SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:56 P.M. ET:

THE INEVITABLE LEFTIST RESPONSE – FROM FOX:   Calling the Trump administration’s tax reform plan a “middle-class tax increase,” two California lawmakers introduced a bill that would force large companies to fork over half of their expected saving to the state.  Assemblymen Kevin McCarthy and Phil Ting, both Democrats, introduced Assembly Constitutional Amendment 22, which calls for a 10 percent surcharge on companies with a net earnings over $1 million. The plan could potentially raise billions for the state's social services programs.  “It is unconscionable to force working families to pay the price for tax breaks and loopholes benefiting corporations and wealthy individuals,” Ting said in a statement, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. “This bill will help blunt the impact of the federal tax plan on everyday Californians by protecting funding for education, affordable health care and other core priorities.”  Driving more business out of California.  Brilliant.

THE MARKET RESPONDS – FROM COLLEGE FIX:   The president of the embattled Evergreen State College — where racial unrest last spring thrust the small Washington campus into the national spotlight — is predicting that the public institution will see a nearly 20 percent drop in student enrollment come fall.  President George Bridges has told the campus community that the school’s 3,800 student population is predicted to hover at about 3,100 when the 2018-19 school year begins. This 700-student loss represents an 18.5 percent decrease.  This estimate sent shock waves among faculty, and some speculate it spurred an anonymous call for Bridges’ resignation by way of flyers recently inserted into faculty mailboxes declaring “Please Resign,” among other disparaging comments.   Of course, none of the fashionable leftists on the faculty blame the "demonstrators," who disrupted the school and made learning nearly impossible.  We saw the same effect after racial unrest at the University of Missouri, when enrollment plunged.  Parents won't write checks to campuses that cannot or will not retain order. 

I'M SURE IT WAS FROM THE HEART (CHOKE) – FROM REUTERS:    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Monday endorsed former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s run for a U.S. Senate seat in Utah, despite Romney often being critical of Trump.  During the 2016 presidential campaign, Romney excoriated Trump as a “fraud” who was “playing the American public for suckers.” Trump responded that Romney had “choked like a dog” in his 2012 campaign against President Barack Obama.  Trump said on Twitter that Romney “will make a great Senator and worthy successor to @OrrinHatch, and has my full support and endorsement!” Romney announced Friday he would run to replace retiring Senator Orrin Hatch.  Romney thanked Trump for the endorsement in a Tweet posted soon after the president’s statement. “I hope that over the course of the campaign I also earn the support and endorsement of the people of Utah,” Romney said.  I can just feel all the sincerity.  Can't you?

February 19, 2018