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JANUARY 7,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:10 P.M. ET:

THE ELITES HAVE THEIR FAREWELL PARTY – FROM THE DAILY MAIL:   Dozens of celebrities turned out to party until 4am at the White House in a farewell bash that saw the likes of Paul McCartney, Meryl Streep and SJP tear up the dancefloor.  The strictly VIP guestlist were banned from recording inside the party where Barack and Michelle served chicken and waffles to weary partygoers in the early hours of Saturday morning.  But that didn't stop A-list attendees from spilling the beans and their selfies to social media revealing how many of the Hollywood elite turned out to say goodbye to the beloved first family.   Syrian refugees, Israeli terror victims, unemployed American workers and parents of murdered children in Chicago did not receive their invitations in time.

NAT HENTOFF IS DEAD – FROM THE WASHINGTON POST:  NEW YORK — Nat Hentoff, an eclectic columnist, critic, novelist and agitator dedicated to music, free expression and defying the party line, died Saturday at age 91.  His son, Tom Hentoff, said his father died from natural causes at his Manhattan apartment.  Schooled in the classics and the stories he heard from Duke Ellington and other jazz greats, Nat Hentoff enjoyed a diverse and iconoclastic career, basking in “the freedom to be infuriating on a myriad of subjects.”  He was a bearded, scholarly figure, a kind of secular rabbi, as likely to write a column about fiddler Bob Wills as a dissection of the Patriot Act, to have his name appear in the liberal Village Voice as the far-right WorldNetDaily.com, where his column last appeared in August 2016.  He was one of my idols, one of the last of the great, honest, liberal journalists who pursued the truth wherever it led.  He was pro-life, which could have easily gotten him banished from the circles in which he traveled.  He called out Communist infiltration of institutions.  He was fiercely pro-freedom.  I don't know of anyone like him today.

ATTACK ON MONICA – FROM CNN:   Conservative author and television personality Monica Crowley, whom Donald Trump has tapped for a top national security communications role, plagiarized large sections of her 2012 book, a CNN KFile review has found.  The review of Crowley’s June 2012 book, "What The (Bleep) Just Happened," found upwards of 50 examples of plagiarism from numerous sources, including the copying with minor changes of news articles, other columnists, think tanks, and Wikipedia. The New York Times bestseller, published by the HarperCollins imprint Broadside Books, contains no notes or bibliography.
Crowley did not return a request for comment. Multiple requests for comment by phone and email over the past two days to HarperCollins went unreturned.  Crowley, a syndicated radio host, columnist, and, until recently, a Fox News contributor, will serve as Trump’s senior director of strategic communications for the National Security Council.  Obviously, these are serious charges, and the Trump team has an obligation to look at them carefully.  Was it really plagiarism, or did Crowley have the personal permission of others to use their material?  It's been my experience that plagiarism and other literary crimes are only taken seriously when they are charged against conservatives.  Liberal offenses are swept under the hand-made Native American rug.  There'll be more to this story.

January 7,  2017     Permalink

THE TRIUMPH OF HISTORY – AT 1:26 P.M. ET:  A piece of sculpture is finding its way back to the Oval Office.  From Britain's Telegraph: 

Donald Trump has made no secret of the fact that he intends to rip up Barack Obama's legacy when he takes office - ending the Trans-Pacific Partnership, redrawing Obamacare and loading up Guantanamo with "some bad dudes".

However, one expected action is likely to be less controversial, certainly in Britain: that of restoring the bust of Winston Churchill to the Oval Office.

Mr Trump, who has frequently professed his admiration for Britain's wartime leader, was asked earlier this week whether he was considering returning the bust, sculpted by Jacob Epstein, to the White House.

“I am, indeed, I am,” he said, during an interview at the New York Times, at which he was sitting in front of a picture of Churchill.

Mr Obama replaced the Churchill bust with one of Martin Luther King in the Oval Office in 2009, soon after he took over the presidency, causing outrage on both sides of the Atlantic.

Boris Johnson controversially wrote earlier this year, while he was Mayor of London, that Mr Obama's decision to send the bust back to the British embassy in Washington had been a “snub to Britain”.

COMMENT:  When, in 1939, Churchill regained his position as First Lord of the Admiralty, a post he had held a quarter century earlier, a signal went out to the Royal Navy, "Winston is back."

Now we can send the same message throughout the United States government.  And it will symbolize the enduring British-American partnership.

January 7, 2017        Permalink

PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS, A MAJOR INTERNATIONAL SCANDAL – AT 12:22 P.M. ET:   And yet it receives so little attention from our mainstream media, our "educators," or even our "moral leaders."  From Fox: 

Christians continued to be the most persecuted group across the globe in 2016, according to a study.

The upcoming report from Italian-based Center for Studies on New Religions, determined that 90,000 Christians were killed for their beliefs worldwide last year and nearly a third were at the hands of Islamic extremists like ISIS. Others were killed by state and non-state persecution, including in places like North Korea.

“U.S. policy has not had a strategy for specifically addressing the persecution of Christians,” Ryan Mauro, national security analyst for the Clarion Project, told FoxNews.com “For example, very few people are even aware that Iraqi Christians began organizing to defend themselves and needed our help."

The study also found that as many as 600 million Christians were prevented from practicing their faith in 2016.

The findings continue a disturbing trend from the previous year in which Christians around the world endured horrific acts of persecution, including imprisonment and beheadings.

“These numbers underscore what we already know," Robert Nicholson of the Philos Project said to Foxnews.com."There are many places on earth where being a Christian is the most dangerous thing you can be.

"Those who think of Christianity as a religion of the powerful need to see that in many places it’s a religion of the powerless. And the powerless deserve to be protected.”

While the situation is most dire in the Middle East, Christianity is under assault in Africa and Asia, too, according to an Aid to the Church in Need study of incidents in 2015. It cited persecution at the hands of Islamist terror groups such as Boko Haram in Nigeria and other extremists in Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania and other parts of the continent.

COMMENT:  Of course, persecution of Christians is not recognized as a problem by the far left, or the political trendies in Western capitals and universities.  It brings no anguish to most journalists.  Some major protest marches are required, and maybe some subscription cancellations as well.

January 7, 2017       Permalink

MOTIVE? – AT 11:52 A.M. ET:  As Lt. Joe Kenda (Investigation Discovery – "Homicide Hunter") likes to say, "My, my, my."  Do we have a motive, or at least an inspiration, for yesterday's shootings at Fort Lauderdale?  From the Daily Mail: 

A photo of Florida airport gunman Esteban Santiago appears to show him making a jihadist one-fingered salute while wearing a Mid-Eastern keffiyeh sometime prior to him carrying out the shooting massacre.

The 26-year-old Iraq war veteran was pictured in the photo gesturing with his index finger in a pose that has become notorious among supporters of the Islamic State.

Law enforcement officers are currently looking at whether Santiago had any links to ISIS or if he was mentally disturbed as part of their investigation into the deaths of five people in the baggage claim hall at Ft. Lauderdale airport on Friday.

FBI officials said late on Friday night they had not ruled out terrorism and were investigating all angles as they try to determine a motive for the shooting spree.

It was not immediately clear where or when the photo of Santiago was taken in which he appears to be making the jihadist salute.

The traditional Islamic gesture - which refers to the tawhid or 'the belief in the oneness of God' - has been widely adopted by Islamic State supporters.

Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev posed in a similar stance in front of an Islamic flag in his bedroom.

COMMENT:  Now, of course, the Obama administration, in its last days, might just label this "baggage carousel violence," but look at the picture on the Daily Mail story that we link.  Pretty chilling, in my view, unless this dude has strange tastes in fashion and finger usage. 

Looks like what is impolitely called a "lone wolf."

January 7,  2017     Permalink

JANUARY 6,  2017

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

MAJOR CONTEST NEWS – FROM COLLEGE FIX:   The University of Chicago’s admissions office is offering an incentive to its student tour guides: Come up with “a creative way to dispel the negative perception'” that the city is unsafe.  The Chicago Maroon obtained a copy of the email Assistant Director of Admissions Colleen Belak had sent out to the guides. The student who provided the message asked to remain anonymous due to a “confidentiality policy.”  In her email, Belak manages to toss in the name of the president-elect:  “If you’ve paid attention to the national news (or Donald Trump’s tweets) over the last few months, you’ll notice that the city of Chicago is often painted with a broad brush as an ‘unsafe’ or ‘scary’ place to reside,” Belak wrote to the campus tour guide listhost.   “Of course, certain realities should not be ignored, but at the end of the day most of us are proud Chicago residents with a deep love of the city,” [Belak continues].  “With that spirit in mind, we have an opportunity for you to win some money—$500 to be exact. If you are able to come up with a creative way to approach this negative perception, be it a video series, blog post, photo, or something else (and better) entirely… Keep in mind that the audience is a high school student and his/her family.”  Strange.  When I was a student at the University of Chicago many decades ago, the problem was exactly the same, word for word, line for line.  In that same period, New York, under Rudy Giuliani, lowered its murder rate 80%.  Maybe the university should award a prize for the best essay on why some places solve their problems and other places don't.

ANOTHER BRILLIANT IDEA FROM THE LEFT – FROM BREITBART:   Rosie O’Donnell, Debra Messing, Ed Asner and Michael Shannon are among the dozens of artists, entertainers, and activists who have attached their names to an effort calling for a month-long protest to stop President-elect Donald Trump.
“No! In the Name of Humanity We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America!” reads a full-page ad placed in the New York Times on Wednesday by the group Refuse Fascism.  “Donald Trump, the President-elect, is assembling a regime of grave danger,” the ad says. “Millions of people in the US and around the world are filled with deep anxiety, fear, and disgust. Our anguish is right and just. Our anger must now become massive resistance –before Donald Trump is inaugurated and has the full reins of power in his hands.”  These people are insane.  I will help pay for their medication.

IT'S ACTUALLY GETTING SERIOUS – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:    Run, Hillary, run — for mayor.  Local Democratic activists said they would rally to Clinton’s side if she decided to take on Mayor de Blasio in a ­primary this year.  “If Hillary entered the race, she would be the best candidate. I would support her because we need a change in New York City,” said Gregory Floyd, president of Teamsters Local 237.  Floyd, who represents school safety officers and Housing Authority workers, has clashed repeatedly with City Hall over policy.  “Hillary would be a better mayor than de Blasio. Every week we hear about investigations about fund-raising and city property being given away to real estate developers,” he said.   Clinton captured 79 percent of the vote in the five boroughs during her failed November presidential run.  The Rev. Patrick Young, pastor of First Baptist Church in East Elmhurst, Queens, said Clinton could make history by shattering the mayoral glass ceiling in Gotham.  “Hillary would have been the first female president. She would be the first woman mayor in the history of New York City,” he said.  I want to see it happen, just for the comedy.  Of course, she will claim that she is related to one of New York's early mayors, DeWitt Clinton.  It isn't true, but who'll care? 

January 6,  2017     Permalink

THE OBAMA RECORD, AND HOW IT CAN BE REVERSED – AT 12:09 P.M. ET:  Michael Barone is one of our leading political analysts.  He examines the Obama style of "governing," – government by faculty lounge – and how it led to a record that can be cast aside by the new administration.  From RealClearPolitics: 

Obamacare was based on the shaky premise that mandating often expensive and limited health insurance would be seen as guaranteeing good health care. As a result, as historian Walter Russell Mead recently wrote for The American Interest, "it did not generate enough public support to protect itself from its opponents."

Regulations imposed on coal and other fossil fuel production -- instituted after Democrats, even with strong congressional majorities, were unsuccessful in passing cap-and-trade legislation -- failed to impress a population that did not share liberal elites' faith that climate change is certain to produce catastrophe.

And regulations legalizing the presence of millions of undocumented immigrants have failed to pass muster in federal courts, thanks to legal maneuverings as sloppy as the legislative legerdemain that shoved through Obamacare.

Public policies prove to be enduring when they address what people regard as genuine needs and thus create constituencies that politicians dare not defy. Social Security retirement benefits are a prime example. You can jigger the taxes and benefits, as a bipartisan majority did in 1983, but voters who believe they paid for their benefits will insist they not be taken away.

Policies that induce long-term reliance also tend to endure, a prime example being the home mortgage interest deduction. There's a good argument that this policy, like the Social Security benefit formula, unduly benefits the affluent. But that argument doesn't move most voters.

In my view, Obama owed his election and re-election to the feeling -- widely shared by Americans, including many who didn't vote for him -- that it would be a good thing for Americans to elect a black president.

What they didn't expect, but got, was a president who governed according to the playbook of campus liberals, imposing -- or attempting to impose -- policies that he believed would be good for people, whether they knew it or not.

This was governance that was both inattentive to detail and law and out of touch with how policies affect people's lives. That is why so many of these policies seem headed for the ash heap of history.

COMMENT:  Government by theory.  This is another proof of how the Democrats lost touch with their constituency. 

But Republicans must demonstrate skill in overturning Obama's programs, recalling the admonition within the medical profession, "First, do no harm."  Obamacare can't just be chopped down like a tree.  It must be replaced by something better.  Ditto Obama's trendy energy policy, based heavily on the "science" of climate change, which sometimes seems more like political science.

January 6, 2017       Permalink

MORE LEGACY – AT 10:41 A.M. ET:  We are not winning the war on terror.  If anything, it is getting worse.  Remember that Obama came to office insisting that acts of terror be called "manmade disasters."  When a rogue Army doctor attacked fellow soldiers at Ford Hood, Texas, shouting Islamist slogans, the Obama administration insisted on calling it "workplace violence."  But the terror goes on, no matter what the label.  From The Times of Israel:   

The year 2016 was the deadliest in the history of suicide terrorism, an Israeli think tank said, with 469 suicide bombings carried out by 800 perpetrators in 28 countries, causing the deaths of about 5,650 people.

Islamic State was the leading perpetrator of suicide bombings worldwide, being directly or indirectly responsible for approximately 70 percent (322) of the attacks, according to statistics compiled by the Terrorism and Low Intensity Conflict Research Program at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS).

As the terror group loses territory, “it appears that suicide terrorism will be a key tool for the Islamic State in consolidating its image as invincible, creating deterrence against its enemies, and taking revenge for the international activity against it,” the think tank said Thursday.

“The Islamic State’s partners and other terrorist groups will also likely redouble their efforts to carry out mass casualty large-scale terrorist attacks.”

Yoram Schweitzer, the senior research fellow who headed the study, said the rise in suicide bombings underlined the growing intensity of terrorism worldwide. “They are the litmus test when it comes to assessing terrorism,” he told The Times of Israel, “because of their devastating effect and the sense of threat they create.”

COMMENT:  President Kennedy said, not long before his assassination, that an assassin could get through if he was willing to give up his life in the attempt.  The same is true of suicide bombers.  Once they give up the wish to live, they become almost invincible.  There is no hesitation, no normal self-defense mechanism.  They will plunge into a target, no matter what the consequence to themselves will be.

We are now getting repeated warnings about the intention of ISIS to carry out mass-casualty attacks, primarily in Britain and Europe.  Given the events here of September 11, 2001, we should be on maximum alert, not assuming an attack will occur somewhere else.

January 6, 2017       Permalink

THE LEGACY – AT 9:57 A.M. ET:  It's all legacy all the time.  Obama leaves office trying to convince us that he still walks on water, and never gets wet.  Ask the American worker about that.  From CNS: 

(CNSNews.com) - Barack Obama's presidency began with a record number of Americans not in the labor force, and it's ending the same way.

The final jobs report of the Obama presidency, released Friday, shows that the number of Americans not in the labor force has increased by 14,573,000 (18.09 percent) since January 2009, when Obama took office, continuing a long-term trend that began well before Obama was sworn in.

In December, according to the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, a record 95,102,000 Americans were not in the labor force, 47,000 more than in November; and the labor force participation rate was 62.7 percent, a tenth of a point higher than in November.

The participation rate dropped to a 38-year low of 62.4 percent on Obama's watch, in September 2015. It was only 3-tenths of a point higher than that last month.

COMMENT:  This is what the Obama administration calls a great economic record.  It shows dramatically how detached the modern Democratic Party is from its traditional base, America's working families.  It's unlikely that most Democrats in Washington ever met anyone who wears a blue collar that wasn't designed in Paris.  This detachment is one of the most powerful reasons for Donald Trump's election.

January 6,  2017    Permalink