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FEBRUARY 8,  2022

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, A STRUGGLIN' TOWN – OVERNIGHT:   The city, presumably America's urban crown jewel, is in terrible shape.  The ultra-rich who live here, many of whom are European, don't notice.  The real people do.  There is genuine fear that the city will never regain its former vitality.  And the overriding issue is crime.  From the New York Post:   Nearly every single city police precinct has seen spikes in crime so far this year — including five in which the rate has doubled, according to the latest troubling NYPD statistics.
“No neighborhood is safe,” one Brooklyn cop warned Tuesday. “At this rate, we will lose the city by St. Patrick’s Day.”  Seventy-two out of the Big Apple’s 77 police precincts saw crime rise, leaving just five at 2021 levels or dipping below their figures for the same period a year earlier.
The NYPD CompStat numbers show that the 110th Precinct in Elmhurst, Queens, has been battered by the highest jump in crime as of Sunday, with a more than 142 percent increase over last year.
The biggest percentage hikes in the precinct were for grand larcenies, with 197 incidents so far this year after just 43 at the same point in 2021; felony assaults, which rose to 59 from 28, and robberies, with 30 this year compared to 18 last year.  Local masonry contractor Luis Gutierrez blamed the crime spree on the dire economic situation in Corona — and said he’s had enough.
“It gets worse because the prices go up, the rent goes up, the diapers, everything goes up but the jobs,” the father of four told The Post on Tuesday. “My wife is too afraid, so we move to Suffolk [County], Long Island, next month.”  People are pouring out of New York, just as they are pouring out of California.  The political left controls both states, with predictable results.  The virus continues to instill fear.  This country's future increasingly appears tied to the South, the Southwest and the growing states in the heartland, like Tennessee.  Even New Yorkers are moving to places they'd never before considered.  I just hope they don't register to vote when they get there.

February 8,  2022     Permalink 

MAN BATTLE STATIONS – OVERNIGHT:  HINTS FROM DIPLOMCATIC CIRCLES TELL US THAT A NEW IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL MAY BE NEAR.  THE FEAR AMONG THE SANE PEOPLE IS THAT BIDEN, INFLUENCED BY THE OBAMA FACTION IN HIS ADMINISTRATION, MAY GO FOR A PEACE-AT-ANY-PRICE AGREEMENT, JUST TO PACIFY HIS PARTY'S LEFT.  REPUBLICANS ARE ALREADY INSISTING THAT THEY WILL HAVE NONE OF THIS.  COULD BE A MAJOR BATTLE BREWING.  FROM THE TIMES OF ISRAEL: 

As talks to revive the tattered 2015 nuclear deal restarted in Vienna Tuesday, US President Joe Biden was reminded of another obstacle, this time at home, to a smooth return to the agreement.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sent a letter dated February 7 to Biden emphasizing that the bipartisan Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act requires the administration to submit within five days any new nuclear agreement to Congressional oversight.

“We are committed to using the full range of options and leverage available to United States Senators to ensure that you meet those obligations, and that the implementation of any agreement will be severely if not terminally hampered if you do not,” read the letter, co-signed by 32 of Cruz’s Republican Senate colleagues.

“The submission of such materials then triggers a statutorily-defined review process, and includes the possibility of Congress blocking implementation of the agreement,” the senators wrote.

The letter also warned that any agreement that is not a Senate-ratified treaty could be reversed by a new president in January 2025.

A treaty, which is far more difficult to pass or rescind than an executive order, is required by the US Constitution to be approved by two-thirds of the Senate, an unlikely scenario in a chamber with 50 GOP senators. The Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), notably, is not a treaty, which enabled former president Donald Trump to unilaterally withdraw from the deal in 2018 without consulting Congress.

President Barack Obama signed INARA into law in May 2015, giving Congress the opportunity to review any nuclear deal with Iran, and prohibiting sanctions relief for the 30-day review period.

“Unless the administration is prepared to defy the statute, its only alternative for avoiding congressional review of its policy will be to unilaterally lift sanctions and trust Iran to reciprocate by coming back into full compliance itself,” explained former assistant secretary of state Stephen Rademaker last year.

In the event that the US and Iran do reach a deal in the coming weeks, INARA would further require Biden to submit certification of Iran’s compliance every 90 days. Without the certification, Republicans in both houses could call floor votes on reimposing sanctions on Iran.

COMMENT:  I have a sense that the Congressional Republicans are dead serious about this.  We really could have a clash between the legislative and executive on the Iran nuclear issue.  Obama accepted an awful agreement in 2015, and excluded Congress by refusing to cast it as a treaty.  The more recent legislation cited in the above article requires at least Congressional review. 

I doubt if we'll get any kind of good deal out of Iran.  Tehran knows it's dealing with a weak American administration, and our negotiating team is led by the same man who led Obama's, the ever-appeasing Robert Malley, a former employee of a guy named George Soros. 

Congress will step forward, an opportunity for Republicans to shine, and point the way ahead in foreign policy. 

There will be nothing boring about 2022.

February 8,  2022   Permalink

FEBRUARY 7,  2022

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

HARRIS CONTINUES TO SHRINK – OVERNIGHT:  The vice president is suffering still more resignations from her staff.  Tells us all we need to know about her management skills.  From Fox:   Vice President Kamala Harris continues to lose staff with the departure of yet another high-ranking member of her team.  Kate Childs Graham, Harris's chief speechwriter, is leaving the vice president's office at the end of the month, sources told Fox News.  A White House official told Fox News, "Kate is leaving the office, but not the family. The vice president is grateful for her service to the administration."  "We are excited for her next step," the official added.  This is far from the first resignation for the vice president's team. The office has seen a virtual exodus over the course of her first year in office as staffers complain about their workplace morale.  That low morale was created by Harris herself.  She is famously cruel to her staff.  She is not a leader.  She is not an intellect.  She is not a builder of coalitions.  And she is one frail heartbeat away from the presidency.

A RECOMMENDATION:  I don't recommend books or movies very often, but I was recently sent a book that I can heartily recommend.  It is called "Secret War," by Captain Albert Schwartz, US Navy, retired.  Captain Schwartz was a submariner, and commanded the Ohio class missile submarine USS Michigan.  His book is a good yarn, but, much more important, it will tell you more about submarines, and the crews who man them, than any recent novel that I know.  If you have an interest in military affairs, and especially naval affairs, "Secret War" will be your guide and your reference tool.  Don't miss it.  It can be ordered for Kindle at
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NEQFML4/ref=nodl, and in paperback at
https://www.amazon.com/Secret-War-AlbertSchwartz/dp/1503079031/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Hope you enjoy it.

February 7, 2022       Permalink

FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST!  EVEN THE LIBERALS ARE STARTING TO SURRENDER ON MASK MANDATES – OVERNIGHT:  Some people in very left places are starting to read the polls.  From Daily Mail: 

The governors of four states announced plans Monday to lift statewide mask requirements in schools by the end of February or March, citing the rapid easing of COVID-19´s omicron surge.

The decisions in Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey and Oregon were announced as state and local governments grapple with which virus restrictions to jettison and which ones to keep in place. The changes also come amid a growing sense that the virus is never going to go away and Americans need to find a way to coexist with it.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy called the move 'a huge step back to normalcy for our kids' and said individual school districts will be free to continue requiring masks after the state mandate ends March 7.

Meanwhile, California announced plans to end its indoor masking requirement for vaccinated people next week, but masks will still be the rule for schoolchildren in the nation's most populous state.

The four states are among a dozen with mask mandates in schools, according to the nonpartisan National Academy for State Health Policy. New Jersey´s requirement has been in place since classes resumed in person in September 2020.

Murphy cited the 'dramatic decline in our COVID numbers' in announcing the rollback. The omicron variant fueled a spike in infections over the holidays, but cases in the state are down 50% and hospitalizations dropped off by one-third since last week, he said.

COMMENT:  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  They're following the science.  Right.  What they're actually following is the polls, which have turned dramatically against their Democratic Party.  But, these days, when you're losing and switch policies, just say you're following the science.   It sounds so good, and you might convince some people that you're smart.

February 7,  2022     Permalink