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DECEMBER 30,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:35 P.M. ET: 

ARE YOU BELIEVING THIS? – FROM THE HILL:   Alumni of Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-Vt.) 2016 presidential campaign are requesting a meeting with the senator and his advisers to discuss the issue of "sexual violence" on his 2016 campaign, according to a new Politico report.  "We the undersigned request a meeting with Senator Sanders and his leadership team to discuss the issue of sexual violence and harassment on the 2016 campaign, for the purpose of planning to mitigate the issue in the upcoming presidential cycle - in the primary and potential general election campaigns," the group of more than two dozen women and men wrote, according to a letter obtained by Politico.  They confirmed to the outlet that they sent the letter to Sanders on Sunday.  Sanders has said publicly multiple times that he is considering a bid for the presidency in 2020.   The letter does not specify instances of sexual violence and harassment from the previous presidential campaign.   Some of the signatories told Politico that they felt the issue was not the Sanders campaigns, but rather a culture of toxic masculinity on campaigns in general.   So this suddenly comes up, more than two years after the 2016 campaign?  What's really going on here?  I'm guessing the left decided to get rid of Bernie – too white and too male – in favor of trendier models, and this is how they'll do it.  It's only a theory, but think about it.

MARS ANYONE? – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  Boston-based couple Yari and R Daniel Golden-Castaño met on a Facebook group for aspiring Martians, married on a day when the red planet was closest to the Earth — and have signed up to colonize the fourth planet from the sun.  “It’s just part of [my] childhood dreams,” said R Daniel, 36, an Army reservist who is studying computer science.  The pair are two of 100 semi­finalists worldwide who have been selected for the Mars One program — a Dutch organization’s scheme to launch a human colony on the planet by 2032. More than 4,200 candidates originally applied, and the group of 100 will eventually be whittled down to 24 trainees. They’ll be subjected to a decade of intense training: sequestered in a remote location where they will learn to grow food, repair technology and offer medical training. No one will be given a return ticket.   I wonder how they'll send in their absentee ballots.  The Dems will figure out a way.

ABSOLUTE CORRUPTION – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  A nonprofit run by state lawmakers to raise scholarship money for needy minority students spends most of the cash on its lavish annual soiree — including $6,000 on limos — and gave out no grants the last two years, The Post has learned.  The New York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators organizes a “Caucus Weekend” — a series of workshops, concerts and parties — in Albany every February for minority members of the Assembly and the Senate.  The group charges sponsors up to $50,000 for a chance to party with lawmakers at events that have ­included Grammy Award-winning rappers and high-profile speakers such as Hillary Clinton and Jesse Jackson.  The Presidents Day weekend bash is capped off with a swanky black-tie Scholarship Gala where participants are reminded that they are “changing lives, one scholarship at a time,” according to the group’s Web site and literature.  But in the last two years there has been no cash for scholarships, according to two sources — a former lawmaker, and a community organizer who has relied on the money for needy students since just after the group was founded in 1985.  I'm afraid this is a much more common story than we'd like to believe.

December 30, 2018       Permalink

YUP, IT'S A MAJOR ISSUE – AT 12:18 P.M. ET:   Immigration, that is.  Some Dems want to play it down, or shout racism, but Americans are legitimately concerned.  From Washington Examiner: 

Most Americans believe that illegal immigration is a problem but are split over what to do about it, according to a new survey.

The latest Economist/YouGov.com poll found that 84 percent believe illegal immigration is a “problem” for the United States.

And of that, 58 percent called it a “somewhat serious” to “very serious problem.” Another 26 percent called it a "minor problem," and only 10 percent said illegal immigration is "not a problem"

Republicans hold an edge as the party most trusted with handling border security, 31 percent to 26 percent for Democrats.

And as the current government shutdown has show, the nation is split on building President Trump’s border wall. Some 43 percent support it and an equal percentage, 43 percent, oppose it, said Economist/YouGov.com.

Attitudes about the shutdown are split on political lines. Republicans blame Democrats for not giving Trump $5 billion for the wall and Democrats blame Trump for being stubborn.

COMMENT:  Trump's political instincts, as we've said here before, should not be underestimated.  He gets it.  He wants to ride the immigration issue to 2020.  He may well be right, especially with the Dems going far left on the question.

December 30,  2018     Permalink

HE'S BAACK, AND THAT'S THE CRIME – AT 11:53 A.M. ET:  How much justice does a convicted murderer, who has lost all his appeals, deserve?  Well, I guess it depends on how famous you are, and whether you can get a leftist judge to back your case.  From Fox: 

The widow of a Philadelphia police officer who was gunned down 37 years ago in the line of duty is "outraged" over a judge's decision last week to grant her husband's killer a chance to appeal his conviction.

On Thursday, Judge Leon Tucker granted Mumia Abu-Jamal another opportunity to appeal his 1981 conviction in the death of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner. Abu-Jamal spent three decades on death row before his sentence in the shooting death of Faulkner was thrown out over flawed jury instructions.

Prosecutors agreed to a sentence of life without parole, and Abu-Jamal's final appeal was rejected by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2012. However, the judge ruled on Thursday that former Justice Ronald Castille should have recused himself because of statements he made as a prosecutor about police killers that suggest potential bias.

"I'm absolutely outraged with Leon Tucker. Tucker has no merit on this judgment. [Castille] had nothing to say about Mumia Abu-Jamal, he had no prejudice," said Maureen Faulker in an exclusive interview on "Fox and Friends" Sunday. "This is going to open the door for so many murderers to be able to do this and appeal this."

COMMENT:  One can only imagine Maureen Faulkner's anguish.  The case goes on some 37 years after her husband's murder.  She has seen his executioner lionized around the world by the brainless left.  The killer, using tape, has even delivered commencement addresses from his jail cell.

There has been a dramatic rise in the last year in the murders of police officers.  This new court decision, as Mrs. Faulkner notes, will make it even easier for the killers.

December 30, 2018       Permalink

DECEMBER 29,  2018

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

THE NEW KIND OF WARFARE – FROM THE LA TIMES:  A cyberattack that appears to have originated from outside the United States caused major printing and delivery disruptions at several newspapers across the country on Saturday including the Los Angeles Times, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.  The attack led to distribution delays in the Saturday edition of The Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and several other major newspapers that operate on a shared production platform. It also stymied distribution of the West Coast editions of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, which are all printed at the Los Angeles Times’ Olympic printing plant in downtown Los Angeles.  “We believe the intention of the attack was to disable infrastructure, more specifically servers, as opposed to looking to steal information,” said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly.  No other details about the origin of the attack were immediately available, including the motive. The source identified the attacker only as a “foreign entity.”   Chilling.  Imagine if airlines and hospitals were affected.  This is a new type of warfare and I'm not sure we're prepared for it.

THERE IS INDEED FAKE NEWS – FROM RTE:   Influential German news weekly Der Spiegel said it has suspended two senior editors following the scandal involving a reporter who admitted faking stories for years.  The company said the contracts of Ullrich Fichtner, an editor in chief, and Matthias Geyer, a chief editor, had been suspended.  The suspension "will remain until the (magazine's) internal commission has completed its investigation into the affair," the editor in chief Steffen Klusmann said in an internal letter.  Earlier this month, Der Spiegel stunned the media world by revealing that one of its award-winning reporters had falsified stories for years.  Claas Relotius, 33, resigned this month after admitting he had made up stories and invented protagonists in more than a dozen articles in the magazine's print and online editions.  Yes, Virginia, there is fake news.  A lot more of it than you think.

COMING SOON TO AN AMERICAN CAMPUS NEAR YOU – FROM DAILY MAIL:  An Egyptian court has sentenced a 25-year-old woman to three years in prison for 'sexually harassing' a monkey in the country's north, state daily Al-Ahram reported Friday.  A court in Mansoura city charged Basma Ahmed with 'inciting debauchery' and 'committing an obscene act in public', a judicial source told the newspaper.  She was arrested in October after a 90-second video of the incident went viral, particularly among young people and students, Al-Ahram said.  Anyone who opposes the rights of monkeys is a blatant monkist.  There'll be a march for monkey freedom in Washington in April.  Be there.

December 29, 2018       Permalink 

THE PRESIDENT HOLDS – AT 10:51 A.M. ET:  Despite the thumping he's taking in the press, the president's numbers are holding up, but there are warning signs.  From The Hill:

President Trump's public support appears to be holding steady despite the partial government shutdown dragging on amid a stalemate over his demand for border wall funding.

In a poll released Friday by The Hill and HarrisX, the president's job approval rating stands at 47 percent, down 1 point from the previous survey Dec. 7-8 and within both studies' 3.1 percent margin of error.

Trump's approval rating in the Hill-HarrisX polls has been relatively steady since September, remaining between 45 percent and 48 percent.

"Despite a couple of polls being a little bit outside or perhaps a little bit of outliers, we've seen the president's approval rating generally consistent and in the low- to mid-forties," Mallory Newall, research director at Ipsos Public Affairs, said Friday during a panel discussion featured on Hill.TV's "What America's Thinking."

While Trump's numbers have stayed relatively steady during his presidency, he has consistently received more very negative assessments in surveys than very positive ones.

That dynamic is a "warning sign," Republican pollster Ed Goeas said in the discussion Friday.

"There's real intensity on the strong negatives versus the strong positives. That is not a good sign for the president in terms of going forward."

It may be particularly difficult for Trump, Goeas argued, as he was able to win in 2016 despite being unpopular because his former Democratic rival Hillary Clinton was "equally disliked."

COMMENT:  That's true, about Madam Hillary.  But it could also be true about the Democratic candidate in 2020.  The batch of "mentionables" doesn't contain too many lovable types.  Kamala Harris has a personality even a mother would balk at.  Ditto Cory Booker.  Biden is likable, but may forget that there's an election.  Bernie Sanders gets good numbers, but wait 'til voters learn what he really believes. 

At the same time, we don't know who might emerge in 2019.   Beto O'Rourke has now gotten the attention of the Great Mentioner.  He's very likable, quite charming, and a complete empty suit, or pair of jeans, or whatever he's wearing.

December 29, 2018       Permalink

PREPARING – AT 10:20 A.M. ET:  Not to ruin anyone's good time, but this a news site.  There is clearly apprehension, in this and other countries, about some kind of terrorist act over New Year's.  The NYPD is taking serious precautions.  From NBC News:

An army of cops — backed by bomb-sniffing dogs, drones, and more than 200 blocker vehicles — will blanket New York City's Times Square during the New Year's Eve celebration, authorities said Friday.

Officials with the NYPD and FBI in New York said there are no known specific or credible threats to the annual event but urged the public to remain vigilant.

"We always have the world's best intelligence analysts and investigators monitoring the threat stream day and night," NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill said at a press briefing.

The NYPD will be keeping a close eye on the festivities with the help of more than 1,200 cameras, including portable devices brought to the area to add an extra layer of coverage. The camera footage will be fed to one of the NYPD's state-of-the-art intelligence centers, where officers have the ability to quickly rewind or zoom in on the numerous feeds.

In a first, the department will also be deploying its own drone to add another camera to the sky, augmenting the NYPD's helicopter fleet. The drone will be tethered to the ground and will have an area cordoned off below it to protect revelers in the event of a malfunction.

The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force will also be on hand with counter-drone technology, authorities said.

The extraordinary security measures include welding shut manhole covers and embedding officers inside area hotels.

NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Counterterrorism and Intelligence John Miller said the teams of intelligence detectives will take their positions inside hotels "well before New Year's Eve."

Miller said the officers will be teamed up with hotel staff carrying master keys and allowed to spend days getting to know hotel housekeepers and other staff so they will be able to identify anyone who doesn't belong on the premises and the hotel staff knows the detectives.

COMMENT:  Remarkable.  Good work by the NYPD.  I can't wait for the ACLU to move in and try to stop some of this work. 

I love the idea of embedding officers in hotels.  A very good precaution.  Some major attacks have originated in hotels, or involved hotels – Mumbai in India, and Las Vegas in the United States, to name two.

We hope for the best, but eternal vigilance is in order.

December 29,  2018     Permalink