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JULY 6,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

NO LOSS FOR NORTH CAROLINA – FROM PJ MEDIA:  Nikole Hannah-Jones, founder of the discredited “1619 Project,” has rejected a tenured position at her alma mater, the University of North Carolina (UNC) Chapel Hill. Instead, she will join Ta-Nehisi Coates, a former columnist at The Atlantic, at one of America’s most prestigious Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Howard University. Hannah-Jones argued that the controversy over her hiring and tenure had more to do with racism and sexism than her outright lies about American history.  “It’s pretty clear that my tenure was not taken up because of political opposition, because of discriminatory views against my viewpoints and, I believe, because of my race and my gender,” Hannah-Jones told Gayle King on CBS This Morning, the Raleigh News & Observer reported.  “It has to be made clear: I went through the official tenure process and my peers in academia said that I was deserving of tenure,” the 1619 Project founder argued. “The board members are political appointees who decided that I wasn’t.”  In the immortal words of the great philosopher Jerry Lewis, "Bad looks you can change, stupid is forever."

FLEEING THE SCHOOLS – FROM EPOCH TIMES:   Public school enrollment in 2020–2021 fell by 3 percent nationally compared to a year earlier, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), with pre-K and kindergarten jointly seeing a sharp 13-percent drop.  The stark numbers represent the biggest year-over-year decline in enrollment since the start of the century, with the drop concentrated among the youngest learners, the NCES figures show.  Pre-K saw a 22-percent decrease, kindergarten enrollment fell by 9 percent, grades 1–8 experienced a 3-percent drop, while grades 9–12 saw enrollment rise by 0.4 percent. The figures are preliminary, with the final results expected next spring.  NCES Acting Commissioner Peggy Carr said in a statement cited by K-12 Dive that the figures are “preliminary but concerning,” adding that the enrollment drops were “widespread and affected almost every single state and every region of the country.”   The agency’s enrollment figures reinforce the view that the pandemic-related disruptions drove many families to switch to private schools or homeschooling.  I think it goes well beyond the pandemic.  Parents are increasingly outraged by what is being taught to their children.  Why wouldn't they seek alternatives?

July 6, 2021      Permalink

THE PROBABLE NEW MAYOR OF NEW YORK – AT 11:45 P.M. ET:  Eric Adams, the African-American borough president of Brooklyn, and a former captain in the NYPD, has been declared the winner of the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City.  This is important because New York influences the nation, and the New York Democratic Party influences the party nationally.  From National Review: 

Eric Adams was pronounced the winner of New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary on Tuesday after preliminary final numbers showed the centrist won 50.5 percent of the vote.

The Associated Press called the race for Adams after the results showed he narrowly defeated former sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia by 8,426 votes. Garcia received 49.5 percent after eight rounds of voting.

Adams, a former police captain, beat out a crowded field in New York’s first major race to use ranked-choice voting.

If elected, Adams would become the city’s second black mayor. As Democrats outnumber Republicans by 7-to-1 in New York City, according to the AP, Adams will be the likely victor of the general election.

The results come two weeks after voting in the primary ended, on June 22. While early returns showed Adams in the lead, tens of thousands of absentee ballots had to be counted and rounds of tabulations had to be done under the ranked-choice system in which voters ranked up to five candidates for mayor in order of preference.

Candidates with too few votes to win were eliminated and ballots cast for them were redistributed to the other candidates based on voter preference until only two were left.

However, the new voting system was marred by an error made as votes were being counted on June 29, when elections officials inadvertently included 135,000 old test ballots in the count. The incorrect vote tallies were posted for several hours before officials acknowledged the error and took them down.

On Tuesday, Adams noted in a statement that “there are still some very small amounts of votes to be counted” but said that “the results are clear: an historic, diverse, five-borough coalition led by working-class New Yorkers has led us to victory in the Democratic primary for Mayor of New York City.”

“Now we must focus on winning in November so that we can deliver on the promise of this great city for those who are struggling, who are underserved, and who are committed to a safe, fair, affordable future for all New Yorkers,” he said.

The 60-year-old moderate Democrat who served in the NYPD for 22 years created waves during the campaign as a vocal opponent of the “defund the police” movement.

“We’re not going to recover as a city if we turn back time and see an increase in violence, particularly gun violence,” Adams said following a shooting that wounded three people, including a 4-year-old girl in Time Square in May.

“If Black lives really matter, it can’t only be against police abuse. It has to be against the violence that’s ripping apart our communities,” he said the night of the primary.

COMMENT:  Clearly, crime has become the number one issue in New York, and in many other cities as well.  Adams was the only candidate who took a clear crime fighting position.  New York Democrats are more left than center, but occasionally act sane.  It's a rarity, but it does happen, and it has happened in this race.  Even liberals want safe streets.

In the November election Adams will face Curtis Sliwa, founder of an anti-crime group called the Guardian Angels.  Sliwa, who is pretty well known in New York, won the laughable Republican primary against an opponent whose name I cannot remember.  Neither can anyone else.  The GOP has written off New York City, and will probably make a routine endorsement of Sliwa and leave it at that. Unless something dramatic happens, I don't think Sliwa has much of a chance.

Adams, though, could become a national figure – a black law-and-order guy, although with enough liberalism to make him respectable amongst the tofu and wine crowd. 

July 6, 2021       Permalink

JULY 5,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

DUMB IT DOWN!  DUMB IT DOWN! – FROM DAILYWIRE:   Oregon may stop requiring lawyers to pass the state’s bar exam after new data showed dramatic racial disparities in bar exam results.  Instead of studying for the notoriously grueling two-day bar exam, those hoping to practice law in Oregon may soon be given two alternative routes to becoming licensed in the state.  A task force of the Oregon Board of Bar Examiners recommended in two recent task force reports that potential attorneys be allowed to either take the exam or be admitted to the profession on the merits of coursework and practical experience.  The idea is to provide a pathway to licensing for people who do not have the time or resources to prepare for the bar exam. Some proponents of the alternatives also say it will lead to attorneys being better prepared when they do begin practicing.  The recommendations come after more than 1,000 new lawyers became licensed over the past year without taking a bar exam, thanks to emergency pandemic programs in Utah, Washington, Oregon, Louisiana, and Washington, D.C.  Just what you need if you or your grown child is wrongly accused of committing a crime – a lawyer who didn't pass the bar.  You might also find out if he didn't pass English.

PLAYING WITH FIRE – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:   The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee accused Democrats on Sunday of “playing with fire” in refusing to back a thorough probe into China’s role in the outbreak of the COVID19 pandemic.  Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas said on “Fox News Sunday” that further scrutiny was required into the origins of the pandemic that has killed more than 600,000 Americans.  To date, Democratic congressional leaders have refused to back a widespread investigation into whether China played any role in the outbreak.  “I wish the Democrats would join with us on this very important investigation [into] what caused the problem,” Mr. McCaul said. “They’re playing a dangerous game … they’re playing with fire and that fire really lit up the world and burned. We need to get to the truth of the matter.”  The Democrats don't care.  They don't see China as an enemy because they don't see Communism as an enemy.  Once the party of national defense, but no more.

July 5,  2021     Permalink  

DEMS PANIC ON CRIME – 11:41 P.M. ET:  The Democratic Party seems finally to be "woke" in a different direction, recognizing what crazy crime policies are doing to its chances in upcoming elections.  From Michael Goodwin at Fox: 

Breaking news alert: National Democrats are suddenly worried about the rise of violent crime. We know this because they’re blaming the bloodshed on Republicans.

The previous strategy, meaning before Monday, was a mix of denial and excuse-making, but it wasn’t working. How could it when thousands of people are getting shot and murdered, mostly in cities run by Democrats?

Something had to give, and White House press secretary Jen Psaki tipped the new strategy when she concocted the notion that it’s Republicans who actually support defunding the police. Her fatuous attempt to flip reality on its head relied on GOP resistance to another multitrillion-dollar Biden administration boondoggle. A boondoggle, by the way, that has nothing to do with police or crime.

Nonetheless, desperate times call for desperate measures and so Psaki was making like Lady Macbeth in trying to wipe the blood off Dems’ hands.

The effort won’t wash, but the attempt is telling. Polling everywhere reflects growing public angst, but my guess is the lightning-bolt moment came with the first-place finish of Eric Adams in the first round of New York’s Democratic mayoral primary.

Adams, a retired NYPD captain and the Brooklyn borough president, was the lone candidate to make combating crime his top issue, as did voters. It’s a beautiful thing when politics works like it’s supposed to.

The other seven Dems acted like the Seven Dwarfs in not pivoting to the issue even as the body count climbed, with children and tourists among the casualties. The others continued to parrot the left’s talking points about climate change, systemic racism and free everything for everybody except the wealthy, who must finally pay their fair share. Blah, blah, blah.

We can only imagine the way Adams’s victory was received in Dems’ back rooms: Holy s–t, did you see what just happened in New York? Quick, say something!

So the party that featured police haters and people who see racism behind every badge last year is suddenly sweating bullets. That’s how fast the momentum is shifting.

Give Adams credit – he understood immediately what was happening. On election night, he crowed that "I am the face of the Democratic Party" and warned that if leaders fail "to recognize what we did here in New York City, they’re going to have a problem in the midterm elections and they’re going to have a problem in the presidential election."

His argument cuts to the core of voting blocs. Blue cities and states are blue primarily because blacks and Latinos vote overwhelmingly for Dems.

Yet here, those same voters chose Adams in big numbers and cited growing crime in their neighborhoods as the reason. They don’t want less policing – they want more and better policing.

Brima Sylla, a teacher and general secretary of the African Community Alliance of Staten Island, gave The Post her view of Adams: "He’s not there to defund the police. He’s there because he was part of the police system … He knows how to structure it in a better way."

COMMENT:  All true, but the hard left of the party shows no sign of compromising its ideology.  While it doesn't yet have a majority of Democrats nationwide, it has enough clout to make the difference in close primaries. 

Ideologists would rather lose and disrupt the society than win and improve it.

July 5, 2021       Permalink