SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

CUBA'S GROWING CRISIS – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:   Thousands of Cubans took to the streets Sunday in protest of the country’s food shortages and high prices amid the coronavirus pandemic.  The anti-government protest in the capital of Havana lasted about 2 ½ hours before it was broken up when a few protesters tossed cobblestones at police, leading to several arrests.  Before its conclusion, hordes of demonstrators, many of them young, marched around the capital chanting “Freedom,” “Enough” and “Unite” with police trailing behind them.  “We are fed up with the queues, the shortages. That’s why I’m here,” one middle-aged protester told The Associated Press.  The communist country is suffering from its worst economic crisis in decades and has recently seen a surge in coronavirus cases.  If these demonstrations grow, they can lead to a major crisis in American foreign policy.  Barack Obama restored relations with Cuba, without getting a single thing in return, and without seeing any improvement in the living conditions of Cubans.  Now America will have to decide whether to intervene should we see a full-scale revolution.  This will be a day-by-day story. 

KAMI SPEAKS AGAIN – FROM FOX:  Vice President Kamala Harris was criticized Saturday for arguing against voter ID laws because rural Americans couldn't get photocopies of their ID's.  "I don't think that we should underestimate what that [compromise on voter ID laws] could mean," Harris said in her interview with BET News. "Because in some people's mind, that means you're going to have to Xerox or photocopy your ID to send it in to prove who you are. Well, there are a whole lot of people, especially people who live in rural communities, who don't - there's no Kinkos, there's no OfficeMax near them."  "Of course people have to prove who they are," Harris continued, but "not in a way that makes it almost impossible for them to prove who they are."  The vice president's comments come in the midst of a nationwide battle over voter ID laws, with states like Georgia and Texas taking center stage. Many progressives argue that voter ID laws are "racist," while Republicans suggest the laws are necessary to prevent voter fraud.  Rural Americans took issue with the vice president's comments, suggesting she is out of touch with the nation.  "We built this country. We can manage to photocopy our ID's," tweeted former CIA officer Bryan Dean Wright.  Kami sounds more and more like the typical, wealthy, out-of-touch liberal who believes that she understands what the common peasants do not.  I wouldn't trust her in the Oval Office, even as a visitor.

July 11, 2021