SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M.

THE TRUMP EFFECT – FROM FOX:   Fiat Chrysler said Sunday it would spend $1 billion on U.S. manufacturing, including modernizing plants in Michigan and Ohio, in a move that’s set to add 2,000 new jobs, Reuters reported.  According to the company’s plan, the plant in Warren, Michigan will be made capable of producing a pickup truck currently built in Mexico.  The Warren plant will make the new Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer large SUVs. A plant in Toledo, Ohio also will get new equipment to make a new Jeep pickup.  The move by Fiat Chrysler follows a similar recent announcement made by a competing auto brand.  The brand was Ford, and the impetus came from President-elect Trump.  If Trump can truly rebuild American manufacturing, his legacy will be sealed.  And things are starting to happen.

GREAT MOMENTS IN EDUCATION – FROM THE DAILY MAIL:   They are titans of philosophy, without whose work an understanding of the subject is all but inconceivable.  But now students at a University of London college are demanding that such seminal figures as Plato, Descartes, Immanuel Kant and Bertrand Russell should be largely dropped from the curriculum simply because they are white.  These may be the names that underpin civilisation, yet the student union at the world-renowned School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) is insisting that when studying philosophy ‘the majority of philosophers on our courses’ should be from Africa and Asia.  Yawn.  Are there any courageous faculty members who can take on these "students" and show them how reckless they are?  I hear only silence.

THE NEXT TWO WEEKS – FROM AFP:    Washington (AFP) - A Rastafarian prophet, a former Taliban captive and thousands of minor drug traffickers have one thing in common: Their names have been submitted to President Barack Obama for clemency before he leaves office in two weeks.  Some US presidents have used this regal power of leniency in a pointed way near the end of their term in office.  On the last day of his term in 2001, Democratic president Bill Clinton granted pardons in a highly controversial move to late fugitive trader Marc Rich, whose ex-wife had been a major donor to Democrats.  Sixteen years later, Obama is fielding pressure from all sides to grant unlikely pardons or commutations of sentences to people whose supporters say have been unjustly sentenced or sought out by the justice system.  Among them is Bowe Bergdahl, a US Army sergeant held captive for five years by the Taliban before his release in a prisoner swap, who is due to be court-martialed for desertion.  There is legitimate concern that Obama might go nuts and grant pardons to dangerous people, but I'll withhold any comment until I see the actual list.  I think he should grant a general pardon to political pollsters for the crimes they committed before the election.

January 8, 2017