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JANUARY 10,  2022

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

SOME TURBULENCE FOR ERIC ADAMS – FROM BREITBART:   The New York State Republican Party, naturalized American citizens, and a Democrat city councilman have filed a lawsuit against New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) over a new policy that gives 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.  Adams approved the plan this week, allowing it to become New York City policy.  Now, the New York State Republican Party and others have filed a lawsuit to prevent the policy from going into effect, arguing that the state’s constitution makes it explicitly clear that voting rights are reserved only for American citizens and not foreign nationals.  “We vowed to use every legal tool in our arsenal to block this unconstitutional and un-American law, and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” New York Republican Chairman Nick Langworthy said in a statement.  Mayor Adams previously had said he harbored concerns about this policy.  Then, in the first week of his mayoralty, he flipped, damaging his position with moderates who'd hope he would lead New York away from the kooky left.  He may still, but this episode has been disappointing.  The mayor must, very quickly, establish an independent image for himself, especially if he wants eventually to run for governor or even try for national office.

January 10, 2022       Permalink 

IT'S OBVIOUS THESE IRANIANS ARE MISUNDERSTOOD – OVERNIGHT:  Yes, they speak harshly, but we sophisticates understand.  When will we develop compassion for downtrodden opponents?  From PJ Media: 

Old Joe Biden’s handlers are desperate to revive Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear deal, as Biden State Department wonk Ned Price has made clear: “We are prepared, as we have said, to lift sanctions that are inconsistent with the JCPOA,” that is, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which is the official name of the agreement Donald Trump quite rightly called the worst in history. Meanwhile, as Biden’s handlers do everything they can to be conciliatory toward Iran, the Islamic regime in Tehran is more belligerent than ever. Ned Price and his colleagues would be wise to ponder whether there is a connection between those two stances, but they won’t.

Price elaborated: “We’re prepared to lift sanctions inconsistent with the JCPOA, as long as Iran places itself back within the strict confines, the strict nuclear confines of the JCPOA in terms of the stringent verification and monitoring, in terms of the other restrictions that the JCPOA places on Iran’s nuclear program.” Last Tuesday, the deputy commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Admiral Ali Fadavi, made it clear how interested Iran is in returning to any kind of “strict confines,” real or imagined.

Fadavi referred to the 2016 incident when the Iranians seized two U.S. Navy riverine command boats that had strayed (inadvertently, the Obama administration insisted) into Iranian waters and displayed the American sailors they had captured as if they were prisoners of war. “When we captured the Americans in the Farsi Island,” Fadavi said, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute, “the Americans felt superior in the first 20 minutes. They felt like a superpower, so they launched planes from their aircraft carriers. Had the Americans shot a single bullet towards Farsi Island, which is our land, we would have attacked their aircraft carrier as well as a large number of vessels in that area.”

Fadavi crowed that the Obama administration was extremely accommodating: “However, the Americans realized very soon that they were the accused, that they were the criminals on death row, and that they are at risk of being targeted by the full force of the IRGC. So they acted quickly.”

Clearly the Obama team was trying to smooth over the situation, and Fadavi saw this as a sign of submission: “They replaced the person communicating with us from the aircraft carrier with a woman who spoke Persian. Two out of every three words she said was ‘fine,’ which translated into ‘I am obeying your orders.’ They did very quickly what we asked them to do.”

COMMENT:  There are reports that the sides in the Iran nuclear talks are approaching an agreement.  I have no idea if it's true.  If it is, I have no doubt that Republicans in Congress will study the deal with a high-powered microscope.  I expect they'll be horrified.  A good scream will be had by all.

January 10, 2022       Permalink

JANUARY 9,  2022

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

THIS IS CHILLING – FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:   Iran’s imposition of “sanctions” on dozens of Americans amounts to an assassination threat against members of former President Donald Trump’s administration, according to a senior U.S. official who threatened “severe consequences” for any harm done to them.  “Make no mistake: the United States of America will protect and defend its citizens,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday. “This includes those serving the United States now and those who formerly served.”  Iranian officials have made explicit their interest in killing one of the people involved in the U.S. strike that killed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Gen. Qassem Soleimani. The regime observed the second anniversary of his death last week, which occasioned a flurry of truculent rhetoric and the unveiling of economic sanctions by Iran that U.S. observers take as a proxy for a threat of violence.  “Wherever it is needed, we will provide for the basis of revenge against the Americans from within their houses and by people by their side without us being present,” IRGC Quds Force Commander Sardar Esmail Qaani said in remarks published by Iranian media. “If wise people in America are found who deal with those who committed the atrocity of assassinating Commander Soleimani, this action will be much less burdensome for America than if the offspring of the Resistance Front, who know no bounds, to themselves go and take this revenge.”  And we are now involved in talks with Iran which are likely to give them a clear path to a nuclear weapon.  Not smart.  Not smart.

January 9, 2022       Permalink

ANOTHER SIGN OF HOPE – OVERNIGHT:  Day by day, little by little, we are seeing signs that the rational elements in our society, and those who understand the brilliance of this country's founding, are striking back against the woke culture.  The University of Chicago (my alma mater), has been one of the leaders in the battle for free speech.  Now, members of its faculty are taking the correct path again, demanding not the defunding of the police in the university's neighborhood, but greater police protection.  Common sense on the march.  Wish them luck.  From College Fix: 

Nearly 400 professors at the University of Chicago, on the city’s South Side, have urged the administration to expand policing after several killings in the most recent semester and three in 2021.

“Anti-violence should be made the TOP priority at the University,” the faculty members wrote in an open letter to the administration. But unlike some of the activist groups on campus that want to abolish the police, the University of Chicago faculty want more cops and security guards.

The letter asks for the university to “[e]nlarge the borders of UCPD (University of Chicago Police Department) territory to the Hyde Park neighborhood” and “dramatically increase surveillance camera systems in the entire Hyde Park community, making sure that every block and every street is covered by surveillance cameras.”

“Security guards need to patrol every road crossing in the neighborhood,” the faculty letter said.

They also want to see accountability for the murder of Shaoxiong Zheng, a Chinese student who died soon after graduating with his graduate degree from the university.

Beyond that murder, there needs to be more accountability from local police, the faculty said.

A committee should be formed to “address the serious violence and security issues in Hyde Park.”

The letter said:

Every gun robbery or other crime that has occurred on campus requires attention and a final report. We cannot afford to let these slip away, begetting eventual further loss of life as we have witnessed repeatedly in the last few years. Criminals need to be identified, arrested and sentenced — this is essential to rebuild public trust.

Professor Rachel Fulton Brown, a signer of the letter, told The College Fix that previous calls to defund the police were likely seen by most people as “unrealistic.”

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  When I was an undergraduate at Chicago in the late 1950s, the university faced the same threat of violence.  It actually bought up large tracts of the surrounding neighborhood to build new and safer housing.  Strange how the situation hasn't changed much in six decades.  Blame that largely on the leftist mentality of Chicago politics, and the inability of the Democratic Party to free itself from racial influence. 

You may be sure that the Marxist crowd at Chicago is already penning a demand that the professors who wrote the above letter be punished.  The mature adults at the university must stand firm, and not back down.  They are in the majority, and it is time they threw their weight around. 

January 9, 2022       Permalink