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FEBRUARY 3,  2022

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

THE LATEST FROM A ONCE-GLORIOUS CITY – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  The NYPD was forced to pump the brakes on the arrest of a dangerous ex-con wanted in a Harlem stick-up — the same week that two police officers were killed — after the Manhattan District Attorney’s office initially balked at cops’ request for a “no-knock” warrant, multiple law-enforcement sources told The Post.  Detectives were looking to nab Jaime Brown, who allegedly held up a bodega on Lenox Avenue with two handguns on Dec. 5 — whipping out one of the pistols when he decided the store clerk was taking too long to fork over the cash, according to the sources.  A senior law-enforcement source familiar with Brown’s arrest said this was a “textbook case for a no-knock warrant” because of the suspect’s violent past — notably that he was convicted in a 2018 shooting where he threatened to kill a cop.  But DA Alvin Bragg’s office punted on the Jan. 24 request, saying they didn’t believe they had a case for a “no-knock” warrant, and claiming a judge would never sign off on it — angering cops who said a “knock” warrant would have put their lives in danger.  DA Alvin Bragg declined to grant the “no-knock” warrant the same week two officers were killed in the line of duty.  Public safety will not improve with Bragg still in office.  He's a Soros-funded leftist, as are the D.A.'s in San Francisco Los Angeles, and Chicago.  Like them, he thinks the criminals are simply victims of oppression, and the police are the oppressors.  Good old Marxist stuff.  Hand it to the left – they hit the target when they started focusing on D.A. offices around the country, and hit it again when they further focused on school boards.  The media averted its eyes.

February 3, 2022       Permalink

ARE WE FINALLY GETTING TO THE TRUE STORY BEHIND THIS GROUP? – OVERNIGHT:  Black Lives Matter is, perhaps, the most famous "charitable" organization to emerge in this country in the last decade.  And yet, many complain that the public doesn't know much about it.  The organization raises millions, but who knows where the money goes?  Now, we find officialdom waking up to the information vacuum and asking questions.  It's about time.  From Daily Caller: 

Washington and California have both recently warned Black Lives Matter Global (BLM) to stop accepting donations due to a lack of transparency in their financial accounting, the Washington Examiner reported Wednesday.

According to a letter acquired by the Washington Examiner, the California Department of Justice has threatened to hold BLM leaders accountable if they do not hand over details regarding the organization’s $60 million it collected in donations within the next 60 days.

“The organization BLACK LIVES MATTER GLOBAL NETWORK FOUNDATION, INC. is delinquent with The Registry of Charitable Trusts for failing to submit required annual report(s),” a portion of the letter reads. “An organization that is delinquent, suspended or revoked is not in good standing and is prohibited from engaging in conduct for which registration is required, including soliciting or disbursing charitable funds.”

The Washington Secretary of State Corporations and Charities Division sent a notice to the organization in early January warning that its registration with the division has been closed, according to the Examiner.

The letter told the organization to “immediately cease” all solicitations.

Charity experts sounded off in May 2021 on BLM’s potential self-dealing in regards to their charity donations, The Daily Caller reported.

BLM has had no recognized leader in command of its donations since its co-founder Patrisse Cullors departed in May, according to the Washington Examiner.

COMMENT:  Nice, huh?  And how many news organizations do you think will actually report this story?  It will probably be buried as quickly as possible by the mainstream – meaning left-wing – media. 

And who gets hurt?  Mostly black folks.  It's always the same story.  People, some well-meaning, some just protecting themselves, pour money into an organization thinking they're helping "the poor."  And the poor don't get helped.  And the donors just "move on" to the next fashionable thing.

February 3,  2022     Permalink

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