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DECEMBER 6,  2018

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

HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD? – FROM VANITY FAIR:  Kevin Hart announced on Twitter that he’s stepping down from hosting the Oscars next February. In two tweets issued late Thursday evening, Hart finally apologized for his comments from 2011 that included homophobic slurs, and announced that he would not be hosting the Oscars on February 24, 2019.  The tweets read, “I have made the choice to step down from hosting this year’s Oscars....this is because I do not want to be a distraction on a night that should be celebrated by so many amazing talented artists. I sincerely apologize to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words from my past."  Hosting the Oscars used to be a plum assignment in Tinseltown.  Now they have to go down to second- and third-tier talent to find someone willing.  It's a thankless job, subjecting the host to endless criticism and the possibility of a career-ending slip of the tongue.  No one cares much about the Oscar show anyway.  They read off the names of ten nominated movies most Americans have never heard of, and feature a parade of semi-stars denouncing Republicans.  I don't watch.

THE PHONY – FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:  Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s 2018 re-election campaign spent nearly $300,000 on private jet services in October, a report from the Federal Election Commission shows.  Sanders, a climate change hawk, went on a campaign blitz involving nine states to stump for Democratic candidates ahead of the November midterm elections, according to VTDigger. His aggressive campaigning likely served as a preamble for the independent senator’s potential bid for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president.  Sanders, who flew on private Apollo jets, has already positioned himself highlighting climate change as a major economic, infrastructure, and national security challenge in 2020. His busy travel schedule came the same month he issued a stark warning ahead of the November elections on the planet’s impending doom if humanity remains largely asleep at the wheel combating environmental threats.  “Climate change is the single greatest threat facing our planet,” Sanders said in an Oct. 17 tweet.  What a fraud.  Private jets and all.  Why don't these leftists finally admit that the real objective of "climate change" policy is the end of capitalism?

YIKES – FROM THE TELEGRAPH:  DeepMind’s artificial intelligence programme AlphaZero is now showing signs of human-like intuition and creativity, in what developers have hailed as ‘turning point’ in history. The computer system amazed the world last year when it mastered the game of chess from scratch within just four hours, despite not being programmed how to win. But now, after a year of testing and analysis by chess grandmasters, the machine has developed a new style of play unlike anything ever seen before, suggesting the programme is now improvising like a human.  Kind of reminds me of Hillary Clinton.  A new gimmick every minute.

December 6, 2018       Permalink

THE SENATOR FROM NEW YORK – AT 11:41 P.M. ET:   The title "senator from New York" used to be a title of distinction.  Not all have been stellar, but New York has had a tradition of sending eminent figures, whether one agrees with them or not, to the Senate:  Aaron Burr, Dewitt Clinton, Martin Van Buren, Hamilton Fish, William H. Seward, Elihu Root, Robert F. Wagner, John Foster Dulles, Herbert H. Lehman, Robert Kennedy, Jacob Javits, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and, yes, Hillary Clinton.

And then there's Kirsten Gillibrand.  Talk about a public embarrassment.  She's one of our two current senators, the other being Chuck Schumer.  She's an endless source of shame to New York, having changed her views on virtually every issue of public interest.  I've never seen her take the same position twice. In addition, she could walk into almost any venue in New York, and no one would know who she is. 

Now she has outdone herself.  From Fox: 

The future may be female, but critics say Kirsten Gillibrand's role may be limited.

The Democratic U.S. senator from New York was widely mocked Wednesday after saying the future is “female” and “intersectional,” in a wink to the progressive wing of her party.

“Our future is: Female, Intersectional, Powered by our belief in one another. And we’re just getting started,” Gillibrand wrote in a tweet.

Critics claimed Gillibrand was trying to pander to progressives ahead of a likely run for president in 2020, looking to portray herself as a feminist firebrand.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., for one, fired back at Gillibrand, saying “our future is: AMERICAN.”  “An identity based not on gender, race, ethnicity or religion. But on the powerful truth that all people are created equal with a God given right to life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness,” he added.

Others also criticized the Democrat for embracing “toxic” identity politics rather than viewing everyone as equal.

“Everyone should be viewed as equals, regardless of immutable characteristics. Now we keep hearing how one group should replace another- women vs. men, etc. It's completely backwards,” said one Twitter user.

Others have also pointed out Gillibrand’s political transformation from a centrist Democrat liked by the establishment to a progressive.

COMMENT:  She wants to be president.  Maybe she can be president of a student government.  Of an elementary school.  In Beverly Hills.

December 6, 2018       Permalink

YES, HAVE YOU  NOTICED? – AT 12:30 P.M. ET:  The great Michael Goodwin remarks on how Democrats truly love Republicans, as long as they're 1) dead and 2) were anti-Trump.  From the New York Post: 

He was a patriot, a hero, a ­genial gentleman and a great American. You can’t pick up a newspaper or go near a television without hearing leftists gush with praise for the late President George H.W. Bush. Who knew they felt this way?

And you are not mistaken if the outpouring of previously unknown affection for the first President Bush sounds familiar. That’s because it is almost identical to the loving send-off the same suspects gave Sen. John McCain after he died in August.

It all just goes to prove that Democrats and their media handmaidens really do love Republicans — when they’re dead. All the more so if, when they were alive, they ­opposed President Trump.

There were reports that both Bush and McCain voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. See, good Republicans.

McCain’s feud went beyond the grave, when it became known that he did not want Trump at his funeral. McCain got extra love for that ­final bit of pettiness.

Paradoxically, Bush gets extra credit because he wanted Trump at his funeral, even though both gestures are seen as a rebuke to the current president. In this case, Bush is hailed for rising above pettiness.

There is another phony dimension in the media’s praise for Bush and McCain in that both were said to epitomize a less toxic time in politics. While it’s true that politics wasn’t always as vicious as it is now and that Democrats and Republicans actually socialized frequently, the mainstream media didn’t share in that bipartisan bonhomie when it came to coverage.

Even then, their bias tilted left, although their double standard has reached new depths in recent years. I believe the press corps’ lapdog approach to Barack Obama and attack-dog approach to Trump are part of why Americans have become so polarized.

Indeed, many Trump voters ­explain their support for him as a reaction to left-wing press bias and the failure of other Republicans to fight back the way Trump does.

The heydays of press hatred for Bush and McCain came during their presidential campaigns. Long before they were saluted for their late-in-life stances against Trump, Bush 41 and McCain were declared unfit to be president.

And...

There is, of course, nothing wrong in saying something nice about the recently departed. Eulogies are not the time or place to seek balance.

The problem emerges when the partisan lens becomes the decisive factor in switching from damnation to praise. Then it is hypocrisy masquerading as principle and grace.

COMMENT:  Not only is the media hypocritical, you get the feeling that many of its employees, or colleagues, or comrades, or whatever they like to be called, really have very little knowledge of any president before Emperor Barack, and less interest.  Actually knowing something seems increasingly unimportant in an age when "Google it" is seen as the gateway to wisdom.

But the sheer press phoniness surrounding the passing of both John McCain and Bush 41 must break some kind of record. 

I wonder what will happen when Trump eventually passes on.  "Empire builder."  "Spoke truth to power."  "Built a great economy."  I can't wait to see the old, gray heads at CNN discover their inner Donald.  And when the aging Melania makes her way down the church aisle, the wailing about her "graceful presence" will make it even worse, or better.

There is always room for comedy.

December 6,  2018     Permalink

DECEMBER 5,  2018

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

HOW CAN WE STAND THESE LOSSES? – FROM POLITICO.COM:  Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is calling close allies and informing them he is not running for president in 2020, sources close to the governor tell POLITICO.  Patrick informed staff and advisers of his decision today, the sources say, with an announcement to come as soon as this week.  A close ally of former President Barack Obama, the Democrat rejoined the private sector at Bain Capital after serving two terms as Massachusetts' governor. But he ramped up his political activity this fall in advance of a possible presidential bid, traveling to a handful of races across the country.  Close advisers to Patrick launched a new political action committee in August, the Reason to Believe PAC, aimed at "promoting Governor Patrick’s positive vision for Democrats to rally around in 2018."  Patrick, who was encouraged by members of Obama’s inner circle to run in 2020, met with the former president earlier this year as part of Obama's string of meetings with prospective candidates.  Another delusional Dem who thought he'd detected a deluge of support.  Maybe from his family.

ANOTHER STEP ON THE MARCH TOWARD EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE – FROM COLLEGE FIX:   Around the Honors College at Appalachian State, you may hear a different way of labeling first-year college students. While they’re commonly referred to as freshmen at most universities, students at the North Carolina-based university often use a different term: “freshmores.”  The term was brought to Appalachian State University by Dr. Jefford Vahlbusch, hired in July of last year as dean of the Honors College. Vahlbusch previously held the same post at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, where he first started using the term.  In an article in The Appalachian, Vahlbusch said he started using “freshmore” as a “non-sexist way to talk about freshmen.” He said he “got tired of listening to female students say freshman” and that it “just didn’t seem to be right that we didn’t have a non-gender specific way of talking about college students.”  Vahlbusch told the campus newspaper the term has since caught on at the honors college.  When discussing why he feels using the term is important, Vahlbusch said it “shows awareness in regards to college students.”  I'd prefer that this conformist devote his attention to academic excellence, rather than to children's name games.

OH, NOW I UNDERSTAND – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:   Sen. Mazie Hirono suggested Tuesday that Democrats have a hard time connecting with voters because their breadth of knowledge tends to turn people off.  The Hawaii Democrat made the comment during a discussion at the “Bend Towards Justice” conference in Washington when she was asked by Slate editor Dahlia Lithwick how to make the judicial system a top campaign issue for voters.  “One of the things that we Democrats have a really hard time is connecting to people’s hearts instead of here,” Ms. Hirono responded, pointing at her head, according to a clip flagged by the Republic National Committee. “We’re really good at shoving out all the information that touch people here [points to the brain] but not here [points to the heart].”  “I’ve been saying it at all our Senate Democratic retreats we need to speak to the heart, not in a manipulative way, not in a way that brings forth everybody’s fears and resentments, but truly to speak to the heart so that people know that we’re actually on their side,” she continued.  “We have to kind of tell everyone how smart we are, and so we have a tendency to be very left-brain,” the senator added.  Just what the public wants – a pompous fool.

December 5,  2018     Permalink

AND BEATIN' THEM FOREIGNERS, TOO – AT 1:18 P.M. ET:   The president is not only rising in polls here, he's beating the pants, or the burkas, off foreign leaders who look down their noses at him. From Fox:

President Trump routinely takes grief from the pundits for his underwater approval ratings – but compared with some of his embattled European counterparts, facing civil unrest in the streets and internal government tensions, the U.S. president is riding high.

While Trump’s approval ratings have hovered well below 50 percent ever since he took office, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Theresa May are nowhere close to that right now.

Macron’s political troubles were dramatically exposed over the last two weeks, as rioters burned cars and looted stores in response to his push for gas taxes to fight climate change.

On Tuesday, the widespread violence prompted Macron to delay the fuel tax by at least six months.
Amid the chaos, Macron's approval rating in France is just 23 percent, according to the latest poll from international polling company Ifop, as many on both the left and right see him as out-of-touch. That compares with a 47 percent approval rating for Trump in the most recent Fox News poll.

Macron once had a friendly relationship with Trump, but that relationship soured after the U.S. president spurned Macron's advice on climate change and relations with Iran. Macron then publicly jabbed at Trump – attacking the notion of nationalism after Trump embraced the term, as well as calling for the formation of a European army to protect Europe against China, Russia, and even the United States.

Trump responded by swiping at Macron's approval ratings.

"The problem is that Emmanuel suffers from a very low Approval Rating in France... he was just trying to get to another subject," Trump tweeted last month.

COMMENT:  If truth be told, a president's approval rating at this stage doesn't necessarily translate into the result of his run for re-election.  Predicting the future of presidential elections is a hazardous business.  President Bush 41, being memorialized as we write, saw a major plunge in his approval as his first term came into its last year.  There was no second term because he was defeated by Bill Clinton in 1992.  He was also hobbled by the presence of Ross Perot in the race, who took votes mostly from Bush.

And don't forget the famous 1936 poll that showed the Republicans beating Franklin D. Roosevelt.  FDR won his second term by a landslide.

Polls are fun, part of the game of politics.  They are not predictions.

December 5, 2018       Permalink

MR. TRUMP RISES – AT 9:58 A.M. ET:  The president's poll standings are rising again.  I suspect they'll rise even more because of the president's elegant handling of the Bush funeral.  Very classy.  From Rasmussen: 

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 50% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Forty-eight percent (48%) disapprove. 

The latest figures include 35% who Strongly Approve of the way Trump is performing and 40% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -5.

COMMENT:  As we always say, this is one poll.  A Harvard poll a few days ago had the president at 46%.  He is doing as well or better than Obama did in polls at this stage of his presidency, but I doubt if you'll learn that at CNN.

The 2020 race has begun.  There is a boomlet for Beto O'Rourke, the laughable but engaging Dem Senate candidate who just lost to Ted Cruz in Texas.  Many Democrats apparently are deliriously in love with Beto, or Robert Francis, or whatever his name is, and the Democratic Party's mistress press sees him as the second coming of Bobby Kennedy.  He is dangerous because, if the press gets behind him, he could win in a close election, despite his lack of a functioning brain.  I have a feeling the Trump people are already deciding how to run against him.

The great fear of Republicans is that we will be in a recession in 2020.  It's a legitimate fear, which Trump would have to turn around and attribute to fear of the Democratic House's economic plans.  He could do it.

December 5, 2018     Permalink