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

THIS IS NUTS – From the L.A. Times:  Their fear: The hashtag #OscarsSoWhite will be trending on social media again.  The academy found itself on the defensive last year when white actors earned all 20 of the nominations in the lead and supporting categories. The topic came to define the Academy Awards so much that host Neil Patrick Harris opened the ceremony by quipping: "Tonight we honor Hollywood's best and whitest. Sorry, brightest."  Yet there's a strong chance this year's acting awards will once again be heavily, perhaps exclusively, white, despite the efforts of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to diversify the organization.  In the four acting categories, only Idris Elba ("Beasts of No Nation") sits among the forecasted nominees at Gold Derby, a website compiling the predictions of two dozen Oscar pundits.  I've got an idea.  How about making excellent movies that the American people actually want to see?  Diversity will generally come along with that.  The issue in Hollywood isn't color.  It's survival.  The feature industry is becoming a sideshow.  Fix that first.

HE'S BAACK – Obama is back from still one more Hawaii vacation.  Notice the difference?  From AP:   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hawaiian vacation over, President Barack Obama says he is energized for his final year in office and ready to tackle unfinished business, turning immediate attention to the issue of gun violence.  Obama scheduled a meeting Monday with Attorney General Loretta Lynch to discuss a three-month review of what steps he could take to help reduce gun violence. The president is expected to use executive action to strengthen background checks required for gun purchases..."I am fired up for the year that stretches out before us. That's because of what we've accomplished together over the past seven," Obama said his weekly radio and Internet address.  I hadn't noticed.  Please fill me in.

SHARP DONALD – As I've noted several times, and again earlier today, I don't favor him for president, but I've become increasingly impressed by his sharpness and his un-Republican ability to strike quickly and effectively.  From Breitbart:   On January 3 Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump used a Facebook post to call out Hillary Clinton’s hypocrisy in telling the American people that guns “don’t keep you safe” while simultaneously surrounding herself with “heavily armed bodyguards.”  On December 19 Breitbart News reported that Clinton reacted to the surge in gun sales that followed the San Bernardino terror attack by saying, “Guns, in and of themselves…will not make Americans safer.” She then listed the number of gun-related deaths each year in a way that appeared to suggest guns actually make America less safe.  On January 3 Trump responded with: “Hillary said that guns don’t keep you safe. If she really believes that she should demand that her heavily armed bodyguards quickly disarm!”   It may not be the most intellectual or reasoned argument, but it sure gets attention.

January 3, 2016