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

FEBRUARY 1,  2022

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

OH REALLY?  SOMEONE TELL CNN – OVERNIGHT:  As we learn more about the Covid virus and how to fight it, we're realizing that those pompous commentators who ordered us to "follow the science" would have probably also ordered us to believe that those planes over Pearl Harbor were tourists.  From Newsmax:   Johns Hopkins University researchers say lockdowns in the U.S. and Europe had little to no impact in reducing COVID-19 deaths.  According to a new analysis of dozens of scientific studies, the lockdowns during the early phase of the pandemic in 2020 reduced COVID-19 mortality by about 0.2%.  "We find no evidence that lockdowns, school closures, border closures and limiting gatherings have had a noticeable effect on COVID-19 mortality," the researchers wrote.  The lockdowns did have "devastating effects" on the economy, however, and contributed to numerous social ills, the paper noted.  "They have contributed to reducing economic activity, raising unemployment, reducing schooling, causing political unrest, contributing to domestic violence and undermining liberal democracy," the researchers said.  "Such a standard benefit-cost calculation leads to a strong conclusion: Lockdowns should be rejected out of hand as a pandemic policy instrument," the paper concluded.  Someone send a note to Joe and Kamala about this.  Make it short and direct.

February 1, 2022       Permalink

THE BEACHES OF FLORIDA ARE FRIENDLY TOWARD THE GOP – OVERNIGHT:  We stress, as we have before, that the midterms are far away – about nine months from now – and that today's trends may be battered and bruised by then.  But it is such fun to look at numbers that are so juicy.  From redstate: 

To the extent that Democrats haven’t fully conceded Florida going into the November election, the latest polling out of the state may represent a breaking point.

Suffolk University/USA Today released what I believe is the first credible, non-partisan survey of the races going on there, and the results are fire and brimstone for the Democrats involved. Gov. Ron DeSantis holds a commanding lead over both of his likely opponents, including Nikki Fried, who is fresh off trying to accuse the governor of not condemning white supremacy.

On the Senate front, Sen. Marco Rubio is trouncing Rep. Val Demmings, who was framed as a strong candidate when she announced.
49-41 Rubio over Demings
49-43 DeSantis over Crist; 51-40 DeSantis over Fried
Biden approval: 39%

For all the consternation from the national press over DeSantis’s tenure, he continues to draw broad support in a state that is not known for giving it. Recall that in 2018, DeSantis won his race over Andrew Gillum by less than half a percentage point. Now, he’s consistently beating Charlie Crist and Nikki Fried in hypothetical matchups by what are blowout numbers in a political context.

Rubio’s performance is perhaps most impressive, though. Demmings has always been painted as a “serious” Democrat with a mind towards fairness. Yet, she’s not even competitive at this point.

That begs the question of why she’s even running? She was set up in the House of Representatives for a long career, including probably a leadership position. But if she loses to Rubio, and it’s almost certain she does, that all goes away. Perhaps overconfidence got the best of her and those encouraging her to run?

As to Joe Biden, his approval in the Sunshine State sits at just 39%. If that number holds — and there’s no reason to believe it will rise substantially over the next nine months — he will drag a lot of Democrats down just as Barack Obama did in 2010.

COMMENT:  Overconfidence is the curse.  Republicans must run as if they're 20 points behind.  And they must keep an absolute eagle eye on voter fraud, which is a specialty of big-city Democratic machines.  I'm hoping that if we fight well, we'll be looking at a Republican Congress – both houses – a year from now.

February 1,  2022     Permalink

JANUARY 31,  2022

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

EVERYONE MUST KNOW THIS – OVERNIGHT:  We alert you to the latest trendy class available, for those who require the very best in cocktail-party conversation.  From College Fix:   Princeton University is offering a course this spring semester called “Nuclear Princeton: An Indigenous Approach to Science and the Environment,” which seeks to connect nuclear science to settler colonialism.  “How do we grapple with the lasting, unintended impacts of conducting science, engineering, and medicine in ‘the nation’s service and service of humanity?’” the course description says, with reference to Princeton’s motto. “What lessons can we learn from the University’s past to conduct morally sound research and generate culturally inclusive knowledge?”  Students will learn about the Ivy League university’s history with nuclear science and how it relates to the perspective of Native Americans.  “Course readings touch on interdisciplinary topics: the university’s past and present engagements with nuclear science, engineering, the nuclear arms race, and anti-nuclear movements, along with Indigenous perspectives on land, sovereignty, and indigeneity,” the syllabus states.  I gotta be there.  I mean, you get a class like this once in a lifetime.  So I'm not a Princeton student.  So what?  I can try to audit the class as an oppressed person.  I'll get on a list.

January 31, 2022       Permalink

FIRST-CLASS PIECE – OVERNIGHT:  Well written and well researched and well thought out, this article by Eric Kaufmann in City Journal is one of the best I've read on the generational threat to freedom of speech.  A must read:

The clash between socialist and liberal economics defined the late twentieth century, and this century brings a cultural version of that struggle. Today’s culture wars pit advocates of equal outcomes and special protection for identity groups against defenders of due process, equal treatment, scientific reason, and free speech. Our political map is taking shape around this new divide between what I will call cultural socialism and cultural liberalism.

Cultural socialism, which values equal results and harm prevention for identity groups over individual rights, has inspired race-based pedagogies and harsh punishments for controversial speech. Rooted in the idea that historically marginalized groups are sacred, this view is no passing fad. Letters, associations, universities, and media defending free speech notwithstanding, the young adherents of cultural socialism are steadily overturning the liberal ethos of the adult world.

Survey data from my new Manhattan Institute report, “The Politics of the Culture Wars in Contemporary America,” show the scale of the challenge. While the American public leans two-to-one in favor of cultural liberalism, a majority of Americans under 30 incline toward cultural socialism. For instance, while 65 percent of Americans over 55 oppose Google’s decision to fire James Damore for having questioned the firm’s training on gender equity, those under 30 support the firing by a 59–41 margin. Similar gaps separate young and old people on similar instances of cancel culture, such as the oustings of Gina Carano (an actor fired from Star Wars for social media posts) and Brendan Eich (the former CEO of Mozilla forced out in 2014 for opposing gay marriage in 2008). Only part of this disparity stems from the fact that young people lean left: centrist young people, for instance, support Google over Damore by a 61–39 margin, while centrists over 55 support Damore over Google 58–42.

On the use of critical race theory in school, a similar divide emerges. Eight in ten people over age 55 oppose teaching schoolchildren that the United States was founded on racism and remains systemically racist, or that the country and their homes were built on stolen land. A slight majority of young people support teaching these notions. While opposition to critical race theory in schools can take an illiberal form, compulsory CRT violates two key liberal principles: first, that pupils in a classroom or employees in a diversity training session should not be forced to agree with ideas they don’t believe in; and second, that people should not be treated differently because of their race. Recent attempts by state governments to limit whites’ access to Covid-19 medication are another manifestation of this tendency.

Another front in the culture war is censorship of speech, usually justified on grounds that such speech would inflict psychological harm on minorities and that power should be redistributed to “marginalized groups.” Activists pushing for such censorship organize online flash mobs and pressure campaigns, wielding accusations of racism, homophobia, or transphobia to ruin a person’s reputation and have them fired from their position. The problem is especially acute in higher education: the number of academics targeted for cancellation has exploded in recent years.

COMMENT:  Please read the rest.  You can see the quality of the research by the above extract.  We are poisoning the minds of our children, and, although people tend to drift right as they live their lives, there is no guarantee that this tendency will continue.  What do you do when almost all major institutions are taken over by the woke left?

There are some who believe that it's already too late and that America is cooked.  I'm a bit more optimistic, primarily because wokeness tends to be regionalized.  The poison isn't uniformly spread across America.  People so inclined can start moving to more rational regions, even if they may find some of the customs a bit odd.  It's a good odd.  As the numbers in more rational regions grow, the politics may well change.

January 31,  2022     Permalink