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TODAY IS THE 10th ANNIVERSARY

OF URGENT AGENDA

WE LAUNCHED ON JANUARY 8, 2008,

AND HAVE PUBLISHED EACH DAY SINCE,

WITHOUT INTERRUPTION

You, our readers, will grade us on our quality.  I will give myself an A for endurance and an A-plus for madness. 

My heartfelt thanks go to our readers, subscribers, and donators who have brought us to this milestone. 

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I appeared on Silvio Canto Jr's talk show from Dallas last night.  It's here. 

JANUARY 8,  2018

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

THE LATEST ON THE SEX BEAT – FROM ABC LOCAL:   COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - A two-star general who recently headed the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson was denied a promotion to three-star after referring to a congressional staffer as "sweetheart" during a meeting in 2016.  That's according to military news outlet Stars and Stripes, which reports that Maj. Gen. Ryan Gonsalves was administratively reprimanded after an investigation into the incident. His specific punishment, aside from being denied the promotion to lieutenant general, wasn't released by the Army.  It stems from a meeting in October 2016 between Gonsalves and office staff with Rep. Jim Langevin (D-Rhode Island) at Fort Carson. According to a report, Gonsalves called a female staffer "sweetheart," and commented on her age.  Gonsalves also told the staffer to take notes "since she was a Democrat and did not believe in funding the military," according to a report from the Army Inspector General.  Other staffers called Gonsalves' comments sexist, though others stood up for him as a professional.   Well, it is some mildly inappropriate language, requiring the general to be cautioned, but I don't think it requires denying him an earned promotion.  Some of this stuff is getting out of control, and will destroy the basic issue of appropriate behavior.

GREAT MOMENTS IN NUTRITION – FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:   Chocolate may go extinct as soon as the year 2050, according to scientists from the University of California, Berkeley. The reason for this catastrophe? Climate change is affecting the natural source of chocolate, apparently.  Not to worry, however. UC Berkeley scientists are collaborating with candy manufacturer Mars, Inc. in order to combat this dilemma before chocolate becomes completely eradicated from the Earth.  According to their research, cacao plants are dissipating due to higher temperatures around the world, supplemented with drier conditions in weather. Unfortunately, these conditions aren’t suitable for cocoa farming and might even put the processing of chocolate to a halt.  "We're trying to go all in here," Barry Parkin, the chief sustainability officer of Mars, expressed to Business Insider. "There are obviously commitments the world is leaning into but, frankly, we don't think we're getting there fast enough collectively."  If chocolate is not saved, nothing else is worth it.  This is about civilization itself.  Imagine stopping at a service station food mart and not finding a Milky Way.  I can't face the thought.

THE INTERNET STRIKES AGAIN – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:    LONDON – A couple, who met on a dating site and began researching how to make homemade explosives and the deadly poison ricin, were found guilty on Monday of plotting Islamic State-inspired chemical and bomb attacks on Britain.
Munir Hassan Mohammed, 37, from Derby in central England, began sharing extremist material within weeks of meeting Londoner Rowaida El-Hassan, 32, who in turn helped him find information on making ricin.  “This then rapidly escalated and El-Hassan, a qualified pharmacist, readily passed on her knowledge to Mohammed giving him the technical assistance he needed in preparing for a terrorist attack,” said Detective Chief Inspector Paul Greenwood.  Get a load of the photos.  Would you want to meet either of them on a dating site? 

January 8, 2018       Permalink

IT WAS ONCE THE PARTY OF ROOSEVELT, TRUMAN, AND KENNEDY – AT 11:52 A.M. ET:  Now it's the party of Barack Obama, amateur psychiatrists, and assorted nuts.  From Fox: 

After months of shying away from the toxic topic, Democrats increasingly are embracing political rhetoric that flirts with the impeachment of President Trump – signaling a strategy that could work its way into the mainstream in the 2018 midterms.

From the base, the party sees encouragement. A petition with 4 million signatures demanding Trump’s impeachment and a survey showing 70 percent of Democrats backing at least hearings on the matter could nudge Democrats further into the impeachment camp in the new year.

The publication of the “Fire and Fury” tell-all, meanwhile, has only emboldened Trump’s critics, by seeming to raise questions about his stability – which the president openly confronted in a weekend tweet-storm declaring he is a “very stable genius.”

Democrats must win 24 House seats and two Senate seats to regain control of Congress in 2018, but have a historically tough time motivating their voters in non-presidential years.

COMMENT:  I believe we have a Constitution, and that Constitution provides the basis for impeachment.  You can't impeach a president because someone wants to.

The Democratic Party is a disgrace to the country.  It is an embarrassment.  This is the party that led the United States through the Depression, through World War II, that built the defense structure that eventually won the Cold War, and that pledged that the United States would pay any price in defense of freedom.  Look at that party today.  Its chairman is a hard leftist who uses filthy language in speeches, even if children are present.  Its deputy chairman was a front man for the Nation of Islam, a hate group.

Unless America has lost its soul, I can't image it embracing the modern Democratic Party.  But I could be unpleasantly surprised.  The Democrats have the support of a left-wing media, and the support of the educational establishment.  Sadly, that's a good start for them.

January 8, 2018       Permalink

PRESIDENT OPRAH?  MY PILLS!  MY PILLS! – AT 9:35 A.M. ET: There was some kind of an awards show in Hollywood last night.  I never watch these things.  I've been in two industries – show business and journalism – where people spend considerable time giving awards to each other. 

But Oprah Winfrey made a speech at last night's awards bash, and, according to press reports, the audience of show biz types – think junior high school – went into hysterics, begging her to run for president.  From The Hill: 

Oprah Winfrey is sparking rumors of a potential 2020 run for president after delivering a moving speech at the Golden Globes as she accepted a lifetime achievement award.

Donning black like many other celebrities in a statement about sexual harassment, Winfrey paid homage to the press and to victims of sexual abuse as she accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement. 

“So I want all the girls watching here and now to know that a new day is on the horizon.” Winfrey said.

“And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say, ‘me too’ again.”

Winfrey in an interview after the show denied that she is preparing to run for president, but the momentum of her speech had already begun, and the talk-show host’s first name was trending in the nation’s capital Monday morning.

But Stedman Graham, Winfrey’s partner for the last several decades, expressed to The Los Angeles Times that a run for the Oval Office could happen.

“It's up to the people,” Graham told the newspaper. “She would absolutely do it."  

COMMENT:  Must we be put through this?  Her speech reads fine, and I've heard sound excerpts as well, but it's right out of the 1960s.  She sounds like Hillary with a better voice.

I recall a Hollywood personality who ran for president.  His name was Ronald Reagan.  But along the way he was a six-time union president and a two-term governor of our largest state.  And he wrote and lectured.

Get some experience, Oprah.  Learn what the 21st century is about.  Then we'll talk.

January 8, 2018        Permalink

REMARKABLE – AT 8:03 A.M.  ET:  Lost in the rush of positive economic reports are figures that the journalistic establishment never thought possible.  Blacks and Hispanics, two groups that we were told would be ignored by the Trump administration, are actually doing better than they ever have.  From Fox: 

Democratic warnings that President Trump would make life worse for minorities were discredited once again Friday, with the release of new unemployment statistics for December. In just under one year in office, the president and the Republican Congress have helped minorities make dramatic gains.

Since taking the reins from President Obama, President Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress have embraced free-market and pro-liberty economic policies. Now – after a year of reducing regulations, approving a tax cut, and encouraging stricter standards for numerous welfare programs at the state level – the economy is thriving. Working-age minorities are benefiting in ways they have rarely, if ever, have enjoyed in the modern era.

The U.S. Labor Department reported Friday that the unemployment rate for African-Americans fell to 6.8 percent in December – the lowest rate since record keeping began in 1972. That’s an astounding drop from the 8.3 percent black unemployment rate in October 2016, just before Donald Trump was elected president.

Hispanic unemployment was at a near-record low of 4.9 percent in December – down from 5.7 percent the month before the election of President Trump. Additionally, there were four months in 2017 in which the Hispanic seasonal unemployment fell below 5 percent – the only time that has occurred in a single year over the past 44 years.

COMMENT:  Oh my, how to explain this.  Trump has put new energy into the economy, and, just as important, into the psychology that drives the economy.  This administration understands that a strong overall economy, linked with tax reduction, will benefit every group in the nation.

I have no idea what the Democratic economic plan is.  I do know that the president's vision is working, and that this is likely to have a profound effect on how people vote in November. 

The GOP, in its historic shortsightedness, has long ignored groups it believed it could never win.  That's defeatist thinking. Mr. Trump may not be able to produce majorities in minority communities, but he and his economic results may draw enough votes away to change the national political map. 

Never surrender anywhere.

January 8,  2018     Permalink

JANUARY 7,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:28 P.M. ET:

YOU CANNOT MAKE IT UP – FROM COLLEGE FIX:  In a remarkable interview, a Yale professor of psychiatry says President Trump should be “contained” against his will for an “emergency” evaluation of his mental state.  According to Vox.com reporter Eliza Barclay, Professor Bandy Lee is “leading the call” by a group of psychiatrists for just that assessment. Lee has “devoted her 20-year career to studying, predicting, and preventing violence,” Barclay writes.  The professor allegedly briefed a dozen members of Congress on the president’s mental state, and along with professors from Harvard and Columbia released a statement noting Mr. Trump is “further unraveling.”  We noted earlier today that a traditional tactic of the left is to declare opponents mentally unfit.  This story fits right in.

MORE MADNESS – FROM TWITCHY.COM:  It’s been quite a week for those in the mental health profession and those in government and the media who like to pretend they are. Yes, the narrative of the week, kicking off with President Trump’s North Korea tweet on Tuesday and continuing through the weekend (and surely into next week), is that Trump is mentally unfit for office and must be removed.  With that in mind, consider this unrelated entry from psychologist Barbara Greenberg, who writes in US News that “the word ‘best’ encourages judgment and promotes exclusion,” and so children should be banned from having best friends in school.  Better talk to your kids.  Make sure they have no favorites.  Tell the best friend she's no longer welcome.  Everyone is equal, remember that.  And remember to recite your Marx.

BERNIE, WE HARDLY KNEW YE – FROM VTDIGGER.ORG:  The federal probe into a 2010 land deal orchestrated by former Burlington College president Jane Sanders, wife of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has deepened. VTDigger has confirmed that a grand jury has been empaneled and has taken sworn testimony in the case.  Former Burlington College board member Robin Lloyd says she testified for about an hour on Oct. 26 before a grand jury at the federal courthouse in Burlington...Jane and Bernie Sanders have vehemently denied any impropriety surrounding the land deal.  Lloyd’s appearance is the first public confirmation that the federal government has empaneled a grand jury, whose principal function is to decide whether to issue a criminal indictment.  There is a presumption of innocence, of course, but this looks like trouble.

January 7, 2018       Permalink

OH DEAR, HERE COME THE REGRETS – AT 2:22 P.M. ET:   Steve Bannon apparently realizes he's now officially damaged goods.  From Mediaite: 

Last week, Breitbart chief and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon became THE focus of political media when excerpts from Michael Wolff’s Trump tell-all were published. Among the many explosive remarks attributed to Bannon was his declaration that Donald Trump Jr’s 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer was “treasonous.”

Needless to say, the president has not taken kindly to the book or Bannon’s comments, labeling Bannon “Sloppy Steve,” claiming his ex-advisor has “lost his mind” and stating that he is totally done with him. Meanwhile, Bannon has largely stayed quiet about the whole thing. Today ended that silence.

Bannon told Axios on Sunday that he was sorry for his comments about the president’s son.

“I regret that my delay in responding to the inaccurate reporting regarding Don Jr has diverted attention from the president’s historical accomplishments in the first year of his presidency,” the statement to Axios said.

He also heaped praise upon Trump Jr., calling him “both a patriot and a good man,” adding that the Trump scion “has been relentless in his advocacy for his father and the agenda that has helped turn our country around.”

Bannon further noted his comments “were aimed at Paul Manafort,” stating that Manafort “should have known [the Russians] are duplicitous, cunning and not our friends.”

COMMENT:   Well, I don't know how much good this will do Bannon.  I think, unless political conditions change, he will now become an asterisk in history. 

There is an old line in politics, which you've all heard:  "If you strike at the king, you must kill him."  Bannon struck, and the king is still there.  Bannon's phone has probably stopped ringing.

January 7, 2018       Permalink

NICE TO KNOW – AT 1:38 P.M. ET:  At least Teresa May, the prime minister of Great Britain, has come to President Trump's defense.  From Associated Press: 

LONDON — British Prime Minister Theresa May has dismissed concerns about Donald Trump’s mental fitness, saying the U.S. president acts in what he sees as the best interests of his country.

A new book by journalist Michael Wolff quotes prominent Trump advisers as questioning the president’s competence.

Asked in an interview whether she thought concerns about Trump’s mental state were serious, May said: “No.”

She said that “when I deal with President Trump what I see is somebody who is committed to ensuring that he is taking decisions in the best interests of the United States.”

In the BBC interview broadcast Sunday, May reaffirmed that Trump would visit Britain. She did not give a date, or say whether it would be a full state visit or a lower-key working trip.

COMMENT:  The charge that a president, or presidential candidate, is mentally unstable, has only been made against Republicans.  It is a standard charge of the left, inspired by the old Soviet device of sending dissidents to the Gulag for "mental treatment."  Old Soviet practices have always inspired elements of the left.  Ah, for the good old days.

The president is not unstable.  He is sometimes obnoxious and unwise, and some of his tweets are over the top.  But he's a very smart and discerning man, if he'd give himself a break now and then.

January 7, 2018       Permalink

IRAN – HOW SAD – AT 12:46 P.M. ET:  It does appear that the Iranian protests are essentially over.   For a few days we could dream that democracy would win.  From Reuters: 

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday the country’s people and security forces had put an end to unrest fomented by foreign enemies, as parliament and security officials met to discuss the boldest challenge to the clerical establishment since 2009.

There has been more than a week of unrest in Iran in which 22 people have died and more than 1,000 arrested, according to Iranian officials. The protests spread to more than 80 cities and rural towns as thousands of young and working-class Iranians expressed their anger at graft, unemployment and a deepening gap between rich and poor.

Residents contacted by Reuters in various cities have said the protests had subsided after the government intensified a crackdown by dispatching Revolutionary Guards forces to several provinces.

“Iran’s revolutionary people along with tens of thousands of Basij forces, police and the Intelligence Ministry have broken down the chain (of unrest),” the Guards said in a statement on their Sepahnews website. The Guards said the unrest had been “created ... by the United States, Britain, the Zionist regime (Israel), Saudi Arabia, the hypocrites (Mujahideen) and monarchists.”

COMMENT:  What did we learn in the days of the revolt?  We learned plenty.  We learned, with revulsion, that the Democratic Party of the United States turned its back on the Iranian people in order to support the ugly foreign policy of Barack Obama.  We learned that, by contrast, President Trump openly supported the protests, putting this country on the right side of history.  Mr. Trump should be praised for his stand.  The mainstream media ignored it.

We learned, once again, that our "allies" in Western Europe cannot be trusted.  They are allies only when we're doing something for them.  After President Trump resoundingly declared what side we were on, our "allies" refused to go along.  Even Great Britain's reaction was muted, and the French president suggested our pro-democracy stand could lead to war.  Of course, European policy was based on the large amount of commercial business done with Iran.  Democratic ideals were left behind. Liberal intellectuals have lost all interest in human rights.

We must always remember, as we symbolically walk through the American military cemeteries in Europe, that every soldier buried there died as a result of European diplomacy.  Yet, the West Europeans continue to lecture us.  Please observe that no democracy movement anywhere in the world was ever inspired by a statement made by the European Union.  It is the United States that people around the world look to.  To his enormous credit, Ronald Reagan never let them down.  Neither is Donald Trump letting them down.  It is the Obamas of this country that shame us.

January 7,  2018     Permalink