Afghanistan, Yes, But Keep An Eye on Home

No question, the catastrophic, incredibly challenging, and clearly regrettable situation in Afghanistan deserves our primary focus for a number of reasons.  Among them, amidst the amazingly rapid Taliban take-over:  the pre-eminent safety of the several thousands of American citizens thought to still be in Kabul (and perhaps elsewhere in the country);  the safety of our now-five-thousand+  great, dedicated U.S. troops working 24/7 to provide the best security possible around the airport, and perhaps elsewhere; and then, of course, the Afghan citizens themselves (especially the women and girls, plus the former soldiers, police, and others who sided with prior American forces).  All are now in varying degrees of danger and dislocation, as that country transitions “instantly” from a form of democracy to repressive Islamic rule.

But as we watch, via media reports, the sad progression of Afghanistan from a more passive former friend to a likely terrorist-harboring foe, we must also keep an eye focused on events that will now be re-activating here at home.  The reason for that cautionary stance goes back over a decade ago to some prophetic words (warnings) uttered by a then-prominent Democrat operative, Rahm Emanuel.

That former Obama chief of staff and, later, mayor of Chicago, is perhaps best known and remembered for this stark quote from the early Obama years: “You never let a serious crisis go to waste.”  Reportedly, that quote may also have been spoken by Winston Churchill, years before, during World War II.  There is, however, fairly clear indication that Emanuel’s reference to the concept was more likely derived from the writings of Marxist Saul Alinsky’s, contained within his infamous (in the minds of non-Progressives) “Rules for Radicals.”  Emanuel first said those words publicly around 2008, as the “Great Recession” hit, and its meaning then, as now, was that a “crisis” may very well offer a unique opportunity to get something(s) done, politically, that one might otherwise not be able to achieve.

With that radical political admonition in mind, we should not simply assume, in spite of the current Democrat administration’s misinformed, naïve, or even negligent Taliban and Afghan Army & Security Forces miscalculation, as well as the accompanying colossal and grave humanitarian blunder, that the damaging national socialist (Marxist?) agenda of the political party in power will not move forward and perhaps rapidly so.  Just like the skill and stealth of a magician, while he or she has the audience concentrating on one hand or item, it’s the other hand that’s making the magic. But in this case, it’s not about magic, it’s about adverse political policies, that in more normal times, might very well not have the necessary votes and public acceptance to pass.  So, while our concentration, understandably, is on the breaking (and heart-breaking) situation in Afghanistan, that knowing third-eye in the back of our collective heads needs to be focused on what the Progressive Democrats are trying to make happen here at home, while we’re distracted by events far away.

Along with this Democrat administration’s self-induced ascending inflation; the travesty of the migration stampede at the border; the rampant violent crime in too many of our cities; the encouraged spread of Critical Race Theory in schools and elsewhere; COVID misinformation & masking (several meanings there!); their mislabeled “For The People” bill aimed at federalizing all voting procedures, robbing them from state control, as prescribed in the Constitution;  and even then on down in their priority list to encouraged participation of transgenders in women’s sports, their actual first order of legislative intent is the passage of the absurdly-excessive and misplaced spending contained within the so-called “infrastructure” bills.  Bills, plural, because the Democrats consider the follow-on $3.5-trillion bill to be somehow connected with the first $1.2-trillion infrastructure effort, both aimed at the unwanted and unneeded “greening” of America.

You see, there is actual infrastructure (roads, bridges, etc.), and then there is the phantom “human” infrastructure, which is camouflaging, aimed at social welfare, and, especially, government dependency, control, and future Democrat voting.  Spending enormous, treasury-tanking amounts of taxpayer (and borrowed) dollars, as with the encouraged southern border migrant rampage, all in an attempt to ensure Democrat control in perpetuity.  In this deadly serious game, they are playing literally for keeps.

Looking specifically, then, at the 2,700 page, $1.2-trillion “infrastructure” plan, the New York Post Editorial Board called it, simply, “a bad bill,”saying that “the only possible excuse its Republican backers have is the claim that it may help stop a truly terrible one – the $3.5-trillion social-spendapalooza Democrats will introduce next.”  Blasting the proposed bill, Senator John Kennedy (R-La.) said: “I realized pretty quickly that if you look up ‘stupid stuff’ in the dictionary, there’s a picture of this bill.”  The bill will, reportedly, not ‘pay for itself’ as Democrats claim (added taxes and borrowing coming). Worse, only about 25% (tops) of the $1.2-trillion is for “real infrastructure.”  Philip Klein, editor of National Review Online called the ‘bipartisan’ bill “a pathetic surrender (by Republicans) that has been built on a mountain of lies.”

Included within will be billions of dollars for subsidizing electric vehicles and for a network of charging stations across the country, all to back a technology Americans are understandably slow to embrace, due to cost and the limited distances electric vehicles can travel on a battery charge (which takes much longer to accomplish than filling up a gas tank, even a large one!).  And there is mandated funding for future technology to create a “drunk or impaired driver prevention device” for all new vehicles. It also calls for the technological application needed to help present young children from being left in vehicles on hot days. Those two items, when developed, could actually be very good potentially life-saving improvements. Then there’s funding to determine how to “cool down pavement in cities” (yes, you read that right) for, one presumes, heat abatement, one of the inevitable Progressive billions-of-dollars for environment/climate forays.  All of this at a huge expense, as the bill also includes study funding for the feasibility of imposing a “federal miles traveled tax” on vehicles.  Something we’d all look forward to!

There are included, as well, mega-dollars for Amtrak ($66-billion) and public transportation ($39-billion), even though general public use of those options is said to involve only about 5% of the American population!  One has to wonder about that huge, intended investment in Amtrak.  We’re not Europe.  People are either going to ride the train or they aren’t, when cars (or planes) are generally much preferred for convenient, depart anytime, point-to-point transport. But that’s all part of the environmentalist agenda: to flat-out discourage our vehicle use (except electric, of course). Among other catch-all funding categories, here are a couple of beauties:  $21-billion for “environmental remediation” (actually that’s what most of this is about), and $50-billion for “climate resilience and western water storage.”  Climate issues, you see, are all the fault of humans, in the eyes of elitist Progressives, who apparently neither drive, fly, or exhale.

This bill is better viewed, wrote The Wall Street Journal’s brilliant columnist, Kimberley Strassel, “as step one of President Biden’s Green New Deal, giving his appointees and federal bureaucrats tens of billions with which to remake the economy.”  And that’s the scary premonition: “remaking our economy.” Which means converting ours from a capitalist, free-enterprise system, into a Socialist-Marxist one, with top-down, increasing total enterprise absorption and control, replacing private entities with publicly-run ones.  And we already know from experience how potentially ruinous and inefficient that can and will be.  Bureaucratic power, control, and, thus, public dependence.  And in that regard, wrote Scott Johnson: “The bill similarly gives the feds unprecedented and centralized control over chunks of the economy.  Washington will now dictate rules in areas that have traditionally been managed by local authorities (such as drinking water), even as it muscles in on private-sector enterprises like broadband” (the bill contains major dollars …$65-billion…to expand such to underserved areas and individuals).

There is one other contested (or should be) feature of this initial “infrastructure” bill, and that is the underlining preference, not for equality of opportunity in selecting infrastructure construction contractors, but rather, now, for the recent Progressive flag-waving buzz-word: “equity.”  Translated, that means that throughout the bill, instructions are for priority to be given to the “socially-disadvantaged.”  Translation #2: minorities and women.  Clearly, white males will not be the first considered.  Obliquely, in this vain, a Democrat Representative from New York, prior to this contentious bill’s wording and discussion, reportedly actually claimed that: “our infrastructure is racist.”  That, we must assume, was most likely a complaint about the perceived condition of roads and perhaps other like structures, or maybe the history thereof, within “disadvantaged” communities.

Related directly to equity, back in March of this year, Mr. Biden and his Congressional cronies previously tried a mandated racial-divide with something called the “American Rescue Plan Act,” which offered debt relief funding to black farmers, but not to whites.  Brazen from the standpoint of equality, but apparently not for equity, and if it goes forward with this proposed infrastructure legislation, may very well be voided in the future by our federal courts.  You see, the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution (the latter, which to Progressive disappointment, is still very much in effect) prohibits the government “from trying to even the score by discriminating against whites and in favor of minorities.”  Equality mandates that infrastructure construction opportunities, such as these, should be awarded on the basis of expertise and merit, regardless of race, or gender, but it’s certainly admirable, or should be, it seems, to readily involve minority and female-owned companies and employees as well,  to the extent deserved, merited, and feasible.  We’ll just have to wait to see the actual language and mandates contained in the final bill, if passed.

Going back to the inflationary concern attached to this bill, and other administration spending actions, wrote Stephen Miran: “While the U.S. desperately needs improvements in roads, bridges and tunnels, the timing couldn’t be worse for inflation.  The administration was reckless in its stimulus efforts this spring.  The money spent on stimulus checks and overly generous unemployment benefits would have been far better spent building bridges and roads.”

As discussed at the start of this post, there are a great number of largely reckless initiatives currently simmering within the Democrat’s legislative cooker.  All Progressive, inflationary, and green.  And, we could add, foolish, if not harmful, and excessively controlling, as politically intended.  Do pay careful attention in the days ahead, perhaps especially so, to the unconstitutional efforts to federally absorb states’ voting rules and procedures, and with it, huge implications for the 2022 national election and well beyond (i.e., the very dangerous and purposely misnamed “For The People” bill).

Despite the ongoing media barrage, we must not let ourselves become so totally distracted by the unmitigated American disaster in Afghanistan, while so many other destructive legislative intentions now remain actively festering, echoing, and demanding action within our current political halls of excessive power.  This reminder: “Never let a serious crisis go to waste,” said Rahm Emanuel.

It’s vital, make that imperative, perhaps now more than ever, that loyal, nation-loving and protecting Americans keep a clear and focused “third eye” on the Halls of Congress, as we recall, ever so clearly, Emanuel’s prophetic 2008 admonition. Those of his party in D.C. certainly do. That clarion call means, to them, it’s time to take full home-field advantage of this mega-crisis. It’s time for action.

Know, then, without a doubt, as the Afghan ‘magician’ distracts you, that anti-America legislators and activists will, in all likelihood, now press forward with their desperate, incessant, and destructive attempts to “fundamentally transform America.”

 

(“Bad bill” quotes via nypost.com, Post Editorial Board, 8-9-21; Kennedy quote via nypost.com, Samuel Chamberlain, 8-10-21; Klein quote via breitbart.com, Joel B. Pollak, 8-9-21; Strassel quote via The Wall Street Journal, Kimberley A. Strassel, 8-6-21; “Control over chunks of the economy” quote via powerlineblog.com, Scott Johnson, 8-6-21; American Rescue Plan Act/Congresswoman claim quotes via nypost.com, Betsy McCaughey, 8-11-21; Inflation concern quotes via The Wall Street Journal, Stephen Miran, 8-9-21).