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JULY 17,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

CHINA THREATENS AGAIN – FROM FRONTPAGEMAG.COM:  The Chinese are warning about an impending nuclear war if the United States does not cease its investigation into the origins of the COVID pandemic. They warn that the Americans must call off its probe into the sources of the disease, prompting many American analysts to conclude that the leaders in Beijing fear discovery of the truth: that they -- the Chinese Communists -- are the source of the pandemic.  The Chinese Communists have long experimented with bioweapons, and have apparently continued the nasty habit, both recruiting Western scientists and putting them to work on Chinese projects, and smuggling Westerners into projects within China itself. One of the world's top China experts, British citizen Roger Garside, foresees a mounting crisis, since Beijing will have to confront a triple whammy: a financial crisis, a moral vacuum, and widespread corruption. In an interview he gave recently about his new book, Garside summarized the situation grimly: China is outwardly strong but inwardly weak.  An angry country like China, that fears internal instability, might well strike out at an adversary like the United States simply to advance morale and unity, especially if we are seen as weak and rudderless.

THE BUSYBODIES ARE AT IT, AS USUAL – FROM BIZPACREVIEW.COM:   An online left-wing magazine in Canada is calling for the sale of pickup trucks to be banned unless the purchaser can prove that they really need one in their lives, and this has Americans worried that the United States could be next.  In a piece published this week, Passage magazine managing editor Davide Mastracci argued that the long-term goal is to “shift away from relying on private vehicles entirely,” but that for now, he’d like to start with the iconic, American-created pickup truck. Why? Because of the alleged threat posed by climate change.
“[D]rastically cutting emissions from the transportation sector is of the utmost importance for a successful climate strategy. One way to help do so is to ban the sale of pickup trucks to all consumers unless they’re able to meet strict requirements to prove it will be used primarily for work purposes,” he wrote.  Could this really happen, though? The truth is it already is, to an extent. The Canadian government has already declared that new gas- and diesel-engine cars, as well as light trucks, are to be entirely banned by 2035, according to Autoweek. Control, control, control.  I doubt that this has anything to do with "climate change."  More likely, the left simply wants to control the way we live, ratifying their sense of their own superiority.

July 17,   2021       Permalink

THE KAMIKAZES OF THE LEFT – OVERNIGHT:  You have to hand it to the far leftists.  They really are true believers.  Nothing, including facts, public opinion, or history, deters them.  The Japanese Navy would have wanted them in World War II.  From the New York Post: 

It’s their hill to defund on.

Progressive Democrats are irked by talk from President Biden and national Democrats looking to move the party away from the anti-police rhetoric of 2020.

“Since the last election the moderates have been moving away from it,” state Sen. Jabari Brisport told The Post. Brisport — a socialist — warned that embracing cops would bring consequences from his perennially restive comrades.

“I think hiring more cops after we just saw the largest protest our nation has ever seen against police violence is extremely tone deaf and does not build the base and will probably hurt us in the 2022 elections,” Brisport said.

During a summer of violence in 2020, defund the police became a battle cry for Democrats from coast to coast. In New York, the City Council passed a budget slashing a billion dollars from the NYPD. Its undercover anti-crime unit was disbanded. Lefty Minneapolis lawmakers moved to completely defund their department and (promptly backed down in the wake of a crime surge).

The Biden administration has asked states to invest COVID-19 relief funds into hiring more more police officers.

Biden has always personally expressed his reservation with defunding the police and in recent days his White House has moved aggressively to get the idea dead and buried before the 2022 midterms.

“It’s not a winning issue and Democrats are by and large not going to campaign on it,” a House Democratic insider told The Post. “There’s what the activists want us to do and what we’re actually doing and we’re going to run campaigns based on what we’re actually doing.”

COMMENT:   Possibly the most unpopular slogan in America today is "defund the police."  While moderate Dems may try to get away from it, the GOP will remind Americans, day after day, that it's been a Democratic Party position because of pressure from the far left.  The Democrats have the denials ready, the Republicans have the quotes. 

The "defund" cause will probably be a big issue in Democratic primary races, pitting the moderate wing against the zanies.  Don't try to predict who'll win. 

July 17, 2021       Permalink

JULY 16,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

MAKE SURE TO LEARN THIS! – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:  Officials in Australia are rebranding shark “attacks” as “a negative encounter” as experts argue the former had given the nautical predators a bad reputation not based on science.  At least two of the six Australian states have reportedly changed the way they officially describe shark attacks. In New South Wales, the government’s shark reports now refer to shark “incidents” or “interactions,” and in Queensland, the state government refers to them as “a negative encounter,” Sky News reported.  Attendees at a shark symposium in Queensland were notified of the change in May, The Washington Post reported Friday.  Proponents argue the word “attack” has created a culture of fear around sharks, one often depicted in movies.  “Sharks are very curious animals,” Leonardo Guida, a shark biologist with the Australian Marine Conservation Society, told The Post. They “tend to have exploratory bites … and unfortunately — and sometimes tragically — us humans are quite soft.”  I am so glad that the linguistic injustice against sharks is being addressed.  Now maybe we will have a better and more equitable world, and safer oceans for our swimming friends.

WHAT A FRAUD – FROM FOX:   Missouri Rep. Cori Bush spent nearly $70,000 on private security over the past three months as she advocated for defunding the police, campaign filings show.  Bush's campaign sent $54,120.92 in payments between April 15 and June 28 for "security services" to RS&T Security Consulting, a New York-based firm with a mysterious online presence, Federal Election Commission records released Thursday show. The Democrat's campaign also paid $15,000 to Nathaniel Davis for "security services" over the same time period.  The $69,120 in security payments accounted for more than a third of Bush's $197,000 in campaign expenditures during the second quarter, the FEC records show. It's also nearly double what her campaign spent on private security during the first quarter of 2021.  RS&T's website is no longer active, but a cached version of it shows that the group provides "executive protection agents" that provide "first class executive protection and security for national and international figures."  Meanwhile, Davis's reported address in the filings is the same as Bush's campaign headquarters.  How long will black citizens put up with this kind of cynical representation?

July 16, 2021       Permalink

AN ANNIVERSARY – OVERNIGHT:  This is the 76th anniversary of Trinity, the testing of the first nuclear bomb.  The test occurred in the US Army Air Force Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range in New Mexico.  Only three weeks later, an operational version of the bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, which contained a number of critical military targets.  Three days later, a second nuclear bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.  Several days after that, Japan surrendered, ending the Second World War.   Here is the report of the bombing of Hiroshima, as printed in The New York Times, when it was still a real newspaper: 

Washington, Aug. 6 -- The White House and War Department announced today that an atomic bomb, possessing more power than 20,000 tons of TNT, a destructive force equal to the load of 2,000 B-29's and more than 2,000 times the blast power of what previously was the world's most devastating bomb, had been dropped on Japan.

The announcement, first given to the world in utmost solemnity by President Truman, made it plain that one of the scientific landmarks of the century had been passed, and that the "age of atomic energy," which can be a tremendous force for the advancement of civilization as well as for destruction, was at hand.

At 10:45 o'clock this morning, a statement by the President was issued at the White House that sixteen hours earlier- about the time that citizens on the Eastern seaboard were sitting down to their Sunday suppers - an American plane had dropped the single atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, an important army center.

Japanese Solemnly Warned

What happened at Hiroshima is not yet known. The War Department said it "as yet was unable to make an accurate report" because "an impenetrable cloud of dust and smoke" masked the target area from reconnaissance planes. The Secretary of War will release the story "as soon as accurate details of the results of the bombing become available."

But in a statement vividly describing the results of the first test of the atomic bomb in New Mexico, the War-Department told how an immense steel tower had been "vaporized" by the tremendous explosion, how a 40,000-foot cloud rushed into the sky, and two observers were knocked down at a point 10,000 yards away. And President Truman solemnly warned:

"It was to spare the Japanese people from utter destruction that the ultimatum of July 26, was issued at Potsdam. Their leaders promptly rejected that ultimatum. If they do not now accept our terms, they may expect a rain of ruin from the air the like of which has never been seen on this Earth."

Most Closely Guarded Secret

The President referred to the joint statement issued by the heads of the American, British and Chinese Governments in which terms of surrender were outlined to the Japanese and warning given that rejection would mean complete destruction of Japan's power to make war.

COMMENT:  A very different type of journalism from the opinion junkpiles we see today.  And a very different Democratic Party president. 

And now, these 76 years later, a limp American administration is negotiating an agreement with Iran, the world's most important sponsor of terror, that will make it easier for Iran to get the kind of weapon that destroyed Hiroshima.  And too few people seem to care.

July 16, 2021       Permalink