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JULY 1,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

THE NEW ENTREPRENEURS – FROM FOX:    Former Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams now owns two homes in Georgia collectively worth $1.4 million despite having been hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt before her unsuccessful run against Gov. Brian Kemp.  The former candidate was catapulted into the national spotlight during her slugfest 2018 run against Kemp that saw her claim victory for months after the fact.  Since her electoral failure, though, Abrams has made a series of property purchases in DeKalb County that have been scrubbed from the county tax assessor’s website, according to records obtained by Fox News.  Most county tax assessors in the state of Georgia, such as in Abrams's DeKalb County, have a searchable database for property information, but individuals can request to have their information taken offline.  The former state lawmaker bought her first townhome in DeKalb County for $246,300 in 2004 and purchased a second home in the area in 2019 for $370,000 that is now valued at $409,400.  Fast-forward to October 2020, just days before the presidential election. Abrams simultaneously sold the home she bought in 2004 for $400,000 and bought a new second home for $975,000.  The home Abrams purchased in October of last year is now valued at $1,003,934.  Dare we ask where the money came from?  She's one of the slickest operators around.  She lost the governorship by 50,000 votes, yet claimed that the election was stolen through "voter suppression."  No proof was offered.  She has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate.  So has Mickey Mouse.

ALARMING – FROM FOX:   As the nation’s 245th birthday approaches, not everyone is bullish on the red, white, and blue.  Almost 7 out of 10 voters (69 percent) believe America is the greatest country to reside in, according to the latest Fox News survey, down from 83 percent in 2015 and from the high-water mark recorded a decade ago: 84 percent in April 2011, the first time the question was asked on a Fox News poll.  On the other side of the ledger, 26 percent say America is not the best country to live in, up 12 points.  The drop in positive views since 2015 is most pronounced among voters under age 45 (75 percent said the U.S. was the best in 2015 vs. 54 percent now, for a 21-point drop), Democrats (-20), women (-19), and Black voters (-17).  Meanwhile, a record-low 52 percent believes the United States still has its best days to look forward to, down from 62 percent in 2017 and a high of 63 percent in 2012. Thirty-nine percent think the country already hit its peak, up 10 points from 2017.  Since 2017, Republicans (-35 points), White voters (-18), men (-16), and independents (-12) are less likely to say America’s future is bright. Democrats (+14) and Black voters (+12) are among those most likely to think the best days are still to come.   A shift to the left.  Not a good thing.  If more and more young people have doubts about living in the United States, we will start to lose our best scientists and artists.  And other countries will start to raid us for our finest talent.

July 1, 2021       Permalink

MAN'S BEST FRIEND, OR A RACIST ENEMY? – OVERNIGHT:   I knew it.  Finally, university researchers have confirmed what I've always suspected, that racism starts with the person-pet relationship.  It was whispered, but now it can be spoken.  When you're told how to care for a cocker spaniel, that is racism itself.  From College Fix: 

The term “responsible pet ownership” has its roots in “racism, classism, and the White dominant culture.”

That is according to researchers with the University of Denver’s Institute for Human-Animal Connection, who argued that some animal control policies perpetuate racial and income inequities in the United States.

“Punishment to Support: The Need to Align Animal Control Enforcement with the Human Social Justice Movement” was co-authored by scholars at the institute who posited that animal control enforcement and punishment disproportionately hurt people of color and low-income communities.

The authors, led by Kevin Nolan Morris, University of Denver research professor and American Humane endowed chair, stressed the influence of racial biases on the problem.

Not only driven by “racism, classism, and the White dominant culture,” the legal concept of “responsible pet ownership” is also “largely unobtainable for anyone in the U.S. other than white, middle, and upper-class individuals, their paper argued. This includes animal welfare practices such as “providing shelter, behavioral training or veterinary care.”

The authors also said that animal control policies can reinforce structural or racial inequities. They cite rabies vaccination requirements, anti-tethering laws, monitoring of “at-risk” animals, regulations for adequate care of animals, and investigations of cruelty, abuse and neglect, among other practices.
Central to the scholars’ argument is the belief that systemic racism is rooted within the animal welfare and adoption systems.

“Previous studies have refuted the assertion that animal cruelty laws are uniquely exempt from the racism that is pervasive throughout other areas of U.S. criminal law,” the scholars stated.
In total, “inherent” and “implicit biases” are referenced nine times throughout the paper.

COMMENT:  What can one say?  So, caring properly for a pet is a reflection of white supremacy?  What an absolute insult to racial minorities.  But you may be sure that the authors of this "report" will get speaking invitations and TV appearances, just to discuss their profound observations.  And the country will instantly get more dumb.

July 1, 2021       Permalink

JUNE 30,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

SHOCKED, SHOCKED – FROM THE HILL:    The U.S. media is the least trustworthy in the world, according to a comprehensive new Reuters Institute survey encompassing 46 countries.  Yes, you read that right. The country with among the most resources in this arena – human, technical and otherwise – finished dead last. Finland ranked the highest, with a 65 percent trust rating. In Kenya, the trust rating clocked in at 61 percent.   But here in the U.S.A., the home of global media giants including the New York Times, Washington Post and CNN, we’re trusted by a whopping 29 percent of those reading and watching.  Is anyone really surprised? Because in looking at polls over the past few years (even pre-Donald Trump) we’ve been trending in this dubious direction for some time.    For example, one Axios/Survey Monkey poll in 2019 found that nearly 8-in-10 independent voters said they believed that news organizations report news “they know to be fake, false or purposely misleading.” Ninety-two percent of Republicans felt the same way, as did even a majority of Democrats.   Which means readers and viewers believe that the "mistakes" we so often see, particularly in the political media that dominates the national landscape, are not happening because of human error, which is a convenient excuse offered up from left-leaning "journalists" when "bombshell" reports end up being false, fake or purposely misleading.   In my view, the credibility of the press has been trending downward since the Vietnam War.  I don't think some of the worst institutions, like CNN, can be repaired.  We need new, well-financed news organizations to take their place and restore the traditional idea of a newspaper or TV news outlet – to report the news without fear or favor.

THE POLITICAL VET GETS IT RIGHT – FROM FOX:    House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., said Democrats' use of slogans like "defund the police" is "cutting the throats of the party" in an interview with The New York Times.  Clyburn was responding to a question about his decision to endorse Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Shontel Brown, a moderate Democrat, for Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia Fudge's former Ohio congressional seat over Nina Turner, the progressive frontrunner of the race, who co-chaired Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential run.  "What I try to do is demonstrate by precept and example how we are to proceed as a party," Clyburn told the Times. "When I spoke out against sloganeering, like ‘burn, baby, burn’ in the 1960s and ‘defund the police,' which I think is cutting the throats of the party, I know exactly where my constituents are. They are against that, and I’m against that.  The House majority whip, who has repeatedly voiced concerns against calls to reduce police funding, made similar comments in November when he told Axios that Democrats struggled in the 2020 elections "because we were not able to discipline ourselves according to voter sentiment."  Words of experience, but will the woke crowd listen?

June 30, 2021       Permalink

ANOTHER REASON TO START EMPHASIZING FOREIGN POLICY – OVERNIGHT:  We should be focusing on China, and on the continuing threat from Iran.  But as the World War II generation fades into history, America seems increasingly less interested in the fact that an incident in Asia can result in the drafting of a boy in Des Moines.  From Fox: 

In what experts say may signal plans to significantly expand its nuclear capabilities, China has begun constructing more than 100 new missile silos in a desert area in the western part of the country, according to a report.

Work at 119 sites was clearly visible and resembled existing missile-launch facilities, according to satellite images obtained by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The sites were not the only areas in China where launch facilities were under construction, one nuclear watcher told the newspaper.

"If the silos under construction at other sites across China are added to the count, the total comes to about 145 silos under construction," said Jeffery Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, according to the Post.

"We believe China is expanding its nuclear forces in part to maintain a deterrent that can survive a U.S. first strike in sufficient numbers to defeat U.S. missile defenses," he added.

The work in China signals possible intentions to upgrade the country’s nuclear arsenal from the existing 250 to 350 weapons – a more modest total when compared to the U.S. and Russia, the Post reported.

The U.S. is believed to have a total of more than 5,500 nuclear warheads, including around 1,700 that have been retired and are awaiting dismantlement, according to the website of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.

COMMENT:  There will be attempts by the usual suspects to downplay this news, citing the nuclear arsenals of the United States and its allies.  However, it doesn't take that many nuclear warheads to create a hell on Earth, and Chinese nuclear weapons are intended in part to scare and intimidate other nations in Asia.  They are also intended to be used against the U.S. Navy in the Pacific.  With China once again threatening the independence of Taiwan, that Chinese capability cannot be ignored or trivialized.

June 30, 2021       Permalink