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FEBRUARY 16,  2018

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

NOT A HIT SHOW – FROM COLLEGE FIX:   Some 42,000 students attend UCLA, and whether many of them think “toxic masculinity” is a pressing concern is unclear, if the attendance at a recent campus forum on the subject is any indication.  When the UCLA Intergroup Relations Program recently hosted an event to allow the campus community to discuss “toxic masculinity,” 10 students showed up.  The discussion, held Tuesday, was billed as a way to allow students a chance to discuss “the silence surrounding toxic masculinity, emotional repression, locker room talk, and broader social norms,” according to organizers.  I guess most students don't think masculinity is toxic.  The tiny attendance is indicative of subtle changes we're starting to see on college campuses – mature, sane students fighting back against, or ignoring, the flip-out radical left.

MORE FIGHTING BACK – FROM DEADLINE.COM:  Hours after being pink-slipped from Amazon’s "Transparent," Jeffrey Tambor today took aim at series creator Jill Soloway and the Jeff Bezos-run streaming service for its handling of investigating sexual harassment claims against him last last year.  “I am profoundly disappointed in Amazon’s handling of these false accusations against me,” the Emmy-winning actor said Thursday. “I am even more disappointed in Jill Soloway’s unfair characterization of me as someone who would ever cause harm to any of my fellow cast mates.”  He added: “In our four-year history of working together on this incredible show, these accusations have NEVER been revealed or discussed directly with me or anyone at Amazon."  He may well be guilty and deserving of punishment, but, like any American, he is entitled to defend himself, face his accuser, and have his day in court.  He got none of these things, and it is appropriate that he fight back.  What we're seeing today is a left-wing version of McCarthyism.

PRESSING THE "POWER OFF" BUTTON – FROM DEADLINE.COM:  Team USA has a total of eight medals so far at the XXIII Winter Games but another gold in slalom for Mikaela Shiffrin was not destined to be one of them last night in NBC’s primetime coverage as the network hit a new 2018 low in the ratings.  Like Sochi 2014 winner Shiffrin and to some extent snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis’s efforts, Day 6 of official competition at the PyeongChang games had all the elements of victory but not the execution, despite the marquee names.  With a 13.0/22 in metered markets on combined coverage on NBC and NBC Sports Network, the Comcast-owned outlet was far off the podium on the first Thursday of the 2018 Winter Olympics. Not only is this a low for these games, which have slipped and slid repeatedly, but last night’s numbers took a face plant from both Sochi 2014 and Vancouver 2010.  If you take the NBC/NBCSN not-so-happy meal of last night and compare it to the comparable, the 2018 Olympics are down 10% in the early ratings.  I think there's a general revulsion toward the way sports have been covered recently, with political remarks by commentators and all-around indifference to the audience.  I see very little excitement about the Olympics.  No one seems to care.

February 16, 2018       Permalink

DEVELOPING – AT 1:48 P.M. ET:  There are indictments in the "Russia matter" in Washington.  This story is just developing, and there will be deeper analysis as more facts are known.  But the president does not appear damaged at all by today's events.  From Fox:

A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia on Friday indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities accused of interfering in U.S. elections. 

They are accused of having a “strategic goal to sow discord in the U.S. political system, including the 2016 presidential election.”

The 37-page indictment was signed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

They are accused of spreading derogatory information about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, denigrating Republican candidates Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio -- and supporting Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders and then-Republican candidate Donald Trump. 

It says the defendants spread derogatory information about various candidates throughout the 2016 campaign and by “early to mid-2016” were supporting Trump’s presidential campaign.

The indictment said the defendants purchased political advertisements on social media in the names of U.S. persons and entities. It also accuses them of staging political rallies inside the United States while posing as U.S. grassroots groups.

According to the special counsel, the indictment charges the defendants with conspiracy to defraud the United States, three defendants with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud and five defendants with aggravated identity theft.

COMMENT:  The key point is that, as of now, we don't know of any Americans who were involved.  There is no mention in the indictment of collusion with the Russians by American citizens.  If that ultimately proves to be true, many journalists will be eating multiple servings of crow. 

But there's much, much more to come.  We make no predictions.

We should note that the Russkies have been trying to influence our elections since the Russian revolution of 1917.  Other nations routinely try.  The Brits had a professional operation in the U.S. before World War II, trying to get America to back Britain.  There were large Nazi propaganda operations, even depicted in movies like "The House on 92nd Street." 

We should be prepared, but not shocked. 

February 16, 2018       Permalink

WISDOM – QUOTE OF THE DAY – Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, of the United States Supreme Court, rarely speaks in public.  But when he does, he always has something to say, and remember.   From Daily Caller: 

Justice Clarence Thomas decried the contemporary culture of victimhood during remarks Thursday, telling an audience at the Library of Congress that constant aggrievement would exhaust the country.

Ever a touchstone for controversy on racial issues, the justice related a story from a recent trip to Kansas, where a black college student told him she was primarily interested in school work, and less interested in the political tumult gripping college campuses.

“At some point we’re going to be fatigued with everybody being a victim,” he said.

Thomas has struck similar chords throughout his public life. He appeared on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News program in November 2017, and suggested contemporary activists could benefit from the example of his grandparents, who exhibited quiet fortitude during the heady days of white supremacy.

He made his Thursday remark in the context of a broader discussion about his childhood. Thomas was born in Georgia’s coastal lowlands among impoverished Gullah-speakers, and spent his childhood working his grandfather’s farm. He likened his upbringing to Kathryn Stockett’s 2009 novel “The Help” as most of the women in his life, including his mother, were domestics in white households.

Given the few options open to blacks in the Jim Crow south, Thomas’ family felt they had no choice but to do the best with what they had. The justice detects the hand of providence in those select opportunities open to him, like parochial education and Savannah’s Carnegie library, which served the black population.

“You always have to play the hand you’re dealt,” he said. “If you’re dealt a bad hand, you still have to play it.”

As detailed in his 2008 memoir, he inherited these sensibilities from his grandfather. Thomas was sent to live with his grandparents after a fire ravaged his mother’s home during his childhood.

By Thomas’s telling, his grandfather was the defining figure of his life. When he joined the Supreme Court in 1991, his wife commissioned a bust featuring his grandfather’s favorite quote.

“His favorite quote was ‘Old Man Can’t is dead. I helped bury him,'” Thomas said.

COMMENT:  A role model for today's "I don't feel safe" generation.  But the sad fact is that Justice Thomas doesn't get much respect from those who make up speaker lists at the nation's most "prestigious" colleges.  Those students could mightily gain from what he has to say.

February 16, 2018       Permalink

AFTERMATH – AT 11:33 A.M. ET:  We are now experiencing the aftermath of the horrible shootings in Florida.  The usual suspects are coming out of the woodwork to advocate policies to which they have never given a moment's thought.  It's all about them and their pseudo-grief.

But there is also some good reporting going on.  What is being learned is stunning.  Florida and federal authorities had been repeatedly warned about the alleged killer.  Even students had openly speculated that he would do something drastic.  From Fox: 

Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old accused of killing 17 people at his former Florida high school, had scores of run-ins with law enforcement dating back to 2010 -- with one report saying sheriff’s deputies responded to his home more than 35 times in just six years.

Broward County Sheriff’s deputies received at least 36 emergency 911 calls from 80th Terrace St., in Parkland – the suburban address where the teenager lived with his younger brother, Zachary, and their adoptive mother, Lynda, BuzzFeed reported.

The calls – dating as far back as 2010 and continuing until November 2016 – shed a light on two erratic and violent boys who repeatedly “threw items,” were “out of control” and fought with their mother and each other on an apparently regular basis.

Despite the repeated calls to authorities, Cruz was never arrested – and was basically cleared as being “no threat to anyone or himself,” as one therapist said in a police report from Sept. 28, 2016.

In that particular call, the sheriff’s office said Nikolas and his mother were fighting over paperwork needed for him to get an ID card

In their report, deputies detailed how the teen had been harming himself and had talked about buying a gun.

“He had been cutting his arms, his mother said, to get attention, as he learned it from an ex-girlfriend,” deputies said. “He has mentioned in the past that he would like to purchase a firearm.”

The therapist on scene, Jared Bienenfeld with Henderson Mental Health, and the deputies concluded there were “no signs of mental illness or criminal activity.”

And much like the calls before – which were placed due to reasons ranging from the brothers beating each other to Cruz, at the age of 12, threating his mother and calling her a “useless b****” – law enforcement left without taking any further action.

On the FBI, from Daily Caller: 

Revelations that the FBI had been warned about Florida high school shooter Nikolaus Cruz fit an all-too-familiar pattern, in which apparent law enforcement errors have preceded mass murders.

The FBI was warned about Cruz after he posted on YouTube saying he was going to become a “professional school shooter.” The agency said they couldn’t identify the user who made the threat, despite Cruz posting under his own name. Five months later, Cruz pulled the fire alarm at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and began shooting his former classmates with his AR-15.

COMMENT:  The media would like the emphasis to be on gun control, although it is hard to see how any gun-control plan could have prevented a deranged, determined man from getting a firearm.  But the immediate emphasis should be on how the shooter slipped through so many loops.  An equal emphasis should be on how security systems in place at the target school failed.  Hardening schools, making them less vulnerable to active shooters, has been a strategy embraced, according to reports, by about half the nation's school districts.  But the hardening has to work at the critical moment. 

February 16,  2018     Permalink

FEBRUARY 15,  2018

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

WE FEEL THEIR PAIN – FROM THE WASHINGTON FREE BEACON:   Harvard University's selection of Lawrence Bacow as its new president has been met with disappointment and frustration from those who hoped to see a person of color in the post for the first time.  With the former MIT chancellor tapped to replace Drew Faust in summer 2018, it has been pointed out on social media that Harvard will now have had more presidents named "Larry" than it has had women or people of color combined.  Harvard's first "President Larry" was early 20th-century legal scholar Abbott Lawrence Lowell, followed up by Lawrence Summers from 2001 to 2006.  "I really can't stop laughing at the fact that this isn't even Harvard's first president who's a white male economist named Larry. lolsob." tweeted doctoral student Nadira Farah Foley.  Do you remember when the standard was to choose the best person for the job?  Those were the old days.

A SLIGHT COURSE CORRECTION – FROM THE L.A. TIMES:  When it comes to air quality, the products you use to smell nice or scrub your kitchen could be just as bad as the car you drive. A new study of the air around Los Angeles finds that consumer and industrial products now rival tailpipe emissions in creating atmospheric pollutants.  The findings, published Thursday in the journal Science, reveal a shift in the balance of polluting power in cities — one that may prompt researchers and regulators to focus even more on a wide range of common consumer and industrial goods like hairspray, paint and deodorant.  Air pollution exposure is a leading cause of health problems worldwide. Among risk factors to human health, it ranks fifth behind malnutrition, poor diet, high blood pressure and tobacco, according to a report last year in the journal Lancet.  I'm so relieved that cars now will not be blamed for every evil.  I knew it was really hairspray, but no one would listen.  The hairspray lobby is just too strong.

GREAT! – FROM THE COLLEGE FIX:   Over the last week, college students nationwide have hung posters on their respective campuses advancing a novel idea: dating.  At a time when “Sex Weeks” and the progressive feminist narrative that celebrates meaningless, attachment-free, non-emotional sex dominates campuses, some students are advancing a notion that encourages their peers to get to know one another before getting naked.  The posters push a “people are worth it” dating message.  “Deep down, everyone desires the intimacy that comes from knowing and being known, loving and being loved,” Shaun Evans, a student who hung the posters at Notre Dame, said in an email to The College Fix.  “That desire is misdirected and intimacy is effaced by the hook-up culture..."  Not a bad idea.  We are getting a number of indications that traditional values are starting to make a comeback on college campuses.  Maturity and adulthood may soon become almost acceptable, if suspect. 

February 15,  2018     Permalink

THE ILLUSIONS OF EUROPE – AT 2:41 P.M. ET:   We like to remind readers that there's a real world outside American politics and the latest attempts to brand President Trump a Commie spy.  We are used to regarding the nations of Western Europe as our allies, but how allied are they really?  Some disturbing thoughts from an expert follow.  As Trump attempts to restore the foreign policy of the United States, he will face resistance from the Obama disciples in Europe.  From Breitbart: 

A military analyst has criticised EU leaders for failing to accept that “the Western world is at war” and warned that Europe will see worse terror attacks committed by Islamic extremists.

“Most politicians do not want to admit that the Western world is at war and should act accordingly… Policy responses are, in most cases, inadequate,” Lukáš Visingr told Czech news channel ?T24.

Mr. Visginr added that the recent period of calm – following the spate of Islamic extremist-inspired terror attacks that included the London Bridge, Manchester, Champs Elysees, Paris, and Barcelona attacks during the summer of 2017 – should not be taken as permanent.

“Informants warn that there are hundreds and thousands of well-trained jihadists in Europe who are ready to carry out attacks,” he said, noting that these Islamic State militants are returning from war zones in the Middle East after facing military defeat.

The security specialist also observed that terror attacks hitherto have mostly been carried out by “keen amateurs; they were not people who had special training from ‘professional’ terrorists like the Islamic State”.

“When this new generation [of returning, trained Islamic State militants] begins attacking, I think that we are in for much worse things.”

“I am convinced that there will be large-scale Islamic extremist attacks in Europe,” Visginr warned.

COMMENT:  The entire piece is worth reading.  As usual, the Europeans are nostalgic for their foreign policies of the 1930s, which brought so much success.  Choke.  And, as usual, they believe that if they run into trouble, a call to Washington will solve the problem.

They don't realize that Washington has gotten tired of receiving collect calls.

February 15, 2018       Permalink

MITT IS BACK – AT 12:38 P.M. ET:  Mitt Romney will be announcing his candidacy for the Senate seat in Utah being vacated by Orrin Hatch.   He is delaying his announcement out of respect for yesterday's Florida shootings.  From The Politico:

Mitt Romney is poised to launch his political comeback — but don’t expect him to talk much about his onetime nemesis, President Donald Trump.

The 2012 GOP nominee had planned to announce his campaign for Utah Senate with a Thursday web video, bringing to an end months of speculation about his intentions and instantly becoming the highest-profile Republican on the ballot this year. On late Wednesday, Romney postponed the rollout in light of the deadly school shooting in South Florida.

When he goes forward, Romney intends to carefully skirt questions about how he’ll deal with the president and what could be in store for his future, amid speculation that he’s already plotting a role in leadership or even another campaign for the White House.

Instead, Romney plans to keep it hyperlocal, presenting himself as someone who will tend to the state’s needs even though his election is essentially a foregone conclusion, according to several people who’ve spoken to him in recent weeks. It’s an approach other big-name figures who’ve run for Senate have employed, such as Hillary Clinton and Al Franken: Don’t appear to be taking anything for granted or coasting on celebrity.

Think more meet-and-greets with voters, a largely Utah-based campaign team, fewer TV commercials, and less give-and-take with national reporters.

In short, the 2018 Romney Senate campaign will look nothing like his 2012 presidential bid.

COMMENT:  He will be an instant celebrity, but knows enough not to throw his weight around in the Senate, which is a very traditional body.

Look, you never know.  This is a second political life.  Nixon became president eight years after he was defeated for the same office by John F. Kennedy.  Reagan tried for the nomination in 1976 and fell short.  He was elected president four years later.

Mitt's relationship with Trump will be studied from the first moment the new senator arrives in Washington.  If I were Trump, I'd recall the old mantra from organized crime, "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

February 15, 2018       Permalink

SOMETHING WAS MISSED – AT 11:54 A.M. ET:  The FBI was alerted to the alleged Florida high-school killer.  From Buzzfeed: 

Last fall, a Mississippi bail bondsman and frequent YouTube vlogger noticed an alarming comment left on one of his videos. "I'm going to be a professional school shooter," said a user named Nikolas Cruz.

The YouTuber, 36-year-old Ben Bennight, alerted the FBI, emailing a screenshot of the comment to the bureau's tips account as well as calling the Mississippi FBI field office. He also flagged the comment to YouTube, which removed it from the video.

Agents with the bureau's Mississippi field office got back to him "immediately," Bennight said, and conducted an in-person interview the following day, on Sept. 25.

"They came to my office the next morning and asked me if I knew anything about the person," Bennight told BuzzFeed News. "I didn't. They took a copy of the screenshot and that was the last I heard from them."

FBI agents contacted Bennight again Wednesday, after a 19-year-old named Nikolas Cruz allegedly opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in South Florida, killing at least 17 people.

In the wake of the deadly shooting, questions have emerged over whether officials and acquaintances had missed warning signs about the alleged shooter, a former student who was expelled from the high school last year for disciplinary reasons.

COMMENT:  Obviously, this requires a serious investigation.  It may be, of course, that the Bureau investigated and found nothing actionable.  But this kid was on the radar screen, as were the San Bernardino terrorists.  And, like them, he fell off.

February 15,  2018     Permalink