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MARCH 21,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

MIKE POMPEO SPEAKS – A GREAT SECRETARY OF STATE, NOW A GREAT PUNCHER FOR THE OPPOSITION – FROM BREITBART:  On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reacted to the exchange between American and Chinese officials earlier in the week and said that Chinese officials “mentioned Black Lives Matter as part of the reason they think American democracy is in decline."  Pompeo said, “I would have called it out for exactly what it is, this idea somehow that America isn’t a beacon of democracy around the world, that’s just nonsense and it is crazy for them to make that attack. … They mentioned Black Lives Matter as part of the reason they think American democracy is in decline.  Those are running buddies of Marxist-Leninists all around the world. And so, when they see a Democrat Party that is so deeply tied to the Black Lives Matter movement, I think they sense that America may well be in decline. I would have made clear that America stands for protecting its own. I would have reiterated our views about America first. We would have talked about the greatness and the exceptionalism of our nation, and we would have called them out for what they did to the world with this virus that has destroyed millions of lives. We’ve lost millions of lives and billions of dollars worth of wealth. It is unacceptable that the administration didn’t push back in that way.”  Yippee.

THE TRUTH COMES OUT – FROM FOX:   Former Operation Warp Speed health adviser Dr. Moncef Slaoui claimed that 90% of the current administration’s coronavirus vaccine rollout plan is the same as what the Trump administration had laid out – despite claims that Biden inherited "no plan."  President Biden’s chief of staff has insisted that the previous administration had no plan to roll out vaccines. CNN released a much-criticized report that Biden’s team was "starting from scratch," but Dr. Anthony Fauci immediately dismissed such claims.  Slaoui joined Fauci in debunking those same claims, instead insisting that the Biden plan is essentially the same plan that the Trump administration laid out.  "I do think we had plans," Slaoui told CBS’s "Face the Nation" on Saturday. "In fact, 90% of what is happening now is the plan that we had."  "Of course, the first thing was to accelerate the development of the vaccine," Slaoui explained. "We contracted, specifically, 100 million doses of the vaccine, but built into the contracts options to acquire more vaccines once we knew they were effective."  CNN will never believe it.  Facts are so last generation.

March 21, 2021      Permalink

STUNNING AND ALARMING – AT 9:45 P.M. ET:  I would take this report very seriously.  Remember that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and radical Islamists attacked us on 9-11, in part because we didn't take warnings seriously enough.  From AP: 

Iran has made threats against Fort McNair, an Army base in the nation’s capital, and against the Army’s vice chief of staff, two senior U.S. intelligence officials said.

They said communications intercepted by the National Security Agency in January showed that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard discussed mounting “USS Cole-style attacks” against the base, referring to the October 2000 suicide attack in which a small boat pulled up alongside the Navy destroyer in the Yemeni port of Aden and exploded, killing 17 sailors.

The intelligence also revealed threats to kill Gen. Joseph M. Martin and plans to infiltrate and surveil the base, according to the officials, who were not authorized to publicly discuss national security matters and spoke on condition of anonymity. The base, one of the oldest in the country, is Martin’s official residence.

The threats are one reason the Army has been pushing for more security around Fort McNair, which sits alongside Washington’s bustling newly developed Waterfront District.

City leaders have been fighting the Army’s plan to add a buffer zone of about 250 feet to 500 feet (75 meters to 150 meters) from the shore of the Washington Channel, which would limit access to as much as half the width of the busy waterway running parallel to the Potomac River.

The Pentagon, National Security Council and NSA either did not reply or declined to comment when contacted by The Associated Press.

As District of Columbia officials have fought the enhanced security along the channel, the Army has offered only vague information about threats to the base.

At a virtual meeting in January to discuss the proposed restrictions, Army Maj. Gen. Omar Jones, commander of the Military District of Washington, cited “credible and specific” threats against military leaders who live on the base. The only specific security threat he offered was about a swimmer who ended up on the base and was arrested.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the district’s sole representative in Congress, was skeptical. “When it comes to swimmers, I’m sure that must be rare. Did he know where he was? Maybe he was just swimming and found his way to your shore?” she said.

Jones conceded that the swimmer was “not a great example there, but our most recent example” of a security breach.

He said the Army has increased patrols along the shoreline, erected more restricted area signs and placed cameras to monitor the Washington Channel.

Puzzled city officials and frustrated residents said the Army’s request for the buffer zone was a government overreach of public waterways.

COMMENT:  Israeli intelligence officials, quoted anonymously in the Israeli press, regard these reports as valid, and they are well familiar with Iranian techniques.  Of course, officials in our own capital city of Washington are expressing skepticism, as they are mostly aligned with the WOKE community and its disdain for the defense of the United States.

There is a body of thought in some enemy nations that if you strike America, America will not fight back but will look for the first chance to negotiate a peace.  In the past that has been a significant misconception, as some enemies learned the hard way.  But I don't know about today.  Our vastly inferior educational system, combined with an often clueless, lurching-to-the-left media, have left us unready for the bitter and dangerous battles that the Chinese and Iranians almost certainly have in mind.  Add to that the vast economic losses and federal debts of the last two years, and we are probably more vulnerable than we've been since the days before World War II.

March 21, 2021       Permalink

MARCH 20,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

SAY IT AIN'T SO, JOE – FROM FOX:   EXCLUSIVE: Fox News has learned from a senior CBP source that a plan is under consideration for Border Patrol Agents in the Rio Grande Valley Sector (RGV) to begin releasing illegal border crossers who claim asylum without issuing a Notice to Appear (NTA) - meaning they will depart custody without a court date.  Such a decision would be unprecedented if enacted and would place the responsibility of seeking an asylum hearing on the migrants through Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or legal assistance.  The source says the reasoning for the decision is that the situation has "become so dire that BP [Border Patrol] has no choice but to release people nearly immediately after apprehension because there is no space to hold people even to do necessary NTA paperwork."  The process of issuing each migrant an NTA can take hours per individual or family. This would not apply to unaccompanied minors.  The RGV is ground zero for the surge in border crossings and is more than 700% overcapacity.  When migrants are released in the RGV, Border Patrol usually coordinates it with Sister Norma Pimentel and her Catholic Humanitarian Respite Center. Pimentel tells Fox News that she is aware and is "coordinating her response."  The controversial move allegedly on the table comes as the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is working to open another facility for unaccompanied child migrants in Pecos,Texas, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) announced Saturday.  This administration has already become a national disgrace.  In some other countries, a prime minister would quickly lose a vote of confidence and be ejected from office.

MAJOR ANALYST ROASTS PRESS ON ATLANTA KILLINGS – FROM FOX:    Andrew Sullivan lambasted the media for their coverage of the recent deadly Atlanta-area shootings for pushing a "narrative" about the violence being driven by anti-Asian bigotry despite the lack of evidence that proves that it was a hate crime.  Much of the mainstream media and the Democratic Party have condemned racism against Asian-Americans after it was reported that six of the eight victims who died in a trio of massage parlors were of Asian descent even though an ongoing investigation has yet to determine racism as a motive.  In a piece published in his "Weekly Dish" Substack, Sullivan sounded the alarm on how "narratives" are replacing the news with the media's "grotesquely distorted" coverage of the shootings.  "This story’s coverage is proof, it seems to me, that American journalists have officially abandoned the habit of attempting any kind of 'objectivity' in reporting these stories," Sullivan wrote. "We are now in the enlightened social justice world of 'moral clarity' and 'narrative-shaping.'"  "Here’s the truth: We don’t yet know why this man did these horrible things... That’s why we have thorough investigations and trials in America," Sullivan explained. "We only have one solid piece of information as to motive, which is the confession by the mass killer to law enforcement: that he was a religious fundamentalist who was determined to live up to chastity and repeatedly failed, as is often the case. Like the 9/11 bombers or the mass murderer at the Pulse nightclub, he took out his angst on the source of what he saw as his temptation, and committed mass murder."  We write often about rushing to judgment.  This is one of the worst cases I've seen.  Some journalists went so far as to blame the killings on President Trump because he dared call the pandemic the "China virus," somewhat like the "Spanish Flu."  Surveys show that most of the public is fed up with the press, but the press, in its self-proclaimed wonderfulness, apparently doesn't care.

March 20, 2021       Permalink

A GOOD OMEN? – at 9:08 P.M. ET:  We have, as we've reported, seen some signs of a growing resistance to cancel culture, and the totalitarian mentality that goes with it.  It will be a long fight, with powerful, corrupt forces fighting against us.  But an incident in Idaho gives us some hope.  From College Fix: 

Amid rumors of a video that shows a student being targeted during a diversity lesson at Boise State University, administrators have abruptly suspended all of the school’s general education classes called “University Foundations 200: Foundations of Ethics and Diversity.”

“We have been made aware of a series of concerns, culminating in allegations that a student or students have been humiliated and degraded in class on our campus for their beliefs and values,” states a March 16 memo from President Marlene Tromp to the campus community.

“This is never acceptable; it is not what Boise State stands for; and we will not tolerate this behavior,” Tromp stated. “…Given the weight of cumulative concerns, we have determined that, effective immediately, we must suspend UF 200.”

She goes on to note that academic leadership will determine next steps “to ensure that everyone is still able to complete the course.”

Tromp’s decision came around the same time as Idaho lawmakers passed a state education budget that takes away about $409,000 from Boise State University because of its social justice curriculum, Idaho Ed News reports.

Tromp’s memo does not mention the alleged video. Boise State’s spokesperson Mike Sharp told The College Fix on Friday “we have not seen any video of the alleged incident.”

However, the Idaho Freedom Foundation has published screenshots of since-deleted tweets from a BSU assistant professor of English who stated that a “student in a university foundations class taped a zoom discussion on white privilege, in which apparently a white student was made to feel uncomfortable, and sent the video to ID state legislature, who are ‘enraged.’ BSU suspended all UF 200 classes mid semester as a result.”

COMMENT:  As the Moon guy said, one small step for a man.  A great decision by a university to pull some of these "social justice" classes for review.  Don't expect the same thing soon from the more fashionable colleges of the East Coast.  But signs of resistance are appearing.

March 20, 2021       Permalink