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FEBRUARY 4,  2018

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

SPOOKY – FROM THE DAILY STAR (UK):  Facial recognition ID is predicted to replace cash and cards in future as a standard form of payments.  Just last week it emerged MasterCard customers will be able to pay for their shopping by using a selfie from April next year.  Mark Barnett, from Mastercard, said: “Biometric technologies perfectly meet the public’s expectation for state-of-the-art security when making a payment.
"This will be of great benefit to everyone: consumers, retailers and banks.”  Chinese HSBC consumers have been happy to flash their faces at their smartphones when paying for stuff in the past 12 months.  The Alibaba app also allows KFC customers in China to prove their identity and pay for grub by simply looking at a checkout 3D camera.   And if you decide to have plastic surgery? 

ON WINGS OF EAGLES – Those of us of the Patriot faith are a bit glum tonight, our boys having lost to an organization called the Philadelphia Eagles.  There must have been something wrong with our equipment.  It was a good game, however, and we knew that at some point the Pats would suffer a setback.  That came today.  From now on we will fall back on the old Brooklyn Dodgers slogan, "Wait 'til next year."  And next year will come, even if it takes 10 years.  By the way, no player took a knee before the game, which must have been a relief for the NFL.

TRUE PRIVATE EYES – FROM THE SUN:    A PRIVATE police force probing hundreds of crimes including murder and rape has a 100 per cent conviction rate.  The firm - Britain's first - has successfully prosecuted more than 400 criminals and is led by former Scotland Yard senior officers.  Private police officers at TM Eye have a 100 per cent conviction rate.  TM Eye is now believed to bring more private convictions than any other organisation except for the RSPCA, Daily Mail reports.  TM Eye are also looking at three murder cases that cops were unable to solve and are helping out in rape, missing persons, burglary, theft, stalking and blackmail cases.  In two years, the company has successfully convicted 403 criminals for fraud, intellectual property theft and other offences.  Sounds like the spirit of Sherlock Holmes is alive and well.  Also sounds like a great TV series.

February 4, 2018       Permalink

THE BACKLASH BUILDS – AT 2:16 P.M. ET:   I have no doubt whatever that most of the charges made by women during the current sexual-harassment season are true.  However, many others may not be true, may be exaggerated, or may be driven by the wish for a cash payment or a career boost.

Some men are being properly punished and driven from positions they abused.  But others are seeing their lives destroyed simply because someone makes a charge.  And a backlash is building.  From the New York Post: 

Men are scared, and feminists are delighted. But the urge to call out and punish male sexual transgression is bound to clash with an inescapable truth: We’re all in this together, men and women.

Consider what’s happening in the capital of Florida. Female staffers and lobbyists have found “many male legislators will no longer meet with them privately,” reported The Miami Herald. “I had a senator say, ‘I need my aide here in the room because I need a chaperone,’ ” lobbyist Jennifer Green told the paper. “I said, ‘Senator, why do you need a chaperone? . . . Do you feel uncomfortable around me?’ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘anyone can say anything with the door shut.’ ”

“I’m getting the feeling that we’re going back 20 years as female professionals,” said Green, who owns her company. “I fully anticipate I’m going to be competing with another firm that is currently owned by some male, and the deciding factor is going to be: ‘You don’t want to hire a female lobbying firm in this environment.’ ”

This kind of thinking is catching on in aggressively P.C. Silicon Valley, where men are taking to message boards like Reddit to express interest in sex segregation — sometimes labeled “Men Going Their Own Way,” or the “Man-o-Sphere.” How will that work out for women in the tech industry, where they already face substantial challenges?

Across industries, “Several major companies have told us they are now limiting travel between the genders,” Johnny Taylor, president of the Society for Human Resource Management, told the Chicago Tribune, citing execs who tell men not to go on business trips or share rental cars with women co-workers. UCLA psychologist Kim Elsesser, the author of “Sex and the Office,” sees a nascent “sex partition.” If men start to back away from women, at least in professional settings, it’s difficult to see how that will aid the feminist cause.

As is characteristic of movements led by the left in general, #MeToo faces the prospect of being seen to push too far, too fast.

COMMENT:  It may sort itself out, but what is needed now is some maturity, not just slogans.  And what is clearly needed is a set of priorities.  Women at physical risk come first, absolutely, and women at financial risk follow close behind.  When some boorish jerk has your paycheck, and you're trying to support two kids as a single mother, that's serious.  As for the rest, a variety of procedures can be worked out.  But not every adolescent comment or frat house pat requires that a man's (or woman's) life be destroyed.

February 4, 2018       Permalink

GOP MORALE RISES – AT 1:48 P.M. ET:   Rising poll numbers are fueling a major boost in the morale of the Republican Party.  From The Hill:

Republicans are feeling better about their prospects in the midterm elections, buoyed by recent polls that show their numbers improving.  An ebullient President Trump touted the shift in public sentiment reflected in recent polls during a joint Senate-House Republican retreat in West Virginia this week.  

“I just looked at some numbers, you’ve even done better than you thought,” Trump told lawmakers, citing poll numbers he discussed Thursday with National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Chairman Steve Stivers (R-Ohio).

“The numbers are pretty good and that’s one example of how things are getting better,” Stivers told reporters after discussing polling numbers with Trump. 

Stivers said the bump in Trump’s approval rating is a good sign for Republicans running for reelection.

“No president in their second year has seen their approval rating go up except now this one,” Stivers noted.

GOP lawmakers discussed the favorable turn in poll numbers during their retreat.

Pollsters David Winston and Myra Miller of the Winston Group gave a presentation to lawmakers Wednesday evening entitled “Middle Class Americans’ Views of the Tax Plan: The Opportunity for 2018.” 

A Monmouth University Poll released Wednesday showed that Trump’s approval rating had jumped 10 points compared to last month, while the Democratic advantage on the generic ballot had shrunk to 2 percentage points.

A nationwide Monmouth survey in December showed Democrats with a 15-point advantage on the generic ballot.

COMMENT:  Look, it's awfully early.  The election is in November.  Still, after months of being told how disliked the president is, and how out-of-favor the Republicans are, it's encouraging to see the numbers change the way they have. The mainstream media is approaching hysterics.  Poll results are delivered to Democratic headquarters in Washington with supplies of Zoloft.   Some on the left see these as the End Times for atheists. 

I'm loving it all.

February 4,  2018     Permalink

REMARKABLE – AT 11:53 A.M. ET:  It is Super Sunday, but not, apparently, for everyone.  From Fox: 

A growing number of Americans have decided they have better things to do with their time on Super Bowl Sunday than support a professional football league that doesn't have the decency to honor the national anthem.

American Legion and VFW posts, restaurants and bars, and even a bowling alley have decided they will not broadcast the Super Bowl game in their establishments -- out of respect for veterans and law enforcement.

A giant electronic sign outside the Oneota Veterans Club in New York reads, “In honor of our country, our flag, our veterans."

The Knights of Columbus chapter in Longview, Texas decided to end a decades-old tradition of broadcasting the game -- over their "disgust" with the national anthem protests.

"The veterans are especially aggravated by the course of events. This especially hits us as an insult when people are disrespectful of our flag and national anthem," chapter member Vance Lowery told television station KLTV.

VFW posts across the country have also joined the national Super Bowl Sunday boycott.

"They're disrespecting our flag and our national anthem so we no longer watch NFL," VFW Post 8951 member Bob Shank told the York Daily Record. "We have a bunch of veterans here who fought for that flag, fought for that national anthem.”

COMMENT:  We don't yet know just how extensive the boycott is.   And while these local actions are small, they could, if they grow, eventually show up in the television ratings, which are key to the financial success of the NFL.

I'll watch the game, but the NFL really can't absorb much more bad publicity.

February 4,  2018     Permalink

FEBRUARY 3,  2018

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

THIS POLITELY IS KNOWN AS A RACKET – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  Don’t look now, but more homeless people are coming to a nice hotel near you.  The Post reported on Thursday that the city now pays to put up a mind-boggling 11,000 homeless people in hotels — nearly one in six of the roughly 61,000 previously in shelters — costing taxpayers an average $222 a night compared with $150 a night in shelters.  The Big Apple’s hotels are making less money than they were a few years ago, and owners are scrambling for bucks as they see the value of their properties tumble. The recent creation of tens of thousands of new rooms, as well as competition from Airbnb, has driven down room rates and the city’s hotel market is “performing like mushy apple sauce,” says industry journal Hotel Management.  Mayor de Blasio, ever eager to throw Band-Aids at serious crises, offered to fill empty rooms with homeless people, taking large bunches of rooms, or even entire hotels, off owners’ hands, sometimes for more than they’d make from regular guests. And hoteliers are more than willing to play along. Their business, after all, depends on it.  And I'd imagine that the mayor's political war chest is suddenly receiving large contributions from previously non-political hotel owners.

GOP ROMPS IN STATEHOUSES – FROM FOX:   The top 10 most popular governors in America are Republican and 12 GOP governors running for re-election in 2018 enjoy positive approval rankings, according to newly released data.  Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, is leading the poll as the most popular governor in the U.S. with 69 percent of surveyed people approving his job, while only 16 percent say he is a lousy governor, according to the latest Morning Consult quarterly poll.  Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Alabama’s Kay Ivey are the second and the third most popular governors in the country, with less than a fifth of the people opposing their leadership.  The rest of the top 10 most popular governors based on their approval rankings were: Phil Scott, R-Vt., 63 percent; Matt Mead, R-Wyo., 63 percent; Brian Sandoval, R-Nev., 61 percent; Gary Herbert, R-Utah, 60 percent; Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark., 59 percent; Greg Abbott, R-Texas, 59 percent; and Dennis Daugaard, R-S.D., 59 percent.  Governorships are critical, even to the national party.  Governors oversee the political campaigns of their party in presidential election years.  They can make a major difference.

NEW CHANCE FOR ROMNEY – FROM THE ATLANTIC:  Mitt Romney hasn’t even officially announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate, yet Republican leadership is already seeing stars.  According to a Republican donor with direct knowledge, Senate GOP leaders have expressed an early interest in having Romney succeed Colorado Senator Cory Gardner as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The role involves leading the Senate GOP’s fundraising arm and helping recruit and vet prospective GOP candidates for the upper chamber. A Republican source close to Romney confirmed that the idea of the Utah Republican taking over the NRSC has generated chatter in recent weeks.  On Thursday afternoon, Gardner placed a call to a GOP donor, and said that he and Senate leadership “liked Romney” for the NRSC post.   This will be fascinating.  Romney has been a cutting critic of President Trump.  And yet, as a U.S. senator from Utah and a high party functionary, he'll be expected to follow Trump's lead.  Will he?  I'm guessing he will, to a large degree.  Otherwise, his new rise in the party will be crushed.  His niece, Ronna Romney McDaniel, is chair of the Republican National Committee, and a fierce Trump loyalist.

February 3, 2018       Permalink

WELL SAID – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 1:29 P.M. ET:  I often turn to City Journal, the publication of the Manhattan Institute, for real wisdom about the events we cover.  A new piece in City Journal sums up what we're seeing, and does it very well.  Required reading: 

The publication yesterday by the House Intelligence Committee, under the leadership of chairman Devin Nunes, of a four-page summary memo regarding FBI surveillance of a Trump campaign advisor in 2016 is the long-awaited opening act of an extended drama about the Obama administration’s abuse of power—which, when all is revealed, might yet outdo that of the Nixon administration.

Obama concealed his sharp-edged, Chicago-style machine politics under the rhetorical cover of progressivism. He was protected by a press corps that first enlisted in his administration and then fought to stop Donald Trump. But now that Obama is out of office, his ability to intimidate is much diminished. This past week, a 2005 picture of a beaming Obama next to a bright-eyed Louis Farrakhan surfaced, after having been held back for more than a decade at the behest of a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, who had been tried for corruption by Obama’s Justice Department after he refused to toe the party line about the “peace-loving” mullahs of Iran, has now seen the charges against him dropped. Z Street, a hawkish nonprofit supporter of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in Israel, had been tied up with IRS matters since 2009; it has just been released from its legal chains. Democrats are holding to the line that the prophet of hope and change ran a pure administration, virtually free of scandal. But the memo is probably just the beginning; we’re likely to see many more revelations come out.  

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  We emphasize that we are just at the beginning of inquiries into the life and times of Barack Obama and his merry men, and not-so-merry women.   Trump may be a rough guy, but he gets the job done.  Obama was a smooth guy, and got nothing done.

February 3, 2018       Permalink

THE MEMO – AT 11:47 A.M. ET:  The now-famous memo was dropped on us yesterday, and already it's boring.   Oh, and do you remember the State of the Union message?  When was that?

The news moves quickly, and, as Johnny Carson used to say, how quickly they forget.

So what about this memo?  Basically, it is a starting point.  It suggests that elements of the FBI and Justice Department used deceptive practices to launch investigations into the Trump campaign.  The memo was released by House Republicans.  The Democrats are writing their own memo, which the media will use to discredit the Republican memo.  The only beneficiaries will be the makers of copying machines.

There is enough in the GOP memo to support calls for a wider investigation than the one Mueller is conducting.  Dwight Eisenhower used to say that, if you have a difficult problem, enlarge the problem.  We have a difficult problem – sorting out all the details of who, if anyone, colluded with Russia and who, if anyone, used illegal procedures during the presidential campaign to destroy the other side.  It is time to appoint a second special counsel, with a focus, not on Trump, but on the Democratic Party and its operatives.

Yet, while advocating a second special counsel, I call attention to the havoc caused by the first one.  This is no way to run a government in a free society – to have a former FBI director, now special counsel, running loose and investigating almost anything he wishes.  It is a dangerous mechanism, especially considering that one of the things Mueller is probing is Trump's firing of Mueller's successor at the FBI, James Comey, who is a personal friend of Mueller's.  Conflict of interest anyone?

The general consensus is that Mueller will survive and will pose a grave danger to Trump and the Republican Party, especially if Mueller releases his "findings" just before the midterm elections.  He will find things that reflect badly on Trump, because "finding things" is what a special counsel must do to justify the millions of dollars spent.  Whether those "things" will lead to any action against the president is another matter.  That may depend on who controls the House after the election.  The House is where impeachments begin. 

The president had a spectacular week.  The economic news remains strong, despite a blip in the stock market.  His State of the Union was very well received.  He got a major bounce in the polls.

But Mueller is in his path.  And Mueller has the backing of an increasingly hysterical, anti-Trump media.

February 3,  2018     Permalink