November, 2019
Lincoln – It's Veterans Day. In past years I've noted family members who served our country. This year, special remembrance is due two friends, Dick Ratzlaff and Rich Brenning.
We were in the same Navy ROTC unit at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln and often travelled together around the Midwest as part of our Navy basketball team. Both were mainstays: Dick was point guard, Rich power forward. One year, 1963, our team was undefeated in about twenty local and regional games and tournaments. It tight spots, Rich could always be counted on to hit a jump shot from the corner, and Dick would come through with one of his many steals.
Dick Ratzaff, of Aberdeen, South Dakota, was shot down over Vietnam in 1966 and became a POW for seven years. He earned a Silver Star for his resistance. He never fully recovered and died in 1981.
Rich Brenning was lost at sea in 1969, flying off USS Ticonderoga. Lincoln was his hometown.
Still miss you both.
Student Loan Relief as Tax Cut 2.0
November, 2019
Washington – Analysts at Moody's Investor Services are floating the idea that student loan debt relief is, for purposes of fiscal stimulus to boost the economy, an alternative to a 2020 tax cut.
Yes.
A big obstacle, however, is the notion of equity. Why only borrowers with current balances? That gives the perception of unfairness and likely will be a hurdle against enactment.
Sixteen months ago in these pages, and again last May, I suggested a refundable, means-tested tax credit based not on current borrower balances but on a calculation of the tuition premium incurred by the college-going generations of the 21st century.
By no means would such a tax credit be a cure-all for the nation's student loan crisis. Restoration of bankruptcy protections for student loan borrowers and addressing corruption in the U.S. Department of Education are both essential. But the recent flurry of interest in using tax policy to address the crisis makes it worthwhile to repeat arguments from an earlier post:
...a means-tested, refundable federal tax credit would be more equitable for all students who went to college in the high-tuition era of the last two decades. It would avoid such problems as unfairness between those in similar economic circumstances who struggled mightily to pay off their loans and those who did not; between those who chose lower priced community colleges or less selective schools and those who did not; and between those who worked to try to pay for college over many years and those who did not. The tax credit could be called the "Tuition Premium Tax Credit," the benefits of which could be used to pay off student debt, or simply used by recipients to recover economically from the high price of college, however it affected them wherever they attended. Such a tax credit would also help remedy generational inequities. The boomer generation benefitted enormously from the long, low tuition era that made paying for college relatively easy. The 2017 tax cut piled more wealth on the boomer generation; it could be trimmed back with savings applied to generational and income-class equity.
Washington – Analysts at Moody's Investor Services are floating the idea that student loan debt relief is, for purposes of fiscal stimulus to boost the economy, an alternative to a 2020 tax cut.
Yes.
A big obstacle, however, is the notion of equity. Why only borrowers with current balances? That gives the perception of unfairness and likely will be a hurdle against enactment.
Sixteen months ago in these pages, and again last May, I suggested a refundable, means-tested tax credit based not on current borrower balances but on a calculation of the tuition premium incurred by the college-going generations of the 21st century.
By no means would such a tax credit be a cure-all for the nation's student loan crisis. Restoration of bankruptcy protections for student loan borrowers and addressing corruption in the U.S. Department of Education are both essential. But the recent flurry of interest in using tax policy to address the crisis makes it worthwhile to repeat arguments from an earlier post:
...a means-tested, refundable federal tax credit would be more equitable for all students who went to college in the high-tuition era of the last two decades. It would avoid such problems as unfairness between those in similar economic circumstances who struggled mightily to pay off their loans and those who did not; between those who chose lower priced community colleges or less selective schools and those who did not; and between those who worked to try to pay for college over many years and those who did not. The tax credit could be called the "Tuition Premium Tax Credit," the benefits of which could be used to pay off student debt, or simply used by recipients to recover economically from the high price of college, however it affected them wherever they attended. Such a tax credit would also help remedy generational inequities. The boomer generation benefitted enormously from the long, low tuition era that made paying for college relatively easy. The 2017 tax cut piled more wealth on the boomer generation; it could be trimmed back with savings applied to generational and income-class equity.
House Has Been MIA on Student Loans
November, 2019
Washington – When we last visited the subject of federal student loans a few weeks ago, we had little reason to hope for any breakthroughs that would benefit the nation's many aggrieved and defrauded borrowers. It was as if the whole country had become inured to student loan corruption.
But much has changed since:
• Secretary Betsy DeVos has been held in contempt of federal district court for violating court orders in thousands of "borrower defense" cases. Her legal advisor on student loans and consumer protections, Steven Menashi, was nominated to a federal appeals court seat but that nomination is now in trouble in the Senate, as it should be.
• DeVos's first choice to head office of Federal Student Aid in 2017, A. Wayne Johnson, has resigned abruptly from the Department of Education, calling the federal student loan system "fundamentally broken." He has announced his candidacy, as a Republican, for the Senate based on cancelling most borrowers' loans and providing tax credits to others.
• The National Student Loan Defense Network, led by former Department officials committed to justice for defrauded borrowers, is suing DeVos and the "corrupt Department of Education" for sending millions of student loan dollars to two for-profit schools despite knowing they were unaccredited, then covering it up and collecting from borrowers on the illegal loans. NSLDN has already prevailed in other student loan cases.
• The recently appointed COO of Federal Student Aid, Mark Brown, has released a video promising to do better by borrowers, saying that loan servicers have been reprimanded for improperly collecting on student loans and that certain Department officials have likewise been disciplined.
So what is Congress doing about this? For most intents and purposes, the House has been missing-in-action. Although it has held several hearings among its committees and subcommittees, they have fizzled despite excellent panel testimony from student loan experts and victims. Members got sidetracked by student loan industry arguments that the programs are too complicated to administer, that borrowers themselves are to blame, and that fixes must await new legislation.
I have watched all the hearings. Only once did I ever hear, from a member, the word "wrongdoing," and only once the word "corruption." This, despite overwhelming evidence of just that. Corruption has infected the Department for many years. See earlier posts for examples of perjury, obstruction, and false claims.
The chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, Congressman Bobby Scott, has now threatened to subpoena Betsy DeVos if she does not voluntarily appear before the committee to answer questions about the matter for which she was found in contempt of court, and about the distribution of funds to unaccredited colleges.
That is only the tip of the iceberg. The chairman must be ready to confront the Secretary over the corruption that has ruined the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and determine what kind of meaningful "reprimands" servicers have ever been given for illegal actions in any program. He needs to determine which Department officials have been "disciplined" by Mark Brown, if that is indeed the case as claimed. Are the disciplined officials political appointees or civil servants? Are they being scapegoated?
If the system is so bad, as Wayne Johnson concluded, is it because the Department of Education was long ago captured by the industry it is supposed to regulate? The answer to that is an obvious yes. The Department's key positions for many years have been filled through a revolving door with industry.
Whatever Chairman Scott does, he needs to know that another round of fizzled House hearings will make matters worse. Inconclusive hearings will only encourage more defiant behavior from the DeVos Department, which has proved itself committed to delivering taxpayer funds to voracious appetites in the student loan industry and for-profit colleges, at the expense of taxpayers and borrowers, with disregard for the rule of law.
On the other hand, we can hope that Chairman Scott has now seen what happens when remedies commensurate to the offenses are seriously considered. The mention by a federal judge of possible jail time for DeVos was quickly followed by one high-level resignation and much apologizing from another.
Congress has many remedies at its disposal. It's time to let the DeVos Department know that measures from fines to impeachment may be put into play to see that borrowers and taxpayers get the justice due them.
In other words, Chairman Scott, it's time to rise to the occasion.
Washington – When we last visited the subject of federal student loans a few weeks ago, we had little reason to hope for any breakthroughs that would benefit the nation's many aggrieved and defrauded borrowers. It was as if the whole country had become inured to student loan corruption.
But much has changed since:
• Secretary Betsy DeVos has been held in contempt of federal district court for violating court orders in thousands of "borrower defense" cases. Her legal advisor on student loans and consumer protections, Steven Menashi, was nominated to a federal appeals court seat but that nomination is now in trouble in the Senate, as it should be.
• DeVos's first choice to head office of Federal Student Aid in 2017, A. Wayne Johnson, has resigned abruptly from the Department of Education, calling the federal student loan system "fundamentally broken." He has announced his candidacy, as a Republican, for the Senate based on cancelling most borrowers' loans and providing tax credits to others.
• The National Student Loan Defense Network, led by former Department officials committed to justice for defrauded borrowers, is suing DeVos and the "corrupt Department of Education" for sending millions of student loan dollars to two for-profit schools despite knowing they were unaccredited, then covering it up and collecting from borrowers on the illegal loans. NSLDN has already prevailed in other student loan cases.
• The recently appointed COO of Federal Student Aid, Mark Brown, has released a video promising to do better by borrowers, saying that loan servicers have been reprimanded for improperly collecting on student loans and that certain Department officials have likewise been disciplined.
So what is Congress doing about this? For most intents and purposes, the House has been missing-in-action. Although it has held several hearings among its committees and subcommittees, they have fizzled despite excellent panel testimony from student loan experts and victims. Members got sidetracked by student loan industry arguments that the programs are too complicated to administer, that borrowers themselves are to blame, and that fixes must await new legislation.
I have watched all the hearings. Only once did I ever hear, from a member, the word "wrongdoing," and only once the word "corruption." This, despite overwhelming evidence of just that. Corruption has infected the Department for many years. See earlier posts for examples of perjury, obstruction, and false claims.
The chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, Congressman Bobby Scott, has now threatened to subpoena Betsy DeVos if she does not voluntarily appear before the committee to answer questions about the matter for which she was found in contempt of court, and about the distribution of funds to unaccredited colleges.
That is only the tip of the iceberg. The chairman must be ready to confront the Secretary over the corruption that has ruined the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and determine what kind of meaningful "reprimands" servicers have ever been given for illegal actions in any program. He needs to determine which Department officials have been "disciplined" by Mark Brown, if that is indeed the case as claimed. Are the disciplined officials political appointees or civil servants? Are they being scapegoated?
If the system is so bad, as Wayne Johnson concluded, is it because the Department of Education was long ago captured by the industry it is supposed to regulate? The answer to that is an obvious yes. The Department's key positions for many years have been filled through a revolving door with industry.
Whatever Chairman Scott does, he needs to know that another round of fizzled House hearings will make matters worse. Inconclusive hearings will only encourage more defiant behavior from the DeVos Department, which has proved itself committed to delivering taxpayer funds to voracious appetites in the student loan industry and for-profit colleges, at the expense of taxpayers and borrowers, with disregard for the rule of law.
On the other hand, we can hope that Chairman Scott has now seen what happens when remedies commensurate to the offenses are seriously considered. The mention by a federal judge of possible jail time for DeVos was quickly followed by one high-level resignation and much apologizing from another.
Congress has many remedies at its disposal. It's time to let the DeVos Department know that measures from fines to impeachment may be put into play to see that borrowers and taxpayers get the justice due them.
In other words, Chairman Scott, it's time to rise to the occasion.
American Resolve in Doubt
November, 2019
Berlin – In 1945, this city was a mess. After the Nazi surrender, Russian troops took revenge on the Berlin population. The main parts of the city were rubble. Power plants and transportation facilities were largely destroyed. Food supplies were running out.
American, British, and French forces were slow to reach Berlin, hampered at every step by the Red Army. U.S. Army occupation forces, led by Colonel Frank Howley for the American sector in Berlin and by General Lucius Clay for the entire U.S. Zone in Germany, did not have solid support from Washington. Many in Congress thought a Soviet takeover of Berlin was inevitable and wanted an American pull-out.
Soviet Russia had designs on all of Europe. Berlin was the focus for maximum pressure. If Berlin fell, it would signal that America could not be counted on as a reliable ally. Berliners knew that, and for a time American resolve was in doubt. The crisis came in 1948, when the Russians walked out of the four-powers Kommandatura building and began a blockade of West Berlin to force it into submission.
President Truman agreed to a massive effort to try to supply West Berlin by air. Against all odds, it worked. At the same time, Secretary of State George Marshall conceived the Marshall Plan for overall European recovery, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created for mutual defense against Soviet Russia.
The story of the Berlin Airlift is well told today at the Allied Museum* on Clayallee in Berlin, the major thoroughfare named after the American who led the effort. Truman Plaza is nearby. Berlin today is a thriving beacon of freedom from which the rest of the world can learn. Thirty one Americans died in the airlift effort.
In a few days, Berlin and the free world will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, when Berlin's Soviet sector finally collapsed, to be followed soon by the rest of the Soviet puppet state of East Germany.
My family and I were there to see the wall opened in 1989. It was not a given. The days leading up to it were tense. The Red Army still had Berlin surrounded. What was a given was the resolve of the U.S. and its NATO partners to stand firm. That made all the difference.
Contrast this with our current international posture of retreat and withdrawal, which now resembles that of early 1948 when American resolve was much in doubt. Our 45th president is without forward vision or historical insight and talks of getting out of "endless wars." Even veterans who have fought in recent wars and sacrificed much are showing misguided agreement.
Perhaps this should not be a surprise. Some of America's wars were ill-advised and tragic: Viet-Nam and the 2003 invasion of Iraq are stains on the presidencies of Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and George W. Bush. Johnson misled the American people badly with his prevarications about the Tonkin Gulf attacks; Nixon sabotaged peace talks to win election in 1968; Bush made up Iraq's weapons of mass destruction as a pretext for war.
Conversely, we should not forget that U.S. leadership wisely reversed Iraq's aggression against Kuwait, initially defeated the Taliban in Afghanistan, and ended Caliphate rule in much of Syria.
That these successes were not properly consolidated in their aftermath does not mean they should be lumped in with our failures. It means that those who did not consolidate them must be held accountable, Democratic and Republican presidents alike. They should have learned from President Truman, who knew that Berlin came at such cost that it could not be abandoned.
Our current president is going one step further than retreating from America's historic role in protecting freedom. He is casting doubt on what America stands for. In 1948, it was understandable that some American public opinion was against remaining in Berlin to defend Germans, who had been our enemy. In 2019, however, an American president is shamefully turning his back on Kurds, our ally in the fight against the Caliphate. That is beyond the pale. America is also abandoning the cause of freedom in China, as China exterminates the Uighur people and threatens democracy in Hong Kong.
It is well to remember 1948 and the Berlin airlift to note that our opponent then was Soviet Russia, bent on expansion. How little changes. Russia, still led by a former Soviet agent, is now our geopolitical opponent in Syria and Ukraine. President Truman knew what he had to do and took courageous action to save the free world from Russian totalitarianism. Our current president seems not to know which side he is on.
I am one veteran who yearns for another Harry Truman and will do everything possible to see that America returns to its proper, hard-won role in world affairs.
_________________________
* I am proud to say that my late wife, a German citizen with great respect for America, helped in the creation of the museum.
Berlin – In 1945, this city was a mess. After the Nazi surrender, Russian troops took revenge on the Berlin population. The main parts of the city were rubble. Power plants and transportation facilities were largely destroyed. Food supplies were running out.
American, British, and French forces were slow to reach Berlin, hampered at every step by the Red Army. U.S. Army occupation forces, led by Colonel Frank Howley for the American sector in Berlin and by General Lucius Clay for the entire U.S. Zone in Germany, did not have solid support from Washington. Many in Congress thought a Soviet takeover of Berlin was inevitable and wanted an American pull-out.
Soviet Russia had designs on all of Europe. Berlin was the focus for maximum pressure. If Berlin fell, it would signal that America could not be counted on as a reliable ally. Berliners knew that, and for a time American resolve was in doubt. The crisis came in 1948, when the Russians walked out of the four-powers Kommandatura building and began a blockade of West Berlin to force it into submission.
President Truman agreed to a massive effort to try to supply West Berlin by air. Against all odds, it worked. At the same time, Secretary of State George Marshall conceived the Marshall Plan for overall European recovery, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created for mutual defense against Soviet Russia.
The story of the Berlin Airlift is well told today at the Allied Museum* on Clayallee in Berlin, the major thoroughfare named after the American who led the effort. Truman Plaza is nearby. Berlin today is a thriving beacon of freedom from which the rest of the world can learn. Thirty one Americans died in the airlift effort.
In a few days, Berlin and the free world will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, when Berlin's Soviet sector finally collapsed, to be followed soon by the rest of the Soviet puppet state of East Germany.
My family and I were there to see the wall opened in 1989. It was not a given. The days leading up to it were tense. The Red Army still had Berlin surrounded. What was a given was the resolve of the U.S. and its NATO partners to stand firm. That made all the difference.
Contrast this with our current international posture of retreat and withdrawal, which now resembles that of early 1948 when American resolve was much in doubt. Our 45th president is without forward vision or historical insight and talks of getting out of "endless wars." Even veterans who have fought in recent wars and sacrificed much are showing misguided agreement.
Perhaps this should not be a surprise. Some of America's wars were ill-advised and tragic: Viet-Nam and the 2003 invasion of Iraq are stains on the presidencies of Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and George W. Bush. Johnson misled the American people badly with his prevarications about the Tonkin Gulf attacks; Nixon sabotaged peace talks to win election in 1968; Bush made up Iraq's weapons of mass destruction as a pretext for war.
Conversely, we should not forget that U.S. leadership wisely reversed Iraq's aggression against Kuwait, initially defeated the Taliban in Afghanistan, and ended Caliphate rule in much of Syria.
That these successes were not properly consolidated in their aftermath does not mean they should be lumped in with our failures. It means that those who did not consolidate them must be held accountable, Democratic and Republican presidents alike. They should have learned from President Truman, who knew that Berlin came at such cost that it could not be abandoned.
Our current president is going one step further than retreating from America's historic role in protecting freedom. He is casting doubt on what America stands for. In 1948, it was understandable that some American public opinion was against remaining in Berlin to defend Germans, who had been our enemy. In 2019, however, an American president is shamefully turning his back on Kurds, our ally in the fight against the Caliphate. That is beyond the pale. America is also abandoning the cause of freedom in China, as China exterminates the Uighur people and threatens democracy in Hong Kong.
It is well to remember 1948 and the Berlin airlift to note that our opponent then was Soviet Russia, bent on expansion. How little changes. Russia, still led by a former Soviet agent, is now our geopolitical opponent in Syria and Ukraine. President Truman knew what he had to do and took courageous action to save the free world from Russian totalitarianism. Our current president seems not to know which side he is on.
I am one veteran who yearns for another Harry Truman and will do everything possible to see that America returns to its proper, hard-won role in world affairs.
_________________________
* I am proud to say that my late wife, a German citizen with great respect for America, helped in the creation of the museum.
A Tour of FU Berlin
October, 2019
Berlin – While much was going on in this blog's other capital cities (in Washington, a top federal student loan official quit to run for the Senate; and in Lincoln, the Board of Regents picked a new NU president), I spent the day of October 25th on a walking tour of the Berlin university campus where I studied and wrote a dissertation three decades ago.
• From the U-Bahn at Thielplatz, the Harnack Haus is only a short walk. It is a conference center now, but once was an American military officers' club where my family and I had privileges. It was often a welcome place of respite from the academic pressures at Freie Universität Berlin.
• Onward to the Audimax, a large auditorium noted for the famous speakers it has accommodated. President Kennedy spoke here in 1963 before his more famous speech at Schöneberger Rathaus. Rudi Dutschke changed German politics forever with his 1967 protest speeches on behalf of the student movement. Some two dozen portraits of famous Audimax speakers hang suspended in the grand staircase, above the comings and goings of present-day students.
• Across a campus mall of grasses and forbs in the direction of Corrensplatz is the forgotten site of the home of Fritz Haber, the German scientist whose reputation is still disputed despite his Nobel prize. During WWI, he was on the faculty of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, a research organization that was converted after WWII into the FU Berlin campus.
• Adjacent to Corrensplatz are two buildings with small plaques to explain their significance. One is the former Kommandantura, where after WWII the four victorious powers administered the city. It now houses the FU president's office. Across the street is the Hahn-Meintner building, once a physics laboratory for the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, where the atom was first split in 1938. Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel prize for physics.
• Across Habelschwerterallee is the huge classroom complex known as the Rostlaube and the Silberlaube. Here I once made friends with many other foreign students who were working on their German language requirements (necessary for all exams).
• Toward the U-Bahn at Dahlem-Dorf is the JFK Institute, where my advisor, Professor Dr. Ekkehart Krippendorff, had his office. A political scientist and peace researcher, he was also famous for his own academic freedom case.
FU Berlin has, for me, the feel of a real university, dedicated solely to education and research. Its current president is a mathematician, from the ranks of the faculty. It has been designated as one of Germany's elite universities and therefore qualifies for extra funding from the government. It has no football team. Translated into English, it is known as the Free University of Berlin. The word free does not refer to its cost of attendance (although fees are minimal, if one is admitted), but to the freedom of ideas and to political freedoms.
Berlin – While much was going on in this blog's other capital cities (in Washington, a top federal student loan official quit to run for the Senate; and in Lincoln, the Board of Regents picked a new NU president), I spent the day of October 25th on a walking tour of the Berlin university campus where I studied and wrote a dissertation three decades ago.
• From the U-Bahn at Thielplatz, the Harnack Haus is only a short walk. It is a conference center now, but once was an American military officers' club where my family and I had privileges. It was often a welcome place of respite from the academic pressures at Freie Universität Berlin.
• Onward to the Audimax, a large auditorium noted for the famous speakers it has accommodated. President Kennedy spoke here in 1963 before his more famous speech at Schöneberger Rathaus. Rudi Dutschke changed German politics forever with his 1967 protest speeches on behalf of the student movement. Some two dozen portraits of famous Audimax speakers hang suspended in the grand staircase, above the comings and goings of present-day students.
• Across a campus mall of grasses and forbs in the direction of Corrensplatz is the forgotten site of the home of Fritz Haber, the German scientist whose reputation is still disputed despite his Nobel prize. During WWI, he was on the faculty of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, a research organization that was converted after WWII into the FU Berlin campus.
• Adjacent to Corrensplatz are two buildings with small plaques to explain their significance. One is the former Kommandantura, where after WWII the four victorious powers administered the city. It now houses the FU president's office. Across the street is the Hahn-Meintner building, once a physics laboratory for the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, where the atom was first split in 1938. Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel prize for physics.
• Across Habelschwerterallee is the huge classroom complex known as the Rostlaube and the Silberlaube. Here I once made friends with many other foreign students who were working on their German language requirements (necessary for all exams).
• Toward the U-Bahn at Dahlem-Dorf is the JFK Institute, where my advisor, Professor Dr. Ekkehart Krippendorff, had his office. A political scientist and peace researcher, he was also famous for his own academic freedom case.
FU Berlin has, for me, the feel of a real university, dedicated solely to education and research. Its current president is a mathematician, from the ranks of the faculty. It has been designated as one of Germany's elite universities and therefore qualifies for extra funding from the government. It has no football team. Translated into English, it is known as the Free University of Berlin. The word free does not refer to its cost of attendance (although fees are minimal, if one is admitted), but to the freedom of ideas and to political freedoms.
Threats Foreign and Domestic
October, 2019
Berlin – Last week there was a large demonstration here, coursing through the streets of Berlin's Neukölln and Kreuzberg neighborhoods on behalf of Rojava, the Kurdish homeland in northern Syria. Many Kurds live in Berlin. Signs of support hang from windows.
At least some of the many Turks who also live in Berlin are not happy with the Turkish invasion of Rojava, or with the Turkish government generally. At a sundries shop in Kreuzberg, the owners engaged us about our respective homelands. We said we were Americans from Washington, DC, but at the moment not proud of our country's actions in the Middle East. They identified their hometown in Turkey and said they were not happy with their government, either.
Russia, with Turkey's help, is moving in on Syria, to expand territories under the Syrian tyrant Assad. Rojava is threatened with genocide.
The Russian threat also looms in Ukraine, abetted by feckless Americans, which include not only the president but his so-called base. It casts a shadow over Europe, as described so well yesterday by Ambassador William Taylor in his testimony to Congress:
"...if Ukraine succeeds in breaking free of Russian influence, it is possible for Europe to be whole, free, democratic, and at peace. In contrast, if Russia dominates Ukraine, Russia will again become an empire, oppressing its people and threatening its neighbors and the rest of the world."
I look for some sign that my all-Republican Nebraska congressional delegation will come to its senses, but they seem paralyzed by fear of the money and power being amassed to discipline any Republican who steps out of line. Whose money and power it is, is not clear. Some of it, recent developments show, is foreign.
What with Ambassador Taylor's testimony, the impeachment inquiry may move from definitions of high crimes and misdemeanors to what constitutes bribery and even treason. How is withholding military aid for a political favor not bribery? How does advancing Russia's interests above America's, repeatedly, not raise issues of treason? Let's not dance around the issues. Ambassador Taylor has done America a great service and we need to make the most of it, the sooner the better.
Berlin – Last week there was a large demonstration here, coursing through the streets of Berlin's Neukölln and Kreuzberg neighborhoods on behalf of Rojava, the Kurdish homeland in northern Syria. Many Kurds live in Berlin. Signs of support hang from windows.
At least some of the many Turks who also live in Berlin are not happy with the Turkish invasion of Rojava, or with the Turkish government generally. At a sundries shop in Kreuzberg, the owners engaged us about our respective homelands. We said we were Americans from Washington, DC, but at the moment not proud of our country's actions in the Middle East. They identified their hometown in Turkey and said they were not happy with their government, either.
Russia, with Turkey's help, is moving in on Syria, to expand territories under the Syrian tyrant Assad. Rojava is threatened with genocide.
The Russian threat also looms in Ukraine, abetted by feckless Americans, which include not only the president but his so-called base. It casts a shadow over Europe, as described so well yesterday by Ambassador William Taylor in his testimony to Congress:
"...if Ukraine succeeds in breaking free of Russian influence, it is possible for Europe to be whole, free, democratic, and at peace. In contrast, if Russia dominates Ukraine, Russia will again become an empire, oppressing its people and threatening its neighbors and the rest of the world."
I look for some sign that my all-Republican Nebraska congressional delegation will come to its senses, but they seem paralyzed by fear of the money and power being amassed to discipline any Republican who steps out of line. Whose money and power it is, is not clear. Some of it, recent developments show, is foreign.
What with Ambassador Taylor's testimony, the impeachment inquiry may move from definitions of high crimes and misdemeanors to what constitutes bribery and even treason. How is withholding military aid for a political favor not bribery? How does advancing Russia's interests above America's, repeatedly, not raise issues of treason? Let's not dance around the issues. Ambassador Taylor has done America a great service and we need to make the most of it, the sooner the better.
European Flags as Symbols
October, 2019
Berlin – On a day when the British parliament voted to delay Brexit once again, the flag of the European Union flew proudly in Berlin in front of the Chancellery. As if in victory.
I happened to walk by the Chancellery during this symbolic occasion and take the photo below. As it so happens, the E.U. flag is unfurling briskly in the breeze, as the German flag remains comparatively listless. Internationalism over nationalism, symbolically, and fitting for 21st century Germany, which has staked its future on collective European strength.
Later the same evening, at the Brandenburg gate the recorded words of two American presidents rang out over a crowd assembled to see a light show at Pariser Platz. There was sustained applause for each:
"Ich bin ein Berliner;"
"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."
Just what do the current British and American leaders think they are accomplishing by pushing for the return to a kind of nationalism that resulted in world wars? They should instead be building on the British and American achievements that have given the world decades of relative peace and brought tyrants to account.
The British must hold a second referendum on Brexit. The first one was demonstrably tainted. Now it's clear what is at stake.
The Americans should get back as quickly as possible to world leadership based on freedom and human rights. May we soon see a successful Amtsenthebungsverfahren.
Berlin Billboards
October, 2019
Berlin – Two bestsellers of long ago focused on this city and its turbulent 20th century history: Albert Speer's Inside the Third Reich and Leon Uris's Armageddon. I've been reading them in a new context, the 21st century American foreign-policy collapse.
Speer wrote first-hand of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Uris wrote of the heroic Berlin Airlift, when the city was saved from the grasp of the Soviet Union by a constant rotation of supply aircraft between Berlin and the western zone.
Berlin is now capital of a free, democratic, united Germany and de facto leader of Europe. The sacrifices of Americans to defeat the Nazis and the communist totalitarians paid off, which should be a constant celebration of a united America.
Instead, past American sacrifices and efforts are now being mocked in our own country and around the globe by those who would tear down the free world step by step through disinformation and propaganda and replace it with authoritarian governments subservient to the likes of Russia, China, Turkey, Hungary, and the Philippines.
Germany has a special history with propaganda. Speer reminds us how Josef Goebbels mastered its use in the rise of the Nazis with his Hitler-featured rallies and his command of the mass media. It is no wonder that the current German government is mounting its own counter-propaganda campaign against authoritarianism by reminding its citizens that it is a Rechtsstaat, or country of the rule of law.
Today, at the S-Bahn at Botanischer Garten and the U-Bahn at Kottbusser Tor, I saw large billboards placed by the federal ministry of justice. See an example in the photo below, which offers the Rechtsstaat, the backbone of democracy, as protection against arbitrariness and as pursuer of justice.
The billboards are shocking, not for what they say, but that they exist at all. They are evidence that the American successes of the last century to help establish Germany as a strong democracy, and to protect our own, are in peril, the sacrifices perhaps for naught. This is more than sobering, it is frightening.
Berlin – Two bestsellers of long ago focused on this city and its turbulent 20th century history: Albert Speer's Inside the Third Reich and Leon Uris's Armageddon. I've been reading them in a new context, the 21st century American foreign-policy collapse.
Speer wrote first-hand of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Uris wrote of the heroic Berlin Airlift, when the city was saved from the grasp of the Soviet Union by a constant rotation of supply aircraft between Berlin and the western zone.
Berlin is now capital of a free, democratic, united Germany and de facto leader of Europe. The sacrifices of Americans to defeat the Nazis and the communist totalitarians paid off, which should be a constant celebration of a united America.
Instead, past American sacrifices and efforts are now being mocked in our own country and around the globe by those who would tear down the free world step by step through disinformation and propaganda and replace it with authoritarian governments subservient to the likes of Russia, China, Turkey, Hungary, and the Philippines.
Germany has a special history with propaganda. Speer reminds us how Josef Goebbels mastered its use in the rise of the Nazis with his Hitler-featured rallies and his command of the mass media. It is no wonder that the current German government is mounting its own counter-propaganda campaign against authoritarianism by reminding its citizens that it is a Rechtsstaat, or country of the rule of law.
Today, at the S-Bahn at Botanischer Garten and the U-Bahn at Kottbusser Tor, I saw large billboards placed by the federal ministry of justice. See an example in the photo below, which offers the Rechtsstaat, the backbone of democracy, as protection against arbitrariness and as pursuer of justice.
The billboards are shocking, not for what they say, but that they exist at all. They are evidence that the American successes of the last century to help establish Germany as a strong democracy, and to protect our own, are in peril, the sacrifices perhaps for naught. This is more than sobering, it is frightening.
First Sea Duty, USS Rainier (AE-5)
October, 2019
Washington – Three recent memoir posts have recounted naval training in the early 1960s, in preparation for U.S. Navy active duty service. This post recalls my first tour of active duty, aboard USS Rainier (AE-5), home-ported in Concord, California.
In 1966, I was to become the ship's communications officer and division officer for Rainier's radiomen, signalmen, and electronics technicians.
I reported aboard ship in the fall of 1966, in San Diego, after several weeks of training at the naval base in Newport, Rhode Island, where I learned cryptographic methods and how to operate crypto equipment. From San Diego, Rainier sailed to San Francisco and then departed from Mare Island in February of 1967 for the Philippines and attachment to the U.S. Seventh Fleet.
For the next several months, Rainier's mission was to replenish other Navy ships in the South China Sea, the Tonkin Gulf, and along the South Vietnamese coast. Mostly we operated out of Subic Bay in the Philippines, but also put in at other ports: Manila; Hong Kong; Kaohsiung, Taiwan; and Sattahip, Thailand.
Rainier was an old ship, built in 1940 as a C-2 cargo hull with two massive Nordberg diesels for propulsion. Despite antiquated equipment, we won a coveted "E" award for efficiency. Late in 1967 Rainier returned to its homeport via Yokosuka, Japan, and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
This was the height of the Vietnam War. See an earlier, longer post reflecting on it. My hope in 1967 was that both North and South regimes could be replaced. I bought the books of war analyst and critic Bernard Fall in Kaohsiung and read them aboard ship. Bernard Fall was killed in Vietnam that year. In 1968, first with the Tet Offensive and then with Richard Nixon's sabotage of the peace talks, any such hopes were dashed.
For me personally, the Rainier experience was good. Navy officers get the benefit of being thrust at an early age into responsibility. There's nothing like being the officer-of-the-deck in tight situations at sea. I learned much from my first captain, Vincent P. O'Rourke, the very model of a wise sea captain, and from my second, John C. "Jack" Smith, the very opposite, who wrecked the ship's car in the Philippines while driving drunk, and once plowed Rainier into a pier.
With few officers, our wardroom was close-knit; I recall them fondly: Howard Murphy, chief engineer; Bob Lee, first lieutenant; Tom Stuart, operations officer; Dave Johnson, navigator; George Raines, damage control assistant; Chris Henderson, assistant engineer; pork-chops Pat Ryan and Jim Graber; and Charlie Alderman, gunnery officer and diver. Murphy and Lee were mustangs, as was the XO.
The crew was a proud and tough cohort of many different races and backgrounds. Some ships had racial conflicts. Not so much on Rainier. In port, we often sought out a gym for a basketball game, which I organized. Captain O'Rourke joined us once, which impressed the crew as they enjoyed playing with the captain.
The photos below show the work of our deck division sailors, who risked their lives daily to fulfill the ship's mission; my view through binoculars at two approaching ships in the South China Sea; Rainier signalmen at a day's end; in-port at Yokosuka, Japan, late 1967.
Washington – Three recent memoir posts have recounted naval training in the early 1960s, in preparation for U.S. Navy active duty service. This post recalls my first tour of active duty, aboard USS Rainier (AE-5), home-ported in Concord, California.
In 1966, I was to become the ship's communications officer and division officer for Rainier's radiomen, signalmen, and electronics technicians.
I reported aboard ship in the fall of 1966, in San Diego, after several weeks of training at the naval base in Newport, Rhode Island, where I learned cryptographic methods and how to operate crypto equipment. From San Diego, Rainier sailed to San Francisco and then departed from Mare Island in February of 1967 for the Philippines and attachment to the U.S. Seventh Fleet.
For the next several months, Rainier's mission was to replenish other Navy ships in the South China Sea, the Tonkin Gulf, and along the South Vietnamese coast. Mostly we operated out of Subic Bay in the Philippines, but also put in at other ports: Manila; Hong Kong; Kaohsiung, Taiwan; and Sattahip, Thailand.
Rainier was an old ship, built in 1940 as a C-2 cargo hull with two massive Nordberg diesels for propulsion. Despite antiquated equipment, we won a coveted "E" award for efficiency. Late in 1967 Rainier returned to its homeport via Yokosuka, Japan, and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
This was the height of the Vietnam War. See an earlier, longer post reflecting on it. My hope in 1967 was that both North and South regimes could be replaced. I bought the books of war analyst and critic Bernard Fall in Kaohsiung and read them aboard ship. Bernard Fall was killed in Vietnam that year. In 1968, first with the Tet Offensive and then with Richard Nixon's sabotage of the peace talks, any such hopes were dashed.
For me personally, the Rainier experience was good. Navy officers get the benefit of being thrust at an early age into responsibility. There's nothing like being the officer-of-the-deck in tight situations at sea. I learned much from my first captain, Vincent P. O'Rourke, the very model of a wise sea captain, and from my second, John C. "Jack" Smith, the very opposite, who wrecked the ship's car in the Philippines while driving drunk, and once plowed Rainier into a pier.
With few officers, our wardroom was close-knit; I recall them fondly: Howard Murphy, chief engineer; Bob Lee, first lieutenant; Tom Stuart, operations officer; Dave Johnson, navigator; George Raines, damage control assistant; Chris Henderson, assistant engineer; pork-chops Pat Ryan and Jim Graber; and Charlie Alderman, gunnery officer and diver. Murphy and Lee were mustangs, as was the XO.
The crew was a proud and tough cohort of many different races and backgrounds. Some ships had racial conflicts. Not so much on Rainier. In port, we often sought out a gym for a basketball game, which I organized. Captain O'Rourke joined us once, which impressed the crew as they enjoyed playing with the captain.
The photos below show the work of our deck division sailors, who risked their lives daily to fulfill the ship's mission; my view through binoculars at two approaching ships in the South China Sea; Rainier signalmen at a day's end; in-port at Yokosuka, Japan, late 1967.
Inured to Corruption
October, 2019
Washington – A federal judge has made waves by threatening to put Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in jail for contempt of court. Under DeVos, and in contradiction to Judge Sallie Kim's order, the Department of Education has continued to collect on thousands of student loans that should have been cancelled because the loans were made fraudulently by a for-profit school, Corinthian College.
Judge Kim may not actually jail DeVos, but she has raised the possibility.
The waves were not high enough, however, to draw the attention of the higher education trade press, namely The Chronicle of Higher Education or Inside Higher Ed, neither of which took note. It is not higher education news, quite apparently, when borrowers are stiffed in the thousands and the Secretary ignores the courts. It has become routine. Perhaps it will be news to the trade press if and when the law and judges' orders are followed.*
Later this month we'll learn what Judge Kim will do in the face of the Secretary's contempt. I hope it is not a fine that the Department will pay with taxpayer dollars. That would be adding insult to injury. A fine to be paid personally by the Secretary would be almost as bad, as she is a billionaire. More fitting would be a hefty personal fine that would be paid to the non-profit organizations that have had to bring suits on behalf of borrowers whose protections have been violated in a variety of Department programs, to include TEACH and PSLF. Or a few days in jail.
To some, it is not particularly newsworthy when a federal agency like the Department of Education is captured and controlled by the interests it is supposed to be regulating. There is a vast amount of political science literature on the subject. In this case, there is even a smoking gun: the for-profit college association publicly asked the Secretary to ignore the law on "borrower defense," and she did. But she is not the first cabinet official to take her orders from those she is regulating.
Arguably, the whole higher education community has now become inured to the corruption that feeds off the victimization of student loan borrowers. It is almost as if there is a law of nature that determines how industries and organizations exploit the vulnerable. In biology, such a natural relationship is observed between ants and aphids. Aphids supply the sweet nourishment for ants that herd them. If the aphids grow wings and try to take off, like borrowers trying properly under the law to escape their loans, the ants strip them of their wings and keep them captive. It's hard to think of a better analogy to describe the DeVos Department and how it strips borrowers of their rights. Borrowers who were legally entitled to loan discharge were slapped instead with new collection actions, like wage garnishment and tax refund seizures.
For public consumption, the Department has recently started to put blame on its servicers and loan collection contractors for violations of laws and regulations. This would resonate truthfully were it not for the existence of a robust revolving door network between the Department and the servicers. If the Department is serious about servicer shortcomings, it would disqualify offending servicers from competing for more business, including the upcoming NextGen awards. Unless that happens, it looks like business as usual.
Why not some jail time for contempt of court? Nothing else has worked.
______________________________
* During the week following Judge Kim's condemnation of Secretary Devos, Inside Higher Ed covered stories such as a student who sold pot out of a dorm room, a professor who used grant money at a strip club, and a study by a conservative organization (AEI) that suggested borrower complaints are misguided, the real problem being over-complicated legislation. But about contempt of court for ruining the lives of thousands of borrowers? Nichts. Nada.
Washington – A federal judge has made waves by threatening to put Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in jail for contempt of court. Under DeVos, and in contradiction to Judge Sallie Kim's order, the Department of Education has continued to collect on thousands of student loans that should have been cancelled because the loans were made fraudulently by a for-profit school, Corinthian College.
Judge Kim may not actually jail DeVos, but she has raised the possibility.
The waves were not high enough, however, to draw the attention of the higher education trade press, namely The Chronicle of Higher Education or Inside Higher Ed, neither of which took note. It is not higher education news, quite apparently, when borrowers are stiffed in the thousands and the Secretary ignores the courts. It has become routine. Perhaps it will be news to the trade press if and when the law and judges' orders are followed.*
Later this month we'll learn what Judge Kim will do in the face of the Secretary's contempt. I hope it is not a fine that the Department will pay with taxpayer dollars. That would be adding insult to injury. A fine to be paid personally by the Secretary would be almost as bad, as she is a billionaire. More fitting would be a hefty personal fine that would be paid to the non-profit organizations that have had to bring suits on behalf of borrowers whose protections have been violated in a variety of Department programs, to include TEACH and PSLF. Or a few days in jail.
To some, it is not particularly newsworthy when a federal agency like the Department of Education is captured and controlled by the interests it is supposed to be regulating. There is a vast amount of political science literature on the subject. In this case, there is even a smoking gun: the for-profit college association publicly asked the Secretary to ignore the law on "borrower defense," and she did. But she is not the first cabinet official to take her orders from those she is regulating.
Arguably, the whole higher education community has now become inured to the corruption that feeds off the victimization of student loan borrowers. It is almost as if there is a law of nature that determines how industries and organizations exploit the vulnerable. In biology, such a natural relationship is observed between ants and aphids. Aphids supply the sweet nourishment for ants that herd them. If the aphids grow wings and try to take off, like borrowers trying properly under the law to escape their loans, the ants strip them of their wings and keep them captive. It's hard to think of a better analogy to describe the DeVos Department and how it strips borrowers of their rights. Borrowers who were legally entitled to loan discharge were slapped instead with new collection actions, like wage garnishment and tax refund seizures.
For public consumption, the Department has recently started to put blame on its servicers and loan collection contractors for violations of laws and regulations. This would resonate truthfully were it not for the existence of a robust revolving door network between the Department and the servicers. If the Department is serious about servicer shortcomings, it would disqualify offending servicers from competing for more business, including the upcoming NextGen awards. Unless that happens, it looks like business as usual.
Why not some jail time for contempt of court? Nothing else has worked.
______________________________
* During the week following Judge Kim's condemnation of Secretary Devos, Inside Higher Ed covered stories such as a student who sold pot out of a dorm room, a professor who used grant money at a strip club, and a study by a conservative organization (AEI) that suggested borrower complaints are misguided, the real problem being over-complicated legislation. But about contempt of court for ruining the lives of thousands of borrowers? Nichts. Nada.
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