Good morning,
From time to time, I like to do a little survey of some of the craziest news over the past few weeks. It’s tough to keep track, but here are some you may have missed. In the interest of our collective sanity and positive mental health, I’m starting and ending with positives!
A feat that hasn’t happened in 126 years of baseball
It was a few weeks ago, but warrants repeating: When Joshua Baez was brought up from Triple-A Minor League Baseball by the St. Louis Cardinals, he swung on the first pitch he received. It was a home run. He followed this up with a home run in his second at-bat and another in his third at bat. Never before has someone begun their career in the major leagues with three straight home runs in their first three at-bats!
Outfitted with taser gloves?
The news gets weirder and weirder. Last month, we learned that ICE agents would be armed with gloves that produce an electric shock (less than that from a taser, but still a whopping 380 volts, according to the user’s manual) for crowd control and subduing disagreeable suspects. It's a technology that has not yet been adopted by very many of the approximately 18,000 law enforcement agencies in America. But our ICE agents apparently are on the cutting edge. I’m curious how much testing and analysis of effects went into this new arming of ICE agents. This new technology offers yet another tool in maximizing apprehensions, deportations and fear. In an Orwellian twist of Newspeak, these gloves have been described by ICE as “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices.”
We might want to spend a little of the ICE money on improving the substandard living conditions in the detention gulag for detainees that we have built.
Meanwhile, back in Washington, D.C.
That ballroom and associated security systems will cost taxpayers some $900 million. They're being constructed at breakneck speed, pending the Supreme Court’s determination of whether the work can continue without the appropriate congressional authorization. I suppose the plan is that it'll be increasingly difficult for the Supremes to change the facts on the ground — even though they purport to be textualists who apply the law irrespective of the real world effects of their decisions.
And there still doesn’t seem to be a remediation proposed for the reflecting pool fiasco that was rushed to completion through a no-bid contract to a contractor that clearly didn’t know what it was doing. After the expenditure of over $16 million of taxpayer dollars, the debacle stands as a monument to rushed decision making before an artificial deadline. As one may recall, Jeanine Pirro, U.S. Attorney for the D.C. District, previously claimed the damage was the result of “slime,” “perverts,” and “bastards.” Her office indicted former Olympic canoeist David Hearn for felony property destruction in connection with the peeling of the blue lining of the pool. Upon further review, her office had to back off on its indictment. In filing the dismissal, the U.S. Attorney’s office concluded that the situation was the result of “a botched installation.” The request for dismissal acknowledged that the damage could not be attributed to vandalism (much less vandalism by the defendant).
In another curious bit of news, some of the cost of all of this work to remake Washington, D.C. comes from the diversion of at least 30% of National Park entrance fees, to the tune of $90 million. This is while the parks are being underfunded during prime tourist season and staff has been cut 25% in our nation’s national parks.
Aircraft carrier design
President Trump is not happy with how the new generation of aircraft carriers will look. Apparently, they should more closely resemble World War II carriers, with the control tower toward the middle of the ship. That tower in more modern configurations is toward the rear of the ship, for buoyancy and weight considerations, as well as to create more space to park planes and improve safety. This change of design, along with a presidential instruction to go back to steam-powered launch catapults (over more modern electromagnetic catapults) will cost billions of dollars and result in significant delays in construction. But they’ll look better, at least in the eyes of the person whose opinion counts the most.
Nancy Mace — against naturalized representation
Forget the fight over the 14th Amendment and birthright citizenship. Now, Congresswoman Nancy Mace is doubling down, having introduced legislation in the House that would ban naturalized citizens from holding positions as members of Congress, federal judgeships, or any Senate-confirmed positions (e.g., the President’s appointments to executive office and ambassadors).
Congresswoman Mace, a candidate for governor of South Carolina, isn't the first to propose restrictions on foreign-born Americans holding federal office. Gouverneur Morris proposed such restrictions in the Constitutional Convention but his amendment was soundly defeated by the Framers, who wanted to encourage immigration.
James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and other formidable patriots also opposed any meaningful restrictions on immigrants. James Wilson — himself a Scottish immigrant — said in 1787 that such restrictions would result in “the discouragement & mortification [immigrants] must feel from the degrading discrimination now proposed.” An important consideration in the current political moment, and the Cato Institute offers a good discussion of the debate.
Ms. Mace’s proposal is another example of trying to categorize American citizens that defies the intent of the Founders and our democracy.
Nostalgic times — but not in a good way
As many of MAGA long for the placid vanilla days of the 1950s, at least one thing has turned back the clock. Lakes Mead and Powell, sources of meaningful amounts of the water needs of the western states, are now at their lowest levels since 1957 (prior to the filling of Lake Powell). In order to generate power, Glen Canyon Dam requires water levels of 3,490 feet. We’re currently at 3,520 feet. At 3,370 feet, water will cease flowing as well.
For a spin on how bad the depletion of the water table has been for the west, the classic Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner remains the seminal piece of reading.
Korean war games
NATO need not feel alone, as we're drastically reducing the extent of war games with South Korea, one of our most important and loyal allies. Why? Three primary reasons have been given:
- Apparently, we're rewarding North Korea for perceived good behavior. According to the President, he has a “very good relationship” with North Korea, and he is “not happy with the fact that the United States has, long ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military exercises with South Korea.” He goes on that they are “a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful.”
- It’s too expensive and the U.S. is paying most of the cost. “These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!)…”
- South Korea didn’t participate in the Iran War. South Korea did not “join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” So, apparently, there's a punishment aspect to this choice.
It's difficult to make sense for the seeming disregard for our long-standing ally, and the apparent unwillingness to invest in the preparedness of our 28,000 troops stationed in this geopolitical hot zone, apparently because of questions of cost — and the unwillingness of our ally to participate in a self-declared war that the ally did not ask for, nor was consulted on before its onset.
Make of this what you will.
Time for the “mercy rule” in Major League Baseball
Those of us who've followed sports for a while are used to the occasional blowout loss. Heaven knows that, as an Angels fan in the 60s and 70s, I have seen my share! But last week saw a record-setter: The Milwaukee Brewers, holders of the best record in baseball, shellacked the Seattle Mariners, not exactly lightweights, by a score of 22-0. This shutout tied the modern record, achieved twice before. But the most definitive shutout was in 1887, when the Philadelphia Quakers beat the Indianapolis Hoosiers. The Brewers’ achievement was the biggest shutout by a home team in modern baseball history (the others were road games). One has to go back 141 years to find a bigger blowout.
Have a great day,
Glenn
When he isn’t writing his column Thinking Things Through, Glenn Sonnenberg heads a real estate investment company and serves on several nonprofit boards. A graduate of the University of Southern California, Mr. Sonnenberg also received his J.D. from USC. He began his career as an attorney specializing in real estate and finance. Follow him on Substack here.
