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JULY 1,  2018

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

CONGRATS – FROM PAGE SIX:  Olivia de Havilland, the lone surviving cast member of the Hollywood epic “Gone with the Wind,” turned 102 Sunday.  The two-time “Best Actress” Oscar winner – who was appointed a “Dame” by Britain last year — has lived in Paris since 1956.  “So how do I feel about older age?” she said in an interview with “Entertainment Weekly” before her 99th birthday.  “Crazy about it! Wouldn’t trade it for anything!” De Havilland’s role as the sweet, suffering “Melanie” in the 1939 epic “Gone with the Wind” rocketed her to fame and she went on to win Academy Awards for her roles in “The Snake Pit” and “The Heiress.”  "Gone With the Wind" could probably not be made today because of political correctness. 

THEY COME AND GO – FROM BLOOMBERG:  Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was elected as Mexico’s first left-wing president in recent times, riding a public revolt against rampant crime, corruption and poverty and handing a crushing defeat to the business-friendly parties who’ve run the country for decades.  The earliest figures announced by the electoral board gave Lopez Obrador 53 percent of the vote. Ricardo Anaya, leader of a right-left coalition, had about 22 percent and Jose Antonio Meade, the candidate of the incumbent PRI party, took 16 percent.  Check us in a year to see if it makes any difference at all.

SUPREME CHOICE – FROM DAILWIRE.COM:   After meeting with several candidates on Saturday, President Donald Trump promised that Americans would have a new nominee for the Supreme Court by Monday, July 9th...Trump has, reportedly, narrowed his list down to a handful of Federal judges: Brett Kavanaugh, Amul Thapar, Thomas Hardiman, Raymond Kethledge and Amy Coney Barrett. Barrett has emerged as a popular favorite, with conservatives citing her recent Senate confirmation hearings for the Federal bench, where she was accused, by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, of fully espousing Catholic dogma.  Trump would only say that he believes Barrett is an "outstanding woman," when speaking with reporters on Air Force One this weekend, careful not to reveal too much insider information about his selection process.  Whoever is nominated will face a brutal confirmation fight, including the possibility of mass demonstrations.  The Dems will oppose any Trump nominee, and Trump may even have trouble keeping all Republicans on board.  Stand by for major fireworks.

July 1, 2018       Permalink

TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 10:53 A.M. ET:   It gets worse by the hour.  There's a serious danger of violence.  From the great Michael Goodwin, at the New York Post: 

In a nutshell, our visit to the tortured mind of a Trump hater explains everything from Saturday’s mass marches to why a Virginia restaurant owner declared No Soup for Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Their loathing for Trump is bone-deep and all consuming. This is war and they take no prisoners.
For most marchers, border policies offer a chance to vent. They didn’t make a peep when Obama did the same thing.

If children are their main concern, they could help the 23,000 New York City kids living in shelters. Or they could have attended the funeral of Lesandro Guzman-Feliz, the innocent Bronx teen hacked to death by a Dominican gang.

Instead, they give in to Trump Derangement Syndrome, which causes them to immediately and absolutely adopt the opposite position of the president’s — facts and common sense be damned.
Alas, they may look back on the last few months as the good old days. For Trump, despite his stumbles and the Mueller shadow, is finding a political sweet spot.

He is reaching a high-water mark in his presidency, with his support growing and expanding. Events, including big Supreme Court rulings and Kennedy’s retirement, give him chances to pad his advantage.

It’s a swift reversal from just 11 days ago, when Trump was sucking wind. The media was — again — treating him like a piñata over the separation of families on the border, and the White House was ready to fight a war it couldn’t win.

Then the president suddenly called off the dogs to sign an executive order ending family separations.

Much of the hot air instantly came out of the resistance balloon, though protests continue because the left is embracing little or no border control as its passion of the moment.

Whether it’s because of Trump’s quick reversal and/or the left’s overreaction, polls are capturing the president’s rising fortunes. One survey showed most Americans were not nearly as sympathetic to the illegal border crossers as the media.

COMMENT:  Well stated.  Read the rest.  The Democrats are now uniting around the idea of abolishing ICE  (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), to satisfy the most extreme, Marxist wing of their party.  But major polls show it is an extremely unpopular idea.  ICE arrests thousands of criminals every year.

The Democrats seem to get their inspiration from the Japanese kamikaze, the suicide bombers.  Japan lost.

July 1, 2018        Permalink

BOLTON ON TRUMP/RUSSIA – AT 9:32 A.M. ET:   No one is tougher on America's enemies than John Bolton, the president's national-security adviser.  He speaks out on Mr. Trump's approach to Vladimir Putin in their upcoming summit, and dashes the idea that the president is "soft on Russia."  From Fox: 

In his first interview since meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last week, National Security Adviser John Bolton told "Fox News Sunday" that critics are wrong to suggest President Trump has been too soft on Russia.

President Trump’s upcoming summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin will take place in Helsinki, Finland, on July 16, the White House announced last week.

"I don't think anybody ought to have a case of the vapors" about President Trump's rhetoric on NATO and Russia, Bolton said.

"The main rationale to have a bilateral meeting between Trump and Putin: let them discuss these issues and see exactly where there might be room for progress, or where they might find there's no room at all," he added.

The meeting would allow the leaders to cut through "political noise" about alleged Russian collusion, Bolton said.

"I think the president will want to have a conversation about this and say we don’t want to see meddling in the 2018 election," Bolton said.

The national security adviser had said last year, before joining the Trump White House, that Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 election was “act of war” and warned: “We negotiate with Russia at our peril.”

Bolton cited Trump's historic nuclear summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un as evidence that a one-on-one meeting can have unexpected, positive results.

Noting that North Koreans once referred to him as a "very ugly fellow," Bolton offered an anecdote from the Singapore meeting.

"At one point in our lunch, Kim Jon Un said, 'The two of us need to get a picture together, I need to show my hardliners you're not such a bad guy.'"

COMMENT:  The critical issue in any negotiations is the simple matter of who's doing the negotiating.  I never trusted Obama or John Kerry, for good reason.  And the result of their "negotiations" was one American loss after another.  I do trust Donald Trump and John Bolton, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.  They have a proved record of putting American interests first.

Now we'll see the results, although results often take some time to pan out.

July 1,  2018     Permalink

JUNE 30,  2018

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

I DIDN'T KNOW THAT – FROM DAILY CALLER:   Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman Tom Perez introduced former President Barack Obama as America’s “real president” at a DNC fundraiser Thursday night.  “Let’s give it up for the real president of the United States,” Perez said at Thursday’s fundraiser, Politico reported.  Obama reportedly then told the crowd of Democratic donors that they are “right to be concerned” about Trump’s presidency.  Perez’s false descriptor for Obama is just the latest instance of prominent Democrats abandoning political norms in order to undermine President Trump.  Soon we'll have a call to make Obama president for life.  Why not go all Third World?  It's so chic.

THE CONTINUING MADNESS – AND IT'S LED BY AUNTIE MAXINE – FROM BREITBART:  Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) on Saturday told demonstrators in Los Angeles protesting the Trump administration’s immigration policies that anyone who shoots at the lawmaker “better shoot straight.”  “No, we have members of Congress trying to intimidate me,” Waters began. “I have no fear. I’m in this fight. I know that there are those who are talking about censuring me, talking about kicking me out of Congress, talking about shooting me, talking about hanging me.”  “All I have to say is this, if you shoot me you better shoot straight, there’s nothing like a wounded animal,” she warned.  Waters claimed on Thursday she was forced to pull out of events in Alabama and Texas after she received death threats.  This is dangerous rhetoric.  I fear for the Trump family and for members of the president's Cabinet.  Where are the responsible black leaders?  Why will they not speak out against this kind of poison?

THE IMPACT OF THE LEFT – FROM FOX:  At least 41 cops have left the Seattle Police Department this year, many of them reportedly citing frustration with the city's politics and a perceived lack of support from local officials.  Though documents showed some officers left the force due to retirement, a source in the department told Q13 FOX some 20 officers left and sought employment at other law enforcement agencies.  The source also said younger officers "don’t feel appreciated" and the number of those leaving who felt “frustrated over city politics is higher than usual.”  “Worker bees on the street, they don't feel appreciated. I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” the source told Q13 FOX.  The left doesn't care.  They run Seattle and see cops as the enemy, and criminals simply as protesters against injustice.  If things collapse in Seattle, will the governor send in National Guard units to keep order, or will he express sympathy for socialist politics?  It's becoming a serious question.

June 30, 2018       Permalink

ANYONE NOTICING? – AT 2:33 P.M. ET:  Iranians are restless.  There have been mass demonstrations against the Tehran regime since December.  Iranians living in other countries are also agitated.  Where are the "human rights" groups?  From the Jerusalem Post:

PARIS — Tens of thousands of people from across Europe and the US gathered on Saturday at the Paris suburb Villepinte Congress Center for the annual meeting of the Iranian opposition "Free Iran" movement.

Waving flags of Iran, supporters of the Iran Mujahedin kept chanting in Farsi ‘’We are ready,’’ and ‘’People are dying, we will take back Iran,’’ responding to the calls of the speakers to topple the Ayatollah regime.

Wearing a blue scarf and traditional attire, leader of the National Council of Resistance of Iran Maryam Rajavi addressed the crowd, saying ‘’the overthrow of this regime inevitably requires the willingness to pay the price, requires honesty and sacrifice, requires an organization and a strong political alternative, and requires resistance units and a liberty army.

‘’We call for the establishment of a society based on freedom, democracy, and equality, which has clear demarcations with despotism and dependence as well as gender, ethic and class discrimination. We have defended and will defend gender equality, the right to freely choose one’s attire, separation of religion and state, autonomy of nationalities, equal political and social rights for all citizens of Iran, abolition of the death penalty, freedom of expression, parties, the media, assembly, unions, associations and syndicates.’’

A large American delegation, headed by former Mayor of New York and prominent Republican Party member Rudy Giuliani, a long-time supporter of the movement, took part in the event.

Also present were former speaker of the House of Representatives Newton Gingrich and former US Ambassador Bill Richardson. The delegation was mostly comprised of neo-Conservative Republicans, but also by a few Democrat figures objecting to the Iranian nuclear agreement. Former Canada Prime Minister Stephan Harper headed the Canadian delegation to the event.

COMMENT:  There are sincere people who oppose the group that staged the rally, based on its alleged past support of some totalitarian regimes.  We can have that argument.  But the fact of a substantial Iranian resistance cannot be denied.

And yet, we hear so little about it in this country.  Gee, I wonder why.  It couldn't be the indifference of Barack Obama, could it?

June 30, 2018       Permalink

I CAN'T WAIT; SIGN ME UP – AT 1:50 P.M. ET:  I do want to be a better person, pure of heart and free of any unfair privilege.  Let me participate.  Choke.  From College Fix: 

Humboldt State University, in Arcata, California, is offering its students a series of workshops this summer designed to cultivate a “positive white racial identity” in its white participants.

Humboldt has already hosted the first two sessions of the five-part summer series titled “Building Stamina: Cultivating a Positive White Racial Identity that Supports Positive Participation in Conversations about Race.” The series is designed for “white folks who want to participate in conversations about race more productively” in the hope that they might “better understand whiteness and privilege.”

According to the online event description, no experience talking about whiteness is necessary. Only “a willingness to listen, learn, and have what you know questioned is required.”

University officials declined to comment on the workshop. Reached via email, campus spokesman Grant Scott-Goforth only provided The College Fix with a link to the publically available event description.

The staff contact listed on the event itself, Meredith Oram, failed to respond to numerous email requests for comment. Reached twice by phone, she stated both times that she was too busy to talk and indicated that she would call back at a later date, which she did not.

The school has already hosted two sessions of the workshop series. The most recent session featured a screening and discussion of MTV’s video “Why Does Privilege Make People So Angry?” The video, hosted by comedian and television personality Franchescha Ramsey, states that “everyone has” privilege, but states that, in the context of discussions about privilege, “no one wants to be the bad guy.”

“Talking about privilege is not meant to make you feel guilty,” Ramsey says in the video.

“Acknowledging it isn’t about shame, it’s about challenging the system that perpetuates inequality.”

COMMENT:  I think back on my immigrant grandparents – many of you probably have similar histories – and the struggles and disease they experienced in coming to this country and building a life.  What exactly was their white privilege?  The privilege to work 12 hours a day in a sweatshop? 

I think of all the hundreds of thousands of men, most of them white (but certainly including those of color) who lie in our military cemeteries, dead at 22...or younger.  Yes, it was a privilege to serve their country, but the privilege of leading a full life was denied them.  What was their white privilege? 

I'm tired of hearing about white privilege.  Of course certain groups have it easier.  And others have to work harder.  President Kennedy reminded us that life is unfair.  Some men go off to war and are killed, and others are never called it all.  The answer to privilege is accomplishment, and education in respecting others and rejecting prejudice. The greatest antidote to racism is being needed.  It is not endless classes in "white privilege."

I don't think minorities will benefit at all from this craze, and whites will just get more and more angry.

June 30, 2018       Permalink

WHAT IS THIS?  IS THIS ALLOWED? – AT 12:48 P.M. ET:  President Trump's approval among Hispanics is rising.  Late-night comedians are already meeting on the crisis.  From RealClearPolitics: 

In a new Harvard/Harris poll released this week exclusively to The Hill, President Trump’s overall approval rating rose to 47 percent, just two points shy of the highest level of his presidency, per that survey. The main driver of his growing popularity now: a stunning 10 percent rise in Trump approval among Hispanics.

That growing support among Latinos would surely surprise many Trump critics in Washington and the legacy media, who remain fixated on border issues. So intense is their hysteria regarding border enforcement that people like former CIA Director Michael Hayden compared our detention policies to the Auschwitz concentration camp in a tweet and MSNBC’s Donny Deutsch proclaimed on “Morning Joe” that ALL Trump voters are essentially Nazis.

Amid that media madness, Main Street America focuses not so much on concocted controversies but on bread-and-butter kitchen table issues like rising wages and soaring confidence among small businesses and consumers.

Hispanics, by definition, are primarily a working-class demographic, as we on average own only a tenth of the household wealth of white families. Thankfully, President Trump’s policies of tax cuts and regulatory relief point to a brighter economic future for all wage earners, including Hispanics.

For example, an incredible 2 million Americans have dropped off food stamps since Trump was elected. In the most recent government jobs report, wages for non-managerial workers rose at a 2.7 percent annual clip, the highest in a decade. The jobless rate for non-college graduates just hit the lowest level since 2001. These gains are highly beneficial to hard-working Hispanics, as Trump’s policies continue to lift the economic underdogs.

Moreover, in contrast to the assumptions of the leftist identity-politics hucksters, Hispanics are far from uniform on immigration issues, and actually take a very moderate and pragmatic approach to the border and enforcement. In fact, per Zogby Analytics exit polling from 2016, twice as many Hispanics believe immigration enforcement is too lax versus too stringent. Regarding the recent border issues, an Economist/YouGov poll found that only 20 percent of Hispanics support the previous policies of “catch and release” where families entering the country illegally are not detained but summoned to report back for a later hearing – at which many never show up.

COMMENT:  Great piece.  Hispanic Americans, like other Americans, don't want a revolution.  They want in.  They want to participate in this growing economy.  They want to build businesses.  And the overwhelming majority came to this country legally.

June 30,  2018     Permalink