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JULY 29,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

STUNNING - FROM FOX:  The Navy has charged a sailor in connection with the massive fire that destroyed the USS Bonhomme Richard warship over four days in 2020 while docked off San Diego, a naval spokesman said Thursday.  The unidentified sailor was a member of the ship's crew and is accused of starting the July 12, 2020 blaze, the Navy said. The charges are based on evidence collected during an investigation, Navy spokesperson Cmdr. Sean Robertson said in a statement.  "Evidence collected during the investigation is sufficient to direct a preliminary hearing in accordance with due process under the military justice system," Robertson said.  Vice Adm. Steve Koehler, commander of the U.S. Third Fleet, is considering court-martial charges. He has ordered a preliminary hearing at which an impartial hearing officer will make determinations and recommendations required by the Uniform Code of Military Justice, including "whether or not there is probable cause to believe an offense has been committed and to offer a recommendation as to the disposition of the case," the statement said. We're watching this.  Is it possible that an American warship was sabotaged by an American sailor?  Will the case be covered up to protect certain people...or countries?  This, potentially, could be a very big story.  Or, maybe the evidence will show that we're dealing with an accident.  Proceed carefully.  In 1989 there was an explosion in a gun turret aboard USS Iowa, one of the last American battleships to see active service. It killed 47 sailors.  Investigators concluded that one sailor caused the explosion intentionally, a conclusion devastating to that man's family.  However, other inquiries decided differently.  To this day we don't have a clear answer to how the blast occurred.  Be cautious about jumping to conclusions.

July 29, 2021       Permalink

KAMI, KAMI, WHAT'S WRONG WITH THEE? – OVERNIGHT:  William Goldman's line about Hollywood could apply to Washington today.  "Nobody knows anything."  I mean, name a subject.  Where have all the elder statesmen gone?

Take Kamala Harris...please.  (Hat tip to Henny Youngman.)  I mentioned this earlier in the week.  Where is she?  Someone said he saw her at the unemployment office.  Who's Who is panicking because they can't give her more than a two-line description.  And it's unfavorable.  Even FedEx is returning packages sent to her.  From the New York Post: 

As Vice President Kamala Harris’s poll numbers remain underwater, and well below President Biden’s, some Democrats are worried that she could become a drag on their efforts to maintain control of Congress in the 2022 midterm elections.

A new Economist/YouGov poll shows that 48 percent of Americans disapprove of Harris’ job performance while only 46 percent expressed approval. This is in line with a flurry of recent surveys and puts her well behind Biden, whom the Real Clear average of polls has at 51 percent approval and 43 percent disapproval.

According to Democratic strategists who talked to The Post and The Hill, the numbers have the party concerned about the midterms.

“As of right now, I think she has the potential of doing more harm than good for some of these candidates,” one strategist told The Hill, referring to Harris.

“My sense is she’ll probably raise a lot of money and maybe she’ll go to some specific districts, but they’ll have to be really strategic with her.”

An early test of just how strategic Democrats plan to be with the veep is the run-up to the Sept. 14 recall election in her home state of California, where she has vowed to campaign for embattled Gov. Gavin Newson, but has offered no set plans about doing so.

Forty-eight percent of Americans disapprove of Harris’ job performance, according to an Economist/YouGov poll.

New low poll numbers on Harris’ job performance have some Democrats worried about the midterm elections.

Under normal circumstances, Harris, the first woman to be elected vice president, would be a natural fit for campaigning on both the recall race and the 2022 midterms, but staunch criticism of her handling of the border crisis as well as dysfunction in her office have potentially made her politically toxic.

In June, Harris took a trip near the US border with Mexico after pressure built for her to go for months. In that time, she snapped at reporters who asked why she hadn’t trekked to the border given that she was put in charge of the crisis there.

In one interview, she told NBC’s Lester Holt that “we’ve been to the border.” When he pointed out that she had not gone as vice president, she whipped back at him with, “And I haven’t been to Europe, And I mean, I don’t understand the point that you’re making. I’m not discounting the importance of the border.”

Meanwhile, there have been persistent stories about issues in her office, where staffers have gone so far as to say they are treated “like s–t,” and which date back to similar concerns from campaign staff that helped derail her 2020 run for president.

COMMENT:  No wonder she's hiding.  But her wobbles cannot but concern our allies, who now have to contend with an impaired man in the presidency and and an invisible woman in the second office, and some clear psychiatric cases just below them. 

Maybe I'm being too critical.  Maybe Kami is at Wokeness School, and will come out a kinder and more sympathetic public servant.  We'll know when she sets fire to her first building, then tries to rescue the people inside.

Do you think she would?

July 29,  2021     Permalink

JULY 28,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT

GETTING TRULY WOKE – FROM FOX:  Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Wednesday that she plans to add 170 police officers to the city’s force amid rising violence and several high profile shootings in the city.  "Right now, I have directed MPD to use any overtime necessary to meet our public safety demands," the Democratic mayor wrote in a statement. The statement noted that Bowser plans to hire 170 additional Metropolitan Police Department officers by 2022.  "But we know that is not a complete solution or the right long-term solution. We also know we need all of our officers to be fresh, rested, and in the best position to make good decisions – and that requires having a full force to meet all of our community’s needs."  Bowser added, "The department is in a good position to make additional hires and move swiftly to close the gap between attrition and hiring, and that’s what this plan is going to help us do."  Bowser is a vocal supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, which has pushed for defunding the police in favor of community policing and funding social justice organizations.  The defunders are learning their lessons, aren't they?  Defund the police and look what happens.  But the leftist hardliners have learned nothing, and don't intend to change that.  For them, the ideology beats reality every time. 

THE POOR DEARS – FROM FOX:   NBC’s primetime coverage of the Tokyo Olympics continued to spiral downward on Monday, averaging 14.7 million viewers for a 49 percent drop compared to the equivalent night from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro games.  Monday’s telecast also shed 53 percent of viewers from coverage of the first weeknight primetime during the 2012 London Olympics and declines were even larger among the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults aged 18-49.  Variety senior TV editor Brian Steinberg wrote that the drop has spurred "advertiser anxiety" which hasn’t been eased by the news that legendary American gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from team competition and fan favorite Naomi Osaka was eliminated from tennis medal competition.  Steinberg quoted a media buying executive who said the early viewership "clearly are not what NBC, our agency or our clients were looking for" from costly investment.  "This executive said early viewership trends were ‘disappointing,’" Steinberg wrote.  The opening ceremony, delayed a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, drew 16.7 million viewers for NBC on Friday, the smallest audience for the network broadcast since the 1988 Seoul Games. NBC presumably hoped its multi-billion dollar investment would pick up as the games proceeded, but primetime coverage on Saturday and Sunday also was disappointing.  NBC averaged 12.6 million viewers on Saturday night, a 39 percent drop compared to the first Saturday of the 2016 Olympics and a 56 percent drop compared to the 2012 London games. Maybe more sports talk and less politics would help.  Maybe commercials that don't lecture us about who we are would also help.  Sports as a category in life is losing favor because it's losing its fun. 

July 28, 2021       Permalink

WE'RE SHOCKED, SHOCKED AT THESE ATTACKS – OVERNIGHT:  Where did these attacks in Afghanistan come from?  Who would do such a nasty thing?  Must we take note of them?  Maybe we should just move on.  That's the way the real left does it.  From Reuters: 

The United States said on Wednesday it was deeply troubled by reports of escalating attacks on civilians as the Taliban sweep across Afghanistan and Washington pulls out its last remaining troops and ends its longest war.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on a visit to India, said the only path to peace in Afghanistan was through negotiations, which all parties must take seriously

I'm sure the Taliban will be deeply impressed.

The surge has raised the prospect that the militants could return to power. Millions of people fled their extreme violence during their last period of rule from 1996-2001, when they staged public executions of their foes, banned women from work and education and hosted Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network.

The Taliban say they will treat civilians well if they return to power, and will not allow the country to be used as a base for international terrorism.

Describing reports of attacks on civilians as “deeply, deeply troubling," Blinken said: “An Afghanistan that commits atrocities against its own people would become a pariah state.
“There’s only one path, and that’s at the negotiating table, to resolve the conflict peacefully.”

The United Nations reported this week that civilian casualties had been surging in recent weeks, with as many killed in May-June as in the previous four months. The report did not cover casualties in July, when fighting has intensified further.

Afghans in government-held areas have been alarmed by domestic media reports in recent days of abductions and killings of civilians in areas where the Taliban have advanced. The Taliban deny they are carrying out revenge killings.

US President Joe Biden has ordered all US troops out of the country, fulfilling a policy pledge made by his predecessor Donald Trump, despite warnings from American generals of the potential for renewed civil war without foreign troops to protect the Kabul government.

Peace talks between the government and the Taliban in Qatar have largely stalled, with the Taliban showing little interest in negotiating while they are gaining on the battlefield.

COMMENT:  Yeah, that's usually the way it is.  When one side is gaining on the battlefield, why sue for peace?  Only the loser sues for peace.

The fact is that we're pulling out of Afghanistan recklessly and irresponsibly.  The Taliban will probably take over, handing the United States a military defeat, and giving encouragement to terror groups throughout the region.  It will also create the image of America as a nation that cannot be relied on.  There are real consequences to having that image.  Remember well the years after we pulled out of Vietnam.

July 28, 2021       Permalink