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

McCAIN ON PALIN – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  Arizona GOP Senator John McCain said Saturday he’s sorry he chose then-Alaska governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate in the presidential race he lost to Barack Obama.  He told the New York Times that if he could do it over he would have picked former Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut.  Lieberman told The Times that he hadn’t known McCain felt that way. “It touched me greatly,” he said.  I've always had a high regard for Sarah's spunk and determination, but she clearly wasn't ready for a national campaign in 2008, and failed to grow much after that.  She needed better guidance than she got.  It's sad.  Lost potential.

AT LEAST WE KNOW WHERE HE STANDS – FROM FOX:  Controversial filmmaker and vocal Trump critic Michael Moore, took to Twitter Saturday to extend enthusiastic  birthday wishes to Karl Marx, the German philosopher, economist, historian, journalist and revolutionary who published “The Communist Manifesto” in 1848.  Moore, famous for films that have advocated universal health care and put capitalism in the crosshairs, tweeted an endearing message seeming to praise Marx and, in a series of tweets to follow, defended his name against those who attempted to “distort” it.  There's no distortion, except on the left.  Marx's ideas have resulted in murder and dictatorship.  His solution to the defects in capitalism would simply result in a new form of slavery.  Too bad Moore and those like him have never contemplated that.

REBUILDING OUR DEFENSE – FROM WAPO:   The U.S. Navy has reactivated a fleet responsible for overseeing the East Coast and North Atlantic - an escalation of the Pentagon's focus on a resurgent Russia and its expanding military presence.  2nd Fleet, deactivated in 2011 to preserve funds for new ships, will resume operations in Norfolk, Virginia, on July 1, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson told reporters Friday.  "This is a dynamic response to the dynamic security environment," Richardson said onboard the carrier George H.W. Bush. "So as we've seen this great power competition emerge, the Atlantic Ocean is as dynamic a theater as any and particular the North Atlantic, so as we consider high-end naval warfare, fighting in the Atlantic, that will be the 2nd Fleet's responsibility."  Rebuilding our depleted defense was one of Trump's major campaign promises, and he's doing it.

May 5,  2018