SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:52 P.M. ET: 

MY HEART BREAKS – From The Hill:   Al Jazeera America is shutting its doors less than three years after making a massive investment in the U.S. media market, an end for the cable news channel beset with meager ratings and internal strife.  Chief executive Al Anstey told employees in a companywide meeting Wednesday that the “decision by Al Jazeera America’s board is driven by the fact that our business model is simply not sustainable in light of the economic challenges in the U.S. media marketplace,” according to The New York Times.   How will Obama get his news?

COINCIDENCE? – From The New York Times:   Concerned about illicit money flowing into luxury real estate, the Treasury Department said Wednesday that it would begin identifying and tracking secret buyers of high-end properties.  The initiative will start in two of the nation’s major destinations for global wealth: Manhattan and Miami-Dade County. It will shine a light on the darkest corner of the real estate market: all-cash purchases made by shell companies that often shield purchasers’ identities.  Hmm.  Who's the king of real estate in New York?  Isn't his name Trump?  Just a coincidence, I'm sure.  Nothing to see, nothing to see.

DARKNESS ON CAMPUS – From the College Fix:   At Pennsylvania State University, no hurt feeling is too small, no slight too inconsequential, no unintentionally biased statement too unimportant.  Administrators want to know it all.  The public university is in the midst of a massive campaign that encourages students not only to watch what they say, lest they offend someone, but also to report any and all biased statements to campus officials.  Next they'll be encouraged to turn in their parents.  One of the great lies is that intellectuals love freedom.  The record is actually quite poor, as we are seeing today.

January 13, 2016