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FEBRUARY 19,  2017

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

IS THIS DUDE SERIOUS? – FROM AP:  LONDON — London's mayor says that President Donald Trump shouldn't receive a state visit in Britain because of his "cruel" policies on immigration.  Sadiq Khan said Sunday the U.S. president should not get VIP treatment when he comes to Britain later this year because of his "ban on people from seven Muslim-majorities countries" and his decision to block refugees from entering the United States.  Khan said that "in those circumstances we shouldn't be rolling out the red carpet."  He spoke one day before British legislators are expected to debate a proposal to downgrade the planned state visit. The debate was scheduled in response to an online petition calling for the honor to be rescinded.  A state visit usually includes extensive pomp and a stay at Buckingham Palace.  If the president is denied the honor, he should simply stay home and cite "scheduling difficulties."  To insult the president is to insult the American people.

HILLARY HAD A FEELING – FROM FOX:   Months later, the left still seems to be recovering from the shock of Hillary Clinton losing to Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.  However, as it turns out, Clinton herself may have anticipated the election loss, despite all signs pointing to her victory.  In an interview with CBS News, Clinton's campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri said that although Clinton was upset about her loss, she wasn't too surprised by it.  "I think she's one of the people who is least surprised that she lost. ... Contrary to this view that she held onto this dream of being the first woman president, I think she came close to not running in 2016," Palmieri said.  Palmieri said Clinton eventually decided to run "because she thought she was the person who could best be president and that she was the Democrat that was best positioned to be able to win," as compared to Sen. Bernie Sanders.  I don't know if I buy this story.  Sounds like an attempt to make Hillary sound human, an impossible task.

THE TRUMP EFFECT – FROM THE HILL:    A strong majority of Americans say the U.S. economy is running strong, and most believe the upward trend will continue under President Trump, according to a Harvard-Harris poll provided exclusively to The Hill.  The survey found that 61 percent view the economy as strong, against 39 percent who say it is weak.  A plurality, 42 percent, said they believe the economy is on the right track, versus 39 percent who said it is on the wrong track.  Trump and congressional Republicans have claimed credit for the turnaround, noting numerous polls in 2016 that showed that many Americans wanted change in the nation's capital. Democrats counter that former President Obama handed a healthy economy to Trump and point out that the unemployment rate has dropped under 5 percent.  It's hard to deny the Trump effect.  Obama was not seen as an economic genius.  Now Trump must deliver on his economic promises to keep the momentum going

February 19, 2017       Permalink

HE'S BAACK...BUT HE NEVER LEFT – AT 10:46 A.M. ET:   Obama meant it when he said he'd stay involved.  This is tasteless for a former president.  He was not elected king.  From the New York Post: 

An Obama-tied activist group training tens of thousands of agitators to protest President Trump’s policies plans to hit Republican lawmakers supporting those policies even harder this week, when they return home for the congressional recess and hold town hall meetings and other functions.

Organizing for Action, a group founded by Obama and featured prominently on his new post-presidency website, is distributing a training manual to anti-Trump activists that advises them to bully GOP lawmakers into backing off support for repealing ObamaCare, curbing immigration from high-risk Islamic nations, and building a border wall.

In a new Facebook post, OFA calls on activists to mobilize against Republicans from now until Feb. 26, when “representatives are going to be in their home districts.”

The protesters disrupted town halls earlier this month, including one held in Utah by House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz, who was confronted by hundreds of angry demonstrators claiming to be his constituents.

The manual, published with OFA partner “Indivisible,” advises protesters to go into halls quietly so as not to raise alarms, and “grab seats at the front of the room but do not all sit together.” Rather, spread out in pairs to make it seem like the whole room opposes the Republican host’s positions. “This will help reinforce the impression of broad consensus.” It also urges them to ask “hostile” questions — while keeping “a firm hold on the mic” — and loudly boo the the GOP politician if he isn’t “giving you real answers.”

“Express your concern [to the event’s hosts] they are giving a platform to pro-Trump authoritarianism, racism, and corruption,” it says.

COMMENT:  The tactics of the well-bred hard-left community organizer, and they may well work.  Republicans, whose party is often anemic enough, are easily frightened. 

Republicans are being advised by some law-enforcement agencies to arrange for extra security at their town meetings.  Good idea, although they'll then be accused of strong-arm tactics.  The sad fact here is that there's little attempt by the mainstream media to expose the techniques being used, tactics of fear.  It is a wilful failure by the press.  Very wilful.

February 19,  2017     Permalink

THE PEOPLE ARE AHEAD OF THE POLS, AS USUAL – AT 10:28 A.M. ET:   It's clear from the election that the American people want results.  It's also clear that the Democratic Party hasn't noticed.   Big mistake.  From The Hill: 

A strong majority of Americans say Democrats should look to cooperate with President Trump to strike deals, according to the inaugural Harvard-Harris poll provided exclusively by The Hill.

The survey found that 73 percent of voters want to see Democrats work with the president, against only 27 percent who said Democrats should resist Trump’s every move.

The findings are significant as Democratic leaders in Congress are under growing pressure by their liberal base to obstruct the president's agenda. The poll shows the party is divided on how to deal with Trump: 52 percent of Democrats polled say they should cooperate with him on areas of agreement and 48 percent saying they shouldn't.

Those figures are nearly identical when the question is flipped – 68 percent of those polled say that Trump should be willing to compromise and find ways to work with Democrats in Congress. Thirty-two percent said Trump shouldn’t bend at all, even if it means finding ways to achieve his agenda without congressional approval.

Republicans are similarly divided here, with 48 percent wanting compromise and 52 percent saying Trump should be unwavering.

COMMENT:  The bottom line is that the Republicans have the power.  They control the White House and both houses of Congress.  It is up to the Democrats to decide to cooperate with the president, and they should.  They can at least tell the voters that they tried.

But the Democratic Party is increasingly controlled by a rigid, and frightening, left-wing fringe that openly threatens members who want to be reasonable.  Those Democrats are threatened with primary challenges in their next election campaigns, even if they've been Democrats all their adult lives.  It will take a certain number of Dems from conservative states to buck the party if they wish to produce results for their constituents, or even save their own careers.  This used to be the party of Roosevelt, Truman, and Kennedy.  It's pathetic.

February 19, 2017       Permalink

AH, THE IVY LEAGUE – AT 10:13 A.M. ET:  There is deep thought going on at Yale.  I must tell you about it, as it will elevate your cultural consciousness.  From the College Fix: 

It’s not enough for the Yale Women’s Center that the university took the name of a slaveholding vice president off a building.

It criticized the school for renaming Calhoun College after an accomplished alumna, computer-science pioneer and Rear Adm. Grace Murray Hopper, because she was white.

The Yale Daily News reports:

However, while the renaming may represent an affirmation of the power of both student and New Haven activists to enact change, the Yale Women’s Center has argued that more remains to be done. In a Facebook post last weekend, the Women’s Center wrote that the decision to “change the name from a white supremacist to a white woman, as amazing as she may be, is an act of whitewashing.”

In its post, the center tried to walk the line between celebrating “the second honoring of a woman for Yale’s residential colleges” and denouncing another white name on a building:

We feel the name change still does not reflect the issues raised by students and alumni for the years of Change-the-Name activism. …

[T]he decision to rename the college after another white person seems like an attempt to end this discussion on the history of white supremacy and its active and continued role in this institution and on our campus. …

We wish to call upon Grace Hopper College to become a center of resources and action for marginalized peoples and their accomplishments to this campus and to the nation at large.

COMMENT:  The word "crisis" is vastly overused.  But if we in America have a real crisis, it's an immaturity crisis.  The words above are evidence of it.  These kids are going to be America's leaders in 25 years.  They are getting a terrible start.  They think like children, and want to remain children.  It makes me worry for the future of the country...although I know there are many institutions and groups out in the heartland that aren't going the route of juvenile delinquency, and will step up when needed.  But will an immature nation realize when they're needed?

February 19,  2017     Permalink

FEBRUARY 18,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:50 P.M. ET: 

WEIRD – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:   New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is telling friends and staff he is taking a role with the Trump administration, according to a source close to the White House.  The GOP governor’s position has not been worked out, but he would not replace Reince Preibus as the president’s chief-of-staff, the source said.  “Trump told him to be patient,” the source said. “Christie will only take something where he is answerable to the president.”  Trump told The Wall Street Journal last month “at some point, we’re going to do something with Chris.” But the White House said it has not offered Christie a position.   This is very strange.  Trump doesn't need Christie, but Christie was loyal to Trump.  Christie's star has faded.  He may yet face indictment on corruption charges.  He has grown unpopular in his own state.  What precisely would he do?

WELL, OF COURSE – FROM THE COLLEGE FIX:   The Ohio State University’s Middle East Studies Center in partnership with the Multicultural Center is set to host author Nathan Lean to discuss the “pernicious phenomenon” of Islamophobia.  The event, slated for Monday, comes roughly three months after a Somali refugee student plowed a car into a crowd of Ohio State students before stabbing several of them with a butcher knife. In the past, that student had praised an al-Qaeda leader as a “hero” and criticized America for interfering in the Middle East.  Lean, author of “The Islamophobia Industry: How the Right Manufactures Fear of Muslims,” is a researcher focused on Islam, Islamophobia, the Middle East, Muslim-Christian relations, and other issues, his website states.  Just what we need, another "scholar" who believes the problem is with us, and not the terrorists.  We had a crowd like that in the 1930s, claiming that Hitler was simply a response to the rude behavior of other nations. 

OH PLEASE – FROM THE POLITICO:   Historians have ranked Barack Obama the 12th best president of all time, the highest rated since President Ronald Reagan, in a new C-SPAN survey released Friday.  Less than a month after exiting the White House, Obama received high marks from presidential historians for his pursuit of "equal justice for all" and for his commanding "moral authority," ranking third and seventh among all former presidents in each respective category. The 44th president also cracked a top 10 ranking for his "economic management" and public persuasion.  The former president's tenure earned its lowest marks for the relationship between the presidency and Congress, with bitter partisanship often stagnating the effectiveness between the two and Obama seeing his Democratic majority slip in both the House of Representatives and the Senate during his eight years in office.   I guess we had to expect that "presidential historians" – also known as professors – would give Obama a big boost, but number 12 is absurd.  They ranked George W. Bush at 33, and Bush was more successful.  Ignore these lists.  They'll just ruin your day.

February 18, 2017       Permalink

THE "BLIND SHEIKH" DIES – AT 1:29 P.M. ET:  He led the first terrorist effort to bring down the World Trade Center.  The second one worked.  From Fox: 

Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, the blind firebrand Islamist cleric behind the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, has died in federal prison, Fox News has learned. He was 78.

Abdel-Rahman, an Egyptian radical who maintained a global following even while imprisoned for more than two decades, died Saturday morning at Butner Federal Medical Center in North Carolina, where he was serving a life sentence.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed that Abdel-Rahman died at approximately 5:40 a.m. Saturday of natural causes after a long health battle with diabetes and coronary artery disease.

His son Ammar told Reuters that his family had received a phone call from a U.S. representative saying his father had died.

Abdel-Rahman was convicted in 1995 of plotting terror attacks throughout New York City, targeting the United Nations and other New York City landmarks. He was also linked to the 1993 World Trade Center attack in which six people died and more than 1,000 others were injured.

COMMENT:  I recall the first World Trade Center bombing.  People were shocked that anyone would attack such an icon.  Little could we know...

The sheikh, of course, was defended at trial by the usual corps of left-wing lawyers, who sided with anyone who was anti-American.

February 18, 2017       Permalink

PUBLIC SIDES WITH TRUMP ON MEDIA – AT 12:21 P.M. ET:  It seems that the president's assaults on the media – and that's what they are – reflect sentiments held by large numbers of Americans.  From Fox:   

Howard Kurtz says that the latest Fox News Poll shows that Americans are "so polarized" and that there is "so much distrust" of the media.

The poll, released Friday evening, reflected that 45 percent of voters trust President Trump more than the media, while 42 percent say the media are more trustworthy.

On "The First 100 Days," Kurtz said the poll should elicit some "soul-searching for our [journalistic] professionals."

COMMENT:  This is the second poll recently taken that shows a plurality of respondents siding with the president.

The result is not surprising.  For years, decades really, the press has drifted further and further away from the American people, and drifted closer to the ruling elites in Washington, the universities, Manhattan and the nicer parts of Beverly Hills.

The press we have today derives most directly from the journalism that grew up in the 1960s – less driven by "reporting the news" and more by "interpreting the news."  My mentor at The New York Times, Lester Markel, who was one of the inventors of interpretive journalism, always warned that it could easily lead to editorialization within news stories.  The line between interpretation and opinion is very thin, and I'm afraid our mainstream media has crossed over it repeatedly. 

The public is smarter than journalists realize, and sense what has happened.  And people don't enjoy being patronized.

February 18, 2017       Permalink

DRIFTING AWAY – AT 11:53 A.M. ET:  There are signs the Trump-Putin bromance may be starting to fade.  From AFP and AP:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called Saturday for an end to a world order dominated by the West and said Moscow wanted to establish a “pragmatic” relationship with the United States.

Lavrov was speaking at the Munich Security Conference shortly after US Vice President Mike Pence told the audience Washington remained “unwavering” in its commitment to the US-led NATO military alliance as it faced a more assertive Russia.

Lavrov said that the time when the West called the shots was over and, dismissing NATO as a relic of the Cold War, added: “I hope that (the world) will choose a democratic world order — a post-West one — in which each country is defined by its sovereignty.”

Lavrov said Moscow wanted to build relations with Washington which would be “pragmatic with mutual respect and acknowledgement of our responsibility for global stability.”

The two countries had never been in direct conflict, he said, noting that they were actually close neighbours across the Baring Straits.

Russia wanted to see a “common space of good neighbor relations from Vancouver to Vladivostok,” he added.

Earlier at the conference Pence vowed to “hold Russia accountable” even as President Donald Trump searches for new common ground with Moscow at the start of his presidency.

COMMENT:  I believe that Mike Pence's role in this administration will be critical, and one of the main things to watch.  He is seriously experienced, calm, and capable, and, one assumes, has his eye on the top job.  Remember that 2020 is only three years away.

February 18,  2017     Permalink