Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

SEPTEMBER 7,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

IS THIS SERIOUS? – FROM FOX:   Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday dispelled rumors that he may be running for president in 2024, referring to the buzz around the subject as "purely manufactured."  "All the speculation about me is purely manufactured," DeSantis said during a news conference to discuss a new COVID-19 treatment unit in St. Cloud, Florida. "I just do my job and we work hard… I hear all this stuff and honestly it’s nonsense."  DeSantis' remarks on the subject come just days before he headlines a Nebraska event with other potential 2024 candidates to celebrate agriculture on Sept. 12 in Nebraska City. During the gathering, DeSantis will speak alongside former Vice President Mike Pence and Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. The event will also correspond with Gov. Pete Ricketts’ annual steak fry, which is being held at Arbor Lodge Historical Park.  It's smart of DeSantis to cool the presidential talk.  He's got to get through a gubernatorial re-election election next year, and there's no guarantee, based on current polls, that he will win.  Let's take it one step at a time.

LATEST WARNING – FROM TIMES OF ISRAEL:  Iran has dramatically increased its production of highly enriched uranium in recent months, while refusing to resume full cooperation with inspectors, the UN nuclear watchdog said Tuesday.  Tehran has quadrupled its stockpile of 60%-enriched uranium since May, in open contravention of the 2015 accord with world powers that was meant to contain its nuclear program, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported.  The IAEA also told member states in its confidential quarterly report that its verification and monitoring activities have been “seriously undermined” since February by Iran’s refusal to let inspectors access IAEA monitoring equipment.  The agency said it estimates Iran’s stock of uranium enriched to up to 60% fissile purity at 10 kilograms, an increase of 7.6 kilograms since May. The country’s stockpile of uranium enriched to up to 20% fissile purity is now estimated at 84.3 kilograms, up from 62.8 kilograms three months earlier.  Iran’s total stock of uranium is estimated at 2441.3 kilograms as of Aug. 30, down from 3241 kilograms on May 22, the agency said.    Nothing to see, of course.  Nothing to see.

September 7, 2021       Permalink

CHICKENS COMING HOME; WHAT A MESS – OVERNIGHT:  Why am I not shocked that blunders committed by Barack Obama are now coming back to haunt us.  From Fox: 

Four out of five Guantanamo detainees whom former President Barack Obama released in exchange for former U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in 2014 now hold senior positions in the interim government created by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

According to the Afghan television network TOLOnews, the Taliban-formed government gave leadership positions to Mohammad Nabi Omari, Khairullah Khairkhwa, Norullah Noori, Abdul Haq Wasiq, and Mohammad Fazl; all of whom were released in a 2014 deal between the Obama administration and the Taliban to free Bergdahl, whom the Taliban had held as a prisoner since 2009.

Late last month, following the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, the Taliban announced that Omari, a former Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (GTMO) detainee who has close ties to al Qaeda, would govern Khost Province in Afghanistan.

On Tuesday, the Taliban announced that Khairkhwa would serve as acting minister for information and culture, Noori would serve as acting minister of borders and tribal affairs, Wasiq would serve as acting director of intelligence, and Fazl would serve as deputy defense minister.

Wasiq will reprise his role as the Taliban's intelligence director, previously serving in the role prior to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America. U.S. intelligence agencies determined that Wasiq had close tied to al Qaeda while he was serving in that position at the time.

Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), noted that Fazl will also return to his role as deputy defense minister. "U.S. officials found that Fazl worked with senior al Qaeda personnel, including Abdel Hadi al Iraqi, one of Osama bin Laden's chief lieutenants," Joscelyn wrote in a tweet. "Al Iraqi is still held at Guantanamo."

In 2011, a Washington, D.C., district court judge found that Khairkhwa "was, without question, a senior member of the Taliban both before and after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001."

COMMENT:  It shouldn't surprise anyone that the name of Barack Obama comes up.  The deal for Bergdahl, who had deserted his post, was always an absurdity, a surrender, by a president who didn't care much for his own country.

Our loss in Afghanistan is crushing.  We have every right to fear that we will feel its effects one peaceful morning in America.

September 7, 2021       Permalink

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