Some Chicago Boyz know each other from student days at the University of Chicago. Others are Chicago boys in spirit. The blog name is also intended as a good-humored gesture of admiration for distinguished Chicago School economists and fellow travelers.
Mike So everyone is doing the “end-of-year” awards thing. I’ll pitch in my thoughts. Man of the Year? Well that’s Trump of course; the fact that he’s coming back to town with a naughty-nice list is the greatest comeback in American political history.
Boss Move of the Year? That goes to Trump as well for his reaction to the assassination attempt in Butler this past July.
Second place in the boss move category? I nominate Trump for his starring role in “Justin Trudeau’s Trip to Mar-a-Lago.”
I would like to add another dimension to Alan’s post regarding January 6th by focusing on the intelligence analysis and decision-making by various government agencies prior to that day.
There has been a lot of ink spilled by the old legacy press regarding the DOJ Inspector General’s (IG) report that the FBI had 26 informants on the ground during Jan. 6. Some commentators have seized upon a particular finding in the report, that there were no FBI agents physically present within the crowd that day, as definitive proof against broader theories of FBI involvement.
Let’s leave aside whether the scope of the report could adequately cover all of the FBI’s activities or even how a single data point (lack of FBI agents on the ground) is used to dismiss a complex web of questions in order to reach simplistic conclusions.
Instead let’s focus on something more nuanced concerning potential intelligence gathering, informants, and other forms of involvement that preceded the events of that day.
One of the (many) advantages of getting older is that you recognize not only how traditions emerge and evolve but your personal role in the process. It’s a bit like watching a tapestry being woven, except you can see your own hands among the many that have added to its pattern over the years.
I find myself marveling at how I’m part of a nearly 200-year chain of Christmas experiences and traditions, stretching from my grandparents’ stories of the early 20th Century through to what my grandchildren might carry forward into the late 21st or even early 22nd Century.
In my childhood the true story of the Christmas season wasn’t Black Friday, it was the magical day when the Sears Christmas Book arrived in our mailbox. That catalog was pure joy for a little kid, dog-eared and thoroughly studied by December. We were (stubborn) believers in extending the season well past the traditional bounds. While others packed away their decorations by New Year’s, our Christmas tree stood until after the Super Bowl.
Of course there were Christmas Eve church services. There I was in church on Christmas Eve, my young voice piercing through the reverent silence to ask where all these newcomers had come from and will they be joining us again next week? The pastor later confessed that he’d barely maintained his composure, fighting back laughter. My mother told me to watch my mouth and that all of these “visitors” were good for the church. Thus my first lesson in cash flow.
My mother also knew how to use her precious leverage to compel our good behavior during church, telling us that Santa had a “vengeful” side toward bad children.
No wonder that to this day I tend to get Santa and John Calvin confused in my mind.
Then there was the food. While our Anglo-Irish heritage might have suggested different fare, she filled our home with German delicacies such as Stollen, Lebkuchen, and Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, complete with real Kirschwasser and topped with whipped cream. These shared space with English Christmas standards, brandy-soaked fruitcakes and evening caroling sessions.
Then there was the long drive to see the grandparents, with my parents fiddling with the dial to find Christmas music on the car radio. My grandparents’ living room was a time capsule from the 1940s, where Bing Crosby’s voice floated from vinyl, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” flickered on the black-and-white TV in the corner, and the adults, bourbon highballs in hand, wove tales of days gone by.
Most of those people are gone now and it’s we who find ourselves cast in their role. Yet the essence remains unchanged. We still attend services, still have the traditional dishes – though our menu has expanded with our growing family. Our decorations, freed from HOA constraints, still twinkle until Super Bowl Sunday. New touches have emerged: luminarias light Christmas Eve, and the coyote fence has become our canvas for holiday cheer. The kids have expanded our Christmas film canon, adding “Elf” and “Home Alone” to the classics. And just as before, the adults gather, drinks in hand, passing down our oral history to eager young ears.
Then there is Bing in the background. Everyone insists. I’m going to guess 100 years from now in the family there will still be Bing in the background.
I used to get caught in the fights over Christmas within the larger culture, the reason for the season. Things are tough in Europe and there will be fights to come if people think this is to mark the Son of God.
However, those are fights for another day. The battle is already joined on other fronts. Enjoy the day with a light heart and wish everyone a Merry Christmas; the guy down at the Halal market smiled at me and wished one right back. If anyone sneers at you, smile, clap them on the back, and laugh at them.
As far as gifts? I don’t get the Sears Christmas Book anymore and Tonka trucks don’t have the same magic, but a while back at Rim Country Guns I did tell a certain little someone that the Mossberg 940 along the back wall behind the counter was sure pretty. Maybe Santa will be good to me tomorrow.
Merry Christmas everyone. Remember, out of darkness, light.
Timothy Carney writes:
”While President-elect Donald Trump drives out FBI Director Christopher Wray, Trump’s critics have taken to the airwaves, suggesting that the federal law enforcement agency should be beyond the reach of politicians. They posit a fourth branch of government outside of the executive branch and lean on the idea of a 10-year term for the director to suggest the bureau has always and should be run immune to the demands of elected officials.”
Reading this, two things come to mind.
In regard to politics…
Anybody here remember the name Nicholas Roske?
Probably not.
If you don’t that’s okay because there are a lot of people, especially right now, who wish you didn’t.
However, you do know the name of the killer of Brian Thompson.
I am not going to use that murdering sc*mbag’s name here. You can find it easily enough. There are millions of people treating him as a modern-day Robin Hood or (if they weren’t so ignorant of their cultural patrimony) an avenging angel. I shouldn’t say that about ignorance because you can actually purchase merchandise depicting the man as a saint. Just in time for Christmas…. or the Holidays…. or WinterFest or whatever they are calling it this year
Well, for now, regarding the merchandise because it seems Etsy is pulling this stuff down off their site as fast as it goes up. The other day there were multiple pages of stuff there for sale so maybe there is still hope for decency. Then again, there is always the possibility of our friends at places like Target stepping up — they haven’t forsaken the high holies of DEI yet, and open enrollment does run through Jan. 15.
So back to Nicholas Roske.