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DECEMBER 16,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:48 P.M. ET: 

AND ANOTHER – FROM FOX:    NBC paid thousands of dollars to an assistant producer on MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews" nearly two decades ago after she brought a sexual harassment complaint against the longtime host, The Daily Caller reported Saturday.  The website, citing two sources, reported that NBC paid the woman $40,000 to settle her claim against Matthews in 1999. An NBC spokesperson told The Daily Caller the network paid a smaller, unspecified amount as part of a severance package.  The woman complained to executives that Matthews, now 71, had made inappropriate comments to her and made inappropriate jokes about her to others.  An MSNBC spokesman told The Daily Caller that Matthews had been slapped with a formal reprimand at the time the woman made her complaint. The website reported that the network decided that the complaints were "inappropriate and juvenile," but were not intended as propositions.  We recall how Matthews said a tingle went down his leg every time he heard Barack Obama speak.  Apparently, he had other tingles, and they cost him.

LET THE NUTTINESS BEGIN – FROM THE DAILY STAR:  A recent survey reveals a third of all workers believe automatons will be doing their job within the next 15 years.  The poll of 1,000 people also showed 57% of workers think these robots should be taxed in some form.  Ed Molyneux, the CEO of cloud accounting firm FreeAgent, which carried out the survey, said the research shows the majority of people think the future of the workplace involves robots.  But he said statistics showing 69% of people in the UK would be “happy” to work for a “robot boss” indicate employees are warming to the idea of automatons in the office.  I wonder if you could sue a robot for sexual harassment.  The lawyers are at work.

BORING – FROM DEADLINE:   The specter of Watergate has loomed large over Washington, D.C. recently — great timing for a television series looking at the scandal. Bridge of Spies writer Matt Charman has partnered with George Clooney and Clooney’s Smokehouse Pictures partner Grant Heslov for Watergate, an eight-part limited series. We hear that the project has landed at Netflix for development in a competitive situation.   This all involves the dream that President Trump will be impeached.  The left is in its glory.  I want to see that glory tarnished.

December 16, 2017       Permalink

MELANIA TRIUMPHS – AT 2:41 P.M. ET:   She doesn't get anywhere near the credit she deserves, but Melania Trump is rising in public esteem.  She deserves the applause.  She's an intelligent, spirited woman who has a feel for people, and it's clear she works hard at her work.  From The Hill: 

A majority of Americans have favorable views of first lady Melania Trump 11 months after President Trump took office, according to a new Gallup poll.

Fifty-four percent of Americans polled said they viewed the first lady favorably, up 17 points from January when only 37 percent of Americans viewed her favorably. 

By comparison, President Trump is viewed unfavorably by a majority of Americans in the poll. Fifty-six percent view the president unfavorably, while 41 percent view him favorably. 

While the first lady's popularity has climbed by double digits in the poll, the president's has stayed relatively the same from his 40 percent to 55 percent favorable-unfavorable rating from January.

The first lady got a later start in Washington than her husband. While the president took office in January, the first lady didn't move into the White House until June, after her son finished the school year.

Since settling into her role, the first lady has maintained a more public presence, attending events such as a Toys for Tots campaign on Wednesday and showing off the official White House Christmas decorations earlier this month. 

COMMENT:  It will still be a struggle for Melania because of the sheer hatred directed at her husband by the media.   She has conducted herself with class and dignity, unlike many of her media critics.

December 16, 2017       Permalink

FIGHTING THE FAKE NEWS – AT 12:48 P.M. ET:  Secretary of Defense Mattis hits back at a demeaning portrayal of President Trump.  From Fox: 

Pentagon Secretary James Mattis didn’t borrow his boss’s favorite phrase to refute a Washington Post report that President Trump doesn’t want to hear about Russia from his intel chiefs, but he might as well have called it fake news.

The former Marine Corps general told reporters Friday that, contrary to the newspaper’s lengthy report, no one advising the president seems to have reason to steer clear of the subject of Moscow and national security.

“I have no reservation, nor has the President ever evidenced any pushback, when I bring up Russia in a national security context, and obviously this has come up whether it be in Syria or with NATO and all the other places where you have heard me speaking about this,” Mattis said. “I have not seen this shyness over at the White House and in the Situation Room."

The Post reported that Trump is so eager to improve relations with Russia that he has not held the Kremlin to account for allegedly meddling in the U.S. election. Although U.S. intelligence agencies agree that the interference occurred, President Trump has not been expressed such certainty. Mattis, for his part, agrees with the intel community.

“Yes, I believe they did,” Mattis said.

COMMENT:  Okay, but the point is that no one is holding back with opinions on Russia that the president may not agree with.

As for the criticism that Trump doesn't "listen to the professionals," always beware of observations like that.  Real presidents, effective presidents, will hear out the "professionals," but challenge them.  Some of the greatest decisions presidents have made involved defying the "professionals." 

When President Reagan proposed to say, at the Berlin wall, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," the "professionals" strongly objected.  Reagan said it anyway because that's where his instincts took him.  It became his most famous line, and the wall came down.

December 16, 2017       Permalink

HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD? – AT 12:31 P.M. ET:  Leave it to Hollywood to drag in a famous man to front its pseudo soul-searching.  From Variety:

Spurred by the multitude of sexual abuse scandals, top Hollywood executives have tapped Anita Hill to chair the newly formed Commission on Sexual Harassment and Advancing Equality in the Workplace.

The commission made the announcement Friday following a meeting convened by Kathleen Kennedy, Bob Iger, Ari Emanuel, Maria Eitel, Nina Shaw, and Freada Kapor Klein.

“The Commission will not seek just one solution, but a comprehensive strategy to address the complex and inter-related causes of the problems of parity and power,” said Kennedy. “The fact that so many industry leaders—across film, television, music, digital, unions, agencies, ATA, AMPAS, television academy and guilds—came together, in one room, to explore solutions speaks to a new era.”

Hill went public in 1991 with allegations of sexual harassment during the Senate confirmation process for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Since then, in addition to teaching law and policy at Brandeis University, Hill has been active in discussions on the legal and cultural developments around harassment as well as gender and racial equality.

She has chaired the Human Rights Committee of the International Bar Association and is a member of the Boards of Directors of the National Women’s Law Center and the Boston Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights.

COMMENT:  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  We'll wait for the result.  I hope they do a good job.  But what really will work is creating an atmosphere of responsibility, an understanding that, laws or no laws, your behavior will be a factor in your career. 

When I was at NBC, at the Tonight Show, many years ago, the Standards and Practices Department did create a kind of atmosphere that discouraged bad behavior.  I think it was effective, if not totally so.  But that's where you begin.

December 16,  2017     Permalink

DECEMBER 15,  2017

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

BAN IT!  BAN IT!  FROM FOX:   “Jingle Bells,” one of the most well-known Christmas carols in the world, is now being called racist.  A Boston University theater professor claims the Christmas carol has a “problematic history” because it was originally performed to make fun of African Americans.  “The legacy of ‘Jingle Bells’ is one where its blackface and racist origins have been subtly and systematically removed from its history,” Kyna Hamill, a BU theater historian, wrote in her “Theatre Survey” research paper on the story of “Jingle Bells.”   Well, we'll never sing that one again, will we?  And I want to know how many Pacific Islander peoples were represented at the original Constitutional Convention.

LOVE IN AMERICA – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:   An Oklahoma high school gave a teacher the pink slip after she filed for a marriage license with a 16-year-old student.  Davis High School officials fired Cassandra White, 34, the day after she went to the courthouse with a male sophomore to apply for the license, according to news station KFOR.  “The district is currently cooperating with law enforcement in the investigation of these allegations,” the school said Friday to news station KTEN. “The teacher in question is no longer employed by Davis Schools.”   The question is how someone this inappropriate got a teaching job in the first place.  Look carefully at who's teaching your children.  Standards are low.

IDIOT – FROM ABC NEWS CHICAGO:   Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin headed to the United Nations in New York Thursday to ask for help fighting violence in Chicago.  "I'm hoping to appeal to the UN to actually come to Chicago and meet with victims of violence and maybe even possibly help out in terms of peace keeping efforts," Boykin said.  Boykin boarded a plane to New York City for a meeting with an Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations. It's a meeting that's been planned for more than a month and stems from disconcerting violence numbers seen this year in Chicago. Violence which is felt particularly hard in many African-American communities.  What a jerk.  We have superb American troops who can be sent in, as Eisenhower sent troops to Little Rock to intervene in a racial crisis.  And this guy goes to the UN, whose record on peacekeeping is zilch.  I guess the political left doesn't trust Americans.  Let's bring in those Russians.  The fact remains that New York has largely solved its major-crime problem, but Chicago, Baltimore, and Detroit have not.  Do you think it has something to do with leadership? 

December 15,  2017     Permalink

THE TAX BILL – AT 11:58 A.M. ET:   Still not passed.  There are several Republican senators holding out over the child tax credit.  But I can't imagine that the GOP will let this slip away.  Trump is on the case.  From Fox: 

President Trump on Friday predicted Congress would pass a sweeping bill to reform the country’s tax system next week, even as two Republican senators are holding back support -- for now -- over the size of a child tax credit.

As he departed the White House on Friday for a speech at the FBI academy, the president told reporters he has seen the details of the final version and is confident Republicans will get behind it.

“I have seen it,” he said. “I think it's going to do very, very well. I think that we are going to be in a position to pass something as early as next week, which will be monumental.”

The House and Senate have passed separate tax bills, but they have been working to blend them into a final $1.5 trillion GOP tax reform legislation. Republicans signed off on a version Friday, before likely final votes in both chambers next week.

Two Republican senators, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Utah Sen. Mike Lee, have indicated they were holding back support for the final unless a larger child tax credit is included.

Rubio tweeted Friday he can “only support” the bill if the child tax credit is “increased.”

Conn Carroll, a spokesman for Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee, also said Lee is "undecided" on the bill in its current form.

“Sen. Lee continues to work to make the [child tax credit] as beneficial as possible to American working families," Carroll said.

Rubio and Lee have advocated for a $3,000 tax credit per child in the bill.

COMMENT:  Of course, we could be surprised and see the bill go down in the Senate by one or two votes, but I'm relatively optimistic.  Every Republican knows the consequences for their party's control of the Senate if tax reform isn't passed.

December 15, 2017       Permalink

CHILLING INCIDENT – AT 11:17 A.M. ET:    This is the real news.  Makes our little scandals look minor.  From Air Force Times:

WASHINGTON — Two U.S. F-22 Raptors intercepted and fired warning flares at two Russian Su-25s over the tightly congested air space in Syria along the Euphrates River on Wednesday.

The Russian fighters had crossed an agreed upon deconfliction line that runs parallel with the Euphrates River. The U.S. and its Syrian partner forces, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, operate on the eastern side of the Euphrates, and it’s a region Russia and its Syrian regime allies are supposed to steer clear from.

“On December 13, two Russian Su-25s flew into coordinated Coalition airspace on the east side of the Euphrates River near Abu Kamal, Syria, and were promptly intercepted by two F-22A Raptors providing air cover for partner ground forces conducting operations to defeat ISIS,” said Lt. Col. Damien Pickart, a spokesman for U.S. Air Forces Central Command.

The F-22s conducted maneuvers and fired warning flares and chaff to convince the pair of Russian fighters to leave the deconflicted airspace, he said.

“At one point, one Su-25 flew close enough to an F-22A that it had to aggressively maneuver to avoid a midair collision,” Pickart said. “During the incident, a Russian Su-35 also flew across the river and was shadowed closely by one of the F-22As.”

The incident lasted nearly 40 minutes and the Russian aircraft eventually flew back to the west side of the river.

COMMENT:   Maybe an isolated incident, but maybe an aggressive attempt to probe our defenses in the area. 

When Field Marshal Obama took office, there were no Russian forces in the Mideast.  Now they are present in impressive numbers.  Another Obama victory.   But mention it to a Democratic, and get called a warmonger.

Trump is moving to bolster American defenses, especially in the Far East, but he's getting no help from the political opposition.

December 15, 2017       Permalink

WHAT IS THIS? – AT 10:38 A.M. ET:  Hard to believe it, but it's gotten this weird.  From the Kansas City Star: 

WASHINGTON – Andrea Ramsey, a Democratic candidate for Congress, will drop out of the race after the Kansas City Star asked her about accusations in a 2005 lawsuit that she sexually harassed and retaliated against a male subordinate who said he had rejected her advances.

Multiple sources with knowledge of the case told The Star that the man reached a settlement with LabOne, the company where Ramsey was executive vice president of human resources. Court documents show that the man, Gary Funkhouser, and LabOne agreed to dismiss the case permanently after mediation in 2006.

Ramsey, a 56-year-old retired business executive from Leawood, was one of the Democratic candidates vying to challenge Republican Rep. Kevin Yoder in 2018 in Kansas’ 3rd District.

She was running with the endorsement of Emily’s List, a liberal women’s group that has raised more than a half-million dollars to help female candidates who support abortion rights.

Ramsey will drop out on Friday, her campaign said.

“In its rush to claim the high ground in our roiling national conversation about harassment, the Democratic Party has implemented a zero tolerance standard,” Ramsey said in a statement Friday. “For me, that means a vindictive, terminated employee’s false allegations are enough for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) to decide not to support our promising campaign. We are in a national moment where rough justice stands in place of careful analysis, nuance and due process.”

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which has not endorsed anyone in the race, said in a statement that members and candidates must all be held to the highest standard.
“If anyone is guilty of sexual harassment or sexual assault, that person should not hold public office,” said committee spokeswoman Meredith Kelly.

COMMENT:  Sexual harassment of men?  Is that the next craze?  The point here is that this steady, daily, drip drip drip of accusations and "disclosures" is wearing people down.  Proof is not required to destroy lives.  A boorish act is given as much weight as a true sexual assault, which can result in a woman (or man) being severely injured or even killed. 

There has to be some order here.  We've said that many times.  But the drip drip goes on.  Have American women actually gained? 

December 15,  2017     Permalink