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OCTOBER 10,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:   

CONFLICT OF INTEREST – FROM DAILY MAIL:    An education firm that was co-founded by the son-in-law of US Attorney General and former Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland is under fire for issuing resources that claim former President Trump's supporters are white supremacists.  Alexander 'Xan' Tanner, 30, is a founder and the president of Panorama Education, an analytical software and services company in Boston. He married Attorney General Garland's daughter Rebecca in 2018.  Panorama recently put out a workshop which deals with systemic racism.   It includes a link to an article that calls both Ku Klux Klan members and President Trump's supporters 'examples of white supremacy.'   'SEL as Social Justice: Dismantling White Supremacy Within Systems and Self,' the Panorama workshop in question, features several 'resources' for teachers, including one that links to a Medium article titled 'How White Supremacy Lives in Our Schools, written by Altagracia Montilla.  Montilla's piece, published in July of 2020, says 'the rise in images of overt white supremacy in the media feeds into the confusion about white supremacy. While the Ku Klux Klan and MAGAs at half-empty Trump rallies (not that these are mutually exclusive groups) are in fact examples of white supremacy, they are not the only examples.'   More and more, these things sound more like businesses than educational organizations.  The race industry.  High  profit and socially acceptable in some tofu-consuming groups.  As for Merrick Garland, he has a clear conflict of interest in dealing with racial issues because of his son-in-law's venture.  I doubt if the woke press will care.  Neither will the Biden White House.  I had hoped that Garland would at least conduct himself well.  Another hope gone.

October 10, 2021       Permalink

LA-LA LAND – OVERNIGHT:  IS THERE NO LIMIT TO THE MADNESS OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA?  APPARENTLY NOT.  FROM DAILY MAIL: 

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a woke law on Saturday forcing stores to have 'gender neutral' sections where traditional blue and pink toys and toothbrushes are banned.

Large department stores must now display products like toys and toothbrushes in gender-neutral ways - a win for LGBT advocates who say the pink and blue hues of traditional marketing methods pressure children to conform to gender stereotypes.

The new law, however, does not completely outlaw traditional boys and girls sections at department stores. Instead it says large stores must also have a gender neutral section to display 'a reasonable selection' of items 'regardless of whether they have been traditionally marketed for either girls or for boys'.

That does not include clothes. The law only applies to toys and 'childcare items,' which include hygiene and teething products. 

The law also only applies to stores with at least 500 employees, meaning small businesses are exempt.

Author of the bill Evan Low - an assemblyman and Democrat from San Jose - said he was 'incredibly grateful' Newsom signed the bill this year. 

It was Democrats' third attempt in the state Legislature trying to pass this law, with similar bills failing in 2019 and 2020.

Low said he was inspired by the 10-year-old girl daughter of one of his staffers who asked her mom why certain items in the store were 'off limits' to her because she was a girl.

'We need to stop stigmatizing what's acceptable for certain genders and just let kids be kids,' Low said. 

'My hope is this bill encourages more businesses across California and the US to avoid reinforcing harmful and outdated stereotypes,' he added.

COMMENT:  With all the problems California has, this is what the government is concerned with.  Far more people are leaving California than coming, and I suspect that will be its fate for the foreseeable future.  Used to be called the Golden State.  Ronald Reagan was governor.

October 10, 2021       Permalink

OCTOBER 9,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

VIRGINIA – OVERNIGHT:  The polls remain tight in the most important gubernatorial race this year.  Former Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe has been taking a beating recently on a number of issues, but still retains a small lead.  The election is November 2nd, less than a month away.  From Fox:    Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe is facing criticism for not completely rejecting an endorsement from a group that advocates defunding the police.  "Terry McAuliffe refuses to reject the endorsement he received from a radical ‘defund the police’ group, New Virginia Majority,"  McAuliffe’s Republican challenger, Glenn Youngkin, posted on Twitter along with a clip of McAuliffe from a recent television interview. "He said he's proud of it! Unbelievable."  In the clip, McAuliffe vehemently denies support for defunding the police and says that his record as Virginia’s governor from 2014 to 2018 is evidence of that.  McAuliffe was specifically pressed about a clip posted online showing the former governor saying he was "proud" to receive the endorsement from the New Virginia Majority. In the clip, McAuliffe also says that he opposes defunding the police but doesn't have to agree with everything groups that endorse him believe.  "Have I ever supported defund the police?" McAuliffe said in the clip played during the interview. "Are you out of your mind? I’ve invested in law enforcement – I just went through 25 minutes of telling you what I do for the police. Not defunded, I funded them!"  "Listen, the issue is when I was governor I had the lowest crime rate of any state in the United States of America," McAuliffe said in response to the clip. "I think that’s what your viewers are concerned about."  McAuliffe added that during his time as governor he made several moves to improve the lives of sheriffs in the commonwealth and received an award from them. The problem is that the McAuliffe of 2021 backs such leftist programs as Critical Race Theory, and is closely linked with President Biden.  So to accept the endorsement of a defund-the-cops group, and then deny he wants to defund them makes himself look two-faced, maybe three.  He may just pull out a victory, to our dismay, but only by a whisker, and with none of the momentum he had during his earlier terms as governor.

October 9, 2021       Permalink

HE IS BACK – OVERNIGHT:  Former President Trump held a mass rally in Iowa tonight, seen by most observers as a test of his popularity in that key state.  The betting seems to be that he will run again in 2024.  Please note that the 2024 presidential campaign will start about two years from now.  From Fox: 

DES MOINES, IOWA - Former President Trump took aim at the massive spending bill that President Biden and congressional Democrats are trying to pass into law, charging it's a "monstrosity" and "so dangerous for our country."

Trump's attacks on the multitrillion-dollar human infrastructure, social spending and climate change package came as he held a rally in Iowa on Saturday. It was the former president's first stop in the competitive Central Plains state since last year’s election.

Iowa is also the state whose caucuses have kicked off the presidential nomination calendar for the past half-century, and Trump's stop is sparking more speculation he'll make another White House run in 2024.

Iowa was once a key battleground state, but Trump comfortably won it during his 2016 and 2020 campaigns.

He arrived in the Hawkeye State days after scoring his best favorable ratings ever in the Des Moines Register poll, which is considered the gold standard in this neck of the woods.

Fifty-three percent of Iowans had a favorable view of the former president and 45% hold an unfavorable view, according to the Des Moines Register/Mediacom survey released Monday. And among Republicans only, he was at a sky high 91% favorability.

Trump touted the poll, saying "we’re at the highest we’ve ever been."

He also spotlighted his victory in Iowa last November, adding "you proved why Iowa should vote first in the nation."

The former president took a few jabs at a small group of GOP senators, led by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, for earlier this week allowing the majority Democrats to temporarily lift the debt ceiling, which prevented the nation from defaulting.

"To think that we had 11 Republicans go along with an extension, headed up by Mitch McConnell," Trump said, eliciting boos from the large crowd of supporters at the rally site at the Iowa State Fairgrounds.

Trump also repeatedly pilloried his successor in the White House for his handling of the rocky U.S. withdrawal and evacuation from Afghanistan. He also criticized Biden over the influx of migrants trying to cross the nation's southern border with Mexico, and over the surge in COVID cases as the highly infectious delta variant spread across the country.

COMMENT:  Obviously, for Trump to win the presidency again he will have to ride a wave of voter discontent with the Democrats.  That could well happen.  And he will have to be seen as a man who'd been a solid president, but with a flawed personality.  I don't think it will be easy for him.  The Democrats will throw everything they have at him, every gaffe, every unfortunate statement, every reminder of the characteristics that cost him the presidency in 2020.

It is ridiculous to predict.  A month is lifetime in politics, and there are many, many months until the 2024 presidential election.  Indeed, the Dems may even succeed in changing parts of the electoral system.  Kamala Harris might be president.  And American troops might be on Taiwan.

October 9,  2021     Permalink