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I appeared on Silvio Canto Jr's talk show from Dallas last night.  It's here.

JULY 16,  2018

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

HELL-SINKI – It turned out badly for the president at the Helsinki summit.  Our first impression was reasonably good, as we reported earlier.  There was optimism, and a feeling that the president had been well prepared.  Then came the press conference with Putin, and, after studying the transcript and looking at the tape, I'd have to agree that Mr. Trump appeared weak and deferential compared with the more experienced Putin.  Trump's poor performance set off a firestorm, which we'll be addressing tomorrow, and his comment suggesting that he believed Putin over American intelligence officials set off more than a firestorm.  Our original optimism was dashed.  Trump has many enemies in Washington, including Republicans, and they used the occasion to knife him as hard as they could. 

WHEN PARENTS DECIDE – FROM COLLEGE FIX:   If you want to see how parents act when the government stops forcing an educational monopoly on them, look to North Carolina.  Nearly 20 percent of students are attending something other than a traditional public school, where attendance is falling “rapidly,” according to The News & Observer.  The rush toward charter, private and even home schools is largely due to the Republican takeover of the Legislature in 2010.  Lawmakers have since removed the 100-school cap on charter schools (it’s up to 185 as of this fall), created a $4,200 voucher for low-income families and two programs for special-needs kids to get out of public schools (where they are often treated poorly), and even made it easier for non-parent adults to teach homeschoolers.  The revolt against mediocre education will be one of the great stories of the next decades.  But don't be sure that parents will win, especially if the Democrats get back in power.

PAY TO STAY, AS IF ANYONE CARES – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  Gov. Cuomo promised NBC and CBS tens of millions of dollars’ worth of taxpayer-subsidized incentives to keep the kings of late-night TV in the Big Apple.  And, like many of the jokes by Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert, the money is nothing to laugh at.  CBS scored up to $16 million in tax credits and cash to keep “The Late Show” broadcasting from Manhattan after the May 2015 retirement of longtime host David Letterman.  That included $5 million just to renovate CBS’s Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway at West 53rd Street.  Cuomo claimed the funding from Empire State Development would preserve 200 local jobs.  But CBS has made out like a bandit during late night, thanks in part to President Trump taking office.  Let them go to Hollywood, please.  This is not the great age of late-night comedy. 

July 16,  2018     Permalink 

THIS DAY – AT 6:21 P.M. ET:  It's ironic that the Trump/Putin summit is being held today, July 16th, against the backdrop of a nuclearized world.  It was on this day in 1945 that the first nuclear explosion was conducted, in the New Mexico desert.  It was called Trinity.  The world changed that day, and changed forever.

Only three weeks later, on August 6th, the first operational atomic bomb was used, against Hiroshima, in an attempt to end World War II quickly and avoid the bloodbath that would have resulted from an invasion of Japan.  The Hiroshima device was followed three days later by a second bomb, dropped on Nagasaki.  Japan then surrendered.

It's speculative history, but by any common-sense calculation, the use of this horrible weapon saved millions of lives that would have been lost had the war continued.

What strikes us is the brief time, three weeks, between the first test and operational use.  We should keep that in mind when the appeasers make light of Iran's or North Korea's nuclear progress.  Developmental technology is far more sophisticated today than it was in 1945.  We should assume the fastest technology is in use, not the slowest.

On balance, I would say the United States has been a good steward of its nuclear weapons.  We have not had need to use one since 1945.  Other nations, perhaps because of our deterrent power, have not employed those weapons either.  But there are no guarantees for the future.  New nuclear powers are being born.  Pakistan is unstable and has atomic bombs.  Iran certainly will get them.  You know about North Korea.  There are other nations waiting to buy.

The nuclear age is just beginning.  It is only 73 years old, a flash in history.  I cannot say I have much confidence that the nuclear non-use tradition will be maintained.

July 16,  2018    Permalink

GREAT STUFF FROM HELSINKI – AT 1:16 P.M. ET:  Hey, this is getting to be fun.  The summit between Trump and Putin has gotten off to a sparkling start.  And immediately the issue of Russkie collusion in the 2016 election came up.  Get this, from Fox: 

President Trump and Vladimir Putin tackled allegations of election meddling in unprecedented terms following their one-on-one summit Monday, with Trump opening the door to an unusual offer of cooperation in the special counsel probe and the Russian president suggesting he indeed favored the billionaire businessman in 2016. 

But Putin, emphatically and repeatedly, denied meddling in the U.S. election, saying there's "no evidence." And Trump, while saying they spent a "great deal of time" discussing the allegations, blasted the ongoing probe as a "disaster for our country." 

The two leaders spoke at a freewheeling joint press conference following a pair of meetings -- one private -- in Helsinki, Finland. Trump and Putin both touted the summit as a success, vowing to improve ties on a range of issues. 

“I would rather take a political risk in pursuit of peace than to risk peace in pursuit of politics,” Trump declared. 

During their press conference, few topics were off limits. The session with international reporters ended with Putin being asked whether he had compromising material on Trump, which he dismissed as "nonsense." Even that moment was overshadowed by the extensive comments on election meddling. 

Trump once again asserted there was "no collusion." 

COMMENT:  We are just starting to get information about the summit, which, at first appearances, looks like a fairly routine first-summit, with no stupendous breakthroughs.  I would ignore the bickering already coming from Washington, and the attempts to parse every word.  Wait for the authorized "leaks." 

The line the president spoke, "I would rather take a political risk in pursuit of peace than to risk peace in pursuit of politics,” was clearly pre-written.  There was preparation, and that was the point Mr. Trump wanted to make.

The president will be trashed by the press no matter what he says and does.  President Reagan walked away from a summit with Gorbachev, refusing to agree to a new arms-control pact, and was called a "warmonger" by some.  President Roosevelt went to Yalta, and gave away too much to the old Soviet Union, and was properly criticized.

We wait for concrete information.

July 16, 2018       Permalink   

WHERE THE PRESIDENT STANDS – AT 11:46 A.M. ET:  As Mr. Trump starts his summit with Vladimir Putin, he is certainly aware that his poll numbers have slipped a bit.  From Rasmussen:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 45% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Fifty-four percent (54%) disapprove. 

That represents a decline of about three points from last week, which in turn represented a decline of a few points from the week before.  Recently the president was as high as 51 percent.

No one knows exactly why this is happening.  The president did suffer a significant drop over his handling of the family separation/immigration issue, but then recovered.  Now he is slipping again.

I'll speculate that press coverage of his European trip, which emphasized only the negative, may be involved.  Even though the public has learned to turn off the extremism of the anti-Trump press, coverage has to have some effect. 

One trend we have noticed is that, often but not always, the president's numbers go up a few points during the week, so we'll wait until Friday to assess the polls further.  And remember, a poll is only a snapshot in time.  Mr. Trump was down ten percent, compared with Hillary Clinton, on the day he won the presidency.

July 16,  2018     Permalink

JULY 15,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:16 P.M. ET: 

THE WAY IT'S DONE – FROM DAILY MAIL:   Judge Brett Kavanaugh is going into the Supreme Court confirmation process with a hail of rhetorical arrows zinging by him, including a phony letter-writing campaign aimed at unsuspecting American newspaper editors   At least 21 papers were duped last week, including big-market brands like the Dallas Morning News and The Washington Times. They ran identical letters over a four-day period, each signed by a different person.  The effort is an example of public-relations 'astroturfing,' a technique meant to simulate genuine grassroots support for an idea or cause.  The form letter is one small piece of the message minefield erupting around Kavanaugh as he prepares for a brutal confirmation process that will end with scant support from Democrats.  It begins by declaring that 'Brett Kavanaugh is the wrong choice to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court. If he is confirmed to the Supreme Court, everything that we hold dear as a nation will be at stake.'  It's an old stunt, done fairly often.  What I find ugly is the idea that Judge Kavanaugh somehow represents a rejection of American values.  Quite the contrary, I think.

THIS MUST BE ANALYZED – FROM COLLEGE FIX:   Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump’s recent selection to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court left by Anthony Kennedy, was a “bland eater” in college, his then-roommate has revealed, with the potential justice preferring to dress his pasta with simple sauces that were not spicy at all.  The revelations come in an article at The Yale Daily News that reveals other details about Kavanaugh’s life at the elite Ivy League university, including that he was “a big Redskins fan” and that he used to participate in scratch basketball games with friends.  The details about Kavanaugh’s food habits came from a former roommate, who said that the judge, during his time at Yale, was a “bland eater” who “never ate his pasta with anything more exotic than tomato sauce or ketchup on top,” according to The Daily News.  “At visits to Yorkside Pizza following late nights at Toad’s Place…the judge’s pizza had to be plain cheese, or sometimes just pepperoni,” The Daily News reported.  The left will find this behavior suspicious.  Pizza is elitist, as compared with selections from third-world countries or oppressed populations.  As far as the judge's affinity for the Redskins, that speaks for itself.  Racist!  Sexist!  Anti-gay!  Pizza lover!

THIS GUY IS NUTS – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  The man who co-wrote “The Art of the Deal” said Sunday he believes President Trump’s faculties are diminishing — and that he feels obligated to sound the alarm.  “We are in a true emergency,” Tony Schwartz said on CNN Sunday. “And the accelerated rate at which his breakdown or decompensation is occurring is cause for us, and certainly for me, to come on to TV more often, to tweet more often.”  Schwartz told CNN’s Brian Stelter that he felt comfortable making that assessment because he had “spent an enormous time with [Trump] over a period of 18 months.”  He also said he was a 25-year student of psychology and had spent “an enormous amount of time” with shrinks who were trying to get to the bottom of Trump.  Hey, guy, cut the amateur psychology.  Shrinks who want to get to the bottom of Trump know they'd have to personally examine him, the way real doctors do.  Analysis from a distance is severely frowned upon within the profession.  Grow up.

July 15, 2018       Permalink

A VERY GOOD MOVE, AND CONSISTENT WITH AMERICAN VALUES – AT 1:30 P.M. ET:   Americans are getting tired of violent leftist groups showing up at political demonstrations and wrecking things.   The Democratic Party is too intimidated to speak out against the thugs.  The Republicans are taking action.  From Breitbart:

The left-wing terrorist organization that calls itself AntiFa is “freaking out” over a proposed law that would enhance penalties for anyone who “injures, oppresses, threatens, or intimidates any person” while wearing a disguise or mask.

Throughout our country, and for a number of years now — and primarily because the establishment media fantasizes about,  promotes, inflames and  approves of the violence committed against the right (naturally, HuffPo opposes the unmasking law) — AntiFa has been allowed to run rampant, committing countless acts of violence against everyday, peaceful supporters of President Donald Trump.

AntiFa has also been responsible for untold amounts of vandalism and property damage, and targets the alt-right.

The  Unmasking Antifa Act of 2018 can mean additional fines and prison terms of up to 15 years.

The Hill reports the “bill was introduced by Republican Rep. Dan Donovan (N.Y.) and is co-sponsored by GOP Reps. Pete King (R-NY), Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and Ted Budd (R-NC).”

Ironically, this proposed law is similar to laws passed decades ago in states like Georgia and Alabama to stop another terrorist group formed by far-left Democrats, the Ku Klux Klan. According to the far-left New York Times, Ohio and West Virginia already have similar laws on the books.

Unless it is Halloween, Mardi Gras, or some other kind of celebration, there is no legitimate reason to disguise who you are in public, unless you intend to do something illegal and do not wish to be identified.

COMMENT:  Doesn't look as if there are any Dem co-sponsors.  What a disgrace for a once-great political party.  I wonder how this party would treat John F. Kennedy's inaugural address today.

July 15, 2018       Permalink

HERE COME THE KAMIKAZES – AT 12:06 P.M. ET:  It is remarkable to see the Democratic Party self-destruct right in front of our eyes.  From The Hill: 

The California Democratic Party endorsed progressive candidate Kevin de León for Senate late Saturday in a stunning rebuke of 25-year incumbent and establishment favorite Dianne Feinstein.

De León, the state Senate president pro tempore, secured 65 percent of the party’s vote, while just 7 percent voted to endorse Feinstein.

A candidate needed 60 percent of the vote to win the endorsement. Twenty-eight percent of the body voted not to endorse any candidate.

“Today’s vote is a clear-eyed rejection of politics as usual in Washington, D.C.,” de León said in a statement. “Through years of hard-won progress, we have proven to the world that California can forge a path for the rest of the nation.”

“We have presented Californians with the first real alternative to the worn-out Washington playbook in a quarter-century,” he added.

COMMENT:  No matter how we might differ with Senator Feinstein on a number of issues, she is considered one of the grown-ups in the Senate, a sane liberal respected across the aisle.  To see her treated like this is to see the extreme left at work.  No loyalty  No class.  No dignity.  But plenty of identity politics.  Senator Feinstein is not a member of a favored group.  Neither is Chuck Schumer of New York, the Senate Democratic leader.  The Marxist left is going after him as well.

Feinstein will probably still win the election.  California has what is commonly known as a "jungle primary" system.  The top two winners go on to the general election, even if they're members of the same party.  Feinstein and De Leon were the top two, but Feinstein is way ahead in the polls. 

I hope she wins.  California is our largest state, and I'd hate to see it influence other states in advancing "progressivism," which is a more polite term than the more accurate "leftism" or the even more precise "Marxism."

July 15,  2018     Permalink