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JANUARY 1,  2017

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

THE BRADY BUNCH – FROM CBS BOSTON:   BOSTON (CBS) — Tom Brady has found another way to etch his name into the record books.  With three touchdowns and zero interceptions on Sunday’s victory in Miami, Brady increased his season totals to 28 touchdowns and just two interceptions. In doing so, he set a new record for the best touchdown-to-interception ratio in the history of the NFL.  That record applies to quarterbacks with at least 20 passing touchdowns.  Nick Foles previously held the record, having thrown 27 touchdowns and two interceptions back in 2013 for the Philadelphia Eagles.  There are still greats on the playing fields.  More than there are in politics.

SENSIBLE – FROM YAHOO NEWS:   When it comes to hacking, Donald Trump has a solution: “Old-fashioned” snail mail.  The President-elect spoke to reporters on Saturday at his Mar-a-Lago New Year’s Eve party, saying that mail by courier is a sure way to ensure cyber security — “I don’t care what they say, no computer is safe,” the 70-year-old said.  “It’s very important, if you have something really important, write it out and have it delivered by courier, the old fashioned way. Because, I’ll tell you what, no computer is safe,” he said when asked how important the issue is to his incoming administration.  “I have a boy who’s 10 years old, he can do anything with a computer,” Trump said, referring to his youngest son Barron. “You want something to really go without detection, write it out and have it sent by courier.”  In a way, he's absolutely right.  When I was in the intelligence business we learned that the mail was considered secure.  Of course, a warning about the impending end of the world might not get there for three weeks, but at least no one else will see the message.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK – FROM FOX:    Federal agencies are speeding up hiring in the last days of the Obama administration, ahead of President-elect Donald Trump entering the White House and imposing the hiring freeze he has promised, according to The Washington Post.  Several agencies are filling vacant positions with new hires and transfers before Trump, a Republican, takes office January 20, according to the newspaper, which based its report on interviews and internal federal documents.  The hiring rush comes amid an agreement after the November election that no new hires would be made after Dec. 1, incoming White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told the newspaper Friday.  The White House Office of Management and Budget said Saturday that the administration imposed a moratorium Dec. 7 on hiring senior executives within the civil service, a policy consistent with previous transitions to ensure incoming agency leaders can make or approve executive hiring decisions.  Government is a business.  Big business.

January 1,  2017     Permalink

SANCTUARY CITIES – AT 12:L21 P.M. ET:   This will be a major issue in the age of Trump – cities that defy federal law, and common sense, by providing protection for illegal immigrants.  A former New York police commissioner speaks out.  From The Hill: 

Former New York City Police Commissioner Howard Safir said in an interview Sunday that it's outrageous” to give identification cards to undocumented immigrants while slamming so-called sanctuary cities.

“They’re not only endangering the rest of us but they’re endangering the other immigrants in the country and all of our citizens," Safir said during an interview with John Catsimatidis on AM 970 in New York.

“Because what’s happening now with sanctuary cities, they’re going right back into the population and continuing to commit additional crimes,” he said, referring to city's that refuse to comply with federal immigration law on deportations.

The former police commissioner echoed suggestions made by President-elect Donald Trump about deporting undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes.

“What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, probably 2 million — it could be even 3 million — we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate,” Trump said in a November interview with “60 Minutes.”

Safir also mentioned several incidents of undocumented immigrants committing crimes and slammed New York City’s intention to destroy the backup for its identification card program as an “obstruction of justice.”

COMMENT:  The whole idea of sanctuary cities is repugnant, creating a class of lawbreakers who are held above the law by public officials.  Now, with Trump coming into office, we may see the first serious action to overturn sanctuary cities and return some sanity to immigration law enforcement.

January 1,  2017     Permalink

FIRST MEDIA MELTDOWN OF 2017 – AT 11:47 A.M. ET:   Don Lemon, the professionally liberal anchor at CNN, receives the honors.  From American Thinker: 

CNN anchor Don Lemon has copped the honor of the first on-air Trump-hater meltdown of 2017, year one of the Trump presidency. Sour Lemon’s behavior was so disgraceful and out of place during a celebration of the New Year that the network brass cut his audio feed just after midnight when he began speak of “awful” 2016. But by then he already had been drinking on-air (quaffing tequila with co-host Brooke Baldwin), and had his ear pierced before viewers’ eyes.

If 2016 was painful for Lemon, then he saw the year out in appropriate fashion, getting an ear piercing live on air.

As midnight approached in Louisiana, the host tweeted: #CNN producers & @brookebcnn trying to convince me to get a tattoo or a piercing of some sort. Should I? #cnnnye'

And it wasn't an empty threat either, as he recruited a piercer shortly afterward to stick a needle through his earlobe live on television.

'If this hurts I'm going to be so mad,' he winced as co-host Brooke Baldwin gripped his hand tightly in support.

COMMENT:  CNN – the first name in booze.

January 1, 2017         Permalink

FIRST TERROR ATTACK OF 2017 – AT 11:18 A.M. ET:  It's sad that the new year had to start this way.  From BBC: 

At least 39 people, including at least 15 foreigners, have been killed in an attack on a nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey's interior minister says.

A gunman opened fire in Reina nightclub at about 01:30 local time (22:30 GMT), as revellers marked the new year.

Suleyman Soylu said efforts were continuing to find the attacker, who was believed to have acted alone.

At least 69 people were being treated in hospital, the minister added. Four were said to be in a serious condition.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the attackers were trying to "create chaos" and pledged to "fight to the end" against terrorism.

Addressing reporters early on Sunday, Mr Soylu said: "This was a massacre, a truly inhuman savagery.''

"A manhunt for the terrorist is under way. Police have launched operations. We hope the attacker will be captured soon."

Only 21 of the victims had been identified, he said. Fifteen or 16 were foreigners, he said, and at least three of the Turkish victims may have been employees at the club.

COMMENT:  We know few details even now, hours after the attack.  As far as the shooter having "acted alone," I don't buy it.  I don't think any terrorist truly "acts alone."  He...or she...is radicalized by someone. 

We may never know the truth about this horror.  Governments have a way of giving us the story they want to give us. 

January 1,  2017     Permalink

DECEMBER 31,  2016

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE:

We're not publishing "Short Takes" on New Year's Eve.  We have mercy for our readers. 

Go have a good time.   Help is on the way.  In less than three weeks we will have a new administration.

MEDIA MELTDOWN – AT 12:30 P.M. ET:   The media didn't have a great year.  It must be hard to be wrong on everything.  From CNS: 

The year 2016 will go down as one in which Americans turned on the establishment and put a non-politician in the White House. The masses also rejected mainstream journalism, sending news industry credibility ratings to historic lows.

Even the American cultural bastion that is the National Football League faces declining interest. So, too, prime-time network television has sunk into irrelevance as viewers shun programming that fails to reflect any sense of Americana.

The big four networks’ ratings are all down double-digit percentages for the fall season. Premiere week for new shows in September was down 12 percent compared to last year, and nothing has happened since to reverse the decline. The top-rated prime-time show in November was CBS’ “Big Bang Theory.” The audience size would have made that program the 79th-ranked show 40 years ago, trailing such losers as “Mr. Belvedere.”

CBS’ top new offering, “Bull,” opened to moderate success this fall, but since has lost a fourth of its audience. Only “This is Us” on NBC seems to be holding its own among new shows.

Some analysts suggest the election season hurt prime-time viewership. Cable news channels did see viewership growth, but it is hard to conclude that political junkies would have been watching “Two Broke Girls” or “Lucifer” in place of CNN or FNC.

COMMENT:  There is little connection between the media and the nation, and the media likes it that way.  There are some good things to see, but the media world regards itself as better than the country it serves.  It isn't.  The golden ages of film, popular music, theater and recording all depended on the support of the American audience.  Someone should send that memo to Hollywood and New York.

December 31, 2016       Permalink

OH, GO AWAY – AT 11:48 A.M. ET:  President Obama has apparently not been formally notified that his term is almost over and that he loses his White House wi-fi password.  From the Washington Examiner: 

President Obama used his final weekly address in 2016 to make it plainer than ever that he won't retire quietly once Donald Trump is sworn in as president.

Couching his address to the nation as assurance that he will remain committed to defending the "progress" achieved by his administration, the president made it crystal clear that he intends to be a thorn in President Trump's side after the official handover of power on Jan. 20.

Offering the clearest indication yet of his plan to be active on the political scene after he is ostensibly back in private life, Obama said Saturday, "As I prepare to take on the even more important role of citizen, know that I will be there with you every step of the way to ensure that this country forever strives to live up to the incredible promise of our founding — that all of us are created equal, and all of us deserve every chance to live out our dreams."

The words were an implicit rebuke of the inequality and retrograde policies that Democrats claim will be on the agenda of Trump and the GOP when they take over a unified Republican government next month.

When Obama expected, and most polls indicated, that Hillary Clinton was going to win the White House, the president suggested that he looked forward to a quiet retirement. But now he says his plans have changed. The unmistakable suggestion is that Obama claims he needs to stay active to guard the nation against Trump's predations.

COMMENT:  "I will be there with you every step of the way..."  Geez.  Has he been invited?  Obama's ego is vastly greater than his abilities.  He considers himself an indispensable man.  He might reflect on an old French proverb, "The graveyards of the world are filled with indispensable men."

I guess he wants to be another Jimmy Carter.  Most people have higher ambitions.

December 31, 2016       Permalink

OBAMA'S WAY OUT – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 11:18 A.M. ET:   The worst president of our time will, three weeks from today, be former President Barack Obama.  But the way he's leaving says much about him.  From Newsmax:

Now that the election is over and his time in office is winding down, one of Mr. Obama’s major responsibilities is ensuring a smooth transfer of power. He is ignoring this responsibility by his Russia sanctions that clearly are designed to create roadblocks for Mr. Trump.

I also believe these sanctions are the latest effort by Obama and the Democratic party to undermine the legitimacy of Trump’s election win.

Even worse, the perception that an outgoing U.S. president is trying to box in and sabotage the foreign policy of his successor hurts the global reputation of America’s democratic system.

If the Obama administration believes it must make major foreign policy moves between now and Inauguration Day, it should only do so with the input and assent of President-elect Trump. It is irresponsible for Mr. Obama to set in motion such initiatives with only weeks left in his presidency that his successor will probably suspend or cancel.

President Obama, please stop. It’s too late for you to salvage your disastrous foreign policy. The time for you to hold Russia accountable for numerous instances of belligerent and destabilizing behavior has long past.

While you may be angry about Trump’s election and the likelihood that he will reverse your foreign policy achievements, moves like your Russia sanctions will only cause you to go down in history as an even more inconsequential president.

Mr. Obama, our nation needs you to leave office with class and grace.

COMMENT:  We've learned that Obama doesn't have much class or grace.  He does have a winning "candidate style," which has sustained him.  He leaves with a relatively high approval rating, which few can understand.  Maybe it's the racial factor – people not wanting to disparage our first black president.

But class or grace, no.  Obama is small-time and mean-spirited.  His anti-Israel maneuvering at the UN is only one case in point.  Great nations do not change their foreign policy while slithering out the door.  Obama had no hesitation in doing so, and has done damage to a significant ally. 

Obama has banned drilling from large areas of the Atlantic and has seized Western lands for so-called "memorials," all in his last weeks in office.  Previous presidents have shown regard for the incoming chief, even if he is of the other party.

When you go small in an election, Obama is what you get.

December 31,  2016     Permalink