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JUNE 27,  2018

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

GOOD MAN, WITH SOME BAGGAGE – FROM FOX:  Bill Shine, a former co-president of Fox News, will take on a senior communications role for President Trump, Fox News confirmed Wednesday.  Shine's specific title is unclear, but it likely will be a deputy chief of staff-level position. Shine met with Trump to discuss the job Wednesday morning.  Sources tell Fox News that Shine has discussed a White House position with Trump on two other occasions, but both times the potential appointment fell through.  He's a very gifted man, and one of the major builders of Fox News.  However, the Dems will try to link him to the sexual harassment incidents at Fox, and indeed he was named in several lawsuits.  I believe he was seen as someone who looked the other way, rather than as a participant.  The Trump White House may feel that whatever blowback occurs as a result of Shine's appointment would come from people who'd never support Mr. Trump anyway.

TAKE THIS WARNING SERIOUSLY – FROM WND:   A writer for the popular progressive news website Splinter is warning supporters of President Trump that if they have a problem with the heckling of administration officials in public places, they haven’t seen anything yet.  “Do you think that being asked to leave a restaurant, or having your meal interrupted, or being called by the public is bad? My fascism-enabling friends, this is only the beginning,” writes Splinter senior writer Hamilton Nolan.  Pointing to history, he writes that the U.S. “had thousands of domestic bombings per year in the early 1970s.”  “This is what happens when citizens decide en masse that their political system is corrupt, racist, and unresponsive,” says Nolan.  “The people out of power have only just begun to flex their dissatisfaction. The day will come, sooner that you all think, when Trump administration officials will look back fondly on the time when all they had to worry about was getting hollered at at a Mexican restaurant.”   That's pretty chilling, but I wouldn't be surprised if part of the anti-Trump movement turns violent.  These people believe that democracy only exists when they win.

June 27, 2018       Permalink

BULLETIN:  JUSTICE KENNEDY RETIRING – AT 2:06 P.M. ET:   Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy has announced his retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court.  From Fox: 

Justice Anthony Kennedy announced Wednesday that he is retiring, giving President Trump a critical opportunity to move the Supreme Court more solidly to the right in what promises to be an epic confirmation fight.

The 81-year-old senior associate justice informed the White House in a letter of his intention to step down from the high court after 30 years, effective July 31. Rumors of another vacancy have reverberated across Washington in recent months, and it comes a year after Kennedy's former law clerk Justice Neil Gorsuch, took over the seat occupied by the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

Arguably the most powerful member of the Supreme Court, Kennedy's moderate-conservative views often left him the "swing" -- or deciding -- vote in hot-button cases ranging from abortion to gay rights to political campaign spending.

A Supreme Court vacancy will likely become a key issue in a midterm congressional election year, when control of the Senate is at stake.

That body will consider Trump's latest high court nominee, requiring only a simple majority for confirmation. GOP leaders changed the rules when Gorsuch was being considered, to get rid of the 60-vote procedural filibuster threshold.

But Democrats are expected to try and transform the court opening into a broader political referendum on Trump's leadership, and the future of social issues like immigration, gun rights, and race.   

COMMENT:   A great opportunity for the president to solidify a conservative majority on the Court.  Whoever he nominates will be brutally attacked by the Democrats.  Expect major demonstrations.  But, ultimately, the president will prevail.

June 27, 2018       Permalink

SLIPPAGE – AT 1:12 P.M. ET:   At this point there can be no doubt that the president has been politically hurt by the immigration mess.  His administration's first response to the "family separation" issue, combined with some truly cute press reporting, did some real damage.  From Rasmussen: 

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

With the debate over immigration policy continuing, the president’s overall job approval rating has fallen to its lowest level since late March.

COMMENT:  Other polls reflect the same drop.  And there is a new poll showing a sharp decline in the first lady's approval.

It is serious, and for the first time the White House may be understanding the power of a biased, Trump-hating media.  It has to have some effect.

We are also seeing individual state races either turning against Republican candidates, or showing erosion in their vote.

The election is a bit more than four months away.  You may be sure that the Democrats plan a hate-and-smear campaign.  I'm also concerned that Robert Mueller, the special counsel, will announce some "findings" right before the election.

The Republicans can lose Congress.  That's the bottom line, and a grim one.

June 27, 2018       Permalink

SOTUS SPEAKS AGAIN – AT 12:46 P.M. ET:  Another landmark decision has been handed down by the Supreme Court...it's another 5-4 ruling.   From Fox: 

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch tipped the scales on another landmark decision on Wednesday, joining the conservative majority for the 5-4 ruling against so-called "fair share" union fees.

It was the latest example of President Trump's nominee delivering a win for the administration's agenda and conservative causes, coming on the heels of the 5-4 ruling upholding Trump's "travel ban."

In the union case, Gorsuch's impact was strikingly evident.

Justices split 4-4 on the issue in a similar case following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. After Gorsuch was confirmed to fill the seat, he played it close to the vest during arguments in February -- offering no comments or questions from the bench during nearly 70 minutes of oral arguments.

But in the end, Gorsuch sided with a conservative majority ruling that state government workers cannot be forced to pay “fair share” fees to support collective bargaining and other union activities.

The decision, which dealt a blow to unions, said that a union’s contract negotiations over pay and benefits were inextricably linked with its broader political activities, and concluded workers had a limited constitutional right not to underwrite such “speech.”

COMMENT:  Once again we see the importance of the Supreme Court.  Supreme Court justices must be confirmed by the Senate, and thus who controls the Senate is of critical importance.  Republicans will be fighting this November to keep, and preferably expand, their two-seat majority in the Senate.  If the GOP loses the Senate, it is conceivable that no Supreme Court nominee could be confirmed.

June 27,  2018     Permalink

JUNE 26,  2018

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

UTAH – FROM THE SALT LAKE CITY TRIBUNE – Mitt Romney hardly broke a sweat on his way to capturing the Republican nomination in Utah’s U.S. Senate race, according to unofficial results Tuesday, earning 73 percent of the vote.  Romney’s opponent, state Rep. Mike Kennedy, R-Alpine, drew only about one of four votes counted by Tuesday night. Late-arriving by-mail ballots will continue to be tallied in coming days.  “Well, it looks like our team won the primary,” Romney said to a cheering crowd.  In a highly Republican state it's likely that Romney will be elected to the Senate in November, providing an interesting situation where a former presidential candidate will be in a position to challenge the incumbent president of his own party.

NOT QUITE ASTOUNDING – FROM CNN:  The out-of-nowhere upset of Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley in Tuesday's New York primary has stunned the Democratic establishment and shook up the party's likely line of succession to become the next House speaker.  Crowley was ousted from his Queens district by Democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old Latina running her first political campaign. She is now likely to be the youngest woman ever elected to the House.  It was the most shocking result of 2018's political season so far, and -- though Democrats have avoided intra-party feuds so far this year -- could signal a restive base as the 2020 presidential primary approaches.  "I'm floored," a senior Democratic House aide told CNN.  No need to be floored. Crowley was an old-time Dem stalwart who thought he had a lifetime job.  Ocasio-Cortez is a serious nutcase, a Marxist, an Israel hater, but running in a majority-minority district in an off-year primary.  This kind of upset actually is rather common.  She'll be the woman of the moment, and the CNN types will slobber all over her.  But now that the spotlight will be upon her, people will learn what she really believes, and how extreme it is. 

APPROPRIATE – FROM CNN:  White House press secretary Sarah Sanders is expected to receive Secret Service protection as soon as Wednesday, two sources familiar with the decision tell CNN, but they did not specify how long it will last.  The Secret Service declined to comment, telling CNN: "For operational security purposes the Secret Service does not comment on its protective operations."  The news comes days after Sanders was asked to leave a small Lexington, Virginia, restaurant because of her role with the Trump administration, a move that has since sparked a national conversation on civility and public service in the age of Trump. 

June 26, 2018       Permalink

SO NICE THAT THEY NOTICED – AT 10:08 A.M. ET:  Incredible.  Some Democrats are actually noticing that the obnoxious behavior of some of their people may cost them.  Amazing how the human mind works.  From Fox: 

Some Democrats are reportedly concerned that public appeals to “absolutely harass” Trump administration officials will come back to hurt them in the polls and benefit Republicans.

There have been several recent instances where Trump officials have been publicly shamed, including Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen at a Mexican restaurant and White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, who was asked to leave by an owner of a restaurant in Virginia.

The Washington Post’s editorial board wrote a column titled, “Let the Trump team eat in peace.” The paper identified the heightened state of “passions” in the country, but saw no benefit in protesters interrupting dinners.

Democrats warned that these public encounters could win sympathy for the Trump administration, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Rep. Maxine Waters, in the meantime, is not backing down from her weekend comments calling for people to confront members of the Trump administration at gas stations and anywhere else they're seen in public.

“If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere,” Waters said Saturday, later telling MSNBC that protesters are “going to absolutely harass them.”

The comments were in response to Trump’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy that led to families being separated at the U.S.- Mexico border.

Waters argued her comments have been misconstrued, claiming she wasn’t calling for protesters to actually “harm” Cabinet members. 

COMMENT:   What a pathetic bunch the Democrats have become.  Once the party of Roosevelt, Truman, and Kennedy, now the party of Maxine Waters.

June 26, 2018       Permalink 

A MAJOR WIN FOR THE GOOD GUYS – AT 9:50 A.M. ET: A major university, under pressure, is going the way of free speech for students.  From Dailywire.com: 

The University of Massachusetts Amherst announced Monday evening that they are reversing their “free speech zone” policy.

According to a statement released by Alliance Defending Freedom, the organization representing the students suing the university, the Board of Trustees changed its policies that heavily restricted students’ right to free speech. This policy forbids students from holding speeches and rallies anywhere other than the west side of the Student Union between noon and 1 p.m. every day. The zone where students were allowed to practice their first amendment rights makes up less than 1% of campus.

The lawsuit was brought in January, but Nicholas Consolini, the president of the Young Americans for Liberty chapter, dismissed the lawsuit after the Board of Trustees reversed the policy.

“This is a great win for the First Amendment,” Consolini told the Daily Wire. “Universities are meant to be the free marketplace of ideas.”

Consolini claimed he brought the lawsuit with his chapter because he didn’t think it was right for a public university to restrict the speech of students.

“Under the policy we challenged, if I wanted to host a speaker or a rally on campus (even a rally for free speech), I could be sanctioned if it wasn’t during the permissible times or in the small speech zone.” Consolini added. “That’s not a free marketplace; it’s First Amendment failure.”

Consolini acknowledged he is happy that his university reversed the policy but said, “they should have listened to the letters and the op-ed’s that were sent urging them to eliminate this policy instead of forcing us to file a lawsuit to finally open our campus to free speech.”

“The only permission slip students need to speak on campus is the First Amendment. UMass-Amherst made the right move by eliminating this unconstitutional limit on student speech,” said ADF Legal Counsel Caleb Dalton in the press release. “We commend YAL and these brave students for taking a stand and causing UMass to remove this speech zone that never should have existed in the first place.” 

COMMENT:  Slowly, but very surely, and often through well-targeted lawsuits, the good guys are reminding colleges and universities that they're located in the United States of America. 

June 26, 2018       Permalink

BONUS – AT 9:16 A.M. ET:  More evidence showing that the Trump economy is working.  At least until CNN tells us that it's not.  From Fox Business: 

Despite President Trump's tit-for-tat trade barbs, America’s CEOs are not wasting anytime in taking advantage of his tax reform plan. Over $300 billion was repatriated to the U.S. in the first quarter, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) -- the most on record.

“U.S. firms that used to build their factories overseas in order to avoid U.S. taxes, they stopped in their tracks because of the tax bill, they are bringing all the money home,” said Kevin Hassett, chair of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, during an interview on FOX Business’ Varney & Co. in June.

The BEA notes the main driver of the repatriation surge is that companies are no longer taxed on foreign earnings when returning the funds to the U.S. “We fixed that really, really stupid thing” said Hassett. By comparison just $38 billion was repatriated during the same period a year ago.

While the BEA keeps the names and sums of corporations repatriating confidential, the latest data appear to show CEOs are likely sticking to their pledge to bring more money earned overseas back to the U.S. promised shortly after the tax plan was signed by President Trump in late December 2017.

While it is not crystal clear how the lion’s share of funds returning to the U.S. will be used, pro-growth economists hope it will be used for hiring, boosting wages and other moves that will benefit the American worker and eventually trickle down to the broader economy. This is why many economists are boosting their GDP forecasts to between 3% and 4%.

COMMENT:  Nothing succeeds like a good economy.  My guess, and it's only informed speculation, is that the president will develop a plan to use the new economic boom to rebuild the inner cities.  The political impact of that could change the nation.

June 26,  2018     Permalink