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

A MAN OF THE PEOPLE – FROM DAILY MAIL:   Barack Obama is set to rake in $1.3-million for a whistle-stop speaking tour of Australia and New Zealand.  The former US president has already raked in thousands for an appearance at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney.   After a one-day stopover in Australia, Obama boarded a plane to New Zealand where he spent three days on engagements, meeting dignitaries and playing golf.    Next on his one-week tour is Japan and Singapore, and he is expected to earn seven figures for his work.  According to the Daily Telegraph, the 44th President of the US signed up to the prestigious Harry Walker Agency, which quotes speaking fees of $520,000 and $650,000 for speaking appearances.  The paper estimates the cash he will make in New Zealand and Australia alone will be around $1.3million.   Obama stayed at Sydney's Intercontinental Hotel where a one-night stay can cost up to $2,449.   A true champion of the common man, as long as he doesn't have to talk to one.

HEY BERNIE, DID YOU KNOW THIS? – FROM FOX:  Vermont is famously liberal, home to fiery politicians like Howard Dean and Democratic socialists like Bernie Sanders.  But it now has another distinction that’s making liberals in the Green Mountain State cringe: it is now the only state in the country that never has sent a woman to Congress.  This became official Wednesday, when Governor Phil Bryant of Mississippi appointed Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith to the seat left vacant by retiring GOP member Thad Cochran. Hyde-Smith is the first woman sent by Mississippi to Congress.  Up in Vermont, the state’s first female governor, Madeleine Kunin, called it “a little embarrassing to be beaten out by Mississippi.”  We should sneak up to the Vermont border and put up a sign announcing the distinction.

THE DISASTER HASN'T HAPPENED – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  Tourists are flocking to New York City in record numbers — which is great for the local economy, but a bit of an embarrassment to the city officials who predicted that the mere fact that Donald Trump is president would keep foreigners away.  NYC & Co., the city tourism-marketing agency, warned early last year that travelers, especially international ones, would view America negatively thanks to Trump’s rhetoric and “isolationism.”  It even said the Big Apple would see a drop of 300,000 (later tweaked to 100,000) global tourists.  Oops: The tide kept right on coming in. The city scored 13.1 million international visitors in 2017, up 400,000 from the 2016 total. Add that to nearly 50 million domestic guests, and the city broke its tourism record for the eighth straight year.  Covering itself as well as it could, NYC & Co. said it was excited that the city overcame the “hurdles” of the new era, crediting its “New York City — Welcoming the World” campaign as having surmounted the supposed Trump effect.  New York is great, as long as you don't have to deal with the liberals.  You know the New York liberals – they dress in the best outfits, have domestic "help," and wear sad faces because their lives are so bad.

March 23, 2018