Important headlines for October 20th:
Bottom Line: These are the stories you don't want to miss (but probably would if I didn't find them for you)...
Goodbye and Good Riddance to the Islamic State Noah Feldman, Bloomberg
Excerpt: Reduced to a shadowy terrorist network, IS will be no more than al-Qaeda without Osama bin Laden. It will engage in violence for the sake of violence, not with the possibility of restoring the caliphate.
It will take a generation or maybe more to make sense of what IS has meant for Islam in the 21st century. Nothing good, that’s for certain. But perhaps its failure will help ensure that future utopian dreams won’t become dystopian quite so rapidly.
Since it's rise to prominence in 2014, ISIS has been responsible for the death of an estimated 96,000 innocent people, 1300 of which have been outside of their areas of battle and occupation (largely terror attacks in Europe and the US). That's the legacy of the "JV team". And to that point, inaction in the face of evil allows for those dystopian outcomes. We've seen what can happen quickly when evil is confronted head on. Unfortunately for 96,000 people, and their families, we didn't have that kind of leadership when it was required to stop the evil from rising.
Economic Growth Is Not a Mystery, Yet It Eludes Dems Peter Ferrara, NY Observer
Excerpt: When America has followed pro-growth economic policies, its economy has grown at a real annual rate of 3.5 to 4 percent. At 4 percent real growth, the real economy, and national income, double every 18 years.
The average US growth rate still remains 3.1% annually. The last full year of average economic growth was 2005. It's not complicated. Higher taxes and more regulation = lower growth. Lower taxes and less regulation = higher growth. Any questions?
Any Competent Employer Could Have Avoided NFL Mess Andy Puzder, Fox News
Excerpt: The NFL could have prevented this. Honestly, any competent employer would have. Employees do not have the right to alienate a business’ customer base, damaging the business that employs them. I ran the company that owns the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s restaurant chains for almost 17 years. Along with our franchisees, we employed about 75,000 Americans and we flew the American flag in front of many of our restaurants. Had any company employees decided to disrespect that flag in front of our customers, in our brand’s uniform and during their hours of employment, I would have encouraged our general managers to first warn them to stop and, if they refused, to fire them.
Nailed it. Just as is the case in any large organization - you'll always have occasional malcontents acting out. The question is what you do at that point. Nothing and let the contagion spread and potentially ruin your culture and business or stop it in it tracks before it does. The real blame isn't with a smattering of ungrateful, ignorant players. It's with the Commissioner and owners who tolerate it.
Until Monday...