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JULY 9,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

DECLINE OF A NETWORK – FROM FOX:    Struggling CNN didn’t have a single program surpass the 1-million viewer plateau on Thursday.  "Anderson Cooper 360" came the closest, averaging 992,000, but the scandal-plagued "Cuomo Prime Time" lost 40,000 viewers and "Don Lemon Tonight" managed only 635,000 to drag down CNN’s primetime average.  CNN averaged only 719,000 viewers during the primetime hours of 8-11 p.m. ET, while Fox News averaged 2.08 million during the same time period. CNN has failed to reach more than 1 million total viewers on 16 different days from June 9 through July 8.  CNN struggled to attract viewers throughout the day, starting with "New Day" attracting an audience of merely 421,000. The liberal network failed to reach even 800,000 viewers until "Erin Burnett OutFront" managed 849,000 at 7 p.m. ET.
Meanwhile, every Fox News program from 7 a.m. ET through the conclusion of "Gutfeld!" at midnight ET averaged more than 1 million viewers. "Tucker Carlson Tonight" led the way, averaging 3.2 million viewers to outdraw all of CNN’s primetime programming combined.  CNN has found it difficult to attract an audience during the Biden era as the liberal network searches for a post-Trump identity. During the second quarter of 2021, CNN averaged only 654,000 viewers compared to 1.2 million for Fox News.  CNN made a conscious decision to make itself the anti-Trump network.  The chieftains apparently never thought what would happen if Trump were no longer president.  They'd better think again.

TACKY, TACKY, TACKY – FROM FOX:  Staffers for Vice President Kamala Harris took to Twitter to show off a post-Fourth of July BBQ hosted at Naval Observatory amid reports of a tumultuous atmosphere in the West Wing.  The party held on Thursday came just days after reports surfaced detailing low morale in the vice president’s office.  A report by Politico last week detailed 22 interviews from current and former White House staffers who depicted a tense scene of infighting in Harris’s office, describing the working atmosphere as "tense and at times dour."  Harris, along with her husband Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, appeared in pictures posted to social media with roughly 60 White House aides, surrounded by blue-and-white checkered tablecloths, food and glasses of what appeared to be wine.  "What an honor to be at the Vice President’s residence with incredible colleagues for a post-July 4th BBQ," personal aide to the vice president, Opal Vadhan, said in a tweet. "As always an honor to work on a team that looks like America."   Harris’s chief spokesperson Symone Sanders joined in and posted more than a dozen photos of herself with her colleagues.  I mean, come on.  You get roasted for treating your staff badly, and your first instinct is to throw a party for said unhappy staff.  And get plenty of photos for the press.  How tacky is that?  Nothing like being obvious.  I wonder how the staff was treated the next day.

July 9,  2021     Permalink

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY'S DILEMMA – OVERNIGHT:  The party is in crisis.  It literally must choose between its bizarre ideology or winning elections.  So far the ideology seems to be winning.  From Glenn Reynolds at the New York Post: 

The Democrats have a problem: They have run away from their core voters. And they are beginning to notice and worry.

Lefty blogger Kevin Drum noted this recently. He observes that Republicans have moved slightly to the right, but Democrats have moved way, way to the left on social issues.

Drum says he is “personally happy” about the Democrats’ move left. But he is worried, because while the Democratic Party has moved hard left, the voters it relies on to attain power haven’t.

Thus, in the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump — despite being called a white supremacist and a Hispanic-hater by all the mainstream media — picked up black and Hispanic votes.
One reason for this is that racial polarization went down, but “education polarization” went up. The Democrats are increasingly the party of the college- and graduate-school-educated white gentry class. The Republicans are increasingly the party of the working class, which includes a lot of . . . blacks and Hispanics.

Just look at the issues the Democrats are pushing: defunding the police, which hurts mostly poor and working-class neighborhoods; critical race theory, which mostly interests woke white activists (and rich-and-guilty Dem donors) but which actually sends a message of inferiority to minority youths; gender ideology, which plays less well among the more traditional and more religious working-class minorities; environmental policies that produce higher gas prices and lower employment, while pushing food prices up; open borders that drive down wages for downscale workers; and so on.

Donors and activists love this stuff. They live in neighborhoods that are mostly insulated from urban crime and disorder. Their kids will still be privileged, regardless of what theories on race are popular. Transgender issues make them feel hip and cutting-edge. Higher gas and food prices won’t affect them. And illegal immigration makes sure they don’t have to pay too much for a nannies and gardeners.

For a long time, the Democrats were able to have it both ways, pretending solidarity with the working class while promoting policies that undercut it. But they have overdone things, and now people have noticed.

The voting shift of 2020, they fear, was just the beginning.

COMMENT:  Read the rest.  The Dems are truly in trouble, and they're a leaderless party.  Is anyone prepared to follow Joe Biden anywhere?  Is anyone prepared to follow Kamala Harris to the supermarket?

That doesn't mean 2022 or 2024 will be pushovers for our side.  First, the press is still decidedly on the left.  Second, mistakes can be made.  Third, we don't know what the role of Donald Trump will be, and whether he'll be a plus or minus for the GOP.  Fourth, the Democrats might actually come up with some attractive candidates, unlikely as that is.

Prepare for political combat ahead.

July 9,  2021     Permalink

JULY 8,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

GETTING THE FACTS OUT – FROM DAILY MAIL:  Children face an 'extremely low' one in 500,000 risk of dying from the coronavirus, researchers have found.  In England, just 25 under-18s have died from Covid, which equates to around two in a million, experts said.  Young people with pre-existing medical conditions, like heart disease and cancer, and severe disability, which can include cerebral palsy and autism, have a higher chance of becoming seriously ill from the virus.  But the scientists - from three top British universities - said this risk is no higher then the risk from flu.  Teenagers, black and obese children were also at higher risk from dying with Covid but these numbers were still very low, they found.  Researchers said their findings - which were published in three separate papers today - will help inform vaccine and shielding policy for under-18s.  They will submit the studies to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the Department for Health and the World Health Organization (WHO).  The findings come amid a row over whether the prime minister should expand the vaccine roll-out to youngsters.  I wonder if the commissars in Washington will allow this to be discussed.  I doubt it. 

ANOTHER NUT CASE HEARD FROM – FROM DAILY MAIL:   Rashida Tlaib called on Congress in a Wednesday interview to defund every federal enforcement agency tasked with protecting U.S. borders as Joe Biden's administration continues to struggle to address a growing migration crisis at the southern border.  'We must eliminate funding for CBP [Customs and Border Protection], ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and their parent organization DHS [Department of Homeland Security],' the progressive 'squad' member demanded.  Tlaib insisted during a virtual interview published Wednesday with Just Futures Law, an immigrants rights group, that advocates and human service agents 'continue to see over and over again that these agencies are inept.'  The Michigan representative said that rather than 'humanely guiding migrants through our immigration system', these agencies 'continue to terrorize migrant communities located within our communities.'   Apparently, Rashida hasn't gotten the memo – defunding law enforcement is thoroughly unpopular throughout the United States, and a losing issue for her party.  She's becoming radioactive, a good thing for America.

July 8, 2021       Permalink

LEFTIST IMMATURITY GETS EVEN YOUNGER – AT 11:55 P.M. ET:  There is division on the left, leading to a grand excuse to avoid China's miserable human-rights record.  At least there is creativity in the lying.   From Politico: 

A political fight is brewing among wings of the Democratic Party over Beijing’s help in curbing climate change versus curbing its human rights abuses.

As a new Cold War takes shape between the U.S. and China, progressives fear the result will be a dramatically warming planet.

Over 40 progressive groups will send a letter to President Joe Biden and lawmakers on Thursday urging them to prioritize cooperation with China on climate change and curb its confrontational approach over issues like Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong and forced detention of Uyghur Muslims.

It's the latest salvo in the months-long drama between progressive Democrats who say cooperation on climate change should take precedence over competition with China, and moderates who think the administration can do both things at once. As the Biden administration solidifies its China strategy, and as anti-China legislation moves through Congress, this intra-Democratic tussle could define the U.S.-China relationship for years to come.

The progressive organizations, including the Sunrise Movement and the Union of Concerned Scientists, “call on the Biden administration and all members of Congress to eschew the dominant antagonistic approach to U.S.-China relations and instead prioritize multilateralism, diplomacy, and cooperation with China to address the existential threat that is the climate crisis,” their letter reads. “Nothing less than the future of our planet depends on ending the new Cold War between the United States and China.”

They've been trying to sell this line for years.  So, tell me, when is the end of the world?  I want to watch.

“To combat the climate crisis and build a global economy that works for everyday working people — in the U.S. and China alike — we must shift from competition to cooperation,” the groups continued.

Challenging China’s regional human rights abuses and aggressions is central to Biden’s foreign policy, while the struggle between American-style democracy and Chinese-style authoritarianism serves as his presidency’s animating idea. “It is clear, absolutely clear ... that this is a battle between the utility of democracies in the 21st century and autocracies,” Biden told reporters in April.
The standoff has led to frosty relations between the world’s most powerful countries with no signs of thawing any time soon.

Progressives say Biden must quickly reverse the trend or risk failing on another of his priorities: ending climate change. “His entire climate change agenda could be at risk if his anti-China campaign continues and grows,” said Erik Sperling, the executive director of Just Foreign Policy, one of the groups that signed on to the letter.

COMMENT:  Well, I'll be.  The left has debates.  And in making a choice between human rights in China and fighting "climate change," climate change wins.  It's so, it's so, now.  It's so woke.  This debate is being watched closely in Beijing, and probably laughed at.  But, far from seeing Biden as a tough competitor, the Chinese probably see him as an impaired president incapable of leading his party into a strong competition, and certainly incapable of leading the free world.

I fear a miscalculation.  Miscalculations cost lives. 

July 8, 2021       Permalink