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JULY 7,  2017

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

GOOD FOR MELANIA – FROM FOX:  As Melania Trump settles into her new role as first lady, a Fox News Poll shows a jump in her popularity.   Fifty-one percent of voters view Melania Trump favorably.  That’s up 14 points since December and up 16 points from the first time the Fox News Poll asked about her last summer.  At that time, 35 percent viewed the wife of the controversial candidate favorably and 40 percent unfavorably (August 2016).  Twenty-four percent couldn’t rate her.  Today, 28 percent view her negatively, while one in five are unable to rate her (20 percent).   She's doing a fine job.  She carries herself with dignity, and her foreign accent underlines our immigrant experience.  I hope the mainstream media gives her the credit that is due.

POLL SUPPORTS TRUMP ON IMMIGRATION – FROM THE POLITICO:   A clear majority of voters support President Donald Trump’s travel ban on visitors from six predominantly Muslim countries, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll.  Polling on the travel restrictions has varied wildly since the Trump administration unveiled the first executive order on travel in late January. But after months of litigation and controversy, 6-in-10 voters back the ban — and the survey suggests the actual policy may be more popular when separated from the president.   I would not be surprised if Trump himself starts rising in the polls.  That would especially be true if got a tax-cut through Congress.

SEARS IS FADING – FROM REUTERS:   Sears Holdings Corp (SHLD.O) is closing eight of its namesake department stores and 35 Kmart locations to cut costs and square footage in an effort to return to profitability, Chief Executive Officer Eddie Lampert said on Friday.  The store closings are in addition to 150 the company announced in January. Once the largest U.S. retailer, Sears has struggled with years of losses and declining sales as shoppers have shifted from the mall to the web. The company said in February it would cut costs this year by at least $1 billion.  What a sad story.  Sears is one of those iconic names, and I don't think it's fading simply because of online buying. 

July 7,  2017     Permalink

BULLETIN – AT 8:52 A.M. ET:  Last night we reported that private information services pegged last month's job creation figure at 158,000.   However, the official government report, issued minutes ago, has the number at 222,000, obviously a much better figure. 

SHUT UP, KAMALA – AT 8:50 A.M. ET:  Kamala Harris has come to Washington, and wants to be president.  Lord help us.  She arrived on the scene from California in January as a freshman, or freshwoman, or fresh gender of choice, senator, and all we know so far is that she's fresh. 

Even her senior senator, Dianne Feinstein, is hinting that the president-in-waiting might wish to wait a little longer.  From the Washington Free Beacon:   

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) downplayed chatter of Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) becoming a viable presidential candidate in a New York Times profile piece on the latter published Thursday by saying that she needs to concentrate on being a senator first.

The Times article discussed Harris' rapid rise in the Democratic Party and speculation that she could be a potential contender in the 2020 presidential election, the Hill reported.

"What she should do is concentrate on being a good, and possibly great, United States senator," Feinstein, 84, said. "The rest will either happen or not happen."

"She just got here," the senior senator added.

The article was published after CNN reported that Harris raised over $600,000 during the first half of 2017 for Senate Democrats in the 2018 election cycle, according to the Hill. 

Harris was elected to the Senate last November, after being endorsed by then-President Obama.
Harris, who served as California's attorney general, made history becoming the first Indian American to serve in the Senate and the second black woman elected to the upper chamber.

She garnered national attention during the televised Senate Intelligence Committee hearing investigating alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Harris was publicly interrupted twice during these hearings by Sens. John McCain [R., Ariz.] and Richard Burr (R., N.C.), who told her to be quiet and let the officials being questioned answered.

COMMENT:  She has achieved levels of obnoxia that usually call for medical intervention.  It may reach the level of a Senate emergency.

She has ambition.  She raises money.  Most important, she's Asian, black, and female.  In the Democratic Party, that's all that matters.  She should take personality lessons.  I think Obamacare may pay for them.

July 7,  2017     Permalink

AH, HIGHER EDUCATION – AT 8:37 A.M. ET:   Each year entering college students are given books to read, apparently to let them reach the next level of intellect.  What a farce.  The reading list is designed to make them into attentive little lefties.  No room for dissent.  From RedAlertPolitics: 

After years of criticism that universities and colleges were focusing too much on feelings and social justice, many people hoped that things would start to change. Those hopes appear to be dashed judging from the books incoming college freshman are asked to read over this summer. Most of them are mediocre at best in their writing style and are meant only to encourage liberal indoctrination.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that many of the books assigned to incoming freshman push themes of racial diversity, transitioning genders, social activism, and economic justice.

Books like Just Mercy, Between the World and Me, Make Your Home Among Strangers, Citizen: An American Lyric, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, and Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family are especially popular this year.

Only one conservative author has broken through the pack and is being assigned by universities, J.D. Vance’s bestselling book Hillbilly Elegy, which discusses the crisis afflicting white working class Americans. 

The books are far too contemporary and read like an MTV special on American teenage culture, emphasizing the need to realize the victimhood — the first step in their indoctrination.

None of the reading assigned is based on empirical evidence; colleges could have assigned books like Bowling Alone or Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, which are data driven.

There’s also no historical standard that shows these books will stand any test of time; there’s nothing by Sinclair Lewis, Plato, or George Orwell. Just because those books are old doesn’t mean that they cannot help students understand current events, as the world existed before any of them were born.

COMMENT:  I expect nothing better our contemporary colleges and universities.  For too long we have lived the myth that education is an unalloyed good.  It is not.  It depends on what is taught and who's doing the teaching. 

Guidance counselors report an increasing number of parents who are ruling out certain colleges for their children based on those schools' oppressive, leftist orientation.  That's a good start.  The market, even in education, might work wonders.

July 7, 2017        Permalink

GET THESE POLL RESULTS – HEARTBREAK FOR THE PUNDITRY – AT 8:21 A.M. ET:  Seems that the press is less popular than the president.  What's an anchor to do?  From Newsbusters: 

Monday's PBS NewsHour spotlighted the low trust in the news media, according to the results of their latest poll. Only 30 percent of those surveyed by NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist trust the press "a good deal" or "a great amount." The Trump administration scored seven points better in the same poll. Guest Stuart Rothenberg bemoaned the "horrible trend" towards distrust of the media over the past several decades. NPR's Tamara Keith underlined that "these numbers are part of a very long trend of institutions losing trust from the American people; and that...puts America at risk."

Host Judy Woodruff zeroed on the media's poll numbers near the end of the segment with Rothenberg and Keith. She noted that "one of the things we looked at was...[the] high distrust of the news media." After outlining the numbers, she turned to Rothenberg and asserted that "the bottom line here, Stu, is that the media may be a good whipping boy."

The guest replied, "I think the public sees the media as a political institution — just as they see the White House, the President, and Congress." After pointing out the "horrible trend," Rothenberg pointed out "Gallup numbers in the early 1970s...[where] those of us in the media are regarded much worse than we were back then."

COMMENT:   Yup, that's right.  The public increasingly sees the press as a political institution, aligned with either parties or interests.  And you know what?  The public is right. 

The press is in crisis. Thoughtful journalists know that and want to fix the problem.  Other journalists don't see the problem.

And part of the problem is that journalists are educated in major American universities, where they're taught to think left and show contempt for any opposing argument.  Too many journalists learned the lesson too well.

July 7, 2017     Permalink

JULY 6,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 8:05 P.M. ET:

CNN DOING A TITANIC – FROM THE FEDERALIST:  Last week, more Americans tuned in to watch re-runs of “Yogi Bear,” “Full House,” and “Friends” on Nick At Nite than to watch Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon’s shows on CNN.  According to cable ratings from the week of June 26-July 2, CNN’s viewership of its primetime shows was ranked significantly lower than its competitors like Fox News and MSNBC, which place first and second respectively. Clocking in at No. 10 on the list, CNN fell behind HGTV, Nick At Nite, History Channel, and ESPN — the sports network that’s been hemorrhaging viewers for months.  It's Trump's fault!  It's Trump's fault.  The First Amendment is in danger!

OBAMA'S MILITARY – FROM THE NEW MANUAL – FROM THE FEDERALIST:  The slide tells soldiers to “understand that you may encounter individuals in barracks, bathrooms, or shower facilities with physical characteristics of the opposite sex despite having the same gender marker in DEERS.” The next bullet point adds, “all Soldiers should be respectful of the privacy and modesty concerns of others. However, transgender Soldiers are not required or expected to modify or adjust their behavior based on the fact that they do not ‘match’ other Soldiers.” This is a first. The military is normally in the business of telling soldiers to “modify or adjust their behavior” all the time.  Consider what these policies mean in real life: Most Army showers look like a prison cell with several showerheads on the wall. Anyone who has dealt with the practical challenges of funneling 30 people through them in ten minutes understands that “privacy” will be incompatible with reality. Female soldiers who feel uncomfortable sharing facilities with individuals who still have “physical characteristics of the opposite sex” will just have to put up with it.  Those are the rules of Obama's military.  I guess women with traditional sensibilities just aren't wanted.

JOB CREATION JUNE – FROM CNBC:  Job creation in the private sector tailed off significantly in June in another sign that the economy is getting closer to full employment, according to a report Thursday from ADP and Moody's Analytics.  Companies added 158,000 positions for the month, a number that economists who released the report said was still strong but stood well below the robust 230,000 number the report showed in May. The reading also was considerably below the 185,000 gain that economists surveyed by Reuters expected, and was revised lower from the initial 253,000 count.  "The job market continues to power forward," Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi said in a statement. "At this pace, which is double the rate of labor force growth, the tight labor market will continue getting tighter."  It may well be that we are approaching "full" employment, as economists see it.  The decline is thus not necessarily bad news.  The hiring market has been robust.

July 6, 2017       Permalink

OH, I'M SO UPSET - MY PILLS, GET ME MY PILLS – AT 9:03 A.M. ET:  Jeff Zucker, who runs CNN, feels that President Trump is treating him unfairly.  There is pain.  There is anguish.  There are falsely heroic words.  That cruel president!  From The Hill: 

CNN President Jeff Zucker on Wednesday said President Trump is trying to bully the news network, but added that he won't let Trump "intimidate" his employees.

“My job is to remind everyone that they need to stay focused doing their job,” Zucker told The New York Times Wednesday. “He’s trying to bully us, and we’re not going to let him intimidate us. You can’t lose your confidence and let that change the way you conduct yourselves.”

That is complete garbage.  Zucker doesn't understand what CNN's job is – to report the news without fear or favor.  He thinks it's job is to destroy Trump and build ratings by shouting "Scandal!"  Those ratings are now plunging. 

When asked by the Times why Trump had hit his network, Zucker said the president's preferred medium is television.

“Television is his preferred medium,” Zucker said. “And he knows our viewers can be swayed because they’re not watching Fox or MSNBC” — networks with an ideological bent in prime time."

And CNN doesn't have an ideological bent?  Does he watch his own network?  Or is he watching game shows?

Zucker's interview with the Times comes as Trump's feud with the network escalates. 

On Sunday, Trump tweeted a redditor's video showing Trump body-slamming the CNN logo. The video has now been retweeted more than 330,000 times.

The video immediately sparked backlash from CNN and other journalists.

But the news outlet also faced its own criticism after it tracked down the creator of the video and, according to critics, 'threatened' to expose the identity of the redditor who created it.

COMMENT:  CNN needs new leadership, and a clear vision of what "the first name in news," as it calls itself, must be. 

I don't like everything Trump does, and his coarseness is unsettling and self-defeating.  But at least the man fights back against press corruption.  George W. Bush didn't fight back.  What did it get him, or the country?

July 6,  2017     Permalink

TRUMP TRIUMPH – AT 8:47 A.M. ET:  President Trump has made a triumphant entry into Poland, a country that admires America and strong American leadership.  Leftist "intellectuals" need not apply.  From Daily Mail:

President Donald Trump spoke to thousands of cheering Poles in Warsaw on Thursday, calling their nation 'the geographic heart of Europe' and praising their countrymen for shaking off both Nazi oppressors and Russian occupiers in the last century.

'That's trouble. That's tough,' he exclaimed.

'In those dark days, you have lost your land but you never lost your pride.'

Trump delivered his address in Krasinski Square, at the foot of a statue commemorating the 1994 Polish uprising against German occupiers. He and first lady Melania Trump laid a wreath at its base.

Speaking behind bulletproof glass, he said Poles are 'a people who truly know the value of what you defend.' 

He urged them to uphold 'a future in which good conquers evil.'

They chanted 'USA, USA' and 'Donald Trump! Donald Trump!'

Trump had earlier met the Polish president and warned that the future of the West is in doubt.
In his speech he praised Poland's 'will to survive' because they 'have never, ever forgotten who they are.'

'The Polish experience reminds us - the defense of the West ultimately rests not only on means but also on the will of its people to prevail,' Trump said.

'Your oppressors tried to break you, but Poland could not be broken,' he said.

And Trump projected his fight against Middle Eastern terrorism onto the template of Poland's historic struggles, saying that 'We are fighting hard against radical Islamic terrorism, and we will prevail.'

'America and Europe have suffered one terror attack after another. We are going to get it to stop,' he said.

The president urged European nations to commit more of their money to NATO, as he said the organization's 'Article 5' commitment to mutual defense is an ironclad guarantee.

'Words are easy but actions matter,' he said.

COMMENT:   Ah, to hear cheers for an American president.  There are statues of Ronald Reagan in Poland.  There are statues of George W. Bush in Africa.  Where are the statues to Bill Clinton or Barack Obama?  In the anthropology department of an American college?

It's good that Trump mentioned Article 5 of the NATO charter.  The West Europeans have been going full-shrink over his failure to "reassure" them that he would abide by Article 5, which proclaims that an attack on one is an attack on all.   Now he's done it.  But, as he also said, words are easy. 

July 6, 2017    Permalink