Ebola Continues to Reveal Institutional Failure and Mistrust

Yesterday, a Maine nurse returning from West Africa where she was treating Ebola patients refused to quarantine herself. She insists she is not sick and the government has no power to hold her in quarantine against her will. She has a point, except the point she's making will ultimately defeat her ultimate goal, which is to ensure safe travel to and from Africa for doctors and nurses to help treat the Ebola outbreak. All her uncooperative attitude will do is ensure bipartisan support for a full travel ban, to include doctors and nurses. You may go treat Ebloa, but you may not come back until you've demonstrated you are disease free.

It is unbelievably arrogant for the Director of the CDC, this nurse or any other medical expert to assume that the science of Ebola is settled and that they "know all there is to know about Ebola." The Greek term for this kind of thinking is "Hubris," and it usually precedes a tragedy. Ebola is "extremely difficult to contract," yet a measurable percentage of health care workers both here and abroad, using established CDC protocols, have nevertheless contracted the virus. They are in direct contact with Ebola patients, yes, but they are also supposedly the best equipped and trained to handle the virus. The fact that these experts continue to infect themselves is disconcerting to the rest of us. Enter this nurse. We don't know who she is, or whether she was well trained to handle the virus. We don't know if she followed the proper protocols, or even whether the protocols are truly effective. We don't know whether the virus has changed in some way that makes it easier to spread. All we do know is that we have someone who is potentially infected, who was in direct contact with dying Ebola patients, came home with a fever and now insists that, in her medical opinion, she is not sick, and should be allowed to have cocktail parties, ride bikes and shake hands. Ok, fine, but lets look at this in another context.

What if, just like the last doctor returning from Africa to New York, she's wrong. Ebola is not the flu. I am just getting over the flu. My daughter gave it to me. She got it in school because some parent thought it was ok to send her feverish, coughing child to school. That child coughed on mine, who contracted the virus. That parent was willing to risk my child's health and mine and, in fact, every family's in that school so that she could send her child to school that day. I am not happy with that parent, to say the least, as I take yet another steroid pill and puff from an inhaler. The flu causes death in 1 in 200,000 cases.

Ebola causes death in more than 70 percent of cases. So, out of 200,000 infected, 140,000 people would die, not just 1 poor soul. If you're wrong about sending your kid to school with the sniffles, you spread a flu that, more likely than not, will just make your neighbors and their children unhappy for a week or so. If you're wrong about whether you contracted Ebola while ministering to sick patients in Africa, you kill 7 out of the 10 people you infect upon your return. You infect your child and he or she infects her friends in school and those friends go home and infect their siblings and parents. You are then responsible for an outbreak that will kill those children and their families. It is not simply "relying on the science." It is playing a dangerous game with the lives of your friends, family and neighbors.

So, are we overreacting? The problem we have is that Doctors Without Borders and the CDC have not demonstrated competence in containing this Ebola outbreak. In Africa, the disease continues to spread at a geometric rate. Whatever they are doing has failed and governments are about to collapse. Moreover, the healthcare providers treating these patients are themselves getting infected, even here in the United States where the protocols are supposed to be the best. On top of that, the government continues to lie to us about its plans to contain Ebola. It was reported yesterday, for example, that the Obama administration is putting in place a plan to import non-citizen Ebola patients into the United States for treatment - at a cost of $500,000.00 per patient. The White House flatly denied the report, but a memorandum from the NIH states plain as day that they are putting plans in place to do just that.

Lies, incompetence and Hubris. All the ingredients are in place for a total fail. It is not unreasonable for people to continue to fear that this catastrophe soup our experts and leaders are stirring will soon begin to spill over. Until a full travel ban can be put in place, states should continue to insist on a full 21 day quarantine for all travelers entering the country from those regions of West Africa - especially the healthcare workers who we know for a fact have been in direct contact with the disease.

Malaise; and Obama's Crisis of Confidence

It is remarkable how history tends to repeat itself. My wife and I were watching two speeches on youtube and discussing the general malaise that faces our nation. (She gets co-author credit for this post). The first was Jimmy Carter's "Crisis of Confidence" speech given in 1979, shortly before he was destroyed in the Presidential election by Ronald Reagan. In it, President Carter gives a compelling, moralistic speech that, apart from sounding occasionally preachy, fully explains the problems Americans were facing in 1979. We are facing almost all of the same problems now. President Carter's solutions are similar if not identical to those espoused now by my liberal friends. They are full of heart, but will ultimately prove ineffective.

The second speech Liz and I found remarkable, especially given the backdrop of today's news, was Ronald Reagan's "A Time for Choosing" speech given in 1964 in support of Barry Goldwater's election bid against Lyndon Johnson. The thing you take away from Reagan's speech is this; the world has not changed that much in 50 years. Reagan was a serious man, and his message is serious. We have the power to choose between two fundamentally different philosophies. We can rely on ourselves and our neighbors to weather this storm and become better as a nation, or we can cede that reliance to a central government who will make the tough decisions for us.

Both speeches are really excellent and are worth watching, even if you've already seen them. It is worth the time to carefully review the dichotomy of views and see the incredible similarities between then and now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kakFDUeoJKM.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXBswFfh6AY.

We face what seems to be an unprecedented set of challenges. We can take some comfort in knowing that the challenges really are not "unprecedented," nor are they any worse than other significant crises we've faced in our history. It is how we will deal with those challenges, however, that will define us and our history for generations to come.

President Obama, unlike Presidents Carter and Reagan, is not up to the task. In many ways, he is just like Jimmy Carter, but Carter had more resolve. Carter in his speech looks like a beaten man. He looks exasperated by the politics of inaction. He is disappointed in the "greed" of the American people. He is seemingly in touch with ordinary Americans who have directly voiced to him their extreme discontent with his leadership. He is not so out of touch as to believe that he has done a good job. President Carter, like President Obama, had given up. He had squarely placed the responsibility for America's problems on Americans themselves which, while intellectually excusable, is not the message a true leader sends to his wards.

I have to say that, like today, the "crisis of confidence" was not created by Jimmy Carter and his policies. America's problems had been building for generations. Likewise, President Obama is not to blame for every woe facing our nation. But he didn't do anything about our woes either, nor did he really try. His presidency will have fueled the fire of self-doubt, division, and malaise that burns us now and will continue to burn us in the future. Consider how much worse President Obama's two terms have been when compared to President Carter's four years.

President Obama oversaw a government that, like Nixon's, used the IRS to target ordinary Americans because of their political views. Lois Lerner has taken the 5th, Obama and Holder have stonewalled the investigation, but the damage was done. Whatever faith Americans had left in the IRS and their absolute right to free political speech, they no longer believe that. Between that and the NSA monitoring every communication in the world, Americans have felt a chill on their speech emanating from our government. That chill is designed to maintain the status quo, and it is effective.

Likewise, while the President was asleep, at a fund raiser, or playing golf, an American ambassador and his dedicated protectors were ambushed and killed because of an insensitive video mocking muslims - or was it a terrorist attack to commemorate 9/11? We will never know because his administration has prevented the truth from coming out. Fine, but we all know that on that night, Obama was either in command and let everyone die, or he was not in command because he was otherwise occupied with something he felt was more important than an attack at the Libyan embassy. Our ambassador was sodomized before he was killed. Obama won't even tell us where he was at the time.

Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine and has carved off big sections of it for Russia. President Obama told the Russians that he would "have more leeway" after the election. That obviously meant that he would be able to cast a blind eye to any Russian territorial ambitions. I promise you that this menace will have our full attention at some point in the not so distant future.

Obama ordered a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq. That was unwise, and it led to the emergence of ISIS. We will now have to send troops back to Iraq, without a beachhead, without a base, to fight a menace that could've been held in check.

For the first time in our history, we now have Ebola on our shores. While Obama and his administration continue to downplay the risk, there is a risk and any failure to recognize or mitigate that risk will result in total catastrophe. This is what is commonly referred to as a low probability/high impact event. It is unlikely that we will have a serious Ebola outbreak in this country but, if we do, it will be catastrophic to our infrastructure and our way of life. History will be told in terms of "before Ebola" and "after Ebola." Handling such a risk requires incredible skill and dedication which, as polls show, the vast majority of Americans believe President Obama lacks.

Perhaps Jimmy Carter was right in 1979 and Americans faced a crisis of confidence fueled largely by their own insecurities. I don't think that was the case, but I'm willing to entertain the argument. What we face now is a President who is facing his own crisis of confidence. He knows he is not up to the job. He knows that he lacks the skill and the intellect to guide America through these crises. He knows he talked a big game but, in the end, he just couldn't deliver. It is a shame, because crises that were at one point manageable will now become a fixture of our fate, and only grace can save us from ourselves.

What the Elections Won't Change

Election day is approaching. The attack ads are filling the airwaves in every state. We are all being urged to go stand in long lines to exercise our Constitutional right to vote. It appears that the Republicans will take the Senate, but not by a huge margin. Republican candidates seem to be struggling in places like Georgia, where Democrats haven't been competitive in a state-wide race in almost 20 years. In the post election analysis, if the Republicans again underperform, it will almost certainly be because the party has not articulated any national or even regional agenda of any kind. "Not Obama" is every candidate's election strategy. So, one must ask the question; "what will change if the Republicans win"? The answer should be obvious - not much.

1.  Obamacare will not be repealed.  

The Republicans will not gain enough seats in the Senate to override a Presidential veto. As a result, Republicans can do anything they want to try to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but it will be vetoed. They would have to be committed to shutting down the government, again, to cut funding to the law which, as we already know from past efforts, is not an effective weapon. Most Republicans are not even campaigning on the issue. For better or for worse, the ACA is here to stay.

2.  The border will remain porous. 

Among the many very scary problems we face is the wide open southern border. Every threat we face is made exponentially worse by the prospect of that border being used by our enemies to hurt our nation. Beyond the mere administrative and economic damage caused by the open border, we cannot rule out the possibility, or even the probability, that someone with Ebola or Smallpox or chemical weapons will hide themselves in a bale of marijuana, gain entry, and attack us. Republicans in the Senate will not control the border. "Comprehensive immigration reform"will not be passed because President Obama has demonstrated a complete unwillingness to work with the opposition on this issue. As a result, nothing will change, and we will still be at risk.

3.  We will still be at war with ISIS.

There is no support in the Republican party for a withdrawal from the war against ISIS or for expanding the war in such a way as to guarantee success. Even if there were, President Obama is not changing his strategy, and he is the Commander in Chief. We will continue to flounder in the Middle East, making the same strategic mistakes we've made for 20 years now. ISIS will continue to march and continue be a destabilizing threat.

4.  Taxes will remain high.

Republicans always run on the issue of tax reform, but they rarely actually act to reform the tax code. Even if there were support to make the types of changes to the tax code that are necessary to have a meaningful impact on our economy, the President will still veto the bill.

5.  The economy will continue to stagnate.

This country needs manufacturing jobs. Manufacturing jobs are good jobs, high-paying, and generally stable. Manufacturing is the key to production and production is the key to a strong economy. Part time jobs in the service industry cannot replace the manufacturing jobs that moved to Mexico and China. In order to get those jobs back, our government is going to have to lower taxes, reform labor and employment laws, and incentivize companies to move to or remain in the United States. None of these things is going to happen after this election. President Obama is committed to organized labor and committed to keeping taxes high. These are idealogical firewalls for him and the many Democrats who will remain in Congress. As a result, our economy will continue to grow at a snail's pace well into the future.

Everyone Lied (Except Bush) and People Will Die

Since 2007, the liberal and media establishments have been excoriating the Bush administration for failing to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. They accuse the former President and his administration of sending the nation to war on false pretenses. "Bush lied, people died," was their battle cry. Democrats won two Presidential elections pushing the narrative that Bush had dragged the nation into an illegal war to ferret out fictitious weapons.

Yesterday, it was disclosed that ISIS used chemical weapons on the Kurds in Kobani - in Iraq. Someone lied, that is for sure. Someone or some groups profited in terms of both wealth and power by lying, that is also for sure. Some politicians grabbed power on a false premise. We know that for sure too.

But it was not George W. Bush.

The fact of matter is, we didn't immediately find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq because they were well hidden and we didn't look hard enough. ISIS, which is partially made up of the remnants of Saddam Hussein's military, knows exactly where those weapons were hidden. Why wouldn't they? Saddam's generals and commanders were busy hiding those weapons in anticipation of what at the time was an imminent U.S. invasion of Iraq. It should have been no surprise when, several months ago, ISIS uncovered an old cache of those chemical weapons with the help of Saddam's displaced military leaders. The Muthanna complex was ground zero for Hussein's chemical weapons production. ISIS seized that facility and everything in it, including 2500 "degraded" mustard gas rockets. We were told by the Obama Administration that there was absolutely no way ISIS would be able to convert these "deteriorated" weapons into anything useable, notwithstanding CIA communications to the contrary. Saying that the administration was "mistaken," is too generous a description, especially considering Mr. Obama's decade-long evisceration of Bush as a "liar."

Now we are seeing the worst case scenario taking shape. The Islamic State, fanatically committed to killing everyone in the world who does not submit to them, now has its own weapons of mass destruction. It is only a matter of time before they are used on someone other than the Kurds. The false narrative, cynically peddled by opponents of the Bush administration for political purposes, has now compromised our nation's security in the most serious of ways.

We know that Saddam Hussein had a vast chemical stockpile prior to the first Gulf War. We know he kept a great deal of that stockpile, even in the face of UN weapons inspections. That stockpile contained the most dangerous and deadly chemical weapons. Hussein possessed Sarin and VX nerve gasses, along with the mustard gas used yesterday. The continued belief that these weapons do not exist and are not going to end up in the hands of ISIS is just wishful thinking, and more people will die as a result.

The Battle Royal

In Ralph Ellison's 1952 short story, The Battle Royal, a young black high school graduate is invited to give a speech before the old white men in his local Southern community. He is understandably excited and prepares to give the greatest speech he could possibly deliver. When he arrived at the host's house, he was shuffled back into a smokey back room, filled with old drunken white men, a few naked women and eight other young blacks. There was a boxing ring. He was told that, in order to give his speech, he would have to fight the other black boys in a bare knuckled, bloody, vicious brawl, nearly to the death. And he would have to do it blindfolded. The young man wanted to give his speech. He wanted to perform to give voice to other young men. He wanted to live up to his grandfather's expectations. So he got in the ring and he fought. He fought until he didn't know the difference between his blood and his sweat. He fought, keeping the ultimate goal in mind, and he fought to entertain the rich white men who had commissioned the event.

The winner received a calf-skin briefcase and a scholarship to the "negro university."

Todd Gurley is a football player for the University of Georgia. He is perhaps the best to ever play at the running back position. Watching him is a delight, even for fans of the opposing team. Every week he risks injury, health, and concussion. He fights fear and self-doubt, all to entertain us, and maybe make it to that next level. Now, his collegiate football career is probably over because he took about $400 to sign some autographs. Under the arcane, absurd rules of the NCAA (the governing body for collegiate sports), Mr. Gurley forfeited his "amateur status" by taking the money.

Todd Gurley didn't rape anyone, he didn't punch out his wife or girlfriend in an elevator. He didn't steal the $400. He signed some autographs. The NCAA, for its part, made $912.8 million, yes, million dollars off of student athletes last year. There is precious little information about how much of that nearly one billion dollars the NCAA gives to charity. It is not much. The University of Georgia makes about $20 million a year off of football ticket and concession sales. It is projected to make another $9.4 million this year off of television revenue. None of this takes into consideration the jersey sales, pictures and soft money raised from using the names and likenesses of its football players. And Georgia is no different than any other large university.

The conferences make money too. The Southeastern Conference made $242 million last year, distributed to each of its 14 university members. Mike Slive, the Commissioner of the Southeastern Conference raked in $1.6 million just under the terms of his employment contract. 

Todd Gurley made $400.

Of course, what would Saturday be without the sponsors. We have the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, The Fed Ex Orange Bowl, The Allstate Sugar Bowl. There is no shortage of commercial enterprises who are lined up to place their ads in the middle of football games featuring entertainers who are not paid, who are not allowed to profit from their own name or likeness and who are, in fact, banned from the sport when they do.

Todd Gurley made $400. He probably made millions for the sponsors. He likely made millions for the University and the Southeastern Conference. He is, by all accounts, a good young man who doesn't use drugs, doesn't abuse women, doesn't get in bar fights and loves his mother. He doesn't use foul language in the lunch hall and he has never been accused of any other misconduct. Nevertheless, his career in college is over.

I am not a guy that buys into racial politics. I am a civil rights lawyer, but I defend more cases than I pursue. Nevertheless, I know exploitation when I see it, and so do you. In college football, nothing has changed since 1952 and it is offensive. These boys are put in the ring and told to fight for the entertainment of others. An elite group of rich white men reap the lion's share of the profit from it, and they treat these kids like chattel. When one gets out of line and starts dipping his beak in their trough, they burry him. We've seen it year after year. A poor kid, coming from nothing, takes a pair of sneakers from a booster and can't play football anymore. Maybe he goes pro, maybe not. But he is done with college football.

We are past the point in our society where we should allow this kind of caprice in the treatment of young men who are routinely being exploited for our entertainment. Men make mistakes in life. It is part of growing up and part of growing into a real man. Young men make more mistakes than older men because they are young. I can promise you that I've made many more mistakes and worse mistakes in my life than Todd Gurley just did. So have most people. But in Todd Gurley's case it is different. It is about the money. Had he stolen the $400, it likely would not have been an NCAA infraction. Think about that. It is that he "stole" their money. They want the monopoly on Todd Gurley's name and likeness. They have no intention of sharing it with Todd.

So Todd doesn't get to keep his scholarship. While entertaining, he didn't stay in the ring long enough to win the calf-skin briefcase. Maybe he should've followed the rules. Maybe he should've just finished the fight. Maybe he should've just kept his head down and played their game for a little longer.

Or maybe he's right. It's his signature. It's his name. It's his hard work, sweat, blood, swollen knees and ankles. Maybe it's his right and he should fight for it.

The Potomac Two Step

There are only a few times in American history where an American President witnessed a complete collapse of his administration and abandonment from his party. This is one of those very rare events. Leon Panetta, among others, has taken to the Washington talk show circuit, using every mean at his disposal to inform the American public that President Obama shouldn't be President. Panetta has agreed in interviews that Mr. Obama misled the public on terrorism and Benghazi, that he is indecisive, and that he lacks the courage to "get into the ring" with America's enemies.

Secretary Panetta is a lion in the Democratic Party. He served in the Congress, he served as Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff, President Obama's Defense Secretary and the head of the CIA. His resume is among the most polished in Washington. When he says you're not up to the job, you're not up to the job. While I have strongly disagreed with his politics over the years, I have no doubt that he is a patriot, reasonably competent, and generally acting in the best interests of the nation.

Which should cause every American to worry. He has informed us, from an insider's perspective, that President Obama is basically not up to the job, and that high impact events are on the horizon. Whether it's ISIS, Ebola, Russia or China, Secretary Panetta is handing out failing grades to the administration and warning Americans of the threats to come.

But therein lies the problem. Leon Panetta and many other measured, competent Democrats, lent their credibility to a man who obviously was not going to get the job done. He stood on a platform and vouched for President Obama, the very man he now accuses of being unwilling to "get into the ring" with the likes of ISIS. Translation: Obama is not very tough. Obama is not a fighter. Obama is weak.

Our nation would be much, much stronger if men and women of measured conviction, especially those in power, would act to ensure that our best leaders really are the ones that get the job. A competent government can still govern from an idealogical standpoint, but ideology does not always have to be the first consideration, particularly in a crisis.

I have little patience for men like Panetta, notwithstanding my general respect for his service to our country. In the final analysis, Panetta and his ilk were the enablers that allowed President Obama to stand on false credibility. They encouraged him to pursue his agenda, knowing that his agenda would lead the country to exactly this position. Only now that it is a fait accompli do they speak. True leadership never cowers from the harsh realities we face. True leaders tell the truth, unvarnished, and at a time when the information is still useful in the decision making process. Six years into a presidency, that even the Democrats see as a failure, is too late.

And we are now at the mercy of fate.

Why Ebola Scares Us

One of the lead stories for the last week or so has been the appearance of Ebola in the United States. While other countries have already instituted travel bans from Ebola stricken countries, our government has determined that travel bans are ineffective. Their strategy is to attack Ebola at its source, hopefully defeating it in Africa, which will theoretically prevent it from spreading worldwide.

The facts as we know them are as follows. Ebola is not airborne, meaning it is not spread by breathing on someone. A victim must be in contact with another person and exchange bodily fluids of some kind. Whether that means a sneeze, I guess we do not yet know. We do know that Ebola survives the victim host. When the victim dies, he or she can still pass the virus on to others handling the body for a day or so afterwards. Ebola's incubation period has recently become longer. The CDC is now quarantining individuals for up to 21 days, although incubation is typically 8 to 10 days. While there is treatment for Ebola, there is no vaccine or cure, and the current treatments are extremely expensive. A few years ago, Ebola typically killed upwards of 90% of its victims. However, as the virus has mutated into something with a much longer incubation period, the fatality rates have fallen to 60%.

You would think from watching the news that the zombie apocalypse is on the horizon. Despite assurances from most health care professionals that this virus is not likely to become airborne, Americans are still almost uniformly worried about Ebola becoming airborne. Despite assurances that  Ebola is not likely to spread in a developed nation the way it does in the villages of Africa, Americans are still uniformly worried about it spreading. So why are we so fearful of this current Ebola crisis?

Putting aside the sensationalism spawned but the media, I happen to think that the collective wisdom of the American people is something to be taken seriously. "Experts" often seem to think that the only thing Americans are collectively is ignorant, but that has not been borne out by history. The American people are afraid the experts are wrong because experts are, frequently, wrong. It may be unlikely that Ebola will mutate into an airborne virus, but we know from our collective experience as Americans that, if it did, it would decimate our civilization.

We know that our government is incompetent and lies to us, especially in a crisis. Should Ebola reach pandemic levels in the United States, our infrastructure is just as likely to breakdown as the infrastructures of the governments in Africa. We know that our local hospitals would be overwhelmed. We know that school would be cancelled and working would become much more difficult as a result. We know that segments of our economy would be at risk, consumer spending would drop, and all of that would weaken an already weakened economy. 

We doubt that, if there were a significant risk of pandemic, that our government would actually tell us. We believe that, more likely, the government would attempt to assure us that they have the situation under control, providing us with limited or incorrect information. We know from experience that getting the truth out of our government is so difficult that we routinely take everything our leaders say with a grain of salt - when it's not outright ignored. We are also reasonably certain that if there were a threat, at best, our government would be ineffective and, at worst, it would get in the way of serious people trying to manage the crisis. 

A little fear is a healthy thing. It is also good to have a healthy skepticism of the experts telling us that there is nothing to worry about. For now, in spite of the sensationalism, everyone is still going to work and children are still going to school. Wisdom comes from experience, and our experience with such things tells us to be a little worried. Perhaps a little overreaction will prevent our worst fears from coming to fruition.