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SUBSCRIPTION DRIVE

(Report:  The drive is still sluggish.  Come on readers, give us a smile.)

This is our first subscription drive of 2022.  It is crucial .  Our work depends on our subscribers and donators.  Without them, we're gone.

America is in the midst of a critical election year, possibly the most critical in the nation's recent history.  Urgent Agenda will be there seven days a week, not only keeping you up to date, but selecting the articles and quotes that get to the heart of what you want to read, and must read. 

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MAY 12,  2022

AS THE TRUTH COMES OUT – OVERNIGHT:  Wasn't long ago when Black Lives Matter, the movement and not the phrase, was at the top of the new causes list, its leaders the toast of woke cocktail parties and invitation-only virtue sessions.  But times have changed.  Someone started asking questions.  From Fox: 

The Black Lives Matter movement started a massive wave of Americans uniting to call for defunding the police and eradicating white supremacy to make positive changes for Black Americans. But experts reflecting on the movement’s scorecard in 2022 say Black America hasn’t benefited.

"I would argue that, on balance, these communities are worse off because by [BLM] overemphasizing the role of police, they've changed police behavior for the worse," the Manhattan Institute’s Jason Riley told Fox News Digital in a phone interview. "In other words, police do become more cautious. They're less likely to get out of their cars and engage with people in the community. And to the extent that police are less proactive, the criminals have the run of the place."

Riley noted that "police brutality still exists, bad cops exist," and he has no "problem with raising awareness about police misconduct." But he argued that BLM is "over-focused" on police and does not take into account that "97, 98% [of Black homicides] do not involve police at all."

Dr. Carol Swain, a retired professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University, told Fox News Digital that "an intelligent observer would be hard-pressed to identify any area in American society where BLM’s activism has benefited the Black community."

"What BLM has done is pervert the criminal justice system by engaging in activities that have resulted in a growing trend of trials by media," Swain said. "BLM has intimidated juries and judges. Its leaders have no interest in due process or the presumption of innocence."

Black Lives Matter began with the social media hashtag #BlackLivesMatter and was officially founded in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the fatal shooting case of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Chants of "Black Lives Matter" later rang out at protests following the police-involved killing of Michael Brown in Missouri in 2014 and continued to into the next year after the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore.

It ultimately grew to a vast movement by the summer of 2020 that swept the highest echelons of America, from corporate leaders to Hollywood icons to powerful sports figures pledging support.

COMMENT:  Please read the whole thing.  It's one of the best pieces I've read on the subject.  I have no idea why, but the media seems obsessed with political movements, but shows little interest in the results, especially the negative results, that these movements produce. Very often, the only people who benefit are the leaders.  Indeed, it seems that the best way to get ahead fast is to start a political movement that catches on and brings in many oversized checks.

Minority children are the biggest losers from trendy, big-buck movements.  No one seems to care about them.  Kids don't vote and don't write checks.  And that's the bottom line.

May 12, 2022       Permalink 

MAY 11, 2022

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

DEATH OF AN ICON – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  Apple said Tuesday that it will discontinue sales of its iPod Touch, ending a two-decade run for the music device that was once a headlining part of its product lineup.  The tech giant said it would continue selling iPod Touch devices in its own stores and through verified resellers “while supplies last,” but would not produce more or unveil new versions.  The iPod gradually became obsolete as Apple added music streaming capabilities to its other devices and faced outside competitors, such as streaming platform Spotify and Amazon Music.  “Today, the spirit of iPod lives on,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.  “We’ve integrated an incredible music experience across all of our products, from the iPhone to the Apple Watch to HomePod mini, and across Mac, iPad, and Apple TV,” he added.  The original iPod changed the stereo equipment industry.  Kids got hooked on listening to music through headphones rather than speakers.  Many stores dedicated to stereo equipment, including some famous ones, went out of business.  Indeed, Lyric Hi-Fi in New York, possibly the most prestigious stereo store in the country, closed just last year.  The demand for full systems has declined substantially.

May 11, 2022       Permalink 

A MAYOR'S LAMENT – OVERNIGHT:  When Eric Adams became mayor New York City in January, our enthusiasm was limited.  The Republicans, as usual, had barely put up a fight for the mayoralty, preferring golf and dinner at the club.  Of the Democratic candidates, Adams was the least bad.  He'd been a cop, and he'd made it clear that he was a moderate Dem, not a blazing revolutionary dedicated to tearing down the Statue of Liberty for fun. 

It's now more than four months from inauguration day, and Adams is in trouble.  He can't seem to get much going on the major issue facing New Yorkers – crime.  The left, which controls his party, sees criminals as an oppressed sort, misunderstood and essentially angelic.  The lefties have put up a STOP sign in the mayor's path.  The mayor has just expressed his frustration, and what he said is worth reporting, for it applies around the country.  From the New York Post:   

In an impassioned defense of the NYPD, Mayor Adams called for more help from the federal government, and New Yorkers themselves, to help crack down on what he called the city’s latest crime scourge – ghost guns.

“I feel like I’m in an alternate reality. We’re probably the only civilized country that sends their troops into battle and we criticize them every day. That’s what we do,” a frustrated Adams told reporters Wednesday at the NYPD’s headquarters in Lower Manhattan, referring to 131 firearms on the table in front of him.

“That father and son-in-law, future son-in-law, in spite of all that we say about them, they go out there again with the uncertainty of coming home. And all we do is criticize them!

That’s all we do. I don’t hear any good stories about men and women who are protecting us from the bad people. No one is talking about that,” Adams said of the rank and file cops.

Adams also slammed the “extreme left” for failing to have the backs of officers and promoting the Defund the Police movement. He didn’t mention defund proponents like socialist Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez by name, but in the past he’s blamed the city’s soft-on-crime stance in part on his predecessor, left-leaning ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Mayor Eric Adams is fed up with rising crime rates, the treatment of NYPD officers and ghost guns.

“We’ve had this battle before, but you know, we won it before because everyone was with us – we were operating as a team, we weren’t solo.”

COMMENT:   We can understand the mayor's frustration.  I think he's fundamentally a good man, who knows what must be done, but doesn't have the power or the sheer influence to do it.  I think he now realizes that the Democratic Party in New York is not a liberal party, but a socialist party, and that ideology, not street conditions, govern it.

Adams is black, but is not part of the black establishment.  And he is not part of the liberal establishment either.  The black establishment has never been interested in solving the crime problem, and wasn't even consulted when Mayor Giuliani went on his successful anti-crime crusade in the mid 1990s.  The liberal establishment feels deeply about rubbing shoulders with other cultures, speaking an African language, and having a space in a parking garage.  Oh, and finishing The New York Times crossword puzzle. 

We wish the mayor well.  Optimism is another story.

May 11, 2022       Permalink