Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

JUNE 11,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

THE BRITS KNOW HOW TO SAY IT – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:   More than 150 Oxford University academics are refusing to teach unless a statue of a controversial British colonial leader is removed — getting them ripped in Parliament as a “useless bunch” driven by “wokeness.”  The lecturers signed a “statement of a boycott of Oriel College” over the decision to keep a statue of Cecil Rhodes, who drove colonial expansion in southern Africa in the 1800s, and for whom the school’s Rhodes Scholarship is named, according to The Telegraph.“Faced with Oriel’s stubborn attachment to a statue that glorifies colonialism and the wealth it produced for the college, we feel we have no choice but to withdraw all discretionary work and goodwill collaborations,” the lecturers’ statement said.  Reaction to the boycott threat came from as high up as Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose office said he expects “appropriate action” to be taken to make sure students are compensated for any cancelled classes. “Students rightly expect to get a good deal for their investment in higher education,” his spokesperson told The Telegraph. “We fully believe in protecting academic freedom but universities have a duty to maintain access to good-quality tuition as a priority. ”The lecturers say they plan to refuse to teach Oriel’s undergraduates, help with outreach work or give talks or seminars “until Oriel makes a credible public commitment to remove the statue,” according to The Telegraph.
The boycott came as Oxford was already under fire after students at neighboring Magdalen College voted to remove a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II because she “represents recent colonial history.”  The leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, dismissed the Magdalen students as “a few pimply adolescents getting excited.”  As for the rebelling lecturers, he told Parliament, “I’m half tempted to say that you should be lucky not to be taught by such a useless bunch.  I do hope there'll always be an England.  At least they know how to speak.

June 11, 2021       Permalink

A DISGRACE AND THREAT TO THE NATION – OVERNIGHT:  Woke culture, including critical race theory, has invaded the United States military.  It is as dangerous as any foreign enemy.  From the Washington Times: 

Sen. Tom Cotton revealed several whistleblower complaints from service members who objected to critical-race theory indoctrination in the military, including airmen being divide race into groups for “privilege walks.”

The service members also spoke out against receiving reading lists of critical race theory books as part of the Pentagon’s new anti-extremism and diversity training within the ranks.

Mr. Cotton, Arkansas Republican, received the complaints after launching a whistleblower site in late May in partnership with Rep. Dan Crenshaw, Texas Republican.

Mr. Cotton, a former Army infantry officer, and Mr. Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL lieutenant commander, created the site to identify “woke” ideology within the military, they said.

“This is about a very specific kind of anti-American indoctrination that is seeping into some parts of our military,” Mr. Cotton said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday.

“One Marine told us a military history training session was replaced with mandatory training on police brutality, white privilege, and systemic racism. He reported that several officers are now leaving his unit citing that training,” he said. “Another service member told us that their unit was required to read White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo which claims, ‘white people raised in western society are conditioned in a white supremacist world view.’”

He said an airman complained that an exercise called a privilege walk, saying it was a “racist exercise.”

“Members of the wing were ordered to separate themselves by race and gender in order to stratify people based on their perceived privilege,” Mr. Cotton said in describing the airman’s complaint.
The senator detailed several specific complaints on Thursday when questioning Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III during a committee hearing.

“We’re hearing reports of plummeting morale, growing mistrust between the races and sexes where none existed just six months ago, and unexpected retirements and separations based on these trainings alone,” he said.

Mr. Cotton asked Mr. Austin whether he believes the military is fundamentally racist and whether service members should be treated differently based on race or sex. Mr. Austin answered no to both questions, and he said he welcomed service members to make complaints through their chain of command or inspector general.

“I would also say that diversity, equity, and inclusion to this military now, and it will be important in the future,” Mr. Austin said. “And so, we’re going to make sure that our military looks like America and that our leadership looks like what’s in the ranks of the military.”

The complaints follow the Pentagon’s recent efforts to stamp out extremism in the ranks after current and former troops were identified in the pro-Trump mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. In February, the Pentagon directed military units to hold one-day “stand-down” to address extremism within the ranks.

However, the service members’ complaints add to the mounting pushback against “woke” culture that some say has permeated schools, workplaces and government.

The service members’ complaints also point to emerging polarization in the military ranks.
“Enough is enough,” Mr. Crenshaw said in a Twitter post last month when announcing the whistleblower site. “We won’t let our military fall to woke ideology.”

The recent efforts to improve inclusivity have gone too far, according to the lawmakers, who said the military has long been one of the country’s great equalizers.

“The military for decades has been one of the institutions in this society where you are most likely to get ahead based on your own performance, on your own merit, irrespective of the color of your skin or where you came from or who your parents were,” Mr. Cotton said at the hearing.

“There’s a cultural identity that takes place in the military, which is actually really hard to emulate anywhere else, but it happens in the military,” Mr. Crenshaw told Fox News on Friday. “That’s what we should be talking about when we say the military is inclusive.”

COMMENT;  Can you believe it?  Can you just believe it?  This is the American military, the force that we, and our allies, depend on. 

What if we had to go to war over Taiwan tomorrow?  What would our generals and admirals have to do?  Would they have to count the number of every favored group in each unit or in each ship in order to pass the diversity test?

If you were a Chinese general advising the president of China today, and you were asked about the condition of the American forces in the western Pacific, what would you reply?  What if you were asked whether this was the right time to take Taiwan?  What answer would you give?

We are in grave danger, placed there by the far left of the Democratic Party and a corrupt and lazy press, drunk on its college degrees, that has abandoned its function of guardian of the nation.  

June 11, 2021       Permalink

JUNE 10,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

ANOTHER WIN FOR FLORIDA – FROM BIZPACREVIEW:  The Florida Board of Education has officially said no to a form of critical race theory in public schools.  Gov. Ron DeSantis and state Republicans opposed the divisive curriculum, which they consider a form of far-left indoctrination.  The newly adopted rule, which occurred after a four-hour meeting Thursday in Jacksonville, where about 30 speakers on both sides participated, does not specifically mention critical race theory per se, but the messaging about how U.S. history, civics, and government should be taught is definitive.  The rule reads: “Instruction on the required topics must be factual and objective and may not suppress or distort significant historical events, such as the Holocaust, and may not define American history as something other than the creation of a new nation based largely on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.”  It also clarifies the role of teachers in that they “serve as facilitators for student discussion and do not share their personal views or attempt to indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view.”  In addressing the state board this morning via a remote hookup, DeSantis similarly said, “We have to do history that is factual. I think it’s important that when we’re doing things like history that it’s grounded in actual fact over narrative…We need to be educating people, not trying to indoctrinate them.” A win for parents and children, and a loss for the militant left.  Ron DeSantis again proves himself to be presidential material. 

AND IN THE REAL WORLD – FROM REUTERS:   Russia is preparing to provide Iran with an advanced satellite that would enable it to track potential military targets across the Middle East, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.  The satellite is projected to have the ability to track long-range targets, including IDF bases, as well as oil refineries throughout the Persian Gulf and Iraqi bases for US troops. The plan would deliver a Russian-made Kanopus-V satellite equipped with a high-resolution camera which could be launched from Russia within months, the Post said.  The report was published days before US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet in Geneva and as Iran and the United States are engaged in indirect talks on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal designed to put curbs on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for easing economic sanctions.  The satellite would allow "continuous monitoring of facilities ranging from Persian Gulf oil refineries and Israeli military bases to Iraqi barracks that house US troops," said the paper, which cited three unnamed sources - a current and a former US official and a senior Middle Eastern government official briefed on the sale.   A Russian slap in our face just before Biden meets Putin.  And a very dangerous military development.  We look forward to seeing how President Biden handles this.  Badly, I'll guess, and we'll be seen as losing.

June 10, 2021       Permalink

THEY ARE FIGHTING AMONG THEMSELVES – I LOVE IT! – OVERNIGHT:    The Democratic Party is truly a mess.  Its members seem to realize that the president is barely functioning, the vice president works at a student government level, the Democrats in the House are paralyzed by lovers of Comrade Stalin, and the Dems in the Senate have a one-vote majority, and that vote is Joe Manchin.  This is not a prescription for happiness.  It is a convention of comedians who've been rejected by their mothers.  Oh, I mean birthing persons.  Consider their latest brawl on the Washington mall.  From Fox: 

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., issued a strong rebuke of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic leadership for their statement calling out fellow Squad member Rep. Ilhan Omar for her comments involving Israel.

"Freedom of speech doesn't exist for Muslim women in Congress," Tlaib tweeted Thursday shortly after Pelosi and Democratic leaders issued a statement critical of Omar. "The benefit of the doubt doesn't exist for Muslim women in Congress. House Democratic leadership should be ashamed of its relentless, exclusive tone policing of Congresswomen of color."

The endless playing of the race, gender and Muslim cards is becoming tedious.

Tlaib and Omar were the first Muslim women elected to Congress in 2018 and, along with other members of the progressive Squad, have been more critical of Israel, especially during the recent 11-day conflict with Hamas that left more than 250 dead, the vast majority Palestinians.

The Squad rallied around Omar Thursday as fellow Democrats, including House leadership, have lined up to condemn Omar for comments they perceived as comparing U.S. and Israeli "war crimes" to actions by the Taliban and Hamas.

Pelosi and senior Democratic leaders issued a unified statement Thursday, denouncing Omar's comments.

"[T]here is no moral equivalency between the U.S. and Israel and Hamas and the Taliban," the Democratic leaders said Thursday.

The Democratic leadership said they "welcome" the "clarification" Omar released earlier in the day after the Minnesota Democrat was met with a flood of criticism.

COMMENT:  The Squad is the most extreme group in the modern history of Congress.  Its members are unashamedly anti-American and anti-Israel.  Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, possibly the most extreme, has nothing good to say about her adopted country, the United States.  The Squad's godmother, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, contributes virtually nothing to her district and is deeply disliked by her more moderate colleagues.  Her actual influence in Congress is near-zero, but she has a national following that the party can't ignore.

In the 2022 election campaign, the GOP will try to link as many Democrats as possible to the Squad and its comrades.  It's clear that many Dems are running scared, fearing that they will be swept under by their party's embrace of losers like critical race theory and cancel culture.  The party is now engaged in a growing civil war.  Republicans are almost serene compared to the warring Dems.

June 10, 2021       Permalink