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MAY 8,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

UNBELIEVABLE – FROM THE ALLIANCE OF IRANIAN WOMEN:   On April 20, 2021 the United Nations voted to appoint the Islamic regime in Iran, which openly flaunts gender apartheid, to the Commission on the Status of Women via “secret ballots”. Forty three out of 53 countries, including many of the Western democracies, basically voted to approve discrimination against Iranian women and children.  The Swiss-based organization UN Watch called on the lawmakers from 15 EU, U.S. and others to demand that their governments reveal how they voted. The countries that may have voted yes, include Australia, Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Latvia, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.  The culprits are not countries like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan or China; they are the Western Democracies whose votes contradict what they preach.  And notice please the absolute silence on the part of Western "women's" groups.  What frauds.  And so are their friends in journalism.

AND OTHER CHEERFUL NEWS – FROM AMERICAN MILITARY NEWS:   The top general over U.S. troops in Africa warned that China plans to establish a new military base on Africa’s western coast capable of hosting submarines and aircraft carriers. The move would expand China’s access to the Atlantic Ocean and provide a base to rearm its naval forces in a potential conflict with the U.S.  In an interview with the Associated Press published Thursday, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) commanding Gen. Stephen Townsend said China has already approached countries along nearly the entire west African coastline, as far north as Mauritania and as far south as Namibia, to pitch the major naval base idea.  “They’re looking for a place where they can rearm and repair warships. That becomes militarily useful in conflict,” Townsend told the Associated Press.  A Chinese military base on the west African coastline could put Chinese forces closer to east coast U.S. than any Chinese bases in the Pacific are to west coast U.S.  And precisely how much coverage of this do you see in the American press?  One artcle?  Two?  We're asleep again.

May 8, 2021       Permalink

APPLAUSE, APPLAUSE – OVERNIGHT:  One of the parents who began the current revolt against WOKENESS in the schools has surfaced again with a progress report.  These parents are heroes and heroines.  They deserve our full support.  Some are risking their jobs, others are risking smear campaigns launched against them by the woke crowd.    From Daily Mail:

The dad who pulled his daughter from an elite Manhattan private school over its anti-racism policies says the resulting backlash opened his eyes to the 'cancer of cancel culture'.

Andrew Gutmann, who previously spoke out about efforts to 'brainwash' his daughter at The Brearley School, said he'd been shocked to learn how 'pervasive and entrenched critical race theory had become in our schools', in a  New York Post op-ed.

'Nor did I comprehend just how many parents were dealing with the same issues as our family, with close-minded administrations and racist, age-inappropriate and indoctrinating curriculums.' 
Gutmann wrote in The Post piece that he's heard stories at about all levels of education: from Kindergarten-aged kids drawing self portraits with a focus on their skin tone to young adult med school students spending weeks on transgender issues and antiracism in lieu of pediatrics and geriatrics. 

Gutmann penned the controversial 1,700-word letter to Brearley School on April 13 to explain his decision to pull his daughter from the $54,000-a-year school, near Gracie Mansion on the Upper East Side, and sent it to 650 families because 'someone had to speak out.'

He blamed much of the problem on Covid, saying schools were able to roll out reforms without any real fight from parents.  

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  I wish the guy would run for office.  However, he's not alone.  As we reported earlier, we're hearing of parent revolts all over the country.  If we can get Congress flipped next year, and conservatives are in charge, that will be a big help.

If you're a parent, consider running for the school board.  That's where the damage is first done, and where it can be prevented.

May 8, 2021       Permalink

MAY 7,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

THE BRITS VOTE – FROM REUTERS:   Britain's ruling Conservative Party won a new seat in parliament on Friday, sweeping aside the incumbent Labour Party with a victory in the northern English town of Hartlepool that tightens its grip on traditional Labour-voting areas.  Conservative candidate Jill Mortimer beat the Labour candidate by 15,529 votes to 8,589, securing what less than a decade ago would have been seen as an impossible feat of dislodging the main opposition Labour Party from one of its heartland seats.  The overwhelming victory, which gives Prime Minister Boris Johnson an even larger majority in parliament, increases pressure on Labour leader Keir Starmer, who has faced criticism for not fulfilling his pledge to revive the party's fortunes after a 2019 election disaster.  "There's no hiding from the fact this is a shattering result for Labour, absolutely shattering," Labour lawmaker Steve Reed, a member of Starmer's top team, told the BBC.  "It tells us that the pace of change in the Labour Party has not been fast enough. We need to quicken it up."  The Conservatives described it as an historic day.  What's relevant to us here is that the American Democratic Party is following pretty much the same script that Britain's Labour Party followed on its way to oblivion.  Hard left politics, contempt for the nation's heritage, and an embrace of identity politics.  Today's conservative victory in Britain will be, we hope, an indicator of things to come on this side of the Atlantic.

LEFTISM HAS CONSEQUENCES – FROM AP:  SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California's population fell by more than 182,000 people in 2020, marking the first year-over-year loss ever recorded for the nation's most populous state.  State officials announced Friday that California's population dipped 0.46% to just under 39.5 million people from January 2020 to January 2021.  The news comes one week after the U.S. Census Bureau announced a paltry population growth for California, resulting in the state losing a congressional seat for the first time because it grew more slowly than other states over the past decade.  But the census numbers reflect the state's population in April 2020. The new state numbers released Friday reflect the state's population as of January 2021.  Among California's largest cities, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Long Beach and Anaheim saw their population shrink. Meanwhile Fresno, Sacramento, Oakland and Bakersfield gained residents.   A one-party state dripping with leftism and identity politics.  Once governed by Ronald Reagan, the state is now run by Gavin Newsom, who faces a recall election and a possible ouster from power.  For the first time in a long time, some political mavens are dreaming of California going red in 2024.

May 7, 2021       Permalink

JOBS?  WHAT JOBS? – OVERNIGHT:  The White House is downplaying today's catastrophic jobs report, which reported far fewer jobs being created in the last month than had been predicted.  No problem, no problem.  Let's move on.

But what the White House cannot ignore are the storm clouds gathering over this administration.  If things don't improve, it will be heavy weather for the president and his party.  From ace political writer Michael Barone in the New York Post: 

On the surface, President Joe Biden seems to be doing pretty well. But underneath, there are signs of problems, areas where partisan overstretch threatens the underpinnings of what some are hailing as the new order of things.

Biden enjoys a 54 percent average job approval rating, a good mark for a president at midterm or facing reelection but below the 100-day numbers of every post-World War II president except Donald Trump. Biden’s 42 percent disapproval is higher than theirs and about equal to Trump’s. That may understate things if, as The Cook Political Report’s Amy Walter suggests, polls are undersampling Republican voters.

The deepening partisan divisions of the last quarter century are not over and done with.
Biden’s appeal to white non-college voters apparently remains limited. Thus the retirement of downstate Illinois Rep. Cheri Bustos, head of House Democrats’ campaign committee for the (disappointing) 2020 cycle. Her district voted 58 percent for Barack Obama in 2012 and voted 50 percent to 48 percent for Trump last year; she won by a margin of only 52 percent to 48 percent.
Similarly, Rep. Tim Ryan is leaving his Youngstown-Akron district for an iffy US Senate run in Ohio, and suburban Pittsburgh’s Conor Lamb may do so in Pennsylvania.

Nor are Biden Democrats doing all that well among the upscale voters repelled by Trump. The May 1 special election in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex resulted in the nomination of two Republicans in a district that Trump carried by only a margin of 51 percent to 47 percent last year. Republican candidates won 62 percent of the votes, and Democrats only 37 percent.

This may reflect liberal apathy. The audience for Biden’s April 28 speech was about 30 percent smaller than Trump’s audience for his 2020 State of the Union. Viewership of pro-Biden MSNBC and CNN is down by even larger percentages. And the never-Trump constituency seems to be fading as well.

Now that Trump is out of office and off Twitter, Trump haters are no longer watching to savor his latest outrage and schmooze over it with like-minded friends.

Meanwhile, upscale voters don’t seem enchanted with the woke Biden agenda when they see it up close. Across the metroplex, turnout was high as voters in affluent Southlake, Texas, voted 70 percent to 30 percent to oust school-board members who mandated critical race theory instruction, which the Biden Education Department wants to encourage.

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  Barone is one of the best political observers that we have.  A GOP victory isn't a sure thing next year, nothing ever is.  But hard work and wise policies can flip both houses of Congress, and set the party up for the ultimate prize in 2024.  The GOP has a remarkable number of solid presidential candidates. 

May 7,  2021     Permalink