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JANUARY 18,  2022

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

WHO NEEDS PARENTS?  FROM POWERLINE:  Glenn Youngkin won election as Governor of Virginia in considerable part because he championed the right of parents to be involved in their children’s education. His opponent, Terry McAuliffe, struck the opposite note when he told an interviewer that “I’m not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decisions. I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”  This was widely viewed as a gaffe, but McAuliffe declined more than one subsequent opportunity to walk back or soften his comments. He meant what he said.  Why did McAuliffe stick to his anti-parent guns? Because what he said, is what the Democrat base believes. A large majority of Democrats, especially activist Democrats, really do think that parents should be excluded from a meaningful role in public education.  We saw evidence of this when Governor Youngkin addressed the Virginia legislature on Monday. He said that his administration would protect the rights of parents with regard to their children’s “education, upbringing and care.” This was greeted with a standing ovation from Republicans, and stony silence from Democrats.  See entry just below.  Another winning concept from the Democratic Party – running against America's parents.  Why didn't I think of that?

January 18, 2022       Permalink 

THE PHONY ISSUE – OVERNIGHT:  THE DEMS NEVER LEARN ANYTHING.  Despite their desperate position in the polls, they refuse to correct their ways.  They apparently get their inspiration from the Japanese Kamikaze.  It is good to die for the emperor.

So, the Dems still push the elimination of voter i.d., the most widely used protection against voter fraud, a practice used in almost all democratic nations.   The Dems says it's a gimmick used by whites to suppress the votes of blacks.  But, apparently, no one asked the black folks about that.  From Just the News: 

With drama and fury, President Joe Biden declared to the nation on Martin Luther King Jr. Day that state laws requiring voter ID or banning mass mailing of absentee ballots amounted to an "assault on our freedom to vote," especially for minority Americans.

Four days earlier, a poll in Michigan told a different story: Three-quarters of the battleground state voters supported ballot ID requirements, with black voters expressing the highest support at 79%.

Those findings have been confirmed in national polls as well, exposing a dilemma for Democrats in Washington who are making a last-ditch effort to pass legislation gutting many state and local controls of elections in favor of federal standards.

Those standards — like banning voter IDs, imposing no excuse absentee voting and making it harder to clean outdated voter rolls — are not what the majority of Americans are seeking.
"A recent national survey found that four key election reforms are supported by more than 80% of voters," pollster Scott Rasmussen recently wrote in an article highlighting the disconnect. "These include removing people who have died or moved from voter registration lists; requiring all voters to show photo ID before casting a ballot; wanting all ballots received by Election Day; and, having all voting machines made in the United States."

In Rasmussen's latest national poll on the issue, 78% of African-American voters supported voter ID.

Such public sentiments impose a harsh reality check on Biden's argument that state voter laws amount to "Jim Crow 2.0" and are disenfranchising poor and minority voters. Most voters don't see cleaning outdated names from voter roles or requiring IDs to cast ballots as "obstacles to the ballot box" like Biden argued in Monday’s speech.

The polling may also help to explain why several centrist Democrats like Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Jon Tester of Montana, and Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly of Arizona are resisting efforts to change the Senate's filibuster rule so that Democratic voting legislation can pass with a simple majority and not the 60 votes currently required.

"Elections take place at the local level, in a decentralized way, because, number one, that is where you have transparency, that's where you have familiarity," former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell told Just the News. "That's where you where you have buy-in. And if you start to take it away from states and localities, you run the risk of the same clown car that has driven this constitutional republic to a disastrous edge."

COMMENT:  Some common sense.  Do you get the feeling that the Democrats are thoroughly out of touch with their own voters?  Or with anyone else's voters?   They're a party educated beyond their capacity, and maybe it's time for them to go out out of business and open up a chain of yoga clinics.  Or tofu restaurants. 

January 18,  2022     Permalink

JANUARY 17,  2022

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

DUMMIES OF THE WORLD UNITE – FROM DAILY MAIL:    The chief executives of major U.S. passenger and cargo carriers on Monday warned of an impending 'catastrophic' aviation crisis on Wednesday when AT&T and Verizon finally deploy their new 5G services.  The two companies have spent tens of billions of dollars to license the 3.7 to 3.98 GHz frequency range for their new high-speed C-Band 5G service.  But officials with the FAA and airplane manufacturer Boeing have warned that there is potential for interference with vital aircraft instruments that operate in the 4.2 to 44 GHz range, such as radio altimeters that tell pilots their altitude as they fly in low visibility.   In short, the fear is that false altitude readings could confuse pilots as they approach the runway in poor visibility conditions, with potentially disastrous results. 

The executives warned that some planes could even be grounded permanently over the safety concerns.
And on a day like Sunday, when winter weather gripped the nation, the CEOs claim in their letter that interference to airplanes' altimeters could result in a situation where 'more than 1,100 flights and 100,000 passengers would be subjected to cancellations, diversions or delays.'

...Action is urgent, they added in the letter, writing: 'To be blunt, the nation´s commerce will grind to a halt.'   Y'think maybe they should have addressed this problem a little earlier?  I mean, sorta.  Wednesday I think is, like, this week.  But I'm sure Kammy is on the case.

January 17, 2022       Permalink 

THE EARTHQUAKE – OVERNIGHT:  There has been a stunning change in party affiliation in the United States.  If it continues, we may be looking at the fadeout of the Democratic Party.  From the Washington Examiner: 

More people now identify as Republican than at any other time this century, according to Gallup’s latest political party preference report.

Republicans currently enjoy a 47% to 42% identification advantage over Democrats, tied for the highest lead Republicans have had since they first took over the House of Representatives in 1995.

The only higher margin for Republicans occurred in 1991, shortly after the first Gulf War.

Democrats started 2021 with a 9-point lead over Republicans 49%-40%. But as President Joe Biden failed to end COVID as he promised, failed to prevent the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, and failed to stop rising inflation, the Democrats' edge over Republicans gradually sank along with Biden’s approval ratings.

According to Gallup, just 43% of adults approve of the job Biden is doing as president, compared to 51% who disapprove. A recent Quinnipiac poll put Biden’s approval at an even lower 35%.

Biden’s approval ratings could be even lower, considering that according to the latest CBS poll, just 26% of adults say things are going well in the country today compared to 73% who say things are going badly.

COMMENT:  What surprises me, considering these numbers, is that there is no serious talk about anyone forming a third party, especially a center-left party to replace what remains of the Democrats.  The great Democratic names of the past – Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson – probably couldn't get into today's Democratic Party.  They'd be called fascists, racists, warmongers, and white.  Kennedy's uplifting inaugural address would be trashed as a call for white supremacy.  None would be considered for the presidency.

That same party now gives us Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.  No wonder the numbers are what they are.

January 17,  2022     Permalink