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MAY 19,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

ANOTHER ADVANCE – FROM REDSTATE:    The NCAA was threatening states that if they didn’t allow men to compete in women’s sports then they would pull tournaments from those states. The entire issue even caused a once-loved Republican governor, Kristi Noem, to lose her support within the party after she bent the knee and refused to sign a bill banning biological men from declaring themselves women and signing up to compete against them out of fear of losing the revenue.  As it turns out, the NCAA was totally bluffing and picked three states for their tournaments to happen in. According to Breitbart, the NCAA has announced that Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee will be host to the Women’s College World Series softball regionals:
But now, only a month later, the NCAA announces that despite its saber-rattling in April, it will allow events in states that have already passed laws limiting transgender athletes to birth gender categories, Yahoo! Sports reported.  Maybe common sense is returning to the sports world.  The fans will be happy.  Revolutionary Marxists will not, but how many of them go to football games?

NUTCASE – FROM FOX:   Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, D., defended her controversial announcement to only give individual interviews to journalists of color and blasted Chicago media institutions for their "overwhelming whiteness and maleness" in an extraordinary letter on Wednesday.  Upon the two-year anniversary of her election, Lightfoot has drawn outrage after White journalists were told by her press office that they couldn't interview her one-on-one because of their skin color.  In a two-page letter to the media, Lightfoot, the first Black woman as well as the first openly gay mayor in Chicago's history, praised her own 2019 election for "breaking barriers" and took a shot at media organizations in the city for not adequately addressing "institutionalized racism" in their ranks. Her decision to temporarily only speak to Black and Brown reporters, she said, was part of her lifelong battle to fight for diversity and inclusion.  "In looking at the absence of diversity across the City Hall press corps and other newsrooms, sadly it does not appear that many of the media institutions in Chicago have caught on and truly have not embraced this moment," she wrote. "I have been struck since my first day on the campaign trail back in 2018 by the overwhelming whiteness and maleness of Chicago media outlets, editorial boards, the political press corps, and yes, the City Hall press corps specifically."  Lightfoot reeled off the diversity of the city's leadership, including its "majority Black and Latinx City Council," and called it "unacceptable" that reporters covering City Hall were mostly White.  Let's see if the press caves in to this awful new bigotry, or finally stands firm against quotas in journalistic hiring.  At least one Hispanic journalist is refusing an invitation to interview the mayor until her ridiculous policy is withdrawn.  I wonder if he'll have a career.  This is identity politics at its worst.  In any sane situation, the racist mayor would be forced from office.

May 19, 2021       Permalink

ONE SMALL STEP FOR A SCHOOL, ONE GIANT LEAP FOR EDUCATION – OVERNIGHT:  The founder of the 1619 project, which is lowering the level of American schools, is being found out.  Maybe this is a sign that wokeness is brokeness.  From the New York Post: 

Nikole Hannah-Jones, the controversial founder of the 1619 Project, has lost her alma mater’s offer for tenure and is instead under consideration for a fixed five-year contract as a professor of practice.
NC Policy Watch reported on the change Wednesday amid a wave of criticism of her work.

According to the outlet, the University of North Carolina’s board of trustees decided not to approve Hannah-Jones’ tenure – which effectively translates into a career-long appointment – despite support from faculty.

Susan King, dean of the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, reportedly called the decision “disappointing” and said she was afraid it would create a “chilling effect.”

King said Hannah-Jones “represents the best of our alumni and the best of the business.”

If she's the best, I wonder what the worst looks like.

She added: “I don’t want to get into a food fight. I want to make sure that our students have the opportunity to have someone of her caliber here and to learn from her. I think our faculty do as well. I realize this is a fraught era in the state. When I heard that the chancellor and the provost wanted to move to this, it was better than having a battle royale about the theory of academic freedom.”

One of the board members told the outlet that “politics” motivated its decision, although others have alleged that political considerations have helped elevate Hannah-Jones despite purported issues with her scholarship.

Jay Schalin of the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal penned an op-ed earlier this month in which he suggested Hannah-Jones’s appointment represented a shift toward “propaganda” at Hussman.

“UNC’s hiring Hannah-Jones signals a degradation of journalistic standards, from one in which ethics and truth are prized to one in which a writer’s work is judged according to whether it serves a preferred political agenda,” he said.

He added that Hannah-Jones’s work was “less journalism than an outpouring of emotions. The crown jewel of her career – leading a rewriting of the nation’s history called ‘The 1619 Project’ – has been attacked and ridiculed by historians of all stripes and persuasions as unfactual and biased.”

He quoted historian Sean Wilentz in arguing: “To teach children that the American Revolution was fought in part to secure slavery would be giving a fundamental misunderstanding not only of what the American Revolution was all about but what America stood for and has stood for since the Founding.”

COMMENT:  Read the rest.  The 1619 Project represents the dry rot of American journalism and the American university.  We can only shudder to think what it can do to American students, especially black students.

I hope this setback for wokeness marks the start of a much-needed correction in American public life.  This day can be historic, for the 1619 Project is one of the best-known obscenities of the modern era.

May 19,  2021     Permalink

MAY 18,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

AH YES, DIVERSITY – FROM COLLEGE FIX:   A review by Young America’s Foundation of this year’s commencement speakers at the top 100 universities as ranked by U.S. News & World Report identified only one conservative.  “With 37 liberal speakers imparting progressive ideas and just one conservative addressing graduates, the bias in this year’s commencement season is undeniable,” YAF stated in reporting its findings.  The spreadsheet of the 100 graduation speakers put together by YAF gives each speaker on the list a ranking of either liberal, conservative, unclear or N/A.  Nearly 40 were marked liberal. The rest were marked “N/A” with just a few slated as “unclear.”  The only speaker given a “conservative” listing is Tom Jorden, the president of Cimarex Energy, who is giving the address at his alma mater, Colorado School of Mines.  In contrast, the “Class of 2021 will hear divisive speeches from many left-wing speakers with a history in social justice and ‘anti-racism,’ including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, John Legend, David Brooks and André De Shields,” the foundation states.  What a wonderful education our children are getting.

VACCINE UPDATE – FROM FOX:   A study in the United Kingdom led by the University of Birmingham in collaboration with Public Health England reported that waiting months between doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine produces much stronger protection against COVID-19.  Dr. Helen Parry, a senior author on the study at Birmingham, said: "We’ve shown that peak antibody responses after the second Pfizer vaccination are really strongly boosted in older people when this is delayed to 11 to 12 weeks. There is a marked difference between these two schedules in terms of antibody responses we see."  Britain has a policy of delaying the second dose by up to 12 weeks to free up vaccines for more people. Britain announced Sunday that more than 20 million people have now received both doses. The two shots of the Pfizer vaccines were intended to be given three to four weeks apart.  The study found that antibodies were three-and-a-half times higher when given after 12 weeks.  "This study further supports the growing body of evidence that the approach taken in the U.K. of delaying that second dose has really paid off," said Dr. Gayatri Amirthalingam, consultant epidemiologist at Public Health England. "Individuals need to really complete their second dose when it’s offered to them because it not only provides additional protection but potentially longer lasting protection against COVID-19."  Apparently, Americans will soon be alerted to the availability of booster shots for those already vaccinated.

May 18, 2021       Permalink

AND SO THE BACKLASH – OVERNIGHT:  Our side is stirring more and more.  Key to our victory in 2022 is neutralizing some of the "woke" corporations that, probably out of fear, are supporting some of the most extreme elements in American politics.  From Fox Business: 

Consumers' Research, an educational nonprofit dedicated to consumer information, on Tuesday launched an ad campaign targeting corporations over "woke" political narratives.

The campaign calls out American Airlines, Nike and Coca-Cola, specifically, saying they have put politicians before their customers, according to Consumers' Research.

"America Airlines shrunk legroom for passengers and laid off thousands of employees during the COVID pandemic while receiving billions in taxpayer bailouts," Consumers' Research Executive Director Will Hild said in a Tuesday statement. "Coca-Cola and Nike have both been exploiting foreign, potentially forced, labor in China while American workers suffer."

He continued: "It is time these corporate giants were called to task. We are giving consumers a voice. These companies should be putting their energy and focus on serving their customers, not woke politicians."

The three billion-dollar companies have recently issued statements against Republican-led legislation in several states. Coca-Cola and American Airlines have expressed concern with new GOP voting legislation in Georgia and Texas, respectively. 

"We respect everyone’s right to raise their concerns and express their views, but we also believe the best way to make progress now is for us all to come together to listen, respectfully share concerns and collaborate on a path forward," Coca-Cola told FOX Business in a statement. "We remain open to productive conversations with groups who may have differing views."

The company also noted Consumers' Research's specific criticism on sugary drinks leading to obesity saying the company has "taken steps to help people reduce the amount of sugar they consume" in the U.S. and around the world. 

On the ad campaign's claims that Coca-Cola uses forced labor in China, the company said it respects "human rights everywhere" it operates and has "strict policies prohibiting forced labor" in its business and with its suppliers.

American Airlines did not respond to the ad but directed Fox Business toward its original statement regarding Texas' S.B. 7 and H.B. 6 voter bills, which extend early voting hours, require specific voter ID, prohibit voting clerks from sending absentee ballot applications to voters who did not request them and ban drive-thru voting – a popular alternative voting method during the COVID-19 pandemic.

COMMENT:  The best way for Americans to fight the WOKE culture that has infected some corporations is to take your business elsewhere.  The objections raised to the various voting bills that the wokesters oppose are often absurd.  The bills I've seen actually strengthen integrity in elections.  And they guarantee the use of the most effective weapon in keeping elections clean – Voter I.D.

May 18, 2021       Permalink