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

JUNE 21,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

YOU TRULY CANNOT MAKE THIS UP – FROM BREITBART:  Portland ran a pricey full-page Sunday ad in the New York Times promoting tourism after the Portland police riot squad quit Thursday.  “Some of what you’ve heard about Portland is true. Some is not. What matters most is that we’re true to ourselves,” Travel Portland wrote in the ad that could have cost up to $250,000.  “You’ve heard a lot about us lately. It’s been a while since you heard from us,” it continues.  “After a year of encouraging visitors and locals to support small businesses here and from a distance, it’s time to issue an invitation to come back to Portland,” the ad states. “Two sides to the same coin that keeps landing right on its edge. Anything can happen. We like it this way.”  The ad also says “new ideas are welcome” in the city, a place where “you can be yourself.”  “This is the kind of place where new ideas are welcome — whether they’re creative, cutting-edge or curious at first glance. You can speak up here. You can be yourself here,” it continues.  The ad comes after Portland’s voluntary rapid response team of 50 resigned Thursday to protest charges against a police officer who allegedly hit an independent journalist in the Black Lives Matter riots that lit a federal building ablaze in August 2020.  I can see the new cocktail-party crowd rushing to buy their first-class air tickets to Portland, just to show that they're truly woke, and committed, and feeling, and understanding.  Add a couple of other words, will you?

HYPOCRISY, THY NAME IS WHITEHOUSE – FROM BIZPACREVIEW.COM:   Liberal Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island is defending his decision to remain a member of an all-white exclusive club in his state, explaining that it’s one of many “traditions” and pledging that the club is working to expand to minorities.  “I think the people who are running the place are still working on that and I’m sorry it hasn’t happened yet,” he said in response to a question from a reporter at GoLocalProv.com.  Pressed for further explanation, Whitehouse added before being rushed away by a staffer, “It’s a long tradition in Rhode Island and there are many of them and I think we just need to work our way through the issues.”  It isn’t clear what issues he’s referring to, or what, specifically, the establishment — Bailey’s Beach Club — is doing to attract minorities.  The local outlet reported that Whitehouse pledged in 2006 to quit the elitist club after he won his first U.S. Senate term. He also pledged to leave the all-male, all-white Bellevue Avenue Reading Room.  Oh, don't worry, Shelly.  Nobody really cares.  They only pretend to care.  The whole thing will blow over in a few days, as long as you vote right. 

June 21, 2021       Permalink

OUR NEWLY STRANGE CORPORATIONS – OVERNIGHT:  We are in a time when Americans are justly asking about the state of just about every institution we have.  Can we depend on our institutions, especially the press and our universities?  Are the pillars of stability starting to crumble?  And what about corporations, who appear to be getting more and more involved in very public politics?  Where did this come from?  Is it dangerous?

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has written a fine piece questioning the new corporate role.  It's a fake, he says, and he won't make many friends saying it.  From the New York Post: 

I used to think corporate bureaucracy was bad because it’s inefficient. That’s true, but it’s not the biggest problem. Rather, there’s a new invisible force at work in the highest ranks of corporate America, one far more nefarious. It’s the defining scam of our time — one that robs you of not only your money, but your voice and your identity.

The con works like a magic trick, summed up well by Michael Caine’s character in the opening monologue in Christopher Nolan’s movie “The Prestige”:

“Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called The Pledge. The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. … The second act is called The Turn. The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. But you wouldn’t clap yet. Because making something disappear isn’t enough; you have to bring it back. That’s why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call The Prestige.”

Financial success in 21st-century America involves the same simple steps. First, the Pledge: You find an ordinary market where ordinary people sell ordinary things. The simpler, the better. Second, the Turn: You find an arbitrage in that market and squeeze the hell out of it. An arbitrage refers to the opportunity to buy something for one price and instantly sell it for a higher price to someone else. That much is well known.

But here’s the dirty little secret underlying the third step of corporate America’s act, its Prestige. Here’s how it works: Pretend like you care about something other than profit and power, precisely to gain more of each.

All great magicians master the art of distraction — flashing lights, smoke, beautiful women on stage. Today’s captains of industry do it by promoting progressive social values. Their tactics are far more dangerous for America than those of the older robber barons: Their do-good smoke screen expands not only their market power, but their power over every other facet of our lives. As a young 21st-century capitalist myself, the thing I was supposed to do was shut up and play along: Wear hipster clothes, lead via practiced vulnerability, applaud diversity and inclusion, and muse on how to make the world a better place at conferences in fancy ski towns. Not a bad gig.

The most important part of the trick was to stay mum about it. Now I’m violating the code by pulling back the curtain and showing you what’s really going on in corporate boardrooms across America.

Why am I defecting? I’m fed up with corporate America’s game of pretending to care about justice in order to make money. It is quietly wreaking havoc on American democracy.

COMMENT:  Definitely read the rest.  He provides a very good picture of what many have suspected – that all this corporate "woke" business is just that, business.  It has nothing to do with contributing to society.  It is a con in every sense, but a con with a great deal of money behind it.

June 21, 2021       Permalink

JUNE 20,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

RON ROMPS – FROM FOX:   The results of a straw poll of conservative voters this weekend is spotlighting the appeal of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida.  DeSantis came out on top of a 2024 straw poll at the Western Conservative Summit, narrowly edging former President Donald Trump, according to organizers of the conference.  The straw poll at the summit, which was hosted by Colorado Christian University’s Centennial Institute, asked people attending the gathering both in-person and on-line to vote for all of the potential 2024 presidential contenders that they approve of – out of 31 choices of both Republicans and Democrats.  DeSantis, a first-term governor and Trump ally who’s become very popular among conservatives nationwide since the start of the coronavirus pandemic for his resistance to COVID lockdowns and other restrictions, scored a 74% approval, followed by the former president at 71%. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas at 43%, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at 39%, and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, at 36%, rounded out the top five in the straw poll.  According to organizers, roughly 500 people attended the 12th annual summit in person at a hotel in Denver, Colorado, with tens of thousands watching online. None of the potential contenders spoke at the conference.  The Florida governor came in second to Trump in late February at a straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference – the biggest and oldest annual gathering of conservative activists and leaders which is better known by its acronym CPAC. And DeSantis, whom pundits consider a potential 2024 Republican presidential contender, made headlines as he easily topped a second straw poll at CPAC that didn’t include Trump.  A great governor for president.  Not a bad idea.  Of course, 2024 is a long way off, several hundred lifetimes in politics, but the GOP, led by DeSantis, has a very deep bench. 

June 20, 2021       Permalink

THE STEADY DECLINE OF OUR LEGAL SYSTEM – OVERNIGHT:  Amidst the rise of violent crime, D.A.'s in New York are more interested in prosecuting Donald Trump, guilty or not.  From Daily Mail: 

Business owners and residents in New York City are expressing fury at the revelation that prosecutors have dropped looting and rioting charges against hundreds arrested during chaos that swept the city last summer. 

After 603 were arrested in Manhattan and the Bronx during the most intense days of looting last June, 295 of the cases have been dropped completely, according to NYPD data reported by WNBC-TV on Friday. 

Now Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr and Bronx DA Darcel D. Clark are facing tough questions about why hundreds walked free after the looting rampage caused an estimated tens of millions in damages. 

Business owner Jessica Betancourt, whose Bronx eyeglasses shop was destroyed last summer, vented her outrage at the situation.

'Those numbers, to be honest with you, is disgusting,' she told the NBC affiliate. 'They could do it again because they know they won't get the right punishment.'

In Manhattan, the NYPD data shows there were 485 arrests connected to last summer's riots, which saw mobs smashing stores and holding a 'looting dance party' in SoHo.

Of those cases, 222 were later dropped and 73 saw convictions for lesser counts like trespassing, which carries no jail time. Another 40 cases involved juveniles and were sent to family court, and 128 cases remain open. 

In the Bronx, 118 arrests were made as mobs smashed shops along the borough's commercial corridors.

Since then, the NYPD says District Attorney Clark's office and the courts have dismissed 73 of those cases, well over half the total. 

Eighteen Bronx cases remain open and there have been 19 convictions for mostly lesser counts, which carry no jail time.

Vance and Clark declined interview requests from WNBC, but a source close to the DA's office said that prosecutors were too overwhelmed to carry forth the looting cases, with a backlog of cases after the pandemic shut courts.

Vance's office has been busy preparing a criminal case against Donald Trump, said to center on allegations of tax, loan and insurance fraud at the Trump Organization.

COMMENT:  I'm sure the prosecution of former President Trump will do a great deal to lower crime rates in New York City.  Why, that's so obvious.

The city will have a Democratic mayoral primary on Tuesday.  Never has the choice of a mayor been so important.

June 20, 2021     Permalink