Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

DECEMBER 30,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:53 P.M. ET: 

WOOF! – FROM THE LOS ANGELES TIMES:  Airports across the country increasingly are turning to therapy dogs to help relieve the stress of flustered fliers.  But confusion and even conflict can result from the growing packs of pooches, after dogs used by security agents and emotional support animals traveling with passengers are factored in.  Therapy dogs can now be found in at least 46 of the nation’s largest airports, including Los Angeles International Airport, with dog programs most recently launched at the Hollywood Burbank Airport as well as airports in Connecticut and Colorado.  The dogs roam the terminals with their volunteer owners, reducing stress by letting passengers pet and socialize with the animals.  Watch.  This will spread to college campuses.  Students will demand therapy deans, therapy social activists, even therapy substitute parents.  They have rights!

NUT CASE – FROM BREITBART:  Friday on MSNBC, climate activist Bill Nye warned conservatives to “watch out,” saying progressive blue states will “address climate change” on their own.  Nye said, “Only 40 percent of people in the U.S. think that Congress should be addressing this and that’s because certain conservative groups, especially from the fossil fuel industry, have been very successful in introducing the idea that scientific uncertainty, plus or minus two percent, is the same as plus or minus 100 percent.”  He continued, “There’s a lot of emphasis from conservatives on what are writ-large states rights. Just watch out, conservatives, if states rights include California, Illinois, New York — these places that, where people voted in a progressive fashion — watch out if all those places start to address climate change and then impose economic sanctions, either overtly or by default, on places that have not embraced the work that needs to be done. Then you’ll end up with this states rights working the other way.”  No, dork, you'll wind up with a super Supreme Court case.  Don't get your hopes up, especially if Trump gets another appointment.

AND ANOTHER – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:  First it was MSNBC’s Mark Halperin. Then “The Today Show’s” Matt Lauer. Now, the recent string scandals involving creepy men who happen to work for NBC News has hit the peacock network’s business channel.  CNBC Director Dan Switzen has been arrested for allegedly spying on his teenage babysitter with a nanny camera placed in a tissue box in a bathroom of his Westchester, NY home.   The New York Daily News reports on the complaint filed by Pleasantville police which details how the teen discovered the camera and reported it immediately to authorities.  That is very weird, and very stupid.  I know a former Pleasantville cop, and I'll ask him about this strange case.

December 30, 2017       Permalink 

IRAN LATEST – AT 6:31 P.M. ET:  They are getting very serious.  But can the protests be sustained?  From Reuters:

DUBAI (Reuters) - Street protests hit Iran for a third day running on Saturday, spreading to the capital Tehran with crowds confronting police and attacking some state buildings, and a social media report said two demonstrators had been shot dead in a provincial town.

The wave of anti-government demonstrations, prompted in part by discontent over economic hardship and alleged corruption, are the most serious since months of unrest in 2009 that followed the disputed re-election of then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Saturday's protests, in fact, coincided with state-sponsored rallies staged across the Islamic Republic to mark the final suppression of the 2009 unrest by security forces, with mass pro-government events in Tehran and Mashhad, Iran's second city.

Pro-government rallies were held in some 1,200 cities and towns in all, state television reported.
At the same time, anti-government demonstrations broke out anew in a string of cities and in Tehran for the first time where protesters confronted and stoned riot police around the main university, with pro-government crowds nearby.

Videos posted on social media from the western town of Dorud showed two young men lying motionless on the ground, covered with blood, and a voiceover said they had been shot dead by riot police firing on protesters.

COMMENT: This will be a day-by-day story.  Thus far the United States is still only issuing statements of support for the anti-government demonstrators. 

December 30, 2017       Permalink

INCREDIBLE.  BERLIN TO HAVE SAFE ZONES FOR WOMEN ON NEW YEAR'S EVE – AT 12:44 P.M. ET:  Of course, the language is hedged.  We must be oh so careful.  But the facts speak for themselves.  Reckless immigration policies lead to very bad things.  From BBC:

The new security measures planned for the Brandenburg Gate party come amid concerns about sexual assaults.

A large number of assaults and robberies targeting women at Cologne's New Year's Eve celebrations two years ago horrified Germany.

Hundreds of women reported being attacked by gangs of men with migrant backgrounds.

Ah yes, "migrant backgrounds."  You know, people from Topeka, San Diego, maybe Tokyo or Ottawa.

The events in Cologne heightened tensions in the country over the large influx of refugees and migrants - 1.1m people arrived in Germany in 2015, some, but by no means all, fleeing violence in Syria and Iraq.

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to attend the New Year's Eve party in Berlin on Sunday and security will be strict. Large bags, such as rucksacks, and alcoholic drinks will be banned at the Brandenburg Gate.

Women who have been assaulted or feel harassed will be able to get support at a special "safety zone", staffed by the German Red Cross, on Ebertstrasse.

COMMENT:  Well, at least they're facing reality.  Cultures aren't the same, and they aren't equal.  And we have no obligation to avert our eyes just to be "multicultural."

December 30, 2017       Permalink

IRAN ERUPTS – AT 12:20 P.M. ET:  Mass demonstrations in Iran.  What will Trump do?  From AFP:

The Iranian government warned people against further protests on Saturday after two days of demonstrations sparked by anger over an array of economic problems.

"We urge all those who receive these calls to protest not to participate in these illegal gatherings as they will create problems for themselves and other citizens," said Interior Minister Abdolrahman Rahmani Fazli.

State news channel IRINN said it had been banned from covering the protests that spread from second city Mashhad on Thursday to hit several towns and cities.

The protests initially targeted economic problems, but quickly turned against the Islamic regime as a whole.

US President Donald Trump warned "the world is watching" after dozens of demonstrators were arrested.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi dismissed Trump's comments as "irrelevant" and "opportunistic".

Media coverage inside Iran focused almost exclusively on pro-regime rallies held on Saturday to mark the defeat of the last major protest movement in 2009, which hardliners call "the sedition".

The timing was coincidental, since the rallies are held every year on this day, but offered a handy show of strength to the regime as huge crowds of black-clad supporters gathered across the country.

"The enemy wants once again to create a new plot and use social media and economic issues to foment a new sedition," Ayatollah Mohsen Araki told a crowd in Tehran, according to the conservative Fars news agency.

COMMENT:  When Iranian protests erupted in 2009, it took President Obama about four days to shuffle to a microphone and make some half-hearted statement endorsing freedom.  He did nothing, and the protests were defeated by the hardliners. 

Trump is tweeting.  Thus far that's all he's doing.  If the protests continue, he must do more.  He must show that he's not Obama.  This may be a moment to apply increased and heavy pressure on the Iranian regime.

December 30,  2017     Permalink

DECEMBER 29,  2017

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

ECONOMIC GROWTH – FROM REUTERS:  (Reuters) - A gauge of factory activity in the U.S. Upper Midwest improved to the strongest level in over three years in December, led by much stronger readings on new orders and production, according a private survey released on Friday.  Marquette University and the Institute for Supply Management-Milwaukee said their seasonally adjusted index on manufacturing in the Milwaukee region rose to 65.57 this month from 59.62 in November.  The December figure was the highest since November 2014 when it was 68.9.  A reading above 50 indicates regional factory activity is expanding.
The upbeat snapshot of upper Midwest business activity coincided with a jump in a similar measure for the Chicago area.  On Thursday, MNI Indicators and ISM-Chicago said their jointly developed Chicago Purchase Management Index rose to 67.6 in December, the highest since March 2011.  The Marquette University and Milwaukee ISM survey’s component on new orders, a proxy on future activity, increased to 88.33 from 66.46 last month, while its production gauge improved to 72.65 from 57.94.  Like Trump or not, his economic policies are starting to have effect.  The Dems are in denial.

NICE, HUH? – FROM PJ MEDIA:   An American-accented ISIS fighter who apparently lost a leg fighting with the terror group was featured in a new Islamic State video calling on Western supporters, including the disabled, to conduct knife or gun attacks.  The bearded jihadist is referred to by nom de guerre Abu Salih Al-Amriki, or the American, and is shown using crutches and attaching a prosthetic leg. In "Inside the Khilafah" video released by ISIS' official al-Hayat Media Center in English and Arabic, Abu Salih also calls for would-be terrorists to take advantage of gun availability in the United States.  He begins by telling wounded jihadists with "one leg or no legs" that they have "no excuse" to not strike the kuffar, or disbelievers. "To the brothers with limbs and no limbs, I challenge you to a race toward the gates of Jannah [paradise]," he said.  I guess that passes for athletic recreation.

TOUGH ON THE RUSSKIES – GOOD – FROM THE HILL:  Two senators scrapped a scheduled trip to Russia after Moscow canceled a visa for fellow Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), according to Politico. 
Shaheen planned to depart for Russia on Jan. 11 along with Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), all three of whom sit on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to meet with Russian government officials.  Johnson and Barrasso canceled the trip when the Kremlin denied Shaheen's visa without explanation.  Shaheen is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a tough critic of Russia, who backed a bill earlier this year that levied new sanctions against the country for its meddling in the 2016 election.  Some good bipartisan solidarity, but I remain amused by the Democrats' sudden concern about Russia.   

December 29, 2017       Permalink

HARF BARF – AT 2:18 P.M. ET:  Marie Harf, late of Obama's State Department, now a Fox News contributor, tried to give credit to Field Marshal Obama for the recent, dramatic defeat of ISIS.  I don't think she was too persuasive.  From Breitbart: 

Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “The Five,” former Obama State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the “strategy” that led ISIS’s defeat was “laid out during the Obama administration by military commanders.”

She added, “President Trump has loosened the rules of engagement. He has allowed the military to use more bombs for example and so I think that has helped. But for me, the bigger question is what is the strategy going forward? There are tens of thousands of ISIS fighters who once they lose this territory in Syria and Iraq are going to go back to Europe they are going to go online they are going to radicalize people like we have seen try to commit terrorist attacks here in the U.S. So in terms of the fight against ISIS  this is a good step, but the fight is going to continue in a different and almost more dangerous way.”

COMMENT:  How profound.  The fact is that President Trump turned this fight over to the military, and let the military win.  And win they did.  Quickly and efficiently.  Winning is good.  As MacArthur said, "In war there is no substitute for victory."  I don't think I ever heard the word "victory" pass Obama's lips.

And yes, the surviving ISIS fighters will return home and some will become terrorists.  That is the threat we face,  But now we have a president who understands the threat, actually uses the term "Islamic terrorism," and doesn't refer to acts of terror as "manmade disasters."  Quite a change from the last guy.  Getting the facts right, and admitting them, is the first step to victory.

December 29, 2017       Permalink 

A NEW MOVIE, BUT THE SAME OLD STORY – AT 11:56 A.M. ET:   There's a new movie out called "The Post," kind of a modern-day "All the President's Men." Directed by Steven Spielberg, it deals with the Pentagon Papers case, wherein the U.S. Government tried to suppress internal documents that revealed, among other things, some artful lying about the war in Vietnam.

Liberals will love it.  Ah, for the good old days.  Vietnam.  Nixon.  Lyndon Johnson.  Who could ask for anything more?  And the movie stars senior Hollywood liberal Meryl Streep, who says she didn't know what Harvey Weinstein was doing all these years. 

I have not seen the movie, but Seth Lipsky, of the old New York Sun, a journalist I respect, feels it takes us in the wrong direction.  I'm not shocked.  From the New York Post: 

Yet this movie deals with only some of the lies about Vietnam. Inexcusable as they were, the lies told by the Americans were relatively small beer.

It was our Communist enemies who told the big lie — that the war was a struggle for liberation by Vietnam’s noble comrades, who took on the Americans with pitchforks. What hooey.

The truth is that the war was a conquest of free South Vietnam by a well-armed, Soviet-backed regime in the north. At the end, the enemy emerged from the jungles with tanks and surface-to-air missiles.

The Pentagon Papers disclosed that our own leaders, in effect, refused to heed evidence that we would lose the war — and sent our troops anyway. “The Post” seems to buy into this theory. Yet it wasn’t sending troops that turned out to be the error.

Rather, it was assuming we couldn’t win. On the ground in Vietnam, our GIs did just that. In the most famous battle, Tet in 1968, our soldiers trounced the Communists. The cause of free Vietnam was betrayed in the US Congress, which had been turned by the anti-war movement.

And...

It fell to President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to try — heroically — to keep Congress from abandoning Vietnam. But early in 1975, Congress cut off supplies of ammo and materiel to our ally.

The Communist conquest quickly followed.

Let President Trump — and his critics — remember: When Congress cut off Vietnam, it wasn’t about saving our GIs. They’d long since been withdrawn.

No, the decision by Congress was to retreat in the face of Soviet Communism. It was about abandoning the hope of free Vietnam itself.

Vietnam’s democracy died in broad daylight.

COMMENT:  Wonderfully written, and true. 

December 29, 2017       Permalink

NEWT SPEAKS – AT 11:25 A.M. ET:  I still think Newt Gingrich is one of the smartest people in American politics.  He doesn't hesitate to go against the crowd, the latest trend, or the prevailing thought.  He assesses 2018, and it might surprise you.  From the New York Post: 

The great political surprise of 2018 will be the size of the Republican victory.

After members of the elite media have spent two years savaging President Trump, lying about Republican legislation, and reassuring themselves that Republican defeat was inevitable, the size of the GOP victory in 2018 will be an enormous shock.

Two very interesting columns (one by Barry Casselman and one by Scott Adams) illustrate how the media is deceiving itself.

Casselman contends that the Democratic victory in Alabama may have blocked a year-long embarrassment and actually strengthened Republican prospects in the Senate. He asserts there may be a new political wave coming, but no one knows whether it will be a red or blue wave.

Adams, the author of Dilbert, has a list of 20 political opinions and predictions made about President Trump and his Administration, which were just plain wrong. He suggests if you were wrong about 15 or more of these assertions, you might quit talking about politics while Trump is in the White House. By Adams’s standard, most elite "analysts" would have to be quiet, because they have been so consistently wrong about Trump.

As I listened to the end of the year "analysts," I was struck by how little they know, how little they have questioned their own mistakes, and how mutually reinforcing their false information has been.

These are not analysts. These are liberal propagandists. Much of what they assert is just plain wrong. Fake news is, sadly, an accurate term. And the topic about which they have been the most fake is the GOP’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  It'll make your day, or year.

December 29,  2017     Permalink