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I appeared on Silvio Canto Jr's talk show from Dallas last night.  It's here.

JANUARY 25,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

NO VOTE OF CONFIDENCE – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:    Americans definitely aren’t united on this question.  Just one in five Americans have “a great deal of confidence” in President Biden’s ability to make good on his goal to unify the country, according to a new poll released Sunday.  While 22 percent said Biden will unify the country, 24 percent remained highly skeptical, saying that they have no confidence “at all” that he will be able to do so, the ABC News/Ipsos poll found.  Thirty-five percent said they have a “good amount” of confidence Biden could unite the country and 19 percent said they had “not so much” confidence.  Respondents to the survey were asked their opinion after watching a video of Biden’s inaugural address urging Americans to see “each other not as adversaries, but as neighbors.”   Let's face it.  "Unity" is kind of a myth.  This country, like most vigorous free nations, is filled with division and political conflict.  It kind of goes with the territory.  Nixon also claimed a mandate to "bring us together."  You know the result.

GOOD NEWS – FROM BREITBART:    Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced Monday that a power-sharing agreement in the Senate no longer needs to stipulate that the filibuster rule remain intact after two Senate Democrats confirmed they would not support abolishing it.  “I’m glad that two Senate Democrats confirmed they will not vote to end the legislative filibuster,” McConnell stated. “They agree with President Biden and me on protecting the Senate. With this win, we can move forward with a 50-50 power-sharing agreement built on the 2001 precedent."  The two brave Democrats are Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.  Manchin is a genuine moderate Democrat.  Sinema is an eccentric who began her career as a leftist, but has since taken a steady journey to reason. 

January 25, 2021       Permalink

UM, ER, WELL HE DIDN'T QUITE MEAN IT – AT 9:47 P.M. ET:   Joe Biden made many promises, many, many, many.  And now he has a bit of a credibility problem.  From Fox: 

President Biden has drawn backlash for providing a pessimistic view of his administration's ability to combat the coronavirus pandemic in the near future.  Biden's campaign featured harsh criticisms of former President Trump's approach to COVID-19, and in his first speech as president-elect he said his administration's work "begins with getting COVID under control." On Friday, however, he indicated that the trajectory of the pandemic can't be changed in the coming months, no matter what Americans do.

"If we fail to act, there will be a wave of evictions and foreclosures in the coming months as this pandemic rages on, because there's nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months," Biden said.

The idea that nothing will change the pandemic drew confusion and ire from figures in politics and the media.

"Haven't we been told for months that restrictions and mandates were necessary to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months?" former Michigan Rep. Justin Amash, a libertarian, tweeted.

Fox News contributor and former Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, criticized Biden for his fatalist sentiment.

"Already giving up," Chaffetz tweeted. "Banner headlines in all major media outlets? Nope. Most will bury this but it is a stunning admission. Biden says 'nothing we can do' to change pandemic 'trajectory' in coming months."

National Review's David Harsanyi said the idea that there was nothing that could be done was "the opposite" of what Biden said during his campaign. 

COMMENT:  Oh, give Joe a break.  He's just trying to be like his mentor, Barack Obama.  Remember when Obama promised that, when he took office, the oceans would recede?  Never happened, but the press looked the other way.  Joe expects the same press.

January 25, 2021       Permalink

IT'S COME TO THIS – MALICE IN BLUNDERLAND – AT 8:45 P.M. ET:  Not only are the Kamikaze Dems plunging forward with their impeachment trial of a president who can no longer be tried because he's out of office, they're doing it in the worst possible way.  From Fox: 

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., pledged Monday to remain impartial in his role presiding over former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial next month despite his past call for the Senate to convict Trump over his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Under normal conditions, the Constitution dictates that Chief Justice John Roberts would preside over an impeachment trial. However, since Trump has already left office, Roberts is not constitutionally required to fill the role and Leahy, the Senate’s president pro tempore, will take his place.

Leahy, 80, was a vocal critic of Trump after his supporters stormed the Capitol, calling for him to be convicted on impeachment charges and barred from holding office in the future. But in a statement released shortly after his key role in the trial surfaced, Leahy said his personal political views would not impact his judgment.

"When presiding over an impeachment trial, the president pro tempore takes an additional special oath to do impartial justice according to the Constitution and the laws," Leahy said in a statement. "It is an oath that I take extraordinarily seriously."

"I consider holding the office of the president pro tempore and the responsibilities that come with it to be one of the highest honors and most serious responsibilities of my career," he added. "When I preside over the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, I will not waver from my constitutional and sworn obligations to administer the trial with fairness, in accordance with the Constitution and the laws."

COMMENT:  Oh please.  Oh please.  The Chief Justice of the United States declined to preside because the whole thing is a farce.  And so a hyper-partisan senator gets the job.  How comforting to the American people.

And this, less than a week after the new Democratic president pledges unity.  That pledge disappeared pretty fast, didn't it?

I'm sure the editors of the Washington Post and The New York Times will now come up with reasons why this is the best path for the American people.  The 75 million people who voted for Donald Trump will not be asked to comment.

January 25, 2021       Permalink

JANUARY 24,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

CALIFORNIA, THERE I GO – FROM FOX:  A recall campaign to oust California Gov. Gavin Newsom is nearing its required threshold to qualify for a statewide ballot.  Over the weekend, recall organizers said they have collected 1.2 million of the 1.5 million signatures needed by March 17 to qualify for a ballot.  Per state law, petition sponsors must gather the signatures of 12% of the voter turnout in California’s previous statewide election, which is about 1,495,709 names.  Rescue California, one of two main groups organizing the campaign, says their goal is to collect 2 million signatures to account for the fact that many of the signatures will inevitably prove invalid.  San Diego’s KUSI reported Saturday that California’s Secretary of State has confirmed 84% of the signatures collected so far are valid.  Once considered a possible presidential candidate.  No more.  Last time a California governor was successfully recalled, the replacement was Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Maybe this time they can get a figure skater.

TRUMP SEEMS SAFE ON IMPEACHMENT – FROM CNN:  The path in the Senate to convict Donald Trump is extremely slim, with a growing number of Republicans expressing confidence that the party will acquit the former President on a charge that he incited the deadly insurrection aimed at stopping President Joe Biden's electoral win.  After Democratic leaders announced they would kick off the process to begin the impeachment trial on Monday, Republicans grew sharply critical about the proceedings -- and made clear that they saw virtually no chance that at least 17 Republicans would join with 50 Democrats to convict Trump and also bar him from ever running from office again.  In interviews with more than a dozen GOP senators, the consensus was clear: Most Republicans are likely to acquit Trump, and only a handful are truly at risk of flipping to convict the former President -- unless more evidence emerges or the political dynamics within their party dramatically change. Yet Republicans are also signaling that as more time has passed since the riot, some of the emotions of the day have cooled and they're ready to move on.

January 24, 2021      Permalink

NEWS FROM THE EDUCATION RACKET – AT 6:31 P.M. ET:  With a new, left-leaning administration in power in Washington, there is every indication that the education industry will now plunge ahead with its craziest new ideas, knowing that no one in the federal government will challenge the madness.  Consider this, from College Fix: 

A political science professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign warns about a new “intellectual plague” that could take over universities.

“The toxic ideas that have corrupted today’s universities all began as tiny, obscure musings before escaping from the laboratories,” Robert Weissberg (right) wrote in an essay for Minding the Campus.

He said the next disease to worry about is the proliferation of programs in “hate studies.”

“This incipient plague embraces the very essence of totalitarianism—the criminalization of thinking,” Weissberg said. “Out with criminal behavior, in with thoughtcrime.”

The professor mentions Bard College as one supporter of hate studies. It has a fall 2020 “Hate Studies Initiative.”

Weissberg said:

This anti-hate message is already filtering into student brains through such Bard courses as Outsider Art; American Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies; German Expressionism; Capitalism and Slavery; Contagion: on rumor, heresy, disease, and financial panic; and Women’s Rights, Human Rights, among others. Bard students will almost surely learn about the evils of “hate” and ambitious, trend-sniffing academics will adjust their teaching interests accordingly.

Bard is not alone in its endeavor. “Other early investors are The Gonzaga Institute for Hate Studies, The International Network for Hate Studies, California State University at Santa Barbara Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, and up in Canada, the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism located at the Ontario Institute of Technology,” Weissberg said.

“Who will exorcise this hate? The Ministry of Anti-Hate,” Weissberg asks. “The courts or the Stasi? Might each individual be the judge and jury and settle the matter as he sees fit?”

The political science professor said that hate studies is “an academic racket” aimed at “ambitious scholars likely frustrated in climbing up the traditional academic ladder.”

“It is not especially technical, nor does it require mastering a foreign language. Entry into the field is easy, but this ‘softness’ should not detract from the awaiting evil,” Weissberg said.
He warned about possible scrutinizing of classic works.

“Books, entire libraries, and even traditional disciples will be scrutinized for toxicity and, rest assured, costly bogus prescriptions will be written,” Weissberg said. “I hate to say it, but this will not end well, so it’s time to sound the alarm.”

COMMENT:   I am seeing the term, "This will not end well" more and more.  As a nation, we seem to be heading into darkness, rather than light.  We have let our educational system fall under the control of radical leftists.  Disagree with them and you're called a racist.  I recall a story last year about some concerned parents in Brooklyn who didn't like the way their children's schools were run, but confided to a reporter that they were afraid to speak out for fear of being labeled racists or hatemongers.

I wonder how many journalists understand that they are living in a world of intimidation that they helped create.  What heroes will step forward to fight the madness?  Are there any heroes left?

January 24, 2021       Permalink