Stop Traveling To Bad Places

The death of Otto Wambier a few weeks ago is truly a tragedy for America, but it was preventable.  The US State Dept. offers an extensive warning against travel to the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea), which as it happens is about the least democratic country on the face of the earth.  That warning by the State Dept. is there because since 1996, at least 16 Americans, 1 Australian and 1 Canadian have been detained in the DPRK for “crimes” such as going short distances from their hotel without approval, taking photos of innocuous things without permission and bringing Bibles into the country in their bags.  Additionally, as the DPRK still recognizes only a cease-fire, it still considers itself in a state of active war with the US, and tries any US citizen under “wartime law”.  That may not be any worse actually than what they do to anyone else, but it should be enough to reinforce that it’s not a good idea to go there.

 One thing many people forget while living safely within the United States, where rights are guaranteed, is how different that is from most of human history and even large swaths of the World today.  Americans have no rights in the DPRK because no one has rights in the DPRK- even (and actually especially) the country’s own citizens.  According to multiple reputable media sources, Kim Jong Un fed his uncle to 120 dogs that had not eaten for 3 days in front of 300 senior officials in a process that lasted for about an hour.

 The US has numerous issues in dealing with the DPRK.  In addition to their regular and barbarous treatment of their own citizens, they continue to use any and all available resources toward the production of arms and particularly nuclear weapons, which they have now shown can reach all of Japan and likely parts of the US.  Despite nearly infinite sanctions against the country, and substantial sanctions against foreign governments providing aid to the country, they persist.  But as the DPRK is still armed with nuclear weapons and crazy, the US has never attempted an armed rescue of US citizens, which would be very likely to result in the deaths of all the prisoners before they could be reached, and re-start shelling (and a possible nuclear attack) on South Korea, Japan or possibly even the US.  In 2009, Bill Clinton was able to negotiate the release of two US citizens by traveling to the country personally.  This only accelerated the pace of the DPRK taking US citizens.  Ostensibly to repeat the media event of Bill Clinton in Pyongyang, 13 of the 16 citizens mentioned above were taken after Clinton’s visit.

 So the lesson for most of us should be don’t go there.  It’s a bad place- and there are bad places left in the World.  Perhaps the first and second citizens could have thought it might work out okay, but the 17th should be pretty sure that it might not.  And if you do go there, evidence has shown that the US government making a big deal out of getting you out leads to more people taken.  Over time, that means that the likelihood of the next person to enter being taken for “crimes” is exponentially higher than the last person who left, and the likelihood of the US government being able to come get you becomes substantially lower.

 Further, it side tracks what the US is able to do with regard to managing China- sometimes side-tracking half of the discussion time that could be used to discuss nuclearization of the Korean peninsula, kidnapping of Japanese fishermen and missiles fired over Japanese airspace with discussions about getting back a US citizen who thought this would be the “tourist trip of a lifetime”.

There is evil still in the World- and a lot of it is there.  Our country will do what it can for you and should continue to do so, but individual judgment is still an individual responsibility, and if you choose to enter the lion’s den, don’t be surprised at the consequences.

Mainstream Media or “Fake News”?

A few weeks ago, Stephen Colbert was up in arms over the President’s dismissal of CBS anchor John Dickerson – whom the President referred to as “Fake News” and then dismissed entirely when Dickerson questioned the president’s source for claims that Obama wiretapped Trump Tower.

To a lot of people on the coasts, this seems laughable and shocking that a president could be so dismissive of mainstream media while making completely unfounded claims of his own.  Nonetheless, it resonates with millions of people throughout most of the Midwest (an area bereft of major broadcast journalists).

Donald Trump definitely has made heavy use of “alternative facts”, but the backlash the mainstream media has used to counter (perhaps in defense of their own credibility) has only served to give weight to his assertions.  A look at the CNN homepage for the past two months yields a full transcript of SNL’s best digs on the White House- despite no affiliation between CNN and SNL parent NBC.  I counted three articles a few weekends ago that discussed anecdotal information that various Republican congressmen didn’t know before sending the partial repeal of Obamacare to the Senate this week, and yet there wasn’t an article outlining the bill’s full content in even terms.  The closest two articles to an overview of the bill on CNN as I wrote this were “Pre Existing Conditions: Pregnancy, Sleep Apnea Could Make You Pay More” and “Here’s a (Partial) List of All the Pre-Existing Conditions the GOP Bill May Not Cover”.  There’s no real up front mention of savings, what’s protected, or that this is a starter version of the bill sent to the Senate.  There isn’t much of an overview at all.  I wonder how any independent person could come to any sort of conclusion at all about the healthcare bill from reading CNN, or even understand fully what it is (rather than a few anecdotal things that it isn’t).

One of the largest reasons the President’s “Fake News” message resonated so well as President Elect was the very surprise that he had won the election at all.  For many in the Midwest, talking to their neighbors and friends, it seemed clear Donald Trump was doing well in their own polls of peers.  Many in the Midwest looked around and could see clearly that he was winning in their district weeks ahead of the election despite poll numbers on major news networks showing different outcomes- particularly in states such as Michigan and Wisconsin.  The fact that the polls misrepresented the actual vote gave many people grounds to distrust many of the major news networks as making any effort to present balanced facts – or even facts at all.

That may well have been bad polling.  In any regard, it’s given the President an opportunity to confuse the American people as to where to look for the truth, and it does appear that many of the networks – perhaps through attacking the President in response to criticism aimed at the networks – have played fully into his hands.  

165 days are over, but there are 1,295 more to go.  The public probably would appreciate journalism that starts with facts and overviews.  When everyone is yelling and pointing fingers, everyone is just noise, and if that’s how the next few years go- it’ll be the media and not the White House who will lose this war of words.

Trump or Comey, Who’s More Credible?

Comey’s testimony a few weeks ago didn’t necessarily open any new lines of questions or give any new answers that were all that different than what I think most people knew or assumed before- that James Comey was fired as FBI director for some combination of lack of loyalty to the President, or because the President simply wanted to devote less time to the Russia investigation (which then could be because it could lead to him, or because for this President, he feels a duty to defend his team members loyally even if they are wrong).

 The immediate conversation is about whether the President did or did not lie, whether Comey did or did not lie, multiple layers of unprovable statements and their intents, and some statements and questions about tapes (which both parties refer to but act as though they don’t have).  There’s no apparent smoking gun- at least not one that rises to a level of taking legal action against the President that wasn’t there before.  My immediate reflection is taking two individuals and contrasting their service and what that means for the direction of the country.

 Comey has been repeatedly described as a “showboater” and “grandstander”, and there may have been some cause for that.  A cynic’s view could be that he has a high opinion of himself.  Another could be that he has a high opinion of his ideals- or rather that he is uncompromising.   If that makes him a “nut job” that he has ideals that he values more than himself, that probably isn’t that much different than many of the best career civil servants.  His testimony struck the tone of someone who feels as though his credibility has been called into question, and wished to come off first and foremost as honest and doing his best in a bad situation.  There are plenty of people on both sides of the aisles who question his judgments and who’ve said that he had no business making his statements publicly in many of his most famous exchanges- each of which would more traditionally have been made by the Attorney General (a role that he also has a clear concept of having served as Deputy and Acting Attorney General), but in both cases where both a Democratic and Republican Attorney General had decided to recuse themselves.  One could argue that his job was made much harder by two Attorney Generals who had become part of the investigations they were put in place to prosecute.

 I am struck by the President’s complete inability to understand or manage such people in public service.  In his past career, being the leader meant he was the guy writing the checks, and people listened or he stopped writing the checks.  People wanted the checks, because that’s why they were there- for the paycheck, and if there was a bigger one out there, they might go for that instead.  The President puts a premium on loyalty.  Perhaps that’s because in business, it’s his against others’ business, or market forces or other constituents- and within the spectrum of his business, it is fine to have common ground and focus first on your own team (within the limits of the law).

But being President is different.  Of the next 50 job opportunities Director Comey will have, it’s quite possible that FBI director pays the least, and that’s probably true of 95% of all Senate-confirmed appointees.  They serve at the pleasure of the President, but most are there not out of a sense of personal loyalty to him, but because they believe his administration has values similar enough to their own that within it they can provide a level of service that they value more than the other job opportunities they forgo.  And when put to the test and forced to pick between any one man and their ideals, they very often pick their ideals.  So what I was most struck by during this testimony is how odd it was that the President thought firing Director Comey (or mentioning to him that he would like those investigations to away) would have any positive impact on helping the President’s agenda.  It showed me a fundamental lack of understanding as to why all public servants seek and keep their offices in the first place- and that made me wonder (as I have in the past) why he is also serving.  Why does personal loyalty matter if all are working in selfless service to the nation?  The media will spend the next few weeks on “gotchas” that aren’t “gotchas”.  What I would rather focus on are how the President and members of all sides of Congress choose with their words and actions where they place their own loyalty- to Americans, to their parties, or to their own factions?  What I saw from Director Comey was a guy that doesn’t always get it right, and he’s struggling with that.  I also saw a number of Senators looking for self-interested quote opportunities, and a President who still doesn’t even seem to understand what motivates the leaders of his own organization.