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JULY 19,  2017

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

GET WELL, SENATOR – FROM TUCSON.COM:   U.S. Sen. John McCain revealed Wednesday evening that he has a brain tumor.  The announcement follows a procedure to remove a blood clot from above his left eye at the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix last Friday, where a pathology report revealed the glioblastoma, a malignant brain tumor.  Treatment options may include a combination of chemotherapy and radiation.  A statement from McCain's doctors say he is recovering from his surgery, but it is unclear when the 80-year-old Republican would return to the Senate.   "Further consultations with Senator McCain's Mayo Clinic care team will indicate when he will return to the United States Senate," the statement read.  Senator McCain is a fighter.  Agree or disagree with him, he has served this country in ways most people can't imagine.  We wish him the best.

WALKING PAPERS? – FROM CNN:  Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump said in an interview published Wednesday that he would not have chosen Jeff Sessions to be his attorney general had he known Sessions would recuse himself over matters related to the 2016 presidential campaign.  Trump's remarks, in a 50-minute interview with The New York Times, represent an extraordinary rebuke from the President toward the nation's top law enforcement official who happens to be one of his earliest political allies.  "Jeff Sessions takes the job, gets into the job, recuses himself, which frankly I think is very unfair to the President," Trump said, referring to himself. "How do you take a job and then recuse yourself? If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said, 'Thanks, Jeff, but I'm not going to take you.' It's extremely unfair -- and that's a mild word -- to the President."  Stunning.  I don't see how Sessions can remain.  It's clear that Trump has lost confidence in him, and yet doesn't want to fire him, perhaps because of the optics.  But Jeff should resign and go quietly, without a book contract. 

A REMARKABLE MOMENT – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  The US is opening its arms to a terminally ill British baby by offering him and his parents permanent residency to allow them to seek treatment in America.  The House Appropriations Committee unanimously passed an amendment Tuesday to grant 11-month-old Charlie Gard and his parents the legal status should he be allowed to move to the US.  Charlie suffers from a rare genetic condition that has rendered him unable to eat or breathe without help or move his limbs. His parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, are desperately trying to bring him to the US for experimental treatment.  The baby can’t be removed from the UK hospital without permission from British courts, which are denying his parents’ request because doctors say he has no chance of surviving.  Congress’s offer of permanent residency would be similar to Charlie holding dual citizenship and would still make him subject to British law. A ruling is expected on Charlie’s future next week, according to the Standard.  Good for us.  I have no qualifications whatever to make a medical judgment, but every legitimate avenue should be tried to help Charlie.  In the end, it may all be useless.  But we will have tried.  When in doubt, choose life.

July 19, 2017        Permalink

I LOVE IT – THE SPECTATOR DOES A NUMBER ON THE TERMINALLY OBNOXIOUS KAMALA HARRIS – AT 1:22 P.M. ET:   The Democrats are already looking for a presidential candidate for 2020, and some very fashionable Dems think they have found her.  Why, here comes Sister Kamala.  She's a woman.  She's black.  She's Asian.  Who could ask for anything more? 

And the Spectator hopes she's nominated:

Finding a pol as (or more) obnoxious than Barbara Boxer is no easy feat, but Golden State voters managed to perform it by selecting Kamala Harris as her replacement. Harris is a left-wing dingbat of singular rudeness. A deluded Boxer thought of herself as kittenish and charming; Harris conceives of herself as more of a clawing feline — the relentless prosecutor who is going to bring the conservative dogs of Washington to heel. Except she is too vapid and dim to pull the role off.

My favorite moment from her absurd harangue of General Kelly earlier this year came when she demanded to know why he was subjecting immigration officers and local officials to a “Hobbesian choice.” She meant Hobson’s choice. Kelly was too nice to point out her sub-literate gibbering, but he did object to her lack of basic manners. She interrupted him repeatedly and finally he told her to knock it off (as have even John McCain and Richard Burr). That, of course, has occasioned feminist whining from Harris about a culture of mansplaining and double standards. 

And...

Were it not for her fanatical support for abortion and all things culturally degenerate, NOW and NARAL would see Harris as an annoying and unworthy rival to Elizabeth Warren.

And...

The growing chatter among Dems about her as a potential 2020 candidate is yet another illustration of the party’s lack of seriousness. At a time when it should be downplaying its image as an out-of-touch bi-coastal party, it deepens that image by pushing one more San Francisco radical forward. Who knows, maybe Harris can run with Pelosi.

According to press reports, Harris wowed supporters of Hillary’s at a recent fundraiser in the Hamptons. What a compelling look for a defeated party — a San Francisco kook feted by routed East Coast plutocrats impressed by her stern questioning of General Mattis over the plight of transgender soldiers. That should work well in the Rust Belt and the South.

And..

In 1984, Reagan crushed the “San Francisco Democrats,” as his foreign policy advisor Jeane Kirkpatrick called them. Trump, in his re-election bid, would do the same, should Harris somehow rise to the top in the primaries. He would probably find that even more fun than beating “Pocahontas.”

COMMENT:  Read the whole piece.  It's juicy, even scandalous.  At the same time, don't underestimate Harris.  The mainstream press will love her, and try to help her, and that could be trouble.

July 19, 2017       Permalink

THE INSANITY WATCH – AT 9:47 A.M. ET:   No one denies that things are insane in Washington.  The Democratic Party is at its weakest point in a century.  The Republican Party is at its strongest.  Republicans control the White House, the House of Representatives, the Senate.  And they cannot create and pass a replacement for Obamacare.  Indeed, people now openly wonder when the next collapse will occur.

But the fact is that many Republicans are soldiering on, hoping to get much done by the end of the year.  If Republicans cannot pass a decent budget and tax-cut program, they can kiss control of Congress goodbye.  And for good reason.   From AP:

WASHINGTON — Despite opposition from Republican moderates and conservatives, House leaders are pressing ahead with a budget plan whose success is critical to the party’s hopes to deliver on one of President Donald Trump’s top priorities — a GOP-only effort to overhaul the tax code.

The importance of the measure has been magnified by the collapse in the Senate of the Trump-backed effort to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law, leaving a rewrite of the tax code as the best chance for Trump to score a major legislative win this year. The measure would require about $200 billion worth of cuts to benefit programs and other so-called mandatory spending coupled with the tax plan.

The budget plan unveiled Tuesday is crucial because its passage would pave the way to pass a tax overhaul this fall without the fear of a filibuster by Senate Democrats.

But it also proposes trillions of dollars in cuts to the social safety net and other domestic programs and puts congressional Republicans at odds with Trump over cutting Medicare. It also would sharply boost military spending.

“In past years, the budget has only been a vision. But now, with the Republican Congress and a Republican White House, this budget is a plan for action,” said Budget Committee Chair Diane Black, R-Tenn. “Now is our moment to achieve real results.”

Unclear, however, is whether GOP leaders can get the budget measure through the House.

Conservatives want a larger package of spending cuts to accompany this fall’s tax overhaul bill, while moderates are concerned cuts to programs such as food stamps could go too far.

“I just think that if you’re dealing with too many mandatory cuts while you’re dealing with tax reform you make tax reform that much harder to enact,” said Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa.
Black announced a committee vote for Wednesday, but was less confident of a vote by the entire House next week; a delay seems likely because of the ongoing quarrel between the GOP’s factions.

COMMENT:  Only strong leadership can break this logjam.  And that's what Republicans don't have.  The Senate and House leaderships are wobbly.  President Trump is no Ronald Reagan.  Many in the party don't like him and owe him nothing.  His low popularity ratings, however undeserved, limit his clout.

Reagan used to say that if he got 80 percent of what he wanted in a negotiation, he had a good deal.  Many Republicans don't understand that.  They want it all for their little faction of the party.

Another lesson unlearned is that, once you give a benefit to the American people, it's almost impossible to take it back.  If the GOP thinks it can cut Medicare, it's delusional.  It's the second most popular program out there, the first being Social Security.

A lot of work to do.  The future of the Republican Party depends on what its Congressional branch does over the next six months.  I can't say, based on the record, that I'm optimistic, but I'm hopeful.

July 19, 2017       Permalink

HOW FAR DO YOU THINK THIS STORY WILL GO? – AT 8:33 A.M. ET:  Another headache for Hillary, but we're sure there's an innocent explanation because she would never do anything wrong.  From Fox: 

The U.S. Postal Service violated federal law by letting employees do union-funded work for Hillary Clinton's campaign and other Democratic candidates while on leave from the agency, according to an Office of Special Counsel report obtained by Fox News.

The OSC determined the USPS "engaged in systemic violations" of the Hatch Act, a federal law that limits certain political activities of federal employees.

The investigation was launched months ago after Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., brought constituent complaints to the OSC in October. The constituent, identified as a USPS employee, was concerned the Postal Service “incurred unnecessary overtime costs” and “improperly coordinated” with the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) when it released members for several weeks of “union official” leave without pay to participate in campaign work.

“The Labor 2016 program sought to ‘elect Hillary Clinton and pro-worker candidates across the country,’” the report said, citing campaign work like door-to-door canvassing, phone banks and other get-out-the-vote efforts.
According to the report, roughly 97 NALC members requested the leave without pay to participate. The NALC, which endorsed Clinton last June, compensated those USPS workers using the Letter Carrier Political Fund, the union’s PAC.
The majority of the campaign work took place in 2016 battleground states, specifically Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. 

Officials at multiple levels apparently were involved. 

COMMENT:   We have no problem with legitimate unions here.  I'm a union member myself.  Ronald Reagan was a union president.  But violation of the law must never be tolerated.

Hillary, along with union leaders, owes us an explanation.  And there may have to be prosecutions.

July 19,  2017     Permalink

JULY 18,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:53 P.M. ET: 

TELLING IT LIKE IT IS – FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:   Alan Dershowitz recently tried to publish an opinion piece in The New York Times that President Trump likely did not attempt to obstruct justice by firing former FBI Director James Comey.  But Dershowitz told the Washington Examiner over the phone on Monday that the Times had "no response" to his submission.  The widely known legal commentator and cable news fixture said he remains a "liberal Hillary Clinton supporter," but said after reading an op-ed in the Times that argued Trump could be charged for criminal conduct in Comey's firing, he reached out in June to the paper to present an opposing view.  "I said that I thought the readers of the New York Times were entitled to hear or read the other side of the issue whether there were crimes committed," said Dershowitz, a professor emeritus of Harvard Law School. "And I really do think The New York Times does not want its readers to hear an alternative point of view on the issue of whether or not Trump administration is committing crimes."  Dershowitz said he attempted to reach the opinion page editor and deputy editor without success. He said he wants to "get out in the liberal media" but that his opinion is "not the narrative they're pushing."  Dershowitz is considered one of the most brilliant law professors of our time, but he's right – his opinion is not what the liberal media is pushing.  Unfortunately, that's all that counts these days.

BEYOND BELIEF – FROM FOX:  CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill has been defending his tweet that wished a "Happy 70th Birthday" to a convicted cop killer currently on the FBI's list of most-wanted terrorists.  Shakur, also known as Joanne Chesimard, the godmother of the late rapper Tupac Shakur, is suspected in a series of early 1970s incidents linked to black revolutionary groups in New York City -- including a bank robbery, grenade attack and the ambushing of police officers in Queens and Brooklyn.  She was convicted of shooting a New Jersey trooper to death in 1973, but she escaped prison and, in the early 1980s, fled to Cuba, where she was granted political asylum.  Hill should simply be dropped by CNN.  He has a perfect right to his sickening views, but CNN has a right to deny him a place at their network.  I doubt CNN will do anything at all.

OUR ELEVATED CULTURE – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:   Lifetime is taking the “Live PD” model a step further — by tracking dates in real time.  “Date Night Live,” premiering July 27 (10 p.m.-midnight), will follow couples in New York City, Atlanta, Dallas and San Diego as they go on dates, followed by cameras to capture all the action (or not) — live and unfiltered. The show comes from Big Fish Entertainment, which produces (sister network) A&E’s successful “Live PD,” in which cameras follow cops out in the field in real time.  “We couldn’t have done this, from a technical standpoint, without the amazing work they’ve done on ‘Live PD,’” says Liz Gateley, Lifetime’s EVP Head of Programming. “It really came from a brainstorm — how can we change up the format? You need to give viewers a reason to show up live now. Women watch a lot of sports and live events.”  I don't know which is worse, this show or our public schools.  Maybe watching the show will do less damage. 

July 18, 2017       Permalink

CHEATING OUR KIDS – AT 2:28 P.M. ET:  The gentleman's "C" of old has surrendered to the politically correct "A" at America's schools.  From USA Today:   

The good news on America's report cards: More high school teachers are handing out A's. But the bad news is that students aren't necessarily learning more.

Recent findings show that the proportion of high school seniors graduating with an A average — that includes an A-minus or A-plus — has grown sharply over the past generation, even as average SAT scores have fallen.

In 1998, it was 38.9%. By last year, it had grown to 47%.

That’s right: Nearly half of America’s Class of 2016 are A students. Meanwhile, their average SAT score fell from 1,026 to 1,002 on a 1,600-point scale — suggesting that those A's on report cards might be fool's gold.
 
The new findings come courtesy of two researchers: Michael Hurwitz of the College Board, the folks who bring you the SAT; and Jason Lee, a doctoral student at the University of Georgia’s Institute of Higher Education.

Hurwitz called the rise of the A average "really stunning."

The revelation comes as the USA's public high schools graduate a record number of students: The average high school graduation rate now tops 83%, according to federal statistics. 

But that's not always translating into more college diplomas. A recent study by the Harvard Graduate School of Education found that just 56% of college students complete a four-year degree within six years of entering college. For students who start at two-year colleges, it's even worse: Just 29% earn a degree within three years.

COMMENT:  Every grade should be earned.  And those who sincerely work hard and earn their marks should be rewarded. 

July 18, 2017       Permalink

SOME GOOD NEWS FOR THE CHIEF – AT 10:54 A.M. ET:  The polls have not been kind to President Trump, but one has just come out that might bring him some pleasure.  From Bloomberg: 

For a president with historically low poll numbers, Donald Trump can at least find solace in this: Hillary Clinton is doing worse.

Trump’s 2016 Democratic rival is viewed favorably by just 39 percent of Americans in the latest Bloomberg National Poll, two points lower than the president. It’s the second-lowest score for Clinton since the poll started tracking her in September 2009.

The former secretary of state has always been a polarizing figure, but this survey shows she’s even lost popularity among those who voted for her in November.

More than a fifth of Clinton voters say they have an unfavorable view of her. By comparison, just 8 percent of likely Clinton voters felt that way in the final Bloomberg poll before the election, and just 6 percent of Trump’s voters now say they view him unfavorably.

COMMENT:  America right now does not have a leading figure who attracts widespread bipartisan support.  We had that in Dwight Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan did attract Democratic votes in the person of the Reagan Democrats, working people who normally voted Democratic but who were fed up with the Democratic Party.  It was the new generation of "Reagan Democrats" who helped put Donald Trump in the Oval Office.

As far as Hillary is concerned, I think she's seen as a sore loser, and that image has never helped anyone.  She has presented one excuse after another for losing the election.  And her hints that she might run again have not improved her standing. 

July 18, 2017       Permalink

CHICKENS COMING HOME – AT 10:16 A.M. ET:  I've noticed, in the last three of four days, a decided increase in the number of stories dealing with, not Trump's alleged collusion with Russia, but Hillary Clinton's, and that of members of the Obama administration.  Seems the GOP may actually be waking up.  From Fox: 

The Russian lawyer who landed a meeting with Donald Trump Jr. during last year’s presidential campaign with the promise of dirt on Hillary Clinton had one big thing in common with the Democratic candidate: Both had opposed Russia sanctions targeting human-rights abusers. 

Further, former Secretary of State Clinton’s initial opposition coincided with a $500,000 speech her husband gave in Moscow – a link her 2016 campaign fought to downplay in the press, according to WikiLeaks-released documents.

Trump White House officials now are trying to draw attention to that speech and the Clintons’ ties to Russia in a bid to counter criticism over Trump Jr.’s now-infamous meeting. 

“If you want to talk about having relationships with Russia, I'd look no further than the Clintons,” Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at a briefing last week. “Bill Clinton was paid half a million dollars to give a speech to a Russian bank, personally thanked by President Putin.”

The former president indeed had received a personal call from then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin expressing his appreciation for the speech. According to Mrs. Clinton’s ethics disclosure form filed while she was secretary of State, Bill Clinton was paid $500,000 by the Russia-based finance company Renaissance Capital for his June 29, 2010, speech in Moscow to its employees and guests attending the company's annual conference. 

The speech is now coming back to haunt the Clintons, considering the company that cut the check was allegedly tied to the scandal that spurred the Global Magnitsky Act, a bill that imposed sanctions on Russians designated as human-rights abusers and eventually would become law in 2012.

COMMENT:  The issue here is whether the mainstream media will do much with this story, or even cover it.  We have a Democratic Party press, and there's no shame felt about it.

The Republican power here lies in the party's control of Congress.  Republican-led committees are apparently at work investigating various aspects of the Obama administration, with particular attention paid to Susan Rice and Samantha Power. 

But the Republicans have to be tigers, not mealy-mouthed "gentlemen."  Gentlemen don't win against the Obama machine.

July 18,  2017     Permalink