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JULY 26,  2017

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

MORE PROGRESS – FROM COLLEGE FIX:   With growing concerns about due process on college campuses, a civil-liberties group is rolling out a new program intended to help students advocate for each other in campus judicial proceedings.  The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education plans to start 10 campus organizations this fall under the banner “FIRE Student Defenders,” FIRE Student Network Director Molly Nocheck told The College Fix in a phone interview.  Student Defenders is similar to a 41-year-old nonprofit at Ohio University, Students Defending Students, that defends students accused of disciplinary offenses, where Nocheck served as director as an OU student.  Nocheck told The Fix she drew inspiration from that experience and modeled much of FIRE’s new program after SDS, which drew national notoriety after it sued the administration for blocking its cheeky T-shirts “We get you off for free.” (The university settled and changed its speech-code policy.)  SDS uses volunteer student advisers who go with accused students to “procedural interviews, administrative hearings, and university hearing boards,” and tell their peers about their rights as students.  Terrific idea.  One more step in the fight for student rights.  The left hates this because the left has become anti-democracy. 

SOCKO! – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:  Evergreen State College may soon face a $3.8-million lawsuit in connection with its handling of the the 2017 “Day of Absence” protests against biology professor Bret Weinstein.  Students at the Olympia, Washington institution who wanted a day without white people on Evergreen State College’s campus in May went wild over Mr. Weinstein’s refusal to take part. The fracas that followed resulted in a $3.8-million tort claim filed July 5, with details provided exclusively to the education watchdog Campus Reform on Tuesday.  “[Evergreen] failed to set and enforce necessary boundaries in the workplace on campus, selectively has chosen not to enforce its student Code of Conduct, and sent the unmistakable message that the school will tolerate (and even endorse) egregious violations (and even crimes) purportedly to advance racial social goals, diminishing the collegiate experience for all, and fostering a racially hostile work and retaliatory environment for faculty and staff,” Mr. Weinstein’s attorney said in a statement provided to Campus Reform.  Great.  There have to be more lawsuits like this.  Most important, they have to go through to a jury trial, so all the ugly facts come out.  Colleges love to settle these things early so no facts come out.  Evergreen State is possibly the most left-wing major college in the country.  It's main quad is actually called Red Square.  You may be sure that Evergreen will do some fast judge shopping in ultra-liberal Washington state to try to get the whole case dismissed.  You may also be sure that it's highly unlikely that Weinstein will ever teach in a college again.  The left does not forgive.

CREATIVE THINKING – FROM CBS LOCAL:  Typically the selling points for airlines are prices, routes and comfort. But Southwest Airlines is trying to seize on an opportunity provided by the universe, as it’s selling seats based on what should be an excellent view of the total solar eclipse on Aug. 21.  The total solar eclipse will create a few minutes of complete darkness as the moon will block the sun entirely across a specific line of the country, running from Portland, Oregon to Atlanta, Georgia. Southwest has begun advertising on their social media accounts.  Why not?  That's good thinking. 

July 26, 2017       Permalink

YES, WE SEE IT – AT 1:09 P.M. ET:   There is an exodus from the northeast.  Why?  A  number of reasons.  But it can change the population balance if it continues, and that could affect the outcome of elections.  From the New York Post:

Last year, three states in the Northeast — New Jersey, New York and Connecticut — landed in the top five places people were moving out of fastest, according to 2017 data from United Van Lines.

(The other two states on the list were Illinois and Kansas.) And data from Pew Charitable Trusts found that while people are all about moving to the South (their population grew by nearly 1.4 million people from 2014 to 2015) and the West (866,000 more people), the population growth in the Northeast is “sluggish.”

The Northeastern exodus is particularly acute in many big cities like New York City. Since 2010, more than 1 million people have moved from the New York area — which includes parts of New Jersey, Connecticut and Long Island — to other parts of the country.

So why are so many Northerners packing their bags?

The insanely high cost

Data released on Wednesday by personal finance site GoBankingRates.com reveals that the No. 1 financial fear of people who live in the Northeast is that they will have to live in debt forever; the Northeast is the only region of the country that ranked this as No. 1. (The other regions put retirement as their No. 1.)

The horrendous weather

We told you winter was coming to the North — and it’s so bad that many people are leaving the Northeast in search of better weather. Indeed, the largest migration between states is from New York to Florida, according to data from the Census Bureau. And simple looks at recent winters in the Northeast explain why. For example, in 2015, Boston had its snowiest winter on record and New York City had one of its snowiest blizzards on record in 2016.

The jobs

Many companies are setting up shop in warm and less expensive places, which means that people pondering getting out of the Northeast can now find work. Texas, for example, has seen massive job growth since the recession — and some of these jobs are in fields you wouldn’t normally think of as being in Texas. For example, tech: Google, Apple, Dropbox and Oracle all recently built or expanded offices in Austin, along with many others.

COMMENT:  Yeah, we've noticed the problem, too.  Add to the reasons above the dominance of liberalism.  Poorly run states, elitism, economic suicide, and a snobbish, trendy anti-military attitude that drove some of the nation's leading military installations out of the region. 

There's much to repair, but it may be too late.

July 26, 2017       Permalink

TERRIFIC – AT 11:18 A.M. ET:  President Trump's signature issue is the drive to bring manufacturing back to America.  Today could be key to that effort.  From CNBC: 

Apple-supplier Foxconn will announce a plant in Wisconsin on Wednesday evening, accompanied by President Donald Trump, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a source with knowledge of the announcement told CNBC.

U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., will also be present at the announcement in Washington, a source said. No exact location for plant has been chosen — but southeast Wisconsin is under consideration, according to a source.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Foxconn may be eyeing a new U.S. plants for display panels.

And...

The announcement would come on the heels of a Wall Street Journal interview with Trump, where he said he had spoken to Apple CEO Tim Cook about three U.S. factories. Apple has yet to comment on Trump's remarks. Cook told Jim Cramer on CNBC's "Mad Money" in May it would start a $1 billion fund to promote advanced manufacturing jobs in the United States.

COMMENT:  Another step forward.  If Trump can stay on message, not get into side fights with the immediate world, and produce results like this, topping it all off with a tax cut, he'll be on a roll, and the GOP should be fine in next year's mid-term election.

That's a big "if."  Without that "if," Trump could be heading into the Nixon hall of fame.

July 26,  2017     Permalink

PUBLISHING EVENT OF THE CENTURY – AT 10:28 A.M. ET:   Hillary Clinton will soon be out with a new book.  The world waits.  Apparently, she will double down on her analysis of the 2016 election.  Hillary at her most Hillaried.  From the Hill:

Hillary Clinton's upcoming book will double down on Russia’s interference and James Comey’s involvement in her stunning election defeat, according to sources familiar with the memoir. 
Privately, Clinton has told friends and longtime associates that she “wants the whole story out there” as she rushes to tweak and put the finishing touches on the book due out in September.

Privately, Clinton has told friends and longtime associates that she “wants the whole story out there” as she rushes to tweak and put the finishing touches on the book due out in September.

Yeah, I'm sure we'll get the whole story.  And Benghazi was caused by a video.

“She really believes that’s why she lost, and she wants to explain why in no uncertain terms,” one longtime ally said. “She wants the whole story out there from her own perspective. I think a lot of people are going to be really surprised by how much she reveals.”

The ally said the book of personal essays will be a “bombshell.”

I doubt it.  A yawn maybe.

While the book will zero in on Russia and Comey —which Clinton believes are the two biggest contributing factors to her loss — it will also examine other factors she blames for a role in her defeat, including sexism and misogyny.

“We need to pull it out and put it in the bright light,” the former secretary of State said last month at BookExpo, one of the nation’s largest gatherings of publishing executives.

And finally, the quote of  the decade:

At a Recode tech conference in May, Clinton said, “I take responsibility for every decision I make — but that’s not why I lost” — a sentiment she has also told allies.

COMMENT:  Just a sec, just a sec.  She takes responsibility for every decision she makes, but that's not why she lost?  Come again. Her decisions had nothing to do with why she lost?

Look, Hillary Clinton, in 2016, was nationally famous for more years than was Franklin D. Roosevelt on the day he died.  There wasn't much the public needed to know.  The voters made their judgement...and Hillary didn't even carry the white women's vote. 

Maybe it would be best if she spent more time with her family.

July 26, 2017       Permalink

JULY 25,  2017

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

MADNESS – FROM LEGAL INSURRECTION:  Higher education’s crusade to eradicate masculine white men continues in the Ivy League. Since March, Princeton University recently filled an opening for a very particular position — Interpersonal Violence Clinician and Men’s Engagement Manager.  The position, which is part of the campus's SHARE office (Sexual Harassment/Assault Advising, Resources, and Education), “works closely with a network of campus and community partners to foster a University environment that is intolerant of abuse, responsive to needs of survivors, and holds perpetrators accountable for their actions. We aim to contribute to a campus culture in which interpersonal violence has no place and our distinctive community of learning is free to flourish.”  One of the most concerning aspects of the job is the provision that allows for punishing students (men) who’ve been accused, not found guilty or convicted, but simply accused of sexual misconduct under Title IX.  Princeton's historic mascot has been the Princeton tiger.  Maybe a pussycat would be better.

CAPITOL HILL CULTURE – FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:  Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, apologized to Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, after she was caught on a hot mic making derogatory comments about Farenthold at the end of a Senate hearing Tuesday.  "Neither weapons nor inappropriate words are the right way to resolve legislative debates," Collins said in a statement Tuesday to CNN. "I received a handwritten apology from Rep. Farenthold late this morning. I accept his apology, and I offer him mine."  In a statement to the Washington Examiner earlier Tuesday, Farenthold had no comment on Collins's statements.  Collins issued her apology after she was heard telling Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., that Farenthold is "so unattractive it's unbelievable" after a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing Tuesday.  "Well, fat guy. He's huge," Collins told Reed. "He's so … he's so unattractive, it's unbelievable. Did you see the picture of him in his pajamas next to this bunny, this Playbook bunny?  Well at least she didn't call him Hitler, which is the gold standard for Washington epithets these days.

NEW HOUSING BOOM – FROM BLOOMBERG:   Business has never been better at Atlas Survival Shelters, which ships bunkers to customers around the world from its U.S. factories. Among the best sellers: the BombNado, with a starting price of $18,999.  The popularity of the company’s doomsday fortifications is no surprise, considering the state of the world in general and, specifically, Kim Jong-Un’s pursuit of a missile that can hit the continental U.S. Curiously, though, the most furious surge of interest isn’t in America but Japan, a country that’s long been within North Korea’s striking distance.  “Japan’s going hog wild right now,” said Ron Hubbard, owner of Atlas Survival. The Montebello, California-based company makes about a dozen different underground refuge models intended to be inhabitable for six months to a year, some outfitted with escape tunnels, decontamination rooms and bulletproof hatches.  I wonder when they'll be featured in Architectural Digest.  The boom in shelters isn't that surprising, given the inability of the laughably labeled "international community" to stop North Korea's nuclear program.

July 25, 2017       Permalink

SUCH EXCITEMENT, I CAN'T STAND IT – AT 5:22 P.M. ET:  The Democrats went to a little town in Virginia to unveil to the world their exciting new program to save America and much of the immediate universe. 

It was a pathetic show.  From McClatchy: 

BERRYVILLE, VA. – The Democratic Party’s top leaders talked about reviving Teddy Roosevelt’s fights against big corporations, mimicked Bernie Sanders’ calls for a massive minimum wage hike, and echoed Franklin Roosevelt’s promise to deliver a “New Deal” to the American public.

It was the kind of message the party’s liberal wing has waited years to hear.

“For a long time the Democratic Party has been pretty timid about the role of government,” said Tamara Draut, a vice president of policy and research at the liberal think tank Demos. “It’s a good thing to see them leaning in to it.”

In an attempt to prove they are about more than saying “no” to President Donald Trump, the party’s congressional leaders gathered Monday in this small Virginia town to unveil an agenda they hope will unite Democrats for the foreseeable future. It didn’t include any mention of the polarizing president or the investigation into his campaign’s ties to the Russian government, a decision Democrats say they made deliberately to show they have their own ideas and messages.

The leaders and their aides say Democrats tried to conceive an agenda any Democrat can run on — whether the candidate is in a deep red state or bright blue city — a months-long process they describe as exacting and careful to bring everybody on board.

But the most important audience for their “Better Deal” program was the party’s increasingly vocal liberal wing, which has blamed the party’s electoral wipeout in recent elections on the establishment’s perceived political timidity and fealty to corporate interests.

COMMENT:  It's absurd.  You can't appeal to moderates and hard leftists at the same time.  The leftists despise moderates more than they despise conservatives. 

It was sad to see Chuck Schumer speaking for the Dems.  Doesn't he understand it's not his party any longer?  Schumer, with all his faults, is an intelligent, sane guy, although a liberal.   His was the Democratic Party of Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy.  The new Dems are the party of George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, and Barack Obama.  They'll ease Chuck out as fast as they can.

Neither party, right now, has much to brag about.  The Republicans are in the best position numerically they've enjoyed in almost a century, but don't know how to govern.  The Democrats are losing everywhere, but believe the nation is yearning for their return.

Does the term "third party" appeal to you?

July 25, 2017        Permalink

BUT THE TROOPS ARE GETTING ANGRY – AT 9:46 A.M. ET:   Related to the post just below.  Trump's assault on Jeff Sessions isn't winning him any warmth among Republicans in the Senate.  Sessions was one of them.  And this could be trouble for the president down the line.  What if the House were to flip to the Dems next year, and the Dems impeached Trump?  He'd then be tried by a Senate where even his own party dislikes him.  From McClatchy: 

President Donald Trump is getting a bitter Washington lesson when he messes with Jeff Sessions – you don't pick a fight with one of the Senate's guys.

It's a lesson that could cost him politically in a Senate where he badly needs Republican support for his lengthy agenda, starting with healthcare on Tuesday.

"I don’t understand it. There’s no more honorable person I’ve ever met in my life than Jeff Sessions,” said Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., a close friend of Sessions and his wife. “The only person who is more upset with Trump about this than me, is my wife.”

Sessions spent 20 years in the Senate, winning a reputation for affability and party loyalty. He understood and doggedly practiced the code of what's been called the world's most exclusive club: You can disagree without being disagreeable, but you protect the institution and its members.

Trump, clearly, doesn’t play by those rules.

COMMENT:  And remember that the Senate would have to confirm any replacement for Sessions.  Even Republicans might slow-walk the process.,

Byron York reported on Fox this morning that Sessions is being advised by friends not to resign.  Let the president fire him.  If Trump were actually faced with the prospect of firing the first senator to support his election campaign, he might realize he's going over a cliff.

July 25, 2017       Permalink

THEY'RE ALREADY PLAYING TAPS – AT 8:14 A.M. ET:  I did think that Trump would calm down about Jeff Sessions.  But it now appears he really does feel betrayed by Sessions's move to recuse himself from the Russia probe, opening the way for special counsel Robert Mueller.

I cannot see how Sessions can survive the new attacks from Trump.  From Fox: 

President Trump took his criticism of Jeff Sessions to a new level Tuesday morning, describing his stance on Hillary Clinton's alleged misdeeds as “VERY weak” -- amid reports the president has spoken with advisers about the possibility of firing the attorney general. 

The president unleashed a battery of tweets berating Sessions for the absence of an investigation into Clinton’s connections to Ukraine and Russia.

“Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump campaign – 'quietly working to boost Clinton.' So where is the investigation A.G.," he began, tweeting at Fox News' Sean Hannity.

Moments later, he added: “Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!” 

COMMENT:  The death watch has begun.  The buzz mentions Rudy Giuliani or Ted Cruz as possible replacements for Sessions.  Rudy, however, says he's not under consideration.  And not only that:  he expressed clear support for Sessions's decision to recuse.

Cruz is brilliant, but personally obnoxious.  He is disliked intensely by many members of the Senate, which would have to confirm him.  During the campaign, Trump attacked Cruz viciously when Cruz was still a candidate for the presidential nomination.

And July is supposed to be a dull month in politics.

July 25,  2017     Permalink