Archive for 2022

DECOUPLING: ‘China is uninvestable,’ says Bond king Jeffrey Gundlach. “I’ve never invested in China long or short. Why is that? I don’t trust the data. I don’t trust the relationship between the United States and China anymore. I think that investments in China could be confiscated. I think there’s a risk of that.”

DID THEY MISS THESE YESTERDAY? Eight times Leftists busted into government buildings and assaulted democracy, as compiled by Kylee Zempel of The Federalist.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Sierra Space showcases its Dream Chaser spaceplane at CES 2022. “Sierra Space may be a newcomer to the space industry, but the company has secured a deal with NASA for unmanned flights to the International Space Station (ISS) starting this year.”

America’s private-sector space efforts are really taking off — if you’ll excuse the pun — while China is cracking down on its own private sector.

RUY TEIXEIRA: The Democrats’ Coming Asian Voter Problem: It’s Not Just Hispanics Anymore. Well, they’ve been displaying open hatred for Asians for years, while Democrat-controlled campuses discriminate more or less openly against Asian applicants. People do notice that sort of thing eventually.

Related: The Democrats’ Hispanic Voter Problem: It’s Not As Bad As You Think—It’s Worse. “Clearly, this constituency does not harbor particularly radical views on the nature of American society and its supposed intrinsic racism and white supremacy. They are instead a patriotic, upwardly mobile, working class group with quite practical and down to earth concerns. Democrats will either learn to focus on that or they will continue to lose ground among this vital group of voters.”

Woke politics is only popular with white baizuo leftists, who are a distinct minority despite their disproportionate power in American institutions.

HUFFPO’S WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT ON JAN. 6 VERSUS 9/11. I’m a free speech lawyer. I am an awfully hard person to seriously offend. But by golly, this guy managed it, by spitting on the graves of thousands of innocent people for a Twitter hot take.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): The thing you have to understand though, is that he’s sincere. The worst thing a Democrat can imagine is a threat to Democrats’ political power. Islamists aren’t seen as such a threat. Meanwhile their biggest fear is that the Normal-American community will rise up and take back control of the country and its institutions. All the media censorship, charges of “white supremacy,” etc. is just designed to prevent that.

COLD WAR II: Australia, Japan sign ‘historic’ defence pact amid China concerns.

Called the Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA), the treaty is only Japan’s second such agreement.

Its only other military pact is with the United States, a status of force agreement that dates back to 1960.

Morrison called the signing of the RAA a “pivotal moment for Australia and Japan” that will “form an important part” of the two countries’ response to “the uncertainty we now face”.

The treaty will also “underpin greater and more complex engagement in operability between the Australia Defence Force and Japan Self-Defense Forces,” he said.

Prime Ministers Scott Morrison and Fumio Kishida deserve some credit, but this is pact is really the fruit of Xi Jinping’s labors.

HOW’S ALL THE JANUARY 6 HYSTERIA PLAYING? Trump approval higher than day he left.

In dual surveys on Thursday showing Trump’s rise and successor President Joe Biden’s fall, 52% of voters told Rasmussen Reports that they have a favorable impression of the former president. Some 47% don’t.

Among Republicans, 85% have a favorable view, with 63% declaring a “very favorable” opinion. Even 23% of Democrats and 51% of independents agree.

When he left office on Jan. 20, 2021, Trump’s Rasmussen approval rating was 51%. And his GOP approval was 84%, so he has actually increased support. . . .

A second poll provided by Rasmussen, however, shows that many voters don’t think Biden will win.

In that survey, just 28% of voters predicted Biden’s reelection. “Voter confidence in President Joe Biden’s ability to do the job remains low and most don’t expect a second term for the oldest president in U.S. history,” said the polling outfit.

Without naming a candidate, 37% said that they expect Biden to be defeated by a GOP challenger, and 21% said he would resign before his term ends, presumably elevating Vice President Kamala Harris.

And just 55% of Democrats said Biden would win a second term, while 21% said he would be defeated.

Added Rasmussen in a telling statistic, “Just 37% of voters believe Biden is really doing the job of president, while a majority (53%) think others are making decisions for him behind the scenes and another 10% are not sure.”

A real President will beat a fake President.

WOKE LAW REVIEWS:  I’m so old I remember when law reviews would bend over backwards to avoid even the appearance of partisanship.  Authors could have opinions; law reviews had to play it straight down the middle.

But that was then, and this is now.  The Emory Law Journal–which is receiving some well-deserved bad publicity for revoking its acceptance of  Larry Alexander’s decidedly “unwoke” essay–has no compunction about publicly announcing its views.  It has announced that “ELJ is committed to being an anti-racist organization, both in our ranks and in our scholarship.”  It has stated it “is proud to stand with … the student organizations who seek to be actively anti-racist in the wake of police violence levied against Black and brown communities across the country.”

In “The Emory Law Journal Abandons Scholarship for Wokeism,” Louis K. Bonham discusses not just my colleague’s cancelled essay, but also law reviews in general, which “have now discarded their traditional apolitical stances to instead become openly partisan organizations.”

I miss the days when the law review’s only “opinions” were on proper citation form.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Democrats Calling Out Teachers’ Unions Over School Closures Is Garbage Theater. “The unions can do what they want because they have all of the money and all of the power. Almost every elected Democrat who is calling out the unions right now isn’t up for reelection this year. They have the luxury to grandstand. The unions can let them have a long leash, knowing full well that they’ll be back begging for money and offering promises to make up for their public proclamations.”

EVERGREEN: New York Governor Kathy Hochul Is Delusional. “The Democratic Governor of New York declaring that she’s going to make New York ‘the most business-friendly State in the nation’ is like Danny DeVito declaring that he’s going to become an offensive lineman for the New York Jets; nothing in the rules actually forbids it, but everyone involved knows it’s not going to happen.”

TWO WORDS ON THE DEMOCRAT’S JAN. 6 OVERKILL: Wellstone Funeral.

LINCOLN BROWN: None of My Best Friends Are Black.

It was a very strange thing for me to be labeled a racist. I grew up in a black neighborhood. I was surrounded by black culture. The music I heard was from Parliament, Bootsy Collins, Heatwave, Ohio Players, and later The Sugarhill Gang and a slew of blues artists. That is not to say it was my music , but it was the music I grew up on and when I hear it today, it brings back memories.

Yes, as a short, skinny white kid with glasses, I got roughed up for the color of my skin on occasion. I was even spit on and throat-punched once. But I also caught hell from rich and poor white kids who were just jerks. And I had plenty of black friends back in high school and beyond. Some were good friends, some were casual acquaintances. As I have written before, my first girlfriend was black and no one except my left-wing parents had a problem with it.

This is a lovely piece. Read the whole thing.