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DECEMBER 31,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:30 P.M. ET: 

THE TRUE HOLIDAY SPIRIT – FROM FOX:   A Florida boy penned a touching letter of condolence this week to the deputy who lost his K9 during a Christmas Eve shootout when the heroic dog died while saving two deputies' lives -- and officials have shared the note online.  The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office posted the letter from the boy, identified only as "Cooper." It was addressed to "Deputy Ryan," handler of the 3-year-old K9, named Cigo, and included a story from the boy's mother.  She sent the letter to the sheriff's office, saying her son cried upon learning that Cigo had died during Monday's disturbance at the Mall at Wellington Green, in which two suspects were arrested, the Orlando Sentinel reported.  Cooper told his mom that losing Cigo was like the deputy losing his "buddy" and "now he doesn't have his 'buddy' anymore," the mother said, according to the post. The next morning, Cooper decided to write the letter.  "Dear Deputy Ryan I am sorry that your dog got shot thank you for keeping me safe thank you for your service," the letter read. "Your dog did a lote (sic) for the world."  Why do I think this kid has a good upbringing?

IS ANY LIBERAL INTERESTED – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:  Border authorities are referring 50 people a day for urgent medical care, including tuberculosis, flu and even pregnant women about to give birth, a top official said Monday, saying it’s unlike anything they’ve ever seen before.  Most of those in need of care are children, and a staggering 28 percent are under age 5, having been dragged along for the trip by parents who in many cases are hoping to use the children as a shield against speedy deportation from the U.S.  The numbers were released after a full review was done of all children in the custody of Customs and Border Protection in the wake of two illegal-immigrant children who died in U.S. hospitals in December.  CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said most of those needing help were ill when they arrived at the border, and some appear to have made the initial decision to leave even while ailing.  “Many were ill before they departed their homes,” the commissioner said. “We’re talking about cases of pneumonia, tuberculosis, parasites. These are not things that developed urgently in a matter of days.”   Anyone interested in these children?  Anyone questioning why Mexican and Central American authorities are permitting sick children to travel those distances?  I guess the liberals are only interested if they can blame President Trump.  The children are simply political tools.

December 31,  2018     Permalink

HANSON, OUR NATIONAL TREASURE – AT 12:18 P.M. ET:  Victor Davis Hanson is indeed a national treasure, one of the great conservative chroniclers of our time, perhaps the best historian to emerge in the years since the 9-11 attacks.  If there's one essay you will read at year's end, you might wish to make it this one, on the fate of the American establishment.  From American Greatness: 

The unlikely 2016 election of Donald Trump—the first president without either prior political or military office—was a repudiation of the American “aristocracy.” By “rule of the best” I mean the ancien régime was no longer understood to suggest wealth and birth (alone), but instead envisioned itself as a supposed national meritocracy of those with proper degrees, and long service in the top hierarchies of government, media, blue-chip law firms, Wall Street, high tech, and academia.

The 2016 election and refutation of the ruling class did not signal that those without such educations and qualifications were de facto better suited to direct the country. Instead, the lesson was that the past record of governance and the current stature of our assumed best and brightest certainly did not justify their reputations or authority, much less their outsized self-regard. In short, instead of being a meritocracy, they amount to a mediocracy, neither great nor awful, but mostly mediocre.

This mediocracy is akin to late 4th-century B.C. Athenian politicians, the last generation of the Roman Republic, the late 18th-century French aristocracy, or the British bipartisan elite of the mid-1930s—their reputations relying on the greater wisdom and accomplishment of an earlier generation, while they remain convinced that their own credentials and titles are synonymous with achievement, and clueless about radical political, economic, military, and social upheavals right under their noses.

Remember the “new normal”? Our economic czars had simply decided anemic economic growth was the best Americans could expect and that 3 percent annualized GDP growth was out of the realm of possibility. Big government incompetence combined with Wall Street buccaneerism had almost melted down the economy in 2008. Recent presidents had doubled the debt—twice.

Few could explain how recent agreements such as the Paris Climate Accord or Iran deal could ever have achieved their stated aims, much less were in America’s interest. War planners had not translated interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya into strategic advantage—much less lasting victory—and never offered reasons to be in such places that appealed to half the country.

Most elites had assumed the deindustrialized red-state interior was doomed to a sort of preordained and irreversible decline, much of it supposedly self-induced. In more candid moments, elites jested that red-state losers might be better replaced by new immigrants, both legal and illegal.

COMMENT:  Please read the rest.  Hanson at his most perceptive. 

December 31, 2018       Permalink

OH, THE EXCITEMENT, OUR WONDERFUL LUCK – AT 11:51 A.M. ET:  Elizabeth Warren is in.  Aren't you surprised?  Count her presence among your, er, blessings.  From Fox:

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Monday she is filing paperwork to launch an exploratory committee for president, taking her first major step toward a 2020 run for the White House.

“Today, I’m launching an exploratory committee for president,” Warren, 69, a Democrat, said in a video released to supporters.

In her announcement, the liberal firebrand argued government "has been bought and paid for by a bunch of billionaires and giant corporations that think they get to dictate the rules that affect everyone," calling it "corruption, pure and simple."

"That’s not how government is supposed to work," Warren said. "You know it. I know it. And we know it is time to fight back."

As for details about her campaign, Warren said she'll "announce a plan" early in the new year.
Warren burst onto the national scene a decade ago during the financial crisis with calls for greater consumer protections. She quickly became one of the party's more prominent liberals even as she sometimes fought with Obama administration officials over their response to the market turmoil.

Now, as a likely presidential contender, she is making an appeal to the party's base. Her video notes the economic challenges facing people of color along with images of a women's march and Warren's participation at an LGBT event.

Warren is the most prominent Democrat yet to make a move toward a presidential bid and has long been a favorite target of President Trump.

In October, Warren took the rare step of releasing DNA test results examining her possible Native American ancestry, in apparent response to persistent criticism from Trump and other Republicans.

Warren for years has been accused of exaggerating her Native American heritage to help get a job as a Harvard law professor. The president, highlighting the controversy that has dogged her since her first campaign for the Senate, routinely uses the nickname “Pocahontas” for her.

The results released by Warren revealed “strong evidence” that Warren had a Native American ancestor dating back six to 10 generations. But the test may have caused new issues with the Native American community.

The Cherokee Nation responded to the results at the time by arguing that “a DNA test is useless to determine tribal citizenship.”

COMMENT:  It won't take long now before others jump in with "exploratory" committees.  I wonder what they explore.  They all have these committees and the only thing you hear about them is their formation.  Maybe they hold parties.  Or meetings.  (I hope Lizzie doesn't call them pow-wows.)

I can feel the excitement.

December 31,  2018     Permalink

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