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JULY 25,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

AMERICANS SEE GRIM FUTURE – FROM ABC NEWS:   As President Joe Biden completed 100 days in office, the country was optimistic about the coming year, but now, just after hitting the six-month mark, Americans' optimism about the direction of the country has plummeted nearly 20 points, a new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds.  A majority -- 55% -- of the public say they are pessimistic about the direction of the country, a marked change from the roughly one-third (36%) who said the same in an ABC News/Ipsos poll published May 2. In the early May survey, Americans were more optimistic than pessimistic by a 28-percentage point margin. Optimism is now underwater by 10 points. Looking ahead to the next 12 months, fewer than half -- 45% -- now report feeling optimistic about the way things are going, a significant drop from about two-thirds (64%) in the May poll.  The decline in optimism has occurred across the board among Democrats, Republicans and independents. Optimism is down about 20 points among Democrats and Republicans and down 26 points among independents. Among Democrats, about 7 in 10 (71%) now say they are optimistic about the direction of the country over the next 12 months. That's much lower than the near universal (93%) approval from Democrats on Biden's handling of the pandemic. In politics today, partisans usually are more unified in their support or opposition to particular issues or people. If this polling trend continues, the Dems may well be cooked in next year's midterm elections.

A BAD PIECE OF WORK – FROM FOX:   Liberal mega-donor George Soros has directed $1 million to an activist group attempting to defund the police as violent crime surges in major urban centers across the nation.  Soros sent the million dollars via his Color Of Change PAC on May 14, according to Federal Election Commission files obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  The organization describes itself as "the nation’s largest online racial justice organization" and actively engages in efforts to defund police departments such as spreading an online petition calling for "divesting from and dismantling the systems that unjustly harm Black people."  The group also backed a push by the Milwaukee City Council to defund the police.  "Policing is a violent institution that must end," the group’s president wrote in a statement supporting the move. "We imagine a country where there is enough money to educate our children, care for our sick and feed those who are financially unstable. Defunding the police allows for this vision."  Mayor Guiliani had a more grown-up vision of policing, and his worked.

July 25, 2021       Permalink

SIGN OF A TREND?  I HOPE SO – AT 11:21 P.M. ET:  The pandemic revealed, to many parents, that their local schools weren't exactly Oxford, and many parents have taken action.  Homeschooling has grown dramatically, and new, innovative ideas are coming to the fore.  Call it the parents' revolt.  It has the potential to change the face of American education.  From Newsmax: 

Although the pandemic disrupted family life across the U.S. since taking hold in spring 2020, some parents are grateful for one consequence: They're now opting to homeschool their children, even as schools plan to resume in-person classes.

The specific reasons vary widely. Some families who spoke with The Associated Press have children with special educational needs; others seek a faith-based curriculum or say their local schools are flawed. The common denominator: They tried homeschooling on what they thought was a temporary basis and found it beneficial to their children.

“That’s one of the silver linings of the pandemic – I don’t think we would have chosen to homeschool otherwise,” said Danielle King of Randolph, Vermont, whose 7-year-old daughter Zoë thrived with the flexible, one-on-one instruction. Her curriculum has included literature, anatomy, even archaeology, enlivened by outdoor excursions to search for fossils.

The surge has been confirmed by the U.S. Census Bureau, which reported in March that the rate of households homeschooling their children rose to 11% by September 2020, more than doubling from 5.4% just six months earlier.

Black households saw the largest jump; their homeschooling rate rose from 3.3% in the spring of 2020 to 16.1% in the fall.

The parents in one of those households, Arlena and Robert Brown of Austin, Texas, had three children in elementary school when the pandemic took hold. After experimenting with virtual learning, the couple opted to try homeschooling with a Catholic-oriented curriculum provided by Seton Home Study School, which serves about 16,000 students nationwide.

The Browns plan to continue homeschooling for the coming year, grateful that they can tailor the curriculum to fit their children's distinctive needs. Jacoby, 11, has been diagnosed with narcolepsy and sometimes needs naps during the day; Riley, 10, has tested as academically gifted; Felicity, 9, has a learning disability.

“I didn’t want my kids to become a statistic and not meet their full potential,” said Robert Brown, a former teacher who now does consulting. “And we wanted them to have very solid understanding of their faith.”

Arlena Brown, who gave birth to a fourth child 10 months ago, worked as a preschool teacher before the pandemic. Homeschooling, she says, has been a rewarding adventure.

“In the beginning, the biggest challenge was to unschool ourselves and understand that homeschooling has so much freedom,” she said. “We can go as quickly or slowly as we need to.”

COMMENTS:  Very encouraging.  The battle for full school choice will be long and bitter, and you may be sure that the teachers' unions, who are largely responsible for the decline in the trust parents once had in public schools, will fight hard against choice.  The parents, I think, will ultimately win in many states, but the left will make their stand in New York and California.

July 25, 2021       Permalink

JULY 24,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

ANOTHER LEFTIST HYPOCRITE – FROM FOX:    A Democratic congressional candidate in Ohio and former co-chair of Sen. Bernie Sanders’, I-Vt., failed 2020 presidential campaign has railed against corruption in her campaign but her political director is under investigation for misusing his own campaign cash.
Former Democratic Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner has made herself out as someone dedicated to rooting out "the corrupting force of big money" in American politics.  However, in that vein, the former Sanders campaign co-chair has a minor problem on her hands: her political director is under investigation for his misuse of over $134,000 in campaign cash over the course of four years.  Newbury Heights Mayor Trevor Elkins serves as the political director for Turner’s congressional campaign. Elkins admitted to misusing $134,100 in campaign funds for personal expenses between 2015 and 2019 and was recently referred for prosecution by the Ohio Elections Commission.  The Ohio Elections Commission voted 5-2 to move forward for prosecution, with Republican Commissioner D. Michael Crites calling Elkins's use of the funds "probably the most egregious and blatant violation I’ve seen during my tenure on this commission."  Turner is seriously bad news.  A leftist extremist with a filthy mouth, she will be the newest member of "the squad" if she's elected, as she probably will be.  Even Hillary Clinton is opposing her.  The Democratic Party needs thoughtful moderates, not recruits with hammer-and-sickle handkerchiefs. 

GREAT IDEA – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:   A new conservative publishing house wants to get the “wokeness” out of bedtime.  Launching this week, Brave Books will focus exclusively on stories for kids, and offers parents “a conservative alternative to the current cultural activism that our children are being taught in schools, in the entertainment they watch and the books they read,” according to their website.  Company CEO Trent Talbot, who had his first child a little more than a year ago, conceived of Brave Books when, he said, he started to notice “that there is a real war going on for the hearts and minds of our kids. And everywhere I looked was propaganda,” the Montgomery, Texas-based dad told The Post.  An ophthalmologist by trade, Talbot pointed to Ibram X. Kendi’s picture book, “Antiracist Baby,” which urges parents and kids to “make equity a reality,” as content that needs a counterpoint. “Once my eyes were open I was seeing it everywhere and I couldn’t unsee it,” Talbot said. “I thought there was a need for books that could help parents teach the values they hold dear.” Wonderful gift for a child.  This man is doing something worthwhile.  We wish him success. 

July 24,  2021     Permalink

GIVE THE MAN CREDIT – OVERNIGHT:  Former President Trump has held a rally in Arizona.  A few nights before, President Biden held a town hall on CNN.

Biden's town hall was, uh, subdued, in the same way that a funeral parlor is subdued.  Trump's rally was gangbusters.  Man Walks on Moon!

It can't be denied.  Trump's base is alive and animated.  No one really knows how large it is, and that's the key question.  But that base is electric.  From RedState: 

Before Trump spoke the fire Marshall was reportedly saying they’d reached capacity with still more lined up outside waiting to get in. The theater has a 5000 seat capacity.

Most of the Republicans competing in the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial and U.S. Senate primary races spoke at the event, which was hosted by Turning Point Action.

Donald Trump spent a fair amount of time thanking all the people who'd been supportive of him.

Trump hit many topics, first among them was the audit going on in Arizona, saying that he believed the audit would support his position about the elections. He brought up the letter from former U.S. Attorney William McSwain in Pennsylvania, who said he had been told by Attorney General Bill Barr not to pursue election claims but to transfer them to the Democratic state Attorney General, who he already felt had compromised his neutrality.

Trump mocked Hunter Biden and the “ethical deal” the White House had worked on as to Hunter Biden's art. He said they didn’t want to make it transparent. He called it disgraceful and asked if anyone could imagine if one of his kids had done that.

Trump also took some shots at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for not standing up as much as he could to the Democrats.

Trump noted how he’d stopped the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. But he said Biden approved it and he stopped Keystone XL, costing Americans jobs. Yet they wanted to talk Russia, Russia, Russia about him, even though he’d been tough on Russia. Trump explained how the pipeline would put Germany in the grip of the Russians if the Germans received that much oil from them...He explained how he was about America First, yet Biden did things that placed America Last...

...Trump said he believed that the Democrats were “playing the ref” by making up things against Bill Barr and Brett Kavanaugh, hoping to frighten them with things like impeachment to influence their actions. He said he believed that’s why Bill Barr backed off pursuing questions about the election returns. Trump said he thought the Democrats really didn’t want to impeach Kavanaugh either, just frighten him into voting differently in the Supreme Court.

Trump said that people are now being cowed and the media was going along with it, that when you have “no press,” that’s how you get to a Communist country. He said we were seeing every institution being taken over and weaponized. He called out Critical Race Theory, calling it blatant racism and a radical Marxist ideology. He chastised Gen. Mark Milley for being focused on that theory, and not focused on winning wars.

It was indeed one of the most passionate speeches he’s done of late, fully focused on defeating the Democrats and calling out radical leftism in all its forms as the preeminent issue that we face... in order to save the country.

COMMENT:  Sounds like a man running for president, but I doubt if he'll make his decision for many months.  He'll do a great deal of internal polling, he'll test out lines, he'll measure the degree of support he has within the party, and he'll only run if he has a heavy chance of winning.  You may be sure he dreams of returning to the White House in a limousine driven by Kamala Harris.  He'll make sure she has a license, and insurance.

July 24, 2021       Permalink