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MARCH 8,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

REMEMBER THE WONDERUL TEACHERS THAT WE HAD?  WHERE DID THEY GO? – FROM FOX:   UTLA (Los Angeles) teachers have been warned not to post vacation pictures on social media as the union continues to seek a safe return to in-person instruction amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report Monday.  The teachers were urged to keep spring break pictures off social media because it could hurt the union's argument that it's currently unsafe to return to the classroom, according to a screenshot that appeared to be from a roughly 5,700-member Facebook group titled, "UTLA FB GROUP- Members Only."  "Friendly reminder: If you are planning any trips for Spring Break, please keep that off of Social Media. It is hard to argue that it is unsafe for in-person instruction, if parents and the public see vacation photos and international travel," a post from the group read, according to FOX 11 of Los Angeles reporter Bill Melugin.  By the way, what is Spring Break breaking from?  They aren't even in school.  A far cry from the professionalism we saw among teachers in the days of our own youth.  What these kids are missing!

THE NEXT STEP – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  Republicans in the state Assembly on Monday drafted a resolution to impeach Gov. Cuomo amid mounting allegations of inappropriate behavior with younger women and the scandal over nursing home deaths from COVID-19.  The resolution will be formally introduced on Tuesday, a spokesman for Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay (R-Syracuse) said.
During a news conference earlier in the day, Barclay said, “We’re going to introduce this resolution because we believe the time has come.”  “There’s been one bombshell after another,” Barclay said.  “I don’t think I’ve used the term bombshell, especially this weekend, anytime more in my life.”  Barclay’s comments came after two more women — former aides Ana Liss and Karen Hinton — on Saturday brought the number of Cuomo’s accusers to five.  Hinton, the wife of lobbyist and former Cuomo administration official Howard Glaser, claims Cuomo twice pulled her into an “intimate embrace” in 2000, when he was the US housing secretary under then-President Bill Clinton.  A short time after the GOP announcement, a group of 20 Democratic assemblywomen — including some of the chamber’s most powerful members — signaled they would oppose impeachment proceedings before the conclusion of a pending probe of the allegations against Cuomo.  I suspect this GOP action is designed to put Democrats on the record as opposing impeachment.  A useful tool at election time. 

March 8, 2021       Permalink 

IRAN CHEATS ITS WAY TO POWER – FROM 11:45 P.M. ET:  This is the kind of story that's truly important, and yet gets far less attention than Meghan gossiping about the Queen.  A sad day for our priorities.  From Times of Israel: 

The International Atomic Energy Agency reportedly told its member states Monday that Iran has started enriching uranium with a third cascade, or cluster, of advanced IR-2m centrifuges at its underground plant at Natanz, in a further breach of the 2015 nuclear deal.

Reuters news agency quoted the UN atomic watchdog as saying in a new report.

UF6 is uranium hexafluoride, a compound that can be fed into centrifuges to produce nuclear fuel.

“The fourth cascade of 174 IR-2m centrifuges was installed but had yet to be fed with natural UF6; installation of a fifth cascade of IR-2m centrifuges was ongoing; and installation of a sixth cascade of IR-2m centrifuges had yet to begin,” the IAEA report said, according to Reuters.

Since the US left the nuclear deal in 2018 under Donald Trump, Iran has walked away from the pact’s limitations on its stockpile of uranium and has begun enriching up to 20 percent, a technical step away from weapons-grade levels.

It is also spinning advanced centrifuges barred by the deal, which saw Iran limit its program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Iran’s conservative-dominated parliament last month ordered the government to start limiting some inspections by the IAEA, after which the head of the agency, Rafael Grossi, hammered out a temporary technical deal with Tehran.

They confirmed that Iran will continue to allow access to UN inspectors to its nuclear sites — but will for three months bar inspections of other, non-nuclear sites.

According to a report last month, IAEA inspectors last summer found uranium particles at two Iranian nuclear sites that Iran tried to block access to.

Iranian authorities had stonewalled the inspectors from reaching the sites for seven months before the inspection, and Iranian officials have failed to explain the presence of the uranium, Reuters reported, citing diplomats familiar with the UN agency’s work.

COMMENT:  The most tragic part is that Iran now has a government in Washington run by the masters of appeasement from the Obama era.  They see Iran as our potential partner in the Middle East, and would like to move us away from Israel and the moderate Arab states.  They're descendants of the kind of diplomats of the 1930s symbolized by Neville Chamberlain and his umbrella. 

Biden, apparently influenced by others, has appointed a disturbing number of Tehran sympathizers to national-security posts in his administration.

And the mainstream press really doesn't care.

March 8, 2021       Permalink

MARCH 7,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE – FROM NATIONAL PULSE:    Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and her appointees have repeatedly met with and hosted leaders from a leading organization in the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front.  The United Front functions as China’s premier influence and propaganda organization, raising flags with the U.S. government’s Economic and Security Review Commission.  It seeks to “co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority of its ruling Chinese Communist Party” and coerce American leaders “to take actions or adopt positions supportive of Beijing’s preferred policies.”  What’s more, the State Department has described the group as seeking to “directly and malignly influence” U.S. state and local leaders.  Despite these warnings, Bowser and her appointees repeatedly met with the United Front’s Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC). The group, led by the daughter of a former Chinese Communist Party paramount leader, is the “public face” of the United Front and “avowedly an arm of the party-state.”  This is the mayor of our capital city, and, if the radical leftists get their way, our next state.  This association requires a major congressional investigation, but it will never happen. 

OUR ENEMIES ARE LAUGHING – FROM FOX:   Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has called for an investigation into a Baltimore High School after a local investigation found scores of students at the school are failing.  A senior at Augusta Fells Savage (AFS) Institute of Visual Arts failed all but three classes over four years and still graduated at the top half of his class with a 0.13 GPA, according to a Fox 45 Baltimore report published earlier this week.  "This is something I’m going to ask the inspector general to immediately look into. They have to get to the bottom of this and find out who’s responsible," Hogan told the outlet on Thursday.  He added that the report was "far worse than anything" he has "heard in the whole time" he has been governor.  Tiffany France, the mother of the failing student, thought her son would be receiving his diploma in June but was surprised to discover that he is being sent back to the ninth grade to start over.  Just the tip of the iceberg.  And don't think there'll be any real improvement.  The failures will be blamed on "racist" tests, and "consultants" will be brought in to paper over the real problems.  The losers:  black students.  The winners:  the education industry.

March 7, 2021       Permalink

TIME TO GO, BOYS – AT 11:30 P.M. ET:  Two Democratic governors are in deep trouble, and each day brings worse news.   It's such agony for us, isn't it?  From Fox: 

On Sunday, one of the most powerful Democrat lawmakers in New York issued a statement calling for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has been ensnared by two major scandals, to resign from office.

Cuomo is facing multiple allegations of sexual harassment and a federal probe into his administration’s tally on COVID-19 deaths tied to nursing homes.

State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat from Yonkers, said in a statement that the allegations are "drawing away from the business of government."

"New York is still in the midst of the pandemic and is still facing the societal, health and economic impacts of it [the virus]," she said. "We need to govern without daily distraction. For the good of the state Governor Cuomo must resign."

The Associated Press, citing an unnamed source, reported that Cuomo had a brief phone conversation with Stewart-Cousins and told her that he would not quit and that if they want him out of office, they would need to impeach him.

Since the statement from Stewart-Cousins, more lawmakers from the state have stepped forward and are calling for his resignation.

According to a tally from Fox News, a total of 37 lawmakers from either the Assembly or state Senate want him to resign, and 10 have called for impeachment.

To impeach the sitting governor, the Assembly needs a majority vote in the 150-member body, and the state Senate—where there would be a conviction—would need a two-thirds majority of court members that would consist of both senators and judges from the state’s court of appeals.

And on the other coast, also from Fox: 

The petition to recall California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has collected 1.95 million signatures just days ahead of the final deadline to qualify for a statewide ballot.

The announcement from Recall Gavin 2020 came on Sunday in Sacramento, across the street from the California State Capitol.

Orrin Heatlie, the founder of the California Patriot Coalition-Recall Gavin Newsom 2020, said the campaign is still aiming to get an additional number of signatures "in order to bridge that 2 million mark."

To qualify for a ballot, the campaign was required to collect 1.5 million signatures but wanted to collect upwards of 2 million to compensate for invalidated signatures.

Randy Economy, Senior Advisor to Recall Gavin Newsom 2020 told Fox News that the campaign has confirmed a validation rate of 82%.

The deadline for organizers to submit signatures is on March 17. If the effort succeeds, a recall election would likely occur later this year

"One thing we want to let everybody know here, especially to the politicians across the street and the lobbyists that have destroyed California’s dream for decades and generations is that your game’s over," Economy said. "From now on, the people are in charge of California."

COMMENT:  A recall election in California is quite likely, but the outcome is in doubt.  Many California political observers believe that Newsom could win the recall election.  The Democratic Party is heavily dominant in the state, and is made up of interest groups who know the Democrats will write the checks to them that the Republicans won't.  A tough climb for us, but political miracles do happen.

In New York, don't assume all those calling for Cuomo to resign are good-government types.  Many are from the extremist wing of the Democratic Party, and simply want a white, male governor out of office.  

The months leading up to the 2022 midterms will be packed with political action.

March 7, 2021       Permalink