SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

FIGHTING BACK AT THE BORDER – FROM DAILY MAIL:    Senator Ted Cruz and 18 of his Republican colleagues have released shocking photos and video showing children packed into migrant camps, blaming President Joe Biden for the crisis at the southern border.  'This is inhumane, it is wrong and it is the direct consequence of policy decisions by the Biden administration to stop building the wall, to return to catch-and-release, and to end the stay-in-Mexico policy,' Cruz said at a press conference on Friday.  Cruz, Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma and others shared heartbreaking images of a severely overcrowded holding facility in Donna, Texas, where Lankford said that 'pods' designed to hold 80 children are packed with more than 700.  The remarks and new images came after Cruz led the delegation on a midnight border tour late Thursday, during which Cruz claimed he could hear human smugglers 'taunting' Border Patrol from across the Rio Grande.  'I know why President Biden doesn't want the media to be here -- because we do have an open border,' said Lankford, referring to Biden's continued refusal to let journalists visit holding facilities or accompany Border Patrol agents on patrol.  'Last night we stood under that bridge and watched as families, if they had a six-year-old or younger, within hours you were processed and released into the country,' he continued.  A national scandal of the first magnitude, despite the attempts by some news organizations to minimize it, or at least reduce its impact.  The Biden administration has botched its first two months in office.  We await future adventures...with dread.

LIFE UP ON THE WICKED STAGE – FROM DAILY MAIL:  A local Minnesota theater has cancelled a production of Roger & Hammerstein's Cinderella because its cast was 'too white'.  Chanhassen Dinner Theatres was scheduled to stage the show later this year before its artistic director stepped in to slam its lack of diversity.   'It was 98 percent white, ' the artistic director, Michael Brindisi, told the Pioneer Press on Wednesday after looking at who had been cast.   However, Chanhassen - located southwest of Minneapolis - has a population that is overwhelming white, and the racial demographics of the cast were not strikingly different from the city as a whole.   According to the most recent census, 92.5 percent of people  in Chanhassen are white. Less than 3 percent of residents are Hispanic, while 1.1 percent are black. 
No photos of the Cinderella cast were officially released before the show was scrapped.   In a statement released on Monday, the theater stated:  'After careful consideration and with our ongoing commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, we have made the decision to cancel our upcoming production.'  I'm so moved and impressed.  I wonder how many artists from the "Cinderella" production lost jobs over this virtue signaling.  The people who made the decision will get a little publicity, maybe a little medal from some obscure organization, then fade away.  There are far better ways to advance the interests of minority artists.

March 26, 2021