A Thankless Job

A couple of posts back, I commented on how President Trump can never do anything correctly as far as Democrats, the legacy media, and various other elites are concerned. He is bad news no matter what he does, and reactions from the left to his response to Iran and his overtures to North Korea are further proof that Trump can't win.

In the Iran situation, he called off an air strike minutes before it began because he decided that the human cost was too great. The president thought that one hundred and fifty dead Iranians was not "proportional" to what Tucker Carlson of Fox News called "a broken robot." So much for the warmongering, wild-eyed maniac in the White House that is "temperamentally unfit" to be president.

Of course, now the chorus of critics claims he's indecisive, he's playing a dangerous game, he's giving mixed signals. Call me crazy, but I find the signal very clear--if you kill Americans, Iran, the next time will be different. But then, nobody asked me.

With North Korea, this president is breaking ground that was unfathomable even three years ago. We don't know if it's going to pay off, but there have been remarkable strides. Trump got them to the bargaining table; North and South Korea leaders are now talking to each other; and this past weekend, Donald Trump became the first sitting American president to step foot in North Korea. I find the newly minted breaks in the North Korean logjam under this president to be especially impressive. Democrats and media talking heads are not impressed, though. Because he actually seems to be making measurable progress with North Korea, the verdict from the lefties is in: Trump admires authoritarian dictators.

It's all very wearying. It must take a great deal of energy to constantly recast every presidential action as a doomsday event. It's time and energy that could be better spent getting the country back on track with infrastructure bills, a decent budget, immigration and healthcare reforms, focus on the opioid crisis, among other national priorities.

But listen to me, wishing that politicians would actually do their jobs. It's like waiting for the Democrats and/or the media to say "good job" to the president.

Pathetic, in Any Language

"All in all, Democrats spent far more time talking about how they would help illegal immigrants than about how they would help the voters they most need to win over--the white working-class Obama voters who pulled the lever for Trump in 2016."
- John Podhoretz

¿Viste el debate? No, yo tampoco. Oh, excuse me...what I meant to say was, did you watch the debates? No, me neither.

And I'm glad I didn't, because snips of it were trapped in a continuous do-loop of sound bites all the live-long day. Immigration seems to have been a big theme, with several candidates breaking into Spanish to address voters. Way to unify the country, Democrats. Pander to the illegals, not to the lawful citizens.

Do these presidential hopefuls truly believe that Americans--and I include Hispanic citizens--won't see through this condescension? You can call it patético, or you can call it pathetic, but everyone understands when they're being patronized. From what I've heard from the debate so far, I don't think President Trump has much to be concerned about when it comes to the 2020 election.

Is last night's collection of characters really the best we can do for presidential candidates? And, as if last night hadn't been painful enough, a second debate is being televised tonight. Nobody can tell me Americans aren't strong.

Iran, Iran, but I Got Nowhere

Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing. ~ Aristotle

President Trump knows better than anyone what will happen in the wake of Iran's attack on a US drone. No matter what course of action he takes after Iran's shooting down of a United States military asset over international waters, he will be criticized and condemned as a threat to national security.

If Trump takes action--any action--against Iran in retaliation for this blatant act of war, he will be blasted by Democrats and their media partners as a dangerous warmonger. If he chooses to take a wait-and-see approach with no immediate response, he will be labeled an ineffective windbag, a paper tiger whose word means nothing.

So, as usual in the current political climate, the president can't win. He never gets a moment's credit for the flourishing economy, the stock market boom, the jobs explosion, the foreign affairs accomplishments with North Korea and Mexico. You'll never hear anyone mention that he foregoes his annual salary--and I don't care how rich he is. It's his paycheck that he's giving up.

When he opens up and speaks to reporters, they use anything he says against him in the most negative context possible. The House of Representatives doesn't do a lick of work except try to destroy his presidency. His really is the loneliest job in the world.

It's true, the president causes a lot of his own problems. I could do with less of the petty drama and juvenile outbursts. But there's no doubt that I feel much better about the safety of the country than I did three years ago.

President Trump has nothing to lose. The knowledge that he will be railed against holds no fear for him. He's not a politician; he's the president. His habit is to follow whatever course of action he thinks best for the United States, often in a surprising manner. You'd think Iran would've noticed that by now.

Iran, shooting down a drone? Iran, going nowhere.

Executing a Protest

About twelve years ago, I was working in the Regulatory Affairs department at a medical devices company. The company's products were sold globally, and one of our customers was China. I had to become a notary public for this job because one of my duties was processing apostilles, the legal documents often required for international transactions.

At one point, we had a large sale pending with China, but my daily emails checking on the status weren’t being answered. My manager was constantly asking me for an update on the China order.

Finally, after about ten days, I received an email from a brand new contact in the PRC. It opened with the obligatory apology about being tardy. Then, with bone-chilling nonchalance, I was informed that recently "the minister of health was executed" and the necessary reorganization that followed had caused the delay. Moving right along, this most disturbing email of my life (so far) concluded with the statement that the signed documents were attached and a very polite "thank you." (You've got to love a happy ending.)

For a long while, I sat in stunned silence, rereading this message. "The minister of health was executed...." .That certainly explained why he was missing from the "cc" list. Just another day at the office in China.

I remembered that incident today as I watched video footage of the protestors in Hong Kong, fighting for their "rights"--which do not exist under communist Chinese rule. I admire the protestors' conviction, their courage, and their ideals, but I'm not optimistic about their success. China will win, and the protestors in Hong Kong will pay dearly--as a certain unfortunate Chinese minister of health would tell them, if he could.

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A Day Beyond Time

US Veteran Jack Gulman was 18 when he landed on Omaha Beach (AFP / G. SOUVANT)

Most of us probably have a memory in our lives that seem to stand outside of time. Whenever we think of it, the memory is fresh, vivid, and enduring. If we're fortunate, it's a good memory. We relive the details of that moment as though it is happening now. It's a life moment beyond the reach of time.

I'm sure the soldiers who survived D-Day seventy-five years ago today carry that life moment as though it occurred this morning. No doubt they have remembered it, the friends they lost, and the horrifying things they saw, every day of their lives. These fragile men in their nineties, many walking with canes or sitting in wheelchairs, were the terrified teenagers and young adults who stormed the beaches at Normandy. These soldiers, barely past childhood, by the strength of pure courage, sense of duty, and devotion to their brothers-in-arms, forced tyranny into retreat and rewrote the history of Western civilization.

There aren't many of them left, these treasured heroes. But they are indeed "the pride of our nation...the glory of our republic," as President Trump so sincerely praised them. To a man, they seem to reject the honor. Like all heroes, each one refuses the title and extends it instead to their friends who died. Yes, the fallen soldiers are heroes. But we know, all of us who have lived in freedom, comfort and prosperity because of their unimaginable sacrifices--we know the survivors are heroes, too. For they have led long lives of honor, goodness, and integrity despite their life sentence of remembering with brutal clarity that horrifying day--June 6, 1944. D-Day. A day beyond time.

A Book for the Season

“Show me the manner in which a nation cares for its dead and I will measure with mathematical exactness the tender mercies of its people, their respect for the laws of the land, and their loyalty to high ideals.”

 ~ Sir Wm. E. Gladstone

In between Memorial Day and Flag Day, coming up June 14, or perhaps by Independence Day on July 4, there's time enough to read Sen. Tom Cotton's fascinating book, Sacred Duty: a Soldier's Tour at Arlington National Cemetery. There is so much to learn within its pages.

In a past job, I was fortunate enough to work closely with a decorated Vietnam veteran who had once served as a member of the Old Guard, the military regiment that serves at Arlington. He shared with me a very small piece of what Senator Cotton's book explores in detail. For example, in answering one of my questions, my U.S. Army veteran coworker explained how the soldiers serving at a military funeral know the exact moment to begin folding the flag in perfect unison. 

For a more brief summary of the Old Guard's duties, read Senator Cotton's recent speech at Hillsdale College in Michigan. It's packed with little-known facts about both the Old Guard and what has been fittingly called our "national shrine," Arlington National Cemetery. Both the book and the synopsis are so worth reading--and remembering.

In Honor of Memorial Day

Facing Facts

Where was the howling media when Maxine Waters proved her ignorance by grilling bank executives about student loans? She obviously was completely oblivious to the fact that the government had assumed control of the loans ten years ago, under President Obama. Despite the fact that Waters currently chairs the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services and had made a complete fool of herself, the media couldn't move on fast enough from that news.

But Ben Carson, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, thought he heard "Oreo" instead of "REO" and he's the moron? I don't think so.

The blatantly left-wing mainstream media is "often wrong, but never in doubt." Talking points and favored narratives will be battered to death, despite the facts--which, as John Adams noted, are stubborn things. Although House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pronounced Carson "a disturbingly unqualified choice" to lead HUD, the fact is that Ben Carson grew up in poor and humble circumstances--a reality that earns him a rare qualification. Having spent part of his childhood in multi-family dwellings, Carson can understand the challenges that low-income residents face with an insider's perspective. He has walked the talk, an even more unusual qualification in Washington D.C.

Ben Carson has also surmounted his obstacles in life and achieved great success through his own intelligence and commitment to hard work. That fact may be the hardest of all for leftists to face.

Handling the Seasons

Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?
~ Fleetwood Mac

My mother celebrated her 68th Mother's Day today. She wasn't aware of it, but that doesn't change the fact.

How fortunate am I, a Medicare-eligible senior citizen, to have my mother still. She is now frail, no longer mobile or cognizant of current reality. But somehow, she is there. My siblings and I all see occasional flashes of her feisty personality and unique humor, and those moments remind us that Mom remains Mom--even at nearly one hundred years of age.

There are many life lessons to be learned in this final phase of our lives as her children. These are lessons of patience, of sacrifice, of continuously adjusting to the tiring length and challenging contours of a very long goodbye. There are lessons, too, of gratitude, of love, and of realization that a long life leads down a hard and demanding road that summons us to be stronger than we had imagined we were or ever could be. We find that we can do it, for our mother's sake. Only she, and God, know how many times she had to be strong for each one of us.

Her parents died in quick succession in their mid-seventies, when my mother was in her forties and raising a young family. I'm sure her grief was much harder for her to bear than we ever guessed, but she never wavered. She carried on and cared for us. My mother handled the seasons of her life with quiet, prayerful, steely purpose. She forged a road map through hardship for all of her children to follow.

Although the circumstances are very different for my siblings and I, it's our turn to do the same for her. We need to see her through her final season, knowing this is simply what Mom would do.

And for one more year, I get to whisper a "Happy Mother's Day" prayer across the miles to my Mom. Gratitude. It may be the very best lesson of all.

Even Closer

Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.

 ~ John Donne

Monday at work I learned that Lori Gilbert Kaye, the woman who was killed last Saturday at Chabad of Poway, was the wife of a physician at my organization. She had a close friend who is also one of our physicians, and one of the physicians I support at the office is in turn close friends with that grief-stricken doctor.

Thus the horrific ripple effects of this hateful violence have affected not only my home community, but my professional life as well. It’s a sad fact that there is no place to hide from the evil hatred that can corrode the human spirit. We can, thankfully, draw comfort from supporting one another.

In Monday's email at work, there was a company message to all employees that consisted of the following:

Aloaim iberch at akhila aihadit shlano

G-d bless our Jewish Community