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SEPTEMBER 2,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

NEWSOM CHARGES FORWARD, UNFORTUNATELY – FROM THE L.A. TIMES:   Most likely California voters are opposed to the Republican-led recall effort against Gov. Gavin Newsom and a growing number fear the consequences of removing him from office with a hard-right conservative best positioned to take his place, according to new poll by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.  The poll found that 58% of likely voters surveyed in California oppose removing Newsom from office compared to 39% who support recalling the governor, a gap rooted in the sharp partisan divide between Democratic and Republican voters in the state.  The findings, which were gathered by pollsters over a nine-day period ending on Sunday, may offer some hope for Newsom, who has for the past month expressed concern that an “enthusiasm gap” among Democratic and nonaffiliated voters could lead to his political demise — particularly with high engagement in the recall effort among Republicans.  In response, Newsom has blanketed California with ads attacking the top GOP candidates, casting them as devotees of former President Trump who oppose state mandates for COVID-19 vaccinations and mask wearing, a clear strategy to rally California’s left-leaning electorate.  Let's not forget that California is a heavily Democratic state, so much so that the Republicans often neglect to put up a fight.  That's been the case this year.  The GOP needed a star candidate to present as the alternative to Newsom.  What they have is Larry Elder, a perfectly fine conservative talk-show host, an African-American, but not a man with a commanding political presence.  He's being smeared by the left as "the black face of white supremacy," an ugly a label as I've seen in politics, but it may be working among minorities.  Newsom, a terrible governor, has brought his campaign alive.  I fear he's going to pull it out, and ruin the state further.

September 2,  2021     Permalink

THE CONTINUING CRUMBLING – OVERNIGHT:  As more and more political information comes in, we can say, with our usual caution about polls, that the president of the United States is in serious trouble, and the anguish isn't coming only from the usual conservative sources.    From bizpacreview.com: 

It’s mourning, rather than morning, in America, if a new poll from the Morning Consult organization is accurate that the country is perceived as headed in the wrong direction.

In a lengthy national tracking survey co-sponsored with the generally liberal Politico website, almost two-thirds of Americans indicated that things in the U.S. have “pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track.” The same number, 61 percent, disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of the Afghanistan crisis.

And 49 percent disapprove of Biden’s overall job performance, while 47 percent approve, which The Hill noted is a “record low.”

Among various other findings, the same percentage (49 percent) disapprove of Biden’s stewardship of the economy as well as his “gun policy,” and 65 percent disapprove of his handling of immigration per se (although the survey question does not specifically allude to the staggering numbers of illegal aliens allowed to pour across the U.S.-Mexico border.)

In general, critics have often questioned pollsters’ methodology, with good reason, in the context of oversampling Democrats for ideological and other reasons.

This particular survey demographic was somewhat more leaning Democrat than Republican (45 percent to 42 percent), with the rest apparently in some other category, but the findings as constituted, and if accurate, don’t necessarily spare the Biden administration from a dismal outlook.

With an acknowledged margin of error of two percent, either way, the data was derived from checking the political temperature of about 2,000 registered voters.

Registered voters, as opposed to, e.g., likely voters, have traditionally been considered a less-valid metric of public opinion, however.

According to Morning Consult, 50 percent either strongly or somewhat supported Biden’s decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, but 72 percent indicated that it’s not going too well, or not well at all.

COMMENT:  An important note.  We're getting a great deal of good news about prospects for our side in next year's election.  This story is part of that news.  The news might not continue.  By the time of the 2022 midterms, the Afghanistan debacle will be more than a year old.  Who knows what will replace it?  An economic collapse?  An economic boom?   A President Harris? 

The misfortune of an opponent doesn't necessarily mean good fortune for us.  In races around the country our current position is so-so.  Gavin Newsom looks likely to beat his recall challenge in California, denying Republicans a shot at turning the golden state red.  In Virginia, if current trends continue, Democrats will hang onto the governor's mansion in November.  Governor Ron DeSantis has suffered a sizable plunge in approval in Florida.  And Even Texas is uncertain.

We will have to fight for every vote.  Despite growing discontent with liberal policies, we are facing a vast financial machine, backed by overwhelming support in the mainstream media.  Take nothing for granted.  The Democrats will run fear campaigns, which often work.

September 2, 2021       Permalink

SEPTEMBER 1,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

BIDEN'S TRIP SOUTH GETS EVEN MORE BUMPY – FROM REDSTATE:    Joe Biden’s ship has finally run aground on the polls.  They began to nosedive at the beginning of the Afghanistan debacle in the middle of last month. For example, his polling average went under 50 by August 16.But now, Biden’s numbers have absolutely cratered in all respects.  Both the Real Clear Politics average and the FiveThirtyEight average were underwater.  FiveThiryEight had 47.2 disapproving and 46.7 approving.  Real Clear Politics really skewered him with 49.2 disapproving to 45.8 approving, first time the approval was under 46... If you factor in that the polls tend to weight to Democrats, you know the numbers are likely even worse. Although, no doubt, you will still get folks saying how does he even get above 40% approval after all he has done?  But those were the good numbers.  Biden was underwater in the Morning Consult poll as well, but perhaps even more significantly, six in ten people said the country has “seriously gone off on the wrong track.” That’s a horrible indicator for Biden.  On top of that, the latest Rasmussen numbers found that 52% want Biden to resign over the disaster of the Afghanistan withdrawal, while 39% disagree. But that wasn’t all.

An even bigger number agreed with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) that Biden deserved to be impeached. 60% agreed with Graham’s statement that Biden should be impeached, with 37% saying no, according to Newsmax.  That’s a pretty huge number that agree with impeachment. One of the reasons? Biden is finally finding no real cover in the media, there’s been a lot of honest reporting and a lot of truth is coming out when it comes to Afghanistan.  But, at this point, the only thing that’s really saving him on that in the public’s mind is that his replacement is Kamala Harris, who the public also has a great deal of concern about. People are still very hinky on the concept of her taking over from him.  One thing:  Let us not be overconfident.  It is a lesson learned well in 1948 by President Dewey.

September 1, 2021       Permalink

FIGHTING BACK – OVERNIGHT:  No, not against the Taliban.  We lost that one.  But against the ongoing relentless march of the WOKE battalions.

There is resistance,  this time led by the Brits.  Maybe we're seeing the intellectual equivalent of 1940.  From College Fix:

A group of academics, primarily from the United Kingdom, have formed a group to stop, in their words, the “abuse of history for political purposes.”

The academics, led by Cambridge University Emeritus Professor of French History Robert Tombs, have created a new website they are calling “History Reclaimed,” which seeks to restore a “shared history” for scholars to use.

“The abuse of history for political purposes is as old as history itself,” Tombs said in a statement following the launch of the website. “In recent years, we have seen campaigns to rewrite the history of western democracies in a way that undermines their solidarity as communities, their sense of achievement, even their very legitimacy.”

Other academics joining the website as contributors include Cambridge historian David Abulafia, Oxford ethicist Nigel Biggar, Stanford academic and author Niall Ferguson, Irish writer Ruth Dudley Edwards, educational researcher Alka Cuthbert, and historians Lawrence James, Zareer Masani and Andrew Roberts.

“Whether to ward off criticism or to gain moral advantage, institutions have rushed to embrace the most negative interpretations of their own countries’ histories,” Tombs wrote.

“Activists sometimes assert that ‘facing up’ to a past they present as overwhelmingly and permanently shameful is the path to a better and more ‘inclusive’ future.”

“But the real effect—perhaps the true aim—of their actions is nihilistic destruction,” Tombs wrote.
The full roster of professors, researchers and lecturers includes academics from the U.K., Australia, Poland, and the U.S.

Oxford literary scholar Dr. Marie Daouda told The College Fix her involvement in the group is not so much “anti-wokeism” as it is “a care for truth and for balanced debate.”

“Many members of the group have diverging opinions on matters such as Brexit, economic strategy, religion, or state education,” Daouda said, “but we all hope to provide a reliable source of alternative perspectives on history and how it shapes our present and our future.”

Among the U.S.-based professors contributing to the site is Elizabeth Weiss, who has been attacked as a “racist” by the Anthropology department at San Jose State University for advocating for more rigorous scientific standards when researching human remains.

COMMENT:  I hope this movement grows.  It will do so if academics act with courage, and if the American people start cracking down on how their tax funds are spent to finance corrupt "studies" in our universities.  The road back to sanity will be tough, and minefields await the liberators.  No one, after all, wants to be called a racist, and that's what will happen.

Read the rest of the piece.  These are heroes and heroines.

September 1, 2021       Permalink