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FEBRUARY 26,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

WELL, IT'S A LITTLE RELIEF – FROM PAGE SIX:    Get ready for a kinder, gentler Golden Globes now the king of cringe Ricky Gervais has retired his hosting role: Tina Fey says she and co-host Amy Poehler won’t get political.  Fey told Jill Rappaport on her “Rappaport to the Rescue” podcast, “We just want to make it a fun hang out for people at home — kind of a stress reliever, so I don’t think you can expect much politics at all. “  She added, “It doesn’t seem like a venue for political jokes.”  And when asked what she will wear for the big night, Fey reminisced about her last time co-hosting with Poehler in 2015, “It’s been five years and the places we would go, Jill — couture houses, we would meet with the designers, there were muslins, mock-ups, and the jewels!  “Now it’s … like ‘Nordstrom Rack, what do ya got?’”  No politics?  Maybe I'll even tune in for 30 seconds.

WELCOME TO THE SOVIET UNION – FROM DAILYWIRE:  A New York university has suspended an education student from mandatory teaching programs for posting Instagram videos expressing conservative ideology.  State University of New York (SUNY) Geneseo sent an email to education student Owen Stevens placing him on suspension from his field teaching programs after his peers uncovered videos of him preaching conservative dogma. The school claims that Steven’s videos “call into question” his ability to “maintain a classroom environment protecting the mental and emotional well-being of all of [his] students.”  According to a copy of Steven’s suspension obtained by The Daily Wire, the education student will remain suspended from participating in in-school field experiences and courses that have field experiences until he completes a “remediation plan.” The remediation plan includes taking down his Instagram videos, toning down his social media presence, and attending school-sanctioned training.  Stevens told The Daily Wire he refuses to take part in “re-education” training.  This is happening all over.  You won't see it on CNN.

February 26, 2021        Permalink

CONSERVATIVE EGGHEADS STRIKE BACK –  OVERNIGHT:  Stanford's fringe-left faculty started harassing scholars from the university's conservative arm, the Hoover Institution.  Now comes the reply.  Our side should be doing this more often.  FROM COLLEGE FIX: 

A trio of fellows at Stanford’s Hoover Institution has fired back at an attempt by other faculty members to investigate the institution for making, in their words, “a travesty of honest intellectual debate.”

“If Hoover fellows continue to be targets for character assassination, it will be clear to us what the true nature of free speech at Stanford has become—and not only to us,” wrote Hoover fellows Victor Davis Hanson, Scott Atlas and Niall Ferguson in The Stanford Review this week.

In a presentation to the Stanford Faculty Senate on February 11, Stanford professors Joshua Landy, Stephen Monismith, David Palumbo-Liu and David Spiegel gave a presentation in which they harshly criticized statements made by Hoover fellows in the past year, arguing the conservative-leaning Hoover Institution’s relationship with Stanford damaged the school’s reputation.

“While Stanford is an academic research institution, we believe that the Hoover is a partisan think-tank, and this has deep consequences with regard to the way each defines the roles its citizens should play,” the professors argued, saying some public actions by Hoover fellows were “so problematic that to move forward without addressing them would be a disservice both to Stanford and to the Hoover.”

The professors asked for “an impartial committee to be appointed by the Committee on Committees to delve deeper into the relationship between the Hoover and Stanford.”

Ultimately, the motion was amended to simply require “increasing interaction” between Stanford Provost Persis Drell and Hoover Director Condoleezza Rice.

Wasn't she secretary of state under George W. Bush?  Hmm.  Highly problematical for the woke left.

During the debate, Drell — a supporter of Hoover’s continued relationship with Stanford — noted she was “left quite confused” at what the goal of the presentation and the motion was. It passed with the votes of three-quarters of the Senate.

And Rice said after the vote: “If it is a matter of cooperation, of integrating more deeply into Stanford, working more effectively with Stanford, I am committed to that. And I do believe that I know how to do it.”

After the vote, Palumbo-Liu acknowledged defeat.

COMMENT:  The leftist suppression of free academic speech is no longer hidden.  Free speech is fine, the academic left says, as long as we agree with it.   This is what our children are being taught.  Imagine an America of the future where this kind of thing becomes the standard.

February 26, 2021       Permalink 

A VERY BIG STORY – OVERNIGHT:  There is almost a sense of shock in diplomatic and journalistic circles over President Biden's air strikes against Iranian targets in Syria yesterday.  You mean Biden did something like this?

Yeah, he did.  Republicans are supportive, Democrats rather muted.  Reports say that most of the Arab world, which despises the Iranian government, is also supportive.  The Israelis are very supportive.  The president is giving no vague excuses.  He's holding firm, at least for now.  From Reuters:

"You can't act with impunity. Be careful," US President Joe Biden told reporters in Texas when asked what message he was sending Iran with the US airstrikes against Iranian-backed militias in eastern Syria.

Syria said the strikes were a cowardly act and urged Biden not to follow "the law of the jungle."

An Iraqi militia official close to Iran said the strikes killed one fighter and wounded four. US officials said they were limited in scope to show Biden's administration will act firmly while trying to avoid a big regional escalation.

Washington and Tehran are seeking maximum leverage in attempts to save Iran's nuclear deal reached with world powers in 2015 but abandoned in 2018 by then-President Donald Trump, after which regional tensions soared and fears of full-scale conflict grew.

"Syria condemns in the strongest terms the cowardly US attack on areas in Deir al-Zor near the Syrian-Iraqi border," the Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"It (the Biden administration) is supposed to stick to international legitimacy, not to the law of the jungle as (did) the previous administration."

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh condemned the US strikes, calling them "illegal aggression" and a violation of human rights and international law.

The air strikes, early on Friday local time, targeted militia sites on the Syrian side of the Iraqi-Syrian frontier, where groups backed by Iran control an important crossing for weapons, personnel and goods.

Western officials and some Iraqi officials accuse Iranian-backed groups of involvement in deadly rocket attacks on US sites and personnel in Iraq over the last month.

Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, also criticized the US strikes and called for "unconditional respect of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria."

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the air strikes in Syria were meant to send the message that Biden will act to protect Americans.

Future US actions in the region will be deliberative and will aim to deescalate tensions in Syria, Psaki said.

And...

US lawmakers from both political parties welcomed the strikes but a number of Democrats questioned the legal justification under which they were carried out and the continuation of military operations in the Middle East.

"I am very concerned that last night's strike by US forces in Syria puts our country on the path of continuing the Forever War instead of ending it," said Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the US strikes totally destroyed nine facilities and partially destroyed two facilities at a border control point used by a number of Iranian-backed militant groups, including Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada.

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the decision to carry out the strikes was meant to signal that, while the United States wanted to punish the militias, it did not want the situation to spiral into a bigger conflict.

COMMENT:  We are somewhat reassured by these strikes that Biden will not be another Obama, but we certainly want further assurance.  Our allies are backing us, and were probably consulted in advance. 

Biden has, over his career, generally been wrong on foreign policy, favoring responses that were too soft and unconvincing.  We trust that, as president, he will see the world differently.

February 26,  2021       Permalink 

FEBRUARY 25,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

WHY DID WE NOT THINK OF THIS SOCIAL ADVANCE BEFORE?  I WANT ANSWERS – FROM FOX BUSINESS:    California lawmakers are considering a bill that would penalize department stores for separating children’s toys, clothing and other items by gender.  Under CA AB2826 (19R), introduced by Assemblyman Evan Low, D-Campbell, department stores with 500 or more employees would be subject to a $1,000 fine if they do not “correct a violation of these provisions within 30 days of receiving written notice of the violation.”  Stores would not have to change their products, but the products could not be displayed based on how they have “traditionally been marketed for either girls or for boys.”  Low, who originally introduced the bill last year, said he conceived of the idea from one of his staffers, who claimed her daughter had asked her why an item she supposedly wanted was in the boys’ section.  “This is an issue of children being able to express themselves without bias,” Low told Politico last week.  Yes, I'm sure there'll be a rush among five-year-old girls for toy machine guns, and the boys will certainly go for Senior Prom Barbie.  Am I in the right world?

BULLETIN – FROM REUTERS:   US President Joe Biden on Thursday night and Friday morning directed US military airstrikes in eastern Syria against facilities belonging to what the Pentagon said were Iran-backed militia, in a calibrated response to rocket attacks against US targets in Iraq.  At dawn on Friday, US attacks targeted several areas in Eastern Syria on the Syrian-Iraqi border, Syrian state television reported citing its reporter in Deir al-Zor.  The strikes, which were first reported by Reuters, appeared to be limited in scope, potentially lowering the risk of escalation.  Biden's decision to strike only in Syria and not in Iraq, at least for now, also gives the Iraqi government some breathing room as it carries out its own investigation of a February 15 attack that wounded Americans.  "At President (Joe) Biden’s direction, US military forces earlier this evening conducted airstrikes against infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed militant groups in eastern Syria," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.  "President Biden will act to protect American and Coalition personnel. At the same time, we have acted in a deliberate manner that aims to de-escalate the overall situation in both eastern Syria and Iraq," Kirby said.  We'll watch this carefully, and will hope the president has a spine that is more Trump and less Obama.  The Iranians must understand that we will vigorously defend our interests and our forces.  If they don't understand it, diplomacy will fail.

February 25, 2021       Permalink

WHOOPS, Y'MEAN THERE ARE RULES?  WHAT KIND OF A COUNTRY IS THIS? – AT 11:23 P.M. ET:  President Biden's ill-timed and economically dicey call for a $15 minimum wage has hit a mine in Congress.  From Fox Business: 

The Senate Parliamentarian said on Thursday night that a federal minimum wage hike to $15 per hour does not fit the criteria to be included in the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package.
The measure does not fall in line with the requirements to be passed via the fast-track budget reconciliation process, a source familiar with the ruling said.

The reconciliation process will allow Democrats to pass legislation without any Republican support, so long as all members of their own party are on board. Some moderate Democrats, like West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, had expressed reservations about the minimum wage increase.

Typically, budget reconciliation measures must affect spending or revenue.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., applauded the Senate Parliamentarian’s decision, saying that it will reinforce the traditions of the Senate over the long-run.

“Very pleased the Senate Parliamentarian has ruled that a minimum wage increase is an inappropriate policy change in reconciliation,” Graham said in a statement. “This decision reinforces reconciliation cannot be used as a vehicle to pass major legislative change - by either party - on a simple majority vote.”

But progressives are already expressing their displeasure with the decision to remove the provision.

“I strongly disagree with tonight’s decision by the Senate Parliamentarian. The CBO made it absolutely clear that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour had a substantial budgetary impact and should be allowed under reconciliation," said Sen. Bernie Sander, I-Vt. in a statement.

COMMENT:  We'll see what happens.  There are voices in Congress who want both houses to ignore the judgment of the Senate parliamentarian.  But President Biden is signaling that he respects the Senate rules and will try to find some other way to raise the minimum wage.

The arrogance of the Democrats is astounding.  They control the House by a handful of votes and have only a tie in the Senate, with control only occurring when Vice President Harris breaks that tie.  You'd think they'd want to be more cooperative, but self-delusion is hard to cure.

February 25, 2021       Permalink