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MAY 16-17, 2022

OVERNIGHT:  Not surprisingly, yesterday's primaries produced very little actual news, but the needs of the 24-hour news cycle require that TV journalists make every little ripple sound like World Wars 3 through 8.

The most interesting race of the evening – for the GOP nomination for US senator in Pennsylvania, is still too close to call.  More counting starts in the morning.  Dr. Mehmet Oz, endorsed by former President Trump, holds a razor-thin lead over hedge-fund manager Dave McCormick.  The winner will, in the general election, face Bernie Sanders thinkalike, Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman.  This race is critical.  The ultimate winner will replace retiring Republican Senator Pat Toomey.  It's a Republican seat, and judged by observers as the one the Dems have the greatest chance of flipping.  That would be a disaster for our side.  We can't afford any losses of Senate seats.  One vote may decide who controls the new Senate, which means Supreme Court confirmation votes.

Commentators are showing an intense interest in how many candidates endorsed by Donald Trump won.  With many races still out, we can't give specific numbers, and, frankly, I think the whole matter is exaggerated, and probably doesn't gauge Trump's ultimate influence in the GOP.  A primary election generally draws far smaller numbers of voters than a general election, and is often decided by local issues.  I'm not focusing on the Trump factor.

What I am focusing on is turnout, specifically the contrast between Democratic and Republican turnout.  That is often a pretty good indicator of turnout in November.  It's the "enthusiasm gap" factor.  Up to now, turnout in primary elections in 2022, overall, has favored Republicans, sometimes by heavy margins.   The figures for yesterday are not yet in.  I'll give them to you as they appear.

Another thing I'm looking for is the outcome of yesterday's school board elections in the states that held them.  There was a time when no one cared about school board elections.  They were barely covered in the media.  No one knew who was actually on the school boards.  The schools seemed to take care of themselves, magically.  Today, that's changed.  The parents' revolt that we're seeing all over the country, and that influenced last year's Virginia governorship election, often has its first combat in confronting out-of-touch school boards.  

There were many school board elections yesterday, but we have few meaningful results.  Oh yes, we have many names of winners and losers.  But, to show you how amateurish the news coverage is, we have little information about the point of view of the winners, and those they replaced.  That's the key, of course.  Are we going to see the shift to the right that we saw in Virginia?  That shift, if it repeats in school boards around the country, can have a dramatic influence on the future of American education.

We'll just have to wait.  I'll get you the key information pronto.

May 16-17, 2022       Permalink 

10:22 P.M. ET:  WE ARE ABSORBING THE PRIMARY RETURNS TONIGHT AND WILL HAVE COMMENTS LATER.

BLOWIN' IN THE WIND – OVERNIGHT:  One of the things we like to do at Urgent Agenda is to try to spot trends that are just beginning, the ideas and people who will take us into the future.  It's almost impossible to get it right all the time, of course, but we sometimes see something that reflects the mood of the country, and its direction.

If there's anything that defines America right now it's the wish for a fresh start, a belief that we need more than another election.  We need a national makeover, a reason to believe in ourselves again.

We've gone through this before.  It happened during the Depression.  It happened in the 1970s, after Vietnam.  We came out stronger each time, the first time by fighting and winning World War II, which established us as the world's superpower; the second time by electing Ronald Reagan as president.  He reminded us of who we were, and he led us to victory in the Cold War. 

As MacArthur said, there's no substitute for victory.  It's not like the Olympics.  In building a nation, there's no silver medal for greatness. 

Now, today, we notice something.  Consider Elon Musk, the guy who's buying Twitter.  I know very little about him, so I come in without prejudice.  It looked at first like a business deal, a big one, but just a business deal.  Now Musk is speaking like a president.  He can't run for the presidency because he's not native-born, he was born in South Africa, but he clearly wants to lead, to say, in effect, "We're in a mess.  It can't go on.  This is what we must do."  And I'm seeing more of this attitude every day.  Maybe we've just reached the point where Americans are saying, "enough."  Maybe the Elon Musks of the world can help.  There is something very refreshing about this.  From Fox Business: 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose purchase of Twitter remains ongoing, slammed President Biden in a podcast interview Monday and warned that if the government continues printing money, inflation will get worse and the U.S. might follow the path of Venezuela.

"This administration doesn't seem to get a lot done," Musk said. "The Trump administration, leaving Trump aside, there were a lot of people in the administration who were effective at getting things done."

He also claimed that the Democratic Party is "overly controlled by the unions and by the trial lawyers, particularly the class action lawyers." He argued that when Democrats go against "the interests of the people," it tends to come from the unions and the trial lawyers, while when Republicans do that, "it's because of corporate evil and religious zealotry." 

"In the case of Biden, he is simply too much captured by the unions, which was not the case with Obama," Musk said. The Tesla CEO defended Obama as "quite reasonable," but insisted that Biden prioritizes the unions ahead of the public.

The Tesla CEO also weighed in on Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's claim that the White House has resorted to "misdirection" in order to "muddy the topic" of inflation.

"I mean, the obvious reason for inflation is that the government printed a zillion amount of more money than it had, obviously," Musk said, echoing Republican critics who claim that Biden's American Rescue Plan COVID-19 relief stimulus bill contributed to the near-40-year-high inflation the U.S. experienced in April. 

COMMENT:  Read the rest.  Whether you like Musk or not, at least he's thinking beyond the prepared statements and the PR hype.  He's treating a serious time seriously, and that is unique in 2022, when fluff is considered philosophy. 

May 16-17, 2022       Permalink 

MAY 15-16, 2022

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

WELCOME TO THE IVY LEAGUE – FROM PJ MEDIA:   Some Yale law students are calling for the “unrelenting daily ostracization” of people who disagree with them on abortion — as if they don’t ostracize them already anyway. But in addition to giving conservative students migraines because of their constant caterwauling, the frothing radicals want to toss the Constitution too.  They don’t say what we should replace it with. Because that would require actual thought — something the radicals are unfamiliar with. They do a great job emoting and wailing and gnashing their teeth, but when it comes to thinking, it’s as mysterious as Oak Island.  A first-year law student, Shyamala Ramakrishna, is beside herself with grief and paranoid fear about “conspirators in the Christo-fascist political takeover we all seem to be posting frantically about.” She means those mild-mannered lawyer types in the campus Federalist Society. Yale Federalists may be upper-class twits, but “Christo-fascists”? Really now.  Would I be going too far to suggest that we have a maturity crisis in American education?  I think I'm right on.  Whole schools are being destroyed, and professions twisted.  See just below.

DO PATIENTS COUNT ANY LONGER? – FROM FOX:   At least 39 of America’s 50 most prestigious medical colleges and universities have some form of mandatory student training or coursework on ideas related to critical race theory (CRT), according to CriticalRace.org, which monitors CRT curricula and training in higher education.  Earlier this year, CriticalRace.org found that CRT was prevalent in medical schools across the country. The project from Legal Insurrection Foundation, a non-profit devoted to campus free speech and academic freedom, has since expanded its database and found even more elite medical schools are focusing on "racialization" of medicine.  "The national alarm should be sounding over the racialization of medical school education. The swiftness and depth to which race-focused social justice education has penetrated medical schools reflects the broader disturbing trends in higher education," Legal Insurrection founder William A. Jacobson told Fox News Digital.  I wonder what's been taken out of the med school curriculum to allow time for this stuff.  Who will live and who will die?

May 15-16, 2022       Permalink

A "NO" ON ERIC ADAMS – OVERNIGHT:  As readers know, I've been having a debate with myself over Eric Adams, the new mayor of New York.  The mayor of New York is important, since New York is the country's most influential city and a major symbol of America abroad.  What happens in New York never stays in New York.

There are days when I've felt Adams, a former cop, was on track to tackling the nightmarish crime wave that has strangled the city.  On other days I've felt he's been giving in to the minority establishment, which wants to defund the police and coddle the criminals.

The point always in New York, and probably in many other places, is to determine who controls the mayor.  I think we just found out, and it ain't good.  From Fox: 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams joined the 'Bans Off Our Bodies demonstration' in NYC. He believes "Men should not have that right to choose how a woman should treat their body."

New York City Mayor Eric Adams slammed the pro-life movement as "radical" on Saturday and pledged that he would "fight" to ensure there are "no" limitations on abortion.

"Abortion is health care. It’s that simple. And New York City won’t let a group of radical extremists take away health care or any human right without a fight," Adams tweeted Saturday using the hashtag "BansOffOurBodies."

Adams attended a pro-choice protest in New York City on Saturday and said that he doesn't believe there should be any limitations on abortion.

"No I do not," Adams said when asked at the "Bans Off Our Bodies" demonstration in New York City whether there should be any limitations on abortion.

"I think women should have the right to choose their bodies," Adams said when pressed again about abortions up until the day of birth. "Men should not have that right to choose how a woman should treat their body."

The comments from Adams come as pro-choice protesters are demonstrating across the country in response to a leaked Supreme Court opinion suggesting that Roe v. Wade is on the verge of being struck down.

COMMENT:  I try to understand the different points of view on abortion, but, I'm sorry, I cannot accept the idea that abortion should be legal until the day of birth.  That isn't abortion.  That is infanticide, and it is illegal in this country and all over the civilized world.  We are not barbarians, and I don't think we should become barbarians because of the demands of abortion extremists. Abortion until birth is favored by only six percent of our population.

My fear is that Mayor Adams has now told us that he's prepared to buckle to any important political group.  The backbone isn't there.  The strength of conviction isn't there.  I've become pessimistic that he has much value at all.  Does he actually believe in abortion until the moment of birth?  I really doubt it.  But some powerful people around him do.

May 15, 2022      Permalink