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

SEPTEMBER 28,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

BIDEN HURTING IN ANOTHER SWING STATE – FROM THE HILL:   President Biden’s approval rating is at 38 percent in the battleground state of North Carolina, while about a quarter of respondents think the country is on the right track, according to a new poll.  The survey, conducted by High Point University, found that 38 percent of North Carolinians polled approve of the way Biden is handling his job as president, compared to 48 percent who disapprove. Fourteen percent of respondents said they do not know or refused to respond.  A majority of North Carolinians also said they believe things in the country have gotten off track: 60 percent of respondents said the U.S. is on the wrong track, with only 28 percent saying the country is headed in the right direction.  The low polling numbers come as Biden is grappling with a series of crises: fallout from the U.S.’s messy withdrawal from Afghanistan, the rapid spread of the highly infectious delta variant, legislative headaches on Capitol Hill as lawmakers work to pass key parts of his agenda, and a surge of Haitian migrants seeking entry into the U.S. in Texas.  North Carolina voters were nearly split in the 2020 presidential election. Then-President Trump won by just 1.3 percent, which was equivalent to nearly 75,000 votes, according to The New York Times.  Fifty-seven percent of respondents in the new poll said they disapproved of Biden’s handling of the situation in Afghanistan, with only 25 percent approving.  It's only a poll, a snapshot in time, but it reflects the dramatic decline in Biden's approval that we're seeing throughout the country.  If the president's approval falls into the thirties, he's in grim trouble, with the political obituary writers sharpening their pencils, or whatever they use. 

September 28, 2021      Permalink

BORDER TRUTHS – OVERNIGHT:  As readers know, I rate Salena Zito as  one of the best reporters in the United States.  She actually talks with people below the Cabinet level.  I doubt if she's invited to cocktail parties in Georgetown.  And she doesn't think the world will end in two weeks if we continue to drive cars. 

She has observed the southern border, and her observations are choice.  From Creators: 

Take all of the imagery you have seen of the over 14,000 Haitian migrants camped under an international bridge in the small Texas border town of Del Rio and add the complications of disease, public excrement, unbearable heat and heightened frustrations. It has led to violence that has injured Border Patrol officers.

Now close your eyes and imagine it is 100 times worse.

Because that's what it is, said Texas Rep. Tony Gonzales, the freshman Republican who represents 42% of the border. The overwhelmed city of Del Rio had been in a rapidly deteriorating crisis situation when illegal immigrants first began surging into the community in January, but Gonzales now says the situation here is a "Category 5" and that the environment is unlike anything he has ever seen before.

"I arrived here today to pure chaos," he said. "I've never seen it in this environment. There literally is no border left."

Gonzales said Del Rio is in dire straits. "There's no doubt there's COVID here, there's measles, tuberculosis, all kinds of diseases," he said. "You've got kids running around in nothing but diapers. A handful of port-a-potties — my God, the stench is terrible. This is not good for the migrants. It is not good for the residents. It's not good for wherever our government is sending them in the interior of the country."

Despite the Department of Homeland Security insisting repeatedly the Haitians would be deported, as of Tuesday, it had only removed 1,000 of the estimated 15,000 under the bridge. Multiple news organizations including CNN reported that buses have been escorting them to a nonprofit organization in town where they purchase bus or plane tickets. They are then moved to a gas station where buses pick them up and take them to other parts of the country.

The Washington Post reported that the number is in the thousands of those released to parts unknown in the interior of the country.

"My takeaway after I walked through it all, I look over at the sector chief, and I go, 'Man, I just feel sad.' He goes, 'I know. Everyone just feels beaten here,'" Gonzales said.

Del Rio residents have seen their lives turned upside down. The international bridge has been closed — a lifeline bringing tens of millions of dollars to the local economy. If you're a small-business owner and your business has somehow survived COVID-19, something like this could easily wipe you out.

Everybody has been sucked into this chaos.

"The worst thing is that we are not even talking about the other places where this is happening," Gonzales said. "Today, we're talking about Del Rio, but tomorrow, it'll be Laredo or Brownsville or Eagle Pass or El Paso. This problem is not going away."

COMMENT:  Please read the rest.  This is the kind of reporting we rarely get today.   The border crisis is vastly larger than the "insurrection" of January 6th, yet it was the latter that has gotten more attention.  There are times I think we'd be better off switching to a parliamentary system, where the first officer of the government could be replaced by a single vote of no confidence.  The glory of our current system is that it reinforces stability, but that only works when the candidates are carefully chosen by their parties.   How careful were the Dems in choosing Punchy Joe and Nowhere Kamala?

Boy, do we have problems.  Sorry for saying "boy."  I'm just not woke.

September 28,  2021     Permalink

SEPTEMBER 27,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

BIDEN REALLY TANKING – FROM RASMUSSEN REPORTS:   The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll, sponsored by The ANTIFA by Jack Posobiec, for Monday shows that 40% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Biden’s job performance. Fifty-eight percent (58%) disapprove.  The latest figures include 21% who Strongly Approve of the job Biden is doing and 50% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -29.  The key figure here is the final one.  I don't recall the last time a president had a "strongly disapprove" rating of 50%.  That means that half the likely voters polled not only disapprove of the president, but are passionate about it.  It's hard to conceive of a way that President Biden can climb back from this.  And please note that there is no "wanting of Kamala."  Her polls are also poor.  We're in a situation where, even if the American voters overwhelming decide they'd like the president to leave town, they're left with the image of Kamala Harris as president.  It may be impossible for voters to decide which person is the lesser of the famous two evils.  This is a perfect situation for Donald Trump to ride in on a white horse, or in a black limo.  But there is absolutely no guarantee that the current mess will continue or that voter sentiment won't change.  The 2022 midterms look even more significant to shaping our political future. 

September 27, 2021       Permalink 

EXCELLENT REPORTING – OVERNIGHT:  Christopher F. Rufo has emerged as the best reporter on the battles between parents and school boards over attempts to racialize almost everything in education.   This is a must read.  From City Journal: 

Over the past year, the left-leaning media has peddled the narrative that an emotional constellation of “white resentment,” “white fragility,” “white rage,” and “white fear” drives opposition to critical race theory in America’s public schools. Now NBC News claims it can prove it.

In a long story featuring analysis of demographic data, NBC News reporter Tyler Kingkade and data editor Nigel Chiwaya claim that the parent uprisings against critical race theory, which have occurred in more than 200 school districts across the country, are a “backlash” against “rapid demographic change” and “the exposure of white students to students of color.” Or, to put it bluntly, it’s the ugly reaction of white racism in the face of rapidly integrating schools. As left-leaning Slate concluded, NBC’s reporting proves that fear of “white replacement” and the desire to “protect whiteness” motivate the anti-critical race theory movement.

There is only one problem: NBC’s analysis is nonsense. The report, like the left-wing narrative about critical race theory more generally, fails both statistically and imaginatively. NBC News builds its narrative on the claim that “many of the school districts facing backlash over equity initiatives are diversifying faster than the national average.” The report provides data for 33 school districts, which undermine its argument in two ways: first, one-third of these districts have diversified slower, rather than faster, than the national average; and second, according to NBC News’ own reporting, there have been anti-critical race theory protests in at least 220 school districts nationwide, which means that NBC failed even to analyze 85 percent of the evidence.

But the NBC report, like almost all mainstream media coverage, fails an even greater imaginative test: these publications cannot imagine a world outside the framing of the 1960s civil rights era, comparing opposition to critical race theory with racial segregation, Jim Crow, and the Ku Klux Klan. NBC suggests darkly that these communities “have long segregated their schools” to exclude blacks, while the Slate piece makes a more explicit comparison between parent protesters and “Louisiana’s White League,” “racist mass shooters,” and the “Capitol insurrectionists.”

These comparisons fall apart after the most basic examination. Parents in Loudoun and Fairfax County, Virginia, whom the NBC News report cast in a negative light, aren’t old-line racists and segregationists but educated, affluent, and diverse citizens in the elite suburbs surrounding Washington, D.C. Contrary to the narrative about white families lashing out against an influx of black students, Loudoun County has roughly the same proportion of blacks as it did 20 years ago; the highest rate of population growth has been among Asians and Latinos, who, according to a recent Rasmussen poll, oppose critical race theory by a two-to-one margin—the same as white voters. In nearby Fairfax County, the leader of the parent opposition is an Indian-American woman, Asra Nomani, who has blasted critical race theory for reducing academic standards and discriminating against high-performing Asians.

NBC News’s misleading report is part of a broader campaign to confuse the public about critical race theory. Over the summer, as parent protests began to make headlines, left-leaning media initially claimed that CRT was an obscure theory found only in law schools. But parents saw the overwhelming amount of reporting about critical race theory in their schools and watched as powerful organizations, including the national teachers’ union and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, explicitly endorsed critical race theory in public education. When these and other attempts at denial and deflection failed, left-leaning activists and journalists fell back on an old sawhorse: decrying opponents as racists.

COMMENT:  Please read the rest.  Rufo knows how to report a story and make it fact-based.  He demonstrates that opposition to CRT isn't racist, but is in fact based on the belief that it hurts, rather than helps, children.  He shows that the proponents of CRT are stuck in the world of the 1960s, refusing to accept the dramatic progress in race relations that has been made since.

From what I've seen, CRT is a business more than a theory.  It employs armies of ideologists who are well compensated by schools and corporations.  It does nothing for black children except destroy their spirit.  Real racists couldn't ask for anything more.

September 27, 2021       Permalink