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FEBRUARY 2,  2022

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

AMERICANS FIGHTING BACK – OVERNIGHT:  From Breitbart:   Black Americans in New York City, New York, have filed a lawsuit against the city for giving municipal voting rights to nearly a million foreign nationals.  As Breitbart News has chronicled, Democrats on the 51-member New York City Council approved a plan last month that allows more than 800,000 foreign nationals with green cards, visas, and work permits the opportunity to vote in citywide elections so long as they have resided in the city for at least 30 consecutive days.  Now, four black Americans and New York City residents — Phyllis Coachman, Deroy Murdock, Katherine James, and Anthony Gilhuys — have filed suit with the help of the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF).  Their lawsuit accuses the city’s Board of Elections of violating the 15th Amendment by imposing a “racially discriminatory” policy that is set to drastically dilute the voting power of American citizens in New York City, and specifically of black Americans.  “All of the relevant indicia demonstrate that a racially discriminatory purpose was a motivating factor in the passage of the Foreign Citizen Voting Bill,” the lawsuit states.  This is a hot one.  I hope they win.  Voting should be a privilege of citizenship.  But you have different sections of the Democratic Party base opposing each other in this lawsuit.  It could get very ugly, and further split the Democrats.

February 2, 2022       Permalink

A DAY IN TELEVISION – OVERNIGHT:  Such news from the world of television.  Could anything else be this important?

JEFF ZUCKER has resigned as head of CNN.  This is big.  It's like the captain of the Titanic resigning just before the ship hit the iceberg.  The stated reason for Zucker's act is an inappropriate relationship with another executive at CNN. 

Are we serious here?

CNN people interviewed by reporters said that this "relationship" had been well known for some time.  So why is Zucker being forced out now because of it?  My suspicion is that the "inappropriate relationship" is being used as an excuse, but that the real reason is CNN's decline under Zucker's leadership.  Its ratings have collapsed.  By some measures they're down 80%.  Its reputation is a shambles.  Once a fairly respectable network, and the first outlet many turned to for breaking news, CNN is now seen as an untrustworthy peddler of left-wing talking points, and an echo chamber for all things Democratic.  There's no bloom on this rose.  Zucker decided to make it the anti-Trump network, with little space for anything else, and he succeeded.  But once Trump was defeated for re-election, CNN's loyal, Trump-hating audience had little reason to watch.

So now CNN's owner, AT&T, will look for a new king.  A smart owner would see immediately what CNN's problems are, and proceed accordingly.  He or she would realize that what audiences want from CNN is news, information, the output of great reporting, and, equally, great research.  These audiences also want maturity, not "panels" on the level of a junior high.  When I turn on a news station at 8 a.m. I want a newscast that will tell me what I want to know, and what I need to know.   And, to use a familiar phrase in journalism, I want a news service that operates without fear or favor.  No more "anti-Trump network."

It's a very tall order.  I'm not so sure any one new leader can execute it.  And I'm also not sure that AT&T will have the wisdom to find that right person. 

All we can do, as members of the audience, is observe and make our own judgment, and enforce that judgment with our remote control.  But we can also, recalling the recent years of CNN, send, in one voice, a single message:  Don't pull that on us again.

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HER NAME IS WHOOPI GOLDBERG, and she's in the news, the second big TV story of the day.  As a panel member of the ABC daytime show "The View," Ms. Goldberg, who's been a prominent comedienne, actress, and sometime commentator for almost 40 years, discusses any subject that comes up, sometimes from an African-American perspective.  This week she made a serious mistake.

For some reason Goldberg, whose real name is Caryn Elaine Johnson, brought up Hitler's Holocaust and insisted that it wasn't about race, but simply man's inhumanity to man.  It was a statement of profound ignorance, for the Holocaust was indeed about race, all about race.  Hitler was obsessed with races he considered inferior, starting with the Jews, but including many of the ethnic groups of Europe. 

There was an immediate uproar, and calls for Goldberg to be fired.  She tried to give a half-hearted apology, but bungled it.  She appeared on CBS with Stephen Colbert, and bungled that, too.  She didn't seem to quite understand the seriousness of what she had said.  And today ABC put her on a two-week suspension so she could repent and think it over.  It has become a very big story.

The suspension is controversial.  Ironically, it is conservatives who are most critical of it, saying it's too close to "cancel culture."  Others say it is only a slap on the wrist, and that more should be done.They argue that in a time of rising anti-Semitism she deepened the wound.

I come down closer to the conservative position.  Goldberg's statement was ignorant, as noted, but it was not made maliciously.  She has no history of bigotry.  Indeed, she chose as her stage name the very Jewish name of Goldberg.  She should be required to have a meeting with a Holocaust expert and make a formal apology on "The View."  She should then accept the invitation of Yad Vashem, Israel's memorial to the Holocaust, to visit and learn, and report on her visit.  And then the matter should be put to rest. 

If someone is truly evil, that's one thing.  But if someone makes a mistake, even a serious one, the answer is education and counseling.  We've had enough cancel culture.  Where has it gotten us?

February 2, 2022       Permalink

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