Friends ask me if I am making sense out of all the strange events in the world. The short answer is: No, I am not.

Let’s start with Afghanistan, the current hot topic. We should have gotten out 20+ years ago. Anyone with a passing knowledge of history and culture knows that Afghanistan is not a model proto-Democracy. Never has been and never will be. Terrible about the women and children, but they are not our responsibility. The only ones who are our moral responsibility are the many Afghans who supported us for 20 years. What are we doing to keep them from being slaughtered? Nothing.

Why can’t they be resettled as refugees? Instead, we have encouraged what are projected to be 2 million Central American illegals swarming into the US this year. We put them on busses and send them to the city or town of their choice. We provide food and shelter and free benefits to people who basically have arrived here by breaking our laws. We congratulate ourselves as humanitarians, even as we abandon our Afghan allies.

We have been “training” Afghans to defend themselves for 20 years, even though they have always been superb fighters. What the hell were we teaching them that their defense collapsed so suddenly and completely? My guess is that training sessions were heavy on the importance of “diversity and inclusivity”, BLM, CRT, and combatting climate change when nation-building.

We did not have to stay in Afghanistan this long. We had a clear shot at Osama bin Laden in his cave at Torah Bora, but declined to eliminate him because he was entertaining a Saudi prince who might have been killed as well. No one seemed bothered by the fact that he was visiting a terrorist. Why upset the Saudi’s? I guess a Prince is too valuable to lose.

China has to be thrilled by our inept handling of the exit from Afghanistan. As far as Xi is concerned, Taiwan is a breakaway province, much as were the Confederate States in 1861. Xi plays a long game. He will reclaim Taiwan when the time is most auspicious. That will be when the US is weakest and has least credibility with allies. The US is doing its best to provide that comfort. We are reducing the size of our once supreme navy, while China is rapidly increasing theirs.

Iran is also encouraged. Israel, take notice. Missiles may be coming to a border near you. Biden is anxious to repeat the mistakes of Obama who actually sent cargo planeloads of cash to appease the Iranians. If we are just apologetic to the Iranians, perhaps they will play nicer.

Perhaps this makes sense to the folks arguing for defunding the police, even as murders are skyrocketing in places that have started moving in that direction. After all, CRT and the 1619 Project teach us that the U.S. is a racist society. Surely that justifies a few more killings. The only thing is that it is more blacks being killed by blacks. Meanwhile, in certain West Coast cities, crimes like shoplifting are no longer being prosecuted. Retailers must be reacting with horror. Often the difference between profit and loss for a year depends on the level of “shrink”.

The Government is too busy with eradicating Covid to worry about killings. But no one can agree who should be vaccinated and when or with what. Additional shots are recommended, but only for some, and we are told that shots for the immunocompromised are not the same as booster shots for everyone else. The FDA, CDC, and the Administration cannot even agree on what should be done, so each state or city decides for itself, primarily on political grounds. Biden promised to “follow the science”, but the science depends on which scientist you ask. All I know is that when I check the figures each day, the infection rate is rapidly climbing towards its previous all-time high, and Israel’s rate is almost twice ours, even though Israel has been held up as a model of pandemic control.

Only China has no pandemic concerns, but we let them get away with lying about everything. There are those that say to just institute mandatory vaccinations as we have done for other dread diseases in the past is difficult to fathom. But then again, those vaccinations worked. Some insist it is an abridgment of liberty. Has anyone connected the dots when hospitals are bursting in Texas and Florida? I can’t imagine the confusion in families with young school-age children. Being a grade-school principal must be an impossible job these days. What are you allowed to do? What are you allowed to teach? What is demanded? What does your Governor insist on?

Biden beats the drum for testing, masking, and vaccinating. But he lets the 2 million refugees in without regard to where they come from or whether they have been infected with Covid.

If you don’t think that is inconsistent, how about his crackdown on the US energy industry, vowing to kill off hydrocarbons even as he urges Saudi Arabia to pump more oil in order to keep gasoline prices down. Opening up Iran will also result in more oil being pumped. How does that make any sense?

The US has jumped back into the Paris Accords on climate control that Trump exited. This will allow China and India to keep polluting for many years, while the US must hamper the industry that has generated so much economic revitalization over the last 2 decades. One of Biden’s first acts was to kill the pipeline that would have brought Canadian oil to the US, even though the Army Corps of Engineers pronounced it safe. Better to truck it in, which is far more expensive.

“Too expensive” is no longer a consideration in evaluating anything these days. Modern Monetary Theory has canceled the old silliness about money coming in must eventually balance money being spent. If the Republicans can afford wars and tax cuts for their supporters, the Democrats feel they can afford all the additional welfare they desire. Let the Fat Cats pay!

Meanwhile, the Fed keeps essentially printing more money in an effort to stimulate the economy, but the Fat Cats (individual and corporate) are building up a tremendous hoard of cash. The more inexperienced are investing in meme stocks, NFT’s, cryptocurrencies, and other dreams of making a fast buck. Every single measure of stock market excess has been signaling danger for over a year, but who wants to miss a party that goes on and on? It is intolerable to see your dumb neighbor get rich while you miss out. When the day of reckoning comes, and sanity returns, it will be only the Fat Cats left with cash.

The “greatest nation that ever was or ever could be” is now so politically polarized that no one trusts the Government, politicians, or the usual sources of information. Instead, most people rely on social media, which is censored by organizations with their own agendas. Anyone can say what they want, as long as it does not conflict with the received wisdom of the platform’s sponsors. The argument is that we want to suppress hate speech, but it is OK in a Muslim mosque to preach their brand of hatred.

The Democrats have razor-thin margins in both Houses of Congress, yet they intend to pass the most sweeping legislation in the country’s history by resort to a parliamentary trick, claiming a national mandate to “Go bold”. This will lead to a catastrophic rise in the national debt and most likely a large surge in inflation, but no matter. The Republicans act irresponsibly when in power, why shouldn’t the Democrats when it is their turn at the trough?

Nutty ideas are the grist for the discussion mills of our times. This morning’s NY Times attempted to sort out the confusion on when and to who to give booster vaccine shots. One “expert” said it was “immoral” to give a third shot to people who had already had two when there were so many people in the world who had yet to have one.

“Immoral”? Is it immoral for us to eat food and live in comfortable houses and get medical attention or educate our children when there are so many hungry in the world, so many without shelter, without doctors, and without schools? What is the “expert” suggesting? “To each according to his need from each according to his ability” has been tried before and been a notable failure.

So, can I make sense out of all that is going on in the world? No way.