Over in Greensboro

In the last week or so before the election, in the midst of conniving to win the Republican primary for Congress, young Phil Berger (and his Super PAC) whacked one opponent as a liberal, another as a wild-eyed big spender, and a third as a secret agent who’s too cozy with Chinese textile firms.

 
The ‘secret agent’ was Bruce VonCannon.
 
And Berger’s whack says a lot about Berger’s politics.
 
Bruce VonCannon was born and raised in Asheboro where his father worked for the Post Office and his mother worked for the Eveready Battery Company. In High School he won the state tennis championship then attended Princeton on a scholarship and, his senior year, was offered a scholarship to study abroad in Singapore.
 
Though he didn’t know it at the time, he’d taken the first step down a road that would lead him to a 27 year career in overseas banking.
 
Last year, after working as CEO of the Swiss Rothschild Bank in Hong Kong, he retired and returned home and that, in Berger’s Super PAC’s eyes, was all the proof they needed to whack him with an ad for being too cozy with Chinese textile firms – which was news to VonCannon.
 
After I saw their ad, since I’ve been helping VonCannon, I asked to see their research which arrived in reams of Internet links and nebulous documents but, when you sorted it all out, their story went like this:
 
Berger’s Super PAC hadn’t found a shred of evidence Bruce VonCannon owned a single share of stock in a Chinese textile firm. Or that he’d ever ‘partnered’ with a Chinese textile firm.
 
His employer – the Swiss Rothschild Bank – didn’t own a single share of stock in a Chinese textile firm either.
 
And the Rothschild family Group – which owned the Swiss Rothschild Bank – didn’t own a single share of stock in a Chinese textile firm.
 
However it did own a French bank which owned stock in a Chinese Mutual Fund – but that Fund didn’t own a single share of Chinese textile stock either.
 
From there the trial twisted and turned through Chinese Funds until, at last, they found someone who owned stock in two Chinese textile firms – which irrefutably proved, according to Berger’s PAC, that Bruce VonCannon was partnered with people he didn’t know, and had never laid eyes on, in China.
 
What the Super PAC was doing is called guilt by association and they believed it down to their toenails.
 
I reckon, if someone wasn’t troubled by scruples, they could also use the Super PAC’s logic to blame young Phil Berger for all the sinning that went on in Babylon – after all, Berger descended from Adam and so did the Babylonians and, if you hold with guilt by association, that’s pretty solid proof Berger’s responsible for sinning that went on 4,000 years ago even though he wasn’t there and didn’t know one of the sinners.
 
Of course, that’s silly – it would be outrageous to blame someone for sinning someone else they didn’t even know did. Wouldn’t it?
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Carter Wrenn

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Over in Greensboro

In the last week or so before the election, in the midst of conniving to win the Republican primary for Congress, young Phil Berger (and his Super PAC) whacked one opponent as a liberal, another as a wild-eyed big spender, and a third as a secret agent who’s too cozy with Chinese textile firms.

 
The ‘secret agent’ was Bruce VonCannon.
 
And Berger’s whack says a lot about Berger’s politics.
 
Bruce VonCannon was born and raised in Asheboro where his father worked for the Post Office and his mother worked for the Eveready Battery Company. In High School he won the state tennis championship then attended Princeton on a scholarship and, his senior year, was offered a scholarship to study abroad in Singapore.
 
Though he didn’t know it at the time, he’d taken the first step down a road that would lead him to a 27 year career in overseas banking.
 
Last year, after working as CEO of the Swiss Rothschild Bank in Hong Kong, he retired and returned home and that, in Berger’s Super PAC’s eyes, was all the proof they needed to whack him with an ad for being too cozy with Chinese textile firms – which was news to VonCannon.
 
After I saw their ad, since I’ve been helping VonCannon, I asked to see their research which arrived in reams of Internet links and nebulous documents but, when you sorted it all out, their story went like this:
 
Berger’s Super PAC hadn’t found a shred of evidence Bruce VonCannon owned a single share of stock in a Chinese textile firm. Or that he’d ever ‘partnered’ with a Chinese textile firm.
 
His employer – the Swiss Rothschild Bank – didn’t own a single share of stock in a Chinese textile firm either.
 
And the Rothschild family Group – which owned the Swiss Rothschild Bank – didn’t own a single share of stock in a Chinese textile firm.
 
However it did own a French bank which owned stock in a Chinese Mutual Fund – but that Fund didn’t own a single share of Chinese textile stock either.
 
From there the trial twisted and turned through Chinese Funds until, at last, they found someone who owned stock in two Chinese textile firms – which irrefutably proved, according to Berger’s PAC, that Bruce VonCannon was partnered with people he didn’t know, and had never laid eyes on, in China.
 
What the Super PAC was doing is called guilt by association and they believed it down to their toenails.
 
I reckon, if someone wasn’t troubled by scruples, they could also use the Super PAC’s logic to blame young Phil Berger for all the sinning that went on in Babylon – after all, Berger descended from Adam and so did the Babylonians and, if you hold with guilt by association, that’s pretty solid proof Berger’s responsible for sinning that went on 4,000 years ago even though he wasn’t there and didn’t know one of the sinners.
 
Of course, that’s silly – it would be outrageous to blame someone for sinning someone else they didn’t even know did. Wouldn’t it?
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Carter Wrenn

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