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MAY 21,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

MESSING IT UP – FROM ANDREW MALCOLM AT HOT AIR:   Democrats accused Donald  Trump of  being too soft on Russia’s Vladimir Putin for suspicious reasons.  Now, it’s Mr. Mask, Joe Biden, who’s going soft on the Russian leader for life likely.  This week, for nothing in return, Biden had his Secretary of State Antony Blinken waive U.S. sanctions on the Russian company building a massive undersea gas pipeline from Russia to Germany.  The pipeline is a huge deal for Russia’s economy and prestige and Putin’s long-range plans to tempt European countries closer to Moscow’s economic orbit and, by extension, weaken NATO.  President Trump had slapped the sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG and its chief executive officer, Matthias Warnig. He’s a Putin pal, which is how you get ahead in Russia today and, who knows, perhaps some percentage slides back to the Big Guy there too.  Giving things away for free is how the Obama-Biden team did foreign policy for eight years in hopes that would earn good will and other nations would give back. Dream on, buckos. In diplomacy, not everyone gets a participation trophy.  The further weakening of America, and notice the anguish (choke) in what passes for the American media.

A TRULY GREAT GOVERNOR – FROM DAILY CALLER:   Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis denounced Critical Race Theory (CRT) at a press conference Friday.  DeSantis said CRT needs to be addressed by the Florida Board of Education at a press conference in Pensacola he held to announce a series of tax breaks for consumers. The governor said that it is offensive to the taxpayers to fund a program that teaches children to hate each other and their country.  “You can put lipstick on a pig and it’s still a pig,” DeSantis said about CRT. “It’s offensive to the taxpayer that they would be asked to fund critical race theory, that they would be asked to fund teaching kids to hate their country and to hate each other,” DeSantis said.
CRT teaches students that race is socially constructed, embedded within American institutions and public policy, according to the American Bar Association. CRT is based on false history that is disputed by historians, DeSantis said.  This is why DeSantis deserves to be on a national ticket.  A born leader, he is willing to take on tough issues, knowing the incoming flak from the woke brigades will be deafening.

May 21, 2021       Permalink

SOME GOOD POLLING NEWS – OVERNIGHT:  A new poll gives us hope that America can be saved from the socialist hordes.  These numbers, as in all polls, are snapshots in time.  But I will sleep more easily tonight.  From Redstate: 

There’s a new survey out about 2024, and it has great news for President Donald Trump.

Even after being shut down on social media and having his primary avenue of communication — Twitter — cut off, turns out the Republican base still wants Trump to run for president again.

According to a new McLaughlin & Associates survey, 73% of the base wants Trump to run again in 2024. Even more would vote for him if he did run, with 83% saying they would do so. Those are some pretty big numbers, and it’s clear that it means the base hasn’t moved on from Trump.

So, how do other possible, 2020 primary candidates stack up against him? No one is even close; he completely stomps every other possibility, at 57%.

The person in second is perhaps surprising. It’s Vice President Mike Pence at 10%. What about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who seems to be the second name in other polls? He’s at 8% in this one. Nikki Haley was at 5%. Every other name was lower.

At this stage there's a name-recognition issue.  President Trump's name is far more recognized than the others.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) shows up at 1% on this poll, and that’s likely an overestimate. I think that shows she has absolutely no constituency.

Meanwhile, what about the Democrats in 2024? 64% thought that Biden was not likely to serve out his term. Even 51% of Biden voters thought that. That doesn’t look great for Biden, although Biden has suggested he would likely try to run again.

Keeping that in mind, the poll asked how a Democratic 2024 primary would stack up without Biden: Kamala led with 35%, Michelle Obama at 16%, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) at 7%, and Pete Buttigieg at 6%.

But perhaps the thing that is going to cause the Democrats to have a complete meltdown is how a projected race between Trump and Kamala Harris would end up.

According to the survey, Trump would trounce Harris, 49% to 45%.

Well, not exactly a trounce, but better than the other way around.

Now, obviously, 2024 is a long way off, but Democrats definitely will not be happy with that prediction. It’s also consistent with the prior poll we reported on that showed that Americans delivering a brutal rejection of Harris — that Americans had an unfavorable opinion of her 48% to 41%, with the critical Independents having an unfavorable opinion of her, 57% to 32%.

Add to that all the mess that unfortunately Biden is going to leave in his wake, the desire to bring back Trump is going to keep growing.

COMMENT:    And Trump is about to go on his first rally tour since the election.  Watch the electricity.

May 21,  2021     Permalink

MAY 20,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

SICKENING – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:   Pro-Israel and pro-Palestine protesters could be seen brawling in Times Square Thursday as tensions in the region spilled into the street of Manhattan, videos showed.  Skirmishes between the groups erupted in the Midtown tourist hub as Israel and Hamas hoped a cease-fire in Gaza would end more than 10 days of devastating hostilities.  The footage, posted to Twitter by freelance reporter Oliya Scootercaster, showed a pro-Israel demonstrator getting socked in the stomach after attempting to chase down a man who snatched an Israeli flag from his hands.  The protests came after Israel and Hamas had announced a cease-fire.  More punches were thrown in tussles between the two sides as NYPD officers stepped in to separate them, according to the clip.  The video later showed a pro-Palestine protester being put in handcuffs after he tried to run after a man who grabbed his Palestinian flag.  Just two days earlier a group of pro-Palestinian militants attacked a group of Jews in Los Angeles.  Will this be our future?  Reminds me of the pro-Nazi Bund rampaging around New York before the outbreak of World War II.

HE'S BACK – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  Former President Donald Trump revealed Thursday that he will hold campaign-style rallies in four battleground states in the coming weeks as speculation swirls that he’ll mount another bid for the White House in 2024.  “Relatively soon, we’ll be doing one in Florida, we’re gonna do one in Ohio, we’re gonna do one in Georgia, we’re gonna do one in North Carolina,” Trump told One America News. “We’ll be announcing them very soon over the next week or two, and I think we’ll probably start in Florida and Ohio and we’ll be announcing the rallies very shortly.”  A source close to the 45th president told The Post last week that Trump would hold at least two rallies in June, with a third event likely to take place around the July 4 holiday.  Trump has sat for several interviews with conservative media outlets since leaving office in January. He made his first major post-presidential speech at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in February and he is scheduled to headline the North Carolina Republican Party’s convention on June 5.   This will be a great political spectacle.  Trump is back, and the public reaction will dictate his future.

May 20, 2021       Permalink

STATE OF THE PARTY – OVERNIGHT:  There are attempts by the doers of evil to disparage the state of the Republican Party.  Rich Lowry says it ain't so.  From the New York Post: 

Republicans have had a brutal news cycle over the past month, between the ouster of Liz Cheney from leadership and the intraparty jousting over a Jan. 6 commission.

The overwhelming sense of the coverage is that the party is descending into madness and civil war and is a husk of its former self.

There’s no denying that much of the party has been too willing to indulge or look away from wild theories about the 2020 election and the Capitol riot, but this shouldn’t obscure the fact that the Republicans are well-positioned to take the House next year.

All indications are that GOP voters are united and energized and the party is doing what’s necessary to make Kevin McCarthy the next speaker, which would instantly squash the never-very-plausible talk of President Joe Biden being the next FDR.

The foundation of the party’s unity, of course, is that Donald Trump effortlessly maintained his control of the GOP. The anticipated civil war came and went with barely a shot fired.

Cheney is certainly a casualty, although she is now less a leader of a significant faction of the party and more a voice crying in the wilderness. That is an honorable role, and she may well be vindicated in the fullness of time.

But the party will pay no electoral price for the drama over her leadership role or, likely, for its continued loyalty to Trump.

Despite Trump’s grip, he’s not front and center for average voters. He isn’t president and he isn’t on the ballot. The focus inevitably will be on Biden and his agenda, which will loom larger than anything the former president can do from Mar-a-Lago.

The Democratic polling outfit Democracy Corps just did a battleground survey that confirmed this picture. As Stanley Greenberg writes in a memo about the poll, among Republicans, “the percent scoring 10, the highest level of interest in the election, has fallen from 84 to 68 percent. But Democrats’ engagement fell from 85 percent to 57 percent.”

Greenberg calls the GOP base “uniquely unified and engaged.”

More evidence is the boffo fundraising by the National Republican Congressional Committee so far. Meanwhile, GOP candidate recruitment is ahead of the pace of prior midterm cycles, whereas Democrats are seeing worrisome retirements.

It’s not as though there’s a high bar for the GOP. Republicans need to flip only six seats in the House, when in the post-World War II era the president’s party has lost on average 27 seats in midterms.

On top of this, the playing field is tilting the GOP’s way. Reapportionment gave more seats to Republican states, and, based on its strength in state legislatures, the GOP also has the upper hand in redistricting.

COMMENT:  There are no guarantees, but I have to be impressed by the spirit and common sense of those running the 2022 Republican campaign.  I think they have their finger on the pulse of the nation.  Compare please with the leftist Democrats, who are selling such wonderfully popular ideas as critical race theory.  Also I have to be impressed by the depth of the Republican presidential bench for 2024.  The Dem bench has fewer people than a bus stop in a desolate county. 

We'll have the press against us, but I have the sense that more and more people are on to our slanted, cynical journalists. 

Election is only 17 months away.

May 20, 2021       Permalink