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

FIRST FAREWELL TOUR – President Obama made his farewell speech to the nation tonight.  Most presidents give their final speech from the Oval Office, speaking directly to the American people, and without a live audience.  But most presidents aren't demigods.  Obama gave his speech to a large, weepy audience in his home city of Chicago.  The city's mass of murder victims did not show up.  Obama testified to his greatness and did everything but sing "My Way."  The speech won't be remembered.  The showbiz production will be.  Not too classy.

AND YES THEY CRIED – FROM DAILY CALLER:  BuzzFeed editors tweeted that they were crying as President Barack Obama delivered his farewell address. This came just a few hours after the site published an unverified report by an alleged former British spy claiming President-elect Donald Trump performed lewd acts with Russian prostitutes.   The site’s official Twitter account even posted a picture of Obama wiping away a tear and commented “same.”   “Will I ever stop crying,” BuzzFeed senior editor Lara Parker tweeted.  Tanya Chen, an editor at the outlet, tweeted, “I’m crine[sic].” Chen later added, “This is the saddest series finale ever shown on television.”   Another editor, Elamin Abdelmahmoud, wrote, “Aaaaand tears” during the address.  Jessica Lima, a BuzzFeed Spanish editor, tweeted, “Yup, I’m crying and I can’t stop.”  The site’s executive editor Saeed Jones said that he hadn’t cried as much as he did during the tour since Beyonce’s recent tour.  American journalism at work.  Call the pediatric nurse.

OH DEAR, ANOTHER INCONVENIENT TRUTH – FROM JUDICIAL WATCH:   The Ft. Lauderdale Airport shooter is a Muslim convert who years before joining the U.S. Army took on an Islamic name (Aashiq Hammad), downloaded terrorist propaganda and recorded Islamic religious music online, according to public records dug up by the investigative news site of an award-winning California journalist. This is pertinent information that the Obama administration apparently wants to keep quiet, bringing up memories of the Benghazi cover up, in which the president and his cohorts knowingly lied to conceal that Islamic terrorists attacked the U.S. Special Mission in Libya.  Information is slowly trickling out that links the Ft. Lauderdale Airport shooter to radical Islam while the official story from authorities is that the gunman is a mentally ill, Hispanic Army veteran named Esteban Santiago that became unhinged after a tour in Iraq. Only one mainstream media outlet mentions the possibility of Santiago’s “jihadist identity,” burying it in a piece about New York possibly being his initial target. A paragraph deep in the story mentions that investigators recovered Santiago’s computer from a pawn shop and the FBI is examining it to determine whether he created a “jihadist identity for himself using the name Aashiq Hammad…” The reset of the traditional mainstream media coverage promotes the government rhetoric that omits any ties to terrorism even though early on a photo surfaced of Santiago making an ISIS salute while wearing a keffiyeh, a Palestinian Arab scarf.   The level of deception by this administration is breathtaking.  What is so sad is that otherwise patriotic officeholders have gone along with it.  Careerism.  Plain careerism.

January 10, 2017