Not Serious

The Wall Street Journal claims pressure is growing on New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) to resign over allegations of his sexual harassment.

Gov Andrew Cuomo Faces Growing Calls From New York Democrats to Resign

goes the headline. And

US Congresswoman Kathleen Rice, of Long Island, became one of the highest-profile New York Democrats to call for Mr Cuomo to step down.

I’m having trouble seeing the pressure. So far, all that’s going on is a lot of loud chit-chat.

There are two ways to apply pressure in this context. One is for the State’s legislature to block Cuomo’s agenda until he quits or his term expires. “He can’t govern” goes one articulation of this. That, though, would redound to the legislators as much as it would to Cuomo.

The other way is to actually impeach Cuomo, convict him at trial, and thereby eject him from office.

But we have this:

Six Democratic state lawmakers who are members of the Democratic Socialists of America said Tuesday that they supported impeachment. In New York, impeachment articles must be approved by the state Assembly and a trial is conducted before members of the state Senate as well as judges of the state’s Court of Appeals. Democrats have a two-third majority in both the state Assembly and Senate. Mr. Cuomo has appointed all seven judges of the Court of Appeals.

OK. With numbers like that, what are those six legislators actually doing about impeaching and trying Cuomo?

…

Porch dog yapping. Not applying pressure. Not actually bringing articles of impeachment to the Assembly floor for up-or-down action. Absent that, there is no trial.

There’re just little, yippy dogs barking.

US Soccer Federation Turns Tail

Following Megan Rapinoe’s taking a knee during our national anthem in a 2016 international match, the US Soccer Federation formally required all of its players to stand during our national anthem.

All persons representing a Federation national team shall stand respectfully during the playing of national anthems at any event in which the Federation is represented.

Last Saturday, the Federation, through its National Council, bent the knee to the Left and repealed that requirement, formally allowing its players to disrespect our anthem and flag and to openly insult the generations of our veterans who have fought for, and been maimed or killed fighting for, the right of these players, among others, to be so blatantly disrespectful and overtly insulting.

USSF President Cindy Parlow Cone:

This is about the athletes’ and our staff’s right to peacefully protest racial inequalities and police brutality. So I urge our membership to please support our staff and our athletes on this policy.

No. Cone is insulting our intelligence with that foolishness. If these athletes were serious about protesting racial inequalities and police brutality, they’d go into the neighborhoods and approach the businesses, with their time, their money, and their bodies and actually act against these things. They don’t; they’re not serious.

And US soccer is too woke to be taken seriously.

Boycotts

There’s growing interest in Congress in the US boycotting the Olympics winter games scheduled for Beijing in 2022. That, despite President Joe Biden’s continued passivity—beyond some chit-chat—regarding all things People’s Republic of China.

Congressman John Katko (R, NY) in his letter to Biden on the matter:

The actions taken by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are antithetical to the values of both the United States and its allies around the world. Participation in an Olympics held in a country that is openly committing genocide not only undermines those shared values but casts a shadow on the promise for all those who seek free and just societies.
…
The United States simply cannot in good faith participate in an Olympic Games in a country that is committing genocide and continuously attempts to manipulate and lie to the global community about such atrocities. Before the eyes of the world descend upon China in 2022, I urge you to take action by working with our partners and allies to lead the free nations of the planet in a unified movement to hold this honored contest amongst nations in a country that actually lives up to the values of the Olympic Charter.

That interest is growing, too, across flyover country outside the DC and coastal bubbles.

Biden’s diffidence regarding the potential for boycott, though, is illustrated by what he said through his White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki:

There hasn’t been a final decision made on that. And, of course, we would look for guidance from the US Olympic Committee.

Three guesses how that went.

A spokesperson for the US Olympic Committee said they believe boycotts are an ineffective way to address global issues.
“We believe the more effective course of action is for the governments of the world and China to engage directly on human rights and geopolitical issues,” the spokesperson told Fox News.

Got it in one.

Of course the folks with a vested interest in their project are going to insist that their project be left alone. And USOC management personnel, through that spokesman, had only the most vapid of rationalizations, suggesting in wide-eyed innocence that the PRC would engage, directly or otherwise, on anything related to human rights.

Too Precious

That’s the British press, in comparison with which even our own press is…inadequately endowed.

It seems that Henry Charles Albert David, a Duke of Sussex (the latest in that line, in fact) gave an interview to an American television late night talk show host.

Oh, woe. Oh, the angst. Oh, the world is coming to an end.

The British press is up in arms because its morning coverage of Harry’s interview somehow clashed with the effort of the British Queen, Elizabeth, to get word out regarding the wisdom of getting vaccinated against the Wuhan Virus.  “A source” complained

When the Queen speaks, as she has done about the vaccine, it is accepted that she has a clear field[.]

I’m not sure by whom it is accepted, but that’s neither here nor there. The “source” has misplaced his dismay. Here’s the kicker:

News of Harry’s late-night chat filled the British media Friday morning, hours after the Queen was trying to give a booster shot to the vaccine with an address in which she encouraged the UK public to get jabbed[.]

To the extent the British queen’s message was stepped on (“hours after?” Really? The field still isn’t clear?), it was the deliberate, carefully thought out decision of the British press to fill itself with coverage of Harry’s interview. The man had nothing to do with that.

Common Ground on Abortions

That’s the claimed hope of the Progressive-Democrat HHS Secretary nominee Xavier Becerra—that he can find “common ground” on his late-term abortion goals.

Indeed, there’s this bit of disingenuousity from Becerra:

I understand that we may not always agree on where to go, but I think we can find some common ground on these issues because everyone wants to make sure that if you have an opportunity, you’re gonna have a healthy life[.]

Except for the aborted baby. That life gets no opportunity for health; that life is simply…terminated.

There is no common ground on abortion, late-term or otherwise: either there’s baby killing going on, or there’s not.

The only common ground at all related to abortion is the ground in which all those babies are buried.