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I appeared on Silvio Canto Jr's talk show from Dallas today.  It's here.

JUNE 14,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

THE GRIM TRUTH – FROM DAILY MAIL:  Police retirements have risen by 45 percent in the past year, with officers opting out of forces across the country amid Black Lives Matter demonstrations that fueled anti-cop rhetoric.   The alarming statistic was revealed by the Police Executive Research Forum on Sunday, with the organization also revealing that resignations rose by 18 percent during the same twelve month period.  'It is an evolving crisis,' Chuck Wexler, the organization's executive director, told The New York Times, adding that police forces are also struggling to attract new recruits.  Anti-police sentiment was sparked by the murder of George Floyd by white cop Derick Chauvin in Minneapolis on Memorial Day.  It prompted some politicians to say they were in favor of abolishing or defunding police forces across the United States. Commissioners claimed that rhetoric caused a spike in violent crime and led officers to feel betrayed by their elected officials.  New York City, for instance, saw large-scale BLM marches during which some participants threw bottles at police and set their patrol cars on fire.  Mayor Bill de Blasio subsequently slashed $1 billion from the NYPD's operating budget, despite a surge in shootings and murders.  In 2020, 2,600 New York Cops handed in their resignations -  almost double the 1,509 resignations clocked the year before.   It was a similar story in many police departments in large and mid-size cities around the nation.  And, of course, African American citizens have paid the highest price amidst the crime surge we have seen in the past year. 

THE REVOLT CONTINUES – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:  House and Senate Republicans introduced bills on Monday that would bar federal funds from being used to teach The New York Times’s "1619 Project."  The measures are unlikely to pass the Democratic-run Congress, but the bills reflect mounting opposition to efforts to inform school curriculums with the newspaper series, which reframed U.S. history with a focus on slavery and racism as the defining characteristic of the American experience.
“Activists in schools want to teach our kids to hate America and hate each other using discredited, Critical Race Theory curricula like the 1619 Project. Federal funds should not pay for activists to masquerade as teachers and indoctrinate our youth,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican, the bill’s main sponsor in the Senate.  “High-quality civics education is vital to the health of our democracy,” added Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, and another sponsor of the bill. “Debunked activist propaganda that seeks to divide has no place in American classrooms and no right to taxpayer funding.”  A good move and good words, but, alas, the bills have no chance of passage unless Republicans win back both houses of Congress next year.  Moves like this build the Republican position and let voters know which side has their values at heart.

June 14, 2022      Permalink  

THIS IS IMPORTANT – OVERNIGHT:  I strongly urge you to read this.  It's one of the most important, and revealing, articles I've encountered in recent months.  It reports the observations of a North Korean defector who came to the United States and was admitted to Columbia University.  What she says is shocking, but yet not surprising.  She lays bare the clear truth that America, in which she sought refuge, is becoming more and more like the society she left behind.  Pass this around to friends.  From Fox: 

As American educational institutions continue to be called into question, a North Korean defector fears the United States' future "is as bleak as North Korea" after she attended one of the country's most prestigious universities.

Yeonmi Park has experienced plenty of struggle and hardship, but she does not call herself a victim.
One of several hundred North Korean defectors settled in the United States, Park, 27, transferred to Columbia University from a South Korean university in 2016 and was deeply disturbed by what she found.

"I expected that I was paying this fortune, all this time and energy, to learn how to think. But they are forcing you to think the way they want you to think," Park said in an interview with Fox News. "I realized, wow, this is insane. I thought America was different but I saw so many similarities to what I saw in North Korea that I started worrying."

Those similarities include anti-Western sentiment, collective guilt and suffocating political correctness.

Yeonmi saw red flags immediately upon arriving at the school.

During orientation, she was scolded by a university staff member for admitting she enjoyed classic literature such as Jane Austen.

"I said ‘I love those books.’ I thought it was a good thing," recalled Park.

"Then she said, 'Did you know those writers had a colonial mindset? They were racists and bigots and are subconsciously brainwashing you.’"

It only got worse from there as Yeonmi realized that every one of her classes at the Ivy League school was infected with what she saw as anti-American propaganda, reminiscent to the sort she had grown up with.

"’American Bastard' was one word for North Koreans" Park was taught growing up.
"The math problems would say 'there are four American bastards, you kill two of them, how many American bastards are left to kill?'"

She was also shocked and confused by issues surrounding gender and language, with every class asking students to announce their preferred pronouns.

"English is my third language. I learned it as an adult. I sometimes still say 'he' or 'she' by mistake and now they are going to ask me to call them 'they'? How the heck do I incorporate that into my sentences?"

"It was chaos," said Yeonmi. "It felt like the regression in civilization."

"Even North Korea is not this nuts," she admitted. "North Korea was pretty crazy, but not this crazy."

After getting into a number of arguments with professors and students, eventually Yeonmi "learned how to just shut up" in order to maintain a good GPA and graduate.

COMMENT:  See what I mean?   This woman has felt real oppression on her skin.  She's dangerous – dangerous to the third-rate, Marxist mediocrities and liars who have come to dominate American universities.  The warning she sends us is stark, and correct.  I have no doubt that the left will try to destroy her, discredit her.  I doubt if she'll be invited to speak on any college campus.

Please read the whole thing.   She is a heroine.

June 14, 2022      Permalink

JUNE 13,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

THE GENIUS SPEAKS AGAIN – FROM FOX:    Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is "inclined to say yes" to calls by progressive organizations and at least one fellow Democrat in Congress for 82-year-old Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to retire at the end of the current term of the high court.  Ocasio-Cortez, the two-term representative from New York who’s arguably the most high profile progressive in Congress and the most well-known of the group of diverse lawmakers on the left known as "the Squad," was asked Sunday in an interview on CNN’s "State of the Union" whether Breyer should retire.  "You know, I – it's something that I’d think about but I, I would probably lean towards yes. But yes, you're asking me this question so I've just, I would give more thought to it, but, but I'm inclined to say yes," Ocasio-Cortez answered.  Some progressive are urging Breyer to step down now – while the Democrats control both the White House and the Senate, which confirms Supreme Court justices – so he can be succeeded by another progressive-minded justice.
Earlier in the CNN interview, when host Dana Bash asked Ocasio-Cortez if she agreed with comments in April by Democratic Rep. Mondaire Jones of New York urging Breyer to retire, she said "I believe Representative Jones has a point."  Who does she think she is?  She's a junior congresswoman who's antagonized just about everyone in Washington, including leaders of her own party.  And here she is pressuring a distinguished member of the Supreme Court to retire for political reasons.  We're glad to note that Justice Breyer is showing no signs of yielding to the nutbag left.

SINKING CNN – FROM FOX:  CNN’s recently revamped morning show "New Day" continues to embarrass the struggling liberal network and has now failed to draw 500,000 viewers for six consecutive weeks while setting a yearly low among viewers in a key age demographic.  "New Day" averaged only 470,000 viewers from May 31 through June 4, which was actually a slight improvement from the yearly low of 460,000 it averaged the week prior. But both numbers are remarkably low for a major network’s flagship morning program, as "Fox & Friends" averaged 1.14 million viewers and MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" averaged 891,000 last week.  "New Day" finished the week as the No. 42 program in cable news, behind a variety of programs with less desirable timeslots.  CNN president Jeff Zucker has a reputation as a morning TV guru because of a successful run overseeing NBC’s "Today" show earlier in his career, but his strategy hasn’t worked for CNN’s "New Day." In April, Zucker replaced Alisyn Camerota with outspoken anchor Brianna Keilar to co-host the show alongside John Berman, but the shakeup hasn’t helped attract viewers.  Last week, "New Day" averaged only 98,000 viewers among the key demographic of adults age 25-54 that is crucial for advertisers. "Fox & Friends" averaged 234,000 demo viewers, while "Morning Joe" attracted 118,000. To put things in perspective, there are multiple college football stadiums that can comfortably hold all the people among the key demo who tuned in to "New Day" last week.  I have no idea how CNN stays in business.  It lost its credibility by becoming the anti-Trump network, with little interest in serious news reporting.  It continues downward without Trump as a ratings grabber.  It seems to have no purpose.  There is nothing that compels the viewer to watch.  Other than that, it's great.

June 13, 2022      Permalink 

THIS WEEKEND IN AMERICA – OVERNIGHT:  Daniel Patrick Moynihan once warned of "defining deviancy down," by which he meant the tendency to get used to low standards or poor behavior.  I fear we're seeing that in America right now.  From Fox: 

Police in New York City and Chicago are reporting another wave of weekend violence.

A spokesperson for the New York City Police Department told Fox News that there were at least 16 shooting incidents and 5 homicides in the Big Apple just on Friday and Saturday.

According to the New York Post, which cited police sources, a 42-year-old man was killed and a 28-year-old female bystander was wounded in a broad-daylight shooting outside a Bronx church on Saturday. The man was found unresponsive with multiple gunshot wounds in front of the Church of St. Anthony of Padua just after 2:30 p.m. Meanwhile, the woman suffered minor injuries when three bullets grazed her body. Both victims were taken to Lincoln Hospital, where the man was pronounced dead. The woman was treated for her wounds and released, police said.

Other victims over the weekend reportedly include a 23-year-old man who was shot in the back; a 19-year-old man shot in the back in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx; a 26-year-old man shot in the right thigh by a gunman who fled in a gray sedan and a 40 year-old who walked into Wyckoff Heights Medical Center after being shot in the foot.

Shooting incidents in New York City are up 68% year-to-date, according to the latest NYPD crime data, with a total of 602 incidents reported compared to 358 as of the same period in 2020. Within the past month alone, shootings incidents are up about 31%, with a total of 153 incidents reported compared to 116 incidents reported during the same period in 2020.

Meanwhile, police in Chicago reportedly said that, as of Saturday, at least three people had been killed and 34 had been injured in shootings across the city over the weekend.

A shooting on the city's South Side on Saturday resulted in one person killed and at least nine others injured. The victims, all of whom are adults, were reported to be in either "fair" or "good" condition after being transported to local hospitals. One 29-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the University of Chicago Medical Center after she was shot in the leg and abdomen.

Other victims over the weekend include a 30-year-old man who was shot in the ankle; a 32-year-old man who was shot in the hand and leg; a 46-year old man who was shot in the buttocks; a 26-year-old man who was shot in the leg; a 34-year-old woman who was shot in in the left arm and shoulder; a 23-year-old man who was shot in the arm and leg; another 23-year-old man who was shot in the foot; and a 27-year-old man who was also shot in the foot.

According to the Chicago Police Department's latest available crime statistics ending June 6, shooting incidents are down 8% over the past month compared to the previous year, but are up 17% year-to-date.

COMMENT:  Five years ago, New York was the safest large city in America, thanks to the work of Mayors Guiliani and Bloomberg, and the great effort of the New York Police Department.  Now, under the non-leadership of Marxist Mayor Bill de Blasio, New York is returning to the bleak days of the 1970s.  All the progress made is being erased.

Chicago is under the nitwit leadership of Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who checks off three treasured boxes in the Democratic Party's list of qualifications:  She's black, she's female, and she's gay.  She is presiding over a city that is plagued with troubles, and she doesn't seem to have the will to solve them.

The picture is similar in many other Democrat-run cities.  The predictions for this summer are grim, and people seem to be accepting them.  Is this the "new normal"?  We may find out in next year's midterms.

June 13, 2022      Permalink