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JANUARY 21,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

AGAIN, THE SILENCE OF THE DEMS – FROM FOX:   Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, took to twitter Thursday night to call on President Biden to condemn Inauguration Day protests turned violent riots in Portland and Seattle.  More than a dozen people have been arrested in the two North West cities, according to police reports Thursday, after anti-Biden demonstrators targeted government buildings and the Oregon Democratic Party building in Portland.  Portland police reported that roughly 75 people marched up to the Democratic Party headquarters and vandalized the building with spray paint and broke windows.  The city’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency was then targeted by a group of a 150 people, who also vandalized the building with anti-Biden and anti-police messages – forcing police to call an unlawful assembly and use tear gas to break up the crowds.  "I’m waiting for Pres Biden to condemn violence/looting/arson last two days in Oregon & Washington state," Grassley said Thursday. Strange that Biden wouldn't condemn attacks on Democrats...until you realize that the attacks are coming from people even further to the left.  We mustn't muss their hair.

JUSTIFIED OUTRAGE – FROM FOX:   Reports of shabby treatment of National Guard troops at the U.S. Capitol were sparking bipartisan outrage among lawmakers and other officials Thursday -- with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott calling for the return home of his state's Guard members.  Thousands of National Guard troops from several states had deployed to the U.S. Capitol to protect Wednesday's inauguration of President Biden against threats of violence following the Jan. 6 riot.  Photos of Guard members sleeping on the marble floors of the Capitol quickly went viral -- until they later received cots. Then on Thursday came another insult: According to reports, the Guard members were abruptly told to take their break time inside a parking garage instead of inside the Capitol.  The Guardsmen, who had been resting inside the Capitol between 12-hour shifts, were moved to a nearby parking garage where photos obtained by Politico and other outlets showed members crowded together on the ground -- some resting their heads against cement pillars.  Not surprising – the Democrats come to town and our soldiers are abused. 

January 21,  2021    Permalink

AS THE TRUTH OOZES OUT – AT 8:15 P.M. ET:  Little by little, the truth is leaking out about the "insurrection" at the Capitol on January 6th.  When the whole truth comes out, will the United States Senate want to impeach former President Trump?  Will some sane voice emerge to stop the farce?  Will the new president step up to his responsibilities as leader of his party?  From PJ Media: 

With the second bogus impeachment in the books, the Washington Post has finally seen fit to admit that President Trump did not incite the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6 with his speech, acknowledging that it was, in fact, planned in advance.

The article, published Tuesday, the day before Biden’s inauguration, declares in its headline “Self-styled militia members planned on storming the U.S. Capitol days in advance of Jan. 6 attack, court documents say,” and opens with the following paragraphs.

Self-styled militia members from Virginia, Ohio and other states made plans to storm the U.S. Capitol days in advance of the Jan. 6 attack, and then communicated in real time as they breached the building on opposite sides and talked about hunting for lawmakers, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

While authorities have charged more than 100 individuals in the riot, details in the new allegations against three U.S. military veterans offer a disturbing look at what they allegedly said to one another before, during and after the attack — statements that indicate a degree of preparation and determination to rush deep into the halls and tunnels of Congress to make “citizens’ arrests” of elected officials.

U.S. authorities charged an apparent leader of the Oath Keepers extremist group, Thomas Edward Caldwell, 66, of Berryville, Va., in the attack, alleging that the Navy veteran helped organize a ring of dozens who coordinated their movements as they “stormed the castle” to disrupt the confirmation of President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral college victory.

Several paragraphs later, here’s what the authors of the article concede:

The arrests this weekend of several people with alleged ties to far-right extremist groups, including the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys and the Three Percenters, suggest that the riot was not an entirely impulsive outburst of violence but an event instigated or exploited by organized groups. Hours of video posted on social media and pored over by investigators have focused on individuals in military-style gear moving together.

CNN acknowledged last week that the storming of the Capitol was planned prior to Trump’s speech, reporting that, “Evidence uncovered so far, including weapons and tactics seen on surveillance video, suggests a level of planning that has led investigators to believe the attack on the US Capitol was not just a protest that spiraled out of control, a federal law enforcement official says.”

The CNN report and the Washington Post article completely undermine the entire case Democrats made for impeaching Trump. As I previously noted, the riot at the Capitol was either planned in advance or inspired by President Trump’s speech. It simply cannot be both. That the media is starting to acknowledge the whole thing was planned in advance now, after the bogus impeachment, is no accident.

COMMENT:  The press performed horribly on January 6th.  There may be some journalists who now are trying to make the necessary corrections:  The violence was pre-planned.  You can criticize the tone of Mr. Trump's speech that day, but he didn't incite the violence.  He committed no impeachable offense. 

The press failure repeated the same embarrassment in reporting Watergate in 1974 – a kind of hysteria directed at the incumbent president.  At the very moment that we needed a calm and reflective press, we got Olympic-level screamers, both in 1974 and now. 

Question:  The violence that has broken out in Western cities in the last two nights is coming from the left, not the right.  Will any news organization attribute it to the constant stream of hatred oozing from Democratic officials and candidates in the last election cycle?  Am I kidding?

January 21,  2021     Permalink

JANUARY 20,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

FIRST BLUNDER – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday said he was “disappointed” in President Biden’s pledge to revoke a permit for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline — as the company behind it said work on the project was being suspended.  In a statement issued following Biden’s inauguration, Trudeau said he “spoke directly” to Biden about the $8 billion project in November, and other Canadian officials “made the case” in favor of it “to high-level officials in the incoming administration.”  “While we welcome the President’s commitment to fight climate change, we are disappointed but acknowledge the President’s decision to fulfill his election campaign promise on Keystone XL,” Trudeau said.  Trudeau noted that “Canada is the single-largest supplier of energy to the United States, contributing to U.S. energy security and economic competitiveness, and supporting thousands of jobs on both sides of the border.”  Biden caved to the woke environmentalists, and that hurts the national interest of the United States and sends a message to other allies that between our alliances and wokeness, wokeness will always win.

A NEW AGE OF INTELLECT – FROM GATEWAY PUNDIT:   Joe Biden’s White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki held her first press briefing a few hours after Biden was sworn into office and it’s all rainbows and unicorns.  A brave reporter asked Psaki if Joe Biden will keep Trump’s Air Force One color scheme.  “This is such a good question!” Psaki said smiling. “I have not had the opportunity to dig into that today…”  Rather than ask questions about the investigation into Hunter Biden’s money laundering scheme and how Joe Biden turned his son into a bagman, the reporters ask about paint.  And it will continue.  The press is well past the age when it thought reporting the news was a noble calling.

January 20, 2021       Permalink

OKAY, BIDEN'S HONEYMOON IS OVER – OVERNIGHT:   I've had enough good will and "unity" today to last me a lifetime.  Let's get back to basics.  This new administration is sending signals, and I'm not too pleased.  From Fox: 

President Joe Biden took the oath of office Wednesday, and with new presidents come new White House decorations – especially in the commander-in-chief’s official workplace.

And so it’s no surprise that staffers have moved around a lot of things, from artwork to the carpeting inside the Oval Office.

One change the Biden administration made was to remove the military flags that had been on display during Donald Trump’s term in office.

The absent flags were first reported in the Washington Post Wednesday evening. Trump kept them near his left side against the window for years.

New photos of Biden’s makeover show they’ve been removed.

Most modern presidents, but not all, have displayed only two flags behind the Resolute Desk – the American flag and the presidential seal, according to the Atlantic.

Archival photos show former Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon had displayed military battle flags in the office.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a five-star general during World War II, acknowledged his background by planting just the Army flag across from the desk.

COMMENT:   I want to see the military flags.  They underline the president's role as commander-in-chief, but they would probably offend the "woke" crowd that now has considerable sway over the Democratic Party.

January 20, 2021       Permalink

PRESIDENT BIDEN – AT 7:30 P.M. ET:  Overall, it was a perfectly acceptable, average inauguration.  No one misbehaved, although the tan winter jacket modeled by Bernie Sanders was judged inappropriate by fashion watchers.  The national anthem was sung with reasonable correctness by Lady Gaga.  The speeches said all the checklist things about unity and American greatness.  Justice Sonia Sotomayor, when swearing in Vice President Kamala Harris, mispronounced her first name, but that was the worst mistake made.  Even Hillary Clinton smiled.

But most inaugurations are that way.  And most inaugural addresses are thrown out with yesterday's paper.  One, Lincoln's second inaugural, achieved true literary and political greatness.  FDR's first inaugural, with its ringing line, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," is probably the most quoted.  John F. Kennedy's inaugural address, probably the most inspiring, with its declaration of freedom and its pledge to "pay any price" in its defense, is quoted less today, since the cultural powers that be consider it a throwback to Cold War American exceptionalism, which, I proudly say, is exactly what it is and should be. 

Maybe it is wise to reprint here the inaugural that truly stands out, Lincoln's second, and contemplate why it achieved greatness: 

"Fellow countrymen: at this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends is as well known to the public as to myself and it is I trust reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

"On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it ~ all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war ~ seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.

"One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves not distributed generally over the union but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen perpetuate and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered ~ that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses for it must needs be that offenses come but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which in the providence of God must needs come but which having continued through His appointed time He now wills to remove and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him. Fondly do we hope ~ fervently do we pray ~ that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword as was said three thousand years ago so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'

"With malice toward none with charity for all with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan ~ to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

COMMENT:  Part of Lincoln's brilliance lay in his ability simply to tell a story.  The Gettysburg Address begins, "Fourscore and seven years ago..."  Lincoln told the nation's story, and gave it a moral framework.  He did it with remarkably few words. 

I don't think we have Lincoln's equivalent today.  But someone may surprise us.

January 20,   2021       Permalink