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FEBRUARY 25,  2017

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

BYE-BYE – FROM HOLLYWOOD REPORTER:  The president tweeted his announcement on Saturday.
Donald Trump will be skipping the White House Correspondents' Dinner on April 29.  "I will not be attending the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!" Trump tweeted on Saturday afternoon.  Given Trump's relationship with the press, it's probably a wise decision.  However, his absence will probably result in an even more vicious and mean-spirited evening than had been planned.

NOW WE KNOW – FROM CBS BOSTON:  The Atlanta Falcons weren’t able to keep their Poker Face during the second half and overtime of Super Bowl 51 against the Patriots.  With a few weeks to ponder how his team blew a 25-point second half lead, one member of the Falcons turned to Lady Gaga as a possible scapegoat.  Wide receiver Mohamed Sanu told the NFL Network’s Good Morning Football on Friday that Lady Gaga’s 40-minute halftime performance “definitely did” impact the team’s play in the second half.  “Usually, halftime is only like 15 minutes, and when you’re not on the field for like an hour, it’s just like going to work out, like a great workout, and you go sit on the couch for an hour and then try to start working out again,” Sanu said on the NFL Network, via by CBS Sports.  Sanu said he doesn’t “know if you can simulate something like” the lengthy halftime break.  We're glad to have that thoughtful, scientific explanation.  Sanu should be drafted as the Democratic Party's new press secretary. 

HE'S A WHAT? – FROM FOX:   One day before Donald Trump became U.S. president, a former Russian ballet dancer, Ravil Mingazov, became the final Guantanamo Bay detainee to be released.  But after almost 15 years in Gitmo, the last thing Mingazov, a Muslim, wanted was a homecoming. He fears for his safety if he returns to Russia where the government has adopted a tough posture toward any Muslim suspected of being radicalized -- something Mingazov has repeatedly denied being.  He said he would rather stay at Gitmo than be sent to Russia. Despite Kremlin demands that the U.S. return him to Russia, American officials flew him to the United Arab Emirates.  They're recruiting ballet dancers?  Really?  Now watch:  Meryl Streep will adopt him and get him a spot in "The Nutcracker."  He can blow up the Christmas tree.  What a show!

February 25, 2017       Permalink

THE PRESIDENT AND THE PRESS – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 12:30 P.M. ET:  President Trump is in an open battle with the American media.  It is long overdue. 

The press has become increasingly biased toward the left, but refuses to acknowledge that plain truth.  It claims that its job is to hold presidential administrations to account, but it seemed to have forgotten that job in the eight years that Barack Obama was president.   

Trump charged this past week that the media has become an enemy of the people.  He was widely chastised for that remark, and perhaps could have used more elegant language.  But is there some truth to what he said?  Can a free press actually damage, or even destroy, the country that protects press freedoms?  Marc Giller said this, in the Resurgent: 

The reason that the Founders specifically set aside protections for a free press in the First Amendment is that they understood that a government–even a freely-elected one–was going to try and get away with as much chicanery as it could, and that the best bulwark against that was a press that would hold it accountable to the voters. The problem these days, however, is that we don’t have a free press. Oh, they may be free to do whatever they want without interference from government; but rather than exercise that freedom, most of the media (at least on the network level) have willingly chosen to become a de-facto propaganda organ for progressive causes in general, and the Democrat party in particular. With the stories they cover–and, more importantly, the stories they don’t cover–they have actively sought to advance a narrative for the express purpose of pushing the country farther and farther to the left, all while nurturing and providing cover for Democrat politicians. And they’ve done this by openly lying about their motives, presenting themselves as neutral when they are anything but.

In other words, the news media have been trying to push us to a one-party state–one in which government becomes bigger and more intrusive, while civil liberties (at least the ones leftists don’t like) shrink ever smaller. That is the very definition of a threat to the Republic.

Does that make the media an “enemy of the people”? The answer is more gray than even honest Trump critics might think.

COMMENT:  Very well put.  You might have noticed that The New York Times, in its subscription ads, is asserting that subscribers further the "mission" of The Times.  Maybe some brave reader will write in asking exactly what that mission is.  Don't expect a straight answer. 

February 25, 2017        Permalink

AND TODAY IN ATLANTA – AT 11:32 A.M. ET:  Following the theme of our post just below, Democratic bigwigs are meeting in Atlanta to choose a new party chair. 

The frontrunners are Tom Perez, an Obama administration official on the far left of the party, and Keith Ellison, a congressman from Minnesota, even further to the left.  Ellison brings the added cocktail-party-talk advantages of being both black and Muslim.  Imagine the smiles in the faculty lounges of the nation and the fine homes of Beverly Hills. 

Some observers believe Ellison has the advantage in a party that is being taken over by the supporters of Bernie Sanders and his socialist crusade.  From heavy.com, a site we're consulting for the first time: 

The next chair of the Democratic National Committee is about to be selected.

Democrats will vote on the new head of the DNC at the 2017 Winter DNC Meeting, which is being held in Atlanta, Georgia. Voting is expected to begin on Saturday morning, with live coverage starting at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time on The Democrats’ official YouTube channel.

This vote takes place among the 447 members of the Democratic National Committee, and the person who receives a majority of votes will be elected chair. That sounds simple enough, but it’s made complicated by the fact that there are seven candidates in the running; this means that it is very likely that no one will get a majority of votes on the first ballot, and so a second round of voting will be required.

If no one wins during the second round, more and more rounds of voting will continue to be held until someone finally reaches 224 votes. After two rounds, the person who earns the fewest votes will be eliminated from contention, therefore narrowing the field down and making it easier for a single person to reach a majority.

This whole process is made available to the public to watch, and it can be viewed on YouTube. There will be just a few minutes between rounds of voting, and if a candidate decides to withdraw from the race between rounds, they have 30 seconds to address the crowd and potentially to throw their weight behind one of the other candidates.

There are seven candidates in the DNC chair election, although the race is currently thought to be between two contenders: Tom Perez, the former secretary of labor, and Keith Ellison, U.S. representative from Minnesota. Also in the race are Sally Boynton Brown, executive director of the Idaho Democratic Party; Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana; Jehmu Greene, Democratic strategist from Texas; Peter Peckarsky, an attorney from Wisconsin; and Sam Ronan, an Air Force veteran.

COMMENT:  My guess is that the Dems, given their current mentality, will go for the most narrowly ideological candidate, but you never know.  Sometimes a group gets fits of maturity, although it's rare.

February 25, 2017       Permalink

DEMS ARE AWAKE – AT 11:08 A.M. ET:  The Republican Party is in the best position it has held in a century, and sometimes seems not to understand that it must exploit that position by actually doing things, a new experience for some in Congress. 

Besides, the Democrats, sometimes crazed and radicalized, are not standing still.  They may weep and wail over the last election, but they are organizing.  They crave power.  From Fox: 

Former President Obama and other top Democrats are focusing efforts on state-level races and ending the reconfiguring of voting districts through the politically-laden process known as gerrymandering -- a combined effort to end “Trump-ism” and help their party regain control of Congress and legislatures across the country.

Obama indicated before leaving the White House last fall that his short-term, post-presidency focus will be on General Assembly races and redistricting after the 2020 Census.

And 2016 presidential candidate former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley has become the most recent high-profile Democrat to take up the cause.

“America needs non-partisan redistricting commissions,” O’Malley said at Boston College Law School, where he’s now a visiting professor. “This simple reform … must become the new norm of American democracy. … How can we expect people to vote if their voice has been carved into irrelevance by a political map ahead of time?”

An early test for Democrats trying to win state-level races and stopping the Trump wave arrives this weekend.

Delaware is holding a special election for an open state Senate seat that will decided whether Democrats keep their roughly 40-year hold on the chamber.

COMMENT:  Okay, we can laugh the Dems' sudden interest in gerrymandering, something that didn't concern them when they carved out majority-minority congressional districts.  Kind of like their sudden interest in the threat of Russia.  The fact thaat the Dems are focusing on the states should concern us and get us moving to retain the gains the GOP has made, and expand them.

There will be state- and municipal-level elections this year and next.  Fight for every seat and every mayoralty.

February 25,  2017     Permalink

FEBRUARY 24,  2017

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

EVERYBODY'S DOIN' IT, DOIN' IT, DOIN' IT – FROM THE DAILY MAIL:  Germany's foreign intelligence service BND long spied on journalists of the BBC, The New York Times, Reuters and other media, news weekly Der Spiegel reported Friday.  Media rights group Reporters Without Borders labelled the alleged surveillance 'a monstrous attack on press freedom', voiced fears the eavesdropping was ongoing and said it was planning legal action, according to Der Spiegel.  The magazine, which has extensively worked with US fugitive intelligence contractor Edward Snowden and reported on US and German espionage scandals, only cited documents it had seen.   Let's see if the news organizations named show much interest.  They will if they can prove that TRUMP (!!) and BANNON (!!!!) were behind the espionage.  Hmm.  Trump's father is of German ancestry.  That does it.

PROPER PUNISHMENT – FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:   A TV sportscaster in Chicago was suspended on Thursday for tweets he posted on Sunday that compared President Trump to a "cartoon lunatic" and alleged the election was not fair.  "Sports anchor Mark Giangreco's Twitter comments are not in line with ABC 7 Chicago's non-partisan editorial standards," ABC-7's management said in a statement. "We've reviewed the matter and are taking the appropriate action."  Giangreco's suspension will start Monday, last for a few weeks and be unpaid, according to the Chicago Tribune.  On Sunday, Toronto Star sports columnist Bruce Arthur tweeted, "Donald Trump: a hateful ignorant corrupt simpleton supported by 87 (percent) of Republicans."  It is incredible to see how politicized sportscasting has become, with ESPN the obvious example.  I don't know quite what's driving it, but may sportscasters want a little respect from the other sections of the media.

TRUMP'S STANDING – FROM RASMUSSEN REPORTS:   The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 53% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Forty-seven percent (47%) disapprove.  The latest figures include 37% who Strongly Approve of the way Trump is performing and 38% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -1.   Rasmussen tends to show Trump stronger than other polls do, but it had an excellent accuracy record for the 2016 presidential election.  Polling in the age of Trump is difficult, but I'll go with the guy whose track record is best.

February 24,  2017     Permalink

GREAT IDEA – AT 9:56 A.M. ET:  Leave it to Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin to come up with a plan to fight the assault on free speech that is occurring every day on college campuses.  From the College Fix: 

We missed something in our recent report on the higher-education proposals in Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s budget for Wisconsin: It would also codify the state’s commitment to free speech on public college campuses.

As flagged by Joe Cohn, legislative and policy director for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, the nearly 1,000-page bill introduced in the Assembly features this section on page 372:

Freedom of expression. (1) The board and each institution and college campus shall be committed to free and open inquiry in all matters and shall guarantee all members of the system’s community the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn. Except to the extent limitations on that freedom are necessary to the functioning of the system, the board and each institution and college campus shall fully respect and support the freedom of all members of the system’s community to discuss any problem that presents itself.

(2) In the face of conflicting ideas, it is not the proper role of the board or any institution or college campus to attempt to shield individuals from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive. Although the board and each institution and college campus shall greatly value civility, and although all members of the system’s community share in the responsibility for maintaining a climate of mutual respect, concerns about civility and mutual respect can never be used as a justification for closing off discussion of ideas, however offensive or disagreeable those ideas may be to some members of the system’s community.

COMMENT:  It doesn't stop there.  It goes on.  Please read the whole thing.  Imagine if every governor in the country put these provisions in every budget.  The Democrats probably won't, but Republicans might.  Start those cards and letters going.  Put heat on your governor.  Free speech may yet win out, which means the students and professors will win.

February 24, 2017       Permalink

TED CRUZ PREDICTS – AT 9:12 A.M. ET:   President Trump has just filled the first vacancy he had on the Supreme Court, assuming – and it's a solid assumption – that Neil Gorsuch will be confirmed.  But will he have another fairly soon?  From Fox: 

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told "Special Report with Bret Baier" Thursday that "I think the odds are very good" that a second seat on the Supreme Court will fall vacant this year.

"If not this summer, next summer," Cruz told Bret Baier. "You know, judges don’t like it when people kind of nudge them out, so they’ll go when they decide to go."

Cruz stressed that he had "no inside information" about any possible vacancy, but noted that "that most of my professional career has been as a Supreme Court litigator and I know the Court well."

President Trump has nominated Neil Gorsuch to succeed the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who died last year at the age of 79. Cruz did not specify which justice he believed would retire, but two of the remaining eight justices on the court — liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg and swing vote Anthony Kennedy — are in their 80s.

Cruz said the battle over whoever is appointed to fill the forthcoming vacancy would be "Armageddon."

"[This] is going to be the opportunity to shift the course of this court [and] put a five-justice majority of Constitutionalists on the court," Cruz said, adding that Republicans "need to be prepared to take the case to the American people."

COMMENT:  He's right.  Republicans must take the fight to the people.  So far the Republican Congress is underperforming, and the White House messages get muddled.  Should a new seat become vacant, the battle over confirmation will be explosive. as Cruz says.  It will be ugly in the extreme, and making the "Borking" of Judge Bork in the 1980s look like a fight in a student government.

I have no doubt that Trump will nominate another outstanding person, probably a woman, and will push that nominee through to confirmation...unless a few Republicans go crazy and join the opposition, and that is always a possibility.

February 24, 2017       Permalink

A NEW, DARK THREAT – AT 8:56 A.M. ET:  The Trump administration faces many challenges.  This may be the most serious.  From Elle: 

Those who don't like Donald Trump and the current Republican administration are mobilizing in all sorts of ways. They're speaking up in town halls and calling their representatives. They're organizing protests and demonstrations. And, for the magically-inclined, they're casting spells.

Starting at midnight on Friday, witches around the country are calling for a mass spell to be cast on Donald Trump every night of a waning crescent moon until he's driven from office.

The spell was publicized by Michael M. Hughes, who told ELLE.com that it was tweaked from multiple spells he saw going around private witchcraft groups. He published it on Extra News Feed because he felt "it would be very welcome to a lot of people." It quickly spread, with events being formed around the country and support on social media.

Hughes explained that he chose a binding spell because "we're not wishing harm on anyone, we're just trying to stop the harm they're doing. It's not the equivalent of punching a Nazi in the face, it's the equivalent of tying him up and taking his bullhorn away."

COMMENT:  I'm certainly glad he explained that.  But I sleep better knowing our armed forces are ready to fight any spell, counter any hell, in defense of freedom. 

I expect to see the spellmasters greeted warmly on CNN.  I want to see that Don Lemon interview.

February 24,  2017     Permalink