brain operations, which may have affected his mental capacities in ominous ways.[9]  Our enemies globally are not stupid; and they have vast intelligence apparatuses that follow everything important that happens in our great nation.

Needless to say, they are not “missing a beat” in diagnosing Biden’s mental condition, which may be why it is reported that China wants him to succeed Donald Trump as our President.[10]  An “incapacitated” Joe Biden may be just what they want and need to advance their plans globally, and change the United States’ trajectory forever.

Lastly, it is worth repeating what I wrote almost twelve years ago about the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen’s magnificent work:

In the fable “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” two make-believe weavers purport to spin a fine suit of clothes for the emperor, which is made of beautiful material that possesses the wonderful quality of being invisible to any man who is unfit for his office or unpardonably stupid. The potentate and his subjects acknowledge that the garments are very fine indeed. That is, until one little child sees the emperor marching in a procession, and says at last: “But he has nothing on at all” — and the grand swindle is exposed for all to see.[11]

Perhaps before the 2020 presidential campaign has run its course, one little child will express the belief that Joe Biden is “brain dead,” or certainly very close to it.  Lots of Democrats know this already, but are too afraid (or ashamed) to acknowledge it publicly. 

 

 

© 2020, Timothy D. Naegele

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[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass). He and his firm, Timothy D. Naegele & Associates, specialize in Banking and Financial Institutions Law, Internet Law, Litigation and other matters (see www.naegele.com and Timothy D. Naegele Resume-20-6-30). He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University. He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., www.naegele.com/whats_new.html#articles and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/), and can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com

[2]  See Timothy D. Naegele Resume-20-6-30 ; see also https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2015/01/03/edward-w-brooke-is-dead/ (“Edward W. Brooke Is Dead”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2019/05/07/the-brooke-amendment-and-section-8-housing-revisited/ (“The Brooke Amendment And Section 8 Housing: Revisited”)

[3]  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden#Family_deaths (“Joe Biden, Family deaths”) (footnotes omitted)

[4]  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower (“Dwight D. Eisenhower”) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_MacArthur (“Douglas MacArthur”) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon (“Richard Nixon”)

[5]  See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/10/04/john-f-kennedy-the-most-despicable-president-in-american-history/ (“John F. Kennedy: The Most Despicable President In American History”) (see also the extensive comments beneath this article) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/03/20/ronald-reagan-and-john-f-kennedy-a-question-of-character/ (“Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy: A Question of Character”)

[6]  See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/03/31/the-rise-of-independents/#comment-1800 (“When A Giant Named Senator Bill Walked Through Washington”)

[7]  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/06/26/american-blacks-constitute-less-than-14-percent/#comment-24781 (“Biden’s Basement Strategy: Just Say Nothing”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2018/05/24/should-barack-obama-be-executed-for-treason/#comment-21003 (“Barack Obama, The Clintons And The Bidens”)

[8]  See Timothy D. Naegele, The Coronavirus and Similar Global Issues: How to Address Them, 137 BANKING L. J. 285 (June 2020) (Naegele June 2020) (Timothy D. Naegele) [NOTE: To download The Banking Law Journal article, please click on the link to the left of this note]; see also https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/08/04/chinas-goal-is-global-domination-and-it-must-suffer-the-soviet-unions-fate/ (“China’s Goal Is Global Domination, And It Must Suffer The Soviet Union’s Fate”)

[9]  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/03/05/the-millennials-may-never-forgive-biden-and-the-democrats/#comment-23417 (“Biden Is In A Steep Mental Decline”)

If Biden chooses California’s Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate, it may simply compound the Democrats’ problems.

See, e.g, https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2018/07/29/it-is-time-for-trump-supporters-to-fight-back/#comment-21650 (“Down And Out: Willie Brown’s Ho Is Gone”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2018/07/29/it-is-time-for-trump-supporters-to-fight-back/#comment-23415 (“Willie Brown’s Ho Is A Total Hypocrite) 

[10]  See https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/07/politics/2020-election-russia-china-iran/index.html (“Intelligence community’s top election official: China and Iran don’t want Trump to win reelection, Russia working against Biden”)

[11]  See Timothy D. Naegele, Viewpoint: Greenspan’s Fingerprints All Over Enduring Mess, American Banker, October 17, 2008 (http://www.naegele.com/documents/GreenspansFingerprints.pdf); see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor%27s_New_Clothes (“The Emperor’s New Clothes”)

Of Course Colleges Are Dinosaurs

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

As I wrote almost twelve years ago about the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen’s magnificent work:

In the fable “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” two make-believe weavers purport to spin a fine suit of clothes for the emperor, which is made of beautiful material that possesses the wonderful quality of being invisible to any man who is unfit for his office or unpardonably stupid. The potentate and his subjects acknowledge that the garments are very fine indeed. That is, until one little child sees the emperor marching in a procession, and says at last: “But he has nothing on at all” — and the grand swindle is exposed for all to see.[2]

The grand swindle of a college education is being exposed for all to see too, as a result of the deadly Coronavirus pandemic that China unleashed on the world—which will not run its course until the end of 2021, at the earliest.[3]

As I wrote nine years ago in an article entitled “Are Colleges Dinosaurs?”:

The exorbitant costs associated with college educations have been rising for a long time now

America’s Middle Class is being priced out of colleges for their kids; and many parents are questioning whether college is worth it, and whether they can afford it.  This is true to an even greater extent when it comes to graduate schools, such as law schools.  As more and more Americans face economic problems during the balance of this decade, which will be true of their counterparts abroad as well, many will find that undergraduate college educations and graduate schools are luxuries that they cannot afford.  Many families will be doing whatever they can just to survive. . . .

Certainly in the case of State-supported schools, where budgetary pressures are dictating that their expenditures be slashed, the twin pincers of parents who cannot afford to send their kids to these schools, and declining budgets, may break the backs of such schools.

Another old friend of mine, who covered Washington for many years as a talented and insightful political and economic reporter and editor, told me recently that colleges are effectively dinosaurs and relics of the past, like newspapers and newsweeklies in this Internet age.  The educational institutions of the future will be online—or so my friend believes—which cost a fraction of what “bricks-and-mortar” educational institutions cost today.  The kids now are computer literate like no generation of the past; and the idea of learning online is second nature to them.

Why spend money on college tuitions and campus living expenses, and professors’ salaries and the infrastructure of college campuses, when everything can be done online for a fraction of the cost?  Why have professors repeating essentially the same lectures year after year, when such lectures can be taped once and shown again and again on YouTube? Why not eliminate “redundancy” and have the best professors teaching students online nationwide, and eliminate the costs of multiple professors?  Why allow “teaching assistants” (or “TAs”) to educate our kids, when the professors are paid to do this?  Why not eliminate colleges and graduates schools in wholesale numbers—just like libraries and book stores are closing or becoming “bookless” because everything is online?

The bottom line with respect to whether education shifts to the Internet might not be a function of conscious decisions by educators or parents: pure economics in America and globally will determine the results.  Falling governmental tax revenues will dictate drastic cuts like never before; and declining personal incomes and home values and foreclosures, and other family sacrifices, will result in changes to personal life styles that will affect the way educational programs are perceived and delivered worldwide. [4]

What was not mentioned in the article itself, but was discussed in comments beneath it, is the fact that student loans have kept the colleges, universities and graduate schools alive financially, all the while saddling the students and/or their parents with massive student debts that must be serviced and cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.

As if to echo what I wrote, the UK’s Economist has an article entitled “The absent student,” which states:

In the normal run of things, late summer sees airports in the emerging world fill with nervous 18-year-olds, jetting off to begin a new life in the rich world’s universities. The annual trek of more than 5m students is a triumph of globalisation. Students see the world; universities get a fresh batch of high-paying customers. Yet with flights grounded and borders closed, this migration is about to become the pandemic’s latest victim.

For students, covid-19 is making life difficult. Many must choose between inconveniently timed seminars streamed into their parents’ living rooms and inconveniently deferring their studies until life is more normal. For universities, it is disastrous. They will not only lose huge chunks of revenue from foreign students but, because campus life spreads infection, they will have to transform the way they operate. . . .

Yet the disaster may have an upside. For many years government subsidies and booming demand have allowed universities to resist changes that could benefit both students and society. They may not be able to do so for much longer.

Higher education has been thriving. Since 1995, as the notion spread from the rich world to the emerging one that a degree from a good institution was essential, the number of young people enrolling in higher education rose from 16% of the relevant age group to 38%. The results have been visible on swanky campuses throughout the Anglosphere, whose better universities have been the principal beneficiaries of the emerging world’s aspirations.

Yet troubles are piling up. China has been a source of high-paying foreign students for Western universities, but relations between the West and China are souring. Students with ties to the army are to be banned from America.

Governments have been turning against universities, too. In an age when politics divides along educational lines, universities struggle to persuade some politicians of their merit. President Donald Trump attacks them for “Radical Left Indoctrination, not Education”. Some 59% of Republican voters have a negative view of colleges; just 18% of Democrats do. In Britain universities’ noisy opposition to Brexit has not helped. Given that the state pays for between a quarter and a half of tertiary education in America, Australia and Britain, through student loans and grants, the government’s enthusiasm matters.

Scepticism among politicians is not born only of spite. Governments invest in higher education to boost productivity by increasing human capital. But even as universities have boomed, productivity growth in the rich-country economies has fallen. Many politicians suspect that universities are not teaching the right subjects, and are producing more graduates than labour markets need. Small wonder that the state is beginning to pull back. In America government spending on universities has been flat in recent years; in Australia, even as the price of humanities degrees doubles, so it will fall for subjects the government deems good for growth.

There are questions about the benefits to students, too. The graduate premium is healthy enough, on average, for a degree to be financially worthwhile, but not for everybody. In Britain the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has calculated that a fifth of graduates would be better off if they had never gone to university. In America four in ten students still do not graduate six years after starting their degree—and, for those who do, the wage premium is shrinking. Across the world as a whole, student enrolment continues to grow, but in America it declined by 8% in 2010-18.

Then came covid-19. Although recessions tend to boost demand for higher education, as poor job prospects spur people to seek qualifications, revenues may nevertheless fall. Government rules will combine with student nerves to keep numbers down. Last month the Trump administration said new foreign students would not be allowed to enter the country if their classes had moved online. Sydney, Melbourne, UNSW and Monash, four of Australia’s leading universities, rely on foreign students for a third of their income. The IFS expects losses at English universities to amount to over a quarter of one year’s revenues.

The damage from covid-19 means that, in the short term at least, universities will be more dependent on governments than ever. The IFS reckons that 13 universities in Britain risk going bust. Governments ought to help colleges, but should favour institutions that provide good teaching and research or benefit their community. Those that satisfy none of those criteria should be allowed to go to the wall.

Those that survive must learn from the pandemic. Until now most of them, especially the ones at the top of the market, have resisted putting undergraduate courses online. That is not because remote teaching is necessarily bad—a third of graduate students were studying fully online last year—but because a three- or four-year degree on campus was universities’ and students’ idea of what an undergraduate education should look like. Demand for the services of universities was so intense that they had no need to change.

Now change is being forced upon them. The College Crisis Initiative at Davidson College says that less than a quarter of American universities are likely to teach mostly or wholly in person next term. If that persists, it will reduce the demand. Many students buy the university experience not just to boost their earning capacity, but also to get away from their parents, make friends and find partners. But it should also cut costs, by giving students the option of living at home while studying.

Back to the mortarboard
Covid-19 is catalysing innovation, too. The Big Ten Academic Alliance, a group of midwestern universities, is offering many of its 600,000 students the opportunity to take online courses at other universities in the group. There is huge scope for using digital technology to improve education. Poor in-person lectures could be replaced by online ones from the best in the world, freeing up time for the small-group teaching which students value most.

Universities are rightly proud of their centuries-old traditions, but their ancient pedigrees have too often been used as an excuse for resisting change. If covid-19 shakes them out of their complacency, some good may yet come from this disaster.[5] 

Amen to all of this.  The only caveats that I have about effectively “gutting” colleges is that many students fool around with their online classes, and do not take them seriously; and hence, they run the risk of learning little or nothing.  And missing from a totally-online education is the social interaction that a college campus and environment provide.  Lastly, at least in America, college sports provide much-needed relief from the pressures of everyday life, which have increased dramatically—and beyond all reckoning—because of the Coronavirus. 

 

 

© 2020, Timothy D. Naegele

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[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass). He and his firm, Timothy D. Naegele & Associates, specialize in Banking and Financial Institutions Law, Internet Law, Litigation and other matters (see www.naegele.com and Timothy D. Naegele Resume-20-6-30). He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University. He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., www.naegele.com/whats_new.html#articles and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/), and can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com

[2]  See Timothy D. Naegele, Viewpoint: Greenspan’s Fingerprints All Over Enduring Mess, American Banker, October 17, 2008 (http://www.naegele.com/documents/GreenspansFingerprints.pdf); see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor%27s_New_Clothes (“The Emperor’s New Clothes”)

[3]  See Timothy D. Naegele, The Coronavirus and Similar Global Issues: How to Address Them, 137 BANKING L. J. 285 (June 2020) (Naegele June 2020) (Timothy D. Naegele) [NOTE: To download The Banking Law Journal article, please click on the link to the left of this note]; see also https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/08/04/chinas-goal-is-global-domination-and-it-must-suffer-the-soviet-unions-fate/ (“China’s Goal Is Global Domination, And It Must Suffer The Soviet Union’s Fate”)

[4]  See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2011/07/29/are-colleges-dinosaurs/ (“Are Colleges Dinosaurs?”) (footnotes omitted)

[5]  See https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/08/08/covid-19-will-be-painful-for-universities-but-also-bring-change (“The absent student”); see also https://www.economist.com/briefing/2020/08/08/covid-19-could-push-some-universities-over-the-brink (“Uncanny University”—”Covid-19 could push some universities over the brink”—”Higher education was in trouble even before the pandemic”—”Covid-19 has put immense pressure on all universities. But the problems are about to get particularly severe for those in America, Australia, Canada and Britain that have come to rely on international students to fill their coffers.  . . . Even before the pandemic, many such universities worried about worsening relations with China, the biggest source of international students.  . . . Academics, used to tricky questions, now face an existential one: how will universities survive with many fewer students in them?  The problem is that campuses make an excellent breeding ground for the virus, and students travelling across the world are a good way to spread it.  A study by researchers at Cornell found that, although the average student at the university shares classes with just 4% of their peers, they share a class with someone who shares a class with 87%. The potential for the rapid spread of the disease was shown by the arrival of recruits at Fort Benning, an American army base. When 640 arrived in spring, just four tested positive. A few weeks later, more than a hundred did. According to the New York Times, some 6,600 covid-19 cases can be linked to American colleges.  . . . The risk is that, beyond the lecture hall, youngsters will ignore many restrictions. In July the University of California, Berkeley reported an outbreak involving 47 covid-19 cases, with most traced to parties in the fraternities and sororities. At the time, administrators urged students to keep gatherings to below 12 people, to hold them outside, to stay at least six feet apart and to cover their faces; they have since announced that all classes will be online and only 3,200 of the university’s 40,000 students will be allowed to live on campus.  . . . In America an estimated one postgraduate in three was studying fully online last year, up from one in five in 2012.  . . .  [I]n America, New York University is home to the most international students with 19,605; in Britain, University College London is, with 19,635.  The experience of either city—with all the possibilities of exploration and romance which urban life brings, even under semi-lockdown—cannot be replicated through video calls in a parental living room.  . . .  [E]ntry restrictions currently prevent students from getting to lots of countries. Since February all Chinese visitors have been banned from entering Australia. Pilot programmes to fly in groups of a few hundred students were abandoned when the local case count rose. Currently Canada will not let in students who did not get a visa before March. Some Indian students are allowed into America, but Chinese ones are not. Both would be welcome in Britain, so long as they quarantined for a fortnight.  . . . If the pandemic drags on, if a vaccine is not forthcoming or if the economic climate becomes particularly bad, then things will get bleaker still. Politicians will have bigger things to think about than protecting universities. The first two decades of the 21st century were ones of extraordinary growth for universities in many countries. That golden age is over”)

American Jews Hide in Fear

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

This is the conclusion of Rabbi Shmuel Boteach, as reported by Newsmax.com:

The spate of anti-Semitic attacks have the Jewish people living in fear now in the United States, potentially creating a society of “secret Jews” retreating to obscurity, according to Rabbi Shmuel “Shmuley” Boteach on Newsmax TV.

“The world’s oldest hatred: we were persecuted in Europe, slaughtered, annihilated, gassed to death, but in America we were protected. I can’t believe this is all happening.”

Boteach, speaking from a home nearby the recent anti-Semitic stabbing attack in Upstate New York where his family and friends were in hiding, called for federal laws that specifically mention anti-Semitism and do not water down the targeted hate under generic hate-crime terms.

“We have to stop this game,” Boteach told host Bob Sellers. “We have to call Jew hatred what it is. First thing is: Special legislation that targets anti-Semitism. You have to use the word anti-Semitism. This is not just another form of bigotry. This is not just another form of prejudice.

“This is a special hatred of the Jewish people that has to be combated, and the United States, land of the free, home of the brave, must take the lead.

Boteach said the recent attacks in and around New York City are targeting those who look and dress like orthodox Jews.

“We are the targets, and it’s very uncomfortable,” Boteach added. 

“It was a religious Jew hatred, now it’s a more racial anti-Semitism. Even if we Jews converted to another religion, they still hate us. All I know is this never happened in the United States.”[2] 

First, it must be stated emphatically: not a single Jew anywhere in this world should hide in fear, or live in fear.

Second, anti-Semitism has been increasing in Europe and globally for more than a decade.[3]  The fact that it is increasing in the United States should not be surprising.

Third, there are a myriad of causes, some of which are understood; others not.  Many Jews and non-Jews blame the policies of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  

He was hated by Barack Obama, the Rabins, and Ariel Sharon.  Indeed, former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s widow Leah—who was described by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and former Prime Minister Shimon Peres as a “lioness”—believed it was the climate of hate that Netanyahu created during the election campaign of 1995, which laid the groundwork for a Jew to assassinate her husband.  She never forgave Netanyahu and detested him.[4] 

Fourth, the mere fact that anti-Semitism is increasing in the United States and globally is a cause of great concern.  Religion in general is under attack; and Judaism is a very small religion.  There are approximately 2.4 billion Christians in the world, and 1.9 followers of Islam; and the number of Jews is approximately 14.5 million, which makes it one of the smallest religions with the fewest followers.[5]

Fifth, discrimination has probably existed in one form or another since Man set foot on the Earth.  It is not new; and most religious and ethnic groups have been discriminated against in the past.  The fact that Jews are singled out today, even in countries that have few if any Jews, goes to the genesis of discrimination generally, of which anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are merely a part.  The United States is the world’s largest melting pot; and discrimination seems to arise from that fact, instead of religious and ethnic tolerance.[6]

Sixth, as I have written previously:

Since I was a little kid growing up in West Los Angeles, I have always had friends who were Jewish.  . . .  They have helped me; they have loved me; they will be my friends for life; and whatever happens to Israel affects them. It does not affect me; I am not Jewish.

Israel could disappear off the face of the earth today, and it would not affect my life one iota. I could wake up tomorrow and go about my life as if it never happened—similar to the disappearance of Moldova as a nation, which is even larger. However, it might affect the lives of Jewish friends whom I love and care about.[7]

Lastly, former President Barack Obama was and is a racist and an anti-Semite, who did more than any other president to sow the seeds of racism and other divisions.[8]  Perhaps Americans are witnessing the results of what he sowed. 

 

 

© 2020, Timothy D. Naegele

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[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass). He and his firm, Timothy D. Naegele & Associates, specialize in Banking and Financial Institutions Law, Internet Law, Litigation and other matters (see www.naegele.com and https://naegeleblog.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/timothy-d.-naegele-resume-20-1-1.pdf). He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University. He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., www.naegele.com/whats_new.html#articles), and can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com

[2]  See https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/shmuel-boteach-rabbi-jewish-anti-semitism/2019/12/30/id/947802/ (“Shmuel Boteach to Newsmax TV: US Jews Now Hide in Fear”); see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shmuley_Boteach (“Shmuley Boteach”)

[3]  See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2014/01/06/ariel-sharon-is-missed/#comment-7039 (“Is Night Falling Again For European Jews?”); see also https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2015/12/31/is-israel-doomed/ (“Is Israel Doomed?”)

[4]  See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2014/01/06/ariel-sharon-is-missed/ (“Ariel Sharon Is Missed”); see also https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2019/09/19/the-middle-east-is-not-americas-fight/ (“The Middle East Is Not America’s Fight”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/the-madness-of-benjamin-netanyahu/ (“The Madness Of Benjamin Netanyahu”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/20/israels-senseless-killings-and-war-with-iran/ (“Israel’s Senseless Killings And War With Iran”)

[5]  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religious_populations#Adherent_estimates_in_2019 (“List of religious populations: Adherent estimates in 2019”)

[6]  See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2015/12/06/islamophobia-is-un-american/ (“Islamophobia Is Un-American”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/america-a-rich-tapestry-of-life/ (“America: A Rich Tapestry Of Life”)

[7]  See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/20/israels-senseless-killings-and-war-with-iran/#comment-544 (“Why I Write And Say What I Do”)

[8]  See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/is-barack-obama-a-racist/ (“Is Barack Obama A Racist?”); see also https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2019/11/15/when-will-barack-obamas-trial-for-sedition-begin/ (“When Will Barack Obama’s Trial For Sedition Begin?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2019/07/29/barack-obama-is-responsible-for-americas-tragic-racial-divide/ (“Barack Obama Is Responsible For America’s Tragic Racial Divide”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2018/05/24/should-barack-obama-be-executed-for-treason/ (“Should Barack Obama Be Executed For Treason?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2017/10/20/the-real-russian-conspiracy-barack-obama-the-clintons-and-the-sale-of-americas-uranium-to-russias-killer-putin/ (“The Real Russian Conspiracy: Barack Obama, The Clintons, And The Sale Of America’s Uranium To Russia’s Killer Putin”)

Does Each New Administration Kick The Debt Can Down The Road?

  
  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

That is the lesson I learned when I came to Washington, and began working at the Pentagon.  When the Congress was breathing down its neck, it simply reorganized—and hid the ball some more—and when the Congress was catching up again, it would repeat the process.

Pat Buchanan—an adviser to Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford, and a former GOP presidential aspirant himself—has written an article entitled “Today France, Tomorrow the USA?”:

As that rail and subway strike continued to paralyze travel in Paris and across France into the third week, President Emmanuel Macron made a Christmas appeal to his dissatisfied countrymen:

“Strike action is justifiable and protected by the constitution, but I think there are moments in a nation’s life when it is good to observe a truce out of respect for families and family life.”

Macron’s appeal has gone largely unheeded.

“The public be damned!” seems to be the attitude of many of the workers who are tying up transit to protest Macron’s plan to reform a pension system that consumes 14% of GDP.

Macron wants to raise to 64 the age of eligibility for full retirement benefits. Not terribly high. And to set an example, he is surrendering his lifetime pension that is to begin when he becomes an ex-president.

Yet, it is worth looking more closely at France because she appears to be at a place where the rest of Europe and America are headed.

In France, the government collects 46% of the GDP in taxes and spends 56% of GDP, the highest figures in the Western world.

And Paris appears to be bumping up against the limits of what democratic voters will tolerate in higher taxes, or reductions in benefits, from the postwar welfare states the West has created.

A year ago, when Macron sought to raise fuel taxes to cut carbon emissions, the “yellow vests” came out in protests that degenerated into rioting, looting, arson, desecration of monuments and attacks on police.

Paris capitulated and canceled the tax.

How do we compare?

The U.S. national debt is now larger than the GDP. Only in 1946, the year after World War II, was U.S. debt a larger share of GDP than today.

In 2019, the U.S. ran a deficit just shy of $1 trillion, and the U.S. government projects trillion-dollar deficits through the decade, which begins next week. And we will be running these deficits not to stimulate an economy in recession, as President Obama did, but to pile them on top of an economy at full employment.

In short, we are beginning to run historic deficits in a time of prosperity. Whatever the economic theory behind this, it bears no resemblance to the limited government-balanced budget philosophy of the party of Ronald Reagan.

The questions the U.S. will inevitably face are the ones France faces: At what point does government consumption of the national wealth become too great a burden for the private sector to bear? At what point must cuts be made in government spending that will be seen by the people, as they are seen in France today, as intolerable?

While a Republican Congress ran surpluses in the 1990s, when defense spending fell following our Cold War victory, Dwight Eisenhower was the last Republican president to run surpluses.

Opposition to new or higher taxes appears to be the one piece of ground today on which Republicans will not yield. But if so, where are the cuts going to come from that will be virtually mandated if U.S. debt is not to grow beyond any sustainable level?

America’s long-term problem:

Deficits are projected to run regularly in the coming decade at nearly 5% of GDP while economic growth has fallen back to 2%.

With taxes off the table, where, when and how do we cut spending?

Or does each new administration kick the can down the road?

The five principal items in the federal budget are these:

Social Security, which consumes 25% of that budget. Yet, Social Security outlays will reach the point this year where payroll taxes no longer cover them. The “trust fund” will have to be raided. Translation: The feds will have to borrow money to cover the Social Security deficit.

Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare and other health programs account for another fourth of the budget. All will need more money to stay solvent.

Defense, which used to take 9% of GDP in JFK’s time and 6% in Ronald Reagan’s buildup, is now down to 3.2% of GDP.

Yet, while defense’s share of GDP is among the smallest since before World War II, U.S. commitments are as great as they were during the Cold War. We are now defending 28 NATO nations, containing Russia, and maintaining strategic parity. We have commitments in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and the global war on terror. We defend South Korea and Japan from a nuclear-armed North Korea and China.

Yet another major item in the budget is interest on the debt.

And as that U.S. debt surges with all the new deficits this decade, and interest rates inevitably begin to rise, interest on the debt will rise both in real terms and as a share of the budget.

Again, is France the future of the West?[2] 

At what point do the chickens come home to roost?  Or do they?

 

 

© 2019, Timothy D. Naegele

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[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass). He and his firm, Timothy D. Naegele & Associates, specialize in Banking and Financial Institutions Law, Internet Law, Litigation and other matters (see www.naegele.com and https://naegeleblog.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/timothy-d.-naegele-resume-20-1-1.pdf). He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University. He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., www.naegele.com/whats_new.html#articles), and can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com

[2]  See https://buchanan.org/blog/today-france-tomorrow-the-usa-137917

Terminate Every Congressional Democrat, Or Endure A Permanent Impeachment Process

  
  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

And yes, lots of us began as Democrats but will never vote for one again.

In an article entitled “The Democrats’ Alternative Universe Impeachment,” the former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Newt Gingrich has written:

Watching recent developments in the House Democratic Party, it is clear that the effort to impeach President Trump has nothing to do with facts or a normal process of investigation and evidence-based prosecution.

We are living through a process defined by a pro-Trump universe and an anti-Trump universe. The great economy, record-low unemployment, the conservative judges, the achievements in renewing the Space program, and a host of other positive things are occurring in the pro-Trump universe.

However, the willful avoidance of facts and evidence by left-wing media and left-wing Democrats is a sign that there is an alternative anti-Trump universe.

The report by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz was devastating in its indictment of senior FBI officials – and even more in its repudiation of the lies being told by Democrat House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, who is the public face of the impeachment effort. Again and again, Horowitz vindicated the former chairman, Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, and rejected Schiff’s assertions.

On Sunday, Chris Wallace made vividly clear with both former FBI Director James Comey and Chairman Schiff that they simply were not telling the truth. Every American should watch the Wallace interview.

Further, Schiff is not the only Democratic congressman with a big credibility gap. As Paul Sperry reported for RealClearInvestigations, House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler has some real explaining to do.

Sperry wrote that in February 2018, Nadler circulated a ‘Dear Democratic Colleague’ letter – later leaked to the press – that trashed a House Intelligence Committee report detailing FBI spying abuses involving former Trump campaign staffer Carter Page.

But Horowitz last week found the FBI did in fact abuse its authority.

Sperry also notes that “Nadler also insisted in his four-page letter … that a discredited Clinton campaign-funded [Christopher Steele] dossier did not play a substantial role in supporting warrants to spy on Page.”

Inspector General Horowitz found the opposite.

In his letter, Nadler implied that Nunes, was lying about what he had read in classified documents.

But the Horowitz report concurred with Nunes’s findings. In fact, one Republican committee staffer told Sperry that Nadler “has no credibility left.”

The failure of the secret Schiff kangaroo court hearings, combined with the growing repudiation by official inquiries, has convinced many Americans that the whole impeachment process is simply a scheme by Democrats, partisans, and fake news media members who hate President Trump.

In fact, the Horowitz report and other investigations make increasingly clear that The Washington Post, and The New York Times should return the Pulitzers their reporters received for the fake news they were being fed by the deep state opponents of President Trump.

As Lee Smith makes clear in his book The Plot Against the President, the systemic dishonesty of the deep state-fake media-Democratic Party system is deeper and more dishonest than anyone could have imagined a decade ago.

The Democrats’ problems aren’t just with their chairmen. Consider this new report by Chrissy Clark [] in The Federalist:

“Robert Powell, the husband of Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, D-Fla., reportedly took $700,000 from a Ukrainian oligarch named Igor Kolomoisky. Mucarsel-Powell sits on the House Judiciary Committee, the committee that drafted two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump for his alleged abuse of power with regards to Ukraine.”

Of course, in the Democrats’ alternative universe, having Hunter Biden accept millions from a Ukrainian company, or a Judiciary Committee member’s husband accepting $700,000 in Ukrainian oligarch funding, or an FBI senior manager’s wife getting nearly $700,000 in campaign funds from Clinton-aligned Democrats are simply business as usual. In the Democrats’ left-wing world, all bad things are Republican and conservative and no wrongdoing can be alleged against the deep state-fake news-Democrat alliance against President Trump.

The growing understanding of how sick the system is has turned more and more Americans against the Democratic Party’s impeachment campaign. In a remarkable turn of events people actually believe the process may strengthen President Trump. This is literally making fake news analysts’ heads hurt.

Steve Krakauer in the Fourth Watch media newsletter wrote that a recent CNN poll found that only 25 percent Americans think the impeachment circus will hurt President Trump’s re-election campaign. Meanwhile 37 percent think it will have no effect and 32 percent believe it will help him get re-elected.

According to Krakauer: “When David Chalian reported this to Anderson Cooper tonight on AC360, Cooper was stunned. ‘This poll hurts my head,’ said Cooper. ‘I mean, David, do you believe these polls?’

With the current impeachment process having lost ground with the American people – and with the Republican Senate certain to sustain the President and reject the dishonest hypocrisy of the House Democrats – what can we expect in this world of an alternative, anti-Trump universe?

The answer is apparently a permanent impeachment process – no matter what the American people want or what the evidence or lack of evidence indicates.

Consider this report from Politico:

“In a filing to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, House General Counsel Douglas Letter argued that the House’s demands for grand jury materials connected to former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation were still urgent because such evidence might become relevant to the Senate’s expected impeachment trial next month.

“But Letter went further to note that even apart from the Senate trial, the House Judiciary Committee intends to continue its impeachment investigation arising from the Mueller probe on its own merit.

“‘The committee has continued and will continue [its impeachment] investigations consistent with its own prior statements respecting their importance and purposes,’ Letter wrote in a filing Monday as part of the House’s bid to obtain Mueller’s grand jury evidence.”

In other words, the Democrats are already laying the ground for yet another impeachment effort once this one fails.

The 2020 campaign is going to be a tale of two vividly different universes.

Which one the American people decide is better for themselves and their country will do a great deal to define the next century of American progress – or decay.[2] 

Again, Congressional Democrats must not only be defeated but crushed, in elections across this great nation.  The despicable Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler must become the Joe McCarthys of this era: pariahs who are ridiculed and driven to shame and obscurity.

Next, Americans must turn their attention to imprisoning the racist anti-Semite Barack Obama and his fellow treasonous co-conspirators for the rest of their lives, at the very least.[3]  

Nothing less will suffice!

 

© 2019, Timothy D. Naegele

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[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass). He and his firm, Timothy D. Naegele & Associates, specialize in Banking and Financial Institutions Law, Internet Law, Litigation and other matters (see www.naegele.com and https://naegeleblog.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/timothy-d.-naegele-resume-20-1-1.pdf). He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University. He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., www.naegele.com/whats_new.html#articles), and can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com

[2]  See https://www.gingrich360.com/2019/12/the-democrats-alternative-universe-impeachment/; see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newt_Gingrich (“Newt Gingrich”)

[3]  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2019/11/15/when-will-barack-obamas-trial-for-sedition-begin/ (“When Will Barack Obama’s Trial For Sedition Begin?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2019/07/29/barack-obama-is-responsible-for-americas-tragic-racial-divide/ (“Barack Obama Is Responsible For America’s Tragic Racial Divide”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2018/05/24/should-barack-obama-be-executed-for-treason/ (“Should Barack Obama Be Executed For Treason?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2017/10/20/the-real-russian-conspiracy-barack-obama-the-clintons-and-the-sale-of-americas-uranium-to-russias-killer-putin/ (“The Real Russian Conspiracy: Barack Obama, The Clintons, And The Sale Of America’s Uranium To Russia’s Killer Putin”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/is-barack-obama-a-racist/ (“Is Barack Obama A Racist?”)

The Democrats Are Hated

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

And yes, lots of us began as Democrats but will never vote for one again.

In an article entitled “Hidden by impeachment: One of Trump’s ‘best weeks yet,'” Paul Bedard has written:

 

While the media and his critics focused on the bitterly divided House impeachment hearings, President Trump this week collected the most agenda wins yet, policy victories, including some backed by Democrats, that bolster arguments he’s making for reelection, according to advisers and analysts.

From adding judges to foreign policy, trade, immigration, defense spending, and China, Trump added several more achievements he will tout when he hosts his next campaign rally, standing in front of a 2020 “Promises Kept” sign.

“It was one of his best weeks yet,” said a key White House adviser.

One of his pollsters, John McLaughlin, joked that if public anger at impeachment continues to grow, worried Democrats might get in line to pass more of his agenda to give them protection in their reelections next year.

“Democrats in states and districts the president won are at serious risk if they vote for impeachment. So they are rushing to vote for the president’s popular positions,” he said, adding, “If [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer keep pressing impeachment, it’s likely the president will get his entire agenda passed and reelected in a landslide.”

Added to the list of accomplishments this week: 

•  An agreement on a new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal.
•  A new budget including more than $1.3 billion for a border wall and blocks a government shutdown.
•  House approval of the U.S. Space Force, a brand-new branch of the military.
•  Government family leave that will be a model for a proposal for the public.
•  Tentative agreement on trade with China.
•  Approval of Trump’s 50th federal appeals judge.
•  Confirmation of a new Food and Drug Administration chief.
•  The signing of a pro-Israel anti-Semitism executive order. 

Plus, advisers noted, Wall Street hit another record, and Pelosi conceded that on impeachment, “It’s been going on 22 months — two and a half years, actually.”

And, the advisers added, with impeachment likely, the president was assured by McConnell that the Senate would move fast on a trial that will end in acquittal and might include the support of two Senate Democrats, according to Sen. Rand Paul.

“There is one world where the mainstream media is covering impeachment, but there is another world where Trump is racking up a myriad of accomplishments, many of which have the support of the same Democrats who want to remove him from office,” said political communications strategist Ron Bonjean.

A GOP adviser said, “President Trump and the Republicans are an irresistible force surging over, around, and through the gelatinous Democrats — a growing number of whom are realizing daily that what they’re doing is seen by the public as trivial and senseless. Just think of what could be accomplished for our country if the loony Left wasn’t so obsessed with destroying Trump.”

Trump biographer Doug Wead also took note of the president’s actions in the shadow of impeachment.

“Perhaps, for now, what he accomplished this week will be overshadowed by the impeachment, but by next summer, the impeachment may be seen as mean-spirited and partisan, and the string of victories will add to his incredible list of victories going into reelection season,” he said.

Wead, who spent months inside the White House interviewing the president and top aides, said that he hadn’t been surprised by Trump’s aggressive fight on impeachment and his campaign to rack up wins.

“During impeachment, any other president would retreat into the bunker and be consumed with defense. Endlessly gaming various scenarios. Instead, Trump, the businessman, is looking for a way to use it to his advantage,” he said.

“He is the master magician, waving one hand to distract, while with the other hand, he makes the trick work. In this case, the Democrats provided this unwanted distraction, but he clearly seized on the moment,” Wead added.[2] 

 

Democrats must not only be defeated but crushed, in elections across this great nation.  The despicable Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler must become the Joe McCarthys of this era: ridiculed and driven to obscurity.

Next, Americans must turn their attention to imprisoning the racist anti-Semite Barack Obama and his fellow treasonous co-conspirators for the rest of their lives, at the very least.[3]  

Nothing less will suffice!

 

 

© 2019, Timothy D. Naegele

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[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass). He and his firm, Timothy D. Naegele & Associates, specialize in Banking and Financial Institutions Law, Internet Law, Litigation and other matters (see www.naegele.com and https://naegeleblog.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/timothy-d.-naegele-resume-20-1-1.pdf). He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University. He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., www.naegele.com/whats_new.html#articles), and can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com

[2]  See https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/hidden-by-impeachment-one-of-trumps-best-weeks-yet; see also https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7789231/PIERS-MORGAN-Boris-Johnson-triumph-socialists-celebrities-electoral-poison-Trump-decimate-2020.html (“Socialists and celebrities are electoral poison”) and https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7792923/Donald-Trump-receives-huge-ovation-70-000-fans-Army-Navy-football-game.html (“Donald Trump receives a huge ovation from 70,000 fans at Army-Navy football game”)

[3]  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2019/11/15/when-will-barack-obamas-trial-for-sedition-begin/ (“When Will Barack Obama’s Trial For Sedition Begin?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2019/07/29/barack-obama-is-responsible-for-americas-tragic-racial-divide/ (“Barack Obama Is Responsible For America’s Tragic Racial Divide”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2018/05/24/should-barack-obama-be-executed-for-treason/ (“Should Barack Obama Be Executed For Treason?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2017/10/20/the-real-russian-conspiracy-barack-obama-the-clintons-and-the-sale-of-americas-uranium-to-russias-killer-putin/ (“The Real Russian Conspiracy: Barack Obama, The Clintons, And The Sale Of America’s Uranium To Russia’s Killer Putin”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/is-barack-obama-a-racist/ (“Is Barack Obama A Racist?”)

When Will Barack Obama’s Trial For Sedition Begin?

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

Perhaps an even more important and obvious question is when will Barack Obama go to prison—at the very least—for his many crimes including treason, which is punishable by death?[2]

He is an un-American racist and anti-Semite, who has done more damage to our great nation than any other president.[3]  Most egregious is that he is responsible for the efforts to destroy the candidacy and then the presidency of Donald Trump, which continue to this day in the form of farcical impeachment proceedings on Capitol Hill.

Until Obama is brought to justice, no American should believe in our system of justice again.  It is a joke, and nonexistent.[4]  The Clintons—Bill and Hillary—proved that in spades as they scoffed at the system, and effectively ignored it.[5]  And yes, lots of us began as Democrats but will never vote for one again.

Having brought down Richard Nixon’s presidency, America’s Left—in the form of the Democratic Party and their so-called “mainstream media” cohorts—tried desperately to destroy the presidency of Ronald Reagan as a result of Iran Contra hearings and investigations.  Now they have moved on to their third GOP president, Trump.

Having produced nothing as a result of Robert Mueller’s extensive investigations[6], they have shifted their avenues of attack to one issue after another, hoping desperately to destroy the Trump presidency—or at least wound it fatally before next year’s elections.

They are the “Pigs” that George Orwell wrote about in his prescient Animal Farm, where all of the animals were equal until the “Pigs” accreted power and control, and reigned supreme, and were masters over—and subjugated—the other animals.[7]  They must be stopped in their tracks and destroyed, like Abraham Lincoln ended the lives and efforts of those who would have torn asunder our great nation and left it in ruins.

We are in a battle for the “soul” of America, which will determine whether it will survive or not.  The stakes are every bit as high as those facing Lincoln, and his two key generals Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman.  Lincoln went through lots of military commanders until he found the right two; and the three of them saved our nation from certain destruction.[8]

 

 

© 2019, Timothy D. Naegele

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[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass). He and his firm, Timothy D. Naegele & Associates, specialize in Banking and Financial Institutions Law, Internet Law, Litigation and other matters (see www.naegele.com and https://naegeleblog.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/timothy-d.-naegele-resume-19-9-27.pdf). He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University. He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., www.naegele.com/whats_new.html#articles), and can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com

[2]  See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2018/05/24/should-barack-obama-be-executed-for-treason/ (“Should Barack Obama Be Executed For Treason?”)

[3]  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/is-barack-obama-a-racist/ (“Is Barack Obama A Racist?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2017/10/20/the-real-russian-conspiracy-barack-obama-the-clintons-and-the-sale-of-americas-uranium-to-russias-killer-putin/ (“The Real Russian Conspiracy: Barack Obama, The Clintons, And The Sale Of America’s Uranium To Russia’s Killer Putin”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2019/07/29/barack-obama-is-responsible-for-americas-tragic-racial-divide/ (“Barack Obama Is Responsible For America’s Tragic Racial Divide”)

[4]  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/07/30/illegal-immigration-the-solution-is-simple/ (“Illegal Immigration: The Solution Is Simple”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2011/01/03/the-american-legal-system-is-broken-can-it-be-fixed/ (“The American Legal System Is Broken: Can It Be Fixed?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2011/07/14/divorces/ (“Divorces”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2011/07/29/are-colleges-dinosaurs/ (“Are Colleges Dinosaurs?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/poverty-in-america/ (“Poverty In America”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/the-united-states-department-of-injustice/ (“The United States Department of Injustice”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2013/07/15/justice-and-the-law-do-not-mix/ (“Justice And The Law Do Not Mix”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2014/09/08/the-state-bar-of-california-is-lawless-and-a-travesty-and-should-be-abolished/ (“The State Bar Of California Is Lawless And A Travesty, And Should Be Abolished”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2015/07/01/global-chaos-and-helter-skelter/ (“Global Chaos And Helter Skelter”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2019/06/18/the-u-s-supreme-court-is-a-tragic-pathetic-joke/ (“The U.S. Supreme Court Is A Tragic, Pathetic Joke”)

[5]  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/09/24/washington-is-sick-and-the-american-people-know-it/#comment-7185 (“Clinton Fatigue”)

[6]  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2018/03/11/robert-mueller-should-be-executed-for-treason/ (“Robert Mueller Should Be Executed For Treason”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2018/05/06/what-atrocities-did-robert-mueller-commit-in-vietnam/ (“What Atrocities Did Robert Mueller Commit In Vietnam?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2019/03/24/the-mueller-witch-hunt-is-over/ (“The Mueller Witch Hunt Is Over”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2019/04/18/the-mueller-report-a-monumental-travesty/ (“The Mueller Report: A Monumental Travesty”)

[7]  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm (“Animal Farm“)

[8]  See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/03/21/ulysses-s-grant-an-american-hero/ (“Ulysses S. Grant: An American Hero”)