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JULY 17,  2018

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

IS THERE ANYONE? – FROM RASMUSSEN:   Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden are among those touted as serious Democratic presidential contenders in 2020, but three-out-of-four Democrats think their party needs to turn to someone new.  A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 73% of Likely Democratic Voters believe their party should look for a fresh face to run for president in 2020. Just 16% disagree and think the party should promote a candidate who has already run in the past.  A fresh face in the Democratic Party means someone about 74 who has rediscovered Karl Marx.

AH YES, I REMEMBER IT WELL – FROM THE IRISH EXAMINER:   Two fifths of people have a fictional first memory based on fragments of early experiences, psychologists have found.  Scientists questioned participants in a survey that identified more than 2,000 individuals claiming to have memories from the age of two or younger.  Current research suggests that memories cannot be formed before about three-and-a-half years.  Yet 893 of those taking part in the survey said they had memories extending to before their first birthday.  But they don't remember their campaign promises. 

SOLID ECONOMY – FROM FOX:   WASHINGTON – U.S. retail sales rose at a solid pace last month despite higher prices and modest wage gains, a sign of underlying consumer optimism.  The Commerce Department said Monday that sales at retailers and restaurants increased 0.5 percent in June, following a big 1.3 percent gain the previous month. May's figure was revised sharply higher from an initial estimate of 0.8 percent.  Americans are confident about the economic outlook, with the unemployment rate near an 18 year-low and the economy accelerating after a sluggish first quarter. Retail sales rose 6.6 percent from a year earlier, the fastest annual pace in five years.  Still, some of the spending increases, such as gas station sales, simply reflect higher prices. Excluding auto dealers and gas stations, sales rose 0.3 percent in June.  A good picture, and what the GOP will be selling in the coming months, as the midterm elections approach. 

July 17, 2018       Permalink

WOULD YOU BELIEVE THIS GUY? –  AT 3:36 P.M. ET:  Naturally, in the midst of all this international chaos, who should grace us with his rhetorical presence?  Who else but the man got us into a lot of this, Barack (just call me Field Martial) Obama.  And he chose to speak, not at home to an American audience, but to South Africa, a human-rights hellhole with one of the worst records of sexual violence against women in the world.  But why be bothered with that stuff?  It was vintage Obama.  Ring kissing is in order.  From AP:

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Former U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday was making his highest-profile speech since leaving office, urging people around the world to respect human rights and other values under threat in an address marking the 100th anniversary of anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela's birth.

While not directly mentioning his successor, President Donald Trump, Obama's speech in South Africa countered many of Trump's policies, rallying people to keep alive the ideas that Mandela worked for including democracy, diversity and good education for all.

Obama opened by describing today's times as "strange and uncertain," adding that "each day's news cycle is bringing more head-spinning and disturbing headlines."

These days "we see much of the world threatening to return to a more dangerous, more brutal, way of doing business," Obama said.

His words were met with cheers by a crowd of about 14,000 people gathered at a cricket stadium in Johannesburg for the speech, which was streamed online.

"Just by standing on the stage honoring Nelson Mandela, Obama is delivering an eloquent rebuke to Trump," said John Stremlau, professor of international relations at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, who called the timing auspicious as the commitments that defined Mandela's life are "under assault" in the U.S. and elsewhere.

"Yesterday we had Trump and Putin standing together, now we are seeing the opposing team: Obama and Mandela."

This is Obama's first visit to Africa since leaving office in early 2017. He stopped earlier this week in Kenya, where he visited the rural birthplace of his late father.

COMMENT:  The man is living in his own, ego-driven world.  For eight years he was the most ineffectual town councilman we've ever had in the White House.  Human rights did not advance.  Communism did.  Terror was not defeated.  It expanded.  ISIS came into its own. 

And at home, Obama seemed to work overtime to increase, not decrease, the racial divide.  And under his high-morality rule (choke) the murder of police officers increased.

Obama has been out of office for a year and a half.  You don't hear a word about him.  I think the American people figured him out.

July 17,  2018     Permalink

WHERE WERE WE? – AT 10:53 A.M. ET:  Oh yes, Washington was criticizing Trump.  The Democrats, whose zealotry in opposing Russia has not been notable since about 1967, suddenly emerge as the ultimate cold warriors, outraged that President Trump would even sit in the same room with Vladimir Putin...

Putin's taking of Crimea under Obama?  Uh...yesterday's news.  What did you fascist Republicans want, World War III?

The Russians running all over the Mideast under Obama, a region from which they had been effectively banished since the 1970s?  Uh...can we talk about the Palestinians?

Obama's running down American defense in the face of Putin's military buildup?  Uh...just equipment wearing out.  Faulty equipment, just like Captain Queeg said.  Not Obama's fault.

And so it goes.  Democratic complaints are a joke.  However, the criticism of President Trump's performance at yesterday's press conference with Putin is bipartisan, and the president has to take note.  His comments were sloppy and poorly chosen.  In truth, this president is not terribly articulate on his feet.  He exaggerates, he brags, he is far too effusive, especially in his attitude toward Putin, a thug if ever there was one.

Oh yes, it's true, other presidents have done the same or worse.  President Nixon actually quoted Chairman Mao during his visit to China, honoring a man who'd killed millions.  President Roosevelt sat down with Joe Stalin, and gave plenty away at Yalta.  And Obama restored relations with the criminal Fidel Castro without asking for anything in return that would help the Cuban people.  Jack Kennedy got completely rolled by Nikita Khrushchev at a summit in Vienna in 1961.  All true.

But people forget, and Trump is president, intensely disliked by the press and by most of the Washington swamp dwellers.  They want to bring him down, and he gave them the chance with his loose tongue. 

As Laura Ingraham remarked, his rhetoric is one thing, but his record is far better.  He generally gets what he wants, and gets far more than Field Marshal of the World Barack Obama ever dreamed of.  But then he steps all over his achievements with his open mouth.  We forgive him, but we're getting tired of it.

What to do?

It will pass.  The president is meeting with Congressional Republicans today, and he should consider some of their advice in how to present himself in international settings.  Then he should address the American people, outlining what has been achieved, and admitting to some gaffes.  It's human.  It would be appreciated.

But let us also note the sheer hypocrisy of much of Washington, especially the media, which had no problem with the Obama administration's disastrous foreign-policy record.  After all, he was Barack, come to save us.

He didn't save anyone.  Trump is trying to correct Obama's horrible record, but being more careful with words is part of that process, and in that the president needs work.

July 17,  2018     Permalink

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