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JULY 20,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:  

ANOTHER NOSEDIVING SPORT – FROM OUTKICK.COM:  Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Bucks and Suns drew 9.6 million viewers on Saturday, down enormously from 2019’s Warriors-Raptors Game 5, which averaged 18.4 million viewers.  Remember, NBA media demanded last year that we discount the 2020 NBA Finals’ atrocious ratings because the matchup took place out of season and during a pandemic. So, as a nice guy, I’m honoring their requests and only comparing the 2021 Finals to 2019.   When ratings are cut in half, that's trouble.  Baseball is also in trouble.  And the NFL is setting in place practices at future football games that are beyond woke, and will turn off millions.  At some point the calculator will win, and networks may have to drop most professional sports, just as they once dumped Miss America. 

GETTING AT THE TRUTH – FROM COLLEGE FIX:    Republican Senators, including Tim Scott of South Carolina and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, have introduced legislation to increase transparency surrounding the money that foreign countries give to American universities.  The Foreign Funding Accountability Act would require the disclosure of full names of foreign entities, disclosure of the specific purposes of foreign gift transactions and clarification that gifts to university foundations are not exempt from disclosure.  It would also lower the minimum reporting threshold for disclosure—from $250,000 to $25,000.  Multiple investigations have uncovered gaps between money received by universities from foreign entities and the amount reported to authorities.  A Wall Street Journal report in 2020 that found Cornell University failed to report more than $1.2 billion in foreign funds, including $760 million related to its campus in Qatar and about $1 million in contracts from Chinese telecom company Huawei Technologies Co.  A security analyst previously told The College Fix that foreign money presents a national threat to the country.  “Our conclusion was that the foreign funding presented a majority threat to our national security and the integrity of our education,” Ryan Mauro, of the Clarion Project, told The Fix.

July 20, 2021       Permalink

A MORE MATURE DEMOCRATIC PARTY? – OVERNIGHT:  There are indications around the country that some Democrats are coming to their senses, and that includes members of minority groups.   Some are beginning to see that wokedom is getting them nothing but contempt.  More thoughtful people are raising challenges to the wokesters.  Consider this Ohio indicator.   From freebeacon.com: 

Democrats Shontel Brown and Nina Turner are neck-and-neck in the special election primary campaign to replace former Rep. Marcia Fudge (D., Ohio), who stepped down to become President Joe Biden's housing secretary.

A Washington Free Beacon poll shows Brown and Turner locked at 33 percent, both more than 20 points ahead of the rest of the pack. While Turner began as an overwhelming favorite in the race and took an early lead, the numbers show Brown has consolidated her support among voters looking for an alternative to the Bernie Sanders-endorsed socialist.

The Aug. 3 primary, which is likely to determine the winner of the November election in the solidly Democratic district, has become the latest front in the battle between the Democratic Party's left and far-left wings.

Brown, a Cuyahoga County councilwoman, has the support of mainstream Democrats including House Majority Whip James Clyburn (S.C.) and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, while Turner, the former co-chair of Bernie Sanders's presidential campaign, is touting endorsements from Squad members Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), and Ayanna Pressley (D., Mass.).

While Turner's hostility to Israel has drawn concern from pro-Israel Democrats, the race has centered on which candidate can better unite and expand the party. Brown has hammered Turner for her refusal to endorse Hillary Clinton in 2016 after she defeated Sanders in the Democratic primary, and for advertising her disgust at casting a ballot for Joe Biden.

COMMENT:   Obviously, neither candidate would have our support in the general election, as both are on the left.  However, Brown, a traditional Democrat, is vastly superior to Turner on the issues.  Turner will join the hard-left Squad in the House of Representatives.  Brown would not.   

We'll be watching Ohio closely.  It is still probable that Turner will win, but Brown's progress may tell us more about the future of the Democratic Party than the name of the winner in this particular race.

July 20, 2021       Permalink

JULY 19,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

BUT I'LL BET THEY'RE WOKE – FROM COLLEGE FIX:   Forty-one percent of public high school students in Maryland’s largest city have failed to earn even a “D” grade point average.  This translates to over 8,400 kids out of Baltimore City Schools’ 20,500 total population … and almost twice the amount from the previous school year, FOX-45 reports.  The statistics were obtained by Project Baltimore, a special FOX-45 investigative team.  The district cited the COVID-19 pandemic as the main culprit for the high number: “Consistent with the experience of many school districts across the country, the COVID-19 pandemic created significant disruptions to student learning […] Starting this summer and beyond, City Schools is providing students with a variety of opportunities to acquire the unfinished learning they lost.”  The station’s report notes the sheer quantity of below-“D” students may account for why the district won’t retain any failing students.  Earlier this year, FOX-45 reported on a student who had passed just three classes during his high school tenure, earning a 0.13 GPA. Remarkably, he was promoted each year to the next grade … and ranked in the upper half of his class.  This kind of failure has gone on for years, and will continue to go on, because part of the city establishment benefits from high crime and low grades.  Just scream "trouble" and in come the federal, state, and local "programs."  The "programs" generally benefit the leaders because they run them.  As for the students, ask the establishment about that next year. 

CRAZY – FROM BIZPACREVIEW:   “The U.S. Department of the Treasury on Monday lifted sanctions on the export of gas to socialist Venezuela,” Breitbart reported on Tuesday, “a boon to the dictatorship in Caracas and its patron government in communist Cuba, which struggles to suppress mounting opposition and calls for the regime’s total abolition.” The lifting of sanctions is significant because “Caracas has further served as an economic lifeline for Havana, supplying much of the regime’s energy needs on credit, with extremely lenient terms.”  As the U.S. announced the lifting of sanctions, the Miami Herald reported, Venezuela’s Maduro regime surrounded the home of opposition leader Juan Guaidó and arrested his former deputy Freddy Guevara. The U.S. move took the establishment media by surprise.  This is madness.  In China, in Russia, they are laughing.

July 19, 2021       Permalink

ANOTHER WHAMMY FOR KAMI – OVERNIGHT:  The news seems to get worse and worse for Kamala Harris.  It is clear that she's in a deep political ditch, with no obvious way to get out of it.  From the Washington Examiner: 

A majority of likely voters lack confidence in Vice President Kamala Harris's readiness to be president, according to a new poll.

A survey administered by Convention of States Action and the Trafalgar Group found 58.6% of respondents said they were "not confident at all" that Harris, who would succeed President Joe Biden if he were to vacate office, is ready to be president "based on her performance as vice president." Five percent of those surveyed said they were "not very confident" in Harris.

Only 36.4% of the more than 1,000 people surveyed said they were "very confident," "somewhat confident," or "not sure" how confident they were about Harris's readiness to serve as president.

Among Democrats, 42.6% were either "not at all confident" or "not very confident" in Harris, while 52.3% were "very confident" or "somewhat confident" about her preparedness.

The number of voters who were not confident about Harris's preparedness for the presidency were much higher among Republicans and independents, with 88.4% of GOP voters and 61.8% of independent voters saying they were "not at all confident" or "not very confident" in her readiness.
Mark Meckler, president of Convention of States Action, pointed to a separate poll the group commissioned recently with Trafalgar that found that a majority believed Biden is not in control of his administration's agenda.

"Our last poll found that most Americans don’t believe Joe Biden is actually running the country, and today we're learning voters think Kamala Harris’ tenure as Vice President has been a disaster, and she's absolutely not ready to step in and take his place," Meckler said in a news release. "Washington, D.C., has never been more radically out of step with the will of the American people than right now."

COMMENT:  I should point out that this poll historically has tilted somewhat to the right, but that could not possibly make up for the solid numbers against Harris, and I don't see her recovering.  There is something about her that most people just don't like.  We saw the same mechanism when she ran for the Democratic nomination for president, and had to pull out of the race before a single vote was cast.  She made almost no impression in the polls after months of campaigning.  She pulled out to avoid embarrassment.

We're in trouble.  In European parliamentary democracies Harris would surely lose a vote of confidence in the parliament. 

I can't imagine her resigning.  But it would be better for the country if she took that course.

July 19, 2021       Permalink