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JUNE 10,  2017

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

I FEEL SO SORRY FOR THEM – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:   Posh New Yorkers headed to the Hamptons and beyond this weekend were “freaking out” since private flights out of town were delayed by Donald Trump.  The president was headed to Bedminster, NJ, on Friday. But that meant other private fliers were grounded for a time.  Chopper service Blade sent out a Friday alert to riders announcing “epic weekend weather in the Hamptons, Nantucket, Newport and Jersey coast.”  But it also warned, “flights 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. will be impacted by frozen airspace due to Trump arrival in NYC.”  Some of the poshest probably called teams of lawyers to deal with the stress.

SELF-DELUSION – FROM THE HILL:  Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) continued his praise of Jeremy Corbyn and the U.K.'s Labour Party Saturday, saying the left-leaning party gained seats in Parliament by standing up to British elites.  While speaking Saturday at The People's Summit in Chicago, Sanders said Labour supporters were successful "not by moving to the right, not by becoming more conciliatory - they won those seats by standing up to the ruling class.”  The anti-establishment senator praised his British counterpart before and after the U.K.’s general election. While Labour did not get a majority of seats in Parliament, they surpassed pollsters expectations and put the Conservative Party in a considerably weakened position  "We may not have won the campaign in 2016, but there is no question that we have won the battle of ideas,” he said.  Bernie, Bernie, Labour made progress because the Conservatives waged such an awful campaign.  American will not fall in love with socialism.  Oh, and by the way, congratulations on making more than a million dollars last year.

FEEL THEIR PAIN, THEIR ANGST – FROM ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY:    A collection of TV creators say worries about Donald Trump’s presidency is making their jobs to create entertainment much more challenging.  A panel at the ATX Television Festival in Austin, Texas, on Friday, titled “Trumped Up TV,” was assembled to analyze the impact of the president on the industry. The consensus of the group is that Trump has been rather distracting, to say the least.  “How can I possibly focus?” said Javier Grillo-Marxuach (Lost). “There’s a lot of stress eating involved … more than anything else, the torrent of news and information is about the stuff you do to mitigate your stress to be effective.”  Royal Pains producer Michael Rauch agreed, noting he has a rule that no computers or cell phones are allowed in his writers’ room while the team is working. But the moment there’s a break “the next hour all we’re talking about is how horrendous and depressing it is, then we’re back to work trying to be funny.”  And we think soldiers in combat zones have it rough.  They should only know the stress of Hollywood comedy writers.

June 10, 2017       Permalink

CHALK ONE UP FOR THE BOSS – AT 11:58 A.M. ET:  President Trump is one of the most active presidents I've seen.  And he is getting results.  Don't look for compliments, or even news reports on his accomplishments, from the mainstream media.  We'll have to shout this news ourselves.  From American Thinker: 

President Trump is delivering on his promise to end the role of America as “Uncle Sugar” for its allies, bearing the major burden of collective defense.   American taxpayers and American military personnel have ponied up money and lives for more than 70 years, while allies have devoted their resources elsewhere, freed up by the generosity of the superpower created by victory in World War II.

Yesterday, an extraordinary thing happened: The president of Romania, the former Soviet-era puppet enslaved by Stalin’s troops, came to the White House, and stood up during  Rose Garden press conference with President Trump, and stated that his country will start paying up its share of the burden for NATO – because of President Trump. CNS News reports:

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said Friday that his country is increasing its contribution to NATO after hearing President Donald Trump's speech last month at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

During a joint press conference at the White House, Trump praised Iohannis for committing to increase Romania's defense spending to NATO from 1.4 percent to two percent, as Trump called for during his speech in Brussels on May 25. Trump said other nations are also starting to "realize that it's time to pay up."

"I was in Brussels, and I met President Trump. I listened to his speech, and I liked it, because you see NATO is based on values, but it is ultimately military alliance," the Romanian president said. A reporter asked whether Iohannis thought it was fair that Trump encouraged NATO members to pay but also countries, including Romania, who had not paid two percent in the past to make up for that difference.

"And you know, military spendings are complicated, and you need a lot of money, because NATO is the strongest alliance the earth ever saw, and we want to keep it that way, so we have to spend money for defense purposes," Iohannis said. "And spending money means if you're in alliance, everybody has to spend money. This is called burden-sharing, and I fully agree, Mr. President, to that."

COMMENT:   A breath of fresh air, needed in Washington.  More important than what was revealed at any hearing this week.

June 10, 2017       Permalink

COWARDICE ON CAMPUS – AT 11:30 A.M. ET:  It seems that college students can get away with pretty much anything these days, including rioting.  From College Fix: 

Actions don’t have consequences for Claremont McKenna College faculty.

Over the objections of the administration, professors voted to let students participate in graduation who are facing possible expulsion for shutting down "War on Cops" author Heather Mac Donald in her April campus speech, The Claremont Independent reports.

This was an unprecedented break with college policy, as was made clear by Dean of Faculty Peter Uvin’s May 4 letter to professors, obtained by the Independent:

I inform you that there are among this group of [graduating] students a number who are currently … the subject of a Conduct Investigation and Review process related to the blockade and other disruptions at the Athenaeum and the Kravis building on April 6, 2017.

The school’s “expedited conduct review process” is “not appropriate” in any of the cases, which is a first in college history, Uvin wrote:

The charges against these students are sufficiently significant for the College to have activated the procedure that carries the highest potential sanctions, including suspension or expulsion. It is wrong to let students, over whom such significant doubts as to their good standing exist, graduate from the College as if these concerns did not exist. In the past, the College solved this conundrum by dramatically expediting conduct processes … Today, and rightly so, conduct processes have become much more complicated, with many more intermediary steps designed to protect the respondents to serious charges. The result is that we are now obliged to directly grapple with this question: are we willing to simply graduate students against whom there was sufficient preliminary evidence to warrant a Conduct Investigation and Review process?

COMMENT:  At least the dean had the courage to write that.  Good man.  I wonder if he'll survive.  The behavior of the faculty was pretty typical in today's colleges.

Read the whole thing.  It's a terrific, if depressing, story.

June 10, 2017       Permalink

SHAME, SHAME, SHAME! – AT 10:48 A.M. ET:  There is considerable buzz that Kirsten Gillibrand, US senator from New York, may run for president in 2020.  She's known as "the hottest senator," and is indeed attractive.  But she may also become known as the dumbest senator.  Consider, from Heatstreet: 

Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) slammed President Trump with colorful language Friday, saying he has not kept his promises.

"Has he kept his promises? No. F--- no,” she said while addressing the Personal Democracy Forum in New York City.

“If we are not helping people, we should go the f--- home," she continued, repeating a line she used in an April New York magazine interview while talking about paid family leave legislation.

The New York senator is seen increasingly as a rising star within the Democratic Party, spurring chatter that she could be a candidate for president in 2020.

COMMENT:  Who does she think she's appealing to?  Does our nothing senator realize that the country isn't made up entirely of hip college students and "urban males"?  Does she think she's being cool?

It seems to be a trend in the Democratic Party.  The new senator from California, Kamala Harris, aside from being shockingly rude to witnesses at committee hearings, has also spoken publicly using disgusting language.

The new Democratic national chairman, Tom Perez, has made speeches, with children on the stage, using obscenity.

And they tell us that Trump is crude.

The Republican Party is having its problems, but the Democratic Party is a disgrace.  It has no real leadership, Hillary is hanging on, Nancy Pelosi can't remember the name of the president, Biden attacks Hillary's campaign, and there are no young leaders of any stature.  And now we have active, unashamed vulgarity, even out of the mouths of female senators.  What a bunch!

The Dems win only when the Republicans mess things up, and, sadly, they are expert at that.

June 10,  2017     Permalink

JUNE 9,  2017

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

TRUMP APPROVAL HOLDS – FROM RASMUSSEN:  The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 46% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Fifty-four percent (54%) disapprove.  The latest figures for Trump include 29% who Strongly Approve of the way Trump is performing and 45% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -16.  Other polls have him lower, but the fact is that, despite an unprecedented bashing by the press, the president isn't collapsing, and other surveys show his policies to be popular.

MAY MAYBE – We reported this morning that British Prime Minister Theresa May, who lost her parliamentary majority in yesterday's election, had already started to rebuild, forming a coalition with an Irish party that will restore majority support.  But later in the day we learned that there's a backlash against May building against May in her own Conservative Party.  Many Conservative leaders hold her personally responsible for the election losses and want her out as prime minister.  This battle could come to a head fairly soon.  It's possible the Conservatives will rule in a coalition government, but without May at the helm.  Stand by for action.

MAJOR CULINARY NEWS – FROM DAILY CALLER:  Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and other members of the U.S. House of Representatives are taking a stand on an important issue: They say members of Congress’s private dining room isn’t fancy enough even though a special “surveillance team” has been created to protect them from being served mystery meat.  Five criminal suspects in a massive congressional information technology systems data breach uncovered in February are still free, but House administrators have created a five-person “surveillance team” to rectify the issue of sub-par food. The Florida Democrat’s insistence on fancier food came at a hearing with House Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Philip Kiko in which he said the top priority should be stopping cyberattacks on politicians, an issue with which Wasserman Schultz has repeatedly struggled.  The Florida lawmaker said she has “spent a lot of time over the years” trying to improve the quality of food served to members.  Debbie, like Hillary, needs to reflect on the joys of retirement. 

June 9, 2017       Permalink

STORY OF A LEAKER – AT 12:51 P.M. ET:   Why, she's just a misunderstood idealist.  How can anyone dislike her?  From Fox: 

The woman accused of leaking classified information once wrote she wanted "to burn the White House Down...find somewhere in Kurdistan to live," prompting prosecutors on Thursday to argue she would flee the country if she was released on bond. 

Reality Winner appeared before a judge in Augusta, Ga., on Thursday who ordered her to remain jailed until her trial. Prosecutors argued that the 25-year-old might try to flee the U.S. if she was released on bond. They added that Winner wrote in her notebook alleged plans to set the White House on fire, travel to Afghanistan and pledge her allegiance to the Taliban, WSB-TV reported. 

Winner also called her mother while in jail and coached her on what to tell the media, urging her to say that her daughter was "scared."

"Mom, those documents. I screwed up," Winner also reportedly confessed to her mom in the recorded jailhouse phone call. 

Winner also allegedly told her sister she was "pretty, white and cute" and that Winner believed her bond hearing would play out in her favor, according to the news station. 

COMMENT:  How in the world did someone like this get a security clearance?  This is not the first case of its kind, where a certified nutjob had access to high-level national secrets.  Will Congress start investigating please?  American lives are involved.

June 9, 2017       Permalink

EMBARRASSING – AT 10:56 A.M. ET:  That's the word I'd use to describe the entire spectacle yesterday surrounding former FBI Director James Comey's testimony to Congress. 

Billed as "must see" TV, maybe on the level of "Dallas" or "The Apprentice," starring Donald Trump, the hearings were far from Earth-shaking.  No case of obstruction of justice was made against the president, although one could argue that he'd acted boorishly at times.  Are you shocked?  Nor was any evidence presented that he or anyone around him engaged in some conspiracy with the Russkies to influence our election.  From IBD:

If there's one thing Congress's Russia hearings have shown, it's that President Trump has driven the Democratic Party and far-left media to near insanity. How else can you explain their unhealthy fixation on all things Trump and nonstop efforts to end his presidency?

No, we're not joking. Listening to the hearings on Wednesday and Thursday, when National Intelligence Director Dan Coats, National Security Director Adm. Michael Rogers, Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, and former FBI Director James Comey testified, was a revelation.

In their questioning, Democrats were plainly not interested in the truth. They merely hoped for something, anything, that would be damning or damaging to Trump. In particular, they hoped for evidence of "obstruction of justice" to impeach Trump.

But they didn't get it. Under persistent questioning Wednesday, Coats, Rogers and McCabe all emphatically denied that Trump had brought improper pressure to bear on the Russia investigation.

None.

Again, on Thursday, Comey drove that point home, saying that he did not perceive anything that Trump said to him as an attempt to obstruct "the broader investigation into Russia or possible links to his campaign."

So in the end, as the current saying goes, it was a big nothing-burger, with cheese. And instead of a grand inquisition, it turned into rather pathetic political theater.

COMMENT:  But, of course, at CNN, the first name in hysteria, it was the most important event in human history, greater than the invention of the hot fudge sundae.  CNN commentators are being treated for shock this very moment.

June 9, 2017       Permalink

WHIZ! – AT 10:14 A.M. ET:  In the immortal words of Staples, "That was easy."  We reported here last night that Theresa May's conservatives lost their Commons majority in the British national election, and that May's hold on the prime ministership was in doubt.

Well, leave it to Theresa.  It took her only hours to get her act together, make some calls, then haul off to see the Queen – I mean the real Queen, the one who lives in the palace.  And, poof, Britain appears to have a new government headed by...Theresa May.  From CNN:

London (CNN) British Prime Minister Theresa May has pledged to form a government that will provide "certainty" and guide the country through Brexit, just hours after voters delivered her party a huge blow at the polls.

May, who visited Buckingham Palace to meet with Queen Elizabeth II Friday, said she would work in particular with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, which she described as her "friends and allies"

Promising to move towards a Brexit deal, enabling Britain to exit the European Union, May said the new government would "be able to work together in the interests of the whole United Kingdom."
Brexit talks -- due to start in 10 day's time -- may be delayed and the Prime Minister's personal authority undermined by the shock result, which left the Conservatives short of a working majority by just eight seats.

That's the point the left-leaning press misses.   She only missed a majority by a tiny number.  Labour made gains, but the name of the game in politics is to win.  Unlike figure skating, there's no silver medal.  When May negotiates Brexit, she'll have the full authority of the prime minister's office.

It's an embarrassing turn for May who called the snap election three years earlier than required by law, convinced by opinion polls that seemed to place her in a strong position.

In a night of high drama across the UK, her party shed seats to Jeremy Corbyn's Labour, which surpassed expectations.

It would be nice if the press would ask the question, "Why is it that so many voters went with a party, Labour, headed by a man who blames his own country for terror attacks, sympathizes with terror groups in the Mideast, and has little use for national defense?"  But those questions only occur to mature, conservative journalists.

And yet, it is true that May ran an awful, overconfident campaign, and deserved a bit of a slap.  She is vastly superior to the disgraceful Corbyn in every way, but she will now have to prove herself once again. 

Britain should also reflect on itself.  Once again, as at the start of World War II, it came close to giving power to the surrender crowd.  Corbyn was passionately supported by many college students, raising questions as to what they're being taught.

We wish the prime minister well with her new government, and hope it lasts.   She is an ally of the United States, which is what counts to us.

June 9,  2017     Permalink