Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

JANUARY 28,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:54 P.M. ET:

SIGN OF THE TIMES – FROM ROLLING STONE:   In light of the recent attacks on concerts in Manchester, Las Vegas and Paris, this year's Grammy weekend will feature a new component: a counterterrorism briefing for musicians with State Department and European Union officials. The all-day training, held in a Times Square hotel suite on Saturday, will include briefings to a number of high-profile Grammy attendees, including Pink, Little Big Town, Chris Stapleton, Run the Jewels and Young Thug, among others. While venues typically provide standard security briefings ahead of each event, and the Recording Academy provides some guidance to its members, this off-site briefing is the first to provide non-event-specific best practices from US State Department and European Union officials directly to the musicians themselves.  A very wise move.  Eternal vigilance, as they say, is the price of liberty.

MORE ABOUT MELANIA TRUMP'S RISE – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:   Much of the press coverage of first lady Melania Trump has descended from mere criticism and speculation to downright scandal mongering. The American public is not buying it, if recent poll numbers are a gauge.  Since December, Mrs. Trump has garnered very respectable favorability ratings. Gallup found that 54 percent of the nation gave her a thumbs up. CNN reported her positive rating to be 47 percent while an Economist YouGov survey gave her a 48 percent.  In the year since she became first lady, Mrs. Trump poll numbers have risen from 17 to 37 percentage points over the months, depending on the poll. Some news organizations have acknowledged this.  Both Fox News and The Hill recently ran nearly identical headlines which read “Melania Trump’s popularity soars” and “Melania Trump’s popularity climbs.” AOL News also reported the first lady’s “surging popularity.”  Such positive sentiment has continued for months, despite hostile press coverage which appears to have escalated.  I see increasing evidence that the public is becoming repelled by the attacks on both Donald and Melania Trump.  The voters who chose Mr. Trump knew they weren't getting an angel.  They elected him for policy reasons.  As for Melania, she is earning her rise in popularity.

INCREDIBLE – FROM THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE:    An interactive map posted on the internet that shows the whereabouts of people who use fitness devices such as Fitbit also reveals highly sensitive information about the location and activities of soldiers at U.S. military bases, in what appears to be a major security oversight.  The Global Heat Map, published by the GPS tracking company Strava, uses satellite information to map the location and movements of subscribers to the company's fitness service over a two-year period, by illuminating areas of activity.  Strava says it has 27 million users around the world, including people who own widely available fitness devices such as Fitbit, Jawbone and Vitofit, as well as people who directly subscribe to its mobile phone application. The map is not live — rather it shows a pattern of accumulated activity between 2015 and September last year.  Most parts of the United States and Europe, where millions of people use some form of fitness tracker, show up on the map as a blaze of light, because there is so much activity.   Pretty chilling.  Imagine what newer versions of this technology will be able to tell a foreign enemy 20 years from now.

January 28, 2018       Permalink

TRUMP'S TAX PLAN IS WORKING – AT 12:47 P.M. ET:   Like him or not, and I've had mixed feelings, President Trump's tax plan is clearly taking effect.  It has, for one, changed the national psychology of the country, which is one of the main building blocks of a strong economy.  From the great Michael Goodwin at the New York Post: 

Not that they needed one, but progressive wing nuts and their fellow travelers are getting another reason to hate President Trump. He’s proving that capitalism works.

The president’s policies of cutting high taxes and excessive regulations are sparking a stock market surge and soaring economic confidence.

Each day brings announcements from companies ranging from Apple to Walmart that they are giving bonuses and pay hikes, adding new jobs and increasing their investments in America.

Millions of workers will get the bonuses, most of which are for $1,000, and untold others will get new or higher-paying jobs.

Most of those workers also will see their take-home pay increase because they will get personal income tax cuts and a doubling of the standard deduction. Those changes will become apparent in a week or so when the new lower rates are applied to payrolls.

The cash-in-the-pocket benefits are great news to many families, but the boom is doing something else too: It’s giving the millennials a firsthand lesson in economics.

Following eight slow-growth years under President Barack Obama and an election where their favorite candidate, Bernie Sanders, railed against the wealthy and promised free stuff for everybody else, many young Americans were taught that socialism is their friend and capitalism their enemy.

Now they are getting proof that the opposite is true. They are eyewitnesses as capitalism provides more opportunities and financial security to more people than any other system.

COMMENT:  The millennials are an embarrassment.  But right behind them is a new generation, born after the 9-11 attacks, and showing signs of wanting to participate in this nation, rather than disparage it.  That is informed speculation.  One authority I trust says that we should, by next year, on college campuses, know whether this new generation will be a welcome relief from the spoiled-brat millennials.  There are some good signs, but the power of Marxist professors should not be underestimated.  As Sinatra might have said, leave us we should pray.

January 28, 2018       Permalink

A SUPERB PIECE – AT 12:07 P.M. ET:  Rarely do we get a piece from a lawyer with the clarity that Victoria Toensing displays in her article about the special prosector and President Trump, done for Fox. 

Special Counsel Robert Mueller wants to interview President Trump. We know that is true because the areas of inquiry that Mueller is interested in have been leaked. But the questions Mueller is looking at are not about the issue the special counsel was supposed to examine: collusion with Russians to fix the 2016 presidential election.

Rather, the Washington Post reports that Mueller “is seeking to question President Trump in the coming weeks about his decisions to oust national security adviser Michael Flynn and FBI Director James B. Comey, according to two people familiar with his plans.”

The two acts, according to the Post, are related to “efforts by the president or others to hamper the special counsel’s probe.”

How can that be? Flynn had nothing to do with the special counsel’s probe. And firing the head of the FBI does not thwart what all the people under him are doing. So what is the alleged illegality here that could possibly “hamper” or obstruct the investigation?

It is beside the point at this time that there is no such crime as colluding. It is beside the point at this time that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was so negligent in his drafting the appointment of Mueller that he did not limit the investigation in either scope or time.

COMMENT:  Please read the whole thing.  This is one of the most important works of good journalism that I've seen in recent months.  Send it to friends.  It is a clear explanation of the risks to President Trump and democracy itself presented by the special counsel's office.

We are in strange times.  The term "McCarthyism" comes to mind.

January 28,  2018     Permalink

JANUARY 27,  2018

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

WYNN RESIGNS – FROM CNN:   Washington (CNN) Steve Wynn has resigned from his position as finance chairman for the Republican National Committee amid controversy over sexual misconduct allegations.  RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said she accepted Wynn's departure on Saturday.  "Today I accepted Steve Wynn's resignation as Republican National Committee Finance Chair," she said in a statement.  Wynn is facing allegations of sexual misconduct following a story in The Wall Street Journal that published on Friday. He denies the allegations, calling them "preposterous." Politico was first to report Wynn plans to step down on Saturday.  In a statement announcing his resignation, Wynn called the controversy a "distraction."  "Effective today I am resigning as Finance Chairman of the RNC," Wynn said in the statement Saturday. "The unbelievable success we have achieved must continue. The work we are doing to make America a better place is too important to be impaired by this distraction. I thank the President for the opportunity to serve and wish him continued success."  Wynn has denied the charges and is entitled to a full defense and his day in court.

WHAT A FRAUD – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  Hillary Clinton loves you, bitches.  The former presidential candidate and secretary of state sent out a video message “directed to activist bitches supporting bitches,” as she put it, via Twitter Friday night.  “Hey everyone, I just wanted to say thanks,” Clinton said into a cellphone camera, seated at a red banquette in what appeared to be a restaurant. “Thanks for your feminism, for your activism, and all I can hope is you keep up the really important, good work,” she said.  At the urging of an off-camera companion, she added with a laugh: “And let me just say, this is directed to the activist bitches supporting bitches. So let’s go.”  What a class act.  I wonder what this individual has to say to the women her husband abused.

UNDOUBTEDLY THE ARTISTIC EVENT OF THE CENTURY – FROM FOX:  A cabal of Hollywood elites, progressive groups and social activists are planning a “People’s State of the Union” as a “public alternative” on the eve of President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address.  Notable participants in Monday's scheduled event in New York City include filmmaker Michael Moore, actors Mark Ruffalo, Alyssa Milano, Rosie Perez and Whoopi Goldberg.  They'll congregate at the Town Hall in Manhattan, the venue where suffragists met in the 1920s. Singer Andra Day and rapper Common will be performing the song, “Stand Up for Something,” from the biopic film "Marshall," about the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.  Tickets were still available Saturday at $47 each.   And I suspect they'll continue to be available.  Can you believe this?  The "People's State of the Union?  Which people?   People who fly around in private, studio-supplied jets?  And get that nifty song, "Stand Up for Something."  I'm so inspired by the title.  So much more inspirational than, say, "God Bless America" or "America the Beautiful."  And I can't wait for the sequel to "Stand Up for Something," which will have the rousing title, "Hey, You Gotta Do Stuff."  I'm overwhelmed.

January 27,  2018     Permalink

FIGHTING BACK – AT 2:38 P.M. ET:  I like Melania Trump.   She's been a fine first lady, stylish and elegant, and a hit wherever she goes.  Naturally, she's under attack, and the subject of endless rumors.  She's fighting back, and good for her.  From AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) — First lady Melania Trump’s office is fed up with speculation about marital strife in the White House.  Mrs. Trump’s spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, took to Twitter Friday to blast “flat-out false reporting” about the first lady that has emerged in recent days.

“BREAKING,” she wrote. “The laundry list of salacious & flat-out false reporting about Mrs. Trump by tabloid publications & TV shows has seeped into ‘main stream media’ reporting.”

Grisham added that Mrs. Trump is focused on her family and role as first lady, “not the unrealistic scenarios being peddled daily by the fake news.”

The tabloid Daily Mail reported Friday that Mrs. Trump has spent a number of nights at a D.C. hotel in the wake of reports of allegations by adult film star Stormy Daniels that she had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006, shortly after he married Melania.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s personal lawyer brokered a $130,000 payment to Daniels in October 2016 to prohibit her from publicly discussing the alleged affair before the election. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has scheduled an appearance on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” following the president’s State of the Union address Tuesday.

Mrs. Trump had originally been scheduled to join her husband at an economic summit in Davos, Switzerland, this week. But her office said Tuesday, the day before Trump’s departure, that Mrs. Trump would not be going, citing unspecified scheduling and logistical issues.

On Thursday, the first lady paid a visit to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington in advance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

She has joined her husband on his other foreign trips.

COMMENT:  I have no doubt that some of the wild stories about the president are true, just as some of the stories about John F. Kennedy were true, and even FDR, who had a mistress, Lucy Mercer, while he was president.

Melania Trump knows the story, and handles herself superbly.  I look forward to her next public appearance.

January 27, 2018       Permalink

TRUMP AT DAVOS – AT 12:44 P.M. ET:  The president has now returned from Davos, where he had a triumphant appearance.  Of course, you won't see that in the mainstream media, especially the disgraceful CNN, whose news reports can be reduced to two words:  Robert Mueller.  Soon CNN may be selling the exciting Robert Mueller doll.  Buy one for your kids.

But Davos was a Trump triumph.  From DC Whispers: 

It was by most accounts (with the exception of those among the most biased of the anti-Trump media) a remarkably successful showing by POTUS Trump in Davos. He was confident, cordial, tough, yet fair – and in the end, the world cheered this new era of “America first but not America alone” leadership.

Within minutes of finishing his speech, the stock markets rocketed to new all-time highs, adding TENS OF BILLIONS of dollars more into the retirement accounts of the American Middle Class.

Where once world markets groaned when Barack Obama gave another meandering anti-American diatribe, those same markets now cheer a U.S. president’s promise of opportunity, freedom, and innovation. By nearly every measure, the lives of ALL Americans are better since Donald Trump became President. It is for that reason his enemies wish to see him destroyed. He is a true political outsider, someone far removed from the incestuous-globalist echo chamber, who continues to play by his own rules – not theirs, and who also puts the needs of the American people first, not those of America’s enemies.

What remarkable times we now live in. 

COMMENT:  My fear, and we'll be discussing this at Urgent Agenda, is that Trump will be brought down before the end of his term by the Washington/journalistic/academic establishment, an establishment that regards victory for the United States as unsophisticated and beneath it, an establishment that believes it should determine the future of the country, not the American people.

We are in for major battles.  The outcome is uncertain.  The best thing we can do is to be sure our side actually goes to the polls on election day.  It's a simple thing, but it's everything.

January 27, 2018       Permalink 

REX AT WORK – AT 11:58 A.M. ET:  Rex Tillerson gets no respect.  He works hard, is reshaping the State Department as a modern institution, and works doggedly on our behalf.  From Reuters: 

WARSAW - US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Saturday that working groups on fixing what the US sees as flaws in the Iranian nuclear deal have already begun to meet, trying to determine the scope of what is needed and how much Iran needs to be engaged in it.

Tillerson, ending a week-long European trip in Warsaw, said that he had secured support from Britain, France and Germany - all parties to the 2015 agreement - to work on the deal that President Donald Trump has warned he will walk away from unless changes are made.

"It's always darkest before the dawn," Tillerson told journalists. "The working groups have already begun to meet on efforts to agree principles, what is the scope of what we attempt to address and also how much we engage Iran on discussions to address these issues," he said.

The nuclear deal gave Iran billions of dollars in sanctions relief in return for curbs on its atomic program.

Trump vowed to stop waiving US sanctions unless the Europeans agreed to strengthen the deal's terms by consenting to a side agreement that would effectively eliminate provisions that allow Iran to gradually resume some advanced atomic work. Trump also wants tighter restrictions on Iran's ballistic missile program.

COMMENT:  This will be tough going, especially with the Germans, who see Iran as a large market.  But President Trump is increasingly being seen as a serious international leader, and a man determined to win.  The will to win, and the power behind it, tend to move mountains. 

January 27, 2018       Permalink