The week in review with Bill Katz, the editor of Urgent Agenda

 

La surprise d’octobre

La surprise d’octobre:

Everything that President Trump is talking about, from open borders to a breakdown in order, is coming to you in living color in the evening news. 

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How about that? I'm going with a French title for today's post. By the way, speaking Spanish does not really help me understand French. Italian yes, but French sounds like Russian to me.

As you've heard many times, watch out for the October Surprise, a late-breaking event that impacts, one way or another, our elections. Remember the 2004 terrorist attacks against schoolchildren in Russia that put terror on the front pages? Remember the 2008 "bank crisis" that derailed the McCain campaign? These two surprises had a lot to do with reelecting President Bush and unfortunately electing Senator Obama.

The October Surprise is happening in Paris. Have you checked the news lately? Who would have believed a few years ago that "students" would be destroying symbols of French history? Is France even French anymore?

The events in Paris have put the issue of unchecked immigration on the front pages. It confirms everything that President Trump has been saying since he came down that escalator. Even James Talarico in Texas is now saying that he stood against President Biden's border policies -- though no one can find any evidence of it.

Back to Paris. Uncontrolled immigration, high youth unemployment, and low birth rates are the perfect storm hitting Europe. These scenes could happen in London, Amsterdam, Rome, or any other city. It makes you wonder if Europe is doomed, as Luke Nicastro:

For the past few weeks, malcontents in their tens of thousands have taken to the streets of cities across the country, demanding -- something.

The demonstrations started with students, who claimed to be opposing poor conditions in schools and problems with the admissions system for higher education.

But the schoolkids were soon joined by trade unionists and radicals of all stripes, and the targets of their wrath expanded to encompass fuel prices and the rising cost of living, government budget cuts, a lack of attention to left-wing priorities, and, ultimately, the notion of authority itself.

Now protests, in the Gallic tradition, do not tend to display the primness and decorum one might find in a stateside “No Kings” gathering. But this weekend they degenerated into levels of chaos and violence unusual even by French standards.

•  The world was treated to the spectacle of looting, wanton property destruction, and brutal physical assaults across France; nearly 1,000 police officers and gendarmes were injured, and over 2,400 arrests were made between Saturday and Sunday.   The degeneracy was perhaps best summed up by an arson attack on the town hall of Limoges, a grand old building that survived two world wars before finally succumbing to the senseless spasms of the mob.

Then there is the issue of immigration. Whatever the ethnic composition of the rioters and looters -- I leave it to the reader to parse the various videos and documentary evidence circulating online -- it is clear that mass migration has produced profound and perhaps unbridgeable social fractures. Nearly 12 percent of the French population is foreign-born; of these 8 million or so residents, many lack either the desire or the ability to assimilate into a society that is far less capable of absorbing and integrating newcomers than our own republic. And these excluded millions are, in turn, keenly aware of the uneasiness of their position. The result is a situation of enduring hostility; moments of crisis therefore find large pools of opportunists with little attachment to the existing order and much to gain from its unraveling.

Mass immigration causes problems? As a legal immigrant who later became a naturalized U.S. citizen, I think the culprit is unvetted immigration. Then there is another problem. The left is taking advantage of this situation to inject itself and make problems worse. These marches are no longer about school supplies, but rather anarchists out to destroy everything in front of them, i.e. can you say "Portland," or read that line again about the destruction of a historic site? In other words, these "students" are not about making France great again, but rather destroying everything that made France great.

In a nutshell, everything that President Trump is talking about, from open borders to a breakdown in order, is coming to you in living color in the evening news. This is not the October Surprise that Democrats were hoping for.

P.S. Check out my blog for posts, podcasts, and videos.

 

We remember Whitey Ford (1928-2020)

We remember Whitey Ford who was born in Astoria, New York, in 1928 and died in 2020.    He was known as "The Chairman of the Board" when he pitched for the mighty Yankees, 1950-67.

Ford pitched in 11 World Series for New York:  10-8 & 2.71 ERA.   Overall, he was 236-106 with an amazing career ERA of 2.75!

Ford was selected to The Hall of Fame in 1974.   He was the ace of some of the greatest Yankee teams ever.   His teammates included Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Roger Maris and others.

And a great gentleman as well.

 P.S.  Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos. If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.

1976: "Disco Duck" on the radio

Back in 1976, the country was doing "Disco Duck:"

  1. Disco Duck, Part 1 -                                         

             Rick Dees & his Cast of Idiots (RSO

  2. If You Leave Me Now - Chicago (Columbia)                    

  3. A Fifth of Beethoven -                                       

             Walter Murphy & the Big Apple Band (Private Stock)  

  4. Play That Funky Music - Wild Cherry (Epic)                  

  5. Lowdown - Boz Scaggs (Columbia)                             

  6. (Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty -                     

                                  KC & the Sunshine Band (T.K.)  

  7. Still the One - Orleans (Asylum)                            

  8. She's Gone - Daryl Hall & John Oates (Atlantic)            

  9. I Only Want to Be With You - The Bay City Rollers (Arista) 

 10. The Best Disco In Town - The Ritchie Family (Marlin)  

"Disco duck" became one of the big novelty hits of all time.   It was perfect for the time, a nation in the middle of a stressful election looking for a little fun!

 P.S.  Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos. If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.

We remember Celia Cruz (1925-2003)

We remember Celia Cruz....with Fernando Hernandez, author......she was born in Havana on this day in 1925........

 P.S. Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos.

 

Listen to "Celia Cruz, a Cuban American success story" on Spreaker.

We remember Dizzy Gillespie (1917-1993)

We remember today one of the giants of US jazz.

Dizzy Gillespie was born on this day in 1917.  He died in 1993.

He left us a tremendous legacy of music and recordings for future generations to enjoy.   

Dizzy Gillespie also pioneered the fusion of Afro-Cuban rhythms with jazz music in the 1940's.

 P.S. Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos.

October 21, 1975: Another year to remember Carlton Fisk and game 6

It seems like the whole country was up watching game 6 of the 1975 World Series.  It was about 12:30 ET when Fisk hit the foul pole and ended one of the greatest baseball games ever played.

It took me a while to fall sleep because the post game celebration went on for a while.   I don't know if anybody slept that night in New England.

Cincinnati and Boston went back to work the next night to play game 7.  It was a pretty good game.  Yaz made the last out of the game and the Reds were the champs.

It was the greatest baseball moment of my generation.  

 P.S.  Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos. If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.

President Reagan and Grenada 1983

Back in October 1983, I was in Mexico City visiting some clients.

On the day of the Grenada invasion, I attended a scheduled lunch at a local chamber of commerce. There were several Mexican businessmen and politicians at my table.  

We quickly started talking about the news of the day; President Reagan's decision to invade Grenada.

Grenada was a small island where US citizens were attending medical school. Most people had never heard of Grenada or the Cuban efforts to turn the island into a communist beachhead, an important runway for Soviet MIGs.

However, the Reagan administration had their eye on Grenada for some time. They knew the strategic importance of Grenada and its proximity to The Panama Canal. 

As I sat down to have lunch, I found their reactions to be surprising, especially given Mexico's criticism of US support of the UK in the Falklands the year before.

I prepared myself for a lot of criticism of President Reagan and "Yankee imperialists." To my pleasant surprise, I heard the exact opposite:

1) One politician directly said: "Carter would have never done this! He would have been afraid";

2) A businessman said: "This is why I love Reagan....the man is "un lider", i.e. a leader;

My favorite one came from one prominent Mexican politician who gave me the thumbs up and said: Reagan 1, Castro 0!

After the lunch meeting, I walked back to my office trying to understand their reactions.

I came to one conclusion: People like to see US leadership and determination. They want a strong president because a weak US president is such a lousy alternative.

Thank you President Reagan for pushing Fidel Castro back and giving communism a major defeat!

 P.S.  Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos. If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.

When the normals say enough is enough

When the normals say enough is enough:

Political outrage seems to be everywhere, from social media to everyday conversations.

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Remember the kid in school who was always negative and complaining about everything? I usually avoided that kid, and maybe voters are starting to turn off all of this political anger, too. I think they call it “fatigue” as Scott McKay points out:

I was at lunch Wednesday with one of my non-political friends, and — as often happens, and I swear I’m not the one driving this — a topic of conversation turned political.

My friend brought up an exhausting pattern which, we agreed, is ramping up in both volume and frequency. Namely, that we as a society are jumping from one unhinged rage to another over things which don’t justify the level of vitriol and over-emotional screeching they’ve produced.

Four of these factored prominently in the conversation, but a fuller picture could include several more. Just this year we had the Renee Good fiasco, the Lindsay Clancy trial, the Cornell 7 orgy controversy, and now the Shane Gillis-gymgirl dustup.

My friend noted that in all of these cases — and, again, there have been several others — it’s generally women who have gotten most torqued up about the topic at hand, and in particular it’s a certain subset of women who are doing it. And TikTok and Instagram are full of rage-bait videos of people going berserk over things which either don’t merit such a reaction or where the truth is a whole lot more complicated than they’d like to make it.

And it was my friend, and not me, who suggested that none of these moral panics are organic, and that this burgeoning rage engine has already exhausted normal folks.

I think my friend is probably right. Outrage fatigue is a real thing. I think outrage fatigue played a role in Donald Trump’s 2024 election — though it was the fatigue normal folks had over the cultural aggressions of the radicals in society.

Whether it was Drag Queen Story Hour or trans kids or Tren de Aragua or the abuse of the FBI or countless other things demoralizing them, the normals had enough — and didn’t care what the aggressors had to say about how horrible a person Trump is.

As a normal guy, who loves politics and to share opinions, I understand that we have reached a point where all of this political rage is not normal. Once upon a time, I would get together with friends for lunch and our rage was about the umpire who missed too many pitches last night. Once in a while, a friend was angry because his girl got upset because he wouldn’t answer her text in 30 seconds. Or another time, a guy was mad because the apartments wouldn’t fix the AC on time. The normal stuff to get angry about.

Today, there is always someone at the table who wants to convince us that Trump is a threat to democracy and will cancel the elections. He becomes obnoxious when he won’t shut up or keeps sending negative texts about Trump. Most of us keep reminding him that our lunch is to talk about real stuff, not just Trump. He can’t let go. Trump is Hitler, you know, and came to power by winning an election.

Where is all of this going? I don’t know for sure, but I do think this fatigue is real. It’s one of the reasons that people are keeping their politics private, not putting political signs in their yard, and not talking to pollsters.

Furthermore, I hear from single guys that they avoid certain women who are just too political no matter how nice they look in jeans. And I hear from young men that they are dating girls from other countries because American college girls are just too political. As one said recently, I don’t go on a date to argue about Roe v. Wade!

Maybe normals like me have had enough with all of this rage! Or maybe some need to go see a psychiatrist and get Trump out of their heads.

P.S. Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos.

Political fatigue, Paris is the October surprise and we remember The Louisiana Purchase 1803.

 Political fatigue, Paris is the October surprise and we remember The Louisiana Purchase 1803.......