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JANUARY 28,  2017

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

CHEERING TRUMP – FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:  President Trump's decision to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and stop the free flow of refugees until they can be vetted better is reviving the morale of customs and border agents, according to the union representing both.  "Morale amongst our agents and officers has increased exponentially," said a joint statement from the National Border Patrol Council and National ICE Council.  "The men and women of ICE and Border Patrol will work tirelessly to keep criminals, terrorists, and public safety threats out of this country, which remains the number one target in the world – and President Trump's actions now empower us to fulfill this life saving mission, and it will indeed save thousands of lives and billions of dollars," it added.  The statement on behalf of the agents for the immigration, customs and border protection was a powerful endorsement of Trump's action as he his under fire from critics of his actions.  Why listen to border agents?  How much could they possibly know about borders, as compared to, say, the editorial board of The New York Times?

OH, NOW WE KNOW – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:    A candidate for the Democratic National Committee blames Hillary Clinton’s loss in the 2016 election on her decision to tap Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia as her running mate.  Vincent Tolliver joined the 10 other candidates running to be the next DNC chair at a “Future Forum” in Houston Saturday and said the party would be singing a different tune if Mrs. Clinton chose someone other than Mr. Kaine, who was seen as too moderate by some Democrats.  “We lost simply … because Hillary did not pick the right running partner,” Mr. Tolliver said in response to a question.  Mr. Tolliver said Mrs. Clinton should have tapped someone like Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont or Sen. Corey Booker of New Jersey.  Mr. Kaine served as chairman of the DNC from 2009 to 2011.  Too what?  Too moderate?  The Dems have been losing at every level in recent years by lurching too far to the left.  Judging by the comments of those running for party chair, they've learned nothing.   The leading candidates want even further movement to the left.  Pretty soon they'll be just a coastal party.  A new party may be needed.

YUMMY?  OR JUST MORE EXPENSIVE? – FROM THE BALTIMORE SUN:  A tag that says simply "Best" hangs next to a price tag for Dr. McDougall's oatmeal on a shelf at Giant Food. A tag below Diamond sliced almonds reads "Good," while another below a can of Amy's Organic Soups says "Great."  The designations are part of a ratings system the Landover-based grocer is testing in nine of its stores that measures the sustainability of food, both fresh and processed.  Giant's pilot program, developed by Brooklyn, N.Y.-based HowGood, comes as more and more consumers want to know how their food is grown and made, and retailers are looking for ways to give them information in a digestible way. One grocery analyst dubbed 2017 the year of sustainability for groceries as consumers begin to embrace the idea much as many started seeking organic products in recent years.   Okay, but I want to know whether this really enhances the quality of food, or is just the latest gimmick, with accompanying price tag.  Gimme details, and proved science.

January 28, 2017       Permalink

OVERDUE – AT 11:51 A.M.  ET:  One thing about President Trump – he's actually doing what he said he'd do.   From the Washington Examiner: 

President Trump is seeking to slash the number of workers at the Environmental Protection Agency by at least half, leaving it significantly gutted as the administration mulls further cuts, the former head of Trump's EPA transition team said Friday.

"Let's aim for half and see how it works out, and then maybe we'll want to go further," Myron Ebell said now that he has returned to his position as director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Ebell left the Trump transition team a week ago.

Ebell told the Associated Press that Trump is likely to seek significant reductions in the agency's 15,000-person work force. Slashing half of the work force would leave 7,500 at the agency, which would dramatically reduce its capacity to move out regulations quickly.

COMMENT:  The EPA has grown in size over the years, and its regulations are famously burdensome, without necessarily improving the environment. 

We should protect the environment, and this nation's record is actually good, but there is a balance between environmental protection and economic vitality.  I think Trump is striving to achieve that balance, and he might just do it.

Under Obama, the enviro-nuts seemed to have outsized influence.

January 28, 2017       Permalink

I'M ENROLLING RIGHT AWAY – AT 11:24 A.M. ET:  I wanted to rush this to you so you can enroll while there's still room.  From Fox:   

Ohio State University will be offering a new course in the spring semester that will focus on how to “identify microaggressions” and “systems of power and privilege,” The College Fix reported.

The syllabus says the class will offer insight into developing “an understanding of major social justice concepts.”

The course literature includes a reading list with works such as, “Waking up White: What it means to accept your legacy, for better and worse,” and “Readings for diversity and social justice.”

According the syllabus, the class will “grasp their role within greater society and how they can work to create social justice.”

“Students will learn to value their own self-identity and the identities of others different from them,” the syllabus also added.

The “Crossing identity boundaries: A journey towards intercultural leadership” course meets a mandatory diversity and General Education requirement for the University.

The goal of the course is to offer an “intellectual and experiential engagement” on issues within “different social and cultural groups.”

COMMENT:  I look forward to the class where the instructor says, "Look, you snowflakes, if you want to go somewhere and get some real social justice, take physics, chemistry, engineering and math, not 'oppression studies.'" 

What do you mean, they canceled that class and jailed the instructor?

January 28, 2017       Permalink

AH, BUT WE ALREADY KNEW – AT 11:08 A.M. ET:  There are two ways to lie in this world, by commission and omission.  I've found that the mainstream press often leaves out critical information that interferes with its world view.  From the Washington Times:

NBC’s Chuck Todd confessed that he and others in the mainstream news media played down just how despised Hillary Clinton was in the heartland due to the fear of appearing “sexist.”

What’s more, he admitted, the mainstream media failed to “tell the stories of all Americans.”

“Where I think political correctness got in the way of what we all knew as reporters and didn’t fully deliver was how hated the Clintons were in the heartland,” the “Meet the Press” host admitted Thursday to former Bush White House press secretary Ari Fleischer in a interview for the “1947” podcast.

“And I think it was a fear of, ‘Oh, is it going to look like it’s sexist, anti-woman if we say that?’” he added, pointing out that on the hustings he saw numerous “Hillary for Prison” signs adorning the front yards of rural America.

“I think we underplayed it a little bit out of political correctness fears,” Mr. Todd said. “No member of the press corps wants to look like they’re singling out a group and making a group feel bad, right, whatever that [group] is.

COMMENT:  Yeah, Chuck, you're right, and thanks for admitting the bad press performance.  So much for reporting the news without fear or favor.  The career must come first.  Don't offend that editor who grew up in the 1960s and who still weeps for Eugene McCarthy.

What needs to be discussed is how the mainstream media is losing its credibility.  Credibility once lost is extremely difficult to get back.  There will always be lingering suspicions.

January 28,  2017     Permalink

JANUARY 27,  2017

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

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN' – FROM THE SACRAMENTO BEE:   Backers of a proposed constitutional amendment seeking California’s secession from the U.S. can begin collecting voter signatures to qualify for the 2018 ballot, the secretary of state’s office said Thursday.  The so-called Calexit movement emerged within days of the upset presidential victory of Republican Donald Trump, who lost California by nearly 4.3 million votes. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that nearly one in three Californians support the state leaving the U.S.  Proponents have until July 25 to collect 585,407 valid voter signatures to qualify for the November 2018 ballot.  The proposed measure would strike language from the California Constitution defining the state as “an inseparable part of the United States of America, and the United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land.” If it passed, there would be a statewide special election in March 2019 to ask voters if they want California to become an independent country.  Oh please.  I wish they'd stop this.  Even if the Constitutional hurdles could be conquered, the Democratic Party would never allow California to leave.   Without California the Dems would probably never win a national election again.

WARNING – FROM THE ALGEMEINER:   A report by the Texas Department of Public Safety raises concerns about ISIS terrorists using the Mexican border to enter and leave the country. The Texas report noted that at least 13 aspiring terrorists have tried to cross the Mexican border, or considered trying, since 2012.  Most of the people who tried to sneak over the border knew they were on the Federal no-fly list, the report said. According to the Lone Star state’s report, sneaking across the southern border “presents an opportunity for increasing numbers of aspiring foreign terrorist fighters to evade US interdiction efforts such as the No-Fly List.”  The most recent case occurred in October. Texas authorities arrested two Milwaukee men near San Angelo, Texas, on their way to the Mexican border. Jason Ludke, 35, and Yosvany Padilla-Conde, 30, wanted to go to Mexico, obtain fraudulent travel documents and travel to join ISIS in Syria or Iraq.  I have confidence that President Trump will confront this problem, and seriously.  I only hope it won't be too late.

I LOVE HER ALREADY –  FROM CNN:  Nikki Haley, the new US ambassador to the United Nations, walked into UN headquarters for the first time Friday and promptly said, "For those who don't have our backs, we're taking names."  The former Republican governor of South Carolina vowed there is a "new US UN."  Haley told reporters, "Our goal with the administration is to show value at the UN, and the way to show value is to show our strength, show our full voice. Have the backs of our allies and make sure our allies have our backs as well."  She then added, "For those who don't have our backs, we're taking names, and we will make points to respond to that accordingly."  She has a great future, but the diplomatic establishment and its northeast chapter will try to destroy her.  How dare an American ambassador try to speak up for the United States!

January 27, 2017       Permalink

GOTCHA – AT 9:36 A.M. ET:   ABC got caught giving a distorted report of a comment by Ari Fleischer, President George W. Bush's first press secretary.  From Newsbusters:

Another example of fake news from the liberal media? ABC late on Tuesday night apologized for deceptively editing former George W. Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer. In a segment from Monday on current press secretary Sean Spicer, Nightline’s Juju Chang featured a quote of Fleischer apparently trashing Spicer's press event: “His briefing made me uncomfortable. It was too truculent, too tough. It looks to me if the ball was dropped on Saturday — ”

On Twitter, Fleischer corrected: “Nightline proves Spicer right about MSM’s dedication to negativity.” Left out of his original comment from Monday? Fleischer's tweeted his full quote: “It looks to me if the ball was dropped on Saturday, Sean recovered it and ran for a 1st down on Monday.”

Fleischer added, “If this is how the press reports, Trump is right to go after them.” He concluded, “When the press distorts someone's quote and twists their words, we all have a problem.”

On Tuesday's show, at 1:05am ET, Chang issued a correction.

COMMENT:  It's about time the press was challenged.  True, journalism is only history's rough first draft, as Ben Bradlee famously remarked, but it should be at least a reasonably accurate draft. 

It's clear many journalists see their job as destroying Trump, who is the anti-Obama.  And Obama was a godlike figure to too many journalists.

The press also seems to be panicking over Trump actually doing things.  How dare he?   And how dare he not seek the approval of the press?

Trump's press strategy is shrewd.  He knows he's more popular than the media, and he'll milk that fact.  He'll also milk the fact that the press got everything wrong about the last election, and seems stuck in the last century.

January 27, 2017       Permalink

THE VOTER FRAUD CONTROVERSY – AT 8:56 A.M. ET:  The president says there is widespread voter fraud, the anti-Trump mainstream media (which is almost all of it) automatically disagrees.  Where is the truth?  From IBD: 

President Trump, refusing to back down from his claim that millions of illegal votes tipped the popular vote to Hillary Clinton, now wants a comprehensive review of voter integrity in the United States. Whatever Trump's motivation for his claim, it's the right call.

Shortly after the election, Trump said that he would have won the popular vote — which he lost by nearly 3 million votes — if it weren't for "millions of illegal voters."

That sent the mainstream press into a fit of apoplexy, with journalist and left-wing activists denouncing Trump's claim as pure fabrication from a sore winner.

They went into another rage when Trump restated the claim in a meeting with lawmakers this week. The New York Times, which never called Obama out on his many abject lies, declared in its news pages that "Trump Repeats Lie About Popular Vote in Meeting With Lawmakers."

As we noted in this space before, there is evidence of ineligible voters casting ballots, citing studies that showed how outdated and slipshod voter registrations make it at least possible for noncitizens, and even illegal aliens, to vote. (A Pew Center study found that one out of every eight voter registrations is inaccurate, out-of-date or a duplicate.)

We pointed to 2014 study in the online Electoral Studies Journal which found, alarmingly, that "noncitizen votes likely gave Senate Democrats the pivotal 60th vote needed to overcome filibusters in order to pass health care reform and other Obama administration priorities in the 111th Congress."

COMMENT:  The piece points out, quoting ace journalists John Fund and Hans von Spakovsky, that "we don't know how big of a problem voter fraud really is because no systematic effort has ever been made to investigate it."

So let's find out.  The president has suggested an investigation, and I would suggest a bipartisan investigation is in order, led by people of fine reputation.  We know that there are many cases where strange statistics have come out of election districts, and they may well be impacting Congressional and state elections, if not presidential contests. 

Investigate.  Tell us what we know, what we don't know, and what we need to know.

January 27, 2017       Permalink

SLUGGISH – AT 8:36 A.M. ET:  Final figures are in proving that Obama's economic expansion was a bust.  From MarketWatch:

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The U.S. economy slowed in the fourth quarter and annual growth failed to reach 3% for the 11th straight year, reflecting the huge hurdles the new Trump administration faces in trying to speed up a 7 ½-year-old expansion.

Gross domestic product, the official scorecard for the economy, expanded at a 1.9% annual clip from October to December, the Commerce Department said. That’s a marked drop from a 3.5% growth rate in the third quarter and below the 2.2% MarketWatch-compiled consensus.

U.S. stock futures YMH7, -0.06% were pointing to a weaker start. However, the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Thursday finished at a record high and is up 25% over the last 52 weeks.

For the full year, the U.S. grew just 1.6%, down from a 2.6% clip in 2015. The last time the U.S. topped 3% growth — the historical average is 3.3% — was in 2005.

President Donald Trump has vowed to push the economy into a higher gear with an aggressive combination of tax cuts, reduced regulations and more government spending on public works. Yet economists say it will take time before the U.S. reaps any benefits.

Most predict the economy will grow around 2% or a bit faster in 2017. If Trump’s approach works, the payoff is unlikely to come until the end of the year or early 2018, they say.

COMMENT:  If I recall, it took almost two years before the Reagan recovery began to happen, but it happened.  In the meantime, Reagan's approval rating suffered...and then returned.  I expect we'll see a repeat.

January 27, 2017       Permalink