Weekend wrap-up 7/7/15

Over the weekend, Cincinnati decided to jump back into the fray of racial tensions despite significant progress since the April 2001 riots.  Initial reports talked about a "mob" (translation, group of African-Americans) who punched a Cincinnati police officer (translation, "white" officer).  The mob had been rioting and police arrived on scene to deal with the situation.  Now reports indicate the "mob" was in response to an prior altercation between one of the mob and a white male.  Immediately whites began to question why the police were not calling this a "hate-crime" or "anti-white crime".  Info Wars published today a post showing the original police report identifying the incident as "anti-white" but official CPD and city hall are not calling this a hate crime.

To some, this affirms the bias in media reporting.  To others, this affirms Cincinnati's rampant crime problem (even though during this same period, Chicago had over 50 shootings resulting in 9 deaths).  From what I can tell from the reports, it appears the white "victim" was running his mouth and using vulgarity towards one of the blacks.  I'm assuming since this was at Fountain Square, either alcohol and/or drugs had been consumed by both resulting in punches being thrown and the victim being choked.  Racial tensions not being the best (especially after the media's coverage in the last year), the fight resulted in multiple people engaging in violence.  As politicians, city officials and the media try to assess blame one thing remains constant…people are afraid Cincinnati is more dangerous than ever.

Over the weekend, my favorite former CNN Anchor, Lynne Russell, and her husband were attacked by a would-be robber in a hotel in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  A gunfight resulted in which the robber was killed and her husband was shot three times.  Gun control advocates see this as a call for more stringent laws while gun rights advocates see this as proof why concealed carry should be allowed in all 50 states.  However whichever side of the argument you fall one thing is the same…more fear that the world has become more dangerous.

I hadn't really planned on writing about either event until reading the latest Rasmussen poll.  According to a poll published yesterday, fifty-two (52) percent think the US is a more dangerous place today than it was before 9/11.  John Mueller at the Ohio State University and the Cato Institute published a report back in April 2015 looking at all of the terrorist attacks in the US since 9/11.  There have been 61 cases resulting in 15 deaths (12 soldiers killed at Ft Hood and 3 civilians killed at the Boston Marathon).  That's it, 15 deaths according to the report.  The rest of the "attacks" were either unsuccessful or thwarted in advance.  Yet people are convinced the US is more dangerous than before.

Let's look at 9/11.  There were 2,997 victims (246 on the four aircraft that crashed, 2,606 in the World Trade Towers, and 125 at the Pentagon).  These deaths sent US troops into 2 different wars that lasted longer than any other US wars.  In comparison, 2001 there were 17,448 fatalities due to drunk drivers yet people are more afraid of a terrorist attack or random armed attacker than they are from a drunk driver.

If crime and terrorism aren't your thing, then the economy could be giving you sleepless nights.  The Greek economy has defaulted and may mean the end of the European Union.  Depending on how Anglica Merkel navigates this mess, the US may or may not be drug into keeping the EU afloat.  Things don't look better if Merkel is successful for China (yes, that up and coming economic superpower) just had a stock market crash seeing $3.2 wiped from the value of Chinese shares.  It makes the Greek crisis look infinitely more manageable.

And of course the US has its own economic crisis in Puerto Rico.  Even if the crisis is successfully mitigated (note I said mitigate, not avoided), Mr. Obama has set the stage for more economic woes with his mandatory overtime for salaried employees and support for raising the minimum wage to $15.  Employers are not going to be able afford mandatory health care + mandatory paid overtime + a $15 minimum wage.  Looks like more part-time employees, contractors and robots in our immediate future.

What all of this means is we are not going to be able to look to our government and elected officials to fix these problems.  We need to remind ourselves of the family and friends around us that aren't shooting holes in one another or planning to blow something up.  Keep those family and friends safe and focused on doing good.  No, this isn't some type of self-help psychobabble.  It is a practical strategy for weathering the next several years.  If we watch too much news or listen to too much talk radio, we will become paralyzed with fear and become incapable of action.  And that my friends is how they plan to win.

The blurring of current events

As 2014 winds down, the events of the world seem to be moving faster.  When things move faster, we sometimes see things as blurred rather than clearly.

Take for example all of the electrons that were needlessly during the Sony hacking story.  At first, Americans did not understand they were supposed to be upset that North Korea had hacked a the entertainment division of a Japanese corporation.  Americans were far more entertained by the scandalous content of the leaked emails rather than by how these emails had been obtained.  The likely culprit was North Korea since their president was insulted by his fictional assassination in the movie "The Interview".  The connection did not seem to resonant at first with the media and public.

Sony's Amy Pascal was far more fascinating to Americans.  She came off looking like a backstabbing phony insulting the very people who were making money for her division.  Things were looking bad so Sony Pictures had to lawyer-up in an attempt to stop the media from sharing everything the hackers had leaked.  At the same time, the FBI was the first government agency to announce that yes indeed, North Korea was to blame (albeit a week late).

But things began to take an interesting turn.  North Korea is not known for having a sophisticated cyber-warfare ability, even more telling was the fact that the servers used to hack Sony Pictures were not in North Korea at all but China.  When the White House asked China for their help in tracking down the hackers, they received a non-answer from Beijing.  A fair question is, why wasn't China a suspect especially given the number of cyber-attacks launched against the US (and the former "pivot towards Asia" strategy by the US)?

Strangely, had this been say China or Russia the calls for taking action would have been much louder.  If this were somehow or other a ruse to get the US and North Korea into some sort of a conflict, it has fizzled thus far (despite North Korea's threat to attack any theater showing "The Interview" in a 9/11 style attack).  Sony did pull "The Interview" at first but when their stars started to grouse, Sony released the movie via the Internet (from the reviews, probably just as well).

The story became blurs though as US headlines were grabbed by the assassination of NYPD officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu by a gunmen allegedly set on killing officers in retaliation for Eric Garner (who had been choked to death by a NYPD officer who was not indicted).  The situation between NYPD and Mayor de Blasio has deteriorated to the point where the officers attending the funeral for Officers Ramos and Liu turned their backs en masse on their mayor.  NYPD officers are now allegedly ignoring petty crimes for fear this might be a set-up for another assassination attempt.

Meanwhile other officers have been slain in Florida and an unsuccessful attempt in Durham, NC.  Police had already been vilified by shooting of Michael Brown (Ferguson, MO) and Tamir Rice (Cleveland, OH).  Distrust between the public and those sworn to protect them hasn't been this low since probably the Civil Rights era.

As I've said before, wouldn't this though be a very interesting way to manipulate the US for if matters continue as they seem to be headed, martial law for at least New York is not inconceivable.  If martial law ends-up getting imposed, then it will escalate as more and more Americans become concerned of the probability of martial law being imposed across the nation.  What an awesome way to take our mind off of foreign matters.

While your mind gets blurred by that thought, an interesting thing happened on the way to the Christmas break.  Mr. Obama took the first steps to normalizing relations with Cuba.  (It has always puzzled me why once the Soviet Union fell that the US did not reach out to Cuba.)  At first, this looked like an excellent move to trump Russia's increased military activity in this hemisphere.  But then Mr. Obama announces that Iran has the opportunity to become "a successful regional power"?  WTF?

After the history the US has had with Iran (not to mention the US citizens being held hostage by Iran), now Mr. Obama wants to make nice and is even talking about a US embassy in Tehran?  Well if normalizing relations with Cuba was to be some kind of check on Russia, the overture to Iran has had just the opposite reaction from Moscow.  Russia may halt any bilateral cooperation in regards to Syria and Iran's nuclear program.

If you haven't started scratching you head and rubbing your eyes, then ponder for a moment that while Mr. Obama "celebrates" the end of the war in Afghanistan, the US has quietly been increasing troops in Eastern Europe (as part of the NATO rapid reaction force) and Western Africa (to deal with the ebola outbreak).  Russia has not pulled any of their forces out of Ukraine and are now fielding ballistic missiles mounted on rail cars.

My conclusion is we are being manipulated by information overload to avoid a clear understanding of what is going on.  We can't worry about things overseas if we are worried that our own police force may is out to get us (or vice versa).  We can't worry about a potential war with Russia if our minds are being occupied by salacious tales of our favorite celebrities by sent by movie studio executives.  And just in case you may still think we are going to war, then you won't be once you pay less than $2.00 per gallon at the pump (thanks to Saudi Arabia wanting to stick it to Russia's oil production).  Yes, speed does blur everything.