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

TECHNOLOGY'S DOWN SIDE – FROM CBC:  If you want to drive through the small residential streets of Leonia, N.J., you'll have to move there.  Starting Jan. 22, the town will ban all non-residents from driving on 60 of its streets during the morning and evening rush hours.  The new rules aim to crack down on urban-dwellers who take shortcuts through the town while following instructions from navigation apps like Waze, Google Maps or Apple — a phenomenon Mayor Judah Zeigler says is causing gridlock, costing money and putting people in danger.  "What's happening with the adoption of Waze and Google Maps and other navigational apps is these vehicles are ending up on our narrow streets," Zeigler told As It Happens host Carol Off.  "It takes people 15 minutes to get out of their driveway sometimes."  Excellent point.  These apps provide alternative routes when main roads are clogged.  The alternatives are often in quiet neighborhoods.  What's called for is some intelligent negotiation with the tech companies. 

OH, SO THAT'S THE SECRET? – FROM DAILY CALLER:   This Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the NAACP wants man-made global warming to be seen as a civil rights issue, arguing King’s vision of a society free of racial injustice can’t be achieved without addressing warming.  “We see climate change as a civil rights issue,” Jacqueline Patterson, head of the NAACP’s environmental and climate justice program, said in an online radio spot for the Yale Center for Environmental Connection.  Environmental activists have been increasingly framing global warming as a matter of “environmental justice,” since “minority and low-income populations are disproportionately affected by global warming,” Patterson told Yale’s online radio Climate Connections.  Traditionally, such concerns focused on traditional pollutants from factories or vehicles, but the NAACP is expanding it to carbon dioxide, which scientists blame for warming the Earth in recent decades.  The environmental movement has fretted in recent years that it’s not diverse enough, and groups, like 350.org, have tried to draw parallels between global warming and alleged police brutality that sparked riots in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014.  Hmm.  I'd look at this argument with two eyes, three if you have them. 

FINALLY GIVING TRUMP THE CREDIT – FROM TOWNHALL:   CNBC’s economic survey released prior to Christmas showed that for the first time in over a decade a majority was optimistic about the economy, and there was a shift as to who should receive credit for the booming economy: Donald J. Trump. The economic growth for the fourth quarter was near four percent. Over 100 companies gave bonuses of at least $1,000 or more to over a million workers, even some part-timers got a piece of that action. The GOP tax bill, which the Left said was going to be a prelude to Armageddon, was exactly the opposite for the American worker, who the Democratic Party decided to bet against to try and undercut Trump. Over 90 of middle class Americans will be receiving a tax cut. The Democratic Party is going to have to explain that move, especially when this tax bill becomes more popular.  As for the economy, economists said we should expect to see unemployment continue to go down and the economy to grow in 2018. Economists credit two things: President Trump and his tax bill. For Obama, his polices received good grades for providing financial stability, though they led to anemic economic growth and job creation.  In November, all Democrats in the House will be up for re-election, and they all voted against the tax cut.  Great GOP ammo.

January 15,  2018