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I appeared on Silvio Canto Jr's talk show from Dallas today.  It's here.

SEPTEMBER 6,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

THE AGE WE LIVE IN – FROM BREITBART:   Social media giant Twitter reportedly plans to introduce a number of new privacy-related features, including one that would allow users to hide their old tweets. Twitter’s privacy changes come on the heels of the increasingly common scenario in which a user of the platform is canceled for posts made up to a decade ago on the platform.  MacRumors reports that Twitter is introducing new privacy-related features to its platform that will give users greater control over their follower lists and who can see their profile. One option planned for the platform is a feature that allows users to archive old tweets so that other users are unable to see them after a period of time set by the account holder.  The new features are reportedly part of the platform’s efforts to make users more comfortable and secure sharing content on the platform. The privacy initiatives are related to what Jack Dorsey’s company calls “social privacy,” which includes how users manage their online identities and public image.  I want to hear more about this.  There may be some good ideas here, but I withhold judgment.

STRUGGLES OF A GIANT – FROM FOX BUSINESS:   Deliveries of Boeing Co.'s 787 Dreamliner will likely remain halted until at least late October as the plane maker has been unable to persuade air-safety regulators to approve its proposal to inspect the aircraft, people familiar with the matter said.  With almost all deliveries paused for nearly a year, airlines and other Boeing customers increasingly are able to use the delay to walk away from deliveries or negotiate for concessions from the aerospace giant. Deliveries were first halted because the company and the Federal Aviation Administration began taking a deeper look at the plane's manufacturing defects. The holdup has choked off an important source of cash for Boeing and complicated plans for airlines.  The impasse has kept Boeing from moving more than $25 billion worth of Dreamliners. Boeing said it had about 100 of the jets in its inventory awaiting delivery at the end of June. List prices for Dreamliners start around $250 million, but customers typically pay about half that after customary discounts. First delivered in 2011, the Dreamliner has had an excellent safety record and the in-service fleet has seen heavy use during the pandemic.  No company symbolizes American industry in the rest of the world as Boeing does.  A few other names may come to mind – Apple is one – But Boeing represents America in war and peace.  Its name flies over our heads day after day.  It's had a tough time in the last few years, and there be have been some self-inflicted wounds.  But we wish the old guy well.

September 6, 2021       Permalink

THE END OF POLITICAL SUMMER – AT 9:28 P.M. ET: We've noted before that there are two calendars, the calendar of the sane people, and the political calendar.  We're on the political calendar here.  Who needs sanity?   Well, there's a guy named Biden, but let's move along.

We like to report trends, and I just saw one that's troubling, and not new.  The number of men in American colleges is declining dangerously.  From Hot Air: 

There’s an interesting story in the Wall Street Journal today about the declining enrollment of men in 2 and 4-year colleges. This gender enrollment disparity is a trend that has been happening for a while now, but at this point the divergence between men and women is becoming pretty dramatic.

At the close of the 2020-21 academic year, women made up 59.5% of college students, an all-time high, and men 40.5%, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of enrollment data from the National Student Clearinghouse, a nonprofit research group. U.S. colleges and universities had 1.5 million fewer students compared with five years ago, and men accounted for 71% of the decline, the Journal analysis found.

This education gap, which holds at both two- and four-year colleges, has been slowly widening for 40 years. The divergence increases at graduation: After six years of college, 65% of women in the U.S. who started a four-year university in 2012 received diplomas by 2018 compared with 59% of men during the same period, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

In the next few years, two women will earn a college degree for every man, if the trend continues, said Douglas Shapiro, executive director of the research center at the National Student Clearinghouse.

The situation has become bad enough that some colleges are already offering more slots for boys in an attempt to bring the enrollment back into parity. The WSJ says this is “higher education’s dirty little secret,” i.e. schools are now practicing a kind of affirmative action for men.

There’s a chart included in the story which breaks down the admittance of men and women by both race and income. What the chart shows is that white men come in near the bottom at every income level.

COMMENT:  This should be studied further, if we can find a scholar with enough integrity to do the study correctly.  I just wonder if men are discouraged by the way they're treated in woke, party-line schools.  They can be charged with almost anything and thrown out on a whim.  They're constantly told that they must rid themselves of "toxic masculinity," the very traits that win a war. 

There may be a silver lining here.  If more and more men drop out, the colleges could take the hint and make themselves more welcoming to the male variety.  And the situation may awaken a heretofore unorganized constituency – mothers of sons.  They can't be happy about the way their boys are treated, and they have the numbers to make things happen.

September 6, 2021       Permalink 

SEPTEMBER 5,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

GIVE THE BRITS CREDIT; THEY PLAN SOME THINGS BETTER THAN WE DO.  FROM THE JERUSALEM POST:  The plans for Queen Elizabeth II's death were revealed last week after years of them being shrouded in secrecy, Politico reported.  The plans, codenamed Operation London Bridge, lay out the proceedings for the first ten days after her death including Operation Spring Tide - the plans for Charles's accession to the throne.  The 95-year-old queen is reportedly in good health, but the plans were revealed anyway.  The day of the queen's death will be named D-Day, with each day following being referred to as D+1, D+2...
D-Day
In the hours following the queen's death, calls will be made to inform the prime minister, the cabinet secretary and a number of the most senior ministers and officials. The prime minister will be informed by the queen's secretary.  The royal household will issue an official notification to deliver the news to the public.

The ministers and civil servants will receive an email, and upon receiving the email, the flag at Whitehall will be lowered to half-mast, ideally within ten minutes.  The UK parliament will adjourn. If they are not sitting at the time, they will be recalled.  The royal family's website will change to a black holding page with a statement confirming the news of the queen's passing, and the UK government website will show a black banner at the top. All governmental social media pages will change their profile pictures to their crests and also display a black banner. Only essential content will be published and retweets will have to be cleared with the government head of communications.  The royal family will announce the time of the funeral, which will be ten days later, and the prime minister will make a statement.  Please read the rest.  Just remarkable how everything is laid out in detail.  There are arguments for the monarchy.

September 5, 2021     Permalink

THE SITUATION – OVERNIGHT:  Some of the liberal media are trying to "move on" from Afghanistan, as if they can wave their magic wand, or magic Obama, and make it happen.  It is not happening.  Indeed, the news from Afghanistan is essentially getting worse.  From PJ Media: 

Earlier Sunday PJM reported that Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) sounded the alarm about six civilian aircraft that have been waiting to depart the airport at Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. According to McCaul, those aircraft have an unknown number of Americans along with Afghan interpreters who helped the U.S. military during the 20-year war.

Rep. McCaul said the Taliban is making demands while blocking the aircrafts’ departure, effectively creating a hostage situation.

When pressed by Wallace on what demands the Taliban are making, McCaul said the circumstances are “turning into a hostage situation.”

“Well, they are not clearing airplanes to depart. They’ve sat at the airport for the last couple days, these planes, and they’re not allowed to leave,” McCaul said.

“We know the reason why is because the Taliban want something in exchange. This is really, Chris, turning into a hostage situation where they’re not gonna allow American citizens to leave until they get full recognition from the United States of America,” he added.

That situation continues.

Now a satellite image purportedly of the aircraft has emerged on Twitter.

Newly released satellite images show six commercial airplanes at Mazar-i-Sharif airport in northern Afghanistan that are not being allowed to depart by the Taliban. American citizens and Afghan interpreters are reportedly waiting to board the flights.

The Washington Examiner reached out to the State Department about the ongoing standoff. The State Department has promised to get all Americans who want to leave Afghanistan out of the country. The State Department issued a statement saying essentially that its hands are tied because it has no ground or air assets available.

“We understand the concern many people are feeling as they try to facilitate further charter and passage out of Afghanistan. However, we do not have personnel on the ground, we do not have air assets in the country, we do not control the airspace — whether over Afghanistan or elsewhere in the region,” the State Department statement says.

The United States did have all of those assets available until Joe Biden ordered a full and hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan which included abandoning Bagram Air Base in early July.

Meanwhile in Afghanistan’s northern Panjshir province, anti-Taliban fighters continue their fight. But with no support from outside of Afghanistan, while the Taliban are now armed with U.S. weaponry left behind in the withdrawal, and with reported Pakistani support, the Taliban are closing in on the last force resisting them. Afghanistan’s last remaining elected leader present in the country, former Vice President Amrullah Saleh, is reportedly calling on the United Nations to intervene to prevent “genocide.”

Saleh says hundreds of thousands of displaced Afghans are under direct threat from the Taliban and “if no attention is paid to the situation, a full-scale human rights and humanitarian catastrophe including starvation and mass killing, even genocide of these people are in the making.”

Mass killings followed the U.S. exit from Vietnam in the 1970s, including the heinous genocide the woke communist Khmer Rouge perpetrated in Cambodia, in which they killed about 25% of their own countrymen.

COMMENT:  What is striking is the lack of urgency in Washington.  I really don't think the Democratic Party cares much about Americans trapped overseas.  And our State Department is what it has pretty much always been – a culture apart.

We are declining, and we the people are the only ones who can stop this frightening display.

Donald Trump may not have won the Man of the Year award from finishing schools, but he never would have let this happen.

September 5, 2021       Permalink