Some things should be beyond obvious. The idiotic campaign by left-wing Democrats to defund the police is a total failure. When you combine this with no cash bail and refusal to prosecute what the left considers to be minor crimes, and you have a complete disaster. Crime is surging all over the country and citizens are increasingly outraged.
Anyone who has ever had any direct experience with a homeless person knows two things. Some people are there because of reasons beyond their control. We should put maximum effort in helping them recover. But at least some of these people are there because they like it. This may be because of mental illness, it may be because of rampant drug use, it may be because they are just lazy, but they are there because this lifestyle appeals to them. When stupid politicians start offering free medical care, free aid, and subsidized if not free housing, the inevitable result is a rapid surge in homelessness.
We live in a country where employers are increasingly desperate to find anyone willing to work for them. For example, if you shop at Safeway, you will notice a table where you can apply for a job, on the spot. Contrast that with the days, not that long ago, when hundreds would line up for a handful of jobs.
The mismanagement of COVID is now beyond obvious. Even the CDC admits that none of the lockdowns, mask mandates or even vaccine mandates had much impact. The vaccines, developed because of the Warp Speed program pushed by Donald Trump, are saving lives, particularly among those most vulnerable. All over the world leaders are just ending COVID mandates entirely. They are finally realizing that the cost of the cure is worse than the disease.
But the most dangerous miscalculation is the failure to address the military aggression by Putin. When George H.W. Bush was President, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Bush united the world, but not Democrats in congress, and threw the Iraq forces out of Kuwait. Some would and did argue that we had no security interest in Kuwait, and they would be right. But we did have a security interest in letting the world know that we would not tolerate one nation invading another nation.
That all changed in August 2008 when Putin invaded Georgia. George W. Bush was to be out of office by January 2009, and Putin knew that Barack Obama would replace him. Putin knew Barack Obama would be no threat to his ambition. That is why was willing to take military action in Georgia. It was why Putin invaded Crimea, successfully, in 2014. It is also why he started planning his assault on The Ukraine shortly after Joe Biden became President.
Once again, the world is faced with a situation where someone like Putin is invading other countries and the world has tried to resolve this with sanctions guaranteed not to work. They tried that in 1939 and the result was World War II.
The situation is already escalating with Belarus allegedly threatening to send its jets to carpet bomb The Ukraine. We are close to the point where this could turn into another World War, meaning that several countries would be engaged in military conflict. Western leaders all over the world are asking themselves the same question. If they don’t confront Putin now, when, and how will they confront him in the future. The next time is likely to involved NATO country and that would involve NATO Article 5, which says that an attack on one member is an attack on all. Sound familiar. In 1939 the West warned Hitler that attacking Poland would start a war. How did that work out?
So far, financial sanctions have not been successful in stopping military aggression. Right now, Putin is extremely vulnerable in Ukraine. When I see those satellite pictures of a forty mile long Russian convoy I see two things. I see a serious threat to Kyiv, and I see an inviting target should any NATO country choose to seize the day. I cannot predict this. One has to wonder which is worse, Putin succeeding in taking over The Ukraine, or this setting off another war in Europe. Remember that if and when Putin is removed from power, his successor might be even worse.
One thing is certain, we need leaders who pay attention to the obvious. Something must be done to stop this type of military aggression. We need to remember that a President of the United States has tremendous power, for a reason, and it is vital to elect only people capable of handling that level of responsibility.
TDM